The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 347: Stay home, listen to a podcast

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

Greg Wyshynski joins the show to discuss the void left in our lives by the NHL's "pause," trying to talk about hockey when there's more important things going on around the world, potential timelines and playoff formats when the league returns, and the biggest looming questions that have been left unanswered for now.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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and joining me is my good buddy Greg Wyshinsky. Greg, what's going on then? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Huge keeping spoonfuls of nothing are going on. I mean, it's a weird place to be right. So it's like there's absolutely nothing going on. And at the same time, everything's going on. It's one of those things where I think it's the uncertainty that's killing a lot of people.

I don't know if it is like that for you as well. But for me, it's like, you know, if it's the all-star break or what have you, it's usually like a week. week long pause, right? But you know that hockey's coming back. And at this point, it's like, we really don't know when it's going to come back. And I think that's the toughest thing to wrap your head around. Yeah, exactly. You know, and it's funny, you sort of expand that point.

I was having this conversation with our mutual friends in Vancouver, Jason and Mike the other day, about how like when you're in a recession, the question always is, how do we come out of the recession? And no one really knows what's going to happen to turn things around or to cycle it back to points of profitability and stocks rising and that whole thing. We just know what's going to happen at some point, right? And in this case, I mean, there is an end point. I mean, you look around at what's happening in China and South Korea and other places. There's clearly a certain amount of time and a certain amount of time doing the things that the medical experts are telling us to do. and after that time it should

subside or at the very least there's going to be more treatments for it so like there is light at the end of the tunnel it's not as if we're all going to become a bunch of chuds you know living underground it's it is

it's just now a matter of how long it is from now to then and then the real question is you know when we do get past this is what does it look like because, you know, unemployment is out of, it's just impossible to can see what unemployment is right now. Business is shuttered.

You know, I live in a town just outside of San Jose, and our downtown, I feel like, is sort of a microcosm of a lot of downtowns in different, you know, suburban municipalities where you've got your bars and your restaurants, you've got your clothing stores, your bookstore, you know, all these different things. And, you know, as of two and a half weeks ago, you started to see these people, you know, sort of reduce their hours and then all of a sudden, you know, hey, we're going to be closed for two weeks and now it's, we're going to be closed indefinitely. And the only ones that are open are restaurants that are, you know, literally begging people to come and, and get some carry out for, for lunch or for dinner. So if that's what's happening here, I'm sure it's happening everywhere else. And it's kind of a, that's the scariest. That's the scariest proposition is not necessarily when this ends. It's how, how we bounce back. Yeah, I think Vancouver

generally skews, or at least people have the perception of it being kind of like, you know, younger, hipper, healthier, like that vegetarian lifestyle. Everyone's taking care of themselves and doing yoga and stuff. And so you'd think that we'd be more suited for something like this because people would just be paying attention to what's going on online and listening to people and being like, all right, let's just stay in and let's just work on ourselves at home. But I still go out sometimes for a walk around the neighborhood or something,

and there's just an alarming number of people that are just out and about kind of acting as if, like, it's just another day, another day in the life of Vancouver. And there's a lot of people around here as well that, made the point of like, well, you know, we're going to keep living our lives and going to restaurants and doing our thing until it's shut down and until the government tells us to do so. And so it's like there's been so many people looking for guidance as to like what to do and just acting and kind of, I guess I don't know, maybe makes them feel better or whatnot. But just like burying their heads in the sand and acting like nothing's wrong. And I don't know. It's it's kind of alarming at times.

But then I go on Instagram and I do see a lot of people posting about how they're staying at home and social distancing. So I guess at least that's good. Yeah, I mean, in our case, we have to. Like, it's now the California governor on top of the, you know, county commissioners here basically putting an edict that has everybody just stuck in their houses outside of trips to the grocery store or to the pharmacy or to, you know, walk your dog or go jogging or whatever. Luckily, for me, hiking isn't banned, I don't think, because if it was, that's pretty dumb. I don't necessarily blame people that are trying to live their lives normally through this

if they are finding places that will allow that to happen. I really think that having seen this play out in the Bay Area for the last three weeks, that it does take the boldness of leadership and the boldness of places that otherwise may want to maximize the revenue in times of crisis, you know, be the one restaurant in town that's still open, that kind of thing, to take the action and take the option away from people. Because people are going to take the option if there is one, right? So like, I mean, here, to spin it back to hockey for the first time in this conversation, the, when the sharks, the county, the Santa Clara County recommended that all mass gatherings

be ceased. about two and a half weeks ago, right, or whenever it was. And the sharks had three more home games. And they're like, all right, well, we hear you, but that's just a recommendation. And we have three more home games. We go on the road after that. We get back on March 19th. We'll figure out how it all is then.

And so they play three games. And of course, one of those games is against Ottawa, who's to say if that's where the player contracted coronavirus, no one knows. We definitely know that one of the workers in the arena had coronavirus. um when i mean i was there that night i think the leaves were in town but the point is is that as soon as the county said all right that's it the edict is nothing no no mass gatherings whatsoever and if you have them we're going to send the sheriff well then you know then we're canceling events finally at the arena instead of you know fiddling about with ideas of playing in front

of empty arena you know all this nonsense so like it it takes that sort of action and it takes that sort of boldness and that's what we're seeing from new york in the governor's office right now to really take the options away from people because it's just human nature to want to try to be as find that normalcy as as easily as they can and if the options are there they're going to take them yeah i guess it has you know to give people um not necessarily a pass but i just think it the sort of how quickly this is escalated i remember like went from people complaining online about media access and how that would be affected in the locker rooms to like oh well we're going to play games without fans to oh we're going to play no games at all in the NFL like that happened in the blink of an eye and so recalibrating that to your daily regular life is tough and you know you'd think that someone like myself would be um well suited for this kind of just like working from home and and and just growing out my beard and and just and just hanging out i'm used to it but it's i'm going through this internal dialogue myself and i'm not sure how you're feeling about it where like on the one hand i want to keep talking and writing about hockey because it fills the time it keeps myself

busy. I think also people staying at home now and working, have more free time and would generally appreciate this distraction. But on the other hand, like, we were asked to write this sort of playoff format roundtable piece for ESPN that we'll talk about in a bit here. And while I was sitting sitting down and write it, it just felt so like insignificant or inconsequential, like just trying to gather my thoughts and about like when hockey would be played and how it would be played and the NHL logistics. And it was just a challenge sort of trying to stack that up with a backdrop of what's happening around the world. Well, but I always feel that way.

I guess that's true. I mean, you know, I was working at a newspaper. I was in like my second year, I think it was at the paper in northern Virginia when 9-11 happened. And, you know, to be in the newsroom during a crisis like that or during the sniper shootings that also happened when I was working at the paper in Virginia, like you really understand your place in the world. And it's one of the reasons why, you know, when people try to take those. sports writing things so seriously. I'm like, we're entertainment writers. Like, that's all we are. We're not very much.

We can draw some social and, you know, parables out of our work and, you know, use sports as a microcosm for society and things like that. But at the end of the day, there's really not a whole lot that separates us from the guy going to review the latest revival of Hamlet. You know, it's all diversionary stuff. It's not crime reporting. And I'm fine with that. A lot of people aren't.

They feel like it's sort of the ghettoization of the industry, but I'm fine with it. And we can do a really good job with it. And more importantly, as we're finding out now, maybe more than ever, it serves a vital purpose in people's lives. But being in the newsroom when like the plane hit the Pentagon or whatever and you're scrambling around trying to find out what the ramifications are for like high school sports and other people are like taking pictures of, you know, bodies being pulled out of the. the Pentagon and stuff. It really kind of brings it home as far as like where your place is in the journalistic world and and where other people's places are. So I never feel like, you know, I never feel guilty about it because I inherently know that

what we do isn't that important. And I, but at the same time, I also know that it is important for people at a certain point, not more important nor should it be important than the real news. but definitely fills a need and a therapeutic need at that for people out there to, you know, be consumed by it. And no better example, my God, than the NFL off season. Yes. Where, you know, you had people like really good, smart people like, like Floreo and others that were poo-pooing the NFL for continuing their off-season while all this was going on. And then, you know, the minute, like the D. Andre Hopkins trade happened.

And then the Brady sweepstakes looked like there were going to be actually a thing that was going to lead to him leaving New England. I mean, you could just feel the plate tectonic shift of people's attention to something that was frivolous. And it felt good. And I think that's the best example you could possibly find. Yeah, the other day I messaged Bill Barnwell. I was like, I'm so jealous that you get to make fun of GMs right now. I wish more than anything than H.L would open this time period to transactions. But, okay, let's provide some of that entertainment.

And then it's kind of a, I know there's someone listening right now. They're like, so are these guys going to talk about hockey today or what's going? Oh, I do want to pause on one thing, though. Right. About working at home. It has been fascinating for me who has been working at home for about 12 years. Ever since I made the jump from newspapers to Yahoo for Puck Daddy, I worked at home. I mean, I had an office in New York that I would go into here and there.

And, you know, Lowe and I used to do Puck Soup from the office and stuff. So there was that outlet. for the most part, I've been working at it from home. And, you know, it's a tough transition. It really is. I mean, you have to train yourself how to do it. And training yourself not only means staying away from the fridge and the cupboard. It means, as I tweeted, like when this whole thing started,

but one of the hardest things to do is to find out what things you like to watch can serve as background noise and what things you like to watch will pull you away from work. And it seems like a very simple thing, but it's kind of a very simple thing. but it's kind of a tough nut to crack sometimes where you feel like you can put on, you know, let's say it's like the price is right, right? And you're like, oh, I could put this on its background noise. And then it's like, ah, shoot, where did the last 40 minutes of my work time go

is watching people guess the price of rice errone? So I've appreciated the challenge that people are now under, on top of obviously the fact that you don't have your coworkers with you and all that stuff. It's definitely a tough transition. and it could be lonely and it's it's not the easiest thing to do so you know my heart my heart goes out to you as a wily veteran of working from home yeah a lot of people a lot of people are being introduced to the uh the blogger lifestyle i think uh i think the key the key is getting some easy

early doubles under your belt so for me i wake up i make my bed i consider that a win i put on pants i consider that a win i make some coffee that's another win and you just got you kind of you got to You got to break it down into segments like that and make yourself feel a little better. But also find your own outlets, right? Like whether it's listening to a podcast, whether it's finding some kind of background noise, whether it's going from one room to another or kind of changing your space around. Like it's really easy to get kind of complacent and just sit in one place and look at the clock, as you said, and realize that like three hours of past.

The coffee thing I know isn't for everybody. I don't know how you people exist. To be quite candid to not mainline coffee first thing in the morning. But you're right. And the one thing you said is very true, which is that, listen, you're not getting into your work clothes necessarily. You know, like you're not getting three-piece suited up to work in front of, you know, on your couch. But definitely change out of the shit you slept in. Like, that is essential.

Like, it will make a world of difference to just have that point of demarcation from waking up to transitioning to your day. And if there's a shower in there, even better. If there is something like coffee or breakfast or oatmeal. or whatever, even better, you have to be able to kind of flip the switch from, I'm in my bed, I don't want to get out to now I'm actually doing my job. And the way to do that is, like you said, to have that little, you know, three or four step routine every morning to kind of get you going. Yes, sir.

All right. Well, let's talk about hockey now. Let's do it. I'm ready for it. So the timeline being kicked around is really interesting to me. It seems like a lot of a lot of posturing and face-save. from what I've seen. I know you wrote about it recently.

I think Frank Sarajevelli has been doing a good job covering it. It seems like the latest we're at is this idea that they're going to sort of, I guess, resume the regular season and get everyone to the same number of games and then basically be playing in like, what, August and September and then doing the offseason in October. I think, I don't know, I have a lot of issues with it. How do you feel about that sort of new proposal? Yeah, the thing that the elite players are kicking around on their text chain is I think it was, I forget it, it was Down Goes Brown or Emily on one of the podcasts was making

the point of now at least some players know they're not elite if they're not part of the conversation. Well, I'd love to know what the line of demarcation is there and who qualifies as elite. Yeah, I mean, like, I've been arguing for years that Philip Foresberg's not a star. If he's not on that text chain, I'm sorry that they completely underscores my point that he's not a star. A couple things on that. First of all, I think Bill Daley has it, right? And you said this in many places in the last week. You don't want to do something that's going to run the risk of impacting next season.

Next season could be something that starts in October. It could go a full year. It could be maximizing revenue. It could be not grounding the players into dust because of the compressed schedule they'd have to have if the season moved up a month. I'm all for trying to protect the integrity of next season as much as you possible. we can. The player's proposal, I agree with you that. I think TSN has done a really good job in covering it, but I'm still trying to figure out how they don't add up the numbers. It is transparently obvious that these players know they are going to get curb stomped on escrow.

Like the amount of money that they've made versus the amount of money the owners are going to lose if they don't finish the regular season, which a source told me could be up to $100 million in lost revenue. And if they don't finish the playoffs, which is going to be, upwards of $250 million in lost revenue. Well, the players are going to be paying that next season and in subsequent seasons to make up the difference. So of course they want to come back and play regular season games. And of course they want to come back and play, you know, seven game playoff series

to get maybe like at least three home games, a team for, you know, a bunch of rounds. Like that's obvious. And that is, that has got to me more than anything else, more than like equity and integrity and competitive balance and all that stuff. The goal is to try to get. put a tourniquet on the revenue losses and try to open up the revenue streams as much as you possibly can. And I think that player's plan where we're playing Stanley Cup games in September, which, by the way, for all the arguments about, oh, you don't want to go up against the Olympics, you don't want to go in September either. You're up against the NFL and every single major sporting event that's canceled within the last two months is in September now.

So now you're up against the Kentucky Derby, the Masters. I mean, like on and on and on. So I'm with you. Like I appreciate the effort. I love the idea of trying to, you know, even out the regular season games. I would love to have a full on, you know, seven games series, 16 team playoff. That'd be fantastic. I don't want to impact next season.

And the idea that we're going to squeeze in free agency, the draft and everything else and mini-camps into a month, I think is really, really ambitious. Yeah. I mean, I get the logic for it from both the players and the teams and the owners perspective. I think just the feasibility. Like, it really seems like when this happened, I do think, you know, some of it was probably kind of just, you know, willful ignorance in terms of remaining optimistic when they were floating out the timeline of weeks rather than months. But now, especially with like the CDC's recommendation, with teams allowing players

to leave with the fact that we're seeing, you know, various, like, you just look around the world and sort of see this timeline and we're, we're like, we're going to we're at it seems implausible that this is going to be something that's just going to be like kind of hand-waved and completely remedied over the next handful of weeks and so when you look at that timeline i just think also like acting as if once the league gets back up and running the players are going to be good to go both physically and mentally the fact that you're going to be all of a sudden able to act like nothing happened and just jammed 20,000 people into the rink again and and get that revenue at the gate like it just seems like there's so many hoops to jump through and

and I'm not saying just to completely give up on this season and look ahead to next year, but I do think they're going to need to get more creative in terms of how they approach just beyond just pushing it back further and further. Yeah, and that's the thing too. I mean, like on top of what shape of the player is going to be in, and again, like, you're hoping that some health facilities, whether it be at their own training camps or rather at their own practice rinks or even like local gyms

can maybe open up at some point in the next couple months where people can get back on the regiments. It's scary to think what shape some of these guys are going to be in when they get back. And then like we talked about earlier in the podcast, like the real issue is going to be

who's coming to these games. That's why it's just insanity to think that we should end a regular season. Like if you're a Detroit fan and and they've got a couple home games, and you've been out of a job for three months. I mean,

is there a chance in hell you're paying to watch a 39-point team finish out the string? Like, you're going to be playing in front of 20 fans in some of these buildings because the season's over effectively for them and what have you. Which I guess gives voice to the idea that we should let more teams in, which we could talk about in a second.

But the real question is, and I think it's the question for every sport, is one, who's going to go to these games? Can they afford it? Is there going to be a desire to buy tickets at playoff prices when things have gone the way they have in the economy? And two, if we're playing Stanley Cup playoff games in August, are we hockey starved enough to make time to watch these things? Or is it August? You know, like it typically is August.

I don't know. I don't know the answer to that one because I feel like when sports come back, there might just be this. overwhelming appreciation just to have them back and it may supersede the fact that august is the time that you take vacations and go to the beach and not watch hockey yeah well you're gonna the the issue is like i mean you can break it up into like the diehard fans will be watching regardless of when it's played but you're going to lose any of those potential kind of casual fans who might have been sitting at home on a given evening and and tuning into a game i think uh the atlanta hawks i believe pitched this at the Sloan conference recently in terms of starting the NBA season later or whatever

and then having the playoffs go deep into the summer and I think there's a lot of pushback in this idea that you know people are sitting at home in the summer watching these games but I guess if we go what four or five months without any sort of live professional sporting events if we just will just be basically like drinking it out of a hose if it's provided to us at that yeah precisely so I mean there there is something to be said for that too like that aspect of, you know, maybe people will just be so overjoyed that, you know, economics be damned and, you know, the other, other, you know, distractions be damned. They're going to sit down and watch hockey games. It's entirely possible. I do think from the player performance perspective, though, like, I think

the one issue that's obvious is coming back from that long layoff and sort of what shape they're going to be in. And I know in this proposed plan of theirs, they're going to have a, you know, type of training camp sort of bridging before the start of the regular season. But I think the bigger issue is it seems like to make this all happen, the leagues like talking about this condensed schedule where they're going to be jamming games in with less downtime in between. And that seems like, I mean, just look at the state the league was in when we left in terms of how many key players were out. And you can, you can say that that was sort of an anomaly. But I just think the attrition of the game today, it's like if you're asking them to play even more with less downtime for their bodies to recover,

you're going to be asking for a lot of trouble in terms of players just kind of dropping like flies. Yeah, exactly. And, You know, the good news on that score is that whatever format the NHL decides on when it comes to the season or it comes to the playoffs, the NHLPA has to sign off on it. So at the very least, there's going to be a failsafe there where the players are going to have a voice and say, look, this isn't the right thing to do. You know, this is going to put too much strain on our bodies. And again, like the fact that you have elite players saying, can then schedule, let's start it in November, blah, blah, that's one thing. to have the entirety of the NHLPA agree with that, I think is a different conversation. Okay, so here's my solution.

And I know the people that read our ESPN roundtable have already seen it, but I'm going to pitch it here and we'll talk about it. So go by point percentage. We do playing games for the 7 versus 10 and the 8 versus 9 in each conference. So two teams that are going to miss because the argument, the league wants to do 24 teams transparently to get the range. Rangers and that, or I guess the Habs and the, uh, and the Black Ox in there because of their obviously large fan bases and to try and recoup some of that money. But it's hilarious to

suggest that either those two teams deserve to be in this conversation given the way their seasons have gone. So the two teams that would miss if you went with this approach would be the Rangers and the coyotes now. Yeah. I know the Rangers fans would be upset, but let's be real. Everything so far this year has basically been gravy for them and they have lots to look forward to over the next couple years. So I think they'll be okay. And for the coyotes. I mean, all of a sudden, that top three protected pick heading into the lottery with Taylor Hall looms pretty large. Oh, yeah.

And as a sidebar, poor Taylor Hall, man. This is a tough one. Like, not only might you not get into the playoffs if they decide to not play the rest of regular season because of points percentage and the way that they decide to seed these teams. But then, you know, you're going to have teams with a flat salary cap or one that's gone down. and then you're also going to have roughly 10 minutes to make your decision because that's how long free agency is going to last.

It's not ideal when you're the bellow of the free agent ball what's going to happen this offseason. But, you know, I'm a, I listen, I would love playing games. I would love there to be some fairness for the teams that are on the bubble. This year in particular, it's a bit different because of how many teams are still very much in the hunt, you know, one, two points out, that sort of thing. the equitable thing to do would be to find a way to get them involved in the postseason without question. And as somebody who's in favor of playing games and play in series to begin with, Trojan horsing that into this postseason would be fine by me too. Except I don't think it's realistic.

I really, really believe there is absolutely no reason we should play the regular season. And part of that is that we don't know how much runway we have. We don't know how much time we have between the start of the post. season and what I hope to be the beginning of next season. And so I do think that it's a it's a bit polyanish to believe that we can have time for playing games and all this other stuff. And also you're trying to you're trying to uncomplicate arena availability too at this point. And then now you're adding in buildings, you know, and trying to find dates up against the NBA and up against concerts and stuff like that too. So the more you streamline it, the better it is.

And I think that sad as it is for the teams that are going to be left out in the cold, not having played the same number of games as others, seating the 16 teams by points percentage to me is probably the only idea that really makes sense. Well, I'm glad you bring up arena availability and the timeline because I have a solution for both of those. Go ahead. Okay, so we bring all, so let's say you have those playing games. You would have it down to 16 teams. And I do think you need to do something.

I think going by pure point percentage at this point, considering the sort of unique circumstances of, I think it's like the Jets, for example, where... The Jets and the Blue Jacks, they get boned. Yeah, and I get it. Like, they've technically extracted fewer points on a percentage basis out of the games they've played. I think, especially with the way that Canucks have been playing, for example,

it just seems silly to me to assume that those teams would have otherwise caught up and used those games in hand. I think Elliot Freeman wrote in his article about it where like I think there's going to be a lot of pushback from the players and those teams involved and it's going to lead to this whole other can of worms. But anyway, so let's say we would have it down to 16 teams. You have them all come to a neutral site. And the reason I'm doing this is because I think we really need to throw out this idea that you're going to be playing these games all across the country, all across North America, I guess, with full fans of 20,000 paying customers. I just don't think that's going to happen this season. So you come to a neutral site, you recede 1 through 16 because you have all 16 teams there.

So you just open it up. And then you have, and I know people listening to this podcast, I'm really excited about this. You host on national TV a draft where teams pick their opponents. Oh, God. That's the dumbest idea. Listen, you have to do it this way because- Why? Why do you have to do it this way?

If you're going 1 through 16, just do it by points percentage. No, but listen. What's the Here's the thing, go. Because if you're doing on a neutral site, there's no whole mice advantage. So you need to throw a bone to the fans to the teams to pick who they're going to play.

Great. And then, and then, you know, who's, who's winning for the president's trophy right now? Is it Boston? Yeah.

So they take 16. Yeah. And then, uh, the blues take, take 15. I mean, it is,

it is, I, I, I, one, what, the only, the only time that this idea ever is going to fly,

this picking your opponent's thing. And we've already, seen it in a pilot program in the minor leagues is if there's some level of catastrophic injury that affects a team right before the playoffs to the point where it's like they're goalie. Like if, you know, like the example I used to give is if Flurry got hurt, that doesn't really apply anymore because they have later. But you see what I'm saying. Otherwise, these are all cowards. Nobody's not taken the seed that they were supposed to play in the first round. It's just never going to happen. These people know that because of the intensity of the focus on the playoffs,

because of the pressure on their jobs, that's a fireable offense if the GM says, yeah, we're taking 15 instead of 16, and then 15 sweeps them in the first round. It's never going to happen. It's the dumbest idea. I hate it. Well, you're saying it's an NHL flaw, not a flaw with the idea. I'm saying it's a flaw in the idea in the sense that it completely ignores all of the outside forces, powers that force teams into these decisions. And completely it's sort of like pretending that sports is in a vacuum and that there isn't all this other stuff swirling around these decisions that are going to make these guys constantly not pick the team that you think they should pick because it might be a better matchup. They're always going to play it safe. Always going to play it safe. But see, this is where I disagree for this year alone,

because I think, you know, you're talking about how the rare case where it would work is if a team had an injury. I think the inverse is true here where there's so many players that are going to be coming back healthy, presumably by the time we're playing these games, that I do think your decision-making would change. For example, I don't know where, like, let's say Columbus currently stands

in terms of point percentage, but they're going to be presumably getting back, Seth Jones, Oliver Bjorkstra, and Cam Atkinson compared to where they were at these past couple weeks during the season. Same with the hurricanes with Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesci and Sammy Vatton and so on and so forth. I do think it's going to add this strategic element of there's going to be so many moving pieces coming back into the lineup that you actually are going to have to weigh it because I don't think point percentage gives an accurate representation of how good the teams actually are heading in. No, that's a fair point.

But at the same time, then you honestly believe that Boston would not take the lowest seed? I think they should take the Leafs regardless. I think it would be hilarious. We can agree on that. But, I mean. I get it. I know. I just think it's realistic.

Like, I understand that it's something that people would love because it would make great television. But again, we've, the times when teams would pick opponents. that they weren't seated to play when the, I think it was the Southern Professional Hockey League did this,

was because of injuries or because, in this league's case, travel considerations, and that's a minor league that doesn't have a lot of money, so that obviously doesn't affect anything in the NHL. The neutral site thing,

I'll give some mind to, but only in the sense that if we have to go with empty arenas, Yeah. That's probably the best solution. Well, especially if you're trying to jam games in and limit travel time, right? Like, I just think it'll kill you for no sense. That's probably the best solution is to just go.

If you have to do empty arenas, if we're not ready to go yet, is you just consolidate everybody in Toronto and do it there. And, you know, it's like the World Cup. It'll be very much like the World Cup because nobody will be in the stands, like, for early games. So at the very least, you'll have that. That's fine. But I just, I just. I'm just trying to have a bit of fun.

I know you want to have a bit of fun. If you want to have a bit of fun, do the playing games. That's fine. Playing games are cool. Like, let's do that. I mean, people are like, this is my exotic idea for this tournament. We're going to have 24 teams, and instead of seven game series, we're going to have five game series.

It's like, that's not an interesting idea. Like, the league needs to do something outside the box right now, both to actually make this happen because I think there's going to be a lot of challenges. But also, like, this is the one where it's like a time. capsule where there's this rare opportunity to do something fun and different if they are hell-bent on actually having a Stanley Cup playoffs this is it is it fun to do one through 16 is it fun to have well I think it would certainly at least answer questions and then maybe if it doesn't work out or if it winds up being the same otherwise then we can stop having these arguments about

it well I'm trying what I'm trying to say is like is it fun to have Boston play like Winnipeg in the first round rather than somebody in the eastern conference like is it more fun I mean I don't know. I mean, the 1 through 16 option was one that the players themselves told me that they've bandied about in meetings in the NHLPA. Like there's some interest in it from the PA perspective. But I still think that, you know, while I don't necessarily agree with the current playoff format because I think they broke something that wasn't, that tried to fix something that wasn't broken. I do agree that like fans by and large would rather see the Eastern teams play their Eastern rivals and so on and so forth than, you know, have. Yeah. Yeah. Like. I guess, like how many good, like, I know that Battle of Alberta was amazing this year, but realistically, like, I'm okay not seeing some of these same matchups over and over again. Maybe we can create different rivalries. Like, who, like, why not? I mean, I'm, I'm... No, I think there's something to that completely.

But then again, like, if you factor in, you'd have to fix the schedule then. Yeah. If you have an unbalanced schedule and you're creating rivalries between, you know, Winnipeg and Boston, like, you know, like it was Vancouver. from Boston back in the day in that series. That's great, but like, how great is that for business if they only come into town once? Like, that's, that's part of the rivalry mouth is that, you know, the Devils and the Rangers, the Rangers come to Jersey three or four times, you know, it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's a business decision too. True. But I do think it's, uh, like the flaw in the argument of, uh, you know, like the NHL wants everyone if by this proposed plan to have, play the same

number of regular season games so then they can go by point percentage or whatever or just the best teams, like the schedule is still going to be flawed, because what if in your final couple of games you had, like, the devils and the Red Wing is coming into town, and now you're not going to play those games, and instead you're going to play two tougher teams to round out your 72 games? Like, it's just going to be impossible to, I think there's ultimately going to be at least one or two kind of agree fan bases regardless of what we do this year. Yeah, I think, I think at the end of the day, it's just trying to figure out a way to get this

thing done. Like, I'm all for exciting ideas and thinking out. the box and trying to, you know, take the opportunity that we're given to do some different things. And I have full respect for anybody that wants to find a way to get the bubble teams involved in the playoffs. I do find it hilarious. I think it was, was it you or was it Vince that did the one through 30 playoff format in the roundtable? I think it was Vince. And what's great about it is he's like, we just let everybody who's mathematically alive into the playoffs. And it just so happens that there's only one team that's been eliminated. And so it gets us to

to a nice beautiful round number of 30 by not allowing Detroit in the playoffs. Basically, I'm with him. Any format that we create that doesn't have one of the single worst teams I've ever seen outside of first year expansion teams, as long as there's not Detroit somewhere in a postseason format, I think we're doing okay for ourselves. You know what would happen if we open it up to 1 through 30? The Los Angeles Kings, who I believe won seven games in a row or something heading into this break would win the Stanley Cup and it would really expose how stupid it is when people cite

you know intangibles is the reasons why great teams won Stanley Cups as opposed to just the total crapshoot where you just get hot for a couple weeks and win a number of games like I really think if we open up through one through 30 I I'm not entirely sure that a the Stanley Cup final would be representative of the two best teams in the league yeah no yeah I mean so I don't think the league wants that either though although I guess maybe Maybe, you know, they pride themselves. Their pride and joy is, uh, is parading this idea of parody. So maybe, uh, maybe they would like that.

That's, uh, it's definitely the thing they know how to sell. Okay. So what are, uh, what are some remaining kind of, uh, logistical questions or, um, maybe they're going to be unanswerable. Maybe we're going to have to wait to see for a couple weeks or a couple months, uh, whether it's, you know, the draft and the lottery and picks that have protections on them, whether it's, uh, debates about individual awards, old. players retiring, effects on contracts.

You can go any way you want. I know that the picks with protections on them is a thing. But again, like, they're just going to have to end the season. Like, it's an extraordinary circumstance. Maybe down the line when teams trade their first round picks and the back of their minds, they'll say, what if there's a pandemic? I don't know. But, like, the point is that I don't see any reason why.

teams that if they do like end the regular season and seed by points percentage why teams that finish out of the playoffs are going to have any sort of right to claim that they they don't have to give their first round pick away like right it's kind of black and white I'm sorry it's very unfair for everybody um so there's that as far as everything else logistically goes I imagine the draft is going to be done old school over the telephone uh in a hotel room maybe with all these guys So much. This year was in Montreal, too. I think everyone in the media was looking forward to that. Oh, it's going to be so much fun. I know. Oh, that's the other thing. That's the other thing we didn't talk about about that, that players plan on the text chain is, you could tell how good the players are, but how quickly they eliminated the 2021 All-Star game as part of the bargain. It's like the first, I was probably their starting point. What can we do to get rid of the All-Star game and then work our way back from that?

So we know of Etchen was in that text thread. Yeah. Exactly. So I'm sure the draft is going to be something where it's done in a hotel conference room or in a hotel. Back in the day, the famous Saro Tsuzumoto story from the Buffalo Sabres where the Punch Himlach invented a player and drafted him from the Tokyo Katanas. Look it up if you don't know the story. It's fantastic. He was able to do that because the draft, I think, was held over the phone that year.

So it's not unprecedented that they do this thing offsite and we just learn the results at some point or or see the results as they come in or what have you. The awards will all be pressed releases. Let's be honest. They're not going to Vegas for anything. So it's a bit of a shame because I do think it's trivial in the grand scheme of things, but this was probably as wide open a awards ballot or awards race as I could I could remember. right like i think if the jets made the playoffs i think hellabuck for the vesna would have been the biggest lock but considering how the uh the gms vote on that i think if the jets wound up missing out like it would be

wide open for rask or whoever else and pretty much every other award you could at least make an argument for a plan B there's very few kind of shoe in favorites as opposed to last year yeah and this is probably more of a question for uh professional hockey writers association president frank sarajevoly but i do wonder what this means for voting this year for the writers i mean like the for those who don't know there's a constant push pull between the ph wa and the n hl when it comes to these awards uh there's in my time in the organization there's always been a fear that the n hl will just take the awards voting away at some point um and uh and so i do wonder if writers will be involved in the process this year or if this is going to be a well hockey operations

decide logistically that the best thing to do will just be for us to pick the winners kind of kind of prospect yeah i mean it's a it's a tough one for the media members who uh based their player evaluations on the eye test and uh haven't gotten a certain player to come into town to watch them yet like it's how are they supposed to know whether that guy's good or not i mean it's not like there's any sort of statistical analysis out there that would show us yeah and again like i know that everybody you know lost their job and their relatives are sick but the n hl awards voting uh for real most important thing on on anybody's mind right now Well, we're trying to provide some entertainment here.

We're trying to get that distraction. You know what? I have been thinking of my big question, or I guess sometimes that question is kind of like a what-if. Like these teams, how they acted at the trade deadline in hindsight now is so fascinating to me. Like the a V's, I was kind of begrudging the fact that they didn't really trade a bunch of pieces for Chris Crider or something and really go for it with a rental because I thought their team was really good this year. but now you look at it it's like oh my god like maybe they maybe they dodge a bullet there whereas like you know same with the lightning i guess you know they made a point of getting coleman and goodrow who had an extra year on their deal so that extends the window for them it just this stuff as opposed to

the teams that purely just went for rentals this year obviously it's yeah it's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but if we're just kind of nerding out on hockey here and thinking about the ramifications of some of these contracts it's it's a big time sort of like historical what-if moment Yeah, and the term on some of these guys is now looking like a pretty smart move then, right? Like if can you imagine if we if Columbus last year was this year and this happened? Right. And took that swing. And then they were still out of the playoffs when all this this went down, which I mean at this point last season, they probably were.

I mean, they had to go on a hell of a run at the end just to get in. So man, can you imagine taking a swing for Duchyne and Panarin and Zingle and all of a sudden your season prematurely ends? you don't even get to, you know, taste the fruits of that labor. Oh, my God, that'd be nuts. But to speak to your point, that'd be, like, there's probably some scenarios to a lesser extent than that, but they're probably out there for sure. All right. Well, let's get out of here.

So what are you working on these days? How are you occupying your time? What should people be reading and watching if they all of a sudden have a bunch of extra free time on their hands and they're sitting at home wondering what to do? Well, Emily and I have been kind of, like, noodling through the way this is going to work. And I know for a fact that like the first week pretty much that we've been out, which has been this week, it's been really busy. There's a lot of calls you need to make, just touch base with people. There's a lot of writing to be done.

I mean, you know, we did three hours, I think, of a podcast taping on Tuesday, talking to some really interesting people that have been affected by this in the hockey world. And then there's been stories every day to write. I mean, the column I wrote this week was about, you know, what to do. giving you a week of hockey when there's no hockey. My story on the ECHL and SBHL, canceling their seasons, came out on Friday. The first week's been pretty busy as far as like just kind of tracking down stories and writing about the impact of this thing on a global level. You know, week two might be a little bit more of that.

I think in week three is when we're going to start kind of like dabbling in the, what I would, you know, call a summer story. And, you know, more distractionary sort of, you know, pie in the school. guy stuff. And I know for a fact that there are going to be some classic games. I believe coming, well, I shouldn't say I know for a fact, I believe there's going to be some classic games

coming to ESPN Plus. And I've seen some, you know, prospective lists of that and they're pretty exciting. Because we do have a lot of games in our archives that we own the footage for. And so that'll be fun. And then I think there's a number of different

sort of projects that we have sort of boiling right now that'll be a pretty as well. I have a huge story that's really good. And I reported it out and it involves interviews with 25 players. And I'm hoping that drops maybe next week. I know it was scheduled for this week. And then we pulled it because we didn't want it to get lost in what was happening. And who knows if there's ever a good time to run something where it doesn't get lost in what's happening. But I'm really proud of it. And I can't wait for you guys to read it. I'll let you know when it drops. And it could be as early as next week.

You know what? I'm going to be doing on this show over the next couple weeks. What's that? I'm stealing the ringers rewatchables plan, and I'm going to be watching some old hockey games and deep dive and them with various guests. I've got to get you on for a classic Devils game. You can be of your choosing. I think we're doing a facsimile of that for ESPN, but I know for Puck Soup, I should mention, I should mention that as far as I know, both the podcasts are still going.

You know, and in Puck Soup's case, I think we have a little bit more. control over that than in the other case. But like in Puck Soup's case, it's, we were talking before about like, you know, how conditioned are you to work at home? Well, how conditioned is our dumb podcast to not talk about what's actually happening right now? Very conditioned at. Yeah, not having games and stuff. I mean, you know, when you, when you have, Down Goes Brown on your podcast, it's a very good

chance. It's going to take a sharp turn into nostalgiaville anyway. Right. So I think there's going to be some sort of, if you're familiar with the podcast, you're familiar with the Patreon that we do, our bonus episodes are very sort of like single topic focused. So I think as the,

as Puck's Soup sort of continues and thrives and, and pushes on, you're going to see sort of like the news of the day wrapped around a single topic of, of some, some nostalgic import. So everyone's thrown everything at the wall to see what sticks and

there's no right or wrong thing. And I just, at the very least, it's a good, it's a good check on, creativity and it's a good check on and how how and the things that you're doing and and you know how perfunctory does your work get sometimes when you're this deep into the season and maybe it's good to kind of hit the breaks and try to do something different just maybe for your own uh journalistic edification

all right man well this was a blast i'm glad we got to do this it was a uh you know the first 10 minutes there we're kind of getting real but the final 30 i really okay it was a well needed it was a well-needed distraction from you. I actually started thinking about hockey for a bit. So hopefully people listening felt the same way. And I'm glad we got to do this. Greg, stay safe, wash your hands, keep listening to people out there. And we'll hopefully be able to chat again sometime down the road. Absolutely. And again, like I think the big revelation for me is that there are other times other than when you poo when you should be washing your hands. This is, again, this is mind blowing for me. So I, if nothing else, that that's the life lesson I'll

take away from this. Before we get out of here, I just wanted to touch on a couple of housekeeping notes for those that were wondering sort of what the status of the show is and what you can expect moving forward. As I hinted towards the end of the show with Greg there, we do have some really fun projects in the works here for the PDOCast that I've been working on over the past week or so, and we should be starting them next week. So we will be first off re-watching the 2009 Game 7 classic with the Red Wings and the Penguins with Craig Custins. We've got Chris Johnson coming on to do the It Was 4-1, Game 7, Leaves, Bruins, 2013. So those are just a couple samples of a series of games we've got coming down the road,

and we're going to test out some sort of show ideas and categories and topics. And obviously, you open the floor to the audience. So if you have any suggestions for what we should do moving forward, I'm really looking forward to hearing that as well. Yeah, so now is a good time to, show love to others and help support the things you care about. I'm going to not only keep doing shows, but I've got that mega project in the works. I think people are going to enjoy it.

I think in the meantime, what you can really do to help out the P.D. cast on myself is go and rate and review the show. Five stars go a long way. Click the links, listen to old episodes, tell others you think that might enjoy it to subscribe. All of that goes a long way. And I really appreciate it. I know that this is a really tough time for a lot of you. Everyone's dealing with their own stuff.

You've got a million different things. You're bouncing around your mind. You're sitting at home. And so hopefully that this show can serve as, you know, an hour or so of relative normalcy where you just get back to thinking about hockey and the stuff you enjoy as opposed to all the craziness that's going out there in the world. And in the meantime, I really hope everyone out there is staying safe, washing their hands, social distancing, doing your part to help make sure that you're not spreading needless risk.

and taking care of those around you, and we're going to get through this. So thanks for listening to today's show, and we'll be back next week with that project, and I'm looking forward to putting it out there and hearing from you guys. So until then, please stay safe, and we will chat soon.

The Hockey P.DOCAST with Dmitri Filipovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovich and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockey pdfast. Thank you.