Puck Soup - NHL 2020-21 Season Picks

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

The boys break down the unprecedented 2020-21 NHL season, with analysis of every division and their wagers for the championship winners. Plus, NBC swaps out Mike Milbury for Mike Babcock, the NFL on Nickelodeon, hype for the new season in Canada vs. USA and much more! Sponsored by MyBookie and Raycon!

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 hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wichenski, VSPN, the worldwide leader in the sports, I suppose. Yeah, sports. We'll go with sports. I'm Ryan Lambert from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee

I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic And you're in Puck Soup's part two of our season preview Part one was last week where Lambert and I did the classic puck soup Ova Undas Sean's back with us this week for the full division preview as requested. So a little bit of USA Canada knowledge. As you know, this podcast is exemplary in its ability to capture both sides of the border. I was speaking with Emily Kaplan, my colleague at ESPN yesterday about this, and I was asked

about it this morning on the radio as well in Edmonton. I would say the buzz in Canada for this season probably a bit higher than the buzz in the U.S. Now, this isn't something out of the norm. I mean, it is obviously Canada's game, as Ryan and I know. But I would say that there's a big disparity. And granted, I think a lot of it has to do with there being a few issues that are distracting the American populace at the moment, raging pandemic, open sedition, white supremacy, that kind of thing. But I do think that there certainly is a little bit more buzz in Canada and a little less buzz in the U.S. as this season opens. I give the Florida Lambert, would you agree? Yeah, I mean, anytime you listen to or watch any kind of Canadian content, they're like, oh my God, it's the Canadian division. It's the Canadian division.

Can you believe it? They're all going to play. Every game is going to be as good as seven Stanley Cup game sevens. They're all going to be incredible. That Winnipeg, Ottawa, Tuesday night game in March, it's going to be the greatest hockey game ever played because it's Canada versus Canada. And it matters so much. And then you go, oh, what about the rest of the league? They're like, what rest of the league?

Right. And meanwhile, here in the States, we're like, where's St. Louis playing? That's basically our level of excitement about the real life. That's exactly right. Yeah. Sean, did you know that we are so blasé about the season here down to the States? No, I thought hockey was huge in the United States. I was under the impression that we had record revenues and Gary Bettman had made it a cultural touchstone.

Yeah, no, I mean, this is, this is. This is typical for every season, but yeah, it's probably especially true this year for a couple of reasons up here. I mean, first of all, obviously no scoop here. Canada loves hockey. We've been without it for longer than we normally are. We're in the dead middle of winter. It feels like hockey's overdue. Plus you got the All-Canadian Division.

Plus you got the Raptors have already started, and they're no good. Terrible. You know, they're not distracting a lot of attention. And the Blue Jays haven't done anything, despite talking a big game about the offseason. So far, they've been completely quiet. So it's not like the sports pages have a ton of competition for things to talk about. So, yeah, it's pretty much all hockey all the time up here. And, you know what?

Rightly so. I'm happy the season's getting started. And as much as I don't think it would ever work long-term, one year of an all-Canadian division, I think, is going to be fun. Except for the Ottawa Winnipeg games. Those are going to be done. I do think there's a movement afoot to try to make this permanent. I've seen a few of those sort of think pieces about, you know, whether this should be a permanent thing going forward.

I take it you're in the too much of a good thing. I just don't see how it works. Travel-wise, time zone-wise. Like, I feel like it's the sort of thing where – and I think the first year is going to be fun. And maybe after the first year, there will be momentum to change it. But I think it's the sort of thing you get three or four years down the line. And you're going to be like Vancouver fans are going, wait a second. Our team travels, you know, we're right next to Seattle almost.

And our team traveled five times as much as theirs did. And we're always exhausted by the playoffs. And why how come half our games start at four o'clock? Right. And Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal are all like, yep. Yeah. So it's, it's, yeah, it's, you know, that's good to be a thing. I mean, trust me, man, the first time the Leafs play the Bruins in the, in the conference final and get swept and everyone goes, wait a second, the Leafs had to go make six trips to Vancouver this year.

You'll see, you'll see them switch it up. So I don't know. It's, to me, this is like the outdoor games, man. Like, it's cool. Please don't beat it into the ground until it's not cool anymore. Or else you'd be looking to play it. at a lake at some point. I will say the geography of it,

due respect to the travails of the Vancouver Canucks, is pretty great because it led to what I think is the best innovation of all of this, which is the reseeding of the final four teams. I mean, like, that's fucking great. Yes, that should stay. That should stay. That is the one thing out of all of this that we should just forget to even argue about I mean, I've been beating that drum for years.

Even if you go back to conferences, even if you want to do it with an east and a west, there is no good reason to keep the seating for the final four. Mix it up and let's get a crazy good cup matchup some year. I mean, it would happen like once a decade that you would get something really, but let's do it, man. Let's get Pittsburgh. Imagine if Pittsburgh and Washington played in the cup final instead in the second round every year, like, how great would that?

Or if one of those Toronto-Boston series were for the... Yeah. I mean, like... Montreal, Boston, Edmonton, Calgary. Like, go down the list of all the great matchups. It's so fucking cool. Yeah, I mean, it... And I agree with you.

Like, if you want to keep the integrity of the conferences for some reason, sure. Go ahead. Make sure you have two west, two east. And that way you can kind of keep your geographic equilibrium like the NHL likes to do and sort of spread the wealth. But at the same time, I mean, the thing that we've all agreed upon here in the states on the NHL is that it is a regional sport, that all politics is local, and that you don't necessarily have to ensure

that one of the teams is California. You could just have two East or Northeast teams play with the fucking country. And I know the counter argument is always, well, what if you get two California teams, which first of all would be awesome. Yeah. You know, that's a rivalry matchup. But, oh, you know, where are they going to play all the games

at 11 o'clock at night? No, of course they're not. They're going to play them at 8 o'clock Eastern like they play every game in the, the cup final these days. So that's not an issue. And yeah, you could get a bad matchup. Like, you absolutely, you could sit there and go, oh, yeah, well, Montreal, Boston would be cool, but what if we get Columbus against Winnipeg?

I wouldn't worry about that. But, well, I mean, first of all, like, I pulled that example out of noise. I mean, that, you get that matchup now. But we got, like, the old system gave us Edmonton, Carolina. It gave us Anaheim, Ottawa. Like, we had crappy matchups. Yeah. This way, you could get a really good.

Like, the NFL and Major League Baseball have historical reasons for why they're divided the way they are. They were both literally two different leagues. Two different leagues. There's none of that in the NHL. At this point, it's geography. And we have done it before where we just said, screw the conferences and we're just going to rese- They had the playoffs for a few years where they receded at the start. One through 16, let's go.

And that was how they ran the playoffs. There's no history to it. There's no trade. Like, just do the thing that gives you the possibility of New York versus Boston in the Stanley Cup final. And you could plaster that all over NBC everywhere and get monster ratings. And it would be crazy fun. Yeah. And even if, you know, I just feel like the stuff about travel is so overblown.

Like, it's not like these guys are taking the train between, you know, Anaheim and Boston or whatever. you know, they're getting on a fucking private jet. I don't think it's that big of a deal if you're doing it for a series. So, yeah, like, that is always, you know, we need to have all these days off in between games during the cup final and all that kind of stuff. I don't think so. Maybe, you know, there should definitely be a day off between every game, but you don't have to go crazy anymore. It's also really hard to, it's really hard to make the travel argument this season when you have a team in. St. Louis being like, I volunteer for tribute when it comes to playing all the California

teams rather than playing like Chicago. You know, like, it's a very, very weird deal. You know, I don't want to discount the travel. Like, I do think that there's something to be said for that wear and tear on players and stuff and, you know, the benefit of playing in the New York metropolitan area and being like a train ride away from Jersey or Philly or whatever. Like, I think that there's something to that when it's a full regular season run. But it's certainly hasn't translated into, into, like, you know, a number of tri-state area teams winning the cup every year.

Like, it's not as if that's, or even playing for the cup every year. So, maybe a little overrated in that aspect. You mentioned NBC. We should probably touch on that real quick. I know this doesn't necessarily affect Sean outside of his social media consumption on game nights, but Mike Milbury officially gone from NBC. And I know it's for the comments that he made in the playoffs last year, but probably should be for the fact that the game passed him by roughly 10 years ago.

Be real generous to Mike Miller. I am being generous. I mean, you have to remember 10 years ago, we still had fighting. So, I mean, there was a certain aspect of the game that Milbury was schooled in and understood. But the idea that Sam Flood, the guy who runs NBC Sports, treated this guy like he was, you know, Terry Bradshaw or some like, like, like paragon of coverage that had to be on the studio desk because America wrapped its arms around Mike Mulberry is just fucking nonsense.

Like they should have changed up that studio show eons ago. And he tripped up and said something horrible and that hastened his departure. But there he goes. And then, oh, go ahead. What are you going to say? I was going to say, you know, monkey paw curls. I wish Mike Milbury wasn't on NBC anymore. What if it was somebody who also sucks?

Greg, you're going to renounce this wish. That's what I think what I'm saying. You're pissing me off because your anti-Wonder Woman 1984 sentiment requires you not to make the Dreamstone reference. You had to go Monkey's Paw. Well, even in the movie, they said, it's like the monkey's paw. Yeah, okay, I know. I got it. Just another reason that movie stinks.

I just like the idea of a sweaty Mandalorian running up to you and being like, I wish that Mike Milbury is no longer on the air. And then you do. And he's like, and now I give you Mike Babcock. That's what you're talking from. Mike Babcock is going to be one of a rotating guest of analysts on NBC. And I am fucking shocked that this guy didn't have to do the Mayacolpa interview with Darren Drager before he got back on the air.

It's hockey, Greg. You don't have to do any of that shit in hockey? I guess not. But, like, I really thought that was going to happen. And then I asked Sam Flood about that yesterday on the conference call, and his answer, legendary answer, was something along the lines of, like, we have all these conversations with the people that join our team or some such. Yeah, he gave you, like, one sentence.

Well, it was funny. He gave me one sentence, and then Sean Shapiro, your colleague got the athletic asked like a follow-up question and his sentence was even shorter. I think my theory on that is that they were totally prepared yesterday to discuss all things Mike Milbury and his departure from NBC. But they didn't actually realize that people were going to be like, so this serial mental abuser that you've hired to replace him, tell us about that. And again, this isn't just like, you know, like, you know, people anecdotally talking about Mike I mean, Mike Babcock, rather.

This is Brendan Shanahan holding a press conference during a board of governors. I was standing right there next to him, talking about how Babcock's behavior as a head coach was inappropriate. And like, I don't know how you have this guy on the air and not even address that. Not even address that in the conference call before the season. You didn't even have to have Mike, Mike, Mike, Babcock on the air to, like, talk about it. But you should be able to at least address it. Like, you should be able to be like, you know, speaking on behalf of the guy I just hired.

But it's, it's such a fucking tomb death thing. I just don't understand it. And again, to go back to what everybody said, where is the clamor for Mike Babcock? Like, where is the- Well, that's it. Because Mike Babcock has done TV up here. I don't know how much of that you guys have seen, not since he was five, but like in, in the past, they kind of had him do a little bit here and there.

And he wasn't super great at it. Like, he doesn't, he's got, he's got a personality, but, it's not at least the last time. It's about a TV personality. Because like Mike Milberry, for all his many, many faults, had personality that worked

for television in a certain way. I mean, the problem was that personality then was a gateway to all sorts of nonsense that didn't make the broadcast any better. But he at least had up that person at, like Don Cherry had a 10 out of 10 perfect TV personality.

You know, Brian Burke is maybe on the way to getting there. Babcock, let's see, but he doesn't strike me as a guy that's, and I say this as someone who thinks Mike Babcock deserves another chance, deserves, you know, that I think, I think his, what he had been doing and how he'd been conducting himself was definitely a problem, but I also think Mike Babcock had the bad luck of his situation kind of triggering this flood of other stories and bigger stuff like Bill Peters that he kind of got swept up in and now. he's like just one of the bad coaches whereas as much as I think that you know what he did to Mitch Marner for example was garbage that's not the same as what Bill Peters was doing and I don't mind Mike Babcock getting another opportunity I just I don't maybe this will be it maybe he'll go on TV and it'll be like the Brian Burke thing where you're like this guy's actually pretty good he's got some interesting things to say and then it gets his profile back out there and instead of doing

the five minute or ten minutes sit down it's five and 10 minutes at a time and the hockey world comes to appreciate this guy again and then he's back behind a bench if that's what he wants to do. I can just see this also being something where people are like, why'd you put this guy on TV? He doesn't make me enjoy this broadcast. I would push back on deserves. I think can earn another chance in the league. Deserves the opportunity for another chance. Let me if I can thread the needle that way.

But that opportunity has to come with control. Like that's the problem I have with this is that at no point has Mike Babcock even addressed Right. And maybe we'll get that. Maybe we get, maybe that's the first broadcast where, you know, but that's what it won't be. It won't be because unless they've been guilted into it now because of what happened yesterday, it won't be because there wasn't any inkling of that on, on, from the head of, of NBC sports yesterday. And that's the part of it. I just don't understand is that, you know, he's, he's obviously part of his image rehabilitation.

But at some point, there has to be an acknowledgement of I've grown as a coach or I've grown as a person or I acknowledge the fact that maybe I can't be as cruel as I was. And again, those are two of the incidences that we know. Have I heard many more on the down low that have not been substantiated? Yes, it's the tip of the iceberg. So either you come back as a coach that recognizes your tactics. And let's be honest, they're tactics. I mean, having Mitch Marner list his shittiest teammates and then sharing that list with those shodd, teammates when he's a rookie is a tactic.

It's not him trying to be fucking outright cruel to marner. He's trying to do his sports psychology McGill degree motivation bullshit. So you have to acknowledge that the shit that you used to do doesn't fly now, that maybe it shouldn't have flown then. And then, yeah, I don't think there's a reason why he can't come back if there's at least an acknowledgement of that. But there's been no acknowledgement of it. And he's gotten a job on television.

Oh, and by the way, from the television aspect, my biggest problem with Mike Babcock versus Mike Milbury, Brian Burke, and Don Cherry, Mike Babcock wants to get a job. So I think that colors everything he says in that gig when he wants to get another job. Now, maybe it's Seattle where it won't matter, right? But maybe it's with a current NHL team. And then it does matter that he might, you know,

take the gloves off and put him gently next to him rather than being a tried and true, honest, evaluator of these players because he's trying to get a job. I think that's a fair point. it also applies to a lot of other people in broadcasting. Totally. Pierre McGuire comes to mind. Half of the people your network employees in pro football

apparently are contenders for every GM job. So, I mean, that is a problem. But it's a common one. And it apparently hasn't stopped anyone else from getting work. Yeah. Hold on. It has stopped Pierre from getting work. Let's be honest. I think Pierre has stopped here from getting work.

Sorry, Albert, what are you going to say? I was just going to say, like, I don't look at Mike Babcock's press conferences, like anything we know about him and go, oh, boy, this guy has the charisma to really make that between periods show sizzle. Like, he's just going to go, oh, yeah, you know, break out here, you know, whatever. He's just going to say fucking nothing because that's what he's always done. And he doesn't, like, he doesn't emote a lot. He does, like, there's just nothing. Like, he's just, he's, uh, he's a video game character in terms of he just kind of says everything very flat and, uh, matter of fact.

And there's, there's nothing like where you go, oh, I can't wait to see this guy on TV. And that's the thing I don't get is like, even leaving aside everything else, when did you ever watch Mike Babcock say anything? thing about any subject related to hockey and go, ooh, this guy electrifying, you know, it just never happened. But look, here's the only thing I, because I agree with everything you just said, typically a job like this, they don't just call a guy up and go, hey, do you want to come be on TV? There would have been lots of, they would have brought him in, they would have put him in a studio, they would have told what he can do, seeing what he sounded.

Like, I wouldn't, you know, there are guys. that I mean there have certainly been guys in in my lifetime where I've been like that guy's going to be amazing on TV he's going to be and then they get on there and you're like he's awful like the biggest one for me ever was tied Omi like this great personality and then he was just terrible like he just came across so fake and like he was trying so hard and it just didn't work and then there's other guys where like

I never was like you know Patrick Sharp's going to be amazing on TV I certainly was never like you know who's going to be a great TV guy, Kevin B.XA. That guy's going to be. But somebody saw something, brought him in, tried him out and was like, you know, maybe that's going on with that. Like, maybe Babcock's going to be good. Maybe he's going to be contrite once he's on the air. There's a lot of maybes. Or maybe we're going to watch the very first broadcast and be like, nope, he's just there because he has a name. Well, again, like, you don't get to the joy of watching the NBC broadcast. But it's like, I mean, Mike Milbury was the same way where he was just like, ah, yeah, okay, yeah, let's break down this play.

Okay, yep, that guy's a coward, whatever he says, you know. And like, again, a guy that I never got it because I wasn't like, oh, this isn't like, I agree with him, disagree with him, whatever. Like, Don Jerry's an exciting broadcaster, right? Yeah, yeah. Agree with him, disagree with him. I don't know that you would say the same about Mike Milberry. Like who was tuning in and like, oh, I can't wait to hear what Milbury has to say. I've told the story before.

One of my very first times in a press box, I was in Toronto, and the sound on the TV wasn't working for Coach's Corner. And I watched half the Toronto media have a meltdown because they couldn't hear what Don Cherry was saying. Like, that's what this guy was. I don't see anybody doing that for my. And the other people, we said this a million times on this show, but. nobody wants cheerleaders, nobody wants rah, raw, Homer, the NHL is so great. But also, I don't mind watching people who seem to like hockey.

And that seems to be lacking on both sides of the border, where it's just all these grouchy faces complaining about how it used to be better or this isn't how, is Mike Babcock going to fix that? Is Mike a guy who, a dower personality who got kind of run out of the league, is he going to be the guy who comes again maybe let's see what it is but I don't I don't think so you know by your heart there is sparks with joy when I watch the game your grit the jam yeah I mean it's it's really difficult at this point for me to separate Babcock like actually talking from the Greg Wysinski impression of him doing that but again like you know go on

YouTube and watch Mike Babcock say anything about any subject. And it's just like, yeah, it's not a bad impression in that way. That's the sweetest thing you've ever said on this show. Well, I mean, you know, don't get used to it. To go back to Sean's example, Roanick was the guy from me. Like the guy you were like, oh, that guy is going to fucking tear it up until you. And then he became just a, you know, facelift zombie. staring into the camera at all times.

But he was miscast, I think. Yeah, absolutely. We've said that a million times. Like, you can say a lot of stuff about Jeremy Roanick and believe it me, we have. Yeah, yeah. But the idea that, like, he doesn't have the charisma to be on TV is wrong. Like, he absolutely does. And that's why toward the end, they made him, like, the guy who wears a leprechaun costume and shit like that, you know?

He certainly did. And like he was good at that. He was, you know, again, like I was kind of all the way out on Jeremy Roanick at that point. But, you know, who in that group was going to do that shit any better than Jeremy Roanick did? Nobody. It's just crazy to think they bought him on to be like the Charles Barkley of hockey. And by year four, he was like wrestling alligators. Yeah, that's right.

It's just so great. Anyways, I wager. Babcock isn't going to make much of a difference. And speaking of wagering, My Bookie is a new sponsor of the Puck Suit podcast. Listen, it's that time of year when divisions are decided and champions or crown and legends are born. It's time for the National Football League playoffs.

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Okay. I have a thing about that. Remind me at the end. There's a guy in New York who's trying to sell two of his bars for Bitcoin. Like he's only going to sell his bar. Oh, okay. We can do, we're just doing this in the ad. I can do that. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. Don't do any ad. Not the end. Uh, you can use your laptop or your phone and it's not too late to make your New Year's resolution a resolution to get paid. Again, get your first deposit matched halfway up to $1,000 of promo code Puck, PUCK, bet win and get paid at MyBooky. It's mybooky.com or on the mobile app. All right. 30 seconds on Bitcoin. Go. Did you see the thing in the New York Times today about all the guys who bought a bunch of Bitcoin, you know, 10 years ago or however long it was? And now they've lost their passwords to their accounts. And they're like sitting on like there, there was one guy who was like, oh yeah, I have, you know, however many Bitcoin, it's worth like $220 million these days.

And I can't get into the account because I forgot the password. And the account is set up so that I only get 10 guesses. ever and it's locked. And I'm on number eight. I've used up all the two of them. And so he's just like sitting up at night every night going, what could that fucking password be? Wow.

That's enormously relatable. This is the only Bitcoin story where I've ever understood what was actually have like that. I get it. One of my old roommates was a big like believer in Bitcoin in like 20, 12, 2013, and he was buying it when it was, you know, under $100. And now it's worth like, I think, $22,000 in change. And so he's doing really well for himself.

And that is definitely a little bit of me kicking myself for just being like, shut the fuck off. Nobody cares about Bitcoin seven or eight years ago. And now, you know, he has definitely had the last laugh on that. Who's going to buy stock in Apple, that kind of thing? No, exactly. Right. That password thing is so relatable.

And usually what happens to me when I do hit the limit on guesses is I come to realize that my first guess was the correct guess, except that I was a letter off or my finger slipped. Yeah. And then I feel terrible about it. But that's palpable stress when you get to that like one guest left. $220 million. This guy lost a piece of paper worth $2.000. $220 million. That's incredible.

He lost Alexei Yashin's contract? Yeah. Boy, there's a reference. All right, I suppose it's time for us to get down and start breaking down these divisions. Everybody remember that there's been massive realignment in the National Hockey League because of the state of the Canadian border due to the raging pandemic. And teams have moved around, and we all have new divisions, and it's the top four teams in each division. The wild cards take a break. for a year.

The classic setup where when I was a kid you'd get super angry when you would finish fifth in your division, then look over at another division and it's super easy to get into the top four. So that'll be this. Yeah, and that's going to happen.

That's 100% going to happen. And people haven't really processed that. We're going to get like halfway into the season and suddenly people are going to be like, wait a second. Winnipeg is like 15 points behind Dallas, but they're going to make the playoffs. it's going to be good.

I can't wait. All right. Let's start in the East. Have you guys game planned out the full finish of the division or just the playoff teams? I just have the playoff teams. Okay. I mean, in some kind of order, but like I couldn't tell you, you know, one three. No, that's fine.

I have the whole thing just because I needed to kind of get my brain around what it's going to look like. But we can very much just do the playoff teams. The thing to say right off the hop, though, is this season's going to be. shit show in terms of like games getting canceled and that kind of thing. Like it worked for a while even in the NBA but now games are getting postponed

left and right and there's really no end in sight for that. And so like, you know, with Dallas I think pushing things back a few days and now I think one of their games got moved. They're going to start the season on January 19th. Right. But the NHL anticipated this and that

and make the schedule the length of days. But I do wonder, so two questions before we start on the predictions, I guess. First off, do you think there's the possibility that they go to a hub or a bubble during the season, given that it's all intra-division play, and they could, in theory, do it? Do you think they do it or they stay in the home arenas? I think they stay in the home arenas until they absolutely have no choice but to not do that. And I don't think it'll get to that point. I don't think so either, but the possibility is there.

Second thing, do you think that the NHL has it a little bit easier than the NBA in the sense that they do have the taxi squads and an extra, you know, six guys that are going to be around to kind of fill in? In theory, it should be harder because the NBA is a smaller roster. but I kind of believe that, you know, maybe it'll be easier for the NHL in some ways. To just swap guys in. Yeah, I think that's an interesting consideration. But, like, you know, me and Sean did a couple weeks ago, we did the awards, predictions, betting kind of a thing. And one thing I think we didn't account for was, like, some superstars going to miss, like, seven games or eight games out of a 56 games. game schedule because they got COVID.

Yeah. Or there, you know, they were, there was a close contact or whatever, you know, whatever you want to say. And so, you know, the idea that like, oh, I'm going to put all my money on Austin Matthews to win the MVP, whatever, like, Austin Matthews could miss a week. And if you miss a week in this, in this season, that's going to be a significant portion of your schedule. So, you know, it's kind of, it's kind of amazing around the precipice of these predictions.

And it occurs to me that, like, one of us is going to be. right because a team got COVID and didn't make the playoffs. And then we have to be like, I knew all along. It's so fucking morbid. That's the thing, man. Because I've been doing this sort of stuff in various formats and forums this week. I know people like predictions. I know people want and they want real predictions, not wishy-washy, you know, maybe 60-40 chance.

They want people to, you know, put a flag in the graph. There's way too much certainty. being broadcast about this season. This is, the level of randomness in the regular NHL is way higher than we'd ever want to acknowledge. In a 56 game season with COVID out there where I think some teams aren't going to play 56 games. Like we're going to get to, I'm not saying the whole season is going to get shut down, but there may be a point where we just, the league has to say, hey, by the way, if you don't get to 56, it's going to be points percentage.

Points percentage. They've already said it. Have they officially said it? Well, not officially. No, my communications to people in the league have bought up that fact that there's a very good chance. It could be points percentage that ends up being the determining factor. They should say it publicly now because it's a very good, like, you can't get halfway into the season. And then suddenly when like it's coming down to the Rangers or, you know, some smaller market for a playoff spot, suddenly be like, oh, by the way, here's whatever gets the Rangers in.

Yeah, exactly. Right. And it's so, it's, here's the other thing that's, that's very fucked about all this, right? Is so, you know, I've, I've talked a lot about how the college hockey season has gone. And somebody, I decided not to write about college hockey this year because I was like, you know, the way I write about college hockey is like examining statistical trends and all that kind of stuff. And it's, you just can't do it that way in a season where, you know, if I'm looking right here, one team has played. 16 games, another team has played two. And we're at the same point in the season. And so, you know, I saw somebody today wrote a story about like, okay, what does the Hobie Baker race look like?

And, you know, again, some guys have played 15 games. And the guy that they said at the end of the article, you know, if he plays enough games, you know, he's going to be the, he looks like he could be the guy. he's played five games right now. It's Spencer Knight from BC. Who's a phenomenal goalie and in a normal season, I would be totally convinced that he would be at least a contender. And like, yeah, he has a 950 save percentage, but he's played five fucking games.

And so you're going to be having to have that conversation too of like, okay, well, who was the MVP for a team that played 52 games and he played 46 of them? could Connor McDavid be that guy? And like, that's going to mess up so... Well, I mean, what about Leon Drysidele, Greg? But it's going to make so much of a difference. If some team plays 30 games and they make the playoffs by one win.

No. I don't think it'll ever get that. Well, so for whatever it is, like, you're right. Like, normally if a guy didn't play the whole season, you go, he can't be the MVP. But if he played his team's whole season, and every one of his team's games was therefore counted more than anyone else's. Yeah. It's a great point.

The arguments that we're going to have over this are going to be awful. I can't wait. It's going to be so good for business. I'm going to hate it. I think at the most it would be four games that the teams would miss, like two homestands. I'll take the over on that. Yeah. For some team in the league, I, or that they end up having to make up a lot.

Yeah. Yeah. And they have to play like, yeah, they, at the. the end of the season, the league builds a week into the schedule for, you know, pushing, pushes back the postseason and says, okay, but you have to play six games in eight days. It's the, it's the, it's the, a national hockey league regular season qualification tournament. They'll just name it.

It's going to be insane. And then, of course, sell. But that's what I'm saying. Like, would they do that? If, let's say two teams are fighting for the last playoff spot and both those teams haven't played enough games, do they just go, you know what, we're going to throw you guys in a three game series at the end of the season? season, and that's how we're going to figure out who makes it.

And when do they decide that and when did they announce that versus just saying today, here's what the rules are. Yeah, that's the other thing in college hockey is, you know, the league that is around the greater Boston area is called Hockey East, and they haven't announced how they're going to see the playoffs this year. Again, you know, one team has played 13 games, one team has played two, and, um, all of those are within their own conference. So in theory, one team could have 30 games count in the season standings,

and another team could have 12, right? And like we are now, you know, three months away, two months away from the playoffs starting in Hockey East, and they haven't announced how they're going to seed the playoffs. And it's like, yeah, you kind of have to fucking say what that is beforehand. I think. I like Sean's idea where Gary Betman comes strolling in like Tom Colicchio during Top Chef and just changes the rules arbitrarily during the challenge.

Right. And we talk east. It's like whatever benefits BC and BU the most is usually what they end up going with. Right. And I also like your idea of whatever the rule changes turns the end of the end of the season is just going to be made to get the rangers in the playoffs. Yeah. Or people will say that, right?

Like, look what happened with the lottery. That would just be the perception. Yeah. Right. We're going to go by how many players named Alexis and Igor teams have. Eastern Division. I'm sorry, Mass Mutual NHL East Division. Let's agree with that again.

Don't ever get that again. Sorry. NHL East Division presented. by Mass Mutual. There. This is the hardest one. Got it right. Yeah, it really is. What do you got, Lambert?

I think I would go Bruins, Flyers, Penguins. This is a tough one. I guess I'll go with the Capitals. Sean? Yeah. Talk it through.

Yeah, well, my would be simple. Okay, so I'm going to, let's start from the bottom. I'm taking New Jersey off sort of grade. Oh, yeah, we should mention Corey Crawford retired because he lost his smile. I would not have, I wouldn't have them in the playoffs even with Cory Crawford, but at least you could say, well, maybe they get. They're going to be a tough out a lot of nights if they have Corey Crawford. And I don't, and I'm going to McKinsey Blackwood a lot, but I just, I think they had the right approach there to get, to get a veteran guy.

Yeah, one, A, one B. I don't, now they don't have that. They have a 1B and the C. And Scott Wedgwood. Yeah. I really want to, you know, I've been beaten this dead horse that I think people are sleeping on Buffalo, but I don't know that they're sleeping enough to get them into the playoffs in this division. Somebody last week was telling me that they thought you could make a case that Buffalo may have been hurt the most by the new divisions,

just because this was a team that, you know, in the old Atlantic that was top heavy, but there was maybe a room for a fourth or a fifth spot. And now it's like, I don't know where they go. So I take them off. The Rangers, I could absolutely see going to the playoffs, but I take them out. Yeah, the goalies would have to get real hot all season, which is possible.

I'm left with the same five teams that I'm guessing Ryan was kind of going through. I know some people are taking Boston out. I don't have the guts to do that. Washington I Washington won the division last year as far as the regular season that's wild

you know what give me Philadelphia and the Islanders and I'm going to hedge my bets that Pittsburgh I've said for I've been saying this for three years and I'm wrong every year but when Pittsburgh when the end comes I think it's going to be kind of sharks-ish

in that it's going to be a bigger drop than maybe people think So I guess I will pick them. Not a Cody C-C guy, Sean. You know, I haven't had a chance to watch them up close. You numbers guys don't appreciate what he brings to the table. But, yeah, I mean, unproven goal-tending. And, I mean, also, if Sidney Crosby gets hurt, I don't, I mean, I know they've got Malcolm.

I already, you know what, I'm going to shut up because I'm already talking myself out of what I said. I agree with you on the Devils, mostly because of the goaltending now. I am not a Buffalo guy. I wish I was. I would love nothing more than to see them go on this unprecedented role in the early part of the season and then keep it going. And Taylor Hall will be like, I love it here. I'm going to sign three years. I was going to say, man, them going on a role early in the season is not unprecedented.

Is what they do. Do that every year. They start trying to three years. Right. But now it's like 22% of the schedule. But like I said in ESPN this week, like there's a better chance of Taylor Hall being traded at the deadline than there is the Sabres making the playoffs. Yeah, I agree. Without question.

Islander's next. Law of diminishing returns. I think Sorokin's going to be real good. Maybe not as good as Shuriken, which is why I have the Rangers next. And I've been trying to will myself into putting the Rangers in the playoffs, but I just don't think defensively they're there yet. Not a big Jack Johnson guy? Well, it's also team defense, right? I mean, I think the goaltending is going to be great,

but I don't know if it's great enough to overcome some of the systemic problems they have defensively. But, I mean, you're still dealing with a team that is built to win a cup within the next decade, but they're still babies. And I can't trust LaFranier and Kako and those guys to really play playoff caliber defense quite yet. Boston Fourth, I can't believe how people are overlooking the fucking decimation of that blue line on this team. It is not the Bruins anymore. It's not good. It's not the Bruins anymore.

But they're still good enough to finish fourth in the division. Well, I think the thing you would say is that Charlie Coyle is perhaps a bit underrated the last few years and, you know, put him in a bigger role. You know, he can succeed. And then Grizzlic is your crude replacement on the power play. Like, I get all that. And yeah. You mean Charlie McAvoy. You said Coyle, but you mean Maccaboy.

Oh, I meant. Yeah, right. Yeah. I think Charlie Coils, at 31 years old, is finally ready to become the player we all think he is. Right. Yeah. They have too many Charlie's on this freaking team. They truly do.

So I take them fourth. I'll take Pittsburgh third. Very hard team to figure out where the window is as far as open or closed. I do agree with Sean that, you know, there's always the possibility that they could lose one of their big guns for a portion of the season. but they've shown time and time again that they're able to withstand a loss like that almost to a very peculiar degree. I like Philly second. And then that'll give you your Philly-Pittsburg Love Fest in the first round.

And I like Washington to win a division because, one, the Lobby-led effect. I'm a little bit worried about the goaltending, admittedly. That's the only thing that really keeps me back from, from wholeheartedly embracing this. Well, you want to talk about team defense. I mean, well, I'm hoping the coach helps with that.

And I also think that they have improved themselves on their blue line and are still a potent team up front. And if there's one thing, the capitals... Who did they get to help the blue line this summer? I'm legitimately asking. I don't remember. Well, I mean, Chara is whatever, right?

But, like, Brendan Dillon there for a full year. Oh, I do. You do like Brendan Dillon. That's true. Yeah, they bought him on last year. You know, they obviously still have Carlson there. Orloff, Justin Schultz, is there now, too. The thing you were saying.

The great Trevor Van Riemstike, who got a shout out from Pierre McGuire on the call as to why the Capitol's defense is great. You know, so on and so forth. I just think the Capitals are really good at one thing, and that's winning regular season, you know, division titles. They've always been good at it. It's outside of catching Gretzky, it's Ovetchans' Leggis. see. And so I think they'll win the East. All right. The Central Division.

What do you got, Lambert? I don't think it's telling Tales out of school here. I will go with Tampa. This is one I should say. I have a pretty clear. With the East, I just said the four teams, I think, are going to make the playoffs in whatever order. I think it's Tampa, then it's Carolina. Then you get into the, well, you know, who knows.

And I think I would go with Nashville and Columbus. Ah, that is exactly my top four, my friend. We both have Dallas missing the playoffs. Yeah. Boy, I have Dallas in the playoffs. Tampa, number one, yeah. I think that's, we don't need to overthink it. Carolina, I have, like, very, I'm having to, like, reexamine my feelings about

Carolina because I think over the last few years, they've been such a trendy pick year after year, especially in the online world, and we can probably figure out why that is. It just feels like too much, and so I kind of push back against it, but now I feel like I'm pushing back too much, and I'll just say, man, I wish they had addressed the goaltending. I get why they didn't, but if Carolina had a shiny new number one goaltender, I'd feel a lot more optimistic and maybe match the optimism I'm hearing from elsewhere on them. But they're in the playoffs.

Yeah. Give me Dallas and give me Columbus. So with Nashville missing, Detroit and Chicago, I don't even really consider. And Florida, you know, a Bobrovsky bounce back, I think, is plausible, but I can't. I can't get them into my top four. Yeah. This is a thing where it's four teams fighting for two spots again. You know, between Dallas, Nashville, Columbus, Florida, any of those two, any two of those teams, I think is perfectly plausible.

Yeah. I mean, the thing with Dallas is, I don't think they're as good as the fact that they were a finalist suggests. I don't think they're a truly elite team, but they got off to a terrible start last year, and then the last 50 or 60 games of the season, they were right up there with the, you know, like you can't just go and wipe out a team's worst stretch, but if this, if you start from November 1st,

Dallas was one of the very best teams in the league all season long and then went into the playoffs and rolled. So, you know, this is kind of one of those things where it's like, I almost feel like they did that without, they're starting goaltender and, you know, I feel like they've kind of earned the right to be in that top four until they show otherwise. But I, you know, I'll be shocked if Tampa doesn't make the playoffs. I will be very, very surprised if Carolina doesn't. If Dallas doesn't, I'll be like, yeah. Yeah, Dallas, Nashville and Columbus are all that like that for me. I just like whatever.

I could make the, I think Nashville is a playoff team. I could see the argument on Columbus not being a playoff team, especially if they trade Dubois for some reason. I don't think they will in the regular season. Or if that whole situation goes sideways. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's, because I don't know that Tororella is the guy I want managing a powder keg. Right. Which I'm not saying that's where it is yet, but it gets.

Being a powder keg himself, completely agree on that. So I have time, I have time for those arguments. Carolina, this might be the best version of this team during the Eric Tolski regime. They're, I mean, like, you go the Aho line, Trochec, you know, centering his line, and they've been playing Svechtac off with Trochec. Jordan Stahl still got something left. I mean, fucking Zingle and Martinuk on their fourth line.

And then the defense in front of that goaltending. Like, I agree with you on the goaltending, but the blue line is so fucking good in front of them that it may once again make up for it. That's a team that I, like, hedge on. whether or not I think they could win the division because I think they might be able to. But they're real good. I would be shocked that they didn't make the playoffs. I would put that in the shocked category.

I can't make a legitimate case that they're better than Tampa, but could Tampa have one of those seasons where they look around and go, you know what, we're the champs, we're making the playoffs in this division. It's a 56 game sprint. We can maybe take a foot off the gas a little bit here. and our eyes are on the playoffs and being ready for that, and we don't need to be, you know, we don't need to finish first. And Carolina slips into that void.

Yeah, I could see that. Do we have Detroit last or Chicago last? Detroit last? Yeah, I think it'll be really close, but I still have to go with Detroit. Detroit has goaltending, though. Yeah. That is, but, like, Does Chicago have a goaltender?

Does Chicago have goaltending? And I know Chicago doesn't have any goaltenders we've ever heard of, but who knows? Like, you know,

I've said this before. We went into last year saying that Columbus didn't have goaltending and Columbus turned out to have pretty darn good goaltending. And it's not,

this is like a way more extreme version of that. But I don't know, I'm, goaltending is so important and yet I don't want to put ever too much stock in it making a prediction

because who knows? Especially in 56 games where these three guys might get 20 games each and who knows. Both teams have a real motivation to suck ass as well. So it could be a race to the bottom in some ways. I don't know. They're both sad and weak. Every Detroit fan is very excited about finishing dead last so that they can get that fourth overall pick again after three teams. Pass them in the lottery as per every single year.

Well, you're just a ray of light over there. Speaking of Ray, this episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by RayCon. Raycon, as you know, is one of our favorite sponsors. It's a product we all use. These are the best, in my opinion, Bluetooth earbuds that I have ever had. They make great sound accessible to everyone. Their wireless earbuds start at half the price of other premium audio brands. and the best thing ever is that they fit well.

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Colorado and Vegas, a clear top two. I have Minnesota and I have St. Louis. Hmm All right Sean I've got I've got the same four Although for me

It is It's Vegas Colorado St. Louis In a top three I will maybe talk about this a bit more When we get to the When we get to Waging some imaginary money

I feel like we've all gotten so excited For this big Colorado Vegas main event that we forgot that St. Louis was the best regular season team in that conference last year. Well, Sean, they lost Jake Allen, you know. Yeah. They're one year removed from a cup.

They were really good last year. Petrangelo, obviously, is huge, but they bring in ToriCrew. Mike Hoffman comes in for next to nothing. Like, it's, I feel like we're. Yeah, I don't have a problem if you want to put them third, but I feel like just generally, everyone's kind of sleeping on the blues. And maybe just because, I mean, nobody wants to do a prediction where you go, oh, yeah, the recent Stanley Cup winner is going to be good again. You don't get any credit for that. But I don't know.

I just personally, when I was going to do my predictions, I called up last year standing. I was like, the blues were in first in the West? They were better in Colorado, better than Vegas? Yeah, last year they were, not by a lot, but by a little. So I've got those as the big three. I've got the California teams out of it. And then it's Minnesota versus Arizona for the last spot. Tough call.

I think it's Minnesota. But I could see that one going either way because Arizona's got the goaltending. And, you know, if Rick Tockew wants them to grind out two to one wins, then I could see it. But also they weren't all that good last year. from start to finish and they lost their best forward and free agency

so I don't I don't have them They still have Christian Fisher don't they The John Chica legacy projects You're Christian Fischer's Your Christian And they're Devorak on that team

I don't who the fuck cares I'm going Vegas first Then Colorado Then St. Louis And then Minnesota. Once again, much like the Rangers in the East,

I was trying to find a way to get San Jose in the top four. I know the goaltending sucks, but I really think that their problem last season was health. And that group still healthy, provided burns isn't in complete regression. I think it could still be a playoff team. But I can't in good faith put them over in Minnesota. at a team that is strong defensively, will have better goaltending, and adds Caprice off to

the offensive mix. And I think he's going to win the caller. Yeah, I would agree with that. But the other thing to say about the sharks, though, is that goaltending is so fucking bad. It really, it could be very terrible. Now, there's a part of me that wants to believe that Dubnick's going to be better because he was dealing with a lot of off-ice stuff last season, and you can't discount that. but he's going to be playing behind a team that hasn't exactly done its goal-theading many favors in the last year.

Right, and he's 34 and. Yeah, but I mean, that's 34 in goal years, though. That's 34 in goal years. You can play until you're 38 if you're goalie. If you're Henrik Lunkwest anyway, I don't know about the rest of... Arizona behind San Jose and then Anaheim and L.A. finish it out. There's going to be a moment in which you have to put L.A. somewhere beside last play. but I don't think this is quite the moment.

Yeah, I've, I've said this in a couple places. The kings are the one, like, they're bad because they're rebuilding, but the rebuild is going really well. Like, their pipeline is excellent. And there is that part of you that goes, okay, they, clearly they're still going to be bad. And then you go, unless they have one of those seasons like the 2017 Maple Leafs where all the kids arrive at the same time and just, poof, and you just, you skip the whole, like, muddling along and go straight to the playoffs.

I just don't think, I think even by design, they're not looking to have that year this year. I think the real mystery for me is actually the Anaheim Ducks, because to me, they could finish as high as fifth if John Gibson is John Gibson again. Because in a 56 game season, if you get 43 games of really great John Gibson hockey, like you could, you could, you could, you could insure what. up that division because the bottom of the division. Lots of a good young players coming in there. Ryan Getslap in what could be his last year there. There's pieces. Like I said, I mean, I dismissed the three California teams pretty quickly because I had to come up with four, but there's no certainty on any of this. I mean, you say like you could see them the ducks being as high as fifth. I could see them being higher than that. Absolutely. It's going to be chaos.

the one thing that holds me back a little bit on Minnesota you know besides like just a little bit too much hype surrounding that team right now is they are a bit of a donut I mean top two centers are Nick Bukstad and Nick Benino for God's sakes so it's a little bit of a of a donut there but then again fuck I put Vegas at the top of the west and they're a donut I mean for the most part they don't have that's the one That's the one flaw in Vegas is that they don't have what I would consider to be a grade A center on that roster with due respect to William Carlson and Chandler-Stevenson. Like there's no McKinnon there and there's no O'Reilly there. Yeah.

It might not even be a Logan Cater. A Nazim Qadry there. Yeah. So. All right. I definitely get that. But if somebody becomes available, they'll somehow free up 10 million. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We got Jack Eichel and we, what are you going to do? to do about it. They're going to be the team that trades for Dubois and they'll give up like William Carlson and Alec Martinez to get him. Right. And then they'll fire

the 65 year old woman who holds the door for the players to walk into the arena and then still be like, well, we're still a family. It's the same vibe as it's always been. It's a business now. Like I said, Vegas, gold misfits. They put on a tie and got a haircut and get a job at the bank. It's all different now.

The We, the North Division. Holy shit. Here we go. The one everybody's been waiting for. Ryan? Toronto, number one with a bullet. Okay. Bold pick.

Yeah, I know. That's really going out on a limb. And then give me, I think in this order, Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton. Vancouver, maybe a scosh below that, because I just don't, I don't trust their goaltending and defense very much. Winnipeg below that and the senators in the same at ballpark as Winnipeg, I think I would say. Yeah, I mean, I'll put Toronto one,

although with a lot less certainty than a lot of people seem to have, but I think on paper that's the best team in the division. From there, I, Ottawa, obviously, at the bottom, Winnipeg, I think, is six, probably on most lists. I think the other four teams are fighting for three spots.

People who have listened to me and read me in other places are probably sick of me expressing confusion over all the optimism around Montreal, a team that was one win ahead of the Sabres last year

and apparently by adding a backup goalie became cup contenders. But I don't have the guts to take them out of my playoffs entirely. So give me Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal in the playoffs and Edmonton missing out.

I think when we look back at the offseason, certainly McDavid and Drus Eidl could carry them to playoffs. They could carry them to first place. That wouldn't shock me. But I think there's a very good chance we look back in the off season and we say that the biggest story is that the Oilers didn't address the goaltending and that that ends up sinking yet another year of the Connor McDavid prime. Their goaltending sucked last year and it didn't hurt him.

and I don't think it's going to hurt them this year. I do have the guts to say Montreal will miss the playoffs. Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Montreal out. I hope it's in that order too. Winnipeg out and Ottawa. I mean, out is almost in their name. But yeah, Calgary. God.

That's all. Calgary, that's because I had Ott on my fucking list. here. I got. I understood it right away. Calgary to me is in store for a boomerang. I like Jeff Ward as a coach, by the way. I think that Monahan and Goodrow were going to be better than they were last year. And I think the Cachuk line, whatever line he plays on, is probably going to get the most ice time on the team. And then, you know, Markstrom say what you will about the contract, but in the short term, fuck, he's good. And I think he's going to have the same transformative effect on Calgary. that he had on Vancouver.

Yeah, not having Cam Talb, it's going to be huge for the point. Yes. Right. That's another Minnesota thing we didn't talk about. But their team defense is real good. 56 games of Connor and Leon, fuck, let's go. They could get that done. They could drag this carcass to the playoffs in 56 games.

Maybe 82, I'm a little bit more nervous, but a 56 game sprint where the two two of the best players in the world have to get this team into the playoffs and you add Tyson Barry to that power play? Come on. We're fine. Well, okay. First of all, I think the thing to say about that is that you can't really do any better on the power play than they did last year. What was it?

Like 35%. Maybe it could go 36? Maybe that's the Tyson-Berry effect. But that's what I'm saying. I don't know how much better you could reasonably do. And then the other issue is the rest of their defense. Clefbaum's out for the year. That's a problem for me.

The cleft bomb thing hurts a lot. So just going down the how much they're paying guys. Darnell Nurse, Adam Larson, Chris Russell, Tyson, Tyson, Tyson, Ethan Bear, who I actually like a good amount. And then one of either Caleb Jones or Slater Cuckoo. That's their lineup every single night. I don't know. Adam Larson.

Yeah. And then again, that's in front of Miko Koskin, who, to be fair, had a good deal last. year. No, he's good. Mike Smith sucks. Mike Smith is terrible. Yeah. But the thing with Koskenen is, is he good?

Is he terrible? Yes. No, he's good. Well, the year, let's put it this way. The year before when he played 55 games, he was a 906 goalie, but he was 9-17 last year playing 38. So if you want to say, you know, he lands somewhere in the middle of that, I buy that. That's about league average.

Yeah. But then... 38 games is what percentage of the season this year? Right, but like, do, but if you're going, he plays whatever percentage of the season 38 games is, he doesn't, he plays like 25. I don't think they do that necessarily, but like the deference, everybody up there seems to show to Mike Smith. I can totally see a scenario where he plays 20 games next year and loose is fucking all of them. I completely, listen, I agree, but I have, I have been trying to figure out, I've been making the argument. that this is a mediocre defensive team for a while.

And, like, they were media, they, they should have been a mediocre defensive team last year, too. And they wound up with a 585 points percentage and second in the division. So, like, you figure it out. I figured it out. They scored 58,000 goals on the power play. Right. And, and they'll score a few, a few this season, too. So they're my third.

And then I can't leave Vancouver out of the playoffs. And it's not my blind loyalty to the team that I planted my flag on last year. I just think Demko and Holpe are all right. They're not Markstrom, but they're going to be fine. And this is a team that's turning the corner into a contender. I completely agree. Talk me through turning the corner. Turning the corner means that they've got more proven high-end talent right now than does Montreal.

Yes, I agree. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, that's, for me, to me it comes down to Vancouver or Montreal. Like, we can make the argument as to what they are, who the Canucks, this, that, and the other thing, you know, is the gold hunting going to be good enough, whatever? Like, that's fine. We can have those discussions. But if the, if the task at hand is who makes the top four in this division and it comes down to Montreal or Vancouver, I've got more confidence in Miller, Pedersen, Besser, Horvad, anchoring your second line, Edler and Sch.

Schmidt and then Hughes being Hughes, and then your top two defense pairs are going to be pretty good. And I think Holpe and Dempco are fine. I got more confidence in that group than I do in Montreal. I guess my big reservation with Vancouver is pretty much all of their success last year was because of Markstrom and to a lesser extent, Petterson. Patterson was unbelievable last year And, you know, he should keep improving But like Marchram was the reason they barely made the playoffs You know, and now he's not there And they replaced him with a guy who

Look, like, let's be honest about what Holpey did last year Or the last few years. Yeah, sucked. He did. I completely agree. So, yeah, Marchstrom was 918 last year And he played 43 games for them. And let's see.

Let's look up Holt B's save percentage. Like, I'm not saying he's going to be as bad as he was last year, but he, but over the last three seasons, he's a 906 goalie. And I don't know. I can, I am, I am planning my flag on them in the hopes that Ian Clark gets Holt B to play better. And, you know, Holt B has shown that he can be molded and shaped by good golden and coaches in the past.

I just think that if you're using historical precedents to make the argument about this division and you ignore the fact, like Sean said, that Montreal was a 500 team last year and how much better are they going to be having added a bunch of RFAs and of UFAs and Josh Anderson. You know, I'm just taking Vancouver in this one. I, like I say, I think it's close. I think Edmonton is a step above both of those teams and therefore, like, the most likely of that. And keep in mind, a 500 team in a division with Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit, no less.

Oh, I understand. They lost, Montreal lost every game they played to the Detroit Red Wings last year. I understand all that. With that having been said, I do think they got, their problem last year was depth. I think they got better. They're a little deeper now. And I really can't believe I'm fucking saying this, but I would rather have Carrie Price and Jake Allen than an unproven guy and the ghost of Brayden Holpey. Ghost of Brayden Holpey.

haunting the woods in in uh in uh in in in Vancouver I can't wait for all those pictures of of of uh of hope be you know contemplating life while reading a book in the middle of whistler it's gonna be beautiful all right so there you go now we move on to the the actual stakes at hand real hardcore money that's not real Bitcoin if you will we should have done the betting segment with Bitcoin now I think about it I don't want to do all that math. Yeah, that's a lot of math. This is the part of this show. It's the annual tradition here on Puck Soup in which we use a hundred, a hundred dollar nut and spread it around the league on preseason wagering. Did I win this last year or did I lose this last year?

I think you want it. Sounds about right. I think you want it by like a margin of like five dollars or something like that, but you want it barely. Okay. But so the way this works, last year we only had odds on who would come out of each conference to get to the cup final. So that was the only thing we bet on. This year we have odds on not only who's going to win the Stanley Cup, but also who is going to win each division. Right. So we are taking actually this time $200.

We're betting $100 on cup winners and $100 on division winners. And the thing with the division winners is you have to bet on at least one team from every division. So, like, you can't just say, I'm not going to bet on the West because I think it's a tough call. You have to pick at least one of those teams. And the idea is that, you know, with all the different odds and how much you, how much of the money you spread around, what is the return on those odds going to be when everything's said and done? Okay. Everybody got that?

Good. Yep. We'll see. No, this isn't a game show. I completely understand the rules, okay? I'm saying I don't know if I did a good job explaining the rules. No, you did a fine job. Okay.

You did a fine job. So let's start with the cup. Let's start with betting on who at. No, you know what? Let's start with division winners and then build to the cup. That's a smarter way to do it. All right. Let's start with you, Lambert.

What do you got? Okay. So I am betting $15 on Tampa at 5 to 4, win that division and $10 on Carolina at 4 to 1 to win that division. The only Canadian team I'm betting on to win is Toronto and I'm putting $30 on them at 5 to 4. That is the team I think is most likely to win their division in the entire league. I'm putting $15 on Philadelphia to win the East at 3 to 1 and $5 on Boston at 5 to 2. and then I'm going

and then I'm going $10 on Vegas at 2 to 1 $5 on Colorado at 3 to 2 and $10 on Minnesota at 12 to 1 just because they're my like dark horse team for the whole league and 12 to 1 is pretty good odds so that's where I'm at with the whole

league Sean okay so So I view something like this, especially if we're doing at the divisions, I'm looking for longer shots. I've got no interest in putting down money on the Leafs to win the North just so I can get like slightly more than my money back at the end of it. I want to go a little further than that. So I'm going to go. Let me start with $20 on the Blues at 5 to 1 for the reasons I mentioned before.

I think we're sleeping on that a little bit. So I think there's good value there. In the central, I didn't see a lot that I really loved there. But since we have to have to do something, I'm going to go $15 on Nashville at 7 to 1. I picked them to miss the playoffs, but, you know, youngish goaltender, they've got some pieces.

You know, could it all click together? Probably not. But at 7 to 1, I'll make a small, bet there and see what happens. Give me $20 on the Islanders at 7 to 1. Again, this is a defense and goal-tending team. There's not going to be a lot of goals on either side,

short season, lots of randomness. It could happen. And then in the Canadian division, I want $20 each on both Vancouver and Calgary, both at 7-1. You know, for reasons we kind of discussed, you know, either one of those teams. I picked Vancouver to win the whole division a few months ago and everyone laughed at me and, you know, I was, I was probably deservedly

so, but I got to at least stick with that. In Calgary, I could see things clicking for them. That leaves me with $5. I'm throwing my last $5 on the Ottawa senators at 100 to 1 to win the north because no team should be 100 to 1 in any circumstances on anything in this season. that's a pure value bet. Do I think the senators have any realistic shot? No, of course not. But at 100 to 1, it doesn't even have to be all that realistic. And who the hell knows?

Young team, new goalie, short season. I'll throw the ultimate long shot in there just because I think there's so much chaos and uncertainty in this season that I can't resist it. All right, I'm going to do something a little different this year. Let's start off with the main bets. I'm going to go $20 on the Golden Knights to win the West. I'm going to go $20 on the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Central,

even though I think Tampa's going to win. I'll put money on the hurricanes there. I'll go $20 on the capitals to win the East. They actually have really good odds, 6 to 1 to win the East. So that's a pretty solid return If they can deal with the capital do. I'm going to bet $12 bucks on the Leafs to win the North Division. And I'm going to put $28 on the field minus Jersey, Chicago, and Detroit.

Yeah, I don't think you can do that. What are you talking about? That's not a thing. But yeah, that's bullshit. No, that's a dollar on every team except for. Oh, I see. Chicago, Detroit, and New Jersey Okay, well, I'm not going to write all that down

No, you don't have to, but that's my bet It's a dollar on every team Except for Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey All right, so those are my bets On to the Cup What do you got, Ryan? I went a pretty similar route I put $25 on Colorado at 6 to 1

$10 each on Vegas Carolina and Tampa and Boston and then $15 each on Toronto, Philly, and Minnesota. Nope. Sorry, I read that wrong. $15 each on Toronto and Philly and $5 on Minnesota. Minnesota was at 55 to 1. So much like Sean with the senators. I was just like, I like that team a little too much to not look at 55 to 1 and think that's doable.

First of all, even though the playoffs were so long ago, I can't hear somebody say the words, I read that wrong without that stupid commercial popping into my head. So thank you to Ryan for that. Oh, yeah. Shut up, Greg. That was not an invitation. Sorry. Okay, so here's my cup bets.

Some overlap, but I tried to avoid too much. Give me 20 bucks on the blues at 18 to 1. Again, not to belabor the point. 20 bucks on Carolina at 18 to 1 for all my hesitance and skepticism about how much everyone is sort of pumping their tires. 18 to 1 is good value. You said 20 for them? $20, yeah. Okay, yep.

At 18 to 1. I mean, for a team that is a favorite to be second in their division, you know, home ice at least one round of the playoffs, I can't avoid that. Staying in that division, give me 40 bucks on the last. lightning. Eight to one. They're the best team in the league, I think. And, you know, it's never, it's never sexy to put your, put your money or your predictions on the defending champs. But I think, you know, I think they're well set up. The odds aren't great. I don't, those are lowish odds for a cup bet, which is why I'm sort of juicing the bet to make sure it's worth my while, but I'll take that. And then echoing Ryan, 20 bucks on Minnesota at 55 to 1. That's, yeah.

You know, I don't like the wild a ton this year, but chance to win four figures on a $20 bet on a team that I think is at the very least likely to make the playoffs. I'll take that. All right. I'll go, uh, all right, I'm going to go $20 on the Leafs because they're going to win the cup. I'm going to go, uh, $20 in Carolina because they could win the cup. I think it'll go on 20 bucks on Tampa because they're going to get Kutraoff back and probably will win the cup. Gonna go 20 bucks on Philly because if it's not Toronto breaking their giant fucking drought, it'll be Philly in this cursed year.

I'll go $10 on St. Louis because like Sean said, you'd never know. Like if they could have another one in them. And then my long shot's $20 bucks on my beloved Vancouver Canucks at 28 to 1. How much on Vancouver? Sorry. Ten bucks. Got it. So there you go. That's the whole thing.

Do we have the courage of conviction to say who they're picking? Because I'm actually picking the Leafs to win. An annual tradition. You're picking the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup? Yes. You sound surprised. You know what? I'll put it this way.

If this isn't the year that the Leafs make a run, then maybe We have to acknowledge the critics are right and there is something wrong with this. This is, there's no, obviously, there's no conspiracy. We all know why the divisions were realigned like this, but you could not, there's not a team in the league that benefits more from the realignment than this. It is all set up to make a run this year. It gets them to fuck away from Boston. Yep.

And to the final four and then who knows, right? Sean, it's okay to get excited, man. This is it. This is the year. This is the year it happens. sure it is. Okay. Remember who told you first?

Yeah. I mean, my pick is I'm picking the lightning, which is incredibly boring, but I think they're the best team. Yeah. I'm torn between Colorado and Vegas, and I think I'll go Vegas. Just because I like that goaltending a little bit more.

Do you like centers or no? I mean, I get it. I totally get it. But, you know, it's... I just want them to lose to see, like you said, how they overcompensate. Like, what is the fucking Bill Foley, get me a sinner in pictures with Spider-Man, fucking overcompensation? They're going to get Dubois at the deadline for nothing. This is my prediction.

I'm dead serious. It's just how it fucking works, especially because, you know, the whole thing of Dubois wants out because he wants a bigger stage. or whatever. And it's like, well, you know, it's a pretty big stage. It's a pretty big stage. They make a whole big deal out of everything. Sin City, baby. Do you want a big stage?

How about the one that David Copperfield is on? Huh? Okay. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Indeed. All right.

That is Puck soup for this week. What didn't we talk about? Oh, there's games at Lake Tahoe. We knew that. Gary Bettman said the NHL will make more money if it didn't play. That's something we... So, but he's so. but he's like there's just such nice people

that they're going to lose money. Just because they know it's important to us. I mean, what a, what a wonderful guy. Oh, did we want to do, I had a game. Did we want to do the game or no? Let's save the game. Okay. Save the game.

No problem. I do think that when he says that we're going to lose more money at the club and league level by playing than not playing, I'll call bullshit on the league level part. Because I think at the. league level, you know, their TV contract is what it is regardless. And their sponsorship deals probably are what they are regardless. But I do think that he's right on the team by team level.

Like, I've talked to teams that said, yeah. The coyotes are going to take a bath on this one. Yeah, like I've talked to teams that said, like, we actually don't want to have fans come in because we'd make more money if we just kept the building closed and didn't have to hire staff and shit like that. So I think on the club level he's right, but I'll call a little bullshit on the league level. He might even be technically correct on the league level for this given year. But in the big picture, of course, the reason we have a season is because they believe that in the big picture, 10 years from now,

it will have made more sense financially to still be playing than to take a full year off. So it's a nonsense comment, even if he's technically correct. for this given season. They're not going to, they know that if they're not there, but the NBA is, and football is doing its playoffs and Major League Baseball starts up, the NHL can't afford to just take a year off and then show up a year later. Especially with an expansion team coming in next year. Yeah, absolutely.

With an expansion team coming in, with a new TV contract coming at some point. Like, it's ridiculous. So they've, and the idea that this league is making any decisions ever that aren't based on the bottom line is just insulting to any hockey fan who's paid any attention for the last 25 plus years. I'll add about the teams too. I was talking to a team this week for a story I'm doing for next week. And they made the point that they know they're not going to make money by having fans in

the building whenever fans come back. Like it's just you can't make money off a fucking 5,000 people in the building. But what it is for them in, I believe when they say this, is that it's about maintaining those relationships with fans and season ticket holders and engaging with them to ensure that they come back and that they remain back and maybe buy more tickets when the team rockets. And if not those fans, they're bereaved families who are maybe going to inherit some season tickets. Oh, boy.

Finally, we haven't talked about this yet. And Sean, apologies if you have to sit this one out. just over two million people watched the Bears and Saints on Nickelodeon this past Sunday. Did you watch any of that game, Sean? Or Ryan? No, no, I of course did not. Did you see any of the highlights, Sean, from the Nickelodeon? I did, yeah.

I saw we didn't have any access to that at all in Canada. But I saw some of the highlights and clips and that sort of thing. and I thought it was cool as hell. I thought it was a great idea. I didn't see enough of it to say whether it was well executed or not. But I'll tell you right now, if we had it in Canada, my 10-year-old would have been watching that game, and he didn't watch the regular one.

I loved it. I feel like for, you know, if you're a dad watching a game with your kid, like it was the perfect combination of stuff, like goofy stuff for the game. kids and enough football for you. And I don't know. I would love to see the NHL do something like this, but they don't have relationship with Viacom.

Yeah. Well, I also, I made the joke on Twitter. But, you know, if they had slime cannons at the game, Cory Perry would keep trying to drink out of them. Yes. I can't have that. It's a fantastic joke. It's a fantastic joke. But it was great.

I mean, I appreciated the spirit of it. And I appreciate the fact that people were, you know, sports fans can be so fucking petty and insular and angry about any time you try to broaden the tent to new people with a different approach. And, you know, they had a young actress on the play-by-play or the commentary who didn't know a lot about football. I was asking, like, not knowing a lot about football questions and shit. And, you know, like, in a normal world, everybody's like, fuck you, why are you wasting my time with this shit? But I think that that sometimes comes down to venue. Like, you can't put the actress that doesn't really know a lot about football on the CBS broadcast. But on Nickelodeon, it's like, all right, this is all part of the vibe.

So, I don't know. It was a beautiful moment of communal viewing on Twitter that doesn't often happen. and also it was great to see a sport try to reach a different audience through different means. And I couldn't help but think that if it was hockey trained to do it, then it would be a bunch of people bitching about, like, dumbing down the commentary and stuff. 100% they would have. Yeah, we'll see. But yeah, slime cannons, for sure, next time.

All right, that's the show. Enjoy the opening of the season. this week and then enjoy hockey every single fucking night in theory, depending on the Tesco until June and July. I love how all the dates they give on the NHI website as far as like when the season will end, they all have asterisks. They're all like subject to change. Yeah, parentheses, we hope.

We hope. All right, cool. Thanks to everybody for listening. I'm Greg Wyshinsky. You can read my stuff on ESPN, mostly ESPN Plus, basically all ESPN Plus. Thanks for all those of you to subscribe and read my stuff. And all the picks and previews and shit are on ESPN.com right now. Sign up for the Pucksu Patreon.

We're going to do a bonus episode later this week. We're about to record a mailbag. I think that might be it. Oh, newsletter, stick to sports. All that stuff's on there. It's a good value for your entertainment dollar. Check it out. I've actually got something big to plug, which is that I've got a new podcast starting this week.

And it's the Athletic Hockey Show. It is going to be a daily podcast during the week with sort of rotating hosts and guests. and I'm going to be on Thursdays with my old buddy Ian Mendez. We're going to be doing a show once a week and then just covering all sorts of stuff. What happened the night before, what's going on in the league, it should be a lot of fun. So if you're sitting there going, gosh,

I wish I could hear even more of this guy, go look for that. You don't need to subscribe to the Athletic to hear that podcast. You can still get it on your other places and check it out. And I hope people enjoy that. And there's going to be other shows during the week. The two-man advantages with Scott and Pierre is still part of that. Ian and Haley are doing a show on Mondays.

It's all going to be out there. And I will still be doing this show as well. Great. Yes. You get twice as much me. It's great. Finally, people have access to your opinions, right? Yeah, exactly.

Looking very much forward to all the comments about how they wish there could be a podcast with you, Ian and me, or you, Ian and Lambert. I don't think there's going to be too many calls for the latter, but we'll see. You have a robust fan base, Ryan. We'll see. All right. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll talk to you next week and bye. See ya.

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