Puck Soup - Summertime Spectacular!

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wischinski of Vacation Mode, but also of ESPN when I'm back from vacation. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I don't go on vacation. That's not true. I'd go sometimes. You definitely go sometimes. Everyone should. Everyone should. You're in Puck Soup. I know Sean this week still.

Sean's like kind of in quasi vacation move, but also like fatherly taking care of kids mode, I guess too. Yeah. So he will be on the bonus, but not with me and you today. That's right. Bonus recording tomorrow. Friday. getting down on Friday. I know that from in the past, when it's just you and me doing the show, there are sometimes our complaints. No, come on.

No, I know. It's a shock to you. Mostly on the formerly robust Puck Soup Reddit is when some people have complained. So I've already decided what I'm going to do with this episode. I'm going to title it Summer Spectacular with an exclamation point. and then it'll seem like it's a big deal, but then they'll tune in and it's just me and you talking about CM Punk.

Yeah. So. Okay, two hours on that. Let's go. There is a ton of wrestling, of hockey things to talk about. Frankly, and wrestling things. Well, okay, okay.

We'll get there. Yeah, we'll get there. But yeah, I mean, so, like I said, vacation mode, I try to stay as disconnected from hockey as possible, but there's clearly some things I've had to kind of keep my eye on, including the retirement of one, Henrik Lundquist, which is sad the way it kind of ended for him. Definitely one of those guys that you wanted to see have one last good shot at the cup. Could have been your old guy wins cup story for either last year. Probably not last year because you're at the Capitol. but maybe this year had he hooked up with another team. But how do you frame Lundquist's career?

Like, so, you know, obviously it came in in 2005 right after the season shut down and then just goes on to have one of the most dominant runs of any goalie of his generation. only wins one Vezna. Last was a Vesna finalist in 2013 and backstopped his team to one Stanley Cup appearance, but not a victory. Where do you put... Is this sort of the team fell apart and he happened to be there for a good chunk of it type deal?

Where do you put Lundquist's career in context? Yeah, I think what you just said is about, right? He, you know, like a lot of great goalies, he was saddled with some real shit teams for a long time. Any postseason success that team did have was largely on the back of how good Henrikalquist was. And I'm not saying, obviously, like, those Rangers teams were good, but, like, they weren't, you know, consistently make it to the conference finals good, except in, you know. Right. But yeah, I think he's got a, he's in the conversation for top three goalie ever. Whoa.

Yeah. Top three goalies ever? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But that's just you saying you're going to put him ahead of Rodore. Yeah. And I'm allowed to do that. I didn't say you were not allowed to do that.

I vehemently disagree. Yeah. I wonder why. Oh, can you fucking imagine Henrik Lunkwitz behind Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermeyer for 15 years. Fucking forget about it. Seven cups. He basically was when he was behind

McDonough and Girardi, wouldn't he? No? You know, Mark Stahl, throw him in there. Remember they had Strawman? They just fucking let him walk? If you say

top three all time, that means you believe him to be I'm guessing behind Hachik and Wa? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then you, you have, obviously, I think you are somebody who has a point of demarcation to the old school Terry Satchukh, Jacques Plont. Yeah, that's like barely hockey.

That's not, you know, like. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is, listen, joking aside, it is very tough to compare, you know, Dominic Hauchuk to, you know, Terry Sawchuck. Yeah, of course it is. Or compare, or even compare anybody to what we saw. in the 1980s. So, I mean, I don't disagree with you. Yeah. I mean, I do disagree with you that he's the, you know,

maybe third best all time. I think Brodor is established as the top three gold tender all time. Yeah, because of the Cups thing. But we both put Hashiq won, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just, just checking.

Just sort of a sanity check for a brief moment. Yeah. And then, like, you know, the other question is, where do you slot in Trediak? because, like, you know, he's clearly got an argument to be made for him, except the whole didn't play in the NHL thing, but that wasn't really his fault. So, well, that's the one thing Hank really has going for him. Is he won a gold medal.

Yeah. I mean, and as the primary goaltender in 2006, five and one, and away they go. Yeah. Well, and then the, I mean, the other thing to say is the, that 06 Olympics. Like, look at that team Canada roster. Oh, boy. They really, they really grit-pilled themselves with, like, fucking, was Chris Draper on that team?

Am I wrong about that? All right. How are you going to make you look it up? 2006, for those who. The Turin Olympics. Yeah, for those who don't remember, because obviously a lot of people have come to hockey since then. 2006 Winter Olympics famous,

or should say infamous, for the United States and Canada both failing to medal. Yeah, like, and entirely their own fault. They put out horrible rosters. It's bad. It's bad.

Like, it's, if you, especially the Canada one, you look at that and you go, this is fucking grim, you know? This is. So, for those who don't know, the Canadians The U.S. and Canada also didn't make the semifinals that year. That's how bad it was.

Finland beat the U.S. in the quarters. Finland has a habit of beating the U.S. in the Olympics now to think about it. Yeah, they do that to everybody. They're defensive goaltending, you know. Yep. And the reason why this is Lambert's favorite Olympics of the last 20 years, Russia shut out Canada to nothing in the quarterfinals to...

There's like a certain point at which my Russia fandom ends and it's around about 1991. Ready? Here's the Canadian roster. Yeah, I just pulled it up. This sucks.

This is really fucking bad. Real quick. I mean, you've got some big time names on your top line. Absolutely. And Rick Nash. Todd Bertusie. Todd Bertusie, 2006.

Maybe a little past it at that point. And like, look, they also have Jerome McGinla. They have Vinnie La Cavillier before he Thank you fell apart for him. A late, late era Joe Sackic, they have. Brodor, Ryan Richards, Luongo, but also. San Luis, Vinny.

Yeah, but then let's talk about Wade Redden, Robin Ruggier, Shane Done, I was right, Chris Draper, Adam Foote. Brian McCain, Brian McCabe. Yeah, like, this is a Canada Olympic roster? Like, Jesus Christ. If you told me this is the Canada, World Championships roster from 2006, I'd be like,

okay, that makes a little bit of sense. Think of all the names that we just told you, and then think about the fact they lost to a Russia team that had Pavel Datsuk, Alexei Kovalev and Ilya Kovulchuk on the same line. A lot of pucks going to that net,

a lot of pucks going to that net. A young ingenue by the name of Alex Ovechkin skating with Victor Kozlov and Alexei Yashin on their second line. Pretty good God Pretty good How the fuck did this team lose? Oh wait

Probably goal tennis Yeah I was going to say They're a Russian team So I'm going to let's see if I recognize How many defense No no no Their goalers were in a Bakkhov and bridge Okay

Let's see how many defensemen Whose name I recognize Let's see here Gonchar shore Casparitis Markov Danny Markov Uh oh Fedor Tutin

Vitali Vishnevsky Fine Ante Vonvolchenkov and Sergei Zhukov. They got shut out by one of my favorite goalies of the last 20 years in the semis against Finland. Antaro Nidimaki. Yeah. That was a guess.

Again, just to completely cycle into remembering some guys mode. Nidomacki was for me my favorite backup goalie of all time because, and probably for every coach that had him too. he was always really good at getting right to the precipice of overtaking the starter, but never actually being able to do that, which is perfect for you because you don't want to make Arturo-Nanakia starter. What you want him to do is put the fucking fear of God in the guy who is starting, that he could be the starter. Yeah. And that is like the perfect backup for me. Like, what's his face?

The dude that was in, Brian Elliott was always really good at that too, until, you know, somebody tried to make him more of a tandem goalie. Brian Elliott was always really good at, like, putting the fear of God in somebody being like, I don't know, this guy could be the guy. You better get your shit in order. Yeah, and there were two seasons. I'm looking at it now. Maybe three, you would say, where he was like at least the 1A, if not the clear number one.

And let's see here, 895, 894, 909. So you don't want him to be your, the guy. Nidimacki was kind of like when you go to a horse race and there's like the one and the one A is just supposed to run really fast to get the better horse to perform better. He was kind of that horse. He was the bullet horse.

I shouldn't say bullet horse. That sounds pretty grim. Now I think about it when it comes to horse racing. I don't know enough about that kind of stuff that I know what any of the terms mean. You're a lovely boy. So obviously, Heinrich Lunk was Hall of Famer.

Yeah, I think so. Without question. I think I'd put him in there. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, if you think he's top three off all time, that means do you think that he's better than Luongo? Yeah. Okay. It's the best goalie of his generation.

Absolutely. I wonder where, I wonder where Vasillesky ends up in the context of Henrik Lundquist. Or is he going to be a Brador type of just having to do that? benefit of having this team in front of him. Well, I mean, much like Brodor, he's also really fucking good. Like, it is obviously reductionist to say the only reason Brodor had any success was because the team in front of him gave up 15 shots tonight. I think, I honestly think that Brodor did a hell of a job shedding that label when he

backstopped the devil's team where, like, Bryce Salvador was their top defenseman to the cup final. Yeah. And the other thing to say is, like, Brodor definitely. also suffers from stuck around too long. You know, like the last three or four years of his career, I think, at least in the regular season, you had a lot of, you had a lot of reason to go. They should really start a Cory Schneider.

Yeah, I was going to say the post-Corey Schneider acquisition, hey, Marty, maybe you want to get into business administration. No, I'm good. I'm going to hang out here for a little bit more, play some more hockey for you. Yep. Yeah. Did the organization no favors with that, for sure? Yeah, for sure.

And didn't do the blues, really, any favors either when he ended up there. That's right. He did play for the blues. That is the team where, like, oh, like Ryan Miller also did the same thing, where it was like, get the fuck out of here. We're done with you. And he was like, to St. Louis, it is. And everybody's like, we don't like this, actually.

We think this sucks. It's pretty amazing that when the Gretzky thing happened, people were like, huh? But then we find out it's just kind of in the grand tradition of Blues hockey to just get like really, really famous people and wear their uniform for like a second. Yeah. And move on. Yeah. Like the St. Louis Blues exists should be the answer to a trivia question.

And that's about it. The St. Louis Blues are funny, man. They've had different phases. They've had the, you know, celebrity cameo thing trend. They used to have the, remember they had like a plumberies? playoff streak of 20 some odd years where they would just make the playoffs every year, then just get beat in the first round by like that. Yeah.

Well, the thing to say about that, because you always hear about that with the red wings. And it's like, yeah, there were 14 teams in the league. And fucking 16 of them made the playoffs every year. True, true. Because like I remember. Which is how it should be now, by the way. Oh, absolutely. A lot more teams making the playoffs.

Oh, oh, oh, no. You said absolutely probably because you want contraction. No, I just want more teams in the playoffs. I just realized. Yeah, it's funny. I, um, I like, because now that, now that, uh, Seattle's in and people are like, oh, who should be the next expansion team or whatever, I don't give a fuck. Put it into 40 teams.

40 teams sounds great to me, but keep the playoff teams the same, 16. Oh, oh, I'm just getting, I'm getting a migraine listening to this. All right. Um, all right. All right. Congratulations. is Henry Conloquist, by the way, I've, you know, I've lived, as people know, I've lived in a few different areas. I've covered a few different teams as sort of a home base writer type. I would never say beat writer. I've never been a beat writer. I don't know if I'd be good at it, be honest with you. And that's me saying that I respect all the people that do it well. So Lunkwis was always really interesting to cover because, one, he had that kind of celebrity status of, you know, don't really get your one-on-ones with Henrik Lundquist.

You know, and there's a ton of fucking people at all times trying to talk to Henry Lundquist. It's much more of a press conference around his locker than it is anything else. You're not really sidling up next to Henrik Lundquist and being like, hey, let's chat. What's up, bud? Yeah. What's up, bud? How's Sweden treating you?

So that was one thing. And the other thing, too, is like, I was there during the times when the Rangers were, you know, post-cup appearance, trying desperately to eke into the playoffs every year. You know, and the team was progressively getting worse and worse until they finally, you know, released their letter and they were going to fucking tank and the whole thing. And you could, it was very, very tough to cover Lundquist at that point because he's a very prideful guy. And, you know, he, you could, you knew that he knew that the team in front of, you.

front of him wasn't good and was only getting worse. And as players started to get shipped out and stuff, it was even getting worse. And you really kind of felt sympathy for a goalie that had really, you know, carried that team on its back. I mean, those torterella years. Yep. When he was in New York, I mean, the key to that system to the blocking shots and grit and sweat and blood kind of shit.

was the goalie, as it was in Columbus. Yeah. And that was Hank. And they, you know, eke their way into the playoffs a bunch of times. And it's on his back. And then, you know, once you get to the playoffs, it's a different animal, as we've seen with Columbus during his time there. And they never really went anywhere, you know. And so it was always tough.

Because obviously, like, look, in the totality of his career, the Vezna, the gold medal, being Henrik Lungwist, he's going to be considered to be a legend, right? Yeah. But maybe like a lowercase L, right? Like, you have to have more postseason success as a goalie to be a capital L legend, I think. I don't know. I think there are some goleys, and let's put it this way. Fucking Hashick won a cup, but like as a 1B with the Red Wings, right?

Like, and nobody's like, asterisk on he's the best goalie of all time. Everybody's like, well, no, I mean, look who was in front of him, you know. And. No, I understand that, but, but Hachik, well, I mean, he won two cups. He won, you know, he started 23 games when they won the cup in 2002. Well, so, but like, that was his, is that why off? Is that his only cup?

He, he, he, he, he was on Detroit. He played four games. the playoffs in 2008. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah. But, I mean, that's, that's whatever, right? Like, that's four games.

But his, his career playoff numbers are insane. Like, he had, he had a 925, say, percentage of a 2.02 goals against playing for some, not all that great teams. Yeah. His career, his career save percentage for Buffalo in the playoffs is 9.30. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and, and, but we have to, yeah, we, and.

we have to kind of contextualize that like Hachick had a had a 930 save percentage from 1993 to 99. Right. His career save percentage from, Hey, in the dead pocket era. You're talking to a broodore fan.

But like 930. Like I'm sure Marty's is closer to like 916. Marty's, a safe percentage in the 1990s was 987. Right. No kidding. No, but like, Okay, let's look it up.

But from, yeah, so from 93 to 99, let's see. Yeah, now, now fucking hockey reference doesn't want to cooperate with me. Well, of course not. You're trying to find something on it. Point being is that Hoshick's Great is a legend capital L. Brodor. 914, over the same stretch.

And, like, no, everybody thought Brodor was one of the best, goal he's in the league, you know. Yeah. Patrick Gua, legend with a capital L. Yeah, because he won. Hendrik Lindquist, legend with a lowercase. I don't think so, man. I think if you're giving it to Hasch for, again, winning cups behind a fucking all-star team, you know, and one of them is the backup.

That's Mark Andre Fleury legend status to me, you know? Could we address the elephant in the room, though? Yeah. There was always complaints about Lundquist's equipment. Yeah, I mean... There was always complaints about his pads, and I specifically remember goaltending coach is telling me that he makes saves that he shouldn't be able to make,

but because of the equipment. Yeah. The equipment's making the save, not him. Well, now let's ask Montreal fans how they feel about Andrei Vasilebski's pads. You know, like... Like, that shit is... It's absolutely true. It's absolutely true.

The picture where he looked like grimace in the handshake? Yeah, or like fucking Jayae Jayae. Everybody's like, look, of course. Oh. Of course. With that having been said, that's all in the game. You think it's a problem? Fucking tell the ref about it.

Get him to measure the equipment. You know, like. They should have give Jaguer's pads to consmite that year, much like they put secretariat in the top 50 athletes of all time list. Yeah. They should give it to an inanimate object. Yeah. Well, I hate to tell you.

Secretariat. I know that Secretariat is... I should have said a non-human there. I did it. I changed the joke. I saved it. I didn't really save it. It wasn't a good joke anyway.

One other, the goaltending thing we should discuss is... Pecker running. Jesus. Tuka Rask basically says it's Boston or Bust. Am I right on that? Did I see that recently? Yeah. He went on...

the radio here, like the local rock morning show and said, you know, he'll play for very little money. And the only team he'll play for is Boston. But much like the thing you have below this, Greg, on the rundown here, how is this news? I thought everybody fucking knew this already. You know what I mean? Like, I could have sworn Tuka Rask said when they lost the Stanley Cup. I don't know what the future holds for me, but I do know that if I play in the NHL again,

it's only for the Boston Bruins. Well, it gets, it gets underscored by him saying it again. Him staying it again. Yeah. Okay, sure. But like, I just, yeah, that was always, look, we've had, we're in what year three of people being like,

he might just quit the NHL, he ate talking, right? And so the idea that he would be like, you know what, I'm going to pack all my shit up. I got like 16 young kids like any NHL player. They're all between the ages of one and four somehow. And I'm going to pack them up. I'm going to move them across the country. We're going to play for the fucking coyotes next year.

No, he was always going to stay in Boston, please. Yeah. We'll see what happens there. All right. All right. Where do you put Tickrasska in the ranking? of all time This generation

Okay this generation Yeah Not not all time obviously But this year All time Lunkwist 1 138th Lungquist 1

Yeah I mean It's tough to really mark the generation I mean like this is Luongo's generation too Yep Or also Flore's generation also Yep

I mean is Vasilleski I think he's a younger generation than these guys He's the next generation. Generation Next, as they call it. Kerry Price, Pecker-Rene, Tuka Rask. Who is he ahead of? I think he's, hmm, if we're talking about individual accolades and that sort of thing,

I think you, I think you got to put them three, right? Maybe four behind René? Lung Quist and Longo or Lung Quist and Flurry? Flurry doesn't have any individual accolades except for this year. right so yeah i i would put i would put him ahead of flurry for sure regardless of cup winning i think i put him ahead of peka too yeah i agree yeah okay so like maybe like third yeah third or fourth i would say is he had a price i mean that that's where it's interesting because it's like man carry price was really good for a really long time and uh the

the team in front of them well a really long time is overest you stating it. But he was good, you know. So, yeah, I think I think you can say three or four pretty comfortably. There you go. Always, always an underrated safety net for the Boston Bruins. Speaking of safety nets, today's episode of Pucksey was sponsored by Mack Weldon. Now, Mac Weldon knows that you're busy guy. I'm not sure I get the connection to safety net, but I think some of the listeners would. So stop thinking about what to wear and just embrace the radically efficient MacWeldon.

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and enter the promo code puck, P-U-C-K. That's Mac Weldon, M-A-L-D-O-N.com slash puck. Promocode Puck for 20% off. Mac Weldon, radically efficient wardrobeing. There you go. Owen Power going back to Michigan. Yeah. It was just the aforementioned news that did not surprise you? Yeah. Again, like I thought they said he was going to do that like before he got drafted.

And then people were like, well, maybe he's trying to figure it out. You know, they always do that shit. And then they announced, oh, yeah, he's officially going back to Michigan. And then like a day later, there was a report that was like, oh, yeah, he told the Sabres like, in his draft interview that he's going back to Michigan. And they took him anyway because, you know, like what would be the point of having him on the roster anyhow. Right.

And then they took him anyway because the other option was another kid going back to Michigan. Right. And so, yeah, I was just like, is there anybody that didn't think this was going to happen? Like, I think when the initial news came out, people were, oh, that's disappointing, I guess, you know, but I don't know. I can't imagine why anybody would be like surprised. Like, I don't know why this was news, I guess, apart from formalizing it. It formalizes it.

But again, I wrote a story on the Michigan kids before the draft, and like, it was glaringly obvious in talking to those kids and talking to their coach and everything else that they felt like their college experience was taken from them. because of COVID. Right. And so, like, the idea that you've amassed this, you know, fucking 1990s UNLV team worth of talent, or I guess I could probably use the Fab Five, too, now I think about it for Michigan's sake. Like, the fact that you've never gotten a chance to play with those guys and chase a national title and all that stuff, like, they're obviously all going to, you know, reassemble there for at least the one season. Yeah, it'll be the one season. Yeah.

So, and that'll be super fun. Do you think that could move the needle for NCAA hockey having like all those, having like, you know, the fact that Benares went, you know, second to the crack end and, you know, power is going to be there? Like, do you think that a fact that there's a quote unquote super team could move the needle for NCAA hockey this year? I mean, I don't feel like it did it when B.U had five first round picks or whatever it was several years ago. they had like Charlie McAvoy and Jake Ottinger. I can't remember all of them now. But yeah, I mean, I don't know that it, did it move the needle then? I don't think it really did, but I feel like it might be different.

I mean, you had two guys going one, two. Yep. You're going to have the first overall pick there. You're going to have two fan bases, I think, and this is important that, like, will be engaged in finding out how good their players are. Three, if you want to count. where did uh where did um johnson go oh he was ninth i want to say Vancouver did he go no he's from Vancouver yeah he's from Vancouver hold on now I'm just

looking it up now I'm gonna have to look at up in the number the number of draft 2015 uh fifth they went fifth to Columbus to Columbus okay so you can have a few fan bases they'd be very interested in these players I don't know I feel like I and maybe I'm speaking as you know any SPN guy here too knowing that we've got some investment in college hockey. No. I feel like that having all those guys on the same team, and having it at a prestige school, no less, like Michigan,

for sports fans, could be good for NCAA hockey. I think you could market that. That's a sellable thing. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I wonder if there's any networks that has, like, a vested interest in hockey, has a contract with NCAA. could they maybe promote those kids? I think they probably could theoretically.

By the way, speaking of NHL contracts, and we'll get to the wrestling later, absolutely jarring still to be watching A.W. Dynamite last night and see an ad for the NHL and Turner. It just blows my mind. Yeah, that's really crazy. It blows my mind. It's such a new thing.

I'm still getting used to it. I'm like watching it. All of a sudden, I'm like skipping past the commercials or whatever, and all of a sudden I see an NHL logo. I'm like, oh, what was that? And I skip back, it's like, you know, like, you know, just the highlights of Connor and here's headband hoisting the cup. Or like, the NHL on TNT. I'm like, this is incredible.

Yeah. Wow. Oh, it's a good time. Good time to be a hockey fan. All right. Speaking of sellable things, the Arizona Coyotes. Well, I think the problem is they're the opposite of that, right? All right, so since we last spoke to you, just a rhino amount of shit hit the fan of when it comes to the coyotes.

The city of Glendale basically says you're on your ass after this season. And that immediately sparked speculation that, uh-oh, this is it for the coyotes. They're going to get sold. to Houston in the Central Division, which has kind of been wink, wink, not you're just maybe a plan. But it appears that they are steadfastly committed to trying to remain in Arizona. And I believe, I want to say, Betman said some to that effect. Like he expects them that they'll stay in Arizona.

where are you on coyote? Oh, here, let me give you the actual line from Betman. Okay. This is him on WFAN in New York last week. He said, I'm not worried about the coyotes. I think their future stays in the greater Phoenix area, is what Betman said. And Craig Morgan, I should say, who does a fantastic. The substack beat writer thing is something to really keep your eye on,

because there are some people doing great work there, and Craig Borgans, one of them. I subscribed to Craig's substack during like free agency and trade deadline because he was doing some amazing work and breaking down a team

that I knew was going to be active. He's got a good article on the site now chronicling different possible venues for the team to play while their ownership looks for a new place. including Chase Field. Come on.

A other venue. Yeah. But the, you know, there's the, you know, there's the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. And then he mentions like the possibility of them staying in Glendale, which is, seems like it seems like it'd be off the table. but I guess it's still up to Glendale whether or not they could pull off something. But we'll see. Yeah. I mean, like the article is, you know, people, basically people going, well, like, this is just a negotiating tactic, right?

Like, you're doing it so you can kind of get the coyotes to pay up. And they're like, no, we're done fucking around with that shit. We're not playing these games anymore. Yeah. And at the end of the day, it's kind of like. Like, it's a negotiating ploy to what end? Because they're clearly going to leave at some point. Like, they clearly...

Right. You know, the ownership has said that they want to build an arena somewhere. Yeah. And, like, you... Right. And so that's why when this happened, I was like, huh, it turns out that, like, if you're just in the local media every week going, maybe we'll build an arena here instead of in Glendale. Like, the city of Glendale will be like, well, fuck you then.

Get lost. Right. Right. And like, and then you have the totality of the hockey world being like the reason this team, one of the reasons this team isn't successful is because they're in Glendale. And Glendale's like, all, well, that's fun. Fuck you all. Go find her place. But like, you know, I guess I don't understand, completely understand the market or whatever. But everything I understand of that situation is everybody has always agreed. The reason nobody goes to these games is because it's like 45 minutes away from it where everybody is. Because they're away from the fan base. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. So, there's no...

And so there's been a constant thing of trying to build an arena closer to where the fan bases. And I mean, it's a sticky wicked. I, you know, I hope that negotiations with Glendale spark up again because I did enjoy watching streaming of Glendale City Council meetings until all hours of the night. It's so funny that all that shit was for fucking nothing at the end of the day. It really is in a remarkable history for a team. I mean, remarkable history for it. Yep. Yeah.

And again, like, it's a, it's kind of a mess. The thing about Batman, you got to know is, like, when that dude digs his heels in on something, he ain't going to, he ain't going to, you ain't going to dig him out. Like, he has wanted to keep that, it's like his Waterloo. Like, he's wanted to keep that team there for decades in the face of bankruptcy court things and the NHL having to own the team and attendance. All this shit. For whatever reason. And it may just be because the overall NHL footprint looks better with penetration into the Phoenix market, which is a pretty big television market. I don't know, but he's not going to relent on that team being in that market.

For all the people that are like, the road is now paved for them to move to Houston, as long as Betman's commissioner, man. This is a guy who literally owned the team because there were no other options. Yeah, the league ran the team for what? seasons, right? Like, that's not... Multiple seasons. Yeah. And it's so funny to me because it's just like... It took a while, but they admitted they were wrong in Atlanta, right? So, like, but why does Arizona and, like, Miami? Why did...

Why does the league never pull the shoot on that? I don't... I don't fucking understand. Not that, like, obviously the Panthers are doing fine now, but let's wait until... like three years from now when they're back to being the fucking Panthers, you know, and there's and there's 4,000 people in the building and they're all fucking Montreal fans. I think it's a sweet arena deal. Like, I think that's part of it. In sunrise? Yeah.

But, I mean, you see my point, though. It's just like, the comedy, like, it should be embarrassing to the league that a team is getting kicked out of their arrangement. and has nowhere to play. Like, we have to pretend that this is like a real sports league. And they're like, oh, this team that the entire league had to own like four or five years ago, they're getting kicked out of their arena because they owe the arena a bunch of money and aren't paying it allegedly. I think that's, doesn't that speak more to the coyotes than anything else?

like a franchise in the National Hockey, let me rewind that, a professional sports franchise just had the municipality where their arena is located, say, we're kicking you out after this season. And rather there being a thing of like, wow, this is so pathetic, this is terrible, where is this team going to move next year? This is untenable. It's more like, there's our coyotes again. They're at it again. Yeah.

No, it's totally true. And like, like I said, how is how is the league, like the fact that the league is digging in its heels, listen, I'll let you embarrass me 15 years straight. But this 16th, well, I guess I'm just going to have to take it. Like, just fucking cut your losses. And again, like, this is an easy way to get likes on Twitter is to go like, you know, they actually have a great fan base. And it's small, but it's passionate, you know. Yeah, sure, but, you know, think of any band you've ever seen in a bar.

And it's like, oh, yeah, there are like eight people who think that's the greatest fucking band in the world. Doesn't mean they're the rolling fucking stones, you know? No, and, oh, man, I'm sorry, in my head, I'm just chronicling all the things that, I mean, like, the loss of draft picks are violating Combine rule. Yeah, it just goes on it. Like, let's put it this way. It's incredible.

Let's put it this way, right? Like, that, remember that Twitter thread two, three years ago about here's all the fucking hilarious, like, you can't make it up shit that has happened to the Ottawa Senators? Yeah. Now do that for the Arizona Coyotes. And, you know, it's worse. It's more than a decade long. Because, like, the senator's stuff was all within a window of, like, maybe four or five years. If you told me that they, next week, that they have to.

start giving Taylor Swift royalties because she actually invented the Kachina logo. Yeah. I'd be like, that fits. Yeah. That makes sense. Yep. By the way, the hurricanes just announced an extension for Andres Fetchnikov, eight years, 7.75.

That's solid. Hell yeah. That's solid for them. They didn't have a good off-season. That's a big win. That's a big win for them, but also I think it's, it may just be him coming. Like, he did not have a real good show-me season statistically. Yeah, but like the fact that they still got him at eight years

It's great. Yeah, it's, uh, let's put it this way. Team friendly. Yeah. I think, I think he's real good. He's on my list of like young guys that maybe didn't react all that well to COVID life. And, uh, and maybe didn't react all that well to the increase of expectations after what was a really good bubble playoff for him until the injury.

Yeah. And the other thing to say is he's like a guy who feels like he's been around for a long time. He's not even 22 yet. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's fucking crazy. Well, that's great news. Let's get to some not so great news. We'll start with Rod Gilbert, Mr. Ranger, passes away.

But one of those guys that just, like, growing up, I grew up in Jersey, I just heard his name so much in relation to the Rangers as like a, hockey deity. Yeah. And, you know, your hockey fandom starts locally and then eventually you get a better sense of things, especially as a kid who grew up in like the 80s and the early 90s when I didn't really have a good sense of the rest of the hockey world because the games were on sports channel. And I never got to see Gretzky play and all that shit. So it was always interesting for me to understand that this person meant that much of

the organization and to understand that this person was, in fact, you know, a legend in the game, but then to kind of like go out into the rest of the hockey world and you start to understand that although he's a Hall of Famer and obviously has, you know, great career stats and everything, spending your entire career with one team and never having won a cup during that run because he obviously played during the 54 years of cup of hockey for the Rangers, maybe not necessarily an aim on the tip of everybody's tongue outside of the New York area. Yeah, like, when I was in college, a good friend of mine was a big Ranger fan.

And he would always be like, oh, Rod Gilbert, one of the best. And I'm like, did he play in like the 50s or something? I never heard of this guy, you know? Like, just one of those guys. Yeah, right. And like, yeah, I'm looking at it here. His last year was 1978, you know? So, like, obviously, that's five years before I was born.

So before my time is an understatement. But like, yeah, just a guy who you never hear about outside the market really. And I wonder even though, the thing I wanted to say, though, oh, go ahead. Is there are a million fucking guys like that. But like, I think for me personally, obviously, like being in video games or whatever, you're like, oh, that guy's good. always scores like three goals against my team, you know, in, in NHL 94 or whatever. Right. Whereas there are so many guys where it's like if you go to Philadelphia, they'll be like,

you haven't heard of Doug Douglas? Oh, my God. One of the greatest guys of the, you know, like, oh, okay. The guy in Philadelphia for that, the guy in Philadelphia was always Tim Kerr. Yeah, sure. Tim Kerr in like the 80s and 90s was like the guy in Philly that we're just. like, oh, you don't fucking understand how good Tim Kerr was. Right.

And, like, I think of, what's his name? Bernie Perrant is another guy like that where it's like, oh, my God, Bernie Perron. And it's like, okay, I never heard of this fucking guy. Well, the guy, the guy like that for the rain. I was going to say, so, you know, Jilbert was the guy that, like, had super fame as a ranger. Right. The other guy that always seemed like that was Eddie Jockeman. Like, Eddie Jockeman.

Andy Baskate's another one. But that's the guy who played in the 50s. So. And so those type of guys had a certain level of like renown that I felt was very localized in some ways. Yeah, like, let me put it. Let me put it this way. Go ahead. Growing up, I would have thought Terry O'Reilly, everybody knows who Terry O'Reilly.

This guy is one of the great. And it's like, oh, nobody outside of Boston gives a shit about Terry O'Reilly. Oh, all right. Right. That's weird. And then the other guy that was like that, but he played for another. impactful franchise, so I always felt like he was maybe above it was Brad Park. Like, Brad Park was a perennial, like, Norris contender, had the misfortune of playing in the

Bobby Orr era and the Lara Robinson era. But he goes on the Rangers to Boston, and he's like 27 or 28 years old, and then has a good run there. And now you've got the combined prestige of two franchises saying that your shit don't stay. And yet, my context for Brad Park was he would call like local college hockey games on WNDS. Like he was the color guy on. And so like even then it's like, yeah, there's not really a lot of, uh, a lot of prestige around Brad Park, even though, again, you could make a pretty cogent argument that he's like one of the 20 best defensemen of all time, like comfortably.

Yeah. And, and yet, he just had the misfortune playing in the wrong era. Correct. Because he was stuck behind two guys that were better than him. Yes. but who those two guys happen to be top 10 of all time so correct yeah and bobby are top one players of all time hmm all right better than hendrick lunklist or yeah i would say so well something whatever whatever helps you sleep at night speaking of helping to sleep at night okay that's pretty good

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You obviously are. are geographically located in a place where his just tragically young death was impacting the community. What's it been like over there insofar as this news? It's getting a lot of coverage is what I, you know, like, obviously it's the Boston Globe and they're just having Matt Porter do everything, you know, but like there have been good number, like way more than I would have expected even for like a beloved local hockey figure. There's been a lot of coverage and I, you know, I guess that just speaks to how important people around here considered him to be.

Like I got to say, I'm not like super plugged into like the, you know, youth hockey scene around here or anything like that. But, you know, anybody you talk to about Jimmy Hayes around here, they'll be like, oh, Jimmy Hayes, what a sweet. You know, what a great guy, all this kind of stuff. And, yeah, like a guy where I was shocked that he was only, like, 31 or whatever it was. Yeah, 31 died at his home in Massachusetts on August 23rd. And it was the evening before his death, he was celebrating his son's second birthday with a three-month-old son. as well that was born in May. Just like, oh, just guts you.

And it was successful post-playing days, too, is one of the co-hosts of the Missing Curfew podcast, which has done, made some really good inroads as far as popularity goes. And, yeah, I mean, like, it's an unfathomably young age to go. And just knocks you on your ass when I heard that news.

And, you know, they don't know the official cause of death yet, obviously. So, you know, we're kind of speaking just on the tragedy itself. And, yeah, I got to imagine just, you know, his place in the Boston hockey stratosphere. It's just got to be, like, front page news. Yeah. And, you know, like, there was a part of the coverage in the globe was like, oh, yeah, don't forget. Like, yeah, his brother is Kevin Hayes from the Flyers, obviously. But, like, his cousins include Tom Fitzgerald, who's the GM of the New Jersey Devils, Keith Kachuk, Brady Kachuk, Matthew Kachuk, and Scott Fitzgerald, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Casey Fitzgerald.

Like, this is like Boston hockey royalty, you know? Yeah, yeah. And, and, yeah, like, you know. know, to have that much hockey talent or whatever, prestige in one extended family is, it's pretty crazy. And so, like, yeah, like, just, you know, you, you, you know, the number of people whose death impact, what am I trying to say? Like the number of people who was affected by his death, who you've heard of, is crazy high.

Even beyond the fact that, like, he was, you know, an NHL player for several years and a pro hockey player. Like, I mean, the first time I heard about, I saw this kid play was 2008. That's why I'm, wow. You know, because he played for BC. And so, uh, That's why it feels like, oh, my God, he was only 31. I watched him play hockey when he was like 17. That's why it feels so long ago, you know?

And the ties to the city thing, can't be understood. I thought, I thought Jerry York had a really good quote on that. He said he's a great city kid, you know. He always had that city grind to him, that city tenacity. I mean, like the whole embodiment of Boston thing kind of gets overplayed a little bit. But, like, I mean, Jimmy Hayes was definitely that kind of guy. He's a Dorchester guy, you know. Yeah, he's a Dorchester guy and played that way, played that blue collar way.

Oh, man, what a loss. It's crazy. Condolences to his family, just devastating stuff. All right, completely switching gears. Austin Matthews is your NHL-22 cover boy. Like, what, two, three years after he was a cover boy? Yeah, I think he was on the cover 20. Yeah.

Okay. So, finally, something I can be. be mad about with the EA NHL franchise. This is the worst thing they've ever. The game hasn't changed since fucking 2015. Well, it's changed now. But like one of the reasons why they made him the cover boy

interviewed Austin. I'll get to that in a second. Is that they're doing a thing where like the superstar players are all going to have these special moves that they can do that no one else can do. Great. Like his goal scoring acumen is like

way higher. than other players with a special like shot on goal type thing. So yeah, so it's like there is one change. It's like they're trying to make the superstars play like superstars. Well, I mean, to say there has been no change. Like effectively the game makes very incremental changes.

So like if you didn't play since 2015, you'd be like, ooh, this feels like a lot. But if you play every single year, you're like, this is just a fucking roster update. Like what? Oh, Seattle's in it now, I guess. Like, that's it. Yeah, right.

And, yeah, I'll sit. Go ahead, sorry. No, like, I got it last year for the first time in quite a while because they were like, we changed be a pro. And now it's more in-depth and, like, interesting. And it's just now your coach comes up to you and says, hey, why don't you score a goal on your next shift? And you go, okay. And that's it. That's the only real different.

And you can buy like a boat and it helps your fucking staff somehow. I don't know. I'll say this, man. The graphics for the PS5 version that I saw, which may have been in the official trailer, I don't know if it wasn't or wasn't, and I don't know if I'm speaking at a turn, but who cares at this point. It's incredible. Like the sheen of the ice and the way they kind of make it look a little melty as you get as you're playing. Yeah.

It's fucking phenomenal. Did you play it or did you just watch a video? No, I just watched a video. So let me tell you what happened here. So if you've seen me on Daily Wager, you know, I have a little setup in my house where I do, you know, sit in a chair, I got some shit behind me. It's a little video set up. I'm no, you know, Steve Dangel, but I got a little camera set up, you know, for TV. So I get on a Zoom call with Austin and the EA people.

That's how they're doing media for this thing. Typically, for those who don't know, like, you got a chance to talk to these guys at the NHL Awards in Vegas. That's usually when you did media with these cats. And I, you know, I've gone up to the suite to talk to Austin. I've gone up to the suite to talk to Connor with their little entourages there and what have you. And it was always really cool.

Like to get one-on-one time with these guys was always really cool, even though there a bunch of other people in the room. So this time it's, it's me and Austin and like two people from EA on a Zoom call, right? And the whole point of it of being on a Zoom call is you could record it. Right, right? Make some video content for the video company that I work for. And so, you know, I'm in my little Greg Wischinsky outfit, what have you, and Austin's like on a Zoom thingy. And he's just like in a random room somewhere. And I got all my questions. The questions that you, saw in the story I wrote about the, about Austin and the game, some of which got picked up places about his comments about the Leafs. You know, I had them all ready for the interview.

So we do the interview, and during the interview, I can tell that there is some Wi-Fi issues happening somewhere. That could be me. My Wi-Fi is not perfect. It could be him. Could be EA. There's something going on here, and you were in the interview, and you're at a point, where you're in this call and you're just fingers crossed that it's something that can be remedied, right? So we get done with the call, they send me the video, and I actually wait a while to look at it because I was very nervous that this time and effort that I put into recording the interview had gone to waste. And, you know, EA's emailing me. Hey, did you get a look at the video? I'm like, it's embargoed, so I'll take a look at it at some point.

So look at the video and basically it's a Zoom call where I'm on it way too much. Like he's answering questions and it's kicking back to me, which is not the way it should be. But more to the point, it's basically a freeze frame for Austin Matthews. Like it is just him, you know, with like a Barney Gumble face. and the audio is fine outside of a few dropouts, but it's just he's frozen in place. And so the EA, I hit back EA, I'm like, hey, did you guys record it on your end or whatever?

They're like, no, we didn't. And then there was going to be a thing, this is, and credit to EA for even attempting to go this far, it was going to be a thing where they were going to re-record his answers with him on video so we could stitch it together to make a video thing. Wow.

But then he had a little little surgery. I've heard about this, I feel like. Yeah, and yeah, and that went by the wayside. So credit to EA for trying to make amends, but it was that creeping feeling of the thing that I'm trying to accomplish here is not going to happen.

So at the end of the day, fuck you technology for ruining my Austin Matthews video interview. The audio was fine, and that's white you read, but it could have been cooler. That's my Austin Matthews story. Laying out my frustrations to all of you.

It's barely an Austin Matthews story. It's more of a Zoom story. It's a Zoom story involving Austin Matthews. It's Austin Matthews-adjason. It's the freaking commercial where the lady says, don't go crazy. It's not a costume party.

Oh, my God. Greg, the turn is, It is a freaking costume part, but she thinks it is. Business meeting. Oh, my gosh. By and by the way, a plot point stolen from Legally Blonde, as Ruby pointed out last night, when she saw that commercial for the 100th time.

There is a better version of that. Did you stick commercial where they had, I think Aaron Judge on it? And it's like him, someone telling him that, you know, to get out of my slump, I like to go to Little League field and hit some balls around or something. And he thinks he's saying, like, go to a little league field and hit off of little league pitchers or something. And he just goes, it's crushing home runs off the kids. Anytime you have professional athletes, like, humiliating children, that's a 10 out of 10 ad for me. I might be 11 out of 10 out, to be honest.

Fucking so funny. Like, especially with Aaron Judge, it's like, oh, this man who is a giant. Yes. Yeah, that's so cool. I saw Aaron Judge in his rookie year at Great Adventure. That's fun. He was at Fright Fest. That's so cool.

And we were standing in line for a coaster, and he was so large compared to everybody else in line. And he was pre, he was like pre pre super fame, right? And so you couldn't help but notice that this guy is here, and you're like, that's got to be somebody, right? and I didn't really recognize him by sight at that point. Right. And so we all get off the ride. And then, like, I saw a kid run over to him after we got off the ride and, like, talk to him real quick. And he actually, I remember put his finger to his lips, like, kind of like, I just recognized Superman kind of deal.

Right. Right. And so he signed like a thing for a kid and then just like went on his way without everybody else mobbing him. But the thing I remember most about that, most of the moment. it was like, I don't care if you're just like a Yankee rookie. You're a Yankee. You should people get on the exit, shouldn't you? Yeah, I would think so.

You should get the exit pass if you're Yankee? Well, it depends. You're in New Jersey. That just as likely to be Mets fan country. And so if you're like, can I get on the freaking Joker roller coaster? And some Mets fans like, back of the line, judge, fuck off. That would be cool to me. That would be very cool to me too.

But I don't know. Maybe, I mean, he's on his rookie deal, so maybe he doesn't have the money for the flash pass. That's right. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Especially with the way Major League Baseball pays anybody under the age of 30, he was probably turning out his pockets. Like, I don't know if I can afford.

He was also there with a girl. And I wonder if it was like one of those deals where he was just trying to like, hey, I'm just, it's just me. It's just Aaron. I'm the normal guy. I stand in the queue. No, no. With everybody. You go.

Come on. Did you see that quote from Joey Gallagher? a couple of weeks ago about he's in the outfield with Aaron Judge and John Carlos Stanton. No, I didn't see it. And because both those guys are like enormous and Joey Yellow is only 6-5 or whatever. And he's like, I hate this. I hate being the small guy in the outfield. It's insane to me.

And it is like being, you know, a basketball player where it's like, oh, yeah, I'm a 6-6 shooting guard. and I'm like the ninth tallest guy on the team. This is, you know, like, but yeah, his point was to feel small next to anybody is insane, and I feel small next to both of the guys I play in the outfield with. That rocks. It does rock. All right. Oh, a couple more things here before we call it a show.

One of the things they do on vacation, It may be one of my favorite things to do on vacation is I read a fuck ton of books. Now that we're back in New York, I'm able to go to my favorite bookstore in the world, which is the Strand, which is near Union Square. If you've never been to it, three floors, all kinds of books. Great shit. Well curated. It's funny that they're in Union Square because they did Union Busting, remember this. That's true.

Yeah. But a great bookstore nonetheless. Yeah. I love supporting places like that. It's, I love, I love walking around, uh, the strand eating chick filet and, uh, thinking about being a good liberal. No, I'm kidding. Um, but I bought a couple, I got, I bought one book there that actually my daughter picked out for me, which was a book called Sue Chef, uh, 24 hours on the line by Michael Gibney. If anyone's listening to the podcast, you know, I'm a foodie and restaurant obsessed.

And this, this was like kitchen confidential. without the waxing lyrical about food in the industry. Like, this guy's not Bourdain, but it's a 24-hour look at how a kitchen works. And at a, you know, prestige restaurant in New York. And really, really good, really, really fascinating for anybody who's interested in how, literally how the sausage gets made. And just the pressure that's put on everybody in a kitchen, it's kind of like if you like watching Hell's Kitchen or some such, and you're like, is this really the pressure that they're under? Yeah, it kind of is.

And it was a cool slice of life seeing how things work type book. The other thing that I'm just cracking into now is the Office, the Untold Story of the Greatest of the 2000s by Andy Green. It's an oral history book. And I've gotten through the part. Did you watch the BBC office? Yeah. And do you like it better than the American version?

Sure do. Okay. I don't know if I do. I think at its peak, the American version was better. I think David Brent might be a better character than Michael Scott. Yeah, the problem is that they did the thing that a lot of sitcoms about bad people do, where it's like, well, we got to like these people at the end of the day. And it's like, no, everybody in the office is bad. And like, that's only acknowledged in the British version. Everybody else is like, oh, Jim and Pam tried to ruin Dwight's life again. That's hilarious. as ah, we love it. Right. And he did the take the camera and we're like, uh-uh, uh-oh.

The biggest change for the show was that in season two, Steve Carell decided to make Michael Scott more cuddly. Like, he made him, made it, turned him from being a total asshole to being a guy who is just socially awkward and, and trying to do the good thing,

but is, inept at it. I should say, I think his performance is fucking incredible. It is. But with that having been said, Like, I think, you know, whatever, the 12 episodes in the, um, BBC version. Well, the 12 episodes in the Christmas special in the BBC version is like, you know, that's,

you know, by its very nature, that's tighter storytelling. They did, they had done, they had done more hours of TV a third of the way through season two on the American office, you know. So I think, I think they're very. they're very different and you know the problem with the office just like a lot of stuff is it's like it's been gift to death

you know like and it's for the same reason of I just I think it kind of doesn't hold up as well as the British one does I and here's the thing so like I'll give

David Brent the nod over Michael Scott I give Tim and Dawn the nod over Jim and Pam. I think Martin Freeman's fantastic, and Lucy Davis is great. But I do give Dwight Shrut the nod over Gareth as office weirdo. I think they, I think they, that's partly because they gave Dwight a way more to do than they did Gareth. It was a more well-rounded character, obviously. Yeah.

It's very, but as a, in the totality of the totality of the. the show, I think the American Office at its peak might be better because the full talent of the cast and the characters they created. And again, like you said, they had more runway to do it. You know, if there had been more seasons of the UK office, maybe they get to that point where I start caring about the other people in the office a little more. But I don't know. I love the American Office. But like you said, to a point. To a point. Yeah. And that point is when Steve Carell left, right? Like, that's... No, it may even be before it.

Like, I feel like the show certainly started to lose the thread before he left. You know, its peak was probably like season two, three, four maybe. Oh, sure, like Casino Night and all that shit. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. But it was, the thing, the reason I wanted to bring up the BBC office is because the book also deals with the idea that everyone thought this was going to be a disaster. And after the first episode, people did think it was a disaster because it was a shot for shot remake of a better show. Yes.

Right. It was like Gus Van Sant's psycho at that point, right? So looking back on that moment is really interesting. But the other salient part of this that I wanted to mention to you, sir, the person that they wanted for Michael Scott, do you know who this was? Like the person that was very close to being Mike Scott. No, I don't. If they could have worked it out. Bob Odenkirk. Oh, wow.

Right? Changes the show a little bit, but honestly. kind of maybe could have ended up in the same lane as Karel? Yeah, I think, let me put it this way. I think you would have done a way better job as the jerk part of Michael Scott. And like he's a phenomenal actor. I'm not saying he couldn't have also done the like sweetie pie stuff. But at the same time, I think that, yeah, that's crazy.

I didn't know that at all. It's hard to feel pity for Bob Odinkirk. Yeah, right. Now, I say that as somebody who doesn't really spend a lot of time in the Breaking Bad universe. Do you feel pity for Bob Odenkirk in the Breaking Bad Universe? No, not really. And I think the show isn't particularly – Better Call Saul specifically isn't particularly interested in making you feel bad for him. Like, it's more, oh, he did it again.

You know what I mean? As opposed to – Yeah. In Michael Scott's case, I think there's a certain amount of empathy you have for the character because he clearly can't get out of his own way. Right. You know. Anyhow.

Yeah. That's crazy. That's interesting. Bob Odenkirk. Yeah, right. Damn. Did you watch the Spidey trailer? No, I didn't.

But we didn't talk about my freaking books. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I didn't realize that you read. Of course I read. That's all. I do it a lot. So I'm currently reading two things.

Oh, and by the way, to answer a question that will not, will probably be asked. I try not to read hockey books. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. I don't like a sports book in general, honestly. I will probably read the gay misconduct book about the toxicity of hockey culture.

I don't know about that at some point during the vacation. And one of the last books, hockey books, I remember reading a vacation, was Ronick's first book. So that should tell you how often I read hockey books in vacation. But go ahead. What was like? Oh, yeah. So I am currently on my third attempt to read Red Mars that I pick up and I read like 80 pages of and I go, this is really good. And then I just stop reading it. And frankly, I've gotten farther than I ever have before, but I've kind of hit a wall. And the other one I'm reading is the last duel, which is the basis for the new Ridley Scott movie. Do you know about this? Yes. I saw the fucking trailer for this movie before, I don't know, some movie I saw. And I was like, this movie should come out today so I can watch it.

It's, um, uh, the basic plot of the movie and the book is that, uh, it's like the last trial by combat in France, um, in like the 1430s or something like that. And in the movie, it's Adam Driver plays a guy who is accused by Jody Comer of raping her while her husband is out of town. And her husband is played by Matt Damon. And it is not clear whether this assault actually took place. And so Matt Damon is like, I'm doing this like because of honor. But like if you were lying to me and like you and I lose this fight, like you are also going to be killed for lying for bearing false witness. They would have burned her at the stake. And Ben Affleck plays the Duke of whatever part of France they are in.

And like that cast plus Ridley Scott plus the subject matter, like this is. I can't wait for this fucking movie. To the point that when I saw the trailer for it again the other day when I saw, what's it called? The Nighthouse, I was like, well, I'm just going to read this book now. I'm too hyped up for this. I saw the trailer before The Suicide Squad and it looks really fucking fantastic. You know, I don't want to say it's going to be sick. It has some real potential to be incredible.

And whether it actually will be, you know, hey, you're really. roll in the dice with Ridley Scott sometimes. I was going to say, like, Ridley Scott is very, Ridley Scott can, can, whiff pretty bad, but Ridley Scott can also surprise you by really nailing the subject matter in a way

that other directors can't. Yeah, I can't remember. I feel like this was originally supposed to be like Spielberg or something was, was going to be the director. Well, Spielberg's in his full masteratory phase, which might have started with Ready Player 1, where now he's

doing, he did West Side Story, which he's always wanted to do, and he's actually going to make a movie about a young Stevens Spielberg making movies after that. He's going to make that. Come on. Yes. No, no, no. No, no. He can be executive producer on that movie. He is not allowed. The synopsis, I had the synopsis of the front of me. It reads an incredibly well, well-hung young filmmaker. No, I'm kidding. So, yeah, no, it's, yeah, it's, he's kind of in that. Oh, I was wrong. Which is sad. It's, it's, it's the guy who directed all the hunger, or two of, three of the four Hunger Games movies and Red Sparrow was supposed to be the guy who directed this. But like, it bounced. Oh, that guy. Yeah.

So, so, but what happened was, um. But he's a French guy, didn't he? He's Austrian, it says here. Austrian. Um, sorry. What happened was, uh, it was like, somebody had that guy had the rights with some other company and then uh fox got it and then the Disney Fox merger happened and people were like is Disney gonna make a movie with this subject matter

in at this budget because like if it's not a Marvel movie Disney doesn't want to make it pretty much um right and well I mean I say right but I don't know that for sure I should say yeah well no but like that that's the perception certainly is that like Disney is very increasingly risk-averse because they're like this movie has to cost 300 million and make one and a half billion or it's a colossal failure. I think that goes for all studios, not just Disney. Sure, but like Disney even more so.

But anyway, so like apparently Deadline Hollywood, it says in the Wikipedia article, was like every movie studio was like, we will make this movie if Disney doesn't want to. And then Disney was like, fuck it, let's do it. And so I can't wait for this fucking movie. October 15th, let's go. So to Ridley Scott real quick since 2007. American Gangster, okay?

It's a perfectly good movie. Body of Lies. I don't know if I, did I see that? I don't know. Body of Lies was a little scene film. Is that Decaprio? Decaprio and Russell Crow. I did see that movie and it's not.

The fact that it doesn't, it doesn't immediately spring to mind to tell you about, you know, where it is in the movie, the movie painting. But that was, that was his real working with Russell Crow years, right? Because he, yep, yep. I'm looking here, Russell Crow is in American gangster, right? Yeah, yeah. Then Body of Lies, then Robin Hood. Yeah, is he in a good, he is, he's the guy in a good year. So is he in Kingdom of Heaven?

Is Russell Crow in Kingdom of Heaven? He isn't, right? That's Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Irons only. That was Orlando Bloom, yeah. So Kingdom of Heaven of Heaven famously, I guess, is like really good if you watch the director's cut. Oh my God. The director's cut of that movie is incredible. Right.

Anyways. So Robin Hood to Dud. Prometheus is a very, very, very guilty pleasure. Love it. It's incredible. The counselor is great. Exodus gods and kings. Terrible.

Martian. Great. Covenant. Pretty good. Pretty good. Not good. All the money in the world. Fine. Perfectly okay. And then the next three movies he's making are the last duel, House of Gucci, which looks incredible, and an untitled alien prequel. Let's go. I'm in. Prometheus 3. Hell yeah. All right. By the way, just to let everybody know, Spidey trailer is really cool. I agree with everyone that there are things being done in the trailer.

by a certain character that seemed very out of character. But since we're dealing with multiverse things, who's to say? I did get through Loki on vacation. But you don't watch, did you watch it? It was like, it was the most Dr. Hoovian thing I've ever seen the MCU attempt. Yeah, and I will say it was the best of the three Marvel shows. I think I liked Wanda Vision better.

DUD. Terrible. Nah, it was good, but I liked Wanda Vision better. I will say that my favorite thing in the entire series, and it's like six episodes long. First of all, I think Owen Wilson did a really good job. Spitting out a bunch of exposition and doing some really funny Owen Wilson lines during the film. Yeah, he played Owen Wilson. It was great. It was great, as he always does. He played Owen Wilson, and he ruled in it. Yeah.

He was terrific. and made me laugh a lot during the series. And I should say Hiddleston was good, too. My favorite thing was Richard E. Grant as classic Loki. Just a big old sad sack where in the fucking classic Loki outfit from the comics. Fucking tremendous. We do love Richard E. Grant around here. And then they did the, I got to admit that a lot of these, you know, a lot of the Marvel stuff gets criticized for not making bold choices.

And I think Falcon and the Winter Soldier is probably the. apex of that and why people didn't really connect with that series a lot much. I think Wanda Vision made bold choices. And I also think that ending your run, and I'm not trying to spoil anything here, but ending your run of this Loki series by basically handing the last episode over to Jonathan Majors to monologue is pretty fucking bold. And I think it was worked. Yes, I know why. Yeah. But.

And I, okay. So what you're saying is that because it's in. service of future Marvel project. It's not as bold. No, I'm saying because, from what I understand, COVID shut down the production. And so this was supposed to be the first half of the season that they turned into

season one. And that's why they're making a season two. Oh, okay. I thought you're going to say it wasn't bold because it sets up other things. No, it's... Doing anything else. It's bold insofar as yeah, like you said, they just let a guy talk for

14 minutes and that was the And it was really compelling. Yeah, he's a good. He's a good actor. Yeah. That HBO show he did wasn't good, and I'm glad they canceled it. But, you know, it's just like this was supposed to be the mid-season point, and that's why it feels bold, is because it's like, oh, we can't do show anymore. That's it. Right, right.

All right. So the Spitey trailer I really liked, I'm way. spoiled for all the shenanigans in the movie. And so to see that all these spoilers are accurate is really exciting. It's exciting stuff. All right. Finally, wrestling. The CM Punk return was everything that I wanted and more.

Yeah. It's fucking phenomenal. I went on the wrestling brain Twitch stream, which is their big AEW guys. And they were like, oh, how excited were you for CM Punk? like, or I did it before, like the Wednesday before, uh, Rampage or whatever that show's called. So I didn't, I hadn't actually seen it yet, but I was like, do I think, um, like, because everybody knew it was going to be CM Punk was going to show up. And, and I was like, I honestly, like, I didn't really watch a lot of wrestling in CM Punk's heyday.

So like, I've seen his great match, the money in the bank match with John Cena and all that shit. Like, I've seen all that. but like I don't have the kind of insane connection that a lot of these people do to see M Punk and so I was like yeah I think he's cool I like I hope he does well but like I'm not psyched and then that happened and I was like this is the greatest fucking thing that's ever happened in the history of entertainment it's the greatest fucking thing it's ever yeah it's it's fucking phenomenal it was so cool the place was deafening they didn't dick around they bought him right out because they knew that there was no way to execute the rest of the show if you don't get that out of the way first and the thing about him that I find

interesting with regard to A.A.W. Is that he kind of aligns with what they try to do, which is, yeah, there's a certain amount of winking to the audience that's inherent in AEW. Like, you can't have a character like Orange Cassidy and keep things on the serious tip at all times. And I think that he's always had that ability to kind of like wink at you that, you know, this is all showbiz. But at the same time has the ability to keep things serious and keep things K-Fabe.

And so the promo was perfect because there was a lot of that stuff of, it's me, I'm back, and it's great to be back, but also, fuck you, Darby Allen, I'm coming for you and sting and shit. And that's what you want is you want that balance between the, you know, nod to this all being a show, but also like when you want someone to take it seriously, they have the ability to. And punk was always really good at that. They followed it with one of the worst dynamites that they've ever had, which is a very bad decision. Jobber squashes and things like that. A lot of focus on their pay-per-view, obviously. but I felt that if you really wanted to follow the

there was going to be a wave of new viewers for dynamite this week and I didn't think that they did a very good job in capitalizing on what they do best there was a lot of squashes that probably shouldn't have been squashes and people that were on the show that probably aren't ready to be on the show yet and were probably nervous to be on the show because they knew that the spotlight had grown more intense but it's just again like what a fun time to be a wrestling fan again like not only the punk thing but the Lesnar surprise at the end of the Sina match against Roman Reins, and even though they botched it, the return of Becky Lynch.

Oh, my God, did they botch it? That sucked so bad. That was awful. And it was such an easy fix, too, because you don't have Bill Air be the person that, you know, you just have her lose, and then you have a, you know, a heel that she can take out. Like, it's so easy. But I don't know. Anyways, the overrated underrated this week is wrestling focused. So if you don't like, like wrestling, you've probably tuned out already, but that's fine. Overrated, underrated, favorite, least favorite wrestling returns of all time. This is a very interesting list. Mm-hmm.

And I'm trying to think of what my overrated one would be. Like, what would be an overrated return? One of the... I don't have a specific one, but, like, more broadly speaking, any time John Sina or The Rock or whoever comes back. and it's like, well, he has a movie to promote, I guess. He's going to be around for a month. He's going to lose at a major pay-per-view,

and then we're going to call it a day. I'm going to say overrated, and I know this was a moment that I kind of marked out for when it happened, because it was such a surprise, when Kevin Nash came back as Diesel in the Royal Rumble. Oh, see, I have very vague memories of that. But again, like, that's kind of the same thing. I'm talking, well, without the movie to promote,

obviously. But like, and especially the Royal Rumble, they do that. Oh, here comes fucking Bob Backland or whatever. Okay. Cool.

Yeah. Yeah. But that one specific was just like, I don't know, like he had been Kevin Nash already in WWE. Yeah. Big Daddy, cool, baby.

Yeah. So it's like, it's like, why bring him back? He, I don't know. Just, he,

I think he's fun and cool. And like he, for example, I recently watched all of Detroiters. And do you know about this? Yes. Well, do you know about Kevin Nash's role in Detroiters? Oh, no.

I thought you mentioned why know about the show. No, I do not. Okay. So it is mentioned on numerous occasions that Tim Robinson's character's father used to be an ad man and went insane during a, during like a pitch meeting. and like I think handed out briefcases to everybody full of his shit right?

And then so like they're building up oh you know Tim's dad Tim's dad Tim's dad and then Tim's dad is fucking Kevin Nash in the show because it's all Detroit people and Kevin Nash is from Detroit

and he's only in one episode and he is so fucking funny and good of like just towing the line between, is he still crazy? Does he have his shit together again? You know, that kind of stuff? I love Kevin Nash. Yeah, he rocks. But my point is, first of all, you should watch Detroit just because you like, I think you should leave. And it's the same exact energy, but, you know, as an episodic TV show. Um, but like he's just

having fun out there. And Kevin Nash seems like he is like, I'm in on the joke, you know, And I get it and I'm cool with all of it. He just rocks. I love Kevin Nash. Yeah. Okay. Underrated. Listen, most times the Undertaker comes back, it was great.

Like, because you'd hear the bong and you'd get very excited. But the one, one of my favorite returns of all time, it was, it was Triple H and John Laurenitis in the ring. And Triple H was in the process of firing John Laurenitis for some reason. And no one ever, no one even thought this was going to be a thing. It was one of those total surprise things. But like he's in the middle of saying good luck in your future endeavors. And the fucking bong hits for The Undertaker.

And it was just one of those moments of being like, I am so fucking excited to see The Undertaker again. I'm so bored by this. And I don't know what it all means, but I'm here for it. And it was without question one of my favorite sort of like unannounced Undertaker returns of all time. Yeah, I that, again, that's a period. Like, I couldn't tell you anything about the John Lord. Like, that's a guy I hear referred to all the time of like, whatever, 2012 or something, I'm sure. Yeah.

In that, in that frame. And like, I just, like, I know he's Johnny Ace, but. But like I know that he also had a big run in WWE and I have no... He was like an authority. Yeah, I have no context for. I have no fucking context for who, what his deal was at that point.

But for me, underrated is when Stone Cold Steve Austin came back from missing fucking two years because Owen Hart broke his neck. Yes. Like, that's right around when Obviously that's like a little after what you would call

like the prime attitude era But it's still like in that And then I just remember I was watching at that point And Triple H and Vince McMahon I think are beating the shit out of the rock And then the glass breaks And the crowd just goes fucking

Absolutely bad shit crazy It's so cool It's so cool. Would you call, so is Jericho's return, is Jericho's the Y2J? Is it a debut or a return? It's probably a debut, right? I think that's a redeligible. How long was he out?

I guess that's. Well, he came, that was his debut. That was when he came over from WCLA. No, I know, but like how long was it between WCW, Chris Jericho and Y2J? I don't know. that's a good question. I'm going to look this up really fast. This is, so his last match in WCW is

a 1999, July 1999, it says here, and then WWF debut would have been like a little later that year maybe. Yeah, so I won't put it. No, he's out. for like a month it looks like.

So, yeah, that doesn't count as a return. The real answer, obviously, is CM Punk. But I'll stay Jericho adjacent. And when he came back in the sparkly jacket, the light-up jacket, yeah, huge fan of that. So I'll put that as my favorite. I just need to get Jericho in there somewhere

because I love when he would come back. Yeah. For me, it's a sting doing the, the fucking crow gimmick. The crow, yeah. Because he, again, I don't think he's out that long from that. But no, I think it still counts. But like, and especially in return with a new gimmick.

Yeah, completely reimagining the gimmick. So, yeah, like, that just, that to me was like, what the fuck is going on with all this? And then, you know, he just occasionally descends it from. the rafters in darkness hits everybody with a bat and leaves like that rocked. Yeah. That was so cool. And then lease saver for me,

this is a recently set record. It's the most recent return of a over-50 Goldberg beating the last time an over-50 Goldberg returned for contractually obligated matches. And yeah, it's just so over it that need to happen.

and who cares. I will say, though, that if it got us to the point where everybody hates Goldberg so much that when Bobby Lashley put his son in the hurt lock and the crowd was like, hell yes, this fucking rules, that's, you know what,

like unintentionally they made Bobby Lashley the face that that kicks ass to me. The answer for me is, when Hulk Hogan came back and fought the Rock at whatever WrestleMania that was. I get that that's like an all-time, like, Mount Rushmore

level, uh, draws in the business, but fuck Hulk Hogan, dude. Like, not, not only for, um,

all the stuff in his personal life, let's say. But just the fact of like, he wasn't a good wrestler in 1985. And so for him to come back at 58 years old or however old he was, and I'm supposed to believe he can beat up

like the rock at 31. It's like, fuck off. Yeah. You can see that being a real pain. All right. That is the show. thanks to me and Lambert for doing the show, I suppose.

And thanks to Mac Weldon, thanks to Brooke Lennon for being the reasons we did the show. And enjoy the mailbag and enjoy the bonus episode. And I don't know what we're going to talk to you again, but it'll be soon. Everybody take it easy. And you can read all the stuff I've written before I went on vacation on ESPN. com. You can check out elite prospects.

E.P.Rinkside.com if you want to sign up for a year's subscription, you can get an extra three months tacked on to the end of it with the code

I love EP, all one word. And don't DM me on Twitter asking why, if you try to sign up for the monthly charge,

why the code isn't working. It's because it only works with the annual code, and that's the only reason. Oh, and I should say that if you're a fan of me being on Doug Lowe's movies, Doug Benson's movie trivia podcast, I've been on it for a couple of episodes.

And that's exciting. I'm very happy to be asked back. And so I'm going to be, I've been on a couple of episodes, and I'm going to be there for the 12 guests of Christmas fun in November as well in New York. All right. Thanks, everybody. We'll talk to you soon. Bye.

See it. It's in goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Book two.