Puck Soup - Matt Porter

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

Greg, Ryan and Sean discuss Drew Doughty's sourness towards Matthew Tkachuk and Brent Burns; the best playoff format; the future of Ilya Kovalchuk; a serious chat about hockey fighting and concussions; the end of Roberto Luongo; those St. Louis bagels and some dangerous words about Montreal bagels; and Ryan gives the boys an NCAA hockey quiz. Plus, Matt Porter of the Boston Globe joins us to talk life and pucks. Sponsored by Seat Geek and Caavo!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. I'm Greg Wichinsky of ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert from Yahoo. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. Boy, are you.

And you're in Puck Soup. Little did we know, boys, that it would be the end of March in the midst of a playoff race and a player on a team, a country mile outside the postseason, would be the biggest name of the week. Drew Dowdy, Feudin with Matt Kachuk talking about the Norris Trophy voting. First, let's start with Dowdy Kachuk. Best personal rivalry in hockey right now? I think it might be.

Yeah. It's certainly of the ones that are public, or at least half public. I'm sure there's lots of cases where two guys hate each other and they just kind of deal with it on their own. But as far as just going out of your way to call attention to it, yeah, this one would have to be right up there. We used to have a heyday of these sorts of things. I feel like Ryan Kessler was feuding with half the league at one point. Oh, yeah. So like, it's good that we have one where there's general, general animosity.

And it was also interesting, Eric Francis, who's not, you know, my favorite reporter, but, but, you know, to his credit, does a good thing where every time Drew Dowdy comes to Calgary or the Flames play the Kings, he just sticks a microphone in front of Dowdy's face and he's just like, go. So, Maca Chuck, go. And at first out, he's like, oh, you know, he's pretty good at what he does, you know, a little annoying. And then the next time he's like, you know, a lot of my friends in this league don't like the guy. And now it's just like, fuck him. Ah, garg, mark, margle. It's really the escalation of things. And maybe it's just dowdy being pissed off about his lot in life this year.

Or maybe MacKichuk is that damn good as a pest. Yeah, I do like that. I like the my friends don't like you thing. That is very, very great school. Like, it's not just me. Yeah, all my friends hate you too. They just won't. say it.

Right. Yeah, like, I think, I think a lot of the Kachuk hate, like, that he gets generally is a lot like the Marshand stuff from like three years ago when he didn't really play the old Marshand way anymore. And he was also insanely good. But everybody acted like he was just like a pest and that's it. Right. Because Matthew Kachuk's having an awesome season.

Like, he's really, really good. and he doesn't really do the kind of shit he did even last year anymore. Like, if you actually sit down and watch a Flames game, and obviously I'm not on the ice with the guy and maybe getting a cross-check in the back and a nasty word or any of that kind of stuff. Like, Doughty undoubtedly is, but, you know, it really scans to me as one of those things where it's like, I hate who this guy was three years ago

and my opinion had to change. Right. Yeah. It's cemented. He's always going to be that guy. I mean, you know, the thing about Marchand that's interesting is that I, gone are the days when he's tilt-twirling Sammy Salo. Like, he's not that guy necessarily anymore to do that sort of shit. I think he's now just more of a, like, like, to put it in wrestling parlance, he used to be a high spot guy and now he's just a really good talker.

You know what I mean? Well, but he's also a really good worker, right? Like he didn't, he maybe used to have just like, like he was a hoovintude Guerrera. And now we're talking about him. But he was a hovintude Guerrata type where he didn't do very much. But man, that 450 kicked ass, right? Now, hold on. Could we pause for a second?

In case you guys didn't know, my single favorite moment in the history of Raw was the debut of Chris Jericho. When they did the countdown to the millennium and Jericho shows up, he gets one of the biggest pops in the history of the business. but on that same show, people forget that he had the back and forth with the rock. That was the first person he interacted with in the WWF. And your Hovintood Guerrero thing is one of the greatest rock lines of all time are completely underrated. It doesn't involve pie or smackdowns or anything, so nobody talks about it. But when Jericho showed up on Raw, the Rock said you've been spending the last like 10 years wrestling guys named Hovintood. It's just like

So vicious Anyways So yeah I mean He's still Like Marchand will still get his Pardon the pun Lixen

But I don't think he's nearly As Nefarious as he used to be With the physicality Oh that's what I'm saying Yeah And instead of that He became a guy

Who's just going to score 40 goals every year Right But he still licks people Like let's not let's not act like he's suddenly transformed and, you know, he's, he's still that guy. But he's also a guy that he is a good player. He is, and you're right. That's what I'm saying.

He's still, he still has that. Like, he's still, he's still the guy who can pull out the big spot, like Greg said. But, you know, he mixes that in with just being like, you know, Kenny Omega and he's just a really good worker too. And occasionally, yeah, he's going to do a moon salt off the top rope. Yeah, but the other thing with this, and this relates to Kachuk as well and some other guys, like there is still such a thing in hockey as just having a really punchable face. Like, there are guys that just have the ability to just look at you and smirk and, like, you just, I mean, you're watching at home and you want to see somebody punch them, let alone you'd be actually playing against them.

So, and that's, you know, I hate that this is true because I wish this didn't exist in the NHL. But it's kind of a skill almost, you know, to be able to do that. And, you know, Marchand's a guy who's perfected it. He knows that he can just drive these guys crazy. And, you know, obviously, you know, I don't know if Kachuk is at that level yet, but he is with Drew Doughty because the fact that this is ongoing and you saw it in the game this week. Yeah, I mean, these guys are. are able to get under the skin of people and potentially draw them into situations that otherwise they they wouldn't want any part of. What we need is for these guys to actualize on that Corey Perry level of being incredible heart trophy quality players, but also gigantic assholes.

I think Perry might have been the guy with the highest, you know, ability versus irritability. ratio in the NHL at one point. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because he was an asshole. Yeah. You're right. It usually is the fourth liners, but these guys, maybe we're in this new. That's how much skill there is in the NHL now. Even the punchable faces are all skill guys now.

There's just no room for the noble fourth liner anymore. By the way, speaking of Kach's and punchable faces, Brady Kachuk. Oh, boy, that is, that really, when he gets the smart going, boy, boy. That's a really punchable face. Yeah. That's a really punchable face. Absolutely. He will be getting there.

He kind of reminds me of like a villainous version of Jack Eichol in the way he looks. He's like an evil, an evil Jack Eichael. So everybody said like, you know, when he went to BU, everybody's like, oh, he plays just like his brother. He's going to be around the net 100% of the time. And I was at his first college game ever. And he ended his first shift lying on top of the goalie. And I was like, okay, I get it with this guy. All right.

The other thing that drew daddy said that was interesting, because, you know, it's funny when you go from bitching about a pest to then shitting all over one of your opponents, he said that he was baffled by the Norris trophy love for Brent Burns because if you watch Brent Burns, he gets beat like three times a game. And then kind of went into that territory of saying that the Norris trophy shouldn't just be for the best offensive defenseman, which I think is, you know, That's funny. Like, I think, you know, his comments about Kachuk didn't go over all that well. They were seen as whining. And then he says the Norris Trophy stuff. And I think a lot of people were like, oh, yeah, this is totally on point. There was so many people had agreed with reality this week as far as, like, the deficiencies in the Norris Trophy.

I was actually stunned by how well it went over. Yeah, which surprised me because. Because that seemed to me like that was him whining. Yeah, right. Because, like, he's having a shitty season by his standards. and he's very mad that Drudeau, or that Brent Burns and Eric Carlson in the same state as him,

you know, they're getting all the love for it because they're actually having really good years. Well, Carlson, I guess, has been heard a lot, but... The thing that struck me is, like, I... Saying that somebody annoysier or that you don't respect them or, you know, somebody that you've actually had,

you know, back and forth with on the, is kind of one thing. Just pointing to another star player and saying, like, he's not as good as people think. You know, even though he did try to dress it up with, you know, he was complimentary as far as Brent Burns offensively. But to go and say that, you know, a guy gets beat three times a game, like that, that struck me as very odd and kind of out of nowhere. And, you know, I don't, whether it's whining or just something else or just frustration from a terrible season, like that really struck me as strange. Have you got a problem with somebody, you know, one to one and you want to voice that? I mean, that's, I think to an extent, that's fine.

But to just kind of out of nowhere, at least as far as we know it's out of know, maybe there's something else going on here that is kind of feeding into this. But to just, you know, one star player take a run at another star player's skill level and, you know, level of play, that struck me as more much stranger and much more interesting than him just being pissed off by a guy who, intentionally tries to piss him off. Yeah, and what's interesting about that is that, like, I think those, I think you're right, because I think that the fact that he was snarking about an opponent and, like, completely just shitting all over, basically calling him like a modern day Phil Housley, but it's basically essentially what he said. Like, it was sort of couched in the criticism of the award when in actuality, it was very much

a criticism of an opponent, which I completely agree with you. We kind of got lost on some people. But, but from the award standpoint itself, like, I, I know. know that's the knock on the Norris. And I think it's because I think the knock on the Norris has always been that it goes to a guy with a high point total as a, as sort of a, uh, uh, um, an incantation against the idea that the Norris ignores true defensive defenseman. Like it's almost like we have to swing the other way. Like we don't, we don't recognize the, the, uh, the, uh, Jacob Slavins and the, in the, uh, Mark Edward Vlasics of the world. So then we have to, should, um, on the award for being too offensively oriented. I think the guys they pick, for the most part, are complete defensemen. I don't think this is an award that necessarily is just like, you know, like what

the Selke used to be, where it's like, who has the best faceoff percentage? Well, he's obviously the best defensive forward. I think that the people that win the Norris are actually really well-rounded. His one criticism is interesting, though, which is that if you don't play on the penalty kill, can you win the Norris, which actually used to be a criticism that they had of Pavel Datsuk when he wouldn't play on the P.K. For Detroit.

But then it comes back to, can you really knock a guy for what is essentially a deployment choice by his coach? No. And that was always the knock against Eric Carl. Well, he doesn't kill penalties. And it's like, right, because Eric Carlson is more valuable to his team playing, like getting the two and a half minutes he would have gotten on the P.K on the power player at five on five.

And, and, you know, the thing is, too, like, Drew Dowdy just won a Norris a couple years ago for a season where he wasn't great, and he's never been a top five defenseman. And if you want to believe the... Oh, come on. He's been a top five defenseman. You don't think so? Or maybe not...

I can't remember. I did a thing when he won it, basically arguing he shouldn't have won it. And I can't remember if he was ever top three or top five. It was one of those two where I was like, I don't even feel like. But the year he won it was the year where basically every Canadian journalist came out before the season and said, that's, it's true daddy's turn. Yeah, no. No, that's what I'm saying. And so it became his turn.

The rumor at the time was that his agent may or may not have said, well, if you guys want to keep getting scoops from my office. Are you waiting? I have never heard that. No, I've heard that. conspiracy theory? Yeah, that's the conspiracy theory. Oh, I love that. I love that. I don't care if that's true or not. I'm buying it. I don't remember where I heard that initially, but like someone brought it up to me in light of the Drew Doughty thing like this week. I love it. I love it. I'm down for that. Yeah. Life time achievement award at 26. Get a fucking. Yeah. Sean, what do you say about the Norris? Do you think they get it right most times? I think I think they generally do. It's especially these. It's especially these. days where we now understand more about, you know, what what makes a good defenseman and that the idea of the defensive defenseman, the stay-at-home defenseman who doesn't score and doesn't, you know, gets 20 points a year, but is solid in his own end. We understand now that that's

not a great defenseman because he's only doing half of the job. And just like you wouldn't necessarily expect a Phil Housley type to be a Norris frontrunner. You shouldn't expect a Rod Langway to be up there either in the modern day. And I think they generally get it pretty good. You know, maybe there's some examples. I think maybe the first time that Eric Carlson won it, you could make the case that he wasn't a great defensive defenseman then. I think he's much better since then. I think some people have kind of refused to see the progress in his game since then. But generally speaking, I think, you know, it's not bad at getting the two-way. guys. You know, we probably do still rely on the points too much for the offensive side. But I don't think, you know, I think the days of the really one-dimensional defensemen are generally ending and certainly as far as the, you know, as far as the Norris where you look down

the list of winners, you know, I think it's, I don't agree with every choice they've made every year, but there's nobody who really jumps out at me as being somebody where you go, no, that's actually not a good defenseman because they're two one-sided. You know. better than I. You would know better than I. Should Paul Coffey have three Norrises? Was he, was he a good enough all-around defenseman to have three Norrisus? He was so unbelievably good offensively that I think, you know, if you're going to set a minimum bar and say offensively and defensively, then maybe he didn't meet it, although he was, you know, like a lot of offensive defensemen, he was better in his own zone than you give him credit for. He wasn't

viewed that way in the day because he didn't hit. He didn't, he wasn't cross-checking guys in the head in front of his crease and, you know, blocking 10 shots a shift because he was always in his own zone. I think under our current understanding of how the game is played, he would get a lot more respect for his defensive game for being able to be the guy who made, you know, the puck would be on a stick and would be out of the zone right away. And, you know, granted, that was a little easier when you had five Hall of Famers going up the ice with you. But he, you know, he was, he was underrated defensively. At the time, he wasn't considered very good. He wouldn't have ever been considered a two-way defenseman in his era, but he was so, I mean, the guy almost scored 50 goals

as a defenseman. He blew away even Bobby Orr's record. I think at some point, even if you're looking for a two-way player, you have to acknowledge if one way is just so head and shoulders above what anyone else has ever done, maybe that makes up for just being average at the other end. Yeah. By the way, I think the, you know what I was going to say, the only guy, the only guy that I think maybe shouldn't, I mean, like Rob Blake, maybe in 98, like Rob Blake never really struck me as being the best at what he does. Yeah, and that was 21 years ago, right? Like, so, so to get it, so to get it,

let's say 85% right every year since then. I think that's pretty good. It's better than we do on a lot of the awards. Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Oh, without question. Cedano Char only has one fucking Norris. Are you shitting me?

Yeah, that's crazy to me, dude. That's part, that's partly, though, like, the Lidsroom thing. era. And Lidsrom definitely like 42-year-old Lidstrom or whatever. Like the last year he won, De Nocchara should have won in a walk. But it was like the Nick Lidstrom Good Time Retirement Award. There was also a year where Lidstrom probably should have won, but he was a minus one. And people are like, oh, you can't win the fucking Norris if you're a

minus one. Anyways, it's an interesting debate. The other thing that's really interesting, and I can't believe we're talking this much about the fucking kings at this point in the season, but Ilya Klobuchar stays home from their road trip. I don't think this is the end of Ilya Kolvichuk with the Kings because one, they're going to have a new coach that maybe he'll like better. Two, he's got a no move clause. Yeah. And three, his family lives in Beverly Hills.

And like, he probably doesn't want to go anywhere. So like, I think they're stuck with him. And he's stuck vis-vis with the Kings. But what a, you know, of all the scenarios in which we were like, oh, this probably won't work out. Leaving Ilya Kovilchuk home from a road trip was not part of that purview for me. Yeah, it was a real surprise just because, like, this seems sucks. Like, I can't imagine that Ilya Kovych is their 13th best forward,

and he's not having a particularly good year, but like, Jesus Christ. But that is the thing, right? I mean, he's up eight to the oilers. Like, come on, dude. Yeah. He's been a healthy scratch. He was a healthy scratch of like three or four, I think, before. So it wasn't like they just kind of, it was, what's interesting to me is that the comments that he had about Willie Desjardin, like he didn't hold back.

And you talk about like Drew Doughty saying things where you go, geez, that's, you know, we're not supposed to say that. Coltrich did the same thing. I mean, he, I don't know if I'd say he ripped his coach, but he certainly was critical of his coach. And he certainly deferred any opportunity to defend his coach. And then he gets left home. And I think everyone comes to the same conclusion, which is this, you know, this is a case of a guy being left behind because he goes and criticizes his coach to the media. The kings swear up and down that that's not the case that it's, you know, he was a healthy scratch. He was going to be a healthy scratch.

So he might as well stay home. And, you know, they've got him working with a skills coach, which he's 35. I don't know what new skills he's going to learn and master at this age. But the good news as far as this whole. situation because you're right he made it very clear he doesn't want to go anywhere he's talking about how much he loves the weather he doesn't want to be somewhere cold and you know which it's it's the big problem here for him seems to be Willie Desjard N and and I have a feeling that that is not going to be a problem that's going to be ongoing for the next few years of

his contract I think we are going to have a a coaching change in Los Angeles I think is let's say more likely than not I I, it's almost like, and stop me if this sounds crazy, the whole wedding of Stanley Cup thing was sort of bullshit, and he just wanted to live in Los Angeles. That's an interesting take. Gosh. All right.

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Seek, life's an event, and we have the tickets for said events. You might want to also get tickets for the playoffs at some point. The playoff format debate is now reared its ugly head. Apparently, according to Sylvie Report, including, I believe, Elliot Friedman and 31 thoughts this week. There is a chatter amongst the players of being discontent with the

current playoff format. Are we in the last throes of this wild card nonsense, or do you think that they're going to stick with this stuff? Well, I mean, they're going to stick with it until the new CBA, and then they'll probably change it for the 58th time, so

yeah, and the league will do what the league is brilliant at doing, which is getting the players to push for something that everybody wants, but it becomes something the players push for so the players end up having to give concessions in other areas in order for the league to do what the league probably already wants to do. I don't have a huge problem with the current format, and I say that as a Maple Leafs fan who's about to watch his team probably get crunched in the first round of a matchup, they that they probably don't deserve to get that early.

You know, I still believe nobody, the playoff format has never cost anyone the Stanley Cup. You still got to beat the teams you beat. It does suck to have to, you know, if you're a team that's good enough to go out in the second round, you go out in the first round, that does matter. That's, that's, it's revenue, it's experience, it's memories for your fans, and, you know, it's not ideal. At the same time, I do get that they, they want the rivalries, they want those recurring matches. matchups. I don't feel strongly one way or another other than to point out that there have always been problems with the playoff format. None of these formats are perfect. The one through eight is not great either. You can still have teams finish in the top 16 and miss the playoffs.

You can still have teams meet earlier than they ordinarily should. I'm not sure that two great teams meeting in the second round is a terrible thing, but then meeting in the third round is somehow okay. At the end of the day, I don't think there's a perfect way to do this. I think you're always going to have complaints, especially when it's some big market team that's being affected. So I know it's kind of the worst thing to do when you're in the take business is to say I don't really have a particularly strong take.

But I've been around long enough to know that everyone's hated pretty much every playoff format this league will ever have. They hate this one. They'll hate the next one too, I promise. Well, the Boston Leafs thing's really interesting because we always see it from like the Leafs perspective because they're just, you know, going to get fed, like you said, fed to Boston and punch in the face and probably fold in the first round. But there's also the Boston perspective of you are demonstrably the best, the second best team in the Eastern Conference. And you have to play the Leafs in the first round. If it was a one through eight format like we used to have, your first round opponent would be the New York Islanders, which I think to me is a much easier opponent if you're the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple.

even if you have the psychological hold on them. The interesting thing in the West is that a lot of people myself included point to the San Jose Vegas series and be like, ah, this sucks, you know, like these two teams have to play each other in the first round. If it was one through eight, they'd actually be seated against each other anyway right now, if you look at it. The sharks would be third, the Vegas golden ninth would be sixth. There's a chance that it could be St. Louis instead of Vegas, but as of right now, it'd be

Vegas. So we might be stuck with that anyway. And that's the thing, right? Like we, you know, everyone who points to seating and says, well, it should be this versus this. That works on the assumption that the standings tell us who are actually the best teams. And, of course, they don't, especially when you have teams that can load up at the deadline or, you know, guys who get injured or this or that. So it's, you know, I'm, I have a hard time complaining too loudly about a format that gives us San Jose versus Vegas, which is going to be an amazing series versus giving us San Jose versus St. Louis, which nobody would really. particularly care about.

Should it happen in the second round instead of the first? Maybe, but both of these teams, if they want to, if either one of these teams deserves to win the Pacific, they got to beat each other and show that they're better. So they get a chance to do that. I really have a hard time being too bothered by the fact that we're getting great matchups earlier. Yeah, my thing for that is I think, I don't know if you guys watched that San Jose Vegas game last week, but I don't know

that's going to be a particularly good series given the way Martin Shult displayed. Right. That's a bit of an issue. It's not their goal team's their team's say percentage right now is I believe it might be a little bit.

Yeah, I think the Panthers getting their asses handed to him by Montreal means that they're probably last. But like the sharks and Panthers earlier this week were tied for the worst save percentage in the league, which is fucking incredible when you think about how good San Jose has been in every other department. It's a dereliction to duty if you're Doug Wilson.

How do you not go and try to improve that position at the trade deadline when you did have the ability to do so? The rest of your team is fucking stacked and you're going to go to war with Martin Jones and Aaron Dell just shit in their pants every two games. It's insane. If they had any kind of goal tending from either of those two guys, they would be not right up there with the lightning, but it would be, you know, a, a. seven or eight point difference probably.

Mm-hmm. And that's crazy. The lightning are the best team in the history of hockey, maybe. The lightning have a plus 100 goal differential. Yeah. Think about that. That's insane. That's insane.

But you mentioned the lightning, and that brings us to the real criticism of the playoff format, which is this bracketing idea where, I don't know, like Gary Bettman woke up one morning. He's like, I want to make it so people can have a lot. office pools. And then all of a sudden, the first seeds aren't protected in the playoffs anymore is just horseshit. Like, if I'm the lightning, I am infuriated, infuriated that my next game has to be against either

the second or the fourth best team in the conference. It's insane that that's the case. And, you know, the fact that they don't reseed and protect your top seeds completely undermines an 82 game regular season in my mind. and you should protect the teams that earned it. And the fact that they don't is insane to me. Well, right. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

Oh, go ahead, Sean. I was just going to say, I mean, you say they got to play the second or the fourth best. The fourth best team is who they should be playing. If you're the best team and it's, you know, you get to round two. If everybody wins out. If everybody wins out, that's who you should be playing. So, you know, I don't have a, but your larger point, yeah, I mean, I don't, I, I know a lot of hockey fans. I don't know anyone who does office pools for the NHL.

playoffs other than filling out that one website posting screen grabs nobody cares about and then completely forgetting about them so yeah i i i wouldn't miss that if we lost it right everybody rush us that at nchl.com bracket thing and then like we all do it and then we all post it on twitter and you're right nobody gives us nobody cares nobody cares about that nobody cares about what you got on the lottery simulator uh you can just leave that out of my out of my twitter feed it would be fine i'm not going to post anything like that i i can make that guarantee you. Great. Okay.

The thing I was going to say, though, like it's one of those things of the NHL, like, in hockey, we are already told, like, you shouldn't give a shit about the regular season. You know, I remember very early on in my puck daddy days, I wrote a story that was basically like,

we need to act like the president's trophy is a bigger deal, and it got a shitload of common that we're just like, you don't know anything. The only thing that matters is a Stanley cut, you know, all that kind of stuff. And, like, I wouldn't say that a really good chunk of, like, even people in front offices and dressing rooms around the league are probably like, yeah, who gives a shit about winning the president's trophy? The Capitals did it a bunch and look what happened. They lost.

Yeah. Yeah. No, but like you said last week, regular season achievement should be lauded. Like, Tampa Bay should be lauded for what they were able to accomplish this year. 100%. Yeah. for sure. Plus 100 goal differential.

I just, I can't, I can't get over that. They're so goddamn good. They're good. It's going to suck when they go out in the second round. Before, before we get to our guest,

I wanted to, did you see the picture of the, of the guy in St. Louis who sliced up his bagels this morning? No. Yes. I did see that. So I'll describe it to you, Ryan.

The, uh, Okay, so, how to put this? He had a dozen bagels, and he sliced up each bagel like it was its own loaf of bread. No, no, no, no, no, he didn't. He couldn't have done that. Yeah, he did. No, no, no, that doesn't make sense.

Why would anybody do that? He took the dozen bagels. So he's got two boxes. He wrote, this is Alex. A third of your donut or your bagel slice. thing is going to be in two different pieces. What the fuck? Alec, Alec Krautman, who I believe works for the national, what's the N-A-O-O? Is it the weather people? I have no idea. I think it's like weather people. Today I introduced my co-workers

to the St. Louis secret of ordering bagels bread sliced. It was a hit. And it's two, it's like two things from Panera. First of all, come on. By the way, there is only one good bagel of Panera, and that's the Asiago cheese one. Two, like, he's got two boxes of bagels, and they're all sliced, like, little tiny loaves of bread. So it's like a large, untoasted bagel chip, I guess, would be the best way to describe it. You got it. Hold on.

Shut up. Sean just said it to me, I'm furious. I don't know. First of all, the great thing about this is that in the five minutes after this thing went viral and it has gone completely viral there's over 1100 likes right now it's it's become a thing everybody that I know in St. Louis was

responding to me saying like disavowing this man yeah it's like we these are not this is not who St. Louis is um but yeah slicing each bagel individually like a loaf of bread I'm calling the police what's your proper

what's your proper bagel when you order a bagel how do you order it. Everything with onion and chive cream cheese or something like that. Are we your only friends? What do you mean? Onion and chive cream cheese with an everything bagel is a pretty pungent combination. Oh, I think it's fine. Mm-hmm.

Keep the vampires away. Sean, what about you? Do they have bagels in Canada, Sean, or should just donuts? Well, I mean, first of all, dude. It's gone hairs. First of all, if you're asking if they have bagels in Canada, enjoy the feedback you're going to be getting from our Montreal friends. Montreal has bagels, but I don't consider Montreal part of Canada. I think it's a suburb of Paris. Now you're, yeah, okay, so now you've just opened a political minefield in a bagel conversation.

Quebec separatist movement. It's me. All right. You know me. Okay, there. Yeah, we do, but here in Ottawa, it's kind of not as much. thing. I don't have strong feelings on bagels other than you shouldn't slice them sideways like a psychopath. I mean, that's the obvious take. But no, I've never like the different styles of

bagels are kind of all seem the same to me. But yeah, good. I kind of fell in love with the Montreal gets a hold of you. I kind of felt, I'll get to that in a second. I fell in love with a salt bagel with jalapeno cream cheese was when my jam. That's not bad. That's not bad. I really liked it. Now, listen to me. I've had Montreal bagels at both of those places you have to go to when you're in Montreal. And the only thing that I don't understand is that, and this is completely a cultural bias, in New York, the bagel is full. It's like Angelina Jolie's lips.

It's like a giant full bagel that you slice in half. After you've sliced it in half, you have two beautiful full halves. They're their own little sandwiches almost. Montreal bagels are really thin. Like, you can't even really slice them in half or anything. And so when I got it for the first time, and no doubt, they're really tasty. I didn't know what to do condiment-wise. Do you put cream cheese on top of the bagel?

Do you slice the little tiny bagel with a little tiny nail file of a knife and then kind of put the cream cheese on it? Like, I don't know what the fuck to do with my condiment on a Montreal bagel. You slice the bagel, Greg. I'm sorry that you Americans and your big fat hands can't handle the pretext. precision needed to slice a Montreal bagel and you need giant New York bagels. But yeah, you slice it and then you spread you spread your cream cheese or whatever else on it. And that's, that's, that's, that's all that you do. I think what I, what I ended up doing was I ended up

breaking up the bagel and then dipping it in cream cheese, almost like you would with an anti-Anse pretzel into the mariner sauce. That's what I think about, like that's the ideal way to have your topping on a Montreal bagel for sure. And that sucks. So. New York bagel only. I don't know. This St. Louis bagels are making a real comeback, I hear.

The bread sliced St. Louis bagel. Fucking toasted ravioli, pro vile pizza, and the bread sliced bagel. St. Louis, man. An ongoing argument for secession from the United States, I think, from a food perspective. Also, Budweiser. Let's not forget that. Who's our guest today, Ryan? It's Matt Porter from the Boston Globe, an old buddy of mine.

He's a relatively recent entry to the beatwriting world in the NHL. I think he got the job at the very beginning of this season. So he's a nice guy, and he is around a very interesting team at a very interesting time for them. You may know him as Mattie Ports on Twitter. Yeah, Maddie Pots. That's a good Boston nickname, Maddie Pots. He came to see me in Quincy. We had a good talk.

All right. Here's Matt. Hey, hi. I'm Brian Lambert. You know me from the podcast you already are listening to. This is a weird intro. And I'm here with my buddy, Matt Porter, from the Boston Globe X of what was Miami Herald. Am I right about this?

No, Palm Beach Post. Palm Beach Post. I apologize. guys. Three listeners in South Florida are going to be really weirded out by that. That's right. Former University of Miami beat guy. Yeah.

Did you do just the big three baseball, football, basketball? I did like everything down there. Really? Yeah, that was like the cool thing. Like I got to cover LeBron being like a superhuman being with the Miami Heat and I got to cover like I got to go to

an industrial park where Aaron Hernandez shot a guy and like knock on doors and like you know say like where were you that night did you hear a gunshot and then i went to a strip club afterwards where he had gone after he shot a guy in the eye oh yeah and then high school and then covered high school football and like there was just a lot of stuff a lot of football not a lot of hockey yeah but you covered when like the panthers had that one season you i seem to recall you went to a handful of games back then right yeah as many as they would let me go to um then they had Yager being like, oh, that's right.

An awesome, like, 43-year-old weirdo. Oh, he's probably only 41 at that time. He was incredible. And, you know, like a wide-eyed, like, Barkov and, you know, a younger pre-captancy Barker, too, right? He was on that line, yeah. Yep. Fun team, like, super welcoming to, like, you know, happy that reporters were there type of thing.

Yeah, super nice. By the way, I should say we're in a Mexican restaurant near my house. So if you are hearing people in the background or Latin music of any kind, that's why. I will try to refrain from eating the chips and salsa in front of us for the remainder of this interview. I might not. Who could blame me, really? They're pretty good. Pretty good.

So anyway, Matt, now you hometown boy comes back, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, it's weird. It's actually, it's strange. And, like, gosh, you don't want to say. sound like humble braggy right but like it's so weird that I got this job like you know I always wanted it and I set a goal to get it and now I have it and I don't know I guess it's all down hill from here but here I am baby it's uh yeah back in Boston like familiar faces you know like as we were

discussing before you're not a familiar face in the sense that this I think is the first time we've ever got a beer together yeah no that's definitely true yeah we were we were in trying to figure out when the last time we actually were in each other's presence was, I think, 2007. I want to say 2006 or seven. That sounds about right, yeah. At TD Garden and a hockey east thing, obviously, it was a college hockey experience. And I don't know if Lowell was involved, but... That year, I'm going to say they probably weren't.

Okay. They were quite bad in the middle. Yeah. The 07 season, I think, is the... No, that can't be right. It must have been 2000. There was a season where they won five games all year, and that's, like, I think maybe the benchmark

for how absolutely terrible they were. Well, so it was the 0-6-07 season, that was a year where they didn't win 20 straight games. That was my last year in college. Fair. Yeah, fair. Not a good team that year. No, no.

But I remember sitting there, you know, being like, I like the cut of this guy's jib, I followed you on all the social media. I think we had Twitter back then, I believe. I'm not sure. Yeah, and then have stayed in, I guess, internet contact with you over the last nine years. Yep. Got some killer music wrecks.

And now here we are. Yep, watching the Dodgers Diamondbacks season opener. Indeed. Can't beat it. Indeed. So, Bruins, real interaction. team this year. Yeah.

Real fun. Yeah. Well, fun and so far as they're good. And like there's some good, it seems like there's some real good personalities in the room and that kind of thing. Yeah, very much. There, yeah, there's a lot of like, like, you have a mix of guys, right? Like, that's what I kind of like about it. Like, if you want to get super, like, serious and, you know, talk to guys like Chara who's, like, you know,

There's no fooling around Was that they don't charm Yeah, you know And then you like complete opposite In the spectrum like Like I'll talk to Brandon Carlo About like his hamster that he had Like as a kid

And what happened to the poor hamster Yeah Yeah And uh Like the other day it was in Florida And Carlo walks in wearing a beanie It's like 80 degrees outside And he walks in wearing a beanie

And I'm like What are you doing? And he said And he has this real deadpin thing about him And you don't really never know If he's kidding or not I guess he is But he's like

Yeah my hair wasn't like flowing with me today So I had to do something It's just stuff you don't like You know and then you go talk to Bergeron He's like I hate the word classy But yeah I kind of think

Yeah that's him Yeah My girlfriend My girlfriend used to work for Microsoft And they did some Event with him And she was like When we first met

Like she was like Oh you're you're a hockey writer or whatever Do you know who Patrice Berger I was like, of course I know who he's Burgundy run is, she's like, he's the nicest guy. Yep. And that's been my experience as well, yeah.

He's Jean, basically, like, my understanding of it is, like, in the context of hockey history, he's Jean Melovo. He's, like, one of those type of guys. Yep. Like, down the road, they're just going to be, like, Erzran, he was the best.

Yeah. He was the classy guy. Yeah. And then, like, Jake Debrusk. Yeah. Like every Every interaction I've ever had with him has been great Like just

Talking about video games Or He always says some comment on Anything basically I don't roast anybody I really appreciate that We don't get that much these days No I think it should be stated like

Not that I ever wanted to be like one of those Like I'm not a hockey player Like I play hockey Right Like for my own fun Yes But I'm not an NHL guy I'm not one of those reporters that's going to pretend to be.

So I don't want to be buddies with them. No, yeah. But, you know, some kind of banter is fun. And, Droski's totally here for that. Yeah, you need to have a good rapport with guys. And, like, they need to know that you're not going to, like, that they can trust you to not, like, you know, write a column saying, oh, I don't know. Tori Krugn maybe isn't the reason that Power plays any good or whatever. Or that Patrice Bergeron is in decline or asking the question if he's in decline.

Yeah. Yeah, you love to do that shit. And then, because then you can go, well, look, I don't personally think so. I'm just, like, you gotta ask. You have to ask, because people are talking about that. And it's like, well, I mean, I guess they are because he's like 32 or whatever. Sure. But he's got, what, 75 points this year in 60 games?

Like, I think he's fine. It's been an outstanding year of career high in points for Patrice Bergera and still playing incredible defensive hockey. Yeah, he's been okay. I actually had an experience with something like that earlier in the year. I wrote a thing where I was like, okay, so the Oilers, this is before the Oilers went on that little mini run under Hitchcock where they started playing good all of a sudden. And then I got some blowback from Edmonton like, you know, well, look at them now. It's like, okay, you went six and two in your last date.

Congratulations. And five of them, I'm sure, were at home and four of them were against the Anaheim Ducks or whatever. On the back to back, right. So, okay, fine, whatever. But, yeah, I did a thing that I was like, all right, Krug is up in two years, maximizes value. Yeah. You know, why not Edmonton?

Why not a guy like Nugent Hopkins? Like, this was so long ago that, like, you know, now, if you take, things change so quickly, you know, if you take that idea right now, it looks ridiculous because of what Kroog brings to the Bruins. And I wouldn't write that calm today. But at the time, I was like, okay, Don Sweeney went to Edmonton, and right and and that kind of is a thing that you have to like as a person who writes about the league every once in a while

or like when when a rumor happens I guess I should say of like oh uh you know Doug Armstrong was at the was at the Ducks game who's he maybe thinking about it's like maybe nobody right like maybe maybe he went maybe he went to to Anaheim because like he can yeah like And he's interested in the San Diego Gulls or something like that and maybe that. And he's not trying to get Ryan Getslap for David Perron or whatever.

Right. Yeah. And but at the same time, like, I don't know. I feel like my whole approach to that was like, you have your idea and it's like, look, I'm reasoning it out here. Yeah. On the page. I'm not trying to say, like, because I will see some people just be like, you know, they'll source it up and be like, you know, chatter around the oilers, no.

Just the worst, dude. Just be upfront about your idea, like, this is my idea as a writer. It's one man's opinion. You know, and then, and like, put the pieces fit. Yeah, I think that's fine to do, right? I used to write a column for puck daddy that I, well, it's not called puck daddy anymore, but also, like, I don't do it anymore. I'm called Huge of True, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would just like take the big trade rumor of the week or whatever. And it was never hard to find one. I should stress, like, I never really had to go digging too hard to find, like, oh, you know, Corey Perry might get traded or whatever. I don't know why I'm picking on the ducks so much. But, well, I mean, they suck. Can I say they were the worst team I've seen this year?

Is that? Can I say that? I mean. Because it's true. Just I haven't seen every game of every team, but every time I've seen the ducks, they were the worst team I've seen. Even the senators, really? Yeah, the Senators actually played hard when I saw them.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. Gipson, like without Gibson, it was... Oof, brutal. Tough. Yeah. But so, like, yeah, I would get that pushback sometimes from people like, well, you know, it was just me, you know, speculating or whatever. And it's like, first of all, no, it wasn't. Yeah.

Right? Like, because, again, like you, like you said, you're going to put it in the context. Like, no, I'm just shooting, I'm just throwing shit at the wall here, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And often, like, the guys, like, I don't know, Bruce Garriott from Ottawa, for example, like, it's never sourced. Like, he never says, you know, multiple. It's like, it's more like, you know, people, like you said, people are saying. Yeah.

That so and so might happen. Could it? See, the thing with a guy like Garriarch, though, it's like, and I don't want to get into, like, totally, like, talking about everybody. No, for sure. I'm way too new with this, you know. And I avoid, like, there are media beeps that I. I could easily get into it. I'm like, I don't want any part of the man.

Yeah, sure. It's not my thing. But, like, you know, a guy like Bruce, you know, or like Larry Brooks or Kevin, you know, DuPont who I work with, like, we've been around long enough. Like, they talk to everybody. Everybody, sure. Like, they have, they could write, like, you know, Kevin could do like a, you know, I'm just making this up here type angle.

But it's informed speculation. Right. Yeah, and, like, I'm definitely more willing to give those guys a pass. I just pulled Bruce because he's a guy that has those kind of like, here's three rumors that are going around the league right now. And I'm not saying like they're bullshit. What I would say was like how realistic are they on the scale of one to five basically. And like that's a different scenario.

Like because, you know, Christ, half the league was trying to trade Brad Marchand out of Boston for like two years before he became 40 goal guys. every single season. Right. And it was like, I mean, you know, he's probably not untouchable. So like, at that time anyway. Sure. So a GM's taking a call. And like, then you can go, oh, you know, so.

Don Sweeney's taking calls on Brad Marsham. And everybody's like, what? And it's like, no, like somebody called and said, would you trade us Brad Marshan? Right. And he was like, no. Yeah. That was it. He did take a call on it.

thing too it's like you know I think it's so much semantics and I think smart hockey fans realize that like that's the way stuff gets done in any sports league that you know you're a GM it's your job to take calls like it's your job to kick shit around with with other GMs constantly yeah there's basically like unless it's a guy on an ELC for me nobody's untouchable like like you call me with an offer for Patrice Bergerald I'm gonna listen I'll fucking listen yeah what do you got who do you want to trade me from Patrice Bergeron. Who is, by the way, I mean, damn, is it time to trade Patrice Bergeron? Right.

And like, no, but he's 33. I also think it's a legitimate question, right? Like, to say it isn't, but it could be soon, is like a very different thing. Yeah. Than it might be. Yeah. You know what I mean? Sure.

Which is what I was getting at with crew. He's got two years left in his deal. Like, are you going to pay him and McAvoy and Carlo and, like, let's say, Vacaubon. and Ianen comes up and is awesome. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, no, like, it's the thing of... For the record, I love Krug, I think he's been awesome. He's great. What he brings to that power play? And he's such...

He's way better at defending than he gets credit for. Isn't that the way with any defenseman who has 45 points or more in his season? It's like, everybody's like, well, he must not play defense and have that many points. He got pushed off the puck by a guy that's 6.5. Oh, well, I'm surprised. He's 5.9. But, yeah, he can play defense. Yeah. And, like, you don't, you don't have to play physical.

to play deep, I'd like it. I don't know. You probably haven't been many college hockey games or any this year. Not this year, no. This kid Kail in the car at UMass right now. The avalanche pick, the second UMass loses, he's going to be in the avalanche lineup the next night. Heard big things.

Oh my God, he's incredible, right? But he's like 5-11. He's 19, maybe. Maybe he just turned 20, so like he's slighted frame still. But he doesn't, he, like, he doesn't, he can't play a physical game. Like, I've seen him

crush a guy, but more often than not, he takes the puck away with the stick, which is what you're, I guess, supposed to do, right? And, and that's, that's as valid a way to get the puck off somebody as hitting them, but nobody, but everybody over the age

of, like, 45 is like, come on, man. Well, that's the thing, too. Like, in 2019, you have to recalibrate, like, how you look at D. Like, Matt Grislich is a perfect example. Like, he's one of the Bruins, like, he's hurt now, obviously, but he's one of the Bruins' best defensive defenseman at 5-9-174 with the way he uses his stick, with just skates and position, you know, the way skates and positions himself and

angles. You have to put him in a position to succeed because he has limitations as a player, but, like, if he's your fifth or sixth best defenseman, you're in pretty good shape, yeah. With Kevin Miller, like, that's a good pair. Sure. You know, a guy you can push guys around and get mean and, you know, do all the things that Kevin Miller does. Right.

So you mentioned You were just on the Bruins road swing in Florida Yes How about those Tampa Bay Lightning's? They're awesome They're so good It's you always like You and I are probably geared the same way

Like when everyone's like This thing's great Like and just everybody kind of gets on that train You kind of want to look at it and be like All right well is it? Is it? Like you know and but You make a mistake against them

It's in the back of your net 100% of the tax. It's crazy. And it's not just against Kucharov, you know, and it's not just against Stamcoves or point, you know, like, their third and fourth line. Sorrelli's great. Yeah.

He's like, what's he got, 20 points this year? And a guy like, Coulorn, like, he would be, wouldn't he be on the top line in Edmonton? Like, wouldn't Edmont be like, oh, yeah, Edmonton would be, would love to have him for sure. Yeah, we got, yeah, we got to put them up there. You know, like, I think they're awesome. Like, just the way, that series,

because obviously, you know, if the Bruins had. event, and that is certainly no guarantee, but if they do get to the second round, you know, and they look at Tampa and they lose again, are you going to look back as a Bruins fan and be disappointed that you lost to that absolute juggernaut of a team? Right. And so the thing I was going to say, and I've been saying this for a while now, like, I don't think the Bruins are as Tampa's as sure of a thing as probably everybody else does. If they get the, if they get the Leafs, it's over, because the Leafs just don't have the defense

or whatever. But I think the Bruins would be a real tough draw for them. I think they're the second best team in the league. They've got the second best record, and everybody who's any good except David Craichy has been hurt this year. That's the thing. And you look at what that does for those guys who they've played. So now if you've got to call on, like, Connard Clifton in game three,

he's probably going to do okay. Right. Or a guy like Carson Coolman. The Bruins have played him tough. And the thing I like about the Bruins, you know, they can play different styles. They can play the classic Bruins, you know, hockey, but they can also run and gun a little bit, not to the Leafs or Lightning level. Right. You know, they can be in a 5-4 game.

Especially if Pasturenak is on that second line with Preachy. Yeah. You know, and like that's one of those things. You like that alignment too. I mean, I guess I'm... I can play up there. Right. No, I agree.

And I guess I'm not against it, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, if it works for him, it works for him. But I'm also just like, he's had a great year, but I'm still waiting for David Craichie to turn back into David Creachie a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. He's healthy, though. That's the thing that, like...

And he's got good line mates, and that definitely helps, right? He's had 15 wingers this year. I know. Like, he's had an incredible year for David Grachie, considering where he has been in the past few years. Yeah, and so that's the thing, right? Like, he's had, what have they played? 75, 76 games now.

At this point. At this recording, yes. Yeah, like, he's had a lot of really good games, but also, like, what we know about players often turns out to be true in the end, right? And so, like, if he has a no-show in the playoffs, like, if he's just absolutely overmatched against Tampa,

is anybody going to be surprised by that? You know what I mean? Like, I might be. I might be. I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, like you can't be. And like that, I get why obviously you're saying, like, he's had such a great year. He's 34, 35 now? 32. 32. He's only 32. He's younger than Bergeron?

Yes. Damn. It doesn't feel that way. I don't know why. Yeah, Bergeron. He seems like the elders say. 15 years in the league for Bergeron. Yeah. Well, I remember, I went to a game his rookie season, like, you know, I was in college or whatever, and I went to a game. Like, they used to have college night. Do you remember this? you get like $17 tickets Oh, so good

It was good And yeah I went to some random I don't even remember who they played And I just remember being like Who is this Bergeron kid? Like it was like a November game or something Where I hadn't seen maybe a ton of ruins games

At that point and I was like Holy shit Yeah And he's never not been that good Like it's incredible What did he have 70 points Is his working year or something? 73 I think

Wow As a 20 20 or No he was 20 He was 20 and he had 73 points I know that. Okay. Maybe I'm kind of conflating, like, three or four different amazing Bergeron news I saw.

Yeah. You talked to, like, anybody, like, around his 1,000th game, like, I did, you know, a lot of, like, background stuff on, you know, the Bergeron origin, which is, you know, again, I'm new here, you know, even though I was around a decade, you know, 12 years ago. Right. Right. Going up Ruins games and, you know, working for the Boston.com back then. So I was around a little bit, and, you know, I knew enough about Bergeron, but, I mean, just everybody says the same. exact thing and it's almost like wrote at this point like he was just so good and he never stopped being good yeah we had to keep him on the team as an 18 year old like yep you look at like he was a

rookie like every year every league he played in you know like going juniors he spent one year in every league yes he's just really good and it's incredible like now and like now knowing what we know about hockey like you wonder how much a guy like patrice bergeron slips into the second round You know what I mean? It has to be incredibly rare because he's not small. Right. He's scored, I don't feel like he scored a ton in junior, but like he's scored a lot. Yeah.

And as a 17-year-old, and you go, like, I think teams now, like, there's no way he gets out of the top 10, a guy with that kind of profile. Right, because now they wouldn't be like, yeah, you know, we like Bergeron, but we really wish he'd fight somebody, you know, just to prove that he's tough, you know. I mean, a kid like that, you want to see. you'd be like whatever like now it's just different yeah no definitely because like the the the real only frontier that exists now of like we're not sure on this guy is guys who are under 510 sure right like even 510 guys they're like no problem we'll take them sure but

like the panthers drafted a guy who's like 510 a finish kid who's like 510 140 maybe maybe was that heppa miami is that either him rahopola they're both super skinny yeah and just and they're dominated like one of them's in junior in Canada and like put up like 90 assists the other one's doing great in Finland in that rough rugged league so I don't know I guess I guess

you know you were like I said you were at the game the other night the Bruins blow what 4-1 lead 4-2 maybe yeah and it's and like for me that's one of those things where you're like well you play the lightning yeah and sometimes that's going to happen because the Bruins earlier

in the year beat the shit out of lightning a couple It is. They got them on the back to, on the end of a three and four, second of a back to back. The lightning were definitely, it was like the shots were like 26 to 8. Yeah. You know, midway through the second period. They were obviously gassed. You know, not that that's a catch-all excuse because, like, you know, there's something to do well in those situations, right?

I can't imagine that her two or at least. Or at least they're competitive. Yeah. That was just, you know, what I'm saying is the Bruins didn't take, you know, from that game, like, oh, we have their number. But they have played them tough. Yeah. And to see them give up that lead, like, it's surprising in one way, because you figure the Bruins had been playing well enough that they could, you know,

sit on that lead. They've done that all year, you know, with two-gold leads. Yeah, you don't think of the ruins going into the second, going into the third period with the two-gold lead and being like, I don't know. I don't know. Even against the light. Under Cassidy, I don't know.

No, and he's going to make the right moves and he's going to shorten his bench maybe. I think he's done a great job this shot, by the way. We were talking about quickly, I mean, we were talking about, you know, the Posterna kind of switch. If that doesn't work, he has enough of a pulse of that team that he'll just switch it back or do something that works. Yeah, it's nice to have the fallback position of, well, I could put the best line in hockey back together. Right. And Jared Bednar, I wonder what his options are, you know, in Colorado. None, he doesn't have any.

Yeah. But, I mean, anyway, so like, is it surprisingly blew the lead? Possibly, yeah. But, look at the shot Kuturoff scored on. Like, that's an insane shot. Right. Like, when I write the power rankings, uh,

or the power feelings, I should say. Yes, yes. Um. Got to brand it properly. That's right. Often I will go, oh, this team was on a real heater. And then they played the Bruins or the Leafs or the, or the capitals or lightning or the flames.

And they, and they got killed. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, sometimes you're going to play one of the five best teams in the league and they're going to kick the shit out of you. Yep. Like, it doesn't matter how. good you are. And, you know, like you said, there can be extenuating circumstances or whatever,

but, you know, sometimes a team with one really good line is going to get three goals out of that line. It was Tuka Rask's fault. Everybody knows this. Yeah, that's true. They got to trade that guy. I've been saying it. And, you know, because of all the good goalies in the Bruin system right now. That's the funny, if you look at it that way, it's even funnier, right? Because like, and then one. Yeah, no. It's always my argument for if somebody wants to fire a coach, and then what? No, exactly. Like, I just wrote this week about Bruce Boudreau, right?

Like, he's basically saying to the media in Minnesota, I'm getting fired after this year. Like, that's happening. And because the quote was about Ryan Donato specifically. He's like, damn, he's so good. He's going to be even better. But I won't be around for it. And it's like, that's true.

You definitely won't because they are definitely going to fire. He only has one year left on his con. contract and they're bad. Things haven't gone well in Minnesota. No, but like, were they supposed to go? Well, like, I understand, like, they probably thought things were supposed to go well, but they shouldn't have. You know what I mean?

Like, that team, that team, and I've been saying it for years, that is the most forgettable team in hockey. Absolutely. With, like, with all respect to everything, everybody who works there, they're so boring. It's not even that they're boring. It's not even that they're boring. It's not, it's just that, like, you guys. go, well, who's their best player?

And you go, is it Zach Friese? Is it Ryan Suter? Both those guys are 33, 33 years old. And, you know, I think Zach Fries leads the team with like 56, 58 points. Okay, so what is it? Did they defend? Well, not particularly. Well, so all their underlying numbers are pretty good.

They just don't have the talent, man. And especially in the central, you've got to have talent. Yes. Because you're in there with Winnipeg, tons of talent. You're in there with Chicago. they're bad, but they have a ton of talent, they can beat you 5-1 any given night. You're in there with Nashville.

You're in there with Dallas, who has a bunch of talent at the top of the roster, at least. And, like, Colorado has that one line. Who's Minnesota have? They don't have anybody. Well, they have Victorask now. That's true.

That trade's going great for them. Yeah. But, no, like... Trades are hard, but, yeah, that was bad. No, and that was one of those trades where... The day they made it, everybody was like, what? Really?

Yeah. Like, straight up? It was a classic. It's one for one, you know? I follow it off Carolina people, like, that, like, because, actually, I love a lot of the Carolina people, because, you know, the college football thing. Oh, sure. I was there a lot, and I know a lot of Keynes fans as a result.

And all the Keynes fans were just laughing. Yeah. Like, it's never a good thing. It reminds me of, like, which actually wound up working out right for the Red So, but when they got John Wacky from the Angels and all the Angels fans were like, really? Okay. If you want. Yeah.

But, you know, that wound up working out, okay. Yeah, he won a world, like, he was the number two for a team that won the World Series. I think that's, I think that's right. I don't pay attention. Baseball season, baby. Yeah, well, so the thing is, like, one of my favorite video games, I don't know if you're a big gamesman. I'll tell you a story about that later off the year, but yes. Okay.

One of my favorite video games is just MLB the show Because it's so good Yeah Because you can just like To create a player Road to the show And just only play your players at bats Yes

And defensive plays and that kind of thing And like it's just a really good mindless way Where you can go I can play this for two hours I can play it for 15 minutes And right before you got here I ripped off like a series against the Yankees and then left my house.

Solid. Right? And it's like, that's the most baseball I consume. Fair. Like, I love that game. It's so fun. And, like, I know who guys in Major League Baseball are because of it.

But I might, like, if I go to one Red Sox game this year, I'll be shocked. Yeah. I'm probably going to go to one Red Sox game, but that's only because I just got here again. Yeah, sure. I went to some Marlins games down there. but they're the Marlins and, you know, they were never particularly interesting. Right. You know, I did some college baseball, which is also very long.

Yeah, baseball is pretty much out of my life now. Yeah. I'm okay with that. I only have so much time for sports, you know? Like, when you, as you know, you're so dialed into hockey for nine months of the year, whatever the case may be, that, like, you just got to step back. Yeah. Like, video games.

A buddy of mine got a deal on a PlayStation 4, like, through his credit card company, some shit like that. Yep. And so he gave me his old PlayStation 4 for, like, you know, essentially, like, a few six-packs. And so I got NHL 19. Yeah. And I was like, wow, this is sweet. I haven't played NHL since. I mean, I grew up, you know, with Genesis and Nintendo and played Blades of Steel.

The whole, you know, all that going way back and played pretty consistently through college and then up to, like, let's say, NHL 12. Yep. And then done, you know, I got a girlfriend who's now my wife. You know, life happened. Okay. Hey, yeah. I am able to be married. Go meet.

We got a dog. That's a brag. And then I stopped. And then, like, I picked it up again. And I'm like, this is sweet. Like, I'm going to do the thing you're talking about with the shift, you know? Yep. You can play your player's shifts.

And that's it. I created a guy. You got drafted the avalanche. I'm playing with a. Mieto and Soderberg on the third line is right wing. It's pretty, it's, well, but I'm trying real hard. And I played, like, for like two weeks solid. And then I was just like, this is too much hockey.

Yeah. I gotta go do something else. Yeah, I haven't played one of those, because the thing you said about, like, going from 12 to 19, it's the same game, right? It kind of is. It really is. And that's a bummer to me. Like, like, I mean, I know, I guess the show hasn't really changed a ton,

but also, like, like, in much the same way. stats apply to baseball and whatever. Baseball is the same. Yeah. Like, the show isn't fundamentally different from RBI baseball. You know what I mean? Yep. But NHL 19 should be fundamentally different.

Yes. From NHL-O-7. And it isn't. It's basically NHL-O-7, but now you can, like, play online, which is, like, horrible. They're terrible experience. Like, I haven't even done it. Like, I'm sure it's... It sucked, I bet.

Is it? No, I don't do it either. Honestly, I play, I got a free copy of NHL 17 or 18, whatever the one with McDavid on the cup. It must have been 18. Okay. And I played it for a little while. And I was like, this sucks.

Like, my guy has... You didn't buy, like, a hoodie for your creative player in, like, the NHL store? Like, that's a thing you can do. Cool. Yeah. No, like, it was a thing of, like, my guy has... a goal in two assists, two goals and assists, every single game. I started, because I do like the feature of you can start in junior.

Yeah. You know? And so I started playing for, I don't know, let's say the Quebec ramparts or something. And I was like, oh, I like this feature. My guy has a goal in two assists. He's in the top prospects game. And, like, you get a text from your agent in the game. And he goes, looks like you're a late second round pick right now.

And it's like, I have 80 more points than the second and highest scoring. guy in the QMJHL and he's on my line. You didn't fight anybody. You're probably right about that. To bring it full circle. They're not happy about that. Yeah, we're over half an hour here. I feel like that's a good amount.

That works for me. Great. Okay, well, it's Matt Porter. He's from Boston Globe. You can read his stuff. Boston Globe.com. Pretty good subscription deal over there. I think in like 99 cents for your first month or three. You can get in there pretty cheaply and like see, you know, if you want to stick around,

go ahead, do it. We'd love to have you. Yeah, Matt's good. They got good coverage of all. I really like the Celtics coverage. That's the other sport I watch is I go to a lot. Sure, a lot. Himmelsbach is outstanding.

Himalzbox is so good, super creative, really plugged in. Big fan. Yeah, great guy to hang out with. And, yeah, if you like the Patriots, they got some great stuff too. Plus, like, you know, there's like the news. Like, we do news, too, right? Real good. Like, that's, like, important stuff.

I have problems with your editorial page, but we can save that for another. We can, yeah, we'll talk about that off. Okay. Well, anyhow, that's Matt. I'm Ryan. See you. All right. Thanks to Maddie Plotz, Matt Porter, for joining us on Puck Soup this week.

Let's talk a bit about a little bit of a serious topic. Concussions. There's an ongoing athletic series this week on concussions. Some really interesting stuff. Burnside did a long read on Sidney Crosby's Red Bulls. back from his injuries. And then, Sean, you wrote a very impassioned piece that I think is salient to hockey fans of a certain age about cheering on fighting and rough stuff that back in the day was

laudable. And now through a different lens, we kind of are wondering whether we were encouraging the ruining of lives without really understanding it, which I thought was an interesting point. The only thing about your piece that I found, and to be honest, a little frustrating was the, you kind of like hand-waved away the personal responsibility of the players that were engaging in this stuff. Like it was almost, I know that wasn't the point of the piece, but that was always sort of for me the toughest part, which is that if they willfully were engaging in this, you know, how guilty should I feel about it? How did you wrestle with that?

Yeah, I mean, that is that is part of it. The piece, and I would encourage people to go and read it if they haven't largely because I'm not going to be able to do it justice sort of just talking about it informally on the podcast. It was something I spent a lot of time putting together and thinking about. The personal responsibility is part of it to an extent. I think you can only have personal responsibility if you've got good information, and clearly a lot of these guys did not, because they weren't told that, hey, when you go out there and get your bell rung, that could actually be something that affects you for the rest of your life. And that is something that when you're retired, you may have, your personality might change, or you might still be dealing with issues. you might, you know, it can impact not just your health, but your personal life and everything that goes with it. Obviously, the response to that is that they weren't told that because

maybe nobody knew at the time and how much should we have known and how, what kind of question should we have asked. I don't know the answers to that. I wasn't in those, I don't know what the doctors knew or what the doctors said or what responsibility the coach's head or the players. I can only come at this from the fan's perspective. And I know that as a fan, I spent a huge portion of my life standing and cheering as these guys bash each other's heads in. I have all the Don Cherry videos. I traded the fight tapes back when that was a thing. And I'm kind of left sitting here now going back through occasionally finding stuff I had as a kid and all of these tough guys that I looked up to and thought were.

were just the greatest. And, you know, a lot of these guys are dead now. And a lot of the ones that aren't are wrestling with really serious issues. And I just, I have a very hard time reconciling the fact that I was cheering all of this stuff on. And when I say I have a tough time, I really do mean I have a tough time. Like if people have read the piece, it's, it's not something where I wrap it up with an answer because I don't have an answer. If, in a way, maybe if I could say, you know what, I'm, I'm responsible for this. I'm guilty. I, you know, I should feel guilty. And, you know, that would be an easier answer

versus where I met, which is I'm, I'm still not sure because, you know, we, as fans, I think it's fair to some extent to say that, hey, if the trainer didn't know what was happening to these guys, then how the hell were we supposed to know? And what were we supposed to do other than cheer for what the league put in front of us and marketed? The flip side of that is that the league market it because we were cheering it. And, you know, you can draw a pretty straight line from those cheers to what a lot of these guys are facing right now. So I don't know the answer. You know, I can tell you, I've heard from, you know, some people who are much closer to the situation since that post went up and they've shared some of their thoughts. And that's kind of

helped me maybe put some of my thoughts. What are some of those thoughts that you've heard? I mean, I'll keep those private, I think, because they weren't intended for, you know, to be shared publicly other than, you know, some people have echoed some of the things I said and some people have added to them. And also some people who, you know, some people have just reached out to express that they appreciated hearing that perspective from a fan and that they have felt like that was missing. and that maybe, you know, they would have appreciated that at other points in their journeys to know that those thoughts were out there. And I think they are. You know, I know when I wrote it, you know, there's 200 comments under the piece now and it's not 200 people writing one line saying, nice post. It's people writing paragraph after paragraph of their own thoughts and their own experiences and kind of wrestling with it. And some agree and some don't. Some are pushing back.

Some are saying, you know, I don't feel guilt because these guys made millions of dollars to do this. And they should have known to some extent what they were getting into. So I don't know. It's, I wish, like I say, I spent a long time on this. I wish I could have wrapped it up more neatly than I did. But I feel like in a way it would have been a little bit dishonest to where I'm at to try to put a bow on it because I'm still not sure I'm any closer to figuring this stuff out. So I just want to say to like Greg's point about these guys have a personal responsibility. Like are we mad at like coal miners for doing what they do?

Because we've known about like black lung for a very long time, right? Or are we mad at football players? Or are we saying like, you know, this is what they signed up for with football and professional wrestling, which we're all fans of? like, you know, people go where, like, they feel like they're going to be able to provide best for themselves and their families, right? And the issue is that, you know, these guys who, you know, their only option to stay in the league or even the HL was to fight.

And they, because of, you know, the way junior hockey is set up and college hockey. hockey, like, you don't have, you maybe don't have a lot of options other than being the guy who plays five minutes a night and beats the shit out of somebody. Right. And so, like, I, like, I, I really struggle with putting a lot of, like, personal, like, yeah, they knew what they were getting into to some extent and maybe not as much as they should have or could have, but, like, nobody entered into it going, you know, I bet it's, like, fine to just get punched in the face a lot every night.

You know what I mean? Yeah. So, so on, on that level, I do get the argument, but like, you know, it's the system's fault. And they, you know, like they were just kind of cogs in the machine of that system. Yeah. And so I struggle with that, man. I don't, yeah, and I'm not trying to be Pollyanna about it. Like, I'm, I'm really fascinated by the lawsuit that the devils are facing and Lula Murillo is facing from Mike Paluso in the sense of, like, you know, guys that were.

sent back out there despite the fact that they were completely wrecked, just because that's their role and people who should have known better were maybe potentially misleading them. Like, I think that was a huge problem back in the day. But, you know, to your point, though, Ryan, like, I've had so many guys that are now retired and some of them, you know, are a little messed up and some of them, thank God, aren't. That said, you know, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Like my entry point into becoming the thing. I wanted to be ever since I was a kid was fighting people. And that's the way the league worked.

And that was how my ticket got punched. And if it wasn't for fighting, I wouldn't have been in the NHL. And there's enough, you know, it's tough when you talk to those guys about that tradeoff and about their willingness to trade off the potential health risks for the opportunity to be a pro and make that money and call yourself a hockey player on a professional basis. It's tough to talk to those guys and then come back and sort of, you know, bemoan the fact that we cheer them on when they've made that choice. I don't know. It's something I've always struggled with,

especially with what we know now as far as the health goes. But I thought, I thought Sean's piece was really good and you should definitely check it out. But one of the reasons we wanted to bring this up was also the thing that happened this week with Paul Byron of the Montreal Canadiens, answering the code, as it were, who is the cat on the the panthers he fought mackenzie uh weir um we got yeah yeah so okay so the same guy that he had that paul byron had taken a suspension for hitting several months ago so i mean

that's that's right so he answers oh yeah i forgot about that so he that's why they fought like they he answered the code like he wanted to get his comeuppance and and they had their fight and then Byron gets concussed, and it's a big deal because he's a pretty important part of a team that is currently very much in a playoff struggle. Yeah, and it's their most important game of the year coming up tomorrow, Thursday night. Exactly. They've got almost a playoff game against the Blue Jackets, and they may be missing one of their best players because he answered the code by fighting a guy 40 pounds heavier than he was, who, you know, was probably, you know, I'm sure. sure he didn't go into it thinking he was going to get concussion, but it certainly wasn't an unlikely result when you look at the two guys. And so, Pierre LeBron had a thing on the athletic

today about J.P. Barry, his agent, Byron's agent reached out and kind of slammed the code. It said it wasn't a hockey fight. Paul knew he had to deal with it then or likely later. Paul probably gives it five inches and 50 pounds to a very tough player. How is that the code? on and on and on about it. The code does seem pretty archaic in 2019, but clearly does sort of exist. I don't know. It's definitely still part of the game

that if you injure a guy, he gets to get a shot and not you. Should the size difference of these players matter when it comes to that sort of comeuppance? Well, I mean, maybe. Maybe not. I think certainly, you know, I'd say a couple things here. I think this whole situation puts Paul Byron in a almost impossible scenario because he knows

what's coming. He knows the invitation is coming. He doesn't necessarily know what might be coming if he turns down the invitation, but he, you know, he clearly, he chose, he chose to go ahead. And if people haven't seen it, like it's, he didn't get jumped. It wasn't a situation where he got suckered or anything like that. It was, you know, the invitation was put out there and it was a fair. fight in the sense of two guys both knew what they were getting into.

You know, the argument is, and this is coming from his agent, Barry, who I think makes a pretty reasonable point where he says, player safety already gave this guy three games. So, you know, shouldn't that be the code? The code is, you know, well, you got to hit a guy, you got to pay for it. He did pay for it. He sat out three games, you know, in that, that should be enough. and basically saying the Department of Player's safety should be the code, not the players on the ice months later. The part that gets me here is, I mean, this is an important player.

It's your most important game of the season coming up and you do something like this. I don't know that I blame Paul Byron. Like, I feel that would be a strong way to put it. But he made a bad decision. And I think that part of this, you know, frankly, is Claude Julian should have pulled him aside and said, you are not fighting this guy tonight. We've got too much on the line. You know the invitation is coming.

I am telling you you are not to fight this guy. If he asked, you tell him, my coach said, I can't go. And if you got to deal with it still next season or whatever, we'll cross that bridge then. And Claude Julian was asked about it and basically sort of waved it off and said that no, he didn't consider it and he didn't talk to the player about it. And, you know, hopefully he's okay. the point we're recording this, I don't, yeah, I haven't seen anything about whether he'll play or not.

Maybe he does. Hopefully he plays Thursday night and, you know, we forget about this. But I think there has to be a responsibility from either a coach or the leaders in the room to say, look, you don't, you don't have to answer the code tonight because you're too important to this team. And we're not doing this now. Right. All right. Well, listen, if you don't like fighting, you're watching a game. You know, you can do? Just change the channel. But how are you going to do that if you have remote control clutter? And that's why, in the greatest transition of all time, you need Control Center for Cavo. Control Center from Cavo simplifies your home theater so you can control everything connected to your TV with one easy to use remote with voice control.

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Apparently, it's time for Sean and I to be subjected to a puck soup quiz, courtesy of Quizmaster Lambert. That's right. And given that I'm me and it's the start of the college hockey, NCAA tournament. That's what the quiz is about this week. Both of you will get five questions. And because I know that I am a freak who likes college hockey and very few other people do,

these are all either or questions. So A or B, you don't have to think about it too much. But it's about the history of college hockey. It's about the present of college hockey. And yeah, I think it's pretty. And also obviously how it ties in with the NHL a lot of the time. So this is American colleges, right? Like NCAA colleges?

Yeah, and Division I only. Okay. This is not your, we're not going to be talking about any Canadian colleges here. No, no. Simon Fraser will not come up. Wisconsin-Stevens Point, not going to be in there. Congratulations to the Division III national champion. Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

I don't know. Right. Are you telling me that my experience, my years of experience covering the Carlton Ravens when they weren't even playing intramural hockey and they played in a local rec league and I had to go cover the Carlton Ravens versus Frisbee Tire on a Tuesday. Hell yeah. That is not going to come in handy? No.

Damn it. Maybe their famous rivalry with Wilfred Laurier University. Now, this is a frustrating. because I spent most of the morning studying the athletic history of the Maritime College of Forest Technology in New Brunswick. Sure, yeah. And apparently that's not part of the quiz, so I'm a little pissed off about that. It's not going to come up, unfortunately. All right.

Hit us with your best shots. All right. First questions for Sean. And again, five questions. Whoever gets the most right. This is going to be the dead puck era of puck soup quizzes. You're going to hear this question and you're going to see the level of, um, How dumbing it down I have done for you.

What's great? Okay, there are 60 teams in Division I college hockey, which is greater? The number of teams that are named the Bulldogs or the number of teams that are named the Huskies. Oh, wow. Oh, boy. I'm going to go I'm going to go Bulldogs. That seems more like me. Ooh, sorry, sorry, Sean.

Dumb it down further, right? named three teams are named the Bulldogs, Minnesota Duluth, Yale and Ferris State, four teams are named the Huskies, Yukon, Michigan Tech, St. Cloud, and Northeastern. Wow, that's not even counting. I forgot about St. Cloud. That was my problem. Oh, there it is. Well, they're going to probably win the national title this year, so. Charlie St. Cloud, Zach Efron.

That's right. Greg, your first question, which team has more alumni in the NHL this season? and they can be guys who have only played one game. And this is as of this recording, obviously more college guys are getting signed all the time and the number will go up. But Boston College or Boston University? Boston University. That is incorrect. Boston College has 21.

BU has 19. And Ryan could name them all off the top of his head if we ask. Jack, Michael should count twice. That's my opinion. Okay, that cuts them to 20 and they're still not there. All right. So tied, tied goose goose. Tide zero's here. Sean, your second question here, you might not know this.

Not every team in college hockey plays on an NHL-sized rink. Some play on an international rink. Some play on 200 by 90. Some play on 200 by 98. It's very strange. How many teams have non-NHL-sized rinks? Is it more or less than 20? 20 of the, you said 60 teams?

60, that's correct. I'm going to say more. They're more than 20. Oh, less. It's 16. Wow, you know, that's a tricky one because I was trying to play what's the quiz master thinking with this question. Like, what would be the sense of saying less? Like, the big wow moment would be like, more.

I'm with you, Sean. I would have answered the same way. 16 is a crazy number. 16 to me is a lot. Hmm. Interesting. All right. Well, maybe I shouldn't try to get into the mind of Ryan Lambert. Maybe it's a place I don't want to be. Yeah, that's true. Greg, this, okay, is the single season record for college hockey points, points by a skater? Is the single season record more or less than 100? It's got to be less. It's more. Oh, Jesus. 1887 Tony Herk has had 116 points in 48 games

Was he with Notre Dame? North Dakota God damn All right So we're still a good tiebreaker for this Because this is Okay Sean this one I feel very confident

This one I wrote specifically for you here Is the number of former college hockey players Who have played for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season more or less than four. Play for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. This season. Wow. Or less.

College. And these I could name off the top of my head. These five I can tell you. I'm sure you could. Is Tyler Bozac still technically a leaf? See, that's... He's on the St. Louis Blues. Do you know about this?

I wish he was. Back then, see, this would have been an easy question like a few years ago because that was when the Leafs had no draft picks and they would just randomly sign like he signed everybody out of college. Christian Hanson type prospect who could barely even skate and they would then yeah be sold as as great prospects. Oh boy. They, I mean, okay, I'm thinking now and I know this is the wrong.

I know this is the wrong way to think about it, but they don't have that many American players and I feel like that the Americans are more likely. and Austin Matthews didn't, so he was development program. I'm going to say less. It's five. All right. Jake Gardner. Yeah, Gardner was the one I could definitely get out of five.

All right. Ron Haney. Oh, right. Went to UMass Hole, fine institution. Like in the 70s. That doesn't count. Zach Hyman. Oh, wow.

And then two that Justin Hull, only really coming up these days because he's a figure of some controversy because Mike Babcock refuses to play him. And Trevor Moore. Those are your five. Yeah, Trevor Moore. There you go. All right.

All right. So this is still a anybody's ball game. We're over here. Greg, I'm going to put the over-under on the number of college hockey players who are in the Hockey Hall of Fame as men or women in as players and not builders at 16 and a half. Are you taking the over or the under? I'm taking the over, baby. You are correct. Yes!

No time for losers. Because I am the champions. So the reason that I put the over under at 16 and a half is because there are 16 men and two women. Wow. There you go. So there you have it. One, one, finally won one of these coin flips, Sean.

The pressure's all on you. That's right. Okay, Sean, if you didn't get the last one, you're almost certainly not going to get this one. But if you use the same logic that you thought about for the Leafs a few years ago, you might get it. Which NHL team has used the most former college players this season? All right. I, the most former college players this season. And you know what?

I'll actually say, give me one of the top three. Oh. Oh, boy. Because it's not neither or question. Right. Oh, yeah. This is not, I'm like having to. So, yeah.

Okay. Name the top three. Any of the top three. Okay. So without giving an answer, let me, let me kind of walk you through my, my logic here. Sure. Yeah. I'm going to, you're going to, uh, million.

I'm going to just start saying team names and hope that I can get you to like Twitch or, you know, in some way, give away. I'll turn my back to the camera here. See, I'm trying to think about teams that sign a lot of college free agents, which is probably not the right way to do it. Because that's, I mean, you get at most one or two guys. And, you know, you can be drafting all these guys. All right. I'm going to say the New York Rangers. Can I guess? Can I guess one?

Greg, you can guess. You can guess. I was going to say that Chicago would be one of them. That was one of the other two I was thinking. Did I close the window? I closed the window, so I don't have it in front of me anymore. But the top three are Anaheim with 21. Wow.

Yeah. New Jersey with 20 and Minnesota with 19. Okay. New Jersey and Minnesota are two. Traditionally, they just sign one or two every year. So that's why I figured you might get that. Those are way higher numbers than I thought. I would have, that's...

Yeah, Ray Shiro's got a real American player boner, too. That makes a lot of sense. He does. He does. So, okay, Sean, still over. Greg, you have one. I feel like Greg should lose half a point because he tried to answer mine and fail. Didn't get it right.

Not that that half point is going to matter much because it's it's it's the it's the reaching over to your plate and stealing your fries of trivia questions. Yeah, pretty much. It. Greg, is the percentage of players in the NHL this season who played college hockey and have at least one game in the NHL more or less than 30? So this is the percentage we're looking for. Yes. This is this is, this is like we're in the shootout and we're, One more goal would clinch it, I think. That's true.

So if you get this right, I don't have to answer another question. I'm going to say it is thinking about where all these guys come from, Canadian Junior, players from overseas, I'm going to say less than 30. It's a little over 31. Motherfuck. And again, that number will go up as the year goes on in all these college free agents or draft picks. That's where I should have thought about who's asking the question. And of course you're going to self-aggrandize the American experience in hockey. You're fucked up.

That fucked up. You're right. I did. All right, Sean, here we go. Oh, God. The over under on former college players who are now NHLGMs is five and a half. Are you taking the over or the under? Okay.

Wow. Yeah, you know what? These college boys, I tell you, I'm going to go over. I think it's six. Oh, it's seven. You're correct. Wow. I got it right.

So I knew six off the top of my head. And then when I looked it up today, I totally forgot Yarmou Keckleine and played for Clarkson. Holy shit. Wow. Do you think that's why he made the Clarkson trade? Yes, I do think that. Maybe. But yeah, I totally forgot that.

was true, but it definitely, like, because you wouldn't think, because he's finished or whatever, but Chuck Fletcher, right, Harvard, Don Sweeney, Harvard, Jason Bauderil, I believe, played for Michigan. Yeah, Baderle was definitely a college guy. Well, no, I know he was a college guy, I'm pretty sure. It's either Michigan or Minnesota, but I'm pretty sure it's Michigan. Paul Fenton played for B.U., George McVee played for Bolling Green, and Ray Scherer, of course, played for St. Lawrence.

Bottle is a college guy in the sense that I could see him holding a beer coozy playing cornhole outside of a frat house. He looks like one of those types. He does. Let me just ask this. Greg would probably know this. Did Lamarillo never play even at college? Was he not? Lulamarillo was actually born looking exactly like Lulamrillo does now, so he never played.

Yeah, I think he didn't. He's never been young. I'm pretty sure he didn't play for, I mean, he was like the coach at Providence, but I don't think he played. He came from the college ranks, but yeah, he was already 70 back then. He was like a 14-year-old in the American development program. Era, I do not want to play, era, I will manage. He might have played D3 or something, but I don't think so. Anyway, Greg, last one.

Here we go. For the win. For the win. Does the NCAA this season have a higher or lower average save percentage than the NHL? All right. It's got to be higher. The NHL's every say percentage is dog shit this year because we're over three goals a game. It's lower.

God damn. It's 9-10 in the NHL. It's gone up a little bit in the last couple of weeks here. Oh, well, that's why I got it wrong. Well, no, it's 9.06 in NCAA. So even at its lowest point earlier in the season, it wasn't as bad. Do you have a tiebreaker? Yep, I certainly do.

This is going to be Price's Right rules. No, I guess we'll just go closest. Jerry York, Boston College coach and lightning rod of controversy these days. Jerry York has the record for the most wins as a college coach ever. He coached, he started his career in 1972 at Clarkson. he might have coached Yarmou Keckleine and not that I say that. Then he moved to Bowling Green and then he went back to his alma mater, BC, where he's been since 94, I want to say.

And so how many wins does the winningest coach in the history of college hockey have? Okay. I'll go first. Yes. Yes, you will. Can we put a rule on this that he can't say one more than me? Can there be a cushion here since I am going first? Sure.

Yeah. It has to be at least 30 more than my guess, his guess. Sure. I will not agree to that. It can be two. It can be two more. All right. I'll go 750.

Okay, 750. All right. I think it's significantly more than that. It feels like if this guy has been coaching that long, and given my very rough knowledge of how many kids, yeah, I'm going to say higher. I'll go, I'll even, I'll be nice. What did you say, Greg, 7.50?

Yeah. I will say 8.50. Okay. 850. Well, Sean is correct. Well, correcter. Corrector. I'll take it. Jerry York's career win total, 1067.

And I would think untouchable record. It would agree with that. Well, this puts Sean's record in quizzes at 2 and O, I think. Wow. If memory serves. I'm in awe of this, really. No, that's... Sean, you're like...

In a movie quiz. And then you beat me in a quiz about Americans. Yeah, about Americans. Yeah. So, yeah. What's next for it on? If I may be so bold, you're the Jerry York of Puck Soup quizzes. I might be.

To use a recent example. Next week, bagels. All right. Before we get to our question of the week, real quick, any thoughts on Lwango probably retiring? It's a bummer, dude. Yeah, didn't it though? It's especially since he's just one of those guys you don't want him to ever not be in hockey. Right.

And I mean, and we should, we should. clarify, he won't retire, he'll just kind of disappear and go on long term Egypt reserve. Because if he does retire and this is where it gets interesting, if he actually retired, the Canucks and the Panthers, but especially the Canucks get hit with that stupid cap recapture rule. So they need him to not do that. But he made a preclear this week. He's not looking to go anywhere else. And when the Panthers have all but hung a Sergei Brabowski poster outside of the arena for next year.

the rating's pretty much on the wall. So it's unfortunate. I will miss him as a player and as a personality. The long-term injured reserve loophole sucks, but it sucks for all the teams equally, so we won't complain about it. And anyone who says that he's not a Hall of Famer is out of their mind, and I will fight you.

He's a Hall of Famer. Absolutely. All right, well, there you go. I agree. Sad that he's going. But, man, what an awesome. career. And, and I'm happy that it ends in Florida. Then it's not going to be some weird ass Mike Madano-esque.

I'm going to wear an awful jersey for his. Yeah. He plays for the wild the next three years. Yeah. And he's got like an 820 say percentage because he's fucking 50 years old now. The question of the week was, who is your team's scapegoat the season, logical or not? Trent Leith writes in, on the ice, it was good Branson. And now the focus has moved to Louis Erickson off the ice Jim Benning. Ryan Scores writes in as a wild fan, Victor Rask's career is our scapegoat for showing promise early on, earning the contract that he has and then forcing the canes to trade him due to that contract and level of play. Now we are minus Nino and stuck with Rask for another year.

Annabella, Annabella writes in Babcock. His deployment techniques are the least logical thing in the world. Pete Williams says Jared Bedner for the abs. He just stands there like he's waiting at the DMV. We had a coach, dude. Wow. Damn. Dalton Fry writes in, if Detroit doesn't win the lottery, it's Dylan Larkin.

He was the only player keeping Detroit from completely bottoming it out and outtanking Ottawa, which was about the best case outcome of the season. And Jake C says it was Jack Johnson, and now it's Phil Kessel. Oh, hot take. Jeez. I know, right? And then Royce, the voice says Tyler Sagan and his desire to only hit posts. And then finally, new music Michael says, the water for the Oilers.

Oh, and of course, Tobias Reader apparently. Of course, the impetus for this question. Bob Nicholson, torching Tobias Reader as the sole reason. All the guys you're going to go after. Toby Reeder, number one with a bullet. All right. Well, thanks everybody for listening to the podcast. This has been Puck Suit for this week.

I'm Greg Wyshinsky, and you can find myself at ESPN. Check out our Stanley Cup Madness Tournament that's going on this week, where you can vote on the best Stanley Cup winner of the last 16 years. And you can find my stuff at Wysh-Y-S-H-Y-N-Sk-I on Twitter. Yeah, I'm on Sports.yahu.com slash author slash Ryan dash Lambert. And that's me. You also should sign up for the Puck Soup mailbag or a newsletter, I mean, Patreon.

Yeah, it is. The newsletter on the Patreon, I write, you know, just something every week about hockey, about music, movies, that kind of thing. And people seem to like it, so I'll keep doing it. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter, all the usual spots at The Athletic. You can check out my work there, including this week's concussion piece that we talked about, and a bunch of other really good concussion pieces. It's kind of concussion week, so they're doing a deeper dive into that situation. And so there's a lot of really good stuff there to check out. There you go.

All right. Sean and I did a bonus podcast for the listener's choice. It was the worst regular season collapses in NHL history. It was a really fun one. So do check that out and check out the mailbag on the Patreon. five bucks a month gets you six things. And then, of course, eight bucks a month gets you, Ryan's newsletter on top of everything else. And you check that out.

And thanks for supporting the podcast. If you like the podcast, go to iTunes and leave a review. It helps people discover the podcast. If you don't like the podcast, go to Reddit and complain about how we talk about more wrestling than the lightning. That seems to be the move of du jour. All right, everybody. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.

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