Puck Soup - Very Dramatic

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the Senators, Devils, Blue Jackets, and more. Sponsored by Mint Mobile (mintmobile.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McNeugh from The Athletic. And folks, I like to call this kind of week like a grab bag week. This is a week where a million, like, not necessarily small, but like a million medium things happened, but no big thing happened. And maybe if none of the other medium stuff happened, the one thing, the one of the medium things would have been a big thing, you know? Okay. but there were just like six medium things that didn't allow any to become large. So I will tell you that I'm relieved to hear that the senator stuff is a medium thing.

I think it's a medium thing now. It feels like a very big thing here. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So that's good because I was going to ask you how this is playing outside of the three square miles where any senator's fan is located. It's interesting because, hey, we're all at our freaking bubbles, okay? And I follow a lot of hockey reporters. And so there were a lot of hockey reporters being like, here's what I would have said.

If I had that happen to me, you know, you know, all this kind of. I wouldn't have done the statement or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And so like, it's a little navel-gazy as far as I'm concerned. Like just the way everybody was talking about it, obviously not if you're the center. It's not naval... But let's... Okay, let's circle back. Let's set this all up.

There's a very nasty rumor on Twitter involving wives and girlfriends and all this kind of stuff, and the senators. And... When I say rumor, I mean like, a guy posted something and everybody picked up the ball and ran with it. And then the guy deleted his account like a day later or something, right?

Am I getting the broad strokes of that right? You've got the broad strokes, except I would say that the posting on Twitter that then got deleted Yes. Does not seem to be ground zero for this. That seems to be somebody who had heard a rumor that was going around. I don't know if it was going around town or going around the league. I've kind of heard that some of this may have been coming from other teams that we're talking about it.

Interesting. So it wasn't something that. some guy just made up and posted on Twitter two days ago, and it went nuts. It had been going for a while, but without any evidence or serious suggestion that there was any truth to it. Right. But I do think that background is important.

It's not like one guy made a Twitter post and everybody freaked out. Correct. This had already been out there. Correct. Had you heard any of this, by the way, before? before the statement. Yeah. Yes, I had seen the post in question and I had heard like, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, it's snowballed where eventually it became I saw the baby and the baby looked at me.

Right. Yep. You know. So that was kind of what I like, you know, and you hear this. So, okay. my thing with this is you hear this kind of rumor a lot in hockey like once a year maybe there's something about this guy

that guy his wife her what you know that all this kind of stuff I can't I'm sure that like weird stuff goes on with marriages of you know 600 guys who are on the road 150 days a year or whatever it is right I'm positive that that's that that's a problem for some people. But the amount it gets talked about in hockey seems to be a little over the top, is what I would say.

Like, it's not a representative sample size, I guess, you know? And to me, my reaction reading this was, I think that's probably not true, was what my, you know, I saw the rumor and I was like, that doesn't feel real to me, right? but it is a thing where when a team starts losing and someone goes on whatever you want to say, an indefinite leave for personal reasons or whatever, people are going to go looking for reasons for that happening that aren't just, maybe this team's not very good. Right? So that's kind of my big interpretation of that was like...

And in a way it's... How do I say this? It's unfortunately inevitable to some degree when you have a player who leaves for personal reasons and no other information is given. Of course. Which is not me saying that they should give more information or they always. more info or whatever. It's,

if, if, this is a good thing that teams are, are letting guys go if they need, they have something they need to take care of. But it does create a bit of a vacuum. Like,

totally. It, it happened in Toronto with Joseph Wall to a much lesser extent. But yeah, if you had sat down and been like, what's up with this guy, you could find some people throwing dumb theories around because,

just kind of what people do. It just happens that in this case, it seemed to, you know, the spark seemed to catch. Yeah, well, okay, so the thing about the spark seemed to catch, perfect way to put it in a certain way, because let's just say my read on all of this was you can take Melnick out of the senators, but, you know, you can't take the senators away from Melnick or whatever you want to. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, if you had that, like, eight-year period that the senators had immediately preceding last season, where there were whole, like, Twitter and Reddit threads going, like, here's just, like, a list of things that happened to the senators in the last eight years. And you're reading it going, and a guy set someone on fire?

Mm-hmm. You know, like, yep. Oh, whatever. For people who don't remember, this is the story. This is the headline from the Ottawa citizen July 6, 2018. The night a woman burst into flames in Cody C.C.'s backyard and a long road to recovery. I'm not making light of what sounds like a horrible thing to happen. But I'm just saying, this is the level of, like, drama around the senators for a decade plus or whatever.

Eric Carson, Mike Hoffman thing. Yep. The Uber. Yeah, you can, again, you can go on Reddit or whatever and just find a list of insane shit that happened to the senators only, right? Like, you would barely believe it if you read that thing and we're like, this is the entire Eastern conference, let alone one organization. Yeah. You know, so I understand why a senators fan would just be like, oh, the crap. craziest possible explanation for this is one million percent possible to me.

Yep. Yep. That's, uh, that, uh, that, that, that, that tracks. Yes, that's right. And, you know, Ottawa is a small town. It is, uh, yeah, stuff like that tends to catch. So, this is the statement the senators put out once, I would say this tweet had been like kind of ambient for a day or three.

Like, it wasn't just the tweet came out and they put out the statement. And the other thing that had happened is earlier that day, they had placed Allmark on, or they'd taken them off the roster. Yes. Which is just a paper transaction because I think it was Lars Eller was coming back from injury and they just needed the spot. But people saw that and kind of went, oh, wait a second. Is this something? Is this big? is something happening here, and it wasn't.

But that seemed to be a little extra gust to win to what by that point had already sparked up and started to burn. So statement from president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Steyos, quote, our organization was extremely disappointed to read the completely fabricated and false stories that are spreading around social media about our hockey club. Linus is away from our team for personal reasons, and he has the entire organization's support. We ask that people respect his privacy, but clearly that request was not heard by the lowest forms of trolls and sick people who scour the internet. We are disgusted that outside forces are attempting to disrupt our hockey club. This statement will put an end to the ridiculous speculation that has spread online. Now, first of all, that last part was not true.

Oh, no, it ended immediately, did you do? Oh, okay, great. Yeah. Second of all, I don't know why they're going to bring trolls and sick people into this. You know, that's a real tag yourself moment. I'm a sick person who scars the internet. I had nothing to do with this. I'm just, I'm a malign outside force.

And like, so that's the statement. And that was one of those things that people were like, this is the damn straysand effect. I read about that on Wikipedia. Yeah. which is probably true. Have you ever heard of this thing from 30 years ago? Yeah. Yeah, we have.

We're aware of it. And it did have that effect someone. Yeah. Again, I heard from a lot of hockey writers over the week, not like heard from, but like I saw a lot of hockey writers over the weekend being like, this is the first time I'm hearing of this crazy ass state. I always know that something has gone completely. has completely jumped the tracks. And I've mentioned this before. It's when I get a text for my mom asking about it in the sports world.

Yeah. And just to give you a sense on this one, I did not get the text for mom, but I did get a text from my dad going, what's this all about? Sure. So that's a medium. That's like a, that's a code orange, I think. Sure.

And like, I totally get the impulse from the senators to do. this. I wouldn't have maybe worded it the way they did. Yeah. You know? I think there's, there are two questions here. One is, do you put the statement out at all? And then there is how the statement was put together. Well, so I think you do, I think you do put out the statement because all the quotes, I'll just read. This is from, I believe, the same night. Am I right about this, that it's the same night that the statement came out. Let's see. Oh, no, it's the night after the statement came out. They had a game. And this is the headline on the senator's website. A united team returns home to host the Panthers. And again, it's all messaging, right? Like, but I think that,

you know, it's one of those, you don't want to say bulletin board material necessarily, but like, it did allow them to kind of rally themselves. And the quotes for, you know, it's one of the, you know, it's from the store, this is on the senator's website, is just a bunch of guys going. It was total bullshit and we're really glad the senators put, like Steve put out the statement. And that's the key right there. That's, yeah, absolutely.

The players seem to appraised. And I get that there's- And Travis Green also had a quote praising it, yes. And I get that there's a certain extent where it's like, the players aren't going to be like, no, I wish they hadn't done that. Our GM's an idiot. But you could read that they, this felt like sincere support. Like they, the players had clearly heard it.

Yeah. Again, you get, you start bringing families into it. I mean, you're going to piss somebody off. Yeah. And we're not, not just the wives and girlfriend, but imagine like, you know, you're getting, you're a player, you're getting texts from, you know, the cousin or the, the in-laws going. Like, what's all this about? I saw a thing on Twitter.

That's got to be frustrating. That's going to be very frustrating. So the players did seem to appreciate it. By the way, I'm just going to real quick put a caveat on this. People know I'm in Ottawa. People know that I know some people who work for the senators. We'll get to that in a minute. I have no insight information on this whatsoever.

I have not asked. I have left well enough alone. So please do not read between the lines on anything I'm saying to be like, oh, he's hinting at something. I'm not. I know as much as you or anyone listening. Yep. So I guess with that said,

uh, the, the other thing, uh, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the statement from, from, from Sean's friend, Ian Mendez, who is there, uh, the senator's vice president of communications used to work for the athletic. And he had a very. interesting post about basically like why we felt like we had to put that statement out. He writes a column, I think every Monday on the Sends website. That's correct. A little behind the scenes.

And yeah, probably I don't get to see their web traffic, but I'm guessing this one did bigger numbers than the typical edition. Probably did okay. So, yeah, without like, you know, going, going to. to crazy deep into the thing here where he's calling out some reporters by name and stuff like that. I think what he says like halfway down that section of his newsletter or whatever you want to call it is correct. It was a total no-win situation, right? And the silence only amplified things within our market and fan base.

Our local media asked for a comment or statement, and then the national media mocked us for making. the statement. Again, it's all whatever you want to say, like, you know, circling the wagons. I don't know that you're allowed to say circling the wagons anymore, but you know what I mean. Yep. And to me, what it boils down to, I guess, is like what he says here, we came out swinging. National reporters can mock us all they want, but our obligation is to protect our players and make sure the truth is out there in our market. That's all we can do. again, I totally get the impulse from the senators to do that.

I just wouldn't have been like, you guys are all sick little fuckers. You know what I mean? Like, that's the line I think is kind of like, where are you guys talking? Like, take it. I get why don't take it easy, but also like take it a little bit easy is kind of my thing with it. And it's like I would say this from a PR perspective. and this goes back years and years, the senators go way too often

to playing the card of like us against the world. Yes. Our little market against everyone. Like it's just kind of almost their default defensive crouch that they get into. And it plays very well in Ottawa. But I think it just, it has been a limiting factor

on how seriously they get taken sometimes. So I sort of roll my eyes a bit at that, you know, almost all the national media is out to get us. And it's like, oh, here we go again. That said, I do think it's a fair point to make that, hey, man, if you're in Edmonton or Minnesota or Carolina and you're like, well, I hadn't heard about this. Cool.

people in Ottawa had. And that was probably a little bit more of a priority for them. So I get why the statement came out. Totally. The wording of the statement was kind of weird. And look, again, I don't know the behind-the-scenes story, but I've been around PR enough in my life to know that sometimes the PR department might have one approach in mind

and sometimes the people up above want to do it differently. I... Yes. No, I think that that goes without saying, honestly. This statement did a good job of capturing Steve Staeus and his voice in that moment, let's just say. Totally. I would not be surprised if there was some back and forth.

You know, maybe we tone it down. Now, maybe we tone it back up. Maybe we take this word out. No, you put that word. back in kind of deal. Yep. No, totally, totally. You know, at the end of that, like, that would be my one area where I wonder about it.

Because I do think that there was, you know, not that you put out a boring corporate speak statement, especially if you're trying to get across the message that, hey, we're standing up for our players and we're ticked off about this. but it got so close to the line of being over the top that I think it caught more attention. For sure. But again, maybe that's just, maybe there was no way to win on that. Yeah, it's unavoidable.

You need attention, but you don't want all the attention, but you got to get some, and you want to make it sound like it's a real person and not some, you know, not something just cut and paste it out of some corporate people. PR manual, so. Yep. Like I'd say, I don't, again, I wouldn't have been my personal choice, but I get it.

So that's all, you know. And meanwhile, I guess the other thing is this is all going against the backdrop of the senators falling out of the playoffs. Well, and again, I said that, I said that at the start, right? Like, it's, the team is playing badly. Is the real issue here. Yeah. And in fact, has played badly for a good.

chunk of the last like month plus at this point. Yeah, it, it hasn't been great. And, and because I will tell you if, if this season goes away, it looks like it might, and the senators are not just missed the playoffs, but maybe are not even a significant part of the race, there's going to be fans who point back and go, oh, you know, you know what derailed their season was that whole Allmark thing and the, you know, totally. You can just, people are going to, one, one random online. troll derailed a team's season when they were, and it's, it'll be a good story, but it's not

going to be true, right? Because the problems are already there. Yeah. Now, if you were hoping that maybe this would be the turning point in the other direction and they'd kind of rally behind it, hasn't really, I mean, they got their doors kicked in by Colorado, the night that this all broke, okay, it's Colorado. Totally, yes. And then they come home and they don't play very well against Florida. And they lose on home ice.

So four regulation losses in a row. Last place now in the Atlantic. This is kind of the bigger problem. And on top of that, we still don't know when Allmark will be back. There was a report that he is still expected back this season. I did. Yes, I saw that. But that doesn't make it sound like it any time soon, right?

So, right. Hard to say. And he had not been good in the first half at all. Definitely not. Big part of the problem. On a team that otherwise, like, you look at some of the underlines, like, they've been fine. Yeah. They're getting torpedoed by goal tanning, unfortunately.

And, yeah, when things are going bad, the distractions don't help. But it is, it was already. going bad. Yeah. No, that's exactly right. And again, I'm, the thing that I have been thinking about this whole time is,

because something is going wrong, fans are going to look for explanations or even make up explanations, like in their, in their mind palace or whatever. And because it's the Ottawa senators, you would just go like, well, they found Tim Stutzler assembling a,

a nuclear weapon in his basement. And so that's why it's a, you know what I mean? Like, you would just, your mind would just go to the absolute craziest thing you could possibly think of. And because of that, it's like, well, I, I guess I don't know what to, what to make of all this, you know? So. Yeah.

And, I mean, let's be honest. Also, like, sports fans are like anyone else. You feed them a piece of gossip. Mm-hmm. That's a little bit titillating. That's a little bit like, oh, okay. They're like all of us, right? We had that voice in the back of their head that goes,

that doesn't sound true. But then you got the other voice that goes, yeah, but it sounds fun. So what if we just ran with it? Right. Yep. What if we just passed it on and, you know, and then things spread.

And I totally get the frustration that that would have created. Yeah. How do you not get their side of it? Again, what I have, out the statement like that? Definitely not. You know, there's a bad rumor going around. The Ottawa Senators are not going to comment on it, blah, blah, blah.

Like, that would have been my take, but I don't have whatever 40 pissed off players to deal with in the, or I guess there's not even close to that, but 25 pissed off players in the organization. Like,

so that's, that's why. Again, I think all you need to understand to have it justified, and then we'll move on from this, is the senators were all like, thank you, Steve. That was a good statement. Yep. Does it make them look a little silly?

Yeah, but now like Brady Kachuk's not mad or whatever. Well, and, and I mean, it's, it may even work to his benefit, right? Yeah. You see people, you know, these malign outside forces in the nasty national media saying, you know, making fun of the guy and you go okay so he you know he took the hit everybody was making fun of me all day and now now making fun of the GM they're in front of the boss he stood up and took the you know took the bullets for us that you can you can respect that yeah like you say that that's that's actually a perfect way to think about it I think and like it's just really it's really it's you know it's

really the only explanation that matters at the end of the day um and Anyhow, let's move on to the other team where there was plenty of drama the last little while here, the New Jersey Devils. These guys aren't very good. No, they're not. And they're mad. Well, hey, they won last night. They won the Quinn Bowl. Yeah.

And so what could you possibly say bad? We always said these guys would be unbeatable in any game involving Quinn Hughes. and here they are. So I guess you can go back to, well, I mean, you can probably go back to the failed Quinn Hughes trade, and you could go back to the summer. But things have not been going well for quite a while now, and everybody's looking for the explanation. Wasn't this team supposed to be good? Blah, blah, blah, blah.

And they land on, okay, here's what we're going to do. We've got to scratch Douggy Hamilton. and that's a, you know, that's a big money player, a big name player that, quite frankly, hasn't been playing like Dougie Hamilton this year. His numbers are solid, underlying numbers are solid. His offensive production, bad. Like, flat out, I'm not afraid to say it, bad. What does he have, like, 10 points this year or something like that?

If that, yeah. Now he missed a chunk of time with injury. and blah, blah, blah. I'm looking up what his points are now. But like, I would say 12 points. But the other thing to say is his production, since returning from injury, is even worse.

I had this damn window open earlier and I must have closed it. But yeah, he missed a bunch of time. And okay, here it is. He has four points. Two of them were. last night since he came back in like early January. Is that right?

Well, he has four points since the start of January. Let's put it that way. And it's probably a longer, a longer problem for him, honestly. It's just not good enough at the end of the day, I think you could say. And so they scratch him. Seems like that would be the kind of thing that people get pissed off about it. if you're their agent, and indeed his agent, was like, this is, what was the wording? It was like, this is a politically calculated move or something like that.

Something, something like that, yeah. The implication being that they've been trying to trade them for a while now. Yep. Stop me if you've heard this one, but a New Jersey devil has trade protection in their contract. Yep. And so this is kind of the typical thing that you get in a situation like this, It's like, all right, you're not going to accept a trade. Then we're going to make life not very fun for you until you do.

And the agent came out and said, hey, we've got a 10-team trade list. We're willing to go beyond that. Let's work something out. Okay, I have the statement from the agent here. J.B. Barry is his name. And being an agent is his game. Dougie was informed today that he will not be playing now that Kovicevik is. back in the lineup. In our view, this decision is all about business rather than his game

right now. Singling him out feels very calculated at this stage. Dougie has a 10-team trade list, and there have been efforts to trade him going back to the draft last year. We have made it clear to the devils that we will consider teams outside our list and other creative ways to get to a team that is mutually acceptable. Now, this all comes, obviously, in the wake of, like Elliot Friedman reporting. Oh yeah, by the way, uh, they,

they tried to trade him to the sharks over the summer and he said no thanks. Right. Think he's maybe kicking himself about that one? Whoopsy doodle. Looking out his window at a New Jersey winter going, oh, yeah. Um,

so again, the, the problem is that sometimes you give a guy a 10 team trade list. You know what I mean? Yeah. And again, the thing in the statement is, in our view, this is a decision about business rather than his game right now. His game right now is not very good. I think that's safe to say.

And so I don't agree with Barry there, you know, but I get that he's saying the thing that much like Steve Steyhouse. He's saying the thing he needs to say. Yes. So I can't Another one I can't get too worked up about it from from either direction really And this this is also happening with in the context of There I don't remember his last name but as Ging from ESPN had a thing He was talking about I remember that guy

How Luke he's like I think he did yeah I think he's it's like AI now the I'm going to like a holograph or something. Huh. Crazy. Pointing out how Luke Hughes has not been good. And Luke Hughes recently got booed,

but Luke Hughes doesn't get scratched, potentially because of who he is related to. Eh, you know, how much does that play into it? I'm not sure, but, yeah. So Hamilton gets back in the lineup last night, by the way, it has a good game. Yeah, two points.

So it worked. 100% genius. Just motivated, just right. But yeah, meanwhile, the devils are sitting outside of the playoffs. And now there's a lot of drama around them, which is, you know, in my opinion, probably not good. Already you've had the, you know, lots of criticism to them about the Quinn Hughes situation and Tom Fitzgerald essentially not being ready to pull the trigger on a move when he, Had the opportunity. And so he's on the hot seats.

Yeah, it's an ugly situation all around for a team that it feels like for the last few years, everyone's been like, yeah, man, the doubles are ready. This is it. They're contenders. And two years ago, they missed the playoffs. Last year, they make the playoffs by, with a lousy record. 91 points, I want to say. Yeah, that sounds correct to me.

Don't do anything when they get there. and this year could miss again. I think it's absolutely fair to go. Like, is this team actually good? And I think it's totally fair to go, no. You know what I mean? Like, that's the, that's what it really boils down to for me is like, this isn't like the senators where they were pretty good last year and then have, like you said earlier,

gotten bad goaltending. Like just all around, there are multiple guys you can point to, this guy sucks this year, that guy sucks this year, et cetera. And what I don't know what you do about that. You know what I mean? Like there's just a lot going on there that I don't know that you can't, because you can't trade Luke Hughes or you can't certainly can't rip up his contract. And so then what do you do? Like you go, okay, well, we'll try to trade Dougie Hamilton and Andre Palat.

I think that's like a totally reasonable thing to explore if you're the devils. But that's going to piss some people off. And maybe you shouldn't have given those guys straight protection at the end of the day. And like who's really lining up for Andre Plott right now? Fucking nobody. Who's sitting there going, oh, you got a you got a mainly offensive forward who has four goals. Where's the line form? Totally.

Dougie Hamilton, you know, he's got, what does he have, two years left after this one? Yeah, I believe that's right. At $9 million a year? You can't move that without taking back either bad salary or retaining, which you're not going to want to do. So, I mean, it's, uh, it's an issue. I don't, I don't see the fix here. Well, so I think it was Elliot said the other day, like, they'll look into

they'll look into maybe making a change with the GM this summer or something, but they're not going to do it in season. And it's like, sure, okay, that makes sense. Why not? But also, you can see where that's like not going to be satisfactory to their fan base or their players probably. And you run into this with multiple teams every year, right? you get to this point in the season, you go, well, we're not going to fire the GM now.

Because who are we going to hire, right? You don't have access to anyone's assistance. You don't have any, like, you're really limited on who you can bring in. And it's either going to be an internal promotion, in which case there's a perception that you're just bringing in a guy who is already part of the problem. Or you're going to go outside and it's basically going to be the same handful of guys that are always, always floating around out there looking for a job. And if this guy's so smart, why isn't he working somewhere already? But the flip side is, so what are we going to do?

We're going to let the guy that we're probably going to fire in the summer handle the trade deadline, handle selling, handle whatever the version. Is he going to even be aligned on selling? If he knows that, you know, he can see what's probably coming for him at the finish line. It's tough. Yeah, man. And honestly, the thing I keep thinking of is, like, how different everything is if they have what it takes to get Quinn Hughes for out of Vancouver. Like, you go back to that guy who is like, there's no way the devils have what it takes to get Quinn Hughes out of Vancouver.

And you're like, oh, damn, is that true? And they go, like, that guy was right, 100% correct. And because of that, like maybe they were always set up to fail, but because we all thought this was like a done deal, then it feels like a huge disappointment to not get him. There were a bunch of teams that didn't get him.

You know what I mean? But only one was like the, you know, the rock solid lock of the week was the devil's get Quinn Hughes. And they go, oh, actually, that's a, that was never going to happen. And you go, well, then what the fuck? And the way did it happen. to because I really think if it had come down to, hey, man, the devils were bidding on this

and they just couldn't match what the while gave up. Because remember, the wild gave up a pretty good package to the Chinx. If it had just been like, hey, man, we couldn't, we didn't have a Zeev Bouillon, we didn't have a center in that age ready to go, ready to drop in their second line. I think that's one thing, but it was the fact that you heard about, well, you know, they didn't, they couldn't take the salary and they were trying to work some things, but there were no trade clauses and they didn't have time to get everything. Well, okay, wait a second.

So you're not ready to go on this? That's the perception that I think is. Yeah. No, I think that's right. They are a bit of a mess. Now, that being said, it's the Eastern Conference, so they are one point out of the playoffs, probably. There are four points out of the playoffs, and that's behind Buffalo who have two games in hand. the better comparison is there

there are four points back of both the caps and the Bruins who have both played the same number of games so four points man that can be a week oh yeah totally so when you're chasing this many teams I mean I saw a thing where the you know the the leifs as people may know are now on a 10 game point streak

8 oh and 2 in their last 10 and it was like here's what the teams on top of the Atlantic have done in the last 10 games and it's like 10 and 0 for Tampa like 8 and 2, 7 1 in 2, 7, 2 and 1, like you don't gain any ground. Yeah, how many games in a row did Buffalo win? Yeah, Buffalo won 10 in a row and got into the last wild card spot.

In a conference we've all been saying all year stinks. Yep. So win 10 in a row and you're right there. And I mean, it's bad. Punditry on our part, but you have to drop that caveat on everything in the Eastern Conference. Yes.

This is an ad, the devils and the senators, absolute disaster, absolute complete 18 wheelers going off the cliff. Probably going to play each other in the first round. Mm-hmm. They'll figure it out one way or another. Because one of them will win 10 in a row and the other will win 15.

So let me ask you this. Is there anything the devil do to like stanch the bleeding here. You know what I mean? Like do they go, well, look, I mean, maybe we fire the coach, maybe, you know, like, that's the thing I'm having a hard time with, I guess. Yeah. Is.

I don't, I don't think you necessarily fire Sheldon Keefe. Partly because if the GM's getting fired in the summer anyways. Yep. I mean, you fire the coach, you're, you're basically looking at a season. Not a great situation for any new coach to come here's why I bring it up. I don't think Pete DeBore is jumping on a plane to Jersey. Well, here's why I bring it up. Number one, I think you're wrong.

There's only 32 of these jobs. Wait, yep, no 32. That's how many there are. Yeah. And the other thing with that is that, like, you, if you, I'm just thinking as the Fitzmaster general himself. But if you're. if you're him, you're going, okay, let's say I fired the coach.

And we can talk about this one with respect to Columbus as well in the near future here, you know, after the break. But if you're Fitzgerald, you can go, okay, if I fire the coach, there's a decent chance because everybody in these kind of sucks that we win four out of five games or whatever and we're right back in a playoff spot. and then I look like a genius for firing the coach. Oh, the coach fixed everything. I don't get fired this summer until maybe it goes sour next summer. But, hey, also, I'm just pointing at the Puckpedia page for the Minnesota while ago. Quinn hasn't signed that extension yet, has he? You ever think about that, you know?

Can I read you what their upcoming schedule looks like until the Olympic Bremen? Yes, I'll allow it. They got Seattle. They've got Seattle tomorrow. Then they've got Carolina. That's a tough one. Then they go on the road. They play Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle.

Not exactly a murderer's row. Come home. They get Winnipeg and Nashville. Then back on the road to play our old friends, the Ottawa Senators. and then they finish off with Columbus and the Islanders. Dude, you fire Sheldon Keith after you lose to the hurricanes. You're going 10 and 0 those next 10 games. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

And then, you know, you go... GM of the year, baby. Well, this is exactly it, man. Like, it's just, if everybody's good, nobody's bad. There's one team in the Eastern Conference with a points percentage, below 500 right now, and it's the New York Rangers, which is really funny. To me, I'm going, well, that's like a path back for us, even if I think this team's not very good. And, you know, how much of it is just like they can't get a save right now?

You know, honestly, probably a healthy percentage. Because when you feel like your goalie sucks, you play worse. that this is just like empirically true, right? We could just, we could crunch this podcast down to three minutes a week. Just go down to like, down these teams and be like, yeah, a goalie's bad right now. Oh, these teams, yeah, goalie's good right now. That's it. I mean, it's so much of what is actually, and then we fill in the narrative of Dougie Hamilton went to two many museums.

No, Jacob Marksham stinks. That's, that's, yeah, all the, all the, all the, all the, are like the nastiest guys in the world. Oh, no, it's because the goalies stink. That's right. Right? Remember what we were saying, like, oh, you can't bring fucking Jordan Bennington to the Olympics.

He's got a safe percentage in the 870s. Well, guess what fucking Jacob Marshes from safe percentages? It's 879 right now. It's just, that's the problem. They can't get a fucking save. My opinion, I would get a save. maybe that's just me. Oh, man.

They're good. Okay, let's put a ball in it this way. You had to bet on the devils or the senators having a bounce back of some sort. I won't even say make the playoffs, but let's just say, like, which one of these teams at some point in the not too distant future are we going?

Maybe it wasn't so bad. That's a really good question. And I will allow you to say neither. No, I think there has to be one of them. Like, mathematically, you can't go, well, they're both stinking for the entire rest of the season. Like, I just don't think that's likely to happen in this conference. I think I would say the senators, because, like, I'm just not, like, super enamored of this New Jersey offense either, you know? Yeah, that's really, I guess, what it boils down to for me is like I have a little more faith in Ottawa to make it all happen.

When do you think the last time Jack Hughes scored a goal was? Oh, how long has it been? Two weeks? December 21st. What has he got in his last 10 games, 077? That's not good enough. Not great. Now, he's shot the puck 32 times in that.

So, like, it's bad luck, certainly. But I don't know, man. When the guy is the star player, the franchise player, there is kind of... Yeah. He's got eight, he's got two goals in his last 18 games. I think it's time to start asking if Jack Hughes is overpaid. That contract, man. Yeah, I, look, you know, again, what really is,

seems to have kicked it all off is losing 9-0 to the Islanders last week. You think? Well, here's, okay, but this is what I was going to say. The Rangers are, like, the Rangers lost 10 to 2 to Boston the other day, and you're not like, you know whose fault this is, is all of our star players. Now, maybe they should be saying that. Maybe you should be, I don't. But, you know, they're one of the, they're one of the few teams where they, they're, that the goal tending is like the

opposite of the problem. Egos Chasturkin's 913 this year. They're still terrible. Yep. Under 500 in the Eastern Conference equals relegation. Yeah. Yep.

And like the thing is too, like Panarin having a fairly productive season, Zabandajad, having a fairly productive season. And then everybody else I wouldn't look too closely at it, you know. Panarin's going to be an interesting deadline name because at this point, he should be moved. Oh, yeah, 100%.

Now, he's obviously got some trade protection too and et cetera, et cetera, but I don't know. UFA at the end of the year. So, yep. That'll be an interesting one. But, yeah, the ranges are cooked. I think what's interesting here, and I saw this. in one or two places, they're going,

hey, what's up with LaFrenier? Wasn't that guy supposed to be good? Mm-hmm. And it's like, you're the ones that gassed him up. We were the ones saying, oh, isn't this guy good? And you're like,

fuck you, we're not a lot. We're looking at it still. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah. He looked like he had, he was getting it. Yeah, I agree. Bad year this year.

And last year wasn't great either. He didn't score. He didn't even get to 20 goals, like 45 points only. I'm starting to think that J.T. Miller is not the leader we all thought he was. I'm starting to think that J.T. Miller walking into your locker room and just kicking guys in the groin. Now, look, I wasn't going to say it. Like, there does seem to be a specter haunting every locker. room he's in.

And we're trying to get to the bottom of it, you know? There does seem to be that. Yeah. Tough. Tough stuff. But what can you do at the end of the day? You know, if everybody stinks, nobody's good and that opens the door for you to maybe piece something together here.

But what's crazy to me is there are, what would you say, three definitively good teams in the Eastern Conference and the Detroit Red Wings are one of them. So it could happen to you, you know? Wow. When you put it that way. Can we just skip ahead to Hurricanes Lightning now? I know. No kidding, man.

A best of 53. You know what? We got to, I got to look this up now. We got to comment on the mailbag regarding the lightning, or the hurricanes, by the way. Their team save percentage is 885. And yet, we're all just like. no problem for them cruising to the Eastern Conference final. Now that does kind of allied Freddie Anderson has played 19 games in his save percentages in the 860s

because Brandon Bussie comes in, he plays 19 games. He's 902. 902 is above the league average. This is one of those things, Sean. We got so many fucking goalie experts out there. Oh, I know everything about goalies. This guy's in the reverse RVQMJ. CHL, like, whatever, all this shit.

Why are all the goalies bad this year? So many goalies have like sub 870, like sub 870, sub 880 save percentages. I do like the theory that it's because of partially due to the ties with gambling, they're mucking around with the shots on Nets so much that they're taking two or three saves you know, air quote saves that used to count away from goalies, and that's screwing with everyone's save percentage, even though the goals aren't going up all that much. I kind of like that theory.

Is it true? I don't know. I kind of like it. So I just looked it up. It's just fun. I'm just going to say it. I just looked it up. How many goalies do you think have played at least 10 games this year

and have a save percentage below 880? 10 games is a lot halfway through the season. That is. Is it, I'll say 16, one on one guy. It's 11. Each team. Okay. If you want to expand to 16, that cuts you to a bunch of goalies who are like 884, 883.

Uh-huh. If you want to go 890, it's 25 goalies. I'm sorry, 24 goalies are below 890. And like, they're not all, let's put it this way. They're not all like your Levi-Marolin and Sam Erson's where you're like, I'm pretty sure that guy's just never been good, you know? Marazic 858, Anderson, 863, Montembow,

869, Bennington, 871, Pickard 871, heart 871, Merzleekins 877, Markstrom 879, Allmark 881, Babrovsky 881. Like, those are, there are some name brand goalies mixed in there. Mm-hmm. And frankly, those numbers are so low.

that I'm like, were they just getting credited with 20 saves a night that were going four feet wide? Like, there's, again, a goalie expert would be like, well, look at his head movement. I mean, his confidence, he's slumping when the show, okay, sure, man. I don't know that you can explain this to me in a way that, yeah, I don't know that you can explain this in a satisfactory way to me. So, anywho, why don't we take a break and we'll, be right back. This week's episode of Cook Soup is brought to you by our good friends at Mint Mobile. Folks, now that the holidays are over, you might be feeling like you've got a big

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All right, we're back and, hey, we were talking about coaching changes before. The first coach fired in the NHL this season. I don't think anybody had this on their freaking 2026 bingo cards, okay? It's Dean Eveson. Out. In comes Rick Bonus? Oh, okay. Yeah, I think that one, as much as the firing.

Rick Bonus. Crucially, bonus only until the end of the season. So this is like one of the most fully interim coaching hires you're going to see that's not just, It's our A-H-L guy. Yeah. So. A guy who had retired a year and a half ago, basically saying, when you're done, you're done, and I'm done. Yep.

Now he's back. Yeah, he's going, well, I wasn't, when I said done, I didn't mean like done, done. Yeah. So. So as far as Dean Evanson. Yeah. At the beginning of the year. Yeah.

When our old buddy, Jimmy, sent around his odds. Dean Eveson was at 33 to 1. He was less likely to be fired than Spencer Carberry, Rod Brindamore. That's right. Jared Bedner. Sure. And John Cooper.

Yep. And significantly less likely than Martin Saint-Louis. and various other guys, including Patrick Waugh, who is now potentially going to win the Jack Adams, but whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So that was in September,

and as of December, what is this, December 2nd, he had dropped down to 18 to 1, but that still listed him 11th in the league. So outside the top 10. Yeah. Wait, what was that December 7th?

That was December 2nd, yeah. Okay, I'm just going to look up their record since then. And I'm not doing a bit. I honestly don't know what the answer to this says. Since then, they went 7, 10, and 2. Is that good? It's a 368 points percentage. Not good enough.

They got outscored by a pretty good margin. They shot just under 10% in that stretch. And boy, it says here, gave up 68 goals on 588 shots. I'm starting to think. No, um, look,

here's the thing, right, is this they're right now, when they made the firing, dead last in the Eastern Conference by points, total points. By points percentage, I think they're second to last

ahead of only the aforementioned, uh, Rangers. They are dead even 500 and like real 500, not NHL 500. Yes. They have won the few, games in the Eastern Conference.

Yes. So that's bad, in my opinion. They are. Remember everything we just said about the devils and senators? Columbus is looking up at both of those teams. Yep. And the underlying numbers are actually pretty good at five on five. They are ace in the league by expected goals on evolving hockey.

Although now anytime you talk about expected goals, you have to go, Well, the private model say it's different. Yeah. The private models say they're significantly better than you think they are. Or worse, depending on which way you're talking about them. True. Yeah. Why is the team I cover doing better than the expected numbers say?

It's because the private ones are so good. Yeah. Crazy. But they've scored like less than 47% of the goals in all situations. That's just. going to get a coach fired at the end of the day, you know? And I don't know that there was a lot that anybody was going to be able to do to make this team competitive because they have a bunch of guys who

maybe haven't developed at the kind of level you would like. You would like your Adam Fantilli's to be more impactful, I think. You would like your coal cylinder. you're, now here's the thing though. Your Kent Johnson seems to be like ground zero for this. So there's two things I wanted to say. Number one, the inability of the Blue Jackets to develop players, like it's getting a little Rangers-esque, isn't it?

Hey, this guy was the number two pick four years ago. Okay, he has 26 points this year. That doesn't seem good, you know? Kent Johnson has 4-812 and 44 games so far this season. I really thought Fentilly was breaking through this year. Even just, and this is, this is like, you know, classic, you know, Canadian fan brain, but like he had like a monster game in Toronto and you're like, yep, there he is. That's the guy.

Now, good. I'll say this, though. I'm looking at who do you think leads their team in shots on goal? Is it Fantilly? No, it's Zach Werenci. Okay. Yeah. And I think there is.

Well, sure, but I also think there is if you're going, you know who's going to be out there shooting the puck every time is the guy who's standing 80 feet away from the net. Yeah. That to me is just like not good coaching, right? The other thing, though, is like, hey, who went out and like, you know, we're, you know, we're, all looking for the guy who did this, et cetera, for Ivan Proverov and Damon Severson, two guys who stink. Yep. And what?

Did Dean Everson go get those guys? Or did you hand them those guys and go, you're going to make this work, big dog? You know what I mean? Like, this firing to me. And obviously, I'm not, you know, I'm not watching a ton of blue jackets hockey. And I get that, like, I don't. don't think you have to see very much of Dean Evanison to go, that guy probably

has a shelf life. Yeah, for sure. Right? You know? Yeah. But this just feels like a GM going, oh, we're underperforming. You know, my team's better than this and you're just like, I don't think they are, man.

Yeah. I don't think the coach is the problem here. I mean, the coach is never, almost never the, you know, the capital P problem, the way we think of it when a guy gets fired, but. I don't know, man. Maybe they get a bounce.

Certainly Rick bonus, personality-wise, is kind of a different dude. Maybe a little bit, huh? But, yeah, couldn't you see them going from 500 to like 400 the rest of the year? And then... Well, again, like, part of it is... Obviously, Jet Grieves has been starting the lion's share of their games. But their backup goalie, who... I feel like we've been saying, shouldn't they, like, get rid of him?

Doesn't he stink for like four years? Elvis Merslickens is 877. And, you know, like, it's rare that an NHL team turns over to the net, turns over the net to a kid who's like 23, 24 years old, whatever it is. I think he's 24. But, like, good on Dean Everson for that, although I would say Mersleekins didn't give him much of a choice, you know. But yeah, you just look at this roster and you're like, what did you expect, man? Like Charlie Coyle, Sean Monaghan, and Boone Jenner, are like three focal points of the offense to a certain degree. You know, those guys are all in their early 30s and perfectly good players.

But Cole Cillinger hasn't taken that step. Kent Johnson certainly hasn't taken that step. Adam Fantelli hasn't taken that step. And maybe you say that's on the coach. There have certainly been no shortage of coaches in recent years who refused to play, or the perception is they refuse to play the young guys, blah, blah, blah. Mm-hmm. But at what point, it's a chicken in the egg scenario. Are they not developing talent because they're, you know, pissing people off?

I mean, who was it a couple years ago where it was like, oh, they might have to trade this guy that they think is really good? Oh, it was Chinikov. Okay. And then they ended up trading him, remember, like earlier this year. But like Chinikov's another guy where it's like, no, that's weird. He's like the sixth or seventh,

young player who hasn't developed for you. Huh. It's probably the guy who's been the coach for two years' fault. That's right. And it could be. But I can say he maybe wasn't helping. Yeah. But if it's a...

It feels like an institutional problem. If this is, yeah, because here's the thing, if this is a pivot of, we've got these young guys, they're not developing, we blame the coach slash coaching staff, because I believe at least one of the assistants got fired too. Yes, correct. Yep. We need to start developing. Okay, great.

Go get me a 70-year-old. who when he was with the Jets was like oh that guy who's like going apeshit for Carolina this year I can't find a way to give him more than 14 minutes a night sorry this guy who you know this guy who 30 years ago got handed Alexander Dague and couldn't develop him let's uh let I'm sorry I said 30 years ago

33 years ago go get him cool he's probably learned a few things Yeah. So again, I'm, you know, I don't think a bonus is in the long-term plans over there, you know. I think that you're going to, this is going to shock you, Sean. They're going to really conduct like a thorough search for their next coach. And, you know, maybe that guy will fix everything. I really thought that this Everson hire was going to work out for them. I'm a sucker, I guess, but that was definitely a thing I thought. We could find ourselves looking back as early as this summer saying it did.

This guy almost got them to the playoffs last year and kept them at 500 this year. We might look and go, he was doing a pretty good job because this team might stink. Hmm, interesting. The Columbus Blue Jacket is. stink, you say. That's tough to believe. Do jacket stink question mark? That's hard to swallow for me.

I don't know. Those guys? They're so, they're such a rich history. Reputation of excellence. Yeah. Unparalleled success. Oh, that was somebody else. So yeah, I, you know, I can't get too mad about like, oh, they fired, they fired Dean

Eveson. Like, was he doing a good job? I would kind of say, no. not really. And so, okay, well, that's that then. But. Now, we mentioned him earlier, but our buddy, Jimmy Shapiro did send the updated next coach to be fired odds. You said you received it, but you had not looked at it yet.

Yeah, you said did you get the email? And I looked and I had, but I was, you know. I was looking at other stuff on computer first. Do you want to take a guess as to what the top five looks like? Sheldon Keith has to be up there. Sheldon Keith somewhat surprisingly is fourth. He's five to one. I wonder if it's just because, like, they just hired him last year or whatever.

Like, it would be firing a coach within... Which is what Columbus just did. It's what... Has you only been a year and a half there, or is it... I thought it was. Am I wrong about that? Well, there's only one way to find out. It all kind of bleeds together.

You aren't kidding, bud. Jesus. Sheldon Keefe hired there, yeah, this year and last year. Yeah. Okay. Good God. He stayed in Toronto until 2024. Not what I would have done if I was the Leaps, but you know what?

Having seen how it went since he left the Leafs? I wouldn't have maybe done that either. I don't know. Dude. Talking about the best team in the league right now. Yeah, that's true. Again, like my boy Sludge said, Marks of our worst coach in the history of the hockey.

Might have been. They trade them and Austin Matthews is like, I'm going to say five goals a game. How does that sound? Oh, by the though, I can't remember who said it, but I was like, when the Dougie Hamilton stuff happened, I saw somebody go, Brad Trillivin just sat up in bed, like, oh shit,

like he felt something in the air. A 33-year-old watch. defenseman is available. Let's go get him. There was a rumor about Rasmus Anderson, and it was like, the Leafs would have to give up Easton Cowan, and end, and it was like,

can we just stop right there? Can we not do this, please? And Brad Trillivin's like, well, we at least have to think about it. You know, that's the problem is who's running that team. He's just, he never saw like an okay defenseman he wanted to, overpay or didn't want overpay. Anyhow. Okay, Mike Sullivan has to be in the mix there. No, actually, he did 10 to 1. So he just hired. I get, I get that. Just hire, yeah, not going great. In fact, it's a weird list because they've got him down with

Marco Sturm and Joel Quenville, two other guys who were just hired. Just hired, yeah. That's not going to happen. I don't, I mean, how could the Bruins fire Marco Sturm? They've been playing really well lately, too. I'm Ben, what we thought. Not so much for Quinnville, though. You ever noticed that? And again, let's just look at some safer. We went out for the ducks, man.

They were fun for about two months. They're still fun if you like watching games with a lot of goals in them. That's true. And if your team is playing them, they're very fun. That's, yeah, those guys can't stop fucking traffic lately. So that's fun. All right, let me think about this. Who else could possibly be on the chopping block?

Um, is Travis Green one of the, they have Travis Green number one at two to one odds. Checks out. Um, the guy in number two had previously been number one, I think, in the last update. Oh, interesting. I was going to say, uh, uh, Scott Arneal. No, Scott Arneal is fifth spot.

He's at six to one just behind Keefe. Okay. So again, that's, that's a guy. I'm sure I, I, like, was not highly ranked until recently, but it's, yeah, it's all falling apart there. Jim Hiller. Jim Hiller is third at four to one.

Did you see? Did you see his quote from, I think it was last night or the night before? Oh, no. What did he say? They were like, hey, you're losing a shitload of games lately, huh? And he's like, I don't know, we're playing good. Oh, no, man. Oh, all right.

It was something along those lines. And then he called for a. Replay review, and it turned out, no. Yeah, they're, uh, it's not, it's not going so well for those guys. Um, okay. So, so who do I have? So you've got, you've got one, three, four, and five. You're just missing number two, who's listed at three to one.

And this is the guy who has been up high. I don't think he would have been that high in the beginning of the year, but. Is it Ryan Huska? It is. Yep. Yeah. Remember, remember when everyone was like, I don't know, the flames seemed like, they've turned it around.

Yeah. That was a fun weekend. No, they, okay, in the month of December, they went nine and four. It's as good as, that's as good as you could possibly want. And then, you know, uh,

calendar flips to 2026. They're one and four in their last five. Whoopsy, Daisy. Hey, they're playing the blue jackets tonight, though. Those guys just changed their coach. Get that new coach bounce from. Rick bonus That's right

So yeah Those are all To be expected Where's Jim Montgomery And all this That's another guy That's another guy Is the next guy up

He is sixth on the list At 8 to 1 I'm a little surprised at that Well they stink So I do stink But I mean Considering how they hired him

And how much they seem to like I mean The fact that he's a good coach He is a great coach Tell me Doug Armstrong is going to fire. I mean, it wouldn't be, it'd be Doug Armstrong, the GM firing him, but it would have to be a steed move. But like that one, you're going to wait till the summer, you think. I would think so.

There's no guarantee that the next NHL coach fired isn't an offseason fire. Mm-hmm. Yeah, again, it's just like, hey, the Kings stink and their two points. out of third place in their division. So, you know, like, that is, if you're, if you want to be in the business of telling yourself, uh, that you're, that you're right there, the only division where that's not going to be a reasonable argument for you is the central. Mm-hmm.

Everybody else, you're like, we're, a two-game winning streak away from being a wild card team. at the very least, you know? It's crazy that if the playoffs started today, we all agree that the Pacific is the worst division in the world, they would have five playoff teams, just because of how top-heavy the central is. Yeah, and we were talking about this last week. Like, Vegas is actually quite good in regulation,

and then when they get to three-on-three or the shoot out there, like, whatever, three for 16 or something like, some crazy number like that. And that's something I think you can kind of explain away, but, you know, let me put it this way when it comes to Vegas or Edmonton, really. Do you want to play those guys in a Best to Seven series? Because they don't, they don't, when you go to overtime in the playoffs, they don't go to three on three. No. And so that's where Vegas has, the only area really where Vegas has been all that bad this year. And obviously you wouldn't want to play like Edmonton because you don't want to court disaster against Connor McDavid.

And so the top two there, I'm willing to say those are just like two good teams that aren't playing up to the level that you would expect. but also like McDavid's just going to go ape shit in the first round. So, you know, then what happens? But, yeah, anyway. Speaking of teams that are around it for the playoffs and things of this nature, the penguins just put Eric Carlson on the IR. Yeah, sounds like a couple weeks, they said. Yeah, seems like that's not going to be a short-term injury.

That's pretty bad news for the Pittsburgh. Berg Penguins. He's been extremely good for them this year, in my opinion. And losing him, therefore, in a, again, a race that's just insanely close, that entire division, like, really opens the door for some other team to come up and take those spots. You're, you know, where they are in the standings. That's tough. Mm-hmm. And if I'm Kyle Dubus, I'm saying, okay, this is my perfect excuse to start the rebuild because this team is not good. Guys got to be sitting there like, come on.

Every time they win, he's like, fuck, God damn it, shit. I was trying to get a draft pick this year. Anyway, um. And then Gary Bettman is like, don't worry, buddy. Yeah, we got you covered, big dog. No sweat. It's going to work out. All right.

Here's another one of those. Like those medium-sized story. The Athletic sent Chris Johnston over to Italy for the trials of the Olympic hockey arena. The Santa Julia Arena, they call it. I think it can be subbed up just by the headline. Olympic hockey arena's test events leaves IAHF president, quote, a little bit more confident. Cool. Good.

Presumably because he was already extremely confident. And so... It was famously going really well over there, so it makes a lot of sense that he'd be very confident now. Tough man. This is tough stuff. Like, okay, I think it's very easy to sensationalize this in terms of... There's a big freaking hole in the ice.

It's like, yeah, that's going to, I'll tell you, I, when they did the outdoor game at Fenway one time, the first time, as a matter of fact, I got to skate on that ice. And, you know, two days before the game or whatever, there was a, a hole gouged in the ice that was like, they had to have someone standing there going, you might not want to skate over this big hole. That's right. You know. They originally put a pylon out there, but then everyone just thought it was Adam Fox. Yeah, man. He was probably eight years old at the time that happened. That's right.

I'm extremely old, that's why. So like, you know, all this stuff about the, well, this is what happens with new ice, blah, blah, blah. Okay, I'll buy that. You're the fucking ice expert here, you know? But everything else around, they're like, hey, the ice wasn't that bad. They can play hockey games on this. And it's like, I mean, that's true of the fucking pawned by my house, too, you know. The ice isn't that bad.

You could play hockey games on that. Yeah. But would you want to? And they go, well, okay, that's a different question, isn't it? everything else from C.J.'s dispatch, not exactly leaving me overflowing with confidence, let's say, that this is going to go well and, like, the NHL players are... Here's the thing. Okay, the quote is, this is from Luke Tardiff, the president of the IIA. I'm going back happy.

There is no reason that the NHL will not come. I, based on my understanding of how the NHL views the Olympics, I wouldn't be so sure, Big Dog. Yeah, except we did get the statement from the NHL and the NHLPA, basically saying they're okay with how things have gone. It wasn't a glowing endorsement, but it was enough that, I don't know, I still feel pretty good. Well, okay, so for example, the arena came in, I think, 3,000 seats lower than they originally said it would. They originally were planning for like 14,000 seats and now it's going to be like 11,000 to change or something like that. Right. So that's problem number one.

Not that the NHL cares. They're not getting fucking cut at gate revenues. So who gives a shit? But like they're the, the, the locker. rooms are like not going to be done for for the game time so they're like NHL teams are going to or NHL players are going to have to like change across the street and then you know all this stuff with Mullet Arena where it's like oh this is embarrassing you know it's basically the same shit so I think that's bad there's not again the NHL has no reason to care about this but

there's like not going to be concession stands in the arena. There's going to be food trucks outside. Sure. Why not? They were like, well, the ice looks really dirty. And they were like, well, that's just because there's a big side of the building that is not closed yet. And it's like, what? What are you talking about?

I guess, you know what? It probably does speak well to the ice quality if they can just like leave a big side of the building open. and the ice held up okay to a bunch of hockey games on it, you know? But again, it's just like everything you hear about it, you're just like, what are you talking? That can't be right. But it is. I don't know, man.

I think the NHL players would like, you know, play street hockey in a parking lot if you said it was for an Olympic medal, you know? But I can very easily see a scenario where the NHL is. like threw back channels going, this is a fucking disaster. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's, uh, just go, man.

As long as they go, then you can figure it out when you get there. Yeah, but like, the thing, okay, so. Back in two weeks when Austin Matthews ACL is hanging from the rafters. So, well, right, I was going to say that, but, but like, okay,

it, so it seems like, um, One of the things that Elliot has been repeatedly mentioning is that over the course of like a few weeks, not just like since these test games were played, is that like the NHL owners like feel as though they've been sold a bill of goods where like the hospitality areas and like, you know, where they're going to like be able to watch the games from and all this kind of stuff. those are like not going to be in good shape if they're completed at all. And the rich guys are pissed about that. Now, I don't give a shit about that, obviously. Fuck them. But it makes me go, I wonder, you know, if the next time they have to negotiate with the IAHF to send players to the Olympics,

if this is going to be like a huge fucking problem. That like their, you know, gold-plated toilets aren't nice enough, you know? I just, again, my default is the NHL is looking for literally any excuse they can possibly find to not send players to the Olympics. And between that and the ice looks really dirty and it's, well, it's only because we have the big side of the window

or the big side of the building open and yeah, that might explode Kail McCar's knee, but that's the cost of doing business if you want to go to the Olympic, all that kind of stuff. I just think like I don't have any confidence that this is going to go well you know

because they're looking for reasons that it didn't go well the hockey could be great I think that's maybe a secondary factor to the league maybe I'm wrong I hope I'm wrong but you may not be wrong

yeah um what was the other oh apparently like the thing that I read the other day was like they were supposed to start building this arena like, like, or they knew they had to build this arena seven years ago and shovels weren't even in the ground until like 18 months ago or something like that.

Dude, I can respect it. I've had my share of projects that have gone out. Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't, again, I don't care. I just think it's like, I don't know. If I, if I had like the multi-billion dollar investment in it that like, whoever, is, you know, like the Cortina Milano board of tourism or whatever.

I feel like I would have gotten the shovels in the ground like three years ago, maybe. Anyway. Like I say, it's just a, it's just a thing that makes me go, maybe this is a, this is going to be a one and done thing after all. Maybe. I don't hope that, obviously.

I hope the hockey's great. Oh, this was the other thing. God, I don't remember what write up I saw this. and I think it was one of the Vancouver papers that was like, oh, well, no, the organizing committee says the arena is going to be fully ready, you know, to host the games at least, by the time the men's tournament is supposed to start.

And then, like, paragraph break, the women's tournament starts seven days earlier or something like that. And it's like, right, that seems to be a problem to me as well. Mm-hmm. That's not good. Little dicey there. Oh, boy.

Yep. Yep, yep, yep. I don't know, man. Didn't... Isn't like the... What was the 2006 Olympics? Where was that? Turin?

That was Turin, yeah. Yeah. Someone said the Turin's like two hours away from Milano Cortina. And they're going, well, we got to play in this one. shithole arena that doesn't have four walls yet. Just drive two hours. What are you talking about?

When they did the Paris Olympics, like there were a bunch of like events that they did in Fiji because they were like, well, you know, we can't do surfing in France. So that's going to be done in Fiji. Meanwhile, Italy is like, well, we couldn't put these guys on a bus for a couple hours. That would be a big problem. Yeah. What? Did you know this, Sean, that the, the L.A. Olympics in 2028 will be having certain events in Oklahoma City? I did not know that.

Yes. Can you imagine you're from like, whatever, Bratislava, right? And you're like, wow, I get to go to L.A. And they go, actually, your events will be held in Oklahoma City. You'd just be like, man, I'm not fucking going to the Olympics. Forget it. you could just do that if you were Milano Cortina but apparently not

anyway Philip Robberg six years eight million bucks a pop sounds good to me yeah sounds good to me everybody does pretty well here yeah I think that is a good way to talk about it right I mean he got himself to know

that fuck yeah he got himself in a position play higher up a lineup. Yeah. Presumably, because I don't see how he fits in Edmonton on their blue line, given what they're paying other guys. But this, yeah, this feels like a reasonable deal. Risky-ish for the blues, but, you know, not a terrible risk. I would say only insofar as if you've got to blow it up a year or two from now. because their Puckpedia page, you know, it's not looking so good, right?

For the long term. There are a lot of guys where they either need an extension soon or they're extended quite a ways out, you know? And a bunch of them, they've already talked about, oh, do we got to trade this guy, you know? And so they're in this weird kind of spot where they have to make it. decision, are we good or not? And I think this contract kind of indicates they think they have to be good because, like, of the Pareko and Cairo and Thomas and Buchanavich contracts and all that. But also, like, they turn their entire goaltending battery over after next summer,

or after next season, if they want to. They could? I think. it's a totally reasonable contract for me, like good player caps going up, whatever you want to say, right? And he has excelled under Jim Montgomery, but this contract isn't being signed in a vacuum. And it'll be interesting to see what this team looks like in like 2028. You know what I mean?

Do they trade Cairo and Thomas? and a couple other guys. Because they're still like, okay, I don't know if you saw this rumor, but they were like, oh, well, if Braden Shen were to get traded, they still want, like, nine first round picks and your top four pros.

Like, they're acting like Braden Shen is a 10 out of 10. Like, they're acting like Braden Shen is Braden point. Let's put it that way. And it's like, yeah, but he's fine only. and maybe that's being generous. Andy's signed for two more years, and he has trade protection. So what's,

what do they think they're getting out of it? I don't know. I don't know what to think about the blues. Yeah. They're a tough one. And again, with the GM transition coming,

it's a little unusual situation. So. For sure. I think that this was sort of their last swing and then the Steen era well and truly begins. I really wonder like if they're completely out of it. Do you think we get

like a transition to Steen early? Let him handle the deadline even informally like I think he's I don't think like Doug Armstrong's sticking his head in the door to Steen's office and going oh by the way I just gave Broberg

eight million bucks a year. Anyway, have a good one. I'll see you at lunch. You know, like, I don't think that's happening. I think that all decisions are being made, like, kind of jointly. Or maybe even Steens driving the bus on this, and they're just, like, letting Armstrong keep the title. But I just never... This happens in college hockey sometimes where, like, a guy will be a coach in waiting for, like, a year. Like, okay, this coach announces he's going to retire at the end of this season.

and they're announcing now that their assistant is going to be the head coach after this season. I don't know why you go like, okay, four and a half years from now, if we do X, Y, and Z, this guy will be the new GM. You know what I mean? Like, why drag it out as much as they have, but they have? Oh, and also the guy that, like, is currently the GM is just like, getting a, he's not retiring, he's going to be around. That's what's weird about it to me, you know?

Mm-hmm. So, that's the thing I keep, that's the thing I keep thinking about is like, wait, like you, what's this transition phase? I don't understand. And they go, you don't have to worry about it. And I go, oh, okay, I guess I won't then. Like, that's, that's basically it. But again, I like the player and I don't think the contract's that bad at all.

I just, I don't fully get what's going on over there organizationally. And you wonder who really does at a certain point. Finally, they retired Sergei Fedorov's number last night. One of the sickest players of all time. Congrats to him, they got it right, you know. Took a while, but yeah, in the today's newsletter, I just basically get into like, Sergey Federer being cool as hell. Yeah, he's so sick, man.

I was thinking about this. Where does he rank in terms of all-time great players for the Detroit Red Wings organization? Yeah. Gory Howe number one. So, I mean, how Lidstrom-Eiserman have to be three of the four on the Mount Rushmore? Yes, I agree with that. Here's what I would say. Yeah.

Is he better than Iserman? I mean, Iserman at his peak was. offensively one of the greatest centers ever. And then he learned to play freaking defense or whatever. Right. Of course he did. Whereas Fedorov did it both in his prime. Man, it's tough.

Like if you have one seven-game series to play or you have one 80 game season to play, like would you rather have Sergey Federer play in every? reposition and I don't know to this day only guy to ever win the Selki in the heart

in the same season he's so sick man holy fuck and did it in an era where like back in the I mean he did it in 94

but like into the early 90s you still looked at it like there are offensive players some of whom don't play defense at all

and some of whom kind of do and then you have the Bob Ganey's of the world and then you also have some guys who can kind of do both but those guys are like 80 point

like the idea that you could be that a 200 foot player could be dominant at both ends was not a thing. 56 goals and 120 points that season 39 even strength goals which led the league what a sick fucking player man

he was so good he was very very good and then this is the other thing he then won the Selke again again two years later with 107 points. You just don't see that. Classic, like, classic example of, like,

your favorite hockey players, favorite hockey player. Yeah, absolutely. You rocked. And my friend, who's a Red Wings fan, texted me that, uh, Chris Osgood on, like, the pregame show for the Fedorov,

like Jersey retirement, uh, ceremony or whatever. He called Sergei Fedorov, quote, intellectually smart. which the highest praise you can you can give somebody to be intellectually smart what a dream one of the best smarts to be intellectually smart that's right god sorry if it was so sick and intellectually smart yeah um i guess that's it i guess that's it for the whole show cool yeah you want to hit them with the plugs and we'll get out of here find me at the athletic

be on with Sean and Frankie tomorrow. On the athletic hockey show, newsletter dropped today. I have a probably going to do a contest update. We're halfway through the season. Let's check in see how the prediction contest is going. Spoiler, not great. No kidding, yeah.

I think that Dean Everson won really, like, nuked 70 of the ballots. Because I would guess that, like me, a lot of people kind of thought he was. safe. Well, somewhat surprisingly, he was,

I think, the 11th most common answer for coaches. For safe coach? For safe coaches. Yeah, that makes sense. I would have thought he was higher.

I thought he would be, but, you know, he was kind of in a batch. So that one didn't do a ton of damage, but we'll see. Huh. But it's not,

yeah, it's not going super great. More on the standing side. Oh, yeah, of course. Fucking of course, man. Yeah.

And then for me, you can head over to elite prospects. I'm still doing all my beautiful college hockey coverage. We're getting into, we're really separating the boys from the men at this point, you know, in terms of like what teams are good and that kind of thing. And I'll say this. This is one for all you draft stock heads out there. I don't know if you saw this, Sean. A kid who is widely considered to be the number one center in this draft. all the other like top players or wingers or defensemen.

This kid, Tyn and Lawrence, he joined BU last weekend. Oh. He was just like, he had been injured early in the year and returned to the Muskegon lineup in the USHL and proceeded to absolutely fucking Tomahawk dunk on the USHL. Ten goals in 13 games, I want to say. And so he was like, yeah, I got to go play college hockey now to like help my draft stock because this is not an environment that is allowing me to develop as I wanted to, basically. And I know that because I was at his, just coincidentally, the game I was going to was his college debut. And I talked to him after the game and I have an exclusive interview with him.

Nice kid. So that could change things for BU. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. And B.U's not as good as everybody kind of thought they would be this year. So they need the help also. That's the other aspect of it. But more college hockey coverage beyond that as well.

Of course, for the entire rest of the season. And then you can head over to patreon.com slash puck soup, where we are doing all kinds of bonus episodes this month, including the mailbag we're about to go record. So five bucks a month gets you mailbags in a couple bonus episodes, and $8 a month gets you, oh, geez, like seven, eight, nine more bonus episodes every month, something like that.

So, you know, we're giving you your money's worth is I think what I'm arguing here. Check that out, patreon.com slash puck soup. Thank you for listening to the main show. and your continued support and all that. And we'll talk to you next week. Have a good one. Bye bye.

Bye bye.