Puck Soup - Stanley Cup Playoff Draft

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

Greg, Ryan and Sean hold a draft for the Stanley Cup Playoff teams, giving them some help from the non-playoff teams. Plus, a discussion about coaches' hot seats, the demise of the Canadian Women's Hockey League, the least valuable players in the NHL this season, movie spoilers debates and a thrilling WrestleMania quiz. Sponsored by Seat Geek!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Puck Soup. I'm Greg Wischinski of ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert from Yahoo. Hey, Sean McAnew from The Athletic.

And you're in Puck Soup. Now, I am doing this podcast taking valuable time away from my regular job, which is to piece together the plot of Avengers end game through the 30 seconds of footage that we've seen so far. So I hope that you guys appreciate my sacrifice. Are you talking to me? I don't care. Maybe the listeners. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, Greg. I don't understand why.

My curiosity gets the best of me sometimes. Because the best example of that might be Remember Well, of course you remember Prometheus You can forget Prometheus It was good The run-up to Prometheus for me Was the most exciting run-up for any movie ever

Because I scoured the internet To try to piece together what the plot of the movie was And the joy of exploration I was like Nick Cage and National Treasure Jumping from Clue to Clue Piecing together the mystery And then I finally saw the movie fucking sucked.

But the run-up to the movie was super exciting. So I find myself doing the same thing now with Endgame, where, you know, the bits and pieces that we're getting from the trailers, what color is Black Widow's hair from scene to scene? When does this scene take place? When do they fight Thanos? All of it, all of it to me is fascinating and will ultimately lead to me creating a better movie in my head than the movie I'll probably end up seeing.

You guys, I have a theory. about how that movie's going to go. Do you want to hear my theory? I think some of the dead characters might come back to life. I don't know. I don't know. I know that would be really crazy for a comic book movie, but I just,

I got a sense that the characters who are the tent poles in billion-dollar movie franchises may not actually be permanently dead. This is an interesting theory because I understand my moles tell me, my ain't it cool news spies tell me that there is another Spider-Man movie coming out this year. And it does take place after the events.

Must credit Sean McEnough. Well, if it's ain't it cool news, Sean, then you need to have a cool code name like Moriarty or Quint. So what would be your ain't it cool news spy code name? I'll have to work on that. I'll have to see if I can think of a movie-related reference. That might take no while. Do you know what? I know.

There's only five you can go with. But you know what? One of the things I always wanted to do as far as, like, projects that I was just always too lazy to actually pull off. There was a movie set I used to go to. a lot when I was in, I think maybe in college, called Corona Coming Attractions. Do you remember that site, Lambert, or no? No, I, nope. Okay, so what it was was a compendium of different rumors about movies leading up to their release.

So you could go to, like, the, let's say, Avengers Endgame page, and it would be, like, the first rumor would be after the release of the last Avengers movie, and it would take you all the way through, and it was, like, reports from readers and reports from screenings and all this other shit. It was fascinating. idea was to jump back in time and do like a fake page for the Empire Strikes Back and do sort of a think piece web page where you're tracking the rumors of the Empire Strikes Back. And at one point it's like, one of my spies is telling me that they're going to reveal that Darth Vader is Luke's father. And then just do like the whole feedback to that. Sort of like your real-time internet reaction to a historic thing was my idea.

Well, so this is my problem with spoilers, right? Because if you go into Empire Strikes Back knowing that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, the whole movie is kind of like isn't as fun. So this is what, like, I try not to even watch trailers for this exact reason, because you're just ruining it for yourself. And then you're like, well, it sucked. And it's like, well, I mean, if you didn't know what the ending was two months in advance or whatever, you might. You might have liked it more. Just my theory. I will put this caveat in.

What if the ending blows and you are aware of that going in and maybe you appreciate, you know, think of like a shitty Shammalan movie. Think of like the village, right? Like if you know what the twist of the village is going in, there's a chance that your enjoyment of the movie will not be there. But there's also a chance that you might be more entertained by the breadcrumbs along the way that maybe. lead to the end. Well, it's funny you pick the village because that was a movie where I figured it out. I'm going to say 10 minutes in into the credits. I honestly think that might be the only twist movie I have ever figured out. Like I'm terrible at it and like 10 minutes into that one I was like, oh, okay. In fact, I convinced myself that the twist was going to be that they weren't going to do that

twist because it was being set up so obviously. This is like a level two type situation. Right. I think it was when Elder Smith was wearing Nike during that one scene in the beginning. That was the, by the way, I remember also speaking in movie rumors, I remember there being an early review of that movie or of the script where when Bryce Dallas Howard steps out into the real world, she's almost hit by a truck or something. Yeah. Is what happens? And then allegedly in the script, the truck was driven by a black gentleman who sticks us out the window and says, God damn white people. and then drives away.

Legit rumor that was on the internet before the village came out. I wish that was in the movie. It would have been better. All right. Listen, you guys are listening to a hockey podcast, allegedly, so we should probably talk about hockey.

The playoffs are nearly here. The seedings are almost set. RIP, Minnesota Wild, RIP, probably Arizona Coyotes, although I guess technically they're still alive right now. They are. We do this podcast.

On live support. The only thing that's not settled as we do this podcast is the Eastern Conference Wildcard with the hurricanes and the and the Blue Jackets doing everything they can to not get in. No predictions on how it's going to shake out. I mean, by the time people listen to this, it'll probably be settled. I think Montreal and Columbus can't be settled for sure until Saturday night. Okay.

Because Columbus doesn't even play until Friday, so we do have some time. We're in clear. Well, I think Columbus is still going to make it, even though they fucking shit the bed at home against the Bruins. Why doesn't John Tororella ever get any criticism? Like, widespread criticism for coaching his team to the bubble every year and then losing games like that where his team comes out and lays a giant shit burger? Isn't this like the third time we've brought it up on this podcast alone? Why are we the long voices in the wilderness on John Tonorella being a shit coach? Okay.

That's it. No mystery. I feel, like, I feel bad for, for, imagine being a Blue Jackets fan. Oh, thanks. I know. I know. I know. Imagine you're a member of the fifth line and your team goes all into the trade deadline.

You get the bell of the ball of Matt Dushain. You get Ryan Dzingle to come home. You know, you get Adam McQuaid. And then your, your team, you're like, oh, this is great. We're finally going for it. Blah, blah, blah. And then you lose a game like that on home ice in a must. win playoff like situation.

Yeah, but I mean, the Bruins are so much better than them. So you can't, you can't be like, oh, I can't believe the Boston Bruins beat. If you lose to like Montreal or something where you go, okay, I mean, that could have been a close game or you lose to Ottawa. That's different. But if you lose to the Bruins, you just go, damn, the Bruins are great. They're the second best team in the league this year. There's a part of me that, I mean, I want the blue jackets in the playoffs because I

I want fortune to favor the bold, as I've said many times before. There is a part of me that thinks that a Montreal Tampa series might be more entertaining than a Columbus waxing. Do you agree with that? Well, I think both could be good, but I think a Montreal Tampa series would be potentially a lot more entertaining than people think. I think everyone would just chalk it up as four-game sweep, easy speed bump for Tampa. Oh, yeah. And I'm just saying if I'm Tampa or I'm a Tampa fan, I don't really want to see Kerry Price in the first round. Yeah, I'd much rather deal with Sergei Bavrovsky in the first round.

Yeah, I mean, I don't feel like getting 45 shots every game, and suddenly it's, you know, we lose game one, two to one, and it's, we're halfway through game two, and it's one-nothing for Montreal, and we're kind of going, is this actually happening? And, you know, Carrie Price scares me if I'm, if I'm anyone, but especially if I'm a team that knows I'm going to be the favorite over everyone. Now, this Kerry Price fellow, does he have the greatest Canadian players ever to be born in Canada playing in front of him during this? series or is it just the normal series? Because he's usually really good when he has literally the best players on Earth playing in front of him. It's not like he's ever won like an MVP or a Vezina without Team Canada in front of him. He's good, Greg.

He's no Yarrow Halak, I'll tell you that. He's pretty good. That's true. I want to see Brendan Gallagher in a series against the Lightning. Yeah, Brendan Gallagher, I just read the other day. like he's one of the best expected goals generators in recent history. Like that's crazy to me, but he's good.

He's very underrated players, by the way. Brandon Gallagher is extremely one of them. And also a total shit heel. Yeah. So I think that'd be fun too. And then you know Shay Weber will do some fucking murder sorris bullshit like he did against Zetterberg that one year where he's bouncing Braden points head off the glass 15 times and not getting a suspension.

That was so cool. I think I think it, I think Montreal's got. up more guys on their team that to me would do the dirty with Tampa than does Columbus. And that's why I'm kind of intrigued by that series. Yeah. On the other hand, I think the Columbus Tampa series could get pretty wide open and fun. Yeah. Both of those series are going to be good.

And the nice thing is like because they can't clinch anything until Saturday, Saturday's going to be great because, I mean, you got Toronto and Montreal in a game that's going to matter, which will be fantastic. And also, by the way, Bob Cole's final game, if you needed a little bit extra to get you tuned in for that. And you got Columbus in Ottawa, which I love. I love the Ottawa senators having a chance to be the team that denies Matthew Shane. I mean, that's so perfect, even though Columbus probably win that game seven to nothing, because the senators are already on the bus on the way to the airport. Not for nothing, but Ottawa's been playing really well.

And, like, scoring a lot of goals and stuff. Like, to the point where we did a coaching hot seat thing on ESPN this week. And, like, there's a legitimate chance that Mark Crawford could get that job. Like, I still think it's going to go to Troy Mann. But, like, there's a chance he gets that job because they've actually played that well down the stretch. Well, let me ask you this. And this is, I think, what's going to really determine it. Who's going to be cheaper, Greg?

Yeah. That's. Who has the healthiest and most easily remorse. removable liver is the question, obviously, for the next to Ottawa head coach. That's a good point. And obviously, the HL guy would be cheaper than Crawford. Although, I don't know. I was thinking about that.

Like, is Crawford the guy who's been out of work for like six years? So basically it's like, well, all we have, sir, is a position in our mail room. He's like, I'll take it. Yeah, exactly. You see that guy? That's what I was thinking. Well, or the other thing is, and I don't actually know this, but what's his contract status?

I assume he's up this year because Guy Bouchet was, but if he's got a deal that already extends and they already have to pay him, I don't know. That would be a tough sell in Ottawa in a town that really, really wants to see some change. I think going like, hey, we're going to keep the guy who was the assistant for the last few years is potentially tough. But God forbid, you know, the senators are a pretty PR savvy organization. So I don't think that's exactly right. You'll know exactly what's going on if Jeff 6969 Alpherson is tweeting Crawford might be the best coach in the NHL. Good job, Mr. Our organization, capital O's. Yeah. So good, dude.

Before we get back to playoff people, we might as well pause on coaches. L.A. obviously, making a change. Anaheim obviously making a change. I think the Flyers are definitely making a change. I don't think Gordon gets that job. Do you, and by the way, I heard from a couple people this week in doing that story that McClellan might be submitted to watch for Philly, if it's not Quenville.

do you think that Brudrow is back? Mike Russo in the Athletic said that Craig Leopold would want him back, but it's Fenton's team, and Dean Eveson might be Fenton's guy, and Bruce has one more year left at like $3 million. Do you think he comes back, considering how the Wild missed? Well, he doesn't think he's coming back. He had that quote the other day, or last week, about, yeah, it sucks.

I'm not going to get to Coach Ryan DeNano much longer or something like that. And it's like, well, he just came out and said it. Like, that's a spoiler alert, I guess. But yeah, no, I kind of think they don't bring him back because of the thing about he's not Fenton's guy. And he only has one year left or whatever. Or maybe they promote him up. I don't know. Yeah, my thing with him is, again, working under my theory that every GM is primarily concerned with their own job security

and not necessarily what's best for their team, I could see. If I'm Paul Fenton and I look where this team's going, that might be a card I want to keep in my pocket for another year, knowing that as soon as I make the coaching change, now I'm not the new guy anymore, now the spotlight's on me. If I was purely focused on kind of covering my own behind, I might make the owner happy, keep the guy,

know he's going to be gone next year unless he pulls off a miracle. And then, you know, for a lot of fans and media, the clock only really starts ticking on a GM once he's had a chance to name his own coach, so I might want to hold off on doing that. I don't hate that idea. And by the way, for the record, the only time a coach gets bumped up

into a higher part of the organization is if he wins a cup. If you don't win a cup, then you just become a consultant until someone takes your contract off the books. Although I do like the idea of Bruce Bredreau becoming head of arena concessions after his coaching tenure is done.

Okay, so that's a, Minnesota, Edmonton. So, I mean, like, Hitchcock's done whatever with that bullshit team. And there's an argument to be made for consistency behind the bench versus hitting the complete reset button like twice in the span of a year. But what do you think happens there? And do you think it's just simply contingent on who the next GM is? Yeah, I think, I think that's a big part of it.

If it's, I don't know, let's just pick a name at Rand. a guy on the 1985 oilers um if you're Peter Klima or uh yeah like it just just pick one it doesn't matter who

um I bet I bet they don't make a change because they just uh Ken Hitchcocki is respected old timey hockey guy blah blah blah um and and you say well you know it's not his fault the team was so bad it was Peter Chiarelli's fault and by the way Peter Chiorelli didn't play for the Oilers in the 80s I'm just saying

That's true. Whereas if they bring in somebody who's actually going to be good at this job, I think they might make a change. Yeah. I mean, obviously the first question is, does Ken Hitchcock even want to do this for another year? Because there certainly have been times this season where he has seemed like a guy who was really done with this whole team. If he wants to see, I don't know. But the issue I have, I agree with you guys. I don't think Ken Hitchcock is the problem in Edmonton.

I think you'd have to go way down a list of issues before you'd get to get to his name for that team. But is he going to be your long-term guy? Is he going to be the guy for the next five years? I don't think so. No. So if he's going to stick around for one more year, I mean, you talked about, you know, the lack of consistency and, you know, constant changes. I mean, if you're going to change in a year, anyways. I might want to just do it now.

You know, kind of roll this whole, this whole season was a write-off. We changed it everything. The whole season was a mess. Let's be fresh going forward and not be going in to another year going, oh, by the way, Connor, you're going to need a new coach in a year. But that's, I mean, honestly, that's what I just do is I just ask Connor McDavid at the end of the year, what do you want us to do with. That's what I do, because there isn't any priority for this team that's more important than having this guy not continue.

continually looking like he's in a hostage video every time he's interviewed anywhere. So who's Erie's coach at this moment? By the way, by the way, if Hitchcock isn't the long-term solution, hear me out. You keep him for another year. You hire someone like, I don't know, Mike Yo, and put him on the bench, have him learn the ropes. I'm listening. And then that way he'll be ready to be the coach you need when Hitchcock's time is up. Doesn't that make a lot of sense?

No, that's perfect. I love it. Yeah. Speaking of the Blues, why doesn't Craig Barrube have a new contract? It doesn't make sense. Yep. Unless Doug Armstrong's got some fucking side table deal with Quinville, like there's no reason why he shouldn't have a contract.

Correct. Yeah. As the owner of the only, the world's only Toronto Maple Leafs Craig Barraubei jersey, I'm firmly on Team Craig. And, yeah, I mean, I don't, yeah, unless there is some behind the scenes thing we don't know about, I don't know how you, as a GM, tell young players, you know, you got to jump up and grab the reins and take advantage of your opportunity and have a coach come in and do exactly that and then go, yeah, but not you.

We're going to bring someone else. Can you chat me up? What was Craig Barubi's legacy in Toronto? I remember him as a flyer. Yep. Um, Craig, what did he do in Toronto? Craig Barubei came over to the Leafs in the Grant Fear Trade in 1991, the 1991 offseason. he in the first few months did what you would expect a guy like Craig Burrubay to do in the Norse division

had a couple of a couple of bouts with Bob Probert you know a few few other guys like that basically was was the Leafs enforcer in an era where you every team needed to have guys like that oh yeah me being a kid who really enjoyed and appreciated that part of the game I asked for a Craig Brewabay jersey for Christmas I received it I wore it for the first time on The day after New Year's in 1992, went downtown Toronto with my friends. Felt very proud because I noticed people were looking at me and pointing at my jersey. And then I got home to be informed that Craig Burubei had been traded to the Calgary Flames as part of the Doug Gilmore tent player trade. So, yeah, I still have the jersey to this day, but I wore it exactly once when Craig Burubei was actually a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Unreal. Well, that's awesome. You and my daughter should talk about her Ben Lovejoy jersey one day, then, I suppose. We might be able to work out of trade. Oh, yeah, for sure. But, yeah, I think he should come back unless, obviously, if Quenville wants to come back to St. Louis, there's a conversation worth having. But that'd be, I wonder what the players would think about that. Like, here's a guy who came in, rescued the season. Yeah, Bennington helped.

But then he gets, he gets, like, dicked over, pushed to the side for another dude. That'd be an interesting. But, again, it's for, if it was for Quenville, I'm sure that we've, It can't be too bad. We understand. Bob Boogner in Florida, what say you? Do you think he's going to survive this, or do you think that, is that another Quenville-influenced kind of decision?

Well, the Panthers, I would say, have played fairly well and been doomed by poor goaltending. Correct. You can definitely say that betting on 58-year-old Roberto Luongo and I don't know how old James Reimer is, but he's James Reimer. come on to be to be your goalie. Steve, Engel weeps somewhere out there.

Oh, that's too bad. You hate to hear it. And, you know, it's one of those things of, he was definitely torpedoed by that a little bit, but with that having been said, he also used Roberto Luongo in a way that was detrimental to both Roberto Luongo and the team, because he was playing him kind of a lot,

two and three games often, And it's like, well, he's 39 years old. And I can't remember the stat off the top of my head now, but it was pointed out to me at some point in the year that, like, Roberto Luongo on two days rest was like a 925 goalie. And Roberto Luongo, on less than that, was like 880 or something like that. He's old. He's very old. And so, you know, if you're Bob Boogner and you manage his minutes better, maybe you're not getting your ass fired this summer, which you definitely will. but, you know, that's life.

Yeah. I mean, the Florida Panthers are a team that is just absolutely screaming to anyone that will listen that they want to make big changes in the offseason. And I can't imagine that that doesn't involve a coach unless they just don't get the guys that they're looking for. You know, if Dale Talon sitting there thinking, my old buddy, Joel Quenville will certainly want to come to Florida. and Joel Quenville decides he wants to go somewhere else, then maybe you end up coming back to your guy. But I can't imagine that that's the plan right now.

If you're Jill, I still think Quenville should go to Florida. Like, if you're Joel Quenville, you're like, I won three Stanley Cubs for Chicago, Blackhawks. This team's made the playoffs two times in the last dozen years. Easy bar to clear from Quentville. Like, why not do that? You think about Booneer, though, like Ryan said that, if it is a situation where they diagnosed it to the goaltending,

and now all of a sudden Sergey Bobrovsky's your goalie like maybe maybe he'd get him a bit of a run I mean he did come within a point of making the playoffs last year and uh... But again that was because Luongo was like 928 or something like that

he was insanely good last year and you know if you want to say the average of those two and like that was so they came within a point when the goalie was amazing goalie's terrible this year they're not even close they got eliminated

like a week ago or whatever I don't know. Like, if you assume you're going to get average goal tending, you're missing the playoffs by two or three points with this guy. The other piece of it is I would assume that they will want a new coach in place prior to July 1. So when they're going out to these free agents, they're sitting there. You know, it's, I think, easier to sell players on a team that doesn't make the playoffs very often if you've got Joel Quenville or his, you know, his off-brand equivalent somewhere else

and not somebody who's... Let me give you this. Let me give you this Sophie's choice. Quenville wants to come coach the team. Panarin says, I hated playing for Quenville. I won't sign with you. And I won't bring my friend Bob there either if Quenville's the coach. Greg, they can't talk to him until the last year to June. So that would be tampering. So it's a It's a non-starter. Join us next week for another edition of Pollyanna Soup. You listen to the players and not the elite players, more important than coaches. I would definitely factor that into my decision.

A Bababugner. It's the best Borat coach's name, I think, currently. By the way, every time I see Barbara Bush trending, without questions, say it in the Borat voice on my head. I don't know about you, boys. Phil Housley, Barbara Bush. Howesley, what's going to happen with this guy? So the Sabres have played like absolute dog shit, 3, 18 and 3 down the stretch.

And yet I kind of believe it's going to be one of those he comes back with a short leash type deals instead of them once again hitting the reset. A lot of the same logic that Sean had about Fenton, like the minute Botterol pulls the trigger on Howesley, well, now all of a sudden his clock is up because he's going to get another guy in there and it's going to be his second hire. Yeah. The one difference I would in this situation is ownership. I think Buffalo ownership is a lot less patient than they might be in Minnesota.

I think that if Jason Botterall says, I'm going to keep the card in my pocket, it might be a case where everyone's seat is hot no matter what, because that fan base is not happy right now, rightly so. And I think it's going to be a very tough sell to bring back Phil Housley. and expect there to be a lot of excitement going into the season. And I mean, we've seen that organization cash out the coach and the GM at the same time before. So I wouldn't. If I'm Jason Botterill, I'm not feeling as confident in my game theory of holding on my coaching card.

I might feel like I need to play that sooner rather than later. Yeah, it's one of those things where I think it was Elliott this week, but definitely somebody reported it doesn't seem likely that Buffalo is going to make that change right now because everybody kind of understands that it's more of a roster problem where they just don't have anybody in the bottom two and a half forward lines and the bottom two deep hairs who's going to make a difference. I think Howesley is bad as a coach despite that. I think that is in addition to. In addition to, problem as opposed to just one or the other. But, you know, I don't know how it's going to go because that organization, like, you'd be wise

to not try to predict what the Pagoolas are going to do for sure. And it was Elliott, by the way. I believe it was thoughts eight through 12. Okay. You know, some seats are hot and some seats are cold. Oh, boy. But the point is, boys, you got to, you got to have a seat. It's like a B.

And the way you get it with your friends in C-Geek. You know, I really feel like maybe you should grade these after I get done with the read because it really starts to trip me up. It's the transition, though. You've got to grade the transition at the time. If you give me like a C-minus at the beginning of the read, the rest of the read's going to be pretty fucking shitty. Or maybe it motivates me to be better. That's what I was about to say.

I'm actually doing good coaching right now. You are the John Tortorella of Seat Geek Ad Reeds. Thank you so much. You know, the ticket industry hasn't changed in a long time. It was very Jiminy Glick. They're a bunch of big companies who have been around for everyone. I don't really care about making the experience easier for the customer. Well, with more than 50,000 five-star reviews, 50,000 five-star reviews.

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Download the app today. use the promo code and they get that deal done. All right, we have two reindeer games on the podcast today. The first being playoff-related, Ryan Lambert, take it away. All right, so this is an idea I have shamelessly stolen from the no longer existing college hockey website, inside college hockey. And what they would do is at the beginning of every NCAA tournament, they would draft players from other teams onto the six.

16 teams that made the tournament. So we're just going to do the same thing with the 16 teams making the NHL playoffs. So we are taking one player from each eliminated team. It doesn't have to be each. Okay. And it doesn't have to be one player. It can be. Right.

So like, for example, Drysidal and McDavid could totally get taken from Ottawa or from Edmonton, sorry, Oilers fans. And you don't have to take anybody from the Kings if you don't want to or whatever. And sometimes this is going to be best player available and sometimes it's going to be drafting for need. Yep. Okay. All right. That makes sense. So, Sean, I'll give you a choice here. Do you want to draft for either Arizona or Colorado as in like you can say Colorado would take so and so and so and so? Or do we want to break it up so that like I draft for Arizona and so on and so forth? Yeah, I don't know how. I mean, I think it's. probably the same player. Yeah, Colorado, I think, is in. So I'm...

And let's just go ahead and say Colorado. For clarity's sake, for clarity's sake, this is simply a rent-a-player for the postseason, right? They don't keep them beyond the season. Their return from the teams on which they play after the postseason is in time. And so I guess let's get to it now. Sean, I also have you drafting for either or Montreal, Columbus. Do we want to pick one player? for each or do we want to pick? Like, I agree that Colorado is probably in, but not so much certainty around Columbus and Montreal. Yeah, that one we probably should do.

Separate, got it. Yeah, I'll do them separate. No problem. So I have the first overall pick. You do. And on Colorado. So what I did with this is I, you know, I look at Colorado, I really think the, what jumps out at me is the second pair on the blue line.

So what, I'm kidding. Connor McDavid. is the pick. It's kind of weird that Colorado has the first overall pick in this draft and other drafts. Interesting. A little practice for you avalanche fans. Yes, I will take Connor McDavid, heard good things about this kid. Yeah, it's most very good.

Yeah, think he, and yeah, I'm sure. And also, I just want to see the look on his face when it's explained to him that he has to go back. Now, before you cement this pick, what have, we do about ice time? There's only one puck. Is Nathan McKinnon getting more ice time than Connor McDavid? That would be sort of disadvantageous to this team. One assumes you'd want to give Connor as much ice time as possible. Would there be a rifts in the Colorado room if all of a sudden this interloper was getting more ice time than Nathan McKinnon? I think everybody in the world is like, yeah, exactly. I think everybody in the world is going, oh yeah, it's Carmen

McDavid. That's fun. 200 hockey men. Even, even of them. I think about 190 or on on Team Connor here. 200 hockey men. All right, Ryan. For the Dallas Stars, we're going in reverse order of points as of this recording.

For the Dallas Stars, I'm going to really try to round out that forward depth. I'm going to add Patrick Kane to their lineup. Hmm. I like it. Now, why is the... So who's he playing with on the Stars?

Is it a Sagan-Kane father's had your daughter's line or who's he playing with? You know what? I think you kind of have to put him on the top line and then you can bump down Jamie Ben. And that's fine because I don't think Ben's had a great season. Oh, yeah, I was going to say it. I mean, it is 2019. And one is Patrick Kane and one is Jamie Ben.

So it would make sense that Ben would get knocked down. So Jamie Ben's going out. That's what we're saying. I just want to make sure it is. Swish. Got them. I'm like John Stockton. I just threw the ball up in here.

I'm hoping Malone's there. And Malone ended up being there. It's great. All right. The Vegas Golden Knights for me, I think the Golden Knights are clearly one, they have one deficiency on their roster, and that is the lack of that foundational franchise defensemen that one needs in order to be victorious. I like this pick a lot because this guy is such a, a solaceous.

sad little monkey recently that I think being on a championship level team would reinvigorate him. I'm putting the dastardly Drew Dowdy of the Los Angeles Kings on the blue line of your Vegas Golden Knights. Oh, that keeps him in the Pacific, too, where he's got all these feuds going. That's good. That's good. Yes. And you play off experience, a cup winner.

And they can play that quote that they love so much. They can actually make him read it about how, like, you know, Knights won't be here at the end kind of thing. Yeah, it's going to be like in, what was it? I think it was Goon 2, where the villain of the team rounded up on the team. I know I'm making a Goon 2 reference and God bless Jay Barishaw, but it may not be the one that people really understand and go, you know, no movie by heart. But yeah, it'd be Drew Daddy walking through that door and everybody slowly getting up off the benches and dropping their sticks in awe. And he's just like, what's up, fuckers?

and then we go from there. I like it. One thing I found with this is, and I'm kind of happy you took Doughty because I wasn't sure where to slot him in because I find like the blue line depth is not great here. I don't know if that maybe says something about what's still important as far as making the playoffs because you go down the list of,

there's not a lot of like Norris contenders who aren't making the playoffs this year. There's a ton of forwards in that, but yeah, not so much. Okay. That said, I was going to say that that said there, it is still a situation. And this might just be because the same team is won all the time. But like the Penguins team that didn't have Letang remains like the only one that didn't have that one. Well, they had Chad Rue Edel, Greg. I mean, Jesus Christ.

And Ian Cole playing 28 minutes of night. But like everybody else had, you know, either Keith or Dowdy. I think Carlson has proven himself to be on an elite level, even though he was kind of poo-pooed last year. I just don't see that on Vegas. and it makes me a little bit nervous for them. I don't think Shait Theodore is quite there. No, I agree. Very good.

All right, do you want me to do both Montreal and Columbus? No, you take Montreal. I'll take Columbus. All right. I'm going to take Montreal then. I think Montreal could use some offense, so I'll just take Leander Cytle. So you're just picking exclusively members of the Edmonton Oilers.

That's right. That's, I mean, there's no better strategy for winning. This This draft is like choosing a new GM It's only Edmonton Euler players need a play All right I'm going to pick a defenseman here

And I like Columbus's Defense pretty good But I think they need one more guy And a guy who can make that Horrible power play a little bit better Young man out of Buffalo, New York From my name of Rasmus Dahlene Oh

Oh, man. So you are going to take the pure bread rookie, a person who can't even legally take a drink in this country yet. Yes. And putting him on a team and expecting him to perform on the biggest stage of the year. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. All right. So I think Ryan goes again, right?

Because, you know, you're in the blues? No, no. You're St. Louis? I'm not St. Louis? We're moving. Oh, my gosh. That's going to blow my entire strategy.

I know. This is really confusing. Can you still be St. Louis? Because I had to pick for Carolina. Five seconds putting together. Oh, for Christ's sake. Yeah, I'll be.

St. Louis, sure. They they also need a defenseman, and I'm going to say, this is a tough one. Yeah, I'll stick with a defenseman for them, and I'll go Hampusland home.

Yep. All right, Carolina, so, dear, defense is fine. I don't... They need a... You want to talk about a team that needs a forward. Geez. Do I need a forward? I think we

Or do I? I know who's coming on this pick. I've already got them written down, so don't mess me up now. And what was funny was that I was going to pick Lundquist to come like, oh my God, how great would it be to see Henry Blunquist get a shot in the playoffs? I'm like, what the fuck am I talking about? John Gibson's going to be the goalie for the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs. Of the Anaheim ducks, by the way, John Gibson.

That's right. To put a cherry on it. Very good. All right. I'm a Sean goes to Nashville. I, I mean, you could make a case for Nashville taking a goalie, but I'm not going to do that. I think they need the help up front.

Right. So this is obviously Ryan Nugent Hawkins. Milan Luchich. Yes. No, Sasha Barkoff. Just a really good player who hasn't been picked yet. See, you know what? I don't want to give away any future picks here, but like, would you, you?

If you were looking to create a second scoring line for National, which I think is a primary need, would you maybe go Claude Giroux before you go Barkoff? That could be an option. That could also be an option. I just feel like Barkov's a playoff guy. I mean, that's the guy that you want. But, yeah, I mean, Girou will get taken at some point probably fairly soon. All right.

So Ryan gets the Jets. Another team that needs to fucking defensemen. Jesus. Um, Oliver Ekman, Larson. That's a good choice. Thank you. If we're saying Arizona's out of the mix. Which we are, apparently.

Yeah. And I think rightly so, but, you know, stranger things have happened. The Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, this is your classic conundrum of, do you go defense of depth because they obviously could use it? or do you get that third line center that has, I mean, they bukes, but I don't care. Like, it's, you could, there's a lot of centers that you could add to this team and make them really good. But they probably need help on D.

So my question is, is do I go, do I go Drew here or do I go Ryan Souter here? That's my boggle. And I think, I think I'll go Ryan Souter. No, fuck out. I'll go Drew. Offense is the name of the game for the Penguins. They've proven in the past that with an overwhelming offense and three great scoring lines, they can overcome a shitty defense.

I will go Claude Jeru switching colors, joining the NWO, and playing the same line as Sydney Cross. That's got to be the tiebreaker, is that this would make Philadelphia fans lose their minds. So, I mean. Well, I mean, Philadelphia fans for sure, but also, Yins know we don't need Klau

Drew on the team to win the cup. Yeah. Yins know that. Right up until game seven overtime when Drew just buries one behind Matt Murray and rips off his penguin's deer's day. That's right.

And storms off the ice and they build a statue of them right next to the Rocky. All right, I'm up next. Sean, which goal are you taking from the San Jose? Well, actually, you know, I was talking to Doug Wilson

and he was telling me he's pretty sure they're okay. And, you know, if only there have been some way they could have traded for a goaltender at some point a few weeks ago. Oh, well. I'm going to kind of take a page out of Greg's book, and I'm going to go Henrik Lundquist and figure that he's got a great playoff run in him.

Bringing the average age of the sharks down. Yes, a youth movement, exactly. Shrewd move. The New York Icelanders, Ryan. Yeah, the Islanders, oh boy, they could use help everywhere. Maybe not in that. That's not fair to them. I mean, in the middle is whatever.

Let me, let me first, let's process of elimination. Obviously don't need a goalie and obviously don't need anybody on the best fourth line in the NHL. Yeah, sure. Oh, how about this one? Elias Pedersen. Yep. Whoa. I like it.

It's a good one. Not a bad choice at all. the fucking Leafs. Yet another team that needs a defenseman. Hmm. Let's see here. Oh, all right. Let's do this.

Because I think this is a move that they should make anyway at some point. I'm going to take, I'm going to go once again, rings in the room, experience where it counts. Duncan Keith. Yep. Oh, Greg. No. So bad this year. Can I just point out that if, if.

If this draft was a real thing, that is 100% the player that the Leafs would wind up with is Dunkin. Like Mike Babcock would straight arm Kyle Dubas out of the way on the way to the podium. Had him on Team Canada. Good guy. Good grit. Placed a lot of minutes. Man. All right. Sean, you're up with the Washington Capitals. So, I mean, again, like if this is probably a case where you'd maybe think defense, but I just, I don't love a lot of the defensemen who are still out there in a So I'm going to make what might be a bit of a weird pick because I feel like in terms of forwards, there's some other guys still out there that, you know, would be all right. But this team scores a lot.

So I'm going to kind of, I want a two-way guy and I'm going to take, can I take Sean Couturier? Sure you can. Oh, you certainly can. Drop him into the third line and just. Yeah. And then you get like Lars Eller as your fourth. fourth line center. That's a pretty fucking deep group. Because he was fantastic in the playoffs last year and I, you know, beat up a little bit, but I like the idea of just having him anchor that

third line and then telling the other guys just go out and score. Because that's how coaching works. That's right. Well, for the Boston Bruins, obviously they need some help up front. And while he's had a little bit of a down year this year, I think reigning MVP Taylor, Hall kind of helps them shore up that wing depth that everybody always complains about. Coming off the injury? Is he still injured? Is he healthy enough to play? We're just assuming, like, everybody here is good to go.

Okay. Well, that's something we probably should establish earlier. You want me? Okay. We wouldn't want this to feel unrealistic. Yeah. This scenario where people are crafting. I'll change it up here.

Okay. Give me a second here. A winger. A winger. Help them. Oh, Alex to Brinket. Yep. Oh.

All right. Hey, Ryan, who is currently Calgary's second line center? Is it? Exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm saying what do you consider their second line, right? Because the three-end line. I still consider the 3M line to be like a third line, but, you know, I understand what you're saying.

Yeah, if you, I mean, the 3M line is, it's not completely intact anymore, but, you know, it's great. So we need a center here. We need a center here. All right. So here are my choices. My choices for a center are Eichael. I think he's still on the board, right? Yep.

I could go Getslaff or I could go Copatar You know, just a quick reminder here It is 2019, so maybe not those last two All right I'll take Jack Eichol And assume that the overwhelming joy He'll feel of finally getting into a playoff series

will be propelling him to a Conn Smythe performance I'm sorry, I meant to say Jack Eichel in Tim Murray Parlance. Very good. All right, so I'm up last with the Lightning. The Tampa Bay Lightning. A lot of holes in this...

What do you get the girl that already has everything? Well, in a way, this is like the Lightning are an easy team to draft for it because you don't have to really worry about positions or anything. You just grab the best player. Best available. Theory you could. And the one guy that's kind of jumping out at me

hasn't been picked yet. I'm sure there's a few others I'm not thinking of, but Dylan Larkin kind of seems like he would be a guy. But I'm not picking. Dylan Larkin, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to kind of overthink and get into the spirit of this. And I'm going to say that the only thing that scares me if I'm the lightning, and I'm

trying to talk myself into a weakness on this team is, I look around and we've got all the talent, but geez, do we know how to win? Do we know if things start to go bad, are we going to have someone in that room who can stand up

and set us straight? And is there a guy out there who's having a really good year, who's captain multiple Stanley Cup winners. And I'm taking... Jonathan Taves to come in. That's right. And be my...

Probably third-line center, but also my leader to guide us to the Stanley Cup. On the one hand, Steve Eisenman's leaving the organization. On the other hand, the new Steve Eisenman is joining the organization. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, I like it. Well, that was fun, Lambert. That was a good time. I appreciate it. Less fun was what happened to women's hockey this week. The Canadian women's hockey league folded. And the next 72 hours after that were filled with a lot of bullshit. The NWHL announcing it was going to put teams in Montreal and Toronto. The Montreal and Toronto CWHL franchises both being like, hold your role. The NWHL talking about a significant increase in funding from the NHL, which ended up being them moving money over from the other women's league to the one remaining women's league. The NHL getting pissed at me for talking about it being a significant investment, even though it was the NWHL's words. And again, coming back to the same problem once again,

which is the idea that there should be only one league and that maybe the NHL should run it. And it was, I talked about this on ESPN-Anice, the podcast with Emily, as well. It was a really weird week because you had the same people saying the NHL should get the fuck out of women's hockey and should never run this league. the same people also saying, but they should, but how come they don't invest more? Like, it's a really, it's a, I don't know what the relationship is right now. It's a really weird thing that I find where like women's hockey fans, like, understandably are like, please stop talking shit about women's hockey. And, you know, like, we don't want the NHL running things, but also it's the NHL's job to support.

Like, I kind of agree. but also, yeah. And so, like, I kind of agree with that, but also it's like, that does kind of sound like you really want it both ways. Like, write us a check and then shut the fuck up. Like, totally makes sense. But, like, it makes sense in theory, in actual practice, if the NHL's like, we'll give you $2 million instead of, you know, the rounding error of $100,000. That's such a fucking paltry thing. That's pathetic.

It's absolutely pathetic. And like, and like the thing about it is too is, and I've talked to the league about this. Like they're like, well, that's a, that's a pretty big investment. I'm like, but. And what they always come back to is that we don't trust the model of these leagues to be successful. And I'm like, what's the model for success for hockey in Harlem? What's the model for success in any program that you fund that doesn't turn a profit, but exists solely so you can grow the game, get new fans? That's exactly.

That's essentially what these leagues are. Think about what the W. NBA is, right? Like, people think of it as being successful, but the only reason it exists is because there are foreign leagues that are willing to pay women with several times more their WNBA salaries. And the NBA still totally funds the WNBA, right? And, like, you know, obviously there aren't foreign leagues for women in hockey that are

going to pay them millions of dollars in and make it a viable job for them. But, you know, it does have to be. to, like, there does have to be just generally speaking, more funding for women's sports, even if you go, I don't think, like, the fucking Arizona coyotes were a charity case for 10 years, nobody gave a shit. The thing I want to say about that, though, but really quickly about the WMBA is, I don't know if you can call it a success, but I also know that the people that use it as an example, as sort of like an epitaph towards the women's hockey leagues about their existence,

have probably never been to either an WMBA game or an NWHL or CWHL game. The margins are so fucking different for that basketball league versus what these hockey leagues do where the Riveters literally play on the devil's practice rink. WMBA teams literally play inside of NBA arenas. It is night and day the level of investment that it takes to run these two leagues.

And the idea that we're going to even use the WMBA as any kind of fucking proxy for the women's hockey leagues is insane to me, but yet it keeps happening. Well, again, like, the level of investment is insane, but that's only because the NBA made a commitment to fund it after what the 96 Olympics, I want to say. And the NHL has always just kind of been like, well, we don't want to play favorites. And it's like, like I said, it's a rounding error for any one NHL team to give them $100,000. If you're dividing it among 31 NHL teams, it's $3,200.

We make way more than that on the Patreon in a month. Like, that's crazy. It's $3,200. They spend more on that for, like, renting the hotel conference rooms where they make their shitty roster decisions at the end of the year. That's slightly less than what they're. paid a panic at the disco though I think to play the Stanley Cup final. I bet Panic at the disco

got more than that. Actually, they did. I'm going to do something here that I don't normally do because I'm trying to find a way to think optimistically about this story and I'm going to give the NHL a little bit of the benefit of the doubt only because they have spent the last few years advancing

what I thought was a somewhat reasonable position which is, as you guys said, they didn't want to pick sides. There were two leagues that were in at least some sense competing and the NHL made it clear they didn't want to pick one or the other to be the winner. And now that we're down to one league, not in the way that we kind of hoped we would get there, but now that we're there, you know, it's, it's only been a few days. And I'm not necessarily going to beat up the NHL too much for the $100,000 thing that came out a few days.

after because I think there's still room for things to change and for, you know, maybe that was somebody's version of an initial, you know, just, just band-aid to slap on the question. But I think they need to do more clearly. You know, I say that as someone, I understand the argument that, hey, this, you know, this league is a business. They are not a charity. They don't have to give money away just because it makes people feel good and all of that. if you want to take that approach, this is, it doesn't seem very hard to see the business case here. I mean, I've got, I've got a daughter who likes sports and likes hockey and couldn't care less about the NHL. And if there was a strong women's league for her to watch, she might watch that.

And that might be what gets the foot in the door for her to then care about the NHL in a way that she doesn't. And, and I know- Hold on, Sean, are you saying the NHL is financially short-sighted in something? Yeah, yeah, I know it's crazy. But at the same time, like, this is also a league that has all sorts of people who only think in terms of financial outcomes. And so I don't fully understand why they haven't jumped on this more. I'm sure, and I'm sure, look, I'm sure it's complicated. I'm sure it's easy for me to sit here and say, well, they should, you know, they, the business case is blah, blah, blah, and the NHL is probably sitting there going like, dude, we have, we have the business case. We've actually run the numbers. We're

not just pulling them out of the air. And this is why maybe it doesn't work the way you think it does. But even then, I mean, we're talking about amounts that are so small, you know, even if it's a gamble, even if you think there's a 90% chance you're flushing the money away, if the 10% chance comes through and this turns out to be viable and just a way to raise the profile of the sport, it's going to be worth it because you're going to make that money back so many times over. I, you know, I just can't see a scenario where it doesn't make any sense for the NHL to be more involved. I hope they do get there. I'm not going to beat them up too much for not jumping in immediately, especially after an announcement that seemed to catch everyone off

guard. But I really hope that within not a very long time frame, we're having a different conversation about what the league is and isn't doing. Two things. The first is that I know it's a dangerous statement to make that like you see the world differently when you have a daughter versus how you saw it before you had a daughter. I know that's kind of a thing that's sort of held against guys sometimes. But in my case, it's the truth in a lot of ways. And my kids' entry point to hockey was a riveter's game. Like, that was the first game that she went to. And it was the first time she gave a shit about the actual sport versus taking her to a stadium or an arena for another thing.

And she's just more worried about what's on the Jumbotron. So, like, it helped me make her a hockey fan. So I think that, you know, that experience is something that can be replicated for other young girls without question. The other thing is that, and this is what baffles me about the fucking league, you know, the league uses. these women's players in the All-Star game and create reluctantly, but yes. Yeah, reluctantly, but they did. Create hype for the, for the skills competitions. Did they, did they at any point put over the fact that they were professionals, that they

were in current professional leagues? Like, they were national team players, 90% of the references, and they'd be 10% of the time, oh, by the way, she also plays for Minnesota. Like, that's a real problem for me when you have a chance to kind of elevate and, and, and promote these leagues and then you kind of go to the Olympic thing instead, which is the epitome of fucking irony that this league decides to put over the Olympics before they do another professional hockey league considering their stance on the fucking Olympics. Yeah, that's right.

So anyways, all right. So I hope that the NWHL coming back next year, you know, maybe with one league down, things change. But again, like I come back to the other thing about this week, which is the essential. that the women that were playing in the CWHL are going to go back and play for the NWHL when there is clearly a reason they left, I think, is really presumptuous. And we'll see how it all shakes out. But I hope the NWHL is successful this season because it would suck to be both folded.

I hope so too. But the other thing is just, you know, let's keep in mind that we went from having, you know, a certain number of teams and organizations to fewer. And that means fewer jobs for not just players, but people who were working, coaching front offices, the day-to-day running of teams. Like a lot of people lost their jobs this week. And I know people can look at it and say, maybe this is going to be a good thing because we're going to get to a one-league scenario.

It still sucks for those people. And I think like let's also remember that. Even if this ultimately in the big picture ends up being a good thing for the women's game in general, it was just a really, really shitty week for a lot of people who put a lot of work into making something happen. And this isn't the alliance of American football. This league has not been around for 30. seconds.

Like, this league's been around for a while, and I also feel really bad for the fans that have dedicated their time and their energies and their passions to following the inferno or following the Les Canadiens or whoever, that all of a sudden find not only those teams, but also the entire league disappeared. So it sucked. What doesn't suck usually, though, is WrestleMania. The spotlight on the immortals, the something of the, I don't know what the fuck they're calling it these days, Ryan.

But here's the thing. We decided to have a second reindeer game on the episode today in honor of WrestleMania. It is the ultimate WrestleMania quiz. Quiz, constructed by me, Quizmaster Greg. Sean is so goddamn good at these quizzes.

I don't even know what to think anymore. I didn't think he could get at any of them, but he's really good at all of them. I'm pretty the streak on the line. Yeah. By the way, Greg, is this going to be one of those quizzes where you give the answer away in the question if people are actually listening and paying attention?

Talk about that. Oh my God. We didn't even talk about that. So thank you to the, nothing warms my heart to see how many people listen to this podcast based on the volume of tweets that we saw. Listen much more closely than I do. Yeah. Than any of us. It was Ryan gave away the answer to how many NCAA players are on the Leafs this season in the, in the NCAA hockey quiz from last episode, gave away the answer to the question, not in the question, as many people pointed out, but in your comments about.

the discussion. Yeah, exactly. Which was the problem. I'm so, the reason I succeed in these quizzes is I'm so laser focused that as soon as I hear, my just mind goes into supercomputer mode and I didn't, I stripped out the, the chatter, which I should not have done because that that included the actual answer. Picture that gif of Zach Alfenakis from The Hangover with all the math equations floating around his face.

And that's Sean, every time he does one of these quizzes. All right. This is the ultimate WrestleMania quiz. Sean, since you are reigning quiz champion, you get to receive the kick or kick off, if you'd like on this first question. Would you like the first question? It's an eight-question quiz. There is a tiebreaker. You want the first question or give the first question to Ryan? Okay. I'm going to take the first question. I'm going to put the pressure on Ryan. I want him to be a returning serve. And I think I'll just wear him down mentally. known as the Yvonne Lendell of podcasting for decisions like that. Why not? Sean, who wrestled in the most WrestleMania matches?

Is this a multiple choice? Or is a, this is a, okay, all right. This is, you know what? I actually do know the answer to this one. And it's somewhat surprising, maybe not. No, I don't think it's surprising. I believe that the answer to this is The Undertaker. That is correct.

The Undertaker has wrestled in 24 WrestleMania matches. Of course, famous for the streak. And probably the reason you got that correct is because you yourself are on a Undertaker-like streak. That's right. In these quizzes. Ryan is attempting to become the one in two and one. And I don't think it's going to happen. My client, Ryan Lambert,

I wish I was represented by Paul Heyman, dude. That would kick ass. That would be fantastic. By the way, how weird is it that like Paul Heyman for years has been Brock Lesnar's like on-screen manager? And then we find out that he apparently actually does handle his business. It's kind of crazy. It's so cool. Like what?

Do they know that this is fake, right? Like they don't have to. It's all kayfame, dude. Everything's K-fame. It's so good. It's like whenever they put like a two people together as like an on-screen romantic couple, they always inevitably like break up with their spouses. But at least that, like you can kind of see how, where that goes.

Like, like, I feel like someone needs to pull Brock Lesnar aside and be like, he doesn't, like, you don't have to hire that guy to negotiate your million dollar UFC deal. Paul Heyman and Brock Leszner, a real Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone of wrestling, uh, co-stars who became involved. Also, I want to point out that I'm old enough to remember when he was Pauly Dangerously in WCW. And while Jim Coronet had the racket, loaded tennis racket gimmick.

Polly Dangerously had the loaded 1980-sized cell phone gimmick. That's right. Where he would hit people with the cell phone. The problem is this, Greg, all of us are old enough to remember that. I'm old enough to remember when Paul Heyman had, well, he didn't have hair. No, never, never in his life. Ryan, yeah.

Who has the most WrestleMania losses amongst wrestlers? See, and this is where, this is why Sean, wins. He gets the fucking layup, the tap-in. Oh, how many, how, everybody knows the Undertaker had the most. Everybody. Everybody fucking knows that. It could have been Sean Michaels. It couldn't have been Sean Michaels. First of all, both of them had their WrestleMania debuts at WrestleMania 7. Sean Michaels with the Rockers.

I believe they fought Haku and the Barbarian. I'm simply saying that maybe the questions will even out at some point. I know it. redirect your energy to answering the question at hand instead of complaining about the structure of the quiz. Well,

hmm. Most WrestleMania losses. Most WrestleMania losses. I'm going to say Come on now. Mick Foley? No, there's no way. That's stupid. Bad answer. I immediately regret it.

The answer, of course, is the game, the King of Kings. Is it really Triple H? Hunter Gross-Hemsley, Triple H, 11 losses in his career. Wow. I would not have got that. Maybe choker, dude. Maybe heading into 12 with his match against Draxster

Destroyer. Wow. Sean, next question. Which one of these... This is a multiple choice one. Make it an easy one just because I want to see Ryan just lose it. I just want to see the... Sean, fill in the blank. Blank Mania. No.

Which of these... You got to love it. Sean, which of these wrestlers is undefeated at WrestleMania. A. Terry Funk, B. Rob Van Dam, C. The Big Bossman, or D. Ray Mysterio, Jr. Oh, geez. It's Terry Funk, Rob Van Dam,

the Big Boss Man from Cobb County, Georgia, or Ray Mysterio Jr. Holy smokes. Oh, man. This will be a guess. All right. Give me the list one more time. Funk. Terry Funk from the Cross Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.

Rob Van Dam. I don't know where he's from. Big boss man from Cobb County, Georgia. And Ray Bistieri, who I assume is from Mexico. He's from the 6-1-9, Greg. Oh, San Diego. Yeah, geez. All right.

This is a total guess. Give me Rob Van Damme. That's correct. Is he really? Did you know that, right? Yeah. Yeah. Rob Van Damme, Mr. Monday night,

4-0 in WrestleMania's. So that is correct. Isn't it wild that he was in four wrestlmanias? It's kind of strange, right? That's weird. All right, so, Ryan, good news for you, buddy. This is also multiple choice. Yeah.

How many wins at WrestleMania does Vince McMahon have? A, 0, B, 1, C2, D3. So it's 0, 1, 2, or 3 wins. I guess I'll go with 2. I'm sorry, the answer is 0. Vince McMahon has never won a WrestleMania match. I should have known that. Because the heel never goes over at WrestleMania.

I should have fucking known that. That was stupid. Now he's, I've seen this before on Game Show Friday where you're in the death spiral. You're in your own head. This is exactly what I want it by taking the... Oh my God. Right, by receiving the kick.

This is what you've done. This is fantastic. Which wrestler won the world heavyweight title? I feel like I should just like project like some worms onto the middle of the ring to play further mind games. Oh my gosh. I should hear this. Fucking Bray Wyatt.

sucker. Sean, which wrestler won the world heavyweight title most times at WrestleMania? The world. Okay, which one is the world heavy? The big, the big, the big, the big, the big, the big, the big belt. The W. The one that, yeah, the one we give a shit about.

We're not counting, like we're not rolling in all the other. Right. This is the world heavyweight title. Who won it? According to the trivia question that I found online. Right. How many, who won it the most times at WrestleMania? All right.

And is this a multiple choice by any chance? No, it's clearly not. All right. So my first thought is Hogan, but he headed for most of the time. Oh, this is fucking logic. Yeah, let me just work my way through. I like it. I like it.

Because he seems like the obvious answer, but he would have won it, let's see, once, twice. Fee times and maybe. Three times. I feel like he won it three times. So has anybody wanted more than three times? Ryan, you had this one? I have one pretty good, I have a pretty good feeling about who the answer is. Do you want to give away the answer and see if Sean's paying attention?

No. Oh, I get it. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. It's, let me, I'm continuing to think through here.

Not The Undertaker, even though he's won the most matches, they never have been. They never. In Bruce Richards' parlance on those. podcast, he says he doesn't need the belt, the undertaker. Right. Definitely doesn't. Could it, could it be, now, could it be Triple H? No, he loses, if he's the guy who has lost the most, that would, uh, that would seem, would it be Austin? I don't think Austin's stuck around long enough. Mm-hmm. So what's your, what's your guess there, buddy? You know what? I'll say, I'll say, I'll say Hulk Hogan. I don't know if anyone's one up more than three. The answer, uh, Ryan, who's

guess. My guess was going to be John Sina, the Rappadoo himself. That is correct. It is John Sina four times. The face that runs the place won the belt. So the door is a jar. There is the chance now for a rally.

And we go to this question, which I believe is one that is manageable. And maybe on the needle that goes between hard and easy, the needle is pointed more towards E on this one. Ryan, which wrestler made evented

WrestleMania the most? Did out of your own head, think clearly. I hear that sigh. Don't overthink it. That's correct. Yeah. Hulk Hogan made evented WrestleMania eight times the most for any

wrestler. So the door is now open. Do you know who number two is? I have no idea. Okay. And I don't know who number two works for either. So Ryan has one. It's not a bad reference. Sean has two.

And so we kick it back to Sean for question number seven. The best that Ryan could hope for is a tie. Sean could deliver the knockout blow here. This is a very tough question. And so the door will be open. And I will tease that the final question for Ryan is multiple choice. This one is none. Sean, which wrestler lost two different championships at the same WrestleMania?

came in with two belts. Yep. Lost them both. I remember, okay. Here's, I remember this happening at a pay-per-view. I don't remember if it was WrestleMania. It could be like in your house,

Vader time. No, this was, if I'm thinking, if I'm thinking right, this was a, it was a pay-per-view. It was like a triple threat match.

Somebody came in with two belts. And it was one of these, They did two matches for each belt. The person, both guys, and the two other guys pinned each other. You might have it. And the guy who lost both belts was Kurt Angle. Holy shit! Did I get it?

You got it. That was WrestleMania. Yeah, and it was Jericho and, was it Benoit? It was Benoit. WrestleMania 2000, Kurt Angle, two-fall triple-threat match for the WWF Intercontinental and European Championships. Benoit, the IC title. And Chris Jericho, the European title, motherfucker. Oh, this folks.

Made me earn that one. All right. All right. Ryan, to close it out, this would have been such a great question to have a tiebreaker on or a tie on. Which one of these celebrities did not appear at WrestleMania? Kim Kardashian, J. Leno, Alex Trebek, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think it's Arnold. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a video intro for Triple H's match versus Sting at WrestleMania 31.

Oh, that's right. The answer is actually Jay Leno, who of course was... He was at... WCWCW. He did not come over when Vince bought WCW. Yeah, he was always the guy at what, Hog Wilde? Well, as you know, Ryan, he tagged with Diamond Dallas Page in a tag team match against Hulk Logan and Eric Bischoff at Road Wild. I think it started as Hogwild and then they changed it because it was a dumb name.

Well, they did it at the Biker Rally and Sturgis. That's right. Now it's all coming back to you. What was the tiebreaker question, if I may ask? Are you curious about that? Yeah, I am. All right, let's roll with it then. Who can name more winners from WrestleMania 1?

It was going to be a Schlemcode style showdown between you two. Oh, I can't. I definitely can't. I don't know anything about. All you'd have to do is name a winner. A wrestler that wrestled in the mid-80s, and you might have a shot. Anybody want to take a shot? I could have gotten a few of these.

All right. So, Hogan and Mr. T. won the main event. Hang on. You stop. That's true. That's the winner. Go ahead, Ryan. All right. Oh, wait, we're just doing winners from that.

These are just people that won the matches. Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Okay. Back to Sean. The, was it wrestle? Yeah, it must have been WrestleMania one where they did the King Kong Bundy squash in like five seconds over. That is correct.

Back when, like, jobbers still got to be in WrestleMania. Bundy went over. That's true. Ryan? The macho man Randy Savage. Oh, incorrect. Tito Santana, King Kong Bundy, Ricky's themeboat, junkyard dog. Y.D. himself, yeah.

Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkov, Andre the Giant. Wendy Richter, of course. I should have got Andre. And then Hogan and Mr. T. Please do recall that Brutus Beefcake and David San Martino went to a double disqualification. in All right. Yeah, we all remember that one.

All right. Well, our Raider games took up so much time. We'll just get to the question of the week, which is, of course, we asked you the listeners to Buck Soup to give us your least valuable players for the 2018-19 season. Alex Fabili wrote in Vlad Sabotka, probably maybe Tage Thompson. This was also the least valuable players for either specific teams or for the league themselves. Larissa says, I've been told I'm not allowed to complain about how awful Ryan Callahan is compared to his contract because of how good the lightning are and then gave the

arms crossed emoji to indicate that she is displeased with Ryan Callahan. Adrian Messini writes in one that had been written in many times by a lot of people. Tobias Reeder, zero goal so far. Obviously the reason why the Oilers did not make the playoffs. Clearly. Bob Nicholson. Karen Malans writes in, Corey Schneider, terrible when the devil's needed him, stealing games when the rest of the team is in tank mode. So once again, this happened, I believe in the Austin Matthews draft year, too,

where the devils were supposed to be dog shit, and then Corey Schneider propped them up to keep them away from drafting highly that year, if memory serves. A lot of Islanders fans saying Andrew Ladd, a lot of Predators fans, including Sage Gunner 47, saying it has to be Kyle

Turris, it just hasn't happened for him at all. A couple of Wings fans saying Justin Abdelkater, which is a common rejoinder. And yeah, that was a lot of the same names popping up over and over again. Anybody on your radar for being least valuable to their team this season? Connor McDavid. The oilers out of the lottery again.

I would go Martin Jones. I feel like he's the guy keeping the sharks from being like Tampa West. Chag or not. Yep, absolutely. I like that. That seems to be that maybe that would be my choice too, would be Martin Jones. It's a good point. It'd have to be a goalie of some ilk, I would imagine.

And I hate to dump on like Luongo and Rimer, but maybe they could team up a la the Jennings trophy and win the LVP for submarining the Florida Panthers. Or if you're in Toronto, it's the obvious answer is Garrett Sparks, who as a backup goalie has been like five goals worse than Curtis McElhany would have and is the entire reason that the Leafs don't have home ice in the playoffs. But a well-linked guy with the Marley is. So he doesn't get a lot of criticism, right? Yeah, he's anything that goes wrong. Even though he's not going to play in the playoffs, it's still his fault if they lose. Well, there you go.

Well, all right. Well, so apologies to that reader, the listener who always complains about it's doing too much wrestling. The worst time of year you could possibly complain about that. Our bonus episode next week is we're just going to talk about WrestleMania for an hour and a half or whatever. It's like someone going on the Reddit and saying, God, I hate Thanksgiving right before the November 25th episode. So apologies to you. I'm Greg Wyshinsky.

You can read myself at ESPN.com. You could also watch me every day on a show called Daily Wager on ESPN News. It's a TV show. I have stuff in my house that puts me on the TV, and I make hockey bets. And so far, I'm doing quite well, surprisingly. So do check that out. And if nothing else, if you're not someone who bets, it's always good information for that night's games. And you can listen to my other podcast, ESPN and ICE as well.

Oh, hey, check out the Puck Soup newsletter. It's on the Patreon. It's $4 a month if you just want the newsletter. It's $3 a month if you're already getting the $5 bonus episodes. And it's good. People like it. I did some insider stuff last week that ended up being right about Adam Fox. Nice.

Must credit Ryan Lambert. Nobody got that memo. E4, Ryan Lambert. And I was right. So that's fine. and then sports.yahu.com slash author slash Ryan dash Lambert. You can find my stuff at The Athletic,

including this week where I wrote my tribute to the departing, retiring Bob Cole, who if you're Canadian, has pretty much been the voice and the soundtrack to a big, huge chunk of your hockey memories. And if you liked and appreciated his work, check it out. And if you didn't, please also check it out.

because I have some thoughts directed at you as well. So, yeah, and follow me on Twitter. Down Goes Brown. All that stuff. Please do you read Sean's piece and then remember when I write mine about Doc Emmerich one day because it'll probably be very similar. Just cut and paste. It's fine.

All right, everybody. Thanks for us and the puck. See you. Catch you next week. Bye. Bye. Bye. Later.

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