Puck Soup - Two Nations Facing Off

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Sean and Ryan talk about all about Four Nations. Sponsored by Factor (factormeals.com/FACTORPODCAST)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McIndew from The Athletic. And since the last time we recorded, they had a whole ass four nations tournament, except for the championship. Yeah. Obviously headlined by the very chill, not fraught at all,

Saturday game between the U.S. and Canada in Montreal, the United States comes out. The winner in that one. And a few days later, The championship game is set up. It'll be USA Canada 2. Yeah. So I guess...

I would like to start the show. Okay. By fighting you. Is that an option? Well, yeah, it's definitely an option. Okay. But is this going to... I'll ask you this way.

Is this going to be like a Matthew Kachuk style fight? Or is this going to be a J.T. Miller style fight where I have to hit myself. Yeah. Because I don't... I don't feel... Look, I was... What I was planning to do is, like, lose the... fight and then go off the ice like a national hero acting like I did something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, well, because the way I was thinking about it was like, let's say you're, I don't know, you got like six, eight inches of height on me, maybe like 40 pounds of weight. And what if in addition to you punching me a bunch, I knocked my own helmet off? See, this is like they say that Canada and US can't work together anymore. That's exactly right. We saw the power of the two nations teaming up to punch J.T. Miller in the face. It's something everyone can agree on in Alias Petterson.

Boy, by the way. We're saying Elias Pedersen's having a rough tournament. I disagree. I think he enjoyed it thoroughly. Well, he, you know, every time he was on the ice, everybody around me in the press box was like, you think it's going to happen, Miller and Pedersen last night, you know. It didn't happen because that would have required Pedersen to, like, do something in this tournament. Oops, we're not going to. You know, hey.

But yeah, so I guess what were your big thoughts on USA Canada won? The greatest hockey game ever played, they're saying. You know what? It will be remembered for a long time. Everyone's going to remember the start up to and including the two teams trading early goals. You know, the Connor McDavid Beauty. And then it was Gunsel, right, Jake Gunsel? Yes, Jekins.

I believe that's right. And I think all of that was fantastic and entertaining enough that we will probably never remember the fact that the last 55 minutes were boring as hell. That, you know, they, as people like to say, they settled down and played hockey. Yeah. Which is fine, except that in this case, settled down and play hockey meant. playing defensive, like, let's try to hold the other team to 20 shots and be boring versus going end to end with all the skill that they have. And, you know, it was a coach's game, not a player's game.

And I feel kind of bummed out for any, like, potential new fans who, like, got the text. Like, dude, you have to turn on the TV. It's insane what's going on in this game. And then, like, flipped on when it was a 1-1. And we're like, oh, if this is what passes this great hockey. Well, I got to tell you, man, I I know like you're the cynical one on this show, you know, so like I get where you're coming from.

That's all. That's absolutely. People are saying. And, uh, but like this is like the mythological, the two one game that's actually cool and fun and good. You thought? Okay. I really did.

Because of the stakes, absolutely. Well, that's, that's exactly right. Like, well, okay. So again, I'm, I'm going to do the thing I do and tie it back into wrestling. You know how there's always the joke about like, well, uh, like, uh, seven stars at the Tokyo Dome or whatever. It's like, yeah, you're describing like why the U.S. Canada game on Saturday was good. The stakes were what made it good.

The drama was what made it good. The ferocity of the crowd was what made it good. Like, yeah, of course it's better than like, you know, a two one game between Columbus and Minnesota on a Tuesday night. You know, like no shit, you know? Because like it's the best, it's like you said, the best players in the world. trying really hard to stop the other best players in the world from doing cool shit. And like, I just wish they had been trying to do cool shit instead.

I get it. I get, I totally get it. But like, I don't know. The idea that this was ever going to be like a five to four game. I was never, I was never anticipating that.

Like, yeah, would it have been cool for all those goals to happen? I guess so. But like, it just was never going to. This is the NHL. You know what I mean?

Like, they, they, they, they don't let you have high scoring, high stakes games. Yeah. Um, I, as I said, and, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't being, uh, trying to be sarcastic. We won't remember that. No, this will go down to the books as like one of the great games, uh, because, I mean, the way it started. The, it, the whole deal. The crowd was amazing. Um, oh, the crowd was so good, man.

The start was, was, was, was. It was fantastic. You know, like, I've, I kind of go back and forth on, on fighting in hockey. But, you know, I had the same fucking thought, brother. But, dude, if you're, like, if you're doing the, like, oh, staged fights, like, yeah, that felt like a stage fight to you, just came out of nowhere, like, meaningless. Didn't, you didn't feel like there was any real true intensity in that. Like, I get we got to do the gimmick, but holy smokes. Like, if you, I guess what I'd say is this, if you didn't like the first.

nine seconds of that game, you are a true blue anti-fight guy. And we will never, we will never win you over under any circumstances. And like, I would have to almost, like, I have to respect it. Like, because here's the thing. I would say I am a no-fights guy, broadly speaking. But then I watched the first nine seconds of that game. And I was like, well, this kicks fucking major ass. What can I say? And I guess, like, in thinking about it while watching the game, I was like, I guess I don't like the fact that, like, fighting exists because it. makes people go, well, also like Matt Rempe's really good actually. And it's like, no, you know, like that's what it, that's what it boils down to for me, I think. It's like, if the guys doing the fighting are like

the best players in the world and you know, like I, you know, as I was watching it, I'm thinking like, oh, what was it, Matthew Kuch and Brandon Hagel was the first fight? Yep. I'm like, oh yeah, like Canada will take that, uh, that trade off every time. You know,

like Brandon Hagel, that's a good player, but Matthew Chuck is a really good player, you know? And, yeah, like if, like, fighting in hockey exists or like when it exists, like, guys like Matt Rempe exist where it's just like, well, why do I fight? You know what I mean? Even if we're saying that role has, like, gone away or whatever, apparently not, you know? All I know is that I was completely stunned on Saturday night to find myself going, damn, I wish we had Tom Wilson on this team.

Should have brought Tom Wilson, baby. Well, it's funny because they're going to bring them to the Olympics where you can't fight. Yeah. And they're going to be like, oh, try fucking with us now. And the U.S. is going to be like, okay, that's fine. Sure, no problem, Big Dog. We'll make that happen for you. But yeah, like, it's funny because, you know, when people were putting together their like fantasy, Canada.

and U.S. teams. A bunch of people had Tom Wilson on there, and I'm sitting there going, the one from the Capitals is the one you want on the team? Is that right? We're talking about the same Tom Wilson, and everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's not bad or anything, but like you look at the overall quality of these two rosters. And look, I mean, we're talking about the next Olympics. Tom Wilson could be there Thursday night because the roster rules don't apply to Canada. We can just do whatever we want. Yeah, the U.S. has to be down to 12 skis. And they're like, oh, we might think about bringing someone in for the Thursday game.

You guys are going to play with a lot of changes. Charlie McAvoy is currently in the hospital. Yeah. But. And I don't even think we've seen the Kachuk boys. They've vanished, man. I think they're. Well, I'll tell you.

I saw Matthew. They're in the car making its way across someplace, no ice right now. I saw Matthew in a suit after the game by the U.S. dressing room. Didn't see Brady. Although, I guess I can say. say this since Jake Ottinger said it when I had a recorder in his face, but he was like, yeah, we think Brady's going to be fine for Thursday.

And then Mike Sullivan 20 minutes later is like, oh, who knows? I thought that was really funny. Sounds like everyone's going to be okay for the Saturday game, with the possible exception of McAvoy, which... Big Chuck, yeah.

But even that, they're not rolling them out, because it was weird. Sullivan kind of implied, like, oh yeah, we think everyone's going to be pretty close to good to go, but we're look at all contingencies was what he said. As of Tuesday morning, but yeah, there was like a tweet going around like, Charlie McAvoy's

in the hospital. I was like, oh, yeah, and not like, not like some guy, like the Boston Globe reported it. Yeah. So like that's, you know, that's something. And then like, I think Team USA announced earlier this morning that they or the Bruins or somebody

is going to have an update on Charlie McAvoy later today. Yeah. So, you know, it sounds like it is indeed an infection, but not something. I mean, infections can be nasty, but at this point, not ruled out, I guess, is what we say. And then we hold off and wait. But, yeah, I mean, obviously Canada is dealing with plenty of injuries and illnesses too. And like the Swedish team, like everybody on that team, it seems like is sick.

And they, you know, to their credit, they didn't lose in regulation once in this tournament. Can't say that about every other team. Yeah. That is true. What did you think of the format? Did you, like the 3-2-1 and the extra long overtime? All work for me. Yeah.

I, you know, I'm not Nathan McKinnon, right? So, like, I get to like the extra overtime. So you occasionally go off the ice and you don't just go back and forth and take every shot and then go, I'm sleepy after five straight minutes of that. Damn, I don't know why I'm so tired. It's crazy. If they gave me a teammate, I could pass the puck to. I'd be pretty, yeah.

But no, like it was a I think, you know, I wrote an article saying this. Like I think everything about this tournament worked well. And like a lot of people seem to be excited about the sport these days and that's awesome. But like, people are going to give the NHL credit for it. All they did was just do stuff that we've been saying

for years they should do. Three to one point system. Longer overtime. Best on best hockey. Just have a tournament. Like, that is the thing, right? Like, because I will give the NHL credit for this. But it's like the other side of that coin is how the hell did we go 10 years without this?

Like that's exactly right. Who in the office was the one who was like, you know, I don't think this should be a priority. And like, does that person have a footprint on their butt today? Because like, that is like I get the work. You can make the argument that all of this was as good as it was specifically because. cause they didn't do it for a decade. No, it's, it's, it's, I mean, I get that you don't want to necessarily go to the well too often and I can almost feel like they're gonna, yeah, it's nine, 2016.

Yeah, I, like I kind of don't count the, uh, the, the, the one with like two fake teams in it. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, even, even there, right? Like, I mean, some people would. So I want to, you know. And I get like, yes, the World Cup was often like in every four. years thing. So that would have taken you to 2020 and there was some stuff going on.

Well, they announced like a year and a half before, or a year in change. I think it was January 2019. They were like, by the way, we're not doing that World Cup thing next year. Forget it. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, you can do it too much, I think. And I'm sure that there's already going to be like some of those hot takes brewing up when. Well, now it's going to be every two years. Well, yeah, it's going to be every, because they're going to do a World Cup in two years. 2008. And when that happens, assuming the Olympics go off fine next year, it'll be three and four years. And you just know somebody's going to be like, this is too much. But, you know, it's like outdoor games. Like, yeah, if they're doing six of these a year, that's going to be a little too much. But for now, at least, it was great. Like, it was. And I'll be honest. Like, I never bought into the idea that it was going to be the, the quote unquote, glorified All-Star game. that everybody keeps quoting, even though I'm not sure I ever actually saw anyone say those specific words.

Well, it's funny because, like, you know, after the Sweden game, like, even like Victor Hedman, I think it was, was saying like, yeah, we like kind of didn't know what the level of intensity was going to be. Like, but then, you know, within 10 minutes of practice, we were like, okay, this is, this is going to kick major ass. Yeah. Was like everyone's going to try. I really hard and all that.

So, like, that's all you're looking for. I was an optimist. I said last week, I was looking forward to it. I thought it would be good. This was the ceiling of what I was expecting as far as the intensity, the excitement, like, just everything. And now we wait for Thursday, right? Like, we see, obviously, you know, who wins the game, but also what kind of game do they deliver? There's going to be a lot of eyes on this.

There's going to be, you know, in one of those, I think, kind of happy coincidence. that the NHL didn't plan for, but the fact that that wild Saturday game was so easy to contrast to NBA All-Star weekend, which nobody seemed to like as, you know, it's got a lot of people down in the States right now who don't talk about hockey very much, talking about how great this thing is, maybe using it just as a way to bash the NBA. But there's going to be some people tuning in to see what this is all about on, on Thursday. And I hope, I hope Canada wins, but I hope it delivers a game worthy of it. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, again, you wonder how much like injuries and illnesses and stuff like that are going to factor in.

Like, I think it's fair to say a bunch of guys in this tournament. John Cooper said something yesterday about, like, there's going to be some stories that come out about Sidney Crosby when this is, when this tournament is over, which I, you know, I don't know. how to interpret that in terms of like performance and handsing drugs I would assume well sure but like I you know does that mean crossy's playing at like 80% and his wrist is screwed up and and that kind of thing like I don't know you know and um yeah like you say I if sidney crossby's playing banged up he doesn't fucking look it he looks he's awesome he's so sick man um the the empty neck goal yesterday was like the one of the one of the try-hardest empty-neck goals I think you're ever going to see, you know? And like I had on social media, I don't remember what site I posted, but like it was very much like,

that's it. Dad's angry and he's going to turn this car right around energy. Yep. Because it was like, oh, it's 4-0. Oh, 4-1, 4-2, 4-3. All right. Sid, get out there and slap this game upside the head and tell it to cut it out. What have been your thoughts on the Canadian goal tending, by the way? Not great.

Yeah, that's true, right? But I don't know. It hasn't been terrible. It's been not great. And the fact that I understand why they went with Bennington the whole way, but now they're locked into them. Yeah, of course. It's each of the first two games, Sweden and the U.S., he gave up one bad goal. That's right.

And, you know, when you're playing a two-one game like that Saturday game, you can't be the team that gives up the bad goal. And that was potentially the difference. And then, you know, yesterday it looked like he was going to get like the easy shutout. And then we'd all write the, okay, you know, and then it all kind of fell apart. And I don't think any of those goals were his fault necessarily. Yeah.

And it's also sort of like, okay, we could get a save here any time. Would be really cool. So I, yeah, I mean, with Hellebuck playing as well as he has, I, this is like going back to last summer when we started like really talking about what the rosters are going to look like in matchups and all of that. This was the nightmare scenario. And everybody said, well, you know, let's wait and see during the season, somebody might emerge.

And as it turned out, Logan Thompson did, but didn't get. And they were like, yeah, that's too bad. bad though, huh? And even in the tournament, you know, it was like, hey, we probably said it even last week. Who knows? Somebody can get hot for a week and that's, you know, that's your goal going into the final game. And totally, it's been Connor Hellibuck who got hot. So, I mean, this is, it is such a mismatch on paper. Now, hey, one game, who knows. But, man, it just feels like there's, there's not going to be that one bad goal to give. and if you're,

if you're, you know, if you're a skater on team USA, like you have to have full confidence. Like I don't want to make a mistake, but if I do, I think it's going to be okay. And if you're Canada,

it's, you're probably not feeling that. So, you know, Binnington hasn't been bad enough to be the goat if they lose, pending obviously what happens on Thursday, but he certainly hasn't been good.

Yeah, I think, I think wouldn't you just say like he's, been about as good as you could expect Jordan Bennington to be an international best-on-best tournament. I would have liked him to be a bit better than this, to be honest. Well, sure, but like, at the end of the day, he's not having a great season and, like, overall, let alone, you know, in this tournament, like, he's just been okay or maybe even a little

less than that on a not very good team. And now he's on a very good team. And, you know, the other teams are also extremely good. And he's been fine. You know, he's made some big saves and all of that, but just you can't let the can't let those easy ones sneak by you yeah like you said in a bunch of two one games you can't be the guy

giving up the the stinky goal exactly but yeah look I mean you know just based on the atmosphere in a Canada's Finland game that did mean something obviously but like

you know not exactly a ton of American fans at that one. And it was still like, fuck you, Canada. Like, was kind of the atmosphere. And then, like, people were up for a completely, you know, on paper, meaningless USA game. You know, people, people were dialed in for it. So I think, I think Thursday, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be wild on

Thursday. fucking madhouse, yeah. Let's, let's not do a whole long thing on it, but we got to talk about the anthems. Just what happened on Saturday? What's going to happen on Thursday? What are your thoughts? To be expected, all of it. You know, like, this is going to shock you.

I, you know, not the biggest fan of like, oh, let's all sit through the anthems and all that kind of stuff, you know? And I don't know, like, if you, like, if people who are like, I don't understand, like, maybe people aren't saying they don't understand. why, but like, it totally makes sense to me why Canada would boo the anthem. It totally makes sense to me why people would be like, well, you know, don't, don't boo the anthem. We're just hockey players or whatever. Like, I get why someone would say that. I don't like. Just a simple hockey player who was photograph shaking hands and smiling with the guy who's

trying to annex your country a few days ago. Yeah, that's right. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. I thought the crowd was great. I thought they, Montreal did, treated it exactly the right way.

And, yeah, I had, well, yeah, I mean, zero apology, zero sympathy for, for it. And at the same time, well, you know, what are you, what are you going to say when they boo you on Thursday? Fair is fair. Yeah. Fair is fair, man. I shove you, you get to shove back.

That's, you know, that's that too. So. Yeah, the way I was thinking of. about it was like, okay, you know, was a Brady Kachuk was like, you know, I can't wait to be the villain after the Finland game. And then they booed him and he's like, well, not about like that thing, though. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like that's, it's like, Brady is interesting because like at all these guys, he's the one who's got to go back to a Canadian team.

Mm-hmm. Yep. You know, Matthew Kuch can play Captain America to the hilt and then he gets to, you know, go back down to. to Trump land and, uh, and, and, and keep it going. Whereas, you know, Brady, I'm sure there's like, that one angel on his shoulder that's like, don't, don't say anything that's going to make life difficult a week from now. Right. Right. I, yeah. I, he has not done that yet.

You know, like, the thing I, the way I was thinking about it was, remember WrestleMania 7, Sergeant Slaughter became Iraqi because they needed the cheap heat. Sure. You know. Like, okay. Imagine if. Sergeant Slaughter was like, Hulk Hogan, I'm going to destroy you and everything you hold dear. But of course, I do respect the red, white, and blue. Like, what? You know, like, that wouldn't work. And so, you know, if you're being the villain, be the villain.

That's my thing with it, you know? Yep. And like, I don't know. Like I said, I get why people would be, like, mad about it. And, like, you know, even Brad Marshand was saying, like, I don't think they should be booing the anthem or whatever. Sure. Okay. You know, I totally get why anyone would say that.

But, like, everybody saw the... To me, it's an entertainment product. Yeah, like the tweet that, like, Cam put out with the conversation he had with a unnamed American player, where he basically... Right. I'm like, what do you think of the anthem booing? And the player was like, ooh, I don't like that. That's really bad. Don't do that.

And then he asked the follow-up of, okay, but given the fact that one country is trying to make the other country not a country anymore. Yeah. And the American player was like, yeah, you know. I would do a lot worse than boo. And it was like, yeah, of course you would. And the fact that, you know, the fact that it got limited to booing, hey, you know, that's. It's all in the game to me at a certain point, too. Because like, you know, like, I think all this stuff about like they're trying to make us the 50, you know that's not going to happen, man.

like so well i mean well i know that's not going to happen but it doesn't mean that it's not going to happen but it doesn't mean that it's not going to be incredibly disruptive and uh sure sure sure but what i'm saying is what i'm saying is i i do think it's you know again people are leaning into the gimmick and i think that's fine you know um so yeah that's that's i don't fucking i don't want to talk about this shit before. Sure. But yeah, you know,

like you say, how can you not be excited for, for, you know, U.S. Canada, too, best on best. This is the first time

the U.S. has actually had like a team that on paper is roughly as good as the Canadian team, you know? Like, say what you want about

when they won the World Cup in 96 or, you know. 96 was pretty close. Pretty close, but, you know, 96 had,

Mario and Wayne Gretzky. You know what I mean? They didn't have Mario. Oh, they didn't have. You're right about that. That was the problem. Regardless, they had Wayne Gretzky, who was, you know, still at that point pretty fucking good. Yep.

So. And they had goaltending back then, which is, again, the equalizer. Like, one through 18, I think Canada's got the better team. I mean, Canada has had the two best players in this tournament so far, I'd argue, which is McDavid and McKinnon. McKinnon's been fantastic and he's been. well back of McDavid. And if you wanted to say Crosby is, you know, to make it top three, we could maybe even do that.

But the U.S. I think has better depth, although it's dicey. And as we have said a million times, except for the goaltending, well, goal is out there. I'm pretty sure the U.S. is not going to agree to Canada's offer to play except for the goaltenders on Thursday night. So Connor Hellebuck, man. I hope playoff Connor shows up, but I'm not, I'm not banking on it. The other thing that I wanted to say is, like, you know, I watch a lot of NHL games.

I don't go to a lot of NHL games, right? So, like, yesterday was my first time seeing most of the greatest players in the world play live, you know? And, like, so I'm like, oh, yeah, it'll be cool to see Carmen McDavid. I wonder what's going to happen. And like three minutes into the game, he's like, I'm going to do, I'm going to fucking nuke Connor McDavid style goal into the net. And I was like, yeah, man. And then you, whatever, 30 seconds later, Nathan McKinnon's like, me too.

It was so sick, man. It was awesome. So I'm looking forward to Thursday. Yeah. I say that now. By Thursday afternoon, I might not be looking forward to it. Yeah, sick to your stomach. I might, I might very well be.

And by Thursday night, I might be like, you know what? Actually, it was great the whole time. I got contacted by like the media people at the athletic. And they're like, hey, if we get any requests for like national media on Thursday night, are you available? I was like, I'm available, but that might not be. If Canada loses 10-1 and you guys see me out Fox News at 11 o'clock, hit record on the DVR because it'll never be shown again, whatever. something bad's going to happen. But that's okay.

I'll just tell everyone I'm you. Well, don't do that. Too late. Do we want to make a prediction or do you want to save that for at the end? I don't care to do it now. I'll say exactly what Victor Hedman said. U.S. on home ice, but Canada gets revenge. I think that is how it's going to play out.

You know, one of the things we often say in college hockey is like a lot of these teams like in conference play will play each other three times over the course of a season. And it's really hard to get the season sweep because you just play a team three times. And, you know, one of those is likely to come up not going your way. And I think it's that, but I don't know that these two teams, like these two teams, I feel like could play 10 games and they would win and lose. and lose, win and lose, you know, like for the entire course of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, give me Canada, but like, you know.

That's a score. Three, two. Okay. I'm going to go U.S. 4-1. Wow. On the strength of the goaltending. And also, this is me a little bit kind of not picking against Canada as insurance, but sort of picking against an exciting game as insurance and hoping, you know, I got ruled out.

And by the way, I'll also say this, and I'm hesitant to even bring it up. Uh-oh. This is real, like, talking about a no-hitter in the seventh inning stuff. We're six games. Into this thing, one game to go. There have been no reviews. No controversies, really? No missed calls.

I mean, there have been some. I know, you know, there's, there always are. But this has been as controversy-free, as far from an officiating standpoint. standpoint, as you can imagine. And Jack Eichol's overtime goal is being reviewed. That's right. Because Keith Kuchuk was offside by an inch in 1996, and we have to restart the timeline from there. And by the way, can I say this?

Speaking of seeing old hockey guys at these games, walking around downstairs, you just saw a lot of, like, current and ex-NHL players and coaches just like milling about. Yeah. And it's just because, you know what, this kicks out. We all love it. Like, that's why. You know, like, everybody's just happy to be there. Like, I saw Gerard Gallant. Like, he has no reason to be there.

Mm-hmm. But you know what? He was backstage. He was having a good time. Absolutely. And you know what? We all were, weren't we? And is that not the lesson in all this?

It's been great so far. And we're all having a beautiful time. I have loved it. Yep. It's a 10 out of 10, like, major insane success. like again even if you were an optimist about it you couldn't have been like and it'll be this good every game in the in the round robin will be good to one extent or another i mean they everyone it was very bad luck that they ended up with last night's game being meaningless and it was still a

decent game but that i mean the scenarios for that to play out were were not very many and it just hit in exactly the way that uh yeah and like but for the Finland beat Sweden and everybody was just kind of like, okay, these guys are going to get waxed three straight games. Two overtime. No shouts. Close gay. You know, Canada, U.S. was, you know, maybe a classic. And even you can say pending what happens in the final.

And obviously that's going to be the exclamation point or not. But you got the matchup. You got the match up. You got the, you got the north. Like this is a North America center tournament. Of course it has to be. I won't go into the Olympics saying like, oh, yeah, we need a U.S. Canada final, although, you know, you and I would prefer that. Yeah.

But it's, you know, this was clearly the, you know, the main event you were booking towards. And now we got it. And we see if it delivers. Yeah, man, this is going to be. I'm so excited to be in the building on Thursday. That's going to be cool. Oh, I've never been to the Olympics, you know. Mm-hmm.

It'll be as good as it. I was at the 96 final as a fan in standing. Cool. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, it was loud. People forget about that. Like a lot of them look back at Team USA won. It was best of three and it went three games and Team USA wins the last game, five, two. But Canada was up to one with three minutes left. Wow, really?

And USA scored four goals. And boy, it just, that crowd went from. as loud as I've heard to not very loud at all. Of course. Yeah, I mean, that checks out. That makes sense to me that that would happen. I still think the loudest, what's the loudest crowd you've ever? You've been,

you can include wrestling in here. Like, what's? Mick Foley wins the title in Worcester, Massachusetts. You were there for that. I was. Okay. So I was going to say, like, is Thursday going to top it? But I don't think anything will top that.

No. Yeah. Well, when Stone Cold came out. I was going to say, if they hit, they hit the Austin 316. team music. You know, maybe comes out. He fucking

absolutely pancakes Jordan Bennington with a chair. How about Austin one goal would be maybe a nice boost? But we'll get to that. The loudest I've ever heard, I think,

was in Montreal for a George St. Pierre fight. Oh, yeah. That place went absolutely not. Hey, he was there at the game the other night. If I'd been there on Saturday, it might have been,

I might have a different opinion. I kind of regret that I didn't, not that I didn't spend the 2,000 for tickets, but that I didn't like convince the athletic that you know what I really it's hard to write jokes from home on my couch I really need to be be right there but yeah I need I need I need like I need like Sydney Crosby sign off on some of these jokes exactly that's what it really boils down by him yeah he's my he's my co-writer a lot of people don't know that um but yeah man like this is gonna this is gonna be so sick I can't wait um with that why don't we take a break and then we'll come back and we'll dig in more on like every team individually instead of just like, you know, kind of big, more big picture stuff.

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Do you want to go alphabetical order? Do you want to go order of finish in the round robin? Like, how do you want to handle it? Yeah, let's do that. Let's work our way up. Okay. So the team that finished last, unfortunately, is Finland. I think everybody kind of had that one penciled in as a thing.

But they beat Sweden. They beat Sweden, which for many Finnish fans is not a bad consolation prize at all. Oh, I think probably even the Finnish team had to be like, you know what? What do you think would they prefer gold but lose to Sweden or beat Sweden? Yeah. That's tough. I bet it really is kind of a coin flip for them. But like I think overall they have to be fairly happy with how, you know, like they hung with every team.

Yeah. And especially given, like, how decimated that blue line was by injuries, but also, I mean, it was the one position group that couldn't have injuries and they had a ton. Right. Yeah. They were, they were right there kind of let down by the goaltending. I mean, UC Saros was not the guy that came in and stole anything. Nope. And Lankane was good against Sweden, I guess is what you would say. Yeah. And like I don't put a lot of what happened to him yet. Like I said, like they were like, hey, Connick David, do you want to just like puck right on your tape at the blue line? Walk in and score easily.

Mark Stone's crashing the net while you do it. Okay. And Nathan McKinnon, same deal, right? you just want to like easily go by two defensemen who were on the same side of the ice for some reason. You know, I don't put a ton of that on Lankinen yesterday, but at the same time, it's like, you know, Finland, I think of is kind of like a goaltending country and they didn't really bring any guys who were having great seasons.

Lankin finished the tournament with a 484 goals against. That's not going to cut it. No, no, for sure. I feel like you want to dip that under. four seven to really have a chance. I guess I have to agree. But you know what I mean? It's just like he got thrown to the fucking wolves against the U.S. and Canada, man.

Yep. So. And. Or wait, no, he did he not, he played like he came on in relief against the U.S. Right? Yeah. Did he, yeah, I guess he did come on eventually. Played well against Sweden, started against Canada, and then Saros came.

Yeah. I got to tell you, I meant to say this earlier, too. If you were like, oh, by the way, that U.S. Canada game that happened three weeks ago, I don't know why. That just feels like it was a lifetime ago to me. Yep. So, yeah, you know, okay. What can you say? This is, uh, it's interesting because, you know, after the game yesterday, they were like, we, if nothing else, we proved we could hang.

with basically every team here. The only one you would say like kind of put distance between them is the U.S. Where it was close until it wasn't, you know? Yeah, and even that one was, I mean, they scored the first goal, I believe, and it was 2.1 after 2.1 for the U.S.

after two periods. And then I literally like went to do something and missed the first minute, came back. And I was like, all right, let's sit down and watch the rest of this classic click. Oops. Ball game's over. We'll see you tomorrow night.

Yep, absolutely. By the way, Charlie McAvoy out on Thursday, according. Yeah, I mean. Just coming across the wire there. So disregard what we were saying. It still sounds like he's going to be fine for the medium to long term, but will not play. Yeah, as soon as I saw admitted to the hospital, I was like, well, that's probably like bad for him. Just my, you know, I'm not a doctor, I guess.

but, you know, easy to diagnose. Player hospitalized. Oh, okay. Yeah. So what happens when you hit Connor McDavid? And Sidney Crosby. Yeah. It's just not allowed to happen.

A McDavid hit was sweet, man. Oh, yeah. When do you ever see McDavid get hit like that? That is honestly, like that's up there with like the, you know, you ever like go on YouTube and you're like, Wayne Gretzky getting hit? And it's like, we have a 17 second video here for you. We have two clips from his 20-year NHL career.

But yeah, anybody stand out like positively to you from the Finns? I think Granlin's the guy that, you know, opened a few eyes and not just forgetting the OT goal, but yeah, he certainly. No, I mean, he scored twice against Canada yesterday. And yeah, no, he was really good. I thought, honestly, like,

obviously like you said, their defensive situation was not ideal, let's say. But I thought a lot of those, those like Montpalo, I thought was pretty good in this tournament. Yep. You know,

especially like, you know, if you're an NHL fan and you don't watch a lot of senators games, like you would be forgiven for being like, who the fuck is that? You know? And,

like, I've never heard of this guy and it's because he has 20, is it 22 games zero points in the NHL? Yeah, I believe he was the zero point. Yeah. And like he acquitted himself pretty well. All things considered.

Minus five. But, you know, that's probably not, not bad on that, on that team, given what they were up against. Yeah. And like you say, like, you'd like to see a little more from, from the offense, but like, Yeah, the offense just wasn't there. Defense leads to offense. I say this all the time. Remember the early days of like, oh, why are the oilers so bad?

And it's like, well, because Connor McDavid, when he's on the ice, has to go 200 feet every shift. Yep. He has to go get the puck in his own zone, skate it all the way to the other end and try to score. And like the frequency with which he did that is why he's Connerick David, you know? And they just didn't have enough guys who could like get the puck out of their zone. And then when they did get it, it was, I mean, Miko Renton in one goal on the power play. So, you know, you need more. I mean, it's one goal in three games is not bad at this level of tournament, but you need more from a guy who's probably your, well, your best offensive player.

100%. And, you know, Patrick Liny, no goals, did have the three, three. assist, but that's a guy where you kind of need him to be putting the puck in and... Yep, 100%. Just not enough.

But, you know, given that, the fact that they were right... They were competitive. Literally right up until the final minute. We're right there with a shot at going to the final. Like it's one

different bounce somewhere and maybe we're talking about them being in the final. Yeah. part of that's the tournament format, of course. You know, like, like I said, I think people predicted them to lose every game and they didn't do that. They got, they got an overtime win, so that's cool, good for them.

But also, you know, it just, I think you would say it mostly played out how people thought, except the games were more competitive. But that's a credit to them. Like, you know, you take the three of the three of them. the four best defense, well, two of the four best defensemen off the team, right? Probably. Probably. Maybe not. I don't know. But Heiskenen's almost certainly like their number one guy. I mean, Heikin's their, you could have made an argument. He's the most important player that they would bring to a tournament like this with the whole respect to Markov. And to lose him. I mean, that was, I think, I think we would have said last week, you know, if we're talking about things go great for Finland, we're talking about a goalie stealing stuff, and it didn't. I mean, they had two of the worst three, or two of the worst three goalies in the tournament by, say, a percentage. So, and you can't blame those guys, but that's where they needed the miracle, and it didn't happen.

So good, you know, good showing all things considered. Totally. Totally agree. All right. Let's do Sweden now. Again, the fact that they didn't lose. in regulation and they're the only team in the tournament to not lose in regulation. And they did it without the guy who probably would have been their first goalie, Markstrom.

You know, I think you've got to be, again, like if you're the Swedish ice hockey federation or whatever, like you've got to be pretty encouraged with the results of the tournament and, you know, maybe you say like if the game plays out more or less like it did against the U.S., you know, 99 times out of 100, the U.S. probably wins. They hit like five posts or something like that. But they fucking beat them. So what do you want? You give them one overtime goal,

especially against Canada. And if the rest of the tournament plays out, they're in the final. Now, if last night had been a potential final preview, I think maybe it plays out differently with how it goes. We'll never know. But they were right there. They were right there.

You know who really? impressed me more than I thought because I thought he was cooked. Is Eric Carlson kind of looked a little bit like his old self when he's got decent teammates and is playing for something? Like that makes me feel good about the Olympics for him and even, you know, some of us were going like, man, why was he one of the first six guys they put on the roster? Should he even been on the roster at all? Like if they hadn't put him in the top six, would they maybe have left him behind? and he looked, you know, he looked, not the old Eric Carlson, because the old Eric Carlson.

One of the five best players of all time. Single-handedly win games, but he didn't look lost out there. Put it that way. No, not even a little bit. You're right about that. And then the flip side, I mentioned them already, but Elias Pedersen, not doing a ton to fix. that whole

not a big game guy. That sort of cropped up really mainly in the playoffs last year. It's not like this has followed him his whole career. But I think if you're Vancouver and you were, you know, presumably the trade talks

have died down a little with Miller gone and you're going, you know, maybe he'll show us something in this tournament. Bad news. He didn't make you feel good. No, he did not. And didn't, you know,

it wasn't getting a lot of ice time either, which is, somewhat surprising, you would think, given his talent level, but no. Yeah, it's, it's tough, right? Because you're, you're just kind of saying to yourself, like, what do we, what do we got to do to get this guy going if you're Vancouver? And the, you know, the motivation that a lot of guys have shown, a lot of guys have played, like with Carlson, like played above the level they've shown

in the NHL this season. And Patterson might actually been worse. Yeah. I mean, he was just, now, he may have been hurt last night. Or, yeah, or sick or something. For the most part in the third period, yeah. So, you know, I'm sure with a lot of these guys, it's kind of like in the playoffs, you can say, oh, this guy didn't play well.

And then, oops, it's, turns out there was a health issue that made that understandable, but definitely not what you wanted to see if you're a Canucks fan. Yeah. The other guy that really kind of stood out to me in that way, I haven't looked at, like, gone and looked at all the stats from last night, but Lindholm was like not very good in the first two games, I thought. And, you know, this is a guy speaking of the Bruins and all that.

Like, they just gave him a big contract this summer. And let's see, I'll pull up the, I'll pull up the box score here really quickly. But he, going into last night, no points, four shot attempt, seven of 19 at the dot playing about like 11 minutes a night, maybe not even. That's tough. Yep. He played 17 and a half last night, which is good. He went 8 to 5 at the dot. or eight and five at the dot, I should say.

So, yeah, he did, you know, it says here he had two shot attempts. I couldn't tell you when they happened, you know, and, yeah, now, to be fair, I don't think he started a single one of his shifts in the offensive zone, but this is a $7 million player or whatever. I feel like you kind of want more from him. $7 million player for a long time. Yep. Yep.

That's true. Like I say, I think you want more from him if you're Sweden or God, if you're the Bruins. But, you know, yeah, I don't know. Do you got any other thoughts on Sweden or do you want to? No, I think that that could. Well, actually, we should mention, we're not so. Samuel Erson come from. Where did that version of him?

I know he's been good for the last few weeks, but holy smokes. Yeah, he was awesome. You know, I think somebody, I can't remember where I saw this, but someone was like, Tortorella has to be losing his fucking mind on the bench. Where is this fucking guy been all season? Seriously. This is, yeah, that was. So, yeah, I guess kudos to him because Olmark and Gustafson were not.

Yeah, and apparently Gustafin's sick and, you know, maybe Olmark. or Omar was out of the lineup last night because he was sick from what I, from what I saw. So, you know, one of the things I've been really thinking about with this whole tournament is that this is kind of like, what do you want to say? Like an Olympics like rehearsal or try out it for a number of guys on the roster. And I think, you know, I think Erson at least played his way into the conversation in a way that you wouldn't have said he would be. in two weeks ago, you know? Yep. So, you know, they're taking three goalies.

I don't know that he's going to be one of the three, but like, he's, we're at least talking about it now, you know, and, and you wouldn't have, you wouldn't have guessed it. Sam Erson, Olympic guy next year, not a fucking chance. Now, maybe. You know, if he can build on this and that kind of thing, it's, it's. It's plausible or more plausible. Can he get a Canadian passport between now and then?

Yes. Unfortunately, he played, you know, this is one of those things. If he was on like the Calgary Flames, maybe, maybe they tried to expedite something. We can make that happen. Yeah. Work that out. Maybe. Maybe.

But yeah, I, you know, there are a couple, Leo Carlson's another guy that drew in and had a pretty good game, I thought, last night. And again, same thing. Based on this season, you might not have said there's a guy that's going to be on, like, seriously on Sweden's radar. And now you've got to at least think about it. So good for him. Good for both of them. Yeah. So, all right.

Let's move on to Canada here. I guess kind of the same thing. Like who do you think has kind of played their way either on or off the Olympic, like, shortlist, whatever you want to say? On or off, it's a little, it's a little tough. There's certainly been guys who haven't looked great. You know, the check, the bottom six, it's in a way been kind of what we thought, where they did bring a lot of kind of sandpaper, guys who brought something other than offense to the bottom six, let's say.

Totally. It hasn't really looked great yet. I think those guys probably, I mean, I don't think any of them, played their way off, partly because half of them are lighting players and John Cooper's going to be the coach, but also because they were never, like, locked in to be on. Yeah. I'll tell you who has not had a good tournament. This is going to sound weird, but Mitch Marner, other than scoring the overtime goal that,

you know, they probably made the difference in them making the final or not. 100%. Which is a pretty big thing to, you know, to. just wave away, but other than that, he has been invisible. Yeah, I would agree with that. And got dropped down in the lineup last night or yesterday afternoon against Finland in bottom six role and just has not looked like a guy who can drive, play against this level of competition at all. And, you know, did get the, you know, the goal is his only point. and, well, I mean,

if you've got a big one spot for it, you know. Beyond that. Yeah, but like he's, he's good, you know, he could have gone like a negative or a minus 14 in this tournament and he'd be on the Olympic roster next year. You know what I mean? I feel like it's very, very likely that he does. But the only two guys, to your point about like the kind of lower in the lineup guys

who aren't necessarily, you know, making a strong case for themselves to come back, even if you think they, you know, reputationally would. The two guys that really kind of stand out to me on that front are like Marshand, Dowdy. Yeah. Guys that like... The older guys that... Yeah, you maybe wouldn't have taken them anyway just because they're on the older side.

And like, you know, would you rather have Brad Marshand or like... I don't know, Connor Bedard or something like that. What's that? Tom Wilson. Well, right, yeah. There's your sandpaper replacement for Brad Marchand, right? Yeah, finally, we get to get rid of that fancy pants Brad Marchand and get somebody with a little grit. Yeah, Marciaan hasn't been.

I mean, I saw. Where did he get the goal? Was that? Must have been in the Sweden game, I think. Yeah, well, it must have been, right. Yeah, didn't he have like the first or second one anyway. But yeah, he, you know, like I saw people saying he's been like horrible and I, you know, maybe that was true in like one of the games. I guess I don't really remember now.

But, you know, I don't think he's been like bad or anything, but just like at his age and, you know, where he is in his career and all that kind of thing. Like I think he needed to be a little better than like he hasn't been that bad. you know, to really get the Olympic consideration that, you know, because wasn't he one of the first guys that got named to the team this year? Yeah, so like I don't, let's put it this way. They're naming like six or eight guys to the Olympic team a couple months in advance. He's not on that list, you know? Let's hope they're not, by the way.

Let's not do the Olympic teams. Oh, that's interesting. Three months before this time. They usually do them in January, right? Because it's right. That sounds right. We're in a classic. They've done them.

So that would be a little bit. That would make more sense. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Like the guys, like the Anthony Sorrellys and Sam Bennett's are not there to put points on the board. Totally. But you haven't noticed them a ton. Other than Bennett getting in the fight.

But it's, yeah. And I mean, the blue line's been okay. Kill McCar missed the game. Shetor, you know, we should just mention, even though that feels like it was month ago, but yeah, totally. That stinks. So far,

knock on wood, seems like he's the one guy. Did we find out what his injury was? Did they ever? No, I don't, if they did it again. So far. They told me three weeks ago and now I don't remember,

you know. So far he seems like the guy who maybe out of everyone is, is looking at an extended injury because that didn't, that didn't look good at all. Yeah, and also he plays for Vegas, you know, So it's like, okay, well, when's the, when's the playoffs start? We'll see you one day before that big dog.

That would be very funny if Vegas, like, announced that his timeline for return was like 109 to 110 days. Like, just give us that range. They, I think they said week to week was what I'm remembering. And, you know, they're like, and technically like nine weeks is week to week. So we'll see you out there. But yeah, I, you know, I can't. I can't think of too many guys on Canada where I guess the only thing you would really say is like if they brought back zero of these goalies, you'd be like, okay, sure, that's fine. He would be okay with that.

Absolutely. Like you say, Bennington, you know, he hasn't played badly and the fact that they're going to use him in presumably four straight games, like Aiden Hill, thanks for tagging along or whatever. that probably speaks well to how they view him internally, you know, like, yeah, he's not going to maybe ideally be the starter, but he, he's our guy, he was our guy in the four nation. So why wouldn't we bring him this time? Like that, that would make sense to me. But if he's getting a lot of, a lot of reps, maybe not so good. And then, you know, on the positive side, I think you're going to say Thomas Harley, that's been a pretty solid addition, like mid-termint.

Like, hey, we need you to be ready. He's like, yeah, let me get on a plane from Dallas to Boston to Montreal. And they made him like hover Mission Impossible style over the ice while. Yeah. And then they couldn't, couldn't snip the rope until McCar's skates were off the ice. And he was good. So what can you say? And I think that's a guy.

He's been one of the real good young defensemen in this. league for a while now, not at that, like, Adam Fox level that, but the next one down. And I don't buy this a lot, but I do think the combination of the fact that he plays in Dallas and the fact that he plays with Meryl Heiskenen, I do feel like he's one of those guys where it's like, he's better than you think he is. And clearly, I think there was an element of who's available for this sort of thing. But he, uh, he, uh, he, he, He hasn't looked completely out of place. And I think, you know, there were probably some people up here going like, wait, we're bringing who?

But, yeah, it's good for his reputation at least. And yeah, probably does put him solidly on the radar for next year that maybe he wouldn't have been. Yeah, again, like I've said this a few times now. But like when they said Thomas Harley's the guy they were calling up, I was like, let me for the third time this week, just Google to make sure Evan Bouchard is healthy. Yeah. You know, like it's like he The fact that he doesn't seem to be have been in their like top nine Defenseman or whatever you know like I don't I can't say I get it

But you know that makes me wonder like Has Thomas Harley now that he's played well like are they even going to bring Evan Bouchard to the Olympics? It's a bigger roster so probably they will but also maybe they won't. I mean, yeah, like it's, I don't think it's a guarantee. I think clearly there are concerns about Bouchard's defensive game. To which I say, you know, hey, nerds, why can you try watching a fucking game, get back to me, you know what I mean? Look, I mean, they almost got burned, right?

Because the argument against Bouchard was we got Kail McCarr to run the power play. Right. And then for one game, they didn't have Kail McCar. and that was the game that they lost, although he's back now, so we will see. Yeah, I thought he looked pretty good yesterday. But yeah, wasn't that an illness thing with McCar? Like, it wasn't an injury?

He was just sick. Everyone seems sick. Huh, that's interesting. Maybe we don't have it during flu season next time. I don't know. I heard you, it should, now that we move down to Boston, I hear you guys are all healthy now,

so it should be fine. Yeah, we made America healthy again. No problems there. Anybody else you want to talk about on Canada? I don't think so. Okay. Oh, you know what? Let me say this.

Big shout out to Sam Reinhardt. That guy keeps kicking ass, man. He's such a good player. And even like, even beginning of last year, you wouldn't have been like, yeah, this is one of like the 10 best forwards on Earth or so, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Maybe I'm slightly overstating it.

get a goal in this tournament. They need that from him. But he's been right around it. Yeah. Well, you know, again, like just being in the presser yesterday, they asked, like, you know, Reinhart, what do you think? And John Cooper's like, the fact that that guy scored damn near 60 goals, like, he's like, he had like 57 last year, right?

And whoever asked the question was like, yep. And he's like, yeah. So, like, the fact that he plays like he does and he's like a, he can be like a 55, 60 goal guy in this league. is crazy, you know? So, like I thought, yeah, like you say, he's not scoring, but like I thought he's had a great tournament so far. So, yeah, I guess that's all I want to shout out on Canada.

Let's, hey, there's one team left. You guessed it. Team Russia. Here we go. Well, okay. On that, they were showing a video like before, like on the Jumbotron before the game where they talked about, where they were asking about like, Oh, you know, what do you think about the four nations and all that?

But included on that, like, I was kind of looking down and then I looked up and, like, Radco Gudis is talking about it? And I'm like, is he Swedish? Like, what the fuck? I thought he was like Czech or something, you know? Or Slovak. I thought, you know, he's one of those, you know? And I'm like, oh, that's weird that they have him talking about it. But he's like, yeah, it should be good tournament, blah, blah, blah.

And then I'm like, oh, that's weird. And then the next person they cut to, they're asking Leon Drysidal about the Four Nations. And I'm like, don't like taunt these guys. Yeah. What do you think? Your country's not good enough to go. Is that piss you off, maybe? I thought that was bizarre.

But anyway, the United States of America, baby. These colors don't run, love it, or leave it. Freebird. Okay. Well, let's start with this. The free bird thing rocks. I love that as the goals. Like, I love the country having a goal song,

and I love that the U.S. chose a song as sick as Freebird. Mm-hmm. That's cool to me. It's pretty good. It's not bad. Not bad at all. But, yeah, who have you liked? Who have you, who's stood out to you?

I think there's a lot to like on this, and a lot of it being the guys that you would expect. Um, Zach Wrenzky, I mean, start with him. Like, holy smokes. Pretty good. This guy is, uh, he's having a year. He certainly is, yeah. You, and, you know, you wonder, this has come up a few times.

Like, you wonder how much, like, awards voters are going to weigh in performance in this tournament, even though they obviously shouldn't. You know? And I, I, that's exactly. right. It doesn't hurt. Like, you know, you may not watch every Winnipeg Jets game, but like, if you saw Connor Mc or Connor Hellebuck against Canada last Saturday, you're like, you know, it's like the best player in the world. You know what I mean? Like, I, I just think you're, like, it's going to be impossible to fully do. Like, even if you're saying, look, I, I understand, you know, that was a different thing and that's not the NHL, blah, blah, blah. I think it's

going to be hard for voters to divorce themselves from the idea of, like, I just saw this guy have an absolute sick tournament and best-on-best. And Zach Wrenski is one of them, especially because no Quinn Hughes. Yep. No, who I didn't see have a good tournament against Canada is Quinn Hughes. No, he was invisible out there. He was. Tell me him wrong, you know?

Did you see Wishes tweet this morning saying that they should, if with McAvoy out that Quinn Hughes should be the injury replacement, go check on him, see how he's doing a week later and get him in. That'd be spicy. Unironically, why not try it? I do not know if that's allowed or not, but hey, the rules are... Yeah, the rules seem malleable for sure, yeah. Whatever works for you guys, works for us as kind of the NHL's...

Again, look, it's better than the alternative of Canada or of the NHL going, tough shit Canada. Who's this Thomas Harley guy? We made up a dumb rule. We didn't really think it through. We will be adhering to it. To say that ship is sailed and stick with it. A hundred percent.

For them for not doing that. Yeah. Nope. Absolutely. But yeah, like you say, why not see if you can bring in Quinn Hughes? That guy is the best defense within the world over the last couple of seasons. And, you know, apparently Greg really pissed off the Avaland fans by saying he's better than kale

or implying he's better than Cal McCar not even like outright saying it and it's like yeah man who won the Norris last year. Yeah if if we're still doing the thing. Cut the rings man. Act like it's not even a discussion like that your guy is clearly like get out of here. Staying

on the blue line. Jacob Slavin is good. Just grinding everybody into fucking dust man. Just nothing happens. No but just yep. and leading that team in ice time, I believe, playing with Rock favor. Like, it's not even like he's, oh, man, that's got to be so great as a coach.

Just tap that guy on the shoulder and be like, all right, next 45 seconds are going to be okay. Yeah, literally nothing's going to happen. They were asking, I thought this was a little silly, but like after Sweden won, they were asking Victor Hedman, like, so what do you think about this USA Canada game? You know what I mean? And, but they asked him about Jacob Slavin, and he just kind of, he's like, look, the guy doesn't get a lot of points, but like, hard to think of a better defenseman in the league than a guy like that, you know, he's, he's unbelievable. Has anyone ever suggested that we make an award for defensive defenseman? No, and I've certainly never been, like, annoyed that it comes up every time a defensive defenseman has a good shift.

Mm-hmm. Okay. We got to get this guy a fucking trophy. Now, with that having been said, let's get Jacob Slavin a big old trophy. What do you say? I need to. He's been good. He's been awesome.

Have you, I haven't noticed a lot of Adam Fox. Yeah. And as a guy who was like, oh, he's my dark horse to be like the MVP of the tournament. I'm fucking not happy about it. I kind of thought he'd be the guy that would sort of elevate in the absence of Quinn Hughes. And it feels like it's been to Renski instead. Yeah. Who's sort of become that guy.

That was 100% my thinking was that like, you know, Mike Sullivan's, a lot of him, well, I guess Mike Sullivan would see a lot of Zach Werenski in that, in that division as well. But, like, I was just like, oh, yeah, Mike Sullivan sees him a lot. And, like, John Torterella's coached Adam Fox, of him not much mistaken. Like, you know, I thought there'd be a little extra familiarity there that would go a long way for him. But playing third pair of minutes and. Yep. And taking a real dumb shit penalty last night, I thought.

Like, that was the first time I really noticed him in the tournament was like, oh, there he is taking a dumbass penalty. Just shoved a guy from behind, like, right in front of the ref. You can't do that, my opinion. No, you can. But what about up front? Eiffle's been good. Chuk brothers were fantastic in the first game, and then they've...

They had other things on their mind in game two, it felt like, you know. And then game three, they're both hurt. Matthews out for the game. Brady misses pretty much the entire game. Well, he was trying to do game. Game 2 shit for a little while there. Like he had that big hit in the new, I can't remember who it was on, but he had the big hit in the neutral zone.

And then, you know, he's crashing hard to the net, goes into the, goes into the post. And that's it for him for the, for the night. Well, that's not true. He played a couple more shifts. He went off, the ice came back. 15 second shift and then was out. But they're saying precautionary. But word on the street for him and the brother is the, the Canada flu.

Bad case of it. but usually clears up by Friday morning, so they should be all right. Yeah, and like I said, like talking to Jake Ottinger, he kind of spilled the beans a little bit, and he's like, yeah, we think we're going to be fine. He's going to be fine. So, okay.

I don't know if he meant to say that, but he did say it. It was cool to see Dylan Larkin get to have a big moment. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Given how long he has been waiting for chance to do something in a game that mattered. Yeah, he had a really good quote about that yesterday. I guess it would have been like he was like, you know, I was talking to my wife about like, this is my first real chance to like do something meaningful or something like that.

Like I'm not remembering the exact quote, but like playing a meaningful game or something like that. And it was like, yeah, that's true, man. My first chance to do anything with my life. It's actually meaningful. All right, honey, you take care of the kids and I'll be going out to the hockey game. That's right. Flipside, Austin Matthews. Well, yeah, I wanted to shout out Matt Boldie real quick.

I thought he's had a pretty good tournament as well. And again, like not one of those guys that, not one of those guys that like you were counting on to be like a big needle mover for the U.S. by any stretch of the imagination, you know, and yet here we are. So good for him. Not getting a lot of ice time, but making the most of it. That's exactly right. Like, again, if we're talking about like auditions for the Olympics, like, I wouldn't have said, oh, yeah, you got to, you got to put it in, like, kind of put it in ink that he's going to, that he's going to make it. Now I kind of think you do.

I would be shocked if they left him off the Olympic team, especially with the bigger rosters, you know? Yep. So, again, like, as compared to where I thought, yeah, like, I thought he belonged on this team or whatever going into the tournament. but, you know, I would have said that they weren't going to, they weren't going to need him to do very much. And I guess you could kind of say they haven't. But he's been, he's been good. He's stood out in, in the minutes where, like you said, like limited usage, but he's kind of noticeable for a guy that they're not using very much. So it's the best.

And noticeable in the good ways, not in the, well, of course. Maybe we shouldn't have brought this young guy. Right. But yeah, Austin Matthews. Your thoughts. He's done nothing. He did not look, he did not scare me at all on Saturday night. Yeah.

At any point. He didn't play last night. Nope. Some sort of minor injury, I believe. Although, I mean, I guess it's just upper body, which could be anything. Hey, that's where a flu lives, you know what I mean? Yeah, it could be. But sounds like he's.

expected to play on Thursday probably would have played last night if the game had mattered at all. But yeah, so far, just not. I got to tell you, man, is he putting my Leafs hat back on for a second, I'm not feeling great about watching Martin Matthews in a tournament where guys like McKinnon and McDavid are like, I'm still the best guy out here. Matthews has not done much of anything generated much of anything obviously that can you know yeah even Nylander right today would not surprise anyone but he's it just hasn't

hasn't been there yeah like I said like even Nylander kind of not as good as you would have liked him to be I think you might say yeah he's he's I think been the best of the three oh yes absolutely yeah and you know that that might be a Again, it could be another two-one game Thursday night. Evan, the best goal scorer on the planet in your lineup is a nice advantage, but they'd like to see him do something for sure. Anyone else that you're not really feeling? Yeah, I mean, like, you know, I think everybody, even before he missed yesterday's game with an infection or whatever,

Like, I think everybody would kind of say Charlie McAvoy, apart from the big hits, really hasn't been, you know, and he hasn't been a particularly good player for the Bruins this year either, like, or at least, you know, up to his reputation, let's say. And, again, hasn't really done anything to turn the tide on that perception, I would say. Okay. Not that he's been bad, but just like, this is like a $9 million defenseman. and then you like watch him and you're like, are we sure about that? You know? Yeah.

But Jack Hughes is the other guy we're kind of waiting on. Yeah. Be nice if he. He's been a little bit better than his brother, but only a little bit. And again, this is always like, it's the double-edged sword, right? Because we're sitting here going,

oh, Hughes and Matthews haven't done anything. Well, yeah, and you're still in the final and you still haven't lost a game you're trying in. So that's maybe. When you have a. 18 guys in the line or 18 skaters in the lineup. You guys are in pretty good fucking shape. The fact that they can have Matthews and Hughes both go ice cold on them and still not even.

I wouldn't say not miss them, but kind of not miss them is not missing to a greater extent than you would ever have expected for sure. But yeah, me and me and Greg were talking about this yesterday. like, you know, again, like Olympic tryouts kind of a thing. Like, obviously there's no scenario where they're leaving Jack Hughes home for the Olympics next year, right? But again, on the blue line and maybe up front to a lesser extent, I thought Kreider had a great game yesterday for him, his first in the tournament, you know? But is he going to make the team? Do you think he gets in on Thursday? Assuming full health?

Like, did he do enough? Probably. Well, yeah, I mean, who comes out for him, right? Like, that's exactly right. Trocheck hasn't done it. I mean, Brock Nelson would be my guy to take out, but I don't know if the positions work. If you do it.

I had, uh, I had Nelson in the, in the game winning goal pool yesterday. Felt like a fucking idiot. I mean, there are worse guys to pull, honestly. Like, oh, God, who did Greg pull? He had one where, oh, he had. Jacob Slavin and I was just like, yeah, good luck with that big dog. That's not going to happen for you, man. But yeah, like I didn't like obviously, well, Greg in the Canada game, Greg pulled Connor

McDavid and he was feeling good about that for like 40 minutes of that game, 45 minutes of that game. But yeah, no, like Nelson does maybe feel like the guy that comes out for Kreider in theory, but in actual practice, I'd be a little surprised. But yeah, like, I don't know, the U.S. is going to have options for Milano Cortina. Is that what it is? Yes, that seems to be what they're calling it. I keep wanting to say Torino, and I know that's 06, you know.

By the way, one last thing on Team USA, I don't know, maybe you probably saw this stat somewhere, but it blew me away. You know how many players from the 2016 World Cup team are on this roster? Isn't it zero? It is zero. Yeah. That is crazy to me. And I went, like, it was so crazy.

I went back and looked up that roster. And I got to be honest, I get the O and three now. Yikes, that is not a good team. Oh, yeah, no, it's. That's not a good team. What were you guys? What was happening back down? It's almost like they let John Tortorella coach and, uh, choose the roster and stuff.

Like, I'm not even seeing anyone on here that I would, you know, and obviously nine years is a long time. A lot of guys are retired, but part of it is that was an old roster. Patrick Kane is like the one guy who's playing at any kind of level now. And do you feel like Patrick Kane had any, like, any juice to make this team? Not a chance, right? John Carlson was maybe the one that would have come closest. Yeah. I mean, he's not going to make the, he's not going to make the Olympic roster if he didn't make this roster.

You wouldn't think, unless he has a, you know, really monster next year. But I don't. Him and Ponza de Leon get together and we'll, you know. That's right. Those capital guys do like fountains. So. But yeah, I, you know, I think that, I think we're seeing a, you know, if Quinn Hughes was healthy, I think we're seeing a pretty good chunk of what they're going to bring to Italy.

Yep. Again, the rosters are bigger so they can bring an extra guy on at, you know, up front and on the blue line each. But other than that, like, who, you know, who do you, who do you swap out? I don't know that there is really anybody. And, you know, maybe we're singing a different tune come Thursday. Yeah, I think if they win the tournament, then that, that gives. Everybody is back. That gives everyone on the roster a plus two buff for a hundred percent.

A lot of, a lot of gravity towards keeping the same group together as best you can. Oh, speaking of buffs, by the way, we forgot to mention this on last week's show. It was pointed out by somebody, a friend of mine that Connor Hellebuck is a big survivor head just like us. Yes. I saw a few things on that. He went to like a survivor convention or whatever in Winnipeg. And there was a picture of him with like a bunch of people from the show.

And he's just a big survivor head. But I bring that up because one week from tomorrow is the new season. That's going to be next week's show. We'll be full on preview. Well, what I just, what I like about it is, you know, Connor Halbuck, he wins gold or the trophy or whatever you, you know, the phrasing is for this tournament. Then he goes home and he's like, can't wait to see who, you know, who's going to make like the all-stars a couple years from now. Good thing.

It's not starting, it's not starting this week. That's what I'm saying. This is perfect timing. Thank you to our friends at CBS. Do me a favor. After his 57 save shutout on Thursday, go to the press conference. just ask him like just survivor questions. I'd love to.

Just be like, give me your bottom four, man. Jolensky and who? And then like, he'll be like, oh, that's a great question. It's just a bunch of angry reporters

watching you to talk about old survivor stuff for years. Yeah, he met a bunch of them. Like there was like Ed, again in Winnipeg for some reason there. Well, I guess for some reason is there, half of the players are Canadian these days.

Well, and again, I think that like it's a thing where like they had like a survivor fan convention or something like that in Winnipeg. So a bunch of the people at it just went to the game is kind of what I was picking up from that. But yeah, he looked pleased his punch to be hanging out with those people and who can blame him. Very cool guy and I'm disappointed that I'm going to have to hate him for the next few days. Yeah, it's too bad he's a huge piece of shit who sucks. right? It's a shame, but oh well.

Yeah. Same thing with me. Like, I, you know, like I said, I... What? No, I mean, you know, who could deny it. But, you know, just like, again, I was so excited to see Connor McDavid play live and he immediately was like, here's everything you expect from a Connor McDavid game.

I'm going to go fucking ape shit on this goal. And I was just like, this is what it's all about, folks. What can we say, you know? And then, yeah, now, now, now. I have to think he's one of the worst players they ever put on a pair of skates. Get this guy out of there. He's a bum. Imagine if I, like, cared about it that much.

Man, that would be weird. That'd be strange, my opinion. Let's wrap it up because you've got to save the lungs for booing the anthem on Thursday. That's right. You're going to be out there. That's right. Yeah, why don't you, why don't you hit him with the fucks? And we'll get out of here then.

You can find me at The Athletic. We get a, I think we're doing a couple of shows tomorrow. So me and Gentilly and Frankie will be with us. And you know what? I don't know if it's completely locked down, but another former NHL player will be joining us to talk some four nations. And I've got other stuff that I'm writing, but I don't actually know what I'm doing quite yet.

So it's a mystery, but it'll be fun. I know tomorrow's post is extremely stupid. But those are the best kind. Absolutely. Who could say otherwise, you know? Not me. And then for me, yeah, I'll be on site. I wrote a couple articles yesterday.

I got some more coming out in the next few days here, and then I'll be on site Thursday. So head over to EliteProspects.com and check all that out. And my college hockey coverage will be continuing a pace as well. I've got to write something this week. I haven't really thought about it. I've been a little distracted. Um, but yeah, I, and then, uh, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup.

Check out all our bonus episodes and things of this nature. You know, you like this show. You like that stuff. I guarantee it. And, uh, you know, it's not like a money back guarantee or anything like that. No. In fact, if you, you don't like it, you actually have to give us more money. That's right.

So be very careful. Unfortunately, that's not up to me. That's, you know, that's the people at Patreon. So. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. And, you know, enjoy Thursday's game.

I know I will, probably. I'm not sure if I will or not. Well, here's the thing. It could be another, like a one-nothing stinker. Could be. Honkshoe, honk-shoe. Unless my team wins one-nothing, and then it's one of the good ones. Yeah.

Only one way to find out, though, folks. So why don't you check in with us again next week, and we'll tell you if it was good or not. All right, have a good one. Bye. Bye-bye.