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GDP Deez Nuts - Tougie's Take Podcast (3/21/24)
151 Plays1 year ago
- The Fella's return to talk about Ovechkin's chances to pass Gretzky's goal scoring record, the passing of Chris Simon and pizza.
- Subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel!
- Check out our Discord!
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Transcript
Hockey Ultimate Team Frustrations
00:00:00
Speaker
So for shits and giggles for the first time in a while, like I am actively scrolling through hockey ultimate team. I do not understand how they feel like the sets system is good. Oh, it's not. It's not like, like, look at this, right? Like, look at all of this shit.
00:00:28
Speaker
What am I even supposed to do? Yeah, like I feel like trying to even break into that at this point, I would have no idea what I'm doing. Jesus Christ. And then you get into like this trade deadline thing. And it's like, oh, the Patrick Kane sets. And then there's like eight different Patrick Kane's. It's just there. There's clearly a better way to do it. But I think they're just like there's not enough. I don't think there's not enough care, but like
00:00:58
Speaker
Don't know how to put it
Summer Hockey League Rivalries and Friendships
00:01:00
Speaker
I don't know the best way to put it in terms of like them not knowing what the fuck to do In terms of how to change it Mmm, that's fair Anyway, welcome everybody to another edition of the tookie stick podcast. We're back again It's us the guys the fellas your your hockey friends here to discuss hockey for half of the show and nonsensical
00:01:24
Speaker
nonsensicalness for the rest of it. Nonsenseical nonsense. Yeah, there you go. Endurance. How are you? I know how you are, but how are you?
00:01:35
Speaker
Um, all right. Uh, we've got hockey tonight, uh, finals actually. Yeah. It's our first time heading. It's my first time heading to the winter season finals. And if you win that, you go to facilities and when that you go to nationals. Wow. And we are the only team that is at the finals right now out of all the other teams that are in the league. All right. Well, just remember endo needs safe. Don't blow it.
00:02:04
Speaker
We're rooting for you. We're all rooting for you. Thank you. I was seeing you guys are big fans. And if you're going to get in a goalie fight, don't be the one to cross the red line. OK, so a little bit of backstory about what's going on tonight. So there was
00:02:22
Speaker
A lot of controversy, but in the first two, the first round robbing game that we had, um, it wasn't around, it was like best of two, kind of kind of like how the champions league has like their, you know, their, their, uh, aggregate game. So you had to win, you had to win at least one and tie to move on. Um, at the end of the, at the end of the one, the first game, the team was like, you guys better fucking, you guys better hope the God, uh, Oh yeah. You told us the story. Yeah. I told you the story. So I didn't do, they didn't do fuck all.
00:02:52
Speaker
Because we clearly kicked their ass and then last week we won like four nothing You know good old goose egg on my part. It was probably I hate the globe It was probably the easiest shutout that I've ever had Like the team was good, but we were better and We're actually playing a team that we have like a rivalry with like a like a good like a good good a good relationship with their
Hosts' Personal Activities and Hypothetical Band Discussion
00:03:22
Speaker
They're a good, strong team. We were hoping that we would play them in the finals, because we're all buddies with half of them. So this is going to be a super chill, but still competitive game. And it's going to be a lot of fun. I actually messaged my buddy Andrew about an hour ago, and I said, hey, good luck tonight. And I'm playing against him, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Sportsmanship. Yeah.
00:03:44
Speaker
Like, out of all the teams that we could have played, I think these were the guys we wanted to play the most. Because I think I told a story about last, earlier before this season started, hockey-wise, that in the summer, we played in a league with four teams. And it was bad because if you called anyone up to move them up to our division, they'd get their asses kicked.
00:04:11
Speaker
It was like the, the best hockey, uh, you know, the best hockey, um, that was available. Yeah. Beautiful hockey, small hands. It was, it was a top level hockey available, uh, in the summer. A lot of guys from junior came over the, just to play, which is what happens a lot. We have a ringer actually, uh, for the summer season. Um, my buddy who, who got committed to Princeton, he's going to be in playing for our team, which is going to be nice. Um, I didn't think you were going to say college. What?
00:04:42
Speaker
Uh, nothing. It's fine. Keep going. Okay. Um, so like in the summer, there were four teams, three of two of them, we hated. Absolutely just hated. Like would like almost getting the fights and games. And then there were these guys and we were just kind of chill with them whenever we had a chance to play with them. So it would go from like two weeks of extremely aggressive, like almost fights happening on the ice. And then the third game would always be, Oh, just laxie daisy kind of competitive hockey, but knowing like when to push the limits and whatnot.
00:05:13
Speaker
And then I go back to being super competitive and that league folded and then we all moved to Thursdays. And it's, we're playing those, playing those same guys again. So it's going to be a lot of fun. How are you? I'm doing just fine. Enjoying my franchise mode series that have started up and, uh, yeah, excited to talk some hockey here.
00:05:35
Speaker
And I'm doing okay. Still getting over the throws of COVID. So there might be the occasional coughing fit or two. And in that case, I apologize in advance. Um, we actually do have a lot of hockey stuff to talk about. So let's get right into some, uh, some viewers slash listener questions to get us warmed up here a little bit, shall we? And we'll kick things off.
00:06:00
Speaker
with two music-related questions because that's what these questions are. We don't tie them just to hockey. Ask us whatever within reason. If you guys together made a band, what would be your inspiration for your music? Basically, if we were in a band, what would be our sound if we were in a band? What genres
00:06:28
Speaker
Would we, uh, would we go forth towards, uh, young burrito mentions, I think you guys would make a great Creed cover band. No. Yes. Creed sucks. You sucks.
Pizza Preferences and Enhancements
00:06:40
Speaker
I don't care. I don't care. Creed is just objectively bad. No, Scott Stapp is objectively bad. Yeah. And therefore Creed is bad. They're not like,
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, like that's your front man. If you have a bad front man, you're not a great band. There's some that kind of, you know, can get away from that, like having a not so great front man, but he's just a bad front man. So what would our sound be? Incubus. I'm saying that's a good mix of
00:07:25
Speaker
I don't know it's it's pretty chill but it's got the heavy parts and they got a DJ. So here's the thing though if we spin off this question right okay so we're we're in a band right. Endo correct me if I'm wrong you have experience.
00:07:46
Speaker
Oh, did you fucking play bass or drums? Which one was it? Oh, that's racist. I have a guitar player. It's not! Terkin, go in your basement. There's a bass guitar there.
00:07:58
Speaker
It's not though, because I know you and Sin, one of which was like, oh, I play bass, and the other was like, oh, I mess around with the drums. And I don't remember who. I asked you first, because I literally have an electric drum set that no one can see. But yeah, I think I am a drummer, and I'm a singer, and I songwriter. I play a little guitar, but mostly singing and drumming. Endo.
00:08:23
Speaker
Um, I can play dinosaur pileups entire, um, track list. Uh, so rock
Should Teams Rebuild or Continue?
00:08:30
Speaker
band. Yeah. On guitar. Okay. I see no other shit too as well. I mean, we talked about this. I serenaded Polina with, um, Foo fighters. That's right. Yeah. So here, here's the situation. Endo would be on, would be on lead guitar.
00:08:51
Speaker
Sim would be on the drums and probably doing vocals as well as if we were in Mastodon or something. I have no musical talent whatsoever. You're on the triangle, buddy. I know. I was going to say the tambourine. You have no musical talent? Not a lick? None. Get on the cowbell. Wow. Absolutely none, man.
00:09:13
Speaker
And that's the thing, like you, like I'm not singing with this voice. Like that's all you. So yeah, I just like, I'll be, I'll be the band manager. That's what I got going on. Yeah. Learn how to scratch. And then we'll for sure be incubus.
00:09:32
Speaker
Oh god, well so I mean given those endos the DJ, right? It's like that's racist. No, that is racist. See that's what you could pull a milli vanilli and just lip sync the songs. Oh Okay, that's a deep cut isn't it? Yeah. Mm-hmm God so what would we be then if we have
00:09:57
Speaker
If we have Sin on drums, but also doing the vocals, that means we're good for about three songs tops before he's blown up and exhausted. Oh nah dude, I could do more than that.
00:10:08
Speaker
I've been in. Yes, I was in a frickin a progressive metal band. And one of the songs we did, the lead singer who played guitar also couldn't couldn't couldn't sustain all the high parts throughout the full set. So I would do the whole fucking song. I did the high, the high lead parts and he did the lower, the lower lead parts. It was
Goal Records and Player Achievements
00:10:30
Speaker
basically a lot of it was octaves. And I did that while playing progressive metal on drums.
00:10:37
Speaker
It was tough, but yeah, I can, I can, I can nail that shit. Okay. Fair enough. I got at least five in me of doing a lead vocals and drumming at the same time. And if it's like a fucking chill rock, like, like again, Incubus or something like that, I could do a whole hour set drumming and playing and sing. Just math rock. Just a math rock band. I'm not into that anymore. So for me, it just feels like.
00:11:07
Speaker
We might have to go the Beck route here. Just so that I can make random sounds on random objects. Oh my god, Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono cover band. We'll just be a noise band. Yeah. You're just in the... I mean, that works nowadays, you know? Just low-fi noise band. You're just in the corner going, whoa!
00:11:30
Speaker
Honestly, to Barry looks at me with murderous intent. What's what I noticed from editing shorts for sports gamer is that two these calls sound dope with reverb and echo over low fi. If I if I get there, if we have like a hit, hit a delay and a repeat on that, we could be the first ever
00:11:56
Speaker
commentary band just honestly have two of you doing spoken word and uh and some and and and someone like and and make him learn how to remix his own voice on the fly and do like and put it into a sampler and just like do the line hit
00:12:14
Speaker
Hit it on the repeats. I think we found it. I think we found it. A hockey commentary cover band. Oh, not cover band. A hockey commentary. A lo-fi spoken word ensemble. Not even a band ensemble. Lo-fi Doc Emrick.
00:12:37
Speaker
That would be incredible. Catawampist. Oh, and again. Young lady from Swinnigan. That's another penalty. And I'm almost out of ink on this paper sheet. Oh,
00:13:01
Speaker
Well, there we go, everybody. We found our our land. Oh, my God. Our band is called Waffle Board. Oh, kind of. Or kind of wampus. I'm like, I don't want this. No, but it's like protection. Geometrically, geometrically. So it's like it's like C.A.T. like hyphen a hyphen wampus. Some super like that area. Oh, our next question from the great Smoota.
Player Safety Controversies in the NHL
00:13:31
Speaker
Why is Green Day so overhated? I thought I said overrated. That's why I first read it. He initially typed it overheated, so I figured it was overhated. I hope so, because I don't know what overheated means. Me either.
00:13:50
Speaker
The reason why is because Uno's Dos Trey was the worst decision a band could make. We're going to release 60 songs in the span of like one day on three albums. Yeah. The best thing that came out of that was the demo track, Demolicious, because that was like the best songs out of the three albums, just as demo tracks.
00:14:15
Speaker
And like, it was perfect. That's all you needed to do. Just release Demolicious and not Uno's Dose Trey, which is really funny because, you know, Trey cool. But yeah. That was a big thing. It still kind of is where I mean, especially.
00:14:36
Speaker
within like the rap and hip hop scene where it was like, I'm going to drop an album that has 35 songs and like two or three of them will get picked up. But we're trying to capitalize on the Spotify listens. Yeah. The most amount of impressions that we can. Yeah. And so Green Day went that route and it didn't work out very well. There just was a used to be for me. Yeah, basically.
00:15:06
Speaker
I'm in the dad rock now. You don't get better than Dookie, man. You peaked in Dookie. Yeah. You can make an argument for American Idiot, but Dookie was when it was just the right time for all that pop punk stuff. I mean, come on, man. Bite my lip and close my eyes. Take it away to paradise.
00:15:37
Speaker
But any heat they've gotten recently has been either due to swearing during performances or because of their political stances.
00:15:50
Speaker
Which hasn't changed since fucking whatever. Which hasn't changed at all. It's the same with Rage Against the Machine. People are like, now they're the machine. I'm like, no, buddy. They've been the exact same. Is Rage Against the Machine woke? Yeah. They've been woke, motherfucker. They literally say in a song.
00:16:11
Speaker
that MLK and Malcolm X were fucking murdered by the government. That's they've been woke. That's what woke is. Yeah, I'm sorry. You co-opted the phrase and want it to mean something else. But it's because it's because it speaks too fast. I don't understand. They're still thinking. We can't be mad at system of a down because we don't understand them. They're still laughing at terracotta pie, terracotta pie, banana banana banana banana terracotta banana terracotta
Sports Marketing Sensitivity and Player Retirements
00:16:40
Speaker
pie. Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker
I get Endo's point, I do. It's out of left field, but I get Endo's point. But yeah, that's kind of what it comes down to is nowadays there's no room for nuance. It's either something is the best thing ever or the worst thing ever. And that's just what it is. And that leads us into our next question.
00:17:10
Speaker
You're most liked and most hated brands of pizza. Case in point, the question isn't, hey, what's an okay brand of pizza? It's what's the best and what's the worst? In AJ's opinion, Little Caesars is awful. Yeah. I don't know offense to AJ. Man, it depends. Give it five years and the Little Caesars will be awful for you.
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, fair enough. I don't even know if they can't be $5 anymore. I was going to say, Endo, did you not get Little Caesars this week in a controversial... I got Pizza Pizza. Pizza Pizza is trash. I'm like, dude, I had $5. Oh, I thought that was Little Caesars because that's their slogan. Pizza Pizza. I was having a very bad fucking day. I'm like, shit, I forgot to eat.
00:18:04
Speaker
I'm like, what's open right now? Because my fucking never had a problem. But when I forget to eat, it's usually because I'm fucking like geeked out on some game. Like yesterday, dude, I didn't actually eat my first meal till after the first time we played FIFA. Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah. Anyway, yeah. And don't continue.
00:18:31
Speaker
No, I got pizza pizza. Little Caesars isn't isn't necessarily bad, but it's not good. It's like it is like
Leadership and Performance in the NHL
00:18:40
Speaker
if you have like five to eight dollars and you need something to eat. Little Caesars. They have these like new little like pizza pop things, whatever the fuck that everyone's talking about with like it's like a it's like a small little.
00:18:56
Speaker
I think I'm gonna call it like a mini deep-dish pizza or a little like pizza bite kind of thing. Apparently it's been blowing up on social media because of how good it is. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard of it. And apparently it's really good.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, for me, honestly, I think I won't say Little Caesars as my most hated just because they got me through times when I was like 18, 19. You just get a full pizza, you just dunk hot sauce on it, and then it's amazing, especially when you're stoned.
00:19:33
Speaker
But I will actually say, I think the worst fucking brand of pizza out there is Domino's. Domino's is absolute ass. And if we're talking about branded pizza, I can't say the pizza plays right down the street, which has... Because let's be honest, the best pizza is always a mom and pop shop, a small business. They always have the best pizza because they usually source the best, freshest local ingredients.
00:19:59
Speaker
But if I had to choose like a best branded pizza, honestly, it probably roundtable. Especially with their stuffed crust. Ooh. Sometimes I don't eat the crust, but you put fucking cheese in that crust. I'm eating all that crust. So yeah, that that's those would be my two. We've had this conversation before. I've actually had Papa John's, by the way. Me neither. I've never had Papa John's either.
00:20:28
Speaker
My elementary school ruined stuffed crust pizza for me up until the past three years. They tried one elementary school pizza like the pizza in a tin fucking thing. So, oh, no, the stuffed crust pizza at my elementary school.
00:20:48
Speaker
was like, the crust portion was like soggy, basically. It was like a soggy, fake cheese, disgusting mess. Like it ruined the whole concept of stuffed crust for me for a very, very long time. So I don't have much of an opinion on stuffed crust pizza, because there isn't too much experience there.
00:21:18
Speaker
God, so I have to be honest, I'm wits in in terms of, it's the mom and pop shop type of thing, right? Even if it was, so it's like, I gotta be honest, I don't mind Domino's because it's like, it is what it is. If I'm getting Domino's, I'm like, all right, I know what it is, it's fine. Same thing with like a Pizza Hut or something like that. But yeah, more often than not, I don't go with a chain.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah. And we've talked about this numerous times. It's very infrequent that I end up actually getting pizza from somewhere other than my in-laws house. Every Friday, baby. Lucky. That's right. Almost every Friday. There are some Fridays where it's like, we can we can hold off. But, yeah, I am. I am a custom now. And you break up the eggplant parmesan instead.
00:22:15
Speaker
I am accustomed at this point to handmade, homemade pizza. You just can't go back to getting a Pizza Hut or a Domino's. It's like, no, I'm good. Don't get me wrong, there is the occasional emergency frozen pizza.
00:22:36
Speaker
That can find our way into the freezer, just if it's like, look, we both had a really fucking long day. Nobody wants to cook. Frozen pizza. I can't remember the last time I had a frozen pizza in America. That's fine, because Finnish frozen pizza is fucking estimated.
00:22:51
Speaker
Like, it's the best, man. And it's even, oh, what I learned, it's even better what I also grab when I grab a few of those amazing things. It's like, by the way, people, I know we've mentioned it, but we'll mention it again. It is like a five year old and it comes with two fucking frozen pizza pizzas in there from Lidl. Oh, it's amazing. And what I've learned is I'll buy like a pack of mozzarella cheese and maybe a little pack of extra pepperoni and then I'll add it to it. Add more cheese because, you know, frozen pizzas never will have enough cheese on them.
00:23:21
Speaker
If you get frozen pizza, that is the key. Make sure you have pizza cheese, pepperoni, maybe even some bacon bits if you're feeling spicy. And make sure to add that little bit of extra. That's the way to eat a frozen pizza. You can't eat a frozen pizza based on the way it's presented. You need to take it up a few notches. Yeah, it's kind of like if you get like shambles. Campbell's chunky.
00:23:47
Speaker
Chunky soup? You add extra soup. What do you add to that? Oh, I know. Okay. Okay. Chunky soup has the right amount. Yeah. For a second, I wasn't sure where Endo was going with that, but I agree. You get a soup, maybe add a few more things to it. I would do that with Lipton.
00:24:04
Speaker
I don't know if you guys were aware of those Lipton pouch sauce where you have to add the water. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hiniest noodles. I would actually, yeah, I would like add noodles into there or sometimes like dice up some extra chicken to put in there. Or one of my favorite things to do was to was to like chop up some like celery and put it in. Yeah, I can't agree with any of this. So how long until one of us is like, all right, we got to wrap this show up or hunger? Yeah, pretty soon. And I haven't eaten today yet.
00:24:33
Speaker
Too much FIFA again. No, I wasn't. Yeah, I was just recording. I actually did this morning. So fair enough. Well, with that, then we can get into some actual hockey conversations here. Why not? Our first question. Well, actually, yeah, we'll go with one hockey questions and we'll move your discussion point to the back burner, like you mentioned earlier, just because you talked about. So from razor sharp, at what point do you pull the plug on a rebuild and try again?
00:25:03
Speaker
versus staying the course on the path you're currently on. For example, the Ducks just missed the playoffs for the sixth year in a row and haven't seemed to improved really at all during that time. Would you stay the course and hope for improvement or do you blow it up and try again? You don't blow it up and try again, but you start trading.
00:25:24
Speaker
Like you start shifting pieces, trying to bring in the right guys. I think they have an incredible, incredible base. McTavish, Zegris, now Leo Carlson. They did trade Drysdale for Gautier, but they have Minchikov, who's looked quite good. I think they're getting to the point of having too many of similar type of players, and you can start trading pieces for other pieces that you need.
00:25:52
Speaker
And I think that's their next step. Yeah, they missed the playoffs for the sixth year in a row. But can you say that they started their rebuild on that immediate year that they missed the playoffs? Not really. So I would say they're like four or five years into the rebuild. And they're to the point now where they've drafted pretty good. They're going to have yet another great pick.
00:26:16
Speaker
And so after this is when you start to look as a team in an organization of like, okay, we don't have to blow it up and start over because that's just bad business. What you try to do is try to trade the pieces. Everyone's looking for young talent. Everyone's looking to replenish their prospect pool constantly. That's always something that teams need unless you're Vegas.
00:26:37
Speaker
So yeah, if you're, if you're in Haim, I think that's your next step is you don't, you don't, you don't just pull the plug and start over, don't Buffalo it don't Chicago it. Cause that was the most obvious ploy to get Bedard. And I still think that they're way, way behind schedule by, by trading dock and to brink it and stuff like that. But, uh, yeah, that's my point. Sorry.
00:27:03
Speaker
I was looking at the Ducks seasons, right? The last time they made the playoffs was 2017-18. They got swept by the Sharks in the first round. In that season, they were still led by the likes of Ricard Raquel, Ryan Getzloff, Corey Perry, Jakob Silverberg, Andre Kasha, Josh Manson, Adam Henrique.
00:27:23
Speaker
Brandon Montor was on that team, Hoppus Lindholm. The next year, when they missed the playoffs to start this playoff streak, they, or the lack of playoff streak, the playoff drought, they still had Getzloff, Raquel, Henrik, Richie, Lindholm, Montor, Kasia.
00:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, in terms of the idea, like a rebuild doesn't start the first time you miss the playoffs after seeing one, two, three, four, five, six straight years of playoffs. That rebuild starting point doesn't necessarily begin when you miss the playoffs for the first time after six straight appearances. It really started to begin for them.
00:28:06
Speaker
just before the pandemic started. And, you know, especially in the aftermath of it, you know, even in the 1920 season, they still had like, obviously Adam Henrik was just traded, but they still had Raquel. Getzloff hadn't retired yet. Andre Kasha was still a big part of that team. Hoppus Lindholm. Again, a lot of guys that, you know,
00:28:31
Speaker
were a part of those playoff rosters. And in terms of the ducks right now, I'm completely with you in that blowing it up isn't the right call, nor do I think... Did they ever really actually blow it all up though?
00:28:54
Speaker
Kind of sort of, but not really like Lindholm trade was like the biggest one they made, really. See, I would argue that they never actually blew it up because they never traded John Gibson. True. Despite it being rumored that he was going to be a Maple Leaf for 18 years. Fuck. Yeah, I think they didn't blow it up. It kind of got blown up, right? Gasloff retiring, Perry leaving.
00:29:20
Speaker
Like that's, those were the guys that was, that was their Thornton Marlowe, essentially. So yeah. And I mean, in terms of what they do now moving forward, like you said, um, you know, the term was, you know, pull the plug on the rebuild and try again for the ducks. I mean, that that's not it. Right.
00:29:43
Speaker
This has got to be your last top five pick, in my opinion. You have to start looking to trade now. You can't just keep getting top five picks like Buffalo or Edmonton. They have some contracts that are half decent, like Troy Terry signed for six more years after this. Frank Vitrano has had a really good year for them.
00:30:06
Speaker
It's tough though, right? Because they got some contracts that haven't aged so well, like the Ryan-Strome deal hasn't worked out. And then you look at younger guys that aren't so young anymore, that were supposed to be a big part of the team, and instead now are just kind of there, like Max Jones, but he's had some injury trouble. But yeah, to your point, they do have some good pieces. Could they strip it down a bit more? Yes. Now would actually be a good time.
00:30:37
Speaker
do that I guess like if they were going to do it now would be the time to do it but are you gonna be able to find the landing spot for Alex Colorn 34 years old three years left at six and a quarter nope probably not you could get something for Frank Vitrano next year but it's not gonna be too much
00:30:59
Speaker
You know, could you find the landing spot for Cam Fowler, Radco Goudes, Gibson after all of this? Sure. But to me at the same time, it's like, are you looking at trading, Troy Terry? No. Should you be looking at like they shouldn't even be looking at trading. Trevor's egress, for God's sakes. But that rumor persists. So it shouldn't. I actually don't know what to make of a team like the Ducks at this point.
00:31:26
Speaker
No idea. Again, whoever they get early on in this draft is going to be good because this is a very front loaded draft. So that's great for them. Next year is deeper. So next year is the year that you want to try to start pushing to be to be that bubble team. So you can I think trading I think if you trade for Toronto, maybe you can get a. If you can't get much, I'd try to make it a hockey trade.
00:31:49
Speaker
Like if the pick or prospect market is not great, if you can't get like some kind of prospect who's on the cup for a team who wants Vitrano, who is making a cup push, then you kind of just try to make a hockey trade. For someone who's still younger than Vitrano, but maybe more towards their prime. Because you're going to need those veteran guys when you start becoming a playoff team. Vitrano's not going to be it because
00:32:15
Speaker
he'll be declining by that time that you're a, you know, a solid contender once again. So I think then, yeah, this year, you know, take your draft pick, draft heavy. If it's yet another forward, then you start to look at maybe moving some of your forwards. I still don't, I still don't know why they traded Drysdale for go TA. Cutter go TA is great. And they did, they got a pick, right? Or did Philly get the pick?
00:32:42
Speaker
Uh, the full details of that trade, which again, it's still weird to think that happened, honestly. I know. Uh, full details of the trade from January 8th was Carter Gaultier to Anaheim, to Philly, Jamie Drysdale, and a 2025 second round pick.
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I still don't really like that. Gotye better be the fucking real deal. If you can't get a defenseman where you draft, or you would have to go way back, I mean, they could always trade down and grab some other stuff. But I don't know. For them, I would take best player available. And then come next year, reassess where you are. If a zeeger's trade makes sense, do it. I don't think it does. But yeah, start trying to make your push. Look to free agency with the defensive help.
00:33:29
Speaker
And if you're not improving still, then you have to start, you have to trade one of those young guys. I wouldn't start trading some of the guys that they drafted, like McTavish's, the Zegre's, anyone like that until the year after next to fill out your roster. I still think that it's too early for them to make any major, major moves with their supposed new core.
00:33:53
Speaker
until it's very clear again that you're they're floundering. Because right now I don't think they're floundering. Yeah, we thought they'd be better. But you know, once again, they had injury trouble and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure McTavish makes sometimes egress mix miss some time, maybe even Carlson did. And again, Drysdale has been struggling with his injuries as well. And yeah, so I think I don't think the ducks are as far along as people think they are.
00:34:21
Speaker
I think they're lining them up with the kings a bit too much and the kings were just, they didn't quite do a rebuild. They did like a very, because they were committed to Kopitar and Dowdy. You couldn't really. They did like a quick replenish, retool, rebuild on the fly, so to speak.
00:34:40
Speaker
I mean, Endo mentioned it too, briefly, the whole idea of no identity. I mean, that's a thing that affects most teams, not even just the bad teams. That affects a lot of playoff teams. Yeah, what's Toronto's identity? Treliving in the moment. That's their identity. Yeah. What's Winnipeg's identity?
00:35:05
Speaker
I don't think they have one, even though they were a good team. Hell of a buck. Winnipeg is the, Winnipeg is the modern version of Montreal right now. Elaborate in the sense of they have a goalie who was red hot and is arguably the best goaltender in the league and they are wasting his potential.
00:35:33
Speaker
I would say this year Winnipeg isn't quite wasting it. Not as bad as Montreal was. I would agree with that. The thing is, I don't think... Not Montreal. I don't think Winnipeg expected to have a decent season this year, after what happened last year, and then certainties of players signing in the off-season and all that, and having contracts through, and getting rid of Dubois, and having that trade go through, which is paid off in fucking spades.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, but I wouldn't I would say they did consider it because they just resigned shyfully in hell of a box. So I think they at least they hope that they would do good. Maybe not as good as they have been, but they had they fell off a little bit.
00:36:13
Speaker
Like they weren't they weren't like it's not that they weren't in the Jets. Jets are first in the central right now. Oh, are they? OK, I thought it was still Dallas. Yeah. So the central right now is Winnipeg, 93 points and 68 games. Colorado, 93 points and 69 games. And Dallas, 93 points and 70. Yeah. Yeah. OK. OK. Yeah. Yeah. So it's super, super close. Yeah. Anyway, an interesting question.
00:36:39
Speaker
In terms of some of the other bigger talking points, there's quite a few. Where the hell do we want to go with this? Does anything stand out to either of you? Like, let's start there. OV. So we talked about this a lot, obviously, over the last couple of years. Alexander Ovechkin is now 50 goals away
00:37:09
Speaker
from tying Wayne Gretzky, if I'm not mistaken, and then 51 away from surpassing him. He was looking hooked, to say the least. He's still not quite playing like you expect Ovechkin to play, but he has 23 goals in 65 games this season. He has five goals over his last three games.
00:37:38
Speaker
If he plays to this level, not obviously Prime Ovechkin, how could it be? He's 38 years old. But if he plays to this level, hangs on for another couple of seasons, he's gonna do it.
00:37:52
Speaker
whether or not someone's happy or not to see him do it based off of political opinions and whatnot. That's an entirely different conversation. But he also joined Gordie Howe and Brendan Shanahan as the only players in NHL history to score 20 or more goals in 19 or more consecutive seasons. I did not expect to see Brendan Shanahan on that list.
00:38:19
Speaker
I have a little bit of trivia for you guys. Um, without, I hope you don't have a stats up. Uh, I do not. Okay, good. How many 50 goals seasons does Alexander Ovechkin have in his career? That's a good question. Jesus. He's got a lot.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he's got at least five. I think it's more. Cause Jesus, he had, he had what? Like 53, 54 goals as a rookie. So how many seasons where he scored 50 plus goals? I'll give you guys both a guess.
00:39:15
Speaker
Is double digits too much to guess? Because I'm thinking it's not. How many do you think it is? If it was double digits, that'd be 500 goals just on that alone. And he has, I did have this up, he has 845. I'm gonna say 11. Alright, let's go silly. Two gigos with 11. What's your guess, Endo?
00:39:42
Speaker
I said at least five, so I'm going to go with 12. That, okay. Well, Tugi is closer. He has nine 50 goal seasons in his career. I was going to say seven. One of those was a 60 goal season. He only has one 60 goal season in his career.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah. How many does Austin Matthews already have? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He scored 65 goals in 07-08 and that was his highest go total season. But what's really impressive to me is that his last 50 goal season was in 21-22.
00:40:19
Speaker
That's not long ago. No, not at all. Well, he is on eight hundred and forty five goals Gretzky eight ninety four at the record. So he is 50 goals away. From getting the record. I still think he's going to get it. I mean, now two more, two more seasons, two more seasons. And all he needs to do is average 25 to 30. If yeah, if he plays like second half of the season, Ovechkin.
00:40:48
Speaker
instead of what he looked like in the first half. Because in the first half of the year, there was no doubt about it. Like, I thought, Jesus, he's cooked. Like, there's the fall off. But he's, you know, started back on that upward trajectory. It wasn't just that kind of... I mean, you know, I think he can get seven more goals and hit 30 before the season's done. Yeah. I mean, Washington has 14 games left.
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's doable. I mean, with the pace of that right now and the with the blatantly of how badly their team is just trying to get him the puck. Yeah, like every empty net has got to be had a wide open fucking net to shoot out. Apparently, I saw the clip like he was he could have just put that in himself and then just passes it right off the ovi for the for the one T. It was beautiful. The question now becomes
00:41:44
Speaker
Once Ovech has it already started even? Austin Matthews. How soon until people are like, all right, Austin Matthews is going to be the one to break Ovi's record. Oh, I'll say it right now. Austin Matthews is going to break Ovi's record or Gretzky's record. If Ovi doesn't reach it, Austin Matthews is breaking it 100 percent. Like he's he's.
00:42:09
Speaker
He is the OV of this generation. McDavid is the Crosby, and I think they're both better than Crosby and OV. I mean, Matthews is three goals away with 15 games left from having his second 60-goal season of his career. Second time in the last three years. Like, that's unreal. Like, last year was viewed as a horrible season for him, and he had 40.
00:42:37
Speaker
Maybe not horrible, but it was viewed as a disappointment. Yeah. I mean, dude, Alexander Ovechkin is the second season he was in. Oh, never mind. That was actually pretty good, 46.
00:42:50
Speaker
Only 46 goals. He didn't have like a down scoring year until 2010, 2011, where he only had 32 and then only 38 the next year in 70 games and then 32. Oh, that was in 48 though. That was that shortened season. Yeah. So I think honestly, I mean, yeah, if you had to ask me right now, what would you bank on? I'd bank on Ovi sticking around long enough to break Gretzky's record.
00:43:20
Speaker
And then, yeah, I mean, there's a very realistic chance of Matthews being the the next one there. I mean, barring, you know, unforeseen circumstances, essentially. I mean, do you guys know where Austin Matthews is right now on the all time NHL goals list? Oh, he's he's top 100 for sure. Oh, yeah.
00:43:44
Speaker
If I am not mistaken, I think he's just on the outside Looking still the fact that he's in his fucking mid-20s Yeah, and already near the top 100 is ridiculous Not even that like he's like the top in the the maple leaf franchise like top five
00:44:07
Speaker
So he is at number 152 right now. All time and goals. 356 goals and 548 games. For comparison, the guy above him, Kirk Muller. One goal ahead. 1,349 games.
00:44:29
Speaker
Almost a thousand more games played and I mean Kirk Muller was a tremendous player, but you know Matthews has Almost caught Jeff Skinner who's six games away from a thousand games played already, which doesn't seem possible It's like Jesus Christ. How how old are we? You know, it's like you look at the names that Matthews is gonna catch soon Jason Spezza Very close to catching top 100 player of all time Jonathan Taves
00:44:59
Speaker
He's almost caught the likes of Danny Heatley and Eric Lindross. And in terms of all time active players, he's not that far behind someone like Jamie Ben, who's on 1,100 games played all time. By the way, shout out to Brad Marchand, one goal away from 400 in his career. He'll be just the 109th player to do it, which is going to be great.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting to see who's up there all time for goals. And then it was funny because we were going to bring him up anyway. And I was looking at this all time list. And Anze Kopitar, who became just the 52nd player in NHL history to reach 1,200 points, he's also top 100 in goals all time. He's currently 96th, which is awesome. But yeah, Anze Kopitar.
00:45:55
Speaker
You talk about an Alexander Ovechkin constantly having that spotlight and the proper recognition. Kopitar, if he was on an Eastern Conference team, and Patrice Bergeron didn't exist,
00:46:13
Speaker
Even if Bergeron did exist, but Kopitar was on an Eastern Conference team, he'd have a closet full of selkies. He's a multiple-time Stanley Cup champion. I mean, that's another future Hall of Famer, essentially, in the form of Anze Kopitar. I mean, quietly one of my favorite players of all time, but I mean, that really shouldn't be a surprise. I mean, based off of play style and everything like that, there's that appreciation. I mean, again, the Bergeron comparison is always going to be there.
00:46:44
Speaker
And I mean, you know, statistically, if you talk about the point production, Bergeron finished his career on 1,040 points. I mean, Kopitar, you know, more games played at this point, but, you know, Kopitar had him beat on point total as well. Yeah. You could get into like, OK, line mates, team style, stuff like that. But Anze Kopitar is the man.
00:47:12
Speaker
Yes, he is. Again, I would have appreciated him a lot more if he wasn't always breaking my heart. Ain't that a bitch how that works? There's a huge East Coast bias, as you alluded to. Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. The only reason McDavid gets the coverage he does is because Canada and because he's fucking McDavid.
00:47:37
Speaker
But he still doesn't get as much as Matthews, Nylander, or Marner. All right, well, at least Matthews. Right. And that's why there's this delusion that Matthews is as good as McDavid. That's simply not true. It is the comparing Crosby to OV. Crosby is simply the better player. OV will always be the better goal score. But Crosby is the better player because he does a hell of a lot more. And he has a Richard under his belt, too. He can score.
00:48:05
Speaker
McDavid did that thing last year where he was like, I'm going to shoot more. And then what did he post? How did he get to? He had 50. I know. I don't think he had 60, but ridiculous. Like he's just absurd. Anything McDavid wants to do, he does it. And that's what separates him from the Matthews. That's what separates Crosby from Ovi is that they are just a step above. And no, Ferraro Matthews is not 1B is McDavid above all else.
00:48:33
Speaker
Last season, Connor McDavid had 64 goals and 89 assists. Yes. Yeah. Come on. This year, though, he only has 26 goals. How many assists, though? But how many assists? Yeah. He's already a cyst for a game. We've got to remember, he and the Oilers had a really slow start, too. Yes. And at the same time,
00:49:01
Speaker
If I'm not mistaken, he has been on a line pretty much all season with Zach Hyman, who is going full David Clarkson. Dude, you have like 30 goals from the net front. Yes. Did you see that graph of like where the most people score from in the hot zones? Oh, my God. The fact 30. I don't think anyone else hit 10 on that list. Ridiculous.
00:49:26
Speaker
He is going full Clarkson, like back in the day on the Devils, like what helped David Clarkson get that big time contract from Toronto? Didn't age well, but was the fact that he was on a line with Kovalchuk. And Kovalchuk, whatever opportunity he didn't directly score on, Clarkson was right there to tap it in a deflected home. David Clarkson had a 30 goal season.
00:49:54
Speaker
in 2011-2012, which for over a decade ago, a 30-goal season was still something special. Like I saw Pete Blackburn on Twitter yesterday mention like, man, back in the day, 40 goals meant you were a god, and nowadays it's like, only 40 goals. Literally, Auston Matthews last season, right? Zach Hyman this year. Do you guys know how many goals Zach Hyman has?
00:50:22
Speaker
Oh man. I know last time I checked it was absurd. I'm going to say 47. 48. Fuck you. 46. Oh! Oh, I am so good.
00:50:44
Speaker
In terms of the top goal score is in the league right now. It is Auston Matthews with 57, Sam Reinhardt on the Florida Panthers with 48, and then Zach Hyman with 46. Hyman has two more goals than David Posternock in five less games. Also has four more goals than Nathan McKinnon.
00:51:06
Speaker
Get good scrubs, right? Like Zach Hyman has just been the beneficiary. Like on that particular line, McDavid hasn't needed to score 60 goals. Like I'd say even quietly, Evander Cain, 21 goals this year for Evander Cain.
00:51:24
Speaker
It's because, at least right now, he's playing with Conor McDavid. That's just what's going to happen. I mean, if Andrew Kane for as cooked as he's looked at times, you play him with Conor McDavid, he's still going to find ways to score goals with the talent he's displayed. McKinnon turned maroon into a near 30 goal guy. Like, come on.
00:51:50
Speaker
God, and yeah, Van der Kean scored 30 goals in his career, once upon a time. A couple of times, actually. So, there you go. So, from talking about the points perspective, let's talk about the physical side of hockey. And we'll start in a not so depressing way, first, before getting into the depressing way. Tom Wilson.
00:52:19
Speaker
No, Tom Hanks. Sorry. Everything he says is a stitch. So Tom Wilson tried to slice through Noah Greger's face last night. Yeah. He's been offered an in-person hearing, which means he'll probably get, what, five games at least? Yeah, Max. I think a maximum of five games.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, so this particular play I feel like everyone's seen. I made fun of it in that it kind of reminded me of Jacob Truba.
00:53:01
Speaker
swatting a Bruin in the face and it's like, they didn't mean to do it. It's like, he kind of meant to do it. So sarcastically, you look at this play and it's like, Tom Wilson didn't mean to do it, as he fucking just sop or cuts Noah Cracker in the face. I don't think Tom Wilson's gonna get the benefit of the doubt. And actually, from Chris Johnston,
00:53:28
Speaker
Tom Wilson's been offered an in-person hearing, which means he can be suspended for six or more games. Okay. So that is a costly decision from Tom Wilson, given that the Washington Capitals have
00:53:47
Speaker
made a really strong push as of late. Six wins in their last 10 games for that second wildcard spot. They currently have a game at hand on Detroit and are only one point back. To lose Tom Wilson in this situation, not great. Especially for a guy that a lot of people have labeled as their likely captain once Obie's gone because Tom Wilson's under contract until 2031.
00:54:17
Speaker
32 points in 66 games. He just signed that contract too, right? Yeah. Yeah. He is making, uh, actually that extension hasn't even kicked in yet. He's on the last year of his deal at 5.1 million. So next year starts the seven year deal at 6.5. That's a good deal. That's a good team friendly deal. If he's on the ice,
00:54:46
Speaker
which he's not going to be for six or more games because I don't see. Well, I want to say I don't see a scenario in which he doesn't get the book thrown at him. Morgan Riley got five with an in-person hearing. So it's not a guarantee. It'll be six plus. Yeah. And I mean, I attach this little point towards the bottom of the next section, but
00:55:13
Speaker
George Parris was asked by TSN in regards to the criticism that he's faced as the head of the Department of Player Safety. The quote coming out of it was, I take more beatings now than I ever did on the ice. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
00:55:43
Speaker
just like, ah, funny. Yeah. He's a funny guy. He's a funny guy. He's also very shit at his job compared to, uh, what he went to Princeton. He did. He's a smart guy, allegedly.
00:55:59
Speaker
A college education means you're a smart person. Always. Always. George Bush, George Perros. There is never- All the Georges went to Ivy League schools. Oh, goodness. I don't know what can really be said about this.
00:56:26
Speaker
other than it's Tom Wilson, a player with the history doing a very Tom Wilson thing. Yeah, there was contacts like he and Gregor collide alongside the boards. You know, Wilson hits him. And I don't think he intended to hit him in the face. I think he intended to get him up high. And holy hell did he get him up high. And that needs to be
00:56:55
Speaker
a big time suspension. It's just. Yeah. Like for me, like the conversation is less about. The the Tom Wilson play itself, but then it always just kind of lends towards the discussion of like, well, do PS, who the fuck knows? Spin the wheel. And that's kind of the continued issue there. But yeah, that's the problem I have with Paros's statement is just so tone deaf.
00:57:24
Speaker
Like just makes a joke when there is legitimate concern for player safety and legitimate criticism over things or how they're handled. And his response is just like, fucking, no one's going to take this job away from me. Like I have, I have blackmail and Gary Bettman because he probably does. Like he probably has the job because this stuff, you know, him slamming his face on the ice and like threatened legal action and threatened to go public and was given the job to shut the fuck up and join the boys club.
00:57:53
Speaker
That's, that's my tinfoil hat and I'm sticking to it. It's what it kind of feels like, right? And I mean, I think the reason why it feels that way, uh, is because we know what the NHL stance happens to be. It brings us to the, you know, the most difficult part of this, of this deal. But I mean, again, it's a hockey podcast and,
00:58:17
Speaker
Hockey's not inherently positive, unfortunately. I fucking wish it was. We saw two passings this week of former NHLers from suicide. In the case of former NHLer Konstantin Koltoff, this was a guy who wasn't necessarily a fighter, a goon.
00:58:44
Speaker
hockey fights has him listed with two career fights, one in the 2002-2003 season in the AHL, and then one in 2014-15. That's not to say, and we don't know, you know, that's not to say essentially that there couldn't have been mental health issues as an effect of playing professional hockey, because we know that's an inherent risk.
00:59:11
Speaker
In the other instance, the passing of Chris Simon, whose family not only confirmed the suicide, but they released a statement through his agent, Paul Theophanis, and if I'm mispronouncing that, I apologize, but he gave a statement to ESPN's Kevin Weeks, quote, the family strongly believes in witnessed firsthand that Chris struggled immensely from CTE, which unfortunately resulted in his death.
00:59:40
Speaker
Just last week, we talked about Matt Rempe and the NHL's kind of back and forth approach to how they try to handle things, right? Like a response on Reddit kind of summed up my whole diatribe last week. All these enforcers are dying at an alarming rate. Holy shit, check out this Rempe kid. And that's what it was. And we talked about like, what is the NHL? What direction do they want to go? Frank Saravalle,
01:00:10
Speaker
asked Bill Daley, the NHL, what is Bill Daley's official title, by the way, aside from Gary Bettman's underling, the deputy commissioner. So there you go, he is literally Gary Bettman's underling. Frank Cervali asked him whether or not the NHL's viewpoint has changed with additional medical studies that show a definitive link between CTE and repeated blows to the head.
01:00:36
Speaker
Daley said, no. Quote, I think the science is still lacking. Oh my God. They've had the same line since Bogart. It's the most legal answer. And as again, I saw somebody else state, it's incredibly disingenuous. Yes.
01:00:55
Speaker
I talked about in that Matt Rempe conversation the fact that they were sued and settled in 2018 for hundreds of millions of dollars in regards to former players suing the league. It can really best be summed up as of course there's a link. They can't deny that there's a link because of the rule changes that they've made
01:01:21
Speaker
The stance they've tried to take on headshots and shit like that. But they can't admit the link because it would open them up to further potential litigation. Which is what they want to avoid. So they're still essentially trying to have their cake and eat it too. Yep. Which we talked about last week. Like I can't reference that segment enough.
01:01:51
Speaker
It's the idea of we want to promote the physicality and the toughness of the sport, but we also don't want to be on the hook for the consequences that these players are going to face from those actions. And at the end of the day, you could say there is personal responsibility on the players. And yes, there is.
01:02:20
Speaker
But there's also a hell of a lot of responsibility on the NHL. When you have, and it's really no different to me than the idea of MMA, with mixed martial arts, where, you know, sometimes referees in those fights make bad stoppages. But you have to, because it's your job to attempt to protect these fighters from taking unnecessary punishment because they will.
01:02:50
Speaker
because that's their job, is to win. And nobody wants to, in these instances, nobody wants to be protected from themselves. They'd rather be given every opportunity to try and win and do their job. That's what the whole enforcer thing was from years past, is the idea of if you leave open this avenue for someone to make millions of dollars
01:03:20
Speaker
as a fighter in the league and to live their dream of being a professional hockey player, they're going to do it. Yes, that is ultimately their personal decision, but for the vast majority of people, if it is, you can make millions of dollars doing this, or you can make the smart decision and go bag groceries for a living, they're gonna risk the future consequences.
01:03:48
Speaker
How informed they are about those consequences, who knows? Because, well, the NHL won't properly inform them about it. They'll deny. Case in point, Bill Daley, the science is still lacking, even though it very much is not. There's a reason why we have had multiple NFL players retire after a handful of years. What was it? Luke Kuechly of the Carolina Panthers retired after seven years or so. He's like,
01:04:14
Speaker
This isn't worth it anymore. Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions retired relatively young. It's like they made their money and they got out and didn't hang around too long because they were well aware of the risks. The NHL though, science is still lacking.
01:04:31
Speaker
The NHL though, DOPS, incredibly inconsistent. George Parris will yuck it up about how often he's criticized. And the NHL won't make a definitive stance on what the role of fighting is in the game anymore. Yeah. I mentioned that all last week, like the idea of like, oh, players need to be better at protecting themselves. The players need to know what the hell they have to protect themselves from.
01:04:59
Speaker
What are the rules? We always question that every year. What the fuck are the rules of the NHL? What is allowed and what isn't? Then in the playoffs you have to ask yourself that again because it's different. It's just, it's one of those things where
01:05:19
Speaker
you would hope that lessons would be properly learned from the Derek Bogards, the Wade Bealocks, the Rick Rippins, now Chris Simons added to that list, and there's a lot more. But it doesn't feel like the NHL has any desire to learn that lesson, because at the end of the day, call me a woke liberal snowflake, but it's all about
01:05:44
Speaker
capitalism of the sport it's about the money it's about the brand fuck the players who are just cogs in the machine we'll take these guys up well you're used up get the fuck out new guy make us money yep that's what it is like and you could argue that that's what everything is it doesn't matter if it's fucking Amazon the NHL whatever the fuck
01:06:09
Speaker
It just sucks, though, to be able to watch such an entertaining on ice product, which we've talked about the on ice product to the NHL, the skill level in a general sense has never been higher. But to still know that the league doesn't give a single solitary fuck about these guys while they're playing, but especially after. Yep.
01:06:35
Speaker
I don't know what more to add. No, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. It's, you know, it's this the trifecta of Perros Batman, you know, and for me, Colin Campbell is just everything that's wrong with the fucking game and why it's not going to be fixed as long as these guys are there.
01:07:03
Speaker
I mean, obviously you can add Bill Daley, but he's just, he's just a Betman mouthpiece. Let's be honest. It's just, okay. I've said this and it's your turn. Like that's all it is. So lump and perils in there. Cause he's well, he's head of the goddamn DOPS, which is what wasn't Shanahan at one point, head of the DOPS. Yeah. A guy, a guy who was involved in a fucking blood feud. Like what, what, what are, who are these DOPS guys? If they were serious about player safety, it would be like Paul Korea.
01:07:32
Speaker
Like someone who actually, you know, suffered from one of these things and wasn't a fighter, didn't make his money doing that, was a true student of the game.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm not saying Shanahan wasn't a student in the game, but again, played in a time where he was a god, like he fought. He wasn't afraid of that shit. You kind of had to back in the day. There's no way you could get away from fights. In the 90s and 2000s, if you played and didn't have a career fight,
01:08:04
Speaker
or like multiple, that was, I don't think that ever happened. It just simply- The exception was Gretzky because he was far too valuable to risk in a fight. I'm tallying it up right now. Brendan Shanahan, unless I've mistyped, had 97 career fights. Even a guy like that is going to have a certain opinion on fighting.
01:08:34
Speaker
and it's not likely to be a negative one, it's gonna be one where it's like, oh, well, yeah, you know, the game and then you gotta, you gotta do, it's gonna be one of those fucking old boys, old time hockey opinions on the role of fighting in the game, as opposed to someone like you said, a Paul Correa, who is still arguably the most famous example of a high skill player whose career was totally jeopardized by
01:09:03
Speaker
the fucking nature of the game at the time, and him getting fucking run over with an illegal check by Scott Stevens, which a lot of people, like, literally, you can look up Scott Stevens, Google him, hit the video section. The first thing that pops up is a YouTube video from the NHL's official account. Scott Stevens was a feared big-hitting defenseman. You know, fuck the fact that he almost fucking decapitated Paul Correa,
01:09:34
Speaker
It's fine. Don't worry about it. Because that was the role of it. And of course, now quietly, they'll be like, yeah, we probably shouldn't let Scott Stevens style hits happen anymore. Probably shouldn't. But they'll still try to have Cake and Eat it too by celebrating him. Yep, exactly. And I'm not saying it's even necessarily a negative viewpoint for Scott Stevens. He was just doing his fucking job and what the state of the league was at the time.
01:09:59
Speaker
But the point is, the NHL would love for the league to still be that. But they can't make it that obvious. They have to try and show some sort of like, ah, we're trying to make it safer for players, we promise. I really do wish I could just be one of those people where it's just turned my brain off.
01:10:25
Speaker
Enjoy it for what it is, pretend these aren't, essentially to have no empathy. I wish I could pretend that Noah Greger wasn't a real human being and just be like, did you see Tom Wilson hit him in the fucking face? That was insane. I wish I could do that. I wish I could turn my brain off and just be like, look at this 21 year old kid, Matt Rempe.
01:10:47
Speaker
fucking fighting every goddamn night. He took on this guy and then got it. Shit kicked out of him by Nick Deloria. The balls on the kid. And then he fought Ryan Reeves, the sack on this guy. I wish I could be one of those types, but I'm a empathetic woke liberal cock. Snowflake, I forgot to add that too. And I've mentioned it, like I love the physicality of the NHL. I do.
01:11:14
Speaker
But I'm not someone who's like, oh yes, I want the NHL to be no contact, no fighting. No, I want the physicality of it. Jesus, even in the PWHL, where there's been more physicality, it's been awesome.
01:11:31
Speaker
You know, it's been a really fun on ice product to watch this year. Shout out to Toronto that has 11 straight wins. They're probably going to win the whole damn thing. We'll talk more about the PWHL as their season continues to wind down. I mean, Jesus Christ as well. They're going to break their attendance record again.
01:11:53
Speaker
In Montreal if I'm not mistaken like it's sold out the Bell Center sold out in like an hour If I'm not mistaken, I think that's Friday's game Friday April 19th against New York. I think that was the date by going to Scotiabank Yeah Anyway, anyway, like it's just it's all so frustrating, right? I've talked about this
01:12:22
Speaker
before in terms of the history of this show. When Deej and I started this podcast, it was almost like a more innocent time. And then right around the time that he left the show, because he and I were having disagreements on how to frame the show, he was someone who was like, no, let's try to take the nothing but positive approach. And I'm like, how the hell is that possible?
01:12:51
Speaker
Not long after that, the Kyle Beach story broke. Then you have instances like this where in terms of a hockey podcast, it would seem disingenuous to be like, well, Chris Simon died. I'm not going to talk about that at all because I don't know how you can't talk about the Chris Simon story because it's another guy. If you don't, you're part of your part of the issues with the NHL and you're part of the machine.
01:13:21
Speaker
Plain and simple. And I'm sorry to say it, but various large hockey podcasts are part of the machine. And if you call yourself a player's podcast or something like that, but you don't talk about those issues or you skirt over them because you want to be in the good books of the NHL, then yeah, you're part of the machine, sorry.
01:13:45
Speaker
I wish it was just nothing but positive. I wish it was, let's just focus on the super high skill of the league. I would love it to be that, but unfortunately, we're still stuck in what we were just talking about. NHL trying to have their cake and eat it too. Yeah. Anyway.
01:14:07
Speaker
Um, from one negative aspect to another, and now a third. Not quite to the same extent, though. Well, at least this is interesting. The Dallas Stars have had a very interesting week. In a week that they unveiled Mike Madonna's statue outside of American Airlines Center,
01:14:29
Speaker
Which, speaking of the negativity side, fuck Mike Babcock, once again, for a lot of things, but especially holding out Mike Maddal so he didn't hit 1,500 games. Fucking dickhead. The Dallas Stars in the last 24 hours have caught some heat in the form of their social media. Last night, they beat the Arizona Coyotes.
01:14:57
Speaker
and posted a tweet with the title Road Killed in an image that has since been flagged on Twitter as sensitive contents showing a green truck with the Dallas Stars logo driving down the road with a dead coyote. Oh, it's a real fucking picture. Why didn't they just like make an animated thing or like a roadrunner? Oh, God.
01:15:25
Speaker
It is, it is a, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. It's a fox as well. This tweet has 1.3 million views, which is a rarity for the NHL, to say the least. How do you guys feel about this? Because I don't think like the joke itself, I don't think is that bad of the idea of
01:15:57
Speaker
Roadkill or whatever the hell, I don't think it's that bad. But I'm kinda with ya. The idea of them just being like, ah, fuck it, let's show a real dead fox in the road. Any image of Wile E. Coyote getting fucked up would have sufficed. And again, it's a fox, it's not even a coyote. Right. What did you have to, like, what did they have to Google? Did you outright search for, like, roadkill?
01:16:27
Speaker
Google images. That's my question. Yeah, I don't know. The first time I saw this, I'm just like, whoosh, that's interesting. And then I thought about it a little bit more and it's like, huh, probably is like, I don't know, the line is going to be difference.
01:16:54
Speaker
for everybody. I'm the kind who gets sad when I see dead animals on the roads. I'm immediately going to be sad because I love animals and I'm empathetic.
01:17:18
Speaker
Like, like you said, like there's gotta be. Oh, there's images of him getting fucking run over and stuff or like falling down a cliff or like there's there. There is like there's simply an auto fill of Wiley coyote flat. There. Road killed. You could still make the same tweak. You could still make the same joke. It's just for me using real images of like dead animals and stuff like that. That's that's not what you should do. Hmm.
01:17:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's just. Especially when like it's wrong. It's the wrong animal. Like you just looked up fucking roadkill and like, all right, that could be it's a canid species. Let's just throw it in there. What the hell? Yeah. Yeah. Just something they didn't think through. Good idea. Maybe poor execution. Very poor. Definitely. Yeah. So.
01:18:20
Speaker
Yeah. Well, uh, we'll, we'll leave it at that. But interesting for the, uh, for the start, you know, the funny thing is like, uh, fortunately this took away from all the attention of a big night for them. It was their pride night. Tyler Sagan returned to the lineup. And now all anyone's talking about is your fucking roadkill tweet. They had the, yeah, they had the win back all the, uh, the staunch conservatives.
01:18:51
Speaker
by posting things that would trigger the libs. There you go. It all makes sense now, doesn't it? Outside of that, a couple other things really quickly to discuss. First and foremost, we want to shout out Leaf's legend, Wayne Simmons, who has officially announced his retirement. Chocolate Wayne.
01:19:23
Speaker
So for those who don't understand that inside joke, NHL 2K10, for whatever reason, Wayne Simmons decided to be a white guy.
01:19:37
Speaker
Oh, so, yeah, we have plenty of jokes about that. But yeah, Wayne Simmons going to retire as a flyer. No real surprise there. Really are the king. Come on now. Right. Right. Really, really solid career for Wayne Simmons. Over a thousand games played.
01:20:02
Speaker
And he had some really, really strong years as well. I mean, again, he was a second round pick in 2007, um, 60 points twice, two time 30 goal score. Um, just a really, really strong career for Wayne Simmons. And of course it's not uncommon for someone's career to kind of fizzle out, you know, the 2022, 23 season with the Leafs, he had 18 games, only two points.
01:20:30
Speaker
Fairly typical path at the end, but Yeah, just really solid grid of course
01:20:38
Speaker
You know, it's always nice to see someone essentially be able to end their career on their terms in a sense. I mean, I guess somebody could argue whether or not he would have gotten a landing spot, but, you know, to not have someone's career and be an injury, especially for someone who's a more physical player like he was in kind of more of a prototypical power forward for the vast majority of his career. Just a really, really strong season for Wayne Simmons. And it's a bit of positivity surrounding the Flyers.
01:21:08
Speaker
that they might not have otherwise. Because the biggest talking point is John Tortorella. Oh, yeah. Benching their newly named captain, Sean Couturier. I miss Ryan Callahan. Couturier looks like he's going to be benched again tonight.
01:21:36
Speaker
from the sounds of it. It was the first time ever in his career that he ended up getting scratched. And, you know, this year, 36 points in 64 games, only one point in his last five games. And actually, it's more than that. Let's see, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
01:22:04
Speaker
One point in his last nine games and three points in his last 14.
01:22:14
Speaker
It's someone that's struggling on ice, but it raises that conversation of what type of message does it send to scratch your captain. Some people are like, ah, it's too much of a negative message, like he's your captain. For others, they view it as, hey, it's a positive to say it doesn't matter who the hell you are, your level of play and effort needs to be up to snuff, or you're not gonna get that ice time, and we're gonna play somebody else instead.
01:22:42
Speaker
I'm kind of more on that other side. Like, it's such a John Tortorella thing to do. Yeah. And I kind of respect him for that. Where at 65 years old, he still is just under the viewpoint of like, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. Deal with it. For better or worse, I'm going to ask the sedans to block shots. Is it stupid? It's dad taking it out on the kids when he gets reamed at work. All right. Suspension you got.
01:23:11
Speaker
For better or worse, he is unapologetically him, is John Torella.
01:23:18
Speaker
You know, it's interesting because the Flyers are in a playoff spot right now. They have a three-point cushion on the Caps for the third spot in the Metro. Caps have a game at hand. But the Flyers could absolutely make the playoffs this year, which nobody fucking expected. Especially in a year where in the middle of the season, they lose their goaltender.
01:23:44
Speaker
which I don't need to go into details about that. No, but I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's one of those things where, yeah, if you think a player is underperforming, I mean, even dating back, I mentioned the Sadeen thing. Like it's to me, it's like that's just John Tortorella being like, well, this is what I demand of my players. Otherwise, why the hell did you hire me?
01:24:08
Speaker
What the hell is the matter with you? Vancouver for bringing me in and not expecting me to tell the best players on the team to set the example that I want to see set. That's kind of that's still what he's doing in Philly. Yeah. Even if it's John Katoria. I get scratching him for one game too. Doesn't make sense to me. That's fair. Like I get in their last game.
01:24:30
Speaker
i don't know but i don't like i get scratching from one game but i think it'd be fun if he scratches them for two games the same amount of time he got suspended and then it's it's really dad taking it out on the kids for getting reamed at work they did win their last game they beat toronto four to three on tuesday they play carolina tonight so they have quite the fucking schedule coming up jesus christ they might not make the playoffs
01:24:56
Speaker
next four games, Carolina, Boston, then Florida the next day, going to the Rangers.
San Jose Sharks Scouting Changes
01:25:02
Speaker
Oof. Oof. That, yep. They, uh, they have an interesting schedule coming up. So, you know, I, I kinda commend him for just being like, fuck it. This is what I'm doing. Even though
01:25:17
Speaker
I'm sure there's pressure to be like, John, you can't set the captain. We have a three-point cushion. We're trying to make the playoffs here. So I do kind of respect that, to just be like, yeah, fuck it. I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want. There was somebody else who, according to San Jose Sharks GM, Mike Greer, also took the approach of fuck it, I'm gonna do whatever I want. And according to the Sharks,
01:25:46
Speaker
Uh, he very much wasn't doing his job. Uh, the sharks have fired. I don't know if it's a Russian amateur scout or their only Russian amateur scout and Igor Aranko.
01:26:01
Speaker
My career was quoted as saying this, Igor didn't meet the standard. For whatever reason, he wasn't seeing games and wasn't doing what we were asking of them, so we felt it was best to part ways. We gave him several warnings about getting his reports in, cleaning up his lists, and seeing games. You can't scout or get a good feel of players if you're not at the ranks. For whatever reason, he was giving plenty of notice that he needed to improve in this area, but he didn't.
01:26:26
Speaker
We hope to have someone in place for next season, but we have to find the right person, not someone who wants to say they work for an NHL team and not do the work.
01:26:42
Speaker
Wow, like you can just tell, by the way, his, you know, very PR friendly statement even slipped out some of the anger. Like he is steaming mad. And I kind of alluded to this before we began the show when I when I got a look at this and stuff. I kind of wonder now if that's why we didn't go from each cough is because we had we just didn't know if our Russian scout was been slacking. You know, they go for someone that we they felt more confident in.
01:27:12
Speaker
Because for me, the timeline for Michikov doesn't matter because you're not going to be good in those three years anyway that he can't be here. Right. So this kind of sheds more light on that possibility of, you know, we just haven't had a good Russian scouting. So I'm trying to do a bit of a deep dive here on the fly of the sharks.
01:27:36
Speaker
current system and scouts and stuff like that, because Elite Prospects has a good amount of that information. We put 20 out of 20 of them in Sweden. Basically. So, Aranko was hired at the beginning of the season.
01:27:56
Speaker
So I don't think he's the one necessarily to blame for Michkov. He, interestingly enough, was a former writer, sideline reporter, commentator. He got an assistant GM role with Avangard Olmsk in the KHL in 2020, moved to their director of youth hockey,
01:28:19
Speaker
for 2022-23 and then for 23-24 was brought on as an amateur scout for the Sharks and only lasted until the middle of the season. In terms of the San Jose Sharks now, it's nhl.com, forward slash sharks, team, and then front office. They have their full list of staff, which includes
01:28:49
Speaker
In terms of amateur scouts, they have two North American scouts listed, both under brackets Minnesota, which includes, which includes Thomas Vanik, by the way, I totally forgot about that. They have a designated US scout, John Hull. They have an Ontario based scout and also an OHL dedicated scout, as well as someone based entirely in Western Canada.
01:29:20
Speaker
In Europe, they have Nicholas Sunstrom, designated for Sweden. Sunstrom, former NHL baby. There you go. They also have a Czech Czechia base scout, a Finnish base scout, someone designated for the for the KHL, which is not Igor Oranko. And then they have one scout who looks at Czechia, Slovakia, Germany and Switzerland.
01:29:51
Speaker
So based off of this, Nikolai Ladigan is the person listed as their KHL based scout. He was all, he has been with the sharks since 2018 as a European scout. So it looks like they tried to get him some help and that Igor Aranko, according to my career at least, had no intention.
01:30:21
Speaker
of doing this job, doing much there. So interesting to look at. It's funny, though, looking at the Sharks list, player development coaches, Mike Ricci, former shark. Let's go. Tommy Wingles, former shark. I forgot about Wingles. Luca Spiesa is a player development coach right now. I had no idea Spiesa Pizza was there.
01:30:47
Speaker
Yeah. Marlowe is also there as a player development coach and hockey ops advisor. Ryan Miller is listed as a goalie scout and goalie development coach. Nabokov as well. Yeah, we got we got all of all the former NHLers, dude.
01:31:03
Speaker
There's a lot of my my career just looked on the list every year of what what retiring players turned into scouts or coaches and he hired them all. Yeah. And you're right in the box. There is the director of it says director, comma, goaltending. So that's a direct is these direct. Apparently, now he's a huge pothead, by the way. I believe he he would like like even when he was playing, I have a source who can confirm.
01:31:33
Speaker
There you go. So, uh, interesting times. I don't recall anybody being, let alone a scout. I don't recall the last time anybody, coach or whatever, was let go and was essentially thrown under the bus at this guy was not doing his fucking job is what Mike Greer wanted to say. I think I like my political terms.
01:31:58
Speaker
And I know everyone's gonna shit on him because of the hurdle trade, but I like pretty much everything he's done as the GM. The more and more I'm seeing what's coming to fruition because of it. Now, it's not directly tied to the Sharks, but kind of.
AHL Opportunities and PR Moves
01:32:17
Speaker
They've also signed a key Maloo, or at least the San Jose Barracuda have signed a key Maloo to a tryout in the AHL.
01:32:28
Speaker
A lot of people are viewing this as a way to be like, the team sucks, but let's get some positive aspects in there. Alu at this point is 34 years old. He'll turn 35 next month. Has not played professional hockey since the 2019-2020 season where he played six games in Czechia before COVID kicked up. Hasn't played in the AHL since 2016-2017.
01:32:58
Speaker
Is it a PR move, potentially, but at the same time? But also the Kuda suck too. Yeah, at the same time, fuck it, why not? Like there are constantly players, former NHLers, which Kim Lue is, not long time, but still, that get these amateur tryouts in the AHL. I mean, you can look through
01:33:26
Speaker
the AHL every single year and be like, Oh, that guy's there. Um, whether or not it's fucking Arteman Isimoff or, um, like Corey Conacher was on to try it at one point. I think he is under an AHL contract now. Like every year it happens. Is it probably more of a questionable example? Maybe, but fuck it. Why not? And to sin's point, uh, within the question because of who he is.
01:33:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Do you know who's coming back? You know who's trying to break back into the league? Oh my God, I'm blanking on his name. There's a young- There's a young center man. Fuck. And I'm blanking on his name. Corey Coniger.
01:34:10
Speaker
I don't think, no, it wasn't Conacher. He was, he had all kinds, like a lot, a lot more hype around him. Oh, you're thinking of Cody Hodgson. Yes. I think blood clot issue or something like that. Yeah. Something along the lines of that. It was like, he just wasn't like healthy at all. Like, can it recover? Yeah. Yeah. So he's playing with Milwaukee in the EHL, which
01:34:34
Speaker
Yeah, be a pretty damn cool story, especially. Actually, what are I'm intrigued? I ever since I first heard like, oh, he's back and he he scored a goal. I haven't checked out his stat line at all. It was a tap in. It was a tap in, but still goals, a goal, baby. He's also 34. So there you go. He has eight points in 12 games. Not doing too bad, not doing doing good for him.
01:34:59
Speaker
I don't look at the AHL standings too often because, well, since the Portland Pirates aren't there anymore. Fire Mcarthy. I mean, I root for the Providence Bruins now, basically, but I don't pay super close attention. The San Jose Barracuda. Fire Mcarthy. He was great. They aren't doing a lot of good stuff, but Fire Mcarthy. They are 29th out of 32 teams. Yes. In the AHL, they have.
01:35:30
Speaker
Let's see. I miss Mr. Bolatai. They have 19 wins in 59 games. They have the fewest amount of wins in the league. Fucking atrocious. Try. You know, fuck it. Try something different. Why not? Who cares? Get Roy Summers back. Get his ass out of retirement. There you go.
01:35:52
Speaker
Final thing here as we wrap up the show, just wanted to kind of go over some of the current playoff situations and scenarios that are going on right now. Of course, for most teams, it's 14 or so games left on the season or less. I want predictions.
Atlantic Division Title Race and NHL Wild Card Analysis
01:36:11
Speaker
Atlantic Division. Right now,
01:36:14
Speaker
The Bruins lead 97 points, 70 games played. The Panthers are three points back with two games at hand. And then the Leafs are 10 points back of the Bruins with two games at hand. Who's winning the Atlantic division? Um, Florida. All right. Yeah. Both Boston and Florida have seven wins in their last 10 games. Yeah, this is tough, man.
01:36:43
Speaker
People have been shitting on the Bruins. I can't necessarily blame them because the Bruins have four wins less than Florida. The Bruins this year have 15 overtime or shootout losses. Yeah. I don't view that as like, oh, Batman, but I view that as they're a tough fucking team to beat. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm taking OT. They'll get their point. Yeah. That's so tough. I really do want to say Florida.
01:37:13
Speaker
Because, tactically, points percentage-wise, they're ahead, I think. Yeah. They're actually off by 2000. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0.02. If they won the two games that they have in hand, they'd be well ahead. Yes. Or one point ahead, sorry. Well ahead. But, goaltending, man. It's like Florida's the much deeper team.
01:37:41
Speaker
but Boston has the goaltending and two goal, ugh. I think as a Bruins fan, Florida should win it. The Bruins lost. Patrice Bergeron, David Crayche, they had to trade away Taylor Hall for cap reasons. They should, but Wilvay is the question.
01:38:00
Speaker
I think the Bruins are going to do it, baby. I'm holding on to hope, mainly because we'll talk about who's in the wild card spots, and I'd prefer to face wild card two over wild card one. Yeah. Oh, man. Gun to your head. Pick one. You're dead. I'm going to pick Florida. Fair enough.
01:38:30
Speaker
Endo. It probably won't be the Leafs. We don't have to talk about the Leafs in the playoffs yet. It will not be the Leafs. Jesus Christ. Oh, man. The time will come to talk about your eulogy for the Leafs before the playoffs even start. Oh, man. We'll get there. We don't have to do it yet. Don't worry. I'll spare you. Oh, man. I know you're tired. Bruins or Panthers. Who's taking that Atlantic division?
01:38:54
Speaker
Ruins are panthers probably gonna be the Bruins. There's gonna be a lot more fighting them There's gonna be a lot more fighting them after what happened last season Yeah, I think they're actually gonna be utilizing both their goaltenders as they should I Think it was a big learning lesson even this whole entire season like yeah, they have 15 fucking ties but at the same time that's still
01:39:20
Speaker
It still helps out your thing. They're not going to, they weren't going to set back to back franchise records for, or league record for wins and all that shit. Like they were supposed to barely be a wild guard team this year. Let's be honest. Exactly. They lost Bergeron. They lost countless other players. They had no, they had no center. They had no center man. And then that's some quick signings. They had some players, you know, come up, then it's, it's been smooth sailing for them just walking through. They're winning the Atlantic.
01:39:48
Speaker
Yeah, they're wanting the next division. Can you guys name the Bruins centers? The current four centers. Oh, yeah. A coil geeky. Correct. And oh, it's some fucking no name. He's not a. Yes, for Bokevist is their current fourth line there. Yeah, Bokevist.
01:40:13
Speaker
Yeah, Charlie. I always pick up during a rebuild in franchise mode because he just fills a spot in the bottom six. So the Bruins lines right now, by the way, are fucking hilarious. Marsha and Coyle debrusque. Hainan Zaka Posternock. What the? Lauco, Geeky Frederick. Beacher, Bokefist and Justin Brazo. Oh, yeah. Beaker and Brazo are generated names.
01:40:43
Speaker
Nah, it's fucking creative players, dude. Oh, dude. Razzo is incredible. Razzo is an OHL legend. Oh, fucking leaf prospect. Ontario centric endo. Yeah. Typical Toronto fan. I'm sorry, boy. Big boy gets in the corners because he is the corner. He's six foot fucking bait. Oh, boy. Oh, I will say it's
01:41:12
Speaker
It's true, like heading into the season. Florida, Toronto, Tampa. Oh, they'll be over the Bruins. Detroit, Ottawa, maybe. Buffalo. There were a lot of people who picked Bruins to not make the playoffs. And I can't necessarily blame them. Ottawa.
01:41:33
Speaker
Uh, so that's, uh, that's the, the meme of the season. Yeah. Endurance and dealer is that those full name, uh, the Metro it's a two horse race. The Rangers two points up on Carolina. Both have played 69 games. Nice.
01:41:54
Speaker
Rangers or hurricanes Rangers have six ones in the last ten the canes have eight and they've also won four in a row, huh? I'm saying Carolina because Anderson's back Mmm, that's fair
01:42:10
Speaker
I still don't know how to feel about the Rangers. Like, we talked about that a lot. The Shasturkin hasn't been amazing, I don't think. At least, maybe he's gotten better, but let me check his stats. I know at the All-Star break, he was sub 900. He has a 9-12 on the season with a 2.6 goals against average. Oh, fuck. He's been much better. Jonathan Quick has a 9-16 with a 2-4-6. Jesus. Oh, man. I still think Caroline is a better team overall, so I'm still going to go with them because Anderson's back.
01:42:39
Speaker
The thing about the Rangers that I've said for a while now is, it's like, I don't know about their defense. Their defense right now, now granted, Lindgren and Truba are both currently out through the injury. But their current defense is Ke'Andre Miller and Braden Schneider, Eric Gustafson and Adam Fox, Zach Jones and Chad Ruidle. Oh, you forgot, you forgot part of Fox's name.
01:43:05
Speaker
I'm franchise potential Fox Fox dash overrated Adam Fox dash overrated I'm with you. I think I think I look at Carolina, but regardless they're gonna be playing each other in the well No, they won't be playing each other in the first round. I wish that's how it worked. Wouldn't that be great? But the one in two teams kill each other. Yeah In terms of the wild card race, I want your opinions
01:43:35
Speaker
Not so much on who's going to make it, but who isn't. So right now the Detroit Red Wings sit in that second wild card spot, 76 points in 69 games. Meaning that Pittsburgh on 69 points of seven points back with the game at hand. Are the penguins dead in the water? Yes. 14 games to go and being seven points back. Yes. Yeah.
01:44:00
Speaker
And this is being real, not just one. You better pick. New Jersey, six points back with 13 games left. The devil's out. Yeah, because they have the leapfrog. I'm looking at the teams. They have the leapfrog. It's so many. Buffalo, five points back, 12 games left. Dead. Everyone, everyone random is games in hand.
01:44:30
Speaker
The Islanders, three points back, 12 games left. Hmm. Maybe not dead. But do you think they'll make it in? Patrick, why is he the guy? I don't think so. I mean, he's had them on a run lately. I mean, what's the fucking last five is like five, four and one. They lost five in a row. I retract my statement. Yeah. So the actual website is lost five.
01:45:00
Speaker
Really? Yeah, on ESPN. I'm seeing a loss too. But regardless, not the hottest team in the league right now. Yeah, no. They're done. Yeah, I just look at it right now. Washington, 12 games left, one point back of Detroit. They have a game at hand on the Red Wings. Doesn't matter, Dan, if the OV scores. Do the caps begrudgingly make the playoffs? I hope not. I want OV to get good rest over the summer.
01:45:29
Speaker
Rest honestly, that's a good way to view it, isn't it? Yeah, they might because Detroit has been flandering, but Larkin will be back soon. So I don't think Detroit falls out. Jesus. Detroit went on like an eight game losing streak. They are. They are to eight. No. In their last 10 games, the Red Wings. I still think because Larkin will be back soon, that they that they stay in and Tampa, who currently occupy the top wild card spot on 80 points with 12 games left.
01:45:59
Speaker
They're obviously in. Yeah, they have seven wins in their last 10. It's tough to imagine a situation where they give up the four points to Detroit, and then a team like Washington makes up a five point gap. Yeah. Unlikely. So honestly, I'm kind of with you. I think it's down to Detroit and Washington.
01:46:21
Speaker
For the Islanders, again, I view them this way. I feel like they're that defensive first built for the playoff type of team. But they lack the firepower to compete in the regular season. And then Buffalo, too little too late. Yeah, and they only have 12 games left, as opposed to everyone else around them with more games left. Right. New Jersey, it's just been a disaster of a season. Yeah, they had to punt.
01:46:48
Speaker
Horrific goaltending, like it's just take the higher pick, maybe trade it to someone. I don't think the sky is falling for them, but yeah. And then Pittsburgh, first year when Kyle Dubas at the helm, it has not worked out in terms of getting Eric Carlson and trying to get that team into the playoffs. It just hasn't worked.
01:47:09
Speaker
Yeah, there's been a lot of things on there. I think he inherited a mess and he's tried his best to fix it. Um, I don't think he initially planned to even
01:47:21
Speaker
Go there. Remember, he got fired. He got relieved of his job with Toronto because he pitched an idea to have more control and be part of the board of governors with MLSE. And let me see why he wants somewhere else. Probably, I don't know, he wanted to actually do something and have a team be built different than what it is right now. Would it have worked? Who knows? I don't know. We'll never know.
01:47:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think the one thing for him for the for the pens is, you know getting close to a Good pick in your first year right there is good I mean, I think he said that Crosby he wants to make sure that Crosby retires as a as a pen So let's see how that goes each man shouldn't go. So I go send them over to Colorado have that TV staff is all hell even more and
01:48:14
Speaker
You know, looking at the Penguins, obviously that's a whole big topic of like, well, they won't they. But Kyle Dubas, I mean, the Penguins, of course, don't have their first round pick this year, potentially. But I mean, you got Crosby heading into the last year of his contract. Malkin's got two years left after this. And if I'm it's easier said than done. Bless you. Thank you.
01:48:44
Speaker
I just I don't see how it's necessarily gonna work like unlike New Jersey where you're like a rough year injury stuff like that I don't see how for Pittsburgh it turns into like a rough year tinker around a bit and it works I'm just very happy to see them where they are
01:49:05
Speaker
In the West, the Central, I talked about it earlier. Winnipeg, 68 games, 93 points. Colorado, 69 games, 93 points. Dallas, 70 games, 93 points. One roadkill. One roadkill. Who wins the Central? If you had to predict the future right here, right now, who wins the Central? Colorado.
01:49:35
Speaker
That's what I want to say. I want to look at their schedule and see how many road games that they have. We're on a seven game streak right now. Yeah. I don't care. I want to know what road games they have. They're 18, 14 and one on the road and dominant at home ice. Right. All the nice games at home.
01:49:52
Speaker
There you go. Um, for me, you know, this answer first, well, we'll sit this up. Um, if I had to bet it's Colorado, I'd like to see Winnipeg do it because again, Winnipeg is another team kind of like the Bruins where it's like, what the fuck even are you? You're probably going to blow it up, but then you kept Shifley, you kept Hellebok. And all of a sudden they have been awesome this year. They have the best goal differential out of these three teams that we're talking about.
01:50:21
Speaker
I won't let it peg to do it just because I think it'd be fun. Sin is very studious over the schedule. Rough schedule? Yeah. No. No. Nashville. Oh, those are ones they already won. Oh, they got a homestand coming up. It's going to be Colorado. They're playing Columbus, then Pittsburgh, then Montreal, New York, Nashville. Oh, it's Colorado. It's Colorado. And then to close out the season,
01:50:48
Speaker
on the road against Columbus, road against Minnesota, back to back against Edmonton, that's tough. A game at home against Dallas, game at home against Minnesota, then Winnipeg, Vegas and Edmonton. So they do have a tough end to the schedule, but this coming home stand, I think they can win every fucking game. The Pacific, Vancouver on 94 points,
01:51:14
Speaker
With 69 games played, Edmonton 86 points on 66 games played. Can the Oilers catch the Canucks or do the Canucks have that division title locked up? They probably have it locked up, but I really want to see Edmonton catch them. They have three games in hand, which would put some potential only two points back of Vancouver. Right. And I would love to see Edmonton do it.
01:51:44
Speaker
Just so they can face Vegas in round one again, as long as Vegas stays in. Yeah. Weren't the Oilers like statistically like the worst team at one point in the NHL? Like they were like 30 to 30 seconds. Yes. They were worse than the Sharks at one point. And then there was a stretch where they were far better than anyone else. Yeah. I'm looking at it. So on November 1st. But it's probably Vancouver. November 1st is a bit too far to go back. But December 1st, you were talking about teams having played 20 or so games.
01:52:14
Speaker
On December 1st, the Oilers were 9, 12, and 1, and were five points back of the Coyotes for the second wild card spot. As of today, the official number here is that Edmonton is on 86 points in 66 games. The Coyotes are on 61 points in 69 games. A tale of two seasons between those two.
01:52:45
Speaker
Yep. In terms of the wild card, Nashville's on 84 points in the top spot. Vegas is on 79 points. We'll look at Calgary, eight points back. 68 games played this season. Calgary, dead. Done. Done and dusted. Oh, 100%. They're gone. St. Louis, four points back of Vegas, but Vegas has a game at hand.
01:53:15
Speaker
Yeah, no, St. Louis, I don't they're they're they're just terrible. They got way too many regulation losses this season. They need to get off the pot. I don't disagree. I think they're probably done. Minnesota three points back, but the Golden Knights have two games at hand. I know if they didn't have those games in hand, I would 100 percent say they're passing Vegas probably won't happen, but God damn, it'd be funny if it did.
01:53:45
Speaker
I feel like, by the way, how crazy is it that Vegas is five points back of Nashville? It's insane. It's just been such a weird season. Nashville's going to hold in the first round of the playoffs because they're over playing Saros again.
01:53:59
Speaker
Yeah, they always fold in the first round. It's going to get hurt and it's going to be the exact same thing over and over and over again. Yeah, they just run their volleys completely to the ground and they let Pekka re-enact. God love the soul. Same thing with Ottinger. Yeah. I've always said. Teams need to learn.
01:54:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean they I guess they don't want to like bring up a scar off because he's still he's killing it down over there And they have Troy gross Nick who was like an ahl sign contract. He's killing a charge. Let's do yeah He's killing it over there too. So he could possibly even get a job on a NHL deal next season like that's something else you also has like probably the best setup in the in the a with the g7s God is so clean
01:54:46
Speaker
That's good. My my final question for you guys. Good. Because my. How many games. As you see sorrows played and how many games has his backup, Kevin Lankan and played. Oh, man. How many. Probably 15. That's the nine games played. Yeah, 15 for. I'm going to say Lincoln and played 13 games.
01:55:15
Speaker
Oh, played, not just been relief. Oh, oh, yeah. That's the issue, too. Yes, it's games. Yeah, game started. I'm going to say Lincoln and his played in 18 games. I say 15. Yes. Eighteen. I get it. Oh, I promise I'll learn only at the standings. The game's five games played for you, Cesaro's of the 69 total. God, you can't do this anymore. That's got to be like an end to season total.
01:55:45
Speaker
Um, let me see how many played last season 64. He played 64 last season, 67 years before that. And I believe both of those seasons he got hurt and it was like an inch. It was an ankle injury and then they couldn't do anything.
01:56:02
Speaker
Oh, man. He's going to be out of gas come playoff time. Like, yeah, probably out of gas now. He definitely is. God, where is it? Yeah, I remember the twenty one twenty two season is what he got hurt. And then Connor Ingram came out of fucking nowhere and played absolutely amazing. And it was his reward getting sent to getting sent to Arizona on waivers and then being the one of the best goes over there on a on a terrible team.
01:56:33
Speaker
So with that everybody, we'll look to wind things down for this week as, um, Jesus Christ. Sorry, I was on Twitter. This is totally off topic. Um, the U S men's national soccer team is playing a game tonight against Jamaica. Uh, Jamaica scored in the first minute. Right.
01:57:00
Speaker
National! Fuck yeah, let's go. God, we are a poverty country when it comes to soccer. Holy shit. Oh yeah, I'm getting beat by a poverty country. How do you feel? GDP these nuts, bitch! GDP these nuts is the episode of title.
01:57:28
Speaker
Unfortunately, lo-fi doc has been replaced.
01:57:33
Speaker
Oh, God, damn it. Oh, man. You can catch endurance on the Twitter and Twitch side of things under the same handle. Yeah. This merch store as well. Buy a T-shirt. Damn it. Yeah. Buy a T-shirt of the oh, I shouldn't actually say that. I'm not going to say it. Buy a T-shirt of a certain bill of NHL 24's bro Salah face. I will not say which one.
01:58:00
Speaker
And I'll say which one. There's a watermark on it so they won't know. It's also the same. He hasn't changed in like three years. It's fine. You can catch us in on the YouTube side of the things. A symptom in productions where he makes marvelous thumbnails for his franchise mode series. Yes. That's it. And of course. And mediocre. Mediocre? Mediocre. Waffle boarded.
01:58:26
Speaker
And you can geometrically move over to catch me on Twitch and YouTube, of course. A lot of Bay-Baw, a lot of stuff all the time. NHL 24 franchise eventually? Maybe? I don't know. I wish their rosters weren't shit. I'm trying to roster at it. It takes forever. They suck at that part of the game. But hey, we have fun here. Sashays, bye.
01:58:51
Speaker
I mean, that's what Jamaica is doing to the U.S. team right now. Jesus Christ. Oh, man. Anyway, Jamaica, they have a soccer team and a bobsled team. They're both probably better than the U.S. Jamaica land we love. That's that's their national anthem. There you go. We'll see you next week, everybody.