Puck Soup - Roasting Sedins

Episode Date: February 14, 2020

The boys discuss the number retirement and legacy of the Sedin Twins, and Kevin Bieksa's perfect roast of them. Plus, the Jay Bouwmeester scare, the Penguins trade, debating the Blackhawks' future, bad injury news, salary cap weirdness, Sonic The Hedgehog, the Olympics mess and Jeremy Roenick gets fired. Sponsored by Away and Burrow!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Bo, too. I'm Greg Wysinski of ESPN. If I sound a little different, it's because I'm doing this from a courtyard by Marriott in Denver, Colorado,

as I've been dispatched to cover the outdoor hockey game that I would wager 3% of hockey fans know what's happening this weekend. That seems high. Yeah, I'm Ryan Lambert from this podcast, and I'm at sea level. So. Yeah, and I'm Sean McAnew from the Athletic, and I'm here in below three feet of snow in Ottawa. So I get to go shovel this as soon as we finish. There's like constant snow here, it seems like. There's like snow falling now.

There's snow on the ground. I'm really looking forward to the outdoor game this weekend because as everybody knows, there's nothing that gets me going better than the pageantry of celebrating our military at a sporting event. Finally, we're giving the troops the respect they deserve a salute to the troops. It does make me wonder. in like 15 years, if we're still doing these outdoor games, if we'll in fact have one at the Space Force Academy.

What do you think? Yeah, well, I think it would have to be a USA versus Russia kind of affair just because other, you know, how else is everybody getting to the International Space Station? Well, that's a very good question. Are you suggesting that Canada's space program is not sufficient? Well, look, there's that one astronaut that's like good at Twitter or whatever. one guy, and we've got the arm. We've built an arm, man.

If we build the rest of the spaceship, you guys are done for it. It's a freaking international space station? Right? Is that something? I got it. Yeah, it could be. Okay. So the space force would be played on the moon or some such, or what?

A meteor, big meteor series, whatever it's called? I think wherever president for life, Trump wants to put it, will, it'll be fine. That makes a lot of sense. So, yeah, and then also capitals tonight, as we do the podcast, are in Colorado to take on the mighty aves. Going to see if OV can do the thing tonight and go from there. But there's a lot to talk about, so let's get cracking. I guess we'll start off with the very sad news of the week, which was J-Bo Meester had a cardiac incident situation.

I don't know what you want to call it. I forget what the technical term was. And crisis, emergency, and collapse on the bench. And for those of us that have been watching hockey for a long time, that is the scariest shit. Yeah, that's not good. Many times before with people. And as has been pointed out by many, like, I marvel at how prepared everybody is in a situation like the, you know, to revive them.

They needed a depribulator, what his teammates did, trainers, hospital staff. Like every fucking person working in concert with each other save this guy's life. The amazing thing is the Anaheim Ducks doctors, this is their second time having done this. So, I mean, we criticize this league for a million different things, including a lot of players. safety stuff, like how they handle players after the fact and how they enforce certain rules, and rightfully so. But when it comes to a situation like this, they really do have very, very good people ready to go who are very good at their jobs.

And that's probably the only reason why this, we haven't seen somebody drop dead during a game. I mean, not to be over the top about it, but that's literally the situation that was in play. And we avoided a tragedy because the people were ready to go. They knew what to do. They knew what they needed to do it with. And everybody did their thing and just a, like, kudos to them. And they thank you to them from everybody, including hockey fans who, you know, obviously I think a lot of us were, when you first saw that footage, you're thinking the worst. And it luckily for us, didn't turn out that way.

I would like us to be the league that can save a guy's life in a cardiac emergency and do more than fines Zadino-char for cross-checking a guy in the throat. Yeah. I mean, if we could maybe balance those two things at some point, I really feel like that's the ideal NHL. Yeah, or not be actively denying the other serious health problems that many of our former players have and all of that. But you know what?

that's a leadership issue and this this wasn't about leadership this is about people being there and being ready and and doing their job in a situation where you know somebody being a minute late could have could have been the difference literally between life and death so yeah yeah just and then on top of that dude like the i was also really impressed because the the blues went to Vegas after that right and i was impressed the the golden nights set up like counselors for the blues players the next couple days yeah yeah yeah Yeah, that was really cool. Like the care that's now taken in these situations to not only obviously take care of the player in crisis,

but also to make sure that their teammates are all right, is fantastic. The fact that they just canceled the game pretty much instantly from everything we've heard, like no pushback from anyone, even though it's going to screw up the schedule, even though there really is no way to slot that game back in without moving other stuff around. Like this is, you know, it feels like the sort of thing, 10, 20 years ago, we would have expected these guys to just suck it up, keep playing, you're fine, you know, your hockey players, your warriors. And, you know, now it's, it's, it sounds ridiculous to say it, but it's good that we can at least acknowledge that seeing your friend and teammate almost die in front of you is, you know, we can stop it acknowledge that, hey, that's pretty screwed up and a little bit more important than who wins one of your 82 regular season. games. I was surprised. I was fast, sort of fascinated by the logistical aftermath, though. Like, like they were saying, this is, this is February now. It's a condensed schedule. They're going

to have to kind of, like, move a few different games around so the ducks and the blues can make up the game. And I was also interested that they're going to play a 60-minute game, but it's going to start at 1-1, which I think is what they've done in the past for situations like this. Yeah, that was, that was the rich perverly situation, too. Yeah, take away the stats, but that's a really fascinating thing. So anyways, yeah. They should just do the thing they do it in baseball sometimes, where they schedule it for, like, the last day of the season,

and if, like, St. Louis doesn't need it for the seating or the ducks don't need it for maybe, I mean, they're not going to make the playoffs, but they should just be like, ah, forget it. That's fine. Everybody gets the goals and we'll just, you know, mark it down as didn't happen. They played eight-one games this year. It does.

It does set up the possibility, and this is, you know, obviously this has nothing to do in the range of importance with the Bowmeester situation, but it does set up the possibility where somebody could tie Nathan Horton's record, NHL record, for the most goals scored in a game in which you did not play. Because he actually, from that, from the Rich Peverley game, he scored a goal in that game. The stats counted when they replayed it, he was not in the lineup. So he has credit for a goal scored in a game he did not play. And I said that that record was unbreakable, but I guess somebody could have brought if they had two goals in that game. They didn't. But yeah, that is if you're into weird, incredibly weird stats, that is something, a situation that's in play because the goals go in the book as I think being scored at like zero minutes and zero seconds of the first period.

And they just play the whole thing. Yeah. So keep an eye on Adam Henrique and Ivan Barbashev. Those are the guys who scored. I think both of those guys will probably be in their respect. Well, hey, Christ, Henrik might get traded, right? That's theoretically possible. Yeah.

But seriously, though, suck it out of Etchkin. Try breaking that record, right? Yeah. He'll do it. If he gets traded, that'd be even better. That'd be the most goals scored in a game involving two teams that you, neither of which you even play for. That's awesome.

Trade Adam Henrik. I'm sure his contract is borderline unmovable, but. For the sake of the record, absolutely. there were other health considerations since we did our last show of a much less severe nature. McDavid's out what, like multiple weeks? Two or three, but maybe less they're saying. Two or three, but maybe less. Well, so they're like, it's two to three, but we're hopeful.

And what they're really saying is don't put all your tickets on Stubhub, please. Yeah. I mean, luckily they have the Hart Trophy winner. healthy right now. Oh, Alex Olvechka, just kidding. But we were saying that last week? The thing about McDavid is like it's normally I'm, it's a running thing with me that every time somebody tells us how long a player is going to be out, it's always less.

And then we always act amazed that somebody has come back early. And it's like, yeah, it's that literally every time a team says this is how long a guy's going to be out. And he comes like, Vladimir Teresenko is kind of doing the same. thing. We're always amazed, except the thing is when it's the Oilers and McDavid, like, we've already been through this once where they lied to us about how serious his injury was, right? They were like, oh, he's fine. He's going to be okay for training camp. And then halfway through the season, they put out a documentary that's like, yeah, his leg almost fell off and we had to

reattach it. So I think everyone's a little skeptical, especially since he kind of got hurt, tried to come back. Then he was going to practice the next day, but only for half. And he was going to be okay. and then suddenly they're like, yeah, he might miss three weeks. I think a lot of people are sort of like, do we know for sure that it's not even more serious than that, only because of who's involved? But, yeah, he'll probably come back in a week and a half and we'll all act surprised. Yeah. Speaking of medical staffs, you can't trust thanks to Kerry Price's various ailments through the years,

the Montreal Canadiens announced that Shea Weber is going to miss. Career ending. All right. Now, that was the Montreal Canadiens. That was former SportsNet Pundit, Nick Kiprio, so I'm not sure what he's up to these days, tweeted out. He got his medical license, and he was there for... He went to the same postgraduate studies as Dr. Recky back in the day in Boston.

Yeah. He said that Shea Weber's career might be threatened, and then the HABs came out a few hours later, and, like, actually, it's going to be back by the end of the month or whatever. Right. So what was that? Well, what it was is, because Kiprios did clarify a little bit, and he kind of said that he stands by what he tweeted, which was that there was concern that it was related to the foot injury he had last year and that it might be ligament related and it might be the sort of thing where you'd need surgery or what have you. And then the Canadians came out and said, no, it's just a, it's a bad sprain. And this is kind of one of those things where this happens every now and then where there's one report comes out. and then it seems to get contradicted and everybody yells back and forth and the usual people

show up and say fake news, the media makes things up, et cetera, et cetera. And my thought is always, okay, is there a way that both of these things could potentially have some truth to them and the truth is kind of in the middle somewhere? And in this case, yeah, I mean, it is possible that there was genuine concern that it was a ligament problem and then either A, it turned out to just be a sprain or B, it turned out to be a sprain and maybe some ligament damage, but that wasn't that serious or serious enough that they're particularly concerned about him being shut down, while at the same time being the sort of thing that could resurface and be a lingering issue that could genuinely affect him

for the rest of his career. I mean, Kiprios, as much as we joke, he didn't say, Shea Weber's career is over. He kind of said this is something that could have an impact on the rest of his career. And maybe it still would. Because like, Nick Kiprios doesn't make things up. Like Nick Kiprios isn't just sitting there going, I'm going to invent something just so I can get yelled at on Twitter. He got this from somebody. Finally, someone's here to defend Nick Kiprius. Yeah. But look, Sean Michael suffered a career-ending injury and came back in like seven years.

I think Shea Weber has at least that much left on this deal. Uh-oh. You never, you never know. Did Shea Weber lose his smile, though? That would be the... Oh, that's the real question. Yeah, you got traded to Montreal. Do you not hear about this?

Oh, shit. No, but that's the thing. Like, but once you put the, is his career going to be threatened, like, notion into the, into the ether, I mean, and everybody ran to cap-friendly to find out what their recapture penalties are going to be like, to that point, the best. And I don't, but it, it reveals again that, like, I'm, there's a tremendous number of fans out there who don't understand how cap-re-re-capture works. If somebody's hurt, there is no cap-recaper. You don't get like he's, if he's, if, if, let's just say the, the worst case interpretation of Kiprios's tweet turned out to be right. And Shea Weber had suffered a career ending. He's just, he's going to go on the long term injured reserve, continue to collect his money.

No, there's no cap recapture. No, of course. There's, there's a, there is a cap. The habs have to continue to carry him on his cap, but they would just get the overage and, you know, it's not quite, it doesn't quite disappear, but it kind of. does. But yeah, I was amazed how many fans were like talking about them. If that were what happened, Shayweber would be an Ottawa senator very soon. Sure. Yeah, exactly. Or a coyote or whatever. I was thinking about the fact that like I wonder what they do if that, if it got down to it because obviously like Nashville has the vast majority of the impact of the recapture.

It's a stupid rule that is unbelievably badly implemented to the point where if Shea Weber Let's take the injury out of it. If Shea Weber retired on this, what was it, a 14-year deal that the Predators didn't even come up with, by the way. It was an offer sheet by the Flyers, but fine. They matched it. They matched it. If he retired six years early, they take a $4 million a year cap hit for six years. But if he retires just one year early, so in other words, he plays out 13 of the 14 years.

According to the rule, Nashville takes a $24 million cap penalty for one year. That's it. Oh, my God. That would be the funniest thing in the world. It would be so good. It would be absolutely incredible. It's such a stupid rule. But at the same time, like, I've for years said it was a stupid rule and that no team would ever actually have to pay a penalty.

And now Vancouver does because of Luongo. So if you take it off the books, then Canuck fans are going to be furious, which also funny. But it's just, it's such a stupid, terrible rule. And, yeah, I mean, it's probably theoretical. because now that he's got some sort of foot problem, some sort of ligament problem that is lingering in some way, that's your ticket to him just at some point instead of retiring saying, I can't play because of my foot.

For those who may not know what we're talking about, because, I mean, it is like eight years ago now that they implemented this rule. It was the rule in place that was meant to punish the teams that handed out what are called backdiving contracts, where the base salary of the contract by the, end of the like 12 or 13 year deal ends up being basically what somebody at Wendy's makes because they want to bring down the cap hit right so like so like since the NHL is a bunch of cowards and they couldn't tell Rocky Words and the Illich family not to hand out these fucking

contracts that everybody has to suffer well no everybody has to suffer because somebody game the system effectively like that's the real problem right that they were like but Ryan the people that game the system were the people that game the system were the people That created the system. No, I understand that. Yeah, no. But, like, then they did it because they were the rich teams that could have afford to pay guys forever, basically. And they were like, oh, yeah, fuck it, who cares?

And then they signed these contracts, but the thing is the league approved the contracts. Correct. Approved the contracts. Yes, exactly. They were legal contracts. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. And then years later decided to make up this incredibly punitive rule and didn't think it through because

the problem with the predators is basically the way the rule goes is whatever you save on the cap hit at the front of the contract, you have to pay back at the end of the contract. But if a guy, as a guy plays and the salary flip-flops, that number gets less and less. But because the predators traded him away before the backdiving part, the number doesn't get any smaller.

So if he had stayed a predator the whole time, the way the rule is set up now kind of works. if we accept that it should even exist at all. But the fact that he gets traded halfway through completely screws it up. I mean, there's no way that the NHL is going to make Nashville, like a non-traditional market that kind of needs all the boost it can get. It just blow up their cap for one year because of some stupid rule

signed on a contract signed 13 years ago by a different team for a player who doesn't even play there anymore. But I don't know how they wiggle out of it. I still, part of me thinks this is going to end with the rule being taken off the books and the Canucks getting some cap space back as a bit because they're the only team that's had to pay it. But it's just, it's such a stupid rule and it's one of those things where like you just look at it. Anytime you're like, oh, man, are people like Sean being too harsh on the NHL leadership? And then you look at this and you go, no, he's exactly right. Right.

And it's, and I'm sorry, I apologize on behalf of the Devils. it's our fault because we gave a little bit of a 17 year contract But that contract did not get approved The NHL did the NFL The NFL exercised their right to not approve The other nonsense one

But I think that was the point of demarcation for this stuff Like they just decided they weren't going to allow any of it anymore And then they went back and punished teams Although, you know, to speak to your Connux theory Like the devil's punishment was basically like removed at some point Wasn't it? It was.

It was. Exactly. Jesus. Really cool. Cap Recapture is a very confusing thing. The cap is a very confusing thing. A lot of you out there might feel like your heads are spinning right now. And if they are, you might need to find a comfortable couch to lay down on.

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There was one other one that was kind of a bummer. Oh, never mind. Anyways, we had a trade to announce this week, which was that Jason Zucker is now a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It always kind of fascinates me when teams are like after one specific odd player for like multiple years. Like we've been trying to get Jason Zucker for like two years. I mean, I think he's a fine player. I think on Sid's wing, he can get back to his contract year offensive levels, but it's kind of just strange that it's like we have been on the Zucker chase since last summer and we finally got our man.

But it was a good trade for both sides, I felt. Yeah, no, the penguins, you know, it doesn't matter what Kale Addison is going to be three years. Kael and Addison is going to be three years from now because Crosby and Malkin are going to be. be like, and La Tang are going to be like 35, 36 years old, right? And it's the same for a pick that's going to be, what, 27th overall, something like that. You know, it's, they needed to go get a guy and they got a guy who's signed for two seasons after this one. And so, yeah, I, like, people were like, oh, you know, the penguins are really emptying the cupboard. It's like, you know, are they? Well, I mean, insofar as Addison was their best prospect.

and, you know, teams are always loath to give up a first-round pick. But, like, yeah, they have bigger things to worry about than, like, again, like two guys who might make their roster in a couple of seasons, you know? Yeah. It's so simple. I thought a lot about, I thought a lot about Paul Fenton when this trade happened and how Billy Garron got a top prospect and a first for Zucker. And Paul Fenton was, like, one.

One, Phil Kessel, yeah, I've got Minnesota, away from getting Kessel and fucking Jack Johnson in a trade instead for soccer. Almost as if Paul Fenton maybe was not super good at that job. Not so good at his job. Yeah, I'm with Ryan. I like this for both teams. I think Minnesota got more than fair value, which is what you want to do, especially when you're a relatively new GM like Bill Guerin and this is kind of your first major trade. And you've got a market where I think it's fair to say confidence is low. among that fan base, this gives them a nice boost.

And it is a nice deal. And at the same time, yeah, you're Pittsburgh, you're not worried about three or five years from now. You've got a window to win as many championships as possible with two slam dunk first ballot hall of famers on the roster. And they're not, I mean, they're not in their prime anymore as far as what that means these days, but they're still at playing at an elite level.

Who knows for how long? Yeah, get as many good hard swings at it as you can. And if that means five years from now, you're looking like the Kings look now, you live with that. And that's it, you know, that's it. And any penguin fan who wants to complain, I mean, you're just going to get another franchise player anyways, probably coming along around that time. So yeah, just go for it. Flags fly forever and get as many as you can. if you put Taylor Hall on the Penguins

like what would happen to the draft lottery if they were ever in the lottery Yeah They'll end up with the first three picks Yeah they get a clone of Connor McDavid And Mario Lemieux put together Like it's just Just Bill Daley holding 14 different cards

That are all Penguins logos Like what? They're all the different penguins logos Through history Exactly It's a good deal I don't mind it, and I'm sure Zucker is going to make them look real smart by, like, scoring at a 30-gold pace. Do you, where are we, where are we on the Penguins as a cup contender this year?

Because they're looking really goddamn good, man. Really good, but the goaltending is like the one area. Yeah, do you trust Tristan Jari to be this good for the rest of the year and then the postseason? I maybe don't, but, you know, Matt Murray looks like shit now, and he won two cups in a row. So, you know. But is there such a. a thing as is there such a thing as as playoff Matt Murray?

Like is it playoff Matt Murray like playoff Braden Holthby? Or is Matt Murray just garbage now? And you know what? Probably not. But if he thinks that that is true, sometimes in short term, like just maybe that's enough. That little boost of confidence, that little chip on the shoulder is enough for the team to sit there and go, hey, you know what? If it doesn't work out with Jerry, then we've got a two-time cup winner ready to come in.

That probably feels okay. Look, Jordan Bennington won a cup last year. I mean, you don't have to be the greatest goalie in the world. It's true. He was an okay HAL goalie. The Chris Osgooding of Jordan Bennington continues on this very podcast. Yeah, that's a good comparison. He was incredible last year.

And he won them the cup. Yeah, Chris Osgood had a couple of good years, too, Greg. This time last year he was Tristan Jerry, right? He was the unproven like, do you really trust this guy? That's what I'm saying. And sometimes the answer is who the hell knows what's going to happen with goaltending? So if you're Pittsburgh and you've got, you know, yeah, you don't have that superstard. You don't have that guy who's, who's, you really feel good is going to play, give you 920, 925 goaltending.

But you've got two guys, either one of which could get hot. Maybe that's enough. Maybe that's, maybe that's all, all you can do. And then, because the rest of the lineup is pretty good. And they're really well coached. You're getting Gensel back at some point. They've been missing him. Yep.

And, you know, and the division is going to be tough to get out of. But I don't know that it looks quite as scary as it did maybe a couple months ago. So, yeah, I mean, there's a path there. They're going to be one of these six to eight teams that you feel pretty good about their chances heading into the playoffs, and that's probably as far as any of us can go on this stuff these days. Yeah, and in terms of, like, where they are in the standings and games and hand and stuff like that, they're basically a win in, like a point and a half back of Washington. That's it, you know, like, that's...

Do you like their bottom six enough? I don't like Washington's bottom six, the particularly large amount either. Like, they're a team that, you know, Ovechkinson, scoring a ton of goals, but he's pretty much the only one doing. What's he got like 20% of their goals? You throw Lars Eller on any line. It's going to be all right. So at least they got that going for him. Yeah. And Washington.

You know, there's a bunch of guys like that on the penguins, too, where it's like, you know, that's a perfectly adequate, like, Zach Aston Reese kind of a guy. You know, like, those guys, they're getting it done so far, and they got it done for most of last year. So I don't know why all of a sudden we're like, I don't, I don't trust these penguins. I don't know. One thing we didn't talk about, I just realized in this entire Zucker thing is Golcenaic. Like, what the fuck?

Like, what is, what, what, will, are we looking at a bust? Is it bust time? Or do we believe that there is a, I don't think he can call him a bust when he, he did score 30 goals relatively early in his career. Yeah, but he did it once, you know, like. I think he's certainly a guy that I'm, I'm concerned about now. Like, I'm not, I mean, and it sounds like from, from the point. of you of the wild like he's not even really part of the trade as far as the assets they're

getting he's the balance out of salary yeah he was just there to balance out the money yeah yeah and then you roll the dice maybe maybe he looks great down the stretch and you know he likes it there and he wants to re-up for a year or two on a low-risk deal and maybe or maybe not you just he's he's looking at gee i mean what with this like his fourth team and four four teams and in like three years yeah i mean at this point it's not just a chain like sometimes guys actually are a bad fit you in one place and one scenario. And you got to get them out of there and then it's okay again.

But I, this, yeah, you get to. That's just, I mean, that's just such an interesting draft overall where it's like, who are the top three that year? It was, Yakupov was one. So Ryan Murray, two, Galcenauk three. I don't remember who was next, but it's a guy who sucks. I'm not going to pull it. But, well, no.

but like the top four is bad but then like Morgan Riley's in that draft that dump was number four in that draft was Griffin Reinhardt I just looked at well there you go yeah yeah so Ryan was right yes Riley Riley Linholm Dumba Truba Philip Forsberg that is a word draft but like hurdle was like a mid round pick that year Tom Wilson right ahead of Tara Vinen and Vaseleski yeah yeah and Of course, the reason that's here to my brain is the Jankowski pick. But, you know. Wow.

Slater Cuckoo was a fucking 10th overall pick, huh? Yep. Wow. But, well, hey, look, I mean, there's still time left for that promise of 10 years from now. Mark Jankowski's going to be viewed as the best player in this draft to come through. Who said that? Ooh, it was one of the Calgary Flames. It might have been J. Feast, or it might have been.

somebody along those lines. But that was a real quote from somebody in the Flames Front Office when the Jankowski pick happened. Wow. Coming out of a league that had literally never produced a drafted prospect in the history of the NHL entry draft. So, clock's ticking. While we're talking about Alberta for a second, that reminds me, we need to give a shout

out to our good friend Thomas Drance for for an all-time all-time dunking on the hapless Mark Specter last night when he

Drans tweeted I find it adorable that this Blackhawks team thinks they're still good which is an amazingly great line and then Spector, as he's want to do, tweets a very poor take without any context or clarification or whatever. And then Drance just takes off from the foul line, a la Michael Jordan in the goddamn slam dunk competition and writes, damn, it must be then, Mark, you would know.

Cadoo! Brutal, backboard shatters. That's it. Oh, it's beautiful. Can we talk about that actually? Chicago loses again. I don't know what they're losing streaks up to now, but they suck. Why did everybody in the media like spend three separate weeks this season talking themselves into?

You know, I think the team might get it together, actually. They got a good mix of young and all the whole lot. They got close. They got two or three points away and then faded again, just like they did a bunch of times last year. But in the defense of the delusional, when your bedrock is some of the top six goaltending this year, I think, as far as team save percentage goes, like, that's okay. Like that, like, fucking, fucking Arizona is sniffing around the wild card with all goaltending and hardly anything else, right? So, like, it's the idea that they at least had that going for them. Well, no, but like, I mean, I quote tweeted them from earlier this season this morning, but it was like, believe it, the Blackhawks are for real this year and all that.

shit. And it's like... Who? Lazarus wrote that? Oh, I think it was Scott Powers. But he wasn't the only one. Like, that was, that was one of them, but he wasn't the only one. And it was like, I looked it up. And every time it was just like, they would win four in a row. And somebody would be like, this is it. They're taken off. And then they would lose five out of six or six out of seven or whatever it is. They did get close. But, and let's be honest, part of this is also, I think it's a couple of other things. Number one, we all know what happened with the blues last year, so everyone's

looking for the next blues. If you're going to be the team that makes the push, at some point, you've got to get within two or three. And nobody wants to wait until a team's already made it all the way and then go, oh, yeah, they're this year's blues. We all got to pick it early. So there's that. And also, it's the fact that it's the Blackhawks. And they still have this, like, magic aura of winner dust floating around. Why? Jonathan Taves. Why? Jonathan Taves is the greatest leader in the league. And Jonathan Taves can lead any team out of the abyss into contention. He knows how to lead.

Now, has he won the Mark Messier Leadership Award? I don't know. That is the mark of true leadership. Yeah, well, that's because he hasn't abandoned his team yet, which like three of the guys who won that award did the year that they wanted. There was a stretch. There was a stretch in early to mid-November where they went six, one and two. They're for real. They did it.

Now, that followed a stretch where they went. Let's see here. Three, six, and three to start the year. Okay. And then they go six, one, and two. Oh, they're about to take off. They're for real. They lose, yeah, six of the next seven games.

And then, you know, there's another stretch where they win. Let's see here. Looks like five of seven. Six of eight. They win six of eight. Lose two in a row, win five in a row. And now they get to the point where they have lost. like three in a row, I think.

Well, three and a little, but they're one, four and two in the last seven. And it's like, yeah, what, like, on the whole, that they grade out to a team that even with great goaltending is like a game above NHL 500. They're 25, 24, and 8. And it's like, that sounds about right, yes. That's even with great elite, borderline league goaltending, this is all they were ever going be, folks. I don't know what you were trying

to talk yourselves into, but I think maybe maybe people were trying to talk themselves into that in the Western Conference, that was all it was actually going to take to get into the playoffs. The problem is, if they were in the Pacific, we'd be having a different discussion altogether, but it turns out they

are not. They're still, I mean, and they're still only six points out of the last wild card. With more games played, though, right? Is that not the case? No, no, they have two. They have two in hand on Arizona. Oh, well, Arizona is another team I don't buy it with, but sure. But here come the Blackhawks is all I'm trying to say.

Oh, yeah, they're fucking right on top of it. Do you think they do with the goaltending at the trade deadline? Do you think there's a chance that they trade Crawford? Like, do you think he'd leave? Well, you know, I think the real concern is that they try to add to, you know, because jobs are on the line here, blah, like everybody's been saying all season that if they don't make it this year, Stan Bowman's done. And so what's he going to do?

Like he's going to sit there. He's going to get hired in New Jersey in a fucking military second is what's going to happen. My God. The minute he walks out the door with his belongings in a box, there's going to be a fucking charter there. And he's going to show up in New Jersey and he'll be like, all right, let's see. The last time I started a job as a GM had a pretty good roster in place. What are we got here? It's probably just as good.

That's so weird. That's almost exactly what race here is. I don't think they move Crawford unless they've got Leonard of Sondon. I don't think so either. And even then, like, who do you, what, what contender needs a goaltender at that point? Toronto. Toronto might, but, I mean, even then, like, it's, you know, who's going to pay you? Excuse me.

Freddie Anderson and Supi Campbell got this thing on lock. No, the team that's interesting is the team that's wanted Lainer, Robin Lainer for a little bit, which is Carolina. If they can get Lainer. That might be the one, yeah. gig. It would be an interesting pick for them, because they could use a little bit of a goaltending boost. They do, apparently, everyone is, it's, it weirdly, in the last week, everybody got the memo that their first round pick was in play. So, yeah, that might be the one. I mean, because that's why, that's why you don't see mid-season goaltending trades that much,

because teams that have goaltending don't need goaltending and teams that need goaltending are usually completely, their seasons torpedoed by halfway through anyways, so they're, they're not looking to add during the year. But yeah, Carolina is maybe one that could make sense. You know, for the power rankings this week, I did the worst deadline trade for every team. And I made it a rule that I wasn't going to include the thrashers for Jets 2.0. And I wasn't going to include the whalers for the hurricanes because that's just too easy. Like the whalers had like six really shitty deadline trades.

But I went through the hurricane's history. I don't know if it's just a function of them never really being in contention or what, but like, they've, they've not really had many of them. Like, the closest one that came, I ended up going with the stall trade just because the prospect didn't work out and the two picks didn't amount to anything, but they used one of the picks in the Tara Vinen deal. The only one that comes close was like a Tuomo Routu for Andrew Ladd swap at some point. Like, they just, they're pretty good.

Like, they do, they make good decisions. But, yeah, the whalers would have been a lot easier. A lot easier Did the Whalers make a bad trade deadline deal? I'm sure not yet Once or twice Okay Well there you go

So I think one of the goalies is getting traded I do wonder Do you think the loyalty thing with Crawford comes in the play That they'll just let him kind of like Find his next home and they won't like try to trade him I could see that But maybe he wants out Because you know

He's splitting time and the team stinks and all this kind of stuff. Like he's standing on his head every night and not getting anything to show for it in terms of results. So maybe he wants out like that. Maybe he does. That would make sense too. You know, like I say, it's one of those things where it's like I'm kind of sitting

here waiting for Stan Bowman to be like, you know, wear a, I don't know, we're a Taylor Hall away from having it all figured out or whatever. Well, there you go. Somebody's going to pack their bags. And if they do, they should make it an away bag. You know, Away creates awful products built for the way modern travelers see the world. You know what? I don't assume that everybody hears every episode.

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That's right. You got it. A-V-E-L dot com slash fuck. Away-travel.com slash fuck for all your baggage needs. Sean, of course, we did a bonus episode without you this week, so I do want to get your opinion. We did the hockey Oscars. What do you consider to be the finest hockey movie ever made? He's going to say one of those CBC made for TV ones. Yeah, that's right. At the end of the episode, we did mention that these were just for motion pictures

and that all the Canadians listening don't give us fucking Rocket or the Don Cherry movie or the Gordy Howl movie. Those are TV movies. Those are not real movies. No, I mean, I don't know what the best one ever made, but I'll tell you my personal favorite, Youngblood. I love Youngblood is just the perfect mix of good and terrible in just the right measures. And it's one of those movies for me

that if you don't see it on TV a ton, but if you're flipping around and you happen and see it, I'm done. I'm sticking around until Racky gets his at the end because, yeah, I love Youngblood. Do you think it's just like that's because of the age that you caught that movie or whatever? Oh, I'm sure.

I don't know. Like 90% of my pop culture things that I like are just because I was 15 when I was first exposed to it. That's pretty much it. But yeah, I mean, there's something about like a 35-year-old Patrick Swayze as a junior hockey player, you know, with playing on the same team as elite superstar prospect, Roblo, who can't turn when he's skating out there and the, like the crazy goalie-masked guy doing the splits before the penalty shot with no time left all that. It's just, it's fantastic. It's, it's a total mess, and I can't get enough of it.

Where are you on Goon? Never saw it. Oh, wow, really? Interesting. I've heard it was good. So I imagine I probably would like it a lot, and I intended to see it, and I just never got around to it. I think you'd really like it because Jay Barshall, friend of the program, wrote a very

knowing script, like the main. character is basically like a Mike Ribeiro proxy, if you, if you understand the dynamics of Ribero's time with the Habs, for example. It's really good. The first Gune is, is legitimately one of the best hockey movies ever made. It is. That's true. Oh, I think so. I agree with you. Oh, oh, oh, I thought you were as you, that was like it is. No, I, yeah. We had a whole episode where we talked about how I liked it, so. No, I mean, honestly, I was, I remember a thing, I forget things as soon as you. I didn't, uh, you know, I haven't, uh, you know, I We've gone around to listening to your rankings.

How high in the top five did Love Guru wind up? The Love Guru was very well represented because we had a lot of categories for worst shit. That was so terrible. I believe Deepak Chopra was up for worst performance as Deepak Chopra. I think three people from it were up for worst. So, yeah. I can still have never seen it. Never will.

Maybe. I was going to say near the top of my list. it may be at the top of the list of the most disappointing movies ever. Like, when Mike Myers was, this was not that far off like the heights of Austin Powers. And when you found out that Mike Myers was not only making a hockey movie, but was making a hockey movie about the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup, it was like, this has the potential to be amazing. And it was very, very not amazing.

So, yeah, it was really rough. Man. Like, I don't want to say it was a disappointing movie, but at one point you find out that Justin Timberlake, as a palpeteen. So it really is devastating to the viewers. Yeah. The Love Guru was terrible.

We did find out one amazing bit of trivia, though, that if the folks who haven't listened to the bonus episode, you may be interested in this. Rob Blake is in The Love Guru, and Rob Blake plays a center for some reason in the Love Guru. And Ryan discovered that right around, was it the filming? Around what it would have been filmed based on the release date. Rob Blake actually took three face-offs that season. It was even, it was like four or eight or something like that.

He took a number of face-offs in the NHL and the only ones of his career, pretty much. Yeah, and he took face-offs in that movie, too. So his working theory is that he was testing out his face-off prowess IRL to get in preparation for his role. This is like a Daniel-D-Lewis method acting thing where. That's right. I was watching gangs in New York the other night, by the way. It's interesting. I think you could say that two of Scorsese's movies were sunk by bad performances by actresses.

And you're going to say Cameron Diaz, for sure. And Sharon Stone in Casino. I didn't like that. I mean, she's fine in it. Casino is great regardless of how you feel about her performance. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Gangs of New York for the sheer fact that her Irish accent is horrible, and DiCaprio just decides about 10 minutes into doing one that he's not just,

that he's not going to really do it anymore. Yeah, that's fine. Good for him. But that movie is so, the first 15 minutes of Gangs of New York might be the best first 15 minutes of any Scorsese movie, the fucking battle between Liam Neeson's Irish gang and the Buller's gang. Dead Rabbits, sure. It's so goddamn good.

Um, good movie. Paul Maurice got signed. So scratch him off the cracking list, huh boys? Apparently. Yeah. You wonder if that leverage helped. I mean, I guess at the end of the day, his deal was up. They had to make a decision.

And he has, he has a team that I think is overachieving expectations. Now, there's a good case to be made that they're doing it in spite of the coach and not because of him. And that, you know, we've, we've talked a lot. This year, it seems like every time a coach gets fired, they just, you look at the goaltending column and they have bad goaltending and Paul Marisa had very good goaltending. And you wonder if this isn't something where Jets fans look back in a few years and go, that would have been the right time to move on and go in a different direction. But I get it.

You know, when things are perceived as going well and your team's hanging in a playoff race, yeah, you probably want to give that vote of confidence. And that's what they've done. and I guess... Yeah, look, I think he's done a really good job telling Connerick David to make 31 saves every single night. Connor Holly Buck. Oh, yeah, right, different guy. But, yeah, telling him, why don't you go out there and stop 33 of 35?

How's that sound? And he goes, you got it coach. You got it, coaching, baby. You got a boss. Do you guys realize that Paul Marese is, by the end of this year, is going to be fourth all-time and games coached in the NHB. Shell. That's wild. Where's he wins, though?

He's, I think he's seven. He is, uh, he has recently passed Mike Babcock and he will potentially pass Lindy Ruff for top six. And then it'll be Al Arbor would be next. So I, like, for a guy who I still think is 35 years old, that's, uh, that's pretty good. You know, but how many, uh, emotional breakdowns did he give his player? on the bench, still got him in that category. Well, I mean, he

did have one of his best players just walk away and say, you know what, I don't think I want to go. No legs. Here's your $8 million back. I'm out of, I'm out. Damn, he really wanted to get out of Winnipeg. Who can blame him? Bottom. Right? It's a hellhole. We all agree. Yep. Yep. Never been. Never

will go. That's fine. Is it no parks? No parks. That's what I keep hearing. Yeah. From you mainly doing an impression. Bad one too. No parks.

Yeah, that's the one. They have very many places that have no parks whatsoever. I shouldn't have said anything. I fucked up so bad. This is a huge stick. It sucks. To Venepeg. There are no parks in Venepeg at all.

Dude, can we get the Air Force to blow you up at this game? It's a fucking... I thought you were going in a different direction there. Um, all right. So, uh, the port, so, uh, the port, so if you were Ron Francis and you had your choice between Peter Lobelet and Gerard Gallant for Seattle, let's say. Who would you hire? Uh, Galant. Yeah, I'd probably go Galant too, but that, those are both good choices. I think you'd be pretty good with either one of them. I mean, I take for the expansion experience card, but, uh, I like Lavie a lot as a coach, so. I would go LaVuette. I think he's a better coach.

And I do wonder, like, the lightning striking twice bit for Glant with an expansion game. Right. So, I mean, there is that to consider, but there's also the fact of, like, Laviolet kind of wore out as welcome maybe two years ago in Nashville and, you know, stuck around and that kind of thing. Like, I wonder how much that matters when you're taking over a team of a lot of veterans, I guess. But don't worry, they fixed it. They bought in John Hines to play Philip Forsberg 10 minutes to give them a lesson. That really is the fucking John Hines experience, huh? It's like, yeah, we're going to give Austin Watson 17 minutes tonight.

Ryan Johansson, how's eight sound? Oh, I mean, that's weird, I guess, but. Yeah, no, it's going great. Like, what do you even fucking do? Like, that's the whole point. That's, I don't understand. I will not ever understand bringing this game. guy in on a multi-year deal, how you know this is the guy you want, you haven't even

fucking interviewed anybody else. And then if you don't make the playoffs, what do you do? You tell your fans, don't worry, we're bringing back the coach that couldn't get shit done. Everybody get excited. Yeah, I wonder if you can, if you would just say, you know, Lavillette screwed us. What were we supposed to do? You know, I don't know. It's such a bizarre.

Well, I mean, it's not bizarre. It's all nepotism at the end of the day, but like, you know, it's still a strange move. Not a strange move. Vancouver Canucks last night as we do the show, retiring the numbers of Henrik and Daniel Sedeen at a raucous free game ceremony highlighted by the great Kevin Vexa doing a roast of the twins. Absolutely. That's what it was. And it was awesome. It was so fucking funny.

The greatest concept I ever heard, and I can't believe none of us have ever done this concept, that they actually didn't have twins like sonar but had small listening devices at all times on the ice. Yeah. Fantastic. He was really good. Like, if the video was floating around, I've got it in my piece tomorrow, and I know it's like, it's seven minutes long, which I realize on the internet is like asking somebody watch a four and a half hour movie. But, like, carve out the time and just watch. it because it's especially like we uh,

Drance actually I think had a piece on the athletic today about like what, what was the deal with that? Like, where did that come from? And like he just kind of got up and winged it. Like he didn't even have any speaking notes or anything, which is just if you've ever had to do public speaking and tried to be funny in front of an audience, uh, makes you want to strangle this guy because he was like so good at it and then it was just effortless. And, and it was the sort of thing.

I mean, he talked for, I mean, it wasn't quite. seven minutes from when he started talking, but it was five or six. Like, if it hadn't gone well, it would have just been, that could have been death. Like, he would have had to have bailed immediately and gotten out of there. He had a tight five plus for sure. But he was solid, man. He was really good. He definitely did.

Yeah. And, and, yeah, he's, like, he's been good. Like, we've been getting him on Hockey Night and Canada up here. They're kind of breaking him in as, as an analyst. And he's been really. really good. And a guy I didn't think would have been. He didn't strike me as the sort of guy when he was playing that was going to

be this good on the media side. He's been real, real good. He played college hockey, didn't he? His, but his, like, his, like, classic, like, comedic moment as a player was sort of prickish. So I wasn't sure

how that would translate. It was when he pretended to be Ryan Kessler. Yes. To the Fox, the Fox Reporter. It was sort of the funniest fucking things ever. scene. But yeah, I mean, like he turned out to be a funny goofball kind of guy in his humor after his playing days, which was awesome. And a good ceremony, top to bottom, top to bottom.

Like, you know, it was kind of cool to have a sedene week. I still feel like they're sort of underappreciated as star players go. And it was nice for Vancouver to get to have that moment with them. No, they're properly appreciated as borderline Hall of Famers, I think. Yeah. Well, I don't appreciate them. That Phelman-Louise act over there. I'm going to hit something with my shoe. Fucking Milbury. Remember that shit? The fucking final. Yeah. Yeah, it's almost like he was a, like, a Boston Bruins employee for a long time, that kind of thing. And then he gets to comment. That's the thing that drives me fucking crazy about, like, you know, you expect your homers on your local broadcast and stuff like that. But when they keep, and I bring this up sometimes, but like when they were like, now Keith Jones, you cash a check from the Flyers.

What do you think about the Tampa Bay ragging the puck thing? What do you think about that? And he's like, I think it's awesome. I think it's the coolest thing ever happening in hockey. All right, man. Sounds good. Your tight five and a half for BX had made me think that like at one point there was a chance that like Jim Menning comes over and says, sorry, Kevin, we've got to bump you. Louis C.K. is doing a drop-in

for the Sadeen's roast or some shit. Maybe not him. Oh, no, totally. I think he plays well in Vancouver. But I will say this, though. Can be XA NHL awards? Folks, he couldn't be worse

than what they've brought to the table in the past. God, you're right. Especially since we can't do the Gritty takes off his mask and it's Batman thing anymore. So this, yeah, this might be... Because Gritty... I may have thought of that, but that's, yeah. You're right.

Only if it's a roast. Only if he's like the Ricky Jervais of like the NHL awards, just gets up there and just craps all over whoever happens to be about to get the award. Yeah, I'd be in for that. Yeah, I'd love to see Kevin VX up there going, have I offended you, mate? Have I? Am I too offensive? Triggered.

Thank God I won the Selkeek. Well, there is no God. Fuck off. The thing, and you're right, by the way, because it was like, entertaining for seven minutes, which means the NHL will pound it into the ground and ruin it. Oh, yeah. Very good point. Let me ask you about the

Cedines in the Hall of Fame. I first will say that they definitely should go on the same plaque, but Henrik told me years ago they don't want to. So I guess maybe it won't happen, but it should, right? We all agree on that, right? The joke yesterday was that only

one of them should get in. A bunch of people said that. Like, only Daniel. He had a higher career war in 20 fewer games. So that's why only he should get in. And I know that's the joke, but the Hall of Fame selection committee being what they are, that's probably what's going to happen. Like, they're just so, they're just, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're the people that kept Pat Burns out until he died. Like, they clearly don't care about what the good thing to do would be. So it's entirely possible that they'll put one sitting and

Because the other. As a maze are just so similar. Like, you know, they both won an MVP award and that kind of stuff. Yeah. No, one of them won an MVP award. Only one of them. One of them won what I think was the Pearson, now the 10th. That's what it was.

Right, right, right. Yes. And both won an Art Ross as well. Yeah. It was that the year Corey Perry won the heart. Yeah. And he should have. It was the 50 goal year.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think they're both strong. I think they're both going to get in. I've kind of talked in the past about how playing for just one team, especially if it's a big-ish market or an influential market helps. The fact that, you know, the twins, it's just such a cool story. Like, they've got all these little intangibles to their case,

plus the fact that they both did win major awards. So they were at least at some point seriously in the conversation of like best in the game, as opposed to a guy like Alfredson who's got similar stats, maybe even a bit better. but never quite got to that level in his best year. I think they're both getting in. Whether it's the first year, first ballot or whatever, because there's two of them and they only have four spots on the men's side, it's possible they may have to wait until a year that isn't quite as quite packed.

But I mean, I think they're eligible next year. So next year isn't a crazy strong year. I can see them both going in. I think it's interesting. I'd be interested to see I was going to say if they're first ballot or not because that's the real hang up with the Hall of Fame seems to have with these players. But I wrote about this in the column this week, and I hadn't really thought of it in these terms before, but it kind of bum me out as a hockey fan because we constantly please like my sport, our game

and lament the fact that it's not bigger here in the States. But like, can you imagine if there were identical? twins and one of them was a quarterback and one of them was a receiver and did what the Cydians did. Or like there was a pitcher and his identical twin was the catcher and like they did what the Cedines said like if if you had

this incredible thing where they're identical twins they're playing on the same team and they accomplish what they accomplish in another sport, they'd be fucking legends. There would already be a bio-pick about them. Are you suggesting that the Lopez twins are not at the same?

I'm not the same. Not the same. Not the same. But it's kind of bums you out as a hockey fan. This was one of the most unique acts in sports history. And maybe Sweden, maybe Vancouver, maybe hockey, I don't know. But I feel like the general sports fan, there's no way the general sports fan ever appreciated what the fuck was happening with the city is for the last 15 years. Probably not. And the other piece that we should appreciate, and I had a few people bring this up yesterday because I was complaining yet again about wimpy GMs, never making trades.

the crap that Brian Burke had to pull off to draft both of these guys on the draft floor was just fantastic. Like I, like Brian Burke is a GM, all sorts of pluses and minuses, but Brian Burke just as a trading GM, one of the all-time best and best characters and like just all sorts of fun to watch. Like the clips that are out there of him on the draft floor, like basically just bullying guys into like you're doing this, then you're taking this guy. and if you don't take the guy you told me I was going to take, I'm going to run up and break. I mean, he's just like directing traffic and all these other GMs are standing around like, yes, sir, no sir. It's fantastic to watch.

And I'm so glad he did because, I mean, if, look, if two different teams that drafted these guys, they both would have eventually played, they would have had great careers, I'm sure, but it would not have been anywhere near the same. Like, just, I'm so glad that somebody took the bowl by the horns and figured out a way to make it happen that they both went up in the same team. thing you can say about Burke's entire career as a GM basically is that he understood the value of a star and, you know, very few other G. And he also, for a guy that was, sorry, you, you finish your point and then I'll. There was a quote this week where a bunch of GMs were like, well, you know, we'd like to make some changes or whatever, but we don't want to disrupt our chemistry this year and that kind of stuff. And it's like, how are we still talking about this in 2020? You know, like, it's crazy that we're still hearing about how important chemistry is. We don't want to make the team better because we might get some people mad or whatever.

I said this week, like, for 11 months the year, we treat hockey players as these grizzled warriors who will crawl on broken glass to win the Stanley Cup. And then for a few weeks, we're all worried that they're going to be too sad if they're their friend gets traded away and they won't be able to play anymore. Yeah, a guy comes in and he hasn't earned it by being there the first 58 games or whatever. Yeah, that's going to throw off the chemistry. Oh, yeah, there was that thing about like if you add somebody to your top six. It bumps a guy out. Yeah.

Yeah, make everybody sad about getting bumped out, like, which is the complete opposite of the way these things work, which is it makes people play fucking harder to get their spot back. I mean, like, chemistry does matter, but like I wrote this week, if your chemistry is so fragile that even adding somebody can blow it up, then maybe your chemistry isn't very good to start with. Like, maybe real chemistry is the ability to add and subtract and all this other. I don't know. But it's also just horseshit. Like, like, when the fucking, when the fucking coyotes made the Taylor Hall trade where they all, like, bitching and moan and being like, well, what about loss of. Krause's ice time, you know, like, fuck off.

It's nonsense. They all have to do the Arne Anderson. You're not just getting any spot on the Phoenix, on the Arizona Coyotes. You're getting my spot. Not my dog spot. That's right. That's right. So the point I wanted to make about Burke and it's related to this is just, and then

we can move on, is he, when it, for a guy who is very sensitive about the media almost all the time, Brian Burke, when he. came time to make a trade, didn't give a crap what anyone thought, or he didn't sit around and talk himself out of it because he was going to get criticized or because it might look this or that. If he was going to blow up the future to get Phil Kessel and he thought that was it, he went and did it. If he was going to go get the Siddins, he went and did it.

If he was going to make a trade for Chris Pronger, he went or trade him away, he went and did it. I wish more GMs had that element to their game. The league would be a lot more fun if we didn't have so many of these. little timid, risk-averse guys who don't want to get criticized. If he's going to hire Ron Wilson to coach the Maple Leafs, he goes ahead and does it even before he's legally allowed to GM the Maple Leafs. Yeah, exactly.

I believe it was a sequence of events. He's that kind of forward-thinking guy. Baseball things real quick. So Major League Baseball is stealing the Southern Professional Hockey League's idea of having wildcard teams pick their opponents. or division champs picked their opponents, I suppose, also. The Southern Professional Hockey League did this for a couple seasons. I asked their commissioner, he said they're not doing it anymore

because of the travel considerations were too much to deal with, with teams sort of like maybe potentially picking somebody on the fly and then like the next couple days you're all of a sudden playing. I've talked about this idea for a long time. On the one hand, I think teams are boring. And teams will not take the risk of not picking the team that they're seated to play for out of concern that they'll get swept and then someone gets fired because of the decision. But I do think this format is interesting if there is a catastrophic injury that occurs before the playoffs. And let's say you're the, let's say you're Vancouver and you're seated to play, I don't know, like the jet.

And then like Vegas like fucking flurry blows out his knee in the last game of the season. Well, now you might have a decision to make. Now you might actually want to play Vegas because you're going to play Malcolm Subad for seven games. And then your GM picks to play them and you lose the series and everybody wants the GM fired. Like that. Correct. This is why I love this idea the first time I heard it. It may have been from you and Merrick way back when.

I love the idea in theory. And if it works in baseball, awesome. Like the idea of having a selection Sunday show would be crazy. I would love to watch that. It would never work in hockey. I'd just finish saying these GMs are so risk-averse and so terrified of being criticized and doing anything that's going to put them at danger being fired that there is no chance any team would ever go out on a limb and pick anyone other than who there is.

But like Julian Breezebaugh last year when the Lightning lose to the Blue Jackets, he took some criticism. not, he probably would have taken more if he had been on the job longer, but most of it fell on the players, most of it fell on the coach. If they had been supposed to have played the Hurricanes and Julian Breez-Bless said, no, we're going to, instead we're going to play the Blue Jackets and they get swept, he gets fired like the next week. And if he doesn't, every fan for the rest of his career is, like, he's lost everyone.

There's no way, I mean, these GMs have voted themselves. stupid rules and stupid standings that make everyone over 500. Like this entire league is a confidence scam to make 31 GMs look good. There is no chance in hockey that they would ever have this rule that would actually make them. Even though absolutely, there would be times where picking a different team would make you more likely to win, that that's not their priority. Their priority is their own job security and this would be really, really bad for their job security. Yeah. The other baseball thing we should mention is the cheating scandal. The Astros finally met the media at spring training. And their owner said that Jim Crane said that, quote, our opinion is that this didn't impact the game. We had a good team. We won the World Series and we'll leave it at that. So literally saying, I just, what the fuck?

Well, we're going to leave it at that. Yeah. Discussion over. That was, like, two months of this story and, like, they finally sit down to talk to the media and they were, they were awful. Like somebody said on Twitter, like, if only they had somehow known what was coming, they probably would have performed a lot better. But what a, like, what a clown show. Do you think they should have been stripped of their championship for cheating? I don't think you can.

I think that's just a. terrible precedent to say like we're going to open up this door of going back and saying retro. And I know they do it in college sports, but nobody really pays attention to it. I don't like that. I'm sure you could come up with some fictional scenario where I'd have to acknowledge that, yeah, maybe you do got to go back at that point. But I just don't like the idea changing the results of anything. Like once it's done, it's done.

And you can punish moving forward, but to strip championships and that, There's something about that that just makes me worry that once you crack that door open, it can go in some weird places. What about you, Ryan? Would you strip them of their championship? No, I think it's definitely the thing of, you know, old people going like, well, you just put an asterisk on. I think that almost kind of, because like when people would say that about guys who, you know, juice or whatever, Yeah. That's different because it's just one guy. But when a team is institutionally cheating, you know what I mean?

Like that, that's when it becomes more of an argument to me. I personally still don't think I would do it. But like, I now definitely see where you would go, like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Like, the whole fucking team was cheating pretty much the entire year. So. And, like, it wasn't like. some guys knew and some guys didn't. There's no way, you know,

guys were like, damn, we were cheating. That's crazy. So, I mean, you're talking about the steroids thing makes me, I think the reason that MLB wouldn't strip them is because it's hard to believe they're the only team that did this. It's very hard for me to believe that they're the only team that did this.

So what do you do? Do you say there's no champion that year, or do you say like the Dodgers are the champion? But then we find out the Dodgers were doing it. something. Yeah. The way it works in NCAA is you just go, there wasn't a champion that year. What kind of...

Garbage Pro Sports League would have no champion in a given year. Look, I think the only thing, I think the thing you do is you eliminate everyone you think could have been cheating and give it to the team that everyone knows wasn't cheating, which is the Mets. So right there, problem solved. Yeah. Flores. I can see no objection.

Two more things. Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Did anyone play Sonic as a kid? Because I didn't. I was a Nintendo boy. I played a little bit of it. I wasn't a platform guy, but. What was the appeal?

Like, why did you like it? Guy, he was fucking fast. You hear about this? So it's like, it's like if Mario gets the star and it's just like a game of that. Yeah. Yeah, it just like it was, when you really got like a head of steam going on that game, you were whipping through levels at speeds that you would just never experience in a video game before. I'm interested in it by something.

I have a theory about Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm going to test it now. Did you have Hot Wheels when you were a kid? I did not. Okay. That was my theory. Kids with hot wheels that like to make loopy loops with their hot wheels like Sonic the Hedgehog because you make loopy loops in the game. I think it's more kids who had a Sega Genesis.

got Sonic because it came with it. I didn't get to play fucking link to the past. So you played that and you were like, yeah, this is reasonably fun. And then your friend brought over NHL-94 and you were like, oh, let's do this. Ryan, you see every movie. Will you be seeing Sonic the Hedgehog

with Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik? I would say that that's a pretty good bet. Yeah, I'm not, the movie that I'm most likely to see this weekend specifically is the force majeure Oh, damn right. Remake that I'm pretty convinced is going to be bad, but you never know, I guess.

For those of you who are now not afraid of subtitles, because the parasite... Hell, yeah. Go, go watch Force Mujer. It's a comedy classic, in my opinion. Yeah, it's terrific. The movie that he's talking about

is downhill with Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Rifis, where there's an avalanche, rather than protecting his family, the father runs away. in cowardice and it sets off a chain reaction of like two people like reconsidering their relationship

and shit like that it's really really fucking it sounds not funny but it's very funny and very dark really good yeah it's good it started out as a Swedish movie

if I'm not maybe Norwegian but I mean Norwegian from like three or four years ago and then yeah they're they're making it

with yeah Will Ferrell Julia Louis Dreyfus um I think the guy who played Torman Giant Spain on Game of Thrones is repriezing his role from the original from original I don't is Will Ferrell the right guy for that role I think of more of like a like a Paul Giamatti type oh my god that would have been perfect oh yeah fuck all right well I know self-loathing but self-righteous yeah I mean Will Ferrell kind of strikes me as like like

like he'll do a lot of that sort of like squinty-eyed stuff stunned thing. And I don't know. I would recast that. But I'll see the movie because it was also written by the dudes who wrote The Descendants as well. Yes. Joe Raction, Matt Faxon, yes.

Yeah, the George Clooney movie, not the Disney movie where the children of the villains all go to the same school. I thought that was a TV show. That's a movie? Well, it's a TV movie, a lot like all of the great Canadian hockey movies. God. Yes.

Who also probably at some point featured Maleficent's daughter. Last thing, I know Ryan doesn't want to talk about it, but we should mention it. Jeremy Roneck takes to the Twitter airwaves with

a post that says, what a joke two exclamation points, and announces that he is no longer on NBC. Yeah. And does a video which is like quasi, apologetic and like not even apologetic but like

seems to at least be somewhat taking it seriously and you can just picture like the PR person being like okay good I got him to record this video he seems like a sort of a human being and then walking away and on the drive home being like I told him not

to tweet this with some smart ass comment right and sure enough he tweets it out as what a joke to make it very clear that his original video that he did was the PR apology thing. This one, I thought was a bit more of the, you know, I got done wrong and don't worry about me. There was a not too hard to read between the line's subtext of that, but also it could have

been played off as like him, whatever. But then, yeah, when he tweets it out as what a joke, it's very clear that he's not, he's very much playing the victim card and, yeah. I will reiterate. That's how he feels. Yeah. I will reiterate what I've said to many people. The thing he said about Catherine Tappen will get him fired in any company

if it gets taken to HR and they're like, here's what this dude said about his coworker that he works directly with. And said publicly. Like that's the, I mean, that's, right. It's, if you, I don't care that it's a joke. I don't care that they're friends away from, who cares? Like, you just can't say that. But the thing that I think is important here to remember is,

that much like with the Don Cherry situation, you need to follow the money. I don't think they necessarily love Jeremy Roanick on this broadcast. I thought that maybe, you know, when you start to see guys taken out of one role and thrown into another role, it is because they are trying to find a reason to keep him around. And so when Jeremy Roanick goes from the wide-eyed guy who says nothing on the between period show to dressing like a fucking leprechaun and, you know, throwing hatchets or whatever the fuck he does at the outdoor games. It's because they're trying to find a way to use this guy that they're paying. So don't give them a reason to get rid of you is the moral of the story.

If you're Don Cherry, don't say some shit that they will then use to get rid of you and then not have to worry about whether or not you want to come back, which is the real headache for CBC. If you're Jerry Ronic, you know, don't be flipping about your female co-worker and then they won't have a reason to then get you off their fucking payroll, which is what they probably wanted to do anyway. Moral of the story. Yeah. Could be true.

Probably is true. Follow the money. That's what Deep Throat said in all the president's spent. Although, didn't really say it in real life. That was an invention for that great film. That's today's movie fact. All right. Anything else we missed from this jam-packed week? Probably.

Yeah. All right. I bet there is. Oh, well. Too late. Fantastic. All right. That's the show.

If you're in Denver, say hi. I'll be at the Aves game tonight and then, I mean, by the time you hear this, I'll already have been at the Aves game. But I'll be at the stadium series game in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Very excited to, once again, witness and experience the pageantry of our nation's Air Force. You could read my column, the wish list on ESPN.com this week. Oh, with the Olympics. Fuck.

We didn't talk about that. Oh, wow. Yeah, real quick, it's a sham. I was on the side of the NHL for a very long time on the IOC issue. I still am. I want them to get as much as they can out of those crooks and those miscreants that run the Olympics. Which crooks are we talking about? The IOC.

Oh, okay. But when the IOC comes to crawling back and do credit Gary Bettman for saying, we're not going to go, and then not going, and then the IOC seeing a pathetically bad hockey. tournament that were the ratings were trash and no one even cared about it. And then crawling back to the NHL with concessions on travel money and insurance money and loosening the restrictions on on marketing the players and marketing the league. Cudos to Betman. He called their bluff and won that hand. But let's call the NHL's bluff. This shit's not about the Olympics. Using the Olympics to leverage the players to extend the CPA. And the players have a very, very interesting

interesting counter argument here, which is that they can read a fucking calendar. The Olympics are going to happen months before the current CBA expires. There's no reason why this event that happens under the current CBA should affect what happens in the next CBA. It is horseship. It's about leverage. It's all about leverage. Anything that happens between the players in the league is always about leverage. And it's there, there is no partnership here. This is Gary Betman in friends realizing that they can extract concessions from the NHLPA in exchange for them doing something that's in the NHL's best interest anyways. And it's probably going to work.

And I guess credit to them because Gary Betman's good at, you know, squeezing every bit of value out of CBAs that he can. And he's doing it again. But it's very transparent and fans should understand what's happening. And if the PA caves, then because they, really want to go to the Olympics, then fine. But if they don't, do not get suckered in by turning around and blaming the players. Because it got, I mean, this was in my mind always what this was about, but at least there was the IOC stuff.

Once the IOC yanks that carpet out from underneath the owners, it's now very transparent what's happening here. And fans should understand that. But it was always, it was always transparent. Yeah, I would always always was, but now it's really transparent. Like there is no more IOC stuff to point to it. Yeah, Sean's right. I mean, like, at least at one point they could have the cover of, well, the IOSC to take away the funding. But it was part of it.

But now they have no cover. It wasn't really part of it. It was all fucking fake. No, it wasn't all fun. I disagree with you. The IOC pulled the basic funding that they had previously for insurance, for housing, for shit like that. They rolled it back. Like, the NHL had no fucking reason to go.

if they weren't going to get the basic funding they always got. So there was something to that. There was definitely something to that. But now it's transparent. It's a CBA issue. And yet Gary Bettman is going to try to, you know, the players are going to have to give up this and this and this in order to get the league to agree to something that's in that the league should want

and probably at this point secretly does want. And if it works, it works. But if it doesn't work, like I said, don't let yourself get suckered into the way that the league is going to spin this. There you go. All right. So we did think about something that we did talk about. That's very exciting.

Good job out of us. Yeah. So hi to me at the outdoor game, read my column. ESPN of Nice. Me and Emily talked to Willie O'Rea, and it was great. You should check it out. Sign up for the Puck Soup newsletter on the Patreon. Two, three times a week.

Just hockey thoughts and pop culture stuff from me. So check it out. You can find my stuff on The Athletic. I had this week the posts that I kind of already talked about of where I go down the list of excuses that your favorite team's GM is going to make for not making any trades in the next few days and which ones actually have some credibility behind them and which ones decidedly do not. So check that out. And on Friday in the grab bag, we're going to have some fun with some very awkward old NHL commercials. from the 1990s in which the NHL decided the best way to market the sport was by making all their star players look like big jerks

who enjoyed screwing with people. Yeah, it was quite the mix of campaigns. So check that. And also, and they learned their lesson because after the lockout, they decided to not feature the players in a commercial and just have a samurai warrior. Yeah. So that's exciting.

Man, that was so fucking good. Damn, I forgot about that. You're right? Hell yeah. One of the strangest fucking thing. If you haven't seen that, that might be a bonus episode in and of itself. But like, if you've not seen that commercial, go back and find that shit. The best way to get the fans coming back after we cancel the season is by having a samurai who looked like Kirk Muller fucking be in a locker room by himself and reappropriate someone else's culture to sell hockey.

But in their defense, there's no way anyone involved in that commercial knew who Kirk Muller was. So. It's very true. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening to a dumb podcast. Check out the mailbag. Bonus episode with me and Lambert talking about the hockey Oscars and all that good stuff. Thanks for supporting the show, and we'll talk you next week.

Bye. See you. Bye. Bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hage and Nonsense.

Book 2.