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Commieda - Tougie's Take Podcast (4/1/24)
130 Plays1 year ago
- The Fella's are back to talk all about the good and bad in the world of hockey!
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Transcript
Introduction and Social Acknowledgments
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome everybody to another edition of the Tukey's Take podcast. We are back again and it's us, the guys, the fellas, your hockey friends. I am joined alongside Mr. Sim for the win. Yes. And returning and Dorrance. Happy Easter. Jesus is risen and trans lives matter.
NHL E-Sports Event Critique
00:00:27
Speaker
there you go so okay like well let's start there why not the first and foremost you missed the show last week where we talked about NHL e-sports because you're under the weather and stuff like that stressful times for our boy but he's still here and we love my thoughts under the YouTube video basically it comes down to
00:00:48
Speaker
your, your, your appearance for an event that determines how things are going to go. There are a lot of stuff happening with that event and how it's been run that are questionable. I think the partnership with them doing dream hack, if we're talking about last week, if you missed last week's show, we talked about how they had GWC North American finals.
00:01:07
Speaker
in the showroom floor of a NHL storefront with shitty fanatics jerseys in the background. And I think there was like a loop of a guy trying to grab a shark's jersey, just B roll of a guy trying to look at a shark's jersey for the like a good little bit. That's what Deak was saying on Twitter at Deak Slayer.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, if your presentation and the periods and promotion of your product is subpar, you're going to have a subpar experience. Forget the fact that there are several facilities that are available that probably are available throughout the entire year, not to mention Monumental Sports, the parent company of the Washington Capitals, having a brand new state-of-the-art esports center for their
00:01:51
Speaker
caps basketball team with the NBA 2K league and just a general state-of-the-art facility that's been used for multiple things. Not to mention Toronto's Red Bull Gaming Studio, which has had multiple events by Leafs Gaming, which ran an amazingly better run event than what GWC was.
Easter Anecdotes and Traditions
00:02:12
Speaker
Like, they didn't have gaming chairs, they just had fold-up chairs. Like, it was bad. Anyways, to move on from that, Easter. God, let's not get into that, though. Easter. That's all I had seen this weekend was the fake outrage over how, oh, now they scheduled Trans Awareness Day on Easter.
00:02:38
Speaker
It's on the same day every year. Yeah, you know, fools, guys, every every year they've done it for since 2009. It's been a day. Yeah. So this did you guys have anything good or fun happen this weekend as opposed to any of that nonsense? I know not really like lunch. Nothing too remarkable.
00:03:05
Speaker
Sin and I played pro clubs and both wanted to jump out of a window. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. That was one of those nights. Endo, you just have fun every week anyway. We don't even have to get into those details. You just have fun all the time. Yeah, my life is a fucking zoo, dude. I feel like Harambe about to get fucking shot.
00:03:26
Speaker
My parents brought over Easter eggs with candy and chocolate inside there, so that was good. We had a good nice feast. My mom cooked up a bunch of lamb ribs. What else do we eat? Yeah, we ate the sacrificial lamb. You tasted great. Marinated for three days in a cave and rose above into my stomach. It's a Jesus joke. It is. Jesus joke. But no, it's been a good week. God damn it.
00:03:57
Speaker
laugh. If you couldn't tell everybody, it's going to be one of those episodes.
Hockey's Troubling Aspects and Legal Issues
00:04:07
Speaker
But like I said, we, um, I think I said this, if I didn't, hey, it is one of those. We actually, excuse me, have a lot of hockey to talk about kind of. And as per usual with hockey, we have the good, the bad, the mostly bad, because it's mostly bad, but there's some good.
00:04:26
Speaker
in there and gentlemen you want you want to start off with the bad side just to get it out of the way the good the bad and the racist yeah so Rick Westhead top actual reporter and journalist
00:04:44
Speaker
in the hockey world, had two stories in the past couple of days. The first relating to the lovely Chicago hockey team, noting that a lawyer for a second John Doe, of course, the first was identified as Kyle Beach, that is suing the Chicago Blackhawks after, especially to the Blackhawks, tried to say,
00:05:10
Speaker
You know, the statute of limitations has passed. You can't sue us for this anymore. And a judge said, LOL, you're no, you're not getting away with that bullshit. The second John Doe has stated that he plans, you know, his defense or his defense team, but his lawyers plan to subpoena Kyle Beach to testify.
00:05:30
Speaker
You know, a trial in this instance won't happen until mid-2026 at the earliest. So, you know, at that time, Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrating will have the Hawks back in the playoffs. And, yeah, remember, remember when this story first broke and everyone was talking about how this isn't going to go away? It's not going away. It's still ongoing because Jesus Christ, it's a multi-layered thing.
00:05:57
Speaker
It's okay because they didn't work out a prospect earlier than they were supposed to. Fuck you, coyotes. The other thing, though, because what more can be said about the Chicago hockey team at this point, is what Endo was referring to, and Jesus Christ.
00:06:17
Speaker
The Ontario Minor Hockey Association. Endo, can you explain what the OMHA is for those who have never heard of it before, like Sin as of two minutes ago? So the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, OMHA,
00:06:34
Speaker
Not Omaha. Omaha is basically the governing body of minor hockey in Ontario, hence the name. They cover basically everything from, I believe, junior A and below, because that's their minor hockey. They basically run the show and talk about, not talk about everything, but they
00:06:57
Speaker
They're the guys who cover everything. If you want to do hockey in Ontario, it has to be sanctioned through them unless it's unsanctioned and yeah. They're a mess. Like a lot of things in Ontario, it's messy. I will say that. The OMHA suspended an under 18 player.
00:07:19
Speaker
last week after an investigation corroborated an allegation that the player said uh good job black boy n-word to another player he was suspended oh go ahead go ahead yeah now now here's the here's the kicker as tokyo was gonna say he was suspended for seven games not only that
00:07:43
Speaker
Because of Ontario has the Minor Protection Act, the name of the ensuing person who committed the act is protected. Meanwhile, the victim also got a seven game suspension. Correct. For responding back and calling him a racist piece of shit.
00:08:03
Speaker
Correct. Huh? Now, here's the kicker. Here's the kicker on that was the kicker. Yeah, this is the sixth time this has happened to this player this season. The sixth time. Yeah.
00:08:21
Speaker
Endo knew more about this than I thought he did, so I'm glad. To read this excerpt from Rick Westhead's story, Jordan Jacobs, the under 18 new Hamburg junior Firebirds defenseman who was targeted with a racial slur, responded by calling the other player a racist piece of shit. Jacobs was also suspended for seven games.
00:08:42
Speaker
Jacob's mother Patty told me this was the sixth time this season her son has been the target of a racial slur during a hockey game. This is Westhead speaking after I emailed the OMHA about this on Friday. The Association on Saturday reduced Jordan's suspension to three games.
00:09:00
Speaker
and an email, and an email on Saturday to the New Hamburg Hockey Association, OMHA. Executive Director Ian Taylor wrote that the OMHA has a, quote, zero tolerance for discriminatory slurs of any kind. We have also been consistent throughout this year in trying to discourage any form of retaliation from our participants that involve derogatory or disrespectful behavior or language. Sixth time, setting in suspension.
00:09:30
Speaker
There's no information about if this is the first time this person's done it no information about this is a recurring thing from this player But the league at the After after a certain point, it's not a one-off thing. It's targeting. Yeah It's it's disgusting. Not only that just targeting to begin with the way he said it good job black boy and work
00:09:59
Speaker
I mean, I can say it. I'm not going to say it though. Right. Like English is not, like that's not even a proper sentence or usage of it. Did you expect anything more though? That just sounds like he just did it because he knows he gets under the guy's skin. Of course we don't have the guy's skin, it's a slur. But it sounds like literally no purpose for it just to throw it in there.
00:10:26
Speaker
The mother of Jordan Jacobs, Patty, had this quote. It's been heartbreaking. The one positive has been how many people in our organization have been supportive of Jordan finally using his voice. But then look what happens. He uses his voice instead of violence, and he still gets seven games, again, since reduced to three. Like the biggest take. It took her speaking out. It took her having an issue with it. Otherwise, it's
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and literally like the two aspects to this is one, he used his voice instead of cross-checking this guy in the fucking head, which is the least he deserved, still gets in trouble. And literally their policy is, it's like fucking high school or even middle school. Oh, you struck back against your bully, but well, we can't have you hitting people either, so you're also suspended.
00:11:23
Speaker
like it's just incredible that people still think that that's that's a proper way to handle this like literally he was handed initially the same suspension for being disrespectful towards the racist
00:11:41
Speaker
that's like in high school where like you're getting bullied and they're not in high school like in elementary we're getting bullied it's like well maybe he's got a rough time at home it's like no it's been found that bullies are literally the most confident ever in getting away with their actions
00:11:59
Speaker
This dude's probably said some other crazy ass shit beforehand. And I hate hearing all the replies being like, well, this guy, he listens to like a bunch of music that says the M word. Well, it's different because certain artists use those words as empowerment. And in this situation, the word is being used derogatory. Fuck if derogatory is a word, but the context, it is the context of the word is in a derogatory sentence. Fuck this shit. Like,
00:12:29
Speaker
The amount of stories I've heard in Ontario. Also, how do they know what his music library says? They just assume he listens to rap because he's black. Well, it's like Jesus, like the Akimalu story.
Privilege and Accessibility in Hockey
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah. Where literally the coach is just like, oh, I won't have you listening to that. That Edward music in my locker room. Yeah, that Edward music in my Jesus. Again,
00:12:58
Speaker
Obviously the biggest takeaways from this is Jesus Christ, like this aspect of hockey culture. And make no mistake, it's an aspect of hockey culture. Like yes, there are racists and racism in every fucking sport and every walk of life, but certainly hockey has a big time issue with it. You know, you're talking about a sport, like the biggest talking point over the last week, and we don't have to talk about this and we won't, was the Andrew Berkshire take on Zach Hyman.
00:13:29
Speaker
That was the biggest story of the week in the biggest hockey games. The hockey world collectively just decided we're gonna fucking dunk on Andrew Berkshire whose take was Zach Hyman's not an underdog story because he comes from a rich family. Which horrible delivery on his part. Oh man. I kind of get what he was saying though.
00:13:54
Speaker
Because essentially, if you're going to label Zach Hyman an underdog, he's the underdog of some of the most advantaged people in sports, right? Like we all know the hierarchy of hockey and that it is.
00:14:08
Speaker
Predominantly a sport for people who grew up with money. There are exceptions to the rule You know, I asked about this on Twitter like that was my big takeaway is like, okay Well, who are the actual underdogs people mentioned like Wayne Simmons and talk about his past and stuff like that Wayne Simmons was the ultimate fucking underdog because not only did you not come from a rich family came from a black family and in hockey like that's
00:14:32
Speaker
I mean, Christ, that's playing professional hockey player on fucking extreme difficulty mode. And he did it. Wayne Simmons is the fucking man. But, you know, that was that was the biggest thing is it's like you're talking about the biggest story in hockey inherently being about how difficult of a sport it is to break into. And then you go into a situation like this with all the other shit that goes on.
00:15:00
Speaker
Like I said, I can't imagine trying to have a hockey podcast right now where you're just like, hey, let's not talk about any of the negative shit, even if it's, um, negative shit, like the entire hockey world dunking on one individual for a take on Twitter. But man, I will say Bert, Berkshire, um,
00:15:22
Speaker
doubling down was hilarious. I think the best part about it was he was like, I'm going to put a graph out for like, um, you may make a graph with like Crayola crayons. And I think everyone just fucking went with it. It was, uh, like props to props, Andrew Berkshire for like sticking to his guns and his morals and his belief on that. But like, dude,
00:15:47
Speaker
everyone went on him also noted goats and their curious joseph came from a group home there you go yeah you you know it's um you know what's rough when elliot freedman is dunking on you on twitter yeah um yeah like i said i mean that was really kind of the biggest hawking point of the week was the whole
00:16:10
Speaker
Zach Hyman, underdog, coming from a rich family thing. But again, it's one of those things where, just at a base level, again, we know this, hockey is a very money-oriented sport in terms of people getting into it. You could have picked better timing because Zach Hyman's had a great season. The funny thing is I don't disagree with Andrew Berkshire about him not being an underdog, because he's not.
00:16:40
Speaker
In the context of hockey, he is. In the context of life, he is not. Is he though in the context of hockey? Yes. In the context of pure hockey, a fifth round pick or whatever he was, becoming a 50 goal score. He's an underdog in the same way Pavelski was an underdog.
00:17:02
Speaker
and turned into Captain America. You have to look at it in a vacuum, essentially, and then, yeah, he's an underdog. But in life, hell no. You have to be privileged to play ice hockey in the first place. You have to be privileged to be able to even play in leagues. We've seen the ridiculous numbers of just fees that you have to pay to pay in a league, not to mention all of the equipment and stuff like that.
00:17:28
Speaker
Every single person who plays hockey as a kid, ice hockey in those greater areas with an opportunity to work your way to the NHL is privileged. But once you're there, you know.
00:17:47
Speaker
Then then there's a whole other, you know, spectrum of who has it and who doesn't. But yeah, to get there, you all have to have it beyond that to make the NHL as a fifth round pick. Yeah, in that in that vein, in that small, tiny percentile group, he is an underdog. But yeah, no, I completely understand Berkshire's point. It's just that he could have said it much better. And then also no one is going to fucking hear you in the hockey world.
00:18:15
Speaker
That's the other thing. You should you should just not say that because no one's going to hear you. Yeah, I think that's another aspect of it, too. Right. It's like you're you're fighting a losing battle. Yeah. No one wants to talk about the issues with hockey or what you have to do to be hockey. They just want to glorify it. Yeah. Yeah. Fellas, do you know how much it costs to put a kid through double AAA hockey right now? 50K a year. Take a wild guess. I will use American dollars to make it easier for you guys. 50,000 a year.
00:18:45
Speaker
$10,000 minimum. I saw a number like 50K somewhere. Might just depend on the area then, yeah. Might depend on the area and the team. And there's also playing for your local team. There could be a travel team and all this shit and all that. Now, we talked about this a few years ago on the podcast. I think right when I started coming around. The amount of money people are making in minor hockey as coaches.
00:19:11
Speaker
at least in Ontario from what I've seen firsthand is insane. What you'll have is guys getting under the table, bunch of money, cash, whatever the fuck it is. There are guys who are coaching minor hockey, getting like full on salaries, like almost to the digit of six figures.
00:19:29
Speaker
not like former NHLers, like that's kind of understand because you know, they have the experience, they have the knowledge of being in the show, a good resume, a good repertoire. But I'm seeing guys who are like dads of teams having like coaching like three different squads in the same organization and they're making like $40,000 to $60,000 flat out and still having a regular day job or whatever.
00:19:55
Speaker
The cost or entry for House League itself. When I was growing up, House League cost me about $3, $400 for the season. You'd get from September all the way till March, so that's about, what, six, seven months?
00:20:15
Speaker
So times that by four, so that's 28 months, 28, 29 games, guaranteed to go through. And you'd get a jersey, you'd get your team, you'd get all that, it'd be perfectly fine.
00:20:26
Speaker
Now, minor hockey housing itself is around $800 to $1,000 at least in Canada, at least in Ontario and Toronto where I live. That is insane. Obviously, rate of inflation and all that stuff, but the gear itself is kind of getting cheaper because everyone's getting used to stuff. It's not a secret that hockey is expensive.
00:20:45
Speaker
one of the most expensive sports in the world to play. Whether it's buying you stuff or getting brand new stuff, it's like not a secret to literally anybody. The way this was executed by Berkshire. Great idea, but instead of harbing down the one player who kind of beat the odds while still having a technical advantage with his dad essentially being the reason why,
00:21:12
Speaker
Minor hockey in Ontario is super profitable for some people. He was still able to make it to the league and do everything. He had every advantage he could have in terms of getting scouted, playing, but when it came pushed the shop to, you know, show his talent and everything, he did. And I think that's the reason why people defend Zach Hyman and his skill or, quote unquote, lack thereof or his improvement.
00:21:36
Speaker
Like there's been interviews about Zach Hyman during his time with the Edmonton Oilers. And they're saying he's the hardest working guy on the ice. Like if you look at his first year in Toronto versus how he's playing now, great. Granted, he has McDavid on his line mate, everything at that. He looks night and day, 100% different of a player than he was when he first started the NHL. His hand-eye coordination,
00:21:58
Speaker
Great. Stick handling massively improved. Like I saw him at the Toronto Edmonton game. He was just like hands looked like butter completely. So. So again, there are aspects of hockey that aren't so fun to talk about, but you know, worth mentioning, certainly.
00:22:23
Speaker
It's tough, right? Because you want to balance it out with some of the more positive aspects of it and even like, you know, it'd be nice for me to just be like, oh yeah, hey, and we can talk about the NCAA tournament and well, you may have lost and that's a shame, but hey, they had a good season. But stuff like this and reports like this from Rick Westhead ring a little bit more loud as they should and are a little bit more important than results of individual games.
Shift to Baseball and Player Decisions
00:22:53
Speaker
And like I said, it's one of those things in other sports, there are similar issues there, certainly. Speaking of other sports really quickly, before we transition to talking about some fun hockey things, baseball is back. And you know what's funny? Because for me as a Red Sox fan, not expecting much of the season. For Endo as a Blue Jays fan,
00:23:19
Speaker
Basically the same thing as the Leafs. I hope they do well, but probably not expecting it. Kill me. Here you go. And for Sin, we've talked about in the history of this podcast how he's a fan of the athletics and the tragedy that has befallen the Oakland athletics in the form of their ownership group over the last while. So...
00:23:44
Speaker
Athletics fans like only a couple of thousand went to the first series There were a lot more people like protesting in the parking lot like we're gonna go to the game But we're not gonna go to the game cuz fuck you. Yeah The athletics today. Oh God what they do? Oh So they optioned a player by the name of Esteri Ruiz to AAA Now Esteri Ruiz
00:24:14
Speaker
is a 25-year-old outfielder, played with the A's a lot last year at an okay season. To start off this year with the athletics in that first series of the year, he was batting so far this season, 429. Nice. With an outrageous 1.232 OPS, which is anything over a one is absurd. Yes.
00:24:44
Speaker
They just sent him down to AAA. Like they're just fucking unserious. Like three hits and seven at bats and RBI has stolen base. I mean, a great, a great start in his first couple of games against Cleveland. And they're just like, nah, fuck you, you're going down.
00:25:13
Speaker
Oh, God, it's I'm sorry, but I saw that. I'm just like, I can't. I just yeah, because I know since interest in baseball has been massively hit because of shit like this, it's just. Yeah. To actively watch a team like we talk about tanking and hockey or whatever. Oh, no, that's not tanking compared to what the at the moment, the still Oakland athletics.
00:25:40
Speaker
are currently doing. Who knows how much longer they'll even be in Oakland. They can't even get the move to Vegas, right? Yeah, they still don't have anything set in stone there. People make fun of the coyotes. I know. At least they're actively trying. Yeah.
00:25:57
Speaker
So sorry to bring that up, but that just caught my attention. I did watch a fair amount of baseball this weekend. It's fun to have it back along with the show being out and stuff like that. But Jesus Christ, the athletics are an absolute disaster. There's just no other way to put it. But with that, gentlemen,
Austin Matthews' Achievements and Comparisons
00:26:18
Speaker
Let's have some fun with hockey, for once. Sorry, I just got a spam call. That's why I had to mute my mic and everything. You answer spam calls? It was great. Did you answer the spam call? I did, yeah. He was like, hello, how are you doing today? We're with Freedom Mobile. I'm like, hey.
00:26:39
Speaker
Hi, it's like, how much money are you getting paid for your bill? We can give you 30% off. And I'm like, shouldn't you have my number on, shouldn't have my bill on file? And he's like, yeah, but I need to know like, how much are you paying? I'd say, can you send me the information instead? Cause I need to show this in like a scam. He's like, what? Like just emailed in the information, you know, you have my number, email me that thing on file. It's like, thank you for, no worries. And we'll just have a nice day. I'm like, exactly. Yeah. And I just hung up. Owning the spam callers. Yeah. Derren Sam.
00:27:10
Speaker
Don't mess with them. Let's have some fun on the hockey side of things here, shall we? First and foremost, Austin Matthews became just the ninth player in NHL history to have multiple 60-goal seasons. How many of the other eight can you guys name? Ugh.
00:27:41
Speaker
You don't want to like the quiz stuff, but if you don't like it this time, it's okay. No, I'm trying to recover from the beginning of this episode still. I know, I'm sorry. It's never easy, it's never fun, but I feel like it, you know, again. See how I'm so numb to it, I can just continue right on after. You're lucky. You can totally tell who's hella deal with this for like 26 years now, kind of thing.
00:28:09
Speaker
It's great. Uh, not the beach stuff. Thank God. Multiple six seasons. Yes. Yeah. Racism. It sucks. It sucks, right? Yeah. If only you could feel an ounce has to be one of them. Gretzky is tied for first with five 60 goals. Um, I'm going to say Mario. Yeah. Lemieux is tied for third technically with four 60 goals seasons. Uh,
00:28:38
Speaker
Taimou was up there. His first one was 70. I believe he hit 60 one other time in his career. He never hit 60 again. Holy shit. Isn't that fucking insane? God damn. That's nuts. Okay, so no Taimou. In his rookie season, Taimou Zalani hit 76 goals.
00:28:58
Speaker
His career high from there was 52 in the 97, 98 season. So we hit 50 goals three times, but never hit 60 again after his rookie year. I can't believe it. I thought for sure. Uh, did Brett whole liver ever do it? Yes. Three times. In fact, for, okay. So I got, yeah, Wayne, Mario, Brett, the golden Brett, um,
00:29:24
Speaker
We went. Who's who's fucking Canadian, by the way? Just going to point that out there. Brett holds Canadian. We don't want him. He was born in Canada. He only ever played for USA because he was salty that he has left off the Canadian team once. Yeah. Yeah, straight. Yeah. Shit. It's not a lie. It's Canadian. Yeah. Oh, man. I don't know.
00:29:51
Speaker
Hmm? Madonna did, right? Never. Oh, shit. Never. Multiple 60 goals. Because I know he's the top American scorer of all time. Right. Is he still or did Patrick came top? No, I'm pretty sure it's still Madonna. Hold on. Let's see. Go ahead, keep guessing. Fuck. How many others? Six, nine. Oh, so there's eight others. I only got three. Was Jager ever?
00:30:18
Speaker
never did it either yeah i didn't think so but that i was like fuck me man so for the record bossy bossy had to do it bossy is time five times yeah yeah i'm like of course i know this once
00:30:33
Speaker
No, so I already did it once, but never because you miss what the whole conversation that we just had. Yeah, it was something he's taken more spam calls. It's fine. For the record, in terms of the U.S. point getters, it is Hull, Madonna and then Patrick Kane. So Madonna and then Kane. Yeah. So Hall at 1391, Madonna at 1374 and then Kane at 1278.
00:31:00
Speaker
In terms of goals, it is Hull with 741, Madonna with 561, then Kachuk, Ronak, Joe Mullen, Pavelski, Pat Lafontaine, and then Patrick Kane. So, Joe Pavelski better than Patrick Kane confirmed. Damn right. There is someone tied with Mario Lemieux four 60-goal seasons in his career. Noted Boston Bruin.
00:31:30
Speaker
Ew. Bobby Orr. Just kidding. Bobby Orr getting 60 goals. That'd be insane. If you imagine. Is that Esposito? It is Phil Esposito. Okay. See, I don't know anything about that guy besides 60s. He was really good. Yeah, he was good. And he's played for Boston. What is that? We got five now? Wayne, Mario. So you are missing three. Each of these guys did it twice. All of them.
00:31:57
Speaker
from the late 80s into the 90s. Yeah. That's a tough one. Late 80s into the 90s. Okay. Trying to think of the dynasties back then. I already hit an islander player. Two of them were a part of dynasties. One was a part of a Canadian franchise that went to a Stanley Cup but never won it.
00:32:25
Speaker
I'm sure did Beret do it? Papa Beret did it twice. Okay. Sure did. And your hints for the other two, Edmonton and Detroit. Did Stevie Y really hit 60 goals twice? Holy shit. Cause I remember he was in a prolific point score and then he took kind of a step back to be a more complete player. I had no idea. Okay. That's crazy. Well, good guess then that oiler for the other one, huh?
00:32:55
Speaker
So Steve Eisenman, yeah. In 1989 and 1990, back to back 60 goals seasons, he hit 50 goals five times. What if it's just fucking McSorley cause he's played with Wayne. Marty McSorley. Yeah. However, sin close to your heart is this player. Hasn't oiler. I don't know of any oiler close to my heart. You might regret that statement in a couple of months.
00:33:29
Speaker
The final player of the bunch is Yari Curry. Damn. Why the hell would I? He's he's from Finland. Oh, oh, oh, I see. I see. I thought you're referencing the sharks like it was kind of sharks. I'm like, what the fuck is it going to work for the sharks? Yari Curry. Yeah, that makes sense. Damn. Well, I honestly, I did pretty good. I did pretty well. Seven out of six and a half. So again, Matthews has done this twice already.
00:34:00
Speaker
He is very much now, like we always bring up like, oh, the Conor McDavid stats. And then we joke about like how crazy Wayne Gretzky is. Like Austin Matthews is in that conversation now at this point. Like there's still all the anxiety in regards to the Leafs fan base and whether or not they'll get it done to the playoffs and whatever. But Austin Matthews now has two 60 goal seasons in his last three years.
00:34:27
Speaker
His lowest goal scoring output was his age 20 season in 2017, 18, where he scored 34 goals. That's like when McDavid scored 97 that one year in the COVID season. In terms of like these milestone conversations in regards to again, mentioning Conor McDavid, we're gonna be mentioning Austin Matthews just as much. You know, I just mentioned like the top American point getters and goal scorers.
00:34:57
Speaker
The crazy thing is, he's not all that far off. In terms of his current rank for American point getters, he is already 45th
00:35:15
Speaker
Ahead of the likes of other active players, JT Miller and James Van Reamsdyk. Ahead of guys like David Legwand, who played over 1100 games in his career. He's not that far back of other guys who played a thousand games in their career, like Brian Smolinski, Jamie Langenbrunner. He keeps up at this pace. He'll crack top 40 next season. He's currently 40 points back of Kevin Hatcher.
00:35:43
Speaker
who put up 677 points. So I mean, he's going to be, he was a defenseman. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of goals, Matthews is already 15th all time amongst American players in NHL history.
00:35:58
Speaker
Uh, four more to tie Peter McNabb at number 14. Um, and then you're talking about once he gets into the 400 club, uh, which will be next season, most likely he'll be chasing down guys like John Leclerc, Phil Kessel, Tony Imani, and then Bill Guerin at 429 to crack the top 10. That's so crazy.
00:36:19
Speaker
I mean, like, again, you look at these numbers and it's like he already has more goals than like Brian Ralston, who played in 1200 career games. He has more goals than Max Patcheready, Dustin Brown, Blake Wheeler, TJ Oshie, Chris Crider, Jason Palminville.
00:36:38
Speaker
It's just he's unbelievable. That's the only way to put it It's just obviously For some people it's gonna be very difficult to fully appreciate what he's doing because all the pressure on the Leafs is playoff success the big contracts so on and so forth but Yeah, Austin Matthews just an unbelievable player and to that point I saw another stat in regards to Matthews
00:37:04
Speaker
He now has the most career goals of anybody drafted since 2010. He was drafted in 2016. That's so stupid. That is a Connor McDavid, Wayne Gretzky-esque stat. Yeah. He has 359 goals in 553 games played, which is 0.65 goals per game.
00:37:31
Speaker
The next highest rates are David Posternock, who was drafted in 2014 at a 0.52, and Connor McDavid, who was drafted in 2015 at a 0.52. And then you have other guys in the mix, like, as you would expect, guys drafted in 2010, Jeff Skinner, Tyler Sagan are up there, Dreyseidl's up there from the 2014 class, McKinnon from 2013, and then a trio from 2011, Kutraff, Shifley, Savannah, Jett.
00:38:00
Speaker
and he has more goals than all of them. And obviously as a result of significantly higher goals per game pace. He's insane. And funny enough, the guy that has him beat from 2009, John Tavares. It wasn't for John Tavares that since 2010 would be even further back. It'll be further back soon enough. If he keeps going. And it's funny because there was a comment here.
00:38:29
Speaker
Someone asking, he has to be the greatest leaf of all time now, right? He obviously has more years to play to fill out the stat sheet, but I'd take him over Sundeen. He's the most talented. Greatest carries more weight, I think. That was the response. He's certainly the most talented, not sure about the greatest yet. Yeah.
00:38:48
Speaker
I don't think anybody can disagree with that too. I remember when it was announced that they won the draft lottery and Steve Dangle had his freak out video about holy shit they have a number one pick and it's somebody like Austin Matthews.
00:39:01
Speaker
You know, you talk about the, you know, the greats of Leafs history. The problem is, you know, it's like you do have guys like Matt Sundeen or Borya Salming, Darryl Sittler. But with those guys, I mean, with the greatest Leafs, like you're talking about guys, Sittler's case played in the seventies and eighties. Talking about disappointing teams around those great people. And unfortunately right now it's the same thing for Matthews.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, funny how that works out, isn't it? Unless you're a Leafs fan, it might not be very funny. No, yeah. Yeah. It's great. A big shout out to Austin Matt. He's going to break whatever goal record exists by the end of his career. It's either going to be Gretzky's or Ovi's and he's going to break it.
00:39:50
Speaker
I don't disagree. We talked about this, I think a couple of shows ago where we were just looking, we looked at Ovi's stats and how we were kind of surprised he only had that 160 goal season. But he's scored 50 a bunch of times and like Matthews is just scoring at a higher rate than him.
00:40:09
Speaker
and we thought the OV, you know, greatest goal scorer of all time, he may turn out to be, but he's just gonna be surpassed by Matthews, and that torch is gonna be passed. And who knows who's gonna come along? Who knows what Bedard is gonna turn out to be? It could be a quick fucking turnaround of, you know, all of a sudden, Bedard's gonna be putting these, what if he gets two 70-goal seasons? Like, I'm just excited to see where the NHL will go in that case, and it's really, really horrible that we can't just focus on all that cool stuff.
00:40:39
Speaker
So what I'm trying to look up right now, because Stat Head has this information, through their first eight seasons, I'm trying to get the, I have the comparison for Matthews and Ovechkin. So through each of their first eight seasons, so for Matthews, obviously the season isn't done yet for Matthews, but that's 2017 to 2014, OV is 2006 to 2013.
00:41:09
Speaker
In that time, Ovi has 50 or so more games played. He had 371 goals, Matthews 359. That's pretty fucking close, given the 50 game difference between the two. Like, you're talking about a very comparable scoring pace there. Ovi had him beat in terms of points and stuff like that, but
00:41:34
Speaker
He's incredibly close, is Matthews, to that Ovechkin goal pace. Technically, he hasn't beat. Matthews in that time is at a 0.65. Ovi's at a 0.62. So yeah, I mean, if things don't change, and this pace continues, Matthews is on an incredibly similar trajectory to Alexander Ovechkin. It's crazy.
00:42:03
Speaker
Other fun hockey stats.
Goaltending Records and Canada's Talent
00:42:06
Speaker
Jonathan Quick just became the winningest US-born goaltender in NHL history with 392 wins, breaking the record held by Ryan Miller. Noted in Sharks Coach. Noted in Sharks Coach, Ryan Miller. Oh, man. Jonathan Quick.
00:42:32
Speaker
was an interesting case for a long time, because people always talked about him as this unbelievable playoff performer. And especially after 2014, there was conversations like, is he already a Hall of Famer? Two Stanley Cups, the playoff performances. And then obviously, towards the end of the 2010s, the Kings start to go down a little bit, as you would expect. Key players like Dustin Brown, not really around anymore.
00:42:59
Speaker
And then, of course, I totally forgot about this. Jonathan Quick isn't a two-time Stanley Cup champion. He's a three-time Stanley Cup champion. Oh, yeah, technically. He won with the Vegas Golden Knights last year. Yeah. And then this year with the New York Rangers.
00:43:19
Speaker
A 37 game, or not H37, games played 25 with a 2-5-4 goals against average in a 19 or a 9-13 save percentage at H37. That's pretty good. That is so far his best save percentage in a season since 2017-18 when he had a 9-20 win with the Kings.
00:43:42
Speaker
Like he's had a great resurgence behind a Rangers team that I still don't know how to feel about in terms of like defensive structure and stuff like that. But yeah, if you're relying on Adam Fox to be your number one and play two way hockey. Good luck.
00:44:12
Speaker
The player haters ball is back again and sins first in line to hate on Adam Fox.
00:44:19
Speaker
Um, just didn't credit, you know, again, we're talking about like the, the Matthews career. It's an incredible career for Jonathan quick. He is a future hockey hall of famer in winning a school tender, uh, us born gold tender and NHL history. Um, now we wait to see what happens with Connor Hellebach.
00:44:37
Speaker
because the top list right now was quick at 392, then Ryan Miller, John Van Biesbroek, Tom Barrasso, Craig Anderson finished top five, Mike Richter, and then Hellabuck. Connor Hellabuck right now is 122 wins behind Jonathan Quick at age 31. He'll turn 31 next month, actually.
00:45:08
Speaker
Connor Hellabuck could easily hit that mark and surpass Jonathan quick. Like we are talking about Hellabuck being on the Jets now for presumably the rest of his prime. Like he signed that contract extension.
00:45:26
Speaker
I think he hits that. I mean, again, like next year starts a seven year extension at eight point five million dollars. The Jets were a hell of a lot better this year than most expected, given their kind of crazy offseason changes. They're currently in third in the central division. Four points above Nashville with the same amount of games played. So you would expect the Jets. The Jets are going to make the playoffs. Mm hmm.
00:45:52
Speaker
Um, the team that could knock him out right now are the st louis blues who are 12 points back. That's not happening left. They just lost to the scarks. Get fucked losers. It's just a matter of seating for the jets. They haven't mathematically clinched, but they've all but clinched and it's been a great year for them.
00:46:12
Speaker
Keep an eye out on Connor Hellabuck and the Winnipeg Jets. I think he's obviously the next guy in line when talking about that type of stat. Next question, why do Canadian goalies suck now? When did Canada stop wanting to play goalie? Now all the Americans are better than Canadian goalies. What's up? I haven't educated the answer on that, but I'll leave that for another episode. Why would you leave it?
00:46:34
Speaker
I thought it was hypothetical. Because goaltending is systematic here. It's developed from being like, oh, we're going to cater to how you're playing and all that. Or it's like, no, you play by the book, you go by the book. Goal tending typically in other countries, especially Europe, it's very, it's very fluid.
00:46:57
Speaker
in the way of, how do I describe this? That makes sense, because here in America, we have freedom, and you're free to do what you want, and over there in commie-na-da. Commie-na-da. Well, we have an episode title. You all have to play the way that they tell you.
00:47:21
Speaker
oh that was incredible it's not even it's not even canada it's just it's the north american mostly it is canada but it is the north american goaltending system approach where it's
00:47:37
Speaker
I hate to say less free, but it's very robotic. That's something that Polina told me when she came over here, goaltending in Canada is very robotic in the sense of you follow a system, you don't deviate from the system. If the system falls down, if the system breaks, you're shit out of luck.
00:48:01
Speaker
Whereas in Europe, they're taught, yeah, you have the system, but you have to know when to improvise or what to do in certain scenarios. And that's something that's kind of happened over the past couple of years. Like, remember how I would used to say, like, Kerry Price is, like, the bona fide greatest goaltender? Number one goal art? Yeah, the greatest goal art. His way of playing the game revolutionized
00:48:28
Speaker
the way they taught goal goalies, how to play hockey because Kerry price is very set in stone, very like systematic, very like to the bone, like perfect. Yeah. Very technical.
00:48:42
Speaker
And that's basically trickled down to the rest of the players and it's caused a shift. Whereas a lot of coaches who want to teach the old style are getting beat out because they want that Carey Price style goodness with their new branch of goalies in Canada.
00:49:01
Speaker
That's one way I can put it. There's a lot more technical terms I could use and all this and go into like RVH versus Panda versus VH and why goalies don't stand up anymore when they make saves and why they're mostly in the butterfly. But that's a lot of stuff and a lot of terminology that not a lot of regular folk will understand. Yeah. They're just putting a lot of, I don't know, it's putting a lot of your eggs in one basket of a career 9 1 7 guy. Yeah.
00:49:30
Speaker
But he was fucking great positionally and he was always where he needed to be. But it's just weird that it's like it wasn't like he was a god at the position. That's why I I'm not trying to hate on Kerry Price or hate on the house. Sure. You sure. Yeah. Like I'm just saying like why why would he a guy with a career nine one seven, which is solid. But like for someone who is supposed to be so technical, he was inconsistent as fuck.
00:50:03
Speaker
So what's the advantage? Goalies are inconsistent, sure, but I always saw this because, you know, they're weird and they have their own styles. But if you're going for the supposed technical perfection style or whatever, like, I don't know.
00:50:18
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know much about the position or anything like that. I'm just like... Yeah. The days of stand-up butterfly and hybrid are gone. It's hybrid or butterfly. There is not a single stand-up goaltender
00:50:34
Speaker
in the NHL. The last one was probably, um, what's his fucking name? Uh, I loved him. He was my favorite. Uh, he was goaltender for, uh, you see sorrows has the same career, say percentages, uh, Kerry price. Yeah. Just saying. Yeah. No, he played for the stars. He's made that we're not, we're not fucking going home meme, uh, goaltender. God, he's, I think it's Kazakhstan.
00:51:03
Speaker
camera was named. Oh, Anton Houdoban? Yeah, Houdoban is the last stand-up goaltender, because he was small. Pacarina had the same career-save percentage as Carey Price.
00:51:12
Speaker
Okay, we get it. You love your fucking fans. Go live there already. God damn. Well, no, I'm just listing guys. Henrik Longfist had a higher. I'm just, I'm curious as to why this guy from, from an era similar to all these other names, including Corey Schneider, by the way, uh, Corey Crawford, Andre Vasilevsky. These are all guys with the same or higher career, save percentage. I'm telling you. I'm just saying no DDS Canada.
00:51:41
Speaker
It's got the wrong fucking savior. Yeah. And they're playing catch up right now. I mean, there's some boys like an Adam Gage and he was like a insane prospect of nowhere. He carried money more than he carried check. Yeah. Oh, if he carried Slovakia, it's like greatness in the world juniors. Now he's got a second round pick with, uh, with the, with the black Hawks, Adam Gage and yeah.
00:52:09
Speaker
So, in regards to this whole thing though, I think it's an interesting time to have this debate because we are about to see this a lot more over the next few years as we get closer to the NHL returning to the Olympics because there is already that conversation of who the hell would Canada's starter be.
Connor McDavid's Historical Achievements
00:52:24
Speaker
And for the most part, it's not looking great regardless, I would say. Like you have younger guys like Devin Levi,
00:52:36
Speaker
Nikko Dawes is in the mix, Joel Hofer. You have guys right now like Logan Thompson, Stuart Skinner, Connor Ingram, Aiden Hill, Tristan Jarry, Binnington. I don't know if any of those names immediately, Jake Allen, I don't know if any of those names kind of jump off the page. It's like, yep, that's the gold tender for a gold medal winning Canada.
00:52:59
Speaker
You're going to see that conversation continue to come up a lot, especially too because Canada's selection process in the past has typically been to go with the veterans.
00:53:09
Speaker
I mean, the most famous instance of that is 2006, when they didn't bring Sidney Crosby onto the team and they had guys like Sackick, I think Iserman was on that team still, like it was just a bunch of mostly older dudes past their prime because the hierarchy. And I think you're still kind of seeing the effects of that kind of old mindset.
00:53:31
Speaker
being a factor when you talk about goaltending and the issues that are there and how systemic it kind of is where it's like, nope, this is how Canadian goalies play. You're gonna see that conversation continue to pop up a lot. Yeah. A little bit more fun stat time. We talked about the other guy, so let's talk about him now, Connor McDavid.
00:53:57
Speaker
96 assists on the season, which is the most we've seen by an NHL player in 17 years. Do you know? Oh yeah, Jumbo had like 92 or 93 or something. Correct! Joe Thornton! I didn't even get to finish the question. You're not gonna if it's Jumbo, I know. 92 assists for Joe Thornton in 06-07.
00:54:23
Speaker
was the last time we saw numbers this high up there for Conor McDavid. And again, he still has games to play this year. He is currently on 125 points in 70 games with 96 assists and 29 goals. Dude, if he has a 2.5 pace for the last 10 games, he will still hit 150 points, which is ridiculous considering how he started the season.
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah, so what's ridiculous given he only has 29 goals compared to 64 from last year. Yeah, he just did that to show people he could like basically that's that's the reason McDavid is always going to be better than Matthews. We gave Matthews his flowers. I'm glad we did. He's a great player, but McDavid does whatever the fuck he wants. And that's because it's his league. It is literally on a McDavid is the new Sidney Crosby and Matthews is the new Ovechkin.
00:55:13
Speaker
Yeah, kind of. Crosby is the better all-around player. Ovechkin is probably the better goal scorer. But the thing is about Sidney Crosby's game is it has never been, let me just score goals for fun. He is the guy that makes people better around him. Connor McDavid has turned Zach Hyman into a 50 goal scorer.
00:55:35
Speaker
I made the comparison multiple times over the course of the season with Ilya Kovalchuk and David Clarkson. David Clarkson became a 30 goal guy back when 30 goals was still a lot because he was in front of net while Ilya Kovalchuk was going to work.
00:55:50
Speaker
Connor McDavid better than Ilya Kovalchuk ever was. And Ilya Kovalchuk was a great fucking player. He'd be a hockey alafamer for sure had he knock onto the KHL in the middle of his career. He still might be, we don't know. But that's a really apt comparison between those two. And I mean,
00:56:10
Speaker
You know, you talked about, oh, since the struggles, it's been 59 games since the Oilers made their coaching change on November 12th, back when people were memeing on them for losing to the sharks and like Jesus Christ, they're terrible. What a disaster. Connor McDavid has 115 points in 59 games since the coaching change. That is fucking ridiculous.
00:56:33
Speaker
He is also now the first player since Wayne Gretzky to have three consecutive 120 points or more seasons. Do you know who the other ones are? There are seven players all the time to do it. We know that McDavid and Gretzky are two of them.
00:56:57
Speaker
Oh, consecutive. Well, Lemieux. Lemieux is on there. Jager has to be on there. Shockingly, no. No. We have talked about one of these guys already. What? Do we need a hint? Hold on. Okay, he's thinking. Um,
00:57:27
Speaker
For the record, Wayne Gretzky, you know, we're talking about guys to have... Oh, Eisenman was one of them. No, shockingly. Oh, 120 points. Oh, okay. Yeah, so players with three consecutive 120-point-plus seasons. We talked about now McDavid hitting his third, only the seventh player to do it.
00:57:50
Speaker
For the record, Wayne Gretzky did it 13 seasons ago. Of course he did. I don't think Crosby did because he had too many injuries. I know he didn't do it consecutively. Correct. No Sidney Crosby. He could have.
00:58:04
Speaker
Your first hint, Boston Bruins legend. Bill Esposito. Bill Esposito. Guy I know fucking nothing about. He is one of the most underrated. Clearly, because I know nothing about him and he's on all these stat lists.
00:58:21
Speaker
Right. I mean, again, though, you're talking about a guy his best years were in the 70s. We're talking 50 years ago. It's understandable. But Jesus Christ, Phil Esposito was just a monster of his era. Yeah, clearly. The other three. You have a California legend, a Canadian legend and a defenseman.
00:58:49
Speaker
California legend, a Canadian legend. California. California. Like a California team or he was born there. California team. Oh, thank you. Three consecutive 120 points. Yeah. It's a tough one. It's very tough. I ain't the fucking sharks. It's not the sharks. I know that for a fact. Yes. I'll save you time. It's not the duck side.
00:59:21
Speaker
We're talking all-time King's player from arrows past, not quite as far back as, uh, as Phyllis Pizzito, although actually, yeah, it was, well, 70s and 80s. Ugh, who even played for the King's then? I don't even know who was playing for him, man. Our other names are Marcel- Alright, so the defenseman has to be,
00:59:51
Speaker
Uh, it's either going to be, it's going to be leech or it's going to be coffee. Paul coffee. Well done. I got that. The King's player was Marcel Dion. Ah, and there's a Habs player in the mix as well. Fucking Richard. No, I bet you, no, no, Richard was trash. Actually, he didn't score that much. I'm just saying is a trophy named after me. He scored like one 50 goal season.
01:00:21
Speaker
I love you.
01:00:25
Speaker
The trolling never stopped. Oh, God. Guy Lafleur is the other man to have done it. Lemieux, Dion, Coffee and McDavid all did it three seasons in a row. Esposito and Lafleur, five seasons in a row and then Gretzky with the 13. So in a row. Unbelievably elite company for one Connor McDavid. But these type of stats do not surprise anybody nowadays. So.
01:00:55
Speaker
A couple other things though, in regards to hockey before we wind things down, I just mentioned the LA Kings.
Analysis of Defensive Strategies in Hockey
01:01:01
Speaker
I kind of want your opinion on this. The Kings have been utilizing a lot of the 1-3-1 defense this season. Garbage, automatic garbage, throw them out of the league.
01:01:13
Speaker
Nikita Zidorov was quoted as saying this, quote, they don't really make plays. They just rim the puck and sit back all game. It's their goal to don't play hockey, which might be a typo or just might be the fact English isn't his first language. No. And don't let the other team play hockey pretty much. Leon Drizidal.
01:01:32
Speaker
said this, Drycidal, a serial puck possessor, confirms that a little piece of something inside him dies every time he has to dump the puck in against the 131. Quote, a little piece, yeah, it's just unfortunate, it's quite sad. It is. It's boring, man.
01:01:52
Speaker
Drew Doughty had this to say about the narrative that the King's 131 system is bad for hockey, quote, pretty absurd comments, but when we brought the system, I wasn't too keen on playing it, to be honest with you.
01:02:06
Speaker
Now we have seen other teams at times utilize the 131, the Rangers and Islanders have both done it. The 131 has been controversial, maybe taking center stage, like you're talking about for those who don't know, a very, very defensively heavy system. Best way to envision it is when the other team has the puck, they have one guy at center ice, three guys stretched along their own blue line, and one guy behind them as a safety net.
01:02:35
Speaker
So if a team dumps the puck in, they have to get past the first four players in the neutral zone, and then there's automatically somebody back to get that puck retrieval should it be dumped in.
01:02:46
Speaker
We have seen super defensive systems in the past. The New Jersey Devils were highly criticized in the mid 90s for their use of the trap. And perhaps we never saw more controversy surrounding the trap than we did in 2011, when the Tampa Bay Lightning, led by head coach Key Boucher, utilized this and got all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals fucking game seven against the Boston Bruins and nearly made it to the Stanley Cup that year.
01:03:13
Speaker
And they have that moment where the Flyers are just like, oh, they're not for checking. We'll just stand here with the puck because we have the lead. There's a video on YouTube. I highly encourage everyone to go watch of the Flyers just being like, fuck you. We're not going to engage with this. Yeah, it just leads to a standoff. Mike Milt. There's also a clip of Mike Millberry getting so pissed at the lightning he walked off the NBC panel.
01:03:37
Speaker
He's just like, this is bullshit. He didn't say that, but that was the attitude. People hate this fucking system because it's boring. However, it is very, very effective typically.
01:03:53
Speaker
And it's worked out well for the Kings. They've had some struggles in the second half of the season. They currently occupy the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. They are five points ahead of the St. Louis Blues with a game at hand, barring a brutal collapse for the Kings who do have six wins in their last 10. They're going to make the playoffs.
01:04:13
Speaker
And I think a lot of people will be like, okay, maybe I won't watch that series because there's a chance it could be very defensively heavy and low scoring. Drew Dowdy is a system defenseman. Confirmed. You know what this reminds me of? The 2019 Super Bowl, which was the most boring fucking Super Bowl in the existence.
01:04:37
Speaker
It was like special teams just doing whatever they could and Tom Brady just doing whatever he could as well. What is it? Julian Edelman won the fucking MVP. What Endo's referring to is the 2019 Super Bowl was the Patriots and the Rams. A final score of New England 13, the Rams three.
01:05:04
Speaker
The lowest scoring Super Bowl in NFL history, you had a combined six points, a field goal each through the first three quarters and the Patriots scored 10 points in the fourth. Yep. It was the most defensive, perfect execution of football that probably has ever been played in the game. I would argue it was also bad execution on the offenses. Oh, yeah.
01:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, great defensive ball. That's that's it's amazing. Like that. That's that's like the the the marquee game you want from your your defensive line. A hundred percent heading into the game. The the over under. Well, in terms of like the point spread, the Patriots were favored by two and a half points. So heading into the game, people expected a defensive showdown, a close game.
01:06:02
Speaker
and it was that and then some essentially oh yeah that's not the comparison i think people want for hockey is that the 131 is the lowest scoring super bowl of all time strategy within the sport it's boring but it works um it's funny because our
01:06:24
Speaker
I play beer league for like a super low level team. They're like really, really bad. They're, they're basically guys like older guys who were just kind of learning hockey. Well, they learned hockey late and they're on like forties and fifties. And yes. And we ran a, we ran a one three one against the top team and we beat them to one.
01:06:46
Speaker
It's the great equalizer. Oh my god, it was the best because I'm like the fastest guy when I skate out. I'm just I'm the one at the top just putting so much pressure on them. And yeah, we beat them too. Yeah, man. I'm a little bit surprised though, that it's the Kings running this strategy. I'm not. Well, I was just saying or thinking from like the offensive standpoint,
01:07:14
Speaker
Like you got Kopitar, Kempe, Byfield, Trevor Moore, Kevin Fiala. They just got Victor Arvitson back recently from injury. Like they have some really good offensive threats.
01:07:27
Speaker
And I would almost more imagine a team like the New York Islanders employing the 1-3-1, where they do have some threats, but we also know that the future GM of the year, Lou Lamourello, loves his grinders, his Matt Martins and players like that. But then again, that 2011
01:07:45
Speaker
Lightning team had Saint-Louis, a young Stamkos, Vinny Le Cavalier, Teddy Purcell, Simone Gagnรฉ, like they had some good offensive threats too. Yeah, it's just a system when you have weak team defense. And it makes you better at it.
01:08:06
Speaker
But it's boring because it's severely limiting, not just for the game itself, but for you, too. Like, if you're not forward-checking, you're... I don't know, I feel like you're... You can frustrate the other team mentally, but it's... I don't know. I think it's also... It's just boring to me. Yeah, I mean, that's the big critique of it, right? It's just a very... It makes for a very boring hockey game to watch.
01:08:35
Speaker
Personally, I mean, I would care more about results than Come playoff time at least right like do you want to have the most exciting team in the playoffs? Or do you want to have the team that wins? Oh, of course you want the team that wins. Yeah So I mean I'm talking I'm sure if I was a king fan to be like fuck Yeah, if it works if it's work and don't fix it and whatnot, but like I
01:09:00
Speaker
I just think, this is just speaking from a lot of different levels, as a hockey fan, as someone who casts e-sports, the trap is so fucking bad for entertainment. Correct. And that's what at the end of the day, hockey is, it's an entertainment. Yeah, yeah, I get that, man, that hit hard once you compare it to NHL e-sports, because Jesus Christ, yeah. Yeah, it's...
01:09:30
Speaker
I could see the positives and negatives to the style. And I mean, at least for the Kings, it's like, well, you know, if they lose, they're going to get clowned on by the hockey world to a, to a Berkshire extent, uh, because here you were and he didn't even win doing that, you know? So we'll see what happens with the Kings. Um, in terms of, uh, the other little things that we had here,
NHL Team Updates and Draft Lottery Skepticism
01:09:56
Speaker
I want to talk about the Flyers really quickly. They've obviously had a super interesting season. They are currently in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, primarily because of the surge of the Washington Capitals back up the rankings. You know, Flyers trying to fend off threats from the likes of Detroit. Islanders are a little bit further back now. It's not looking too good for them. But the Flyers have obviously had a very interesting year or two.
01:10:26
Speaker
um you know all the prover off stuff last year and then you know you lose harder heart this year but they have brought in a goaltender who they intended to bring in last year
01:10:41
Speaker
as they have finally secured Ivan Fedotov. Was that the guy who was kidnapped by the Russian army? Yes, it was. I was going to ask about that when we were talking about something. I was like, dude, whatever happened to that guy who got kidnapped by the Russian army? What happened was
01:11:04
Speaker
On May 7th, 2022, Fedatov as a free agent is signed to a one-year entry-level contract with the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2022-23 season. Fedatov, by the way, born in Finland. What a guy. But he's Russian. Anyway.
01:11:25
Speaker
So he signs this contract, and while in preparation to depart for North America, now keep in mind, he signed the contract May 7th, on July 1st of 2022, he was arrested for alleged evasion of military service in Russia and sent to Severomorsk, which prevented him from joining the Flyers. For the record, Severomorsk, whatever the fuck, is up there.
01:11:55
Speaker
It's up there. It's pretty north. Gulag. It's in the Urals. He was sent to the Gulag. I'm not even joking. It is located
01:12:11
Speaker
on the Cola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle in a permafrost zone on the rocky east coast of the Cola Bay. Ah, so it's not technically the Urals? Severmoris is a subarctic climate with long, very cold winters and cool to mild summers. They sent them up north is what they did. They sure did.
01:12:38
Speaker
Following that, he would miss the entirety of the season to fulfill his military requirements. Upon the completion of his compulsory training, which is a hell of a term, Fedotov's contract with the Flyers was initially announced to have been told for the following 23-24 season. However, with the memorandum of understanding suspended between the NHL and the KHL, which was essentially the respect of NHL and KHL contracts, the NHL team saying we won't
01:13:08
Speaker
go after KHL players, Fedotov was signed to a two-year contract to go back to CSKA Moscow in July of last year. The KHL later announced to have registered his contract with Moscow on the basis of Fedotov not holding a valid and binding contract with an NHL club.
01:13:31
Speaker
In July of last year the NHL and the Flyers contested the KHL's decision and submitted a request to the double IHF the International ice hockey Federation that his contract at the Flyers still technically count Finally March 28th CSKA terminated Fedotov's contract and he has now joined the Flyers Jesus last
01:13:57
Speaker
Obviously, you know, we're talking about May of 2022. You're a few months removed from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. You're starting to see the God, what is the term that I'm thinking of here where countries are just like, fuck you, Russia. Sanctions, sanctions. Thank you. Right. She annexation. The annexation of Puerto Rico. Yeah.
01:14:24
Speaker
You know, you're talking about a lot of those sanctions finally being handed down and the KHL responding with, fuck you then. And the thought is that Russia is going to take a more isolationist approach to their sports again. We saw that effect with Matt Veimichkov, also drafted by the Flyers, where he was essentially a consensus top three pick bare minimum before
01:14:48
Speaker
this, you know, before the invasion of Ukraine started, and he slipped down the board a little bit. Just very interesting how the Flyers have been the ones kind of involved in this now, but they get their guy. Fedotov's a 27-year-old goaltender, 6'7", drafted 188th overall by the Flyers in 2015.
01:15:18
Speaker
Again, very intrigued to see what effect this might have on the future. And will there be issues trying to get Michkoff over there? You know, with Fedotov, how much of this was legit? Did he actually dodge the military service or did they try to use him as an example, you know, lay the ladder? Yeah, I mean,
01:15:45
Speaker
ESPN had an article here. Flyers general manager Danny Brier stuck to silence on Fedotov's path to Philly as the goalie was introduced on Friday. Quote, we'll just leave the details out. Still doesn't sound like it was a very smooth process to get him over here. I had to Argo his ass out of there. Argo fuck yourself.
01:16:08
Speaker
Oh man, so just one of the most wild stories that we've seen in our time on this podcast.
01:16:18
Speaker
We'll see what happens with Fedotov at the NHL level. I hope for his sake it works out, because about time it's like, well, I got to kind of go back to the KHL now, because it didn't work out at the NHL level. That could be a little bit awkward. But yeah, for now, he gets to focus on playing hockey in the US. And we'll see if there's any further issues in regards to players in the NHL. But a crazy, crazy story.
01:16:47
Speaker
Outside of mentioning, like, hey, Josh Doan, great start with the Coyotes. The only other thing to really mention is the playoffs. Sorry to Josh Doan, but yeah, it's not as much to talk about there. It is a cool start, though. In terms of the playoffs, though, we talked about, OK, who's going to make it who isn't somewhat recently? I wanted to take that updated look because we know now within the Atlantic division, both the Bruins and Panthers have clinched a playoff spot. The Bruins are currently two points above the Panthers.
01:17:17
Speaker
Panthers have a game at hand so they could be caught. The Leafs 93 points with one game at hand on Florida and two games at hand on Boston. Can the Leafs make up a six point gap to the Panthers with nine games left or are they condemned to being the road team in their first round series? I think they can.
01:17:46
Speaker
All three teams are hot. Yeah. But you know who's hotter? Ilya Samsonov after being sent down for mental rehabilitation. He's back. He just fucking got there. Yeah. How damaging is the media? Toronto. Pretty bad.
01:18:08
Speaker
That's poor. Yeah, you gotta shut out against them. It's the it's the sabers. Natalie's like yeah, I'm fucking back. Fuck. Yeah You see that shit that's me Obviously intrigued to see who makes the playoffs who doesn't the wild card teams in the East
01:18:30
Speaker
I talked about the Flyers being in that second spot, 82 points. The Red Wings are two points back with the game at hand. The Flyers are five points back with two games at hand. The Devils, six points back with just the game at hand. Is it safe to say that the likes of the Devils, Devils penguin sabers, they're pretty much done.
01:18:50
Speaker
It's just whether or not the Islanders or Red Wings can kind of get their shit together and knock Philly out of the playoffs, which it's still kind of crazy, right? Because heading into the season for the Flyers, I don't think anybody expected them to be in a playoff spot at game 75. You know, especially with a lot of the changes to their roster and stuff like that. They've just been steadily falling.
01:19:10
Speaker
Right. I think they were even first seed at one point. Maybe not. Maybe it's just second seed. But they were second seed. And then they were third seed for a while. Now they're wild card two. Not a great trajectory. And Larkin's back for Detroit. Yeah. So honestly, I think Detroit pushes them out.
01:19:32
Speaker
I think they kind of have to, right? For the Flyers, there wasn't really too much of an expectation to make the playoffs. For the Red Wings, there certainly were those expectations, but the roster changes they made, and especially after the addition of Patrick Kane.
01:19:47
Speaker
So I mean, for them missing the playoffs, they hate to say it, but I don't think they get the excuse anymore of like, oh, but it was a building year. It's like, no, that fan base expected them to make the playoffs. And especially to not make it, should Philly make it? That's a failure of a season. Definitely. For the Islanders,
01:20:08
Speaker
They're probably done, I think. Two wins in their last 10. You know, Patrick Waugh takes over. Just not enough. Not enough. Takes over based on name value only, by the way.
01:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, like Lane Lambert was their coach before, if I'm not mistaken, and he wasn't cut out for the job. But the bottom line is that roster construction for the Islanders is abysmal. And we all know why it's future GM of the year for 2024 Lou Lamorello and the way he's building
01:20:43
Speaker
this team and the problem is he might have already done too much damage in terms of the contracts that he's handed out. They have map bars all signed for seven more years at 915. Horvat seven more years at 8.5. Six more years of Pierre Engvall at 3 million.
01:21:04
Speaker
Uh, Ryan Pollock 6 1 5 for six more years. Pelica 5 7 5 for five more years. This is basically me signing all my medium elites long-term because they're steals using the 15 percent. Right. But it works for me because it's a fucking video game. They're, they're lines right now, by the way. Anders Lee, J.G. Peugeot and Bo Horvat as the top line. Sizekas Barzahl Hudson-Fashing on the second line. Who?
01:21:34
Speaker
Correct. Engvall, Brock Nelson, and Kyle Palmieri on the third line. Matt Martin, Kyle McLean, and Kyle Kaunterbuck on the fourth. I can't believe Kyle Kaunterbuck is still playing. I feel like he's been playing for fucking ever and just always been a grinder. He's just never been. He's just still. He made his NHL debut in 2007, 2008, Kyle Kaunterbuck.
01:22:03
Speaker
He's been around a while. And then their defense for the record, Pelican Dobson, Riley, Mike Riley and Ryan Pollock, Alexander Romanoff and Robert Bortuzo. I think the Islanders, you know, Lou Lamorello, Legend, Hockey Hall of Famer. Maybe. 81 years old.
01:22:27
Speaker
Why is he still working? It's time to go. Lou, go enjoy the beach. Please. He lives, you know, in Long Island. That's right. I said in. So I'm sure there's beaches there, but they're New York beaches, so they're not great. Go to the Hamptons. He has a house there. He has to. We've talked about this before.
01:22:58
Speaker
What year did Lou Lamourello get his start in hockey? Oh my God. Yeah, we've done this before. I can't remember. In the 50s. Fuck me. No, it's in the 60s. Lamourello became the head coach of the Providence College Friars men's hockey team in 1968. Yeah. Lou. Go home.
01:23:26
Speaker
It's it's it's time It's time. Yeah, stop taking GM of the year from people who deserve it Like my dad who was coming here And then in the West
01:23:39
Speaker
It's pretty much done. Like I said, the eight teams are pretty much set. I don't think the Blues are making up a five-point gap to the Kings. Minnesota is even further back, and then teams like Calgary, Seattle are out of it at this stage. We'll get into it once it's time for the playoffs, talking about teams and their seasons that were, and shortcomings there. We'll talk about how this was a disappointing season for Seattle.
01:24:03
Speaker
and stuff like that, and obviously how the San Jose Sharks are that much closer to securing top lottery odds. Although we all know how that draft lottery is going to end. Chicago could fall into third and they'll still win it. I mean, the San Jose Sharks do have a controversy on their hands with stuff, so who knows? Yeah, we know that adds about 10% to your chances to win the draft lottery. That's true. That is true.
01:24:35
Speaker
Well time to be depressed again With that everybody we will look to wind things down again a lot of hockey talk some good some bad That's that's hockey that that's just hockey at this point. We we have resigned to that fact at this stage, but Gentlemen, it was a good one. It was a fun one endurance hmm from a content creation standpoint What do you have going on?
Video Game Mishaps and Content Creation
01:25:01
Speaker
I am playing Bay Ball. I played the Bay Ball. I hit the ball really hard. I think I mentioned this before, but I tried to face scan myself in MLB The Show 24 and it stole my melanin.
01:25:17
Speaker
All of it. All of it. Sin, if you haven't seen this, it's on my Twitter. Oh, I've seen it. Yeah, I'm a melanin-less man. That is who I really am in soul and in body. We, both Tukey and I, do look like siblings, you know, who take away this melanin. That's great. Besides that, nothing much coming out. I had an idea of something that I wanted to do. Oh, I remember what I wanted to do. I was going to play Mario Golf for the Switch.
01:25:44
Speaker
and go through the the campaign and just play that because I just picked it up again earlier today and it's a lot of fun so I might stream that later maybe later tonight I don't know I just just to clear my head from stuff that's going on but I'm doing good everything's great and that's me sin for the win yeah
01:26:10
Speaker
I've got a YouTube channel. Yeah, that picture. Oh my God. Oh, it's me. Sorry. Continue. You have a YouTube channel. That's it. Yeah. He's got a YouTube channel. You can check out some NHL franchise. You still got the blue series going, don't you? Oh yeah.
01:26:39
Speaker
Have you done anything baseball? Do you play it? I don't know, man. Like I was like, I was like, I could do baseball. And then it's like, man, I never want to play the baseball game when it comes out for some reason. And I don't know why that is fair. I mean, it's a, it's a game that's not for everybody, you know? Yeah. Like, so, and I, I, I don't want to keep it like,
01:27:04
Speaker
Also, this is going to run on for too long here, but I don't want to keep just getting and only being sports. I'm trying to do other stuff on the channel. I'm probably going to add another sport, but at this point, I'm going to add FIFA because I have the most fun with that out of any other game. I'm going to start doing FIFA career mode because there's so much cool shit to do in the FIFA career mode.
01:27:27
Speaker
I was going to say, I think that that's a good way to kind of tie it into like, hey, I'd like to do be a pro content again. But here's what a game like FIFA does significantly better than NHL's. Yeah. Which is a shame, honestly, because I was I was thinking about that with Road to the Show.
Sports Game Mode Critiques and Comparisons
01:27:42
Speaker
Which by the way baseball pretty much every night right now NHL stuff still on the main channel stuff How many leads you can play in and all these other games EA? Yeah, fuck I might I might play NHL 24 sometime soon But man, I don't know if I'm finishing the roster editing at this point because EA's why monsters are they're just bad bad
01:28:03
Speaker
that's that's like so the roster editing was the only thing that really kind of saved my interest in franchise mode and now without it like people like Vassey still do a great job but I'm such a stickler for certain details that it's not even that Vassey does or doesn't do a good enough job it's just that
01:28:23
Speaker
You know, in certain regards, things just fucking bother me if they're off. Fighting skill, people having higher hits and shot blockings and they should all that shit. I was checking out, though, like Road to the Show. And I think it's funny because it's a pretty bare bones mode, but the gameplay is so engaging. It's quick. It's quick. You're in, you're out. NHL be a pro does a lot of stuff right.
01:28:52
Speaker
in terms of like the setup giving you like an end and road to the show like your contract doesn't matter because there's nothing you can spend the money on NHL and FIFA give you certain boosts and stuff like that to spend the money on. Yeah.
01:29:08
Speaker
It's just, I don't know, I guess it just comes down to personal interest of like, well, here's what NHL does do better in like a be a pro sense than some other games, but still, for some reason, it doesn't quite hit the same. But a game like FIFA can give some damn good examples over like, oh, here's what, you know, if they added this to be a pro would be that much more engaging. And I'd like to play that again, because you were a very franchise and be a pro heavy channel. And now it's just kind of switched over to franchise because be a pro has its faults.
01:29:38
Speaker
I think compared to all three of those sports games with their single player, like, be a pro-esque modes, I think, like I said, certain aspects are better in all three of them. I think for NHL, their problem is it takes too long to get into a game when you get stopped. The stop and start with NHL is way too long.
01:29:58
Speaker
because you can get a random cutscene and you're waiting a minute and a half to pick a dialogue option because it has to load through and load up more text. When you go to the show, you very rarely get stopped, but when you do get stopped, you have actual dialogue options and choices and dialogue that have to go through. But to go from game to game to game, it's like this real quick. It's super snap of a finger in the next game. When you get a cutscene and get called up to double, triple, and enter the show,
01:30:25
Speaker
It's not even like two minutes of a cutscene, three minutes of a cutscene, but it adds that brevity between you going from game to game to game to game, so you're kind of rewarded with that. And with FIFA and their career mode, you have an interactive cutscene, everything. You have the mix of both what the road of the show offers and what NHL offers in having those cutscenes, because you know you have one game a week.
01:30:49
Speaker
and you have 15, 20 minutes of just straight gameplay, and then you hop into the training and they, oh, you have the option to sim the training or play the training itself, or cut season dialogues just in a menu. They all have good things about them, they all have bad things about them. I think out of the three, for me, wrote of the show, FIFA Pro Club, FIFA Career Mode, and then NHL at the bottom. Yeah.
01:31:15
Speaker
That's you know, that could be its own podcast is talking about Be a pro style modes and what certain games do well compared to others So we'll leave it at that for now and who knows maybe that'll be our next show for my ranking I put FIFA at the top honestly Just because gameplay is amazing another thing is that you feel like there's always real progress being made is that and you can like
01:31:42
Speaker
You have so much freedom to choose. You're like, I'm fucking kicking ass. I just won Premier League Championship and stuff like that. I've made all kinds of money. You can decide at any point, like, hey, I'm going to go back to this small league. I'm going to watch that YouTube video, that YouTube channel that talks about all these underdog teams. I'm going to go back to one of these in some mid-ass league and lead them to glory.
01:32:07
Speaker
That's so cool. And I understand that other leagues aren't constructed like that. But my biggest issue with NHL is that, hey, Mr. Top Prospect, you're the top prospect. You're not ever going to get sent down. Doesn't matter how you play in this preseason. You're going to be on the throne in the NHL. You're going to be on the top line. It doesn't matter what your ratings are. You're going to be on the fucking, it's yeah. Your name is the rookie for 25 years.
01:32:34
Speaker
NHL 24. Your name is the rookie for 25 years. Like the fact that you can't even skip the opening cutscene to be on hockey got going on over there. It's been, it's been four years. If you're going to have a score mode, you have to change it with that. Everybody look forward to our be a pro discussion podcast coming up.
01:33:03
Speaker
Oh, God. Story modes are overrated as fuck. God damn it. They are. I don't want to sit here and deal with the long shot or the journey. It's a long shot. It's a long shot. Alex Hunter was pretty cool. I'll be real. The one time that that little suburban kids can be a black guy and not have it be in a racist context. It's great. FIFA. Let's go.
01:33:33
Speaker
We love you, everybody. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.