Puck Soup - Wrestling With Nepotism

Episode Date: March 8, 2019

Greg, Sean and Ryan discuss Brad Marchand's contact advice to Mitch Marner, the Oilers' GM search, the wild card races, John Tavares Night, the GM meetings and the dumb rule changes they debated, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and why it sucked, McDonald's bacon cheese fries, Gallagher concerts, Ted Lindsay, which players you'd like to get high with and the top 10 performances by wrestlers as movie actors in honor of Dave Bautista returning to Monday Night RAW. Sponsored by Seat Geek.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Puck Sue. I'm Greg Wischinski of ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert from Yahoo. Hello, I'm Sean McNeugh from The Athletic.

Boy, is he. And you're in Puck Soup, where the Sop. morning, Ryan Lambert brings us news of hockey nepotism. Well, yeah, I mean, so I just saw this on Twitter. On 1260 in Edmonton this morning, Darren Drager said, the Toronto Maple Leafs right now have Dave Nones's fingerprints on them. He deserves to be in the conversation, to which somebody who's an Oilers fan replied, yeah, they're still paying Nathan Horton.

Gabe Collier, shoutout. Sean, you would know better than Ryan or I because we don't care about the Leafs as much as you do. Does Dave notice's sticky, probably candy-covered finger prints all over this roster? See, now I'm going through and I'm trying to think. I'm sure there are guys, but the Leafs right now are basically like five guys left over from the Brian Burt era, which is like Jay Gardner, Morgan Riley, Nazim Cadry. Does that count since Dave Nones was assistant GM during that time? Maybe that's what they're counting, because then you take the three years in between,

and that was like Dave Nones's signature moves was like David Clarkson, Dave Boland, guys like that. And then, of course, they flushed out everything in 2015. So no. But yeah, absolutely, Euler fans. on the Dave notice bandwagon because that, like, I'm always fascinated by when stuff like this happens, where a GM or a former GM, who clearly isn't really a candidate, still manages to get their name out there. Like, John Ferguson Jr. has been the master of this. His name shows up for every job opening. I've never heard of him actually being a finalist or anything like that,

but he shows up for all of these. And it's very smart because you don't want to be. be, if you're forgotten, you're gone. Like, there's so many new minds coming in that it's... That's why I think Mike Futa of the L.A. Kings never actually wants to take one of these jobs. He just likes hearing his name in circulation whenever the jobs come up. I mean, I have to plead ignorance that we obviously didn't hear this Drager interview, so we don't want to be too judgy. But I'm really hoping it's something along the lines of like,

well, you know, he has the guy who traded away Cody Frank. He made the big T.J. Brennan trade. Everybody remembers the acquisition of Matt Fratton back in 2014. You know, his fingerprints are all over, this dynastic franchise, and I have a feeling he could do the same for the Oilers. He absolutely could do the same for the Oilers. Oh, shit. Yeah, so I don't know. I was surprised to see Nonas's name amongst the, I guess, I guess, I guess, like you said, Sean, like I'm not that surprised because he is available. If you've got a contact out there who can put your name out there, like you don't, like I said, I've been saying all year, like GMs in this league don't get second chances and, you know, your odds are against you if you're

Dave known as to get another job. So they're definitely against you if you let everyone forget that you exist. So the, the weirdest argument I heard against one of the candidates was someone was saying that Kelly McCrimmon, um, we shouldn't, be a candidate for the job because, you know, look like he was blessed with the expansion draft in Vegas. And I'm like, but okay, one, that's a harder fucking job than anybody else does. Like, to be able to successfully build a team that goes and plays for the Stanley Cup, like, that's really heavy fucking lifting. And then the other thing is, like, isn't that kind of ignoring the fact that the real, the real reasons why the Golden Knights became the Golden Knights

were the trades they made? Like, isn't that, like, hard? worked by a GM as well. But they were trades, but they were expansion trade. Like, I don't get the Kelly McCriman candidacy. So your team not McCrimmon? Because I'm team McRimmon. He would not be high on my list if I was an established team. If I'm Seattle, absolutely.

That's your guy. So what's Edmonton? But, well, Edmonton is in some sense maybe worse than that, but they don't get an expansion draft. So, you know, no matter until the league implements my proposal where teams could opt into an expansion draft and basically the nuclear option on their entire roster. Until that day happens, the Oilers aren't getting an expansion draft. So hiring the one of two people in the entire NHL with experience running a successful

expansion draft is I don't see how that's helpful for them. And the thing with Kelly McCriman is he's got 20 plus years in hockey, but other than his two years in Vegas, it's all in junior. So I don't understand why that guy moves to the time. I don't know if you heard about this, but Kelly McCriman, the reason Vegas got Mark Stone, well, geez, they knew each other from Junior and isn't that? From the weak kings. Yeah, okay. And it's like, I mean, I guess, dude, but like, but if you're Mark Stone, it's just, that's just one of those things where it's like, oh, you know, they knew each other when they played for the, I don't know, the, the, the Kingston Frontenax or whatever.

I know what you're saying. Yeah. years ago. It's like a very NFL thing where it's like, yeah, he was his quarterback coach back in high school, so they're going to reunite. That's exactly right. Oh, how dare you. That's a very NHL thing. We just started the fucking show talking about how nepotism is going to land Dave Nodas's a job through his friend in the media and also probably because he, you know, went fishing with somebody from Hockey Canada.

I don't know. I like McCrimmon a lot. I think he's a good player personnel guy. By all accounts, he was very influential in building the Golden Knights. And frankly, like, you know, I. I guess for me, the Edmonton job is like, go outside the box. You know, don't get somebody who used to be a GM. Don't Ken Hitchcock up your GM hire is my take on it.

Like, get a little creative with it. I hear what you're saying, but what if they get someone who played for the Oilers in 1987? Bill Guerin is available. Oh, man. That could be your guy. Listen, that's actually a very good point, the Bill Garron and Oilers Connection. And they put that together. But, you know, there is a chance, I think, that they end up doing, like, their own Joe Sackick thing.

Like, they hand the team over to Ryan Smith or something, right? Like, isn't that possible? It's not only possible. I feel like it's likely since they've done it with every other position in the organization for 20 years. Like, why would they stop now? Just because they've talked themselves in the- They're a hydra. Yeah.

They're a hydra. Like, they cut off two of the heads. There's still several more. And the other two, they cut off will grow back with other hockey Canada people. Right. It's just the same thing over and over again. And I think what we're really discounting here is that Peter Chierelli didn't play for the Oilers in the 80s, and look how that ended up for it. That's why it didn't work.

Oh, Jesus God. What about, exactly? Just because there was a half dozen candidates that came out. Jonathan Wallace had a good thing where he kind of went down the list. And most of them we talked about. It was NONUS, Futa, McCrimmon, guys like that. What are your thoughts on Sean Burke? Would he be a guy you'd be looking at?

Yeah, sure. I think he's, I think A, he's put in the time, and B, he's been involved in management, obviously, mostly on the hockey Canada side. And C, he's the sole reason besides Johnny McLean, while your 1988 New Jersey Devils won the Patrick Division, baby. There you go. I appreciate the loyalty. You know, that's one of those things where, well, Bob Nicholson, he's a hockey Canada guy. Oh, yeah, and he's doing a great job running the Oilers right now. And that's what Willis says, that, you know, don't have it be a hockey Canada buddy of, you know, because I'm never, like, this is one thing, and it's not an oiler thing, it's just in general. I'm never sure how much credit or emphasis to put on these guys who have been GMs internationally. Because being the GM of Team Canada is very different than, like, being the GM of the Oilers. You don't just get to call people up and go, like, hey, come play for the Oilers and they go.

So I don't, I'm never quite sure, like, clearly it's a tough job. But even, you know, even when it was Eisenman and guys like that, I'm like, is that, what does that have to do with? Is being, is being the GM of, like, the Canadian Olympic team a tough job? Well, I don't think so. I mean, in 2018, it probably was, but it was a tough job. I mean, there's lots of things that are tough jobs that don't qualify you to be an NHL GM who's going to negotiate a salary cap and, you know, handle. RFAs and make trades. It's almost like you're saying that if you were maybe like, I don't know, like a coach

and you got to coach the greatest assemblage of talent the world has ever seen on multiple occasions and lead them to gold medals. And then the other time that you won something, you had Nick Lidsdstrom, Pabald Atsook, and a number of other future Hall of Famers. It's almost like your reputation might be greater than your skill set as a coach. Is that what you're getting at? It's similar, except at least that is still coaching. Like it's, you know, being a, like, what trade do you make for Team Canada?

I don't remember Team Canada swinging any, you know, any trades or negotiating any expansion. Oh, my God. Oh, imagine the centers that Team USA could have gotten if trades were allowed. I did that once. I did a trade deadline for the, I think in 2014 for the Olympics. Like I had like Zedain O'Chara being traded to Russia for like, because Netsov and like a rebuilding move for. So, and people either loved it or thought it was the dumbest thing they'd ever seen. There was no middle ground.

Were you working TSN's deadline show that year? Is that way you had a time to do that? It would have, I would watch the hell out of that show, uh, watching like, Team USA load up and then like, can it. It was either, either your, your international trades or fake gritty was the segment that they were deciding on for the TSN deadline show that year. Um, I, I mentioned Mike Babcock, uh, and, uh, I suppose we should mention the Leafs.

A couple of things in Leafland. Their defense has been decimated by injuries to the point where Kyle Dubus is like, gee, Willikers, I wish I had made a trade for a defenseman at the deadline. So that's not good. No, this is how 20-year-old Kyle Dubus's talk, because that brings us to our next great story, which is, of course, the Brad Marchand tampering gate that happened this week, a brilliant piece of trolling by the greatest troll in the game,

maybe a Hall of Fame troll for that matter. And Marchand, of course, infamously tweeted earlier this week about Mitch Marner. What was the deal? He said Mitch Marner. Deserves a $12 million deal. Right. It deserves a $12 million deal. And again, like the greatest troll for several reasons.

One, because it's... it's furthering the divide between Marner and Matthews, in my opinion. And two, it's him putting over an NHLPA peer to try to get as much money as he can. And three, it's his attempt to blow up the Leafs cap with his words. It was incredible.

So the on-brand retort from Kyle Dubos, of course, was the playoff probability of the Leafs and Bruins playing in the first round was his snappy retort, which I thought was brilliant. Here is Brad Marshan coming with a troll job. and here's Kyle Dubbo's coming out. I'm back with numbers. Very on brand for both. What did you think of Brad Barshan being an agent? All of a sudden, getting his patrysson on?

Is somebody who is a fan of a team that is a rival of the Bruins and can't stand Brad Marchand and watches every Bruins game hoping he's going to get punched in the face, his emergence as like one of the funniest social media guys and like personalities in the NHL has is very conflicting to me because I've been begging for guys to come along and be good at this stuff and then this guy comes along and he just kind of nails it every time. I thought it was great.

It was it was funny and you know not a I had no issue with it at all other than I just don't like other players on other teams being funnier than the players on my team. Yeah, I think he kicks ass. You know, I like, I like that it's just happening all the time in every sport. Now, the NBA, you know, all the kind of backdoor campaigning LeBron's doing to get Anthony Davis to go to the Lakers and goddamn they need it.

And then this week, when the Philly signed Bryce Harper, he basically, he basically, I basically openly started talking about, like, yeah, and I'm going to try to get Mike Trep to come play for us when his contract's up. And made the Angels complain to the league about it, apparently. Yeah. And that rules. That's so cool that, like, teams and players are doing that, like, openly now. Well, yeah, teams aren't doing that. Players are doing it.

Yeah. Well, so, like, I kind of consider just, like, LeBron the Lakers GM at this point. So, right? It's almost as if, like, back in the day, if, like, T, T, and Korea were both, like, yeah, we're going to go to Denver. They're like, what? You're still under contract with the ducks. They're like, yeah, I don't know.

I think we're going to go to Denver. Yeah. Just together. Yeah, we feel like going to Denver. I think it's hilarious. And, you know, the thing about Marshan that's great is to speak to your point, Sean, is I feel like his humor has been so amplified and so respected and embraced by all of us that it almost, like, when he does some bullshit on the ice now,

I feel like he gets a mulligan for it. I don't think that was the case back in the day when he's, you know, punching a sedene in the face 25 times during the cup final, um, although admittedly funny. But I think that now when he does something on the ice, it's, he's not treated like Tom Wilson anymore.

And I feel like there was a time when he was treated like Tom Wilson. Yeah, I agree. And I think it's also because he's turned into one of the best wings in hockey. It does help. He got the Sidney Crosby rub during Worlds is part of it too. He showed he belonged. with Sid. Yeah.

And yes, and who put him on that line? Mike Babcock. That's right. Go back in time and convince Mike Babcock not to turn Brad Marchand into a superstar. Like most mornings, I woke up thinking about Mike Babcock, and here was my thought about Mike Babcock this morning. If you cornered Kyle Dubas and lassoed him with Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth and asked him, if you had the ability to fire Mike Babcock right now and hire Joel Quinville, would

you do it? What do you think his answer would be? Ooh. I think he'd say yeah. I think he'd say yeah, too. I mean, like when you say had the ability, you're talking like a world where he fires him and the Toronto market just kind of shrugs and lets him move on with it. Or his employer shrugs and says, yeah, we'll pay off the next 75 years of Babcock's contract. The Leafs elite, you know, tens of millions of dollars, no, no problem. They've,

I mean, they've got it. It would be more that I think he would understand that even if he did, first of all, I'm not sure if it would be Joel Quenville and not,

you know, somebody, some younger mind coming in, but. Oh, it'd be like Shelton Keith. Someone, someone like that,

I think, but, you know, I think he knows that if he fires Mike Babcock in the middle of this huge contract, whoever he brings in suddenly has, has no honeymoon period

and is immediately going to be compared to not just compared to Mike Babcock, but compared to the idealized version of Mike Babcock, and it would just be a real mess. So I don't, I mean, I don't think he would want to do that yet. How many first round exits would it take for Mike Babcock to get fired? You know, I was talking to someone about this yesterday. If the Leafs lose in the first round this year, which is possible, which is very possible, the honeymoon is officially over.

Like he will no longer, like the idea of, of him being some unimpeachable genius will be that'll be over. His seat will now be capable of getting hot. And I think another one after that, it's absolutely in play. Because at that point, there's going to be some panic setting in that this window is only going to be open so long, and we haven't even got out of the first round yet. I don't know. I feel like if they lose in the first round again this year, it's going to be, well, you know,

the Bruins, it's Toronto. in Ottawa all over again. You know, the Bruins are just the Bruins, and we have to wait for Char to retire and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, Valcock could easily be like, you know, until we get that franchise defenseman, kind of tough to win in this league, I had Nicky Lindstrom back in Detroit.

And until we get our Nikki Lindstrom here, can't be expected to win in the first round. Like, I feel like there's at least a little bit of cover still for this team. I also feel like it has to do with, well, Christ, we would have just gotten smoked by the lightning in the same. second round anyway. But that's like, honestly. If you can't get past the Bruins, like if you've decided, and look, I mean, I think

the Leafs and the Bruins are pretty equal teams. We're just flipping coins when these two teams play. But if the coin comes up tails twice in a row, then, you know, it's, that's how you're going to get judged. But if you can't, if you decide if right or wrong this narrative takes hold that the Leafs fundamentally can't beat the Bruins, the Bruins aren't anyone's pick as the best team in this division. So, I mean, if you're acknowledging that you're third, and, you know, I don't, I think Babcock will get some cover, but if he turns around and, you know, it's, well,

we don't have the franchise defenseman, then he's, he's dropping it on the feet of the GM, and that's usually not a very good move when it comes to your job security. I don't think, I don't think he would do it, but I do think that his defenders would say, well, they don't have the correct personnel to do this. He would have defenders, but the, they would, be fewer of them. I mean, that Toronto market has been well-behaved. It's, you know, it's like a, it's like, it's like the kid who, who usually causes trouble and, you know, you ask, like, can you just be good? Like, we're trying something different here. Can you just sit nicely? That market has sat nicely for four years now with their hands folded in their laps. And it's not going to take very

much for them to say, you know, what, screw this. We're going back to the old ways. And, and I, yeah, if they lose in the first round this year, mark my words. It's, I'm not saying it's going to to be crazy. I'm not saying there's going to be people screaming in the streets for this guy to be fired, but the honeymoon for the organization, for the rebuild, will be over and will be into a new

phase where there will be expectations that you actually have to make some serious progress in the playoffs for this to all be worth it. I think it was the great Jackson Mayne who's saying, let the old ways die. Well, he just said maybe it's time to do that. He

didn't actually say it's time to let the old ways die. He said maybe it's time. How do you like Eddie Vedder having sung that in concert, by the way, Ryan? Did you see that clip? I mean, it sounds like an Eddie Better song. He's doing an Eddie Better. He's speaking like Sam Elliott in The Star is born, and he's singing like Eddie Vedder. I mean, listen, two good acting choices, by the way, from Bradley Cooper. I agree. Like, I also liked the Oscars that he could not do the voice to save his life. He didn't. He didn't even try. No.

I mean, in fairness, he wasn't wearing his hat. So, I mean, I feel like that's where most of his power comes from. You know, speaking of the best actor, Oscar, I finally saw a bohemian rap city on a plane. And I got to tell you, man, what a hunk of shit. Oh, my God. I'm more angry about this than many things in life because I think back to when Straight at a Compton came out. And Sean, did you ever see Straight at a Compton? Do they have rap in Canada?

You know what? I did see that. Well, it's just snow. It's just snow. Yeah. Those are the guys who ripped off snow, right? Of course. I'm my God. I actually did see this movie. So I can, not in the theaters, but like a few weeks ago. I didn't see it in the theaters too. I mean, come on. Like, I'm going to go see it in the theaters. But I think that that movie to me is what Bohemian Rhapsody was to a lot of Oscar voters, which is that it was an incredible narrative look at this real music thing that actually had compelling characters and interesting arcs to the characters

wherein Bohemian Rhapsody and that movie got hit for being sanitized too it was like oh we're not going to show you all the debauchery that happened in these hotel rooms well in Bohemian Rhapsody they whitewashed his gayness I mean like he he had the kind of gay that like a sitcom character has, like a willing, like willing grace has gay. Like, he sits down and talks to a guy and maybe

gives him a smooch. But I was reading up on Freddie Mercury, and I guess one of the most famous stories about him, and maybe you've heard this and maybe if not, is at one point, he stood on a hotel balcony, bare-ass naked, and saying, we are the champions to a bunch of construction workers, and then screamed down, whichever one of you has the biggest dick come up here right now. Now, that to me sounds cinematic. I'm not quite sure. sure how that doesn't make the cut for the movie, unless you're just trying to be like, he's the sweet sitcom gay instead of being the actual Freddie Mercury gay that he was. I mean, it wouldn't have made a billion dollars if, which is why it won the Oscar.

Like, that, that's why it won. And you can't sell a billion dollars worth of movie tickets if you're, like, showing Freddie Mercury as this kind of, like, as what he basically was, which was like this really flamboyant, fun guy. So they were like, let's get a guy who is monotone, who is completely affectless in every movie he's ever been in. And let's just give him some big, like, Mickey Rooney and Breakfast to Tiffany's fake teeth. Yep. And have him dance fun.

You know, the next Batman movie will also be affleckless, but I'll say this about Rami Malik. At the very least, he had the moves down. He had the, the Freddie Mercury moves down. That was very good. I don't think that he was the problem with the movie. Oh, he definitely was. He was horrible.

Was it was atrociously made, atrociously edited. And it had these, like, you know, people have talked about like the timeline of things and how like Freddie didn't really tell his bandmates he had AIDS until well after live aid and yada, yada, yada, that's whatever. I mean, you take some creative license. I refuse to accept the creative license that a fight between Brian May and Freddie Mercury was broken up, by the bassist from Queen playing the baseline of another one bites the dust. And they stopped fighting. They stopped fighting to go like, hey, mate, what's that?

And he's like, oh, just a little disco tune I've been noodling around on my bass with. And I'm just like, come the fuck. No way. This is absurd. So that's what I'm not willing to sit around and accept. But the other thing I wanted to say about Queen, because after I saw it, obviously, the reason why this movie was successful and you got nominated. People love Queen. And, like, if you're going to end your movie with a 25-minute recreation of the live-aid concert, that's a great move.

Because people will leave the theater being like, that's incredible. So I was going down to Queen Rabbit Hole. I was actually going back and reading all of the album reviews from Rolling Stone from back in the day when these albums came out. Queen not the most beloved band in their day. Like, almost like an Imagine Dragons level of popular embrace and critical bemoanment. as far as like when they were, you know, huge. People don't want to admit this about Queen, but they're a singles band. I completely agree.

They wrote, like, I don't know, let's say 10, 12, like, undeniably good songs and then a whole lot of garbage. When I was a kid, my dad had both, like, A Night at the Opera and their greatest hits album. And I remember listening to a Night at the Opera and being like, I don't want to hear most of these songs. It's like, I really just want to kind of listen to their greatest hits. And so I found it interesting that, like, this is a band that obviously gets, you know, put on a pedestal as rock gods. But back in the day, it's like, most of the reviews, just like, you know, he's ready mercury trying to be, trying to achieve the greatness of Robert Plant and Thalen once again, you know, kind of thing. And it was like, wow, this is scathing. It's kind of a miracle that they're, they're as revered as they are now when they were as completely belittled back in the day.

But it just goes to show that today's, you know, flops can be tomorrow's greatness. Like, don't stop me now is a great example. Like the song, the Queen's songs in every commercial from like Depends to Tostitos and was used in Sean of the Dead. Like that song was never even in consideration for being a hit back in the day. And then I guess maybe Edgar Wright rediscovered it or something. And now it's ubiquitous.

Now it's like their second biggest song, I think, on Spotify outside of Bohemian Rhapsody. So there you go. So all you people who hate 21 pilots, just remember, 20 years from now, 21 pilots is going to be the new queen. Dear God. All right, maybe not. If you want to go see 21 pilots or the new queen with Adam Lambert, any relation, Ryan? You know, I've never gotten that before from people who were mad that I said there. favorite team wasn't good.

Wait, people used, are you Adam Lambert's like brother as a knock on you? No, they said they would call me Adam Lambert because, I don't know if you know this, Greg, he's gay and it's bad to be gay to these people. Well, it's only bad to be gay in a multi-billion dollar movie. So you're saying that more people wanted to see Freddie Mercury singing Bohemian Rhapsody than like staring at a glory hole for 15 minutes. Well, no, I'm saying that like Middle America, you know, like they get, They got upset when, like, the modern family guys kissed on screen for the first time.

Like, they're not going to be down with the construction worker story that you just imparted. Yeah. Eric Stone Street, by the way, famous for the NHL. Just to keep that in mind. That's true. Yeah. Eric Stone Street. You know, if you want to see any of these bands or Eric Stone Street, maybe he's doing stand-up in concert,

there's only one way to do it. And that's with our friends at Zeekeek. You know, getting tickets online can be far too complicated. with hundreds of sites and varying levels of reliability. It's hard to know, hubba, hubba, hubba, money, money, money, who do you trust? That's why Seekek is the way to go. Seekkeek pulls millions of tickets into one place, so you can easily find the seats you want for a price you're willing to pay. Plus, every purchase is fully guaranteed so you can shop for tickets on Seekek with confidence.

Make Seekkeek your go-to ticket source for everything from sports and concerts to comedy and theater. I wonder if back in the day when Gallagher was touring, if you could use Seatgeek to get tickets to see Gallagher. And if on the Seekek app, they would tell you which zones you'd get sprayed by watermelon with when he hit it with his big sledgehammer. Did they have Gallagher in Canada, Sean? We did. I don't know if we, I don't know if anyone still has Gallagher. Yeah. Wasn't there that?

Gallagher? Didn't it like his like brother or something take over? Yeah. Because I mean, you know, you got it, you got a, you need a certain type of DNA to be able to hit a watermelon. He bought the act, yeah. He bought the act. And then there was a fight over the real Gallagher. He did.

He literally did. That's actually what happened. He bought the act. Yeah, he franchised out Gallagher. And then there was a fight over who the real Gallagher was. And to answer your question, Ryan, he'd be Gallagher do. Make Seek your go-to ticket source. I obviously have it on my phone.

I use it for everything. Were there a Gallagher concert to go to, I would look for the biggest, roundest, greenest circle to let me know what the best deal on tickets would be. Hopefully in the splash zone, I would bring my poncho. best of all listeners to puck soup get $10 off their first Seek purchase, just download the Seek app today, enter the promo code Soup, S-O-U-P, that's Bell Soup. That's promo code Soup for $10 off your first Seekek purchase.

Again, we'd love when you people tweet us pictures of you at games using the Seekek offer because they like it. And we also like when you use any of our advertiser stuff. I just had somebody tweet me the other day about using the discount on leased on mattresses to get his mattress, so maybe they see it and come back to the show. Seekkeek, life's an event. we have the tickets. What about if it was Gallagher Tooney?

Ooh. Now I'm trying to think like what he would be hitting, because it couldn't be like a melon or something. It would have to be some sort of like a Canadian. Oh, it'd be a plate of putteen, wouldn't it? Yeah, we don't have fruit or vegetables up here, so it would have to, yeah, be like a... Oh, pausing on Poutine for a second.

So McDonald's down here, I don't know what they're doing in Canada. McDonald's down here is doing a whole thing with bacon right now. Like you can put bacon on burgers and stuff, but they're also doing bacon cheese fries. And like the cheese at McDonald's is government cheese to begin with, so like why would you even dabble in it? They're bacon, I can't trust. It's a cheese sauce.

It's not like shredded. Right. But it's got, it's coming from the same cheese source, I imagine. I don't think they went to like Switzerland and said, give us your finest cheddar. Like I'm sure it's just some government cheese hole that they're dipping into. I guess it doesn't taste.

I've, of course, had them already. Wait, the cheesy bacon fries? Yeah, they're fine. But there's, okay, good, I'm happy you did this. There's absolutely no way they're as good as just regular fries of ketchup, right? That's the exact correct take, yeah. Like, they exist because Wendy's has done them a couple of times in the last year or two. And, you know, I think they might still just, like, do them all the time now, like the baconator.

fries. And it's rare you see McDonald's ripping off Wendy's and not vice versa. And I do, but like, the difference is Wendy's fries are terrible. You're right. And McDonald's fries are great. So. But it's like, it's like if you put, like, if you took timbits and put like tahini sauce on them or something, like what you're taking something that's perfect in its own way and then putting some shit on it that ruins it. And I don't understand the logic of that for our friends. at McDonald's. I guess, I guess the answer is that Wendy's is doing real well with the baconator fries. That's honestly probably it.

I'm just like, I thought everything in the United States already had bacon and cheese on it. I'm a little surprised that you found something that you'd missed. You know, just because every news station in the United States has stock footage of fat people waddling through a crosswalk for their stories on how Americans are getting fat, doesn't mean that we're putting bacon and cheese on things. There's a lot of healthy things. There's, in fact, a store in New York called Just Salad. And I don't even think that they have cheese sauce at Just Salad.

Just Salad. No, it sounds like they would only have salad, Greg. You know, truth in advertising. The GM meetings went on in Boca Raton. It was good to see our friends at TSN get a chance to get some sun. In the words of Bob McKenzie, it's mailed it in March. The GMs mailed it in a bit. They didn't really do much.

They, I think, talked about or passed a rule about, having to go to the bench when your helmet comes off. I don't even know if they passed it. I know they talked about it. Did they actually pass anything this? I don't think so. No, well, they just make recommendations. Yeah.

Okay. So they recommended that if you lose your helmet, you have to go to the bench. Which has been a rule in the HAL for some time now. Right. And makes Rod Langway weep and probably also Craig McTavish. And so that's fine. But didn't they also talk about the ability of players

to not wear a helmet in warmups? Wasn't that a thing? They want to take that away, I think. They want to let them not wear one or have them wear one? I think they want to make it mandatory because right now it's encouraged but not mandatory. All of this kind of seems like I'm never going to get the thing that I want, which is that the players do the shootout without a helmet. It seems like we're going towards more helmeting and not away from having the flow of these,

of these beautiful hair like we have in Minnesota at the high school championships. I can't imagine why they want to have everybody wearing helmets when they play. hockey. That's crazy to me. I understand that. But, you know, you got to give a little if you want to sell the sexy, baby. You got to let the hair flow and get, you know, Patrick King giving a wig to the camera. Are you wondering the impression that the NHL wants to sell anything? They don't sell players, Greg.

They sell teams. We've been over this. Bill Daly explained to us that this is pro sports is not something where the individuals. That's why you've never heard of LeBron James or anybody like that. You only have heard of the specific teams. NBCSA presents rivalry night. The Buffalo Sabres. The Minnesota Wild.

A rivalry that spans states. That was the death knell of rivalry night was when they had the Sabres in the Wild on rivalry night. You can never do another one after that. What do you do when you have a terrible rivalry, you want to make it look sexy, right? You make two helmets crash together. That's the standard. So we need the helmets. The classic

The classic Money Football move, yeah. Have the helmets collide and explode. There was actually two interesting things that they talked about. And one obvious thing.

They want to put a clock in the corner of the boards so the defensemen can see it and not have to look up. That's fine. That's fine. Except it's going to cost advertising

and some owners going to complain about it. Ah, that's where you're wrong. You ever been to a tennis tournament? The tennis tournaments all have clocks everywhere around the court and they're all sponsored by like Seiko and stuff.

So they're going to have clocks, but they're just, yeah, or, yeah, they're all going to be sponsored by watches. I thought, but Sean, I thought the same thing and I'm like, oh, that's how they'll get around it. And it's actually kind of smart because then it's like, oh, by the way, we have this we have this thing on the boards that people will be constantly looking at and you can sponsor it. So you know what's going to happen?

That's kind of a smart idea. The NHL will like only find one watch company that wants to sponsor them and they'll force them. And it's going to be Cassio. Yeah, they'll force them to do like an analog clock in the corner. So the players will be going in, like, looking like, what the hell? Okay, hold on. Big hands on this, little hands on, and then just the buzzer sounds and game over. It's going to be a calculator watch so the players can figure out escrow during the game. It's going to be beautiful. Also, also, the chances that the NHL does have one company sponsored the clocks and that it's a company no one's ever heard of, i.e., New Amsterdam vodka, pretty high. Oh, yeah. 100%. Pretty high. The other two things I talked about overtime.

They talked about trying to figure out different ways to call penalties in overtime. I was a little confused by this. One of the things I talked about was like if it's a physical foul, it's still two minutes. If it's like delay of game, maybe it's one minute and playing around with stuff. I don't know. This is one of those rule changes that doesn't bother me. The thinking there is you've got overtime, it's five minutes, it's three on three. Power plays are four on three, which have a much higher success rate than five on four.

So the power plays are more likely to score, plus they take up 40% of the overtime, and that basically the power plays are therefore overpowered, and is there a way we could reduce scoring and help get to the shootout? No, but here's the thing. I don't know that it does reduce scoring because the thing is that if the power plays are overpowered, the referees know this. And we know that referees already don't like to call power plays in overtime. If you gave them a one-minute option, maybe they would actually call some of this stuff and we'd get more powerplays.

They'd be shorter, but we'd get more power plays instead of just, you know, letting them go. This is the kind of thing I'm pretty sure they're not going to do anything with. It's the kind of change that they talk about. And because some GM, like some veteran respected GM has a bug up is behind about it and everyone listens to them. And then they're like, okay, they don't do anything with it. But I think that's the logic is, you know, anything. anytime people talk about, you know, let's make power plays, man. Let's make power plays last the full two minutes or let's take away icing.

It always sounds good like it's going to increase offense, but it's also going to decrease what the referees are willing to call and you kind of get these unintended consequences. So actually nerfing the power plays a little bit might make them more likely to happen is the logic, I think. Right. No, I get that logic, but I kind of like three on three kind of being, and this is in no way an endorsement of like you can hit a guy over the head with your stick, but like a little bit of streetball rules because if you allow a little bit of leeway on penalties, you're going

to allow, you know, two on one breaks the other way. It's kind of if you, a little bit of gentle obstruction never hurt anybody. Yeah, but you allow the leeway, but then you have a couple of penalties like the puck over glass where there is no leeway, we're told. Right. Which is also part of the problem because you got guys going back and forth and tripping and hooking or whatever else to create offense, which is great. And then somebody accidentally shoots a puck over a glass and it has to be a two-hour or a two-minute four on three, which is probably going to end the game. And you're going, is this? Do you guys still dig the three-on-three? Every so often there's somebody that's like, I don't like it. I remember when this used to be good. I still don't see the evidence of it being

bad. No. No, it's awesome. It's awesome. And it should be 10 minutes long. And then we would have very few shootouts, which would be great because we would have fewer shootouts and also shootouts would feel important and they feel like they, they feel interesting again. I've got a piece that I don't think is going to run until next week, so everybody acts surprised, but I actually have not watched a single NHL shootout in two years now. I just stopped a couple years ago. I do, thank you. I do the same thing.

I have no business to watch them unless it's like, you know, it's the last game of the season. and it's like the Oliyokin thing where someone has the score to get in, I'll watch it, but as soon as the three on three is over, if it's not essential for me to watch it or if I'm not in the arena and forced to watch it, I'm not watching it.

I watched through this week. And do you remember anything about them where they, like, I don't know. Both of them, both of them, the team that shot second scored twice and the first team didn't. This was, I think, on Tuesday night when both Columbus and the islanders

went to, shootout. And I only watched it because I was writing about those two teams and Washington and Pittsburgh, like, that night. So I was like, oh, I guess I got to see how this plays out. I don't bother it. Because even if you're interested in the result, you're going to see it two minutes later somewhere anyway. So I would rather flip to somewhere else where they're playing hockey, hopefully overtime. I never flip away from overtime because it's great. Oh, me neither. I flip two overtime. To get back to the Tortorella thing where, like, he was, he wants everyone to play until they die,

Like, yeah, like, I'm not actually, like, I've made my piece with the shootout. I've made my piece that the NHL has decided you can't have ties. And if you can't have ties and you can't let everyone play until they die, then your only option is there has to be a shootout at some point. But if we did, like Tyler Dello wrote a piece where he basically said, if you went to 10 minutes, three on three, there would be very few shootouts. Yeah. And when it did happen, you would then watch because he'd be like,

I haven't seen a shootout in three weeks. because I'm going to check this out. That's what I'm telling you, Broxy. You get him to play 10 minutes, one guy's going to shit his pants and then just skate around him right on the ice and score. John Torrella, right on the issues. Wrong. That's right.

Right on history. Wrong on the pants shitting. Right on yelling at his players, wrong on constantly playing to the bubble. Yes. Three times in his career, he's been over 600 points percentage. Like, he is, he is, I don't think he's a bad coach. Somebody said that I said he was a bad coach after World. Maybe he's a bad coach internationally or a bad coach for international tournament.

I think he's a completely average coach who gives a good quote and yells at his guys, but has coached to mediocrity for the vast majority of his career and is doing it again this year. Yeah, I think you're giving him maybe a little too much. I don't think he's a good guy. Maybe bad's not. He's not a bad coach. Maybe bad's overstating it, but he's in the area of bad for me. I just, you know, I look at the results he's getting with pretty talented teams,

and it's just like, oh, that one year they had the huge PDO because Sam Gagne became power play genius, you know, like that's maybe the crowning achievement of his career, apart from getting that really good lightning team to win the cup. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like every year his team seemed to be in this. position where it's like they're on the bubble no matter what they do. Right, but they're really, like the, the blue jackets the last two years have been really talented and they can't,

yeah, they can't win. And a Vezna-Colibur goaltender, kind of like what he had in New York, to be quite honest. Um, so yeah, I, I get what you're saying. Any bells, anybody else really worried that Matthew Shane is, uh, getting the old, uh, jittery jitters and not performing up to the standards now that he has to be in a playoff race. I like, I like the theory that I've seen a few people where Matt Duchenne is cursed because he was the guy who screwed up the offside and gave us this stupid offside review that's ruining the league. And his penance is he has been cursed since that moment. And he's just going to be this curse to wander the NHL in misery and bring doom wherever he goes.

So you're saying until we get rid of the offside review, then that's how you lift the curse on that's how you do it. That's, I've said before, if I could build a time machine, I'm not going to back and killing baby Hitler, I'm going back and preventing Matt Ducayne from going offside so that we don't have this stupid rule that we have to deal with. But the other thing

with him is, remember the blue jackets, like, this could come right down to the wire for them, and they've got the senators the last game of the season, which means Ottawa could knock Matthew Shane out of the playoffs. I love it. If I may, probably the most Canadian application of a time machine I've ever heard of.

That's pretty much it. That's the only other thing I could think of. Maybe stop the Kennedy assassination, but other than that, I think I'm pretty sure this is because this stupid offside review is going to ruin a playoff series and be the new Skate in the Crease rule. And then we'll get rid of it instantly with unanimous agreement from everyone. Because that's how this league literally, like, it's not even they can't learn from history because it's the same people. It's not like they have to go back to what other people did. It's the exact same people who screwed it up 20 years ago. They're doing it again. So enjoy.

it's all your fault. There is a certain Edmonton Oilers level, you know, thing going on with the NHL where it's like the same people over and over again, making the same mistakes over and over again. I will openly celebrate the day Colin Campbell's no longer working with the NHL, by the way. I know I've probably said this before, probably in relation to the John Scott nightmare. But he remains the curmudgeonly anchor dragging this league down in so many ways. May or may or may not have not been cool with Kendall Coyne taking part in the skills competition. so I've heard to the shock of no one, I will hold a cell,

I will launch balloons into the air and have dubs carrying the balloons into the air, maybe taking a ride on them. I don't know when he's no longer with the NHL. Yeah. That's my vow. The other thing that's interesting about the GM meetings was talk of changing the way that we do the standings,

getting rid of overtime wins in the tiebreaker and just making it regulation wins. And acknowledging again that the way that we, there should be few, there should be less importance and we should actually try to encourage teams to win in 60 minutes, but not having the guts to do the actual logical thing and just go to a three-point system. There's a part of me that, that, listen, the part of, there's a part of me that thinks that this is not a good idea because three-on-three hockey is still some semblance of hockey and it's not the shootout. and you still have to play a team game. It's just there's less people. So there's a part of me that believes that if you win in the overtime, it should still count towards your tiebreaker.

But I'm also a guy that for my entire life has believed that there should be three-point regulation wins. And at the very least, this does, like you say, put the emphasis on regulation victories versus anything else. The bad thing about overtime itself is great with the 3-on-3. But the fact that you have the stupid loser point, it very clearly, at the end of the end, NHL can deny this as much as they want, it very clearly becomes a strategy in the third

period of a tie game to slow it down and try to wait out the clock and get to overtime so that the magic, so the magic point fairy will show up and make a game 50% more valuable than the other games being played that night. Of course you're going to do that. That is the only logical way to do it. This would, I think, take a little bit of that off and put a little bit emphasis on actually trying to win in regulation, which would be good, because I don't love trading 10 minutes of a boring third period for five minutes of exciting overtime, but I don't think it would have much effect. I think this is just kind of the NHL, again, like showing that they have a vague understanding of the problem, but not either knowing or being willing to do what they

need to do to fix it. Do the right thing, yeah, for sure. I don't know. I kind of get it. I just I just don't, I don't like the creeping invalidation of the three-on-three overtime, because I do think that it's a worthy way to end the game, especially when compared to the shootout. But I feel like there's a movement of foot to be like, it's a circus act. I'm like, no, man, there's passes and defensemen and all kinds of hockey shit going on. It's not the same thing. That's how I felt. Since we lasted the show, we, I don't believe that we were, we talked about Tavares Night,

did we? Tavarice Night would have been the end. It had not happened yet. Right, because we were thinking about doing the show the next day and we couldn't do it. I was there. It's a top 10 all-time experience for me doing this job. I've never seen anything like it. I maybe will never see anything like it again.

Walking around Nassau's parking lot and seeing open flames consuming Tavares gear, seeing everybody change the nameplate on their jersey to Trader or Judas. Like I said the other day, the people who put the Tavares gear in the middle of the road in the parking lot, and then a car would drive near it and not run over it, and they'd literally step in front of the car and have them reverse the car and then drive over the jersey in the middle of the road is a level of pettiness that I can't even comprehend until I got to Nassan and saw it myself. I loved every minute of it, except for the throwing of the jersey and the snake at Tavis. Yeah, probably don't do that.

And it reminded me of something that I don't think happens in sports a lot anymore, which is the use of sports as a cathartic escape. You know, like, sports is the best when it's heroes and villains and it's play acting and you go to it and you check out on life for a while and you just cheer the good guys and do the bad guys and write the wrongs in society through this silly, you know, game that you're watching. it's been ruined by people that take it too seriously and send like death threats to the bear's kicker. So yeah, it's a whole thing. No, I'm with you. Like as a Leafs fan who had to watch a player on my team get savaged for the whole game, I thought it was great. I thought the Islander fans, they brought it.

I thought the chance were mostly good and creative and not just, you know, F bombs and stuff like that. Don't throw things on the ice, because when you throw things on the ice, these guys are on skates. If somebody steps on it, that can be an ACL, and it's not even,

might not even be a player, could be an official, could be like... Hold on, even a waffle? Even a waffle? Well, I feel like a waffle might be okay. Plastic snakes, jerseys. Don't throw things on the ice.

Other than that, yeah, I mean, like I said, I wrote about this a bunch, John Ferris didn't do anything wrong at all, and anyone who says, he did is wrong, but you're allowed to be wrong. And if you're a fan, like, being wrong in the service of passion is, is fine. And I thought that, yeah, I mean, I thought what the Islanders and their fans did, like what the Islander fans did on Thursday, was great. And, you know,

did it make sense? No, but it doesn't have to make sense. And I think Islander fans, particularly, have been ripped for years for not filling the arena, not being loyal, passionate fans. So here's some loyal and some loyalty and some passion. You can't turn around and knock them for that after you've been ripping them for not being passionate enough for years. This freaking guy told the Islanders that he wanted to stay and then he decided not to stay. We put a bunch of microphones in front of his face and asked him if he liked the team he was currently playing on and he said he did.

Why would he say that if it didn't mean that he want to stay for a franchise that he was very clearly not signing an extension with? How could we have ever figured out he was going to leave? Oh, I don't, I don't know if it was ever clear he was. I mean, I think that there was a chance he was going to say. It was very clear that there was a chance he was going to be. According to Taviris himself, according to Taviris himself.

Because he said, I like it here is a moron. No, no. According to the man himself, he said that he was going to stay. Then, like, his, you know, he got the presentation from the Leafs and it was, it blew him away. So either he's lying or he did have. I have it in his mind that he was going to stay for a little bit. He was leaning towards staying. He was leaning towards staying as most NHL players do.

But the Islanders let him get to free agency. They let him get to the point where he could talk to other teams. And I'm sorry, guys, at that point, yeah, there is a chance that he can leave. If you don't want him to leave, you need to sign him to an extension. And they had a year to do it. For whatever reason, it didn't happen. Or you can make the choice to trade them. I don't really think we need to relitigate any of the Tavares signing with their.

Like, it's nine months later, who cares? Yeah, but I didn't have a podcast then, so I got to do it now. But, like, the thing that I think hasn't gotten talked about a lot is that game, the Islanders, you know, they were all amped up on the adrenaline and the emotion of the night or whatever you want to say. And the Leafs just straight up didn't show up for that game. And it kind of papered over the fact that the I. Islanders have been bad for like a month. Yes. They've beaten one playoff team since mid-January,

apart from this Leafs game. And that playoff team is the Minnesota Wild, so barely. There are six points up on Columbus. They both have the same number of games left. The Capitals, as we do this podcast, had a huge win last night. They get a little bit of breathing room. But I think you pointed out, Lambert,

Like, it's crazy to think that there are six points right now separating Columbus and the number two seed in the Metro. So, like, Islanders, Carolina, Pittsburgh, all on notice still this late in the season. It's a real tight race in the metro. And that's the thing. And especially if Robin Lennar is going to be out for any length of time because that's not good. Yeah. Well, if Barry Trots and the Islanders finish outside the playoffs that clears the road for John Cooper, We're doing the Jacked Adams, as he probably should anyway.

He definitely should. They're going to have 130 points this year. Yeah, I mean, no, but I'm telling you, man, like I wrote about it this week in the awards watch. Like, it's very hard to overcome the fairy tale. Oh, no, of course. It's the PDO award. And they had the PTO. It's the we were wrong about this team and the only explanation for us all being wrong is that the coach must have done an

amazing job because otherwise. But it's also voted on by the broad. broadcaster, so it's also very much like, do we like this guy? Or is he a good quote or whatever? That's why Tortorello's won a couple of times. You think that would help Cooper. You'd think that. Of course, John Tavares wasn't the only big return last week.

David Bautista returned to the WWE to take on Triple H, most likely at WrestleMania. Big Dave's been acting. Big Dave was, of course, Drax and Guardians of the Galaxy and all. also in Avengers Infinity War, and he was in the beginning of Blade Runner 2048, was it? 49. Come on, Greg. Shit, I'm sorry. That's the prequel. And so, you know, him coming back to the WWB, you know, the Rock's done it before, other guys have done it before.

I was generally surprised to see him back there to do the wrestling thing. I don't know about you. Yeah, no, like I just figured that wasn't the thing. he was going to do ever, and that was fine. I was more of a fan of, like, him as a guy than him as a wrestler at any point, you know? And so it was a thing of, you know, oh, it's cool Big Dave's back, but I'm not, like, losing my mind with, I can't wait to see him wrestle. I just like him personally.

But I read a profile of him in, I think, the Tampa Bay Times this weekend. That was really good. And basically what he said was, like, this is his retirement match. He wants to go out the right way, quote unquote, and that kind of thing. And I assume that's going to end up meaning jobbing to Triple H. But finally, someone's going to put over this young up-and-comer really needs the rub. Oh, good. One of my favorite Batista things ever was he had a feud with Ray Mysterio at a point,

which was amazing because Batista's like a hundred feet tall and 700 pounds and Mysterio's like the size of Johnny Goodrow. Right. And like, you know, he would throw him around like a lawn dart and then inevitably lose the match. And I always appreciated that feud in a big way. Yeah, I'm happy to see him back. I'm also happy to see him back by doing a classic wrestling thing, which was, it was Rick Flares

100th birthday or whatever. And so never have a birthday party or a wedding. No kidding. professional wrestling show. No weddings, no birthday parties, no public contract signings in the ring. Like, get a conference room at the Western for that shit. So, uh, so he dragged, they're all in the ring waiting for Rick Flair. And they go to the back and it's, it's David Batiste, dragging around Rick Flair like someone's overloaded recycling garbage bag around the arena.

Oh, God, it was so good. It was so great. But we wanted to take this moment with Batista coming back to do one of our classic Puck Soup top 10 lists. It is, for those of you who are listening to this and thinking, oh, Jesus, it's about wrestling. No, it's only tangentially about wrestling. It's mostly about being a Thespian. It is Puck Soup's top 10 wrestlers as actors. And by the way, just before we start, the other reason I'm really excited for Dave Batista is

he's in the Dune movie. Yeah, as is everybody else. But, like, I, I love Dune. I'm so excited for, for this movie. But Timothy Shalame is going to play... Paul Atreides. And I did not... I tweeted this this week.

I did not realize Timothy Shalame played the younger Casey Affleck and Interstellar. Did you know that, Ryan? Is that true? Damn, dude. What a world. Yeah. It was him and, uh, Claire,

Claire Foy, who ended up being the lead in the Nutcracker and the Seven Realms Disney movie that didn't do too well. So he played, yeah, it's Timothy Shalamee playing young Casey Affleck and Interstellar. I was blown away by that. Anyway, everybody get excited for Dune when Dune are one and two. Now, we'll Sting be in this June, Ryan? I don't think so. Wait, do you mean the actor or the professional wrestler? for the singer I meant.

Yeah, well, I got to go. That would be, no, he's an actor too. He was, I don't know. Yeah, no, that would be a great segue into the list, I guess. All right. Number 10, the number 10, uh, wrestler as an actor. And, and keep in mind a couple of ground rules here. We're judging the performance.

It's just like the Oscars. You know, what kind of performance was it? Um, maybe we are setting a bar at a certain height, depending on how we think this wrestler would perform as an actor. Also want to point out that apparently the guy who played Luca Brazzi in The Godfather was a professional wrestler, but I'm not going to count him in this for reasons. Also, I want to note that my closest honorable mention was George the Animal Steel as Torr Johnson in Ed Wood,

It was very close. I hated leaving him off this list. Edward is one of my favorite movies. I watch it fairly consistently. It's my favorite Tim Burton movie. And fuck Dumbo. Number 10 on this list is David Arquette as Gordy and rated to rumble. Now, you may be saying to yourself, David Arquette's an actor.

What's he doing on this list? Well, David Arquette was also a former WCW champion and a current indie wrestler. So David Arquette does qualify. Ready to Rumble is a terrible movie. And David Arquette is number 10 of this list, Ryan. What? Come on, dude.

George, at least, like, if you're going to put, if you're going to put David Arquette, who, by the way, like, hardcore wrestling fan and hardcore wrestler, I guess, like, apparently at his most recent match, like, he bled all over the place. And he almost died

Yeah, that rules That's very cool that he tried That he's like is that dedicated to professional wrestling But yeah I mean, not only is it a bad movie It's a terrible performance So like Having George the Animal Steel off the list

And him on it to me in a front Okay Let me rephrase it then Maybe not rated to rumble How about David Arquette as Dewey Officer Dewey in screen Okay, now we're talking. That's a much better performance.

You're right. Yeah, now we're talking. There you go. I knew we could find her way to having him on this list. Number nine, wrestler as actor. Of course, it's Hulk Hogan, not as Shep, the suburban commando, and not as Mr. Nanny, but as Rick. The sex tape? What are you, a barstool guy tweeting at Drew McGarry for writing about it?

Okay. Yeah, okay. I could say Hulk Hogan is thunderlips and Rocky. That was a glorified cameo. This is him in a starring role. It's Hulk Hogan's Rip in No Holds Bard. He, you know, an emotional arc with him and his child. I think he had a child in the movie.

I don't really remember. But also playing a larger-than-life professional wrestler going against the odds, having to take on Zeus. I mean, he basically did the same thing in real life after the release of the film. But in the movie version, an incredible performance by someone, you know, basically playing himself. Rip. Rip.

They named them Rip. Yeah. Number eight, speaking of playing himself, Jerry, Jerry the King Lawler as Jerry the King Lawler in Man on the Moon. You may remember that in real life, Jerry Lawler got into, famously had an angle with, with the late comedian Andy Kaufman,

in which Andy Kaufman was inviting women into the ring and wrestling them in an erotic way and then used to bemoan the other wrestlers and Jerry Lawler did not like this and assaulted him on David Letterman's show and then infamously gave him a pile driver in the middle of the ring which then led to an angle in which Andy Kaufman walked around in a neck brace saying I'm going to sue you, Lawler, over and over again, which was great. One of the great angles of all time. And not just Andy Kaufman. And like, if you get a pile driver and you wear a neck brace for like the next six months or whatever, that's so good. That rules.

Yeah, it's great. And so I put Lawler 8 on this list because I actually remember seeing that he was going to be in this movie and being legitimately worried that he may not be able to play himself because I don't figure he's a very good actor. But he did quite well. And Steers is barking. And also, I think that I, I, I, I. Putting him on this list actually sent me down at Jerry Lawler Rabbit Hole briefly on YouTube. I forgot how amazing it was. In the 1990s, he showed up on ECW as a member of the WWF.

The lights go out and he shows up in the middle of the ring and he personifies Vince McMahon's corporate WWF and all the ECW fans go nuts. And he unleashes some classic Lawler lines including this entire building should be made of toilet paper because it's filled with shit, which is just something. Something that I really enjoyed. The number seven wrestler as an actor, this is probably a movie I'm going to guess not a lot of people saw, but the people who saw it, I think myself and Ryan included, we both liked it. John Cena in the movie Blockers. Pretty funny. It was a pretty funny. Yeah, it was a pretty funny coming of age movie, kind of a teen sex comedy.

I think when the movie focused on the kids, it was a lot funnier than it went to focus on the adults. But John Cena is really good in it. And it actually better than he is in train wreck because he's kind of playing against type. He's like a kind of a suburban dad. He's like a, you know, he coaches his daughter or whatever and is like all really uptight about sex. And there's a really, really funny scene where they go into this house and Gary Cole from office space. Great Gary Cole. The great Gary Cole.

And his wife are playing a blindfolded sex game. And John Cena and Ike Berenholz have to. to hide in a kitchen. Oh, my God, I forgot about this. This is really funny. Gary Cole, a blindfold of Gary Cole tries to squeeze them and touch them inappropriately because he doesn't realize that they're in his kitchen. It's pretty funny. Oh, and also, John Cena gets a butt chug in the movie as well.

Yeah, that was in the trailer. Everybody knows that part. Memorable trailer. Oh, yes, because everybody can quote the Blockers trailer, Chapter Inverse. Well, so as a person who goes to the movies a lot, like, there are, I. I don't, there's usually like one movie where it's like, I've seen the fucking trailer for this movie 70 times. I've never seen Captain Phillips because I saw the trailer so many times that I'm like, I never, like, I can't do it. You saw it so many times you felt you're the captain now.

Is that how you felt? All right. Now we're getting into the real good stuff. The real performances. Number six on my list. And this is going to be controversy, I'm sure, for some people. Roddy Piper as Nata, who I had no idea was his name. I assumed that he was just like the man with no name.

In the seminal sci-fi classic, They Live by John Carpenter, a movie, to refresh your memory, in which aliens have infiltrated our society. They are controlling us through subliminal messages. And the only way that you can see these messages or the aliens is by putting on a pair of magic sunglasses. and he's really good in it. Most notable for a preposterous, what felt like 20-minute fight between himself and Keith David, in which he's trying to get Keith David to put a pair of the glasses on,

and he's refusing, and they have this insanely awesome fight. And then also famous for the line, when Roddy Piper walks into a bank, I believe it is, I'm here to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I'm all out of bubble gum, which then gets mangled by a lot of people to say I'm all out of ass, which is also pretty funny too. But they live Roddy Piper number six. I thought that was going to be a top five for sure, I would have thought.

Okay. Okay. All right. You know, these lists exist for controversy, Sean. As you know. Did you ever see they live, Ryan? Yeah, of course. You dig it?

Yeah, that's awesome. It's so good. All that early 80s car. Carpenter, like, unbelievable. Like, that's one of the great runs of cinema history, as far as I'm concerned. Like, every movie he did for, like, a six-year period, and he did a lot of them, were incredible. Well, there's only one carpenter that I respect me. He happens to be my lord and savior.

God, yeah. Number four on the, I'm sorry, number five on the list. Bobby Carpenter. And Harris and Ford, who actually began his career as a carpenter. That's true. People don't realize that. That's true. I wonder if Alden Eichenreich or whatever his name is was also a carpenter at some point before he became Harrison Ford in the movie Solo.

That would probably have helped him out if he had followed the same career path. Number five of the list, and this is probably going to be another one where people complain that he's too low. Jesse Ventura as Blaine, which I didn't ever realize was this name. Correct. In Predator. His name was Blaine, but no E at the end, so it's not one of those fancy blains. Ventura is a predator. He, of course, gives us one of the greatest lines in the history of action movies.

I ain't got time to bleed. Incredible. And then looks really, really mean. Started a lifelong friendship with Arnold Schwarzenegger. No one at the time realized they would both become governors at one point. And, yeah, so Jesse Ventura as a tough Marine guy who gets murdered by, a space alien portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Dam. Many people don't realize that as well.

Predator, Jesse Ventura. Let me just ask this. I'm assuming, is this a list where, are you doubling up on anyone? Oh, I should have said this at the beginning. Yeah, no, this is a one and done. This is the best performance by a wrestler in their acting career. We can't, because the entire, go ahead.

Yes. Yeah. So I don't, I don't, I'm not questioning Jesse Ventura and Predator. I'm just curious, did you give any consideration to Jesse Ventura in the running man? I did, which is one of my favorite movies from that era. Or did he play Sub Zero or did he play another guy? I think he, or I forget who he played. But he was one of the guys.

He was the guy they sent in when it was time to. Yeah, he's to end it. The big bad in that. He also plays a. He was the boss fight. Security Guard, I believe, in Batman. forever. Or no, Batman and Robin, who I think is, he succumbs to the pheromones being put out by poison ivy. But perhaps his best performance, unfortunately, is ineligible for this list,

because we're only dealing with movies. His best performance was as a man in black with Alex Trebek, no less, in the classic X-Files episode, Jose Chung from Outer Space. He shows, he shows up at one point to shake down one of the witnesses, and his line is something along the lines of like, you thought you saw a flying saucer, but you actually saw Venus. And he's quite good in the role. By the way,

just pour some out in respect for Alex Trebek for getting on that YouTube yesterday and telling the world what he's going through. I hope that he beats it, and I hope that he keeps on doing jeopardy forever and ever and ever, but it really broke my heart to see that he was sick. Yeah, major bummer.

Major bummer. Where to see rank Sean? in the pantheon of Canadian legends. Where did see Lankan? Yeah, I mean, he's right up there. I actually saw somebody yesterday say that he is like the most recognized Canadian. And I was like, really? And then I thought about it. And I was like, yeah.

Like right now, he might be right up there. So it was awful to see. I got to say, though, the fact that he put out that one minute video and closed with a joke. I know, with a joke. And not just like, not like a joke like, okay. we all got like a good joke. Like this this dude is like giving us, you know, like telling us that he's basically dying, you know, received this horrible diagnosis and he's out here nailing punchlines

better than I ever do on my best day. That's, yeah, respect to Alex Cabber. It seems sort of a shame that he's not on Canadian money. It would seem a pretty easy flex to put him on money. He might be. He might wind up there. Because he's on Jeopardy where they win it. By the way, greatest name Joe host of all time. Oh, let me think about this for a second.

I mean, Mark Summers was really good on the first double dare. Got to give Bob Barker's respect. Gene Rayburn on the first match game. Bob Barker's a good one, too. And Richard Dawson, to bring it all, to bring it back to the running man. See, the thing about Richard. That's actually a good point. That's well done.

Richard Dawson, to me, the problem with him is that I feel like, I feel like Steve Harvey is in the conversation. for being the best fan with you. I said the same thing yesterday. Yeah. I think the problem with Richard Dawson is that, you know, there have been so many. We've seen that others can't measure up like Ray Combs, RIP, but we have seen Steve Harvey be as entertaining and maybe more so in some ways than Richard Dawson because he pretends

to get offended when the answers have sexual innuendo in them. And that's always for me the best part of the show. Well, yeah, but that's unfair because Richard Dawson did it in the 70s and being offended it hadn't been invented yet. Yeah, but in fairness to Steve Harvey, he also isn't allowed to make out with the contestants like Richard Dawson did, so. He's not.

No. Not Chuck Woolery. Fuck him. Wink Martindale. Kind of a B-level. What's the guy? What's the guy from, from the game,

oh, Monty Hall is the guy I'm trying to think of. Oh, great choice. Yeah. But no, it's, it's Trebek. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would say Trebek. See, Bob Barker's kind of, like, I feel like Drew Carey does a pretty good job on the prices. I feel like the price is right as a game that is so, the game show is so good and so complete.

Like, it's the best game show that you could literally have a parakeet hosting it, and it would be probably pretty good. I think the best game show hosts are the ones that elevate the shows, and that's why Trebeck's probably top of the list, because Jeopardy is Jeopardy because of him. By the way, I hate to talk about this. Let's not talk about it in the terms of sickness. Let's talk about it in the terms of at one point he'll not be hosting Jeopardy, one assumes. John Hodgman would be my choice for the next Jeopardy host. I know Trebek said if he were to pick, he would probably pick the guy, Alex Faust, who's the King's TV guy. Is that right? Trebek said that. He mentioned, like, a number of people, but he all, but like anytime people bring it up now, he leads with a guy I know from college hockey circles, Alex Faust.

Wow. What about Ken Jennings as Jeopardy host? Like, the best, the best Jeopardy guy becomes the host. I don't know. Could he do, like, I like, I like, I don't know. I don't feel like he has the charisma necessarily to, to be that guy for however long. You need to have somebody who seems smart. Yes. Is the trick. Yeah. So maybe like 80% of the daily show correspondence that I've ever existed could qualify, but hopefully not Mo Rocca, because I never really found him that appealing. Number four on the list is, and again, we're getting into the big, oh, hey, Sean, why did you ask

about only one appearance? Who did you think would be on the list multiple times? No, because I didn't want to step on you having venture on the list. list again. Oh, right. Okay, because you thought he'd be on there. I didn't want you to say like, oh, yeah, that was actually number two. Right.

Then I blow it. It makes sense. I mean, he did win best supporting actor for his role in the running man. So, I mean, it would make sense that he would be on the list again for that. Rightfully so. Number four is Kevin Nash, WWF Diesel, Big Daddy Cool, one of the founding members of the New World Order in WCW as Tarzan in Magic Mike. And this is what Katie Rich wrote on Cinema Blend about

Kevin Nash when she wrote that he was the worst stripper in the original Magic Mike. No events to this veteran and his obviously admirable physique, but a career in pro wrestling doesn't exactly lend itself to the loose live movements required by male strippers. Tarzan is in the back of every group number, and if you look closely, he's always barely moving his arms or turning his head while someone is practically doing backflips next to him. in the solo number is we see him lifting up women swinging out of vine, but Stephen Soderberg mercifully keeps them brief,

hey, it takes a lot of guts to be in a movie in a G-string, so kudos to Kevin Nash anyway. Number four in our list, Kevin Nash. Was he not in, what did I see him in? He was in one of the, John Wick? No, no, no. I know exactly what you were thinking of. He was the heavy in, he might have been in John Wick as well,

but he was the heavy in the Punisher. He played a, like a blonde-haired Like Russian guy He might have been in John Wick as well I think he might be a random I'm trying to think back to like the three action movies I've seen There's one where like he shows up and he's like Ah yeah I can't remember

Now I'm trying to think what the third one is If it's John Wick and the running man What's the third one? Yeah I had to have been one in like the 90s Once a decade I get out there Another 48 hours Right

Another stakeout It's just the inferior sequels to better movies that he's consuming. All right, we have three left. This is very exciting. I'm sure everybody's on the edge of their seat trying to figure out exactly what film in the Dwayne the Rock Johnson O'Vier will be the one that makes the list. And I deferred to Puck Soup co-host Ryan Lambert on this one because he told me that the best performance by the Rock in the Fast and the Furious franchise was in Fast Five. Is that the one in the Brazil, buddy? So that's the one that introduces the Hobbs character.

And I think he has one of the greatest intros in like modern or recent cinema history where he gets off, you know, one of those like planes where, you know, they have like jeeps and tanks on them and that kind of thing. And like his team's rolling out and he's doing like a walk and talk with some Brazilian like police officer. The woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or is it like a dude? I think it might be a dude and a woman at first, but then he's like, I need two things from you. I need like a list of X, Y, and Z.

Their names, you know, their possible locations, that kind of thing. And he's like, all right, see you later. And they go, wait, what's the second thing? And he goes, stay the fuck out of my way. And it's just like, that's perfect. Like, that's such a perfect intro to that character. And, like, he's so good because he's being, He's a menace to them as opposed to an ally, which he is.

He's an uneasy ally in six, and then by seven, he's just like a member of the crew. Right, right. But he's, he's so good. He's greatest Hobbs. The only other considerations I gave, I never gave any consideration to Southland Tales because it's a bad movie. He's not good in it. Be cool, he was all right, but he's just, he's, okay. The rundown with him and, uh, Sean William Stifler.

Yeah, he's really good. that. And the only other one that I gave mine to is a movie that I admittedly never saw, but I heard really good things about, which was pain and gain. Did you ever see pain and gain? Yeah, that's one of those movies where it's like, I think a lot of it is good, but like it's too long and it doesn't really hold together, maybe. It's like two bodybuilders or personal trainers or something that like rob a rich guy, right? Is it to get to just a bit? Okay. Well, I'll, say Fast Five here. If you're a pain and gain head and you want to say, was pain and gain instead, by all means.

You know, I'll say that you're right. All right. So now we're into the top two. My God, you guys must be like, what the fuck is this going to end up being? Well, number two is the reason that we're doing this list. It's Dave Battista, is Drax a Destroyer, and Guardians to the Galaxy, volume two. Now, volume one, he's great. Great comic relief, great lines.

Volume two, I think we go a little bit past that. a little bit of acting, along with being super funny. Him and Mantis, great scenes there. I'm going to go, Drax the Destroyer and Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 versus volume 1. What's the... Yeah, that sounds about right. Okay, good.

But he was also really good in Blade Runner. Like, I thought he did pretty good for the beginning of that movie. Yeah, and like, so apparently they wrote that part as just like he was a big meathead who beats the shit out of Ryan Gosling. And, and

In the audition, and this was in that Tampa Bay Times piece, he was just so good that they were like, we have to rewrite this part and make it like better because like I really feel for this, this replicate that's about to get retired. Yeah, it was sort of reminiscent of the first scene in Inglorious Bastards in a way, like someone coming into the house and you're very nervous and they're increasing encroaching on his domain. He was really good. But he's really, he's the best as Drax. And it sucks that, um, uh, that, uh, they might not be a Guardian's three because of what what happened with James Gunn. But James Gunn's gone on to play, to make a movie about an evil super boy. Yeah, that, that trailer is tight, dude.

Bright, bright, or what is it called? Bright. It's, uh, bright something. Yeah. If they had named the bright part, I think it would be more effective, but I understand. All right. Here we go. Number one of the list. Any guesses, boys? I've got who I assume it is. Okay.

Because otherwise you've left off one that I think is going to have people mad at you. Okay. Ryan? Yeah, no, I think we all understand who this is here, but fire away, Greg. It's your list. All right. Okay, here we go. That's right.

You all know who it is. It's Paul Levique, Triple H, and Blade Trinity. Hold on. It's, of course, Andre the Giant as Fezic. in the Princess Bride just charismatic as all hell gave us amazing lines like, anybody wanted to peanut

and was delightful in that role. At the time, not the most mobile gentlemen. I think they probably had to shoot around him a lot. Because he's so big, he was in the way a lot. But damn it, like, if you think about the charms of that film,

and there's many of them, it is without question a classic of the genre, his presence in that movie as being an actual giant and not like some Peter Jackson bullshit forced perspective giant is amazing. And he's so good. And he was lovely in that movie and lovely in the Bill Simmons documentary of his life. And of course, Andre the Giant is the number one wrestler-turned actor for his role as Fezic in The Princess Right. Sean, was that who you had in mind for number one?

Yes. That was who I had in mind. And two things on that. First of all, and you guys can correct me on this. I might have the timing screwed up. But did that movie not come out right around the time that his wrestling character turned heel and became like the scariest, most horrifying monster? Princess Bride was 87. So that's WrestleMania 3, right?

Yeah. So I always found that fascinating, that, like, he was able to pull off both of those. The other thing I'll say is, and I agree, you made the right call, great movie would not have worked without Andre. The first many times I saw, I did not understand a damn thing. Like, I could. I feel like we're at the point now where we can all admit we all love Princess Bride, but half the lines of dialogue are completely, like, between him and, and Mandy Patinkin doing the like the over-the-top Spanish accent, I don't have a damn clue what half the lines in that movie are.

And yet it still works. But yeah, it's one of those things where, thank God we now have the internet that we can all agree on what Andre is actually trying to say. But yeah, no, it's the right. I'm kind of surprised there was never a BuzzFeed article, at least the one that I saw that was like, Saul from Homeland used to be a babe. And it's all pictures of Mandy Patankan as a swashbuckler from the Princess Bride.

saw that article written. Yeah, he's great. The whole movie is just super charming. Carrie Elways is super charming. You know, Robin Wright is vapid as she should be. And of course, Christopher Guest is great. And so is Chris Sarandon, who also

was in one of my top ten favorite movies from the 1980s, Fright Night. The vampire living next door to William Ragsdale is, that movie is, it was remade with Colin Farrell, but do search out the original. It's It's fucking great. And with practical effects and super great vampire stuff. And it's very much the 1980s.

He's trying to seduce and vampireize Marcy Darcy from Married with Children. It's pretty great. Yeah. So, yeah, Audrey the Giant, topping the list for the best wrestlers as actors, as to be expected. I don't think I missed anybody. I think there's a finite number of wrestlers that were actors. Or that were any good at it, yeah. Yeah.

Because there's a bunch that show up, like Austin shows up in the expenses. And he also, even the main bad guy. It's kind of a bummer. He had his own movie called like the condemned, which was sort of like the 59th variation of the most dangerous game on film, which really can't compare to iced tea and surviving the game. So I'm not even considering the condemned as being anything to even write home about.

But there you go. Best wrestlers as actors. We didn't extend it to TV, which means that Sean's pick, Brett Hart and Lonesome Dove. Brett Hart, Loansome Dove. Yes. Brett, I got to stick up for the Canadians.

But if we're going to mention wrestling and guys who have had appearances in TV, we should also do a quick shout out to King Kong Bundy. For, yeah. Who we lost this week. Because he was in a movie, right? He was in a moving, Richard Pryor moving. Yeah, he was one of the movers in Richard Pryor's moving.

Yeah, shout out to him. Also, one of the great, scary bad guys, and the five count is one of the all-time great for a heel ever. That is, I can't believe they haven't brought that back for somebody. Because it's so perfect. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Now, also, I guess it would be time to shout out someone else he lost recently because it's a hockey podcast.

Ted Lindsay died. Yes. Ted Lindsay was one of the first, I mentioned this on Twitter. He's one of the first guys I ever met doing this job where I felt like there was a gravitas and a history to meeting him. I had met other, like, famous players, but you meet him and you're like, holy shit, this is like a, it was the first time I ever met and talked to a hockey player that felt like they should be on the Mount Rushmore of hockey. And it's super impressive. And, you know, one of the few guys that you could point to and say that what he did off the ice was as consequential as anything he did on the ice. I would say more.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. quite which which is amazing because he was a first ballot Hall of Famer on the ice and a legend and he's probably one of those guys where you know I don't want to generalize but I think many of today's fans probably don't know enough about him and it would be worth your while to you know go go down an internet rabbit hole and kind of learn the whole story of this guy trying to put together a union and the price

that he paid for that and you know his his GM trying to run him out of town because they they didn't want this to happen and and the support that he got from some players and not from others and the whole story is really fascinating and I mean there's there's a reason that you know that we have a Ted Lindsay award and this this isn't one of those awards that was just handed out and named after somebody because they were an owner for 40 years or they knew the right person like this this is you know when it came time to to rename that award yeah they could have called it the Wayne Gretzky or the Bobby or whatever whatever else. And they chose Ted Lindsay for a reason. And that's, that, that kind of tells you all

you need to know about his impact on, on this, this league and the sport and everything that goes with it. Well said. The question of the week, my colleague Emily Kaplan dropped a story this morning about the National Hockey League and marijuana, its policies about marijuana and all that stuff. The NHL, one of the more liberal leagues when it comes to its pop policy, which is good, because obviously everyone's going to have to be cool with it at some point because of the sweeping legalization. I do live in California now. And our question of the week is, oh, and Sean lives in Canada. So what am I talking about?

He's just been, you know, it's been plentiful for ages up there. I'll never forget the first time I went up and did an appearance. It was back on the Park Daddy Radio Days. And the producer of our show and I were in the parking lot. And I'm like, hey, it was great, great appearance. It's like I'll see there. He's like, he's like, hey, buddy, you want to get fucking baked? And he like unleashed a plastic bag and it was filled with so many things.

I was like, wow, all right. So Canada then, maybe move here? Maybe do that? I was impressed. It was, it was not legal. What's the, like decriminalized for the longest time. And it's now fully legal, which means it. which means the government is selling it online, which is hilarious because they keep screwing up and, like, mislabeling, like, genital spray as, like, something you're supposed to eat.

And it's, yeah, that actually happened. So, which, which was a story, which I learned many things that I did not know. So, yeah, that's, it's, it's going great up here. Thanks, thanks for asking. Hey, man, how you feeling? I don't know, man, but my ball smell fresh. Uh, so the question was, which NHL players? would you most like to get baked with.

There's been a number of incredible answers, and we'll get right to it. Chris Jaros writes in, A Joint Passed to Me by Braden Holpsey that I passed to Phil Kessel. Holpby, by the way, congratulations on helping to create the first relevant Players Tribune article

probably in the last calendar year this week. The Holpby article was pretty good, so if you haven't seen it, do check it out. Unemployed mustache. writes in by just tweeting us a Clayton Stoner jersey. Sure. On point. But an observer writes in,

Mitch Marner in the presence of Kyle Dubus so we can get him to just chill the hell out and Stein for less than $10 billion. Let's see here. What else we got? Pink Freud says, the real answer is P.K., but please do a does Sidney Crosby like pot bit?

you know, it's a natural high. I never try to put anything in my body that's not, you know, from the earth. So, you know, Mario used to have a lot of great strains in his basement when I was living there. And, you know, our part took in maybe a couple of them. But, yeah, you know, takes the stress out, helps the head, clears the mind. And all natural from the ground. Um, nailed it. Thank you.

Joey H. Rates, and I bet Josh H. Seng gets some good stuff and he's all, he'll always be passing it. Oh, God, that's good. Serious Raider Jack Baines. Crosby, it always seems like he has so much he wants to say, but wants to come across as a good hockey boy. So serious writer Jack Baines believes that Crosby would be encouraged to be more candid if he was high. I don't know. Sid strikes me as a guy who gets high and then kind of gets in his own zone and doesn't really think about too much. He's not like a talker when he's high.

That's my thought. 11 plus 7 writes in definitely get high with Brad Morshan. I can't think of a reason other than he'd be cool with it. That guy blazes. Come on. Terry Kelly writes in Flurry. The guy is a goof sober. What would he be like stoned?

agreed. Jeremy Tuck writes in Joe Thornton. His joint passing skills are probably incredible and his prowess in the drum circle is well known. That's good.

And finally, Max writes in, Patrick Line is the obvious choice, but I'm 32, so I got to pick a vet lest I end up watching a teenager hog fortnight all night, so I'll go with Ovechkin.

I don't know. Linae feels like the kind of guy that might fall asleep to me. That's how I see it. See, I feel like something like this, you don't want to go with the guys who already seem like they're halfway there. Yeah, like someone said, Like I'm not sure Braden Holpey would be any different at all. Someone said Drew Dowdy.

I want somebody like, come on. Yeah. Yeah. I want to like, like, I want somebody who's going to be forced to do it against their will. I want Lou Lamarillo. I want Lou Lamarillo. Yeah. Just eating brownies that he doesn't know and then see what comes in that situation.

I am not putting the devil's weed inside of my body. I think liberal would be very much a reaper madness guy. Oh, 100%. Era, one to. Sit in front of the mirror and there was a story about one guy who took one toke and murdered his family. Yeah, that sounds a part of right, actually. That would be him. What a way to end the show on a high, boys.

Oh, boy. That's put soup for this week. Oh, man. Please do you check out the mailbag on the Patreon. And then also, Ryan and I will have your first bonus episode of the month in due time. And thanks to nobody. No guests today. Just to free skate with your boys.

And, yeah, we'll be back next week. Big guest next week, someone we've been trying to get on the show for a while. Not a player or anybody. Just someone real cool. And so that'll be fun. Anyways, I'm Greg Wyshinsky. You can read my stuff on ESPN, and that I'm also at Wachinsky on Twitter and my other podcast,

where I don't say fuck, is ESPN On Ice with Emily Kaplan? Yeah, you can find my stuff. Yahoo!com slash author slash Ryan dash Lambert. And sign up for the Patreon newsletter. I do it every week, and people seem to like it, and you could be one of those people. Oh. You can find me on the athletic.

This week we were arguing over whether the current senators have it worse than the 1980s Maple Leafs, which started off as a nice topic for an article and just ended me going on a very extended rant about Harold Ballard, which was fun because I've got younger fans who think that it was like a joke or a bit, and it's not. It's just me listing all the horrible things that this literal demon of a man, did. So yeah, sorry. Sorry, sense fans. I know you don't like Eugene Melnick, but you got to learn, you got to tip your hat to the master, Harold Ballard. And then Puck'sup, ends as it always begins with a Canadian apologizing. All right, everybody. We'll see you on the Patreon, buddy.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute. movies, TV shows, it's in tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Part two.