Puck Soup - Seeds of Doughty

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

Sean and Ryan talk about the recent drama over remarks from Alexander Ovechkin and Drew Doughty, the media creating frenzies out of nothing and the current standings of the divisions. Plus bad road schedules, which teams aren't looking too hot, Ryan is getting excited for the new shows on Disney+ and Greg is in Japan befriending deer. Brought to you by SeatGeek!    

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It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Puckoo. I'm Ryan Labr from Yahoo Sports. I'm Sean McNeer from The Athletic. Greg has been fired by our new venture capitalist overlords, and you're in Puck Soup. Um, no, Greg's on vacation. He's in Japan right now, um, posting a lot of good stuff to his Instagram about being friends with deer if you've, if you've been keeping up with that. So, I don't know, you go, you go to freaking Japan trying to hunt down Saru Shumoto or whatever

that guy's name was remember from the old draft. Yeah, sure. That'd be a big scoop. Um, he actually is real and he is the former owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Exactly. Remember that's a reference to the, well, it was a bonus episode. So forget it. I guess the big story this week in hockey is that the Leafs are on a two-game winning streak. And because they're on a two-game winning streak,

we might briefly get a reprieve from the Toronto media asking every Stanley Cup winner who comes through the door, why the Maple Leaf sucks shit. They're fixed. They're good again. And also the schedule, I don't think, is serving up any, I'm just looking at it now. They got the Golden Knights. Flurry. They got ass Flurry today.

Yep, that's true. And then we got the flyers, so that'll be a break from that. But then, oh, God, then they go to Chicago next week. Okay. That's going to be terrible. No. Somebody gets to Jonathan Taves now and just. I, okay.

John, you got a no sell it. Either no seller or go all the way. Just like, if Jonathan Taves just dropped the bum on the leaves, this Toronto would burn. That would rule, actually. It kind of would. That would be very cool, especially given how good the season Jonathan Taves is having, right? Absolutely as a position.

Very well. To tell out of it. Because I'm trying to remember, like, I feel like, Last week, last week we did the show a little bit early. So I think we did it before the whole Ovechkin thing blew up. So even though that's like week old news, we didn't really get to talk about it. And then this week you had the Drew Doughty comments, which then got a second life because he's now upset and feels like his comments were taken out of context or misrepresented. Yeah, we can get to that more in a bit.

part because I have thoughts on that, and then I'll hand off to you for Doughty because I know you've got to take. I think we're going to be on the same page with this. Because I... With this Ovechkin. And if people follow me on Twitter, they saw me do this rant. And this was like a couple days in, because I kept waiting as everybody was, like, not freaking out, but it was a big story. The fact that Alexander Ovechkin came in and, yeah, I made these comments about how the Maple beliefs where they weren't playing the right way. And if you want to win a Stanley Cup, you have to

change, and it can't be just about the... And to me, when I saw those comments, it was exceedingly obvious that this was, A, a guy who was having some fun with it. And B, somebody who was smart enough to know where they were and the market they were in and was kind of intentionally twisting a bit of a knife. into a team that is competition for the capitals. Like, the Leafs and the Caps played in the playoffs two years ago. If the playoffs started now, they would either play each other again or be very close to it. Like, the Leafs are in a wildcard zone right now if they don't get better.

It's absolutely possible that the Caps and the Leafs could play early in the playoffs this year. They could meet in the conference finals. It's, it's, this is, the idea that Alexander Ovechkin, was just being nice and offering some good faith advice to try to help the maple leaves get better was so bizarre and silly to me that I kept waiting for everyone else to sort of just kind of go, yeah, all right, we know he wasn't. And it just kept going and going. This idea that, like, yes, let's seriously consider the comments that Alexander Ovechkin made. Like, first of all, he made a reference to Dale Hunter in those comments. He,

was like, yeah, maybe Austin Matthew should connect with Dale. Like, if that's not the giveaway, I don't know what the guy needs. Does he need to, like, have a drum set and do, like, the rim shot? Like, what does a guy have to do to make it clear that he's having some fun with the question? But even beyond that, even if you want to take, like, take his comments somewhat seriously, what is in the cap era? What's the most famous example of a really good team deciding that they had to play different to win the cup and having a really bad result from it.

It's the Washington Capitals, right? Like, take. Yeah, no, for sure. And that was, yeah, that was kind of my take with it too, is like, your point about he was obviously just having a little fun with it. And then the Toronto media was like, he's 100% serious about every word he's. But it's also the thing of like two years ago. Same exact situation. Do you think anybody in Toronto is going to Alex fucking Ovechkin and being like,

what does it take to win a cup, Alex? Like, they would have said, this guy is one of the biggest fucking losers in the history of the sport. He sucks. He's never done anything right. He can score all those empty calorie, you know, 50 goal seasons, but what does it matter? And then like, he wins one cup because, you know, Braden Holpe gets really hot and the team, you know, plays well or whatever. but like nobody thought that you know, Alex Ovech could change the way he played.

When he did do that, like it was in 2010, when the capitals were amazing, they were like 120 point team, they run into Yeroslav Palak in the playoffs. He gets hot for three games. They lose three straight games to the Montreal Canadiens, get upset in the first round. Disaster given the expectations for the team. But, I mean, it's hockey. Sometimes you run into a hot goalie.

But they decide, no, we have to change. We can't be this running gun, fun, exciting team. That starts this whole cycle of firing coaches and playing defensive hockey. And Ovechkin goes from being a 50-goal score to being a 30-goal score. And for a couple years. And then, do you know what happened next with the capitals? No, you probably don't because nobody does because nobody remembers anything because they weren't. good for years until like 2014-15, they started to rev it up again. They were like,

screw that. Like Barry Trots came in and was like, no, they were amazing. We have a huge amount of skill. I'll do my magic on the goaltenders and everybody else go score goals again. And they were great again for two years, ran into the penguins a couple times. And then finally break through a win the Stanley Cup. Like, Ovechkin is the last guy who's going to sit there and go, yeah, it's really effective when you shut down your offensive talent and play defense first and try to grind out wins. Like, he knows this isn't the right answer. But why would he give an opponent the right answer? Of course he's going to come in, pull a pin out of a grenade, roll it into the dressing room and go like, see you later, and then walk away from the explosion

that is still... Right. But it's also the thing of, like, why would... Why would he be like, I think it's probably fine? They're going to figure it out. Like, why, what instead, like, he, they're obviously, and this is, this is part in parcel with the Drew Doughty thing, where it's like, you go to Toronto, you get a mic stuck in your face, and you go, oh, here's what I think it takes to win the Stanley Cup. It's obviously in the context of, how are the Leafs fucking this up so bad? They have so much talent, blah, blah, blah.

And the answer, you know, I mean, Christ, look at the. start Tampa's gotten off to, right? Like, they're not just like playing bad or playing okay and getting bad results, which is what the Leafs have done for a good chunk of the season. They're actively playing badly. And like nobody in the Tampa media is sticking a mic in Drew Dowdy's face like, what are these guys need to do to, you know, get over the hump here? And granted, you know, probably Drew Dowd the Kings haven't played the lightning. But you know what I mean? It's like, it's the same concept. Like, it was, it was just, it was. It was just, it was. It was. It was just, it It was so strange to me, not that he said it.

It's insane. Because I think Ovechkin, he's a smart guy, he's an entertaining guy, he said something kind of fun. Like I said, he dropped that Dale Hunter reference. Other than doing a big exaggerated way, going around and nudging each reporter individually, I don't know what more he can do to signal that this is tongue-in-cheek. And everybody just runs with it. And like I said on Twitter, I actually felt like I was losing my mind.

I'm like, am I the only one who sees what is clearly happening here? And I had some people, I guess the way I phrased it, some people were like, like, as if I was suggesting that this was all like some big conspiracy. And Ovechkin had this, was playing 4D chess to come in because he really was worried about me. Like, I'm not saying that. I'm saying he, you come to Toronto, you know, there's going to be 100 microphones in your face. They ask you questions that you probably anticipate they're going to ask. Yeah, have a little bit of fun with it and don't necessarily give the answer that you think might actually help a competitor get better and win the Stanley Cup.

Well, I mean, but also it's the thing of what if what is Alex Ovechkin going to say that that, you know, freaking Mike Babcock is going to be like, shit, I didn't think of that. You know what I mean? Like, or Austin Matthews or, you know what, that was part of, but yeah, he, that was part of why this became a story. Because Babcock jumped on it. But that's only because this is what Babcock has wanted to say all along. And this just gave him a hook where he knows that if he gets up there and rants about defense and playing it like we played on the 2008 Red Wings, which is how he seems to want this team to play. He knows if he says that he's just going to be the old man yelling at a cloud and, and people tune him out. but the fact that a star player comes in and says it gave him the perfect. But again, like, I don't know. I don't know what you want Ovechkin to say. Clearly, he's not going to come out and go, yeah, you know what?

Actually, the Leafs aren't playing that bad. Frederick Anderson has kind of sucked this month, but that happens to him most October's, and he always finishes with the exact same 917 save percentage that he's had for four straight years, so they'll be fine. No, he's not getting, like, like, yeah, roll a bit of a grenade in there, let them deal with it. And then Babcock jumped all over it because it was exactly the same sort of message he wanted to have.

And I get like, I'm not saying it's not a story. I'm not saying don't talk about it. But I just the context of it. So anyway, so that's Ovechkin. So that gets us to Drew Dowdy. Yes. Who's the next big name cup winner who comes through. And so he gets the same sort of question gives a similar sort of answer.

although does it a bit more generically, instead of saying Toronto needs to do this, he kind of says, well, to win a cup, you need to do this. Now, he says this as he's talking to the Toronto media in the context of, again, what's wrong with Toronto? Yeah. And what are your thoughts about what Alexander Hedgkin said about Toronto? So it's, yeah, it's, but he kind of gives a generic, to win a cup, you have to, blah, blah, blah. And honestly, it wasn't even that.

Like his answer sounded very, to me, like a guy just giving an autopilot answer of what he knows he's supposed to say. Like, I know you guys are going to, yeah, you got to play different. You got to be a team, blah, blah. And that kind of becomes a bit of a story. But then it becomes more of a story because he gets, he, he, I guess, was unhappy. He felt like the media took his comments out of context and made it as if he was directly criticizing the Leafs when he was trying to make a more general point. And there's further context to this is he's still mad about some comments he made about the Canucks a few weeks ago where he said a team like that shouldn't be beating us. And he says he was when he said a team like that, he met a young team versus a veteran team.

So you tell me, do you buy this idea that Drew Doughty has been misquoted and taken out of context and is a victim here? Like he has at least some kind of an argument with the Toronto thing, because again, you're right, he spoke more broadly than here's specifically what's wrong with Toronto. With that said, like we both said, the context was, the Leafs are terrible. What do you think about that? And so, you know, I can see a little bit, but obviously I think he's being a little disingenuous to say, you know, he's being taken out of context and all. all that kind of stuff. The, um,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, he could try to get away with saying that. Because, you know, multiple, like, multiple people in the Vancouver media,

we're posting screenshots of the exact moment in their recording from three weeks ago or whatever. When he said that and he's like, you listen to this and you tell me you're not, like, mad that a team like the Canucks beat you because you thought you're better than them. And then obviously, they've continued to win and made Doughty look even stupider for saying it. And also, we should point out that, yes, the media did run with that a little bit as a story, but so did the team. Like, the Vancouver Canucks themselves are like tweeting

out, like, embracing this, you know, that kind of team. It's the bunch of jerks thing all over again where they're like, we're going to make it a marketing slogan or whatever. And that good for them. Like, you should. And even the hurricanes jumped in on it, right? Like, yeah, You should put that on sure. So it's not just the media. Like the, oh, this mean, me, me, like the TV, you got a problem. You've got a problem with the team itself because they're running with it just as much. Yeah.

It's stupid that he would try to say it. Like, again, it's a thing of, Christ, there was a thing on ESPN this week of, you know, would you take a big, I think Emily Kaplan did it. It was a poll of players and it was, you know, would you take a big gatorade? or Nike marketing campaign. And like half the guys were like, I wouldn't want to be that kind of a distraction to my team. And it's like, this league sucks.

This league is so stupid. But, you know, like, I do understand that that's maybe where Drew Doughty's coming from, especially in a season where their team is embarrassingly bad, although maybe not as bit, like, more specifically, their goal tending is embarrassingly bad. And the team is just kind of not very good, which nobody expected them to be. so, except maybe Drew Doughty.

So, yeah, you know, it's one of those things of, I see why he wants to walk it back, but it's bullshit for him to do it. And what's more bullshit for me, anyway, as a media guy, is that multiple media guys are like, let's hear him out on this one. Let's give this a more fair reading. And it's like, oh, my God, like, he's going to do it to you sometime if you try to do this now. Like, you know, first they came for the Vancouver media because, and I said nothing because I was a Vancouver. It wasn't a Vancouver media guy. Like, it's that kind of a thing. But obviously, you know, that's a quote about Nazis.

So maybe we shouldn't use, I shouldn't use that flippantly. It's like I agree with his larger point, which is if you're going to ask us questions and you want and you're going to complain about how. boring we all are and you don't want us all to sound like Sidney Crosby all the time. He didn't, he didn't say that part. I'm adding that in. But if you don't want us to be boring and just talk about pucks in deep and given 110%, don't turn it into front page news every time we say something vaguely interesting. I get that.

That, yeah. And it does, there have been other cases where it's bothered me where we've done that, where somebody says something vaguely controversial and we, I think there have been times where the media has kind of had a bad faith reaction to that and stirred it into a story here. And it's perfectly valid for him to come back and clarify comments or to say, you know, that this is, you're reading this in a way that I didn't intend.

And okay, then you get that on the record too. But I think just because somebody says I was taken out of context or that's not what I meant, we can report that at the same time also saying, we stand by the original interpretation because we think that is what he meant. Right. So, yeah, I mean, you know, you get that a lot in hockey. Again, just the most intentionally boring, you know, environment for, especially for media in the world where it's like, yeah, you know, we just got to go and get pucks to the net and be harder around the creek.

You know, all that kind of shit. Like, and then anytime anybody says something, like, like, like, anytime. somebody says something very fucked up where, you know, the, the Dan Ellis thing from a million years ago where he's like, you know, millionaires have it harder than just about anybody, blah, blah, blah. And then you go, well, that's a really stupid, bad thing to say. And they go, oh, I guess you want me to be boring now. And it's like, no, like, you know, all these other sports don't have the problem of, you said

something mildly controversial. We talked about it as a mildly controversial thing. and then you like turtled and we're like, please don't make me the center of any controversy. Like nobody else has that problem. The NBA, there's, you know, all kinds of drama all the time and it's fun. Like you, you don't have to have it as a binary choice between vaguely interesting or not any, not interesting at all because you're afraid of one percent controversy. Like if he doesn't do this, people ask him about it once and then, you know, it's done. But now everybody in the media is going to have a Drew Dowdy take about it.

You know what I mean? It's... The one thing with it is, I think there is an element of this where because everybody in hockey is so boring, we do pay too much attention to the few vaguely interesting things. Like the NBA, when you talk about people saying interesting things, it's like, remember that, that... Simpson scene where like they're explaining why Mr. Burns never gets sick and it's because he has every disease and they're all like, it's like the three stooges effect where they're all

trying to cram into the door and nothing can get through. And it's kind of like that with the NBA. Everybody's so interesting that like nobody stands out as being interesting enough that you have to take some, versus the NHL where like one person just slightly pokes their head out of the trench and we're all like, oh, wow, that's something for us all to talk about for five or six days. So I get that there'd be some frustration. At some point, hopefully we just get enough guys saying enough vaguely interesting. Like I'm set in the bar at vaguely interesting. I'm not even saying controversial.

Just something that sounds like it came from an actual human who was engaged in a conversation and not staring off in the middle distance, just reciting cliches without even thinking about them. hopefully we get enough of that that this stuff doesn't feel like every single one of them has to be its own story. I do get the frustration from an HL players in that sense, but the answer is not, you say something interesting and we all pretend that you didn't. Yes, correct. And, you know, it's the thing of, like, I don't care that Drew Doughty thought the King should be better than the Canucks this year. Like, you're, of course, going to think that, generally speaking. but people in that market are going to be like, well, hold on, buddy.

Like, nobody outside, like, the greater Los Angeles area thought the kings were going to be any good this year. And anybody who was was kidding themselves for obvious reasons, right? And, you know, like, I don't think anybody begrudges Drew Dowdy that take necessarily. But, like, you do have to understand that it's going to be bulletin board material. and like that's fine. It's fine that it's bulletin board material. I talk shit about whoever you want. You know, like I don't think Drew Doudi's mad that people are making a big deal out of his feud with Matthew Kachuk, right?

Like the ongoing. Yeah, well, he seems to like that. Right. So like, what's the problem? Have a feud with the entire fucking division. Who cares? Yeah. We could use it.

So, I'm not, I'm not, I'm a leaf fan. I'm not mad at Drew Doughty. I think whatever he said was, was perfectly valid. It, it was, uh, you know, I found the Ovechkin thing confusing. Oh, oh, about, oh, about the leaves, yeah, but. Yeah, but yeah, about the leaps. And then, you know, and, and the same with the, with the Canucks thing. I didn't love the whole, it's out of context.

No, it's not since that it's out of context. Pouting and, yeah, which again, like, Like it's one, and maybe I'm splitting the hair too fine here, it's one thing to say, you guys reported it in a way that didn't reflect my intentions when I said it. The point I was trying to make was blah, blah, blah. And then at that point, that becomes the new story versus saying, you took me out of context and implying like some level of dishonesty or something on the part of the part of the media covering it. That's part that rubs me the wrong way. Yeah, sure. I don't know.

Whatever. Like, it's part media navel gazing for sure, but at the same time, it's just one of those things of, you know, all these guys are talking about it. So you got to talk about it. I guess the other thing to say about the whole Western conferences, boy, the standings are still really weird, huh? Yes. the standings do not make any sense, except in the sense that this is the NHL, and they rarely do. They're especially weird right now, and I shouldn't say just the West. The East is also kind of weird, but maybe less so, apart from, like we said, Tampa being bad.

Western Conference right now, let's pull up the league standings here. The top of the Central looks about right. Yeah. It's, you know, I, the, the big one in the central, and this is, this is part of the weirdness of the standings is to me how much it feels like things change in only a couple of days. Like I wrote a thing on last week was November 1st. So it's the big day for the Elliott Friedman stat about how if you're four points out of the playoffs on November 1st, you're screwed. And there was, for some reason this year, I think partly because there's such big gaps in games. played. There was a ton of teams that were four points or more out. There was like 12 of them, which is crazy. So I went down and I did like a ranking and I was like, oh yeah, you know, here are the teams I think are going to make. And, and I did, that came out on Friday. By Monday, I was writing my power rankings and I was looking back and I'm like, it's totally obsolete. What was I, like, my rankings are completely wrong. Because I had like, I had like San Jose.

I'm like, I still think San Jose is going to get back into it. And three days later, I'm like, San Jose is dead. They're gone. And I had Dallas, I was like less optimistic about Dallas. And like three days later, I'm like, the stars are back. They're a powerhouse. They're going to be fine. It's, yeah, it is, it is true. But that would be, to me, in the central, Dallas is the one that stands out.

Maybe not even where they are in the standings. Being fifth in the central, okay, maybe that's where you would have had them. But the fact that they were so bad and then had that big comeback against them. Minnesota and they've been they've been rolling pretty much ever since. I don't know, where are you, where are you with the stars? I don't want to, I don't want to start the whole Ben Bishop thing again, but they're playing, they're playing better now for sure. They're out shooting their opponents far more often. But boy, they dug themselves a big hole. And, you know, like, it's, what have they lost one regulation game in the last seven or eight? And they're still only 500. That's

how bad they were to start the year. You know, they've outscored opponents, I think, two to one, something like that on this streak. They're not, like, dominating games, but they're playing, you know, well enough to win, and they're starting to get goaltending again, which they did not, as you might expect, when you lose whatever, eight out of your first nine games. They didn't get goaltending, but now they're starting to, you know. But as you, but again, as you might expect, like the goal tend. is kind of outsized to make up, you know, I guess you're saying they're just making up ground

like St. Louis did last year. Just to get back to being even vaguely respectable. But I don't know if. It's funny. We're one month into the season and like there's all these, I know we're going to go through all these different teams and, you know, these guys are overachieving, these guys are unachieved. And we try to break it down and analyze it.

But so much of it, you could just be like, goal tend. Yeah, it's crazy this year. The goal thing is significantly better or worse, and that's, and that's it. That's, that's so much of the explanation. But yeah, I feel like Dallas is, well, I'm not going to say they're back because they're, they're not. They, they still have more ground to make up.

Yeah, like, they're 500, and they're on this huge, this huge streak where they look great. But, yeah, the other thing to say about it is a pretty good chunk of these games early on, or in the, in the recent streak, they've only played two on the road this whole time. And now they're going on a four-game road trip through Western Canada, which has turned into a weird meat grinder, even though the jets aren't great and the flames are fine. But like Vancouver and Edmonton are just whaling on people, maybe not so much the Oilers lately. But it's hard to get points on a Western Canada swing now.

And that wasn't the case even last year. So I'm very curious to see how they do against, you know, these four teams where it's tough getting points out of any one of those games at this point on the road. Especially when you have to do the Calgary, then the next night in Vancouver and then back to Edmondson. Yeah, that sucks. Somebody like get the schedule maker and map. And then they come home and play Vancouver and Winnipeg again. Yeah. So, yeah, they're going to be interesting to watch it.

you know, they were on the road for all but three games in their really bad stretch to start the year. So they might just be like a team that's going to have bad home road splits all year. Who knows? But that's the thing to watch with them, I think, is how these next four games go. Yeah, that doesn't start until Sunday, and then they've got all four of them in a week. So, yeah, that's going to tell us. The other team, also in the Central Division, also got off to a bad start. Now looking great.

We mentioned them, the St. Louis Blues. You know, they're winning a lot. Again, they've won five, six in a row, something like that. And, yeah, they... Even without Tarcenco. Like the second Teresenko got hurt, they're like, oh, we're not going to lose anymore. It's crazy. Now, six wins in a row.

Four in overtime, though. That's Buffalo shit from last year, right? Like... Yeah. But they're only lost since, like, mid-October was at Boston, who's beating everybody these days. Boston's really good. They're beating it. And that was one of those games where it's a Cup final rematch in your own building.

That game means more to Boston. Oh, for sure. It just does. I know nobody wants to say that, but it just, if you're Boston, that's your game that you've had circled. Yeah, it was game eight of the Cup final. Right. Exactly. So I think we can.

Yeah. And that's fine. kind of getting in... You know, you don't score sometimes. And like the Bruins are the best game in hockey right now. Them or Washington is probably who you'd say. And other than that, they've lost twice to the Canadians in regulation, and that's it. Yeah.

They've had a couple of overtime shootout losses. But yeah, they're... And the thing is with the Blues this year is I always felt like anything that happened in the first half with the Blues, didn't necessarily Like we were going to write it off. Yeah, cup hangover. But even if they were terrible, we'd all just be like, yeah,

well, it's the blue. Remember last year? Right. Like every team that gets off to a bad start thinks they're the blues, but the blues actually are the blues. So when they were kind of looking not so great, it was like, all right, you know,

they, we weren't going to panic no matter what, and maybe we should do the same thing with this winning streak that's over time inflated and all that. Yeah. The other thing to say about them. They do look good, And they're kind of, go ahead. It is, you know, their goalies got off to bad starts.

And these are two goalies who won's a career, AHL, NHL-NHL tweener. And the other is Jake Allen, who's bad, like demonstrably bad. And Bennington's starting to look pretty good again. Yeah. And that was always the thing for me was, like, Binnington, was he going to be the Steve Penny? He just needed to be average. Kind of one-year-wonder guy, you know? Or was he going to, yeah.

And he's looked like a pretty good goal to him. Like, you never know, right? Like, he, this was a guy was, we all know the story last year. He was probably fourth on the death chart. Comes up, has a big run. And, and then gets not a huge contract, but a big contract. You know, this, was this Steve Penny, Andrew Hammond, you know, whatever version? Or was this guy going to be a legitimate NHL?

Not necessarily a star, not necessarily this elite, but the blue. don't need a star. They need good goaltending, which is what they never got from Jake Allen. Give them good goaltending. That was a big question heading in the season. Do they actually, is Jordan Benning actually going to give them good goaltending or are they stuck with a $4 million guy who had won

hot streak? He looks pretty good. And as long as he looks good, they're going to be fine. The rest of that team, they're going to be fine, except that we talked about this last week. I worry that Teresanko is not coming back this year. Oh, I don't think he's coming back at all. I don't I don't think.

I don't see it. If you could tell me, if you could tell me, Teresenko's coming back just for the playoffs. Like, he's going to miss the whole season and he's going to do the Patrick Kane thing where he's healed in time for the playoffs.

I'd be all in on the blues again as, as legitimate cup contenders. I, you know, you lose a guy, you can kind of circle the wagons for a few weeks, but at some point, I mean,

that's 40 goals out of your lineup. That's really hard to replace. Absolutely. But Doug Armstrong seems like the sort of guy who's all in, so maybe he figures out whether it's Taylor Hall or whoever. Maybe he does figure out a way to do it. Yeah, you know, like you say, you can't replace Vladimir Tarasanko. Like the idea that, you know, you go out and trade for Tyler to Foley, yeah, that's going to put a Band-Aid on it, but that's a, you know, gaping bullet wound. So, you know, like, there are some guys who they could go out and get to help.

and probably should, quite frankly. But at the same time, you know, I can't sit here and say, yep, they definitely, you know, they can weather that storm, but maybe they can because they overcame what they overcame last year and they're well-coached and they're deep in a way that they weren't, you know, they have some losses, but like Carl Gunnerson and Christ, who's the guy who's the guy who went to Tampa, Patrick Maroon. They're not like game-changing talents. Those are like decent depth guys. So, you know, I think they're going to be mostly fine, honestly.

And they're going to, you know, they're going to weather the storm and they're going to win a few more games three to two and two to one than four to two and three to one. And every time they do, reporters in whatever city they just beat are going to write articles about Big Boy Hockey. Right. And which we just, they just beat the Oilers, and now the Edmonton media is all worried that the Oilers aren't, aren't ready to play big boy hockey. And then occasionally, the Blues will go out and get some skill team will skate circles around them and beat them 5'1 and nobody will write the opposite piece. Right, well, because then you get to say, well, they didn't have Larimer Tarasanko, so where are you going to do? There it is.

And the Pacific. Well, I was, yeah, the Pacific's a weird one. I'll let you explain the Pacific because I'm... Okay, who knows? It would be... Yeah. You have currently... Like, if I started, if I went to you at the beginning of the season and said, I'm going to start reading the standings for the Pacific, and I went Edmonton, Vancouver, Arizona.

Like, you would assume I was going from the bottom up probably at that point. Like, you'd be like, well, okay, we got to, he hasn't got to Vegas and San Jose and Calgary yet. So, okay, here's the Pacific standings. Slots 1 through 6 have at least 9, have between 19 and 22 points. Slot 7 and 8 have 11 and 12. Yes. And slot 7 is the San Jose sharks. The team we thought was maybe going to be the best team in the division.

And they're, God, I mean, I feel like, I know the sharks has been kind of done to death, but there are nine points out of the playoffs already. And they look horrible. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this isn't one of those teams where you go, well, yeah, but the PDO and the underlying, like, no. Yeah. And I mean, like, well, I mean, it's sort of like that because, like, people were criticizing Eric Carlson last week for looking like he doesn't care and all that kind of thing.

But the real problem is that Mark Edward Vlasic has had. a front row seat to just about every cold against the sharks have suffered this year. And listen, if you want a front row seat to sharks games, you're going to want to go to Seatgeek. Wow. Yeah, I know. I'm fucking really good at this. Holy Swimmers. Millions of live event tickets from sports and live music to comedy and more.

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So there you go. That's your Seeky ad. That's your A plus ad read, folks. And this, that experience to me felt like it was like being at a basketball game and there's like one fan who's just constantly heckling the players and telling them that they're all garbage. And finally everyone's like, all right, if you're so good, you come down on the court and show us how it's done. And the guy gets up, comes down on the court, grabs the ball, dunks over LeBron and then just goes back to his seat. That's right. I look.

I don't. Sean, the thing is, look, I'm not going to say when Gray comes back, we're going to have a goal to end of controversy here when it comes to the ad reads, but we might have, like, you just garden minchewed that and I don't know what direction we're going to go in. We're going to, we're going to have to see. Here's what I would say. It's not, it wouldn't be fun for me to be this good at it every single week, you know? It's like when you're, it's like when you're, when you watch LeBron, like in his absolute prime, just put up 40 against the Detroit Pistons. And you would just be like, he's like sleepwalking through this game. He doesn't need to, he doesn't need to be here.

Just give him, just put 40 points on his stat sheet, you know, let him sit the whole game. That's fine. And, and that's what that, that's what it kind of feels like, quite frankly. So, but yeah. That was, that was phenomenal. I don't even remember what we were talking about. Mark and War Plastic sucks. That was it.

It's one of those. I made this joke on one of the columns I wrote in the last couple of weeks, but you remember that episode where Principal Skinner calls Margin Homer in to talk about Bart's grades, and he's talking about how, you know, he has a negative effect. Not only like are his grades bad, but the closer you sit to Bart Simpson in the class, the worst your grades are, that's Mark Edward Vlasics like Wally's this year is every single person is like, you know, 43 with, 52 without, 48 with 56 without, like he's just, you know, you put him out there with somebody, he's knocking seven points off your expected goals percentage

every time. It's crazy how bad he is. And is currently signed through 2006. through I think 299, yeah. Six more years after this one with a no movement clause through most of that.

Yeah, it is, he's, he's bad. I made reference to like, yeah, like, I made reference to like, well, PDO and that. Yes, there is an element of it where you go, well, that say percentage is low and that's, and with other teams, you might look at that and say, Well, when the goaltending gets better, they'll be better. But this is what their goaltending is.

So I'm not going to just magically bump them up to like 915. And it's... Oh, no, for sure. Yeah, I mean, look, his goal's 4 percentage at 5 on 5 is 24. 24. He's been on for 6.4 and 19 against. And, you know, not that Justin Braun's playing well. in Philadelphia, but like you now look at that and you go, oh, uh, Vlasik was the anchor on that pair

last year. Like he was, he was the guy dragging everybody down. Um, you know, you use him as a shutdown guy, whatever you want, but like, this is, this is the ultimate thing of why the sharks are bad this year. And if Peter DeVore was trying to keep his job, which I'm now not so sure about, he would just sit this guy. Like, the obvious answer is this guy is a huge problem. and the solution is either give him 19 minutes a game at the absolute most, never again to pass that number, or put them in the press box. And just to make matters even worse for the sharks, because I know there might be people listening to this going, well, you know what, sometimes it's just not your year, bottom out,

get a nice high draft pick, come back next to. year, guess what? They don't have their first round draft pick this year. Nope. The Ottawa senators, who we spent all of last year making fun of for going through a terrible year without having their own pick are now

on the opposite side of that coin. They own the sharks pick. It has no lottery protection. It's from the Carlson trade, obviously. No lottery protection whatsoever. So it's not like the sharks can even just say, you know what, we're nine points out of, bite the bullet, hit rock bottom, trade a few guys if we can,

and kind of try to do the quick regroup for next year. Yep, can't do it. There's no pick coming this year. It's heading to Ottawa. Yeah. So at the other end of the spectrum in the Pacific, though, the top three, like you said, Edmonton, Vancouver, Arizona. Yeah.

Doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Like Arizona, yeah, you know, I think a lot of us were figuring eventually someday. We thought they'd be close. Especially when they got Kesselot, though he hasn't really been... He's been okay, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, Vancouver especially is... Again, I thought they'd be on that playoff bubble. It looks like they are going to finish comfortably in the playoffs.

Like, even if things go a little bit sideways here, they already have 21 points from just 15 games. You know, they have the... It's the, I think, fifth best points percentage in the league. behind only, you know, teams that we would all have said, well, maybe not the Islanders, but I thought they'd be a playoff team, but teams, you know, where you would go, okay, this is a team that was going to be very good this year. You know, Boston, Washington, St. Louis.

Okay, those check out. Then Vancouver? And then Buffalo? Okay, man, you know, I can't really figure it out. But, you know, they're getting goaltending and they're playing. Markstrom actually looks like a legit good goaltender even. And I say that with some surprise, because I always pictured him as a guy who thought he was fine, yeah, who could be fine and he would be that defendable. He was the bridge to Thatcher Demko.

Yeah. He wouldn't, he wouldn't be a problem on a good team. He wouldn't be the solution on a bad team. He'd be there. And he's been better than that. And it has been for a little while. This isn't like just this month sort of thing. Like he's trending in that right direction.

You know what the turning point for him was? It was the... I don't. It was when I wrote the article about him being on the verge of breaking the record for longest streak without a shutout. And he then got a shut out that night. I'll show this piece of shit. Literally that night he got a shut out. And then I think from there, like I don't cover the Canucks or any other team or ever leave my house to do this job.

But if I did, like, I'm willing to bet, like somebody check his locker. actually he still has that article up there, like, circled. And, like, he hasn't sent a thank you note directly, but it's, maybe it's coming. When he gets his new contract, you should definitely invoice him. When the Vezina Awards acceptance speech comes, like, I want, you know, like, the whole speech doesn't have to be about me. He can still mention, like, his parents and stuff like that, but I would like a shutout. Teammates, yeah.

Yeah, no, you, you, and look, you deserve it. Yeah. But the other thing to say about them, though, it's not just goaltending. It's not just shooting percentage. They're a top 10 expected goals team in the league this year. Yep. And so, you know, obviously you'd say their winning percentage is maybe a little bit outsized because of that. But again, if they keep playing this way, you can't expect them to drop too far.

They look really fucking good. Second best goals differential in the league behind only Boston, despite the fact that they're a couple of blowouts in there to really pad that stat out. Like, they're not beating everyone for one every night. There's a lot of close games, and then there's a lot of games where it's like, oh, they just, like, hung six on the kids. Drew Downy and the Kings helped that, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

But it's still, like, I mean, it's, it's, you know, as opposed to the oilers who are sitting at plus two, I think, you know, that's. Yeah, and they're a bottom, they're a bottom 10 expected goals team. Yeah, the Oilers are the team, you know, in the, of those three in the Pacific, if you're picking one to say, I'm not sold, it's probably the Oilers, even though they're in first place, but they played two more games and, you know, they look better, for sure. Yeah. Better than they were last year, better than I expected them to be this year, but not as good as first place in. in the division. Yeah, it's the same thing that we were saying, like, you know, we thought the oil,

I don't know if anybody thought the oilers would be like a huge disaster, but we also didn't expect them to get, you know, whatever, like, to be able to have a Mike Smith 50 save shutout. Yes. Or one goal game, I guess. You know, like that, that was never really on the table. And they're getting that. And then obviously, you know, dry sidel and McDefedicton. David are scoring their asses off, as you would expect.

You know, the oilers right now are top 10 in all situations, save percentage. That's not going to last. So the rest of the team, like, they're still going to struggle to score goals. McDavid and Drysiddle are still going to pump a million into the net all year long. And they're going to, you know, with this, they've talked themselves into a playoff race. And they've baked the points. That is part of it, right? That's what I mean.

That's what I'm saying. Like they're, they're, they're over, yeah, but they've, they've banked, you know, whatever. They have them in the bank. Yeah, exactly. Like those extra three or four points that maybe is more than, than their play. And that could be the difference. That could absolutely. And, and, and you know what, and good for them. Because I, as much as we all kind of enjoy watching the train wreck show in Edmonton, I want to see Connor McDavid in the playoffs. I want to see Leonard Cedictor's. I want to see Leanderthorzidal in the Plaths. I want to, like, let's go. Let's see these guys.

That'll be fun, and even if they make a run, that would be kind of cool to see. So the two teams that are barely on the outside looking in here are Vegas and Calgary. Vegas has been a little bit weird where, you know, they look great for the most part, but they're just kind of not getting the kind of huge goal differential they should. And, you know, do you want to say that's because their PDO is like, almost exactly 100? Yeah, okay, sure. They're stars, I guess you would say, aren't performing up to expectations. Yeah. But everybody else has been fine. Calgary, I don't know. You know, like, I think Vegas is right where they should be just in terms of how they've played. But Calgary, I think,

is weirdly disappointing. Yeah. I mean, not only because they've won the West last year. At the second best record in the entire NHL last year, I feel like everybody, like I didn't see anyone heading into this year picking the flames to win the Stanley Cup, which is kind of weird. Like normally when a team has that good of a year, and even with the playoff disappointment, people go, okay, they're going to get over the hump, they're going to learn it. Like, I didn't see any of that. But even then, like, even if you didn't have them in that top tier of like half a dozen true contenders, I think most of us thought, yeah, playoffs. off team at the very least. Of course. And it's, I mean, they're not far off of that.

But, yeah, I mean, it's just. Right. I mean, they got points from five of their last seven games and they're, you know, but they're just, they're doing a thing that I didn't expect them to do, which is I thought their goaltending would be the problem because Dave Ridditch is like, who knows, but he's probably about an average goalie. And Cam Talbot coming into the season, you would have said, well, he's totally. totally washed.

Like that's, they just needed a goalie. Because they're barely using them. They're barely playing him now, yeah. And, but otherwise you would have said Johnny Godreau, Sean Monaghan, Elias Lindhol, the 3M line. Like, they're going to score their goals. Mark Gerdano is going to put up a ton of points again. And they're, they're going to be fine because Bill Peters is a coach who every year,

no matter how good or bad the roster is, has like a 53, 54 percent, expected goals difference and huge coursey differential and all that kind of stuff. And that just really hasn't been the case this year. It just feels like everybody other than Ridditch is like just a little. Off to a slow stop. But like just a little bit underperforming. Like there's nobody that you really point at like I did last week I did my like all bad start team. And I think I ended up putting Luchich on it just because.

But I was like, I'm like, oh, Calgary. is going to have a ton of guys and they're really like, you know, like Johnny Godreau 15 points in 18 games. Like you expect him to be a point of game player, but it's not like he's sitting there with like six points. And you go, okay, well, their best player has been awful or been having bad luck, whatever.

It's just like you just go down the list and it's like everybody's just 10% worse than you would have thought. And that's all added up to a team that's okay. Like they're not bad. It's not a disaster. They're just, they're all right. Right.

And that has left them in a situation where, you know, if the playoffs started today, well, the playoffs don't start today, they've got plenty of time to, you know, they're still in the playoffs. They're still in the playoffs, yeah. They're still in the playoffs, yeah. If we don't look at points percentage in it. And the other thing to say is, like, Goddrow and Monaghan, Goddra scored the other night, broke like a 12-game goal of streak or something like that.

They have a combined seven goals on 96 shots. How many 96 shots? shot samples for those two guys, do you think you can pull where they only have seven goals? Yep. You know? And so, you know, if they have an extra three goals from those guys, we're not talking about this. The thing with them is, you know, if you go, you look at that team and you go, yeah, they should be okay. They can get in the playoffs.

Okay, whose spot do they take? Because you're, and is it Edmonton? Is it, uh, I don't know. Like those, yeah, it probably is Edmonton. But, uh, I don't know. It's, uh, it's, uh, Yeah, the Pacific is just, it's the weirdest division. It definitely is right now, but we're, you know, we're going to move over to the east here.

Yeah, let's do. And there's two teams in the east that I think are worth talking about right now, two teams on very, very hot, hot streaks. And that's the Florida Panthers and obviously the New York Islanders. I want to talk about the Panthers first because I wrote about them yesterday. So we'll do that. And, you know, the thing with them is everybody said that while they're playing for fourth place in that division. Like you go out, you get all this help, you get a new coach, you get a new goalie, you add some better in depth. And at best you're going to finish fourth in that division because it's Tampa, Boston and Toronto.

Yeah. And that totally makes sense. I bet even within their room they were like, you know, we're not going to be better than those guys, but we can give them a run for their money. And, you know, right now I think they are technically on the outside of the top of that division looking in, but it's Buffalo instead of Tampa. But, yeah, I mean, the Panthers are on this incredible hot streak. They haven't played a ton of home games yet.

Yeah, they're six, one, and three in their last 10. Haven't played a ton of home games, just five out of 14. And, you know, everything seems to be coming together, except. the goal tending? Yeah, which in a way is kind of good news, I think, because if you're sitting there going, well, the weak spot on this team is Sergei Birovsky. Okay, on the one hand, that's terrifying because you just gave this guy seven-year, $10 million contract, and if he's taking even a small step back from what he was, that could turn into a disaster. But, like, it's Sergey Barowski. Like, he's a good goaltender, and sometimes good goaltenders just

have a bad month. not going to be 80. He's not going to be 882 all year. Sometimes he's pretty short. Sometimes he slumps, especially it's a new situation. You're getting used to new system, new teammates. Like, there's a part of me if I'm a Panthers fan that goes, if this guy gets back to like 915, even, they're going to be really good, potentially. And maybe taking a run at the mighty Buffalo Sabres. I don't know. It's, yeah, it's, it's, It's been, it's been, and yeah, same thing with, like, Joel Quenvo comes in.

I think when you have a brand new coach, you can maybe expect that you're not going to hit the ground running at full power necessarily as you're getting used to whatever changes he's putting in place. Absolutely. But, yeah, I mean, they did a good job to identify their two big weaknesses last year, right? Like, you know, coaching and goaltending were definitely the reason they missed the playoffs. and they got two of the best you could possibly get for, you know, like on paper anyway. And the coaching has come together certainly. And if the goaltending does, like, look out. But even with that having been said, like this kind of a not great in its totality start,

they have a game in hand on everybody in that division, except Tampa. And they're one win away from second in the division. So, you know, again, it's like about banking points, and they're doing that now and only likely to get better. So, you know, I think you're going to be kind of more bullish on the Panthers than, you know, maybe we would have been even a week or two ago. And then obviously we have the New York Islanders who are on a 10-game win streak. And despite that, not even first in their division because of the capitals. Because of the Capitals and because they've, again, this year, everyone's played three games more or less than some other team. Right.

Yeah, there are two games out. So if they win both games in hand, they, you know, are going to be ahead of the Capitals. But, yeah, I mean, look, the Islanders, like I said, they are a team that I thought would make the playoffs. I obviously didn't think that they would be winning 10 games in a row at any point in the year. and that's not a bet you should take with anybody. But the thing is, this isn't like the Sabres, and this isn't like, who was the other team we just said with all the overtime wins. Anyway, it's not that.

They only have three overtime or shootout wins and none in their last six games during this streak. And it's not a situation where you're looking at a team going, yeah, they're getting 930 goaltending, which they are, but they don't have 930 goal. Like, they got it last year, too. And at some point, you know, it's, It's, it's, I, and I don't, I don't want to get into the myth of Mitch corn and however, but at, at some point, systems and coaching do matter.

And that, yeah, of course. This is, I don't think they're going to be 9.30 goal attending all year long. Uh, but we said that all last year, too. And they were. Right. And, well, I mean, the, yeah, the difference for, for me on that is, you know, this is, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, think in this streak, let's see, they've allowed 17 goals on 305 shots. That's better than 930, I'm going to say. But, 305, 944. I mean, they're not going to get 944 goal

attending all year. Nobody thinks that. So, you know, it definitely is just a situation where they got insanely hot at the right time. They've also scored 35 goals on 278 shots in this streak. So, you know, the PDO is going to come down from the current 107 or whatever it is, right? But, you know, there is more proof of concept here. They cannot keep getting out shot, you know, 305 to 208, 278 every 10 games. They can't have that happen. And that's not what happened last year. They were, you know, a slightly better than 50% shots and courseies and all that kind of stuff. team last year. And, you know, their ability to limit scoring chances in particular, which they haven't really done in the streak, is what you would go, that's what propped up the goal-tending.

And they haven't really done that. But again, they're banking the points, and they're not a bad team. And they definitely, they're not a bad team. And it's, yeah, it's not like, you know, the Sabres were a bad team last year. And I've been a bad team for years. And last year they had a big hot streak and it didn't mean anything. And so I, and I think that a, that tells us something about the sabers. Not that your history is what you're doomed to repeat, but that does tell us something about the sabers. And it also makes it tough on them when they do hit a bump in the road. There's going to be that tendency to look around and go like, okay, is it happening again? Are we going back to what we were? Correct. Same thing with Edmonton, same thing to an extent

with Vancouver. The islanders are looking around going, man, we had 103 points last year. We want to playoff series last year. Like, we're a good team. And yeah, maybe sometimes good teams just take the next step. So, uh, and, and obviously if you're an Islander fan and I've heard from plenty of you, there, there does come a point where we're into like month 14 of this Islanders unexpected turnaround. And at some point, you just go, yeah, they're, they're good. And, uh, they're going to continue to be good. And the point when I finally say that will be when they go in a eight-game losing streak, and then everyone will blame me for that. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, like, that's the broad situation in the league team. Like, there's a huge gap between, like, good and bad teams, and almost none of them are who you would expect them to be. So, yeah, it's just been a weird year, like, weirder than usual. And God bless the Montreal Canadians. The one constant is that the Montreal Canadians are always right in the middle of the standings. deeply mediocre. Like, God bless the one team that is actually living up to expectations.

Although I will say, did you see the thing in, I think it was the Gazette, the Montreal Gazette this week? Things must not be going that well because there was an article saying, why don't any of the leadership group here speak French? It's bullshit. Yeah. And it's like, oh, boy, you'll love to see it, folks. That was my prediction for somebody who was asking like what Ovechkin's next bomb was going to be. and I said he was going to go into Montreal and be like,

I'm surprised I'm more French guys and then just walk away and everybody will be like, he's right. Thank you. They beat him to the punch, man. You got to love it. Oh, the other big, the other, like, you know, interesting news in the sport this week is, boy, those winter classic jerseys are probably above average, would you say?

You're fine. I care way less about uniforms than just about anybody, which is weird because I'm, Normally, it's, like, that should be in my zone of things I care about because I tend to care about everything, but the actual things are important. It, it looked fine. They're, yeah, sure. The Predators one, it should either say Nashville or Predators on it. It should not say Nashville Predators on it.

That's too many words or characters, I mean. and also their fake throwback logo of the blue saber-tooth cat is perfect. It's so good, and that should be their primary logo. But other than that, I think it's a nice looking jersey. Those stars ones, though. You're a fan. Real nice. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Those are great. You know, again, maybe one or two changes I would make. Somebody said make the star in the middle of the jersey yellow. or a different color than white. I agree with that. I would put the shoulder patches that they put low on the arm, up on the shoulders.

But other than that, it looks great. So if nothing else, this will be a very beautiful Winter Classic to look at. Yes. And also a good matchup and a different matchup. Two good teams. Two good teams now that Dallas is back. I am looking forward to the Winter Classic itself, and I like the fact that we've got two teams that haven't,

been involved in this stuff versus just like another reheating of Chicago and Pittsburgh. So that's cool. I'm looking forward to that. I just, I won't remember what these uniforms look like the day after the game. And that's, that's fine. It's just not my thing.

And the other, the other thing I wanted to say, too, is I love that this is going to be, you know, two jerseys where they're like really bright, fun colors that aren't red, blue or black. Yeah. Oh, like, one of my big things is if you're not like a team that wears red, playing a team that wears red, you should both wear your colored uniforms.

It's 2019. Like, the reason it used to be home in a way like that is so you could tell them part on black and white television. And if you want to, if you want to wear your white jersey, like, that's fine. But you shouldn't have to default to it. And the hurricanes did it last year when they would, I think they were wearing their reds. a lot, right? On the road. At least one game against the ducks where they did the dark and dark. Well, like halfway through the year, I feel like they said, we're not going to wear our whites unless your team that wears red.

And that's how it should be. When the wings and the Leafs played and they did the blues and the red, like, that looked fantastic. So, yeah, I'm... So bring it back. Like, just make that standard stuff. And, you know, like, I think the Predators jersey is just white. but it just breaks up the monotony so much of just, yeah, it's another red team playing another blue team. And occasionally we'll sprinkle a blacker, something like that in the mix. Like, as much as I don't like the orange or Euler's jerseys, at least they're doing something different.

So, one last thing we need to talk about, this is maybe not great news for you, Sean, because it is a pop culture thing and Greg is not here. Are you aware of what Disney Plus is? Disney is what? That's a movie studio of some sort? That's right. Yeah. Well, this is my understanding is Disney is basically doing their own kind of Netflix thing. That's right.

And which at first I was like, I don't care because I'm too old for cartoons. But it turns out Disney owns every movie now. So that's going to be, yeah. Has it launched or is it? It launches on the 12th next Tuesday. And in addition to having, you know, Snow White and all the Marvel movies and, you know, that kind of stuff. It's going to have original, yeah, it's going to have original programming, including Marvel series based on the characters you don't care about Blackwood. Or when I say you, I mean, the Royal you.

Everybody does not care about Black Widow of Hawkeye. You are correct. Yeah, especially you, I guess you would say. But the thing that very interesting to me is they're doing a Bounty Hunter TV, Star Wars Bounty Hunter TV show called The Mandalorian that I don't know if they've clarified. Again, I try to avoid spoilers, so I don't know if they've clarified it specifically about BobaFet or if it's about like, you know, a similar bounty hunter or Django, I honestly have no idea. And I don't want to know, don't tell me.

But it's about that and like just the troubles you get up to and, you know, Werner Herzog is in the cast for some reason. Like, they sold me the, you know, $6 a month subscription on that alone. I'm very excited about that. I don't know if that's a thing you would have any interest in. Yeah, you know, I don't, my thing is I don't watch a lot of T, shows on streaming. I don't watch a lot of TV shows, period.

But I don't, like, I'm not somebody who's got, like, six shows in my Netflix queue. There might be one at a time that my wife and I are trying to chat through. We get halfway. And then the, now, am I right, though, with this, they're, with the Star Wars series, at least, they're not, like, dropping it all at once. It's going to be, like, an old school one a week kind of, okay. That's an interesting.

Yeah, that's what, that's what Hulu does as well with a lot of their original shows where, you know, I think I said on the show last week, we're watching Castle Rock at the household here. And that is, we haven't watched the new episode that comes out on, it comes out every Wednesday. But it's the same thing with like the handmade sale and all that kind of stuff too.

That's a thing that, on the one hand, I think it's new and, or not new, I guess, but it's interesting to do it with streaming. But on the other hand, there are times when I'm just like, yeah, I just want to burn through all of these. I don't want to wait.

And so that's definitely like going to be a source of frustration for me. But I guess that's how they get an extra six bucks out of you at the end of every month. Yeah. So I don't know. I, I get it. I'm less excited about this than you clearly would because I don't, I do occasionally go and watch movies on streaming because I'm like eight years behind. So I could see this being good for that. And certainly like this time last year when I was trying to sit with my kids and watch all the Star Wars movies and it was such a huge pain.

pain in the ass. I think we actually ended up buying like DVDs off of Amazon so that we could watch these things. So it would be nice to have all that. But I do like 80% of my Netflix is stand-up comedy. So that and that's kind of like the one thing they've they've locked in. So I don't know. I don't know if I'll be on board, but I'll get your, we'll get your review of it once it's, once it's been up for a little while. The other thing to say, by the way, is that it will have the first 10 seasons of the Simpsons streaming commercial free for the first time ever. Any of The Simpsons has been commercial free. So that, again, worth the price of admission to me.

The only good, all, you know, six of the only good seasons of the Simpsons are in there. So. Good stuff. Perfect. Yeah. So that's the end of Puck Soup this week. Plugs, we got to plug stuff. Sign up for the Patreon. Me and Sean are about to record.

I would think a longer than usual mailbag, because we got a ton of questions this week. And you can also sign up for I write the newsletter every week, every Saturday on there. And it's hockey takes, music, movies, TV reviews, like all that kind of stuff. I write about it all. And that's an extra, I think, three bucks a month if you want to sign up for that and all the Puck Soup bonus stuff. And, you know, read my stuff at Yahoo. Sean, what about you? You can find me at The Athletic.

Some good stuff this week. The hockey site at the Athletic is doing a week-long series on hockey culture, and there's a ton of cool stuff, some very serious and important, and some of it just sounded goofy and weird and what these guys do and what it's like in the room and beyond. And it's neat. I had a thing on hockey nickname. which you can go find.

And you can also go and buy my book because it is now out in paperback. So it's holiday shopping time. Get in there. Grab a couple of copies. If you read my book last year and you enjoyed it, but you wish that it was like more bendy, now is your chance to get in there. That's the big sell for. Really fuck up that spine.

Exactly. Just really beat it up. And yeah, it's. And you know what? If you already bought the hardcover. Buy the paperback, too. You have money. People have asked me, people are asking me, like, is it different?

Is it updated? Only one way to find out, it's not. That's right. Yeah, the only way to find out is read them both side by side and then report back to me. Is there an extra typo that got sorted out? Maybe. You do not know and you won't know until you just, you pony up the cash. Sean, I did mean to ask about the Culture Week thing.

was it Katie's or was it Emmylies, the one where the hockey guy said about the league's maybe Coke problem. It depends on what you mean by problem. Because that was very funny. Yeah, that is, that is. Yeah, you know, what's a problem? Projecting much, brother?

It's a problem. Look, do guys, of course it is. But do guys, hey, look, do guys use it to party a couple of times a week? sure, is that a problem? Well, it depends who you ask. That was the most hockey player shit you could possibly think of. Yeah, that was...

We love it, don't we folks. And you can also go and find the list of all of the books that everyone in the NHL is reading so that you can find 100 different variations of the exact same motivational, like, warriors' mindset, how to attack your whatever, and just that apparently literally everyone in the NHL is reading at all times. Yeah.

Finding out that John Chaka's favorite book is something called Alpha Brain is the funniest shit in the world to me. That's like, you know, mind psychology insights into the human thought. And it's like, shut the, just fucking coach them. GMs typically don't get nicknames, but I mean, if we're not calling him Alpha Brain. Alpha Brain, just permanently instead of his actual name. So anyway, that's the show this week. Thanks for listening. I think Greg is back next week, but I also am not sure about that, so don't hold me to it.

Goodbye. See you.