Puck Soup - The Wait is Almost Over

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the Panarin trade, the Olympics, and more. Sponsored by Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean Magnau from The Athletic. And I guess we're going to start this with old business because it feels like this trade, the Artemi Panarin trade that we're about to talk about, which we haven't talked about on the show yet, I think this trade happened three months ago at this point. Maybe I'm wrong. Yep.

But it certainly feels that way. That was during our Q4 episode and this is our... Yeah. What happens is... you know, we're all like, we're all kind of waiting for, we know he's supposed to be traded before the roster freeze, which was last Wednesday, I believe at 3 p.m. Eastern. And we're just, we're all waiting for it to happen. We're all waiting for it to happen. It gets to like 3 p.m.

And it's like, I don't, I don't know the exact, like how everything exactly lined up. But I feel like it got past 3 p.m. And we were like, wow, it didn't happen. And then they were like, oh, no, it happened. but like if you're a ranger's fan you're not going to like this one. Well, see, I don't know if you know this, Ryan, but even after the deadline,

trades can still trickle in. They can't, it's one of the things I've heard mentioned before. Yeah. I, so this is interesting because we talked about it last Tuesday and then I talked about it on the other pod on the Wednesday,

which we were recording in the morning so we're like frantically checking Twitter to make sure the trade hasn't happened as we're talking. And I think I said on both shows, and I still kind of feel that way, I don't get what the rush was from the New York perspective, the Christian. Sure. Like, I feel like I kind of get it.

Because as you alluded to, the consensus has been this is a pretty underwhelming return. Oh, yeah. It's a decent prospect, like a good prospect. and a third round pick, conditional, all of that stuff. Yep. No firsts, no, you know,

for a guy that was head and shoulders the best rental question mark available at the deadline. Totally. It was not very much. Now, the thing is, he really perhaps wasn't a rental because he wasn't going to,

he said he wasn't going to waive his no move clause unless he got an extension. Right. Which obviously greatly limited what was available. And then further, there's talk that he only actually wanted to go to L.A. Also correct, yes.

And I guess from that perspective, I can see why if you're Chris Dury, you've got to take what you can get. I just don't know why you do it now. as opposed to saying, you know, going to Panarin and his people and saying, I understand you have a no move. I understand you want to go to L.A. We're talking to them.

We're trying to make that happen. But they just haven't come with a realistic offer yet. And I can't say yes to what they're offering right now. Yes. So we're going to wait two weeks. We're going to wait while the Olympics goes on. Maybe the Kings bump their offer up. maybe you guys get on the phone to Ken Holland and tell him to bump his offer up so that this doesn't all fall apart.

Or maybe you change your mind and decide there's some other places you'd be willing to go so that I can get an actual bidding war happening. But I can't make this trade right now. Now, if you do that, I don't know. Maybe Artemi Panarin says, okay, well, then I'm not waving at all. I've changed my mind. this the window is open now it's closed i'm not going anywhere and i'll just go back to the khl next year uh yeah uh and if that happens we're all crushing chrisduring for for getting too cute and not just taking an offer on the table so i get it we don't know what was happening behind the scenes

it's hard to say all we can just do is look at it from the outside and go man that's not very much for an elite superstar player. So from the Rangers side, we can get to the king's side in a bit. I don't love it, but I don't love it with the asterix that I do appreciate and understand that there were levels to this behind the scenes that were probably not privy to. Right.

So my initial thought on seeing the return obviously was what are you talking about that's the return you know but the if it's he would literally only go to one team and that team wasn't even willing to give him the like four years 50 million dollars or whatever it was that he was allegedly looking for then it's like maybe there was like no market for this player because a bunch of teams just knew like he only had to as the one destination in mind. And that's it. And, you know, too bad if you're anybody else.

And to your point about like, why, why did they have to do it before this deadline? I think the answer is nobody who's going to want to trade for him after he's sat out for like almost a month? You know what I mean? Like the Rangers had pulled him out of games from what was it, like five or six days before the trade. And so the idea that like It's bad to sit a guy for a month in the middle of the season when he's healthy I think that's probably true You know

And if again everybody at that time was like he has played his last game for the Rangers They weren't going to after the Olympic break go You know what? He actually gets to play more games than this for us So I get it from that point of view but like you're saying they go how's Liam Green Tree and a third and a fourth or whatever how's that sound I'm sitting here if I'm them I'm sitting here going well what it sounds is horrible yep and I don't like I'll put it this way I don't watch the OHL or whatever you know so like I don't know how

Liam Green Tree is doing I can pull up his elite prospects page and go well he's on pace fewer points than he had in like his draft year right now. Yeah. So that seems bad. It's certainly not a blue chip prospect. This isn't, no, no, no. This isn't a case of the king's giving up their best guy. Right.

So, like, if I really don't know what you do if you're juror. And I'm not defending this. I think this is dog shit for the Rangers. but I don't know that there was any solution that wasn't dog shit. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's just like what could you possibly do that would make everyone go under all these circumstances that would make everyone go, well, he fucking killed it though. You know, like that's as good or not even killed it.

We'll use the parlance of when Matthew could Chuck got traded out of out of Calgary because he just didn't want to play there anymore and didn't want to sign an extension with them. They did as well as they could. Now, as well as they could still sucks. And like, I really wouldn't be super confident if I'm Chris Drury that like I have this job at the end of the season. Yeah. Well, and like if I'm Chris Durie, I'm using that.

When I go to like Panarin's agent, I say like, guys, I'm getting fired if I accept this trade. You know, I mean, you're throwing a little bit of drama, right? You know, just, like, if I take this trade that is on the table, the backlash from Rangers fans who already hate me is going to be so loud, I probably don't keep my job. I'm not, I am willing to get you to L.A. I'm willing to work within the parameters. You've been a great player for us for seven years. You have a no move that you negotiate in good faith. I want to do right by you. I will not walk the plank of my own career just to get this trade done.

Sure. And then you sit back. And maybe it's a bluff. You know? And you just, you play some chicken and you see if Ken Holland bumps up the offer. You see if maybe they're willing to come back and say, okay, we'll give you a couple more teams to talk to.

Or maybe they say, you're bluffing. Right. Talk to you in two weeks is going to be the same offer. and then what do you do? I don't know. But I do feel like people... They painted themselves into a corner. Yeah.

That's all. That's all. If this exact trade happens an hour before the real trade deadline, I think the reaction is pretty similar, but also you'll have some people saying, I mean, you've got to take what you can get. Totally. You can't let them walk for nothing, right? That's the... So, whereas to do it now a month before.

I don't know. I don't know, man. Let's talk about it from the L.A. side. What were your thoughts? Let me say one more thing about the Rangers. And the self-imposed deadline, right? Like, they didn't have to impose the deadline of, like, it has to be before the Olympic break. But because they did, they were just not able, like, that made it their trade deadline. Does that make sense?

Yeah. So. I don't see why they did that. I, yes, I'm agreeing with that part of it, but I, that's, that's like the, the disconnect that I'm, that I'm, like, feeling with it is just like, no, you, you know, like, it's, it's the thing of like, you're, you're holding the boot on your, like, that, that meme of like the guy holding the boot on his own head and being like, oh, I'm getting crushed under this boot. And it's like, well, just stop. Mm-hmm. And, like, I get that I'm always. complaining about GMs who always want to kick the can down the road? Sure. Oh, we ran out of time.

We'll do it in that game. We'll do it in the offseason. We'll do this and that. So, I don't know, maybe I should just be glad somebody stepped up and took a swing. It just, it wasn't much of a swing. Yeah, that's right. So the Kings. Yes.

What were your thoughts on that? Um, I mean, if you can get a player who's as good in, theory as Artemey Panarin is for basically not nothing but like as lower return as a player of that caliber was like ever going to get in this league basically in my opinion. Yeah, why wouldn't you do that? Like I don't know that like this really moves the needle for them. I don't know that I'm sitting here going. And of course, now the kings are like a highly competitive team, blah, blah, blah.

I don't think they are. What I do think is they are in a situation where, again, I've said this a million times, Ken Holland came in and was like, I'm not selling, I'm going to improve this team where I can. This seems good. And it's like, yeah, they're pretty good. You're right. And so to go get a guy for as little as they paid, that totally made. That totally makes sense to me.

I just don't think, you know, this catapults them to the top of the Western Conference or anything like that that you might have expected two years ago. Does it catapult them into likely playoff team this year? Yeah, I think it does. Okay. Because there are three points back right now. Yes. Of a couple of teams because they could catch Anaheim or Seattle. So, because I'll tell you, my first thought when I saw the tributt's, you.

trade was why, like, why the Kings? Sure. Because I feel like this is, this team's been a bit of a diminishing asset for a while now. Obviously, Copaatar's done this year. You've got Dowdy at the very tail end. That means you're, you're kind of losing the heart and soul of your team. You're also freeing up some cap space and you're, of course. You're a desirable market and all that.

So, you know, maybe, maybe the, uh, the chance for a quick turnaround is is better in in L.A. than elsewhere. But I just kind of felt like when I first saw the trade go through, this is Ken Hall and not accepting reality. Ken Hall shouldn't be a guy who's pushing to add a 35-year-old player. And then I held my breath and I waited for the extension that I was sure was going to reinforce that point. when Artemey Panera got four or five years or whatever

on an LA team that might not be very good. When I saw that the extension actually ended up being two years at 11 million, I feel like that's where I started to shift more towards the stance you were taking, which is, boy, at some point you just, you can't turn that down. That's an extremely reasonable extension from Artemite Panera. And a guy that a lot of us thought was just looking for the payday. Yeah, cash out.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he left probably tens of millions on the. Well, we know that Seattle offered him significantly more than that. Yeah. They offered him basically the contract that he was rumored to be looking for. And he was like, yeah, but I'd have to play for like the Seattle Cracket. You see what I'm saying? Mm-hmm.

And they were like, yeah, we see. We hear you. Come on, man. So, yeah, I mean, I think I shifted away from my initial reaction and more to, okay, if the acquisition price is this cheap and we're only talking to two-year commitment, yeah, okay. I think at that point, you got to, you know, you got to roll the dice and see what you can. Yeah, I obviously agree with that. I'm back to liking it for L.A. Yeah, I, there's, I'm not going to say there's not, or there's no downside.

I can't say that. But what I can say is the downside because it's only two years and it's at a time when like a lot of money's coming off your cap and the cap is rising pretty sharply the next two years and blah, blah, blah. I'm able to exclusively report that. Okay. Wow. But you know what I mean? Like there's just there's so much opportunity for them to just like maintain flexibility and it's only for two years. And again, this is a guy who's what, like 36, 37 years old. The wheels could absolutely fall off this summer.

This just happens with guys who are like 35, 36, 37 where it's like he's a really good player. And then he comes back the next summer and it's like, now he isn't. I don't know what happened. You know? So there is that risk to it But $11 million really isn't that much money For a player with his ceiling Like what's the worst case scenario, right?

By the time you realize, oh, this guy's cooked He's not just slow to adapt He's not just a he's cooked That's one year or the two years already down Yes So you're left with one year I mean There's buyouts, there's it

And I mean he's also said like If I'm not in L.A. I'll go back to the cage Okay. Or tell me, why don't you just head back a year early? Here's a plane ticket. Yeah. And, you know, we do the whole mutual termination thing. I mean, not even that.

You just leave the contract open and... Whatever works for you, Big Dog. We'll see you out there. Yeah, of course. So if... What are the odds? Like, give me a percentage that you feel now the kings are going to make the playoffs. Oh, in that division.

I mean, third feels so up for grabs. As you say, there are three points out of it. But third feels just so up for grabs in that division. Like if I know people get mad about the playoff format with like stars playing the wild and how the East might work out. And if the Kings and the Oilers have to play in the first round again, Gary Bedman needs to step in and just change it. The Oilers are going, I don't agree with that. We like playing those guys in the first round. Yeah, I know.

I'm just saying the rest of us don't need to see the 19th consecutive edition of Oilers beating the Kings. Folks, this guy doesn't understand. This is about building rivalries. It's the rivalries, man. What it really is is about saving on travel costs, but, you know, we don't have to. That too. So, yeah, like, you know, I'll put. it like the ranger or the the kings are now at like whatever 48% to make the playoffs out of that

spot i don't know that i think panarin is like a huge needle mover and but he certainly helps them and you know if it allows byfield to to be a little more offensively impactful than he's been this year blah blah blah i think that's all you know to for for the best you know so yeah i don't I don't think they're like they're borderline likely. That's, that's the best I can do for them. Okay. They're a perfectly fine team.

I got no problem with the Kings. That's about it. They're not like contenders for anything. No, no, clearly not. And then, yeah, let's just like quickly talk about what this means for, for Panarin himself because I,

you know, to me, I think with the cap going up and all that shit, the important thing to, continually remind ourselves, I guess, is that like two years from now, if he does have two good years in L.A., he can get another like $10, $15 million contract out of somebody, no problem.

Somebody will talk themselves into that. Yeah, if he's depending on where he wants to go, who knows. And if not, okay, I'll go do that for Cisco. I'll talk to you later. He's like, it's Winnipeg or nothing. He loves Winnipeg in this scenario. So yeah, that's kind of my thing with it, is just like, if you're, he's got enough money that he can just be like,

well, if I'm happy where I'm at, then that's all that matters, talk to you later. And seems like, again, like he only wanted to be in L.A., so now he is. Mm-hmm. That's it. There's nothing else to really talk about here. Okay, great.

I agree. Put the stunt, Puck soup staff of approval. for L.A. Yeah. Somebody did ask me if Drury is the Puck Soup dumbass of the week, and I think it's maybe like the whole Rangers organization. Hey, man. But you can, you can crap on that team, but they got the memo.

Yeah, in their email. They got the memo, and they're like, oh, you want us to just lose all the time from now on? Done. No problem, big dogs. We're on it, boss. Talk to you. and you know again ultimate respect like any fan who's like in my opinion the number one thing a team in their position should do is blow it up they're blowing it up that's all i've ever asked for

and so we say to the beautiful new york rangers thank you we love you that's it yep i again like this happens this feels like it happened so fucking long ago at this point that like I feel like I'm talking... It feels like... Why that is. I guess just the... I mean, we all moved into Olympic mode, obviously, but... Yeah.

Ugh. It... It real... I'm not joking. What it really feels like is like if I'm going, okay, so here's what happened in Mesopotamia. You know what I mean? Like... Yep.

Okay. I guess we got bigger fish to fry. You know, like you said, the Olympics and... Later that day, so that, I'll give you some backstory here. I was going to the movies to see The Testament of Anne Lee, a wonderful film in my opinion. And like halfway through the movie, my phone fucking blows up a million with, holy shit, Gavin McKenna, whoa. And I'm like, uh-oh, what happened? Is he going back to the CHL?

Like, what's going on here? This is weird. And I'm trying to watch a fucking movie, folks, you know? And I'm getting all these texts. And so I did something I hate to do. I go out to the damn like the little entrance ramp. I had to. I got, I'm not joking.

This guy won't eat a snack during a movie. Yeah, of course I won't. And he's sitting there in the theater on his phone talking loudly while everyone else is trying. Well, now hold on. Hold on Crazy Hold the phone No I legitimately

Like I got I'm not joking like Probably 15 texts In the space of like Five minutes And I'm going Well something fucking crazy Just happened

And it is going to be All I think about For the entire rest of the movie Until I get to the bottom of this So I got to the bottom of it pretty quickly I went back and watched the rest of the movie It was a wonderful film

Oh good So yeah, he, Gavin McKenna got arrested for allegedly breaking a guy's jaw in a fight outside or an altercation, perhaps, you might say, allegedly outside a bar in state college, Pennsylvania, which is where Penn State plays. They had just played a big outdoor game against Michigan State earlier that day. and again in the almost a week since we've learned a lot more about what may or may not have happened in that in that scenario and everybody is just kind of like based on what all the rumors are we have no choice but to be on Gavin McKenna's side we like him now and he was supposed to have his preliminary hearing tomorrow, Wednesday the 11th. That got moved yesterday to,

gosh, now I don't have the date in front of me, but it's the, this is how my mind works. It's the first day of the Big Ten tournament. Okay. That's how I, that's how I have, like, put that aside in my mind. And, you know, oh, also, they dropped the felony assault charge, too, a misdemeanor. Yes.

In announcing that. So it's, uh, it, now it doesn't feel quite as, uh, as salacious or whatever you want to say as it did. The, the odds of him not getting drafted because he's being hauled off to jail. Right. Not allowed to answer the country. Yeah. Um, there is apparently still some question from the people I've talked to about like, is

Fed and State going to suspend him because the guy he allegedly punched may or may not be a Penn State student. And often when there is a physical altercation on campus and like a kid gets charged and another kid allegedly gets hospitalized or whatever, often they go, well, while this plays out, you're not allowed to be on campus. Okay. And we, we, so the other thing I guess to say is Penn State was off last week. Like they had a scheduled hole like in their schedule, like they just didn't have any game scheduled last week. So it allowed Penn State to take the extra like week or whatever, let it all play out, see what happens. We don't know if he's suspended. We don't know if he's going to play on Friday when Penn State has a game.

Okay. And, yeah, there just remains many things we do not know, put it that way. And yeah, I guess that's all the, that's all the information that is available at this time. Again, like, it felt like we were supposed to learn more tomorrow and then that date got moved. So without getting into some of the behind the scenes stuff or. rumors or whatever. Yeah. If I'm a hockey fan and all I really care about is,

is Gavin McKenna still going in the top three of this year's draft? My understanding from, you know, hearing from 200 hockey men and all this kind of thing. Yeah, this actually kind of raises his draft stock, maybe. Yep. That may honestly be the case. That, and, you know, it's funny because we. talked about this last week and I was like, this kid's going psycho all of a sudden and that, you know, the wording was pointed out to me that, you know, maybe, maybe that's literally

true is what people were saying, you know. But like the increased level of performance over the last couple of weeks. Plus this maybe has people going, okay, maybe this kid does have like that high competitive spirit that we were hoping for. Got that dog in them. That, yeah, basically. And like, that's, that's probably a stupid way to think about it when a kid is charged with assault and all that.

But this is this sport. So that was what was always going to happen, you know? So, yeah, again, like, it's just hard to have more information than we do currently. And so I've told you all I know is what it boils down to. Yep. That's the Gavin McKenna update. There you go. More stuff that happened a month ago.

Yeah. Again, like, it happened so long ago, the charges changed. You know? it's not my fault we only do the show once a week get off my back you switched to a daily show well that's John Stewart's thing oh okay

weren't you know he's back doing that isn't that I know he's back on like Mondays is that yeah I think that's still the gimmick I gotta be honest with you I haven't watched a second of it every once in a while I'll see a clip and go oh right that's happening remember remember like this guy hated George Bush, remember?

Yeah, I guess I remember that thing that was 20 years ago, sure. People would say, like, proudly say that, oh, yeah, I get my news from the Daily Show. And we're like, oh, I wonder if that's going to have any bad effects down the line, then we're all getting our treating news as entertainment. Anyways, I haven't checked the newspaper. I don't know if anything happened with that. Yeah, from what I understand, everything's going really good out there. Cool.

Awesome. Well, there you go. No problems anywhere in society. Anyhow. Why don't we take a break and we'll be right back and we'll talk about the damn Olympics. This week's episode is brought to you by our good pals at Mint Mobile. Folks, every group has that one person who insists on doing things a hard way. The friend that's still paying for a subscription, they forgot they had. The one that refuses to update their phone because it still works.

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Cementmobile.com. All right, we're back. And I guess the first thing I wanted to talk about when it comes to the Olympic hockey tournament is it was something that I hadn't really, like, put a lot of thought into before the tournament. But now, I guess we have to talk about, there's apparently a norovirus going around at the Olympics. Yeah.

That is bad enough that, like, Finland had games moved and stuff like that. And was it a player on the Swiss team tested positive as well? I believe so, yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So this is a – on the women's side, we should say. Yes.

But, yeah, enough that they move the game, both because Finland may not have had enough players, but also because the last thing you want to do is have them play, in this case, Canada, and then infect another team, and now it's on its way. So, yeah, I really missed the whole virus. Can we have one freaking Olympics? I really, yeah, when guys are getting quarantined and all of that fun stuff. Yeah, fingers crossed. I mean, it sounds like, I don't know if I'd say.

It sounds like it's under control. Sounds like the situation hasn't gotten worse in the last couple of days. Which is really all you're looking for at the end of the day. So I think it's a non-issue unless Canada doesn't win gold in both events. Well, they have their excuse built in now. They're locked in on their we didn't win it when the medal we thought we would excuse, which we'll get to in a minute. Great. You know what?

Fuck it. Let's talk about it right now. Marie-Philippe Poulin. hurt yesterday will not play in today's by the cowardly player whose name I don't know

but that's right but she is officially out for the U.S. game was the last thing I saw and that U.S. game is later today by the time you're hearing this it's probably in progress that game. Quite possible. So this is the

2 o'clock game? Yeah, something like that. Yes. 2.10 I want to say. And this is the round robbing game. So if you're listening to this going, holy crap, did we skip ahead of the gold medal? No. This is the beautiful thing about women's hockey

and tournaments like this. You get pretty much the guaranteed appetizer main course of games. This is the appetizer. But it'll still be amazing because these two teams hate each other. Very much. They do.

That's true. And, you know, I'd love to be the coach who goes in there and says, like, hey, guys, maybe just ease off. Remember, it's only round robin. It doesn't really matter who wins this game. I don't think we'll be doing that, coach. Yeah, I think if I had to guess my, I guess what I think they would, they would be saying before the game here is, let's go kill these fuckers. That's right. Who's got the rhodovirus?

Go cough all over. all over them. So yeah, pulling out today day to day, but I mean, there's only a week and a half until the gold medal game, so there's not a lot of days

in day to day. She did come back, played one shift after the hip, and then stayed on the bench and then didn't come back for the second period. Yeah, the classic take it for a spin. Uh-oh.

Which is not great, but, you know, it's better than leave on a stretcher type of deal. But yeah. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yes, it is. Realistically, I think there's a very good chance. We just, we don't see her until the gold medal game and then. Yeah, I think that. Willis read it out there.

Probably, you know, maybe, maybe you don't even use her in regulation. Maybe you just wait for overtime and then she, like, lowers from the rafters. Like sting, yeah, of course. And that's it for Team USA. It certainly seems, history tells us that it would indeed be it for Team USA if she did that. So, yeah, you know, I do occasionally find it difficult to watch the women's tournament because it's like, wow, there are like two and a half good teams in this eight team tournament or whatever it is. You know what I mean? Like at the end of the day, you're just like another game that was 14 nothing.

Cool. Yeah, what was the Canada, Swiss, like, the shots on net at one point where, like, 30-7-3? Yeah, it was like 50 to 4, 45 to 4, some shit like that. Like, it's... And, like, Switzerland is a team that produces good players. There's just, you know, it's like the NBA in the 50s where it's like, well, there's the Boston Celtics and then there are several other teams in the league. And you're like, is that true? Well, technically, yes.

So, it's just... you know, hopefully that can change over time, but so far this year I have not found myself super compelled by the women's tournament. And look, we've been saying this for decades now. Oh, of course. It will be better for the sport when you've got more than two teams that are legitimately competitive.

I know other teams have occasionally won games. They're monumental upsets when they happen. It'll be better for the sport when it's, it's when it's more even, but also in the meantime, makes for a hell of a main event. Yeah, we get USA Canada. Yeah.

Two or three times a year or whatever. That could be worse. And this year coming off the rivalry series, which the United States swept, which I thought was unnecessary, but sure. In my opinion, they shouldn't have even had the Olympics.

We know who the best team is. Check it out, you know? I mean, it's long term booking, right? Like you book the losing streak and then it'll be the, I mean, it's the gold medal is really all that matters. Again, unless Canada loses, in which case. Well, Marie-Fili-Poulin was hurt for most of the tournament. So she really didn't get a chance to get her legs on her. Yeah.

Between that, the rotavirus, the fact that our best junior players are in the NHL, so they can play for us. That's right. Yeah. It's just not fair. It's really miraculous that. Canada was set on all sides. Exactly. That's it.

So, yeah, you know, again, what else is there to say about the women's tournament other than this afternoon is going to kick major ass and we're going to love it. And then next week will be even better. Yep. So let's talk about it. We got some, again, this feels like it was a million years ago, but we got the news last week. Braden Point and Anthony Sorrelli out. Sam Bennett and Seth Jarvis are in for. for Canada.

Yeah. That's a tough one. I feel like Sorrelli for Bennett is manageable. Losing Braden Point is a tough. It's tough. Yeah.

I like I like Jarvis as the you know, as the guy they turn to. Yeah, I agree. I think he's awesome. But, yeah, I mean, it's a tough.

I don't think Braden Point as good as he is, is a make or break, a team's gold medal hopes level of player, but he's... Sure. He was a really good player to have in the middle of that lineup, but... Mm-hmm. Yeah, and like Seth Jarvis was on the Four Nations team last year. Like, you know, it's not like they pulled this kid out of the crowd.

Like, he's a good NHL player. Does a lot of things really well. And, but... By the way, also, it's a... Just in case Mark Schifley had any, like, lingering... I wonder if I was close. No, man. Turns out they were never taking you.

And, uh, and yeah, the, uh, the shocking news about the team Canada's captain was, uh, man, Sidney Crosby. Who's that again? I thought it was going to be Sam Ryanhard. I was so sure. Yeah, it felt like a mortal lock it would be Sam Ryanhound. Just, you know, baby Barkov and all that, but, uh, yeah, no, Sydney, good old Sydney Crosby.

Enough of this guy, huh? We get it. Third line center. That's how you know you got a good team when your captain is just your third line character, deft guy. Well, it's like, you know, I'm sure teams have made like Paul Gostad or whatever. You know what I mean? Like that kind of a guy is the captain or whatever.

Yeah. Best on Best. And I'm not shitting on these guys. These are good hockey players. And so, yeah, Canada has. their third line center be their captain, who could be upset, you know, ultimately, but... I can't wait for this to get going.

Yeah, what are we fucking waiting for? Men's tournament starts tomorrow, but can't in the U.S. play on Thursday. Not each other, but they... Correct. Yeah, well, that's the other thing. It's like, the U.S. in particular has just, like... They're playing Vatican City, you know,

like they're just playing unbelievable how weak the fucking American schedule is. Well, I think they have to play Trinidad and Tobago on the same day. Which isn't fair. That's two different countries. Not fair. Damn, that is a poll. That's a deep pull. No guarantee that Canada and U.S. even face each other, by the way.

Unlike the women's side, it's round robin. So, like, I mean, it's kind of Canada, U.S., and then there's like the Swedish group, although that's a little more competitive. And then you see how the playoff shakeout. Yep. There are buys in the men's tournament, not in the women's side,

but on the men's side, there is the buy for winning your group. So it would be funny if there was no U.S. Canada, but. Yeah. I mean, Hey, we saw it last year. You know, that's all fine. Saw it a couple times.

But yeah, that's clearly, I mean, the NH, Gary Batman is just begging, please, please let us have U.S. Canada at 8 a.m. on a Sunday. That's right, Matt. No, I'm still, I'm looking forward to it. I think this is. Yeah, of course. You know, the first time they've done it in a while.

Yep. I don't know if you heard about that, but they actually didn't go to the Olympics for a few years. Oh, is that a thing? Okay. Yeah. It's, you know, a lot of people don't know about it, but they basically were sending like pee-wee teams. Between this and the cap going on.

You're breaking news left and right on this. You know, I'm an aspiring insider in a lot of ways. And, yeah, you know, at the end of the day, you just got to, it's important to have your little scoops get out there. Yep. Tweet that out eight seconds before, before Elliott gets to it. I'm going to try. Yep. Um, so yeah, I, you know, I don't know what I, oh, this is the other thing is there was a report that was basically like, you're not going to believe this, but Quinn Hughes is, is playing hurt a little bit.

Really? A Hughes, brother, I said. You, not the. No. That whole family, all, they all rolled 18 on their constitution. Now, that's a shame. Hey, speaking of Team USA, did you get the, uh, later? email just this morning

from our friend Jimmy Shapiro. You know, I probably did. Let me have a looksy here. Which Kachuk Brother will fight first in the Olympics? Brady, the favorite. I don't think either one's going to do it. Yeah, and then you can bet on

will either Kachuk Brother fight at the Olympics? Yes, plus 50, plus 550, so 11 to 2. No, minus 1,000. Which still means, I mean, bet a hundred bucks to win 10 it's not great odds but kind of free money

yeah but uh yeah I guess it would depend how they define fight I'm assuming that means like get a fighting major but oh yeah well there's stuff about points and goals too but that's blah blah blah who cares

what it probably means like how they would define fighting is the the way they define it that makes the most money yeah for them that's right fighting will be defined based on how we see these bets come in. Mm-hmm.

And, yeah. Oh, everybody bet on no? Okay, so, yeah, giving a guy a facewash and a scrum is now a fight. That's a big fight. Yep. We didn't say what they were fighting. They were fighting the pressure of the Olympics

and their desire to record a new podcast. This one's going on Colchie, right? It's exciting. Yeah. Um, Yeah, I don't know what else What else there is to really say about this turn? Oh, the captain for the United States is Austin Matthews.

Thanks everyone for showing up to our tournament. It's over now. Goodbye. We're done here. We're going home. Metal free, baby. Who would you have had? Who's the veteran American leader that's at this tournament that would have made a better captain?

Frankly, one of the. the Kachuk brothers? Probably Matthew, the guy that's won multiple Stanley Cups in the last couple of years, does the fighting. I understand, but playoff success, you see what I'm saying? Man, that would have been great because it'd be so nice if the Kachuk brothers got some attention. Well, I mean, the other option is J.T. Miller. I don't know that we're making this. I like how I've seen in a few places, this like emerging storyline.

Our buddy Jeff Merrick just, I think, headed this week where he was saying that the J.T. Miller trade has to be in the conversation for the worst of all time, like from both teams' perspective. Hell yeah. That, like, trading away J.T. Miller destroyed two franchises. I love it. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I got to tell you, man, like, do you think if, like, they kept J.T. Miller, it was going to go well for them in Vancouver? Like, I, no, of course not. So, like, I don't, I think it's a, it's like an unbelievably bad trade from the Rangers

perspective, but like, the Canucks should have fucking traded. This guy sucks. And he's a jerk that, like, hates the team's captain or whatever. I don't know what you do about that. I think, I think the Canucks did exactly what they should have done, which is to say trade his ass. But, you know, hey, again, I'm not saying it's like they were trending in the right direction. or anything like that with him. I'm just saying that they were doomed no matter what they did with him.

Also, J.T. Miller, apparently, based on the first practices, seems to be the spare forward. Well, that's a good thing they brought him, then. He could be scratched by his own NHL head coach, which is always fun. I got to tell you, they should fucking do it. He's not good. But, you know, there's always the risk of, like, uh, If you don't play me, I'm going to be really difficult to be around. And they're like, yeah, we know, man.

Yeah. Wait, that's not what you were doing the last few days? I was on my best behavior. Remember when you asked me to go out to dinner with everyone and I said, who even cares and slam the door to my room? That was me being, I was leaving it open. Who do you start in that if you're Canada? It feels like we're...

Thompson, probably. Yeah. It cannot be Bennington. It simply can't be. I think it's going to be Bennington, but I don't think he, I think the leash is extraordinarily short. He sneezes wrong and he's out of there. Yeah, sure. It can't be Bennington, though, man, you can't do it.

You just can't. See, the thing is with the way the round robin works, Canada basically gets like three warm-up games, sort of. Yeah. You know, they're not, nobody's a piece of cake at this lot, well,

a couple teams, but you could, the Italians, maybe. You do kind of have three games to get it figured out. Sure. Just hope they have figured out by then. If they, like,

if we're still talking three games going into a quarter final or, you know, or before that, if it's like, oh yeah, we got to figure out who the goalie is, then that's, that's not good. I think, you know what, I agree with you. It would be bad if that was the situation for them.

Now, would it be bad for me personally? I don't think it would be. No. I think I personally would be fine, but not ideal for Canada, certainly. No. I saw that the U.S. had Hella buck like in the starters net base. at their first practice. And then they,

they asked Mike Sullivan after practice, like, is he your starter? And he's like, oh, I don't know. He could be. Okay.

Which just, Canada is now in chaos, because now we're like, we have to prepare for. Yeah. Could be Jake Ottinger. Could be Jake Otting. Well,

that changes everything. Oh, wait, it changes nothing. Okay. Oh, interesting. Cool. Yeah.

Yeah. Other than that, you know, like it's it's just one of those things where um it feels like either the u.s or canada should win gold and the other one should probably win silver did oh no it was it was on the women's side like dom's model for the olympics had like yeah um whatever it was like reading from the bottom up like japan zero percent whatever for for winning the gold and then it was u.s canada 50 50 and it's like another brave pick

that's good stuff and like what's I mean I'm not you know what's it supposed to say no I mean if that's if that's what it is and that's what it is and that it certainly feels like that's what it is but it is just funny I believe he did clarify that like if you went down decimal points

it was like US 50.2 Canada 49.8 so huge pressure changes everything on team USA is the overwhelming favorites. Couldn't believe how much their favorite, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I don't have a ton else to say about the Olympics

or the NHLs season. Do you want to do some picks? Do you want to wait till next week on the men's side for? No, I'll do picks right now. I'm not afraid. Yeah. Okay. So on the women's side, I'm going to go,

gold, silver, bronze. I'm going to go U.S. Canada, Switzerland. Okay. I'll keep Switzerland and I'll flip Canada in the U.S. I think the U.S. wins today and Canada wins gold and then all the Americans go, well, we beat you five times in a row.

It doesn't really... You guys are falling right into our trap. You fucking fell for it, you dumb fuck. Suckers. And then on the men's side, I guess I will go with Canada, Sweden, the United States.

So Sweden is the... Yes. Yeah. I think I said that. But, you know, why am I... Wait, no, no, no. I have to take this back. Sweden is, like, decimated by injury.

Now I got to really think about it. I forgot about that for a second. I just don't think the U.S. team is all that good. So I'm really trying to figure out a way to say they're not going to win... or they're not going to make the final, basically, is my belief. But now I'm, like, kind of struggling to think of who I do think. I still, I think Sweden could beat these guys. Very.

Yeah. Again, like Sweden's, Sweden's problem is their defense got so thinned out by injury that, and no Leo Carlson, like, they're, they've got some problems over there, the Swedes. They're, like you say, they're still a very good team. but yeah, fuck it. I'll stick with my gut on this one and say Sweden, silver, and U.S. bronze. Give me Canada over the U.S.

and I'll take Finland as my bronze medal pick and I think U.C. Saros is going to be back, baby. That would be nice for Nashville. Be nice for Nashville. Do you have a dark horse? You want to pick one of the other teams as a potential medalist. I'll throw it.

Germany looks a little feisty. I think a little is right. Like, I think that it'll be interesting to see who they do, like what the good teams do with dry sidel. Because, like, it feels like, you can't exactly go like, let's just put three guys on him

and that's the end of his night, you know? Yeah, because he still has Stutzelun out there. Yeah, but you can, you can, kind of do that. You know what I mean? I think that'll be, I think Dryside will have like a really good game or two, but the depth will kind of make itself evident at the end of the day.

So yeah, I don't know. If you're saying I have to pick a team that's not one of the three medalists I already said, I will just go with Finland. That's fine, you know? the other guy that scares me a little bit because there's always a goalie who goes

absolutely nuts yeah of course Lucas Dostle for Chetia makes me a little nervous like if there is anybody that I had to pick to be the like tournament MVP like this guy like ruin the whole tournament

because he just went insane for two weeks like that's the guy that scares me the most. Yeah, I think that's a really good like way to think about it. Like he could be the big, like the guy that just disrupts every expectation and prediction market or whatever you want to say. Totally like he kind of flies under the radar because he's not having the best year in Anaheim, you know. But we've seen it a million times in these international competitions. like they have good coaching and their coach goes,

here's what we're going to do. We're just going to like lay down in front of the Canadians on the power play and they're not going to be able to get a shot through to the net. And then that's the end of the tournament. Like that's the end of that game. We actually win two to one in a shootout or whatever. You know, they could totally do that and that wouldn't surprise me at all. Yep.

But, you know, the most likely outcome remains the most likely outcome for me at the end of the day. Doesn't mean it's like fun or whatever, but that's just kind of how I sees it. Yep. I don't know. Did anything else happen in hockey this week? No? Oh, probably. I can't think.

I remember, I was looking. I was looking last night. I was at the bean pot. Well, the bean pot happened. I guess people don't give a shit about that, though. Nobody does. No. No.

Is that ECHL or is that something else? Yeah. Yeah, basically. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. That's it. Whatever. All the NHL stuff that happened since the last time we recorded and there was some stuff,

but now it just feels so fucking irrelevant. Who cares about the NHL? There's the Olympics. Yeah. And there's no point, like, going down the NHL standing. Oh, what do you think of Columbus? Like, we'll do that in two weeks. I'll see in a week.

Yeah. That'll be a good episode in two weeks where we get to look at the standings be like, what the hell? Wait, Columbus is good now? What's going on? This can't be right. Hold on. Wait.

Let me get on the phone. You know what? I did say, I did see this. There was a, there was an interview with Nathan McKinand where they were like, or are you planning to have fun at the Olympics or whatever? And he's like, fuck no. No fun for me. I'm walking myself in the closet. Somebody made like one of those like four corner charts of like having a good time here for the experience.

then it was like the Kachuk brothers up in one corner and then Nathan McKinnon down in the other what a miserable cranky he's like this sucks I'm going to go home put on my headphones not talk to anybody he is here to chew the Italian equivalent of bubblegum

and win the pills yeah which like Heyo flavored he's not he's you know what do they say like He's not beating the allegations that he's like not a fun guy. No, not at all.

He's like, weirdly intense. And they were like, hey, do you want to try to show some personality? And he's like, yeah, here it is. I'm going to go stare at a blank wall for eight hours before bed. Just Nathan McKinnon going restaurant to restaurant in Italy looking for gluten-free pasta. He's got to be in fucking hell over there, man. Italian chefs with pitchforks. Just, hell diablo.

Get out of here. he's going to be in hell anyway. Well, if that's the case, I don't know what else there is to say about the season. No, man, it's like this is Christmas Eve, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. It's like calling your grandparents on Christmas Eve. Yeah, what are you going to get?

I don't know, man, call tomorrow. I want to go to bed right now. Have this happened, so. Nintendo. That's what I hope I get. Be nice. Yeah. Do you have a switch?

Switch 2? One of my kids does. I do not use it, but yes. Wow. Yep, I also have one. It's fine. That's it. That's my big take on the Switch 2.

Do you still have that uncle who works in Nintendo and gives you all the... He gave you, like, a copy of Super Mario Bros. 4 before anyone else? Yes. And it was crazy. Mario could go to the damn moon in that one. I still

I was talking to my son about this I still remember the day that like somebody showed up at school and was like there's a way in Super Mario Bros. to like jump out of the screen and you run and then you get like a bunch of warp pipes and we're like you are a liar.

Yeah. And he was like everybody go home tonight and follow these instructions and come back tomorrow. And we're all like done and done. We'll see who's lying then. Wear comfortable clothing tomorrow.

because we're going to murder you when this doesn't work. And then just like, bleary-eyed kids showing up in the school yard one at a time. Going like, it worked. Actually worked. You know what I was thinking about the other day?

There's like a, there's an Instagram channel that gets fed to me sometimes on there that's like, uh, like the funniest moments in game streaming history, like one to a thousand or, whatever. And I saw one where this kid just got his absolute

ass-beaten street fighter, like online. And he was like, you used a cheat code. Like, it's a little kid saying this to a guy who was just like better than him at the game or whatever. Yeah. And I was like, man, we gotta bring back a fucking cheat code. Cheat codes and like stuff that you just didn't know.

Yeah. Remember when you would play a video game and you didn't already know everything? And then the game didn't come in and be like, Hey, man, I noticed you ran into some slight trouble on that. Do you want to just skip the entire game and just watch the end credits? That's right. You kids. Shout out to cheat codes, though.

You know what I mean? Using a game genie? That was honestly, and you could like find out that there were like whole sections of a game you had never seen because you had never made it past level like world 1.3. That's right. You're like, wait, there's a place with green walls. That's crazy. Never saw that? No way.

Yeah. Bring back the fucking cheat codes, baby. Let's do it. It's that simple. Okay, well, I guess that's it, folks. We're going to have Sean do plugs now. And let's get the hell out of here after that. Find me at the athletic.

In fact, today, I believe, my podcast with Frankie and other Sean, we did an Olympic preview, recorded it yesterday. I believe it's up today. The newsletter is out today. I'm doing this today. Guys, I'm so busy. right now. This is one of the busiest guys around. Yep.

And I'm going to, speaking of other, Sean, he and I and our buddy Dom are putting together a ranking of all the U.S. and Canada Olympic teams

over the years. 12 in total. The six times the NHL has gone to the Olympics. We ranked U.S. and Canada one through 12. I think that's going tomorrow.

They're calling them the workhorse. Really, it's, it's, like, Mord's cider on that Germany blue line. It's just 40 minutes a night. No problem for you, though. It shouldn't be an issue because I'm that talented. A lot of people, nor a cider, a lot of people are calling me. And they're right to do it.

Weird, because that doesn't sound like my name at all, but. Yeah, but like, you know, it's, it's the vibes. That's it. You know, people just, people just know from. from like looking at you. This is a guy who works insanely hard every day of the week. A lot of... Never takes a day off.

Keep going. So smart and nice. Handsome too. Handsome. Yep, that's right. You thought I was going to leave off handsome? Come on, dog. Give me a little more credit than that.

And then for me, Lee Prospects. I went to the bean pot last night, as I mentioned. Boston College won it very easily in the end. First time, I couldn't believe this. It was their first time winning it in 10 years. Which usually, they win it every other year, every third year maybe. But it had been a while. James Hagen's went fucking ape shit for them.

It turns out the kid that everybody thought was going to be the number one pick. and then only was a point of game player as like a 17 year old in college last year. Turns out that kid's good. Believe it? Yeah. Imagine that. What are the odds? So, yeah, I wrote about like the, I think it's the 10 players who stood out the most for their respective teams.

And frankly, I could have done a little more than that, but it was, it was getting pretty long. I'll be honest with you. So keep an eye out for that. Keep an eye out for my regular NCAA coverage. And then head over to patreon.com slash puck soup where we have all kinds of bonus episodes, including the mailbag that we're about to go record right now. Later this week, we're going to have a bonus episode. Topic TBD, of course.

And I'll tell you right now, I was going to have us rank the, like, U.S. I legitimately was going to pitch this to Sean. And then he said, I was planning it. And he... I'll do it. I'll just... Smart. I'll change completely.

By the way, I... Here's your peek behind the curtain. As we're doing this, I'm on Slack with those two gentlemen. And Dom just revealed that he had never heard the story of Team USA trashing the hotel room. Well, he's like 12 years old. So that actually makes a lot of sense that, you know, he was... And it's like... So that's 98.

How old would he have been in 90s? He was six years old. according to him. Yeah. So we're both furious with him, but also, like, so excited because, you know, like, it'd be like if I was talking to you and I was like, you know, I've never seen Jurassic Park. You'd be like, buddy, come on over. Sit on my couch.

We're going to watch this. We have an X-Finity commercial to watch. You know? That's it. Yeah. That commercial made me fucking sick, man. They shouldn't have been allowed to do that. When did Jurassic Park get so cool?

commercial. When was it, it used to be about the art. Well, my thing is, like, I'm watching that commercial, and she's like, oh, you know, it's all good.

Why would she have been in the bunker trying to turn the lights back on? If, doesn't make any sense. That happened so much later in the movie than what they're portraying. The big pile of shrimp was mildly funny. I was watching that commercial going,

this is a fucking huge pile of shrimp for me, man. Yeah. Sucks. You'll see any funny Super Bowl ads? Remember that? That sounded like your impression of me. Hey. I didn't like that.

Call it. We're talking about Super Bowl ads on the show today. Do you see the one for crackers? Yeah, shut the fuck up. Fucking hate radio voice guys, man. Why would you, wow. How did that? become a thing that people talked like, you know?

I don't know, man. I'm glad there's such thing as podcasting voice. I'm glad this is just... Well, there is. It's just like it's the NPR voice as podcasting voice. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't like that either.

No, I don't like it either. Feels very put. It feels very put on. Anyway, that's it for us. Come check out the mailbag. We're doing good shit over there. there, patreon.com slash pox soup, like I said. Thanks so much. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye.