Puck Soup - New Season When?

Episode Date: December 17, 2020

Ryan and Sean talk about if the new NHL season will actually be starting soon, how the season could look, who might win the NHL awards and they play a quick game!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. Oh, too. Hey, gang, it's me, Ryan Lambert. I don't have any power at my house right now, so everything is being run on battery backup. Sean McIndoo, I do have power.

Well, nice brag by you. And Greg, as you can probably tell, isn't here this week. He went to Minnesota to cover the Winter Classic, and I was like, Greg, they're not doing it this year. And he's like, no, I'm just going to go. I'm going to make sure. So, all right, he's gone. He's in the wilderness.

Yeah, late December. In December, January, those are the days to do it for sure. so yeah, we're really the power just came back on if you hear any beeping and stuff like that in the background you probably just did

that's what that is but I'm not going to take any chances and yeah so that's we're just going to go through it I guess the only thing to talk about this week really is the push and pull of

restarting the season? Is that right? Like, is anything other than that happened? I mean, that's, that's the big stuff. We were hoping when we knew a week ago that we were going to be doing this show, the two of us on Thursday, we were like, oh, well, hopefully that'll be the day that they've announced all of the new details and the return to play and everything like that, and we're all good to go. And it is not happening. Sounds like now. Yeah, of course not. uh they the Friday at the earliest but based on what the insiders are tweeting and saying uh there's there's still some details to be worked out there they're going to have a deal

uh they're going to get this done that there doesn't seem to be any concern that any of that that is actually in in jeopardy but it's it's it's it's a lot of details to iron out and it doesn't sound like they're there yet and i guess the one question mark would be can they still do it for this january 13th date that's been out there uh or are we potentially looking at a situation where that has to get pushed back a little bit? Because you do need time for camps and quarantines and all of that stuff. But at this point, there doesn't seem to be major concerned. It still looks like we're all systems going for January 13th.

It's just a question of how. Well, that's what they say. Well, that's it. It's what they say. And it's not done until it's done. And they could always run into issues. But at this point, I haven't seen it. It really is just like, yeah, it really is just like this league specifically is like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get it all figured out.

And you're like, will you, though? And they're like, yes, yes, yes. You don't have to worry about that. We have it under control. And then you're like, well, it's getting like pretty close to the deadline where everybody, oh, we got, we got it. And then, you know, they said that about January 1st. Now they're saying it about January 13th. you know, I got to think that like there's a non-zero chance that starts more like January 20th, January 25th, something like that.

Or it's just like, yeah, we thought it was going to be all set. And then we just started arguing over very little details. And because this is the NHL, nothing can get done just like in a straight ahead regular way. We always have to try to fuck one another over. So that's just how it's going to be. Yep. I mean, that is,

and as somebody who shares a house with a teenager who has homework assignments, like this feels familiar to me where it's like, yeah, yeah, I said that. Yeah, yeah, no, don't worry.

And then it's going to be like January 12th and they'll be like, we don't know what the divisions should be. Right. And isn't that the classic thing? Yeah. Because like, you know, a month ago,

Greg's like, this is what the divisions are going to be. And then, you know, three weeks later, Pierre LeBron's like, they're actually going to be three percent different from that. And everybody's like, Greg, you idiot, you fool. And then, like, a day later, it's like, actually the thing Pierre said, that's probably not true either, but neither is the thing Greg said. And it's like, it shouldn't be this fucking hard.

No. So why is it? But it's also, though, you know what, given the circumstances, is probably better to take an extra day than to do it a day early. You know, it's, uh, there's, this is going to be a monster. I mean, we've talked about it. Yeah. In however many ways.

So I don't think we're breaking any new ground. But there's, there's a ton of challenges here. And the landscape probably looks different every day. Like every day you wake up and you go, okay, we're 90% of the way there. And then something has happened in the NFL or something's going on in the NBA. And you go, oh, we got to think about that. or we got to figure out how we would deal with this. It's tough.

But, I mean, if they go January 13th and fingers crossed, hopefully even by the time people are listening to this, maybe we'll have the details and everyone will know it. But January 13th, that doesn't leave a lot of time. That's basically training camp right after Christmas. You get everyone in. People are quarantined. There's been talk of the seven non-playoff teams

getting early training camp, but I don't even know how that works at this point. I think the latest on that was, remember it was going to be like 10 days and then it was going to be a week. Now it looks like it's going to be three extra days. Yeah, because that's all you can do. You guys haven't played in nine months. Figure it out. But I mean, you know, what are you going to do? You're going to call up, you're going to call up Drew Doughty and be like, hey, you haven't played in nine months.

Camp starts on December 23rd. Please leave your family and no, he's not going to do that. So it's going to be a mess, but it'll be a mess for everybody. And fingers crossed, once we get going, it'll be hockey. Well, so, yeah, I mean, I've been watching a lot of college hockey of late. And there's all these different teams where, oh, you know, we could only have four guys practicing for a week and a half because of various positive code, whatever it is. You know, it's a million different things. And so there are some college teams that still haven't played a game.

And there are other college teams that have played like 10 games. And when those two teams, like when teams play each other and one like very obviously hasn't played for a while, they get destroyed. There have been some really ugly games that I've watched where maybe, you know, maybe it's not respected or reflected in the score. But you're like, oh, that game might as well have been 700 to 2. Like, it just didn't matter. And that's kind of what I worry about with, um, with like, you know, all those teams that didn't get to play in the bubble. Um, but I guess the other thing to say is most of those teams also have the benefit of we can send our guys to play in like the Allsvenskine or, you know, the German league or whatever. Yeah.

But yeah, it just, it seems like it's a huge. mess and there's not going to be any good solution. Like, they don't even know, because everybody's loves to go, oh, I don't know if you know this, but Gary Bettman, he's talking to Tony Fauci every day, every day. He's on the phone with this guy and he's getting the latest updates and recommendations. And then they're like, and Dr. Fauci says they should play in, like, bubbles or hub cities or something like that. but they're not going to do that. They're listening to him, but they're just going to ignore what.

And it's like, well, okay, who cares? Yeah. It doesn't matter then. I mean, I have no idea if it's going to make a difference that one team hasn't played in nine months and the other team hasn't played in four months. Like we, that's uncharted territory. We don't know. What I do feel pretty confident about is that you are going to have that.

college hockey situation you mentioned where there's going to be teams that get shut down. There's going to be teams that end up having to, you know, shift things around. And that's probably part of the challenge they're talking about now is how do we build a schedule that gets enough games in but also has some flexibility. And I wonder when the schedule comes out. It will be one of those things where if you look at it closely, you can find some neat things that move around. Like remember a few years ago with the Olympics, I think it was Delo figured out that

there was like a whole section of the schedule that could actually be swapped if they decided at the last minute to go to the Olympics and it was, you know, and it was denied and everything like that. But it was, there was stuff in there that I wonder if we'd see something like that. The other thing is they've got to figure out before the season starts, how are we going to handle this if we get to the end of the season and one team has played 56 games and another team has played 45? Like, what does that look like in the standings? Is it points percentage? Is it that simple? Okay, cool. Is it something else? Is there some formula? Like, what if it's, what if one team only gets to play 20 games? You know, how does that work? Yeah. Because you've got

figure that out now. You can't wait until the situation happens. And then one team that has like 28 games played is like, we actually think we should be in the playoffs and every, yeah, you're sitting there going, oh, look at that. The 56 game team is the Winnipeg Jets and the 20 game team is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Gosh, you know what? Maybe now I think the 20 games. team should get in there because, you know, and everyone's going to scream. So you got to figure that out. But at the same time, there's other stuff. Maybe they don't give us all the information to start with because they want to let the situation evolve. Like maybe we don't get a full schedule. Maybe we get half a schedule. And then I think that's probably what is going to happen. Yeah.

That's my guess. You know, there's stuff like that that they could leave open. And I think we got to be open to that that, you know, they're not, they're not going to lock everything in. There are going be some things that still have to be determined. And hopefully, and although even as I say this, I know it's not going to happen, hopefully we don't all go full-on conspiracy theory on every single thing like that, where it's like, oh, now look, oh, the new schedule, like, oh, the Bruins get an extra home game, like, all right, maybe they do. Yeah.

Well, knowing this league, it would be the Arizona Coyotes get eight games against HL teams. Yeah. Wait a second. That'd be fine. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things. And, you know, the idea of, well, you know, if we have to, we'll pivot to playing in hub cities.

And it's like, yeah, it's the same thing where it's like, well, you know, the Bruins have played 14 home games and the New Jersey Devils have played seven just because of how things shook out. And now they're all playing on effectively neutralize. Yeah. Okay. I guess we'll figure it out. Yep. And I guess, you know, at the end, the one thing I might say is we did have some of that in the summer. And people were generally okay with it. Like you didn't hear a lot of complaining. There was some. That's what hockey fans. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, I wonder how much of it was, well, we're pretty close to the end of the season anyway. What's the extra seven games or whatever? You know, what difference is it really going to make for the Winnipeg Jets versus, you know, the Minnesota Yester.

who gives a shit. Whereas, you know, like you say, if one team's played 10 games fewer than three others in their division, well, now I have no idea how we're going to work that out. But, you know, like, honestly, as much as I want to shit on the NHL for, you know, really white-knuckling it and just trying to get it to the absolute last second possible before they announce anything, I think part of that is because there's, like, well, we need to craft about 7,000 contingency plans and then sign off on all of them. So, you know, we're going to just do that before we announce literally anything.

And I think that's like also the only way to do it reasonably and responsibly and stuff. So. Yep. No. I don't know. It's a mess. It's one of these things where I feel like this stuff should be out there and they should have it done. But I sure wouldn't want to be the one doing it.

I would not want to be on that committee. I would not want to be making those decisions. So, yeah, I think we all kind of have to have a little bit of patience and sort of wait and see where it goes and just keep our fingers crossed. As I've said a few times, I didn't think they were going to be able to pull it off in the summer and they did. It's a different set of circumstances, obviously, especially once you're going outside bubbles. But it's a lot of the same people. and they did find a way to make it work where I wasn't sure they could, so I'll give them that credit. Yeah, and, you know, I guess the other thing to talk about is that they, I can't remember who tweeted it.

I've been checking Twitter pretty sporadically because I didn't know how much phone battery I would have. But they have been, you know, I can't remember who said. I think it was Pierre LeBron said that they could announce. adds on helmets as early as today, just as a way to kind of juice HRR. What do you think of that idea? This has been something that for years they've been talking about, either on the helmet or on the jerseys. And I feel like it should bother me a lot. Like I just feel like I fit that demographic of, you know, being the kind of old-timey hockey fan where I should, I should,

feel a certain outrage over this. And it doesn't really bother me. I think whenever you say particularly ads on uniforms, everybody immediately pictures those European leagues where it's just an absolute clown show with a dozen ads slapped all over the place. And obviously, nobody wants to see that. And once you start putting ads on the players, then maybe you've opened that door. And maybe if you can handle one, then why not? not do two and off you go. But no, I mean, throwing a small ad, especially if it's, you know, depending on where it is, if it's, you know, just sitting there on the back of the helmet and it's barely

noticeable. I think what they, what I'm picturing anyway, obviously they haven't like released any of this, but what I'm picturing is, you know, they just put like on the front of the helmet, like, whatever, Swedish telecom giant is on the cover of like, or on the front of Motos helmets, you know, and it's, it just looks like, you know, a little, a bumper sticker basically. Yeah. And yeah, who can't, I don't give a shit, whatever. I think especially because...

I think this from having a flat cap for the next decade, I'm, right. I'm okay with it. I, just especially because I feel like hockey more than any other sport is like, we're pretty zoomed out from, the action. Like, there's not a lot of close-ups of guys in the middle of play. And so, like, you know, if every, you know, third shift, I have to look at, like, David Crachie has a, has a bumper sticker on the front of his helmet and says, like, Dunkin' Donuts or whatever, who cares? Yeah. Like, but I'm also, I'm also, you know, I've, I've watched plenty of

HAL hockey, and they've had an ad on, like, the front of their jersey for years. And sometimes it's fairly noticeable if like they just slap, again, like a big AT&T logo on the front of like a Red Wings jersey. You're like, well, that's, you know, a pretty big clash for the color scheme or whatever. But in the NBA, they do a pretty good job of matching what the logo is to the color scheme of the jersey itself. And so like if they're, you know, if it's a white and gold Dunkin' Donuts logo on the Bruins jersey, I don't think anybody's going to really make too big of a stink about it. And in fact, knowing how much people love Dunkin' Donuts around here, I think that would be the best-selling jersey in the league.

It's, I've, you know, a lot of us are old enough to remember when they put ads on the ice. And I'm even old enough to just vaguely remember when they start putting ads on the boards. And both of those that were things where people are like, you can't do that. That's good. It looks terrible. It looks awful. and then you just got used to it. To the point now, if you're watching like an old classic game from 1982,

and you're like, why is it look so bare out there? Like, there's nothing there. And it's the same thing. And, in fact, putting an ad on the ice, like a big neutral zone ad is far more noticeable and intrusive than putting a smallish. And again, we're kind of, we're giving the NHL some benefit of the doubt here. Maybe they haven't earned where we're saying, like, oh, it'll be small, it'll be subtle. let's wait and see.

But it is the sort of thing, when it happens, there will be the wave of complaints. People will hate it. Some people will be putting on a show and some people will legitimately be like, this rubs me the wrong way, but you'll get used to it. And again, I'm, if under normal circumstances, maybe I'd be able to summon up some sort of, oh, the sanctity or the whatever, it's these, revenues cratering. and it's, if you can, if you can put a dent in that by doing this, go ahead. I will say, like, I kind of see the argument where you're like,

I, A, I don't like this and B, I don't buy that this is just going to be a one-time thing. Like, you know, they're going to, they're not going to take it away once revenues go up again. Yes. Yeah. And I, I get that. Of course I get that. But like you kind of said, you're going to get used to it. You're not going to care by the end of the season or notice it very much.

And if you do, you're just going to be like, well, that's just how it is. And then next year when they come back with it, you'll go, well, that's just how it is. You know, I think. Once they crack the door, it's not going away. I would agree with that. Right. And, you know, I think especially in North American sports where the logo is so key. to like, whatever, brand identity, you know, whatever buzzwords you want to say.

Like, they're never going to do the Manchester United thing where they have a big, uh, whatever credit card company logo. Like, there's not going to be a master card logo on the front of a, of the Leafs jersey instead of the Maple Leaf. That's just never going to happen. So, you know, I think, I think at the end of the day, it's going to be small changes that people just get used to and then 15 years from now

yeah we probably will have every team looking like they play in the German league but by then you won't care just like nobody in Germany really cares so whatever yeah the other thing I guess to say is the big news this week was the NHL

was like yeah we would buy the vaccine if it was available to us yeah I go away And everybody was like, how dare you? And it's like, you don't think like Amazon or Google is doing the exact same. Like, you know, I have news for you. A billion dollar businesses want to get back to normal as soon as possible. And they are willing to pay a lot of money to do it.

Yeah. Like, I, you know, the idea that they're going to be taking it away from, you know, it's the, it's the wire adults buying PlayStation 5s. PlayStation 5s are for children only. You know? And it's like, they're not taking that away from like nurses or whatever. It's not like there's a big community vaccination drive going on for like all of the frontline workers. And Gary Betman shows up with a wad of bills and is like, it'd be a shame if some of these fell off the truck.

Kicks in the door. Shubs a nurse. Yeah. I think the idea there was that if and when it becomes possible to purchase the, then then. then the NHL would of course do that. You're right. I mean, yeah, obviously they're going to. The other thing that made me laugh, and this might have been not last week but the week

before, but did you see the Eugene Melnick interview where he was talking about? I saw that it happened and I saw that it was like 2,500 words and I was like, I don't need to read this. There was like this, I guess, rapid test that is being worked on where people could just, you could show up to go to a sporting event or a conference. concert or whatever, and they just quickly give you a test. And within a few minutes, they're like, yeah, you're good. And you go, which would obviously be, like, just totally groundbreaking and amazing and,

you know, would revitalize all these industries. But then, like, Eugene Malink, it was, it was just mentioned. I don't even know if he said it. But it was like, yeah, he's going to try to get the North American rights for this. And it was like, yeah, I feel like that's going to be competitive. I don't really see any NHL owners being the ones who are going to, like, outbid Mark Mark Cuban or Jerry Jones on this. Like, I just feel like,

Maybe somebody else might beat you to that. Yeah, Jeff Bezos is like, okay, I really want this. And Eugene Melnick, the guy who was like, I couldn't possibly have a payroll over $38 million. Yeah. He's going to swoop in and be like, you're bringing the hammer down at the billionaires auction. Okay. Yeah, all right, Eugene. Well, I mean, he would be using it to control everybody's mind.

So it's a little different. Good point. But I guess, you know, ultimately, like, it's just a thing that they're just going to have to handle, you know, so delicately and get it just right. And, you know, speaking of handling delicate things just right, this episode is brought to you by Mack Weldon. Yeah, that's right. He's good. Look, when it comes to gift giving for guys, it's not easy. You remember the classic thing of like,

well, you get your dad, like ties and socks, right? Well, now McWeldon makes it super easy and really simple to find something great no matter who it is, no matter which guy you're shopping for, boss. Why would you be shopping for your boss? Terrible example right off the bat. But your dad, your boyfriend, your fail son, whatever, you know, whatever. But Mac Weldon has warm knit tops.

They have undershirts. They have lounge pants. They have basics that are guaranteed to keep everyone comfortable. McWeldon has been nice enough to send us all various items from their catalog. They're really good. I'm actually wearing McWeldon's sweatpants right now. They're great. So, you know, take it from us.

We know. But what do they got? They got essentials like socks, shirts, hoodies, underwear, polos, active shorts. and they're all going to have like a really consistent good fit. Like if you're a medium for the sweatpants, just get the medium for everything else. You're going to be in good shape. They're versatile because they look great.

They feel great. You can use them for working out, running errands, going to work, whatever. They have a new loyalty program called Weldon Blue. Once you hit level one, that guarantees you free shipping for life. When you hit level two by spending $200. You get 20% off everything else you order for the entire next year. And there's, of course, the McWeldon guarantee that if you don't like your first pair of underwear, you keep them. They don't want your underwear back, and they'll still refund you, no questions asked.

So you can win the gift giving season and get 20% off your first order. Visit macwellden.com slash puck and enter the promo code puck. It's macweldon.com slash puck. promo code puck 20% off Mac Weldon. They're reinventing men's basics. Their stuff is really good. It is. Yeah.

I like it a lot. The other thing, I guess the only other real news that happened this week really was, I think various betting companies put out their odds for who's going to win the NHL Awards. That's right. And some of them are really weird, as you might expect. because I don't have reliable power right now I don't have the list in front of me Sean but I think we can kind of muddle through it

otherwise let's start with the MVP the heart is there were a lot of names there's a lot of names on each of these originally when we talked about doing this there was one site that had put out a list

where it was like 10 names per award and then another one came out, and geez, there's got to be four of your 50 names here, including some that I think are not likely to win the MVP award, but maybe. Who knows? But I don't know how you want to do this. Do you want to talk about maybe we each pick one favorite and one long shot, and then at least somebody that maybe stands out as a bad bet, at least I've got the odds in front of me.

The favorite is, I don't think the top of the list is a surprise. And there's nothing on here that's horrible. Obviously, anytime you're dealing with betting, the people who make the odds tend to know what they're doing. They don't go completely off the board too often, although, you know, there's a few that are maybe a little iffy. The favorite is Connor McDavid. They've got him listed at four to one. Nathan McKinnon right behind him at five to one. reigning MVP Lee Undercidal at 8 to 1

and then the year before his MVP, Nikita Kuturov 10 to 1 and then it's Artemi Panera and Austin Matthews, Braden Point, Elias Pedersen, and then Ovechkin, Marshawn, Mitch Martner and Sidney Crosby all at 20 to 1 and that sort of, once you get past that,

you're getting into the serious long shot territory. So I don't know, do any of those, if you were going to throw some money down, not that either of us ever would, would you be tempted by any of those names at the top of the list or would you be looking more long shots? I think once you, you know who I really like there is Patterson? I don't know what number you said he was. So he gets 18 to 1.

Which I, that jumped out at me as some pretty decent value too. Yeah. Just because, you know, like, I don't think Vancouver is going to be particularly good this year. I think a lot of their success last season was just Patterson and Markstrom, to be honest with you. And so, you know, the idea that, well, now they don't even have Markstrom. So if they succeed at all, it's going to be because Patterson is like one of the best players in the league. and, you know, when you're, how do you want to put this? When you're an elite level player on a pretty good team that overperforms expectations,

like I, you know, the Taylor Hall scenario, I think that's a really good bet. Yep. And they're in that Canadian division. So there's, they could absolutely finish top two in that division. And I don't think it would even be that big of a shock. so yeah I like that one a lot I don't think I go near any of the big

I mean Conor McDavid in 4 to 1 would would tempt me at least a little bit but I just that's not enough of a payoff necessarily yeah how about I I get with I get why dry sidel

is high because he just won the award but like unless McDavid gets hurt again I can't imagine a scenario where it's like, well, those are the, you know, clearly the two best forwards in the league once again this year, you know, to the average voter, and they don't give it to Connor. You know, like the idea that Drysidal would be a repeat MVP when he wasn't even the MVP on his own team last season, probably, or at least the best player on his own team. Yeah, that's a tough sell for me. you know who I would who I'm really thinking would be like a really good pick depending on what

what what division they end up in because I think this is one of the teams that is kind of moving around as the as the proposals change or whatever but like Carter Hart I remember when I looked at the list he was like pretty far down it and I was like if the flyers are any good he's probably you know going to be a big if not the biggest reason why, you know, maybe the most obvious reason why. And yeah, I just remember him being really far down the list and being like, damn. Yeah, he's way down the list. He's at 50 to 1, just behind Alex Barkaw, Mark Stone, and Matthew Barzell, and tied with Patrice Bergeron.

So to give you a sense, that's 50 to 1. Obviously, when it comes to the Hart Trophy, goaltenders and defensemen for whatever reason. Don't get that. Don't get the votes. And we've, we've seen that over and over again. And, you know, I'm, I know you've been beating the drum. But, like, if we were just looking at actually the actual most valuable player to his team, Connor Hellenbuck, should have been very high in the voting last year after what he did that Winnipeg team. But, like, this is also one of those things where enough people are talking about this that I feel like some year there's going to be a tipping point. And suddenly you'll see this groundswell of support go behind a.

goalie and we saw with Kerry Price won the MVP just five years ago so it's not like it's impossible that's that's not a bad place to look for value is is at the goalies I I'm going to go even further down the list for my long shot pick and it's actually for a lot of the same reasons that we talked about with Elias Patterson is I think that Canadian division is wide open I think we're going to see some weird results if we see a Canadian team that's maybe not expected to do super great, either win that division or be near the top. I think people are just going to look at who's the best forward on that team, who had a big year.

So I'm going to go, even though he's coming off a bad year, Johnny Goddrow is 60 to 1. Man, that's, I mean, that, you throw down three bucks on that and if he wins, you're taking home 200 bucks. That's not bad, that's not bad value for a guy who, yeah, he wasn't. great last year. The year before that, he had almost 100 points, and I think he was like fourth or fifth in the MVP voting, so he's only two years removed from being a serious defender. Obviously, you're talking about somebody winning the MVP. You're assuming they're having a great year. I mean, that's baked into the scenario you're visioning. If he gets back to that level,

that, you know, over point a game level, if he ends up with 60 points and he's in the top 10 in the league. And the flames are near the top of the Canadian division, you know, that Canadian media were all going to be staring at each other on this division and trying to build our own narratives around it. It would be a nice redemption storyline, which we all like, you know, they were going to, people wanted him trade it and then look what happened. He brought it.

Well, I was just going to say, you know, like, yeah, you know, he could, he could be a dominant team player for a Canadian division team but also what about they're just going to train them to the fucking flyers you know yeah yeah um halfway through the year that that tends to happen uh happens yeah or yep even but even before the year starts you know to halfway through the next year that's right um the other the other guy i think could be an interesting one here is and i i don't know how much I buy it. I actually wrote about it yesterday where I was like, you know, everybody's writing in Columbus. They're like, oh, that looks like a playoff team to me. And it's like, they weren't even that good last year. They, they had like as many regulation wins as like Calgary

did. And nobody thought Calgary was any kind of a good team that's like guaranteed to make the playoffs, except they upgraded in goal. Columbus didn't add anybody really this summer. But if they if they do make it, I think it will be in large part because remember how fucking good Pierre Luke Dubois was during the playoffs? I do remember. Yeah, I did watch a couple of those games, huh? Yeah, I do remember that. And you know what? Like I kind of hate to say this because I think I make too big a deal out of like trying to medigame out like how the voters and the media is going to work. But, you know, I remember saying before that Columbus series, I said, if Cestrian has a good series, he's going to win the 2021 Norris in this playoffs.

Oh, yeah, we're going to get to that, but he's 100% going to get the Drew Dowdy Lifetime Achievement Award at 26th. He absolutely could, right? And but he had, you know, he was perfectly good in that series. And, you know, it was one of these things where it was like the big breakthrough for a guy who doesn't need a breakthrough. But Pierluck DeVaw was excellent in that series. And I think He was incredible. He was Columbus's best player in those playoffs by a lot. thought. And everybody got to see that, including, you know, there's the big chunk of the media that's in

Toronto, that's in Canada, everybody saw it. So it's sort of. If they have a good year and he, and he's like a point, he wasn't close to a point of game last year. But if he's like close to a point of game and Columbus, you know, whatever division they end up and they finish like second or third, which is possible, just because I think, you know, we've said it before. But like torts has kind of turned himself into a good.

coach that puts his goalies in particular in a position to succeed. So, like, I can totally see, you know, 62 point Pierre-loop Dubois. You know, he has 29 goals or whatever the number is. Absolutely. I could see him. And he was way far down the list as being. He is 80 to 1. He's tied with Dylan Barkin to give you an idea of how far down the list he is.

So, yeah, that's not bad. anyone who is clearly or at least potentially clearly the best forward on a playoff team should probably be better than 80 to 1. So yeah, that's a good one. I like that. Art Ross Trophy, not surprisingly pretty similar to the heart at the top. Connor McDavid at 11 to 4, Leander Cytle 5 to 1, Nathan McKinnett, 6 to 1, Coutureov, Panarin, Crosby, Matthews, Marshaun, Marshall, Power.

Pastornak. You know what? It's not like huge odds. I think he's in the top five or six of the ones you just said. Give me Panarin. Yeah, that's fucking great. 12 to 1 and that's not bad. By the way, if people out there aren't familiar with how bad it.

Like 12 to 1 means you bet a dollar, you get $12 back if he wins. So the higher, the better on that. Yeah, I like that one. I mean, I would, if I had to bet and had to bet my life savings, I'd put it on McDavid. I think he'll be the favorite every year. Of course, sure. But, you know, you want a little bit longer odds. Jack Eichael is.

Yeah, it's not interesting to say the guy who always leads the league in scoring is going to lead the league in scoring. Yeah, exactly. That's not fun. So Jack Eichael is 25 to 1. Yeah, that's good. You know, this. He's going to have Taylor Hall this year. Mm-hmm.

Other than that, looking down the list, well, two guys that are interesting is Braden Point and, again, Pedersen, both at 50 to 1. And I say that's interesting because they were both, and especially Point, they were higher on the MVP voting. And to me, like, Braden Point is not going to win MVP if he's not very close to winning the R. Ross. Like, he's not a guy who's going to get, well, yeah, but look at that Tampa Day. No, he's playing on an All-Star team. he's going to have to have big numbers to where, you know, Pedersen maybe not quite as much. But again, you know, for a lot of the same reasons, you know, Elias Pedersen, third year, that can be a spot to take a big, big jump.

Other than that, I don't see anyone here that really jumps out at me. If you wanted to go a real long shot, Andre's Fetchnikov at 80 to 1, if you're looking for somebody to have like a monster breakout like that, that, you know, and it would have to be the monster right. But I mean, Leander Cytle was, he wouldn't have been 80 to 1 last year, but he would have been kind of in that, like, yeah, well, he's the guy's not going to be on pace for 120 points. And then he did it, you know, Svechnikov,

I wouldn't be expecting to see any, anything come back on that bet. But if I was going to take a long shot, that might not be a bad. At 80 to 1? Yeah. Yeah. The other one, I just kind of mentioned it. I just pulled up the list again. I'm less worried about power now. Taylor Hall at 100 to 1.

Yeah. I wouldn't. I would be surprised, obviously, if he had more points than Jack Eichael by the end of the season. But possible. And, you know, again, that's 100 to 1. The other guys at 100 to 1 are Copatard, never going to happen a million years. Tavares, probably not. And Sean Couturier, who, you know,

again, probably not. So like of that, of the 100 to one guys, it's Taylor Hall by a mile. Yeah. The one, here's the thing that with Taylor Hall, he's never been in the top five in points, even in his MVP year. Yeah. No, he was. So I like him more as a potential heart trophy guy where he's maybe not, he's close enough. And then people go, they look at Buffalo and they go, well, Buffalo was bad last year.

If they're good this year, what changed? and Jack Eichael is sitting here going, well, I got 30 more points. No, no, who's the new player? Taylor Hall, okay, give it to the new guy on the... It's the guy who had 35 goals in 56 games because he played with Jack Eichael. Yeah, okay. Who's a guy where you're like, you're just throwing your money away if you, if you bet on... Like a guy higher up the list, I guess.

Yeah, I don't... Let me take a look here. I'll tell you the one guy that jumps out of me as a throwing your money. running away and boy this will come back to bite me if he does it but for the heart trophy i i'm surprised to see marchand as high as he is for two reasons number one i again you run into the like who really is the best player on that team you know is it is it is it him is a pastor neck is is bernheran secretly the the guy who's actually driving that line so you you get into the splitting of the votes and stuff like that which didn't hurt recital and with mcdivit last year but could be a

a problem. But also I feel like if it's, if it comes down, I got to vote for Marshaun or Pastornak, I'm voting for Pastornak because he's fun and everybody likes him. Right, but Pastornax's going miss a month because he had surgery in September. So like, you're right. So maybe that's, you know, maybe it's like, that's throwing your money away, but maybe it's like when Dracet, like, I mean, McDavid didn't miss a lot of time last year, but remember when he did miss time, Dracel had like 12 games or something. Yeah. And that's when he won the MVP, right? right there. So maybe it does because I just, I feel like people would have a little bit of trouble casting a vote for Bride Marchand. And not that it should be that way, but I just,

I have a hard time seeing him being the guy standing there with that award. And I think a lot of voters who just don't like him because of his on the ice personality would talk themselves into, well, you know, but Patrice Bergeron is actually the most valuable player on that and blah, blah. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is, we're talking Art Ross. And I think the, the, the, the guy who I would be absolutely shocked if he was the leading scorer this year. And he's way up the list is Sidney Crosby at 16 to 1. I just feel like that's not going to happen. You know, he's, you know, obviously still like an elite, elite center and all that kind of stuff.

But like I think his days of leading the league and scoring are well past him at this point, you know. Yep, that's not bad. I'm just looking down to, I mean, Pastor Nax Air 21. and for the same reason you flagged, that would be for the Art Ross, a tough haul. Alexander eventually. How about, I'm looking at this, how about Jake Gensel having better odds than Elias Patterson to lead the league in scoring? 33 to 1. What?

What's the scenario where he leads the penguins, let alone the league? Like, I think you can imagine him leading the penguins is, Crosby and Malkin were either hurt or had big drop-offs, but then how is he getting enough points to... Yeah, it would have to be one of them is hurt. He gets put on the other guy's line. That's the only way it happens. And also, he would have to play like 28 minutes a night. But, yeah, I just love the idea that Elias Pedersen is less likely to lead the league in scoring than Jake fucking Gensel.

And like, Gensel's a good player or whatever, but come on. That seems a little lot. Yeah. Okay. let's go to the Vesna. You have co-leaders here of Vasselowski and Hellebuck at 6 to 1. Then you got Rask, 7 to 1, Lainer 8 to 1, Bennington, 9 to 1. Speaking of fucking lighting your money on fire.

Hoodobin and Freddie Anderson at 12 to 1. And then, yeah, I like Carter Hard at 14 to 1 again. Ooh, that's nice. yeah, then, you know, Shesirkin at 16 to 1, which I'd be shocked. Carey Price 18 to 1. Holt B, 20 to 1, Samsonov 20 to 1, and then, you know, everybody else is pretty good long shot there. Your first thing with the Vezna is always figuring out who's going to play enough games to get enough wins, because this is the GMs about us.

Wins matters, yeah. They like wins, and not just wins, but they like guys who, and this is the GM mindset, right? Like if it's an 80-game season, I want a guy who can play 60 games. Don't give me a guy who can be amazing for 42 games and I got to find someone else to play 40 more. I want the guy.

And that's why I like some of this surprise, like Houdobin is there at 12 to 1 and then you got Ben Bishop at 25 to 1. I think Bishop, is he going to miss time as well? I might be wrong about that. This is sort of like there's some uncertainty here. But I don't, I don't see Anton

who don't be playing enough to be a Veson. Right, I agree. And that's the same thing like normally. Yes. Normally I would say Robin Lainer as well, 8 to 1 like that. Sign me up.

Lainer behind a really good Vegas team. Fucking absolutely. But if they're stuck with the, the goaltending tandem, they're not going to risk Alan Walsh sending out more Photoshop's. So they're going to, you know, they're going to be a 1A, 1B situation at worst,

especially because you're going to have to play so many back-to-backs, blah, blah, blah. I just think, like, that makes it tough to see it for Lainer. But, yeah, let me go down the list a little more. Samsona, I can kind of see that at 20 to 1. Like, if you're a big believer that the Islanders just limit shot quality, you know, like they have that figured out. You know, they're the team that finally cracked it.

Sansohnov could absolutely be that guy. Now will he play enough? Maybe not. And I don't think, has there been much Fezina's support for the Islander goalies over the last few years? Like, I just wonder if the perception that this is a Barry Trotsman system thing would, would, if it's going to work against the fact. Like, if Lainer didn't win it a couple years ago, right? Rookie like a young kid. That's a good, that's a really good point.

You know who I, how about this? Oh, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, I like Markstrom at 25 to 1. Oh, yeah. It is not an MVP award for goalies, but it kind of is. And so new guy, new situation. Again, some of the same stuff I said we could draw. If the flames overachieve, what changed?

Oh, the goaltender changed. Okay, he was good. If you get down into the long shots, man, there's a few names here that I actually I agree. I really like a few of these real deep long shot ones. Before we get into the super long shots, just a couple names to jump out from opposite ends of the spectrum. Mackenzie Blackwood at 35 to 1, it was real good last year. If the devils, you know, can do something, it's probably going to be because he had a great year. Obviously, you got the Cory Crawford scenario looming, but that's the case for a lot of these guys.

Here's the other one. 33 to 1, Sergey Bobrovsky, he was awful last year. Yeah. This guy is in the Vezina mix. Like every year before that, is it that hard to imagine? You know, Florida has a big year. No, it really isn't. And then suddenly it's a familiar name, right?

Like these GMs are like, yeah, I know him and, you know, go and check his name. So I like that one. But I think there's one name. I'm curious to see who you've got like. Far down the list, because I think there's one name here that sticks out to me as two. Okay. But one that's... Fire away.

The one I like is John Gibson. They've got him at 66 to 1. Yep. That's one of the guys I was going to say as well. There's a lot of guys towards the bottom of the list where you're like, well, in the right scenario, if this happened, if it broke this way. But he's like the one guy maybe that's of the last 10 or 15 names on this list where I'm like, he is a Vezina talent. for sure. I don't have any doubt.

Now, his team stinks, is it the right system, all this stuff that is working against him, which is why you can get him at some really high odds. But, yeah, I don't, again, if I'm trying to hit it big on only a couple of bucks, that's one that I would look at, and then I got one more. Okay, go for it.

Oh, okay, well, I was going to say Cam Talbot at 80 to one. Yep. Minnesota, last few years, unbelievable defensive team. Camp Talbot had a pretty good year in Calgary behind a not very good defensive team. And I think that, you know, I think his career was kind of like irreversibly damaged by the season. He played 172 games for the Oilers, you know? But like if you, yeah, if you put him in like he's the, he's going to be the 1A in front of Alex Steylock in Minnesota, I can bear.

easily see a scenario where that team plays just unbelievably good hockey in front of him, sets him up to be like a 920 goalie. Minnesota, you know, they've, you know, I think they, I think they have some young guys who could take a step forward this year.

And, you know, if they, if they end up being kind of like what Winnipeg was last year where it's like, well, you know, they don't have anybody on the roster who really stands out as like the best player on the ice every night. can't tell we could absolutely be that guy.

And if that team's any good. The wild are better than people think. Yeah, absolutely. The wild, first of all, they're always stuck in the middle. So they're like the boring team you forget about. And also they've had the off-the-ice side shows with the GM switch and all this stuff. But on the ice, the last couple of years, I'm not even projecting ahead of like who develops. Like the last couple of years, they're better than you think.

Yes. No, they're the class. They're the classic thing of like everybody looked at Montreal's top line last year and was like, well, they were like a 56% expected goals team. They couldn't put the puck in the net from the fucking, like top of the crease. Like they just couldn't score and convert on all those expected goals, but they get enough of them that they win a shitload of games. And but like the wild are an entire team like that. I really like their decor. I don't love their forward group for obvious reasons.

Um, but like, you know, I think a guy like Jordan Greenway or somebody like that, like, could have a fucking monster like kind of a breakout year and, you know, not be like a MVP candidate kind of a guy, but a guy who like goes, oh shit, I didn't realize he was that good, you know? Um, I could, so yeah. I, yeah. So like I, I like where the wild is kind of at in terms of positioning a goalie to look really good. Yep. Uh, I, uh, I, I, I'll throw a couple more at you just real quick. Again, if you want big long shots, Thatcher Demko 80 to 1, as I mean, that might not even be the starter, but there's, you know,

we saw it in the playoffs a little bit. There's the talent there. Who knows, young guys, sometimes they go very slowly and take steps back, and sometimes it just pops all of a sudden. So that, you know, he'd be one. And the other one,

and again, you're getting into, like, you know, the team in front of them stinks, but what if Matt Murray shows up in Ottawa and has a big rebound year? year one change of scenery he's he looks like he's standing on his head

because the team in front of him is awful he's getting to play in front of the Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver markets all the time and it's the GM's voting on it they like to vote for guys that were a you know a GM went and made the move and found the right fit again you know

I think to your point earlier though it's going to be because of Matt Murray yes I agree but to your point earlier, you've got to have a shitload of wins and he won't. He can have a great save percentage. I don't think it's going to matter too much.

And that's kind of why I would shy away from that kind of a bet. Let's move on to the Rock at Richard. Ovechkin, obviously, number one at 5 to 1, Drysidal, 6 to 1, Matthew 7 to 1, McDavid, 8 to 1, Pastornak, 9 to 1, Kyle Connor, 10 to 1, McKinnon 12 to 1,

Sebastian Aho and they helpfully note the finish Sebastian Aho 14 to 1 Because the Islanders Defenseman might be the other one Stamco's 18 to 1 Eichl and Kutrov 20 to 1

And then everybody else is kind of You know In the mix Yeah then Weird names in there But Yeah Kyle Connor 10 to 1 Again

Might as well You know what If you're going to make that bet, whatever that amount is, just give it to our Patreon. We'll take it. We'll keep it safe for you. Yeah, I can't say I don't like... I think a lot of the names on this list are guys that at first you're like, oh, yeah, that guy's really good. But then you remember less of a goal score, more of a playmaker or a more balanced guy.

And you kind of need that... I don't know. This is the one out of all of them. I don't know I go that crazy on long shots, which is not to say that it's something. I agree. To me, you know, you can never go wrong with Ovechkin. I mean, five to one. This guy wins a lot more than one out of every five years.

Yes, absolutely. And then the other one would be, you know, obviously Dracel's good, but Austin Matthews. Yeah, Austin Matthews would be my lock of the week on this one. I really, boy, he was fucking great last year. I don't think he gets enough. It's so stupid to say, I don't think a guy who's the best player on the Toronto Maple Leafs gets enough credit.

I don't think he got enough credit for how good he was last year. I, you know, and again, he's, he's what, 21, 22? He's going to be powering up for the next couple of years. I really like Matthews at 7 to 1. Um, deeper down the list, you know who I, who I really, uh, it, it depends on where he ends up. But like, if a team that's like, we have a really good center and we just need a guy who I know who you're thinking. It's going to be Mike Hoffman. Yep.

It's, it's hard to bet on a guy who doesn't even have a team, but. Yes. That guy, but man. Yeah. Like, he's at 66 to 1 right now. And let me give you, uh, oh, there's Oliver Bjork Strand. at 40 to 1 for some reason. Yeah, that was the one that seemed a little...

Bjorxtrand better odds than Crosby, Shifley, Patchy Are Ready for some... I like Patchy Ready at 60 to 1 as well. Yeah. I don't know. I... The other one that I would maybe... I can see it.

Here's the name that I would like as a long-shot bet, but honestly, I don't know if the odds are quite good enough to tempt me. me because they got him at 33 to 1, but Patrick Lining would be a guy that maybe, as a pure goal score, you'd need everything to click, you'd need it to be the big, you know, FU, you were going to trade me season, but that one maybe. I mean, he's, he's down to time at Theran and Zabanajad, so I don't know. Yeah, I was just going to say Sabanajad at 33 to 1, like if I'm saying, well, I think Panarin's going to win the Art Ross, which I kind of wouldn't, like, I think that's a

really good bet. Zabaniadat would have to fill the net to do it. Only five years before the goals last year and he was one of them. Yeah, if you're going to tie your boat to Panarin on total points, tying your boat to Zabandajad

for total goals makes a lot of sense, I think. And just in case, because I know people are wondering, Riley Smith is listed at 825 to 1. So for all of you, probably screaming Riley Smith at your, you know, at your,

and right now wondering why we're not talking about him. Career high, 27 goals last year. So, yeah. He's going to make that big jump to 40, though. Yeah. All right. The Norris. The Norris.

Roman Yosey, 4 to 1. John Carlson, 9 to 2. Victor Headman, 9 to 2. Brent Burns. 7 to 1. Kale McCar 10 to 1. Petrangelo, Carlson, and Heiskin, in it 12 to 1. Tori Krug 14 to 1, Latang, Hughes, and Ryan Graves for some reason at 18 to 1,

Dougie Hamilton at 20 to 1. So the top of the, and this happens most years, the top of the Norris is basically just last year's Norris results. Yes, that's correct. Kind of gives you a sense of how hard it is to call this. I mean, should we skip ahead to the obvious ones? I mean, Dougie Hamilton at 20 to 1 would be... Real nice. Although you could see that turning into one of those analytics versus old school fights that drives off voters.

You know what? I think he would have been in the top three if he hadn't gotten hurt last year. I think there was just that enough of a broad... Fuck, he is really good, huh? We resisted it for years. He gets a lot of points. Yes, that's exactly right. But the other, I mean, we already talked about them earlier.

Seth Jones, 40 to 1. Yeah. Oh, I would. Smash that button, absolutely. I would jump all the way. In fact, I mean, this is from a few days ago. I'd be surprised if it's still 40 to 1. If that line isn't moved, I would be really.

The only thing that would worry me a little bit is there's sort of this, you kind of get this sense that there's this movement of, you know, maybe Zach Wrenski is the best defenseman on that team, in which case, you know what? Go ahead. I think that's true. Rendskiy, a 50 to 1 then. Exactly. That's exactly right.

I really like the idea of one of those two guys. But of course, my dark horse is Neil Pionk at 33 to 1. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The same odds as Ivan Prover of. All right, sure. Yeah. That's fucking so funny.

The other name that's interesting that's actually not here. So I'd be curious to see. Yeah, they don't have them there. They don't have Shea Weber on here. Yeah. Montreal, everybody likes what Montreal did this summer, I think, for pretty good reason. If they have success, she Weber's going to have 20 goals, you know, and he's going to play 28 minutes a night and all that shit. So I think that's a really good dark, dark, dark horse. Yeah, I mean, like obviously. Literally an off-the-board pick.

The health is always the issue in playing close to a full sea. what do we always say about the Norris, right, a few years ago? Drew Dowdy, Lifetime Achievement Award. Absolutely. Shea Weber has never won a Norris. Never won it. And boy, if there is somebody who would fit the profile of someone. And Shea Weber, by the way, is 35.

Drew Dowdy got the lifetime achievement at like 28. If Shea Weber ever got close to that level, I mean, you know, I'm not saying he'd have to have a great season. But if he had a great season, there would be some real win behind in his sales. of people going like, how was Shea? People are surprised when they go, Shea Weber's never won a Norris. How is he never won a Norris? We got to throw some support behind him here.

And if you think he's too old, I mean, Mark Giordano won at a similar age. Yep. And again, kind of a lifetime achievement award. I think he got kind of screwed out of at least one of them. So anyway, let's move on to the Calder. You know what it is. It's Lefrenier at a,

at 7 to 4, Shesirkin at 2 to 1, Caprizov at 15 to 4, I really like that one, Grigory Denisenko at 15 to 2, Quentin Byfield at 10 to 1, Alex Turcott at 16 to 1, and then a whole bunch of guys at 20 to 1,

including Bowen Byram, Evan Bouchard, and Tim Stutzel. Yeah, who's listed twice. However, however. Different odds. Yeah, Tim Stutzel at 20 to 1. You know who I really like at 22 to 1?

Tim Stutzel. Yeah, slightly different. You drop one of the E's out of his last name and that gets you an extra two points on your odds. Yep. I'll tell you, Calder is the one where every year there are guys that emerge that are not on the initials list. And sometimes fairly quickly. So I feel like if you really did your homework and really new scenarios and situations, going in. This would be the one award that you could probably

hit on. But that said, I don't know, it was, like the other set of odds that we looked at actually had Schisturken quite a bit higher than Lafrenier. They were still one, too, but, and that's, yeah, it's, it's, it's very rare to see goalies get even, even be a finalist for the Calder. I don't remember the last has anyone won since Steve Mason as a I don't think so no

a rookie goalie Bittington a couple years ago was a finalist but even the finalist but the reason for that is that it's so rare for a rookie goaltender to get to get the minutes even 50% of the starts and we talked about with the Vezina you'd really need to play a lot of games Calder goaltenders they will look at guys who who play half a season and obviously in New York that's set up pretty well The thing that concerns me here is you've got two rookies from the same team. Yep.

We're splitting the votes. That's why I like Caprizov, though. Like, you know, he's a guy who there's proof of concept in the KHL. And, you know, obviously that doesn't always translate for guys where it's like, oh, he, you know, he's a real surprise impact player in the KHL last year. And you're like, right, he probably shot 25% all year. Like, remember Stevie Moses from the Nashville Predators that got. signed him, you know, coming off some insane year in the KHL and, you know, I think played like three NHL games or something like that.

It just wasn't any good. But that and that was why. But Caprizov is not that. He's more of your, your, what's his name? Kuznetsov types where it's like when this kid finally comes over from Russia, he's going to be really good. Yeah. And there's name recognition already.

Everybody knows his kid. Yep. It's not like it's going to happen. And again, we think the wild are good. We think the wild are good. And if they have an impact offensive player and he happens to be a rookie, everybody's going to give him the gabber treatment where it's like, oh, there's somebody on the wild who can put the puck in the net. That's crazy. He must be incredible.

So I like that. The other guy, like way down the list I really like, Nick Robertson. If Toronto puts him in a position to, like, actually get points, like they, you know, they try him out on the podcast. Power play or something like that? Absolutely, I can see it. And there's, there's, we've talked about it. There's, the Leafs have got a lot less scoring depth, especially on the wings than people think. They're used to them having a lot. They don't.

And they kept him off the World Junior roster. So. Yeah, they're keeping them. They've said that he needs to earn a spot. It's not, it's not a guarantee that he's, he's, he's an opening night player, but they clearly think that there's a real good chance. They're, they're holding a spot for him. So that's, that's, that's not a.

terrible that's not a terrible option either yeah um i'm trying to think who who who's the guy where i would say probably not going to happen um the thing you want to wait and see if they even make the team and how that mixes with the world juniors because there are some of the lot of these guys like i'm looking at a guy like don't cousins like he's on he's on the world junior team so is by the time he gets back does he still make the team does he get in enough games, is it, who knows? Like, there's different ways that could go. So, um, and they don't, there really isn't anyone, there's a couple guys listed at 50 to

one, but other than that, everyone tops out in the 30s because the Calder is just so hard to predict that they don't, yeah, they don't give you like 80 to one odds on guys where you could, you could, you could really, uh, what I would say, I guess is there's a lot of guys who are on, uh, the Kings. And when there's like four guys on the list from one team, The odds that any one of them are going to be that guy, pretty low. All right. Last one here, Jack Adams, Barry Trot, 6 to 1, Jared Bednar 7 to 1, Rick Bonas 8 to 1, Pete DeBore 9 to 1, Barubi and Cooper 10 to 1, Vino, Cassidy, Tocket, and Brindamore, 12 to 1, tip it and key 14 to 1,

and you can just go down the list. Like by the time you get to the 20th, the 20-to-1 guys you're talking about, David Quinn and John Hein. So like, whatever. Feels like this might be the year they give it to Bednar when they should have given it to Bednar last year. Could be. Does that sound right?

Well, it does, but here's the thing. The Jack Adams typically is the most improved team award. That's true. This is the, we all thought this team was going to be bad. They turned out to be good. Clearly, we all couldn't have been wrong, so therefore it must be. Yeah, that's a great point. especially if you're a new coach.

And Colorado's expected to be good. So I, I think there's, he's definitely got a great story to sell, like the fact that he came in that first year, impossible circumstances, comes in at the last minute after Patrick Wall walks, has a terrible season.

Everyone's like, this guy's over his head, this guy's awful. And then, yeah, it turns out to be a really good, a really good coach. But I, yeah,

I don't know that I, I love his odds. Barry Trots, I think is, probably the best coach in the league right now, but he won it once, and then the voters tend to look elsewhere. Like, they didn't go back to him last year. You know who I actually, I was just going to say, you know, who I actually do like is

Joel Quenville at 20 to 1. By the logic that you just laid out, like, oh, you were dog shit last year. And they're probably going to lose some pretty good player. Like, obviously, they're not bringing back Hoffman, who's a 30-goal guy. So, like, the idea that, oh, well, they also lost some talent and blah, blah, blah, like, you know, again, if Bobrovsky turns it around and is even, like, an average goalie, Florida makes the playoffs pretty easily last year, I think. Yep. So, you know, oh, Cuanville, what a genius. He told, he told Bogrovsky to stop sucking shit.

Wow, incredible. The other guy I wanted to say here, though, we've bigged them up this whole time. if the wild or any good, Dean Eveson. Yep. Because that's a new name. He's 33 to 1. Yeah, that's, I like that one. If I'm going big, big upset, Todd McClellan at 50 to 1, the Kings are just one of, they've got so much young talent.

And usually it's a gradual thing. And, but sometimes it just all hits it once. Like we saw that with the Leafs a few years ago. They just brought all their kids up at the same time. And oh, look at that. We're a 90 point team that's in the playoffs. If that happens, people are going to be looking at who's the coach of this team, and it's, you know, a new-ish guy, but a name people know. But, you know, if I had to bet, because I was, you know, and I just said it tends to be the team that exceeds expectations.

But when there isn't one team that really exceeds expectations, then it sometimes becomes a lifetime achievement award. So John Cooper at 10 to 1, I could see being a guy where people go. Yeah, the lightning are good again. why are they always Let's give the coach some credit It's his time Well especially because the way their division Has lined up in the various

Realignment proposals You're like oh they're the best team in this division by a mile They're not it's not even close How much better they are than the next best team And the other thing to say is you can then have the thing Like the storyline of Oh their cap crunch They had to give away X important player

Because nobody wanted Tyler John and, you know, all that shit. So, like, I can definitely see that the one other guy I wanted to point out here, I really like at 40 to 1, Ralph Kruger, it could happen. It could happen. It seemed like he was headed that way last year at the beginning of the season. Like, and he's sort of this guy, you know, because of his background and where he's been, sort of has this, like, mysterious reputation where he might get even more credit than a coach

would normally get if a team exceeds expectations. So, yeah, that's not awful. All right. Well, that's it for the awards talk. Yeah, we get 10% of whatever you win based on those bets. Sean, I have a game for us this week. Okay. This is a game that I originally designed for two people, but hey, you know, sometimes you don't get to have that work out for you.

So that's life. But this is a game that works just as easily for one person. and it is 100% stolen by inside the NBA. It's called who he play for. Okay. We were talking about it, I think, on the show last week of like, it is impossible to keep track of where everybody ended up. Some transactions feel like they happened a million years ago,

and many of them, in fact, did. And other transactions, it feels like, oh, yeah, that just happened yesterday, right? I clearly remember when Calgary signed Jacob Markstrom. whatever it is. So I have nine names for you, and you're just going to tell me who he played for. Dude, there is a legitimate chance that I will go over nine on this. I got excited when you first. I thought you were going to be bringing up names from 30 years ago, and I was going to have to say who he played for, and I was like, oh, I'm going to kill this one.

Yeah, no. But this. Well, I feel pretty good about some of these based on what we just said during the awards talk. So I'll start you out with an easy one. Sean, Zach Bogosian, who he play for? Well, he's on the Leafs roster now. We'll see if he plays. That's correct, yeah.

10, 10, 20, signed as a free agent on October 10th. What about Joel Edmondson? Joel Edmondson, is he still making too much money in Montreal? That's correct. He got traded on September 12th. He was traded there. Very, very touching story. His dad grew up as a, as a Habs fan, I think, is sick or, you know, that kind of thing.

And so this is like a culmination of a lifelong dream for him to play for the Havs. Very nice. We mentioned this guy earlier. You were making too much money. I didn't know. We were going to be a touching story about that. Yeah, sorry. That's, hey, it happens.

Corey Crawford, you already said. So it's kind of. Went to the devils. The nigh devils. Yeah. Speaking of, I'm not going to sidetrack us too much, but is it weird that Corey Schneider has still not actually signed with the Islanders? So we all just.

Yeah, they have a few guys like Matt Martin and maybe one other guy where it's like they, the deal got announced but never made official. because they need the cat flexibility for in case they sign Barzol, and then they have to make another move or two or whatever. I don't think if I'm like at the middle of a pandemic and I'm a pro athlete, I would necessarily want to be just like on the honor system for my next contract. I guess if you're Cory Crawford and Matt Martin, you're like, I know Lou, he's a stand-up guy, that kind of thing.

That's the only thing I can think of. Okay, how about- The guy who would make a brutally counter decision in the Yeah Yeah, someone's going to Get Roda Island And they're just going to be like, I just finished a marathon

I'm actually healthier than I've ever been. No, no, no, no, no, you're actually very ill. Okay, how about this? Dominic Cahoon, who he played for. No idea. Dominic Cahoon. He's, yeah. Give up?

Okay. I do not know. He was the Sabres. And then he was the Penguins, and I think he went back to the Sabres, if I'm not much mistaken. But this summer, or I guess fall on November 2nd,

he signed with the Edmonton Oilers, reuniting with his former German league teammate Leon Dreissel. I've heard of him. Yeah. I think I did know that somewhere in the... Yep. This one, with a billion dollars on the line, gun to my head, all that shit, couldn't have told you in a million years, Trevor Van Ramesdike.

Oh my God. Yeah, that's right. Did he go to Vancouver? No, he went to Washington, apparently. It says here it's Washington. Yeah. October 10th, he'd sign there. How about this one?

Dylan DeMello. Oh, boy. Dylan de Mello went to I don't know. San Jose? Nope. Winnipeg. He was traded to...

Okay. Yeah, I knew he, because he went from Oregon to Winnipeg, but he stayed in Winnipeg. He stayed in Winnipeg. That's right. And so, yeah, he was traded on February 18th and then resigned on October 7th. I had totally forgotten that he, finished the season with the Jets last year.

How about this one? Dan Hinen. Geez. I had no idea on that one. Yeah, he was one of the players who got traded to the ducks from the Bruins. Remember, they made like two or three ducks, Bruins trades in February last year. He was one of them. He is still with the Anaheim docks.

Let's see here. Chris Tanev is up next. Oh, he went to Calgary. That's right. He and Markstrom were the package deal. Yeah. Yep. They spent all summer acquiring former Vancouver Canucks.

And, yeah, so Chris Tanev is, that's absolutely correct. He went to Calgary on 10-920, it says here. And finally, we have Marcus Johansson. He was, he's with the wild now. He was the stall trade that nobody could understand. Yep, that's exactly right. Marcus Johansson traded to Minnesota on September 16th, it says. So you actually did, you got more than half right, five out of nine.

That's a passing grade, and I will take it. It's a passing grade. Five out of nine. Oh, the one last thing we did want to talk about, this is kind of a late-breaking thing, so I added it to the bottom of my sheet last night. Stan Bowman fails up. Yeah, congratulations.

As I think it was, I think Mark Lazarus from the Athletic said that we've for years been saying that Stan Bowman, that Hawks needed to put somebody above Stan Bowman on the org chart, and they ended up choosing Stan Bowman. So congratulations to him. Ducking his own head into his own office. You're doing a great job. Keep it up, buddy.

You're doing fantastic. Yeah. I really, really do not get it. I don't, like, everybody is mad at Stan Bowman in Chicago, right? Like, that's my understanding is, like, you fucked this up bad, and we probably should have realized it like four or five years ago, but now it's really obvious. and the ownership is like, you know what,

we're going to give you another title on top of the one you already have. Like if they did the classic Edmonton thing of, well, he's, you know, president of hockey ops, we're bringing in a new guy to be the GM. You'd go, I mean, I don't really agree with it, but sure, yeah, that makes sense. As long as he's not the GM anymore. Three cups, you go ahead. That's exactly right, yes.

the only thing but he's his own boss I think it is the sort of situation where you're right he's under a ton of fire he's the last few years have not been good you kind of have to either

as I like to say shoot or get off the point you have to say this is we're going to almost double down to make a more secure or you move on and they'd already made clear they weren't moving on

so I guess this this is how you give a little bit more security to a guy and you know he what can I say? He won three cups for a team that hadn't won a cup in 50 years. If Kyle Dubes does that for the Leafs, he'll have a job for life in Toronto probably.

And I don't know that I'll complain about it. So yeah, that's... It's what have you done for me lately, though? And the answer is hired Jeremy call it and missed the playoffs a bunch of times. I wonder, the other thing I was thinking about, though, with this is I wonder how it plays. if they don't beat Edmonton in the first round of the bubble. Yep. If they don't beat Edmonton, is he out on his ass?

And it's crazy because that's, what did they win four games? Three games out of four? Is that right? Yep. So, like, if they don't have three good games against a team that nobody really should have believed was any good, does this happen? It's crazy that the answer might be no. This league's wild.

We said, I think, heading into that playoffs, that it's going to be crazy and unpredictable, and some teams are going to overreact to what happens. And when I said that, I was thinking overreacting to losing. But, yeah, we've seen some teams overreact. I mean, kind of to the same extent, Montreal didn't necessarily organizationally, but look how everyone perceives Montreal right now. Oh, my God, it's ridiculous. I don't know.

Yeah, they had as many, they had what, one more win than the Sabres last year? They were one point away from being tied with the sabers. And yeah, Montreal had an offseason where they added some guys. I liked some of what they did. But Buffalo added... Everybody they got this summer, I'm like, he's a good player. Yeah. Buffalo added Taylor Hall, and everyone's like, yeah, but...

Yeah, they added a former MVP, but they're too far back. There's no way they're contenders. Well, they also added Eric Stahl, like... Yeah. Yeah. I don't get it. But... Yeah.

It's the NHL, baby. That's right. Yeah, so we're going to wrap it up this week. We don't want to say too much about all the other stuff because it's all going to get announced one second after we finish recording. And so we're getting out of here. We're done. This is the end of the show. I think the only thing I have to plug is the Patreon.

Go to the Patreon.com slash Puck Soup. We have a newsletter. We have bonus episodes. We have mailbags every single week. We have stick to sports. I think that's probably it. So, yeah, sign up. It's cheap, and it's a lot of good content.

You'll love it. I will plug something I should have been plugging for the last few weeks, but if you're still doing Christmas shopping, I do have a book. You could probably get the hardcover, the paper back into your hands in time for Christmas, but there's also audiobook and e-book. So if you're like me and you still got a few people on your list, if any of them happen to be hockey fans, he'll come up with the history of the NHL,

and yeah, they will be able to learn all sorts of weird and useless facts about a weird and useless league. And I think Greg would also say, read ESPN, I don't know, what's the other thing? He has a book. Get his book, too. Why not?

If he wanted you to buy his book, he should have been here. You know what? Great fucking point. We're out of here. Out there. Do what you need to do. Yep. All right.

Have a good one, folks. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week. Or two weeks from now. We haven't decided. Okay, bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute.

We also cover movies, TV shows. It's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of hoggy. nonsense about two