Puck Soup - Ryan Lambert Returns

Episode Date: November 30, 2018

The boys are back, and they have Ryan Lambert of Yahoo Sports with them to talk about the recent coaching changes, the firing of Ron Hextall in Philadelphia, the future for Joel Quenneville, Lozo's reaction to Scott Darling being waived, the NJ Christmas lights controversy, using hockey pucks to stop mass shootings and how to see more Winter Classic tickets. Presented by Robinhood and Seat Geek!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. I'm Greg Wichinsky of ESPN. I'm Dave Lozo, also of ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert from Yahoo. And you're in Puck Soup with Ryan Lambert.

Oh my goodness! Thank you. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. What brings you to our fair city, Massachusetts. I don't think that's what the Nomenclatured. Massachusetts. White person? Now we're talking. All right. I am here because I like that band The Hold Steady. And every year, the week after Thanksgiving, they play a run of four shows in Brooklyn, and I go to all of them. Would you consider their performance over the years to be steady?

Oh, man. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They're holding steady. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah.

Did you ever have hold music when you're calling a corporation that was the hold study? Because that'd be pretty great. You know, we're not hold for the, you know, like you're waiting for the cable. They're like, for English, press one. Bienvenitos, Matador, best two. Matador. Anyway, you ever hear that hold music that's like, it's a song about being on hold? It's a country song.

Have you guys heard this when you sit on a conference call? Look it up on YouTube. if you want to hear the worst song ever. It's insanely bad, and I have to listen to it all the time. Most of my conference call memories are people mispronouncing Steve Wino's last name, as we know. And also people who refuse to put their phones on mute when they are on a conference call, and it's like, we know, we're announcing our biggest trade of all-tone. Could someone please mute their phone?

Yeah, why do people like love not having normal ringtones only when they're in front? press conferences. You know what I mean? It's never like like, it's always like brass pananza or something like that. Is it really? It is, yeah. Do you have a ringtone right now?

No, I keep my phone on silent. I'm a grown-up. Yes. I don't. Sometimes I can't tell if the phone is vibrating in my pocket because I also keep a vibrator in there at all times. So I have the one that's like the twinkly one that I don't go exploring on what they are.

So I know the one that it's just the normal one. So when your phone vibrates, you don't know it? Sometimes I'm, well, it's not so much when it's in my pocket, then I kind of know it, right? Because I actually tuck it under my, under, under my balls usually. And so it's undeniable when it vibrates. It's the safest place here in New York. But when it's like on the table next to me, sometimes when it's, like, on the table next to me, sometimes I won't hear it vibrate.

And as you know, boys, I'm constantly getting inquiries from Canadian media to be on their radio shows. Winnipeg, Hamilton, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, a lot of other places. Medicine hat. Medicine hat. Sure. Home with the medicine hat. Tigers. Sure.

Yeah, it's the Tigers. We all know that. We didn't do a show last week, so we'll get to the stuff that we missed last week. But I guess we should probably open the show with the breaking news today. Which is that Dave Lozo's cause, his hope, his dream. You know, I imagine he started screaming to the heavens like Obi-Wan when Anakin turned to the dark side when he saw this happen. Well, you've got to see a second movie, man.

You really do. Scott Darling, demoted through waivers. Technically, he hasn't been placed on waivers as of yet. Okay. So they could come to their senses and realize what a bad idea that is and hang on to him. Speaking of holding steady, he's holding steady at 885, folks. I believe it's 893.

For those who don't remember, and apparently based on my Twitter replies, a lot of people do remember, you once said that the Chicago Blackhawks chose the wrong goaltender, that they should have kept Scott Darling. That's true. Now in the American Hockey League. Not in the American Hockey League, actually. He could get claimed, just saying. That's fucking waivers. That's how it works.

Scott Darling truther. Okay, that's fine. On waivers, they should have kept him and jettisoned Corey Crawford is what you thought would be the thing they should do. Was Corey Crawford say percentage right now? It's also not good. Yeah. I don't think. Just saying. I guess I hadn't looked in a minute.

Brian, I need you to be a, you know, a bit of an objective observer here. Sure. Say you're starting a team. All things being equal, not talking salaries or contracts, that sort of thing. Would you start it with Corey Crawford or Scott Darlane? Well, Greg, I'm going to do what I love to do and go with the Cups argument. And which one can better cover that Anna Kendrick song from Bits Perfect? Oh, boy.

That's a blank look. It's the second movie. Yeah, you should be very proud of me. He's going great. Actually, it's like the cups in the canteeno when Han is attempting to die. Or the cups in Amperu's cupboard that has the blue milk at the beginning of Star Wars. Yeah, we've all seen that movie. but no like

I guess the obvious answer like if salary isn't an issue or whatever obviously the answer is Corey Crawford Thank you. But there's a caveat? Salary turns out is an issue in the NHL. They have a salary cap now and he makes $6 million and he's

$32 I want to say and I think he's signed for another three years and maybe two, might be four. Something like that. It's something like that. And that's not to say the Scott Darling contract is good because it's quite bad. Scott Darlane contract would be the one that you're referring to in which the Carolina Hurricane signed a career backup barely NHLer to a four-year deal with an average annual value of $4.75 million.

Yeah, that's bad. I mean, let's word it this way. They can both be bad contracts, right? Like, I'm not saying Chicago should have. I thought it was a good gamble for Carolina. it didn't work out. And like, no, it definitely, unless you want to say the fact that they got sketchy a thought out of the deal is.

I don't even know if at the time I thought it was a good gamble. Oh, I see what you're saying. I mean, I just don't, I mean, I'd have to go back and look. All I know is that I didn't put him over like you did. You were basically his fucking publicity agent, you know, throughout his tenure in Carolina. You were always convinced it was all going to turn around. And now. Now, I never know, because they gave up on him after nine games.

Nine games in here, too. That's when you give up on the guy. Sub-Macklehaney goalie. Yeah. Exactly. Look, Carolina is going to rue the day when Charlotte Checkers

raise the Calder Cup in a few months. When Scott Darling is at Center Ice with the rest of the checkers doing the big slow clap and then run out of the glass. I'm sure they do that down there too. Are they still doing that, by the way? Yeah, they are.

I thought they changed it and were like mixing it. Oh, no, no. They do mix it up, I think. But, I mean, they're still doing a celebration because Brian Burke and his Don Cherry audition said that he, Yeah, I don't like when they do a celebration. I don't like when they go out.

Oh, did he do. Like it in Canada? He does it almost every week now, yeah. Yeah, his whole thing was... I like the clapping. I like the center ice thing. I don't like the everything. It's Bush League.

Just fucking stupid. Man, can't figure out why this game can't grow. Yeah, right. Can't figure it out. No. But you know what? I'm just saying that just because Scott Darling had a bad season in nine games doesn't make me wrong.

It makes the Carolina Hurricanes wrong for quitting. Giving up on them too soon? giving up on him too soon. Gotcha. Just saying. Yep. Hey. You know, there's always a second chapter to be written here in the National Hockey League.

Look at Yaroslav Halak. Many people probably wrote him off after leaving Montreal. He's had several chapters to his book written. Look at him now in Boston. Better than Tuka Rass. He's a really good goalie. I know. And always has been.

I think he had like two bad years in St. Louis or something like that. It wasn't good in St. Louis. I think it was fine most of the time. But there he's no. Allen. Well, who is, right? That's right. I had a guy when I said Jake Allen was bad a couple weeks ago. I was like, he's like 963 in his last three games. Wow, three. Yeah, all three of them. The interesting thing from Blues fans this year is the perception's been like, the defense in front of

them has been really bad, and it's not all his fault this time. And I'm like, I'm willing to entertain that idea, but at the end of the day, like, make a fucking save. Well, and it's the other thing of like, that's, also on Armstrong because they have two really good defensemen in Patrangelo and Pareko and then like who's their third defenseman?

I can't remember off the top of my head but their bottom is like Beaumister Edmondson and somebody else who's also not good and if half your defense coming into the season isn't good and like everybody knows that doesn't that seem like a problem? I can't give you too much shit for Scott Darling

because I'm team Matt Murray I was all about Matt Murray's into it I was team, Doug Armstrong built a good team, and maybe the team's not that good. I mean, I was team, Doug Armstrong, built a good team, but I lost the team Doug Armstrong. He was way too much in love with his bad goalie. Like, it has to be a situation where Marty Brodor at one point said to Doug Armstrong, and he's like, hey, is this guy good? And Marty's like, maybe.

He's like, all right, sold. Yeah. We're never getting rid of him. He's got the endorsement. Yeah, no, it really, like, I thought they did a lot of good stuff this summer. But they didn't add to their defense. Yeah. And they, who's even their backup?

Right. Oh, Chad Johnson. That was part of the summer acquisitions, which we're going to be. Yeah, okay. Because like, if the whole point of letting Carter Hutton go is like, we don't want to have a 1-1-A thing. And then you're bringing Chad Johnson, you're like, all right, you're the B. Give me a, give me a B that's going to be able to at least save the fucking day if your, if your A guy flames out as Jake Allen's done yet again this year. Yeah, but you can't, but then, but then you have a one-1-A situation again.

And then you're meaning that guy is not the guy, which is what they should have done anyway. What I love is, like, in sports, is like, you need to always make sure your backup isn't that good. So he doesn't threaten the starter because the starter can't possibly have that. Well, it's like Greg just said about Yaroslav Halak. He's better than Tuka Rask. And it's like, they've both been pretty goddamn good this season, right? Like, I don't, again, I don't have the number of Greg has a computer, but... I do.

I'm very learned. But here's the thing. Our expectations of what goaltending are... What goaltending is in the NHL and what quality goaltending is in the NHL, how to change. As of right now, okay, as of right now, I believe 17 teams in the NHL are at a 900 or worse in a team say a percentage. It's funny, I didn't set them up for this at all. I wrote about this like this morning. No way! I really did. On Yahoo Sports Not Puck Daddy Blod? That's correct. Wow. Like, and the reason I didn't set them up for this. I didn't. You're a great talk show guest.

We didn't even talk about this in the green room, but. Yeah. And it's a good. It's a lot. It's, It's the Nathan for you episode where he wants to tell the perfect talk show. Oh, God, that's such a great episode. Oh, that's good. Were you an eighth of you guy? Yeah, he was fine. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah, you need to get back on that.

The first thing he did was that thing where it was like a fake video of like a lamb saving a pig in a zoo. Yeah, I do. And it was the most obviously fake stage video ever. And two months later, it was like, oh, this is something that was done and you didn't know it. I'm like, I mean, the vast majority of people did. know it. Like, yeah.

It's just, I mean, I don't know. But dumb Starbucks, that was, that was the calling card. I like, I like the one where he,

there's like a mom and pop electronic store. Yeah. With the alligator. One dollar TV. Yeah, one dollar TV bit. The,

the, the, dumb Starbucks was great. The one that really hooked me, though, honestly, the one where he did the gas rebate one. That's a classic.

He had to go on like a three-day-long hike in order to get the gas rebate at the top of a mountain. Yep. Yep. That one, and the other one, and the other one, he shamed the people who cut the line at Pink's hot dogs by bringing all the people who they cut in line on a boat to confront them.

Yeah. Because he went to Pink's and he said, you'll get more business if you can, if you give people who have a good excuse. Right. A reason, like, let them cut the line if they have a good excuse. Right. And they're like, people. I did see that. People are coming with doctors notes or whatever, but one guy said like he had to.

It was like a woman in her daughter or something. Yeah. And they lied about it. And they lied, and he had, like, a private eye follow them. And then, like, lured them onto a boat where they were confronted about it. Dude, that's... Anyway, point is... Oh, yeah, save percentage.

Save percentage. The reason why is goalies are facing more shots now. Goalies have a lower medium-danger save percentage than, like, a much lower medium-danger save percentage. Now, why is that? Shot quality? Well, there's more high and... medium-danger shots like a little bit, but I think it's because the pads are smaller. You think it's the equipment change? I do. Because it, because a high danger-safe percentage

hasn't changed. Right. And so you're in close to a goalie. He's big, no matter how big the pads are. And if you're a little farther out, you have an extra couple inches above the shoulder, above the-to-clar-to-clify for those who don't know, what is it there between low, medium, and high? High, I imagine. You make the save-h. And then there's a cobra next to you. That's right. High's like right around the crease. Yes. Medium is, like, you know, the home plate area they call it. Like a 36 waist. Okay, come on.

We're trying to, this guy. I'm trying to have a conversation here. I know, right? Anyway, how about Harvey Danger? Is that flagpole? It's the stuff in the flagpole. I always get him, like, or used to always get him confused with PJ Harvey. I always get him confused with PJ Harvey.

And so when people would be like, oh, PJ Harvey's a genius, I'd be like, what? You know what I, but, I used to get him confused with Hartley. Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. I always thought it was Harvey Danger, Attorney at Law, an adult swim. Yeah, it wasn't, though. We were both wrong about who Harvey Danger was. So, low would be from, like, the red line. Like the blue line, or like along the boards and stuff like that. Yeah. You dump it in and hit some, yeah. That's low. Yeah. Okay. And that safe percentage hasn't really changed much on. Medium, though. Medium is way lower. Right. So if Scott Garling were to have, like, two good games in early, it probably be that average safe percentage.

Well, I mean, that's the trick with save percentage, right? It's like one day it could look horrible. You have two good games and then all of a sudden. Mark Andre Fleur is the classic example where he was horrible to start the year. He's had like four good games in a row and now he looks pretty good. Like if you look at his full season's safe percentage, you're like, he's not bad. But I mean, like, I think we're at a point. Like, Buffalo is a good example.

So Buffalo right now, their state percentage on the season is 916. It's pretty good, right? Yeah. But at the end of the day, I think it'll regress. And all you're looking for, from their goalies is be competent. Don't fuck up. Yeah.

To me, to me, be league average. The NHL right now is a don't fuck up league. You're not looking to guys to carry you because there's very few guys that can do that anymore. You just want competent. Give me a chance to fucking win because we're going to score four goals a game. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I agree. You know, I think Carter Hutton's save percentage right now is like 936 or something like that or in its last five games or whatever it is because they're on this streak. But like, they're just stopping a ton.

And like 916 is. way above the league average right now because there's so many teams that are in like the 890s. Yeah. So, yeah, like if you can be league... Like, I think 915 is probably just like the max league average you could possibly have.

Yeah. And so like if you're going to be around that for your team, that's good. So when we look at a goalie that has like a say percentage of 895 now, do we have to readjust? Do we have to readjust like we did during the trap years where like save percentages were ridiculous and we're like, well, that's kind of inflated. Do we now have to look at an 895 and say,

that's the normal. Like, that's a guy who's doing okay, even though he said 900. No, you have to wave that guy immediately after. Apparently. No, like, I think you just have to look at it relative to the league average. Like if it's whatever, 14 points below, I think it's 909 right now. If it's 14 points below the league average, that's bad.

That's a problem. Right. So the blues, because their goaltending sucked and their defense sucked, and also half the roster is not playing well, fired Mike Yo when we were, we didn't do the show last week. So they fired Mike Yo. They hired Craig Bruby. This was your classic, this is an NHL thing through and through.

Get rid of the hard ass and bring in the players coach. Bring in the guy that everybody likes and get rid of that fucking military motherfucker. Everybody hated. And so far it's not worked. So far, they're still shitty. So what do you do now? You view the Blues. Tank.

Blow it up? Absolutely. They did it last year. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they didn't tank. They traded Stazney. Well, right. I mean, what were they?

Like, two points out of the playoffs? Yeah, fuck it. And them and the Rangers were the ones that were like, yeah, we're going to go in a different direction. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah. They're not, I mean, they're not, I don't know where they stand. I mean, like, they can't be close to a playoff spot. Oh, well, they traded their first round pick, right?

They don't have their first round pick this year. I'm going to, I'm going to. Did they really? I think so. I think that was part of the deal. Well, no, I think it's lottery protected. Oh, is it? I thought I read something where it was like.

St. Louis's 2019 first round pick. ends up being a top 10 pick. The Blues have the option to keep the pick. So they traded the one in the O'Reilly trade. Yeah. But it's lottery protected. Okay. So that's pretty smart.

Yeah. Other teams, not so smart. That team, pretty smart. So good on them. But yeah, I mean, if you're willing to give up on your season when you're four points out of the playoffs, you should probably be willing to give up on your season. When you're 16 points out of the play. The question that becomes, like, clearly they have to come up with another solution and goal.

And is that solution? Does that end up being them giving a fucking? money to Vibroski to come in? Like, what do you do? Why would Sergey Ravrovsky sign with them? Don't you know? Don't you know? Maybe. Russians love Russians. And also, don't you know that St. Louis people were delusional enough to think the fucking Tavares was going to sign there? They believe

everybody wants to go to St. Louis. That's true. I forgot. Fried Raviole, my friend. It's the great equalizer in this league. Toasted Raviole. Motherfucker, I remember. You did it every time. I did it wrong. I'm sorry. I remember it's Proval pizza, but I couldn't remember it was fried to be fair. To be fair. It's ravioli. It's toasted, it's fried. I'm eating it. Yeah.

Sounds great. I'm in. Depends of what's inside, my friend. What's inside? Yeah. I don't need love these Russian they have to maybe make it parogis. Oh.

That's right. Well, then in that case, I love a damn parogi. That's why all the Russians are going to come here for Veselka, the Ukrainian 24-hour diner in the East Village. Have you ever been there? Why would I have ever been to a 24-hour Ukrainian?

I don't live in New York. Well, you know what? Only in New York, baby. There's a good Chipotle probably right around that and check out. though. You know, the thing is is that sometimes sometimes you've got to go to the 24-hour diner and get parogis for dinner because he might not have enough scratch to go to one of those high-end restaurants. But I do know a way to get some more scratch, to maybe live a better life, to maybe go to 11 Madison Park instead of, you know, buying dinner at that hot dog stand.

Sell your plasma. What is it? No. Close. Okay. It's through the investment. The investment stuff. And you use Robin Hood to get that investment. stuff going. It's an investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks. Are you familiar with stocks? Sure. Okay. How's your portfolio looking? Great. Yeah. I'm very diversified

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That robin hood.com to get your investments going and the money flowing. Dave Lozo. That was well done. Also fired Todd McClellan while we were gone. Replaced by Human Hail Mary Pass, Ken Hitchcock. Yeah. I give Hitch credit. Because I feel like if I was at his age, I've won a cup, probably made some good money.

I'd be living in, like, Florida, you know, somewhere warm. And he's just like, you know what? I want to keep doing this and I want to keep doing it in Edmonton with a team that's not going anywhere. Good for him. Listen, I don't think Peter T or L. you should have a job at this point. That's crazy. But you've got to give the man credit for getting the only motherfucker in the world that could save that guy's job.

Like Ken Hitchcock already is doing that Ken Hitchcock thing where like the defense is exponentially better and they're winning tighter games and they're climbing up the standings. Like he's sprinkling that magic pixie dust. I don't know where he keeps it. But he's sprinkling it all over that team and they're doing the thing that Ken Hitchcock teams do in short order. And another coach in this league that could do that. Yeah, no, for sure. But the thing is is that like, Joel Quenville. Right.

Maybe. Maybe. But would Joel Klenville have turned around the defense? Slickety Split. Like Ken Hitch, that's just what he does. Sure. Right. But here's the thing is that what's the next step?

Are you going to bring Ken Hitchcock back in perpetuity? No. You can't. I don't. I think it's a one-year fix. No, I agree. Yeah, no, he's just trying to make the playoffs once so he can be like, okay, that buys me three years.

I can go out, I can throw a bunch of money at Joel Quenville or somebody else. And, you know, hopefully you just ride out the rest of this Luchich contract before they come. to my office with pitchforks and torches. Like, it was funny because I saw Frank Sarajevoly reported today, like, or maybe last night that Camp Talbot might be available in trade. Because they're like, oh, we have something here with Miko Koskenen. Right.

And, you know, okay, sure. The Luchich Derby begins in earnest as well. No, I, I, that's the issue. Look, I thought that Edmonton was going to make the playoffs anyway, right? I thought the goaltending was going to be good enough to get him in. And now the Pacific looks like a piece of shit. I'm even more confident to that. But again, the next step is the old man,

the only gave him a one-year contract that said, we're going to figure out, we're all going to figure out what's going to happen after the year. And to me, it's kind of like he comes here, he gets him in the playoffs, he saved Chi Raleigh's job, then he takes that sweet, fat consulting fee from the whalers that he was getting from the Dallas Stars. Yeah.

I don't think he would keep coaching. I think he's got the fire in his belly. I mean, look at him. He just loves the coach. He will go anywhere in coach. I just, I think if it's successful and he gets to the playoffs, it would also be weird for Peter Shirley to be like, all right, thanks, see you. I don't think it's up to him.

I think it's up to Hitchcockers wants to do it. Yeah, for sure. I don't know, but I think Hitch, he has a hoodie that says hockey on it. That's how much he loves hockey. He looks like a, what else can this guy do when you look like, do you look that much like a coach? Right, it's either he's coaching. I mean, like, yeah, he could do the consulting thing, I guess. I just think he loves coaching.

Like, to your point, he didn't like being the, consulted in Dallas. So he wanted to get back into coaching. Yeah. I just think it's a fucking miracle that she really is the guy who actually might have put this thing together and it wasn't like all the hockey candidate guys and ex-oilers in the front office being like, we need a favor, Hitch. Well, in much the same way that when they drafted McDavid and they were like,

now guys are going to want to come play here, it's the same thing. Hey, Ken, you want to coach the best player in the world and make you look like a fucking genius? Oh, sure, I'll be on the first flight. Like, it's not a hard sell. You know, that's interesting. You bring that up. I don't think it's been really mentioned enough that the guy who got drafted that people wanted to play with was actually Austin Matthews. Right, yeah.

Right. Well, now it's Mitch Marner. And I don't know. God damn. They talked about Mitch Marner in the Hall of Fame. They did it in Toronto this week. Wait, wait, time out. Do you mean putting him in or people inside the Hall of Fame talked about him in the Hall of Fame?

No, I'm talking about an actual conversation on Spine. Sports Night Radio was if Mitch Marner continues to do the thing he's done for all of a season. A year and a quarter. He will get into the Hall of Fame. They said he was like the fifth best forward ever drafted fourth overall.

Because that's the criteria. That's the criteria. Well, it's definitely the thing of, you know, awesome. Like the question is, is Mitch Marner now one of the best players, if not the best player in the league? And it's like, you said two weeks ago. Right.

Yeah. Austin Matthews was better than calling. And he was going to score 60 before he got hurt. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, because Matthews was hurt for a little while and Marner didn't stop scoring. Well, now Marlon is his best player in the league.

It warms my heart. You know it does. You know, since the beginning of time, I've said, the way this is going to play out, which is they're going to not win the cup. And then they're going to have to be like, there's going to be someone to blame. Now, it might be the Swedish kid after he signs because they all hate him now because he's greedy. Yeah. Because all he wants is, you know, his slice of the fucking pie that they're loading up with whipped cream and fruit and all kinds of shit to give to Martin and Matthews.

I was just going to, like, if he looks at, okay, well, what's Patrick Marlowe make? I should make more than that, right? Right. Right. Right. I'm way better than him. But like, but like, it's definitely going to be a situation where Matthews gets the majority of the blame for whatever happens. And it doesn't matter what is before. Well, him and Marner are both. going to get Tavares money. That's...

Right. But, like, when they don't win, Martyr is going to be off the hook, Tavares is going to be off the hook, and it's all going to be on... Why can't Austin Matthews score 17 goals in a series? Right.

You know, if they had scored that 17th goal, they would have beaten the lightning. No, they're going to blame John Tavares. I disagree. No way. Favorite son? Olympian. Maybe not, like,

maybe three years from now they start blaming Tavar's, but... Not this season, yeah. If, like, say the Leafs don't win the cup between now and, like, the fifth lockout. Right, one, two, three, four, five. Then, yeah, they'll probably blame John's number.

Oh, but you know, Johnny Tavares, that's Mitch Marner's running mate, my friend. Austin Matthews has got to make himself his own Mitch Marner. John Tavares. I always wonder who this voice is. It's the Canadian voice that says the boys in the pond playing their hockey, drinking their cocoa, going home to mum and telling him her tales of Mitch Marner. Oh, they're going to blame Freddie Anderson. That's who they'll blame.

They'll find the way to put it on him. I know they're going to win. They're going to clearly win the Cup within the next three years. It's hockey, man. Yeah, like the Capitals won the Cup last year. They were like the third best team in their own division. They won the Cup. Everyone gave up on the Capitals last year.

This year, the Sabres added Carter Hutton, Jeff Skipper, and Ross Miss Daline, and now they have, as we're recording this, the best record in hockey. No one knows. I know. And listen, what's already, the main, the main, that's already occurring in Toronto, like if you could kind of turn up the heat on that burner to the temperature of gone three years

without winning a cup despite having Tavares, Matthews and Marner and whatever defensemen they bring in, and Babcock, like, I want to see psychologically what that looks like. Aren't you curious? Oh, yeah. It's going to make Phil Kessel loves hot dogs with like a fucking nice complimention and Instagram caption. and this is what's going to be in the fucking water in that place

if they don't win a cup with those guys. I think Matthews was smart to do like the GQ cover or whatever this year, right? Like, because if he does it, like, they don't win the cup and he does it next summer, oh, it's over. Right. Because then he'll also have the big money. Yeah. And gave us the Vince Vaughness M. Bison photo that will forever be on my refrigerator.

Yes. Here's the other thing they're going to do. What's that? Like, Austin Matthews has hurt all the time. Oh, he's too fragile. He's not tough enough. Yeah. That'll be a thing, too.

Yeah, and we're all like, uh, wait, he's actually the modern day Peter Forsburg. Like, nope, nope, fragile. Can't hang with the lakes of the Ironman, Mitchell Marner. Maybe if he took care of himself more and didn't do fashion shoots. That's right. Then the Leafs could have won the cup. Perhaps if he didn't grow up eating hatched chilies, and you eat more maple syrup and bear claws like Mitchell Marner, he'd be healthier.

Dead boy. Are Barclas? Canadian? Damn right, they are. Isn't that like a universal? Beaver Tales. Beaver tails. That's what you're going for. Okay.

Maple syrup and beaver tape. All this misidentified food on the podcast from noted foodie, Greg. What was the other mis-sad? Oh, toasted ravioli? Ah, because I don't care. Yeah, so anyway, Ken Hitchcock's then again in the playoffs and then they'll have to figure out something. Yeah, that's all that. Maybe they can hire Mike Yode or replace some next season.

No. Why would you do? Like, here's the code. He hasn't been fired yet. I can't understand. Randy Carlisle. His team is. dog shit. Like, Gibson has dragged that team to respectability.

Yeah, but like... He's not a good coach. His team isn't dog shit. They play like dog shit because of the way he coaches them. Yes. The systems they play. It's like you're agreeing and disagreeing with each other to the same exact time. Are we now best friends? No. Like, from a possession standpoint, that team is in the toilet. Yeah. But they have the personnel that can win. They should fucking fire him by the end of this podcast and bring up Dallas Eakins to take over the team. Yes. Yeah.

Exactly. 100%. There you go. Join us for the next edition of Wyshinsky v. Lambert when we agree on something else. Great. This is great. You're like furiously agreeing with each other. We kissed passionately.

Also, Ron Hextall got fired since the last podcast. Yeah, that's crazy. I feel like it's, I think you disagree, but I was. Yes. He inherited such a bad situation. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And it's like, I don't know.

I felt like he was always in a situation where he was never going to work out for him. but what do you mean in one sense like the hole was so i don't think people really appreciate how deep the hole was how deep the hole was with like that you know andrew macdonald is still still on that team yeah yeah much like st louis the bottom three guys on their defense is just like that guy's still in the league in fairness though the person who signed andrew mcdonald that person's not in the position of power anymore no no franchise is he oh what's it what's the job title he's like probably president of

He's got to be president of something or rather, yeah. No, my take is that, and to bring up our friend Frank Sarajevoie again, I kind of agree with what he said this week, which is that on the one hand, you don't like to see ownership meddling, and Ron Hextall was doing an admirable job building the team. On the other hand, there is something to be said for looking at the core of this team, looking at the age of the core, and saying enough with the fucking Tortoise and the Hair Act, start trading away assets and make this team good.

And I would say I'm about 70% on the side of make this team good now and 30% on the side of he was doing a pretty good job and maybe let the plan play out. I mean, I read something I think it was on the athletic this week where it's like Flyers fans should take a lot of pride in the fact that they never tanked. They are always trying to make the playoffs no matter what. And it's like, I mean. That was, was it was Charlie O'Connor? Probably was, Charlie.

Yeah. And like, the, we're not the penguins lament about how we do it the right way and all they do is end up with Mary Lou Amue and Cindy Crosby. Right.

Three cops. And Balkan and, yeah. 10 years and areas. But like, so, okay, let's say that's, you want to, like, your mandate from ownership is we're going forward every year,

but you also have to build through the draft. I think he, the only thing that he could have done differently because of what he was saddled with is maybe, maybe sign a fucking goalie, like one goalie. Yeah.

You know, like, they signed Brian Elliott after he's dog shit in Calgary. Yeah. And everybody's like, uh, like, nobody thought that was a good sign. Yeah, and like, Norway Vereth has always been kind of like a B-level goalie. I mean, his numbers have been actually pretty good in Philly, but like, by no means is he even in consideration to be a number one anywhere. Like, like, they needed that Gruberrae trade. Yeah.

That's 100%. I literally said that to a Flyers fan who was like, well, who were they supposed to get? And I was like, I don't know, Gru Bowler. Yeah, like they... The problem is you can't trade in a division probably. Yeah. You can't give a first round pick to... That's what they gave up.

Yeah, yeah. You can't give a first round pick to the guys that just won the cup and are in your division. Right, and then you'd have to probably pay the medical fees of all the Flyers fans that would have heart attacks and I saw that Brooks Warpick got traded to the Flyers even for a minute. But like, yeah, that's the kind of goal they needed to acquire. If you're going to... Even as a stop gap. Even if you believe Carter Hart's the guy, like you bring in a better quality stopgap.

Like, it's like trying to use a fucking napkin as a band-aid. Right. You know? There's a little guy on the UFA market who gets $1.8 million every summer. Yeah. I don't know. So that's my thing with the Flyers is like they probably. Darcy Kemper would have made that team better.

I might not go that far, but. I'll go that far. It couldn't have hurt to try at this point. It couldn't have heard to try. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Best goalie on the roster is Ron Hexel. Thanks.

It might not be wrong. That's the problem. As we do this podcast, we don't know who the next GM's going to be. The wind is blowing the way of Chuck Fletcher. That's the name that keeps popping up. Obviously, it ties to the penguins. He was there, you know, before he got hired away to the wild. He was there when the Wild signed Paris.

and Souter because he's, if nothing else, bold. And that's what the Flyers is looking for, bold. And according to Adrian Dater, he also is very close friends with Joel Quenville. And I've said since the beginning, when Hextall was fired, I said, if the end result of this is that Joel Quenville looks at that team and says, you know, they got all the money that I need to get, plus they're going to get a go out of goaltender, so I'm going to go over there and coach that corridor cup, then it's a brilliant move. Well, sure, but now every team in the league is like, now what if we got Joel Quinn? Like, literally, like, four teams are not thinking that right now. And also, who are the four teams that don't need to Joel Quinnville? Toronto?

I would say Toronto isn't going to be in the market for a coach. Boston's probably not going to be in the market for a coach anytime soon. Yeah, I would agree with that. You would probably say... Oh, Nashville. Nashville. Right. You would probably say Tampa, right?

Well, you never know. No, no, no. I would say Winnipeg before Tampa. Really? Paul Maurice? Yeah. Oh, totally. I think, I think based on what that roster, hold on, based on what that... Based on what that roster is right now and how much money they have committed to

Stamcoats, Kuthorov, Bictana, Hedman, Redmond, Rade Point, yada, yada, as they sign point eventually. Like, the stakes are extraordinarily high, and I don't think Cooper is going to get fired. I'm hoping they win the cup, so, like, Stamcoast gets his ring and all that shit. But, like, you could totally see a situation where it doesn't work out this year. They get eliminated in the second round, and they're pulling up Joel Quenville to come coach the team. Sure, yeah. I mean, but, like, that would be, I think, probably kind of a lateral move. Just they're two very high-end coaches, you know?

And, like... But Joel Quinville has won the Stanley Cup. And as you know, if you've won the Stanley Cup, see Peter T. Rely, you're a genius. Yeah. Wait, were we off when Joel Quentonovil was doing the shots in the parking lot? Yeah, I think we were. Yeah, I was pretty...

See that? I think I could coach my team. Kew! Yeah, he seems chill. Kuhotsky? Absolutely, I got nowhere to be. All those stories about he's a hard ass, but also he gives the players a lot of days off, so they all like them.

Like, that sounds great, you know? And you really can't argue with his success, like, even apart from the Cups. I think we were off, because my favorite thing was the Oilers wanted to hire Kwendville, but he was wandering around the parking. A lot of Soldier feel with his phone with no batteries. They couldn't get in touch with him. So the iron is cock instead. Oh, wait, going back to the flyers, the core that they're going to coach.

Like, how old's Drew at this point? 30, 31. But no, that's what I mean. Like, straight while the Aaron's hot. I mean, they have two years. They have two years to win a cup. And they're not going to. I think they should say, I think they should trade Wade Simmons.

I agree with that. And listen, I don't know what the solution is in goal. I mean, the solution and goal is at least two years away. And this is putting a lot of faith that Carter Hart's not going to be, you know, impacted by the fucking curse that affects every goalie. Those AHL numbers that don't look great. They don't look great. And then you're going to bring them up,

and all of a sudden you're going to get another fucking judgment situation or some shit. I understand that. I understand it's the flyers. But you get a goalie in there, and I think that this team is very... And this is why I bought the Dean Lombardi thing. I thought that he would be an interesting fit

because they're basically where the kings were. It's like they had this very good core. They don't have a goalie, so it's not exactly the same thing. But like, make your Mike Richards trade. Make your fucking Jeff Card to trade. Who are they giving up, though? Like, I know they have, like, good prospects or whatever, but who wants Samuel Morin, right? Like, I don't know.

Like, why would you push it all in at this point? Why wouldn't you trade Gossusberg? Because he's fucking good, and he's, like, 24 years old. You're saying that because you like his college career. Oh, he was really good in college. But also, like, he's just a good defenseman. Like, I know people are like, oh. Imagine the bounty you could get if you chose to trade a puck-moving defenseman of that age.

Imagine the battle. Oh, yeah. And, you know, that's the kind of thing. The Oilers are like, oh, man, if only we have. had really good winger. Like, you don't trade from your one position or one and a half position of strength to be like, what if we got a second line forward

for this 24-hour cost control? Like, Shane Gosser Spare for Leon Drysidal and can't top it. Make the deal. They can't take on that kind of money. Who? Philompson. Flyers don't have their room.

Oh, that's easy. Then you trade Wayne Simmons or something. He just clear it all out. Sure. So wait. So are you? you clearing out or are you going all in? What are you doing? You're going in. So Joel Quentville is going to come there.

Yep. You figure he's going to sign a five-year deal. Yep. For like six and a half million minimum. Maybe seven. But only for those three years in the beginning. For a dollar more than whatever Babcock's making. Right. Yeah. Like after those two years of the beginning, though, when that's the window in your mind for the Flyers to win a cup, apparently. By the way. The last three years is he's going to be like...

By the way. By the way, let's be honest here. He goes to Philadelphia. Corey Crawford's their goalie. The only way that anybody in the Chicago, Law. Waving their no trade clause to play with Joel Cunville. You could end up with Cory Crawford on that team. You could end up with Jonathan Taves on that team. Patrick Kane.

Oh, that wouldn't go that far. Brent Seabrook, you get out and you get the whole band back together. What's the salary cap in your mind when Joel Quenville? Well, as you know, hockey-related revenue is forever increasing. It's a bounty for all teams, Dave. Uh-huh. Yeah. Listen, when Joel Quenville takes over in Philadelphia.

When he takes over the blue. Lose, the Flyers. He's just going to coach 19. That's the future of hockey. You're going to want to be there for the night that Quenville is coaching. Taves is centering the second line with Nolan Patrick as his winger. You want to be there for all of it. And there's only one way to make sure you're going to be there.

And that's with our friends. Hallucinations. Oh, C geek. Very smooth. You know, getting tickets online can be very complicated, Ryan Lambert, with hundreds of sites and varying levels of reliability. It's hard to do hub a, hubba, hubba, hubba, money, money, money. who do you trust? That's why Seekkeek

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to theater. I took the little one, Vivian, and Ruby, to a devil's game against the Islanders. It wasn't a very good game of the Devils. They lost to the Islanders. But he used Seekkeek to find some kick-ad. seats because I went to the dark green circle in the upper deck and said show me these tickets and they said sir

this is a good deal. I should also inform everybody on the podcast that Vivian wanted to get a name on the back of her jersey and it ended up being Ben Lovejoy because she liked the name Lovejoy. Okay. Yeah. And you didn't try to talk her out of him. Well I...

You got a Taylor Hall slapped on the back there. You have to understand it's it was the third level of the shit parfe at that point. She said, Daddy, I want to get my name on the back of the jersey. I'm like, what do you mean? She said, I want to get Vivian. Like, you can't get Vivian on the back of the devil's jersey.

She goes, well, then maybe I can get Wyshinsky Jr. I said, first of all, you're not a Wichenski Jr. Right? Second of all, no. So I said, wait a period. And see if there's somebody on the devils that you like, that you can get the name on the back of the jersey. And then she said, I want love joy.

I'm like, why he's not very good? She's like, because I love his name. and I'm like, that's good enough. It's a real person who plays hockey. It's not fucking Wichenski Jr. So we'll just go with that. Best of all, listeners to Puck Soup can get $10 off their first Z-Kkeek purchase. Just download the Seek app today.

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rebate and such. So yeah, so that's Philly. We're caught up. Oh, let's talk about some teams. Coblchalk and Los Angeles. Endgame that they're just going to make him play three minutes a night until he says, oh great, trade me. Is that what's happening now with him, this poor bastard? Oh, it's, man, that Willie Desjard end quote, did you see this? I didn't see the quote. Where he was like, okay, sure. I'm making, he's not a fourth line forward. Like, that's not. That's not what his skill set is. I'm making him play to his weaknesses. But what do you want for me?

I'm just the interim coach or whatever. It was an astonishing quote where it's just like, yeah, sure, I'm fucking up big time. But what do you want me to do? I'm Willie Tashardin. Why is that every coach's thing? Target the best player on the team and make an example of him. Or he's rushing too, Dave.

I don't know if you can do this. Or in Dave Quinn's case, just bench the guy you used to coach in college. like he did with Chattankirk when he got to the Rangers. Right? That was a thing that he did. Dave Haskol and Gossus Bear. This is like every coach is like...

It's the equivalent of beating up the biggest guy in the prison yard when you get to jail, right? Is bench the best player you can to make you an example out of him? No, it would be like beating up the one person in jail that wants to help you. Hey, I like to be your friend. Somebody's... Boom! Somebody passing you a shank in a nail file and he's like,

bam! This guy's trying to give me a shank and a nail file! So, listen, Colvichuk, I interviewed him in September. He's really happy to be in Los Angeles. His family is living in Beverly Hills. I think they, the whole shit about like, oh, we can win a cup with LA. It's horseshit. He just wants to live in Los Angeles.

Sure. I think it's going to be really interesting to see what the end game is here. Because he has a three-year deal. That's insane. Like, yeah, he's 35. I would love it for it to be kind of an office-based situation where they keep on demoting him and demoting him and playing him a minute or night, and he's just like, I don't care, you know, and have a real face off with the team.

But at some point, once Joel Quintill is the coach, that it'll all get taken care of. If I was to fantasy cast Colvichuk somewhere, it'd be Carolina. Boston. Why Boston? Because they need a second line left wing? And they went after him hard this year. So, like, they obviously like him, but he chose L.A., and now if you can, like, get him for, a salary dump or something like that.

You know, the Bruins, another team with like a maybe two-year window before Patrice Bergeron just breaks every bone in his body and Zadano Chara turns 50. I like Boston. I mean, I see him, I like him as a mentor in Carolina, you know. For a Svetnikov type. For Svetichikov. I like him to maybe increase their shittastic shooting percentage in Carolina. I like him a lot in Carolina.

But, I mean, I do like him in Boston, too, as sort of that, the next, you know, name in the in the quote-unquote Rick Nash spot that's been established by Don Sweeney over the last couple of years. If you could put Colbuchar anywhere but L.A. where would you put him and don't say the KHL? But he's a guy that wants to play in a major city. Right. Like he's not going to want to go to Carolina. You mean Raleigh?

Raleigh. Yes. I know where they're right. Right. So it would have to do it. Well, okay, so here's the question. Is Columbus a major city? Oof.

Ooh, I wouldn't want him with torts, though, would I? Oof. Good Lord. Yeah, that's probably the bigger issue. And also, no, to answer your question, Columbus is not a major city. It's not, it's what, the third biggest city in Ohio? I thought it was a rhetorical question. San Jose.

Be fun, right? That'd be fun. Yeah, I mean, for us personally, where we want, like, see him play. I mean, it wouldn't necessarily be fun by the third round of the playoffs. With some of the agentness on that roster, but it would be fun. Throw him in Tampa. Where is he playing in Tampa? Fourth line.

He's already a fourth place. There you go. You're going to do... You're going to do Cedric Pauchette like that? Have that... The one French-speaking guy in that roster that all the French reporters speak to every game? He's not going to leave.

He's just going to be like, fine, play me on the fourth line. I'll still live in L.A. It would be awesome. All right. Let's talk about the Sabres. The fuck. I don't get it.

I mean, I get it because it's kind of in the same way that we've seen Colorado and the Devils. You get one line that goes, and then if the rest of the team is competent, you're going to win a bunch of games. That was last year, right? Yeah, I'm not this year, obviously. Jesus Christ.

It's funny shit. I'm excited. I'm excited for them to be good. I feel like the city of Buffalo needs a modicum of joy in their lives. I was much the playoffs last year. They should be good for another 10 years. They play an exciting brand to hockey. The thing I want is for Skinner and Eichl to be bubble wraps,

so neither of them get hurt because the minute that happens, I don't know what they all happen to this team. They might, I mean, the thing is now is, like bank as many points as you can while you're winning every game. So when that does happen, like, you know, you're not going to fall off the face of the earth. But it's fucking fun. And I'm happy for Jason Botterill, too, because I was like a guy who always thought that when he took over his GM someplace, that he was going to be real good.

And he wound up being real good there so far. Yeah, he made a bunch of trades and signings for guys who aren't, like, great. He ripped off Carolina on that Jeff Skinner trade, by the way. Like, we don't talk enough about how bad that trade was. I still think that, I mean, I know that that, that, um, Cliff Pooh. I know that Don Waddell said that he didn't wields his no move clause, but I mean, he got traded to fucking the city closest to Toronto that isn't Toronto. And he's from, I cannot believe for a second that he didn't at some point veto a trade that would have gotten you something better than Cliff Poo. Yeah, no, it's one of those things where, you know, they're just a classic team with a low possession number and a really high PDO right now.

And like, to your point, they're banking all these points. They'd have to, I think, play at like an 85 point pace the rest of the way to not make the playoffs. But in that division, they could, you know? Like, the bottom could fall out pretty easily. Yeah. It's like Tampa. I just think, well, like I said, I think they got a lot of real average to slightly above average NHLers this year or over the summer.

And they never had depth before. And now they have a little bit of depth. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. And so, like, that's some, like, I just don't see them being able to screw it up. But, like, I didn't think they were going to make the playoffs. I thought they were going to be, like, a low-end bubble team.

All right now. So, Montreal's the ninth-place team in the East right now. And again, for all the shit sandwiches that Pittsburgh's been eating, they remain as we do. They're in a playoffs. Two points out of the wild card and three points in back of the Rangers, the three-seat in the metro. So, like, that's without a scintilla of good gold-ending and with a team being an absolute mess in a lot of them. Right. And the Rangers aren't going to stay in a playoff spot all year.

So, no, I think Buffalo, they're not like in, in, but like I said, they'd have to just... They've got a nine-point lead on Montreal, eight-point lead? What is it right now? Over, like, the last non... You mean Buffalo? Yeah, Buffalo? Yeah, Buffalo. They have a lot.

How do you feel about Ottawa? I thought Ottawa would be interesting because... Oh, Greg, they're bad. No, I know they're bad, but you know what's interesting? Remember how we were kind of talking about Ottawa in terms of being a gigantic disaster and an embarrassment into the league, a team woefully mismanaged, and everything. Everybody should be embarrassed with the way that's... And now it's like, but they lose so fun.

Wee. I mean, if you're going to lose, lose fun, right? Like, people will go to the games if they think it's going to be five to four or whatever. I feel like they found they did like an end around from the criticism to just be like, well, we're dog shit, but we're fun dog shit. And who doesn't like fun dog shit? Dog shit with birthday candles in it and stuff. Like, it's the most amazing sort of image rehabilitation that's happened in the last like three weeks for this team when, you know,

We went from Ubergate to, hey, losing every game, 6-5. Woo! I mean, you'd rather go to a game and see a 6-5 loss than a 2-1 loss. Yeah, for sure. A 6-0 loss. Colorado is great. I'm a little surprised by how great they are. Minnesota, once again, on pace for 100 points.

Yeah, they were food-jol. I've said many times in this great podcast. Vegas is, as we do the podcast, not in a playoff spot, but has surged forward to be back in playoff, contention, and now that they've got Schmidt back, and they're going to get Stazni back at some point, I think my sweet boys were going to be fine. I always thought they were going to be fine. Unless Marg Andre Fleury just played 860 all year or whatever he was for the first

three weeks of the season, like the extent to which they outchute teams, like even if they're just completely average the rest of the season, like, they're going to score way more goals than their opponents. We have a problem, though, which is that Bill Peters team is leading the Pacific. Greg, it's really part of the season still. It's still November. He has one goaltender that's worth a damn, which didn't happen in Carolina. Yeah, but he keeps starting the one who isn't still.

He's like, I don't know. I got a feeling about this Mike Smith. Meanwhile, Dave Ridditch is over there with a 950, safe percentage. Maybe Bill Peters ruins tall goaltenders. That's good be it. Now, you have love for Calgary in your heart. What do you think of the flames? They have a lot of talent.

You know, I think they lost the Dougie Hamilton trade, but Hannafin's been fine. Travis Hammondick's actually playing good hockey this year, which helps. And, like, Dave Ridditch is like a 935 goalie. You've been a Calgary Flames advocate for every, as long as I've known you. Ask a Flames fan about, like, I wrote for a Flames website. Right. But, like, ask a Flames fan how I talk about the Flames. They think I fucking hate them.

It goes like... Because I said that one PDO team they had was bad. Right. Like half the Calgary Media blocked me on Twitter. And like any time, and I write about the Flames, it's just a bunch of Flames fans going, you're a hater, dude. You know, but it's like, in the ranking of Flames, like, admirers, like, fanboys, it goes, Eric Francis won and then...

Darren Haynes probably is two. Right? Then all the girls in the Red Mile and then you. Sure. Yeah. So you're on the ranking. Well, like, I mean, I love Jerome McGinn. but yeah no like they're they're I mean they're not win the division good you know but

yeah they'll be in the top three at the end of the year for sure sure sure all right at this point you know I figured Edmonton would be better than them but you know how far out is eminent at this point Edmonton right now is in in a perfect position a stocking position four points out of the wild card and five points out of the Pacific third spot but the Pacific third spot right now is being held by a dog shit Anaheim team that's played 27 games. Yeah, the problem is that they would have to leapfrog three teams in their division to get in.

That's true. What I want more than anything, and I've wanted this ever since the realignment, is for that third Pacific team to be worse than the Central team. But that's probably not going to happen this year. Probably because Chicago is the sixth team, right? Okay. There's a couple more things we have to cover real quick in this episode with Ryan Lambert.

The first is Astoria. out of New Jersey from the from nj.com a whole lot of Christmas cheer has turned one New Jersey town into a battlefield a massive 70,000 Christmas light display and an old bridge home that's the town next to me from Madawan has left neighbors frustrated for years now township officials say that the homeowner must pay $2,000 a day if he wants to keep his Christmas

light show going and that's because they need $2,000 per night for police security at the light show according to the mayor of the town. The fee would include the cost of paying police officers overtime for the evening, movable lightposts to light the street, and fuel to power the movable light posts. Question number one, did you ever have an ostentatious Christmas light display in your town? A couple towns over, we definitely did, like an insane one. Like some rich guy would just put out, like, 70,000 lights or whatever, like a big aquatic display in his indoor pool that you could see through the window.

It was wild. It was wild. Like fucking mermaids and shit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I mean, not like live mermaids, but like. Or try to get statement from the mermaid. Like in the, what's the movie? Nice guys.

Yeah, nice guys. I was thinking, yeah. I was going to call the other guys, but that's the Mark Wahlberg. Did you have the ostentatious Christmas displays in your town? No, that's more like a rich town thing. I didn't really grow up in a rich town. I did. I had one down in Aberdeen, which is the other town that was near me.

And I read this story and I'm like, it's horseshit that you'd make this family pay $2,000. But at the same time, I do remember the fact that people, the cars for this fucking house would back up to, like, the highway. Yeah. And it was a thing where, like, ah, it's kind of a hazard and you're kind of, like, disturbing your entire neighborhood by doing this shit.

And I remember there being one in Virginia where, like, they used it to, like, it was like $5 a car if you wanted to look at the house and it wall with the charity and shit. But, like, I don't know, man. I kind of understand what they're saying, but at the same time, it's kind of, like, hard for, to be like, fuck you, Christmas spirit. Yeah, for me, I think it's really important that we be able to say

Merry Christmas again in this country. Oh, geez, go. And, uh... Oh, you're on this again, huh? There we go. There we go again. Once again, put the Jesus back in Christmas. Yep.

Like a bumper sticker says. Yeah, that's exactly. Real quick, uh, they're hoping it will never happen again, but if a shooter shows up on their campus, students and professors at a University of Michigan may be throwing hockey pucks. This is according to CNN. Uh, They have enough mass to cause injuries small enough to be thrown or portable,

and they're not considered a weapon at Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon. Police and faculty at the school in suburban Detroit came up with the idea after a presentation at an emergency preparedness. The police chief heard all kinds of suggestions on what might be available in a classroom, including chairs, backpack, staplers, anything has weight. Hockey pucks are an absolutely last resort, said the president of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. We hope and pray it never gets used for the purposes we may have used for it.

They bought 2,500 hockey pucks, the first 800 of which have been distributed to faculty and the rest of students. Hockey pucks as a deterrent to mass shootings, Ryan Lambert. Well, you know what they say about. A good guy with a hockey puck. Like, I mean, it's so... This country is so fucked up, dude. You know what I mean?

It really is like we are so beyond being like a brain disease nation of freaks that we're like, okay, we're kicking around ideas for how we're going to stop a guy coming into school with like three AR-15s that he's just got locked and loaded, ready to go. And it's like, what if we threw hockey pucks at him? And also what if we gave all the students hockey gear? By the way, Oakland University, they're thinking about going Division I in hockey. So they're just building this into the budget already. This is sort of planting the sea in the student body to really get that thing going. Yeah. It sounds like something from like a Disney, like a Mighty Duck sequel where someone comes into their hockey school or whatever

and then they throw pucks at somebody to get them to go away. That's a real dark turn. That's a real. Goldberg's bleeding out. Deep like D4 was not a very pleasant movie. What I don't understand is if you're going to get a sporting thing to throw it, why not baseballs? They're designed for throwing. Pucks aren't really designed.

You ever see the chuck-a-puck between periods? Yeah. People aren't hitting the target. You don't know what Chuckabuck is? I've seen like, I know like shooting the puck. Oh no, no, no, no.

So Chuck-a-Puck, they put like a target at center ice or whatever, and they have a bunch. They're not like actual hockey pucks. They're a little foam, like soft hockey pucks and you try to throw it closest to the dot. Yeah. You never seen this really?

I went to a game. I always see like trainers and equipment guys on a bench before a warm-ups, like throwing the puck out to a face off. Yeah, yeah. Like, I've seen that. It's the same concept, but the fans are, and like all the money goes to charity or whatever. My favorite one is we went to a Phantoms game, and after the game, they set up toilets on the ice,

and it was like a plumbing company sponsoring chuck-a-pucks. He had to throw the pucks in the toilet, which is pretty great. You have time for Question of the Week, or do you need to get out of here? No, hurry up, though. Question of the week, what would be your enticement to try to sell out the Winter Classic at Notre Dame, which at this point is very far from a sellout. And I know we had this discussion. I'm right about one thing besides the Scott Darling and Bill Peters Flames things at least.

Greg Faccini says, make it the All-Star game. Would you be in favor of an outdoor all-star? Yeah, that's fine. Both of them are stupid, so why not? I don't think it would sell better, though, than the Winter Classic. What is it? I think it might, like the novelty of it? Like, how many Chicago games are people going to be expected to pay an extra $300 for or

whatever, you know what I mean? Like, at least if you go, hey, I'm getting to see Johnny Goddrow and he's doing like the, he's wearing a cape or whatever, like all that shit. He's being carried like a child in a, adorable. In a baby Bjorn. Like, get the novelty back in it. How far from Soldout is it? Because I know, like, you know when you go on like ESPN, the schedules, you can see

like this, like, the tickets available? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like a couple weeks ago. I tweeted the, uh, the, uh, the stadium map from ticket master. And there are giant chunks of blue. There's a lot of red, as in we're trying to resell. sell these tickets. But there's a lot of blue insofar as we haven't sold

these tickets yet. Notre Dame going to the college football playoff, I think, is a thing. I think. I don't know if I can say it for sure, but like, I think people that otherwise would maybe from that area go to the game or traveling. But I also think, like, the Blackhawks being horseshit is a thing. Like,

Blackhawks fans have no compunction to go there. And to my surprise, the classic rivalry they have with the Boston Brewing up dating all the way back to 2013. You know, my theory forever. My theory of forever was smash up right. Throw a shamrock on it

and Boston will come, but maybe that's not the case. You don't give a shit about Notre Dame. Well, I mean, if it was in, like if there was a way to have that game in Boston

and be like, you guys like Notre Dame, right? A bunch of real moron. Yo dog, I heard you like sham rocks. Dude. They got Notre Dame

playing at fucking Gillette Stadium. There it is. There it is. Paul says, have it be indoors and then have it be a regular game. Well, then it would definitely sell out at this point. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I don't know where you'd put all those people

that are extra that don't have seats now because you put it indoors. What if they played it in a dome and you didn't have to like sit out in 15 degree weather? Would that help? I don't know. Jen says Gritty versus Milbury cage match. Well, I mean, at some point he's going to take a shoe off, right? That's kind of the thing that we're all waiting for in a cage match with Gritty. How do you feel about Gritty? I don't even know. I am waiting for the day he gets milkshake dut. Like that's really it. It's going to happen. And I, you know, before the end of the season would be my prediction.

Like we're all going to be extremely sick of him by the playoffs. Every response should be gritty, says Brina. Joanna says, come see all these young Blackhawks players before we trade them to Arizona. That's pretty good. And Benjamin McCracken writes, and if you're at the stadium, you won't have to listen to Doc and Pierre. Just not as cruel to Doc. As you know, I'm a doc fan. The Pierre things on point, though.

The future general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. I heard Quenville was going for that job, though. Doc and Eddie, we're going to hire Coach Kearer. He was going to bring all the Blackhawks here. I think Joel Quinville is going to be the, what Joel Penville should go there and drop the puck. Everybody knows that. Oh, that would be great.

Everybody would love that. I'm walking out for the Ceremony O'Shtky. Me and Bobby Hull. need more Bobby Hull in our lives Yeah, we definitely do. For me? He's canceled. Oh, wow.

Jeez. All right, that's fuck soup for this week. Our thanks to our good friend Ryan Lambert for being in town. Oh, hey, thanks guys. I'm here to the ESPN Studios. Our first guest that we've had here in studio. Our first in studio guest.

Just got to get more people to come to New York for concerts. That's right. Have an hour free to have a lot of free time before the thing they're going to do at night. Come here. Your thoughts on Jurassic Park Fallen Kingdom, by the way. That's all the time we have.

Pretty bad. I can't. If you like when they auctioned off the new one. Did you like when they auctioned off the genetically altered dinosaur for the price of like 30 million? There was no money. It was a very small low price. I don't know if it would have gone higher had it not, you know, very unexpectedly wreaked

all kinds of havoc. That's true. It interrupted the auction. It did. Right. So I thought that was very rude to the attendees. There was a dinosaur auction in this movie. Ooh, Dave.

Dave, it was so bad I only saw it twice. Yeah. The dinosaur auction occurred at the giant mansion that was built on top of a dinosaur prison. There's a dinosaur prison now. Oh, yeah. We're not fucking around. It was a supermax, too. Like, they...

Oh, boy. Was it like in FaceTalk where they're wearing, like, the metallic boots on their... Possibly? Almost, yeah. I don't know if they really ever addressed the lysine contingency that was set up in Jurassic Park one, but we don't have time. Spoiler, you'll never guess which dinosaur broke out of the prison. It was definitely a triceratops using his horns to break through the bricks. It was a pacicephalosaurus.

It was the first one to... A pachycephalosaurus, the one with the dome had very hard skull. If you go to the Museum of Natural History, you can see a very nice display of how thick its skull was. Oh, I just go for the topless wax statues. That's the reason I go. And also the big room of gems that I hear they closed. They did. It's opening again in like 2020.

I used to run around that room when I was a kid. Oh, it's the only room with carpet in the whole museum? Right, and I would look around for the kryptonite. Anyways, thanks, Lambert. Thanks to everybody listening. Check out you at Two Line Pass on Twitter and your stuff on Yahoo. Don't follow me on Twitter. Check out him.

Dave Lozo on Twitter. Dave Lozo on Twitter. And he writes on up... Always late with Katie Nolan. I was on HBO. I was going to say Up on... KATHLEEN No one. That's the USA Network show that used to show.

Horror movies. Silk Stockings was on after it. And you can find my stuff at ESPN. and also my other podcast, ESPy and Ice, which is more about hockey. Well, this was a very hockey-centric episode of Buck Soup, to be honest with you. Sure. All right.

Thanks, everybody. We'll talk to the scene. Bye. Bye. Be-da-boo-boo. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows.

It's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Oh, too.