Puck Soup - Sinking Into the B.O.G.

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Sean and Ryan talk about in-season tournaments, Corey Perry, the Board of Governors meetings, and more.   Sponsored by Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off), Hatch (hatch.co/puck), Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck), Factor (factormeals.com/puck50) and AG1 (drinkAg1.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And it turns out we missed a lot in the week that we, well, week and a day we didn't do the show.

No more vacation for you. No. First I want to talk about the in-season tournament that is currently happening in the NBA. I don't know if you're following this. I am not following it. Okay. Except that I am because it seems to have kind of like crossed over from being just an NBA story to, like, I don't follow the NBA. but when something big is happening,

I know about it. And this feels like it's gone from a typical November, December games that I would never care about to something more than that. Yeah, no, I think that's right. I think what you could say is, in part, because I believe the number is every player who wins gets like a million bucks or half million dollars or something, like regardless of its

LeBron James or the 12th guy on the roster. They get a good amount of money for winning. Games that they otherwise would be playing because they just kind of built it into the schedule very wisely. And so people are like pumped when they win

and that makes the fans excited and that, you know, on and on. And it just one million percent worked. No cynicism about it whatsoever. Everybody's just like oh, the in-season tournament, that thing that is cool and we love? Yeah, no, I agree. It's awesome.

So expect that to come to the NHL in about two years. Right. And here's the question. Would it work in the NHL? If they did it the same way the NBA does it, where it's like, well, you had these games scheduled anyway, and maybe there's like one or two extra games on the schedule for you that you don't know who the opponent is until you actually,

well I guess it would be three because it started with the quarter finals it was I don't remember all the teams I remember I watched part of the the Celtics Pacers game and the Pacers were so excited

to win that game I don't that's what I saw I saw flips of people celebrating in that and it's like okay because that's the whole thing with something like this

is and even before the NBA tried it there was talk about should the NHL do this, this is something they consider. And yeah, I mean, you and I have talked about how the six-month regular season just feels like a slug, especially this time of year. Like, we kind of know there's 10 good teams, there's 10 bad teams, there's 10 we're still trying to figure out,

but you're just looking at this going like, we just hit the 20 game mark. Like, we got so long to go. anything that actually juiced it up a little bit would be fantastic. I'm just not convinced it would work because NHL players, NHL fans, media,

everyone. We've spent so long convincing ourselves that nothing matters other than the Stanley Cup. That is the only thing worth playing for. If you don't win the cup, your season is a failure, you can win your conference and you don't even touch the trophy because it is so meaningless. And it just, it matters not a bit to you unless you win the Stanley Cup.

And I just have a hard time picturing hockey players getting excited about regular season games in December to win a trophy that isn't the Stanley Cup. Well, again, I think it's less the trophy and more the half million dollars or whatever they get each. Now, in the NHL, I'm sure it would be like $45 in cab fare. You know, like. But we did that for the All-Star game. Now, it wasn't a half million. But, I mean, I think it was like $100,000 per player or something. Yeah, it's something.

It's a million for the winning team. And they didn't remotely try. Well, I mean, that's- They still showed up and went through the motions and didn't remotely care. Scored goals, didn't celebrate. Like, there's no intensity, no, nothing. Yeah, I think that's a little different. because it's like one week.

Look, it doesn't matter. Like, it was such a, like, a ratings hit for the NBA, too. Yeah. That the NHL is going to do it. Like, you know. And frankly, why wouldn't they? I don't, I don't, like, hate the idea or anything like that at all. No.

I think it's, I think, you know, if you can do. Love to see it work. Yeah. If you can do something to make, like, I don't know, a Hurricanes Red Wings game in November matter. Yeah. I think that's. something.

You know, that would be fantastic. Especially because a part of the NBA thing was points differential. And I think we've talked about this before of like how much different the NHL would be if like standings points mattered less than goal differential somehow. Like in world juniors. Like you would see teams really try to stand on, for example, I don't know,

pick a bad team like Chicago. San Jose's throat. Like, teams wouldn't be going like, oh, we're good with 10-0-10-1 against the sharks. They'd been like, let's go for 15 because the goal difference matters. And yeah, I just think it would be interesting. You know, two years from now, we can worry about the finer details. But all I'm saying is feels like this was a huge hit in the NBA. We're not even to the finals yet.

And this is the other thing I wanted to say. You know why I think this would catch on? Because I'm seeing a lot of people going like, oh, looks like the Knicks didn't make it. Oh, the Celtics got bounced in the quarters sucks for you, man. I thought you guys were supposed to be good. Like twisting the knife over something that felt meaningless three weeks ago. That's what it's all about in sports, isn't it? Mm-hmm.

If you could be a Devils fan and say to the Rangers, yeah, you guys shit the bed in that tournament though, huh? sucks, man, not us. We're through to the semis or whatever. You know, I think that would go a long way toward, again, like generating the interest people are looking for. Yep. And look, I'm, when I sit here and go, like, I don't think it's going to work, I would love to see it work.

Yep. This would be fantastic. I'm looking at the NBA with, like, a lot of envy right now. Yeah. I'm just not convinced that this whole, And I would love it. I would love it not just to work in isolation. I would love it to work and be like the wedge

that starts to split this stupid Stanley Cup or nothing thing. Sure. You know? Like, imagine being a Bruins fan and being like, whoa, they won the president's trophy last year. Like you would just get pelted with tomatoes by every other family. Totally. Because it's like, I had to win the cup. So who cares?

You know, it's, it's, it's, it's. it would be awesome. Yeah. Let's see is all I'm saying. And for once, I'm saying let's see not in a, I think the NHL is going to screw it up, like the league office won't do it right. I'm just saying I would, I am cautiously, I'm not even cautiously optimistic. I'm pessimistic, but I would love to be proven wrong.

Sure. Yeah, I think the big thing is, you know, if they can sell the TV right, or whatever, and then the players get a cut of that. You know? Because I'm pretty sure that's what the NBA did, is they were like, we're actually going to put all these games on national TV extra. They wouldn't have been otherwise.

And so the players get a cut of whatever that extra money is. It's how I believe it works. But anyway. Is it also not the case that the finals or the, maybe it's Final Four, whatever, is in Vegas? That might be the case. That feels like that would also be a motivating factor for the NBA.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, let's get to some news we missed last week. There were, I think, two things that were like officially puck soup cursed. And the first, of course, is the Cory Perry, the decision to release Corey Perry from the team. Right. So when we last left this story, I think we felt like it was headed in this. direction, but the news had not dropped. Right.

I don't know what else to really add to it, though, other than we still don't know exactly what happened. It feels like the details are starting to crystallize. Like, it feels like some of the, like, the insiders are doing that dance where they're just dropping, like, a little bit more information in each story just to sort of, like, test the waters. Right. whether what they've heard is

accurate or not. I guess the big thing at this point is will Corey Perry have the NHLPA file a grievance here? And he has two months from the date of his release. He has two months to do it. He's 60 days, so he's still got lots of time.

And my understanding is it is his call. The NHLPA cannot do anything unless Cory Perry gives the go-ahead. for them to do it. And I just, you know, you can kind of already feel that if we hear that that he has asked for that, that there's going to be a lot of blowback from fans saying, like, you know, all these statements about how sorry he was and, you know, all of this stuff, but now he's grieving me.

And yet, I feel like if I'm the NHLPA, I feel like we have to take this. Well, I think it depends on the details. I'll just read the, as you mentioned, about details leaking out. This is from Frank Saravali last week. According to sources, an alcohol-fueled incident involving Perry was alleged to have occurred during event that included corporate partners and team employees in attendance. It remains unclear what allegedly took place who witnessed it and who reported it to the team. So it seems like based on that He might have had a little too much to drink

And did something he shouldn't have done We don't know what that is We can speculate and obviously there's been a lot of speculation But yeah that's the most comprehensive Like this is what happened I've seen And had too much to drink and did something he shouldn't have done is a very wide range of possibilities. Yes, but.

But what has been pointed out is for a player to have their contract terminated for behavior that is not criminal is pretty much unprecedented in the NHL. Right. I can't remember who pointed it out, but someone was like, yeah, a couple of weeks ago, Milan Luchich didn't get released from his contract for allegedly getting physical with his wife. Yeah. Yes. And, you know, when you look at the, like Slavavoyanov was an obvious one where the contract was terminated.

And we're not talking here. There are also cases where there's like a mutual agreement contracts terminated so somebody can go back to the KHL or something like that. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a team saying we don't want this guy anymore. I mean, you can mention Mike Richards, but Mike Richards, the Kings are still paying a cap penalty on. So even though he was allegedly caught with drugs going over the border, that was still not enough for the Kings to just walk away Scott Free from that contract. Evander Kane is another one, but obviously that was, you know, he had a falsified vaccine card allegedly and, you know, serious stuff. like that and again

grievance they the sharks had to pay them out the sharks had to take I don't remember if they took a cap penalty or not but they did they paid real dollars for it yep so you know look we again we nobody really wants to

go too far out on a limb here because we could find out the details of this and it could be something completely awful where we're going oh man I mean yes Corey Perry should never be seen again and you know nobody nobody Nobody wants to feel like they're potentially defending someone. Right. But if I'm the NHLPA, man, like, look, these contracts are guaranteed.

This is one of the very few things that the NHL players have going for them compared to some other leagues, you know, the NFL specifically. These contracts are guaranteed. And if I'm Marty Walsh, you do not want to open the door that says, if a player has a few too many on a road trip and does something embarrassing slash, you know, does something wrong, does something they shouldn't do, that that means the team now has a window

to completely walk away from their contract. You don't have to imagine very hard and look around the league and see all the bad contracts that teams are giving up draft picks to offload or, you know, doing this and that. versus just saying, oh, just keep an eye on the guy. As soon as he steps out of line, we're out. And we point to Cory Perry as the precedent for why we should be able to do that.

So I think there will be a fight coming on this. There probably should be. And I say that not in any way defending whatever Corey Perry might have done, but defending the idea that these players who, more often than not get screwed over pretty hard by the system and the owners have got one big thing going for them. They got to defend it, man. It's not even like you're defending it. You're just saying what the reality is for the union.

Not even for Cory Perry, but for the union's sake. It's your favorite guy with a lot of years left on a bad contract. Yeah. And now picture what happens. I mean, I don't want to give a hypothetical situation, but, you know, he, what, you know, these, these guys still go out on road trips, and I'm sure they're not always perfect little angels, let's just say. So does that mean a team gets to walk away from a contract? So on. I guess we'll find out.

The other thing that happened, I think around the time we would have normally been recording was that Vancouver traded Anthony. Anthony Bovillier to Chicago for, I think, just like a fifth round pick, something like that. Pure cap dump. Yep. Everybody saw that for what it was at the time. It wasn't necessarily working out for Bovillier in Vancouver. So he gets a change of scenery. They save, I think, four in change against the cap, something along those lines.

But then a few days later, and this is not Puck Soup curse, they trade straight up for Nikita Zedorov. I think a third round pick and a fifth round pick. So basically it's Beauvillier and a third round pick for Zadorov is what they gave up. Right. And they, I think for a lot of us, it felt like. And a little cap savings too, by the way. Yeah. I think for a lot of us, it felt like less than we thought maybe they would get.

but as was pointed out by many people, they being the flames, as far as what they would get for Zadourav. The Canucks, because of the Beauvilliers move, there's no salary retained. They take the full... That's right. Which apparently was matter to the flames

and maybe other teams needed retention to be involved. So I did find it very interesting. because especially as, you know, from a Leafs fan perspective, when Zadourov asked for the trade, and there was immediately that weird report that he would welcome a move to Toronto. Right. Which is like, okay.

You know, that's sort of, understandably, I think, immediately had a lot of flames fans on the defensive that like, hey, this guy wants, and I was hearing from flames fans who were like, hey, pony up, man, get ready to, yeah, you can have them, but you get ready to pay big time. like high picks, prospects, you're going to pay for this guy. And then he gets traded and I go, oh, that's all they traded him for. And immediately, I swear it's the same flames fans who were like, he's a number six defenseman, man.

He stinks. What did you think we were going to get for him? Like, I just find out a very, it's very fun to see how hockey fan brains operate. Yeah. Yeah, look, Vancouver needs to upgrade the defense. You watch that game last night? Like, obviously that was, I believe, his first game in the lineup for Vancouver, but, um. No, he played against Calgary.

Oh, that's right. He did. I didn't watch any, any hockey over the weekend. So, you know, I was on vacation. I thought you seemed like you were in a good mood. Um, oh, how about this? So I went to, uh, I went to New York City. I had two celebrity sightings.

This is one. One is tangentially related to hockey. Everybody knows I think that I like the band. The Hold Steady I went to a bunch of their concerts this weekend. At one of their concerts, big time Nye Rangers fan, David Harbor from the strange thing himself. Oh, yeah. And he was having a great time. He was loving it.

So that was a good one. And then the next day, I was around, I was around, what is it, Lincoln Center or Lincoln Square. I guess, going to see a movie. And leaving the movie going to get something to eat, I pass on the street. Young man, you might have seen him in a show called The Sopranos. He played Bobby Bacola. I loved that. I was like, oh, boy, only in New York, you know?

Yeah. Only New York's the only place with celebrities, man. Well, it's the only place with Steve Chiripa, I guess. This is maybe the bigger. But I just thought that was a great 24 hours of celebrities. sightings. But anyway. Yeah.

Anytime you see a celebrity walking down the street in New York, you're just like, this is where it all happens, you know? Because you don't get that like when you're in L.A. you can see a celebrity like at the grocery store or whatever. But just walking down the street, it's like a brush with greatness, you know?

Yep. But anyway. Doesn't happen a lot in Ottawa, by the way, in case people are wondering. Yeah. Although I did one. time see I was sitting in a bar and with some friends and we saw Alan Thick walk by. That was, and all of us cool people immediately like, immediately marked out.

And the window was open. So like, my friend was like, Alan Thick. And I think I've mentioned this before, but Alan Thick, I can't even describe it. He turned and he acknowledged us and said hello in a way that, and I don't know how he did this, but I think this is just a level of celebrity you get. It was simultaneously super nice and polite and yet also made perfectly clear that the conversation was over. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This was not going to continue. This was not an invitation for anyone else to speak. He just said something and we all just immediately shut up and like felt vindicated and, you know, everything.

And then only afterwards we were like, oh, yeah, that was like he basically very politely told us to go piss upper row. So yeah, Alethic ruled. The wink and the finger gun, that's all you need. Yeah, yeah. I think my number one New York celebrity sighting of all time was seeing Abe Vagoda on the Upper East side, just walking around. He was wearing a sweater. It was a nice fall day. And I was just like, that guy was in the fucking Godfather, man. You know, like, it's one of those things. Or it's just like, there are people who were famous and then like people who have been famous your whole life, you know, and when you see someone who's been famous your whole life, that's like, you know, David Harbor,

like I just heard about this guy for the first time, like six years ago or something, right? So it's like, okay, yeah, he's a famous guy. You see a pagoda. Yeah. Was he evil? Or was he like, there are so many, like,

guy dressed up as Santa Claus doing revenge movies now. He's the one where he's like, I'm not taking any more of this shit. And he kills a bunch of bad guys who were, I saw this. movie. I don't remember. John Leguizamo's in it. Wow. I think, and like, I don't think he, I think he's just regular Santa Claus in that movie. You mentioning that brought back, oh yeah, I saw that movie in theaters, like probably opening day.

Yeah. Made a huge impression, like a year ago. Yeah. Wow. Could I tell you the name of that movie? I don't think I could. This discussion went phenomenally off track. Yeah, whatever. Who cares? fucking pod. It's a hockey podcast. Yeah, it's good. Oh, let's talk about the Sam Montaubo extension. Who cares?

Oh, three years, 3.15 million for a perfectly good goalie? Great. You know. He's fine. He's, he's one of those three things, yeah. He's,

he's perfectly good. Come on. He's good. Okay, good maybe overstating it. You might be right. He's fine. Perfectly adequate, maybe. Yeah, adequate's great.

Yeah, okay, fair enough. But the other thing I wanted to talk about with the Zodorov trade is Elliot reported over the weekend that apparently the Leafs wanted to pull off some kind of package deal for him and Chris Tannen. Yes. But apparently needed the flames to retain money, yeah, of course. Up to 50%. I think he, I think Elliot didn't say 50%, but he indicated it was close to 50%. which as a Leafs fan, I'm kind of looking at that going, like, what were they going to give up? But it makes sense, right?

And, hey, the, a Toronto Maple Leafs GM who recently had worked for the Flames and knows the roster better than maybe even the new guy on the Flames does making a trade, that has, that has worked before for this team. So I guess you kind of. Well, I mean, look, you look at the Calgary Flames, where they are in the standings, how everybody's, how everybody's, feeling about them. And Brad Trill Living's like, I got to get a piece of that. Yeah, I got to get a piece of this defense. I got to get, I got to get this team's third and fourth

best defenseman. Oh, I, maybe fourth and fifth. Yeah, I think that's more accurate, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, look, the Leafs, the Leafs need defensive help. They need bodies, for sure. I would love to know what the offer was, though, because, I mean, getting two NHL-caliber

defensemen at 50% retained. Who aren't cheap either. Like they aren't like, you know, making a million bucks a piece, you know? Like, I'm, I'm wondering what that, what the offer slash request would have been in that trade. That would have been interesting to know. With the retention, it would have been a huge amount, I feel like. Yeah, exactly.

Like, a, you know, much like maybe what Vancouver gave up to get Zedorov felt low until you factor in zero retention. Right. If you're talking 50% retention on two guys, that boosts the price a lot, you would think. You would have to think. We'll see. There's still a lot of talk that the,

maybe it just ends up being TANF goes to the leaves. I do also have to think. If I'm Craig Conroy, I don't, you know, I'll, hey, I'll, I got to make the deal that's the best for my team. Totally. And, you know, he ends up trading Zadorov to a competitor in the same division. But there's a part of me, I don't want to trade him to Toronto after the way that went down with, like, the agent all but planting the flag in the ground.

Sure, yeah. You know, to the Toronto media, basically say, talk about this guy for the next week. And it worked, but there's a part of me that's like, I'm not going to give this guy what he wants. I totally agree with you. Yeah. But, you know, anything that's spite-based, I'm just going to be on. on board for it, you know. But yeah, I don't have much else to say about that other than it's really funny that,

Brad Trillivings, like, we need defensemen. What are some defensemen I know? Oh, I got it. Some guys I gave bad contracts to. Thumbs up, baby. We talked about Sam Montembow, Nino, Needer Rider, three years, four million bucks apiece to stay in Winnipeg. Do we have any big thoughts on this?

We do not. That's right. Yeah. Again, perfectly adequate player at that price point. Good player. I like them. I always liked them. Don't mind the deal, but I'm not... I'm not looking to conjure up deep thoughts on every... They did not hit a home run with this one or anything. That's fine. Yeah, I think the occasional signing might be surprisingly steep or light, and I don't think this one was either. It was fine. Yep. And then, you know, if we had stuck with the Tuesday recording schedule, this would have been a puck soup curse thing.

It happened mere minutes before we hit record on this podcast. I had not even heard about this. You had to break the news to me. Jacques Martin is the senior advisor to the coaching staff in Otto now. Right. So there you have it. Could go one of two ways. Jack Martans, a very bright guy, obviously has the long history in Ottawa,

the most successful coach in Senators history. And a guy with a reputation as a defensive mind, and when you've got a young team, that could be great. So this could be a great fit. It also kind of looks like, here's your coach in waiting to stand over DJ Smith's shoulder. a hundred percent. Because it's been made fairly clear here in Ottawa that the new ownership and then Steve Stas is the acting GM, but you know,

as the head of hockey ops, don't want to come in and make a bunch of changes any quicker than they have to because that, Elliot has mentioned multiple times that Ottawa players went to ownership and said like there's too much chaos, there's too much, you know, there's just too much happening here. Yeah. And they make the GM change under weird circumstances.

They really don't seem like they want to make a coaching change unless they absolutely have to. But now this feels like a way that you could do that and have an interim coach that's a firm hand on the wheel. And yet also maybe you can sell it as not as big a change as. Because he's already on the staff. Yeah. Did you watch the Ranger game last night? I didn't know. Okay.

So they were once again talking about it on the broadcast. And the Senators ended up winning that game pretty comfortably against, you know, the team with, I believe, at the time, the best points percentage in the league. And hell, maybe even still now, I don't have the standings page open. But they won that game kind of walking away. And, but there was a discussion, I think, in the first intermission about, like, so are they going to, like, fire the coach here? Because Anne Lauer was asked about the fire DJ chance at the board of governors. And he, it was very funny because he was kind of like not exactly giving the guy a vote of confidence, but doing the thing like you said of like, oh, well, I mean, look, what are we going to do here? There's so much chaos is basically what he said.

but not, but the best part of the quote was he's like, oh, I'm going to listen to 30 people in the 300 section. Mm-hmm. And it's like, yeah, because like those are the only people in the 300 section. Yeah, that's half your fan base. That's exactly right. I love this new guy because he is a fun quote, absolutely. Yeah. And he's getting a lot of positive feedback on that, which means at some point it's inevitable he's going to say something that he shouldn't say.

and in you know and I don't mean something like offensive or whatever I just mean he's going to say something about the fans or about a player or something and everyone's going to be like oh you can't say that and then he'll make the confused face and it's going to be fun yep but it was it was interesting watching that it was the senator's home broadcast and there was just a lot of like look I'm not going to say anybody should lose their job but then you look at the standings and the senators are dead fucking last in the, in the Eastern Conference by points, not by points percentage. And, uh, you know, that's a problem too.

And it's like, well, right, man, we're like, they were going like, well, look,

maybe you get to Christmas and if it's still this bad. Christmas, brother, your season is fucking over. You're nine points out of a playoff spot right now. You would have to jump. Gotta be better now, though,

right? They've been playing good lately. They, are 5-5-0 in the last 10 games. A huge congrats to the Ottawa Senator. Yeah. 10 and 10. Look.

But no loser points, which is what's really hurting them in that playoff race. And you would think a loser franchise like this would have some loser points, but no. I was wrong. There's 6.4 and 0 in the last time. They are still, see, they're dead last in the conference, but they've played seven fewer games than the Blue Jackets. Like, did we miss something here? I know. It's very strange.

This feels like the COVID year where you'd be like, oh, right, they had two weeks where they weren't played. Is this? It's partly a Sweden trip, but... I was going to say, like, the Sweden trip, but like the leaves went on the Sweden trip, they've played 22 games. Yeah. So by

win percentage, they are ahead of two. Well, you know what? They still got a little ways to go. Yeah, that's what... And again, like, you can't look at this Ottawa Senators team and go, well, I mean, you know, the games in hand. That's like, you know, three or four points guaranteed. Yeah. Not, they needed to win last night to get to NHL 500.

Yeah. They are seven points out of the playoffs. They have four games in hand on the Islander. So if they win all four of those, they're fine. And, and pass six teams. The point is they're looking good. Yeah, they're, they're in great. days. After they lost to Columbus, which

had everybody, like, it feels like, all right, how is this for, here's my conspiracy theory. That is based on nothing. Okay. I have to say this only because I'm in Ottawa, so I have to remind people that I don't know anything. Yep. I feel like

after the Columbus game, do you think that's where they made the phone call to Jock? 100%. Not even a question. And we're like, would you come in as interim head coach if we have to, because if we lose to the Cracken on home ice after losing to the blue jackets and everyone's chanting fire the coach. We have to make a move.

Yep. Then they win against the Cracken so they continue the discussion and then they beat the Rangers. And now it's like, all right, come in as the senior advisor. You've already like, you know, made up your mind to come to. Let's come in and do this. Yeah. Well, just hover over DJ Smith like impending doom. And make a face every time he makes any decision.

Yeah. If you're a God, if they put him in. the building, every goal against, they are cutting straight to Jock Martin, writing something down on a little notepad. Yep. And going, DJ, you know what I would have done is I told the team not to give up that goal there. Mm-hmm. But look, it all worked up.

They kicked the shit out of the Rangers last night. And they were trying to give that game away for a little while, but then the, you know, the third period came and they just kind of pulled away. But that was a fun. Boy, if you were like me and you went from Ottawa Rangers. to Canucks Devils last night? You were eating good. Those are two fun fucking games.

Partially because none of those four teams know how to play defense really helps up the entertainment factor. Yeah. Did you have any thoughts on the Hughes Bowl and how Vancouver ate shit at the end of the game last night? I mean, it was... Pretty funny. It was pretty funny.

It was a cool case of a game that had some hype actually being like hypeworthy maybe. Yeah, totally. In that, you know, that was a fun one. If you were someone who got, you know, decided you were going to watch that game, yeah, you got to see some cool stuff. And yeah, to have the big comeback. And I'm sure you saw that the NHL tweeted out that like it would have been. been the first time in history that three teams had a three goal come back in the same day.

That's cool. From in the third period because L.A. did it against Clos. L.A. did it. Yep. And the, what was the other one? San Jose. Oh, right. Yeah. And.

Boy, you want to talk about a coach who's getting fired, huh? If San Jose keeps winning, they might have to make a coaching change. I mean, what are you doing here, guys? I was talking about Lane Lambert. Yeah, he had some weird. quotes after that game. Yeah, that doesn't. And it's not the first time this season where he's just been like, I don't know what's going on.

This is crazy. All this stuff that's happening to me. Are you mentally prepared for the day that, like, Lambert fired friends on Twitter. I said it a week or two ago. I said it a week or two ago. When they were chanting Fire Lambert, I had to come out and say, I condemn this behavior from Islanders fans. We got to stick together. me, him, Brad Lambert, we got to, we're going to make sure none of these, none of these people

are putting us in the crosshairs. Like I said, I don't want, I don't want people chanting fire Lambert that gives somebody I know an idea. You know what I mean? So, anyway, uh, yeah, why don't we, uh, I'll just say the devil's connects game was fantastic and, uh, and also, here's what I like about that as a neutral fan. Yeah. I like that you got to see like a comeback and then the other team scored, and because it wasn't in overtime, it feels like a bad thing for the Canucks. Like, it feels like a real loss,

as opposed to if they had gone to overtime and then New Jersey scores, and it's like, oh, well, everybody wins. You know, the Canucks got a point. Yeah. And the devil still got their two points. So everybody's like, no, like, this is hockey, man. One team should be happy, one team should be sad at the end of the game.

And that's what we got. So yeah, I liked it. Yeah, it was a really cool game. All right, we'll take that break. We'll come back. We'll talk about Board of Governors stuff. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Factor and folks, it's a busy time of year. We all know it.

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$20 off their purchase of a Hatch restore and free shipping at Hatch.co.com slash puck. That's Hatch.com slash puck to get $20 off and free shipping, Hatch.com slash puck. All right, we're back. And, yeah, let's talk about the Board of Governors. It was just in Seattle. They had all their little meetings and stuff like that. I would say for a December board of governor's meeting, some pretty juicy headlines. I don't know how you felt about it, but number one, I think, for most teams is the salary cap is on, is set to go up to $87.7 million next season. Boom. There you go.

Every bad contract that we've criticized in the last two years is now justified. It's fine. Yep. Caps going up. Four years from now when people are still saying like, yeah, but the cab's going up soon. Not that much, big dog. Let's slow it down a little bit.

It's a pretty healthy increase. Yeah, 4.2, I guess, right? Because it's 83 and a half right now. Am I doing that math right? Yeah. I think so, yeah. Yeah. 4.2, that's a good size increase.

You wonder how much of that is just going to go to Willie Nealander for whichever teen size. just like we're just signing all our cap space over to you, Big Dog. Yep. Could be. Feels like he's going to be the free agent. And, you know, obviously he could still go back to the Leafs, but. Yeah, cool down a bit lately, though.

That's how you know the deal's getting close, right? Yep. Shut it down, Willie. But yeah, no, that's a good amount of money. Let's see what else. The draft is officially taking place at The Sphere. Dude. Here's the thing.

Puck's not a Sphere. What are they doing? They need to do one at the building that's like round on one side but like flat on the other. I'm just, I am excited. I will say it. Oh, yeah. It's going to be sick, man. I like Vegas.

But the Sphere does look cool. Sure. does. And so if we all get to go to this thing, especially since it's the last, the last hurrah. This is, again, I've talked about this. The league is very clearly trying to kill off all the old sports writers by holding the draft, going Montreal to Nashville and then Vegas as the finale. Right.

This is the series finale of old sports writers party at the draft. So it's not going to go well. But I'm very excited to see it. And to see what sort of cringe-worthy images the NHL puts on the outside of the sphere to annoy everyone. It's going to be great. Just a Black Hawk's logo, just rotating. Gary Bettman's face as the sphere. Yeah.

Can't wait. Just him making those little weird facial expressions. and that'll be, it'll be great, just beaming into your hotel room. How about this? You're going to want to sphere this, right? Remember when he said that? That's a plus.

Thank you. No notes. Thanks. But have you, I'm sure you saw the videos of like you two doing their little show there. And making full use of like everything's a video screen inside there. Interesting. It looked, it look cool as hell, man.

Will it work for the NHL? I would say the NHL's presentation is a little less dynamic than what, say, a U-2 show is bringing to the table. Maybe, slightly, yeah. Not that U-2 is the most dynamic band in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but, like, you know, they're putting some production value behind that show, if nothing else. You don't have to like, like, a beautiful day or whatever. That's fine. but you have to admit that they had the wall going fucking nuts from beginning to end on that video. And yeah, this time they'll just be like, and here's Macklin Celebrini.

And he's up there and he's going, ah, you know, it's an honor to be drafted. And everybody's like, yeah, this is the most dynamic speech in the history of the NHL. To represent the Chicago organization? No, he's going to... Chicago is one million percent winning the draft lottery this year. Not a question in my mind. Probably right. Oh, what a crazy coincidence.

They won it again. Huh. Interesting. Okay, the other thing that's going on here is with regard to international tournaments. It sounds like that one that we talked about, how stupid it is. is going to happen in like, I think they said, 2026 or 28? No, 28, I think they said. Which feels like a long way away.

Sure does. Am I remembering this? Now that I say that out loud, am I remembering this wrong? I'm going to look this up. Katie, if I got this wrong, we're going to have to edit this out. Oh, no, it's next year. Okay.

Leave it in. No, no, no. Let's not. No, Katie, don't. This is what I was talking about earlier. Well, now you can leave in it. Now that we made it a bit, Katie, you can leave in it. That's fun.

But yeah, so it is next year. And yeah, it's just Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden. Great, cool. And we, you know, not ideal, but again, as we said a few weeks ago, I don't, as somebody who very often talks about how the NHL is screwing things up, if you can't have Russia, I don't really know how you do this all that much differently. Again, this is the in-season tournament we were just talking about. Really?

Come on, man. Nobody wants this shit. At that point, just make it like the, you know, the way the NBA, the exact way the NBA is doing it. Oh, the Bruins and the Flyers, this one's an in-season tournament game. People will be like, okay, great, that's way better than pretending I care about this like best of three series between four countries. Fuck off. Anyway, the reason that's of note is that do you hear it? It's the NHL already finding an excuse not to go to the 2026 Olympics because they have not started construction on the rink yet.

Yeah. Gary Bettman just slipped that in. I feel like everybody had the exact same reaction to that, which is here we go. This is it. This is... Oh, we were going to really try this time, but you know how these Italians are with their building things? It's crazy.

It was like watching wrestling and like a tag team wins a match, but then like one of them is side-eyeing the other guy, or there's like a miscommunication. And you're like, oh, they're breaking up in six months. Okay. Right. This is the start of the storyline. And I already know exactly how it's going to end,

but they're going to do it slowly over however long it takes. And as just about everybody pointed out, very interesting that now Gary Bettman's worried about not having an arena. Right. Now it's very important. The Islanders are allowed to start the season with a, I think, 37 game road trip. The Rangers are allowed to get dressed in the parking lot. Uh-huh.

You know, but could we possibly play? on a rink that's only been open for two months before we show up there? I don't think so. That would be fucking crazy for us. Yeah. This is, I almost feel, as somebody who really wants to see them in the Olympics, I almost feel positive about this because it's like, if this is the best Gary Bettman can come up with, maybe we're going to be okay.

Maybe we can actually pull this off. Well, if it's not, this is, it's the other thing. You know, like they'll find something. But my point is. is he's obviously very motivated and if this is the best that he's got so far you know like we're a year and a half out though they'll get they'll get in the lab they'll come up with look because because you know people were like oh they're they're they're actually going to make a good faith effort to uh to go but then you know COVID it was crazy so yeah uh to me uh I

I am very, I was always very firmly in the, they'll find a way to weasel out of this one. And now like, you know, the fact that we're getting this much runway on it, they're weaseling out of this for sure. No question about it to me. Extremely funny. Extremely funny.

And yet one billion percent predictable. Anyway, one last thing that seems to have come out of the board of governors. news is that the coyotes are once again inching their way toward getting some land to build an arena maybe. Hmm. Oh, interesting. So they don't have an arena yet. I guess we're not playing in Arizona for until, is that not how it works? Yeah, I mean, good

for them, I guess. Well, it's... Did you read the article? No. Okay. But I've done that before. The article is extremely funny because they are zeroing it. This is from Craig Morgan, who please don't yell at us for saying any of this, Craig. Zeroing in on a parcel of land in Northeast Phoenix adjacent to Scottsdale.

Early in the process, Xavier Grudier has made it clear that Phoenix was one of the municipalities the coyotes would consider provided the site was located. the site was located in the eastern portion of the city, closer to the majority of the team's season ticket holder base, and closer to the wealth and corporate bases of the city along the 101 corridor that extends from Phoenix and Scottsdale down through Tempe and Chandler. Now, you're like, oh, closer to the majority of the team's season ticket base and closer to the corporate base.

That's good. That seems like where you would want to build it, right? Mm-hmm. And then let's keep scrolling down a little bit here. While this particular site would not be an ideal arena location for the franchise's considerable amount of season ticket holders in the southern portion of the Southeast Valley, the commute is just as long to Glendale, given traffic patterns at rush hour. The site is closer to the greatest wealth concentration of the city in North Scottsdale and Paradise Valley and creates easier access to fans in the Northwest Valley cities of Glendale and Peoria. So they're going, oh, a lot of our season ticket holders wouldn't be able to go to the games in much the same way they couldn't in Glendale. But at least like the rich people will be showing up.

And that's really all we give a shit about. Seems to be what the message here is. And also, they probably just don't have a lot of other options to keep it in that general area. And if you're going to, like, move to somewhere that's not ideal, you might as well move to where. people are going to buy corporate boxes or whatever. Yep. So pat on the back to the small but non-zero number

of loyal coyotes fans who have stuck with this team through all of the nonsense and criticism and everything else you are being rewarded by nothing. How do you feel about driving an hour

plus or whatever? Yep. Thanks for keeping us afloat. We are now going to dump you for the corporate guys take it from here. Yeah. For somebody much cooler and richer than you. Smart. That's just good business, you know? Mm-hmm.

So, yeah, that's what's going on with that. It'll be really interesting to see because, again, they're like, you know, the timeline on this was supposed to be, like, I think, I think they, originally said this might be announced before the end of the year. And I guess it still could. They have 25 days left or whatever. But now it's more like, ah, it could be like, somewhere in the first quarter of next year.

And it's like, I love how much they're just like, yeah, we can just keep sliding this timeline. Who cares? Mm-hmm. What's the hurry, man? Yeah. The timeline's only a three to five years stay at Mullet Arena. So.

Pretty cool. Look, I hope they get an arena. I know I went down there. I talked to fans. They were like, I'd rather have this arena than they're not playing here anymore. Understandably so. But they just keep moving the deadlines and shifting the goalposts or whatever you want to say. Because again, they're like a movement.

We don't have like this site locked down or anything. No. But the important thing is no votes. That is the important thing on this one. And I guess I should say the headline on this is impending arena site offers Coyotes Marula group one last chance. That's the headline by a guy who's like. The funniest thing that you will hear today. Oh, this is definitely it.

This is the last chance. I'll say this though. The fact that Craig Morgan is saying this is one last chance, I think it probably is one last chance. No, but it's one last chance. That's what you say when you're trying to make sure everybody agrees to... Yeah, you're probably right. You know, that like as a team, right? It's just like it's how many last chances did the flames, did Calgary get to build a new arena for the flames or else they were totally, totally going to move.

Yeah, you're right. That's true. But anyway, yeah, that's what's going on with that. We'll see. Um, otherwise, you know, hey, Atlanta's right there. You want to talk about a market that supports a hockey team. You know what? Third times.

Has, has, has any team, has any market ever failed to support the NHL three times? No, not once. You can't do it. You can't name one. 100% success rate. Guaranteed. Yeah, name another market that they've even tried putting three teams in. You can't do it.

Yeah, there's that too. But. I guess Kansas City maybe counts, but they didn't get one in the first, well, I guess they had the scouts, didn't they? Yeah,

so you were right the first time. No. Yep, I was. They have never had an NHL team. All right, why don't we take another break and we'll be back to talk about,

well, it's the coyotes some more, I guess. Great. This week's episode is brought to you by AG1. If you're a long time listener, you know my deal when it comes to age you one. When it comes to health in general, I want to do the right thing,

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Buyraycon.com slash puck. All right. We said coyotes talk coming up. Here it is. They can't keep getting away with this. They're very solidly in the playoff picture right now. And they've won five games in a row against Vegas, Tampa, Colorado. St. Louis and the Capitals.

Those are in order. Something seems familiar about that. Those are in order. No, sorry, Colorado won it before. Right. So very close to being in order, the last five cup winners. You know what?

That is a ultimately meaningless stat, but that's cool as hell. I like that a lot. That's right up my alley. Yep. I'm actually vaguely mad at myself that I never know. noticed that they had those five teams in a row scheduled.

Right. But I mean, how, I think it can be forgiven. Just because I look ahead in schedules every now and then, like when I'm talking about a team, sometimes I'll look at, you know, like I just, I feel like that's something I should have caught. Well, I'll say this. First of all, there's no reason for you to look ahead at most team schedules. But the coyotes going into this five game stretch were three, five and one. You would have had absolutely no fucking reason.

to look at what they were doing. And they've had five wins, four in regulation, none in the shootout. Yep. They have outscored the other teams 19 to 5. I've given up one goal or less in four of the five games. Can't do it much better than that, folks. Dude. My opinion?

And I know there's been some controversy would be the wrong word, but there's been some back and forth over whether this is the first time any team has done, this or whether it kept like whether going back to like the 40s count because in the original six days right the last everybody yeah could just be the five teams like you just need a five game win streak but either way this is i mean the the odds of it of the schedule working out this way feel very slim but to win all five games hell that's it's impressive man coyotes are are they they're not bad they're they're good they're getting like nine They're getting like 960 goal-tending right now.

They've scored 19 goals on 126 shots. They've been outshot across these five games by, let me do the math really quickly here. 28 looks like. So you don't want to get outshot by more than five shots per game as a general rule. Have they outshot an opponent? They did out shoot Colorado. They haven't out. And they just outshot the cab.

Anybody can out shoot the capitals. That's not the hard part here. But, you know, like I always say, you can't knock them for winning. You can just kind of be like, well, I don't think the coyotes are this good. Yeah. Right? But again, they keep fucking winning. Even like they're getting out shot other than the Vegas game where they only had 18 shots.

Like, you know, they're giving up like in the low 30s. It's not like they're giving to 45 shots. And there's like, they're leading these games. Like there is a certain amount of score effects kicks in where, you know, to get outshot 3127 in a game that you win isn't that bad. There is like, I mean, look, Connor Ingram is a goaltender in the NHL, apparently. This is news to many of us. Yeah.

And he's playing phenomenal. He's 930, say, percentage. That's not going to continue. Right. And it's especially interesting to note that, like, he's played literally all five of these games. And his save percentage is 968 in those five games. You know, I don't think there's a single person on Earth where if you were like, okay, there's going to be a goalie who plays 968 for two weeks. How much longer you think that's going to last?

I don't care if it's Dominic Hachach in like 1991 or whatever. the average person now is like maybe one more game. Yeah. You know, like it's, it's smoke and mirrors and everybody I think can kind of see that it's smoking mirrors. But they're winning the games. And second of all, they're kind of winning the games how everybody thought they were going to win the games when they were like, oh, they could be a sleeper playoff pick, you know?

Yeah. I didn't buy it. And my big reason why I was, I was like, well, Carol Melka's not, like, I think he's a good goalie. I don't think he's as good as he showed last year. And you've been proven correct on that? You hate to see that, don't you? But, you know, it's the guys you would have thought. It's Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz scoring a lot.

And then everybody else is just kind of like, oh, yeah, I'm here too. Yep. You know? including Michael, is it, is it Carsoni or he's, he's got, he's shooting 35%. Oh, I think we identified the problem. 12 goals and three assists had previously, his entire NHL career had scored six goals. He has doubled that in the first 23 games of the season. And look, I mean, like, that's not going to last.

Connor Ingram is a guy who was, two years ago, was traded for a seventh round pick. and then put on waivers. Right. That's not going to continue. But also, like, nobody on this team is scoring more in the point of game. It's so, you know, which is to say

they're getting their offense in a balanced way. So it's not like one guy getting cold or going hot or getting hurt or whatever. This is, it's a fun story. It's a fun story for sure. If it continues, like, people are going to

too into the whole mullet thing and like, oh, this is like the great underdog story or whatever. But that's a good, and like I've been saying, Andre Tournier might secretly be pretty darn good coach. Because he, remember, this is a team. We all picked them last year to be right in the Bardard mix. And he was, he had the team playing well enough to not wind up there, which probably hurts for the long run. but yeah. Yeah. I mean, my thing is he's not being given a lot of tools and he's getting results with what he's given.

But they're minus 115 and shots on goal for the season. And they give up more shots than average. They take fewer shots than average. Like, you know, I don't know if I see these guys because it's not like, you know, they're, They're winning all these games and therefore they're second in the in the division. Yeah. They're fourth in their division. And let's just say a lot's been opened up by the wild being bad for them.

And that's not their fault. I'm not, I'm not holding it. But the wild since the coaching change, tough to fucking beat. In fact, nobody's climbing their way back. Yeah. So they've made. You know, there's still six points out with a, yeah, a game in hand. Like, it's, it's still a long way to go.

They're below 500, but, you know, I'm speaking to coaching changes. The other one is Edmonton, right? Like, if Edmonton pushes their way back into this, that, that turns that Coyotes, Blues, Predators, Trinity into maybe only one or none can make the playoffs. Right. Now, here's the thing with that, though. You know what I'd like Edmonton to do? Fucking anything with that roster, right? Like they keep, yeah, it's all well and good when Connor McDavid has like nine points in two games or whatever it was, right?

Like that only happens like half the time. Right. And like they're on a four game winning streak right now. So they're at least making it interesting. But I don't know, man. I don't know how confident I am. that they can just keep getting, like, decent goaltending. Because the offense is always going to be there, right?

But they've outscored their opponents 21 to 7 in the last four games. So I don't know if I can count on the Oilers to give up two or fewer goals for a game on average for the rest of the season. And then it just becomes a little harder to make that turn. You want to talk? Hey, I mentioned this earlier where they were saying on the, uh, the senators broadcast about like, look,

maybe you get to Christmas, you're still in it. Then, then who knows? You can say that with Edmonton. If they're, you know, four or five points out of a playoff spot around Christmas,

that feels doable to them. Or, but right now they're eight points out. And yeah, they have games in hand, but eights, eights a lot, man,

eights a lot to make up no matter who you got on the roster. Loser points. and all that. We've talked about this a million fucking times. We have. So, you know, I guess the thing is we'll see what happens in the West wildcard. Look at what Vancouver's, you know, sliding towards these days. We're not feeling so good about that hot start anymore, are we? Who could have seen this coming?

They're four and six in the last ten. Eight points from the last ten games. That's not good. That's not where you want to be. You know what happened here? Rick Tocke told us they started so well that teams started really gearing up and focusing on their games against the Canucks. And that's why. Makes perfect sense. They're not shooting 45% anymore.

This is the thing. You have to find a way not to motivate your team, but to demotivate the other team. Yes. You have to be like, you know, like rubbing little crusties out of your eyes at the opening. face of, oh, I'm so tired, man. I don't feel good, actually. I might go sit on the bench for like 20, 30 minutes, and then they're like, okay, we're going to eat.

Then you get one power play, game over. That's coaching. You know, Bruce Moodrow didn't think of that. Yeah, you should have. I'm surprised that he didn't because. Try being like, oh, I had such a big meal before this game. I don't know what I was thinking. Feeling loggy.

Yeah, man. Um, now I know one other thing on Arizona, man, just to, I'm looking at their team and like, their injured list. When Brian Little, Jacob Orichick and Shea Weber get back, look out. They're going to be really tough to deal with. Look out. They are going to be a handful folks. Real franchise and everything.

Um, now I know they won last night, but the way they won, uh, you know, scoring six goals on a really good goalie. That doesn't seem sustainable to me, I would say. Blowing a three-goal lead. Yeah. In the third. So I feel like we've got to talk about the devils because, you know, to blow a three-goal lead in the third period and stuff like that, you've got to have a bad goalie. And don't worry, the devils have two of them.

Yep. This feels like of all the teams in the league that have goaltending questions. maybe other than Edmonton, but maybe even beyond Edmonton, where you're just sitting there going, go get a go get a goaltender. Very simple idea. You're just doing the cabby TikTok thing with your hands where you're like, just, I'm pointing at good goaltenders and now I'm pointing at your roster.

So I don't know what the cabby TikTok thing is. Is this like the Drake meme where he's, I don't have TikTok? No, but you know what that would work to? Yeah, here's what you have now. and Drake doesn't like it. And now here's literally anyone else. Meanwhile, though, like Ken Holland's going, although the thing Drake doesn't like that,

I kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah, Edmonton's already figured, you just got to bring Jack Campbell back. He's the answer. So, like, the devils are kind of the team where I'm like,

just go get John Gibson. Just go get, you know, somebody. Find. There are multiple teams in the league that are still like, we got three goalies. Buffalo, Montreal,

Montreal just signed one of their goalies long term. You can go get one of their goalies. They cannot be worse than the guys you got, man. Yeah. No, I guess they're probably going like,

well, like, we don't like want VTEC VAT check, though. Right. So what are you doing with VTAC VAT check? That becomes the issue.

Put them on waivers. Put them. You got an HL team. Yeah, that's true. Hey, it worked, it worked in Edmont Jack Campbell has completely figured out his game.

Don't look up his stats, please. Yeah. But yeah, I just, you look at the devils and you go, you guys would be so fucking good if you could get a save. And as long as like, you know, neat. I think the stat they showed last night was they were like four or five games below 500 when he's sure's in the lineup and four or five games above it when he's, or the other way around. When when he sure's out there, like, maybe even five or six games below. 500 and when he's in there, I think, eight and three or something like that. The thing with the Devils is they're basically healthy now, other than Dougie Hamilton,

but Dougie Hamilton is out long term. Probably for the year, yeah. What I'm saying is like nobody's coming back in two or three weeks to, that's going to make, that's going to move the needle. So, yeah, ever since Dougie Hamilton did the, took his robe off to reveal his Torin Peck. and everybody gasped. I don't know, man. Do you?

Like, Christine Evan Jacob Markstrom, let's go. Markstrom's hurt too, but... He is, that's true. Right, he's weak to weak, isn't he? Yeah, broken thing. That's right. I forgot about that.

And you certainly don't want to trade for Dan Vladar. I do not think you do, no. Flames are you have to do that. You know, in his native tongue, that's pronounced Vladash? I did not know that It has a little like I don't know what the accent is called But it has a little accent over the R

And that means it's it's pronounced like a like an SH There's a guy on Umas Whose name You look at it and you're like Well surely it's pronounced this way And he's like uh uh uh there's like three three things That are tricky about my last name

Well I don't I don't pronounce things correctly in my native tongue, so good luck in yours, NHL players. That's right. Devils are two points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand. So for all of this, they're certainly not in panic mode. I've mentioned before I have a friend who is a big Devils fan, and he, I'll see if I can, I don't want to read the text verbatim or anything, but like he was basically like, this team is fucked man. And I'm like, I wouldn't go that far. He's like, you're not watching them every night.

I am. They stick. You can just say Greg's name. It's fine. It was, interestingly, it wasn't Greg. You were friends with two Devils fans? I am. You've made some mistakes.

But I believe this was around the time they barely beat the Flyers. Or maybe it was the Sharks game that they lost. And it's like, yeah, man, you outshot the Sharks 47 to 18. I wouldn't be too worried about. giving up too many six to three results when that's the shot difference. When you're plus 29 in a game in shots, you're going to win a lot more than you lose, unless Vitech Vanechev is your goalie, in which case all options are on the table.

I guess the only other thing, I wanted to save this for last. Tristan Jari scored a goalie goalie goalie. And we love to see a goalie goalie goalie goals are just cool, man. There's been a lot in the key. A HL lately. I don't know if you're familiar with this. Maybe this is the new generation is making this. Jarre's was sick, though.

I will say that. And he did it with a one goal lead. Mm-hmm. Which typically you don't. Typically, the idea is that you're, you are risking disaster if you try, so you don't do it with one goal. They really outlet it in them, though. Like, they gave him a wide open look on that one, I will say.

Like, I don't, I don't blame them for taking it. That's for sure, especially because it went in. But even if it hadn't, like, I sing it, whatever, you know. It's really cool. This is all got to be killing Igor Shosturkin. Because he's been trying to get one for so long. Remember he, like, he, like, hit the outside of the post and everything. I do.

Now, like, just every random guy is scoring. You know, you know what they call that in video games, though, don't you? Skill issue. Yep. Get good. Get good. Igor, my man, why don't you try practicing it? You can be as good as Tristan Jari one day.

What do you say? Yep. At this one particular thing. Tristan Jari is going to be playing the point on that power play. You know what? Mike Sullivan might not have any better ideas than that at this point. There's no other explanation for what's going on in Pittsburgh. We got like nine future Hall of Famers on the roster.

Yeah. What have we ran it 12% all year? I could have come up with a hundred ways. The Penguins season would go bad and none of them would have been PowerPlay stinks. They cannot put the puck in the net when there's only four guys out there for.

Not good. It sucks actually. You know what they say though? There's only one puck out there. Maybe that's the problem. By the way, I was wrong. Is that in the rulebook anywhere? Like, I was wrong.

I said the power play's running at 12%. Incorrect, 10 and a half. Oops. They wish. They espioning. Yeah, they're like, if we could score on one in every eight power plays, we'd be in great fucking shape. And honestly, that might even be true. But man, they're, uh, it's unbelievable.

How about this? You know what their PKs running at? Almost 95 would be crazy. Almost 85. That's still really good in this league. And they still, they still can't get enough wins. It's unbelievable. You think he's getting fired soon?

if this keeps going this way? Man, felt impossible for so long. I know there are a couple times over the recent years where I was like, ah, you know, is he on the hot seat? And paying with fans are like, it's never going to happen. Well, you don't bring in all these guys.

You don't bring in Eric Carlson and Riley Smith. And the new GM. The new GM. Didn't hire you. And go like, but of course, we got, the thing is, though, this might be a, well, Sidney Crosby's a big Mike Sullivan guy, you know?

And I don't think there are any coaches on the market right now who coached the Sue Greyhounds. So. Hey, you want to talk about a team that's having trouble winning in regulation? No, I don't. Oh, interesting. Okay. I choose not to.

Five regulation wins from 22 games for the Leafs. Unbelievable. Literally unbelievable to me. Yep. Very, very bad. And yet. They have been to overtime. in half of their games.

Is that true? Holy shit. They are seven and four. So, I mean, they're winning. It's not even like they're on some crazy heater in overtime or, you know, they're like, they're seven and four. That's about what I would expect given their skill level. Yeah.

You know, like Austin Matthews, William Neelander, Mitch Marner, like these are all guys that can turn a, you know, a three-on-three situation into a goal very quickly. That's not surprising. The Maple Leafs are. have a 636 points percentage, 28 points in 22 games, which I think probably translates to a little over 100. Yeah, that sounds about right. They have won five games in regulation, and if you take out the shootout, they have a negative goals differential. Yeah.

Fully sustainable. And look, you're going to keep a coach like that around. But the good thing is all of that has added up to them holding down a playoff spot by one point. So you know what? You want to close talking about how bad Andre Vasselowski's been since he came back? He had that one good game and then one good game downhill from there. Which inspired me to write a thing about like no problem. Tampa is rolling downhill.

It's over for everybody else. Now I didn't even see did he did he play against the stars last night? Yeah, he did the shutout. He got the shutout against the stars. Okay. So I guess that's two. good games now. You're right. Did you see the interview with him that was making the rounds on social media?

He guessed one. Well, I shouldn't say he did. Somebody did. It was one of the reporters, which is, you know, hey, new anxiety unlocked. Thanks for that. Well, now, look, you can do it and you just go, can you believe that guy? Yep. I think that's the guy that farted on the Vasilevsky video. Yeah.

Dude, I, yeah. I will tell you right now if that ever happens to me, man, if I'm standing right next to you, I'm selling you out immediately. I don't care. I'm just how it's got to be, man. I will turn around and be like, Ryan, it's inappropriate. Now, see, I own up to it. Yeah. I'm not afraid. You know, hey, we all do it. Relax. You own it. We've all, we've all farted on Andre Vasilewski. Near him, probably. I guess I've never been near Andre Vasilev. So I can't say I've had the honor, but surely somebody has. Well, I mean, definitely somebody has now. I'm saying it's not the first time. Yeah.

Probably won't be the last either. He rolled with it, you know. So, yeah, that's it. Save the big news to the end. Find me at the Athletic. My post today is, it's a new feature I'm calling Let's Get Old, where we just talk about... Oh, finally.

You're talking about old hockey stuff. Small things that we miss about old hockey. Not big things. I don't want to hear about, like, you know, hockey. Back of my day. Yeah. But the small things. The freaking popcorn at the game cost a nickel.

Yeah. The little stuff that we miss. The new generation probably doesn't even know used to happen. Y.A. You're like, I ever see that guy. Did you know that the linesmen, especially the linesmen, but referees too, used to have to, like, jump up and climb the glass to get out of the way?

And they were, and then, and that. Yeah, yeah. Dude, it was cool as hell. Yeah, bring that back. We miss that, man. Stuff like that. Krusty old gold judges sitting behind the net with a button. I do miss a gold judge.

It's funny. Look who's on board. Look who was making fun of it 10 seconds ago. Well, here's the thing, man. Yep. You go to a college hockey game. Some places still have the gold judge. B.U.

Still has a gold judge. Somebody told me the H. The H.L. Still has them in some buildings, too. Yeah. And, you know, I was in a, I guess it was the BU Quinnipiac game right before Christmas. And there was a scoring chance and the goal judge turned the light on.

And it was absolutely not anything close to a fucking goal. And then the light went on. And I was like, hell yeah. Like a nice blast and nostalgia for it. And like the, like I mentioned in the piece, like how goalies would sometimes like argue and like even slam their stick at the glass at the guy's head. Yep. But somebody pointed out that, and I don't remember who it was, but someone in the HL went over and, like, wiped the glass in front of him,

which is just, that's phenomenal, man. That rules. Having a bit ready to go? Yes. Respect. So I got that. So I got that. And, yeah, I think tomorrow me and Mendez are doing a thing about the history of the battle of Ontario,

and it's, I have a feeling senators' fans are going to be mad at me. So check that out to the, I believe we have a, an offer on gift subscriptions now. If you want a subscription for yourself, you miss the boat, but if you're looking to gift, you know, somebody in your family. Easy Christmas gift, easy piece. Scratch one off your list right now.

Click on only my articles. It only works on mine. If you click on Gentiles, you have to pay double. But if you click on one of mine, get a good deal. And by the way, you pay double on Gentiles. It's not worth it. No. What's this guy talking to Patrick Cain's doctor's friend or something?

He's always like talking to people. Get lost. I don't think he looked at a single 40-year-old YouTube clip all week. And then for me, obviously, EP Rinkside, I don't know if there's any special deals going on, but if you use the code, I love EP for an annual subscription, you get 15 months for the cost of 12. That's quite a deal. And now's the time to do it World Junior Like preliminary rosters

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