Puck Soup - Unfit To Podcast

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

The boys wrap a bow around the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and the season restart votes; discus the NHL's new controversial injury disclosure rule; mock the "recorded fan cheering" plan for games; talk Brock Boeser rumors and Dean Evason getting hired by Wild; remember Mr. Magoo; chat about streaming services and dog names; and finally, it's the return of NAME PAT FALLOON, our incredible new game show 

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. I'm Greg Wichenski, VSPN. Co-starring on today's podcast, Sneakers Magoo, my dog, who's looking out the window and now looking at me, And is obviously going to be barking, but refuse to let me do the podcast in a room without her in it. She has a different last name from you and your wife.

Very strange. Listen, so, you know, as anyone who's seen Westminster knows, the dogs have several names. So when we got sneakers, her name was Katie. And we had a friend named Katie, so we couldn't do that. That would be awkward. You know, Katie, why did you shit in the house? What? No, the dog.

And so her, like, farm name was Shadow Fox. So you have Sneakers, Katie, Shadow Fox. And Magoo just came out because it was fun to say Sneakers Magoo. I don't know where Magoo came from. She's just sort of a nickname. She has trouble seeing stuff. She drives her car through a freaking mall and is like, is this where a parking lot? Remember Mr. Magoo?

Mr. Magoo is some real I'm 58 years old shit. Yeah, yeah, it's weird when Sneakers is walking from girder to girder at a construction site in the air. And we're all very nervous about her falling because she's so

near, near. See, you went for the joke, but you like me can't remember if he was near-sighted or far-sighted? I think maybe canonically the cartoon had not decided whether it was funnier or, you know, changed it as

it's like all the shows where they're like oh we have to have a character who is on the spectrum but we don't want to nail anything down because we'll get yelled at so we just go he's quirky not to continue to alienate everybody under the age of 40

but isn't it amazing that the guy who did Mr. McGu's voice was Thurston Howell the 3rd from Gilligan's Island Jim Backus did you know that? I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised at this. But, like, think about, like, if Rain Wilson at the height of the office's powers

was, like, also the voice of Morty or some shit. Like, it's that kind of flex. Anyway, who are you again, Ryan? Ryan Lamerer. My dog doesn't have a last name, so. I'm Sean McAnew from The Athletic. I don't have a song. Do they have freaking Mr. Ragu in Canada, Sean? Oh. Yeah.

I'm pretty sure they did, and I'm pretty sure I never actually watched it. But it was like you would just break it out anytime a referee or an umpire made a bad call. That was the go-to reference. And then we got an actual referee named Magoo, and we all thought that was hilarious. I was going to make that joke, but, oh, well. It's too late now. I got beat to the punch. How did Rocky and Bullwinkle play in Canada, considering that, you know, one of the bits was making fun of

Mounties with Dudley-Doo-Right. Oh, yeah, because we never do that up here. There's no... We don't point and laugh at Mounties constantly. It probably... I don't remember, but it probably played great. Anything, especially back then, that American pop culture did, that even made a passing reference to Canada, was very, very popular, so...

Really loved Renan Stimpy then? Yeah, we're big into that. Bigger Mountie icon. Dudley-Due right or Jacques Rugeot. Come on. Not even. Well, I don't think Johnny Do-Roy has ever played.

The Intercontinental title. But Jacques Rugeot, like Brendan Fraser, never played him in a movie. So, yeah, give and take. Yeah, that is true. My favorite thing about... Listen, we've started with Mr. Magoo and wrestling. Don't fucking leave.

I promise you it gets better. No one doesn't. Might not. One of my favorite things about the Mountie, and actually one of my favorite wrestling tropes is the use of cattle prods and or tasers, and then they play the sound on the soundtrack when they're used. Like that happened when Scott Hall used the taser at one point in WCW. Right, and they had to play the zzz on the soundtrack to let you know that, yes, it is electrified, just like when the Mountie had used the cattle prod on. people. It's pretty great. It's one of the dumbest wrestling tropes of all time. Yeah, the Mounty. It might not even be top five dumb wrestling tropes, but okay, sure, in the interest of moving

things along. Would you agree that the dumbest, because this is Eric Bischoff's contention right now. In moving things along then, but yeah, is, is the dumbest that the everybody stands on the concrete waiting for someone to do a tope Suicito? jump off the turnbuckle and then they catch them. That's a pretty bad one. That's a pretty bad one. I think the other one is when a guy runs into a ring. I'm thinking classic NWO sting descends from the rafters,

and everybody in the NWO attacks him one at a time so they can get hit in the stomach with a baseball bat. Now, my nomination is the fact that anybody who enters the arena, no matter how randomly or how big a surprise it is or how long it's been, will immediately have their music, their theme music play.

Which means one of two things. It means either there is somebody sitting at the entrance way who has access to every wrestling theme song ever and sees like some guy run by and is like, oh, there he goes and finds it right away. Or it means that you have to wait at the entrance until somebody has your music.

while your friend is getting the crap kicked out of them, and you're making like your big surprise running from six years ago, and some dudes going through a CD collection, like, when were you here last? And to pull out your music. So, by the way, both of which are great. I hope that. I like to think that in the regular world, like, it works that way for wrestlers.

Like, they walk into a restaurant and their music plays, and they're just like, God damn it. And it's just something that follows them around. In K-Fave, I always wanted to believe that it was an edict from then. that's like nobody goes to the ring without their theme music yeah and so in order for them to go run in and save their friend like fucking you know like who'd be a good example um like triple h you know has to you know go to the entrance and and then he's like i'm gonna go out and save sean and then like somebody's thumbing through all of the CDs or maybe he like has the CD with him and he's like

it's like when you give your friend like a mixie you're like it's like the same one and then they start playing some crappy song. You're like, no, sixth, dude. And they're like, sorry, I skipped twice. It's track three on the DX playlist. Because then if they hit the wrong one, then that guy has to run in. And he's like, why am I even doing this? It's okay.

There's no hockey news this week to talk about. We're just going to go on. All right, fine. Let's talk about the fucking CBA. So they made it. They made one. that's pretty impressive. So my education on the CBA this week was,

I wrote a piece earlier this year about how the players had an incredible amount of leverage and should fucking take down the system and they'll never have more leverage than they did now. Now, some of that is true. I think they definitely had a lot of leverage. I think it could be argued they'll never have more leverage, at least under Gary Betman, than they did now,

before now or after now, as long as he's commissioner. But I talked to some people behind the scenes on the player's side, and they all said the same thing, which is it's really hard to take down the system or to really make an assault on the salary cap when there are two more years left on the deal. Because remember, it's not an open CBA. There's two more years left on the deal. The owners could have done any number of atrocious things from using the pandemic to cancel contracts to, anything else you could possibly think of within the parameters of the current CBA to make life real shitty for these guys if they decided to go full-on assault on the cap system now. If it was an open CBA, if it was like going to expire on July 1st, I think we're having a different conversation. But from what I gather, while the players had a lot of leverage to get a lot of wins in this document, which we'll chronicle some of them, the giant sort of, you know, raise your torches and let's go on a full-on assault on

NHLHQ to take down the salary cap wasn't going to happen because it just was the timing wasn't right and it wasn't advantageous to do so at this point. So there's that. What did you, Ryan, that makes sense to an extent. They did still have an opportunity. I think the simpler answer is that they didn't take the opportunity to burn the system down because they don't actually mind how the system works. I think the system is working okay. It's not great. It's not their favorite. I'm sure they would rather not have a cap that was tied to revenues, and I'm sure they would rather be making 60 or 65 percent of league revenues or whatever they would be making under a fully open system. But despite all the talk in 2005 about how they would never, ever, ever play

under a cap, I think they've found life under a cap is not bad. And I just don't think they have the stomach for a fight that they're not sure is worth fighting. Or at least that enough of them think is worth fighting. Ryan, you're anti-labour. What did you think? I think we talked about this last week on the show. I don't know that we need to dig into it again, right? I mean, we talked about... We knew most of the details last week. They hadn't approved it yet, but...

Right. They didn't really slip any surprises in, right? No, well, it's all in the details of the document, which I'm sure we've all read. The one thing that we didn't know about before seeing the CBA that we knew, know now, and I can't, I can't get past it. It's pretty amazing. How much the spouses and partners of players won in this deal? If you've not seen it, they've made it now where you get two round trip business class tickets, if you get traded or like sent to a new team in order to go house hunting. And then they pay again business class for you and your partner to fly all your

shit down to move. And if your family doesn't move, they pay for one round trip trip for them to see you. So like if you get traded at the trade deadline, they're going to pay for your family at least once to take a round trip to see you. And then there's like all these other little perks for spouses. And so one of the theories that I've heard from people is that when you're negotiating the CBA and you're quarantined with somebody and having these conversations, conversations. Maybe somebody's suggesting, you know, hey, what about maybe like instead of I sit in economy, maybe I sit with you in business class? Is that something you guys could put in there? And I love that about the CPA. So good on spouses and partners. Yeah, plus they're getting free postmates, this whole freaking playoffs. Millionaires. They really fucking need it. But sure. There was some little interesting minutia here and there. But overall, like big picture, I think the players did pretty well for them. ourselves. Like to Sean's point, I mean, it very much feels like we're going to get some things that we want, obviously the Olympics being one of them, a cap on escrow being another, and then

we're just going to go into survival mode and come to some agreements to keep this thing afloat for the next couple of years, because it's obviously going to be pretty bad. The one thing I'm surprised about is two surprises, really. One, I was a little surprised. there wasn't at least some level of cap escalation on the flat cap stuff. Like if you're just going to make up numbers, which is essentially what they're doing, if you're going to delink it from revenue, then build a little cushion in there. It's not going to be the end of the world if you build a little cushion in there, like a couple million dollars a year just to give some teams, some breathing room and maybe,

you know, give a couple guys a little bit more money on their deals. And the other thing that surprised me, too, is I really thought the owners were going to fucking take down signing bonuses after like the John Tavares contract where, some words some upwards of like 93% of the deal was like signing bonuses or some shit like that i really thought they were gonna go take them down but i think that that that's more that that to me is like the biggest thing that speaks to how completely humbled the owners were in this negotiation um that they didn't even have the the spine to go after something they fucking the difference between 2013 with bill daily and his hill to die on on contract less which which i guess rip bill daily because they didn't get the five year limit but They got it down. But like the dramatics of that, like we must cut down these contracts. It's just versus this time around with a lot of stuff that they, I'm sure the owners wanted, but they just, you know, it was interesting to see what can happen in this league when they cut the crap and they cut the dramatics and the posturing and just actually sit down and say, let's make a deal,

which is usually what they do in mid-January when they're up against the deadline for saving a season. And instead this time, that deadline was now. Yeah. These guys know how to get a deal done when they want to get one done. It's just for so much of the Bettman era, they haven't wanted to get one done. Yeah. I don't know. It's interesting.

So that's the CBA. I don't know if there's much more to say, six years of labor peace as it is. How optimistic are you guys that they're actually going to go to the Olympics? Oh, well, they're definitely going to Beijing. If we have the Olympics and if, you know, Canada and the U.S. and everyone are going to the Olympics, I know there's questions about whether this whole event is actually going to happen. But yes, I think they, if it just comes down to working it out with the IOC, they'll figure that out. I want to believe that too.

And if you want to buy that the P.N. Chang decision was also sort of influenced by Bette. been trying to use the Olympics as a bargaining chip for the CBA, then it makes even more sense that they'll work out a deal this time. I am very wary of believing that the IOC will capitulate on a lot of things. So that part of it kind of scares me. But the bigger question, like you said, is not so much when the Olympics are going to happen, because I think they probably will in 2022. It's what do they look like and who are we send us? you know, at that point. So I'm excited that they got it done.

I also thought it was really interesting. Don Fear told me and Emily that the players originally wanted just a three-year extension on the CBA to cover the next Olympics, but then they decided to go for the 2026 games, too, and that's why it ended up being six years. So I'm optimistic. I also think the IOC knows that nobody gives a fucking shit about the Olympic hockey tournament now if the player, The NHL's not in it. Like, it was such a complete, just, just fart in the wind, for lack of a better metaphor. And also, I mean, sure, but also the games were on at like 4.30 in the morning in, in, uh, on the East Coast.

So I bet that probably played a little bit of a role as well. You think so? Or is it just that, I didn't watch these games. And I fucking love hockey. So, but you go, you go from the, you go from the, you go from. players since 1998 to what we saw in these Olympics, it is a gigantic

step down in quality. It just is. Like, we've seen Best on Best. Yeah. Right. If you don't have that, then you're not going to If these games are on at 7 o'clock, like people aren't like,

oh, you know what? I was going to watch hockey, but like most people haven't heard of half the guys in the NHL. They're like, like, look at the NHL's numbers. It's not like people are going, You know what? I love hockey, but this just isn't to the standard that I've come to expect from a...

Like, that's not how people think. The problem was that the games are on in the middle of the fucking night. Well, I mean, that's one problem, but I also think the problem is... But no, don't you think that... Look, rooting for the flag gets you only so far. It gets you the ratings you get for World Juniors, right? I don't think that people... Like, I do think that it makes a... difference if the NHL plays in the Olympics as far as the amount of interest that it gets, especially from hockey fans.

Hockey fans are more excited to see a best on best tournament with NHL players and they are to see a bunch of fucking randos and guys that are playing. If that were true, then why do the ratings for the Stanley Cup final stink every year? That's a completely different argument. It's not best on best. It's two teams.

Okay. Yeah. Got it. No, but that's, it's, we didn't got it. It's completely different. It's two teams of people versus the all-stars from the league playing against each other for a gold medal. Hockey fans only care about the teams they like. So you'd go back to amateurists because I was actually really surprised. I don't care. I don't, I don't, what I'm saying is, yeah, of course I would rather have

NHL players involved, but I'm not saying, what I'm saying is that like people weren't going, you know what, I would have woken up at 3.30 to watch this, uh, Russia-Kazakhstan game. but, you know, there's no, there's no NHLers involved, so why would I do that? That's not how the, like, again, the general sports fan or the person that watches the Olympics, because I don't think the Olympics. I don't think the Olympics are for sports fans. I think the Olympics are just a thing you watch. Sean, where are you on pros versus amateurs? Because I got to be honest with you, I was surprised, Tortorilla talked about this yesterday on his Zoom call.

And he was like, it's not going to be a popular opinion, but I think there should be amateurs in the Olympics. And one, I always find that really funny because of Russia. And two, I was really surprised how many people reacted to that in a total agreement with him that, yeah, it should just be the amateurs in the Olympics. Yeah, I've surprised at that. I mean, some people still like this idea of the amateur tournament. and I would argue that those people haven't maybe thought through how the Olympics works these days and whether it's actually representing that sort of amateur mindset anymore or whether it has in a long time. Look, the reality is it's both.

I mean, people get far more interested in a best-on-best tournament, especially hockey fans, especially sports fans, even casual fans. The fact that it's at 3 in the morning, certainly. doesn't help. You know, the fact that it's not something you can put on live TV at 7 o'clock at night because it's being held in the U.S., that puts a limit to how many people you're going to get in front of. I have got up at 3 in the morning to watch Olympic hockey. I didn't do it last time because it wasn't the best in the world, and the tournament wasn't really telling us anything about what country was the best. But, you know, I've done it when it was,

in Japan and I wanted to see if, you know, Gretzky and Lindros could, could beat Dominic Hacic in the semifinals. Right, right. Yeah, it's, you know, at the end of the day, it's what people want. And the other thing is, it was different to watch amateur Olympic hockey in 92 when you were like, yeah, I mean, this isn't the best of the best, but this is what the Olympics is, versus to do it in 2018 when you're like, no, man, we, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've seen best on best in the Olympics for the last five Olympics and now you're switching it back

to something else. No, the expectations have been changed. If the NHL pulled out of the Olympics permanently, yeah, in another two or three cycles, we would kind of get back to that mindset, okay, this is what the Olympics is and maybe there'd be more interest in it. But this one was kind of a perfect storm. It was the first one without the players. It was in the middle of the night.

It was just, it, I got to be honest. I, if you quizzed me right now, I barely remember anything that happened in that 2018. Yeah. And it just, it just didn't resonate at all. I've always said that, you know, the NHL participation in the Olympics doesn't give them much benefit. I always think that the best thing about the Olympics would be if it was a platform to, like, launch new stars or, like, increase the, uh, cachet of guys that are in the league. And then all of a sudden they come back and they're huge. Like T.J. Oshy is, for a lot of people, still a household name because of what he did in Sochi, right?

I wish that there was a way to age cap it where you only have, like, players 25 and under that play in the Olympics. And then the spotlight is on them. You want the soccer-style Olympic tournament where it's a U-23 tournament, but they have allowances for two or three over that age. And so, like, a few years ago, I think when the Summer Olympics were in China, like, it was a pretty young Argentina team and then also Leonel Messi was just like, I'm going to win this whole fucking thing for it. Yeah, that's fine.

That was cool. I agree with cool, right? Yeah, no, that would be awesome. If it was like a bunch of young Swedes, but also Eric Carlson at the height of his powers and like Henrik Lundquist at the height of his powers or something. Like, yeah, that'd be great. But also that would be a way to really put the spotlight and the emphasis on the next generation of stars and

have those guys had their Olympic moments. have those players have the stage. It would be great, but it would never work in a winter Olympics. Because once you say that, you know, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin and whoever else aren't going the Olympics, you're not going to let Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews go. You're not going to, you know, unless you shut the whole league down, in which case, why not send Crosby? He's your, you know, your most famous player.

Go get him in front of it. Or you keep the league going. All the young players leave and teams like. the East or the Oilers or whoever go. Like Buffalo is like, we're not letting Jack Eichael go. He's our only good player. We need this guy if we're going to make the playoffs. And then it falls in place.

Then you can do the mid-season tournament to like increase revenues or whatever. You know, like you can figure out ways around it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. By the way, I don't think Ovetkin's a real issue here because I think the Russians will come up with a birth certificate that says he's 22 every Olympiad to get him on the team. So no worries there. But yeah, that's how I'd work at it. But I completely agree with the NHL through the years that, like, they have not gotten as much benefit as they should for shutting down their season.

And hopefully that this next thing and the IOC's concessions gets a little bit closer to them getting something out of it. Along with the CBA was the return to play protocols, which again, it passed with 79% of the players saying, yeah, this is cool, which is, I don't know, is that like a bigger number that you expected? or are you surprised by how much opposition was there? I guess that's kind of the ballpark. One in every five players or so is like, no thanks. And they tied it to the CBA, remember. Right, right. You had to vote up or down on both of them together.

You couldn't say, I like the CBA and I want six years of labor piece, but I don't think this particular return-to-play plan is the right one. It was basically this or nothing. If you reject this, we don't come back and we get labor Armageddon. And so I think the fact that that many players voted against it, even given that is interesting. But, I mean, you even had the players on the seven teams that aren't returning to play were voting on this because it was tied to CBA. So it's hard to read very much into the results for one or the other specifically when they were tied together. Completely.

So the return to play stuff is, you know, we've talked about the Sephora as well. Like the plan's all there. It's to use coach speak. It comes down to the execution. Every doctor and scientist I've talked to the last few months kind of said the same thing that ended up being in the phase four protocols for actually pulling this thing off

as far as the bubble, as far as the daily testing, of everybody that's going to come in contact with the players and stuff like that. I would argue the biggest news to come out of the return to play stuff is how they are handling the reporting of positive tests in the sense that the, The teams are banned not only from discussing testing, but banned from discussing any injury whatsoever. It is now the NHL's call on what injury or testing information to reveal.

And we have gone one step further from upper body, lower body to unfit to play and unfit to practice. What are your thoughts on that, Sean? I mean, it's silly. And it sounds, now that we've had a couple of days to hear it, it sounds ridiculous. I understand and appreciate where they're coming from. I get that this is, you know, again, we kind of talked about it a few weeks ago. There is the question of medical privacy.

There is the question of whether the player should be, you know, should have the ability to keep this stuff hidden, whether this is this more like an ACL or an injury that's going to keep someone out? Is it a private medical situation? but can it be a private medical situation if it's going to take you out of a Stanley Cup tournament? It is tough. And I get that it's tough. And I get that this is something that the players pushed for, that they didn't want this information out there. But this is what you get, right?

I mean, you can't say that you cannot say if a player has COVID, but still let you report on all the other injuries. You can't come down the list and say, this guy's got an ankle. this guy's got a wrist and these two guys, we can't tell you what they have. That gives the game away. So you wind up in this situation where it's, you know, just unfit to play and we're all going to speculate and it's, I don't know, it's a bad outcome, but maybe it's the least bad of anything they could do. I mean, the fan in me says, look, there's a pandemic going on.

If you get it, you get it. There's no shame in it. There's no, there shouldn't be a stigma to it. we should just say, yeah, I mean, these are the players who have it, and this is their outlook, and this is when they'll be back, and you treat it like an injury. I understand, though, that the players apparently don't feel that way, and they obviously have to get a big say in this.

So this is, the NHL has its policy. News organizations will have their own policies on how they report, which may or may not be the same as what the NHL would like. And we'll see how it shakes out, but we're going to have to get used to this, kind of silliness of unfit to play and coaches saying, hey, I'm not allowed to tell you anything. And I don't know, it's either going to be something we get used to really quick

and it just becomes a new normal or it's going to be something that feels ridiculous the whole way through. It feels pretty ridiculous. It does. And it leads to these weird situations. Like, this thing that's going on in Calgary right now, or at least earlier in the week, where people didn't hear, Calgary comes back, they start their, you know, phase three camp or whatever, and they're doing two sessions. They got one session with

most of the players in the morning, and they've got one session with some of the other players in the afternoon, and it's not like a Black Aces thing. They've got, you know, like Johnny Godreau is in the late session, and you're like, why are they doing? They don't have their lines, you know, their first line isn't playing together. And, you know, people are like, what's going on? And they, and the flames can't answer it, and they can't tell us. And, you know, like, all these players are practicing. So it's not like anybody has had a positive test and has gone into quarantine. You know, I think there's a not unreasonable scenario that you could imagine where maybe some of

those players have just come into contact with somebody and out of an abundance of caution, the team is just keeping them separate and being smart and responsible and all of this. But because nobody will say that or nobody can say anything, you've got speculation now about did Johnny Gros show up out of shape? Is he in, you know, are the coaches mad at him? Are they not letting a practice because he did something? Is there something? And so it's kind of going the other way.

Like you've got, there shouldn't be a stigma over getting sick or coming into contact or whatever could have happened. But now it goes the other way. And people are, you know, is this it for Johnny Goodroro in Calgary? Is it going to be traded? And it just spirals off. And it's, it just, it kind of speaks. And I don't know what's going on in Calgary.

I have no information at all other than just what I can see and sort of. to try to figure out on my own. But it sort of leads like when you, when you don't provide any information, you don't create a situation where there's just no information. Bad rumors and speculation. And people saying two plus two equals five is going to flood into that vacuum. And now you've got this, this mess when, you know, at least in the Calgary situation, it feels like it would have been just easier for them to just say, this is what's up.

and it's going to last for a few days, and that'll be the end of it, and we wouldn't be talking about it. Yeah. Well, I mean, the lesson should have been learned. I'll give you the best example, like about vague reporting, which is Jim Montgomery.

Remember when the Jim Montgomery should happen, and everybody's like, all right, who did he touch, or what race did he insult? Right? Like, those were the two reactions, basically, when that happened. And then, of course, they kept it vague, and then the shit came out.

whenever they keep it vague, the worst shit happens. And a player's or a coach's reputation gets completely impugned until there's clarity on it. So you can't help but group everybody under unfit to play all of a sudden into tested positive for COVID-19. Like it's just a natural line to be drawn, right? Yeah. I don't know. I mean, yeah, like Sean said, like people are just going to try to fill that vacuum. You can go, oh, you know, I love to be able to tell you.

Oh, it would be so great if I could just say to you what the thing was. But it seems like I can't. So everybody, you know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. He's not ready to go. Oh, okay, great. Yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know.

That obviously brings us to the Austin Matthews thing where Matthews talked about testing positive and being. Now, Greg, do you first know who reported that? or... Dude, like, I mean, we all know why he had to do it. And the thing that just fucking pit... It's like... Steve Simmons at this point, it's like a shit parfait.

Like, there's an entirely new layer every time of dumber shit. And, like, he tweeted something. What did he tweet, like, like, so or hello or whatever? Hello, it was hello. Yeah. When Austin Madge... Him Lionel Richie, remember that freaking is on. Yes, he's dancing on the ceiling as well.

fucking Austin Matthews is being forced into disclosing a private medical issue because of this. And like the way that Simmons wrote it made it seem like he's asking, what, no credit to the sun for revealing the... That's exactly what he was saying. What a piece of shit. Not aimed at Austin Matthews, I think, but aimed at the media that was reporting that Matthews had confirmed a story without saying what the story or where the story was from. Well, again, like, it was the fact of everybody, like, how dare he report that, you know, like, I, we talked about it before, but I, you know, I thought that people were a little, like, over the top and going, this is outrageous that Steve Simmons would do this. Like, I think on some level, he's not wrong to be like, yeah, see, like, it's not that big of a deal, but now everybody has to act like it is a big deal because they made it a big deal initially and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like I said at the time, like you got to present at least some semblance of why this is important and have it rise above tributtripe.

It's because he's the biggest star on the most popular hockey team in the league. Okay, but how does his testing positive affect anything? It didn't affect his travel. We learned that maybe it affected his practice for a minute, like back when he was in Arizona. it didn't affect his ability to play for the Leafs. It's not going to affect his ability to go to the bubble. But we know that now. We didn't know that two weeks or three weeks ago

whenever this was out there. And first of all, I would question whether we do know for sure that it doesn't affect his ability to play. We don't know yet what long-term impact of this stuff could be. But yeah, three weeks ago, we didn't know. It was just, there was a report that he had tested positive. It was not confirmed by anybody at the time, and now it has been. But we didn't know, we didn't know if he was sick.

We didn't know if he had symptoms. We didn't know if he was in the hospital. We didn't know any of that. And, you know, all of that would have been. None of that was in the story. That's my point. My point is that he wrote a gossip item. He didn't write an actual story.

He didn't, he didn't be a journalist. He wrote a gossip item. We had this argument three weeks ago. I don't view it that way, but I understand it's a tough issue, and I'm still not completely sure which side of the coin I wind up on. But I think there certainly was news value in what Simmons reported. The fact that there is news value in something doesn't on its own mean that it needs to necessarily be reported or should be, but there was news value there.

Right. And Steve, and like Steve Simmons's thing is that he's a hero for exposing that. And it's like, no, I mean, you just reported something that a bunch of other reporters had also heard. Like you, you were the first person to maybe get second confirmation or whatever, but that's it. And that's like, we don't have to talk about it anymore. Austin Matthews had it. Great. You know, it might affect him. It might not. We'll see. There's nothing else to really talk about. Indeed. One of the return-to-play thing that we should probably talk about is the NHL and their teams asking fans to submit 30-second clips of humiliating. 30-second clips on them cheering and chanting. Now, a couple things here. As I've mentioned on all of my platforms, the idea that the only fan base that I could see so far that was asked to boo are Bruins fans. is pretty amazing. Like, go to Boston, ask for booing.

You're going to get some good booing. And my only question is whether that's going to be like, is that now like the template booing or the temp track booing that'll just be applied to any situation? And also, when do they apply it? Like, is they're going to litter, are we going to have the amount of self-awareness from the National Hockey League and its broadcast partners to hit the boo

button on a questionable call when the Bruins are the home team or whatever? Like, is that going to actually happen? And is it going to matter, like, who's the home team and who's not? Like, if the Leafs are playing the Bruins, are we going to get, like, the Leafs being booed in Toronto because Boston is technically the home team in this game? We definitely need some USA chants for the U.S. Canada teams. Right, in support of Bradmore.

And they're going to do, like, the anthem things and all of this. Here's the thing. And I wrote a thing that's going up tomorrow that touches on this. Like, I actually made myself a promise. that I wasn't I was going to give this stuff a chance like however they handle it I knew that the empty arenas

it was going to be it was unprecedented I'm always saying that this league should be more creative and the people who present you know don't don't just do the same old things it's okay to get a little creative and I understood that they were going to try some things and I even wrote months ago I said they're going to do some stuff some of it's going to work and some of it won't

and we can't all flip out when it doesn't work let them try it You know, they'll figure it out. So I promise myself that I wasn't going to be that guy. But I look at this and I'm just like, oh, my eyes roll so far into the back of my head. It's just like this is, I'm like twitching here, like trying not to just go in on this horrible idea. But I don't know. It's really, it's really small time shit to me.

Like, you're, because it's not that they ask them to record audio. It's that they ask them to record video, which means at least on the Jumbotron for no one in particular, but probably like on the broadcasts, like when the Rangers score a goal, they're going to cut to some guy like in a poorly lit basement going like, you know, Henrik, Henrik, whatever the fuck. Like, let's go Rangers. It's going to look so corny and bad and like people are going to be like, oh, dude, did you see me? I was on the freaking hockey game shouting in my backyard. Cool, man. Two things. First off, one of the things that the Rangers asked for was fans to chant Bread Man.

You know, the way fans do. That really natural sounding chant. Like, maybe I, I mean, I didn't go to any Ranger games this year. I was living on the West Coast. But, like, is that something they started chanting in New York? was Breadman. I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know.

Second thing, your video of guys in their backyard made me think, like, how many videos do we get before the first white supremacy hand signalist? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, what is that going to happen? It's true. It's true. Yeah. Oh, it is, there is a lot of recipes for disaster here.

by the way, it just occurred to me that maybe they're recording the booing to use when Batman comes out, because that would be fucking, oh, sure. Like, if Batman allowed that to happen, it would be pretty amazing. I don't know. Like, part of me is, is happy that they are doing this in a sense of, like, it's fan engagement. It gets people feeling like they're part of the thing, you know, and whatever. And then part of me is just like, I don't trust the NHL to ask. Look, if you're doing this whole recording of fans thing and you don't have Ranger fans chanting Potvin sucks, like what's the point?

Like, you're not trying to do it for real. You're just trying to do it as some sort of like, you know, G-rated version of what it's like to go to a hockey. Go all in, man. Do all of the dumb chants. Do people throwing stuff. They need to get Lee fans recording themselves finishing their drink in the hot stove club eight minutes into the first, like, just sitting there looking at their watches going, Should we get back? No, I don't think we need to get back.

We can finish this. Do it all. Just all the worst. You know, just record yourself standing and waving at the camera and ignoring what's happening on the ice. Record yourself banging on glass and annoying the crap out of everyone. Like, let's get the whole deal in there. If they really wanted to keep it real, they'd have Chicago fans like chant fire call it. Like, really, really get to the core of things.

Yeah, absolutely. How are the players going to know when to shoot if we don't tell them to shoot? That's true. I am a little concerned about how these players are going to deal with the empty arena thing. Like, I know it's going to be good hockey because there's something on the line. Well, Greg, no, you don't have to worry about it because they always say, you know, I really kind of tune out the crowd. I don't really know what goes on. I'm just playing hockey. Oh, okay, well, then you shouldn't have a fucking problem. But the flip light is they also all tell us that their own.

fans are the best fans in the world. Best in the world. Yeah. Yeah. It was always great. I should say it is always great when you're in the locker room. And like it's always one of those TV reporters that have, you know, maligned on this show many times of you let them ask their idiot questions. And then the real writers come in and ask the important questions.

It's always that question of like, the fans tonight, just talk about the fans tonight. Fans tonight really, really were bringing it for you guys, weren't they? And then the players like, oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, we do it all for them. Yeah. You know, without the fans, we wouldn't have these jobs. So, you know, just really appreciate them coming out, making a lot of noise. Big part of why we won tonight.

Talk about the win. What it means to you guys to win. Yeah, you know, it's just a situation. where, you know, we're trying to take it one game at a time. It's nice to get the win, but we're not going to dwell on it. And, you know, it's back to practice tomorrow. That's really good. The sniffing is great.

That's, you know, a classic thing in the locker room. They're just coming down off there, all the smelling salts. They've been huffing for three hours straight. Yeah. Again, there's a lot of really good TV reporters. I don't want to malign them all, but. Are there? I think it's also a situation of like, I've got PTSD from getting elbowed in the head by so many cameramen.

Oh, yes. Classic. Who run over like fucking the juggernaut and knock your ass down because they need to... I got the shot! I got the shot! Well, look, if nobody gets footage of Brad Marshand from eight feet away over the shoulders of eight other reporters, like, where are you going to put on the news? doesn't make sense. Highlights come on.

Nobody wants that. It's one thing I will not miss about this Stanley Cup covering the playoffs in the summer is, you know, the fact that, like, all the, all the cameramen weigh about 280. And they're all carrying these really fucking heavy equipment around. And, like, you get into these scrums, and, like, it looks like, it looks like, they look like me after running a 10K by the time they get to the scrum. I genuinely worry about their health sometimes when they're just like, huffin and puffing and sweating and gooing all over the place. But they got... I don't know.

They got the shot! I got the shot! Got it! Leslie, I got the shot. Go put your mic flag in. I got the shot. How else are they going to get that shot of a player giving cliches while I stand in the background and scratch my nose in a way that my friends will immediately text me screenshots and be like,

dude, look. my favorite thing is when I get to the scrum first and I put it my little dumb cell phone camera on like right in front of the player's face and then I just hear in the background like deep sighing from the cameraman because I got the shot. Yeah, a big part of getting the shot is making sure somebody else does not get the shot. You can't both get the shot. No, there are definitely time. I'm not a complete prick. I will move out of the way to allow someone to get the shot. But I'm not going to move out of the way if someone is like saying,

I don't belong there because I don't have the big camera, which is what's happened before. Like, you know, come on, got the big camera. I don't give a shit. I think these problems are all very relatable to our listeners. Yep, they love it. Everyone's nodding along right now. It's pretty universal.

The listeners are always asking for a glimpse into our professional lives, you know, what's it like to break a big story? What's it like to do this? I'm trying to fucking pull the curtain back for them. I'll tell you what it's like to bring a big story. Nobody gives you any freaking credit if you're in the Toronto Sun. Yeah, that's true. Or if you're in Washington, D.C., you get a lot of credit for just making vague references to your story.

That's right. Or, I'm sorry, that's not even true. Making vague references to somebody else's story on Twitter. It's going to be big, though. You've got to keep in mind. I just say all the big. big hockey stories that are going to break in the next few years. I know about all of them now. I'm just not telling you for dot, dot, dot, reasons. And yeah, but I'm totally in the loop.

Indeed. Awards crap. That's the next thing that I have on the rundown. No big surprises so far, I think. We've had, what, the caller of the jack? As we taped the show, I think there's obviously other stuff coming out today. What was the first day of stuff? What am I missing? Ted Lindsay. The Lindsay. Yeah, Lindsay. Nothing real surprising so far.

I guess maybe the one surprise was that they didn't find a way to get Mike Sullivan into the Jack Adams top three. Well, or Jared Bednar, I think is even like a, you know, I think that those are the five of Cassidy, Vino, Torts, Sullivan, and Bednar. But I don't know that the, I mean, you know, I think Torts probably shouldn't be there in the top three. but, you know, just because of, that's because the, what did the abs have the third best record in the league and everybody on the team missed 15 games. So, like, they were really good this year,

and, you know, I think coaching had a lot to do with it and being able to manage lines and personnel shifts and all that kind of stuff. Like, I think, I think that's maybe the choice that you should, that should have been made, but at the same time, I can't get too mad. Everybody thought the blue jackets were going to be dog shit. And they went to overtime, I think, 58 times this year.

So that's why they got where they were in the standings. And that's Torterella. No, I think, I mean, that guy's been coaching to the bubble since he won the cup. It's one of those deals where I can't point to any of the three guys that are up for the Jack Adams and be like, replace him with Mike Sullivan. And that's tough because, like, Sullivan, I think did a really good job. I think the penguins changed the way they played. I think he kept things on an even keel. I think it did really well.

But, like, I'm really happy Cassidy got a nomination because I think that, as we know, with the Jack Adams, it's such a narrative award that the best coach of the best team doesn't always get the credit he deserves. And then Vigno had a demonstrable impact on the way the Flyers played. And then Tortorella kept the shit together after they lost fucking Panarin and Dobrovsky, and then a bunch of guys to injury. So, I mean, I feel bad for Sullivan. but I don't know who you kick out of the top three.

Yeah, again, I would probably say Tortorella, like, you know, is he the reason that two relatively anonymous goalies, like, were unbelievable for large stretches of the year? You know, arguable. But you know who they're, you know who their goalie coaches, by the way? I always find it fascinating with guys. Is it Mitch Korn? I'm always told he's the only good goalie coach alive. Mitch Korn is an absolute fucking genius of a goalie.

is the Bobby the Brain Heen and a goalie coaches to bring it back to a topic that we all understand. No, Manny Legacy is the goalie coach of the Blue Jackets. Yeah. The goalie coaches are Mitch Corrin, Francois, and then every backup goalie from the 1990s is a goalie. That's right. It's the same thing as pitching coaches in the major leagues.

Like, you know, like Nolan Ryan never became a pitching coach. You know, Greg Maddox never became a pitching coach. It's like always like these sort of middling Mel Stoddlemyer. types that are always like the pitching coaches and also the hitting coaches, the same deal. It's always fascinating that, you know, the best of the best aren't the one. And that might just be like the Gretzky coach conundrum. Right. How do you teach something that's intrinsic?

Yeah, right. It's the, uh, when Ted Williams was the manager of the Red Sox and they had an awful, like, team batting average and they were like, what's the deal with that? And Ted Williams was like, I keep telling him, just hit the fucking ball. I don't know what the problem is. I was always fascinated by the dynamic between like Wayne Gretzky as a coach and someone like Kyle Taurus. Like how does Wayne Gretzky coach a call, like, here, just do that thing I did. I can't.

You're Wayne Gretzky. Oh, fuck. I don't know. Well, pass it to your five Hall of Fame teammates. No. Or the coyotes, Wayne. Great. And he's, and, you know, he's like, you've been Shane Dohn?

Like, ah, shit, I guess. He's the closest thing we got, I suppose. Tough. Stuff sledding. I do like that thing with Mitch Corrin was always like that he was the one who unlocked Dominic Hasick. Because certainly when I look at Dominic Hasick, I think like look at that, the form. That's right. He's positioning.

This is a system goalie. Like, yeah. He made a slight adjustment to his head angle and that was really it when he was like doing cartwheels in the corner. Off he goes. Yeah. That said, man. Serochen with trots and quarts and quorum. horn next year.

Oof. Let's go. Pretty good. Oh, yeah. So speaking of scuttlebutt and innuendo about transactions, you should probably touch on Brock Bessergate in Vancouver. Really cool. Matthew Sakeris reports, this is amazing to me.

So Matthew Sakeris reported that Besser was on the block, and the reaction from some of our friends in the Van Gogh. Vancouver Media was that it was like a gambit to get ratings in a radio war with the TSN station or some shit, which I thought was fascinating. Oh, really? Yeah, that's, that was coming from like Drans and them. It was that, you know, it was something that was said just to get attention, which I thought was fascinating.

That's cool. I mean, I'm all for that. And then Elliot, I think, actually mentioned on another radio hit that Besser was sort of in conversation. And honestly, like, I know that people were surprised by it or like, why the fuck would you do that. Or I think the big, the big sin was like they might pick Tyler Toffoli over Besser and who to keep. But like, if you're not shopping that asset with the cap being flat just to see what's out

there, I mean, literally nobody in the league should be untouchable. Conor McDade, like if I'm, Elias, Penn Hall and I go, oh, Connor McDavid's untouchable. And then, you know, Jim Benin calls me and goes, we'll give you Pedersen Hughes and Besser for him, I'd go, oh, yeah. Would you? Yeah, I'd definitely. Would you? Yes.

There's always a deal you can come up with that would make sense. Ryan's absolutely right. The only guys who should be untouchable are guys who have, like, means so much to a team's identity. Like, if you wanted to tell me Alexander Ovechkin was untouchable in Washington, not because of what he is as a player, then, yeah, that's fine. But I've beaten this drum for years. Like, every team's got, like, eight guys that are untouchable,

and it's, that's not, that's just GM's not wanting to do their job. I would never trade Conner McDavid for anything. Like, there's nothing you could offer me that would make me trade Conno McDavid. Okay, and also, I mean, I just said a number one defenseman, a guy who's already an MVP candidate at, like, what, 21? Nope, don't want him. Keep it talking. And to Sean's point, again, like, McDavid's also an industry.

Yeah, sure. It's the other thing that you have with him to do. But you see what I'm saying, though. Like, you know, if you have the best player in the world, there are, and you can potentially get three guys who give you roughly an equivalent value. Like if Tampa calls up and goes, we'll give you a headman, Vasilevsky, Stamcoast, Kuturov, our next five first round picks, we'll retain salary on. all of the get, like at some point there is, and it's not realistic, right? You could, I don't have a

problem with the GM saying, look, there's no realistic scenario where it would make sense for us to, you know, go down. And I don't have a problem with GMs, by the way, lying to us and saying, saying they're not talking about somebody when maybe they are, but they should be. You should be. Right. Like, I

said it on the, on the newsletter yesterday. Like, you should like, you should definitely frame it as you would have to knock my socks off a mile down the street, like for me to consider trading Elias Patterson, but I would do it because I would trade anybody for, you know, like the appropriate return. That's just, like Sean said, that's just doing your job. Like, you should listen to every offer.

Headman Vasilesky, Stamcoast, five first round, Kucheroff and five first rounders. Would you, Sean, would you do that for dry-side limit third? I think you got to throw a conditional sixth in there Yeah, that's true Just to balance it out of I'm not going to get on HF boards If I don't throw a conditional sixth in on one So maybe both times

That is an incredible reference Fucking Because Labyrinth You used to use that as a bit When we were at Puck Daddy The Trade of the Week bit The HF boards trade of the week The HF boards seem like

They're in an acronymism For a lot of people probably That only like no hockey Reddit and stuff But the HF boards, you know, were the place to be for a long time for people to talk hockey. And their trade board was the greatest thing that ever happened to the hockey on the Internet. Let's see what's on there right now. Hold on. Because people would go there and they proposed trades.

And as was pointed out, like, it was always like, hey, guys, and know a perfect way to try to put Henrik Lungquist on the St. Louis Blues. How about Vince Dunn and a conditional third for Longquest? All right. Here's one. I got you. This was third on the trade board on there. All right. Van trades a combination of Brock Besser and one of a first round pick in 2021 or Nils Hoglander

and one of Denko, Jetwu, or Cole Lund, and one of Sutter, Erickson, Beagle, or Berci. Oh, wait, hold on. So Dominic, so Roussel is, or Antoine Roussel. not part of that pool of potential. Okay, gotcha. For Hamas Lindholm. Who says no? So Besser of first.

Maybe your goalie of the future. Orha. Maybe your goalie of the future. And then like a salary dump for Hampus Lind home. Yeah. Wow. But again, it doesn't have to be your goalie of the future because you could also throw in either JetWere Coal Lint. Right.

So, for Hapaslo. All right. I don't think so. Because of this, it's actually, the whole thing is just Besser trades. Besser or Tyler Tofoli and Jamie Driesdale on an ELC to get, it looks like the, wait, what? See, now you got an HF board. Did the half the shit there is? Yeah, now it's like.

I like, I like that they're trading Tyler Tafoli because the market for unrestricted free agents is pretty high. I would definitely give up a lot to get that guy. I mean, it's obviously a sign and trade because why wouldn't Tophole is... Right. Oh, God, the sign and trade. Yeah. Yeah, it's a sign in trade. You love them.

You love them. You love them. The HF boards, trade boards. Johnny Paling, Joel Armia, the number 39 pick and the number 40 pick for Clayton Keller, who says no. A severely underrated HF board or any of these hockey forums is to go and find. like a trade where we found out the trade was happening but we didn't know the details and then go and find like the thread somebody started and watch the reactions of fans in real time as they find out the details it is just classic I had there was a I don't know if it was age of boards but there's one like when the flames word came out that the flames had traded deon finuf to the Leafs but we didn't know what the package was and it was just like all these fans who were like oh we're going to get their first we're going to get like all of their time it's probably Matt Sundeen, yeah. And then, like, word came out that it was, like, Ian White.

And it's just, like, you're watching people in real time. Right. Just absolutely lose their minds. It was beautiful. It's pretty great. It's, it's the, oh, shit, the ruins could get Keller and Killington and Barzall, yeah. Barzal, yeah. Right.

I know I'm an internet old, but, like, the HF boards. It's amazing. I miss that. I miss Eklund trade rumors. I saw that he's still like operating a site and still doing his thing. It's good on him. It's a nice bit of business if you can get it. World was a fun time during the heyday of peak hockey internet.

All due respect to the hockey Reddit. Dean Eveson, hired by the Minnesota Wild. This is kind of a surprise in the sense that I think we all thought, Billy Garon would go and find his own guy, like bring in Doug Waite or whatever, or Gerard Gallant to coach the team. But the bigger surprise turned out to be how he got the job. It was based on, like, 12 games as head coach, but mostly based on, like, how he interacted with the players during quarantine. And, like, how good he was with, like, Zoom calls and shit. That skills are going to be super valuable next season.

It might be. Two scenes from now. I'm just saying as time goes on. that's a diminishing asset, the being good at Zoom skill that he brings to the table. To me, this smacks of, like, we simply aren't going to have the time, and we simply don't have the financial backing from somebody who is already paying for Bruce Boudreau's, like, you know, contract. Yep.

To want to go out and get another high-price coach, because Galant's obviously going to cost a lot of money. Well, the real surprise to me is that they just didn't, like, You could do a perfunctory, like, oh, yeah, we talked to like 15 guys. And, you know, it turned out the guy that we ended up with was the guy we already had hired. Isn't that a crazy coincidence? Like, most teams would just do that. Yeah. But nope, not, hey, man, in these uncertain times, why would you try to hire another freaking coach or whatever?

Yeah. That's great. I like Evanston. I remember talking to him when he was in a. assistant in Washington. Like, he's a guy who's certainly put in the time to get this shot. I like Paul Fenton. He was a guy, you know, seems like a really smart coach.

That was, it was a, I mean, yeah, no, I agree. And I feel bad for every assistant GM now. It's a miracle Tom Fitzgerald got that job, right? Well, based on what, you know, what the premise we just established was of, uh, why don't we just hire the guy we already have. Oh, right, right, great. I don't know. I'm sure he's a good

Like, you know, wild were good Under Evanson, so that's fine But yeah, just like the way they did it Where they were, I think the quote from Bill Guerin was like, We already had the perfect guy. Why would we even look? And it's like, well, yeah, why would we even explore the options? Are we ready for the wild to become an offensive juggernaut

When they have Capriest off and LaFranier next year? So are they going to like clone those guys? Or is it just going to be that one line? I mean, they also have Kevin Fiala. forget. Oh, yeah. That's true. So there you go. You only need three guys, and then you're an offensive juggernaut. Ask the Penguins. Because all those guys are on that level. So, yeah, so it's Malkin, it's Crosby. Chris Coonitz is the third one. Is that who you're? Mark, Mark Donk.

For a while. Yeah, right up until they didn't for some reason. Well, he's, so he had a groin injury this year, is what the deal with Phil? I think I read that somewhere. I did. I feel like I also read that somewhere. Could I tell you where that was? Absolutely not. No idea. But, like, I hope so, because, like, his numbers suck this year. I want them to be good.

I want him to, like, dominate in the playoffs. Are the coyotes going to win around, do you think? Were they playing again? I think they play Nashville. It's possible. Neither of those teams is all that good. So? Hmm.

We had Heinz on the other podcast yesterday. He said they're going to reunite the Forsberg line for the playoffs because I'm still kind of hazy as to why they didn't really play all that. I mean, there were some injuries involved, but like they kind of broke up what might have been the best line in hockey for a while. That was kind of weird. Coaches love doing that. Coaches are like, oh, the HBK line. It's major success. They didn't score for three games.

We're never hearing who's the HBK line. I've never heard of it. Remember that shit? Yeah, I do. And how many times the Bruins tried to talk themselves out of, well, we might break up Bergeron, Pastor Nack and Marshan. We might do it. And it's like, why would you do that? They score like 58% of the goals together.

You know where those rumors came from? David Craichy. Exactly. Look, I just need someone to get to get me going. I need a nice winger here. How about this Pastor Nack kid? He's like, pst, fluto. I think it would be good if they broke up.

the top line and put Pashternak on the second line. No, I'm hearing, I'm hearing Butch might do it. Butch mentioned that to me. You guys want to run with that? By the way, speaking of David Pasternak, unfit to participate today. Yeah. Just found that out, just went across.

Hmm. Yeah. Well, I guess nothing to see, nothing to talk about. Could be, could be a hangnail. Could be, he tested positive for a communicable disease. could be either of those two things. The one thing on this that we didn't mention that there's a point worth making, and again, a lot of this came from the players.

Boy, it's convenient for the NHL. If you're trying to run a sports tournament in the middle of a pandemic that maybe you shouldn't be running, it's awfully nice to create a rule where you're not allowed to talk about that pandemic and not allowed to have any news stories about it or how it may be impacting the people you're putting potentially in harm's way. That's kind of a nice little bonus, I'm sure. But it's medical privacy is the important thing.

The one thing they said that was encouraging is that they are going to release the testing numbers during the next two phases, which is all I ask for. Every three weeks, they're going to release a new statistics about this. But not by team, not by anything. They're just going to tell you that like, yeah, 20 players tested positive. And crazy coincidence, they were all on that team that just got eliminated. Anyway, we're going to play more games now. and I'll say what I've said like the player is pushed for privacy a lot it's not simply just the NHL trying to cover up the numbers even though I do completely agree that there's a lot of that

going on the players clearly don't want to be the ones getting like stigmatized about getting this shit especially in phase four because then people are going to be like what'd you do go fuck off at the club for a night and look I mean I I said a couple times there shouldn't be stigma, but maybe shouldn't be and reality aren't the same thing. And I don't know if this sort of stuff on the one hand doesn't help when the players act like this is some big secret to hide away. But also, I mean, they have a right to stand up for themselves and to ask for what they ask for.

And if the NHL said yes, then here we are. I don't think it's good for the fans, but. as much as the fans matter, they're not the only stakeholders here. Yeah, I'm just shocked that, like, given the politics that a lot of these guys probably have, they don't, they actually care so much because of how fake this disease probably is, and it's not a real problem. And not even that many people are getting sick, so it's just the flu. Yeah.

That's all it is. I'm intrigued by the fact that the NHL has pushed really hard for gambling in the last, like, year, and this seems so antithetical to what wagerers would want. You love talking about the fucking gambling thing. I do. It's a huge deal. I don't know that it is.

I think it very much is. The NHL has deals in place with different sports books. Puck and player tracking is going to be something that people are going to bet on in a major way when it comes. I mean, I agree with it. Defy major way, I guess, is what I'm saying to you. Like, what is the size of

this huge deal. Because I really have no context for it. And any time it gets brought up, I'm just like, who's going to bet on this shit? Well, it's not the same slice of the pie as it is for, you know, other sports. That's obvious. It's a pretty low baseline right now. But the potential for people to bet on hockey is there, as was evidenced by how much money they were bringing in Vegas when the Golden Knights got there and how many people were

betting on hockey at that point. But the other thing, too, is that keep this in mind. that when you have a 24-team tournament with games played throughout the day, and you have people that are still stuck at home with nothing to do, and you have a lot of states now that have legalized sports wagering, and this is going to be a major betting event for the NHL, in a way that they've never had before. And to have this sort of playing grab-ass with injury disclosure

at a time when people might be betting on your sport, for the first time is kind of weird. I want the Bruins to win the opening face off. I want Bergeron to have 13 combined block shots and hits. I want, like, just fucking uncut gems shit. Like, I don't, I don't know, man. You don't gamble. Right.

Like, right. But if you're a sports better and then all of a sudden it's like, let me put it this way. If you're watching a regular season game and it's about to go to a shootout or, Sorry, let me rephrase that. It's about to go to the three-on-three. And you have the ability in the time between the end of regulation and the three-on-three to place a bet with odds on who's going to score the game-winning goal. Like, that's a fucking rush.

And that's kind of where we're going. I don't know if we're there quite yet, but that's a rush. It's not like the NBA won't be going on at the same time, though. Like, that's the ultimate problem for the NHL on so many fronts, is that, like, oh, the NBA, restart is happening two days before the NHLs. And baseball and Yeah, they're going to get like the NHL is going to get its lunch eating on all this stuff that's like, oh, it's going to be a huge deal.

We'll see. Yeah, I don't have a handle on that either as far as like what the impact's going to be in the U.S. to have hockey on like throughout the day. Especially when the biggest selling, to go back to a previous conversation on the show, like the biggest selling point for the NHL and the state. Stanley Cup playoffs is the atmosphere of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the intensity and the crowds, pageantry and all that shit. You've got to consider, though, that this is going to be the hardest Stanley Cup to win.

Maybe ever. Maybe ever. It's the greatest show. Did you see the NHL's new commercial where they used the song from The Greatest Showman? With a bunch of highlights? Oof. Yeah. Didn't see that one.

You know who also didn't see it, the Penguins? Because they're not in it, which is kind of weird. Really? Yeah, really. The Penguins, the Flyers, and the Rangers all aren't in this new commercial. How many times is Chicago in it, though? 60, 70. Their name on the cup, I think, is on it, and then they might be in it once.

No, it's like a lot of shots of McDavid. It's like a lot of shots of, like, the Jets. This is weird? The classic team that everybody loves, the Winnipeg Jets. Yeah. They had 76 points this year or something like that. Yeah, they're awesome. My daughter is 10 years old.

I got to tell you. kids her age fucking love the greatest showman I can't explain it She knows the songs word for word From the greatest showman Like they love that The soundtrack ended up being huge The movie ended up being kind of a low-key

Hit It made money, yeah for sure Yeah because little girls were going back to the theater To watch the Zach Efron and Zendaya And hear the songs The huge acmen himself Well, also probably Hugh Jackman. Obviously, every girl between the ages of 9 and 13 wants to be Michelle Williams as well.

So, you know, big draw there and cry in venom. But, like, yeah, little kids love the greatest showman. Do your kids know about the greatest showman, Sean? I have no idea what you're talking about. The greatest show is not rule out the fact that they may know, but I'm like literally Googling this right now to try to figure out. It's the huge Jackman, huge Jackman as P.T. Barnum. Loosely based on the life of P.T. Barnum, yep. The, uh, yeah. And what, whither, uh, the Bailey brothers? Um, and then so he, or the Ringling

brothers, rather. So he, he played P.T. Barnum. The songs were by the people who did the songs for La La Land. That's right. And, uh, Zach Efron's in it. And, uh, uh, A bearded lady sings an inspiring anthem. I know this sounds like a bit, but it's not. A bearded lady sings an inspiring anthem about being yourself at some point. And the whole movie's about like P.T. Barnum's a piece of shit that, like, cheated on his wife or whatever. And then also the town doesn't want the circus there because they're all freaks. It's like kind of like a get out of town, you have freaks.

Yeah, so like Jeremy Renner there, Ben Affleck. John Hans Like this is the not fucking around circus Not the town Like the town The town's people Oh okay Yeah

Blake lively Blake Lee Blake lily is in the greatest showman She's just a barfly Who PT Barnum finds And the confides in I've texted my daughter to ask if she has ever heard of this movie And whether her friends all secretly love it

I've seen it 15 times she says Yeah Exactly. That would not surprise me. Even worse, she'll be like, yeah, I've told you about it like 20 times and you just nodded through the conversation. Oh. I texted my daughter that the NHL was using the greatest showman theme in their commercial. And I swear to God, her text back was a combination of consonants and letters that was just gibberish with exclamation points after it.

That's how excited she was there using this fucking song. They know they're, they certainly know their demographic. All right, so I got that. The text I got back was the classic IDK. I don't know why. And then she's like, wait, are you trying to cheat on your podcast? She's concerned because she has no interest in the podcast whatsoever, but she did hear the TikTok quiz.

And she's now concerned that I was trying to cheat because I have been getting roasted for three weeks now about not knowing any TikTok stars. The TikTok stuff. time. Yeah, so she, the one thing about... If you do tell them to follow and then she's like giving her,

no, I'm not doing that. I'm not saying. Oh, there it is. Not sending a... Not plugging. The last thing I'll say about the commercial, and I don't know if this is going to be true for every ad that they do,

but like I was sort of surprised that they're not playing up the unprecedented nature of the postseason. Like, it's the playoffs. Like, you've never seen them before kind of thing. And maybe it's like Catholic guilt about having people play in a pandemic?

I think, here's what I think they should do. Okay, you get a samurai outfit. Step one. God damn. Step two. No recognizable hockey players or hockey footage in it. Step three. It's an ad for Ghost of Tsushima.

It comes out tomorrow. I think I'm very excited about that game. The fucking samurai thing. I'm never going to, I'm never, I hope it's the last thing I remember. Like right before I die, I'm like, There was a fucking, like, samurai commercial. Am I right about this? That's it.

That's how I feel about the senator that they put out with the failing microphone. Who wins? Who wins? The senator guy or the samurai guy? And it was the same actor. I get it. Do we think it was the same actor? No, this, I always thought it was weird that the samurai, but for those that don't know,

the samurai guy was the commercial they put out after the 05 lockout or they canceled the season. Their ad campaign coming back was a white samurai, a white man who is a samurai being like bathed and like prepped for battle by a woman, like a hot, hot woman in a locker room. Well, look, this is only two years after Tom Cruise is the last samurai. So you got to keep in mind. Samurai cult, like white samurai culture was hot at the time. The samurai looked like Kirk Muller, which I always thought, was. was sort of weird. I don't remember him. I just remember the thing existed. I don't, I don't remember what the man looked like. The, uh, the, uh, what you call you? The, uh, the, um,

Senator's Army guy. I mean, entirely possible that's also now the Golden Knights guy. That might be his lane. Like, maybe he just moved over to Vegas and we got to have those guys get together and just, uh, duke it out. Figure out who's, who's the true, uh, warrior of hockey. Samurai versus Senators guy? Versus night. I'm there. My money's on the samurai. My money's on the knight because he was able to conjure a CGI jet.

Remember that? Yeah, he cut it in half. He did fight an airplane. Yeah. Right, exactly. So I'm pretty sure that guy is magical. Samurai definitely loses. That guy is soft.

Let's be honest. He looked soft. Senators Army guy. Yeah, you wouldn't say that. if you're in the freaking Tokugawa Shogun it right now. I'm talking a lot of shit. Senator's Army guy, obviously some hard scrabble guy from like the mean streets of Ontario that they found to wear the outfit. Looked very militaristic walking through the phalanx of befuddled Senators players watching this train wreck happen in front of their eyes.

Also has a shield. So let's see that samurai. Unless that's Hattori-Honzo's shield. He needs to hold on to because it has his lines written on it. He can't let it go. So he's got that, but unfortunately, he's also got the helmet, but the helmet doesn't fit. So it immediately falls down and covers his eyes as soon as the fight starts. So that's the golden knight, does the golden knight get to bring along the archer that they have that she's on to the ice?

Yeah, that seems like it's cheating, doesn't it? Yeah. If the archer shows up for the fight, do they have to play a steam music before he can shoot an arrow? That's right. Yes. That's K-Fabe. We should also mention now, since we're talking about the Senators Army, they're bringing back the 2D classic Senators logo, they said. That's exciting.

I always like that logo. Yeah, the new one, the new one, it's probably, what, 15 years old? It stinks. Yeah, it does. So bringing back the original. is better than... I mean, ideally, I guess they would go to just like the old-timey-O jersey. Remember that one?

But, you know, this is the next best thing. It's a good jersey. Yeah. Like, fucking... The jersey that was proudly worn by Troy Millett and Brad Marsh. Go back to the old... No, Greg. He plays for the Bruins. Oh.

Sorry. Brad Marsh? That's Marsha. You wanted to mention something about streaming services, which I imagine is effusive praise of Disney Plus and why everybody should sign up for it, correct? It's just crazy that like all these companies have randomly like taken advantage, like accidentally, I guess I mean to say, taken advantage of the fact that everybody's in quarantine or whatever and they're just like, oh yeah, we have a new streaming service, HBO Max, Peacock launched yesterday.

So I just, I think it's been really cool for the movie. and not so much the original stuff. Like a bunch of Peacock has like the Born Ultimatum, or all the Born movies, and HBO Max has like an incredibly impressive movie collection. I don't know if you check this out. I was hoping you had so that we could have an actual conversation. I mean, I, no, no, no.

I've noodled around HBO Max. I think the exciting thing about HBO Max, for me at least, is, you know, you're going to have. some of your friends and shit on there, right, is going to be on there. And then, like, you know, you have all of the HBO original programming. And then you have the Criterion Collection, which is really cool. Well, it's not really the Criterion Collection. It's a bunch of movies in the, but it's because Turner Classic movies has, like,

a deal with the Criterion Collection or something. So it's some. You still have to have the Criterion Channel. But, yeah, like, also, like, the whole Aliens series is in there. And that's cool. My media consumption right now, we have YouTube TV because RIP, the PlayStation View, which we really liked, that just it stopped. And YouTube TV is all right. It's fine.

It's fine. None of these streaming services really are great because the picture quality blows. Even if you have like really good internet, the picture quality just, it's just not good. And then so I use Netflix, I would say, next most for various and sundry stuff. We just did, as we talked about last podcast, to much acclaim, by the way, the full run of supermarket sweep on Netflix. And I use Hulu for Top Chef when we go to sleep. But most of, I would say the majority of my TV viewing remains flipping around YouTube TV and watching like the shit we watch each week. like Night of Day Fiance on YouTube TV.

I would say those are the three. And then Disney Plus, obviously, for like, if I want to throw on a Marvel movie or Star Wars movie. Yeah, I may have watched both Revenge of the Sith and Solo a Star Wars story in the last couple of nights. That's fine. I saw your solo tweet. I, listen, I thought that movie was fine. It just didn't rise to the level of, like, oh, this is a, you know, rewatchable instant Star Wars classic. kind of deal. Right. I hadn't seen it since it was in theaters, like opening night or whatever.

Even as a Rogue One detractor, I think that movie is probably more revisitable than Solo. I also think the biggest problem with Solo is that like beyond the whole, you know, behind the scenes kerfuffle with Miller and Lloyd, Miller and Lloyd, Miller and Lord, and the fact that like it did things that no one was asking for, like explain where his name came from. I just like when you have something like the Kessel Run Best make it like the craziest fucking thing you've ever seen Instead of just like flying through clouds and there's a monster Well I mean they escaped from a black hole Like I had forgotten that that was the case but they did

I don't know that that was a discipline No I agree I but like the the train robbery sequence kicks ass Awesome it's so good and yeah I mean the real problem the real problem with the movie is that they were like okay and this is how Han Solo got his name and this is this sets up this and this sets up that and it's like yeah like no I know that like we've seen uh that we've all seen these Star Wars movies and like we don't have to like retroactively come up with this is where they come from especially because of how stupid the like it could have just been his last name Han Solo that could have just been his last fucking name and that that would have been fine nobody would

have cared yeah they made something dumb but and but apparently that was how they sold that movie of like, we're going to say where Han Solo. Like, I'm not joking. Like, Lordin Miller, I think, went in and was like, we're going to say where Han Solo comes from and whoever the executive at Disney was was like where? And they go, it's because he's

alone. And they were like, okay, sold. You got it. It's also one of these deals where like, don't introduce a better movie within your movie. And the romantic entanglement between Donald Glover's Lando Calericio and Phoebe

Waller Bridge's robot is a much better movie. Yes. But Solo ended up being. Yep. Like, give me that movie right now. Yeah, no, like, every time he's, Donald Glover is on screen, it is electrifying. Like, you're just like, oh, yeah, no, he's Billy D. Williams. He has the, the look and the, the voice and the, the pronunciation, the way he keeps saying

hand, down pat. All right. All right. Now it's time to bring back another favorite. I mean, everybody was excited when they bought back Landl Calrissian, at least in Solo, not so much in that last movie, because why is he even on that planet? And what purpose did he? Fuck it. I'm not doing Rise of Skywalker shit again.

Remember you wrote that thing about why it's actually good? I wrote five things. It's actually insanely good. I love that movie. I did not say that at all. I said here are five things that I found that might be redeeming. Like if you dug your hand into the dung pile like Laura Dern and pulled out a little flower or something, like that's how I felt right in that piece. I did not say I loved it.

And then, uh, when you were Laura Dern, I was Ian Malcolm going, no, that's one big pile of shit. Yeah. Yes. All right. It's time for something that's much better than Rise of Skywalker, which is the return of everybody's now favorite game show, name Pat Falloon. That's right. Doing it again, folks.

Yep. We have nine new categories. Oh, Jesus Christ. Well, we're doing best of five. So we're going to at least hear what all of them are, and then we'll go from there. Okay. All right. So who gets to go first? I don't remember. Sean, I am on like a expansion-level losing streak on game shows, so I'm sure that Sean gets to go first.

All right. I will go first. All right. Well, Sean, your categories, as follows. You have On My iPod, which is guys whose initials are MP and their number was three. You have citizens of Springfield,

these are all players who share a first or last name with a guy from the Simpsons or girl from the Simpsons. It's a guy from the Simpsons. And finally, you have looks like Meté is back on the menu and that's guys whose names is food. Wow.

Wow. Well, I can't, I mean, I feel like the Simpsons one is just going to be a dunk for, for Greg. I should do the, uh, the initials one since I just did like, I've carved out the initials beat as like my, that's true. Recent recently, so. All right. A, B or C? Uh, oh, what would, I had a strategy on this. C. Oh, I feel like I just say C all the time. You do just say C all the time. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. All right. And with that in mind, that's why I, made C's harder this time. Oh, come on. I knew you were going to do that.

Okay, so let's see, what do I give you again? His age is, he's 28 years old. He's played 417 NHL games, and his last team was the Florida Panthers. How many clues do you need to name this player? His last team was the Florida Panthers. I'm going to need five clues.

Five it is. So five, just as a reminder, will give you the years he's been in the league or played in the league if he's not a current player. His draft team, his draft spot, his height and weight, and his amateur team. So if I say four,

do I then lose the years in which he played? Yes. You know how this game works. Oh, Jesus Christ. I'll go, you know what? I think I might know who this is. I think I might actually have, this is the MP category.

Zero. Sean, do you want to go negative one and give me any of the information that I, I absolutely do not want to do that, no. Greg, you can name that, Pat, I don't know. I don't know how to say this. Go ahead, Greg. Is it, is it vowel challenge defenseman Mark Svissik? Yep, it is.

Yes, all right. Oh, man. Because I remember he was on the Panthers. So that, there you go. He's currently on the Panthers. He's previously played for the Buffalo Sabres. Although I should put, as a Leaf fan, I should point out, not always a defenseman, occasionally randomly get shifted to forward and then scores a hat trick against.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. The age checked out, I guess I didn't realize he played, I guess if he'd play a lot, like a few seasons for a day. Yeah, he's been in the league since 2012. Yeah. All right. Mark Fissississick.

Yep, that's right. Okay. So, Greg, you're up now, I think. Now, keep in mind, last time I think we played this, I also got it right first. They got like Zetterberg first or whatever. Yeah, and then shit the bed the whole rest of the time. Yeah. I'm a very big sort of like the New York Jets put together a perfect opening drive kind of player.

Yeah, sure. All right. So you get, they don't make them like that anymore, which is guys who played at least a thousand career games and were drafted in rounds that do not exist anymore. Whoa. You have Gretzky's Oval Office, and that's guys who have the same last names as presidents. and you have their great late, and that's guys who scored multiple playoff, multiple overtime winners,

so like second, third, fourth overtime. Okay, obviously not doing the draft one. That is the sort of thing that would end up in Sean's book. The overtime ones is pretty good, but that's a pretty wide swath of people. Because we're just talking overtime goals, not like series winners. No, multiple, like they've scored more than one,

multiple overtime goal in their careers. Is that playoff overtime or? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, you're saying multiple overtimes. It has to be, it's multiple playoff overtime goals like beyond the first OT. But have they scored more than one of them? Yes. What?

Yes. That's what, so it's multiple goals in multiple overtime games. Yes. Okay. But is it like more than one or one? Okay. And these guys are hockey. hockey players, is that right?

So they've scored or assisted on multiple... Multiple goals and multiple, multiple overtime games. Yes. There it is, right? Okay, there it is. There's no way I'm doing that category either. I'm going to take the presidents. Okay.

A, B or C. Distinct advantage to an American. B. Yes, seriously. B, it is. All right, Greg, this player is currently 45 years old. He played 375 NHL games, and the last team he played for. was the Dallas Stars.

How many clues do you need? Out of 10. There are 10 clues that you can get total. 45 years old. Last team was the Dallas Stars. Oh, boy. How many categories there? There are 10 clues, clue categories that you can get.

Give me seven. We'll start big. So seven. We'll get you his nation of birth, his career points or career save percentage if he's a goalie. The years he played in the league, draft team, draft spot, height and weight, and amateur team. I'll go six. I'll go five. I know.

I'll go four. This is where I'm picking the category in the sense that I want to believe that this motherfucker doesn't know who, like, you know. Exactly, like, yeah, like all the presidents are. Yeah, like he knows like four presidents. I definitely don't know all the presidents, but. All right, name him. Okay. Four, so you get the fact that he was drafted 19th overall in the 19th

entry draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ah, God damn it. The fact that he is a 6'3-3. 224 pound player, and he played college hockey for North Dakota. I did the Leaf's first round pick in 93 was Landon Wilson, and I'm assuming there was a president. Wilson? Yeah, you're right.

God fucking damn it. Well, first of all, I would have never gotten that anyway, but like, uh, I wouldn't have, he was in the Wendell Clark trade. He was like, that's, that's why I know him as the prospect, uh, from. Of course. Fucking, of course he does. That was, uh, yeah, of course. Yeah.

No, of course. That was, that was pure, that was pure luck that it, uh, because I was trying to get you to do it in three and my eyes kind of glazed over and then I snapped back when. He heard the word maple leaves and was like, oh, okay. Boom. Yep. All right. Yeah. No, that sucked.

Well, Sean, uh, this is, this is to go up to one here. Sean, Sean's like a maple leaves draft pick. This is a Unix system. I know this. All right. So your categories are, I'm seeing double for Sebastian Ahos, and that's guys who, there were two guys who have the same name in the NH, who played in the NHL. And I am giving you the better of the two players in all cases.

There's eight-bit characters, and that's guys who have the same name as guys from old video games. And there's... A holdover from the last time we played definitely playing favorites, and that's guys who played for UMass Bowl. I'm going to pre-guess the second. I'm going to pre-guess the second category. Wario Lemieux, no? Waluigi is in here.

That's crazy. Let me go, I want to do the first one, the similar names. Okay, AB or C. That's also in my wheelhouse. C. C, it is. Go ahead and give me the hard one. All right.

Okay, this guy is currently 65 years old. He played 1,000 NHL games, and the last team we played for was Chicago. 65 years old. 65 years old. Jesus. I know, wah-wa-we-wa. Five.

I'll do it in five. Five? Five it is. 65 years old? Yeah, Greg, I don't know if you know this. Sean knows a lot about old. old hockey players. Have you heard about this? Have you heard about this?

I'm just trying to even do the math in my head on like what... From the Charleston Gazette, the Banger Harder wedding. So we'd be... We're talking like 70s, I think. All right, so this is something in the 70s. 70s and 80s. And it's a Blackhawks player. Played last for the Blackhawks.

Obviously it's Bobby Orr. Um, I'm gonna, I mean, what did you say, four or five? I said five. I mean, fucking go. I ain't gonna know it. Okay. If I said five, I think I meant ten. All right.

I'm gonna be honest, I was really hoping for like, uh, something a little more reason. I maybe shouldn't have pixie. Okay. Wow. I mean, I mean, Lambert is, Lampert's making noises that indicate he thinks you're going to get it. So, well, again, it's an old hockey player. That's my basis for thinking that. Okay, this guy played from 1975 to 1990.

He was drafted by Chicago in the third round of the 1974 amateur draft, 52nd overall. He was 5'10, 183 pounds, and his amateur team was both the Cornwall Royals and the Peterborough Peets. All right. So. He was drafted by the hawks and ended up finishing with the hawks. But he finished with the hawks also. Yeah. But what happened?

Which doesn't necessarily mean between. Yeah. You have the two slices of bread, but you don't know what's inside the sandwich. Yeah. Like I'm trying to think of like guys who played for the hawks all through the 80s, but I could be going down. That could be the wrong way to think about it because he could be. Hmm.

And is this? these are guys who share like a full name. Yes. Yes. It's not just last name or something. No, yeah. They're not all. Here's three guys named Steve.

Yeah. Oh, boy. I, uh... There's not a lot to go on here. No, there's, there's not. So, debuted in the NHL in 75, played to 1990, was it? Yep. Yeah, 1990.

Yeah, 1990. Start it and finish with Chicago, but we don't know. Need an answer. Yeah, I don't have one. I will pass and concede to Greg. Not even a guess? Do you make a guess? I mean, who?

You'll probably get it. No, I got. The answer is Bob Murray. The other Bob Murray played from 1974 to 77. Uh-huh. So this is Bob Murray as in like the Bob Murray. Yep, be the Bob Murray. All right.

Two guys named Bob Murray. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? Yeah. All right. Sean, I think you pick now, right. No, I pick that one. Oh, yeah, you're right, you're right.

Greg, you get. The Simpsons one? The guys whose names are food, or the guys who were drafted in rounds that don't exist anymore and played forever. Do I know more about food or the Simpsons? and what's the smaller... So Sean's intimidated by the Simpsons one because he doesn't know all the Simpsons characters.

But that said, like, it could easily just be like, you know, a name that's got a kind of condom, common. Well, so what I would say, by the way, is like, I didn't, unlike the, like, Bob Murray one, I didn't pick a guy whose, like, name was Homer,

Simpson. Like I could have picked someone whose last name was Simpson. I wouldn't have, obviously. Or I could have picked someone whose first name was Homer. First name was Homer, right. Right. That's what I'm saying. But not, uh, not both. Right. But it could, but 1920 star bleeding gums McGee. That's right. So are you, are you saying that you didn't pick, uh, uh, Wayland Smith. Yeah, we can all, we can all. You didn't, you didn't, wait, no, you didn't. No, no, no, you didn't pick Simpson as the last name. Are you saying that on the record? Yes.

Yeah, because, well, I guess... Sorry, Todd. Yeah, I mean, I guess I could have because the category is just called Citizens of Springfield, but yeah, I picked. You know what? As much as I want to do the food one... Oh, my God. Just fucking pick one. I feel like...

I feel like the Simpsons one is a big FU to the Patreon subscribers that never pick Simpson's shit. Sure. So I'll pick the Simpsons one. I'll pick A for Abraham Simpson. That's the man's name. Okay, this player is currently 84 years old. Oh, my fucking God.

He's bleeding gums. He played 45 games in the NHL. Oh, 245 games in the NHL? And the last team he played for was the Boston Bruins. How many clues do you need? He's, how much, how old is he? He's 84. Zero.

Sean, would you like to go less than that with, no, thank you. Okay. Greg? Willie O'Re. That's right. Yes! I think that means Greg wins. Correct.

That's three. So there's groundskeeper Willie O'Re. All right. Yes. Very good. Damn. It saved me a lot of time thinking about homers that might have played in like the 1930s. I'll tell you that.

That was exciting. Another exciting, man, we really hit on something with the Paffaloon game. It's very good. That's quite good. We is an interesting way to put that. Oh, you know, you know what? Oh, now it's like, oh, we all fucking carve out our little, you know, that's really selfish. really selfish, but I do anticipate there'll be a Lambert spin-off at some point when he leaves the show and just is this permanently.

Yeah. My whole life just crushes us in the numbers. My whole life is just looking at hockey reference and just typing in random names and hoping I figure something out for a category. Paul Bissonette joins the show at some point and becomes the number one podcast in the world. Well, congratulations to Greg for winning a quarter of a question. quiz that was centered around his favorite TV show and the country that he but not I live in. Good job. I look forward to the next quiz, which will be about random cooking shows and local San Jose eateries. Mm-hmm. I mean, why don't you text your daughter and see if she knows about the

Simpsons? I should have. She doesn't do it. I don't, I was waiting for a topic if it wasn't meant to be. That's fuck soup for this week. As per usual, a variety, a cornucopia of topics covered. Thanks to no one. No one's advertising on podcasts. It kind of sucks, but, you know, whatever. You can read my stuff at ESPN. My winners and losers of the CBA column is up now.

My other podcast, ESPN and Ice with Emily Kaplan. We talked to John Heinz of the Predators. And we asked Bob Stauffer of Edmonton Radio, To tell us why we should be happy Edmonton is hosting half this tournament. And he was good. Lambert? Yes, sign up for the Puck Soup Patreon. We got bonus episodes.

We have mailbag episodes. We have my newsletter. And also, we probably are going to bring back the Top Chef podcast at some point. And probably we are going to keep doing stick to sports for the football. for the foreseeable future. So check it out. I'll say this about the Top Chef podcast. I definitely think there's going to be a top 10 chef testins podcast in the near future.

Having watched the, we're watching the Seattle season now as our go-to-bed show. And pretty incredible how much talent and likable chef testants there were that season because they bought back Stefan and a couple of guys. other people, along with Brooke and some others. So it was Kristen, maybe pound for pound the best talent they've ever had in a season. That wasn't an all-star season was Seattle. Yes, absolutely. You find me on The Athletic, the bunch of stuff as we ramp up for the playoffs.

I had a piece this week. If you like rankings, I ranked all 31 teams by which fan bases had experienced both the highest highs and lowest lows of being a fan. So starting with obviously Vegas at 31 and working my way down. And it was fun. It created a lot of debate and it reinforced my longstanding belief that literally every fan base thinks they have suffered more than any other fan. I was just going to say, you know who deserves to be both number one and number 31 on that list?

It's my favorite team. It's only ever been insanely good or insanely bad. And if you didn't think that my favorite team was at the top of the list, well, clearly you don't watch a lot of my favorite team's games. My favorite team. Ryan just did a note perfect impression of a Vancouver Canucks fan in my time. They are utterly convinced that despite never finishing last or winning a Stanley Cup, that they have experienced the extremes far more than any other team.

So yeah, that's fun. So check that out. Indeed. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening to Puck Su. Thanks for supporting the show during all these wacky months. And we'll talk to you next week. Bye.

Later. Bye-bye.