Puck Soup - No News Is Bad News

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. Hey, everybody, Sean McAnneux from The Athletic. And, uh, well, you have to apologize. right off the bat. We're about to say all the same shit we said last week.

Yeah. COVID, the Olympics. It's all bad. It is. And it's, this is a weird week to do a podcast because it's like, it feels like we just went through a week where there was a ton of news. Like every time you went on Twitter, there was some new breaking story. And yet. Nothing later. Like, what do we really have to talk about? Yeah, almost all the games. games got canceled. Yep. Did you watch Vegas Tampa last night? I didn't. You know what? And I probably should have because that's the last game you're going to see for a month?

Last chance for a little while. Pretty good game. Very, very, very, very, those two teams are so good, man. It's a potential Stanley Cup preview. Yeah. It was, it was really fun one. I, I don't think Vegas in a, in a cup final would go with, uh, Laurent Brassois for their goaltender.

Yeah, maybe. But boy, you know who looked good last night was a young man out of Russia named Andre Vasilebski. Oh. Yeah, he's good. He's like, like, what is your list of legitimately good NHO goalies? Like, not guys who are. It's short.

Right. Yeah, like the guy where at the beginning of the year, you're like, that team has good goaltending. We don't need to think. Like, it's him, Hellebuk. Yep. There's a few guys that he's justirkin. He's probably getting there, but.

He's got to be in that conversation. He just hasn't done it yet enough, I would say, but he feels like the next one up. Lainer, yeah. You can't, look, say what you want about the early part of his career. Lainer has been good at every stop he's been on since Long Island. And other than that, it's like a bunch of guys who are either bad or they might be good, they might be, who knows, in a given year. You would have said John Gibson before the last couple of seasons. I feel like with Gibson, didn't we spend the last few years saying like he's maybe not as good as we think?

Like the numbers aren't all that good. And then he's been quite bad the last couple of years. He looks good this year. Carrey Price, we have no idea really even. Yeah. And would you have said that's a guy who's reliably good even before? Yeah, in the regular season, no. Yeah, he's good in the playoffs.

Yeah, it's come up once or twice. Other than that, the only guy I can think of, I guess, is Jonathan Quick, who's actually having a great season for L.A. He's back. He's back, folks. 11 years of their goal-tending. At age 38 or whatever he is, he's got it all figured out. That's it?

Yeah, I don't know. It's, you know, it's the. the toughest prediction to or toughest position to predict, obviously. But yeah, I mean, you know. But the point being, if you're Tampa and you've got like that one guy and they're paying them a lot, you're happy to do that. Yeah, I can't say he hasn't earned it. Yeah.

There are a lot of goalies who have not earned the big paycheck. Lock it away. And, and you know what? In a way, like even though he gets, he gets the real big money, he pays a little bit that back because you can just go super cheap on backup. You just, anybody, you grab them off the streets and like, all right, you're the backup. You're going to play 20 games during the regular season against teams. We already know we can beat.

And you can go home in mid-April because you are not seeing the ice. There is no chance. And the other thing, of course, is that like, if you're an elite goalie, whatever, what does he make? Nine and a half million? Something like that. If you're an elite goalie, even $9.5 million is actually kind of a bargain. Yeah. As long as you're that every year, right?

And he is. Yeah. Yeah. Like he's the one guy who is because there's other guys. I mean, there's not a lot of the other guys who make that money. Price is probably the only other one. And he's been inconsistent. You know, you're happy to pay $10 million for $10 million worth of goaltending in the NHL.

the problem is with 90% of this league, half the time you get $3 million goal tending or league minimum goal tending because it's just the nature of the position. You're just like what's going on. Asoleski, man, every year, it's just super good. I think Tampa might be good. I don't know. That's my hot take. I think contenders.

I think I just looked it up and they're like eight one and one in their last 10. And that's without Kuturov or point. Yep. I actually, I just, I just finished, like, right before we started recording, I just finished writing about a few teams. Vegas looks great. They're like eight and two in the last ten, and they're like 19 and eight since, like, mid-October or something like that. Like, you know, one of the best records in the league, they miss Patch. You're ready for a big chunk of that time.

They missed Alec Martinez for a big chunk of that time. And Mark Stone, obviously, missed a handful of games. They still don't have Jack. Jack Eichael, just looming off in the distance. He's a few weeks away from allegedly being able to play. Yeah. Well, you know, like they were acting like, well, he might be able to play in the Olympics. And, you know, they would have left for the Olympics in three, four weeks.

So that's crazy to think about, yeah, it's really interesting. Like how this extra time off is like buying time for teams that need guys. back healthy. The Penguins are another one. Seven game winning streak, I think. They're going to get Malkin back soon. They're going to get Rust back soon. They're going to get Gensel back soon. They're leading healthy scorer right now. Do you know off the top of your head? Is it Evan Rodriguez still? Yeah. Yeah. That's a little scary.

When he's your guy. Yeah. And you're like, oh, we're comfortably in a playoff spot. Yeah. And in fact, trending up. teams, yeah. Trending way, way up lately. Speaking of goaltending, though, I think everybody kind of says, well, this is all Tristan Jari punching above his weight. Yeah, but I said, I made like an offhand comment about him in my column this week where I said,

you know, he's, he's good except when he isn't. And I had Penguins fans upset about that saying he's, he's been good all year. Like he hasn't been bad at all at any point in any game. Like, a lot of them seem all in, which surprises me because I seem to remember that they worked. He's been unbelievable this year. He has. Like, incredible. For me, personally, as not a, not a Penguins fan.

And that's the thing to say is, like, you know, you got a negative reaction from fans after saying a guy on their team who's playing well might not be as good as he appears. That's crazy. Yeah, wild. I am kind of waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under him a little bit, but with that having been said, they're doing all this, much like Vegas. They miss Sidney Crosby for a good chunk of the season to start off. They didn't give a shit.

It didn't matter, really. They're in great shape, despite a bunch of very important players missing fairly significant time. It's unbelievable. Just real quick on Jerry, just tell me, this, because it feels like we went into this season and everybody was like, oh, yeah, Pittsburgh goaltending is a big problem. Jerry's a bum. Was he actually that bad last year or did we just overreact?

He was terrible in the playoffs, but did we just overreact to a couple of bad games in the playoffs, including like the one bad giveaway that was like highlight real? Did that just make us think that a guy who last year, because I'm looking at his numbers, he was 909 last year? Well, regular season. 39 games minus 8.3 G-Sacks. Okay. That's bad.

That's bad. All right. Minus 8.3 was a 73rd in the league among goalies who faced at least 50 on block shot attempts. Okay. In a league with 31 teams that each should have two. 73rd out of 92 goalies. Yeah. All right.

Okay. Well, that answered that question for me. Yep. By the way, this is going to be the whole show is just as flamed. scaling around topic to topic. So settling. Yeah, sorry, but that's how it's got to be. Yeah, okay, let's talk about COVID, though.

It's bad. It's really bad. I think it's like 11 teams have at least five guys in the protocols as of yesterday. Yeah. That's a third of the league with at least a quarter of their roster in the protocols. The Calgary Flames, do you know what the Flames number of guys in the protocols is as of yesterday? Oh, man.

Are they up to like 15? I'm doing a thing. I'm pointing with my thumb upward. Okay. 18? A little higher than that even. 20? There's only 20 guys.

It's 19. It's 19. There's 23 guys on your active roster at any given time. 19 for the Calgary Flames around the COVID. list. Not great. But yeah, I mean, look, I think we can all agree this is the right thing for the league to do. Just call the Christmas break three, four, five days early.

Get that one last Tampa Vegas game in just because Tampa was already in Vegas. Exactly. They were already there. There was no real benefit. What was it? Was it Washington was in Philly? And they were like, yeah, we're not going to play this game. Yep. You got to be out of your fucking mind. So, like, there was, I was fully expecting, like, 10 minutes before that game started for them to be like, you know what? We're not happening with this one, actually. We can't let it take place.

It, look, like I said, this had to happen, right? And I don't know how, the thing is, I don't know how much good it's going to ultimately do. That's it. That's what we said last week. Like, are you, if you shut down for two weeks, what are you really accomplishing? Especially since for a big chunk of this, all the players scatter across the continent, go home for the holidays. You know, you hope people are going to be smart. But it's not like everyone's getting locked in a bubble for two weeks.

So it's, they're not going to come back. and be like, hey, look at that. Everyone's good. And we move on. So it's still, we talked about it last week. It feels like we're rapidly getting to a point where you got to, you got to pick a lane between an extended shutdown.

Or you go the other way and you say, you know what? Maybe we just do less testing. Or maybe we let players who are asymptomatic just play. At which point, the thing rips. through your league even more and pretty much everyone gets it, but you work on the assumption that the players are,

everybody's vaxed except for one guy. They're young, they're healthy, nobody's going to get really sick, you hope, and you just let it rip and be done with it for a couple months. Honestly, I would be fine with. It's like,

that's what guys want to do, go with God. That's fine. Whatever. But it's the fact that they're going to be like, oh, and there will be 18,000 people in the building watching us cough on each other. And the other thing is also, you know, somebody on, I think it was the Reddit pointed out. It's one thing to say, you know, the players are all young and healthy. There's coaches. A lot of the staff are older, you know, and it's not just when we say staff, we're trainers and medical and people who are around.

And then those people go home to their families. And, you know, at one point, how wide is this spreading before inevitably somebody gets more than a little sick? And maybe it's not a player. But, and it gets very uncomfortable then because you sort of, you know, you might say, well, then shut it down. If even one person gets really sick, it's not worth it. But it's a billion dollar business and they probably do think it's worth it. and, you know, and this is also how we've typically done it every year when it comes to things like, you know, flu and other. I mean, there's, there have always been people who are sick and, you know, people who are out of lineups even, but you just kind of roll with it.

Is this different? Yeah, I think it pretty obviously is different. But is it different enough that a league that desperately needs to play these games is going to decide to shut down? I don't think they do. And again, it's, it's not. not just need to play these games. It's need to play these games in front of 18,000 people because they just played 56 game season last year with almost nobody in the stands, like, on a per game basis. So, like, even as, you know, as the season went along,

obviously, some teams were like, oh, we can do half capacity, we can do three quarters capacity, whatever. Ultimately, that doesn't, those numbers are like inconsequential. And so, like, the idea that now, what was it? Like, is Ontario still saying like half or are they even going crazier than that? Yeah, it's 50%. And with no eating and drinking, which, so there are your concessions as well for the game. So, and like, you know, one imagines Quebec will continue for the near future to do a similar thing of like game by game. basis. We might just say you can't have fans. I think I saw British Columbia is doing something

similar. Feels like we're not that far away from some of the bigger cities in the U.S., like maybe L.A., New York, et cetera, kind of doing a similar thing. I don't know what the answer is. I don't think there's a good one that anybody's going to like. That's it. And the one thing that it feels like you can't do, maybe, at least as a long-term strategy, is what we're doing right now, which is having a schedule, acting like we're going to play these games, and then one-by-one canceling them based on, you know, if a team has six or seven guys who have tested positive and maybe have no symptoms, maybe they feel fine, but they've tested positive so they can't play.

Yeah, I mean, Dr. Steve Eisenman told me that's fine. so what's the big deal. That's right. But this is, it feels like the direction that we're headed for other sports is, they're just going to say, you know what, if you don't have symptoms, we're not going to test you. Yeah. Which is absolutely just a case of covering your eyes and saying we just, we don't want to see. We will not have to cancel games because we won't know how many people are sick and we just roll with it.

I mean, is that, is the NBA doing that formally, or is that still being talked about? I have not seen that they're doing it formally. They might be. I did when I was watching TV last night, I did see a commercial for like, hey, don't forget, Christmas Day NBA games. I'm like, you know, there's a slate of like six or something like that. And that's their big day, right? Get paid because, or get played because Brooklyn and Portland were supposed to play, tonight as we record this like Wednesday night and that just got postponed.

So I think maybe even the NBA is approaching a situation where they're kind of like, you know what, might not be that worth it. But the Christmas Day for them, I mean, that's... Enormous. And yeah. And then the other thing is the NFL is obviously like, what, two, three weeks away from their playoffs starting. And the NFL just had a really bad week, too, moving games.

There are games on Tuesday, which isn't something normal. The NFL has avoided canceling or postponing any games, but obviously there's a lot more flexibility in the schedule when you're playing once a week. But there is definitely, it sounds like that's the direction we're headed. It is either less testing, no testing, if you don't have symptoms, in which case, I mean, we know how hockey players are suddenly. they're not going to report symptoms unless they're extreme. And you just let it rip and hope for the best, which on the one hand sounds crazy.

But if you're if you got to play games, which you do if you're the NHL. Yeah, the alternative is you shut it down completely. And I don't. There's no alternative. That's right. Yeah. So it's a mess. Yeah.

That sucks. And it means, as of 10 a.m., about half an hour ago as we record this, they officially announced they're not going to the Olympics. Now, was there anybody on this particular podcast saying all along that there was no way the NHL was ever going to go to the fucking Olympics? Can't remember. Yeah. I mean, well, so my thing with it is this. Like, I think that they would have let players go. if they couldn't find a 35% compelling reason, right?

I think this is an incredibly compelling reason to not go. I'm not, like, criticizing them on that front. But with that having been said, like, you know, I'm sitting there feeling like I'm looking at a fucking Peanuts cartoon with all these guys going, oh, let's get ready, Olympic rosters. And I'm just like, come on. Yep. You know this isn't going to fucking happen. See, I really felt like, I mean, this outbreak with this variant and everything is, was unexpected. It certainly wasn't something that nobody could have seen coming, the idea that there would, there would be a bad outbreak around this time.

But it wasn't expected. I think it was, how long ago was it? Remember, we had on one of the shows, where was you, me and the other guy? and we were talking about the percentage chance that we would put on there. Like less than a month. I feel like it was, yeah. 100%. And Greg said he still thought it was close to 100%.

I think I just waffled and said 50-50 like a coward and you were lower than that. But like this did shift very quickly. I mean, they were going to go even with quote unquote normal COVID. hanging over everything. But this did change the equation. And it's the right call, of course. I mean, this would have been a potential disaster to go in the middle of all this. But I guess you go, thumbs up to Gary Bettman.

He got exactly what he wanted, which is no Olympics and no concessions to the players for not going to the Olympics. Yeah, because that's the other thing that they were like, yeah, yeah, well, look. You gotta give a little to get a little, but we will let you go to the Olympics. We hate to do it, of course, but, you know, in the interest of getting this extended, I think we're willing to do it. Again, knowing full well, that they would be like, you know what? We're just a little worried one or two of you guys is going to get a hangnail over there in the interest of getting this season completed in a timely fashion.

well, we hate to do it, but... And I'm not implying that Batman did anything wrong or nefarious. No, again, it just fell into his lap. Yeah, in a way, but man, it's... And now we find out what the heck they're going to do with this three-week gap in the schedule, which, you know, if you're looking for evidence that the league was at least sincere, in going, the fact that half the buildings are apparently all booked up, you know, that would have been a little suspicious if we got to this and they're like, yeah, we didn't

work anything. But what do we do? Apparently, some buildings have availability, some don't. Yeah. I think they said on 32 thoughts earlier this week, maybe end of last week, that there's a little bit of talk of like, you know what? you might just end up playing the Nashville Predators three times over the next few weeks because their buildings open and yours might not be.

And it doesn't matter if you were originally supposed to play the Nashville Predators three times or any of that kind of stuff. Like it's going to be an unbalanced schedule and you're just going to have to live with that. We're going to try to get everyone to 82 games. Yep. It's not going to be the 82 that you necessarily thought you were going to play. and there's also crossing the border becomes an issue again.

And so are we starting to hear, what's that? It sounds like it's Santa Claus and sleigh bells. No, it's the words fake season. Yet another one. Here it is. Wow. As I tell you, I am not on board with that until I find out how the Leafs did in the playoffs.

Then I will let you know. But, yeah, lightning fans. going for the three pete of fake championships. If they get three fake championships, I will happily give them two and a third. I'll say, you know what? You earned slightly more than two out of this. All right.

That's fair. I feel like it's worth about 0.7 Stanley Cups. There's got to be some analytics on that. That feels like something we could calculate. Yeah. And the other thing I said this last night, Just another piece of evidence that they are really throwing up every fucking roadblock they can think of to keep Ovechkin from that goal's record, huh? That's it.

This whole thing, you know, this COVID. It's all fake. It's all just, it's Wade Greenwich. Pulling the levers and keeping this to, yeah, I don't know. It's not, the season to me is not going to feel as fake as maybe it did last year. Like if we go back to a Canadian division for a month, we've seen these teams play other. teams at least. We're not going to have to do that whole stupid. Oh, what if they're all secretly terrible and they're only winning because they're beating each other.

Which that turned out to be 100% the case. Well, kind of, yeah. But yeah, no, it's, it's going to be, like the guy who makes the NHL schedule is going to make his money this, the next week or so. Yeah, he's locked in a basement somewhere, just furiously highlighting things in spreadsheets. It's tough. Look, like I said, this is all 100% justified.

Like, not going to the Olympics. There was no option. Yeah. They had no choice but to say that, of course, you can't go. But it doesn't mean it doesn't suck. And I'm very curious to see how

I saw the I-IHF statement was something along the lines of, look, we're going to work with the member, the participating nations or whatever to put together some kind of workable rosters and, you know, if it's, if it's anything like, uh, like Pyong Chang, you know, you're, uh, or is a Pyongyang, I can never remember which is which. You're, you're asking me on pronunciation. That's a good point.

Um, well, one is, one is in North Korea famously. Um, um, But anyway, point is, it'll be interesting to see if they just go the same route of like, yeah, we're going to get some college guys. And then who wants to go there? HL only guys. Yeah. And how far down do you have to go? Because it's not like the 20 best Americans aren't going to go.

So 21 through 40 are all automatic. Now, Bobby Ryan this week said maybe he'd want to play. Like, there's going to be people. this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's not like you're going to have trouble filling a team, but it's, you know, it'll be another tournament that played in the middle of the night that people won't really, you won't pay attention unless your country is winning and then you'll jump in.

To be fair, it'll be played at like seven in the morning. So, like, that's a little different. That's in the middle of the night. Then like the 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. starts, we have. had in Korea. Well, I think there are games at 4 a.m. It's just that the, just not American-Canadian teams are all scheduled.

I'll tell you, the other piece of this, and we don't know yet, I don't think, how this affects the women's side, whether they'll be able to get, whether star players will still want to go. But if they do, the women's game is now the marquee event. Oh, absolutely. Like it's, you know, forget to like not try to be disrespectful to the people who are going to play on the men's side. But if it's best on best U.S. versus Canada women's hockey, that is 10 times more interesting and probably entertaining than anything that's going to happen on the men's side. Absolutely.

I'm looking at this. I'm trying to see if I can find like any kind of a reasonable quote unquote long list, you know, for. and I can't find like a definitive one, but everything I'm seeing kind of indicates that at least for Canada and the U.S., even the long list were just like, here's 50 NHLers, you know? Yeah, that's it. So I wonder how much leeway, the IHF and the IOC is going to give teams to be like completely remaking. Well, I mean, they have to or else U.S. and Canada just don't have teams.

And I don't think that's likely. And, you know, it's pretty extraordinary circumstances. But, yeah, it's going to be a mix of guys you've never heard of, guys that you're like, oh, I remember that guy, is he still actively playing somewhere and, you know, on down the line. And some of it, I'm sure we'll get some good games out of it. We'll get some good stories. But it's, it's, in a way, this will be even. harder than 2000, like at least 2018, we, we knew they weren't going.

We didn't, we didn't spend months in advance, yes. Three months in 2018 building rosters and arguing about like, you know, is Martner going to make the roster or is it going to be, you know, Tom Wilson or whoever? And then suddenly it's like, well, it's actually Mitch Wilson. He's really good in the Thunder Bay Beer League. And he's going to, he's going to the Olympics. He plays for northern eastern Michigan State. university like yeah yeah okay polytechnic institute and yeah yeah so yeah it's and then it'll be like

obviously Russia will have like you know probably a bunch of KHL guys and it's yeah like a bunch of active players who are 100% going to the hockey hall of fame as like you know Russian guys exactly and really I mean would would a bunch of scrappy American amateurs ever have a chance against a Russian powerhouse team. You know what? I can't imagine. Boy, it didn't go great last time out, huh? No.

Did it not? I don't know. I don't remember 2018. I literally don't remember who won or... Russia won. Famously. I know Canada didn't win, but I don't... What do you mean famously?

Well, right. Good point by you. Yeah, you know, it sucks, but this is just we're going to have to deal with it, I guess. Yeah, see, this is, as, as, you know, pundits, podcasters, writers, this is, like, it's, it sucks, and yet we can't even complain about it. Like, we can't even sit there and be like, you know who to, no, there's not, I can't rip on Gary Bedman. I can't rip on the league. They're doing the right things.

Meanwhile, a bunch of people are listening to this podcast are like, you can't rip on Gary Betman? Yeah, I can. I totally could, but not for this specific. That's right. Okay. That makes a lot more sense. Yeah. Here's a ad transition.

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New customers only. Minimum $5 deposit and $1 wager required. One per customer. Restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. I guess the only other bit of news this week. though, is that Calgary Flames are telling the city to get lost with their arena proposal because of cost overruns.

That, you know, these things tend to have cost overruns, so I can't imagine why anybody's acting surprised. I think the only surprise here is that we're into overruns and they haven't even broken ground yet. So if people are watching... Because I'm guessing there's probably people going, didn't the Flames Arena thing get sorted out two years ago? Sure did. And they did. They had an agreement two years ago. And it basically was 50-50.

The city and the team were going to split it 50-50 with all the usual complications and subclosals. And I believe the city was also giving them the land. Yes. As opposed to like selling it for however. Yeah. So it was. the usual case of a pro sports team using leverage to get a pretty sweet deal, although not the full ticket that I'm sure Flames would have liked.

The context around the deal they got was that, remember, the Flames kind of publicly threw their support behind a mayoral candidate who got his fucking ass kicked in the election. And so then they had to go to the bargaining table, you know, with the mayor who, kind of... Yeah, that they had tried to... Tried to screw. And it didn't work. Yeah.

So, like, they didn't get... They still got, frankly, you know, 300-something million dollars out of the city. Like, that's not nothing, you know? Yep. And, you know, a sweeter deal than I think I would have expected, given how things worked out for the people at the Calgary Flames's, like, ownership table or whatever. But yeah, so now they're looking at like cost overruns that, you know, the city is saying

it's like only $9.7 million and you're like, well, Jesus Christ, they're paying like Milan Luji Chow much. Yeah. And the cost overruns are this, are this little. But, you know, the flames are saying it's maybe more like 20 million or 25 million or something like that. So like there's a bit of a disagreement. Either way, it kind of feels like a rounding error to a team owned by a billionaire.

Yeah, when you're talking about. Hundreds of millions of dollars. And there's, yeah, it's a little weird. It's strange that it feels from an outside perspective, strange that this difference has led to the flames, basically saying the project's dead. Now, with the obvious caveat that this could be a bluff. this could be negotiating. They could be two weeks from now, oh, we've figured it out and it's back on.

I think that's actually the most likely scenario is that they've come so far. Trying to shake a couple extra coins out of the piggy bank. Absolutely. I think that's where this is headed. The key thing, though, I suppose, is to say that in there, because the current mayor of Calgary announced that the deal was dead and sort of tweeted out a little thread about the city's perspective of it. The flames then put out a statement where they crunched numbers. It doesn't seem that like adversarial at this point. Yeah, it's not acrimonious. Yes. Good. Yeah. It doesn't

feel like it's fallen apart and now the knives are out. It sort of is more two sides saying here's why we've given as much as we can and we can't go any further. The key. The key. thing is the flames in their statement said that the project's dead and we'll see if that's true, but they are looking, the plan now is to just stay in the saddle dome. They did not talk about exploring other options. There is not at this point any threat that they're going to move. They had kind of played footsie with that two years ago that, well, you know, go out city and who knows. That's where the Houston rumors started with like Houston's interested in an NHL team.

That's why you got to have, that's why Quebec City's never getting an NHL team because they need to be the Canadian hammer that you can hang over any team. You know, Ottawa will be next. It's not getting an arena. And I don't think anyone really bought that last time, but they're not even going there at this point.

Again, who knows? But, you know, the, you know, the saddle. Dome is not a great building. It's an old building, but it's functional. You could play there. So that's what they say they're going to do. But I'm with you. I think sooner rather than the later, we find out that, yeah, we've come back to the table. We figured it out. And the project goes for it because they were supposed to have shovels in the ground already initially. And then there was a delay. And it was supposed to be early in the new year. So whether they, get to that date, probably not now, but I think they'll find something. Yeah, it's interesting. I just think that, like, mostly my feeling is that you can't have two NHL teams at the same time going. Yeah, we don't know where we're going to play in the near future if we can't get a deal worked out.

That's not going to let that happen because then you've got, then the leverage goes to the places that want teams. and this is a leverage plan. And the issue, I think you would say too, is that, you know, like the coyotes are allegedly, you know, the city says they're caught up on their rent now or whatever, and they're agreeing to the deal that, but we still have no idea what the plan is for next season. Like they haven't said anything. It's fucking incredible. They're going to stay in Arizona. but not in Glendale. Right.

So where are you going to play? Like Craig Morgan wrote a piece where he was like, here's the other options. And we should say in Arizona, I get the sense that people still think they're going to work something out with Glendale that this is all. That's certainly what it seems like the organization is thinking. Yeah. But what is the backup plan? And obviously on the outside, a lot of us think the backup plan is you just move the team. somewhere else, but they've insisted that that's not the case.

So the backup plan becomes either the baseball stadium or there's other hockey arenas in the state, but a lot of them seat like five or six thousand people. So would the NHL play? And Craig got Bill Daly on the record, like basically asking him, like, would you actually let an NHL team play in a 5,000-seat arena? And he was like, yeah, maybe, you know, basically made it sound like if there's an arena being built, like a world-class 18,000-seat arena being built somewhere, yeah, we would write it out for a few years playing in a minor league rink. But insane, truly insane to be like, yeah, we'd be comfortable playing in an arena that seats 5,500 people or whatever, like, for multiple seasons.

Because that's the thing. I think it was that same Craig Morgan piece that basically. said like, oh no, like this would be like a three, four, five year situation. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. It takes. It's going to take it because it's it's been built from scratch. And so I don't know.

It's everybody all along has said this is all negotiating. It's just all leveraged. It'll work it out with Glendale. But I feel like when you say we're going to kick you out if you don't pay your rent by next week, that's starting to feel a little bit broken to me. How do you mean? Like in terms of the relationship is broken. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're not patching this up. And that doesn't feel like a regular old negotiating tactic. No, I agree. Like the fact that they're pretty, let's put it this way, the fact that they were like, we'd actually really like some assurances that will continue getting the money you will owe us. Yeah. Like not just like give us the money you currently owe us, but we kind of feel like you're going to skip town. Yeah, we can see that you're.

that you were already packing up and you're going to get out of here and we're trying to yeah, I don't know. So, okay, I pulled up that Craig Morgan column, by the way. Chase Field, where the baseball, the Diamondbacks play. Not feasible for 20, for next season, basically. There's like the Super Bowl is going to be there. So there's just not. They're not going to be able.

Well, what would you rather have the Super Bowl or the NHL? That's right. Tucson Arena, which is notably not really all that close to Phoenix. That is the biggest possible other venue that is currently an active hockey arena, and it seats a little under 6,800 people. Prescott Valley, which is kind of closer, if I'm not mistaken, is 5,100. And the new ASU Arena seats 5K. and yeah, to your point about the Bill Daly quote is,

it, quote, depends on the totality of circumstances, but I wouldn't rule it out. Yeah. I guess we all get our jokes in about the coyotes filling a 5,000 seat arena, but that's not good. Yeah. Not good. They have six months to figure it out, basically,

is what the reality is. And this seems like something that would be tricky to figure out. Everybody is saying they're not going to move, they're not going to move, but, and only one team has moved in 25 years in the NHL, but that team, when Atlanta moved, it was, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, oh, they're moving. Like it was just almost instant, it felt like is my recollection that, uh, yeah, The league just one day was like, yeah, it's not going to work.

They're going to be in Winnipeg next year. And that was it. That's, yeah, it's not a good situation. But I, you know, it's at least the Calgary Flames have that, right? Like, we're not, we're not Arizona's situation. We can figure something out and we can, they're not going to kick us out of our current arena. You would imagine not. is what we're what we're hoping.

But yeah, no, it's, well, I mean, this is, this is the NHL, right? There's always got to be somebody somewhere who's struggling. And, yeah, here we are right now. It's two teams, one of which feels like a lot more of a permanent situation than the other. Yep. All right. So since we don't have anything to talk about and we didn't want this show to be whatever, 45 minutes long.

Yeah. We thought we would kick around some ideas for the NHL award, like, you know, guys who are in the conversation for various NHL awards. So let's start with the big one. Let's go, let's go with the MVP awards. Yep. Obviously, you got McDavid and Drysidal, both of whom have 49 points in 29 games. I think you can make...

I can't believe I'm saying this. I think you can make a more coherent argument for Drysidal than McDavid at this point. Really? How so? What's that... More goals, not as bad defensively. I'm pretty sure he's still a penalty kill guy, which I'm pretty sure McDavid isn't. I guess I could look that up, but I'm not doing that right now.

You know, I just think that Drysidal... has looked a little more dangerous. And granted, part of that is he's shooting like 25% or whatever. But, you know, at the end of the season, they don't ask you, well, how good was your shit? Save percentage, you know? Those are goals he has in the bank already. So even if he slows down, which he probably will, he's got a shitload of goals. So.

Yeah. And it's, I don't know, it's tough. on the one hand it's it's sort of tough to picture the sort of people who vote on the heart trophy putting two guys from the same team at the top of their ballot so it like they're the two favorites right now but it feels they already did it though they kind of did that's the I mean Dracidal did win now the the year that he won a couple years ago McDavid was hurt for a chunk of that but and and McDavid I'm just looking at it he finished fifth in the MVP voting that year.

So certainly, yeah, McDave finished fifth. Dracidal had 91 first place votes. McDavid had won. So there was a clear tip at some point where everybody decided, okay, if you're voting for an oiler, this is who you're voting for.

Now, would we get that if both of these guys finished the year with 140 points? Right. I don't know. That's right. And is there a scenario where they then split the vote enough that somebody else can come in? The problem is, like, I'm looking at the names, and it feels like there's one other legitimate candidate at this point and then a whole lot of guys that are questioned.

Who do you think that legitimate candidate is? That's Ovechkin, I would say. Ovechkin. Because he's got the great story of, yeah, I mean, he's old and he's old. His linemate was missing for a good chunk of season. Exactly. His team's been injured. his team is better than expected,

even though they're pretty much as good as they always are, but all of us in the media thought they were going to fall off, and they're not. So clearly we can't have been wrong. There must be an extraordinary performance. See, because I think there is a very good option. Well, I guess I would also say Austin Matthews is a pretty obvious candidate. The Leafs are fucking unbelievable.

He's a huge reason why. but you know who I I'm I'm contractually obligated to point out that once again everybody on the Colorado Avalanche is missing significant time and fucking Nazim Khadri has 38 points in 24 games that's like he's got the full on MVP story if you really want to lean on the the V like the he's it's not the best player it's it's the value and it's all of this the thing is I just I think he's been unbelievable this He's been great. He's been fantastic. I just don't know that, I don't know, I would be surprised to see, unless, you know, McKinney gets hurt again or whatever else. He would have to do it over the full season. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's a possibility, but I just wonder, do you think like, does Kail McCar start getting some, like, I know we never vote for defensemen for this award?

Yeah. At some point, if he's scoring 30 goals. I got one more for you. Who's a team that everybody was like, ooh, their goaltending is going to be not very good this year? And is very good. And the goaltending is good? Yeah. Who?

Carolina. Freddie Anderson has been ridiculous this season. Yeah. He's like a 930 goalie. Yeah. I mean, I guess if... I can also see Chisirkin for a pretty similar reason. I don't think anybody thought the Rangers were going to be this good.

I think that one's maybe an easier, easier sell, but, yeah. But I think, I look at, you know, like you said about people kind of discounting the capitals, I was like, Carolina could be in trouble if their, if their goalies are... what their reputations suggest, you know? And, yeah, here's Freddie Anderson. He's the best goalie in the league to date, I think. He's been really good. He's your Vesna guy?

Is that? I think you have to give him the Vesna at this point. Yeah. I think the Vesna, I would go probably him, Sikirkin, Basilevsky. Jack Campbell's been very good. Mark Amble's been great. Markstrom's head, all the all the shutouts. He's slowed down a little bit of late, though.

Yeah. And Bobrovsky's kind of gone back to not being good anymore. Oh, Bobrovsky's been outright bad. Yeah. He was great for the first month and a half. Mm-hmm. He was, you know. Turns out they make you play more than that, though.

Oh. Well, bad news for him, but. Well, let's find out, but, you know. Yeah, that's true. Um, all right. So. We mentioned, obviously, earlier, Cal McCar. I think that's like a clear Norris choice, right?

Like, is there anybody else even in the conversation at this point? Morgan Riley? Adam Fox again. Adam Fox. And Hedman just, you know, always sort of has a low floor or sorry, a high floor, I guess, on this. I think that's probably it. Tony DiAngelo's been good, but I don't see. He's been putting up points.

I don't know if. if I would say he's been good otherwise. Putting up points is something, but he's also missed some games and stuff like that. Yeah. The other guy that maybe, if you're looking for somebody who I could see their candidacy getting some steam is Air Neckblatt's been very good.

Yeah. And he sort of feels like one of those guys where he's due. He feels a little underrated. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Just like Drew Dowdy, it's the career achievement award at 27 or whatever it was. But, yeah, I think it's...

Kale McCar, Adam Fox, and then Hedman, or maybe a... Like, Morgan Riley's starting to get a little bit of buzz. He's been playing great. He's been unbelievable this year. And he's a big, huge reason why the maple leaves are where they are in the standings. If he's even, like, as good as he was last year,

I think they're in much rougher shape. Yep. So yeah, I mean, okay, there you go. What are you got for Jack Adams? This is interesting to me. Yeah, so I think Jack Adams, you're always looking at what's the team that's overachieving, preferably with a newish coach. And right now, that's, I think, the flames with Daryl Sutter.

Like, is he the favorite? I think the answer is Dallas Aiken's, and I don't see it. Yeah, I mean, the ducks are certainly the big biggest surprise. And they're like, it's not just like a fluke bullshit thing with them. Like they're playing perfectly well. They're certainly like, like you said, they've surprised a lot of people in that people thought they wouldn't make the playoffs this year. And it, I mean, right now they're in a playoff spot. That's not nothing through 32 games.

And it, I wrote about it earlier this week. it really seems like, and we talked about it on the podcast last week, it's gotten even more to the point where it seems like, yeah, the eight or nine teams that are in the playoff race are not leaving it now. Yeah, yeah. And so like, at a minimum the ducks are going to be in the conversation. Yeah, they're there. And then the other one, I guess, would be if we're going on, the surprise teams is John Hines in Nashville. because Yeah,

well, I mean, somebody's going to tell Sarros to be a 940 goalie or whatever he's been. I mean, that's the thing, right?

I mean, the Jack Adams is, it's the broadcasters, right? Yeah. That's part of it for me is if I'm looking at Dallas Aiken, I'm saying,

okay, I'm a broadcaster, what is Dallas Aiken's done? What's his contribute? What is John Einstein? Whereas with Daryl Sutter, it's nice and simple for me. He's the defense possession guy.

Yeah. Oh, Calgary is hard to score on and they have good possession numbers. I can draw a straight line from that to Daryl Sutter. And plus he's, you know, everybody loves Daryl Sutter. He's a million laughs. So I still have him as my favorite. But you're right. Aiken's is especially, I mean, if Anaheim makes the playoffs and they're

gunning for the top of that division at some point, that's... Well, I think Vegas is going to end up running away with it, honestly. I do too. Like by the end of the season, but like, can I see the ducks hanging around the flames or even the oilers? Yeah, kind of. At this point, if the goaltending holds up a little bit, like I said, it would be tough to see them not hanging around. I got two more for you, though. Okay.

We mentioned it earlier. Their performances is a bit of a surprise. Peter Laviolette in Washington. Mm-hmm. and we kind of danced around this earlier. Look who's still in the fucking playoffs, despite every important player on the team missing a significant amount of time, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

You're trying to tell me Mike Sullivan is being carried by fucking Evan Rodriguez? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mike Sullivan is one of those guys where, I mean, if we're drafting coaches, I feel like he's, in your top five and yet he doesn't I think people go well he's got Crosby or whatever but every we see

this every I mean that's the joke right with the Penguins is the the Mark donk thing yeah that's a lot of that's got to be on him so yeah credit to him the other guy that I guess I would just throw out there is Gerard Gallant just because he's he's the cliched Jack Adams

candidate yeah new coach good reputation starts with a new team that team immediately makes a jump that's sometimes all that the voters really need to see to know that this guy's a good coach. What do you got? Let's put it this way. Two, three weeks ago, everybody's saying, Lucas Raymond has this shit sewn up for the Calder. Well, the two Red Wings, he, you know, Mordtsider.

Yeah, sure. And then... And then here comes a little boy out of Boston University. his name is Trevor Zegris. He does the thing with the puck over the back of the net. He gets scared in that in that video that everybody loved from yesterday. Yeah, it was a good video.

Pretty good, yeah. Went on a little too long, just like any fucking impractical joker's style gimmick. Wrap it up, it's not that funny. Trevor Zegris, this kid fucking rocks. He's fun, we love him. And let's put him. it this way. If he's playing meaningful minutes for a legitimate playoff contender, I think voters

will somewhat justifiably say, well, you know what? I feel like that matters more to me than Lucas Raymond and Moritz Eyer playing unbelievably well for a team that sucks. Yep. And the Red Wig suck. Well, I mean, they've, the record's better than we thought it would be at this point. But yeah, And because of those two guys. Absolutely. With that having been said, they're not going to hang around the playoff picture. And yeah, I mean, they're not. And again, kind of like with the heart, you do get into some concern about vote splitting here,

except historically voters have been fine giving multiple calder votes to the same team. It's not like the heart where it's like, can you really be the MVP if you're not even the MVP? You can be, you can have two or three or more great rookies on a team. So I don't think that's an issue for Detroit. But I, and, you know, I hate to say it because maybe it sounds a little dumb. Like the fact that Zegers has that highlight, that signature moment kind of does, I think, nudge them up a little bit. Yeah, I agree.

You know, when we're sitting a lot of times, you know, sorry to say it. Like, we don't watch every game of every team all the time because there's not enough time to I do. You do. I've never, but you're the only one. And I've never looked at a spreadsheet in my entire life. Exactly. But it's, it's, you sit there and go, okay, what, what, what I remember from this person?

What do I remember saying that? You won't have that with Eagras, right? You'll just be like, yeah, I, I remember that play. That was cool. In what could be a close-ish, you know, whereas Lucas Raymond's been amazing and has great numbers, but, you know, quick, picture Lucas Raymond. And of course, voting on these awards should be much more than that. And for most voters it is. But if it comes down to a tight race, yeah, having that signature moment on your resume

might nudge him just a couple of extra votes that could end up being the difference. Right. And again, like Zegris is coming on a bit strong here. He's got 20 points in his last 17 games. Yeah. So, yeah, there. And then it's. Then there's a few goalies and it just sort of...

I don't think there... See, I was just thinking that. Like, because I... Going into the season, I thought Spencer Knight... Yep. If Bobrovsky was bad, Spencer Knight would be a pretty clear candidate. Obviously, Bobrovsky wasn't bad for a good chunk of the year, but Spencer Knight's sitting on 892 right now.

And the only guys in front of him, you know, that I would say, like, have played a decent number of games. are Jeremy Swayman, who's, I would say, a clear 1B in Boston. And he's been very good, but he's a clear 1B. He's only played 14 games. It should probably be more, but... Agreed. And Alex Nadelcovic, who has also been good. It's his ninth rookie season.

Yeah, it was a call to finalist last year, so that on its own might have some people either confused or just saying, you can't be a rookie of the year finalist two years in a row, which, yeah, that makes I mean, you can. It's in the rules. But the other thing to say about him is, again, Detroit's not going to be this good all year. So if he starts dropping a bunch of games, blah, blah, blah, suddenly you're like, uh-oh. Third Red Wing on a ballot.

Yep. And then the other one we haven't mentioned is a good old Michael Bunting, the 34-year-old rookie in Toronto. Austin Matthews keeps bouncing pucks off his skate. and I think he'll be properly viewed as such, right? Like, he's having a great season. Nobody's taking that away from him. But is he having like a rookie of the year kind of a season? No, come on.

Grow up. All right. What are we forgetting? What are we forgetting? We said the Norris, we said. Do you want to do GM of the year? Who's been the Mark Messier leader of the year, do you think? Oh.

Has Patrice Berseron ever won that? Like, this is a legitimate question. I don't know the answer. I have no idea. That feels like that's got Bergeron all over it at some point. Yeah, I would be surprised if he hasn't. But let me look that up. Yes, he did.

He won it last year. Oh, well, there you go. Okay, I don't think he's going to win it this year then. Probably not. No, because you can't be a good leader two years in a row. It's just not. Well, you can be, you can't be the best leader two years ago. That's true.

That's true. I was going to say Selky. I don't know. I don't really have a strong opinion. Oh, yeah. Who's a good defensive forward? Austin Matthews is a good defensive forward. I don't know.

Maybe. Let's put it this way. Give it to Berger on again. Right. Yeah, exactly. It's all, this is, this is my long-term, like, theory about this is, you get it a year or two after you actually deserved it. So let's, like, go back and look at who should have won it

2019. I feel like this is his year. Yep. That sounds about right. By the way, I just looked it up. Alexander Ovechkin has never won the Mark Messier. Oh, this is absolutely the fucking year. Gotta be him this year. Absolutely. Great fucking call. Wow. This is why you're the best in the biz shot. That's it. Nobody can quietly type hockey reference queries. That's right. I do while someone else is speaking.

Who do you think Ovechkin wins the rocket? Or do you think Ovechkin wins the rocket? think he slows down a bit. I mean, I think he slows down, but I've been saying that for five years now. I mean, Dracidal is obviously... It's him. It's Matthews at stricidal. I guess you're picking between those three. That's a real night.

It's going to be a really fun race. Fun race. And it could, unfortunately, come down to which teams play the most games and that sort of thing, but I guess I don't deal with that. Well, my only other concern is now that Nick Baxter is allegedly back. like a boat anchor around Alex Ovechkin's neck, hauling that stiff up and down the ice. Yeah.

You get, look, all I'm saying is you get him loose of Nick Baxterm, look what he does. 35 years old. He could have been doing this the whole time. Gretzky's record in Tatters, 2016. But he wouldn't have made that commercial. That's true. You balance it.

All right. And one last one. Let's figure out who is the Kahn-Smith winner of this season. Oh, boy. I don't know. I'm just kidding. Let's do this. President's Trophy, who you got, who you think finishes with the best record in the league?

Because I think there are like six good candidates here. Yeah, it's right now I might say, I might say Tampa now. But I don't feel great. Understandable? Colorado is not. Colorado and Vegas, I like as. Cup favorites, but I don't know if... Well, let me put it this way.

I really like how Toronto is coming on. I don't... Look, I know you're going to be mad about this, but I can easily see a scenario where it's the Leafs. Easily. Yeah. I mean, they're... I'm just looking at their... Right now, Tampa's in first place overall.

with points, the Leafs are two points back and have played the same number of games. Points percentage, it's Carolina. The Leafs are one point back. Carolina has one game in hand. So, yeah, I mean, night one, the Leafs could move in a first. The Toronto Maple Leafs winning the President's trophy and losing the first round would be a very leaf-seeing result

that would, I think, satisfy everyone. So, yeah, not a bad call. And, you know what? you mention them, I think Vegas is in a position where if they get Eichael back and he's what we think of Jack Eichael being and Chandler Stevenson moves down to the second line or even the third line, if you want to say the Misfits line is the number two, I can see them really devouring that division, which, you know, Vancouver's performance aside, is starting to look a little bit more like we thought it would,

where it's like, yeah, I don't think anybody in that division is particularly good. Vegas has the sixth best record in the league since, like, whatever, like I said, mid-October, and they're getting all their big guns back. And, like, Mark Stone looked fucking phenomenal last night. I don't know. Oh, you didn't watch that game, you said. He looked incredible until he left with a proclamation. cautionary injury.

Patia Reddy's putting the puck in the net like nobody's business. You know, if the goaltending holds up and like Lainer stays healthy or whatever, I can really see these guys going on a big fucking run in the second half. That's not a bad pick. They've got ground to make up, but they've got 50 games to do it. And that's 50 games against the coyotes, the kings, the cracking, the Oilers, the Williams, the Canucks. And yeah, of course, even the ducks, right?

Like, everybody in that division, you look at that and you go, Vegas should beat them more often than not. So, I don't know. It's a good call. I think it's interesting. But, yeah. All right, one more thing here. We're coming up.

It's the end of the year. I know that, let's put it this way. Let's do Sean's pop culture review. What did you take in pop culture-wise in the year 2021? Oh, man. Not, well, I watched a few movies. But I'm trying to remember like 2021. Like what did?

I feel like I'd be naming movies and you're like, yeah, that came out two years ago. Right. You're like Jurassic Park. When did that come up? Exactly. I'm like looking down the list of like best movies of 2021. and I haven't seen a ton of them. I did see Power of the Dog.

We mentioned that a few times. Other than that, what the hell did I watch? I will, you know what? I'll throw this out there as something that I watched that I was really impressed with when I watched it, and then I kind of put it aside and thought I'd go back to it because I wasn't sure how it would hold up in my mind and it's held up really well.

Is the Bow Burnham's Inside? This is the comedy hour that isn't really a comedy that he filmed on his own while he kind of went nuts over the... It got a lot of positive reviews and everything and looking back, I think it was dessert. I think it was really, really good. And as like a comedy, more of a stand-up comedy guy,

and this isn't that. But I thought it was really impressive what he managed to do. So that's my recommendation for the year. Go see that except don't if you're just looking to feel happy about something because you won't come out of that feeling good at all. The thing I saw recently, it's going to be in theaters for another couple of weeks. Folks, you got to see West Side Story.

I'm going to say this. I still feel like you're doing a bit with this because I did not. It rocks. It's so good. Wow. And I'm going to say this, better than the original. Huh Okay

This young Spielberg director maybe has Yeah he's got a little something to him, I think I just looked it up by the way Since Theaters opened back up In the year 2021 I have seen 48 films in theaters Wow, you've got me beat

Yeah I figured I might and it'll be 49. I'm seeing The Matrix in like three hours. So looking forward to that as well. Any other big movies? I think The Last Duel is out on various, you know, digital platforms or whatever. See The Last Duel, folks. It's a great movie.

Everybody is seeing House of Gucci, a lesser entry into the, Ridley Scott catalog compared to the last duel. He put out two movies in the space of a month and a half or whatever. Yeah, I thought the last duel rocked.

I haven't really put a ton of thought into my top ten or whatever films of the year. But, yeah, licorice pizza was great, I think I said that. Okay. I don't know, you're about to have a lot of options available to you. Spider-Man was fine. I don't know.

And you were where on on Dune as a you like that. Fifteen out of ten. Wow. As a fan of the book, books, plural, I guess. I was

hoping that it would be exactly how it turned out to be. I don't know what I would have done differently with making a movie of the first 40% of a book. Right. And it's Is this one of these, like, they're already, they've already got part two on the way, like, they've just split? Yeah, they, they were like, we're going to make it, and if it does well, we'll make the, the second half of the first book.

And that has already been greenlit. I believe production begins, like, middle of next year. And it's intended for, like, end of 2023, if I'm not much mistaken. But, yeah, very, very exciting film for me, Dune. I don't know how it will translate to the home viewing experience. I saw it. Both times I saw it, I saw it in IMAX, so that helped. But, I mean, it rocks.

It's so good. Cool. Yeah, C-Dune. I don't know. But yeah, so that's it. We're done. We're done, again, just really not a ton to talk about this week. tried to give you as much filler as possible.

Yeah. We're off next week. We should say that. May shows off. A bunch of stuff still on the Patreon and a bonus on the way and all of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got all that coming to us, but otherwise, we sincerely hope you have a great, well, I don't want to speak for Sean. I personally hope you guys have a nice holiday.

I insincerely hope that you have a great holiday. Better than nothing. He could have said he hoped you don't have a good holiday. I wouldn't say that out loud. That's right. But yeah, if you want to find more of my work, I can't imagine why you would. Sign up for EP Rinkside Premium. If you use the code, I Love EP, you get some extra months tacked on to the end of an annual subscription, annual subscriptions only.

But we got a ton of great shit on there, especially with. with World Junior coming up, like, next week, right? Like Sunday, maybe even. Apparently, yeah. So, yeah, go go get your, go get your, uh, your roster breakdowns and all that stuff. Who did you guys get like, wasn't there like a big endorsement? Didn't somebody tweet? Uh, Gordon Miller said, uh, EP's coverage and, uh, and, and information and all that kind

of stuff is invaluable, I believe was the word he used. Not bad. So there, I, I, I, just looked at it right here, predicting the entirety of the 2022 World Junior Championships. You want to know who's going to finish where and all that? I guess you're just going to have to sign up. There you go. How's that for a tease?

You find me on The Athletic, my usual stuff, as both written and my podcast with Ian Mendez. Check it out. It's fun. We've got tomorrow's show is going to be our 10. And weirdest stories of the NHL season. So we're in a no shortage of candidates there. Yeah, you're going to talk for 45 minutes about Dylan Larkin bought that guy a beer. That's right.

Yeah. Can you believe how much people lost their minds over that? It was a little much. I've said this before, though. This is what happens when you have a league where nobody has a personality is somebody shows a little personality and we all have to go completely insane over. Now there's a leadership award guy. You know what? Ooh.

Could happen. He bought him a beer. Get on it. Get on it. Get on it. He got Lucas Raymond to be good. Yeah. That's right.

All of those things, he sent Steve Eiserman some very interesting YouTube videos. That's right. Look, he's just asking questions. Yeah, that's it. Happy holidays, folks. Appreciate it. Yeah. We'll talk to you on the Patreon.

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