Puck Soup - The $25,000 Pierre-amid

Episode Date: May 21, 2020

The boys discuss the proposed 24-team, conference-based playoff format, including potential matchups. Plus, the Toronto Six, when the NHL season should start, Akim Aliu, Pierre McGuire as Devils GM, The Snyder Cut, the COVID Cup and our latest and greatest game show segment, The $25,000 Pierre-amid, which is exactly what you think it is. Sponsored by Brooklinen! 

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Bootsu. I'm Greg Wysinski of ESPN, where we're just doing a lot of documentaries these days to be quite candid. I'm Ryan Lambert. I have three documentaries in the works.

That's right. Wow. Yeah. I'm Sean McNer from The Athletic. I'm doing a documentary about Ryan, but he doesn't know it yet. It's one of these kind of got-shies ideal. Yeah, it's going to be great. There it is.

The two-line pass, a 30-for-30. And you're in Puck Soup. Ryan, if you had an endless budget, courtesy of the Disney Corporation, and you could do three 30 for 30s on anything that doesn't have to, that anything that doesn't have to do with hockey, uh, or would they be? 1995 IWA King of the Death Match tournament.

That's number, that's like my legitimate, they should do a 30 for 30 about that. It's the one where for those, Jack is. Yeah, for those that don't know. Uh, blew each other up with, in a C4 ring. Um,

I, I, I think that maybe they would all be wrestling documentaries, honestly. Go ahead, yeah. I don't know. I'd probably do a college hockey one of some kind. I don't know what it would be necessarily,

but a college hockey one for sure. How about one on the Midgee State run to the Frozen Four? I mean, there have been more improbable runs than that to the Frozen Four from like a small conference school or whatever. I'm thinking specifically of when RIT went to, went to Detroit and was just super happy to be there. And I want to say they got annihilated by Wisconsin. Blake Jeffrey on Wisconsin team.

But yeah, and then what would the third one be? I don't know, there's going to be some kind of an insane. Oh, you know what? The Wade Boggs drinking on a plane story. Like, let's get everybody involved on the record about this one. Let's go. I was watching a rather not good new show last night that was on after the mass singer finale called Ultimate Tag, in which somebody thought it was a good idea to give JJ Watt and his brother as a TV show.

I had to mute J.J. Watt because this motherfucker was showing up in my timeline so much. Just like, oh, you're here about Tag? Yeah, I saw the movie about a Jeremy Renner's in it. No, I never saw tag. That's John Hamm. No, it's American Gladiators, but Tag, was the premise. And so my point is that I don't want to talk about Ultimate Tag because, I mean, you know, two weeks from now, it'll be stale because it'll be canceled. But an American Gladiator is 30 for 30, I think I'd watch behind the scenes.

That would be great. That'd be all right. that shit and how it came together. And like stories about real injuries that they had to edit out of the show or something. Like somebody got their eye taken out by the tennis ball cannon or some shit. Just right in the throat.

And they're like, Your Honor, the event is called assault. It is inherent in the name that one would be assaulted. Sean, is there any... Nitro. It's not a fan court at all.

Not Mike Adamley, the host. Sean, any non-hockey 30-for-30s you'd like to see? You know, I would like to see one about the, an in-depth show about the time Randy Johnson killed a bird with a fastball. Oh, sure. And I want to see, like, I want to, like, I don't just want, like, Randy Johnson and the catcher and the umpire. Like, I want, like, a mathematician to,

to break down the odds of that happening and the chances that it would be Randy Johnson, like the most feared power pitcher of all time who does it. And like I want someone, I want an expert on bird flight patterns to map the whole thing. And like I, because that is still something I cannot believe actually happen. So I want, I want that.

And then as a follow up, because we can use some of the same bird guys, I want something on the time that, they got Fabio to ride a roller coaster on a grand opening, and he got hit in the face with a bird. So, like, you just saw him leaving with a big smile and then coming back all bloodied with his nose in the wrong place. It was a goose, if I'm not mistaken.

It might have been. See, that's the question I need answered. So I, uh, yeah. Would there be any way to communicate with the bird community to find out if the Fabio attack was retaliation for the Randy Johnson incident? There's a question. I don't know how, I don't know how the order works. but it's, it is, uh, it's possible.

Let's, let's find out. And I want, like, there's got to be a conspiracy theorist out there who doesn't think it was a bird that messed up Fabio that, like, thinks it was like a mob hit or something or like the little girl next to him just messed him up and they covered it up with the bird story. Like, I, I want to hear from all these people. Right. He was, he was maimed by a competing romance novel cover model. Sure. Uh, to try to ruin his career and they blamed on the bird. Uh, also we would, Andrew, Randy Johnson,

documentary, I would like to talk to an expert on reincarnation to find out who that might have been in the bird. Yes. When it was hit. Yeah. You know, whose life was that fucking bad that when they were reincarnated as a bird, they were killed by a Randy Johnson fastball. That's right. I dig it. Speaking of being killed by Randy Johnson fastball, I have to speak for a moment as a Devils fan.

Did you guys see the news from Steve Simmons that Pierre McGuire may have interviewed to become the new GM of the Devils? Hell yeah, let's go. Yeah. So excited. When contacted Pierre, Pierre's response was, well, actually, that will still have a general manager or something to that effect.

Which is 100% confirming. Yeah. Confirming. That is absolutely a confirmation. People had seen this note in Simmons's dot, dot, dot, dot com, and alerted me to it. And I have to reiterate that, just to reset, my foundation on the Pierre McGuire issue.

I find him unlistenable on television as a between the benches reporter. He detracts from my joy watching the game. I have now been told by two separate bosses that I have to stop tweeting about Pierre McGuire when he's on television

because it's too incessant and maybe borderline cruel, which is fine. But my take has always been that I just feel like he's in a role that he's been miscast in or that he's just not good at. And that if you put him in the studio as an analyst, I think he's quite good. I like his weird, kind of pervy energy that he brings to trade deadline on occasion on TSN. And as a hockey personnel guy, I've

lobbied in the past for him to become a general manager, mostly for the shits and giggles of the idea that he could be the GM of the Ottawa senators at the time when Brian Burke was a GM of the Leafs and what kind of amazing back and forths that could lead to. But my only hesitation about him as a player personnel person, and I do think that he has some value as an executive. Well, he definitely could tell you where to acquire all these players from. Yes, he knows nothing else. Absolutely. Origin story is left and right. It's his staunch opposition to analytics. Yeah, that does not make. sense as a I mean you know we know what the devil's ownership is all about with you know

their work for the or work with the 76ers before this and so like yeah the idea that pierre maguire who's like I'd like to see an analytic that measures uh drew doughty's heart and yeah okay man yeah like the idea that the team that hired sunny meta uh Tyler delo and Matt Cain would then turn around and hire, you know, a fucking Luddite is, is a little bit beyond my comprehension, but I mean, who's to say? All right. The funny thing about Pierre, by the way, is that. I want a 30-30 about the time Pierre McGuire meets Tyler Delo for the first time.

Oh, my. Ten part series. I don't care if the meeting lasts six minutes. I want ten hours on just. I would settle for a, for a, like a bellic. check Parcell's interview between Delo and Pierre, moderated by Mark Specter. I'd settle for that, too. Yep, I'd take it.

Acceptable answer. Yeah, no, Sunday made a MacCain, Tyler Delo, and then turn around to hire Pierre McGuire is kind of a weird flex. I can't imagine. Yeah. Do you think he'll – Here's the thing. Like, you mentioned the analytics, and that is part of it.

You know what my main issue with Pierre McGuire as a GM would be? his complete and utter lack of any front office experience at all in the last quarter century of the NHO. Like the fact, like he's been on TV. That's great. Right. It would be like hiring Ron McLean to be your GM at this point. Like he was, he was a coach, failed completely at that, was worked in front offices.

And I had some, you know, I'm sure some success and some experience. But, I mean, this guy, it's just hiring the guy from the TV. It's, you know, it's Matt Miller. Yeah, it's like when Tampa hired Barry Melrose. Yeah, it's just, it's exactly hiring, you know, going out and hiring a TV guy. And, like, how could he possibly be the most qualified candidate to be a GM in 2020 or even qualified enough to get an interview at this point? Like, it's, it's amazing. And that's not a knock on him.

We don't get a lot of Pierre up here on TV. so I don't have an issue with him as a, you know, the job that he does on television from the doses I see of him or the work he does with TSN, he seems fine. I just can't imagine, like, you've got the most important job in your whole franchise. You've got one chance to hire the very best person, and you go to somebody who hasn't done it in 25 years because they're on TV. It's crazy to me. Yeah.

I tend to believe that his, he's interviewed in a lot of places for GM gigs. And I've come to think that maybe he gets these interviews because they think that he's got insight. Not necessarily they want to give him the job, but maybe it's just like he sits there in a room and they just like mention all the other people that are up for the job to kind of get his opinion on it. I don't, he has interviewed places. And I tend to believe that it's because they're trying to pick his brain versus actually like hire him to do the gig. So maybe that's the same thing with the Devils. But I don't get a problem with the dude. I think on TV he's really bad.

And I don't enjoy, he detracts for my enjoyment of that broadcast team. But if he was the devil's general manager, I would hope that two Jersey boys could break bread one day and mend fences and talk hockey. Wouldn't that be lovely? with Pierre. He's from Jersey, you know. People don't realize that. I did know that. Originally. They think because of the way he acts and because his name is Pierre, he's Canadian, but now he's from Jersey. Well, and yeah, I mean, the fact that he leans into the French, the French pronunciations of everything, literally everything. Yeah. All right. Let's get to the big news that happened before the show, which is the 24-team format, we'll call it. It's got to. got some playoffs in it, but it's not technically a...

Yeah, the league would caution you to not call it a 2014 playoff because some of it's technically not the playoffs at all. Apparently. Apparently. So here's the deal. They're going to, they're talking about a conference-based playoff or whatever. the top four teams would get kind of buys, I guess you'd call it, but we don't really know what they're doing yet. They're just kind of like playing each other.

It's like a circle jerk while everybody else is trying to qualify for the playoffs. And then CEDs 5 through 12 would play each other in a conference-based format. So getting away from the four divisions and six teams from each division. and getting away even from four hub cities. I was told last night it's likely it's just going to be two. And getting to a conference-based format for the first time since we went to the Wildcarden in 2013. And I guess we'll just, before we get down to the brass tacks of who would play who,

or whom would play whom for all of you English majors out there, what are your thoughts on this playoff format? We'll start with you, Sean. Okay, well, I mean, the first thought is there is no format that's going to make everyone happy. Literally, anything they come up with at this point is going to have a whole bunch of people going, wait, that's not the right way to do it. And then they tell you their idea. So I sympathize with them on that. Here's the thing that I find very weird about this is for years now, the NHL has insisted on doing a division-based playoffs.

Right. And some people like that, many people do not. And the main objection to it is you get these weird situations where like the second and third best team in the league play in the first round or the second round. And the response has always been, yeah, but then you get the rivalry matchups and what have you and fine. We've had that argument. Lots of people have had that argument. Now we have this situation where they've got this 24 team format. They're apparently switching back to a conference-based format. You've got, it's not going to be based on divisions after all. It's going to be conference. Everyone's going to be playing everyone else. Which in theory is, is great if you're a fan of that format because it gets, it makes the matchups more fair again. It gets you back to like having the seating be right, except that they're not going to reseed.

They're going to do it as like a bracket format. Which means that like, for example, when, uh, in the east, the Leafs and the Blue Jackets are 8 and 9, they're going to play. The winner of that has to play number one, Boston Bruins. Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadians, number 12, when they win their round because Kerry Price gets three straight shutouts, they play number four. So we get four versus 12 and one versus eight in not even round two, because according in the NHL, the playing round isn't even the real playoffs yet.

So we now have a situation where the first round of the 16 team playoffs, going to have these screwy numbers. I don't understand why, I understand why you might go back to conference. I think it's weird that they're doing it after pushing back on it for so many years. But if you're going to do conference-based, and you're going to do it with two hubs. That's the other thing, right? Because if, obviously, if you've got teams in certain hubs, you have to keep them there. But if the whole conference is going to be in one hub, recede. Like, there's not, nobody cares about filling out brackets for the NHL. Like, I'm sorry. It's fun. We all spend 30 seconds on it and we send annoying.

screen caps on Twitter, but then nobody talks about it again for the whole playoffs. That's not a reason to lock in. It's just very strange to me that you would think, especially with all these GMs apparently so upset over the idea that a 12 seed could win the cup, you think you'd want to make the 12 seeds road as challenging as possible, but instead they're going to get an easier road than teams ahead of them. I'm starting to think maybe the NHL doesn't think these things through very much. Is that possible? No. It's just such a weird flex to want to protect your top seeds and all that jive and then never actually protect your top seeds.

I just don't quite understand. They're diametrically opposed, the idea of trying to put value on the regular season so people will pay attention to it and pay money to watch it. And then when you get to the playoffs, be like, actually, the work that Tampa Bay did to secure that many points doesn't ultimately. matter because we're not going to re-see it. It's fucking dumb. Yeah, it's strange. I mean, at least it's kind of cool that we've got teams getting buys. It would have been cooler if we had known that and could have been watching those races, but that's, it's still, it's still interesting. It's going to be very interesting to see whether the buys actually help or not. I mean, we could see, I could see a situation

where all the top four teams just get smoked out of the first round, which is actually the second round, but because they haven't played me. Like, they're supposed to play this mini tournament, but no one's going to care about that. No one's going to be putting any effort into that. Right. The only way that mini tournament matters is if it's for home ice. Like, you know, if you, whatever, however many goals you score, however many games you win, like that just decides that you have home ice against those other teams.

That's the only thing that matters. But wait, well, what does home ice mean, though? You get to put your stick down first, Greg. You get last, more specifically, you get last change. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Last change, yeah. Last change. Last change really fucking matters. It does. No, that's absolutely true. That's absolutely true. And if that's the case, then good on them for doing that. I mean, will that be what happens? No, probably not. The NHL. It's a very, whatever's dumbest is what they're going to do.

So as of last, as of last night, it was like, it was like a fucking Judd-Apital script where it's like all these details on all these playoff things. And then for the top four seeds of each. conference, it's brackets, you know, Paul Rudd will think of something on set. Like, they just didn't conceive this part quite yet. The other thing that I find interesting that kind of surprised me a bit is they're given the top four teams the buys, but because it's conference-based and not division-based, that means in the West, Dallas gets a buy as the third-place team in the Central, not the Oilers, who were second in the Pacific, which is, yeah, I mean, I mean, if you're going to do it conference, that probably does make sense.

And Dallas did have a better record. But again, it seems weird. Like all the second place teams are getting by is except one. And they're like, yeah, not you guys. I mean, look, it's the Oilers. It is the Oilers. I think it makes perfect sense. But Don had a really interesting point because the thing with this whole 2014 thing is everybody assumes that the reason they're doing this is because you get Chicago and Montreal into the playoffs.

And the Rangers. So you get your big markets into the playoffs. But the downside is you look at the teams that you are now putting in danger of not making the 16 team playoffs, right? Toronto is now had a playoff spot more or less locked up. They're now have a very good chance that they won't go into the 16 team tournament. That's your biggest Canadian market. Pittsburgh has got your most marketable player. they're now in danger when they had a playoff spot pretty close to locked up.

And Edmonton, which is your most marketable player of the future, goes from 100% lock to now 50, because to me all the best of vives are going to be 50, 50 coin flips. So it's suddenly a situation where, yeah, you gain some good markets, but they may end up cutting off a lot that are almost or even more important. And it's like, again, like there's going to be so many times. times during this where we're just like, why are we doing this? What is, like, what are we gaining through, through this? Yeah, I saw somebody talking the other day. I can't remember what league they were talking about, but some league does a way of doing best of three where the, the top

team starts with a one game lead. So basically, like, either the losing team has to win two out of three, but they can get eliminated with one loss as well. So, like, they, they would basically have to win two in a row to win the series, but if, if, you know, the higher seed wins one of those first two games, that's it. And I think that's a, you know, like, if you want to talk about protecting teams, not that the NHL would ever do this, but, like, if you want to talk about protecting teams, like, that would be a good way to do it. Yep, no, there's definitely ways to do it.

There just doesn't sound like they're interested in doing it. And look, the flip side is it's going to be random. It's going to be chaos. There's going to be all sorts of upsets if you consider them upsets. Like for a lot of people, that's going to be a lot of fun. Like it's going to be last year's first round except on steroids, where it's even crazier and even less predictable. And it's going to be. it's going to be just madness right out of the gate.

And I get to for a lot of fans. Like that's what they're looking for. Like that they want that entertainment value. It just seems like, it seems strange to me that if you're sitting there going, like how do we actually hand the Stanley Cup to the right team at the end of all this? Like this seems like a really weird way to go about it. Like, you know, why does Boston and St. Louis?

Like they're the number one seats. Why do they have to face tougher teams than teams? I will say it doesn't seem significantly more random than the current NHL playoffs. Maybe not. This is true. That's the real issue. It is. And it's always the issue.

This is always my argument. And people complain about the current format is, you know, they're like, well, three is playing five and six is playing eight. Yeah, that assumes that three and five are actually the third and fifth best teams and six. And they're not. They're just between the standings and everything else. Like, there's this mushy lump of teams in the middle. are pretty indistinguishable. They get just distributed, however.

And you just got to beat good teams. You know, I always say, like, the reason I don't, the current format doesn't bother me is you've got to beat four good teams eventually. So now some of these teams are going to have to beat five good teams. And, well, that's, I guess, I guess that's just how it goes. It's going to be interesting. It'll be fun on a certain level right up until your team gets bounced out. in three games by Kerry Price.

The scariest man in the entire NHL. The scariest man. I mean, I don't know who is putting it out there to every hockey writer that we all will almost fear the specter of the 20th goaltender in goals saved above replacement over the last three years. But he's the boogeyman right now. But you know what? Like, there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If they're really going to make such a big deal out of Kempathes, Kerry Price being the big boogeyman, what happens when he makes 16 saves in the first period of that first game? And suddenly, like, the team playing him is like, oh, crap, like, this, is this actually going to happen? I mean, I want to pretend that it's not, you know, overstating the talents as Carrie Price and more of a concern of the general hot goaltender. Like, he's the name they keep putting out. I mean, they keep putting him out in the sense of, like, oh, but, but,

whoa the penguins, they'll have to play carry price. Well, but that's the thing, right? It's like, it's like they're so close to figuring out that the NHL playoffs are already almost completely random because of hot goalies. Like they've almost got it, except

they seem to all be focused on the same one guy. When the reality is like, it could be anybody. Pick whatever goaltender you think is the worst in that Jake Allen. Opening playin. Yeah. That guy could get hot for, you know, normally we say like, hey, it just takes a goalie to get hot for four games. Now it's

got to be three. Like, yeah. And three hot games against shooters who are going to be rusty, you know, on weird ice. Like, there's, it's, there's already so much randomness. And, but we all pretend for the sake of our sanity as hockey fans that it's not as random as it is. And it's just, it's weird to see this crack in the wall, but it seems like it's very specifically aimed at this one guy who isn't statistically. You watch the, uh, the, the Olympics. Bix's 2014, I want to say, man, Carrie Price was fucking awesome. And that was only six years ago.

So, same guy. It's just something, yeah, I mean. Oh, yeah. And same team in front of them, too. I mean, yes, that's right. Well, she, I got into my, I got into my, a big argument on, on Twitter yesterday with a, because I said, you know, it's insane to me that the league is going to basically change

the entire playoff format to stay away from a good goalie having a, bad season for the, you know, second time in three years, um, behind a mediocre team and a Canadians fan was like, the Canadians are not mediocre. Yeah. And I was like, fucking excuse me. I mean, they have 19 regulation wins and they're completely right. I mean, by the letter of the law, they're average, uh, because they are 500. I mean, they're literally 500. They have 19 regulation wins. And when I said, which is, I think two, one more than Ottawa and like three more. than Detroit, I want to say. Hey, it wins a win, buddy.

And by the way, Detroit, the team that beat Montreal four times this year. Yeah. But other than that, you know. So the randomness at least, first of all, Sean, how dare you call the middle of the pack a giant mush of teams? That's parody, sir, in Gary Bettman's parlance. Competitive balance. It's so great. Competitive balance.

Yeah. I'm happy they are going with best of five for this round of whatever because it does slightly decrease the randomness. I had an idea for best of three at one point in the last week that I was going to write if there was any reason to do it, which there apparently won't be. What if they did it by best of three, but they score each period? like whoever wins each 20 minute segment of that series you have to get to a certain number of the nine available plus overtime and then you win the series.

What do you think about that? No. Why not just do it by goal difference then? Like, in a sense you really encourage Tampa to just score six goals in the first period and then everybody's like, I'll forget it. My thought was this. If you do it every 20 minutes,

you are essentially seating to the gambling community that may not want to watch a full hockey game. This is the NBA All-Star game format that actually made the All-Star game kind of fun this year, even though I didn't really understand what the scoring system was or anything like that. Right. And then you're also seating to a generation of young fans that don't maybe sit down for two and a half hours with hockey but would watch bite-size. watching their freaking YouTube's. They're freaking...

Yeah, and they're on Twit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, man. By the way, very disheartened by the lack of

pornographic names amongst the Fortnite players for the NHL this week. I mean, there was no, you know, Pussy Man 69 or anything like that, which was what you'd normally find

on Fortnite. Everybody kind of stuck with their own names, so I'm a little disappointed in that. But congrats to the St. Louis Blues for winning the Fortnite thing, only because Patrick Linae, for some reason, didn't want to play in the Fortnite tournament, which is a real bummer. It's like asking Patrick Lainey to go play Major Midget. He's going to kill all these guys.

That was my three-on-three idea. I mean, three-game format idea, but it doesn't matter because they're going to go with fives. So let's start talking about some of these. matchups. Proposed. By the way, keep in mind that by the time you hear this episode, it may all be scrapped because what's been happening is exactly what could happen today,

which is that there's a proposal and then one side's like, I like this, the other side's like, we'll go talk about it. And then they go talk about it and they come back and be like, here's a completely different proposal. And then we're like, ah, fuck, we're back at square one. The horizon is just filled with trial balloons at this point. Yeah, yeah.

Let's say this one doesn't pop. Pour one out. The latest on that, by the way, is that they want to do the lottery now in the draft after the season. So if they get this format down, they can do the lottery. Right. Which would also solve your problem with the conditional trades, except that we still have to figure out whether the round of five counts as playoffs or not, because that would determine, like, if Vancouver loses in the best of five,

did they make the playoffs or not. That determines whether they keep their first round pick. That's going to be an interesting conversation. And I hope they have it now and not after the playoffs, when every GM already knows the results and can mysteriously only pick whatever option helps their own team. I am all for the round of whatever five-game series

determining conditional picks rather than the kangaroo court of Gary Betman determining what the conditions are for a peg as was laid out in that NHL draft document. That was so cool. We'll fucking figure it out on our own and let you guys know how it goes. But it's like, but it's even worse than that. It's, it's, it's like parental. It's like, you know, we're going to let you guys figure it out.

And if you can't figure it out, then we're going to figure it out for you. Right. Yeah. That's it. Back to Winpeg. Yeah. So, so, so yeah. So, yeah.

So, yeah. So Eastern Conference, okay, what was I'm saying? This whole thing could be scrapped by the time he listened to this episode is the point, because the NHLPA executive committee is meeting as we do the show. And hopefully they're like, hey, this is cool. Let's drill down on this and get it done by Friday. Or not. But we'll go with what we got so far.

Top seats in the east, Boston, Tampa, Washington Flyers. They'll all play each other for some reason. Play-in series. Penguins versus Canadians. touched on it, the scourge of Cary Price against a fully armed and operational battle station saved for Dominic Simon, I believe, is the only one who's going to be missing, right? And depending on, I mean, depending on when they get it going, Domit's someone could be perfectly healthy. Fit is a fiddle. I mean, six months. I think he's up for six months.

From when, though? I would count him out. But I mean, they'll get Gensel back probably. So that's a huge boost. So that's an interesting series in the sense that, you know, if it, the only, listen, the only prayer that Habs have is a hot goalie. Because, I mean, the penguins at full strength are a pretty formidable bunch. Carolina Hurricanes against. I don't know, man. I think Max Domey could really fucking heat up. Get it going.

Everybody remember when everybody thought he was good. Will Max Domi even play in a COVID-19 tournament? Yeah. That's a real question. Mitch Martin said if he gets it, he's done or something along those lines. What he said on Twitch the other day and Domi had to talk about it. Carolina Hurricanes against the New York Rangers. Five-game series where Temeran gets 20 points.

Oh, yeah. Carolina gets eliminated, right? Here's my question. I raised this earlier this week, and I haven't got a good answer. Justin Williams, does the Mr. Game 7 thing work if it's a fifth and deciding game? I just thought about, by the way. He actually doesn't like to be called that or like he hates that nickname. I didn't know that.

I saw that the other day. He hates that nickname. Yeah. Well, like, is he Mr. Deciding Game or does it like have to be a seventh game? I don't know. This concerns me. Run the analytics on that. Imagine being known for your heroics in the single most important point of a team season and being like, I don't want that nickname.

That's very hockey. What the fucky? That's a very NHL thing. We all remember Reggie Jackson hated being Mr. October. That's right. That really bothered him. He was like, come on, man. I really wish you'd just call me Mr. June.

Stop singling me out. Oh, okay. You know, I'm so sick and tired of being called Mr. three-pointer at the buzzer in the NBA final. Stop calling me that. By the way, let's face facts here. The Rangers could easily win that series based on what their goaltending was doing before the pause. Yeah, and like you, said, Artemi Panarin's having probably what should be the MVP, it probably won't be,

but I guess you never know based on what it goes on in the round. Oh, yeah, that's the everything, Sean. Do these fucking, do these bullshit games that are existing for conditional picks count towards like the trophies? Yeah, I guarantee they will. I guarantee they will. Or maybe not, because I can see, you know, the other thing I can see happening is the NHL insisting that these games are not playoff games.

but that they are postseason games. And now we're going to have to have that semantic arguments. Because they are happening after the season, but they're not the play. And it's just, we just all, like, agree that they're playoff games and just like... They're fucking playoff games. Who gives a shit? Like, are you telling me if William Nealander scores a hat-trick every game

against the Blue Jackets and the Leafs win that people are going to be like, well, yeah, but let's see them do it in the playoffs now. Like, no, nobody's going to... Well, I will say this. This literally might be just a thing to save the owners an extra like 1.2 million dollars and like uh, and,

uh, and, bonuses for veteran, uh, over 35. No, no, no, no, no. It's, it's because, I guarantee you, it's because the language in the contracts with the local sponsors and the local broadcasters, uh, differentiates between playoff games. Well, I was just thinking like, because I think Corey Perry has a, as, you know, he gets an extra 150 grand if the stars make the playoffs and he plays two games or some shit like that. Okay.

or half the team's games maybe. And, you know, if Corey Perry plays three of these first round games or I guess Dallas would get a buy, but you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a thought that counts. My honest feeling is I think the reason they're pushing back on this is just they realize how ridiculous it sounds when people talk about 24 team playoffs, that that's like almost the entire league and they just want to restore some of the. The NHEL thinking, realizing that something they're doing is ridiculous. No, I don't. That doesn't track for me.

Realizing that it sounds ridiculous and not wanting to change it, but just wanting people to stop talking about how ridiculous it is. Yeah, they don't have that kind of self-awareness. No, you might be right. I think, no, I think you guys drilled. I think you guys got it. Like, it's, it is not, they're not the playoffs because we're going to use them to figure out conditional picks.

They're not the playoffs because we can use them to not have to give guys bonuses, much in the same way that we can't call a playoff team, a playoff team, if it's not actually the playoffs. and also that these games, let's say it's like three to five games, will then count towards a team's total in their contractual obligations to local rates holders and sponsors. Yeah. Fucking A.

That's probably the whole ball game there. The Islanders against the Panthers. Remember when this was a series a few years ago and nobody gave a shit? Imagine how much shit will not be given now. Islanders and Panthers. Panthers. Yeah, that's another one. You could really see it going either way.

Yeah. So that's like, even if it was a seven game series, you go, oh, that's a coin flip. But neither of those teams are anything approaching perfect and, you know, their flaws maybe line up in such and such a way. I think that's really interesting. The islands were heading into the break. Like, I mean, the break probably saved the Islanders because they'd lost seven in a row, I want to say. Like, they probably, like, they got saved by the bell kind of on, on that. So, and obviously three months later, there's not, I'm sure there's no remnants of that.

But, yeah, that'll be an interesting series. I wrote about, like, I wrote earlier this week about why every team is going to win. But I think the thing with the Panthers is you could make a not too crazy case that in this weird format, the three things you want are a veteran coach who's kind of seen it all and isn't going to overreact. A lot of young legs, because you're, you're coming back from from this break and you got to get going right away and just a veteran goalie who who stole in a playoff series or two in his time and the panthers have got all three of those like they're not badly set up i'm i'm i'm yeah butrobsky's heat got taken barowski's heat

got taken by a carry price for some reason like people forget the burbrowski was but i mean lights out he he could beat the he beat the lightning in four games last year you tell me he can't beat the islanders and three you know i'm based on what i saw this year you're Well, yeah, maybe. I just want to thank you for putting this Saved by the Bell theme in my head now, because you said the Islanders were in fact same. That's all right. Yeah. But they were playing like Jesse Spano on caffeine pills.

The one reference. Everybody has a save by the bell. Nobody's freaking. That's not true. People know screech. Yeah, we got more. People know. Well, hey, Brian, Ryan, do I have to call time out right now?

Okay. Remember when Rod Belding bailed on the Whitewater Rafting trip to go on a date with a stewardess who he told Zach was, quote, a 10? Do you remember this episode? That's right. Yeah. I might have seen every episode was saved by the bell a hundred times.

Who's to say? Does Tiffany Abarthiasen's see-through bikini shots that I found when I was in college on the internet? Is that saved by the bell canon? Or is that separate? I think that might have been when she was on 90210. or she was on one of those shows, right?

Melvar's place, maybe. Yeah, one of those shows, right. So it's not Save by the Bell canon. No, absolutely not. Is showgirls canon? Is that the same character? Yes, it is. Yeah, absolutely. Jesse didn't get into Stanfield after all.

She had to, yeah. She had to go strip at the, at the, it's not the eager beaver. The eager beaver, I believe, was striptees, the Denny Moore stripper movie. I don't remember what the... That was a real Armageddon. Deep impact kind of a deep impact. A real tombstone wide irp, if you will. A real volcano and Dante's Peak.

Let's just pretend I said one too. And jobs. Oh, Sean, how do you feel about the Leafs taken on the blue jackets? Not good, but that's, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, there. There's, okay, here's two reasons. First of all, as soon as this, they started talking about this format, every leaf fan was like, oh, we're going to lose like a three game or a five game series in the first round. So that's strike one.

Strike two is before I had seen this format earlier this week, I wrote one sentence that made fun of Blue Jackets fans, and now every Blue Jacket fan is mad at me. And so this now guarantees that, of course, the Leafs are going to lose to the Blue Jackets, and I'm going to have all of these people coming back at me. But the flip side is because they're not receding, the winner of this series is guaranteed to face the Bruins in round one of the playoffs. And, I mean, that's got to be the Leafs, right? Like, that's their whole deal.

So that's the one thing giving me some confidence that they could pull it off. But otherwise, no, they're going to lose to a goalie whose name I can't pronounce in three games. And that's how the, that's how the Leafs work. I believe his name is some Latvian is. where you want to go with that. Sure. Yeah, that's disturbing. And then if, I guess, depending on how the round robin works,

you guys would end up playing the Bruins, right? Is that how it would work? That's what you just said. Definitely, yeah, they would definitely play the, they would be locked in. Well, I guess, you know, unless that round robin changed how the seatings worked. But yeah, they would, like, that's our ticket, man. You got to.

And then either lose to the Bruins again, in which case Toronto burns to the ground, or beat the Bruins, in which case nobody says it counts. because they're like, yeah, the Bruins were rusty and, you know, hadn't played, and you guys had the, so. I've seen a lot lately, or not a lot, but more and more we're seeing this. People going, I don't know why people are saying this playoff would have an asterisk attached to it. What the fuck are you talking about?

Of course it would. It would have nine. Like, oh, I can't remember who, but somebody was like, oh, it might have been Elliot was like, guy, you're still going to beat however many teams and you got to go through all these rounds. It's still going to be tough. Yeah, but it's all fucking fake. Like, I mean, it's a, oh my God. Yeah, go ahead.

It's, no, I actually, I agree. As a devil's fan, I obviously feel a little bit weird about the asterisk thing. But I will say this. In a lockout shortened season, the entirety of the season, is uniform. Everybody plays their 48 games or whatever. The playoffs are the playoffs, and you go from there.

This is even more of an asterisk than a short season. I've said it a million times, but I can think of at least five asterisks you can put on any given playoff format they go with. Not everybody played the same number of games. Not everybody is going to be able to get everybody back fully healthy, whereas other teams are going to be able to get everybody back fully healthy.

Teams that sold at the trade deadline are now postseason teams. Correct. Because of just being drafted into it. Yeah. And, you know, they took three months off between the season. You know, like, you can put so many different things on. Plus, don't forget. Don't forget all 24 of these teams have.

Vince themselves, they have the best fans in the entire NHL and the toughest building to play in. And now they won't have that advantage. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, and also somebody's goal is going to get COVID during the tournament and can't play for two weeks. Right. Let's remember that too. We've talked about this for 45 minutes without even fucking discussing the fact that they don't even know how

they're doing this yet. Right. They don't even know where they're playing. They don't even know how they're getting tests. They don't know how many tests. They don't know where the players are staying. They don't know any of this shit. but at least they're giving us something to talk about,

which is why we know the playoff format before we know how the fuck they're going to do it. That's all we can say. We take our hats off to them. So look, I think you could, if you want to make the argument, if you want to make the argument that there shouldn't be an asterisk or whatever, that it's the same for everybody and blah, blah, blah, blah. You can make that argument, but there's 100%. There's going to be one team that wins,

and every other fan base in the league is not going to count this. Which is why it's going to be the last. That's the other argument in favor of the Leaf. The Leafs are like I said this week. The Leafs are the only team in pro sports that could win a championship and make it depressing. And this will be just, it'll be like a whole thing. Like next year we'll just, you know, hey, we want to remember we won the cup and it'll just everyone will be like, no, you didn't. Let's be like this league-wide thing where it's like, no, that didn't happen.

We don't, we don't count that. So. Well, I guess we should bring this up. I mean, Matt Dushain spoke to this very fact on sports. on SportsNet 590 this week in which he said about the 24-team format, there's no fair way to say who should be in and who should be out because of not playing the full season, not playing the full 82. But for lack of a better word, somebody's going to get screwed.

I believe let's keep it as traditional as possible. I'd love to see us jump to a 16-team playoff, normal best-a-7 playoff. I think you just got to keep as much integrity as possible. you don't want to have a COVID cup. And I'm worried that if we force this thing and try, it's a little gimmicky and not quite right. Whoever wins the cup is going to have people try to take it away from them their whole lives. And guys don't deserve that.

But it doesn't matter what they deserve or don't deserve. It's the fucking reality of our surroundings. Also, if I can offer an alt, the Stanley Cough. Ooh. That might be easier to copyright. because, as you know, Bill Gates owns the copyright on COVID-19, according to my Facebook page. That's not true, by the way. Don't believe anything that you read on Facebook.

I just want to point that out there. My sister's a Karen. So, yeah, I know. So, yeah. Well, we didn't talk about the West. The top four seeds of the blues, the avalanche, the Knights, and the Stars. Sorry, Edmonton. Edmonton asked to play Chicago.

Is there any chance that Chicago? Wago wins the series. Yeah, because they're playing the Oilers. Of course. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And especially because, I mean, the Blackhawks, as a playoff team, I mean, they've got Robin Lenners. So all they, oh.

Oh, well. Okay. Well. Oh, awkward. All right. Yeah, no, they, it's a five-game series. Yes. Absolutely.

I'll answer that question in advance for every one of them. Every single one is, yes. It's very possible. The Oilers are a far, far, far, far, far, better team than the Blackhawks and therefore have roughly a 53% chance of winning this series. Yeah, that's, it could, it could completely happen. And also, if and when it does, I'm really looking forward to hearing conspiracy theories from all the Euler fans out there about how the league is putting its thumb on the scale.

What I'm looking forward to is Chicago's back, baby, rebuild over. We're done here. Um, the National Predators and the Arizona Coyotes, uh, a five game series of two one games. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Rick, I talked to Rick Tockett this week on the other podcast and he talked about how, uh, he believes the coyotes are very much in the running for keeping Taylor Hall. And I, I, I, you know, he didn't really get into the economics of it, man, but like, the way the world's changed economically, the, the, when, whenever this, this off season's going to be, the flat cap.

I still think it's probably in his best interest to just stay in Arizona. Take a one year. Be quite a candidate. Yeah, or something like that. Maybe, yeah. It just depends what he wants. If he's the sort of guy that wants warm weather and good golf and relative anonymity, which a lot of guys do and there's nothing wrong with that, then yeah, Arizona's a good spot to be.

But he also wants to win, which is the real trick. It's Taylor Hall. Does he even know what winning, like, are we sure? that he knows By the way, does this count as the playoffs for Taylor Hall again? Like he's only got one playoff win in his life. Yeah.

I don't know. We got to figure this out. Ask him. Vancouver versus Minnesota could potentially be the best series in the whole first round. Sounds pretty good, yeah. The way the wild of been playing. Minnesota is fucking awesome under Dean Eveson and Vancouver is just a ton of fun.

So I like that series a lot. Yeah, when I think of Minnesota, and I think of the way that they played at the end, they're one of those teams that I'm kind of happy is getting grandfather in potentially to the playoffs because I'd like to see a little bit more of them. But to speak to an earlier point, it was the thing that I was looking at when you were talking about the leaves and why didn't hear you talk about Boston. It should be a 22 team playoff. There's like no way you could really do it because it ends up splitting into odd numbers. but like they had to go either 24 or 20 because the real answer is 22 and they decided to go 24

and that kind of sucks but if you did 22 then you know that's that gets everybody in that should be in I think but they're not going to do well no I mean everybody that should be in is in the top 16 and the rest shouldn't be in

because that's how the fucking thing works because you do get that kind of I'm surprised we haven't heard more, or maybe it's out there, and I'm just not hearing about, like, more complaints out of Buffalo, considering, like, they're, they were one point out on this. I think everybody associated with the Sabres is just like, who cares? Like, it's just pure nihilism at this point. It doesn't matter to them anymore. Yeah.

They're nihilist, dude. Also, their, their complaints, I mean, take a number. I mean, right now they're focused on the fact that the governor of New York put up a graphic that didn't include the sabers or the bills. And then he put up another one the other day that included the bills but not the sabers. So good times for our hockey friends in Buffalo when the state government doesn't even recognize your existence. And they've been doing such a crackerjack job of managing things lately. I'm really surprised that the fucking Cuomo's office blew this one.

Weird. Yeah. Well, there you go. 24 teams. Oh, we didn't do Winnipeg Calgary, which was the other one, right? Oh, Winnipeg, yeah. Smite division or old school smite division, that's going to be fun. That could be a really good series.

That's fun. Again, though, like, how depressing is it going to be to watch Winnipeg and Cal, and Calgary, for that matter, and not have any fans in the stands? Like, I associate their home ice so distinctly with them in a playoff series. Are they going to put, like, the white t-shirts on all the empty chairs for the Winnipeg home games? They should. They should do that. Our friend Steve Mayor from the NHL, I know, is in my conversations with him here and there in the last few months,

like, I know that they're, they're very much going to do a bang-up job in trying to decorate these arenas in some way, shape, or form to distract from the fact that there are some of empty seats. I'm kind of excited to see what they end up doing, but. They should do the whiteout for both because Calgary claims that they were actually the first NHL whiteout and that the Jets stole it from them. So we're getting like way back into the rivalry data bank here. But yeah, do it. There you go. No, I think that's a cool idea. You just take some white linens and drape them over the seat.

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This is something I want to. to ask Sean about. The newest national women's hockey league team, the sixth one, in fact, revealed its name this week. They are the Toronto six.

Their logo, as I believe Lambert pointed out, looks like if you took the seven and the five from the NHL's 75th anniversary logo and smushed them, it looks like in your column, you said it bears a resemblance to the NHL 75 logo.

And that is like saying, if Mary Kate Olson bears a resemblance to Ashley Olson, it's the fucking exact same logo. I kind of like the logo, to be honest with you. I feel like if it wasn't a new team, and this was just the logo that we've always lived with, then we'd be kind of cool with it. But my problem, my focus is now on this name,

as I pointed out in the column this morning. Like, it's the six because they're the six team. It's the six because it's a Drake thirst trap to try to get him to pay attention to the team. And it's the six because they said there's six players on the ice for the team, except when there's not. So I guess you just changed the name of the team during a penalty kill. But, Sean, your thoughts on a Toronto franchise being called the six or just six. Yeah, I actually like it. It's kind of, it, when I first saw it, I was like, oh, that's different.

But sometimes different is okay. I mean, you know, calling them the Toronto towers or whatever obvious thing you could come up with. It's kind of neat. Like, I mean, it's the six for people who don't know, it's the area code in Toronto is the 416. So it's become sort of a thing. And yeah, Drake was part of that. And the Raptors were kind of using it. So they're piggybacking off that a little bit.

But yeah, it was, it's fine. It's a little bit different. And yeah, I thought it was cool. and the logo, I like the logo until Ryan pointed out that it is pretty much exactly what the NHL 75 was. I got to admit, I didn't catch that the first time around, but I like it. I think it's a, I think it works. Which is ironic because six is in between seven and five, I just realized. So if you smush the five and the seven together, you get a six.

Okay, okay, I'm back in. Yeah. Originally, when it was in a different league, They were called the one, two, three team, but they had to change it when they... They had to change it, right. Exactly. That's a deep wrestling reference, and I like it. I tend to judge team names based on what it sounds like when somebody is drafted and has to say that they're proud to be a member of that team.

Like, I'm proud to be a Black Hawk. Well, that sounds pretty cool. I'm proud to be a wild. Yeah. So much. There's a real problem for me with singular team names. I'm proud to be all lightning. That doesn't make sense.

A lightning. I'm proud to be a heat. A jazz. I'm proud to be a magic. Yeah, a jazz. This one has a different problem where not only are you dealing with it being a non-plural, but you're also dealing with the fact that a woman who gets drafted to this team has to stand up and say, I'm proud to be a six. Okay.

I get it. Like, as a proud seven and a half. in life. I think that's a problem that I wouldn't want to have personally. Yeah, it's, um, it's weird because like some teams that are named, like the Ottawa 67's, I think that's a cool name. Like, I don't know. I don't actually know why they're, I'm assuming it's because they were founded in

1967 or it has something, 1867 could be when Canada had such and such a date. I really don't know. But, um, like, that's a cool name to me. I really like that name. But like, even if it was the sixes and not the sixes. and not the six, which is, it's not even a good Drake album. It's like, at the time, everybody was like, oh, views from the six kind of sucks. Like, it's not a good record.

Yeah. Okay, but here's, hear me out on this, though. So they're a new team coming in. That means everyone who's on that first roster will be original six. Which if makes them audits. automatically 10 times more important than everyone else. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules, but they are now more important than everyone else. And all their games are special and magical.

So, sorry, rest of the league. Checkmate Toronto. What's your prediction for this playoff series? I like the six and six. Come on. It's stupid. Who likes that? I'll say this.

It's a memorable name. It's better than like the fucking tigers or some shit. Right? Like, at the very least, an effort was made, a gold star for effort maybe? It's too, it's too, uh, we got to, we got to think about our synergies on this one. We got a blue sky. Like, it's just like real corporate guy idea to me. Should have gone with Cracken. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Sucks.

You know, the Crack, the Crackin has that same problem, but yet, you know what doesn't is Sasquatch. doesn't have that problem. Sasquatch is like fish. Beer, sure. There's no saskwatches. Satsquatch. I mean, right, am I right? It's not like satskwi would be multiple saskwatches, right?

I don't think so. I have no idea. Yeah. I don't know either. Dallas Star's owner, Tom Gilardi, made news this week. This is a guy who's seriously hurting because his entire business is based on hospitality and restaurants and shit. So he obviously wants the NHL to get back to play as soon as possible.

But he argued that he would like to see things kind of shift. His argument is that the NHL should think about starting its season later in perpetuity. And his argument is that as a guy who owns a sports team, in Texas, you want to clear the end of baseball season and part of high school football season. And wouldn't it be cool to start the season a shade later, like, in December and then play it later? Yeah, I mean, you know, the NBA used to start, but like a full month. It's gotten a little closer now. But like the NBA used to start a full month later than the NHL, and they would have a lot more attention paid in part.

because it's basketball and not hockey, but a lot more attention paid to the final because all that's going on besides that is like mid-June baseball. And who gives shit about mid-June baseball? You know, like most teams are not getting that kind of attention. And yeah, I have a lot of time for that, but I also have a lot of time for like basketball should be a summer sport and played. So there's no overlap with the NHLC season. and then that way I can just watch more sports that I like.

But, you know. I've always been an advocate of starting the NHL season earlier, like September and trying to end it in May like they used to back in like 80s. I hate when they're, I'm 58 years old and I hate when they award the Stanley Cup in June. We know. Yeah. No, it's not it's not that. It's that I am 40, what am I am I, 43 now? 43 years old.

And I can read a fucking ratings book. in the sense that the nicer the weather gets, the less people are thinking about hockey. But again, I think that's a... And so... Can it test that theory this year? Yeah, no shit. But I also think that's a situation where, again,

I don't think people are hockey fans. I think people are fans of their team. Like, the vast majority of quote-unquote NHL fans are like, yeah, I just really like the wild. And that's it. Like, and if the wild are eliminated, I'm not going to watch this shit. Fuck it.

That's really been my theory on how NHL fandom worked for a very long time. And I've never been given a reason to doubt that that's the case. I don't, I'm not disagreeing with you. I think that's definitely a factor in it. But I also definitely think that like you make a more, it's a harder, it's a harder argument to make to people to watch the sport plate on ice when they're going to the beach. It's always been the case. And I would love to see it if we could start the season of September and end it. Yeah, they do.

I mean, and then the problem is if you start in September, that's the same time. the NFL starts and nobody's going to pay attention. Yeah, but then, but that's a weekend sport. Like, I, I never understood the whole football thing. And football is always going to be there. Fucking football is in there in this, in this. Yeah, absolutely. Like, goddamn, like, you know, when, when nobody's playing, like the biggest,

arguably outside of the Michael Jordan documentary, the biggest sports story of the last three months is with Tom Brady. And also then the NFL draft. So football is going to be football. I just always felt that the deeper into the summer you go with hockey, the less people give a shit about anything hockey related. And that's a very, that's a very U.S.-centric opinion, but I've also heard from people in Canada that it kind of works the same way.

Well, you know, you don't get a freaking NBC Sportsnet at the cottage, folks, you know. Yeah. No, it is. I mean, it honestly is a thing in Canada because we get nine months of winter and then it's finally nice out for a weekend. Yeah, you don't want to be sitting inside. Absolutely. Especially since they also do like, that's when they start doing afternoon games in the playoffs. And it's like, no, man, I'm not at one o'clock.

I'm not going to be there. But it's, you know, I was being a bit of a wise ass before. But it'll be interesting to see if what happens this year in any way changes some of those perceptions. Because there's also always the argument about, well, you can't go into July. The ice would be so bad and et cetera, et cetera. Like this is kind of one of those, everything is so throwing off that in a way it's a little bit like the 2005 lockout. wiping out a season where you can come back and go, yeah, maybe we can get rid of the red line. Maybe we can do the shootout.

Maybe we can do some of the things that we said we would never do because everything is already so weird and messed up. We might as well. So, like, I don't, I don't have a problem with somebody down in Dallas proposing what would work best for their individual market. That's what they're supposed to do. I don't know if it would be best for the league wide. But yeah, go ahead.

Have a conversation now. And this is the time to do it. And we'll see. Maybe the ratings are through the roof for. hockey in July. Or maybe they're absolutely terrible. And everyone goes, yeah, we, okay, lesson learned. We don't do that again. Throw an asterisk on it, though, because I mean, it's just everybody's Go another asterisk on it. So I think that's, we got a part of it too. Good, good time to be in the asterisk business. We didn't, we, we didn't discuss earlier that it is going to be cool, though,

to have these games staggered throughout the day. Like, they're going to play like four games a day. Yeah, that's tight. Awesome. NHL game day. you know, and you just sit down for 12 hours and you watch the NHL. It's going to be like the first day of the NCAA tournament, right? Like you just, here we go. Yeah. But every other day for Obama. And that's something, that's funny, because I've, hell yeah, let's go.

I've argued for years that the opening day of the playoffs should be from, from noon to midnight. Always open on a Saturday. Of course, yes. But again, like, you know, when. The best thing fucking ever. When the NHL gets clear of the. of the NFL season in February, and they start doing, again, like noon to 1 a.m., basically,

there's always a regular season game on. That should be every Saturday. Just make, like, oh, we don't want to run up against college football. We don't want to run up against, like, late season NFL football. Who gives a shit? You're not going to get those people to watch your stupid games anyway. Just put them on, and, like, they're not, you know, like, cater to, like, make action. like make actual hockey fans out of NHL fans,

where it can be a whole day. And so instead of, uh, tonight we have 12 games and, uh, eight of them start at 7 o'clock. One of them starts at 7.30 and the rest start at 10. Yeah.

And it's always weird to me that like, the, it's always sort of looking at other sports and being like, well, we've got to avoid these other, we got to avoid certain college football games, you know, on,

on January 1st, uh, because we just can't compete. And, and it's always like, maybe the conversation should be why aren't more people watching hockey? Like, why isn't that more of the conversation than fucking running away from other sports? I don't know.

That's just me. Congratulations to Stephen Johns, Ryan Miller, and Evander Cain for being, as of last night, the three NHL players to comment publicly on Akeem-Alew's first-person essay on the Players Tribune about the racism he faced as a player coming up. Or at least the three to comment on it and then not. walk it back and claim that they weren't commenting on it. Yeah, you know, you're bringing up the Robin Lainer thing, and I think there was also a Taylor Hall tweet that people were pointing at.

I mean, I feel really weird about trying to cast aspersions on that, and Lainer later came out and, you know, said his piece and said it wasn't related to that, and then, you know, acknowledged Akeem-ilu by name, which is always good. You know, I feel like what we know about Lainer's leanings sometimes is going to undercut any message that he he puts out there with regard to racism and hockey. But the Taylor Hall, I mean, I don't know, like, Taylor Haw could just be tweeting about his fucking number of beauty question. Yeah, it just was really not good timing. And then all of a sudden it's ripped into that. At a minimum, it wasn't good timing to be like, oh, my junior coaches were always nice to me.

Cool, man. Great job. Read the room. Yeah, I don't know. It could be a thing. It could not be a thing. But I mean, it is part of the culture now that, you know, anything that's remotely, tangentially connected to a controversy all of a sudden gets absorbed into shit and then gets hot-taked into it.

And I thought that was a little weird. Like, I mean, fucking at least make the cursory reach out to figure out what the fuck these guys are talking about, you know. And if they don't want to respond, then they won't respond. Or they will respond. Or they'll fucking clarify it. I don't know. I saw some publications literally like just throwing around the tail. Hall tweet being like it was gospel that he was talking about at Camelieu.

That's, come on, what the fuck? Like, there are ways, there are ways to try to figure out what this means without just jumping to that conclusion on an issue where you should not fucking jump to conclusions. The essay was great. It was really good. As per usual, he's a voice that I'm very happy. He continues to be loud on these issues. He kind of indicated that he's still working with the NHL, but there's been sort of like

not a lot of movement after he's. his conversation with Betman and Daley a couple months ago. And, you know, he even touched on the fact that, as we opened this conversation, talking about Johns and Miller and Kane, on the fact that you're not going to get a lot of guys that comment on racism in the league just because of how much they make and all of these other factors. And really nailing down what I've long thought is the problem with hockey, which is the gatekeeping and the homogenous.

behind the scenes. And he went so far as to suggest a Rooney rule for the NHL, which is a step I don't think they'll take, but a good suggestion nonetheless. Yeah, I mean, all I'll add to that is read the essay. Like really, if you're someone, if you've kind of seen it being discussed and you're like, I might read it, but you haven't got around to it. Actually sit down, take the time, read it in his words. it's worth your time.

And especially if you're the sort of person who's inclined to just dismiss it or to kind of hand-wave it away as not a big problem or not, you know, it's not all hockey, et cetera. Actually, just sit down, read it, engage with it. At least give him that much. And it, because it will be, I promise you, it is hard to read and then still come away saying we don't have a problem. It's, you know, don't go, don't go based on people, tweeting summaries or us talking about it on our podcast. Sit down, actually read it and engage with it. I think it's also an interesting through line from his experiences behind the scenes

and the things that happen in the hockey community that discourage people of color and people from diverse backgrounds to get involved in the game and the issue of representation where every player of color that you talk to tells the same story, which is that when I was growing up, there was nobody. for me to look up to. And in his story, it's very much like there is no black coach you can point to and say, I want to be like that guy and things of that nature. And, you know, it's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that when you have a community that discourages people from taking part in it, then you're then going to have a sport that has nobody representing those people to encourage them to take part in it to

begin with. So it's a fucking fucking dog chasing its tail and a cycle. And a psychoise, that needs to be broken. We should probably talk about one more thing before we get to the quiz. You have anything to add? Oh, no. Yeah, I mean, like, obviously, the problem with all of this is that hockey at its fundamental roots

doesn't provide an opportunity for people, not only people of color who obviously face a lot of difficulties, even if they do get into the sport, but just like it's so fucking expensive to play hockey. now that like unless you're from a richer family it's increasingly difficult to so not now not only do you need to

transcend race to succeed in some cases you also need to transcend class and it's very fucking difficult and you know it that just puts another barrier to entry in front of like oh if you know if you're if you're a person of color not only do you have to overcome racism, you also have to overcome the fact that it costs $6,000 a year to play the sport or whatever it is.

Right, right. You know, that's a thing where the NHL is doing all this stuff to increase outreach to to communities of color and things like that. Are they doing, like I honestly don't know I'm asking the question. And are they doing enough to make hockey affordable in a lot of places? Because I can't imagine that if you're going to say, oh, hockey is for everyone, and we've seen a million times why that, of course, isn't the case. And, you know, hockey should be for everyone.

But if class interests are another barrier to that, like, that's something that needs to be addressed. at the same time as saying like, hey, maybe we won't let coaches actively discriminate against players of color. Like, there needs to be more at a fundamental level in the sport to make it actually, like, accessible to people in a way that, say, basketball or even baseball is to a lot of people where, you know, it doesn't cost $6,000 a year to, to play basketball. You can just get a basketball and there's courts outside, you know? Right. Same thing with soccer? Yeah.

And like I said, baseball is another one where it's like, yeah, you just need a glove and a bat and a couple of friends and you can play it. And yeah, it's that idea of just like, you know, the league should be very interested in lowering all, like as many barriers to entry as humanly possible along both race and class lines. And I don't know that they are particularly interested in doing that in any way that isn't just PR, but I would hope that they are.

They've got some decent programs in so far as hockey in Harlem and things like that to try to bring equipment to kids and get them playing street hockey and things of that nature. That's the part of the hockey is for every one thing. that I think actually has been effective rather than the lip servicey, here's the letter from the Pope part that also is a part of that campaign. Yeah, we put a rainbow. It's a freaking oiler's logo, but it's a rainbow. You leave this?

We're so nice, actually. Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So speaking of rainbows, a rainbow arcing over the movie geek community, ladies and gentlemen

2001 Zach Snyder's Justice League the Snyder cut will be released can I just tell you to put a fine point on it that this is like

discovering the Loch Ness Monster is real like it has been talked about for so long that there could be an alternative cut of this movie and I thought it was all bullshit and it turns out it kind of is bullshit because it's not really like

an existing cut of Justice League that's coming out it's HBO giving Zach's like $20 million to kind of finish his movie and make it, I guess, a watchman-esque miniseries. But I love this. I love, I, it's a fun way to launch their streaming site. And what the fuck? Who cares?

Let's see if it's better than the piece of shit that came out. Well, I'm excited about the Snyder cut. Zach Snyder movies have a long track record of being good. So why wouldn't this one follow in the? illustrious footsteps of of sucker punch and 300. Great movies.

This is the problem. The fundamental flaw with Justice League is Batman versus Superman, which was a bad movie with bad ideas. And then all those bad ideas carried over to this movie, which also had bad ideas. And then it became an even worse thing when they decided to move on from the bad ideas

and try to make it a fucking Marvel movie movie by bringing in Joss Whedon. Um, sure, why not? Let's see. All the actors involved with it, like, Ben Affleck just tweeted about it and he's, like, excited about it and shit. And like, they're all, they're all excited about it. So let's, let's see what this looks like. Maybe it's fucking all right. Who knows? I think the best you're hoping for is fine. This isn't, this isn't the Blade Runner director's cut, right? Like, this isn't, you know, so like who, you know, I, I get why people are happy about it because, like, it's nice to have, uh, a superhero movie or a superhero franchise rather that isn't just like everybody going well it looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning every every 30 seconds so you know like yeah you know the idea of like this is the one where Batman says the F word look out yeah no like that you know I don't particularly like that either but at least least it's different and different is interesting.

So that's fine. Different is interesting. Yeah, exactly. And like, I think the issue for me is that the things that I know were cut from Zach Snyder's Justice League were like an entire subplot about cyborg who wasn't a very good character. And then like, I don't know, like a bunch of shit about like Darkside, which is great, but I don't know if they'll do it right. So who's a say? We'll get to see Jack Snyder's. Freaking Justice League or Star Wars.

Whoa, no, no. S-I-E-E-D side. The different side. My bad. And the dark side of the force, yeah. Sean, you have a quiz for us today. I sort of have a quiz. What I've got is actually something a little bit different.

We're going to try something, we're going to try something new. And I will preface this by saying, this may not work, but we're going to give it a shot. I hope if it doesn't work that it at least fails in an entertaining way. But I did it. Oh, well, I mean, that's the podcast essentially. I feel, because I feel pressure because you guys have been, like, I feel like the quiz game has been, the bar has been raised over the last few weeks.

Like, everybody loved Ryan's name Pat Falloon. And then Greg, last week you brought back like your, your strongest, you know, the kind of category-based, the thing. And I'm, you know, usually sitting here like, name a defenseman who played for the Blackhawks. I feel like, yes. Good. Ryan wins.

Yes. Well done. He won the game. Oh, God. I don't even have a chance. So we're going to try something different. And here's the key difference is that unlike, I think, every other quiz or game that we've ever done,

this one is not going to involve you two playing against each other. You guys are going to. to be playing with each other teaming up. It is a, in gamer speak, this is a co-op, not a head-to-head. You guys are going to be... We're playing duos. You're going to be form a tag team. It's the mega powers of the Puck Soup quiz.

And you guys are going to be competing basically against me, but more you're going to be competing against the clock because you're going to be playing a game that I've decided to call the $25,000 Puck Subamid. And it will be based on the classic game show, the $25,000 pyramid, which I'm hoping both of you are familiar with. Yeah, of course. I mean, we are Americans with television. Let me briefly explain it because I'm sure there are some people listening

who did not watch this amazing show. But the $25,000 pyramid was a show that was, I think it's on forever, probably still on to this day, but it was mainly in the 80s, and it was a game where teams of two would play together and try to win money by guessing categories based on clues. One player would give clues, the other player would have to guess what the category was. And the bonus round, which is what we're going to be playing, was this awesome game where the two partners would sit facing each other, and behind one of them would be this big pyramid that would have six categories.

And the categories would reveal one at a time. Only one of them could see them. That person would give clues based on the category and basically try to get the other person to say what the category was. And if they got it right, it flipped to the next one and on and on. And if you got money for each one you got, and if you got all six, you won the grand prize. So the category would be something like things in a kitchen. And the person who saw that might say refrigerator, dishwasher. And then the other person might say appliances.

And then they say no. And they keep, you know, food, knives, cutting boards. And then the person would say things in a kitchen and it would flip. Two important rules. Number one, you can't say any words from the clue. You can't say kitchen table for things in a kitchen. and the second thing is you can't describe the clue. Like you can't describe the category.

You have to give clue. You can't say, if it's things in a kitchen, you can't say, oh, these are items in a room in a house. You don't met a game, you got to, like, actually list them out. That's right. So we're going to do this. What's going to happen is one of you guys is going to be the caller,

one of you is going to be the guesser, I guess, for lack of a better term. The one who is calling, I will be sending you the clues over Hangout so you'll see them the other person won't and then you've got 60 seconds to feed clues to the other person

get them to say the name of the category and then we'll move on to the next one. I fucking love it. So Yeah, I dig it. Who wants to go first as far as giving the clues? Okay.

I'll give the clues. I'll be the guinea picture. So let me just make sure I'm set up that I'm getting. All right. Greg, I'm going to shoot you a little quick test. Let me know when you see that. There, it says, oh, Lambert, a quiz. Bad wrestlers who were... A multiple choice. Wrestlers, quiz. This sounds like test. There it is. Congratulations. All right. So that's good. You got that pretty much instantly, so that's good. All right. So I am going to

get ready to start the timer, Greg, the timer will begin when I hit send on the first clue. And then you just go. And if he says it, you can, I'll send you the next one. You can just move on to the next one. I don't really have anything to do unless there's some halfway, you know, maybe he got it. Maybe he won't. But I basically won't hear me. And then for the people listening, you're playing along with Ryan. You're trying to guess these as, as he goes. essentially I'll be the judge of whether he got it. I'll jump in if it's close, but it's not. But otherwise, it should be pretty self-explanatory, but we'll see. All right. Any questions? Are we ready to go?

All right. Yeah, let's go. All right. Here we go. Greg, you ready? All right. Your first clue is coming now. Kerry Price, Yaroslav Halak, Ken Dryden.

Goalies. ADN's goalies. Correct. Alexander Dague. First overall picks, busts. Yes. The, oh, Jesus.

The Columbus Blue Jackets, the Minnesota Wilde. Expansion teams. The Vancouver Canox. Late 90s early 2000. The St. Louis Blues before last season. Non-cup winning teams. Teams without a cup

That's it Okay Oh Jesus Patrick Waugh Wayne Gretzky Jacques Le Maire Guys in the top 100 Joel Quenville

Rod Brandemore Multiple cup winners Rick Tocket And H coaches NHL coaches Who used to be players Right Oh God

Sidney Crosby Your time is up, but do this one anyways. Sidney Crosby winning the con smith instead of Phil Kessel. Bad awards decisions. That was it. Although you would have got disqualified for saying winning when it was, when winners is in the clue. But yeah, it was undeserving NHL Award winners. Got it.

All right. So you guys got four. So I think you won $500. So congratulations. Wait, Canadian? I'll send you my Venmo after the recording. Yeah. All right.

So, Ryan, you're good for, you're ready to switch roles? Yeah, for sure. Just hit the test and we'll see where it gets us here. Got it. Okay. Sean, I couldn't see the answer if you could remedy that to make it easier. Yeah, I'd appreciate it. That would make it easier.

You're allowed to just turn around and peek over your. your shoulder every now and then. That's totally Now, Ryan, Ryan, before you start, is there any celebrity pyramid player that you're envisioning right now for yourself? No, I,

I, it's weird. Like, they just kind of passed. The only thing I can remember is Dick Clark sauntering over and being like, now what if you said, Abraham Lincoln and everybody's like, which by the way, is, oh, presidents who got shot in the head, okay. That is what I want to do so badly on

this. I need you guys to get stumped so that I can Dick Clark it over with that smug look on my face and just lean in. Yeah, he's had 60 seconds, no pressure to just kind of walk over and go. You know, what if I said frozen peas? Everybody's like, ah, fuck, it's frozen peas. Yeah, of course. My favorite. Like, if you had gone over to Ryan on the last one and been like Drew Doughty with the Norris a few years ago, boom, he's going to be like, oh, right, totally.

My favorite pyramid adjacent thing, I think it was the state that did the sketch. where the categories, the category was like street names or something like, like names of streets. And it's, the sketch was the person given the clues just kept on saying, first. First. First. That's another great part of it is that you can just say the same clue over and over again, increasingly annoyed voice. First. And that really.

Well, that'll get you where it really helps. All right, here we go. All right, hold on. Let me just, let me load up here. All right. Ryan, you're ready? Yep. You're strapped in and ready to go?

All right. Here we go. Nicholas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Gordy Howe. Red Wings. Detroit Red Wings. Steve Eiserman. Detroit Red Wings captains.

That's right. Uh, let's see here. Uh, the Sharks Thirds. Uh, black jerseys. Yep, that's right. Dustin Bufflin. Um, Brent Burns. Oh, uh, forwards that became defensemen.

Correct. Matt Dushane. Nope, not Matt Dushan. Cancel Matt Dushan. Nathan, Nathan McKinnon. Uh, Brad Marchant, Patrice Bergeron. Members? of Team Canada?

No. Let's see. Let's see. They're helping out one. That's your one minute. Okay. Well, okay, Dick. Great, Greg, let me Dick Clark over.

Sasha Barkov. This was a tough one. David Pasternak. Selke winners? 30 goal scorers? I feel like the Matthew Shane really messed him up. Well, they said it for so long about Matt Duchenne that he's the first guy who came to

mine. Then I remembered, oh, he doesn't have. Wait, wait, no, what is it? Go ahead and tell me. I don't know the answer. Nathan McKinnon was legal contracts. Nathan McKinnon is. Players with team friendly contracts.

You know who you should have said? Sidney Crosby. Yeah, you could have. I guess. Yeah. That's a tough one to describe, though. That is tough. And yes, and I should obviously point out the whole idea here is they get harder as you go.

Yeah. This was the classic. Do you guys want to try one more? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I got a few. All right. Who wants to call?

You make the call. We had more success with you calling. Okay. Let's do it. Let's keep that going. All right. All right. I mean just...

Can I just pause to say that, Sean, this is a fucking dream. You've done really well today. This is great. This is amazing. Yeah. Like there's only... Always wanted to play. Pyramid's awesome.

The only thing in life I wanted to do more is like do a hockey family feud one day with like fans. It's always been a live show, a dream of mine. All right. I've got it ready to go. Greg, I am just going to remind you of the rule. You can't use any of the words that are in the actual category. Okay, just keep that in mind. That may or may not come up potentially with one of these, all right?

Okay, because the first category says guys named Cindy Crosby, so I don't know how to get around that. Yeah, exactly. All right. All right, are we good to go? Let me get my timer. Greg is calling and both ready? Yep. All right, here we go.

And by here we go, I mean, I'm going to. the wrong button. And now, and here we go. Okay, Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Craig McTavish, Mark Messier.

Great Oilers. Fuck. Sean Horcoff. Still guys on the Oilers. Leon Dryside of what he's not a left wing. Oilers centers. Yeah, you like that. Oilers centers.

Tall, hulking. Massive. Sedano Chara adjectives. Okay. Fucking Rick Nash, Nathan Horton. Columbus Blue Jackets who are injured. Fuck.

Cindy Crosby. Guys who had concussions? Yes. Okay. The San Jose team. The Sharps. The Florida team.

The Expandings. teams, sharks, panthers, named after animals. What the fuck? Max Finneganoff. Oh, Eric Lindrosse. What?

Guys with numbers in the 80s. Yes. He got it. You guys are well past the minute, but holy smokes. You know what? Let's keep going. Let's do the last one. My next one is going to be Mirrish.

Finish it on. Oh, this is really. good. I'm trying to think of one now. Danny Heatley. Gary Lehman? That's good one. Jonathan Chichu? That's it.

50 goal scores for the San Jose Sharks. God damn. Gary Lehman. That's true, yeah. You didn't get it yet. Gary Lehman, Danny Heatley, Jonathan Chichu, Ray Shepard. Ray Shepard. Yeah, that's a good one. I don't know who the fuck that is.

That's the... Oh, man. I don't know who that guy is. All right. I think we can call it on that one. It was surprising 50 goals scorers. Oh, okay. I just got to go back to the...

I don't think of Danny Heatley is being a surprise. He was good for a long time. It's not... That one was odd, but the fact that for players with numbers in the 80s, you went to Maxime Finneganov as your first clue. And I got it. Did he not have a number in the 80s? No, he did. It was 81.

I might have thought like Sidney Crosby. Yeah, Sidney Crosby. Kane, Kessel, Hosie. Oh, yeah, Sydney Crosby does. It does wear 87, doesn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he does. A little known fact.

It just took me by surprise. I don't know if you guys got four or five on that one, but it was definitely... I got to be honest, like, I thought going into this that it was maybe going to be too easy, and it's now clear to me that I think it's a little too hard. I think I got it. No, no, no, no. I think it's just right, to be honest. I think it's just right, yeah.

Do you want to do one more? I've got one more ready to go. Let's go. You give the clues. So this is Ryan as the caller again. Yeah, let's go. All right, hold on. See if this time...

Just so I have the title right for the episode, it's the $25,000 hockey pyramid. I called it the $25,000 puck super mid. I started trying to think of things that rhymed like the Pat Falloon, and I gave up immediately. And, yeah, I went to the Puckusk, but I'm open to other ideas. Is there a hockey player's name that rhymes with peer or mid? The $25,000 Pierre Mid. We could do that to bring it back to the... What?

Piaramid. There you go. That's fucking perfect. We got there, folks. Oh, what happened? Oh, no. You texted me a bunch of equal signs. I figured that was a test.

I did that so that you would have like a little break in between the, because they're all going in in one big block. You're like, things you find at the end of an equation. Yes. All right, I am getting, got the first one loaded. All right, we ready to go? Yeah. All right, Ryan, here we go. Here we go.

The Golden Seals, the scouts. Defunct teams. Yep. It will be Sidney Crosby. First ballot Hall of Famers? No. Shit. I'm really...

Uh-oh. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Milan Hayduke, I think. Um, no, no. This is hard. This is a hard one. This is too hard.

I don't know. Pass? Pass. You can pass, yeah, absolutely. You can pass, yep. Yeah. Um, the Red Wings. The devils, the avalanche.

Teams that won the cup in the 90s? Correct. Um, uh, this is... I don't know, man. This is a tough one. Pass. Players on team friendly contracts. No.

Yeah, that was it. Robin Lennar. Trump supporters. Not Joe Thornton. Trump supporters. Shit, I can't think of any. Taylor Hall. Taylor Hall.

Yeah, there you go. Guys have to win a playoff round? Alex. Alex Martinez. Jake Campbell. I'm openly trying to help you along here. Jesus Christ. We're done.

Oh, those were hard. People taken into that draft that Taylor Hall went in? No. What is it? No. Guys who got traded this season was that one. Oh, man. That was true.

Because all those trades happened, I think, six years ago. Six years ago. Yeah. That's it. I'm trying to think who the deadline acquisition would be that I would be like, oh, that guy. I thought Taylor Hall would do it for you Just as a

Yeah Yeah I should have got I should have gotten that one For sure Let's do the other two The first one Okay

That was You said you said not You said it will be Sidney Crosby Which is a good one Nicholas Lidstrom Steve Eisenman Uh

It will also be Ovechkin Yeah I said first bout Hall of Famers. That's not it? No. No. What is it? Tuka Rask.

Rocket Richard. Not Gordie Howe. I have no idea. It's players who played their whole careers with one team. There were a lot of guys where I started to say like Jerome again. And then I was like, oh, no, he bounced around like for the last four years of his career. I think for me, you know what name would have been? But it would have to be.

Scott Stevens. No, it's not Scott Stevens. It's Ken Danico. That's right. It would have been. Oh, yeah. No, that's right. And not for more. Sure. If you had said Ken Danico and Patrick Eliascia would have gotten it. That's just because it's being very specific to me. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think about the New Jersey Devils ever.

So it was a real tough one. A fatal flaw. The one where I couldn't even come up with one was, do you have any example, Sean? Yeah. So, okay, let's see if we can even get him to do this one. Mark Messier Yeah Mike Madano Drew Doughty

Tim Thomas Oof You know what Zerley Zalapski Zarly Zalapski That's the perfect one Yeah That's

Mark Oh Players Players who's first in last name Start with the same letter Right Well so yes But this said

Stars Who's first And so for like the first three seconds of it, I was like, is Charlie's last case of man. Dallas guys. Yep, yep. I was like, uh, Jamie Van, Tyler Sagan. Fuck, fuck.

I didn't even think of that. I could have come up with Ben Bishop and Mike Madano, though. I should have done that. That's good. Oh, man. Yeah, that's a fair point. You kind of threw him off with stars because then you're like down to Mike Mad Bishop.

Yeah, I was go. I was literally going through the current Dallas Stars roster in my head. And I was like, this is not going to get me anywhere. Yeah. You know how I would approach that? That's a good one. I would, I always started at the beginning of the alphabet. I would have been like, Andres, Sathena see you, Bob Beers, Connor Carrick, Drew Dowdy.

And I don't think good. I know those guys play for Dallas, though. That's the problem that I ran into. That's good stuff, man. But you're right, Ben, really good. All right. In the words of, you guys did not, I do not have to send you guys $25,000, which is, you don't. That's nice.

Which is good, because I was, you kind of. In the words of the great Vince McMahon, that's some good shit. right there on that video on that game. If we do it again, I will potentially crank the difficulty down just a bit and I will not use the word

stars. Don't use the word stars. Thank you. I will forget and I will use it again and you'll be out of luck. But again, I would continue to try to maybe give me the answers. I think that would

definitely help when I'm guessing. We're not going to do it over. We'll move the favorite, underrated, least favorite, whatever the fuck, to the mailbag because this show is hell along this week because we actually had

long one, yeah. Like some shit to talk about. So if you want to know overrated, underrated, favorite least favorite foods at a cookout, get thee to the mailbag on Patreon. I'm Greg Wyshinsky, VSPN. Holy fucking shit.

I have so much shit for you to read this week. The column, the wish list came out today, focused on my friend, Igor, who is now the assistant general manager of a KHL team, making the leap from hockey writer to team executive, the leap we all want to make secretly. Um, so there's that. And then also I could tell you that I have a fucking killer, um, NHL 20, uh, story coming out on Friday, I believe it is, um, with some really, really, really fun shit in it. Um, and then on the, uh, Puck soup side of the world, I am nearly done with my latest writing.

No, we're done. My latest writing piece for this, for the Patreon in which I, I am nearly done. I, bravely rewatched Star Wars Episode 9, The Rise of Skywalker. Ooh, Greg. I hate to hear this about you, my friend. It's horrible news. And have you changed your mind?

Well, I've not changed my mind, but I have found five things I actually like now that I've watched the movie again. And that's going to be the next Wysinski piece on the Patreon, hopefully publishing by the end of the week depending on other writing projects.

Speaking of, yeah, sign up for the damn Patreon. I got the newsletter. We got the Mizon Pod Top Chef Podcast. Fuck, absolutely. We have Stick to Sports with me and Sean Gentilly. We have my newsletter. I think that's everything. It should be said.

Sign up. It's cheap. Lambert pointed this out, and I think it bears repeating. We often get requests to do a drunk episode of puck soup. And I don't think that you got, for those who aren't listening, to Meazan Pod, that's the drunk episode of Pug Soup, minus Sean, who just happened to not be talking about it. Yeah, minus Sean plus Ruby.

Ruby and I were pretty lit this week doing Meese and Pod. And it was a great show, and it was a ton of fun. You should check it out. You can find my stuff on The Athletic. This week, I did a follow-up to last week's piece on the best upgrade in every team's history. This was the worst downgrade. So lots of discussion there.

I went through all 24 teams. that are making the playoffs and explain why each one of them is definitely winning the cup. And today I had a piece with myself and Scotty Burnside and Eric DeHatchik, where we gave our list of the 25 most dominant NHL teams of the modern era. And there was obviously a fair amount overlap, but also some differences and approaches. And I'll say it. The other guys made some terrible picks. My list is way better than there.

So read that and then confirm. to me that my list is better. It's good stuff. All right, everybody. That's Puck's Sue for this week. Another great fun edition. Thanks to Brooke Lennon for sponsoring us. Thanks to nobody else for coming on.

You'd figure it a pandemic, we could have guests every week, but apparently we just want to talk to each other. Enjoy the mailbag. We're going there now, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye. See it. Bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons.

We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tudes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. Part 2.