Puck Soup - Sarah Baicker, ESPN layoffs

Episode Date: April 27, 2017

Greg and Dave welcome former CSN host and Philadelphia sports pundit Sarah Baicker to talk about the Flyers, Philly as a sports town, how TV people are treated by athletes and the nasty sendoff she received from one fan. Plus, comments about the massive ESPN layoffs that claimed some hockey writers, predictions for the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, working for the Sabres, chaos in Chicago, how we played NES and our favorite games, movie sequels we may not want to see, and reader mail covering obscure fast food items, mini-golf etiquette and what Dave sings in the shower. Sponsored by Helix Sleep and Zip Recruiter.

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slash puck soup Helix sleep.com slash puck soup And enjoy the show Now entering nerdist.com Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons We've got sportly commentary

To what if you'll commute We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Puck soup. I'm Greg Wushinsky of Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy Blog. I'm Dave Lozo of one less place I work at starting next week. And you're in Puck Soup. Before we get to some layoffs news, we should probably mention that our nerdist sports overlord

Jonah Carey managed to eke out a decent guest booking recently. I don't know. Well, it's okay. It's an okay guest. Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, is an okay guest. I mean, it's not like he's the, you know, president of France or anything. You've got bigger guns than him, I'm pretty sure. That's one benefit of it.

Yeah. I mean, he's okay. He's popular and I guess he's somewhat known. So he's on Jonah's podcast. You can find it on Nerdist. We told Jonah that we give him a plug. This is the plug. You should listen to it.

It's great. It's a huge get. Here's how huge the get is. How huge is it? Well, I don't like to brag, but I am Ukrainian. Boy, this fucking episode's going to be full of innuendos from start to finish. Sarah Baker, formerly of CSN Philly, is the guest today. And the conversation goes as expected.

So the thing is, is that it's so big that when you go to iTunes, it was the main picture on the top of the iTunes page. Like him and Justin Trudeau, like sitting together. like where cereal would be is like where Jonah Carey's podcast was and I'm so proud of him but then I thought to myself like that's the kind of thing that I thought this podcast was going be like like there's no doubt that he gets that interview because Justin Trudeau is an expo's fan he's Canadian he's Canadian he's like I want to talk to the guy who wrote the Expos book and here I thought our podcast would be like like fucking aflame to the moths for the hockey fans in the entertainment community we're just not that good at this I think we really

oversold our ability to get guests. I thought John Hamm would be like, entertainment podcast, which I'd talk about hockey. Yeah. I'm there. Like, I thought that'd be it. I've probably written too many jokes about his giant dick from the cover come on the show. All right. So let's talk about jokes about his giant dick because you probably wrote those at Uprox and you got laid off. No, actually I wrote those at the comeback. Yeah, Uprox wasn't hockey at all. It was, it was pop culture. Uprox was great because, I mean, it wasn't really pop. I mean, Hoprox does have pop culture, but I was just sports. Like, I was, you know, it was basically everything but hockey. So it was great for me in terms of, like, balancing out the stuff I would do during the Because, like, you know, I do stuff for Vice.

I do stuff for the comeback. And so, like, I got to think of, like, original stuff for each site. And, like, Uprox was just, like, basketball, football, baseball, you know, MMA. And, like, it was just, like, basically just, like, jokes about that. Which was the one sport that you had to research the most in making them posts? For me, it would probably be basketball. I think I'd probably have to research it a little bit. Yeah, like, basketball, like, hockey stuff is, like, second nature to me.

Like, I know when the last time it was, the caps did whatever. NFL probably the same way. Yeah, NFL too. Like, I remember writing something about the Marcus Cousins, and then like, I didn't really know how long he was in the NBA for, so I'd go to like his basketball reference page. Oh, he was 19 when he came into the league. So like, oh, you do that stuff for like a year and a half

and some of it becomes second nature. But like, honestly, like, it was the very beginning. They would give me wrestling stuff to write. And I don't know if you guys are aware, but I think wrestling's silly for grown people to watch and get super into. So like all my wrestling posts were like super snarky, and they were like, we're not going to let you write wrestling.

anymore. Like in like a 250 word post I would like take the piss out of wrestling fans like four times and they're like it's funny. We're not saying it's not funny but you're probably not going to help us get more readers by pissing off the readers. My basketball writing would be is Stacey Ogman still in basketball before I make a Stacey Ogman joke? Are they getting no I mean you said they're getting away from sports that doesn't mean they're getting away from I don't know for sure if they are do you mean are they're going to keep with spandex their wrestling blog because I really like that The rumor, even though I don't know for sure, is they're going to do, they're focusing mostly on basketball, wrestling and MMA. All right.

So they need fewer people. I really like that wrestling site. They do like, they do like reviews of old wrestling shows that are on like the WWE network and they're really funny. Yeah. Oh, now, I know you hate wrestling, but what do you think about there being? I don't. I don't. I don't.

No, this is it. No, you'll appreciate that. They're making a Vince McMahon movie. Yeah, no. Who fucking cares. Can I tell you who I want to play Vince McMahon? Um. Dennis Quaid.

That's a good choice, but here's my choice. Okay. He would be a fantastic Vince McMahon. Oh, my God. Tom Hardy is Vince McMahon. Physique-wise, perfect. Kind of has a blockhead. I can't get it on my head after somebody said it.

And, you know, he comes up with... He'd come up with some crazy great Vince McMahon voice. It's a biopic. It's like about his whole life. Oh, God. You know? I want to see Tom Hardy be like, what a week for movies. I've said it was me all along.

What a week for unnecessary sequels? A Kingsman sequel and a fucking unbreakable sequel? Who wants these fucking sequels? The first Kingsman movie was fucking great. It was the most boring, bland movie I've ever fucking seen in my life. Did you like kickass? It is okay. You say you're not a...

That's just that. You're not a Matthew Vaughn guy. He was... The first Kingsman movie was great. I don't like boring movies, I guess. Oh, the first Kingsman movie was great. I'm happy to the sequel. It was a boring, it was a boring-ass fucking bad guy, a boring-ass, fucking bad guy plot.

I'm going to go with shitty CGI fight scenes. Exponentially better than Specter. And by the way, it was, that's the only part I didn't like was the church massacre with Colin Forth. I didn't like that scene at all. People hated the church massacre because of like moral reasons and I get that too. But like it was like Matthew Vaughn, who I didn't really know who that was, so you just said it. Matthew Vaughn saw the second Matrix movie when Keanu Reeves fights all the cartoon Keanu Rees and said, I want to do that but worse. He fought the cartoon Hugo Weavings.

But the thing about that fight, the thing about that fight that is the worst thing about Matrix, maybe the worst thing about the entire Matrix trilogy. at any point he could just fly away. He sits there and he has a fight with a thousand Agent Smiths and at the end he just flies away. You know what the problem though is is that it's the same thing with the leftovers why I hate the leftovers is the Matrix made one movie and they had no intention of making two more. They just made a movie called The Matrix.

At the end he flies away. And it was so popular they were like, we got to do more. While the leftovers you can tell at the end of the first season, they were like, we're never going to be able. This is bad. And they were like, all right, one more season. We'll move to Texas. And there'll be a whole new cast of characters

And we'll get rid of the weird And they're like, all right, we're done We're going to do one more season All right, how about we're in Australia for something? And we'll drop a bomb on Liv Tyler And there's a kangaroo or something And some reason the Australian women are going to misinterpret Some other Kevin police chief

Even though he's Australian And the dad who told the story Probably mentioned he wasn't Australian But they misunderstood him anyway This show sounds amazing It's fucking terrible The worst thing you can possibly hear from anybody who has made a successful genre film is, you know, we really want to get more into

the mythology in this next one. Just like, no, God. You've made it up as you went along. Like Kingsman was a perfectly okay movie. I just, like, they made a woman who had knives for legs boring. Hey, I got an idea. Samuel Jackson will have a lisp. Wow, that's fucking creative.

That's great. Did you see Split? No, and I'm never going to. Okay. Disunbreakable. I know. No spoilers, but split has something to do with Unbreakable, because I didn't see Split either. And so this movie comes as a result partially of the success of Split.

Honest to God, you know, people are like, don't spoil it for me. Please tell me everything that happens in Split so I can see the sequel, because I'm not going to watch fucking Ewan McGregor, not you and McGregor, the other guy. The other British guy was... Wait, you mean, oh, James McAvoy. James McAvoy, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get those two mixed up a lot of time. Young Professor Xavier. Right, yeah, I want to see him pretending to be a little kid. I love Unbreakable. I think Unbreakable is the top three comic book movie ever made, and you hate it.

You just don't think there should be a sequel. That movie has grown on me over the years. I hated it when I first saw it because I saw the ending and I was like, fuck off. Like that was my innocent response. There was a string of movies over like a five-year span that had the worst goddamn endings. Like contact, Unbreakable. We're like, you can just tell they got to the end and they were like, I went to a different planet and I met my father. Let's put an ellipsis on it. Yeah. No, the end of Unbreakable is amazing. because it literally was the thing

that everybody hated and then Shaman came out and he's like I was just trying to make it like a comic book you guys and we're like yeah, fuck off it's a movie not a comic book

Then he made a movie about the trees killing people Now he made the village before that The village I read a spoiler I read a spoiler review of the script for the village or something maybe it was fake

but it's one of those things when you read it you couldn't get out of your head when you saw the movie Spoilers out they ask because who gives a shit it was made in like the night

90s or whatever. Or who gives a shit? Christian Slater is dead the whole time. No, okay. So what? Yes, great. Thank you. You have to be confused because we're talking Chamelon.

So Bryce Dallas Howard ventures outside the village who finds out its modern times. And like I read a review or a spoiler script review or whatever where I heard the scene was supposed to be that she walks out of the village or the woods towards the camera. Whatever you're going to say, I'm going to hate. And hold on. Then all of a sudden you hear. as a big truck like screeches by and comes to a halt that almost like hits her and she jumps back and then like this is sort of it was like I on AID A Cool News or something dude's drive the driver's black he's supposed to stick his head out the window and go

oh god damn crazy white people no and then keep driving and then that's the reveal of how they're in modern times and like that might just be complete bullshit but as I'm watching the village the whole thing I'm thinking at the end of that movie is how great this would be if It was instead the damn crazy white people scene with the trucker. I thought you're going to tell me like she gets out of the woods and like Bruce Willis is there drowning a guy or something. He's just like, I'm not a superhero. How about a lady in the water sequel?

Like the lady on dry land. All right, listen, let's get serious here for a second. Wait, did Split do good in the theaters? I did really good. Hence Unbreakable sequel. Okay. There were layoffs as we do the show. We do the show on a day that's a very sad day in the hockey media

because they were layoffs at ESPN. Pierre LeBron, Scott Burnside, Joe McDonald, three people that Dave and I are very, very fond of. We're all laid off in a giant 100-person purge at the worldwide leader. Purge is the right word. That's not a layoff. That's a purge. I don't remember seeing a day like this on social media where there are so many people kind of come.

Maybe it happened in other industries and I just haven't noticed it, but like it just was an unending string of people that you, know and kind of care about saying, yeah, my time here's done. I don't get how they did it or why they did it the way they did. Like, everyone knew it was coming. Why is it like trickling out? Why would you not like at 8.55 this morning let everybody who's getting laid off know at the same time? Like, yeah.

Like you're sitting there and fucking Richard Deich, man. Fucking guy annoys the fucking bejesus out of me. But like he's like, there goes our positive review on Sports Illustrated. Fuck him. I can't stand. Fuck him. That's too strong. I just.

No, he's on the force of good and light when it comes to like skip Baylis and Revell. Yeah, but like, it's so performative. I hate to, like, oh, the episode of Tiny Tunes on Cartoon Network got 44,000, but Skip Bayliss only, Skip Bayliss is making $26 million over the next four years. He doesn't care. But, like, his tweets where he's like, just learn that more college people are going to get laid off. Stay tuned.

It's like, until you know the name of the person getting laid off, don't do that. Don't complain on Twitter about how you have to block people because of how rough it is for you this day. He also put a note, though, on Facebook that said, like, he's not going to traffic in the rumor and innuendo of names because these are people with family. and whatever, which of course is amazing to me as a person on sports media. But he is. If he tweets out that he's like, oh, I'm hearing more people are going to get laid off on the college football side

or the college sports side of it, then like everyone who works on that side of it sits there and shits their pants for the next four hours. Like, don't do that. Honestly, it's like one of these, like we talked about, I think maybe like last week on the podcast, like writers are thin-skinned people, yet they, all they do all day is criticize someone else in their jobs. Like, all we do

is report transactions and, you know, such and such, you know, coach such and such and such should lose his job and then all of a sudden we start losing our jobs and it's like let's trigger warning let's protect the people with the families and all we do is report on people that should or should not have a job no but like and actually argue for that person's removal from that job come on that's exactly what we do I mean that's not I mean yeah but it's different compared to what what's happening

today where like ESPN says a hundred people are getting laid off today like okay that's that's coming today you work at ESPN you're like all right fine and like this is more ESPN's fault than like people that are reporting it where they're just letting it trickle out every 25 like seriously like in the morning today like there were like at least a dozen known people that you've read and follow on Twitter that got laid off and you're just like I wonder if the rest are all just like you know editors and behind the scenes producers and then it's like jame mcmanis at fucking two o'clock right it's jason stark at 1 30 like there's like doing it all so like when you're sitting there and you like get that notification from somebody like more's coming in college

like you can just hold on to that because people already know what's going to happen today there's it'll be 100 people laid off. You don't need to start whittling it down so you can show you're an insider. Just keep that one in your back pocket. And then when the person does get laid off, then you can go crazy with it, I think. The thing I want to say about the ESPN.com

and their NHL coverage, two things. First off, they didn't get rid of the department. I feel really, you know what we feel terrible for today on top of feeling terrible for the people that lost her jobs is Custin's, Craig Custin's, our friend. Because he's there. He does great work.

Corey Promon's there. He does great work. And like, everybody's just like, yeah, but still. No, but still like, but like, you know, But, like, Barstool writes a story that says, like, ESPN just got rid of hockey. And, like... Yeah, but they did.

I mean... But did they, though? I mean... CBS got rid of hockey when they fired all their bloggers. Craig and Corey are insiders. You just can't go to ESPN.com anymore and just read hockey. It's like, it's going to be, like, the AP wire and the first three paragraphs at Craig Custins unless you pay for it. I mean, that's a fair point.

But, like, there's still a couple guys... I felt... I'm just saying I felt bad for the guys that are there. Where it's like, hey, hey, we're over here. Yeah. But, I mean... Imagine if, say, for instance, all right, so they had Scotty, I mean, Katie Strang recently got laid off as well. Not laid off, but she got reassigned.

Yeah, we've basically cut the department by 80%. Yeah, no, I agree. So, like, I think at that point, it's fair to say that they don't cover hockey anymore. And I will say the other thing, too, the real, the real, the real frustrating thing that's been, and it's been like this for years about ESPN's NHL coverage and the way we perceive it is the dot-com side's always been real good. like they've always done good work they did quality work and I always hated the fact that when people would snark about

how the networks covered hockey and how the NHL would be like in minute 29 of the first half hour of sports center like I think that's all legit they treat hockey like shit most of the time on air but on the dot com side

they always treated they always did a really good job and I remember going to bat for like those guys a lot when people would shit on the ESPN's coverage and be like no you understand like it ain't it ain't like lebrun and burnside's fault that like they don't cover hockey the right way on air right and uh and it's a it's a shame it's a shame to see that that crew go they did

the guy that i feel honestly like i love scottie and and and he as i said on twitter this morning he wrote one of the most important hockey stories in the history of the business when he did the fly-on-the-wall thing about how the sochi u.sa team was built yeah that that ain't that ain't no ain't nobody going to write a story like that ever again um and pierre's brilliant and we'll talk about a personal relationships in a second Joe McDonald was a hell of a reporter Joe McDonald was one of those guys that you were in a room with him

in like a locker room with him and everybody's going to go talk to coach or everybody's going to go write their story whatever and you just look over and there's Joe Mack because he's like the most personable guy and he's just shooting the shit with a player and you know what exactly it is

that information coming from that conversation is going to be the thing that gets tweeted or the thing that's in the story that everybody's talking about the next day. He had a... He's a Boston down-home drinking M-Fer who really had a knack for getting in there and being interpersonal with players

and getting great information. Can we not say motherfuckerucker anymore on this podcast? I was trying... Motherfucker's like a, you know, in case there's kids in the fucking car. I think fucking Joe McDonald would appreciate if we call them a good motherfucker instead of it. Do you what I mean, though?

Like, he was just that guy. He broke a ton of news. Yeah. Like, everyone thinks of like, you know, Elliot and Pierre and Bob is like the newsbreakers, but like Joe broke his fair share of stuff. I think Joe also said Shaw Thornton was a really important part of the conference. Well, I mean, Joe, at the end of the day, was infected with Boston disease. Joe, Joe loved Boston.

That's great. But who do you blame for this? I blame the NHL. I don't blame ESPN. Do you think they'd still be there if the NHL had given ESPN a taste of this TV package? Oh, for sure. That's what I was thinking about today. Would they still be there if there were games on ESPN?

Because that's the issue, though, is like they've, I mean, they have games, they have NFL games, they have MLB, they let MLB and NFL guys go. Like, the problem is that they spend so much money on the TV deals for all the sports that they had no money to pay anybody else because no one's... So wait, why do you play in the NHL? Because the NHL is so dedicated to not being fun and popular that at some point, people don't watch, and when people don't watch and don't care, people don't click and don't read and don't watch videos,

and then people who do that for a living go away. I think that's a fair point, because I made... I made the reference to CBS before. That's where Chris Peters used to work. That's where Adam Gretz used to work. They had a blog called Ion Hockey. That was the elimination of a hockey department. They just got it rid of everybody there.

They don't even cover it anymore. But, like, I mean, yeah, like, ESPN did not 100% get rid of everybody, but they basically just said. Sporting news, when Gentilly, well, Gentilly became sort of like a general columnist. Right. You know. Custance was there, too. And then, you know, yeah, there's a bit of, the point is that, you know, there have been a

number of properties that actually got rid of their hockey coverage. Sportsnet. Got rid of... Oh, you're saying just like completely. Yeah. Oh, I was going to say like, I mean, like every place that has hockey has gotten rid of people, basically. Before we get to... Future report never replaced me when I left.

Future report? Nah, no. So, it's hockey. Nobody cares. I mean, you can't be replaced by a slideshow, my friend. Let that be known. I am a slideshow. I'm a human goddamn content machine.

I am... I think the thing about it is that, like, they... What was it going with us? Oh, yeah. Okay. Let's talk about next steps for a second before we get to why we love these guys. If NBC cared about hockey and cared about the audience and cared about creating something that's worthwhile, they would hire Scott Burnside. They would hire Scott Burnside to be. They hire somebody. They would hire him to be their insider. They would hire him to be a presence on their website. And that's not to kick out our boys

Halford and Brough, because they should be there too. But they have to import insiders from Canada. Right. So I've always said, create your own. But why not, why not Halford and Brough? Like, they're two funny dudes. They are. They know hockey.

Because there's a whole... They're basically American. There's a whole situation with NBC as far as, like, gatekeepering, their digital people from television. Like, that's why the investment in, and what's his face on the NFL side. Mike Flore?

Florio is remarkable because like everybody else is like ghettoized in the digital side. No, Florio's on it. He's, he's on the desk for something like that's what I'm saying. Like he got out. Oh, Oh, I think you were saying. I was the exception of the rule.

So if I was ESPN, I'm sorry, if I was NBC at higher Burnside. And then Pierre luckily has another gig at TSN where I'm sure he's going to, you know, be doing more with them. Yeah, like Pierre's not completely on. It's also, the timing is weird too.

Like that shows you how little they give a shit about hockey is like right before the start of the second round and gut the staff. But it made me wonder if they have. had if like this was like there has to be a reason why they did all of them at the same time. You know, maybe there's a reason why. Maybe their contracts were up at a weird time or whatever. I don't, I mean, I know almost for sure that one of their contracts isn't up at the end of this month. So like, it's just.

Yeah, doing it, doing it this deep in the playoffs is really weird. Like, why not wait six more weeks? Like, like, you know, Ovi raises the cup and then we move on. Like, all right, before free agents. Because like, no matter when you lay off somebody in hockey, Unless it's between like July 5th and like September 15th. Like it's a weird time to do it. Right.

So I don't know why you don't just, I mean like, yeah, if you do it after the season, it's like, what about free agency? But like now, I mean, Jesus, it's the one series people care about is coming up, starting tomorrow. And you're getting rid of people that are going to cover it. I don't get it. All right. I mean, I get it because nobody cares about hockey. The thing about these boys, though, and a lot of people have said it today, they're in the business and I'll reiterate it for those who don't know about it. being on the road is a weird deal

you're away from family for a long time during the playoffs you're away from family a long time during like the Olympics and stuff and you develop friendships with people on the road but as a new person on the road you sometimes feel a little bit like an outsider especially when it's a group of reporters that have been working on the same beat for a really long time

and Scotty and Pierre for me for I saw Chris Hine from the Chicago Tribune mentioned this for a lot of people those guys were more welcoming and nice and cool and come have dinner with us and come play shuffleboard with us and everything like that

to so many young reporters they were great they were great and enough can't be said about that because sometimes it could be a really weird place when you don't know what the fuck you're doing yet and then you go out in the road and then you see these guys that you read yourself

and they wind up being really cool people to hang out with I think the first time I met Pierre was the conference finals where the Blackhawks beat the Sharks, so 2010. And I remember going out to San Jose and like, I don't know fucking anybody in San Jose. Like, I don't know the San, I don't know Dave Pollock. I don't know like anyone who's covering that series. And like Rosen, Dan Rosen, who's at NHL.com and a good friend, he was already with those guys on other series.

And I was like, I don't know if I want to come out and hang out. I want to bother you guys like near it. Like no, no, no, no. And like literally like Cam Cole was there. The hole's the same way too. He just got fucking laid off. Does anybody work anymore in this fucking business? Why?

What is going on? Can I say, like, seriously, like, if you put a list of hockey writer's names on a war and I just threw a dart at it, would that person still be employed today? How? How is this possible? Yes, Bruce Garriac is still employed with the autoist and don't worry. You're fine. Larry Brooks is with The New York Post.

But, like, seriously, like, yeah, like, went out, got drunk, ate some food. Yeah. They become your road buddies. They become your hockey friends. There's a bar called the Irish Channel on D.C. that I think I've mentioned before on this podcast, which was the post game haunt for all of us that covered the capitals.

And Scotty was in town for maybe, what, five days, maybe six days a year in D.C. You know what his nickname was in that bar? From the bartenders? I think I know this. The mayor. I didn't know that. He was the mayor of the Irish Channel.

Yeah. Just because of how personable and cool he was when he would go in there. And the greatest thing about Pierre, and again, we're talking like these guys were deceased. They're not. They'll be hopefully going to be still in the business

we see him around. But like, the greatest thing about Pierre was he would, as some of you may or may not know, he was addicted to bar jukeboxes. And his go-to song for awkwardness. Before you get into this, he wasn't addicted to the jukebox.

He was addicted to the power that came with controlling the jukebox and controlling the music. Like if you were like, oh, I like to hear a song. Like he would literally box you out from the jukebox using like his ass to make sure you could not get money in there so you could skip ahead. So he was addicted to the power.

Addicted to the sound of his own singing voice. And then also... Are we telling the L.A. story? Well, I'm going to tell it... Well, here's the story. So his go-to song, because he wanted to maximize awkwardness, was, we are the world. We are the world!

Yeah, he would find We Are the World, the charity anthem from the 1980s for, like, Children Africa, maybe? We are the world. Yeah, probably starving children in Africa. he would put on We Are the World And we would all be at the bar And they'd be like, you know, generic, you know

Rock music or whatever And all of a sudden you hear There comes a town And you're like, oh God, no And then you hear, where we hear a certain call And see up here, he goes, Scotty Put his arms up in the air Because his song would finally come on

In L.A. At this bar in I think it was maybe Manhattan Beach It was one of the beaches He did the We Are the World thing at this bar And we were all like, wow and it was an epic rendition. But then he upped the ante in a way that I never knew could be upped.

On this jukebox. The great ones always raised their game. Inexplicably was the 1980s charity anthem for the giant failed experiment that was Hands Across America. And the song, by the way, if you don't remember, it goes, Hands Across America. And this guy from, where's he from Canada? It's from the same place that Claude Rue is from.

Oh, yeah, I forget. This guy gets up there and belts out the hands-across America theme song like it was his favorite song from the hip. Right. Knew every word. He did play a lot of tragically hip songs. It was all tragically hip and, like, American charity songs from the 80s. I don't use this word loosely, my friend, but these are beauties we're talking about.

Yeah. Beauties. And, like, it's weird. Like, think about, like, how, like, you still go on the road for stuff, but, like, Pierre, Scotty. Joe McDonald I'm really not on the road anymore Like oh it would be such like Do I have to be nicer to people now on the road

Do I am I like a senior citizen Yeah you have to be the one that welcomes in like the new Like hey you doing my name's my name's Bryce Josephson I'm from I'm covering this On Snapchat for BuzzFeed can I hang out with you guys I just leave alone I'm on my fifth story of the hour He's like

Oh can I use that in my Snapchat story about going out After the game and you're just like Ugh Hey hey Mr. Ossinsky do you want to hang out Maybe you get a beer What I do now is I go get pizza pizza and eat five different sauces and then watch an old episode of MST3K in my hotel room. So I can't, it's not really, it's not you. Yeah.

Greg walks over to a table with like 10 beers for all the young guys and he's just like, hey, everyone, you know, it's on me. You know, enjoy it. And I'll just stare at you in like anger and you're like, is this gluten-free beer? I can't drink it otherwise. It's pretty insensitive that you would just come over here and assume I would just drink gluten beer. God, these old people don't get it. Mr. Wysinski, what's that? It's a cigar, son.

What do you think it is? A cancer stick? What? Have you heard about this thing called vaping? Maybe you should look into that. Oh, God. That's going to be you. You're going to be the guy on the road.

Now look. Everyone looks up to. I know all of you think that I'm untalented and just make dick jokes. That said, I'm now your elder. You must respect me. Goes over to the jukebox. puts on Bon Jovi. Ah, this fucking song again?

Jesus Christ. Tommy used to look in the docks. Here it goes again. Union been on strike. That song is so old that because of global warming and deunionization. There's no longer docks or unions. That's how old that song is. All right.

We had some really sad stuff to talk about with jobs, but here's the great thing. Segways are amazing. If you're looking to hire someone, it has gotten easier than ever, Dave Lozo. That is because of ZipRecruiter. Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Posting your job in one place ain't going to get it done. So if you want to hire the perfect person, you need to post your job on all the job sites.

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What? What kind of a website? A handy website. A handy website. A handy website. Wow, what did you think I said? No, I thought you said handy website. You said handy website.

I thought it was a different kind of website. Oh, geez, yeah. It's a helpful website. That's ZipperRecruiter.com. Yay. Boom. And if there's any problems, do not fret. ZipRecruiter is friendly and human.

the support staff is ready to help. Right now, the listeners to Puck Soup can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com slash Puck. That ZipRecruiter.com slash puck. One more time, try it for free. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash puck.

Captain Segway strikes again, ladies and gentlemen. I'm looking at our questions for today. I don't think we've ever had this many questions. Oh, yeah, a lot of questions. I feel like every time I go to like the Puck Soup account, it's like plus 20 notifications. We're going to talk round two. stuff in a second, but I wanted to get to

something that happened since the last show, which is Buffalo imploded. That happened since the last show. Oh, right, yeah. So, Dan Balsma fired, Tim Murray fired. The question I wanted to ask you, Dave Lozo, is, would you work for Terry Baguola? If you were a GM, would you work for Terry Baguola, knowing that

he is now firing Terry with the way he's handled both the bills and the savers? See, here's the thing. I want to work for like, I think of the scene in Moneyball when Brad Pitt and Jonah Carey are trying to talk the box.

Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill. When I say, Jonah Carey? Holy shit. When you see our boss, do you just see a little fat return Jonah Hill? Because he's just a stats guy?

So I do the other podcast with Jolie Care. And like I always look at my email for like the script for that show and like I always click on Jonah's email by accent because Jonah Carey Jolie. Jolie Care is on the phone.

But, like, they talk the owner into, like, giving them money to, like, you know, get Ricardo and Cohn or all that stuff. Like, I don't know if I'm smart enough to outsmart Terry Pagula to last in that job for more than two years because, like, he thinks he's the smartest guy in the whole entire building, even though he's not. And I feel like anything I tell him, he wouldn't, I wouldn't be able to trick him into keeping the job for a long time. Right. So, no, I would not, I would probably not want that job. I, you know, I think, I find that job to be really interesting because they didn't give Tim Murray enough time they actually fulfilled the. plan. No.

So, like, most GM jobs, you can walk in there and be like, it'd be like, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I got a five year plan, so don't find me for five years. And you're like, all right, it's like, I've got a five year, it's like, I'm, I'm, they just basically got Ikele last year, or two years ago, like, and they don't even happen for a healthy season yet. Yeah, I mean, I get why you do it. Yeah. I just, I don't know.

Do you, now, on Eichel, because we didn't talk about this either. Do you buy the fact that he didn't... 100%. Wait, wait, what is 100%? You think that he's lying? Oh, that he got everybody fired. He got everybody fired. Oh, I believe that for sure.

Completely. 100%. I don't buy for a... The best rumor I heard, though, I don't know if you heard this, was that one of the reasons Murray got fired. This is rumor, and you endo. One of the reasons why Tim Murray got fired was because he was the one who leaked the story about Eichel wanting Bilesma gone.

So it was just going to be Biosma, and then the leak happened, and that cost him to marry his job as well. It was one of the reasons why. That was a rumor kicking around Buffalo this past week. I can see that. I was legit shocked that Murray got fired, but I think if you go by what they said, it's because he walked into a meeting, and they're like, what are your solutions? And Marie's like, me, I don't know. And they're like, well, maybe think of some. Same thing we've been doing.

Let's just continue to... Yeah, like, I feel like this is like a situation with Pittsburgh where they change GMs and they get really good because they have a bunch of guys that are... On the way... Yeah, they're like right there. Like, if they go to the playoffs next year, say they get the wild card in the Atlantic next year,

is it going to be because of Dean Lombardi or whoever the hell they hire? Is it going to be because of like all the work that was done the previous three years? See, it's funny. Like, I still believe they're going to hire like a head up like a president of hockey operations, but they've sort of signal they're going to go with somebody that doesn't have the same... doesn't have GM experience as the GM, which is fucking weird. Oh, it's a good idea.

Well, they just did it with Tim Murray. Like, they just hired an assistant GM. No, but like, oh, oh, you mean like, oh, I think you were talking like... They're going to hire, like, bottom-roll of Breezebaugh or somebody who's out there to be... I think that's okay. I hope so. But, like, it's just like the teams that do the Joe Sackick thing that don't work. But there's other teams that do the John Davidson thing that do work to have the right guy at the top of the totem pole.

And Brennan-Schanan. It's another example. John Davidson. You know, kind of worked. They made the playoffs. Yeah. You're one of 16 of 30 teams. Yes, made the playoffs.

We didn't even appear in them. Thanks, Ryan Lambert. How about Lambert's coming here this weekend and then completely ducking the podcast? Because, you know, he could have come here today. Ryan Lambert literally tweeted this week. Counting down the days until I come and hug dinosaurs. He'll be on the podcast eventually. I like how we veered away from like trying to get like,

super famous people and now it's just like we'll talk to our friends for a little bit yeah yeah like it's gonna be like the howard stern show only not as good we're just bringing like like regular people that we just know yeah here already lang tell the story about his dad fall through for the 150th time i was cooked up in a pig suit and i uh yeah it's all's gonna be this one time i hugged a dinosaur it fell apart and the museum threw me out did we talk about the kings well i think we talked about the kings on what we didn't talk about john getting hired. What do you think about that? Do you think that's a signal? Oh, yeah. So John Stevens getting

hired, by the way, I think signals that they don't think their window is closed. What say you? That they don't think it's closed? They don't think it's closed. But it is. Okay. Well, there you go. I mean, I don't know. Like, I... I always liked that, dude. I thought he got a raw deal in Philly. Yeah, I got no real feelings one way or the other.

Well, it's kind of vanilla. I mean, it's like the vanilla rice cake coach. What's weird to me is how everyone is embating themselves over Travis Green in Vancouver how like that's the greatest thing that ever happened like what the fuck is he gonna do with that roster like he's he's not I mean I could be wrong but he's not a wizard right he's not part of the Harry Potter universe you're a wizard Travis like he doesn't have the thing of a jig on his forehead like or whatever I don't know I really haven't watched the Harry Potter movie but like it's still the same garbage roster widows peak no doesn't you have like a lightning bolt yeah he doesn't like again more stuff you should have asked Aaron

dark when she was here yeah I wasn't prepared um the uh I think he's good up there just like for the same reason I think Cassidy is good in Boston, which is that they both work well with younger players. They might get a little bit more out of the teams than you expect. And hopefully they're still there when the teams get good again. See, like, people say that how do you know? Like, why aren't the younger players better on the Canucks now? If he's been working with them in the H.L.

He resurrected Svin Barci. Oh, Christ. And then the other one that we should talk about is the fiery, God, how, what kind of hockey boner do you have right now for what's happening in Chicago where Stan Bowman can only, Stan Bowman, the only thing you can do is just five. fire coaches. Some of them aren't even in the NHL. Because he can't trade anybody from the team because they all have no move clauses.

Like a half a chub? Not a full-on. Because like I feel like the people, like everyone, I never read the story, but the guy Ted Denner got fired apparently did some bad stuff. He was like, he was like complaining about the Blockhawks taking people off his roster and leaving his team and disrepair. The HL coach. Do you not get your role within the organization?

He really complained about that, but, like, they fired my kitchen. Like, I feel like if you, like, it's like, it's like, like, being a guy at an apple orchard, and they're like, he's like, people keep on picking these apples and selling them. How dare they? It's like, you know, you're in the locker room. You're like a guy in the H.L. And you've toiled there for like five years. And, you know, somebody from the team walks in and says, Dave, Blackhawks are calling you up.

And, like, you get like a little, what? Yeah, yeah, just get to go outside and just some paperwork. You got to fill out. But you're going up to the big team. And, like, you walk in the block room, you go, Coach, I just want to thank you for everything. Get the fuck out of my office. You're leaving me now?

Would I need you the most? Dave. Don't ever come back. Dave, I think this is the point in which you've got to decide whether you want to be a black hawk or you want to be an ice hog. You get ice hog or you're a black hawk? I'm a black hawk. I've waited my entire life to be in the NHL.

Is an ice hog like a ball hog and basketball where, like, you're just, you're skating 36 minutes a night? What hell is an ice hog? Ovechkin. I've never seen a pig on an ice. Alex, get out. You got to change, bud. No, I don't.

Russian machine never breaks. Russian machine never stop skate, 40 minute forward. Also slow down much in postseason. Yeah, I just feel, because you're right, you can't do anything. So, like, these other dudes get to take the acts that aren't really responsible for the situation. It's just time and big-ass contracts. They need to lock Cory Crawford and Brent C.brook in a basement and torts them until they agree to sign of no-move clauses away. No, fight to the death.

Like, whoever dies, their contract is up. So you just go down to the basement and you give one a knife, one a bat. Yeah. The five people that understand that reference are dying right now. The red night sucks. The blue night rules. I don't know if that's the right colors. But that's basically a jest.

The Brent Seabrook contract is a bad contract. But don't you think the Cory Crawford contract doesn't get enough hate? I wake up every morning and talk about this. I hate it to myself. Wake up every morning. Oh, sorry, you're doing Kesha. No, you can justify the Corey Crawford contract more than you can justify the Brent Seabrook contract. Corey Crawford's $6 million against the cap through 2020.

And he's 32. Yeah, and like Brent Seabrook, so how many more years? And he's already 32. Brent Seabrook is 32 years old, got a no move clause, and he signed through, wait for it, 2024. 2024, yeah. Yeah. As a president of the Cory Crawford Hate Club, even I will tell you that that Brent Super Contract is fucking way worse.

That's a way worse deal. Welcome again to another meeting of the Corey Crawford Hate Club. Our guest, as usual, Scott, darling. Scott, you have a 20-point higher Sabrescentage over your career. How do you feel about never getting playing time over this guy? Scott will be telling his arduous journey from obscurity of the National Hockey League. Scott, tell us how gifted and wonderful Corey Crawford, the golden child, born of the silver spoon in his mouth is compared to your journey.

Yeah, 2024 for Seabrook. Again, the problem with the Blackhawks is this. I mean, it's a good thing that a lot of their younger players are going to be good. They're going to be maybe even better next year. Maybe they figured out how to play in the playoffs. Right, like, who are the guys you going to bank on to be like the next? Or Schultz is going to be real good. Like, I think he's great.

He just had a bad postseason. But, like, Kane, Taves, Hosa, Um, Anissimov. Jesus Christ. Well, he came back from injury. Stan, what are you doing? Yeah, oh, the contract. He's got no move clause.

No move clause for Seabrook. No move clause for Keith. No move clause for Yarmelssohn. No move clause for Cory Crawford. And they're probably going to lose Marcus Kruger to the Vegas team. And those are, by the way, those are all the people that make more than Marcus Kruger, who makes $3 million a year. Yeah.

They are top heavy. Listen, the real question on this is whether as a black. Blackhawks fan, you'd be willing to trade the pain that is coming in seeing your team be a first-round casualty and perpetuity potentially for the three cups. And of course you won't. The three cups are amazing. Yeah, you have three cups basically every other year for six years. This is, this is the price you pay. This is, this is, right. You're not going to win a cup every other year at the entire time Jonathan Taves and Patrick Kane are under contract. So you, you, you, I get the no move for Brent Seabrook. But the thing is, like, I understand paying an Isamov who's going to be your side. second line center. That's fine. But like if Brent Seabrook's going to be your potentially third best defenseman behind Chalmerson and Keith, you can't give that guy that deal. I mean, wait, did they win a cup with that? No, they didn't want a cup with that contract in existence, right? Ritzelan. Oh boy. And two firsts. Oh, God. For Patrick Kane. And Patty goes home to Buffalo. Why in the world the fucking Chicago?

I don't see that. Jesus. I'm trying to figure out, you got to find a way, you got to find a way to get these guys to wear their no move closets. To go to the Dean Lombardi school. Either frame them for a crime at the border, take away the sea from one of them and shame them for an entire year and then ask them to move next year.

It's going to be almost impossible to frame Patrick King with a crowd. Yeah, he's, I mean, yeah, if they're not going to get rid of Patrick King at this point, they're never going to get rid of Patrick Kane. Like, they're going to have to have Jonathan Taves get pulled over at like a stoplight for some weird reason and like all of a sudden they open his trunk

and there's a dead body back there And the cops are just like Sign this thing that in the gates are no trade clause Or were taking you in and he's like fine The next thing you know he's in Dallas And no one knows why Unfortunately at Chicago So it's like here can you sign an autograph for me

And we'll just close this trunk And forget this ever happened That's the Chicago way Oh nicely done All right Sarah Baker is formerly of CSN Philly A former morning show host on CSN in Philly Is now a proud Citizen

What I guess whatever resident That's what I'm looking for Resident of New York City one of our favorite people. She's got a lot to say about the flyers and hockey and life in general. And when we get back, round two picks. Sarah Baker, thanks for coming on Puck Soup. We appreciate you being here as we frantically searched the late Jonathan Demi's IMDB page. He's also in the movie. To find out that he was a producer on that thing you do.

Here's the thing. Jonathan Demi is a very famous director. He directed at least one masterpiece, Silence of the Lambs. He directed something wild. He directed Stop Making Sense. masterpiece of the musical documentary form. Wait, what was the movie? What was the movie? Sounds the Lance. No, you say you directed something wild. What was it?

Oh, my God. Are you serious? Can I kick him out? Do I get that? Do I get that movie? Do I get that movie? I'm sorry that I don't know the exact movie you're talking about. Something Wild. But what was it called? But it was called something wild. I know it was called Something Wild, but what's the title of the movie? It was called Shindler's list. Isn't that wild? You call that movie Something Wild? That's offensive. Listen to me. Oh, my God. The point of this story is that, I know, I just said the Schindler's this joke.

When I was on Doug Loz movies, name drop, Judy Gold, comedian Judy Gold was on the show with me. And she used Schindler's List as a punchline at least 17 times during the show. You know, like, are you supposed to guest movies? Hey, guys. It's good. And she was booed off stage, pretty much. Really? I realize that I've now made the same mistake.

Going to get booed off my own podcast. Boo. I think you can make one in a two-hour segment, like 17 in a two-hour segment. The point is that he did all of this amazing work. and certain parties in backwards New York Giants hats was like oh Jonathan Demi oh yeah of course

from that thing you do That's not how the conversation went in at all Tom Hanks directed it No he's like no he had something to do With that thing you do Which we come to find out He was a producer And he also had a small role in it

But it's literally like saying Oh Jonathan Demi you mean The executive producer Uncredited of Amos and Andrew Like man They had this is what he does Is he he loses the argument, then changes the framework

of it to make it seem like I was wrong the whole time You were not wrong, but he's right in pointing out that the way your brain Get the hell off my show. It's been real, guys. Thanks for having me for these 46 seconds. Oh, wait a second. Jonathan Demi, you mean the executive producer of Mangamsi, the ancient one? Holy fuck, you're going to insult Mangamsi?

That was a breakthrough role for a time of it. Oh, my God. Wow. Oh, man. All right, so the producer of Neil Young Trunk Show died and it's very sad. But Sarah, we wanted to have you in because you're new to New York. It's true. Welcome to the big city. Thank you. I've been here exactly one week. Fresh off the boat from Philadelphia. Yep, long ride. And you are one of our favorite people because you used to be on the hockey beat. It's true. But then you became a TV star.

It's also true. For a year. Almost two years. Almost two years. Yeah, almost two years. In Philadelphia. You were hosting the morning show on CSN Philadelphia. Breakfast on Broad. Now, when you did breakfast in broad, what morning show did you pattern it after? Was it the kitchen on Food Network with Jeff the sandwich guy? Not quite. Okay. No, we were trying something new, right?

We were trying something that hadn't been done before, taking this idea that you can merge a morning show, you know, friendly people that you'd want to hang out with while you're drinking your coffee with sports debate. Obviously, it didn't work out because after less than two years, we were unceremoniously canceled. What were some of your hot takes? Give me some of the hot takes on the morning debate show. Oh, my God. Well, they're not about hockey. I hope you guys are okay with that. Probably something involving an Eagles quarterback.

So there was a lot of that. I mean, one of the first things that happened was Tim Tebow. The Eagles brought in Tim Tebow. So that was a hell of a thing. Hot takes and Tim Tebow on television? This doesn't seem like it's possible. Not at all, right? We argued a lot about whether it's okay to give a standing ovation to a guy your team has traded away

who comes back and then demolishes your team. there was a thing with Chase Utley coming back and every time he came up to bat Philly fans were, you know, standing up. Completely depends on how he left. Well, he left on a good note, I think. Did he leave because they didn't want to resign for because he was chasing the money?

No, he was... End of his career, they didn't want him back and somebody else gave him an opportunity in L.A. Then that's fine. But even if he's demolishing your team, like he gets up there and he hits three home runs in a game and every time he comes up subsequently, you're going to cheer?

But if your team is a Phillies and it's really bad and you have nothing else going on. It all depends on how you feel about ownership at that point. That's sort of my argument. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That was my take.

It's one game out of 162. You can let a dude who gave you a lot of good memories. I agree. Murder you when you're having a 55 win season. Not everybody on our team on our show agreed. If a former Brooklyn net comes back and puts up 90 points against them, I don't care how he left. I just hate my team so much. Because I know he's not the reason they traded all those fucking picks.

Philly's fans are a little bit different now, though, because they under, you know, the 2008 World Series is not that far back in the back of your brains, right? I can't believe I've just hijacked a hockey podcast to talk about baseball. This is so weird. We've learned today that no one cares about hockey. That's true. We haven't learned that. We're shifting here. It's baseball soup.

It's baseball soup. Ball soup. No. What was Chase Sutley's OPS? I have no fucking clue, you guys. Come on. Other people's sandwiches. Oh.

Yeah. God, you don't know anything about sports. I would, I would, okay, listen to me about, about Philly sports. Do you think, listen to you? you about Philly Sports. Not me, you. Do you think that your hot takes weren't hot enough? Because I've listened to WIP. Oh, God. Here's what's going on in Philadelphia right now. Everything is bad and no hot takes are of any substance. Everybody is manufacturing content because it's just boring right now. There isn't anything interesting or salacious to talk about. Eagles a little bit.

And I think that played a part in why our show was axed. And if you go online and read some of the blogs, I think a lot of writers agreed with that. You don't think it's because Philadelphia essentially everybody has a hot take so it's almost like what the villain syndrome wanted to do and the Incredibles and if everybody's special

then no one will be special maybe four years ago I would have agreed with that but also wow yeah no I just think that the teams are bad and the sixers were interesting for a couple of months there

and then everybody was just rested for the rest of the season so it's just been boring to six years have that dude everybody loves that they just Chuel and Bid but he hasn't played he didn't play the whole

like last three months of the season but like he's on Instagram trying to get late all the time isn't he that is yeah he's fine He's a lot of fun. You can have hot takes about that.

Like, don't have sex. No, I think you should have sex. You know, maybe that would work on the radio, but on a morning show, it's 7 o'clock in the morning, not sure that's what they wanted us to be talking about. WIP. Yeah. How would, I think Joel and Beach probably shouldn't be having sex on Instagram. I'll hang up and listen. And then all you hear is.

Pretty much, yeah. All right, Pete Fivilla next. It's tough times in Philadelphia. Now, think about it. There's a bunch of teams that might be good down the road, but there's nothing of it. It's just boring. The coaches are kind of boring. That's not necessarily a bad thing for anybody who isn't in sports media, right? For the fans and the teams, fine. But there's no controversy. It's just sort of not fun. So what didn't work on the show? Is it the coffee or the hot takes? The time was tough. You know, morning shows are really tough because people are people like habits. They have routines. So to get somebody off of the Today show or CBS this morning to watch your show. Even if they're a huge sports fan, it's a tough. We knew that going into it. It was a challenge to break routines.

Much respect to Good Morning America. You just leave them out of the equation. We all know people are never leaving America and watch your show. I know the names of all the morning shows. I cannot tell you like who, like, I know that like. Who are the two people on Today Show? You know one. I know one.

I think. The Today Show. See, that's not the one Matt Lauer. That is the one with Matt Lauer. It's a super big Rangers fan who came into the game with a new playoff hat with a sticker on it, Matt Lauer. Hoda's on one of them, right? She's on the fourth hour of the today show. Oh, that's all part of the Today Show?

It's all part of the Today Show. That show goes on forever. See, I'm a bad person because when I'm at home, I don't put my TV on until like four-part. It's like in the old days, it used to be Monday Night Raw for an hour, and then Raw is war would come out after it on WW. That's exactly the example. Matt Lauer, and who's the lady host?

Starts with an S. Mm-hmm. Oh, it's a city in the South. That's true. Salahassee. Salam. Salem Jones. Salem Witch trial.

That is not the Salam. Savannah Guthrie. I have no idea who that is. Yes, you do. Come on. I swear to God. I've never heard that name until right now. Okay.

Is she related to Jeremy Guthrie, the baseball pitcher? I do not believe so, but that's unconfirmed. Daughter of Arlo Guthrie. Good Morning America is Robin Roberts. Yes. And who's the dude? It used to be Josh Elliott, right? I don't remember who the guy is on.

Okay. Good morning America. Yeah. There's one with, what's her name? Which is a morning show? I don't know what channel it's on, but like I've definitely seen her on. Oh, Raven White Roberts and George Stephanophan. Oh, Sevenopoulos.

Oh, it's a look like a stray hand. Of course. Right. When they drafted him and left him all alone. Oh, my God. Right. Of course. And it became today live with Kelly.

Right. Forgot about that. So Robin Roberts is now a morning show. show host. Oh, man, you don't get until about 11. And then CBS this morning, as you know, Charlie Rose. Gail King. Gail King, sure. Norah O'Donnell.

Noronnell. James Crawford. I have no idea of these people. CBS is the one where I'm not, I don't know any of these people. I think I'm thinking of a view knockoff. Maybe not like a morning. Man, Charlie Rose, see, the thing about Charlie Rose is that, like, that's the guy you fall asleep to, not the guy you wake up to. Unless you really like to ease into your mornings.

Oh, like a soft bell movement and a cough. I mean, I wasn't going that direction, but maybe. Charlie Rose, the soft bowel movement of television dash Greg Wershinsky, fuck soup. How are you not in marketing? I have friends at CBS. I'll make a phone call. Look, he's a television host, except he's like a soft bowel movement. That's brilliant.

Do you guys watch John Oliver at all? Yeah. So one of the... New Yorker's a fan future puck soup guest, John Oliver? Really? I hope so. Oh, okay, you assume. He is someone who likes hockey.

in New York. There's only a few of them. This is, I want him to come on an answer for the drunk jokes. Oh, my God, right? So a couple weeks ago, he did you know, and now this segment thing and he talked about all of, they showed just the weird sexual tension on CBS this morning between Charlie Rose and all the female co-hosts and it's amazing.

And I think it was like two weeks ago and if you haven't seen it, I would encourage you to either run in the opposite direction or if you have a thick, you know, thick tolerance. You're, you're never, no one's never not a hockey writer. So you're a hockey writer. Sure. What was the thing that you would put on at 2.30 or 3 in the morning when you were done writing or going out to fall asleep to?

That's a really good question. Last night for me, it was suicide squad. I don't know. Why would you do that to yourself? I don't know. Why would I do that to myself? I don't know. It's like the second time it's happened. Margot Robbie shorts. And it's always the same part.

It's when they, the helicopter is already crashed. Will Smith finds the binder and he's like throws it at that guy who can't act and says. Which one? More specific, please. Second Robocop. What's his face? Tall guy. Oh, Joel Kinnam. Yeah, Joel Kinman. And he throws that and he's like, tell him or I'll tell him. And I never understand. Like, tell him what? That there's a monster?

Like, there's a big fucking spacehole in the sky. Like, you don't know what's going on here? I bet you have some amazing dreams. No, I usually just drift off to sleep. Well, I'm a... Tell us your dreams. I'm a dreamer in the sense that I'm an optimist, but I'm not a dreamer in the sense of that night. I dream a lot. Well, you don't remember them anyway. Yeah, I'm a very solid sleeper. Oh, you're dreamless dreams.

well that's deep that's deep no I just have no what the fuck is a dreamless dream what you just don't dream for eight hours a night yeah

yeah yeah well no that's that's called sleep yeah it's called sleep well you're dreaming but you just don't remember it so therefore they're dreamless dreams dreams without dreams

the new album by John Tess oh god it's like say if you go to a movie and it's just a black screen for two hours like it's still a movie even though it's nothing it's a movie

it's a movie it's to the dreams without dreams it's my Emma Stone and Lala Lance I don't think I don't think I watched TV. I've been thinking about this for the past 45 seconds. Well, you guys just did whatever the hell that was that you just did.

You never threw on like an infomercial or... To be cool. Listen, I was doing a morning show for the last two years. What time did you have to go to sleep for the morning? I was waking up for the first year and a half. I was waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning. So I was trying to go to bed around 7, 8 o'clock. Yeah. Yeah.

So I don't, like, I was waking up when you'd be putting on that crap TV, right? To fall asleep, too. But before then I would just be really, when I was covering games and stuff, I'd just probably be pretty drunk and I'd come home and pass out. No, no TV. Yeah. Wow. Good for you. Where is Philly on the Flyers right now?

Has the Mystic or optimistic? They are ready to get rid of the fan base is so anti-the-coach and almost anti-hextal right now. I can't believe it. And it came really quickly because about two years ago, everybody was so on board. And then all of a sudden they jumped ship. And I can't figure it out for the life of me. You know what it is? It's that he's the coach is an idiot.

Oh, is that what it is? He's not a good coach. Because you had a. big beef with him about the gossus bear stuff, right? About bench and ghost? Like if you're a coach in the NHL and you have a lot of veterans on your team that are bad and your plays to make an example of the good rookies, even Travis, that was his move. Like, if that's your move, like, it's not Ron Hextall's fault that Andrew McDonald's on the roster.

I don't blame him as much. Right. Right. If your strategy is Idaho, Shane Gossus Bear needs to learn how to know, he's your second best or maybe best defense. Well, let me ask you this question then. So because it seems to me, at least from my hanging out on Twitter time, that most of the active on social media fan base is ready, ready to get rid of Dave Haxstall, the coach, right?

Right. But you can't become one of those teams that just fires their coach every other year. Sure. Aren't you kind of that already? Well, that's why I think they're trying to move away from that. And so I understand there are growing pains involved. I'm with you. I think there were some questionable decisions, the handling of the goaltenders, the ghost and connect me scratching and the timing of those.

I totally get it, but I wouldn't fire the guy right away. I'd give him another year. That's not that roster. He's tipped his hands. He's a back coach. You're ready to give up that quick. Absolutely. It must be so confusing when the crowd chants fire Haxdahl.

Because it really could go out. Ron Hectolls in the GM's box going, what the fuck, man? They're like, no, no, it's the coach you hired they're talking about. After the game is Ron's like that. They're talking about you. And he's like, no, they're talking about you. No, I listen very closely. It's a hackstall.

Your Hector stall. What? Yeah. But I remember when Hax, sorry. Yeah. Hax stall got hired. Yes, me too. And I was in.

thank you very good. Neither of us are brain damaged. The, we were at media, like, it was, we were doing, like,

the players media thing in Toronto. And I remember, like, having a brief conversation with Claude Drew at the time about it. I'm just like, yeah,

you guys really need to, like, turn this stuff around. And it's like, you hired an NCAA coach. So what do you think about that? And I remember him just being like, guess we'll wait and see. Yeah,

like, I think it's actually, in, with full credit to Hextall, it's miraculous he got as much, he got those players to buy in as much as they had, considering he was a complete novice. Totally, absolutely. The first year, I think he got more out of that team than that team really should have done. They made it to the postseason.

They really had no business doing that. And the roster last year and this year, pretty much the same roster. That's the thing is like, it's almost like Pete DeBoer. Year one, Pete DeBore. Man, he gets everything out of that team. And then year two, it's like, hey, got a little less. and then year three, it's like, hey, we're going to be out on the first round. And year four, it's like, eh, we're a lottery team.

And if Dave Haxthaw's that guy, cut him off now. Don't have. It's funny, man. Like, there's 23rd place a year again. There are certain coaches that are like immediate return. Like, Pat Burns was always a guy you could hire and you would know. Right away. Hitchcock's the same way.

You hire him and you know within like two years. I think Peter Lobby lets another one too. Yeah. He might have more long-term results, though, I feel like. But he's, but I think I think he's a guy much like Pat Burns that his routine wears thin. Yes, exactly. Exactly. It works until all of a sudden it doesn't. It doesn't.

It doesn't. Yeah. Flyers are in that terrible spot too where like they're not awesome and they're not, they're nowhere near bad enough to tank. They're just going to linger in that shitty spot. You don't want to with the ruins. You don't want to be in that spot for five years. Oh.

Oh, gosh. I really love Philly. You know, I know I live here now, but I still got to defend my homeland. Come on, are you going to get, yeah, how are you going to handle? Are you going to get rid of Philly Trappings? Like, are you, can you now, now that you're out of the business for a second? Like, can you say you're a fan of the Philly team? No, definitely not.

So will you embrace all the New York teams? No, I can't, I don't know. It's so, I've been in this for so long and I've worked in it for so long. You know what I think would really be great? Becoming a New York Jets fan. So wait, actually, let me tell you. My family is all Jets fans. I come from Jets fans.

I've seen them play. My uncles had like the season tickets on the 50 yard line for 100 years until they moved. Did they not make you a Jets fan out of fear that child protective services would come and take you away? Pretty much, yes. Yeah. My parents moved to Philly in the 70s, and they were like, it can't be worse here, can't it? Imagine if, like, you're growing up and your choices are Jets fan or Eagles fan. You better like green.

You better like green. And losing. Losing. And Rich Coat-type. So are you of the mind about the flyers that they need to do something dramatic? Like, if memory serves, they're okay in the expansion draft bit. But there's all this talk about, hey, we should trade. break up the core.

Break up the core. Drake Vorechek or something like that for stuff. Do you agree with that? Well, Jake Vorichick had a down season. He's had a couple down seasons in a row, so I'm not averse to it. I like him as a guy. I think he's a total classy guy. I like him as a player.

I think he passes too much. I think that they need somebody who can score goals, as is evidenced by the fact that they struggled to do that pretty much all season long. So am I averse to breaking up the core, making a dramatic move? No. But they're really going to have to do something creative because the cap space still isn't there. You know, Hextall has put all of this, Hextall, Hexal, H-E-X, to be like, has been all of this emphasis. Ron, Ronnie down there in Philadelphia has done a very good job of fortifying their defensive prospects, right?

They've got a bunch of guys coming up, which is super exciting. But that's still not going to solve the problem of, like, you need to score goals to win. And I was around the team starting in 2009. And even then I was screaming and yelling for, like, a left-winger who could score goals. And still, four coaches later, a couple of GMs. later still don't have that guy. I'm Nikolai Gerardov. Remember him?

Nikolai Gerardov? Oh, God. What brought that on? I think about that guy all the time. Why? That got like the raw steel ever because he was Russian and he scored a bunch of goals and wasn't great defensively. But you go back and look at that dude's possession numbers.

Yeah. He was a fucking monster. I feel the same way about Samson. He couldn't stick anywhere. Like, I feel like there's an entire class of Russian wingers. Yeah. That probably if they had played now in the analytics era would be totally embraced in the way they weren't. That's a really good point.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome. I made Handley too. But like, if you can trade Phil Kessel, you can trade Jake Voracek. Yeah, I don't. You can dodge a wrench.

I mean, my question would be if you look at, is there anybody in the flyers that that's untouchable? Calderu. Maybe Wayne Simmons? I don't, I don't understand the logic of don't trade Claude. Like, Claudeau's not the problem. He's the solution to a problem that you keep on the team. Yes.

Izzy? Yes. Izzy, though. You know, Claudeau's numbers have dipped. And generally when a guy approaches 30 or hits that mark and he will be 30 in a year, do those numbers ever recover? They largely don't recover. So is it about the player or the players who are around that player? Here's what you do.

What do you do? You trade Borchek and Drew to the Kings. Oh, God. I feel like I've been here before. You're giving me flashbacks. And then they send what young buck that they don't have to the flyers. Right. They send some like shitty Shen brother.

Oh, no more Shen brothers. Bob Shen comes to the Flyers. He's tearing it up right now. Oh, Bobby Shen. Who are you most happy you don't have to deal with now that you're out of Philly? Who am I most happy that I don't have to do. Is there guys? Trash somebody. Trash some people here. Let's do that. Let's have a good interview.

Not even a trash. It's like a difficult chatter in any sport in Philly. You know, when you move over to TV, everybody becomes a lot easier to deal with. Boy, right? I had some coaches in the past who maybe weren't my biggest fans. I know that. On the writing side or on the TV side? Definitely on the writing side. I'm not going to name the guy who I heard secondhand wanted to punch me in the face. That's a true story. Andy Reid.

Not Andy Reed. Like Jack. Not going to tell you who it is. Oh, so it's Peter Lobulet. I didn't say that. Wow. Peter Lobuillet threatened violence against. Based on career history, probably Craig Ruby.

I mean, that would make sense. Oh, yeah. He was actually good to, he was good to deal with. Every enforcer is always a sweetheart. That was just a joke. Dave Haxall is tough, man. He is tough to deal with. No, he did not bone to punch me to face.

Jesus Christ. No, but he's tough to deal with. If you need to stop it. Oh my God, she just winked. Stand your foot twice. If it was him, say something. Oh, my God. No.

No, he was really, really tough to deal with. And I'm not saying he's not a good guy. Now, I dealt with him in two different ways as he came on our morning show a bunch of times. And he was totally friends. Why? Oh, my God. You know, 20 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago, I want to be clear here, 20 minutes ago, Dave, you were all on

Wishes case about making gross comments and now it's your turn. What's going on here? Yeah. To be fair, he did come upstairs and say like he wants to have us both the same time. I said I was happy that you were all Like you can have us both at once or something. You don't want to get you both at the same time when I walked upstairs. That's true, I did say that.

So that, yeah. But it's like a gross way, just like a human centipede way. Now listen. Of course. Shock on front. I wanted to pause in this TV writing thing because you, I mean, I'm sort of fascinated by that as someone who will

never be on television because I'm fat. I know. Thank you, honey. How did things change? Yeah, it's weird. Was it more like you were asking now, and I don't mean to besmirch any profession. Sure, sure, sure.

But here comes. But I'm going to do. Were you asking more TV-esque questions than writing questions? Was that part of it? On the morning show, yes. But I also really, I like to think I had pretty good relationships, especially with the people in hockey, because I did. been around for so long. So I tried. It's harder to get those questions in when you have like

four minutes with a guy and there's two or three other people asking questions and you can't just grab a guy as he's leaving and walking out the room. And also certainly coaches are aware when there's a camera going. It's a little bit different. It can be, you know, easier when you have a guy on the phone or even if you have a voice recorder. It's harder. Was hacks all easier on TV? I think I cut you off. Yeah. Yeah. He, listen, like I'm so not trashing him. I want to be really clear. He's a, he's a good guy, but he's a tough interview. He doesn't give anything up. He was much more fun on TV. It was, you know,

you've seen, you've seen him. He's like sort of steely. You know, we got to play better on defense to make sure our forwards are really more responsible. But here, I'm going to take up this party favor since I'm on TV. I do believe we made him say Hextall, Haxall, like 10 times fast or something on air and he did it like, Hextal,

Haxstall, I don't know. Which is like a total morning. This is fun. I think he laughed. Let me ask you this. As a TV person. Did you have to work on your fake laugh? Like that? Like, right. When someone's just like, and so Sarah, that's when I decided that the Eagles weren't good enough, but they were bad enough to lose.

You have to go. Sorry, if I may ask a follow up. As a woman in media, had you already perfected your fake laugh? Yes. Oh, my God, yes. Years ago. 2009 was my first season, 2009, 2010. I think I had it perfected in, like I'd say by 2009.

Who is the player that her asked you the most? I'm not going to answer that question. But there is an answer. There is an answer. Right away, I can tell you, snap. Let me just see if I can figure it out. Here it is again. You guys had Amanda Stein on last week, right?

Yeah. And one of the first conversations we had when we became friends and bonded was like sharing details about, you know, just what it's like to be a woman around a bunch of guys all the time, players, reporters, all that kind of. That sounds like a great interview for a podcast. Maybe we should do it as opposed to doing it at a bar where there's no microphones around it. If you want to, like, really let the people know what it's like. Let me ask a general question about that. Sure.

How long did it take for them to, because if I remember correctly, like, were you the only woman on the Philly Beat at that point? For the entire time. Right. So, I mean, like, how long did it take them to understand what was cool and not cool around? The players are the reporters. I'm kidding. Oh, my God. Rank the reporters from most annoying.

Being completely honest here, I'm really lucky because I've heard all of those horror stories and I know a number of women who've had horror stories. And I'm not going to say that there haven't been, let's say, potholes along my route here. But I'm pretty lucky. Like, players, mostly, for the most part, respected me on everywhere I've been. Hockey players are better than baseball players, which I have also covered, by the way. A lot better. What's like an example of the disrespect without saying who it was? I was in a Philly's clubhouse and one player yanked off another player's towel in front of me and then elbowed me to say, ha-ha, you see that?

Look at that weiner. Yeah. Classic guy move. Yeah. That happens. thing guys do. That did not ever happen in a hockey locker room. That happened to be at a bank once. Weird.

A sperm bank? Like, what can a What is that guy? The disease is traveled over to the other side of the table. Nice. But the flyers, the flyers were nothing not bad. No, I mean, really, really largely a good group of guys. I mean, there were players who were tough to cover. I was around Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, not friends of the media. So that made it a little challenging. But they weren't bad guys by any stretch of the imagination. They just, you know,

didn't love to have to talk to us and we're pains in the ass. They must have been so conflicted because they hate the media, but you're a woman. I know, right? I know. Right. But also, a number of the players knew that I play hockey. And that right away. Is that like unbelievable street cred to say that you play the game?

I remember in 2012 at the Winter Classic when it was in Philly, we had a media game. And a couple of the players came out and saw me there afterward. And like, they were super excited. And like, it's something clicked. I don't know. it definitely helps with the respect factor and you became one of them and started harassing women reporters so we're trying to talk about. Oh my God, yes.

We shared recommendations about how best to Yeah, exactly. What a weird, what a weird thing to do? They're like, what's the end game there for you? Where like you get all hot by it and you're like, yeah. They're, I don't know, they think it's funny. They think it's funny. They think it's all it is.

It's all a rub. And that was, oh my God. Oh, come on. It's not meant to be. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. There it is again.

The one thing I wanted to bring up, let's get out of the harassment thing, but I wanted to bring up the thing you put on Facebook. Which is also harassment, by the way. This is going to be the cherry on the harassment Sunday. Oh, okay, great. I could not believe for the life of me. Like, everybody knows that everybody on social media is just a complete asshole. And most likely is an asshole to a woman. Right.

And most likely is a real asshole to a woman in media. Right. But I got to be honest. You're like the thing that you got when you when you said that you that the show was ending. Oh boy. From that from that dude was just beyond the pale. Yeah. So I'm trying to pull this up.

Here we go. All right. So this was right around when I announced that, you know, I was leaving CSN and all this kind of stuff. And for any of your listeners who don't know me, I guess you could say that I was a Steve Mason sympathizer. You know, I have a number of friends what you guys were talking about. Some advanced statistics earlier. Yeah, you know, he, whatever. I would just try and argue.

other sides sometimes. In Philly, listen. Any goaltender that shows up in Philadelphia is the fans are going to hate him at some point just because it's Philadelphia and because just the position is cursed or something. And my argument was always just like, hey, this guy is not as bad as you think he is. The position is not cursed when you hire goalie. Pay him 10 years, $50 billion to be the solution to your problems and then you find out he is space cadet.

He's afraid of bears. It was nine years, 50. $1 million. And that was awful, Brizz, by the way. Oh, he's a perfect bris. So do you want me to read to you? This is just a string of tweets from a guy that I had seen tweeted me a number of times and he'd sort of like poked a little bit in the past. What did Noviourth fan 69 say? Yeah, exactly. He's still private. I'm not. Yeah, his Twitter is still private. We'll not. We'll just call him Bob. How about that? We'll call him Bob. Bob. Bob wrote, and this is a string of three tweets. And it was not Sergey Bobrofs. And it was not Sergey Bobrofs. By the way, Sergey Bobrofsky wishes you would call him Bob's. His nickname is Bob's. Not Bob. I don't understand why. Why is it Bobbs? I don't know that's...

He's only one Sergey Bobboski. That's what's stitched on all of his equipment. It's Bob's. Like, that was... No, because like, this is like that fucker, J.A. Hap in Toronto who wants to be called J. He used to be a Philly. He used to be a Philly. He used to be a Philly.

Anyway, no. Moving on. You're Bob. Is it Danny Brier or Daniel Brier? Oh, my God. I can't keep track anymore. It's whatever you want it to be. All right.

Here is the tweets that I got from Bob when I announced I was leaving CSN Philadelphia. Not Bob's, but Bob. Not Bob's, but Bob. This guy does not play hockey, to the best of my knowledge. Let's be clear, Sarah. You were a hack here in Philly, who many people knew fucked Steve Mason. And then you didn't get as, oh, that didn't get you as far as you'd hoped, huh? Congrats on, quote, unquote, leaving before they released your worthless ass.

My dog has better hockey knowledge, and I'm pissed because there were real hockey minds stuck behind you with real insight while you blew your way to be an insider. hashtag worthless. I like the hat. Well, the worthless was actually misspelled at the end of them. What did you think of when you saw these? What the fuck? And by the way, this guy, this is important to you. Had you ever heard from this person before? I had seen tweets from him before and he would take issue with things I said, but not like that. Yeah. And if you, and he's private on Twitter still, Dave, so you can't see his bio? Can you read his bio? He's a regional project manager for a multinational capital M, capital N, multinational housing development company. Here are his priorities. This is the part that you would try. Priorities, number one, my girls. Number two, work.

Number three, Jim. And number four, all Philly Sports teams. He puts women above Philly Sports teams. But his girls, his daughters, who are in his Twitter picture, are his priority. And he's tweeting at people like me. And I can't imagine I'm the only one. I mean, I don't know how many people are out there fucking Steve Mason. But, you know, which I did not do to be clear.

Oh, my God, that's a joke. It is obvious. It's not what you did. Right. Because if anybody in Philly was trying to get ahead in their career, the last person you're going to fuck is a Philly goalie. Who's an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season? I mean, come on.

This person's got a lot of influence. Oh, shit, he's been traded already. Fuck the guy who got resigned. I mean, come on. It's like Steve Mason, and then it's like an Eagles quarterback, and then it's like a six-year's big man. Oh, my God. There's just no.

There's no way to win there. There's no way. But, you know, and I do not miss that stuff. Now, who knows if it's going to be a part of my future going forward. that awesome stuff on Twitter, but yeah, I don't miss that at all. What do you want to do now? What are your dreams, sir? What are your dreams of assuming your dreams have dreams? Now that you're in New York, dreaming, dreamful dreams.

Dreaming, dreamful dreams while I dream. Well, I mean, I'm so I'm just over two weeks out of CSN now, and this is the first time in my life that I have not had to do anything. It's fucking awesome. Can you tell us more about that, but like describe it slowly? it's fucking amazing I can sleep in and you're still getting paid to I guess actually can um no but I had saved up some money no it's not a fun employment well it no no because I didn't I didn't I didn't get like a buyout or anything like a golden parachute oh yeah like when you get laid off

I think like a couple of weeks yeah no severance for me like when I left the NHL in 2013 like I had like five weeks yeah I've just like so I mean so it's not of words it's like you know like you you you job goes away it falls apart and then they like like pay you like a lot of money like well I would never happen here at Yahoo but no you know I knew that this was coming I wasn't laid off I elected to leave um they offered me to stay doing other stuff that I didn't want to do um so I knew this was coming I had a hard out on my calendar and I'd saved some money and I knew my plans were to come up here really smart it you know I wish I had thought about it more and had more money um but I also do have something coming that I'm not

prepared to talk about yet from a, you know, professional, like, job thing is coming. I have a job coming. Can't talk about it yet. It will be very exciting. But right now, you ask me, like, what do I want to do? What would be my dream job? This, doing nothing and getting paid for it would be fucking fantastic. That'd be great. Guys, I, like, go to the gym when I want to, and I walk around, and I have drinks with friends. You go to the gym and you don't worry about missing something? Yeah. I don't understand. It's amazing. I know. I can lock my phone in the locker. at the gym, it doesn't matter. Oh, wow, you do that?

I just started. That's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, if I'm taking classes, I mean, otherwise. Also, I have, like, the Bluetooth one, so I could do that. What's your favorite class to take? I'm like a, like, a boot camp kind of girl.

Yeah, that's a bit too much. What's that? What's boot camp? It's like everything horrible, but it's good for you. You know, it's like, you know. Philly sports? It's Philly sports is not good for you. Let's, let's be clear here.

Do you do cycling classes? I do cycling classes occasionally. I did one for the first time here. in New York on Monday with my best friend, and the lights were off, and there were, like, black lights and flashing music, and the guy was, like, super into it. It was, like, right around the corner from here. Can I tell you the truth? That was actually a club. It felt like it was a club. I was like the truth about cycling classes. I really enjoy them. Yeah. I like loud music for, like, 45 minutes. Sure. And I like riding a bike, but I don't have,

you could ride a bike, but not worried about getting killed by a truck on a one-way street. But I, I, the part of the, of the cycling where you have to, like, dip your head to the music. I don't do it. I always think of that bird that people have on their desks where there's a bulb on the body of them filled with liquid and it just dips in. Yeah. You know, I feel like that. I can't, I can't cycle the bike and and keep to the rhythm with my face going down on the handles. Yeah, they make you like dip, almost like doing pushups sort of.

Yeah, it's like doing pushups on the handlebars. But you're also pedaling at the same time. Yeah. So the area on a grand as song, it's like, yeah. And then like you dip your head on the beat. I don't see how that helps you get in better shape. I feel like this is going to hurt your neck and back by constantly body. I mean, it might.

It's up in town while you're going full speed on the bike. To be fair, you're supposed to be like lowering like your whole upper body, not just your head. Right. No, I try to do that. But you can't. But then I end up like just like head banging like a like a grandpah at an anthrax concert or something. It's like like fine the V. I have to get this on video.

And I'm also like 6-1 and a kind of a large guy. And I look around and like everyone, like women, they're like tiny women. Right. Yep. You know, and like they. They all can do it pretty well. And I feel like the bike's going to tip over. This is all the fault of OK go.

They made that one stupid video in the gym with the treadmills. And everyone wants to do like a choreographed workout because of those assholes. Oh, my God. But it's super fun. All right. Do you have any playoff thoughts before we are? I do have playoff thoughts. So actually, I want to talk to you guys about Washington and Pittsburgh.

All right. Like, is Washington going to win? Yes. They are. So you're both pretty confident. We are releasing our picks on this episode because the episode is out before the series. I am picking them in six. What about you? I want to go five.

Why? Five, five games? That seems kind of crazy, too. They're deeper. Mark Andre Fleury. Right. Okay, so that's, yes. I guess that's sort of my thing.

But Pittsburgh... The caps... So, like, not having Chris Laetang against the crappy blue jacket, didn't matter. Not having Chris LaTang against those top three lines, I think, is going to be an issue. So is this the year that Washington makes it to the Stanley Cup? Is this the year that Washington wins this Stanley? I've said this since the Shatton-Kirk trade. You think so?

Can't possibly fuck this up. But they totally can fuck it up. It's Washington. This is the only round, I think, where they could fuck it up. They're going to beat the Rangers or Ottawa, and they're going to beat whoever comes out of the West. It's a matter of getting past a series. This is the series. This is, this is, so it all hinges on this.

I just don't know that I can see them getting past Pittsburgh, even Pittsburgh without Lenton. I think, I think it comes. I think Holpey's the key. He was really ordinary for them last year in that series. And if he plays as well as he played in the elimination game against Toronto, I think they win the series. I think he's demonstrably the better goalie in the series. Doesn't it worry you a little bit that Toronto made it a series? No, I think that's the best thing that could happen.

Why, because it's a wake-up call? Like, do you really, do you buy in that? Who did the cabs play before the Penguins last year? Who do they? I don't even remember. Oh, right. I was there. And you know what?

And you know what? The Flyers in no way, shape, or form skate like the penguins. You know who skates like the penguins? Toronto does. All right. I think they have a, they're more prepared for this series playing a team like that. No, you're right. Okay, that's a good argument.

They also might be dead-ass tired. I was just going to say that. Or either that or they're totally burnt out. Right. Because they did look a little slow in that series. Yeah, they did. So it's one of the others. I think, I just, like, same thing with Nashville and Chicago.

Like, at some point you get one over on your tormentors. Yeah, that's fair. You know, and I feel like if it's ever going to happen, it's going to happen now. So I pick them with the hope that they do win because, honestly, I think it's, you know, is it better for hockey if the Penguins are in the final? It's better for NBC. Is it better for hockey that the capitals advance, like for fans, for the betterment of everything? Yes, because.

Like we've said many times with this podcast, we can stop with the same fucking arguments every year about Ovecian and that team. And, you know, listen, I just want to see Donald Trump in Washington on the ice when they win. Oh, God. And he's going to take the cup and he's going to say that he won it. And it's a way. You want to see it? I live in Washington, so I win the cup. Oh, God.

You know, that's all I want to see. This great, this great trophy. A tremendous effort. The best trophy. It's the best trophy. It's the best trophy. they've ever seen. I just, there's a...

So you like Pittsburgh, huh? Well, there, I don't want to say I like Pittsburgh because I will alienate every fan I've ever had. You don't live in Philly anymore. You've got to distance yourself from those people. Yeah, but I still have a lot of Twitter followers from Philly that I don't want to lose right away. That sounds terrible. I know why you want to lose. Yeah, Bob.

One, my girls. One A. Oh, God. Terturing. There's just this, like, evil part of me that wants Washington to lose so that they blow the team up this off season. Well, they're blowing on up anyway. They're going to have but like really blow it up. I don't know.

I don't know. I have somebody. See, I'm the other way. I'm like, I have so many friends in D.C. that have been through the shit. I don't fucking care.

I'm from Philadelphia. Like, come on. I know. Come on. I know. Washington is the worst. You know what you just did? There's a term for it.

You just Cleveland me. Oh, no. It's whenever you're, I mean, put LeBron to the side for a second. It's whenever as a Jets fan, I'm like, oh, God, here we go again. But I'm from Cleveland. And then yeah, so it's like, oh, oh, oh, Oh, yeah, try being a Browns fan, man. I'm like, oh, shut up.

But Philly is the better sports town. Washington hasn't won shit since the Redskins is an 88. I make the point that Philly pound for pound is the best sports town in America. As far as fan, as far as, no. Let me see some ID. As far as fanned. Who are you? As far as, like, being a fan of Philly.

No, the teams lose. It kind of sucks. But, like, what are you? You're scaring me. Stop. But Philly is the real. So I have spent time living in a town. I am living in Philadelphia.

I'm from Philadelphia. I spent the vast majority of my time there. I've also lived in Chicago. I lived in St. Louis. I spent some time in D.C. Tell me I'm wrong. I don't think you're wrong. I have all those cities.

As far as passion is concerned and dedication and just like, ooh, they live and breathe and bleed that stuff. I mean, mostly football, but what? You know what you don't have in Philly when the Phillies are good? New hats. You had Chicago and the Cubs won last year? New hats. New hats. New hats in Washington when the caps are playing well.

passion. Christ. They do, though. They do. No other city has passed. I mean, it's delusional, angry passion that manifests itself in Sarah getting tweets about. Oh, my God. That's passion. Yeah, we need more of that.

Which is really true, by the way. There's also the woman thing, which obviously exists. But I think that that's a lot of the negative shit that you get as a reporter on Twitter is because you're the go-between. Like, nobody can go up to Steve Mason and scream at him, but they can scream at me. So, you know. What's up with a Philly's Twitter account? They seem pissy all the time. They've been really good.

by the way. But like they're always like, just by the way, we'll tell you when the game's going to start. Did you see what they did yesterday? You didn't think it was funny? I just,

but like, I think that bugs me about social media people who run team accounts is they get mad when people at the team and be like, asking questions. No, no, no.

They're like, oh, you suck fire this and they're just like, um, reminder, I'm not the coach. I'm not, we fucking know you're not. Just fucking absorb to tweet. Yeah, but reporters,

no one's thinking about your customer service. Yes. Yeah, but how many reporters you're just the guy in the phone? Don't you know a bunch of reporters who will tweet? Like, reminder, I don't make the lines. Like, reminder, I don't set, you know, like, that's a reporter thing, too.

It's everybody on Twitter thing. No, but that person who yells at the reporter is yelling directly at the reporter. The person yells at the team. Right. They don't know the person behind the other. They don't know. That Philly Twitter account seems like it's taking it a little person. And so it's probably just a millennial thing because you know it's a bunch of millennials behind those.

I can say that. I can say that. You sound angry A. Well, I mean, technically I am one. So I think that I go. Oh, my God. It's so lit. All right, Sarah Baker, last question for me.

Which team in the playoffs do you not want to see play for the Cup? Is it Ottawa? It is at Washington. Well, I mean, I just said all that stuff about Washington. And also, but there's a little bit of a personal thing. Like, in my apartment, my boyfriend and I are arguing about this Washington, whether Washington is going to be the team that wins or not. And he says yes, and I say no. So, like, for my own personal life, I really don't want to see Washington in the Cup.

Because I want to be right. Because I want to be right. Because I want to be right. Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's not about how, it's about toll justos. Yeah, I want the told you so. I want to be like, yep, see, called it. But, okay, besides that, yeah, it's Ottawa.

I mean, everybody, I'm secretly, well, not so secretly. I tweeted it, I guess, yesterday. I'm pulling for the blues. I went to college in St. Louis. That was a team that I picked to win it every year in a row for a long time until I was just fucking gave up, sort of that Washington Capital Syndrome. And Jake Allen's been awesome. And, yeah. All right.

Last, last thing. Were you a Billican? Was I abilican? No, I went to Washington University. I'm smart. Yeah, I'm smart. I'm smart. What is the thing you'll miss most about Philly?

Oh my God, one thing that I'll miss most about Philly. Philadelphia is a... Should you narrow it down to like food? No. I can be succinct about this. Philadelphia is a great place to live because you can live a really nice life on not a ton of money, live in a great place, eat a lot of great food, and there is a lot of great food. And the people are actually nicer than you think they are, unless they're tweeting at you about the team and Steve Mason.

But yeah, I really, like, there's a reason I went back to Philly after grad school. I didn't, I had an opportunity to go outside. What if you could live in a place where you're perpetually in debt, and every time you want to go out to eat, you have to make a reservation five days earlier or sit at the bar? What if there was a place like that? Well, clearly I would go and move there. So. I'm glad you asked. Sarah Baker, where can people find your genius? They can find me on Twitter right now at S-B-B-B-A-I-C-E-R.

I am no longer verified because apparently, We didn't even talk about this. When you leave a company, you are no longer yourself. As we do the show, ESPN just had their layoffs. Yeah. It sucks. It sucks. But they all lost their checkpoints too, you said.

Yes, because apparently you are your job or you are nobody. And so I don't know. I'm nobody now because I don't work at CSN anymore. That's so disturbing. That means that like what about the 100,000 porn bots to follow me on Twitter? Like don't they amount to anything? I know, right? No, I guess not.

I guess not. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Somebody pushed me on a dick. Why is that always the go-to? Why is that the porn bot thing? I know. Somebody pushed me on a dick. Like, wait, my dick?

Or someone else's his dick? I get some, like, I go to my notifications and I'll see a story that like nobody commented on. They'll have like a Twitter comment. I'm like, oh, this is so exciting. It's like somebody pushed me on a dick. I'm like, but this was like a 2000 word well-researched story about Goli analytics. Oh. Sorry, buddy.

It's going to be okay. But yeah. So that's where they can find me on Twitter. I'm still there tweeting about stuff. Like, this is the first time in two years I've gotten to watch, like, all of the NHL playoffs because I was going to sleep at 7 o'clock at night for a couple of years. What was that transition, like, going from, like, up all night to up at 3 in the morning? Like, it was so hard. I didn't, I didn't, first week.

I don't think I, I don't think I slept for, like, six months. Oh, my God. Well, it's really hard to go to bed when the sun is up. I started wearing earplugs and an eye mask and doing a lot of things that they tell you to do to try and make yourself sleep, which I'm not going to talk about here because, I don't know. Um, so, you know. Time on all PM and a bottle of vodka. Maybe.

I mean, you know, it's, it's really hard to train yourself to. And coming out of it, I just, I think I've just been catching up on two years of sleep for the past three weeks. This all sounds great. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me, by the way. Keep living the dreams that dreams. Well, you have dreamless dreams. I dream the dream.

Is that a song? Is it like a Madonna song or something? Slame Miss. It's like. It's like. It is Leymis. I think Madonna sung it. No, not in Leamiz.

Thanks to Sarah Baker for joining us, who we're privy to the job, by the way, she's getting, and it sounds like it could be a real plum gig if it comes through. And when I asked her about it, I already knew what it was, even though when I asked her I did not remember. And then on the way out, because she told me the other day, and I completely forgot what she told me. Isn't it great to have a horrible memory?

Because, like, I get surprised by so many things in life that I already should know. Again, that's the beauty of being young is everything is like a new experience for you. So like when I'm 39 and I'm seeing a Kingsman movie for the second time in three years, I'm like, I've seen this already, but like if you're 24, you're like, it's awesome.

I'm talking about things like when Ruby's like, hey, don't you remember we have like dinner reservations tonight? And you're like, oh, my God, that sounds amazing. That's why booking vacations in advance is great because like you've spent the money on the plane and everything already. So like when the vacation comes, you're just like, oh, this is great.

It's like a free vacation, even though I spent the money on it four months ago. It's already been paid for you. Right. And then you're on vacation. You're just like, dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar. Because like, you don't have to like sign a bill or anything until the end of the trip. More drinks for everybody. This trip is free.

All right, Dad. Before we rock and roll with hockey, I should mention that if I sound a little punchy today, it's because my parents inexplicably got me a Nintendo Switch for my birthday. I don't know if I'd mention this on the show I think They got me an empty card And just put a picture of a Nintendo Switch inside of it Because my mom didn't know how hard it was to get the switch Did I mention this on the show?

Oh, because it wasn't in yet? Yeah And so my sister got me the Zelda game So I actually had like a physical game Before I had the console And also my mom was like, it was like Gregory I didn't realize that it was so hard to get this game So I'm going to keep trying

My name's on a list at Best Buy So how did she take it when you berated her for being a bad mind? I mean, it's part for the course. Like, it's another day on our lives again. You have to lay down the law. I went to see my parents a couple weekends ago in Jersey, and there was a Nintendo switch in the car for me. And I'm like, wow, mom, how'd you do it?

And she's like, well, Gregory. I murdered a neighbor. This is fantastic. Gregory. I got up at 7 o'clock this morning and went and stood in line at Toys R Us, and I was the eighth person. in line and they only had 20 of them so i got this one for you my mom is like by the way like

69 wait 70 oh so 72 she's 72 and so uh i'm like mom how did you possibly know that toys where i said the switch in because i'm figuring this is like something you find out on like facebook yeah so like some like message words and and it was the most beautiful old school moment because she goes gregory we get the sunday papia paper circular's one day early from the Star Ledger. So I opened it up and I saw that Toys R Us had them in stock and I went there on Saturday.

Wow. And no one would know because it comes on Sunday. And nobody reads a newspaper anymore. And I'm just like, oh, wow, that's, that's so. And like, if nobody reads the papers and how are they supposed to know the switches were in? So if I sound punchy, it's because we've been playing the new Zelda game incessantly, like really late. It's one of these games that's completely, you know, immersive, and you're running around on your horse and visiting different places, and there's lots of just side journeys and stuff. Your horse?

Oh, your horse. You get a horse. There's not been any whores yet. I was going to say, that's a pretty adult version of the link that I know. You have acquired a whore. Click the link, baby. But I got me thinking about NES and S-NES. You did not have Super Nintendo.

I did, but you did have NES. Did you play RPG games on Nintendo? What's an RPG game? Like Zelda. Like, I played Legend of Zelda and beat that. But, like, did you play, like, Final Fantasy and shit like that? No, I played the shit out of Zelda. I didn't play.

I never got the second one. What tier or style of game did you play most? Sports games? Or, like, side-scrolling Mega Man Super Bramberle of games? Oh, wow, that's a good question. Like, I love the shit out of, like, super tech mobile. Obviously, like, every sports person loves. Bro Jackson or no?

Got to a point, no. Oh, eh. Would you, okay, when you played a sports game, did you use a shitty team purpose to see if you could do better. After a while, yeah. Once I realize, like, if you're the Niners, you're going to go undefeated every year. You're like, Dick, Dick, Dick, Dick.

Bernie Kosar. There it is. The Giants were great in that game because, like, the Giants weren't super good. So, like, once you got to, like, you know how, like, because you kept playing the season went on? Like, I got a little bit harder than by, like, week 14. Like, that was the best thing to do is how the Giants because, like, they, by, like, week nine, you have, like, change your plays in.

That was the best part about sports games. Like when you would go back and revisit like NHL 94 or 95 and like you'd go use the ducks and it's like, I'll use the ducks. Oh my God. Patrick Carnback is the best score on the ducks. I like the games. Like I love the games that had seasons. Like I love like baseball simulator. Baseball stars.

Well, I mean that was less seasons than it was leagues and you make your players better as you go along. Yeah. But out what you're saying. I lose track of all of them. Like the baseball simulator was the one where you could like create players, I think. And it was always fun to make a dude with like one hitting, one fielding 99 speed and just bunt and hit it inside the park home run in space. Like those were great games. What was your game playing?

Castlevania. What was your game playing? Like when I played, I would come home from school, make an Ilios pizza, delicious cardboard ilios pizza. Oh yeah. And then go to the basement. I know portending my future as a blogger. And listen to Mike and the Mad Dog while I played Nintendo with the sound down. That would be my experience playing NES.

I think I would do something similar, but with like Z-100. I would put on like Z-100 and listen to music while I'd rather be entertained by like good music then. Let me tell you, Mikey. Dog. Sid, Sebrim and Annie Van Slike in exchange for David Cohn. Oh, we had Gregory from New Jersey on the phone. Gregory, how can I help you? I'm trying to beat Castlevania and there's this level I can't get the dog.

What's Castlevania? subscribe to Nintendo Power? Yes. Not subscribe. I don't think I didn't subscribe to it. I think I would look at a friend's. That was also... I was subscribed to Beckett.

I was thinking about that this week because the Zelda game's extraordinarily hard, so I had to dip online a couple times to figure out how the fuck to get past some of the shit in this game. And it made me think about back in the old days, like, Nintendo Power, and then they also would sell strategy guides to certain games so you could beat them. But now, like, the strategy guide industry must be like, has gone the way by a blockbuster video, Because, like, all the shit's online now. There's, like, Easter eggs now in every game. Right, but also, like, if you need to learn how to beat a board on something,

like, you just look it up on IGN, you don't have to buy a fucking strategy guide from GameStop. Okay. Mike Tyson's punchout. I remember, like, there was a code that could take you from, like, Glass Joe to Mike Tyson. To Mike Tyson. But I forget how I learned it. I definitely looked it up somewhere, and somebody told me it was, like, you know, upset. Yeah.

That's a good point. But how? How do we all learn that? Was it from Nintendo Power? Did Nintendo Power have Wouldn't that be anti Anti-Nintendo that have Nintendo Power Tell you how to skip parts of its own games

I feel like there was a book That had like How to cheat at like a hundred Nintendo games That had the codes like that in it Oh like just something like renegade people put it out And like yeah any chapter might have been a different game But then there was also the game Genie that existed too remember that

That was like a way to cheat on games I never had that either Did you have the fucking The handheld? No, the controller that was like a, it looked like a, like the size of like a, like an iPad almost, and it had the buttons that were like rapid fire. No, I never had that. I used that on control. I had the basic one. I'm trying to think of like non-sports games that I played. Most of them were sports. But like Zelda, Mario, R.C. Proam. Nice. Uh, I guess that's that's kind of a sports game, I guess. Castlevania. I always got to one part in Castlevania. I couldn't fucking get past it. And I never had a code for it or anything. And I eventually called. quit because it was hard and that's what I do in life.

I just want to be consistent from the time I was 10. I don't know. What were like the good non-sports games? Well, I mean the Mario series, the Mega Man Games, Ninja Gaden was one I loved as a kid. Kung Fu I liked. Oh, what, what? Just like dodging the knives that could throw? Yeah.

You like go up the stairs and left right, left right, left right up the building. Yeah. Double dragon. I remember being a guy. I remember I used to play some coin-op games too. And like I always remember being really disappointed as a kid. because the coin-op games would never transfer well to N. What are coin-off games?

So, like, Pac-Man. Or, like, Rampage. Oh. You know, that kind of shit? Like the X-Men video game, remember that? Yeah, exactly. There was, like, the Royal Rumble video game. Yeah, like, those games never were guys good.

The Royal Rumble was that the one with Van Van Bigelow where he could do, like, cartwheels and shit? I remember I would always be Mr. Perfect because I always liked the Perfect Plex. I thought that was a goofy silly awesome. Oh, you who earlier in the show, shit all over pro wrestling, love the Perfect Plex. Oh, that's right. mentioned I was 46 years old when I was playing that game, Greg. Come on. All right.

So the New Zelda game kicks ass. You love it. And get the Switch. It's fun. The Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers play in a series that no one gives a shit about. Like, even their own families don't give a shit about this series. I'm not really looking forward to going to those. Actually, I'm skipping game four because I'm going to Seattle that weekend.

But like, I'm going to three. I don't really care. I'm excited to see Eric Carlson and his broken foot, I guess. Yeah. Like to me he says that because he has no filter. I'm not sure what other reason you'd have knowing that Mark Stahl exists on the other team and it's probably going to take a pickaxe to your foot

at some point during that series. Why are the Rangers dressing seven defensemen tonight? Why is Adam McClendin in the line? Why is Adam and Clendinning trying to cut off Crosson's foot with his skate? Why is dyed his tanner glass carrying that cinder block? I've never seen the team dress 13-4s when they're 13th forward. It appears that Hedricin-Lugwis has put down a bear trap in front of the crease

and Eric Carlson's caught in it. Can you imagine if you get into that kind of like escalation where like the Rangers take out of Carlson and Chris Neal takes out of Lundquist? And then fucking, I don't know, the Rangers are out of guys like that, I guess. But they're saying one of ours from the hospital. We shine one of theirs to the mark. That's the world's most famous arena way. That's the ultimate way. It's good to see Gie Bouchet already doing the Gie Boucher thing, which is.

But to be fair, he's right. He's standing in front of an audience and going like, oh, the Rangers, they are. They are such the favorites. We are shit. We are shit on skates. We can't even, we shouldn't even be in the league. We should have been relegated.

Oh, we're terrible. And then they win. I feel like you're doing Celine the eye. Like, we are the worst team in the world. My chest. I have Ottawa in seven. Rangers in six, and I think that's pushing

how long the series goes. I think the Rangers dog shit defense and Henrik's diminishing returns in playoff rounds will lose to what I think is a pretty good line with Brassard and Ryan and a goalie and Craig Anderson who will win two games on his own.

He didn't win any games on his own against an AHL team last round. I don't know if I can really count it to do that against the Reyesmuch. Not as much the good name of Hedriece Spursoran like that. Oh, Petriis Bergeron. Brad Marchand David Pasternak. Took her Ask. And then it was just like, Doc and Eddie Charlie McAvoy's out here doing plays that not even

Bobby Overdo. Check out this play. And you watch the play and it's a four foot pass to a guy on a breakout. This is why he's going to be a future superstar in this league guys. Meanwhile, Eric Carlson's fucking cartwheeling over dudes and fucking lacrosse going fucking pucks into the net. And as pre-asual, the postseason goes like this. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa. Calling Eric Carlson a modern day Bobbyor. Let's park ourselves here. Hang on. Fast forward to that night. Charlie McAvoy. Come on. I just love hearing, like, it's so funny to me when they show this replay of him making a little pass to whoever it was. Was a Blake Wheeler? Not Blake Wheeler.

It was, who's the asshole they traded for? Oh, well, Drew Stafford? Drew Stafford. I got those guys. The asshole they traded for. What the fuck did he ever do to you? He's a nice guy. The dude they traded for.

Asshole and dude were interchangeable. And they're like, watch his play. This is a superstar in the making. They throw up his stats for the game and it's like 23 minutes, one shot. Charlie McAvoy is going to be a good player. I'm not saying he's not. But Jesus, this is not the time. The Bruins are exactly where the blockhawks want to be, by the way.

Like they've got a few veteran guys making lots of coin. They've got some transition. but they've got a fuck ton of young players. They're going to be all right. They're going to be all right. I don't know. Trees Bergeron's fucking, every offseason, it's like he's getting new stuff.

By the way. Patrice Bergeron should win the Selke. Oh, yeah, he's going to. But I don't think he will. Oh, yeah, he will. I think Kessler's going to win the Selke, and he wasn't even in my top five. Oh, he's not going to win.

Where do you get that vibe from? I'm not saying you wrong. That he was nominated. But I haven't seen any, like, I haven't seen any, like, you know, think pieces. Like, remember when Drew Downer, Audi got nominated and we were like, yeah, right, Eric Cross. But, like, more and more, you'd see more and more, like, true doughty stories. Like, I haven't seen that with Kessler.

You know what's fascinating about the Selke to me is the most interesting award in the sense that I think you're going to see a crazy disparity in who wins and who's nominated because half the professional hockey writers association approaches that with a real serious tact. We're going to look into the analytics and look at the numbers. And half of the professional hockey rater associations like, I need a name that I know. a face-off percentage that's high. And maybe a guy who hasn't won it before. Oh, Custler's won it before. It's like he hasn't won it before. My top five for the Selke.

You ready? Five, Michael Backland. Four, Mark Stone, because God damn it, a winger should win at some point. Three, Muko Koevue. Two, John Tavares, who had an incredible season. Like, the season everybody says that Nick Baxter had, Tavaris actually had it. And then, Burrs round one.

I forget my top five. By the way, can we not do the last? Lady Bing anymore. I saw arguments on Twitter about the fucking Lady Bing for like a full day. Well, it's like I said when I wrote about it. You know who should vote for the Lady Bing? Nobody. No, I'll tell you exactly who. Referees and players. Because you and I

have no concept of who is the most gentlemanly player on the ice. What a dumb What a dumb thing to reward. No, it's fine. I like the idea of a nice guy award. Like in a league full of injurious assholes, like a nice guy award's fine. Just don't let the writers vote on it. We have no

concept. Let the referees vote on it. They're the ones that have to interact with him. But even still, I don't care who the most gentleman. What does that even mean? Oh, hello. Oh, Chuck. Spot cross check here for your glove, governor. I just wanted to give you the heads up.

I'm going to be hitting you from behind in a moment. Please don't take it personally. It's simply business. Oh, he's just so kind about the way he goes about wrecking my neck with his stick. And also, forget about that. I just want to point out that Matt Murray is a rookie this year, and he's eligible to win the caller. Yeah. He's a rookie.

and you probably should have been in the top three. I just want to say, Mr. Peel, that I found that call to be curious. Don't take it personally, of course. We're all chums here. I called her top five, since we're just speaking out of turn here. Cachuk, Murray, Warensky, Linae, Matthews. I had Wrenski head of Murray. Sorry to disappoint.

I don't know why. I mean, like, he started off great. What did he do towards the last half of the season? Murray was hurt. Murray didn't have enough starts. To win the Vesana. He kept more than enough starts to win the rookie. Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't realize there was different standards. for the number of starts and vis-a-vis their totality of their season. How many rookie goalies play 65 or 70 games in their first season? Raycroft did? Mason did? Oh, so you're saying those guys who won the Calder who played those numbers of games? I'm not saying he should have won. Of course, Austin Matthew should have won. All right.

You find your ballot. Let's move on to... Let's save Washington in Pittsburgh because it's the one everybody cares about. Over in the West Nashville, St. Louis, I got Nashville in six. everybody's got Nashville in this series on Puck Daddy. I was surprised no one took a flyer on St. Louis. I think it's because of, let me think about it. Oh, it's how they let the

Minnesota wild completely roll them for five games and then Jake Allen saved their asses. Wait, I was paying attention. We're skipping Washington. This is what everybody cares about. Because I was getting ready to be like, well, here's the thing about Nicholas Baxter and how he's just, yeah, I'm going to say

Pred's in five. All right, no love for the Blues. I just don't think they're that good. The Freds have that thing. Jake Allen, same thing. The Freds have that thing that that you want to see in the playoffs, which is one line that kicks everybody's asses, and that Johansen, Arvinson,

Forsberg line is the truth. But all their guys can skate. Minnesota Wilde don't have speed. It's Jake, like, the reason why I think you would pick against the Rangers is because at some point Hendrik Lunkwis is going to go from 946 to 9.30. Right. But to go to 9.30, you have to be at, like, 9.15.

It has to balance out. Right. This is the round that balances out. Ottawa can win. Same thing with Jake Allen, where, like, he's not going to be... Jake Allen's going to balance out. Yeah. And I think this is the same. series where it happens. All right, so there's that.

And by the way, can you imagine, let's talk about this for a second because you actually wrote about this this week. Did I? P.K. Suvan, plays on to the second round. The Canadians lose in the first round. And here's the beautiful thing. He had two points in the first round. If he had two points in the first round in Montreal, you would have turned on,

Oh, welcome to K-FAN in Quebec. What is it, L-FAN? I don't know what their call letters are up there. It's Kwafan. Kofan in Kof-Khafen. Quebec, Tom story, P.K. Zuban. Mirdie! Like, you know, like, the fact that he's able to just be whatever he's going to be points-wise

and just play good hockey is so refreshing and one of the reasons why they probably are playing on beyond where Montreal played. But if he had two points in the first round in Montreal in four games, and then in two of those four games, he shut down the other team's best line for two games. That's different. If he has two points and they lose, that's something. But he was really good in the first round. Yeah. By the way, Louis Erickson.

This is for what? The Lady Bing? Yeah. Okay. Andy Green. No one ever gives the defenseman. Eric Carlson. Oh, no, wait, hold on.

My thing refreshed. Huh, you mother after. What were you looking at? Matt Moulson. Johnny Goodro. Johnny Goodro was my top pick for the Lady Bing, too. Jason Pommonville. He's a good boy.

Oh, wait. Pommonville is your top pick? Five. One to five, I went there. Okay. So Johnny was your fourth. I went. I went.

Ericson. One to five, Goodrow. Clefbaum, who is a defenseman who had no pimms. Yeah. Marion Hosa, Ryan O'Reilly. You went Ryan O'Reilly? Yeah. Good guy. He goes one full year without crashing his car into a donut shop, and now he's a gentleman. Excuse me, was that donut shop on the ice? Sorry, it's allegedly. I mean, it shouldn't affect his Lady Bing thing. Nominating him for the Masters in his batshit. And then Vladimir Tarasenko, who is built like a Panzer Tank, yet doesn't hurt anybody, which I think is admirable.

Yeah. Those are gentlemen. The Anaheim Ducks and the Edmonton Oilers, I've taken the Ducks in Seven for two reasons. The first reason is that I believe at some point Cam Talbot will want to just take a nap. Yeah, he's got to be exhausted. He's got to be exhausted. And the other reason is that I can, as you know, no one knows what the fuck they're talking about when they pick these series. So I'm just going to go with what I want to see happen, which is the Anaheim Ducks firing a coach for not being able to win a game seven,

then winning a game seven while that coach gets limited in the first round. Wow. You really hate Bruce Bruce? I love Bruce. I want nothing more than for him to win, but if we're going to lose, lose big. I'm going to say Ducks in 7-2. Just a little bit deeper. A little bit better. I don't even think the ducks are good. And speaking deeper, like, I think I saw today that Edmonton's got dry-siddle and maroon on the same line as Connor. And they're going to be going up against Kessler Cogliano and Silverberg. And they're not going to come out on top of that matchup, I don't think.

I think they could, but I just think once you get beyond that, that's where the trouble is going to lie. Like, the ducks are just... Corey, Perry Gets laugh. Camp Fowler's supposed to be back, too, I think. Yeah. So, yeah. How do you, how do you, have you thought about therapy to deal with the fact that Randy Carlisle is going to coach a team to the conference final? And we were all like, this is disaster.

How could you possibly do this? Yeah, but the, it's such a weird year because, like, of how the Tororella. Playoffs are broken down and, like, how, no, but. but like you just like like one of either the Rangers or Ottawa is going to be in the final four. Yeah, that's true too. Are either of those teams one of the four best teams in hockey? No. Just the way the playoffs are structured.

I don't know if Ottawa is even the best team in Ottawa. The 67s, man. They're fucking force. But like Anaheim gets to play like Calgary in the first. I don't know. The West, I'm pretty sure I said before the playoffs started, anyone in the West could come out of the West. I think maybe I said except for St. Louis and now they're eight wins away. Right.

But I don't know. It's it's just there's so much parody and. mediocrity in the West. It's not like a thing where you see the ducks win and you're like, oh, Randy Carlyle gets it now. It's just a weird year. Finally, Penguins Capitals, we said earlier, I'm going to pick the caps in six. I think Holtby is the key. I understand the inherent risks in making this pick in the sense that whenever adversity strikes, the capitals turn into a quivering bowl of jello. Commit to it, buddy. Commit to the caps. But I'm picking the caps. And here's, I don't know if I've mentioned this on the show before. And by the way, if you want to play a fun,

drinking game. Take a drink every time I've said this in the episode. I don't know if I've said this on the show before. Not for nothing. Not for nothing. The capitals are a perfect pick. What do you mean? If you want to be a prognosticator, they're the perfect pick. Because on paper, they should win everything. And if they don't, it's not your fault. It's capitals. Well, no, it is your fault. No, because execution. You're like Charlie Brown kicking the football. At some point, it's your fault for believing Lucy's going to keep an air. Logically, this is the better team. healthier, they're deeper, you know, at some point the tormentors

are defeated by the tormented, but if they lose... That's a Hollywood thing, not necessarily. Same old caps. Sometimes the tormentors just keep on winning. Sometimes the little nerd pulls up his shirt sleeves and gets one good shot in that bully's face. Like Lucas? Like Lucas with the lid off? That's the best part of another teen movie is when the dorky kid gets his body impale or cut in half at the end of the scene.

Sometimes that's just how it ends for the tormented. And for the record, the best part of another, not another teen movie is... Mr. T. No, the parody of bringing on, which you impressly. Oh, it's been brought in it. But also when they claim they didn't steal their material from the black cheerleading team. We ain't white. We ain't white.

We're black. We're definitely. White. That movie is so genius. That is a, without quite, there was a naked gun marathon on IFC this weekend. And I was thinking about what was the last great movie of that genre? And it was definitely not another. It was not any of the scary movies.

No. It sure as shit wasn't any of those Meet the Spartans kind of bullshit movies. Those two guys that should be shot in The Sun had made. It's probably not another teen movie, I'm going to say. The fact that they got Lacey Chabair to play the Jennifer Love Hewitt role. And then at the end, when she's just like, do you think I just get in bed with any guy who sends me a love note? No, I just jerk them off. It's such a great flick.

All right. What say you here, Capitals and Penguins? Caps and five. Yeah, that's five games. Mark Andre Fleury is probably going to play the whole series. I don't think Matt Murray's skating yet. Such a nice guy. Great guy. Great guy.

Flower. What's like to get uprooted and go to Minutes? All right. So I think people are overvaluing the penguins based on them slaughtering Columbus, who wasn't that good to begin with. I think people are over or under? Do you like my theory that the capitals are now? more prepared for the penguins because they were in a track meet in the first round against the Leafs?

It wasn't as much of a track meet as people. I don't know. It kind of got slowed down to the last two games. I think the Caps figured out that they just have to play defense. They just have to counter punch. They don't need to get into a track meet. That's why I think Pittsburgh is going to be in trouble. Pittsburgh's forwards are still sick and disgusting and great.

But I just think the depth of the Caps forward is going up against the depleted defense is going to be an issue. I think, Mark, like think about how we treat the Capitol. as this choking can't get out of the second round team. Yeah, it's how we treat them. It's how we... This narrative that people want to perpetuate. This narrative that Ovechkin's quote, never played for a championship.

Really nice to end. I mean, come on, people. Why? Because he's Russian? You know how many times Mark Andre Fleury has gotten the penguins out of the second round since 2009? How many? Zero. Thank you for...

Explain to the audience went... And when they shoved him in net in the fucking conference final. last year and he gave up fucking three goals to the lightning and put them on the brink. Matt Murray had to come in and save the day. Caps in five. All right, there you go. That should be fun.

It's going to be a great series. I wish it was the conference final, but what are you going to do? It's the Stanley Cup final, I think. Whoa, you think whoever comes out of that series will beat the National Predators? Yes. Who are apparently the Western Conference Champions of my mind? Yeah, no, I think that's fair. Yeah.

Like, okay, so last year, I felt the same way, and that was when they were probably going to play Tampa Bay. Is Tampa Bay beat the Islanders in the second round last year? So you knew Tampa Bay was going to be there. This year, like, Pittsburgh is not as good as they were last year. The caps are better than they were last year, and they're going to get an easier opponent in the conference finals. The Stanley Cup final, I don't know, the Predators better than the sharks.

I don't know. I just think it's just the stupid structure of the playoffs. Even without Chris LaTang, I think they could probably beat the Rangers, Ottawa, or anyone in the West. So there you go. Let me ask you this. Yes. Stanley Cup matches.

You most want to see a Stanley Cup matchup you least want to see based on the teams they're still around I'll go leased first Anaheim and Ottawa been there done that don't need to see it again Yeah, that's not a St. Louis Ottawa I think I want to see less That's a good point That's not gonna be a fun series I can't tell well it's insane But St. Louis trying to go for their first cup though at least that you'd have that

I don't care Poor beating down sports town John Hammond each game watching the blues You like stalking him in the press box one whole one watching on TV. John, John, Greg Wyshinsky, Puck Soup. You want to come on and talk about your schlong? Picture a child on Christmas watching his favorite team. Get your taxes won. Best matchup on the, the best matchup ratings-wise, money-earning wise, would be... I think Nashville is the most appealing team out of the West in any situation. Yeah, I want Capp's Predators. Cap's Predators is the sexiest matchup, I agree. But like for ratings, it's

probably Pittsburgh, St. Louis. St. Louis is the highest? Pittsburgh, St. Louis or Pittsburgh, Nashville? St. Louis does better ratings in Nashville? Actually, I don't know. I saw that thing. Nashville is the seventh highest thing? But let me ask you this. Okay.

Connor versus Sid, is that a big ratings matchup? Well, I mean, the NHL and NBC have let us get to know Connor McDavid throughout this season based on the one game he played on the network. So yeah, why would they not want to amplify that thing? The other thing, too, about Caps Penguins, by the way, is it's probably the last time Sid and Ovi are going to be playing for a cup the same postseason against each other head-to-head. Could be.

Like caps next year. Why are the caps being relegated if they lose a series? No, but like, think about it. Like, think about all the dudes that are going to lose from this team. Yeah. And where Ovechkin's head. Ovechkins had the worst season of his career. Well, he's going to be in the KHL next year, so it can be the Olympics.

Yeah. So he's going to retire at the end of the year. It's going to be a hell of a series. But it's the end of an error. And then the next one's going to be Matthews and McDavid. And we're going to do that for 10 years. All right. A couple reader questions as we open up the puck soup mailback.

By the way, we love you all. If you won a prize. I'm going to try my best to mail it this. Also, who won Mute Mad, March Mute this? Pierre? No, Milbury. Milbury won? Yeah, he was like 60-40.

Upset City. See, we love you guys. We keep track of all these things. Also, that live show we said we're going to do here in the city? At some point. Eventually. Eventually. We'll get around to it.

By the way, what is the cost of the mailing of the bowl to Vancouver? That's where we got to look it up yet? I'm not quite sure yet. Is it like more than 50 bucks? I hope so. Oh, my God. Ryan Ellis wants to know where all the ESPN hockey guys land. We kind of talked about that earlier.

I think Burnside be really good on NBC. Tell Ryan Ellis to fucking focus on Game 1 tonight. I don't think that's the actual Ryan. No, there's only one Ryan Ellis. Alex Shez wants to know what's the best kind of situational beer? Example, porch or deck beer, vacation beer, shower beer, post-yardwork beer, grilling beer. I'll say two things to this. The first is that my favorite, as some of you may know, my favorite summer brew is a Shiner's,

Ruby Red, their grapefruit beer. That was actually how you first met your girlfriend and wife. You walked up to her in a bar and said, I'd like to have a taste of Ruby. Red. And she's like, what? How did you know I was on my... And you were like, no, no, no. I was talking about the... Oh my God, your name's Ruby? Hi, I'm Greg. And that's the backstory of the relationship. That's actually a pretty funny story that you had ever told, or I just made up. Thanks for no selling my menstruation joke.

Oh, I didn't hear you say it. What was it? Also, Bell's Oberon is great as a summer beer. I love that beer. especially in the bottle more so than on tap. And then actually one of the most fulfilling beers I've ever had was when I was in college and the University of Maryland did not have, and still I don't think has air conditioning in their dorms. Summer, like packing up your shit, going home for the summer.

As a freshman, I had a rolling rock. It was ice cold and it was a single most refreshing beer I've ever had. I wouldn't drink it again. But like memory-wise, sense memory-wise, I just. I just, I downed it and was like, my God, this is, this is heaven. But, like, situational beers. I've never really, like, I think about, like, two situations. One is when I want to drink a beer that tastes good.

And there's probably, like, a dozen beers that I would drink in that. But, like, if I'm drinking for distance, if it's, like, an all-day situation, it's a tailgate, like, I'm Miller-light, bud light. I will, I will, I will, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, their water, I get it. Oh, you're drinking. High life? Champagne of beers? Oh. Don't, like, like, the only light beer that I don't enjoy when I'm, like, at a ball game or, or,

you know at a Giants game or you know drinking all day on vacation or whatever is Coorslight I I can't understand how anybody can get that shed that shit down it's just my wait hold on wait hold on what's that oh they're sponsoring this name I can't get enough quartz light in my body my American light beer rankings by the way for the record Miller light Coors Light then Bud Light Bud Light's water yeah oh they're not they're not like tasty delicious beers or anything but like you can't like okay you ever have that docks root beer beer like it's fucking delicious yeah I can't drink more than one. Right. It's so sweet

and heavy that you can't sit down on a porch and be like, but like shower beer, I always associate a shower beer with like a natty light, like the shittiest beer possible. It's only one answer. What? I got a taste for ribbon. I'm drinking cold blue ribbon. I got pap blue ribbon in my shower.

But like what's the one beer? Like say like you went home right now and you're like I want to have a beer. I think you'll probably choose a wet one. Yeah? A cold one maybe? Like a cold wet beer? Like in a bottle or a can prefer. You know what sucks, though? I don't know this has happened to you, but you have some buddies over,

you have a little get-together or whatever. And then you have some beer left over, but you don't really want it. And so it's sort of orphaned beer in the back of the fridge. You know what that is for me right now? We bought, I think it was Fat Tire, made a Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream beer that we bought just to see what it's like.

And now there's like three still in my fridge. I don't know what to do with them. I didn't. I'll try one. It wasn't terrible. If I'm out of loss for another beer, I'll probably drink it. But, like, I'm most likely going out to buy more beer before I drink that beer. Like, a shitty light beer is good for distance or, like, when you get home from drinking and you don't want to stop drinking.

And then you throw on, like, a throw on a little bit of light in your gullet. Jared asked a question that I think is genius. Do you play mini golf as each golfer finishes each hole, or do you go by shot by shot like regular golf? so of the words you hit the ball you finish your shooting before the other person goes or do you do shot by shot

who does that who does that first thing I guess I guess Jared says that people do no you go you like quote tee off then the other two or three people or one person tees off

and then you do whoever's closest furthest away you play like a regular that's insane like what if like because like sometimes it takes like nine putts to get in so you have to stand back there

and wait for that person they'll make fucking finish no one does that do they I don't I don't actually play minigolf with ruby anymore because i get so bent out of shape when things don't go well that she refuses to play with me get in the hole no i actually like i get when we first started dating like i got really upset during minigolf at one point because i was doing so poorly that i like lashed out i'm just like you're just fucking lucky that's all you are it's not even skill and like she

refuses to play with me now because i got so angry and now she drinks the play zalda with you just in case it gets to just the cope. Kevin Hayes lost 20 pounds wants to know what is the best limited time-only fast food item of all time? Of all time, I can't tell you, but of recent times definitely that naked crispy chicken taco from Taco Bell was so damn good. I really liked, I don't know if it was limited,

but I remember like in high school, I was addicted to the Burger King Italian chicken sandwiches. Burger King chicken sandwiches are super underrated as far as being like one of the best items in fast food. Oh, I guess the McRib. Everybody says to McRill. Yeah. I was a never a fan.

It's so gross, but it's so good. Yeah. What hot take about the NHL do you wish would die in a fire, says Megan, salty AF, who, by the way, wrote a great San Jose Sharks. Uly, and I encourage everybody to read the eulogies on puck daddy. The Minnesota Wild one, especially last night, was very impressive. Obviously, it's the, you know, this hockey player did this, and an NBA player did that. So the toughness of NHL players? Like, fuck.

anyone that tweets out and earn us one of those things at this point should just fucking delete their Twitter account If I may If I may jump off that for a moment I know that The concussion crisis has conditioned us all To really worry about these players

Doing things to their body They shouldn't do to the body That said A torn MCL and ACL Oh Joe Thornton could do whatever you want Yeah he's fucking 40 Yeah that's fine He's earned the right to be like

I want to keep playing with this injury or not It's not as if he's going to end up in a wheelchair if he plays an extra couple rounds of the playoffs with a torn MCL. Yeah. I have no problem. I thought that reaction was really weird. But I understand where it comes from because we're very overprotective of the players now

because they don't do the things on their own to protect themselves and then also the teams don't look out for him. So I get where it came from. And on the flip side of that, how about when it was like Clark MacArthur is going to come back and play? Whoa. Oh my God. I can't believe he's doing this.

This is dangerous. Then he scored a goal. Oh, he's fine. Yeah, right? He's going to go. Way overcame so much. Yeah, he overcame your doubts about his... And also, he's still the same person who had the concussion.

Just because he buried a couple pucks doesn't mean like he's not one hit away from being in a fucking coma. Like, it's still kind of scary that he's playing. Phil Coker wants to know... Why is my voice doing that? A question for me, would I rather eat like an apple? Pick one. A red onion or a full tomato, would I rather eat like an apple? And the answer, believe it or not, would be a red onion.

That's how much I hated juicy tomato getting all in my face. Hmm. Oh, uh... It's a bit so on an onion. Ah, like, those are two things I enjoy, but not at that... On an apple level? Yeah. I'd probably go...

Onion. Yeah. If you give me enough time, I could put it down. Yeah, like... If you want me to eat it fast, if there's a clock on me, of course, I'd probably choose a tomato. Like, I'll put tomatoes on all my sandwiches. I like ketchup.

You know, any kind of tomato I, but, like, just biting into it like that, oh, it feels gross. Finally, dedicated Puck Soup listener, Dan Straight Edge wants to know when you are driving or in the shower, what's the one song you always sing your heart out to? Is there one song? I guess it depends on what's on. Yeah, like I don't just turn the radio off and go,

all right, it's time for a little show. Time for me to do a little Kelly Clark sit in the car. Oh. I would say... She has a good song, car song, though. I forget what it is. It's since you've been gone. No.

A breakaway? Breakaway, yeah. Take a chance. You said the car's like breakaway? And break. Oh, spread my week. and I'll learn how to fly I do want to

take still I touch this sky I want to take a risk take a chance, make a change and bring me. Meanwhile the rest of the world's like, here's a thing, we started our friends. And I'm like, you're a loser.

Don't sing that. I would also say to that tip, most of no doubt's tragic kingdom, I think I also really rock in the car and I try to do Wend's voice as best I can. Good question, though, Phil.

All right, that's the end of the show. That wasn't Phil. That was Dan. Phil asked a question. I thought you said Dan Straight Edge asked that question. Oh, sorry. Good job, Dan Straight Edge. Phil asked the previous question. Yeah. Thanks God somebody cares about the people listening to the show. Dan did a better job than you. Congratulations to us for having Sarah Baker on. She was great. Good job us. And congratulations Sarah Baker, hopefully, on, you know, the new gig. That we totally know. We know. We know something you know. We know something you don't know. And we miss anything. We covered everything? We covered everything.

I don't know. Playoffs we did. Some awards we didn't cover. Who cares? And there's life. Nobody else got fired today on Twitter? Nobody else got fired yet. Oh, yeah.

And by the way. Like in hockey, I mean. Like, again, like support your local hockey writer. You know, I saw some people say today after the layoffs, like, you know, you know what they should do? They should all get together and start their own site. I'm like, that's a great idea. Guess what you don't do?

Pay for content. So, like, if you, if you, if you, there's some paywall stuff that you like reading, kick some shekels to them. You know, never hurts. I got an idea. We started up, right? Get all these people together. And we call it the national. And it'll be this really great, awesome sports publication that last year.

But, like, you know, the shit that Myrtle's doing up in Toronto, like, pay them some, some shekels for the work they're doing if you dig it. But, again, like, I just think it's hilarious. Like, it's free content world and we're all like, oh, they should just go and make their own site. Okay, great. That's how it works. It's a great idea. Why haven't I thought of that? Great.

And then what you'll do is you'll take the URL and put it in Google and then get the cashade version of it so you don't have to pay for the paywall. That's what I do. But I also ain't sanctimonious about like, you know. Wait, is that a thing you can do? You can do that. I didn't know that. Oh, there's a lot of ways you can get around the paywalls. And by the way, never fast forward past our ads.

CCR sponsors in tweets and tell them how great their product is. Yeah. Talk about how you've zip recruited, how you've. laid on mattresses, how you shaved. I'm just saying, it helps. And also, this is also the time where I'll say that, and this kind of ties back into us, talking to Baker about it, like, you can be angry at people and their takes. But on this day where people get laid off and everybody is just like, it's a good reminder

that these people have families. Yeah, it is a good reminder of these people have families. Like, don't be total dicks of them all the time. There is one thing we forgot. What is that? The Reddit thing today. What was it? I didn't see.

The Black Hawk's fan who went on. said that he thinks the Blackhawks Preds series should be played over again because the Predds was a fluke but if the Predators win again then he's okay with it I didn't see that I assume it's a guy I don't know So his take is that there was a fluke Win so they should replay this series but but if

the Predators win again then that will validate it They have to beat them two games two series in a row To validate their victory it's the saddest fucking thing I've ever read wait hold on hold on Lee let me get it cute up Oh who fucking tweeted it today that's pretty special Oh it's Demetri I think hold on me get Demetri's Twitter up It's the saddestest four paragraphs I've ever, it's, oh my God. There it is. No, that's not it. There we go. Go ahead.

The headline is, should the NHL have the Hawks and Preds redo their series in case it was a big fluke? No disrespect to the Preds. I'm a firm believer that Nashville is sweeping them as a huge fluke and robs the Hawks of truly accomplishing what they're capable of. I've spent the last few days in pure disbelief, and it just doesn't make sense to me. I've spent the entire regular season watching the Hawks play great hockey. It's just not fair. If the Hawks lose again, I will face that the Preds deserve to win, but I'm just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to the Hawks and the NHL. I can't even imagine being that deluded as a fan, where my top-seated team loses to the bottom-seated team,

and I'm like, let's do it again. Well, let's be honest here. I mean, it's someone who may be their team has no other options besides me playing series because everyone's got a no move clause. All right, thanks to everybody for listening to this Elevantyne episode and supporting the podcast. And there you go. And I guess I'm Greg Wushinsky-Yahu Sports.

You could buy my real touchy, if you can touch it, book, tick your eye off the puck. And you can buy our e-book, the 100 greatest players in NHL history and other stuff written by me Lozo and Down Goes Brown. And here's our own personal dart guy,

Dave Lozo. Just reminder that our top 100 does not feature three players on one team that got knocked out in the first round in four games, Because if a team really did have three of the top 100 players of all time, still at their peak, basically, they wouldn't lose 4-0 in the first round to an 8-seat, essentially, right? Because that would be stupid.

So we have a much smarter top 100 list that features Gini Malkin in the second round, Henrik Lundquist in the second round, because those are the kind of guys that carry teams to the second rounds. How did Jonathan Taves not win that series? Like, he wasn't – like, I figured he's struggling and things are going right. Then all of a sudden it's like – Jonathan Taves. Newsie Lalonde, what are you doing here? As a fellow member of the top 100 players of all time,

I will impart with you the knowledge on how to defeat these predators in advance to the second round. And then Newsy Lal walks on to the ice and goes, holy fuck, these guys are so much bigger and faster than anybody I played against. You're a fuck, Jonathan Thames. Looks very oddly at P.K. Suban. What the hell happened? Holy fuck.

I got to go. back to my time. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next week. Bye.