Puck Soup - World Cup of Hockey and More

Episode Date: September 24, 2016

Greg and Dave dissect the corpse of Team USA at the World Cup of Hockey, including why they sucked, who to blame and how to fix it. Plus, Dave gloats about Team Europe, in praise of Team North America, whether either team will be back next World Cup, rating ESPN's hockey performance, ranking Kevin Smith movies, a flurry of food questions, Evander Kane and marriage proposals at sporting events.

Now entering nerdist.com. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hockey and Nancet. I'm Greg Wyshinsky of Yahoo's Puck Daddy blog, former American citizen. And I'm Jane Seymour for the Open Hearts Collection. And you're in Puck Soup.

Dave, I've decided to burn my passport mainly because I am so embarrassed that we went 0-3-0 at the World Cup of Hockey. Here's how I see it. Your failure to assess how bad Team USA was was just as bad as the Team USA failure itself, making you more American. When you say my failure, do you mean in the sense? that I picked them to win the tournament or in every way imaginable. They're going to beat Canada. They're going to actually, before we do that, we should play last week's clip, because it's basically 10 days old at this point.

And I really want to make sure everyone is caught up here. Hold on. I just want to point out that how excited my co-host is that he gets to be like the late great Tim Russert and throw my words in my face. Your words, Senator, your words. How do you respond? I want everyone to know that not only. was I right about Team Europe coming out of that group. Greg was very wrong. So I wanted to

to bring a little bit of tea that I'm going to sip as we play the clip from last week's show. It's a three-minute clip boiled down to like 45 seconds because during the three minutes, Greg talked about cat murder and a Broadway show that he saw. And I think I had like the TNA team prematurely ejaculating because they were so young. So we put that out. Also, also keep in mind that to complete the meme, not only is Dave sipping tea, but he's wearing his Pepe de frog mask because he's part of the alt, right? But that's not of my business.

All right, here we go. The relevant Europe stuff from last week's show. Wait, no, that's not it. Wait, hold on. What is happening? I pressed the wrong button. Wrong, wrong Europe file.

Were you masturbating to the pile countdown because you correctly picked the ascent of Team Europe? Not to the song, but maybe with the song, as an enhancer. Do you know that they used to play that to kick off their concert and as their final encore? Why wouldn't you? It's the greatest goddamn song ever. I feel like blind melon's probably

in the same boat. Maybe I'll play this clip at the beginning of the end of this show because it's so great. Here it is. And Linda Cohn's involved in this too, but here we go. So all fucking play the show is that they kill a cat because it's old. You are. And then they all sing about it. So Team Europe is

The Jelical Ball. Anyway. I'm telling you. What, they average over 30 years of age. So here's, here's the thing. Greg thinks Team USA is a lock to come out of that group. I do. I disagree with both of you. Here's the thing. Canada's going to go 3-0. Yep. Checks are going to go 0 and 3.

Either Europe or USA is going to go 2 and 1. And it's going to come down to the first game on Saturday. Yeah. I am not... Shelby hosting. See? Hey, yay. So Linda Cohn's doing her homer thing for Derek step on. Right. All you know, all those guys. Nice off to a good start. He's kind of nice goal.

Yeah. Although it should have been stopped. Opened up that. I know. That's a good move, though, when you fake the slapship. That is cool. He had all the time in the world to do it. Never would have that time in the NFL. He should shout out to me and Lozo on the show by saying... He didn't do it at all. No. No.

Fluctuating more than the euro. Right that down, so I'll remember that. Don't credit me with that joke. That's just... No, that's just so... It's code. Oh, it's code. I'm trying to give her something that she can say that. She was pretty good. We should have her back. Everyone's counting out Team Europe because a bunch of, like, 18 and 19-year-olds ran him out of the building. Now, what do we know about young people? They're excited at the beginning.

Right. They go to break fast that of the beginning. Oh, this is the part where they're excited and they're really ejaculate. That's the part where they come too quickly. So what's your point? The point is that. That you hate your country enough that you picked against the United States? I, you know, I don't want to call myself a hero per se on the same level with, you know, our founding fathers and people that have done really great work in this country over the years.

But to have the perfect assessment of Team USA, I still don't get where it came from, too, because when the Team USA was picked, we were all like, This is fucking terrible. Look at this roster. And then like a year went by and suddenly you were like, they're going to win this thing. Yeah, I think I said that for two reasons. I think I said it because I am in my heart of hearts, a patriot and want to believe in the concept of American exceptionalism.

You were the Sean Hannity of Puckett. And I believe if we put, my Sean Hannity is also my Sean Leahy. It's all the songs. If we put our hearts and minds together, we can create another. clone named Mark Levin and put them on the air. No, the, I believe in American exceptionalism, I believe if we put our minds to it, we can do anything.

I also feel like that's why we will dominate the hockey world one day if we can somehow convince kids to stop playing basketball and football. So while Torts and Lombardy focused on heart, you were about the mind. I was. And the mind wasn't there. And then the other thing, too, was that I didn't really give a shit about the World Cup of hockey and just wanted to make a pick that, wasn't Canada. Oh, so your heart wasn't in it. So your mind, then your heart. My mind was in it.

But your heart wasn't. Wow. Or my heart was or my mind wasn't. By the way, it wasn't, in hindsight, maybe not the best pick. No. No. And now here we are. All right. Team USA's so here's the deal. I was in Toronto for all this. Dave was watching on ESPN. So we'll talk about the ESPN coverage of it a bit later of the World Cup of hockey. We both have a lot to say. We got things. As much as Dave is gloating about having cast his lot with Team Europe being just the most gigantic Matt Zuckerello fan. Yeah. Sorry, sorry, go ahead.

Three other people ran into the studio and Dave started doing the in sync guitar headbang with them at the front of the stage. Their drummer is wearing like John Stockton Umbro's type shorts and like a tank and he has a mullet. God, what a time to be alive in the 80s. Europe. There was a Europe? There was an Asia. There was never in Australia. They were, like, what would have been Australia was midnight oil?

I was going to say Toto. Okay, or Toto. No, Toto was Africa. Toto had the Africa song. Yeah, you're right. Midnight Oil, yeah. It was one of those contents. There was an continent with an A.

What was his face? You know, that's real famous musician. Africa, it starts with a B, and I never actually say it out loud. but it's like Africa Bam Bamboogut But you know that that name The worst mosquito bite On the back of my leg right now

Sorry But there was never a Canada They're the tragically hip And there was never Well there wasn't America There was an America Yeah Why did I go from continents to countries

Is the question I don't know Because there's nothing as good as Is that we're headed for Venus? Well why would you not go to Venus? It's the place for Venus It's the planet of love Greg What's the next line?

Guess the next line. We're headed for Venus. With my penis. It's pretty straightforward. Let's see. Oh, no. Well, we stand tall. That's an erection metaphor.

Because you all need us. Go ahead. Damn it. Oh. Wait, so it's stand tall. Maybe they've seen us. And we'll... Welcome us.

Boy. War like Greg is a typical American while Europe. Europe is about love. Right. That's why Europe's so good. Oh, whatever. Like, they build walls over. Oh, wait, we build walls over there.

It's the fun. Sorry. All right, listen. So even though Dave's so happy. I'm so happy. He's a Patriot. I'm a Patriot. We're both really embarrassed.

After the, we're taping this Friday, after the U.S. lost the Czech Republic last night, in a game in which I think most American fans were actively hoping they would. Because if you're going to burn it down, like, just have it. Don't have one of these. house fires where it's like well we could save the closet like just burn it just cinders I thought it was already burnt anyway I wouldn't mind

that a 5-4 shootout win just to get a win nah because you know what just have it just show rip the heart out of this team like show that this is the same group that quit in a situation where they could have rectified their their experience in Sochi with a bronze medal they didn't show up there they didn't show up for the first game of this

tournament because they were worried about Canada See, I don't buy that hole they didn't show up. That is a demonstrable. They literally said it afterwards. Well, but it's better to say that if you're a player that, well, we didn't show up. No player's ever going to say, well, we're just not that good at hockey compared to the other guys. Listen, I know your team, you're a fanboy, but you actually think that the United States team that was built was inferior to team Europe. I completely disagree.

Because people are like, oh, man, look at this team. It's got two guys that aren't signed, you know, Christian Airhoff and Dennis Seidberg. If Jack Johnson was a free agent today, would he be on a team? come on. He'd be on a team. He needs the money. Oh. What?

Come on. I know. Well, your bankrupt sense of humor is not going to... His parents need the money. Well, yeah, his parents are scumbus. But listen. Just an ablocator. They're a better team.

They're a better team than Team Europe. And they overlooked them. They were so concerned. But here's the thing. And we'll get into this in a second. It's not simply just that they overlooked them in the tournament. They overlooked them in life, in construction. In life.

They overlooked them in every aspect of building this team. so let's get into it let's do it you and I both written rotin okay I've lost all all motor function

because you're you're still so full of anger while meanwhile I'm reveling him and see it like I was saying this on Twitter like would I prefer USA to go 3 and O

and win the whole thing of course but since I predicted that they would be bad I'd rather be right than happy yeah so you put your so you're like me when I when I when I play craps and like I bet against

like the shooter and I'm like oh if they don't if they screw up, then I can make money. But if they do well, then I'm the only one who's out and everybody else is having a really good time. It's like fantasy sports versus your favorite team. Like, whenever my favorite team wins a championship, I don't get a check in the mail. Well, my fantasy team does. You know what I get? I got a check in the mail. So I'm all about me. How many giants on your fantasy team, typically? For a long time, they were just a really bad fantasy team. But like now

they have O'Dell Beckham. Like they've had a timeshare running back thing forever. Eli's. So you never wanted Eli as your quarterback? I started using him last year when O'Dell Beckham got on the team, or two years ago. So, Eli and O'Dell Beckham, and like, maybe if we go back far enough, I had Rodney Hampton for a season. Are there players that just seem to gravitate to your team every year? Because I got one that seems to always end up on my team, and his name is Matthew Stafford. For whatever reason, Matt Stafford's one of my quarterbacks, like maybe once every other year. I've had Todd Gurley now two years in a row, but I took him last year. That's good. That's a guy you're actively seeking. I'm talking about the bad penny. I'm talking about,

I'm talking about that baseball card in the pack that all of a sudden you open it up and you're like, oh, there's Mike Gallego again. Well, now, well, the thing is, as a Giants fan, for the longest time, they were just really bad for fantasy. They just, they didn't throw the ball a lot. They would have, like, you know, they'd have Tiki Barber and Brandon Jacobs. They've had Rashad Jennings and Shane Verene. They never have, like, the one back. Thunder and Lightning. Right. They've always had that for whatever. Yeah.

So I never would be like, oh, I got to get this guy. But now, like, O'Daw Beckham's like one of the top three fantasy guys. So every year I'm going to want him on my team. That's the most annoying thing about fantasy is when teams have their. the two-headed monster. That's how it is now. Where it's like one guy's going to get you 150 yards, but then the other guy's going to get three touchdowns.

It's got, I think one of the first teams, you know, in my nascent fandom in professional sports, I think one of the first teams I noticed that did that was the New Orleans Saints with Craig Hayward and Dalton Hillard. Yeah. Like I remember the first time I did fantasy was like back in like 96, and everyone in our league took quarterbacks the first couple picks. And our first pick was Scott Mitchell of the Detroit Lions.

Oh, God. The 90s version of Matthew Stafford. Come on. I swear to God. He was, I mean, at least Stafford was homegrown. And he was better. Mitchell was the guy who was the backup for the dolphins. Then he got, like, signed, right?

Like, he was the big. Or did it go the other way? I think he went the other way? Did he go the other way? But the year we drafted him, the year before, he had like 30 touchdowns. And this was back when nobody threw the football like they do today. I was like, we got to get Scott Mitchell. Then like the next season, we were like, you know, if you draft a running back,

it would catch his passes. That's like two guys for one pick. And we were like, oh, yeah, we should probably have done that instead. And now today there's no running back There's like Todd Grellies in every down back There's like three other every down backs But like now it's just You're better off with like

Muhammad Sanoo because Atlanta's going to throw the ball 50 times and Sanoo's going to get like 12 targets What are we talking about? How do we get on this? I don't even know how we got on this I don't think there's anybody in hockey That's like the bad penny that I get in fantasy all the time I suck at fantasy hockey

I'm so bad at it I'm actually pretty good in both I won my fantasy league in football last year but in hockey in hockey there's the problem with hockey I prioritize life thusly my family

no that's not true my job my family fuck them food well that's not true my job food family

what about scotch that's in under food television and movies this podcast and then like and then if I But my point is that I never remember to change my team. And I know that Yahoo's got like the automatic you can change your team.

Oh, in hockey, I know. Oh, it's the worst. It's the same with baseball. Like, you play baseball. Like, I could never do fantasy baseball. The baseball league I do is one league only and it's, it's cumulative. You don't have to change your lineup every day. See, I just don't pay attention to it.

Like daily hockey kills me because like the worst is like you set your lineup for a week. And then like on day two, you move one guy out, move guy in. And you forget that the other six days after that have now changed. change because of it. And you realize like you're playing one night and all your goalies are on your bench. I hate it. Oh, I hate it so much. Or you don't pay attention to it. And then like, you know, Tyler Sagan gets like herpes for a week and then as he does as he does as he's want to do. And then you forget to move a guy up and all of a sudden you look down your bench. It's like oh, Claudeau had 75 points this week. Hooray. Oh shit. I forgot to move him up.

I like seriously, I have nothing going on. I have a lot of free time and I can't stand doing daily lineup fantasies. I just don't. I can't forget it. I just don't remember. Like even like I would rather do Tyne Daily than do Daily fantasy. Oh, what do you got against Tyne Daily? I'd be into that. All right. Is she cagney or a Lacey? Whatever she's wearing is Lacey, I'll tell you that much.

In my vision's in Tyndale. I got all the Tine in the world. Tine Daily. So looker. Good looking lady. I like her a lot. But yeah. So my three-pronged problem, we both have three-pronged problems with Team USA.

I'm sure our prongs overlap. Go ahead and give me your prong. All right, the first prong is this notion that if the under 23 team didn't exist, ah, Team USA would be so much better, which in theory, sure, if you or I or anyone in the world besides Dean Lombardi were picking the team, of course, we'd be like, Johnny Goddrow, got to get that guy on the team instead of Justin Abilicator or Brandon Sade. Yeah, and then Sond instead of James Van Riemstike, of course, that would make us better. But if the whole point of this team is hard and grit and er,

sandpaper and making it hard to skate and making them fight for every inch. They didn't take Tyler Johnson. Yeah. So if you don't take Tyler Johnson, what about the makeup and the blueprint of this team tells me you were going to take Johnny Godreau? I'm willing to say Dean Lombardi may have taken

Brandon Sade. Yeah. That's it. There's no one else. There's no goalies. Like, Gospare? Sure, I would have taken him over Jack Johnson, but would he have? No. But again, I completely agree with you because I thought this was one of the most ridiculous straw men that they built and trying to defend this team. because even if you want to say that those guys would have been available if there wasn't a U-23 team,

let's look at who was available. Are you taking Shane Goss to spare when you don't take Kevin Chattonkirk? No. Right. Or Camp Fowler. If you're telling me that either Jack Eichol or Austin Matthews are on Team USA for this tournament, I will look at you and say they're not. They're not.

Because they would say they're not ready to play in this tournament. Eichael after one season, Matthews never having played in the National Hockey League. Team USA never takes those guys ever anyway. They don't take young guys, period. They only take one young goalie. That's all they do. They never take young guys in the team. Young Corey Schneider.

Yeah. The perfect tournament. It's just bullshit. And it's like Butcher Grass the next day was the one doing it. Like I hate one guys like that who are very like they want to be friendly with the league and friendly with the players and they don't want to say anything bad about the actual team. So they just, they come up with something else. And this is a thing like people come up with is, well, look at all the talent on.

And the other side of that too is, well, all right. Let's say if Canada could have used Connor McDavid or, you know, Aaron Eckblad instead. Like, they had, it's just such a shitty, it's a shitty, it's not even a straw man argument. It's a shitty argument because like, it comes back to the basic problem with this team, which is philosophy. Right. And so the philosophy of the team is we need to be a blue collar underdog team. We don't got the skill of play with Canada. We've got a blue collar and a nucleus of caring.

And so. That Dean Lombardi quote. We'll get to him in a second. But that's the thing. The U.S. is in a weird spot where two years from now, four years from now, they're going to be real good. And they're going to have guys like Matthews and Eichl up the middle. So your three centers at the Olympics or maybe the next World Cup of hockey are going to be Austin, Matthews, Jack Eichl and Joe Pavelski probably. And that's pretty good.

Joe Pavelsky is going to be. Oh, two years from now you're saying it's in Olympics. Let's say two years now. You can rock and roll with that. That's pretty good. But if the philosophy of the team is blue collar and we're going to gut it out and grit it out and be hearty and have a nucleus of caring, there is absolutely no way that they are leaving either Ryan Kessler or David Backus home to take Jack Eichael and Austin Matthews. And you're taking those guys only if they're playing in the middle because that's where you need help.

so maybe you leave Dubinsky home, although it's hard to believe the coach would. They scratched them too for the game against Crosby. The only thing he does well is piss off Sidney Crosby. And he isn't, that's the thing too, is like I'm pretty sure if you look at their matchups, like Crosby still gets the better of Dubinsky,

but like Dubinsky will crush him in the neck. But that's the thing. But like that, but based on their philosophy, that's the one game he's not scratched for it. See, that's one of my things, is that you can tell how poorly this team was constructed. By the way,

they manage the roster in the tournament. They scratch Brandon Dubinsky for the Canada game because they claim that they need more skill. Oh, I know. And so they bring in Kyle Palmieri, who's got 30 goals last year. But then why is Brandon Dubinsky on the team? Like, why didn't you bring more skill?

Like, why didn't you go out and bring Tyler Johnson then? Because he's got more skill. And then at the same time, they do this, they scratch Dominski and bring in Palmieri and say, we need more skill in this game. then they put Justin Abdel Cater

on Patrick Cain's line because of reasons? I don't know. It's just, it's one thing if you have a really bad idea or like philosophy and you stick to it and it's bad. They stuck to it for a game

and they were like, you know what? We need more skill. But you know what it's like? It's like my same, it's the same feeling I have about the Justice League movie. It's like,

clearly the things that came before it portend that it's going to be shitty. like the concept of the DC Zach Snyderverse is so poisoned and bad that even the things that are kind of good aren't going to be nearly as good as they should be so when the concept of the team

for the United States is this gritty sandpaper stick tap to the 2010 team that somehow beat Canada in the prelims now are trying to rebuild that team over and over again the idea that you know the kids are going to come on being in skill positions is bullshit. And it's so clear that this team was so schizophrenic in this tournament about what they needed

to be. It was just a mess. It was such a poorly constructed team. One of the things, so like I got out ahead of the curve and did my USA eulogy before the game because I'm not waiting around. I know what's going to happen. And one response was, oh, well, what about our junior program? We've won two goals in the last six years.

And I'm like, okay, hey, no one gives a shit about junior hockey. It doesn't fucking matter. Junior hockey is just a thing. Again, I always go back to this. Like, no one gives a shit about high school baseball, high school football. You're great that. I hope that you're just talking about the United States. Because in Canada, when they lose in junior hockey, they call congressional commissions to study the goaltending problems.

I feel like there's a silent majority that knows it's just like a fun tournament for kids to play in. But okay, let's go back to that magical time when Derek Stepan snapped home a game winner against, I want to say Jake Allen? I think it was Jake Allen. Sure. To win that tournament. Let's take a look at the guys from that team because, we're talking about developing the young guys, right?

We got these great young guys coming up. We got Austin Matthews and blah, blah, blah. How many guys do you think from that World Junior team were on this team USA team six years later? How many? How many guys from six years later? I would say five. Three.

And they are Derek Stepon, Kyle Palmary, scratched, and who's the other guy? John Carlson. John Carlson, right. You know who's on this team who we didn't bring? Who? Tyler Johnson.

Tyler Johnson was part of the. the world junior championship. But I think the point you're making, though, that we're not emphasizing here is it's not a problem with the USA developmental program. Yes. They produce players. It's these guys we bring into the team. Let's just lay it on the table.

Let's do it. Let's put it out. In 1980, we win the miracle on ice. Oh, I don't know what you're doing this. And so we win the miracle on ice. Herb Brooks leads the team over the Russians. We beat the Finns. gold medal and what happens is for the next 25, 30, my lifetime, we become a hockey program

that always feels like it needs to approach every tournament as the underdog. It's a mindset. It's who we are. It's our identity. We actually play better when the chips are down and we feel like we don't belong. We've got to prove ourselves. It's a fucking psychological thing with USA hockey since the Miracle on Ice because that cast the mold for who we are as a hockey nation. Now, the other thing that happened was in 2010, we decided to purge the program.

We got rid of Mike Medano. We got rid of Keith Kachuk. We got rid of Jeremy Roanick. God bless. We got rid of Scott Gomez. We went super young. We only had three guys in 2010 in Vancouver that had previous Olympic experience. And you know what we did?

Worked out almost perfectly. We beat the Canadians in the preliminary round. And I was reminiscing with my friend Craig Custins from ESPN the other day. Actually last night after that check game being like, remember how great that was? Look how far we've come. We just lost the Czech Republic. Six years later. So what happened was that team beats the Canadians and prelims.

And although if you look back at that gold medal game, the United States was thoroughly outplayed, People kind of forget about that. They only remember the goal in the overtime. They don't remember Ryan Miller saving our asses in half the games he played in that tournament. And then giving up the shittiest goal of all the time. Right, exactly.

Because we did that, that became another template that was set. So now we've got the underdogs, and now we've got on top of the underdogs, a big heap and little of blue collarism, of outworking teams, of being gritty, of being a Brian Burke team

where we're going to be tough and gritty and sandpaper. You're going to have jam, jam in the lineup. I love the jam and heart. Jammed. And here's the thing that happened. The next couple of national teams, Sochi, the World Cup of Hockey, they were created in this mold. Now, Sochi was a bit of an anomaly.

We had a little skill on that team because it was big ice. We had a little bit more big skill. And Dan Bilesma coached a different way that ultimately stopped. The coaching philosophy of that team and the philosophy of, of how that team was going to play was great in every other game, except for the Canada game, in which they became cuckled again, in which they basically decided that, you know, the only way we're going to beat these guys is to not be a skillful team and just dial it back and try to win one, nothing. Well, there was that and also the fact that Dan Baezma felt like he wanted to put his first line out there against Keith and Seabrook.

Not Keith and Seabrook, Keith and Weber, yeah. Even though he had the last change and he could have done whatever he wanted. So tactically, he coached a horrible game against Babcock, but on top of that was, the fact that we went from a team that was forcing the issue and exerting our will on opponents in Sochi, including against the Russians, to a team that basically became the bullied little brother again and tried to beat Russia won nothing because they believe that's the only way they can win is to get back to grit and sandpaper and jam and win it that because of Vancouver. And now this team in the World Cup was built the same way. But here's the problem with that. Wait, there's still more problems? The problem with that is that, on top of the philosophy being completely fucked in 2016

for a September exhibition tournament where there's no hitting! There's no hitting! There's nothing. All that stuff. There's no agitating. There's no nothing. There's no violence. There's no suspensions.

There's no nothing. You bought a bunch of guys that are there to try to piss off their opponents in a tournament where nobody gave a shit. Oh, you mean just Team USA here? Yes. Yeah. Brian Kessler tried to say some words to Crosby. It's like loading up your team with fighters in 2016 where there's no one left to fight. They had Kessler and Bacchus and Dubinsky and all these guys in this team,

Bufflin that are there specifically to get under the skin of other players through their physicality, through their yapping, through their agitation. And they didn't do any of it in this tournament because no one gave a shit. It was a September exhibition tournament. Bufflin kind of fucked up the one guy at the end of the check game. Oh, boy, did he? He really set the time for the next World Cup. So on top of that, on top of that philosophy being so dumb where you built a team for a tournament that doesn't even exist.

On top of that, you're bringing guys from that 2010 team who in 2010, six years ago, were pretty damn good players. Ryan Kessler was a really good player. David Backus was a really good player. Offensively, two-way player. Zach Perise. Zach Perizzi, who now has two points to his credit in international hockey. He got old in a hurry. Since the gold medal game.

Like, what happened to him? I didn't even notice him. We bring all these guys along through abject loyalty and because of our hackneyed philosophy. We love loyalty. To have a blue-collar, gritty, sandpaper jammy team. Don't stay loyal. That we bring this team to the World Cup

and it flops epically. And on top of that, Lozo, and I'm sure this is one of your talking points. Boy, you're just rolling. I don't want to play. Not only do we have all these guys in this hackney philosophy, we then hire. the coach who is the personification

not only in an outlook on life in systems and in philosophy of this whole thing that they've built here and we hire this guy to be the coach of a team that's built to not win okay here's the thing

I'm going to tell you a little secret don't let anybody else know about this because you know I'm a little ashamed to say it I'm okay with grit being part of the philosophy for how we beat Canada. I'm on board. I feel like you have to because let's say you and I were picking a team

and we took all the guys who should have been there. You know, Shat and Kirk, all those guys. Tyler Johnson. Deutcheats. Shat and Ducin. Shat Ducin all over Canada. Let's say we take all those guys. We still will never, ever, ever have as much talent as Canada.

Even when Canada leaves home, Duncan Keith and Jamie Ben and Tyler's like, we're never going to get there. That's completely true. But the way to beat them isn't to outgrit them. The way to beat them is to get the talent gap as closed as you can. Just get it as whatever it is. Like get it to like a little 10% gap. And then you fill it in with the goalie who can win the one game.

Right. And John Quick has... Again, loyalty. Has the most impeccable timing maybe of anyone ever because he's had two good months in 2012. And then the game of his life and a one-nothing loss at the Olympics for Team U.S. USA. So in everyone's mind against Canada, he is the most likely guy to make 45 saves when

he's not. When in fact he is the guy who at least at one point in every game will have a moment in which he has a Titanic fuck up. Right. And then it's whether or not he can recover from it or whether or not he puts the puck off of Corey Perry's tummy and into the net. That was a bad goal. That wasn't

an accident or like a terrible goal. That was a terrible goal. Yeah, that was a terrible goal. And there was the point in the like every broadcaster, everyone's like on ESPN and Jonathan Quick best goalie in the world, and they always go to that one great save he made. He made a ridiculous save against Team Europe at one point in that game when Team Europe was up three nothing. Right.

But it's one of those things that sticks in people's minds. So to me, the whole thing about having to win a different way is kind of true. I understand that. Like whenever we be Canada, there's going to be some luck involved. We are not going to win the shot of tent battle. We're going to have how goalies steal a game to some degree. But this notion that like Ryan Kessels, brings this certain level of grit that only he can bring and, you know, ablocator and all that.

Like, Tyler Johnson, just because your 5 foot 8 doesn't mean you can't be tough. It's all reputation-based. But like, I don't know. Like, Tyler Johnson played an entire Stanley Cup final and maybe part of the conference final with a busted up hand. You went out there and played tough. I think the difference is that when you have Canada and you have this incredible glut of players where really, really good guys are left home all the time. Like Stamco's or or like.

Taylor Hall or like say again and I'm talking throughout history. That's competition. The United States doesn't have competition. It has competition for some spots. Couple spots, yeah. Right, right. But overall, it's merit. Overall, I would say three quarters of the roster you could cement knowing that those

guys are going to be there because of what they did for USA hockey in previous tournaments, including one six years ago. Including world championships that don't match. matter. Right. Like, because Jack Johnson's NHL team sucks balls, he goes to the worlds every year because his team's never in the playoffs. So he gets to come play now when everyone's available? That makes no sense. Oh, by the way. One of the most ridiculous things I've read all week was this idea that Sidney Crosby should be praised for having gone to world championships while other players don't. That guy wanted to be in the triple gold club. That's why he went. He went because he wanted

to be in the triple goal club and he got it. And everybody loved him for it. It's just, like, I just the idea that like I know, listen your point's well taken and it's a two-fold problem. The first is that if you want to win one nothing over Canada you have to have the right goalie and frankly we saw

the right goalie for about 20 minutes. Corey Schneider's bet goal on the team. Perfect state percentage, right? Yeah, didn't give a goal. Ten for ten? Something like that. He was the best goalie on the team. I'm not saying that as a devil's fanboy. I'm saying that as a fact and I'm saying that you know, it's a pity that his

general manager wasn't the general manager of this team. Exactly. Maybe that changes next time. I think John Heinz was like in the locker room like before the game against Canada. Like, hey, I'm just, you know, this guy got me to 84 points last year with a really bad team. But over, but you're closing the skill gap argument is the right one for a couple reasons. The first is that you could take every other team in this tournament and put them together into one super team. and they still won't be as talented as Canada. No.

So the idea that, and both Tortoella and Lombardi said this the other day, the idea that we don't have the skill of Canada, well, that's very true. But we never will. No one will. Ever. Ever. As long as we live, we are never going to have more than that. Unless Trump nukes them. Right.

Which, you know, come back in two months, folks. We'll assess that. To be continued. They're always going to have more talent than we are. But the, so again, so we come back to the idea of now we're building our team to beat Canada. which is dumb. Look at the Russians. Do you think the Russians

ever pick their players based on, Comrade, we must look at the Canadian roster and find out the best way to beat them? No, they just take the best guys that want to come. Nikolai Dubinsky will get in head across me. You will cross-check his throat.

Which one of these two goalies vial them all for Bobroski will be better to play the Canada's? No, they don't give a shit. They just take the best guys. I think Sweden's like, Borka, Borka, Borka, how do we check which, oh my gosh. Now that you say that, that just jarred this loose.

John Tortero for four M-Fing years in New York, whenever you ask them about the other team, we're just focusing on ourselves. On ourselves! All the time. We build our team to beat Canada. And again, that's again, like I said, 2010 poisoned the well.

2010 poisoned the well because they believed that they finally had a template on how to beat Canada. Who built that team? If you know anything about Brian Burke. There's Burke, right? You know anything about Brian Burke? It's that he's pretty good at trying to repeat the template. He hired Randy Carlisle in Toronto. He tried to bring truculence with him from Anaheim because that's how they won their cup.

And Paul Holmgren is in his brain trust for Team USA, and he's been trying to repeat the Broad Street Bullies for 20 years. So obviously you have guys that know a plan and stick with it even if it doesn't work anymore because the game has changed. But why would Dean Lombardi a successful in a... HLGM, stick to Brian Burke's plan. Because it's a brain trust. Remember that Burnside article about how they built the team to associate's brain trust? You had guys in that room that were literally like, I had

a dream about a player and I'm worried if we don't put them on the team that it's a bad omen. This is how fucking stupid it is. So here's the thing about that team building in Canada. So we built a team to beat Canada and it didn't. Which is like, and I

went back and forth with David Back. I talked to Backus after the Canada game. And I'm just like, you know, I'm like, a lot of people are just having a problem with this. Like the idea that we've built a team to beat Canada and I said, and it didn't. So was the team not built right? And then he went off on some spiel. But like, that's the point. The point is that when you build a team to beat Canada and it can't, well, then you've not built a team to beat other teams.

Well. And I'll say this about that. You and I disagree about your beloved team Europe, right? But what I'm going to say is when your team, when your team, team when you're down in a game where you don't have it and uh and you've overlooked them and you're not prepared which by the way three games there were three games to get ready for and you weren't ready for one of them i think about that i don't see actually no let me phrase that you weren't ready didn't they out shoot them like 35 14 we're ready for them i don't know that so

i think they were ready they just weren't good enough so but when you but when you go on a game and you don't have it and this is true for the n hl too you're not so you're not sure for the nchel too What are you looking for? You're looking for someone to make a play. And so when you build your team without playmakers, and Tortorilla argued, oh, we got playmakers. People are always telling me that it's a fucking grinding. My job, to get the chemistry right in the lines.

It's not a bunch of grinders. It's not a bunch of plumbers out there. We've got a lot of skill. You need two things. You need your goalie. A power play goal is how you beat Canada. And you're not going to be done with Niskin, Carlson, and Eric Johnson on your right side. Or Kyle Palmeri.

when you leave Kessel, Johnson, Chattonkirk, Akposo, and any number of other guys at home, Yandel? You leave guys at home who can make a play for you. Right. And especially when the guys that are on your team that you keep bringing back to these tournaments, don't make plays. Before last night, where you got a garbage time assist, actually it was garbage time.

I think it was legit. Dustin Buffalo made it 4'3, right? No. Perizig had one point since thinking. I can understand how you can get lulled into thinking Zach Brise's A top line player? Yeah, because I feel like his decline is only sort of just beginning. But like, I just don't know how you just go out.

With that group of defensemen, I... Listen, it's a gigantic embarrassment. And as I said during the tournament, the world was split up into two different types of fans for the USA hockey. It was the ones that were like, God, you know, I really hope that we beat Canada because, it'd be great to beat Canada and maybe we can win the World Cup

and I was probably that guy before it's front of him but then after we lost to Europe and I took a step back and I looked at this team and I started to hear this clown talking about you know grit and heart

and this other clown who's a general manager talking about the nucleus of caring and then and then my voice came into your head and you said wow that Dave was right good for him it became apparent that

they're never going to learn unless they lost and lost big. But I think that too, but at the same time, like, how many times have we put our hand on the stove and burned it and then put our hand back on the stove again? Like, what makes me think in 2016 that we're going to go fast and speed and skill?

We've spent 17 hours on this already. Let's move it over to the next phase of the conversation, which is what do they do next? How do they remedy this? Because according to, this is one of my three things. According to the players, they lost to Canada because of some bad. bad bounces, a couple of posts.

That's how they lost the Canada. I don't know about the other two losses that they suffered in his three-game tournament. Yeah. But against Canada, it was a couple bad bounces. That made me sad. And then according to John Tortorella and the USA Hockey Management, they had the players. They just didn't execute. So that's the issue.

So the issue is, you know, are they, they're delusional? Right. So are they ever going to not be delusional? And the other issue is this. And this is the scary part if you're at America. American hockey fan. When shit doesn't go right in Canada, they purge. They get rid of guys.

You know, like Gretsky or McTavish or whoever the hell is going to be in like your brain trust that doesn't get the job done. But shit goes wrong there once every 20 years. Right. But they, right. But when it does, they panic and they clean house, they flush everything, they get new people in. Because they have roughly 25 general managers in the league

to choose from. Right. There's like 25 general Canadians. One thing, and then like four Americans. Well, I mean, so you're saying that since the talent pool for GMs is so low, I'm saying, I don't know. Pick us. I don't know who, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying I don't know who they turn to.

Because everybody who would be someone you would call on to reinvent USA hockey is already working for USA hockey. Now, maybe it's a Mike Sullivan was the assistant coach for John Totorella, but sure his shit doesn't coach like John Totorella. Yeah, that was weird, by the way. I didn't realize he was the assistant until they cut to the bench one time. And I was like, wait, this guy. guys taking orders from torts? But he was his assistant and other places too, but like my point is

like the only guy that I can come up with is Ray Shiro to take over USA hockey. But how different is that going to be? And how different is it going to be when you still have Holmgren, Brian, like the brain trust of USA hockey is not changing. And that's what worries me. What worries me

is that we're going to get better skill when these guys in the U-23 team get better. And I'm worried that they're all going to be playing when they play Canada, the same damn game that we've seen since 2010. I admit don't really know offhand who all the American-born GMs are at this point. Is John Chaka? He's Canadian. No, he's Canadian. I looked at it. It's Sherro. It's Gorton. And that's like it. Not a lot of options. So it's got to be us. That's what you're saying.

I mean, I'm hearing you loud and clear, buddy. I'm willing to do this in two years if you want to put the team to the other. You've Pat LaFontaine had taken that Buffalo job. Like, it's just weird to me that hockey is such a bizarre sports. I think Travis Yos tweeted it the other day or yesterday. He said something to the effect of hockey's the only sport where the randomness of outcomes is always attributed to heart and grit. So you're never going to find, you're rarely going to find GMs that are willing to just pick the best players and play the odds and look at the shot attempts and all that sort of stuff.

It's not complicated. Just pick the best players possible. And if you lose that way, you lose that way. So be it. Like, I don't know who the gene. Like Ray Schero, I don't know. But here's the, here's the, he's like Dean Lombardy in a way too. Yeah, yeah.

Your point's really well taken. They're both disciples of Lou Lamarillo, by the way. Who, again, maybe should be the guy who runs this thing. Oh. Oh. Really? Listen. Listen.

Matt Martin, four in ten. Your points are not taken because here's the thing, right? In 2010, we had guys play roles, but they were really good players playing those roles. Look at Canada. Look, I love role playing as much as the next guy. Hey, now. We had one of our guys were like, uh, dressed his little bo-peep

I was into it it was cool you know like am I the sheep what am I the key to the 2010 team was the one who dressed like a sexy secretary right listen you know listen Grant Bixby or whatever that is from honor family

Canada has Jonathan Taves playing a role he's like a checking forward but he's one of the best players in the world yeah and the idea I don't get the idea that you have to have role players that aren't highly skilled like can't these guys

just like play a role like are you telling me like Kyle Okposo couldn't come on this team and you're like oh you're a really good skill player you've hung with John Tavares for the last several years but we need you to do X, Y, Z and if you score great and he'd be like oh I don't know how to

do that on Mr. Fumblehands I don't know how to handle a fourth line situation. But there's a thing though is like again we think about roles when it comes to international teams and we don't need to like you're thinking about roles on an NHL team you want to have a fourth line that can just control play third line. Yeah.

And, you know, have, like, that Cedric Paquette when he handled. He played well against Taves in the Cup final. I thought he was only there to speak to the French media. You need one guy. And then have, like, Pierre LeBron and Arp and Basu come back and be like, oh, my God, he said all the best stuff in French. Damn it again. No, but, like, in international hockey, just, like, let's say I was both the GM and coach of the next U.S. team, which, again. Regular Reg Dunlop.

I'm available here. I would pick the team. I would get the players. out there and I would say, okay, you guys have played hockey pretty much your whole lives. You're the best hockey players in the world who happen to be born in the United States, except Sean Couturee, Trader, whatever. He plays for Canada, right? He's born in Arizona.

Whatever. The point is, is just, I would make my four lines, and I would say, go out there and play hockey to the best of your ability. If at some point you have to check a guy who's on the other side, great. If at some point you need to get body position on another guy, do that. Otherwise, just go out there and be really good at hockey. It's not complicated. We're overthinking everything here.

Like, just get the good hockey players and then go let them play good hockey. That's it. It's so simple. So, anyway, my email, Team U.S. Hockey USA is Dave 111177 at Gmail. We can talk about salary because if it's two positions, I mean, let's be real. I got to get paid. Before we move on about other things, Dean Lombardi's quote. We can't read the whole thing.

People can't. People have jobs. The weekends coming. We're not going to read the whole thing, but what did you... For those who don't know, we had it on Puck Daddy the other day. It's a... He was asked if John Tortorella was the right coach for the team. Oh, it's amazing.

And, like, he went on this... He went on this, like... It's like, is it... 10 minutes of just nonsense? It's so long. It's like 600 words, and it doesn't... Basically, it's like a 600-word answer that's... says we try too hard or we care too much basically or he cared too much he used he used the phrase at

one point and i don't know if it was there or not the nucleus of caring that's yeah that's for the yeah yeah there's we cared too much which is again a bullshit thing people say in all sports like oh they're trying to do too much out there no they're they're fucking they're fucking up like like let's not again people on tv and like like i understand why d lombardi's going to circle the wagons it's his team it's his guys he's not going to go in front of the media you know hours before the check game and be like boy these guys suck i fucked up he's never going to do that he's to talk like that, and that's how TV people talk. That's how media people talk this. They say, try too

hard, carry too hard. No one ever says he just fucked up. Here, I'll read this section as Bobby Holilich. So you can speed it up. Whenever you're building your team, essentially your veterans are costing the first couple of exhibition games, so I have never seen a team that have to get up to speed in four days, and you're playing against Canada, and we thought it important that even

in the exhibition game to make a statement, it wasn't critical to win, but I think that this part we start playing... But I think... But I think the biggest thing is the mindset before I got to count and I was like, we should have immediately after that and dealing with it to me. It was almost like fighting a tight team. And that's why I said a bit of a difference. We were down 3-0. We have to go to the

game 1, but it was still very okay. This goes on for 75 minutes. Like, I can't imagine being the person, not who asked that question, but the person who's holding the mic at the press conference for the next question and you're just sitting there holding the mic waiting for him to stop and you're just... I didn't see the video. I mean, like Josh Cooper from Puck Daddy transcribed it. But you have to remember that Dean doesn't talk like Bobby Holy. Like Dean is very like...

That's like a four and a half. minute monologue. Like, very much like, here, I'll just pick a random part. Dean's like, you got six head coaches and one of the problems, just like the players accepting roles that might, and at that pace, he might still be talking. Like, we might be the Adjustment Bureau where like this story that is still being built because he's still talking. Like, sometimes I'll read question or answers the questions and I'll be like, oh,

the follow up here. It's also hard to like ask a follow-up. but a press conference because there's microphones. Yeah. And I'll see it away from you. And also, you know how to steal your stories. Also, yeah, right. But like, like, once he got done with that, I don't even know what my follow-up question would have been except to be like, what does that mean?

Like, there's like the six head coaches. Like, you answer it much like everybody on my Twitter feed did, which with the clip from Billy Madison. Yeah. We are all over. I award you no points. Yeah, we were awarded no points. And God, I don't think had mercy on our.

That's the worst. All right. Let's talk about something better. Team North America was a sensation of the tournament. as you know I was a TN Nation all the way I have a Connor McDavid jersey I love that team dearly

Oh it's a McDavid? I didn't realize it was a MacDavid? I have an Ikele Buffalo jersey So I want to get Connor a lot You're a traitor Well maybe not as much We'll get that in a second Trader

Trader Here's the thing about team North America And listen The only two moments Worth a damn In the preliminary rounds Of this tournament

Were provided by TNA The TNA never lets you down. They never let you down. It never lets you down. McKinnon, in overtime against Sweden, was incredible. What an amazing, that was an amazing sequence. That was, every time you hear someone poo-poo in three-on-three, like, that's the shit that could happen in three-on-three.

All he take is one. That was a very sort of, like, Sweden hanging back, trying to get to the shootout because they know that Lundquist is, like, exponentially better than John Gibson. And then, like, there was, like, one bad bounce, and then all of a sudden thoroughbred to the rest of the time. It was crazy. And the other one, obviously, was that was the Russia game where they lost was by far the best game in the tournament. That was something special, man.

Drysidal, too, in overtime against Russia? No, not Russia. The Finland. The Czechs, the Czechs. No, no, no, it was Finland. They didn't have the checks in their thing. No, dry-siddle? Oh, you mean for Team Europe?

I'm sorry, yeah, you confuse me. Sorry. Yeah, no. I know. Like Patrick Linae to me is on, I know. I get the guy that throws me off all the time, too. So, yeah, no, like, they're great. And they were the best thing in the tournament.

There is some debate as to whether or not they're going to do this again. Yeah, they're not. Are they? Well, they, I think they are. No, because there's a bunch of quotes that came from the NHL before the World Cup. And they're all like, yeah, no, like, World Cup, real serious stuff. We're going to have a qualification tournament before the next one. And then, like, Team North America comes out, and they sell the gross national product of Belize in jerseys.

And then the team's, like, the only one people give a shit about. And then they're like, oh, what? We were going to have Slovakia in this thing again? Are you kidding me? No, but like, Custin's I saw had a thing where like after the, after they got eliminated, it was like, yeah, they're thinking about not doing it still. But like just to me, they have to do it again. But like, I understand you don't want to use McDavid again in that same scenario.

Just drop the age by a year. So it's 22. Yeah, two things about that. Like, first of all, the reason that team North America and team Europe existed is because Gary Bettman, Gary Bettman literally said this yesterday to me. They wanted to make sure that they had the best team. in the tournament. Right.

Makes sense. If you dial it back and all of a sudden have a qualification for like Slovakia and Switzerland, you're not going to have the best teams in the tournament. You're going to have two teams

that are going to get their asses handed to them by better teams. Right. And that sucks. So do this thing again. Do this thing again that you just did because it was great. It worked out because

Team Europe was competitive and team North America was super fun. So like the two gimmick teams were good teams, you know? Boohoo Connor McDavid wants to play for Canada in next World Cup. I really feel bad for him that he's this good so young.

I really feel bad that he got to take part in an historic team that people will look back on and say it may be the greatest team ever assembled when all these guys are in the Hall of Fame in 25 years. I don't know. I feel really bad for him. I feel really bad that he's that Canada can't get that, you know, 35th center in their lineups to them play on wing. And we have, and we have Derek Steffa. Wow. Look, look, all that said, I sympathize with him and I sympathize with Eichl and guys that probably. probably Austin Matthews that want to probably play for their teams.

So I think what they should do is this. Do Team North America again, right? But allow guys that played on this incarnation of it to be eligible to be on their teams, even if they're too young. How many guys would that be like for each team? I don't know. But I think the only reason that this team won't exist again is if USA hockey is like, you're preventing us from excelling in this tournament by holding back our good young players.

and if Connor McDavid's like, I want to play for Canada, I want to be for my tummy. He's not going to have to say, Tommy, sure. I think that's the only reason that team North America wouldn't happen is if you have those entities complaining about it.

And Canada will probably want Eckblatt by that point too. So I think if you take the players from this team and you're like, all right, you're eligible to be on your parent clubs next time and those who don't get selected,

come back and play. Come back and be part of TNA again. It's just, I think it's just, because Ekblad's 20 at this point, so he'll be, he'll be, he'll be old enough, yeah. Canada eligible. But it would be, it would be Eichael and McDavid and Matthews are the three that would be affected by it. Right.

So the idea is it's going to be in four years. So, yeah, it's just those guys. Do this. Just have it be like, all right, well, USA hockey in Canada gets one pick or two picks of the under 22 guys or under 23 guys. I'd be fine. Just do that. Listen, I'm an American.

I want Austin Matthews with my team. I mean, like, think about it. We didn't have Sean Monaghan on this. We, I'm part of Team North America. We didn't have. We didn't have. Like, Sean Monahan scored 30 goals last year. It wasn't on this team and they were still two and one.

I think that's the way you keep this team in existence. I really think the next World Cup should be the same format. I think this worked. It's great. It's fun. It's got to send three teams, though, from each group. To have that same team. Yeah, you need to have a quarterfinal round for sure.

Like, that's a huge failing. Like, change that part of the format. But as far as, like, the teams go, come back with Europe. Come back with. Like, I'm, dude, you would rather see a shell of Slovakia in this tournament than having, like, Zookarillo and It's gonna be It's gonna be next year's

Next year's gonna be two groups And one of the groups is gonna be like USA Like Kazakhstan Oh God right yeah Switzerland B Canada is over the other group Yeah It's like it's like USA

Kazakhstan Team Australia Like like The Virgin Well the Virgin Islands would be on Team USA Cuba Right Cuba

Team USA goes 5 at O in group play advances to semis Team cool Team cool runnings They just bring out like a team Team Europe, Team North America And then like a team of NHL mascots And the U.S. will find the way to win in a shootout 4-3

No, right. And right. And then the U.S. goes 0 and 3 Because they're like, while we overlooked Kazakhstan Because we were playing Team Cool Runnings next. Team mascots. Yupi had a great game to goal.

We don't got the skill of the mascot team. We got jam. We have a nucleus of caring. See, we have jam, but there's actually a team over there with a mascot that actually is a thing of jam. We couldn't get around them. He was too much jam.

You know, we were going well until they named it the Las Vegas sandpaper nights. And they had all the sandpaper in their lineup. The Seattle Hearts, the new team in Seattle, just a big old heart. They had heart jamming sandpaper over there. How the hell are we going to beat that team? Holy God. They were too good. And I can't believe the Dallas Stars were bought by a grout cleaner, and they became the Dallas Grit.

Like, wouldn't it be the consummate thing for the NHL to do, though, would be to have this awesome 13 North America experience, then bag it four years later? That would be very typical. Right, and they would do it not because they want to do it, but because people complained about it. It would be the reason. Like, the NHL is clearly, like, cool with it. Right. Like, they know that North America made them a ton of money, and they would do it again in a millisecond. It's the only thing people cared about in this tournament so far.

Like, they want it back. But it would be the other people being like, boo-hoo, this point that hurts us. I don't want to be on this team again. I don't want to have an all-star draft. The reason that we lost to the Czech Republic is we didn't have Austin Matthews in the team. If we had Austin Matthews, we better lost 4-3 instead of 14 Canada. Poopy pants all over my pants. He's a American.

He's so close to the border. He plays in Buffalo. Or. Players, man. You're like babies. Sorry, good. You were going to scream something. I cut you off.

No, it's fine. At T North America, though, know this about it. I ain't trying to be a party people where I love TNA. There's my favorite thing in the tournament, and I curse every day that Russia was ever found. I'm going back all the way to the Tsars, right? I'm so pissed off that Russia is still on the map to prevent it our sweet princes of puck. Are you mad? Are you mad at Todd McLaughlin for not informing the team that they should have tried to score in regulation?

Now that I've, Tyler Delo, our good friend, sent me the actual, like, percentages, because I ain't going to do the math. Like, I understand what, for those that don't know, Team North America could have gone for it and assured themselves a place in the semifinals had they won in regulation against Sweden. If they had lost in regulation against Sweden, that means that Russia basically, you know, could have gotten in.

Yeah, whatever. But the three-way tiebreaker, if it was the way it is now, with 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, would that have gotten North America in over Russia? Because I know the three-way tie-breaker was different. I probably should have looked that up before I posed that question to you. Well, point being is that the percentages were higher. There were different, more paths for them to get to the semifinals, assuming a Russia loss than if they had tried to go for it and lost in regulation. But here's the point. Okay.

Team North America played a really exciting brand of hockey in an exhibition tournament in September that would never translate to the National Hockey League. In fact, one might say that some of the passes that I saw those defensemen making in this tournament would have gotten them benched in the National Hockey League. Oh, God, yeah. And the minute teams play a system against this team, they probably would stop scoring, which is what happened in the Sweden game, where they came out in the first minute and a half and scored two goals and got a penalty shot out of it. And Sweden's like, borka, borka, borka, now we're going to play.

And then they didn't score again until overtime. The thing that screwed down was Russia doesn't really play a system. And for four minutes or six minutes, whatever it was, Matt Murray crapped himself in that little window. That's all it was. If they could have just gotten overtime in that game. But the thing is this, like, people have to take a step back and realize why this team was great. And it was great because of the talent level for sure. But it was also great because they had zero expectations placed on them.

And they also had zero repercussions for their play. Think of it this way. Like when you're an American player, you not only are playing in a tournament trying to win a tournament, but you're playing... Oh, sorry. Ooh, hey.

Goddamn sports net in your auto play videos. I think you're also playing to try to get onto the next team and the next team. You want to stay in the system, right? If your team North America, who gives a shit?

If you're the right age, they'll have you back. They're playing with no expectations and no repercussions, and they are free as little birds. And that's why they were so exciting. So if there's a three-way tie and they would have won by one in regulation,

I think Sweden would have been out because Russia... They would have been out. Russian, they both had plus three and Sweden was plus... And by winning an overtime... Plus two. By winning an overtime, they needed a Russia loss in regulation or overtime. Yeah. I mean, I can understand why you would just play for the overtime win

because it's not as though Russia was guaranteed to beat Finland. I mean, they were probably going to. The thing that nobody talked about at any of these equations was the fact that Sweden played the day before. And in North America knows, the minute you get to that track meet in overtime, probably can win the game. You know?

Yeah. So, there's that too. What were your thought? What's your, what's your, what's your, uh, eulogy on TNA? But which by the way, on Sportsnet was labeled NAT, North America team. No, it wasn't. Yes, it was.

On the scoreboard on Sportsnet, it was North America team versus TNA because, oh, gosh, golly, you know, it might be somebody over a moose jog. It's a little upset by that. Oh, geez. Hey, you don't want to get that. There's a bar in Hoboken, it's been there forever called Texas, Arizona. You know it? It's right by the train.

No. It's a big a Steelers bar. But anyway. Texas, Arizona is called TNA. TNA. I pray to God they bring it back and don't tinker with it too much to kind of make it less fun. Like have a coach who's just going to let them do what they want, not what they want, but just let them skate.

That's my point with Team USA is get a bunch of really awesome players and let them do their thing. It's a three-game tournament, anything could happen. Matt Murray had his thumb thing, and that is really why they're not there, and I'm so sad about it. But don't screw this up. Don't, don't, like, the All-Star game screwed up the draft, but they brought in three-on-three, so it's like, okay, great. Don't replace. And then I put John Scott in there.

I did it. I missed myself. Oh, yeah, I forgot. You ruined. You sullied the great reputation of the NHL All-Star game. You and Marrick, you and Marrick with your evil podcast. I'm like this one, which is wholesome. This one's wholesome and is on the forces of light and good.

Ours is, our other ones dastardly in trying to poison the well. Actually, if you got John Scott in last year, let's get somebody, let's get Sidney Crosby out this year. No. Wait, get Siddy Crosby out of the All-Star game? I don't know how we do it. What are we going to do? Hold the All-Star game. Bump, bump, ch. Oh, uh-oh, it looks like Sid's got the flu.

Who gave him the flu? And it's like, we didn't raise our handsheet. So wait, you're telling me you can't come to Columbus. It's like right next door to Pittsburgh. Just to like say hi? We're doing this whole World Cup of hockey. Oh, gee, you know, I got a guy. I got a guy.

I got a sore groin and, you know, I just want to sit around. Yeah, I agree. I think TNA was great. I think Europe's fine, too. I got no problem with those teams coming back, and I hope they don't screwed up. You watched the tournament on ESPN. I was there on site. I will say on site, it's a little bit disconcerting that the games at 3 o'clock in the afternoon were less than capacity.

The tickets were all sold. It's just that the people who had to buy the tickets that had to buy them in strips. So they only wanted the Canada games, the U.S. games, and the North America game. So then they sold all their other tickets to brokers. We're like, wow, we got all these other World Cup tickets. Now we're going to be able to sell them. And then they didn't sell them. And you could get tickets for the Sweden-Finland game at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

You could get tickets for $6 a piece. And you were upset about this. You feel like this exposed Toronto as a faux hockey town. I was upset about it because I know why it happened, which is that they had a massive inventory and people maybe didn't realize that you could get tickets for $6. I had people saying, well, fuck, six bucks. If you told me that, I would have come to the game. My problem is that when I said that the crowds were less to capacity, some people made a relevant argument, which is that, well, you know, a lot of these international tournaments do have these empty seats, although I came back and said, well, a lot of these international tournaments aren't held in the century of the heck of universe.

Why did you do Sean Leahy when you're... But my problem was that I had a lot of people saying, well, you know, you expect, what, you have a job where you can just go. You know, a lot of people can't get off work. I'm like, you know, that's true to a point. And the point where I would say it's not true is when it's a once every four years tournament that is being held in Toronto for the first time and forever. And the game is at 3 o'clock. And I don't know about you, but sometimes that kind of fuck off work before 3 o'clock sometimes. Some people are dedicated to their jobs in Canada, okay?

Unlike you in this American paradise. I'm just saying that if you are the pinnacle of hot, people were like, well, you know, what? What city? I think they should hold it in. That would sell out the games. I'm like, Toronto. Wow. Right? Just knifing them. Like, I mean, that's where you'd put it, right? Checking mates.

But the games were sold out. It's just that people didn't use their tickets, and then the brokers were stuck with the giant. Well, what about the Sochi? Because people evidently, oh, and of course, they managed to somehow, they somehow got in their hands and knees and pleaded their bosses to get off for that North America game at 3 o'clock where the place is basically full. Oh, gee, wow. Amazing how that happened. But everything else was sort of less in capacity.

Well, like, what was the deal on Sochi? like for the games that weren't Canada or U.S. But that's so cheap. I mean Vancouver. Vancouver. I don't honestly remember. I think that they were pretty well attended. But I think you also had a lot more tourists.

Like all of Latvia showed up for the Latvia games. Right. So like you had that go on for it. But like if we both agree that the World Cup is a sham and it's a preseason tournament. It's a September tournament. Now speaking of that, so ESPN gets the World Cup back. The ratings aren't good comparatively to other stuff. The Canada-US game beat the average of Wednesday night, rivalry night,

Sabers, wild, hockey, fun on NBCS. Rivals to the end. And so that's good. And it beat obviously, you know, beat the season-long average, too. Didn't get anywhere near the numbers that we had for like the Winter Classic and stuff. So, so, but it was also a terrible game. So I don't think that you can judge the impact of the tournament based on the ratings. First time that the tournament's been around since 2004.

It's September. There's a lot of shit going on right now here in the U.S., including the election that's kind of sucking all the air out of the room for people's interests. They play two weekend games or, yeah, at the same time as the NFL and college football schedule. It's not ideal. Yeah, I mean, it's basically, I think, I'm sure ESPN has some internal targets they wanted to hit. And they probably, I mean, I'm assuming they maybe hit them. Maybe they didn't. Maybe they did.

I don't know what the semifinals are going to look like now. You'll have a good number for Canada Russia probably, but not for the other game. And then who the hell knows about the final? But the thing I'm more concerned about is less the ratings than what your experience was watching the World Cup on ESPN. It was mixed, mostly good, though. I would say, all right, I like Leah Hexel's intermission interviews. Instead of, like, getting the standard, you know, softball questions, like, she wasn't, like, grilling him. She wasn't, like, you know, it wasn't the McCarthy hearings, you know, when, like, Zach Pireze before the game.

but, you know, she was just like, your manager basically said you guys failed. Talk about that. And it's like, oh, you don't get that too often. So I thought she was good. Now, but what about, so Linda Cohen obviously is a friend of the program. She was great, I'm sure. Yeah, the studio show was, the studio show was decent. All I heard about Brett Hall was that he was great.

Like Hall was, because, like, it was great because Hall was full of piss and vinegar because of how bad USA, the teen USA was. So he was just constantly angry all the time. Like, Adnan Verk was good. Linda Cohen was good. Chellios was kind of, I don't know, Chellios gave that standard bull. bullshit Eric Crosson doesn't play defense thing, which annoyed the crap out of me. I think the problem

with Chelyos, it's kind of double-edged sword because I think having Chelyos there probably made Hull better because they're boys and they were probably comfortable with each other. I can see that. But at the same time, like that's where you're that's where your analyst goes. Like that's where you should have had

a writer or like an ex-player that's got a bit more of like a Kevin Weeks type, for example. We can break the game down a little bit better. Like that's that's probably, Mike Johnson. Like that's where that guy goes in the cellios role and then you've got like your milberry and blowviator in brett hull i mean like like i literally every time mbc period ends i turn it off i can't i can't do it i come back i have the internal clock at this point so well measured that i know exactly when they go

back when the second period of third period so people were putting over hull like literally like they were like cutting to the intermission show and they're like so brett what you think about team u s a and he like pulls his pants down and just farts on the mic he was basically i mean he was he was he was yeah like I'm not saying he was eloquent in every single turn, but he was entertaining in like a fun way. He wasn't like, you know, why doesn't Team USA go out there and murder a guy with a stick? Like, you know, a Milbury would. He was just very annoyed about how bad...

Like, he was, like, honest about how bad Team USA was. He should be shanking the Canadians, what I should be doing. Yeah. Said Brandon Nubinsky out there with his skating slice his throat, see? Yeah. Yeah. What do you think, Mike? Ma. Meh.

Me. Hit him with your shoe, see? There it was. How was that guy on TV? It's unbelievable. A lot of people and our good friend Ryan Lambert included were saying, you know, hey, put Brett Hall on NBC. I'm like, no, we tried that.

He was on NBC. I don't remember him on. He was on NBC for one season and he was terrible. He was on when the games were on NBC. There was like an NBC game of the week. He was on to be that guy, to be the guy that he apparently was on ESPN this time. Maybe he's gotten better. No, he's not gotten better.

He's really good at talking about the U.S. national team. I think, because essentially like, like, you got to stay. Listen, I wrote a really great piece this week. I ain't going to lie. The piece I wrote was really great because it comes from a point of passion. And he's a very prideful guy. He was on Team USA. He's coming from a point of passion.

It's hard to get that same level when you're talking about, you know, the capitals and the, you know, Bruins. But if he channels that same, like, what the F attitude all the time into his stuff or an angel game? Seriously, at this point, I'll try anything at this point, man. Well, at this point, you know, due respect. all due respect all due respect you know we've had the same crew for over a decade now in nbc right it's okay so i like the studio who's fine uh barry melrose just no no man like it's just he doesn't bring anything to the table he's not good weeks weeks was okay like kevin weeks butchagross is not my flavor i understand people i every time a fucking post gets hit i don't want to hear him do his yo ding dong

bullshit. He's a weird play-by-play guy, too. I like, I have, oh, go, I'm sorry. I was just going to say, like, he's, like, Steve Levy's fantastic. I can listen to Steve Levy all day. Like, John Butchagross, like, it's not his fault. He's not a play-by-play guy. He's a piece of anchor. As Bob Raceman used to call him, Steve, Mr. Laugh's Levy. That was his nickname, Bob Raism. That is his song. Yeah. Like, just very, like, he kind of gets caught up. And also, like, he's, he's, he's, he's just, I don't know. Like, he's not a play. Honestly, if Butchagrass was in the studio, I'd probably enjoy him a lot more as opposed to him.

play-by-play. Yeah. And then the best guy was Darren Pang. Darren Pang. Yeah, he's fantastic. Like, two examples of how he is so useful on a broadcast. There was two plays that I can think of anyway when Barry Melrose wasn't talking over him constantly while he was trying to make a point. Two plays.

There was a play where in the Sweden North America game, Murray, no, Gibson had the puck in his pads. Clearly had the puck saved. And, like, he was on the doorstep. Marcus Kruger. And he's swiping away at air. And, like, Barry Miller was like, what's this guy doing? There's no puck there? What's this guy thinking?

And then, like, I'm sitting there. I'm getting ready to scream my TV. I'm like, he's pretending the puck's there, so he'll move and jar the puck glue. And that's what I'm doing it. Darren Pang is like, well, he's doing that, so he'll get Gibson to move over and free the puck. And I'm like, it was like a light shining in my life. There was that. And during that sequence in the North America Sweden three on three where, who had the

break away for Sweden, Daniel City, you know, I want to say? Oh, in the three and three. Yeah, Daniel City. He got stopped. and then, like, Barrymore, they're like, I had that puck get out of there. And I'm like, Sedeen put his stick in there and tried to pull it out so the play would continue. And then Darren Pang is like, well, he put his stick in there to pull it out. And I'm like, oh, we need Darren Pang.

So you like, you like, you know, he can see you. Like, I feel like he's, like, all these guys have played the game, but it's just like, like, Kevin Weeks just has nice stuff about people a lot. Like, he plays hard. He tries hard. But that's why I like Pierre Maguire is because, like, when I'm watching the game, I'm thinking, where did this guy play his junior hockey? And immediately he's like, okay, but ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-up. St. Mary's a St. Mary's Shattuck. I can't remember. I wish there was a guy on TV. Do you think we could get Sam Flood from NBC on the phone and be like, hey, listen, I know that you really like weird little bald guys between the benches.

We got one over here who's actually better, a better model than the one you have. We got one that people like. People like, charismatic. He's kind of shuts up occasionally. Like, seriously, Barry Melrose must have talked over him seven or eight times. Barry Melrose, I got love for Barry Melrose because I have love for everybody on ESPN that's soldiered on for the last 15 years. and when hockey's not been there. Like, I got, I got nostalgia for guys like Bucci Gras,

and I got some love for Melrose, because he's the guy who has to go on the sports center with the people that don't care about hockey, and they're like, so, Barry, tell us about the Stanley Club. He was blown away by Franz Nielsen for, like, two games. He would not stop talking about how. He's like, I thought this guy. It was so good.

But that's the thing. Maybe you shouldn't be. Like, I'm listening to him, like, and I didn't hear a lot, but I heard a little bit. And at one point, he's like, he's like, I've got to tell you, I think Philip Forbesberg's going to have real breakout year for the National Predators this year. I'm like, oh, the guy who led the team in scoring last year is going to have a real breakout year for his team.

And I realized that, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, because you heard a lot more of him than I did. He's kind of like when your dad tells you something about pop culture that's been like, like if your dad this weekend said, said, Dave, did you hear that they're making a ghostbusters with ladies? Yeah, dad. Yeah, like it's already out of theater. Oh, okay. Because in order, there's one lady from that show, the late night one that's got, that Belushi was on. It's got that one there. The show.

Like, that's kind of, is that kind of accurate? Was it sort of the common knowledge guy? Yeah, but he was, he just more, I don't know, he was just, like, it felt like he could have been anywhere. Like, the game in front of him really wasn't pertinent to what he was talking about most times. And he's, like, I think Barry's got a place there for. sure. I just don't think he's like again, ESPN's basically scrounging people together for this. They're not. I get it. On the Kopitar. There's going to be a real, there's a seltky in his future.

He's real, like, everyone on Team Europe, he was, like, to be fair, a lot of people were kind of blown away by how Team Europe was so good, except for, you know, one guy that I know. But, um, no, no, I won't do it again. I'm not going to press play on the, on the, on the video I have called up. But, like, one thing, too, that was refreshing overall was, especially in the studio, how, like, I feel like everybody at NBC is very careful tonight. criticize a coach or a player and all that sort of stuff. Like they, they were fine doing it. And I think that's kind of the beauty of having them do hockey for three weeks where,

you know, five years are going to go by. It doesn't matter what Linda Cohen or Brett Hall say because it'll be forgotten by the time the next contract rolls around. It's not like they're going to be held against them. But the one thing I, again, this is one of the points I wanted to bring up. They were, they hammered the Phil Kessel tweet all day, all day. Oh, we didn't even really talk about Phil. In that tweet, yeah.

Like, it was, don't get me wrong. The Phil Kessel tweets great, but it's great in context because these Phil Kessel For those who didn't know, like he tweeted after the loss to Canada. I can call it up for you. And it became just a sensation. It became like a huge story. And actually probably the most intriguing thing about Team USA was his criticism of the team and then their reaction to it. 74,000 retweets at this point.

And it just says, just sitting around the house tonight with my dog, felt like I should be doing something important, but couldn't put my finger on it. Like that's a great tweet. And like it's perfect to bring it up and everything. and like they did bring it up a lot. But the tweet I love, and I will never forget, I will think about this tweet every day until the day I die, is the tweet from Josh Paul's,

the USA Olympic hockey sled guy, who, of course, I didn't know who he was until this tweet. And I love this. He followed me, by the way. Does he? Oh, you're so fucking. I know, right?

I was reading his mentions. Like, apparently, like, this guy's like a real jokester. But he ended up deleting it because I think he felt guilty about making fun of team USA. But he's born without legs. He's played sled hockey, and his tweet begins, like, whatever I tweeted,

I try to save the joke for the last 20 characters, you know, drop the hammer at the end. This guy drops the hammer in a way. Few people on the planet can do it. Opens with really glad I was born without legs. Oh, right? Like, I don't have reactions to tweets. Like, it was like being at a comedy show where somebody like says something really like offensive and over the line. And the crowd goes, oh, I had that on my couch.

I had that. I put my hand to my mouth. The U.S. sled team has a much better track record. success than the U.S. stand-up men's team dot, dot, dot. Yeah. Oh my God.

Devastating. I couldn't believe ESPN didn't bring that up because they brought up the Kessel tweet and not stop. They always bring up tweets from athletes. My favorite. It's so savage. Bobby Ryan had one too. That was a reference and he became part of the whole

how do you feel about these guys commenting on team. But mine was the one that came in the last 16 hours, which was I have great respect for USA hockey, but not when a game is very. very disappointing and makes me wonder where we are heading. You know who wrote that? Is that probably right? Mike Arruzioni.

Oh. Which is as basically would be like if Ronald Reagan climbed out of the crypt and said, well, you know, probably shouldn't be voting for this Trump fella. And then climb back down into the crib. Like that's the, Mike Arruzioni, the guy to go back to the beginning of this podcast, who you've designed your entire ethosor. of being underdogs and scrappy and whatever the fuck, basically said,

I don't like the way we're heading. Because you've built your team to be like my Garuziotis. This guy was born without legs. Think about how many days of his life he's probably thought to himself, I wish I had legs. I'm assuming, I don't know him, I'm assuming he's carved out a great life for himself in spite of this. But still, every day probably as a kid, he probably wondered,

you know, I wish I had. And his tweet starts out, really glad I was born without legs. like that is just oh my god like that it just hits you so hard in so many ways and yet everyone's like oh phil kestleys like like like how how like if you're USA hockey how do you absorb that and move forward and like not do so like oh my god I love you Josh I want to hang out with you now is the time of the show in which we open up the puck soup mail bag to find out what you'd like us to talk about this week oh wow we've got a few food tweets to begin what you got

Rob Tob wants to know Red Velvet or Double Chocolate Chip Muffins Muffins? I neither The only muffin

There's two Well there's a lot A couple of muffins I like But blueberry muffin And corn muffin Or the two That I think I would like

There's also like There's like a one I forget if it's Panera or someplace else It's like a cinnamon chip muffin That's pretty good But corn muffin

Is it was a staple In the Wischinski house For breakfast And I would say That a blueberry muffin Is my favorite Kind of muffin Yeah

Like, corn muffin's my muffin, but like if we're talking cakes out of those two options, double chocolate. Boyer wants to know if you could have only one kind of cheese for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chatter. Sharp white cheddar. I'll go. All right. Okay.

There's like this peppery cheese that they have at Trader Joe's. And I forget what it is, but actually it has like a pepper crust on it. It's my favorite cheese. I could probably eat it all the time. But as far as, like, cheeses go, I'm, I'm the freak. I'm, like, a blue cheese guy. So I'd probably go, like, a Stilton or something like that. Like, I...

I know that would seriously limit my, like, pizza options to, like, Buffalo chicken pizza. But I, like, I mean, that's... I love blue cheese. I love blue cheese at the point where I, like, I hate... This is disgusting, but, like, I'll, like, stick my finger in the blue cheese when it's in the fridge and just have, like, a finger full of blue cheese occasionally. So you asked any food questions. and we have two fucking is a hot dog as a sandwich questions.

The next food question comes from Steve Melvin. If you had to eat shit like tortarella and Lombardy just did, what would your sides be? I would go with stuffing and mashed potatoes. I'd have a nice Thanksgiving dinner out of it. I would, I mean, considering the ethnicity of the two principles here, I would form the shit into large meatballs and have it on top of some angel hair. Oh, yeah, that's... Oh. What?

Wait, oh, pasta. What did you think I meant? Like, cotton candy? I think you meant the pubic hair of an angel. Angels don't have pubic hair. Have you ever seen an angel? They're cherubs. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen that Kevin Smith movie with the, with the angel.

Oh, they're smooth down there, yeah. That's a good point, yeah. Huh. Do you like Kevin Smith movies? I don't know we ever talk of this. 50-50. I'm kind of, like, I like Dogma, like Jane Silent Bob, clerks, but like. Is clerks your top joint?

Eh, it's kind of. I think it's still, I think it's still, I think it's. still is for me, but just because I think it was so different, and although it was derivative of slacker, I still think it's a pretty landmark. But I was a huge dogma fan. Dogmas, I think is my favorite. Dogma was really bold, and I appreciated that, and it had some really good actors in it. But I don't think chasing Amy really aged well. And Mallrats was always, Marrats and James Salaabal were always just trifles, but they were fun. Like, mallrats, even clerks and chasing Amy just haven't, like, aged well. Yeah, they're not. They're tough. But, like, I understand clerks and what he was, what he did to

make it and everything, like, for what that movie was, for sure, it's great. Clerks, too, had some real heart to it, and I liked it. I liked some of it. I haven't seen it. But a lot of it was very much like how you probably view the Force Awakens, which was, this feels like the thing I like, and I'm going to force myself to like it because it's weird. Is that the one where they work in the fast food place?

That's when they work at movies, yeah. That was okay. The donkey shit at the end was stupid. The donkey show stuff was terrible. I could, yeah. But the thing with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back at least has one amazing legacy, which their reaction to the internet trolls is one of my single favorite things in any movie I've ever seen. Good stuff.

Like Ben Affleck's a little meta in the movie. They use the computer terminal at the faster place. They're like, compose this. You are the ones who are the ball lickers. It's the greatest thing. But like the movie with John Goodman, that's like not part of that universe? Oh, Red State? I actually went to, see, I went to a, he bought that on the road and I went to Radio City and saw it.

the movie and then he did a Q&A afterwards. Oh my god, really? A movie was whatever it was. But like the Q&As, man, like, have you ever been to a live Q&A with like somebody? Like, his Q&As are great because if you actually get like the video of them, like it cuts through all the bullshit and you just get like the great stories. Oh, like I've seen like the four hour.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, with the Superman story. Yeah. The greatest of all time. The, the, the, not the Superman story. The Prince one too when he meets Prince. No, the other one with the spiders. That's, that's the Superman story.

Oh, right. Yeah, that's the big mechanical story. Yeah, yeah. John Peters is like, why, why doesn't he have guards? And Kevin Smith's like, why would Superman need guards? And Colin Peters is like, well, just get some polar bears up there or something. Like, they're like vicious killers. They're the most vicious killers in nature.

And Kevin Smith's like, it's a fortress of solitude. For those who don't know, like, go find anything with Kevin Smith. Or watch that same story at the beginning of the Death of Superman documentary that just came out. Chronicles, the Nick Cage movie that was never made. But, no, his Q&A, before, after Red State queued me in on the worst thing about Kevin Smith Q&A's, has got

to be this. Every other question was, Kevin, big fan, just wanted that you know you're an inspiration to us all. So I had this idea for a movie, and I wanted to run a past, and like, it was every other question to the point where the crowd was actively booing people when they would start

pitching him on the mic, and it was very painful. It was just such a bad acted everything. Like, John Goodman's good in it, and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, he's just, I, it's just like, uh, I didn't see Tusk and I, I'm probably gonna, never seen yoga hosers. Let's see. Oh, Tusk. Yeah, it was when Justin Long turns into a wall, no, thanks. CM normal writes in, should Columbus fire torts and higher Kruger?

What do you think the reaction is in the blue jackets world to have their coach epically fail in the Olympics and all, and the, and also have people actively ridicule them and tell them that his, his, his, he's, he's, he'll be able to him. His entire philosophy is outdated, and that's why they lost. Well, here's what's going to happen. Sergei Barbravsky over the first eight games is going to have a 988 save percentage, and they're going to go 7 and 0, and then he's going to get a four-year extension, and then they're going to finish the year 8 and 74. And then they'll just see, be like, well, we had some injuries and some bad bounces

to go against this, and maybe we should just assemble the team differently and thought, yeah, I remember when they first hired Yarmo, and everyone was... I was super duper excited. Like, oh, this guy's got, oh, boy, he's a smart pet, yeah. And then they traded for David Clarkson. And I'm like, yeah. Ralph Kruger, by the way, was one of the best stories of this tournament. The guy coach in Europe.

Is because he's still in the tournament, Greg. He's super fun. And really, like, a guy who got it from the beginning. He watched this team against the North Americans. They got their asses hand to whom he said, all right, enough of that running gun stuff. Then we're going to play a little defense and changed the way they played. And then also, like, the greatest thing about Team Europe, and as we do this podcast, they are still alive playing Sweden on Sunday, is they went from being a team where it was the only way those guys were going to get a chance to play in the World Cup to then being the team where it's the only way those guys are ever going to beat, you know, whoever beat the United States or potentially win a trophy. Like, like, Metsugarello is like, yeah, it's fucking great.

Like, Norway's never doing any of this. Yeah. You know, it's great. And so they really are a feel-good story And I felt really good for Ralph Kruger Who if you asked the Edmonton players When he was there for that one year They were all like

We feel we feel terrible about life That we did not play better for that guy Because he was one of our Like maybe our favorite coach And I always felt I always remembered that about him And I'm happy to see him doing well Good for him

All right one last one Get out of here Talked a lot today We did a lot We did a lot Actually let me see how long this is good Answer the question Sure

where do you see Buffalo finishing the season? What would keep them from making the playoffs? Well, let me answer that in two ways. First of all, what would prevent them from making the playoffs is if Robin Lanner is not the starting goaltender that Tim Murray believes him to be if he gets injured again or something along those lines. I believe he needs to play well for them to make the playoffs,

but the good news is that they're on the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division, there's always a chance that they could jump up and grab one of those playoffs spots this year. My other answer is that Evander Kane is a scumbag. A giant honkin scumbag. And he, for those who don't know, in the last week, Evander Cain has filed a countersuit against the woman

who alleged that she was sexually assaulted by him in a Marriott Hotel last December. And whether those charges are real or not, he filed a countersuit at the same time he is facing trial on Halloween, no less, for several charges that have been led to. against them he was arrested for them involving another alleged incident of violence against women at a bar in buffalo during an h and a draft weekend my theory is this he filed the countersuit dave to say that her claims are not only fraudulent but

the famatory right and then he gets in front of the media on the first day of camp and says they're like hey we haven't seen you since you were arrested for all these things where you allegedly beat up some what's up buddy what's up buddy and he's like like, well, I got to tell you, man, being an athlete and super famous, this kind of stuff just happens to us. It's crazy out there. I just got to be a lot more careful

not to put myself in bad situations. Which, fuck off. Which, by the way, is exactly what I would say to Patrick Kane, but we're talking about Evander Kane now. A van der Kaine said this. At the same time, he is saying that the claims against him were defamatory because, in my theory,

the defense against this latest arrest by this the dude who was Patrick Cain's lawyer, by the way, the dude who worked for Hustler. Yes. Is that he, all the things that you're going to see on video of him, like pulling women's hair and trying to, you know, rough him up and stuff. Like, all that stuff is going to be explained away by, well, you didn't see what happened before the video where I'm a famous guy and they were trying to take advantage of me. And if you could come up with a more scumbaggy defense, then that... Like, if you're going to use that defense, you better fucking prove it 100.

fucking percent. Yeah. It can't be just like hints and allegations. It is, it needs to be, you need to fucking nail. You can't just be like, well, that's what she did. Well, let me see. Well, you can't because just trust me. I'm the famous guy. This is the guy used to have everybody coming to his defense because he was getting a raw

deal in Winnipe. And, you know, they did like, you know, writing stories about how, if he tipped or not or paid bills or not at a restaurant. I mean, come on. It's coated his shit. But then he comes to Buffalo and we're all like, all right, fresh start. Go at it. And he says two incidences of police.

and one in which he was arrested. Like squander it. But like the thing is is that you know he's going to start the season playing for them. And it's just, again, whatever something happens like this, you have to go to the chart where you look at the allegation and you look at how good the athlete is. Is it Ray Rice? Oh, sorry, buddy. You're 28 and you're not going to be a running back in the NFL anymore anyway.

So we're going to bag you and do the right thing. Like Slava Voinoff? Like they fucking stuck by him until the bitter fucking end. And now you have a Vander Kaine. He's going to start the season. He's going to fucking play. He's probably going to score 10 goals in eight games and someone's going to write that story.

It just made him focus. He's persevering through the university. Dean's made some real good decisions. Dean Lombardi, man. We've got to end the show at some point. How long are we? It's locked. I can't.

Dean Lombardi built an 0-N-3 team USA team. He tried to get out of Mike Richards' contract by invoking the behavior clause. Dustin Brown's going to fall down a flight of stairs before the season starts. And then he tried to get Slava Voinoff unsuspended because he needed a defenseman. Let him fucking skate and practice. And then he left the country before he got deported. Fucking.

How many GMs would you say for sure at this point are really good at their jobs? Because I think, like, Dean's been there the whole time pretty much to build that thing up. Now, I think he's good at his job. I just think he's been bad lately. But remember, hold on, in building those championship teams, he was very smart and patient and didn't trade assets until it was time. And he's the reason they got Carter and Richards. He deserves a lot of credit for those cups.

But how do a team, like Chicago, Pittsburgh, L.A., how do they get their assets by being bad for a long time at the right time? But then also knowing what to do with that. Yeah. Like, listen, Edmonton sucks. And they suck because they held on to the kids probably too long. Or were they just not the right kids? Were they just bad at the wrong time?

That's what I mean. Like Ray Shero shows up. Thanks for doing all the lifting. Better be the right kids. Man, Taylor Hall is my boy now. But like, like, even Stan. Like, I love Stan. Yeah.

Del Tallinn kind of did all fucking lifting. But at the same time, though, like, Stan, there were times when Stan was being asked to cut bait on Kane and didn't. You know? And they just won the heart. Yeah. Must have been real tough to stick by the first overall pick and the guy with all the talent. When he beat up a cabby? I'm not talking about the other thing.

I'm talking about when he beat up a cabby. Anything. If you're that guy. anything. A GM's always going to fucking stick by. All right. Every time. Listen, we got on the show, but we got two more. Oh, we do? Maria, pineapple's on your pizza.

Maria, never, ever contact this show ever again. Delete your account. Never order pizza. For our Canadian listeners, by the way, I've discovered my food weakness, and it's that damn pizza pizza you got up there. Because here's the thing, your boy loves condiments, and when you can get pizza at three in a morning with pepperoni on it, and then you can buy a thing of pepperoni on it, and then you could buy a thing of pepper ranch and then a thing of buffalo blue cheese like dressing to dunk your

pizza in now i'm not even a dunker pizza guy but that shit is crack to me uh look greg at three a m everything tastes great does it everything because because you've been this is going look she i thought she was clean i don't know oh stop it sasha first rites in her mouth last one no but pineapple no don't pineapple's fine on pizza by the way fruit does not along on pizza. Sure it does. Pineapple does. Finally,

Sasha First writes in, it's a tough one. I don't know your answer either. I know what Ruby's answer would be on this one, but I don't know what yours is. Soft or hard taco. Oh, shit.

To bring you into the room for a second, ladies and gentlemen, Dave is now adjusting his hat and putting his hands behind his head. Remember how Chubaka did it on the Millennium Falcon? who is like relaxing. Now he's looking up at the sky

and he's pursing his lips. Now he's looking to his left. He's really contemplating. He's thinking about all the tacos he's had. Does he like a crunch? Does he like a mushy one? That what contains the stuff better? He's thinking about that time

that he had that hard taco. That time he had that hard taco and everything fell out when the shell broke. But then he said to himself how fun it was to reach down with the broken shell and then collect all the things that fell.

Like it was a giant tortilla chip. My God. This debate. Soft. And I've been on two. Let's do a really loud clap. My boy. We missed.

My boys. I like, for the longest time, I felt like the hard taco was the better, the real taco. I was wrong. That's a soft taco. Ruby's answer would probably be soft as well, but she and I have a different debate, which is that she likes corn soft tacos and I like flour. Oh, I feel like either way. I'm good.

I like a soft taco that kind of hugs the stuff inside of it a little bit more, and I think flour does that more than corn. I feel like corn sometimes is diametrically opposed to the stuff inside of it. Yeah. But yeah, hard tacos, when you're a child and your mother is making something from the Ortega family, a hard taco is great. But then you grow up and you realize that tacos can have fish in them, and tacos can have things other than the old hamburger that your mom found in the back of the freezer

and threw some delicious cumin-based powder on top of it to cook it for you. You find out that there's more to tacos than simply just Ortega. And that's when you become a soft taco. I was at a kid's birthday party a couple weekends ago.

Hey, Mike. In the bushes? And he had hard tacos and I was like, this is awesome. I've been a hard taco forever. It was like great. At that point out. Yeah, I think, like, if you have a taco.

A child's birthday party. What? Three-year-olds can't have tacos, can't they? And keep in mind that most of my Mexican food consumption is in the car from Taco Bell. And if you've ever tried to eat a hard taco in a car, come on now. Yeah. You know what you're going to have?

You're going to have Taco Sal on your lap. That's what you're going to have. The tiebreaker is definitely the cleanliness that comes with the soft talk. Oh, man, you have a taco in front of your life's good, right? You can't most slices of pizza in an hour. Kenny Kodich wants to know. What's the most slices of pizza in an hour? I would be, listen, as you know, I constantly battle my weight.

It's a genetic thing for my family. they're all, well my dad's not that way he's a fat guy. They're all fat. So I've wanted to push myself on a food challenge like that before because I love pizza in a real psychotic way and I feel like I could probably take down a lot of pizza if challenged. But I do, I do worry what that would do to me. I mean like you could eat a pie in an hour for sure. I could eat a pie in a half hour.

I don't know if he's asking like what could you do or what have you done. I feel like eight's probably the most I've ever done. I've never had like a whole pizza and then said, I need more pizza. Well, I'm not that bad. But here's the problem. Like, I probably have, but it wasn't because I knew how much I had. Like if I'm at a party, like, at the newspaper, we used to get pizza delivered for like lunch. And I would just keep eating pizza.

And then by the end of it, you're just like, like, there's still pizza there. And you're like, but why? They're going to all the meat in that. Like, so they just have it. And then I probably had like a fucking pie and a half and didn't even know it. pizza is god this conversation like i'm i'm mapping out my my route home right now and i'm like all right do i stop off with the taco truck and hobo can get tacos or do i go down to the union square and get taco bell there or do i get pizza i'm so hungry but you don't want to they don't have

dipping sauces here in the states like they do in canada the states the states i know i came from canada the states all right ladies and gentlemen thanks for listening to this a long edition of puck soup we had a lot to get off our chest because the united states shit the bed so the United States shit to bed like like you and uh what was his face uh in uh train spotting uh you o mcgregor no the other guy the sort of the bald guy oh oh oh oh that scene in train spotting where he shits the bed yeah that's a point i try to make you know you know you know who gave the laxative to the u.s that made them shit the bed who's that who's that europe

dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee leon dry sidel i give anything for a video of, oh, before we go, before we go, who's winning the World Cup? Oh, yeah. So Canada, Russia, Sweden, Europe, Canada's going to win the World Cup, although it would make me the happiest boy in all the land if Russia beat him and Ovechkin had two goals. They'd be the greatest thing ever.

I agree with that assessment. I think Sweden's going to beat Europe, but Europe could win that game. Only way Europe's winning that game is if Sweden gets halacked. Right. I think there's potential because Sweden doesn't play a fast game. It's a good matchup for Europe. I'm not picking them to win like I did Europe over the U.S.

where I was right about that nine days ago when you were wrong. I think it's possible. I wouldn't pick it, though. I wouldn't be surprised. But if it gets to the, if it's a best of three Canada versus Europe, oh my God, that's going to be a massacre. It's going to be an absolute massacre. Like Canada, Sweden is what we want.

That's when Europe becomes the Washington Generals. Yeah. I had that thought too when I was watching the, when they were just running the show against the U.S., I'm like, God, we're like the Washington generals in this matchup. They're so hapless. But yeah, I think Canada probably wins. but it again,

just when you think you can't be more mad at the way that the Americans shit the bed, you realize that now you're rooting for Russia. You're rooting for Putin

love and Russia to beat the Canadians. There are our only hope. That was one bad thing too about ESPN. They kept making it seem like if Russia lost yesterday this was bad

for a Vetchkin's legacy. Like, no one's gonna remember this shit about this tournament. I mean, wait, that's not true.

I give it lots of shits when you go 0 and 3 and you're cuckled by Canada and you lose to a a fucking dollar store potpoury team from Europe yeah i care about that but ultimately like no one's going to care about any of this stuff i don't care i'm not mad at all i'm fine this is funny i'm laughing this isn't this isn't making me mad at all i don't care i don't care about this tournament all right dave take him home um do i have anything on my mind oh what come on back you could read

me at washinsky on twitter i just was retweeted by wiz califa the other day oh yeah um i got retweeted by Mia Khalifa. That's better. That's way better. And you could read me on Puck Daddy. The other podcast is Merrick v. Wachinsky. And my book, Take Your Eye Off the Puck. Is available on Amazon. And I'll be announcing some contests and such for those who want to buy the book before the season. And here's Dave. Let's talk about Arena Stadium marriage proposals. They're fine. They don't involve you. Much like everything in this world, our opinions about it don't matter. Like my opinion about Europe, Team USA, Canada, it doesn't matter. You know what else doesn't matter? Is your opinion about two strangers getting, tying the knot on a big, big Yankee Stadium

billboard? Like, do you want to have that happen for you? Of course not. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that either. But why does everybody care so much that Bob from Scotch Plains is proposing to Tina from Teaneck? Like, why is that, why does that bother people so much? Why, like, I don't understand how, like, I get it. You think it's tacky. But maybe, maybe they have a story. Maybe this is where they had their first date. Maybe this is, maybe they met on a fucking Yankees message board, so they wanted to have this happen. Like, Jesus fucking Christ, why does this bother so many people? Like, like, I just thought, she thought he was weird because his handle was Polonia fan. Seriously. Moss lover. Whatever. I have a problem. I mean,

listen, I, I, I kind of see both sides of it. No, it's, no, it's trite. It's trite. It's trite for you. So, oh my God, oh my God, are we on top of the, Eiffel Tower to get? Wait, what are you doing? One knee. Oh, my God. Brad, you did? All the way from, oh, my God. Some people are so against public. There's any public proposal.

Like, if you're going to propose, where'd you propose to Ruby? Where'd you do it? On top of a fucking mountain, right? No, it was at Wahiki Beach in New Zealand. New Zealand. I thought it was a mountain in New Zealand. But still, I'm assuming that beach was not your private beach. I'm guessing other people could be, like, people were really against. There was never on a beach at that time, but I didn't know that.

You just got, get lucky on the timing. Like, my friend proposed at the top of a hike. Yeah,

no, I, like, what's, like, whether there's 20,000 people around, or 50 people around.

Like, like, I don't get, like, I always, I always had a problem. Well, there's two things

with what you just said. I always said a problem, real quick, because I don't have to go. I always said a problem with, with the, the, the mechanics of like,

her, like, the, the mechanics of, like, telling, like, like,

it's on the, the Jumbotron, right? And, like, what if she's in the can? Or, like, what if she's not looking? Like, you have to, like, what if she's, like, like, talking to her friend? You set it up. You have to, like, tug on her arm and be like, look!

No, you just go, like, hey, look, just so you know, at the end of the fourth inning, you know, I got something on the scoreboard. She could probably figure that out to at that point. Yeah, then you have to give it away. Exactly. I don't understand the mechanics of it. The other thing is...

That's okay to not like. Did you ever see that documentary about the guy with the small dick? You mean my home videos from high school? It was like... Unhung hero is the name of it. Come on. No, for real. And it's a guy who's like an actor or a comedian

and he apparently is not a hung hero based on the title. Unhung hero. With balls for his balls. The beginning of the movie, and you might remember this, beginning of the movie is him at a college basketball game of some sort.

Maybe UCLA or something like that. and him getting rejected by the woman who didn't want, who just said no. And he comes to find out. It's not, he's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize he wanted to be public. And he comes to find out that she didn't want to marry him because he has this public.

Well, that was the brakes. Right. But that's the other thing I always think of when it comes to public engagements is that scene, but also that scenario of like, how terrible is it when you make a public display like that? How much pressure does that put on the woman to say yes? Just so she's not terrible to you.

Like, she obviously cares about you. But if you do that and she says maybe, then she's a monster in the eyes of society. Well, to me, if you say yes because of the pressure and then say no later, like, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, you may say yes. Like, trust me, I've seen many romantic comedies based on this premise where a woman says she's going to get married. And then she says, oh, maybe. That's great. And then and then he takes her to court.

court because yes is a contract. It becomes a whole different kind of thing. He gets half of her... The whole point is you get half of the season tickets. The judge says, order, order, order. I declare you're his wife for this... Yeah. The only argument against it is that it happened in a Jimmy Fallon movie about the Red Sox, right?

Didn't he propose to her at the end of the World Series? Yeah, and then he muster hair, even though she's a gigantic orange racist. Oh, wait, no, that was the Tonight Show. I don't know. Don't get me wrong. A lot of things that don't affect my life annoy me too, but like this really, I just don't get why there's an entire, like, I don't know. Get married however you want.

Propose however you want. It's your relationship. It's not, yeah, I don't know. Whatever. Let's end the show. Alex Dean, by the way, signs a four-year extension. I'm sure you're all excited about that. You're hearing it here first.

There's no way you heard it in the hours that passed between closing up shop and getting it up on the internet. All right. Thanks, everybody. Do your sign off. Your official sign off. For all the teens that you're now talking to again. Oh, the fucking teens. I haven't been involved in that chat.

There's like 800 unread messages. What is it again? No, be lit and stay loyal. To us, A.F. My wife left me. Now leaving nerdist.com.