Puck Soup - Time for the Final

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Sean and Ryan preview the Stanley Cup Final, visit the penultimate Losers' Corner, and more. Get bonus episodes and more at Patreon.com/pucksoup Sponsored by Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from elite prospects. I am Sean Magnau from The Athletic. And the Stanley Cup final starts tonight. This is exciting stuff. This is what it's all about. I mean, literally, I suppose. But it is. And it's, and honestly, I've got to say, three days off, not bad.

Yeah, I, you know. We didn't do like the full week off thing that we get stuck with so often. I wonder why that is. I feel like maybe it just has to do with when the series ended. Yeah. The conference finals, I mean, because it's just like, usually wouldn't they love to start it on like a Saturday or something, but they just logistically couldn't do that because it ended on Sunday, right? Or maybe it ended on Friday.

So. Yeah. So we just wound up with, you know, it's arena availability and all that stuff. But it was still, it was good. this felt right. This felt like the right amount of time to hype it up and do the previews and all that. And, you know, we get the usual extra days off in the...

I don't mind that for like a media day or whatever, not that I'm like consuming a lot of that content. Well, it's more during the series. You know, I'd rather go every second night, keep the momentum going. But there's travel and all that stuff. So this is fine. this done by mid-June.

This is all right. It's almost like the league has figured out that the conference finals are always bad now and they always end quickly. So they plan for that contingency. Yeah, all they need for this to continue is just, you know, like, I don't know what you want to say, like four or five really short series over the course of the playoffs to get things going. Like, you know, if it's up to the Carolina

hurricanes, we started this two weeks ago, the way things worked out for them, you know? They've lost one game here. Yeah, that's, that's, it's probably a tough break for Vegas. Is like, sure you guys don't want to take an extra week? Just get nice and rusty. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny that Carolina, a team that won in five games,

they were like, hey, Vegas was going, clock's ticking boys. Let's go. Let's wrap this shit up. So let's actually start by talking about the team that swept their way through the Western Conference Finals, the Vegas Golden Knights. I think when we recorded last week, they were about to do the sweep. I think they swept on Tuesday night. Three nothing.

And we kind of already did the post-mortem last week because it was so clear, especially after game three with the blown lead and McKinnon getting hurt and all that. but yeah, here we are. They, you know, they haven't given you a lot of reason to think that they're going to, like, blow this or anything like that. They're just like a good, solid team. They're not, like, unbelievable or anything. And look, there's no way to say they were very fortunate that they caught the avalanche with their two best players very clearly, like, barely available without sounding like

oh they're lucky to be here they're a very good team with a very good coach like we talked about last week who let's put it this way got the bounces in terms of

a lot of things not just like the injury luck they got out played by the avalanche in a good chunk of those games score effects, whatever you want to say, sure, I agree. But it just, the way I often put it when it comes to teams like this is every single mistake their opponents made for like three rounds back of the net, no problem for us, you know?

Yeah. Nobody makes it to the Stanley Cup final without a lot of luck. Yeah. We don't like to say that some of us, but. It's undeniably true. Vegas. Wait until you hear my take about the team that took 13 games to get to the Western Conference. Yeah.

Or the Stanley Cup final. Sure. It's like this is what building a Stanley Cup champion looks like. You put the pieces in place. You do everything you can to maximize how ready you will be if and when the bounces go your way. And then you just kind of hope that they do. And you hope that your team is good enough to get enough chances that it starts to,

you're not just relying on flukes and luck. You're tilting the odds into your favor just through the volume of what you've put together. In Vegas's case, the luck isn't hidden away. You don't have to dig for it like you might for other teams. they were in a crappy division they were lucky to make the playoffs in the sense that

they very nearly missed and they fired their coach with a week left in the season or whatever it was right they would have missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference and their reward for for barely slipping

into the playoffs in a crappy division was two very very winnable matchups and then a very tough matchup against a team that had massive injury problems. And you know what? We say it a million times on this show. Can only beat the teams they put in front of you.

Vegas doesn't owe us any apologies for the luck. They owe us some apologies for a whole bunch of other things, but they don't, hey, I mean, they're... They beat the mammoth, they beat the ducks, they beat whatever was left of the abs. That's all the league's giving them. Now, when it gets to evaluating what's going to happen in this series, it sort of becomes a little bit tougher because I think this is clearly the toughest series they're going to face. But all you can do is check the boxes that are put in front of you. And Vegas has done that consistently.

to like an almost comical degree since the playoffs started and they just flipped the switch. Well, and even beyond that, like the thing you say about flipping the switch is kind of what I was going to get to was like, this is their third Stanley Cup final in nine years since they've existed. The last time they went, they won. And there was a little bit of flipping the switch, but the character of this team being just so similar to, to the one, what was it, three years ago now, four years ago. And the kind, to a lesser extent, the one that went in their inaugural season, like it doesn't matter who their coach is, who their goalie is, who their best forwards are.

Well, I mean, I guess it does a little, you know, again, year to year. But like they've changed, let's put it this way. The guy who is most likely to win the con smith for them, like if they win the Stanley Cup, the guy who's most likely to win the con smith, was on a different team last year. And he's a guy they acquired via free agency, which is not where, you know,

successful teams tend to get players anymore, you know? And we can talk about that with Carolina too in a minute, but like, the way Vegas does it makes it feel repeatable in that, they repeat it no matter who the person, Sinell are, no matter who the coach is, you know, no matter how good we do or don't think the goal he is. Like, none of that fucking matters when it comes to the playoffs a lot of the time. And again, like three years in or three Stanley Cup finals in nine years, how many times did they go on to the Western Conference final?

Like another two, three? Yeah. Right? Like they just, the consistency. And missed the playoffs once and did that with a pretty decent record. even that year. I mean, it's, it's remarkable. This is to be year nine of a professional sports team,

and you've never had a bad season. You've had one... Pretty much. I mean, you've had some disappointing seasons, but you've never had, like... These guys are a fucking disaster. Yeah, of course. Like, if you're a Vegas Golden Knights fan,

and you would, like, somehow this was, like, your first pro sports team, you had never really... And there may be people have... there like that, right? Oh, yeah, for sure. I live in Vegas. This is the first team that we ever had. I'd never, I've never cheered for a team.

Only the Golden Knights. You're sitting there going, man, this sports fan thing is easy. Yeah. Why doesn't everybody do this? It's so fun. It's like being a Boston sports fan who's born in like 1998. All you've ever seen is like unbelievable success across every single team in the, in the market. But it's one team.

It's sickening. I hate them. It's crazy. Nobody should, you know, from an expansion team, nobody should be able to do this. And we can talk about, oh, they stack the deck for the draft lottery and blah, blah, blah. Sure. But like. That's fake and the Cracken have proven that to be fake.

That's what I was going to say. And also, like, they didn't make, like, Marsha So and Riley Smith available to, Like with those rules. And again, it's not one... A bunch of teams fucking up. Not one single person after that expansion draft wrote the piece that said, like, this team's going to be really good. These guys are competitive. Holy smokes.

Look how good the Golden Knights are. What a shame that the league has given them so is such an easy path. My gosh, they've got William Carlson and Jonathan Marsh or so. What a great team. That didn't exist. Nobody saw this coming. nobody like And look like as a

As a guy who's like I'm the money ball guy right Like I've read that book when I was in college And was like well my entire worldview on sports has changed now Right Like you have to say that Vegas is The money ball team Oh you're like our beloved franchise goalie.

Get the fuck out of here. We have we need 1.2 million dollars in cap space Don't let the fucking door hit you brother. you know, like they do it all the time and people don't like it and I get why people don't like it. But like the ruthless efficiency leading to what, again, like one third of your seasons you go to the Stanley Cup final ever. Like I, is there an A to be there? I kind of think there is. Yeah.

And believe me. And we'll, I'm sure it'll come up a few times on the course of this show. I'm I'm pretty done with the Vegas Golden Knights as far as like I'm sick of these guys I think they're they're villains

I hope they lose I'm tired of seeing good things happen to lousy people of course I'm just just on my list of reasons to not like the Golden Knights the expansion thing or you know the deck's been stacked in there

It just isn't there, man. Yeah, that's exactly right. And I get it when it was like the, when it was year one and they're going all the way to the final and you're sitting there as, you know, your crappy team hasn't won anything in 30 years or whatever. You're sitting there going, I need a reason to hate these guys. And you're also going, these guys aren't even that good. Yeah. Then go ahead then and pretend that the expansion draft was right. But they've given you more than enough real reasons to hate them.

We don't have to keep. pretending the expansion draft was one of them. Yeah, and I don't, you know, I was, I was bringing it up just in terms of like, the immediacy of their success and what it led people to say about them, as opposed to, you know, ignoring what they did the following summer, which was completely undergird all the unsustainable success that they had in year one,

by just going out and getting a bunch of like really actually good, players who can consistently play in the top of a lineup and not needing Flurry to be like a 930 goalie and William Carlson to score 45 goals or whatever the numbers were, you know? Mm-hmm. And again, they've just done that year after year. Okay, well, Petrangelo's injured. Well, we'll just have, you know, Noah Hanifan step up and he'll, you know, whatever. Like, their approach again to like next man up, oh, yeah, you were.

like maybe our number one goalie, get the fuck out of here. We don't need you. Yep. You know? And that, again, we can talk about like reasons to not like these guys or whatever when it comes to Carter Hart, but like the Carter Heart experiment has worked in Vegas. They saw what I guess you would call it distressed asset, a guy who they signed or agreed to a deal with knowing he couldn't play in the league at the beginning of the year.

Because didn't they, they signed them in like September or October maybe? Or it was like, that was the smoke. There was a delayed ability to sign. And then the, he couldn't play until December. I know that. And, yeah, I mean, and, yeah, I mean, that side of the story bothers a lot of people for very obvious reasons. Yep. I guess all I will say is it was, it was at least widely.

reported. I don't know. I guess we'll never know if it's fully true, but it was widely reported that Carolina was in on Carter Hart, too. Also true, yes, that's correct. As far as this Stanley Cup final, um, yeah, there's a lot of people out there who are like, I don't give a shit who wins. I kind of want them both to somehow lose. So let's let's talk about that because, okay, um, I am somewhat surprised at how much I'm seeing people say like, I don't want to watch this final.

I'm not interested. This is a crappy matchup, et cetera, et cetera. If it's coming from a place of I don't like either of these teams, I don't like how they do business, or I don't like how Vegas does business. And I just, I'm not going to, I can't get into this like, you know, oh, they're the villains and cutesy little way of viewing it. I'm sick of these guys. I totally get that, whether it's Carter Hart or a million other things.

these guys do. I get that. Just purely from like a hockey perspective though. To me, this is a great matchup. This is a really interesting matchup. Tons of star power. Interesting teams. In my view,

a very easy, who do we root for dynamic between the two of them. I'm shocked at people who from a hockey perspective just don't seem to be excited for this series. Well, it's two teams that don't exactly play like the most attractive, fast-paced, up-and-down style of hockey, right?

These are two teams that lean on you and try to push you up against the ropes and land body shots. And that, you know, again, like, okay, I'll give you a good example. Did you watch, I think I know the answer to this, but did you watch the Champions League final the other day? I did not. Yeah, I didn't think so. Okay. So it was Arsenal versus Paris Saint-Germain, PSG, as they are known,

and basically Perry is like, I don't want to say, like, the beautiful football, all that. They're not really, but they are like, they won the Champions League last year. And Arsenal is, for lack of a better, like, equivalent,

like, to put it in context, you'll understand, I guess. Arsenal is like the, let's kind of jam up the middle of the ice and, sure, try to win one-nothing. And they scored early and then they were like, okay, we are done kicking the ball around. We are just going to try to knock over the guy that has the ball on the other team. And PSG tied it like kind of midway through the game, like 57th minute or something like that. and it goes to a penalty shootout and PSG wins. And it's not quite these two teams trying to play Arsenal-style hockey, right?

They're not trying to grind it out necessarily in terms of everything is decided in the neutral zone. Yeah. But it's just two teams with a very similar style that isn't the most exciting to watch when, they get things going their way. And the question is, what does that add up to in a head-to-head matchup? Well, that's exactly right. It's not hard to see this being a pretty dull series of two-one games. And if that turns out to be the case, then yeah, you'll look back and go that series, stunk.

But I don't know. I don't even. I think it's going to be a fun watch. No, I agree. But like. To talk about Carolina and how they. how they beat Montreal now, and we'll talk about losers' corner in a bit. But to me, it's like the, like we said with the Ottawa senators thing early in the playoffs,

where the senators were like, we actually play a pretty similar style to them. And it's like, okay, then you guys are fucked. I don't know what to tell you, you know? And Montreal's like, oh, we kind of play a similar style to them. And it's like, that doesn't sound like it's going to go well for you. And it didn't, right? And it's kind of the same thing here where it's like, oh, you want to play the way we want to play that? Why is that a good idea?

You know, like we've just seen it all year and, you know, obviously over several years with Carolina where it's like they over time have slowly but surely built like the perfect team to play Rod Brindamore hockey. And that didn't portend good things for, for months. Montreal because it's like they're super inexperienced in terms of, you know, going on deep playoff runs or even a lot of these guys like being in the playoffs. And Carolina is like, yeah, we just kind of go to the conference final every year. You know, what do you want from us? And the reason that this is an intriguing matchup for Vegas is, you again they

kind of play a similar style but they have a better top of the roster you know, Marner Eichel uh Stone like Dorofia of like where does the among those four players where does the best

Carolina player whoever you think it is Nick Eler is Sebastian Aho where because I got to tell you I don't think it's ahead of Mark Stone and that might be three on the on the list It might be. But where would you have put Carolina's best guys vis-a-vis Nick Suzuki and Cole Coughfield?

Definitely lower, but the point is Carolina wins with its depth, which Montreal doesn't have a ton of. Right. And Vegas more so definitely does. You know what I mean? Sure, sure. like they were uh Carolina was kind of winning like on the on the on the on the mar like they they they in every series so far have won the second line battle pretty decisively with with Hall and

and stankovin and Jackson Blake right so I don't know that they that they're going to be able to do as much pushing around of the other team when the top line is off the ice as as Vegas, you know? Sure. I mean, I don't doubt that Vegas is a better team than Montreal. But I do think a lot of the things you could say about them, you could have said to a slightly lesser extent for Montreal, including the hot goalie and all the rest of it.

and Carolina absolutely rolled the abs in a way that I'm not sure we've ever seen this deep into the playoffs. So it's, yeah, it's going to be an interesting match. We'll get to the picks towards the end, I'm sure. But who do you think on Vegas? Who's the guy that, like, we're not really thinking of, but. Maybe he makes a difference. That's a good question. Because again, like, like, I think Jack Eichel is clearly a key here because he's one of the guys who hasn't really been going.

But we would assume that any Vegas win involves him looking pretty good. Like, is there anyone a little further down that? I mean, like, see, like, this is kind of what I'm talking about, I guess. It's like my instinct is to say like Barbashev or Hurdle. And it's like, well, both of those guys have been like star players on deep playoff run teams. You know? Like remember that Barbashev run when they won the cup a few years ago? He was fucking insane.

Hurdle obviously like that guy's been been in plenty of playoff games over his career. He has been. He has been. That went to the cup final for San Jose or was that a little before his? he would have been on that team, right? He would have been on that team. Yeah, he's, he's, uh, yeah, he was, he was there for that. And he's, he's had a few, he had a few, uh, deep playoff runs with, with San Jose.

And then, you know, he's, in, he's been over in Vegas. It's interesting. He could be the first guy really from those sharks team to win a cup because Thornton never did, Marlowe never did, Favalski, Brent Burns just went out again. like if you're a sharks fan you're kind of like i don't i i don't know you cheer for Vegas because you got your history there but you're there is kind of got to be a part of you that's like maybe it'd be nice to know we're not completely cursed hurdle always came off as like a real like easy guy to root for you know um i think he'd be the guy i would pick

or or william carlson's the other one where you're kind of he's back yeah and that's We're sort of waiting for him to have the impact. And that's another guy that's had like a 40 goal season. You know what I mean? Like that's the thing that I think is a potentially big problem for Carolina here. Is that there are just guys who have shown they can fucking go off for seven, 15, 20, 60 games, you know? and like I guess let's ask this because obviously we're talking a lot about forwards

where do you think like if we're talking about top defensemen on either team who slots in where you know like where does Slavin kind of um kind of figure into the again your Hanofins and your uh god why am I blanking on his name. Hold on. And Rasmus Anderson and the Teodor.

Yeah, I feel like... Teodor was the guy. I'll take Slaven over any of those guys. Really? I would. Even with the basically no impact on the offense, huh? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Great. But again, like you... But I might take that Vegas trio ahead. Over whoever comes next. You know, like Keander Miller's having... Chandra Miller's having a great playoff. He's having the break. out. He's having the

delayed. Well, I don't know if it's that delayed, but I know I was kind of scratching my head when they made that trade, given how much they gave up in order to give him how large of a contract, but they look smart. Yeah, they're making

the Rangers look pretty dumb right now for sure. So, yeah, I might take the Vegas through, although Rasmus Anderson has just still not hasn't risen to the occasion, but Yeah. He hasn't had the impact, you might, you might think, quite yet.

But, yeah, I mean, I like Blue Line-wise. I, it's, yeah, it's, it's tough. It's, I might like the character, because I think Ghost of Spear is a really underrated guy. Like, at this point, he's awesome. He's been around. I've always been a fan, yeah. He's been, like, he's sort of run the gamut where he had like the big crazy rookie year.

Yep. And you were like, oh, wow, this guy's, this guy's going to be a megastar. And then, no, it turned out he was, that was sort of a peak. And he was kind of an offensive guy, but did you trust him with the big minutes? And now he's really rounded into a good, a real good player. How many teams can you name that he has played for in the NHL? I'm, oh, man. There's one that I think is easy to miss that happened one time.

And he had a great season for it. Yeah, I mean, the flyers are obviously where he started. He was in a coyote. Season and a half in Arizona is correct. Yeah, what's the team that he, that, who's he with before Carolina? Did he go? So this is the funny part. He went Philly to Arizona.

He went Philly to Arizona. Arizona to Carolina Signs with Detroit Goes back to Carolina One year in Detroit Where he had a 10 goal 56 point season Okay

Yeah yeah I do remember that Yeah see Steve Eisenman knows what he's doing Yeah All he has to do is maybe get a guy to stick around Yeah anyway But yeah he I think he's a very good defenseman And I

Maybe not in these playoffs but I certainly put him up there in the same. I would put him above Keandre Miller in terms of like the career he's had to date. It's not even close, honestly. Yeah, different. Miller higher ceiling, of course. Different spots on the curve. Yeah.

And then. Yeah. And then goaltending. Yep. Who knows? I can't figure out who went for here. Should it be the guy who's coming back from. Yeah.

life-threatening health problems and just suffered a huge personal tragedy or the other guy? Mm-hmm. That's right. Freddie Anderson's been a great story. I really... Yeah, for sure. I'm happy to see... I know, like, I'm kind of tired of the whole Marner discourse, but I have seen people try to wedge in, like...

Yeah, but if Carolina wins, and that's Freddie Anderson, that's your old goalie. I couldn't I could not bring myself to root against Freddie Anderson I don't Yeah he wasn't He wasn't good in a couple of game sevens But I it's been a while I want the best for this guy

Like he's How long has he been in Carolina Three years now? Oh is it It's been at least that He When did he leave Toronto It was

I'm looking it up now I 22 maybe No it wasn't even before that This is his fourth year With the hurricane Because he wasn't on the, he, he wasn't in net for the

Leafs for the Montreal series. So he was, he was already gone by then, I thought. Yeah. Maybe he was hurt, but. Well, yeah, 21, 22 is his first year in Carolina. So actually, that's five seasons. Yeah. So, I mean, look, that guy has, he had the reputation in Anaheim, right?

He wasn't, he was part of that team, couldn't win a game seven, couldn't win an elimination game, carried over on a young Toronto team where, you know, this was sort of before things went really south. I don't think you blamed him, but that was a young team trying to learn how to win and they couldn't. And he's been great in Carolina. Yeah, really nice career. He's been great Carolina for stretches.

He's had his off times in the playoffs. And now the whole playoff ready narrative is getting finally buried. I love it. Well, it is right until it isn't. You know what I mean? like all it takes is one bad game. We're all like, here we go again. You know?

There was a little, I'm going to say, there was a little bit of it in, uh, in game one of the HAB series. Like, they got lit up and everybody can go, well, that wasn't his fault. Well, you know, he also gave up six goals or whatever it was in that game. So that's not good. But yeah, I mean, again, like if you're counting on, uh, a John Tortorella coach team to have the goaltending drop out of them out of nowhere, or drop out from under them out of nowhere, I should say.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree, you know? That just often isn't the problem. So, yeah. I, you know, I think that if you're going, you know, forward groups, I think you take Vegas, maybe you call it a wash in defense and slight edge in goal for Vegas. Yeah, and even then I'm not sure you go that big an edge up front for, like star power, yes, but top to bottom and especially, it's weird.

I guess what I struggle with is with Carolina, if their second line is playing like a first line, it almost tilts it back to them, right? Forget about the name, forget about who it is. Like, the way that second line is playing. Yeah. They look like the best line at hockey right now. They certainly do. But do you really bank on that continuing?

Well, I don't. Correct. And I don't want to, but also it's been three rounds now. Mm-hmm. And they're not slowing down. So I don't know how you factor that in. But I think it's maybe, maybe a little bit closer.

I think I like the Carolina Blue Line. And the goaltending is probably close enough that you just, who knows? One guy's going to stay hot, one guy's going to cool off. And that'll probably be the whole series. So yeah, I guess for me, you're saying like roughly even. I'm giving Vegas a slight advantage in terms of just like roster construction and all that. Okay. And yet are we both picking Carolina to win this series?

Well, what's your pick? My pick is Carolina and six. I'm picking Vegas. Oh, okay. Interesting. In a close series, I will say Vegas in six. And honestly, I've gone back and forth, and I think the reason I've settled on is we're just living in a timeline where good things happen to crappy people. And I don't see why this would be any different. we're living that timeline

let's just let's just stay in the hockey in the hockey world i mean we just finished of course we're going to finish the florida panthers mini dynasty and go right into a Vegas that even florida is like geez guys like have some conduct yourselves with some dignity

holy smokes so yeah i've i've completely given up on on good things happening to good people at all. So Vegas it is. Sure. Yeah, I also think it'll be pretty close, but it, again, because both teams are veteran, you know, rosters for the most part, like there were very few young players on either team.

And because, neither team has really been pushed in these playoffs that badly. You know, like nobody's had the opponent put a finger in their chest and being like, we're giving you a fucking series here. It just hasn't happened. Yeah, I mean, Utah had Vegas on the ropes. Well, did they, though? They were up to one in the series.

They had a lead in game four deep into the third period. And games four and five both went into overtime. I mean, they never had them on the ropes in the sense of, we're one goal away from knocking these guys out, but that series looked like it was tilting to Utah. And then Vegas did what great teams do and said, you know what, nope. Never mind.

We're going to punch your way off the ropes, and we're going to roll the rest of the way. So, like, I think this is going to be a close series in terms of, I think all the games are going to be close. I wouldn't be shocked that once we actually get these two teams on the ice if one of them is just a little bit better consistently enough

that the series isn't necessarily a long one. But I don't think it's going to be like I'll be very, very surprised if we come to the end of the series and we're like, wow, Team X was just way better. I think we're going to be looking at it

and we might say, oh, they won in five games, but they were all two one games. And hopefully they're fun two one games and not the sort of sure mind-numbingly hard to watch hockey that only coaches like right yeah again for me it boils down to like kind of vibes almost like it does feel like again just the the the everybody's like yeah i mean you beat the avalanche but they they didn't have their guys you know whereas Montreal had their guys

and Carolina was like fucking punted them over the horizon. They were like, we don't give a shit who your guys are. Carolina was like, no, you don't have your guys. Montreal was like, no, we do. They're right there. Carolina was like, nah. Oh, those are your guys?

Those are your guys? They can play, but they're not going to do anything. That's a problem for you. I, like, again, and we'll do the loser corner with the habs in that. I am not sure I've ever. seen the domination in a conference file. Like a good Montreal team that beat two legitimate teams to get there. And fatigue, I'm sure, was part of it and what have you.

But holy smokes. Like, it was, to me, the turning point was kind of game four where, like, you know, credit to Montreal, right? Games two and three go to overtime. You're one goal away from who knows how it's going to go. But, like, everybody is saying, like, wow, like, this. Ice is tilted. And Montreal was like, yeah, we have to do better.

We have to get some shots on net. And then they went out there. And I've one of the most lopsided games you will ever see. Forget what the scoreboard said. I mean, that, that, the deserve to win a meter almost like dipped over. I want to say it was like 97% for Carolina. It was crazy. It was high.

Like, and I say this is. I'm not exaggerating. I think it was 97%. I love watching a really one-sided game and then go in a money puck to check that deserve to win a meter. And it's almost always like, even if you think you're watching the 70s Habs against the 91 sharks, it's still like 85%. It never gets into the 90s, let alone the high. And man, that was an absolute thing of beauty by the hurricanes. Like that was, I don't know that it was fun to watch.

but it was impossible not to appreciate it. Like, that was art. Yeah, you had to hand it to him. You had to just be like, what can you say? So, yeah, let's talk about the Kahn Smythe now. This is helpful to us that Greg's article of like, I talked to all the PHWA people and here's who they are voting for for Kahn Smyth article came out this morning. Okay.

Who would you think was, let's put it this way. There are six players that apparently received some amount of consideration. Okay. Who do you think number six is? Okay. I haven't actually seen the, I haven't looked at the piece yet. Just give me, is it a 3-3 split? Yes, it is.

Okay. So I'm going to say, I think there's some obvious picks up. on both teams. The name that I was somewhat surprised that Domhead on his list was Kandre Miller. Not on the list. Okay. So I would assume on the Carolina side, well, both sides is going to be the goalie because you have to. Of course, that's correct.

Yeah, both sides, the goalies there. I'm assuming Warners first because. Also correct. I'm guessing Taylor Hall has got some consideration. Did Dora Favav at least make the list? He did not. It's ridiculous. It is so, okay.

So think about this. There's one guy left on both teams and they're both forwards. So is it, I mean, is it like Stan COVID? also on the... That's right. From the same line. Okay, so I was wondering if he leads the... Not the playoffs, but Carolina in goals.

Mm-hmm. I believe. And then Vegas, it... I mean, I could see it being Eichol at the end of the series, but I don't see him being a front runner now. He is number six on the list. Okay. I mean, he's been... He's been better than I think you want.

might think if you've just heard about how he hasn't been as good as expected, if that makes sense. Well, to that point, this is the quote from one of the voters who I think it, when you read all of it out, it makes sense. If Vegas manages to pull off a series victory against Carolina, Eichael's exceptional 200-foot game will figure heavily into that success. I think that's undeniable. Never mind, he's second in playoff points, which is true. He's just not scoring. He's getting a lot of assists. which hasn't garnered nearly enough attention in this postseason run.

To that point, we're not talking about it, so you're right, anonymous voter, you know? I think that's, I think that makes perfect sense. And then, you know, everybody else, Stankovun 5, Hart 4, Hall 3, Anderson 2, Marner 1. Little disappointed to see Anderson ahead of Hall, although, of course, I get it, because I had to take last week with, and I was talking to my friend. friends Sean and Greg. And both of them were like, unbelievable take.

This take is if Taylor Hall wins the con smith, just do yourself a favor and look up every other player in the history of the NHL who has won both the heart and the con smith. It's nothing but like some of the greatest players of all time. There's not a single guy on the list that you're like, no, that's not one of the, you know, 100 best players in the history of the sport. And it would be so sick to have Taylor Hall join that group. And then you have to go, is Taylor Hall a Hall of Famer? He's not obviously on the level of Crosby, Ovechkin, Lefleur, Malk, like, Gretzky, Lemieux, all those guys.

Or. But it sure puts him right back in the conversation, right? It's an undeniable, you have to have the conversation at that point. Even if, like, he's, I don't think he's going to get to a thousand career points or anything like that. But he won a heart and a cons smith. You have to have the conversation, especially with some of the guys that they've been letting them. Yeah, it's, it's wild. And it's also, like, if he were to pull that off, I mean, he's had a 16-year career.

he won a heart trophy has never so much is showing up on a heart ballot any other year of his career. That's right. One fifth place vote in any other year. And then he's never gone deep into the playoffs, never had a big playoff, never had double digit points in a playoff run, and then blows up and wins the cons might. I mean, you talk about min-maxing. This dude has got the four-bler figured out. Yeah, and like, yeah, he's 213 points away from a thousand for his career, and he's 198 goals away from 500.

Those are typically the like bare minimum benchmarks you're looking for from a guy. And yeah, he's only 34, quote unquote, like he could still do it. But like, this is a 50, 60 point a year guy, especially at this point in his career. Yeah. And you're saying, hey, you just need to do what you're doing now for another like four years to a guy who's 34. That's tough to square.

But it's, he would be in, it would be like one of those stats where it's like, okay, the only guys to do this thing in NBA history are Wilk Chamberlain, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and I, I can't think of a guy who's won like a single. MVP out of nowhere, but like just like a totally random had one great year and then never heard from again, good player. Dude, somebody sent me the all-time NBA stat because I have a running gag that I like of the stat spoiler. That in any sufficiently long list of players who have done something, there will be one

guy who kind of ruins the stat. Yep. And this guy sent this to me and he said, this is an all-timer. Do you know, as a basketball fan, can you name all the players who have made all-N-Ba-first team and the NBA finals by the age of 22? I mean, I... The three players are Victor Wembeñama. Webonyama, yep. LeBron James and Max Zoslowski.

Who I've never heard of. That's a fake guy, right? I'm assuming it has some dude from the 40s or whatever, but, yeah, the alien, LeBron, and Max Zeslovsky, and Taylor Hall, Adam to the list. Yeah, I just pulled up, like, who do people think are the worst NBA MVPs of all time? Yeah. And number one on a list that I just saw was Bill Walton, who obviously was a great player, and he's in the Hall of Fame. but like a guy very limited by injury and all that kind of stuff. Like never really in the lineup for, you know, like 65 games or whatever,

just like rarely did. But he won an MVP with, I think, the Trailblazers in the late 70s. And you know what? If you want to say Taylor Hall is the Bill Walton of the NHL, I'd love that. That feels overly complimentary to Taylor Hall. Yeah, it kind of does. I've heard of Bill Walton. Bill Walton's a multi-time All-Star.

I don't have it in front of me, but, like, I'm sure he got a lot of MVP consideration in other years when healthy. But I'm looking up his basketball reference. Just the list of guys in the NHL to win MVP and not make the Hall of Fame is very small. I think most people, for the longest time, there were three guys, and then Jose Teodor. and who knows. Maybe we'll add another guy or two. But to do MVP and Conn Smyth eight years apart.

Damn. That'd be... Walton was second in MVP voting the year before he won. So he at least as a big man, late 70s, on the Blazers. Like, yeah. It's just too bad that we've already decided that it has to be Mitch Marner.

Can I just say this on Marner? And then I'm going to be done. I'm going to be done. No, no, because I don't. Yeah, okay. I'm so tired of that when I fucking see it, man. But I'm just, I'm reading Greg's story, our good buddy, Greg. And he writes about Mitch Marner.

He was driven out of Toronto for his playoff disappointment. Mitch Marner left. He left, that's right. Mitch Marner made his mind up. Joe Thornton was driven out of Boston by his playoff disappointment. But yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. There have been guys driven out of places, including Toronto, absolutely.

Mitch Marner left. He was gone a year in advance. Can we, like, I don't know. If we're going to do the stupid narrative, can we at least base it on reality, please? He wasn't, you know, this is like, you know, you didn't, you didn't break up with her. She dumped you. Which maybe doesn't make you look any better, but, you know, come on. Like, he was, poor Mitch desperately wanted to stay as he was throwing his possessions in a U-Haul.

Anyways, that's all I have to say on Mitch. He's a lovely boy, and I don't want any off-duty cops to text me a picture of my house. The only thing that I'll say about it, because I think he's totally deserving of being number one on the list here among the PHWA voters but him being like

yesterday going like I don't want to talk about the I'm sure someone asked him like you said you had a lot of dark times in Toronto what were those and he's like I don't want to talk about it but I'll talk about it if we win the cup it's like what are you talking about man that is bizarre

that is yep that's really strange If we win the cup, I'll say all the nasty stuff, but if we don't, I'll be quiet. What? And I'm going to be a quiet little boy and just, yep. Very weird. It's a cool bunch, and all the people throwing their support behind them are definitely getting on board with a very cool group of people.

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Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring the show. All right, we're back. And here we are. It's time to talk about Losers Corner. Would you like to start with the Colorado Avalanche or the Montreal Canadiens? Oh, let's start with Montreal. Montreal, it is. What can you really say ultimately?

You know, they were never, they were walking into a fucking wheat thresher here. I think everybody agrees they're going to be good again next year and potentially years beyond that. And there's no real problems here. There's nothing for anybody to be upset about. They just ran into a parentheses much question mark. better team. Yeah, I think that's it. I think you're, you're a Habs fan, you're thrilled, you're disappointed, you know,

you get that close to maybe going to a final. Sure, but better team one. You didn't get close, though. That's the thing. That's it. Now, do we feel like, is there, would anyone from the Atlantic have been the same thing? Like, do we, if it was Buffalo or even Tampa, do we think anybody gives Carolina more of a

more of a series? Like was this an especially bad matchup for Montreal or was this just Carolina's turns out was way better than anyone in that Atlantic division if you wanted to say Tampa I would buy it I think again

I think we talked about this last week like Montreal got totally pushed around by Tampa in the same way that Carolina to a lesser extent, obviously, but in a similar way to how Carolina did it, you know, but they got eliminated in the first round. So I don't know how that matchup against Buffalo goes, whatever, you know, whatever you want to say.

I could see Tampa giving them more of a series. I don't think Ottawa or, well, they already obviously eliminated Ottawa, but you know what I mean. You could tell me Tampa would have had a better series. Like I came from a different fucking multiverse or whatever, and this is what happened. I'd go, yeah, sure. But ultimately they were the best team in the East this year for me. And also, again, as we said in the first half,

fatigue played a factor in that series, but that's why you take care of business quick if you're Carolina. And yeah, they got a quote-unquote easier second-round matchup than maybe they should have. And we can talk playoff format this, or that, but hey, that's, you got a, you got a match up like that, take care of business quick. And they did. And, uh, yeah, I mean, I don't really, there was nothing that stood out to me watching Montreal lose the way they did that made me go like, oh, I got to reevaluate. Maybe,

maybe we're seeing something exposed here. Maybe there's a flaw kind of crack in there. You know, who knows? A year or two from now, maybe we look back differently on it, but I, I just don't see it. To me, it was you're a young team on the way up. You had a great season. You took care of two very good teams in the playoffs, gained a ton of experience along the way. And then you ran into just an absolute juggernaut that was well-rested and all of the rest of it.

Yeah, you know, you hate to kind of compare them to a team that had like, you know, dynastic success like Chicago. But Chicago went from, was it they barely made the playoffs? Then they went to the Western Conference Final. Then they won a Stanley Cup. I don't even think they made it. I think they may have gone right to the conference final in 2009 and then and then on to the Cup. Yeah.

So obviously you don't want to say like, oh, these guys are a year away from winning the Stanley Cup. But it does kind of feel like that's a, that's a. maybe not even achievable, but like a potentially possible direction for them. Like they could do that if things go their way, if they do a good job working the phones this summer and getting guys via trade or whatever you want to say. I think all that's a possibility for this team,

but they felt a little precocious to me, especially because I didn't really rate buffets. Buffalo is like a great team or anything like that. I'll put it this way. I think the harder matchup for Montreal was in the first round than the second. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. But I do think Buffalo was a real good team. I mean, I don't, I don't, we talked about them when they went out.

I'm maybe a little less confident on them than Montreal going forward, but not by a ton. But yeah, I don't Unfortunately, as much as I love to shovel dirt on the Montreal Canadians, I don't think You do have to hand it to them in this case, yeah I think you do. I mean, even, you know, I know Suzuki and Caulfield and then we're getting a little bit of a

criticism, and rightly so for the lack of production, but even then, like this. What were they supposed to do against this team, you know? Yep. Um, so yeah, I, I think they, God, they, they probably should go out and get one more, one more sense, especially, you know, maybe an older one, like a guy who's like 27, 28, who kind of fits their window, but is also, you know, a little more experienced, a little better, um, than, than what they had this year. Like, wasn't there a team where it's like, oh, it was. It was Colorado where we were like, yeah, they're obviously a good team. Brock Nelson's a good player, but wouldn't you rather have somebody above Brock Nelson in the lineup?

And that's why they got cadre, right? And it's kind of the same gimmick here. Like, the Canadians have a bunch of very good players, but maybe not the kind to get you over the hump. Yeah, maybe. Like this, I feel like this. But a lot of them are growing in a way that obviously Brock Nelson, Brock Nelson is growing old. He is, yeah. He's on the day.

That's where he vacations is the beach that makes you wool, I always say, you know, don't do that. It's, I look, I've, I spent the last few years saying that with Montreal, like the pieces that they're assembling, but I don't know if the ceiling is high enough. And then this year kind of, to me, I think largely answered the ceiling question. Now, yes, you would, if, if they're going to be the Hawks, then you would love to find your Marianhosa.

Peace. Yep. That's exactly right. And there may be ways to do that. You're not going to sign him as a free agent, but not this summer, at least, but via trade, sure. Did you see there was some speculation by Connor McDavid being in Montreal? I guess he was there for the Grand Prix. And people were like, oh, that's interesting.

he's maybe doing some some reconnaissance for a future home Oh yeah for sure That's definitely what's happening Yep And you know when he goes to When he goes to When he goes to Spain in the offseason

Because he's going to sign with fucking Barcelona Is that right? I think Connor McDavid right now is sitting in Emmington Going like I wish This Canadian market was more insane I think that's really what I want Yeah that's right it's uh you know the future's bright i don't have a lot else to say about it

Colorado uh i i don't think it's catastrophic but certainly when you look at it's a very different story than montreal when you look at where they're at in the contention cycle it's an old team even the young guys are old i'm a car not so much but even you You know, the guys you think of, like, McKinnon and... Well, how old's McCar? It's going to be 27? Yeah, he's probably, you know, he's not... Let's see.

27, turning 28 the first month of the season. Not old, but... Oh, no, no, for sure, not old, but... Now, McCar's not old, but... needs the contract is where it gets maybe interesting with him, is that like, kale McCar's got a lot of good years left. $9 million,

Kail McCar has one year left. So that does get a little dicey, maybe. I mean, I don't, I don't see why Colorado can't be right back as a strong contender next year. I don't think they're a president's trophy winner again. And remember, they, heading into this season. It went very right for them this year.

Yeah, not many people, if anyone, had them as like, oh, they're going to run away with the Central. It was a lot of people had it. It was them Dallas and Winnipeg, probably at the time. People looked at it. And then Minnesota jumped up and swapped spots with the Jets. But, you know, not too many of us looked at Colorado and thought that's a dominant team that's going to roll the whole league for the first half. and then coast. But I think they can be back, but it is interesting that the clock is ticking,

and now we don't know necessarily who their GM's going to be, which is. Yes, so when we basically around the time we started recording, Pierre LeBron posted that the National Predators now do officially have permission to talk to Chris McFarland, which to me means this is a done deal. this is going to get locked in because why does that come out a week and a half ago or whatever it was if this wasn't going to be what the plan was? Clearly there is, yeah. So there's a few different ways to look at this. You could look at it in the way that it's being presented, which is Colorado's in the playoffs.

Nashville maybe had some interest in the guy. Maybe that leaked out, but they waited patiently and then asked for permission and now they have permission to talk and we'll just see where it goes. Or you could make what I, I would think is a pretty obvious reading between the lines of this has already been in conversation for a while now. Yeah, that's why read on for sure. is new about it or winked at it or not that that I don't think put it this way I don't think there's a phone call happening right now where Chris McFarland is like having his first conversation with anyone in Nashville getting to know everyone's names and all that would you say Barry Barry okay yeah good or even you know even just like via intermediaries like I don't know

there's ways there's ways it has an agent but yeah so that's that's kind of like the way I would be thinking about it. But I also, you know, I don't care about the Colorado Avalanche one way or the other. It's not up to me. I don't care. You know, it is interesting. And it kind of ties into something I did want to talk about even before the McFarland News broke, which is like, are you surprised at all that the, that there's like, is Jared Bednar done conversations happening in in Colorado these days? I was very surprised by that.

I did not understand that. Obviously, if... It doesn't make any sense to me. If there's a GM switch, you never know, but I was really surprised. And I would assume, I mean, we're a week out now, so I would assume he's safe. Like, when Pete DeBoer went, it was relatively quick, wasn't it? I believe that's correct, yeah. So, I don't...

I guess... like any coach that's been there for a while and yeah it was disappointing and all that but this like oh like how they lost is the reason not to like what do you yeah that that's the reason not to fire a guy who is demonstrably one of the better coaches in the NHL by you know by any standard basically like success you know obvious impact on his players blah blah blah like you can you can kind of go down the list and go oh yeah no he's He seems to be doing a really fucking good job. I just think that, like, the reason people are saying, oh, his job might be in jeopardy or whatever is. It is a disappointing result. There's no two ways about that to get swept out of the Western Conference final is bad by any measure. But even beyond that, people don't want to just say, well, look, all our best players were hurt.

Like, that's not interesting, you know? especially for a team that in the last year plus has really been aggressive about going out and getting guys to bolster the roster. And to your point earlier, old guys. You know, Nazim Codry is not a spring chicken. Rock Nelson, you know, he's already tapping his 401K, you know? Yep. So he's not paying a penalty to do it. No.

Devon Tave's not to. not young on down the line. And I guess the other thing that worries you maybe a bit is how the goaltending went in the playoffs, only because that had been something you probably felt pretty good about. Yeah, I actually wrote a whole article about it under an assumed name in the Denver newspaper last week. Okay, well, there you go.

They should have gotten a guy like Patrick Waugh instead of Scott Wedgwood. I can't believe. He was available too. That's why I'm not mad that Chris McFarland is leaving. Yeah. He shook free at the end of the year and they didn't make the call. Yeah. Way she goes.

Actually, I heard the Islanders didn't give anyone permission to talk to people. Oh, no. Them too? It's a freaking epidemic. No, ultimately, I also don't have a lot to say about Colorado. They're going to be a good team again next year, assuming everyone's healthy, which is harder to assume when guys get older. and there's nothing to really get too worked up about if you're an Aves fan here.

Well, I think what you get worked up is... Except time slipping away. Yeah, you feel like, you know, you want to build a good team that has a chance to take as many swings as you can. And this season was like a fastball right down the heart of the plate and you fouled it off. Or you just got under it. just a bit and you're sitting there going, man, we should have put that into the upper deck because we got, you know, we had a, we had a cake matchup in the first round. We had a real tough matchup in the second round that we got through in five games. That's the, that's the

crazy part. And, you know, yeah, you still lost McCar to the injury and that was the beginning at the end, but you had a, you script that out, right? Arguably the easiest first round matchup of the cap era, five games in the second round, and then you got a 95 point team waiting for you in the conference final. You're sitting there going, this is our year. And it's, it didn't happen, and it's tough. Those years don't come around all that often, but, but no, I don't, I don't think this is, like, the window is, like, we're closer to the end in the beginning with this team, but the window's not closed. Nope, not at all.

Speaking of teams that are closer to the end and then the beginning, againy Malkins signs a one-year extension to stay a Pittsburgh penguin. Very bonus-laden contract. I think it's like, I didn't write it down on the outline, but I think it's like five and a half base with the potential to reach nine. That sounds right, yeah. And a lot of it is based on team performance, how many rounds they win, whether they make...

Yeah, like playoff performance specifically, yeah. It's as opposed to one of these deals where it's like, you know, sort of like the Jonathan Taves deal where it's like, well, he's got all these bonuses, but the bonuses are like play 10 games, play 20 games. Yep. And basically done just to push the cap into the second half. Like, this is fine.

If he, like, because he was really good last year. Like, stunningly good for a guy his age. If he plays any more. near that level and earns the basic salary, you're fine. If he earns the bonuses because the team's doing well, you're thrilled. Yeah. And worse comes to worse, a bunch of bonuses push into the year after next year. Maybe you don't care about that so much.

You can probably live with it, given that that might be right around the time you're starting to start over if you're, if you're the payments. Yep. So, and just as a fan, I'm just happy to see a guy play his whole career with one team. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool when that happens. Yep, undeniably so. So, yeah, again, like, this is nice.

This is, I think, you know, they have learned their lesson from the Chris Latang deal, I think is the best way to put it, where it's like, I don't remember Latang being, like, bad when he signed that deal. But he signed that deal and you were like, uh-oh. Because what was it like five years or something like that? Something like that, yeah. Five or six. And it was just like that. And obviously now a guy looks completely fucking washed. Yep.

It was a six year deal. Oh my God. He looks, I'm going to just go out and say, I'm going to come out and say he looks unk to me. Wow. He looks chopped. Dude, that's. He's chopped and unc.

That's so basic that you're saying that. Thank you. The Vancouver coaching change that we all knew was going to happen three weeks ago. It finally happened last night. Like, weird timing. I believe they announced it at like 7 p.m. local time. Hmm. Which struck me as strange.

Because it's like, we all knew this was going to happen. You can't wait another fucking eight hours? Yeah, I guess. Just announce it today. Yeah. What are you doing? It's always kind of weird. when...

Eight hours, that's bad math by me. Yeah. Let's run that again. It says here 15 hours. Okay, great. I mean, this is... Yeah, it sort of felt like we all knew it was coming, especially when they made the choice in the front office that they did.

And it's weird. It's... I can't remember ever seeing a team that was this bad. Do a transition in both the front office and behind the bench. of like internal promotion that was met with pretty positive reactions. Everybody signs off. Yep, that's right. And look, I mean, like, Mandy Mahalter was the HAL coach.

So you can't blame him for what was happening in Vancouver last year. But I think it's the right, it's the right call. Obviously, how this impacts what they do at the draft, if it does, is kind of an interesting side story. but I think it's the right guy. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. There's a lot of reason to believe that Manny Malhotra, like, you know, this isn't just like the kind of cronyism we kind of come to expect in the NHL, where it's like, well, this guy was this roommate's brother's uncle's friend from school.

You just kind of go, yeah, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, track record kind of speaks for itself with with Johnson and Malhotro both of whom built a Calder Cup winning team in Abbotsford and the Siddines have been around a long time

they seem like they really have a good pair of heads on their four collective shoulders and like they're saying all the right things you know so

it's not really interesting to go, and of course, we all understand that, you know, three years from now, this probably works out. But it's going to take a long time. The only question I really have about it is, what do they think the timeline, like most coaches that get hired to do a rebuild, get fired after three years. Are they going to do that to Malhotra? Obviously, there's a lot of time between now and then. But I think I think you find out

I mean Adam Foote's probably listening to this going yeah they absolutely might but yeah I think put it this way all signs in Vancouver right now

say they understand the magnitude of the job ahead of them and they're willing to do it and take the time to do it right it only takes one phone call from the owner to blow that plan up. But it hasn't happened yet.

You have to signed an Van der Kaine equivalent this summer or else. Yes. So, yeah, again, we knew this was going to happen. So everybody's gotten their takes about what's going to, what's going to happen for them out already. So congrats to them for finally getting the job done. Did you see the Kelly McCrown quotes about Bruce Cassidy? Oh, God.

What's his latest now? Well, it was basically like, who do you think leaked that we're not letting Bruce talk to other teams? Who do you think leaked that? Just something for you to think about. Yeah, who cares, Kelly? You guys are being jerks about this. And not only that, but they told us, remember, you know, a week or two ago, oh, we're so focused on the playoffs. Yeah?

Oh, you just had a week off. Did you get around to doing it? Oh, no, you didn't? Oh, okay, so because you're lying. You're doing that thing where you just lie to everyone and then get mad when people don't believe that you're lying. Yep. Yeah, I mean, there's, I don't know. Stories like this are always fascinating to me because you get to see, like, you look at it and you go, well, I mean, it's so obvious who's right and who's wrong here.

And then, sure enough, there's, you say that. and somebody's like, or actually, he's still under contract, so they're allowed to do this. And it's like, okay, thank you.

We all understand that, but it still is stupid. And I hope Bruce Cassidy shoves it down their throats. But he won't because they're going to win the Stanley Cup. And he's going to the Edmonton Oilers or whatever, the L.A. Kings. Yep.

Oh, I forgot to. I forgot to put this on the outline too, Sean. David Carl Mania so briefly swept Toronto. Yeah, very quick. And what's interesting is, and if people miss this, there was a report like Saturday night that David Carl was coming to Toronto. And then Sunday was people did that thing they do, right? Where they write about someone else's report and make it sound,

and it gets a little more firm every time. And then the insiders quashed it. What was interesting is it came from the same guy who had the Chris McFarland story. Mm-hmm. So... That's exactly right. As opposed to, you know,

some random wannabe insider. And there were also... The other thing with David Carle was there were some fake accounts that got some people, which I cannot believe we're still doing in the year 2006. You know what?

I think that rocks. that that's still happening. You know, like, it takes two seconds to click on the thing and see that it's not real or whatever. Or you could do what I do. Follow every insider and then click on their account. And if it doesn't say you're following them,

you're getting tricked. Yep. But, yeah, I... So, yeah, it doesn't sound like that's happening. No, it isn't happening. And guess what? Anytime you... you have a question about this?

Just think to just think about the thing I've said every time I've talked about the David Carl thing. Why would like, because people are saying, well, would he work in Colorado? And it's like, that would make a lot more sense because he wants to, you know, he said it a million times. He wants to be competitive right away. He doesn't want to join a rebuilding team. What's Toronto?

Probably a rebuilding team. He doesn't want to disrupt his young family's life. He already lives in Denver, so that would actually make pretty good sense, you know? He doesn't, he would need a significant pay raise. Now, that's the part, who knows what Colorado would do. But if they're desperate enough and they want to make the most out of, you know, their closing window, maybe that makes sense. But to Toronto, you've got to be fucking kidding me, man. Who's buying this?

There's a sucker board every minute, as they say, you know? would have been cool but sure it also you know what else would be cool and has an equally likely chance of happening is like if I start flying around

I don't need to own a car anymore because I can just fly so fast you know that would be cool that would honestly probably be cooler than the Leafs hiring a college coach as their is their new guy

I feel like I would be more yeah you don't want to be the first I've never thought about this but I guess you don't want to be the first guy that can fly. You want to like, because then they're like doing experiments on you. They're probably telling you you're not allowed to fly. Yep. You know, there's, there's all kinds of problems.

People are definitely shooting at you too. Like that. Oh, yeah. You want to be like the 2000th guy that can fly. Now it's kind of old hat. Yeah. You know? Maybe like the second guy in your town.

But, you know, people are, people are a little more used to it. Yeah, but even if you're the second guy, then you're going to have a feud with the first guy. You're not doing it right, et cetera. That is true. Yeah. Maybe like the eighth guy in your town. I'll just walk. Well, you can still drive.

I guess we'll talk here about Claude Lemieux. Very sad situation. What was it? Last Friday, I guess, Thursday? We, yeah, I think it was Wednesday night apparently is when he passed. And found out on Thursday and Friday.

Very sad story. We don't know all the details yet. We may or may not find those details out. Not up to us. But yeah, just always shocking when you lose somebody young like that, but the fact that we all saw him on the Monday night

and the torch and everything was just a pretty stunning set of circumstances and some very good tributes. I encourage people to seek them out and read them from people around the league about what kind of guy he was and how that may or may not have matched up with his on-ice reputation

Yep. Which, I mean, he was the ultimate, you would love him if he was on your team guy. Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it for here. We say that, these days we say that about anyone who's just like kind of a prick, but. Takes a lot of penalties, yeah.

This is the guy who was like just, the playoff resume speaks for itself as far as how he helped a team win. And yeah, you hated him. As a player, if he wasn't on your team, you could not stand this guy. But that on some level as a hockey player is a compliment. Yep. Just really, really shocking, like you said, he was on TV just like two, three nights earlier, and then he's gone.

It sucks. And for people who don't know. No, well, I'm sure they're going to mention it one trillion times during the Cup final, but he was, he was an agent. And specifically, he was Freddie Anderson's agent. And Freddie Anderson apparently taking it very hard. He put out a statement through the hurricanes the other day and was like, I'm not going to talk about it anymore. But like I said, it'll come up. So, you know, you're, they're going to, the tributes aren't done.

The memorials aren't done or anything like that. So that's, you know, anyway. Let's leave you with this. For all the people who want anti-tanking rules in the NHL and stuff like that, be careful what you wish for. Because the NBA passed their anti-tanking rules last week, and they stink. They are awful.

for one thing, if you finish in the bottom three of the league, you actually have worse odds to get the number one overall pick than the teams that finish fourth through tenth worst. And all those teams have like flat odds, they call them, like bottom three, 5.4 a piece, middle seven or six or whatever it is, eight point one a piece, and then 11 through 14th back to 5.4 and then the two teams that lost in the play-in round

have a 2.7% chance. They also made it basically so that you can't pick in the... I think it's... You can't pick in the top three, two years in a row. Okay. And you can't... I'm sorry,

top five, three years in a row, or getting the first overall pick two years in a row. That's what it is. Which is somewhat similar to what hockey has, but... Sort of, yeah. In hockey, you can't move up via the lottery more than twice in a certain number of years. Yep. They also made it so that picks 12 through 15 can't be protected in certain ways when, like, oh, this is a top 12 protected pick.

There are new restrictions on how those can change hands. They also basically said that Adam Silver, who's, if you don't know, he's basically the Gary Bettman of the NBA in that everybody feels like he's ruining the sport, but he's just doing what the owners want him to do a lot of the time. Um, he has a significantly, like, greater power to be like, oh, this team's tanking in a way that even skirts these rules. I can take picks away from them. I can find them. Um, I can, I can just randomly go there losing half of their lottery odds. So like 8.4% would actually drop to four and a half. He basically has like an insane broad authority to do almost anything he wants if he feels like teams are.

tanking in a way that he personally disapproves of, which is crazy. So they did a vote on this, and every NBA team except for one, we're like, we like this. And the one team that didn't is the Memphis Grizzlies, who I can't remember what teams pick they have. But they basically have a situation where if they won the lottery, they'd get fucked. Okay. because they have another team's pick. And that, it's, oh, it's the Utah Jazz. If the Jazz finish in a certain spot in the lottery, the pick gets worse,

even though the Grizzlies had nothing to do with it. Like, they're being punished for something, for rules that didn't exist when the trade was made. Sure. And these go into effect, not for like this year's draft, next years. So they're not happy about it, but the rest of the league's like, what do we give a shit about the Grizzlies? Sure.

Yeah. As they should. Yeah. A lot of people feel the same way these days. I think tanking sucks and I would like to see the NHL do something I don't know enough about the NBA in this rule to say if this is. Well, I guess what you've got to understand is picking in the top three in the NBA, let's put it this way.

There would not be a, like, how good is Gavin McKenna going to be really debate about most guys who go in the top? Like, top three in the NBA draft, you are getting a fucking impact player most of the time. And my understanding is that as much as I complain, and I'm right to do so about the NHL tanking, that the NBA was, like, getting significantly worse. Like, I'm trying to, I mean, we didn't really have tanking. this year in the sense that everybody knew Vancouver was, Vancouver ran away with Dead Last, but it would be like if the Leafs down the stretch were just like,

yeah, you know, William Dielander's just not playing at all. No, he's not hurt. He just isn't. We just don't want to use him. Or, oh, we're up to nothing in a game that we're hoping to lose. Okay, we're switching our goalie. We're putting our backup goalie in and we're going to lose three to two. Like, it was, it got really transparently bad.

Yeah. But like I say, you want, you want tanking reforms? The NBA is like, what if we let our commissioner do whatever he wanted to teams that he felt were tanking in a way that isn't morally correct? And it's like, oh, that actually does sound like it sucks. I don't completely hate that, honestly. Like, let them, don't, yeah, mess around and find out if you want to keep doing stuff. I'll put it this way. Not saying I trust Gary Bettman with it, but...

Well, that's what I mean. Like, if it was like a committee or something, maybe that's a different thing. But like giving one guy the broad power to do it does feel like a problem, especially because it's like, let's say just to pick a team Nashville, right? Like, let's say Nashville is tanking next year for whatever reason. And the other team tanking against them is the Toronto. Maple Leafs and they are tanking in the exact same way, right? Do you think the Maple Leafs are going to get hit with these big penalties or do you think

maybe it would be more of a Nashville Predators? You know what I mean? I know what you mean you may be asking the wrong guy about league mandated decisions affecting But you see what I'm saying. It's certainly opens the conversation in a way that is maybe. Yeah, I guess I should have said the Rangers instead of the Leafs. especially because the Leafs are already picking first. But yeah, you see what I'm saying,

where it's like there are just some teams that are going to get a lot more leeway with this. If they want to, it feels like. Certainly. Or at the very least, it's going to allow people to complain and act like that's the case. Yeah, but what I'm saying is why would you want to introduce that potential? Like they already think the league is rigged for the Lakers or whoever the fuck. I mean, the league is right for the Lakers, let's be honest.

But, like, they already think it's all fucking bullshit. Why would you introduce a thing that lets people go? And actually, here's even more proof that it's bullshit. That's my whole thing with it. Anyway,

that's, I guess, all I have to say about that. Let's hit them with the plugs and get out of here. If I'm at the athletic, I'll be on with Sean and Frankie tomorrow. newsletter just went out as we speak and going to have a playoff contest update this week and some Stanley Cup final stuff.

Fantastic. For me, head over to BlueProspects.com. The draft guide came out today when you're hearing this. So you can go over there and you can learn all about all the little hockey boys that your team may or may not be picking. And you can become the kind of insufferable draft expert person that you always wanted to be. And guess what else? This isn't just like a head of the draft thing.

This will be valuable to you after the draft because then you get to learn about all the little hockey boys you've never heard of. Like game by game. I believe if I read the Slack message yesterday correctly, the biggest draft guide, the most in-depth in terms of like player individual game scouting reports and stuff like that that we've ever done. So never been a better time to sign up than right now. Check it out. Oh, and then head over to patreon.com slash puck soup. All kinds of bonus episodes, including one we did last week that was,

very well received, where we were tasked with taking one player from every last place team, like a draft of every last place team, one player, 20-man roster, who can put together the best team. And people really like that one. So you can go over there, check that out in every other bonus episode, including the mailbag that we're about to do right now. So thank you for listening to the main show. Enjoy the Stanley Cup final. we'll talk to you next week. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.