Puck Soup - Thanksgiving, In or Out?

Episode Date: November 26, 2021

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Puck Soot. Hey, gang. It's Puck Soup. I'm Ryan Lambert from EP Rinkside.

Hey, Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. There it is. no Greg this week, as you can tell, because I am doing the intro. He has a quote-unquote job that quote-unquote forced him to work today. Not us, baby. We don't have to work today. So here we are. You know, it's the day after Thanksgiving, and everybody knows what it is in the NHL. If you're not in the playoffs at Thanksgiving, you're probably not going to make the playoffs um u.s. Thanksgiving we should specify this is yeah up here this is this is this is just the week of like wait why is there football on on Thursday afternoon that's right yeah um

and then you go oh cool I'm gonna watch the game and then you go oh it's the lions and it just becomes a regular Thursday yeah I like I was watching yesterday Troy Akeman at multiple points in the game was just like boy this game sucks huh yeah it's really bad Um, but yeah, I was wondering this. Why is Canadian Thanksgiving on what we would call Columbus Day or an indigenous people's day or whatever here in the U.S.? Yeah. It's, I think it is in some way connected to like the harvest season. And maybe it is for you guys too.

And maybe that's just you guys are, have a later harvest because you're generally more southern. I don't know. Ours is the Pilgrims. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard about these guys. I've heard. Yeah, it was great. They, they just land.

It went perfect for everyone. Everybody shared a dinner and it was fun. But yeah, I think up here it's, we just, we get the thankfulness out of the way a little earlier. Because we just don't have as much as you guys to be thankful for. Yeah, that's, that must be it. But yeah, anyway, so because of the date and where the standings are and everything, we should say that usually we're another three, four, five games deeper into the season on U.S. Thanksgiving than we are.

This year, obviously, we got a late start because the season ended late last year because of a thing that says here COVID. I don't know what that means, but yeah, so we will go through team by team, the entire league here today, and we will, say, I guess, if we think they're going to make it or not make it, etc. Every single team. That's our pledge team. So let's start at the very tippy top of the standings.

And let's say the Florida Panthers, 31 points from 19 games. I have a pretty good feeling about these guys. I feel like they're going to make it. I feel like they're going to be all right. But I mean, the Panthers are one of those teams where it's like, how far will they go? Is this another year where they make it and then get knocked out by the lightning in round one? Or is this the year they can actually do something? They haven't won a playoff round, if I'm not mistaken, since they went to the Stanley Cup final.

Yeah, that sounds about right. And ruined hockey for a generation. So, like, have they paid their penance or is this going to be another one of those years where it's like, yeah, the Panthers are good? but they're not a real team. And I think they're good. Especially if Sergey Bobrovsky is actually going to do this and make us all look dumb for a whole year. That's a good team. Yeah.

So they're currently on pace for almost 134 points. I don't think they're going to get there. But, you know, they don't need to play great the entire rest. They need to play, you know, like a normal playoff team would probably play. Yeah. And I don't know. I feel like they can do that even if Vrobsky drops off a lit. Like if he goes absolutely in the tank, that's a different story.

And then you're hoping Spencer Knight can pick up the slack. But they only need 93, they need to play at a pace for 93 points the entire rest of the season. I feel like that's well within their power. There's nothing to worry about here. I mean, the two questions with them was goal 10. ending, which so far is so good. And then with Joel Quenville leaving, was that they were 7 and 0 or whatever. And you're thinking, okay, is this going to be the turning point?

Is this where things blow up? And it hasn't been. Absolutely. So I think it's a big, getting the number one seed in the east could end up being a very big deal. It's going to be a huge deal. Yeah, absolutely. I think the question with Florida isn't, do they make the playoffs? It's do they win the division and get a wild card or do they come in second or third and have to play

almost certainly Toronto or Tampa, which could be a very big difference. Right. Okay, next team, the Carolina Hurricanes, 29 points from 18 games. Yeah. I feel like it's a pretty similar situation here. They're on pace for 132 points. Because of all the points they've banked, they need to play at a 94-point pace the entire rest of the season. And I think we both agree they're safe in terms of it would take it.

a colossal failure for them to miss. But to your point about Florida and Toronto, you know, the hurricanes are in a way tougher division. The current cut line in the metro is 102.5 points. Oof. Like by the end of the paces and everything. When I talk about these things, I'm talking about paces. 102 and a half points.

They're on pace for 132. So, yeah, they can drop off, but if you drop off maybe a little more than you expected or would want, there's almost certainly going to be a team that's more than happy to gobble up those points and make you look bad. And it could be the next team, which is Washington, who I think a lot of us kind of went into this year going, okay, is this going to be, you know, are they going to be good again, or is this going to be maybe? potentially one of those window closing type deals. And they look great. Yeah, they do.

And here's where we talk about Alex Ovechkin, I guess. Yeah. Holy shit. You know? Like, he's on pace to hit 100 points. I don't think he's going to do that personally. Just because, boy, there's so much that can go wrong in a season in the middle of a pandemic and he's 36 and all that kind of stuff.

but this rocks. What he's doing so far this year is so cool. Yeah, he's, I mean, and it's, I mean, the fact that he's scoring gets all the attention, obviously, because he's chasing Gretzky, and it's what he does, and it's what we love to see from him. But, you know, he's racking up the assists, too. Like, this is. Yeah, he had a three assist night the other day. Yeah, like, so it's not like he's just standing in the face off circle and hammering.

Like, I've had an ongoing thing people have probably seen where I really want the, you. I really want the assist record by a left winger to get broken because it's currently held by Joey Juno for a season. And like every other position, it's this all-time great. And I was banking on. Well, now, wait a second. Joey Juno, maybe the greatest player of all time named after a city in Alaska. Yeah, I mean, you know. Can't take that away from him.

Yeah. Phantom Joe Nome might have something to say about that. I don't know. But, yeah. Like, this was going to be the Ertami Panera thing. And it's almost like, Ovechkin's like, oh, how would I do that too? He's been great. And Washington's doing it, you know, Baxter missing for a lot of it.

This is, I don't know, there's always, it feels like there's always one of those teams that were all ready to close the window on. It's like, no, you know what? I don't think I'm going to do that. And maybe that's the capitals. The thing you said about he's not just standing in the top of the circle and hammering the puck into the net. He's only, I did the PDO cast earlier this week, and apparently he's only scored one goal like that all season.

Oh, wow. And it was against the sharks the other night. So, like, I haven't watched every single Capitals game for obvious reasons, but I was kind of noticing, boy, he hasn't scored from the Ovetka spot yet. I didn't realize he hadn't done it at all until the San Jose game. It's like we've spent almost 20 years going, why doesn't anyone cover him there? and maybe this is the answer. Maybe if you cover it.

I don't need to just score from there. It makes my life easier. Just go somewhere else. Yeah. Caps, by the way, just for the record, 29 points from 20 games, on pace for about 119 points. But they do need to play at a 97 point pace

the rest of the way to be kind of assured a playoff spot. I kind of feel like they can, They can drop off to the point where they quote unquote only play at a 96 point pace and open it up. But I think they're relatively safe. I would say so. I mean, the thing with them is they are, they've got those 29 points. They're 12, 3 and 5. So there's two ways to look at it.

One way is to say they're 12 and 8. They've got 5 loser points. They've lost 40% of their games. and, you know, that's about the pace of a borderline playoff team, and their record is being inflated by the loser point. The other way to look at it is to say they are 0 and 5 after regulation, 12 and 3 in regulation. And if you view overtime, the shootout is just coin flips,

you go, they're actually underperforming. They should have more points than they do. That's right, yeah. Good team. Let's see here. The next team up is the Calgary Flames, 29 points from 20 games as well. But because the West is not so good, or at least not as good as the top half of the East, they only need to play at an 86.5 point pace the rest of the way, you know, they look like a fucking sure thing as well.

I mean, they look like the best team in the league. Their goal difference is plus 30 through 20 games. Yeah, which I guess happens when you get a shutout every second. or third game. And that's the one thing with them is, you know, I want to see them when their goalie isn't on like an all-time heater. Right. Like their team goaltending right now is hovering in the 960 range.

You know, you get the feeling that's going to come down. But I'm just going to pull it up here. I think their expected goal differences similarly great. So, you know, like they're obviously. overperforming quite a bit. But yeah, they have the second highest, expected goal difference in the league at plus 14.3, or point three.

So that's only behind the Maple Leafs, who are all so good. And a lot of us didn't really have our eye on Calgary as a contender for obvious reasons. They missed the playoffs last year in that Canadian division. But, you know, sometimes when you see a team just exceeding expectations by so much through 20 games, you go, what actually, changed. And if the answer is nothing seems to have changed, then maybe this is just a mirage. But

in the flames, it's not that hard, right? You go, yeah, this is the first full year for Daryl Sutter. And this is what Daryl Sutter does. You can call him boring. You can, you know, make fun of his press conferences, but this is what he does. He comes in and he takes teams and he gets them to 55% possession and they win games two to one. Yeah. And to the point that like they're boring. Yeah, they're like a, you know, they don't allow anything defensively. They're one of the best defensive teams in the league. But they also have the seventh most expected goals per hour in all situations in the entire league. Not that far behind the penguins and the Oilers and a decent number back from the Panthers.

But again, like, they're generating a lot of chances. They have some really exciting fun. Like, yeah, Andrew Mangiopani's not going to shoot 30% all year or whatever. the number is, but they're good. And they have good players. And, yeah, like Jacob Markstrom, I guess, is even exceeding what we think of Jacob Markstrom as being. So here they are.

They're safe. They're pretty much in, I think. Mentioned them just a minute ago. Toronto Maple Leafs, 29 points from 21 games, and that's, they've been on a ridiculous heater for quite a while. Now they're unbelievable at home. But you've got to say they're in an interesting division, in part, because they have the only, let's put it this way. They're fifth in the league right now.

They have the third best points of pace in their division. And then, I mean, the other thing, I guess the two things you say for the Leafs is, first of all, the big emergency seven or eight games into the season turned out not to be. all that bad after all. Remember that they got their doors blown off by the penguins that one night. And it sort of felt like this is going off the rails early and it got back on the rails. They've been maybe one of if not the best teams in the league since then. And the other thing to say with the Leafs is it doesn't matter and nobody cares because they have to win in the playoffs. Like it really, they could finish with 120 points. And if they lose in the playoffs in seven games where all their guys get injured and, you know, the goalie blows a

hamstring, none of it will matter. Win at the very minimum one round or none of this matters. And yeah, I mean, if Florida holds the division, that means you got to go through Tampa, which that's a hell of a matchup. I imagine a Leafs team that desperately needs to win going up against the two-time defending champs. That would be one of the greatest first-round matchups, in theory, at least, heading into it that we've ever had. But, yeah, Jack Campbell looks great. He's been really, really good, and he's going to make a lot of money.

It'd be nice to see Austin Matthews start scoring at five-on-five personally for me. It would be. But the flip side of that is, yeah, the flip side of that is this is how good they are with their best player, not, you know, and he had the wrist injury. and maybe he's not back to 100%. But yeah, you're sitting there going, once this guy starts to score, look out. So, yeah, they look good and it doesn't matter. Yep. The Edmonton Oilers, 28 points from 19 games,

they are actually on a slightly higher points per game pace than the Calgary Flames. They're on pace for about 121 points. They need to play at an 86 and a half-ish pace the rest of the way to make the playoffs by my, you know, calculations or whatever. And I guess here's where we talk about Leon Drysidal. Off to a better start than Connor McDavid, David, which is fucking insane. Insane. And not because Connor McDavid isn't off to a great start.

That's right. David is going full on Connor McDavid and Leon Dr. Seidel. It's like, I'll go one more than that. It's crazy. I mean, the numbers he's on pace for through 20 games or whatever are just, Absolutely crazy. And I'd love to see him do it. Like, I mean, the goal scoring, he's on pace for 70 goals. We haven't had a 70 goal season since Salani and McGilney. That's mind-boggling in this area. Here's a stat for you that I looked at earlier today. He is five fewer two goal games or two plus goal games. So like, you know, he hasn't scored a hat trick yet. But two plus goal games. He has five fewer than Ovechkin did when he scored 65 goals in 100,000.

Wow. He's a quarter of the way through the season. So, yeah, he's been unbelievable. And mostly, you know, if people don't watch the Oilers or follow them, like McDavid and Dracidal are for the most part doing this on separate lines. It's not like they just put them bowlers. both on the same line and it's, you know, okay, shut those guys down and you win the game. Like, they're on separate lines at even strength.

Play together on the power play usually. Zach Hyman's look good. Ryan Nugent Hopkins having a career year. Yeah, he rocks. You know, 10 years after being the first overall pick and he, you know, playing with your title is, it's great. And, you know, none of us trust the goaltending. for good reason.

For good reason. And it's, you know, again, sort of like the Leafs, it's kind of a, it has to happen in the playoffs, especially after what happened last year. But, and, and, you know, that's the other part of it. And McDavid does need to change his game. Yeah.

We're all sitting there going, you know, McDavid and Dracidal are just going to, it's going to be tackle football in April and they'll get knocked out by it. some team that just shuts them down. But I can't wait to watch it. I want to see it, you know. And, you know, you look at it's, you look at some of the potential matchups they could get in that division.

They're a lot of fun. And an Edmonton Calgary series would be just insanity. That would be amazing. Oh, my God, yeah. But one of them would have to drop off or, I guess, advance in the first round to make that happen. but it feels like if everything goes according to plan, we'll get there. Next up is the Nye Rangers, 27 points from 19 games, on pace for 116.5 points. They need to play at a 98 point pace the rest of the way to kind of ensure a playoff spot.

That's a little iffy to me. I've got to be honest with you. Shetzerkin is one of the best goalies in the world. Adam Fox, one of the best goalies in the world. Artemie Panera, he's not a goalie. He's a defenseman. Artemi Panarin, one of the best forwards in the world. And yet I look at that team and I go, I don't really buy it with these guys.

Their underlying numbers are not good at all. And maybe you say that doesn't matter. They're winning games and they have the talent to continue winning games. I think that's mostly true. but at five on five they're just they're not that good of a team and I don't know Chris Kreider on pace for the Cy Young 15 and 3

here's the thing with the Rangers that I'm I'm surprised they're this good I didn't have them I had them as a bubble playoff team I didn't have them as a 700 team but if you had told me this is where they were going to be, I would have said, okay, you know what, I can buy that.

Right. I bet it's because Alexis Lefrenier and Capo caco are going off. Yeah. They've hit, you know, this is it. It's year three for Caco, year two for Lefrenier.

That's about the time where elite players tend to find the next year. That must be what's happened. And it hasn't. They're combined for seven goals, 11 points between the two of them. And which is, I've been told multiple times that I can't suggest that either guy might be anything less than an elite player yet. Well, I mean, the Rangers have such a good track record of developing like top 20 picks or whatever.

So why would you doubt these two? And it's like one of those monkey pot things, right? Because all I ever heard from Ranger fans is how they never get the first pick, they never win the lottery. Then you win it two years in a row. And this is what you get. But having said that, both of these guys are young enough that they're at that age where sometimes it does click over and it might happen midway through a season. Like Jack Hughes kind of last year started slow and then suddenly for like a couple of months you're like, oh, this guy, he's figured it out. And if either one of those guys or maybe even both of them have that kind of transformation during the season, then this team.

starts to look deep enough to actually be what the record suggests they could be. Yeah. The only thing that really gives me pause with them is, again, they've banked an incredible number of points so far. But with that having been said, I don't know. You know, again, the rest of that division is insane. So, you know, we'll talk about it in a minute. But there are a couple of teams where it's like, yeah,

If they get everybody back healthy, I can see the Rangers dropping off a little bit. But Gerardelance a good coach. Yeah. All right. Let's move on to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They're eighth in the league. They have in overall points. They have 25 points from 18 games, a pace for about 114 points.

And again, that is only good for eighth in the league right now. Yeah, I think they're fine. They started a little slow. They've been pretty hot since then. You know, it would take a lot for me to be convinced that Tampa Bay isn't going to be a playoff team. And with that having been said, a lot might include Braden Point is out for like a month or a month and a half or something like that. Even then, that's the scary thing with the lightning is no Kuturov for an extended period. Yep.

No Braden Point now for an extended period. they're still good enough to make the playoffs. And then when they're in the playoffs and those guys are healthy, look out. Like this is the team that, you know, if there's a team right now that you go, they're good enough to win a division,

but they probably won't because of injuries. This is the lightning. But that's fine. Like people, they didn't win their division last year. And they're quite happy to come in, second, third siege. Sure, yeah, we'll start on the road if we have to.

We know what we're doing here. Get everyone back and healthy. and they're in good shape. And, you know, how great is it to see Steven Stamco's having a big year, healthy, you know, good to go? Yeah, he's been really, really good. Yeah, he's cool. Another Western Conference team finally. The Minnesota Wild, ninth place in the league, they have 25 points from 19 games,

and that is a pace for about 108 points. They have to play at a 90-point pace the rest of the way. I don't really buy it with the goaltending being this good all year, personally. Yeah. But, oh, wait, no, what am I talking about? Their goaltending has been bad. Their shooting percentage has been high. That's what I'm thinking of.

Well, their goaltending has been bad. Yeah, it's been bad. Yeah. No, their shooting percentage has been. I knew there was one of those two was like, yeah. Like, I don't think the Wilder, a true talent shooting ten, 10 and a half percent team. I don't know that we need to really interrogate that.

But the weird thing about that is they're shooting beyond what you would think. Croix-Kerl-Kaphriezov has five goals. Yeah. Right? Like that, so yeah, I don't, I don't think Ryan Hartman's going to be gunning for 40 goals all year long. But yeah, they have a very good, like, you know, they have. But let's put it this way. Their expected goal difference is still top 10 even with, you know, we're not, we don't

exactly think of them as an offensive juggernaut, right? They're just that good defensively. So, yeah, I mean, again, like, do I think that Wild can play at a 90-point pace the rest of the season? I sure do, you know? That's what it boils down to. There's the stuff going on with Kevin Fiala that I don't fully understand. Like, I know he's not having a good season, but, like, they're talking about maybe trading and maybe not trading him.

I don't know. That would be an interesting move, just given that they're, again, their third place in the Western Conference. They're good. But, yeah, so we'll see. Let's see. The next team up is with 24 points from 20 games, the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah. And this is the...

Uh-oh. We talked about Tampa with, you know, Kutraub and Point. Like, this is the one we're all kind of waiting on is when Jack Eichel arrives. Yep. When will it be? Back for a little while. Patchy already is back now. And, boy, wasn't it just a few weeks ago where people were like, this could be like a month's situation?

And both of those guys were like, yeah, we're fine. We're back before the end of November. But, yeah, now we're just, you're just waiting to get them, you know, they need to play at like 600. pace. But that's what they've done so far. And I think everybody would say, that's a little disappointing for them. And they're about to get, you know, a guy who has the ability,

if he plays with Stone and Padgety ready, to be top five center in the league easily. Yeah. One in four start, 11 wins and 15 since then. And yeah, I mean, the thing, and I guess we can get to it, with this team, we all kind of went into the season going, oh, the Pacific stinks.

It's Vegas, easily the best team. Edmonton, but we don't trust them in the playoffs, and then a bunch of bad teams. And the Pacific's been good. It's been a really good division, and you're seeing that a little bit in the fact that, you know, not only is Vegas not running away with it, but they're being run away from a little bit.

Yeah. I got to say, though, like if, and I know, I know you hate this framing, but like if the playoffs just started today, they don't, but yep, I agree. But if they start today and Jack Eichael is healthy, are you taking Calgary or Edmonton over this Vegas team? It's a tough call. I mean, like the Alberta teams made that interesting.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I'd need to see a little more proof of concept. But I think I would take, do I believe in Robin Lainer and the top end of the Vegas defense a little more than Edmonton and Calgary? Yeah, I think I do. Yeah. McDavid, Igoe, though, in the playoffs. Head, yeah. Oh, my God, head to head. Yeah.

All right. Anaheim up next. They are on pace. They have 23 points from 20 games. they are on pace for 94.3 points, and that is the exact pace at which they would need to play for the entire rest of the season. I don't see them doing that.

Yeah, this is where we get into the zone of, you know, when you get to Thanksgiving, usually whatever it is, 80% of teams stay in their spot as far as the playoffs or not the playoffs, which means we all have to pick a couple teams that we think are going to fall out. I think Anaheim's that team. I think most of us would feel like they're overperforming.

And even, you know, on points percentage, they are barely in the playoffs. They have played a few more games than other teams. But they're a good story because a lot of us thought they were going to be junk. You know, they've looked good. The power play looks great and Gibson looks like Gibson. After being terrible last year, Gibson looks good. Troy Terry was fantastic. And Ryan Getslap, like having that kind of old guy.

He and Alex Ovechkin went to the same, the same gym this summer. That must have been it. So it's fun. Like I like Anaheim is a kind of a neat team to watch. And it's going to be interesting to see, like what do they do if they get halfway into the season? And they're still in the mix. Yeah. Go looking for reinforcements to it.

And who's making those calls? Well, you know, Bob Murray's. That is, yeah, that is the thing. But somebody asked this when we did the PDOCass. It was like a mailbag episode. And somebody asked, like, what did they do with Raquel Getslaff, Manson, and Lindholm? Because all those guys are pending UFAs and they're all going to want a bunch of money. Maybe not Gatslap.

But the other guys are going to want a bunch of money. And me and Dimitri, you're both like, well, as much as you hate to say it, you got to trade them. Yeah. It's kind of a bluejackets. Yeah. situation, yeah. But worse than that because I think Anaheim did, I don't even think Anaheim would have said, oh yeah, we have the goods to be a playoff team all season long, you know,

whereas like people were going to get fired in Columbus if they didn't make the playoffs and that kind of thing. So, yeah, it's tough, but I just don't see it lasting. You know, they have some really good players, but I don't, I don't, I don't, think their power play is this good. But along similar lines, like you said, now is where we going to start saying teams that are in the playoffs are going to get bounced out. The Columbus Blue Jackets, they have 22 points from 17 games, 106 point pace. I don't know. This is of all the teams, the one that everyone is going to pick to swap. And the contrarian in me wants to come

up with a reason why I think that actually they might be okay, but I just can't really do it. And you know what? Credit to Brad Larson, this is a, you know, playing well. 11, 6, and, oh, no, you know, this isn't loser points and stuff inflating them. But it's sort of the flip side, right? We talked about with one of the other teams that, you know, with Washington, if the OT record was better. Well, Columbus, they've only got six wins in regulation.

So they're six and six in regulation, but five and oh once you get to overtime and the shootout. So again, if you view that as kind of gimmicky coin flip stuff, then the Columbus Blue Jackets are just getting real right. Congratulations. Yeah. Yeah. So, good story.

And they have some really good, exciting young players. This feels like a team that can be maybe a bordering on playoff competitive over the course of the full season. If they don't sell, which I think they have a couple of guys that they should sell maybe. And, you know, people have been talking about they've got to make a decision in goal because Corpus. Yeah, Corpusallo's upending UFA. Max Domey's upending UFA And well, Scott Harrington I don't think anybody cares one way or the other

If he hits the market But yeah, so they have some decisions to make And also like Patrick Linae is a pending RFA So it'll be interesting But you know what, it's good Blue Jacket fans have had to put up with a lot The last few years Up to it including Seth Jones in the summer

It's kind of cool It's Like Anaheim It's better to be competitive with your kids Than not competitive with your kids Yeah I mean they don't have That many kids in Columbus

They've made And this is you know The flip side If you want it to be the pessimist Is you're going Man they really need A top pick to build around And they're just torpedoing that early in the year

They're going to end up eight They have Chicago something, eighth pick or whatever. They have Chicago's pick. Okay. All right. That helps. That helps.

Yeah. They just need Chicago to not win the lottery. Yeah. Lottery protected, but, okay. But yeah, if they're picking in the top five again, hey, all right. Good luck. Next up is St. Louis, 22 points from 19 games. They are on pace for about 95 points.

Mm-hmm. This feels like about a 95-point team, right? Yeah, but I mean, the thing with St. Louis is 5-0 start. Yeah. And since then, very, very ordinary looking at that. And, yeah, their last, as we're doing this, their last seven games, two wins, five losses, all five losses in regulation. So they're not banking any points.

That's not going to cut it for you, yeah. They are in, the central. I guess, this is where we say the central has been kind of soft lately. And, yeah, I mean, you know, it seems like all the stuff you would have said about this team, they don't really have a ton of scoring power. I thought they got better over the summer. But, you know, they weren't great last year. And don't look now, Jordan Bennington, sub-900, the last seven games.

Who could have seen that coming? Yeah. The other thing with the blues is Vladimir Teresenko looking pretty good, which either is great if he stays or potentially even better if he goes. That's right. You decide to move him because, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I remember when the blues started that that five and a note start and they beat, I want to say, Colorado and Vegas in that stretch. And this was back when we thought those were easily the two best teams in the West. And there were a lot of blues fans who were saying, like, you're sleeping on this team.

How come we're not in the The haters. Yeah. But since then, not good. Nope. And yeah, but again, does this feel like a roughly 95-ish point team?

Yeah, sure. That works for me. Especially because when we talk about the rest of the West, there are not a lot of impressive options. So let's go to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They're up next. Also 22 points from 19 games, but with few.

regulation wins than the blues, which is why they are 14th, and the blues are 13th. The penguins are also, therefore, on pace for 95 points, but they have to play at a roughly 105 point pace the rest of the way to get into the playoff competition. Yeah, and this is, I believe the first team we've hit that more losses than wins, but the giant... A lot of caveats. Yeah, you know, no of Guinea-Malcon. No Sidney Crosby for more than half the season.

And I would argue, you know, he still looks like he's finding his feet a little bit. You know, Evan Rodriguez is the number two scorer on this team right now. So we're not, we haven't seen the real penguins yet. I'm not convinced that the real penguins are all that good. but the fake kind of patched together penguins have done enough barely to stay in the race to give the real penguins whenever they assemble a run at this. So Tristan Jari, man. Talk about a guy we had all written off.

Yep. He's 9.83 in his last four games. Yep. Just. Pretty good. And again, you know, do you buy it? I don't, and we know how goaltending works, but...

Yeah, of course. Also, you know, we know how goaltending works, which is that bad goalies can get good for a while, but sometimes a while can be a whole season. And if that happens, then... And also, good goalies can be bad for a while, which can be a whole season.

Exactly. So, you know, like, yeah, like you said, I'm not exactly betting the house on Tristan Jari Vezna candidate, but they kind of just needed someone to keep them afloat while everybody got back to health and all that kind of stuff,

and they navigated all these COVID problems. They've pretty much done it. Started the season, points in five straight, including that 7-1 win over the Leafs, have won their last four, and that's the Jari Heart streak where he's had two goals. They've given two goals in four games. In four games, you're going to win more than you lose. In between that, a stretch where they won two of 11. So we've already seen, like, we're already on chapter three of this penguin story.

And I said at the beginning of this is, I don't think I get credit for this being a correct prediction, but when I was doing my preseason stuff, I said the penguins are the one team to me that have the widest range of outcomes. I have no idea. I said if you told me they win the Stanley Cup, I believe you. If you told me they finished bottom five, I would believe you. And anything in between feels equally possible. And they're proven me right because, like I say,

we've already seen them look great and look terrible. And we're only 20 games in. That's right. And now here is a third team with 22 points from 19 games. And like the Penguins, seven regulation wins, or eight regulation or overtime wins, but their goal difference has only, plus four to the Penguins plus five. So they're sitting 15th in the league, and that's the

Winnipeg Jets. On pace for 95 points. Need to play at a 94 point pace the rest of the way. Yep, that sounds right to me. They're good but not great. And, you know, they're not getting the world-beat and goaltending. They're getting just merely, you know, well-above average goal-tending. Yeah. And... I like this team a lot heading into the season. Yep. You know, and I still like them a lot. And they looked even a week ago.

They were in pretty good shape. And since then, they've lost four straight shootout loss to Edmonton, where they played pretty well and shut the oil guys down. But since then, three straight regulation losses, including to Columbus, a shutout and to Vancouver. And nobody loses to Vancouver. That was a schedule loss, though, for sure. Fair enough.

Yeah, that was right. That was the day after the Edmonton. They play Edmonton, on the road, back to back, going to go out to the West Coast, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, you know, there are going to be scheduled losses for everybody and all that kind of evens out over the course of the season. With that, having been said,

you don't want to get into a situation where you're losing four games in a row ever. Yeah. It's just generally not good practice. This is, it's Fridays, as we're recording this, they're in Minnesota tonight and then in Calgary tomorrow night. So schedule, again, I mean, if we're on, wake up on Monday and they've lost six in a row, suddenly it's maybe time to get worried. And, you know, what do they do?

Because we know Paul Maurice is coach for life. Not that I would consider making a change there. But I still like Winnipeg. I think they're going to be fine. They do. Yeah. And, you know, Blake Wheeler still doesn't have a goal. and, you know, they had kind of the mini-COVID outbreak.

And we know from last year, like sometimes that goes for a team and, all right, you lose a few guys and they come back and you move on. And sometimes we've seen that really have an impact. So we will see. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know. Like I said, I think they're good. But, you know, they're in a position where they need Connor Hallibuck to be a Vezna guy.

He's totally capable of it. Obviously, he's won of Vesna. But, you know, who knows? Next up, and this is another interesting one, with 21 points from 16 games, I've only played 16 times. The Colorado Avalanche. They have gone into fucking Killbot mode lately.

They're just beating the absolute dog shit out of everybody. And, you know, it took us a while to get to them, but points percentage, they're fourth in the west already. That's right. Yeah, they are on pace for 108 points almost. And to make the playoffs, they need to play at a 92 point pace the rest of the way. I'm feeling pretty good about that. Yeah.

And doing it without Nathan McKinnon. Yeah. So. Yeah. And they've scored four goals or more in each of their last six games in which they've outscored the competition, 36 to 15, every win in regulation. And with the exception of a game against the senators, all of those are in the Western Conference.

So they're just, we should also say, like, in that six game, Win Street, they've played Vancouver twice, San Jose, Seattle, Anaheim, Ottawa, who just got off the COVID-break. They played a bunch of bad teams, but early in the season, this was their schedule after, okay, they played Chicago opening night, St. Louis, Washington, Florida, Tampa, Vegas, St. Louis, Minnesota. Yeah. That's a tough stretch. And then they were great.

And they had those back-to-back losses against Columbus. And that was where, like, for the first time, I heard a lot of people go, maybe this isn't Colorado's year. And by a lot of people, I mean, me. And it turned out somebody, they just realized somebody made them bleed their own blood. And, and yeah, exactly. And it's like one of those things where, you know, I say this a lot. You can only play who the schedule gives you.

Yep. And it's one thing if you win six in a row where you're playing bad teams and you're winning two to one every night. And then you go, well, you should be blowing the doors off these teams. They're blowing the doors off these teams. And they're doing it without their best player. They're going to be. They're fine. They're fine.

I mean, currently, yeah, I mean, they're, they've basically already caught Minnesota for the division lead. So are we back to just crowning them as the central division winners, at least for the season? Yeah, I think so. Kind of like Toronto, they've got to do it in the playoffs. And in their case, it means go past the second round. But, yeah, they're... For the concept, we know that they can be an unbelievable regular season team. And, you know, what's to say they don't bring in reinforcements again like they fucking always do?

Well, they can. They've got the assets to do it. The one thing that you look at them and you go, Darcy Kemper, I mean, certainly not going big on Philip Grubauer looks like the right call the way he's played. But, you know, Darcy Kemper does make you sit there and go, you know, I can see some matchups they could run into in a playoff series where there's going to be a, they're not going to have the edging goal. You know, if they're facing Connor Hallibuck or some of the. other guys. Sure. You get a little worried. But other than that, this team is very, very good.

Yep. And very scary. Next up with 21 points from 19 games, and suddenly with a negative goal difference, the San Jose Sharks. Oh, remember, it looks like we're going to be wrong about the sharks. They won the first four games or whatever of the season. Yeah, they've been bad since they opened the season four and O. Um, says here six, eight and one outscored by 11 over, uh, the last 15 games.

Uh, this is another team. They're not currently in the West playoff picture by points percentage. I guess I can look and see if they're in it by, uh, by just regular old points. And they're not. No, they're, they're actually not. So, yeah, this feels about right. Them slipping back deeper and deeper as the season goes along. Yeah.

That's okay with me. And I mean, I don't have a ton to add, but I'll point this out only because someone pointed out to me, and I found it very strange. They on November the 9th, they beat the Calgary Flames 4-1. They have a rematch against the flames on December 7th, so two weeks away. Those are the only games that they've got against the Pacific. Like, they've played the Pacific Division once. Wow.

And they will not play them again until game 26. So their first 25 games, they are not playing, they haven't played any of California teams, no Vegas, no Edmonton. It's a very strange schedule. Yeah. And I don't know, you know, heading into the year, we would have said, oh, that's bad because the Pacific is where all the bad teams are. And now maybe you're sitting there going, maybe it's good news for them. And then they eventually hit a streak where it's like Seattle, Vancouver, Vancouver. I mean, like, it's just making up all these games.

They're playing the Leafs later today. and then they're on the road for five straight, and then they play Calgary. And the road games are a mixed bag, you would say, Chicago and Columbus, but also the New York area teams, which I guess we'll get to a few more of those in a second. But, yeah, I don't buy it with the sharks and them sliding down the standings for the rest of the season, trading hurdle, all that kind of stuff. Sign me up for that. That sounds like it's where we're headed. Let's see here.

Next on the list is the Nashville Predators, also 21 points from 19 games. Somewhat of a surprise, I think. Would you say that they're in the mix, that they're... I thought they would have said they'd be in the mix. Yeah, okay. I can see why you would say that, obviously. but like I'm a Saros head. Okay.

So I think he's a really good goalie. And yeah, obviously like, oh, Ryan Johansson is proving the doubters wrong. No, Douchain. Duchin has been quite good. Yeah, that's great news for the predators if they can get someone to take his contract. That's it. That's what you're secretly hoping if you're them is that let's get the Matt Ducane narrative out there. This is the guy he's finally figured it out.

But I can't see how you could do it. Predators have lost three or four, all in regulation. So even a week ago, they were, you know, we're early enough in the year. The one bad week torpedoes your outlook, or at least your projections. But better than I thought they were going to be in the mix. And then if they're a bubble team, then we've got to see what David Poil does, right? Because I think a lot of us look at this team and go, it's time to hit reset, it's time to rebuild. what do you do with Philip Forsberg?

But if you're David Poil, you might be sitting there going, I've been in NHLGM for 90 years, and I've never won, and I'm not looking to do a rebuild. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they're good. I don't think they're going to go on a run. Their pace for the rest of the season would need to be about 95 points to make the playoffs as it stands right now.

I don't see it. Let's then move on to the next team is the Detroit Red Wings, 21 points from 20 games, or 21 games, sorry. No, they're not a playoff team, please. They're not, but they're, this is a good season for a rebuilding team. Absolutely, 100%. This is, you know, you're on track. The things that you would want to see as if you're a Red Wings fan have, for the most part,

happened, you know, the young guys look good, Lucas Raymond looks great. where it's siders look like a guy that was worth a six overall pick or whatever it was where a lot of us kind of looked at that weird. Nadelchkovich has been good. Very good, yeah. Certainly worth the third round pick or whatever they gave up for him. Like this is, you know, it's, you look at the, whenever you do a rebuild, the easy part is tearing it all down.

and compiling the picks and everything. And then at some point, you know, yeah, you're looking ahead to we want to contend, we want to be in the playoffs, we want to win a cup, but there's that middle ground where you've got to take a few steps. And very few teams skip that. Some teams never even get there. This is the step season for the Red Wings. Like they are doing what you want to, you know, if you're doing a checkup to see if the,

Eiser plan is on track. This is the season that you want it to have. And, you know, I don't think they make the playoffs, of course, but if they can stay just close to the race, let's let some of these young guys play meaningful hockey in February. That's good experience, too. Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, do they trade Thomas Christ? Do they trade Nick Letty? Do they trade, I don't know, any of their other veterans who are pending UFAs? Probably. and then you just get more picks and prospects and off you go, you know. You know, I wonder what they do with a guy like maybe Tyler Bertuzi. I don't know how long he is for that organization and that sort of stuff.

So, yeah, they're an interesting team for sure. But they're not going to make the playoffs, and nobody is under that impression. So good for them. Next up, the Boston Bruins 20 points. from 16 games, they're another, they're one of like three teams that have only played 16 somehow to this point. Yeah, we just kind of forgot to put them on the schedule. Yeah. I said this in my call last year.

Like, I keep, every time I look at Boston, I'm like, was there like a big snowstorm or something that I missed? Yeah, no. Like, it's so, it's been so, like, let's put it this way. The local media has been, uh, has been saying like, boy, this schedule is really fucked up for like a couple of weeks. They're like, I guess I haven't done anything in like three days. That's weird. Yeah. We're down to, in terms of points, I think Boston's the 20th team we've hit, but top 12 in points percentage.

Yeah. They're on pace for a hundred and two and a half. And, you know, I think if you said, okay, you're not going to get much out of the goaltending. It's going to be fine, and that's about it. Taylor Hall is going to struggle a little bit to score, especially at five on five. And, you know, like, you're going to get a couple of big games out of Charlie Coyle, but he's not going to, like, blow your doors off as the number two center or anything like that.

And, you know, blah, blah, blah. But with all that having been said, you're still going to be in the playoffs. You're still going to be on pace for more than 100 points after 16 games. I think everybody would have been like, this sounds exactly right. to me. The top line is the best line in the league that's healthy. Blue line is after Charlie Maggoy, you have some questions. They do miss David Creachie, who was, you know, an underrated part of what made that

team tick. The goaltending is the question mark. You know, Allmark's been a little bit better. But that's an interesting situation because you do still have the two-carass thing hanging over this. Yeah. He's not healthy right now, and he's not under contract. But when he is healthy, could that be an option?

Do you bring this guy back late in the season? You know, he's been kind of a, like a lot of goaltender, has been a whipping boy more than he should have for that fan base. Yeah. But now they're kind of seeing the other side of the coin, how the rest of the teams have lived. And I don't know. That's going to be interesting to see by the time February or March rolls around

Is there some interest there to say, let's bring this guy back? And then what do you do with Allmark if you do? Because you gave him four years. Yeah, that is the really interesting thing. Mike Milberry was on the radio here and so obviously take this with as much salt as you'd like to. But he said that there were people in the organization who were pushing for, you just go with the Swamen Vlodar tandem and you don't sign Allmark. You leave that $5 million kind of sitting around or use it to sign somebody else.

And I would have said, you know what, if you think Tuka Rask is coming back in January or February, and he's going to be healthy at that point, don't you fucking do that? Like, wouldn't that just be the thing that makes sense? Obviously, the concern is you let the season slip away if those guys aren't ready. But those guys are playing great. you know, or he doesn't get healthy or he decides he doesn't want to play. I mean, you know, remember this is this is a guy who, you know, didn't play in the bubble. And so who knows.

But I was a little surprised they went on a four-year commitment to a guy without much of a track record. Yeah. He got the classic. He got the classic, well, he played for a dog shit team and was pretty good. So he must be fine, you know. But yeah. So like I said, I think we both agree. the Bruins are pretty much a playoff team.

They're good. They're probably going to get better as the season goes along, et cetera, because they brought in so many guys, et cetera, et cetera. They should be fine. So next up, with 20 points from 17 games is the New Jersey Devils. They're on pace for 96.5 points. You know, I think the Devils are a pretty good team. Obviously, they've been playing most of the year without Jack Hughes.

But I just, I think it's too. too tough of a of a playoff window to squeeze yourself through basically because they have to beat out one of you know now granted it's Columbus it's the penguins with if he goaltending but also like the flyers are going to be taking points from you all season blah blah blah like I don't know I just kind of can't can't see a window for them even if I think they're if they were in the western conference, I think they'd probably be a playoff team, or at least in the conversation. I can't get there in the east. They feel like one of those teams to me where it's like, this is just about right.

This is, you know, they are, they're fake 500, which is to say that they're over 500, but they lose more than they win. The pieces that we thought would be good have mostly been good. You know, you'd like to see them with Hughes for an extended period because he seemed like he was revving up. Yeah, and obviously the goalie, why am I blanking on his name? Mackenzie Blackwood. Mackenzie Blackwood has been hurt a little bit and that kind of stuff too.

So like you got to take all that into consideration. And yeah, there are only technically two points out of the playoffs, but, you know. They feel a year away still. They feel a year away. Which is okay. That's pretty much right for the, uh, For the plan. Yeah.

You know what? Let's put it this way. A team with Yesper Brot as the leading scorer, that's not a playoff team. Come on. No, probably not. And we should also talk about the uniforms now that we've, because I don't think you guys got that last week. Yeah, no, they had not come up. They had not leaked yet.

They're bad. They're not good. And folks, this is. Sean who usually doesn't have an opinion on Jersey. Yeah, and I don't care, like, I don't care about, you know, the piping or the, you know, I don't know about the collar. I don't care about any of that stuff. In fact, you know, looking at the, what they, their inspiration, then the history and some of the stuff they were pulling on, I think that stuff's kind of neat. But you can't just fright Jersey across the front of your jersey. And like, I mean, that is like, talk about, I, I, I, It's low effort. It's just low effort. I've been playing this game with my kids where it's like this online, like, drawing game where you're, you know, you get a topic and you got to draw it and you never have enough time. And I always do too much details around the edges. And then I realize I've got 10 seconds left and I just have to scribble the, and that's what this reminds me of.

Like they spent so much time figuring on how many, how many stripes to have on the sleeves to represent this, you know, the 1922 work whatever. Oh, this is, the black in this jersey represents the intimidation we want our, or the, the, the laces are like inspired by the goal net, like. Right, yeah, okay. But it was, that, that part was very funny, right? That they leaked and everybody was like, these suck, including New Jersey fans. And then the formal announcement, they're like, Martan Brode designed them. And it's like, oh, yeah, 50 year old guy who has no history of graphic.

design experience. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. There is literally no job that an NHL team will not hire a former player for. And just be like, you are clear, you're number, you're the guy. Like, I'm really looking for, like, we should just take this all the way. Like, some team needs to be like, our new food services manager is Paul Korea. And he's just like, I don't know, I've never cooked anything. I have no idea what I'm doing. It's just pasta at every concession stand. Exactly. Just white rice and microwave popcorn. Yeah. Robin noodles and yeah, there you go.

Next up, the Philadelphia Flyers, 20 points from 18 games, minus six goal difference. 91 point pace. Yeah, I can't see them getting up over a hundred point pace the entire rest of the way to weasel their way into the playoffs here. This always felt like a deeply mediocre team to me. And, you know, by points percentage, I believe they're right around the middle of the league, maybe the lower end of the middle of the league. Again, feels right, you know. Yeah.

And this, you know, looked better a couple of weeks ago, but they hit a stretch in their schedule that was just brutal. They had a stretch where it was. Oh, my God. Calgary, Tampa. Tampa, Boston, Tampa, Florida, and they play Carolina. And then Carolina. So they beat Calgary in overtime, but four straight losses to Tampa, Boston, Tampa, Florida, and they've got Carolina tonight. And, you know, well, I was going to say it gets a little easier, but not really.

Tampa and Colorado, we're back. Vegas is in there. Anyways, this is, I don't think a playoff team is what I would say, but not a bad team. And look, the wild thing is that their record is this good, or this mediocre, I should say, with goaltending, great goaltending. Unbelievable goaltending. And if you're a Flyers fan, you're thrilled at that,

that Carter Hart looks good again. Because that was the terrifying thing about last year is that he looked, he looked like he was lost. And he's been good again this year. I mean, if I'm a Flyers fan, I take a non-playoff year with 920 goaltending from Carter Hart, and I feel like this is my guy for the next 10 years versus a playoff year where he isn't good and it's something else that lifts up. They stink at 5 on 5. They're awful at 5 on 5. Their power play isn't very good either.

And so, you know, this seems like this is the natural result of a team where it's like we have a bunch of guys who are maybe a little too old, and we have a bunch of guys who are maybe a little too young or just like mediocre, you know? And James Van Riemsdak just not scoring, which that plays into the power play situation. You got to wonder what they do with Jeru. You got to wonder what they do with half their defense, maybe more than that. I don't remember how many guys off the top of my head are on, you know, expiring contracts. Well, I mean, but one of them is Ristelan, and you got to think they're, I mean.

You got to cut bait. You got to cut bait. Well, maybe you do, but they're not going to. That's not what NHL teams do. Like, you give up that much for a guy. You got to cut bait. That to me felt like we're doing the Calgary Flames going for it thing, of going with a mediocre guy, giving up too much for him,

whether it's in terms of money or assets. And we're going to be surprised when he stinks. You know? Claudeau-Giru on an expiring deal. That's, I didn't realize that until. Yeah. That's going to be interesting. He's up this summer.

So I don't know. I think he fucking trade him, right? Like, again, thanks for your service, but you're, what, three, three, 34 years old? No movement clause, though. Oh, is that true? Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, you would presume, especially if they go to them and say, we're not bringing

you back in the summer. Yeah, there's just no, there's just no number where it's going to make sense. So do you want to, especially if they're, you know, it gets tough if they're in the play, like they're on the playoff bubble around there. But if they're falling out of it, it's like, look, you're going to hit UFA. This is your going to be your last chance at a big contract. Do you want to do it? Do you want to hit free agency in July where no one's seen you since April or do you want to do it after a playoff run?

I don't think that's all that hard of choice, although we've seen players. It's the NHHA. Yeah. Yep. Okay, next up, the Los Angeles Kings 19 points from 19 games. Dead even 500 team, but a minus three goal difference. They are on pace, obviously. If they're 500, they're on pace for 82 points.

They probably need to play at about a 98 point pace the rest of the way. Sorry, guys. You know, you started nice, but... We talked about... We talked about, I think it was Pittsburgh being like three different teams already. Yeah. L.A. Kings beat the Golden Knights on. opening night, lose six in a row, win seven in a row, and now they've lost five in a row

and counting. So, yeah, they're 19 games into their season. They've had three streaks of five games or longer already. This is, this is, I remember when I was a kid, I had, I don't remember what game it was, but I had like a sports computer game where, like, every time you opened it, it would kind of like do a random role for whatever and then like so you would either have like a good session or a bad

session and it became kind of predictable that's the kings like the kings are just at some point something is just flipping because yeah six losses seven wins five losses it's not turn off the system reboot and hope you get a better role next time

they've got Ottawa Saturday night so that's that's your get right game but they they did not, they have not look good. They've even lost to the coyotes and that should not happen. And, you know, they've had injury like Dowdy's been out this whole time and Byfield hasn't played a single game. Yeah.

So like I get it. I mean, we should say of that five game losing streak other than the coyotes, the other Jets capitals, Hurricanes leave. Yeah, teams you should lose to. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, again, nobody thought they were going to be a playoff team this year. Or, you know, maybe they'd be borderline playoff competitive. but only because of the quality of the division.

And as we've said a bunch of times, the division's already too good. So that's the end of that. Yeah. Jonathan Quicks look good, though. Yep. And Calvin Peterson hasn't, which is awkward. So that's the other thing, right? It's like, speaking of Jonathan Quick, doesn't he only have one year left after this one?

Maybe you try to trade him. Yep. You eat a little bit of money, try to trade him. It's because Peterson's new deal kicks in next year. Yep. he's super cheap this year 5 million like it

yeah exactly so let's move on the Dallas stars 18 points from 17 games but with a so it's a little above 500 but with a negative goal difference

uh yeah I think something's got to change there they don't have a good mix on the roster I don't know that their coach has a lot of answers I think I think the coach may be the first situation that changes.

But with that having been said, they've won four of the last five. Yeah. And I've seen a lot of people, and maybe that's just it, because I've seen a lot of people say, this is the team that's out of the playoffs that is going to make the jump in. They got a long way to go, though. That's the problem for them. Yeah.

They do have some ground to make up. They have to play at a 96-point pace the rest of the way. That's a big ask for this group, I think. Boy. And look at the upcoming schedule. Colorado, Arizona, Carolina, Columbus, Arizona, Vegas. So, I mean, you're swinging wildly between the two extremes of the league there. That's going to be something.

Yeah, I mean, the Rick, Rick bonus, look, I like Rick bonus a lot as a story. You know, going to the final with him was very cool. I'm not, and him going to the final as an interim coach. I mean, you kind of have to make, give him the full-time job. but we're two years in and I think you're at the point where you can make a move now if you decide that that's what makes sense because it's just not working

and it has it didn't work last year and there were a million reasons why but like how many how many how many asterisks do we want to have fixed to you know what let's keep this coach around because we went to the cup final in a total fluke in the bubble two years ago The thing is you look at this team and it's like, I don't see a ton of guys where I'm like, oh, well, you know, they're not, they're having a rough season because this guy is not having a good year.

Tyler Sagan would be the one, but I mean, you look at the health situation, maybe we shouldn't have expected too much. But other than that, it's kind of like this is just what they are. So if you're not going to change the coach, then you're kind of stuck with what you got. And at this point, it doesn't look like that's going to be good enough. Yeah, next up, the Buffalo Sabres 16 points from 19 games, but falling fast. It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? You know, it's crazy that everybody got mad at me at the beginning of the season when I said, you know, I kind of think the Sabres starting white hot and then dropping off is a thing I've seen before.

Yeah. And, you know, I got the classic let people enjoy things shit, you know? It's like, yeah, you were like the guy that, you know, the, The five teenagers are going to the abandoned cabin, and you're like, maybe bring an lantern or something? And everyone's like, just let them. I'm at the ninth generation of Jurassic Park going, I kind of think this is a bad idea. Everybody's mad at Dr. Ian Malcolm for saying, uh-huh, uh-huh, let people enjoy things, you know, whatever. Yeah, their last 12 games, two, nine and one, they've been outscored by 21 goals.

they've been out shot by more than 100 shots. They are bad. They stink. Yeah, out of those, or whatever it was, nine losses, I'm looking at it, seven that they've given up five goals or more, eight or four goals or more. I mean, they're just getting,

I'm sure there's some empty netters in there and what have you, but they are just getting pumped. And the goal tendings bad. I mean, this is Craig Anderson looked good for a few games, but yeah who could have foreseen Craig Anderson is it Dustin Tokarski is their other goalie? Yeah that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy.

They're just getting the shelled. Uh, you know, it was fun while it lasted, but, uh, inevitable and this is, look, it's what they should be doing, you know, like, they should be trying to be bad. So another high pick coming, you know, they had the number one overall pick and he's not in a line. up, which so, you know, a little something. There's, I feel like we got a spoonful of optimism into Sabres fans before reality hit. Yeah. Let's see. Who's next?

Who's next? After the Buffalo Sabres, Chicago, 14 points from 19 games. You know, they're on pace for a robust 60 points this season. They need to play at 105 point pace or so the rest of the way. They're obviously not going to do that. Nobody is surprised. But they do. They have gotten a little bit of a dead cat bounce with the new coach.

And, you know, they needed to make the change behind the bench. I'm frankly surprised it took as long as it did. But, you know, even saying that they're five and two in their last seven games, they are dead even in goal difference and have been, no, I'm sorry, they're minus one in goal difference despite being five and two, and they've been outshot by like 50. They played five bad to mediocre teams, and they played two good ones, Edmonton and Calgary, and they gave up 10 goals losing both of those games. Yep.

I mean, it's tough. You lose nine games to start a season. Your season's over. Yeah, that's right. You're done. So from there, you know, where do you go? So Mark Lazarus wrote about it this week. What do you think they do with Taves and Cain?

You know, obviously they both have a year left, but now is the time to start thinking about the exit strategy. Yep. And I mean, this is, you know, of all the teams where if they were to slap a big four sale sign, I mean, that they could really shake up on Cain in particular. Taves has been bad. Like, yeah. For understandable reasons, for sure. But he hasn't.

But he's been awful. And the other guy is Flurry, right? Which, you know, you assume that he comes in, they have to twist his arm just to come play. You know, he probably wouldn't necessarily want to just go anywhere. But expiring deal, you retain half that salary. He goes to Colorado to Vegas. What do you think? Hmm, that could work.

That could work. I flurried to Colorado, man. Colorado, Vegas, Western Conference final flurrying in a hole for the hours. Oh, fuck, yes, dude. Let's go. But yeah, okay, so here's the guys who are up the next two years, who Chicago should legitimately at least think about trading. Obviously, they're going to keep to brink it,

even though he's going to cost a shitload of money for them. Taves and Cain, like I mentioned. Dominic Kubolique is a pending RFA after this season. Dylan Strom already on his way out the door. Ryan Carpenter, I barely know who that is. Adam Godette, you know, who knows. Jujar Kara. Calvin DeHan is an interesting name.

I wonder if anybody would be interested in that. Eric Gustafson, Kevin Lankin and Mark Andre Flurry. Frankly, they should have sold high on Lankin when they had the chance. And then, yeah, that's about it. But I don't know. I feel like there are some guys that especially now they need to recoup a first-round pick. You know who's going to get your first-round pick? It's Patrick Cain.

I'd be thinking about it, certainly. That is... That is a big part of the prop. We've seen that with other teams. And when you're having an awful year and you don't have your first pick, and it is, like we said, it's lottery protected for the top two. The odds aren't good that they're going to finish top two. Even if they somehow get into the bottom two of the league over the rest of the season,

which I think is going to be difficult given how bad the other teams at the bottom the league are. Yeah, they got to get more first-round picks, so it's time to start picking up the phone. And, you know, new, sorry, I was just going to say new GM in place and, you know, definitely a full-on cleaning of houses. So, yeah, I would agree that they should pick up the phone. Speaking of which, how about those Vancouver Canucks, 14 points from 20 games, negative 19. goal difference. I said it weird like that because when you said pick up the phone, I was like, is he doing an ad transition?

And I just stepped on it. So that's why I like awkwardly threw it back to you. I just realized we have a fucking ad this week. Okay. That was my subtle way of it. This week's episode of Fuck Soup is brought to you by, if I can pull it up really quickly. Or Draft Kings, it says it says we're sponsored by Draft Kings this week. The NHL season is underway in the draft king's sports book, an official sportsman.

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Hey, speaking of Draft Kings, just edit that in. Yeah, you know what? We're going to have kids go back in post. Yeah, that's too good to leave on the table. Sean, thanks for reminding me, by the way. So, yeah, the Vancouver Canucks, they suck. They stink. This is why Greg doesn't get to take weeks off.

That's right. falls apart completely. I'm not here. You guys just find someone with the same name and the show's better. In theory, we could have just edited in after Katie frantically texting me going, hey, dipshit. Yeah. And then I go, ahem, ahem. Speaking of the Winnipeg Jets or whatever, put it way earlier in the episode.

We're two idiots. What am I going to tell you? Yeah, this is, yeah. Hey, speaking of two idiots, the Vancouver Canucks. Oh, here we go. Jim Benning getting fired probably later today. Travis Green probably the same fate awaits him. How about nobody's surprised by any of that.

I guess surprised by how bad it's gotten. We're not surprised that they're not good. Nobody seems surprised about that other than Jim Benning and the ownership. But they weren't supposed to be this bad. this is they are surprising and that's why they deserve another kick at the can i think that's right i think well i i think this is the sort of thing it's only been eight years i think you really have to see how the weekend goes we could get to the decade before we make any hard and fast decisions um how about the reports that came out in the last like 18 hours or so that it's basically

just j t miller going boy we really fucking suck and everybody else is like yeah we do like you know he had to be he came in He got the glasses from the weird church basement. He put him on and he was like, wait a second. This team's terrible. And now he's, I saw Spector, I think it was, say that it's, it was a lack of leadership because leaders build you up and, uh, they don't tear you down when it's, when it's bad. So, uh, JT Miller for, uh, for GM.

Yeah, I mean. At least coach, right? Like he, he, he's basically said Bo Horvatt, uh, sucks at this and, and Bo Horvats not good and neither is the coach and the team is built poorly. Like, I think it was Tom Drance yesterday said that in practice, he just yelled, we don't know what we're doing. Yeah. That's so cool.

Not wrong. No. No. Yeah. It's a mess. It's going to be a very tough job to dig out. Especially because you've got to wonder, you know, the last two GMs to get let go were because they told ownership, no.

It seems like Jim Benning only kept his job this long because he kept telling ownership, yes. So how does that work with whoever they hire next? Yeah, I mean, there's 32 jobs, so, you know, somebody's going to jump at it, of course, but it's... Well, I'm just thinking in terms of will ownership learn their lesson and go kind of more of a laissez-faire approach. They made money at one thing, so that means they're super smart at everything. That's right. And they're good at this, and they'll figure it out. But, oh, like, you just look at the caps.

They have Oliver Ekman Larson for, I don't know. And he has any, honestly. The dreaded red arrow on a cap friendly page. Yeah. Honestly, to be fair, he hasn't even been that bad this year. No. This isn't really his problem necessarily. But should he cost $7.25 million against the cap or whatever the number is?

Yeah. I'm going to say no. This was the year where he was supposed to change a scenery, he'll be good for a few years, and then he'll fall off and he's been okay. Yeah. You know, the real issue is Tyler Myers, Tucker Pullman might be the most entertaining, bad defensemen in the league. He's signed for another three or four years, I think.

Like, oh boy, I do not envy whoever the next GM is, whether it's J.T. Miller or somebody else. But if nothing else, you know what, kudos to J.T. A. T. Miller, he finally got Canucks overall to recognize what many of their fans have been saying for like four or five years now. So, you know,

they should have a parade for him alone. Speaking of teams that nobody expected to be this bad, Seattle, 13 points from 19 games, they also stink. But they stink in a way that is predictable except Grubeauer is bad. Everything else about their problems extremely foreseeable based on the roster they put together.

Don't score great. Blue lines okay. This is, you know, this is the goaltending. It's not just Gruberauer, but Dredger is well aware. They're going to be strong, and that'll be enough for them to get by with the other stuff. And hopefully, like Vegas, they have a couple of guys that, because they're playing higher in the lineup for the first time, breakthrough. And that hasn't really happened.

And the goaltending's been bad. The thing, though, that I keep coming back to, and I know I'm beating this dead horse when it comes to the Cracken, is this should be the point where we're looking at them going, okay, they're bad, but they had all those draft picks last summer. They got more draft picks with because they made all these moves around the expansion draft, and they didn't do any of that. Yeah, and they just lost Nathan Bastion back to the Devils.

This has happened a few times where, like, the guy they picked is, no longer with the team. And part of that, maybe you go, well, they pick 31 guys and there's only 23 roster spots. So, you know, whatever. But, you know, this is a bad team that has basically one prospect, like one really good prospect from last year's draft. They have their own picks, so they'll have a good pick this year and all.

But they don't have, you know, this is Vegas at this point, putting aside how good Vegas was. They had banked a lot of capital as far. as future assets and Seattle just either wouldn't or couldn't do it and it's it's rough now. Yeah, it's real bad. It's real bad. Let's see. Let's see.

Next up, there's nothing more to say about them. Now, this is an interesting team. The New York Islanders have 12 points from 16 games. Minus 19 goal difference. They're on pace for 61.5 points. They're awful. I did not see. this coming at all

with the exception and I made this argument in my column last week I said I feel like we can write off a big chunk of the first few the first month because they were on the road for the entire month. 13 games on the road to start the year.

13 games on the road while they waited for the arena to be finished so I mean and it wasn't like you know it wasn't like they're going off and playing the Rangers and stuff like you look at their schedule, they were all over the place. They didn't have, they had one game in New Jersey, but, you know, Carolina, Florida, Chicago, down to the desert, up to Canada, back to Florida.

Like, just a killer. Wrecking up the frequent flyer miles for sure. So I made the case last weekend. I said, you know, I'm not going to judge this team until I've seen them at home. Well, since then, three home games outscored 12 to 3, 0 and 3, all regulation losses. We do have to say, of course, multiple of, or at least the Rangers game the other night should not have happened because they're COVID situation. Yeah, that's. They've had a ton of injuries.

Like, there are a lot of asterisks you can affect to why they've been bad this year. But the fact is, they've been bad for like a quarter of the season now. And, you know, they need to play at a hundred and 12 point pace the entire rest of the season. They're not going to do that. Nobody's going to do that, really, right? It would be extremely different. Like, I think you could make the case that you throw out everything, you know, throw out the 16 games that we've just had as far as what we know about the Islanders.

Because of the road trip, because of the COVID situation, this is, it's all fake. But, okay, sure, I believe you. They've still played 16 games and they've banked 12 points. and they've got 80% of the season left, but just a huge, a huge amount to climb. So, I don't know. It seems like a impossible.

Don has them as a 16%. I'm looking at his projections. He's got them at 16% to make the playoffs. Which is, I mean, Dom's a smart guy. You know, I,

I understand all that. And this is his model, of course, which liked the Islanders this year for the first time. Yeah. In a while, much to their fan chagre. but right and it seems like that that's exactly what came to pass um yeah you know they're they're

they're they're the hole's just too deep at this point tough shit but like that's that's that's how it goes you know um which then you know what do you then do at the deadline what do you do in the off season does lula amorello does you know do you just throw your hands up and say it was just one of those crazy years stick to the plan they're not a young team they don't have what's interesting is with the exception of Scott Mayfield, I believe all of their, every single one of their defensemen needs a new contract this summer. Well, no, that's not true because Pelican and, uh,

just Pelic, right? Just Pelic has been extended. No, Poolech, too. Yeah, that's right. But, um, so, but yeah, they need to completely remake their defensive core,

uh, this summer anyway, pretty much. Like they need to swap out three, four guys. So might as well get a head start, you know. Might as well. But again, you know, with Lou, that's right. Yeah.

It's unconventional thinking. We're not going to find out that he traded for Devon Taves until fucking November 9th. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he's already, they've already traded Matthew Barzell for a first round pick. We just don't know. And we'll never know it, actually. Yeah. And Betman's calling him like, I don't think you can keep him in the line.

up and he's like, I'll take it under advisement. That's right. It's like, all right, we'll check back in a month. Another team with 12 points, this time from 21 games. Oof, the Montreal Canadiens. Again, you wouldn't, yeah, an absolute disaster. Much like the Canucks, I think you would say, I thought they would be bad. I didn't think they would be this bad.

You know, and again, no Shea Weber, Carrie Price missed a good chunk of the season. All that stuff. There's a bunch of mitigating factors here. But the fact is that, again, I went on the radio in Montreal over the summer and got yelled at for 15 minutes because I said the team's not going to be any good this year. And like the fact that people in Montreal just didn't seem prepared for that event while we just went to the cup final. How could we be not good? Well, I mean, there's a bunch of reasons. Again, they lost a bunch of important players.

over the summer for any number of reason, and replace them with worse versions of every one of those players. So, you know, I, I, we can definitely be surprised that they're one of the worst teams in the league. We can't be surprised that they're bad. Yeah, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm not surprised at all that they're out of the playoffs. I think all of us pick them to miss the playoffs. I didn't see anything like this.

Yeah, not 12 points from 20. one games. Yeah, this is the worst case scenario. And not just as far as the record. I mean, you just kind of go down the list of what you were hoping to see if you're a Habs fan and most of it hasn't happened. You know, even without carry price, like Jake Allen, this is why they went and got Jake Allen for situations like this.

He hasn't been good. And now he's hurt. Jeff Petrie, nobody knows what's going on there. Cole Cofield gets sent down. Yep. Still has one goal. I mean, I guess you'd look at it. say maybe Nick Suzuki continues to look like a good number one center in the making.

He hasn't made the leap to, you know, into the elite type of conversation that Hats fans seem to already think he's in, but he's progressing. Other than that, I don't. And, you know, Jonathan Druin being back is a good story. But other than that, it's a mess. And here's the situation that I wonder about. This is in my mailbag today. obviously the team is bad.

This is a rebuild. This is a situation where you look at it objectively and you say, it's time to roll out the tank. It's time to get a high pick. 100%. Get a franchise forward or whatever you can get. Sell, sell, sell, and regroup and start again. But you got a GM who's in the last year of his deal

and certainly doesn't seem like he's sticking around. So what does Mark Bergevin do here? Does Mark Bergevin want to tank and then hit the open market as the GM of a last place team? Or does he want to find a way to try to fix this, even in the short term, for his own market value? And is that the right thing for the team? And if so, you know, if not, what do you do?

And, you know, if you make a change there, I mean, I'll hit Dichard. That gets into the thing of, is a GM a steward for the team itself long term or a guy who's just out. And they never are. Yeah, right. always, you know, out for themselves. But this is a unique situation because we've seen a lot of times, you know, GMs very often love to tear down a rebuild because it buys them time. Yeah.

It's the easiest part of a GM's job is to just trade guys away. And, you know, you're allowed to be bad for a few years. But and then you get the shiny new draft picks that you get to play with when it's, when it's time to be good again. And but in this case, you know, Mark Bergevin, he's building this for whoever. I don't know who's. who's taking over, and it could still be him in theory. But if it's not, you know, like, we could have a very strange situation where a few

months from now, the Hads could be still one of the worst teams in the league, approaching the deadline with the GM that everybody knows is a lame duck, making crucial franchise altering decisions for the next guy. That's not ideal. Yeah. All right. Let's do the last two teams here real quick. The Arizona Coyotes, 10 points from 20 games.

they stink, they're stinking on purpose, and, you know, they're getting exactly what they wanted. So that's that, you know. Yeah, there's nothing to say about it. This is how it was supposed to go. The only thing I'm interested in is the Phil Castle Trade Deadline Watch. Yeah, they got a couple of guys that I'd be interested to see what happens, but. Yeah, the one thing you don't like if you're an Arizona fan, because you knew what this season was going to be. Watching the coyotes.

Yeah, that's, Jacob Chikrin being. Bad or not bad, but he's been good. Because, I mean, he was the guy you looked at and you went, he's our one good player. Yep. That's. Not really. But, I mean, I'm willing to look at that and say, like, at some point, the sinking boat drags everyone down, maybe. How about this?

They're getting outscored. They have a minus 37 goal difference in 20 games. That's incredible. That's on pace to get outscored by like a hundred-fif goals. these stuff. Yeah, really bad. And finally, they're last in the point totals, but second last in

points pace, and that's the Ottawa senators who everybody thought they maybe would take, or not everybody, but like a good number of people thought they'd maybe take a step forward. They haven't. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world. That's all I have to say about it. I think,

you know what, be bad for another. It's not. It's not. But Pierre Dorian the rebuild is done. That was in the summer. That's right. Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Which a lot of people kind of went, oh, that's not something you should say.

But it's, yeah, it's been a mess. And, you know, look, right now they're still dealing with the after effects of a COVID outbreak. I don't think we should judge anything that happened last week, this week. You know, but the fact is, yeah, they were supposed to be better this year. Yeah. It was supposed to be progress. And you're right. Another top prospect is in the end of the world because I keep looking at these projected rosters for the senators team. I'm here in Ottawa. So I see I probably pay more attention to this team than anyone should.

You know, I keep looking at these like, here's the projected roster three years from now. And I'm like, that doesn't look like a contender to me yet. Like I even though everybody hits what they're supposed to. So they could use one more guy, but that wasn't the plan. They could. They could. Yeah. They absolutely could. So the one thing I'll say is I know it's been very frustrating for Senators fans because even if realistically you looked at this team and said it's going to be another bottom 10 year, look at all the other teams that were supposed to be in the bottom 10, right? Coyotes are, we thought would be terrible they are. But then you look around, the three California teams have all been better than expected. Buffalo was better than expected.

New Jersey is kind of in the mix. Detroit's been better. And it's just sort of like you're looking around going everybody who, who's trying to win has been better than expected except us. And we're stuck in, you know, we're even worse than we were years previous. It's a frustrating time in Ottawa. I don't think Dorian's going anywhere. He got the extension and he's Melnick's guy, but DJ Smith and on down the line.

I don't know what happens here. It's really, I think things are going to get very interesting in Ottawa this year. Yeah. Let's just say that. And, you know, there's a team that needs to be interesting in a way that nobody wants. Yeah. But yeah, okay, that's the whole league. Before we go, are you excited for any movies this Christmas season coming up?

Like, do you know about any of the movies that are coming out? What have I said? No, not really. No, not really. No, Christmasy movies. I know the Ghostbusters, like, that looked okay. and I kind of want to see the Resident Evil movie even though I know they've made like 19

because I'd love that video game. Okay, sure. I remember when the first movie came out, my wife and I saw it, and we're like, oh, okay, that movie was okay, but it's really not based on the video game at all, except in very loose terms, whereas this one they seem to have actually kind of recreated a lot of it.

So I would like to see that. Yeah, I know like you're not a Matrix guy, right? So is that coming out this? That's coming out around Christmas, yeah. No, I. I'm going to do what I did last time and wait like seven years. Sure. Be completely confused.

Yeah. I'm seeing licorice pizza, the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie that comes out in New York, I think, today. I'm seeing it. I'm going to New York for other reasons, but I am seeing it on Thursday. I'm very, very excited. Other than that, not really. Did you see Ghostbusters? I did, yeah.

Okay. It was okay. Like, I thought it was going to be way worse than it was, and it wasn't funny. It was kind of like, what if Ghostbusters was Stranger Things and, in fact, had a Stranger Things kid in it. And I won't ruin it, but I think people should go to jail for what happens in the last, like, 10 minutes of that movie. Okay. It's an abomination, let's put it that way. All right.

But on the balance, I thought it was better than I expected it to be. That doesn't mean it was a good. I expected it to be absolutely awful. It was just like kind of not good. Okay. Did you see King Richard? That's the other one I've been wondering. I did.

It's a little bit of a hammy performance from Will Smith. And, you know, it's also like, hey, this guy who's done some like pretty nasty stuff in his life. Uh, you know, um, he's actually really nice and cool and everything he did was actually perfect and it's heard out great. Um, which then you watch the credits at the end and it says Venus and Serena Williams like executive produced it and you go, got it. Okay. Yeah. Um, and because there's like one scene where they reckon with he's not maybe the greatest guy. Um, that I never understood that when like they do, I know this isn't a documentary, but they do like stories like that and then the person who's the subject is the producer.

Right, yeah. That was like when I found out the malice at the palace documentary that was really good on Netflix, like multiple, I think at least one player who was involved in the malice in the palace, like, scuffle was an executive producer of the documentary, and I was like, got it.

Okay. All right. I will say this. Here's the one movie I am looking forward to in the holiday season is that, what is it, don't look up, the Netflix with DiCaprio and everybody. Yeah.

I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. We love a Leo DiCaprio movie around here. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But yeah, that, you know, I'll see them all. That's fine. Because that has everything I'm looking for. Star Power, fun dialogue.

And most importantly, I do not have to leave my house. That's right. Which is not something I like to do in Ottawa for above the next five months. Yeah. King Richard, it's on HBO Max right now. I'll say this. It feels kind of like an HBO, like made for HBO movie anyway. Okay.

So check it out. I think the girls, the girls who play Venus and Serena are very good. And John Bernthal's in it. And we love to see John Bernthal in anything. So. Give me one let. Just give me a yes or no on this. Okay.

The movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Should I seek that one out? The last duel? Yeah. Loved it. 10 out of 10. Really? Movie magic.

I'm in. Yeah. It rocks the book on which it is based is also very, very good. Like, would you put it above or below the Mamma Mia line, which is... Above, easily above. I loved that movie. I get why nobody saw it, but I thought it was awesome. Okay.

It's Ridley Scott, you know, doing big, epic shit again. What's it called? The Last Duel. Okay. I just got really excited because I looked up Last Duel, like how to watch, and it's on Amazon Prime. but that's a different it's a 2007 movie about a Russian poet

so congratulations to them who are probably doing really well they're right well I mean again based on the the box office numbers for the 2021 film the last duel maybe they're not doing so well on the I would have got like 70 minutes into the Russian

poet movie before I was like I haven't seen a single sword in this yeah this is not good yeah that's like all those movies on Netflix that called like the adventurers and it's in the adventure Avengers font and you know it's designed to trick you only yeah exactly all right that's it for the show this week uh we'll be back early next week because as I mentioned uh I'm not going to be around second half of next week

so yeah that's it yeah we'll figure it up schedule next week might be who knows yep I don't know how long it lasts this is my plug now I don't know how long it lasts and I literally can't tell you how good the deal for EP Rinkside's Black Friday sale is, but it's I know what it is and it's very good. And to find out what it is, you have to sign up for like the free newsletter we send out a couple of times a week. I think it will be worth your while. Let's put it that way. Do it. I signed up at full price and I have no regrets.

Wow. Speaking of subscriptions on sale, the athletic, of course, this is the big, at this point, it's kind of the once a year, really best deal you're going to get on the athletic. I know people, you know, we do offers from time to time less than we used to, but still sometimes. But this is the one. It's a dollar a month and it's for one year. I really thought about canceling my subscription and then getting a new one. Because a dollar month is part. Many people have, many people have pointed that out.

Yeah. Why do I as a customer for three years not get the intro offer? Yeah. If you, if you have been on the fence, I don't make a lot of guarantees, but I'm willing to promise you that you will get a dollar a month's worth of value out of this site. Yeah, Christ. Do you find my stuff. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

And you can find my stuff and like bid 400 other people's. So, yeah. Yeah. My uncle last night. crazy if you don't grab it. On Thanksgiving was asking me, like, if I bet on hockey games and I said I don't. But if I did, I would use Dom's model and, you know. Yes.

Maybe a fair amount of money over the course of the season. You too could be driving around in a Tesla because you're... Dom has a Tesla? I think so. Holy shit. The deal. Damn, the athletic paying a lot of money, it sounds like. Yeah, or he puts his money where his mouth is on the bets.

But yeah, it's great value, but I will warn you. It doesn't, the offer doesn't work if you click on anyone else's article and sign up. You have to click on mine and sign up or else like it's this weird thing. It actually charges you a dollar on an hour. Yeah, which is still worth it, but it's high. Yeah. So sign up through Sean, sign up through. Well, you can't sign up through me now that I say that.

But like if you do sign up, you know, let EPRink side on Twitter know that you signed up. that you signed up because you like the stupid bullshit I do. And then you're off and run. There you go. But yeah, this episode went way longer than we planned. We apologize. Goodbye.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows. It's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hockey and Nancet.

Part two.