Puck Soup - March Gladness

Episode Date: March 9, 2018

Greg and Dave talk about the sorta firing of Hurricanes GM Ron Francis, the utter nonsense of Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire, the Stanley Cup Playoff races, the "Star Wars" series that Jon Favreau might create, Vladimir Putin controls the KHL playoffs, a special March Madness quiz for Lozo and an International Women's Day question of the week. Sponsored by Health IQ, Seat Geek and Just For Men!

Today's episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by Health IQ. Health IQ believes that the best way to improve the health of the world is to celebrate the health, conscious, through social and financial rewards. So they're using that science and data, Dave Lozo, to secure lower rates on life insurance for health conscious people, including runners, cyclists like our friend Tyler Delo, who listens to the podcast while biking, strength trainers, vegans, and many, many more. You'll be vegan. Thank you.

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Delo yelled us on Twitter about something, right? He was like, hey, you guys are wrong about Vancouver or whatever? He was yelling at us about like saying like we said that

we disagreed with Elliot Friedman's take that Vancouver was a toxic city, but I don't think we actually did. I think we just, we made mention of his feud, his now fizzled feud with Ed Willys about his comments about Vancouver media and being a toxic

environment or whatever. But I don't think we ever like said outright, oh, we disagree with Elliot's take that like everything was fine with the front office. That was our disagreement, right? I don't know, man. Don't, don't come at us with, with quotes about our podcast on Twitter if you're listening to it on a bike. That's the, that's the, that's the real lesson to be learned here, I think. Stay in your bike lane. Stay in your lane. By the way, I think it's numbering in the millions right now. The number of times of them was hit by hit by somebody

in the bike lane delivering something to somewhere. What do you mean? Oh, like while you're crossing the street. Like at night when I'm crawling back from the gym and I'm a little bit winded because I'm fat and I'm just like looking around and there's a guy with a with a caviar or a seamless thing on his back and he's like motoring down the bike lane and he's like

over here. I'm like, ah! And I almost get hit by him. What is Chris Rousseau doing delivering stuff on a bike? Mikey? I try to deliver 17 bags of Thai food and this chubby guy who came out of crunch and standing in front of my bike

doesn't know where he is because he's winded. Dog. Anormously talented, Zidi. Oh yeah, New York City food. I forgot.

We were arguing about that on Twitter this week, too. We never circled back around. The bike hits them. There's patty and drunken noodles everywhere. The crab rangoon is on the light pole.

Dog, you saved the Diet Coke. Two leader. Today's episode of Pug Soup is also sponsored by New on Digital. Watch Matt Damon. Matt Damon.

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That's VUDU.com before Blu-ray and everywhere else. Take that Blu-ray. Rated R from Paramount Pictures. So head to VUDU.com to watch downsellers. I think I will because

it's an Alexander Payne movie, and I watch all Alexander Payne movies. Sideways, man. My prediction? Yeah. Pain. Paine. I much Mr. T. is still watching curling. I've stopped.

It was great for two weeks. Just get out with the show. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots 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 Hagi and Nansen. I'm Dave Lozo I'm sweaty because I was running late today

because I was at a bar What else would I be doing? That's it for me I'm Greg Wersinski of ESPN And I want to point out that Some people take March Madness seriously I would call them Oh yeah by the way

We have to record on Wednesday next week I've got to talk to you about that too I would call them college basketball fans or degenerate gamblers. You'll never guess which category Dave Lozo falls into. Buddy, I haven't won money in a bracket since that year.

You car went all the way. I came in like third that year. I didn't win again. That's like saying that the Sabres aren't a hockey team because they don't win. They're still a hockey team. They don't win. They still count.

But is Arizona hockey team technically? No, they're not. Barely. Let's go. You're in puck soup. The thing I wanted to say, though, is that sometimes people watch basketball and sometimes people live it.

And what Dave, I was at the, I was at MSG on Tuesday before the Rangers and Jets. I'm sorry, before that regular season by Before that Patrick Lainey contest For that Steve Mason, shut out A Patrick Lainey shooting accuracy contest Steve Mason, good to see you back son

Good news, you're starting against the JV tonight Let me just say that my grandfather Built MSG So we, it's a really important place for me As a Finn, I grew up in Finland watching MSG all the time So to score three goals here under the ceiling was just really special The amazing thing about Patrick Line is that he talked to him and he actually did a Patrick Lainey for me.

Did he? He's like, so, so, Patrick, you know, you grew up admiring Alex Ovichkin, an amazing player, quite a shot. You've got yourself, got a shot. What do you think about Ovechkin challenging for 600 goals? So you became Irishman way through the guy? That's my Canadian accent. Oh, the Briar Patch.

And he goes, and he goes, he goes, you know, Alex of Etchkin, he's very good player. He always all the time, look up to him and admire what he's able to do. You know, very hard to score goals in this league, and also. So it is my job to defeat him. And then also I'm like, what, what? Like, putting the microphone right next to his lips. Like, it's your job to do what? Wait, are you doing the bit back to me?

What are you doing? You know, I was a very much. You look up to him, you know, Russian sniper and all these things and all kinds of goals scoring. 600 goals, very tough to do. Only 20 other top 20 people have all time to do it. And also, I would be his master and put a collar around his neck and drag him around like the dog that he is. And I'm like, what? Much like the way my father taught me to play hockey by putting me in a collar and shocking me whenever I didn't hit the top corner.

The point is, is, is I saw a job. Dan Rosen at MSG. And Dan's like, all right, I'll see you later on. I'm like, what do you up to today? He says, I'm on a scouting mission. Right. We had to scout. We had scouts from bars. What do you mean? He's like, me and Lozo are going to go scout the Ainsworth here in the city. Oh, yeah, we don't mention bars. We can't mention where we're going. No, I'm not going to mention where we're going. I knew immediately you hate it. That's where we're not going. Yeah, you didn't hate it. It's a really nice, cool place, but it's too nice for what we do. Right. It's too classy. Like, it's too nice. It's not bad in any way. It's that moment when you

when you and your buddies are going out and someone's like, you know what, we should just go to a place. We can all hang out, get a beer, chat about life, trade some stories. And then someone's like, I know where you can go. And you walk in and it's like the corporate bar with corporate cocktails. Like I literally, I was coming from. Remember that I have to set of bar rescue? I was, dude, I was just thinking about bar rescue today because I was at the bar we're probably going to go to tonight. Like, I was like the secret like undercover Maria Menunos or whoever does that goes in the bar and is like,

Can I try your... As I had the Ksadie and the beer, and it was good. The corporate bar was the one that he did where he went to the pirate bar until the spring, right? And he's like, we're going to change the corporate bar. These motherfuckers who were walking around with fake parrots on their shoulders and eyed patches the entire day had to come back and be like, R. Welcome to Ye corporate bar. No, it was, dude, it was totally the same plot line of Steve the pirate and Dodgeball where like they made fun of him.

He cleaned up. And then once John Taffer left, they made it a pirate bar again. He became a pirate again. Same exact thing. So, point being is that before you came here, the reason you had to hustle here. Yeah, I went to a bar downtown. You went to another bar downtown. Check out.

So here's the thing. We used to do it at a place called the back page on the Upper East Side because all we want is like a place that's open before noon so we can get in there. We have like 10 of us. And we just want all the games on, all the games on it once around us. It's all we want. And then the back page closed down like getting around years ago. We started going to the newspaper industry. Yeah.

There's a place called the online.com bar. Totally put the other place out of business. So we went over to the athletic. but the cover price was way too high. But I went there one time and it was like 80% off so it was awesome. There's no real reason why it was 80% off that time.

And all the people inside are looking out and being like, why the fuck do we pay full price? Why don't we just wait until Christmas? But then we started doing it at a place called Mani's on second, which was a really cool setup. And it was this place that was right by where there was a subway stop being built for like six years and they just finished it last year.

For the first time, we actually took the subway there. It was great. Yeah, that doesn't sound like New York. And then Manis closes down this year. So then we had to find a new place. So that was kind of what was going on. So we're not going to tell you where we've selected because... We got to get there early.

We got to make sure we get our tables. We just want tables in the middle of TVs. It's a very fine thing we do once in here. We don't want to tell you that it's Dallas barbecue. Oh, no, I said too much. It's a place in Times Square called Bubba Gum. It's somewhere a shrimp. Ruby and I were just talking about the other night that there isn't a common man or woman,

as it is at International Women's Day as we do the show. Wow, sex is much, Greg. common person sports bar in Manhattan there isn't a place that's like like what do you mean

like there should be a place in Times Square that's like Dallas barbecue but but sports bar like three levels hooters crazy do the ladies not on international women's day

buddy do they not like hooters wow yeah they're against women having jobs I guess you don't like that huh so anyway what were we talking about oh that's right Ron Francis got fired but not really that fucking organization's so doomed

it's not doomed it's so fucking doomed You and I are of different minds on this So Tom Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Then Jerry Horbach comes in and says What's going on here? Jesse Allmartin's like I don't know I want to gamble

On subprime loans And this guy done done Seems like he's got a pretty good I think I can pay him back in time Oh it turns out I don't Now I'm broke and he's a billionaire He owns a team that's great How'd you know he was the GM of the Hurricanes

The team blue Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun So Ron Francis gets fired not fired. I love when NHL teams do this when they're like, this guy is one of the most beloved people not only for this organization, but maybe in hockey, which is why all of his friends like John Shannon

were defending him last night. So instead of firing Ron Francis, they move him into a position where he will still collect a hefty paycheck be part of the organization, but have absolutely fuck all to do with player personnel. They dealt talent them. They dealt talent him.

Or Paul Holmgrenden did him. Yeah, yeah, right. Paul. They also did it with, um, oh, no, no, you're right. Yeah, it was Paul Homer. I was at say Bobby Clark. But yeah, you're right. Sather doesn't count, right?

Like, Sater, I feel like had Carp launch to do whatever he wanted to do with that. I still think he's kind of involved anyway. Of course he is. Like, Jeff Gordon's there. But, right. They work together. They're a team. I mean, one part of the team is, it's like a billion Stanley Cups and probably

makes all the decisions. But a team nonetheless. No, that's a hockey tradition is to move up, move up the dude. The dude that you don't want to fire. Isn't it insulting? Doesn't Ron Francis have enough pride to be like, fuck off? I'm going to go play golf for the rest of my life. I think Ron Francis, no, I think Ron Francis knows that he's making good coin.

And until that Seattle job opens up, he's going to sit there and make money. How much could he possibly be making? That's great for him in Carolina. It's Carolina money. Cost of living, bud. Yeah. But I mean, he's not making like two million a year, do you think? If you got bumped upstairs and you were like, listen, your job didn't work, but we can't fire you,

you're just going to sit here and sign off on a bunch of shit while you make a bunch of money. You wouldn't do that job? If I was a journalist, yeah. I wouldn't be able to get another job ever again. But if I was fucking Ron Francis, Hall of Famer, and was you there for seven years? He was there for like seven years. He was a GM for four years for playoffless years. Yeah.

I go of two minds on Ron Francis as far as his performance as a GM. I think he is one of those guys that clearly has the respect of his peers and the media to the point where all he had to do was like win a playoff round and everybody's could be jerking him off as saying he's a genius. Just jerking him off? Why wouldn't they mind them? Why wouldn't they have like an adult sexual intercourse? with him. Why would they just jerk them off? I mean, do you really like it? Well, it's a first date. So, it's the first playoff. Yeah, right. Maybe actually gets to the third round. So, yeah,

down, right, exactly. Hey man, you were in high school. So the, so I think that that that was there for his taking. I think from a cap management perspective, I like the contracts he handed out to some of his young defensemen. I think he's, he's been, he's been really good at finding sort of diamonds in the rough and sort of that Jim Rutherford way for a team that clearly had a budgetary concerns based on the previous ownership. Who is diamonds in the rough? I mean, Lee Stembeoniac. Yeah, he isn't how many diamonds in the rough. Here's why he got fired.

He got fired because he didn't fire his coach a year ago or this year. If he had fired his coach. Contrermain, he never played the one bullet as a GM that you have to play in this situation, which is your coach, you're coaching a team that's underperforming. You've got to ask the coach to save yourself. That's a good point. He didn't fire the coach to save himself some time. but his failing

his failing is twofold. The first is that if this was a playoff team, if this was second in the metro Carolina Hurricanes. Were they three points back? They're like two or three points out of the playoff spots.

But if they were like in a top three seed in the metro, he's not getting fired. No matter what kind of personal friction he has with done, done, don't, don. That's going to happen after the season if it's going to happen at all, right? His failing.

Yeah, but it happens. at all, yeah. His failing was acquiring the Brock Oswalder of NHL goaltenders in Scott. This is such bad analysis. In Scott Darling. So here's the thing with Ron Francis is twice he tried to fix the goaltending situation. Yeah, it was a good time both times. He went and got Eddie Lack, who was a 915 goalie in Vancouver and became at 890 goalie in Carolina. And he got Scott Darling, who was a 925 goalie in Chicago, and he came at 887 goal in Carolina. So do you think those goalies suddenly became bad at what they do, or were they playing for a team that suddenly exposed their goaltenders because they don't play with any sort of structure?

Okay, but... Which is the coaches. Don't roll your eyes. No, I am rolling my eyes because in this case, you know, the Eddie Lack things, whatever. I think Eddie Lack has now shown in a couple stops that maybe he wasn't, he's not that good. He's played eight games since he left Carolina. There's a reason for that. Yeah.

Darling. His Pilb Peters ruined him. Darling played behind the Chicago Blackhawks when they were good. What's Anton Foresberg's eight percentage this year? But what is it? It's like 905. Okay, great. Jeff Glass, you want to talk about his say percentage?

No, I think Darling did really well in that system, playing behind all world defensive players. But I – there's this weird – and I know why you do it because you staked your claim to him and it looks really dumb that you were so wrong. But, like, other people that we know, like Ryan Lambert, for example, are like these Scott Darling truthers that don't believe that he is bad this year may in fact be bad and can't handle the pressure of being. a starting goaltender in the league. Wow. 30 games and you've summed them up psychologically and as a player. That's pretty great. You should run a team.

No, I think, no, I think the smarter decision is to bring back the second string goalie that can't handle the pressure of being a first stringer. And then just see if it works out again. Because, you know, that hasn't been the problem in Carolina for the last, oh, I don't know, nine years, repeating the same mistakes with your goaltending over and over again and hoping that something changes. So, wait, so who's that, whose fault is that? Ron Francis is

But he hasn't But he hasn't tried He hasn't sat down He re-signed Cam Ward But he's stupid Yeah The Cam Ward thing I'm now assuming

Is some sort of gypsy curse That he's applied on the franchise To keep getting all these contracts Give me two more years He's like Thine Like Scott Darling has been really bad this year But he's been terrible

If you watch those games man Like remember the game against the Rangers When Zabinajad dumped it in From Center Ice And it like hit off his glove and went in Like the other four goals That game were just these tic-tack-toe Cains running around

On their own zone Can I ask you something then? Minnesota games like that too recently. Because I'm really having a hard. I know why so many people were outraged about Francis getting canned, which is that their friend works for the organization. Eric Tolski works for the organization, so everybody's very upset about this happening because they were a good at Eric's job. What did Eric Tulski say? No, he didn't say anything.

But he works to the organization. So a hockey Twitter, you know, as they often do in these situations, rallies to help their analytics friend. Oh, that's an overall journalistic thing. Whenever someone has an issue. I'm not denying that. Journalists, so it's rise up. That's why John Shannon stepped up last night and was like, this owner, this maverick owner wants to be Mark Cuban and make all the decisions. Did you tweet that too?

No, I tweeted that that should be the first question asked to any GM in his first press conference. I thought you had a little bit of breaking news that it was that he, that Dundon wanted to have say in person. Yeah, and that's true. No, no, my news was the GM is going to report directly to him that there's not going to be some like president of hockey operations position. in between them. Oh, so that Ron Francis is just like an appendix, just waiting. Rod Francis is ordering sticks. That's what he's doing now. But listen. He's better than that. Here's my point.

Everybody rallied to the cause because they were worried about their analytics friend getting fired. And that's fine because every mainstream journalist rallies to the cause when their friend Dale Tallinn, for example, gets wronged or their friend Gerard Gallant gets wronged. It's just what media does, whether it's new media or old

media. I think with this situation, though, you know tell me Greg is there is there just cause for firing him at this point for Ron Francis yeah

I mean like my thing is just if if he had changed coaches in the last year and a half and it was still dog shit oh I remember my yeah I remember my point is there you got me all frazzled with your nonsense that the team is underachieving with the coach

that's not having most of other players you talk about what's happening in front of Scott Darling uh huh okay the Carolina hurricanes are by far the best in many cases possession team

in the league under Bill Peters who many people believe will get a job lickety split if he's ever fired in Carolina because of that very thing

because he looks like a coach he just has a coach fit but like how do you like Jeff Fisher how do you square the fact that it's the team in front of

Scott Darling failing when the team in front of Scott Darling statistically is as sound as you could possibly find but is not in a playoff spot

because of how bad the goaltending is where do they rank and hide the injured chances allowed where do they do you know the answer to that no but I bet what the fuck you can't just throw that out there

without knowing the answer well I mean you can't say because a team is clocking in at 53% they're not playing bad on their own end this is like debate and Trump how fucking dare you wait wait wait which one Eric or Donald or Donald James

Donald okay that's that's fine he's the best of the three when it comes to debate how do we know the Icelandics don't have the bomb do you have information that they have the bomb here wait here I'll I will Google it because I've unlike you I watch the games. I don't just go by stats like the nerd that you are. I'm just saying the Scott Darling

Protection Brigade is one of the more bizarre things that we're seeing. Like, it's okay. In the NFL, if the backup quarterback can't be a starter, they don't dick around with them for another season. They just admit that he can't be the starter. And then they either, maybe in the hockey's case, they add something so Darling can be part of a tandem. This is why I compare him to Jeff Fisher is because people said the same thing about Case Keenum. He said the same thing about Jared Goff. It said the same thing about every quarterback that Jeff Fisher coach and suddenly he left Jeff Fisher and suddenly all those quarterbacks were in like the second round of the playoffs the next year. So you're saying you hire a new coach. The coach puts in a system

that better utilizes the talent and we look back at Scott Darling and say, boy, they didn't, good thing to get rid of him because he's challenging for the Vezina. Is that weird? We're saying. How's Eric Stahl doing since he left Carolina? How did Eric Stahl do in New York? He's there for two weeks? I mean, come on. He's playing. I'm just saying you seem you seem like, you seem like you want to defend Bill Peters the way other people want to defend Eric Tulski and Dale talent. I don't. I don't think anybody in this situation is defensible. The team doesn't make the fucking playoffs. The team hasn't made the playoffs since what? 2009. It's so weird. I searched, I searched hurricanes and high danger chances and like, like 20 or like 10 of the 12 tweets that

show up are all from Andrew Berkshire from SB Nation. Is he the only person tweeting about high danger chances? Where's everybody else? A point being is that I, and the other thing too is, like you don't feel like there's so many guys on that team like Tara Vinen, Rask, Linholm, Aho, Skinner, he's come around. But like all these guys, like the defense, like Hanifit, all these guys, and you don't feel like they're underperforming

as a group. I think they are. I think they are, but I also think that... That feels like a coaching thing. I also think that one of the things that Ron Francis did was that he never got aggressive with his assets to try to improve the team. Like, he's got a surplus in the blue line. A surplus. So you look what Dave Poil did, right?

My favorite GM, obviously the best GM of all time based on all those regular season wins. Also, so, okay, if a coach doesn't coach a game, he doesn't get credit for the win. When he was out with the I thing, why was he still getting credits for GM wins? Round of a flop. Been thinking about that for like a week. A round of fucking applause. That was brilliant.

Who's tracking those? When he's over in the GM meetings and the predators are playing, he's not on, he doesn't have his hand on the helm. He's not on the wheel of a ship. He just makes trade signs some guys. He doesn't have to be at the rank ever. He just gets credit for everything that happens one way or the other. Oh, my God. What a stat.

I wish you could have thrown out, thrown that out there. There is like some blood in the other part of the water. So all the predator strikes go there. So they stop yelling at me about saying David Poil hasn't accomplished anything because he hasn't. No, the thing. He's gotten to the Senate Cup final one. The thing that he did, though, is he took Seth Jones, a brilliant young defenseman and traded him for a top line center. Who's the Seth Jones of Carolina?

They don't have a Seth Jones. You could trade Falk right now and get— You think Falk is Ryan Johan? He's not—you're not going to get it right? John Johnson type for Justin Falk. They got a lot of B plus. I'm not Peter Shearrelli making one for one trades with defensemen here. You're comparing the national group to the Carolina line.

I'm saying that they have Hannafin, any of those guys, you could trade them for the thing that you need, which is help in the middle up front. You can do that move. Fucking Dushan move. Fucking Dushan move. Fucking Tussain move. Like, guys move. Yeah, but they move for like elite guys. What do you think Hanifin is?

You think Noah Hannifin is? I think, Seth Jones. Come on. Well, he's not now, but he could be. Exactly. The value of these guys may be better than it is because they're playing in a system that doesn't seem to actually help anybody that's playing for the team. I'm saying it's like stasis. Like, Ryan Francis is out of a job now because four years, he didn't do dick with the surplus of defensemen that he had.

They needed help up front. They needed a centerpiece. They never got it. He never made any agree. He never made a player for player trade as general manager. What the fuck is that? That is, yeah, that's a problem. Yeah.

But I mean, like, so you're telling me if he went out and got it. Matthew Shane can't be as good as the senators right now. Well, Matthew Shane's obviously winning the heart this year, so yes, they'd be even better than they are now. I just, I don't know. I think we all universally agree that Carolina is a really talented team up front and on defense. And yeah, Scott Darling has choked on his own puk for a lot of the season.

But I mean, I don't know. It just seems like you look up and down the lineup. There's just a lot of guys there that we all kind of think are going to be super good and super talented. And they're all just kind of like B-B-plus guys. Yeah. I'd like to see them play for somebody else before I'd fire the GM. Again, I don't think Ron Francis was like wrongfully terminated.

Yeah. The question that becomes who you hire as coach. Just, yeah, but it's like the Mark Andre Fleury thing in Pittsburgh where like for years Mark Andre Florey was puking on himself in the playoffs. And they never tried anything new. Just try anything new. And they were like, hey, Matt, who's this little spinny 21 year old? Let's throw him in that. They want two cups.

I think the really interesting thing with Dun Dunn is going to be how much money he spends on a coach. The next GM of this team is not going to be some. It's going to be a yes man. most likely, right? The next GM of this hurricane team? Yeah, the whole setup seems kind of terrifying. The people are talking about Kyle Dubus going there. Like, why the fuck Kyle Dubus want to go and work with his knucklehead when he's working

with Brendan Chanahan right now? Just hang out way for Seattle. Kyle Dubus is hanging out, just like looking up a rent cost in Seattle for nice apartments. He's not going to Carolina. He's like, Lou, are you tired? Erron, no, I could go for seven more years. You look really tired. What if Caroline had hired Gerard Gallant last year?

Like they push him out of the van Raleigh and then like, Ronald Francis rolls up in you to ride? Yeah. I mean, you assume it would be different, right? It would have to be. To me, I was going to say, Hitchcock was available last off the season. Well, Hitchcock was like going one place.

But I think the interesting thing would be how much money he's willing to spend on a coach. Like, you're going to get a situation where Trots, potentially Quenville, although I doubt it, and definitely Elaine Vigno are going to be available this summer. Oh, yeah. Elaine Vigno is the guy you want around young players who are promising in their time. Elaine Vigno in the short term can make your team better, and you know that. Well, I mean. You know this.

Did you really make the Rangers better? They were in the conference finals the year before he got there. I mean, you got them one more round that they're probably going to get to anyway. Maybe not. I don't know. Who's to say? Hold on. Hold on.

I think he's bad. He's not the right coach for this team right now with the Rangers, but you're saying I don't think he's a bad coach at all. I would hire him. I think he is, but I can't prove it. I can't. I can't. Like, if I'm ever in a bar argument and someone's like, is he'll even yell a good coach. And I'm like, no, he's terrible.

He squanders chances. He's bad at matchups. Just prove it. I can't. I don't know a bad coach. I don't know what a bad coach looks like when I see it. Right, right, right. I just, I've, I've watched enough of his games in person, and I've tried.

I just, I just, I can't, I can't prove it. We should, we should probably touch on the elephant in the room right now when it comes to Carolina, which is that will they hire Pierre McGuire to be the GM. I can't believe how close we were so many times to Pierre McGuire leaving the NBC booth and becoming like a front office guy somewhere and it didn't happen. It mean, it was, it was talked about in Ottawa. I don't know how close it came. Minnesota.

Minnesota, Pittsburgh. It was a situation where he was, I think, in the mix in Pittsburgh at some point. And instead of us losing him on TV forever and putting him in a booth where he would show up like twice a year for press conferences, now he will decide who goes into the Hall of Fame. This is a very, you know, this was a story that hit. And there are sometimes when you're on social media and you see news come across and everyone uniformly will have the same reaction. And this was one of those times. one, everybody said, oh, look, another white dude on the selection committee for the Hall of Fame. But he doesn't have white hair, so he's kind of like a...

Yeah, he's a different kind of white dude. He's a diversity hire. And then the second thing is, everybody had their different jokes about which of Pierre's in-game obsessions is going to be in the Hall of Fame first. Will it be called Drew, will it be... That's so good. Talking Eddie, I don't think we should put in Patrick Galeas this year. We should put in the entire Shattuck St. Mary's organization. Jack St. Marys is a...

Oh, no. Do you think when Pierre McGuire calls people that make the Hall of Fame, he ends the call by saying, go have fun in there? Never call me again. Or like, Claudey returns to his wife. I got to change my number. My thoughts on Pierre always this. I don't want him anywhere between the benches or talking during a game.

No. I've long thought he would be a better studio analyst than Jones or Milbury. one because he actually talks about the game that's going on versus yeah you know back in the day this fly as penguins game would be our fights what's going on yeah he said that last night he did he literally is watching his rivalry night game they cut back from it because you know i'm sorry in one of the several thousand minutes spent on a game we just watched uh and they're like mike what you think of the game uh and they're like mike what you think of the game uh well i'll tell you i don't know what's going on out there no fights eh like that was his first thing he said that was the first thing he said yeah and there was like a scrum at the end of the game. Look at these guys. Not even a punch thrown. Nobody even took up their shoe. You know, if no one's going to go out there and take off their skate and slice someone's throat open, what's the point of even having a hockey game on TV anyway?

We always talk about this neanderthilic nonsense that emanates from that fucking guy. And like, last night of that was Exhibit A, Your Honor. It's like they had this game. It's a super fun game. The Penguins rally in the game. It's a statement game. The Flyers are trying to, you know, make their way up the standings. The Pengneyed and Dominated that game on like four of every five ships.

doing his thing still. And then the thing is, what is the salient takeaway from this game, Mike? No punch is. I didn't see any blood trickling down

someone's open esophagus. Yeah, someone should go cheat that red cougood is a lesson. What, you fucking trogmodite? It's just, it's enough.

So Mike, my, my thing was I always thought that Pierre would be good as an analyst, but I'll say this about him. As much as it irks me,

that someone like Pierre McGuire will be determining who makes for Mrs. Hall of Fame. I do think this is a good job for him. This motherfucker knows the game in and out. He knows names. Does he? Sure he does. He knows junior hockey and where guys used to play a lot. I think he's a really interesting. During games, during, yeah, well, great, that's awesome if you want to, he should go determine who's in the junior hockey Hall of Fame then.

He shouldn't be determining who's, he's, he's seen nine NHL teams total the last 10 years on NBC. The fuck does he know about, like, Anjikopatar at this point. I thought this was a fine job for him. It's kind of, the kind of job. The only, my only concern about this job is, again, One, that Claude Drew is going to be in the Hall of Fame now. And that two, the reaction of the other people on the Hall of Fame Committee when they found out that Pierre McGuire is now basically on their jury. Like, if I don't know if you ever read jury duty, but like you go in that room and you're looking around. Which one of these motherfuckers is not going to shut up? Like, which one of these motherfuckers is going to cost me Labor Day weekend?

Because we have to come back here on Monday and do this thing. And I'm looking straight at Pierre McGuire. Pierre, what do you think about this player's candidacy? Well, let me tell you something about it, five hours. later. They look around the room and they're like, okay, so we've decided. Willi O'Ree, we're going to put him in this year as a builder. Okay.

So it's a long weekend. So, well, for the sake of the notes, anybody have anything else to say? And, like, Pierre pulls his seat back in the whole room, just goes, oh. It's like. It's like, it's like, Peeley's big adventure. It's like, Exhibit, Exhibit Q! Jesus. Boy, is that a poll.

Is that a pull, right? But as an aside, I know that we're starting to get into the everybody's writing their Willie O'Ree for the Hall of Fame stuff and rightfully so. It is absolutely assin high. This is a guy who for the last 15 years has been doing what I would call building. The NHL puts him in a place, literally building, puts him in a place and says, hey, everybody, Willie O'Ree, hockey is for everyone. And Willie Ree is like, I'm shaking everybody standing and taking pictures because I'm trying to build the game. And it's just like this of all the people who qualify.

as a builder in the builder category Rilly O'Ree would be the guy that you'd hold up as being the greatest example of it, but for reasons, he's not in the Hall of Fame. It's going to be just like every other situation like this with the Hall of Fame where people will say he should get in for years. He'll die. They'll die. And then

they'll be like, let's put him in this year. Right. And we'll have his children or whatever come and it's like, fuck you, put him in now, you dipshit. Yeah. And that cranky old man, the Hall of Fame will call up and be like, where is this Willie O'Re's nephew? Yeah, it is. Good news. he's like, great, I'll go tell that gravestone that he got in the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame literally changed the rules so Chris fucking Prager could get in while he was still under contract. And they still haven't put Willie O'Re in. It's insane. I hate the sport so much. But if you do love the sport, I know one way you can use to go and watch some sport games. You can also go watch college basketball games. You don't want to do that. You want to use your tickets to go watch a little hockey action down the stretch for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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The NHLPA player poll came out this week. What a delight that was. What was the thing that knocked your socks off on the player poll? I mean, there really wasn't one thing. It was all kind of stuff you kind of felt like you knew maybe except for the whole point system thing. What bugged me was there were so many responses where there was like 70% of the responses weren't shown. The only showed the top five. I want to see everything.

Like, why? I want to be Patrick Stewart. I want to see it all. What was your reaction, by the way? Pause on that for a second. your reaction to seeing that like 77% of players want the current the current standings point format. 77% of players don't know what they're talking about. It's pretty obvious takeaway, I thought.

But isn't it like coaches... Game's not for them. It's for us. Coaches, you understand why they don't like it. And GMs, you understand why they don't like it. The players, like, all they give a shit about is, like, having relevant hockey to play in March. And the bullshit force... The bullshit force parody gives them something to play for. Yeah, but they must know.

Like there's no way like like, oh, I guess Max Patrae is out for the season, but there's no way like anybody in Montreal is like, we're still in it. But they're totally out of it. Like Florida is still in it though. And Carolina. Well, Florida is legitimately still in it. Like the islanders, for instance are probably a good example where by the way, every time they lose, I'm like, oh, they're done and I check the standings. They're always like four points out still. Yeah, same thing with the Rangers.

Right. Rangers got out shot like 175 to 40 over three games that went three and O and you're like, we're back in it. How is that possible? What is up with this league? But like, yeah, it's, I mean, whatever. That's a fight I can't, I can't fight back on anymore. The only thing I'll say about it is that, like, I don't know if scrapping the whole point system for parity sake is ever going to happen.

I really want to believe that if, if, I want to believe that at some point we're going to go to three points for regulation win. It has to happen. But if players don't want it, then how's it ever going to happen? If the players don't want it, then I guess maybe it won't happen. But I mean, or maybe they're all saying they don't want it so the NHL has to give them something so they can make it happen. Who knows?

That's what they should have done. But also, too, you don't really know how much effort guys are putting into the ballots when they get them. They're just maybe just checking the boxes. Like, you know how like when you go to hockey reference and like a thing pops up and you're just like, yeah, I eat eight credit cards and I wipe my butt with the baby wipes. Yeah, sure, guy. Let me just see the stats.

Yeah. Like, maybe they're just doing that with their poll. Or when you fill out a credit card application at that tent, you just want to get that t-shirt. You just put a bunch of nonsense on there. Greg Wyshenski from Butt Lane. Dick and Balls. Yeah, right.

I need a T-shirt that says the master card on it. Speaking of, but you're speaking of like players just kind of writing and whatever, a lot of people were looking at that referee question and like Tim Peel being on there and West McCauley, you know, running away with it. And someone was asking me the other day, like, why do you think West McCauley was like the, the, the, be all and end all as far as referees? And I told them the story. Who?

Who? Who? You know, Sean Lehi. Yeah, there you know. Without the voice. I can't tell you're talking about. So, you know, we were rooming together in Toronto. How hot was the room?

Burning 63 degrees. Wish was on his bed eating a thing, a trail mix that I had eaten all the M&Ms out of. So we were in Toronto at the Players Tour, and we did it like a pole. We did a little Puck Daddy-like Players' poll. And one of the questions was, who's the best referee in the league? I'm just picturing Sean walking around the hotel room shirtless. because he's so hot and it's like 59 degrees in a thermostat. Oh, this is terrible.

It's like, he's like, just fanning himself. It's really, uh, really thwarted in here. Like Kurt Russell burst through the door with a flame thrower to try to kill the thing. It's how cold it is. Wow, so you pulled out the thing and the pee-wee's big adventure. No, no, big top pee-wee, wasn't it? No, it's peewee's big adventure. But here's the thing, both of those references, more salient than the bizarre fish-called Wanda references.

Yeah, what was that? Wilbury was making up. He's like, Liam, have you ever heard of a movie called a fish called Wanda? And you could hear in Liam's voice that he's like, yeah. And then four minutes later, he gets the end of it. And it's like when he shows up and the jewels are gone. Yeah. What?

It was so bizarre. Milbury's angle on the ground here and talk movies with us. That's what it is. By the way, the only way that I will accept Mike Milbury making a fish called Wanda reference on NBCSN is if he does the Michael Payle and stutter and really gets in trouble. Fighting is. And the only way his stutter stops is when he sees like somebody get murdered on the ice. Oh look.

Cuckuckuckinus, come cuckoo going to Cuckuckookekekeke kill me. Are you coming to Cicacill Me? Kevin Coy won an Oscar for that. I was just thinking about that. They did a like an Oscar look back on like Best Supporting. It was in that montage on the Oscars. And I'm like, oh my God. Like when's the last time?

There is, I guess, a tradition of supporting actors and act like Marissa Tomei won for Comedies, yeah. Right. So it's like if you're funny in a movie that's a comedy. comedy, but also it has a little bit of heart or something, I guess. That's how you win movies or that's how you win Oscars in West Anderson movies. Right. Because, like, there's a little bit of funny stuff in there, but it's never like...

That's why I don't think Tiffany Haddish got nominated for Girlstrip, because Girlstrip is more of a farce, I think, than it is like a fish called Wanda-like. Wasn't that movie terrible? No, a ton of bad reviews for that. That's the one where Kate McKinnon does the Australian accent the whole movie? Or am I thinking of the other one? You're thinking to, like, Bachelorette night or something. Oh, what's the one? Oh, the one in the commercial where the one girl puts a spoon on her face to mimic a dick against her face.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Oh, that one actually looked funny. The guy, the naked guy in front of the girls. Yeah. Like, what? Oh, that one did look funny. Yeah, yeah.

They were both at the same time, I think. So that's why I think, you know, there was room for her to get a nomination, which she didn't. We were talking about, oh, right. I made a reference to the thing. Oh, so Leahy and I were at the players tour. Oh, right. And we asked all the players who their favorite referee was. and we came to quickly find out that none of the players know the names of any referees.

Really? Yeah, really. That does kind of make sense. So in my initial shock at seeing one of the single most incompetent people in hockey, Tim Peel, on the list of who's the best referee in the NHL, and then seeing Wes McCauley, who is a pretty good referee, the landslide winner, it occurs to me that the players don't know any of the referees, names. They know Tim Peel because of everything that happened with Tim Peel. They know Wes

McCauley because of the YouTube videos. Right. And so those two names are the way names that they mentioned for this one. Now, the, the coda to the story about all the players saying, I can't name one. I don't know who they are. We asked Dionne Funuff, who his favorite referee was, or the best referee in the league. And immediately he says, like, somebody's name. I forget exactly who it was. Kelly Sutherland. Yeah, well, it says Kelly Sutherland. Let's say Kelly Sutherland. So we're like, wow, that's, that's, that's, that's pretty good. He's like, why? And we're like, well, I mean, we've had a lot of players come in through here today. And none of them really knew the names of any referees. Any, any kind of, you know, Dion's an emotionless Easter Island statue of a man. And he looks at us and he's just like, you got to know the names of the refs. Right. Like, yeah, like, whenever you see like a video in football, it's usually like, or basketball, usually like they know. But you know what it is. You're right, though. It is. They just know the names of like, like, I know Ted Valon.

in basketball. It's because everyone always talks about Ted Valentine. Like when I was a kid, I knew the NHL referee's names because they were chanted at Devils games. Macreary sucks. Frazier sucks. Bill McCreary, Kerry Frazier. Like in football.

And obviously at Koharski. You know, well, there was only one back then, too, so it was easy to remember them all. In football, we all know the referees and football. And in baseball, you used to know the umps names because you'd spend the whole day staring at them. Yeah. And they all had their own little gimmicks.

Yeah, you had three hours of them on camera. They were on camera the whole time. Yeah. You know what Cowboy Joe West calls a ball and strike? Yeah, and Eric Gregg was calling strikes 14 feet outside on that Marlon's LCS games. But these guys don't know any of the referees, and that's why they answer the question that way. I thought the players poll was interesting for if you're Carrie Price, who 41% of respondents said he's the most difficult to score on, and he is the fourth best goalie of all time.

Of all M-Fing time. He has a 9-19 career save percentage. We have to stop with this Carrie Price narrative that he's one of the best goleys of all time. Like he, when he's on, he's on, he's on, great. He's either not on or he's heard a lot. So how can he be the fourth best? It's like, all right, who's number one? Patrick Wah.

Okay, number two. Marty. Sure. Yeah, Ashik. Who's number four? And then, like, no one can name another gold tender in history. Number four is Carrie Price. Number five was Jose Theodore.

Number six was Christobal Huey. Number seven was Jostlan Thibbo. I thought it was all pretty good. I mean, Antony Emmy getting in there at number eight for the season he's had this year. It was kind of nice. I mean, if you were, if you were to look at for the, I mean, a post-Brodore era, okay? Mm-hmm.

Who are the top, like, three goalies of the post-Border era? Well, Lunkwist for sure. Lungquist? Like, Lung-Quist should be like, he said to carry price. Um, yeah. Bob's better than price, demonstrably. Oh, he's true. Of course he is.

Yeah. I'm just trying to think of there's anybody that I'm not thinking of. Is, uh... Like, not flurry. Um... Hold on. Is Peka better than price? Yes.

Is Tuka better than price? Or is Tuka a product? Tuka's been pretty good this year. I don't think we really thought a lot out of Boston. I fucking had to deal with all the Marty Truthers again in last week since his players ball came out. And I'm like, he got ranked ahead of Hachick. And I'm like, I'm with you.

Hachick's the best goalie of all time. I'm not trying to defend this. And they're like, he's a product of the system. Yeah, I can. By the way, I think Hossack's the best goalie of all time. But I will concede the fact that like it always looked like he was doing more work just because the teams in front of him were horseshit. It was like Mike Richter.

Mike Richter was like, he was a dude who was, he was like, John. John Quick plays just like Mike Richter did, where like he's a smallish goalie. He was always way out and he has to sprawl and make crazy saves because he's so way out of the net. So it looks cooler. And Haschick, Hasch wasn't like that. Haschick was more just athletic. God,

I hate using that fucking term. He was good at moving around. Well spoken. Right. Athletic. Fucking, God, that's the worst goddamn adjective in sports. Like, everything you do is athletic when you're an athlete by definition. Yeah.

He was just really quick and he was good at sprawling and he was good at improvising. And I think there's something he said for that. but Carrie Price, man. Jesus. I thought of you, though. Why was Joey Tribiani number three on this somewhere? On the question of which player would you select to start a franchise? Connor McDavid, 48.6%, Sidney Crosby, 23.8%.

Austin Matthews, 5.8%. And then I thought of you. Because we got to Jonathan Taves, 3.1%. 29-year-old, one-time 70-point score. Jonathan Taves is the man that you'd want to start your franchise with. this is why players should not become GMs when they leave hockey. It's insane. Like,

who does, who does, who does, he Malkin have to fuck to just get a modicum of respect from either his players or writers or anyone? Like, anyone, like, just in the last two days.

Player Paul basically ignores Malkyne. Last night Malkin has a great game. Mike Bilberry is like, where's the fighting? Top 100 list. Jonathan Taves over Malkin. Like, like,

who does he have to tell him and he will probably do it. Yeah. I don't get it. He's not a dirty player. He's not like Brad Marchand where it's like, oh, Brad Marchand's a dirty player. They don't want to talk about how good he is, even though he's really good. Malkin? I don't get it.

Like, why would... Like, there's one defa... Yeah, listen, David Crosby, Matthews, unimpeachable that those would be like the three that are in the conversation where he'd start a franchise with. Taves is not... Like, Carlson's fifth, but, like, how has Headman not there? Like, there's so many other guys... Well, they're not thinking about, like, ages and stuff.

They're just thinking about positions. There's no goalies on the list. Right, and there's no... That's what I mean. there's no guy. These guys probably aren't putting a ton. I think it was, was it like 450 total votes on most of them? Like, you're not getting, some guys aren't even filling out the ballots. They're just like, leave me alone.

I want to play hockey. It made me mental. Well, is there anything else in this dopey thing that knocked you out? How about the, what quality do you appreciate in a teammate most? The work ethic thing was. Work ethic over honesty, loyalty, and respect. I get that. I get that.

I didn't get the John Cena jokes you at Lambert were making that. Oh, he has a t-shirt that says hustle loyalty and respect. Do do-do do-do do. Do do, do, do, do. Oh, I know that song. Oh, that's the John Sina song? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

And everybody in the crowd sings along, John Sina sucks. It's great. Wrestling's the best. That new movie's in. He looks like he might be funny in it. So that movie's interesting. So that's blockers,

but we all know what we'll know it as cock blockers because the word blockers is underneath a rooster on the name of the movie. Yeah. That movie is a throwback for me because I remember like that kind of movie coming out and you're not 17. and then one of two things is going to happen. You buy a ticket for another movie and then sneak into that movie. Oh, this movie's rated art.

Yeah, it's rated art. Or you just sneak into that movie after seeing another movie. But when I was a kid, there were certain movie theaters that would have like Usher standing at the doors of the rated R movies. Really? To take your ticket there. I think maybe because of the economy, it's now that one point of entry. for every movie theater, at least here in the city, where you just, as soon as someone takes your ticket,

you're going up the escalator or whatever the fuck to where all the movies are. Yeah, and then you're in. You just go anywhere you want. Just go anywhere you want. Ruby told me that there was a situation in Chicago when she was a kid where there was some like crazy popular R-rated

like Deadpool level movie where they actually went through the crowd and checked the ideas of anybody who looked too young to be in there. Oh, yeah. That just makes you want to go more when you're 16. I know. By the way, you seriously have to go see Black Panther.

I will. It's so effing good. I'm happy to hear that. If you say it, well, if you say it, it makes me suspicious that it's not that good. But overall, I'm excited to see it. And I just have not had the time. I've been going to outdoor hockey games. Wasting your time with these outdoor hockey games.

Winnipeg Jets practices. Winnipeg Jets practice. Oh, yeah, you went to the Devils one too this morning, right? I went to the Jets. Yeah, I hustled over here on NJ Transit. It is, I put it at three behind the Avengers and Ragnarock, but I'm willing to listen to arguments that it could be ahead of the original Avengers. Yeah, the first one.

I'm glad you and I agree on that. I feel like other people will probably put up other Marvel movies about that. It's just, it's Star Wars. It's like a perfectly, okay, let me rephrase that. It's Star Wars if the first 10 minutes of Star Wars were absolutely worthless. I have never felt the compelled to revisit the Loki arrives to steal the Tessaract part of the Avengers. I always forget that part too because whenever it's on like FX or whatever that part's on, I'm always like, oh right, because at the end of Thor, oh, right. I usually pick it up when like Thor arrives.

Yeah. or not no, before that. Because it's that fight in Germany where he makes them all like Neil and the one man's like I remember when someone else tried to make us all Neil or whatever he says. And then

there's the big fight and then Thor shows up that's usually where I pick it up right around there. There will always be men like you. Oh, there it is. That's a much better line. It's always on. But yeah, it's like two hours and 20 minutes and it flies by you don't even, you know, one, there one drawback

I didn't like. I feel like... Not enough guys that were in The Hobbit. There is one scene with those two. I won't spoil for you, but Michael B. Jordan isn't in it as much as I thought he was going to be. He's in it off the top. Actually, he's not really in it off the top. And then he kind of disappears, then he comes back.

He's... It's like Oscar Isaac in that commercial for that movie with Matt Damon Suburicon. Yeah. Like, apparently Oscar Isaac's... He's just in there for two seconds. Yeah, like, I mean, he's not in it for two seconds. But, like, Michael B. Jordan's not in it as much as you would think. I'm excited to see it because I love...

I love that... You know, like, the sort of off-brand Marvel movies that aren't like the main Avengers types, I love how they're their own thing. Like, Dr. Strange was very much its own thing. This is very much like that. And, you know, Ant Man was very much its own thing. And I'm excited that this could be its own thing, too. I think that's the only way you can make this universe work is to not try to make everything, you know. If everything was like Captain America, then it would be like Wonder Woman, you know, like Wonder Woman was the first Captain American movie, basically.

You don't want to see it over and over again. That's the thing is. I don't know how they keep doing it with these movies because they're all basically the same. Good guy, bad guy, the theme. But they all feel sort of different. Well, as you know, the man responsible for launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe was John Favreau, who directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2. He is an executive producer, I think, in perpetuity of all the other films. He's got like small roles in the other ones.

Yeah, he plays Happy Hogan, the chauffeur for Iron Man Tony Stark. As you may have heard, John Favro has, he's been hired to create a new live-action Star Wars television series. Series, right, not a movie. Right. This was announced on International Women's Day, which is only appropriate when it is the dozenth white male that you've hired to create a Star Wars property. You just don't get enough white male perspective in the Star Wars universe. In Favro's defense, like, he started the MCU. It's not as if this guy

Like I think the He directed the first movie I think Disney My employer And Kathleen Kennedy Deserved to be taken to task sometimes For the diversity of the creators Of these Star Wars properties

But in Favreau's case Man The guy invented the fucking MCU basically with Kevin Figey He didn't invent it off the ground I mean he did the first one He didn't invent these characters or anything He did

John Favro Stanley is the pen name of John Favro. The Stan Lee cameo in Black Panther is... There's a... Don't tell me. Yeah. Because that's amazing.

It's... It's not like bad or anything. It's just... Please tell me he's a CGI Panther. Rar! Excelsior! Tim Barnes, who used to produce our old Biscuits podcast. He's a writer. He's a comedian. And he said that it would be great if Stan Lee

in this one is cameo, he's the help. Ha ha! ha! Spoiler, he wasn't. But I kept thinking about that the whole movie, though. Well, here's the thing. You might be wondering exactly what this new Star Wars TV series is going to end up looking like. And luckily, your old friends Greg and Dave are here. I figured it out today.

We figured it out. We let you know. We've cracked through my access to the Disney mainframe, we actually hacked the system and pulled out the spec scripts. Yeah. For the new Star Wars live action series. For example, I don't know if you guys remember this one. Good. John Leguizamo and Dexter

are going to be in a show called Chef Corrassant in which two struggling line cooks open of space food truck Leguizamo of course is the guy who cooks from the heart and Dexter Jester is the guy who keeps blaming them cloners when business takes a term for the worst

but the good news is that LeguZamo can just kind of fuck off on the side of the truck because Dexter Jeter has 17 arms to work all the pans and friars and stuff See, I got to admit, I don't know who anybody is in that In that scenario. Is that like from the New Star Wars? It's the guy who runs the diner in Attack of the Clones. Remember that?

Oh boy. Obie Wan goes to the diner. Lake was in that? No, fuck. Delik was almost in the movie chef. What movie's chef? See, this was the hard part for me was like, I was trying to, I was going through Favros filmography, and it's like, there's swingers,

and then he did Elf, which is actually good. And then it's like Cowboys and Aliens. I can't do any cowboys. No one knows Cowboys and Aliens for this bit. Even Harrison Ford doesn't attack it with. That's what I was going to say. Harrison Ford's a cowboy and then he meets an alien. What do you got?

So one of the episodes, one of the plot summaries I thought was pretty interesting. So Luke, who of course is going to be played by John Favreau, he's given an assignment by Obi-Wan, who's going to, of course, be played by Vince Fawn. Of course. To go to Degaba and find Yoda, who will be voiced by Vince Fawn. I don't know how they're going to do it, but I think it's like an Eddie Murphy-Arcini thing and coming to America where they're just going to play all the roles. So he goes to Degaba to begin his Jedi training.

But after he lands, he eats a strange flower, and he gets completely. completely stoned and he gets lost on the planet and he just walks around the entire movie being asked by hallucinations, can you blow me where the pamper's is? That's just the whole movie. Like, there's no plot. It's just like he sees a spirit and the spirit says, can you blow me where the pamper's is? There's also this amazing script that I read. So Robert Downey Jr. stars as Robert Downey Jedi, which is basically just Robert Downey Jr. doing that thing where he talks really fast and he's quippy like he's coked up but not really because he was in rehab. And he's just like apathetic enough to stay above the silly genre property that he's been settled with for like 20 years while allowing his natural charisma to carry the day.

You know, that kind of performance. And of course, John Favreau starts as Wookie Hogan, his butler or whatever. Wookie Hogan. Wookie Hogan. I tell you, these seem like good episodes. I don't know if they're going to do 13 of them, but hopefully these are going to be all. These are all going to be on there. Here's another episode.

It's a long one. It's going to be an hour episode, but it feels like four. It's a four-hour episode where Luke, who again is played by John Favreau, he has his terminal condition the whole entire episode. Oh, no. Yeah. And he finds a video of his dad from the past, and Vince Swan plays his dad. Oh, yeah, of course. Tony, Tony Luke.

Tony Luke is going to be Luke's dad. And he tells him to go look for this diorama of the Death Star. Oh. He has laid out. That's going to be the key to him solving his terminal illness. And so he looks, he finds it. And then he's all of a sudden, he's cured, he feels better. and the whole episode, the all time this is going on,

Darth Vader, who is also played by Vince Vaughn, he's building a secret weapon to beat Luke. He's going to get Luke. And then finally it's revealed that the weapon is just two whips that are lightsabers, that are just long whips. And then it takes like five seconds for Luke to beat him because it's a stupid weapon. That's it.

Yeah, exactly. That's a lot of episode. This is an amazing one. After fighting for the resistance against the treacherous first order, I fought for the resistance. Three rebel pilots, played of course, by John Faber, Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman. decide to cut loose and reconnect with their wives at the St. Regis and Bora Bora.

I mean, I'm sorry, on Surfotinia, the Beach Planet. I was thinking about doing this one, too. Fun fact, by the way, the couples retreat. It stars both, well, not stars. They're in the movie. Tumora Morrison, who played Django Fet, and Peter Saffinowitz, who did the voice of Darth Mall, a little Star Wars tie-in with that movie in which all the friends use Studio money to take a vacation and borah borah.

You know it was funny? I looked up that one and I was like, I can't think of three women in Star Wars movies because I haven't seen any of the new ones. I'm like Leia. Ray. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right. That's what I mean. Like the new ones don't know. And Laura Dern.

There you go. I don't know what Laura Dern. I haven't seen the new one. I don't know how much. I don't know how Bob she is. But sorry, go tell me more about this episode. No, is it. Well, okay.

So this one is after Luke takes the drugs and. gets all high and everyone asks them if they can blow him where the pamper's is. So Luke is, I don't know, hold on. That's a different episode. That's wrong. Okay. So, okay, so he finally finds Yoda, who was voiced by Vince Vaughan. And he's training Luke, who of course is played by John Favreau on Degaba. And then so Luke goes into the cave and confronts Darth Vader, who's voiced by Heather Graham because we, you know, Heather Graham. Of course Heather Graham, yeah. Got have Heather Graham in there. And so they have some playful banter about Los Angeles and, you know, working there and trying to make it. And then all of a sudden they light saber fight.

It's like, what? What? Vader and Luke are going to light saber fight. And so Luke beheads Vader, of course, and then Vader's head rolls over to Luke's feet. The mask pops off. There's a little beautiful baby bunny in there. And he learns that Darth Vader's... He gives you a little bunny. Darth Vader's a little bunny.

So he loses his fear about beating Darth Vader because of that, yeah. My last one is John Favro leads the resistance, and in particular, Oscar Isaac's rogue squadron on a treacherous. assault of the White House to take out a senile Donald Trump and the hypocrisy of the Republican part. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. That's the other John Fabro. I just realized I can see what the problem is here. Jedi Save America. Yeah, it's called Jedi Save America.

I searched for John Fabro in the Disney mainframe, and obviously the other John Fabro's pitch came up. So I apologize for that. Seriously, I got two more. This one's also a pretty good one. So Luke, who's played by John Favreau, he tells Princess Le, it was played by Courtney Cox, that he's leaving the rebellion because he wants to become the ultimate fighting champion. And so Yoda, who's played by James Hong, trains him and says that he and Leah can't have any sex before the fight because he needs to save all the strength. And then eventually he goes to Jabba's Lair and fights that big beast and ultimate fight.

Oh, you mean the rancor? The rancor, obviously, is what it's called. I know that I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. And the rancor just absolutely destroys him, puts him in a cast, and then Leia decides to abandon him and leave him behind because she can't bear to watch Luke do this to himself. and so that's that's a real heartfelt episode wondering how you're going to fit that part of it of the John Fabro of your interview into this

and then the very last episode of the season this is kind of a spoiler so if you want to turn it off now Luke eventually works up the courage of course Luke is of course played by John Fabro to ask out Leah who's played by Heather Graham and he gets her coordinates he gets her galactic coordinates and he gets home from the canteen and he calls her

and he's like hey Leah it's Luke just I met you at the can't tonight. I just called to say that I had a great time and now you should call me tomorrow or in two days. My galactic coordinates are 076, 087, 15. And then the machine cuts them off. Oh, no, the machine cuts them off. So he's like, shit. So he calls back and it's like, hi, this is Leia. Leave a message. He says, hey, Leia, it's Luke again. I called back because it sounded like your machine cut me off before I finish giving you my coordinates. Sorry to call so late, but I knew you're at the canteenen when I left, so I just called me to get your machine.

Anyway, my coordinates are, and the machine cuts them off again. Oh, my God, again? So now he's like, Jesus, he calls back right away. She picks up. Hi, this is Leia, leave a message. 076, 087, 153. That's it. Just want to leave my coordinates. I don't want you to think I'm weird or desperate.

Bye. So then we're done. We're set. And then he walks away and then he says, shit. Picks up, calls back again. Hi, this is Leia, leave a message. Look, my aunt and uncle who raised me from birth were just murdered under orders from my estranged father.

Okay? That should explain why I'm acting so weird. It's not you. It's me. This is Luke. So he hangs up again. And then he's like, he calls back again. Hi, this is late.

Leave a message. And he goes, I don't think this is working out. It's not you. It's me. And then she picks up and says, don't ever call me again. End scene. End scene. Credits role.

Executive producer, John Fabro. John Fabro definitely has some huge designs. Death Star level designs for the Star Wars universe. By the way, he's directing the solo movie, which I learned today, right? No, Ron Howard directed it. So isn't he involved somehow? Is he not? I thought I looked up a thing.

No, I don't think he is. Ron Howard took over for the dudes that did the Lego movie who, went in to do a Star Wars movie and decided to try to make it like an improv-heavy episode of the state. And it sounds awesome, right? Except the Kathleen Kennedy and all the others are just like, yeah, no. We are more structured than that. You know, I really hope they do a Star Wars series that they do get some of my favorite Star Wars performers to show up, such as... Oh, he's acting in it.

That's what I mean. Such as Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. My gift is my lightsaber. and this one's for you and you can tell everybody these are your droids they may be quite simple but they're all so annoy

if he does show up I imagine you know it may not necessarily be as old or be wanted could be as young he'll be wanted if that's the case you know what he would need? What would he need? Some just for men Yeah you got to collar that shit man

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Slava Malamud, who is an unreliable narrator, if there ever was one, an agenda-driven journalist, did, in fact, offer up quite an entertaining yarn last night on Twitter that the KHL Gagarin Cup playoff tournament has been seized by Vladimir Putin that SKA, St. Petersburg is his team. Oh, that's up end, but the Cherry Poppin Daddy started. That's right, that's right, or the pie tasters or the... Actually, the Cherry Poppy Daddy's ska? I don't think they are.

No, they were Zoot Riot kind of, that thing. So, no, Scott was... I don't know. I was a long time ago. Was it all, ska? was everything scott in the 90s? No, no, the swing. There was swing, the swing revival. That was the cherry pop and daddy. That was the cherry pop and daddies.

They were the big suits. And then there was like real big fish and... Real big fish. Yeah. That's an example. Yeah, there were two different sub-droner as of the music that's no longer heard on the radio. There's a scene in that movie where Brendan Fraser's underground for the, for the, for the, he's in the bomb shelter and then he comes out and meets delicious silver stone. I think that movie.

Yeah. Oh, you mean, you mean... Oh, you mean... Oh, my God. What the hell was the name of that movie? Blast from the past. some pass. Nice, nice pull. So Slava spun a tale where SKA has to win, basically.

And so the referees, it appears, have been instructed to only call penalties on the other teams. There was an example of a game-winning goal where the puck was several feet behind the blue line on his own entries to, or on a power play or a shot from the point, to obviously negate the goal for being offside, but it was upheld. And Slava's whole point is that SLAB's whole point is that Ska-A-A-R-S-K-A. was overloaded. The salary cap was basically tossed out for this team because it was the team where all the Olympians were on it so they could play together and learn how to win. OAR is not a scoban. Not a scoban. OIR is something else. Just so happens it's Putin's team. Putin team. And so it was a delightful tale of KHL corruption. Again, it's Slava. It's not necessarily going to be 100% accurate. The man has an agenda. But for a purely entertaining thread read, the Putin has

sees the KHL playoff narrative is a ton of fun. And also probably believable in some way, shape, or four. I got three tweets deep and I stop reading. Okay. So let's let's, I have no time for tweet threads in general. Point of order. How long will you go with a tweet thread? It depends on what the story is.

Like if it's trying to think of the last tweet thread I remember reading and really enjoying. You ever read the tweet thread about the guy who he was like in college or just out of college and he went to play basketball with his dad and his dad's friends and his dad's friends just owned him on the basketball court. It's a really good. Most of the treat threads I read begin with the phrase, okay, now it's time for a little game. It's so funny. Like, every once in a while, I'll just pop over to that guy's Twitter and just like see

when it is the last time was he tweeted it. And it's never longer than like 14 minutes. It's always in the middle of some sort of thing. Some sort of like, yeah. Ripping someone who wrote about him or you're a Russian body. It's, oh, God, what a website. It is exhausting. It's terrible.

But yeah, I believe it. It's fucking Putin. Putin team. I don't know how that threat ends. but I'm assuming it ends with S.K.A. is going to win the Gagarin. Gagarin. Gagarin.

What kind of a name? What kind of a name is Gagarin? Dateline. That's the other podcast. Dateline playoff race. Mm-hmm. Our beloved devils. Our beloved devils. Go Winnipeg at home at Nashville, at Vegas, at Kings, at Duckeys, at Sharks, at Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay at home.

Will they be in the playoffs after the... that stretch. How many games is that total? Eight? So that is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight games. And they are five points up on the Panthers. And the Panthers have three games in hand.

And the Panthers get to play like Montreal and Edmonton. They have a really good schedule. You need a split. I think four and four is enough? Minimum split. That's the minimum. Anything below that, you're in trouble. Well, they still have Columbus behind them too. So like if Columbus is four and four over that

stretch too they're still going to be fine that's true i mean you do have that that that you know florida's chasing two teams for sure i will say they could probably go three and five in that stretch and still be okay okay like i think if they get six out of 16 points actually yeah now that i say it out loud that sounds like not enough yeah right i know but i mean after that they go they got carolina pittsburgh islanders habs rangers leaps and at washington late leas washington last weekend could be two games that are absolutely meaningless for those teams. I think if they go four and four and four, they're fine for sure. I think so too. Four and four is probably

not all you need, but to come out of those eight games, anything above eight points is good. Will they? That's a murderers row right there. Vegas is falling apart a little bit? I asked John Hines this morning when I was at the skate, like, you know, is this a good thing or a bad thing to have this thing come up right now in March? And he kind of said that like, it's terrible, we're going to lose. No, no, no. He said from like a team perspective, like, hitting Vegas.

and the California teams now might actually be a good tension breaker, which is kind of nuts when you think about how good those teams are. But like, you get a couple days off, you're kind of fucking around on the sunshine a little bit. But they always do the, the thing is, like, they always do the L.A., Anaheim, San Jose thing, three and four.

So you're, like, one of those is going to be a schedule loss for sure. Right. Vegas has been kind of vulnerable lately. Tampa's been winning, but like they're winning like seven, six, they're blowing leads. They've been kind of vulnerable, so it's not great. You got to earn it. And like, I kind of like fact that the devils have to earn it a little bit.

Yeah, Nashville's been resting guys. Maybe you go in there on the night. Nashville's not playing like Suban and Johansson or something. Carolina's four out. Are they done? How many games in hand do they have on? They have no games is in hand. They would have fired their coach.

I'd give them some more of a chance, but. Dallanders are sixth out. Are they done? Yeah, they're done. Yeah, I think they're done too. Caroline's probably done too. What do you think happens to snow? Do you think he's going to?

I mean, like, I know that. I can't figure it out. I can't. Because of the contract thing that we've talked about exclusively on this podcast? It's, it's, it doesn't make any sense. Like, Carolina has been the Islanders, well, I guess it had been technically worse than the islanders because they haven't gone to the playoffs. But like all these teams, like the Rangers and Carolina,

are teams that have been ahead of the Islanders pretty much all season. And they're like, yeah, we got a clean house here one way or the other. And the Islanders are like Brandon Davidson. That's going to be what turns the ship around. I don't know. I feel like they have to let him go. But it's a stupid sport, man. You just hire an ex-player as second he retires and he's got a job for life.

It's so bizarre that you got this Tavares thing hanging over what's going to now be a non-playoff year. Like, I figured the, I know that the whole notion of the optics of like, you got to make the playoffs to keep Tavares is there is probably not true. But no. I also kind of feel like, if you're John, like, if you're John DeVaris and you look at that deadline, you're like, what the fuck's the Calvary? Like, what are we doing? Yeah, like, right? Like, we're not traded me. What are we doing?

You know? Like, where's, where's, where's, where's, where's, he looks behind him over his shoulder at the blue line. He's like, where's that? Where's the help there? I mean, we have a second round pick. We could have gotten Michael Grabner and got no goals in six games. I know. What I tell you? What I tell you? Pat Maroon, though. Hey? Well, I mean, Taylor Hall was just like here. I know. Score goal. Score goal against the Canadian stars. Over in the Western Conference, Dallas has got 80 points. So they're three up on Colorado. The Kings in Colorado, what was to do this podcast? You're tied at 77 with Calgary one back and San Luis, two back. How do you think that shakes out? Assuming the wild are going to be all right, which they should be.

You got your Dallas, you got your Kings, you got your Colorado, you got your Calgary, you got your San Luis. I think that shakes out. Who's in the first wild card spot? Dallas. So it's Dallas 80, L.A.'s. Who's the second one? 77, L.A., 77, Colorado, 76, Calgary, 75, St. Louis. And Calgary is in the worst position.

They have only 14 games left. So Colorado is one point behind the last spot behind L.A. Yeah. Kings have 10 at home, six on the road, Colorado, 8 and 8. And Dallas, 5 and 10, by the way. Five home, 10 on the road? Yeah. I don't think Dallas is going to, I don't think Dallas will fade. I think it's probably, I think it's going to be Dallas and L.A. I still don't think Colorado's going to do it. But L.A. just got Jeff Carter back. They're finally going to have Jeff Carter for the last full month or so. I think that'll be enough to get them in. I'm going to go off the board. Dog, who you got, dog?

LA Calgary. And Dallas doesn't make it. Hitch isn't going to let that happen. I hope not. I think the world is a better place to Dallas stars in the playoffs. The Dallas Stars missing anybody? Like, Hansel's out, right? That's it.

They're not really banged up at all. Just a notion, just a feeling. Calgary. Yeah. Except that Calgary Vegas first rounder. Mike Smith's still out. Maybe, probably not. No, my cause right now is to somehow ensure

that the king's finished in the first wildcards we can get Vegas, LA in the first round. And then LA just thrashes Vegas. Right. John, the quick pitch is fucking four straight shutouts. Just so. Yeah.

So much for that hangover, huh? All right. Well, that's the playoff picture. Everybody likes me to talk about hockey. And now we're going to talk about something hockey adjacent. I've got another of our patented puck soup quizzes for Dave Lozo today.

Oh, I forgot about this. Yeah. And this one definitely has a little bit of hockey in it, but also other things that I know Dave likes. The name of the quiz is called Madness. sadness and catness. And this is a quiz where I'm going to give you a name.

Oh, fuck. I haven't seen any of those movies. Oh, boy. All right, go ahead. This is a quiz where I'm going to give you a name. And the name is either going to be a current player for what will be an NCAA Division I March Madness tournament team. And by the way, this name will be amongst the top five scorers in the team.

I'm not picking bench bums. Yeah, I don't have any of that sort of in me to get those. I know the big players. That's the madness. That's the madness. This whole quiz is the madness. The sadness is the name could also be an NHL first round pick that never played a game in the NHL. I'm very sad about that.

Bad drafting is sad. I thought sadness was going to be like names of Rutgers basketball players, but okay. I also considered emo band members. And Catniss is obviously going to be something with the Hunger Games, right? Katniss is characters from the Hunger Games. Yeah, boy. Let's begin. Got no chance.

10 questions 6 to win Okay 7 to win C average Yeah 70 70 is a passing grade Seneca crane Already

I'm gonna rule out hockey I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with basketball Seneca crane is the head game maker Of the 74th Hunger Games Fuck So that's no

Damn All right Okay Sviatislav Miljjoki milhiyuk Siaz Siaf

Miljouk How you spell the Milhuk M-Y-K H-A I-L-I-U-K Milt-Euk Sehastislav Milhuk

Madness Correct, he's a garden for the Kansas Jayhaw I was going to say he's like some European guy who shoots threes Yeah, he's a real

Serunish martialonis. Yeah, like he plays nine That's the game. He's 4-4-4 from the field with 12 points. Philippe Paradis. Oh, that's a hockey player. That is. Number 27 pick 2009, Carolina Hurricanes. Never played in the NBA NHHL.

Almost Paradis. Ducin Ristic. Ducin. Ducin? Is this like a guy in the Hunger Games who poops everywhere? Ducin Ristic. Yeah, I'll go Hunger Games. Ducin Ristic is a center for the Arizona Wildcats. Incorrect. That is the madness, sir.

Kane Broome. Cane Broome What am I? Two for four? Oh, Kane Broome, that's Woody Harrelson in the movies, isn't it? No, no. I'm not saying yes or no.

I'm looking for you to lock in your answer on Kane Broome, which sounds like a very fancy broom that an old man would use. I think it's a basketball player. Correct. He's a guard for the Cincinnati Bearcats. Yeah.

Luca Serrata. Catch the vibes. Luca Serrara. Sirata. Catch the vibe. Luca Serrata. Lucas Serrata. What a wonderful name.

That sounds like an unsuccessful Italian hockey player. That's good. He's number 24, 1999. Toronto Maple Leafs, you are correct. What am I? Like six? You got one, two, three, four, correct? Out of six.

Oh, yeah. We're cooking. We're cooking. Killian Tilly. Killian Tilly. It's Jennifer Tilly's a daughter. Yeah. Who was named after the bad guy.

He named my daughter, Killian. Who's killing, killing? William is a bad guy in total recall. Killian. Killian sounds like that should be the villain of most Schwarzenegger movies. Yeah.

Killian. Killian. Yeah, that is totally a Schwarzenegger bad guy anyway because I can hear him saying. You're dead, Doug Jones. You're all the dead one, Killian.

Now is Sean Connery. It's a James Bond movie with Schwarzenegger. I named a dog, Killian. That's got to be. the Hunger Games. Killing and Tilly is a forward for Gonzaga. Damn.

Killian, what was this last name? Tilly. Tilly. Tilly. Tilly. Tilly. Shit, I was watching the Gonzaga B.Y.U. Ging, Tilly. Killing. Tilly. Finik O'Dare. Oh, Finnicodair.

Oh, it should have you gonna. You're playing along, by the way. Finik O'Dare? Hunger Games. Finik O'Dare is the male tribute from District 4 who was reaped into the third quarter quell. I don't know what any of that means.

That sounds good. Oh, is that the one that's played by Josh Hutcherson? No, that, of course, was... Oh, man, I forget that kid's name. But he was a breadmaker. He was a breadmaker? Like Arias' friend on Game of Thrones. Hot pie.

Sasha... Basketball. Absolutely, that's basketball. Sasha Pukolok. Basketball. Was drafted 14th in 2005 of the Washington Capitals. But like no hockey player ever goes by Sasha. That's always a nickname.

Yeah. Sasha was like totally the guy who shoots three. And finally, after Seneca Cranes and Sviaslav, Belehookis, and Duce and Re-Sticks and Kee and Re-Sticks and Kee and Tilly's. This is for the game, right? One, two, three, four, five. Are my stuck on five? You're five. Oh, five.

Six is a D. Six is a D. After all these names, it comes down to this. a passing grade is it so passing it's a 60 is a D isn't it I thought 70 was the cutoff 90 to 100s in A

Oh yeah 80 to 90 is a B you're right 70 and so this would be a D This is for all the D you can handle This is for I need the D Give me the D

After all these wacky names Cain brooms Lucas Serratas Killian Tillies Finneco dares It comes down to this Nick Ross So you give me all these goofy names

and I throw a change up like He just throw me this crafty Fake-ass American Greg Maddox White lacrosse player Fucking the ACCC name Nick Ross Nick Ross

Gonna go hockey Nick Ross Was Drafted 30th By the Phoenix Coyotes in 2007 A defense minute You get a D I want the D

I get the D Ladies and gentlemen The man The man has a D Sasha If Sasha is real name Or is his real name Like Alexander

or like Slava or Biatra Slav. I honestly have no idea when we're going to do the next show. Do you have tournament picks? Do you know what you're picking yet? Like who do you think the – Obviously, it's contingent on the bracket, but are there – is there two teams maybe that you think are going to win? I can't tell you that yet.

Okay. I do like filling over, though. Right. You have to see whether a bear cat would beat a Chanticleer in a fight. I always do three brackets. One is like a really well-thought-out one. The second one is kind of like a couple of tweaks. And then the third one is just like – I'm looking for that.

George Mason final four. So I could have the tournament won by the final four. But yeah, I like Xavier and Nova. That's sweet, sweet, sweet. Don't like the Big 12 or the Big Ten this year. Cinderella. What am I put my phone down for? We still have stuff.

That's right. We have a mailbag, ladies gentlemen, or a question to the day, more like, the mailbags on the Patreon. By the way, for those who didn't see the Gary Betman March Madness bonus episode dropped. Oh, by the way, did we never answer the question from the mailbag last week that we did. We didn't. I thought of that when I got home. It was like a fuck Mary kill that we didn't do.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, it was really funny. We got to go back and find that one. I appreciated that. One of the latest one star reviews on iTunes, by the way, was a guy who claimed, I don't know if you saw this. You still read those? I did.

This one was a favorite. Give it to me. He claimed he listened to every episode that we've done. Every one. And the, and the Patreon episodes. Okay. And has determined that we are bad. He says that you are a bleacher report wann-be.

And that he suggests the people listen to 30. one thoughts and spit and chicklets instead. I'm literally the opposite of a bleach report or wannabe because I left there when I didn't want to come back. Because I didn't want to go back. That's the last thing I could do. Listen, I think it's obviously a bullshit review. But there's a part of me that wishes it were true that someone said, look, I'm going to see if I, if this puck soups for me and listen to every episode we ever did before leaving an iTunes review. They got to like, I know, they got to like episode 76 and they were like, nope.

I tried it. Yeah. I gave it a good full two years. Yeah. I think that's just somebody who just likes 31 thoughts better and then just made up the beginning part. Oh, I mean, that was me. I like 31 thoughts better. Come on.

You learn something. Got an idea, Greg. Ready? Yeah. 32 thoughts. So it's one better. So obviously, we have more thoughts. Yeah.

We'll just do 301 more thoughts. That's the thing. We talked about that. When in Seattle comes then, what does he do? He's just going to be, seriously. But at some point, like, the NFL is going to have like 45 teams and LA is just going to be like, yeah. I was watching.

uh, uh, parks and rec. That was a pretty good episode. 46. Right. The thing about Rob Lowe is, you know, he's just going to, he's not going to have, he's just going to have to throw stuff out there. 53. Knock, knock.

54. parentheses. Who's there? 55. Radic. 56. Radic who? 57.

Radical. Radical, dude. Radical, dude. Radical too. And like, just like, just like, some editor just like reading his thing like am i allowed to do anything with this i shouldn't touch this right like people like this and merrick's like curious i'm gonna be covering all 75 thoughts this week elliott and like marik starts doing his own like how many how many junior hockey teams are there

technically like 130 130 130 junior hockey thoughts listen if we're going to do this podcast anymore we're going to change some things it's no longer to be going to be 81 thoughts it's going to be 275 thoughts about junior hockey teams. It's going to be called Mem thoughts where he just says member the time junior hockey and Oh, what's your, before we get to the question in the week, what is your, what is your take on

Ready Player 1 by the way? Oh, I don't know. This Spielberg movie. I haven't seen it. All right. Well, have you seen the ads for it? Because basically what it is, it's the memberberry movie. It's all, it's like Roger Rabbit,

but with all of the pop culture references that we would like. Is it? I thought it was just like a movie that takes place. It's like a dystopian thing. It takes place in a video. game and also the dystopian future but the video game is just like a made up video game that like we didn't play right I thought no it's but that's just it's like a video game in the future

that has all pop culture references to today so like kit could race against the back to the future car oh oh yeah I didn't notice the back to the future car in the preview thing yeah I didn't know what was going on I'm never this seems like a movie that you're going to fucking hate oh I'm never going to watch like I'm not even I've reached a point after three billboards now where if the movie looks bad I'm not going to do it myself I'm just gave up on movies I'm just happy when it lost it to the fish fucking movie Lady Bird got robbed man yeah it kind of did

they at least could have given Greta well I don't know like it's tough because Del Toro probably deserved best director have you seen the shape of water did you see it no but I mean he's been great stuff before that I haven't seen it either I give me the Oscar for Hellboy um and like and like Get Out winning best screenplay is great

that's a good thing my feeling was like I thought I thought Lady Bird was a better script but I thought get out was a better story yeah So, like, it was really close. Yeah, it's funny. Like, I don't mind they get out. When we talk about, like, the NHL Awards, like, the old joke about the Norris Trophy is that we always give it to the defensemen who deserved the year before. You know, it's never like the person who's the best defense for that year.

It's always like the year before. The best director, Oscar, like, I don't give a shit if that person didn't have the best movie. If it's somebody that I like that hasn't been rewarded sufficiently for their body of work. Like, there's going to be a year where. Like Sam Rockwell. Yeah. Like Christopher Nolan's going to make a GoBots movie. And it's going to suck.

but he's going to be up for an Oscar for it. I'm just like, you know what, you know what, Dark Knight, all this other shit. Give that man the Oscar for GoBots. Instead of Mark Wahlberg, it stars Donnie Wahlberg. Right. No effort at all into the story. It's just, I think we got to go kill the GoBots or the bad ones, whatever the bad ones are. Yeah, like some director that I love, like some, you know, like somebody, like Greta Gerwig's going to direct a green lantern movie or some shit. It's going to make a billion dollars, and she's up her best director. Of course, give her the fucking Oscar for that. She deserves something. Lady Bird, too. And, like, instead of it being about, like, you know, growing up or whatever, like,

Lady Bird's now, like, Bruce Willis and, like, in, like, a building trying to kill people. Oh, yeah. Wow. She's so much crittier. Yeah. Like, she has, like, a bunch of, like, cool catchphrases. The best director award can easily be a lifetime achievement award. I don't give a shit about that.

That's why I search her own and didn't win is because she's, she's, like, she's 23 or whatever. So she'll win one eventually, and then whatever. But also because, like, Francis, Francis McNorman's the crazy cat lady, and we all wanted to see what she was going to say when she got up there. But she's won before, though, right? She won for Fargo. I think it's, I think it's legit a thing where, like, if you, if you're crazy and you've given great, and you've given great speeches in the other award shows, you're totally going to win because they want to know what you're going to say. Here's, here's how I think all these movies got nominated. Nobody watched the screeners.

They just got them and they never watched them. But three billboards and the shape of water are just really good titles to movies. Yeah, they are. So they were just like, all right, shape of water. Yeah, that sounds like an elegant movie that takes place in British times. And it's about a man who purifies. Nope. Yeah.

Lady fucks a fish. Right. Lady Bird. Pretty easy. No, that's why Lady Bird didn't win. Oh, didn't win because... Because it sounds like a movie about a person who's part lady, part bird. You're right.

That's a good point. And meanwhile, Noah Baumbach is back home being like, how the fuck did the Marwit stories not get nominated? Like the Florida Project, they were just like, that sounds like a documentary about like OJ, the Jews. It's actually a documentary about how they fired Dale Tallon. Florida Project. It's good stuff. Yeah, there's an OJ confession. thing coming on TV, by the way, on Sunday.

On Sunday on Fox. We talked about that. There's never going to be a confession. Yeah, but it's always going to be... That's what it's called, though. OJ. It's time to come clean. Well, if I did.

Hypothetically speaking. If I were to have committed double murder. Why isn't he on ESPN tomorrow for a show called Hypothetically Speaking? You know what bugs me is the fact that the OJ show on FX was so good? And now we're making all these other ones that are like it that aren't good. Disagree.

Did you see? the one that they're going to do? Which one? Hulk Hogan versus Gawker is going to be one of those shows. No, I didn't see that. And I'm in for that just to see all my friends be portrayed by actors, like A.J. Delarioioioio and stuff. You're not my friend. He's an acquaintance. When is that supposed to be? I don't know. I think they just sold

the guy who wrote the book on it just sold the story. That means we're going to get an actor playing Hulk Hogan, an actor playing Nick Denton, an actor playing Aja Delario, an actor playing Peter Thiel. I'm there for that. What is that going to be? Why did we not do that today instead of the... An actor playing Barry Pacheschi in the in the Deadspin newsroom. Patrice Bergeron will play Barry.

Didn't Barry dress up as Patrice Bergeron one Halloween? I was trying to find that photo a lot of the time we go to like tweet out of him and I couldn't find it. Once in future Puck Soup, yes, Barry Pacheski. All right. Our question of the week is a good one because it is as we do the show, International Women's Day. And so we asked a question just for the ladies that listen. I'm sorry, the people who identify as female, as you so eloquently put in the question of the day. I just realized we didn't add for just for men on.

show. Now we're doing a thing that's International Women's Day thing. You know, you've got to bounce it up. Synergy. The question of the day was, simply put, for anyone identifying as woman only, what are some of the things the NHL can do to make hockey more palatable to you? Sylvia Izzo Hunter writes in. That's Tom Izzo's relations.

Less of this stuff. Celebrating players and others with histories of assault, vocal homophobia, and or intimate partner. violence. Don Cherry. Skimpy impractical outfits on female members of ice crews, lip service, too hockey is for everyone. More of this stuff. Women commentators doing commentary. Meaningful engagement with women's leagues and teams. Meaningful censure consequences for players or others who engage in violent, sexist, racist, and or LGBTQ phobic behavior on the ice or off it. That covers a large swath of them, I'm sure what other people are.

have said. All right. That's all the time. We have... There's one response that was like, you know, Les Patrick Kane on TV. Yeah. And then there's a response to that from some guy.

And the first two words of his response are, honest question. Oh, Jesus. What do you think followed? Nothing you want to read. Rebecca Sutter writes in, Carrie women's jerseys and team colors, not cutie pink crap.

I went to buy a jersey and the blue jackets have no women's jerseys with names or numbers for sale, off shelf, and team store. Had to wait to be sewn on or shift at least give us Falino and Bobrovsky. That's true, like, the most popular players should be available in every cut of jersey. See, I've heard the opposite, though. I've heard women say, like, they don't want the women's jerseys.

They just want to have regular jerseys that everybody else has. I think the thing is, is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution in any of this stuff. I mean, as you'll see as we get into this, like, a lot of women are like, don't do anything special for me. Yeah. Yeah. Zoe writes in... Just be better overall your jobs. Put more women in commentator and analyst chairs.

That I completely... Like, there's absolutely no reason why you can't have a woman on the NBC panel that's not hosting to break the game down. Women never played in the NHL. Yeah. They need to find a woman who, let me find you to find, like, the fabulous mullah of NHL commentary, who was a women's player back in the 80s. So she can be the female Milbury and be like, yeah, you know what they need more fighting. And then she'll fit in perfectly on that panel. Who does it now?

There's Cassie and is there anybody else? like Cassie's between the benches on someone just was going to do the yeah the women's game yeah AJ yeah AJ Motsko yeah did it yeah so have her to do it yeah that's two so

Zoe also says train and ice women officials oh that's a good one too hire more women in the front office stop promoting those abuse histories and work on knowing how the women's teams work on knowing about the women's teams as much as the men's teams stop referring to win players only by the relationship to men, i.e., I guess that's the Amanda Kessel. As Phil Kessel's sister once said.

That was the thing that pissed me off about the Olympics was like, I'm sure there are infinitely more qualified people as far as the ins and outs of the American Canadian rivalry and these women's teams and everything else that could have done the games. Than Pierre McGuire? I mean, that was that was... Pierre McGuire was constantly, like, surprised during the entire Olympics that, like, women could do stuff. He was like, he was like, both Farrell and Anchorman.

Like he was like, man, women could do stuff. Shannon writes in, and this is one that I think is echoed by a lot of people, amongst other things, treat us like any other hockey fan. Male hockey fans, please don't mansplain the game to me. This is an issue that stretches beyond the male, female dynamic of hockey fans, which is that every hockey fan inherently believes the person that they meet that's also a hockey fan here in the States knows less than them. Got it. Like, that's the heart of almost every single, well, actually, response. It's just someone knows something and they just want to let you know they know it. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's definitely a male-female dynamic issue, but it's also a new fan issue.

And it sucks. Because then you've, then it becomes another sort of like obstacle put in your place to understanding the game when someone's like, well, actually. Yeah. You know, it's just, that's not cool. Like, I know women get the splaining more than we do, but trust us on this. Like, we had fucking sprained by fucking idiots all the fucking. time. I say fuck a lot, don't I? Here, CK20 says nothing. I don't want to be catered to. I love the game and don't need it to be

presented to me in a special way. If you do, you probably shouldn't be watching it. I think there's a certain, um, uh, like, mindset out there. And I, and I, and I do agree with it in some ways that when there is special, special treatment for, for women, um, with regard to, like, getting more women to watch hockey, it's always in that sort of like hockey and heels, special lady's night kind of way. You know what? Here's what I'll say about that. And I'll probably get y'all that for it, but that's fine.

Like those hockey and heels things where they're like, hey, are you a desperate housewife? Are you a, are you keeping up with the Kardashians? Well, come on out to a Kardashian housewife trivia thing at the arena and we'll also tell you how off sides works. Like, it's condescending if you know hockey. But like, if you're a woman who doesn't, like, and you like those things and that's a way to get you to the arena, like maybe that's for those women and not for the women that already love hockey.

And that's what I said earlier. It's kind of tough with anything. It's like a not, there's no one size fits all thing. Yeah. Like I totally get it. Like if you've been following hockey since you were five and you're like, I don't need that.

Of course you don't. Yeah. Ring rebel speaks that. Stop acting like we're idiots who only watch hockey because our significant others make us the hockey and heels that serves to literally teach a hockey rules 101 kind of thing infuriates me. Actually give a shit and do something about domestic and sexual violence. Actually give a shit and do something about homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism.

Yeah. All that. And also, like she said, like, there's a certain case, like, like, your man loves hockey. Here's a way for you to love it, too. Right. Like, I understand the difference, too, because, like, there's never, like, dude that don't like the sport and there's never, like, a promotion that says, hey, do you like Ted and Ted two?

Well, come on out to the arena and take a TED quiz and learn about how, like, there isn't anything for that. So I understand that. But, like, it could be an entry point for certain people. Once in future, Puck Soup guest Sarah Baker writes in. Oh, Sarah. Hire more female staff. Where are the female support staff on game days?

where are the female refs? Where are the women in the league's different departments represent us? An excellent salient point because there needs to be an entry point to then move up the chains and move up the rankings and move up the power structure of these organizations. And they aren't getting even the lowest level of jobs to then make the climb. You know who does see that? And again, I'm going to get yelled at about this. I've heard from ice girls that say like that's their way into the organization,

which of course shouldn't be the only way in. I understand that. but well you know that's vicious valky is not going to like that yeah i'm okay she says get rid of the women as eye candy ice girls don't do patronizing pink ladies nights and gear more female play a play play color commentators uh yeah and many other things have been echoed already the ice girls thing is a conundrum and where i've stood on that for years is that if you're going to have ice girls you got to have ice boys i'm looking at you Vegas Vegas where they have ice girls dressed like like you know,

dancers at the at the showgirls, Elizabeth Berkeley, uh, bursting out of the volcano. I don't remember them. They're not scantily clad, but they're definitely not clad. But the boy,

but hold on. Well, the point is that the boys are all, think of like the outfit that Maximus wore and Gladiator, but then a potato sack on top of it. Like the men are completely covered up. And I'm thinking to myself, it's Vegas.

Like if there's one place you expect that to be skin on the ice of both genders, it's going to be there and they don't even do it there. So you're feeling is either either all scantily clad or don't have them at all, like do what the Rangers do, and it's just people in windbreakers and right, yeah, just cover it all up. Yeah. I mean, you don't need them. You definitely, here's the thing about the ice girls, too, is, is like, like, I'm a dude. I like looking at half-naked women. I'm a big fan of that. But, like, when I'm at a hockey game, I don't need it. Like, I'm never, like, the only time I'm ever at a hockey game and I'm looking out on the ice

during a TV timeout or whatever is when, you know, I'm not in the bathroom. I'm not going to get food. I'm not going to get beer. Like, I just, I feel like you don't need it. Like, you know, the idea is like, oh, dude's are. going to go out there and leer. I feel like most people aren't. Like, you don't need it for any purpose. It doesn't serve any functional purpose either way. So why you even have it is sort of my argument. Finally, for me, we'll go with Nikki B here. LGBQIA and a person of color representation on the ice behind the scenes. No racist logos. Better oversight at arenas to monitor the drunk heckling, threatening people in the audience. That's a key. More research into CTE, sponsor women's

team and cross-promotion with local women's teams. The in-game issues are Legion for women at hockey games, and hopefully there is a policing of that at the arena. But I think that she makes the point, and it's a good one that, you know, it's not simply just having women involved. Like, I think women will feel more welcome in the big tent of the NHL if it seems like everybody is more invited into it. You know, if there is more representation across the board of different races and different

genders, you know, I think the fact that. it's a monolithic white male league is is is repellent to a lot of people yeah as the two white males talk about this on their as a white man let me tell you no but the point she makes though about like let me tell you about a movie called boyhood that really talks about my struggles no but like there is definitely that thing that we don't consider is like when you're a woman and you say it's just you and a woman who go to a game together it's two of you like you want to feel safe while you're there you don't want to feel like you could possibly be threatened or assaulted because you're cheering for the wrong team and like we don't ever think about that because we're

dudes and that's not that's just not wired into our brain so yeah that would be a nice a nice change and finally step driver got 104 favorites on this so he might as well mention it specifically bruce driver's uh stop using uh actually a baby driver's wife step driver oh then we can't read this on the show i'm sorry she took his name which that was step baby driver stop using patrick kane's face in every single promotion and then rachel chimes in oh and maybe don't use broadcasters who feel the need to say on camera that it's sad Slava Voinoff no longer plays in the NHL. Yeah, but he drops to clubs occasionally, so I love the guy.

Fucking Milbury, man. I mean, yeah, okay. So we've identified the problem. It's Miller. That's a good point, too. Like, the fact that you're, if you're ever behind the NFL and stuff, that's always a bad sign. And the NFL has, for sure, at least one woman referee. I know for fact.

Yeah. It may be more than one. And the NFL also has a commissioner, or at least a league that has admitted that there is a linkage between their contact support and CTE. So baby steps, lozo. So got to get there first. By the way, real quick on that real sports thing that came out this past week about concussions. Oh, I never.

Well, they didn't get anybody from the NHL to talk about it. And I'm sure there were excuses that the lawsuits ongoing, so they're not going to say anything on camera about concussions. But the one problem I had with it, I mentioned the other night, was that they kept on saying on real sports like, you know, Brian Cumble. You know, the NFL has been on the forefront of criticism for its approach to concussions and CTE. the National Hockey League has flown under the radar. I'm like, the National Hockey League is what? Like, when Derek Bougard died,

you know, and everybody else died, I'm pretty sure the NHL was at the forefront of sports media as far as fighting, concussions, CTE, self-medication, and everything else. Like, I don't think for a fucking second that the hockey hasn't been in the mix for this concussion stuff. Maybe not on the level of the NFL. It sure shit has been in the news.

That's probably what he means. It's like just in general hockey's below the radar. Yeah, but like, it's not as if like hockey's like, please don't notice us. Please don't notice us. You know, come on. They've gotten their, their, their criticism for sure. Well, I mean, based on everything they do, I think the league's policy is, please don't notice this.

Please don't. We're not going to the Olympics. Don't look. All right. That's the show for this week. Join us next week where we might have a guest. Our friend Pete Blackburn from CBS and the brunch podcast will be on soon. Next week?

Two weeks. Two weeks. Maybe. Maybe. And then... I miss being young where, like, I could plan to go to, like, a city for a weekend and then, like, bail on it two days before I have to go. Because I don't have any hotel room reservations. I'm staying with a friend.

Like, I miss those days. But thanks, Pete. We had two good bits this week. Necessity is a mother invention. Well, as we all know, Pete's sexist. You don't remember that part on Twitter? Oh, that's right. Because you wrote about the skier from the Olympics.

Like, everybody else did, and then he got destroyed. Can't have him on an international. I'm Greg Wischinsky, the ESPN. And you can follow me on Twitter at Wishinsey. You can follow all my work at ESPN.com. Had a big story that dropped on Thursday about the NHL's core development program, which is a program that they want players to use to figure out what they're going to do after what? No, no, no, no. To figure out what they're going to do after the playing days are done and the players don't want to use it because they don't want to think about when they have to retire.

And then on Friday, there should be a pretty big e-sports story that drops in ESPN as well. And what do you got, Lozo? You mean like from entourage? Yeah, it's about He got Vinny He got Vinny the Call of Duty game Oh Looks like Vinny's going to war

Oh no Vinny Vinny's out of the call duty game now Uh Taylor Hall for MVP Taylor Hall for MVP That's on the internet today All right Fuck everybody else

All right We'll talk you next week Except Nathan McKinnon maybe Blubleble See ya Bye For an enviable beard And healthy feeling skin underneath

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