Puck Soup - Total Garbage All-Star Jerseys

Episode Date: January 11, 2019

Greg, Ryan and Sean look at the new NHL All-Star jerseys, which are made from actual ocean garbage. Plus, the boys get into some intense debates about the Hart Trophy and the NY Islanders, as well as some insightful discussions about Sergei Bobrovsky's suspension, what Ottawa should do with Matt Duchene, teams fading in the playoff races, "The Masked Singer," Canadian reality shows, J-Lo's a chemist in her new movie and why so many damn sportswriters are obsessed with "The Bachelor." Sponsored by Seat Geek!

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 in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. Puckoo. I'm Greg Wysinski of ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert from Yahoo. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic.

And you're in Puckson. Soup. Lambert, congratulations on the microphone settings. A lot of people were very excited. A lot of people were saying that you did the show over your phone last week, which I found insulting because I don't know if people know this, but there actually is a professional hockey writers association rule that says

only podcasts involving both Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBron can be done over their phones. So I was personally insulted by this. Yeah, no, I was doing it over a $90 microphone. You had the gain set too high. Well, I didn't. It came out of the box set incredibly high. Okay. And also it was on unidirectional, which is only making the gain problem worse.

So I have now set it to a more ambient setting and also turned down the gain. and it sounded good on the podcast yesterday, from what I understand. So here we are. Yeah, the bonus episode we did was the top 10 American players of all time. That's right. Sean, who do you think was number one? I can't believe you guys didn't. On our list for the...

Didn't invite me to weigh in America. No. No. You were not allowed. So, I mean, it's, I think Austin Matthews has to be what, like one, three, five, six, seven, and ten? We both had them ten. Okay. We had him 10.

Yeah, really? Right on. Yeah. Okay, number one of all time. Ah, boy. I would personally, I might say Brian Leach. Where'd you guys have him? Motherfucker.

Okay, let's not spoil it. Let's get people to give us money to find out what we had, number one. But I'll let's make it, let's make it vague. All right. I will tell you that there was massive, there was massive support for Brian Leach. Many people are saying Ryan Leach could be number one on one of these lists.

All right. But yeah, you should probably check out the Bones. So Brian Leach is probably number one on one of your lists and not the other one. And we have no clue as to which one it might be other than that one of you called me a motherfucker as soon as I said. I think it was

like I was saying motherfucker in the sense that, wow, that was a great guess. Right on. In the sense of we got to impeach this motherfucker. Yeah, just in a general sense. It's like I'm not, I'm not upset.

I'm mad at the dirt as I kick it. You know, it's one of those types of situations. See, I got you. But it was a fun one to do. By the way, we, uh, we, we polled the puck soup, uh, audience on Patreon to find out if they wanted us to do a worst 10 Canadian players poll. Oh, no. For a future bonus episode.

And there's, to your surprise, Sean, there's strong support. Wow. All right. February all lined up, baby. I'm just, I'm curious to see if, like, the eighth worst Canadian is still going to end up being better than the eighth best American. That might be a good. Motherfucker. That might be a good.

Wow. Who did we have as the best American in our top 100 ebook, which is, I think, available now? The book that me and you and Lozo did? I forget who was the highest, but. Yeah, I'll go see if I can dig that up as you, as you guys talk. Is it, like, one assumes it was probably Brett Hall based on output. I feel like he was maybe in the top 30. Yeah.

That's a good question. I forget La Fontaine, Chelyos, Leach would be up there. Yeah. That's a good question, though. Because we had it sort of, it was sort of subjective, but then we also had some criteria to, like, help us along the way that was based on awards and that kind of thing. So I wouldn't be surprised if it was Bobby Hall. But I'm actually looking at it right now. So I'm going to kind of stall.

Brett. Bradth. Bobby Hall is very Canadian. and not an American, without question. Might be a little German, actually, as well. One thing that came up during the show, though, was the bonus pod was whether or not, and we talked about this briefly, whether or not Tim Thomas might have a Hall of Fame case. I mean, we talked about like five years of absolute dominance, the Cup, the Veznas, the Khan Smyth, the whole thing.

Sean, do you fancy Tim Thomas as a Hall of Famer maybe based on Lindrosh rules, or do you think that he falls short? Yeah, I mean, he's not going to get in because this is one of those things where, I mean, he wasn't. a really popular guy with the sort of people you need to be popular with. But, I mean, in the conversation, it is the funny thing with him is like, you know, he was, if he had come up at the age of 23 and had five or six years like he had and then blown out his knee and never played again, I think there's a good case that he, you know, it's, he's, he's kind of the, the modern Bill Dernan in that case. but the fact that that's not what happened,

the fact that he's in the minor leagues for year after year, which you think in a sense would appeal to the hockey mindset. Right. He kept struggling, kept fighting and he got there. So, I mean, to me, you know, he's kind of like the ultimate extreme in the, like, what is a Hall of Famer? Is it longevity or is it peak? And he's, you've kind of got him at one end and then you got like maybe Chris

Osgood at the other as the guy who, you know, maybe never had that best in world peak, but did it forever and won lots of games and all that other stuff. And did it when it counted. And yeah, yeah. By the way, I knew inviting a Canadian back on the podcast would mean having to suffer through things like he's a modern day Bill Dernan or whatever the fuck you just said. You guys, I'll let you guys Google who Bill Dernan is, but he's... I'm never going to.

It was a fantastic comparison. Bang on. So, yeah, sure answer, yes. Yes, he should be in the conversation. I don't know if he's in my Hall of Fame, but like he's in the conversation, but no, he's, he's never going to get in because the people don't like him. You figure with, you figure with all of the, the adulation that Masters and Trophy guys get for, you know, stick-toitiveness. Like the year that the fucking Winnipeg writers tried to give it to Andre Pavlik because he didn't quit hockey. You figure the fact that Thomas stuck with it for that long and then became the player that he did.

did. Like you said, might actually build this case a little bit versus, you know, being a knockout. Yeah, we love it when a guy makes his NHL debut at the age of 32 and, you know, after he's been in the ECHL and all this other stuff. We love that. But then when the guy goes on and has a great career, we don't seem to give him the same kind of credit we'd give him if it was an injury situation or something else that cut his career short. Yeah. Sometimes those journeymen gold tenders even get massive four-year contracts from the Carolina Hurricanes. It's very exciting. Where'd you end up on the Hall of Fame thing, Lambert? I forget.

I think he has a case, but won't get in, basically, what Sean said. All right. And by the way, just as a, just to interrupt you, I'm looking at our top 100 list. And unless I miss somebody, we did have Brad Hall 36, a few spots ahead of Chris Chalios and Brian Leach. Where was LaFontaine on the list? Because that would be the only other guy that I think would be kind of in the mix. Well, Medano would be the other guy that I think people would mention. Yeah, Medano as well.

He tends to show up a lot. And I am not even sure. I'm kind of scrolling down quickly. I'm not sure that either one of those guys even made our list. I don't think Medina. I feel like Medano was like a late cut. Yeah, I feel like he didn't make the list either. I know we had Austin Matthews 16th, which I think is weird because he hadn't even played at that point.

That may have been, that may have been my vote that was, yeah. You put him first. I put him negative 80th, and that counted out you and Dave not ranking them at all. All right. Speaking of goalies, before we did the show today, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that goalie, Sergey Bobrovsky would not be with the team for their game against the Nashville Predators. According to GM, Yarmu Kekolainen, there are certain expectations and values that we have established for our players that define our culture. An incident occurred in which Sergey failed to meet those expectations and values.

so we made the decision that he would not be with the team for tonight's game. This is an internal matter, and we will have no further comment at this time. Boy, that's an interesting development for Sergey Brobrovsky and his short-term future with the Columbus Blue Jackets, isn't it? Yeah, huh? Jesus Christ. It's great whenever a team has to put out a press release. Oh, we're suspending our best player. He knows what he did.

Yeah. Yeah. I saw Damien Cox, like, blow a gasket. about the idea that the vagueness of the press release only increases the amount of speculation as to what he actually did. And I really fucking hate agreeing with Damien Cox, but he's actually kind of right. Like, this could easily just be. He missed a meeting.

But now since the blue jackets are playing grab-ass with it, it's like he was doing lines off the urinal in the president's office. Right. You know, like no one fucking knows. I mean, as we're recording this, we don't know what the situation is. Maybe by the time people hear it, it will have come out because somebody will have got the story or whatever it is. But it sounds like it could be related to a blowup that he had with John Tortorella, got pulled from the last game, apparently wasn't happy. And if so, like, that's the kind of thing. I understand you want to keep this stuff in house.

But when you see that a guy has been suspended, which is really what this, they're not using that word, but a guy has been sent home for some sort of conduct, your mind can go to a lot of worse places than got fired up during a game and dropped a few F-bombs on a coach who was probably dropping them right back. If that is the situation, then, you know, I don't think this reflects as badly on Sergei Bavrovsky as any number of other possible scenarios could be. So, you know, I understand you, maybe you don't want to put that in the press release, but you think this would be one of those things where maybe you put out the press release and then you feed the story to somebody so that it gets out pretty quickly and people

minds don't wander off to worse places. Right. And if you drop a bunch of F-bombs at John Totorella, couldn't you just use the I'm trying to speak his language defense and everybody's off your back? And by the way, also to further your point, Aaron Portsline, the only bit of information we have is that Totorella wouldn't comment on the Bobrovsky situation

beyond the club press release. And the moment in which John Totorella decides to keep his trap shut about anything, you kind of figure he might be involved in this situation in some way, shape, or form. Maybe he said something about the hoodie. Maybe that's the situation. I mean, it is, I mean, and here's the thing. And I know if you're a Blue Jackets fan, you hate to hear this.

But this is going to be a big story, partly because everyone's kind of waiting around to see what's going to happen with Sergey Barowski. Is he going to sign? Is he going to be back? Is there any scenario in which he could actually be traded during the season? And this just kind of ratchets that up because, you know, if this is, Certainly, if the situation is that he's clashing with his coach, that's one of those things that might make it hard for him to stay,

but doesn't really make it hard for anyone else to, any other team out there to pursue him. So it kind of becomes this story where you're going, like everyone's kind of rubbing their hands together going, oh, geez, are they got to part ways now? Is this relationship broken? Are we going to have a big pre-deadline blockbuster trade or something like that? And, you know, fair or not.

that's the sort of stuff people are interested in, so I think it's going to go in that direction. Yeah, the thing that's been very funny to me this week is that everybody who you would expect to, like, have Yarmal Kekleinen's cell phone number or whatever has spent the last week framing it as, you know, what they might do, Columbus is they might not trade either of them. And that would be like having a rental player that they don't have to give up any, you know, prospects or picks for. And isn't that actually being good at being a GM? And it's like, I mean, like, I agree that Columbus is, this is the best Columbus team in a while, and I agree that, you know, they're one of the three best teams in the Metropolitan. But, you know, are, well, it's just, it's just one of those things of like, are you, how far do you reasonably expect this team to get, even if you have a Brovsky and Panera?

and firing at 105% or whatever. Because here's how I look at that. I actually, I like that argument in general. I think we get too worked up on when a contending team has a free agent and they say, well, you know, you got to trade. Like the Leafs went through this last year with James Van Riemstike. When it was very clear, he almost certainly wasn't coming back. And there were a lot of people, even as the Leafs were pushing for whole mice in the playoffs, saying you got to trade James Van Riemsdike and get something for him.

and the argument is, no, you treat him as a rental, and he's a rental that you get instead of some other team. And if you're a Blue Jackets fan, you could say, Sergei Babrofski and Artemi Panor would be the two number one rentals on the market, and we could wind up with both of them. The question to me is, if you take those two guys off the roster, did the Blue Jackets have a team that would have any business going out and trying to get rentals to make noise in the playoffs?

Or would they be a team that was so far away that you'd say, you know what, that's not worth it. Those guys belong somewhere else. But doesn't that completely depend on how you feel about Bavrovsky in the playoffs? Like, Panarin, obviously, they're a worst team without Panarin. And I actually think that of the two, and I didn't think I'd say this, but I think there's actually a better chance of Panarin staying there

than that there is Bobrovsky at this point. Oh, yeah, I think everybody agrees with that probably. Yeah, but so, like, to me, it's, I think part of the equation is, yeah, you know, Bob doesn't want to be here. numbers have been rollercoastery this year because partly because he doesn't want to be here. He could bring us back something significant because there are a number of teams that definitely have playoff aspirations that could use a fucking goalie at this point. And are we better off playing the other kid in the playoffs than we are playing

Bobrovsky, who, you know, based on the, a reasonable sample size, can't win in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I don't put as much stuff. in the split between playoff stats and regular season stats. I mean, I don't buy the idea that the game is that different, that if a guy... Said the guy who just put over Chris Osgood as a Hall of Famer for his... I did not put over Chris Osgood as a Hall of Famer. I mentioned Chris Osgood, because any Chris Osgood fan out there has probably already sent me hate mail at some point in the last five years over my lack of Chris Osgood support.

So do not group me in as an Osgood, truther. But, yeah, I mean, to me, if you've got a goaltender who's got a career of solid regular season numbers, I don't worry too much if the playoff numbers are a bit below that. I do wonder where you're going to move him at this point because, you know, I know, Greg, you said there's teams out there that need goalies. Are there teams that have legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations that need a goalie? I mean, there's, I can think of maybe a couple. But goal-tending is the one position where usually if a team really needs a goalie, they're out of the playoff race by now and probably desperate for one in the off season, but not going to blow their brains out on picks and prospects.

That's a fair point. I think it's just, I think it's the bubble teams. Like there's a few, there's a few bubble teams that are on the outside looking in that could probably use a keeper. But the one that everybody kind of talks about, where there's two that people talk about, are Carolina and Florida. And do you even consider them in playoff contention right now? Well, I'll tell you right now, if those are the teams that you're looking at as a destination, then you've got to get ready to make that move now and not wait until the deadline, because by the time you get to the deadline, they might be out of there.

And, you know, because you're right, those are the teams that are question marks. The only other one that jumps out to me is potentially Calgary as being a team that could say, you know what, we're one goaltender away from really having a run at this. We've got a clear path out of the Pacific. Let's go all or nothing, even if it's a one-year run. and see where we wind up. That's the one scenario I could see. But if you wind up in a situation

where there's only one team that's a realistic scenario, you're not going to get the mother load trade return that you're looking for because there's going to be no bidding war, in which case you might as well keep him unless he's so unhappy that keeping him now becomes harmful. That's a tough one because when you have a, when you're first in division, a plus 31 goal differential, and then you're like, we need to bring in a goalie,

and it's a goalie that doesn't win in the postseason. Like, you really run the risk of shooting yourself in the fucking foot if you make a Bobrowski trader it doesn't work out. Yeah, but you also run the risk of shooting yourself in the foot because Dave Riddick isn't a fucking 930 goalie and your backup's Mike Smith. So, like... How dare you, sir? There's just no good answer for Calgary. And, like, Calgary has other problems. Like, I've seen people saying they should swing a trade for both Panarin and Bobrovsky.

And it's like, I mean, sure, every team should do that. You're right. Like, but, you know, can Calgary? or we get them to take James Neal and Mike Smith and maybe one or two of the other problem contracts. You want Stone thrown in there too? Go nuts.

Like, I don't know. I don't see where there's a huge market for like a rental goalie on a on a team that's like even in the top eight in the league. Yeah. Unless Tampa Bay gets him as further insurance for Vasilesky and somehow makes the numbers work

as they always do. They'd bring them in. put him on the third line and he'd somehow chip 20 goals in down the stretch. Here's, let me just make one last point on Calgary because I just, I saw this again, it's one of my pet peeves. This morning,

I can't remember what team it was referring to, but I saw it again, somebody made a reference, some team that was out of the playoffs, things weren't going well, and they talked about how they're not going to be able to make a trade because when things are going bad, that's when everybody throws you anchors instead of life jackets

or whatever the phrase is, and you can't make a trade when things are going badly. And yeah, you know what? I get that. I get that sentiment. But the flip side of that is, okay, well, when do you make a trade then? You know, either you make a trade when things are going well and you're in a strong position, which is where the flames are right now, or you don't make trades at all, which is what a lot of these GMs mean when they say that is just leave me alone so I don't have to do anything. But, you know, if you believe that you can't make trades when things are going bad because you're not going to, you know, everyone's throwing you anchors, when you're doing well and you're in first place and a lot of people are looking at you and thinking, you know, they're probably good enough.

Maybe that's the time where you load up and say, you know, what, good enough isn't enough and we're going to really take a swing at this thing and try to see if we can knock one out of the park. Yeah, like, for example, when things are going really, really well and you swing a trade for Matt Dushan and then everything falls apart. What's the worst that could happen, right? I mean, it's almost foolproof. I do love that argument, though, because it's a GM going, listen, I know that I am too stupid to not get ripped off in this trade. So please don't encourage me to do something that is not in my best long-term interest. How many calls does Peter Sierra really get an hour from other GMs,

just to see if they're going to get that one moment in which he's like, Ryan Nugent Hopkins for. for, you know, Keith Yandel, done and done. You know, like, it's like... Well, he wouldn't want a Keith Yandel type. He would want, like, a Rasmus Ristelian, like, defenseman who puts up an okay number of points, but also, like, has 300 hits at the end of the season or some shit. And you, and you could get Leon Drysidal for, like, like I said, like Risteline and

Connor Shiri. No problem. It's got to be annoying. for him, just to know that people are goofing on him, but also annoying because he has that natural proclivity from making these horrible trades. So it might be one of those, they have to hide Trump's phone types of situations with Peter Shearrelli. They have to just make sure, like, just like block, block cap friendly on his computer. Don't let him see the roster and the numbers. I bet you they've given him a burner phone that he thinks is his real phone. And like,

They have like somebody, like one of the assistants calls them every now and then and just like pretends to be some other GM. It's like, he pretends. Has a passable Don Sweeney impression. Yeah, just pretends to be like Jim Rutherford calling up going, well, I know you're not trading Nugent Hopkins because that would be insane. But what about this? Yeah. And then just, and they're just hanging up. He runs into Bob Nicholson's office.

He's like, uh, John Chaker just offered me Alex Gologoski for dry-sidling the one. Nicholson has to be like, Peter, you already traded dry-siddle on the one last week. Don't you remember? Oh, yeah, that's right. All right, I'll get back to the negotiating table. Nicholson wipes his brow. I think that's it.

That's great. You got it. Hey, while we're talking teams, though, both you boys recently wrote about the New York Hockey Islanders, who, by the way, are projected at this moment to be a 100-point team. and heard from Islanders Nation, had experiences with Islanders Nation. I guess we should start with you, Sean. You wrote about them, heard from Islanders fans,

and then wrote about the plight of the Islander fan, correct? Well, that's not quite correct. What I did is I didn't write about them, still heard from them anyways, even though what I had been writing had nothing to do with them. Oh, I see. And had conversations with some other writers as well, and I was like, what's the deal with that?

And they're like, oh, yeah, that's happening everywhere now. Like Islander fans are ticked off. They're, you know, they're happy with the team, but they feel like the team is not getting enough coverage. They feel like the team is disrespected. They feel like the team is this great story that if it was happening in some other market would be covered much differently than it is here. And so, yeah, I wrote a piece today where I kind of looked at that from both sides and said,

okay, here's the reasons they might have a point. Here's the reasons why they need to settle down. and, you know, kind of went back and forth, then I'm not sure I really landed on a firm conclusion one way or another. But, you know, I did try to walk through it because one thing is, you know, I'm of the firm belief that fans are allowed to be dumb, fans are allowed to be too passionate, fans are allowed to take things too seriously

and maybe go a little overboard and be homers and all that other stuff. But it's also true that, you know, the media and the so-called experts and the rest of us are wrong sometimes. And I think it is possible that, okay, were we wrong about the Islanders? And if I came to a conclusion, I think where I landed is, I don't think we're wrong about the team itself. I don't think this is necessarily a hundred point team. I think that even playing as well as they are, just having won six in a row, you know,

goaltending is going great, everything's going great. They're still barely a wild card team. You know, I don't think that's, you know, you know, This isn't some sort of stunning turnaround that gets your front page coverage. But it is, I think, a better story than maybe some people are letting on. And I think especially when you factor in all of the shit that Islander fans have had to eat for the last 25 years, much of it for very good reasons. But just what a joke and a punchline that team was for so long, the fact that now you finally got some good news on and off the ice, things seem to be turning around. I get why they're frustrated that now suddenly it feels like all the people that were kicking sand in their face when when things were bad don't have anything to say when things are good.

So I have some sympathy even though I'm not on board the Islanders as being some sort of top contender. Okay. First of all, again, like you said, things are good for them. And it's like, yeah, good relative to A, how bad they've been historically and B, how bad everybody expected them to be, right? Right. And like the conclusion, I think both you and I drew is you look at the numbers and you go, this is like a passable team. This is the kind of team that makes the playoffs and loses in the first round, right? Yeah. Like just if you just straight look at it, and especially if you look at it since whatever nebulous date they decide, this is the year, this is the date on which we decided they were actually good. Right. Yes. So they go on November 1st, November 15th, December, whatever. Like, they're getting better as the season's gone on, but... 100 points. But that's not...

The fucking avalanche in whatever, 2012 was a hundred point team, right? Like, and they weren't good. And I'm not saying that the Islanders are even as bad as that avalanche team was, because they're not. But what people need to understand about this team, first of all, everybody I heard from is, like, the guy. who wrote the screenplay for Green Book. And just like, hey, you don't freaking respect us. We got freaking Matt Basel. Okay, it's fine.

But at the, like, at the same time, again, like you said, they're in and out of the playoff race, or like the actual playoff picture, like, every other day. They win and they move in. to eighth and they lose and they move down to ninth or tenth. And like, I don't, as a person who writes about this sport for a living,

and I honestly don't give a shit about the Islanders one way or the other, like, how dare you? Like, why am I supposed to care about this ninth place team that we all thought was going to be a 13th place team? Like, who gives a shit?

But that's the point is that, no, but that's the point is that we thought they were supposed to be a 13th place team and they're on the playoff. bubble. I get the idea of like, we should care more about this team. It's a really good fucking story. Everybody, I mean, Trots going from a cup winner to the Islanders is a great story.

Everybody was like making fun of ERA, Voltaire Fupala, and Leo Kamarov will be the band-aids we need. And guess what? They've worked out fucking fine. So I get the idea that like, come on. They've been fine. They got a shit ton of ridicule in the off-season when Tavares left and now they're fine.

Now they're doing okay. So I get the idea of like where's our cookie. I get that idea. Yeah. And the point I made in my post today was if the Ottawa senators after lose and Eric Carlson were a hundred point team right now, you would be hearing about it every day. You know, and you would be hearing a ton, you know, certainly up here in Canada. And, you know, it would just be considered one of those stories.

You know, it would be a sign of the apocalypse, Sean. That's why you hear a lot of about it. It would have been viewed as a sign of the apocalypse for the islanders to be on a hundred point pace. Yeah, but the fucking Canucks are a playoff team or just about. out right now. And nobody's, and nobody's like losing their minds that the fucking Canucks are doing it, right? Like, everybody just looks at them and goes, Ely's Pedersen, Brock Besser, yeah, we get it. It looks like maybe the rebuilds a little ahead of schedule or whatever. But the Canucks are on pace for 80 points right now. The Islanders are on pace for 100.

And, you know, they're, and I mean, if an Islander fan is here. Also, PEDOing their fucking brains out. And that's part of it. Only Pedersen is. Only Pedersen is. And that's, and that's, and that's, and that's, I think, I think, that's part of why people are being a little bit, you know, cautious on the islanders and jumping on the bandway. Because you're right, the PDO sky high. We've seen this story before. We've seen it every once or twice. Every year, we get halfway through the season. Some team is outperforming what the underlying numbers say they should be doing. People who look at that stuff, throw up some flags and say, let's, you know, let's calm down here. And, you know, this is probably not sustainable.

fans of that team freak out and say watch the games and look at the scoreboard and this is you know this team has is totally different and if you didn't look at your spreadsheet and blah blah blah and then almost inevitably the crash comes and and it ends up being what the numbers guys thought and that's kind of where the islanders are headed and and I got to say Ryan I I linked to your article where you kind of explain you went into some detail on on the numbers and what they're telling us and then because I was sort of writing some of my piece in the voice of Islander fans, I wanted to make sure I was representing them right. And so I said, I know what I'll do. I'll click on the comments of Ryan's piece. What a mistake. And I read every comment on that post. And I just want to say if I, if I sound slower today, it's because I lost about 15 IQ points. And I don't know if they're ever coming back going through, going through those comments. But yeah, I mean, And at the end of the day, if the islanders stop the PDO bender and they, you know, the, the, the flip side of that is they've got the points in the bank so far. I mean, they don't, you know, if you come back to Earth, they don't reach back and take away wins from the first half of the season.

So, you know, even if they play at, you know, an 85 point pace for the rest of the way, that's going to put them, you know, 93 points probably right on the playoff bubble, maybe good enough to get in, probably not in the east. but you know what like that that's still a pretty good story and especially given you know you're right like you said uh you know Greg a big part of this is it's one thing to be a wildcard bubble team when you were expected to be a bubble team it's another thing when everybody like like some islander fans sent me the the deadspin season preview uh for the NHL which said let's rank all the teams from best all the way down to Islanders like that was the headline So I can understand if you read that in September or the first week of October and now you're saying, I can understand why you might have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.

Well, no, because Islanders fans also thought they were going to be dog shit. So they don't get to go, I fucking knew it because you didn't know it. Many of them did. Yeah, like I linked to a post on, I think it was like their SB Nation site where it was 10 Islander fans and they're all optimists. And basically they were all topping out at like maybe playoff bubble. Maybe we get there versus now. when they all think that they're going to win every one of their games in hand and catch the capitals and whoever.

Right. There's been a bit of revisionist history on the part of Islanders fans. By the way, I apologize, Danvers Brown, for you having to have read the Yahoo comments, I imagine. It only took you about five or six before someone blamed Obama for Jordan Eberle's goal totals this year. The thing, I think really the issue, though, is that when it comes to expectations, it's kind of our fuck up a little bit.

You know, Barry Trotson is merry band of assistant coach. were going to make this seem respectable. Rare is the season, even in the National Predators' worst years, they weren't ever dog shit, which is one of the problems of that franchise, quite frankly, for years, is that they were never bad enough. They were just kind of good enough because Mitch Korn makes good goalies, and Barry Trotz plays a system that keeps games close. And the other failing, I think, is the idea that once Tavaris leaves, the islanders are

a dark pit of despair with no rudder, no plan, no future, when in fact they have a decent an amount of good young players, not only on the team now, but also in the prospect pool, depending on how far you take guys like Noah Dobson and Oliver Wallstrom and some of the other guys they have in the system. So I feel like we did our part to kind of set those expectations super fucking low. And then there was a bit of an echo chamber from Islanders fans because of it. When in actuality, the Islanders were never going to be this, that bad, I think. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of sort of that default setting.

Let's just pick them last because if they finished there, well, then obviously. it's the Tavares thing, when there was still enough on the roster where they could have been competitive. Yeah, and I think this is where, you know, Islander fans do have a bit of a point, is that, you know, people, you know, people in the media, and I'll certainly include myself in this, we do. You guys in the media. We do love a good narrative, right? Like, we love a good storyline.

And the team that has struggled for years and loses their superstar, and, you know, it doesn't just lose him, but sees him make the choice to walk away. And whether you viewed that as the move of a villain or whether you viewed that as this heartwarming homecoming story, whatever it was, him leaving that team behind and having that team just completely bottom out was a great narrative. And it kind of maybe was a little too irresistible for some of us. And if I'm an Islander fan, I'm sitting there going, all right, you guys love your narrative so much. Here's the redemption narrative. Here's the storyline of the underdog that's doing it against all odds. you know, how come you're not jumping all over that now?

I say it's the move of a big dumb jerk. We gave him all these freaking bagels, orange and blue bagels for life. And Johnny still left. He chose the bed sheets over the loyalty. Where do they finish, by the way? Where do the Islanders finish? Eighth. Eighth, what, in the division?

In the east. No, in the east. Oh, so there'll be a playoff team. Yeah, they banked too many points by now. I don't know. I said that about Buffalo like three months ago or two months ago and look how that worked out. Yeah, I mean, it's weird. The East is getting dangerously close to a point where there's almost, we're almost down to nine teams for eight spots.

I mean, Caroline is kind of hanging around the fringe. But, you know, Florida would need to go on a real heater to get there. And it's, and it's kind of like, you know, you look at Buffalo, Montreal and the Islanders. I mean, that's, I'm not convinced that. Montreal is necessarily for real. They bank some points too. None of those teams are any good. Yeah.

So, I mean, you know, that's, a spot is there for taking. And again, it's one of those things where if you look at the standings, right now the Islanders are one point out of the wild card. But they've got three games in hand on Montreal. They've got two games in hand on Buffalo. Like points percentage wise, they're already there. Yeah, I think, you know, I think the most likely scenario is they finish in a wild card and probably go into the playoff and get their doors blown off by the light.

or maybe the caps or pens. Yeah, and the problem with... There's only two reasons. There's only two reasons I want the honors in the playoffs. And it's to either play Toronto, which they won't, because Toronto's locked into the two, three game in the Atlantic, or to play the Capitals, which they could. So if...

I want the Outer's in the playoffs under one condition, that they are the wild card team that plays the Washington Capitals in the first round, that is the only fucking function that they serve in my world as a playoff team. Tom Wilson murders Matt Barzell, and you're feeling great about that at the end of the day, right? Come on, man. And then someone asked Barry Trots about it, and he has to talk about Tom Wilson in stark honest terms

instead of being like, Oh, you know, the league is all kinds of topsy-turvy with the way they call these things. He's a good man. You know, like, fucking, wouldn't that be incredible? Yeah, it really would. That would whip ass. Oh, it would be the best.

All right, listen, no matter if you want to watch the outers in the regular season or in the postseason, season, or really any team in any season. There's really only one way to do it. And that's with our friends at Seat Geek, a proud sponsor of the Puck Soup podcast. Getting tickets online can be far too complicated with hundreds of sites and varying levels of reliability. It's hard to know, hubba, hubba, hubba, money, money, money.

Who do you trust? That's why Seekek is the way to go. Seekkeek pulls millions of tickets into one place so you can easily find the seats that you want for a price you're willing to pay. Plus, every purchase is fully guaranteed. So you can shop for tickets on Seekek. confidence. Make Sea Geek your go-to source for everything from sports and concerts to comedy and theater. It is a super easy app to use. I was at the Bears game this past weekend. We

were checking Seekek to see the prices. Big green circles, click on them. Probably a good deal. Little tiny orange circles, not so much. It's a really easy interface to use and a great way to buy tickets to events that are sold out, or if you just want to buy better seats at the ones you're interested in going to. Best of all, listeners to Puck Soup can get $10 off their first Seekkeek purchase, just download the Seekek app today after the promo code Soup. S-O-U-P, that's spelled soup. That's promo code soup for $10 off your first Seekek purchase.

Seek, life's an event, and we have the tickets. Stopping on the Barry Trots train for a second. I wrote about the awards, as everybody does at the beginning of the month in our dumb industry. To me, Trots is the Jack Adams guy right now, but I'm willing to hear any disagreements with that. I think Trots is the Jack Adams guy if we assume that the Jack Adams will be handed out the way that it usually is, which is as a team award for team that we were all collectively most wrong about. The Team PDO Award. That's what the Jack Adams is.

The Jack Adams is just the we couldn't all be dumb enough to be wrong about this team. So clearly the coach must have done an amazing job award. Right. You know, I think if we were actually doing best coaching job, then guys like John Cooper. John Cooper. You know, guys like that would be involved in the discussion, but they probably won't. So it'll, you know, I think the way they generally do it. Yeah, Cooper's inevitably going to get to get babcocked, which is like you have such a great team.

All you have to do is sit back there and play with yourself while everybody does great things on the ice. Yep. But the fact of the matter is that the lightning right now are projected to be a 130 point team, which is the first time since the 95, 96 Detroit Red Wings, you've ever. we've had an 130 point team. If that happens and he doesn't win the Jack Adams, like, fuck the award. Like, there's no reason you can't give it to that guy. I all due respect to, I made something out of nothing, guys.

Like, John Cooper overseeing 130 point season for an NHL team deserves that award full stop. Right. No, and I agree, but just based on history, it's going to be like Trots, Phil Housley, and Bill Peters. By the way, if the Oilers make the playoffs, Ken Hitchcock will definitely get it. Oh, Christ. Jesus. I don't know. It says he get it and Conner wins the heart if they make the playoffs without question.

Oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%. And that's like my rooting interest in the earlier is right now. I still show the battle scars of last year's Taylor Hall debates. I really don't want to have to deal with this shit again this year because Connor McDavid basically is accounting for upwards of 89% of his team's points, I think, at this point in the season. So like, he's very, very deserving of the heart.

If he finishes out like two points out of the playoffs, I'll probably still vote for him anyway. But they can't be like eight or nine points back and expect there to be another Connor McDavid Hart campaign. Welcome to common sense, Greg. We're happy to have you back. Let me ask you this. No, I said last year that if you finish a point of two out, like Mario did the year he won and the penguin didn't make the playoffs, that's fine by me.

But McDavid, what did he finish last year? Like 12 points out, nine points out? And you know who's fault that was was Connor McDavid's? Oh, come on. It's just, it's about value. It's about if we define to find value. There's no value in a season where you're in a lottery. Let me ask you this, Greg.

If what's, okay, put Connor McDavid aside. If Nikita Kuturov finishes with 125 points and the Lightning have 125 points, can Nikita Kuturup be the MVP of the league, given that his team obviously is so stacked with talent that even without him, they would have been, they would have been just fine. He's probably going to break the camera a scoring record. Sure. He could be the MVP of the league, but I don't think he'd be the MVP on my ballot. Right.

But would he be not the MVP on your ballot for the same reason that Connor McDavid wouldn't be the MVP on your ballot if they finished 10 points out because you don't feel like he should coiff or is it just like, well, you know, I might I might pick something else. They're apples and oranges. I think you could demonstrally say that Connor McDavid is extraordinarily valuable to his team. But the overall value of what that team accomplished is a non-starter for me. Right. It was like, ever, ever, you know, that's why last year when you look at when you look at Copatar and you look at, uh, uh, hall and you look at McKinnon and you say to yourselves, you know, what these three players did, uh, especially, you know, they had the same sort of, the same sort of, uh, criteria that McDavid had, which is, you know, did they have great seasons individually? Yes. Did they have great seasons individually within the context of their teammates? And then finally, did their teams actually accomplish something of value this year because of their achievements? And in the cases of those three guys, yes. And the. case of Conner-McDavid now, it's a team award. The word team appears in the award.

If we want to change the criteria of the award, I'm all for it. I mean, my only case is, you know, I've always felt like, you know, if we're going to do it that way, then we should just wait and vote on the heart trophy at the end of the playoffs if we're going to make it a team award because, you know, at the end of the day, Taylor Hall won the MVP, even though Connor McDavid had a better season because Taylor Hall was viewed as a contribution that was more valuable because he got his team into the playoffs. And his team won one playoff game more than Connor McDavid's did. Ansikopatra won the same number of playoff games Connor McDavid did. I'm not really sure. If we're going to talk about the value of, you know, it's all about winning and it's all about

the playoffs and all of that, then let's just do the vote at the end of the playoffs and really give it to someone who had the most valuable contribution to what we're always told is the one and only ultimate goal anyone should care about. I don't hate it. I'd be willing to to entertain that idea, Lambert? Well, I mean, you know, I think that the playoffs are a dumb way to measure team success anyway because you're just saying, why don't you have a high PDO for 21 games or whatever? Like, I always have, and I've written this before, that I think the president's trophy doesn't, it's starting to get more of its due for how important and, like, impressive it,

is to be the best team over 82 games as opposed to the best team over 24 or whatever. Right, right. All right. Well, I didn't think that we get into the Hart Trophy thing. I'm sure it won't be the first or last time that I get flanked and shanked from my co-hosts from my opinions on the fucking Hart Trophy. But that's fine. There are some teams, though, that are falling out of the playoff race in some way, shape,

or form, or at least coming back down the Earth. sabers, the afts, the ducks. I see a lot of people calling for Randy Carlisle will be fired. I don't think Bob Murray does that in season in any way, shape, or form, even though this has been the team they've been all season. It's just that John Gibson got really tired of carrying their fucking carcass up to the upper echelons of the Pacific Division, and now they've plummeted back down to Earth, like Skylab. But they're only, they're one of a few teams that are struggling. The aves have me worried, because I really thought that they were going to be ensconced in a playoff spot this season based on their

goal-tending and based on how good they looked earlier this year. But they've been in a real fucking tailspin lately. Yeah, they stink. They're very, very bad. Is it fixable, though? Not with the, like, they would need to go out and trade for at least one forward. Yeah. Like, they would need to go out and get somebody who can actually make a difference when

when the McKinnon line comes off the ice because they're getting pummeled when those guys aren't. And like people are saying, oh, maybe teams have figured out those guys. And it's like, well, maybe, but they're still scoring like more than a point of game, right? Right. And so you go, okay, maybe it's the fact that nobody else can score for that team, right? Like, I don't know how people are landing on the idea that this is something that, like, Nathan McKinnon has it and his power to fix. Like, Miko Ranton in it.

Like him screaming at Bednar last night was First of all, it's very funny that he fell off the bench. He was so mad he fell off the bench. He fell off the bench. She screwed her so much. And we're all just like pretending that didn't happen. They just didn't, like on the broadcast, they just acted like he didn't fall over and land right on his ass in the middle of his big...

And Benar laughed right in his face. Yeah. It said, he just said, he looked at him. He said, go do your job. Yeah. It's just so goddamn badass. And it's like, again, like, I don't know what Bednar is supposed to do with that roster either, right? But, like, of course, if you're Nathan McKinnon, you're pissed off that nobody can fucking put the puck in the net when you're, when you're, you know, getting a breather for two and a half minutes or whatever.

Right. Do you give any thought to breaking that line up, like, long-term? Well, they dabbled in it. They, like, recently during the end of it. But they seem to go back to, they seem to go back to nuts. To do it. Because that's the only line that can. score for them. So like, it's the same, like, because earlier in the year, Bruins writers were

saying that they should break up the Bergeron, Marchand-Pasternak line, because, like, David Grachy wasn't pulling his weight or whatever, and you put him with, and if you put him with Pasternak, maybe he starts scoring more. And it's like, well, Pasternak's going to score at a slightly lower rate. Like, they've tried this before. And it doesn't end up working as well as having him kind of struggling while the Bergeron line absolutely fucking annihil. eliminates everybody they play against. Yeah. And again, like, the way the league has gone is, like, it's a one-line league now.

The devils make the playoffs. The Avalanche made the playoffs. Like, all you need is one line that gets rolling. I love that as a fan. Like, I, you know, if you grew up playing NHL-94 with line changes turned off, like, you love the idea that, like, just put your three best forwards out there. But, you know, it felt like up until the last year. So the trend was, no, you got to break them up and have depth up and down the lineup. And I just wonder.

The real issue, though, is the fact that all these lines that we've had, and there's at least 20, I think, that you can count in the last year or so that had been dominant. Not a single fucking nickname worth mention it. What happened? What happened to line nicknames? Like, there's no nickname for the Bergeron lines called the Berger Online. Right. You know, we've not had a good nickname. Do you want to know what actually happened to that?

Please. I can give you the answer. The same thing happened to line nicknames that happened to player nicknames. I was just going to say it. You'll hear people say that players used to have great nicknames and now they don't. Here's what happened. We, the fans in the media, stopped giving nicknames and we started relying on what the players called each other.

And that's where suddenly we went from guys being the little ball of hate to just being like Smithy and Jonesy. And we just decided that was good enough and stopped being creative. And obviously they're never going to give their line a name. you know, and it just feels like we, you know, unless like the initials of the three players spells something, then maybe you might try to come up with something. But no, we've all abdicated our responsibility to come up with cool nicknames for players and lines and everything else. And we can't.

I've tried. I've made a few attempts in the last year to, like, get nicknames for lines going. And it just feels like everyone's just dead into it. Do you remember any of them? Well, I remember the one that I really liked, and it wasn't for a specific line, but I'm not a soccer fan, but I found out that in one of the soccer leagues, there is something called the dubious goals committee, which is an actual committee that meets to decide on goals that are like own goals and that, like whether this should be an old goal or if there's argument over who got credit for a goal. They meet and they review the goal and they make a decision about who should get credit for the goal. And I said, we need to have a line in the NHL that is nicknamed the dubious. goals committee. Like, that would be a fantastic. And I kind of opened the floor and a few people

made suggestions, but I just, there was nothing that really jumped out. That's one of those ones where it has to be a line of guys where they score their, you know, they, they, they, they, if they have, you know, 15 goals in a month together. Yeah. You know, like, they're, they're scored from a combined 14 feet out from the goal line. Right. Right. It's got to be like I was thinking any lines. Or, or any line with Patrick Hornquist on it, for example. Yeah. Yeah. That's the line that's the line that's like PDOing it to death for, you know, that's where you slap that on them. But I just, I wasn't, maybe, maybe somebody can, if someone wants to grab that and run with it, go for it. I mean, we had the HPT line a couple years ago.

And it was so popular to the point that Sean Michael showed up to a fucking penguins game, right? The heartbreak kid himself. But I know off the top of my head that Calgary has the 3M line that kind of doesn't exist anymore. Because they broke, they moved Michael for a leak off the line with Matt. Kachuk and Michael Backland. But the 3M line was really good for four years or three years, something like that. They were awesome. Right.

We had that. We had that 70s line in L.A. with Tanner Pearson and Jeff Carter and Tyler Fully. RIP Tanner Pearson. I was watching the Penns game the other night, and they called the Malkin line that 70s line because he was playing with two guys whose numbers were in the 70s also. And now I don't know. But you see, the HBK line goes to what Sean was saying before about like the initials thing.

Same with Triple L. As a Devils fan, as a Devils fan, I remember three line names. I remember the Crash Line, which was objectively a great fucking name for a line, for what they did. There was a line that was invented by the broadcasters that was an initial line. It was Alexander Seymack, Claude Lemieux, and Valerius Zellipukin. Do you remember the name of this line? No. No.

I'm not 50. The sizzle line. S-Z-L, the sizzle line. That's not bad. That's not bad. All right. And then the greatest line in Devil's history was the A line, which sucked. Like, that was a horrible name for Arnett, Eliasch, and Sikora, based on how good that

line was, one of a cup. The A-line. It was so boring. But, yeah, I just, I lament the fact. You're right. It's right. We have, we have objected our responsibility for naming lines and naming things to the players. You know, Brad Marshan being a great example.

we tried to recycle little ball of hate for him. That was a mistake. And now he's Marchy. Fuck, we fucked up is what we did. Yeah. Like, you drop him into the 1950s, and he would have had a beautiful nickname.

He would have had an amazing nickname. But there's no, like, there's no hockey players walking in the dressing room and having, like, other people go, like, hey, Mr. Hockey or, hey, rock, like, that doesn't, those great nicknames,

I know there's this rule that, like, you can't nickname yourself, but, you know, that rule exists for a reason, because people are terrible at coming up with nicknames, especially hockey players. They're just, they're so lazy at it. And, you know, when you ask a broadcast, he's like, what's that guy's nickname? Oh, yeah, that's, you know, that's Walesy. Like, no, it's not, man.

Come up with something better. That's part of your job. Forget about, forgetting nuanced, intelligent articles and come up with some nicknames. According to No Lesson Authority of Wikipedia, the Columbus Blue Jackets line of Pierre Luke Dubois, Josh, Artemy Panarin was called the PV&J line. Not bad. because of Panarin's That's okay.

Panarin's breadman nickname as well as an acronym of Josh and, and Pierre Luke Dubois. I don't know how he became peanut. I guess the P was for peanut butter. I'll take, the P&J line. Yeah, that's good. That's okay.

I mean, that's not great in the like historical context, but for today, that's pretty good. Yeah. That's like the 88 point Art Ross season of hockey line nicknames. You leave Jamie back. out of this. But like the Siddins had a few good lines. The mattress line, two twins and a king.

Right. The brothers line when they played with, ah shit, what was that guy's name? He was. Anson Carter. Yeah, oh yeah, it was Anson Carter. And, you know, the IKEA line when they played with Nasland, like, that's good shit. Maybe we just need to get the Sadiens back. Maybe that's, you know, we should talk up an interview with that.

You guys want me to try to say. set something up where you can like bring them on the show. I'll get on that. Oh, bring them on the show? Yeah, I'll try to do that. Maybe next week. Yeah. Did they ever go on biscuits? Yeah, we're tight. We're good with them. Oh, and then my favorite devil's line was probably the egg line. That was Eliash Gomez and Gianta. EG. Again, initials. Yeah. Maybe we just have to do a better job paying attention to initials of guys. It also helps when one of the guys is a vowel at the front. Yeah, that really is a big, a big help. Yeah. Otherwise, it's just fucking gibberish. That's never good.

Speaking of gibberish, I need to delve into pop culture for a second. Did you see the commercials for the masked singer at all in Canada? Yes. Yeah, we do. Like, up in the camp, we get all your American channels, thankfully. And I did see the ad several times. At the first time, I checked myself into the hospital because I assumed I was having a stroke of some sort. but I saw them enough times that yeah that what the hell's going on to are you guys okay like so first of all you know that we're not right like you know we're not okay yeah to quote to quote the great my chemical romance we're not okay um but yeah we it's a I listen I watch a lot of really horrible television enough to be considered a connoisseur and I got to fucking tell you man

this mass singer I know the jig's going to be up at some point because like some production assistant will leave the list of who the singers are under the masks at like a Dunkin' Donuts or something and it'll be published. But as of right now, this entire thing is incredibly fun. Like, for those that haven't seen it, it's a singing competition show. The judges are problematic Robin Thick, problematic Jenny McCarthy-Wallberg. Yes, McCarthy-Wallberg. Nicole from the pussycat dolls and Ken Jong for reasons. And they bring out people that are dressed in these elaborate cosplay-level costumes. They disguise their speaking voices. They sing in their singing voices. And each one has an accompanying vignette that you watch and then parse clues from it. Like it's some kind of, I don't know, something out of an episode of Black Mirror,

you're supposed to look in the background for who the singer really is. It's addictive, and I kind of love it, and there is a conspiracy theory of foot right now that is amazing. That most of the singers you know are B-level, like Joey Fatone might be one of them. Last night they were field, spoilers, that Tommy Chong, fucking Tommy Chong from Cheech and Chong was one of the singers. But there is a conspiracy theory of foot that the alien who would, who have been, who had, appeared last night, it was a thin woman, and many people thought it might have been a model, that the alien may actually be Celine Dion, Canadian songstress legend. Wow.

Selene Dion, which would be incredible. An actual alien to represent the foreign. Did I hear right in the state? Was the first one, was Antonio Brown? It was, yeah. And is this- It was Antonio Brown. Is this happening now?

Or is it like... Oh, no, this was taped. This wasn't like Antonio Brown being like... Walking out on his football team to like singing on this show. Because that would have been amazing. That would have been the greatest moment in... You know what? Okay.

Fuck y'all. I'm going to go on the mass singer and think about things. No, it's, it is a very, very bizarre little show. But the problem is is that like, here's the real issue. The only issue I have with the show is this. It's kind of easy to figure. out who most of these people are. And the judges have to kind of play along.

So I watched it with my girlfriend, the Antonio Brown episode. And I was just screaming. He's a fucking football player the whole time. And they're like, could he play basketball? And it's like, well, he said like bowl in the middle of the thing he was saying. So probably not. Yeah. The clues are maddening.

Yeah. Like at one point last night, when it, became clear that the person under the mask was probably in the band in sync, and I used banned loosely. You know, one of the knucklehead judges is like, probably in a boy band, I'm going to guess it's Justin Timberlake. And I'm like, I'm going to guess it's probably one of the other four people that needs work.

It's probably not just in Timberlake. And then last night, literally, there was some clue that was given out. And I believe it was Jenny McCarthy guessed that it might have been former president. Barack Obama under the mask to, and it was a guess made with some sincerity. So this is the only problem with the show. Okay, there's a lot of problems with the show. But the main problem with the show is that the judges have to be so fucking dumb as to keep this gimmick going that we're getting guesses like it could be, you know, people

that will never in a million years appear on this dumb shit show. That's my problem. I was going to ask how Jenny McCarthy got the job, but now I guess you just explained it. She sounds like she's married to Donnie Walver. She's perfect for it. It's amazing to me that that's the case. You know what? I got to be honest, man. I'm praying this is going to be one of those shows where they do like a Canadian version and we get it up here where it's just like 12 Canadian celebrities. They're all hockey players. And it's like, you know, they have the mask on and everyone's like, who could it be? We have no idea. And then they take the mask off and people are like, we still have no idea who that is. And it's just. The Canadian version of a mass singer is called which one is snow, I believe. Surprise, they're all snow.

No, I'll freely admit that I do check in on Canadian reality shows. The Canadian spins on, like, American shows. Like, I've watched Hell's Kitchen Canada, where it's like mad Canadian chefs making Canadian cooks do crazy things in the kitchen. I know there's a top chef Canada. I got time for Canadian reality shows. You're a step ahead of me. I did not know that other of those things existed.

Yeah, there's a Hell's Kitchen. Canada. But I mean, it gets kind of repetitive where they're like, the old secret ingredient is syrup. It's just like, again, fuck, man. It's just people apologizing to each other for just an hour. Okay. When they say, please pack your knives and go, it's like, please, again, apologies. It's not what we wanted. It's not too much trouble, if you wouldn't mind. Gord, please pack your knives. No, no, not you. The other Gord.

Gord, no. Gord, you're. say you won't. Remember you want immunity in the quickfire, right? No, go Gord. I mean, to be quite honest with you, I mean, there is a Canadian lineage in many of the

reality shows that I watch because I watch a lot of HD TV, and I would say 75% of the house, like, not house hunters, but like love it or list it or the property brothers or whatever are filmed in Canada. And, uh, and, and, and, and, and,

And a lot of them are sort of outside of Toronto, too, which is amazing. Everything's filmed in Canada. Right. But like Toronto housing prices being what they are. It's like they show a house that in my, the neighborhood I grew up in New Jersey would be like $200,000. And it's like, because it's in a reasonable proximity of Toronto, it's like, now how much would you pay for this house? Oh, I don't know. Upwards to $600,000.

It's $5.3 million for this ranch. Yeah. Yeah. That's about right. that's that's Toronto I fucking love it it's the best all right let's talk briefly keeping it on Ontario for a second let's talk about the senators who are going to have to make a decision about matthewshane and mark stone at some point by the way mark stone's going to win the sulky predicting it now it's been far too long and I think he's got some juice it would help if you got traded to a place

that really puts him over by the way you know at the deadline but I think stone stays and I think fuck I don't know like I think stone stays but I go back and forth on Duchenne. Like, does Duchenne want to be the biggest fish in that pond? Because he would be. Or does he truly want to try again and go to a place that he can win him? Yeah.

Because I don't know. This is the thing. I mean, first of all, you said that the senators have a decision to make. And I'm not completely sure that that's not up to them. The case. It may not be up to them.

That's true. You know, Mark Stone is, I mean, if Mark Stone decides to leave, that's that's going to hurt that's going to leave a mark on on sense fans because this guy it's going to leave a mark there's a there's a pun there but I can't find it

this guy was drafted by the teams played his whole career here he's he's the face of the franchise in terms of on the ice right now he is if he comes back he will be the next captain he's the de facto captain now some people would tell you that he was the de facto co-captain for the last few years

even when Eric Carlson was around, if he were to decide to hit free agency and go somewhere else, that's a tough one to spin in any kind of way as anything other than the disaster, which makes it tough because he could probably ask for $9 million on an eight-year deal. And, you know, yeah, exactly. So it comes down to Peer Dorian and having to go and try to sell him on taking the discount. and that's a tough sell when you're not a cap team because that means the money you leave behind is going into the owner's pocket

and not into somebody to come play on your line. Matthew Shane's a bit different because Matthew Shane has told us once what he wants in terms of his career. When he orchestrated his exit from Colorado, he said, I don't want to miss the playoffs for a bunch of years in a row. And obviously that turned out to be a bad call

as far as going from the avalanche to the senators. But he told us. No shit. And, you know, it's kind of like it's, you know, I've already talked to some senators fans who are, you know, are already starting to, you know, get the sense that maybe there's a better chance than they thought that he could move on. And they're sort of, you know, you can sense them getting a little defensive, getting, you know, getting ready to, you know, maybe knife this guy in the back on the way

out. And the thing is to me, like with the senator's fan base and Matthew Shane, it's, it's kind of like it's it's kind of like the if you are like you're if you're the if you're cheating with someone who's like cheating on their partner and you're like the the other man or the other woman and they leave the partner for you and then a year later they cheat on you and you're like how could this have happened who could have seen this coming it's like dude that's that's that's why they were with you why would you like if mat duchin was the sort of guy who was loyal and was willing to lose year after year after year to be loyal to his team, he would have never been

an Ottawa senator in the first place. He would still be a Colorado. That's a cheater, always a cheater. And I'm not saying it's a cheater in the sense that I'm not saying he's doing anything wrong. I'm just saying, you know, he told us what he was. And maybe it's changed. Maybe the fact he's closer to home. Maybe the fact, you know, they just had their first child this week. You know, maybe the Ottawa is a nice town to, if you want to settle down, nice schools and all of that stuff. Ottawa, you can do worse. in Ottawa. So maybe his priorities have changed in the last year and a half, but maybe they haven't. And if they haven't, none of us should be surprised because this, you know, this guy's, he's

already played this card once. He has the right to do it. I don't think we should be shocked if, you know, especially now that it's been, you know, what, six months plus that they could have signed him. Hasn't happened yet. Yeah. You know, maybe he just wants to be the man though. Like they're going to pay him out the ass probably to stay. Well, first of all, he's, he won't be the man because is if, you know, if Mark Stone comes back, he's, this is Mark Stone's team. So Matt Dushain is number two on the, you know, on the star chart. But he's the number one center, though. Number one center, yeah, he probably would be the number one center and probably for the foreseeable future. But he's not going to be the guy because that's Mark Stone. Unless he stays and Mark Stone leaves, in which case the perception's going to be that he may be, maybe they could only afford one and they chose this guy.

And I don't know that I want to be in that situation, given how popular Mark Stone. is in Ottawa. So yeah, you know, maybe. Maybe he's the sort of guy who, does he want to be the number one guy on a team that misses the playoffs year after year? Does he want to be number two somewhere that he's playing for a Stanley? Like Matthew Shane is, I think he's, I think he turns 28 this month. He has been in the NHL for 10 years. He's played eight playoff games. He has, he has won two playoff games. He has never in his life scored a playoff goal in the NHL. Is he really going to sign on to a team that, you know,

the senators aren't just a rebuild team. The senators are a team that, you know, their upside on a rebuild might be become that team that, you know, if everything goes right can contend in any given year and then you fall back for a few years. Like this, until the arena situation and ownership, I don't know. You want to sign on for eight years and hope

that this gets sorted out? I don't know that I would. To speak to the attitudinal stuff, though, like he scares the shit out of me. Like, he's a point per game, well over a point per game player in a walk year, in a contract year. And I don't know if he's that guy.

And the prior history of, you know, fucking staring at his shoes for 25 games towards the end of a season because he didn't want to be there anymore. That scares me, man. Like, in the right situation, I think he can thrive. but like the idea of handing him the kind of money that's going to be commiserate to his output this year

and putting him in a position of prominence on a team that maybe needs a number one center. Like Carolina, for example, putting that contract together for him as a free agent would scare the living shit out of me if I was a hurricane fan. But then shouldn't it scare you if you're the senators knowing what happened when he wasn't happy in Colorado? Because, you know, at the end of the day that, you know, if somebody's going to burn eight million bucks a year on this guy, you know, I'm pretty sure Tom Dundundun wouldn't enjoy doing. that, I'm damn sure Eugene Melnick can't afford to burn that kind of money on somebody who's not really living up to that. So I still feel like, go ahead, Ryan. Oh, I was going to say, like, my thing with Matthew Shane is, like, you have to put him in a position where he's not the number one guy because he might, to your point, he's not, he's probably going to want to get

paid like a number one guy, but he doesn't really, historically speaking, produce at that level, right? So you, like, I think he's a guy where he's kind of maybe a middle of the pack number one center or maybe even a lower end number one center. And, you know, like you said, he's turning 28. So that's only going to get, like, worse as time goes on. So if you can put him into a position where, like, he's your number two and also, like, on your top power play unit, I think that's a great situation for him. But, like, if he's the guy, you know, I don't know that that I'd want to make. that investment if I was a GM. You know where he'd be really good?

Honestly, Buffalo. Yeah. He'd be really good in Buffalo. That'd be a great spot for Matthew Shane if they wanted to hand him that money. And if it's, if it would be with the Sabres. They can't go. Close to home is important to him.

Then he, you know, he'd be reasonably, you know, not quite as close, but not that far. Especially, I mean, if they lose Jeff Skinner, right, then they, they probably do have the money. I don't think they have the money to do both of those guys. But, yeah, I guess that's what I meant. But yeah, for sure. Would Jeff Skinner be insane?

sane to leave Buffalo at this point? Oh my God, yeah. Like, right? I mean, you know, I, again, I don't think the Sabres are a particularly great team or anything like that, but like he's never going to have a line made as good at setting him up as Jack Eichol. He'll do some dipship move like sign with Boston and then his goals will get cut in half and then everybody will run him out of town.

Like that's totally what he'll end up doing probably. I mean, if you want to define, you know, is he crazy based on. his career output, then, then yeah, there's a flip side of that that says he's landed in the perfect situation in his contract year. Is he crazy if he doesn't take this to market and see what kind of crazy deal somebody will give him for seven years? Do you, you know, this is, and yeah, every player has different priorities and, you know, whether they're Skinner or Mark Stone or Matthew Shane or anyone, and those priorities are allowed to shift around and they're allowed to, you know, decide how how much the dollar value matters to them versus versus some of the other things.

But, you know, it is, I mean, it's, it's, I wrote about this in December how extraordinarily rare it is for this many or any at all big name free agents to make it this far into the season without signing extensions. Yeah. I mean, you know, we haven't even mentioned Eric Carlson. We haven't even mentioned Wayne Simmons, you know, go down the list of guys. Some of them can't sign until February if they want the eight years. Maybe that's what's happening with Skinner or, you know, with, with Carlson.

But I feel like there's a lot of fan bases who are talking themselves into that there's still time to get these guys signed. And historically, if you make it to December or January and you're still looking at unrestricted free agency, you get to unrestricted free, or at least you get to the off season. Maybe you sign right before, but you tend to make it to the market. And then that probably means you change teams. Maybe everybody just wants to have the John Tavares moment where they get to invite a bunch of teams to their office and have them all, you know, bring gifts like the Magi. You mentioned that and, you know, maybe that's it. But I honestly do think that Tavares situation has something to do with this because for years and years, it was, you know, if you're an NHL player, you were loyal, you didn't go to free agency, you took what you could get at your own team, you stuck around. And here's John Tavaris who does what players in every other sport do.

but typically isn't done in hockey. And everyone's kind of like, oh, okay, let's see how this works out. And for him, at least, it's worked out amazing. He's having the best season of his career. Everybody in Toronto loves him. Everybody, you know, I mean, the Islander fans aren't happy. But, you know, there's got to be at least some players looking at him doing that going, why don't more of us do that?

Yeah, I think the market's shifting on that. Like, I think you're going to start seeing every year more and more stars just go test the market because of how not just Tavares, but how many guys have gotten fucked by taking a hometown discount? All the Edmonton guys took six years, six million, and they all got traded.

Although I guess maybe getting traded out of Edmonton is the opposite of getting fucked. Yeah, and I was going to say, yeah, I have no problem with hometown. Like Kevin Chattonkirk took a home down discount, now he's living his best life. He gets to bum around with his parents and not have to worry about anything in the world.

It's great. Yeah, but he took a hometown discount to go home. You know, he didn't take a home. You know, they say, oh, take a hometown discount. And it's like, you know, you're looking around going, I'm not from Columbus. This isn't, you know, this isn't my home.

So, yeah, I think it's kind of, you're going to get to this point where you're going to, I think you're going to see two things in the future of NHL contracts. You're going to see star players realize that it's not the end of the world to go to free agency. And it's not even the end of the world switch teams in free agency. And I think at some point, you're going to see young players realize, I don't have to take an eight-year deal when I'm 22 years old.

I can take a three-year deal and then come back when the cap has gone up and make even more money. I can take a one-year deal if I want. I mean, the team's got to give me the terms that I want. I don't have to do the Connor McDavid or the Jack Eichol and commit to eight years knowing that by year three, my contract's going to look like a ridiculous bargain. Yeah, especially because, especially because like the only people that are going to want eight-year deals anymore are 28, 29 years old. Right. Then you get as many years as you can for sure. Yeah, absolutely. But if you're 22, why not sign, you know, sign for three years, come back, even if you're still an RFA. I should have prefaced all this by saying Austin Matthews and Mitch Martyr, don't listen to this.

Like, turn, turn down. Can we go back and do, can we like geo-block this from the 416 area code when it comes out? But yeah, once after this year, after those two guys have signed, that's when players should start. we just got a comment on the Patreon. Kyle D from Toronto just put, ah, that's aclamation point. It's crazy. Sorry, Kyle.

I'm writing about term, I'm writing about contract term limits this week, too. And I was, I was going back. Like, the idea is that the players might have to put forth, you know, term limits on long term contracts that they want to somehow,

you know, affect escrow in a positive way. Like, they have to give something to get something. And I was going back. I'm still, the thing I don't get about the term. limit bit when it comes to teams is like I I understand I understand why the league wants limits

on contracts it would increase the trade market it would increase parity yada yada yada I get it all but from a team perspective I don't know why any GM would allow his owner to be like yeah we should cap contracts at five years like GMs are helped exponentially by being able to go seven or eight years to bring down the cap that I just do you want to know those pieces Those puzzle pieces don't fit for me. And I can't quite figure out why. Let me tell you why they're not fitting, because you just conflated two things that aren't the same. You said, I don't understand why it's in the team's interest.

And then you talked about what's in the GM's interest. And those things aren't necessarily the same. We'd like to think that they are. But what's in a GM's best interest isn't necessarily in the team. And that's why the teams want limits, because they understand that their GM, who knows that, you know, if I'm going to bet on this guy, I know that if I'm wrong and this guy turns out to be a bum, I'm getting fired. So I don't really care whether he gets six years or eight years or ten or fifteen because I won't be around to see the end of this contract if it doesn't go well.

And if it does go well, then I'll deal with that. Whereas the teams are the ones that get stuck with this. So I understand why they want the limits that the GMs themselves would probably be more than happy to tack on as many years and you'd let it be somebody else's problem to figure out how to deal with the end of Roberto Luongo or Shea Weber or whoever it is. Yeah, it does make sense. Now that you mentioned it, the idea that Daryl Cates can just say, hey, listen, buddy, not my fault. NHL tells me you can't sign this guy for, you can't sign Luchich's this contract anymore.

Exactly. It makes a little sense. It makes a little sense. Saving, once again, every labor stoppage, guys saving themselves from themselves. Absolutely. It's all it's about. All right. is the bachelor sports the athletic wrote about the bachelor this week Sean I don't know if you knew that

did we no I honestly did not who who wrote that I believe it was a football writer in California okay um because the the bachelor this year is a is a former football player but also a virgin which is the big the big hook it was great because every every woman on the bachelor had some like virgin joke like she there was one girl who uh did a card trick and then took his V card. There was a girl who had a balloon that looked like a cherry. And guess what? Spoiler, she popped it. Come on. Get out of here. No, it's true. I swear to God. It became real. But the thing is, is that there's a lot of sort of, and it's not just Josh Cooper that does this. There's a lot of people in sports that tweet and talk about The Bachelor. And my only theory

behind that is that, A, there's a certain level of competition behind it. B, it's about sex. And C, it takes place on Mondays. And when people, People get tired of watching Monday night football. They just flip over and start watching The Bachelor out of habit. And that's why it seems to have infected sports. I can't figure it out why, but like the ringer writes about it. You know, it's a pop culture site, but it's also a sports site. The Athletic now is writing about it.

It's a very, there's a lot of sports people that are into The Bachelor, and I can't quite put my finger on water. I know that that's true, because I don't watch The Bachelor. I've never watched it. But I follow, and I follow almost exclusively sports people on Twitter. and yet I know way more about The Bachelor than I ever should because it just feels like everybody is watching this show. And I don't know. I don't understand it. The guy's names Colton Underwood, by the way, is your bachelor.

And he is a former football player and he is a virgin. And this is now the second time that they've had an athlete on there, by the way. Ari Lyondike Jr., former race car driver, was also on the... It was a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, son of Arielyondike, I should say, was on The Bachelor 2. So maybe it's... They're consciously dabbling in sports to help increase the amount of sports people watching it. Let me ask you this. Are any of the contestants wearing masks?

Now, it's funny you should ask. Um, part of the, the Bachelor is a Virgin thing was a woman who, as you know, they all drive up to the mansion in a limo, they get out, they do their bit, they try to be memorable, then they go inside and get drunk, which actually sounds great. Um, so this woman got out of a limo and she was dressed as a sloth, like in a full sort of furry costume, like a sloth. And her bit was that she walked very, very slowly and spoke very slowly and said, I understand. I understand that you like to take... I know this sounds like she was emo Phillips, but stay with me. I understand that you like to take things slowly. So I dressed like a sloth.

You get it. So, yes, there was one contestant who obstructed her face and actually went inside, still dressed like a sloth. Ryan, it sounds like your better half does not force you to watch The Bachelor like mine does. I try not to be home. I remember, like, she wasn't home on, on Monday night, but she watched it Tuesday morning,

and I was, like, working and not paying attention. And that worked out great for me. Like, I don't make her watch hockey, so it's, I think fair's fair. Quid pro quo, Clarice. I have to admit that I'm, although I'm forced to watch it, I do obviously enjoy it because I do like anything that's horrible in reality.

based. And also, it's kind of like, even the worst James Bond movie has really beautiful locations. Sure. So, like, The Bachelor, at least, you know at some point they're going to take you someplace really beautiful. It's like, you know, even fucking Spector had some beautiful scenery inside the Alps, you know, and The Bachelor inevitably is going to take you someplace. The Rolling Hills of Ireland are going to be involved at some point because that's where

they have to take all these men and women to go find out if they want to fuck each other. It's just pretty great. So you're watching for the scenery. Yeah, watching it for the scenery. Exactly. Read it for the articles. Watching it for the scenery. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

All right. Speaking of scenery, last topic of today is Puck suit. And it's an important one. The NHL All-Star jerseys are garbage. They're literally garbage. They are made of garbage. and many people will say they look like garbage. If you haven't seen them, folks, or heard about them,

they are basically, if you set the NHL All-Star game to gray scale, this is exactly what it would look like. The jerseys are black and gray and white, including the logos in the front team logos this year, not NHL logos. And the jerseys themselves are made from reclaimed and recycled refuse found in what I assume was the Pacific Ocean, being that the game is in San Jose.

So it is recycled materials to create hockey jerseys. It's something Adidas has previously done, I think, with some soccer gear. Now they've done it the first time for a hockey jersey. This is a really divisive move by the NHL and Adidas. What say you about the All-Star jerseys? They're good. Well, I shouldn't say there are some jerseys that look really nice in black and white. There are other jerseys that look horrible in black and white, like Columbus.

Columbus's, for example, because there's just like too much going on. You know what I mean? Right. The simple logos, the simple jerseys, the ones that don't have a lot of like stripes and stuff like that normally, they look good and like natural in a way that, again, like Columbus's kind of doesn't just because like you look at the, and not that the All-Star jerseys look like this, but like you think of the Columbus jersey and there's just fucking stripes everywhere. the logo's got nine different elements to it. And, you know, I just, the only thing that is an issue for me is, didn't the fucking NBA do this for their All-Star game literally last season? They did. Yeah.

I mean, it's not the first time the NHL is taking their fucking cue from the NBA. Well, no, for sure. But, like, to not even separate it by a calendar year. Like, come on, guys. This is the sort of thing, this is kind of firmly on. the high up the list of things I don't really care about very much. And I didn't, I'll be honest, until you flag this as a potential topic, I did not even, uh, I hadn't even seen them. And I went and I looked, let me stop, hold on. Let me stop you there for a second,

because I find that fascinating. You are a purveyor of hockey history. Yeah. And also a purveyor of things in, in hockey history that maybe, let's say, didn't work out all that well. Sure. All-star jerseys and all-star concepts. to me are something that I thought you'd be mildly obsessed with. But the jerseys themselves or not? I like the old school ones, but this, because the thing is when I first saw it, I assumed this was like previous years where they just picked four trendy colors and, you know, they threw them out there and, and I don't know.

I don't, I don't particularly care too much. But this idea, because of people, I'm seeing it, every, each one of the four teams is going to get both a black and a white version. So every game in this 14 mini tournament is going to be the black team versus the white team. It's a little bit – well, I was going to say a little bit creative. If not – if they stole it from the NBA, then I guess it's not creative. But it's different. I kind of like the look of them.

I want to see what they look like on the ice. It's the kind of thing that might – you know, it might look awful once you actually see it. And Ryan's right. There were definitely some of the logos look good and some didn't. I like the fact that they've got the team logos instead of some silly All-Star logo that's going to be forgotten in a few days. I was a little surprised they didn't go with like the color versions of the logos because some of those look a little bit weird without the color,

but maybe that didn't work. But I don't mind the idea. I think this is the, you know, if it looks decent on the ice, you know, I kind of like, I don't mind the idea of seeing a black versus white instead of, you know, teal versus electric green or whatever god-awful things they would have come up with in the past. Yeah, I mean, I don't, my problem is the complete absence of color. It doesn't make any sense to me, especially like, it's the funniest thing because you look at the All-Star logo and it is like the Copacabana of logos.

Like there's like a billion colors in this logo and then they wind up picking jerseys that look nothing like it. I think what's interesting to me about them is you have, you have the team logos on the front, which is something that I think is a really nice innovation. But you could have made those colorful, A, so the Columbus one looks all right, but B, just to give the jerseys a little bit of pop. I think if you're on the ice, you're still going to be able to tell who your teammates are and who your teammates are, mainly because there's only two of them with you on the ice at any time. But also because, like, the dark jerseys and the light jerseys are pretty easy to figure out which is which. So I would have liked to have seen colored logos for the teams, and the jerseys themselves are kind of quick. cool. But overall, it's kind of a weird flex to make your All-Star logo super, super colorful and then go, by the way, also weird flex to, I guess, honor the L.A. Kings with Jaises out of San Jose

All-Star game. That's a real kicking a nuts, too. The sharks are the one team that is like really known for their kind of innovative color scheme. And they drop that entirely. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a nod back to the black and white day. of early San Jose Shark history when we all used to crowd around the crowd around the family TV

and watch the black and white games. Oh, yes. Oh, hey, mum, make me some eggs and steak. I'm going to settle in and watch Pat Falloon on the old black and white boob. That's it. Yeah.

They're all right, but what do the Puck Soup listeners say about these jerseys is the question you're all asking that, of course, is the question of the week. here on Buck Soup. Eric Kuhn writes in, or Kuhn writes in, all-star jerseys should include a small pack of crayons like kids get with their activity placements at restaurants.

Players can color in their jersey using the four crayons provided. Parts of the jersey already looked like it was colored in with crayons. Good point there. Droh writes in outlining the crest in the team color and incorporating that same color into the sleeves, collar, and both would be enough of a change. That's kind of what they did with those blacked out. Remember those murdered out jerseys they used? cell that were like neon colors, but the logo itself was sort of black and white.

Those were like Predators, but they sold those as well. I didn't like those, but an okay theory. Peter Shepard writes in, the fact that they are made from trash is ironically the only thing that saves them from being complete garbage. Ouch. Miles T. O'Brien writes in, burn them. Burn them all. Nathan, cool that they're made out of ocean garbage, but they're actually not totally

the garbage. I think they're basically every team's version of the Blackhawks Winter Classic Jersey. We point there. Jake Rudolph, there is something there, but it is just missing that final push to get it over the finish line of being a jersey. Well, I mean, it has sleeves, for fuck's sake, what else do you want? They currently feel like noir Spider-Man from Into the Spider-Verse by being devoid of color. Great reference. And if they change the white or black stripe to teal, it would help a lot. There's probably something with these guys not wanting to wear. teal, right? Like somebody's like, oh, fuck it, I'm a duck, I'm not a jerk.

And they don't want to wear teal or something at the game, though, on these idiots. Let's see here. Dylan Alexander, I think they're fine, air quotes, but could definitely use some color. Teal orange in the healthier, in the heather stripes, at least, or give every division their own jersey again,

black, white, teal orange. Carrie, Gerowski, I'm apparently the only person that likes them. Well? And, yeah, there it is. Jason McManus also writes in, could use some color, but I really like two things about them. The actual team logos on the crest and the eco-friendly approach to the design. You could make the worst product in the world, and if you say that, but it's made from the six-pack plastics that the seagulls get on their beaks, then you're going to find people that love the shit that you made.

That's exactly right. Did you see second act, the Jennifer Lopez movie? I did not I've heard only nothing about it It was fine It has maybe the craziest twist Of a movie in quite a while

But the whole plot centers around her Trying to do something In like a month That you know Like no chemist has ever been able to do Which is make an all A 100% organic All in One beauty product

Um Wait, what does all in one mean? Like, it could be a mascara and a lipstick and an eye shadow? It's a moisturizer, like an anti-aging cream and sunblock, all in one. And Greg, she does it somehow. Oh, yes. And this is a woman who managed, like, a generic, like, movie equivalent of a target for a little while. But she was also, like an amateur chemist?

Well, I mean, she did it with help. But anyway. I thought this was a kid. I thought this was another Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones nuclear physicist type situation. She's a, the premise of the movie is that somebody puts together for her like a fake resume

where it says like she went to Harvard and met the Obama's and all this kind of stuff. And a very weird movie that was only okay, but see it for the twist like two-thirds of the way through, it will blow your fucking mind. I'm intrigued by it. Obviously, the last J-Lo movie I saw was The Boy Next Door, which was absolutely fantastic, a classic. Sean, for those who don't know, the boy next door involved J-Lo having

an affair with the titular boy next door. And at one point, in order to impress her, he buys her the first, a first edition of the Iliad. That's correct. Fucking 4,000-year-old story. Oral tradition. It's not on a stone tablet or anything. It's a first edition. And she holds it, she goes, oh my God, is this a first edition?

I'm like, are you a fucking teacher? I saw Sorry to Bother You, which I know that you really liked Lambert and I really liked it too. And unfortunately, I knew, speaking of twists, I knew the big twist at the end of that flick. I will say that I feel Obviously I don't want the twist to be spoiled But I do feel that more people would have checked out that movie If they knew how

How widely the turn was into sci-fi At some point in that film It's sort of It's sort of Got the social commentary horror movie Get Out vibe going on And I don't think enough people knew that going into it Yeah it definitely the trailer showed you

the stuff from the first half hour of the movie and that was it. Like it gave you the very broad premise. It was a black people talking like white people movie and then they kind of just, that was all you knew from the trailer. But it was great. I loved it. I loved it though. Yeah, it's really, really good. And probably a movie that I need to read up on to figure out all those stuff I lost.

I miss because I am a white dude. All right. That's the pop culture portion of the show. Wanted to give Sean a breather. Thanks. That's fucks. Appreciate that. That's fucks her for this week.

You can find my shit at ESPN.com at Wysh-W-Y-S-H-Y-N-S-K-I. Thanks for all of the kind words about the hockey and Alabama two-part of it ran this week. That was a super fun story to report on and write. And I'm glad people read...

When your editor comes over and says, your story has great engagement and the story is 7,000 words long, then I appreciate all of you having hung in there for as long as you did to read it because you apparently impressed the people that signed my checks. And also, note on the Patreon, five bucks a month gets you six things, including the mailbag edition of this show every week.

Also, bonus episodes, the first one in Puck Soup 2.0 history. Me and Lambert, ranking the top 10 American players dropped this week. So do check that out. It was a really fun one. All right. Plug away, boys. Jeez, jew. Sports.

com slash author slash Ryan. dash Lambert. There it is. There it is. At two-line pass on Twitter, sign up for the Patreon. I had a real fun time talking about American hockey with my friend Greg. Fuck yeah.

And don't read his comments. Oh, no. I mean, it goes without saying, I felt like, but... Ever. You can find my stuff at the athletic, including this week my big long exploration of what's going on with our inner fans.

I also had a fun one this week where I tried to build a salary cap compliant team using all of all current contracts, but looking ahead to the 2021-22 season. And it ended up being way harder than I thought it would. And it was kind of fun because then people were chiming in in the comments with their own rosters and all of that. And I encourage you to try it because it does end up being more challenging that you think. And also I have a book that Down Goes Brown, History of the NHL.

If you're into history or the NHL or both, check that out wherever fine books. are sold. Boy, does he. All right. Thanks, everybody for listening. Mailbag on the Patrions. Go there and check it out. Thanks.

Bealoo, loo. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots 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 hockey and nonsense. Box two.