Puck Soup - Risky Business

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about reviews, the Conference Finals, coaching changes, and more.

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean Maganoo from The Athletic. And we are one game into the conference finals. Did it feel like the first two rounds went really quickly to you? Yeah. I guess it did. It always kind of feels that way in hindsight. Especially when we have the...

We had kind of a gap with just the one game seven and... Right. Yeah. Three or four nights of nothing. but I got to say bangor schedule from here on out both series every game a night every night

second night no gaps no none of that perfect I actually looked that up toward the end of last night's game I was just like are they going to try to give us the two nights off between like games four and five or whatever nope they're not schedule

cowards this time I think probably the next getting knocked out of getting knocked out of the NBA helped a lot there. But yeah. I love how we can get the perfect schedule when it's Madison Square Garden,

but God help us of the Nashville predators who are like, sorry, the hockey rink in Nashville was booked solid in May. We have to go to somewhere. There's a Memphis, Kansas Breeze concert going on that night. We got to clear the schedule.

Who gives a shit about our main tenant get lost. Although, you know, hey, look, didn't they say after the coyotes moved out of their, the Glendale rank, they were like, oh, yeah, we're doing way better now. Sure, yeah. So, yeah, because the people who come in and use the arena now pay us. And there are more than 80 of them. Yeah.

But yeah, so, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't know how the scheduling things work. You know what I mean? I was reading my buddy Josh Terry. He wrote a thing. He went to the deaden company at the sphere. Okay. And he was like the visuals. I don't know if you've seen any of the visuals on Twitter, but the incredible,

like beyond mind blowing, really. And he was like, yeah, man, the sphere is amazing. Oh, my God. And I'm like, yeah, I can't wait to go. And, you know, instead of these like these files that take like two weeks to upload, apparently. Oh, wow. It's going to be just like Macklin Celebrini's face, the size of eight city blocks.

Yeah. But what if they don't? What if they like really go all out and just have like insane visuals? The NHL doing that though? The NHL. Just Gary Betman's face on the outside. That's what I mean. We have a trade to announce and everybody's like, everybody's just terrified.

Maybe that's where Bettman announces himself as God Emperor. Could be. You know, it's in the desert. This is all checking out. Sounds about right. Yeah. I wanted to talk before we got into the Panthers Rangers game. I was going to say an easy win for the Panthers.

It wasn't that easy. But. Classic road win. Yeah. But I wanted to first talk about your big take this week about reviews. It's a hot take. It was. What did you think, man?

Did I sell you? Are you on board? The take for the small handful of people out there who don't read my stuff. And like what is wrong with you? Really. But the take was when it comes to replay review, specifically offside and goaltender interference because obviously we had a big controversy on Friday that ended up being not as big as it could have been because Dallas ended up up winning, but we had the whole Matt Douchain being in front of the goalie.

Anyways, my take is, this sucks, and instead of fixing it, which I have written about in the past, I've made suggestions, instead of fixing it, just get rid of it, dump it. This hasn't worked. It's been a failed experiment. and my argument beyond the fact that I think itself evidently hasn't worked and is just making everyone angrier and more unhappy and all on that stuff. My argument is this was a clear message from the hockey gods. The two most famous moments in replay or non-replay history in the NHL

was Brett Halls scoring a series winning goal with a series. skate in the crease, which happened in game six in overtime in a Dallas Stars road game. And the other one is Matthew Shane being 10 feet offside. And so when you have the Dallas Stars series clinching goal in overtime of a game six in a road game, and Matt Duchyne is the guy who gets it waved off, to me, that is a sign from the hockey god saying, guys, look at this. And when you look at it, I don't think there's any conclusion other than this. whole system is broken beyond repair.

It is not working. It is not doing anything we thought it would. It has now been 11 years and counting. We have not caught one single solitary Matt Duchesne being 10 feet offside. We are doing millimeters. We're doing goalie interference reviews where, look, I've pounded the table on this. It's not that complicated, and you can figure out 90% of these. We saw one last night that was pretty obvious.

But if everyone's going to constantly do the hole, we don't understand, and we're flipping coins and all that. Okay, so get rid of it entirely. And then we'll just have, you know, oh, well, what if they miss a call? You know, what if they do? They miss calls every night. We get mad about it for 15 minutes and we move on. Yeah. But we don't have to have a national conversation for two days the way we do when you stop the game for 10 minutes. Show us freeze frames and reverse angles and slow mo and all of that for what is in the case, goaltender interference, largely a subjective call. And then at the end, you make an announcement that half the fans don't agree with anyways, and people are just super mad because they're like, you said you were getting it right.

I just want to get it right. No, you don't. You want the call to go your team's way every single time. Correct. Yes. Get rid of it. This system sucks. Do what the NHL has done. I think only one time in the Gary Bettman era, really. And that was in 1999 with Brett Hull, foot in the crease, and just say, this is a mistake. We're getting rid of it. They got rid of the crease rule then. do it now. Get rid of both of them. You can keep it for, you know, puck over the line,

did the puck cross the line before time expired. I'm not saying no replay period. And I'm not even saying like the human element, like I think mistakes are part of the game and I like them. I don't.

Right. It's completely stupid that we freeze frame a millimeter on an off side and there's five other parts of the game where rules are blatantly being broken all the time and everyone just shrugs

and goes, yeah, it's hockey. That's my thing with it. is the, like, we got to spend 15 minutes determining if this guy was one millimeter off sides and it's like, you know what, who gives a shit? You know, like at some point, it's about, I guess, the spirit of the rule. He's not doing the Matt Duchyne thing, as you say, where he's going off sides by nine, ten strides. By the way, just to reiterate, because I've made this point many times before, that play was not a line. missing the fact that a guy was 10 feet offside. The linesman thought that the,

who are they playing? The Predators had knocked the puck back into their own zone. At which point there is no offside. You can be standing behind the goalie and you can still legally play the puck because they brought it into their zone. Which if you watch the play, it kind of does look like that in real time.

So, you know, even the Matthew Shane play wasn't the Matt Duchesne play. Right. But like, you know, we always hear all the time about like you want more scoring in the game and every time they do a thing of like was this guy offside was this a high stick by one

centimeter or whatever I'm just like I thought we wanted more fucking scoring am I wrong about that you know and so ridiculous it's the so it gets to the spirit of the thing to me and I'll give you a great example of this I was listening to 32 thoughts yesterday and Elliot was talking about about the, the, the, Elias Patterson, quote unquote, charging play.

Yes. Where everyone in Vancouver was like he was standing still. And it's like apart from the fact that he jumped into the air, I guess that's true. Which is charging. He left his feet. It's charging. Fucking cut and dry, right? It's a stupid name for that part of the rule.

Like, I absolutely get the confusion. But if you call it leaving your feet, whatever you call it. If you look in the rule, that is very clearly a penalty. And everybody knows that. You know how I know everybody knows that? because every time there's a borderline hit where a guy, because of the impact is lifted off his feet, they lift his feet. I know everybody knows.

And you're like, yeah, but that's a second. I know that everybody knows that that's the nuance of the rule. I know that everybody knows that. And yet we had to, again, just Vancouver fans like you said, being like, well, you don't understand. The call went against the team I like. Yeah. So think about that. But Elliot, what Elliot said on 32 thoughts was like, he talked to someone.

at the league or something like that. And they were like, yeah, technically the call was right, but we don't want to see that called. And it's like, okay, well, if that's the case, then you're going to have guys leaving their feet 100% of hits coming across the blue line now. Because like, well, you know what? I mean, it's going to be hard. But there aren't.

A hard play to replicate. There's a hundred things in the rulebook that are like that. That's what I mean. And I've written about this. Like, you know, people who say just called the rulebook. We have a rulebook. Just call it. You hear that a lot whenever there's a missed call.

And again, only when it's against your team. Yeah, we could, first of all, if you just called the rulebook, there'd be 20 power plays a game for each team. And you would also have things like, for example, the goalie is not allowed to freeze the puck. Right. People don't know that because imagine if we called it that way. Or, you know, the case I always make when somebody will say, like, you know, on an offside.

And, you know, obviously there are the obvious examples where a team goes in the zone, they have possession for 30 seconds, they pass it around, they lose possession, the other team gets it, they try to clear it, they don't clear it, then finally they get it and they score. And it's like, oh, wait a second, they were offside. Right. And you go, why? And some, like, these people bum me out, like, just as people who are so rules obsessed that they can. come in and they're like, well, no, no. The rulebook says this. He was a millimeter offside, whether it did influence because we, the place should have been dead. And everything that happened after that shouldn't have happened. And my response to that is always, okay, what about

all the other zone entries in the shift that led up to that, that we don't review? Because we know that. It can only be the zone entry right before the goal. The most recent one is the only one that can be reviewed. Yeah. Okay, why? If we have to just get it right, if anything that happens after there should have been a whistle,

why aren't we reviewing everything? Why don't we review whether the guy actually had the red line before he shot it in and it should have been icing? Why don't we review? I've made this example many, many times. Every single face-off,

there are six guys lined up illegally. The rulebook is black and white on where you're allowed to be. We have lines on the ice to show you. we could just get it right. Why don't we review those? And the answer for why we don't review those and why nobody wants to review those

is that even the people who think they want to enforce the rulebook and just get it right instinctively understand that there's a certain point where it gets stupid. Yeah, of course. And my argument is, since we agree that there is a point where it gets stupid,

all we're arguing about is what that point is. Right. And it's one of those things. It's like, you know, that old joke about like, atheism versus religious people and it's you know religious people are atheists about every god that's ever existed except one. Yeah. We agree

on every review being stupid except for one. You've got one. You think the most recent offside is the outlier. I think it should go in the same category as all the rest of the stuff which is something we don't review. We just live with it man. Yeah. You just like like it'd be like and with goal of interference it'd be like reviewing roughing and being like we have to just get it right. And then you watch a guy like give a face wash and go, hmm, should that be roughing or not?

That's not going to help doing 10. It's a subjective call. Yeah. I remember when I was a kid and like, you know, how they like stop the clock to review if it's like 52.6 or 52.9 seconds left. I remember as a kid being like, why don't they do that when there's like 18 seconds, like 18 minutes left in the period? Like, you know, it's the same thing. You could do this shit all day and get it exactly right. Even if you think you love replay.

So who fucking cares. Even if you are convinced that you are a pro replay all the way, we have the technology, just get it right, blah, blah, blah. You understand instinctively that the vast majority of things we could review should not be reviewed. Whether you realize it or not. Because all it takes is somebody saying should we review face-offs for face-off violations, of which there are, I don't know, however. many faceoffs there are in a game. That's how many faceoff violations. We could literally do this

all night. Even though you love replay, you turn around and go, oh, no, that would be dumb. Okay, so why do offsides? Let alone, why do offsides with a system where half the time you can't even tell? Half the time, the camera's not in the right place, or somebody's blocking it, or you're doing like this little pixelated thing, we sit there and say for all the time, it's the world's fastest game. It's the world's fastest game. But we're going to slow it down over a millimeter, not because a coach saw something or a player saw something on the ice, but because

a video coach buried in the bowels of the arena looks at every single one of these in super slow-mo. It is so stupid. I will say that when I go to a college game sometimes, I get seated next to the coaches for the other team that are the eye and the sky. And hearing their thought process is always so funny to me. You know, like, they're, like,

they're just like everything's offside and then they look at it again and they go, oh, I guess not. Like, their default position is, we got to review this. And I mean, that's just them justifying their jobs, I guess. But yeah, you know. And look, I've said before that if, if, if you really can't get rid of review. Yeah. And then you could do something like, for example, you just say, like, it's got to be the coach is called the coach or the player on there, whoever it is, there's no communication, there's nobody reviewing this stuff. Like, I'd be so pissed off if I was a linesman to have somebody like. Yeah, those are the only officials you can undermine. Yeah. And, you know, if, if, so, because this is always what comes up, right? Like, you say get rid of it and there's always someone who's like, yeah,

I know, I don't like it, but what if the Matt Dushane thing happens again in game seven over time? And it's like, well, first of all, the only time it's happened in overtime was the Brett Hall goal where we screwed it up. So, you know, we're 0 for one on your worst case scenario. But even if we're not like, okay, then, all right, do you do some sort of, you know, a coach can see something? You know, hey, if a coach wants to sit there and go, I think that was offside and they go review it and go, no, it wasn't. You get a penalty. I in the sky should be illegal.

How about that? We don't have that anymore. there's a million ways to do it better than the way we're doing it now. Yep, that's right. But just get rid of it, man. Like, and yeah, I acknowledge that for the first month after you get rid of it, there's going to be goals where maybe it's the broadcast itself, looks at his own entry and goes, oh, my God, he was an inch offside,

or some dude on YouTube is breaking it out. But eventually, like, you get used to it. You'll get used to going back to the way that we used to think about it. And also the way that we all think about the other 99% of the rulebook, which is we don't like it when the call goes against us, but that's life. That's sports. Sometimes the call doesn't go your way. You don't have to build this entire system to just get it right. And if you do, you better get it right 100% of the time, not 90%, not 80%, not even 95, 100% of the time you get it right. When it comes to reviewing, like, did the puck go over the line before the clock expires, which is something that's very hard to tell in real time, when they review that, they get it right 100% of the time. Great. Keep it.

But until you can do a hundred percent, and I'll give you a hint, you don't have the technology to do it for offside or really a good reason to, and you will never be able to do it for goalie interference because it's so subjective. until you can get 100% you're doing more harm than good. Like you said in the article, I think. Like when people don't have faith in the system, that's when the system like needs to be like torn down basically. And look, they had me on the Athletic Hockey Show on Monday to like debate Mark Lazarus on this

because he loves replay. He doesn't love replay, but he supports replay. But like his argument, and I'm doing that thing where I'm kind of paraphrase. paraphrasing his argument into something I can knock down easily. But feel free to go ahead and listen to the show if you, you know, if you want to hear what he actually said. But, but I think I'm paraphrasing it fairly was that the system isn't broken. It just didn't work on Friday night with the Matthew Shane thing, where most people felt like that should have been a goal.

But, well, dude, if it, if it didn't work in overtime of a series determining goal, then the system doesn't work. Yep, absolutely. And, you know, again, like, people are like, what if a guy's, like, three feet off side and it's an overtime goal against your team, then I'll be pissed and I'll complain about it. Same as I do on, you know, that miss tripping caller. That, like, this is part of sports.

And, but I don't think, like, at some point, what's the cost? How many thousands of these stupid reviews have we now had that have not caught a single Matt Duchet? Like, what's the cost? At what point is this too much for the one worst case scenario that we're all afraid of that has never, ever happened again in the whole time we've had this dumb, dumb system? Yep, that's exactly right. One last point on this, and this will segue us back into last night's game.

If you have to do it, do it the way, I want to say it was it, was it Dan O'Rourke or, I think last night, was the referee where they did it against one-nothing. Florida scores, big kind, you know, they do the goalie interference. And even the replay, I see some people arguing back and forth again. And I see people obviously doing their whole act and it is an act at this point of nobody understands. If you're in the media and you're still doing that, you're lazy. You haven't looked in the rule book at this point. Like that's the only, it's your job to explain things and know things and you just haven't done your job is all you're telling me when you do that act.

But then the referee gets on them and he says, after further review, the player went into the crease on his own, made contact with the goalie before contact was made by the defending player. No goal. Boom. Ed, I don't know about you. I have not seen many complaints about that call last night. And granted, it was, you know, it didn't end up mattering.

If it would have been a Rangers goal, it would have been different. But everybody just went, okay, that's what they saw. That's what they were looking at. and that was the determination. Explain this stuff. If you have to do it, explain it. You can't just have the referee go up there and go, after further review, we have no goal.

And then the league sends out a one-liner that says, we reviewed the play and decided it was no goal. That's creating the vacuum where all this stupid arguments and everything come in. Yep. But get rid of it. Get rid of it or make all the referees take a public speaking course so that they can actually explain it.

Yeah, either. way, right? But get rid of it. Yeah, I'm with you. So, yeah, as you say, that goal didn't end up mattering one way or the other because of the fact that the Rangers didn't score any goals at all, a three-nothing loss, where I believe they ended up with 25 shots or something like that at the end, 23, it says here. And watching that game, this was, here was my reaction at the end of the first.

end of the second end of the game was this is exactly what the rangers should have been afraid of. Yep. You know what? Right? Like, didn't, way to put it. Isn't that, isn't that kind of what we,

what we warned was the most likely outcome? Like, they wouldn't do well at five on five because that's, you know, they're not the best five on five team and the Panthers are a very, very good five on five team. They weren't going to rack up a ton of, uh,

scoring chances in particular. They got, seven at five on five in the entire game. And, you know, if the Panthers stay out of the box, which they mostly did, the Rangers got four minutes of penalty or power play time, that would be a huge problem for them, because you would take your chances giving the Rangers two or three cracks at a power play, but anything more than that, you'd feel like you were in trouble. And that's all exactly how it played out.

That is pretty much exactly it. Sergei Barovsky was good. He didn't have to be amazing, although towards the end, like the last 10 minutes or so, the Rangers really did push. They really did, absolutely. 11 of their 23 shots in the game came in the third period. Or, yeah, shots, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nine of their 25 scoring chances.

Do you want to make the observation about this potentially being the first time the Rangers have faced a good goalie? in six playoff rounds in the last year? Well, I might not go, because here's the thing. I think Freddie Anderson is a good goalie. I think he's a goalie who also gives up a bunch of stinky goals. I counted recently, and he gave up,

I want to say like five or six in those six games. And it's like, okay, so about one a game. In a playoff series between two good teams, giving the other team one goal a game is bad, in my opinion, on average. So, yeah, I think that apart from the fact that the Panthers gave up a couple of breakaways and one or two, like two on ones that really could have been a problem, I guess you'd say. But Vrovsky didn't have to make a ton of important saves or anything like that. You know, he wasn't, there were, there were, you know, two or three shifts per period where he would be under siege and then everything would get straightened out, I guess.

So do I think that he's on the whole, Babrovsky, a better goalie than Freddie Anderson? I guess I would say I'd think they're probably roughly equivalent. Okay. But the Panthers, I think you would also say, do a better job of protecting him than even Carolina does for Anderson, at least, you know, one game against the Rangers versus six games against the Rangers. And also, I don't count on Bobrovsky to give up a horrible goal.

goal per game. So it's a little bit different. But, you know, all this stuff about, hey, there was a staty SPN hat. I don't know if they showed it in Canada. But they were like, you know, in their first like five games of the playoffs, the Rangers only trailed for a combined 31 minutes. And then, you know, they trailed this entire game or whatever. And it's like, well, right.

I mean, the first, like if you're slicing it that thin, you're, it's like, yeah, sure. If you, if you only count the games where they played the capitals and then one against the hurricanes, they did a lot of leading. That's true. Yeah. But, you know, this is the first, like, unequivocally, like, great team. I think they've played in the playoffs. And that, you know, look, if you're the, if you're the president's trophy winner,

you should get to play as many bad teams as you want, you know? Like, that's kind of how it goes. So I don't. Are we worried at all? Like, they say, you know, you don't worry until you lose at home. So they've lost at home. Yeah. Are they, are they worried or is this one of the many ebbs and flows of

What, it'll be a long series. I think this will be a long series. I think, you know, nobody asked me my opinion, but I would have said Florida and seven. I think that the Rangers are going to do more to drop. Wait, is that how your hockey takes work? We have to ask you your opinion for. Well, I'm just saying, like, thankfully, we don't do a thing of, like, every round. The elite prospect staff picks the winners of every game.

You know, we don't do that shit. And I love that. And what's the matter with you? we respect our writers, I think. Oh, okay. I don't, you know, I don't have to, I don't have to get out there and dance like that every time they need a, they need an article published.

But no, I, I just think, you know, this, this feels like it should be a close series. I don't, I think the Rangers are going to draw more penalties in game two. I don't, you know, this is one of those things where it's like, I don't think there's any games ever, basically, where someone commits only to, infractions the entire game or fewer. Sounds to me like you would like us to review and make sure we just get it right. Every shift, we just take a quick, tidy, two-minute look at everything that happened. I want an official, I want an official above the ice and by that, I mean, suspended by a number of drones.

Okay. And just like piloting himself back and forth. You know what I mean? Like a mini helicopter. I was thinking like a little cage, like a, you know, like the Jim Cornett in a cage match, but that we should. sure yeah because that's always fun hey that's the like we need an eye in the sky what would that look like uh you know be like an eye in the sky yeah no but practically speaking how would that work i just feel like we should have another set of eyes i'm going i wish to call went across the team

when against the team that you cover i mean yeah for sorry i'm sitting there here's here's what happens when the eye in the sky comes in i'm like i wish this ref would get out of my fucking way Try to watch the game here. Exactly. You know, I'm not distracted by the, by the, like, camera above the field in football. You know, that, whatever they call that. Yeah, because it's behind the play. Well, that, but also, like, it's not like a guy in, you know,

stripy shirt with orange stripes as well, you know. I got crazy news for you about what's going to happen the first time your team gets a power play and then the eye in the sky says it actually. shouldn't have been a penalty. I've got, you're not going to believe it what your reaction is going to be. I actually think that guy should, we should be shooting that, those drones down. Just like everybody should have anti-aircraft guns in the arena. All I want is consistency. I just want consistency. You're a liar. That's right. Um, so yeah, what, what did you, what did you think of the Rangers? their performance and I think it wasn't great

versus what you expected. Yeah, I mean it certainly wasn't great. But again, this is like you see this often, especially in the playoffs where a team like the Panthers goes on the road, they win a game and everyone goes, well, they played the perfect road game. And they did. And I hate it. I hate that.

That this is what's considered perfection in the NHL. boring low event like the panthers are one of the most starsteaded teams out there and yet their version of a perfect road game which i can remind you is half the games a team plays is boring one nothing low event take the crowd out of it which i get wanting to take the crowd out of it but they really took the crowd out of it those that place that place was dead quiet but but the thing with perfect road games is very often as with last night they are zero-zero games that just come down to which team gets the first goal. Yep.

And Panthers got it. And to their credit, they locked it down. And they, you know, they got the, I mean, the second goal was kind of a fluke. But that's part of being up by a goal is you can, it's not a disaster if you give up the fluke goal. And it's game over if you get the flu goal. So, you know, they got it. But, I mean, this is, it's not like the Panthers came in and one seven to one.

and just we're all over the Rangers. Like, we are one bounce away from talking about how the Panthers can't score and couldn't generate on all of this stuff. That's, that's the razor's edge of the perfect world game, is it's one bounce away from an uninspired effort and we've got to, we've got to rev it up. Well, again, it's also, yeah, you're right, it's one bounce. And like there were, after that first panthers goal, I didn't feel like they were super pressing, like, to get a second one either. You know what I mean? Like, there wasn't a lot of like shifts where it's like, oh, the, the Panthers are on the cycle and here they go. There were a few of them, certainly, but like as many as the Rangers, you might say.

And I don't know. Like I said, it's just like this is the worst case scenario or not even the worst case scenario. This is just like what you didn't want to happen if you're the Rangers because this is the exact game plan to beat the Rangers. Yeah. Now, that having been said, you know what I think fixes this and flips the series? What's that? What if you put Matt Rempe in the starting lineup for game two? I love it.

See, this is why you can't employ a guy like Matt Rempey, right? is because not is because not like there's anything wrong with him as a player or whatever, but because he becomes the thing that in your mind, like, you know, blind choice here. Like I run up to you on the street and I say, who would you rather have Matt Rempey or Philippeel in your lineup for a playoff game? You go Philippeel every single time, right? Not even a question, is it?

Nope. And yet, because the Rangers had the thing, like I said, that we all expected to happen or, you know, thought would be the thing that could very much happen to the Rangers to make them lose. Because that happened, because the Florida Panthers played a Florida Panthers game, we all have to sit here and go, they got to put in the guy who sucks. What else do, what other choice do they have? I mean, are we not smarter than this?

And look, that's like Mark Messier saying that, right? Like, this is a guy he played. Don't think he's the old one. For sure, but like, name some guys he played with that fit the Matt Rempey mold, right? Yep. No, that's true. He played with McSorily and McClellan, Semenko back in the Gretzky years, Joey Koser, 94. Yeah, that's what I mean.

Like, all through his career, he had guys like that in the lineup on his teams. And so. Guys whose job was to protect the league from cheap-shoting bastards like Mark Metsue. And, and, like, the thing is, when you win a lot, which Mark Messier did, and you have those guys in the lineup, you're looking at today's hockey. Well. And any time that you don't see those guys and you see the team that you like losing, you're

like, I know just what, like, he doesn't go. You know what we need is we need a guy like Mark, like, like, a Mark Messier or Wayne Gretzky, one of the best players in the league. We need that guy, like, going. you go, what if there was a guy that sucked? What do you think? I do wonder. He'd throw a hit.

I do wonder. Yeah. And I do wonder what, because I mean, the Panthers are a nasty team. Yes, very nasty. But that hit at the end of the game? Did you see this? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

You just finished 59, 59 on the clock and you're still throwing hits. But the thing with the Panthers is other than cousins, they're not. nastiest guys are Sam Bennett and Matthew Kachuk, who are also flames. Who are nasty in the way that, well, there's that. Well, look, I mean, Matthew Kuchuk is exactly the sort of guy that in the old days, you know, like you saw that big hit that he threw, and, you know, he's always in the middle of it, and he, you know, he fought Pastor Nack in the last year. Like, he's the sort of guy that a Matt Rampi would go up to early in the game or even in

warm up and be like, we're not going to have any trouble from you tonight. down or you will deal with me. But in today's game, it is quite possible that Matthew Kuchuk says, that sounds fantastic. Please ask your coach to put you on the ice against my line. And I will skate around you and score a goal. And also have Matt Rempies on the ice with him. And he's like, let's fight. Matthew Kachuk would be like, no, go fuck yourself.

I'm not doing that. Like, this isn't the 80s and 90s Where if a guy says we got to fight You go, well, I guess I'm on or bound to fight And it isn't And even in the 80s, it wasn't always like that But I mean, the thinking was at the very least If you could get a guy to back down like that

It sort of took some of the aura Like, all right, you know, this guy We're not intimidated by this guy Because we know our guy can beat up your guy Now that's, is that going to stop Matthew Kuchuk from throwing a big hit? Probably not. Is it going to make that? hit hurt any less when he throws it. No. But we'll see. Especially in the game, we talked about

how that crowd was out of the game. I wouldn't be surprised if they say, you know, for a fourth line spot, instead of getting nine minutes out of our fourth line, let's get six from this one guy. And of course, Paul Maurice is going to come into the Florida locker room and go Rampais in the lineup, nobody make eye contact with them. Do not engage with them. Don't be stupid. Here's the other thing I want to say, though, to your point about the fourth line. Like, why would you take Philip Heidel out of the lineup, a guy who's like a good player? When, like, Barclay Good. I'm going to read you some stats on old Barclay Goodrow here. Getting some stats.

This is all at five on five, a little under nine minutes. A little under nine minutes of ice time. You tell me if this, if you think this is good. When he was on the ice at five on five, Barclay Goodrow, the team, the Rangers that he's on, they got out shot, out attempted. 16 to 1 Unblocked attempts 11 nothing Shots on goal 5 nothing What do you think?

Is that good? Are we feeling that? But what if Matt Rampay would be better? What if it would be 6 nothing? Well, this is what I'm saying No, no, no, I'm sorry. 1 to 16. Florida outshot them 16 to 1, 11 nothing.

This is what I'm saying. All right. That's what I mean. Like get fucking Goudreau out of it. there. Like, don't, don't target Heidel. I see. Will Coil was kind of all over the place. Like, he, like, noticeable last night. Jimmy Veezy, 215,

same idea, right? Like, guys, these guys are not having any kind of an impact at all. Goodrow and Veezy. Again, Coil was at least, or Coley, not Coil. I see the YL and I, you know, my mind goes places. Um, coolly, this is a guy at least, he's

out there throwing his body around. If, if that's what we, if that's what we're saying, the Rangers needed. But I also look at like, do you think Adam Foxes looked good lately? Because I kind of don't. I think he's pretty clearly, you know, they mentioned he might be playing hurt or whatever, but I think he's pretty clearly like underwater a little bit, you know. He was on the ice for both goals last night.

So, I don't know. To me, I just, I think the Rangers, like I said, they just like, The Panthers are the exact wrong opponent for them if the game's going to be played at five on five. I think you may be right, but I do think we've got a long way to go in this. Absolutely. I think my big takeaway from everything you just said is you are calling for Adam Fox to come out of the lineup for Matt Rampey. Put him on the blue line. That's a great call.

That's a great call. He's a big guy. He's huge. Think about how he would use his reach back there. Yeah. He probably just reach his arms out. And he would, like, be touching both ends of the ice. And you just, it's, it's Red Rover now at this point.

Yeah. Very, very, very, very simple call. I would say that by taking out fox, perhaps you have outfoxed the Florida Panthers. Okay. Wow. Yeah. But like I said, if I can, if I can wrap it up here, this is, this is. this is what would happen if the series was played at five on five for whatever, 52 minutes or whatever it was last night, you know?

I think the Rangers are going to be, you know, they're going to draw more penalties against a team that is physical. Like the way the Panthers play, they put the other team on the power play sometimes. And maybe they'll change it because they know that's what the Rangers are looking for. But, you know, at some point a Panther can't change its stripes or whatever. Don't think that's quick, but you know what? Pretty close. Good enough. You have to admit it's pretty close.

It's honestly, I'm in. Okay. Sold. Let's move on to the game that is being played tonight between Dallas and Edmonton. Well, first of all, okay, I guess we got to circle back. What did you think of the end of that Vancouver Edmonton series? Just a good Vancouver team that just, ran out of gas, I think.

Yeah, they didn't have it. That's, that's right. Yeah. Tough. And obviously, losing Brock Besser was major, major blow. You almost forget at this point that they were, that with Thatcher Demko for almost the entire playoffs, but it's hard not to look at it and say what might have been, especially when you've still got Game 7 on home ice, et cetera, et cetera. Yep. Just didn't, didn't have it. Best team won that series. I think most of us, would agree. They had them.

They had them on the ropes. They had a shot at them, but they couldn't land the last punch and just didn't seem to have the juice left to do it. Yeah, I mean, to me, what it boils down to is in that series, I'm just going to pull it up really quickly. In seven games,

they had 149 shots on goal. You can't put up 21 shots a night and expect to win a seven game series. The fact that they got to seven games is kind of a miracle, honestly. Yeah. What were your thoughts on Edmonton going back to Stuart Skinner?

I get it. You know, he's your starting goalie. I was surprised when it happened and then, like, I thought about it and I kind of realized that I got it. I got where they were coming from. My initial thought was Skinner was historically bad for a round and a half. You bring in Picard. He is good enough for two games. you get a win, you get a loss that's not a goalie loss.

Your season's on the line. I'm like, you got to stick with the guy who's giving you competent goaltending. But I think what Chris Knoblock is probably thinking is, I'm not trying to win around here. I'm trying to win the Stanley Cup. Yep. And I'm not going to win the Stanley Cup with Calvin Picard. I'm just not.

Yeah, totally. The only scenario, the only, you know, if I doctor strange through all the scenarios where my team wins the cup, they all involve getting Stuart Skinner back and playing right. So let's do it. And he played well enough in behind a team that, you know, was, that played well defensively for a couple of games in front of them. And now I think they're back on track as potential cup team.

So it's one of those things where, in hindsight, I'm like, yeah, I think maybe the lifetime professional hockey guy maybe made the right call. And I was mistaken from the comfort of my couch. Yeah. Again, I think the Oilers kind of made it easy on the goalies those last two games, too. The Connox, you mean? Or you mean the Oilers defensively? Defensively, yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't great.

And, I mean, look, a combined 32 shots in the elimination game. Three nothing lead, he gives up two goals late. It's, you know, it was, again, like the, the margin between the different narratives here is, is very thin. Because they give up one more goal and go to overtime. And we're all going. Yeah, another Stewart Skinner collapse who didn't see this coming. Totally. What kind of moron, blah, blah, blah.

But, yeah, didn't play out that way. Nope. They're going to have, it's going to be interesting for the Canucks. not just because of all the name brand, like, you know, guys who made a name for themselves with them this year. Or, you know, like Elias Lindholm, it's just going to want a shitload of money. A bunch of their pending free agents are going to want a bunch of money. And that is understandable. And I say to them, you know, good luck with all that.

You know, if some team wants to give Elias Linholm $8.5 million or whatever the ask is, Philopronic, same thing. My hat's off to you, guys. You earned it because you got someone to give you the money. That's earning it to me. But I'm really, really curious to see what the expectation is for this team next year. Because the last few days we've heard a lot of, you know, at the beginning of the year, Jim Rutherford said, if everything went right, they would make the playoffs.

You know, and everything went exactly right. Like, beyond, you know, obviously even beyond their expectations. But that everything went right means they had the highest PDO in the league, right? Like if they are even 10th in PDO, they're instead of first by, I think it's a relatively narrow margin. But if they're even first, then you're sitting there going, or I'm sorry, if they're 10th, you're sitting there going, well, they made a nice run and they, you know, they finished either. plus one point in or minus one point out. I mean, I think we learned a lot about this team, most of it positive. I think we, you know, maybe we have to revisit some of the priors,

but I will tell you right now, and, you know, this is maybe more a warning than anything else, especially if you're a Vancouver fan. It's going to be a bunch of people picking them to miss the playoffs next year. And that will make them, that will make you very mad if you're a Vancouver fan. man, but it's going to happen. Yeah, I'm going to look this up real quick. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Nine guys on the roster, like, you know, more or less regular players, you know, 50 plus games or whatever, shot over 13% this year. Hmm. Did I do that right? One, two, three, four, five, six. six, seven, eight. Oh, okay. Well, they traded Kuzmanko, I guess, so not him.

But eight guys then. Miller, Pedersen, Besser, Hoaglander, Joshua, Souter, Lafferty. How many of those guys do we think are going to sustain that, you know? Like, I was thinking about this with J.T. Miller vis-a-vis the, what's his name, Aquilini, retweeting his own tweet about, I don't see too many J.T. Miller critics out there these days.

It's like, yeah, man, I don't think he's going to shoot 19% next year. I don't think he's going to... J.T. Miller was fantastic. He was. This year. And last year. And last year, yeah. He talked about this on the trader show about, you know, when that contract got signed, I was one of the people going, like, from day one, this is a disaster.

Terrible contract. Absolutely. And yet, for the first couple years, I mean, he's... He's lived up to it and well-be-on. He is 100% two-for-two on the first two years of those contracts. How many more are there? Yeah, a lot. Okay.

Six years left after that. And he also, like, just, and you got to be careful saying this because he never really know the dynamic, but it really feels like he is a key leader on that team. Sure. And he's kind of a prick from all accounts, right? Well, and that was the problem, right? Like for a while there, everybody's like, yeah, that sucks, actually. He's exactly the sort of guy that when the team's not doing well, it's his fault because he's such a prick.

But when the team is doing well, it's like, yeah, that's exactly why. Yep. Yeah, I don't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I still wouldn't want that deal. But, well, no, but what I'm saying is, even the first two years have gone, for, I didn't think he was this level. No, and. Even with the percentages and everything. And like all the credit in the world to him. Like, you know, I, I criticized that deal heavily.

I criticized him very heavily, I think, at the beginning of last year. And he has proven me wrong thus far. Now, I do have six more years of that contract, as you said, to circle back and maybe spike the football a little bit. And, you know, it's tough to, it's tough to say, like, you know, like these guys are going to take a huge step back. I wouldn't pick them. I think I did pick them to barely make the playoffs this year, if I remember right? Or like barely miss. And I think I would bump that up a little bit with a couple of qualifications on that.

Number one, they're probably going to turn over a huge chunk of their blue line. So I don't know. I have no idea what that blue line looks like next year. I know that when Quinn Hughes is on the ice things, you're going to go A-OK. That's a big part of it, right? like he he did take the leap this year. Yeah, he was so sick. He's going to win the Norris in a walk.

Yep. So that does change your future outlook a little bit. Yeah. But other than that, like when he's off the ice, I straight up don't know what those deep hairs look like. Yeah. Especially with Zadora of potentially leaving, especially with.

Myers. New contract, Myers. Ronick, yeah, no, that's what I mean. Like, they, they just, Ian Cole's another UFA, like, you know, say what you want about certain games he had in the playoffs. There's a guy that like is mostly, I would say, dependable. Like, he, he's not going to do anything that wins you a game 99.9% of the time. But it's also fairly rare in the regular season, at least again, you know, I watch the playoffs. I get it.

But I don't feel like he's going to lose you too. many games either. You know what I mean? Like you're maybe going to more or less break even. And if that's like your third pair defenseman, that's all. You take a guy that you're going to break even with on your third pair. But I don't know what that looks like, how they're replacing him, et cetera, et cetera. Um, I need to see more from their forward group, let's say. Um, you know, because we're sitting there in the playoffs. We're like, they don't have anybody that can play with Peterson. Right?

I made a big thing about this last week. And I don't have anybody that can play with Pedersen. And it's like, that's a depth problem to me. And they might lose Joshua. They got to do something with McKayev off this roster. They got to figure out what they're doing with Connor Garland. You know, they got to figure out, not that he's like, I don't think he's a pending free agent or anything, but like it feels like something needs to happen there.

Maybe it doesn't. I don't know. But it just feels like they need to. are they keeping Linholm or are they spending that money elsewhere? Like there's just so many questions. And then the biggest question to me for next year is we're just like, well, of course, the goaltending is going to be great. And it's like, yeah, man, Thatcher Demko is just going to miss time.

He didn't miss that much time this year. He missed some, if I remember, right? But, you know, 50 games of him is probably about the absolute max you could ever expect, right? Probably not much more than that. Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't so long ago that people were going, do they just like trade him or something? You know?

And I argued at the time that that would have been selling as low as humanly possible on a goalie who has proven he can be a good goalie when healthy in this league. And the when healthy is the important part. I just, you know, to Rutherford's point, I think everything went more right than even he could have. thought like a perfect season looked like. And now if there are expectations on this team where it's like you got to finish at least second or third in the division, that's a fucking problem for them.

We're not going to be sitting here saying like Rick Talk at the genius if they get to 95, 96 points and like barely make the playoffs. Is that success? I think for a roster like this, it might be, you know, but like would they in the city, all these fans that were, you know, the, uh, store in the passion or whatever you want to say, the feeling. Are they going to accept that? I don't know what the answer to that is.

Here's my last question on Vancouver for you. Okay. When this happens, because you are always right in your analysis. That sounds right to me. Yeah. You saying that? When this happens and they finish next year with 95 points, what are they going to blame it on? What is going to be the general consensus narrative?

because it won't just be well the percentages went down. Like some people will say that, but like it has to be something else. Who is going to leave that's going to turn out? Like, are we going to turn around? Oh, Zadorob for sure. Was that the piece holding them together?

Even though he wasn't there for the half the season that they were so good in. Yep. Yeah. But like I think, I think you would, because here's the other thing about the Canucks. That apart from a couple injuries here and there, Miller, 81 games, Hughes, 82, Pedersen, 82, Besser, 81, Ronick, 81, Garland, 82, Houglander, 80.

You know, like, you can go down the list. That's basically all their big contributors didn't miss any time. Yeah, till the playoffs. Yeah. Well, right, till the playoffs. And so, you know, Pedersen misses six games instead of zero. Miller misses eight games instead of one. You know, go down the list.

and suddenly you're saying, oh, you know, if we just had those guys for those, like, you know, combined 35 man games lost to injury. No problems. We're a hundred and eight point team again or whatever. I can see that being the excuse. That's always the fucking excuse. Every time the senators, a team that sucks, miss the playoffs, right? If we just had those 14 guys in the lineup for all 82 games.

When has that ever happened in the NHM? that like every team has had every important player all season, no questions asked. It's so rare. And when it happens, you get stuff like this with Vancouver where it's like, yeah, we shot 102% all year or whatever. Like every shot we took went in for two months at the beginning of the season. I don't know. At least they have Lakeri Maki coming in next year. That's an exciting young player.

That could help shore up those who are they going to get to play with Pedersen questions. Would you say he is an elite prospect? I would definitely say that. Yeah, he rocks. He's sick. So let's move on Dallas Edmont, and let's actually talk about the series that starts tonight. Just what's your first impression right out of the gate?

I think I'm mildly surprised at how many people seem to feel really confident about Dallas in this series. And I say this is someone who picked them to win the cup. at the start of the year and the start of the playoffs. And yet, it feels like the fact that Edmonton kind of struggled to beat Vancouver and didn't, you know, had a few games where it felt like it was the bad oilers with the bad goaltending and not enough offensive depth and et cetera, et cetera. I feel like people are acting as if this is a mild favorite underdog situation as opposed to what I feel like is pretty good.

close to a coin flip. The Oilers still terrify me. I don't think any team has a higher ceiling. And I think just because they were maybe closer to their floor for a couple of games against Vancouver does not make me think we get that again. I would agree that if they play the whole seven game series, the way they played against Vancouver, Dallas beats them. But I am surprised at how confident some people seem to be that that's indeed what will

happen. Yeah, I'm, I think my, my only concern if I'm Dallas, like, if I'm Dallas, I'm looking at the, at the team across from me, and I'm like, we have the horses to shut down one of McDavid or dry-siddle. And typically, if you can get both of them shut down, you're going to win, obviously. But even one gives you, like, a real strong chance to, to advance in the series. And so the only thing that I'm worried about is that I don't think Dallas's PK is particularly good. And so it becomes a situation where once again, you're like, you know what? If they draw some penalties, we could be in trouble here. Yeah, their opponents are nine for 31 on the power play in the postseason so far.

Nope. That's actually what they are. They are nine for 31. Let's see here. Their opponents have scored at least. looks like eight power play goals on not that many opportunities. I can't, I'm not quickly counting up, eight on 26, eight on 26. That's not good.

30%. Yeah, you can't. Does Edmonton have a good power play? Can you refresh my memory? Well, so here's the thing. To Dallas's credit, the teams they have played in the first two rounds are Vegas and Colorado teams that I feel like have a lot of talent. You know what I mean?

teams where it's like if they get a little momentum on the power play, they can put the puck in the net. Now, to your point, also Edmonton, maybe even beyond that, right? So you got to stay out of the box. Dallas mostly did in the first few rounds. What did I say? Like 26 power play opportunities? That's only two a game for them, you know? You only give Edmonton two cracks at it a night?

Yeah, sure. they're going to score on 30% of them, but that might still be enough to win you the game. I think that you feel like you can get to Stuart Skinner otherwise, right? Yes. So, I don't know. That's my only real concern for Dallas is like if Edmonton draws penalties, basically. But, yeah, I think it's hard to say they're not the clearly better team at five on five.

Fair enough. And, you know, goal-tending edge for Dallas, of course. Blue line, probably. What are your thoughts on Evan Bouchard so far? Well, that's the reason you would even say, probably. Well, I say probably because he's been fantastic offensively, but also some hit and miss in his own zone.

Well, when he's racking up 20 points in, two rounds you can you can handle that. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that you get into a situation with him where like you accept the, the one or two mistakes he's going to make in a game defensively because he's going to make one or two plays that no one else on the team can make in the attacking end. Yeah. And I guess the other thing is Dallas, a lot of their guys have not been scoring to the

rate that they can, which is scary if you're Edmonton. Yeah. You don't need this to be the Jason Robertson series. Or even the Joe Pavelsky wakes up for at least a couple of games series. So I'm looking forward to it, man. Yeah, this is going to be really fun. I know people make fun of me because I'm, oh, the series is going to be good. But yeah, we have the four best teams in the league in the final four.

Sorry. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. Did you see this news about what they're going to do, at least in the U.S., on True TV? and Max for tonight's game? No.

The NHL Datacast powered by AWS. And if I was funnier, I could come up with like what AWS stands for. You know, but So basically Weenie spreadsheet.

You got it. You fucking nail the games. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to watch the game, but I'm going to be not watching the game because I'm watching the altcast. I will watch the altcast tonight. And if it sucks, I'll quit.

you know, go back to the normal call on TNT. But this is what it says here. The Altcast will feature an infusion of NHL-Eged stats in graphic forms, displaying figures like time on ice for a given shift, and player-specific metrics like their total ice time, distance travel, and skating speed. Tracking capability of players in the puck meet the needs of the ever-hungry viewer set. This is this quote from Steve Mayer. We find that's something that our fan base is really into and are leaning into more.

So introducing more and more stats and graphics and visuals in the telecast is something that we're heading for. And then if I scroll down here, it'll be play-by-play from Steve Mears, Colby Armstrong, and Mike Kelly are your... So we are going to find out whose play does lead to 106 PDO in this one. But there was one thing that I was concerned with in this article, if I can find it really quickly. here it is, okay. A test production took place

during the second round matchup between the Rangers and Hurricanes. That gave the broadcast crew the chance to play with the data. The practice run let TNT sports determine which data is useful to viewers and deserves more frequent appearances and this is where the problem arises.

Like face-off win probabilities. And also allowed the commentators to get more comfortable with the stats at their disposal. You know what? Every fucking draw tonight, I might not watch this then. Because if they're going into every draw, you know,

Carr McDavid has a 52.1% chance to win it. Oh, well, I guess he had a 47.9% chance to lose it. That's how it goes sometimes. You know, like, I can't. That is, I said this before. That is the stupidest fucking stat in the history of sports. The likelihood that you'll win a faceoff that at worst is going to be like 60, 40. Ever, ever, right?

Am I right about this? Something like that, yeah. Unless it's like, you know, the center gets kicked out and the winger, I don't know, whoever it is. And even then, would they have the data set to be like, you know what? Probably not. This guy's taken eight faceoffs all year, so that's actually a problem. You know, I wouldn't trust that information. Now, I guess the only way it wouldn't be is if it was like Sidney Crosby lining up across from like me.

Then I'd feel pretty. 6535. That's exactly right, man. It's just so funny to me that there. like, okay, we got to this, again, quote the thing, this quote deserves frequent appearances and is

quote, more useful to viewers. No, it's not, or no it doesn't and no it's not. We don't fucking need that. And yet, that's all they'll talk about the entire the entire stat cast. Give me fucking scoring chances. Give me expected

goals. Give me like a you know, that like pattern that they show on the ice in like, where, shots are coming from where like it's broken down into like 14 zones on the ice or whatever it is show me that don't fucking show me face off percentage probabilities or face off percentage for that matter just regular face off percentage i don't want to see that but yeah that's pretty cool i i i you know i hope they'll uh do a good job tonight and then take feedback for me personally about all the things that they should do better phone will be ringing no doubt

Oh, yeah. I know Colby's going to be burning up my, burning up the line for me. Yeah, I don't, it's always tough to talk about like a series with two like, I don't know. Would you say the Dallas Stars have like a specific flaw that you're worried about for them other than the PK? Like roster construction, I don't think they do, right? There are a more balanced, yeah, they're a much more balanced team. Yeah, that's exactly. Exactly. Partly because every time they have any sort of hole, they call up a fourth round draft pick who immediately becomes an all-star.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, even like, God, I'm looking at their season stats and like Logan Stankovin only got 24 games this year. 14 points. Playing 15 minutes a night. Yep. Whatever. Who cares?

Not bad. Doesn't matter. Yeah, like I say, if I'm looking for weaknesses, I'm like, when McDavid and Dreisidler off the ice for. Edmonton and also Nurse and Sisi and also the goaltending. Yeah, whenever they're on the ice, yeah, and the goal tending. Sure. And then for Dallas, I'm like,

well, that penalty kills a problem. And you go, well, they... Which is the worst possible problem to have going to... That's exactly right. Except that it is the playoffs and the referees, knowing that the Oilers are going to score on every power play will give them to a game because otherwise they're... Well, again, Dallas is averaging two power plays conceded per game in this playoff.

Two dead on the nose. 13 games, 26 power plays against. So, you know, it's much like the Panthers. If they're only putting the oilers on two power plays a game, I feel pretty good about their chances. I will go Dallas in seven. Yep. That's probably my pick two.

Yeah. But, you know, no, you know what? Edmonton and seven. I love it. And that would be all. That would be so fucking cool if the Oilers made the Cup final. That would be unbelievable. It would be great.

I mean, it would be all of Canada united in cheering for the Florida Panthers so that the Oilers didn't win the Cup. That'll be great. Can't wait. Totally. What's your preferred final, I guess? I feel like Edmonton, New York. York is a more interesting final to me than Edmonton, Florida, but Edmonton, Florida would be pretty great.

Yeah, I think mine is Edmonton, Florida, just for the wow factor on both sides. Like, both teams just have, like, such outstanding talent. Plus, wouldn't it be fun to sit and watch that with a Flames fan and be like, all right, Matthew Kachuk or the Oilers? Who you got? Matthew Kach and Sam Bennett. And they, you know, they look at you blankly and say, I've never seen hockey in my life. I don't know what you're talking about.

That's right. This isn't a thing. I've always been a CFL guy myself. Go stampeters, right? Big, big season coming up for the stamps. Is that true? I don't know. I don't know.

Imagine being like a CFL head. Like a real serious, like this is my shit. I mean, like, I guess I'm a little bit like that with college talking. I got something to tell you about the province of Saskatchewan. Oh, I know about that. Yeah. Ooh. They love the, they love the blue bombers out there in Winnipeg, too.

They do, yeah. But, yeah, no, I have maybe never, I'm not sure there is a more diehard sports market for a specific team in Canada than Saskatchewan and Regina specifically for the riders. Yeah. To the point where, you know, the one time I was out there, I was like, oh, you know, I should have worn my Argo shirt. And somebody was like, that would have been a very bad idea. You would have been beaten to death in the streets It would be funny right They're like people would not laugh

They'd laugh after they beat you to death And put a watermelon on your head But that's Besides you're you're an Ottawa guy You love the damn red blacks I love the other rough riders That's right Let's move

Okay I feel like you're showing off by the way On your CFL team The Thai cats are they still kicking around out there I know the BC Lions of course Montreal Alouettes Toronto Argonauts. Edmonton.

They're now the Elks. They're not the other name. Guys, I thought that was it. I thought I was going to stump them on that one. Did I name all of them? I think you got them all because you made a passing reference to Winnipeg already. Yeah, the Blue Bombers. You got them.

Yeah, you got them. I'm just a big CFL head. I know and love what Ruges are, of course. Yeah, everyone understands that. When they start kicking the ball back and forth, everybody definitely understands it. I love watching a CFL game and like the uprights are at the front of the end zone. Like I'm watching Newt Rockney play. That kicks ass for me.

Was he a player or a coach Newt Rockney? I think probably both. Okay, great, perfect. I'm not the biggest football head. I just, the CFL feels like, it just, it just feels like it's, it's like the XFL a little bit where it's like, yeah, no, I know you know what football really looks like, but this is like what if football was wacky. Yeah. You know what I mean?

What if football ate exactly one edible? The CFL. Well, I don't know if you know this, Ryan, but up here in Canada, our balls are bigger. Is that true? They have bigger football up there? Yeah, the football is slightly larger, and that was like a marketing. It should be a different shape. Okay.

Like a cube. I was going to say a cylinder. Okay. Like basically what I want it to be, and look, if nothing else, this really opens up some marketing possibilities. I want it to be shaped exactly like a soda can or a beer can as the case may be. Like a tallboy beer can, I feel like is. And because if there's one thing CFL fans know how to do, it's throw a tallboy as far as possible. So is this not a great idea?

Dude, you're on something. You could double CFL attendance overnight by selling five extra tuesday. Well, the other thing is, too, you score a, I'm sure they have some crazy-ass name for a touchdown up there. You score a touchdown? You do a thing of like you're cracking open the ball. It's a tush-down is. You're cracking open the ball, though. You're taking a big drink.

Okay, the ball is just now a giant beer or soda can, depending on who the, who the sponsor is. I stone cold Steve Austin just perked up at the possibilities this would be this is a great idea I mean he could be the receiver because nobody was better like what was his lifetime record at catching throwing beer cans yeah I feel like 99.9% success rate I feel like the only problem is like the one famous thing about Steve Austin in retirement is that he his knees like make it so he can barely move right that That's going to be coming off the line, that's going to be a problem. Getting separation.

He might be more of a position guy, I think. Yeah, yeah. He's a fullback, you know? You just get him out to the line and, you know, get him the ball there. Anyway, awards voting. Were we not talking about hockey? What happened in the last? I think I blacked out for the last five minutes.

That's fine. Anyways, awards. Awards. Let me ask you this as a jumping off point. Why the fuck is it? like okay for the Selky and the Jack Adams to get handed out in the middle of the playoffs? It's weird, right? Like, why did we decide

these are the loser rewards nobody cares about? You want to hand out the King Clancy in fucking April? Have fun. I don't care. That's an award that doesn't matter. You know what I mean? It's like they decided to do because they're still doing an award show. It's like they decided

to slim it down, but then they realized that like by doing that they would clearly be creating a second tier of awards that nobody cared about. And so then they decided to put a couple of good awards in there, I guess. Because, yeah, the Selke and certainly the Jack Adams should be part of the main show. Yeah. Go ahead and do all seven of the Nice Guy Awards, including the Lady Bing.

I found it weird. I got to be honest. I'm with you. I think it's strange that the rest of these we're going to find out in literally a month. Yep. It's crazy. I was thinking, so I looked this up. And they did this, and I think not last year, but two years ago when Bergeron won the Selke.

Not for the last time, the time before that, so it must have been two years ago. And that was because that year the NHL Award show was only an hour. Like, I feel like they were trying to save money coming out of COVID or whatever, you know. And so I was like, okay, that, that, that. makes sense that they would that they would change it up a little bit. But last year it was at the NHL award show in Nashville. He got up there and, you know, maybe that's because like it's his last time getting the award or whatever. But then this year it's back to like, I said this in an article over the weekend, but I was just like, literally here's how they announced it on TV.

I think they probably put it out on social media first, but how they announced it on TV was this is Steve Levy's exact inflection. And the Selke winner, drum roll, please. It's Alexander Barkoff of the Florida Panthers. And then they cut to Barkov just like on a Zoom call. And he's like, yeah, it's crazy. You know what I bet somebody is saying out there? You know, if Austin Matthews had won the Selke, they would have put it on the main

award show. I don't think anybody's just because it's a Florida Panther guy. Well, my thing is, I don't even think, like I said this in the article, too. don't even think it's disrespectful. Like, I'm not like, oh, how could they do this to Sasha Barkoff? I just think it's weird that we decided these are the two. Like the GM of the year awards, that's in June. Well, the problem with the GM of the year awards are they only vote on it now.

That's true. You're right about it. Well, they could, okay, they could fucking vote on it. They could vote on it like a week from now and hand it out. I don't care. Mm-hmm. I just thought that was absolutely. bizarre.

That they... I'm with you. That this was the decision. I don't... Again, I don't think it's disrespectful. I'm just like, these are the two awards we decided don't matter. Now, here's another funny thing. You know how they have like the Willio Reaward for community service or whatever it is?

Yes. So they have actually two Willio Reawards, one for Canada, one for the U.S. I did not know that. The Canadian one gets just announced like this one does. in the middle of the playoffs. The U.S. one is presented at the NHL award show. What the fuck's going on? That's ridiculous.

It's crazy. It doesn't make any sense to me. But, you know, hey, I don't probably. What did you think of the guys who, I mean, Barkov, I don't even know what there is to say. We've all set out since October that he would win it. He deserves to win it. I mean, would you have had a different ballot? I guess not.

Like, again, this is. I'm sure if I dug into it, maybe there's like a guy that I could find who's a little more qualified. But like I think we said with Matthews, it's like, oh, he scored like 70 goals and he was a Selky worthy guy. I guess that would be my Selky winner. But like, I don't know. I got no problem with Barkoff winning it. Whatever. Who cares?

That's fine. What about Rick Talkit? I want to give a big shout out to the NHL broadcasters who vote for this. award. We are back to the PDO days. If you have the highest PDO in the league, you are the best coach. Period. End of sentence. You told your goalies, go out there and stop 91.5% of the shots, and they did it. Coach of the year, you are the best one. Well done. I really, that was a good. Any, again, we all knew Rick Tockett was going to win. Andrew Burnett second. I guess I was a little surprised at how far Tortorella fell.

They didn't make the playoffs. He absolutely plummeted. Yeah, you didn't make the playoffs. I'm looking at the list. Did anyone else who didn't make the playoffs? There was one in, Mike Sullivan got a third place vote. Got one third place.

And I was like, he got two seconds and a third. And that is it out of a hundred plus votes. A month to go in the season, he was like, I think probably number two on a lot of lists. And obviously the fact that they

collapsed is part of the season, but I was a little bit surprised that he was finishing behind some of these other guys. The other thing, I guess, is I don't know if you've even seen this, but breaking news, speaking to the GM of the year award. Yeah. We have the finalists. Oh, boy, here we go. Do you want to take a guess?

Keeping in mind, they vote on this after the second round, right? The conclusion of the second round. So Patrick Alvin is probably still in there. Mm-hmm. Okay. A mild surprise. Usually it's three guys from the final. Who made the conference final, yeah.

But again, you know, he knew to sign guys who we're going to shoot 12% this year. Right. Smart. Who else? I guess you'd say Bill Zito. Yep. Bill Zito. Florida Panthers is there.

And is it Ken Holland? It's not Ken Holland Okay Who is it Jim Nill Yeah okay sure That makes sense I get it

Why not? I thought they might give it to Ken Holland And by the way Jim Nill won last year Yes he did As a reminder so But I thought they might go Ken Holland A because as you say Jim Nill won it last year But B

He made the brilliant coaching change When his team's save percentage was 850 And then it all worked out for Right Yes he did Yeah. I thought maybe Chris Drury would get in there. Yeah, I mean, you could make a case for a few GMs if you're going to judge it that way, you know. But I got no problems with it.

With that particular nomination, that's fine. So yeah, great. Good to know. I don't begrudge Rick Tock at winning that award, you know. Like, I get it totally. The way the award is always voted on, that's a perfectly... Yeah, and I'm not saying you did a bad job. Like, you know, you'd much rather have the high PDO than not have it, you know? But, and I think he's certainly at the very least a deserving finalist.

Now, the thing about torterella is interesting. You know me. I'm not the biggest tortarella guy. But I think it is undeniable. that the impact he had on that team was probably the best coaching job in the league this year. Right? Like, the only reason they fell apart was Carter Hart got in trouble, right? Like, at his note, it's probably never going to play in the NHL again.

I mean, I wouldn't say that's the only reason. I think that's by far the biggest reason. Not a very good team was part of it. But I also think that what hurt him was not just the way they collapsed, but the fact that the correlation to the stuff with Keturis, and, you know, making scenes on the bench and I'm not leaving and all that, which if it works, everyone goes, he pushed all the right buttons, he fired him up, but when you bench your captain in Toronto,

make a big deal out of it, and then suddenly the team goes in the tank, I think that in a solid year with other good candidates. I think that bumps a lot of people. Like I think he finished whatever, 12th. Yeah, I think if you actually gave everyone 12th, 12 spots on their ballot. He finishes higher than 12 on everyone's. But for sure.

It's a top three ballot. Yeah. And they just, he got bumped from too many. Yeah. You should have told those guys to shoot 40%. Should have. Rick Tockett, did he won the award? Anyway.

Speaking of coaches, a lot of news since we last did the show. Yeah, that happens when half the league fires their coaches. We talked about it on the show last week, I think, but now it's official. Craig Barubi is the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yep. Good. I'm good with it. I think he was the right candidate.

No guarantees, et cetera, et cetera. But I think that was the best option that they had. And they got it done. So other than that, I have no new opinions on it that I probably haven't said last. week or the week before, or for however long we've been assuming that he would be the target. Really long runway on that one. Nice to land the plane finally. And then landed the plane at 5.02 on the Friday of a long weekend in Canada.

Yes. It seems like, you know, maybe by the time you hear this, this will be officially announced. But Mark Savard is going to be one of his assistants. He and the Calgary Flames mutually agreed to part ways yesterday. And everybody said that's because he's going to Toronto. I believe them. Sure. I did see a few Flames fans giving him the,

okay, have a good one. You know, not really too broken up to see him go. Yeah. So I don't know. You know, it's one of those things. He was probably in charge of the power play or something. And the power play was bad this year. And so everyone's like, well, you know, get lost then.

That's usually the way it goes. I will say this. regarding the power play. Can it be worse than what Toronto rolled out last year? Because, yeah. So I was going to say, Guy Boucher was in charge of that, and it was bad,

so we get lost. Speaking of Toronto coaches, Sheldon Keefe became the devil's number one target when the Leafs let him go. Great news for you, Sean. The Leafs are fully off the hook for the Sheldon Keefe two years left.

Because his current contract in New Jersey is even bigger than what he had in Toronto. Four years. Honestly, good for him. I don't, you know. Good for him. Absolutely. Good for him. And I think it was a situation where he was probably right to aggressively pursue

aggressively, but, you know, some guys take the year off or whatever. I don't think that would have been a smart call by him. Yeah. He left a tough situation. He seemed like to be fairly well respected. So I know that Groob Wigenski from ESPN had said something about how, because he's a noted Devils Homer, had said that, hey, maybe a more proven winner would have been the fit.

But, you know, there's this thing in coaching in sports, really, especially in hockey, where you kind of go from one to the other and they just did the old guy with lots with 20 years experience. so now you go to the younger guy and and meanwhile the leaps go in the exact opposite direction. So it all works out. Yep. I guess, you know, I don't have too big of a take here. I guess, you know, you think of him as like the young guy whisper or whatever, which is what you need. And I think that the, you know, the problem for New Jersey is they don't have a goalie.

I'm sure Sheldon Keith can relate to that. But his teams have regular season success without goaltending. So there's that as a baseline. Here's my question. Yeah. New Jersey, Toronto, different divisions. So which one of them is going to finish first and which one's going to be a wallet card to get the crossover first round matchup where Sheldon Keith beats the Leaves in the playoffs? Do I think the Leifes are going to finish first in that division next year?

You know, I really don't. For some reason, I just feel like they're not going to have it. All right. So Leif's Wildcard, Devils first in the... Yeah, why not? Devils in... I was going to say Devils in four, but it's got to be Devils in seven, right? It's got to be...

Yeah, draw out as long as possible. Just go out in there and have fun. Mm-hmm. Speaking of teams in that division, Rod Brindamore officially back in Carolina. Rod Brindamore contract stuff is weird, and I'm tired of being told that I have to pretend it's not weird. But it's weird. Good for Carolina and Carolina fans have arguably the best coach in the league locked in.

Hopefully he got paid everything he should have. But yeah, and in five years from now, I look forward to another round of drama that people who are, cover the hurricanes lecture me about paying attention to, but it'll be weird then too. And he might have two more Jack Adams in his back pocket by then. Have we heard anything about the terms of this one? If it's like a five-year deal, a two-year deal. Do we know anything about it? I thought I heard that it was a five-year deal now. I don't know. Why is that? Yeah, I don't, I feel like, I feel like it must be five because that is also the number.

You have a five-year deal per source. Okay, great. Because that that would be, that feels like a number you don't see a lot for coaches. It's like two, three or four is usually how it works. Four is becoming more, like Travis Green got four in Ottawa. I think Barubei got four. Yeah, and Keith got four in New Jersey. But I'm saying it's very rare it goes beyond four. Yeah. So I, I, that's why I was like, I bet it I bet it is five. That's the guy. Yeah. And also, I mean, fairness to him, he's probably sitting there going, this is so damn weird every time we do this. Can we please? add on a year or two, so I don't have to do this in two or three years. Yeah, that's right. And then one last coaching decision, I guess.

You know, now that I say that, did we talk about Travis Green to Ottawa on any of our shows recently? I think we got that one last week. Okay. Uninspiring choice. If I didn't say it before, I'll say it now. I don't know why that's the move if you're trying to shed the image that people have. of you, but okay, sure. I don't think he's a bad coach or anything, just...

Jim Hiller loses the interim tag in L.A. Mm-hmm. I get it, I guess. Sure. I, again, like... A little surprised, but... Like, yeah. A lot of stay-the-course happening in L.A. right now.

It's... So this is... This is what's interesting, because I looked this up when they... Because I was like, didn't they... Were they only, like, pretty okay under him? The record that got... They were good enough to turn it around and get in the playoffs. The record that got Todd McClellan fired, 2315 and 10.

The record that got Jim Hill, Jim Hiller, uh, extended, 21, 12, and 1. Apart from the overtime losses, am I not seeing that these are fairly similar records? Mm-hmm. You know, like, uh... It's not a bad record. You guys typically, that will be enough to get you. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, you know, it's a 21 out of 35 games.

That's a good number to hit. That's 60% or so, you know. So. 632 win percentage. Yeah. Good for him. So we've got what, four vacancies, right? No, three vacancies.

Three, I think, yeah. Jets, cracking sharks. Sharks are apparently talking to basically anyone who's ever coached a hockey game in their entire lives. From what I can tell, from what everybody says, they're just like, I think the latest name I saw was Marco Sturm. Hey, you used to play for them, you know, makes sense. They get him and two other coaches. Maybe they can trade them for one good coach. That's right.

It's a Joe Thornton callback. It is. Marco Sturm famously in the Joe Thornton trade. Sure was. And that's the joke. You're ready to go on Twitter. I'm never ready to go on Twitter, brother. Yeah.

I feel like we haven't heard much at all about what Seattle's doing. Yeah, I have not heard. In fact, I forgot them. Winnipeg is apparently Scott Arnale is the guy. The signs are pointing. Yeah, just a matter of time. He's in Barubi mode on there. Yeah, had been, you know.

He was the interim coach when Maurice left, wasn't he? Yeah, I believe that's right. And you're Seattle, yeah, I don't know. And then from there, I guess, like, are we at the point now where we can say no one else is making a change, right? I was Dave Lowry when Maurice left, by the way. Oh, okay. Why did I think? Maybe I'm just mixing up my Winnipeg assistant coaches.

That's probably it who have kids who play in the NHL and all that stuff. Yeah, so I guess safe to assume no one else is going, which the one name that is interesting to me is that suggests that Detroit is not making a change. I think they were the one team that you might have looked at and said. Yeah, I never really thought that was a likelihood. You want to talk about a team that can just go, wow, the injuries, you know, like just you go, you point at Dillon Larkin and go, if he's healthy, we make the playoffs and nobody's. Most patient rebuild. in the history of patience. Yeah.

What are they picking like 12th this year or something? Something like that. Yep. Ah, they keep not winning the lottery. Yeah, I guess that's true. It's almost like accelerating the rebuilds. May not have been the best move. Anyway.

Any other news this week, Ryan McDonough traded back to Tampa. Why did they do that? Yeah. What was the thinking there? That's, I mean, the, this is one of those trades where, I mean, it's a big trade in theory, because it's a guy coming back where he won cups and, you know, he was a star player. He's not that anymore, but, you know, it's, you can rediscover, blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's, it's all the what ifs.

What does this do to Steven Stamcoast in Tampa resigning? What is this due to Nashville as a potential destination for bigger offensive names? Because we all assume that's what they're chasing this year. Yeah, let's start with Tampa. Because this is why I don't get it. It makes perfect sense why Nashville would trade him. Jesus Christ. Like obviously.

Well, he's like an okay defenseman who costs a little under $7 million for the next two years. Yeah, you trade that guy. Like, apparently what happened was Ryan McDonnell was like, I like it here, but if you could find a way to trade me back to Tampa, I really like that. And Barry Trott's like, oh, yeah, I understand, sure. and then, you know, like he, uh, the door closes on that meeting and he stands up and does like the little fist pumps and dances around and like, yep, you're, you did us a huge favor, Ryan. Thank you so much. That's, that's what he should be saying to, uh, to Ryan McDonough. And like the fact that Tampa took him back, like, as you say, I get it from the point of view of they like the guy. He was a part of their cup, uh, their back to back cups and all this kind of stuff. But the money just is, is, is. is so tough to figure out. They have $5 million in cap space. And that, I mean, definitely means they're letting, like,

Duclair walk and Dumba walk, right? Like, they have to. Or they're letting Stamcoast walk. Or they're letting all of those things happen. And they're just, like, finding a way to spend $5 million on the market better than they could spend it on any of these players. This is a smart organization, Tampa, which makes it like makes me feel like I'm not seeing the move three moves from now.

You know what I mean? Yeah, and they have earned some benefit of the doubt. That's what I mean. See what that move is. But do you, if you head to bet right now, Stamco's Tampa Bay Lightning opening night or any other team? Yeah, I think so. Unless like. Which of those do you think?

I think the far more likely outcome is he's still on the lightning. But the only thing that gives me pause really. is that I think there's a really strong potential for Utah to go absolutely fucking wild on the free agent market. You know what I mean? Like, as it stands right now, they are 20 million below the cap floor.

They have like $43 million to spend on 10 or 11 players. And yeah, and like, including their entire blue line, they don't have a single defenseman signed for next season as far as I remember. Yikes. And they have the Shea Weber contract so they can also exceed the salary cap by almost $8 million if they want to.

So like the amount of money Utah can spend this summer means that basically like every free agent I'm sitting there going, yeah, but he could end up in Utah. Yep. Because they could just give him $2 million more than he deserves or could get anywhere else or whatever you want to say. and still be like, and we have $60 million in cap space still. You know, like, there's such a wild card to me.

I have no idea what their plan is. And that is why I'm not saying Tampa for sure for Stamcoast or half the players who are pending UFAs in the league. So are you saying he's not going to leave Tampa and then sign with my team for the league minimum? Because he thinks they're so cool. I mean, the Leifes do have a history of that, though, don't they? You know, like, that is a possibility. You know what's really killing Tampa, and I wonder if they might... You know, it will be very funny as when he signs with the Leaves for the league minimum,

and they give him the number 91 jersey. Yes, that's right. Tavares just shows up and is given like 58 or something. Oh, you think he's going to be back on the team next year? That's very interesting. So I was thinking about this, too, with Tampa. But part of their problem is that Brent Seabrook's contract comes off the books. They were exceeding the cap because they had his deal locked in.

How many teams do you think have like perma LTIR guys still on the books? I thought I saw something about this where there's like 25 teams that have at least some dead salary next year. Dead salary, but that's like retained salary buyouts, that kind of thing. Let's say half the league. Not even close. I couldn't believe it either. Philly, Vegas, the capitals, the Canadians, I think maybe Vancouver.

Let me double check on that, and Utah, and that's it. So how many is that? Tucker Pullman, I guess, is the Vancouver guy. So that's one, two, three, four, five, six guys. And the, wait, it says the penguins have 900, grand as well on Matt Nietto. I guess he's LTIR retired, but it's 900 grand, so it barely counts. Ryan Ellis in Philly, Vegas has Lainer, of course.

Capitals have Baxteram. Canadians have price. Penguins have Nietto, like I said. Canucks have Pullman, and Utah has Shea Weber. And those are the only LTIR, Perma, LTIR. Perm, LTIR guys in the league right now. Can you believe that? That is surprising to me, actually.

Yeah. So I wonder... No wonder Arizona quit the league. We're running out of options, yeah. I wonder if that's going to move around this summer. I wonder if, like, I don't think Vegas would trade it, but would Philly? Would Montreal? Yeah.

I'm very curious. To be determined, I guess. there's usually like at least a couple of surprises where like some team you don't think has room goes and acquires one of those guys and you're like right and they're like it gives us more cap room and we all just go oh okay for sure but yeah i i i can't it used to be like there were that many guys just on the coyotes and senators you know it's a hundred percent true but anyway oh speaking of lTIR guys gave landisog held a held a press conference while we were recording the episode to say he's not retiring. Yep. It's always good when you have to have one of those, you know? Well, it was kind of like the, when he said he was going to have the press conference, I think a lot of people thought it was going to be the retirement.

That's what I mean. Like, nobody holds a press conference to say, like, you know, David Pasternak's not like, I'd like the media, just so everybody knows, I'm not retiring, you know. Like, it's very rare that a guy, even a guy with injuries, holds a press conference to say, No update at this time. I want to see every player do that. That's what I mean. Here comes Connor Bedard.

Guys, I'm in the league next year. Everybody's like, whoa, is that true? Yep, that's true. Lock it in it's a good idea. So, yeah, I mean, that does, again, complicate Colorado's cap situation. He would be the next guy, obviously. You know how many years he's got after this coming season?

Can't be that much, Ken? Four more after, after 24, 25. got four more. Isn't that crazy? Okay. I did not. It's more than I would have said. Yeah.

The thing he said in the press conference was like, mentally I was ready to come back, but physically I wasn't. Oh, okay. I mean, it's good news. He's good, good player, good, good, good, see him. I mean, you hate to see anyone get a career cut short.

Yeah. But again, it just makes it so hard for, for Colorado. Like, is he going to be ready on, on night? is he going to be ready in November? Is he not going to be ready? They probably, I mean, they certainly have a better idea than I do.

But like, I don't know how good of an idea they have. I didn't see the press conference. I just saw the tweets about it. Yep. I was recording the show, as I mentioned. So, yeah, I guess the only other news, speaking of the flyers, is that it seems like Matt Vamishkov is coming over? Yeah.

Seems like? Seems like Maybe possibly Seems like Brackett question mark Close bracket But seems more I mean considering

When he was drafted A lot of the talk Was it's a four year wait I think you're Optimistic of your Flyers fan Yeah he The Fulov thing Kind of seemed like

It nudged people Into thinking maybe this could happen And Yeah No it's it's cool That that for them, certainly, that they're getting the wheels turning on this, you know? Still has two years left on his KHL deal.

But it just seems like he wants out. Yeah. Well, apparently, yeah, somebody had reported that he will forego the final two years. I don't fully understand how the legalities work between the two. It seems like he has to personally buy, like the flyers can't buy it out is basically how I understand it. I might be wrong. I don't think anybody does for sure. But it seems like the flyers can't buy it out.

He has to do it. And I don't know where he's getting that money. But in theory, you know, I don't know if like he has to pay them 50%, 100%. I don't know how it works. But let's put it this way. It seems like this is according to just a guy who is quote tweeting the structure of his salary. I don't know if this is true.

But it seems like. like he makes about 300k a year in the KHL. Probably going to make more than that in the NHL. Definitely will. And so that makes it easier for him to buy him out, buy that out. Sure. But I don't know if he needs to have that money on hand today or how it works. But it's just something to keep an eye on.

Very cool if the Flyers pull this off. That would be so sick. He's such a fun player to watch. For those of you who haven't seen too many of his game, not that I've seen a ton or anything, But like every time I've seen him, I'm like, fun guy. Wow, awesome. Thank you.

So. I guess one other piece of news and just kind of double back that came out of the Landis Scog thing was GM Chris McFarlane saying, not saying for sure that they're going to buy out Valerie Nukushkin as far as like terminating the contract, I guess I should say, instead of buyout. But certainly sounds like an option. and then we get into that whole mess. Can they even do that while he's in the player assistant program? Don't have an answer for you, brother. All I know is he's not getting paid,

so maybe they just would go, well, like we have these six months to figure out what we're doing, and if that means termination at the end, then that means we're terminating the contract. I don't know. So, yeah, sorry, let me be, the termination of the contract is at this point, not an option. So I guess

the fact that they're commenting on it suggests that it does become an option at some point, but is not right now. So, yeah, don't let me mislead. Could he come back to the team? It still feels very unlikely, but at this point they're not saying no. Absolutely not. Which could be legality or could be them actually leaving the door open. I have some huge breaking news for you, Sean.

Oh, boy. Universal Pictures has dated an untitled event film directed by Steven Spielberg for wide release Friday, May 15th, 2026. What's he cooking? That's it? We don't know what the... It's an untitled event film. Okay. What makes it an event film? I would say, like, think Blockbuster.

You're thinking in the Jurassic Park style. You know, Spielberg been making quieter movies the last few years, you might say. Is this the big fable movie? Fableman's sequel, we've all. Fableman's two. Sammy goes eight shit. Two. Nottier, nice.

This is a big day for me. I love to think about what. This is exciting for you. Steven Spielberg. Stick to Sports Diamond Doick winner himself. Your second favorite director? Is that? I mean, he might be, I mean, how could I say he's not number one?

I don't think he's like the best director ever. I thought James Cameron was your guy. I love James Cameron. But, you know, James Cameron has enough films I don't love and works way less frequently than Spielberg, certainly. You know, Spielberg is like, the fact that we're waiting like three years between his movies or almost three years is like a really long time for him. He's a movie every 18 months guy usually. And I guess this doesn't preclude him secretly released. You know, you remember that movie The Post with Tom Hanks and Merrill Street?

I do not. Okay, came out 2015, 2016, something like that. That movie came together in like eight months between when he signed on

to do it and it was in theaters and I was watching it. Something like that. Some crazy turnaround like that. So this guy could have two movies out between now and then.

I don't know. But, you know, Jurassic Parks, Jaws. You see these movies? I've heard of them, yeah. They're sick, man.

One of the, best to ever do it. Anyway, hit him with the plugs. Let's get out of here. Number one, the Steven Spielberg movie. Yeah, that's there. Find me at the Athletic. Read my piece on why we should get rid of replay and various other things, including my podcast with Sean Gentile and Frank Carrado, which was yesterday. I'm used to saying it's tomorrow, but we moved our schedule around this week. So it is, you can already find it, and I can already tell you in the past tense that it was fantastic. Wow. Congrats, brother. For me, yeah, read elite prospects, EPRinkside.

Anytime a team gets eliminated, I look at what they're going to do this summer or could do or should do or whatever you want to say. And so I just put up a couple of those in the last few days. And, you know, we're closing in on already. Will I be reading the Rangers one around this time next week? Probably not, but I guess in theory it's possible. Could be. Friday, Sunday, Tuesday. Yeah, well, maybe.

Around this time, not by the time we do the next show. Right. So you could be. If they get swept, which I don't think they will, to be clear, I'm a coward who's picking both series to go seven games. Not after the Adam Fox Matt Rempay swap. Yeah, that's Panthers in three, I think, if that happens. But yeah, elite prospects use the code.

I love EP when you sign up for an annual subscription. they will make it a 15-month subscription for the same exact price. And then head over to patreon.com slash puck soup. Me, Sean, and Greg did an episode just yesterday where we explored the concept of, would you rather have this highly paid player or the free money from his cap hit? Like if you could just terminate that contract,

today would you do it? That was the simple yes or no question on the 31 highest paid players in the league. And, uh, there were some surprising answers, let's say, from certain members, from all three of us. I'd honestly probably put out there. The surprise was that there were some players that Ryan would keep. Yeah, that's right.

We're going down the list. I'm like, Connor McDavid, get them out of there. You know, anyway, yeah, patreon.com slash pox soup for that. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.