Puck Soup - Puck Soup 300 with Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

Sean and Ryan talk about the latest news and notes from around the NHL with some guy named… Crug Monwiki(?). Then they play a classic game of Name Pat Falloon. Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck) and Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from EP Rinkside. I'm Sean McAdoo from The Athletic. And I'm Greg Wysinski of ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. the company owned by the Disney Corporation, which I believe also runs some fairly successful theme parks,

but don't go buy that Genie Plus Pass anymore for Walt Disney World before you're going. No, no, no, no, folks. You can only get the Genie Plus Pass on the day you arrive at the park. Is that true? Wow. This is a shocking hard sell for me. But yeah, anyway, you might notice, folks, that if you look at the title of this podcast, it says Puck Soup 300.

That's right. That's because this is the 300th episode of Puckus. You are incorrect. This is actually about a NASCAR race. We are finally sponsoring a NASCAR race. The Puckettys 300. I'm very excited about it. And all of the...

Where are they going to hold this? All the turns are going to be to the right. That's the twist on the old gimmick. No campers in the parking lot and all the turns are to the right. It's fantastic. Wow. Wow. Well, nice to see us.

moving up in the world, finally. But yeah, don't get used to this Greg thing, I guess is the point. Yeah. This is one time. I had to get permission to come on the dumb podcast.

I said to them, I said, look, it's the 300th episode of Puck Soup. And they said, isn't it technically the 3001st? I'm like, no,

no, no, the first one was just me and Lozo putting a thing on the feed, so there'd be a feed. Like, that doesn't count as an episode. And they're like, but shouldn't it count as an episode? Like,

that's technically something that people downloaded. to listen to. And I'm like, can you just give me permission to do the fucking show? I don't want to have semantic debates about this right now. I get this enough from the other fuckers. I just want to do the goddamn podcast again and talk about hockey. They're like, fine, you whiny bitch.

Wait, what other fuckers? I'm getting into semantics with you. I got to say your conversations with Disney are a lot more expletive filled than I would have imagined. I know. And the really fucked up thing is his boss is Daisy Duff. I was going to say a. Imagine the look on the person's face in that Pluto suit. It's crazy.

Oh, by the way, I went to Disneyland recently before the holidays, and don't do that, folks. Don't go to any of these parks when there are kids on vacation. Wow. Don't go to Disneyland. No, no, no, no. I go to Disneyland. It's boy, was it crowded. But it's... Yeah, you went on like Christmas.

That's like the day. Yeah, well, it was around Christmas. But, like, every ride was an hour long, even the ones that shouldn't be. Like when it's an hour to go on it's a small world, you're fucked. Like you're just, you just go home. You're just never getting on any ride. But I had a good time, mainly because it was the food festival. And that's always a fun time to go Disney.

Yeah, I can't say I've ever been. So I guess the first thing we should talk about here is me and Greg were at the winter classic. Hell yeah, we were. Historic Fenway Park. Sorry, which the recent one or the one from a few years ago? Now, that's a great question, Jim. I was at both of them. I don't think Greg was the first thing.

I don't know if we talked about this, but this was my first time ever at Fenway Park. You did not talk about this. That's very funny. Yeah, well, the thing was, I didn't go to the 2010 game. I didn't go to any of the first, like, three winter classics. I didn't go to Buffalo. I didn't go to Wrigley. I didn't go to Fenway.

It was probably because we were both at Puck Daddy at the time, and I still had enough sway to not have to work on New Year's. and just right off the television and not have to travel and be hung over and be with my friends but also I'm famously a Mets fan so I never had any reason to like follow my team to Fenway Park

usually well plus they didn't have interleague play for the first like 30 years of your life yeah that's I mean that's probably accurate I'd have to go check the actual calendar by the way speaking of calendar I was at my parents house recently and my I don't know

if you know this, but my dad keeps a meticulous calendar each year, like to the point of like writing down when I visit them. Can I ask you a question? Why would I know? Well, I don't know if I ever bought it up, but here's a thing that's important that you'll appreciate. On last year's, my dad will take last year's calendar and take all of the important dates and then transfer them with a Sharpie onto this year's calendar.

So it's kind of like I'm going to, all the birthdays, all the anniversaries, I'm going to look it last year's calendar, transferred under this year's calendar. I looked at last year's calendar and in giant block letters and with a light blue and yellow highlighter, he wrote down invasion of Ukraine on last year's calendar. Did he transfer that to this year's? I don't think he transferred it, but it was just... The weird thing is he wrote it in 2021. I know. He somehow got tipped off. He must be on Putin team. Yeah, Invasion of Ukraine sent me. It was written so big that it like spilled over into the following week.

Like, that's a keeper. Yeah. So Greg, I guess what were your thoughts about beautiful Fenway Park? The green monster, Peske's Pole, all the other stuff. The Ted Williams seat, that's another one. Delapidated, but also charming in the sense that it's right in a part of the city where there's like a lot of restaurants and bars. It reminds me of really like. I guess a little bit in the sense that, like, you could see people making that part of their experience, and that's a fun thing.

The green monster was fucking cool. I get the hype. The fact that the NHL, I think, just wanted to hold this game in Fenway because they figured out how to station the rink properly this time and align it parallel with the green monster. It's so fucking funny. Yeah, it really is. That they were like, okay, here's the brilliant. And the first time we're reusing a venue for the Winter Classic. Well, how are you going to make it different?

What if the rink was 90 degrees different than it was last time? Yeah. And they're like, give that man a bonus. The two things that sit out to me about the place were one in the press box area, I still can't believe this happened, but there was no coffee. Like an entire city built on a Dunkin' Donuts, and there wasn't a fucking drip of coffee in the press box, the entire game. The other thing that I thought was psychotic was at the end of the game, when all of the drunk townies are leaving and they're, you know, chanting Bergeron's name and shit.

To get to the Bruins locker room, we all had to stand in the fucking hallway, like, as these people are walking out of the arena with like... Yeah, no, like on the concourse. Yeah, I had never seen that. It's usually in the bowels of the arena, but here we are. People shouting out their fucking favorite towny Boston reporters as they're walking by. That was really bizarre. But I am a man of the people, so I didn't mind it too much. Fun time.

Yeah, you can tell. Yeah, nice recovery. First two periods sucked. Third period was killer. Nobody gave a shit about the black keys. The Jets sounded good. Fun time. And again, like we've talked about before, like,

these winter classics and stadium series is the blooms off the rows for you, casual fan. No one wants to watch it on TV anymore. That's fine. Being on site for these things, fucking rules. And I want there to be more of them every year. I mean, I don't care if there's more of them. Because I'm not going to go to most of them, right?

Who's the same? You mean, you're a dead fan now, so maybe. you'll just travel from outdoor game to outdoor game. Just going, wow, the NC State football stadium really has a lot of charm for me. Oh, man, when they played trucking at NC State, sounded so much better than when they played trucking at Commonwealth Stadium, baby. Probably would. Yeah, probably would. But you, so Lambert, your journey was interesting because you told me when we got there that you were going to write a story about just the abject cynist, like your Hunter S. Thompson's cynical take on the winter class.

and why it stinks. I don't think I used any of those, literally any of those terms. But my take was just like, we're kind of fucking sick of this shit, right? Like, but all, but especially because, and to your point, Greg, the point that I was going to make was, to me, if you're, if the league and like all the media and everybody involved is going, well, you really got to be there. It's like, well, what do I give a shit then? You know what I mean? Oh, like, you don't knock until you tried it. Sure, but like, what percentage of NHL fans are going to get the opportunity to try it when tickets are $300 or what?

And they go and they go to the season ticket holders like Lickety Split. Like it's a very secondary market almost immediately event in most of these cities. Yeah. So like if it's if it's for the people who are in attendance and the only people who are in attendance can afford to spend. $800 to bring them and two of their buddies or whatever, to their kids. That sucks, right? But then, as you say, you go there and you're walking around. And now granted, I went for free, so, you know.

But like, you're going, man, this kind of does kick ass, actually. I talked to a guy who got green monster seats and had gone to the one at, the first one at Fenway and sat in the bleachers. And he was like, yeah, like, I learned last. time, like, you just spend the money because you'll feel like it's worth it. Was this on your radar, Sean, at all, like this game? I was aware that the classic was in Boston. I will be very honest.

I got a message from one of my editors, like on December 29th saying, hey, we're going to run a feature on the winner classic. We need your predictions on who's going to win. And it was like on Slack. So he's like, respond with just the emoji of the team you think is going to win. And a few people had put in Boston. And I was sitting there looking at it going, I don't know who the other team is. I had to Google who, you know, winner classic 2022 teams.

And I'm, you know, I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm like a hockey writer. So I probably should have known that. Now, this, yeah, this event to me was a lot like forbidden door. No build, but then ultimately very worth. Yeah, there you go. Very good comparison. Thank you. 15 minutes for the wrestling comparisons to come out.

Well, longer than I thought. More familiar with these players, though, I think, than I was for most of the competitors of the forbidden door. But that's fine. You don't watch New Japan. That's not, that's not really true. I watched a little bit of. I watched some of those highlights last night.

I certainly watched as much as I could have that Kenny Osprey match, that's for sure. I can't. I have that ready to go, like, saved, like for, for, I'm taking that trip out to Arizona. this weekend. I'm going to watch that on the plane. I'm going to watch. I feel like putting over Louis de Brusk as the big star was a booking era. Especially because it was the son Jake.

Yes, thank you, Jesus. Because I'm sitting there going, I didn't even think Louis Debrusk was still in the NHL. And yet there he is. They're carrying them out on his show. It's coming out. Yeah, turn out was Dominic Mysterio's Day. Now, okay, what?

How about Jake Debrusk, the legend. killer gimmick. We could, could he run with that just goes around taking out all the stars of his dad's era. So the thing

that brings me back to the, like the outdoor games and why I like them is that, and Lambert, you probably picked up on this too.

Like, the players really fucking dig it. I used to think that they would treat these things with the same disdain that

they treat the All-Star game, like a fucking mandatory attendance bullshit thing and interruption in their season. having to worry about sun glare, having to play on shit ice in a game that matters in the standings.

Like all these things I thought were a swirl of negativity that the players would embody. But they all love it. They love playing dress up. They love having their families there. They love it breaking up the monotony of the season where it's like, oh, I'm going from Ottawa to Columbus next week. Oh, wait. You mean I get to play a fucking outdoor game in a baseball stadium in between those games?

Yeah. Like, they really dig it. I will say. I got less of that feeling when I went to the one of the one of the one of the, at Foxborough. I feel like that felt more like, you know, I guess we've got to do a fucking outdoor game. But like Fenway in particular, everybody's like, oh, there's a fucking green monster over there. You see that thing?

You know what I mean? Like, I think, I think there's a lot more charm to doing it. I'm sure it was the same way in Wrigley. Like there's a lot more charm to doing it in like an old ballpark than just like a giant bowl. So there's a certain amount of like venue specific enthusiasm. Like the cotton bowl was really excited. I'm sure it's probably exciting if it's your first game. Like, I'm sure Seattle and Vegas will have a lot of, you know, enthusiasm

thing for the first time. But will they have that, will they have that enthusiasm for the NC State Football Stadium? Like, how could? Like, I've been to two. Like, this is the team I don't think of. I've been to two and they were both the California games and one was Dodger Stadium. Oh, my God. And one was like the 49ers football stadium.

Yeah. And it was no, like, no contest, which one had the better, the better vibe. Well, I mean, one has. I'd kiss, Sean. Let's be honest. They did. That was pretty fun. The famous L.A. band KISS.

Yeah. I mean, again, like, the entire existence of the outdoor games, if the only result was the photo of Gary Betman and KISS, then it will all have been worth it. All of it. That's right. That was a fun time. And, like, you know, the Bruins, the Dear Bruins thing and the Penguins thing, which is to lose a lead in the third period. Have a star player get in.

Yeah, right. So, like, it's, it was, it was cool. It was a good event. You know, I still feel like, like you said, though, like, I want to see more in iconic places than generic places. I think we're running out of those. Lambeau's probably still the white whale. Beaver Stadium at Penn State for the Penguins and the Flyers.

The horseshoe in Ohio State would be another one. I think they're going to do one in Florida. at some point soon, and that'll be fun. Like, the novelty of having one of these in, like, Tampa is going to be a lot of fun. Like, you could play it late in the afternoon and maybe avoid the weather. Oh, speaking weather, the interesting thing about the Seattle game that I read, because you know that the reason, one of the selling points for the Mariners Stadium was that they have a retractable roof that can only retract, like, a certain percentage

if you needed to. So they're guaranteed to have the rink covered by the roof if it rains. everybody in the crowd will be soaking wet. The rink itself. The rink itself will be safe. Or are they going to close the roof but crack it open, there's two feet so they can technically call it an outdoor game. Well, that's...

Because that was Vancouver, right? Like the outdoor game that wasn't even outdoors. Right. And that's why they can't have one in Vegas, John, because it's the same deal. Like, the Raider Stadium... That's just a closed roof. Yeah, well, it's a closed roof with a big, like, window, basically. And because the Vancouver game was such fucking...

ass, the NHL only wants to have it in stadiums that can be completely open air. So even though... What about the Caesar's Palace parking lot? Now, that's okay. See, that's the thing. I was going to ask you about that, Sean, like, how do you feel about taking this thing and doing the thing that they were researching on one point, which is to put the game in, like, BAMP, like, do a real pond hockey game?

Like, are you in favor of that, or you think that's kind of two games? I mean, I think it would be super cool, yeah. You know, whether you actually could do it, I have no idea. but these guys are pretty good at figuring out ways to make this work. So, yeah, I would get creative, get picturesque, and, you know, not just for the winter classic, but maybe, you know, maybe that's how you do it. Maybe you do like a winter classic, a Heritage Classic, which is the Canadian version, and then, like, one really setting based, like, let's put this in a cool place.

And, you know, obviously the argument there is going to be that, like you guys said, this is a great, this is a great event for the local fans. It's become like the All-Star game in the sense that it's like, and if you go and put it in the middle of nowhere, then you don't have a local fan base to, um, right. The, this is, I said this in my article, but it's like the point of the Winter Classic is to take anybody who's willing to go, turn them upside down and shake all the money. It's right. And so to have it in Banff defeats the fucking purpose.

Well, like that, that would have made sense when they were doing the, the, uh, COVID year one that they did it at Tahoe. Yeah. But I, you're trying to get, uh, whatever, twice the number of people you would get to a normal NHL game, uh, just because of the capacity difference to pay twice as much money. So you're basically having four home games at once, five home games at once. You'd have to charge Mullet Arena prices for the Banff game. I like Sean's idea though, like winter classic stadium series, weirdo classic, where like the games on

like the, the deck of an air. aircraft carrier or something. Yeah, that's great. That's a fantastic idea. That really works for me. But again, like, you have to do that with the understanding of we're losing money on this. Right. Well, if they wanted to do that.

NHL owners don't want to do that. And also, only on the deck of an aircraft carrier if it's like an active one. And, like, Sidney Crosby's on a breakaway and the goalie's like, plane and they pull the nets over. You know, a game was going great until Maverick buzzed the tower and really ruined our. I didn't know with Sidney Crosby on the line. That's crazy. He's just been sitting there waiting for me to mention him. That's awesome.

If they do weirdo classics, that does open it up to the other, like, really interesting locations that they've talked about in the past. Central Park. Rio de Janeiro. Sure, why not? Well, the international one's the interesting one, right? Like, you know, I think there are definitely places you could hold these outdoor games internationally.

Central Park with the Rangers as an away team. Unfortunately, like, you know, St. Petersburg's probably out for a while. I don't think you could do Russia anytime soon. The one I said on the drop the other day, put it in fucking that Estadio Esteta in Mexico City. Yeah, sure. Austin Matthews against the Arizona Coyotes. Let's go. Boom.

Literally that matchup. Just him. 1v20. Yes. Betting line opens coyotes minus 110. That's right. But yeah, do we want to talk about Tristan Jari? Looks like it might not be like necessarily all that short term.

because they already called up another goalie and they're going on a road trip. So it looks like at least for this road trip, he's probably not going to be playing. They're a weird team. They're a weird team in the sense that I went to their training camp. And it was literally like being on the first day of the Bachelorette as far as trying to find guys to play in their bottom six. It was like 50 guys in camp to try to play in their bottom six. And the ones they chose aren't good. Like, the sit and geno lines have scored, I would say, if back of the napkin math, like 85% of the goals that they've scored 5-on-5.

And it's amazing to me how this is the constant harangue in Pittsburgh, going back to the race shiro years of like we can't find quality depth. And it's killing them again this year. It's fucking, the two things, the two constants for the penguins, they'll make the playoffs even though everyone's injured and then they can't find anyone to play underneath the top two lines. Yeah, that's, and at least back then you were like, well, you've got to pay all these guys like so much money, like an insane amount of money. But the cab's gone up, you know, maybe not like a huge amount, but a good amount since then. And some of those guys are making less than they were before. And yet they still can't fucking figure it out. It's truly, it's truly something else.

Sean, do you think the Penguins make the playoffs, by the way? Dude, you're asking absolutely the wrong guy. Like, I'm in year two of my schick of like, ha ha, I can't figure out the penguins, but it's not schick. Like, I literally, every time I write about them, I'm like, I guess they're good now and then they lose 14 games in a row. And then I'm like, well, the penguins are done and it's like, wait a second, 18 game win streak.

I still think they make the playoffs, yes, but I would take them over the islanders. but I have absolutely no, like there is no limit to my range of plausible outcomes for that team. I've completely given up on figuring them out. Yeah, it depends on how long Jari's out, because if Casey DeSmith is your like number one goalie for a month and you're already like, I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs, I'm a lot more confident about their ability to make the playoffs, which is to say not at all. You know, they have not. So that's kind of where I'm at with them.

But anyway, did you guys see the Alex Ovechkin photo with the Canadians' moms? Did you see this? I did not see this. Okay. So remember last week the Capitals played the Canadians? Yes. Beat the absolute shit out of them. I think it was like 9 to 3.

Ovechkin had a hat trick. After the game, it was on the Canadian's mom's trip. And after the game, all the moms were like, can we get a photo with Alex Ovechkin? of Etkin and he's like, sure, no, not. I would be so mad. I would be so mad at my mom. Why? Why?

He's a legend. He just humiliated me on national TV. Yeah, seriously. You just got, you just got, but he come home, mom, that kid just took my lunch money and kicked sand in my face. That kid over there. You know what? You guys, he's sitting at your kitchen table. He looks cool as hell, can I?

He's eating a bologna sandwich all right. Yep. You guys, you guys are secretly making my. case for why I hate the handshake line. Same principle. I don't, I guess my thing is with the handshake line, it's like, I guess I don't care. You know, everybody's, oh, this is the greatest tradition in hockey. If they didn't fucking do it tomorrow, I'd be like, okay, great.

That's the worst part about championship rounds in the NHL is that everything that happens is, A, better compared to other sports and B, the greatest thing in the sport individually. The handshake line, they don't give the Stanley. cup to the owner, boys. They give it to the captain of the team. Well, they should give it to the workers who actually earned the fucking thing. The man. That is better.

I don't give it. What do you guys think is going to be the thing that happens in an NHO playoff series that causes a team to snub the handshake line? Sid did. Which will then lead to, like, the most apocalyptic takes. I don't know what the whole team would, but remember in the Detroit, the Detroit series where the penguins lost, Sid left. He just got fuck, fuck this shit.

And he said. Loochich threatened to kill a guy during the handshake line. So, I mean, that feels... Dude, that would be mega, mega ton heat. I'm going to predict it right now. If a team bagged it out on the handshake line. A team, a game seven overtime winning goal is scored on the Michigan move, and the other team refuses to shake hands afterwards.

But it was a Michigan move that was offside, but they reviewed it and they said it wasn't offside. Yeah. There you go. Like, like they, you know, it was on side by point. 0-0-1 seconds or whatever in the other teams. Like, this is fucking bullshit. And it's the Michigan, the most disrespectful goal you could possibly score. No, that's a good way, man.

That's a good point. Like, it would probably have to be a Brett Hall skate-level controversy. Or if they finally got their asses out of their heads and allowed reseeding of the final four in the NHL, if two blood rivals met for the cup and, like, there was a game seven loss. Can you imagine? Like, it's beyond logical. The takes would be, would be, oh, I don't know if that would be the worst thing ever, or if it would eat its way through the other side and be phenomenal.

A snub, you mean? Yeah, just for the level, like the level of outraged tanks. As wrestling guys, we would be obligated to say it's cool. Yeah. Right, like, how could you not? It would be the same thing it usually is, which is the entire Canadian media talking about how it disrespected the, the very soul of the game,

and then Mark Madden writing a column that's like, fuck those guys! Yeah, there you go. One of the few cases where he'd be right. Hey, listen, man, I bet he was right a ton

on the WCW hotline back in the day. Him and mean Gene Oakerlin, 999 a minute, whatever it was. We're going to tell you what's going to happen next with Sting. Was that a mean gene impression?

Did we have... If that was a mean gene impression, that wasn't a mean gene. I don't know if... I don't have a mean gene impression. I feel like it was a workshopped one. I feel like that was like this. Yeah, Greg's going to get in the, get in the, uh,

that was the demo version. I think the only mean gene impression I have is him singing Tutti-Fruity on the wrestling album. So, no, I don't have a mean gene impression. And Greg's going to do that impression right. Here we go. All right. Greg,

Tootie-frudy. If I did a mean gene impression, I think it would be him getting in, I like when he used to get indignant about what the wrestlers were doing during the interviews. Yeah. Like, you know. Yeah. You know, it's obviously iconic, but him going like, Hulk Hogan, you're dealing with these two men at Bash at the Beach 95 or whatever. Yeah, where the hockey talk man would be like, you know, I'm going to smash my guitar over Elizabeth's head.

He'd be like, come on, you can't say that. You know, that kind of thing. Yeah. I just hope everyone who says that, like, I have too many wrestling references is hearing what this podcast has become. These guys knew what they were in for when they saw the title. of the podcast. Now the Gurg is back. Yeah, you're right. They did. They did.

The hell were we talking about. Oh, yeah, Alexander Ovechkin and people's moms. Taking pictures with the Canadian's moms. I don't know that I have too much else to say about it. But, like, you wouldn't be mad that your mom like, like, like we said, was like, oh, yeah, actually, I talk to your bully. He seems really not. All right. Let me, let me, let me, let me reframe this.

Okay. So if I'm at the Digital Sports Media Awards and Myrtle. beats me for a sports writer of the year. And for some reason, they announced the voting. And it's like 902. Right. And so then my mom is taking a picture with Myrtle. Yeah, I'd be fucking angry at my mom.

You're right. Yeah. Yeah. While she's wearing like a Greg Wyshinsky jersey. But she's still like. That's right. Greg Wyshinsky jersey. What would it be?

What would the logo on the front be? I mean, if it'd be like me with a cigar in my mouth. probably, right? When I was soon. I was going to say a hoodie under a suit coat or a sport coat. I like that. I was just going to say that your Twitter,

that photo of you that you use on Twitter. You and your robot me, my robot friends, yeah. I love that photo so much. Another bit of news here. Joe Vavellsky signs a one-year extension with the Dallas Stars, why wouldn't he? He's having a hell of a season.

$3.5 million. base salary, 2 million performance bonuses. I did not see what the bonuses are. I'm assuming it's play one game and then play a second game. It's, yeah, according to cap-friendly, it's $1 million for 10 games played and another million for 20. So yes, very easily reachable bonuses. Yep.

It's going to be funny as hell when he plays nine games and then they bench him for the entire regular season. I read, well, I mean, he's not Dave Hacksstall with a high draft. No, he's probably true. I wrote about the, like, the hope rankings this week for ESPN, and which teams have the most hope. I had somebody straight up telling me that I really respect that he thought Dallas

was a cup contender, like a serious cup contender. Like he was rating about their depth, believer in Ottinger, like their D. I'm not sure if I'm there, but, Pete DeBoer. But, well, Pete, I mean, that's the thing. Pete DeBoar gets you there in year one. Well, that's what I'm. I was saying, like, the joke is that he, you talk to Pete DeBoer, but taking, taking a team deep into the playoffs in his first year. Yeah, that's extremely believable. And like, the fact that they have Sagan on one line and Ben on another and then the Robertson line is, is fucking great. Like, it's, they're, they're pretty good. I mean, like, I don't know if I'd. They are pretty good. I don't know if I believe them over Vegas for like best in the West or, or a fully powered, fully armed and operational battle station of Colorado. But. Dallas is really fucking good, especially

this was the first week that I put them in my top five. I'm like, I'm all right, I'm in. I've been very, like, I move very slowly on this stuff. I'd rather be too slow than too fast, but I've, yeah, I'm on boards. I'll say this. I don't, I don't know that I would have them in my top five

at this point, just because I feel like there are better teams that have had harder schedules and maybe therefore haven't won as many games like Tampa. I wouldn't be, I would, like if you told me at the end of the season, oh, yeah, Tampa's better than Dallas. I go, well, sure, that makes fucking perfect sense to me. The ones that are contenders for better than Dallas are L.A., Tampa, and Jersey, and maybe

Winnipeg. But I would put Dallas over L.A., even though they lost home last night. I would. I definitely would as well. I don't know if, I think you're right. I don't know if I put them ahead of Tampa, and the fucking Devils is just, like, depending on the week, really. Like, you know, catch me on a good week, and it's the Devils, like, and the

top three. It gets me on a bad weekend. It's the Devils at like fucking 15. The bottom 12. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, Greg, just to, sorry, Ryan, but just to say for the Devils, I had a, since you're a Devils fan, I was on my other podcast, I would say two weeks ago. And I was like, well, you know, we knew the Devils are going to come back to Earth, but you can't, you can't go like 22, two and one and miss the playoffs. So they're fine. And I literally had somebody reach out and they were like, the Devils went 22. two, two and one in like 2011 and missed the players.

And I was like, what? No way. And I looked it up and I was like, damn, they did. Yeah, they did. No, I think they're going to be okay. I think they're going to be okay. I feel like they went through a really bad spell that the puck just wasn't going in the net.

Now they're kind of like picking up points at least. That's all they got to do. They just have to pick up. Devil's just okay, according to Greg Wysinski. They'll be fine. I think. I wouldn't go that far. I hope.

How about this? I'm looking at the standings page, right now, the NIH double's standings page. The devils are 10, 9, and 2 at home, and 13, 2, and 1 on the road. That's a hilarious split. Yep. You can't beat that. Well, I mean, it's the living embodiment of a New Jersey joke, right?

Yes. And also a devil's joke, because they invented road hockey, right? They certainly did. They were the team that was like, what if hockey was not fun? And then, you know, they've perfected it, apparently. Yeah, something stinks as soon as it gets into New Jersey. That makes a lot of sense. One last thing I wanted to talk about here off the top,

and then we'll take a break. Tage Thompson, going fucking psycho mode again last night. Insane. Truly, truly. This is so fun. What's he up to, goals-wise? 30, I think. Yeah, well, no, because it was he got his 30th goal with his third hat-rick

and the night that was for number three. Yeah, that whole thing. 33 behind Connor McDavid for the league That's fucking crazy, man. I love that my prediction for the year was that McDavid was going to go psycho mode because he was so sick of hearing about Austin Matthews

and all these other guys. And he did. And yet he looks behind him and here's this dude who was a fourth liner two years ago who's like, yeah, no, I'm still here. You still got to deal with me. So that's my question for you. Can you think of anybody?

I'll say almost in any sport that's had this kind of like, you know, mid-20s, I think I know what this guy is. And then he's like, actually, I'm going to score on like a 60-goal pace for the last 100 days. That's tough. Certainly not in hockey.

There have been one-year wonders in hockey, but typically it's linemate related, right? Like, you know, like Jonathan Chichu was not a bad player. You know, people think he was some sort of bum, but he had his big year with Joe Thornton or like Rob Brown gets put on Marriole Amuse line and scores 49 goals. Right.

I certainly can't remember a guy scoring single-digit goals for multiple years and then suddenly just clicking over, you know, maybe there's some example out there that was injure related or something, but I can't think of something like this happening and didn't. I mean, it happened in baseball with a few guys,

but we found out later why that was. That's going to say, like, I was thinking about, remember the dude who played, he played on the Blue Jays real briefly, Jeff Kent? That was a guy who, like, in his late 20s, became, like, an MVP and just started hitting a bunch of ship. Again, like, you can't judge any of those guys at face value of what they were able to accomplish for baseball. So I had one that also was from baseball, and that's Carlos Pena, who really bounced around the AL for many, many years. And was like never particularly bad, but never like all that good either. And then at age 29, I just pulled up his baseball reference page.

Finishes ninth in MVP voting two years in a row, wins a silver slugger, wins a gold glove. And then the third year, he's an all-star and led the A.L. And homers with 39. At age 29, 30 and 31. I'll give you another one, Sean. Jose Batista, I think, was another guy that like all of a sudden. Yeah, you know what? Batista's a good one.

that's actually, because the other thing is, it's, talking about wrestling again. This is, this is, like, it's not a one-year wonder thing, right? Like, you could look at like a Brady Anderson, uh, had that crazy 50 home run year, but that was one year. And, you know, yeah, Batista is actually a really good one. And then the other one would be David Ortiz, but he was, uh, blatantly cheating and we're all just going to pretend that that didn't happen because he was, you don't understand. He's cool.

Yeah. He is. Yeah. That was definitely. That was definitely. That was definitely it. It's very normal for guys to become 50 home run hitters in their 30s. Yep.

But yeah. Yeah, but you know what? Honestly, Jose Batista might be the answer. He might be the guy. So what's going to be the bat flip moment for Dave Thompson? When he goes in the locker room after the season says he lost his smile and he's traded to St. Louis. That'll be the backflip. Yep, that'll be a good one.

I hear Ryan O'Reilly's available, so maybe we, you know, little tradesy-backsees. I love it. Did they put the no takebacks in the trade? Would you trade Robert Thomas and Jordan Kairu for Tage Thompson right now if you were the blues? For both of them at once? Yeah, I would. For both of them? Like, oh, you're saying if you're St. Louis.

If you're St. Louis, yeah. Oh, no, I would. famously those are the two prospects that the Sabres wanted in the O'Reilly trade, and they settled for Tage Thompson. If I'm Buffalo, I do it, because it's like those are two guys who are good instead of one guy who's good. But you would never do it because Tage Thompson is like fun as hell. If you did it, they would drag you out of the building and beat you to death in the street. Right. So that wouldn't be a lot of them.

For real, for real. Put this in your trade machine. Thompson and Jack Quinn. for Cairo and Thomas? Or would I have to go, like, Owen Power? Thompson and Power for Cairo and Thomas? Oh, that's an easy one for me.

Guys are out of your mind. Okay. Are you kidding me? Thompson and Power for Cairo, Thomas, and Krug. Hmm. I got to feel my defense. I got to feel my defensive spot, them giving up with power.

Why are you guys trying to find the most demoralizing Boston their Buffalo Sabres trade? Like, hey, guys. Remember the guy who's supposed to be the future franchise and the guy who's like the most fun you've had since Alexander McGilney? Yeah, they're both. They're both traded. How about, hear me out.

Tage Thompson, right? You start with him, okay? Right, sure, of course. For Jack Eichael and Nicholas Roy, who says no. You never get a Jack Eichael guy traded in the middle of the season? Come on, that's not. Jack Eichael would retire if they traded him back to Boston. He'd be like, no, never, never, never.

It's possible. You want to talk about a guy losing his smile. One other thing, I guess we should briefly talk about Buffalo related is the Sabres wore shirt supporting DeMar Hamlin last night and the really scary incident while me and Greg were eating after the Winter Classic. I was really hope that works out. That's always so weird when you're like, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, you see something like that happen when you're like at a bar or a restaurant and you're only half aware of what's going on and yeah well it's always a very weird it really does underscore

how we understand the language of coverage because when we were eating we were sitting there eating like we were I was watching the television and once they went to that second commercial break yeah I'm like oh fuck and and when you started getting the long shots yeah the long shots and then they go to the studio I'm like oh shit And that's the moment you knew that that shit really hit the fan. They stopped the Bowmeester game. Am I correcting that when he had his cardiac issue? I believe they replayed it.

I believe they did. That was one of the games that they did that weird NHL thing where they replay the game from the beginning but count the stats. I don't know. I feel like. They didn't for Chris Pronger. They didn't for Chris Pronger. And that's what I was going to say.

I feel. It was interesting to me because like just, you know, to put this in a hockey perspective, like the number of NFL fans and writers and everything that I was seeing saying, like, this is, we've never seen anything like this. And it just drove home or I'm like, as a hockey fan, I'm like, we've seen this a half dozen times.

Yeah. You know, as far as like, you know, the literal life-threatening moments on the ice. I mean, Chris Pronger. Malar Chuck. The Malar Chuck Uh

Uh Was it Who was it Who was it? Who was the Panthers? Is it Richard Zednik? It was Zednik. Yeah yeah yeah

We have we have it's like two categories. It's like the Trent McCleary one was You know It's really bad and they didn't stop that game The on ice stuff where it's like concussions and the Pronger thing and the skate slashes And then there's like the the issues like the Peverly thing and the Boeaster thing and uh was it Sherr-Panoff who died in the KHL? Yes.

Like those things happen too. I have to, you know, the Pronger thing and the way that everyone reacted to the Hamelin thing made me think. There's a lot of talk about like these are the moments in which we remember that these players are humans and their human beings and families and stuff. And it's very important to use this moment as a launching point to remind those few people that still see them as names on a roster or numbers in their program or, totals that they've made on a bet, like that these are humans. But I do believe, it gave me a little

hope that we've come far enough as a sports society where, yeah, we're stopping the game now. Like, we didn't stop it for pronger, but we're stopping it now. And that, you know, if it happened in hockey, like, we'd stop that game. We'd stopped it for Beaumester. We'd probably stop it for something like this, too. It made me think that we've, we have gotten to a point where there is more humanity in sports and that we do see these people as human beings and families. And, and, and we see their teammates crying about what's happening, and we're not going to make them go and play the fun game now. And that made me a little bit, I don't know,

you look for a little fucking scintillas of hope in this world, and that made me happy that we've progressed as a sports culture to that point, you know? But it does seem like in this case, the game stopped because both teams were like, yeah, we're not playing the rest of this one, as opposed to the league was like, well, obviously that's it. Yes and no, though. Like, I do feel like the NFL is taking, a lot of heat on this like five minute thing

that players were told, you know, if we're going to do five minutes and then get back to it. I mean, the five minute rule is, that's the policy for injuries on the field. Like if there's a serious injury and they need to take the player off, there's a five minute warm up period. And that's all it was.

Like, no, but that wasn't anybody, that wasn't Roger Goodell saying, like, start the game in five minutes. They were just going by the normal policy until they heard otherwise, and they did hear otherwise. So I think the league, from what I've seen

handled this reasonably well and I get that when something awful happens everybody needs to have like we need a villain we need somebody to get mad at and in this case it wasn't a dirty hit it wasn't a missed call or some screwed up thing so you know we get mad

at the league but and I guess the other thing we should say is from a hockey perspective a lot of those cases we mentioned or at least some of them we didn't know how serious it was necessarily at the time. Like the Trent McCleary one, this is the one where Chris Tarrian takes a slap shot and

McCleary goes down the block and he gets hit in the throat and basically collapses his throat. And they, he gets up, they pick him, but they haul him off the ice and, you know, he's got a collapsed windpipe. He can't breathe, all of this stuff. But I actually talked Chris Terran about that years ago. And he said it wasn't until, like, they knew it was bad. Like as soon as the play happened, he was like, oh, that's like, that's like, that's, bad. But they didn't understand until after the game. They like they finished the game and then like as

the media was getting ready to come in, somebody pulled Chris Taryn aside. They're like, you need to be aware that this, this guy, there's a very good chance. This guy's going to die in the hospital tonight. Yeah. And he was like, holy shit. Like, it did just he had, it had not occurred to him. It was that level versus the football situation where, you know, clearly there, it was, it was a different so I'm not, I'm not knocking the old NHL. But I mean, like the Clinton. Milarchuk game, that was very apparent. And they kept going. And they let Clint Milarchuk come back and play like a week later.

It was insane. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, again. And Lambert, even if it was sort of player driven, that's even heartening. That's even like, oh, yeah. No, I agree. You know, uh, them finally taking, uh, the agency that they deserve to, to, to,

to not have to do these things and not play at the league's reindeer game. But it's scary thing about it is, it's like, I mean, you never want to get into like, oh, you know, what would be better or worse? But in a way, like, if it had been either a dirty hit or a dangerous hit or something, like at least we'd have a feeling like we can change something. And this wasn't. Like, if people didn't see it, it was just a standard football play. Like, not even an especially violent player.

And you're just left going, like, what the – That's the thing that – It's tough. How do you go back out there, period, as players? Like, how does, like, I mean, you know, obviously we're all, you know, we're all thinking about Hamlin. But, you know, like, T. Higgins, how does he go back out there? Like, the guy, the receiver who kind of delivered the hit, the contact. I think that's the thing that, like, every hockey fan thinks about, which is if someone died and it was on not a puck to the chest, but a hit to the boards, like the house of cards falls down.

Like how, what do you do as a sport after? If it's a fight, if somebody hits their head on the ice in a fight, if it's a high hit and, you know, something like that or... That's like two weeks shut down and an emergency meeting of the Board of Governors to like... But here's the thing. Figure it out. We all know that it can happen and that it will happen eventually. Like this sport right now is like whether it's intentional or not.

not. Like, we've seen two guys come within seconds of dying on the ice because of skate blades. And we still have players out there virtually nobody has neck protection. Very few guys have any sort of skate blade protection. We've seen somebody, two guys nearly die getting hit with a slap shot. I'm not even, I don't even know what you could possibly do on that. It's going to happen someday in the NHO. And, you know, You know, it probably won't be a dirty play or a, you know, something that we can point and say change of rule. I and we all have just kind of like we, you know, when it does happen, we'll all say like, you know, this is, you know, it's not worth it for the game. And, you know, these are.

But we all know it now. And we're all just kind of plugging our ears and going along. And I don't know what the answer is. Like I'm not, I'm not moralizing here. because you can't moralize if you don't have a solution, and I certainly don't. But it is going to happen in the NHL. Well, on that pleasant note, let's take a break.

Someone's going to die out there, back after this. All right. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Raycon, and folks, the new year is here, whether you're making big changes or just settling back into a consistent routine, chances are you'd like some audio accompaniment on your journey. One of the things I'm listening to lately,

New record, well, new. It came out in like April or May. It's by this guy named MJ Lenderman. It's called Boat Songs. A friend of mine texted me in like mid-December, I want to say. Like, you would love this record. You personally. And I listened to it, and I was like, well, my friend Kevin has done it again.

He's right. And it ended up rocketing up my rankings. It was my number two album of 2022. But hey, you're looking to go into 2023. And that's why a good pair of wireless earbuds is, indispensable, it says here. For premium audio at the perfect price point, you've got to go with Raycon. In part because their everyday earbuds look, feel, and sound better than ever.

They have optimized gel tips for a perfect in-eer fit. That means, you know, no matter how much you move your head around that kind of thing, these things aren't moving. They have eight hours of playtime, 32 hours of battery life end. The best part is half the price of other premium audio brands. It's no wonder, Raycon's everyday earbuds have over 50, thousand five-star reviews. And again, the look, sound, and feel stuff, here's part of why.

They have awareness mode for if you're taking them out jogging. They have tap functions on the earbuds themselves so you don't have to go fishing in your pocket for your phone to change the song, turn up the volume, that kind of stuff. They have also noise isolation for if you are like me, traveling with your racons, putting them in your ears, you don't have to hear the plane noises, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I use them all the time.

I listen to all kinds of different music, podcasts, all that kind of stuff. They're really, really good, and here's what you're going to want to do if you want to get in on this action. You're going to go to buy raycon.com slash puck today to get 15% off your Raycon order. You believe that 15%? That's buyraycon.com slash puck to get 15% off byraycon.com. All right. As we're recording this, part of the reason I wanted to have Greg on the show is. Oh, there's a reason beyond the 300 episode?

Well, because, you know, we got the USA Canada World Junior game coming up later today as we record this. And I can't have Sean just saying to me, oh, Connor Bedard, oh, Adam Fantilli. Not having the best tournament, but, you know, what are you going to do? I needed someone, I needed a Greg to come in here and say, actually, all the American guys. All over it. That's right. Me and Ryan staring each other down and then. suddenly, Ryan goes, I brought a little backup and I don't know what Greg's, I don't know what Greg's

theme music is, but it's by smashing pumpkins, that's for sure. It would probably be, uh, I would, I mean, Zero is probably the best, like, entrance music, I think. Yeah, there's your next ranking. The ratings, huh? There it is. What do you want to say that Logan Cooley is great and that Luke Hughes is going to look great on the NJD?

Or do you want me to do the usual stick, which to say that I don't give a fuck of a, about World Juniors, and that's the joy of it. The joy of it is not caring about this tournament until we beat Canada. And then I, so what we do is we record this segment twice, right? Once with great caring and once with him not. And same with me. Once with me being like, ah, who cares, teenagers? And then another with me is like just waving a flag into the microphone.

It's just, it's the greatest feeling in the world. I've said this before, but it's the greatest feeling in the world to watch a sporting event and absolutely do not care if your team loses. Like, I don't give a shit. No, no, no, America really gives a shit. Come on over, brother. You can just stop caring about the Jets, you know? You can stop caring about the devil.

The Jets are a religion and I love the devils. The world juniors, though, it's like, the thing is the leverage, the difference is that, like, this is a thing that means so fucking much to them. Yeah, I had a whole website about this, Greg. They hold it around the holidays. They hold it around the holidays. They have those fucking symposiums if the goalie doesn't play well.

Like, it's just the imbalance of caring and obsession in this particular sporting event is so beautiful that it's really my favorite time of year. It's like the world baseball classic where everybody's like the what? Like there's a Dutch team or whatever and you're like, come on. Yeah. Like get a grip. Meanwhile, it's fucking USA. And I mean, maybe that's not even a good example because nobody cares about the World. baseball classic, but I'm saying if like,

what, or, you know, another example would be like if, uh, the, the winner of NFL Europe had to play the winner of the Super Bowl. Well, it's more like, it's like, well, I mean, come on now. It's like when we enter a team into the Olympic ping pong championship. Sure. And then China's like, hey, look at you. Fuck you.

We won ping pong again. And we're like, you're supposed to win ping pong. That's the whole point of the tournament. Can you guys imagine like having an international tournament where you've got the best players, but you make a big deal out of it while the rest of the world just kind of rolls their eyes. That would be crazy. Anyways, what's going on with basketball these days, guys? Well, one of these days, Canada is going to catch up to the U.S.

I keep hearing it. Tristan Thompson's going to fucking turn this all around for him. That's right. Well, I guess the thing is that would be like if the Chinese going into the table tennis finals was like, and, you know, we actually brought our ninth best table tennis players. If only our best table tennis players were here, then you'd see the full power. Then you'd see, and then they still win easily. Well, that's the thing.

That's the interesting thing with this year's World Junior is, like, it's the first time in a while that Canada can't really do that whole schick. Sean, I'm going to stop you right there. They can't do it ever. They can't do it ever. Well, no, because we usually were like, you know, Connor McDavid's in the NHL, man. Like next year, you're going to hear it next year, right? Carter Bedard is, if he was on the team, they would absolutely win. But we've got to Seattle, right.

there's a good chance he's still at it. Good point. I heard through the Discord that you guys talked about the NHL Network and the mailbag last week. Is that true? Yeah, we talked about it in vis-a-vis. I can't fucking watch the world juniors by legal means because I'm not one of the eight people in the U.S. that has NHL network. Fucking dumb. It's just dumb. Why can't the NHL do the bullshit that they do when they hold an event in a city and all of

a sudden the hotel you're staying in has the NHL network. Just like find a way to get the NHL network on all the systems it's not on. Now, I'm just thinking like if I was say some sort of a worldwide leader in sports and I had the NHL package, like the A package, would I make it a thing with the NHL to be like, you know what, we do want to run World Juniors on ESPN Plus for people who don't have the NHL network? I guess I would try to. do that. Well, I think that's something that we'd be interested in. I'm not speaking for my network.

If it weren't for the fact that the NHL puts World Juniors, IIHF Women's Worlds, and more than a fucking handful of actual NHL games exclusively on the NHL network. Yeah. Like, if this thing dies and I don't want it to because I'm quite fond of Mike Rupp, then we could probably find a home for these things that no one can see. depending on whether or not they have the... I have a cable station that strictly plays reruns of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares

in pre-H-D bars on the sides mode, but I can't watch fucking World Juniors. Yeah. It rules. It's so cool. That sounds like a guy who cares about the World Juniors to me right there. I mean, I want to see... I mean, you know, I always want to watch more hockey. Simon Nemich.

That's what I wanted to say this here. But Greg's right insofar as like you can't, like they'll just go, oh, you want to watch this, this Penguins Hurricanes game? Well, if you don't have the NHL network, you can go fuck yourself. How does that sound? Like that, they do it twice a week maybe? And it's not even a situation where the NFL's like, if you want to watch this Thursday night football game, you have to sign up for Amazon Prime. And then you get to watch like the boys. No, it's like, you have to sign up, you have to find a way to get an Intel network.

Oh, and by the way, the other programming is like the top 10 goals from fucking Tom Wilson. Like, that's what the ancillary programming you get for signing up. And every commercial is for earwax removal systems. Every single one. It's like I sign up for Amazon Prime. I have thousands of movies and documentaries at my fingertips. I sign up for the ancient network. It's like, here's a, here's a, here's a.

fucking countdown of the top 10 guys named Gord. Fucking nonsense. Number one. Look, hey, that was hard to narrow down, man. Don't... Crap on their work. Yeah.

So I, in all likelihood, will not be watching this game today. Just because I, you know, if I can find a stream, maybe I'll fucking do it, but I don't want to also have to close a pop-up every four seconds. Yeah, that's the issue.

The other issue, and I was going to try to find a bar to wash it in, but A, what bar has NHL Network? And B, I'm doing Dry January, and I'm trying not to like... Greg sitting there with a nice big sasparilla at the one bar in Brooklyn that has the NHL Network. Me and Ryan and Seth Rorba went out to dinner after the Winter Classic, and I had to explain to the waitress that I'm doing Dry January, which she had not heard of before.

And I explained it to her because I still wanted to seem cool. I wanted her to know that... I was going to say, I don't think you needed to explain. it to her. I want her to know. Very much opted to explain it. No, I'm doing dry January, which is this. And you're right. And she's, and she's like, all right. I wanted to let her know, I was cool. Just say, I'm good with water. Thank you. You know, I wanted to let her know. I wasn't in rehab. Like, I'm doing a gimmick this month where I'm trying to not drink that much. And, and, like, I just wanted to let her know that were conditions different, I, too, would be having

a Shiner with this barbecue. I just wanted to let her know that. I had an Arnold Palmer. It was great. I didn't drink. And I also didn't make a big thing out of it. Yeah. Wait, isn't it Arnold Palmer doesn't have booze in it? No. Half iced tea, half lemonade. You ever hear about this? What's the one that has booze in it?

Long Island iced tea? No, ice tea, lemonade. Oh, isn't it a John Daly is the one with alcohol in it? That's the one with the only alcohol in it. Well, one of them says a cigarette butts. A boozy Arnold Palmer Yeah, I guess there isn't like, oh, wait, here, John, yeah, this one, Drizley calls it a John Daley.

Well, that's clever. Thanks. Yeah. Well, you didn't invent it. It's been, it's out there in the ether, but yeah. Oh, okay. That's true. I remembered it, so that's something, you know.

I don't know if I've ever actually ordered a John Daly. That sounds fun. I would like to order an Andy Daley, which is a humorous podcast about Lemonade and Ice Tea. You ever notice? I'd like to order a Carson Daily. I don't know. I don't know enough. A countdown of all the best lemonade's nice teas to a screaming trope of fans outside.

I'd like to order a Trevor Daily, he said, getting it back into hockey. Okay. And John Van Biesburg says, no thanks. So how about this? Did Trevor Daily ever play? Yeah, it sure was. Did Trevor Daly ever play for the St. Louis Blues? I don't think he did, right?

Well, there goes that segue. The St. Louis Blues. Six weeks without Ryan O'Reilly, four weeks without Vladimir Tarasanga. Oh, wow. They'll definitely lose to all the legitimate Stanley Cup contenders without those two guys. Well, it's, I mean, it's on top of other guys being injured. I think Tori Krug is on IR right now. not that he's having the fucking greatest year anybody ever had.

Logan Brown's currently hurt. Like, everybody's getting hurt at the exact wrong time for them, both because, like, they seem like they might be a playoff team, but also because they're going to want to trade a bunch of these guys. And, uh-oh, maybe we can't do that now. Or at least it's going to really hurt their value in theory. Where do you want to, if he's healthy, where do you want to see O'Reilly? Because I've heard, Sean, I've heard the Leafs at one point had a,

had an affinity for maybe acquiring Ryan O'Reilly. I could see that being the sort of guy they would potentially go after. I mean, in theory, they need help on the wing more. But, yeah, I mean, Ryan O'Reilly's got the consmite, right? So that is going to make him significantly more valuable at the deadline because some team will talk themselves into like, this is the guy that we need, the guy who knows how to win, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know if the least will be that fit, but somebody will be.

Yeah, like they'll, assuming he's healthy, obviously, which it sounds like he will be, and it sounds like the blues are going to be careful and just shut both guys down to make sure that they're healthy for the deadline. Yeah, who would he be good with? I don't know if they could afford him. You know where he'd be fun? Carolina.

Well, so I almost said that, and I almost said that. I think Tarasenko might even make more sense for them. However, I just saw on Twitter a few minutes ago that Patioretti is practicing in full gear, like full participant in practice. Oh, in case they were going to try to coocher off him? Well, no, just in terms of they needed another guy who can put the puck in the net maybe. And now, you know, in theory, they don't need that guy. And maybe that makes O'Reilly a more attractive choice for that reason. But I don't know.

Did you see that fucking horseshit with Jordan Martinuk last night, by the way? I did not see this. So they called him for playing the puck with a broken stick with 2.45 left in the game and Carolina down a goal against the Rangers. And it was like the classic case of a guy not knowing his stick was broken. And then the minute he'd realized that he threw his hands up in the air as if someone had stuck a fucking barretta in his chest. And like the referee still gave him a fucking penalty for playing the puck with broken. Still, I get no idea. No, this falls into my proposal.

So any player who lifts his hands in the air on anything call related, automatic two minutes. You're pointing to a puck that got over the glass. You're like, oh, somebody grabbed my stick, so I have to hold both my hands like straight up. Like, no, automatic two minutes. It's a signal of guilt, you're saying? Yeah.

It's a signal of a guilty conscience. That means he did something earlier in the game that he felt guilty about subconsciously. I think you can see that definitely on plays where there's like a tripping call and the guy immediately like throws his hands in the air. Yeah. I couldn't have tripped him. I thought that guy tripped it, but look, he's got his hands up in the ears. My hands are pointed at the rafters.

How could I trip someone in this position? You might be honest, something there. But I felt bad for them last night. I felt like they really got a job last night for that call. To the point where they actually, they pulled their goalie while short-handed and tried to come back in the game that way, which was insane. It was insane. Here's the other O'Reilly destination, I think, would be really fun.

Vegas. Mm-hmm. But surely Vegas doesn't have the cap room to add this. I just looked it up. They're sitting on like almost 3.7 million in cap space right now. So if they kind of... But is it LTIR space or is it space that's compounding? It says current cap space.

I'm assuming that that will add up a little bit over time. But like if you get to the point where at the end of the season, what's O'Reilly going to be due? You know what I mean? It's going to be less than 3.7. That is. Yeah. They are... I'm looking at them.

It's all LTIR. So their current cap space and their deadline cap space is the same. It's not like they've got $3 million in real space, and which magically like always transforms by the deadline. You're like, how does this? How do half the teams have $8 million in cap room? Yeah. But they, I think they'd be a way to do it.

They make that work. Yeah. They'll find, they're fucking Vegas. They'll find a way to make it happen. Yep. So, yeah, those, I think Carolina, I think, Toronto would be interesting, if only because that means they didn't trade for a fucking defenseman, which I don't think they need. They need a forward.

And yeah, so what about Tarasenko, though? Who's your dream destination for him? See, I would have said Carolina before you sort of. Yeah, that would have been my pick until I saw that tweet 10 minutes ago. The thing I keep coming back to is like they really fucked up by not selling high on him. That's right. Yeah. You got it.

Yeah. And so that's, I mean, his value was never going to be higher than it was in the offseason. But, I mean, he does have trade. I think he had some trade protection, too. He has full trade protection. Yeah. So that's kind of the thing I come back to. I don't know where I want him.

I actually have been kind of a down on him this year. Here's my answer. Put him on the capitals. All those other Russian guys. You know what I'm talking about? I got a lot of those guys. They're going to need, you know, you want to talk about a team. team where one guy is scoring all the goals.

Yeah. You know, and the caps are on a bit of a heater right now. They're 11 something and one, 11, 1 maybe in the last stretch of games and scoring a bunch. So like just an extra guy to maybe get him across the line, help Bovetchen score some more goals. I talked to somebody about the Capitals, and he brought up an interesting point, which was that Loviet was coaching this team poorly. earlier this year. Like he he had them playing a style that was like super aggressive forecheck, trying to hit everybody,

playing a real heavy game. And in the process was kind of leaving his goaltending out to dry a little bit. And then around the beginning of December, changed tactics to play more like control the pace hockey. And you could see that's the minute when they started to fucking roll teams. Yeah. And Kemper got on a heater and everything started to really turn. Lindgren has had like a great season too.

And so that is a thing of like, do I really think Charlie Lindgren and Darcy Kemper are going to be like the goalies of the year in 2020? No, I don't. So if I'm, if I'm the capitals, I'm going out and I'm trying to get Mr. Guy or two just to get you across the line a little bit. That's the kind of thing that like in theory should be evidence towards a potential Jack Adams nomination. but unfortunately, Lovillet did not take over bad team, make a good team because good goal tending. And so you can't win the Jack Adams. Well, I mean, the other part of that is they played like 20 games getting badly coached

by the same guy. You know what I mean? But they figured it out. Give me three, give them three quarters of a Jack Adams. That's true. I'm waiting to write things. People, coaches can't change. If Jim Montgomery doesn't win the Jack Adams, I don't even know what the fuck we're doing.

Jim, Montgomery should be a piece of shit. win the Jack Adams on a fucking walk. In a walk. Oh my God. Like he took a pretty good team, a good team that was good last year. And he's like, what if we turned Jake DeBrusc into a fucking all-star? But that's why Bruce Cassidy got fired. He didn't think of that.

One other, well, okay, another trade thing. Nick Merckley apparently requested a trade from the San Jose Sharks. Does anybody, do you guys have any opinion on that at all? Do you want to talk about an impression? All of Greg's impressions are bad. However, cricket? The cricket one? Well, I think he's got something there.

Thank you. That one is pretty good. Now, what would it sound like if Phil Esposito told a bad joke to Gary Ben? You know, I once crushed a cricket with a beer bottle. I was telling Terry O'Reilly, what's that noise? I had this trip-trap. I talked about the schlitz. Bastards fucking head in the floor on a bar.

Terry's like, there goes Jiminy. Then he didn't do the cricket, the thing that we were setting up. Even us hanging. Well, Phil Espicito can't do a cricket. No, you're doing the cricket for his bad... I haven't seen a chimney cricket this bad since Robert Zemeckis's Pinocchio. If you wanted to hear... The cricket, you needed to do the inside the actor's studio thing and say, Greg Wushinsky,

we could be pleased now hear from the cricket. Greg does a sigh, closes his eyes. This is unbelievable. That's really good. Where was this? They'd still let you be doing this podcast if you could be like, well, you're not going to let me do the cricket on ESPN. I mean, clearly the problem was that, like, I just never told any jokes. that were cricket-worthy the entire time.

So he just never ever... Nothing but 10 out of 10 jokes. And Greg Wischinski, when you die and go to the pearly gates, what would you like St. Peter to say to you as you arrive? And the answer always on inside the actor's studio was I'd like him to say, good job. That's, yeah, that's true. You nailed it, brother.

One last one here, a bit of news. Verona, Yaka Verona is on way. Yeah. That surprised me. And by the time people hear this, we'll know what the outcome was, but we do not know right now. Yeah. I personally don't think he's going to get claimed just because that's a lot of money and nobody has that kind of space. Unless it's like Arizona, which I guess probably does have the space.

Like, he's a good player. Injuries, and obviously he was in the player assistance programs. Yeah, which makes this all. game of the season. But I mean, he's been, I mean, first of all, they gave up a bunch to get him, and he's been a productive player for them. I mean, he's scoring half a goal a game for them. So I don't know.

I mean, there's the theory out there that this is just the Red Wings jumping on an opportunity to get him through waivers because of the cap situations around the league and because of maybe some uncertainty over where he's at in getting back into the lineup. I guess that makes sense. Or maybe it doesn't because maybe we'll find out that he gets, I mean, if he gets claimed, I don't know, what do you think, right?

Like, is he, do they want him to get claimed or do they actually want to move on from him? Is this about sneaking him through? Like, what is going on here? I don't know. I was, you know, reading Max Boltman's story on The Athletic about this. this morning actually.

And it just seems like a few more questions and answers at this point in the Verana situation. It sucks, though. Like, it sucked when he had to go into rehab. It sucks now. He's like, he's one of those players that you really love to watch.

He was like an instant offense guy. And so the whole thing stinks. Because I really thought he was going to be like part of the Red Wings team kind of going forward. And that'd be fun because he's... Felt that way. Bad.

And now they could be okay. And so he's only 26. He's not 20. 22 goals in 39 games is a Red Wing. That's a 45 goal pace when he's in the lineup. Yeah. On waivers. My thinking is he, I also read Max Boltman's column this morning.

And one thing that jumped out to me is he doesn't seem to have done well down in Grand Rapids. And I think this is the Red Wings trying to sneak him through waivers, hoping no one claims and because the only teams that really have the space forum right now are Anaheim, Buffalo, and Arizona. And Buffalo, like, has to be pretty close to having a full NHL roster so they would have to send someone down. And that's a big gamble to make and blah, blah, blah. Anaheim and Arizona, like, why would they do it just because they don't seem like they're

particularly close to competing? And so why take on a big contract like this for a guy who you just don't know. know what he's going to do. So I think this is Detroit going. Now is our chance because he's on a conditioning stint. And that means he can only be in the AHL for 14 days. And so his 14 days are up. But if they put him on waivers and he clears, he can stay in the AHL as long as he needs to get back to where he needs to be. And so I think that's Detroit making the gamble that no one's going to claim him. He can get the big minutes in Grand Rapids and hopefully And if by the time people hear this, we know that he hasn't been claimed,

then it looks like a smart, gutsy move. But if he has been. I mean, that's... I think they were just, like, kind of at an impasse where they don't have anybody they want to swap out for him necessarily. I just have a hard time looking at the Red Wings and saying they don't have room for a guy who scores at a 45 goal pace. I don't disagree with you, but again, he was like, I think it said no points in a minus five and four games or something like that. Rand Rapid. So, like, it didn't go well for him down there.

You know, and so they're, like, nervous about it. Again, I'm guessing. I don't know. You know, it's a wild stat I saw this morning. The Red Wings have had a lead after the first period as many times as Chicago. They were, like, tied for last in the league in the amount of times they've had a lead after the first period. That sounds right.

I mean, they've been horrible this year. Let me, let me say this. I saw this stat about Chicago last night. I think it was they have two wins in their last 33 games. Hmm. that's fucking unbelievable to me. And they're not getting loser points is the other thing. Like they are losing in regulation by multiple goals.

It's really funny to see people like freaking out about Vancouver and being like trade everybody, tank right now, get badar. I'm like, you understand that like Chicago was created in a lab to be this bad? Like you're never going to catch up to the Chicago's of the world who have been planning for this moment for the last two seasons. Yeah. And didn't Patrick Kane get injured last night? He did. Lower body injury and they're going to be cautious with it, I guess. Yeah.

So that's another thing that only helps the cause, really. They're going to be real cautious. Strained his ACL running to join Panera in New York. He just pulled the fucker. Yeah. Well, I guess that's it for news this week. So why don't we take another break and we will be right back with a little game called the name Pat Falloon.

Our next partner has a product that gets used in my house all the time. It's athletic greens. And one of the things that we like about athletic greens in this house is it can promote better energy, more energy. And I'm sure it never comes across in this podcast, but I am a guy who has occasionally been accused of maybe needing a little bit of an energy boost. And that's where Athletic Greens. can come in. So what is this stuff? Well, with one delicious scoop of athletic greens, you're

absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole food, source, superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens. To help you start your day right, it's a special blend of ingredients, supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, and aging, all the things. It's lifestyle-friendly, whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, all of that. And it uses the best of the best products based on the latest science with constant product iterations and third-party testing. It is much cheaper than getting all of these different supplements yourself and trying to figure out how to combine them, make it work for your lifestyle. And it's a micro-habit with big benefits. It's a thing,

one thing you can do every single day to take great care of yourself. And right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially as we're in that flu and cold season. It's one scoop, a cup of water every day, that's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. To make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash puck. Again, that is athletic greens.com slash puck. To take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance.

All right, we're back, and it's time for a little game called Name Pat Falloon, and I want to see if people can figure out the little theme I put together for these categories. Who wants to go first, by the way? Everyone's named Gord. That's not going to be the theme. Can you remind me of the rules? Why don't we figure out who goes first, and then I will carefully explain it? I say Greg should go first because he's...

Greg goes first. So now I will explain it. Okay. Greg, you've been on Doug Love's movies. This is shamelessly stolen from you. One Doug Loves movies many times, yes. Yeah. Many times.

Okay. This is the same idea as the Leonard Malton game. I'm going to give you a category. You're going to pick A, B, or C. Okay. And then I'm going to tell you three facts about this player. His current age, the number of games he played in the NHL, and the last team or his current team that he played for.

Okay. then you will have a number of clues from which to choose. So if you say, I want all 10 clues, I will tell you every NHL team he's played, every NHL team he's played for. The current or most recent save percentage or points that he has this year, if it's a goalie, save percentage, obviously, if it's a skater, it's points. If you only want eight clues, you start with the current or most. most recent cap hit for this player.

And if it's not available, I tell you that's not available. Okay. Country that he is from. Career points are saved percentage. The years he played, his draft team, his draft spot, height and weight, and then finally, if you only want one clue, I will tell you his amateur team. Okay. Are any of the clues his full name? No.

Okay. Okay. So the first one is Mr. 300, and that is no one has ever finished their career at exactly 300 career goals in the NHL. However, I am going to give you guys who had 298, 297, and 296. Those are the three closest without going over. So if they came back for five games, they could plausibly get there, but all of these guys, their careers are over as far as I can tell. Okay. So you can pick that category. You can pick Justice League. And this is all guys named Clark, Kent, Bruce, Wayne, Barry, Allen, Arthur, Curry, Victor, or Stone. And any spellings of those, they have to be pronounced that way, though. And I couldn't find anybody in the NHL history named Diana.

Wasn't there a Shane Prince, though? Am I wrong on that? Shane Prince. I just read to you all the guys from Zach Snyder. Justice League. Well, her name was like Diana Prince, wasn't it? Sure. Yeah, I guess I didn't think of that. Thank you. Thank you. But, and then finally, this is Sparta and this is players who, according to Google, are of Greek descent. Justice League. Justice League, it is. Do you want A, B or C? B, it is. Okay, give me one second. I've got to pull up the players page. Okay, how many clues do you think you can name this player in? He's 29 years.

years old. He has 506 career NHL games under his belt and the last team he played for is the Seattle Crackin. Oh my God. So it's a guy that's on the Cracken probably like now and he's got a Justice League name.

Oh, fuck. Jesus. Five. Sean, can you do better than five? I feel like my memory is that four is my sweet spot on this. So I'm going to go four

four it is Greg can you beat four do you want to do you want to go just draft spot without the team that picked him the size and his amateur team those will be all your clues

if you pick three or do you want Sean to name that's what was Cyborg's last name uh Stone all right it doesn't help me I have no idea what you guys are talking about right now Oh, man.

Bruce Wayne. Could I ask for the names again? Yeah, that's a good thing. Yeah, thank you. Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, who's, that's the Flash. That's the Flash, right. Arthur Curry.

That's Aquaman. Right. And Victor Stone is Cyborg. Victor Stone. is cyborg. And he was a fucking... Uh, you go ahead, Sean, you name him. Oh, crap.

Okay. In four. So, Sean, this is a player selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round, 42nd overall of the 2011 NHL draft. Uh, he is six foot to 200 pounds. And his amateur team, if I scroll down a little bit, uh, is the Calgary Hitman. Okay. This doesn't help me remotely

But if I if I want it's not Jamie Alexiac Because he wasn't any of the names That's right That would make sense Okay last play for the Cracken is the big one So yes he has to be either active or like Just retired or just retired He needs to

And then he was drafted by Carolina in the second round who did they take from Carolina in the expansion draft I do not know Oh Was it One of the flurries

And they didn't have names The flurries didn't have names. They don't, yeah, they don't. They just got my flurry. They don't. They just, yes. Oh, man.

Do you, do you know it now, Greg? Like, having no, I have no fucking idea who this is. Okay, I don't, uh, so what's say if, if I pass here, does Greg get additional? Yeah. All right. I, I, I don't know. So, uh, Greg, you're. The answer is Victor Rask.

Oh, yes. Okay. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah.

I needed Wendell Clark to be the guy on this one. Sure. That was really my hope. Yep. All right. So, Sean, your choice of category here. This starts with Sin City, a goal to kill for. And that's about players who scored their first career goal in Las Vegas.

Ah, wow. All right. Then there's sucker punch. And that's guys who are, according to a 2012 article, the 10 worst sucker punches in NHL history, guys who perpetrated those sucker punches. Perpetrated. Not on the receiving end, but perpetrated.

Correct. Correct. And then we'll circle back around. You can pick Mr. 300. Can I ask a question? Did Sean write that article? Because it sounds like something. No, he did not. Hmm.

I'm going to go with the sucker punch. I got to do that one. Big fucking surprise. Or C. There you go. A. Very confident. Yeah.

So yeah, okay. This player is currently 34 years old. He played 1129 career NHL games, and the last team he played for is the Carolina Hurricanes. Okay, so he's played a ton of games, but he's 34. Yeah. So that would suggest active,

but perhaps not. Oh, boy. Okay. So who on the current hurricanes? Through a sucker punch. Okay, so I got to do the bidding, right? This is, uh, let's go, let's go six. Six it is.

So that'll give you his career points. Years play draft team, draft spot, size and amateur team. I'll go, uh, five. Five it is. I'll go, I'll go four again. it worked so well the last time. Greg, three? No, he can name it.

Fuck, Greg. Knock it off, buddy. If Sean doesn't get this, I will be floored. Oh, wow. Absolutely stung. Really? No pressure. Yes. No pressure. This player was drafted second overall in the 2006 NHL draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He's six foot four, 220 pounds, and his amateur team is the Peterborough Peeps. Jesus. Who did George? Jordan Stahl's sucker punch? The answer, apparently, is Brandon Prust. That checks out. This is from an article February 1st, 2011, late in the second period of Pittsburgh Penguins battle with the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Jordan Stahl charged into a scrum and landed a blindside punch on the chin of Brandon Prust. Pruss quickly dropped to the ice and Stahl found himself with a match penalty and game misconduct. Okay. So is that the article? that you were pulling it from. Oh, this is a separate article. All right, I was going to say, like, if it happened a few days before. All right.

Okay. I don't remember that. Sounds like Brandon Press may not remember it, but. Yeah, I just watched it. He fucking clocks this guy. Oh, okay. Boy, oh, boy. That doesn't feel like a Jordan Stahl thing to do, but that's, all right, I'm going to.

I'll text it around here. Yeah. And you guys can, you guys can watch this. I thought this was my chance to show off my knowledge of Jean-Hamel, but didn't. Nope. It was not to be. No, no. All right, Greg, for you, your choices are, Justice League again.

No, you know what? No, that's wrong. Your choices are, this is Sparta, Sin City a goal to kill for, or Mr. 300. Give me Sin City a goal to kill for. Okay. A, B, or C? C. C, it is.

You picked, I would say, the toughest one. All right, perfect. Not the best choice by you. This player is currently 25 years old. He's played, ooh, 200 NHL games, and the last team he played for was the Vegas Golden Knights. Okay. Okay, yeah. So, I will say, not everybody on my list played or currently plays for the Vegas Golden Knights.

How old is this person? He is 25. So 25, so he was probably young-ish. Huh, that's, I guess he probably was. It was like, so, hold on. So it's not, it's not in their inaugural season, right? It's just some. Just their first goal.

Like, this player's first goal was scored against Vegas in Vegas at T-Mobile Arena. It was scored against Vegas. Well, no, I'm sorry. Against Vegas or or for Vegas. But in Vegas specifically. Okay, because that would be a huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At Vegas.

At Vegas. Okay. So he's 20, his first goals in Vegas. Okay. Um, six, five. These are all players you've heard of, by the way. I don't, I don't do like, oh, this guy has one career goal in fucking three career games, and it happened to be at Vegas. These are all guys you've heard.

So, Sean, did you say five? I said five. Okay. Greg, do you want to beat five? Yeah, give me four. All right. Four? You take it great, because I'm.

All right. I'm not caring all of. the wrong answers on this. I think, I think, I'm betting on the fact that this is one of those deals where I, in, in the cosmic puck soup way, reference this player earlier and I'm going to roll with that idea. But go ahead. Give me the clues. All right.

Draft in the fourth round, 96th overall by the Carolina Hurricanes. Okay. I like it. A 2015 entry draft. He is six foot four, two hundred five pounds in his amateur team. is the Chakudomi Sanguinines. A real team that definitely exists. Six foot four.

I don't know how tall this guy is. But I'm referenced... I referenced them before, and I'm going to stick with it. Is it Nicholas Roy? It is, yes. Yes! Yeah, as far as I could tell, there are only five players

who have scored their first career goals in Vegas. And that might be wrong, but it's not really easy to find that kind of information quickly and easily. And he was one of two that did it for Vegas and one of only three that anybody had actually. One, I was playing the cosmic puck soup game. Two, a lot of the guys that might have scored goals with those early Vegas teams are all like older. They're like, like, Marcheseo and Carlson of those guys are like in their late 20s or early 30s. All right.

So we go to the tiebreaker, I believe. Oh, my God. Wait, no, Sean only, it's two to one. Sean needs two in a row to win. Oh, boy. That's what it is. Okay, so Mr. 300, guy who finished just below 300 goals in his NHL career. This is Sparta.

That's players of Greek descent. And we'll circle back to Justice League. I want to do the Mr. 300. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. See, it is. This player is 35 years old. He played 869 NHL games. The last team he played for, the St. Louis Blues. How old is he? 35.

35. Six. Six. Okay. Greg. The last team he played for was the Blues. Mm-hmm. Fuck.

35 last team played for was Blues. Five. four. Let me guess, Greg. Name it. Keep going, Greg. Come on, man. This is your chance to finish.

How old is he? 35. And if I say it one more time, it'll be 36. And how many goals does he have? I didn't say. Hey, don't go trying to sneak in extra information there. It's pretty sneaky, wasn't it? It was.

What are we at? Four? Give me three. Three it is, Sean. Name it. Okay, three it is. So I will not tell you the team that drafted him. I will only tell you where he was selected.

Okay. He was a second round pick, 33rd overall in the 2005 draft. He is six foot three, two hundred twelve pounds, and the amateur team is the Plymouth Whalers. Okay, last team. Is it Ryan O'Reilly?

No. So it is tied now. We're going to a tie breaker. Well, he could steal it and win, right? No, that's... I just get the point. He gets the point for... Oh, I see. I could get...

I don't know who it is, so I wouldn't be able to... No, I wasn't. Who wasn't? Who wasn't? The answer is James Neal. Oh, okay. James Neal? No longer in the NHL.

Played mostly in the HAL last year, not currently playing. Playing professional hockey. Play for the real deal. He's, eh? All right. And he has 296 career goals, so close and yet, so far. Is that kind of... Greg, have you been, like, in the back of your head working on the theme?

No, I completely forgot that was the thing we were doing. All right. James Neal, Nicholas Roy, Jordan Stahl. No, the theme is in the titles of the... Okay. Oh. It's just the movie... Tie-in.

Yes. Okay. Got you. Well, they're not all, you know. I mean, they are, I guess, a little bit all movie related, aren't they? But the theme is Zach Snyder's 300. Yes. Mr. 300, Justice League.

Right. Yeah, Zach Snyder. It's all those exact soccer things. Yeah. Yes. Oh, see, the sucker punch one I didn't get. Okay. Yeah, he directed a very bad movie called Soccer Punch.

Gotcha. The last one, the tiebreaker, the only one we didn't do, this is Sparta, you're just going to tell me these are all players who, according to Google, when I typed in NHL players of Greek descent, these guys are all on the list. All right. A, B, it's to Greg. It's a shot, isn't it? I think Greg gets to pick the. I'll take B. B it is a wise choice, I would say.

Uh-oh. This player was 49 years old, played 760 career games, last played for the Dallas Stars. That's a wise choice. What is it? A six. Yeah. Honestly, I was banking everything on it being Chris Chelios. Right.

Nope. I was hoping he played 2,700 games, and I'd be like, all right. I will, I'll go five. How many games did he play? 760. 760. And he was a Dallas, he last played with the Dallas Stars. Mm-hmm.

You did five? I think so. Five is the last number on the board. Name him. In five, okay. This is going to be a real tough one for you, Sean. He played from 1992. to 2007.

He was the first overall pick of the Quebec Nordiques in the 191 HL dropped. Six foot four, 240 played for the Oshua generals. Sean, for the win. I do want to point out that first overall pick of the Nordiques in that era does not narrow it down all that much.

I think fingers crossed that he's going to say with respect to Matt Sundin and Owen Nolan. I did not know Eric Lindrosse was of Greek descent. I knew he was of Greek descent, but I forgot that he finished his gross. The Dallas Stars. Is that?

Okay. Yeah, finishing his career with the Dallas Stars, you would be forgiven if you forgot those 49 games. I remember that only because he went from the Leafs to Dallas. Yep. So there you go, Sean wins. Okay. Yeah, it's like it's like I never left.

Sean wins a fucking thing. Well, I was going to say, as punishment, Greg is no longer allowed to be on Pucks soon. Yeah, we didn't say this was a loser leaves town match. I had no idea. Don't worry. He's putting his boots in the middle of the ring right now. Don't worry. At episode 400, a masked podcaster name, the midnight blogger will show up.

I was going to say, if we're doing it pro wrestling style, episode 303 will have Greg just randomly show up with no reference to. Yeah, episode 400, nah, he has been a guy banned from this. this show with that right you know I did an impression on Greg will hold down Ryan and threaten to break his neck if I don't renounce the

stipulation I'll be a giant machine for episode 303 no one will know who I am I want to thank the Disney Corporation for allowing me to be a guest on the show I created that's interesting I feel like I've been here for all 300

And thanks to all of you for supporting the show and supporting the Patreon where, you know, if it sounds like Sean and Ryan and I have inexplicable chemistry despite my departure from Puck Sue, it's because we still podcast every month on the Patreon. So go check it out if you're not already signed up. And if you are signed up, thank you for your patronage. Yeah. And if you work at Disney, you didn't hear that last part. No, they know. They have to tell them everything. I had to get it cleared to be a guest on this dumb podcast.

And he had to explain to Bob Eiger what dry January is. Like, don't worry, Bob, I'm cool. I love drinking. But this month, I'm only going to do it like three times. And this was him. Yeah, I don't care. You're sticking with water. Is that right?

Okay, cool. Thanks. All right. Yeah, for me, EP Rinkside. Sign up. I Love EP is the code. We get three months tacked on to the end of your annual subscription when you use that one. And we're doing a lot of World Junior coverage, like a truly psychotic amount.

I think we have like three or four people on site. So it's a big deal. This is like one of the big things for us all year, obviously that in the draft. So check it all out. I think you'll really like what we've been doing over there. And I say we as a guy who hasn't done shit for World Junior. But I also wrote about, I wrote that aforementioned article about going to Fenway for the Winter Classic and being absolutely fucking charmed by it, despite thinking it was going to suck. And then I'm going to Arizona this week for a college hockey tournament in an NHL game.

And I'm going to write about what the vibes are like as a guy who's been to one million college hockey games to see an NHL game in a college hockey arena. Nice. And the EP stands for erect penis, or is it something different? I mean, when we bought the company, I think it stood for something else, but we've been moving away from that. It's subtle, but they have tried to slowly transition. You find me on The Athletic. I haven't written much in the last few weeks, but...

Smart. That's just good business. That's it. All right. Thanks so much for listening, folks. And if you were one of these guys who's like, oh, they should get Greg to come back all the time. fucking take it up with us. Yeah.

We don't disagree with you. I just want to say. Oh, I wish they had Greg back. Yeah, no shit. Shut the fuck up. Hey, congratulate. This is a big one for your Reddit. Yeah.

Every postmortem is just me and Ryan going. That show would have been so much better if Greg was here. If Greg was here, boy, oh boy. Oh, man. Anyway. I was just happy to see the podcast still going. I mostly listen to Ben Shapiro. Yeah, he's pretty, but anyways.

He makes a lot of good point. And thanks to Greg for volunteering to do both the ad reads this week. I thought that was very cool. Old school. That was nice. That joke won't make any sense at all chronologically, I'm realizing. No, it's, I get it. I didn't do any of them yet.

So I don't think. I had a ball. It's speaking of balls. There it is. Boy, I haven't heard from that company in a minute. So, oops. Anyway, by everybody. Thanks so much.

See you later. Bye. Bye.