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The Pleasure Pad - Tougie's Take Podcast (2/5/24)
175 Plays1 year ago
- On this edition of the show, the Fella's are back together to talk about the NHL's All Star weekend, Hockey Canada and the NHL's return to the Olympics in 2026!
- Subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel!
- Check out our Discord!
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Transcript
Introduction & Hockey Discussions
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to another edition of the Toogies Take Podcast, the show that chronicles my slow decline of hockey fandom. Or should I say NHL fandom? Because I do still enjoy hockey quite a bit. But we are back again another week, another episode. I am joined by one endurance M. I. And Mr. Sim for the win. Yes, sir.
00:00:27
Speaker
Yes sir, indeed. Gentlemen, we're gonna talk about some hockey today, of course. We're gonna talk about Endo's cat that's...
00:00:38
Speaker
complaining itself. Thank you for sharing so much for those of you who aren't watching on the YouTube side of things. We're going to talk about some hockey stuff today. We're going to talk about the the all-star weekend that I didn't pay attention to whatsoever. But we're also going to talk about the thing that is at the forefront of all of our minds.
00:01:04
Speaker
Sydney cross we didn't show up to the all-star game. He's terrible that that's the that's it, right? Yeah, that that's it he yeah, he refused to show up to an all-star game again because Yeah, because it doesn't matter yeah, and when the players tell me it doesn't matter that means I'm not gonna watch I
Video Games & Addictions
00:01:28
Speaker
At the forefront of our minds after last night is this viewer question from Sister Christian Cage, why is FC 24 so addicting? After years of attempts and efforts begging and pleading last night in honor of monkey dude 22's birthday, tremendous friend of this podcast.
00:01:53
Speaker
We played not only some NHL 2K5 and the real All-Star Skills Competition because that game had a full All-Star Weekend with the actual skill games. Something EA has not had in the now 20 years since 2K5 came out. EA has never had that. What the fuck?
00:02:15
Speaker
But we also finally succeeded in getting Sin for the Win to try out FIFA slash FC. And he hated it. Or did he? No, I absolutely loved it. And I'm now addicted to it.
00:02:35
Speaker
So I don't know why it's addicting. For me right now, the addiction comes from, OK, like I did kind of good for my first time. I was pleasantly surprised. And now I want to get better. And that's where my addiction is coming from right now. I'm like, all right, I want to learn all this stuff. I want to, you know.
00:02:54
Speaker
You know a couple couples just you know situations last night where I could have made a better play and like that's my motivation like all right I want to make the right plays I want to remember all the button inputs I want to know what's the right thing to do in every moment and I want to get good
00:03:08
Speaker
But I scored like five goals, dude. That shocked the shit out of me. Dude, you made me look really fucking good last night. I will say that. I had like four men of the matches in a row, which is unheard of. And I put a tweet out today noticing that it's Black History Month, right?
00:03:26
Speaker
And it's February 5th as recorded in this episode and there for the past like couple years that i've been friends with you guys I mean playing games together, uh, there has been a Venn diagram of black history month and Endo being really good at video games and it's just a very it's getting close to being a very very very Very very small circle. It's just a circle. It's just a circle right now at this point because it's this is like the third year where it's been like
00:03:54
Speaker
me scoring a ton of goals in NHL or being absolutely dominant in FIFA. And right now I had like like eight assists last night. It's insane. So, you know, I'm trying to think of examples because there are examples of that in sports where it's like this baseball player
00:04:19
Speaker
August comes around he just turns into a monster like Endo's the most recent version of that. If February hits it is his month and he dominates in sports video games and then the second it hits March 1st GG. It's like Jordan Poole when there's a hot girl at a sitting courtside.
00:04:48
Speaker
You didn't see that clip where like there's a chick sitting on the court side and he looks at her and he hits like 30, he drops like 30 in a game. It's something ridiculous. I think I've seen that, yeah. As I believe all techs called him on Twitch the other day. Washington Wizards legend, Jordan. So. Golden state legend.
00:05:11
Speaker
There you go. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just, I'm in a really good mood for that reason. Just seeing, like, because I literally just had this sim before we started recording. In terms of FC, FIFA, whatever you want to call it, I still call it FIFA. I mean, whatever. It was one of those things where he was either going to absolutely hate it or the hooks were going to get set in. I feel like with that game, there was no middle ground. If you're not really a big fan of the sport,
00:05:39
Speaker
It's just one of those things where it's like, okay, well then the gameplay is either going to hook me or it's not. And I'm glad that it has. Yeah. I just want to play more straight up. So I started a career mode. I just bought the game for like 65% off, but close a good time. Way too much. Good time for you to get, uh, into the game based on the discount. Yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
Ah, man. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm excited to play more, basically. It's always nice to have options, right? I put out a video yesterday talking about my slow but steady progress with the roster editing side of things for NHL 24 right now and just how
00:06:27
Speaker
with the way that game is set up right now and the Osters being so bad and everything that it's like, I'm taking my time to get stuff done because I'm not really like, yeah, I gotta, I gotta play this. And it's just that desire to be like, oh man, I gotta, I gotta play 24 as much. Like, no, it's just like NHL 24 is, NHL 24 gameplay wise, they completely kicked the crap out of hitting.
00:06:57
Speaker
nerfed it to death. They just feel like back three even more. Yeah. They just reverted the back, which is really funny because we just had a GWC event this weekend with, uh, you know, all star game. We'll talk more about that later. Uh, it was super weird because at one point, uh, Guymer was down like 11 to like one in one of the games, 11. And it seemed like every single shot that was taken just, just went in the back of that.
00:07:24
Speaker
And this is like before they reverted the patch because they reverted the hitting patch, the hitting aspects today on the 5th of February. Yeah, I'm just seeing that now. On one hand, with something like that, you want to say, okay, well, at least they saw it, it didn't work the way they wanted it to, and they reverted it. On the other hand, it's like, did you check?
00:07:54
Speaker
Did you check to see what the gameplay was like afterwards? Did you honestly think like, oh yeah, people are gonna love this. It's stuff like that where I'm just like, what happened there? How does that happen to where things are reverted that quickly? If it's viewed as a failure within like what, less than a week? Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, I feel like a lot comes down to did people have time to adjust? I'm sure people play the game religiously and stuff. I never I mean, obviously, I haven't played it since then. But the pro felt fine. Ando, would you like to tell the class what you told me about how religiously people play this fucking video game?
00:08:36
Speaker
Alright, so Benny, a.k.a. Uninstall, who represents the Florida Panthers for the Panthers Gaming and is represented for Florida for this year's tournament, I believe, for GWC, arrives in Toronto. Arrives, like, with a bunch of other Leafs gaming guys. The first thing they do when they get to the Bell Gaming Center is they're all playing fucking HUT, and Benny does an entire goddamn stream of HUT champs.
00:09:04
Speaker
The first thing they do when they get to the space, it's like, wow, this is really cool. I mean, they show up in the internet and it's like one ping and like 8,000 up and 8,000 down for download speeds over there because they have a central node like over for Bell internet over there, which is crazy. And then immediately after the Leafs gaming event,
00:09:24
Speaker
I'm hearing a bunch of the Frenchies who were there for the tournament, like Blouin and a bunch of other guys say, uh, uh, Yoni, uh, is there any way we can play, uh, the HUD champs and we can stream it to, uh, play as well? Uh, and in my head, I'm like, holy shit. Like this is not helping the stereotype of QC players just loving NHL or just absolutely like that is, I believe the QC market
00:09:52
Speaker
is like the reason why NHL, the NHL license is still with EA. Not exclusivity, but just in general, the license is with EA because they give them so much money and so much whatever. It's insane. I couldn't believe it. I'm still shocked now knowing that these kids, the entirety they were there, they just wanted to play hot the entire time. It's dedication.
00:10:22
Speaker
or mental illness somewhere in between maybe?
Fun Segments & Personal Stories
00:10:26
Speaker
I'm sure. It's a coin. Flip it. Pick one. God. So yeah, I don't know. It's nice to have fun with video games. It's nice to have options. It's nice to have a game where it's like, all right. Not that FC can't have bad nights, where it's just like, oh, yep, OK, nothing's going our way. This game's playing like garbage tonight.
00:10:52
Speaker
I don't know. There's something about it. Right. And this is what I've always compared it to. A bad night on FIFA for me isn't as frustrating as a bad night on NHL because on NHL, it's a matter of being like, OK, knowing that it's like you're good at the game, knowing how the game should probably feel and how it should play versus FC where it's like, OK, I'm good at the game, but I'm nowhere near the best because that skill gap is insane, basically.
00:11:18
Speaker
So it's like, you know, if we have a bad night, like, all right, it is what it is, type of thing. Like, there have been far fewer nights on stream of, hey, let's play pro clubs, and being like, ah, fuck this, I'm done, versus the amount of times we played ESHL on stream over the years, and it's just like, ah, nope, not doing this, not doing it, no thank you, so. There have been, like, I can count on, like, my hands the amount of one and duns there have been for ESHL.
00:11:45
Speaker
It's like, yeah, we'll play one game. We'll play a game and then we get through one game. You're like, yeah, I'm done. Whatever. Gone. And we're just like, okay.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, I understand why, like it's the consistency. It's not even the consistency of the game, but it just feels like, but then it shall, you have a bad game and nothing's going your favor. You can't do anything. Well, with FIFA, like there's more opportunities that, let's say you're having a bad game, you can still somehow tie a game or even win a game if it's a shit match against someone. Right.
00:12:19
Speaker
So, yeah, hey, the continued adventures of Sin's FC24 journey. We'll continue to talk about that over the next little while, because last night was a heck of a lot of fun. But as mentioned, we do have some hockey to get to. Before that, though,
00:12:43
Speaker
some of the viewer questions in there why not because well we got some winners in this bunch and and some not winners we'll see where these questions lead from young burrito what is your least favorite bird whatever bird is your favorite to get the fucking seagull murder hawk no i'm joking that that thing's fucking cool the muppet muppet yeah look it's shoot a lot
00:13:12
Speaker
Thank you. It takes a lot to get me to have any desire to go to the state of Florida. That, that bird, that bird's there. They, they got one at the Tampa zoo. I mean, my other option is San Diego, or I think maybe Texas, if not heading to Africa. Um, so Florida kind of wins by default based off of travel. So, I mean, should I could drive there, right? So, you know, um,
00:13:43
Speaker
I don't know. We might need a new co-host. Endo's pushing his luck. Hatred's not allowed. In my month, brother? About the first time I was let go during my month. Jesus Christ. Fair enough. I don't know. Do you have a least favorite bird? Yes, seagull.
00:14:07
Speaker
That's fair. The pieces of shit. That's a fair one. I have childhood trauma surrounding a seagull. I don't think I've ever told this story on stream, but I'm going to tell it right now. Please. My mom took me to the San Francisco Zoo. I think I was like two or three at the time. So I kind of remember I have flashes of this happening. She bought me a hot dog and a seagull came down and fucking took the hot dog from my hand.
00:14:36
Speaker
Nice. And all I remember is like my mom yelling and waving her hand and a fucking seagull that was almost the size of me attacking me essentially and taking my hot dog. And I got, my mom got me another hot dog, but yeah. And this was before like San Francisco Zoo now has like nets over it and stuff. And like back then all they would do is like bring out like an owl or another big old bird of prey and like walk them around to like scare off the seagulls. That was like their only defense, but yeah.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah. So that, and then through middle school, they were everywhere on our campus, um, shitting on people and like just eating garbage and, and they're also annoying. They woke me up multiple times at like six AM when I was in Helsinki. So yeah, seagulls are my least favorite bird.
00:15:29
Speaker
Siegel's very, very good shout, I have to say. Canada Gooses. Yeah. Okay, so here's the thing about the Canada Goose. They're very cute from a distance. Yes. That's as far as you should be from a Canada Goose. If you see it, you are too close. Unless you're in a car and you're not safe.
00:16:00
Speaker
For me it's got to be it's got to be a crow Because haven't the studies have found that crows are smart enough to hold a grudge So I that's why I like them. They're smart as fuck same, but at the same time that's kind of scary the idea that this crow What if I just make a mistake?
00:16:23
Speaker
I can't negotiate with this crow, but it's still gonna hold the grudge. So, I'm going with the crow for that reason. It's gonna bring Brandon Lee back to life to kill you. Oh, my God. That or it'll... It'll recruit Sting. Oh, God. It's like, well, he took Brandon Lee's gimmick, so...
00:16:53
Speaker
We'll just get Steve Borden to do it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't like the idea of an animal holding a grudge that I can't negotiate with, you know? Not great. I can't talk myself out of it with a crow. You won't understand. Fine fault in that logic. You can't. Our next question comes from Russel. If you had to switch lives with a fictional character, who would you choose and why? If you had to switch lives with a fictional character,
00:17:23
Speaker
Who would you choose and why? Hmm. And that covers a lot of ground. Yeah, it does. Patrick from Spongebob. I'm already dumb as a rock anyway, so. The inner workings of my mind are in a nickel.
00:17:53
Speaker
Oh, God. Um, man, this is a loaded one. It's a loaded question. I don't know who has. Like I wouldn't even like I wouldn't even want to be like, yeah, I want to be Batman because I don't want a broken back. Like you come back from it, but I have to take a trip to that fucking.
00:18:25
Speaker
fucking big ass goddamn hole in the ground I gotta climb out of like that just sounds like a pain in the ass yeah like most fictional characters have something really awful going on or they're just mundane in which case I like my life right I don't know I don't have a good answer I don't either I'd
00:18:50
Speaker
I feel boring, but like I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I'm not selling stuff. I'm real fucking happy. And like I'm I'm trying to think of something that would like really appeal to me. But yeah, everything that's like cool. I'm like, oh, man, maybe I'd be like Charles Xavier. Read mine. It's like, yeah, you're in a wheelchair and you're bald. Have you seen that? Have you seen that video? And you get blown up by Jean Grey.
00:19:16
Speaker
Instead of getting boned by her. Sad. But have you seen that video of... I think it was in the Fantastic Four movie where... I think it was a scene where Tron's Xavier's in the little hover thing and someone edited it so VFX grinds across the lobby on top of the table or whatever. It's really fucking funny. Never seen it. Never seen it.
00:19:46
Speaker
Our next question. You got nowhere to go from here. Congrats, Rossell, you stumped us. From ghost of Gary Batman, what is your favorite K-pop song? I don't have one. I don't listen to K-pop, but so the only Korean song I know is Gangnam Style, so I'll go with that. I don't know. I presume Psy counts as K-pop.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, I presume that is yeah, even though he's not pretty but he's Korean and he made pop music So I mean I was gonna fit I was gonna say I think he counts but for the most part I feel like when people mention kpop they are mentioning big bangs Those dudes with the same haircuts xo yeah xo e and xom I dated the kpop stand so I know like a whole bunch of stuff about them Yeah
00:20:42
Speaker
There's something kind of slapped. It's different. But like, not for me. Some of them are really, really cool. But yeah. There was the number one shout shout to Psy, who actually does have some some good songs aside from Gotham style. I was surprised.
00:21:02
Speaker
There was, oh damn, the video was, it got pulled for copyright, that's a shame. There was a YouTuber that I've watched for a really long time called Todd in the Shadows, and he had his video out for, it's a music-based channel, and he had his video out for the best songs of 2013. And there was a K-pop song on there from a group that has already essentially disbanded because of record label bullshit or whatever.
00:21:30
Speaker
But I was like, oh, that's a cool little song type of thing. So then I don't know their name. I don't remember. I was going to look it up in the video disappear. So I don't know. But yeah, shout out to shout out to K-pop. I could not name you a song. I couldn't. BTS. That's the basic one. BTS. There you go. Bang 10. Whoever the fuck the last one is.
00:22:01
Speaker
I will not, sir. Um, uh, also known as bulletproof boy scouts. Oh my God. For those of you playing podcast bingo at home, that's just, and no goes on tangent that no one asks for. I am knowledgeable. Okay. Leave me alone. You looked it up. I'm not that knowledgeable.
00:22:29
Speaker
Shut up. I know one of them seems like a rap mon like rap monster. He's like a rapper. Yes, I hear. I thought he was a Pokemon from shut up. Our final question from bouncy Mcblink, blink a sappy one for Valentine's Day with the holiday being around the corner. What's your favorite memory of your respective significant other in regards to Valentine's Day?
00:23:01
Speaker
Endo, Endo. Endo clearly wants to say something. Was it when you were laughing at her for dropping the salad? Was that coincidentally on that? Yeah, I was laughing at her for dropping the salad. Oh, look, you said you weren't here. It was like, yes, last week we had a question come in and the question was like, what was the most embarrassing thing you've seen someone do? And as Felina gets home, of course, I'm retelling this story. Of course.
00:23:27
Speaker
My I always said that when we went to grab McDonald's, we grab a salad because I at the time McDonald's had salads. Yes, and tell the story again.
00:23:35
Speaker
and She dropped her salad and me being the great boyfriend that I am I think pictures of her over with a salad and like she'd like shakes it up and then I hear a thud and she's like, oh no this salad and she'll look over and she's on her knees like on the floor like side with the salad like like like like petrify
00:24:01
Speaker
And she's like, no, it's okay. I can put it. I can. It's so good. And she's putting it back in with her hand. And I have like photos of her doing that. You're documenting it as she documented it. We saw the photos on the last day. We can defend herself. Oh, well, well, I believe she doesn't need to do so. She made a mistake. I am waiting for you to essentially just slap him in the back of the head and move on. Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
I just want to point out the very important detail that is unfortunately left out. It is. I don't usually eat salad off of the floor. Usually. But it was my last $10 and I wouldn't get paid for the next two weeks. So that was the last opportunity for me to eat.
00:24:51
Speaker
and I dropped it on the kitchen floor. So before anyone goes out there and judges my morality of eating the floor salad, I was broken desperate. I just want to point that out. Isn't capitalism a bitch? Yeah. At least it wasn't carpet. Like I have carpet in my room and I usually eat in my room with a tray. So anytime if I drop something on the floor, most of the time just gets covered in my hair.
00:25:18
Speaker
Because my hair is everywhere because there's a lot of it. I have a dog and a cat in the house. If I drop something on the floor, it becomes more hair than food. Yep. Gross. Sin. Do you have a sappy Valentine's Day memory? Yeah, several. It would not make sense to anyone who doesn't. It's kind of an inside joke.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, we've never been one to tell inside jokes on this podcast. But it, no, no, it wouldn't even make sense to you guys. So, yeah. Fair. I'll have to keep that to myself. Fair enough. I'm trying to think, so it's funny though, for my wife and I, Valentine's Day. Let's see if I can think of something else though. Yeah. Valentine's Day isn't a big thing for us. Because our first date was three days after.
00:26:18
Speaker
So, that's just your favorite memory of her. Is it? Yeah, that's what the question is. It's just in honor of Valentine's Day. Oh, okay, I misread it. Well, unfortunately, she's never dropped a salad on the floor. That would be an easy one. She did constantly slip and fall in Finland last February. She didn't bring boots. Yeah, poor girl.
00:26:45
Speaker
Oh, she, uh, she had a tie. It's funny because like a lot of, a lot of those things right now are a lot of memories I can pick from are tied to the past year where it's like, okay, we did go to Finland twice and stuff like that. And like, I remember the first time, you know, like sin and I had to do something for sports gamer and she's like, Oh, I'll just meet you at the bus station. And the smile on her face is she's like, I took the bus by myself and Helsinki. Just so proud. Um,
00:27:15
Speaker
There's, oh man, there's a lot. I'm just a big simp, my wife. I don't know what to tell you. Simp.
00:27:26
Speaker
Can I say that? Okay, you know what? I have one. I have one now. I was going to say my answer might be because my answer might be the look on her face as Sin and I dejectedly returned to the Airbnb after doing laps around a conference center in Finland while we were lost and she had frozen pizza prepared for us.
00:27:55
Speaker
The look on her face is she's just like you guys had a rough time, huh? Yeah, just that was that was yeah, that was an elite moment. Oh what a day I Have one right now that always makes me smile when I think of it cuz it's it's
00:28:13
Speaker
It perfectly kind of sums up her personality and then also her culture. So when she was here visiting me, we were going to go over to have dinner at one of my cousin's house. And so we went and she was going to bring over a bottle of wine as a gift.
00:28:29
Speaker
And we're also buying other groceries as, Oh no, that was a different time. All right. I might have to tell two stories, but so we're, she's buying the wine and she gets out ready to hand her ID over and stuff like that. And the cashier asks her, when's your birthday? And she just freezes. Cause she doesn't understand. Why is this person asking for my birthday? I'm handing them the ID and she just froze and like looked at me and was like looking around for help. And that was just.
00:28:58
Speaker
just such a moment that makes me smile and laugh because she looked fucking adorable in the moment and then laughed her adorable laugh afterwards when yeah, when everything got sorted and stuff like that. But the other moment is we were at Target buying a bunch of groceries as well and the cashier
00:29:16
Speaker
You know, hey, how are you doing? All bubbly and very extroverted. And for those of you don't know, Finland, it's a very quiet country. People do not make small talk with each other. In fact, they seem to avoid it. So as we're in the line, the guy keeps talking. Everything he rings up, he makes a comment on.
00:29:35
Speaker
everything like Americans you you'll some of you will be like mildly annoyed by these type of people but just imagine you're from a place where you're like the only thing you say to a cashier is hi and bye and so the more he keeps commenting the more I see her glancing over at me the more smile is coming on her face the more she's trying to hold back laughter
00:29:58
Speaker
And that is another one of my favorite memories of her experiencing the American lifestyle and just being fucking weirded out by it. And then me introspecting like, yeah, this is kind of bizarre. Why do we feel the need to fill empty space? Peace with noise constantly, especially for me as an introvert. And this is one of the main reasons I love Finland.
00:30:20
Speaker
Right. You know, it's funny because I told the story about my wife being on the bus and everything, and it was one of those things where she was just like, actually, this is great. I just sat down and didn't have to talk to anybody. Nobody wanted to talk to me. This is great. Yep. But I've noticed that, right? Not that it doesn't happen in other languages, but especially I find over here in North America, it's the idea of having to um and ah.
00:30:49
Speaker
your way through a conversation, because God forbid you have half a second of dead air, even if you're not on a podcast. That's something that I've really tried to do, especially through the podcasting side of things, or YouTube, Twitch, the esports casts, is I've tried to cut the ums and ahs out.
00:31:12
Speaker
as I talk. And it's difficult because sometimes it just happens and that's fine. But I also find if I'm listening to somebody or watching a video or something like that, every five seconds it's, um, yeah, you know, there's this thing and, uh, uh, yeah, it's just one of those, uh, things. And it's just like, you can take a second.
00:31:38
Speaker
to form a thought, or in this instance, if you're a cashier, I don't need commentary on what I bought, I know what I bought. Yeah, that was so funny, because that was actually her first cashier experience, too, in America, besides maybe the times we did the drive-through at Starbucks, because she needed coffee. Yeah, mine hadn't arrived yet, because Finns love their fucking coffee.
00:32:07
Speaker
as a rule. But yeah, but I was the one ordering and it was like a drive-thru. Speaking of which, she also had zero experience through a drive-thru. Oh my God. Now there's so many stories I could tell you, but yeah, I'll just take up too much time.
00:32:22
Speaker
Well, considering some of the other topics we have to discuss, aren't that fun today? You know, you might want to continue. Well, this was in Finland, actually, and I was like going to go to a cast and I was starving and we were short on time. So I was like, yeah, just go through the drive through. And she got up to the window not telling me she'd never, ever, ever gone through a drive through.
00:32:43
Speaker
Mm hmm. You told me the story when we were over there. Yeah. So we get up to the drive through and I don't know. My God, Mike, I just like was going to tell her what I want and then she could relay it to the person. The guy's like, hi, welcome to, you know, or probably it's in Finnish to help welcome to McDonald's, whatever it was. And she's fucking froze.
00:33:03
Speaker
she does that she that that's kind of her fight or flight responses freeze and so she didn't know what to do and I was like oh I could order and I start trying to talk and the person I guess didn't hear me we just fucking driving off and then parking in the parking lot and I went in and got got my food
00:33:25
Speaker
But yeah, it just didn't occur to me because over here, drive throughs is pretty much a must. And some places are drive through exclusive, which is unheard of in Europe because, yeah, it's not a need for cars over there. Dude, there's a subway local to me that has a drive through. What? How's that work?
00:33:48
Speaker
I don't know. You just wait for fuses to go through. They have like a bigger window. You have to drive through and like, Oh yeah, I want that meat. I want this. You just, you just go along and like in drive, but foot off the gas. So you're just, I guess, man, it probably works the same way that their mobile app does in the sense of like, this screen is there. Like it has basically every fucking menu item. You tell them like right there what you want. Right. I mean,
00:34:16
Speaker
Like it's it'd be a shitty opportunity shitty way to go through because you can't tell them to put more fucking spinach on your fucking sandwich Or put more sauce so that way it actually evenly disappears on the fucking thing You guys tell me oh man I'm too I'm too nice to tell people that I figure they got like company policies, and they're not lazy, but then again I'm you know I I like service workers
00:34:41
Speaker
Like, I don't complain to their face about, like, my quality of my Saab. It's like, I paid for whatever I paid for. But at home, I'll take a bite and there's not enough sauce. There's, like, never enough distribution of the sauce because they lower it at the fucking front and never the fucking back or the middle. It's always the fucking front. I could go on a fucking rant about Subway. You are, sir. You currently are doing that. You currently are. I had an extra sauce so I could go into the fucking back so I can have a little bit more, a little bit more extra so that way I can see from the bottom. That's why I make my own sandwiches.
00:35:12
Speaker
I haven't been to a subway in forever, but me neither. If I do go in the decade, if I do go, it's going to be the drive through experience at a subway. To me, that's probably the option for someone who eats there pretty often and knows exactly what they want. Yeah. Like, I guess I don't know. I don't know. It's just what a time subway drive.
00:35:36
Speaker
With that... Yeah, let's get the shit out of the way.
Hockey Canada Allegations & NHL All-Star Weekend
00:35:40
Speaker
Yeah. Do we want to cover this first or last? No, first. I want to get it out of the way so we can hopefully talk about more fun hockey stuff. Yeah. So the Hockey Canada press conference was today.
00:35:50
Speaker
Um, or the London police press conference was today in regards to hockey Canada and the five former Royal junior players, um, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foot, Dylan DeBay and Alex Formington, who have all been charged with one count of sexual assault. Michael McLeod is facing an additional charge.
00:36:09
Speaker
Again, all of this dates back to an alleged sexual assault following a Hockey Canada golf and gala event held in London in June of 2018. Obviously, all five involved have denied any wrongdoing, as you would expect. In terms of what's being alleged, it's all been out there as we've been following this case for years.
00:36:36
Speaker
The case made its first appearance in a London court on Monday today and isn't set to return until April 30th. None of the players were present in person today, but their lawyers appeared by video. In regards to this story, the chief of London PD,
00:37:00
Speaker
Caught a lot of heat today for extending, as TSN put it, I think this was a Rick Westhead article, or it was just a general staff post, but the chief extended his sincerest apology for the length of time it took for the case to reach this point. That comment caught a lot of heat, essentially, because
00:37:25
Speaker
From the looks of it, basically, London PD failed to do their job in 2019. Like, if six years on, you were able to find enough evidence to go through with this, then that existed in 2018, or at least was there to be discovered. So London PD, granted the chief of police there right now, was not there at the time. But essentially, London PD as a whole is catching a lot of flack, and you could argue, deservedly so.
00:37:54
Speaker
I don't have too much to say on the London PD side of things from there. But in regards to what is going to be happening with these players, first and foremost, Hockey Canada has announced that all of the players will remain suspended from international competition. Although there is an event next year with an international spin that we'll talk about a bit later on that is not currently covered because that's an annual event.
00:38:21
Speaker
Rick Westhead mentioned that lawyers for the defense met with the judge today. There is a publication ban ordered on the identity of the victim and two witnesses that came forward. So no publication is allowed to say, here she is. This is who it is. Thankfully, good, good.
00:38:42
Speaker
There's also been substantial paper and audio evidence Collected by London PD that was shared with the defense today again building up to that April 30th date And I know what endo had shared with us and I did see it In regards to the teams right because Alex formington not currently on the senators But obviously the other four are a part of three different NHL teams And Darren Dreger announced that the Flyers Devils and Flames have been informed. They will receive cap relief for the players on leave
00:39:11
Speaker
Which very much indicates they are not coming back and going to be allowed to play anytime soon if they are not going to count against the cap. Like they are essentially from a cap perspective being pushed into like an LTIR role where they don't count.
00:39:26
Speaker
But they get money. Yeah. Well, of course, you can't say, oh, you're accused of this and we're going to avoid your contract. There's no legal standing for that. And the PA would have a fucking fit if you even tried, but that's their job. Oh, especially. Well, yeah, that's why. I'm getting on a different
00:39:44
Speaker
Topic but that's why they defend the people suspended harder than they defend the people injured Because when you're injured you get paid when you're suspended you lose money and therefore the players association loses money Seems pretty bad You know in regards to all of this I mean
00:40:05
Speaker
I don't really know what more else to say. We can't really say much about it because it's an ongoing thing. We can mention the facts that we know right now, but I don't think speculation helps. No. And yeah. You know, the only thing, and the one I had talked about on the last podcast, the only thing that I'm really wondering about right now, what did Ottawa know about Alex Forminton?
00:40:31
Speaker
Did they know that this could have happened? Because they did not resign him. And he's been over in Switzerland for the past season and a half. The Calgary Flames claim that they had no idea that this was coming in regards to Dylan Dubay, particularly when he asked for a mental health leave. Which means either, and we talked about this again in the live show, either the Flames,
00:41:02
Speaker
are just kind of naive to just be like, all right, no, this player asked for a mental health thing. Yeah, he could be a part of that team, but, you know, we'll trust him on this, which on one hand you respect. On the other, it's like, you know, of all the players asking for mental health leave. So, of course, there's a chance that Dylan Dubay and his agent abused that particular system in regards to, again, that's the sticking point for me right now.
00:41:31
Speaker
especially if Dylan Dubay and his agent utilize the, I have a mental health issue going on right now, I need time away, reasoning. And I say abused it because you are on a team with Oliver Shillington who just missed a season and a half for noted mental health issues. That's what gets me is it sure seems like
00:41:59
Speaker
You'd make light of your own teammates struggles that he's gone through to try and be like, oh, I got a mental health. I don't fucking know. I don't know. Um, you know, Philly was trying to shop Carter heart. Michael McLeod just resigned an extension with the devils. Who knew what? Who didn't know what? Is it excusable that they didn't know? Did they just not care?
00:42:24
Speaker
You know, the primary focus is these five individuals. Don't get me wrong. Like, that is the story. Did they do what they are accused of? And if they did, they should never step foot on any professional ace again, let alone NHL eyes. Let's be honest, they'll go to the KHL. But...
00:42:43
Speaker
you know, you just can't help but wonder about some of these teams. And who knew what and who didn't, because it sure seems like people knew something. And then other teams may have just been like, well, nothing's official yet. So I don't know. It's, it's exhausting. We've talked about this story as the news have continued to kind of trickle out. And it's just one of those
00:43:09
Speaker
One of those things, one of those stories in the NHL over the last couple of years that's just been exhausting, disgusting, and very much impacted my personal hockey fandom, as well as many, many others, because hockey culture, isn't it great?
00:43:31
Speaker
Isn't it great, especially when you have players from the 80s, the 90s, the early 2000s who have either been accused of things or who have told stories of the personal abuses that they suffered. It's great. It's a fun time. Anything to add, gentlemen, into an exhausting topic? Nope. Fair enough.
00:43:57
Speaker
Endo, I want you to get us back on track here, my friend, because the NHL All-Star Weekend was this weekend in Toronto. I don't know about sin, but I can speak for me when I say I didn't watch a goddamn second between the skills competition, the draft, the All-Star game itself. I had zero interest. I didn't watch. All I know is that Michael Bublรฉ was on shrooms, apparently, and Nikita Kucharov got booed.
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah, I saw some clips. That's about it. It's just I don't have an interest in it. And yeah, and it's probably not really marketed to me anyway, so.
00:44:36
Speaker
It was nice. I used this as a networking experience to hang out with people. And that was basically what I used it for. It was a lot of fun. I didn't really care about the draft. I will say that the draft experience was an absolute nightmare because they had like 15 hot mics on all at once. It didn't do anything different where it was like, oh, let's have like one giant, let's have like one boom mic on. People were individually miked up.
00:45:03
Speaker
So you'd have five people speaking at once that would pop up on everything and everyone could hear what everyone was saying. And every single time Tate McRabe was able to go up, she'd say the exact same voice, nice to meet you, nice to meet you, nice to meet you, nice to meet you. And people were getting kicked out of that and this is unnerving. I feel like a lot of people were saying, if you're going to do an all-star game draft,
00:45:27
Speaker
The 2015 one gets a lot of Comments about it because there's a lot of quote-unquote liquid courage basically everyone was drunk in 2015 and Everyone goes on and says 2015 was the best one because everyone was drunk
00:45:42
Speaker
And people were coming out and talking about 2015 draft and saying that, you know, we didn't realize how much we were drinking. Like whenever there was a commercial break, they would all top us up with whatever beer we wanted or whatever we had. And we just keep drinking. And you know, when someone's pouring you a drink, it's harder to keep track of how much you're drinking. Because you're not the one pouring it yourself. There.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah. At least in my experience, like if I if I know I'm having like two beers or whatever, and there's just an endless amount just keeps refilling when you don't when you look away, you're gonna lose track about how much you've actually had. And that's what that's what happened to some of the guys that they were saying. That's what I tried to say. That's what I meant to say. So back to the 2024. I'll start at 2024. It was bland. The draft itself was bland. The skills competition
00:46:41
Speaker
It was Obama giving Obama an award because Conor McDavid was brought out to design the award, the skills competition. And it was very back to bones, back to basics kind of setup. You had your basic agility, fastest skater, fastest shot.
00:47:07
Speaker
the hardest shot of accuracy challenge and then you had the whole like relay race thing where you're going through different obstacles and all that the score um matthew barzall absolutely
00:47:19
Speaker
God, I think no sleeves had $100 bet on Matthew Berzal to win the competition. He gets to the last one, he's in the lead, he's about to go through, and he hits seven straight passes to the left of one of the passing gates for the little small nets to pass it through. The exact same spot every single time, but I'm like, Matthew, just move one inch to the right and you got it.
00:47:47
Speaker
Skills comp was good, McDavid won, winner gets a million dollars, millionaires getting more money. I got people claiming that he somehow rigged it for himself. It's like, oh yeah, he's just not the best player in the world. That stops the second you get to the skill competition and design it. Right?
00:48:05
Speaker
I will say Alexander Gorgiev winning the best goaltender award, which is $100,000 because of course, you know goal is get least amount of money out of anybody else as they should he
00:48:19
Speaker
He stops, like, McDavid only scores three times on his breakaway attempts in one of the challenges. And people were trying to redeem him for, you know, people were saying like, you know, Gorgiev shouldn't have gone because he's having like an off year kind of thing. And now like, this is like a redemption performance from him. And all that fun stuff. But it's just an all star game. They have fun.
00:48:45
Speaker
I will say the best part about the weekend that was pretty cool was Bieber suiting up to play with team Matthews and to just skate around. Like I thought he was going to play like the actual game. Oh, he did not. He only suited up for the world. I've been controversial if they did that because it's supposed to be NHL players only. I don't know. I don't like it's not like anything's on the line, but I'm like, that would have been really interesting if they let like non
00:49:13
Speaker
NHL players play in the NHL all-star game. That'd be pretty cool, though. I'm not going to lie. I mean, Bieber does have hockey-playing experience. He didn't play AAA before he became a pop sensation at, like, 14. So, you know, he has practice with Elise beforehand. So this was also apparently his first, like, appearance since getting diagnosed with one of the diseases that he got, which was, like, causing, like, facial paralysis. He had to cancel his World Tour for.
00:49:42
Speaker
and they weren't expecting him to perform and apparently he performed in history which was pretty cool like he wasn't supposed to do anything he was supposed to just kind of like show up and be a coach and then now there's like a guest performance of Bieber for people to just watch and see which is pretty cool anything else to add and know about the all-star weekend because again Sin and I got nothing
00:50:11
Speaker
Nashor snuck me into an event, so that was pretty cool.
00:50:17
Speaker
I could I could go on a whole tangent about like the things that I did this whole weekend about the all-star game Met a lot of cool people. I think this week Matt Nash room at his editor John met clappy like like I said before met clappy was pretty cool. Um Who else did I meet met gris? Raheel was down there Sophia Gris as in gris goal who does
00:50:45
Speaker
commentary for the nhl gwc whatever the hell is called this year i can't keep track nasher is nasher john is nasher's videographer who else did i meet i met nick the goalie and his wife who is really really nice and sweet
00:51:03
Speaker
their thing, they're like a small city kind of people, city folk, based in Vancouver, BC. So for them to come out and be in Toronto and get stopped every five, 10 minutes, they were super in shock with how people really, really knew them and how famous they were. So have you gotten used to the fact that your husband's got a million TikTok followers?
00:51:25
Speaker
And she's like, no, not not at all. Like it's still really, really weird. Like we're not used to this kind of thing, like getting flown out the places, getting paid essentially to just make hockey videos. And they were very, very sweet people, both Nick and his wife, Stacy. Very nice, very curious. I met Rammer. Rammer is like six foot nine. He's huge.
00:51:51
Speaker
Massive and I had a legitimate question. I was going to ask him. I was gonna ask like hey man like big Thank you for you know making NHL what it is right now You know, I I would say like, you know, I'm a fan of the product but like not like doing no Hey, I do like NHL. I was going to say to him So as you're the VP of EA Sports because he's a VP of EA Sports now
00:52:14
Speaker
When it comes to allocating direction to NHL and EA and FC and Madden, what is your game plan in terms of how do you distribute stuff evenly and how do you determine how you give amount or development power to certain teams? But instead of saying all that, I said, hi, I'm a content creator, I'm here to support my friends who are playing in a thing, and I completely got super nervous. He's so tall, I got fucking nervous, dude.
00:52:45
Speaker
I got scared. I was thinking how I saw Rammer and I wanted to have an elegant question and I ended up freezing up completely. It's probably for the best. Probably for the best. Not to say because of you, Wendo, it's just he probably doesn't want to answer questions like that in that setting. Probably, yeah.
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah. What else happened this weekend? It was the Creator Skills Tournament. And sleeves tried to get me in because I didn't have any credential pass on me. He's like, oh, he's with me. He's like, the guy's like, oh, we need a pass anyway. So then I go around. I see Nashor. And I'm like, yo, can you let me in? He's like, just hop the fence. I hop the fence. Security guy comes over here. And Nashor says, oh, yeah, he's with me. And I'm like, oh, OK, cool. And he's like, all right, cool, whatever. He just leaves.
00:53:35
Speaker
Sweet. So I got to hang out a bunch of creators at the three on three thing. It was pretty cool. Found out that my buddy Vince was playing for the gold team. And the gold team was stacked because half of the guys on that team were local and they play with each other. Had like Powell Barber. Vince was there as well. A bunch of other guys who played like semi pro hockey too. So they were just buzzing around everybody else.
00:54:00
Speaker
I felt bad for Swaggy P, aka Elevate, who's a trick... He's also like a former pro guy. His team was not so good. Coach Chip was not having a good day. I will say that too.
00:54:15
Speaker
But all in all, it was a great event. Wrapped it up with the Leafs Gaming event on Sunday. And it was really, really fun. It was a lot of networking, a lot of meeting people. Who else? I think I mentioned, I think I mentioned I met Tactics as well. Like there's so many people that I met in Cross Pass with. Jordan from Iles Gaming was there as well too. Talked to him for a bit on Sunday.
00:54:42
Speaker
It's just been a lot of networking and meeting people and doing all that stuff. Yeah That would have been the one positive To going for me as opposed to like the all-star game itself or anything like that like that would have been the benefit Although for the amount of money it would have cost like yeah, yes, but that is the best part of Events like that is getting to
00:55:11
Speaker
either meet people or see people again. To me, when people are just like, oh, the Vancouver trip or whatever that I got to take in August, it's like, what was the highlight of that? It's less than being like, oh, I can talk to the devs and stuff like that directly. It's more about the people that you get to see and hang out with for a little bit. Yeah, that's definitely the biggest selling point, I would say.
00:55:38
Speaker
I think the coolest thing that I did was play like Shinny with Nashor. So the whole quick story about that was Wednesday comes in. He's like, hey, I want to go play in the ODR tonight. And I'm like, name a place and where? That's my first mistake. Never ask a guy who's not from your country or your city to make a plan or plan an event. He's like, hey, we'll go to this rink. OK, that rink's closed. We'll go to this rink. That rink's also closed. OK, let's try this rink. OK, that rink's closed, but the pleasure pad's open. So let's go pass the puck around and
00:56:08
Speaker
Pleasure pad. Yeah. Oh, so it's we call it a pleasure pad as in like pleasure skating and free skating. Okay. Yes. As in like leisure. Then call it the leisure pad. Leisure pad. Whatever. Pleasure skating is like, we call it pleasure skating here where it's like an open, not exactly on an ice rink, but it's not like a path, like a nature path.
00:56:35
Speaker
All right. Yeah, that's what it's called here. Sure. Yes. That's what it is. The pleasure path. I'm sorry, it's questionable. Yes, I took Nasher on my pleasure path. How do you feel? I'm just glad you two had a great time.
00:56:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's a very great time. I showed them around the city as well too because we just drove them back because they took an Uber to like three different ranks and we're like, I get it, but we'll just drive you. It's totally fine whatsoever. So we gave them a tour around, showed them old maple leaf gardens, other places around the city as well. That was probably the coolest thing.
00:57:21
Speaker
So it was really awesome to do that and meet someone who, you know, I looked up to for content creation for a while. And now it's like, you're on a first-hand basis with someone. It's kind of weird. Like, that's why my ego has been like a little bit like, I'm on like a little high horse. It's like, I know all these cool people, but at the same time, they're just people at the end of the day. Like, what of it?
00:57:46
Speaker
I was trying to decide who I wanted to take a shot at. I was going to be like, except for this guy. But we'll be nice. And I'm glad you had a lovely time. Again, I do like that the vast majority of the conversation was not about the NHL product itself. But again, people just argue, oh, it's not marketed towards adults.
00:58:08
Speaker
Who's who's gonna spend money on it? I think I think the adults are the ones that can spend the money on it But hey the after party like the the NHL experiences was pretty cool I didn't get obviously a chance to go because it was way too fucking expensive Tickets for the night one tickets for night one was like $200 which was the draft tickets for the skills competition was like $400 and then tickets for the actual game itself was like 450 $500 like Canadian
00:58:39
Speaker
That's expensive. That's expensive. Like if you were in Florida, you could probably get tickets for all three of those for like $200, $300 for all three nights. But in Toronto, because of, you know, it's a hockey Mecca, essentially.
00:58:55
Speaker
You don't really have a chance to buy anything because everyone's bought by scalpers and this and that and all that. It was almost more, it almost made more sense to buy the NHL experiences package because you get a chance to go to the after parties that they have at the Metro Toronto Convention Center with a bunch of performing. I don't know who performed night one. It was Nelly. And then night two was Nelly Furtado, which was pretty cool.
00:59:26
Speaker
Fair enough. Sorry. It was pretty cool. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Everyone left. Met Pete Blackburn. That's the cool thing too. Met Pete Blackburn. He is a short king, but he's yoked. So I can't talk shit about him being small or tiny. There you go. Don't beat you up. It's cool. Super cool. Again, I'm glad you had a great time. Yeah.
00:59:52
Speaker
Would've been nice to be there, but wasn't worth the price of admission. So, it's all good. With that, we have a couple of other little news and notes to get into. In regards to the all-star weekend and such, Gary Bettman held a press conference where he confirmed some big, big news.
NHL Announcements & Olympic Discussions
01:00:17
Speaker
And that is that the NHL will be participating in the Olympics again. The Olympics. Hooray in 2026 and 2030. Now, is this good news? Yes, it is. Of course it is. It's the NHL going back to the biggest stage where the best players in the world
01:00:41
Speaker
We'll get to compete on an international level. It is tremendous news. There's no doubt about that. However, surprise, surprise, I can find a negative in something. The fuck. That's my response. The fuck. Because this could have been done for 2018 and 2022. But you didn't.
01:01:12
Speaker
You didn't. I'd love to know what has apparently changed between missing out on the last two Olympic cycles to now where you're like, nope, we'll go back. I'd love to know what changed because I'm sorry, I can't imagine it's that much. And you think about the players now
01:01:38
Speaker
that have never played on Olympic ice or those who have not played since the Sochi Olympics 10 years ago. The last time the NHL went to the Olympics, Sidney Crosby was 26 years old. He is now 36. He will be 37 in August.
01:02:03
Speaker
By the time the NHL makes it to Olympic ice again, Connor McDavid will be 29 playing in his first Olympics. It's a travesty because of that fact alone. Like we can be happy that they're finally going back.
01:02:23
Speaker
But we've missed out on Prime Crosby at the Olympics. That is a fact. And that sucks. That absolutely sucks. And we've missed out on, I mean, who knows what prime years will be for Conor McDavid. But the fact that we haven't already seen Conor McDavid at the Olympic level at least once, technically it would have been twice.
01:02:53
Speaker
right 2018 and 2022 he was already in the league in 2018 and those are just two examples think about all the other players in that age group of Sidney Crosby or older that have already retired that missed out on their extra shot to go to the Olympics
01:03:15
Speaker
And then you think about the younger players that again, someone like Connor McDavid going to be 29 years old by the time he gets back or by the time he makes his debut. Yep. Like, am I happy that they're finally going back? Yes, but I cannot help but think about all of the time and opportunity lost.
01:03:38
Speaker
So many different players and for what reason the thing that bothers me the most is like they expect to be padded on the back for it Right. It's like no you should have been going this whole time Mm-hmm. It's like the Olympics hasn't been amateur only and I can't remember how long so like that's not even an excuse I Think it was
01:04:01
Speaker
Was it, let's see, Nagano was 98, so it would've been- Yeah, Nagano was 98. So it would've been- It was like 1987 or something like that. I was gonna say, so I was thinking it was, would it have been the 1990 Winter Olympics? Or would it have been, because 92 was, no, 92 was the summer one, because I think there was a weird thing there, but I'm pretty sure it was the 90s.
01:04:29
Speaker
where it changed from amateur representation for Olympic ice hockey. Let's see, when did the NHL first go to the Olympics? Why not? Should be able to find that quick and easy. NHL players participated in five games from 98 to 2014. Okay, so it was. It was the Nagano Olympics in 98 where they went for the first time.
01:04:59
Speaker
That said, you know, if it stayed that way, right? If it stayed that way and it was only about the amateur game, that's fine. But at the same time,
01:05:15
Speaker
The standard was raised when it was no longer an amateur focus. And let's be honest, the idea of it being an amateur focus thing was bullshit. Oh, yeah. Especially during the Soviet Union, like they were all professionals. Exactly. But it was a loophole that they were quote unquote amateurs. It was 98 that you really finally started to see there be a lot of competition. Here's the history of the gold medal.
01:05:44
Speaker
in the winter Olympics for men's ice hockey. 1920, and then obviously every four years on from there. Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada, Great Britain in 36. What the fuck? Canada, Canada. I think Canada wasn't there for that one. I'm probably not. Is that during the fucking war, dude? Yeah. 36. 1936, yeah. I see it. Is not during a war. 1936 was not during a war.
01:06:15
Speaker
It was held in Germany as well. They probably boycotted going, if any. Probably, yeah. But no, if Great Britain was there, they would have maybe boycotted. Yeah. There was a big break in the Winter Olympics between 1936 and 1948 because of the war. So when it continues in 1948, Canada, Canada, the Soviets, 1960 is the US.
01:06:39
Speaker
Infamously, of course, her brooks not making that team, and then they go on to win, which was a big crux of like, hey, the 1980 games. From 1964 to 1988, the Soviet Union, with the exception of the US in Lake Placid, 1980, and of course, the Soviets won silver over Sweden. 92, you had a unified team.
01:07:06
Speaker
known as the Commonwealth of Independent States winning, which was in the aftermath of the Soviet Union falling apart and that's its whole thing. 94 is Sweden.
01:07:24
Speaker
So you think about that, very few and far between, it was Canada in the very early stages, the Soviet Union dominating between the 50s and up into the 90s. And then ever since the UN or ever since the NHL had allowed teams to go,
01:07:43
Speaker
Czechia, Canada, Sweden, Canada, Canada, Russia, which was the Olympic athletes of Russia in 2018, because again, the NHL stopped going. And then Finland in 2022.
01:07:57
Speaker
You had a hell of a lot more competitive nature, I would say. I mean, Canada won three out of five that the NHL was involved in, but it wasn't just Soviet, Soviet, Soviet, Soviets. Yeah. In Canada. And they were close games to you. Think about the golden goal, Crosby. No, it is overtime, man. Like it was it was a great game. Right.
01:08:18
Speaker
I mean, and look, I enjoyed ice hockey for the 2018 Olympics. That was when Germany took not Russia to overtime. That was a good story. Finland beating not Russia in 2022 in Beijing. That was a good story. But the level of play is never going to be higher unless you have the NHLers involved. Yeah. And like I said, just the absurd amount of players that could have made it.
01:08:46
Speaker
that could have, should have played, and either never got another chance to, or, you know, and have since retired, or if it's someone like Sidney Crosby now who's in the twilight of his career, it's just incredibly frustrating. I think both can be true. You can be happy that the NHL is finally going back, but you can also say like,
01:09:12
Speaker
fucks the matter with you. You just could have gone for the past two anyway. We could be gearing up for Connor McDavid in his third Olympics heading into 2026. Could have enjoyed Prime Crosby. Now he's going to be going when he's almost 40. Yeah, I mean, we're two years out. Who knows if he makes it? Yeah, who knows if he even makes it?
01:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, there's a realistic chance that the last time Sidney Crosby would have played in the Olympics was 2014. Yeah. And with the way Ovi's been trending, he's not he's not making it. He's not going to be there like. He if Ovechkin is on the Russian team or whatever the hell they call it, if Russia is allowed to participate in the 2026 games, who the fuck knows? He'll be a passenger.
01:09:58
Speaker
Like Alex Ovechkin's quality of play, we've talked about that. It's been bad, man. It's been bad. On this day at least, I see clearly, he has 31 points in 44 games with nine goals. It sure looks like- That's still decent, but that's not Ovi. Exactly. It sure looks like that decline is hit. Ovi is 38. He will be
01:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, he'll be 40 the other time those games happen because his birthday is in September. Yeah, he yeah, I mean, say what you want about Alexander Vetchkin. It's still in terms of him as the hockey player, the fact that, you know, he missed out on the last two Olympic games. Yeah, sucks.
01:10:46
Speaker
And like I said, you think about older like Joe Pavelski is not going to get a chance for the U.S. again. Nope. That was his last chance in 2014. And he was a monster. That tournament, I remember so clearly, like, you know, like, you know how far back that was? Fucking Rafalski was playing, I think, unless I'm thinking of 2010.
01:11:05
Speaker
But so in turn, OK, so here we go, because we always love stuff like this in terms of the 2014 Olympic rosters. I'm going to mention the U.S. and Canada here instead of everybody that. Yeah.
01:11:18
Speaker
For the US, their goaltenders, Jonathan Quick, Jimmy Howard, Ryan Miller. Jimmy Howard. Two out of three are retired, and I can't imagine Jonathan Quick's going, whereas he would have in one of the prior two games that they missed. He absolutely would have at least made the roster. He might not have been the starter, but he would have been there. Your forwards, Joe Pavelski. Doubt he's going.
01:11:44
Speaker
Zach Pareese was the captain of the team in Sochi. He did just sign with Colorado, but he's not going in two years. Derek Stepan is retired. Ryan Kessler is retired. James Van Reamsdyk is now 34. So maybe he'll get another chance.
01:12:02
Speaker
Dustin Brown, retired. Ryan Callahan, retired. Paul Stashny, retired. Blake Wheeler, he is 37. He'll be 38 August. He's in his 11th hour career. David Bacchus, retired. Max Patrick Ready, injured the shit.
01:12:21
Speaker
TJ Sochi himself, will he get another opportunity? Probably not. He would have been 2018. He probably would have been 2020. He's 37. He's probably not getting another shot. Phil Kessel probably will never get another shot. He hasn't even signed with the team. Patrick Kane, maybe. Maybe he hangs around long enough to play in 2026.
01:12:46
Speaker
On defense, Cam Fowler, John Carlson, Paul Martin, Ryan Souter, Kevin Shattankirk, Ryan McDonough, Brooks Orpek, and Justin Falk. How many of those guys would have been on that USA team in 2018? I'd say a good amount of them. Or at least would have certainly been in consideration to make it.
01:13:11
Speaker
And then obviously 2020, it would have, you know, Kane would have been there. But 2026, I don't know how many of the, like you don't get more than a handful. I don't even think you get a handful. No, no, it's like, not with how many good Americans are in the league now, man. Right. Like, and they're, and most of the ones that we talk about now are just getting better. Like, I don't think anyone you mentioned of the forward group,
01:13:38
Speaker
Who wasn't retired is gonna make it over some of the other Americans? Patrick Kane off of legacy maybe maybe yeah, he's the only one maybe JVR if you place fourth line, but I don't know if you'll be there like it's These guys got screwed that generation got absolutely screwed the Canadian team in 2014 and Sochi the long go price and Mike Smith and
01:14:07
Speaker
They're all gone. They're all gone. Mike Smith hasn't officially retired, but I know he's back. It's your 44, what the hell? Yeah, right. The long-going Price, Price especially. Price probably would have been, yeah, unless he was hurt, he would have been the starter in 2018 for Canada. He got fucked. That's what his interest first started at 2018. The forwards, Matt Duchenne, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Marlowe,
01:14:35
Speaker
Chris Kunitz, Ryan Getzlaff, Jonathan Taves, John Tavares, Jamie Ben, Corey Perry, Martin St. Louis, Patrice Bergeron, Rick Nash, Jeff Carter, and Captain Sidney Crosby. That generation got locked. They're all retired like most of those names you just mentioned. We are retired now.
01:14:55
Speaker
That is crazy. Like I'm sorry that it's the pessimistic attitude for me in regards to this when I should just be hyped. But this is what I think about is I'm genuinely frustrated for these guys. And you have to imagine there's some level of frustration from them, too. For the most part, I'm sure someone like Patrice Bergeron was like, it was out of my hands, man. I had a great career. I'm going to be a hockey all the famer, whatever.
01:15:17
Speaker
But there has to be frustration. Their defense, by the way, was Duncan Keith, Dan Hamhuse, or as 2K called him, Dan Hamhouse. Shea Weber. Oh, Shea Weber boy. Drew Doughty, Jay Bomester, Alex Petrangello, Mark Edouard, Vlasic, and PK Subban. You see, kids, Vlasic was elite.
01:15:43
Speaker
With, by the way, a note here that Martin St. Louis was only there because Stephen Stamkos was selected but was injured and unable to play. Talk about someone who's gotten totally fucked out of an international career. Stephen Stamkos has never played in the Olympics. Not once.
01:16:05
Speaker
He's played in World Championships, World Juniors, Steven Stamkos, because of that injury, and he wasn't a part of the Canadian team in 2010. Steven Stamkos has never played an Olympic game for Canada. That's crazy. He's 33 now. He turns 34 on February 7th. So he'll be Crosby's age by the time they're getting ready to go to the Olympics in 2026.
01:16:32
Speaker
No guarantee he makes that team with Canada's roster. And if he does, it's not prime Steven Stamkos. And that's a tragedy. To me, at least as a hockey fan. And I don't get it. I don't get it. Because we all talked about that over the last two Olympic cycles that they missed. And what the hell are the NHL doing? What is this bullshit? Just fucking go. Like, we get the idea of, oh, well, injuries can happen. The players wanted to go.
01:17:00
Speaker
Whether or not it's the owners, the NHLs, governance, whatever the hell, they dropped the ball twice. Let's not pretend they didn't now because we're all happy that they're finally going back. There's a generation that got absolutely shafted. Multiple generations. The prior generation that might have had a chance to go in 2016 or 2018, excuse me, and then there's the current generation.
01:17:26
Speaker
of Connor McDavid, again, not playing his first Olympic games until age 29. And God forbid he gets hurt and misses it like Stamco's did. Then you're talking about him not getting to play in the in the Olympics until age 30 fucking three. Like. And that's because of the missed opportunities from before. So, yes, it's nice they're going back. Holy hell, is it frustrating because it shouldn't have been this. It shouldn't. Yeah.
01:17:57
Speaker
I'm trying to, like, see, because Tomas Hurdle is now in his 30s. I'm trying to see if he actually played for the Olympics once, because he was, would have been available for one of them. Sorry. He wasn't on a 2014 roster. What? That's crazy. For Chetia, maybe they weren't there? They were there. Yeah, he wasn't on that team.
01:18:25
Speaker
It's before the forwards on that 2014 team for the checks And this is another point there are some guys that might have been able to sneak on to their rosters in like 2018
01:18:41
Speaker
because they were on like this career peak, and then they just fell off, and now they have no shot of making it, right? The 2014 check team was Milan Mahalik, Roman Trevenka, and again, apologies for pronunciations here, Martin Hansl, Yuri Novotny, Thomas Plakanek, Andre Palat, Patrick Eliash, David Crayche, Michael Frolic, Yurimir Jager, Alashemsky, Yakovorachek, Martin Irat, Peter Nedved, Jakub Kovar, Andre Pavlik, and Alexander Salak.
01:19:09
Speaker
The latter three being goalies, I should say. Yeah. It's just, it's immensely frustrating to me because I can't just be like, oh yeah, no, everything's good now. Like, no, let's not forget how rightfully frustrated hockey fans were in the hockey world happened to be in 2018 and 2022 when the NHL didn't go.
01:19:35
Speaker
rightfully frustrated for a reason. And those reasons are still very much applicable now, just like they were before. Yeah. So obviously you could look back at the, you know, there are some good stories from the 2018 deal because you had players that never would have gotten there otherwise, right? Like the Canadian roster in 2018,
01:20:04
Speaker
You know, Karl Stellari wasn't going to be an Olympian had it not been for the NHL not being involved or Gilbert Brulee for Canada. And, you know, like the the U.S.'s team that year, you had you had some names such as James Wisniewski.
01:20:30
Speaker
and Captain Brian Gianna and stuff like that. They were kind of enjoyable for that reason, but nothing beats the best of the best going head to head. And that is why in 2016, the NHL held the World Cup of Hockey, which did hockey fans enjoy it? Yes, that was a fun tournament.
01:20:55
Speaker
Would anybody say I prefer that tournament over them going to the Olympics two years later? No. And if you do, you're a fucking liar. You're just trying to be contrarian. Nobody wanted that tournament over the Olympics. People enjoyed the tournament because it was fucking scuffed. That tournament was fucking stupid. Where you had Canada, who won as host, Brad Marchand, scoring the winner in Toronto.
01:21:25
Speaker
the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, the United States, and then team North America, which was 23 and under players that were either American or Canadian. Europeans loved that. Yeah, with McDavid and Matthews on the same team. You also had team some of Europe.
01:21:55
Speaker
where if you weren't from Czechia, if you weren't from Finland, or Russia, or Sweden, they just threw the rest of you onto a team.
01:22:06
Speaker
Team fuck you and just throw them over. German, Slovakians, Swiss, French, Denmark with Bodker, Yannick Hansen, Franz Nielsen, Thomas Vanik was there for Austria. Matt Zukarello, you're Norwegian, team sum of Europe. Like, God, that was such a bad... Like, I get it, but at the same time, it's literally like when you're filling out your ethnicity on a fucking ID paper, it's like,
01:22:34
Speaker
Black, white, whatever, this, other. It's like, wha? And now the NHL is doing something similar with another international tournament. Yay.
01:22:54
Speaker
Who cares? They are going to be hosting the Four Nations Face-Off Tournament in 2025. Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States represented. Which... Fuck you, Russia.
01:23:14
Speaker
So it's an in-season tournament next year that will consist of seven total games being played over nine days between February 12th and 20th, along with two practice days on the 10th and the 11th, to be held in two yet to be named North American cities, one in Canada and one in the United States. So you have no problem doing this in-season mini international tournament
01:23:43
Speaker
But of course, sending players to the Olympics isn't worth it. In 2018 and 2022. Quebec, it's Salt Lake. Calling it right now, Quebec City and Salt Lake. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. You know, I'm guessing some people be like, well, yeah, but it's an NHL event, so they benefit from it. Does the NHL better benefit from a tournament like this, or do they better benefit from having the spotlight that the Olympics provides? It's the Olympics, but that's a long-term...
01:24:12
Speaker
You know, the NHL has a, has a major issue with like understanding long-term benefits. It seems like they're always in it for the short term. Oh, what if players get injured over there and we'll mess up this and we'll make mess up this year. It'll mess up this year. Whereas you look at what the NBA did when they brought about the dream team and how much basketball took off globally.
01:24:36
Speaker
Largely in part to that, so much so that we had to have the redeem team because USA got its fucking ass kicked by multiple, you know, other teams. Like, it's, it's great. It's honestly, it's, yeah, it's just, it bugs me how short-sighted the NHL and many fans are too, who like decide with the weird decisions that the NHL makes sometimes.
01:25:03
Speaker
But hooray, they're going back to the Olympics. Please clap for Gary Bennett. Please clap. Other little notes here. Don't have too much to mention in terms of just, hey, General Wellwishes to Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is another player that has now entered into the Player Assistance Program. We've talked about that before, the idea that
01:25:31
Speaker
the stigmas dropped a bit and players have a way to go. Whereas, you know, you wish this existed in its current form years ago, it might have very well prevented numerous tragedies that we had seen. So best wishes to Kuznetsov. And granted for a different reason, best wishes to Yessey Pulley Arvy.
01:25:50
Speaker
Well, with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton penguins has signed a deal for the rest of this year and next year with the Pittsburgh penguins. If there's any team where he could try to find that full potential again, then it looked like he had. I feel like Pittsburgh is it. Just the magic of like, well, Crosby and Malkin are there. And there was always the joke of who the fuck is that on Crosby's wing? Yeah. Could be S.C. Pooley RV coming up.
01:26:18
Speaker
I think out of any player in the NHL, Sidney Crosby can revive Puyarvi's career. He can revive anyone's career. Exactly. He got Jake Gensil paid during the playoff run that they had those two years. He got him paid, dude.
01:26:41
Speaker
Another thing to note really quickly, I don't want to get into this, because Jesus Christ, this conversation.
NHL Expansion & Relocation Talks
01:26:46
Speaker
Marty Walsh took shots at the coyotes saying, what the hell are we still doing here? Basically, saying that the coyotes had missed two deadlines to move forward with an arena project. Quote, how long do you wait to get home? They're playing in a college arena. There's a second tenant in that arena that's not a way to run a business. The coyotes have made it clear. Again, they're targeting a specific plot of land right now and trying to get a deal done for that.
01:27:10
Speaker
We'll see what the hell happens. We've been over the Coyotes thing time and time again. I feel like it's almost been a year since Deekslayer was on the show talking about the failed Tempe arena deal. My viewpoint is still this. They are not going to relocate a team unless they have no choice. Yeah. Because now you look at the, and let me get the exact number here.
01:27:35
Speaker
You look at the 500 million dollar expansion fee that Vegas paid to join the league followed by the 650 million dollar expansion fee that the Kraken paid to the league. They do not want to relocate teams. No. They are going to be able to command 700 million plus for an expansion team.
01:27:59
Speaker
I think if Atlanta gets another shot, as it's rumored that they're going to, I don't think it'll be relocation. I think it'll be close to a nearly one billion dollar expansion fee. Yeah, it's going to. I don't know why people keep using that with assault, like coyotes, blah, blah, blah.
01:28:14
Speaker
It's not, why would they do that when Salt Lake has now come out and publicly said, yeah, we're interested in an expansion team. They have no negotiation, be like, oh, just move this team here. No, buy this thing. Pay us 700, 800 million. That's going to happen. The interesting thing is they're going to want to balance all the divisions. Salt Lake makes sense, Central.
01:28:37
Speaker
Are we even on divisions now? Yeah, eight and eight. Yeah, we have 32 teams still. So we're going to need four expansion teams. And people who come out and say, that's too many teams, you can argue about maybe saturating the talent or whatever. But I think there's so much talent in the NHL, and it's only getting better.
01:29:04
Speaker
But when people always say it's too many teams, can you sustain that in the markets? What other major sport has seven Canadian teams? None. The answer is none. So if you're looking at it from a MLB, NFL, NBA perspective,
01:29:26
Speaker
We are still at in the mid-20s for American teams. There is room for expansion. They're likely mostly gonna go there. You might get one Canadian franchise.
01:29:37
Speaker
It'll be in QC. Sure. And then if, if Atlanta comes back, there's your two East teams. You need an, I don't know where that Pacific team is going to be unless salt Lake will be listed as Pacific, but that's a bit of a stretch. I mean, Vegas is in the Pacific. Sure. But Arizona is now in the central. Yeah. Maybe move back. I mean, you could salt Lake city plus Houston.
01:30:06
Speaker
Texas is huge. The fact there's only one team there is kind of crazy. So yeah, or, you know, Kansas City's been mentioned. There's so many possibilities. There's so many good markets. That's why expansion keeps getting talked about and people who are continuing to resist it because they're just not thinking of it from a logical point. They're thinking of it from number of teams rather than available markets. And there are still plenty of available, viable, very viable markets. Hockey in Texas is actually way bigger than people think.
01:30:34
Speaker
They can absolutely sustain a second team. Bring the arrows back and use that sick fucking fighter jet logo they have. I love that. You guys know exactly why I want new brands. I'm sick. I know what that means. Yeah. You're going to get this. OK, I was going to say, OK, you say your thing and I'll say my thing after it's more of a question. OK, I was going to say in regards to like the whole diluting the player pool thing.
01:31:04
Speaker
I don't really think so. Like, it won't necessarily- Expansion has showed us twice, that is not the case. Like, yes, I mean, I guess you could argue in general, like, obviously it's going to bring the quality down. You have more players, it'll bring the average down, whatever. But it's not going to be like, oh, these dudes who never would have made it otherwise. Because you look at the top level of AHL scoring right now. At the top is Logan Stan, COVID, and Maverick Bork for the Texas Stars.
01:31:32
Speaker
who, obviously, two of the best prospects in the star system, two of the best prospects in hockey, you could argue. But aside from that, it's guys like Mark Jankowski, Michael Scarboza, Cole Lind, Rocco Grimaldi, Max McCormick, Adam Gaudette, Cooper Marotti,
01:31:49
Speaker
Those are guys that have NHL experience that are just pushed out. If there were five forward lines, they'd be on line five, sometimes sneaking up to line four. You know who it would affect? It would affect the AHL, who would then have to call up better ECHL talent, and then it would really affect the ECHL, is who it would affect.
01:32:13
Speaker
And at the end of the day, that's worth it to the NHL to be like, well, the ACL is going to take a hit in terms of quality. But, you know, the NHL would be fine with their near billion dollars worth of an expansion fee sitting in the bank. Yep. Endo, what were you going to mention? I was going to say, what would the Salt Lake City's team name be? Salt Lake Miracle? Storm and Mormons.
01:32:42
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I'm not good at speculating on what their team name would be. I am excited to see what it would be and what the branding would be for it because I've liked the Kraken is a great one. It's unique. Golden. Nice. Boring with the Kraken, though, too. It's like, oh, hey, what's your mascot? Oh, it's a bridge troll. You know, it's like you never you never really know what kind of references they are going to go with that.
01:33:12
Speaker
Really only more known by the people who actually yeah, what the fuck is gritty then He's like the thing of like oh this thing burned down his abomination was in like the scaffolding and now he's out loose like causing ruckus I mean, I'd rather like buoys based on the Fremont troll which is like an anti-homeless establishment thing like so Yeah for Salt Lake City like you can even sit there and scroll through the Wikipedia page like they are
01:33:42
Speaker
above a fault line. They could do something in regards to earthquakes, something like that in terms of the name. Like there's so much that any city could do with their branding, with their color scheme, with their mascots, whatever else. And Utah is very much a plains and kind of desert area as well. A lot of places of it, not everywhere, but it's beautiful. Mountains too. I mean, yeah, they got kind of a little bit of everything there besides ocean. Yeah.
01:34:11
Speaker
So plenty, plenty, plenty that could be done in regards to that. Yeah, I agree. Not really necessarily worth talking about in depth speculation wise because we don't know. But anyway, yeah, that's why the coyotes aren't likely to go anywhere anytime soon unless they absolutely have to. Like if they are stuck without a home, the NHL will be like, all right, let's move into Salt Lake City.
01:34:41
Speaker
Probably temporarily. I think it could end up being similar to what the NBA did almost 20 years ago. When Katrina hit New Orleans, the Hornets ended up playing in Oklahoma City.
01:34:57
Speaker
And OKC rallied around the team enough that they're just like, OK, cool. We want a team here. Unfortunately, they didn't get an expansion. They took the Seattle Sonics. But, you know, that could happen if a team like the Coyotes ultimately fail and can't get a long time home. They could move that franchise temporarily to a location like Salt Lake City and then.
01:35:19
Speaker
figure it out from there type of thing. It wouldn't necessarily mean even Salt Lake City is like the full-time home type of thing. You'd be like, all right, the SLC coyotes for two or three seasons. Oh, okay, the arena's built in Arizona. Moving back. SLC, hey, you want that team? Banjo feed, baby. So, we'll see. CNHL, they're weird. You never know.
Coaching Changes & Trades in NHL
01:35:40
Speaker
Last two things quickly. The Los Angeles Kings have fired head coach Todd McClellan, who I totally forgot was the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings. They were off to a really, really good start this season and have just hit a rut to say the least.
01:36:03
Speaker
This isn't a very interesting time for them. After making the playoffs last year, being in a good situation, but now finding themselves, they're in the top wild card spot at the All-Star break. So it's kind of surprising to see a head coaching change, but I guess it also shows the ambition. Here's the thing. It's believed they should be able to do. They were in like second in the Pacific for a while in the beginning of the season.
01:36:30
Speaker
I mean, it's the fall off like I, you know, yeah, they're in a wild card spot right now, but they have been leapfrogged by multiple different teams and they have been awful. And, uh, the coach killer strikes again, Pierre-Luc Dubois. He's making 8.5 million playing on the fourth line and he is like 0.5 point per games, point per game right now, points per game. Jesus.
01:36:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I don't think, again, I don't think it's Todd McClellan's fault. He's been there for a while. Maybe it's just time for a new voice. Look what Edmonton has accomplished. They're going to be going for their record, which is a great story in itself. Their record breaking win against the team that eliminated from playoff contention last season. That's going to be a hell of a game. I can't wait for that one. But yeah, for the Kings right here,
01:37:28
Speaker
I think they've done the rebuild the right way. I think it was a big fucking risk going for Pierre Lick DuBois and then signing him long-term to that amount of money. And then look what he's doing. And the coach is fired now if he doesn't respond to this next coach. He's out of benefits of the doubt at that point. Who the fuck are you going to perform for? You got paid. You got what you wanted. You got off your team multiple times. It's time to play hockey.
01:37:59
Speaker
I'm so excited for the Du Bois Montreal rumors to start back up. Oh my God. We didn't get enough years of that. We need more at this point. They never left, honestly. Anytime it's a major player, trade rumors to Toronto, if he's French Montreal. Exactly. Goddamn.
01:38:22
Speaker
For McClellan, he'll land somewhere. Oh, yeah. He's a good coach. He always does. It's just really weird to think, like, you know, six years, almost seven, as the Sharks head coach. That ended in 2015. Then he went to Edmonton. For three years, almost three and a half. And then four years, nine months, and 17 days as the head coach of the Kings. And he's done pretty good in most of those places. I mean, with the Oilers fucking roster that he had, I will never blame a coach.
01:38:51
Speaker
for how a team in Edmonton does. So long as Ken Holland and Peter Shurelli are the guys who were the architects of that team. So I think Woodcroft will land some more too. I'm curious as to where he goes. I'd be, how funny would it be if he goes to the gings? Like she's the narrative of that. I'm looking at the roster that Todd McClellan inherited. It's bad. Shit.
01:39:18
Speaker
So 2015-16 was their first season. Leading scorer was Taylor Hall with 65 points in the full season. You had 20-year-old Dry Sidal, 51 points in 72 games. 19-year-old McDavid, 48 points in 45 games. Eberly, 47 points. 36 points for Benoit Pugliot.
01:39:40
Speaker
Then you had Nugent Hopkins on 34, Priscilla on 32, Andre Siqueira at 30. And then the rest of this roster, Mark Lattestu, Neil Yakopov, Lori Korpakoski, Pat Maroon, Eero Pakarainen, Matt Hendricks, Brandon Davidson, Mark Fain, Eric Griva, Anton Lander. The two of those guys in there are creative skaters, man.
01:40:11
Speaker
Oh, God, Adam Party. That's another creative skater. Anton Slepyshev played 11 games that year. Yeah. Yeah. Edmonton's roster construction. Still questionable to this day. Who were their goaltenders then? No. Was Dubinik there at that time? Or was it Talbot? Their goaltenders.
01:40:40
Speaker
56 games Cam Talbot 26 for Anders Nielsen and 5 for Laurent Brasois. Wow, okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I forgot. Brasois has been around for a while. Yeah, they won 31 games that year. The next year they won 47 and lost in the second round to the Ducks after beating the Sharks in round one. Crazy what full season McDavid does for you, right?
01:41:06
Speaker
Yeah, the next season, 36 wins didn't make the playoffs. 35 wins didn't make the playoffs. That was the year that McClellan was fired after 20 games and Ken Hitchcock took over and had an under 500. Of course. Oh boy, the Oilers, the Oilers, the Oilers. Final thing to talk about. I know, I don't think you and I get to talk about this on the last show. I think it broke afterwards. But the big, the big, big trade that happens.
01:41:38
Speaker
the biggest trade of our times as, well, actually, in fairness, there were two trades. I was gonna make a joke about Will Butcher. Did we get to talk about the Lindholm trade last time? No, we didn't. It broke like two hours afterwards. Okay, so we have the two trades to talk about then to wind down the show. The first, on January 31st, as the Vancouver Canucks acquired Elias Lindholm from the Calgary Flames for Andre Kuzmenko, defensive prospect, Jon Yurmo, Hunter, very Polish,
01:42:07
Speaker
Hunter Bruszczyk, a 2024 first round pick and a conditional fourth round pick that can become a third depending on what happens. My initial reaction to this trade is still the same way that I feel now. Is Lindholm an improvement on Kuzmenko? Yes. Is he a drastic improvement? Eh?
01:42:35
Speaker
There's some similarities between the two. I agree that Kuzmenko's time for Vancouver was probably done, but people turned on him pretty fast based on what he did in his first season last year. Yurmo's not a big piece to give up. He's a bit of a long shot to make it, I would say. Hunter very Polish. Looking like a solid prospect, third round pick this year. This season with Kitchener, 69 points in 49 games as a defenseman.
01:43:06
Speaker
So, you gave up Kuzmenko, a long shot in Yermo, but a solid prospect and a first for Lindholm. A Lindholm who- Makes me excited for the rental market. Yeah, it should. Especially because it's dried up a little bit already.
01:43:26
Speaker
the Canucks have the best player out of this deal. What version of Elias Lindholm they get? Do they get the guy who next to Johnny Goudreau had a point per game season and 42 goals? That was two years ago. Is that guy still there? Or
01:43:43
Speaker
Is it closer to what he was in Calgary, 32 points in 49 games? He will have better talent surrounding him on the Canucks. It all depends on what version of Lindholm. He's a pretty solid defensive player too, I think. He's okay. He's not a Selkie candidate, but he's all right. He's got a solid two-way game, which I think is going to... That's what you want coming to playoffs.
01:44:10
Speaker
I mean, if Elias Lindholm steps into that lineup and he's third line defense first center and has 18 points in 35 games for the Canucks, people are going to be like, OK, especially if they lose in the first or second round of the playoffs. Yeah, yeah. And he's still in that role. The narrative, I think, surrounding this trade will change, especially if he walks at the end of the season. Yes.
01:44:39
Speaker
You know, he is a pending UFA, the benefit, Kuzmenko had an extra year on his deal. I think for Calgary, you're feeling good. Like you get a player like Andre Kuzmenko who could do really well for you. You get a really solid prospect, the first round pick for a guy that apparently you didn't want to resign because Lindholm said he was willing to and they never really talked about it. So I think Calgary is just kind of under the impression, like it's time to move on.
01:45:05
Speaker
It comes down to what the Canucks do in the playoffs versus how well prospect and eventual 2024 first round pick pan out for Calgary. We don't know who wins immediately. I think both teams, both fan bases have reason to be happy about this trade. I think it accomplished what both sides wanted. I just wonder, did Vancouver, will Vancouver look back on this and say we gave up too much? And that depends on what they get out of Elias Lintol. Yeah.
01:45:35
Speaker
As a Bruins fan, because he was rumored all season long, I am not upset about the Bruins not landing him for that price. No. You know, for that price. Go ahead, sir. Yeah, I was just going to say I saw like one of those fantasy trade proposals or whatever someone made and it was Elias Lindholm for the Bruins first, Matt Potra and Trent Frederick.
01:46:00
Speaker
And I was like, yo, this, this trade might make sense if it was, you know, 2019 when he had all those points or like you said a couple of years ago, a point per game, but like, I don't fucking do that from the Bruins. That's what I was going to say. Matt Potra, who I believe is still playing in your main lineup. And if not, he has, he's a, to me, he's fucking all, not a guarantee, but a pretty damn good chance he's going to be a middle six center on that team. Right. Like, and Trent Frederick is, is a great bottom six guy, like,
01:46:29
Speaker
That's a lot to give up for Lindholm. I think the Canucks went the better way around it. Like, yeah, you gave up that roster player, but you're essentially, you know, Kuzmenko wasn't really a guy with much potential left, really, I don't think. I would say he's a, is what he is player, because he's 28, right? He came up from the KHL last year. He had 74 points in 81 games, 39 goals. This year, just 21 points in 43 games.
01:46:59
Speaker
But, you know, worth noting, of course, that the Canucks underwent a head coaching change, if I'm not mistaken. No, Tockett was there last year, wasn't he? Tockett was there halfway through the year because Bruce got fired. Yeah, right. So, you know, circumstances change, team lineups change.
Trade Insights & Future Prospects
01:47:16
Speaker
Maybe his effort level changed. I don't know. I don't watch enough Canucks games to know. But I think the way it went was, you know,
01:47:24
Speaker
I think talking came through new this season was going to be like a wrap and just kind of let. I think it was a lot of just freewheeling hockey, you know, get the guy some confidence at the end of the year. Don't really focus on like obviously you want to win the game, but focus on team chemistry that way because they were good during like the end stretch of last season.
01:47:44
Speaker
And this year, they really were just flying on all cylinders because they tried something new. And that's the one thing I liked about the topic about, you know, player things moved over with expansion.
01:47:58
Speaker
Like Sin said as well, when you expand teams in the current way it's done, you're picking quality players from all those rosters. And for example, the Vegas team, those players that were getting picked were like third, fourth liners and some second liners. And they were given a chance to shine. Like William Carlson was not a star player on Florida.
01:48:25
Speaker
And then when he went to Vegas, he flourished. He's like still their all-time point-getter, like for Vegas, for their franchise. And that's what happens sometimes. You do well on one team or one set up, and then things change, and then you aren't the same player. You use the same way, and points don't go the way you want them to. Yeah, so I think that's what Calgary is hoping for out of Kuzmenko. Yeah. For the Bruins.
01:48:55
Speaker
If I look at like the equivalent of like, okay, Andre Kuzmenko. Now granted, no guarantees, it would have been the same price. But if you want a player like Kuzmenko from the Bruins, Jake Debrusque is the guy that best fits the bill. Even over Patra, you know, okay, sure, you want Patra instead for the potential as opposed to proven nature, sure. But then for that forward comparison, you are talking about Debrusque or Patra, probably Debrusque.
01:49:23
Speaker
For the defensive throw away, no disrespect to Yani Yermo, but come on. Kind of talking about, like, Jakob Zaboral being in that deal. And then for the good defensive prospect, you're talking Mason Lorai and a first. If you ask me as a Bruins fan, Debrosk, Zaboral, Lorai, and a first for Lindholm, I don't take that.
01:49:54
Speaker
I just don't, I'm sorry. Um, to me, it's just, you know, they offer different things. I know the brusque only has the 25 points and 47 games this season by at the same time. I know Jake debrusque is, uh, over the last two times the Bruins made the playoffs. He's been very, very good.
01:50:14
Speaker
And I really like Mason Lorai's game. It's a good amount to give up. If the Canucks win the Stanley Cup this year, though, who gives a shit? Yeah. Yeah. They're going all in. And they're trying to, they're in that situation where we feel like we're one of, if not the best team in the West. So let's just load the fuck up and go for it. And yeah. And I like that for them. But yeah, like I said earlier, I'm actually very excited. I want to see Mike Greer start shopping.
01:50:41
Speaker
some of our players that we don't have long-term plans for. Hoffman, maybe two-player. Hoffman, what do you think you're getting for him, buddy? I don't give a fuck, but you see what they just got for Lindholm? Yeah, I mean, maybe you get a sixth for Hoffman. Hell no, are you kidding me? Have you seen how many one-timers that guy has missed this year?
01:51:10
Speaker
I'll give you a second. I'm going to play. He's been doing slightly better. Oh God. I have not by much. So 18 points and 49 games, eight goals. Yeah. Yeah. That's at least like a second round pick, right? You never know, dude. Like here's the thing. Like if you're good at your job, you make the argument like,
01:51:29
Speaker
Hey man, he's a good shooter. You need a third liner? Give me a second. This is a veteran presence on my team. We like him training these young guys. You gotta upsell, obviously. Now is he worth that? Hell no, but Whimple's not worth all of that for a rental.
01:51:46
Speaker
No. So this sets the market. And then if you're a GM, you say, OK, well, look what happened over here. Are they the similar player? No, but it's you got to try to upsell. So there's a few different guys who the Sharks could let go. I mean, Jan Ruta, who doesn't who wasn't going to want a shutdown defender who plays right, right, right side? I don't want him. Why? Well, OK, fuck you.
01:52:12
Speaker
Sorry, I'm not helping your cause here. You're not, because you're thinking about it from a not NHL GM perspective. Every single fucking time people want veterans and they want like right shot defenseman.
01:52:28
Speaker
That's fair. Well, speaking of that, then really quickly in terms of defensive prices, the last thing to talk about here, even though he is a left defenseman, but the last thing to talk about here is the other trade that went down with the Montreal Canadians acquiring a first round pick and a conditional third. That'll be a third no matter what. It depends on the year. But a first and a third,
01:52:57
Speaker
For Sean Monahan, Monahan off to the Winnipeg Jets. The Habs get a first and a third. Kent Hughes, the gem of the Habs. Holy shit, this guy. Trading away guys that want to be there too. I...
01:53:22
Speaker
Right now, it's recency bias for sure, but in terms of being happy with the GM that you have, Habs fans have to be towards the top of that list in terms of fan bases that are happy with their current GM. Kent Hughes has been on the job for just about two years now. In that time, he pulled off some minor trades, but the bigger trades here,
01:53:51
Speaker
sending Tyler to Foley to Calgary for Tyler Pitlick, Emil Heinemann, a first-round pick that became Philip Mazar and a fifth-round pick that became Yevgeny Volokhin. And there was another conditional pick that didn't come to fruition. Trading Ben Chirat to Florida in March of 2022 for Tyce Melanek, Cedric Guindol, Mikhail Goyayev as well,
01:54:17
Speaker
in 2023. Of course, he is a Colorado pick, so there was a subsequent trade that we'll get to. Trading Arturia Lekkin into Colorado for Justin Barron in a second. I mean, Lekkin has been good for Colorado, obviously, but not a bad deal. Getting, oh my God. Sending Brett Kulak to Edmonton for William Lagison, now with the Leafs. A second round pick that became Lane Hudson.
01:54:47
Speaker
Lane Hudson is 19 years old. He has 32 points in 23 games for Boston University this year and had 48 points in 39 games last year for Brett Kulak. They managed to chip away Shea Weber's LTIR.
01:55:08
Speaker
They got a first round pick for Alexander Romanoff to the Islanders. I think it's important to note that they gained a picks for taking Monaghan. Well, that's what I was going to get to. Oh, sorry. You blew the spots and you. Well, I mean, you talked about him first and then I didn't think you're going to circle back on it. My bad. I was. But that's fine. Again, they ended up a Kirby doc. And yes, the big one, August of 2022, Calgary acquires future considerations
01:55:38
Speaker
Montreal acquires Sean Monahan and a first round pick And then they essentially they turn Sean Monahan into two first round picks Plus that is the first round picks in a third That is incredible asset management. That's that's NHL 24 level shit
01:55:59
Speaker
Like you can look through his trade record right now. And again, I mentioned the pick that became Mikhail Gulyayev, the acquired Alex Newhoek for that Newhoek this season, 13 points in 23 games, still hasn't quite hit that next level like they were hoping, but he has been wheeling and dealing in the two years since he has become the GM of this team. It's not a perfect track record, but you look at what he's done
01:56:27
Speaker
just specifically involving Sean Monaghan, who has 35 points and 49 games this season. I mean, for the Jets, it's the arms race. They're right up there with Vancouver. They go out and get a Sean Monaghan. But Montreal, Jesus Christ, it's like I can't give Kent Hughes enough credit. Montreal, over the next three seasons, and they might not be done.
01:56:58
Speaker
have five first round picks, four second rounders, and five third rounders. It's pretty good. Over the next three years. Now don't fuck it up this time, idiots. That's the other side of things. Another question is, how many French Canadian players have they prioritized past the third round of the draft just to please their fans? I'm not trying to get jesus, not that guy. I mean, it doesn't seem like he is with his asset management so far, but
01:57:29
Speaker
You look at their first round picks since he's been there, Philip Mazar, Yurach Levkovsky, which is the controversial one, and then David Reinbacher last year. Asset management, good drafting, fucking questionable at best.
01:57:46
Speaker
So far, yeah. I would agree with that. Your eyes slaps Kofsky. That's, again, one of those drafts where there's probably like one to five could have been almost in any order. Or at least one to three, we'll say, could have been probably in any order. Like, if you went back and redid that draft of the top five, like, who do you take over Slap Kofsky? Let me see. So with the top five, New Jersey's Simone Nemeche, Logan Cooley, Shane Wright,
01:58:15
Speaker
Kutter Gautier, who has been traded already, of course, and the rest of the top 10, David Yerosek for Columbus, Kevin Korchinski, Marco Kasper, Matthew Savoy, and Pavel Minchikov, who, there's no way he was going first overall, but, you know. I mean, if you redrafted. Right, but at the time, there's no way. No, I know, I know, I'm saying a redraft, like, if you redrafted right now, like, Slavkovski doesn't go anywhere. Close.
01:58:45
Speaker
Probably not, no. Like, honestly, if I redrafted that, my one and two would be Cooley and Mintikoff. You know, Slavkovsky, 20 points in 49 games. It's not too bad from a production standpoint. Cooley this year has 25 and 48, though. Yep. That 2023 draft as well.
01:59:08
Speaker
will be an interesting one. Taking Reinbacher fifth, the picks afterwards, Demetri Simashev to Arizona, Matt Vamichkoff, Ryan Leonard, Nate Danielson, Dallabord Dvorsky, and Tom Willender went 11th. So, time will tell with those drafts.
01:59:25
Speaker
Yeah, to the point for the Calgary Vancouver trade, I think both sides should be happy. We'll see who wins it down the road. For this one, I think both sides should be ecstatic, really. I mean Winnipeg, it's the ambition. You know, maybe it's a bit much to get Sean Monaghan, but that one is the market price and two, Jets fans thought we're heading towards a rebuild. And instead, here they are.
01:59:46
Speaker
very much saying, no, we're not giving up yet. You know, we brought it all in. We brought back hella buck in goal and Mark Shifley and, you know, they're going for it. And for the Habs, I mean, Jesus Christ, you literally got two first round picks in a third for nothing. Yeah. In terms of acquiring Sean Monahan. That's fucking insane. It's free real estate.
02:00:11
Speaker
One last thing. Biggest blunder of the all-star game and... It's about the Monahan trade. What is it?
02:00:26
Speaker
fuck was I gonna say Jesse Pollock interviewed Nick Suzuki on the bar down podcast and brings up the fact that Sean Monahan is traded to the HAB traded from the HAB said the Jets half an hour after the news breaks right in front of Nick Suzuki who just found out his teammate got traded
02:00:48
Speaker
Twitter? No, he already found out. No, it was a half hour. It was a half hour after they found out that they had to hear it. I know, but Jesse didn't break it to him on the podcast. No, he didn't break it to him, but he brought it up, and he's like, man, that sucks. And then Twitter, because they love dragging that man in this fucking big jibs, just went on the fucking tirade on it. And he was like, dude, it was fun. We hung out after. He said it was totally fine. Don't take it that way, but Twitter's going to Twitter.
02:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. All right. OK. With that said, everybody, thank you very much for listening, watching, supporting another episode of the Tookie Save podcast. We appreciate your patronage. We will be back likely next week. Again, we've kind of shifted into that one a week. I mean, since nine days out from heading back to Finland.
02:01:37
Speaker
Yeah. So, he'll be disappearing on us again, which means you'll get more episodes like the last one where Endo and I- Eight days by the way. I leave on the 13th. Oh, 13th? Jesus. Yeah. Yeah, well, because I arrive on the 14th. Oh, it's a jar of pressure. It's that time change and the travel time. Endo, what do you have going on, my friend?
02:02:02
Speaker
Um, recording some beer league stuff, uh, talking about my rent to goalie experiences. Um, this entire weekend, like I've said, I've been networking with people, getting information, getting whatever. Uh, there's gonna be a big shakeup for content that I'm doing and hopefully it's going to be more, um, hockey base, like actual hockey. I figured I'm a beer league guy. I'm a rent to goalie. I have tons of experiences with different rent to goalways and different experiences that I've, games that I've played.
02:02:30
Speaker
Fuck it, why don't I record that and document my experiences? It's every single day, every single day I'm on the ice and it's a different experience and it's a different story I can tell. So I want to do that. Either it's going to be weekly episodes or culminating an entire week of hockey or it's going to be like every third day or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm going to summarize a whole week into one day or if it's going to be like one day out of the week. I could just record and go through with it.
02:02:57
Speaker
It's a good idea. I told you to lean on the whole rent-a-goley thing a while ago, whether it be the online content or whatever else. A unique experience and viewpoint that you have. It's definitely something that was brainstorming ideas with people and they're like, you should do that without a doubt. You put stuff out like that, I'll definitely make sure to get people's eyes on them.
02:03:21
Speaker
Well, I'm glad you had to hear it from someone other than me to decide it was a good idea. Thanks. Yeah, no, I know the entire weekend. It was basically just like brainstorming and trying to figure out if I can get like a deal on getting certain gear and all that stuff. And yeah.
02:03:37
Speaker
We talked about this like a year ago. Yeah, we talked about it. Yeah. But but when people are willing to give me free shit to get this stuff started, then I start moving real, real quick. Oh, you wouldn't have promoted your shit. You would not. This would not pay $400 for a fucking lav mic that I could have set up. You would not. So who's paying for it then? No, it's not me.
02:04:00
Speaker
promotion. Who is? I'm not saying your new friends. I'm not my new friends. It's a, it's a business decision. It's a business move. I'm making a big, okay. Mr. Business over here, huh? What do you have going on? Uh, yeah, I got to draft glory on my channel. I'm yeah. I don't know what else I'm going to do. I'm going to, that's what I got going on and hopefully get more stuff prerecorded for my trip. And, uh, yeah.
02:04:29
Speaker
That's great. What a sand shape. Catch us on the Twitch side of things, still playing a lot of NCAA football, as well as a lot of FIFA Pro Clubs now that the hooks are in for sin, of course. I'm playing today, no matter what. There you go. And to end the show, a big shout out to Boston Bruins' goaltending prospect, who was WHO goalie of the week with back-to-back shout out. Shout out to Reed Dick.
02:04:57
Speaker
His name is Reed Dick. The future goaltender of the Bruins once betrayed Jeremy Swamin to San Jose, Reed Dick. Shark. Shark.