Puck Soup - NHL Over/Unders

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wichenski of ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. I'm Ryan Lambert from the Hockey Canada Teenage Excellence Symposium. Museum 2021. And you're in Mass Mutual NHL East Puck Soup, powered by Bridgestone.

Do you care that the division names have been sold? No, I mean, look, I think the big thing to say is you will not see them referred to except maybe twice on, like, broadcasts and usually only the NBC broadcast. Like, I don't think I'm going to be watching a Maple Leafs game and they're going to go, oh, you know, let's check the Scotia Bank. Well, I don't know if it's a Scotia Bank. But, you know, let's check the Scotia Bank North Division standings. I don't think that's going to happen, you know. Yeah, it's just Scotia. Yeah.

Which leaves open the possibility that Nova Scotia, I think, is sponsoring the entire division. Maybe like the Department of Tourism. Yeah, they don't know. Speaking of Canada shit, we should mention Sean's off this week. Or so he says, I mean, conveniently couldn't do the show after Canada lost in the World Junior Final, but whatever. Didn't hear about that. Yeah, weird, huh? I don't have a problem with it either because they're made up phony divisions.

And I guess, like, I wouldn't have a problem with it either if they did it for the other divisions, too, because it's not as if you're overwriting Smith, Norris, Adams, Patrick. like if you wanted to call it the fucking prudential metropolitan division like who cares i mean the division names for and i and i find myself i find it weird that i don't feel more passionately about this because as i i am a traditionalist like i don't want it to be the new amsterdam heart trophy at some point like fucking like it will be yeah i know that'll get an and that'll probably piss me off that'll probably piss me up So the way I'm looking at it is everybody's going, I'm mad about this, but I get it. And I think that's a reasonable-ish reaction.

Right. But also, like I said, you're not going to hear about it except on NHL.com where they're going to incessantly refer to them as such, right? Yeah, which is awesome. I love the fact that, you know, Dan Rosen, when he's writing up about the Penguins, has to mention that they are, I contend they're in the mass mutual. Yeah, do you think he's going to have like a macro in Microsoft Word or whatever we're just whenever he types in Central Division, it honestly, like it just put, or East, I guess they're in. It just puts in the Mass Mutual East Division.

It might. Yeah, so he doesn't type it over to over again. So as far as like my anger as a traditionalist, I don't care about the division names. I think I would care if they had a title sponsor for the Stanley Cup or the Stanley Cup final. They will 100% have every round will be sponsored. 100%. You're probably right. The Discover NHL first round of the playoffs, whatever the fuck.

There's different ways to do it. Like, if you name it the Discover Stanley Cup final, like, fuck that. If you name it the Stanley Cup final powered by Discover, I mean, that's. kind of like your Orile Park at Camden Yards monikering and I'm a little bit

better with that. I honestly don't care about helmet ads. I feel like we should have had them already. I know that was a thing that was going on where people were like

pissed off about it or whatever. Well, people were pissed off because they saw how big the Penguins one was. I think everybody was fine with it and then they were like

we just, the Penguins logo or the Penguins helmet is the PPG logo now. They're just, we're just printing it on a piece of computer paper and taping it to

Sidney Crosby's head. Right. And like, the thing I find really amusing about the helmet ads is that here's, here's a moment in which you could reach out and create new business for yourself and, and bring in sponsors and advertisers that might not otherwise advertise with your team, because now you're putting it on players. Now players are your billboard.

So what do these people do? They just go up and hit up their rich uncle, as they always do. Like, it's the same fucking businesses that name their arenas. You know, it's just like, who do we know that has money? Oh, I know. The person already paying us $20 million a season that named the arena. It's fucking crazy. I don't have a problem with the helmet ads.

Jersey ads are a dicey one for me. I mean, I think that the world has changed. I'll say. Well, yeah, right? We'll get that later. I don't think we need to. I think we probably, I'll touch on it. The NBA ads on jerseys, not a big deal.

Probably the same thing in hockey. Actually, you know what? The placement of the ads on the World Junior jerseys, which, as you know, like, I don't give a shit about World Junior until I know that we're safely in the semifinals and have a chance to beat Canada. I didn't realize that we had Chipotle ads on the arms of the jerseys. Yep. And they're not egregious. Like, if you did that in an HL jersey, I think I'd be fine. I do think I'd have a problem maybe if it was on the front, though, a little bit.

You know, as a guy who's been to a good number of AHL games, they've been doing this in the HL for as long as I can remember. And, you know, there are some teams where they do what the Penguins did and they just like slap a big PPG logo on the front of a shirt and it's the colors of PPG and it's on like a black jersey so it looks insane. But then there's teams like the Providence Bruins who have the Dunkin' Donuts logo. on their jersey in white and gold or black and gold for their white jerseys. And it's like, that blends in fine.

Nobody notices or cares, you know, like, and then... So you're saying you could take an iconic logo. Let's say, like, the iconic Yahoo Y that we all know is a brilliant purple. It's purple, yeah. And you could change the color of that for whatever jersey it's on? That's what they're doing sometimes. I mean, I guess I guess. It depends on if the sponsor is being super precious with it, you know?

Wow. But, and I think maybe it's a little different on helmets just because, like, well, the helmet's usually white. So make it whatever color you want. But, yeah, I think that if they do it in the brand, like, again, like you mentioned the NBA jersey. He's like the vista print. I don't know that the vista print logo is green and white, but it is on the Celtics. jerseys, you know, and I don't then look at the, the vista printer previous to that, the GE logo and go, well, this is outrageous, you know, like, it just kind of, it's, it's small and it's, it's there.

And I guess the problem is that the NHL, and this is the other thing I wanted to say about it, like, the NHL is maybe not in the same position as the NBA, where it's like, yeah, you don't get to put your logo in your colors on the jersey. This is our shit. Like we're going to... Right. But like the reason they're naming... You know, it's the Space Balls thing.

Or Jurassic Park where you're branding it. You're branding it, you know? No, I like the Spaceball one. I mean, now it's, you know... Yeah, but like... Penguin's the cereal. Right, but like Ian Malcolm where he's like, and you put it on a lunchbox and you're selling it.

You're selling it. Like, that's what the end... NHL has to do because it is an embarrassingly broke-ass league. Like, that's the big takeaway people should have from this. Like, oh, you thought this was like a real league? Like, MLS didn't even do this shit. Yeah. So what do you think that says about the NHL? They spent so much time figuring out if they could do it that they didn't stop to think if they should. Well, they didn't exactly stand on the shoulders of geniuses, though, Greg. That's... Right. This is just a true.

true. So basically, I don't care if they sell anything. The world sucks, nobody's making any money. So if you can, like, find sponsors that want to sponsor a fucking skate or some shit, like that, who cares? Yeah, puck over the

glass penalty presented by Geico. Who gives a shit? Put it on it. I don't care. You know what? I watch the games on mute. What happened to put in the fucking ads on the ass flaps of the jerseys? Because remember you couldn't tuck in your jersey and everybody, all we were all like, oh, it's they want to put an ad back there like they do in Europe.

Where's that? Like, use that advertising space for the ads. I don't care. Like, make your money. That said, don't sponsor the awards. I don't need that. Are you surprised? Who would want to impugn the glorious history of the Mark Messiae leadership award presented

by Bridgeton? But that already has a sponsor. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. So, like, who cares? The horse is out of the barn. You're not getting this one back. it's happening.

I still think that I still think the only one I would accept is the Barstool Sports Lady Bing. I think I would take that. Sure. Absolutely. Scotia, Honda, Discover Mass Mutual. I'm a little

taking it back by Mass Mutual. Yeah. Like, Discover has done like All-Star games and shit. Scotia obviously is like, you know, they've got their name of... Every arena and hockey is. Yeah, Honda also... In Canada, I mean.

Yeah, Honda also All-Star Game. Yep. And NHL Arena as well. Where do we get Mass Mutual from? Yeah. It's kind of out of nowhere. Yeah, they actually picked... Got an advertise...

Like, they, you know, paid one of those services that gives you an advertising lead. And they were... And it worked. They, you know, they pushed the boat out. Fish jumped right in. So, good for them. Yeah, I...

Like I said, I would have been, I'm a little surprised it wasn't like Geico or Enterprise just because those are the, like, four sponsors the NHL has. That's a really good point on Enterprise. The Enterprise NHL East Division is baller. Well, they're, they're based in St. Louis. That's why they always have St. Louis guys as their. Right.

So, again, I don't know which division St. Louis is in this year. There was so much reporting back and forth, it's impossible to keep track. But I'm surprised that division didn't get the enterprise name. Gaco is another one. But they're going to get, like I said, they're going to get the first round, first, second, third round of the playoffs, whatever it is. Again, I lament the fact that classic NHL US TV sponsor, Waste Management, didn't get it on this. The Waste Management, NHL Central Division just seems like such a perfect.

fucking fit. Given the quality of that division. I wanted to touch on, we mentioned world juniors a couple times. Aren't you fascinated by the fact that we've been doing the same schick since like 2007? Yeah. And it still gets Canadians riled up. You know, you don't like, I mean, I'm not fascinated by it because like, you know, yesterday people were like, in this great country about what's become of it.

It's like, have you been paying attention for the last 250 years? Like, it's not going great. Right. So, like, I get, yeah, I'm not surprised by that at all. Like, I'm surprised that, like, I guess the, the comebacks to it haven't really evolved in, well, I guess they have insofar as it's like, well, you know, your president's the freaking orange buffoon. He's a Cheeto. I think that in our time. trolling Canadian fans during World Juniors, I think they've gotten a bit of humility.

Like, I remember being a lot more vicious back in the day when maybe there was a scotch more Canadian exceptionalism at the core of World Junior fandom. And I feel like now, maybe it's because we've caught up a little bit. Yeah, I also, what I really think it is is like now it's partly what you said, but now Now it's more like paternalistic where it's like, you know what? You got to tip your hat to them. The U.S. played a perfect game today. They couldn't have beaten Canada unless they played a perfect game and they did it.

You know, like, okay. You know what? Now they are good enough to beat us if they play perfectly. Right. That's added to the cauldron of, you know, we didn't have our best players here. Gurbicuck was injured and Lafranier didn't even play. Oh, and you know, all these other fucking excuses. Yep, I remember.

Oh, yeah, you're there. Do you feel bad that you didn't continue the sleeping giant? You know, I went and looked and I haven't done it in like five years, and even the last year it was like, you could tell. I was not putting in a lot of effort. So, no, I don't feel bad. Like, that ran its course. I don't know how many times you could do like, oh, we actually meant to lose to Slovakia. You know what I mean?

Like, how many times can you do that bit? And it turns out, I guess the answer is as many times as there's a world junior. But like, I just, I didn't want to do it anymore. And so I didn't. Do you feel that, do you feel that Pete Blackburn is the Dennis Leary to your Bill Hicks when it comes to? Well, Greg, I didn't want to say anything, but I don't care. fucking, I'm sure, I'm sure we stole it from somebody else. Like, again, it's, it's not exactly hard to go, I want my country to win.

And Canada goes, how dare you? Do you know that we only have the same population as California and we're still as good at? Okay, we know. I'm just saying that they don't even let the, they don't even let the NHL players leave to play in this tournament. Did you hear about this? Have you heard about this? Yeah, I have heard about that. It's a shame.

I think, you know, two things about that game. One, it sucked. It was boring. Yeah, because we were so good. And I think that is a big change for me as an American hockey fan is the idea that not only that the decades of geographic expansion and deepening of the talent pool has given us players that can stand toe to toe with. Canada's best and that can, you know, come at them and take the fight to Canada. You know, that's not always been the case. And sometimes because we don't have the talent.

And other times, maybe we did have the talent, but the psychological approach of USA hockey was always like, we'll fucking steamroll Slovakia. But when it comes to playing Canada, we're going to Ryan Callahan it. That's exactly right. Yes. It was never about beating Canada. it was always about trying to prevent Canada from winning. Yes, that's right. The nadir of that was Sochi when, you know, we beat the fucking shit of everybody in that tournament.

And then when it came to playing Canada, like, Dan Bilesman and his coaching staff were like, what if we win one nothing? Like, fucking, what are you doing? So the idea that the Americans in any men's hockey tournament, and I'm putting the women aside here because we've been on, we've been the superior team in that rivalry for, for. many a while now yeah yeah um the fact that we can be on equal footing with Canada in a men's hockey championship game is still something I'm getting used to and it makes me very excited about the Olympics because I think about the fact that you know we've gone from teams that were absolute donuts to a team that's going to have Austin Matthews and Jack Eichel is like the top two centers like I'm fucking legitimately let's go about getting a shot at

Canada in the Olympics so I'm not often like that uh Yeah, I mean... It's changed. We'll see. The last time USA had a... Had a... Best-on-Best International tournament. They made fucking John Tortorello the coach,

and he tried to make them play, like, two-one games again. And it's like, okay, you know... The question is, how many, like, really, like, elite-level hockey coaches where you look at what he does and you go, this is the way modern hockey is played are American. I don't know the answer to that. I don't, I guess, keep track of which can, which, because then, you know, when they say, oh, well, here's the coach for, or the coaches for hockey Canada. And it's like, the third best coach in the league is the fourth assistant on the Canadian team.

That's weird, you know, like, just every fucking year. So, like, I think America's, and, you know, Brian Burke's having fucking dreams about who should and shouldn't be on the team. and like that's a, like, if that's how they're going to pick the roster and the coaches, U.S. is just going to lose in fucking, is it in Beijing? A couple of years. Is that right? Yes, it's in Beijing. Yeah.

US is just going to get their fucking asses handed to him in Beijing, too. Who gives a shit? I was having a dream and a, uh, a St. Bernard ran up to me. And he licked my face. And I opened up the. the little barrel around his neck, and inside was a slip of paper. And on that slip of paper, he said, Bobby Ryan.

And it's like, yeah, but you left, you left Quinn Hughes off to bring Bobby Ryan. What are you doing? Look, I went with my gut on this one. Fucking David Poyles in charge of the team. They've won three playoff rounds in the 58 years he's been the GM. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good.

Sorry, it appears there's an oversight. Seth Jones is non-defense. Not enough truculence and prognacity. Yeah. It's cool. The other thing I wanted to say about World Juniors is this. I do not fucking understand. Well, okay, I do understand.

Let me rephrase that. I completely understand the bit that, like, Ken Campbell and others do, where they're shitting all over the teams that are bad. in World Juniors. And they're just like, you know, why are you in the fucking tournament? You're ruined the fucking tournament. And like teams like Austria or whatever are getting out shot 100 to 1 or some shit. Yeah.

And here's the truth of it. No one likes to see bad hockey games. That's the truth. But the only way you get better into hockey games is to play teams that are better than you. And this has always been a trope. and the women's tournaments where the U.S. and Canada would just be... Just wax everybody. Yes, absolutely.

But if you talk to the teams that they beat, the common theme would not be, oh, my God, we don't belong here. Let's pack our shit and go play fucking botchy from now on. No, it was never that. It was like, we are going to be better for having seen the way they play. We are going to be better for having to have to defend against... those teams and the way they play. We're going to be better by understanding the levels of talent and the way they play and they execute plays and the whole thing.

Like, it is a learning experience. And before you go on, like, yeah, I've been watching the development of USA hockey for probably like 25 years, you know, like that's probably I've been cognizant of the sports growth writ large in our country. And Canada is our stocking horse. Like, Canada was the bar that was. set for us to reach. And even in those years when things would not go well at like world juniors and world

championships and shit like that, having that team bully you and manhandle you and physically dominate you, ended up making you a better team and a better program. And it's not to say that, like, Austria is ever going to ascend to the level of even being, you know, Finland or the Czech Republic or whatever. But like, the idea that you should not have them involved in this tournament because they're not competitive, well, guess what? There's shitty teams in tournaments. Like, that's just how it is.

It's not a fucking best on best. And at the end of the day, like, their development will be better for having lost. So I just, I hate that fucking trope. It comes up every year, it seems like. And I know part of its Canadian exceptionalism of just being like, you know, we're so good. Why do we have to waste time? I'm playing bad teams. But it's also a stupid.

I think part of it, I think part of that is the whole Canadian thing when Canada loses of they're just little boys. And they've never, they've never had any difficulties before that, you know, that kind of stuff. But I also think that, you know, I agree that you get better by playing better teams. But like, isn't there a middle ground between 15 German kids who are going to top out in the, you know, Swedish second division, for the most part, go out there and just get their fucking asses handed to them 21 to fucking negative 2, as opposed to, you know, like, should there be, like, you know, there are already tiers to how they put teams into the tournament, right?

So shouldn't there just be a tier between, you know, you're playing the U.S., Russia, Finland, Sweden, Canada, and, you know, a grab bag other team, and you're playing the Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, all that kind. You know what I mean? Like, is there a middle ground between you get good by playing teams that you can be vaguely competitive against

versus you just go out there and you just get fed into a meat grinder of a team with 42 first round picks? The middle ground is, that you World Cup it. And you do USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic. Who am I missing? Oh, Switzerland, let's say, right? Or I don't know, maybe you don't.

And then you have the world team. Then you take all of the people from Germany and whatever the fuck. It's a model one team. I don't know. I think that sucks too. Like, let me put it this way. When the NHL did it with Team Europe, everybody was like, this is fucking idiotic. And then look what happened at Team Europe.

They almost won gold against Canada, not really. But they played for gold against Canada. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think part of it is maybe don't draw too many conclusions out of a two-week tournament. But, hey, you know. Well, speaking of that. Yeah. So how good is Trevor Ziegress? Like, is he going to be legit, or is he going to be, like, Sunny Milano?

I think he's a fucking player. I don't, you know, how legit do you want to say legit is? Like, is he like a star? Like a star. I don't know that he's Ryan Getslap. Is he one of the better, really young players I've seen play in college hockey in the last decade? Yeah, I would say he is. That doesn't always translate, but, like, you know,

I think he's a really good fucking player. Is he going to be better than Troy Terry? Yes. Okay. That's my bar for Anaheim forward prospects. Will he be better than Troy Terry? Famous World Junior overperformer guy. I get it.

I get all of that. But, yeah, he will be better than Troy Terry, for sure. I shouldn't say that. He might blow out his knee tomorrow in practice, and then that's the end of that. But, yeah, I mean, the odds are really good. on that one. I appreciate you taking a, if the Jets had drafted Trevor Lawrence

tacked in your player evaluation, wherein I know as a Jets fan that even if they ended up with the first overall pick and drafted Trevor Lawrence, his fucking arm would have fallen off in preseasoned. Yeah, I thought that was just like a

like a, you know, fifth round pick that, that I didn't know who it was. I don't know. No, no, no. This is a football guy. It's a football judge. Happens all the time.

When I'm watching football on Sunday, I'm just like, ah, the jets suck. And then someone tweets at me. I know fucking, what's wrong with Blake Wheeler? I'm like, no, you idiot. The other Jets. The thing that's wrong with Blake Wheeler is he's like 32 at this point, I think, is the main issue. Man, he was a really good player for a while, huh?

Mm-hmm. I thought the problem with Blake Wheeler was that he's such a distraction because he's so woke, you know, brings that into the locker room. Yeah. I needs that there. Um, one other thing about, uh, World Juniors that we should probably talk about is a trash can gate. Yeah, it was. So Ryan Rashog, I mean, let's just, let's just, you know, trace it to the source,

tweets out that the American World Junior team had wheeled out a blue trash can with a team Canada logo and was incorporating the trash can with the team Canada logo into their championship photographs, which again, were that the case, is fucking phenomenal. Could you imagine wheeling out a trash? Like, if the fucking lightning won the Stanley Cup and they're taking photos together as a team next to a green trash can with a Dallas Stars logo on it? That's fucking incredible. That's awesome.

But it's, I mean, that's what happened. And then there was the whole, like, the explanation for it was insane. Did you see all the, yeah. So the explanation for it was that it was not a trash can. It was, it's a barrel. And much like teams have their little trinkets and traditions in the locker room, you know, oh, we're a little hard hat on. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Here's an axe. We're chopping wood. Or, you know, we're going to put a different cupcake on the cupcake tree until we win the cup. I don't know. That's never happened, but it probably should. This was their thing. They had a barrel for every team that they beat, and it was based on some sort of proverb-type fucking deal where, like, you're traveling through the Sahara, and the only way that you're able to keep your sanity is by seeing the different barrels on the road during your journey filled with water or some such. I don't know. It's when I heard it after Rishog's garbage can gate, I thought they just made it up and I was going to give them kudos because it sounded good, right? Like I thought it sounded stupid.

And then Rishog produced the email. Right. And it was like, no, it was stupid. That's right. Right. It just, it really goes to show you like, anytime you talk to an athlete or a coach or whatever and you go, you read, any good books lately and all those all the books are like you know success win mindset goal attacking your goals through the through the methods of the the navy seal whatever the fuck it is

and it's so true it's so true it's like this is how dumb they are like they're not like oh what's a what's a really good book and they're like uh You know, the house of mirth. Like, they're not. My, my, the most inspiring book I've ever read is the autobiography of Horace Grant. It's incredible. Like, okay. Sure.

It's, it's never, it's never, yeah, I picked up the new Stephen King. It's always, yeah, I'm reading peeling the cheese and eight other life lessons. You know, what the fuck? You're completely right. But that said, if that, honestly. I know that you think it's a shit story, but if it was a trash can and then like the coach had to like talk to Ryan Rashog and Rishog's like, so, tell us about the garbage can. And then the coach is like, ah, it's actually a barrel. Yeah, that's the ticket of barrel.

Because there's a story about driving through the Sahara. Like, I would have given that guy major fucking props for improvving that on the spot. But. Yeah, no, oh, for sure. that exists. What they should have actually said was, yeah, we put your shitty country in the fucking garbage, dude. Like, what, what, we're not supposed to hate Canada. We're, we're USA hockey.

We're supposed to actually be like, we, we honor, you honor us by letting us play you. You know, like, if they had just said, fuck you, that's why. How about that? Yeah. How's that's that? Right. That's the American way. That's, and that's, again, I think.

think that's a vote for having Tortsby, the coach of everything, because that would have been the answer. The funniest thing I saw from Barrelgate or Garbage Can Gate, and I apologize for not remembering who did this Photoshop, but somebody tweeted, the Americans took a picture, a championship picture next to a garbage can with a Canadian logo on it, and it was a Photoshop image of Corey Perry with a team candidate jersey. Yeah, really good. Really good. Yeah. All right. So, very exciting week for your two American friends.

Well, let's not go that far. Well, I mean, hockey was. Oh, dude, look, the fucking afterglow lasted, what, 12 hours before our country fell apart. But it was a good run of 12 hours of gloating and feeling pretty good about life and being super excited. I mean, listen, whenever we beat Canada in any tournament, I piss myself. And when I piss myself, that means I probably need to get me. underwear. And if I need new underwear, you know where I go, Mac Weldon. You know, there's a lot of things that you'd probably like to be behind in 2020.

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What made you in the middle of a pandemic go? You know, I'm going to become a fucking golf guy. I did not decide to become a golfer. Ruby and I golfed on a, we just decided to do it. Like, we golfed on what would be, I guess, considered to be the kids course. Like, it's like, it's like nine holes. The pitching putt? It's kind of a pitch and putt.

Yeah, I guess you'd call it that, right? Like, you don't actually use a driver. you use just like your... Yeah, it's two clubs. It's a wedge and a... No, no, this had more than two clubs. Like, we had like a nine iron and shit. We had in putters and shit.

Like, it was more than that. Okay, you've named two clubs. Right, but it... There's a wedge too. I don't know if I use it. But I have never played... I'd never played golf before. I've played miniature golf.

I've gone to driving ranges. I've gone to top golf a couple times and you really want to go back. It's a ton of fun if you've never done it before. If you're going to top golf, they had that by you? I don't know that they have it by you. I really don't know, but I have golfed before. Fun as shit, top golf. It's like.

Yeah, it's golden tea, but you're swinging in the club. I get it. It's golden tea, but it's also bowling. It's we sports. They're eating a plate of nachos while you golf, which is my kind of golf. So I've never actually played any kind of course before. And I know this isn't like real golf. But I wanted to kind of like get into the mindset of like what would make somebody spend this much of their life doing this thing?

Yeah. You know, like my free time is very valuable to me. And the idea of dedicating an afternoon doing something that would in theory frustrate the shit out of me. I can't quite comprehend. Like, I understand logistically why people golf. Like, guys, Titans of Industry, go close deals in the golf course, like our dear president. You know, you go there to be with your boys, your girls, and you smoke scars and fucking ride in a little fucking car. Like, it's great, whatever.

I get it. So I wanted to learn more about playing the game itself and whether I could actually be good at it. and the answer is that I'm not necessarily good at it. And I would say out of the nine holes, at least four of them resulted in me throwing my club at one point, which I know is not necessarily. Yeah, you're not supposed to do that, I think. Yeah, when I was like maybe 12, 13, 14 years old in that area, my dad tried to really encourage me to get into golf as, like, this is a way we can hang out, you know? And I just found it, like, I was not good at it, certainly.

But I wasn't like terrible. I just fucking hated it. I was like, I mean, there's better sports than this, basically. And so, you know, yeah, I just, I went maybe 10 times over the course of a couple summers and was like, yeah, it's just not for me. And then when I, uh, maybe like 10, 15 years ago at this point, a friend of mine got married and like the bachelor party was that we went to much like you, a pitch and putt thing. And, um, you know, one of the, one of the guys who was like a big golfer was telling us, you know, the allure of golf is that, uh, you know, even if you're bad,

you're going to have one shot a day where you're like, man, if I could just do that like two more times, blah, blah, blah. I could see that. I could see that. Well, so I was like, whatever, dude. Like, he said that at the beginning because, you know, he was like, oh, do you go? No, I don't, you know, whatever. He's like, this is what make. And I was like, whatever, fine.

And then on one of the holes, I just fucking ripped it and the ball dropped within like three inches of the hole. And I was like, yeah, that feels pretty fucking good. Actually, it makes your whole day. As we went on through the course, I got better. I figured out, because, you know, my experience was to use a driver, which we weren't using, and then to put. My short game's pretty good. Like, obviously, through years and years of putting it into the fucking clown's mouth and through the windmill and shit. Like, that's a transferable skill from miniature golf to real golf.

where I struggle is when I'm not using a driver and I'm just like trying to hit it with like a nine iron and I hit it and it like will go like halfway up the fairway and then I'll have to hit it again not off the T but like from the grass or whatever and then it like doesn't really go anywhere. The rough they call it. Yeah, that doesn't go anywhere. And then I'm just like, all right, now I'm going to get like a fucking eight.

You know, like, now fucked. My problem was that I couldn't get a ball to land on the fairway with a gun to my head. Like, it was just never going to happen for me. And so, yeah, like, let me put it this way. I have an uncle who, him and his boys, they go golfing like four, like they're all members of some golf club. And they go golfing like four times a week. They'll be like, oh, I got in 18 holes yesterday and today. I'm hoping I can get 36 in by the end of the wood, like that shit.

And it's like, I get it from the thing you said earlier. Like, it's a, it's, it's for the fellas, you know? It's for the fellas, yeah. Like, or what, you know, like, I'm sure a lot of them are like, oh, my wife, you know, like that shit. And, you know, I, if you want to get out of the house, this is a good way to do it, I guess. But, I mean, it's also, yeah, like I say. I'd rather find something I actually enjoy doing with the homies than like, I don't know, walk around up a hill or whatever. And the other thing, too, is it's just like the thing that has prevented me from ever playing, besides maybe it not being a game I'm necessarily looking to spend hours playing, is that I know that I just my lack of experience means I'm not going to be good.

So to like join someone's like I've been invited to go golfing with with people before and like a foursome or whatever and I'm just like I suck like these are people that play and I don't play and why would I want to torture myself where I spend an interview being ridiculed. Yeah and everybody's mad at you because like you're on your 19th shot. Right. Yeah. No, of course. Exactly. Like what? That's torture.

Yeah. It's fucking terrible. All right. Speaking of torture. So Pierre-Luc Dubois wants to leave Columbus. Yeah. That's the thing that happened. Yeah, that's exciting.

That's part of that for me was how quick everybody had to be like, and it's not because he hates John Tortorella. Let me just reiterate, it's not because his coach is famously like a huge pain in the ass for people to deal with. That's not why. Oh, okay. Very convincing. Thank you. Right. The other thing I thought found was funny was that, you know, I think it was Pierre LeBron had it first that Dubois was,

asking out. And then the immediate reaction from Columbus fans was, you know, bullshit. You know, guys, I was trying to stir up shit about Columbus. And then, of course, you know, when they do their media availability, it's all basically like, yeah, it kind of wants out. Yeah, everybody, everybody on the team was like, I mean, we'll see. They wouldn't say yes, but they were like, it's definitely not no. Right, right. Here's my theory on it.

I think this guy, I think he, he got so much attention during the bubble. Yes. It was like the great awakening of everybody realizing that Pierluq DuBois, A, existed and B was real good, that he's thinking to himself, I got to get the fuck out of here. Yeah, before they realize this is another Billy Lano situation. Most of the time. Well, I think it's also, no, he's real, he's real good. And I was surprised, genuinely surprised to see him develop into a,

a top line center, which I think he can be in this league. And like... That's the only 22? Yeah, he's so young. And those are in such high demand that he's probably thinking of himself, like, I can go someplace and be a real difference maker. And by some place, of course, I probably meet Montreal at the end of the day, because let's be honest, his name is Pierre-Dupois. But, yeah, I mean, I'm sure that's what's going through his mind, is that just like, I'm, you know, Bergen-Vos gonna try to convince him to be a wing.

Yeah. Right. But I do, my heart goes out to Columbus. Like, how many times does this have to happen? I mean, well, I was thinking about that. How many times has it happened? Like, we all knew the Nash thing. This would be four.

Okay, so Nash and then the two Russian guys? Is that what we're going to say? That's what I would say, yeah. I mean, okay. How long have they been a team, though? Yeah, for like 20 years now. Right. So it's not like that common in occurrence.

The problem is. is that, well, let's see here. Who is the common denominator for three of those as a coach? I'm trying to remember. Who was it? And like, you know, the Rick Nash thing was like, oh, well, you know, this guy's really good. And we're a terrible team. And we all knew he was getting traded for, what, a year and a half, two years before it

happened. And everybody knew he was going to go to the Rangers. And they did the thing Kecklein did with Pabrovsky and Panas. Aaron, where they were like, we're going to keep them, we're going to barely eke into the playoffs, we're going to score two goals and then we're going to trade. I don't remember the timeline, but you know what I mean. Yeah. Where it was like, no, you just held on to him too long and didn't get very much back.

Like you got Brandon Dubinsky. And I was shocked when I was looking at cat friendly yesterday to learn that Brandon Dubinsky's still on the payroll. So, of course he is. Yeah. No, yeah, I think it's Stephen Stamcoast's injury syndrome. which is a thing I've come to learn exists in doing some of my previews this week, wherein everybody sees Stephen Stamcoe as this, like, injury-plagued player.

And I think it's because his injuries have been spectacular. Horrific, yes, that's exactly right. And also they've come at, like, the most important times of the season sometimes where he's missed a glut of playoff games. But, like, he's all, I think it's only like 12, like, maybe like 12 games he's missed in the last three years. years in the regular season or some such. Yeah.

It's not as if, like, he's only playing, like, 55 games a year. But because the injuries have been so horrific and because they've happened at times where it's, like, you know, he's missed all but one game of the playoffs, it just seems worse than it is. I'm looking at his hockey reference. And they basically happen almost every other year. There's the 13, 14, he broke his leg, like, gruesome. Okay. 16, 17, he only played 17 games.

I feel like that's the blood clot thing. right? Blood clot collarbone. Yeah. Okay, right. It was back to back. Right, right, right. And then...

No, no, no. It was the blood clot that he had to get this collarbone removed because of the blood clot or some shit. Remember that? You had to get a bone removed or... Maybe. I don't remember. Remember he had a rib removed because he was... No.

And then, yeah, obviously last year. Right. And so it's like... It's like, yeah, it's only happened three times, but it's three times in the last one, two, three, four, five, six, seven years, first of all. And second, and second, second, and second, and second, and second, and second, of all, it's like, he not only missed time, he missed like 50 games. Right. You know, like he missed months at a time when it happened.

So it's only happened three times, but also. And like, you know, I remember early in Patrice Bergeron's career where he just kept getting concussions and he would miss like a huge chunk of time. And then that just stopped happening. And, you know, like the last few years, he's started to get more. managed, I think you would say. You know. Oh, by the way, it's Bruins' Captain Petrie's book. That's right.

That just happened during the show. I was really pulling for Anders Bjork, but like, I get it. But like... My point is that the Stamcoast injuries are so spectacular. Yes, no. But it's the same thing with Bergeron, where he got his head taken off a couple of times, and you were like, fuck, this kid was so good. You know, he's like 24.

He's dealing with all these concussions. and then it's just like, no, I'll be fine for the next decade. So, like, it's a problem right up until it isn't. Right. But to bring it back to Columbus, my point was that just like Stamcoast is seen as injury prone because his injuries are so spectacular, Columbus is seen as a place where everybody's trying to leave because, like, four of the top ten players in franchise history just won it out.

You know, and it's like, it makes it feel more special. Like, if this has been like David Savard and Lyle Oldaline over the years, like we'd probably be seeing it a little bit differently than if it's, It's Rick Nash, Artemi Panera, and Sergey Braboski, and Pierre Lutebois. Yeah. So there's that. So the Patrick Lainé drama continues, too, into the season. Yeah, there was, I think, a Dave Pignota of the fourth period, no less than authority, said the Carolina hurricanes are still trying to trade for Patrick Liney.

But the Jets understandably want, like, more than Carolina's willing to give up. Yeah. So I thought that maybe this would be settled. a settled matter when they bought in Paul Stasney, and they were just going to be like, okay, here's some dude you can play with for the season and let's revisit it. But maybe they still trade him. Yeah, it's... I think they really just...

Oh, sorry, go ahead. It's so weird to me, because remember everybody talked about like, oh, he wasn't even that good last year, blah, blah, blah. He had 28 goals in 63 points and 68 games. I know. You know? Down year, right? Like, the idea that, yeah, he's had two down seasons and we're...

which he's scored, I'm looking at it now, 58 goals and 150 games. And he's 21 years old. He's 22 now. And like who's centering him last year? Like Matthew Perot? Yeah. I mean, look, it's nuts. He, he, I think, is a guy who has definitely some holes in his game.

Like, he, if you want to say he's kind of a latter days, Alex Ovechkin, where it's like, he is horrible defensively, but also he fills the net. The problem is that he doesn't get those extra 20 goals Ovechkin did, so everybody's mad at him all the time. That's the point. And that's why the proxy I've always made for him is Teresenko. Yes. Like, like, Ovechkin could be an absolute horror show defensively because he scores 60 goals, right? Right.

But when you're Tarasenko or lining and your margins are more like from the 26 to 40 range, you can't be a defensive black hole. And Teresanko worked his ass off. and, you know, full marks are the coaches that he had that didn't want to just settle for him to be a one-dimensional player. And that's kind of where Linae is right now. Well, the other thing about that, though, is, like, the blues are, were really set up to, like, support defensively deficient forwards, right? They've, they had Petrangela, they had Perrako, and before that even they had Chattonkirk, who was a, you know, a very underrated defenseman at the time. and seen as like an only offense guy where he was really good the full 200 feet

but he only ever had the puck in the attacking zone so people were mad at that whereas the best defenseman on the Jets last year was like Neil Pionk you know like someone pointed out that NHL.com said that the Winnipeg Jets are an above average

defensive team which I thought was just like yeah I mean they think I think Drew Doughty is like the eighth best defenseman in the league this year. So, hey, listen, what if we have them in our rank? Like, fucking 30th? Yeah, that's ridiculous also. I know. Our rank, the NHL rank on ESPN came out this week, and it's a panel of 11 people.

And I was telling Lambert before the show. Some of those 11 people, I think, are what we would be referred to as legacy fans, you know, fans that definitely understand the sport and love hockey, but maybe tend to overrate the names they know over the ones they do. don't, which is how you end up with, like, Andre Stretch the Cough at, like, 89. Right. Would any of those guys, of those people on that panel, would they have been the kind of person who, I don't know, bench Stephen Stamcoast for like a huge chunk of his work a year?

Let me, uh, let me mull it over. Um, so the, uh, the rank is whatever. I mean, I, I, I had, Emily and I had our own sort of, uh, snubs that we published this week. I don't know how. The thing is, you're not allowed to say, you know, like, you're not allowed to say Drew Doughty isn't a good defenseman anymore because then, like, Drew Doughty gets mad and all the Kings fan gets mad, right?

Or, like, I saw people saying, like, whatever number you had, Sean Couturee, how dare you? And it's like, I mean. And he was, he was in the top 50. Yeah. I think for me, it's like, the point, the point of the thing was that you're supposed to put the the top 100 players for this season. Like, who do you think is going to be good this season? Right.

And, you know, what I'm saying is he, like, Sean Couturey wasn't even, like, the most productive forward on his own team last year. And that, and that wasn't a team that I looked at and was like, boy, that team is unbelievable. They were good last year. But, you know, are they, they're not guaranteed to win that division by any stretch of the imagination, man. No, no, they're not.

And so it's a combination of being slavishly dedicated. to players that were good a few years ago, and then, you know, maybe not understanding the bit. Because if, like, you're doing the list of the top 100 players this season, as far as production, like, and Jake Gensel is 89 when he's going to have, like, a full, healthy season playing with Cindy Crosby? Like, what the fuck are we doing? I mean, how old is Sidney Crosby at this point, though?

Like, in much the same way of, like, is he going to be the eighth best player in the league next year? No, I don't think so that's where you guys had them And it's like Aces I think probably Lower than a lot of people would have him But I also think like is he even gonna be like the 20th most valuable player in the league next year I am I am not I am not prepared

For the like Sydney Crosby Twilight Years Well fucking get prepared for it they're here dude Elder statesman thing no I understand it's gonna happen I'm just not ready for it. I want him to be the first major, major, major, major player who came into the league after I started watching it. I remember watching that draft, and I probably watched like a couple, like, the years before it. But, yeah, like, the idea that Sidney Crosby is like an old washed up guy now is maybe a little premature.

But, like, that day is maybe a little. 11 months away and it's like, Oh, shut up. No, no, it can't be. But it's true. Like, and it's the same thing with like, oh, you know, boy, Chicago, losing Kirby Doc is bad, but then losing Jonathan Taves. And it's like, but that's only true because like their next best center is David Camp or whatever.

You know what I mean? Like, does Sidney Crosby retire a penguin? Um, that's a really good question. I, I wonder. Um. Hmm. If you'd ask me three years ago, I'd say absolutely. Maybe I'd look at the way that this trajectory of the franchise has gone and wonder, maybe does he take his talent?

Does he want to go play with McKinnon for a year? You know, does he want to go play in Montreal for a year? Because he was a Habs fan as a kid. Like, he could do whatever he wants, or he could retire a penguin. I don't know. You know, I think that'll, for whatever reason, this is based on absolutely nothing. I feel like being a one franchise guy. would matter to him.

Like Mario was. Yeah. Right. No, I agree. Like, you don't want to end up being, um, well, I guess in Bessie's case, he was like a two franchise guy. Then he went off and, like, faded him to obscurity with the, with Vancouver. Yeah.

I don't know what would be the example of like, you've, you've made your bones with one team and you go someplace else and then just, you know, it was a bad, it was a bad choice. Bobby Orr, I guess. Yeah. Right. Like, not on the, yeah, I guess Bob Yor would be the one because, like, Mike Madano was like at the end of his career. Yeah, Mike Madano was like 42 or something. Oh, here's a good, here's a good example.

It's Dano Chara. Again, like, that's actually, he's a three teams, though, yeah. Four teams, four teams. Islanders, senators. No, right. I'm saying three teams before. Oh, right, right, right. Going to Washington.

Yeah, that, I mean, that's the classic thing about Chara is like, he, he's. played like 500 games in the NHL before he got to the team that he played a thousand games with. It's crazy. Wasn't there a thing? And I just see a thing where, like, he's getting reunited with Peter. Like, was Peter Lavell let the coach of the Islanders when Charo was there? That is very possible, yeah. Like, holy shit.

Yeah. Like late, late 90s, early 2000s, right? Yeah. Yeah. That sounds right. All right. the thing we're going to do today so Sean's back

in theory next week and Sean requested that we do a full sort of like division by division preview with him around obviously he's a man of many opinions

and frankly I want him around to break down the Canadian division I think that would be his purpose in life So Ryan and I are going to do a Puck Soup tradition on this episode. Consider it part one of our season preview, which is to talk about the over-unders. You'll remember in Puck Soup lore, Dave Loseau and I did an entire episode as Mike and the Mad Dog doing over-unders, and the episode, I think, lasted roughly seven hours.

This one won't. in theory. I'm going to be Mike, but only from his two scenes in uncut gems. Uncut gems. Albi, Chris Rousseau complaining about baseball.

You can't be telling me that San Francisco giants are favorite of the L? Come on. At Lee Hammaker. Dave Drevecki. What are you going to tell me? Will Clark is going to win the NLMBP? All right, it's NHL overrunners.

So keep in mind it's a 56 game season. I actually did some math. I literally did the same thing because I was like, you know what, these numbers mean nothing to me. Like just saying like Toronto is overrun, whatever it is. I think it's 73 and a half. So 56 games. 56 games means 112 points at stake. Yeah.

And so to use some back of the napkin math, the Vancouver Canucks set of points percentage of 565 last season. They were like last team in wild card thing in the West. So that would translate to 63 points this season. Yeah, that's basically the cut line, probably. Yeah, and so for the most part, you're seeing a lot of the kind of where a lot of these teams ended up last season is from a points percentage perspective where we're going to go with Boveda as the folks that are giving.

I'm sorry, bet online is who we're doing as far as the over-unders go. You're going to see sort of like what they were last year is kind of where they are predicted to be this year by the sports books in some cases. But that's your baseline. Like Vancouver would have had 63 points in a 56th game season last season. So let's start with, we'll go from shitty to good and just simply over-under on these point totals. The Detroit Red Wings are predicted to have a points percentage, I'm sorry, a point total of 41.5. That's like, I'll, I'll, I just crunch the numbers and have it in a spreadsheet right in front of me here. So I will say what kind of a pace that is.

In an 82 game season, that's a little under 61 points. Okay. I will take the over on that. The central is garbage, and there's a chance that there's a chance Chicago could maybe even be worse than Detroit, based on goaltending. Yeah, I get that. Grice and Burndy might not necessarily be steaming hot garbage, so I would take the over on that. I'm going to take the under because you are asking them to put up an improvement of 22 points from last year. year based on, you know, based on the pace.

So, yeah, I mean, they had 39 points last year. I don't see him getting to 61 in fewer games. Even with that having been said, they improved from last year unequivocally. So. I mean, yeah, they added Bobby Ryan, sir. No, they added a bunch of guys who it's like, oh, they're going to flip him at the deadline and he's going to play well because that guy is playing for a contract. But there's just so little there that I can't, I can't get on board with more than that.

The Ottawa Senators at 46.5 points. That is a pace for a shade over 68. And that's probably right around where they would have been last year. I got to take the over. Yeah, I'll take the over too. I mean, the more you look at the, we the North division, you'll see that the middle teams between Ottawa and Toronto are all flawed and somewhat unpredictable. And the idea that Ottawa is going to be last place, but not by a country mile, I think is a reasonable assumption. That's about right.

You know, I think they definitely, they too, added players who are good. Like, I think if Gennie Dad and I was going to be a really good addition to that top line in theory. Oh, yeah. But the question is, do we think? How happy is Brady Kachukrik? Yeah. But the question is, do we think Matt Murray is cooked? The senators don't.

The senators gave him like a six-year deal or whatever the number was. but like if he isn't uh if he is not good uh their backup is a guy who was like 901 in his first like real NHL season so it's kind of a problem yeah um with all due respect to whoever that ottawa tsn guy who said uh this is the best tandem uh in the canadian division after uh carry price and jake allen uh he said that yeah it was one it was one of the tsn guy he He has me blocked. I can't remember who his name is. But, yeah, he said, excuse me, the senators might be number two behind Allen and Price.

Did Calgary get contracted? Yeah, I mean, honestly, you know, there's also the team that has the reigning Vesna winner on it is in Canada. you know, Freddie Anderson might be cooked, but also that was like a way out of the norm season for him. Like, Freddie Anderson and Jack Campbell are demonstrably better than what Ottawa has. That's fucking crazy. But hear me out. What if they're not? Well, it's impossible to say.

Okay, if they're not, then I'd probably still take Braden Holpey and Thatcher Demp. Yeah, well, so Greg, now you're getting to the crux of my argument on this is the only team I I think they have a chance to be better than, like, unless something goes insanely right or wrong in either direction, is the Edmonton Oilers who are rolling Miko Koskin and Mike Smith again, because fuck it, why not? Why not? The Devils at 52 and a half points. Oh, let's do these three teams in a row. Blackhawks are at 52 and a half, kings at 52 and a half, devils at 52 and a half. That's a pace for a shade under 77 points in an 82 game season.

and Blackhawks slam the under. Yeah, oh, bet it hard. Kings, I think I take the under, too. Yeah, the top of that division is so fucking good. I think they're a good-ish team, though. They're just not quite there yet. Like, it's tough to say that, like, I think this is a really good number for them to have the overall. under set at, you know?

Yeah. I think I'll go just barely the under. I think that's where I'm going to land on. Yeah, I think, yeah, this could be one where there only a point off or something like that. But I just think that, you know, not only are the top three teams in that division great, but they're not as good as Minnesota and they're not as good as San Jose either. Right.

So, like, you know, are they better than Anaheim? Maybe. Probably not, but maybe. Maybe. Yeah. So, spoiler, I think I'm taking the under. on Anaheim. The devil's at 52.5 in that division.

I've seen some of the probability charts and analytic prognostications having the devils with a slightly higher percentage of baking the playoffs than, say, Buffalo. Yeah, that's weird to me, honestly. But I think much like the Red Wings, like they just had a mile to go to get to be even like, competitive in my opinion, especially in being placed into that division where I think pretty much everybody at least improved a little bit. Yeah. But the thing you have to think about is, you know, whether you believe McKenzie Blackwood is for real or not, I'm still, I still think the jury's kind of out.

I don't think Cory Crawford's going to be like an 880 goalie, like they're too bad. backups were last year. So that, that I think, might be enough to get them in the neighborhood of their over-under, but I still think I'm going to take the under because I don't super trust that offense. I'll take the over. You? With the devil come on. Yeah.

I mean, it's not like I had them as a fucking wild card team last year. Yeah. But that was counterbalanced by having Vancouver as a wild-card team. I think it did pretty good on that one. Sabres, 54.5. 54.5 for the Sabers is, I can't find them on my sheet, all of a sudden, it's a shade under 80. It's 79.8. I'm going to do it. I'm going to say, give me the over. I'm going to say give me the over, too, just because of my theory that in a 56 game sprint,

that means there's a chance that over a third of the season is good Sabers. There's that. There's, you know, I think the goaltending will be interesting, but like, Allmark was a 915 goalie last year. You know, I think he's probably okay. And adding Taylor Hall and Eric Stahl, like, their big problem was they had one guy that could put the puck in the net or get other guys to do it. Now they have three, four? You know, I don't love the defense, obviously, but like, I think they added enough offense to at least be in the conversation on that over. I think this can be an 80-point team, so.

I'll take the over because I don't know what you do if you don't get over 80 points after having bought in Taylor Hall and, you know, you should be better. Eric Stahl, too. So the Anaheim Ducks in 55 and a half. So I'm going to take the under, but I will say that if John Gibson reverts to form, there's still the opportunity to have a goalie drag them above 55.5. Yeah, that's the tough thing with any team that has elite coaltending. We'll talk about Winnipeg in a minute. It's the same thing where it's like, yep, that guy.

That guy is indeed good enough to drag this team over the line. And especially given, well, they're going to play the Arizona coyotes, the Kings and the Sharks, a lot. That'll be a nice way for them to pick up some points. With that having been said, I think I'm going to go the under, again, by a smidge. but just because like I they're a lot like the devil's where it's like I don't know who's going to score for them I really don't yeah yeah the sharks are at 56 and a half

I'm fucking slamming the over I think I think they're the I think they're the fourth best team of that division they aren't they no no way they are the best of the bottom half of that division by I think a pretty comfortable margin, though I'll take the over as well. But who's the fourth best team of that division? Minnesota. You think Minnesota is that much better than San Jose? A hundred percent, I do.

Yes. I'll take that. Let me put it this way. Me and Sean talked about on the last, like, full show we did about how we think Minnesota is really in a position to, like, take a bit of a step here. Like this is, if now's the time, like, if any time is the time, it's now, I guess. and a bunch of Minnesota fans were like, why would you,

why would you do this to us? Why would you build up expectations? I just, you know, I mean, there's so, listen, I think Minnesota could be quite good. I mean, Cam Talbot and Caprisoff's influence on that roster, and they've got some good defensemen. I just think that the,

the sharks have a large arc of a boomerang for me, wherein I think they could circle back and be a not a really good but a pretty good hockey team this year. If Dubnick gets, you know, better. What makes you think a 34-year-old goalie playing behind that defense is going to get better than the 8-9? But playing behind that defense, what does that mean, though? Like, their team defense last year was atrocious. Part of it the reason it was atrocious is because they were hurt. Sure.

They had a horrible year-degree wise. this way. Minnesota, one of the best defensive teams of the last few years last season, and he was an 890 goalie. But he had a lot of, like, off-ice kind of shit with his, like, wife and stuff. Sure. I understand you're saying. And Martin Jones is bad, too. And it's Martin Jones. That's the thing. If Dubnick doesn't work, and I'm really not willing to bet on a big bounce back season for a 34-year-old, that I was never like, oh, this is one of the best goalies. Is it like, you know, if you had said, well, Henrik Lunkwist bounce back at 34 or whatever, fair enough. He's one of the best goalies of the era.

Right. Devin Dubnick isn't that. And if the fallback plan is Martin Jones, no thanks. So I'm going to take the under on this. The classic team where I like him at Forward, I think there's a lot of upside there of guys that were hurt or didn't have good seasons that can be good again. Well, they added Ryan Donato. I mean, off you go. Carlson and Burns, I think.

will both have much better seasons this year. Maybe. I don't know. And again, Burns is 35. This just might be it for him. Yeah, there's a chance it could be the downward trend. I think Carlson will be much better, though. I hope I love it with Carlson, but, you know.

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They're the best. The New York Hockey Rangers, 59 and a half points, and also the Arizona Coyotes are at 59.5 points. I take the under on the Coyotes. Yeah. Oh, slam the under on the Coyotes. Like, again, that's, again,

we get into the sort of the tricky, uh, goal tending thing, uh, where they could scrap out. some wins based on how good Kemper and Ranta are, but... Who's putting the puck in the net for them, man? It's probably not going to be Phil Kessel, unfortunately. Rangers, I slammed the over.

I think they're going to be really good. I wonder about the Rangers, honestly, because, you know, they were only as good as they were last year, which is to say not very, because Panarin just went fucking absolutely psychotic for six months. right like right he he just played out of his mind like you know we we we've said it before but like he made ryan strome like a 60 point guy something like that right and we'll probably do that again no i understand you're saying but like if you have to remember that um even though they so they've

they finished two points away from carolina and fourth place in the division okay um and so i i don't I'm sure there's like a game disparity there or whatever. But like, you know, part of the gig with the Rangers was that, you know, they had Panarin for 69 games and they had Zabanaed for 57. So if he plays an extra 12 games with the season that he had, they're probably, you know, they're probably fourth in the division. Yeah, I mean, it's, well, I think the other problem is that like the Bruins got added to their division. This is true You know And I

We'll talk about it later I don't know how high I am on the Bruins this season But like it's just another team In a really good division already That has the flyers and the penguins and the capitals Right And so I didn't say this

It's a the over under For the 82 games Is like it's about 87 points and the Rangers probably would have gotten there last year, but this is another one where it's like, I think I got to take a smidge under, just because I'm not sure Panarin can be that guy and again, like, you know, 95 points in 70 games

or whatever the number was. But also because, like, I don't know, is Chisirkin like the 930, whatever, goalie he was? Like, is he going to be the starter and is he going to be 920 or something? I don't know. That's where I think we diverge. I do think he's that guy and I think Rigorev is good too. So I'll take the over on that.

Yeah, I think it's very possible with Shitsurgan. I'm not super convinced that Panarin can have another offensive season like he did. He factored into like almost two-thirds or a third of their goals. Right? No. 95.

Probably more than that. Yeah, it's like 40% of their goals. I don't know. The Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota while are both at 61.5. That's a 90-point pace. Oof. Absolutely not with the Jets. With the understanding that that division is bad,

I don't know that you can have a better goal-tending season than Hella did last year. My informal, my informal prognostication for that division, don't hold me to this. Is Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver. You think the Oilers are fifth place in that division? That's, I'm a little surprised by that, but I think it's Toronto and then any, three of those four other teams. Absolutely.

Cal, Cal, I mean, like, Winnipeg could. No, no, no. I'm saying Edmonton, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. That's four teams. So you don't think Winnipeg could finish fourth in the division? Mm-mm. Okay. So you're taking the under here.

Yes, I, no, I already said that, I think. But yeah. I'll take the under as well and I'll take the over on Minnesota. Yeah, Minnesota, I think, is easily the fourth best team and might even be the third best team in that division. over St. Louis? Yeah. Okay.

Just want to make sure you're not completely insane. No, Greg. Come on. 63 and a half for the Vancouver Canucks and the Florida Panthers. Are you team Vancouver regression? Yeah, I am. That's a 93 point pace. It's 92.98.

So let's call it 93. And, yeah, I mean, there were two people who got Vancouver where they got last year, which is, you know, they were, what, the fourth best team in the Pacific of division nobody thought was any good last year. And one of them now plays for the Calgary Flames. And the other one is Elias Patterson, who's awesome. He's one of the best players in Canada. If not, I think you can make a pretty cogent argument that he is the best player in Canada.

with that having been said, I, you know, Jacob Markstrom was a 920 goalie last year. Do I think Thatcher Demko and Braden Holpe can do that? No, I do not. I'm team. They realize they have to play better defense in front of their goaltender. Yeah, no. Yeah.

I'll take the over. Oh, oh, like you're saying they really, They realize they have to and then do it. Okay. I'm team slight maturity and understanding that, you know, daddy left. Here's how they get there. In my opinion, how they get there is they play Quinn Hughes 28 minutes a night. I think that's the only way they do it.

Because the rest of that defense, yeah, they added Nate Schmidt and like it's the thing of do you break them up or do you play him together. I can never remember if Nate Schmidt is a left or right defenseman, but They could, well, they could play everybody else on that team, I think, is a left defense. Yeah. And once you get past Schmidt, Edler, Hughes, and we'll throw Myers in there, like, it's, well, like, Myers is bad, and Edler's 34, 35 years old. So, like, they're going to, those guys are going to get minutes just, but like, Oli Ulevi and, and. Is it Jordy Ben?

Is there other defensemen? Yeah, Jordy Ben. No thanks. You know? Like, I think it's not telling tales out of school to say that when Pedersen and Hughes were off last year, they were one of the least watchable teams in the league. Just ugly hockey, not good defensively. Not a Jay Beagle man, huh?

Weirdly, I'm not. But, I mean, you say weirdly because you are a dog lover? Well, I used to own a beagle, as a matter of fact. Right. Yeah. But you know who I think they'll miss a little bit? Who kind of propped things up is Tyler Toffoli.

You know, he... It's such a disappointment that he couldn't stick around because he really makes... I mean, he solidified the top six in a way. Yeah, absolutely. And now... Now, now... Now, I don't even know who rounds. out their top six because it's it's Miller it's Horvatt it's

well it's going to be Miller Pedersen Besser Hoverat um fuck it I'm just going to look it up now you're well that's what I'm saying I can think of four forwards that I'm like that's a top six forward yeah so so so so Miller Pedersen and and uh and uh uh Besser are like one of your your trios and then you got beau uh Tanner Pearson would be in the mix. Okay.

And Brandon Sutter, maybe. Yeah, maybe this isn't a playoff team. Maybe you're right. Maybe you're talking to it. I'm saying. Okay. And then they fire Travis Green when they missed the playoffs. They don't fire somebody.

They don't give them a new contract. All right. You're making sense now. Florida Panthers are the other team at 63. I think they got worse this summer, right? I do too. But with that having been said, I'm not convinced. Like, they were almost a playoff team in a much tougher division last year with horrible goaltending.

Right. And so the question is, do you think Bobrovsky bounces back? And I wouldn't say, like, to what the contract is, but I would say he can be a league average goalie. And so I will say, I would take the over. And I think your point is that. I would take the over as well. Yeah. It's not so much like Willie bounced back to be the guy who earned the contract.

I think the contract question for me is, and I think Marner is the same way in some regards, did they just have to have a season feeling the weight of that contract and now they're going to be all right? Because I think that could be the case in both of those guys' cases. I think Marner got unnecessarily dragged for last season. He didn't have a bad year, Mariner. No, did he have, right, it's the thing of did he have like a $10 million season or 11, he's a shade under 11, right? No, he didn't, but he was like a mile over a point of game. And if his shooting percentage was higher, he wouldn't have only scored whatever, 15, 20 goals.

He would have scored 25 like he did the year before. Right. And so, yeah, I think people were unfair to Mitch Marner, who was really. really, really good. And also, like, you know, if you're going, hey, I'm actually going to defer shooting to Austin Matthews. Like, I don't think that's a bad game plan to show up with. But, yeah, with that having been said, I think I will take the slight over for Florida. Because I think Bobrovsky can be average.

All right, we got five teams at 64 and a half. We'll run through him. Calgary Flames, over. By the way, that's a 94.5 point pace. Yeah, I'll take the over. I like Markstrom. Good Jerome Monaghan, bounce back, better goaltending. I'll take the over.

Columbus Blue Jackets. Could they be over a 94 point pace? It's interesting because of the division. It's, it's, it's, it's, because I think, I mean, what was their team save percentage last year? It was really high, if I'm not much mistaken, right? Yeah. Yeah, I just looked it up 915 and like the league average was like 907 or something like that. So do I, do I believe that Junus Corpuselho and Elvis Merslickens are those guys?

And there's the drama of, um, Dubois. Du Bois. And throw a little, throw a little max domi into the mix. I like Domi, though. So, like, I mean, one of the problems for them last year was their, if I'm remembering, right, was their power play was really bad. And Domi actually is a good power play player. What you think of them, five on five is a different story.

But this is another really close one. I'm going to go slightly under, but I think it's maybe still enough to be in the playoffs for this division. I'll go slightly under as well. Nashville Predators also there. Essentially it comes down to, do you think the Predators are better than the Blue Jackets? And I think it's a coin flip. I really do.

It's a coin flip, right. Like, you know, does John Hines get that extra point ahead of John Tortorella's team? You know what? When you put it like that, no. Yeah, that's the thing. I think Torts has become a good coach. I do not rate Heinz at all. Maybe they're both under.

Maybe that's the thing. Yeah, but Well, I mean, again, it's the same question this year. I mean, they played, I'm looking at it here, 35 games of 895 goaltending from Pecker-Riné. I don't think they let him get that much of a runout next year. And so, Saros, everybody, remember, like two years ago, everybody was like, Soros is a goalie of the future,

and then he had a bad season. Yeah. Or not even a bad season, but just like Renee won the fucking Vezna, didn't he? Yeah. So, you know, I think maybe now you say this is Soros's job to lose and he's been a decent goalie his entire career. Give me a slight over on the predators, I think, based on that. The New York Islanders, or at 64.5. Let me look at this division

Every time I underrate this team They give me a kick in the nuts So I'll say over But There is the Barzol thing That's still kind of lingering And how are they going to figure that out And that kind of thing

They gave away a top pair defenseman For basically nothing Oh yeah, that's true They're going to miss Taves Yeah, they're going to miss him bad, I think Call it Chalky guy Devon Tave I call it chalky.

Don't call it that. Again, this is one where it's right. The other thing about the Islanders to say is before they made it to the Eastern Conference final and the bubble and all that, they had lost like 58 games in a row, I think, was the number. And yeah, they were trending down all. I think I'll go the under here and everybody's going to get mad at me. But again, you know, I'm going to look it up here real fast. They went four eight and four in their last 16 games of the regular season last year.

All right. Not great. And again, that was with Devon Taves, who is good. Yeah. And they gave them away for nothing. The Pittsburgh Penguins at 64 and a half. Over. Over as well.

Yeah, I agree. Bumping up one, we've got the Edmonton Oilers and the Washington Capitals, both at 65 and a half. Give me the under for the oilers. So what point paces that for the Capitals? It's about 96. I'll take the over. I'll take a very slight over.

I'll take a very slight over and give me the under on the Oilers. I don't think they're going to have the kind of power play success that they did last year. It would just be so fucking difficult to be like a 30. Yeah. And then the question becomes, do they figure out enough of? on five on five to compensate for right i mean they added so many NHL wingers and that was their big problem

oh you know what though their fucking cleft bombs out for the year i like Tyson barry but i don't like him like being the guy he'll rack up a ton of points on the power play but that's yeah i'm gonna stick with the under on the oilers but yeah i'll take you over on the caps though yeah uh the dallas stars and philadelphia flyers at 66 and a half. Stars are a tough one to figure because of the injury situation.

Yeah, and also they weren't even that good last year. They went to the cup final, but they had 82 points in whatever, 70 games. And Rick Bonas now at the helm? Yeah. Full season. Yeah. Yeah, they won't have that horrible start, right? Didn't they have like a really bad start last season?

Am I remembering that? They did. And they're in a not a good division. I mean, I'll take the under. I think that might be a slight under for me. Yeah, that sounds about right. Boy, their offense was bad last year, huh? Jesus.

Flyers at 66.5. So I'll take, give me a slight, 66.5 is 97.4. Oof. That seems high to me. Second year of Elaine Vino is never as good as the first one. Yeah, I'll take the under on that. You're right.

when you put it that way. Yeah, I mean, I just, Carter Hart, man, he might be, I think he's the reason, if they go over, I think he's the reason why. I don't, I don't love that offense overall. I'm not, I'm trying to remember who they have on defense that's not just like.

Well, Proverov. Well, no, I'm saying besides Proverov and maybe you say Sanheim, like. Well, they lost Niskenin, which is going to hurt him. Yeah, and I'm looking. Okay, I just pulled it up. They got Gostis Bear. They signed Eric Gustafson, who I think is, uh, I think he is unfairly maligned.

Like, you know, he, if nothing else. And I was just saying this yesterday in the newsletter, but like, I don't think there's anything wrong with a defenseman who's just really fucking good on the power play. You know, like if, let's put it this way. If, if you're choosing between Robert Hogg and. Eric Gustafson, I'd rather have the guy who's good on the power play than perceived as good defensively. You know? And so, and then like Phil Myers and Justin Braun are the other guys.

Yeah, give me a slight under on the Flyers being the second best team in that division, I think. The Carolina Hurricanes at 67 and a half, based on our other prognostications for the Discover NHL Central Division, I'd have to say that we're probably taking the over on that one. Yeah, so to be clear, that's a little under a 99.82 game pace. And I will, yeah, I'll take the over on that. Just again, the division. The Leafs are at 68.5. I couldn't hit over on that harder if I fucking tried.

That's only a hundred point pace in that division from that Leafs team. And like, if we know anything about the Leafs, it's that. they're a great regular season team. They are going to dine out on on playing Winnipeg 58 times this season. Oh, like they're just...

And the games are going to all be super competitive and like everyone's going to want to take a chip off the leaves because of the Canada shit and they're going to be into it. Like, they're going to be so motivated. It's a, it's a hundred and three point pace. And they don't have to play the, the, the, the, the, the fucking lightning and the Bruins a bunch. Yeah.

The blues are at 69.5. Nice. I take it. We're both going under on that. Yeah, that is a 102 point pace, not happening. I also like the idea of being, be careful what you wish for because they wanted to be in that division. Yeah, yeah. You know, as Wonder Woman 84 showed us, wishes can sometimes have downside. Wanting things to be better is bad. Oh, yeah.

What is their goaltending tandem this year? I know it's Binnington. Who's their other goal? It's Binnington, Vili Huso. No, thanks. It's a no thanks for me. You know what? I will say, I like the Krug, like, as the replacement for Petrangelo.

Obviously, maybe not as commanding of a presence, but, like, I think Tori Krug's really fucking good. I've talked to a coach the other day, an NHL coach, who believes that Krug is better than Pete Tarantelow. And that Petrangelo is someone who is a shade overrated. I think he is a shade overrated. I also get the, I don't know that I'm there with it, but I 100% get the argument. And you know what? Like, as replacements for Vladimir Tarasenko go, just in terms of what the guy brings to the table,

I think Mike Hoffman's a pretty competent one. Sure. I think the problem with Krug, honestly, is that for people that have followed his career, it's still hard to shake how protected he was. He's a little guy. Yeah. No, I get all of that. No, no, no.

I mean insofar as Zone starts. Like when he first started in his career, like it was like Kilmacar, but then plus five. Like, it was just like he was constantly being shielded from. defensive responsibility. I think it's dogged him. But I think he's a good defenseman, like overall. But the thing is, when a guy's coming into the league especially, why would you just be like, you know what?

Go get, go out there. Yeah, go get your points. Rounded to fucking dust by the best players in the league. The other thing I want to say, though, is, you know who I think could be a really good addition to this defensive group, which, like, I think the bottom of it isn't great. I like Vince Dunn pretty good. Colton Pereco, I think, is really good. But like a young man out of the University of Minnesota Duluth named Scott Perunovich is...

Oh. He's going to be knocking on the door. Like, I think if you're trying to beat out Carl Gunnorson, like Robert Pertuzzo for a job, I think he can do it. And I think he's a really good defenseman. The problem, Greg? He's also just a little guy. Oh. And so what do we think about that?

He's listed. I just pulled it up. He's listed at 5 foot 9. It's a small man's league, sir. Yeah. The Boston Bruins at 70 and a half. You had talked earlier that you were not super high on them. So that I just mean in terms of reaching what this is, which is a little over 103 points as a pace.

You know, I obviously like. a lot of their best players, but I think the bottom of that roster got like, uh, is iffy, let's put it that way, because they're just giving a lot of kids a shot this year. It could be some growing pains, yeah.

They're, that, um, uh, uh, uh, fucking David Pasternak is out for a month. Yeah.

And then like what, and then what is, what is it, is it a transferable skill to have Matt Grizzlic running your power play or Charlie McElroy running your power play when you had one of the best power play quarterbacks in the league running it. Yeah, right. And so, like that that's a huge question mark. I like that they added Craig Smith over the summer.

I think that's a very underrated player. And I think, like, he is the perfect kind of a guy to play with Charlie Coyle. Yep. In theory, I like a full season of Andre Casha because he's not going to shoot like 3% or whatever. Well, I mean, he might not shoot 3% But he might play 3% of your games Well, right Now, the other thing is

Brad Marchand said he played the last couple of seasons at 80% Because of he just had an injury that he needed surgery on And just kept not getting the surgery And so he said, now he feels better than he has in years And like, is that bullshit maybe? But like, even if it's like a little bit bullshit The idea that Brad Marshand, the last two or three years, was 80% of what, or let's say it's 95%. If he has like a little bit of an extra gear, look out, man.

I don't know. He's a hundred point player. Yeah. So, and I, the other thing to say is I really like Macrizzlik a lot. I think, I think he is a guy who can step into that third, that like second pair kind of offensive specialist role. they need to go out and get another defenseman. Everybody's been saying Ben Hutton for a while now is just a guy they should get on a PTO,

and they're right. They just need another guy on the left side because you can't have John Moore as your number two guy on the left side. No, you can't. I'll take the under, though. I agree. Vegas Golden Ninth is 71.5. I'll take the over there.

I mean, again. That's a little under 105. and yeah, the over for me. Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche finally both at 73 and a half. Which again, it's like a number that you feel like the lightning can clear in their sleep even without Kucheroff,

but they played a lot of hockey last year. Yep. So that's one thing you have to keep in mind. The weird scheduling of things. God forbid, you know, Stampco's their point get injured. Now you're in a really bad spot. I will take the over on both of them, though.

I'll take the over on Colorado. I'll take the over on Tampa, too, just because of that division. Even if they have some injury catastrophe, provided it's not Vasilesky, let's caveat that, then I think they're going to be fine. How many games do you play against the other teams in your division per? It's like eight or nine. or eight or nine. Okay.

Yeah. So they're getting to play Chicago and Detroit, like 15, 16, 17 times. Yeah. That's a lot of points right there. Well, I don't know. I mean, Steve Eisenman probably knows all their secrets still. Oh, that's true. Well, it really helped him last year.

I don't know. The same division. All right, those are the over-unders. What do we have left in the show today? I got a quick game just for. fun and it's a game one person can play. Great, you might remember this. This is called Ethan More-O-Less, and I'm going to give you two things. And you just say which number is bigger.

Okay. So, and these are all based on shortened seasons, okay? Oh, okay. So the number of games that will be played across the entire NHL in the regular season this year, or the number of days, Kuzuch, Okada held the NJPW world heavyweight title in the single longest reign in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Okada, so that was... I should say Okada is a multi-time champion. He's like a three or four-time champion.

Right. But we're talking about the single longest reign. Right, his single longest reign. I mean, I'm playing the questioner here, but I'll say Okada. Nope, it's 868 games in the NHL this year, 720 days of Kazuchko-Kata. Gave up the belt to Kenny Omega. Boy, did he? Yeah.

Okay. Kenny Omega. Yep, that's right. Now we're talking about what is bigger. The domestic gross in millions for Crocodile Dundee came out in 1986. This is not adjusted for inflation? No. Or the number of goals on.

Andre Pavellich gave up in the 2013 season when he played 44 of Winnipeg's 48 games. So it's the number of millions versus the number of goals. I'll go Crocodile Dundee. You're right, and it's not particularly close. 174.8 million to Andre Pavellick's leading 119 goals allowed in 44 days. It was like a monster hit, Crocodile Dundee. Yeah, like it's They recently

talked about it on blank check And they said that like Adjusted for Inflation It did what the first Avengers movie did Domestically That was one of those movies That had a joke in it That I didn't understand when I was a kid

About what was and was not a knife No no no It was the part where he takes the guy's cocaine Yeah, yeah And puts it in the water to steam it Because he's like The guy's like the guy's sniffing.

Yeah, and he thinks it's like a netty pot situation. Yeah, right. And so as a kid, I never really understood why that was funny. And then later on, I realized that it was really funny, especially in the context of the 1980s. All right. Because I just watched the color of money for the first time the other night, we're doing the number of feature non-documentary films

directed by Martin Scorsese versus the number of standings points Ottawa had in the 48 game season in 1994-95. So 94-95 Ottawa Can you give me a hint? They didn't have a lot, Greg. Okay, I didn't remember what their lot in life was. I was going to ask you if they were like a playoff team that season. Then it's Scorsese films.

Yeah, yeah, by three, 26 to 23. That's great. Okay, we have the number of major awards won by Yarmir Yager in shortened seasons. This is a guy who played in a lot of them. Or the times I have listened to melancholy in the infinite sadness all the way through. Melancholy. No, it's two nothing for Yarmir Yager on that one.

You never started from dawn to dusk and then went from Twilight to Starlight? You never did it? Didn't think about it. To just make it clear, Yarrow Miryager won the Art Ross in 95 and the Ted Lindsay in 2005. I can't, you're depriving yourself of where boys are. No, I'm not. They're not for me at all. You know, porcelina of the vast oceans.

Okay. We have now the, you know what? I just realized I fucked this up a little bit here. Oh, right. This is comparing two hockey things, which I know. never mean to do in this one. It's always like a pop culture thing, a hockey thing. But I fucked up because I did this at like midnight last night and I was tired.

So the number of goals scored by Jason Spetsa in the AHL during the 0405 lockout or the max number of players allowed to travel with your team this year, including taxi squad players. I'll go max number. Nope. Jason Spetsa had 32 goals in the 0405 season. Boy, that was one of the best seasons of watching hockey ever, was just like Eric Stahl, Cam Ward on the Lowell Lock Monsters, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Boys, on the Providence Bruins, the Philadelphia Phantoms added Jeff Carter and Mike Richards out of Junior for the playoffs. Unbelievable. Go back and look at all the stats from that year, and you're like, wow, there's a lot of really good. future NHL players here.

Anyway, the number of times ever, the NHL has had a shortened season for any reason or the number of canonical Cupa Kids in the Mario Brothers games. I'll go Cooper Kids. No, it's 8 to 7, including the season coming up here.

There was a strike in like the 20, Like one of the teams went on strike during the playoffs. There was, of course, the 1918 flu pandemic. Players strike in 92, I want to say. And then like three lockouts. And then last season got shortened, this season got shortened. And then, of course, the Coupa kids are Iggy, Larry, Lemmy, Ludwig, Morton, Roy, and Wendy.

And then finally, Greg, again, this is about a shortened season. So we're talking the total number of goals scored by teams in the Western Conference in the regular season last year versus the total number of times they said the F word on Deadwood. I'll go Deadwood. Nope, it's 3,137 to 2,980. Wow I was I I did not watch the full run of Deadwood I popped in here and there

I enjoyed it I watched all of it didn't don't really remember it much like I recently finished rewatching the Sopranos and realized how little of it I had absorbed the first

like when I watched it when it was on TV now that you revisited the Sopranos are you with me on team Sopranos better than the wire Sopranos is the best show in the history of television, yes. Okay, good. Thank you.

It's incredible. It's so good. I actually thought Breaking Bad overtook the wire before that, but now I'm back on. The Subranos one for me is tough because, like, I know that there is an inherent bias I have because it's set in New Jersey. Yeah. And I know those. I know those people. Right.

And I know those people. And also, A.J. had a devil's garbage can. But, like, I know that going into the debate. But as much as I liked the wire, I always felt like the Sopranos was. It was a grander, more operatic and dramatic and successful. Yeah, plus the whole last season of The Wires. Not very good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, the Sopranos had some clunkers in there, but not many. Anyway, yeah, now I'm rewatching Deadwood. I'm like three episodes in, and it's really good. It's also really, really good. So I think that's it, unless we're doing an overrated, underrated, but I feel like we won't real long. We went really long. We'll maybe do one on the mailbag. I just want to briefly say about the events of the week that I'm very sad that people lost their lives in the capital riot.

It is one of the lowest moments in my life as an American, aka my life, to see what happened. Sure. Just real briefly. Like, I was watching TV, and it was probably like 2.30 in the morning on the East Coast waiting for the vote to be, you know, tallied. And Ben Collins was on MSNBC. If you don't know, Ben Collins, he's a reporter that covers the conspiratorial side of conservative media. Okay. And I was taken aback because I was talking about.

because I was talking to Ruby about this, how little discussion there was of QAnon throughout the entire day. It was all very, very Trump this, trump that, you know, maga this, maga that. But like, as someone who has a QAnon and his family, unfortunately, at this point, and has seen the cult-like reprogramming of a pretty smart person into, someone unrecognizable, frankly. I'm really kind of taken it back that there isn't more attention being paid to it.

Yeah, I mean, that lady that got killed in the Caval was like a huge Qa-on person and thought, like, storming the Capitol was the storm and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. And so as we try to figure out why there are people that are convinced of a different set of facts and they're living in a different reality than than everybody else, I find it to be really frustrating and that there isn't more of an examination of why that is, and in particular why that is when it comes to this conspiracy theory that has

managed to kind of be, I've never seen this before where there's this sort of conspiracy theory ideology that's managed to rope in all of these different factions, like anti-vaxxers and anti-government people and, you know, people who truly believe that the world is being run by child molesters that are actually space lizards. Like, all these people seem to have found a home under this umbrella. Yeah. And it's fucking scary. And it was refreshing to hear someone speak about it in an intelligent and clear way because I really think it's something. And you mean Ted Cruz when you say that?

No. I just feel like it's something that needs more discussion. and I think that a lot of the media shies away from it because either they don't want to give voice to conspiracy theories or because they don't know how to approach it. And so I think it's what I just want to say. Honestly, honestly,

I think it's because the media convinced itself during the George Bush years that like you're not allowed to say that what the president said is a lie, you know? And so they're always going like, Donald Trump spoke an untruth yet. Like they're just bending over backwards to not say, that they're all like it's all bullshit you know yeah and and i think that's it like and when you

you know so when you when you don't have somebody calling bullshit on it whether it's the media or whether it's people in power and when when you have people in power that are giving um you know oxygen to these fires so they they start burning uh out of control um like there's there's no there's no back in away from it. Like what we saw this week was was a symptom of years and years and years of right wing media indoctrination, um, Facebook and, and, and YouTube being completely, uh, abjectly immoral in their duties to, to, to not have misinformation, disinformation or propaganda readily available to people that don't know how to separate fact from fiction. Um, and it's kind of put us in the place that we're in.

And so I just wanted to say, like, separate from everything else that was fucked up this week, like the fact that, you know, white militants have a red carpet apparently into public government buildings. Like, I want to just say that, like, my heart goes out to people that are also dealing with this in their lives, because I know I'm not alone. And it's tough. It's real tough when you see this happening. and you don't really know how to approach it. You don't really know how to engage with it. And I think that, you know, there's probably a lot of people that are just kind of finding out this week that they have people in their lives like that. Yeah.

Well, what I would say. My heart goes out to you if you're dealing with that because I'm myself struggling on how to broach these subjects with someone that's close to me. Yeah. I guess for me, I'm just waiting for that cue drop that, finally confirms that JFK Jr. will be at the inauguration, and he will perform a citizen's arrest on everybody in the Biden crime family, and we're going to get right back on track. Finally. By the way, while we were recording this, it came out. Cory Crawford took a personal day yesterday, wasn't out on the ice this morning.

Is that a situation where you just sort of give him space, or are you talking to him about stuff? And this is Travis Zajax's answer. you give him space. Obviously, no one knows better than himself what he does. Obviously, we want him to be part of this team, but I think going forward, he's going to make that decision, and I think he can take all the time he needs. We want him here. Looks like Cory Crawford might not play this year, turns out.

Woof. Wow. Let me amend my devil's pick to definitely the under. Yeah, I'll take the under. Well, prayers for prayers up for Troy Crawford. That guy's been through it. Yeah. All right.

Big ass long episode. Obviously, you know, no Sean here to, you know, rudely cut us off and rain us in. And we will talk to you next week for a big old, big old season preview type deal next week. next week as the season gets rolling on January 13th. Hockey, NHL, probably really happy they didn't start this Wednesday, huh? Boy, that would have been interesting. What would have been the performative tweets from players and teams had they started this Wednesday? Who's to say?

But anyways, thanks everybody for listening. Thanks to Mac Weldon and Brooke Lennon for their sponsorship. And we will take our talents to the mailbag. You can read my stuff on ESPN. I mean, more likely on ESPN plus, let's be honest. They kind of put me behind the paywall. The watchability rankings just came out today for the 2020-21 season. And then earlier this week, I had a piece about 56 game records.

I had the Elias Sports Bureau look back at the best 56 game stretches in NHL history. And then also within the last 20 years, because, when I had them look at NHL history, I came to realize that this is going to shock you. Wayne Gretzky has all the records, so it kind of got boring doing that way. So I just decided to be like, hey, let's kind of just look back 20 years and see what we find out. And that ended up being pretty interesting in so far as like the runs of Etchen had and Kutrov had like over 100 points in 56 games and his heart trophy season.

So a couple of interesting bench did Jonathan Chichu show up on there? I feel like Chichichu had the third best 56 game stretch behind Ovechkin twice and then ahead of Burray. Okay. That checks out. What about you, sir? Yeah, just sign up for the Puck Suit Patreon. We have a newsletter. We have mailbags.

We have bonus episodes. We have... Stick to sports. We have the occasional Greg Pop Culture article. Oh, yeah, it's Hocopel's Cup. Very occasional. Yeah, so, I don't know. Good stuff on there.

It's not too expensive. I think worth checking out. So I'm biased. You're going to love it. There's a lot of shit there, and Ryan's stuff is golden. All right, everybody. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.

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