Puck Soup - Tony De-Anon

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

The boys discuss the Tony DeAngelo drama with the Rangers, including conspiracy theories about his demise. Plus, Tyler Toffoli owns the Canucks, Connor and Leon rule, the next Penguins GM, COVID his Devils and NWHL, Sean learns about Golden Globe movies and the return of the Puck Soup Threesomes quiz!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. I'm Greg Wichinsky of ESPN, the worldwide leader in trekking down guys who mistakenly get mailed Zadanochara's sticks. I'm Ryan Lamber from it says here Elite Prospects I'm Sean McAdoo from The Athletic

but Ryan should plug his new job a little bit right off the top Yeah please do so for those who don't know Ryan is part of a new super team of writers that have been put together at elite prospects And part of the gig is that a favorite A Puck Daddy favorite What we learned has made its triumphant return

to the Hockey Zitegeist, am I correct in that? You are correct in that. So, yeah, it's me, it's Dmitri Filipovich, and it's Jack Frazier, who you might know as Jay Fresh on Twitter. And yeah, we're rocking and rolling over there now, I guess. They wanted to expand from just, you know, doing prospects coverage, which I guess is in the name, to like more also NHL stuff. Who better to do it than us, apart from, I guess, a lot of people. But we're pretty good, too. I think you're great. Yeah, so, yeah, what we learned every Sunday and a monthly power feelings.

I know people love that. So, yeah, you know, we'll, we're going to kind of ease into it a little bit, see how many people sign up, I guess, is the idea. And then, yeah, we'll go from there. But cool. Now, do you just deal with elite prospects or, like, ones like, Olioliva? Do you even talk about the bums, Greg? Okay.

Just checking. Speaking of the Canucks, hey, Taylor Tofoli, huh? Yeah. I frame it like this. When a guy scores eight goals against the team that didn't sign them, I prefer to think of that as a Valentine to the city. I prefer to think of that as I am so upset that I did not get a chance to spend more time in Vancouver that's going to manifest in me taking it out on the team that plays there.

That's how I choose to frame it. What about you? I mean, I'm just kind of thinking of it in terms of, boy, I think we mentioned it last week, but everybody, the Canucks lost this summer, went to a team in their country. And so like, oh, Jacob Markstrom, I think, had a shutout in one of the games against the Canucks. Yeah. I think Chris Tanev had a- Chris Tanev looks like he's 26 again.

Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's a combination of the Canucks aren't very good, and the players they gave up have to play them a lot. So it's going to be a lot of nights like this, I think. Sean, are the Canucks who we thought they were? They weren't who I thought they were because I was pumping their tires and had them near the top of my Canadian division list. And I look like I was wrong because they don't look super good when they're playing anyone other than the senators who make everyone look good. So there's time still.

there is talent on the team. Like I'm not writing them off completely, but it's, yeah, it's not looking good. And the thing with, the thing I love about the Tyler Tofoli thing is so often when you have in hockey, like this narrative of the guy who left a team and now he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder, it's some guy where it's like, yeah, but you went off and you signed for way more money than any rational team should have given you.

So they were right to let you go. They made you a fair offer. you went and got a crazy offer somewhere else, so you have no right to be mad. Like, just you, you, it worked out for you. Tyler Tofoli is like absolute discount, incredible value for the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, and he was, he was a discount even before he started scoring all these goals, right? Like, he's having an MVP caliber year so far. Yeah.

Like, if he'd signed for eight million, you'd be like, yeah, well, of course Vancouver didn't give them that. But $4 million, when you're out there locking in some of the guys that Jim Benning is locked in. Yeah, that's what makes it hurt if it's Vancouver. If you're a Vancouver fan, it's not like, oh, yeah, this guy used to play here and now he doesn't. It's like, we absolutely should have, should still have this guy on the roster if we weren't paying $3.5 million to all our fourth-liner deft guys that we had to walk in. I mean, that's the thing. The only way it makes sense is because your cap has already fucked from the sins of the past, which

obviously is a black mark on Jim Benning. But like, you know, the, the fact that the matter is is that, you know, Markstrom made sense for them not to re-sign him. He wanted a contract, which meant that you would have to expose Thatcher Demko and go too long with a goalie that you didn't want to go long term with. That's fine. It happens. The TANF thing, you know, people were like, let him go. He's kind of cooked. Quinn Hughes had better numbers of the other defensemen. So that was understandable. The Tofouli thing never made fucking sense. Like, it didn't make sense he was attainable, and it didn't make sense because you have this collection of forwards, including Elias Pedersen, who could certainly use their, like, for lack of a

better example, Alex Tangay type, who can kind of like be the perfect compliment in your top six to star players. And they let him go. And they had proof of concept that he worked with them. It made no fucking sense. I mean, it only made sense insofar as what Sean said, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Michael Furland, obviously, he's not playing this year, but he takes up space on their cap. Louis Erickson, Tyler Myers, Alex Edler, like, these are all guys that are getting, not just like overpaid, but like way overpaid. Yeah. And, you know, these guys are all overpaid, but none of them are like the, just with maybe the exception of Tyler Myers.

Like, none of these deals are like Brent Seabrook bad or like just the total disaster. But there, it's, this really crystallizes every time there's a bad signing, especially in free agency, there's always fans who go like, okay,

so it's half a million too much or so it's a million too much. That's what you have to pay the premium to get this guy. What do you want to not have them? And this is what I have like a million here and a million there adds up to Tyler to Folli by the end of it. And that's, and, You know, this is why, especially in free agency, so many of us are like, man, just put the phone down.

You guys are, these mistakes do end up costing you. And yeah, everybody thought the cap was going to go up and all of that stuff. But, man, it's, it's tough. There is, especially when you're the only team that's also paying a cap recapture penalty, which is a whole different topic. But I'm sure one that I got to throw out there or else every Canucks fan will come back at me. with it. There is something else I want to say, though, about this is like, you know, Greg mentioned they have skill on this team. Pederson had a dog shit start to the year. Quinn Hughes looks awful next to Jordy Ben, like terrible. All his underlying numbers are

really bad. So I think, you know, on some level, you do say, well, look, you know, the goaltending is bad, but it shouldn't be this bad, or not even bad. The goaltending was supposed to be okay at best this year, and it's worse than that. Pedersen had a bad start. Hughes, you know, should be better than this and isn't. But like, I just look at this defense, Adler Myers, Jordy Ben, Oli Levy, who they just said, you know what, he's, he's NHL ready. There was no, he's fine. He's great. Travis Hamannick before he got hurt. And it's like, well, they got Nate Schmidt and Quinn Hughes. Both those guys are good. But there are four other guys on the defense down on any given night where you're like, I don't know how you make that work. And that's why. So I put the poll out last night on the Twitter machine,

who gets fired first this season. Jim Benning, Travis Green, both or neither. Anyone want to hazard to guess who was the first on that list? Oh, it is going to be Jimbo. Jimbo got 41% of the vote. Second place was neither, which I thought was interesting, which I guess is sort of like, you know, why do it in season type deal? What does it get you? Especially this year, right?

We all, a lot of us thought that maybe there wouldn't be any firings at all. Yeah, this season's fake. I think you can, like, I think any team can talk themselves into that, right? Like, I'm serious. Like, fake like we're in a simulation fake or fake? It's just, okay. It's not even that. it's literally, if you're the Canucks and you fire Travis Green,

most of the candidates you would be interested in hiring would have to wait 14 days before they could take the job, just by virtue of coming to Canada. That seems like a pretty good now, you know, you put an assistant in the job, obviously, whatever. But I think a lot of teams, remember, NHL teams are already very risk-averse. They're already very prone to staying the course. I think that it won't take much to convince most teams, especially the ones in Canada to say, you know what, let's just write it out until the offseason.

Yeah, plus you don't want to spend more money during the pandemic on a new coach or a new GM while you're also still paying the old one, whatever he's still owed. And, you know, like there's a million reasons not to do it. And also, can we just, we can point out that the Canucks are currently on points percentage, one point out of the playoffs. Like it's not like this has completely fallen apart and they're already out of the running. Now, that would be for the fourth playoff spot, which would probably lead

to a matchup with Montreal, which, you know, Tyler Tofoli playoff mode, I don't know what the record is for goals in a playoff series, but yeah, maybe that's not much to look forward to. But it's not, it's been bad, but it's not completely gone off the rails. You know, I could go to my cabin or cottage, leave Stanford, Connecticut, get up there two weeks Mikey saves the team to say it happened actually I just I just want him off

I just want him off I just want him off my TV I will say we just said the other thing to say about this is you know the Canucks are six and seven one of their wins was in a shootout against Montreal the other three more were against the Ottawa senators who they now only play five more times this year so

So, you know, they beat Winnipeg, they beat Edmonton, and they also lost to Edmonton. They lost both games to Calgary. They've lost four out of five to Montreal, and the Habs got a point in the other one. I don't know how many more easy games there are for these guys. So five games left against Ottawa, let's pencil them in for seven wins. Okay, sure, yep, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That's okay.

But by the way, poor one out for the Ottawa senators are going to be a frisky team scratching at the playoff bubble. Good God. Oh, my God. They are historically bad. I'm kind of surprised by that, to be honest. They can't get a safe. I'm looking, I just pulled it up. You know what their team save percentage is right now?

It's 847. Oh, my God. And listen, it's a comfortable topic because, like, the fact of the matter is that Matt Murray hasn't been the same since he lost his father. Like, that's a fact. You track it back to that moment for him. And who knows if that's it or who knows if he just was maybe, you know, outkicking his coverage a little bit as a goalie for a really good Penguins team. I think that's a better explanation for it, you know, like. Yeah.

He happened to be behind a team that had Sidney Crosby, Gary Malkin, Chris LaTang. And then that stopped working after a little while. It happens, you know? Like, do we look at him and go, his two playoff runs are the only thing that makes him different from Andrew Hammond? Well, I mean, that and cheeseburgers for life. I mean, don't forget about that. I mean, I think you could say that. I mean, those are two things are pretty big things.

It's, I don't think we just hand wave away two Stanley Cups. But, yeah, he's, it has nothing. working in an auto right now. And the big thing up here is, like, DJ Smith's been using the veterans quite a bit. The kids haven't been, you know, other than the obvious Shabbat and Kachuk, and those guys haven't been getting big ice time. And it's like, it's at the point now where, okay, do you say, we got to let the kids play and see what we got? Or is it starting to get to the point where you go, we got to keep some of the kids away from this? Because this is going to be a tire fire, and we don't want some kid playing as a rookie season. I mean, obviously, the guys who were already

there or there, but in terms of guys down that you could bring in, is it time to just say, you know what? We don't want you being a part of this. And it's a tough situation for DJ Smith, too, because it's a rebuild, but he's a rookie head coach. He doesn't want to be the Sparky Allison in this story. He needs to get some wins under his belt. Who?

Who's Sparky Allison? What does that even mean, Sean? He was the guy that when the senators, when they were very bad in the expansion years, they fired a coach, I don't remember who it was. They brought in Dave Sparky Allison, who was like an HL coach, and he was so bad, he won like two games out of 30. They fired him in the middle of the season. They'd already hired him in the middle of the season. Like it's a team making two full-time coaching changes in the same season. And then they hired Shock Martein, and that was the start of the turnaround. But he's widely considered one of the worst coaches in modern

NHL history, but his team was terrible. Well, no wonder. He was the head coach of the Detroit Tigers. I mean, that's obviously the problem. Oh, wait, yeah, is Andrew. That guy probably would have done better. You bought up the fucking Vancouver Olympics, so let's just talk about this. The athletics run on their Olympic roster projections this week as we do the show. Will you just concede the gold to me and Ryan, like right now because of how fucking good the Team USA roster is going to be?

Yeah, Team USA. You guys are overwhelming favorites. I can't imagine. I can't imagine. The classic Canadian group. We're just bringing a one-fail team of citizens. And he Crosby. Oh, yeah.

Blue collar. They're just kids. Just kids. I'm going to go with, um, with Custin's roster because I think it's probably a bit more in line of what's going to happen than Burnside's. But up the gut, Matthews, Eichel, Larkin, Hughes. Let's go. Velsky is your reserve.

Let's fucking go. We've never had centers. That's all. The reason TBSA loses is two things. One, we don't have centers. Now we got centers. Fan fucking Tastic. Two, we play like cowards.

And look what's happened in World Juniors, Ryan. We've stopped playing like cowards. We're starting to play like the women's national team. We're taking the fight to Canada. And look what happens when we do. Guys, I'm speaking for all of Canada. I'm really intimidating. I mean, Dylan Larkin, this is a guy who's had one 70-point season.

How is Canada? How's Nathan McKinnon going to match up with that third-line center depth? I mean, what are we going to do? This is going to be terrifying. Oh, I know. I know what we do. We just throw some kachucks at the problem. That's what we'll do.

We have two of them. Kach chucks. By the way, I got two funny with it that everybody putting together the Canada roster was like, well, you've got to bring Drew Doughty. I thought about you the minute I saw that. I'm just like,

what is going through Lansford's head right now with this? What was fucking Brent Seabrook not available? Oh, wait, he actually wasn't. That's right. Jesus Christ. Well, you know, our guy, to that end is like, Custin's put Ryan Suter on the list, which,

I mean, it could happen, but maybe, I don't know, does it need to? No, it doesn't need to. I mean, among American defensemen, I don't know that he's in my top eight at this point, or would be at the end of, or in the middle of next team. Custin said Ryan Suter on his list,

but he didn't have McDonough. I think McDonough makes that team before Cedar does, doesn't it? Okay. All right. I think the other thing to say, courses that we have a little bit of time to figure this out. I don't know that we need to be.

Yeah. But Burnside had, had TJ Oshy on the team. Pass, no thanks. Well, that's your shootout, right? That's your shootout specialist, which, depending on the format, could be important. Yeah, if we have to play the Russians. Yep. Yeah.

I will say this. It's all joking aside, like, Team USA is going to have the best goal tanning in the tournament, which is big. I don't know exactly. I mean, all the Canada rosters seem to have Jordan Bittington on them, which gives you a sense of what we're working with. And you guys have got last year's Vezna winner and maybe this year's Vesna winner the way things are going. So that is going to be huge. Yeah.

So like I said, we could save a lot of time if you just concede and let us get the gold even before. I mean, it'll save on travel costs. If either of those two guys gets hurts, then you have Thatcher Demko is your number three and you're screwed against. Or Spencer Knight, one of the two. Spencer Knight, yeah, good point. Listen. I mean, as an American, I'm excited. That's why I wanted them to figure out this Olympic shit in the CBA, because I think it's our best shot actually beating you bastards since 2010.

By the way, shout out to future me after Dylan Larkin scores the gold medal winning goal. and I am just getting fed a constant stream of this take. Like, that's, I'm looking forward to that. Bad cakes never die, baby. Exactly. Listen, I don't, I don't like to be a chest pounding, a rock ribbed American at all junctures. But on this one, I don't, I don't feel guilty advertising. I don't know.

I think this is a really good team. I want everyone to know about it. I don't feel bad advertising about it. Speaking of advertising, it's now time for an ad about ads. I want to talk to you about a little piece of having called Gumball. Now, what is Gumball? Gumball is the platform that we use to book this ad that you're listening to right now. And Gumball is looking to make the podcast advertising process a whole lot simpler, not just for us, but for everyone.

You know, typically these ads make it to your ears through a very complicated back-and-forth process. Advertisers reach out to networks. Networks look through their available shows to find a good fit. It's a bunch of emails and phone calls and text that's very messy. Then Gumball comes in. It's a self-served marketplace for advertisers to buy podcast ads directly from podcasters and it's majorly streamlining things. With Gumball, advertisers can search for shows like Buck Soup, with powerful demographic filters,

view all the available inventory, and easily purchase campaigns online with a few clicks. As an advertiser, all you have to do is look for a show that fits your target audience, purchase your ad, upload your script, and wait for a jumbled-mouthed-mouth New Jersey native like me to warble his way through it and try to get his audience to buy into things. Puck Soup just joined Gumbull, so guess what? You can buy ads on this very show through Gumball. You can find us by going to gumball.fm.fm.fm.m.m.m.m.m.m. S.m.m. S. Surch for Puck Soup. Or if you're an advertiser or a podcaster, you have to look at gumbball.fm. browse the shows, discover new advertising options, or list your own podcast today.

So if you have a business, you got a thing that you think that the audience that listens to this nutty podcast would like, gumball.fm, to check out the options for advertising with your boys on Puck Suit. All right, let's dive knee deep into the Tony DiAngelo abyss. I mean, I don't even know where to start with this story. All right, let's start off with what we know. Dude got into a fist fight with his goalie. That's what we know. We know that definitely happened.

We don't know who broke it up. We think it might have been Kei Andrei Miller and some other people. But we know that he got to a fist fight with his goalie. And we also know via the Rangers that this was like strike three. This was a situation where he got boo-boed-faced for getting pulled from the lineup earlier in the season. They talked to him. They said, look, you better change your attitude or else we're going to throw you on waivers. And then he got into a fist fight with his goalie.

which is frowned upon, at least when it doesn't happen in practice. And then he was dropped on waivers. So we know that happened. I guess the first question would be, does he play, I think he plays again in the NHL. Does he play again in the NHL this season, Ryan? I can't really see how that happens. It's just a situation where he's too much of a dickhead to be on an NHL team.

And you're going to be a real big dickhead for that to be the case. You know? And the Rangers gave him so many opportunities. They clearly wanted to, like, have him as some sort of a marketing cornerstone of the franchise or something like that. And he fucking blew it. They were like, we love you. We don't care that you are, you know, posting epic pepe memes and all that shit. Like, we don't give a shit.

It's fine. It doesn't matter. because you're like pretty good at moving the puck and you're really good on the power play. That's it. And, you know, should all the other stuff have mattered more than it ultimately did? Yeah, probably. But this is hockey. Everybody's a fucking Maga Chud.

You can't really get away from it. He was just the biggest. You just can't advertise it. You can't advertise it. That was his big mistake. He, like, look at most of these guys fucking Twitter. likes or whatever. Like, it's not, it's not a big secret. It's just he, let me phrase advertise it. You can't, you can't be aggressive in defending it.

Is this mistake? That's, I mean, that's a difference between him and Seth Jones, right? Like, Seth Jones clearly is, you know, posting the, the memes and retweeting the shit that he does on his Twitter feed. But he doesn't, like, fucking attack people that come after him. Be like, hey, oh, come on. Cancel culture. Like, that's what he, that's what DeAngel did that got him in. Deep shit. We should say again, that's not even what he got in trouble for at the end of the day. Right. Right. You got to do a fight with a teammate. They kept saying, oh, it's a maturity issue. We really wish he wouldn't post all that shit.

And that's about it, right? And he's like, that's a great point. What I'll do instead is start my own podcast where I talk about all this shit. Right. And the Rangers promoted it. So they didn't care. But it's the thing. it's the thing about that where they were like, come on, man, you can't be this bad about it.

And then he was crying about getting healthy scratch because he got humiliated in the opening game. And then, you know, he talked shit to a teammate who is, you know, part of the franchise's future. And, you know, again, we know that they tried to trade him over the summer and everybody was like, no, thanks. We're good. So we're good. That's true. Yeah, I think it's a tough sell to see him back in the NHL this year. I don't know who does it and is like willing to take the amount of shit that they will inevitably get for doing it.

Sean, does being a combative miscreant with extreme political views and racial slur or suspensions in his past preclude a team from signing, Tony DeAngelo, or is the fact that he's a puck-moving defenseman in his mid-20s who can quarterback a power play, trump all of that. I just hate to see cancel culture reach a point where you can lose your job just for being bad at your job and also fighting your coworkers. Like, what has happened to us? What's happened to this culture? What is going on?

My boss has pulled me into his office and says literally, if you do this, you do this, this again and cause problems, we will fire you, and then I go and fight my most popular co-worker, and I have consequences for that. Yeah, I mean, look, this is, you guys have touched on it, but, you know, DeAngelo last year, this guy got Norris votes. And yeah, that was mostly because people were just looking at points scored by defensemen, but if he was having another get a few Norris votes, seasons. then I think we're having a different conversation. Maybe not about the Rangers.

I mean, maybe we don't know exactly how bad the problem was behind closed doors, so maybe there was no level where they would have put up with it, but I suspect maybe they would have. Certainly, I mean, it's not news to anyone that in pro sports, the better a player you are, the more you get away with. And that's, I think part of the problem is Tony DiAngelo strikes me is a guy who is used to being the star and could not adjust his behaviors and attitudes to not being that guy anymore and the fact that the leash is going to be a lot shorter.

And if he was having a good year or even a mediocre year, then I think other teams are much more interested. I don't know. Again, in a regular season, maybe guys will get hurt. Some team will have an opening somewhere in a year like this. It wouldn't shock me to see him land somewhere, but it also wouldn't shock me to see almost, just everyone kind of agree that, you know what,

let's hit reset, let's come back fresh in the offseason, and, you know, he can do a little bit of the PR tour, and I've learned my lesson, and I've changed, and the Rangers can say some nice things. Yeah, but will he? Like, would he be willing to do that? Well, he will, and then he'll potentially go and blow it, like, a day later, by saying what he really thinks.

It's, you know, I don't, I'm sure if somebody puts a script in front of him and says, read this or else you won't get to make millions of dollars being a professional athlete for the next decade, he'll read the script. It's a question of can he stick to it when it's not there all the time. And that's going to be the question. But, I mean, he's a pretty good hockey player. He's good enough to play a, to play a top four role in the NHL.

Yeah. So there's guys like that. There's not as many of them as teams need. Someone will give them a job. Yeah. I mean, I'm convinced of it. You know, again, like to do it this year.

I know I mentioned it before with it. Like, you know, I mean, already the Canadian teams, are they going to bring a guy in knowing that you got to go through the whole quarantine? Maybe. Somebody will. But it, and it wouldn't shock me if it was during this year.

It just, it maybe not. Maybe it's like you tell me Chicago couldn't use Tony DeAngelo on their blue line right now. Vancouver? Like you can go down the list. Like there's a ton of teams. I mean he'd be Ottawa's second best defenseman on day one. Yeah. It's just all right. Is it worth it for everything you're going to, all the pushback? And that's part of the problem, right? You've already got, during season, the teams like Ottawa are already going, hey, we're already out of it. So why get the headache? Whereas in the off

season, everyone can talk themselves. into, yeah, you know, this player might be the guy that puts over the top. So I don't know. Step two down the rabbit hole is the Kianre Miller puck incident where Blue Shirt Bantor, the Espionation blog, wrote a story saying that multiple sources

that indicated that Tony DiAngelo had kept the puck from Kiannre Miller's first NHL goal. They changed that wording after what I assume was a call from CAA's lawyers and no longer said that DeAngelo kept the puck. I know that there was this notion

from some Rangers players, in fact, that were saying that they believed that this had happened. Logistically, I don't know how anyone could believe it happened. I mean, it's not as if Tony DeAngelo puts the fucking puck in his pants and no one notices on the bench, including the equipment managers, after Keontre Miller scores the goal. In the reporting that I've done on it, it does seem like a really shitty oversight

in the sense that the Rangers didn't have a full social media crew on the road. Their PR guy is a PR guy and didn't feel like asking a player to pose with the puck after a loss. It kind of seems like that's the case. But then because there's no photo of Keandre Miller with the puck,

it became like the Roswell crash of hockey where everyone just assumed that this piece didn't fit so the totality of the story must be true but it seems like a shitty oversight and like the Rangers know where the puck is and it just became a thing like I wouldn't I can't even believe the thing that it became this week like how much I listen I wanted it to be true I don't like doing DiAngelo I just don't the pieces didn't add up as far as it being true and it doesn't seem like it's true. But, I mean, it doesn't speak to his relationship with Keandre Miller in total. I've heard that they got on all right, but the puck thing doesn't seem like it happened. The last thing is the, did you guys see the Twitter thing on Tuesday night with Mr. Booth

underscore 7? Yeah, definitely a real thing. I 100% believe all of it. Yeah. I'm not insanely gullible. at all. So even, I feel like we all just skipped over the part where we have any doubt that this is Tony DeAngelo's secret account and not just anyone on Twitter. Right. Messing with people.

So, yeah, like I wanted to believe. Hold on, hold on. To reset it. Like Mr. Booth underscore 7, who I had muted, for some reason, I imagine he sits in the group to me at some point, but I've unmuted him. claimed he had a DM conversation with NYR fan 928373 who people believe to be Tony DeAngelo's burner account. And he had a four-part conversation in which he tried to convince this account that Tony DiAngelo was going to be traded to the Vancouver Canucks. And he found out through a conversation with the Canucks assistant general manager and had a back and forth.

And at one point, this alleged burner account posted a text message conversation with what was alleged to be Pat Brassan, his agent, talking about this trade that may or may not happen, and included the immortal exchange in which the alleged Pat Brassan says, how many times do I have to tell you to get the fuck off Twitter, go to bed? Which again, you just want to believe is true. Yeah, it's not, it's like barely worth discuss. It's, it's, it's, this is, I agree. Oh, I, I don't like Tony DeAnne. It is. I want to believe that all this stuff is fucking 100% real. He stole the, like, you know, I, 100% believe, like, believed that he, uh,

would have taken the puck and, like, the thing that apparently is very common about, um, oh, I don't know what happened to the puck. Oh, that's weird. And then, you know, it's getting framed or whatever. and they just, but like, yeah, the confluence of all these, like, weird coincidences, and maybe it is PR a little bit because the Rangers have a, certainly a vested interest in making him appear as, like, not insane as possible, right? Right, yeah, like, not a damaged good, like, they're trying to sell him on Facebook market and they want to make sure that he's polished and dusted and, yeah. And so, you know, like, I get all. all of that.

But like, it's just increasingly difficult for me to believe, oh, I actually, you know, when the stuff about the secret account first came out, I was like, well,

it looks like Tony DiAngelo. And then the more I thought about it, the more I was like, well, it's really easy for anybody to impersonate what we all think Tony DeAngelo posts like. So. Yeah,

it's really easy to get into that headspace. Yeah. The one thing, listen, I agree with you. I think, I don't believe that this is true. And the one thing that kind of like,

made me go, ah, uh, at one point, uh, this burner account says that they've never been to Vancouver, but would like to visit someday,

which I mean, a cursory glance at hockey reference would tell you that Tony D'Angelo has played several times in Vancouver. So, but he's, maybe he's just trying to throw people off the scent, right? Right? It could be it too.

I love, I love talking about this too. It rocks. Oh, I, I, I, sweetie, I know. Sometimes we have to talk about things you don't like to talk about on the show. I apologize.

Well, I'm just saying in terms of the Q&on shit. Very tough. Gives a fuck about the fucking DM conversation. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I know. I think it's a good reminder for all of us that just because you want something to be true, because it would be funny or would confirm your priors, is not a reason to move the needle

towards thinking that it actually is. Yeah, it's the Pierre-Luc Dubois wants out of Columbus because of Q&ON. shit. That's what it is. Yeah. Except that that one is absolutely. Yes, that's real. Oh, completely true.

100%. Can someone Photoshop the X-Files I want to believe poster, but instead of the UFO, it's Kandre Miller's puck, and just Twitter it to me? Thank you. Where are you going to get a picture of that puck, though, you know? Rangers didn't post it. Oh, I figured you reach out to that Tony D. Burner account. Oh, that's true.

Take a quick, take a quick snap. The other, so there's so much fucking mess happening in hockey right now. The Buffalo Sabres are angry at the devils for infecting them. I think that's reasonable. That was the thing. Yeah. That's a reasonable thing. I heard from a couple of Sabres players that are not happy and frustrated by what happened.

And so for those I don't know, so the way it broke down was the devils and Sabres played back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday. devil's already had a few guys out of the lineup for COVID-related absences. Some of them were self-isolation after travel, like Sammy Vatin and Aaron Dell. A couple of them were for more, we'll call them, traditional COVID reasons. But they added a player to that list between games, Kyle Palmieri. So he plays on Saturday. He plays on Saturday. On Sunday, he gets added to the COVID list, which does not mean a positive test,

but et cetera, et cetera, everyone knows by now. Correct. The game on Sunday goes ahead. Right. And then on Monday, the devils add like half the team to the COVID list. And then on Tuesday, right, and then on Tuesday, they add the other half of the team to the COVID list. And then the Sabres put Taylor Hall and Rasmus Ritz-Lyden on the list. So Paul Mary leaves the lineup between Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday, the devil's literally put like seven guys on the COVID list. And so the Sabres are like, kind of like, hey, what the fuck, you know, when did you know, what did you know and when did you know it? And are reasonably pissed off at the situation. And, you know, I don't know the devil's side of this, but I do wonder how vehemently teams are relying on the NHL to give them the green light to play. Like they clearly said we're not going to postpone the game right on Sunday, despite Paul Mary leaving the lineup. And if that's the case, then the devils are going to play the game, right? Or is it the team's responsibility to pull the court? I don't know.

No, it's, I mean, it's the league right up and until we reached a scenario where a team says, we are not playing. Forfeit the game, if you want to, go ahead and we'll target. Or, you know, and presumably that's a conversation that happens behind closed doors initially. but if you're the Sabres on Sunday, or maybe the Sabres, if this happens again, or some other team,

and you say, we are not playing. So go ahead and broadcast the game. You've got an empty arena. You can watch the other team scrimmage because we're not there, or you can postpone the game, and we'll play it at another time.

And that's where it's going to get. I mean, look, this is, we don't know exactly what happened. We're connecting some dots here, and maybe that'll turn out to be, to be wrong. But this feels like, unlike the situations with Caroline and Dallas and other teams, like this feels like the nightmare scenario that we thought about at the beginning of the

year, where you've got not just an outbreak on a team, but then infection in a game situation being passed to another team potentially. And yeah, I don't know. If that turns out to actually be what has happened, becomes kind of a game changer as far is how you view things. Because it is very much one thing to say some team is managing a situation and maybe we've got to postpone some games. It's another to realize the horse might already be out of the barn.

And I got to be honest, I didn't actually think of this until this all happened, but thank goodness that we've got this weird schedule this year where teams are playing each other repeatedly, where potentially, because this will come up again, I'm sure, you know, You can have a team saying, we now have an outbreak, and you look back and you say, okay, and what happened in the last four or five days? Right. They played one team. They played one team the whole time.

As opposed to under a normal schedule where you'd be like, yeah, they've played three teams. They've got three different teams on the schedule for the next week. This whole thing blows up at that point. And each of those three teams they played, played two other teams. And each of those two teams played one other team. And oh, my goodness, half the league now is connected to this. So that obviously wasn't why they did it this way, but it's a nice benefit for these situations that are going to. I disagree.

That's exactly why they did it this way. The structure of the season was created, one, because of the fact that they were starting in January, two, to cut down on travel costs, but three, because they felt this was the safest way to return and play in these arenas. And the two-game home series, without question, was part of the design in their COVID prevention plans. I mean, they talked to the experts on that. I think the first two points you mentioned were the far bigger ones, but maybe not. Maybe they had some foresight, and if so, good for them. They did. And they also had foresight in creating a schedule where they were going to be able to move pieces around.

And, you know, they've had 18 games now postponed. And the vast majority of them have new dates. that as we record this, I don't think the Devils and Sabres games quite do yet. But they were fully prepared for this chess board of a season to happen. I don't know if they were prepared for it to happen this early in having to postpone so many games. But they definitely built it into the schedule to be able to withstand it. So I've seen some people kind of being doomed saying about, you know, should they cancel the season? Is this ever going to work?

Or they had to go back in the bubble? Blah, blah, blah. the majority of teams haven't been affected by it yet. Like, it's, I see the list every day. And while there have been some teams really affected by it, like Dallas and the Devils and Carolina, I mean, nobody, they haven't postponed a single game in the Canadian division yet, which is incredible. Well, I think yet is the operating issue there, right? Like, the real problem for me when I just look at the schedule is we're already in a situation where, like, for example, Chicago. has played like four or five more games than half the teams in their division,

maybe more than that, right? I just don't understand how we're going to get to the end of the season. And they're like, what I'm saying is, I guess, is that even if everything goes exactly as planned for the entire rest of the season, we're still going to get to a situation where a third of the teams in the league are like, well, it looks like we have to play 40 games in 52 days. Right. And we don't know. It's what impact is that going to have on the teams, you know, even going into the playoffs?

Like, it's assuming we even get there. What happens when you go into the playoffs and Team A is playing Team B and Team A had four games to make up in a week and they're exhausted and Team B hasn't played in a week and so they're well rested. but rusty. That's the Vegas versus Vancouver argument, isn't it? Am I right about this? That one team had to play like an extra grueling schedule in the playoffs last year

because of just like, you know, game six and seven was a back-to-back or something. And then they got one day off and, you know, just got beat. I think it was Vancouver and Vegas. Now I don't remember. But it's, but, you know, like, yeah, I'm looking here. Vegas has played four fewer games than college. Colorado, Minnesota, and Anaheim. Calgary has played four fewer games than Vancouver, three fewer games than Edmonton, blah, blah, blah. And that's just a quirk of the schedule right now. And then, yeah, like, Florida has played six games. Chicago's played 11. Columbus has played 11. It's, I don't know that you're ever going to be able to make this, like, a reasonably fair and balanced season for everybody at this point. it's it's it's it's a tough call um and and and like when do you because the thing was is that you had to pull the court at some point last season by virtue of the fact that there was a COVID outbreak and everything ended on March 12th right so when when do like if you've got teams that play different amounts of games like when do you pull the court and say the season's over we're going by points percentage I don't know it's a good question though yeah and who like how who does that screw over like the going to

points percentage versus, you know, banked points and all that kind of stuff. I don't know. Florida's like, do it now. Yeah, whoever has Ottawa four times the last month of the season is like, what the fuck? Exactly. The other, the other COVID news since our last show is the absolute fucking mess that is the National Women's Hockey League bubble right now. the what you call it?

The Metropolitan Riveters left the bubble I reported that last week they're out the Connecticut Whale leave the bubble because they were worried because the riveters were like

in the same hotel as they were and so you're left with four teams the games are on NBC this weekend they're trying to you know drive the bus to the finished line despite the wheels coming off. I think the one thing that I've gleaned from the reporters covering this bubble is that it should be an air quotes.

Like, Marissa and Jemmy from SportsNet and NBC has been doing a great work. Everybody at the Ace Guard, including Casey Bryant's been doing great work. It seems like this was a bubble in name only because there weren't the types of strict restrictions on player movement and interaction that we've seen elsewhere. and, I mean, you see the end result, which is, and by the way, this isn't the only league in which teams have had to pull out of, like, tournaments because of COVID. It's happened in other, other, like, lower leagues around sports in the U.S., but, man, to have a six-team league and this NBC thing and have two teams duck out before the end of the tournament is a tough look. And again, it's not over yet, so things could go sideway. Yeah, as we do this podcast.

Weekend. And then what? Yeah. As you do this podcast, it's still on. But it sucks because I think this is a real moment for this league. I mean, the publicity they got from the barstool dust up aside. I mean, if you want to believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, that's fine. But like, a large number of people were checking out this league on Twitch, maybe for the first time.

And the numbers, the streaming numbers were really good. The interest in this tournament was very high. the imbalance between this league and the U.S. and Canadian national team barnstorming tour had been pretty tilted towards the national team side for a long time. And I feel like the NWHL made some real inroads here. But like you said, like limping to the finish and hoping to complete the season, which is a tough, tough gig. Does this register at all in Canada with the six being in the tournament, Sean?

Oh, yeah. Yep. This is high-level. competitive hockey and there's always an audience of some size for that up here and and yeah the novelty of having a new team in a big market um fingers crossed that's that's really all you can say at this point and and that's in a lot of different directions right fingers crossed that they can get through this and and have a good final have a good playoff uh make some new fans but also that they can do it safely and we're not sitting there two weeks from now going, man, that was a bad idea.

They should have scrapped the whole thing. And it's hard. I don't know what the right answer is, but like I say, fingers crossed for them because this, there is, putting aside women's men's new sports leagues are really, really tough. Yeah. That doesn't really matter what the sport is. It doesn't matter what markets you can get in. Like we've seen it over and over again over the years, it's really tough to get that foothold and get going over those first few years under normal circumstances. And obviously, these are not normal circumstances. Moving on, the Penguins need a general manager. They reportedly were going to ask the doubles for Tom Fitzgerald. And I can't imagine that went well. Although, the only thing I could think of

is since, like, Fitzgerald's on a one-year deal, if he was just like, I'm piecing out anyway this summer, maybe they let him talk to the Penguins. Again, like, it's been widely reported that it's a two-year deal, but only this one guarantees him the ability to be GM, which it seems ridiculous to me, where it's like, you can be the GM this year and we'll pay you next year. But it's kind of up in the air and all that works out. What? It's very strange. He's done a really good job for them. I think he's done a real good job for them.

And I would not like to see him leave as a Devils fan. And also interesting, I think, that this request to talk. to somebody got like immediately and very specifically leaked out. Yeah. So somebody wants this out there, whether it's the penguins or Fitzgerald. I mean, I imagine it's not the devils. So it's, it is always interesting to me when stuff becomes that, that is normally not public because teams can ask other teams for permission. And, you know, it doesn't have to be public statement to that effect.

Hello, Frank Sarajevolli. Yes. My name is Gerald Fitz Tom, and I have a scoop for you. Yep. Could be. So just, you know, why do they want that out there? And what are they hoping is going to happen when the public is looped in on this? The only thing I give credence to is that he's got such a good relationship with Mario and with Sid.

And, you know, clearly was on track to become the GM at some point. Unfortunately, like, Jim Rutherford kept winning Stanley Cups. Right. Yeah. I still think that's the greatest thing about this. I was going back. and looking at our coverage of that on Puck Daddy when he got hired. And it was like a lot of admitted ageism of being like, what the fuck are they thinking?

And especially when the guy comes in, he's like, I'm going to be here for three years and then duck out. And then like in year three, he's hoisting his second come. Yeah. Well, the other thing about the ageism thing, right, is like, based on everything we'd seen in Carolina, what evidence did we have that the game hadn't passed him by? You know what I mean? Right. And like, I don't know that that's ageism because I think there are guys who are much younger than him. who the game has passed by. And that includes coaches.

That includes media people. Like it, yeah, it happens. And so, like, I, you know, there was palpable doubt that he was going to be able to pull this off because in Carolina, it was like, Jim, we have to do something.

A team is struggling. And his response was, well, we haven't had Joe Corvo on the roster recently. Yeah, that's exactly right. I'll reacquire him. Yeah. Like, there's a lot. a lot of reasons to doubt it. He ended up being fucking genius.

Like, he did a great job in Pittsburgh. But it's going to be a tough job for whoever comes in. Yeah, we, we, let's get that. Anyway, just going back to Fitzgerald, it is, it is very possible that this, the simple answer here is just that this is Fitzgerald putting this out there to squeeze the devils a bit to get that contract extended and sorted out. Oh, yeah. Because, because it's, Pittsburgh's going to be a tough job.

And, you know, Jersey isn't an easy job, but there's some pieces there all right. ready. And it's, you have to start demolishing the roster in Pittsburgh when you take that job. There's nothing, there's nothing to demolish it. There's nothing to demolish it. Unless you've been tasked, unless you've been tasked with building around that roster. I don't know. But here's the thing, Sean.

I think I mentioned this last week when, when Drance was on. I had a GM tell me that, like, it's a very desirable job for a couple of reasons. One, because there's only 32 of them. So, like, you know, if you get a chance to be a GM, you're going to be a GM. Two, the ownership situation is stable there in the sense that it seems like Berkel and Mario aren't at each other's throats anymore. And three, is it like a desirable franchise to be a GM? And I mean, like, the fact of the matter is that the Penguins remain a glamour franchise for this league. It's not like you're going to, you know, Arizona.

So, like, it's still a job people want. But I completely agree with you, man. Like 31st prospect pipeline in the league via ASPN, no first-round pick. your core is on the downside of the apex of their careers. It's not a job I'd take. It's fucking hard. And the other thing is, I mean, Pittsburgh has been a marquee franchise in this league when they have an elite franchise player. When they have Mario or Sydney in his prime, they have been a marquee franchise.

When they have not had that, they have not existed almost. And, you know, and gone bankrupt and been, you know, the, so I, you know, I, you know, It's going to be around for another few years at least, but it's the idea that 10 years from now, even if they're bad, the penguins are still going to be this top-time market. Yeah, but come on. They're going to suck. The NHL's going to gift them another first overall pick. Right, yes, I forgot about that. And Keandre Miller's puck and Pat Brissan's text messages.

And they'll be on their way. No, I agree with you. I think it's a real tough gig of like whoever wants this job, God bless you, because I don't know how you work it out because they clearly think they're window to win is still open. And Sid and Gino aren't going anywhere. I think they both want them to retire as penguins. So it's tough. I don't know how you fix this when you don't have any assets through which to fix it.

Yep. Can I just say one thing on one of the candidates? And this is only because I get people tweet me and email me all the time whenever this guy's name came up. But John Ferguson Jr. is apparently in the running. And as a Leafs fan, like people are always pinging me like, you must be laughing. you must think this is a... I just want to say, John Ferguson Jr. was a failure in Toronto,

but that was with a really crappy ownership situation, and it was 12 years ago. And he's been doing high-level work with really successful organizations ever since. It's perfectly appropriate for him to be in the running to get another shot 12 years later. Like I, obviously, if I'm going to interview him, I'm going to want to sit down and go,

what happened in Toronto? What did you learn from that? What was, you know, but it's like, you know, people keep expecting me to just, like, fall over laughing that his name comes up. This guy's a smart guy, and I'm sure he's picked up a lot of knowledge and experience in the last dozen years. Yeah, he should absolutely be in the running for jobs like this. Yeah, especially considering who else gets considered for all these jobs. Like, it's not, like, it's not implausible that, you know, anybody who's had difficult,

But, like, you know, is Jason Botterill is going to be a GM again someday, probably, right? And people are going to be like, oh, he did such a bad job in Buffalo. It's like, but look what was going on with Buffalo's ownership that whole time. You know, like, I don't think, I don't think it's outrageous that a guy who, you know, struggled as a first time GM gets another kick of the can somewhere else. Sure. And you can go, well, that's risky, but also, you know, how many guys, how many guys, how many. living people have been NHL GMs or even are particularly like, you know, considered to be good at it. Well, not even that, but like considered to be like he's the next hot option for a future GM, you know.

Well, let's see. Paul, Paul Fenton. Right. And can Paul Fenton come back and, you know, not be a bad GM somewhere else? Yeah, of course he can. Will he? Yeah. Well, that's a different situation. And I would, like, I'm not lining up to hire these guys months after they've been fired somewhere. I want to see them go somewhere else. But Ferguson's done that. The other one that's interesting is Botterall. There seems to be a lot of people who just assume that if he wanted the job, that he'd be open. Like, if I'm Seattle, they've got to be deep into the process at this point. I'm not letting anyone out of the front office. I wouldn't go anywhere if I was Botterill. I think that's a good spot for. There's that too.

There's that too. But I wouldn't let him. Like, I'm normally all for like let your guys go and get get promotions somewhere else, but I'm not letting somebody who's seen all of our lists and our strategy go out there and work for some other team. I'm not letting them out of the building. But, and hold on the Seattle thing, on the Seattle thing, I mean, like, it goes back to that concept of like, where would you want to be? I couldn't imagine a situation where I would rather be desperately trying to figure out who I can get for a third round pick to play with Sid versus doing an expansion draft. Like, one seems so much more fucking fun than the other at this juncture in life, doesn't it?

Except that one, you're a GM and the other you're not. Sure, that's true. There's 32 of these jobs, and you don't necessarily get to wait for the perfect opportunity. You're also an assistant GM in Seattle, though, versus a GM in Pittsburgh. Just saying. Yeah, no. That's what I'm saying, right? Like you take the, we said earlier.

The job where you can get it. And it's the thing we said earlier where it's like, do you want to be the guy who's like, you know, the last guy holding the bag when the fucking, when the party gets shut down, you know, like that's. Is that a GameStop reference? You know what? It is now. Feels like it might be. You don't want to, you don't want to be stuck with that. Like you don't want to be the GM who oversaw the end of the Crosby-Malkin era. And whoever takes this job is 100% going to be that.

Without question. Sean, on the John Ferguson Jr. thing, I think the penguins kind of see it as a Mike Sullivan thing, where, like, Sullivan had a rough go. And then he, you know, rehabilitated his deal as an assistant and stuff. And then, you know, came back and was a good coach. And you're right. That's what the interview is for, right? Yeah, for sure.

You sit down and go, what happened in Toronto? And he goes, I don't know what you're talking about. Ray Croft was a great deal. Toskola. I'd make that deal again. Then you go, okay, thank you very much. Right. But that's how I feel about Botterill.

Like, if I sit down with Jason Botterill to hire him to be my GM, and he can't come up with a good excuse for why you went for Tage Thompson instead of Robert Thomas or Jordan Kairu in the Ryan O'Reilly trade, then I'm not hiring you. You have to explain to me how that happened. Did you guys see? That's it. We got to the bottom of it.

Did you guys see the thing with his draft here, or maybe the year after he was drafted, uh, as a, as a freshman at Yukon, didn't score a single five on five goal all year. And, holy shit.

And was considered a top prospect. I love it. That's what I got to get them. Sorry. Go ahead. Where are you saying, Sean? Just, real quick,

did you see the, the thing with Mike Fuda on the NHL network where I did. He was talking about something. I didn't remember what he was saying, but then they're like, wait, are you, like,

are you suggesting that you could be a GM? And he like grabs like a stuffed penguin and he's like, I insulted that you would think that I was lobbying for a. That was funny. That was legitimately. I have to say that in the moment, I saw that live, and I found it to be cringy live, but in retrospect, it was cute. I will say he played it a little too straight.

Yeah. And especially because in this league where it's like, you would dare question the, you know, my integrity as a broadcast. He was holding a stuffed penguin when he did it. Like I understand. I think especially before he started holding the penguin, he was just playing it like 5% too straight. And I was like, oh, he really is just like taking credit for drafting fucking Tanner Pearson or whatever. Okay.

It was a really good gag. But he needed sort of that Mike Myers, Austin Powers energy where first is the stuff penguin, then he's slowly unfurling a Sidney Crosby poster behind him. Like he needed to kind of build on the joke a little bit. But I thought it was clever. I like it at the end of the day. Once I figured out what the joke was, I was like, okay, that was good. Three guys I'm interested in for this penguin's job that I want to talk about. One is the Kevin Weeks thing, which I...

He's the new one, huh? He's the job eventually. He's the new guy where it's like, oh, he's a broadcaster who we like, so he's going to get considered for every job forever. I just assumed, I always assumed that he would work, like, he would be sort of your team president type. before he ever sat in the GM chair just because he doesn't have, he doesn't even have an experience. I say this for everyone in any sport.

Like, I want front office experience. Yeah. Off the top of my head, I'm sure there are some, but the number of people going from broadcast, you see it in the NFL a lot, ESPN guys get hired away. Like, the success rate is not high.

I don't doubt for a second, Kevin Weeks could do the job with some experience under his belt, I really think that like, and I've said this before, obviously, but like anybody who can like go on natural stat trick and actually see what's being said by these numbers, like I think anybody could do that part of the GM job. But it's the working the phones. It's the like being buddy, buddy with all these people. It's managing down. And Weeks is real good at that.

Yeah, yeah. But like I don't know that you can just go in like Sean said on day one and go, I'm the GM. and I have this fucking evolving wild Patreon account. So, like, I'm good. We can just go from there. Like, it's... There really is more to it than that.

I don't know that it's a lot more necessarily. And I don't know that, like, it's really what differentiates, like, a great GM from an okay one is just, like, his personality or whatever. But I do think that you really do have to, like, take the what it takes on a day-to-day basis into consideration. And maybe Kevin Weeks knows because he's been in the league forever, or he was in the league

forever. Yeah. But, you know. He's tremendously impressive. And I've talked to people that have interviewed him and they're like, you know, I think the experience thing at the end of the day was like the, the, the factor that maybe pushed them away from weeks at the end of the day. But like, I just see him as that Shanahan type to kind of be the, the, the, you know, the

connective tissue of all the things in your. hockey operations department and that type of individual versus someone who's like doing the day-to-day working the phones with the GM job. But I think he's going to get a job eventually and he should. He's real impressive. Joe Newendike was sort of a stealthy candidate for this job. And it's kind of intriguing that he hasn't gotten like a full front office gig in because he was with Dallas. Then he was in the Toronto front office for a while, right?

I think he's kicked around a little bit. But that's a guy who I'm intrigued by. And then obviously Hextall for the fucking giggles of it, you know, the idea of Ronnie Hextall taking over the fucking penguins. But deserves another shot. I mean, Hextall demonstrably has put together a really good Flyers team and didn't get a chance to see it through. Yeah, well, because he made a terrible coaching player. Right. Like, that was his name.

Sounded like his name. Why would you hire him? Well, he's perfect. He coached my son so good at North Dakota. How could he be bad? Great. Oh, that was a terrible hire. You're right.

All right. That's, oh, one other thing, hockey-wise, how good a McDavid and Drysettle? We have our first NHL Awards watch on ESPN today as we're doing this show. I think Connor, I did a straw poll of some voters. Connor obviously was the top pick for the heart. Drysiddle was second. the third spot's kind of a mystery, especially because McKinnon got hurt. I kind of think that you could cast Brad Marchand in that role right now,

based on how good he's been early in the season. But I think it's wide open. But I think it's a two-horse race now for McKinnon and for McDavid, rather, and dry saddle just because of how fucking good they've both been. Yeah, sure. But, like, are you confident that the Edmonton Oilers are going to make the playoffs? Because that's, like, the thing that you have to do, right? and, you know, I, this is what I wrote about for my first thing on Elite Prospects,

and I just pulled up the numbers again. So when those two, either of those two guys or both of them are on the ice, the Oilers have, it says here, 38 goals in all situations. When they're off the ice and it's been 280 minutes, the Oilers have scored four goals. And when they're on the ice, they've given up 14. which is maybe a little high, but it's not outrageous, like it was last year. And when they're off the ice, the Oilers have given up 25.

So, like, the only reason the Oilers will have any success at all this year, it looks like, is because of McDavid and Dry Cigle. And I do wonder if that splits votes. I wonder if the rest of the team is even fucking good enough to get them to the point where they would get legitimate consideration because I think the team really sucks. So what you're saying is that when Connor and Drysaddle aren't on the ice, everyone should be asking, hey, where's Connor and Drysaddle? Literally, I mean, look, again, it's 280 minutes.

They're getting outscored 25 to 4. It's minus 19 and they're whatever, plus 21, 22, something like that. So they're going to be operating on thin margins all year, even when. with the acknowledgement that, like, you know, they can't get a fucking save right now. You know, I find it interesting that in this age of hot takes, I don't think I've ever read one that tried to make the argument that drysidele was better than McDavid. Is that just like a hot take too far? Because I'm surprised I've read one yet.

I don't know on hockey reference and look up where both of those guys are from and I'll get back to you. Oh, this is brilliant. Yeah, come to think of it. I've not seen one that says that Tim Stutzley's better than Alexei LaFranier either. Hey, that was my trade, man. What are you talking about? Oh, that's true, yeah. That's true.

You know what? We're 10 days in the season. I have no views on who should be MVP, who should be whatever. I'll kick that can down the road. It's a fifth. I'm just going to say. It's a fifth of the season. It's true.

Yeah. It is. It is. But it's, you know, we got a ways to go. I'm just going to say, it is. fun as hell to watch these two guys play hockey. And I'm just really, even like on Saturday night when the Oilers beat the Leafs, like watching McDavid especially is just so much fun.

And like I feel like, I mean, I'm very aware that three quarters of the time I complain and, you know, oh, the league's doing this wrong and this sucks and that's bad. It is just a joy to watch these two guys. It's appointment team. When they're on the ice together, when they're, it's. It's fantastic. And I mean, it's, this is why you're a hockey fan. I mean, obviously, you want your team to win.

But this is why you're a fan of this sport and you don't go off and do something else. It's because occasionally guys like this come around. And it's just, it's so great to watch them. And, you know, I'd love to see it translate to success for Edmonton at some point. But even if it doesn't, it's, these guys are just magic and it's really great. Yeah, the thing I think to say about why you don't. don't see the McDonald, McDavid versus

dry, like, isn't his grisidal is, is one, I think, I think the Canada thing definitely plays a part of it. But the other thing to say is that

drycidal isn't like as dazzling of a player. Like drycidal isn't the guy who's going to go coast to coast through four Maple Leafs. McDavid is, you know? Right.

Drysiddle's a more straight ahead kind of like, oh, he's just like really kind of good at everything, except defense, as opposed to McDavid, who's like, oh, no, he's going to have, like, the Dimitri posted like a first 10 games of the season highlight reel of McDavid. And it's like any player in the league would kill for their 82 game highlight reel to be half as good as this. Yep. Yeah.

Like Drisidl is the Matt Sundin type of, like, very good player, but. It's not flashy. McDavid is like, yeah, McDavid is like, what if Pavel Burray but center and faster and, you know, it's,

it's just, it might, I can't even get my brain around some of the stuff that he does. And it's, that goal he's scored, not the overtime one, but the other goal against the Leafs.

Yeah, the power play goal. I'm just, like, I'm still laughing at it. It's like, I can't even, and I'm,

again, I'm a homer, man, like I usually, I'm supposed to give, if somebody does something great against my team. I get mad at them for doing it, and I get mad at my team for,

giving it up. But when it's McDavid, you're just like, yeah, it'll have. You know, you got to tip your hat to him. All right. Two more, two more things. I'm going to read, Sean, the names of the best motion picture nominees for the Golden Globes for drama. You tell me if you've ever heard of any of these movies. Here's the thing. I don't know what the nominees are. I did not look at them this morning. Okay, can I tell you what they are then? Is this some fucking trailer shit where I can't tell you? This is the Golden Globes. This is the, this is the, one where they divide it weirdly into like comedy drama and then there's another section yes comedy musical and dramas that didn't think they could compete with the dramas in the drama category right like the martian the funniest movie of the year oh i mean the martian was funny though like it i mean it was a funny anyways so anyways all right drama tell me if you've ever heard of these movies the father no uh that is anthony that is a and uh what's her name olivia coleman haven't seen it yet but it's supposed

Okay. He has like Alzheimer's, I think. Mank. I have heard of it. I have not watched it yet. It's on my list. And yeah, I'm... It's fine. If I'm... Yeah, it's... I think it's pretty good. And it actually worked a lot better as a social commentary than I thought, like, it ended up being.

But definitely watch Citizen Kane before you see it. All these people are like, you don't have to watch Citizen Kane to see a movie about Citizen Kane. You do. You definitely do. And the other thing to say... is that it is based on a theory that has been thoroughly disproven. Debunked. Like, thoroughly, this could not be the way the movie presents it.

Yeah. It's, it's, not to spoil it, but like, they claim that Mank stole Orson Welles' puck. Yes, that's right. Or at least wouldn't give it to him. Right, at least wouldn't give it to him. That's right. Didn't keep it. Well, the movie Clay, Jack Fincher.

screenplay claimed he kept it until CAA lawyers went after him. And then he said that it just hit it from him. Nomad land, Sean. No. It's the new Chloe Jean movie. It is starring Francis McDormand and it was available to watch online in like basically a virtual screening. So if that sold and I think it was only for like two or three days. And when that sold out as it did immediately, because Chloe Jean is incredible. you had no opportunity to see it, and now it probably won't come out until May, but everybody says it's really fucking good. The writer, which is her previous film, was amazing. Amazing, yeah. And this is a movie about, like, the, it's very about, like, American poverty and that kind of thing. Hey, so was the writer. Wow.

Yeah. Promising young woman, Sean. That sounds familiar, but I couldn't tell you anything about it. I just saw it. It's great. It's Carrie Mulligan in a very dark comedy revenge movie, which obviously is also a drama. And Emerald Fennell, who was a showrunner in the second season of Killing Eve, wrote and directed it. It's tremendously good. I really enjoyed it. The trial of the Chicago Seven. Sean. Again, that does sound familiar.

Oh, is that the one? Who's the West Wing guy? Was that that one? Oh. Okay. Yeah, Aaron Sorcon, I wrote and directed it. Yes, thank you. And it's, what's his name?

Sasha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in. I think Michael Keehan. I didn't watch it. I don't like Aaron Sorgo. The trial of the Chicago 7 is about Stan Bowman's flight to try to get Brent Seabrook to waive as no move close. Not bad. Not bad. Thank you.

Quickly, comedy and musical. Sean, have you ever heard of Borat's subsequent movie film? You know what? I have. Yeah. Didn't see it. Speaking of Sasha Barron. I didn't like it too much.

It had some moments, but I felt it was very, it was not new. nearly as good as the original, and in some ways, not nearly as good as what is America, his showtime series. Ever hear of Hamilton, Sean? Yes, I have. That's the one about the NHL expansion efforts in the mid-Nin-Nine news. It's a tragedy. I heard the ending is very sad. No, it's actually about a forlorn Calgary defenseman who just wants to go visit museums.

Okay. Boy, that movie, Palm Springs. For the cultural sense. that the fucking musical was. Nobody gave a shit about the movie. We all watched it over like Christmas, I think it was, and then it just has been on Disney Plus. Palm Springs, Sean.

I know it's, if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's like an Andy Samberg thing, have not watched it. Pretty good. Know nothing about it. Yeah, it's really good. I enjoyed it a lot. It's sort of a Groundhog Day spin on like attending a wedding.

It's very good. Music. That's like just the name of... Even I. Even I don't know. No, it's fucking stage direction for the podcast. I'm giving it for Katie. I can say I know nothing about music and that statement is true in twice as many ways as it normally would be.

I got to tell you, I don't know anything about music. This apparently was a movie that I think Kate Hudson was in. and I have never heard this movie before in my in any So I've no idea what it is Yeah Finally the prom No I'm drawing a blank as well

This is a musical based on a Broadway play that has James Corden as musicals do Merrill Streep as musicals do And it's about I think it's about someone coming out at their prom And a bunch of Hollywood people coming to the small like Indiana Town to help with that process. And it was on Netflix, and it's a Ryan Murphy thing. And it wasn't good, according to a lot of people.

But again, Hollywood Foreign Press did like it. That's not even like the Earl Street movie that I would have thought the Hollywood foreign press would eat up for a comedy. The freaking... Oh, the HBO one? Yeah. That was really good. I liked it a lot. Yeah.

All right. So let's close out the show with Little Game Show action. it was my turn in the rotation, or at least I assigned myself it to be my turn in the rotation, which means it's once again time for a puck soup favorite. It's time for puck soup threesomes. This is the classic bar trivia game in which I name three things, and either Ryan or Sean have to tell me

what the connection between these three things are. In some cases, it may be more than one connection, but we're looking for the most obvious and specific one. Who goes first? Who won the last game? Do we remember? No recollects. I feel like it wasn't me.

Because we did like the game of games, right? Yeah. I think Sean won that. I did win that. Sean, but Sean's country last won men's Olympic gold in hockey. Oh, okay. According to my research. Well, you're going to want to run the numbers and let Russia know that that happened.

Yeah. Oh, shit, right. I forgot about that Olympics happened. Okay. Let me rephrase that. One gold the last time that the NHL players were in the Olympics. There we go. Much better.

That works. Thank you. Ryan Donato was a fair job. By the way, that was... Hey, by the way, Greg, now that you've forgotten the Olympics exists when Canada doesn't win gold, your citizenship application is on the way. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate your health care. Do you want to kick or receive, Sean?

I will... I'll let Ryan answer first. Oh, strategy. Here we go. Ryan, tell me what these three players have in common. Michael Haley, Matthew Pecka, Austin Watson. Michael Haley, Matthew Pecka, Austin Watson.

I have no idea. They're like third line centers. I have no idea. Ryan, these are actual current members of the 2020-21 Ottawa senators. You know what? I would not have got that one and I'm in Ottawa So the only thing I knew about Matthew Packett is they freaking went to Quinnipiac. I kind of knew when I was looking at it, I'm like, Austin Watson, I knew Austin was on the Senate.

Michael Haley, I thought was still on the Panthers, but that was probably just last year. And I missed his sign. By the way, for some reason I missed where Michael Haley fucking signed. And I know we're not making phone of names anymore in life, but fuck right off with the M-I-C-H-E-A-L. Yeah. Michael Berlin spells it the same way. I feel like it must just be like a Western Canada thing. Hate it.

Yep. All right, Sean. I just want to say, I think it'd be funny if the answer to every question in this game was current Ottawa Senator. And, like, me and Ryan just both went over. Right. It's whoever ends up answering last and gets like Matt Murray, Thomas Shabbat and Brady Okay, so by the way, first one to four wins, and I'm hoping that that's the case. First one to four or the first one until I run out of questions.

Okay. Sean, players traded. Whoops, that was the answer. Let me get rid of this category. I think I know this one. All right, here we go. Sean. Salceda Verde.

Saracha Blazin, Buffalo, and Ranch. Yeah, I definitely should have got the players traded one. Are those novelty chip flavors down in the U.S.?

We needed you to be a bit more specific. It is Doritos flavors. Okay. Close. Ryan. We only have regular Doritos and Poutine-flavored Doritos up here. And ketchup, of course.

So that's... Poodle hat, off the deep end, even worse. Poodle hat off the deep end and even worse. Um, I have no idea. What are the nicknames for each period

in an Ottawa senator's game? The answer, of course, is Weird Al-Yankovic albums. There was no way. was going to ever get that. I don't like Weird Al famously. Sean? Yes. Dave King, Gerard Gallant, Claude Noelle. Okay. I mean, these are all coaches, but I'm assuming it's going to be more than that.

Did they all coach the Canadian Junior team? Ah, close. Canadian World Championship? But not really. Maybe. These were all Columbus Blue Jackets coaches. Dave King, Gerard Gallant, Claude Noel. All right, Ryan. This might be the first one to one the way we were going at. It might be. Ryan Murray, James Van Reimsdyke,

Yvgeny Malkin. Number two overall picks. Come on. There he goes, folks. Yeah. All right, Sean. But nobody remembers number two, so. Alex Al.

I thought Jacob Markstrom, Oleg Kavasha. Ooh. I thought it was going to be guys from epic Ryan game show name Pat Palloon. Oh, that'd be a great category. All right. Alex Alde, Jacob Markstrom, Oleg Kavasha. I don't know on Alex Old, but the other two guys were once in Roberto Luongo trades.

That's correct. Okay. Alex Ald was in the one that sent him to Vancouver. That sounds right. Okay. All right, one to one. Now we're cooking. Now we got something cooking here.

All right, here we go. Ready? Ryan. Okay. Luke Robatai, Pat Brasson, Powers Booth. Oh, these are...

Luke Robatai, Pat Brasson. These are all guys in Slapshot 2. Oh my God, you're so close. Wow. These are all guys that were in sudden death. Oh, okay. Luke Robatai, Pat Brissan, and of course Powers Booth played the Alan Rickman role in Sudden Death. Got it.

RAP Powers Booth. All right. watching Deadwood. Here we go. We got a couple more left here. This is very tense. Sean. This is great.

I love how pleased Greg is with his own categories. This one rocks, guys. Here we go. Yeah. All right. All right. Here you go. Swoop. Snarl.

Grimlock. I. Swoop, snarl. mascot names? I feel like it might be antagonists from the Mighty Ducks animated series. Both incorrect. These are Dino bots.

Transformers Dynobots. I'm not going to get that. I don't know what's No. Are Dino bots actually dinosaurs? They're not. No. They're robots that disguise themselves as dinosaurs because that's inconspicuous. Nobody's...

Oh, well... You want to blame... Yeah, I've been playing the new Assassin's game and I just love the idea like because there's a bunch of places where you got to like blend into the crowd but also like you're just climbing up the side of a fucking building and everybody's like pretty normal to me time to go about my business. Dope dope do. All right here you go. This is this is intense. One of you could potentially win the game here.

If not it may end a tie. All right. Here we go, Ryan. Ready? Martambrador. Roberto Luongo. Curtis Joseph. goalies who were

backups for Canadian Olympic teams that won gold I mean entirely possible but for the specific thing we're looking for is the top three goalies all time and losses okay Marty 397 Lowango 392

Kujo 352 one more than Gilles Malash All right you could win it here Sean Sidney Crosby's bed a boat under Niagara Falls the Howard Stern Show places the Stanley Cup has been that is correct

Sean takes the game in the final round two to one places the Stanley Cup has been I appreciate you not saying either Merrill Lemieux's pool or the bottom of the Ottawa Canal which would have probably those are way

too commonplace for me and also I discovered I was reading of a Toronto Maple Leaf in the last century I was also I was reading my friend Sarah Spain she wrote a piece on where the Stanley Cup

had been like eight years ago I never heard Steve Eisenman I guess famously showered with the Stanley Cup like he just took it in the shower with him and just like no showered with him hadn't heard that that's

remember oh who was it Chris Raper's that sounds like the type of story were, go ahead. I think it was Chris Draper's baby, took a crap in the Stanley Cup. Pooped in it. Yeah. Yeah. Poop in the cup.

It was one of the guys on that Red Wings team, the last one to win the cup. So, pooped in the, I think of that, every time somebody eats cereal out of that bowl. That's the thing. That Eisenhower story sounds like the sort of thing where you're all sitting around and it's like, I had it in my bed once. I ate cereal. I let my kid sit in it. And then someone's like, I took a shower. with it and everyone's like, oh, that's weird, dude.

You shouldn't have mentioned that. Let's pretend you didn't say that. I took it on a boat. I had a parade into my hometown. I tried to fuck the cup. It's good times. All right, that's fuck suit for this week. A boisterous and an interesting show, as always.

A thanks to Gumball for sponsoring the show. Our thanks to all of you for listening to the show. and yeah, it's been great. You could read my stuff on ESPN. I had a bunch of shit this week. Marco Rossi's story. Zaneo Charo's thick story. Jack Hughes, getting all mussely and getting a different mindset.

NHL Awards. My column this week is on The Leafs. For Sean. And, yeah, that's it. Ryan, tell them about your new gig. Is there paywall there, by the way? one and I, ooh. Hey. Now, do you remember? One of us. One of us.

Do I remember what the code to get 25% off is off the top of my head? No, but here it is. I just found it. If you sign up, oh, cool. Okay, this expires later today, February 3rd. But if you sign up with EP Rinkside, 21, all one word for, uh, for the year, you get three months for free, basically, uh, or 25% off. However you will choose to look at it, that's how it is. It's E.P.Rinkside.21. E.P.Ringside.com. I am writing stuff there with Dimitri and Jack Frazier and a host of other very talented writers whose names are all escaping me.

Rachel Dory. Mitch Brown, Cam Robinson, probably more that I'm just not remembering J.D. Burke is the editor-in-chief. He does a really good job, too. So, yeah, we got a good crew over there. Check her out. So when is that discount good through? I would say another 12 hours.

We got to get this out fast. Okay. So as a dedicated reader of the athletic, do you know what the discount on February 4th is? I do not. I don't. We're trying to create urgency, Greg. And what could be more urgent? Oh, I see.

Okay. Demanding that people, by the time they hear this, fill out that, that order sheet before. Yes. The hour is up, basically. As a 24-esque ticking clock, you are the key for Sutherland of elite prospects. Sean, what about you? What do you have coming up, big guy? I was going to ask Ryan, like, does this paywall work in other countries other than the United States? You know, I don't know. I don't know any of that stuff.

Also, I'd be a good thing to look into. I swear, they, they, last week, when my column came out about the penguins. I got a note from my editor, and he said, hey, good news. They've unbracketed or opened up the fucking thing so people outside of the U.S. can read it. And then I'm like, hey, everybody, everybody outside the U.S.

can read this, check it out. And then no one outside the U.S. could read it. And I felt like that scene in Empire, when Lando is like trying to get the hyperdrive going on the Falcon, and he's like, they told me they fixed it. And then like, he can't get it to go. I felt like that. ESPN was like, I've altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further. Oh, it sounds like you're in my contract renegotiations. That's great.

My stuff is on The Athletic. Please check out my writing there and also check out the new podcast, the athletic hockey show. I'm on Thursdays with Ian Mendez. I know a lot of people have checked it out. I've had good feedback. If you have enjoyed the show, please go post a positive review wherever. you would normally do that. And while you're there, do this show as well, because every little bit helps for shows like ours. Exactly. All right. Thanks, everybody. Head over to the Patreon to hear the new mailbag and, of course, read all of the stuff there. And keep your eye out for that Taco Bell article any day now. All right. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks to everybody. Bye. Bye-bye. If you commute, we also cover movies, TV shows, eats and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. Park Sue.