Puck Soup - Tom Wilson HHOF

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

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

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospect. I'm Sean Magnew from The Athletic. And folks, this is not a well-timed episode. I'm just going to, I'm going to, you know, tell you the truth right off the bat here. We are recording this, I think, 25 minutes from right now is when the next game, like I think it's the Switzerland game. Am I right about this? No, Switzerland is.

Oh, they just played. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know. Somebody's playing right. and like as we're recording this basically. And it's not the Sweden game.

So what's the game that is? Because the Sweden games at like three. I believe. So what's the game where I'm forgetting? It's Czechia and Denmark. Wow. See, I made the mistake of opening the Olympics website again. Oh.

And they're like, oh, you want to, you want to know when the speed skating finals on it? No. You want to really have. on at least up here in Canada, try to figure out what channel the hockey game is going to be on. So, yeah, we have, like, direct TV's streaming, like their answer to YouTube TV, you know?

And they, like, basically have a homepage that algorithmically they figure out what you're interested in watching, and I only use it to watch sports and wrestling. So anytime sports and wrestling on, they're like, oh, the sport you want. to watch is on. And I go, okay,

great, thank you. Like, there's just a little tile I click on right below. I don't have to memorize what channel

it's on. I can't even imagine having to type in, like, channel 826 and be like, oh, fuck, it's 824, you know? Whereas here in Canada,

we have, uh, like, basically every sports channel at the Olympics comes together to like Voltron. Yes. And so I have,

no joke. My sports section starts with like 10 straight TSN and sports net channels. Yep. Any one of them could have the hockey game. Yeah, because it just says Olympic hockey or whatever. It doesn't even. It just says like Olympic afternoon. And I'm like, great.

So, I mean, good luck if you're trying to like PVR it or something. I mean, you probably can't. That's probably like an Olympic thing. Yeah, no kidding. I've like talking to some of the people at the athletic who are at the games and you know trying to like coordinate podcast stuff with them and they're like I cannot be caught doing a podcast in this building like in the arena I will be like crazy we're like yeah but you could jump on for like 15 minutes right and they're like a sniper will get me I will be summarily executed yeah like I have to I have to I have to I have to have to get like 20 feet away from the building. It's like they're smoking or something. They got to, which is good.

Honestly, podcasters should be treated with the same amount of level of shame and origin as the three smokers left at your work. I mean, they're in Italy. I assume that there's the non-smoking section. They make you go outside to not smoke. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, thanks. So, yeah, look, I'll say this. They're putting in new boards at the,

at the rinks overnight. And did you see like, so they took down the dark boards, finally, and they put up, what I would describe as like, slightly less dark boards. Right.

They didn't go, like, nobody was like, let's, let's put, maybe go with white. There, it's,

I'm not sure I would have noticed the change. Now, I'm not Jeremy Swayman. To pick a random goaltender, but, uh, I do feel like, that's, uh, yeah.

And I like how they're playing it off like they were always planning to change it. No, no, yeah, no, I, I definitely, you thought, you thought we were going to have the same boards for the round Robin and the metal round? No. Are you crazy? We're always going to take those out. In fact, we're taking them out between the, the, uh, bronze and gold medal games as well. We're switching them. Yeah.

They're going to be even lighter. You're not going to, you're going to have to be wearing freaking sunglasses. There you go. Just UV rays shooting out of the boards at all times. And again, we can't complain too much about this. They didn't have a wall on one side of the building until last week. Exactly. So, like, if this is the biggest ring problem, I feel like that,

have you heard anyone reference the missing four feet of ice? Yeah, it's come up a lot. You're not going to believe how small this neutral zone is. I have, I know. Yeah. I have not heard it. Like, I really, I don't know. And I don't notice it either.

I've seen people talk about it online. I thought for sure. I agree. I don't notice it. I thought for sure I would, like, notice it just in that weird way of like, something's a little off. Just because I've programmed my brain watching 200 foot rinks for so long. Yeah, it turns out not so much.

Yeah. So with, for me with that, like, I'm used to go in all these different college hockey rinks where, like, the norm is certainly not 200 by 85, the standard NHL size ring. It's this one's 195 by 90. Like, there's just, there's a million weird dimensions. There's no uniformity to it. The corners are different, et cetera, et cetera. And so, like, I figured that was part of me not being able to put my finger on it, where it's like, I see different.

dimensions all the time. And it's funny. In college, it sometimes prompts coaches to be like, I'm going to get out there with a fucking like measuring tape and make sure the, and make sure this neutral zone is exactly to the specifications I think they should, you know, whatever it is. So I thought it was that, but it doesn't seem like that. Weirdos. Yeah.

If you're not noticing it and you're, I mean, I can't imagine. and you're doing anything but 200 by 85 ranks. Not anymore. I still got the leftover, like, the old, what was it, Buffalo and Boston, Chicago? There used to be a couple of rings that were. Yeah, they standardized this. And I'm going to guess in the late 90s. That's when the NHL really seems to have been like, oh, we should, like, try to be a real league.

Yeah. It was basically all the new rinks that were being built. They were like, hey, man, I'm going to throw a crazy one. but what if everything was the same yeah anyway who do you want to start with the US or Canada

well let's do Canada we'll do this in order of standings well I have written down under Canada here wow they look nasty as hell out there yeah who would have guessed

these guys pretty good yeah who would have guessed when you looked at that group they're in that they would absolutely roll everyone. Yeah, I mean, you can only play the teams in front of you. Absolutely. I'm not knocking them for it. They played Switzerland, France, and the Czechs,

and beat all three. Tomahawk fucking... Relatively easily. Windmill dunk from the foul line. Yep. No free throw line, I mean. No problem. It's crazy out there.

I'll tell you, let's start with this. You know, it looks really fucking good. Connor McDavid. Yeah. Yes. Whoa. Uh-huh. You know what I'd be doing if I was him with nine points in three games?

I'd be like, I'd be saying to Stan Bowman, we could get this celebrini guy on the team. Yeah. Why don't you go see if throw them an offer, see if you can get him? I'm not joking. If I'm, if I'm McDavid, I'm going. I'm fine letting Leon walk on this one. See you later. That's fine.

There you go. There's your trade talk. Drysidal for Celebrini. I mean, at this point, it's Drysidal Plus for Celebrini. I was just going to say it's dry sidle plus for Celebrity. He's the third best player in the world. Yep. Yeah, Celebrini has been, up here in Canada, has been the story just because, like,

McDavid, it's like, yeah, ho-hum, unstoppable. Nine points. Dude is bored out there. Fucking crazy. Celebrini has, oh, I, what somebody should do

is go back and find all the takes from December of people like being, and when I say that, just to be clear, don't do this show. Don't, not us. I gotta say,

in my memory, my memory, I, in my memory, I had this nailed. No, like I, you were.

Like, you can go back and read my, like, stockwatch thing from, like, the summer where I'm like, they should probably think about it, right? Like, or maybe not the summer, but, like, or October, I was like, okay, I'm in all the way on this. Because, look, like, the stat that just I thought was really sick was Maclin Celebrini, scores in his college debut, scores in his NHL debut, scores in his Olympic debut. Yep. Beast. Sounds about right. You guys have, like. Yeah, he's so sick.

I guess have been it like a tougher league or anything. A little more of a challenge for me? No, okay. He's so cool, man. Four goals. I think that leads the tournament, four goals in three games. So basically the story in Canada is everyone that you expect it to be good looks really good. Everyone that you were a little bit worried about, particularly on the back end, has been okay.

like has not made you worry more, but has maybe not made you feel. Like, I don't think anyone's like, you know what, now that I've seen Colton Pereko out there for three games. He's fine, yeah. And Jordan Bennington

gets a shutout and then gives up two goals, which generally speaking is a pretty good two-game stretch for a goalie, but he looked a little just iffy enough against Frank. He should have only given up one, I think, is the right.

Yeah. Like, it's at that point where they're so, like, Canada can overpower teams so much that when it comes to Canadian goalies, you're like, he had a shutout, but he didn't look, like, he kicked a few rebounds out, and I hadn't, I didn't play that well. Yeah. No, for sure. And, I mean, yeah, it's like, I mean, you made 13 saves or whatever. So I'm still a little nervous on Jordan Bennington.

He certainly didn't do anything that would... He didn't cost himself the job. Especially since John Cooper seems to love him very much. Yeah, what was the quote after, I think it was the first game where they said, when did you know he was going to be the starter? And he was like like 358 days ago. Yeah. So, all right.

I mean, that'll do. Yeah. So, um, let's talk about Tom Wilson here. Sure. First player in Olympic history. Let me tell you something right now. You guys, if you don't like Tom Wilson, go watch figure skating because if you was on your team.

That's right. I was, I was, uh, exchanging messages with a, uh, friend of mine in the States in Washington. And she was like, this, we have now flipped. You are now the Tom Wilson defender. and I think he's out of control and needs to be put in jail. I was like, yeah. But I'm like, if you watch this freeze frame, his hits are all legal and fine. That's exactly right.

So I'll say this about Tom Wilson. So Tom Wilson, this is the guy he goes out there. He's a big, nasty guy. He gets the first ever as far as I know, as far as anybody can really tell. Gordy Howe Hatrick and Olympic history. First fight in the Olympics since 1998, apparently. So I say. And, yeah, gets the Gordyhow Hattrick.

Not much of a fight. I'll say that. No. Okay, so let's, we'll kind of, there's the whole, like, where did this really start thing? And it really starts with, what's the guy's name, Tomas, Crenone or something like that? That sounds good. Pran is definitely the last name. Now I'm blanking on his first name.

And Cronone, I'm going to say this. He goes in, he hits Nathan McKinnon High. To me, this is a classic situation of, it's just, he didn't, he had no control of that situation. There was no malice there. He just like, he went into him backward. He went into him like that, that skiing guy the other day. Okay. Did you see this?

Which skiing guy? There was a slalom race where both guys got off their line, and the guy who won ended up, like, going over the finish line backwards. I did not see that. I thought you were referring to the guy who was, like, trying to win a gold medal and it didn't go well, so he just went and laid down in the forest, which I have never related to an elite athlete more.

Yeah, I've got to say that guy's really cool. Guys just like, screw this. I'm just going to lay here. You guys go ahead. Keep the timer going. if you want, I'm, I'm done. Yeah, no, so this guy, like, does a weird backflip, almost falls over. And then because the other guy got so far off his line, the guy who ended up going down the hill backwards won the race.

It was, it was pretty sick. Sounds to me as kind of a cool, last sport. I'm going to be honest with you. Yeah. Hey, I got no problem. Go down the hill as fast as you possibly can. Kind of a cool way to be a sport. Um, anyway, so Cronin goes into McKinnon backwards, rocks him.

I think I saw McKinnon didn't practice subsequent to that. He seems banged up, like, both that from the high hit and then there's something with his like lower body that he was favoring at the end of that game. So I'm... So, hey, hold him out. That's fine. But this, of course, makes the one guy on Team Canada who can't. fight really mad.

And he goes in, and I'm going to say this too. He goes in, he hits Cronon, then gets his hand to his elbow or something up on Crenon. Cronon's like, well, what the fuck was that all about? Let's go push and shove in front of the net. Who do you think dropped the gloves first in this scenario? I feel like it was pretty simultaneous, wasn't it? It was. I do think Wilson dropped the gloves.

gloves first. Okay, you could. And, like, that's fine. You know, you're, you're, I get it, you're mad. You're mad about the man hitting the player on your team. I don't know who dropped the gloves first, but it was, this was a mutually agreed to fight. This, he did not jump him. No.

But I was, I was a little surprised that there was no supplementary discipline because Wilson really did kind of initiate it. in terms of he threw the hit and then got his hands up a little bit. But he tried to turn away from it and it may have been that like, I'm going to turn away and I know you're going to nudge me and then I'm going to like spin around

and do the whole thing. Yeah, and then also like the other thing that I was, and again, I'm not like if this was the NHL, this is all pretty standard. But I-IHF rules, I was like, the fact that he like got up and was still trying to get at him after the lines from it separated.

I was like that he doesn't get in trouble for that like I can't believe that's watching it live you know I went from oh wow there's going to be a fight to oh that's very funny Tom Wilson just got face planted in an Olympic fight to settle down big man because that you're right like that got close to a potential yeah and like again I I get why he's mad. I'm not, like, I'm not saying... The other part of it that was interesting, and I don't know if he caught this,

but like before the fight, but after the hit, there was that moment where he was, Wilson was out on the ice and he was, like, talking to a few of the French guys. Yeah. And like, and when I say talk,

like, not trash talking or, you know, whatever, but, like, literally, chat, yeah. It was sort of like, and even the Canadian commentators were like, yeah, this is him saying to them, like, settle down. We all know what's going on here.

It's 10 to 2. Nobody likes this, but let's not get silly with the hits here. Some of us have more than one game left in this tournament to play. That's right. Yeah. And then, out of all that,

the French guy gets kicked out of the Olympics by his own federation. Man, what a betrish. trail. What are we doing? It was because he did the thing of like, oh, I can't hear you. Yeah, you like waved at the Canadian fans, which I don't know. I'm just going to say.

He didn't flip them off or anything. I know it's the Olympics. I know, you know, yeah, exactly. He didn't go into the stands and beat him over the head with their own shoe. The peanut men are standing up to them. Yeah, that's exactly right, man. So, um, yeah, I was, man, I don't know about that. Just a, just, yeah, a weird, a weird situation.

overall. Like I said, I think I don't, I don't want to say like Wilson was totally justified, you know, like I simply can't go that far within, right? But what I, what I can say here is like

I, you know, again, just surprised that he didn't get more than he did from the IIAHF. I think he like, he tiptoed up to the line and then I guess between, like, he didn't do anything

that they would, he would force them to act, and I guess the officials on the ice did, like, because I mean, I imagine, you know, the officials could have given him a, you know, I mean, if they drop an abuse of officials or something on him, then that is, yeah, that's probably a significant penalty. But no, I think he, he got a little close,

just in the getting up and still going after him. That's exactly right. But, you know, I guess just didn't. Because he didn't, he didn't, like, really land a shot. Like, if he had gone over to a guy tied up by the officials and, like, popped him, then, yeah, maybe we're having a different conversation. Then we look behind the curtain at the IOC and, like, who's making these decisions. And it's George Paros without a mustache?

Yeah. It's George Peros wearing, like, a fake. a skin patch over his mustache. But again, I've I've already posted 18 identical freeze frames of Tom Wilson not doing anything wrong that proves that he's a precious

little angel boy. And you should watch ballet if you don't like him. I'm going to feel that way for approximately the next five days and then I will go back to thinking he's a scumbag. We're all good here. That's right. up. So yeah.

Oh, this is the other thing about Tom Wilson. Neil Greenberg used to write for the Washington Post. He goes, well, if he wins an Olympic gold medal, we got to have a Tom Wilson Hall of Fame debate. No. Brain dead. Do not. Neil.

Come on, man. I like Neil, but we don't. An unbolt, like an all-time bad take. for me. Get, you see the line stretching around the block, Tom? Start walking. When you pass Corey Perry, keep walking. High five Rod Brindamore along the way.

You'll see him in there. Say what's up to Shane Done for me. Right around when you get to Shane Done. Take about, yeah, go about another, another half block. Yeah. And then, yeah, you go ahead and edge your way in there next to, So when I saw that take, Sean, I did some back of the napkin math, as they say. And I, this is all he has to do to be like in the conversation for me.

To get to a thousand career points at his current career average pace, he would only have to play 250 more games than Patrick Marlowe. Okay. Doable. I don't think Marl. games, did he? No. That wasn't. It's totally fine, man. No big deal.

I mean, yeah, but you know what we're going to, we're going to end up saying like, yeah, but if, you know, like with Ovechkin, it's like, oh, you know, he missed all that time to the lockouts. He might have got to a thousand goals. With Tom Wilson will be like, yeah. All the suspension, sure. If he had played those games and had a hat-trick in each one of them. We're in business.

Oh, yeah, and I think if he, if he, you know, again, if he played those 250 games that gets him exactly, 250 extra games than Marlowe, that gets him exactly to a thousand points, I believe he's still a little shy of 400 career goals. Just Tom Wilson standing next to Milan, Luchich going, is this line moving? I don't feel like it is,

peering up. Maybe. Tapping Jason Spets on the shoulder. Like, is anything happening? Jason Spetsa. So much better. Tom Wilson, like, what are we talking about? His best is far ahead in the line.

Oh, my God. I couldn't believe that take. That is classic. I really only watch the Capitals take. Well, and especially if, like, he wins a goal. Like, Simone Gagne has won gold medals. Like, everybody plays a role on Team Canada, but we can settle that. Now, if Tom Wilson scores five goals in the gold medal game and Canada wins five four,

still probably not for me. Take 10 big steps forward in that line. Up there, you just elbow your way past Steve Thomas and you're all set. Just a phenomenal take. That's a great take. It made me so happy to see that on a Sunday morning. Anyway, let's move on to the United States of America. It's going great.

They're fine. I mean, yeah, that's my big take is like, I'm watching this and I'm going, this is a team that probably didn't bring its best roster. They did, it is interesting because I will admit, we did a lot of talk about Bill Guerin and leaving the offensive players back and, and all of that stuff. At no point in my various take-mongering on that, did it, did it, did it, occur to me that should they bring offense because of the goals differential, given that they and Canada and, you know, we probably would have assumed Sweden, are all going to finish

three and oh, and it's going to come down to goals. Like that, I'll be honest, it didn't really occur to me that, oh, yeah, they might need to, because they're right, right, you can make the argument, like, what do we need Jason Robinson for? So we can beat Denmark 8 to 1 instead of 6 to 1? Yeah. Maybe. But, I mean, to me, the U.S. has looked impressive. They've, again, you beat the teams that are put in front of you.

Yeah. They didn't, I mean, they let Denmark hang around a bit. They had, you know, the first period against Germany, but they were never in danger. Like, they were never. Yeah, that's totally correct. Yep. So tough matchup coming up with Sweden, though, presumably. Well, and that's the whole thing, right?

Like, that is just kind of the whole thing of this tournament for me is just like, you're saying the thing about goal difference matters. Like, if they lose to Sweden, presumably, we don't know whether Sweden's going to win that game for sure, but we can make a pretty educated guess or whatever you want to say. Yeah. If that happens, like, what are we saying about it? You know what I mean? like we're saying they fucking humiliated themselves.

And I guess it would depend on how they lose. And that is tough, right? Because ultimately, like, and this is where, I sound kind of like I sound when I'm talking about the NHL playoff format. Like, you're probably going to have to go through Sweden. Oh, yeah, for sure. So if you lose to Sweden quarters instead of the semis. Yeah. then, you know, but it doesn't matter, especially if you're Canada or the U.S.

where it's gold medal or bust. Right. But it does change the perception. I get that. But, like, that is going to be, the fact that Sweden or the U.S. is going to be out that early, you know, not even not win a medal, but not even get to play for a bronze is going to be a big deal. But it's also, like, a little bit, you know, I mean, the U.S. came in. second. They ran the table.

They went through a no. They came in second. It's not their fault that Sweden had a disappointing tournament around Robin and fell further down the standings

than they should have. Like it's not like we looked at this tournament going in going, man, you know what, you better finish first because second place is going to get Sweden. We all figured, you know,

second place would get maybe, maybe the checks or maybe, you know, Slovaks or some like team that was good but not not what you'd worry about as much but I don't know what

as American what's what is concerning you because I'm feeling like there's not a full feeling like you're not thrilled with what you've seen from this team so far they just you know well like okay I think what I said

was like when we did the preview at what was that last week, I suppose it would have been. I was just like kind of waffling back and forth between Sweden and the U.S. on like who would win the silver, basically. And that was with the understanding that Sweden was missing some players due to injury. And then Sweden lost. And like in the round robin.

And I'm not sitting here ahead of the quarterfinals, again, presumably the U.S. is playing Sweden and that. We don't know as we're recording this. But I'm not sitting here going and I'm pretty confident that the U.S., which I would think looked better than Sweden, like, if it was Canada, Sweden, I'd be like, Canada's going to fucking nuke these guys. Right? And the fact that I don't feel that way about the U.S. is just kind of what I thought was going to happen anyway, right? where it's like they aren't, they haven't differentiated themselves

in the way that Canada did. Like you say, they let teams hang around. And ultimately, maybe that doesn't matter because like, maybe you'd rather play a more competitive game and like pull away,

you know? But that's just kind of, they should have fucking killed everybody they played basically, maybe not Germany, although they ended up doing that pretty convincingly. And like maybe you can say, well, Jeremy Swayman goofing it on that goal is the reason that they, you know, you can make excuses. But like I say, I just haven't really seen them like blow away the competition like Canada did.

And I kind of think they should have. But does that change your perception of whether they can beat Canada three to two in a gold medal game? No, they're not going to beat Canada. No, no, but I mean, is there, does the fact that they didn't beat Germany 8 to 1 have any bearing on whether or not you think they can beat Canada, 3 to 2, or vice versa, the fact that Canada could score 10 goals on France? Because I feel like if it went the other way, if they beat Germany 12-0, you wouldn't be here going, Well, they're now the gold medal favorites because they pumped. I wouldn't say favorites, but I'm, I'm, I guess what I would say is I really expected it to be like Canada 1, US 2, medium size gap, Sweden 3, then take your pick after that. And there's a big gap between Sweden and the rest of the country, other countries as well.

I don't think, I think the U.S. and Sweden, it's a small. gap at this point. And again, that's with Sweden having all the injuries. You know? And there's now a bigger gap in, again, in perception between the U.S. and Canada than there was going into the tournament. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think it's fair to say going in, we all probably had it as maybe a

slightly weighted coin flip between Canada and U.S. Yeah, 55, 45, 45 or something, and now it's like 60, 40. And, yeah, Canada has probably been a little bit better in the round robin. I mean, not probably. Canada has been a little bit better in the round robin. Maybe that shifts it a bit. I don't think it shifts at a ton. I really don't think that, you know, ultimately this U.S. team is, I mean, forget about

gold medal or bust. This is a team purely designed to beat Canada in a close game. That's right. For the gold medal. And I'm not sure what beating, you know, Denmark in a blowout tells us about that design good or bad. Sure. And the other piece of it, we should say, is a lot of the guys on Team USA that were maybe the guys who got brought instead of the Jason Robertsons and Cole Coughfields, they've been fine.

Brock Nelson. Brock Nelson's been good, man. Like Brock Nelson, at some point, I got to get some new Brock Nelson material because he's... Yeah, he's having a very good year by his standard for sure. And continuing it in the Olympics, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's undeniable. But I don't know.

Like, those guys weren't the ones I was like... Like Brock Nelson, I was like to totally make sense that they would bring him, you know? The fact that J.T. Miller's played all three games and Kyle Conner's only played two and Clayton Keller's only played one. Well, Kyle Conner seems to have played his way kind of out of the lineup again. This is the second tournament in a row where he starts off in the lineup and obviously four nations he doesn't play the gold medal game. This one, I don't know if he's going back in or if that's it. They saw enough in two games.

Didn't get any production out of him. Sure. Again, it just blows my mind that there's a longer leash on J.T. Miller. than there is on Kyle Conner and Clayton Keller. Yeah. That's what it really boils down to for me. Miller's the guy that out of all of them that you'd say, I feel like a lot of American fans,

if they could snap their fingers and swat Miller for somebody, he's the guy. You know, Trochev's been good, killing penalties. Yeah. Nelson's been good plus, but, yeah. Oh, for sure, yeah. Miller's the guy that seems. And look, I think it was cute that they tried it with Swayman.

You know, they were like, okay, you can go have some fun out there. And you give up a goal from Center Rice, and it's like, okay, thank you for your service. We really appreciate you coming over. We're going to be letting the big dog run out again. Yep. That's tough. How have you felt about it? I was going to say he's looked good, but.

It looked really good. Yeah, he looks like Honour Helibuck to me. Crap. 9.52, it says here. That's all you're looking for, really. That'll probably get it done. I'd love to see him do it against Canada. I don't have a ton of confidence.

But, you know, I got to look. Hold on. Let me see if I can find this really quickly. Goaltending stats for this. Oh, that's another fun one to look up is. I wonder what the individual player stats are for this tournament. I don't know about you, but like every site I find is like, how about we give you the top 10 scores?

And it's like, yeah, but I want to find guys who are not doing good so that I can make fun of them. And they're like, we don't do that. Elite Prospects has it on the, on the, like, never heard of it. Tournament page. No. Okay.

I don't pay for content. Who is the, who has the worst plus minus in the Olympics? And this is a player. who is currently in the NHL. Oh, is it? Tessier on Team Friends. It is. Yeah, he's a minus 10.

Yeah, I was going to say it's got to be somebody from. No points. Yeah. Tough, man. Tough for him, man. When there are like Italian guys, you know, like who I've never heard of who are like, I actually have, I'm two goals against better than Alexander 10. S.

Yep. That hurts. Shout out to Dylan DePerna. There you go. One of three minus eight players in these beautiful Olympics. But yeah, the current save percentage leader in the Olympics, Leonardo Giannone from Switzerland, he's 962. Three goals against on 79 shots.

You know, this guy was 9. 975. Awesome. How many goals did he give? 14 against Canada. But he was 975 in that game. Stopped the other 270 shots. Two shutouts and then the other game three goals against. I got to say this. You go to the Olympics.

You get two shutouts in three games? That's as good as you're ever going to do. Ever. That's so sick. Now that counts today's game, right? Yes. Okay. Yes, it does.

taking that guy in my Olympic hockey pool. You're just a known Leonardo Janone Hater. I know. You're looking at this guy. You're like, he's 38. Never played North America ever, I don't think. The scrolling with the Lee Prospects page. And meanwhile, Jesse Granger's like, but if you watch him, actually, he's quite good.

His reverse RVH, whatever the fuck they're all talking about with that. Shut up. This goalie stuff, man, fake. Totally fake. And you know how I know it's. Totally fake. Leonardo Genoni is the best goalie at the Olympics, and it's not particularly close. There it is.

Totally fake. All made up. Switzerland, they don't give up a lot of passes across the Royal Road. Sure, they do. Shut up. Faked. Literally anyone could do it, as Canada has set out to prove in this tournament. That's right.

All right, let's talk briefly about some of the other news and notes from around the Olympics. Oh, this is the other thing. Hold on. What's up? Are we done with Team USA? Did we do it? I don't know. What else is there to say?

Did we just become the first people in history to talk about Team USA without spending 90% of the time talking about the Kachuk brothers? The only two hockey players in the United States of America? You want my take on the Kachuk brothers? I heard about these guys? They have a podcast. Do you know that? Yeah, get off my fucking lawn, man. Yeah.

I'm busy, you know? Here's my take on the Kachuk brothers. They've been fine. Mm-hmm. I'm not sitting here going, whoa, Matthew. You mean Brady Kachuk has been the greatest player and he should be the captain of team. Is that a take up there?

Oh, yeah, I've seen that in a few places. And not just up here, that he should be captain over us and Matthews because, like, he... like runs out and like runs over a Swiss guy and then he said something mean to Leon Drysidal that was Matthew and that was oh I know I know it was I'm just saying like but quite funny is really stretching the definition of I mean as I as I said my column can so if if people didn't hear he called Leandro he was caught on a caught on a hot mic as if Matthew as if the Kachuk brothers don't know where every microphone is as if they have ever been surprised by the presence of a microphone in their life. That's right. They, like, you know when you're playing like a video game and you're, you have a quest item so it's like sparkling and there's spotlight shining on it so you don't

mean, that's what happens to the Cuch brothers mind every time they see a camera or a microphone. Exactly right, man. But yeah, he got, he was heard calling Leon Drysidal a bridesmaid. And with, with obviously, a call back to the last two Stanley Cup finals, which is, it's decent trash talk, but also, yeah, can you imagine being accused of not winning the big one by an American hockey player?

I know, it's like, oh my man. Physician heal thyself. You know, you know, Dreisdil's just like, oh, texting Connor McDavid, like, can you take care of this, please? I got it, buddy, don't worry. Yeah, you don't have a ton to worry about here, Big Dog. We're all set. We're going to straighten this out for you.

My friend beat you in the gold, I don't know. But yeah, that was a bit of a tough one. But yeah. All right, that's enough, Kajok talk. Are there other countries in this? Are there? I think one or two, yeah. Hey, speaking of Tom Wilson, he broke Kevin Fiala's leg.

He did do that, yeah. Multiple places. His season's over. Yeah. We knew it would happen to somebody. I mean, just odds are. And super high intensity hockey, there's going to be some injuries. And it looks like at least so far, Kevin Fiala is that guy.

Yeah. And look, I'm not even saying it like how I would usually say it with Tom Wilson of like, oh, what a crazy coincidence. Tom Wilson broke somebody's leg. Totally innocuous play. Like happens a million times. times, blah, blah, blah. Kind of a crazy coincidence, though, isn't it? You know?

Maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit. Somebody should have fought Tom Wilson over it. Who are the Swiss going to send over the boards? I don't know. Claudio Castagnoli from AEW? That's it. That's the guy.

You know what? He'd actually beat Tom Wilson's ass. He's like six, seven. He's enormous. When he got the little like swinging the guy around move happening on Tom Wilson? then you let him go and he slides. That honestly, the big swing on ice. He thinks he's sliding 200 feet down the ice, but he hits the boards four feet early.

Honestly, seeing the big swing on ice would be phenomenal stuff. Big shout out to Claudio. The emissary of violence, they call him. You say so. I don't. John Moxley does. No, okay. Anyway, poor Kevin Fiala, broken like, that sucks.

I'll say this, too. That's, that really, that really. That really makes the Kings look smart for making that whole trade for the other guy. It does, but it also, like, you go out and get Panarin, and if you're a Kings fan, you're all excited, like, can't wait for, you know, you're enjoying the Olympics, presumably, but you're thinking, I can't wait until the NHL's back, get to see. And then you lose, you know, another piece of your top six, top nine, you know, key guy. That's tough. And it is, and it's like, and I mean, we got another week in this tournament to go. We could have another one of these situations, absolutely, and it, it, uh, all you can say is that's hockey.

I mean, it's really. And if, if they didn't go to the Olympics, it sucks. There's, you know, who's to say Kevin Fiala doesn't suffer the same sort of injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets on a random Tuesday in a game no one's watching, but it doesn't make it any easier. and fingers crossed he'll be good to go for the start of next year. That's about the best you can say. When the official team press release has like plural on breaks or whatever, I don't want to break my leg at one place, let alone two. I don't know if I've ever seen in a hockey game a guy go off on a stretch your face down like that.

Okay. there was a very funny video I think it was a Hartford Whalers guy maybe I gotta Google this really quickly that someone posted this video of this is the only time I've ever seen it okay and the guy on the whalers

they didn't even get them all the way on the stretcher he was like three quarters of the way on it and then like one of the EMTs was like carrying his feet as they wheeled him through the fucking lobby it dude if that must have been recent if they had EMTs and wheels

because like I remember like the one that always sticks with me is the famous um Wendell Clark hit on Bruce Bell which you've you've seen the hit. It's like he's behind the net

and Clark just comes in. It's honestly the hardest. I don't know if behind the net counts as an open ice hit but it's it's the hardest hit I've ever seen. Absolutely knocks him out. And it's like, Like, they would just bring out, like, a piece of canvas with, like, like, sticks on either end.

And the players themselves would, like, carry the teammate off. Like, you don't have anyone to do that here? There's no one. Like, somebody just goes and gets a stretcher out of the utility closet. And that's how they would get a guy. I don't even know what they did. They probably knowing, well, this is the 80s. They probably taped them up and sent them back out there, told him he was fine.

but yeah, it's Hold on. It seems like this play might have been it was Mark Howe, the Hall of Fame Defety. Oh, wow. Okay. He can talk about this with Tom Wilson

when they have the Hall of Fame get-togethers. Sure. December 27. You have a, you have a, my dad hat trick, as we call it. He, this is,

let's see here. He was removed from the ice on a stretcher treated in a hospital for a deep laceration to his left thigh and buttocks. Was this the one where he slams into the net and the net doesn't come off and? Let's see. Yes, that's exactly right.

All right. Basically impaled himself on a metal post. The injury led directly to the contemporary cages redesign, blah, blah, blah. But they nasty. Yeah, but if you the video of him being wheeled out of the building is insanely funny because they just like take him.

The way the rink works in Hartford is like it's literally there's a lobby and it's on the street. There's no stairs, nothing. And they just, they're wheeling him out through the lobby face down with the guy running behind the stretcher holding up Mark Howe's feet. I didn't know, I didn't know he ripped his butt open, you know? Yeah. So like that's nasty.

And meanwhile, like, Mike Madano is sitting there going, oh, that sounds like luxury. They carried them the whole way. Oh, players were soft back then. It's crazy. Now it seems like maybe I watched it. I don't know, whatever the fuck it was. But anyway, that happened in real life.

The other thing that I've seen as kind of a talking point in the Olympics is like, What did Philip Forsberg due to the Swiss team? What's happening there? I don't know. That doesn't make any sense to me. And obviously, teams play things close to the vest. Maybe he's heard.

Maybe he's dealing with something. But, yeah, barely. He was 13th forward in the first game. Yep. Then moved into the top 12, but is playing like 10 minutes a game. For, and, you know, it's not like Sweden's crime.

rushing it, right? If there are three and oh, you go, hey, it's working, whatever. And even beyond that, he has more goals in the NHL this season than any Swedish player. Yeah. So it's not like he's shown them, oh, you know, he doesn't really have it this year, blah, blah, blah. Nope. That's not what's happening here. It's really strange. Absolutely. but whatever.

I don't know. These are things that probably somebody can explain it in a way that I don't know. Oh, okay, great. An explanation like at the at the end, right? Yeah, that's kind of my thinking, yeah. Well, I guess that's it.

I guess that's it for men's Olympic talk from us for now. I'll tell you this. Checky is up or tied with Denmark, zero to zero. Wow. they lead them in a shot six to four halfway through the first period. There you go. So that's where we are right now.

I'm going to give you guys live updates on a game that was over six hours ago when you used. That's right. In fact, the second half of this pod is going to be us watching the game and just reacting to it, just going, whoa.

But we're, given the Olympic rules, I don't know that we're allowed to say players' names or anything. So we'll just have to do like noise-based reactions as opposed to words. I have to go stand outside my house. us to do this.

That's right. All right, well, when we take a break and we'll be right back. This week's episode is brought to you by our good pals at MintMobil. Folks, every friend group has that someone who insists on doing things a hard way. Think of your little social circle. You know who that person is. You know who I'm talking about. Or maybe you don't, in which case, it's you.

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Let's talk about the women's side now. The U.S., let's start with the U.S. since they're the team that looks the best by a pretty fucking wide margin. So we spent a big chunk of the men's side of the discussion talking about, well, I'm not sure that, you know, how good Canada looked and the round robin really changes. And this is a whole different situation. It's crazy how much better they are than everybody else. They, the team USA looks unbelievable. I mean, they are making it look incredibly easy.

Like, and, and we all know the, you know, on the women's side, the, you know, it's, it's, it's a little more lopsided and all of that. But I mean, nobody can even score on these guys. Nobody can get the puck at the time. Yeah. I mean, it, and that includes Canada in that game. They play Canada and, you know, what, round robin's not the gold medal game, but that's about the best thing I can say for Canada. That and, you know, Marie-Fili Poulin not playing in that game. All right, but I...

What was the final in that one? Was it five-nothing? Five-nothing, yeah. Pullin's amazing. Pullen might be one of the, is, I mean, one of the greatest women's players of all time, just one of the great international hockey players of all time, period. Full stop, I think she's in the conversation. Prime of his career, America. O'Me wasn't going to tilt things back to Canada in that game. Yeah, Valeri Har-Larmov, right? Like, just guys that, like, yeah.

Their butts. And surround Rob wasn't the gold medal game, but that's, that's all you can say, because they look scary good. Yeah, and what's really been impressive to me is like every line, you know, Canada on the men's side, it's like, well, McDavid's going to get his three points tonight and then whatever else we do, a guy's going to chip in here and there. Everybody on the U.S. side, oh, yeah, I have six points in six games. You know, like, everybody's just scoring at a pretty normal clip, except for Caroline Harvey,

who looked fucking incredible. Holy shit. She looks amazing. In fact, it says here, she leads the tournament in points. She's a defenseman. Yeah, Bobby Orr of the women's game. It's crazy. That was one of the Kachuk brothers.

Dude, it's crazy. The Kachukes went to watch the women play and ended up getting interviewed. You imagine? What are the odds of that? Got to be tough. Those two. But yeah, they've just looked. I mean, they have now, I think, shattered the all-time shutout streak in the Olympics,

men's or women's. Like they haven't allowed a goal in 190-something minutes or whatever it is. they just they just looks so good it's it's really tough to be like oh yeah like feeling like you're saying feeling like oh yeah Canada can hang with them in the cold metal game that we all know is coming again Canada is closer I mean we watched the game yesterday Canada is closer to like not being in the gold metal game than they are to me being like and they can beat the US of the gold medal. You know what I mean?

That's the other part of it, right? Like, hey, there's no goals differential in the elimination phase, et cetera, et cetera. Still, 2-1 win, that got a little nervous there. Mm-hmm. Towards the end. Yeah. And I'm not saying that just because I had already finished writing my Canada U.S. Gold Medal preview and was just like drop-in score of obvious Canada win here.

And suddenly I'm like, oh. Oh, yeah, I mean, I will just be honest. I'm Canadian, I'm cheering for Team Canada. I believe in the team Canada women. But, oh, I find myself saying a lot of things like, hey, man, US and Canada, it's always a crazy game, right? Something always happens. It's always close. Not this year.

And it's like, well, in the Golden Games, at least. And but not because I mean, yeah, you're right. Like you go back to the rivalry series of the U.S. swept. They're kicking Canada's butts this year, like the last calendar year. And, hey, something always crazy, which is true, but that's also not an argument. That's just me pointing at history going, oh, probably. You never know. I don't think anyone, like, put it this way.

If Canada wins gold, nobody's going to be like, I can't believe. Canada beat the USA totally gold medal game but I mean just if you strip some of the history and some of that like and you just look at you just look under the hood

at how both of these teams are playing right now I don't know man I'm with you I don't know what else there is to I don't know what else there is to say like this is always a two team tournament um and you know

it's funny because they were talking, I guess, during the U.S. game the other night or the other day, where they were saying, like, wasn't the rest of the world supposed to catch up with Canada and the U.S.? And if anything, now it looks like the U.S. has put a distance between themselves in Canada more so than like these other teams have caught up. Don's model, I'm just looking at it. Do you want to take a guess what percentage it has the U.S. to win this game? The U.S. is the favorite. 70? 65%. Yeah. That feels low.

It does. That's why I said 70. Yeah. Even 70 would, I mean, I don't know, man. Well, and again, you have to like think about it in terms of the way hockey works, if you have a 55% chance to win, that means you are significantly better than the other team. So to be at 65 is crazy given that it's the U.S. and Canada.

Yep. Absolutely. And I mean, if anything, you kind of look at it and go, U.S. hasn't even been tested. No. Are we even seeing their best? Yeah, they haven't had to put the pedal to the fucking floor on this one at all. Is there another level that they've got?

I mean, Canada, you would assume, I mean, they were, like, yesterday's game was, like, against Switzerland. It was close. I wouldn't say it was a nail-biter at the end because it was a one-goal game. Canada gets a couple goals. They go up to nothing. They're kind of just trying to ride it out. So I don't want to overstate it and make it sound like they were life and death to beat the Swiss.

But, you know, you figure if there was a gear, that's when you pull it out. and we haven't seen it from the U.S. Like, I, man, I don't know. You know, I'm looking at this right now. I'll tell you, you know what I'd be doing if I was in the PWHL? Fucking tanking to get Caroline Harvey. Oh, it's crazy. We lost again.

Well, I know they have. I got good news for you, buddy. You can't do it. They got the goal plan, baby. Yeah, but there's no benefit at all in the, yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. I'd be trying to get this.

Caroline Harvey kid on my teeth. She's pretty good. We forfeit all our remaining games. Yeah. Up until such point is we have to win, and then we'll be back. She's, she's plus 14 in six games. She's so good. Oh, my God.

Yeah. She's, she's in, like, she's playing, like, McDavid mode right now. Where it's like, are you bored? Are you, I got, I got all these points. Is that the most points you could? No, I could have had twice as many points if I wanted to. I just stopped trying after the first period of every game. Okay, speaking of plus minus, how far down do you have to go to get to a player who's top ranked in plus minus who's not American?

Like what place is the first non-American? I'm going to say you got to go down. I'm going to say there's 10 Americans before you find someone. 11. All right then. Anna Shelvin from Sweden, you are tied for 11th with Britta Curl and one ahead of Kendall Coins-Skofield at plus 6. Caroline Harvey again, plus 14. Just, you know, if we're, you know, keeping score at home.

It's the gold medal game is Thursday, right? Thursday afternoon, yes. Oh, man, I'm so excited. It's going to be fucking really funny to watch Canada and just be like, we don't know what to do. And I'm going to... Look at him. You know what?

He's spinning the ball on his finger. Just take it. I put this in the newsletter today, but I'm just going to say it now. And this is, I'm dead serious. If you work and you're a manager or some, or you're somebody who calls meetings, go in your calendar and make sure you have not booked a meeting for Thursday afternoon. Absolutely.

And if you have cancel it, apologize, resign, and never show your face again. Like, somebody out there has got like a mandatory team building meeting schedule for 1.30 on 30. Cancel it. Nobody wants that. Do it now. Go check. You're like, I wouldn't have done that. Just check your calendar. Just double check for me. Please. Oh yeah, this is the other thing. Unless you're Canadian, in which case you might want to keep it. This is the other thing is Marie-Fili-Pulen passed Haley-Wickenhizer for all-time goals leader in the Olympics.

Guess how many points behind Wickenhizer she is in the same number of games in her Olympic career? How many? Twelve. Really? Yeah. Okay. That's a lot of fucking points to have to make up. Mm-hmm.

The other thing with the... Wiganhizer has 51. Did you see like... Yeah, I mean, Wiganhizer was... Pretty good, my opinion. Insanely good. Did you see the thing with Poulinto that, like, her goals, like the number of them that have come in elimination games?

Oh, I'm sure it's... 60%. It's, like, almost all of them. It's, like, it's great. So it's not even like, you know, you go, oh, yeah, okay. What, did you beat Iceland 30 to nothing and you scored 20 goals? Nope.

You want to talk about not trying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Haley Wickenheiser, number two all time and points per game behind Sherry Piper. But Piper played 11 fewer Olympic games. Yeah, and now Caroline Harvey's going to run them all down like their fucking prey animals. Scary stuff out there. Might happen.

So, yeah, I think that's it for the women's side. There's not really a ton else to discuss, right? No, I don't know. It's a two-team tournament, baby. Great, good for them. That's cool. Oh, yeah. I'm not saying like, oh, yeah, that's cool.

That's cool for them. No, it is. But this is when you... It's a two-team tournament. If you're not Canada in the U.S., you come into the tournament going, like, bronze is your gold. So... A hundred percent. I am kind of curious.

to see, like, I wonder on, like, just purely from watching the semifinals, you'd go, man, Switzerland almost took out Canada. They got to be the favorite. But, like, I just psychologically, the letdown of coming that close and then having to play brawn,

and, like, I just wonder if they're, like, do they have all the momentum, or are they kind of like, eh, man, we just missed her biggest swing. Never mind. We'll see. Yeah. All right, let's do some NHL stuff on the way out the door here.

Jeff Skinner on waivers for the purposes of he's not going to be playing for them no more. In all likelihood. Weird career. Really strange career. This is two teams in a row where you're like, oh, he should really compliment them well. And it's like, no, not really, though. In fact, they don't want them on the team. anymore.

It's crazy because, I mean, like, he goes to Edmonton. Yeah. On a cheap deal. And we're all like, oh, go play with Connery David. 25 goals, easy. Get back, you know, maybe you're not going to be the 40-goal guy again, but, you know,

and didn't happen, didn't work. And then, okay, dude, I mean, I'm sorry, if you can't play with McDavid or Celebrini, and it's not, you know, he didn't, he wasn't playing with those two guys most of that time,

but that was because coaches didn't put him there. I don't know. There's no easier level to play NHL hockey on it. Like with Colorado and play on McKinnon's line now. Yeah. And what's crazy is how precipitous the drop-off was for him, right? Because I'm trying to pull it up now, but like I have to think he was one of the most effective goal scorer

in the league for 10 plus years, right? Like, it has to be. Let's see here. Okay. From 2010-11 to 23-24, where do you think Jeff Skinner ranks in goals scored in the entire NHL? Jeez. I had no idea.

Well, okay, list off some guys you think would be ahead of him. Jeff's in what time range? 2010 to 2020. So, I mean, he'd be up there. He had his, like, he had his 40 goal years there. He'd be up there. Yeah.

I'm going to say he's, let's say 50th. No, he's 10th. Is he really? 357 goals. He had more goals in, like, now granted, he played way more games. than these guys. More goals than Malkin. More goals than Sagan.

More goals than Claude Giroux. Actually, Jureau by quite a bit. Matthew Shane, Phil Kessel. He has more goals than all of these guys. He's behind only, this is real, Alex Ovechkin, number one in that era by as wide of a margin as you would think, 103 more goals than the next closest guy

who is Stephen Stamco's. Then you go down to John Tavares, who's 50 back of that almost. Crosby is 409, Marshand is 401. That's it. Those are all the top, or the guys who scored at least 400 goals

in that like 14-year stretch, whatever you want to say. Then you get down to Patrick Kane, Joe Pavelski, Austin Matthews, who is eighth, despite playing like 500 fewer games that basically everybody else.

Then Jamie Ben, then Jeff Skinner. Wow. 357 goals in 1,006 games. And now two teams in a row have been like, this guy's unplayable. What? Now, granted, he's like 33. This happens sometimes.

Guys turn 32, 33. They don't have it anymore, just all of a sudden. But it is still a pretty surprising drop off and, you know, kind of toiled thanklessly for his entire career before last season. where it's like, yeah, we actually don't have a ton of expectations on you, Big Dog. Okay. That sucks. Great player for a while there. Yeah, it really was about it.

Hey, and speaking of Carolina Hurricanes guys, Brandon Bussey's three years, $1.9 million, extension. Nice little deal with for Carolina. I mean, for him to forget it. you know, I don't think you're ever go from like not even in the NHL to Hey, you want multiple millions of dollars? Yeah. We were talking about...

You want to not worry about your income for the next three years? I would like that. We were talking about him at the bean pot last week because we were talking about guys having like weird development paths, you know? And like this is a guy who like he played one season in the USHL. Then he instantly becomes a story. starter for Western Michigan

and like, you know, eventually wins a national championship there. And then listen to this. Or wait, no, I don't think he would have been the goal. No, he wasn't the goaler for the national. Anyway, he's a really, really good college goalie, but not like maybe a great one, you would say. And then listen to this.

22, 23, he briefly plays in the ECHL and mostly plays in the AHA. Last two years before this one, like kind of the one B in Providence. This year he makes it to the NHL and they're like, okay, you're going to go 23, 3 and 1 in your first 27 NHL games and here's a three-year deal.

That's fucking crazy. This guy didn't play an NHL game before this season. and he's been perfectly good for a team that that's all they really need out of a goalie ever. Yep. Guy played in the NHL, the NCDC, like really strange career path for him. But now, definitively an NHL player. So when people are like, I can't believe the contracts that team friendly. He had no NHL games in his entire life before this season.

That's it, right? I mean, he didn't exactly have a ton of bargaining power here. Yeah. That's, well, I mean, he probably did, but how much are you really going to use that leverage? Like, what's your walkaway number at that point? Yeah, that's what got him the third year instead of two.

He's got, you know, wife and kids or whatever, like, hey, remember when we, remember how we don't have millions of dollars? Ah, no, but, you know, Dom's model says I should be at 2.2. Okay. All right. How about we have millions of dollars? Sure. I don't, uh, end. Stick around.

Three years. Not that long. Do even better than next one. He's, he's making a 775 this year. That's basically the league minimum. So if they go, hey, would you like to make more than that? Yes, please. Like, that's very, that's a very easy call for him.

So good for him. That rocks. I think that's so cool. And finally, now, Sean, this is something I'm always talking about. I love college hockey, right? And it's, I've heard, yeah. It's nice, it's nice to have your, uh, your preconceptions confirmed. Oshawa General's season ticket holders ask to shower before game time.

These guys all stink. The player stink too from what I've heard. But yeah, they got the, uh, they got the old AEW treatment of, like, why don't you work in a show? It was kind of nice how they phrased it. They're like, hey, we know a lot of you were hitting the gym right before you come to the game. Oh, yeah, that's it.

Oh, so I shouldn't, my two-hour hang-and-bang session, I should work in a little wipe-down before. Okay. So the email from the generals to season ticket holders reads as follows. We're thrilled to have you, blah, blah, blah, To help ensure a clean, comfortable, and enjoyable experience for everyone. We kindly ask for your cooperation with a few simple hygiene practices. That's a tough way to start and email.

Please make use of the hand sanitizing stations located throughout the arena, cover coughs and sneezes, and be mindful of personal cleanliness while sharing our space with fellow fans. You're like, okay, it's flu season. COVID wasn't that long ago. Let's use the hand sanitizer. That checks out for me. if you're feeling unwell, we encourage you to take care of yourself and cheer us on from home when possible. If you went to the gym or did something that produced body odor, please shower before attending the game.

Yes. Something that produced, you know, like existing for many of you seems to be an issue. And then, so this is from Durham Radio News. And Durham Radio News spoke with Jason Hickman, director of ticket sales and service for the Oswe General's Hockey Club. He said the email went out because it is flu season, and he's also received numerous complaints for season ticket holders about the odor. Love it.

Oh, this is something I would make up if I was trying to be mean to the Oshoa generals fans. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. I saw this. I was fucking clicking the other under reason. Yeah. Everyone around me stinks.

But if you send out an email, I'd be back. Something about it stinks, right? That really made me laugh last week. I guess that's it. You got any plugs for us, Sean? Find me at The Athletic Be on. Actually, I think I'm on with Sean and fingers crossed, Frank, after tomorrow's games.

So we will be on live after the finish of the last quarterfinal game. So hear my reaction to Canada's 10-1 loss. and how I blame it all on Tom Wilson. And then I got a bunch of stuff coming content-wise, including I got a piece up this morning. Me and our buddy James Myrtle worked together to rank all of the possible gold medal games from best to worst.

You'll never guess which one will finish first, but we had some fun with the other ones. Hell yeah. And then for me, head over to Relieprospects.com all kinds of college hockey coverage from me over there, especially the regular seasons winding down. Most conferences only have two or three weeks left of regular season hockey before the

playoffs start. Teams start getting eliminated. In fact, right before we hit the hit record on this call, I was filling out my, or, you know, I was setting up my little NCAA tournament preview document that I do every year and that you can look forward to. sometime in March. So, you know, get in now. Learn all about college hockey.

It's the best. And I'll tell you, I've been to a million college hockey games. I've never received an email. Please take a shower before you show up. I just know to do that. Interesting. I think so, too. Have you ever been punched out by a player for costing them at a establishment?

I don't know what this is referring to. Allegedly. I don't know What's this a joke on? This is the Gavin McKenna. You took our precious innocent slightly stinky Gavin McKenna

and turned it into a violent felon. Well no, they dropped that They dropped the felony charge. Violent I don't know. Misdemeanor. Guy.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Accused only. Don't come after me, Gavin. Don't. We'll see what happens. This trial, again, I think I said this last week, his new preliminary hearing date is set for the day the Big Ten tournament starts. So that'll be a little tricky.

Anyway, head over to patreon.com slash pox soup, all kinds of bonus episodes, including me and Sean did a game of 20 questions, but a, Olympic style for a bonus episode last week. We had a lot of fun. So there's that to look forward to as well. And that's it. Thank you so much for listening. Have a good one.

Bye-bye.