Puck Soup - Rock Bottom

Episode Date: October 17, 2019

The boys discuss the lousy starts for the Devils, Stars and Wild, while wondering how real the Oilers are. They also talk Donald Brashear, Jim Hughson's apology, Peter Cech playing hockey and yell at each other about Braden Holtby. Finally, we break down the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame nominations and figure out what 1990s NHL player is Soundgarden. Presented by Seat Geek and The Athletic.

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 Nancet. I'm Greg Wichenski of the Worldwide Leader in Sports ESPN, home of Disney Plus, where you can exclusively find the Apple Dumpling Gang beginning in December. I'm Ryan Lamber from Yahoo. I don't think we have a streaming service.

I'm Sean McAnneux from The Athletic. We probably will have a streaming service by December. That seems like the sort of thing we would just kind of randomly do. So, yeah. And you're in Puck Soup. I hope Richard Deich is listening to this podcast. Oh, wait, no, he would never report on the Athletic. So I was wondering if you boys knew, because I did this as the power.

rankings this week for ESPN, which inexplicably get a lot of traffic, despite being completely arbitrary and more trouble than their worth. Do you guys know what the official team slogan of the Columbus Blue Jackets is this season? Do you want to take a crack at that? I had never heard of this concept until I saw your power rankings. Like, I did, I did not know that any teams had official slogans. No. Yeah, like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a like a. and cry for the season ticket holders. Like, I'm aware of what a slogan is, but I didn't know that every team officially had won that they had. Like, I know we all have these stupid hashtags that we're supposed to use that nobody over the age of 12 ever should.

But I didn't know that they were doing slogans too. So to answer your question, no, I don't know the slogan of any particular team because I didn't know we had them at all. Yeah, no, I figured everybody knew that. Like at some point your team, your local team has had some variation of like hottest team on ice or we melt fucking hockey or some shit. Like there's always some dumb sloganeering that happens. The best one ever was the Bruins had one that was just called, it's called Bruins. And if I remember right, they weren't that good that year. And so anytime, like, they fucked up big time, someone would say, oh, it's called Bruins.

A guy fell down and scored into his own net. I'm going to look this up. Oh, I'm going to look this up. I think, I want to say it was the Tampa Bay Lightning at one point, had a slogan that was just, it was called kick ice. Like, instead of, you know, like the Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Free's version of kick ass. Yeah. I think they had that, which I thought was clever. No. Do you, do you, do you, Ryan, do you want to take a crack at the Columbus Blue Jackets?

Is it not whatever loyalty in all caps and they're like, because of that whole video, is it not that? Out of our blue, we rise. What does that mean? What is out of our. What's the fucking idea what that means? Out of our blue, we rise. So like, blue is in out of our depression or out of our. You know, blue is our battle color.

It's very, it's like such a word salad for, you know, like, the fucking, the fucking, you know, wild is the state of hockey, you know, Coyotes is our pack. Chicago Blackhawks is one goal, aka what Brent C. Brooke and only Mata give up every time they're on the eyes. But out of our blue, we rise is, by the way, I'm not even selling it right. it's out of our blue period we rise period so it's two it's two separate thoughts that can't be right that has to be a typo

yes that is the fucking slogan for the Columbus blue tag I get it's where it's like there's 15 marketing geniuses in a room and that's what they like they took two fucking days 50 people

had to sign off on that via email and made like like there was one person who was like what if we change out of our blue comma we rise to out of our blue period we rise. Hey, I got I got some exciting news to you guys. I found on their official site the explanation. Oh yeah. Here we go. It just says we were super high. No, it says it's a nod to the fact that supporting the blue jackets is unlike anything else in sports. With fans owning a language and a shared history all their own.

What? Oh my God. This is like a copy on a fucking Papa John's box where it's like we take only the finest. You know, like, shut the fun. Like, just say it's pizza. Like, you don't have to. Right.

Oh, my God. As if there's some farm to table restaurant that can't create a fresher pizza than you, then the fucking racist pizza joint. This is like the, it's like the fucking, um, like when you go to look up, look up, recipe online and it starts with a 45 paragraph story about how the person arrived at this recipe and what it means to them and it's like just tell me how much fucking coriander to put in this like I can't dude I that happened to me last night and it happened to me while I was trying to cook

crockpot barbecue chicken where I was simply trying to figure out what setting I had to put my crock pot on you're just going to scroll for eight fucking minutes okay hang on It's a shared language and history. No one has to explain who Leo is or where the canon is for a meetup or why three goals means a chant for Chile. Now, that's all true. I don't know what at least two of those things are. I was going to say, what the fuck is Leo? You know, Leo.

Leo gets. Oh, it's apparently their anthem singer. Cool. All right. Okay. From Bruce Gardner's first goal, that's who scored the first goal in Columbus, Blue Jackets history? Bruce Gardner? Sean, who's Bruce Gardner?

Bruce Gardner, he scored the first goal in Blue Jackets history. I think he's also a former senator. That's the extent of my Bruce Gardner knowledge, and that second part might not be true. Well, as are most. To the historic sweep of Tampa Bay in the spring of 2019, the memories are held in the collective conscious of the city and its fans. There's the goal by Rick Nash. What,

that was one where he went all, he went like, shredded the D and went all. Yeah, right, okay. And Nick Foligno's overtime winner, memories of Jody Shelley and Jared Bull. There you go, Ryan. The classic shit,

Jody Shelley and Jared fucking bowl in your ad copy. Two of the worst players in the league at the time. Dominant victories and OT thrillers. The 2015, all star game. That's, that's without question one of the greatest moments in Blue Jackets history because it was the moment when everybody collectively in the hockey media

decided they hated the fucking canon because it went off like 43 times. There is a civic pride that has become an essential part of living in one of the nation's top communities. Look, it's all true. But out of our blue period, we rise period as a response to

we pushed all our chips in and one around and then everybody left. I mean, I don't know. I feel like there could be better ones than that. I just want to say that as somebody who spent a little over 10 years working in marketing, Ryan's description of how the marketing process works is bang on. Like, he is 100% correct. That is exactly how this stuff gets made.

And, yeah, the VPs and other front, like, high-ranking executives love nothing more than a brand Bible that has just pages and pages of that kind of stuff. So yeah, kudos to whoever got paid a lot of money to write stuff that nobody outside of the Blue Jackets executive office will ever read or care about. Good work. It's, and, you know, anyone who's been in a corporate training seminar understands what we're talking about.

You know, when you, you know, you know, you're the most. creative juice goes into when you're like an internal PR sloganeer is coming up with the acronym for don't steal shit right or don't don't harass your co-workers that's the usually the heaviest lifting it's the harm method humans are really mandatory um so don't touch don't uh try to start a union that's the other thing yeah yeah exactly i i saw I just rewatch the Volter episode of Succession recently because I wanted to kind of see how things the season tied into the finale. And boy, that's a tough set for anybody that's ever – if you've not seen the episode, it's basically the encapsulation of everything that happens now in new media about conglomerates coming in and buying a publication and saying, look, guys, we're on your side. Don't unionize.

We're all going to work this together. we're a family. Family is such a cliche word, but we're a family. And then they just skull fuck them and everybody gets laid off. That sounds about right. So, yeah, it's exactly how it works. All right, so moving on from out of our blue period, we rise period.

Speaking of blue, the devils and the stars and the Minnesota Wild all suck right now. I have to say that I've seen many a thing happen to try to course correct the season, including general managers, was taking over teams, as has happened in New Jersey.

I have not, I can't recall a assistant general manager who used to be in an NHL player comes down to the bench on the request of the head coach allegedly, as is what's happening in New Jersey as we speak with Tom Fitzgerald. Has anyone ever heard of this ship before? It's crazy. I don't think so. Yeah, we kind of, we had like a slack conversation about this, a few of us. and we couldn't remember this specific scenario playing out.

And, yeah, I don't, I mean, I have a hard time imagining it's at the request of the coach. And if it is, that's not necessarily a great sign because I think everybody knows that when somebody from the front office goes behind the bench, the reason they're doing that is because they want to see for themselves who is the problem. And they want to see for themselves which players are actually. putting the work in which ones aren't. It's basically, so if the coach actually did invite this, that implies that the coach is pointing fingers at certain guys that maybe there's resistance from the front office to buy into, and he's basically saying, like, look, you come and see for yourself what it is that I'm

dealing with. And I wonder if the players are going to react well to that sort of thing. But, I mean, it's not going. It's like, again, to go back to Cuba. life, it's like when suddenly one of the executives or some consultant comes in and grabs a desk in the middle of the room. It's like, yeah, I'm just going to hang out here and try to get the vibe of the room. And you're like, you, Narc, we know why you're here. And it's, it's, just keep doing your day like, I'm not even here. Exactly. And yeah, so it's, that's, that's, I mean, I would say that

that's a giveaway that things aren't going well, but I feel like the standings kind of takes care of that for us. I think it's one of those deals where, you know, you realize that you've, your hand has slipped from the wheel and you need somebody now all of a sudden behind the bench to get these guys to pay attention. And when you have somebody from the front office there, now all of a sudden you're maybe a little bit more worried about where you might be living in two months than you would normally be.

Yeah. Because the evaluation process is on. And here's the thing. I don't think that's a positive. Like, I ultimately don't think that's a positive. I think that's just, like, now it's a stress parfe. Like, now you're not winning games and you have this fucker here who could punch your ticket for Ottawa. And now you're really worried.

Well, yeah. I don't know. I always feel like we, I know hockey players are like, as Greg says, they want to be near their stuff and they don't like change and everything. And I'm sure nobody likes being traded. But it always strikes me as weird way. And a bad team where everything is going bad is like, if you don't shape up, you're out of here. And there's got to be some players who are like, yeah, that sounds good. Like, trade me to a contender.

Like, oh, no, please don't trade me away from the New Jersey team that's in last place and has nothing to play for. Like, I, you know, I'm, I don't know how powerful a threat that really is going to be. But yeah, it's such a weird situation because this is the kind of thing you do when, when things are. are bad and clearly they are bad but I like I just keep thinking like Jack Hughes has got to be sitting there like six games into his career going this is the NHL like this is this is what we're doing wow um so they they suck for a couple reasons uh one is uh can't get a save can't get a save but also can't get it of their own zone right yeah and so it doesn't help it becomes this yeah and it becomes sort like they had I think they have the worst shot shot uh

production in the league right now, and it's a function of not being able to get out of their own zone, but at a time they do, they got to go for a change or they're gassed, and they can't even establish any time in the attacking zone. And the inability to get out of their own zone, I think is symbolized by blowing two, three plus goal leads on home ice in the same month,

which is fucking remarkable to then lose the games. So, that's the chief problem. And again, it comes back to the classic conundrum for every fan and every pundit, which is it construction or is it coaching. And I mean, I tend to think it's coaching this time, but maybe I feel like it's probably a little bit of both. You know, again, people like, we're all excited about this devil's team coming into

the season. And it's like, have you seen their depth? Like, they definitely have talent. but that talent's going to come off the ice at some point, you know? And it, like, you know, I think people were very excited about the whole P.K. Suban thing. And, well, you know, yeah, I mean, you know, he's getting killed every time he's on the ice. And, you know, Damon Severson is having just a horrific. I was looking at some stats yesterday and I was like, like, I can't remember off the top of my head now.

but Damon, I just remember being like, oh, Damon Severson, like, maybe shouldn't be in the league right now. Like, that's how bad he's playing. It was, like, I want to say his goal score percentage at five-on-five was in, like, the 20s. It's not good. You know what? It's early. I don't think we should stick a fork in anyone yet, but, man, like, I remember in the offseason, I'm writing about the devils and going, like, this was a 72-point team.

did they really get 25 points better over the offseason? And I had so many Devils fans. I remember at one point I wrote just in passing. I was talking about something else. But I said, you know, the Devils hadn't made the playoffs in something like four out of five years. And I said, and it's likely that they won't make the playoffs this year. And people jumped all over me. They were like, what do you mean?

It's likely that they're not. I'm sorry about that. And I was assured by so many Devils. fans that the goaltending was going to be fine because Corey Schneider had been hurt and when he came back after he was great and he's the old Corey Schneider even though you got to go back like five years at this point to get to vintage old Corey Schneider that it was going to be fine and and to watch it play out now I mean they they can't possibly be as bad as they've looked correct and as far as as the coaching goes I don't know if it's coaching either but I have a feeling we're about

to get an opportunity to find out because I can't imagine this is going to last long and I mean, the whole thing, even more than the playoffs, even more than where they finish in the standings. Like, it just all comes down to Taylor Hall. And is he going to stick around? And how bad can things get before he says, you know what, I'm out of here? Or has he already said that in his own mind? And if so, what do you do now?

I mean, if you're out of it, you have to. to trade him. Yeah, of course. That's for, that's, that's the obvious thing. But even if he's, even if he's still willing to resign, like, like, clearly if you're out of it and he says, I want to be a free agent, you trade him. Yeah. But what if he's still interested?

What if you're still talking? He's, he's going to test the market regardless. And I think he's said that. Like, he, I don't think at any point anybody would be like, oh, yeah, no, they're going to sign Taylor Hall in, like, February. I don't think any, and especially with this start, that's just not going to happen. unless, you know, they get a Craig Barrube-type turnaround or whatever, you know, I would have always expected him to go to July. So the only difference at the end of the day then is the ability to say, you know, eight years versus seven years.

And is that worth the risk of, you know, the prospect and the first round pick you'd get for trading him? I'd say, yeah. I would agree that if you move him, if that's the case, I'm just, that's not the impression I've had. The impression I've had is that they are working awards signing him that he is at least open to that conversation. Although whether this is really open or whether it's kind of the John DeVaris version where he's got one eye on the door and just doesn't want to say that. I don't know. But I have not been under the impression that it's a sure thing that he's going to July or at least that the devils think it's a sure thing. I was when you mentioned Craig Brubi I was briefly concerned that the devils may try to hire Mike yo

but I looked and he's actually an assistant coach in Philadelphia right now so I think we're safe I want to bring up as a sidebar the Elliott Friedman bomb that he decided to drop on Tim and Sid yesterday where he said in no uncertain terms that the Edmonton Oilers would be one of the team's in line to reacquire Taylor Hall if he was on the market. That'd be great. Right? Yeah. Like there's, I mean, there's a, and the question that becomes, you know, with, with

cheerily gone and regime change throughout the front office, you know, has enough changed for Taylor to want to go back? Because there's a lot of fucking water. You're still going to talk to Mark Specter every day, right? Like all these, all these clowns who drove you out of town, like, packed your bags, got you to the airport, like happily, just shived him the entire time he was there. Like, why would you? Not that I don't think he has trade protection.

I don't have cap friendly in front of me. But I don't think he has trade protection, so it's not really up to him. But I... He can't because he hasn't hit UFA yet. Oh, that's true. But yeah, like, you can't, like, the idea that you'd have to fucking go back there and talk to all those people again, like, I would be debit. Like, on the one hand, I guess you'd go, well, I get to be on a power play with

Connor McDavid. That's probably pretty good for the checkbook. Right. But on the other hand, it's just like, yeah, I couldn't, you know, I wouldn't want to go back there after all that. So here's the question. Here's the conspiracy theory. Are the devils waiting for the wild to fire Bruce Bruehreau? They should be if they're not.

Putting, putting band-aids on everything until the wildfire their coach. Like, because part of the issue with the wild, the devil's. and the stars, if any of them make a change, it's like, to whom do you turn? I'm sure there's somebody in the wild organization. You can slide into that gig and, you know, maybe in Dallas, too. In Jersey, there's nobody. Like, they would probably have to go outside the organization to find a new coach

because nobody on their staff and their HL guy just aren't ready for the gig. And I don't know what the answer is because all of the retreads got, jobs this summer. And in October, nobody's going to give up their HL coach or their assistant coach unless they, unless they suck. So it's a real pickle that they're in, on top of having handed out an extension to John Hines. There's always guys out there, though, that if you're talking for a year, like, interim coach to come in, kind of the Willie Desjardin approach, there's always guys

out there. Yeah, but then your choice is Willie Desjardin. Like, you know what I? Like Willie D. Jordan demonstrically bad. But if you feel like things are going into the toilet under the current circumstances, and sometimes you do have to make a change for the sake of a change. And yeah, it might not, you know, maybe you wind up. And I don't know if these guys are even, some of these guys are available. But there's, there's always like a Mark Crawford type or like a Giebusha type or those sorts of guys floating around that you don't even think of until a team hires them. And then you're like, oh, yeah, okay. Hear me out, Ken Hitchcock. What do you think, guys? What do you say? Boy, it'd be really awkward to have Ken Hitchcock there without Lou as a GM. Man, I wish Jack Lamar was... To be clear, I was joking. I don't think that's a good fit. What's Sutter up to these days?

He's working for the Kings or the Dukes. He's working for the Ducks. He's an assistant for the Ducks. And actually, that was a funny story. I talked to Dallas Eakins about that. before the season and he basically said that they came to the conclusion

that this could be a possibility but then he was too afraid to call Daryl Sutter himself so he had Bob Murray do it because Bob Murray knew Daryl from like back in his age. Nice. Like he was too intimidated to be like can you be my assistant coach to Daryl Sutter? Which makes a lot of sense.

The Dallas stars are also off to a really fucking bad start. One six and one a 6.7 shooting shooting percentage and goal-tending that certainly is validating the opinions of one member of this podcast. Very interesting. I mean, much like the devils, I would say they're not nearly this bad in reality, but like it's been a really bad start. And, you know, it's one of those things of, I'm sure we'll talk about some other teams on the opposite end of this later.

but, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, don't buy into the first five, eight, ten games, whatever all these teams have played and just go, you know, they're going to be, nobody thinks the stars are like going to win 15 games this year, but also, you know, these all count just as much as the games in February and March do. Yeah. Yep. And so the thing with Dallas is, you look at the best, bad start. They've played eight games. They have. They've played twice as many games as the Blackhawks.

Like, they're, they're 10% of the way through the season. And so even if, and, like, I think if you're a Dallas fan looking for some optimism, like, there is room to find it. I mean, they're shooting like six and a half percent. On that team, that's not going to continue. Right. You know, like, Joe Pavelski isn't going to continue to do nothing. Jamie Ben isn't going to have two points over a game. Like, these guys are going to heat up. They're going to be better. But even if that happens, like, if, like, what were your expectations if you're a stars fan heading into the season? I don't think anyone thought they were going to be. I saw so much shit this summer of, you know, this could be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

And it's like, I think, I think that is. Yeah, that's like people thought this was going to be a cup contender. I don't think anyone thought they were going to be like an elite president's trophy type team. No. But this was going to be a team that was going to be a valid, get in and make noise kind of team. Cup contender. And in this league, to be a valid cup contender is basically a 100 point team. Okay? There were nine teams last year that had 100 points and I think there were three more that had 99. That's basically the cutoff to get comfortably into the playoffs and be a team that has a good shot.

To at least call yourself a cup contender without anyone roll in their eyes. And if you looked at the Dallas Stars and said, yeah, 100 point team, okay, 10% of the season is done. and they've got three points in the bank. So for them to now be even a hundred point team, the rest of the way they have to play at 110 point pace. Last year, only Tampa played at 110 point pace. There were no 110 point teams other than Tampa, who obviously were well beyond that.

Not Boston, not any of the other teams you would look at, and not Toronto, not Calgary. Like, not any of the teams that would, you would consider elite, could play at 110 point pace. And that's where Dallas has to be now the rest of the year, starting right now, just to get to that, like, even if you think this is a total mirage, and it's just a bunch of slumps and cold starts happening at the same time, they've left themselves a ton of ground.

It's like, there's not a lot of scenarios where they get comfortably into the playoffs. Like, you're now at the point where you're scratching and clawing the rest of, of the year and that wears on you. It's, it's, it's, it's a long way to go. Well, luckily they're in a non-contentative conference. And division. That division stinks too. That's the good news. Yeah. Hey. Pretty easy for them to, like, it does go back to what I said of like, you know, people, and this is also part of the devil's discussion where it's like, they added over the summer for sure. They got, they are better on paper than they were last year. With that having been said, you know, this was a 93 point or whatever it was, 95 point team.

that, you know, they needed 920-something goaltending to get that far. And, yeah, adding Joe Pavelski and, you know, maybe Corey Perry kind of helps you paper over the likely regression on that goaltending, but not to the extent that I think a lot of people expect. And it's the same thing with, you know, even if you thought P.K. Suban was, you know, vintage P.K. Suban instead of the guy who a lot of people were saying, last year, oh, maybe he can't skate anymore. You know, um, it's like, how many points do you think adding vintage P.K.

Suban really gets you, you know, like it isn't an extra, is it an extra, is it? 35. No, no, I meant like in the standings. It's an extra six points. Okay. Well, there's still. Oh, I meant, I meant 35. Yeah.

I mean, you know, the devil saddled really long, the big hill to climb. Um, by the way, thoughts and prayers to, uh, you, the John Klingberg fantasy owner. No shit. He's been. One assist. one assist in eight games in a minus six for John Klingberg, man. And that's a guy that probably was what you figure, like, at least a second

or third round, like maybe like a second round for some people. And the thing is to, like, honestly, if you, if we want to be serious about it, Dallas hasn't been bad defensively. They're not getting the saves, but like the way they've played, especially at five on five, has been fine defensively. And that would, and that is honestly, I like, I would have said that's their concern because even if you like a couple of their defensemen, like their depth there isn't

great. It's the offense that sucks. And that... Am I called... I can just check a stat here, because I want to make sure that I'm reading this correctly. Yeah. Okay. So the devils and the Ottawa senators have yet to score a power play goal this season? What the fuck? Like, it doesn't make sense for the that... That doesn't shock me for the senators, but yeah, that... I only only... I only mentioned, yeah, the devil's don't have a power play goal. I only mention it because the Dallas stars, who you may remember have John Klingberg at the blue line, Tyler Sagan, and Jamie Bannonow, Joe Pavelsi, is allegedly going to score goals off his face.

They're clicking at 4.2%. So, again, there's a lot of stuff going on with Dallas that seems cyclical. Yeah. That can easily boomerang back the other way. If you want to convince yourself that this is just everybody going cold at the same time, I could buy a lot of that. it's just even if that's true and even if you hit the big reset button right now

and it's the real Dallas Star show up starting to you know tomorrow whenever they play next they've got so they've got a long way to go you know in this league even when you're bad you should still be banking points because this stupidly gives points for losing

and they're not even getting that now I'm no mathematician but are you saying that it could work the other way two where the six and one Edmonton Oilers won't be clicking at a 45.5% clip on the powerplay. And the Buffalo Sabres, the 5-1-1 Buffalo Sabres, won't be clicking at a 35.7% on the power play all season. Is that what you're trying to tell me? No, I mean, so with respect to the Oilers, you know, there was a thing over the weekend of, hey, maybe the Oilers are more than just Connor McDavid.

because they're winning all these games and that kind of thing. And it's like, I don't know if you've actually watched the fucking Oilers, but they look terrible the second him and Dryside will come off the ice. And when they're on, they look unbeatable. Karl McDavid right now is on pace for 199 points. Yeah. Is that good? I mean, you know, you get over 200. Maybe it's a little bit better.

But yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, you know, McDavid's plus 14 on the ice and the oilers are minus five when he's off. And, you know, five on five, it's plus five, minus three. Like, you can do this all day. Everything's running through. But I think that minus three, it is, without question, but I think that minus three is the most underrated part of this team. Like, this team should be dog shit when he's not on the ice. But I feel like the thing that we thought could happen.

And I say this not only based on the numbers, but having watched them a little bit, But the thing that we thought could happen with Dave Tippett go in there is happening, which is that they're much more structured defensively. And they're much more responsible in their own zone. Like, you know, part of the equation here on top of the fact that fucking McDavid and Drysaddle have popped off like nobody's business is the fact that they're ninth right now in goals against. I mean, there's something to be said for that. So while I, you know, I'm not ready to, you know, do a victory lap for being able to finally cast a heart vote for Connor McDavid because it's being in the playoffs. Christ. There are some underlying things here that tell you that maybe this isn't going to just be something that fucking disappears within a month with the Oilers.

Like, honestly, there aren't. The reason you could say this is sustainable for the Oilers is you believe Connor McDavid is exactly this fucking good. And he might be, right? He is. Well, I'm saying I don't think he's a 200-point player, but is he 120. It's a start since Mario and Gretzky in the early 90s. Right. And so like, and this is the other thing.

And I wrote about this, I think maybe last week or coming into the sea, or, you know, after two or three games, McDavid and Drysidel are playing insane oh minutes right now, right? And the question becomes for them, like, can they play 24 minutes? I'm going to pull it up here. But at the time, it was like, Drysidl was north at 25 minutes a night and McDade. Yeah. Drysidal is still at 24 and a half and McDavid's at 22 and a half. And, you know, like, can those guys play that kind of workload and keep up this kind of production?

I tend to doubt the latter anyway. They kind of did last year. So, I mean, I guess that would be the counter. Not to this extent, though. But it is. Yeah, it's even more. Right. And I think that's smart, by the way.

Like, that's good coaching to be like, well, if we're going to get outscored when McDavid and, and Drys Eidler off the ice, let's keep them on the ice, you know. Yeah, you know, Mike Babcock would like to have a word. He's pretty sure that like 16 minutes would be the sweet spot for Connemouth. Yeah, he's like, you know what? If it's a close game, I can get him up to like 17 and a half, 18. But other than, yeah. Gotta keep them fresh for game eight.

By the way, the last time Connor McDavid went two games without a point was March 31st and April 2nd of 2018. Yeah, that sounds about right. Like, fucking. He's good. He's fucking bonk. he's so good I mean the thing And like

And not only is he good But like He's one of the few This is why it's such a fucking lament That he's not been in the playoffs Because he's one of the few guys in the NHL That you just You just your mouth is agape when you watch

Yeah that the shit that he does Was Like what the fuck Yeah it's insane Like if he's coming to your town You need to buy a ticket To see Connor McDavid And if you need to buy a ticket

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So there you go. Our friend, Seekek. Sean, you wanted to imagine to think about the senators ending their search for a team president. Yes, this is not huge news, but I just found it amusing because if you remember it was at some point last year. I don't remember how exactly what it was. I think it was in the like February or March. They announced that they were going to hire a president of hockey ops, much like many teams have. Somebody who would come in not be responsible for day to day running of the team. That would still be the GM's job, but would step in and sort of be the face of the franchise.

and responsible for the overall operation of the team. And they put out this press release at the time. And among other things, one of the lines that, and this again is coming directly from the senators, it should come as no surprise that given the scale of our rebuild and the opportunity to be part of a turnaround fueled by an enormous well of young talent, the Ottawa senators have become an attractive destination for hockey executives. executives. Definitely.

That checks out for me. And there were rumors of many big names that potentially would be approached, maybe had been approached. And that was in, I'm looking at it now. That was, that was in late March. And it is now, what, six, seven months later, the Ottawa senators have quietly decided that they're not hiring anyone after all. and they are putting the search on hold at least indefinitely and then might revisit it later. But I don't know.

I don't know what the problem is. I'm assuming that they were just too attractive and there were like so many good candidates that it was like Mr. Burns at the doctor. Like they just were all stuck in the doorway and they couldn't get through. And that was probably the problem. So condolences out there to all. all the big name hockey executives who were desperately looking to go work for Eugene Melnick, but apparently it's not going to happen. Yeah.

I think part of the problem is that on the resume, that question about the health of your liver and in the checkbox that says, would you mind it being harvested, that's also kind of awful. Every interview you have to ask. So, like, you want to get paid? Is that? Yeah, the online form where it said desired salary, and as soon as you clicked on that box and typed any number, it just immediately said thank you and closed down. Jim Husson apologized last night after two weeks of not recognizing the uproar over his offensive output on the ice where Austin Matthews will overshadow or, or a rower. race the off-ice legal foibles that he had in Scottsdale.

He sort of out of the blue last night during the Capitol's Leaves game, apologize on there, which he is good. Had he done a Leaves game since then? Because that's the only thing I can think of. I mean, sure. I don't know, but like... I would imagine he must have because he's the main guy. He's the main guy.

I honestly, you don't know. There's also a billion ways you could have gotten an apology out if you wanted to. Yeah, sure. literally a written statement last night, too. So, I mean, you could have sent it out fucking two days after this shit hit the fan. I mean, it's good that it was acknowledged and it was good that the people that were continually upset that it had been acknowledged after being, like, written about in places like USA Today, finally got to hear from him on this.

It's just bizarre that it took that long. The timing was weird. And, you know, as apologies go, it certainly wasn't the most. most extensive. It wasn't something that that gave the impression that there had been a ton of thought and concern put into it. But at the same time, you know, we've heard some bad apologies. This at least wasn't the, I'm sorry, if you were offended, kind of non-apology. He did, you know, he said, I apologize. He acknowledged. He said it was inappropriate. Yeah. He didn't get into what he had said. So if you were what, if you hadn't, if you weren't up on,

if you hadn't seen it before and you weren't up on the, the controversy, you might be sitting there wondering what he was talking about. But realistically, if you're going to do it during the game, you, you can't expect them to bring the game to a halt so that, so that he can go into it in depth. So, uh, it's, it was just, it was strange to me that it, it took this long, but I guess kudos to him for at least addressing it and not, uh, so that, uh, it was just, it was strange to me that it just letting it fade into nothingness, which up until last night had seemed like what the, what the plan had been. The other off-ice news we should probably mention is the Donald Brashear thing.

This broke this week where was it La Press? The Gazette, I don't fucking, one of those guys in Quebec, ran a story about how people had been taking photographs of Donald Brashear working at a Tim Horton. working like the drive-thru window at a Tim Horton's. It was a former NHL player and I guess a buddy of his owns the place and said that

you know, he's just working there, you know, he's like actually working there and they're seeing how it goes and yada yada yada and you know it was one of those heartening internet things where immediately people kind of stepped up and said,

you know, don't make fun of this shit. Like, for whatever reason he's doing this, it could be just simply, it couldn't be, maybe it's not a situation where he needs the money. Maybe it's a situation where a guy who was busted for drugs earlier this year just needs a little bit of fucking direction in his life. And it was one of those deals where it was like, nice to see, once again,

maybe societies move the ball downfield a little bit and we're not, you know, hair trigger, mock the broken ex-ploid. guy, which is where I think we probably were, where I probably was, to be quite honest to you, about 15 years ago. Yeah. Except that it did still make the newspaper, which I don't know if it needed to be there. And it certainly didn't help that I think the National Post tweeted out the story with a picture of George LaRocque instead of Donald Brescher, which...

Yeah, that's a bit of a problem. Not the best look. You know, Sean, I go back and forth in that because, like, I mean, there is news value to why this occurred, you know? Yeah, but well. But there's a way to do it that's not, the explanation of it is the problem. There's potentially a human interest story there. And if you can get Donald Bashir to sit down and, you know, walk you through where he's at in his life and how he came to this point.

Yeah, that could be interested, especially. as far as the fact that we know a lot of guys, a lot of former enforcers have had very tough times coming out of their jobs. But that's not what this story was. This story was that kind of cheap thing that I hate it when the media does, where something that wouldn't be a story on its own gets to be a story because people on social media are talking about it. So that's what you make the story,

that people on social media are talking about this. And we wouldn't normally make a story out of it, but the fact that the social media is the story. No, it's not. Like, it's do the story if you want to do it, but don't write a story just because some people on Twitter or Facebook are sharing photos and then use that as your news hooked. To me, that's just kind of a cheap way to do a story that you know isn't worth doing, but you still think maybe has some value as far as just bringing eyeballs and attention. I don't like when we do that. Yeah, I think this all kind of like, like,

the way we talk about it now kind of started when the guy who played Elvin on the Cosby show got like photographed working at Trader Joe's or Jeffrey Owens. Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, I mean, you know, got to pay the bill. Like he came out and he wasn't like, oh, this is so humiliating. He was like, yeah, you got to pay the bills between acting gigs sometimes. And that's fine. Like, you know, it's one of those things of maybe you would think royalties from the Cosby show.

You know, one of the most popular TV shows of all time, would set a guy who was on it pretty much its entire run, if I'm remembering right? You know, set them up pretty well, but that's kind of not how it works and that kind of thing. So, yeah, like, you know, we shouldn't be shame. Like, it's the same thing of like, oh, you know, flipping burgers. Like, why do you think you should get paid to $15 an hour to flip burgers or something? It's like, because I got to live, dude. Like, you know, like, it's, it's really that simple. And it's, it's such a missed opportunity, too, because, like, there, there are so many stories that you could write and, and ways you could bring attention to any number of reasons why this happens with Donald Brashear, thinking specifically about, like, the concussion lawsuit and all of the stuff that we started to think about when that went down, all the work that Carcelo has done.

Like, there's, there's, if you had just gone in and fucking sat down with the guy and been like, what's the deal. one, it ends any speculation about what the deal is. And two, it probably ends up being a lot more positive for society than simply like, people on Instagram are fucking posting photos of Donald Bristier handed them timbits. What the fuck? Like, it's just so goddamn lazy. But again, I was really happy to see people step up and be like, don't mock this guy or don't, you know, make them into a joke. So that was good.

I appreciate that. Anyways, Donald Brashear. So, CAPS goaltending. Well, if you want to call it that. Hey, folks, listen. Are we in controversy territory?

Well, I mean, you know, Todd Reardon said just yesterday, it's not a controversy yet or something like that. And it's like, well, I mean, the fact that you're saying yet, kind of implies, yes it is. And the older veteran guy versus the young up-and-cunner obvious future, it's not necessarily all that tough to see where this is going. I was surprised.

I don't know. I, because I went and looked up Brayden Holpey's contract situation, I assumed he had like several years to go. And he doesn't. He's up this year. No. Yep. So it is a situation where, like, normally,

When this happens and it's like, yeah, if your veteran starters got three years left on his deal, you kind of can't necessarily push him out the door. If they think Samson enough's a guy, like, this is the time to find out and the time to do it. He's really doing them a favor by being horrible. Because he's been, like, insofar as, you know, there was a lot of talk over the summer about what are they going to do. They can't, you know, they're not going to be able to bring back both Baxter and Holpby. and you hate to lose both of them or either one of them even, you know, that kind of thing. And now he's making their decision real easy.

Have a good one, Braden. You know, thanks for the cup. Thanks for all the good years. But, like, he's been average at best, apart from the cup run for this is now, you know, into his third season where it's like, oh, he might, he just might not have it anymore, you know? I especially liked The best thing about this whole thing Was that when when Todd Rutan was asked about it this week

His answer was We don't have a goaltending Controversy at this point Yeah that's right This is fucking phenomenal That's phenomenal That's phenomenal Yeah

What coach does Regame from now That's something Yeah Check back Yeah Check back tomorrow That's like tacit

That's like tacit endorsement of, yes, I've been totally fucking thinking about how we're going to have a goaling controversy at some point. Here's my question guys. Fantastic. Braden Holpey to the San Jose Sharks. How do we get this to happen?

Well, you know, it's funny. We were talking, what, last week, the week before about them trading for Jimmy Howard. And it's like, well, Jimmy Howard's cheaper and better. And neither of them have, or... He's not better than Brayden Holpe. Come on.

No? Why don't you check the numbers last two years and get back to me on that. But I feel like if you're the sharks, you want the cup-winning goaltender. Oh, yeah. That's my point. Like, fuck, fucking Ryan, like, Braden the Holpey's postseason numbers are fucking astounding. Like, there's no comparison between him and goddamn Jimmy Howard. Well, first of all, I would point out that Jimmy Howard hasn't really played on a very good team.

Like, oh, yeah, when's the last time I saw Jimmy Howard in the playoffs? Oh, no. But great. So he might be better versus the guy who wins good. He's also $2 million cheaper and doesn't have any trade protection. Well, that's the real issue, isn't it, is the fact that if they're going to do any move for the goaltender, remember the Black Hole and Interstellar? They have to fire Martin Jones and do it. Yeah, for sure. Because they can't do anything with his money. But I would take, I would take Braden Holpey nine out of ten times over Jimmy Howard if you're the sharks,

just by virtue of what you're looking for. 850 this year, Greg. that's Brayden Holby's save percentage. I don't, you know, like... It's not good. But it's five games. It's five games, but he was... But the bigger sample of the last few years has been not...

He was average last year. He was below average the year before that. And so, like, yeah, you know, if it's a toss-up, like, I think Jimmy Howard's maybe the better bet for one season just because he hasn't fallen off a... Like, he's been as average, but, like, Brayden Holpe used to be... elite, you know, and now he is maybe average at best. What I think is interesting is if you're the sharks, let's just say, and you're picking between those two guys, what do you feel like you need?

Do you feel like you need an elite goaltender who can come in and play lights out and give you an edge against Mark Andre Fleury or whoever you're going to run into, in which case I think it's Holpe because a Holpe's got the higher ceiling? Or do you just look at your team and go, we're good enough to win with just solid average good enough goaltending every night, in which case maybe it's Jimmy Howard. It's the less sexy pick, but it gives you the higher floor. I don't know. How about both? Let's get them both on the sharks. Let's make this happen. The bar is set at not Martin Jones or Arundel. So I mean, like, it's not pretty much of a shape percentage than those guys this year.

Yeah. And if you're going to upgrade the goal tent, you have to upgrade it. You can, I mean, obviously anybody pretty much would feel like an improvement, but if you're just shuffling the chairs, there's an opportunity cost to making that trade and moving guys out, prospects, picks, whatever it is, whatever it costs you. Like, if you're going to do it, you're going to have one shot, get it right. I love how, like, we spent the first 15 minutes of this episode being like, don't judge these teams too quickly. There's still time for them to turn it around.

But Braden Colby's cooked after five games. It's been three years, two years. It gets late early. It's been two years And it's definitely also one of those things of like The Jonathan Quick thing where it's like Oh one day goalies over 30 just wake up and they're done You know like there's no like

Jonathan Quick didn't go through a three year decline He just declined like he just fell off a cliff and that was the end of it So and now like you know The thing about Jonathan Quick though that like is not talked about enough is how I mean I think we can maybe say now like how much of that was the system, honestly? Probably a pretty good chunk of it, but I mean, you know, there was,

there was that one year anyway where he was just like lights out for, and granted that was probably seven fucking years ago now. But, you know, like he was, you know, capable, I guess you would say, of like being really good for a long stretch. And, you know, part of that almost certainly was the system. But also now he's, what, 33, 34 years old.

He's been through some serious injuries over the years and you just go, yeah, I mean, look, as recently as the 17-18 season, he was a 920 goalie. And then the next year, 888. And it doesn't look like it's

going to improve right now because the same percentage starts with a 7 currently. So what do you, you know, what you do? Well, what you do is obviously go get yourself a soccer goalie. That's right, yeah. I'm listening.

You wanted to talk about this this week. I did. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy that, you know, grant, like, I think a little too much is probably being made of it, where, you know, he, Peter Check, the legendary Arsenal and, I think, Chelsea goalie, certainly like one of the three greatest goleys of the modern world soccer era, like him, Gigi Buffon, probably Iker Cassius.

are all right up there since whatever, the mid-90s or something like that. And, you know, he's like, well, I'm just going to go be a hockey goalie. I'm 37. Whatever. Why not? Yeah. And, you know, granted, he played, like, I think a little too much is being made of it because he played in, like, a semi-pro English league. So it's not like, but for a guy who seemingly had never put on a pair of skates

until very recently to even do that against, like, semi-pro guys is, I don't know, that's pretty cool for me. Yeah, that's neat. And I didn't, I got to be honest, I don't follow soccer. I had no idea who this guy was. So that's interesting to me that he is that well-known and that established. Like, I'm, this sounds like it's kind of the equivalent of like Henrik Lunkwish just being like, I'm going to go do a different sport.

Henry Gluckus is actually older than this guy, but yeah, sure. Yeah, turning out to be like passably capable at it. That's pretty cool. Is there what, is there a position in any sport that you think you could have played if you had really dedicated yourself to it? No. I feel like if I really wanted to be like a like a, like a, a punter in the NFL, I feel like I could have done it. I have a very powerful lower body. Yeah.

And I think that I could be, it could have been a punter. It's not necessarily a position that requires all that much aerobic athleticism. You just need to be smart and kick the ball. I think I could do it. If I, if I had really tried to dedicate myself, if I treated my body as a temple instead of as a dumpster, I think I probably could have been a punter. I feel like if I absolutely had. rededicated my life, maybe, like, utility infielder in baseball. Like a Mike Diego.

Like a good glove, no bat type of, like, yeah. Like an extremely poor man's rants Mullinix. Like that's, uh, maybe like someone who comes in on, on a double switch. You're the double switch guy. Like a guy, like call up in September to, to sort of give you a little more roster flexibility. feel like that would be my absolute best case scenario peak? I'm going to... Outside of NBA Center, what do you think?

Yeah, I'm going to say NFL lineman. No, honestly, like, it's one of those things of, you know, maybe tennis or something like that, but that's one of those things of like you're going to be picking up a tennis racket at, you know, six years old or something like that. Yeah. Golf seems like another one where it's like, oh, you don't have to be like athletic necessarily. You just have to like develop a really good swing and that kind of thing. But yeah, no, I think the answer to this question is no to all three of us.

I think that I could see, I could see you looking very much like Luke Wilson in the Royal Tenant bombs. Yes, just having a total meltdown. That kind of look. And like the headband and a big beard and you're always wearing your tennis whites around. I will say this. That could have been a future for you. This was a question that we talked about on an old episode of Stick to Sports. But how far back do you think you would have to go?

Like, just based on, you know, how good, say, basketball was in the 1880s or whatever, right? Like, how far back would you have to go before you could be a dominant athlete at, like, the highest level of a sport is maybe the more interesting question than could you have done it in the modern era because the answer is no, right? But like if I'm like, okay, what if we, in football, what if we throw the ball forward? And everybody's like, this guy's a fucking genius of football. You're like in the NHL in 1925 and you're the only guy who can raise the puck. No, exactly. Like that immediately puts you in a, in like an elite category of like, or, you know, just a guy like if you can Euro step.

in basketball of like all these like you know skinny uh five foot nine guys who are like the exact same size as you but but you know don't know how to bounce the ball because because but here's the thing like the part of that equation though I think is um how long could you get away with that that modern wizardry before they ban it like if I went traveled back in time to like the 1950s and started throwing split-fingered fastballs, right? Or some modern pitch. Or pitch like submarine style or whatever. Like how long before Major League Baseball was like,

I'd offer that sorcery, this is banned. Yeah. I think that could easily happen too. Oh, sure. But or, you know, like these guys are Major League Baseball players. They just go, oh, I can't like, I'll, you know, I'll see that pitch 40, 50 times and then I'll know how to knock the dog shit out of it. The fact that it's still coming in at 65 miles an hour.

that's exactly right. That's exactly right. It might work against you. Yeah. But like, do I feel like I could, you know, hit a baseball in 1870 when they're, when they're just kind of lobbing it and the balls all misshaping and stuff like that? And then just leg out a bunch of infield singles? Yeah, I probably could. Yeah.

I was, the only sport I ever, like, played, played was baseball. I don't know if I were talking about this on the show before. We have. I was a pitcher. So, I mean, like, I guess in, but, but again, I left that out of. of the equation of what I could grow up to be because I don't even know how you get to throw over 100 miles an hour. It's crazy.

I don't know how, like, I've tried to throw as hard as I can and, and, you know, develop my arm and ship, but the miles per hour between where I could peak and, like, what those guys throw is fucking insane. And then you see that photo of somebody in full wind up and you're like, oh, okay, their, their body just bends in ways that are not physically possible. Yeah. I stood in there one time against, like, a kid who played, I want to say, like, D2. You know, like, not even like, that's right.

Not even like an elite, elite baseball player or anything like that. And he threw, and I was like, I just want to see how a curveball moves. Like, when you, a good pitcher, throw a curve ball. And I was just like, yeah, how the fuck does anybody hit that? Like, it just, it moves, like, an insane amount. And this is a guy who's not even good. Like, I don't, like, those, those. those gifts on Twitter where it's like, oh, this guy's, you know, like arm slot and release is exactly the same.

But these two pitches end up eight feet apart. And it's like, how, what? Yeah. I was, I was a, I was a decent hitter right up until the ball started hissing on the way by. And then I was like, I'm out. I think, I think that's, that's, we're good. But pitching is, pitching is like a cerebral position. So I think I would do well at a cerebral.

position versus like Jamie Moyer over here. Because yeah exactly Jamie Moyer fucking how about fucking Greg Maddox okay that's like what I was thinking of was a Greg Maddox type but like I I know what my jeans are and I know who my mom is and I know my dad is and like you know my dad once got drunk and fell in a river like that's the level of coordination that the Wyshinsky family has so I know for a fact that I couldn't be a good like quote air quotes athlete but I could probably do a sports thing that's like cerebral and smart.

I would be the cerebral assassin like Hunter Hurst Helmsley. The Triple H man himself. That's right. That's right. Well, it is very difficult to excel at multiple sports, but you know who does?

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will you will not regret it. So again, it's theathletic.com slash soup. Come check it out and learn a ton of stuff about a ton of different sports. Yeah, Grande Latte or all of the sports writing you can handle. It's really a decision you need to make. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released its nomination class for 2019 or 20, I guess 19, right? I don't know. I don't know. When do they go in?

newest one. Yeah, I always get confused by that. Like, I always get confused in Oscar season when the Oscars are, like, in February, like, February. And then, but it's for the movies in the previous year. So is it, like, is February 2020, the 2020 Oscars or the 19, the 2000, you know what I'm saying? I do. Well, I mean, I guess it's like you wouldn't say that the St. Louis Blues were the 2018 Stanley Cup champions, even though that's when the season started. Well, hey, I mean, and, you know, they weren't even.

good in 2018. They had to wait till 2019 before they really kicked in the high gear. So they got Jordan Winnington. That's our go to down this list. You tell me Hall of Fame or not Hall of Fame

for the Rock Roll Hall of Fame. Pat Benatar. Yeah, I saw the songs. That's about it. I don't think so. Not the, I guess before we get going here, criteria for the Rock and roll Hall of Fame. I have to say a body of work that spans decades and discernible influence

on other artists would be my two criteria. Yeah, that sounds good. And we should point out, and I'm never fully clear on this, but the rock and roll Hall of Fame is not just, it's music basically. It's really the, it's really become the music Hall of Fame. There's pop music

and hip-hop and other elements. Right. Like Janet Jackson got in, I think, this year, right? So she's but also Black Cat was a banger. So, I mean, she's kind of rock and roll. Okay, the Dave Matthews band. Here's the thing. I would personally say no. Like, I am not even remotely interested in anything they do. Not in your hall of band. But they're one of the biggest acts out there still. You know what I mean? Like, they sell out stadium. So I kind of think you have to say yes. Yeah, I don't know.

I'll defer, I think, to Ryan on a lot of these in terms of my musical knowledge. Yeah, but they kind of, Dave Matthew, they sort of give off like a Bernie for Durko vibe to me. So I don't know. Way to punt the hacky sack back to us, Sean. I would say, I would say rock and roll hall of fame because I do think, one, they obviously sold a ton of records. but I also think that they might pass the influence test because, you know, like, would there be a, remember in the 90s and like, like, rusted root showed up in bands like that, that sort of aped the sort of jangly, fiddly, guitary thing of the Dave Matthews band,

that sort of crunchy pop alterate? Yeah. I think that they were influential enough where they should be in the rock. Roll Hall of Fame for the fiddle, because they had a fiddle as well. Right. Put just the fiddler in the hall and that's it. And also for that time,

their tour bus dumped a bunch of shit on people as it was driving by. Remember that story? Yes, of course. Yes. Definitely. Let's be honest, rock and roll behavior has to be part of the equation too. And your tour bus dumping a bunch of shit on people.

Well, that's, I mean, it's not having sex with somebody with a shark. but it does, you know, get at least to a seven on that scale. Depeche Mode. Easy, yes. Very influential. Again, I'm not really a fan, but they're super influential. So what are you going to do? And also sort of era spanning, too.

When they came up, it was the, I just can't get enough kind of dance poppy stuff. And then, like, we get to personal Jesus. Influential. Yeah, I would put Depeche. I was actually a little bit. surprised they weren't already in because they've been around for, uh, no, quite quite a while. But yeah, I put them in. Mm-hmm.

The Doobie Brothers, is that taking it to the streets? Was that the Doobie Brothers? I, you know, that's one of those things where it's like there's a lot of bands with the brothers in there that I'm not really sure which one is which, but. So, so named after, after a joint. So that's pretty good. Uh, I don't know if this. I don't know if either of you saw this, but they were essential to a two-part episode of the TV show What's Happening?

Yes, of course. The rerun, yeah. Rerun was paid by some nefarious dudes hanging out at the cafe to take a recording device to the Doobie Brothers concert and do a bootleg. I don't know if this is just the technology at the time or not. but he took a tape recorder basically the size of a toaster oven. Yeah, and he put it in his jacket. Yes, we were. And he put it in his jacket.

And the music was so good that he couldn't stop dancing. He did the rerun dance. And then at one point, he did the rerun dance. And at one point, the toaster oven size tape recorder fell to the floor. And the Doobie Brothers, like, stopped playing. Yes. Because they noticed that he was recording the show. So, obviously, all right.

Based on that. Well, I mean, more important to me, there's an episode of The Simpsons where there's a wedding band and they say, Who Here likes the Doobie Brothers because we got one of them and he like waves. Fun. He plays on Can I Borrow a Feeling, the Kirk Van Houten classic. Well, why didn't we lead with that? I don't know. If Bernie Frederico, or if Dave Matthews is Bernie Ferdurco, I think the Doobie Brothers are like the Roji Vichon, where you're like, what have they done in the last 20 years that change?

It puts them in now. Like, this was a 70s band, right? Like, if they're not in now, why in 2019? They did what a fool believes, I think. Yes. Taking it to the streets, like Greg said, I can't think of another Doobie Brothers song, but they're also not really my whole thing. To the streets.

That was, I think that was them. Whitney Houston. Easy. Oh, slam dunk, first ballad. Yeah, not even a question. Mm-hmm. RAP, by that we should try to say as well on that one. Judas Priest.

I would say they're cool as hell, but maybe not Hall of Fame material. It's the thing of can you tell the story of rock and roll without Judas Priest? And I think it's pretty easy that you can. Oh, that's a great criteria as well. I also thought that like of that era of sort of metal, like to me, iron made. Yeah, there's certainly a poor man, iron maiden in that way, for sure. Yeah, then Judas Priest.

Judas Priest was notable because Rob Halford came out, and that was why people were like, oh, Jesus Priest. But no, I don't think they're a Hall of Famer. Sean, you seem like someone who might have had a leather jacket at one point. What did you think of Judas Priest? I didn't, but I very briefly did have one Judas Priest CD that I acquired from a friend,

and I think I left it in conspicuous places to try to shock my parents, and they were like, yeah, whatever. So not my type of music, not really my type of music, but yeah, cool as hell. I'll agree with the right on that. Not a Hall of Fame or apparently, though. Craftwork, easy Hall of Fame, because I've read so many music reviews that reference craftwork that I just assumed that they're very influential. Again, not a thing I have any familiarity with, again, except the German guy who gets all

of the Nazi paintings at the end of Abe Simpson and the Flying Hellfish or whatever. whatever, says he has to leave to go to a craftwork concert. So, you know, there's my reference for that band. Yeah, I feel like I may have gone through a brief craftwork phase, and I don't recall any of it. But, yeah, they were definitely, definitely a name you keep hearing. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's like, it's like when you read a film review and you're like obviously influenced by

German director of Flippefla, and you're just like, oh, obviously this German German director must be pretty fucking good if, you know, they just keep on referencing this person's work. Right. Yeah, exactly. MC5. I did not know who this was. Sure. Yeah, couldn't tell you one of their songs, but I do know that they were involved with the Black Panther Party, so they are in. Okay.

They're cool. I got to double check something on MC5 real quick. Because I think, yeah, they're the band. So they're the band that did kick out the jams. They're a band of Detroit, and kick out the jams is a great tune. Wikipedia refers to them as a proto-punk band. So that would tell you that they are like... Influential in the punk realm.

Yeah, the band from which all punk bands came from, if they're proto-pun. Yeah, and like, you know, like the more, I guess because of their involvement with the Black Panthers, I guess you would also say... Like, that's the only reason I know who they are. But I guess you would say... They also were a pretty political band, and this is probably the late 60s, so they're mad about Vietnam and stuff like that. So, like, again, you know, very, very influential in that way to be openly talking about how that stuff is all beds. But, again, I couldn't tell you, I couldn't have told you one of their songs, so it's a no for me. Well, you've convinced me because, like, any band that played Wakanda sounds like it's a pretty...

White Panther part. Oh, you mean the other? Oh, the other, the cool ones. Those black. Gotcha. Motorhead. Easy in. Should have been in already.

The fact that they're not is a crime. RIP Lemmy. You don't, yeah, you don't even need to tell me anything other than just show somebody the live version of time to play the game from whatever WrestleMania that was. Let's put it this way. They are so fucking good that they made. a wrestling theme song that is played in every arena ever. They made a wrestling theme song. For a guy who's not even maybe the fourth most popular wrestler in the history of WWF slash E,

and people are like, this song's so fucking good, we have to play it in arenas. That's so cool. That's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh, my God. Motorhead's so good. But bastards, one of the great metal records of all time. Ace of Spades. Incredible.

Ace of Spades. I mean, the song is obviously great. But the whole record is awesome. Oh, man. Moorhead's so good. Damn. And they're a band who they put out, they're a lot like ACDC where they weren't doing a lot different from, you know, whatever, 1972 to Lemmy's death.

But it was all cool. You know? And like, like, I wouldn't say there are too many bad motorhead records. There's maybe one or two, but they were a band since from the early 70s to the late 2010. Sean, it sounds like you have a motorhead. You know what? I was never, I was never a motorhead guy. But I will say this.

Here's my controversial motorhead take. The Triple H theme song is overrated as a wrestling theme song. Wrong. As a wrestling theme song. It is just okay. But the band itself is great. Yeah, put them in. I want them to get in because I want that to then pave the way for other wrestling theme song artists to get in.

Like the fake rage against machine should be in the Hall of Fame. Absolutely. Are we talking about Connecticut Yankee right now? Is that you that? Of course I know the name of the fake. Are you ready? Of course I do. Yes, Connecticut Yankee.

Rock and Roll Hall Hall of the same song and each one was better than the last. The Xbox version, the Mike Tyson version, which was just them, them screaming Xbox to begin the song is all I remember about that version of it. They were all the run DMC version was also excellent. There should be a separate wing just for DX theme songs. The DX theme, a wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Jesus. You can go see the tank they wrote in on, you know, that one time.

It's all good. Nine-inch nails, I mean, come on. This is fucking, like, skip the waiting period. It's silly that they're not in already. Like, it's been a few years now. Like, the, the, yeah, I don't, I don't get that. This is, like, one of my personal favorite bands of all time. But, like, this is, this is one of the very few bands where I'm like, yeah, I've got

every album, I got it. I don't, I don't get how that's how, how, you tell you how Trent Reznor isn't first ballot, however you want to, because I mean, this is a guy who not only did, was Nine Inch Nails incredibly influential, uh, of both good bands and some really terrible ones. Uh, he was like on the cover of every magazine for five straight years, uh, back in the 90s. And, but since then has like gone, like, was part of revolutionizing. Isn't he an Academy Award winner? He's an Oscar winner. Like he has won Oscars.

He was like the first major guy to do a video game soundtrack back way before anybody would think. He did quick, right? He was like he just every now and then gets bored and just goes and screws around and wins an Oscar. Like it's, it's. And what's the best nine inch nail song? That's right. It's the Johnny Cash song. So.

Yes. I have to say, though, I think the Rock and Roll Hall of theme is like the WWE Hall of Fame where you can get in multiple times. So I don't think that like Trent Reznor would get in as like film composer Trent Resner. I think it's just his body of work as not with. Exactly. And, you know, because because of the weird nature of what Nine Ish Neal's was as a band,

whether you want to like the fact that, you know, I know with other bands you might go, well, the fact that this guy did this in the solo. It's the same guy. Like it's, he is the band. The band is him. Yeah. Yeah, I don't understand why he's not in already. Yeah, he's an incredibly influential band.

Think about all the bands in the 90s in the 90s that wouldn't have existed without 90s snails. We would have never gotten filter. Yes, we would have never got. Stabbing Westwood. That was the one I was trying to think of. Stabbing Westward would never. What would they have had to do? Here's the most 90s thing I can say on this point.

podcast today. I went to a stabbing Westward and Spunge show at the 930 club. Awesome. Awesome. Oh, it's great. Um, the notorious BIG. Not really need to discuss it. Just, there's, I mean, the man, the man has become a painting posthumously. So, Torres BIG. Rufus featuring Shaka Khan. Now, never. No one who played the NHL Awards can possibly be in the rock and roll hall of fame. You can play. the winner class it could be in the rock and roll hall of fame but if you play the n hl awards did put the cup upside down though so yeah yeah was that the shakakon i think it was oh it was deaf leopard but as they were on the same show that's what it was they got deaf leper

and chaka con for the n hl awards one year oh shit is deaf leopard in the rock and roll you know i don't know did they break my rule i'm gonna find out right now but yeah no no chaka con for god's Yeah, they're in. Wow. Okay. Oh, my God. So there you go. My rule's been violated already.

Well, in Christ, if death leopard's in, then literally everybody on this list should be in. Like, come on, man. Todd Rungren. Washington Capitol's head coach. Easy yes. Yeah, exactly. He said there's no goal of controversy at this point. Don't understand why Todd Rungrin's not already in the hall of thing.

What a fucking bizarre thing that is? Soundgarden. No. Not even the fourth best band that do what Soundgarden did. Like, come on. Yeah, I, I, this, Soundgarden is like one of those, Soundgarden, since I'm doing weird hockey comparisons and, and the timeline, Soundgarden is kind of like the Jeremy Ronic,

where like at the time you're like, yeah, for sure. And then you look back and you're like, maybe not. It's, like, Soundgarden was for a couple of years, they're very, very, I'll push back. Like, Jeremy Roneck was extraordinarily popular. And I never think Soundgarden was an extraordinary. There is no way they haven't sold 50 million records. But Pearl Jam was Jeremy Roneck.

No, Pearl Jam was fucking popular on that level. In that scenario. Like, believe me, I think Pearl Jam sucks. But, you know, like, they're just like so far, so far beyond. Fucking. All right. Now we're fult. We're tumbling down the rabbit hole.

Pearl Jam's Gretzky, Nirvana's Mario. So Soundgarden would be Roanick? Like who was like the popular, like, would Green Day? Green Day's not grunge, though. And by the way, Green Day also in the Hall of Fame. So that kind of blows your NHL theory right out of the water. Well, no, they did the awards, though. That's true.

They did the other stuff. Yeah, just the shitty theme song for the season. and from their album everyday motherfuckers or whatever it is. Nine-inch nails is Peter Forsberg. I would say, you know, perfect. Maybe the Smashing Pumpkins areonic. Like super popular. And then got weird later to the point that you kind of disavow.

And they got weird later, right? No, I didn't. No, you got a tattoo. No, no, no. That's just. I'm going to say Soundgarden is Joe Sackick. How dare it was a first ballot Hall of Famer, right? That's easy.

It was easy. Who was the player that was well respected for their abilities, but maybe not necessarily on the same level as the immortals of their era in the 1990s? And then who's that guy? Jeremy Roneck. Yeah. That's it, man. I'm not fine. You're not moving me off this one.

I just don't think that like Soundgarden had the Geneseecois. quah that a Jeremy Roanick had to make that comparison from like a personality standpoint. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Who cares? Grunge is stupid. Who's mud, honey? It's a guy who never really put it together. Alexander Digg. T-Rex. Why isn't T-Rex in the Rockwell Hall of Fame?

That's like, I just think of them as like the indie rock band. You know what I mean? Like just from a, All of T. Here's what I know about T-Rex. They made Banga Gong, which is fucking in a mortal rock and roll track. And they were referenced in all the young dudes, which is another immortal rock and roll track. So, like, if you're good enough to make an all-time classic and you're so good that you're referenced in an all-time classic. Yeah, like, glam rock straight up doesn't exist without T-Rex. You know what I mean?

Right. So you can say, like, you know, everything from like the New York dolls to like a lot. lot of bowie stuff. It just doesn't fucking happen without the new, without T-Rex. So, yeah, I mean, they should be in already. It's insane that they're not. You, you, you, you tacitly endorsing the, uh, induction of T-Rex is probably the most predictable thing that's out on this podcast.

I wouldn't even say tacit, just outright endorsing. Yeah. Up next Velociraptor. Oh, they're in. Overrated. Finally, uh, Thill-L-Y-Sy. Of course, it's the boys are back in town. Which, by the way, I realize that song is now like an internet meme.

That song kicks ass on its own. That is a great song. Don't get your stupid names away from it. But like jailbreak. Yes. So good. Cowboys song. So now I'm just naming songs off jailbreak, I guess.

But like, Killer on the Loose is fucking great. Trying to think of other really good. It's no lot more Thin Lizzie song. Yeah, Thin Lizzie's cool. Get into him, dude. Oh, well, I'm way behind on the fucking Thin Lizzie train. I can tell it up. All right.

So I think we inducted like 14 acts into the... It's going to be a crowded class. I was just... I don't know if there's like class restrictions like there are in the NHL where you're going to put four people in, but I think we've inducted at least 17 people. That's okay. That's fine. All right.

That is a Puck Suit for this week. Never complain again about us not doing pop culture. Just give you fucking half an hour on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Which, by the way, I've never been to it. I've never been to a rock and I will never go. I actually have, like a while ago. This was like a mid-90s thing, I think. Like my family was doing one of those kind of road trips and we stocked for a day in Cleveland

and went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was cool. It was, yeah. I liked it a lot. And if you're ever in Cleveland in like 1995, I definitely recommend checking it out. I have no idea what it's like now. Yeah. Is it better than Planet Hollywood? Yes. From what I understand, it's like a big, really cool where it's like, oh, here's like eight prince jumpsuits. And here's the original lyrics like, you know, on legal pad to the night they drove old Dixie down. Like you're just going through and you're like, I can't believe I'm fucking.

and looking at that, but that's wild. And it's cool stuff. And then if I remember it right, like it's very much like any cut up museum or Hall of Fame you've been in. But then there's, it like leads you into this final room, which is like the,

where the honored and duck, and like that room is like very dark and quiet. And it just, it's a very cool experience. Because everything up until then is loud and flashy. And then like you suddenly walk in and you just feel like you're in this like temple of, of these,

all of these musicians. So it's, yeah, it was, I was like either a teenager or like early 20s or whatever. And like in my cynical, nothing is actually cool phase. And it was pretty cool.

I liked it. I can't believe there's not actually a physical WWE Hall of Fame. Like they've, I don't even know if they've ever thought about building it or not. Yeah. I feel like that, I feel like that'd be such a cool fucking place. Yeah, but where do you put it?

I mean, he's going to Stanford to visit the. That's the issue. Yeah, you need to put it some. The perfect place. to put it, it would be like Minneapolis, to be quick, candid. But, you know, that's a good point. And also, I wonder, I also wonder how much stuff the WWE has and how much stuff has been sold.

Yep. To collectors by the wrestlers themselves. No, for sure. Like, it'd be tough to collect all that. It would be like, oh, here's, you know, here's the turnbuckle that, that, you know, was in WrestleMania 3 or whatever it is. You know, here is Hulk Hogan's tights from WrestleMania 6 when we fought the ultimate. be legitimate and real. It would just all be

Carnie and fake and half the guys wouldn't be in because Vince was mad at them that day and just, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, like, you know, here's the skeleton of Damien from the Damian from WrestleMania 7. You know what I mean? Like, here's this stuff to Matilda, the original.

Exactly, let's go. Some twisted wrestling bodies exhibit where that's the skeletal remains of all this It's just, here's Frankie. Frankie and Matilda, all these stuff there. And then you get to the end and it's like, is that Virgil? And it's just him sitting there at a little autograph table that he's brought himself and he's not supposed to be there. All right.

I mean, you convince me. I want this to happen. I mean, it would be so cool. And, yeah, like, you know, it would be nothing but carny shit. And that's exactly what I would want and expect from a wrestling hall of fame. But, like, there should also be one independent of the, of WWE that, like, you know, honors, I don't know, the great muda or whatever, like Antonio

Anaki. Yeah. Put that shit in Japan. There we go. That's right. If it was in the Tokyo Dome, it would be five stars. All right, that's Puck's soup for this week. Our thanks to nobody. We had no guest.

Our thanks to your sponsors. Thanks to you, the listeners, for signing up a few more of you for the Patreon to hear what was a really, really fun episode. all 31 franchises and just talked about our favorite guys. Basically, like, who are your favorite players in the history of each franchise? And it's a lot of storytelling and it's a lot of fun and one of the better bonus episodes you've ever done.

So it's on the Patreon now. And the mailbag for this week will be there too. So there you go. I'm Greg from ESPN. You can find my stuff on ESPN.com. Power rankings out this week. My column this week, eventually when it gets up, because I sent it in really late, was what's the worst fancy stat?

Maybe that's something we could talk about next week. And I got a lot of our friends in the analytics community to opine on that. So do you check that out when it hits. What about you, boys? Sign up for the Puck Soup newsletter. I write it every Saturday, except I think, you know, one Saturday a month where me and me and Sean Gentilly will bring back the aforementioned stick to sport. And like I said, that'll be once a month.

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