Puck Soup - Pacific Madness

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about the latest Hockey Canada news, the Oilers' streak, the Kings coaching change, All-Star weekend, and more. Disclaimer: The Hockey Canada sexual assault case is discussed from 00:20 to 14:15 Sponsored by Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off), Factor (factormeals.com/puck50) and AG1 (drinkAG1.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnew from The Athletic. And we're going to start off like we did last week where we're talking about the latest info in the hockey Canada stuff. If you want to not hear that for any reason, we'll put a note in the episode description. And, yeah, so let's just get into it. uh they the the the london police held a held a press conference on monday uh while i was driving to the bean pot so i didn't catch it live

but uh not a lot of new information i guess you would say um other than you know basically a little more information on on the charges and next steps and that kind of thing um two charges against Michael McLeod, one for everybody else. Did you have any initial thoughts on just like the broad? Yeah, not really. It was a frustrating watch because essentially it was a lot of questions being asked and the responses being variations of we can't get into that right now. Yeah.

And understandably. It's, it's, we all want some answers on a lot of this stuff. But obviously the thing that nobody wants is for something to get said at a media conference that then plays into the actual court cases and potentially opens the door to, you know, to something that would be, would be a negative. So the main, I guess the source of a lot of that frustration was that the London police described a few times that they consider the original investigation, which resulted in no charges, to be the same as the investigation there currently, that led to. to this current set of charges, meaning they can't discuss the old investigation, what happened, what didn't happen, what went wrong as far as why there were no charges, they declined to speak to any of that. So there will be a time to get those answers, one would hope, but at this point, you know, at this point, until this plays out in court, which could take a while, it doesn't sound like we're going to get a whole lot.

Yeah, that's all exactly right. It's just, again, like a situation where they don't want to compromise the investigation or however you want to put it and, you know, just give you, they can't give the answers because of all the stuff that Sean just said, right? And so the problem with that is that people, of course, do want answers and, again, understandable. But that also means that, like, because the London police can't be forthcoming with a trial date that might not even be till 2026. Now they're saying maybe sometime in 2025, the NHL and Hockey Canada's, like, independent investigations also can't really come out. Because those two could, you know, potentially affect the outcome of the case.

And they don't want to get involved in any of that. And understandably so. But the other thing this allows them to do, the NHL and Hockey Canada, is go, well, you know, we can't do anything about it. So don't ask us any questions. Yeah. So what were your thoughts on Gary Bedman when he was asked on Friday when he had his annual All-Stra? our press availability. Obviously, this came up several times. Yes.

And I guess the news there was, as you said, the fact that nothing will come of the NHL investigation until the legal process is played out, which led to the obvious question of, okay, between now and whatever that resolution of the case is, can these players return to the NHL? And Gary Betman's answer was that he would be very surprised if we saw these players in the NHL again. Yeah, and I think he is right. Like, the point that he made, I think, more than once that is true and, like, is kind of undeniable at this point is, look, these guys are all pending RFAs. so they're going to be away from their teams for the time being and, you know, permanently in all likelihood, like we talked about last week.

And because of that and the fact that their contracts will be up in a few months, you're never going to hear from these guys again. Or, you know, things would have to go very unexpectedly, I think, for you to hear from any of these guys in the NHL. Yeah. And I guess the, when I heard. that answer from Gary Bedman, my reaction was to think, well, I would be very surprised is not the same as no. And I thought, man, he's not closing the door on this, which I found surprising and a little bit, it bothered me. I will say that the rest of the weekend in talking to some people who know Gary Betman a lot better than I do, they were all unanimous that

Gary Betman saying, I would be very surprised, was his way of saying no chance in hell. Yeah, that was kind of how I took it. You know, you have to, again, like, PR-wise. That's legally speaking, and as we all know, Gary Betman is a lawyer first and a sports guy second, he cannot or may feel like he cannot get up there and say, no, we're barring these guys from the NHL. Right. If that is not something that's allowed under the CBA or whatever other rules.

And so, you know, what I was told by a few people was that my interpretation was the wrong one and that Gary Bettman, that was as strongly as he could say, no without specifically and technically and legally saying no. Yeah, that was kind of my read on it. Just again, you kind of have to leave

the door open, legally speaking, for things to change in a way that, again, would be extremely unexpected. And again, like, I get why people are maybe disappointed in that answer or whatever, but you got to keep in mind that with like Slava Voinov, which seemed like a much more open and shut kind of a case, the NHL didn't take any formal action against him until he pled no contest in that case. So, you know, they're trying to cover their bases. And again, you don't have to, you don't have to like it.

You can think that's like the wrong thing to do, but that's just how it's going to go. And I, you know, I'm not, I, if they wanted to suspend these players, like, who would have a problem with it, right? Except, of course, like people on the legal side who are representing the players would be the answer. And so it seems like the players are going to continue to get paid through the remainder of the season. Although their teams will get cap relief for doing that, for, you know, them being away. Yep. But otherwise, like, you know, they don't really... I guess we shouldn't say they don't really have the power.

They have pretty broad power to do a lot of things unilaterally. But again, like, if they suspend these players, these players can maybe take some sort of an action that would, again, potentially endanger. the court Keep in mind These are all players who up to a few years

ago expected that they were going to make millions of dollars as professional hockey players and are now looking at the possibility that their careers and their earning potential

is now done if anyone were to give them an opening. It's quite possible they would take it to Yeah. So I think again, with

Whether it's Gary Bettman, whether it's the London police, everybody is being very cautious here. I get that that's frustrating to an extent, but it is, it's the right thing. So I think we all just kind of have to be patient here. Yeah, the other thing to say is that Hockey Canada has suspended, not just these players, but all players from the the 2018 team from anything to do with like hockey Canada events or coaching or anything like that. And obviously they can't play for, they can't represent Canada internationally. Yeah. Which this will, you know, to do that now is no big deal.

We'll see if it changes between now and the world championships, which would be the next. opportunity for any of these guys to be involved. And then certainly there would be a pressure point beyond that with Kail McCarr specifically, being the one guy that you would look at as a potential important part of Team Canada. So I would not be surprised at some point if once it becomes clear who was involved, how, what sort of cooperation are people giving? I feel like the suspension was a good way to signal that, hey, man, we expect full cooperation from everybody in any investigations. And I wouldn't be surprised if you saw for at least some people that that suspension lifted.

Yeah. I mean, there's members of the team that weren't even in the city at the time. Including Kail Makar, yeah. But the other thing is. There, I believe, in the city, but has been very steadfast to have had zero involvement in this. And I guess that's the other piece of this is that, again, there's that gap between we've got five players facing charges, eight players that had been mentioned in the lawsuit. And they were, the London police were asked, is, you know, could there be more charges? And essentially, without saying no, they made it clear that this is, this is what they're moving forward with.

Right. But the other thing to say is that one of the few revelations from London police that was actually kind of newsworthy in the press conference was that right now, based on all the information they have, these are all the charges. This seems like it's going to be all the charges that they press on anybody involved. But also they said that things could change. They think there are witnesses out there who may have more information. And, you know, they've talked about, you know, there were like group chats that these guys were involved in. And some players have turned over information pertinent to that, apparently. And new information can come forward. I mean, that's part of why you do, you know, as much as those of us in the hockey world, this has been a huge story for going on a year and a half now.

Yeah. That's not the case for everyone. And, you know, maybe seeing the coverage reminds somebody or encourages somebody to step forward with more information. So, yeah, they certainly didn't close the door on it. But also, they made it pretty clear there's nothing imminent as far as anything beyond the five that we already have. Yep, that's right. Um, so yeah, I don't know if there's anything else, uh, really, any new developments, anything we missed. I don't think there is.

Yeah. So, um, yeah, why don't we, why don't we move on to, uh, actual hockey stuff now, I guess? Um, and we can talk about, uh, last night's big game, Edmonton, uh, winning streak is over. They lost last night to Vegas three to one, uh, the third. goal was an empty netter. Do you watch this game? I watched some of it, which is my Eastern guy way of saying. I watched the first period and then went to bed.

Got so sleepy. So sleepy. Well, I watched like the whole period and they didn't say anything about the Maple Leafs, like the whole time. Sure. Yeah. So, yeah, what can you say? Edmonton Oilers, big losers.

Yeah, a pathetic team that's, obviously. I would tear it all down before the deadline. Yeah, look, you cannot be losing to a team like Vegas. Like half their best players are, oh wait, no, Vegas every year all their best players are hurt the entire season. And somehow, somehow they're still one of the best teams in the world. What is Vegas everyone? That's exactly right. Yeah, so I guess my general take it on the game was that, um,

Edmonton, especially at five on five, I thought kind of didn't do a ton, or at least weren't getting to the net enough in my humble opinion. To really make you feel like, you know, there's a lot of Vegas games where you watch and it's like, no, they're dialed in. You're not bothering their goal. Like this is why Aiden Hill went from a guy nobody wanted to winning the Stanley Cup. is they can just build a wall around their net and nobody gets anywhere near it and that's not to say that like the Vegas generated a ton of offense

because I really didn't think they did what were final shots in the game here. Final shots were 3126 Vegas but final high danger chances in all situations were 18 to 8 for Edmonton. So, okay. But yeah, I just,

look, the only thing you're going to say about how the Oilers played at five on five is their one goal in the game was a shorthanded goal. Yep. The old shorthanded two on oh. Yep. Between,

and the two in this case were McDavid and Drysidal. So Aiden Hill might as well have just skated to the bench. See you later. That would have been the time to do the tip over the net thing. Yeah, why not, right? Absolutely. But yeah, just...

And I guess the thing we should say on this is obviously, and we'll hear about this, I'm sure, a lot this week. A lot of teams coming off buys, a lot of teams coming off the break. There's always kind of a rust factor. There's... I don't know that we, you know, you look at Edmonton, that you can really say anything definitive

other than they were playing a really good team, and they didn't have their best game. And that's it. And also it's really fucking hard to win 17 games in a row. That's why it's hard to win that many games in a row. Eventually the schedule is going to give you some good teams, and you're not going to be great every night. And in this case, sometimes you're going to be coming in off a week off

where you've got, you know, most of the team is rusty, and two of your best players are maybe, I wouldn't say fatigued from the All-Star weekend. Sure. Carter McDavid was running around. He was doing a lot of stuff that week. Yeah, they didn't play since two Saturdays ago. This was Edmonton's first game and two Saturdays, or, you know, a week and a half.

So that's just, we talked about it last week where, like, the schedule, like nothing happened on the schedule for a while there, you know. not just involving the oilers, involving like three quarters of the league, it seemed like. And so, like, I think I said last week or the week before, like, this is coming at the exact wrong time for the oilers this break. You know, they were rolling. And yeah, they played in that 16 game stretch, they played at Columbus, I think, 14 times. Yep, that was right. You know, that's obviously going to, that's obviously going to help pass. out the win stats.

But like that also means that when they sucked or whatever, you know, or they were losing a lot, they played like the Rangers and the Stars and the Canucks. You know, like all the good teams in the league, they also already played all of those guys. So you get to play the bad teams sometimes too. Yep. But yeah, it was a fun game really good, you know, edgy your seat kind of stuff. Yeah, definitely. This sort of game that, and I, I,

I saw this from several people where you're going, yeah, I could do this again in May, for sure. Seven of these. Yeah, that sounds. Well, I got great fucking news for you. They're going to do that. They're going to do it in April. That's true.

Yeah, you're right about that. Unless Vancouver, you know, Vancouver holds the one seed, then it's going to be Edmonton Vegas. And which case will have a bunch of people complaining about the playoff format. but understandably so I would say maybe um yeah I mean so the thing is they showed this last night and I was like damn they like they showed the standings during the game last night and and uh Vegas is up seven points on Edmonton I was like holy shit I mean I knew Vegas had a really good run to start the year but were they that good and then it's like oh wait hold on a second

yeah Vegas has also played five more games than the Oilers. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like of all the things, of all the many, many things in my life that I criticize that I would be terrible if I actually had to get off my butt and do it myself, one of the many is making a schedule as something as complicated as the NHL. Yeah.

But good God, man. Can we not have like 10% gaps in games played in February? Yeah. That's right. And the answer is, no, you can't. No, you can't. Sorry. It has to be this way.

Oh, the Oilers have now dropped behind the senators. Senators have been the go-to, haven't played enough. Well, they had all those games last week. The senators have loaded up on all those fascinating blue jackets games that they had. Did you see that they're doing buy one, get one tickets in Ottawa for a good chunk of the rest of the season? I did not see that, but I'm not surprised. Yeah. No, I, but I can't remember who pointed it out.

But one of them is like, if you buy a ticket to what, like you said, a game against Columbus, they're like, we'll give you a ticket to the to the Kachuk bowl, with Florida. And it's like, hell, I'd go see Florida for free. That sounds like a great deal. So anyway, yeah, the oilers are still good, folks. I don't need to tell you. But let's stay in the Pacific Division.

And let's talk about the big news late last week. The coaching change. Behind the bench for the Los Angeles Kings. Todd McClellan, out. Jim Hiller. In is the interim. And then a few days later, DJ Smith brought in as an assistant. That fixes it.

I mean, when you get a guy with a track record like DJ Smith's, you know? You know what? DJ Smith is a guy that I think a lot of these guys are, sometimes they make for better assistance than that guys. For sure. What's interesting there is, obviously, Camp Talbot was under DJ Smith last year and was terrible. And now this year has been very good up until the last month or so when he is not been as good as now, now DJ Smith comes in. Obviously, D.G.G. Smith is coming to his goalie coach or anything like that. Imagine if he was.

Oh, no. Wow. But, yeah, I mean, not shocked, maybe a little bit surprised at it, because I think Tom McCleon's a real good coach. But, man, a lot of coach, what is this now, 13 since the last game of last regular season? I mean, we're getting up to half the league. that's, uh, were you surprised at all that they went with Jim Hiller as interim, but it was, it was announced as interim for the rest of the year.

In other words, this isn't something, it sounds like he's going to do two games and then they're going to hire Craig Baruch. Right. Are you surprised at all, they didn't go with more of a full time, long-term solution? I am only because there are basically every coach that has gotten fired this year with the assumption of DJ Smith. I would say, like, oh, that's a good coach, you know. And so you would think that a team would want to jump on hiring one of those guys,

but also, given that there are like six of them or whatever so far this year, maybe they don't feel the pressure. And this to me is the critical thing, right? Is, you know, you can say what you want about how the season has gone, especially of late for L.A. At this point, and especially given how the Oilers have played, they are locked in on a not getting into the Pacific Division playoffs path, right? Like, the Oilers are three points up with two games in hand.

They have three games in hand on Vegas, but they're 10 points back. Nobody's catching Vancouver, it feels like. And so it's just like, yeah, I mean, we could go out and hire a big name coach, but he's going to get us to the wild card spot. But doesn't it feel crucially important that they get the wild card spot? I mean, to miss the playoffs, especially after how good they were the first 30 games or so. Yeah, well, sure, right. I mean, regardless of even the first 30 games, like you, I guess my point is, my point is you don't

want to be locked in a playoff race with St. Louis, Nashville, and Seattle and feel like you're going places as an organization. But at the same time, just the way things are trending, they would have to kind of screw up pretty badly to miss the playoffs at this point. Like they've just, you know, they're technically two points ahead of Nashville, for example, but they've played three fewer games. And so it's not impossible, obviously, that, like, it continues to fall apart.

But, you know, there is some amount of, well, look, it's the Predators we're talking about here. You know what I mean? Predators are hanging around, and the blues have been better. The Blues are surgery. But they would have to, both of those teams would have to pass L.A. And also, I mean, Seattle and Calgary are kicking around. Kicking around is being generous, I think.

But, yeah, technically they're still in it, sure. Technically still have franchises. MoneyPuck has L.A. is 88.5% to make the playoffs even with all this. So, you know, if things get worse, which I guess is possible, You don't want to have, okay, let me put it this way. I think maybe Rob Blake feels like what's going on is kind of independent of the coach. Because as recently as like two weeks ago, he was saying, no, Tom McClellan's my guy. And then the losing continued.

And, you know, vote of confidence, we've all, we've all been there in terms of that's often a kiss of death. But, yeah. It just feels like the best possible outcome for them is that they continue to be a wildcard team and then get their teeth kicked in by whoever wins the Central or Vancouver. And the worst case scenario is they finish two points lower than that. You know what I mean? Yeah, I don't. I mean, if I'm if I'm Rob Blake, I'm looking at this going, first of a half. of the season, we were one of the best teams in the league.

If we can get back to that, like, I'll take a run of Vancouver in the first round. I'll take a run at Colorado, in a peg, maybe. Like, you know, I feel like those teams are beatable. And even then, I do feel like the, just, it would feel like a big step back for this rebuild. I agree. To the point where you're starting to see, like, Eric, Stephen's. at the athletic head of piece where he was like,

spotlight's on Rob Blake now. It definitely is for sure. He's not necessarily locked in, which again, it's amazing what two months can do because a couple months ago, it looked like this was the model rebuild for all of the many teams

that are doing one or about to start one right now where it's like, yeah, this is, it was slow and steady. They didn't even do the full tear down. They didn't trade Copatar or Doubtie or anything like that. And they're back and they're good and they're ready to make some noise in the playoffs.

And now it's sputtering. But still a good chance they make it. But I don't know. I feel like getting your teeth kicked in in the first round even is, you know, not just a step back in the obvious sense, but kind of makes you reevaluate some things in the offseason maybe. Yeah, well, the other thing I want to say is, like, if you, if you had said at the beginning of the season, okay, Vancouver is going on a, like, the PDO vendor of all time, right?

Like, everybody on that team shooting 25%, you know? So here's what's going to happen because of that. and this is you talking to Rob Blake. You're not going to finish ahead of them because their PDO is ridiculous. And they're a good team, but, you know, let's be honest about why they are or where they are in the standings.

And you're not going to finish ahead of Vegas and Edmonton. I think anybody would be like that makes total sense. Vegas and Edmondon, the cup favorite in Edmonton this year, I think. you know, by and large, and the reigning cup champions who brought pretty much most of that team back.

I think you would, you would, with the understanding that Vancouver is just going to win all these games regardless of anything, anything else going on, you would say, well, then it's probably

just not possible for me to finish top three in the, in the division. Sure. And as you said, they had the insanely hot start mostly because of Cam Talbot standing on his head for two months or whatever it was. And so I don't know. Like to me, if you if you just said like, well, this was where L.A. was always going to end up. That makes sense to me.

You know what I mean? Yeah. But that's before the season, before they just. And also the way they got there. Yeah. But you're right. The way they got there, by they start, I have it right in front of me, 16, 4, and 3. And since they won 16 of their first 23 games, they are 7-11 and 7, which is, you know, like Anaheim level bad.

That's fair. Yeah. That is extraordinary. I mean, seven wins, 18 losses. Yep. Ooh. Yep. No, it's.

like, so like I say, I totally get why they fired the coach. It felt like something they had to do. You can't have the players, um, whatever, like talking shit about each other in the media, basically. Ah, we got some guys who weren't trying out there or whatever. Mm-hmm. But at the same time, I just, uh, I, I can't get, I can't get too worked up about, I can't believe this is where the Kings ended up. You know what I mean?

like it just it feels like an impossible situation for anybody in that division again given how much stronger Vancouver is than anybody really had any right to expect sure that's fair so yeah I mean they they wanted to take a step but like Seattle wanted to take a step this year based on their playoff performance last season right and because because of the division format just it's not not always possible.

That's all. Yep. So why don't we take our first break and then we'll come back and we'll talk about all the other newsworthy stuff from All-Star Weekend. This episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Game Time and folks, what do we always say? When we're talking about buying tickets, you shouldn't have to worry when you do it, right? You're trying to plan for the next big event. You don't want to have to stress out about availability. and prices and all the extra fees and that kind of thing.

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Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3 plus K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase exclusively at drinkag1.com slash puck. That's drinkag1.com slash puck. Check it out. All right, we're back. And I guess the biggest news out of All-Star Weekend is that the NHL claims it is going back to the Olympics in 2026. Yeah, you don't sound convinced.

No, I guess I'm going to. It will be seven times. Yeah, I'm going to be. I'm going to do this meme. I'm old enough to remember when they said they were going in 2022. How'd that work out? Mm-hmm.

Look, like I said this last week. The players need to be on the ice in Italy. Okay. And I'll go, oh, I guess they're there. You know what I mean? Like the ref has to do, uh, remember a couple years ago they had the ref,

like, oh, let's have a great season out there. This is what it's all about. They're going to have to do that at the Olympics before they drop the puck before I'm like, okay, you know what? This is happening. This is locked in Italian. That, yeah. Or at least.

An outrageous Italian super Mario style accent. That's what I was going to say. At least they got to go house of Gucci mode on this one. Perfect. So, yeah. Are you? less skeptical than me, I guess? I am because there isn't as much, you know, the COVID situation hanging over things is not as,

obviously, as big an issue. And the China factor was part of it last time. So I think it's going to happen. I think that with the obvious that, yeah, I mean, if for whatever, reason something unexpected happens, then I think we all know that Gary Betman will pull the shoot if he can. I'm just not sure that he can here. So it's exciting. It's good to have them back. And we've got a four nations cup next year, not a World Cup, four nations. Those nations are Canada, Jamaica, Greenland, and Vatican City.

And Canada still will have the third best goaltending. Well, Greenland, who owns Greenland? Is it the Dutch? There's got to be a Dutch goaltender right there. Didn't you guys buy Greenland? Wasn't that a thing a few years ago? Pretty sure you did. I think that was one of those deals Trump said he was going to. going to make, I don't know if it came. If he said he was going to do it, I'm assuming he got it done. Well, he's a deal maker.

Yeah. You can't, you can't take that away from. The art of the deal. Yeah. Are you, okay, are you one of these people who's mad about the Four Nations? And like, why are we even doing this? Mad is not the right word. Are you mad online?

No. And don't put in the newspaper that I am. No, like, I guess I'm apathetic. I'm just like, oh, okay, yeah, they're going to do this. You know, I, will it be good hockey? Yeah, probably will. Will the players care? Yeah, they probably will.

It doesn't mean anything at all? No. Why not? Why does it not mean anything? It's best on best hockey featuring not everybody, so, you know, you can. That's what. But it's, but come on, it's the four. It's not that I need a lot via there or whatever.

Certainly four of the five top nations. And, you know, as much as historically Russia has been a huge part of international hockey, I don't think they'd be anyone's favorite to medal in a full tournament. I don't know. They'd have 52-year-old Alex Ovechkin out there. Oh, yeah. You know? He's crushing it this year.

He's been unbelievable. No. it's just I guess I feel about it the same way I felt about the World Cup, however long ago that was now, where obviously it was like, okay, there's team Europe and the U23 team or whatever. Right. So that's a little different. But at the same time, it's just like, I don't know, it feels too much like a cash grab to me. And I'm not a guy who's like, it feels. like a cash grab and that guarantees that it's going to be bad or anything like that.

I'm just saying like, I don't know. It's just like either let them fucking go to the Olympics or do this shit, but don't do both. Like don't, you know what I mean? Like, don't like give me an appetizer for the Olympics that's just going to be like a worse Olympics. But isn't that what the World Cup always is? Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. I didn't care about the World Cup that much. Yeah, see, that's, I, the World Cup is great.

I think it's Canada Cup, World Cup, whatever you want to call it. This is a wateredown version of it, sure, but I love best on best hockey. I don't think every two years is too often. I didn't love the team Europe thing. And even Team North America, I know we all thought it was very cool to see it play out at the time. but I'm already seeing people like, why wouldn't you do that again? No, I don't, I don't like that. I like best on best get all the individual countries represented.

But I'm hyped for this. It's going to be, it's going to be good. I mean, I'll probably go. They're in Boston for some of it. So I'll probably like go and stuff. But I'm not like, I'm just not like, oh, this is what it's all about, man. this this uh NHL branded tournament

wow you know what I mean like that's just kind of my my feeling on it I don't um it like I said the hockey will be good the guys will care that's most that's 80% of what I care about but again I just think the way it's being

hyped up is like aren't you so psyched for this? I'm like you know not really that's all okay fair enough I get everything you're saying But to me It's funny because everybody was like Boy, the All-Star Weekend was like kind of fucking good this year, wasn't it? Didn't we all have fun with that?

And then the NHL's like, and of course we won't be doing the All-Star game for two years. Oh, okay, great. So that's where all this is coming from. You're just going to miss the All-Star game. You're sad that there won't be an All-Star game. Although they say that they are doing the All-Star game in two years. They're not going to do it next year.

The Four Nations replaces it. But they are going to do it at least now before the Olympics. And they kind of do it as a send-off to the Olympics. I didn't see that. That is, okay. Well, then great. Boy, you want to talk about nobody tries in the All-Star game. Yes, right?

Those guys will be, like, they'll drop the post- fucking nobody will move for the 20 minutes of the period. Like it's, why on earth? Simpson soccer animation. A hundred percent, man. Why on earth with Connor David? A real cynic, and there's no room for that on this show.

But if you were a real cynic, you'd say the fact that they're still planning an all-star game suggests that maybe the Olympics is not as locked in as. Yeah. Or, you know, one last chance to glad hand with the, with the good people in Bridgestone tires. That's it.

Before we head off to Italy and do Michael Mann, Ferrari movie. You see this Ferrari movie? No. It's really good. Should I? I rely on you to tell me what movies I'm supposed to watch. It's really, really good. I loved it.

Last time I watched a movie without your permission was saltburn. Yeah. How'd that work out for you, huh? I'm still having the nightmare, so. The other thing I did want to talk about with regard to international best-on-best hockey is that this really all seems to have happened because Marty Walsh kind of put his foot down a little bit. Yeah. Am I reading that correctly? Well, I mean, I feel like it was moving in that direction very strongly regardless.

I mean, the players have been very clear on this. But, yes, this is, you know, Marty Walsh is getting settled in, let's just say. Yeah, feeling good about it, his position now, yeah. Yeah. Got the lay of the land. He has, he made some other news, all-star weekend. Yeah, well, okay, let's just talk about it then. He went nutso on the Arizona Coyote situation.

Yeah, that's a way to put it. I think a different way to put it is the NHLPA has finally woken up on this issue. We've been waiting for this. For years and years, that has been one of the ongoing questions with the coyotes, which is where are the players on this? And now the players are here. And Marty Walsh is here. And he's basically saying, shoot her get off the point.

Let's go. let's figure this out. And that combined with Gary Betman being his usual supportive self of the coyotes, but not, I would say not overly supportive. What did he say when it came to coyote's ownership? He said something along the lines of that he is, he will trust his owners until they give him a reason not to, and that his expectation is that they would live up to what they said,

which again, we get into the business of parsing Gary Betman and what does he actually mean, but that that was largely viewed as a intentionally not quite ironclad endorsement. Right. Again, we talked about it last week where, you know, the Coyote's ownership was supposed to have kind of figured stuff, out by now and it hasn't happened obviously. But I just want to put this out there. So Marty Walsh makes those comments on the afternoon of February 2nd.

I'm looking, there's a hockey news article about it at 4.51 p.m. February 2nd. Now I go over to the Arizona Coyote's Twitter account and at 1050 something PM the coyotes tweet this out. I just accidentally hey Twitter did the thing where it was like you didn't want to look at that tweet anymore right?

No, no. Here it is. So a local reporter says report. The Arizona coyotes are moving forward with a plan to buy state trust land in North Phoenix. Multiple arena sites are still being considered a team source confirmed with ABC 15.

and then the coyotes quote tweet that and says, Confirmed, we have every intention of staying in the desert. We owe it to the best fans in the world to make it happen. Hashtag Yotes forever. Then they follow that up with, Can't imagine a better home than Arizona at Sons, at DeBacks. We'd love nothing more than to be your neighbor. Then this is the one that really literally unbelievable to me.

Comment hashtag desert dogs if you want us to stay in AZ. one like equals one respect to the Arizona Coyotes. Wow. And did that immediately trend that hashtag? I'll just read you a few of the top replies. Now, granted, these are top replies from people who pay for the Twitter checkmark. So. Okay.

But first one, is there a second option? Second, got to love the hashtag desert dogs, hashtag Yotes. Hashtag desert dogs, please just stay in AZ. I don't care what the rest of the country plus Canada plus the aliens on Mars think. I do feel like the aliens on Mars should stay out of this. That I'm with them on that. But here's the thing. Wouldn't they have a more advanced intelligence?

They get the bigger picture view of this thing. Yeah. I think they want a team. I think we. Gary's opening the, opening the discussions up. That's for sure. And then, yeah, a bunch of blue checkmarked people, hashtag desert dogs, but also hashtag move it. Okay.

Yes, four season tickets since year one, plus four roadrunners season tickets. This guy's just throwing money away. Yeah. Roadrunners aren't even that close to Phoenix, man. Aren't they up in Tucson? Am I right about this? I do not know. Yeah.

Man, does this feel like the beginning of the end, or are we just... It does. Have we done this so many times? before that it's like, all right. Yeah, because again, like, we're considering a number of different options. We are? Like, how are the thing with the... How are we not drilled down on this?

The thing where they're looking at the, what did they say, it's not crown land, but whatever they... Trust, state trust. Yeah. State trust, yeah. To do that, you get... To do that, you get around the referendum issue is my understanding, which has not gone well with them. But it opens you up to all sorts of challenges, all sorts of, you know,

there are government watchdog groups that can step in and intervene. And it could be years, years and years. So even if, even what they are confirming or claiming to confirm is not necessarily going to be enough for the NHL. But we'll see. We'll see. If we've learned anything over the years, it's you never, ever, ever assume that we must be getting to a finish line on.

Yeah, no case. At least with this team. Any other team, I feel like there would be a... Oh, yeah. Any other team we would have, they would have moved and come back. And then I guess that's the other thing is, I, for maybe the first time,

there seems to be a sentiment bubbling up that says, look, Arizona is a good potential market for the U.S. It is a very large TV market. It is, there are snowbirds down there. It has been a decent sports market for other leagues and et cetera, et cetera. But maybe the coyotes have just, are a failed brand. And maybe the play here is you move the coyotes to Salt Lake City or wherever. else.

And maybe five or ten years from now, you take another swing. Similar to what happened with Winnipeg, what might be happening with Atlanta, what happened in Minnesota even. Yep. Maybe that's the play versus trying to make this hang on year after year after year. We'll see. Yeah, I think that's probably the right way to go about it. Like you said, it feels like a failed brand at this point.

Like when you say to the average hockey fan, Coyotes, what do you think? It's like, why do they exist at this point? Because they, you know, for as much as they do have good fans, it seems like there aren't enough of them. Yeah, that's always the thing, right? Like, it's not, they're just, yeah, anytime you get into this, there's some Coyotes fan somewhere is going to be like, man, I'd live and die with this team. and why are you trying to take my team? And it's like, yeah, there's just maybe not enough. Yeah, well, the other thing is, here's how you know that coyotes fans are good fans.

They still like the fucking coyotes, man. Yep. You know what I mean? Like, you would have to be, like, I don't even understand a scenario where you're like a fair weather coyotes fan. Yeah, I'll go if they're good. You haven't been in 15 years, you know, like. To me, to me, it's a very, a very simple situation where it's, it just feels like, okay, just move them to Utah. Like, I think even Marty Walsh was like, look, I haven't even like really looked at the Utah stuff, but like it seems like it's got to be better than this.

Like, apparently they, from what Marty Walsh said, they haven't even really like communicated with the PA on their plans. And it's like, oh. Yeah. And that was the big one. He was, that, that's what he sounded really ticked off that there hasn't been communication. And so the question is, has there been since? Because it's one thing when, you know, when Marty Walsh says nobody in the coyotes talks to us returns or calls, it's one thing to go on Twitter and, you know, start talking about buying land.

It's another thing. Has anyone picked up the phone? Yep. You know, I don't know. We have no way of knowing that. Hopefully there's some sort of movement on that. Because, again, they just keep going, stay tuned. We've got great news coming.

And it's like, you know, I'm looking at my watch here, you know. So, yeah. Did you see Gary Betman's mention of other potential expansion markets? No, I did not. Oh, okay. I'm not surprised. So basically people were like, what else? What else is going on out there?

and basically what he says was Utah, of course, obviously. Houston, maybe a little surprising because that just seems like one of those like markets that you hear something and then someone goes, well, the owner of the Rockets who I think also owns the building doesn't want a hockey team, doesn't want a second tenant in there. And yet here we are with at least, I think Gary framed it as at least preliminary interest from these markets. So Utah, Houston, Atlanta, obviously. I think then he also was like, oh, and, you know, we've even gotten, we've even gotten interest from Cincinnati and Omaha. Just kind of threw it in there. Like, ah, you know. Why not?

I feel like that feels like he's just naming cities at this. Right. Well, so people were asking about this, about Omaha specifically. And I can tell you for sure that, like, they have a pretty good college hockey. team this year. In recent years, they've been quite bad. Um, not like terrible, but, you know, not good either. And, um, they're a big draw in Omaha. Like, they sell, they sell like 7,000 tickets a night or something like that to, to, to their college hockey team. Their USHL team sells out all the time. So like, it makes sense that there would be some sort of, um,

uh, interest on the, on that level. just because, again, like, they seem to move a lot of hockey tickets there. So maybe there is enough demand and it seems to be a growing city and all that kind of stuff. So that makes sense. Cincinnati, you know, I know less about just because there's not a college hockey team there. But, you know, again, big city. They support an NFL team and a major league baseball team to varying extent. So, you know, at least putting your interest out there again, just, okay, sure.

That makes it. That Ohio rivalry with the. Easy sell there. Yeah, absolutely. But then afterwards, apparently a bunch of Canadian people were like, well, what about Quebec City? And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, them too. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.

Did I not mention them? Totally. Yeah. Accident. Oh, oh, boy, I left that one off the last one. list for some reason. That's an oversight by me. Anyway, have a good one, folks. So yeah, I thought that was, I thought that was interesting. Any other, I mean, you were at All-Star Weekend, so any other thoughts? I just watched everything on TV. It was fun. It was, you know, well done by Toronto

hosting, you know, good crowds, music acts I had never heard of. I wrote a ton of stuff about it. I'm sure everyone listening to this read every word. It was fine. You and I tell you, we did the bonus episode yesterday about skills competitions in general in sports, and we talked a fair amount about the NHL stuff, so don't need to go over it again here. But, yeah, the draft was cool. I'd like that they did it. It was probably about as good as this.

format of All-Star game, All-Star Weeking could be, which is to say wasn't amazing. But it was fine. I'm happy I went. It was a neat thing to see. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I like the skills competition. I think this is one of the better ones in recent years. Shocked that the guy who designed it won the whole thing, though.

Yeah. Crazy turnover. The thing is, the way he designed it was like, What if we cut out all the garbage and just measured who was good at hockey? They're like, good idea. And he was like, by the way, that would be me by miles over. Yeah, I didn't think it was fair that one of the skills competitions was having a weird house. Yeah.

But the awkwardly hugging Euler fans event, I think, was a little, maybe a little biased. And then Austin Matthews. Looking sad when draft lottery results are. But then Austin Matthews won the All-Star Game MVP. And I did see an article when I was putting together stuff for what we learned this weekend. Alex DeBrickett was robbed. Yeah. Alex DeBrickett was very, very good.

But this is like, come on, man, it's the All-Star weekend. If anybody on, well, I was going to say anybody on the winning team is anywhere close, they're going to win. I'm pretty sure in Columbus they gave it to like Ryan Johansson and his team lost. Sure. You guys know him, right? Let's all cheer. Yeah, I mean, I just can't imagine having the passion for any hockey guy that would lead me to say this guy, he got screwed out of an All-Star Game MVP award.

I just, if that's your mindset, maybe you need. to chill out a little bit. Maybe you need to, I don't know, take a mushroom, something like that, you know. That is, you know who took a mushroom? Was it the guy who said spicy pork and broccoli? No, it was a different guy. Oh. But you know what?

Spicy pork and broccoli with mushroom. No, boy, now you're having experience. Yeah, I'm trying to think if there was. was any other big news? I guess not. Nope. I think we... I think that's it.

Covered it. I shouldn't have just said in the outline, any other news and notes. I don't know. Why am I asking me? Yeah. I'm the guy who wrote the question that I didn't have the answer to. Stupid guy.

The other big news was Justin Bieber, no showing his media availability. which I got to tell you, boy, there seemed to be a lot of media people all crowded around that little stage, a lot more than we're there for Carter McDavid or Cindy Crosby or Austin Matthews. And when they came out and removed some of the microphones, the palpable disappointment in that. From all the middle-aged dudes who were going to, like, get a picture of Justin Bieber and send it to our kids and be like, am I cool now? that was that was probably the big moment of the entire the entire week. And I mean, he was so engaged during the All-Star draft.

Like, why? Yeah. So during the draft, he was not remotely. Like, he was in a weird place, I will just say. But at the game itself, he was, you know, he took the warm up. Did you see the thing where, like, all the players were taking photos with him? Yes. And then the Sydney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon skate up and like go on either side of him.

And Bieber like at the last second very clearly leans over to Sidney Crosby. And several people tweeted like he's definitely cropping that photo, cropping Nathan McKinnett out of that photo. And then he did. That's exactly what happened. He had like the Crosby photo. That's excellent. You know what? Yeah.

It's really funny because it's like, yeah, Nathan McKinnon is also like a huge start. Like, you know, I understand if Frank Vitrono skates over there, you're Justin Bieber. You're like, come on, man. Don't be weird about this. But, like, Nathan McKinnon is like a famous hockey player who's going to win the MVP this year in all likelihood. You know? It was very, very funny. And, you know, the most embarrassing part of the whole weekend was me and Bieber showing up wearing the same coat on Saturday.

Come on, man. Yeah, I'm not topping that. Okay, we're going to take another break. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Factor. And folks, Factor is delicious, ready to eat meals, make eating better every day just a little bit easier. No matter what your plans are, you can rest assured they have pre-prepared, chef-crafted, dietitian-approved meals ready to go delivered straight to your door. You'll have 35 plus different options every week to choose from for, basically any kind of diet you're talking about here, keto, calorie smart, vegan, veggie,

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here at the end of the show, I think. After we spoke last week, I think it was the same day. It might have been Thursday night now that I say that. Elias Linholm traded from the Calgary Flames to the Vancouver Canucks. And in True Canucks, this year fashion, immediately saw his shooting percentage jump like nine points last night, I think. Yeah, of course. Yeah, what did you think? I thought the flames did quite well. They got more than I maybe would have expected for a guy that they weren't going to be able to resign.

But I don't hate it from a Vancouver perspective. I think, look, we've beaten this dead horse into the ground about the PDO stuff, but sometimes just everything comes together for a year, why not take a swing that year? No, absolutely. Why not? Yeah. Yeah. So they're never going to be better than this.

Yeah. Right? Like with this group, they are just straight up, this is the absolute peak of what this Kinnucks team can look like. Just that I don't, like, that's not even knocking them. They're a good team that's playing unbelievable hockey right now. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, go for him, man.

Like, this is, I'm good with it. It's, and he's, I mean, he's a good player. He was the best player who was going to be moved at the deadline, probably. We'll see on Jay Gensel. We'll see if any surprising names pop up. But, yeah, it's a good fit. And like I say, I think Calgary did the right thing. We talked about how we weren't really sure which direction they'd go on some of these guys.

Now, the caveat here, people who've read myself over the years know what I'm going to say, does Vancouver resign him? And if so, what does that contract look like? Because this is the danger zone. This is the shiny new toy that I've talked about. the worst contracts in the NHL get signed when a team has recently traded for somebody who needs a new contract.

Yeah, ask the Calgary Flames about that. The Flames themselves would know very, very well. As, you know, Seth Jones, Jonathan Huberto, go on down the list, Jeff Skinner, although that's been a little better lately. This, because you've just given up assets for a guy. You can't turn around and be like, oh, we don't think you're worth much.

you're sort of now in this case where it's very clearly a rental situation you know maybe it doesn't go in a bad place but we saw it with bull horvette last year right like i don't hate that contract but loo lamer like when you're announcing a contract and you're like it's too long and for too much money that's that's uh it's like dude you you signed it man that's uh that's exactly right Yeah, I think that this kind of feels like it has to be a straight up rental just because, well, first of all, I guess I should say it's funny to me that Calgary actually took on money with this deal. Excuse me, but yeah, I think you're right, they did pretty well. I wouldn't say I was like blown away by the return here just because that was like by design for Vancouver. They were like, we want to get in the market right now. And a bunch of other teams were like, let's wait and see. And I think that kind of depressed the return that Calgary could have gotten.

So like they get a guy who, if I'm remembering right, was like Calgary's seventh or eighth best prospect or Vancouver's seventh or eighth best prospect. Yeah, although a guy who I think his status. He's having a great, like an unbelievable year. during the year. So it's either a cell high or it's it's Calgary getting in on a guy who's about to to really burst out of the scene. Yeah, but to be determined on that. He, I guess my point is he's not like one of Vancouver's like grade A can't miss prospects. Right. Like you said, that kind of the jury is still out on like, why is he having such

a good year, basically? Not that I'm knocking the kid for it. You know what I mean. And Kuzmanko is obviously a guy like they could retain, but, you know, I think you'd have to temper your expectations for what he can do. Well, I mean, he's an interesting gamble, right? Because he lit it up last year. Right. So what I was going to say is, as you say, last year, shoots like 30. 30% scores 40-something goals. This year, shooting like 2% is not going to score that many goals.

If you get him right in the middle there, what is that worth to you? You know, if he's like a 25 goal, 20-goal-a-year guy, he's probably not getting paid as much as he does currently. But, you know, he's signed for another year passes. Yes, that's right. And then a UFA. So, you know, gives Calgary an option. Maybe they found something or maybe it's somebody they move later. But, you know, we always hear these days every time you're moving somebody, it's how we want a player or pick and a prospect.

And usually the player isn't somebody coming off a 30 plus goal season. Yeah, absolutely. I don't mind that. And they go first. No, yeah. I say this about the Calgary Flames a lot, I feel like. They probably did as well as they reasonably could explain. I don't know that you want to be in the position where you're constantly trading guys and getting like a decent return, like a B plus return.

But, you know, that's just where they are as a franchise to me. So how she goes, I guess. But yeah, I really, I really like this for Vancouver just because like you said, like they might as well just like. go as all in as they possibly can. Like, when are, when are they going to get a better crack at, you know, a high seed and a deep playoff run than they have right now? Mm-hmm. Yep. So, take your swing.

Yeah, no, like, normally I'm just like, you know, what's the point of this rental? This, this, as much as it does feel like a pure rental to me, it, the point is to, like, why. I even ask the question, you know? Yeah. But again, again, with the caveat of let's see what happens contract-wise, because this is, I know it feels like, well, you know, if you like the deal, you like to, yeah, but they can screw it up big time if they turn around. Yeah, again, ask Calgary Flames about this.

Seven times nine on an extension, then now we're in a different, different. Well, the reason that it is a question. is they got to pay Hronic and Petterson this summer. And those two guys alone will probably eat up a huge amount of money. And if you then add in

Lindholm, where you're actually buying UFA years, not just our FA years, and you're signing him long term, like, if he wants $8 million bucks, I don't know where he's, I don't think he's getting it from Vancouver. If he wants to come and, and play a little, play for a little cheaper.

That's a different story. But, you know, we'll see, I guess. Yeah, they would have to make some pretty big roster moves, I think. Not that I think it's off the table that, like, you know, trade Brock Besser or something like that. Or Connor Garland. Obviously, Besser's having a great year and Garland is having a good one too. but, you know, everybody in Vancouver right now is having as good of a year as possible, basically. So maybe you sell high on one of those guys and make room for Lindholm, but, you know, cross that bridge when you come to it.

Boy, I bet they're really regretting that Ilya McKay of contract right now. Yeah. Boy, oh, boy, 475. Aye, aye, aye. The other trade that happened this week, kind of a domino effect. from the Lentholm trade. The Jets just were like, okay, fuck it.

We're in on Sean Monaghan. Let's get them. Yep. And they gave up the first that we all kind of rolled our eyes when those reports were out there that that's what the abs were going to get. And they got it. Great work by Kent Hughes.

Setting the market. I've said it before. That is a skill. How you play the media, the fan bases, putting a number out, you know, putting a price point out there. It's something GMs need to learn how to do. Agents need to learn how to do. And I, when they first report it, yeah, first round pick, I was like, there's no way. There's no way Sean Monahan is getting a

first round pick. And not only did they do it, but they didn't even have to wait right up until the deadline. And they also get, they also got a conditional third thrown into it too. Yeah, but the condition is them winning the cup. So right. No, I understand. But like, it wasn't just a pick. though, that's my point, or a first round pick. Yeah, they did. It was a first plus. Plus-ish, yeah. Can you's maybe doing a good job over there?

Yeah, it's a little tough to say. I mean, we always say, right, the sell-off is the easiest part of the job. And I still look at Montreal and I still am worried that this is a rebuild where the ceiling is good but not great. I mean, they got an All-Star Knicks-Zo. Yeah. I mean, I think the problem is no one else can play up to his level. It's sort of like, you know what, that's a great point. It was tough finding somebody to play with Crosby and all due respect to Sidney Crosby. He was no Nick Suzuki. That's it. You said it perfect, my friend. Yeah, I think that's it for the week. I don't think we missed anything else.

Again, you know, expect Connerick David to get traded five minutes after we hit stop on this recording. Looking forward to that. Yeah. Why don't you hit them with the plugs and we'll get out of here? Find me on the athletic as well as on the podcast front. Some interesting things happening there. Tune in next week. I think it will be of interest to Puck Soup fans.

Wow. And then for me, EP Rinkside, we're doing a bunch of mid-season prospect grades and mock drafts and stuff like that. So, yeah, you know, head over there. Use the code I love EP when you sign up for an annual subscription. and you'll get three months tacked onto the end of it for free. Zero extra dollars for you. It's like whatever, 25% savings or something. I don't know how that stuff works.

I'm not going to math, but yeah, check it all out. And we'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. See you later. Bye-bye.