Puck Soup - LOUD NOISES!

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

The boys discuss the Tom Wilson incident and the aftermath, in which two of them yell at each other and one of them approaches it rationally. Plus, the Sabres transcend wins and losses, their underdog goalie, McDavid chases 100 points, the playoff races, a great convo about the top 20 sitcoms of all-time and an overrated/underrated/fav/least fav on non-movie Star Wars things. Sponsored by Raycon

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wischinski, formally of ESPN as all of your angry tweets have forced my company to drop me. Yes, it's true.

Did they all of you that added ESPN, have you done it? I'm now working at an Arby's off the New Jersey Turnpike. And that is that is the sad truth. I'm Ryan Lambert from EP Rinkside. We're not going to keep that bit going. Sean McAnew, the athletic. There he is. You're in Puck Soup.

I want to start talking about the Buffalo Sabres, obviously, the biggest news of the day. There's a story in the Buffalo News today that says that the Sabers, the headline is Sabres exec, how can we connect with fans on something deeper than wins and losses? His quote at the end of the story is, how can we connect with fans on something that's deeper than wins and losses? How can we really have that one-on-one connection that we were able to start in some ways this year with those limited number of fans? This is the greatest thing I've ever read from a losing team. I'm sorry.

It really is. It's like, how can we market this horrible team that is always in the basement? and completely falls apart every season in a way where we don't have to talk about the record. Yeah, it's one of those... It's fantastic. It's one of those, like, apartment listings in New York where it's like, yeah, sure. The oven's in the bathroom and you can't open the refrigerator without pivoting it 90 degrees on the wall. But the neighborhood's really walkable.

So... Yeah, yeah. This is a quote. This is about, like, you know, they've been able to, they feel, connect with fans in a way during the pandemic. Yeah, sending them unemployment checks, for example. Oh, yeah. Remember they did that? Yeah.

Yeah. One of the nice things with the low numbers is we were able to leave on all the seats a nice little gift bag with a handwritten note from our box office staff who works with a lot of season ticket holders to give that nice personal touch. There you go. So the way to get around being a horribly managed franchise, I think, is. You get yourself to Party City, grab yourself some gift bags, throw maybe some double bubble in there, maybe a whistle, maybe one of them candy necklaces, and write a little note that says, hey, we appreciate you, you Sabres fan. It's good stuff. Sean, you wanted to talk about Michael Hauser as well as long as we're talking about Buffalo, yeah? Yeah, I love this story.

That's cool. Goaltender who I don't even know where he would have started on the depth chart at the beginning of the year. He wouldn't have been on it, I think it's fair to say. Fourth, fifth, sixth maybe, and the sabres between mostly injuries and a couple of smaller trades have just run out of guys. And so this guy, I mean, he's, I'm not saying he's not a good goaltender, but he was sixth or seventh on the depth chart for the, the worst team in the league and he gets called up at the end of the season the two weeks left season's a total right off uh and and he more or less just gets thrown to the wolves because he's the next guy up and he's got his own pads and so he's he's got to be the guy who goes and he wins two

games he wins his first two games i love it he plays well beats you know the good islanders team uh maybe that's a different thing we can talk about i love the story it's just you know There have not been a lot of feel-good stories in the NHL this year, and this one is one. I just really, I like this. I wonder if the Sabres have stumbled onto a market inefficiency where it's like, let's just get every goalie in the ECHL, be like, this is your big game. We're going to play huge for you. You know, get ready. Here we go.

And you just cycle through like 60 different guys. All of a sudden, you're in the playoff hunt, baby. So goal-tending by massive 60-person committee? Yeah. I love it. It's worked twice so far, and no reason to believe it would stop now. But, yeah, the thing about the Islanders, I don't know if you guys have noticed this. They suck shit lately.

Have you seen this? Yeah. Not great. Three regulation wins in the last month, or four regulation wins in the last month, three of them against the Nye Rangers, a team that everybody agrees is bad. So. quick check of the old Kyle Paul Mary watch one goal in 14 games

so maybe I was wrong on that being a real good pickup well I mean we heard from Rachel a couple of weeks ago that maybe Taylor Hall didn't want to go there was that was that one oh no it was it was it was the team said like we can get we can do better that was what it was I also I also think he just wanted to go to Boston though

I don't think they would have been down to Taylor Hall necessarily. Yeah, I do feel like I read that somewhere, but I've seen conflicting stuff about that. But anyway, yeah, the Islanders are in a lot of trouble right now. Another, one of the many teams in the league who are really struggling down the stretch. Like, please, we don't want to make the playoffs, actually. Sounds like the last days of Nassau Coliseum will be short if they play that poorly in the playoffs. Keep in mind, this is it. This is it.

is it. They will close the Coliseum in the postseason. Well, I mean, they won't close it. It'll still exist. But they'll no longer play that. They're going to blow it up. They already said. Oh, man. Matt Barzal is going to push down the plunger on the whole detonation. Did they bench him last night? Did I see that? Matt Barzell? Yeah. Did he get like benched or something? Scratched? I think he was just like a maintenance type of scratch. Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay. 1609 and the EA was a minus two, so who's to say? Sean, on the Buffalo goalie front, I mean, you are, of course, a veteran of the David Ayers affair as well. When you see this thing happen, doesn't it make you think we put too much of reprieve me on goalies in this league? Oh, sure. If anyone can do it? Well, I mean, that's part of what makes it a good story, is that it's not that anyone can do it. And we know that if this guy played a full season, he's, he's probably not going to be a 940 goalie.

But on any given night, yeah, it's a very, it's a very strange position. And, yeah, this is part of what makes goaltending such a tough, a tough spot to figure out. Because there's not a lot of positions in sports where, you know, you could throw a guy. You can't put your fifth string quarterback in there. and in the NFL, you might win the game, but he's not going to throw for 400 yards, unless it's a Kurt Warner situation. So it's, you know, that's part of what makes it cool.

It shouldn't happen, but it does. And, you know, again, I don't think this is going to last, but this guy's going to walk away with a very cool story. And, you know, you just, you hear even the story's coming out now, but like the guy's phone blowing up when, like, as his teammate. People played with him 10 years ago

when he was a prospect blowing up his phone because they hear that he's actually made it and he's going to get to play. It's just neat. It's just one of those things. And it would be a cool story

even if he was losing, even if he was getting shelled, but the fact that he's playing well is just, I mean, we need all the good Sabres news we can get. No kidding. Living the dream.

I just looked it up. Career AHL number, 73 games 901 ECHL, 210 games 915, NHL, 2 games 940. Sure, there you go. Obviously, NHL shooters are just worse than all those other leagues.

Or maybe the islanders are. He's the next Tim Thomas. I'm calling it now. Absolutely. That'd be awesome. All right. You'd be labored the point enough. Yeah, did you see how little I want to fucking talk? about this. I completely understand that. Did you see the third payer on the senators this week?

Crazy. Let's talk about it. We have to talk about it. I'm exhausted by it in the last 24 hours, but let's start with the fun shit. Well, sure. We'll start with the fun ship, though. The New York Rangers call for the head of George Peros in a strongly worded statement. about Tom Wilson's antics on Monday, said that Wilson was not suspended for his horrifying act of violence at Madison Square Garden. And he's dangerous and reckless, injured Artemi Panarin, who'll prevent him from playing again this season. The Rangers are very, very good at getting the out for the rest of the season information

to the proper sources on Tuesday, morning, the rest of the season being three games. We view this as a dereliction of duty by NHL head of player safety, George Peros, and believe he is unfit to continue in his current role. We should say that we're recording the show, obviously, on Wednesday, so we don't know what kind of circus act happened in the Rangers Capitals game tonight as we do the show. Hopefully, it ain't too bad. But, Ryan, what was your reaction to the Rangers?

missive towards the National Hockey League player safety chief. What, you think it's going to change? They get some other fucking guy in there, and he's going to start throwing big-time suspensions around like Brendan Shanahan did? Brendan Shanahan tried it. All the GMs and owners were like, this is too much. And then all subsequent people in charge of the player's safety department have been like, yeah, I guess throwing your stick at a guy that's a $3,800 fine.

So whatever. Like, that's literally what it is. It's like, this is the system. Like, you're not going to get a better guy to operate within the system because the system's the problem. So, yeah, fire parrots. I don't give a shit. Who cares? I think that's about right.

And I would agree. Like, you know, I think players say that does a good job, but I also think that under Peros and maybe under Quintal in both cases, the suspensions have been light, man. Like, there are certain ones that you figure are going to be like four games coming at, like, two. And I don't know if that's the edict from the GMs or just the precedents that have been set. I don't know what it is, but I've always felt the suspensions are like one or two games off of what they should be, maybe. Sean, what did you think of the Rangers? Yeah, I mean, we've said it a million times on various player safety decisions, about half of which have been about Tom Wilson. these guys are doing the job that they have been put in place to do.

If the league wanted this to be handled differently and wanted bigger suspensions, what have you, then they would get that. The Department of Player Safety is not some independent organization that gets to do this stuff completely in isolation. They answer to the league, and this is what the league wants. Now, when you see the reaction from the Rangers, could this be the start of the league wanting something different? Maybe.

It's got to start somewhere. And if it has to start somewhere, having it be one of your biggest markets is not a bad place to start. I mean, this is right or wrong. The fact that this is the Rangers saying this matters more than if it was the coyotes. or the Jets or somebody like that. You know, this is, uh,

this is, this is your New York market standing up and saying, this isn't good enough and we need significant change, if not fundamental change in how we approach this stuff. So that's potentially a positive first step. But it is just a first step. And I think we're all looking at this going, yeah,

but what's going to happen the first time it's a ranger player? You know, are we right back to, oh, well, now we got to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. And it's, it's, it's, it's very easy to stand.

up and say we need to change when it's your team that's on the other end of the controversial play. It's got to, it's got to now also come from other teams and it's got to come even from the teams. I'm not, I'm not expecting the capitals to step forward and throw their own guy under the bus, but it can't just be, it can't just be whichever team is on the receiving end of that week's controversial play says something, Vince gets it out of their system and then it's forgotten about. Because if that's what happens, then it's nothing with. change and nothing will change because nobody will really actually want it to change. I think the Capitol's response was actually a photo of Tom Wilson and then a pair of emoji

sunglasses descending onto his face and then it says deal with it across the screen. It's pretty cool. Because they're all into the memes, you see, the Capitals. Yeah. Yeah. Did you say anybody was triggered by that, Craig? Is that something you would have definitely triggered by it? Yeah.

Well, let's talk about it. I was completely right. Don't you? The reaction. No, listen, I'm not, I don't want any part of this fucking discussion because it's just going to be like Thanksgiving with the fucking red-pilled uncle who's like, you know, actually, the Clinton crime family, just shut the fuck up. I'm Ben Shapiro. Yeah, no, you definitely, Craig, you definitely are. And so I'm just going to let you say whatever you say.

And I'm going to go, okay, pop, pop, we're going to change the conversation. What's red-pilled about saying that comparing this to Todd Bertuzi or saying that this should get Tom Wilson kicked out of the league is an overreaction? The fuck's red-pilled about that. As I'm not going to find it. Because you don't have a fucking answer because you don't write. No, it's because you look, you're a guy, you're like, oh, my favorite player in all the time? Cloudly Mew. Like, we know where you're coming from with this.

And that's fine. Like, Greg, I love you. I think you're way smarter than this. But I think you've also talked yourself into this, like, rhetorical corner that you can't. pivot out of. What is the rhetorical corner? The rhetorical corner is... The Tom Wilson can do no fucking wrong.

That is not even fucking true. I said he should be kicked out of the game. I literally wrote yesterday that the next time he does something that warrants a suspension, that should give him fucking 60 games. The paradigm that you've created and other people have created where if you say, you can't look at this thing that he did and elevate it to something that it's not is defending Tom Wilson. It's fucking horseshit.

It's just horses shit. But it equally horse shit. is looking at an act and saying it's a thousand times worse than it actually is because of who did it. Because again, as much as people hit me with the, if it was Jack Hughes who got flipped, you'd be so fucking mad. If that was Brendan Smith who did that shit instead of Tom Wilson, we wouldn't even be fucking talking about it. Yeah, we would because he'd have gotten suspended for it. But again. He would have not gotten suspended.

You think the NHL is protecting Tom Wilson? Is that where you're coming from? Yes. Oh, come the fuck. They're getting 20 games. Yeah, and then all the subsequent They invented a suspension for him To give him seven for Carlo

Trust me when I tell you the NHL Would like to suspend Tom Wilson They're just not going to do it for something that doesn't warrant it And that was my whole point I mean like like look Hit me with the fucking red pill Ben Shapiro GOP shit Well you're the one using that language

Nobody's forcing you Oh because I said triggered Yeah And what happened? You had you had fucking people Peers and and fans Would you say snow rights, Greg? Would you say they're snowflakes?

If you want to use that word, I don't give a shit. Oh, what? Because I used fucking GOP language and now you're pissed about it. I mean, come on, man. The point stands and the point is correct that if you look at that play and all of a sudden you're like, this is as bad as Todd Bertuzzi. Like, nobody who's serious said that shit, though. Like, no, everybody said it. Everybody.

It wasn't everybody, but I did see that said by people who I consider reasonable. It was not an insignificant. number of people that reacted that way, right? I didn't see that. Okay. I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying I didn't personally see it, let alone everybody. But did you see people saying that Tom Wilson should ever play another game in the

NHL? I guess I did see that. And like that's obviously, that's obviously over the top. But like, and even like Larry. That's my fucking point. That was the only thing I'm trying to say. No. But that's the only thing I'm trying to say.

But even like, but even like Larry Brooks saying like, oh, somebody could have died. Like, okay, I know somebody could have, but like somebody could have died on the fucking the Shane Shane Gossack Fair cross check last night. And like, so. But like at the same time, right? Like the idea that this like keeps accidentally happening to Tom Wilson. Like, oh, crazy. What a weird coincidence.

Completely agree. And we can talk about that in a second. But did you understand that like you just said everything that I was trying to say when I, when I said there was. Yeah, but I didn't say anybody who's mad about this shit and like sick of the Tom. Wilson pulling this shit is fucking a triggered snowflake who is living and you're living or you're giving him space rent free in your head. Well, I never wrote that. That was the capital. I know.

But it's the same. But triggered to the right word. People lose their fucking minds when Tom Wilson. Yeah, because he keeps fucking doing it, Greg. Oh, people lost their mind when Trump kept lying. They're triggered. Yeah. Well, because- He's bringing it back to Trump.

Where does this come from? Like, are you arguing that if Tom Wilson does something, then all of, so you don't Triggered is the issue. It's not overreacting to it. It's the triggered thing. Okay, I will, I will, I will expunge triggered from my vocabulary. Can we be cool then? And then, well, and then, again, like, you're, now, now you're like the king of the, the king of the, like, oh, boy, I'm just, I'm just so sick of these people not giving Tom fucking Wilson a fair shake and like, who's enabling Tom Wilson and all this shit. It's like, oh yeah, fucking everybody, including, I don't know, certain members of the media who are like, Everybody in the fucking league would want him on their team and blah, blah, like, okay, great. Well, I mean, that's like Matt Barnaby saying that and shit. Like, that's, you know. But, I mean, to your point, I do think that media are culpable in this. I probably should have put that in a piece.

But the piece is about some of the things that we haven't talked about, which is that, you know, if you want Tom Wilson banned for life or suspended for a season, The NHL can't just wave its hand and say he's gone. There's a players union. And I read that Larry Brooks piece in which he called Tom Wilson an attempted murderer or some such. And he doesn't mention the PA in there. A lot of pieces that were talked about Tom Wilson didn't mention the PA in there. I always find that it be fascinating because, like, you know, the NHL suspended it for 20 games.

He got 14 because there was an appeal because the NHLPA collectively bargains in the CBA to have the chance to appeal suspensions. because they don't want Gary Betman to be the arbiter of how long someone sits. And, you know, people look at the $5,000 fine. I say, that's a fucking joke. Yeah, no shit. You know what the NHL wants to do? Hit these guys with more money. You know what the NHLPA does?

Says you can't. So, like, it's amazing to me that this all falls on like a George Peros or the fucking player safety or whatever. And no one takes a step back to say, A, what the PA's responsibility of this? And B, what the fucking capital responsibility in this is? Like there's not a single person in that organization that is going to go to Tom Wilson and say, don't play like this.

They're paying him to play like this. They're paying him to do what he did on Monday. So you're right. What I wished for on Monday, besides people not looking at a play that didn't deserve a suspension and saying it should be 50 games. It didn't. But what would you have given him?

A game? Five games. Fucking end of the regular season plus one in the playoffs. He learns his last. Because remember the last time, oh, I'm so, you know, I don't want to hurt anybody out there. Okay, Tom. Yeah, we can fucking tell. And this would be a suspension specific to Tom Wilson then?

So if Chris Kreider does the same thing next season, does he get five games? Well, does Chris Kreider have the fucking lengthy suspension history, Tom Wilson? No, I'm not, I'm done talking about this shit. Like, these fucking gotchas of like, nobody, Tom Wilson is a unique fucking person in the league in in terms of how he plays the game and how many times he gets called in front of the Department of Player Safety

and they're like, well, look, we wish we could suspend you, but pooh, what were we supposed to do? Okay, sure. Right, because they don't fucking want to suspend him. That's why. Oh, they want to suspend him so bad. If only they have the power to do it. He got suspended five times, once for 20 games.

Like, where is the evidence that the NHL Department of Player's Safety is protecting Tom Wilson because they didn't suspend him for something that happens once a week in the league? Once a week, yep, for sure. It happened Tuesday night, Ryan. Yeah, the Crosby play was not the same. No, absolutely right. You knew as soon as the Tom Wilson happened.

First of all, Crosby didn't do it fucking twice. Yeah, as soon as Tom Wilson happened, you knew everyone was going to be looking for the next scrum so they could point to it and say that's the same thing. It wasn't the same thing. look I'll if you guys don't I'll jump in here because

as much as you two seem to be enjoying your conversation with each other It fucking sucks I hate this shit delightful No I hate it too Yeah you can tell It's look oh you think I relish the fact that people are talking about my fucking Family online because they're mad about a hockey play

Yeah it's great I fucking dig it I wish it could be every day Do you think I like the idea of like people going to my, I joked about at the top of the show, going to my employer and say, fire this motherfucker because of an opinion he had. That's great. Do you think I like yelling at you?

Oh, it's the peaches. That part's fun. Yeah. Well, it's not fun. It's not fun when you start, when, you know, when your approach to the conversation is to fucking compare me to like Ben Shapiro when you know that hurts. Well, again, I mean, anyway, I said the thing that was, it was the title of Donald Trump Jr.'s book, remember? Do you remember this? Anyway.

I didn't read it. it. I saw a cover. Sorry, Sean, go ahead. So, I mean, I'll, I guess I'll start here. I'm with Greg in the sense that I did not think this play rose to the level that some seem to. I would disagree. I don't think it was common. I don't think it was everyone was saying that this is Todd Bertuzi all over again or that this is, you know, kick him out of the league. But there was some of that. And I don't think it was. Look, this isn't, on Tom Wilson's worst moments, this play wasn't top five. It probably isn't top ten in his career, which is not a defense. It's a statement on who this guy is and how he plays. But I did think it was a little bit of a uniquely weird play in that I have, you guys, it's our job when this stuff flares up every few weeks. You end up, you watch the play, you sit down, you got to come up with your take.

I can't really remember seeing a situation like this where it felt like there was as big a difference between watching it in real time and then watching it in the slow-mo replays. Like, you watch the slow motion replay, and it looks like he's really trying to hurt guys. And then you watch it in real time and you're like, I've seen that scrum. three times a night. And it's, and it's this weird, and I don't know, because on the one hand, you watch something, you slow something down, you're going to get details that you might not otherwise pick up on. On the other hand, the game gets played in real time. And I don't know how much you, you, you slow it down and it's, well, okay, in this frame, this,

but then the next frame, this happens. And I, I don't know. I did, I went back and forth to that on Monday. That's partly why I didn't jump into the middle of the conversation. because there were a few times where I'm like, I'm really not sure how I, what I think on this, because I look at one angle and it seems like no big deal. And I look at another angle and it seems like it is. Having thought it over for a couple of days where I come down is I do think it was a suspension worthy. And I think it's suspension worthy partly because it is Tom Wilson. This guy has a track record. I don't think we need to twist ourselves into knots trying to give the benefit of the doubt to somebody who not only hasn't earned it, but has burned through whatever. benefit of the doubt he should have ever had with with how he's been for for years and years now. You know, I don't, I don't feel any need to start my view of this from any place other than, yeah, it is Tom Wilson. And he should be judged differently, especially when you're trying to figure out intent and you're trying to figure out, well, you know, we're not quite sure.

Did he mean to do this? Did he mean to do that? Tom Wilson has spent his career trying to hurt guys. I don't mind starting from the standpoint that he might be trying to hurt somebody where other players, I might say, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I would have given him a small suspension, three or four, maybe five games. I'm, I am confused and very curious about what is going on in the Department of Player's Safety, that they didn't do that. And this is where I sort of, I sort of side with Ryan where he, you know, says something that maybe on the surface sounds ridiculous,

which is that the Department of Player's Safety doesn't seem to want to suspend this guy. They've suspended a bunch of times. But you look at what's happened since they hit him with the big 20 game suspension. And when they hit him with that suspension, it wasn't just a big, big number, but the way that they talked about him, okay, they basically said, in fact, I've got the quote right in front of me that he had been, it was an unprecedented frequency of suspensions in the history of the Department of Player Safety is how they described Tom Wilson's track record when they drop that suspension on him. And like a lot of people at the time, when I heard that, I said, okay, this guy is officially in the Rafi Torres Matt Cook zone.

And this was them telling him you are out of chances and we're going to be watching you like a hawk. And every time you slip up, you're going to get hammered from now on. And then he served his suspension, got it reduced. He came back. It was like nine games in. And he got kicked out of a game for blindsiding somebody with a high hit. And the Department of Player Safety chose not to suspend him. And in fact, they rescinded the penalty that he got in that game.

And maybe that was the right call. But it was sort of like, oh, okay. And then it's been, you know, it's been two years since you had the seven game suspension. But, you know, there's a lot of people who will tell you that they're not convinced that that came from the Department of Player's Safety and that they think that maybe Gary Bettman or whoever else outside of that group put a thumb on the scale

to make sure that there was a suspension there where maybe George Paris or whoever else didn't feel like there should have been one. And then this thing comes along it and even the fact, put aside whether they suspend them or not, the fact that when they do the release to talk about this $5,000 fine that they hit him with, they could have very easily just said

Tom Wilson was fined $5,000 for his actions in that scrum or his actions in that moment, that time of the game, and just leave it at that. But they actually specifically said that it was for the Bichnevich punch. They specified what it was, which basically is their way of saying everything with her Tammy Penerrin was fine. They pretty much excluded that from, and it just, you're just kind of sitting there going like at some point it starts to feel like, this has become a thing in the Department of Player's Safety where they've bent over so far backwards to be fair to this guy that they've sort of come around to the other side and now it's going to take something bigger or more ridiculous to get back to this level of holding him accountable. Like I don't make, I've got a teenager. I know what the you can't tell me what to do vibe feels like. And I'm starting to get that from the Department of Player Safety when it comes to this guy where they're just like, you know what?

we know everybody hates him. We know everyone wants us to drop the hammer. Screw you. We're not doing it until he leaves us with absolutely no choice. And because Monday didn't rise to that level, he gets off again. And you know what? That no choice play is going to come at some point. It's right. I don't know if it's this week. It could be tonight. Who knows? But it's going to happen at some point. And we're going to look at it and say it could have been avoided it. They could have hit them with a couple of games. It wouldn't have affected the capitals at all. Capitals have nothing to play for. It's seating. They're in the. playoffs. You could have done it. You could have sent a message. I know it would have felt like PR, but PR is part of the job for these guys. And instead, and also, by the way, you give them a suspension, you get them out of tonight's game, which lowers the temperature on what could end up being a gong show tonight. And yet they just, they refuse to do it. And I think probably a lot of guys in that department feel like they are just being as fair as they can be. And they're going to take the take the arrows and take the criticism because it's their job to be fair and that's what they think they're doing. But it just feels like they've pushed it so far and tip the scale so much

that now, because it's Tom Wilson, it has to be this big over-the-top thing to get looked at in the same way that it should get looked at based on a guy just who has this kind of track record. Yeah. It's very good stuff. I'll so the first thing I wanted to mention though about that quote about the Wilson suspension which of course was in reference to him being suspended four times in the span of a year which really was unprecedented and ended with the 20 game suspension three of those were for illegal checks to the head and one of the things that they do and I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing and maybe it's a bad thing based on like the reaction to Tom Wilson

is they judge each play on its own merits within the context of the player's history. So if you, the illegal check to the head on Sunquist was his third such infraction in the span of a year. And that's what resulted in 20 games. If the next thing he does is spear somebody, it's not going to be 25, right? because it's not related to the infraction that gave him that massive suspension. And I think that's maybe one of the reasons why people struggle with, like, why wasn't he hit with a massive suspension for Monday or whatever? Yeah, it's a fucking absurd. Yeah, they don't do the totality of the behavior.

Yeah, and it might be. I completely agree. I mean, that's, but that's the rationale in that. Now, on the quote about the unprecedented nature, I also know that quote because I are, remember it from the arbitrator's decision. And again, you have to look at all of the different impacts on the NHL suspension apparatus. They can't just give somebody a suspension for 50 games. Right.

Because it'll just be knocked down by the PA. Well, so, but that that is also what feeds into they don't want to suspend the guy because they're like, well, look, if we suspend them now, we're going to have to suspend them for fucking 50s. 15 games because he keeps doing this shit. And we don't want to get an arbitrator involved. So we're just not going to suspend him. You don't think that's the fucking thought process? It could be, but that's not the NHL's fault. Like, that's the PA's fault.

Well, no, it's not. I mean, if you're somebody who wants him to pay the price for his actions, he can't pay the price when someone can easily just reduce the price. Right. But like even, so let's say you give him 40 games, right? And the, and the arbitrator bust it down to, to, to, end games, whatever, like make up whatever numbers you want there, that's more than zero that they keep giving him and going like, oh, I bet that $5,000, he's really going to fucking miss that.

Like, it's ridiculous. The $5,000 almost was worse than if they had just said, look, this was, the penalties of the ice were appropriate and beyond that, no further discipline is needed. The fact that it's, it's like when, yeah, it's like when Pavel Burray elbowed Shane Sherlin, Brian Burke gave him a $500 fine. Like, that was worse than doing nothing because it said, no, this actually was worthy of punishment. And the punishment is reach into your couch cushions and pull out whatever.

It's not worthy of a suspension, but it's worthy of punishment. And now why is it $5,000? Because that's the max. Because the CBA and the NHL should negotiate something higher with the players. It's not up the players to just give this to the league because the league has made it very clear that nothing in negotiations is ever given. It all has to be a fight. So the players are absolutely right to say no. If you want it to be 10,000 or 50 or 100,000, give us something in return. And the league has not seen fit to give something in return to make it worth it.

So it's not the player's fault. I do put that on the league. They could make this happen if it was a priority for them. It never has been. I think they kind of like the fact that they get the high behind it and go, well, CBA, it's the players, right? I don't think the NHL is happy about only being able to find someone $5,000 at all. But the counterpoint is if we are constantly talking about, you know, why Tom Wilson is able to be Tom Wilson and talk about the players that he harms who are also members of the National Hockey League Players Association, like, isn't that much of an ask to say raise the cap on fines? I mean, like, isn't it kind of contingent on them to participate in the disciplinary process? They should participate. No, we just had a new CBA.

I didn't hear one thing about this issue. And if the league was pushing for it and the players were saying absolutely not, then we would have heard about it. So look, under normal circumstances, I agree with what you're saying, Greg. Like this is, you know, it's player safety and the player should be. The NHL under Gary Bedman has made it crystal clear that they don't do a thing for anyone unless it's a give and take negotiation. So I've got zero problem with the players throwing that exact card right back at them

when it comes to this stuff. Okay. But then we can't complain about $5,000 fines then. I mean, that's the P. Well, no, we absolutely can't. And this is this, I mean, it's a CBA. You could change it now. Gary Bettman can call up the PA right now and say, I really want this to go up. What's it going to take?

What do I have to give you to make this happen? And then you negotiate it. That could happen today. But that phone call isn't going to happen. So, because it's not a priority for the league or the players, either one of them. Where the NHL is really fucked up, I think, is in its lack of attention to penalize teams, which is something that they could do tomorrow without any PA involvement. And, you know, I wrote about this in the column about how when the Matt Cook shit was happening with Pittsburgh,

and they try to, you know, deprogram him by sitting him down with Balsma and Shiro and Mario. Mario wrote a letter to Betman and said, look, you know, as part of, part of this whole thing in trying to eradicate repeat offenders, the teams should have to pay a penalty for it. You know, if you have a player that is suspended or runs afoul of the Department of Player's Safety like twice in a season, the team should be fined a million dollars. I think it's a great idea. Do you remember the whole like Jesse Bolerese thing?

Remember that back in the day when he was like running rampant and going fucking nuts on people? I remember there being a thing about like, why aren't the coaches culpable for this? Why aren't the GMs culpable for this? Why are the teams culpable for this? And when you think about the way that the capitals have enabled this behavior to the point where, like, you know, their social media team is blasting out memes to celebrate Tom Wilson on a night when he injured a player. Well, fuck yeah. Of course they should be penalized for it. And that's where I think the NHL has really, like, drop the ball because they can do that tomorrow and they don't.

I'd be all in favor of that. I've said before, too. I would also say if a player gets suspended, you don't get to replace them in the lineup. You play a guy short for however. long that is. And, you know, because then, you know, not in the case of Tom Wilson, who is a good player, but for a lot of these guys, oh, you know, geez, you're suspending my fourth liner. Oh, no, and now I have to put a better guy in the lineup. Doesn't really penalize the team at all. I'd put that in there, too.

Yeah, along those lines, I remember when he put Brandon Carlo in the hospital, this was like fucking six weeks ago or something like that, he was like, look, I don't want to hurt any players And also, like, it's seven games is a lot to miss. One game is a lot to miss. I should, you know, I'm an important player to this team. I shouldn't be missing time, blah, blah, blah. And the league's like, we agree. We think you're great.

Yeah. So. I just, to get back to Greg's point about, you know, spearing is different than hits to the head. Like, I get that. I don't love that that's the system, but it is a system. But we're not, we're not even. talking about the act here. Like, there's no dispute what Tom Wilson did.

We all saw, you know, the dispute is over. What was he trying to do? Was he trying to slam Artemmy Panarin's head off the ice? Or was he just, you know, somebody jumped on his back and he turned around and threw him down. And that's, you know, there's, that's what it gets into. And that, it sucks because none of us can read minds and none of us should have to. But, you know, unlike with a hit to the head where, you know,

you know, the intent doesn't necessarily matter. You spear a guy, okay, we know what you were trying to do. This is one of those things. And this is why, though, again, like, the fact that it's Tom Wilson should matter. Like, one of my favorite hockey plays in history is the, in the Olympics, the, when the pass across the ice went between Mario's legs and Jerome McGillardless scores, and a lot of people were like, that's the greatest thing I've ever seen. And then other people were like, uh, did that maybe just, maybe he just didn't see the puck

and the puck just went between his legs. that happens a lot. Lots of passes, go past guys. And it was like, yeah, you know what? If that was anyone else, I would probably just say he didn't see it. But that was Mario Lemieux. So I'm going to think maybe he did do that on purpose. And same thing. Connor McDavid can be like bat a puck out of the air. And you go, was that just luck? Well, for most guys it would be. But that's Connor McDavid. I think he did that on purpose. Same thing with Tom Wilson, man. Like if I see 99% of players in the NHL do what he did on Monday, I might say, well, that got a little out of hand. But when it's Tom Wilson, a guy who we know has no issue with hurting guys, a guy who was pissed off earlier in the period and making a big show of stomping around because he didn't like a penalty, a guy who goes to the penalty box and starts flexing like just looking completely ridiculous.

I don't have a problem saying, you know what? I can't read your mind, but I'm going to say, balance of probability, I think you were trying to hurt the guy. So yeah, you're going to be a suspecting part. The flexing part is kind of a tell. Yeah, and again, this goes back to the thing of why do people get mad when it's when it's Tom Wilson, when he does stuff that it would be fine if other guys did it. It's because he's a fucking dickhead. And that's why Chris Kreider does this next year, no, it's not a suspension because Chris Kreider's never done this shit before. Yeah, Chris Crater hasn't given us years, you know, he's, well, yeah, we.

Yeah, okay, maybe. I don't want to get the Habs fans mad at me, but right. Yeah. He hasn't given us years and years of evidence that shows that he's perfect. How many times this Chris Pryder has suspended, right? That's all. No, that's fair. But to your point about, I don't necessarily think a play should be elevated to another level based on who the participant is, based on their, like, reputation.

But I do think that there's room in this debate for, should a play be treated differently when the player is 6-4-2-25? Yeah, that's the other thing, man. Like, again, I don't like a brick shit house. two other things I want to say and then I'm done talking about this that we've spent too much time on it one is yeah he he has what

like probably six inches and 75 pounds on Artemis Panarin is like less than 160 pounds and he's like five he's listed at like 511 and yeah absolutely so there's that and also there's the thing of when this all started and all these Capitals fans were like

well nobody clear like oh I guess it's okay that Butchenevich kicked Vanichek or whatever. And I'm watching because like I think kicking is like the worst thing you can do in hockey. You have little fucking knives on your feet, right? So like if you're kicking somebody, well, you know what? Like you're going to get punched in the head and I think that's probably not totally outside the realm of a reasonable reaction on the part of a guy who's on the ice. But again, first of all, I watched that video like it was the fucking Zapruder tape and I didn't see a kick anywhere in there.

but B, like, again, like, it's, it's the, it's the shit of, you know, Tom Wilson is looking for a reason to go ape shit on somebody, right? And, and the thing. Especially in that game. Like, yeah, right. Well, it was just the red already. Right. Everybody was, everybody was, like, he was fucking heated already. And so, like, he was looking for any excuse to fucking nail somebody. And the, and between that and the second time that he said, he said, he was. threw Panarin to the ice? It's like, yeah, okay, no, he just wanted to hurt somebody. Like, that's what crossed the line for me. That's fair. The Zabruder film thing is there was a lot of that going on. I mean, I personally thought that Bruce Navich's leg just kicked out when he fell to the ice. Yeah, because he got punched in the fucking head. What the fuck? But I also don't think that this like hair pull gate that was conjured up by Rangers fans was the thing that actually happened. this way. Was it his hair or was it just like he horse collared him? I think he horse collared him. He was like a rock bottom. Yeah. It was like, it's, because he didn't go down with him, but sure. But I mean, like, that's, that's to Sean's point. Like, when you slow it down and all of a sudden, like, there's a clip that somebody filmed off their laptop with their phone vertically and it slowed down to like point three. And now we're having an entirely different debate than what the play actually was. It's just, it doesn't help the discourse.

in my conversations with player safety people, the Tom Wilson doesn't know his own strength aspect of this is an important one. No, it isn't. Fuck on. No, it is. No, no, no. It is in the sense that, because you're going to agree with me, he needs to be responsible for it. Like, he's not responsible for throwing a hit that might be pedestrian.

Doesn't take that into account, however. They're just like, ah, it's actually fine. Tom Wilson should go have a conversation with his day no char, because they don't Char is twice his size and yet we all remember him ragdolling Brian McCabe one time 15 years ago because he doesn't do it every few games even though he easily could. So Zadano Char apparently figured it like woke up one day and went, oh, I'm big and strong. I should probably factor that in to how I play. Yeah, I've got no patience for, you know, Tom Wilson, we're always pumping his tires because he's this old school power forward and, you know, it's when when he's driving

in the net, we all want to sing his praises because he's this big, strong guy. But suddenly when he does something, it's like, oh, how could he have known? Give me a break. Right. He knows any, any hockey player, especially anyone who's a bigger guy, you know what it's like to be up against someone smaller than you. Even if, again, you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, which we shouldn't do, because it's Tom Wilson, but you want to give him the benefit of the doubt that Panarin jumps on his back and at first he doesn't know who it is and he just, you know, reacts. You're telling me at some point he doesn't go, oh, wow, this guy that I'm throwing around doesn't seem to be 220 pounds like I am.

It's really easy to throw this guy onto the ice. Yeah, that's weird. And then I did it again. It was even easier. Crazy. Sean, the last thing I wanted to ask you is there has been an uptick in the last 24 to 36 to 48 hours of old and enforcers saying that if only there were enforcers, this would never happen. What's your take on that?

Well, I mean, I think completely on its own, there might be some truth to that. Tom Wilson, if this was the enforcer error and there were still like, you know, Colton or whoever out there might behave a little bit differently or at least the reaction from the team would be different. That's still doesn't, I mean, enforcers aren't coming back. So I don't really get what the point of that sort of argument is. And I got to say it's on the one hand, I like hearing from these guys because, you know, it's, we all hate the, well, you never played the game thing. But I think these guys who have played the game, been in that situation, do have some insight to offer. But I got to say, there are times where you hear some of this stuff and you're just like, really? Like John Scott's going to give us a lecture on not rag-dalling guys who aren't fighter.

The same John Scott who went out and who went out and attacked Phil Kessel in a preseason game, like intentionally premeditated, not because he got jumped first, but because he was just mad about something and wanted to hurt someone. That guy is going to give a selection. By the way, he didn't get suspended for that. So for John Scott to act like, what? You can ragdall guys and not get suspended. Dude, we saw you do it a few years ago.

You're not surprised by this. So I like John Scott a lot, but, at least personality-wise, but I, yeah, that, I found that pretty, pretty interesting that he, he seemed so surprised by something he himself had done, not all that long ago. It's a all-star MVP, John Scott, to you, Shaw. Oh, right. Yeah, I think I heard something about that. All right. Well, we, we all got it out of our systems. I think we're all better for it.

I really just hope tonight is not a gong show. Yeah, it does, yeah, it doesn't make this. entire podcast immaterial. It could. I mean, this is, and I'm not somebody who thinks the league wants this. I'm not, you know, some people are like, well, you know, the league loves this. It's going to get, they're going to get great ratings. No, they don't.

They don't want it to be dumb. And I don't think it's going to be dumb, partly because the Rangers just aren't a team that's, that's made that way. But who knows? This is the door that the NHL has chosen to leave open. So we'll see. It is. It is a game on national television.

I don't know how you're watching it. I may just, like, meditate for a while, put in some earbuds, listen to Enya. Speaking of putting in some earbuds and listening to Enya, no. No. Yeah, that's a hard no. Today's episode of Luxem is sponsored by Raycon. I'm exhausted, all right? Whether you're going on a jog or listening to Enya, a pair of Raycon wireless earbuds and your ears can make all the difference.

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and that is such a good deal you'll want to grab a pair and a spare. That's 15% off at buy raycon.com slash puck. That's buy raycon.com slash puck. Connor McDavid is chasing 100 points in a 56 game season. I say he does it. Oh, yeah, he's going to do it. I mean, I started writing about this a couple weeks ago, and it was like, oh, you know, if he gets really on a heater. And then a week ago it was like, he's actually on pay.

And now it's just like, a week ago, I was like, you know, I hope the oilers don't sit him to rest him. And that's what caused him. In this point, it feels like they could give him a couple games off and he's still going to get there. Yeah. Which is awesome. I think I looked it up and he's up to, well, I looked it up before last night's, game, so, you know, he had two assists. But I think it's, he has like 29 points in his last 12 games or some shit like that.

Like, just ridiculous. Yeah, he's, I don't know, you guys let me know, maybe your percent, maybe this is like my leaf fan goggles are coloring things here. But, like, I feel like people are sleeping on the Oilers a bit as a team that could do damage in the playoffs. I know they're super flawed, but they're getting good goaltending. And Connor McDavid is just gone to, I mean, he's past beast mode. I don't know what the next God mode.

I don't know what the next level is. How do you beat these guys? It's like they start with the two nothing lead every night because you know Connor McDavid is going to do two ridiculous things. I will say that, you know, look, it's not like these games don't count or whatever, but, you know, it's all against the Vancouver Canucks who have been just absolutely pummeled by the circumstances of this entire season. Like, everything's going real bad for them. Basically, from what, two weeks into the season, things started going real fucking sideways for him.

So, like, I don't know, I don't know that, like, I'm putting a lot of stock into, well, Colin McDavid's just going to go out there and score a goal and set up. two more every single night. Like, he's playing an HL team pretty much at this point, right? So I'm not, I'm not, and that's not me trying to diminish what he's doing. I think it's, it's so fucking cool. But with that having been said, like, well, I don't know, like, I think the oilers still the playoffs, which isn't kind of, right.

So that's big a step up, man. Yeah. Well, that's the other thing I was going to say, though, is between the Leafs and the Oilers, uh, seems like that, that's just like guaranteed to happen in the second round of the way both the, uh,

other two teams in the, in the top of the north are going, right? Like, which will be awesome. Absolutely awesome. Yeah. Provided,

the Leafs get past the first round, of course. The, the Leafs, I mean, they would have to, I really feel like a playoff series against the Leafs is going to be the thing that gets this McDavid

kid some attention. I could see him, I could see him get some hard trophy love next year if this goes, if this goes, if this goes, is world. But, Ryan, your point's taken,

which is that, and this is going to be a big deal in the awards voting, too, because of this being a monolithic scheduling season of the intra-division schedules and everything like that, like the Oilers are currently

ninth in the NHL and goals against average, right? The team in front of them is the Leafs at 8th. Seven through one, Connor McDavid, has not played this season. The other teams in the

North Division, the Jets are 14th, Montreal 16th, Calgary 17th, Vancouver 25th, and Ottawa 28th in goals against. So like, it's a hell of an accomplishment, but I do wonder how we process it given that he never played, you know, Vegas or the Islanders or the Bruins at any point this season. Let's flip that around then. Maybe part of the fact that those seven teams, yeah,

the top seven teams all had the advantage of not having to play Connor McDavid. And I'm not trying to be a wise ass. Like, this is the NHM. No, absolutely. You had five goals to any teams total, and they move several slots a lot of times. So, yeah, I think the fact that you didn't have to play Connor McDavid or Austin Matthews all season long, maybe helps nudge you a little bit up that list. Yeah. I like this.

It's a very Roar Shack. You're not in here. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me kind of approved hockey. Yeah. And the other thing, like, somebody made. made the point to me when I said, like, oh, he's going to make it fucking comfortably when he, when he had the four point night the other night, was he's like, if this was a full 82 game

schedule against, you know, only the Canadian teams, McDavid probably blows past 200 points, right? Like, if he gets an extra, like, if he gets an extra, like, 10 games against the Canucks and the jets and the, and the senators, I don't know, man. I think it would be really, it would be really something. But yeah, it really does make it impossible to judge. It's crazy. Like I'm, I'm watching, you know, I'm watching the Leafs and, and what Austin Matthews doing is doing is amazing as well. And I watch Austin Matthews, right? I watch him score every night and I'm like, wow, that's a really great goal. You know, here's what they needed to do to stop that. You know, if this guy had been up on him a little quicker, if they had done this or that, they, I watch Connor McDavid and I'm just like,

I got nothing, man. I do you got no idea. You could have two extra guys out there. There was a goal he scored against the flames the other night where he just like absolutely cooks Chris Tannav. And as he's turning away after the puck goes in the net, Tanev just kind of puts his hands up like, what was I supposed to fucking do? That's great.

I mean, it is kind of amazing that like Mario's 2000-200-1 season is upheld as like one of the greatest stretches of offensive hockey that we've had in like the last 30 years. And it's true. And you have McDavid that's going to top them in points per game, and Matthews that's likely going to top them in goals per game. It's fucking crazy. Yeah. And I mean, the other thing to say is back then there were like multiple expansion or recent expansion teams in the league and blah, blah, blah. So like you can put you can put caveats on all of this stuff, right?

But like. But also, Mario was like 37 and just gone off the couch. I was like, all right. I understand. But what I'm saying is like anything you want to put on. any, again, this season, and I wrote about it this week vis-a-vis the stars, this season is fake. And like, anything that happened, if people go, that doesn't work for me. I go, of course not.

It's fucking ridiculous to say that, like, this season should count for anything. I mean, the stars, like, they just ran out of gas, right? Like, that's what it looks like here. Yeah. But also, like, they had, I think, 19 or 20 overtime games. So, like, they just did the tortarella thing where they got to overtime a bunch and we're like, see, that means we're good. And it's like, well, I mean, you won like 21 games out of 50. So not that good.

One of the big, by the way, looking back at it, one of the biggest differences between the Mario year and this year, power play percentage in the Mario year, 16.6. Power play percentage now, 20.1. Well, the other thing is like, they called way more penalties back then. I'm pretty sure. Let's see here. They did. You're right. Back in the clutch and grab era.

4.6 power play opportunities per game versus 2.9. Yeah. That's wild. That's a lot. Is that what we're down to this year? Wow. Yeah. I guess all the players just got a lot cleaner.

That's right. Yeah. And actually, the bad news for this year and hopefully things turn around is even though our sample size is going to be smaller, we're at 2.93 goals per game for teams. down from 3.02 last season. Oh, really? That's crazy. I was told that offense was way up again.

That's interesting. Well, I, you know, maybe things go back to normal when we get back to 82 games. But it's definitely down this year. Frustrating way. NHL awards, did the old NHL Awards watch this week. Connor's going to win by a mile. I saw LeBrun did his, I'm going to ask all the coaches about the Norris thing. They all said headman.

Yeah, that was interesting. Not paying it. I have a feeling that all of them, but it was, it was a real, it was more heavily weighted that you, than you might think, put it that way. He's definitely a finalist, but I think, I mean, and the voters I've spoken to, I think Fox wins. The other finalist is interesting, and I think it may end up being McCar. I mean, I get it. He's really good, but he also missed a ton of time. I, that, that, that, to me.

Like, that's like when G or Dano didn't win because he missed the last quarter of the season both like two years in a row. Or, I don't know. He missed a bunch of time. No, you're right. Right. Yeah. But it out great and then he got hurt. Yeah.

And so, like, that's kind of it for me with, but also like, I think about the thing you said about what, uh, what Dean Everson said last week, which was like, oh, I, I haven't watched that shit at all. Like, well, I got my own, I got my own stuff going on. And that really is what it feels. Well, like, oh, we all like Victor Headman. He's got to be the guy, right? And it's like, oh, he's actually not been very good this year at all. Right. And, you know, like, Dom had that very funny, but also true info.

Like, that's pure posting power right there. And, like, the little infographic of like, oh, here's Adam Fox destroying him in every single category, except being Victor Headman, right? And, like, he's getting the Drew Dowdy, like, well, look, come on. He's got to be in. there he's Drew Doughty, he's Shea Weber, you know, like... Right. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's, I think it's silly to put him even in the top three, but it's going to happen.

And this is the thing, right, where it's, is it who's the best defenseman in the league or is it which defenseman had the best season? Because I think even given how Victor Hedman's season is gone, if we're starting a new team and we've got one season to play, we're picking Victor Hedman for that team before we're picking Adam Fox. but the word is for the best season by a defenseman. Right. So, you know, which means reputation shouldn't factor into it, but we know how that often goes. Also wanted to mention the Calder. I think I saw a tweet from you, Lambert, that celebrating the end of the brief challenge to Capriess Off's throne. Yeah, well, Robertson had a great year.

But the guy we thought was going to win all along deserves to win, it turns out. So, yeah. Do you think the other spot is going to go to a goalie, by the way? I think it's going to probably be Shishirkin, but Nadelcovich has been great, too, for Carolina. Yeah, and I think, I think, yeah, Nadelcovich is a pretty good one. But I don't know. I guess the guy I would have third, you know, right now, and I guess there's not a lot of runway left, but is Pia Souter. It's had a really good year.

Interesting. But my tie Smith kite really fell apart, I think, at some point this season. Well, yeah, you and all the Kevin Lankinan voters who were so convinced this is going to last forever. You know, for a while, he was tremendous. Yeah. And then a guy that nobody had ever heard of before. It turns out he's not like, okay, let's give Michael Houser a runout next season and see how that fucking works out for. Right.

Like, there's a reason we hadn't heard about Kevin Lankenen before. And it's because he's only okay. And that's fine to be. He's just, it's fine to be okay. That's about it. Bart Gauz is going to probably win the Silky. Shouldn't have you seen the number? He's really dropped off lately.

I was just looking at this yesterday. I have seen that. I do wonder if that'll be out there enough when the voting happens to affect it. I just feel like he's sort of the, because I also think he's going to get some of that Ryan O'Reilly, the Silky is an MVP for defensive guys kind of. Yeah. I mean, I say this all the time. But the Selke is just like, oh, we know like eight guys are good defensively.

And so we're just going to cycle through them for the top five every year. And like the wheel happened to land on Barkov this season because it got off to a good start. And so everybody was like, well, there you go. Right. None of them are wingers. Yeah. There's like six or eight centers that we all know that are pretty good. Yeah.

And then Mark Stone. Right. That's right. He gets all the winger support. It should be Joel Erick to deck this year. But okay. Oh, spicy. Finally, before we get into some pop culture stuff, playoff races, looks like we are definitely getting an all Florida series.

That's really fun. Yeah, rocks. Pretty close to locked in. That's going to be excellent. And you know what? Carolina National is going to be a good series, too. That's just as a match. It's kind of like a fun, weird, not really geographic matchup, but it's kind of got that whole.

like, yeah, like, let's do, let's let's let that one go seven and really tick off all the old timers. That'd be fun. Now, we all agree that the wild or fun. Yes. Man, that's a one sentence. Yeah, I know. I still can't. My mouth can't even make the words.

Are we worried that they're so much fun, they're going to ruin our Golden Knights' avalanche. Yeah. We should be concerned about that. Yeah. Yeah. There's a decent chance. Yeah. They seem to really have Vegas's numbers, so...

I don't know. All right. Rolling Stone and Intrepid TV reporter Alan Seppin-Wall in his crew put together a list of the top 100 greatest sitcoms. I'm going to give you the top 15 real quick. Ready? Yeah. Well, let's guess, because I didn't look at this. Let's get it.

I have seen it, but... Okay. Well, you want to get, right. You want to see the only one. No, no, no. No, right. This is this good. You want to get me four and I'll tell you if they made the top 15. Uh, the Simpsons, cheers.

Hmm. Mary Tyler Moore. And. MASH. Simpsons one. Sure. Cheers two. Okay.

Mash six. Okay. Mary Tyler Moore, seven. Wow. The top 10 was pretty down the middle. It was, a lot of times on lists like this, you can always tell the pick that got intentionally moved too high or too low just to get people talking. And I don't really see that here. Maybe like they had the parks and recreation in like the top 10 I could see pushing that out.

this list had a lot of the modern. Yeah. Well, and here's the thing. Here's the thing I didn't, one of the things I didn't like about the list, not a lot of 80s sitcoms, which to me is kind of the golden era for at least the platonic ideal of a sitcom. And then, you know, I don't,

I'm not saying that everyone from that era was a good, it was necessarily a good show, but I was surprised. Like, I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't have the whole list in front of me, but like, I don't think family ties was on the list. I don't know. No growing pains, no facts, like, it was, it's weird that there wasn't a lot on there that, from what I would argue is, like I say, the golden age. Yeah, the golden age.

So that seemed, but also they kind of expanded the definition of sitcom so much that they're like putting in like stuff from adult swim and, you know, every like hipster. cartoony thing. So they're talking about like just funny TV shows and not necessarily that's the thing. Like I, to me, I wouldn't count the Simpsons as a sitcom because just I don't think animated shows. Well, I get, I get why, I get the argument for it. Just to me, an animated show is not that like a sitcom is actual people doing comedy with everything that's involved in that. I don't mind, you know, I'm not saying you have to have an live audience.

I'm not saying you can't do the one camera, but like, to me, there is a very big leap between actual people selling jokes versus voice actors and animation. And if you took animation out that, you take out like 10 or 12 off the list, which would clear room for maybe some of the more traditional ones. Because I don't think, like, you know, I don't need Rick and Morty on my list of the best sitcoms. At some point, I feel like you're kind of... I do think The Simpsons is closer to a sitcom than, say, South Park, which was 22. You know? It has everything in a traditional sitcom. Like, and, you know, it showed up in the late 80s.

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's even got like all those, a lot of the same beats of the, it's just the fact that it's animated to me, on my own definition, I wouldn't consider it. Well, especially early on, they definitely tried to keep it very, like kind of buttoned down, you know. Can you do your old Homer Simpson voice? It's one of my favorite impressions that you do. Oh, frosty chocolate milkshakes, boy. Like, that's everybody's old. Come on, boy, we're going bowling. You know, when he's just doing Walter Mathow and not even a good Walter Mathau, yeah.

I mean, that's pretty, that was pretty bang on. I never put it together. That was Walter Mathow. Oh, that everybody, yeah, everybody, I thought that was just like a thing everybody knew. Oh, I never realized that. I'm scrolling down the list. There's a lot of animated. There's a lot of animated stuff on this.

I'm not surprised. And then the other weird thing about it, and this is a very, a lot of lists do this, and it's kind of Rolling Stone does it sometimes with their music, but it's like 90% American, but then they pick like a couple, like, free. Like flea bags 21st. Yeah, or they're like, you know, Blackadder. And you're like, well, I mean, Blackadder is either not on the list or it's higher than 70th or whatever. Like you've got to pick, it's just.

This weird... Is Mr. Bean on there? No. It's not. I mean, just by virtue of having eight episodes or whatever. Yeah. And just the one where he puts the turkey on his head should make it number one. Dude, the Christmas episode, again, top 10.

He's driving the car from the top. When he orders the steak tartar and doesn't realize what... I need to watch fucking Mr. Bean. That's the remedy. The reveal of the gift to the girlfriend at the end of the Christmas episode is legit. like a classic comedy moment. That is one of the funniest thing I've ever seen. God damn, Mr. Bean was really funny.

I feel like the kind of not good Mr. Bean movie sort of like detracted from how good the series was. Also the fact that people say I look like Rowan Atkins and detracts from the series for me. That would probably be. Lambert, to answer your question, the hot shotting on this list

was the inclusion of both Louis and the Cosby show, which is a bold move in 2021. Well, I mean, look, like... And then they spent, been most of the write-up for both of them talking about how maybe it shouldn't be on the list. Yeah, both of them were just like so incredibly influential and like huge. Louis for obviously just like more of the entertainment industry where everybody

wanted the Louis deal was a huge thing. And then obviously like the Cosby Show was the biggest show on TV for fucking like eight years. It was like a monster fucking hit. And to leave it off, I think I don't, like I said, I don't know. I mean, it's again, like I think they had it like. 16th or something. It, which feels weird to me.

Like, to me, it's either... To me, it's either higher or it's not on the list. Like, I think you do have to consider, you know, Bill Cosby's place in, in, in, in, in comedy and all that kind of stuff. Like, it does, like, you can't listen to the chocolate cake bit anymore or whatever. Like, I get all that. But, like, at the time, chocolate cake bit was the funniest thing. Anybody had ever heard in fucking 1978.

or whatever. So, like, I get that both ways, especially, like, and from, you know, the whole, like, separate the art from the artist thing. Like, I don't know. I'm sure if, I'm sure if you go back to, like, the early, early shows on those lists, like, a lot of those people were probably bad people. It's just, like, what the deal was back then. So, I don't know, like, I don't know anything about. Oh, yeah. No. I'm super bad. Yeah, absolutely. of course nobody's saying he isn't with that having been said like to like if you left off the Cosby show or or I think there's more of an argument for Louis but if you left off the Cosby show you'd just be like well come on I mean Louis Louis stuff because like you said it served as the template for an entire slate of shows I mean like you're the worst and like all these other

shows that are kind of in that that same genre it was the thing that kind of like sparked that like sitcom renaissance of a certain of a certain ilk but anyways let me give me the top 20 real quick bojack horseman uh rosan which i was thrilled to see on this list that i really really good show standard sitcom on on incredibly great sitcom speaking of separating the art from the artist they literally did that right they did that uh 30 rock taxi uh the cosby show at 16 arrested development the Andy Griffith show, sure. I mean, that's like, you know, let me see. Just kind of a template for a lot of other shit, sure.

Frazier at 13, curb at 12, Dick Van Dyke at 11, Larry Sanders at 10. Parks and Rec at 9. And also the fact that they, that's a great show, but the fact that they also had the Gary Shandling show on the list, that was one of those, as I was reading the list, I'm like, it probably won't be on there, but it should be, and I was very happy to see that in there.

I can't in any good faith argue that Parks and the Rec should be above Larry Sanders, but they have it at nine. Yeah, that's outrageous. And especially, Honeymooners, like, that's a show that really, like, I don't think has aged very well. Well, the problem is is I was never in the cult because their first season was so bad that I didn't watch it in its original run.

I caught reruns with Ruby because she was a big fan. I watched every episode, And I liked it at the time, but I just think, like, you know. Because the government? Yeah. Well, like, not just the government, but it's just like, oh, yeah, like, like all the girl boss shit. You know what I mean? Like, that kind of, that just kind of aged like fucking milk out of the refrigerator for me.

But you know what? They had to have something. It's the only show that's high on the list from like the 2000s, other than the Simpsons, but in the Simpsons, I think it's. Well, where's the obvious? heavy listing. Well, that's, the office is like 20, hang on. I just saw it's 23rd, but, but. Which office?

See, this is really, let me, this is really funny because which office? Yeah, was the, which office? The U.S. office is 23rd. I'm not quite sure where the other offices, but look. I don't know if it's on there. If the argument is that the U.S. office was the law of diminishing returns, right? Because like after Karel left, the show was really not good. I mean, that should in theory impact the Simpsons, shouldn't it?

Oh, absolutely. Yes. But I think, but let me put it this way, though. I think even leaving aside the whatever 25 bad years they've done, it's more like 22, I guess. But, you know, like even leaving aside the really bad seasons of the Simpsons that like a lot of people, like, you know, I'm certainly not alone in thinking everything after season 10. isn't very good. But, you know, the impact it had on the comedy world, I think, massively outstrips the, whatever, like, cultural cachet the office has. The office is just like, oh, here's a gif of Stanley rolling his eyes. Whereas The Simpsons is like, oh, like 90% of the TV shows or comedies that came out after it are in some way influenced by The Simpsons. Yep. And by the way, UK office was on, though it was 30th. U.S. was 23rd. I checked it. And so I was wrong.

Speaking of the Simpsons, if you haven't read it, everybody should read the interview with John Schwartzwelder. Oh, my God. It was in the New Yorker. It's so fucking good. Not only for the show, but also like the craft of writing and everything else. Real quick, the honeymoon is your eighth. I have a very special place. Not high enough. Yeah, because it was always, the WPI Channel 11 New York, always.

always used to run the honeymooners. They still do, I think, in marathons. My dad, maybe his favorite sitcom. And, I mean, obviously there are things that don't age well, like making an entire catchphrase of punching your wife, for example. But there are a lot of things that do. And I do appreciate it. I got to say this list, the top eight is, like, there's a big leap from the top eight

to down to, like, parks and wreck at nine. Because I don't, like, Ryan said not high enough. tell me which of the seven that are going to come next. Okay. Yeah. Because it's a really good list. Mary Tyler Moore is seven. MASH is six.

All the family is five. Wait, what did you say was five? Sorry. All the family. Good show. Real good show. I love Lucy four. I totally get it.

Seinfeld three. Yep. Of course. Then cheers. Then the Simpsons. And I said this when the list came out. Like, what is going to do? How many generations of two?

TV watchers will we have to go through? And how many new shows and how much sort of like attrition will have to happen for that top three to ever change? Like to ever change. I think it's impossible at this point, right? You know, it's it is and it is. Comedy is a weird thing. Sometimes things become so influential that everything else builds on it so much that

eventually the original doesn't seem as funny anymore. It doesn't hold up as well. Like, have you ever heard like a half? Henny Youngman's stand-up routine. And you're listening to it going, this is the most cliched stuff. And it's like, yeah, but it's not cliched. He's the first guy to ever do this.

Yes, of course. And everybody else copies him. But it's like, you know, then you listen to it or you, you know, you listen to Richard Pryor and you're like, ah, I like Chappelle and the Chris Rock stuff better. And it's like, yeah, because. Right. And I could see that maybe happening with like that Seinfeld Cheers era where,

but it hasn't yet. Or I'll give you, I'll give you two that I think are really low. uh, Veeps at 44. And, um, Friends is,

where the hell is I just saw it? Friends is like in the 30s, right? That's appropriate. I think that's as like, you know, as much as like, again, it has a lot of cultural cachet and stuff. It's like, yeah, we've all seen like 50 different versions of friends. Like, and it, and believe me, like, friends obviously hit. I've seen every episode multiple times, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, you know, I just, I just,

I don't think, when I go, oh, what are the greatest sitcoms of all times? Like, friends does not enter my mind. Like, it's good. It's good. I think it's top 30. And you said it was like 37? 35? It's 38th.

Okay, yeah. Okay. So you want to say it gets bumped up eight? Fine. Who cares? You know. But, yeah, I don't know. Thank you.

Just, I'll throw out a couple that I thought should have been higher. I don't remember exactly where it was, but WKRP, was like pretty, it was on the list, but pretty far down. That is a personal favorite. That's such an old guy opinion, though. Oh, remember the turkey? They threw it. Yeah.

Unbelievable. But again, that's another one where it's like that, a lot of that shifted to, you know, what came after it. And just as a personal favorite, and I was happy it did make the top 100, but it's way, way down. Nightcourt, I think, is underrated as a quality show. Like, that was. They're rebooting it, so we're going to find out.

Are they? I was reading. You just ruined my day. Are you serious? I'm pretty sure they are. Somebody tweeted out like the top to top 20 shows from like, I don't know, like 35 years ago or something. And the fact that like 20 million people or some such would watch Nightcourt every week is kind of mind-blowing. Like I watched that show growing up and I found it to be such a weird, quirky niche show that it kind of blows my mind that that was like a sitcom.

That sitcom would definitely be on some weird-ass streaming service right now. It was both a different time and also the fact that back then you could put anything on, like, in between the Cosby show and whatever or wherever. And it would get like, after-chairs. Tell Jonathan Silverman that. Yeah, tell Carolina in the city that. That's true. And then some other ones that got left off, again, like all of those 80s, like family ties and that. Somebody else pointed out no morgue and Mindy on the.

list. What is that, though, the third best happy days spinoff? No happy days, I don't think, was on the list. Really? Wow. Which is, yeah. I mean, I never liked it. And just because you know, I'm going to say it, Married of Children should be in the top 100

of just based on its peep, even acknowledging three quarters of it was. So, but to bring it back to the thing about, oh, you know, what's the, like what would ever knock those three hours? out of the top three. I think the reason those are in the top three is they're so, like, genre redefining. Like, Seinfeld, I think, was probably the first show about, like, really nasty people. You know what I mean? Like, just people who are not nice people at all, and all of them are not nice.

Like, there had obviously been shows with, like, dirtbag characters or whatever, but nobody on the level of those four. Obviously, again, the Simpsons was just, like, yeah, nothing ever existed like that. And Cheers is really like, you know, maybe not the invention, but the perfection of like the hang. Just you and your homies hanging out, having a good time, busting balls. Like, if you watch that Cheers pilot, like, they just have everybody knocked episode one. Like, nobody fundamentally... It's crazy. It's crazy.

And so, you know, I think that, like, that's why is... Even if you want to say, obviously, the Simpsons ended up being very different from what it started as, which was just kind of like, what if a family about, or a sitcom about a working class family was animated instead of live, you know, like, it just was like, oh, we've never seen something like this before on TV. And, and yeah, that's why, like, in much the same way as I think the honeymooners should be hired just because it's like, oh, if you watch an episode of the honeymooners, you're like, that's a friend's joke. That's a, that's a, that's a, all in the family joke. Like, it's just all this stuff that, um, it totally set the table for

70 years of television. Um, I think that that's why like the Simpsons and Seinfeld are just not getting displayed. And I'm not even like, like, I'm just not even like that big of a Seinfeld fan. I can just like, I think curb is better personally for me, but like you don't have curb without Seinfeld obviously. So, right. All right. Let's end with an overrated, underrated. Uh, couple of suggestions. Well, no, that was actually somebody said in honor of the Rolling Stone List, overrated, underrated sitcoms, but I feel like we just did that. We just did that.

We've got, by the way, I think people are trying to trick us because someone did suggest Harrison Ford movies, but not Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Oh, that's a pretty intriguing one. That's a good one. That's good. Hold on. Let me think. Reggie Smith says, in honor of May the Fourth be with you.

Star Wars Things That Aren't the Movies. J&M's dad says theme restaurants. Puck Patty, and I liked this one, but we don't have to do it. Jurassic Park characters from the first film. And then, what was the other one that I saw? Oh, for Cinco de Mayo, Mexican food or drinks. We've definitely done Mexican food. They are.

Okay. People will be pissed. I like the Star Wars one. Well, obviously. Yeah, let's just do that. Yeah, that's fine. Can you confidently do a Star Wars? Let me, I'm going to work on it.

You guys build in, stall a little bit for me, and I'll see if I can think of four things that aren't the movie. So over-rated Star Wars things that aren't the movie, Star Tours at Disney. I think appropriately rated as five. fine, right? Like, is anybody like, oh my God, Star Tours? You've got to go on Star Tours. Too long wait and honestly, a little bit too much C3PO for your boy. And obviously, pales in comparison to the Star Wars ride that came after it, where in Star Tours, you're in, I mean, what honestly looks like a Star Trek shuttlecraft.

And in whatever the new one is, you're in the fucking Millennium Falcon. So let's go. Overrated Star Wars. I'm going to say 75% of all Star Wars video games. There are a lot of unbelievable Star Wars games, but it's because probably they've made 7,000. I think it's probably a conservative estimate. They just throw a lot of shit at the wall, and sometimes it really works, and then sometimes it's a dud. So I've played a ton of Star Wars video games. they are all over the map in terms of quality.

My overrated is going to be that the Weird Al song where he did American Pie, but it's a first movie. I was going to have that as least favorite. Okay. I like Weird Al as much as anyone, but that is like a seven-minute song and there's no jokes in it at all. It's just him describing the plot of a bad movie. This here, Anakin guy isn't a joke? And making it kind of rhyme. Oh, man.

That's a great choice. That's a great choice. Underrated. Burger King drink glasses. I don't know about it. I have a collection of Star Wars Burger King drink glasses. It's art. It may not be the collectible for everybody,

but I used to go all the time with my family to get, to go to, it used to be a thing where like you'd go to Burger King and you spend an extra like four bucks and you get a commemorative glass for like return to the Jedi. And I have a bunch of them, and they're awesome. So that's my underrated. I'm going to say Christopher Lee's performance is Count Duku. Now that is from the movie.

Okay, we're saying like not anything at all to do with you. Not anything from any of the movies. Okay. Well, Sean, come back to me then. I don't know if this is really underrated, but just Greg mentioning the theme park ride kind of put me on this because a few years ago when we were at whatever the theme park with the Star Wars stuff down in Florida. We went on a couple of the rides. They were fine.

We weren't lining up for hours to go on anything. But just the real-life interaction stuff, if I had been a kid, I would have just absolutely love that. Like when you're just walking down, like, you know, walking down the street and suddenly there's like a stormtrooper parade coming towards you and you're like, oh, or I get to watch like my little four-year-old nephew, like get Jedi training. Like the Jedi training thing is awesome. I thought it was fantastic. It is fantastic. You know, for the kids, like for that age where they get to, they learn how to be a Jedi, but then Darth Vader shows up and they get to fight Darth Vader. It's, it's fantastic.

Like I would have just completely marked out for that when I was like eight years old. And it was still just, it was pretty cool to see people get to do that and have that experience. So I think if you're going to go to something like that, I apparently lighting up for three hours to go on a ride isn't worth it. But just hang around and watch all the basic stuff that happens. Or like, you know, just like there's like a stormtrooper walking around and he's just like talking crap to people. It's awesome. Get out of the way and stuff. It's just really well done.

Yeah, I was, I was just about to say the immersive experience of Galaxy's Edge where you, where you feel like, or Edge of Edge of Gamble. galaxy, I think it's called. No, galaxy, where you get to feel like, Dan, this really is freaking Star Wars around here, huh? You got the little milk. Love it.

The Coke comes in a little fun bottle. It's really fun, and, yeah, I had a really good time. With that having been said, I hope all those kids realize they're not real Jedi,

and that's not canon. I don't know. It's not canon. And so, but my underrated will be the idea of lightsabers. I don't think people think about how fucking cool they are enough. They rock. They are awesome. They're swords that are lasers. And know exactly where to end,

too, which is not, you know, like, I've seen real genius. I've seen real genius. I know lasers just go on and on and on. See, I haven't seen that because I'm not fine. I mean, that's why they're not laser sabers, right? They're... Well, Luke Skywalker called it a laser sword. Calls it a laser sword. Yeah, he does. Okay. Favorite The 1970s disco remix of the

Cantina song with the laser beams the laser blasts in it is so goddamn fun damn it It's just fantastic I was going to say

the musical genre that we all know in love called Jiz that's Yeah either basically I mean I know I can't

extend it to all the music from the movies so I'll with this offshoot of specifically the disco remix of the canteen of oh actually I guess it was the it's like a Star Wars suite right because it has the main theme in it and then it also has the canteena theme in it it's so epic and I wish I could have been coked out of my mind at

Studio 54 dancing to that song in 1978 yeah I'm gonna say my favorite thing about Star Wars is George Lucas just being like I'm going to do whatever I want and nobody can say anything about it. And he made fucking so much bullshit that stinks, but is like, that's what being an uteur is, man. Like, you just, he got, he got, fuck you money because he came up with something that was so good. And like, I love that.

I think that's so cool. Like, I don't have to like all the fucking prequels and all this kind of stuff to still say George Lucas is a genius and he rocks and I can't wait to see what he does next. And it's great because, like, it even started back in the first movie, right? Because they're like, George, your movie is an enormous budget. We can't really pay you. He's like, oh, okay, how about you just give me the rights to all the action figures and marketing things? Like, fine, this will never make any money.

He sold, like, he could, he sold all this Star Wars shit to Disney for $4 billion and then was like, I don't need this. I'm giving this away. That rules. That's so fucking cool. It's so cool. All right. My favorite, if kid me was definitely the toys. I had all the action figures and everything.

I was big into that and that was super fun. Growing up me, I'll go with what is maybe one of an obvious pick. Mandelorian. I just think that's a really good show. Hell yeah. And it's, I, watching Mandalorian was the best like Star Wars experience that I, I've had since I was a little kid. Better than any of the movies

that followed it. It was just a really good good show. Least favorite for me is this is going to be very specific, but let me see if you remember this. It's the sneak preview battle droid figure

from the Phantom Menace. It was a battle droid riding a floating turret. It was the first toy release by Kenner for the prequels. I may have in my dad's closet 20 of these in boxes

anticipating that one day it would pay for my kids' college and you can get them now on eBay for like $18. I will trade you my entire baseball card collection for one of them. They're probably same value. My least favorite thing about Star Wars

is that Disney owns it now. Hey, how dare you? It's only going to get worse from here. Like, yep, The Mandalorian's great. The fucking theme park thing is great. But boy, those three movies stink. I don't...

You know what? I got to say I've never explored the animated shows. So maybe those are all good. And like the bad batch is unbelievable or whatever. But like, I just kind of don't trust it. I feel like they caught lightning in a bottle with the Mandalorian because they turned it over to two guys who were like huge Star Wars nerds. And then they fucking focus group the rest of it. and I don't trust them now.

It is so amazing to me. Like if you had gone back five years in the past or whenever they did that deal and been like, they're going to make the three sequels and a couple of other movies and it's going to go so badly that they're going to be like, maybe we should stop making Star Wars movies. Incredible. Just do something other stuff like that would have been inconceivable. Yeah. Every Star Wars movie of its, or Disney Star Wars movie of its,

like Lane, so like the main three and then the two A Star Wars stories, made less money than the one that came out before it. Everybody lost their mind. Didn't the Force Awakens make like a billion fucking dollars? People lost their minds over it. And then the second one did fine, but people were mad at it. And then the third one sucked. And everybody agreed.

Like it was only, it only made $500 million or whatever. But, you know, it's, they just mishandled it from the word go, basically. And, yeah, I mean, there are a million different reasons to it. We don't have to get into all of them. But, like, I just, like, they should make it so that people who actually like Star Wars are in charge of it. And much like George Lucas, you know, nobody, there's no focus groups. It's just like, this is straight from the tap, you know. And it seems like they really did that with a lot of the Mandalorian,

which is why the Mandalorian works. So, like, just, like, people go see this shit, and it doesn't have to all make a billion dollars to be a hit, you know? Make a smaller-scale Star Wars movie like the Mandalorian, and people will watch it and love it. So that's my whole thing on Disney Star Wars, but, yeah. Oh, hey, I was just getting coffee. What were you guys talking about?

With that having been said, put me into Star Wars movie. Great, thanks. Did you have the least favorite, Sean? I forget. Yeah, my least favorite is Star Wars fans. Yep, that's true. Not all of them, but you know who I'm talking about. We do. Yeah, all the Raylo shippers.

Is that who you're talking about? No, he's not talking about. That's exactly my name. I knew it. It used to be that Star Wars fans were just annoying when they're like, actually the rancor would never fit inside that dungeon. and then things got weird. Rankor, by the way, was a candidate for a favorite because of the toy,

which was fucking incredible back in the day, where you can make the mouth move and shit, put a little like Skywalker inside the mouth. From what I understand, he's from the movie, though. Well, he's a toy, though. Yeah, that's true. All right, that's an epic roller coaster of emotions. So Puck Soup this week.

You can find my stuff out of ESP. p.m.com. I just appeared on Sports Nation talking about the Tom Wilson stuff. You want to track down that video. And you can listen to me and Ryan and Ruby on MeismPod, the podcast that covers food on TV. And we never argue. And no, it's all much different vibe and a pleasant vibe. It's basically just me and Ryan drilling over Padmas costume changes and Ruby going,

you two. No, it's nothing like that. No, it's not an accurate representation at all. It's not an accurate representation. Oh, what's a show about Top Chef I would never want to listen to? Greg, describe that real quick. I just described it. Yeah.

E.P.Rinkside.com. I wrote about, like mentioned earlier, I wrote about the stars this week and how, just throw this whole season out. Who cares? It doesn't matter. They miss the playoffs. Great. Doesn't matter at all.

It is immaterial. And if you go to E. EP Rinkside and you want to sign up for an annual subscription. If you use the code, I love EP, all one word, all capital letters. You get three free months on top of what you're signing up for. So check her out. If I'm on the athletic, you know, the drilled by now, I've got my piece that went up today is my annual attempt to find three nice,

positive things to say about all the bad teams in the league. So you can come and read that and then you can go into the comments. and watch me get yelled at by Devils fans for not being positive enough about what is apparently a super, super good team. Yeah, they're unbelievable. Yeah, they're good. They're this close, Sean. You got to understand. They're not.

They're not. We need at least, we need at least like six more Hugheses, I think. Yeah. All right. Thanks, everybody for listening. And we'll talk to you next week. Bye. Sorry about all that.

Bye. Bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to order for commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Natsin' Natsin. Book Sue.