Puck Soup - Make It Wrestling

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McNeugh from The Athletic. And, well, looks like things are pretty much getting sewn up in the next day or two here. what was it?

Flames and Sabres officially eliminated last night, and then the penguins are basically on life support. And the predators as well are out. So it's everybody but the penguins, I believe. That sounds right. We are locked in in the West as far as the eight teams. Yeah. And just Islanders versus Penguins,

with the Islanders having the big edge. Yeah, they have both. both the tiebreaker and the one point. Right. So basically the islanders need to lose in regulation, the penguins need to win to pass them. It's the only scenario where we get to change. Bummer about the Sabres is my big takeaway.

Would have been nice. But, you know, I said this in my article the other day. You know, you don't enter a season with Craig Anderson and Eric Comrie is your goal. if you're like, and we expect, of course, to make the playoffs, you know? And so that's kind of like, you know, Devin Levi comes around a month or earlier, maybe we're having a different conversation. Yep, yep, absolutely.

And it's, uh, but, I mean, good, good progress for them that this is, I feel like of all the teams that just missed, the Sabres are the one that can come out of this feeling genuine optimism, not like the fake kind of, oh, we were close. Yeah, like the Ottawa senator. Again, like, you know, it's the thing where, you know, they didn't, they didn't make any grand pronouncements. The rebuild is over, anything like that. I mean, like they kind of did without actually saying it, I guess.

But, you know, if we felt like they were a goalie away all year, and I'm not sure that that's the only thing that they were missing. They think you'd like to round out the defense a little more, have a little more scoring punch in the bottom six, that kind of thing. But like the savers weren't even close to the salary cap this year. So like they can add no problem and be ready to go in a way that, you know, they weren't this year, especially because and, you know, just kind of, again, like all their, all.

all their good players are locked up long-term at weirdly reasonable contracts. Yep. Do you have anything else on the Sabres? I mean, they were very fun. They were a very fun team to watch. I do kind of wonder a little bit what the ceiling on that team is.

Sure. You can absolutely see them in the playoffs next year. In fact, I think a lot of people will be picking them for that, but I do think there's the question of, okay, how big a leap can they make? Is there a path to get to, like, being a top six team in the league? I'm not completely convinced that there is, but we'll see. I mean, there's, the goaltending will have a huge impact on that, and there's room for optimism on that. So, you know, I'm not here to rain on any parades.

Yeah, I guess the other thing. thing to say is like they do have money coming off the books like that Ocoso deal is finally over this summer. Okay, I am. And just a couple other guys that like, you know, Craig Anderson's another guy. There's no real need to bring him back. Again, this is an NHL player who's older than me, right? So this is a problem.

Yeah, that's not great. But, you know, I think there was an article when Levi first came up about like, oh, kind of a log jam in net. Well, now there's one fewer guy after this summer. And, like, I don't think you'd feel too bad about figuring out a place to put Eric Comrie, you know? Mm-hmm. Or Ucococockeloukin, for that matter. But, yeah, I think you're right.

They don't, I don't want to say they have the top end talent. They don't have the top end talent because they have some. I think they just don't have enough to be what you're saying, like a top six team in the league. And especially in that division where. you know, obviously the Bruins are going to have a tough summer, but, you know, the lightning aren't going anywhere, the Leafs aren't going anywhere. Twelve years without the playoffs, let's get them back in there first, and then we can worry about the Stanley Cup after that.

Let's just get them back. That is the pool of mission, though. You know? But, yeah, any penguins takes now that they're really on the ropes, here. Well, I mean, that game last night, and we sort of talked about it a little bit in the live show because it was happening as we were doing that. Yeah. What a disaster for both teams. I mean, for the Blackhawks to beat the penguins in regulation in Pittsburgh is an absolute disaster for both of them.

And obviously Pittsburgh, I mean, this is they now the by far most likely outcome is they're going to miss the playoffs by one or two points. and they're going to look at a game on home ice against a team actively trying to lose that they managed to come away with zero points. Like it's not going to be, not that one game determines your season. Of course. But that's going to be the one that everyone's going to look at. And it's going to, you know, barring a very unexpected pair of results tomorrow to flip it around, it's going to cost a bunch of people jobs

and potentially alter the trajectory going forward. It was just, I mean, we should never be shocked in the NHL at anything in this era, but that shocked me. That one, even as someone who was kind of looking at the penguins going, I don't know that they're going to actually, like that is not the way I saw them tripping up at the finish line. No, for sure. I think I saw this yesterday.

or the day before maybe. But you know what really killed him? You said one game doesn't end your season or whatever. You know their record against the Islanders this year? Nope. 03 and 1. That'll go a long way, won't it? Yep.

And against the Canadians, I think, 01 and 2. So that's not going to get it done. That's it. the season right there. You get two points out of any one of those seven games and you're having a whole different conversation. Now, and obviously the Canadians are like way worse than the Islanders, but to go 03 and 1 against the Islanders, that's the steak in the heart. That's, the garlic around the neck is I guess the Canadians thing, but the stake in the heart is giving the Islanders seven of eight possible points. No, I'm sorry, eight of

They didn't beat them once. Do you think, again, assuming this ends how we think it is, do you think Ron Hextel is still the GM by Monday morning? No. I'm not talking to opening night. I'm saying like, do they even do the whole, like, we're going to think about it, we're going to evaluate or is it like the next day kind of deal? I think, I think he did to do the locker clean out press conference?

I'll give him that one. I'll give him the presser at the end of the season. I'm not even sure he gets that. But like I said this a couple of weeks ago. I think he was getting fired regardless of whether they made the playoffs. Like if they make the playoffs, maybe they do the thing that you're talking about. Like we'll let them hang around to like halfway through the postseason or something like that. But the fact that they're almost certainly going to miss.

now. You know, I don't know what like Moneypuck or whoever says is there like playoff odds at this point. I guess that's a few clicks away. 9.4% that feels generous to me. I believe the Islanders next game is against the Canadian's.

Yeah, they both play on Thursday. Thursday, I believe, yeah. Oh, wait, no, no, that is, sorry, that is false. The Islanders play the Canadians tomorrow. Tomorrow is Thursday. The Islanders play the Canadians tonight. Okay. Tonight.

All right. Which is Wednesday. I had Monday off, so I'm completely screwed up on the dates. Coming back from the Frozen Four, I have no idea what day it is. I had to check like three times yesterday. Then we get, so, you know, that they win and it's over. Yes. Now, if they lose and, I mean.

I mean, we just saw the Hawks beat the Penguins. So, I mean, if they fumble it back, then it comes down to Penguins at Blue Jackets, which, again, is another game. It should be an easy one. Let's go. Because this is the scenario, right? When you looked at the Penguins, they had two games left, the two worst teams in the league. Chicago and Columbus, yeah.

The absolute two worst teams in the lead, wing both those games and you're in the playoffs. And that's already off the table. So, yeah, we're not going to get the, like, two games going on at the same time scoreboard watching thing. It's the Islanders have a chance to just finish it tonight. Yeah, so, you know, I saw somebody, I don't remember which opinion's right, wrote an article that was like, okay, we threw some blame at Hextall. We threw some blame at Mike Sullivan. Now we've got to throw some blame at the players, the star players.

And it's like, really? You got to throw some blame at like Sidney Cray. Crosby for this? Is that who they were referring to? I guess so. Malkin, you know? Like the three. Yeah, they got the three guys.

I mean, Malkin didn't have a great thing. La Tang off. Letang, he had the injuries. Crosby was very good. Like Malkin didn't get 30 goals. He got like just over 80 points. For a 36-year-old second light center, that's... I was just going to say.

For a 36 year old second light center, that's... six-year-old, this is one of the all-time great seasons. However, it's just not enough to drag this team across the finish line, you know? And, well, that's life. I don't know. And I mean, he hasn't, yeah, I'm just looking at it. He's been roughly a point of game player for the last three years now. Yep, he's really good. Which, again, that's, that's a great player, but it's, if he's your second most

dangers forward. Yeah. on a team where the forwards are going to carry things, then it's probably not enough. But I don't think that's a, that's a him problem. That's, again, that's the roster construction. And then...

Totally. Totally. What do you think they do with the goaltending this summer? I'm not looking at their cap-friendly page right now, so I'm not sure. Who can... Let's call that up because... Who can move and who can't,

but, you know, it turns out that both Jari DeSmith, like, had decent seasons, like, on aggregate, you know? But you're certainly not paying for them to be just decent. No. Jarre's up the summer. Jarre is a UFA. And DeSmith has got one year left, but he's cheap. So you could certainly go out and get a new starting goal.

And there are guys available every year who shake-free. There may not be sure things. Like, you may have to roll the dice as teams did last year. There will be guys. Yeah. We interest you in Matt Murray. I was going to say, it does, okay, let's wrap up penguins and standings talk thusly. Does it feel like the end of the line for the penguins?

Yeah, it is. Agreed. You know, could they get back to the playoffs next year? Maybe. Sure. You know, new GM comes in, a little breath of fresh air sort of deal. but I don't think I'm going to be worried about them as a cup contender. That's right.

Which will make a hell of a story if they pull it off. Sure. Because what was the thing that we've been saying for the last few years about them and the capitals is like, I'll believe they won't make the playoffs when they don't make the playoffs and then, you know, I'm ready to call it. Well, both of them are not going to make the playoffs. It's looking like. And again, like even if the Penguin's,

make the playoffs. This feels like it's a wrap on the, on the Sydney Crosby dynasties, you know? Yeah. Like, I hate to say it, I love Sidney Crosby, but it's just how it goes. And look, I'll say, I mean, I said with both Washington and Pittsburgh,

I said when, when the time comes and they miss, they're going to miss hard. And the Capitals basically did. The Capitals hung in for half a season. And then they've just been spiraling ever since. I guess I give the Penguins credit. I mean, they did hang right

to the end. And if they don't make it, I mean, I know in a sense it's the absolute worst place to finish is 17th in the league where 16 teams make the playoffs. But, you know, they hung with it. But now it's, I don't know, I guess, you know, we see what happens over the next two nights. The crazier things have happened than the Islanders beating or losing to a Montreal team that's got half the team on the injured list. But yeah, I don't know. Yeah. You know, you know, you, you know, you, you, You could make a lot of money the last few years betting against the Islanders. You know what I mean? So, anyway, let's move on. Do you think, sorry, just go ahead. Real quick, yes, sir. Do you think Mike Sullivan's in any danger?

No. He just, the amount of money they're coming in. The amount of money he's making for, what is he signed for the next four seasons, five? Oh, is it that long? Did he get that? Yeah, he got, I believe he got a five-year extension. Well, that would probably do it. Because, I mean, the new ownership, you've got to figure they've got, you know, they'd be willing to get this right.

But that is if he's that much. Apparently he's, well, according to Cap Friendly, yeah, he's got an extension. A three-year extension. A three-year extension that doesn't kick in until after next year. Until next season. Right, right, right. Yep. You know what?

So there you go. Good job by him and his agent. nice work gentlemen. They did good. And like, I think he's a good coach. I'm not, yeah.

Yeah, I'm not suggesting that he's the problem. I just, you know, we, we said, you know, new,

new voice, new, you know, fresh, whatever, that's, coach could be part of that, but doesn't,

doesn't seem like he's, he's got to be too word. Nope. Um, let's move on. There's a lot of, uh,

drama in the NHL this week. And, you know, this is when... I was told that didn't happen in the NHL. I was told there was no soap operas at all. Yeah. Now, now, like, this is... We're getting into the classic,

oh, you want them to have a personality, but you, uh... Yeah. You don't want them to say bad stuff. Like, this is exactly what people are talking about. I mean, if they can't say bad stuff and they can't say no stuff, what other possible options are there? Well, let me say this.

I am all in favor of making everything more like wrestling. Yep. You know? And so we got two things that happen that are kind of in that realm this weekend. Bo Horvatt basically saying it sucks to be in Vancouver. I'm glad I'm out of that hellhole. Yep. And Chris Wyedman whining about the Leafs playing a goalie for like 45 seconds or whatever.

Yep. Let's talk about the Bo Horvett thing first. he already walked it back. He's like, I didn't mean it like bad. I meant it like good, whatever, you know. Yeah. I will say this. I, uh, when I first saw that quote, I just saw it on Twitter or whatever it was,

but I didn't see any context. I just saw the quote. Yeah. And so I assumed it was something that he had said like after the game, like at media scrum or press conference or whatever. And I was like, okay, that's, you know, that's something. The fact that he said it after the game as he was being interviewed.

Heath of the moment, yeah. Well, heat of the moment, but also that the crowd could hear. Sure. That does change it to me, because he was very clearly playing to the crowd. Yeah. I mean, he's saying, yeah, this is, this crowd's better than, you know, than, you know,

like if he had just said this is the best crowd I've ever played for, in theory it would have meant the same thing but I think everybody just kind of goes with it but it's the fact that he specifically mentioned Vancouver and you know that's for what did you say that's for damn sure something like that like he I'll tell you that for free it's it's better than Vancouver

I'll tell you that for free which first of all that's some old man talk right there but sure that like you know that that he put that little kind of extra mustard on it I guess. But it didn't, I mean, it didn't bother me.

And yet also, I get why, like, the Vancouver radio guys are going in on. You've got to have something to do, man. Yeah, no, exactly. But I also, like, kind of, because they asked him specifically about, like, the fans during a playoff run. And he's like, it's better than being in Vancouver, where we haven't had a playoff run in, like, three years or whatever. And when we did, there weren't any fans in the building. it was illegal for that to happen, you know? Yeah.

So, like, that's what he's saying. But, like, I'm all four guys leaning into that and going, like, yeah, it's, you know, again, wrestling. It sucked being there. It's cool being here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's great to me. I'm with you, man.

It's, uh, but again, I say this, like, there are times where somebody says, something and people get mad and we end up coming on here and going well you know what he said wasn't that bad and you shouldn't be mad i'm not doing that you shouldn't be mad to vancouver you know what you want you want it to be wrestling all right now you're the now you're the crowd that just got uh got healed on you're allowed to boo you're allowed to react to it um yeah he should i i wish he had said uh you know i got something to say to all the sweat hogs back in vancouver if you gave Canada and anima. That's exactly right.

Just right into it, yeah. All the tax cheats in Vancouver, British Columbia. Yeah. That's great to me. But now let's talk about the flip side of that. Chris Weidman, whining about... What a loser. But here's why.

Here's why. And because this is like the er example that people will use of like, oh, I guess you don't want these guys to say anything that. Here's the thing. You want to make it wrestling? Why would you book yourself as the like sniveling heel? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like there are guys who were really good at that and and that kind of thing. But like why would you be like, you know, doing the old Chris Cherico thing of like it's all not fair. It's all, they're all doing this to make me look bad and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And and the way he put, okay, first of all, we should, to, to, to set

it up just in case for the three hockey fans who don't live and breathe everything that happens with the Maple Leafs. The Leafs have gone through this whole dramatic thing this week where because of the cap they don't have room to add a backup goalie. So they've just been pulling guys, not quite off the street, but pretty close. And sitting them on the bench as the backup goalies. And it's special like it's basically a trial contract. You can only play for you only show up for one game, that sort of thing. Saturday night they did that. They're playing Montreal. They absolutely destroy that. It was one of the most one-of-the-most one-sided games I've ever seen.

Like, not even, like this, it sounds weird to say that a 7-1 game, like the score flattered the team that lost, but it was just absolute video game stuff. They beat them 7-1, and with a minute left, they put the backup goalie in so that he can go in and say he played an NHL game, which has happened before. other teams have done that.

And apparently this guy was like he had been their third string for practices. Like he'd been around the team before. And it was on whole ice. So let him go out and get a cheer and all that. Nice story. And then Chris Wyman says like, oh, you know, that the saddest thing was he says, oh, they'll get theirs in a couple of weeks. That's exactly what.

Which is, like it wasn't even like, hey, we're going to, we'll keep that in mind for next year. Yeah, not from you, dog. Yeah. That's the problem. That's tough talk for a team that's being like, and I hope the lightning kick your ass. Yeah. That's why it sucks. Wait till my big brother gets here, man.

He's going to take care of you. That's why it sucks. I'm going home, but somebody way, way, way better than us who's still trying is going to take care of you guys. That's exactly why it's not wrestling. Because you don't beat. you know, you don't be like this one guy in the NWO and then go, well, wait till fucking Hulk Hogan gets here. Yeah. Then you're going to have a problem.

You know, like, they didn't do that. I'll be sitting at home on my couch watching it, but. That's exactly right. Like, and that's why it sucks. You can't, you can't be a tough guy about somebody else coming in to beat somebody's ass. That's, that's, that's all it is. The, uh, you know, you know, the, you know, the, thing that I was I was kind of bummed out about.

And this is just, not that they would ever do this, but because the Leafs, they did on Saturday and then they had to, again, they, they've had to do it all week because now Samsonoff's hurt and all this other stuff. So they keep having to use these guys and we don't even know what's going to happen on the last night of the season. I was really, like, part of me was like, I will admit, I looked up what jersey number Chris Weidman wore, and I was like, please give the next backup Chris Weidman's jersey number. But unfortunately, he wears six and it's retired.

But I would be okay with taking it out of retirement. The other thing was the Leafs also got ripped in that same game because when it was seven to one, they put out the first power play unit, which is a new unit. So they are trying to get them like, you know, some reps out there. But people were mad at that. And it's like, okay, so we can't use the good players and we can't use the bad players. Like, what would you like us to do, Montreal? Like, can we, like, what is the protocol here as we completely take you to the woodshed in a game where you're, like, I mean, the Canadians are like on the bench packing suitcases for the offices?

They are completely done and checked out. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know. I can't wait till Throke and shuts them out tonight, and Wydenman complains about that, about their goalie being too good. Yeah, no, like I said, that's just... It was always going to take a lot to top the Uber thing

for Chris Wyatman embarrassments, but this was, this at least got into the ballpark. Yeah, I forgot he was one of those guys. He was the only guy who paid a price on it. That's true, yeah. All right, let's talk quickly about the whole Leafs, like, salary cap thing, because I saw some Leafs. Now we're going to go the other way.

We're going to say Leafs fans should shut up, get a fucking grip. Cool. Because I saw them being like, oh, Mark Stone can come back and it's, you know, the timing is so convenient. and, you know, but we, we have to, we can't even call up an emergency backup because, because of the, the cab situation, yeah, the other team, you know, we said it last year, right, with, we've said it in the past, certainly, I don't know, I don't remember specifically who we said it about last year, but like, if a team's like, you know what, I think we can make the

playoffs without our best player, more power to them, first of all, but second, but second, of all, you know, this is the thing of like, oh, we always hear about the Leif's handle the cap so well. Doesn't sound like it this year. Sounds like they have to keep calling up college kids. Yeah. I mean, it's, it is when you, what the Leaf's been doing with the cap is they've been going very, very close to it. This is, in this case, they wanted to sign Matthew Nees.

They wanted to get him in the lineup so he's not debuting in the playoffs. So they just, it was risk and reward. They just made a calculation. Yeah, that's exactly right. This many dollars left. And they had a choice of what to do. And then the controversy such as it is, is that on, you know, when you are out of cap space and there is a provision in the CBA where you can, you can have an emergency call-up because

of injuries or whatever else, you can't feel the full lineup. you have to play one game without the full lineup. And then after that, you get the emergency call-up. That's why you'll occasionally see teams playing a guy short or whatever. Right. The Leafs on Saturday night in the Chris Wyman game were a man short in the sense that they had to play, they had to sign this emergency backup goaltender. They then go to the league on Monday and say we would like to now use our emergency call-up.

And the league said no, because the emergency had been created by the Leafs. Like, they chose to sign Matthew Knees rather than keep enough cap room for a goalie. So the league said, you've made your own emergency here. You don't get to bring up a player. Right. That sounds reasonable to me. Like, I'm not really mad at that. And then on Tuesday, there was talk that it could happen again.

But now, I'll yet, now, this is where this goes from. being like a dumb little behind-the-scenes drama to something that could potentially matter is that both Saturday and Monday, there were times where Simpsonov looked like something wasn't right. I wouldn't say he looked hurt, but he looked ginger maybe, would be the way to put it. And to the point where you're sort of like, is this maybe a situation where they should get them out of there, but on Saturday, I guess they didn't feel like they needed to do that. And then on Monday, they're playing the Panthers. And that is a game that has crucial playoff implications.

So the Leaves, I mean, they could have said, screw the playoff race, we're going to put our backup off the street in. And if he gets shelled, he gets shelled. We don't care. But they didn't do that. But now we don't know, you know, it, Simsonov's hurt. Murray had the concussion. Both guys are out for the rest of the week. we're assuming they're going to be back for the playoffs, but we don't know.

So this could turn out to be a big story. If it comes down to that Simsonov was hurt, but he didn't come out because they didn't have a backup, and so they let him play through it, and he aggravated it, and now he can't play in the playoffs. Then that's a major story. So I kind of mentioned it a minute ago. Do you have any thoughts on Mark Stone coming back? No, I mean, it's going to help the Golden Knights tremendously. And other than that, like, I, I, we do this every year.

Somebody gets hurt. They are, they can't play. They can't play. And then the playoffs start and they're good to go. And everybody rolls their eyes. And yeah, like, we know what's going on here. We know there's a certain amount of timing involved and given the cap and everything like that.

But this is how it works, you know. Yeah. I understand being mad when it was Patrick Kane seven years ago or whatever we're talking about now. I get maybe when it was Kutra of a few years ago, but now this is, the league has had plenty of chances to say that they don't want it to work this way. They haven't done that. The guy was legitimately hurt. Yeah, he had two back surgeries in the past year. Seems like a lot. Yeah. One would be a lot, I feel like. You probably would. Most people don't get one. And yeah, I mean, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the.

way that it's, the way that it works is, you know, there's, you can be healthy, like completely healthy. You can be healthy enough to play in the regular season, and you can be healthy enough to play in the playoffs. And those are different criteria. And nobody's healthy, nobody's fully healthy at this time of year. Lots of guys are healthy enough to play in the regular season. Mark Stone, I guess, isn't. But yeah, yeah, he probably is healthy enough to play in the playoffs. And even though he won't be 100%. And it's, not like, it's not like the Golden Knights

are playing meaningless hockey. Like their last game the season matters. They've got the division on the line. But, uh, he's, you know, he's,

he's not ready to go and, and wouldn't be anyways, probably because of the cap. This is how it works. This is, this is the way, this is the way the game's played. It's,

and it's not even like, you know, they played without Mark Stone and, and they finished sixth in the west, right? They played without, Mark Stone, and for a huge chunk of the season, and they're

you know, arguably have the inside track to win the Western Conference, be the number one seed in the West. Right? Like Edmonton, we'll talk about Edmonton in the second, but to, like, the fact that they did this, again,

like, this, to complain about it to me is like, well, I guess your team should maybe be better than the team that didn't have its best player for 60% of the season or whatever. whatever, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know what else to tell you. Vegas was really good without Mark Stone.

And, you know, they, again, he was legitimately injured. And they were like, well, we can, we can make it work without him. And they made it work to the tune of they might reach 110 plus points. Yeah. And look, I mean, Vegas is one of those teams that people get more, they get crankier about this than they do with other teams. I get it. I don't know. They were pretty cranky about the lightning doing it.

Yep. Like you said, they were cranky about Chicago doing it. But I don't know. Like I said with the Leafs, like it looks like they've managed the salary cap extremely well. I'm not going to like hold that against them, you know? It's that simple. But does it, here's my question. Does any of this matter given how good Edmonton has looked?

Is it just, does Emmett did just steamroll that division at this point? It really fucking feels like it, you know? I think the stat I saw last night was that they have eight regulation losses since Christmas, which is a very low number. You know, they played a lot of hockey since then, and they've only lost eight times in regulation. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, you know? And we should say Edmonton can tie vague. in the standings with 109 points of Vegas loses in Edmonton wins.

Vegas loses in regulation in Edmonton wins. Yes. And they would win the tiebreaker. They would win the tiebreaker easily. They have 44 regulation wins. Vegas has 37. So it wouldn't even be close in that regard. Obviously, it would be close because they have the same number of points.

But I guess... The only has got more regulation wins than anybody but Boston by a significant margin, too. Like, that's... But yeah. To your point, like, you've got to say Edmonton's the team to beat in the West right now. Not only, you know, have they played really well, like, since Christmas, they're 9-0-1 in the last 10. Like, they're beating the shit out of teams. And, you know, it feels like this is now the fully operational promise of, like, what a 1-2 McDavid dry-sail punch looks like,

because they actually have players who, when they're off the ice, can kind of keep it not even even at this point. Like, they can also outscore the opponents. Yep. You know? And before it was like, oh, you know, you're going to need to beat Edmonton four to three, five to four, that kind of thing. Now Edmonton's like, well, we're beating everyone like four to one, five to two.

Mm-hmm. So, you know, do I trust their goal tending? No, I don't. is basically what it boils down to, and we'll talk about that more in a second, or, you know, in a different segment, I guess, because we're going to go to break in a second here. But, yeah, Vegas is, even if they win the West,

cannot be considered the team to beat in the West because Edmonton looks like they're the team to beat in the league that isn't Boston. Yeah, I've had Colorado sort of at the top of my Western list all year long. Now there's questions about whether Landisog can go. Yep. Even in the playoffs. So that hurts.

Yeah, it does. And, yeah, I haven't done my final rankings yet, but I feel like Edmonton's going to steal that spot. Yeah. Now, you know, they're like, oh, Gabriel Landiscag, you know, he can't, he can't, he can't go in the playoffs. And then they wheel them out in a wheelchair for game one. And he just gets up. He's in full gear. Let's fucking go.

He's like, ha, ha. I wasn't hurt. It was just to cap shenanigans. And he skates. And immediately falls over and crumbles. That's right. And that's me going, you know what? They earned it.

They're a really good team. So, all right. Why don't we take a break? We'll be right back. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Folks, I don't know if you're like me. I find buying tickets to things stressful, whether it's sports or concerts or whatever else. I always feel like there's stuff going on.

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which is that they basically do the lottery before the season starts. Yep. And they say whoever finishes like seventh gets the first, overall pick. Whoever finishes fourth gets the second overall pick. And it would just be fun to see teams try to triangulate how they can exactly be the seventh worst team in the league. You know, can't take too hard, but. It would be fun if you were like, if it was like that, like seventh or fourth and you're sitting there going, right, do we, do we veer off now and try to get fourth and take? Yeah. Yeah. That would be fun. Yes. However, Sean published an article about

a different proposal that, you know, nobody would have any problems with it, I think, is how I would describe it. Why don't you explain, Sean, for the people. The idea here. The article. Yeah, the idea here, and this is something that, this is an idea that came from a reader. He sort of sent me the bare bones of it. But the idea is that rather than doing ping pong balls, rather than doing a lottery, we take

the teams and in reverse order of standings. we let the 16 non-playoff teams draft the 16 playoff teams. Basically, you pick your playoff partner. So let's say Columbus finishes dead last. They take the Boston Bruins as their pick. And then Chicago steps up and says, we'll take Edmonton or whatever it is. And whichever team wins the Stanley Cup, the corresponding team gets the first overall pick. So essentially what we're doing, it's not.

that different from the lottery that we have now in that we're sort of giving them. In theory, the better chances to the worst teams, because you get the first pick. But we're now pairing you with the playoffs rather than a bunch of ping pong balls bouncing around. It's a bunch of hockey teams bouncing around. And we would, of course, do this the night before the playoffs in a televised draft. We would make all 16 GMs make their picks. I think that would be a fascinating night of television, to say the least. Not just over who gets picked, but who is not getting picked. Imagine being a least fan just sitting there as it gets to like pick eight and nine and ten,

and you're just getting madder and matter. And, you know, the beauty of it is it gives those miserable Blue Jackets fans a reason to watch the playoffs and a reason to get invested. That's exactly right. finally the NHL has a way to trick hockey fans outside of a given market into watching the Stanley Cup fine You now have like you know four fan bases living and dying on a game seven instead of instead of two I you know I really like this idea can I can I get bring this up though yeah let's bring our two ideas together okay this year only let's say it starts like for next season or whatever right yeah this year only It's in reverse order of the standing.

Starting next year, there is a draft lottery. The team that finishes seventh gets to pick first or whatever. All right. Here's what we do. We do a draft lottery and then we go to the gold plan. Okay. I hate the fucking gold plan. We triangulate that with the lottery.

And then based on that, that's the order of the draft. Yeah, let's make it too complicated. Yeah. In doing so, we can make it so people stop talking about the draft lottery in ways. to fix it every year. Yeah. If we could make it overly complicated, I don't get it, whatever. Or we could just keep the system we have now where like the, a plucky young Blackhawks

team derails Sidney Crosby's quest for a Stanley Cup and their fans are all bummed out about it. Despondent. Great system we got here. Yeah, I like it a lot. I will be honest, I wrote it up kind of a, you know, obviously it's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek idea. expecting that the

NHL would do it this has been I would say it's certainly of the time I've been at the athletic this has been a top five piece of mine in terms of the reaction the traffic the comments like this one

went nuts on me in a way that I did not expect people love talking about this shit yeah and it's a good you know it's a good idea and it's a more you know it's it's a more you know And as I said on Twitter, the thing that fascinated me really was the number one objection that I saw to this is people are like, well, you can't do that. The playoffs are too random.

That's not fair to Chicago. Like, they could pick Boston and then Boston runs into a hot goalie. And it's like, dude, you're going to be mad when you hear how we decide who gets the Stanley Cup. That's exactly right. Hey, didn't you win three Stanley Cups in these totally random tournaments that don't actually tell you anything? and we're supposed to like care about those teams. Is that right? Huh.

Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So I mean, I just as like I'm, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that this actually would be a far better way to do things than, uh, than the way we do it now. Because I'm thinking back to like that whatever was nine years stretch where the Leafs didn't make the playoffs. Yeah.

I imagine like every, you're like, hey, man, remember 2007 we had, we took that team and it was just, And they went on that run. Oh, that was great. You know, I was, you'd become more familiar with more players. You'd, uh, you develop a lot of affection for the player that, like, wins the Stanley Cup. And rivalries, right? Like, what if it comes up, you know, it's Montreal's pick. And Toronto's the best team left on the board.

And they're like, no, we'll take, you know. Well, even beyond that, now you have rivalries of like, you know, Chicago, oh, we pick the lightning to win it and the lightning blew it, fuck the lightning. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know, somebody pointed out in 2019, the senators finished dead last. They would have picked the lightning. And the lightning go out in the first round.

And the senators end up with, you know, picking, picking later. Hey, great. And I would do the whole thing. I would set, I would basically set the draft order the same way they set the draft order for the 16 playoff teams, right? Like, number one, cup winner. Number two, cup runner up. Yeah, totally agree. conference, like, do it all the way down.

And they're like, yeah, I mean, that would have sucked for the senator. But you know what? The senators lost the draft lottery and dropped a four that year. So would that really be, is it any different than, you know, ping pong balls bouncing around? Screw the ping pong balls. Let's. Well, that and also like, well, you shouldn't have picked that fucking team that it sounds like, you know? Like that, you, you fucked up.

I didn't do anything wrong. Yeah. And the guy, like, you know. That's the only legitimate objection to this is. is that it would be bad for the GMs. And this is why it won't happen, because the GMs make all the rules, because we don't have real leadership in the league,

so we just abdicate it to self-interested GMs. Like, can you imagine Kyle Dave? Like, it's easy to tank and just trade away all your players and go, we're going to be terrible all year. Like, that's easy. But then to have to get up there and say, like, yeah, we take the Bruins,

and then the Bruins lose in round two, and everyone's like, oh, you screwed up. You caused us Connor Bardard by picking the Bruins, and now everyone's mad at you. So if I'm a GM and I'm a sad little baby, there's no way I'm open to this idea. But everyone else, other than those 32 human beings, everyone else should be on board with this idea.

Totally. Unfortunately, those are the 32 people who get to make all the decisions. That's exactly right. Okay, let me ask you this. We got the regular season ends on Friday, I believe the playoffs begin on Monday, if I'm not much mistaken. have you put any thought into your old guy without a cup rankings yet?

Not yet. No, I'm happy to have you do that work for me if you would like. Well, so I haven't either, but I did go back and look at your article from last year. And these are the guys, as far as I can tell, who are still going strong and are guaranteed to make the playoffs right now, or at least have a really good chance to do it. Joe Pavelski. I think he's got to be the number one, right? Number one. I totally agree with you.

Mark Giordano. Mm-hmm. Alex Edler, Ryan Suter, who is, of course, is on Joe Pavelsky's team. Matt Zuckerello and Ryan Reeves and Nick Falino. Okay. It's pretty, that's a decent list. There's usually more guys out of this, so I'll have to come over there.

Yeah, I didn't. didn't do like every team guarantee. But the other, the other thing is that like all the old guys on Boston, with the exception of Folino, those are those guys all have cups already. Right. You know?

And like, so like, Marchand, I guess is the guy who's like the least like that because he was a rookie. Right. And then like Taylor Hall, you would normally say, but he's not, I believe your article said you have to be 33 or older. I kind of, I'll be honest, I change the criteria every year just to get the right guys that I want to write about on the list and I don't get called on it.

So, you know, that's all right. I'm just, let me look, I'm looking down the list of other guys. So yeah, Giorado's the oldest skater in the league. Pavelsky, Zach Porezze. Did he, does he have a cup? No. No. Wait, would he have been on one of those devils teams?

I think he made it to the devils. That was 20 years ago, right? Yeah, that's right, yeah. So he doesn't have one. Okay, here's an interesting one, Brent Burns. Mm, there you go. That's a pretty good one. Yep, that is a good one.

And he's older than, he's 37. That's older than I thought, yeah. I think Paul Stassany is another one. He's the same team. He's always a good one to me because his dad also never won a cup. Mm, a real Cody Road situation. situation. Bad news for you, Paul.

Sorry. That's going to be a rough one. Let me see. Who else has... There's not really anybody on Florida, I don't think. Mark Stahl never won a cup, I guess. The Winnipeg. Oh, and Sergey Bobrowski's 34, so he technically qualifies at this point.

Patrick Hornquist, of course, won with the Penguins. Yeah. The Winnipeg guys, like Blake Wheeler. Mm-hmm. Sure. Blake Wheeler was gone by 2011, right, for Boston. Yeah. Yeah. I believe he went in the Peverly trade. Yep.

Like, they traded him that year, if I'm not mistaken. So. And Andrew Cogliano always shows up on this. But he was there last year, right? So he's good for... Sam Gagne? You never want to cop. Sam Gagne. Good Lord.

Sam Gagne, you could tell me. he's anywhere from 31 to 42 and I would be completely on board. Yeah, it says here he's 33 years old. Yep. 33 years old has played 1400 games,

has nine career points of which eight came in the same game. But yeah, other than that, like, I think it comes down to, I think, I think Pavellsky's the clear one.

Like for years, he's been like the understudy that Joe Thornton on the list and Marlowe was there too, but this is his year to be number one. I think you probably go Burns number two over Giordano, but that's, you know, that could go both just because he had the higher ceiling, like he was more of a superstar player kind of thing. Yeah, came closer. Giordano, like anywhere else, the idea of the guy who's accomplished everything, won the Norris, won all the individual stuff, signing basically.

a league minimum deal for his hometown team to chase a cup would be would be great anywhere but Toronto like because they're just I know I know because like half the reason of this is like who are the guys that we can get behind and I just know anytime I put a leaf guy anywhere on the list there's people who are like no screw that screw Jason Spence yeah and it's like oh okay um and yeah I feel like uh yeah I don't feel like Mark stall is going to be a great uh feel good story people people not really rooting for that guy. Yeah. Here's one.

He's the backup for the Rangers. Guy I've liked for a long time. Had a really nice career for himself. He's 37 years old. Yarrow Halak, that guy never won a Stanley Cup. He's never won a cup, eh? Nope. Yeah, that's not bad.

He was on that deep run Canadians team in 0910. Yeah. But other than that, not really. Goalies are always tough for me on this because... Especially back. Especially backups.

Because it's like, and also part of the, the whole old guy without a cup is that like, that wonderful first handoff moment where they get the cup. And it's like, the goalies, for whatever reason, almost never get that. Yeah. So Brian Elliott would be a guy, wouldn't he? Speaking of backups. Yeah, for sure. Because he just joined Tampa last year. Yeah.

So, but I don't really know what to do with some of those guys. I just looked, there's one guy on the Devils who even comes close to qualifying. Okay. And it's Brendan Smith. He's the only 33-year-old or older on the Devils. Are you serious? Yeah. Wow.

I would see like, once you see that, you're like, I guess they do feel like a pretty young team. Mm-hmm. You know, but like, nevertheless, you know, and the only guy who's even close is Thomas Tatar won't be 33 until. December. Can I give you a name from the Devils? And this goes again, you know, I'm going against my own rules here, but Lindy Ruff has been a coach for 22 years, famously went to the finals with the Sabres and got cheated in the skate in the crease year. That's true. Wow. You know, you don't, I mean, I don't really consider coaches as, you know, old guys without cups, but we have seen it.

You know, we've, and he would, I would assume, now I have to think about the other coaches in the league, but I would assume he's got to be the guy that, out of everyone, I mean, Jim Montgomery, great story, on down the list, but as far as guys who've been coaches forever and haven't won. For sure. I think he's got to be the guy. Let me hit you with one more. And we just talked about this guy. He turns 33 at the end of May.

So if they win the cup, he will have turned 33. This counts. Maddie Eckholm. Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty good one. That's a good one. Not only because obviously they came close with that one Nashville team, but a guy who I think has been underrated for a huge amount of his career.

And the guy who seemed to have really unlocked it with Winnipeg or with Edmonton. Yeah, we do love the guys who come over at the deadline. And you're right. Like, there, there are, it's always this weird balancing act because the older, the closer to the finish line, the guy is, the better a story it is. And, you know, at home, it's got years to go. But also, like, it's, it's a little bit, like, if it's some 39-year-old hanging on on the fourth line, you know, Joe Thornton, even the last few years where you're like, boy, it'd be great to see him finally get one, but, man, he's like, the game is, his game has fallen apart. to have a guy doing it as a key contributor,

that's obviously going to be a big piece of it. I should say apologies in advance to Jets fans. I left Rick Bonas off the list of old coaches. I was talking about coaches who have an actual chance to win the Stanley Cup. That's right. Did you see the Rick Bonas' Dean Everson interaction last night? Yeah. What did you make of that?

Because I saw a bunch of people kind of reading into it that they were challenging. challenging each other to a fight and whatever, but I don't... It seemed like that was what Bonus was... Bonus in particular was doing, like, doing the, like, your too short thing, which you see a lot in the NBA, not a lot, but... Yeah. You see it sometimes in the NBA. He's calling him short.

Dean Eveson is not a tall guy, but then... But he also is a killer. Yeah. He would also murder Rick Bonas with his bare hands in about 15 seconds. And, like, if you haven't seen the... GIF, like, you know, or the clip or whatever, do seek it out because Everson's response is quite terrifying. Like, he doesn't...

You don't want this, brother. I don't know. I don't know what you think you're getting yourself. He just sort of shrugs at him and then like kind of gestures like, come on over if you want. But, and like, you know, it's, I mean, Rick Bonas is 90 years old or whatever. So I don't think it's all that impressive to stare down, you know, a guy like that. But, yeah. Dean Eveson is.

the second scariest coach to fight, I would, I would say, after Barumet. So maybe Brindamore. Yeah. Bonus is a little over 68 years old, it says here. Okay. Dean Evanson would put him in the fucking ground. Yeah. Good night.

Yeah. You know, hey, look, like, I'm just going on reputation here. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't have anything else to say about that. Yeah, he's scared. Like somebody, I think it was Rachel tweeted, like, you know, If you ever see a guy who's in his 50s get challenged to a fight and react this way, run. Because that guy is, that's a scary dangerous dude.

I'm going to look this up real quick. How many fights Dean Eveson had in the National Hockey League? He had four years of 100 penalty minutes and another with 99. He wasn't an enforcer like Barubei, but. Right. 33 fights in the National Hockey League. Yeah. He fought, because he was one of the guys we talked to for our fighting story a few weeks ago,

and he told us the story of like he fought Dale Hunter three times. And was it in one game? It might even have been one period. Yeah. Which, uh, yeah. Those were the only three times he fought Dale Hunter, by the way. If you fought Dale Hunter. If you fought Dale Hunter three times, I don't think Rick Bonas is making you lose any sleep.

Wow, he fought Slava Fatisov one time. That's crazy. Did Slava Fetisov fight him back would be my question. It's a really good one. I'm trying to scroll through here. I can't really find anything. It is funny. If you ever go through hockey fights for guys in the 80s,

it's very hard to find anyone who never had a fight. Yeah. Whereas these days, like, I mean, there'll be a million players. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's one more thing, and then we'll take another break here. We talked about it briefly last week. I wanted to get your reaction to the Bruins not only setting the wins record,

but seemingly obliterating it, and then now they've also set the all-time points record for a season. Yeah, so they now own all the records. Yep. And I don't know, I kind of thought there would be like more debate about their place in history. I guess obviously they're until... until the playoffs happen.

You know, we don't want to have another lightning situation. That's right. Like, honestly, if they roll through the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup, big if, but if they do, are they not in the conversation for the best time? I would say they would have to be. Like, I get that on the one hand, people say, hey, you know, they, we're in the shootout era, the three-on-three overtime era, loser points, records are inflated, but the flip side is, we're also in the parody era.

I think that balances it out a lot compared to the 77 haps who were, who they just passed for the points record, and are the team because they won the cup that generally gets named as the greatest team ever. And I would say fairly, fairly so. Fairly so, yeah. But, you know, we went through it last year, or last week, it was, there was like half the league finished under 400 that year. Like it was, so I don't know, it'll be interesting.

But I mean, 64 wins is crazy. And, yeah, 11 of them so far have come after regulation. They've got four shootout wins. The HABs back in the 70s, there was not even any overtime back then. So, you know, they're, but. God, bring that back. Holy shit. Let's go.

Yep. But, yeah, look, I get. boy RL's talking about the damn ruins again. Sorry, they're the fucking best team that we've seen maybe ever. So I don't know what you want me to say, you know. But yeah, I don't really have much of a reaction to it other than like... Best team of the cap bearer for sure. Not even a fucking question.

And by the way, I say best team of the cap bearer, I'm not putting a, if they win the cup qualifier on that one. I will just, you know, if... If they get swept in the first round, okay, maybe we revisit. But if this team, like, go, like, like, I said this to Granger on Twitter last night. Spoiler alert, when we all do our predictions, everyone's picking Edmonton over Boston in the final. That's going to be. You're going to keep it interesting. Yeah, that's going to be our, like, you know, you're kind of going chalk, but you're also, you know, throw it a little twist at the end.

No one's going to pick Boston to win the cup because nobody wants to be that guy. So we're all going to pick Edmonton over Boston. If that happens, Boston's still the best team in the league this year and the best team of the cap era. And just, you know, they lose a seven-game series somewhere along the line. We were talking about it. I guess this is where we'll do a little bit of Frozen Four talk. Frozen Four, the national championship came down to the number one and number two teams in the country, which is very rare. It's only happened like four times in like 50 years or something like that.

and the number two team ended up winning. I don't know if you saw any of this, Sean, but they were down two to one with like three or four minutes to go, and they got a late power play and pulled the goalie. So Minnesota had like a full empty net to shoot at. Quinnipiac won the national championship. I'm saying they, like people fucking know this. So Quinnipiac, again,

were the number two team in the country all year. They only lost like four times this year, maybe five, which is crazy to think about, you know, you play four games, you only lose five times. These guys, the Edmonton Oilers. But yeah, no, they, uh, they were just like incredible all year, but they came from a weak conference.

And so Minnesota, the number one team, a little worse record-wise, but they came from the best conference. And so, like, that was the tension. beyond just, you know, number one versus number two. And, yeah, Kwinipiac gets a late power play. They pull the goalie so Minnesota can shoot at the empty net all they want. They don't score into the empty net.

And maybe three seconds after the power play ends, they score a six on five goal to tie it. Bad goal to give up, too. And then Krenipiac. Bad goal in what sense? Was it like a goalier? Totally on the goalie, yeah. A shot from like a bad angle from like pretty far out just like hits the goalie and in the pad and beats them five hole. Can't have that happen, you know.

And then this is the funny part. So, you know, they force overtime. There's a lot of, again, a lot of tension in the building because this is a really cool comeback. Quinnipiac, I think, gave up seven shots on goal in the last two periods of hockey. Like, that's how furious their comeback attempt was. And Minnesota hadn't lost a game all year when they entered the third period with elite. That's the other thing. And Kwinnipeak wins the opening draw.

Pass, pass, goal. Ten seconds. Games over in overtime. National championship. Really, really, really sick. But, you know, it's the same thing. Like, is it interesting to pick the, to pick the number one and number two teams in the country.

Not really, you know? But people, people at the, you know, one of the nights of the Frozen Four, people were standing around talking about like, I don't know, I mean, President's trophy winner. They never win the Stanley Cup. And it's like, yeah, but they win the Stanley Cup more often than the number two seed, the number three seed, the number four. So like, go down the list. Like, it's the, and I can't remember who said it exactly, but somebody was like, yeah,

If it's like you're talking about number one versus the field, take the field every time. If you're talking about number one versus any other given team, take number one. It's, you know, we don't have to overthink this. 100%. So yeah. I don't know. Oh, I guess I should say this to you about Matthew Nyes, right? How are you feeling about this whole thing now that he's left Minnesota?

I don't think he's going to have much impact this. year. This guy gets it, folks. But he is, I mean, he didn't look awful in his debut, but I mean, I don't think he's going to be a difference maker and I don't think he's going to get that opportunity because NHL coaches love veteran guys who aren't all that good but don't make mistakes over young guys who have much more potential to do something interesting, but could also do something interesting in the bad way. Yep.

So, yeah, I think that's all correct. I would not be, if I were a Maple Leafs fan, getting myself all hyped up, even for next season, for Matthew Nyes to be like a huge impact player or anything like that. It's just, you know. Also, was I calling him Matthew Knees for the whole first half of the podcast? I think you might have said it once. I don't know how often he came up beyond the one time you said Nees and I let it go, dude. to my niceness. Yeah.

All right. And actually so much respect for my friend's home. Please tweet at me about that, though, because I... And that gives you a sense of how much impact he's had in Toronto. I don't know what he's game. That's right. That's the turning point. That's when you know you've made it in the NHL when I know how to pronounce your name.

Yeah. So congratulations to the six guys who have made it in the NHL. Jonathan Huern are still not there. Yep. MVP candidate last year. Don't fuck your up. By the way, speaking of that, somebody. pointed out yesterday. I didn't, I don't remember where I saw this, uh, that Jonathan Huberto may

have just had the single largest points drop off from one year to the next in NHL history. Oh, wow. Really? He had like 112 or something like that last year and he's in the mid 50s this year. Oof. I saw somewhere where the somebody was tracking the race of one 15 to 55. So he dropped 60 points this year. So short of injuries. I'm sure there must have been guys who yeah, you know, you know, But that's, wow. Hey, you know what? Good job by the flames not signing them until they'd seen them for a year. That was really, that could have been.

Boy, that could have been disasters. Yeah, no, I saw somebody's tracking the scoring race of him plus Nazim Cadry versus Matthew Kachuk. I feel like that's not working out so well. It's coming right down to the wire. Cadry 55, Huerto 55. We didn't really talk about it. But, like, are you, where are you at on the Flames future? Because there have been people who pointed out that classic team where the underlying numbers are still very good, just got some bad gold tank, you know, all of this.

And then there's other people looking at this going, oh, man, they are. I think I said it last week. You know who this team reminds me of? The late era Darrell Sutter, Los Angeles Kings. also pretty good to even sometimes great possession team a lot of veterans

and a lot of guys and like almost no younger players and a lot of guys where you're going I don't think they have it anymore and again I don't remember where I saw I just see so much on Twitter that like I don't know who says what anymore

you know but it looks like everything's on the table We said it last week. Their GM is out of contract after this season. I would be shocked if he's brought back. And maybe even Daryl Sutter, you know. But Daryl Sutter, that feels like a guy they promote instead of shit cam.

Right. Because they own a bunch of money. And I'm not so afraid of them. Again, who wouldn't be? That guy is, he's ranch tough, you know? Like the guy lifts bails of hay. all summer long. You don't want to fuck with a guy like that.

He'll kill you. But with that, having been said, do I want a guy like that coaching my hockey team in 23? Not so much, maybe. I don't know. But the other thing is, like, not this summer, but next summer, they have a lot of money coming off the books. And then you start going, yeah, sure, we just spent like $150 million on players,

summer, but maybe we got to think about a rebuild. I think that's kind of the right play for me. Oh, I didn't even see this. Apparently, Yan-E Porets, who was the goalie for Kuinipiac, has signed with Carolina. I just saw this on the cat-friendly front page. Hmm. Congratulations on him in advance to having 30 good games three years from now and then getting traded for a third round pick to...

930 goalie, two years. in a row in college hockey. They don't like say who the runner up for the goalie of the year award is. Okay. But probably the runner up for goalie of the year two years in a row. Really good. Really good. Both times you lost to this kid, Devin Levi.

You might have heard of him. I have heard of them. Yeah. So, yeah, why don't we take another break? We'll come back and wrap everything up. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Bespoke Post and Foles. The good people at Bespoke Post, they want to send you. a box of awesome right to your door.

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Box of awesome.com code puck. All right, we're back. A couple more things on the docket here, three more things, I guess. Number one is they have announced they are doing preseason game in Australia. Yay. Which two marquee franchises they send over? The Los Angeles Kings, probably the one that's geographically closer. Anaheim, I bet, is even closer now that I'd say that.

But the other one is, of course, everybody's favorite team, the Arizona Coyotes. Yeah. And I thought you made a good point on the show last night where you said, like, wouldn't this be the two teams to send to Mexico? I didn't say that. I think that was Greg said. Was that Gorg?

Okay. Somebody said it. Somebody who wasn't me, and therefore was not the main character of, yeah, said that. And, yeah, that, but I mean, I guess, I guess if you ever did that, it's not like people of Mexico are going to be like,

ah, we already saw this in Australia. that one I was I was glued to the TV for this 3 a.m. game between the Kings and the IOTES I mean the interesting thing here is that it is like it is a preseason game so who cares it's not and at first I was like no

they got to they should do like they do in Europe and send them for regular season games like I feel like with the outdoor games we really did unlock that if you want good hockey it has to count in the standings but What are you? Like, you're going to send someone to Australia in November? I mean...

And then they get two weeks off. Yeah. What do you? Like, I just don't think that's manageable. So it was it. Like on last night's call-in show, we actually had somebody from Australia call in. And I asked him. He was like, I don't give a shit about this.

Yeah. Well, no. I asked him. I'm like, is there any buzz, any interest? And he said that there actually is a surprising amount of, you know, like hockey fans. Obviously, it's ex- extraordinarily niche, but it's a non-zero and it's a passionate group and that they... We should say, by the way, like an actual Australian person, they're not like a guy from Manitoba who now lives in Australia.

This guy had the accent and everything. He was a nice and he was a cool guy. He was from Melbourne or however we were... But now he lives in Sydney, he said. And those are like two of the four Australian cities I can name. Earth and Canberra. Those are the other one. That is two of the four.

That's it. So, I mean, cool for the NHL to be expanded. I mean, I don't know really what the upside is here. But there must be one because the NHL is not the habit of doing things for no reason. So cool, I guess. Here's the interesting thing to me. They're playing in Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park. This is a building.

It holds. It can have as many as 16,000 people, but that looks like it's for a concert, so, you know, they can have seats on the floor. Normal capacity, 14-8, but here's the fun part. It's a retractable roof building. So they can, you know, it's a tennis building normally, but it's a retractable roof. So that's, they're just going to close it up, I'm assuming. But, um. Cowards.

Hey, look. Open it up. disagree with you. Open it up. 110 degree weather. Point being, it's not normally a hockey arena, I don't think,

so it feels like they're going to have to do some real work to get this to get this to like hockey quality or whatever. Unless there's a separate raw labor arena that I don't know about. Do not know. But yeah, I believe it's where they do

the Australian overall. open and stuff like that. Okay. It's pretty cool. There you go. Hey, you know what? It'll be a neat experience for the players and hopefully for the fans and hopefully they get to see it in at least quasi-decent game.

Yeah, but they probably won't. It's the coyotes preseason, you know? It's true. Anyway. Might get to see Connor Bedard. Oh, shit. Hmm. Damn.

Let's go. That actually would be. cool. That would be super cool. Yeah. And then everybody in the audience, they're looking at the bottom of the skates of everybody moving around out there and they're going,

that's not a knife. You know? Another bit of business. I think because of us, maybe. I got an email the other day that was like, hey, remember we took all the awards voting off the board? Norris and

called her back on the board. Okay. Norris, I think we made the case. I wouldn't have said Calder is the award I'm putting back on the board, but if you say so. Well, I know, I think the Calder is because of the Stuart Skinner late push. You know, I saw that. That feels fucking insane to me. That that's the reason why.

Like, yeah, he's been really good this year. I'm not saying he hasn't been. But he hasn't been like that good, has he? I mean, you could, I think any... He's been significantly better than every rookie goalie for sure. Yeah. Any, I mean, and a rookie goalie, like, I mean, this guy is, put it this way. He's the unquestioned now starter on a team arguably the second best team in the league.

Yep, sure. I get that. I mean, isn't that at least as impressive as being a first line forward on a... on a wild cartoon? Now, granted, he didn't do it all year long, but... And the other thing is, again, like, he's been unequivocally good, right? But has he been, like, excellent, you know? Like, is he a top...

In the league right now, he is 31st by save percentage among all goalies. I'm sure if I, you know, up the games played requirement, it'll be more like 18 or something like that. 14. But like, Logan Thompson has a higher save percentage. Obviously, he missed a good chunk of the year. But I just like to point out, you're talking about all-star Stuart Skinner.

That's true. But, you know, I saw, this is going to shock you. I saw a lot of people pointing to his win total is a reason why. Uh-huh. What a shocker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like I say, I guess I get what you're saying, but I don't think there are enough awards voters who are going to look at his win total and say, well, I got to put him ahead of Maddie Baneers.

No. Like, I still think Baneer's going to win it. But again, there's a difference between this guy's going to win and it's off the board, which is, From the gambling company's point of view, could just be a case of, hey, there's people out there that are going to give us put money on Stuart Skinner, we'll take the money. Yeah.

Everybody in the greater Edmonton area is going to put eight bucks on this one. So let's check it out. But like, look, Junis Corpusallow has a higher save percentage than this guy. Nobody's talking about how good Junis Corpicello is. You know? But, yeah, like I said,

I got no problem with Stuart Skinner. he's a good goalie. But like, we don't have to get into all this, you know? That's all. Um, yeah, I just, I just noticed like on NHL.com, um, they have, they have, like, all the goalies points on here, too. And I just saw that, uh, Linus Elmark had a goal this year. And I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.

Just a little gift that keeps on giving. All excited. No assists, though. for fun. Selfish. I don't think the Bruins are going to win. You can't win when your star player isn't willing to pass the puck around. That's exactly right. And then one last thing, again, we mentioned one of these guys earlier. Clow Jureu and Joe Pavelski both got their 1,000th point in their career on the same night. First time that's ever happened. Yes. That was very cool. Pretty cool. And it like, you know, Pavelski, we've already talked about,

a little bit. Great dude. Great story. Claudeau-Rue has been good in Ottawa this year. Like, the team hasn't been good, but they've had a lot of good individual stories. And he's, like, if there was any thought of, you know, okay, he's kind of done with the Flyers, didn't a playoff run with the Panthers, didn't work out. Now he's just going to go home, cash in. Like, no, he's, this guy's still a legit, good player. Just cool.

Yeah. I did like both teams also did the like come off the bench celebration. Like we don't see enough of that. We should do more of those. We should go back to interrupting the game to do ceremonies. A hundred per, okay, now we're talking. That's what it's all about. Yeah, I didn't really have like a ton to say about this.

I just like both players. I think they're cool. So nice to see them get to a thousand points. Again, if you had said to me, oh, of course, Joe Pavel. I got to a thousand points four years ago. I'd go, well, no shit. He's been awesome for a long time. Yeah.

But. Yeah, I was a little bit surprised on that one, but. At least with Giroux, you were like, well, look at how bad some of his teams were all those years, you know? Mm-hmm. You had that. And also it felt like Drew kind of broke out later than. Drew feels a lot younger to me than Pavelsky. Yeah.

And I'm sure he actually. Got a couple years, I think. Pavelski's 30, almost 37. It'll be 37 in... Nope, 39 in July. Sorry, math not working today. And Giroux's got to be 35. Yeah, he just turned 35 a couple of months ago.

So, yeah, Pavellsky's close to four years older. There you go. But yeah, I like both players a lot. Again, I'm surprised, but Pavellski, just quietly, another, like, 27-goal season. If it weren't for the COVID year, he'd be looking at basically like 15 straight seasons with 20 goals or more. Wow. What a player.

Hell of a career. COVID and the lockout year, I should say. Yeah, hell of a career. I saw somebody say instant, like guaranteed Hall of Fame or to me. I don't know if I go quite so far as guaranteed. Yeah. But, man, he really fucking good. Here's the big issue for him.

Not even at 450 goals yet. He's still got a year or two left, but it's going to be a tough climb to get to 500. Yeah, one year as a second team all-star. So again, we're getting into the, like, you know, and it's one thing to be like, Dino Cicerelli and finish with 600 goals as that guy, but it's another thing to be the steady, consistent guy.

But also... Getting over the line. Also, everybody loves the guy. Yep. You know, it's... He could get there, but I don't think it's a slam dunk automatic. No. The way that... I mean, I don't even think Marlowe necessarily is,

so I don't see how you'd put Pavelsky and not Marlowe. But we'll see. Sometimes they surprise us. Yep, that's one of those guys where, like, I feel the opposite about Patrick Eliash, where I'm like, if we're letting Patrick Eliash in, like, geez, who aren't we letting in at that point, you know? But with Pavelsky, it's the opposite for me where it's like, man, he was really good for a really long time, you know, multiple 30 plus goal seasons, like, in a row. When he went to Dallas, I was like, oh, this will be a nice, like, I think he used to,

signed an over his first contract with Dallas was an over 35 deal. I'm pretty sure. Okay. And so you're like, okay, yeah. You know, nice little retirement home you got here. And he's like, no, I'm going to score like a hundred goals for these fucking guys. What are you talking about? You know, like, that's cool.

I think that's awesome. But, yeah, you know, I hope he gets in, but I can see it going either way. Put it this way. If he's part of a cup run this year, changes that discussion. Ball game over. We'll see you. Yeah.

Yep, absolutely. But yeah, that's it. That's all I got to talk about this week. Why don't you hit him with some plug, Sean? You can find me on The Athletic. You can hear my podcast with Ian Mendez, and you can read my wonderful writing, including, you know, next week when the playoffs start,

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