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Off Suspension, But on the Beach?

October 20, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:12 I'm Ryan Lambert from the Perfect Takes newsletter and the hockey news. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic and haunting your dreams about the maple leaves and a book you may have not read. Well, don't put the guy fucking book. I'm just saying that like a lot of people buy books and they don't read them. A lot of people read my book. In fact, I'd say, Lambert, that my book had a renaissance during the heated rivalry off-campus time of people coming to our great game and being like, how can I learn more about it? And people being like, have you ever read,
00:45 Take Your Eye Off the Puck by a plucky ingenue name, Greg Wyszynski of ESPN. One of these 52-year-old ingenues we're always hearing about, huh? You know, I am not, I famously turned, my birthday is on my Wikipedia. Let's see how famous this is. Okay, I'm listening. My birthday is on my Wikipedia, I believe. And so, famously, famously I turn 50 next year. Oh, okay.
01:11 And let me tell you right now. I don't know if you guys know, but I am very tight with a group of like five friends from high school. And we will be all taking a boy trip. Rachel Ross. Oh. No, we'll be taking a boy trip right before the Stanley Cup playoffs start. They were nice enough to not try to schedule this dumb thing during the first round. It'll be before the first round.
01:33 I believe it's the last weekend of the season. I'll be fucking off and going on a boys trip because we're all turning 50 next year. Wow. That's crazy. Isn't that crazy? It is crazy. Like, it's actually, I don't know, it's weird for me to have friends who are like, yeah, I'm 50. As far as, like, hiding it?
01:53 No, like, in terms, like, in much the same way, it's like I have friends who have kids that are in college now. And I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? That can't be right. I mean, that'll be Vivian in a couple years. No, I think it's just like, this is what I'm saying. Listen, the passage of time, of course. Well, the whole turning 50 thing is, is. framed much differently now than it was when I was 30, right?
02:15 Like 30, 30 looking at 50, it's like, oh, my God, it just put me in a home. But now I realize that 50 is, is like functional. Like, you see guys doing accomplishments at 50 and starting careers at 50. If you're a character actor. I was going to say, starting careers maybe. But like I recently, I'd never seen cocoon before. Jesus Christ, Lambert. And I watched it.
02:40 Is that what you're thinking about when you're training 50? Well, just when I was a kid growing up, they were like, you've never seen anybody older than Wilford Rimley, right? And you're like, totally agree. Of course, I've never seen anybody that old ever. And they were like, he was 41 years old when he shot this movie. And you're like, that doesn't make any, you know what I mean? Yeah. 50 in, from when I was a kid is very different from how 50 looks now.
03:09 Oh, yeah, totally. I mean, but you got to remember. Like everybody ages differently. I mean, Wolframidly, you know, looked old when he was young. I mean, there are certain people that go completely gray in their 20s. I'll let that hang in the air for a second. And then there's just a lot of people that age differently. I will say that, you know, perspective is always an interesting thing for me in the sense that, like, also I was just talking to somebody about this the other day.
03:35 Like, next year will be 10 years for me at ESPN. That's crazy. It's crazy, right? So like when I remember when I got hired, I would look at people and I would see like little, you know, little internal newsletters or like, congratulations, Janie McGillicuddy on her 12th year at ESPN. And I'm just like, how did fuck do you get to 12 years at ESPN? And then you blink and all of a sudden you're at 10. And then there are people that I work with that have been there for like 25 and it's crazy. So the passage of time, time marches on, as they say, Lambert.
04:08 Is the Schwab still with us? I don't know if the Schwab is still with us what I was thinking about. Love that guy. The other day because I don't know if you saw, but like the first season of ESPN Jeopardy was all of the ESPN on-air people, but not me because I'd win. And then they've changed it now. That was the problem. Well, I would have gotten all four of those hockey questions, right?
04:31 They changed it now to be more in the spirit of Stump the Schwab, where there's going to be a bunch of normies on ESPN Jeopardy now, which is very exciting. Like, that's, that's cool. Like, that's the way it should be. I agree. It should be the normies that are on the show and not the... I don't need, yeah, I don't need to know what Kenny Maine think. Like, what is fucking Brett Farver?
04:51 Can it, Kenny? You don't, yeah, I mean, you don't need to see Pete Schrager run the category of famous hitting streaks. You know, you just want to see some guy at the end of the bar or do that. That's exactly right, man. Anyway, we're here to talk, of course, about the beautiful sport of hockey, which we all like. Right? Oh, come on. I was just talking the other day with Commissioner Gary Betman,
05:15 who told me that the game has never been better. Never. I'm always saying this to people. If you look at the revenues, everything's great. Well, is it that? Well, don't, like, look too hard. There's some empty seats here and there and everywhere. Which is funny, because, like, here's the thing.
05:35 As a Devils fan, empty seats in October is just kind of like what we, do, you know, it was never really an issue. I mean, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the tickets for myself and my two daughters for 30 bucks a pop. And the seats behind me, if you bought them from the team, were 90 apiece. Yeah. And that was against Vancouver on a Saturday afternoon. So obviously Saturday afternoon plus Vancouver, no Quinn Hughes equals, the tickets are affordable. Sure.
06:10 And then once you get to Christmas, famously, all of the little Jersey kids get double tickets in their stockings. And then all of a sudden, the attendance upticks around the new year and everything's cool. And then everybody's fine and the revenues are high and whatever. So it's just really funny to see, especially, you know, at Edmonton, like people losing their minds about, you know, empty seats in that arena for a game against Utah on a fucking Tuesday. when you think about like how much money these people have spent in the last, you know, three years on, on Oilers tickets for games that, you know, were beyond the regular season.
06:44 For sure. Yeah. They, uh, you know, they, they, they, they had a lot of success,
06:49 which means that the team can charge them a lot of money for regular season tickets. And, uh, you know, hey, sometimes you, you, you push too far.
07:02 Then people go, well, I don't want to. don't want to pay all that to see the oilers this year and then and then as josh yoey pointed out in his his viral photograph like the price of parking is preposterous everywhere and all of the ancillary stuff and and also i think this from i don't know if this is the case all over the country or not but i've i've been told by people that are in the season ticket world of which i am not and have never been um outside of like partial plans i guess yeah 10 games or whatever yeah and all that bullshit
07:34 But I've heard that like there's been a certain inshittification of of season ticket experiences. And I saw a buddy of mine who's a season ticket holder for a team. And he told me that like his theory is that the baseline season ticket experience has gotten worse because they're trying to get people to like pay more. You know, the promise of like the next tier up means the food is good. Yeah, no, that's exactly. And to be clear, I think that's everything. like, you know, you hear about like, oh, if you want to sit in like half decent seats at fucking a W.W.E house show, it'll cost you $85 or whatever. And you're like, why? And they go, well,
08:15 because we can fucking charge you that. Fuck you. Yeah. Well, and also the other thing, too, it's like, if the panic over empty seats, like, listen, every team wants a sell out and teams that have been selling out that aren't selling out are certainly going to look into why that is happening. but at the end of the day, it is not the few rows of the upper deck that go unsold that they care about. It is the customers that come game after game and spend money on concessions and spend money on parking. It's the same principle as a theme park. It's the same principle as, I don't know, fucking Alamo draft house. It's like all these places that have dedicated consumer bases that you're just going to,
08:50 those are the ones they'll bleed until they get their revenues. It's not the people that are afraid of the get-in price for a game against Utah. town a Tuesday night. Yeah, I think a lot about the, I think it was the Angels, like CEO or something, not even not a million years ago, but like at the height of like Mike Trout is doing the iron arm flibbit, like, you remember that tweet that was like every night they lose like, they lose like six to two and Mike Trout did something that nobody's done in a hundred years. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
09:27 Like, I think about that, and they asked whoever was running the angels at the time, like, you got a lot of empty seats. You ever think about, like, lowering ticket prices? And he's like, fuck, no. Like, we'd rather people show up and, like, pay a lot of money and, like, have fewer people paying more money than sell out every night. And you have to also remember, like, in the case of a, let's take the Golden Knight situation. and all of a sudden they're having a little trouble. And there was that great sin bin article that detailed 75 different reasons why that might be happening, Carter Hart. And then also the idea that how do you make it more affordable for people to come to these games?
10:17 And one of the things obviously is ticket brokers, if they're dealing in volume, the prices for those tickets might be lower than what they are for the people that bought them straight through the team, which is, again, something I experienced a couple weeks ago in Jersey. But, you know, I'll never forget a conversation I had with a Capitals ticket person, like their director of tickets or some shit like that. I was writing a magazine article right at the dawn of the Ovechkin age. So this is like fucking 20 years ago, right? So I remember talking about the idea of, okay, well, we just need to get some people in this building, right, to come see Ovechkin and to feel the vibe.
10:52 And then all of a sudden you guys would be selling out because at the time the capitals were still drawing flies. And he said to me, he said, look, man, like, here's the bottom line is that you can only discount tickets so much and you can only get people in at a low price point so often because, one, you're going to alienate the people that are paying full price for these tickets. And that's the worst thing you can do is make those people upset. And I thought a lot about that in that Vegas situation. And the other thing, too, is that you want there, and this is the thing that stuck with me, you want there to be value on the ticket.
11:22 because if people are paying a large sum of money for a ticket, they're not going to stop and not buy food. Because now they're in for a lot of dough. And so they're going to maximize their timeout. This might be the only game they go to this season. But God damn it, they're going to get themselves the cheeseburger and the fries and the beer and the whole thing. And so keeping the price is high on these tickets almost guarantees that you're going to get even more money out of them inside the arena because they're not going to just want to. go and sit and not do all the things that that you gain with entry. Right.
11:58 No, and that all makes sense to me. But like, you know, I guess, I guess my thing is like these guys are going, do we really give a fuck about the fans at the end of the day? I guess the answer is not really as long as, again, can, if we can charge this guy $300, that's better to us than having three guys in. those seats for 75 a pop because that's an extra $75 in our pocket. Right. And then, you know, listen, the economy sucks and people are really kind of parsing out
12:33 their money and figuring out, okay, can I spend this much on tickets or can I reallocate that for groceries or maybe a dinner for my family? Like there's all this stuff going on that under the hood that accompanies this sort of like ticket panic. But it is, I mean, for a lot of cities in the NHL, man, like empty seats happen. It's not, everybody doesn't sort of start panicking. because a game isn't sold out in October. Like, there's a shit ton of stuff happening October that requires your attention and your money.
13:01 Like, you know, I don't expect a, if there's a Columbus fan who wants to watch the Guardians in the ALCS, I'm not going to bemoan you, not going to the Blue Jackets game, you know? You've got to go see those damn Blue Jackets. Those guys are having great games every night. Well, you want to be in the arena in case their coach does a murder on the bench. If he does a murder, you want to be there for it. You want to say, I was there to see the murder. It's so fucking funny to me that he's doing that because it's like, hey man, I don't
13:34 know if you heard, you're coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets. And you're going, these guys aren't trying hard enough. I've said this a million times, Greg. It's one of those situations where it's like, okay, you put me out there. I'm going to try my little ass off. Boy, oh boy, I'm going to be trying up and down. the ice, I'm not going to do a good job. I'm just telling you right now.
13:55 I'm not going to do a good job. And like Columbus has like eight guys like that where it's like he could give you a hundred and thirty percent effort. He's, he's not going to be a middle six guy for an NHL team. Sorry. You know? It's also really, yeah, I don't know.
14:12 It's, it's, it's a, it's an odd time. Yeah, I mean, look, okay. Well, I was going to say, what I was going to say is about, about, about, Bones, Rick Bonus is this. Uh-huh. Like, he's done this a few times where he's just like, if you don't want to do X, then
14:34 we don't want you here. Yeah. And all I could think of is like, don't threaten these guys with a good time. No, that's what I'm saying. Like, you're, you're like, oh, the thing that I, that I find about watching the Columbus Blue Jackets, team
14:51 I coach is that the problem is they're not trying hard enough. And it's like, if you think that's what the problem with the Columbus Blue Jackets is, you're going to be stupid. They could try as hard as they want. They're not going to get anywhere. And they don't really have an incentive to try because if they get traded, well, now they don't play for the Columbus Blue Jackets anymore. Exactly. So you're like, hey, you guys got to shape up or ship out. And they're like, oh, my bag's already packed. Where am I going? It's a real, it's a real Wonka stop, wait, come back. That's exactly right.
15:26 And, and, you know, with Zach Wrenski going, I don't want to be here and then going, well, maybe I do. As long as we can win, it's like, well, it's a pretty interesting caveat you just put on that, considering, again, you play for the Columbus Blue Jackets and always have. Who's fool and who here, you know? But anyway, speaking of discontented. guys. Connor Hellebuck, soon to be paid to be discontented. Now this is the kind of gig I'm looking for. Wouldn't that be great?
16:02 Just hang out in Michigan, make your money. You can go send a big fuck you email to that guy running that dopey website that's counting how much money you lose. Yeah, you can send him the $38,000 a day you were losing. Yeah. And just be like, here's a middle, like I've cut it into the shape of a middle finger. Fuck you. Yeah.
16:23 To who it may concern is the... The endorsement on the check is eat shit, buddy. To who it may concern is the subject line. The body of the email reads, Here's how much money I made today, you dumb fuck. Yeah. Hellie. See at the Hall of Fame ceremony.
16:40 I just think it's really interesting that like... Look, like, I know that there's been a lot of reporting by the insiders who all managed to miss the fact that this was a suspect. Okay, Greg, yes, absolutely. I wrote about this, uh,
16:58 I wrote about this, uh, I wrote about this, for Monday. Like, I always say like the insiders don't know as much as they pretend. They, they say or, you know,
17:08 or they hide stuff and then later, you know, it's crazy. This actually, uh, I knew this was going to happen all along. Right? And with this,
17:18 it's like, uh, on 32 thoughts. Elliot Friedman said, like, when I wrote that article, somebody texted me, oh, you're just finding out about that now. And it's like, don't admit that. Don't admit that somebody owned you like that. How did you not know about this?
17:35 But he found it out. And so there's a sub, there's a subculture of the insider thing, which is the only, the only person who really knows stuff is Elliot. Like, like people, here's a little, a little inside. insider stuff for you, ladies and gentlemen. I love this shit,
17:54 by the one of the reasons why Elliot gets a lot of scoops and why a lot of insiders around other sports get a lot of scoops is because a lot of agents and teams and people within the games
18:05 that these insiders cover, they don't want to have to send a bunch of fucking emails. They don't want to send a bunch of fucking texts. They want to tell one person who has the largest platform and the biggest megaphone
18:16 and then everyone else will know. And that's Elliot. Like Elliot gets scoops because he has the largest platform, be it the podcast, be at Sportsnet, being Saturday night hockey, he has a huge following. People trust him. That's also a very important thing. You don't want to go to people and sources that don't have inherent trust with the audience.
18:35 And so Elliot can blast out news and then the news is out there. So, you know, that's great. I mean, so Elliot is the plugged in guy. So the subculture of insiderdom that I find fascinating is when Elliot breaks news and then a bunch of other people who do Elliot's job in other places, just kind of like osmosis the news into their reporting. Yeah, I also heard that a turn-down. Or just like, as we all know. Right, right, right. You know what I mean? So, like, I wrote, I wrote the, over the weekend, the Jets players' like reaction to the news and in the article, like, cited Sportsnet. But I've seen other reporting just kind of like,
19:13 I mean, and again, it could just be a function of dropping a text to shovel day off and he confirms it or what have you, but like, it's just really funny. Because this happens all the time where Elliott writes something and it's huge news. And then everyone else kind of just, just incorporates it into the reporting as if it's common knowledge, as if it's like an oral tradition passed down from generation to generation and not something he just said of the podcast that morning. Right. No. So I guess I'm doing a poor job of setting this up. So Elliot announced on, I think it was Saturday like before the, before, seven.
19:49 games. That's when the article came out, yeah. Where he said that basically on October 2nd, which you'll note is almost three weeks ago now, and it's the day of the Jets' first game of the regular season, he actually informed the team that he would actually want to play for them, it turns out. And there was a mechanism in the CBA, which allowed the Jets to be like, you're actually suspended for three weeks for not going to training camp. and it seems like that that length of time was maybe negotiated with the NHLPA at the end of the day. But he loses three weeks of pay. There was the fucking website about it. You know, we all saw it.
20:28 We all clicked on it. We all said, oh, that's a, you know, maybe that's not as much money as I thought, but also like $38,000 a day is a lot of money. So, you know. And it turns out that on Friday, it's a situation where he can't. And the emphasis here is can, but probably will not, return to the team. And what that really means is, since they're not going to let him return to the team, they're going to have to pay him to sit at home.
21:02 And that's what the report. I think the difference, as you mentioned, is that much like the Theranos machine, Connor Hullabuck can return to the Winnipeg Jets. What we really want to say is he's capable of returning to the Winnipeg Jets. is the actual thing that you want to say. That's exactly right. So, listen, I, I find it really interesting. What I was going to say about the insiders before is that there's been all this reporting.
21:30 And again, they just kind of just drop this casually into their reports about like, and obviously none of these guys want this guy back. And obviously blah, blah, blah, blah, blah about the Jets and Hellebuck. and yet every single time one of these guys has asked about it, yeah, they're sour and they're bitter and they make references to guys who want to be here and everything else. But no one's ever fucking said,
21:57 like, I don't want this guy back. Yeah, no one says, it's all on background, right? Is it on background or is it just people, it's just people assuming that because he quote unquote called out his teammates by saying,
22:11 like, there's two parts of the Hellbuck thing, right? There's the getting the congressional medal of honor from Trump part of it that led to, you know, the alienation in Canada, like every American player outside of the guys in Montreal and Austin Matthews, I guess, suffered through. And like, then there's the part of it of being like maybe that there was a gentleman's agreement to say that if the team wasn't competitive that he could get out. Right.
22:36 And if it's the, if that's, if the ladder is the reason he's not, he doesn't want to be there anymore, then everybody's like, well, that's just saying that these guys suck. And why would they want this guy back if he, you know, besmirch their their reputation so publicly. But like, nobody's fucking gone on the record to say, we don't want this guy back. Yeah. To the point where like the captain of the team is like, we're going to have to have some tough conversations if he comes back and have some water under the bridge moments.
23:03 And then the coach of the team is literally not even shutting it down. Basically saying, you know, the idea that these guys don't want it back. is isn't valid. So, I mean, I don't know. Like, find the truth somewhere in the middle. Like I've reported, man, like he's friends with all these guys. He's neighbors to all these guys. Like, they've been in the fight together.
23:23 Like, Adam Lowry, Hullibuck's entire career is having played with that guy. So I never really bought this notion that he couldn't come back. It doesn't mean that I don't think that I think it's going to happen. But I never really bought the idea that, like, if he walked back in and ate shit, and gave some mea culprit excuse about how his wife was getting death threats on Instagram or some shit that he couldn't play again for them. And honestly, he needs to play again. That's the other part of this too that people seem to miss.
23:53 He wasn't good last year by his standards. And now he hasn't played all season. That's the thing I keep coming back. Yeah. So like whoever acquires him is either going to get a guy that needs like a conditioning sent in the HL to find his game or they're going to. get a guy where the risk is run, just like we see in every other situation where a guy misses camp in particular because of a contract squabble, they're going to get a guy who's
24:21 going to be office game the entire fucking season. He's going to end with like an 875 save percentage again. Yeah, and he's 33. Like, so it, and coming off a season in which he had like a bad knee, right? Like, it just, it introduces this incredible risk factor for a team like Carolina, for example, who's, who's constantly could, you know, I don't think Coachekhov's as good as he's been so far this year. He's, like, been quite good. I can't remember it's like 915 or something like that. But they don't need, they're Carolina.
24:52 They don't need a goalie who's like Connor Hellebuck level good at, you know, the best of times, right? And so like now you're going, well, who else then? Like San Jose because Ascarov's been horrible. Utah. I don't know. Does Utah need him? Yeah. I think that people.
25:10 People, how do I phrase this? I think Vamelka is good. Yes, I agree. But I don't think, I don't know if people understand internally how they feel about him. And there have been times in the past when I think that they've been a little wary about how good he is and how consistent he can be. It doesn't mean they don't mean he doesn't mean he doesn't mean he doesn't mean that they don't see the opportunity. It's the ceiling to upgrade. Like, yeah. So like, the idea that they could trade Vemelka to the Rangers and then, you know, find a way to get Halebuck if they get something back that they can, they can move to Winnipeg, particularly in the middle, like, I think is a valid thought. And, you know, you combine that with the ability to absorb his cap it. You combine that with Ryan Smith trying to get shiny new toys. You know, they've got an outdoor game coming up that could use some spice. Like all.
26:10 this shit kind of is in the swirl for Utah, a team that I think is really good. And if Helibuck is Hellebuck could really make some fucking noise. Like, I don't know. Like, I predict, my bold prediction before the season was that it was Utah. I don't know for sure that it's going to be Utah. I don't even know if they're like one of the teams that's actually in the mix for him. But it wouldn't shock me. And it also wouldn't shock me if that, if, if, if Shevoldeoff came off his like, we need help now thing and was willing to take futures, Like Utah's got more than anyone in the mix. Yeah.
26:43 Nobody else can ante up what they've got in their system. But again, that requires shovel day off to like kind of go back on what he said, right? Like the team that got reported over the weekend was L.A. And it's like, what fucking kind of sense does that make? You know, like the Kings? I understand they don't have a win or whatever.
27:09 but like are we sure they're they have anything that that Winnipeg would want well they're in kind of a they're kind of in a hockey purgatory thing right now like they're post copatar they still have a number of of high priced effective veterans on the roster that are all over the age of 30 dowdy and Panarin and kempa and fiala and they went out and got older this summer right They got Zookarillo. Yeah, for sure. So, like, it's like there's still a team that is built to be relevant and to bring in some playoff revenue.
27:46 But they also have somebody in goal, and actually two guys in goal, that are both up after this season. So, you know, as good as Darcy Kemper can be for them, he's 36 and he's up after this season. So the idea that they would be in the market for another goalie doesn't shock me considering the way they're, oh, I'm just,
28:07 I'm just saying they don't have what, if I'm Kevin Shevoldeoff, like they could make their best pitch and I'd be like, that's it, huh? Okay. I mean, let me ask you, could you get, could you get Hella Buck one for one for Byfield? I think L.A. would have to add to that at this point. They don't trust, they don't trust Byfield at all in L.A. It breaks my heart that he hasn't earned it, but he hasn't earned it. No, that's exactly. Yeah, I get what you're saying. But, like, they're also, because here's my thing with it, Greg, is they're not good. They're not. Right.
28:47 They're not good. And on top of not being good, like, they're going nowhere. You know what I mean? Like, they don't have, they don't have any futures I'd be excited about. They don't have, like. Right. So to your point, the, in the, in theory. And again, like, you.
29:08 You know, Panarans only signed through 28. Right. So it's not as if you, you know, there's a few guys that are signed beyond that. But like, if you look at their roster, that's kind of the next, this season and next season, and that's about it. Yes. And so to your point, they should be getting to an area where you're transitioning to the post-Copatar, post-douty phase, if you read my lips.
29:31 Mm-hmm. And having the best goalie in the world. But my point is who at that point would be 35 years old. But even a 35 year old Hullabuck is really good. My point is that doesn't fit their window though. You don't want a good goalie at that point. Yes, that's my point. Like I've suffered through watching like Corey Snyder ruin a devil's tank and things of that nature.
29:56 Yep. You don't need that. You don't want Hello Buck on that team with it after two years because you want to be as bad as possible. Yes. But because of their age and not just. their age, like, you don't hire Peter Leveillette to go into the tank. If you're, if you're Ken Holland's age,
30:12 I don't know how old he is, is he like 70, you don't, you don't go like, and it's time for me to tank. I'll take three, four, five years, no problem. You know what I mean? Like, he's not going to do that. You also don't hire Ken Holland if you need tank at that point either.
30:25 Well, Greg, like, no shit, man. Put the fucking horses out of the barn on that one, don't you think? No, nothing makes sense about the team. So that's why it wouldn't shock me to see them be in the market to get them because that would be part and parcel of not having a plan beyond this season. Right.
30:41 And what's the plan this season to maybe win a fucking playoff round? You're not as good as anybody in the central. Yeah. It's going to be a big good luck on that one for me for even making the playoff. I mean, yeah. Because if you're a wild card, you're going to have to beat either Edmonton, Vegas, or probably Colorado. Colorado, maybe Minnesota. Yeah.
31:01 In best case scenario, Minnesota. Okay. Yeah, and if you're, if you're second or third in the Pacific, then you're going to have to beat either Edmonton or Vegas. Like, LA's not even in the same fucking conversation with any of these teams. No, obviously. Goes without saying. So it's a, it's a real tricky one if you're, if you're the Kings. But, yeah, again, why just even bother sniffing around at that point?
31:27 Yeah. Anyhow. Let me ask you this. Let's say the Jets don't trade him. Do they just sit on him for some indeterminate point in the future where it's like, okay, now we're allowed to trade him? You know what I mean? Like what could the strategy be where they're just like, oh, let's let's let him sit at home and collect dust or whatever. You know what I mean?
31:53 The strategy is that you are still doing the thing that you've been doing, which is that you're hoping that there is some team out there that he's willing to play. for that will up their ante to give Winnipeg what they're looking for because desperate times call for desperate measures. And, you know, like, it's not hard to imagine that maybe Jersey's one of those teams, you know, where another season is being subverted by substandard goaltending. And Jack Hughes goes to David Blitzer and says, hey, remember that guy made all those saves for me in the gold medal game? and then like, you know, all of a sudden
32:32 Sunny's trading Dawson Mercer to try to get, you know, Halibuck. Like that's got to be the end game for Sheffield Day off if he's not pulling the trigger now, which is that he's hoping that there is some desperate-ass team. Someone gets desperate, yeah. Yeah, someone desperate and believes they're one goalie away
32:49 and then Nekoli ends up being, you know, a rusty old barnacled Connor Hellebuck. How much do you think Yarmos being like, what the, why I fucked up so bad this summer, man. I should have just thrown in the extra pit. Like, whatever it was, like, he's going to be looking at that going, boy, I fucking blew it. UPL stanks this year.
33:15 I think it's interesting because, like, in order to get Hellebock, though, he's going to have to trade a young piece. And the problem for them... It would have been Benson probably, right? Well, no, I don't think it would have been Benson. I think the problem for them is that like Winnipeg famously has has had one center for the last 15 years. Right. Yeah.
33:38 Right. They never had two centers at any point. And so they've tried to make perfetti into one. They've tried to do a lot of things. So in order to get Hullabuck, you probably would have had to give them a center. And the problem for the sabers is that the guys that you probably would like to trade for Hallowbuck are all on the wing. And they don't really need them, like on the world. Right, right.
34:02 The guy they need is Austland. And if you're, if you're Yarmow, you probably don't want to give up Osloon. One, because I think he's going to be real good. And two, because he is a very important thing on that team. He is Josh Norris insurance. Right. So when Josh Norris gets hurt, like he did last year,
34:21 Oslin can move up and be in that spot and thrive. So I don't, I think there was a- You know what? Let me take it back. shouldn't you have just traded Josh Norris for him? We'll throw in the extra pack who gives. Like, what are we going to do? He's 27 and made of porcelain.
34:40 Like, made a watch. Now who's saying how old a guy is to the other guy. Well, well, well. Him and his high school friends all get together. They'll be celebrating 28 years. He'll toast to his friends and then his wrist will break because he's made of porcelain. No, I think that's the issue is that like he would have had to give up a player
34:59 he doesn't want to give up for Hella Buck. Well, let me put it this way. And this is what I just keep thinking about with Buffalo is like, remember all that goodwill you had? What's going to happen if it gets to like Thanksgiving and UPL save percentages still like 870 or whatever? I know. I know.
35:19 And honestly, Austland is the ideal guy to trade. Like he would be the perfect centerpiece in a deal for Hellebuck because he's great. and he's young, and most importantly for Kevin Chevaldeoff, motherfucker is signed through 2035. He can't escape. That's right. He's been trapped. It's the Matthew Nye's math.
35:42 He can't escape Columbus. So it's the thing that you like about making a trade like that. Absolutely. Why don't we take a break really quickly and we'll come back and talk about even more stuff. Wee. All right. We're back. And Greg, let me ask you about this kid.
36:04 His name is Connor Rick David. You see what this guy's doing? You see what he's doing? I like the cut of his jib. He is playing. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here pretty well. I think, I mentioned this the other day. Just like watching the five-point game against Utah.
36:24 I was going to say which one. Yeah, I know. Two five-point games, one four-point game. Watching that game against Utah was just like, it is such a joy to see him when he's locked in and just basically dictating terms. No one does what he does. And, you know, he did it offensively. He did it defensively to lead to offense.
36:45 He was setting up goals. And, you know, like, how many guys in the history of the NHL do what he does? And I would make the argument that the last guy to do it was Mario. like just fucking dominate. Like, Sid's great. Yeah. And Sid's going to go down as an all-timer and since the best player of his generation. But I mean, like, was Sid a force of nature?
37:12 Only against the islanders. Right? Remember that? He'd just go into fucking Long Island on a Thursday night and go. This game is over. Goodbye, everyone. The force of nature players. Yeah.
37:27 are probably Connor, Mario, Gretzky, or, and maybe, I guess, Gordy by virtue of just being able to score and then also beat the shit of the people. I'm sure there's others. I'm sure Richard probably had that, had that reputation back in the day too, but like, just the idea of just, you know, like, any, any game could be a five point night, you know, if they decide it is. Like, that, that is, like, he is on the, you know, I won't say the Mount Rushmore, but like he's on the very, very, very short list of guys in the history of hockey that can do that.
38:03 Totally, yes. I got the stats for you here. He's got six goals, 17 assists, 23 points total, if you do the math on that one. And people are like, oh, you know, I'm sure he's racking up a bunch of second assists on the power play. 14 of his assists are primaries. 14 out of 17. That's only three secondary assists. He doesn't have a point on the power play yet.
38:29 I believe it's five assists on the power play. Four of them, again, primaries. He's got a shorthanded goal. He's got 14 points at five on five. Like, we've just never seen anything like this and anything resembling modern. Like, you know, I guess technically whatever, like the fucking 90s are modern hockey. But you know what I mean. Like the cap era.
38:56 this is this is just like unprecedented shit it's unbelievable so how much have you struggled with the fact that they are they are a better team right now under babcock than they were last year as far as their metrics go as far as the way that they're defending like there are still some things they did last year in particular suppression of opponent's scoring chances that I think have carried over but the overall overall way they're playing and and sort of the the the the pulled in the reins on the fire wagon shit kind of hockey, I think you could probably say it's coaching. And so I've struggled in particular with how to credit them for how dominant they've been
39:41 because it nauseates me to give the coaching the credit. You know, it's funny you say that I hadn't even really considered like looking at the WOWEs, not that WOWEs are like the best indication of anything, But when you're talking about a guy like McDavid and like dry sidle or whatever, like I haven't looked at because, again, we've talked about it on the show, you know, recently of like, in addition to all that, like, they're, they've had a bunch of injuries and all that kind of stuff. And like, how much is it just like McDavid and Drysidal going? Don't worry, guys, we got this. You know what I mean?
40:22 as opposed to everybody else actually pulling the rope in the right direction or whatever you want to say. I'm pulling it up now. Okay, when those two guys are off the ice, Greg, I want you to guess what they're expected goals for percentages. At 5 on 5. 1.98. Percentage, please. Oh, percentage? Yeah.
40:46 42. 35. So I got to tell you, folks. It seems like it's same as it fucking ever was. Drysidal and McDavid on together, 65% of the expected goals. McDavid on by himself, 73% of the expected goals. Drysidle on by himself, 88% of the expected goals. These guys are, it's just these two guys.
41:12 They're going crazy. Well, so the good news, I don't know if you heard this, but like at the last border governor's meeting, they passed an edict saying, that the playoffs are going to have no line changes switched on. That's great news for. It'll just be your starting five. Now, so, but to your point, Greg, is this, is this the coaching of Mike Babcock? Yeah, it is.
41:38 He's saying every, every, like, other shift, we really need you over the boards right now, Connor. Yeah. Leon, you're up, you know? And again, let's do some goal differences, five on five. Connor and Leon together. 15 to 1 Connor without Leon 3 to 1
41:57 Leon without Connor 1 to 1 Both those guys off 6 to 11 Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Like it's all the same shit It's exactly the same Except Babcock has wisely said
42:14 Well if I put those two guys on the ice together We're going to win a lot of our minutes And again There have been 16 goals scored at five on five when those two are on the ice together. Fifteen of them are the Edmonton Oilers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that's it. That's the whole fucking discussion here. Who's a genius? Mike Babcock. Why? Because he said, I think the two, two of the four best players in the world should be on the ice at the same time. Give them the fucking Jack Adams right now.
42:47 Well, I mean, I don't know if the broadcasters will be up for that or not. That's true. They're a, they're out there. They're looking for, they're looking for a team that, like, they thought was going to have 98 points and it has 107. But there's something to be, again, but there's something to be said for, like, listen, I haven't seen enough of the Oilers to know for sure if it's just like Mike Green defense, where it's just the overwhelming push of the offense that prevents anything coming back the other way when dryside and McDavid are on the other. guys. Greg, I'm looking at the numbers here, man. It's the, it's the push of the offense.
43:28 But there's something to be said, I'm sure, for them, you know, not just like fucking firewagging it, like, like, like just being a little bit better defensively. I mean, you don't get, you get like a 0.93 goals against for 60 if you're dry saddle, if you're not actually playing some D. And like, McDavid's a good example. Like that last goal he scored against Utah was picking somebody's pocket in the neutral zone. Okay. So last year, Drysidal and McDavid together, 3.57 expected goals per 60 versus 2.39 against.
44:03 Yeah. So their goals against have dropped. That's, well, that's expected. And that's for last year. Right. They're expected goals against have dropped from last year. Yeah, by one. But it's, I think, in part because their expected goals four is up like half a goal as well. right? Like, they're just like, okay, well, if we never spent time in our, in our defensive zone, we're going to be all set. So that, I, look, I also wonder, based on what we heard reported over the summer or whatever, how much of this is like McDavid and Drysidal taking a hard look in the mirror and going, we need the coach who's a huge asshole that everybody hates.
44:47 Like, if, if this, if them stepping up is part of this. that. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying Mike Babcock's doing a bad job or whatever. I'm just saying, they're making, it's easy to look like a genius when this is happening. The Oilers are getting 73% of the scoring chances when dry seddles on the ice.
45:07 That's insane. Yeah, that's, that's correct. And you know what? When it's, when it's just, when it's just Leon and no McDavid, it's 92%. Oh, I see McDavid's just dragging him down. I'm always saying
45:22 the guy's a fucking anchor around Leon's neck You know So would you say that Leon is the Is the second best player in the league? Is he better than McKinnon? It's just impossible to separate it out for me Because of McDavid Yeah
45:38 In much the same way You know how I you know what I know Quinn Hughes is good Because Quinn Hughes won a Norris playing for the Canucks right Do I know Kale McCar is as good as Quinn? It's impossible for me to say because he plays with Nathan McKinnon and Quinn Hughes just hasn't done that. Well, by virtue of that comparison, then Zach Worensky's fucking Nick Lidstrom. Are you, he won the fucking Norris last year.
46:06 I'm going to argue with you about that? I don't think so, but I don't expect you to. So yeah, that's, that's kind of my, like, it's just impossible for me to say one way or the other. Like, do I think he's the, like I said, I think there are two of the top four players in the world. If you want to plot or forwards in the world, if you want to slot a guy or two ahead of them, I'm not going to argue with you. But I'd also, if you were like, no, I'm putting my foot down. He's the second best. I go, yeah, sure.
46:35 That sounds great. So. Okay. You got any, besides the Oilers, I guess, you got any teams that have surprised you, good, bad, indifferent? so far this year. I certainly thought the flyers would struggle, but not to the point that they did. Although it seems like now they've got a heartbeat.
46:55 Yeah, they got a heartbeat now. They beat Ottawa. Now they beat Colorado. So here come the flyers. It's because that guy broke the news, you know. That one guy broke all the news. The Rangers, obviously, like, 682 points percentage after 11 games is something that I didn't,
47:17 I didn't figure, and I wrote about Dylan Garand this week and what that. I find that story to be fascinating because, like, he clearly is playing well. And I know that he's got some fans, like Merrick's a big fucking grand fan to the point where he was shocked that he didn't get claimed on waivers. But I've never, I mean, I find the whole sort of sort of Damocles part of his career really fascinating in the sense that, you know, he's playing his ass off, he's giving them everything they need and his worst game as a pro
47:50 came on the same day that it was reported that Scott Clemenson their goalie scout was looking at at Uca-Lukin. They're looking at UPL. Emily's saying they could call Jonathan quick and get him out of retirement. Get him off the beach.
48:08 Corpusallo is coming back at some point. I find it so fascinating that this guy and this was sort of the framing of the story like he's living the dream, but he doesn't know when the dream expires, and it could happen like fucking next week for all he knows. It's a really fascinating thing to me. It's two bad games and have fun at Hartford, kid, you know? Mm-hmm.
48:29 And that was almost the case after he got pulled in the Devils game. That's right. You know, the Devils won 7 to 1. He came back and played really well. They lost to Columbus, but he played really well. Boston's up there. I didn't see them being quite as good as they are, especially offensively. Yeah, just a really high floor on the Bruins, though.
48:47 You know what I mean? Like, they just have so many good to even great players at various positions where it's like, I guess I can't be too shocked about Boston. Yeah. And then I mean, like, I know that Macklin was out for a couple games, but the sharks are kind of just a little bit more middling than I thought they'd be. I thought they would, I thought they'd be kind of like shot out of a cannon early in the season, given all the good vibes and the expectations and everything else. But, like, I know, I know they still can't defend and all that shit.
49:21 But I just thought they'd be a bit of a bit better than a 500 team at this point. Well, you want to know, this is the thing with the sharks that's shocking to me. How many regulation wins do they have? Probably not many, I'm guessing. The answer would be zero. Wow. And a big part of that is that I mentioned it earlier, Ascarov can't make a fucking stop. He's 848 or something like that.
49:46 that right now, like horrible. Mm-hmm. And if Celebrini's not doing it, nobody's doing it. Mm-hmm. Right. And so they, they're just in a really kind of sticky situation where it's like, well, what, what are we supposed to do here? Like, they, I think they need to make a, a big decision about their roster in the next
50:11 little while here, because they've gotten lucky to be whatever the record. the record you said they had was. You know what I mean? Yeah. 30% of the expected goals at some point in the season, like they're dead even 500, but that's like fake 500. They have zero regulation wins.
50:32 Like the Flyers have the, the Calgary Flames, the Vancouver Canucks have more than that. And to me, I just I wonder to your point about the vibes, does that, the fact that like the potential for a playoff birth keeps slipping away on them a little bit here
50:54 does the vibes factor into that or do they just stay the course because like mike greer sees the ultimate vision yeah i mean they stay the course because they're all fucking toddlers like they just say they've got they've got one thing going in their favor which is time you know and and he tried to address the blue line got a bunch of old guys this summer on the line specifically. Yeah, to try to like bolster the blue line and things like that. But I mean, maybe that only gets you so far if the goaltending is a sieve. Yeah.
51:24 Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. I would have thought that adding like Darnell Nurse to your blue line, that would have tightened up the gold ending. Crazy. Jacob Trubin, not locking it down like I just thought he would based on all the evidence that he can do that. And as far as I can tell. he hasn't injured anybody yet, so maybe he's lost his fastball. Yeah.
51:48 Well, look, he's got a career in the arts waiting for him if he doesn't, you know, doing the, he checks the paintings, remember that? That's he does. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a worldly man. He's a man of art, man of passions. That's right. Do you watch this Martin Mull documentary that was on Netflix? No, I did not.
52:10 It's, first of all, can't recommend it highly enough. We had a blast watching it here at the, the house and I didn't know this big time painter that guy like he he he always said like I'm an artist who acts to support my art and it's like that's actually kind of sick man if I'm putting on Netflix it's either to put on miss Rachel for some kids or to watch love is blind with the wife and let me tell you the last season latest seasons in Boston there are some horrible looking men and uh and and Boston no way not to not to Not this, I don't think this is a spoiler because the episode is out, and I won't mention which couple it is.
52:49 But there is one couple where the woman saw the man and was so repulsed. Yeah, brother. By this human caricature that she left the show. That's just good business, my opinion. It really was great. I also watched the Norm McDonald documentary. that Judd Apatow made. And this is the genius of Judd Apatow.
53:19 The whole conceit of the movie is like, you just Google funny shit, Norm McDonald's set on such and such a talk show, and you press play, and you're like, I'm watching one of the great documentaries of all time. I'm having so much fun watching this. And it's like, did you like do anything? Did you get anybody to like sit down and really discuss it?
53:39 No, this is all archival footage. Well, just saw the, people like Ken Burns. I just listened to the clip that I, I either never heard or forgot I heard of Norm on, I think a Dennis Miller talk show,
53:54 like a radio show, talking about the congressman who got caught in the Minneapolis airport bathroom. Uh, yes, of course. And it was one of the funniest fucking thing. I was very early on the norm train. I don't know if we've ever talked about the fact that,
54:09 like, back in the day when Comedy Central would play a lot of stand-up on short attention, span theater and things like that. Premium blend, Greg? Premium blend. Like, there were a few comedians where when their bits would come up in this, like, it was kind of, it's kind of funny.
54:30 Like, it was sort of like early TikTok. Like, you'd get a three, three and a half minute bit from somebody, and then it would just go to the next bit. Yes. And that was the show you're watching. And so, like, there was a, couple of comedians. Like Dennis Wolfson was one of them.
54:46 And Norm was the other one where they did bits that made me laugh so hard. And the Norm bit that made me last so hard. And I would watch the show just to see the bit because they'd replay the bits was the one where he, he's talking about the guy who chopped up his family and puts them in a duffel bag. It's me, Bob. Yeah, it takes him the devil. The devil pulls off his mask and says, hey, it's me, Bob. And he goes, oh, Bobby, it got me. And when he finally made S&L, I was like, wait, that guy, the double that guy is going to be on S&L?
55:23 That's crazy. That was so excited. And he didn't disappoint. His updates were something. Yep. And there's a lot of time spent on that. And Jod Apatow just gets to take credit for directing that, I guess. Netflix cut him a big check.
55:37 We need you to get into YouTube and pull up some videos for us. That's the whole documentary. Here's the problem with Netflix right now. And I think that they've identified the problem based on all of the firings that they've done and the fact that they've talked about the time spent metrics going in the wrong direction for them. They decided to try to become YouTube. And as someone who will frequent Netflix for a lot of food TV content, what they've done is they've taken. taken 12 minute videos from places like
56:14 Taste Maker and Epicurious and they've put them on Netflix. And so you'll go to a show that says like the world of cocktails. And you're like, that sounds fucking fascinating. I drink. One might say, I'm drinking right now. And you'll go to the show
56:33 and you'll be like, tell me about the world of cocktails. And then you'll look at the episodes and you'll see there's like 14 of them and they're all eight minutes long. And you're like, fuck you. Like, you've ruined it. Like, this should not be on your platform. I come to Netflix for long form content,
56:51 multi-episode documentary series, movies that are fucking two hours long. Like, that's why I'm here. And so if you just, like, jam up your algorithm with all this little bullshit and, like, prefab AI-driven fucking documentaries, and I'm not saying the normal, one is one, but like there are definitely ones on there of that nature. Like, that's,
57:14 that's repulsive. That's going to make people not want to use your service anymore. Well, Greg, it's the, it's the blueyfication of entertainment. Everything has to be eight minutes now. You know what I mean? Like, because we're children. That's exactly right. It used to be that, like, if you were watching a thing that was eight minutes, it's because like, it was really hard for guys to draw Bugs Bunny for longer than that. Yeah. You know what I mean? And now it's like, Well, it's, you can, you can do everything so much faster now, whether it's with AI or whatever the fuck else they're doing on Netflix. And it's like, yeah, but like that doesn't mean it's good. It's just available.
57:55 Like, availability isn't good. It's here that I'll know. Inherently. It's here that I'll know that you're saying this on a podcast that has a very robust consumer base that pays every month to, listen to two hipsters talk for over two hours about their Wendy's order. Uh-huh. And what are you saying is the problem there? That's like, that is a problem.
58:21 I'm noting the irony that we're promoting the fact that culture is shifted to cromulent eight-minute bites of content. And we've, we've zagged. I'm fighting the fucking power, brother. I hate to tell you. We have zagged at Puck Soup Industries to give people something completely different. And also, mind you, we're on this podcast. right now and what a joy it is for me to be a guest in this podcast with you and I say this again to my Disney overlords a guest what a joy it is to be a guest in this podcast with you because I am in front of my
58:51 camera but the camera is not on and I can simply drink my whiskey and not have to look into the camera you know with a soulless stare and I can just talk to you into a microphone like we're you know or we're doing the fucking art bell show uh 15 years ago talking about UFOs. over Tulsa. Well, did you see that they just definitively proved that the, that the, uh, Bigfoot video was a hoax? So I saw the variety article about this documentary. And I, and so it's a documentary that covers the family that did the, the big, the,
59:25 the big, the big, the video that and now it's a hoax. Yeah, that's right. It's a hoax. Now, uh, Greg. It's real. It's real to me, damn it. Well, this is what I was going to say is like, you're, you're going to, if you guys like that documentary, you're going to love my documentary about the sun rising every
59:39 morning. Like no shit it was a fucking hoax. I thought, I legitimately thought, believe me, I would love there to be 50 big foots out there, not just the one. But I legitimately thought that we had come to a consensus. This was proven
59:55 without a doubt that this was fucking bullshit like 20 years ago. I'm telling you, I saw a video where they're like, we motion tracked it so that the like camera isn't moving. And the uncanny way that the Bigfoot is walking, it's just like a regular guy walking now.
01:00:14 The thing that constantly baffles me about that, like so that's been treated like the Zabrooter film of Bigfoot's forever. And you could probably say with some certainty that that was a fake. The Loch Ness Monster photos, as much as we wanted them to be real, you know, we could obviously see how that could be fake. The surgeon's photo, yes, of course. We had a situation in my home state of New Jersey. what, like a year ago
01:00:40 where people I knew and know and trust and know they're not crazy we're seeing Jeep size drones fly above them on the Jersey Turnpike and we just like stopped talking about it Yeah, that's fine
01:00:59 Like what happened? Nothing to see here. Like this multiple, that's like this all this shit Remember in close encounters where like the entire town saw shit and they started like coming together on top of the mountain to see the lights. Like that's what happened in Jersey.
01:01:13 And then we just stopped fucking talking about it. I don't know what happened. Yeah, I mean, there's like famous videos of like UFOs in Brazil. There's a very famous one in Brazil where it's like, yeah, nobody's ever come up with a good explanation about that one. Anyway, see you later. You know, like it's very strange.
01:01:31 It's very strange. Yeah. That's all right. I'm looking forward to seeing that document. I saw a story on it. I actually have it in my calendar because I think it drops on Amazon later this week.
01:01:42 What, the Bigfoot one? The Bigfoot one, yeah. Yeah, fuck it, I'll watch it. Why not? Why not? I'm just seeing movies left, right, and center this week. Doesn't matter to me. Oh, this week you are for a change?
01:01:53 Even for me, I've gone truly. Greg, since Friday, I've seen six new release movies. Me and Ruby saw the Nathan's or doc today. Yeah, I saw it on Friday. And in order to do that, I had to, like, rearrange seven different things. And we had to, like, drop off the kids early.
01:02:17 We had to see a 10 o'clock show. Rearranging life for a movie is my life right now. Like, I would love to go to the theater as often as you do. But it just becomes very, very, very, very difficult. Well, you know, Greg, it just turns out some people just, just don't have the movies in their hearts. I clearly don't. I mean, listen, man, I haven't even watched Animals, the new Ben Affleck movie on Netflix yet.
01:02:43 Yeah, me neither. But you know what I have watched? What's that? Every single second of Ben Affleck's press tour, I have been enamored. Whenever this man gets to cut loose and talk about the industry, I will eat up that content. He's the goat. A free pizza.
01:03:03 I fucking love him. I love when he talks about. talks about his career. I love when he talks about the industry. I love when he talks, because Project Greenlight, his AI, like all about the gist, give me Ben. And I'll be there for it. I'm a million percent with you. I will not be watching this movie. However, it looks, I'm going to just say it, bad. It looks like a, like a community theater version of ransom, which I, I don't understand why. Well, apparently, the, the, um, the, um, the, the, the, the, like plot is basically high and low.
01:03:38 Yeah. And it's, like the Kurosawa movie. Right. And it's like Spike Lee just remade that like less than a year ago. I saw it. I saw highest low. With Denzel.
01:03:49 Yes. That's right. And, and, uh, was it ASAV Rocky was the, or was it Travis Scott? I can't remember which one was in the Odyssey and which one was. Travis Scott, the wrestler? Got a lot of Travis Scott, Greg, you know. Anyway. Any other team surprising you?
01:04:08 This is, how about those Seattle Crackens? You are, you are in fucking paradise right now. Like, fucking Sean, I love him and you love him. Sure. You're not, you're not talking about the Ben Affleck Netflix movie with Sean. He did see the, you can see everything. He saw it on Friday. By the way, we should say, and I know that there's going to be some chatter on the mailbag about it.
01:04:33 I'm sure that me, you and Gentile will. talk about it too on Stick to Soup, but like people should make time to go see it. It's not on a lot of screens quite yet. 850 I saw, yeah. It is a $15 million. Don't be scared. Don't be scared of the runtime. It is structured in a way.
01:04:51 Flies by. It flies by and also it, you know, it's like you hit kind of a Mario Kart power up middle, middle of the way through. You truly do. Yeah. So you're going to be fine with the runtime if it's scared. you. But that's great to hear. Like the thing, the great thing about Down Goes Brown, Sean, is that he does surprise you in the times in which he will make time to consume pop culture.
01:05:18 I think he's just more susceptible to me bullying him into seeing something where it's like, you've got to watch this. Everybody's going to be talking about it. Right. And so like, as I was leaving the movie or yeah, leaving the movie on Friday, I saw that he had texted. me having seen it earlier than I did in the day. And I was like, you know, well, wonders never cease basically. Yeah. I mean, I know the perception of the audience is that the last, the last movie he saw in theaters was Conair.
01:05:50 But he does get out there sometimes and see stuff. I can't remember if we saw The Odyssey in theaters, but I certainly. Can I say I didn't see it? I know that. We were supposed to go and then. Every time I tried to go see it, something, something came up or something happened. It was at a time when we were moving into this new house.
01:06:10 That's what the problem was. I had the fucking can't. I had Lincoln Center tickets a couple times that I had to cancel out because so I just, it passed me by. So I guess I'll just watch it on as God intended, which is on the back of a plane seat at some point during the playoffs. You missed a good one.
01:06:27 And at a certain point, that was my movie of the year. It's been unseated. Street Fighter. That's the one I haven't seen I'm out of A-list passes for the week I saw Sense and Sensibility on Monday
01:06:42 So did the Fielder movie supplant The Odyssey? I think it did I need to think about it a little more But I think it just might have All right More on the Patreon But I do consider the film to be a masterpiece
01:06:56 But that again I'm a pretty easy lay For the version of Nathan Fielder we're getting in this movie Yeah, it goes without saying. Day one, Nathan for you watcher on Comedy Central. So, you know, I bought my season tickets early. The dividends keep rolling in for me.
01:07:15 That's mixing metaphors, but I don't care. The Seattle Cracken, they're good, huh? We buying it? No. Thank you. Yeah. No, they're actually pretty hard to play against this year. All right, man.
01:07:28 No, they are, but I mean, there's a ceiling to it. There's a ceiling to it. And as I've often said about this team, it's just like it's, it's deleterious to the overall direction they should be in right now as a franchise to be, you know, 11 points in nine games and a plus four goal differential. Because what's the end result going to be? You're not getting any better. You're not getting any worse. They're just like I mentioned hockey purgatory before. They're the epitome of it.
01:07:58 Yeah. Well, obviously this is something I agree with. they should be just fucking trying to be as bad as possible. And hey, whatever happened with like Maddie Baneers wanting out or whatever? No, it was Shane Wright, not Maddie Baneers. I take it back, Maddie. You're Shane right, yeah. Yeah.
01:08:13 I don't know. Whatever happened with that? Never got. I don't, I don't know. And that was another team. That was another team that was him, I don't know if it was him wanting out or if it was like, he was the guy where it's like, well, everybody wants a center. And, uh, if, uh, if, uh,
01:08:30 I'm going to look this up. If somebody, if somebody, ante's up something that we need, then we'll trade him is the thing. I thought, yeah, Shane Wright requested a trade. It says here July 9th Sound of Hockey. That's what the headline says. So he asked out, and this was one of those teams to your point earlier that was like, if you don't want to be here, we don't fucking want you. Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you, brother.
01:08:58 And it's like, I don't think you get to talk like that. No. You're the Seattle Cracken. Do you understand the problem with that? The best news for the Cracken this week is that apparently the NBA might put a team in Mexico City before they bring it back to Seattle. Is that I didn't see that? There was a talk about their, like, it was reported, I think, by a couple of the ESPN NBA guys that like they have, they all of a sudden Mexico City is kind of an interesting spot. versus putting a team back.
01:09:30 Now, this, of course, coincides with our good friend, Tom Dundon, having apparently talked to the NBA about relocating the Trailblazers, and everybody's just like, they'll go to Seattle. So who knows? Sure. Well, that would also make sense. And then you can put a new team in Portland, Oregon. There you go. And everybody will be like, these are actually the same as Trailblazers as before. The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland.
01:09:58 And in fact, this expansion team, that's who Clyde Drexler played for. Oh, man, don't even tempt me with a good time talking about the 90s Trailblazers. Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Kevin Duckworth, Jerome Cursey. The rest. Yeah, so anyway, let's see. Anybody else A nice little surprise here Not really
01:10:27 The Rangers top Six is good Their D is better than I thought it was going to be And they're getting They're getting really good goaltending right now They're getting superhuman goaltending, yep Yeah So we'll see where it all ends up
01:10:42 But they're sure or shit are better than I thought they'd be We'll see how long it lasts You know, it's 10 games They've probably played the blue jacket six times already. You know, like, who knows? But they lost to the blue jackets. They shouldn't play the blue jackets.
01:11:02 That's the point. I was just thinking of a team I don't respect. Oh, okay. You know? Hey, speaking of the Detroit Red Wings, John Butchagross apparently said on that podcast, I don't know, I remember the name of the podcast. It's a frankly hockey, sir,
01:11:19 named after John Butcheross. they should have like a frank. L.Y is their as their URL. As a URL. Yeah, that would be a good one. That he expects Dylan Larkin to be traded within the next seven to ten days, but he said that on a day that was like more than seven days ago.
01:11:41 So now we're in the, it should be this week area. Now that's interesting, isn't it? I don't know. I mean like again you know what would compel them to finally move him what are they looking for what do they want back
01:11:55 who's stepping up it's the same thing as Hella Buck at this point and the only difference being is that he's he's playing You know what does that look like behind the scenes How much of a nuisance is it
01:12:07 Is he being pouty I don't know But I you know I never I never thought Yeah that it was a stone cold guarantee that he'd be traded.
01:12:21 Huh. First of all, do we know that Horkoff has the autonomy to make a trade? He says he does. Co? Okay. Okay. That's what they're saying. I'm not saying that's true. I obviously agree with you. I'm using a huge difference between signing a guy to a contract that that ownership is basically
01:12:43 dictating the terms on and then also versus negotiating a trade. with a GM, like a novice general manager is going to negotiate a trade that's going to kind of like plot the path forward for this organization. Yeah, that's, I mean, so here's the thing is I wonder if they were like, we're good. Like going into the season, they, for whatever reason,
01:13:10 diluted themselves into thinking they were good, right? And now the bill's starting to come due on that. Turns out we're not good. Uh-oh. Well, might as well trade Dylan Larkin, if that's the case. I wonder how much of it is that. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see.
01:13:28 We certainly will. Hootoo knows his stuff. He's very plugged in. He plays golf with a lot of guys. It's undeniable. And speaking of another guy, the Red Wings have yet to deal with Simon Edvinson. Back in the U.S., he's practicing at Boston University. All right.
01:13:48 So that's the update. They're not going to trade them. They're going to sign him at some point. Oh, I agree with that. Yeah. Although he should. And you know what? I was thinking about this.
01:14:00 We haven't heard a fucking word about Alexander Niketian lately. What's up with that? I don't know. It's a good question. Thank you. I mean, it's an organization that doesn't feel the need to really do anything with him. Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:16 Like they're fine. They can justify it. They're not hurting. Detroit can't. Yeah, that's exactly right. They're like, oh, yeah, I guess I remember that guy from work. Sure. What's he up to?
01:14:27 Oh, it's up to me to say? Oh, interesting. All right. The Dallas Stars, it was reported this week that the Plano, Texas Independent School District, has pledged up to $250 million over the next 18 years to fund the Star's new arena, in addition to a $700 million. commitment, the city has also proposed to pay. I don't think they should be doing this.
01:14:55 I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't think so either. I think, you know, growing generations of new fans at the expense of them all being idiots isn't great. Yeah, but then, then you can, like, if they're stupid enough, you can be like, we actually don't have to trade our captain who demanded a trade over the summer. It's actually, we're good. It's fine. Yeah, I don't know. I saw that report.
01:15:26 I actually haven't seen if the team is really... Have they commented on that yet? Not that I've seen. Yeah, so who knows? I would expect them to stay mum about that kind of thing. Schools, huh? I'm not familiar. Never heard about it.
01:15:40 Tell me more. That's what I'd be saying if I were them. To deflect from the fact that I'm taking hundreds of millions of dollars from schools, maybe. Not great. You know? But yeah, and then I'm quoting an article from CBS, Texas. Plano ISD says the agreement is expected to be offset through adjustments
01:16:03 to the amount. It owes to the state under the current law. The district projects it will receive about 438 million over the same area or 188 million more than the projected contribution. Those figures are projections, not guarantees. So we can all feel good about it now, it turns out.
01:16:22 There you go. Because now it's just the state's education system that's getting screwed here, not like specifically Plano. Right. If it's not happening in my backyard, I'm not even sure it's happening. I'm just bummed they're moving. I like where that arena is in Dallas. For me, personally. Well, yeah, I mean, they found a sucker, right?
01:16:47 They were like, they just found some marks to give them a bunch of money. And they were like, oh, that sounds great for us. Thank you. Am I right that Frito Lay is based in Plano, Texas? I could not tell you. I think it is. I think it is. I know that the, I believe the Cigars International Bar that I go to when I cover the stars is in Plano.
01:17:10 And I drive out there and sit outside and watch sports and have a stogue. Frito Lay headquarters, 77. 701 Legacy Drive, Plano, Texas. There you go. There you go. Now, Greg, you can stop ink at the factory tour. This is where we make the Cheetos. The Fritos and the Lays.
01:17:28 Mm-hmm. That's right. Yeah. This is a good idea. And in fact, it's content at the end of the day. Finally, I wanted to talk briefly about this. Dave Hacks stole first weekend with Arizona State. They win both of their games.
01:17:44 Don't look up who it was against. Please. Does Greg Powers ever get another job? Oh, I don't think so. No? Do you know what his job was before he was the coach of Arizona State's Division I College hockey team? I do not.
01:18:02 He was the coach of their club team. And then when they elevated the club team from club to Division I, they were like, I guess you can stay the coach. You can stay, okay. That's what his job was. So, um. Yeah, they didn't look very good, honestly. They got pretty badly outshot on the weekend, but you take the wins where you can get them when you change the coach.
01:18:29 I don't know if you saw this report, Greg. He met the team for practice at like 4.30 p.m. on Thursday. He, he, like, met the team in Lull. He didn't even, like, fly with him from Arizona. Yeah, that was the part I didn't, I didn't know. Yeah. Like, he did not. meet them on campus.
01:18:50 But after the game, he said that by a quirk of the schedule, they have this coming weekend off. And so he's basically like turning that into a mini training camp. This is how I need you guys to actually play from now on. Who's going to win college hockey this year? Looking like the fucking Michigan Wolverines, isn't it, Greg? As you know, I could not give a shit until the Frozen Four starts. Yeah.
01:19:17 It's looking like Michigan. They are, I'm just going to pull it up here really quickly. Michigan is currently 6 and 0, okay? They have outscored their opponents, 36 to 12. Do the math on that real quick for me. I don't know, man. That sounds like a team that's going to just get upset by a Bidmiggy State at some point. I don't think the beavers have it this year, you know?
01:19:45 Look, like you often. Minnesota State is the class of the of the CCHA. They went to Merrimack of all places and got their fucking doors blown off this week. Of all places. I don't think of Merrimack as being the kind of team that can put up aid on you too often. And yet they did it to Minnesota State just days ago. Oh, and I should also say Michigan, their wins this past weekend. We're against the reigning national champions Denver at Denver, wins of 4 to 1 and 4 to 3.
01:20:22 So they went out there and they beat the brakes off of them. Basically what it boils down to, they're going to be really good. Landon DuPont, the presumptive number one pick, the guy they're all jockeying for, the next Matthew Schaefer, many people, are they saying that? I mean, he's got six points in five games and he's playing 18 and a half minutes and The next Matthew Schaefer. I don't know that they're saying that. But, you know, I've yet to see him play live, and I don't think I'm going to get the chance. I don't think they come out east this year, unfortunately, for me.
01:21:01 But, yeah, they were my pick at the beginning of the year, and I've seen absolutely nothing to dissuade me from that position to this point. So good, good team those Michigan Wolverines. There you go. There you go. Greg, that's it. We're done here. Why don't you say some plugs and we'll get out of here? Read my stuff on ESPN.
01:21:26 By the way, they gave me my column back on Thursdays, which is sort of a faux puck daddy slice of the internet with jokes and jersey fowels and hot takes and things of that nature. It's called the wish list because. why not? And it's on Thursdays. My last name is list. Oh, okay.
01:21:51 Sure. Like Franz List. And so I, that's every Thursday. And, you know, I go on with Merrick, a bunch of times a week.
01:22:00 And, you know, all the Patreon stuff. My God, you know, the OUFL, the stick to soup, the bonus podcast
01:22:09 with me and Lambert and Douglas Brown. MeismPod at some point And then You can also check out the Photo essay I did from my trip to New York Comic-Con, my annual sojourn
01:22:24 To New York Comic-Con Let me guess some guy was there He was dressed up as like, what if baby Yoda was crazy? You know what? There was a guy. What if he's the Joker? Okay? This is going to sound crazy.
01:22:36 All right, I'm listening. There was a guy there dressed like Deadpool. Can you believe that shit? Did he know he was at Comic-Con? An obscure character like Deadpool represented in a cosplay? That's crazy.
01:22:52 The murk with a mouth in Comic-Con? No way. I just don't buy it. It was crazy. It's completely implausible to me. And then for me, you head over to perfecttakes.bhive.com. You can read all kinds of my takes over there, including one that I, uh, I, uh, I wrote earlier this week about how nobody knows anything about the Connor Hallibug situation.
01:23:17 And anybody who tries to tell you they do, they don't. Basically what it boils down to. And then I guess, well, Greg already plugged the Patreon. So that's, that's, yeah, thank you to everybody who subscribes to the Patreon. Yes, patreon.com slash pucks. Thrill with how many people want to be participants and also just like, couldn't there be more? There could. Well, there could, but I mean, that's probably on us.
01:23:43 But I think we make fun. I think we make fun shit. And I'm happy that people want to consume it. I simply agree. That's patreon.com slash puck soup. And you can read my stuff at the hockey news as well. I'm on there. Three, four, five, six times a week depending on all kinds of things.
01:24:01 So check all that out. And thanks for listening to the show. And me and Greg are going to go do a mailbag real quick here. And goodbye. Bye. Thank you.