Puck Soup - The Power of Positivity

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk potential trade targets, the Pacific Division, Martin St. Louis, and breaking old records

This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Athletic Greens. This is a product that I started taking, frankly, they sent it to me, and I was not really familiar with it, but now I take it regularly, and I've found that it's very good. The thing with Athletic Greens, you might not know this, it's one delicious scoop that you put in a glass of water every day, and it gives you 75, big number, 75, high-quality, vitamins, minerals, whole food, source, superfoods, probiotics, and adapt. aptogens to help you start your day right. The special blend of ingredient supports your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system,

your energy, recovery, focus, and aging. The other thing about this is it contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals, or artificial anything, all while still tasted good, and it costs less than $3 a day. That means you're investing in your health, and it's cheaper than buying all the different supplements that Athletic Greens provides for you in one simple scoop. So right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day.

That's it. There's no need for a million different pills in supplements. So to make it easy for you, the Puck Soup listener, Athletic Greens is going to give you a one-year free supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs of, of, you. Athletic Greens with your first purchase. All you've got to do is go to Athletic Greens.com slash puck. It's athletic greens.com slash puck to take ownership of your health and pick up the ultimate in daily nutritional insurance.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hoggy. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. Hey, I'm Sean McAndew from The Athletic. Sean, did you know that, I think it's as of yesterday or maybe the day before, we're less than a month from the trade deadline?

I did not know that. Yeah, it's very exciting. It's true. It doesn't it seem like it should. be both more and less. Yep, exactly. I've read enough trade stuff that it feels like it should be next week, but also, every time I look at the standings, I'm like, are we only 40-something games into this season?

Yeah, that's really funny. So this season, I started doing a thing where I look at just like, you know, oh, if they play at this pace the rest of the year, this is how many points they're going to end up with, blah, blah, blah. and there was a stretch and I do it every, like once every team passes the whatever, 30 game, 40 game, 50 game threshold. And there were a couple of weeks where I had to be like,

you know what, the Islanders don't matter. Right? Like in the grand scheme of the league this year, nobody cares. And so the fact that they're like seven, eight, ten games behind everybody else, I'm just going to ignore that. It doesn't matter. And yeah, so to your point, like almost everybody's at like, 50-ish games, except the Islanders have only 46 games played.

Oops. So. Yeah. Turns out that if you don't open an arena, like, nice and early, you know, it's hard for you to play all the games as quickly as everybody else. Yeah, it's weird how that works out. Yeah, I don't know. I should have seen this coming after last year being the 56 game season and even the year before being sure. Like, I'm just like, we get it, man.

We know all the playoff teams. Let's go. Especially, okay, I had this lower in the thing, but let's start with this, actually. Does it not feel like every playoff, like we know who every playoff team is at this point? Have we got the West lockdown? Like, is it, I take it your, who, Nashville, L.A., but not Dallas or Anaheim? Like, I know that Anaheim is. technically tied with

the kings at 59 points. And the Oilers. But they've played three extra games and they seem to have really cratered in the last little while here, just in terms of like their quality of play.

And the results kind of reflect that. The ducks had the crazy win streak early, but other than that they've been very mediocre, which you can't, I mean, obviously, if you just take away a team's best stretch, That's going to make everyone look a lot worse. But I mean, Dallas fans would object to saying that the races are done because they're right there.

They're three points out. I mean. With a game in hand. So, you know, they win that game. But they're one point out, but also, again, like, do we, can we really in 2020 be like, you know, actually might be pretty good. The Dallas star, like, I guess that you're. Every two weeks, they have a five-game win-street, and then they lose five in a row. Yeah.

I guess you're right that, like, they're still technically more in it than Anaheim, but I, you know, I mentioned the ducks are playing badly. The Kings are playing really well. And if they keep putting a little, you know, like, I don't, if they keep playing, like, 55% expected goals hockey, it's really hard for me to be like, oh, yeah, Dallas can. claw it's way back in. Dallas can like create the appearance of clawing its way back in, which I guess is all Jim Nills looking for in terms of job security,

which is why to bring it back to the trade deadline because everybody else feels pretty locked in. Which is why it looks like he hasn't traded Klingberger Pavelsky. He's like, I can't create the impression that I'm blowing

it up even a little bit, even though it's what I should do because they will fire me. Yeah. If I, if I, yeah, I'm not going to rebuild for the next guy. I'm going to take a run for,

for myself, which is what a lot of GMs do and how they, they think about things. And I guess we'll, we'll see how it plays out in Dallas, but there definitely feels like, but Dallas there's been a, let's say an effort to put the word out,

to manage expectations on a deadline where they had a bunch of guys and you're thinking, oh, yeah, they're going to, they're going to be. big players and sounds like maybe not. Yeah, and to your point about like the, oh, we've been hearing about trade stuff forever, it really feels like it starts with John Klingberg, right?

Yep, yep, he was. I don't remember exactly like off the top of my head when that trade demand became public, but it was quite a while ago now. Yeah. And it hasn't happened. and it doesn't seem like it's going to. Here's the situation that I find interesting with Dallas. Let's say we get close to the deadline and they're not as close,

but they're still in the race. There are five points out, which is close enough that you can still trick yourself into saying, yeah, we're going to go for it. Can't trick me, though. I feel like if, yeah, not you. I see through it, maybe. Yeah. Like, I feel like if they don't trade.

Klingberg. He might be, you know, kind of ticked off. He might say, like, you know, I asked to be moved. They didn't move me. But for him, I'm not sure it's the end of the world because, all right, you know, you stick around, you try to help the team make the playoffs. And you're going to leave as a free agent in the off season. What about Joe Pavelski?

He's having a great season, but you can't trade him because if you trade him, everybody's going to know you don't care about winning or whatever. But if I'm Joe Pavelski. and I'm like having what could be my last great year. I still don't have my cup. Like I don't, I'm sure he wants to, I mean, he's got that hockey player mentality. He wants to help the team and everything. Be part of the solution.

Like you think at a certain point he might be like, am I really going to miss the playoffs here or can you not send me to Boston or wherever old players go to chase Stanley Cups? I don't know. I mean, be interesting to see, I guess. Yeah, but let's stay in the, let's kind of go by position, I guess, a little bit. And we'll stay in the defense realm with Klingberg. If you're a team that, I don't know, let's say is looking for a defenseman and just had to put a guy on LTIR. Let's see.

And so you have a little bit of cash to throw around. Yes or no on the following defenseman, Klingberg. Uh, yeah, but if I'm getting him as a rental, I just don't know how I'm going to outbid someone who would be interested in signing him long term. Mm-hmm. But in general, yes. Okay. Two guys from the Anaheim ducks, Lindholm or Josh Manson. Yeah, Lindholm, you like a lot.

Manson, the question, a different type of player, but the question is always the health, or at least it has been the last couple of years. If you're going to get a big physical guy, I'd certainly take him over a certain other big physical guy that I feel like you're going to get to later in this list. But you don't want to, I mean, as a Leafs fan, you don't want to go and make your big deadline acquisition, a guy who's just going to be hurt and not contribute anything. And then he leaves in the offseason. And you're like, what the hell did we do that for? So that's what concerns me. Even as a huge Dave Manson fan, I'm not sure that I want to be all in on Josh. Yeah, Mark Giordano.

Yeah, sure. It's hard to really know what he's been this year because the team is bad, but I think... I would say he hasn't been particularly good, but... No. point, you know. Another guy chasing a cup. That and there's always just the idea of, boy, if we like helicopter this guy out of this horrible situation and put,

and maybe put him on our second pair, we're feeling pretty good about it. Although, you got to deal with Ron Francis, so who knows, plan A, plan A, nine first round picks, plan B, there is no plan B. We don't do counteroffers, we just wait for someone. And then we pass the deadline and go, oops, we do. didn't do anything. That's crazy how nothing happened with that. At least I hired a great car.

Justin Braun and or Rasmus Ristelainen. Yeah, Braun, I think, is, you're not going to pay a ton, but he's a guy that I, from what I've seen, it's like, yeah, this could be a solid option. Like, he's not your guy who comes in and fixes your first. pair or maybe even your second pair, but he makes you feel better about your group. So I think that's okay. Ristelainen, I mean, who knows? It's the flyers overpaid.

I mean, it feels like we've been doing the debate on this guy forever. Back to his Sabers days. Flyers overpaid. I don't, probably someone else will overpay this time around. But he's become one of these guys where there's so much noise around him being overrated. that now there's this perception among some hockey fans that the guy stinks, and he doesn't. He's a good player. He just maybe isn't, you know, a top pair guy, but he's still a good player.

I just, I don't know how you get him out of Philadelphia given what they gave up for him. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's a pending unrestricted free agent, I think. Yeah. The answer is, and I can't imagine they bring him back after. You don't? I mean, we just finished, like, same thing with Jim Nill. Like, Chuck Fletcher gave up a ton to get this guy.

His job isn't super secure. Are you really going to let this guy walk in the offseason for nothing? I mean, he might, Chuck Fletcher might not make it to the off season to make that decision. But you're going to let the guy walk for nothing? Yeah, I don't know. Or are you going to trade him for, you know, a third round pick and say, hey, yeah, look what I turned our first round pick into. Or do you re-sign him and go, yeah, this is, we got a long-term asset here. I did a good thing.

I can't imagine they would want to resign him. Nick Letty. Yeah. Still in the league. Can you believe it? Yep. Sure. That's my, you know, if that's a classic, oh, yeah, you know, we'll give you a fourth round pick for them, see what happens. Put them in, you know, the six, seven roll.

And we'll see. Here's one that's interesting. P.K. Suban. Yeah, I'd love to see it. I mean, there's still, could be a spark there. I just don't know how you fit it in the salary. That's a classic. New Jersey has to give up a ton,

or has to accept that they're not going to get a ton rather. Yeah. I mean, you're not going to get a ton, and you almost have to do a like a double retain on it. Yes. Because if I'm like a, even if Jersey retains half the salary, like he's, he's got a $9 million cap. They retain half. If I've got $4.5 million in cap space as a contender, I don't think P.K. Subin's my first.

Definitely not. Now if it's 2.25, now I'm maybe interested, but then who's giving up the assets to get. Like the devil's. it's not like they need to dump the contract. It's one year left. They can fit it under their cap. They're under no pressure. So they want to get something.

And then the team that's going to retain, the other half is going to want something. So now I'm giving up kind of a lot of assets for a guy who might still have another run in them, but might also be cooked. I tend to lean toward cooked. Yeah. You know, he's just, he's more the,

you can kind of talk yourself into he's going to drive results offensively for you a little bit, but like he's a big time drain on anybody. And he's, I mean, he's had some great playoff moments, but he almost feels more like a guy to me that, and I don't know what his plans will be in free agency, but if he wants to go somewhere on a cheap deal,

now you're, you know, if I'm the Leafs or whoever else, I'm going, yeah, you know, for like a million or two million, I'll bring P.K. Subban in and hope that, but I just don't see how you do it at the deadline. The money makes it impossible. Unless we see like a spree of all these other guys going,

and now suddenly I'm looking around going, there aren't really enough. But I can't, you know, if I'm going to give up multiple picks and end two plus million in cap space, I don't I just I'll bring a Justin Braun for a cheaper price and probably be just as happy.

Yeah, honestly, I guess we'll talk about it now. I'd almost rather have charot than Sue ban at this. Wow, that's... Well, just in terms of what it's going to cost you and how it limits your options or doesn't, you know, like I... But chariot's going to cost a first round pick, isn't he? Yeah, I guess that's true. And he's another guy that is...

He's not good. Well, I mean, he's into that... He's another guy who I think is into that zone where people now think he's terrible. He hasn't been good this year. He has been good in the past, but that mostly came with Shane Weber. Yeah, and that's really stretching the definition of good also. I think he was good during the playoffs last year. I mean, I don't know that he's had an extended multi-year stretch where he was.

Now, Sean, let me... If there was one word you could use to describe the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, what word would that be? I feel like it's a four-letter word that begins with F, but we may not be thinking of the same. It has a K in it anyway. It doesn't end with one. Yeah, bad. Like, that's the thing. And I don't know.

How about this? I saw some headlines yesterday that teams are asking. about Zadano Chara. We'll talk about him again later, but... Sure. Absolutely. Yeah, even though he is bad now? Yeah. Like, when I say bad,

I feel like I'm underselling how awful he's been this year. And granted, at age 400. Like, I understand why. And this is like his maybe first year ever where he was like, actively bad, but he's done so. He might be, but I can absolutely see teams interested in a guy like this.

And in GMs. I can see a GM being absolutely interested in a guy. Because, I mean, first of all, he hasn't gotten any smaller. So, you know, you've still got the big physical guy. He's got that going for. He's got the name. He's got the experience. He's, you know, he's won a cup. He's a lot of things that get GMs interested. And, yeah, I mean, if you're, I would hope not going to give up much for him, but if you call up the Islanders and say, look, I mean, the guys, you guys are making the playoffs. Zadeno Chara wants to have one last playoff run will give you a mid-round pick or something or, you know,

maybe something conditional. Yeah, absolutely. I'll tell you right now. If Kyle Dubas went out and got Zadano Chara to play out the third pair, people would love that deal in Toronto. People would absolutely. Like dumb people, yeah, they'd lose their mind, like real dumb guys who are like, you know, the least. Because it'd be like, you know, in the locker room, they would just be, you know, they'd look over. Here is this presence, this guy. And look, like, Charra has definitely earned everybody loves him status.

I get that. But like, look, what's been the. least problem in the playoffs the last couple of years. And this, I guess, can be the Lubushkin chat corner here, but, like, what's the least problem in the playoffs the last couple years? Can't score. Where are they going out and getting

every fucking year at the deadline? Guys who can't score also. And it's like, trade for, like, J.T. Miller or something. Like, don't waste assets on a Zadain O'Chara or a John Klingberg or whoever. Like, that's not going to help you with what you need help with, apparently.

And, like, I do also get the argument that, uh, that, you know, the Leafs, like, it may be it's just bad luck for the last couple of playoffs and, and you, you count on Mitch Marner and Austin Matthews to eventually just put the puck in the net a crazy amount. I get all that, but won't we help those guys do that instead of really trying to plus up the fucking third pair? Shit drives me crazy. Anyway. One last one here

Hold on the... Can we just go back to Chirot for a second? Because I'm kind of stunned that you... I mean, I don't think you were exactly effusive in your praise, but that you... No, I said he was bad, actually. You said he was bad, but you said he would rather have him than a other player, which I even that surprises me. Because for the price, I'm not saying bad player, necessarily, even to the same degree you are.

But if, like, this is a classic case study in, like, anchoring theory where, like, whatever price gets thrown out for something initially just becomes the starting point. And it feels like early in the year, and this may even be before they made the management change in Montreal, like they just threw out there that this guy's going to be a first-round pick at the deadline. They've been saying it all year. Yeah, absolutely. And now people have just internalized that.

And it's like, okay, what else other than the first? do I have to give up for this guy? And you're just kind of, like, every year we do this. And you look at it and you're, and I also think part of it is that the guy last year was David Savard, who was better than Ben Chirot, but also went to a team where he was fine, but that team won the cup. Yeah, he got to be a third pairing guy. But then that team wins the cup.

And so, because usually it's the guy that you look back and you're like, what the hell did we give why was everybody giving up a first round pick for this guy, but then you wind up going, okay, I guess they won the cup, so they must know what they're doing. Yeah, I don't know. Like, if I'm a GM, I'm not interested in the vast majority of the guys we just talked about.

Like, you know, again, depending on the price, like if they call and say you can have Justin Braun for a fourth round pick, I'm fucking bring them over. That's fine. But, and like, I would, I would give up, you know, a decent amount for a campus lint home rental. If I thought I was relatively close to a cup, he's good. Can I throw one other name out that we didn't mention? Damon Severson, what do you?

Whatever. Like, a guy where I'd be like, this is a solid enough depth ad, I guess. But nothing that I'm so excited about, you know. The reason I throw him out is because he's shown up in a lot of Leafs talk. And the fascinating thing there is he's, you know, another good player. You're not someone who's going to move the needle a ton, but could make your Blue Line better having him than not having him. But he had like not even the one bad game against the Leafs.

He had that one terrible play. And I feel like the worst play two on one that anyone has ever seen. And it's like that has. stuck to him to the point where it's usually it goes the other way, right? Like some guy throws a big hit and the fan base is like, we need that guy. And this is the opposite of that. I don't know. A guy stinks and everybody's like, now, now this is a guy.

He humiliated himself earlier this year. I can't wait to get him on board. Yeah. How about this? Dan Severson, underlying number's all pretty good. You want to guess what his PTO is? No. It's about 95.

That's, okay. I said PTO. It's PTO, of course. Yeah, PDO. No, he's taken, he's taking some pay time off. That's right. It's got it booked in May. That's low.

That's low. So, okay. One last one on the D front here. Jacob Chikrin, what do you think he's moving? A guy you should be interested in, certainly. He's clearly, out of everyone we mentioned, the guy that you're, most interested in because he's cheap and he is young and he's not a rental yeah and he's again and like a lot of these guys you kind of throw out a lot of this year because the team is just so bad um i i

don't know i mean if i'm arizona like they're going to move him if i'm arizona there's no reason to move this guy other than you put his name out which they clearly have done And you wait and see if anyone just absolutely blows your way. But you're under no, like, you know, even I know people go, well, it's Arizona, they've got no money. You've got to spend money on somebody. And this guy- They need players for next season. Yeah.

You can give them bad contracts. Yes. They've got all the cap room. They've got contract space. This guy signed. He's 4.6 through 2025. So three more years after this one. There's no rush here.

This isn't a case of, well, we got to get assets for him because he's going to leave eventually. Like, there's absolutely this is the- This isn't a Patrick Linae situation, right? Where you're like, oh, he might leave as soon as he has the option to do so. He's not going anywhere. You've got lots and lots of time. Yeah. There's no, I mean, he's not having a great year this year.

So there's no reason to think that this is a, you know, that you're not selling at least a little bit low. again, if some team can, you know, decides that this is the guy they're desperate for, then absolutely. But I just, it doesn't make sense to me. It makes sense to me insofar as would I rather give up a first for a couple of months of Ben Chirot at most, right? Or would I rather give up a first, a second, a good prospect, but not a great one. And maybe like a roster player or two that I don't need. Absolutely. But I, I, I, three plus years of Jacob Chickland.

Like, that's, that's, that's an easy. But I want, but I want more than that if I'm Arizona. Like I, uh, so. Well, here's the thing. Like, you know, you can, you can want that all you like, but at some point, you need to acknowledge the fact that, like, we're moving him. Like, if we're, like, whether you're moving him at the trade deadline or at the, at the draft or whatever, he's probably almost certainly not going to play for Arizona next season.

You don't think? No, I don't think so. See, I wouldn't have an issue with if I'm Arizona going, like, we got three more years of this guy. It's not, wait, you know, in one of those three years, he's going to have, you know, one of those shooting percentage-fueled breakouts and where he's on pace for 25 goals, trade him that year. Like, don't, I. I guess I see what you're saying in so far that they'd be selling low. But like, I think everybody, if you're Arizona trading anybody, you're selling low on them. Yeah, I guess.

It's just, it's interesting to me because, again, from the Leafs fan perspective, there was a piece on the athletic where they went down. They're like, here's various defensemen the Leafs could get. And here's what a fair trade might look like. And they bounced it off some anonymous executives. and they bounced it off some of the writers for the various teams and got to things that seemed somewhat realistic. And every single one of them I was reading of this year's article,

I'm like, that's too much. Nope, that's too much. Like I went in going, the Leafs Need a defenseman, and I came out going, it's too much. It's, you know, first round pick and a top prospect. And, you know, this is classic fan of team brain shit, though. Because here's the thing, right? At some point in the piece, the guy, I think was Josh.

wrote it, he's like, yeah, I did this two years ago. And I clicked on the two years ago link, and I went down and I was like, every one of those trades would have been good trades. Like every one of those deals, I now look back and I'm like, yeah, Timothy Lugrin isn't any good or, you know, the second round, who even knows what that was. Like, yeah, I would have made every one of those trades two years ago. But right now, I don't want to make any of these trades because I have fan brain and between the first round pick and the three or four prospects the team has that they're all can't miss, baby. Why would you move in him? Yeah. All right, let's, so earlier this, this week, I wrote about how it seems like maybe 10 playoff, like current

playoff teams or playoff hopeful teams are like, damn, do we need a goalie? And maybe four teams have a goalie that you would actually want to, it's not even four. It's probably like two. teams actually have a goalie that you would want to trade for. Yeah. Dallas has a goalie in Braden Holpey. Detroit has a goalie in Thomas Grice, and maybe Chicago has a goalie in Mark Andreeplery. Well, I'm saying that in terms of it's not clear whether they move him.

I think Dallas and Detroit are both very interested in moving those guys. That makes sense. So, like, that's three good goalies. And then you're like, okay, well, I guess my other options are Martin Jones and Junis Corpusallo, do guys who are awful. Yeah. And even, I mean, Thomas Grises is like 900 this year. Yeah, and he's not having a great season as far as I remember.

But again, like how much of that is he's well into his 30s, right? Oh, yeah, he's going to be 35. Yeah, okay. I was hoping. Hope he's, okay, Hope he's having a better year than I thought. Yeah, he's actually been pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.

Has Cup? Yeah, he might be the guy that, and he's cheap. He's not even, even if Chicago retains big on Flurry, you still get Holpey cheaper as far as cap hit, which might matter. But it is, yeah, it's tough. Like you look at these teams that need goaltending, and a lot of them, you look at me,

are like, yeah, they definitely need goaltending. you look at the guys available and you're like, that doesn't make them much better. Like, I don't feel like any other than flurry if he moves. I don't feel like there's anyone that gets traded. You go, okay, they've fixed it now. Yeah. So here's the vague rundown, I guess, is Rangers not going to make a goaltending change. They don't really need to, right?

Tampa, not going to make a goaltending change and they don't really need to. Calgary, not going to make a goaltending change. change don't really need to. Colorado probably would like to. I go back and forth. Nashville is the other one where they're not going to change anything, right? And so those are like the three teams that I'm going. Yeah, they probably definitely looked in.

Four or four teams, I guess, yeah. Colorado, everybody's saying they want to make a, change or at least like get themselves some insurance. But, um, but, but Kemper's like 9.30 since December 1st. Like I don't know what the problem here is.

Yeah. I think that one is a little bit of we, we sort of, he started slow and people haven't really updated their priors yet. Yeah, sure. Um, and you know, the other thing is, is, uh, Francoz is back and fine. So are you really, do we really even need the depth. And if the option is trading anything for Junus Corpusallo, like, you know what,

I'd rather roll the guys I already have. Colorado's a team, like, I feel like there's a few, there's the tier of teams we don't even have to talk about. And then, which you already went down. And then there's probably like the tier of guys or teams where I would say, if it's not, if it's not flurry, we probably don't need to talk about it. And I think maybe Colorado's in that. Yeah.

Florida is in a weird situation where I think they would like to try something, but they, of course, can't because of the finances involved. But like, Bovrovsky has, he's actually been fine the last, like, couple of months, but boy, do you want to risk it? You know? I don't know. I think you probably have to, but. That's right.

Or the answer there would be if you get to a point where you can't risk it, then Spencer Knight is your guy. You risk it with him and you don't need a third. Well, maybe I mean, maybe you grab a third option, but that's always tough. Yeah. Carolina is in the situation where obviously like Frederick Anderson is playing very well and all that kind of stuff. But also he is Freddie Anderson and you do have to get him out of the first round. So you might want a little insurance there.

I don't. That's, yeah, it's insurance. It's not, it's not that you're looking for a new. starter. And again, like, is there who out there is available as insurance that is definitely markedly better than anti-Ranta? Right, correct. Yeah.

I'm not sure there is anyone, but maybe. Yeah. The penguins are in a pretty similar boat to Carolina insofar as it's like, hey, Tristan Jarrah is having a very nice year for himself. but and it and it does feel like that's a situation where like he took so much heat in the because of the playoffs because of last year but specifically the postseason and then in the off season we all thought Pittsburgh was going to get a new goalie and it really feels like they made an effort not just not only did they not do it but to really pump this guy up

and let him know like no no you're the guy like we all believe in you etc to go and bring in you know, I agree. Although, as being in the narrative business and we'll get to Washington, right? If Washington goes and gets flurry, Pittsburgh has to get Holpey, right? We have to do that.

We've got to, like, I've watched enough pro wrestling to know that this is how that has to go down that inevitable series. Sean, how do you feel about the goaltending for a little team based in Toronto? Ontario called the Maple Leafs. Yeah, it's, uh, it is, it's not good right now. Like the last few, last few weeks, last month, it has been, it has been poor.

It was great for the first two months, like, like league leading. And since I think, uh, on the season overall, it's now down to average. But I think I saw somebody say like since December 1st, it's, they've already First in the league at five on five. Okay. So, yeah, not good. I saw that tweet as well. So the Leafs would definitely, the problem with the Leafs is, what are you going to bring in someone to be number three?

Are you going to trade Jack Campbell away? You can't imagine that. Are you going to trade Peter Marazek? You might like to, but. Right. But I don't know how many AHL teams are calling you on that one. Yeah. Like who's like and who is like if like he's got years left on his deal.

That's the thing, right? So I mean, if I'm Dallas, I'm not going to trade Braden Holpey and to bring in a guy who's got two years left to back up Jake Odinger and, you know, maybe not even do that. I'm not interested. So now maybe it gets hurt again. Who knows that that seems to happen a lot with this guy. But delis are a tough spot. I mean, you can't, you're not getting flurry because there's no, you don't have room for that, presumably. So again, who's out there that's better than the two guys that you have?

Right. I don't know. Two teams that won't do anything goalie-wise. And like, I, of course, get why. St. Louis and Boston, really who so is obviously playing very well. The less said about Jordan Bittington, the better. And it looks like Jeremy Swayman's going to be the guy in Boston, even though they gave Olmark that big contract. And Olmer's been, again, another guy.

He's a solid guy, but like he's making. We formed our opinions early when he was not good. And since then he's been insanely good. And now he's been more like what you would expect. So like, I think on the balance you say, oh, yeah, he's been perfectly competent for Boston, like overall. But again, it does look like that swayman's crease to lose. So I don't know. And then, of course, Vegas is everything's just kind of waiting on Robin Liner.

But also it seemed like he skated yesterday. So he might be back sooner than everybody kind of thought. But it's apparently like it's a it's a shoulder. It's a shoulder issue, yeah. And it's it's two levels. There's, you know, I'm too hurt to play right now. And then there's, is it a. affecting him.

Like, it's apparently something where there have been reports that he's going to need surgery in the off season, but he's going to play through it and get to the off season, which is risky. You never, I mean, it could flare up again. It could get worse. It could get to a point where you need the surgery now. Or it could just hamper him all year where he's just a little bit off. That's a tough situation. So we'll see.

And I've said it for 10 other. teams, but I'm not going to bother saying for Vegas, oh, they don't have the cap room because they will figure it out. They'll figure something out, yeah. Robin Lainer, oh, he fell into a giant hole. Yeah, oops. And we're just not going to be able to get a big ladder to fish him out until right around the start of the playoffs. Oh, you know who's another team that's in the kind of Boston, St. Louis boat is the

King. Minnesota? Oh, yeah. L.A. is. Minnesota, I think they, I don't think they should roll with Cam Talbot personally. I can see why they would, but yeah. And then we get into the teams where it's like, oh, my God, they need to do something.

And that's Washington. That's Edmonton. You know, and I think that's probably all. The two key ones. Just real quick to go back to L.A. Okay. I guess you stamp Pat, right? Do you give any thought to moving Jonathan quick if you can?

Hey, if someone calls about him, I'm listening to me. Like, that's, that would be a guy, because he's been good this year, at least, you know, he's been decent. Definitely. You talk about GMs, loving guys with rings and, you know, this isn't a guy who, you know, happened to get a ring on a good team. This is a guy who was one of the best playoff performers a century ago, but. Especially, yeah, that, yeah, he's, you know, that first, that first cop, like, he's the reason. reason they won that cup. Yeah.

You can't take that away from him. And again, he's having a very nice year for himself. And he's signed through next year. So if you could get out, which maybe is the reason that you're not going to be able to move them. That's exactly right, yeah, because he's signed for $5.1 million. So you just... Maybe you get the Kings to retain or something, but I did it.

And Calvin Peterson has not been good. No, no, no, no, no. I think you just hold on to quick, make the playoffs. Yep. Your young guys, some playoff experience. And then see what happens. happens this summer. Absolutely. And then, yeah, the Oilers and the Capitals, like, absolutely need to do something.

Whether they actually will be able to is a different question. I think the Capitals will. The Oilers, who knows, right? Like, the Oilers, Mike Smith could have two good games in a row, and suddenly it's problem solved. Yeah. All right. Oh, yeah. Forward's available. Maybe Patrick Line A.

J.T. Miller, Brock Bezzer. Like, I'm really impressed with the Forward Group. of guys who will be maybe available and not so much with the guys who will be definitely available. Joe Pavelsky is another one. I don't really have a ton to say about any of them other than, oh yeah, if my team traded for him, I'd be excited. They're good. But, yeah. So why don't we take a break?

We'll be right back. Hey, everyone, it's a manscape dad. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, this is it. He's going to say balls. We're going to absolutely lose our mind. because he's saying balls like 18 times in two minutes. Well, guess what, folks?

Manscaped has launched their ultra-premium collection, and believe it or not, it's for your not-so-private parts. This is instead a leveled-up hygiene routine with your favorite manly scent. I don't look. I don't know what the scent is. They sent me some bottles of it. This is an all-in-one skin and hair care kit for the everyday man

and covers you from head to toe literally. Manscape is trusted below the waist, trust them everywhere else as well. Join the 4 million men who trust Manscape worldwide by going to Manscape.com for 20% off in free shipping when you use the promo code, Puck. Like I said, they sent me, there's like a body wash, there's a shampoo, there's deodorant, it all smells really good. I've really enjoyed using it, quite frankly.

So yeah, you know, now is your chance to enhance your grooming. routine with the ultra-premium collection. Like I said, there's a manscape deodorant. It's for your stinky armpits. It says, now that I read it, again, it says stanky armpits, but it will stick with stinky. This deodorant dries clear. It's aluminum-free, and it smells like the signature scent. There's also a hydrating body moisturizer. If you have issues with dry skin, it's designed to keep your skin feeling clean, smooth, and smelling fresh. There's a body wash, like I said. There's a two-and-one shampoo and conditioner, and there's a free gift, a pack of three little sticks of lip balm that it, they're pepperminty. They're fun. They're really fun.

So all you're going to want to do, you go to Manscape.com. You enter the promo code Puck at checkout when you buy anything from the ultra-premium collection, and that's going to give you 20% off and free shipping at Manscape.com with the code Puck. The power of attraction is now in a bottle, thanks to manscaped, and I didn't have to say balls that much. We briefly touched on them when talking about goalies. Both the Calgary Flames and the Vegas Golden Knights are making the Pacific way more interesting than I think anybody thought it could be, even 10 games ago. Vegas not playing great right now, I think you would say. Yeah.

But also they do have Jack Eichel back, and he does look fantastic. But even with that good news for Vegas, the bad news is the Calgary Flames are just fucking unbeatable right now. Like, I think they're on a 10 game winning streak, maybe more than that. 10. And boy, they look. This isn't like one of those, oh, the, you know, the savers went on a winning. streak and they didn't particularly look good but they won all those games.

Calgary Flames look fantastic. Everybody on that team is playing well right now. It's kind of unbelievable, honestly. Have very, are one goal away from catching Colorado for the best goals differential in

the West. Wow. Which is to say this isn't even just Darrell Sutter always winning two to one every night. This is, this, the team is rolling. Yeah, and, you know, much like when the Oilers won a few games under Jay Woodcroft and I was like, look at the strike the schedule on that one.

Yeah. You know, I think you could say the same thing about the flames here a little bit. Yeah, it hasn't been, I think they beat the Knights and the Leafs, and that's kind of it. But here's the thing. Buy a combined score of 11 to 2. Like, they put the fucking boots to those teams. But and then like, you know, one overtime win in this stretch and it was against Vancouver at the beginning of it. But since then, they beat Dallas, they beat Arizona, Vegas and Toronto, as we said.

The Islanders, the Blue Jackets, the ducks, the crack in the jets. These are mostly like bad to barely passable teams. And I feel like I'm being a little nice to the Winnipeg Jets when I say that. Mm-hmm. Um, but, you know, they play the Canucks, uh, tomorrow night. And then the wild for two, those should be two really good, fun games. But then Montreal, like, in theory, they could get to this Colorado game on March 5th and go, you know, we're still, we've still won all these games in a row.

Yep. You know, I like that top line, the Tofoli trade, we talked about it last week. like, no-brainer for them. Absolutely. Like, I feel like they're the favorite to win the Pacific, and I wouldn't have even said that like two, three weeks ago. When you say win the Pacific, are you saying finish first in the Pacific or come out of the playoffs?

You know, yeah, I'm saying finish first in the regular season. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, they've got a good cushion. Yeah. Yeah, they're in good shape for that. The more interesting thing is do we at any point have the guts to say that they're going to be the favorite over a Golden Knights team that we all assume is going to have all their guys healthy on day one of the playoffs? Now, that's not always how it works. Might be day two.

Could be day two. Yeah. That's it. It depends when they start. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not there yet, but I tend to be late to the party on stuff like this. So if I'm a Flames fan, I'm not worried that the East Coast boy over here is not on board yet. I do, I guess, have to say that, like, I think the flames really do need maybe one more really strong.

Like, it doesn't have to be like an all-star or anything like that, but just like a very solid player. One more addition to that lineup, maybe on the blue line. And I'm pretty convinced with where they're at. But, yeah, just there's going to be so much, again, in theory, if everybody's healthy, there's going to be so much star power in Vegas that I'm like, yeah, I can't list them as the favorite necessarily. I might call it a coin flip right now, but not the favorite, I would say. Yeah, that seems reasonable. And it's, I mean, the other thing is you look at whoever wins that division, I mean, no disrespect to, let's say, Nashville and L.A. if they are the teams that grab the wild cards,

they're not easy matchups, especially Nashville. I don't think you necessarily want to go down that goaltending road. But I don't know. If you end up playing Edmonton in the first round, doesn't that scare you a little bit, even if... No, it's the Edmonton Oilers. Why would I be afraid of that? Yeah, I suppose so. Like, I, of course, understand what you're saying. Like, you know, Connor McDavid can break open a series of the drop of a hat, obviously. Or the other piece of it is if Emmetton drops to the wild card, Calgary gets them in the first round, then that's going to be crazy.

That becomes one of those series work. I feel like you kind of throw out, you know, who's how the matchups work and who's good and who's not, because it's just going to, that series is going to in life of its own. Exactly. Yeah. But yeah, you know what's funny? You say that about how good Nashville's goaltending is. Saras has been bad in February.

Five appearances, 892. He has not been good. And, you know, it's only five games. He's been the best goalie in the league over the previous 70, 80. You know, he was so good down the stretch last season. And then obviously he was like, nuclear. or hot to start the year. So I kind of count that as a blip, but like, I also kind of think Nashville's a paper

tiger, even as a like wildcard team. I just don't think they're very good. And, you know, they, they were getting by with a lot of guys shooting 29% or whatever early in the year. I don't, I don't know that I buy it with them all the way. But to your point, Jesse Sarrro is perfectly capable of goalying anybody for seven games, I think. But yeah, so I think the Pacific's really the only interesting division left in hockey.

As far as the rest of the regular season. Yeah, for sure. You're not knocking Colorado out of the top of the central. If you want to say the foot race between St. Louis and Minnesota is interesting. I guess I can go along with that. I'm not super convinced that it won't be just Minnesota. kind of running away with it over the remainder of the season, but it, you know, again, Hussos playing great.

So, and then, yeah, I mean, we know not only in the east, in the east, we not only know, like, where, like, which eight teams are going to be in the playoffs. We also know which two teams are definitely going to be in the wild card. And that's Washington and Boston. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's quite. Definitely, but it's certainly... I'm...

Boston, we've had penciled in there all year, and Washington has sort of dropped. Yeah, I just have a really tough time seeing Washington running down the penguins or the Rangers at this point, right? Like, and Caroline is obviously out of reach, so... As much as I think Washington is a perfectly good team, you know, I look at that goaltending and go, yeah, what am I going to tell you? You know? So, yeah. Like I say, the Pacific is, you know, it's the only thing we have left to really care about other than the West Wild Card, which I, you know, you're throwing whoever finishes 7th and 8th in the West into a grist mill against Calgary, Vegas, and Colorado.

Like two of those teams are going to. You think, you don't know, though. Yeah, not Colorado, I wouldn't say. Yeah, turn those, turn whoever they play in the first round into a fine-paced. Colorado Avalanche. But how about this? We have heard, I don't know if you're like me on this, but I am already so sick of, you know, Martin San Luis, looks like he's really got something here.

He's a genius. Is he? He accidentally won three games because Cole Cofield stopped shooting 1%. He told Cole Cofield to stop shooting 1% and to start shooting 40%. And he was like, I'll try it. And it worked. Yeah, I mean, they've, they've three wins in a row, one in overtime, one in a shootout, one against the Maple Leafs. First win streak of the entire season.

First time they've won back-to-back games all year long, which is insane. Like, I don't have it, I should say, I don't have anything against Martin Stampley. It's a great story. You got root for him. Yeah, great story. And I've said it, like all the, all the quotes he's given about how he views the game. I'm like, oh, that's really interesting. I'd like to hear more about what this guy has to say and all that kind of stuff.

But like, just, well, Cole Cawfield scored eight goals in three games or whatever it's been. All the problems are fixed. We're going to pull back on the stick here, pull up out of this nosedive. Yeah, sure, we're not going to make the playoffs this year, but, you know, hey, you never know what happens next year. It's like, I have a pretty good idea what happens next year. The thing, like, I want to enjoy this story, just for all the reasons that you mentioned. But I already saw somebody, and I can't remember who it was. It might have been Pierre.

But somebody tweeted, like, the only question left with Martans-A-Louis is whether he wants the full-time job. Like, it's, like, we're already there. And that's what I said was the worst case scenario. People were like, what's the worst that could happen? You lose? They're already losing. I said the worst that happens is you go 500 and you talk yourself into just handing the head coaching job. We have no problems anymore, yeah.

To a guy with no experience and you don't even bother looking around. And that's what's happening. Well, look, it's not like that's ever happened to the Canadians in their recent history. They have a little bit of success kind of out of nowhere. Nobody really expects it. And then they signed that coach long term. And I can't imagine how a scenario like that wouldn't work out. Zero chance of failure.

It's just made, like, every time they even score a goal now, like every Canadian fan I follow is like, I don't want to put the cart to in front of the horse here, but are we on our way to being the greatest team of all time? Okay, relax. Like, Jesus Christ, man. Yeah. Did you see this?

Look, part of it is, I mean, the team is terrible, but also has, like, 15 guys that they're not used. using because of injury and other situations. So that's part of the big challenge with this team, is how you figure out, like, going into next year, are we completely terrible or are we bad? And we even talk ourselves into being mediocre, and then off you go.

The thing I said last week is that you don't trade Tyler Tofoli with, like, the term left on his deal and at the extremely reasonable cap hit he carries, without being like, yeah, fuck it, we're tearing this whole thing down. Are you kidding me? Like, it just, it doesn't really make a ton of sense to do it. Because it's not like Calgary's offer was like, well, we would have to trade Tyler Tupoli if someone gave us an offer like this.

And so that to me signals all we're trying to do here is like get the kids to succeed. And like, if you want to say Martina San Luis making that happen, I, you know, so far have a hard time arguing, you know. But, yeah, you don't want to get yourself into a situation where you've talked yourself into, you know what? I actually think maybe, maybe not next year, but the year after, we can turn this thing around really fast. I can't see it, dude. Yep. And whatever the turnaround is, it's just, is Martin Saint-Louis, the guy.

he might be. Maybe he's and you know what? It'd be an awesome story because Marta San Luis turns out to be a great coach. That's going to call into question a lot of what we think we know about coaching. If this guy can, I mean it's not quite get up off his couch, but

you know, if this guy can go for coaching Kiwi to the NHL, then maybe these guys who well, you know, he's had 17 years in the HL, he has to have his chance. Maybe not. So that'd be cool. It's just, you know, if you'd if you had said to Annie Habs fan when he was hired,

you know, and everyone was kind of like, uh, you're going to be 100% if they go three and three in their next six games, is this your guy long term? Every Habs fan will go, no,

we're not falling into that trap. And now we're here. And it's, it's, this is exactly what a lot of them are doing. So we'll, I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see.

Yeah, I was just, that's been a real delight to me. the last week for sure. In the coaching realm, do you see, like, because this is the other thing, I don't see any other team really making a change this season, right? Like, what, everybody, maybe New Jersey? New Jersey was the team that I sort of thought was, yeah.

But what's the point? Exactly, at this point. Why bother? Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking down the list. I don't know. San Jose, maybe? Yeah, but again, I mean, does that really, you know,

I was not going to do it. The stars, again, if they fall off, I could see them. Yeah, oh, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, saying, like, Rick Bonas isn't the long-term answer there, so do we want to get 20 games to look at an assistant or a HL guy? Or do we want to go the Chicago route and interview every coach under the Right. And then obviously the handful of teams that still have interim guys, if somebody decides that, you know, Claude Julian's their guy, maybe go and bring them in now. But I wouldn't count that as a coaching change. And as much as I love Barry Trots, you never rule out anything with Lou Lamarillo when it comes to bizarre midseason coaching decisions.

But yeah, I think that's pretty much what we're looking at unless one of the contenders just falls off. a cliff and has to panic. Yeah, so Sheldon Keefe then. Let's talk about a replacement. Yeah, so who is a tiny player from that the Leafs could, Steve Sullivan around?

It's just really funny that there were so many coaching changes early in the season. It just can't happen now, right? Yeah. That's kind of...

We sort of went through the off season. Yeah, that's right. All the obvious ones and even a few of the maybe not so obvious ones. Yeah. It's weird to think that there probably won't be a coaching change between now and the end of the season because of how much I kind of do expect to change roster-wise, you know? But yeah, I mean, like you say, The Oilers could go out and hire a non-interroom coach tomorrow. I'd be a little surprised just because they've been serviceable under Woodcroft so far.

But, yeah. I don't know. I guess the larger point here is, doesn't it all just kind of feel like we're, to your point earlier, really just like running down the clock on the last 30 games of the season? Like, what's the point? It really does kind of feel weird. But I don't know, dude, maybe this is how we feel every year. And it's just been long enough that since we've had an 80 game season.

That's right. Maybe the deadline will shake it up. The East is weird. I mean, normally for all their talk of parity and all this stuff, yeah, usually there's nine or ten teams in a race. And that's enough to give you the illusion of everything being white. open and and, you know, obviously if there's seven teams in the race, you need eight. So that means there's, like, eight's the minimum amount. And this happens to be the year that the East settled on eight pretty much right away.

Exactly eight, yeah. So half the league is already kind of out of play. Yeah. When we take another break, we'll be right back. All right, it's at time. Hey, did you know that 90% of coffee from the grocery store is actually stale? That's right. The coffee you know and think you love needs an upgrade. Instead of re-buying the same old, same old, let trade

coffee send you something freshly roasted that you're literally guaranteed to love. Trade sells the freshest roasted and ethically sourced beans from America's best independent roasters. They ship free to you as often as you like, whole or ground, whether you're a coffee nerd or you just want a better daily cup. Trades, real coffee experts, taste test over 400 roast, use technology to match you to your ideal coffee based on your preferences and brewing method. You take the coffee quiz to get started and they guarantee that you'll love your first bag or they will replace it for free. The subscription is no hassle. You can skip shipments, change your

frequency, cancel any time. They sent us some, head us to do the quiz. My wife and I are not crazy, adventurous coffee drinkers. In fact, we're the sort of coffee buyers that usually just grab whatever is on the shelf at the grocery store. And they sent us some stuff that, you know, frankly, we probably wouldn't have tried on our own, but we're glad that we did. It was really good quality stuff. You could taste the difference. And we were really happy with it. So if you would like to try it out, for our listeners right now, trade coffee is offering a total of $20 off your first three bags when you go to drinktrade.com slash puck. To get started, take their quiz at drinktrade.com slash puck.

puck and start your journey to your perfect cup. That's drinktrade.com slash puck for $20 off your first three bags. Hoops fans. The latest offer from Drafting Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA is too good to pass up. I'm talking between the legs 360 windmill good. New customers can bet just $1 on any team and get $150 in free bets if they win. It's that simple. The sports book isn't available in your state. yet, you can still take your shot at a big payday. Everyone can play for huge cash prizes with Draft King's Daily Fantasy Basketball contests. Draft Kings is giving all new customers a free shot at millions of dollars in total prizes

with their first deposit. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now using promo code Puck Soup. Bet just $1 on any NBA team and get $150 in free bets if they win. That's promo code Puck Soup at Draft King's Sportsbook, an official betting partner of the NBA. 21 plus minimum age and location requirements vary by jurisdiction. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for full list of requirements and state-specific responsible gaming resources. Voidware prohibited.

Minimum $5 deposit. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. In Tennessee, call her text the TN. Red Line, 1-800-889-9789. In Connecticut, call 888-78777 or visit ccpg. slash chat. And in New York, call 8778, Hope and Y, or text Hope and Y. That's 467-369. All right.

We mentioned him earlier. Hey, did you see this about Zan O'Chara? He has now tied Chris Chelyos for the all-time lead in games played by a defenseman. Yeah, which is pretty cool, considering Chris Chalos famously played till he was a thousand years old. 47? Yeah. Yeah. If we count the Atlanta thing, which.

Well, here's the reason. I think you do because Chris Chelyos at that time set the all-time record for a gap between one, gap in age between two D-paring partners because he played with like a rookie or maybe second year, Zach Bogosian. Then they played maybe only a handful of minutes together, but there was a 47-year-old playing with a 19-year-old. cool. Yeah, that rocks. Wait, don't take that clip out of context, but yeah. In terms of the hockey

scenario, you just described that was pretty cool. And so, yeah, that was really funny to know that. And then to realize that, because of how old Chelyos was at the time, like a kid who isn't even going to be drafted for two years

would have to play with Zadano Chara. Yep. As a rookie Like he'd have to come in as an 18 year old Get minutes with Charra to pass So like that 100% feels like an unbreakable record That you're going to have whatever I think it would have to be

Yeah unless he egger decides that You know he wants to switch to defense to You know ease into the last few years of his career That's right I think we're I think we're done on that one Yeah no that's I mean Chara's He's been a hell of a story

And for him to get to that record, considering he wasn't, like, he didn't become a full-time NHL player until he was, until he was like 20. Pretty well into his 20s, I think. You know, it took him a few years to come over and get a handle on his game. So, yeah, it's definitely not a guy that 20 years ago would have been high on your radar of guys who would. This guy's going to play till he's 45. Yeah. Yeah, especially since, you know.

Well, he's enormous. Yeah, he's going to break down. His knees will go, his hips will go or whatever, or he'll play so physically for so long that he just, there's no way. No, he's, and you know what? Good for him. Great player. Great, great player to see, you know, by all accounts, a super nice guy.

For all we know. All that kind of stuff. And just, you know, and definitely a guy that you'll remember him, right? Like he isn't one of these guys or you get to the end, you go, oh, yeah. Your kids like, tell me about Patrick Marlow and you're like, uh, mm-hmm. Like, everyone's got Zaddo Char stories, man. Everyone's got some memories. And the other thing, the other thing about Char is, you know, even, even if he retires three years ago, first ballot hall of fame or probably, you know.

But, you know, he could, up, we said it earlier. Up until this year, he could play. Yep. Which is wild. But, okay, let me let me, so he's passing Chelyos, and they asked, I think it was on NHL.com, they asked Chelyos, how do you feel about this? And he goes, I'm not going to say I'm happy, but it doesn't bother me one bit that a guy like him is the guy breaking the record.

That's what I, like, oh, you know, all this stuff about like Gretzky going, oh, I hope Ovetting passes me, that would be so great for the game. Chris Chelyos, kind of sucks. I'm not going to lie to you. Honestly, yeah, but I guess. I mean, look, you can't say he didn't earn it, right? Like, this is, again, up until this year, he played really well. And I do feel like Chris Chelyos is the sort of guy who would have a list of guys he would not want to break any people.

Oh, absolutely. He's like, you know, just. Shea Weber, get out of here. I would never want that to happen. I feel like, you know, like Eric Carlson's hair would bother Chris Chelyos to the, I don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Let me ask you this. Do you know, I don't remember if I put this in the rundown that I emailed you,

but do you know who Zadano Charis first coach in the NHL was? No, I don't. Islanders. Oh, okay. You know what? I think you did put that down there. And that's... Isn't that crazy?

That is pretty wild. Because like, you know, Rick Bonas, when he got hired in Dallas, everybody was like, oh, this guy's been trying to get back into the league forever. And here's me, a guy who started watching. watching the NHL in like seriously in like the early 2000s going, this guy was in the NHL? I have no recollection of this. Turns out it was because it was when Zadano Chara was a rookie.

So that's how long ago it was. Yeah. Rick Bonas was the, the senators coach way back in the day. There's very funny YouTube clips of Rick Bonas, uh, if you, if you can find them being interviewed about like the early senators roster.

And trying so hard. not to just answer the questions by saying these guys suck. This is a terrible historically bad team. And he's just trying to throw the cliches about like where, but you can just see like the, the will to live draining out of his at the time young face. You know, I think we're going to be competitive. Yeah, he's just, they're like, what can you do down the stretch?

And he's like, I do down the stretch where we can lose a lot, I guess. We're six and 50. What do you, like, I don't know. Like, how do you get the first line? I don't have a first line. Like, what do you... I don't have a second line. How about this, too?

Zanotara is now also one game back of Mark Recky, a guy who played for a million years in terms of games played. You know, it's really funny to think about it this way, but like I'm looking at the all-time career games played list. And Mark Recky played from 1988 to 2011, and you're like, oh, my God, that's such a long. time. Holy shit, right? Meanwhile, Zadano Chara played from 1997 to 2022 and you're like, no, sure. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's a long time. He's always been there.

My other favorite, I wouldn't say favorite, but like weird Zadano Chara stat, he played parts of four seasons with the Islanders before he gets traded to the senators in the Yashun deal, scored six goals in four seasons. Over four seasons. Which, I mean, look, we all. all know that like part of the part of the thing with charra is it took him a while to become Zadato Chara like he didn't he didn't fully power up and yeah I mean you're six foot nine you're you're trying to figure out how to even play in this league but you would think a guy who could shoot the puck a hundred miles an hour like would consistently be able to score but no he was like complete lack of offensive threat and then he got to Ottawa and they're like how about you just bomb it from the point and shoot the puck through guys and he was like yeah I can do

that and double digit goal for like the rest of his career. Pretty much, yeah. My favorite Zanahara stat, of course, is that by the time he gets to Boston, he's already played like more than 500 games in the NHL, and then he plays like a thousand games with the druids. That for a lot of people is like when the chara story starts is, yeah. But, and, you know, obviously he sends choosing Wade Redden over him.

I feel like we can say in hindsight, maybe it was a mistake. Maybe, but also at the time you were like, I mean, like pick aside. That's the revisionist history, right? People act like that was this ridiculous. Like, I'll tell you, I was in Ottawa when that happened. A lot of Senators fans, he had just had a bad playoffs. It was the first year of the new rules. And people were like, well, six foot nine guys who don't skate all that well are going to become relics in this new fast league.

And so they did they was a popular decision with a lot of the fan base here right up until it was not Right. Yeah. Yeah, man, it's it's just really It's one of those things like I again, I saw Zadano Char play in the a HL Right like that's that's that's how long ago I saw this guy play and the fact that he's still in the league, I just, I can't get my head around it. He rocks. He rocks. We love him.

And yeah, he's about to, he's about to move into seventh all time in games played. He's not going to catch the guys in front of him. They all have, like, he would have to play full extra seasons. One of the guys in front of him is Joe Thornton, so like he's always going to be adding to that total. Yeah, but still to do, like the guys in front of him, it's like, you know, I don't remember the whole list, but it's Gordy Howe and a lot of guys who didn't play physical

games. It's Marlowe 1, obviously. Gordyhow 2. Mark Messier 3, Armier Yager 4, Ron Francis 5, Joe Thornton, 6. So Messier and how physical and even Messier, not as much as some remember it.

I don't know, man. That's a lot of mileage. There's a case to be made that Chara's got more NHL mileage than anyone. And I bet you if we added up minutes, he'd probably be... Oh, if we had the ability to do that,

boy, yeah. Yeah, you know what? I don't know how to look that. It doesn't go back that far. We don't have it. Yeah, right. But if we did, yeah, he might be number one. Yeah, I mean, the guy spent how many years

averaging like 28 minutes a night or whatever. Yeah. And being fucking great doing it. Yep. This is the incredible part. But we do have one other guy who's running down some notable records, and that's Alex Ovechkin. He's five away from passing Yarmir Yager for third all-time,

or tying Yager, six away from passing him, for third all-time in goals. For now, at least. You never know. That's right, yeah. Could come back, you know. But, yeah. Yeah. Which the reason I bring it up, you know, five away, that's a nice round number, I guess you want to say.

But Jay Fresh, the Twitter guy who also occasionally writes for EP Ringsside and does a great job and has a lot of smart stuff to say. He had a stat the other day that blew my fucking mind. What percentage of Washington's power playtime this season has Alex Ovechkin gone? gotten into. You had it in the write-up, and I, if I hadn't seen it, I would, like, almost like my smart ass answer would be 90%, because that feels like the absolute maximum you could possibly get a power play. Right.

Like, there's at some point got to be like a two-minute power play where you, that you don't play the entire thing. So I feel like 90% would be as high as you could possibly go. Yeah. And the answer is 96%. The answer is... Now I want to know what happened to that. I want to read an oral history of like the 4% that he hasn't played.

He took a penalty or something. Yeah. That must... Is that counting like when he's in the box? Because that might... Well, let's look. He has... How many PIMs does he have this year?

He only has six. So that literally might be it. That literally, that 4% is his six penalty minutes. Yeah. That's really fucking funny. I mean, you got like that includes like if there's a major penalty, does he just stay out for the full five minutes? I guess. Seems like the answer is yes.

I mean, stands at the top of the circle with no one around him. Yeah, he's not exactly expending a lot of energy out there. Now, at the beginning of the season, I got in trouble with Capitals fans for saying, I think it's cool that they are very obviously orienting the entire direction of the organization around. let's get Alex Ovechkin the goals record I think it's fucking awesome that they're doing that I don't care at all Why were Caps fans mad at the idea Because I was saying

Yeah because I was saying that like Whether they make the playoff should be incidental Okay To every like they should Just be like we're spending $82 million a year To make sure Alex Ovechkin breaks that record Yeah.

I mean, as an outsider, that would be fun as hell. Yeah, as a Caps fan, you'd probably like there to be. But my point being, how do you look at they played him on 96% of their power play minutes and go, that's not what's happening here. You know what I mean? Like, that's obviously what's happening. And again, it's good. Yeah. Well, and also, it's not like, but I mean, this.

is the great thing. This isn't like you see happen sometimes in sports where some guy is like he's close to a record or he's close to a milestone. So it's like we will just push him over the finish line. You know, somebody bounce the puck off his stick or something. Like somebody just, no, like he's like, yeah, I'm going to, I want to play the whole power play because I still can absolutely destroy the puck whenever it comes near me and, uh, and score goals. So, yeah, and again, like, he spent a good chunk of the beginning of the year not, like, actively not scoring from the Ovechkin spot. He was scoring every other way imaginable. Yep.

And then once Baxter came back, he was like, you know what, I'm just going to stand in the one place and bomb the puck again. How's that sound? And, you know, we had a question on the mailbag last week that was basically like, hey, he's scoring a lot of empty net goals. doesn't that feel like it's kind of bullshit? And then I looked it up and Gretzky has the most career empty net goals ever. So it's like, yeah, you know what? No, I don't care. No.

But yeah, I just, again, like we do want to reiterate, you know. I was really hoping he could pass Yager by the All-Star break, but he did have like a bit of a slump in the middle of the season there. I hope he can get back on track. he had two goals the other night against Nashville maybe. But, yeah, if he just wants to play the entire rest of his career, like just having the occasional two-goal night, cool, let's go.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. To handle that. Yep. So we do love Alex Ovechkin here. Was there anything else that we, oh, yeah, I wrote it down here. Rodeon Amarov, Amirov, maybe. from the,

from the, uh, diagnosed with a brain tumor. Yeah. This is, this is a situation that was just kind of breaking as we were as we were sitting down to record. So don't know a lot about it.

And I, I don't think we probably will know a lot about it since this is the, the sort of thing that, uh, you know, he's, he's spoken on it. He,

uh, he gave an interview to, uh, Elliot Friedman. The Leafs put out a statement. But beyond that, I, I suspect that it's a situation where,

we won't hear a ton. Other than that, apparently he's still skating. So this is, he will not play the remainder of the year, but he is certainly not ruling out a return to hockey at some point. So we'll see. I mean, as far as the Leafs and their deadline plans, it has an impact because he was one of the assets that was mentioned a lot, but clearly that's not the most important piece here.

and you just wish him the best and it sounds like he's in a good frame of mind but at least from talking to Elliot so fingers crossed and we'll wish him well and then the other thing we need to talk about is the Nathan McKinnon thing Oh yes I did not write that down

You're right about the Nathan McKinnon thing Slashed the linesman He slashed the linesman and everybody was like Fair play to him Yeah The linesman probably What you don't understand is he didn't mean to do it.

Yeah. And it's like, oh, I guess that counts that like he meant to slash another guy, but he slashed a linesman. Well, that's it, right? So if people haven't seen the play, there's a face off. Something happens at the face off that he gets annoyed about. And the first time you see the replay, it looks like maybe he's annoyed at how the puck was dropped and he just winds up and slashes the linesman in the lake. then The overhead view

It makes it look more like He's mad at the opposing center And goes to slash him in the leg And misses and hits the linesman Which still you would think Would warrant some sort of punishment Like you can't accidentally Slash a linesman

But it's I mean Turns out you can Well I mean if you if you accidentally hit An official with a puck Or you accidentally we've even seen guys throw punches and hit an official instead. And, you know, I think this is one where the league will tend to go a lot by the officials report. Yeah, it seems like he basically did the linesman equivalent of refusing to press charges.

Exactly. The linesman was, and, you know, was that based on who the player was, you know, quite possibly. Yeah, I kind of think it is. where the linesman just says like, no, no, it's, I knew he was trying to slash hit the guy. He just, you know, he got me. I had chin pads on. It's not that big of a deal.

And that got him off the hook. I wondered if before we saw that, because he's not going to face any, any punishment from the league, I wondered if they would still drop a fine on him maybe just to sort of signal like, hey, we're not condoning or even accidental. But, yeah, I know when that first came out, people were like, is Nathan McKinnon going to get a 10-game suspension? and it's like, when I... I definitely thought that was my initial.

When I saw the replay the very first time and I thought he was like, then I was like, oh, you have to, but then when you saw that it was, he was aiming at the other guy. I mean, it's, it is kind of funny that we're just all like shrugging off the fact that, oh, he was trying to slash somebody else in the leg. Yeah, so it's fine. What's the big deal? We don't have any rules against that. No, no, no.

There's nothing in the rulebook that says you can't slash the other guy. That's right. But the interesting thing about, but the interesting thing about, about that for me is, you know, if you slash a guy and you go, well, I didn't mean to, the NHL goes, oh, he still fucking did it. Yep. You know, like, there's all kinds of I didn't mean to as well too bad about it. But in this case, again, like, I guess because they said, or because the linesman was like,

yeah, whatever, the league was also like, oh, well, okay, if you say so, man. I don't know. I do kind of tend to think of if he was. was a lesser player, you would be seeing him getting rung up. If it's the fourth-line player, then yes, that that would absolutely be the sort of thing where, because there's also like you, there's like a three-game abusive officials suspension that's possible as well. I think, yeah, if it's enter the name of your team's favorite fourth line plug, then yes, I think that ends up probably being called differently,

let's just say. Yeah, I'm trying to remember, like, when Dennis Widman checked the linesman, was that a situation where he said like, oh, it was unintentional? No, that one, that was the opposite. The officials were, in fact, not only did they not let them off the hook, they made declared at the NHL that we expect you to take action. No, no, I'm saying he was like, oh, geez, I didn't mean to. No, his thing remember was he had just been hit and he was kind of saying that he had

hit at his bell rung. He was maybe concussed and didn't realize what he was doing. It was sort of the temporary insanity. Yeah, okay. Explanation. That's right. Yeah. They won't let you get away with that, I guess.

They typically would not, no. Oh, and I guess. the one last thing we should talk about is the ongoing Chicago GM search, which is, still going on? It's taken a while. And they're talking to people from basketball. They're talking to people from baseball, which I think is, like, I know I've seen a lot of people be like, these aren't, hey, wait a second, these aren't even hockey people.

And one of them's a woman? Yeah. Is that even allowed? And it's like. it is. No, yeah. Look, I think it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that a guy who has run

a baseball team or whatever can run a hockey team or a woman who has had a lot of on both sides of what a front office job is of managing the business side, managing the sports management side of things.

Yeah, they can do the job of an, like, you don't, it turns out you don't have to have played like 400 games in the WHA to be a GM. Yeah. That's actually not a requirement. Because it is just mostly about, like, picking up the phone and seeing if you can trick somebody into giving you a third round phone. Yeah, it's that easy. Here's the thing, though, with Chicago, like, unfortunately, anything that they do like this, everyone, is always going to back their head be thinking, like, is this, are they sincere here, or is this, they know that they've had the scandal, this is a PR, like, we all remember the, you know, them getting up at the draft with, you know, look at all our women that we have. We actually are really nice and you're not allowed to be mad at us. Yeah, and it was kind of like, oh, yeah, and, which also, if I remember, didn't, didn't, didn't that happen like right after the Logan Mayu pick, so it was sort of like time as possible. They were back to back. I don't.

remember which one was first. But yes, they were pretty much right after. It's kind of like, yeah, like it's, and I know if you're a hawks, you say, well, it's not fair. Maybe it's not, but this is what happens when you have this. Yeah, it's not fair. And if there's one organization that has earned

the benefit of the doubt. Yeah. Be fair to the hawks. Yeah, they've really, they've really earned that. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think that if you are, right, like you're saying if you're the hawks

like you have to like kind of go out of your way to be like no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. This isn't PR spin and we are absolutely excited about this person who is you know, maybe being thrown overboard with a cinder block tied to their foot. Yeah. And then you know, when they inevitably hire one of the 200 hockey men, there will be many people who will say like, yeah, that was what they were going to do all the time. and so...

Well, the real concern is that they hire whoever they hire, whether it's, you know, someone from inside hockey or outside hockey, it doesn't really... That's less, what's the word? That's less, like, interesting to me than do they actually have that person in a situation where they can succeed, or are they just being the person whose job it is to tear down,

you know, this rotting husk of a legitimate hockey team. And then like the first second they get, they're like, and here's our new GM, Patrick Sharp. Remember him? He was on the 2010 team. Yeah. Well, I mean, the new person gets to work with Rocky Warts, who is super cool and smart dude.

Seems like a nice guy. Yeah. Seems like a really good egg. Yeah. So, I don't know. It's, I'm interested. to see who they hire, in part, because I'm very interested to see, like, how serious the option is. But, yeah, anyway, that's it. We're done. We have nothing else to talk about this week.

Until, plug-wise. Three minutes after we hit stop. Oh, Christ, you're right. I forgot about this, because it was three minutes after we hit stop. Did you see Bruce Boudros' run down of his five favorite wrestlers of all time? Oh, no, I did. I saw that he had done that, but I didn't see what the list was. And I know it must have been Steve Austin because they've been playing the music. Yep.

So the Canucks did a thing of, you know, after the game, whoever played the hardest or whatever, they give him a championship belt. And apparently, I think I read that it was Bruce Boudreau's idea. And so somebody in the Vancouver media was like, oh, you must be a wrestling fan then. And he says, I am. And he gives a rundown of his five favorite wrestlers. The first three Canadian legends, I think you would say. Do you want to hazard a guess here?

The first three, so Brett Hart. Brett Hart is his number one and the correct choice at number one. He knows. He knows his, all right. Canadian Edge? Nope. while Edge is a current wrestler think newer current wrestler. Newer current wrestler Kenny Omega?

No, it would have been, it would have rocked if it was Kevin Owens. It's Kevin Owens. It's Kevin Owens. Again, we love Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens and Bruce Brudrow seemed like they'd be a fun hang together. Oh, yeah. Let's make that happen.

The third one you're not going to get. He was like a wrestler from the 70s named Johnny Powers. I believe Bruce Bruce Boudreau said the originator of the figure four leglock we all of course know that it was the nature boy buddy Rogers was the originator of the figure four leglock but Giant Power certainly among Canadians was probably that guy

and then two wrestlers one of whom you already mentioned who are not Canadian but definitely like all-time greats so Austin Austin is correct The Rock? The Rock is also correct, yeah Nice, okay

And I look at that list And I say, that's This guy gets it Yeah He doesn't have Hulk Hogan on there You know, no ultimate warrior Like he did And he's also,

I respect that he's not one of these guys Trying to like thread the needle Of like, you know, Brett was my favorite But Sean was pretty good to No, scrooge Yeah, no, if you I mean Screw Sean Michaels like regardless

of your nationality, but particularly if you're Canadian. I think you're not allowed to say you like Sean Michaels, right? That would be an insane thing to... That's it. They freeze your bank account up here. Speaking of freaking economic sanctions, right? But yeah, so I looked at that list and I said, you know what? He went out on a limb with KO as his number two, but I kind of respect it in a way.

W.W.E. Champion. Can't say, but also like, you know, indie bona fides where he was a GCW guy for a million years and all that kind of stuff. A little disappointed to not see Sammy Zane, who I love Sammy Zane. He's my favorite current WWE guy, but I get why you go with KO, a bit more of a top of the card guy. He's sort of doing some lobbying for the Montreal job here. Do you think he's just hoping that they... That's right, yeah. Between Brett and K.O. Like, and the French sounding last name, you think he's trying to just slide in there?

I, look, fingers crossed, but, yeah, he, I said to myself, one of my dreams is to get, like, like, Kyle Dubas on the show, and we only talk about wrestling. We don't, for one second, talk about hockey at all. Get up the day after the trade deadline. Kyle, now, what do you think about Survivor series coming up? Well, that's not the trade deadline. a king of the ring, I guess, would be around the trade deadline. But you made some big deals yesterday. Spin the wheel, make a deal was a WCW gimmick from.

That's right. A beloved WCW gimmick. But now we can add Bruce Boudreau to the list. Like let's get Bruce on and just really chop it up about, like you said, Kenny. Really get into it. What do you think? Why did you leave Ken? arguably the greatest

North American wrestler of all time. I think you make a very serious case. But yeah, that I said to Bruce Boudreau, you've further earned my respect today, sir. Yes. Good stuff. Let's go.

Yeah, so plugs. Plugs. Oh, and one other thing that I have no thoughts on, but we have to mention it. Sean Avery is back. Is he? He's apparently signed with the E-C-H-L. Orlando Solar Bears in what I'm sure is not at all a gimmick.

No, no, no, no, no. It's just, you know, he likes the game. I straight up didn't even see that. Yeah, it's a, I guess a few tweets go over. You know what's interesting to me? The idea of, can a guy who was like a perfectly good NHLer, who's now like maybe 37, 38 years old and hasn't played professional hockey in a while, how good is he in the ECHL?

That is actually interesting. That would actually, if he gave full effort because it's, you, he's, It goes back, not that I would in any way compare the ECHL to a beer league. And in fact, it's, it's, it's, somebody from the ECHL would tear your beer league to, to shreds. 100%. But this, yeah, it kind of gets to like, like, we, this discussion broke out in one of my comment sections where somebody was like, you know, any NHL player would destroy your beer. And somebody else was like, God, not Colton Orr, that guy couldn't even skate. And we were like, Coltonor, we scored 30 goals in a game against you.

yeah, this would be an interesting, if he's actually motivated, which, come on. Yeah, no, I've told this story before, but when, you know, when I was in college, you would go play, like, pick up hockey. And there were guys like, oh, yeah, that guy played college hockey. That guy was, like, a D3 player. This guy was one of the best high school players in Massachusetts, which, you know, has, like, okay, high school hockey. and there was a like a guy who was clearly like in his late 40s, early 50s who would show up in full

Rochester Americans gear and completely fucking dominate you know and it's like oh this guy hasn't played professional hockey probably at least 15 years and he's still the best player on the ice so let's uh let's let's not

besmirch uh like lower level pro leagues for sure. But with all that. I'm just saying, if Sean Avery looks good, the Rangers do need somebody to counter Tom Wilson in the playoffs. I mean, this is... You know what? That would be the one guy that I would think,

you know what, maybe he can't get Tom Wilson off his game. James Dolan is going to be watching carefully. Yeah, that's right. Okay, now we're actually going to do plugs. Yes. And E.P.Rinkside.com. I believe there is a new a new code

that will get you an extra month off or something like that beyond the usual I Love EP but can I remember that code off the top of my head and did I write it down? Sure didn't. So you know what? Just stick with I Love EP. Mash the keyboard until something comes up. Yeah, it's like Fab 22 or so.

I've seen enough 90s hacker movies to know it's not going to be that hard. Let me log out on EP Rinkside and see if I can pull it up here. And then, yeah, I was right. It's Feb 2022. And you get three months of premium when you sign up for an annual subscription. So there's your code. And then, of course, the Puck Soup Patreon.

Because of the Olympics, Greg has been running me ragged on the Patreon. We did stick to soup on Monday morning. and then yesterday we did overrated, underrated with the great film critic, David Ehrlich. We did. Yeah, that was cool. Oscar-related stuff. A lot of good recommendations in there.

If you're interested in that sort of thing, we do have the Supolet, lay bonus episode coming up. We do have another regular stick to sports this week, where I will talk about a new soda I tried. So why wouldn't you want to listen to that? And then, of course, like I said earlier, the mailbag. And we are going to go record that in three or four seconds.

Yeah. So check that out. And I'm on The Athletic. And you can hear me with Ian Mendez on the Athletic Hockey Show at Thursdays. And all my writings on there, including today, I have written a guide to the different stages of cheering against your own team. We've all been there. The NHL puts us there because they,

create situations where it's better if your team loses. So I wanted to kind of walk you through the process and how deep it can go and what you need to know before you go there. And I think we're a dollar a month right now for a few months. So if you're not on board yet and you've been waiting for a cheap offer,

one has arrived. But it only works if you click on my articles. If you click on a Gentile article, you get charged like double. It's really weird that he does that. It does add you. to a list. It does.

That's right. Yeah. So, yep, that's, that's everything. And thanks for listening. Thanks for all the support. I know we're asking for you to really shell out the cash to read all our various thoughts. Boy, you just don't have enough access to them. But here, yeah, that's, we, we appreciate everybody who steps up to the plate.

We, we, there needs to be like a golden circle or something like that, like a, you know, Maybe not going to retire your number, but we are going to say this guy gets it. Or girl? If you pay for ESPN Plus, the athletic, EPRinkside, and the Puck Soup Patreon. I'm not going to like send you a plaque or anything, but we do want to hear from those people. So if you can, and you do have to be able to prove it, of course. I can't have any liars. Yeah, we're going to need full access to your banking information and social security.

At least the last four digits And your mother's maiden name Exactly All right Thanks everybody Have a good one Bye bye bye Bye bye

Sticks and hits and goals And saves And slapshots and goons We've got Sportly commentary To what if you commute We also cover movies TV shows

It's and tunes It's your weekly Bowl of Hagi and nonsense Borgoo