The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL awards watch with Dom Luszczyszyn, and could this be the year the Washington Capitals miss the playoffs?

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

Hailey and Sean return to recap some of the NHL action from Thursday night, and discuss if this could be the year the Capitals miss out on the postseason. Then Thriday bestie Dom Luszczyszyn is back to look at the early frontrunners for the Hart, Norris, Selke, Calder, and Vezina trophies. To wrap up, mascots, why not?Get a subscription to The Athletic for $2/month for 12 months: theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. All right, everybody. Welcome back. It's Friday. It's been, it feels like it's been months. It's been two weeks. Two Fridays. It's been, how many Fridays has it been?

Fourteen days. Fourteen days. It's been two Fridays. Yes, you're hearing the voice of Sean Gentile and Haley and Haley Salvian back with you for another. episode of the Thri-Day Show on the Athletic Cocky Show. We were off for American Thanksgiving. That's just Thanksgiving, actually. American Thanksgiving. Just Thanksgiving. Yeah. Now that American Thanksgiving is gone and

passed, I got my holiday Popery out. Congratulations. And my little Christmas tree, my little fake Christmas tree. Your sad little tree. It's not the sad it's really cute there's lights on it and there's a light dusting so it looks like snow i've had a christmas tree exactly once in my adult life i don't have children i don't see the point because i'm not going to get a full-sized tree and oh wow there it is the alternative is that it's next to my dying cactus no thanks and all of my dead plants so get this i not only is it the first Friday show. I just cut you off completely about your Christmas tree.

No, I want to start talking about hockey. I don't want to talk about Christmas trees anymore. Okay, well, you're not going to do that yet. So, not only is it the first Friday show in a while. This is the first time I've been back in my apartment. So the last time we signed off from the podcast, I immediately left my home with my dog and all of my things. And I was in Seattle.

I was in Pittsburgh. and this is the first day I've been back in my apartment since the last podcast. And you know when you have those moments when you leave the house and you're like, did I leave my oven on? That was me. Oh. I don't turn my oven on. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't cook. Did I leave my sink on? That was me. But with my plants, I forgot to work. water my plants before I left for two weeks. Sometimes there's a question over whether you left your sink on or your oven on. There was no, you didn't, there was no question about the plants. You were so unrelatable.

You've never left your house and been like, all the time. I'm, I'm obsessive, compulsive about plenty of things. And one of them is locking my, is locking my door. I constantly think that I've, that I leave any and all doors that I go through unlocked. and I almost, and I almost never do. Very, very rarely has happened. Like when I'm, when I'm, I've like, when I've taken care of my parents' dog and stuff, like I've, I've left and had to drive back because I'm just terrified that I'm going to

leave the door open, the ducks can't out. So I don't know. What does this have to do with anything? I was just saying that I was talking about my life before we start talking about hockey because that's like the thing you do in the first two minutes of a show typically. And I was just saying, I was gone for two weeks. and I didn't water my plants. It's okay.

And so now my snake plants good. My aloe plants good. My cactus is just very sad and wilted. It'll be fine. And there's another plant. I don't know what it is. And I think it's dead. She's gone.

And then I've got, I don't know what that plant's called, but it's looking a little rough. Thank you for what's up with Haley's plants. This is the first time I've been. bought plants for my apartment and I'm trying really hard. We'll see how that goes. One time my friend bought me a little cactus, like a teeny little cactus as a housewarming gift and I didn't think you had to water it and it perished.

Basic lack of understanding over biology, really. They live in a desert. What are we talking about on the show today? That's enough. Anyways, welcome. Now it's time for the hockey talks. Because it is Friday after dark. That's right.

We said we'd never do it again because the last time we did it, it was terrible. And it was a horrible, horrible episode. And Sean was very angry about it. But we're doing just the first segment as Friday after dark because we already recorded with Dom. We did our final segment, which is random and fun. I don't even remember what we talked to. But stay tuned for that. It's so random.

We're so random, just like my taste in music. Just like my Spotify wrapped. I'm so random and unique. It's like extreme podcast, Pick Me Energy. But really, we got to watch a bunch of all the 7 o'clock games. And some of the late games, they're not, some of them haven't started yet. Some of them are still in the third period. But, Sean, you.

They've started. It's 11 o'clock. Oh my God. When did the game start? I'm just kidding. They have all started. I'm just thinking of the one night where I was like, oh my God, why is this Kings game still on? And it was like 1145.

Yeah, bad math. Oh! I mainly watch Penguins' Golden Knights. It's always the easy one for me because they're on. Because I only have to hit one button to get to Penguins. AT&T Sportsnet. I don't have to go to ESPN Plus. The Penguins stomped Vegas at five on five.

I was surprised to see it. It was a special teams game. The Penguins Power Play is always a grab bag and so is the penalty kill. But they came back twice from deficits. They beat Vegas. they beat Road Vegas, which is like the best team in hockey for whatever, who knows what if anything clicks.

Other than home Bruins, but yes. Sure. Who knows what clicks for them when they're away from Team Mobile. In Kisbury Kappin and scored the game winning goal, which was the most startling part of the entire endeavor. Can we find the one dude who put money on

Kisbury Capitan goal, like a part, like some kind of parlay with like Capitan goal, Penguins win over six and a half. The guy's laughing to the bank. Ron Hextall. Yeah, I don't know. Contract is still is still baffling. But yeah, they, you know, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh won the way they've won games lately, right? I mean, you get a couple kicked in from, from, from secondary scoring and then get a goal or two

from the top line and the power play. That's typically the way it's worked. Logan Thompson, Logan Thompson super busy. He made 43 saves. I mean, he kept them in the game. But yeah, I don't know. All of a sudden, Vegas is like, they're scuffling a little bit. They lost three or four.

I don't know. It was an interesting one because, like I said, the penguins trailed for a big chunk of it. And like, we always say here, special teams counts and goal-tending counts. but it was one of those games where you're just like this, this feels like it felt like it was the right result for the, for the game in totality.

Yeah, I feel like you and I, yeah, we always do talk about this. And I feel like I'm always, I understand that five on five is important. And having good five on five play is, is very important. And it's the part of the underlying numbers, it tells you a bit more about a team over a full game. But I get a little annoyed when we act like the power play. and producing on the powerplay is a bad thing. It's like, John Tavares has, well, you know, seven powerplay goals.

That's not good. What? Don't you want your $11.5 million center actually doing something on your top powerplay unit? Or, like, I get it. The context of if they're not doing anything, five and five is important. But let's become one of my pet peeves in the underlying numbers. Yeah. Or vice versa.

that, you know, a terrible power play can't come back and bite you in your ass. Like, if you have a, if you have a group that's, you know, demonstrated to be below board, it's going to come back at some point. Like, I know everybody, it's, playoff hockey's different and they make less calls and whatever, but you look at like the Florida Panthers last year. Down the stretch, their power play was bad. It was a problem late in the season. And then in the playoffs, again,

it came back and bit him in the ass. If they knock in a couple power play goals here and there, then their season unfolds completely differently. So all that stuff counts. I mean, we're going to beat it to death because I think it does need to be said. Connor Hellowbuck, like maybe the Jets are playing above their true talent,

skaters-wise, but guess what? That dude is on the roster. He counts. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Same principle. Sometimes I think the,

Problem with that is sometimes it ends up catching up to you, but I think that the Jets at least have something there, as we talked about with our friend Marat, Attesh, the last time we had the show. She's Thurkin last year. Like, the Rangers were, I know they came around as a five-on-five team, but like he dragged them. He's not playing well. Where are the Rangers? I know there's more reason that the Rangers aren't playing well and performing well. He's the number one. Yeah, but look at what happens to that team when their big guy isn't playing well.

And I think we've got a good example of that today in one of the late games, the flames and the Montreal Canadians, who's a nice, warm welcome for Sean Monaghan. He got the primary assist on a really wonky opening goal for your ice, Slavkosky. We've seen this from Markstrom before. He did this two years ago right before Jeff Ward got fired, like came out of the net. against the Canucks. I'm pretty sure he got a concussion on the play. We didn't find it as a concussion until the end of the year,

but he hurt himself on the play. He came crashing out of the net, you know, tried to barrel roll a guy to get possession of the puck, you know, aggressive poke check it away. And he kind of did the same thing. He didn't hit a guy this time, but he came way, way out really early against the Canadians.

And the Canadians are up one nothing for a big chunk of time. And I mean, the flames look, there's, again, more reasons and more context as to why the Calgary flames aren't playing well right now and why the performance and the expectations, like, things just aren't lining up in Calgary. It's more than just Markstrom, but I mean, look at them when, when their number one goalie isn't clicking along the way that we're used to. Like, these are Vesna-Calb or goalies who aren't looking like it right now, and their teams just look pretty pedestrian as a result.

And that game is won one right now, by the way. So by the time you listen, someone will have won that game, unless something went terribly, terribly wrong. Yeah. There are two other results that I want to... Yeah. Two other games that I want to focus on real quick.

Dallas 5-0-0 win over the Ducks. How many goals do you think Jason Robertson had tonight? Because I know you just... I know you weren't paying attention this one and I know you to other stuff to do in other games to watch.

How many goals were J-S? Is this a trick question? Was it zero? Oh, oh no. Do you have four? Hit three. Oh. Patty for the kid.

We're gonna talk about him pretty extensively with Dom in the trophy watch segment coming up here. And then Florida against Vancouver. I know that

we're one period in Florida scored three goals in a flash there, I think that's something that we've been waiting to happen for this team, is for there to be luck in one direction or the other. They're getting pedioded the death right now, and it's because the goaltending has been terrible. Who knows if that's going to change.

Babowski and Spencer ended both been bad. And their shooting percentage is low to the point where you're going to assume that something is changing. It's one period against a trash team, but this is what it looks at. like when the dam starts to break. And I think that's what we're seeing from Florida. Yeah. And I mean,

I think we always kind of knew that the Panthers had a good forward group and they had offense, but I still think their defense and Bobrovsky are the question marks of the Panthers, especially when it gets the playoffs. And they've got to get there too. I'm not suggesting they're not going to make the playoffs. Don't come for me.

It's fair. It's fair, too, by the way. I had this discussion with Dom last week. I mean, look, their true talent level is high. That's a good group of forwards.

You know, I don't believe in Bobrovsky necessarily as a, you know, 16-win-goaltender in the playoffs. But, you know, I trust them enough down the line, I think. But this is a team that there's teams to jump, man. Like, if Boston, Toronto, and Tampa are the real deal in the Atlantic. In the three teams ahead of them in the wildcard race right now are Pittsburgh, Detroit. in the Rangers. Now, yeah.

And this is the Rangers, by the way, with Chesterkin playing badly enough where you think that something's got to give there. I mean, the,

so, and then Detroit, you would think is, is right for the pick and just because they're not, the cake's not quite baked, right?

Yep. But this is, this team is, this team is fifth in its division and fourth in the wild card race right now. Like,

it's not, it's not a given that they make it. Like, something needs to change. even if it is just luck, you know, while the process stays the same. And we all agreed that the Panthers got the best player in the, probably in the short and long-term in Matthew Cuch. And he looks great in Florida.

And he's everything as advertised. But that's a two-for-one plus-plus deal. But in terms of NHL players, that's a two-for-one deal. And you opened up a pretty big hole on your blue line. so we'll see what happens with the Panthers. So looking at that, I know we wanted to keep this quick to get to Dom. Is this the year that the capitals don't make the playoffs? Because they are behind the Rangers, behind the Panthers, behind the Montreal Canadians.

I think that's where we are. I mean, look, they're up on Seattle right now. We talk about it at some point with Tom about, you know, the crack. and they're sort of what we're what we expected them to be, right? With some added, added gas the top of the lineup, and Martin Jones playing well and all that, blah, blah. Caps are beating them right now. So whether that holds or not, we'll see.

But it's crowded in the east, man. And when you have, again, Detroit leveling up, Montreal hanging around more than they should, sabers aren't going to be, like they're in the mix there too. Yeah. This is, I always said that I wasn't going to count the caps out until they were out, right? But this might be the year they're out. It's getting late early.

There's not a ton, there's not a ton to like about what's going on there lately. Yep. The East playoff picture is going to be really interesting this year. The West is probably going to be more, I think the West will be interesting too because of the Cracken Kings factor. and we don't really know what to make of teams like Calgary St. Louis. Like, it's good. I think the West is going to be a shit show, whereas the East is going to be like good teams duking it out, maybe. We'll see about that.

And we should mention. It's shocking to me that the Kings are still in playoff position because we've talked about how the gold-tending situation is self-destructed. And they put Cal Peterson through waivers and he cleared in the last couple days, which is indicative of how ridiculous that contract is. they're going to need to get something better. Like whatever quick is given them, obviously they think is a little, they think low, low enough of Peterson to send them down like that. That team isn't just in a wild card spot. They're in the, they're in third place in the Pacific Division.

I talked at length with Tom Drans on his radio show today about, about the West. And it was done through the lens of like, is there any chance for the Canucks to get back in this and I don't think that's true but when you look at when you look at the breakdown of the teams and where they are and especially that that third spot in the Pacific it's like what what the hell's going on there yeah it's gonna be where are you out where are you out on that like who do you like what do you think happens with right now on December 1st we got kings and third in the Pacific oil the oilers in the in the wild as the top two wild card teams like yeah yeah and that's gonna hold is that hold for you i don't it's so hard because i want to stick to my preseason

guns and say that the flames are going to make the playoffs because they've got good depth up the middle and they've got a good blue line but like markstrom and again i should clarify i don't think i properly explained what happened. That thing he did was 13 seconds into the game. You said it. Like he's got these moments. It seems like it seems like once or twice a year where, you know. You're just like, oh.

Where the where the amp gets disconnected. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like a trying to fire up the troops move and then it just like horribly backfires. I don't even know. what it is. But anyways, I don't know on December 1st if I can properly answer that question because I don't know what some of these teams are yet. There's just been so many like wild swings,

like the Minnesota wild in a wild card spot. Everyone was writing them off and they had a goalie controversy and Mark Andre Fleury is terrible. And now they're in the second wildcard spot. Jack Campbell's terrible. Golly controversy in Edmonton. I'm not saying that he's been great. Wow. But they're in the top wildcard spot. And I think a lot of what's happening in the Pacific has to do with the goal tending picture and there's been a ton of fluctuation. Like UC Soros, I mean, that's not the Pacific.

Excuse me, that's the central. Even just the Western conference like Martin Jones and Philip Grubauer, like what's happening there? Like they just gave up an eight spot in Seattle the other day. Are we going to trust that Logan Thompson can do this all season long? Like how many goalies, a Thatcher Demco just left the game and won't return? How many goalies in the Western Conference can you actually believe in until, like, through the playoffs right now, like pedigree, sure, we can think of Markstrom and Saros. They're going to be the guys at some point.

But how many goalies, like right now based on their performance through the first almost two months of the season, are we going to say, like, yeah, I trust them. It's Jake Ottinger. It's Connor Hellebuck. Is that it? It's close. Like that doesn't mean necessarily discount what I've seen from like Thompson and No. In Yorgette and whatever.

But like top two goalies in the West right now are in Dallas and Winnipeg. In the Pacific's a bit of a shit show. The last thing we should mention because you mentioned Jason Robertson, he is the first player to 20 goals and then 21 and 22 with the hat trick. So he is now leading. the league in scoring. Jason Robertson. Future breakout star, Jason Robertson is the first player to 20 goals this season.

That's one of the funniest things that happen this season, I think. I'm going to use that forever. Is this the year that Jason Robertson breaks out? I might tweet that right now. It's going to be 2026 and he's going to have 150 goal season and two 45 goal seasons under his belt or whatever. It's incredible. All right.

So this has been Friday after dark. The next thing you hear was recorded many hours ago. Long, long ago. At this point, yes, it was. This is our conversation with our pal Dom Lus Chishin. We went through the awards watch. I will admit, there was a couple,

there was one point where I zoned out, and then I tuned back in and had no idea what you guys were talking about. It's fine. So let us know in the comments if you know which part that happened. There we go. I probably tuned out on my own conversation with him if that happens. You'll have that.

Oh, yeah. All right. Here's our conversation with Dom. Huge, huge, huge get for the Friday show this week. Our guest, Dom was Chishin. He's blushing. I know. Huge.

handsome charming boy taking his time away from staring at a computer screen editing images for the player cards which are coming out at some point at a date undetermined for his own mental and physical safety we're not going to say what day those are dropping because he doesn't know yet hey buddy all factual statements uh I appreciate that very warm and loving intro not a huge get Haley just said do you want a podcast With me and Sean. The with me and Sean is a second message as if I didn't know it was with her and Sean.

And I just said yes. And that was the entire get. She didn't even know that you had a piece dropping this morning. Great. Which was your, which was your, absolutely didn't. What are you talking about? That's a lie. No.

Is that true? I said, have you had anything else come out? Or was it just the awards watch? I mean, awards watch is pretty good, in my opinion. Is it just that one? Or do you have anything else fresh? Yeah. Coming out on the website.

Slacker ass Dom who's never doing work for anybody. Versus me, he's been laying on a couch or a bed for the last four days. Okay, so what's the biggest, as you like kind of got it dug into it because this is the first ones. Oh, we're really getting right into it today. Yeah, whatever. We are on task today. Which of the awards was the one that had the guy at the top that you were a little bit surprised to see you there? Was it any?

I know because like, and you can just humor me and pretend that there was one that you didn't expect. Because I know you have an idea of who's who. But was there, was there any result in particular that surprised you? I mean, it's, it's always surprising when the guys who have the most points aren't at the top. Last year, there was a big kerfuffle when Jonathan Huberto was nowhere near the top. And I think that made at least some sense because Huberto has never been an MVP, kind of of guy and he was not even that far ahead in points or even sometimes he was just second or whatever this year it's mac david the best player in the world who is doing wild stuff every

single year and he's all the way down in seventh which is shocking but if you look a little deeper you can understand why the model is doing the things that it does and you can also think it probably won't be like that for the entire year it's a long season he'll probably get up near the top because he's been, despite having 39 points and 22 games going into last night's game and another two points, he's been unlucky at 5-on-5 somehow and still scoring at like 140-point pace or whatever. The problem for you using McDavid as the in the heart write-up as like the lead to that is now we can't just say in the power rings this week for the Oilers blurb, like something

like Connor McDavid, bad defensive season? I don't know. Like we got to actually get away from that because that was kind of like the crutch that I'd certainly fallen on over the last few weeks. Like, God, but, damn it, I don't know. Defensive number's not that good. And now everybody knows it. Yeah, it's not ideal.

But I think the bigger problem is that he's just not getting goals at five on five. I think he's got like, he's got 41 points now after yesterday. And like, I think like 13 of those are at five on five, something like that. It's just a preposterously nillow number. And he's generating chances like he always does. he's at 3.5xG for 60 at 5.5. He's just not getting goals. His on-ice shooting percentage right now is 7.8%.

And he's usually above 10%. Battle fix itself at some point. Conradt David will start putting him a bunch of points up at 5-1-5 and start out scoring his defensive problems. Because right now he's dead even in terms of goals for versus goal against. That's really funny. I think it's always interesting to see, like, I don't want to always harsh on the Leafs, but like seeing Austin Matthews only being a little

bit behind Connor McDavid and seeing that he's, oh, also over point per game player, but everyone keeps talking about like what's wrong with Austin Matthews. And he's way down there. Like he's not, he's in the top 10, but he's, he's 10th. And that's like disappointing, I think, for people in Austin Matthews, but he's still at over point per game pace. It's just his five-on-five games, not quite there, to say the least. Yeah, I think, like I've watched most of his games this year, and he hasn't really popped off the way, obviously. He hasn't had like an Austin Matthews game yet, I don't think. Like a signature moment, but no. I think the thing that makes him such a great player is that part of his allure is he doesn't take nights off usually. Like, he doesn't have very few,

He has very few, like, bad games and no, like, awful games or anything like that. And so he can, even when he's slumping, can still be a point per game player, still have decent five-on-five numbers. And I honestly was shocked myself to see him that high. I probably would put McKinnon or Crosby in that spot instead. But it makes some sense, I guess, looking a bit deeper when some people were wondering why Mitch Marner isn't there instead. And Marner has this great point streak, but a lot of his assists have been. been secondary assists. He obviously doesn't score like Matthews doesn't generate the chances for himself that Matthews does. And I think they're they're both pretty close, but there is a reason the model

likes Matthews a bit more, whether that's accurate or not. I find him difficult. I've been doing the Leafs report cards a little bit more lately with Josh Cloak, who does them a lot. He's been at the World Cup. And I found Matthews is probably one of the hardest ones to. properly grade out when I'm doing these, especially in nights where he doesn't score. So I'm like, am I just being harsh because of the standard that he's set? I don't really know. He's a tough one to grade out so far this season.

Yeah, like he's playing below his standards. Like he's playing, he was last year he was playing at like a six, seven win pace. Year before was around six as well. And this year he's probably around like four or five. And it's noticeable when what's, What's missing is those like electrifying moments that make him such an elite player. And he's starting to come around. He's starting to get some nice goals where he's absolutely sniping on some goalies.

But it just hasn't been as prolific as it was last year for sure. I mean, that's the difference, I think, between a true top tier, top one, two, three player in the league versus a run-of-the-mill all-star is that when they're fighting. it in one way or another, even if it's like, by the way, Austin Matthews shooting percentage, it's 11 and a half or whatever, which is down for him. It's even worse at five on five. Historically. Like, so, you know, that's something to consider. But this is what I've seen from Crosby over the last gazillion years,

is it even when he's fighting it and even when the point production isn't quite on the level that, you know, we've come to expect, even when they look like they're off. Because Austin Matthews does not look like Austin Matthews from last year. There's like some intangible umph factor. I'm going to say it. It's there. That is it like a, that phrase has borrowed itself into my brain and I need to, and I need to take care of it.

But for the time being, that's what we're talking about. There's something that's missing there. And that's fine. That happens to every player over, over stretches of their careers, right? Ovechkin, same deal. It was off for full seasons. It was the Adam. its effect way back when he's playing it right wing and all this bullshit right it was crazy um but he

still but he still produced back then it wasn't 60 goal you know russian machine never break level alex ovation but he was still really really good and it feels like that's what we're seeing from matthews here is it's not right top it's his top it's not top end awesome matthews but it's top end for 99.5% of the players in the league. Right. Like that's why I brought up, like, he's still over a point per game player. Like the way that we're talking about Austin Matthews right now, like his 27 points and 25 games, again, it's five on five.

That's kind of the problem. He has six goals and 13 points at five on five. His things are starting to level out though. Like his individual expected goals, his actual goals and his shooting percentage are starting to come back to the middle a little bit. At one point, though, it was like way, way off when I was writing about, I did a story a couple weeks ago, and it was just like, he's scoring, like, less than two goals than he actually should be right now.

So anyways. It's what happens in a career, man. It's like, it's a, it's a temporary dip for a guy who's on a first ballot hall of fame trajectory. Like, there's not to be worried if it was just, just the way it comes. We'll go, people will go crazy trying to figure out why this is happening. So we're not going to do that here. Last one, I think when it comes to the Hart Trophy conversation, because there's a bunch of other awards on here, Dom.

Is there somebody on this list that you think is going to drop off like the next time you do this or someone on this list who isn't realistically going to get ballots at the end of the season? That's a spicy question. Who are we kicking off the island? I don't know because it's a list of the best players in the league. Answer the question. I love Jason Robertson. I don't think he'll be number one next time. This list is happening.

I think he's, this is like the peak performance for him. He's had an incredible first quarter. I don't want the Dallas Stars social admin to yell at me, but I fully thought that we had We had gotten you out of that camp. Is this because he wasn't that good of a skater when he was, when he was, when he was, like, 15? Is that what's happening here? Are you doing retro-dugged darkening points? I think you've got the wrong guy, Sean.

Who is that? No, I just, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a nominee at the end. I just think McDavid will, will find his way. Maybe Ikel gets a few more points. Maybe the Florida Panthers power play figures itself out. Kachuk gets up there. Hughes has started to click. Even Matthews finds his oom factor.

I just, I think Robert seems like a, it sounds great. It's a great word. You guys are haters. To your core, just haters. I'm not a hater. I just think that's dumb. I like. It makes perfect sense for what we're looking for. What is oomf mean?

What does oomf mean? It means oomf. Define it. I'm with the concept, but the phrase is got to, it's got to go. There's no better, There's no better phrase than oomph. A little bit of oomph. It's like, I disagree.

It's the grit. It's like, it's like grit factor. That's why people are afraid to say it because it's, because it's a word that encapsulates something that doesn't quite manifest itself like in, it's an intangible. In numbers. And people don't see, people don't say it's a little bit of, intangibles. It's so much worse. Vib is also, vibe is also out.

Vibb's got to go. Yeah, I feel like we use vibe too much and I hate it. 100% that that's like that needs be everybody especially on this call everybody's everybody's resolution for 2023 one of our writing resolutions for next year is vibe is strictly limited because i don't use vibes when i'm writing i don't know if i've ever written the word vibes in like a story i'm a lot of hate that you have yeah i've written like the vibes are off some solutions let's hear some solutions to the words scoompe and vibe Is it hating or is it critical thinking?

There's simply no way to have. Let's critically think about some new words to use instead. Add some zip in his game. That's terrible. Adam Fox, leading to noise trophy raise. Yeah, he's got a good vibe to him. He's got some zip. I hate Zip so much.

But if you keep like saying Zip, I might start using Zip just because it's so stupid. It's great. I think we've started something new here. He's got some zip in his step. It's the same thing. You're just mad. You came up with Zip and I came up with oomph.

I'm not mad about it. I'm feeling pretty good. PEP and his step, by the way. No. All right. We're going to have a hole after a podcast drops and we'll talk about whether a player has oomph, zip, or PEP in his step. Yeah, that's Sean's contribution.

Thanks. Yes. The oldest by a long shot. in this room as the one who's saying pep in the side. He's got some pepper to stuff. Hey, wait a second. Guy, Jim, Jim Rutherford just walked in. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Don't do that. Got a bunch of pep in your stuff. This is bad. Okay. Let's move on to the Norris. Okay. This is an interesting one because obviously Adam Fox at the top, although

the Rangers are a bit weird right now. I was a bit surprised, maybe just considering where the flames are at in like the conversation around the team that McKenzie Uighur's on here because I think everyone's kind of been talking about how Uighur hasn't quite. I mean, not just Uyghur, but like things haven't clicked in Calgary yet.

However, Uighur is still top 10 in this Norris list. Is there anything that stands out to you here, Dom? I was shocked by that as well. I'm not going to lie to you. I haven't heard anything about Weger. He isn't scoring as much as he used to. And that's not an issue to be on this list. Jonas Siegandthalor is near the top there and he's not scoring at all.

But I don't know. I haven't heard much about Weiger. And I'm looking at his numbers now. I can see why he's there when he's on the ice. Flames allow 2.1 expect a goal. against and 1.6 goals against. There's nothing happening against him when he's out there. It's just that might be someone else doing the work.

That might be a quiet thing that's difficult to notice. I'm not totally sure. He's not someone I would put in the top 10 personally, but that is what the model says. So maybe he's someone that we should be paying attention to over the next month in terms of why his defensive results are this good when the team around him isn't doing so hot. you might as well just strike

you know a Sigmathaler from the list he's not he's not he's not gonna be there he's not gonna get votes none of those guys are none of those guys none of the devil's guys because we talked about this last week you and I did

team effects and that and there's nothing like I'm sure they'll take it right I'm sure they'll take their team results over over having like some true stud you know at the top of the lineup but for the five like regular for the top five regular defensemen and expect the goals percentage were for the devils we're devil's defensemen see it's the top but i'm sure none of

them were i'm pretty sure none of them were john rino either that isn't that the craziest thing that he was he was he was the he was the he was the yeah the um the exception to the rule yeah i i i like this i don't know i i i as an early list though i i like i like i i like I think it reflects a lot of stuff that we've kind of tracked all season long, which is Alex Petrangelo, you know, leveling back up after really and truly looking like he was, I, he's on watch to watch. This is the season. And dude, we talked about this.

If it wasn't in the 2020 Olympic projection exercise, it was in the NHL Top 100. It was one of the big preseason projects. And I said like, look, man, I just, I think, I think Petrangelo is coming back. Like, that was, that was my guess last year. And I, in the season that he had, I know they asked him to do a ton and whatever, but I was like, okay, this is it. Like, we're not talking about him in those terms anymore. And the opposite has been true.

He's been fantastic from the jump and it reflects itself on the list. Yeah. I think this was during the top 100 conversation. And I think because he was projected to be low because of his previous two seasons. and we want to put him higher because of his status, his reputation, and we were trying to sort of figure out a place to put him, and Shana was giving us some numbers from sport logic, and Petriangelo was looking fantastic.

He just wasn't getting the results, and I think having a new coach there has helped put his game back on track. Going back to the Devils a bit, Saganthal and Hamilton were basically two and three, and I think part of the reason that there's a bit of variation, here as I was just doing one per team. And I pick Seagintoller because he was rated a bit higher. And I think he is an interesting person to highlight at this stage of the season where he has put up numbers that are looking like vintage Mark Edward Vlasic. No points. Just five on five.

When he's on the ice, amazing things are happening. And that'll probably level off a bit over the next month or two or whatever when the devil stopped getting 64% the expected goals or whatever they're doing right now. So you're saying that's going to stop? What? I mean, probably teams don't do that. I don't know.

Are you saying the devils are fakers? No, I am not saying that. I'm saying that no team can sustain that. Sounds like that's what you're saying. You heard it here. The athletics, Domless-Chician. Don hates the devils. Not a New Jersey believer.

Oh, boy. The reason I put one per team was specifically because I hate the devils and I want to take all of the other names off the list. No Hamilton, no he's sure in the heart rankings, no brat. Yeah. Just one. The rules don't apply to it. Hey, there's Marner on here. Marner's on the Selke list.

I forgot about that. Yeah, that is true. I'm just joking. We're just playing. I do want to talk about the Selkee, though. Yeah. Because first and foremost... I said on the radio this year that as much as everybody loves, this is actually really funny and very self-serving.

But I said on the radio that as much as everyone loves like Elias Linholm and how great he is and he was deserving of the Selke finalist this season, Michael Backland has better like strictly defensive metrics than Elias Linholm does. And somebody sent, this was my very first show, like first experience with a radio text line. And somebody texted it immediately being like, is this bitch serious? It's like, like my first show, my first like text 960960, the text line is open. It's like, is this bitch for real? I was like, yes. Yes, I am. So you really.

So you know what. You really would expect nicer stuff. from people who listen to the radio in the middle of the day in Calgary. Like, come on. So I just got to say Michael Backlin is number three on the Selke list. However, I think Sean and I both wanted to point to the fact that, like, nobody should be surprised that Nico Heeshire is on here. And he's someone who should absolutely, like, be getting Selky votes this season. Is he like an overrated Selky candidate now?

Like, I feel like, I feel like this. I think once he came through Toronto and everyone did their. Nico Heeshire self-story he became one. He hurtled towards like nobody's talking about Nico Heeshire like he's emerging as a two-way forward and now it's like all right I think I've almost had enough. Yeah, we get it.

Almost enough discussion with him. Like got to bring something different in the conversation. But I think that sounds just eyeballing it, right? Like I think having him at five behind Bergeron's still, Backlin and Sam and Sam Ryanhart's the one. Yeah, that was one like,

can we explain that? What's up with that? Do we mean Alex Barkov? No. Yeah. Everyone in Florida is getting scored a lot because their goalies can't stop a beach ball. So you see a nice little negative for goals against right now. And in general, if I'm voting, if I see he got scored a lot, despite expected goals numbers, I'm probably not voting for him.

But with Reinhart, he's getting some stellar defensive results this year. And I don't think that is out of life. line. He's been, he was a good, I think, two-way forward in Buffalo and he came to Florida with some expectations in that realm, but the fact it's not Barcov is definitely what was jarring to me. And Barcov's always an interesting one. I think it depends on your definition of what you want the Selkut to be. And a lot of people do two-way forward. And I think obviously you take Barkov in that instance or even Matthew Kach, if you don't care about Penleyman are short-handed ice time at all. But defensively,

Barcobs, numbers, at least by expectant goals, aren't always as stellar as his reputation. Dom, I know you and I have talked about this before, but Yanni Gord, I want to get into him a little bit, and I know you have to leave. Otherwise, your dog is going to... Now, hold on a second. Pea on the floor. She's snoozing right now. Okay. So if she's asleep, she can't pee.

and she's right beside me. So I've, I've made that, I've made that mistake with myself a time or two in my life. And I got to tell you, not always true. Okay. Well, if she pees while sleeping, that's my mistake. But if she wakes up, I might just, like, leave the podcast abruptly and then show up back at it 10 minutes later. Okay. And no one will be the wiser because Sean will just keep talking.

That's right. And Haley will reveal more mean comments from the radio that she's received. I have more for sure, yes. Yes. And if she does pee on the floor, might I introduce you to a quick fix? They're called mop socks. You're mops for your feet. Did your dog pee too much? Did your dog pee on your floor while you were recording a podcast? Don't have time to clean it up. Put the swiffer on your feet.

I think that might be our, is that our first callback? Okay. Where, Yonnie Gordon. Yeah, anyways. They're not on sale yet. No. I've created them. It's my quick fix for when there is mess on the floor. And I don't want to get the Swiffer mop out. I get the Swiffer pad.

Intellectual property of the Friday show. By the way, assholes. I take the Swiffer pad and I put it on my feet and I walk around. Okay. I don't think we, this has to be the last time we explained mob sogs. Yeah, if you don't know what mob sucks are yet, I don't really know what's all you. It is the intellectual property, like I said, of the Friday show. I think technically based on our deals, we have to sign that over to the New York Times company. I work for the New York Times.

It's something, no, you don't. I do, though. Anyways, Yanni Gord and the Seattle Cracken, there's a lot of things that's going right for Seattle, but there is a correlation between Yanni Gord being healthy and this team posting, we'll just throw that game against L.A. out the window, but like posting generally good underlying numbers, at least that's something that you've talked about before, right, Dom, like the correlation between the crack and being good and having this identity in Yanni Gord being healthy and back in the fold. Yeah, there was a very brief, fleeting moment.

last year where the Cracken season was going off the rails, but Yanni Gord was coming back. And for like five games, you could see the potential. It's like, oh, this team might turn things around. And then Philip Grubauer would let in the dumbest goals possible every day, first shot on net that were just utterly deflating. And Yanni Gord could not save that. And I think this year he's becoming, he's looking like the player that the Cracken originally drafted a guy who was a huge piece for Habe's Cup winning shutdown line when he was there. And he's facing against the toughest opponents right now. He's putting up strong expect to goals against numbers. He's not

allowing anything. And I think he, I think really embodies what the Cracken were going for with their expansion draft in terms of unsung two-way guys who have a strong defensive presence and a bit of edge as well. And I don't know if he's, I don't think he's the best one on the team. I got to give that to our boy Maddie, but I think he embodies what the team's identity was supposed to be last year and finally is this year. Wow, that recounting of the, of the Crackens last season with the group hour stuff that had an oddly personal tinge to it. Do you care to expand on where that came from? Where was this team last year? Where was it? As you as you look at you look at your

Like you as As you look at your As you look at your spreadsheet of Of wager of wagering records Where was you out of last year? Someone Someone tweeted at me saying If this cracking team was your last year

We'd still have a betting guide on the athletic I'm like yeah probably Probably That's fine They had to die This is real life shit guys So we could get that off the site Yeah

I've turned into like a gambling puritan. We can talk about this. I respect it. You mentioned, you mentioned Benares. He's number one on the color list. I don't think that's, what can be much of a surprise to anybody.

The name that's going to stick out there whenever people who, you know, haven't, whatever, don't, haven't kept up with a model or, you know, maybe just,

especially in the events of the last week because, you know, the last couple weeks of Vegas has been so good. Is it people going to look at this and say that what is what is logan Thompson doing so low? Is there, is that just like just general model stuff with goaltenders or like what's the, what's the,

what's the read out there? Yeah, I saw Wushinsky posted his list today and he pulls a lot of, uh, of writers for, for his version. It was pretty similar, but Logan Thompson was,

I think one of his nominees. And for me, he was a bit lower. And I think, that is honestly just a matter of trying to shuffle the cards. You got one deck with goalies, one deck with skaters and trying to sort of blend it all together. And the way I've done that is I just take their percentile rank by their position. So for this one, I did just all the skaters and Jake Sanderson, for example, is like in the 71st percentile or whatever. And Logan

Thompson was in the 65th percentile among goalies or maybe he was starting goalies, I don't know, something like goalies that qualified for for Vesna, he was in that range. And perhaps he should be higher because he's, he's been good. He's got 920, saved almost six goals above expected. And I would expect that if he can keep that up, you'll rise the ranks. But it's just a matter of trying to figure out how to how to rank skaters and goalies fairly. My theory, on the Cullter is it more than anything, like maybe more than all the other major awards is like narrative based, right? Where we come into the season saying, oh boy, what's Vegas going to do about their

goal attending? They're relying on Logan Thompson who looked good at the end of last year, but he's, you know, rookie, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can he, like we had that seed planted in our head ahead of the season, just like we had Maddie Baneers, like bringing the top end offensive skill to Seattle as like their first true franchise player, blah, blah. Like those are those are the seeds that were planted back in the preseason. And those are the two that have been, you know, kind of borne out, born out in fact.

So I feel like, I feel like unless one of those two guys falls apart, I think that's who's going to end up getting, you know, actually, actually walking away with the award. Yeah. Yeah. Or the, or the high draft pick with the most points, right? Like, that seems like that's always a safe bet. Yeah. I think those two, and then Stuart Skinner has a chance for the same trajectory, if he steals

the starting job from Jack Campbell, which shouldn't be all that surprising if you saw Jack Campbell from January onward last year, even December onward. But if the Edmonton Oilers go back to looking like contender behind with Stuart Skinner and that, then he's getting that same love. And I can see Owen Power being solidly in the mix as well. He keeps looking like a legit top-haring defenseman right out of the gate. Vezna, Ilya Seroquen, that's like,

is that, how about this? Is that the easiest, did you have the easiest win on the, on the board so far? Yeah, I think so. I think the heart, Norris were very close for,

in either the case for a lot of players, even, uh, Beneers, that was pretty easy, but then again, it wasn't that far off. Serogan,

he's got a six goal, six, His medical lead on Halibuck. His numbers are better than Shistercans were last year at the same time, which is mind-boggling to me. Did you write that? Is that the write-up? Yeah, there we go. Yeah.

I think eight goals better than Shisterkin was through the same point last year. That's bananas. And our buddy Jack Campbell was number one around this time last year. Crazy. And goals saved about my stuff. Crazy how that works. I don't think he's played enough games. I don't even know where he's at.

Oh, Matt Murray is. Matt Murray is right ahead of Logan Thompson. Fun fact, and just seven games. Oh, wow. What could go wrong? Whatever's going on with Matt Murray. He's going to finish the season with a 906 percentage or whatever. He's going to have a very Matt Murray here.

I think my favorite Matt Murray thing is everyone learning that like he sneaky kicks the goal post off. That was great. That's not a new thing. We're talking to a Pittsburgh guy here. No, no, no, no, no. That's just like, what the hell? Is he doing that on purpose? Yeah, he is.

He's been doing it for years. It's because he can't get across his crease that well. There's people like calling, like trying to figure out like, are there places in the league where the goalposts come off easier? No. Yeah, where Matt Murray plays. Leaves are going to get a penalty in game seven of round one. He should have game seven overtime.

Matt Murray kicks the net off. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you. That's like, that's where we're at. Like, we're at the part. I think he's going to get called on that this season though. Like people are paying attention now. Where narratives start to take hold, right?

Like people are actually paying attention and stuff. And now it's like, oh, shit, we need to actually, there's things we actually need to treat as real. One of those things is that Matt Murray kicks the, kicks the net off the mornings. Also that weird goal with the Winnipeg Dallas game with Connor Halebuck's mask off. Oh, I hated that. Like something like, I hate that. Like, something's going to have to change there. I know the league wants more goal scoring, but...

Not like that. In danger. In danger. In danger, kind of hell. See, that's, that is anti-American bias because Connor Hellibuck is... It's true. It's true. Now, hold on.

Wasn't Jason the one that scored? Yes. It's American-on-American violence. On Thanksgiving? Oh, my God. The possibility that Connor Hella-Buck suffered some kind of grievous injury that would prevent him from competing in any in any best on best international tournament over the next couple of years outweighed you know the the the the goal for jason

right because we're definitely having one of those tournaments yeah it's definitely going to happen it's not just something it's not just something people bring up whenever whenever there's nothing else to talk about for sure we should put our heads together oh this could actually okay we should do like you and craig were talking about shan like a Canada U.S. series. We can do the rosters and then the women's rosters I can do. And then we could put them through Dom simulation and show like who won the Athletic World World Cup of hockey.

Wow, that's almost exactly what I said I was getting to on the Tuesday show a couple weeks ago. Sounds great. I've done that recently. It'll probably change like every week. This is perfect. I like I ran the numbers, I think like a month ago because I saw we've got the Matt Larkin and Frank Zarevelli, like, say that the U.S. should be the favorite.

And I think in 2024, like, they genuinely might be given the age of their players. Like, if they'd have the tournament right now, like, it's still Canada, but it's so much more narrow than it's been in the past. Right. But I would not be shocked if the next time there actually is a best-on-best tournament that America takes over. It sounds crazy, but it's true. They got the – the U.S. has the goalies. And if I close back – I'll provide the women's rosters.

and the fun jokes. It's going to happen. The fun jokes, huh? As opposed to the unfun jokes. Yeah, you guys provide the smart jokes. Mine are just the kind of stupid, like, you idiot. That's not what I'm saying. Can I pause you guys for one second for a reveal behind the curtain, a nice Easter egg of my idiocy.

Yeah. Oh, it's ocean taking a leak on the 400. No, no, she's still sleeping. But I'm staring at the. Vesna Trophy graphic on our website. And I'm looking at wins and losses and the column being completely blank and thinking, I forgot to fill that out.

Oh. There you go. Oh, no. You know what? I didn't even notice that. I didn't even notice that. Did any fans notice that? Like any comments?

I'm sure someone did. Someone did probably in the comments. But I, it's just my, this is the way I'm going to defend it. It's my personal way of saying wins and loss. don't matter for goalies. It's not a good stat for them. That's the way to frame it. It's five,

it's five, it's five, 15 on Thursday. We're going to clock how long it takes that to get fixed. I bet it's, I bet it's real soon. You can't even fix it yourself.

No, because I can. I just noticed it right now. The story has been up for 12 hours. Who cares? The vibes are fun. It's got Zip. It's got Zip. It's got Zip.

All right. Go walk your dog. Okay. Thanks for your time. Always a pleasure for besty hour, although this was the bestie half hour of power instead. Yeah, it was a half power hour. I'm going to spend the rest of my night reading these comments, by the way. These are unreal.

These are good even for a Dom post. So if people listen to this are bored. Oh, these are better than the average, baby. Let's go. Are they? I try to stay away from them. I went in there for a second and saw, a lot of people upset about Josh Morrissey and I threw in one comment I just left.

You mean Josh Norrissey? His name is too good not to include him. You know, he's probably nominated just for that. If his name was, if his name was, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure that shit out, by the way. I heard someone say Josh Norrissey and I was just like, who? What do you mean? Are they saying like no? Like no to Josh Morrissey?

If his name was Josh Hennessy If his name was Josh Hennessy We would not be having this conversation Hennessy Or whatever Just a name What's wrong with you Nothing

It's just a name It's a name as close to Morrissey You could still turn This is where I would make In different company This is where I would make A Morrissey joke

But I don't think either you guys Would give a shit about that No I don't think so I have tried to listen And I Yeah It's too much You could do like

Half of a joke And then cut it off I don't get it Was that the joke? Yeah, that was a joke. Morrisio always storms off stage. Cuts his, cuts his, cuts his short. I don't do Morrissey shows because I know better.

We're keeping this in, by the way. This is staying in the show, yes. He cut off a show about 20 minutes in because it was too cold. It was too cold. Mind you, it was L.A. It was 55 degrees. What a baby. Can you know, that's a Canadian? The world's most miserable, he's close enough, he's Irish.

The world's most miserable man is, is miserable. That's like 10? That's freezing for L.A., isn't it? If the Jets, all I'm saying is if the Jets top defensemen does not. Cold or Lays cold? If the Jets top defenseman does not win the Norris Trophy, heaven knows he'll be miserable now. That's all I'm saying, right, Daniel?

Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Thanks, Dom. See you guys. All right. So that was nice from Dom.

We got lots of awards talk. We got a mop socks plug. What else did we talk about? It was good. We're doing this out of order. So it feels like we talked to Dom about two days ago. Yeah. You don't even remember.

Yeah. That's the inside look. They started a conversation with Dom was very low energy. I've got to say. We were talking to, there was three people on a Zoom call talking, one of which was sick for a week and Dom's been staring at a computer. I don't know what your problem is, but.

I had a full day. I talked to Eric Lindross for like an hour today. I'm good. And then transcribed. We were both over booked. And Dom is just sort of a low charisma dude, honestly, when it comes to that. So you can't, you can't rely on it.

Yeah. He's not a high energy guest. It's why I always ask him. But you were like making fun of me like, you didn't know what he was talking. He didn't know what story came out. I was like, no, you got to ask Dom what he wants to talk about so he can bring some energy. Yeah, you can't just throw stuff at him. He doesn't even listen to the show.

He texted me after our last show before the break because somebody power ranked the like chaotic moments from our show and the number one ranking. The number one seed spot, whatever, the champion of the week was my. comment about what Dom was keeping in this apartment. Don texted me like, what did you say about my apartment? Like, what are you doing? And I was like, you don't listen to the show. And we just said that you had something nefarious hidden in your apartment. I think we implied that the dogs were doing something evil, possibly.

He's got robot huskies that are doing weird, bad shit in that apartment. So. So anyways. If there's one thing I've learned also, I've figured this out, like this happens with me and Custin sometimes. Sure. He did it with, you remember that email, that PR email that got sent like a month or so ago that everybody somehow picked up on? And it was like, who are the hottest coaches? Yeah, I hated that one.

He read it out loud during the record for us and didn't tell me that he was going to do it. Like so so he just kind of like he was like, oh, I got something, you know, I want to say during the third segment. And he like, I had already said to somebody else, like, this is just one of those things where like it's some bullshit thing that a PR firm sends out. Yeah, you yelled at him. Yeah, right. I was, because I was all, I was preemptively mad about this. You fell for it. He did.

He got suckered. He got suckered. But that being said, you have one today. Cheap, cheap content is often good content. Okay. 305 p.m. Right as we were trying to outline the show, get an email best and worst NHL mascot.

I'm going to read this for bed. I'm good afternoon, Sean. This is from Jen Tracy at digital third coast.net via PRNewswire.com. Okay. This is the glamorous life of someone with a media email account. There's so much excitement in an NHL hockey game from the big hits to the fast pace and of course the fights. Of course the fights. And the one thing a game just wouldn't be complete without those lovable mascots.

But which mascots are the most loved and which one could put in a little extra work? We surveyed more than 900 NHL fans from both the U.S. and Canada find out once and for all which mascot is the favorite. Here's what we found. Okay. Top five. Okay. All the Octoplas from Detroit. Sounds like they just overloaded on.

Is that true? I think so. It's cuter than the real. octopus that gets the octopi that get thrown on the ice doesn't happen anymore mic e moose from the winnipeg jets which i think is like low-key kind of a great yeah that's like a mickey mouse yeah it looks like the wally world mascot from wait what's the octopus called again al oh that's so cute wild wing in a hunt ducks oh he's actually kind of creepy looking yeah micky moose yeah i'm so i'm sorry no

How the octopus. Why did I think he was kind of cute? I don't know. Wait. Does somebody walk around in this? What octopus was I thinking of? Oh my God. Does that count as a mascot if he gets hung from the rafters?

It's the one that they lower from the rafters, right? Right. So nobody walks around in an octopus costume. At this time, I do not believe so. Oh. Carlton the Bear. He's not, hey, I'm not done. I want to rescind what I said.

He's not cute. He's got an angry look on his face. I would love to know where he got a jersey with that many arm sleeves. Hey, actually, are those sleeves or those leg pants? Pant legs. Leg pants. This is the segment where everyone finds out I'm actually a dumb ass. Leg pants.

What did you mean by that? Pant legs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, indeed. Okay, next. Carlton the Bear. Which is cute.

I'm getting calls. We're losing mop socks sponsors. Wow. Wrap it up. Oh, imagine how much cleaning you could do if you put your mop socks on all the octopus. Wow. Eight legs with mop socks cleaning Gailie's apartment. The point here is that the worst mask is.

This is a video media. but this is not anyway the point here the reason we're talking about this is the five worst mascots are the two NHL teams that Haley Salvin discovered Harvey the Hound with the Calgary Flames and Spartacat with us never seen that guy in my life Harvey the Hound never Daryl there uh Craig McTavish ripped off his tongue you remember that jivvy did you ever see that video Craig McTavish

fighting Harvey the Hound I did I meant I had I never saw him in person he's not real. Do you know what? I never saw me. I never saw me in person. I don't really care for Sparta cat. I don't even think I could. I can't even like picture Sparta Cat. It's like a cat that stands up and walks around.

He's supposed to be a lion? That's a wide-eyed lion. Yeah. Justice for Bowie the Troll. I'm the only one out of the three of us when we were talking about this pre-show. I don't care for. I don't care for buoy. No.

It's a troll. Is he a bridge troll? Is he a sea troll? Where does he live? I don't know. Is he the troll that answers the riddles to get to our comment section? Perhaps. I hope to see him next week.

Hey, if you guys get to the comment section, let us know if you saw Bowie on your way here. Perhaps. I don't really care for Bowie. Like, what's the point? Like, why isn't it a Cracken? Why isn't it a Cracken? You're the Seattle Cracken. Why is it a droll?

Because no one wants to see it's like an evil gigantic squid. They only drop a squid down, like a squid arm and they've got the light show and stuff. So you don't have to have, you don't have to have why is making, that squid arm is actually the mascot for the Seattle. Why is it Golden Knights mascot a Gila monster? What's a Gila monster? Like a lizard. Why is?

I was like, is that a real, that's not a real thing. Yeah, Carl and the bear should just be a leaf, you know? Why isn't Mickey Moose a jet? Shut up. That's not the same. It's the exact same. No, it's not. No, it's not.

You're taking a mascot that isn't cute and replacing with something that is at least theoretically cute. The survey also asked, wait, respondent. Wait, a cracking could be cute. Whatever I was thinking of with Al the Octopus, that's the Cracken. Yeah, the Al the Octopus mascot that you invent. and poured it over. I don't know. I just think I was thinking

of like a little cartoon octopus with like a little smile. The survey also asked respondents about their favorite former mascots. Why do you just skirt over everything I say? I'm bringing this up for a reason. I'm bringing this up for a reason. Of the 14 former NHL mascots,

the one most remembered is Howler the Yeti, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And also Pete the penguin. I wrote a story about Pete the penguin. Rest in power. Pete the Penguin. Idiot. He was a live mascot

that they brought out periodically in the late 70s and early 60s and early 70s. Yes. Can I help you? I was like, hey, rest in power. Rest in power, Pete the penguin. Live little mascot,

it turned out the cliff notes on this and if you want to read a long story about this that I wrote, this is the kind of... I cried when I read that story. That shit's messed up, man. This is the shit we were doing during the pandemic.

was like take out very long stories about about mascots. They got the wrong penguin. There are warm weather penguins. They got one of those. Brought him out after goals and shit at the arena here back in the 70s. And the penguin is alleged to there's some debate over what happened. The penguin is alleged to have caught pneumonia and croaked and then been stuffed and put in the team's offices. There's much debate over what actually happened there.

I feel like you could have said all that a little bit more gently. It's 50 years ago. Like, who cares? Pete the Penguins is not. It's really sad. I talked to the granddaughter of Pete the Penguin's handler. It's a tough, tough subject in the family to this day. Anyways, do we want to talk about anything else?

There's something else. I'm a little upset now. Because Pete the penguin? That's really sad. Bad. Birds die. I got bad news for you. I have a story.

Uh-huh. Now that we're off the rails. Oh, God. Okay. So I went to the West Edmonton Mall for the first time during after the playoffs. Like the, or it was during the playoffs, Flames are in Edmonton. They're going back to Calgary. I stopped at the West Edmonton Mall.

And I cried. After the playoffs for the Flames, not the, not the Oilers. No, it was, wasn't after. That's why I corrected myself. It was in the middle of the second round. And I cried softly at the tank where all the little otters or the sea lions were living in the West Edmonton Mall. I stood there crying softly. There was one just laying there like crying.

I shit you not. And I cried with him. I get very upset about animals. I don't cry about a lot of real world things. but animals are one of them. Actually cry more than you think. Stuff like that. Any like mall-based animal attraction,

it's amazing to me that that's still. They just lay there all day in a tank. Well, people watch them. They go to lids and then they look at the lion, the sea lion. Oh, I thought you meant, I thought you were saying that the animal goes to lids. Hey, they got buy two, buy two, get one free. Boogo.

Anyways. Thanks for listening. This wasn't a good show. No, it wasn't. It was a great show. Our new sign-off, our new sign-off, by the way. Every show moving forward. Rest in power, Pete the Penguin.

Rest in power, Pete the Penguin. We miss you. We don't. We don't actually miss you. Hey, if you aren't an athletic subscriber, join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show. show to get annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. That is $2 a month for 12 months. The specs on this have changed. Finally, I've been reading, I've been reading this.

Is that a typo? I've been reading this exact same tag or whatever at the end of, at the end of episodes for like two years now. Inflation. Yeah, it's real and not just something corporations make up to squeeze more money out of people. Definitely a real thing. Oh, oh, wait a second. I've got something to say. Definitely not increased costs passed on a consumers. I was in Seattle. I spent $13 on a shitty drip coffee from Pete's coffee and a bottle of water. And that was USD. That was $20. Is that the airport? I spent $20 on a coffee and a water. Yes. It's your fault. If you aren't an athletic subscriber, join us at the athletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. Haley, did you know that you can now subscribe to the athletic hockey show's YouTube channel? Aren't you like to do that?

Have you done that already? No, because I don't want to look at myself. It's brutal looking at me. When you're me, I can say that. YouTube.com slash at sign. That's an actual ad sign. At sign the athletic hockey show.