Puck Soup - Storming Out

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, the Stanley Cup losers Vegas Golden Knights, and more. Get bonus episodes and more at Patreon.com/PuckSoup

I'm Ryan Lambert from the new newsletter Perfect Takes. I'm Sean Magadu from The Athletic. And I got to say, just right off the top, I don't work Italy prospects anymore. They are going away from the takes direction of the kind of content they want. They're, you know, there's a lot going on. I don't want to get into it. But you can read all my takes for the foreseeable future, I guess you would say, at perfecttakes.bhive.com.

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Please check it out. My family is starving. Just kidding. We're fine. Stanley Cup final is over. Carolina Hurricanes. Your second time Stanley Cup champions, first time in 20 years. It seems like they win every 20 years, like on a cadence now.

Yeah. It's locked in within a few days of the anniversary. And if you account for like, leap years and stuff, I bet it lines up perfect. You know what? You're right. This is like that, there's like a missing gap in the calendar, and if you line that up. That's exactly right. That's why some months have to have like 28 days or whatever.

That's it. Well, I guess there's only the one. It's just the one month. And that's the one with sometimes 29. How they trick you. What do you want to talk about first with the Stanley Cup champions, Carolina Hurricanes? because there's a lot to, there's a lot to chew on here, I think, with these guys. There sure is.

Boy, where do you start? Okay, well, I mean, you know what? Let's pick up where we left off last week because when we spoke last week, it was Game 4 was going to be that night. Vegas was up to 1 in the series and we were talking about how both the goaltenders were bad. And whether either team, but especially Carolina, should make a switch. And they did. And it worked.

Yeah, that decision got made for them, it sounds like. Freddie Anderson, you know, played part of Game 4. Started it. Got knocked in the head, got pulled because they were giving up a lot of goals for Brandon Bussie. And then it turns out, I think, the implication I heard was basically that Anderson, it was actually like a knee injury that was keeping him out of the world.

Yeah, which is, which was very weird because it ended up, obviously, he didn't start game four, but he didn't even dress. And then they were like, oh, but he's healthy. He's a healthy scratch. He's just clearing his head or whatever. And then the implication was that he was healthy and good to go. coach's decision and then at the end they were like oh by the way he his knee was hurt so that was a trick on us yeah i don't know what what to make of all that but um it hey hurt or not given how he played

early in the series and given how well brand and bussey did coming in i don't i don't think we were seeing fredy anderson again one way or another so yeah bussy Anderson in addition to being hurt I guess, gave them a reason to look at the other guy, look down the bench. Bussie did not, you know? Yeah. He was very, very good. I don't actually have it in front of me what his save percentage ended up at, but I imagine it was quite high.

So, you know, like, that's all you can ask for, especially out of a guy who was technically not a rookie, but this is his first year in the NHL. Mm-hmm. I had forgotten that he actually signed with Florida this past summer. He did, yeah, he was a waiver pickup. Yeah, that's right. Like right at the beginning of the year, Carolina picked him up on waivers.

Do you remember where you were when that arguably may have turned out to be the most important transaction of the entire season? Oh, yeah. In a lot of ways, right? Like, because he not only did he just kind of walk into the, uh, into the Stanley Cup final and go, I'm a, I'm a 9.31. I just looked it up and it's 9.31. That'll win you a lot of hockey games, even if the other guy isn't like a, uh, an 860 goalie, which is what Carter Hart was in this series.

Um, but it's funny. I don't know if you saw people looked him up on, uh, on LinkedIn the other day. Okay, I did not see that. And like he was like, I worked at Chipotle one summer when I was like 19 or whatever as one of his jobs. And it was, it's the Chipotle in North And over Massachusetts. I know it well. Isn't that so funny? I could have gone in there and gotten a burrito bowl from a Stanley Cup champion.

Can you prove that you did not do that? I mean, there's really, that I, that I, that I, that I, that I, that I, that I, that I, that I, I didn't go to Chipotle. Yeah, it's pretty easy for me to prove that. I hate Chipotle. All right. Well, there you're. I think it's nasty.

But, yeah, unbelievable story for him, obviously. Western Michigan, fourth in the Bruins organizational depth chart last season. Then this year he plays, what, a couple dozen games for the regular season. Doesn't play in the playoffs at all until they, need him to, and he's arguably the reason they won. Yeah. Goes 31, 6, and 2. Is that good?

During the season. Yeah. I didn't realize it was that many that he played. I knew it was a lot, but I didn't think it was, I would have guessed like 35 total. I'm starting to think that goaltending is weird. Yes. It's just like this doesn't make any sense. You don't see this at any other position in sports where,

somebody could go, like, we've seen guys go from, like, being the backup quarterback somewhere, and they go and they, and you can win with them, but like, you don't win with them throwing 400 yards a game. They, you win by like, okay, we have to adjust. We don't have our guy. You know, a pitcher can get hot, a hitter can get hot, but like, you don't see guys just come from absolutely nowhere to being perfectly serviceable plus plus. as, I mean, I don't know. Like, I guess all you need to know is Bruins organization last year, signs with the Panthers, they wave him. I haven't seen anybody, like, thrown any stones at either of those two teams.

Like, how did you let this guy go? That's right. It's just like, yeah, this is just, it's a great story, and it's also got to be so infuriating. If you're a fan of, like, the Oilers who've been chasing a guy. goaltender for years and years. Like, what do you even do at this point? There's two ways to get a goalie. You either get Connor Hellebuck or you pick a guy off waivers.

And even Hellebuck was like a fifth round pick or something out of the NAHL. Like, this isn't, it's not like Hellebuck was some highly regarded, you know, like, Carrie Price was a high draft pick, right? And he had a pretty good career. We'll talk about him later for different reasons. But it really is like the goaltending is voodoo thing. You're like, yeah, I mean, isn't that reductive? And they're like, no, this guy wasn't in the NHL ever.

And he just won them the Stanley Cup. Against a team with way more established talent who's been to multiple Stanley Cup finals in the last few years, won a Stanley Cup. And it's like, okay, and who's this guy? He was working at Chipotle six years ago or whatever the number is, right? Like, doesn't make any sense, especially for a guy. It's not like he's a 23-year-old doing this. He's like 27 years old. First NHL season at 27.

So old that he technically can't be a rookie. Yeah. Too old to be a rookie is a very funny classification. And yet. I'll tell you this. Here's the only thing I didn't like about the Brandon Bussie story is I am on record as I love nothing more than when somebody makes an NHL debut or scores a first goal or really does much of anything. And they cut to like the proud parents in the stands.

And like the mom is crying and the dad is like high-fiving everybody he can within arm's reach. I love that. I absolutely love it. Here's my thing. Please stop showing me goalie parents. I don't enjoy. The second-hand stress is overwhelming. How do you enjoy it at all?

We got a lot of shots of the... And granted, they're not live shots, so they're only... Like, they're only showing them after he makes a big save. But even then, it's... I found it very stressful. And then, like, for the last game, like, the fiancé was there, too. And that's just, like... I mean, they just look sick.

They look like they're actively trying not to vomit at all times. Because, you know, that's... Well, I'll tell you, that cup final That's the right response to cheering for a goaltender. I can't, it, the secondhand anxiety I was getting from that was too much. In game six, though, they didn't really have that much to sweat about. Yeah. I mean, he had to make a couple of big saves, but I feel like that's true for most goalies in most games, you know.

And I, yeah, it just never really felt like Vegas was all that close. close to scoring. Is it as simple as saying, like, goaltending aside, Carolina was the better team. There was sort of a feeling out over the first few games that all could have gone either way. And then Carolina just found another gear,

like another, maybe even not another level, another half level. And that was enough that Vegas just couldn't, like, Like the better team emerged as the series went on. I definitely think that's true. The right team won.

But the other thing is like if you look at just, again, you look at the save percentages. Freddie Anderson 815, you know, like, I don't know that you needed 931 goaltending to beat 860 or whatever hearts was that I just said. But, you know, all things being equal. Well, you get a safe percentage of 70 points higher than the other teams. You're all set. You know, it's not fucking rocket science. No. But it did feel like, to your point, Vegas kind of got little brothered a little bit as the series went on where they just weren't getting very close to Bussie.

And at the other end of the ice, like that first Taylor Hall shot in game six? Should that go in on an NHL goalie? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, maybe, sure, but. We'll get to the Carter Hart stuff on the Vegas side, but, like, he was, he clearly had his best game of the series in game six, which is not saying much, but he, he wasn't. No, he didn't give up four goals. Congratulations, man.

But, yeah, you, you'd, you'd love to see to get a stop on that. But speaking to little brothers, Jordan Stahl, Kahn Smyth. Yep. What are your thoughts on him and would he have had your cons might vote if you had one? No, I'm, you know, I don't think you, I understand what he did in the cup final. But again, like his name's being mentioned with like Mario Lemieux as look at the guys who have scored this many goals in the Stanley, in the first five games of a Stanley Cup final or whatever. And he's playing extremely good defense. And, you know, Nick Eilers, I believe.

led the hurricanes in scoring in the cup final. And Nick Euler's plays a lot of time with Jordan Stahl, right? All that makes sense. He had all this stuff about, he also had a 70% faceoff percent. I don't care. Get that shit away from me. I don't want to hear about it. I don't care when it's 55%, but when it's getting to like 6570, that does become.

Sure, yeah. 70 is a lot. Worth interrupting every broadcast every 30 seconds to throw face-up stats everywhere. I might not go that far. But what I will say is once he scored all those goals, everybody decided he should win the Kahn Smythe. And then they were like, okay, what's, what else? Is he doing anything else in this series? Like that's quantifiable in some way?

Because you can't, you can't go, look how he's locking down Jack Eichel. Obviously that, you know, but. I found it weird, like, I want to say it was before game six on the Canadian. in broadcast up here. Like, Elliot Friedman was talking about the conspite. And he just kind of mentioned in passing. He was like, yeah, he goes, well, I mean, obviously, if Carolina wins tonight, Jordan Stahl's winning the conspite.

Like, he's like, I've talked to enough people. And I was like, oh, really? Like, I still thought it would have been a close. Did they release the vote totals on that? I don't think they do for like another couple of days, I believe. Like, personally, I would have gone Taylor-Haw. Hall. Yeah, same here.

And part of that is, as with Jordan Stahl, like, there's a good story there. Awesome story. I like having the old guy there. Actually, we looked it up. You know who led Carolina in scoring in the playoffs? Jackson Blake. Really? I don't know.

I would have thought it was Stankovin, but a guy on Taylor Hall and Logan Stakeauvin's line is totally plausible. Jackson Blake, 20 points, Taylor Hall 19, Euler's 18. Stancoven 16. Huh. That's pretty, I don't know. And then Jordan Stahl down at 12, but... 12, which is the least.

Stancoven led them in goals. Yes, maybe that's what I'm thinking. But, you know, I guess this was sort of the... In a way, it's a good tribute to this Carolina team. Like, there was no obvious candidate. Correct. Yeah, you could have said like Jacob Slavin wins it, and I'll go, yeah, sure. that makes sense.

Why not? You know? Like, I don't think, to be clear, I don't think, like, Stahl didn't deserve the consmites. He's just not who I would have voted for if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. This is, nobody's mad the Jordan Stahl one. It just... Right.

I was, like I said, I was surprised that it was presented as, like, well, yeah, I mean, clearly. Lock it in, yeah. And look, he didn't just score... goals in the final like all his goals were important that the belly flop goal was probably the turning point oh yeah like yeah i remember say i i guess it was on the other show because it was that was game four that he scored that goal right i said like yes if this if caroline ends up winning this series you're going to see that goal forever because it was such a cool goal and also the camera like the angle from inside the net that that camera angle that almost never gives you anything

good other than maybe showing you a puck over the line, like actually delivered an A-plus angle of Carter Hart just reaching for the puck and not quite getting it. Like that, you're going to see that. That's going to become the signature moment of this year's playoffs. So, I mean, I can't argue. And it's like 17 years between Cups. An NHL record, the longest gap between.

two Stanley Cups for a player. And he's the oldest Conn Smyth winner-ever now, too. Yeah, which it was kind of funny when Betman dropped that as he was announcing it. And you could kind of see Jordan Stalby like, do, come on. Come on, like don't. You didn't need to do that to me. But the other thing I wanted to talk about with all that is, and I wrote about this yesterday, like the idea that like, if, can't.

Carolina was going to win a Stanley Cup. They would need everything going for every player on every line. And then like Ajo and Svechnikov, we're fine. That's it. And those are their two big weapons. Like that's literally why they go out and they get Nick Eelers. Because if Ajo and Svechnikov aren't going, they don't win this series. Again, Eelers led the Stanley Cup final in scoring.

I think it was nine points in six games or something like that. And that's why you get that secondary scoring threat. You don't need to give him a ton of minutes for him to be productive, which he showed in Winnipeg, right? But in Winnipeg, they kind of shit on him when he was not like super productive in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, he was weird in Winnipeg, right? Because they never played him that much.

Well, he didn't get a ton of ice time. In Carol, like, he played, I think, like, a minute and a half more a game or something like that from last year in the regular season, which isn't like a huge upgrade, but percentage-wise, I suppose, it is a little bit. He set a career high in points this year. And, yeah, I don't know, like, again, it's just like that extra insurance blanket that he, that he provided of like, okay, Aho and Svetnikov don't need to be going because we now have one more offensive weapon. And if you want to say that's what got him over the line, like I'd have a hard time disagreeing with that.

It was. They had their first line was not good. They were fine. Like by first line standards. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Certainly by cup winning standards. They were not good. Second line, fantastic. Story of the postseason. And better than a lot of first lines in recent memory for sure. And then it's sort of like, okay, so there you go. You're a typical cup contender. You're a typical NHL team.

You've got the two scoring lines. Wait a second. Now we've got the guy on the third line that moves the needle. And that's what they hadn't really had before. And I mean, look, they tried, right? We know about ranting in. we'll forget Jay Gonsol before that. What did you think?

Did you see Jordan Stahl's comment about like guys not wanting to be here or something? I didn't see that, but if I was them, that would be bullet and board material for me for a decade. I'll have to look at that because, yeah, some some guys just jump ship. I believe in this organization. I believe in everyone in it. It's hard to argue that that's what happened. Like that has there been a more public I don't want to be here in recent memory for a guy that was supposed to be the final piece or whatever than Rantan? Yeah.

You know, like, Rantan, you know, he didn't, he didn't get to pick his destination like Gensel did. Gensel's like, I'm going to Tampa, fuck you, you know? I imagine Rantan had some amount of control. He kind of did, right? because it was the last year of his deal, like he would have been a UFA. Yeah. But he was trading Stan Kovin and two firsts

for a question. You wouldn't think. But yeah, it's, it was like Stahl, yeah, he was asked like, you know, what was, what do you credit this win to? And he was basically saying like loyalty, persistence. Sticking with it, some guys just jump ship.

And the reason I even saw that is because up here in Canada, it was a lot of people perceive that as, a shot at Mitch Marner. But that doesn't make it kind of sense. That's real. I've seen only the boss baby, and this movie is giving me boss baby. It's a little bit of that. I mean, you could, in other circumstances, you could see it where it's like, you know,

we've seen it in sports, like the other team stars getting all the attention and then you win, and you take a little shot. But it makes infinitely more sense that he was talking about the guys that had come and gone on his own team. Yep. And yeah, I mean, you can, you can shovel a little dirt on somebody who didn't want to, didn't want to be there. Absolutely.

If not now, when, you know? Yeah. And like, as if you're the captain, you're a guy that's been there through the real lean years, you know, because when did, when did he go there? Like, oh, seven, maybe, oh, eight? Oh, no, it would have been a little after that because the, you know. It was right after the cup. Yeah.

Yeah. He goes over and gets traded for the top 10 pick. So he's been there forever. Yeah. And he's seen, and he's seen, quote unquote, solutions to these problems come and go. And with the last two notable ones being guys that clearly were like, yeah, this doesn't work for me. I'm out of here. If you're the captain who's been through everything he's been through, he gets to go.

oh yeah and fuck the fuck the losers who couldn't hack it here you know yeah like that's that's sick that he did that I think that's awesome good for him good for him that's what makes him a cons might winner right there I've switched sure why not why not um the other so I'm listening to 32 thoughts yesterday and they kind of implied like this might be the end or we're getting really close to the end of Rod Brindamore's coaching career

which is surprising very surprising Because he can't be that. What's he in his like early 60s maybe? Yeah, that sounds right. He is 55. So the fact that he, you know, for him it's like Carolina or nowhere it seems like. Like why is he going to go be John Tortorella and coach 15 different teams and that kind of thing? Like I don't think anybody thinks that's going to happen.

So I wonder why he. He's just like, yeah, I'm kind of fed up with this, see you later. I don't know. But I thought that was interesting. Yeah, I mean, I'd be surprised, but I guess you never know. It's been so weird there, right? Because he's like, I've seen in a few places him being compared to like a college coach. And not even necessarily a college hockey coach, but like a college football guy where it's like,

this is my program. Like, I have molded everything. You're not coming to play for the hurricanes. You're coming to play for Rod Brandemore. And, you know, they've all, and Tom Dunn saying, like, he's the most important guy. And it's like, yeah, man, but you still try to screw him over every time he needs to get paid.

But, all right. It's, I mean, I don't, part of me would be fascinated to see him. him go somewhere else as a coach just to see if it would still work there. Or if it's like, is the equation Brindamore plus Carolina or is it just Brindamore is, is this, is this good? And I'm sure, I mean, God, imagine if he was a free agent right now. Like, this guy would blow Mike Babcock's record out of the water. But you could also see him going somewhere and it's just not clicking the same.

Like, he's always going to be a good coach. He's always going to, and obviously, like, you saw. The passion and everything that he has for the team and them back to him and everything, it's fantastic. But I just, it's, it's the perfect, it's the perfect. Like, this is really what you're going for. We make fun of these teams that are constantly bringing back recycled ex-players. But when they talk about, yeah, but he understands the culture and he understands the mind and all this nonsense. Like, this is the one time it felt like it was actually true.

Like, this guy gets it. is and he's now, like he is the Carolina hurricane. Yeah, and like this is why, because he gets hired at the, basically the same time as Don Waddell, if I'm remembering right. Okay. And basically like they, okay, I just pulled it up here. So the four years Ron Francis was the GM, they don't make the playoffs, right? and they cycle through a lot of guys on that roster. Like there are good players there obviously, you know,

but they just don't make the playoffs. And they're coming out of, I guess what you'd call a rebuild, although I don't think they've really, like, tanked in the way that you would think that a team that didn't make the playoffs for four years did. But basically, they've just spent the last eight years kind of making this a team that can play Rod Brindamore Hockey. I think I talked about this last week or the week before, where it's like every guy is aligned on how they play,

that kind of just like up and down, up and down hockey, and get it through the neutral zone and all that kind of thing. And then with Eric Tolstki coming in as the GM after Waddell, did Waddell just kind of like step down? Am I remembering that right? Did he, well, I mean, there was the worst. weird thing where he was talking to other teams. Yeah.

And then he, did he step down or did he go directly to Columbus? I don't remember. I don't remember the order of operations. But it was pretty clear that what L was done and moving on. Yep. And so anyway. Tulski was the obvious pick to move up. Yeah, of course.

But like, it's just organizationally, to use the college football coach analogy, this is like they've got the coach he's been running the show for eight years there's a relatively new AD who gets brought in and he's just like I understand the vision

how do we help you facilitate it basically right and Tulski does the rantin and trade that doesn't work because rantin is like I don't know if I can play this style of hockey and they were like okay get him the fuck out of here

then let we'll take we'll take Stankovain and two first round picks. They then flip one of those first round picks for Kianne Miller, who again, distressed asset in New York, a guy who, you know, a high ceiling, first round pick kind of a player, but not really finding it in New York. But the hurricanes, because they know their coach so well, and they know what kind of player he's looking at

and wants to utilize and that kind of thing, they can go, we'll give up, I think it was a first, a second and like an AHL defenseman to get this guy. And was Kianne Miller good for them in the playoffs? Oh, he was, it says here. You know, it's about that kind of organizational, philosophical alignment. Everybody's on the same page as opposed to think about the Edmonton Oilers. How many coaches has Ryan Nugent Hopkins had in the time he's been with the Oilers?

Which I think is roughly the same amount of time, uh, Jordan Stahl has been in Carolina. Is it eight? Is it 10? If you're changing coaches every two and a half years, if you're changing GMs every four years, that's not helpful.

So is that, is there, because I've seen this mention in a few places, is, plan. And, you know, you just, you keep chipping away. You have a vision. You believe in it. They, they obviously, you know, they took some swings on the player side, but they never

radically changed it. They never said, you know what? Can't win with Sebastian. Now he's gone. We're going to flip him. We got to make massive changes to the roster. It always felt like they were adding, but not like, not breaking anything up. They were trying to add to the.

foundation they'd already already built. Is that a lesson here? And then the obvious follow-up question, how many terrible GMs are going to use that as their excuse to? Because, I mean, I feel like we just finished shoveling dirt for two years on the Maple Leafs for sticking to a plan. And that was a team that couldn't make it out of the first round, which is vastly different than a Carolina going into the playoffs.

every year winning a few series and not being able to get over the hump, right? Like very, very different. But from 5,000 feet up, it looks like the same problem. We just, we're knocking at the door, but we can't get through what do we do? And, you know, with Carolina, like, again, it wasn't, they didn't keep running it back the way the Leafs did of like, you know, we're just going to keep everything the same, but they kept it largely the same. and it worked.

Yeah, I think, you know, like, for me, what the Leaf's big problem was, just to use them as the example here, is they were like, well, obviously, you know, Morgan Riley, I guess, is the, is the, is the, er example of this of like, no, no, we have a guy that we really like and we're, and we think he's our number one defenseman. And you're watching them lose year after year in the playoffs. And Morgan Riley's never a difference maker for them in the playoffs. And that might be a little unfair, but you know what I mean. And they're like, well, obviously we have to get guys to build around Morgan Riley. And it's like, hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, and like, Aho certainly guilty of a no-show in the playoffs in the last little while here.

Svetschenkov, same thing, right? but they weren't like, well, I mean, how hard is it to go out and get a defense or a forward better than those guys? They tried multiple times. It didn't work. Twice it didn't work with Gensel, who I think is a better player than Aho. And Rantaninan, again, I think he's a touch overrated, but like when he looks good, there aren't many players better than him in the league.

Now, when does he look good? That's a different question, you know? So they go out and they get kind of a guy who, interestingly, is on Aho's level in terms of, like, production and things like that in a lot of ways. But who they can slot farther down the lineup because they kind of have proof of concept it works in Winnipeg, right? And what I would say about, like, oh, now every GM is going to use this as an excuse. there weren't a lot of moves that Carolina made, even before Tulski took over, because he's only been there for two years, I think,

where you're like, that's actually a pretty smart move. They went out and got this guy who, you know, like Shane Gostis Bear is a good example, right? They got him, he left, and then they got him back. But like, identifying we can use Shane Goss to spare and we don't have to pay him a ton of money and we don't have to give him big minutes, we just give him like second third pairing minutes and use him on the power play.

And suddenly Shangostis fare is incredibly valuable on it like bang per for your dollar. You know what I mean? Like, so that's what it boils down to for me is like if you can show that you're consistently winning the small transactions and then taking a big swing every once in a while, great. Then you should get to keep being the GM. How many GMs are doing that, though? Is Stan Bowman doing that? Just so you go back to the Oilers example? I would say, no, I don't think he is.

So I think, like, yeah, there's a lesson here. And the lesson is, like, stick to the plan. But you've got to have a lot of patience. You've got to be willing to fail a little bit. And that's the other thing is, like, you can look at what Dallas did, right? feels like they're knocking on the door. They go to the conference final three years in a row, and it's like this coach is a fucking problem for us.

How'd they do this year? Oh, not as good. That's so interesting. Ultimate loser, by the way, Dallas. Are they indeed? Team that lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that won the Stanley Cup. Wow. Can't get further away from winning it all.

Tough. Tough. It is a tough one. But see, my thing is, though, I just wouldn't have dumped that coach. Yeah. So is it a – I'm a pretty good coach, in my opinion. Is this another case then where – and I almost hate to bring this up,

but where – does the fact that Carolina plays in a non-traditional market, which is to say not a low-pressure market, I almost said low pressure, which I'm sure, you know, Tulski and those guys would slap me in the head for, because it's pro sports. You're under a ton of pressure all the time, but it's not Toronto or Montreal or New York. Yeah, there's what, two beat writers that cover the team on a regular basis?

Yeah, like does that allow them a little extra lead to be a little more patient and to have to stick to the vision a little bit more than you would if, you know, the exact same thing was happening in Vancouver, but now people are flipping out because he just lost three games in a row in November. I don't know.

I'm not sure. Well, it's funny because Vancouver is actually an example of why patience isn't a good idea all the time. Exactly, right? Like, that's, yeah, it could be. I mean, you want to talk about like eight years, isn't that how long Jim Benning was the GM there? And they were like, oh, we're this close. But they just never had the postseason appearances, let alone success, really. They were the opposite, right?

Where they were like, we never make the playoffs. But when we do, we get out of the first round. And so that tells us how close we are and all that kind of thing. But yeah, I don't know that this is especially replicable because most teams after they, like, hit a wall in the playoffs fire their coaches. And they didn't want to fire Rod Brindamore. And I think it worked out. So that's all. Mm-hmm.

Do you have any other thoughts on these guys before we take a break? The answer can be no. I guess not. No, I mean, just, it was at some point, okay, well, let me throw one last thing at you then. Okay. Because I'm, I'm probably going to write a piece on this. Did we just see the greatest NHL team ever that didn't have, a single Hall of Famer on the roster.

I'm trying to think if people will talk themselves into Slavin, now that he has a cup and a gold medal, is a Hall of Famer. Mm-hmm. The ultimate example of the defensive defenseman, all that kind of stuff. I can easily see people taking that view of things. For sure, I can't. But if we're saying not Slavin, then, yeah, I don't think there's another Right. I mean, obviously they've got some guys that are young enough that it's...

But the ceiling's not like, I think Stankovans awesome. I think Jackson Blake is awesome. The ceiling's not there for them to, like, especially in this scoring environment, you've got to have like 120 points a year to be an MVP candidate at minimum. You would think. Like, so, I mean, I'll just say they've got three guys. three key players that I think are old enough, we can really evaluate. Okay. Freddie Anderson, cool story. He's not getting in.

No. Jordan Stahl is, I think, too little too late. Taylor Hall would have been very interesting if he got the Con Smyth. He's certainly the closest of any of them, but I just, I think he's going to run out of runway. You go to the guys who are in their prime now, hey, who knows what the future holds,

but I don't think any of those guys are, like, Eilers, Aho, like, I don't think any of those guys are on pace right now. No. And even the younger guys who, you know, the Seth Jarvis types, who've sort of got everything still ahead of them or much more ahead of them than in the past, Dancoven would be another one. Like, early on, they're not on that track.

So you're right. Like Slavin's the guy, but he's had one fifth place Norris finish in his career. He just had a season where he had, he played 39 games, he had eight points. Defensive defensemen, there's a few of them in the hall. Rod Langway, most notably, but he won the Norris twice. Yes, he did. And Kevin Lowe got in for having six cups, not for anything he did individually. Also true.

So I don't know. And because the other thing of this that's interesting to me is like a history nerd guy, I did this a couple years ago where I said like who's the best team that didn't have a Hall of Famer. It's very hard to find good teams. Like you'd be amazed how many teams. Because I mean, a lot of them you're talking about like maybe the core didn't have any Hall of Famers, but there was that one guy who's 36 playing out his career, you know, where there was that one guy who was a rookie who went on, he got traded, and he did something.

Like, to have nobody is very, I think the best I came up with was the 2019 blues are the only cup winner, I think. And then there was a Sabres team that was a really good one of the, in the early cap. And I think these guys are definitely. Alex Petrangelo could get in. And yeah, like this year's hurricanes are clearly better than those blues. I mean, 16 and 3 in the playoffs is. Nuts.

And I, yeah, you can go, whoa, they played weak. Yeah, maybe, maybe they did. Or maybe they just made everyone look like a weak team once they got going. Anyways, I just, I thought that was interesting. No, I hadn't considered that, and you're absolutely right. No, they, if they're not one, there's no lower than three, you know. I really think if they, the question becomes like, do they have a Hall of Famer? because if they don't, I don't see any team.

Yeah. And obviously, you go back in NHL history, there's not even a point in looking at like cup winners from the original six era because they've all got seven hallifers. 12 hall of everybody got in. Of course. Yeah. There just weren't enough guys back then.

So got to put in somebody. That was the attitude. All right. Why don't we take a break? We'll come back. We'll do Losers Corner about the Vegas Golden Knights. All right. It's Losers Corner, folks.

we're talking about the Vegas Golden Knights. They didn't look that great in the series, in my opinion. And now they have, I think, one million questions that need to be answered because, well, let's just start with this. It appears as though, from all the reportage, John Tortorella will not be coming back for their next season. Okay, so I hadn't seen a lot of this. Is it being represented as, is this his choice?

Is it a team choice? Is it? I don't know that it's being represented one way or the other, quite frankly. Maybe there's local stuff I haven't seen, but nationally it just seems like they're going, you know, we got a great coach down there in the AHA, Henderson, Nevada. So it looks like Ryan Craig, who's their AHL coach, is it. at least the front runner, but it would be really funny

if he's their only option because every other coach they want to talk to the team that used to pay them doesn't give them permission. Yes, that would be very funny. I guess they could go back to Bruce Cassidy, right? I mean, John Tortorella to Edmonton?

It wouldn't, well, we'll talk about the whole Edmonton situation in a minute, I guess, but... No, I don't mean now, I mean, in two weeks, when Babcock gets fired. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, lucky for him, he hasn't even been hired yet.

They have to do the, okay, we'll talk about the investigation in a bit. But, yeah, again, just the fact that it looks like Vegas is going with their HL coach seems very kind of unvagus-like to me. That's extraordinarily un-Vegas-like. And I wouldn't, I mean, obviously your coach and he's in the organization and he knows the game plan and everything, you're going to take a job when you can get it, but I would not want to be a rookie coach in Vegas.

No, yeah, of course. You talk about a place that does not have patience. That is... Yeah, you lost three games in a row. Pack your shit, man. You're out of here. Yeah. I wonder if Tortorella will land somewhere else right away.

I said it last week. I would love to see John Torturell become the closer. of NHL coaches. Mariano Rivera. He just... 75 games into the season and... Your eighth in the Western Conference, here you go. Yep.

Yeah. No, that would be a... That would be a nice fun thing for him to do is he like winds down his career, I guess. Just, you know, go to the bullpen. Manager starts tapping his left arm, you know. But yeah, I guess I'm not surprised to see him go, but the fact that they don't, there are, there just aren't a lot of like

marquee coaches out there for Vegas to hire in the first place. You know what I mean? So. So why don't keep the guy that you've got? Like, I, I, it might not be up to them. He's got to, he's got to go back to Carolina and get the suits out of the closet. That's, that's true. You know? Yeah, he's got to do that. And then he's got to. go consult with the dogs. I don't know. Dog keeps looking out the window in Vegas and seeing the sphere eyeball and freaking out.

This ain't going to work. Hey, it was nice to try something. You got pretty deep into the playoffs, you know? Like... Yeah, I mean, it was like... I mean, I'll tell you, if he doesn't come back in Vegas, I'm still not sold that they wouldn't bring him back. But if he doesn't, like,

you're going to look back on that as one of the weirdest coaching stints ever. For sure. Especially. Especially. Like, I mean, who knows? Maybe he does this and he says, you know what? I am now retired. I'm done, etc.

But assuming he coaches somewhere else at some point, like to just look back and be like, remember when John Torrella as part of his Hall of Fame career where he won 700 games or whatever it was, remember when he coached like eight games for the Vegas Golden Night? plus a playoff run and almost won a Stanley Cup right up until he decided that he was going to hook the entire team

to a goaltender who hadn't even been in the league for two years. Ride or die. Let's talk about that because... Yeah, that's ultimately what I would argue cost them the Stanley Cup is that they just refused to change course in net. I put it in the newsletter today.

This was two teams they came into the final with red-hot goaltending. Somewhat unexpectedly maybe? Like, sure. Went into the playoffs with goaltending questions. Their starters were red-hot, rode the starter all the way through three rounds. Both goalies, for whatever reason, go cold.

One team looks at its backup goalie who is an undrafted, too old to be rookie, who's never started a playoff game in his life, and they go, you're in. Yep. And the other team looks at their backup who won them a Stanley Cup three years ago

and says, I don't remember the exact quote, but that's the stupidest question I've ever heard or whatever torts pulled out of his... Yeah, that's right. And the team that switches goalies goes on wins three straight games. Thanks, in part to great goaltending,

wins the Stanley Cup. The other team gets one decent game out of a single game out of six from their goalie. And it's the elimination game. And even that game, he got outplayed and gave up the early first goal and all of that. I don't get it, man. You're talking to the wrong guy if you're looking for someone to explain it to you. I just, because I'm watching that, I guess it would have been game five where he just said it's a stupid question or whatever.

And I'm like, they got to pull him at this point, right? Like, he's just, he's just giving up, like, shitty goal after shitty goal. It's not like Carolina's all over them and every goal is a tap in on the back door. No goal he had no chance. He gave up a stinker or two in every single game of this series, basically. Yeah. And, I mean, to his credit, he wasn't the reason they lost game six. But that's, I mean, you talk about faint praise, right?

Like, yeah. The guy he got outplayed by an undrafted Chipotle employee. That's right. Again, like 2020 Chipotle employee. Like, it's not like, oh yeah, you know, when he was like 14 or whatever. This is like semi-recent. So, yeah, I don't, I really, you know, I've come to expect that John Tortorella will say. no, no, no, you don't understand.

Basically to anybody questioning any decision he ever makes, right? And we don't, you know, we're not there, obviously, we don't, maybe there's things in practice, maybe there's things behind the scenes that they're seeing, you know, with Aden Hill or... Well, can I tell you? You know what I think, you know what I think did it? I went and looked it up when I was like, why won't they play this fucking guy? Like, why can't they find a way to squeeze him into the lineup? up. I really think the answer is Tortorella comes in. I believe

Hill started the first game Tortorella coached for Vegas, if I'm remembering first or second. The next time he plays is the only regular season game they lose, and I believe it was in overtime. And he doesn't go back to him until, or again, ever. Like, he loses them the game,

and Tortorella goes, okay, this guy's a fucking loser get him out. I'll talk about small sample size. We talk about like seen him good. Like that's the ultimate seen him bad. Yeah, he had, every game I've ever seen, this guy stinks.

It was one game. Oh, man. Like, I really think that might be it. Who's the goalie next year now? What are we doing? And isn't that the fucking question? I think the answer has to be Carter Hart, but.

Imagine to start with, but. But also like, if it's not Tortorella coaching the team is does he because remember Tortorella and Hart knew each other from Philly right so he would have been like there would have been

that level of familiarity there that maybe makes him more comfortable or whatever but it's interesting I don't I don't know that I'd be sitting out there going like oh this is the guy we gotta

imagine if if they go to Adenhill next year and he plays great. That was such a weird. Like, there's so many moving parts of a Stanley Cup final that it's stupid to point at one thing and be like, that's what decided the series. But it does kind of feel like that was, certainly the key decision,

is that one team made the switch and one team didn't. And again, maybe Freddie Anderson was hurt and they had no choice and were given flowers to the hurricanes for something that they didn't actually choose. But, man, it's a weird one. Very strange, yeah. It's kind of undeniable to me that you just, you got to kind of look at it and go, huh, okay, you know, like,

what else can you do? And again, like, Eichel, I don't want to say he no-showed the series, but he wasn't what you would want Eichel to be, right? Didn't score. right and Marner as soon as they went up two games to one he was like okay that's it for me thank you for having me out to your Stanley Cup final yes um I'm good he was Mitch Marner did hey full credit to him I'm not here to bash the guy he had one good period in the final two rounds of the playoffs just one more than I had so good for him

but there have been many I'm sure you've seen like the jokes about about Mitch Martyr, it turns out it's Eastern Conference Playoff teams that he can't handle. Yeah. He's really good against Western Conference teams. Beats the shit out of him, yeah. In the Eastern Conference, shut it down. Yeah, he was not good the last couple games,

but also, what more do you want a guy to do? Yeah, he's the reason they got that far. He's a big, he's certainly about. big, I mean, you can't, like, believe me, I would love very much to be able to turn around and, like, turn this into the Mitch Martner bashing hour. But I don't think that's fair. So I'm going to do 45 minutes tops. Here we go.

Yeah, to me, like, this is the other, like, point of concern to really, like, put out there, I guess, is that there are, again, these are just rumors. if they're true, who know, you know, whatever. But is Mark Stone heading for LTIR retirement? It is a question that people are putting out there, we'll say. And if he is, that's not, obviously they get the cap space to go out and spend all the money they want, all that kind of thing. But that's not a guy you just replace. You know, that's not a guy you rebuild in the aggregate.

you know so no I guess how many Dakota Joshua's does it take to replace Mark Stone I think that's the the fairest question

probably four I think would be my that's that is I mean it's it's tough because like you say they get the cap space and then Lord knows which player is going to just

waltz in with tears streaming down his face saying I need to play for the Vegas golden nights They're the only place that I can be happy. But that is a big, it's a big, especially for a team that had, what, like 95 points last year? I mean, we all look at last season and go like that.

That wasn't the real golden. I think most people say, you know, usually when a 95 point team goes on a long playoff run, you kind of go, okay, they got hot for a little while. But I think most people look at this year's Golden Knights and they would say the playoff team, that was the real Vegas, not the regular season team. Yeah. But they better hope so, because the regular season team made the playoffs by two or three points. Like, there's not a lot of room to drop back next year.

If that's their baseline, and I don't think it is, but if it is, and they don't have Mark Stone and they're trying to figure out goaltending and they're maybe getting used to a new coach, it's not a lot of wiggle room there. I simply agree. You know, it's it's because Jesse Granger wrote on The Athletic, like, the window's still open. And I read that headline and I said, is that true? I mean, I think it certainly is open, but. I mean, here's the thing, man.

It's open in the way that, like, you know, up until a few years ago, the Bruins window was open where it's like, yeah, I guess it's open. but is it like that open really? And the other thing is, like, as good as Vegas was in the playoffs, and I said it with Carolina, I got to say it for Vegas too. Like, you earn your spot and then you play whoever they put in front of you. Sure. But they play two very young inexperienced teams, both of whom gave them a tough time in Anaheim and Utah.

And then a Colorado team who's best, players were hurt. Yep. But that's what I'm saying. And then Carolina was the first, like, healthy-ish contender. And I don't want to wave, like, like, like sweeping Colorado, even with their injuries, was, was impressive, period. For sure.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. I don't know. That's what I mean about how open is that window really. You know, you could talk me into not as much as they would like. You could talk. Look, like, again, is Colorado going to have that many banged up guys next year? If not, that's a big hurdle to get over in the playoffs.

Is Dallas going to lose in the first round again? If not, you know, like Minnesota is probably going to upgrade this summer. You know, Edmonton probably isn't going to look quite so weak as they did this year. They're the fucking Oilers, who knows, you know. Those young teams that you mentioned, will they keep powering up? Maybe. You know, and if... Clock's ticking on San Jose.

I don't think it's going to be a pillow fight next year. Yeah. So that's all I'm saying is like, it's not a... It's not a given that these guys are ever coming back to this point with this group. That's not really like a brave stance to take, I suppose, but... You know what I mean? Like, it's just like, oh, yeah, I mean...

I guess what I'm... saying is let's not take it for granted that the window is still open. Only insofar as, only insofar as like, hey, you know, you make the playoffs, anything happens. Yeah, I guess that's true, you know, but other than that, I don't know. I don't know. That's all. Here's a question. Is Bruce Cassidy allowed to do interview?

Like, when does he allowed to start doing it? When does the laser focus of Kelly McCriman begin to waver? he's like walking to his office right now and seeing like the red flashing light on his phone. Realizing that he had his cell phone on silent for the last two months because he was so focused on the play. Oh no. So focused. Oh, I missed 87 texts from Bruce Cassidy. Huh.

I wonder what that's about. I have to say I have been from the beginning, I have been very critical of the knights for how they handled this. I think it's Bush League. I think it's a garbage way to. to treat people. I think it speaks to how that organization just generally behaves. And I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of acting like it's cute or some admirable in any way. That said, if withholding Bruce Cassidy from the Oilers, results in the Oilers hiring Mike Babcock, that is... 10 out of 10, funny bit.

10 out of 10, the bit worked perfectly. Like, that is... Unbelievable bit. That is like watching a Rube Goldberg machine play out. That is... And then Babcock drives McDavid out of town, and McDavid, of course, says,

I will only play for the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah, well, I... At which point they, like, just grab... Like, Mitch Marner gets his... Gets Nancy Kerriganed in a parking lot and goes on LTIR to make room. Well, I mean, they're in a situation where, you know, they can now do the thing of we got, we're LTIRing Petrangot almost certainly and maybe Stone.

And all of a sudden you're like, hey, wait a second, you know, like that's, that's something, isn't it? Like that isn't, what's that like $20 million in cap space in theory? Mm-hmm. Something like that. Maybe it's probably not quite that much, but it's up there. certainly. And so maybe they do go out and get Connor McDavid. You know, fuck it.

Like, who cares? And Austin Matthews and Brady Kachuk. Connor Hallibook, Connor Hallibook, too. You know, we, all right. That's a good, that's a good pivot point here. Because obviously we talked about Dylan Larkin. Once out of Detroit. They get, the Vegas Golden Knights getting everyone but Dylan Larkin would be very funny.

Yes, it certainly would be. So they get a, they got him putting in. a trade request. Darnel Nurse apparently put in a trade request. Which, you know, I've seen a lot of people going like, well, look, if he's like a seven, like if Edmonton eats salary. And he's like a seven million dollar second payer defenseman. Second? We sure about that? Hmm. Yeah. Because you got to. And he got to put him with a guy that you can trust and, you know. Yeah. I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, never been like I think we

overdue the whole change of scenery thing but I think darn all nurse could use a change of scenery. I think absolutely it doesn't so I wouldn't be shocked to see him be that guy on a different team but you're right

like it's too you can't just assume it as a given no and like to my point earlier I guess about like if there's a team that's like we can use him as our third pair PP1 defenseman who just like drives the offense and that kind of thing. Um,

um, that makes a lot of sense to me. Like that, that's a thing that could happen. But again, like, are you happy to pay $7 million for that? Four years to go. That's the thing. It's, that's what I'm saying. Like, if he comes in and you go, oh, half a season in, you go, you know what?

He is the same guy that he looked like an. It wasn't the pressure or the contract or whatever else. That's just who he is. And like, Tyson Barry is a great example of this, right? As a guy who like put up a lot of points because he played with Connor McDavid and was no, no like knock on the guy or whatever, but like an extremely limited defenseman. You know, like, I, maybe that's rude to say or whatever, but like it's true. And I think he's better than Tyson Barry, but like if he's a rich man, Tyson Barry, that's still a guy with holes in his game, in my opinion, you know?

So that's a tough one for me to, to like hear people say, oh, yeah, no, of course. This is a guy that makes perfect sense for a contending team or whatever. I don't think so, man. Which, who would you trade for if you had to? Morgan Riley or Darnell Nurse with, let's say, enough salary retained that it's at the Morgan Riley level. Because Riley's like seven and something. How many years left does Morgan Riley have? Morgan Riley's got two years left.

And nurse has got. Give me that guy all day, man. Yeah. I'm not happy to say it, you know, but like, give me Morgan Riley all day if that's the case. And you know me. I'm Mr. Morgan Riley. skeptic, so that's tough. But it is how it is.

So, yeah, but as you kind of alluded to, Connor Hallibuck Trade Demand, question mark, the rumor is out there. Let's put it that way. One of the rumors, in fact, is Florida or nothing, which is interesting. That is interesting. Because Florida, I don't know if you know,

know this. They have a really expensive goalie coming off the books. Do they now? Yeah. And if it's Anton Lundell, what are they picking seventh? Ninth, I want to say, yeah. Ninth. If it's Anton Lundell, the ninth, maybe a first next year or two years, whenever their next first is, that's semi-believable to me. That's, yeah, but it's tough, right? Because if it's similar to Larkin, if you're giving me one team to deal with, what kind of offer can I actually? actually get.

Well, they would need to clear some cap space, presumably, but... Well, they'd clear some, but, I mean, with Brobrovsky coming off, they should be mostly okay. The one, it would make me feel a little bit, like, I'd be a little bit better with it if I'm a Winnipeg fan just because it's Florida, and we remember, like, the Matthew Kuchuk situation where, granted, they were competing with other teams, but they stepped up and they were like, no, we're not going to, we're not going to screw around here. Here's a very, very fair offer.

We want to, like, it was the equivalent of like, I want to drive this off the lot. Like, let's make a deal right. Yes, absolutely. And hopefully it would be the same. And, you know, as a point, because, because, look, Connor Halibuck's a better player than Dylan Larkin. Period. He's a better trade asset right now. I know he's older.

I know all that stuff. Hellabuck over Dylan Larkin, easy. So, you know, if that opportunity, God, can you imagine him in Florida? If that trade happened. I can't. If that trade happens two minutes after we go off the year, or two months from now, or whenever it is, Connor, let's say Lundell's the only guy coming off the roster. Mm-hmm.

How high does Florida go in your cup rankings for next year, just based off of that? And obviously, Markov's healthy and all on that stuff now. They'd be pretty high, yeah. Top five? I mean, yeah, probably. Top three? I don't see that division getting tougher than that. Top three is probably as high as I would go, maybe.

Habs fans would say it's going to get tougher, but. I don't think it, I mean, I think the Bruins will be. worse. I think the Sabres will be worse. I think the Leifes might be a little better senators about the same. The Leifes will be better, but... Red Wings worse. Tampa, who knows? Probably maybe about the same. I think maybe you would say the other top team in that division, if you want to call it Montreal, does get better.

But everybody else equal to or taking a step back, probably, would be my guess. You know, obviously, there's a lot that can change between now in fucking October 15th or whenever they're starting the season, you know? So. But yeah, I think that if you go out and get a guy who

is a three-time Vesna winner who, you know, still not in his prime anymore, obviously, but like pretty close to it. That's good. Okay. That's my take. I'm making a note right here.

Well, I mean, how bad was Vibrovsky this year? Wasn't he like horrible? Yeah, he was not good. Am I remembering right? No, he was, I mean, he wasn't good, but it was obviously just one of those years in Florida. Oh, yeah, everything that happened in Florida. I mean, Barowski wasn't very good in the regular season when they were winning cups. Yeah, but like there's a difference between that and 877.

Yeah. Which is what he did in the regular season this year. Like, the good news if you're Florida is they have. have done kind of like a diet version of the Vegas thing where it's like we don't have to be sentimental about these guys. Mm-hmm.

But that was before they won the cup, right? Like they were like, um, fucking what's his name? The guy they traded to Calgary. Why am I blanking on this? Hubertow.

Hmm. Huberto, don't let the door hit you, brother. We're getting Matthew Kach in there. But since then, they've been like, we will actually be kind of ruthlessly retaining every top guy. I wonder what it's like with Popovsky, who's 38, 37? Yep.

He is old. And he was horrible last year. I mean, I don't know that they'd be cutthroat enough to just run him out of town for a minor upgrade for Connor Hallibuck. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's exactly right. We love you, man. Yep. Yep.

We'll build you a statue. retire your number. You can have your own private suite, but you're out. Yeah, I think that's the only thing they should be thinking about on that front. I wouldn't bring them back, regardless of Hellebuck coming in. But a lot of time between now and then, like I said. Hey, let's stay in Florida for a second. Let's talk about Nikita Kutrov on the MVP.

Closest MVP race ever, I think they said? Right up there, one of the closest. There have been a couple of ties, but that was about as close as they come, especially with more voters these days. Yeah. I mean, I'm fine with it. I know it feels a little bit like, oh, we just sort it by points again, but. I mean.

Well, they didn't. I mean, McDavid had more points than him. So that's nice. But there you go. Yeah Um God wasn't there a thing of like a couple of people left somebody off their ballot too Uh

Probably I didn't see I thought McDavid had more like appeared on more ballots But Kutraev got more firsts Yeah Uh no Kutraev got two fewer firsts Okay But um All right

It very very close Two fewer first McDavid got four firsts McDavid got four more seconds. Yeah. I don't know. Have we started doing the thing where we cut down the writers who... Man, there was one vote.

God, I can't remember who it was now, but they had some... By the way, I was looking at the wrong column. You were right. Kutrov had four more first place votes than McDavid. But there was some... They figured out some right. had given some crazy like third place Norris vote out. And then there was a guy who also had Schaefer as his rookie of the year but left him off as all rookie team.

Yes. Okay, I saw that one. That's a great one. And that guy, like, he just owned it and said, I screwed up. Yeah. Like it was, I don't know, I don't know what the error is, but he was like, yeah, it was an oversight. Like, he didn't try to turn it. He wasn't, he wasn't trolling.

He wasn't trying to get a call. column out of it. He wasn't... He just was like, yep, I messed up. By the way, I just... Because I happen to look at the PWAHA side, I wanted to see if they had the voting, they did publish the consmite votes.

Okay. And it was pretty one-sided. Jordan Stahl got 17 first place votes. Taylor got four, if I'm counting this right. And that is, and of those four, one was from Sean Gentilly and one was from Gerg Wischnewski. Is that true? Yeah. Basically, this, my influence is undeniable.

The Puck Suit Network tried to get Taylor Hall. We worked very hard. And then I'm just. It's because I said it on that bonus episode. Like, wouldn't it be funny? And everybody was like, yes, it would. We'll make it happen. Lots of second place votes.

a few Mitch Marner votes one Brandon Bussy third place vote which is interesting I see it you know for third place

it's easy to talk yourself into that why not and ultimately like third place doesn't really matter if I'm seeing this right there are only two

third place votes for Jason for Jackson Blake which again considering he led the cup winner and scoring is interesting but anybody put Mitch Marner

on there there were a couple of Mitch Marner's. Hell yeah. Including, let's see, three third place votes, including one from Greg. It's not like an indefensible thing.

A second place vote from Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review Journal, which, whatever. A little bit of home cooking there, brother. Maybe, but ultimately, like, when you're voting someone second. And he led the playoffs and scoring. I get it. I get it.

So, yeah. Ultimately, he gets a shit. Yep, good. Good for him. That's great. The Babcock investigation is officially underway. It was reported last night. So basically, for people who didn't see this, when he was, when Babcock was with Columbus and he resigned, they were going to do an investigation.

But then they were like, well, if he's not in the league, we don't need to do the investigation. But now that he's coming back in, they want to do. the investigation. And the word is that it wasn't just phone gate that they wanted to investigate. Everybody's being real cagey about what else might have transpired there. But that does seem to be the situation. And now that they're doing the investigation, here's me, Sean. Tell me if you think I'm crazy.

So why are they hiring this guy? Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's really interesting because you're right. They didn't really investigate it in Columbus because he walked away. And I even saw, I think it was Dreger or one of the insiders at a poll where he was like, you know, if Babcock were to walk away again, the league would again put the event. Like it was almost like an implied like, hey dude, maybe, do you really want this? Because we don't know what happened.

Presumably Mike Babcock knows whatever the, at the very least, accusation is or allegation. You would think. Somebody is made, right? He must know that. And it was almost like a not so thinly veiled like, hey, man, you can avoid this. You can make this easy on everyone. And presumably that's not what's happening. And there's also, it's interesting because there's, apparently it was the,

the players who reached out to the NHLPA to say, like, hey, we just want to make sure this is okay. And the NHLPA was like, it's not okay, actually. We really don't want you to do this. But I really wonder how much of this, if it goes bad, in whatever way that looks like. You know, the league does an investigation, and they say, no, you can't hire him because of,

and all this stuff comes out, or if they, he does get hired, but it doesn't work. Like, I wonder how much of this, kind of stains Connor McDavid a little bit because like the story in Eminton for a decade has been Connor McDavid is great and amazing and immaculate and they can't build around him. This stupid organization is going to blow this

because they can't build around this perfect player who is leaving, like he's handing them money to build a roster around him and they can't do it. And if, whereas here, it sounds like he was much more hands-on in this, as he should be. God helped him if they're hiring Mike Babcock without two big thumbs up from Connor McDavid. But that means, like, McDavid's now got skin in the game on this as reputation-wise. Because it's going to be viewed as like, yeah, you're the guy who went to bat for this idiot and then it didn't work. Mm-hmm.

Very interesting stuff. This is the most interesting story playing out right now. Oh, yeah. So one of the things that got reported is that, like, Columbus players are like, fuck, now this has to all come up. Like, I thought we were over and done with this. Which, like, sounds like, like, really kind of, something kind of fucked up must have happened if it's more than just the phone thing? That's it, right?

Because, I mean, part of it is just, like, like, I get it. Like, even if it's like, oh, man, I was on that team. Yeah, he looked, you tell me, I got to, like, I'm on vacation, man. I got to, like, get on a Zoom call with, like, league investigators and do all this. I don't want to do this. But there was, like, a reference to, like, yeah, like, at least one player not wanting to, like, you don't want to say trauma necessarily, but it kind of sounds like that, right? Yeah, I mean, we just don't know. We just don't know.

So, who knows? Like, like, put it this way. There are clearly people who are. trying to create the impression that something really bad happened in Columbus. Far worse than the photo thing. Because I've said, I'm no Mike Babcock fan, and I wouldn't go near him for an NHL coaching job right now. Purely based on what is publicly known,

I don't think the photo thing in Columbus was like a lifetime ban sort of situation. Right. which means maybe I mean, I don't even think we're reading between the lines now. I think we're reading the lines that somebody out there is putting out that there was something a lot worse. And presumably we're going to find out. And to that point, like, one of the other things that's really interesting to me is, like,

there have been a lot of reports that, like, yeah, the Oilers went to their player leadership group, which is like, you know, Hyman and McDavid and Drysidal and the rest, you know. And then, like, a lot of players lower down the lineup are like, I don't want that. That sucks. And that, too, is very interesting to me where they're like, that would actually be a huge problem for me. I wish they had consulted me about it, you know? Yeah, which can be, you know, we've, we.

we kind of said it before. Like, Mike Babcock is not going to pull this act on Connor McDavid. No, of course not. Mike Babcock, from all accounts, and I've never met the man, I have no idea,

I have no first-hand experience, but from, let's, maybe not all accounts, but for many accounts, Mike Babcock is a bully. And bullies never pull it against the other cool kid, right?

Like, he knows, he'll be on his, absolute best behavior with Connor McDavid and Leon DrySytle. It's going to be everyone else that has to deal with it. And I mean literally everyone else from the depth guys to the training staff to the ushers to the parking lot attendant is going to have to deal with this idiot. Again, if it goes bad, like McDavid and the other players are going to have to wear some of that. Yeah, and I've said before, like, the whole McDavid, like, is the shadow GM of the oilers. Like, I don't think that's, like, super overstated at this point, just given how much they've been like, uh, your agent is the president of hockey ops now.

Your old coach is the coach. Let's bring in your old linemates. Let's do this. Let's do that. Like, I, I, it's kind of undeniable. And I, again, I get why you, if you're the Oilers, you're like, oh, of course, Carmen McDavid. Let's cater to you, obviously. For this decision, the coaching, absolutely.

They'd be crazy not to. Yep. But, you know, the rest. So I don't know. If you've ever wondered, like, why don't teams do this more often? Why don't teams involve their star players in a coaching search? Maybe this is why. Because everybody's now frowning at Connor McDavid, including his teammates, maybe.

Who knows? One last bit of kind of hockey-related stuff here is the Hockey Hall of Fame class of 27, I guess you would say? Or do they get... 2026, yeah, because they get it. It's in November. That's right. Yeah, I couldn't remember if it was November or January.

But yeah, 26. That gets announced on Monday. And it's a really interesting class this year because, If you go to the Hockey Hall of Fame's website, they tell you who the newly eligible guys are. And it's Patrice Berserjuron and a bunch of guys who are never getting into the Hall of Fame in a million years. Pretty much.

It is a... There are a lot of years of the Hall of Fame that you can sort of fill in three of the four spots right away. And this is not one of those years. Bergeron's going in. Carrie Price was the big name holdover from last year. Who got bumped. so people seem to think he's a slam dunk.

Presumably this would be the year then. And then it's very much up for debate. It's kind of all of the names that we've been talking about. In some cases, like, there's guys like Ryan Gets left where it's been like a year or two. Yeah. But Eric Stahl is also a first timer this year. And there's one other guy that I thought was like,

oh, Phil Kessel is... I just don't think Kessel's getting in. I don't see it. I would love it. Obviously, I'm a big Phil Kessel guy, but... The thing with Kessel is I think if somebody was willing to go in there and really pound the table for him, I think you could make the case. But I just, I feel like Phil Kessel's the last guy that anyone is going in there and being like, I'm not leaving this room until you guys look me in the eye and tell me that Phil Kessel is a, like, that's not going to happen. Yeah.

So I don't know. Is this one of those years where we don't see four guys go in? When I say four guys, like on men's players side, builders, you never know, women, there's still plenty of candidates to fill the two slots. You know, I forgot. It says here on the Hall of Fame website, Kessel won three cups. I forgot he was on the Vegas team that won a cup. Fucking put him in. Three cups?

Three cups. Come on. Legitimately asking, how many guys? once they got into like anything you'd call like a relatively modern era, not counting like, you know, the fourth liner on the habs or the, the, the islanders, right? How many guys have three cups and aren't in the Hall of Fame? It's got to be a pretty short list.

And I'm not saying like Patrick Maroon should be in or whatever, but like, I just think that would be an interesting list to put together. Mm-hmm. Anyway, yeah, like Carrie Price is going to get in this year. Congratulations to him. And then, you know, I'll say this. There's a bunch of goalies that are, like, I think I looked at the list, and I think Carrie Price was like seventh in wins among eligible goalies.

Yeah. Which is, that was a lot lower than I. thought for a guy who, you know, that's like a big part of his case. Now, obviously, he was injured towards the end of his career, so that probably, like, in theory, helps his case a little bit because he still felt like he had some good hockey left and he has the MVP that those guys didn't have. But I was surprised that there were that many guys ahead of him. Yeah. The only other guy, you probably don't get this a lot in Canada, but anytime they mention Matthew or Brady Kachuk on an American broadcast.

They do go, and it's kind of a joke that his, their dad's not in, right? Yeah. And it's, I don't think it's a joke, but he is the leading goal score among guys who aren't in. I could absolutely, like, my Hall of Fame has space for Keith Kachuk on it. Yeah. I, I don't think it's a, you know, a farce that he's not in, but. Roanick's in, right? Roneck got in.

If Ronex in, Kachuk should be in. Yeah. I'm, again, I'm a small hall guy that kind of gave up the ghost on that. Like, I just kind of accept we're letting in just about anybody not wave them on through. It doesn't really matter. But, yeah, if Roanick's in, I think Chuck is a better, is a better player. What about this? Do you think, given recent events, is this year that Brindemore gets in?

I might, I wonder when they did the voting for this. They do it on Monday. Oh, they do it on Monday. The committee gets together in a room and they have. hammered all out on Monday and then and then that'd be a hell of a week for for rob the bod, huh? Yeah. That'd be a hell of a fucking week.

So I could see that happening. I wonder because here, here's the thing. Like coaching, first of all, there is no coaching category for the Hall of Fame. Yeah, he's going to go in with a builder. And I'm going to channel my buddy Eric DeHatchik here. builder and player are meant to be completely separate categories. You can't be like, I have 70% of a case as a player and 40% of a case as a builder slash coach,

so I'm in. That's not how it's supposed to work. But it's still human beings. Let's be real. And, you know, did Rod, or did Rod Brandenmore do anything over the last few months to change whether as a player he was a Hall of Famer? No, of course not. But, you know, it helps.

Being a cup winning coach now and, you know, all that, it helps. I do wonder, though, if the committee won't be like, look, if we put Brindamore in now, it'll be so obvious that it's because of the Stanley Cup and not because of the play. Like, it almost is like, because remember, like each of the last two years when Florida won, people were going, oh, you know what, I bet you Kikuch gets it. in this year. Because everyone's talking about Matthew Kuchuk, we keep seeing keys in the stands and all that.

Like, he's top of mind. And he didn't get in then. And I just wonder if the committee has a little bit of like, hey, we don't want to be too obvious about it. I don't think Rod Brandenamor should be in the Hall of Fame, but I also get the case for him. Like, he, put it this way, he won't be the worst

forward to be in. But it's also not, like, people who make it sound like it's completely ridiculous that he's not. Like, no. Well, to your point about like it's not supposed to you don't think

when they write the little plaque for Rob Brindamore they're gonna be they're gonna go and by the way this has nothing to do with his coaching career they're gonna go oh and he won a fucking Stanley Cup with the team that he wanted Stanley Cup with as a player and isn't that beautiful

don't we kiss it beautifully yeah they're gonna do that so that's like we don't have to fucking pretend put him in who cares that's fine all right We're going to end this the way we often do.

Oh, by the way, I meant to say Patrick Elias should not be in the Hall of Fame. Let's keep that on the record. We're going to end this the way we often do. Often do it this time of year. We're going to play one game of what we call Best of Seven here on Puck Soup. And that's a trivia game where we have categories,

where there are at least seven correct answers, and we have to get four. right before we get four wrong. And then whoever comes out ahead at the end they're the winner. Because they've won the best of seven. So Sean, would you like to go first or second?

Kick or receive, I guess, is a better way to go. I will receive. Okay. Your first category, we did this last year with the Western Conference. This year we're going to do Eastern

Conference mascots. The names of the mascots for... The names? Yes. All right. Okay. Well, I can do Carlton the Bear and Scarletcat right off the back. Okay, that's two.

Upie. Correct. Is officially, I think, the Montreal mascot. He is indeed. I find. Is the Florida's guy, why am I thinking it's like Stanley C. Panther? That's exactly who it is. even nailed the middle initial.

All right. Let me just think, could I, could. There's an incredibly obvious one you're missing. Okay. Because the first three I got easily. I don't really know where the Panther one came from, but, okay, of the other obvious ones, I don't know the name of the Bruin bear. His name is Blades, of course.

Okay. Is it the bear from the commercial? Like the... No, it's like a name. Anthropomorphize. Oh, okay. That, I mean, to me, that's the real, Matt. Those commercials are great.

Obviously, I agree with you. She's so pretty. All right. So, I don't know Boston. I don't know Buffalo. I don't know. The Columbus bug, I feel like I should know him. Oh, Gritty.

Gritty, of course. Gritty is the one that was incredibly honest. So I would have eventually got to Gritty, but, yeah. Yeah, that's, that's a bear. And iceberg as well, of course. Iceberg is also correct. The one you miss the Sabers is Sabretooth. You miss the famous pig Stormy.

Stormy. How could I miss Stormy after the last few weeks? The Blue Jackets bug is named Stinger. I also would have accepted Boomer, the Cannon Penis guy. Yep. Al is the name of, I didn't write down the team actually here, but there's a guy named Al, it says here. I don't know. I don't know who it is.

In addition to Stanley C. Panther, I also would have accepted Victor E. Rat in Florida. Upey, you mentioned N.J. Devil, the most unimaginatively named mascot I can imagine. Sparky the Dragon out on Long Island. Sparta Cat, you got, gritty you got. Iceberg, you got Thunderbug down in Tampa. Carlton in Toronto. And finally, Washington's is slap shot. All right.

Which is a stupid fucking name, but that's right. All right. No effort. Here's mine for you. Okay. I take it, we're going back and forth, right? We're not doing two. Yep, that's correct.

This is a simple one. Close any standings pages you happen to have open, because I just want to know this year. I want you to tell me teams that missed the playoffs this year, but we're over 500. NHL 500. Better than NHL 500. Obvious question that I had to be asked there.

Missed the playoffs, but we're over NHL 500. Toronto Maple Leafs? Toronto Maple Leafs were under 500. Really? Wow, that's tough for them. That's tough for them, man. Well, it was better than being, One spot higher or lower, as it turns.

Well, okay. I guess that's true. The Detroit Red Wings. Correct. Yes. They would have made it in the Western Conference, aren't we frowning about that? They would have missed in the Western Conference, but they were, they had 92 points. We're looking for 82 points or more here.

Okay. 83 or more, I guess. Well, the Islanders made that push. Islanders are correct. Yep. I think San Jose, because they were hanging around until maybe like a week and a half left in the season or something like that.

San Jose. They had a slight chance. Yeah, San Jose is correct. They ended up with 86 points. So you needed one more. You're three in one right now. Washington. Washington was the team that would have made the playoffs in the West.

They had 95 points. The other teams that would have qualified, the Blue Jackets, the Devils, the Devils, Blues, Predators, Panthers, and that's it. Winnipeg was 500, so they would have been wrong, and then Seattle on down

were all incorrect. So you are good. You've got the point. Franchises that have gotten swept in the Stanley Cup final. Okay. I can just go to the late 90s on this one because it happened

It happened quite a bit. Four times in a row. The wings got swept by the devils in 95. Correct. Panthers by the avalanche in 96. Correct. Capitals by the Red Wings in 97 or 98. Oh, no, yeah, Flyers in 97 by the wings and Capitals in 98 by the wings.

Yep. So there you go. That was very easy. Other teams that have gotten, or franchises that have gotten swept, basically everyone in the cap in the original six year except the Rangers so Detroit, Boston,

Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, St. Louis, of course, back when they were like, and all the expansion teams have to play the Bruins of the Cup final. The Flyers you mentioned, the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers in addition to Florida and Washington.

Right, yeah, the Oilers, I wouldn't have I don't think if I would have got that. They got swept by the islanders in the first meeting. Yeah. But yeah, no, that's a good one. Okay. So back to you. Okay.

I want you to tell me guys in the cap era who have 400 or more goals not counting Ovechkin and Crosby. This is, unfortunately for you, this is a bit of a tricky one because I have a very similar one teed up. So I know off the top of my head basically because I just did it this morning. Stamcoz, Yep. Kane, Copatar, Malkin. All correct, yes.

Stamco is third with 624 goals, Malkin fourth, Kane sixth and Copart ninth. Yeah. So I'm going to actually... The rest of the top 10, I'll just... Yeah, go ahead. give you the top. In fact, I will close this page because... Well, I'm throwing my category out because I actually did five just in case.

Okay. Because mine was active players with a thousand plus career points, but not multiple heart trophies. So that takes Ovechkin, McDavid, and Crosby off the board. But Malkin, K. and Kopitar, Stamcoast, Tavares, Drew, McKinnon, Drysidal, Marchand, are the eight guys, nine guys that would have been. the answer for that. So we will pivot to King Clancy Award winners of the cap era. Oh, no.

Oh, no. I do not know the King Clancy well, so I'm going to go to a strategy here where I'm just going to assume that they give it to like well-known guys. Let's see, who are some classy veterans? Crosby won? No. Oh, I'm in trouble. Okay.

King Clancy winner. I will say classy veteran is a great way to think about this. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, and then also there are somewhere you're like, huh, really? Okay. Uh, Patrice Bergeron. That is correct. Really? All right, nice.

Zadano chara. No. So that's too wrong. Cap era. Um, man, Crosby not being there really threw me on. It's kind of weird, isn't it? Jonathan Taves. No.

Ooh, boy. Okay. So I'm down to my last lifeline. Is that to... That's correct. This is... I want to give you a hint here. There are...

I would say think guys who are no longer active. Obviously, but like even some of the more recent winners, you're like, oh, I guess that guy is still in the league, as opposed to... Like, go back. ways and think of classy veterans. Okay. Classy veterans. Well, how far back can we go? Hmm.

Lidstrom. No. Damn it. Zetterberg was one. Okay. But I'll go in reverse order here. Marcus Felino just won it.

Sasha Barcov. I would have never got Marcus Flan. Not a million fucking year. Even if it happened like three days ago. Sasha Barkov, Anders Lee, Michael Backland. This is where it gets a little like, really? P.K. Suban, Peckerene, Matt Dumbah, Jason Zucker. This was one that I think you maybe should have gotten. Both Sedeans won one year.

Okay. Nick Falino. So now there's two sets of brothers who have won the King Clancy. Henrik Sadeen by himself won before that. Then you got Henrik Zetterberg, Andrew Ference, Patrice Bergeron, Daniel Alfredson, another kind of guy I was trying to steer you toward. So wait. One of the Sedeans won by himself? And then two years later they both won.

No, that's not acceptable. Henrik Sadeen, the only two-time winner of the King Clancy Award, as far as I could tell. Daniel Alpherson, Doug Waite, Shane Done, Ethan Morrow, Vinnie La Cable. Saku Koiwu, another classy veteran, and Olaf Kolzig. Okay. So I believe I can eliminate you here? Yes, you are now leading the series three to two. Great.

All right, I want you to name guys in the cap era, not counting Freddie Anderson, who got the first cup handoff when their team won. Oh, boy, that's a tricky one, isn't it? Cap era Okay I think Sergei Bavrovsky Yeah

Bobrovsky got it The first year Florida The first year Okay So who would have got Did Marshand get it The second year?

No I don't think so Fuck Um Hmm Trying to think Who would be like an interesting guy on that Vegas

team to do it It was Nate Schmidt got it last year. Wouldn't I guess that in a million fucking years. Oh, he was the guy that someone gave like a third place Norris vote to, I believe. Oh, really? That someone was like, what? Okay. Who would have gotten it on the avalanche a few years ago?

Because I'm not going to pull it for Vegas, I feel like. Vegas, if you think about it, actually, you might. Oh, really? Was Eric Johnson the guy from the abs? He was, yeah. Eric Johnson got it. I was torn between him and Landisgog. Yeah, Landisg was the captain, so it was...

Oh, right, yeah. To Eric Johnson. Yes, of course. Well, now I'm really glad I didn't say Landisg. Gosh. The Tampa guys are another one where it's like... That could have gone that... They could have given that thing to anybody.

And it wouldn't surprise. Well, I'll give you a hint here. You don't have to do that. I'm not giving you a damn thing. Good. Tired of your generation and your participation trophies. All right. Let me think about this.

So Petrangelo would have been Vegas's captain. And you said it's kind of obvious. Like, it's not not. Mark Stone's the captain in Vegas. Oh, yeah, of course. I don't think it was Petrangelo, though. It was not. Yeah.

Who was an old guy on that? team. Oh, there was one old guy on that team. Alec Martinez. Not Alec Martinez. Really? And it wouldn't have been Phil Kessel because he didn't play. Correct. A ton. All right, I'm going to bail out on Vegas. How many do I have two? You've got two and two. Okay. Um, for, for the Bruins, let's, no, I. I don't want to guess on the Bruins because... Zadano Charo was the captain. Yes.

But my judgment is clouded on some of these older ones by the passage of time where it's like, oh, it would have been... You would have given it to Patrice Bergeron, right? But it's like, at the time, Patrice Bergeron was like 26. So, like, it's not going to be him. So let's stick with more recent ones. Huh. Who would the blues have had?

That's like an old guy. Blues was a classic old guy handoff Okay interesting Oh was it Alex Steen No Alex Dean got it second Fuck What do you have like a database of like every guy Who got the cup in order?

I did this years ago yes I have a full bank That's fucking crazy Starting in 2019 and going back I did and I have to piece the rest of it together Okay That's crazy Who else was an old guy on that team.

Oh, was it Jay Bowmeister? It was Jay Bowmeister. You're now three and three, so this is it. Fuck. The next name out of your mouth will decide. There's got to have been an old guy on those capitals, right? Okay, so Ovechkin would have been one of the older guys on that team for sure. Would there have been anybody older than him?

Because, of course, he's the captain. I'm going to, I guess I'm going to guess Braden Holby. I don't think that's right, though. incorrect. Yeah. So I'll give you some of the, some of the ones that were getable, because some of these are quite difficult. Ovechkin gave it to Baxter.

Oh. This buddy, his old running mate from all those years. But not an old guy, interesting. Not necessarily an old guy. I thought he'd been around for a while. For sure. The Vegas one, it was, it was Riley Smith. It was all the misfits got it, all the originals.

Oh, that makes sense. So that was, but Riley Smith was. was the first of them to get it. The interesting thing about Tampa is they went to the same guy both years. Both years of Victor Hedman, Stamcoast to Hedman. They just did the same thing, both years. Some other semi-gettable ones, the Ducks, it was Scott Niedermeyermeier who was brother, Rob Nadermeier. Sure.

Crosby gave it to Bill Guerin in 2009. Taves to Hosa in 2010. Oh, that makes sense. all those years. Yep. Dustin Brown gave it to Robin Regere when he was injured. I don't know if you remember that.

I don't remember that at all. Taves gave it to Kimo Teeman and was the old guy without a cup. I don't remember him on that team at all. He was the late. Not even a little bit. I remember him. The main thing I remember about that

is interviewing him in the locker room because I was covering that final and being like, you are 5-6 at maximum. You are a very short guy. You are not 5-11 or whatever your thing says. You are a liar about that. Sean, I hate to interrupt the game, but this is breaking news.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired Emil Andre, Samuel Erson, and a third round pick for Joseph Wool and Simone Benoit. interesting. I wouldn't want to be in the business of having Sam Erson on my team, but now at least all those Flyers fans, when I say he sucks, won't have to be like, he's actually good. He sucks. Well, I mean, yeah, he's. So this is interesting because the Leafs had found themselves in a bit of a quandary for goaltending because they had three guys, stole ours, Wall, and then Dennis Hilderby, who's young and big. no longer waiver eligible.

Right. So they had to make a decision. It's not much of a return for Joseph Wall, but clearly they made their call and they're, they've now got their two guys, and I would assume Erison's going to be the, the HLDI guy who'll be third on the death chart. And they freed up some pretty decent money. A little bit of space, yeah. And Ben Juan was like seventh or eighth defenseman or whatever. but that's it's not how rare though that we get a leaf's trade in the middle of a show

yeah you clearly they had it scheduled for they're like all right they usually record right they respect us so much and they are like no by the way the other thing that's happening right now that is a somewhat of a big deal is they sports internet announced today that they're not doing they will no longer be broadcasting on cbc as part of the new deal no more Hockey Night in Canada on CBC up here in Canada. That is... It sucks. It doesn't really change much of anything, because I don't think there are too many people

getting their hockey on the rabbit ears anymore, but a great reminder that... You should be able to. Everything gets worse with time. So, anyways, I think we're down to a final... Yep. And this is one with a lot of potentially correct answers, like 27, it says here. Good. active NHL players whose last name starts with W.

Joseph Wall. Correct. That's one. Jesper Wollsted. That's two. Now I got to, now I got to think. And I'm sure there are like some insanely obvious ones that I'm... There are.

Yeah, you're right. Now I'm doing the little alphabet thing in my head. Okay. I'm trying to remember if there's any Williams left. There's where there's Tom Wilson. Correct. That'll be one. One more.

Any... There probably is a Williams, but I don't off the top of my head remember who... There is not a Williams. There's not, okay. I'm happy to tell you that. There's got to be... There are... Plenty, but...

There's one that, like, the fact that you're not getting it is a real problem for you. Okay. That's... Honestly, if it's only one, I feel a little bit better. But, okay, so there's got to be, like, who is a great player that I am just blanking on? Man, I don't... And the tough thing here is, like, there's not, there's not, like, any wrong guesses that I guess they're, like, throw out there. It's sort of like.

Connor McDavid. Oh, wait. Yeah. Oh, Connor Wook, David. Is that, uh, is that a guy? I'm trying to think of, like, who got, who just got? Oh, Zach Wrenzky. Correct.

I'm saying, like, who got a word votes and that's, that's the guy. Okay. All right. Good. The other ones, Sean and Nathan Walker. Jake Wallman, Taylor Ward, Marshall Warren, Tim Washy, Scott Wedgwood, McKenzie Weigar, Alex Venberg. A little tricky because it's pronounced like a V. Colton White, Zach White Cloud, Abram Weeb, Ozzie Weissplat, Tom Villander, another Vee, where it's a W,

W, Adam Willsby, Garrett Wilson, Ryan Winterton, Dustin Wolf, Matthew and Miles Wood. Parker Wetherspoon and Jared and Shane Wright. Those are your answers. And one last piece of breaking news just before we go off? Uh-huh. I don't know if you've seen this. I don't think I have. John Tororella will not be back in Vegas.

He's just announced by Kelly McCriman. Well, there you have it. Not really a surprise. I am surprised, man. I am surprised. I would have been surprised a week ago, but the way the wind was blowing in the last. two or three days here, I'm not, I'm back to not surprise.

Let's put it that way. Okay. So why don't you say the plugs and let's go. Find me at the athletic. I'll be on with Sean and Frankie. I think we're doing a live show tomorrow like in the afternoon. What the heck? Yeah.

And, uh, if I'm probably going to write about whether the Hurricanes have any Hall of Fame. I'm going to do the thing I do every year around this time. And then again in November where I write about the Hall of Fame for a week and my editors go, nobody really likes that. And I go, I don't care. And then I do it anyways. Try and stop me.

Yeah. And then for me, just not to steal your thunder, but just like real quick, how was disclosure? I loved it. Awesome. Awesome. What are they going to do? Put out a Steven Spielberg movie. I don't want to see.

And then at the end of it, I go, that was actually pretty good. Look, I'll put it this way. In the lead up to disclosure day, I made a real effort. to fill out all my Spielberg blind spots. I had never seen War Horse all the way through. I had never seen the BFG, the Adventures of Tontan, and what was the fourth one? There was another one of that era where I was just like,

is he making like missable movies now? That's tough for me. With the exception of the BFG, which I thought was like not very good. they're all really good. So, director Spielberg, you've done it again. Especially, there's a lot of skepticism about Disclosure Day, people saying, oh, it's not that good or whatever. First of all, these people don't have the movies in their hearts.

But second of all, even if you're kind of lukewarm on it, you know, you think it's more of a like Minor Spielberg, like Minority Report, is considered by some, not by me. the last like 20 minutes of this movie are just as good as it fucking gets this is why we go to the movies folks I loved disclosure day and then for me you can head over to perfecttakes dot beehive.com that's where all my takes will be for the foreseeable future I believe I will do what we learned over there every week I will do takedown over there every week during the season

I'll do the power feelings and NCAA coverage and all that kind of thing. It's seven bucks a month if you want to sign up and give me that support. That'd be greatly appreciated. But if you don't want to pay me, you can still get the take town is going to be free every week. So even if you're just signing up for that on the free tier, that's totally great too. I really appreciate it. And that's that. So do that.

And then head over with patreon.com slash puck soup where you can get all. all our bonus episodes, kind of TBD right now on scheduling. But for sure, I can tell you, me and Sean are going to go record a mailbag for that right now. So thank you for listening to the main show all season. We'll be back next week to give you a little bit more info about what our summer plans are, TBD on that as well, but we're going to work on it. And yeah, thanks again, Patreon, Beehive, all that kind of stuff. Thank you so much.

Have a good one. Bye-bye.