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The Cinnamon Book - Tougie's Take Podcast (1/31/24)
184 Plays1 year ago
- On this edition of the show, the Fella's are back together to talk about the NHL's latest controversy! YAY!
- Subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel!
- Check out our Discord!
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Transcript
Catching Up and Life Updates
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to another edition of the Tookie's Take podcast. We are finally back. Two of the guys, two of the fellas. I am joined alongside Mr. Andorrance. Hi. Yeah, it's me. I mean, wide, wide lens today, you know, get the whole picture of the place. Yeah. You got your jerseys in the background. Nothing's changed. It's fine.
00:00:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no, but we are, we are the opposite. You change stuff all the time, or at least you did. I moved. I moved, that's all I did. That old office, you change shit every, between every show. We were doing two shows a week. Yeah.
00:00:45
Speaker
I wouldn't change it every week. What I would do there is I changed it every two months because I have, yes, every two months I changed something in there. Whether there was moving it one way, moving it back, or switching rooms. The switching rooms thing was because of my allergies and the poor ventilation that was over there.
Allergies and Pet Compromises
00:01:06
Speaker
Now I go to a place with even worse ventilation. It was my allergies. I'm allergic to my cat.
00:01:11
Speaker
And I have a cat. And it was either I deal with it and suck it up with the cat or I lose my relationship with my girlfriend, fiance, or whatever the fuck. And I like her a lot. And so I kept up with the cat. And here I am in a basement apartment. Is that promising that she would have chosen you or she would have chosen the cat over you? Like, if it wasn't a conversation about whether or not muffin was getting the boot,
00:01:41
Speaker
The only conversation was, well, if you don't like the cat, you're gone. Is that promising? I mean, it's been five years. She's had multiple opportunities to kick me out the door. And I'm still here. My name is. But had you said, hey, I'm allergic to this cat, this cat's got to go. If it makes it work, you're certain it just would have been like, well, see you later. I'm keeping the cat.
00:02:08
Speaker
I don't know, man, like probably. I mean, I don't think I don't really think she would she would literally leave me for a cat. I hope I fucking hope not. Because, yeah, you know, other things, but, you know, it's it's fine. It's all good. All fine and dandy here.
Diminishing Interest in Hockey Events
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, fun. We're going to have some fun today as well, talking about
00:02:35
Speaker
I guess some stick puck. It was another week in the world of hockey, which is so honestly, like in terms of this show, right? Because we've had solo episodes with Senn and I or not solo episodes, but just, you know, you get what I mean. We've had episodes just Senn and I. And, you know, we've had those conversations over our thoughts on hockey right now and enjoyment levels kind of dipping.
00:03:04
Speaker
I have watched so little hockey over the past week and I'm perfectly okay with that. You know, we're on this drive towards the all-star break, which I have no excitement for at all. I'm just kind of content with just being like, okay, the hockey exists, but yeah.
00:03:28
Speaker
It's kind of where I'm at right now. Dude, I live here. I live in Toronto. Toronto, whatever the fuck you want to call it. To Caranto, the Aboriginal name is spelling it.
Social Plans and Event Expectations
00:03:38
Speaker
I live here, where they're having the All-Star Game, and I couldn't give a goddamn rat's tail. The only reason why I'm going to the Leafs event on Sunday and the Creator Skills Competition on Saturday is because, one, I want to see my bar down buddies, and I want to see Nashor and meet all the bunch of other guys over there.
00:03:56
Speaker
And Sunday, I'm going because it's gonna be a lot of good food. And it's a, it's a Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, it's an MLSI event, like Johnny, aka the OA, you've probably seen us play with him on pro clubs before. And he's been super busy running a bunch of events during the year. So he hasn't been able to play with us. But he runs the eSports department over there for
00:04:17
Speaker
Everything whether it's leaves gaming Raptors Raptors uprising or Raptors GC now whether it's Toronto FC's eSports part any any sport has that an eSports apartment He's the guy who basically runs everything him and Nick him and Nikki
00:04:34
Speaker
great guys, amazing, cool. If you're in Toronto, check out the event. I think there are still some stuff going on. We're involving that on Sunday. But there's gonna be a lot of gaming stuff too. There's also on Friday, I think it's the NHL World Championship.
00:04:52
Speaker
All Star Open is also happening at Hockey Hall of Fame. So contact somebody there if you want to get on the guest list, because I know Terry's going to be there. I know Rahill, we talked his way on Twitter to get free tickets. So shout outs to him. I'm kind of jealous. But yeah, it's been a week. I guess the best thing that's happening this week is All Star festivities and seeing a bunch of people and meeting a bunch of the community, which is going to be really, really cool.
00:05:20
Speaker
But besides that kind of sucks like kind of sucks Yeah, I mean You know, it's funny cuz with the all-star game it's like You know, obviously you have players that are dropping in and out of the game even Jack Hughes who was supposed to be a co-captain of a team with his brother Quinn has had to back out of an event and is replaced by Jesper Brad and it's like well
00:05:50
Speaker
Again, you're still going to like you. Yeah, you're still going to be there at the event, but he's just not going to play. Right. Which is pretty cool. So that whole idea of I've talked about to death, but it's like the all star game does nothing for me right now in its current format.
NHL Jerseys and Event Skepticism
00:06:07
Speaker
There is the debate back and forth of are the jerseys good? Are they not? I know you're on team. They're actually good. I think they're stupid and that they're good. That's the reason why I like I like
00:06:19
Speaker
I mean, you know me, I like things that are different. I like things that kind of not necessarily challenge, but a different take on something. And that's why I like these. That's why I like a lot of the stadium series jerseys because they're not traditional. It's something a little bit off the wall. Everyone loves the Miami Vice jerseys that they had, I think it was last year's All-Star Game and the year before that. Last year's all-star. Because it was super clean and like everyone was like in unison, like these are great jerseys. Love them.
00:06:48
Speaker
But I understand why people think they look bad because it's a weird color contrast they went with because they kind of base the colors off of an area or whatever. You had it in Florida. It was Miami Vice. You had it in Miami, sorry. It was Miami Vice colors. And with Toronto, there's not really much you can do because it's just red.
00:07:11
Speaker
It's blue and white. Okay, we'll throw in some red there. We'll do some other things here, but there's not really much you can do when the whole like area is just like two colors. Like the only team in Toronto that has a non blue and white color base is Toronto FC. They're the only team of Toronto FC and the Toronto Raptors. The only two teams without like any sort of like
00:07:36
Speaker
kind of avoiding the status quo, the norm of a Toronto team being blue and white. And there's only so much you can do on a design perspective to be creative. So make it a little more cartoony and do something like that. And I see how people are kind of mixed on it. Yeah. I mean, I'm not... It's funny you mentioned the stadium series jerseys. I'm not really a fan of those either. Yeah.
00:08:03
Speaker
Especially the Islanders one and the Islanders you have such a great color scheme and chances to do really cool things and they just Don't like ever even the reverse retro a couple years ago with like we brought back the fishermen except it sucked. Oh Yeah, I just I don't know Adidas isn't exactly going off on a high note for me at least although
00:08:29
Speaker
priced fanatics is going to be significantly, significantly worse. So look forward to that, everybody. That'll be fun. It's funny that you mentioned that whole NHL 24 open tournament thing. And in terms of the all-star break in general, it's like, you know, I had a lot of people asking like, Hey, are you going? And it's like, I
00:08:53
Speaker
No, no, just because like, again, my the only interest in the idea is to see people. It has nothing to do with what the NHL is doing. It would just be to see people, which would be great. But for the cost of shit in that city right now, no, thanks. Like it's going to summer. Well, that's what I'm saying, right? Like, yeah, like.
00:09:18
Speaker
I mean, yeah, there's quite a few people that live in that area that if I were to travel up there in the summer, I'd still be able to see anyway, you know?
00:09:29
Speaker
And, you know, I got to meet Nashor, the bar down guys, stuff like that in Vancouver this past August. Anyway, I don't know how many people are actually going to be there that I haven't met in person aside from people like you, Terry, um, Braille. And again, those are people who are local. I can meet you guys anyway. Um, you know, maybe there'd be a chance to just be like, Oh, here's yes, per Brett, get a picture. Cool. But at the same time, like,
00:09:59
Speaker
There aren't too many players for me that I would be star struck by if I'm being honest, you know, like, like thinking about who, like, you know, who I'd be excited. I'd be more excited to get a picture with Boone Jenner than Auston Matthews, only because of the Boone Jenner Chevrolet joke that we've had on Twitch for years. Aside from that.
00:10:22
Speaker
Who the fuck's even going to the all-star game at this point? Who the fuck is Griff Garrison? Who the fuck is Griff Garrison? God, let me hold on. Okay, so who the fuck's going? In that theory, obviously it would be like, okay, if someone were to be like, hey, you could get to meet David Posternock and Jeremy Swamin, that'd be fine. Oh, yeah.
00:10:44
Speaker
Like, oh, you get to meet Rasmus Dallin. Look, that would be cool, but in no way would it be cooler than Grisgรฅl running into him in a random bar in Sweden. Yes. You know? So I can't type that anyway.
Celebrity Encounters and Public Reactions
00:10:56
Speaker
I can't. It's just, it's not one of those things where they're like, Oh, shit. Look, I got this picture with Vincent Trocek. You know?
00:11:07
Speaker
Like that would make some people's day. That's not enough for me to drop hundreds of dollars, even with the exchange rate to travel to Toronto to have to pay out the ass for everything because they know rich fucking hockey players are in town. It's really funny that you mentioned that I filled in for a rental with someone. I was like a pretty high level skate and
00:11:29
Speaker
One of the guys was like, I went to like Finland or Sweden or whatever on vacation. And then he just casually sees Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby hanging out, like in Sweden. I'm like, that does check out. That does like add up. Those guys seem like the best of buds. I've never been the type to see somebody with notoriety.
00:11:54
Speaker
and be like, I got to I got to go get a picture with them or something like that. Like I've told that story before and about after a WWE house show in Bangor, Maine. And I was. Teenager, I think. Yeah, I was a teenager. I went with my aunt, who was also a really big wrestling fan, funny enough.
00:12:16
Speaker
And again, we're grabbing something to eat afterwards at a restaurant, and who do I see walk through the door? John Cena. Nice. And I've told it before, I'm sitting at a table directly facing the door, so I swear I see him walk through this door before essentially anybody else. And I get to watch the room collectively turn their heads
00:12:39
Speaker
Recognize who it is. And then people lose their fucking minds. People are breaking out their phones. You got to get down here. John Cena's here. And seeing that to me, I'm just like, I'm not going to bother him. Like my aunt got a picture with them that I took. But I didn't ask to get a picture with them myself because I just I don't want to bother you like this. This must be miserable. It's a part of your life, but it must be miserable. You say the point.
00:13:07
Speaker
where a buddy of mine from high school, he was one of my groomsmen at my wedding. He and I took a road trip from Maine all the way down to Pennsylvania for an independent wrestling show ran by a company called Chikara in 2014. After the show, we went to fucking Red Robin next to our hotel.
00:13:31
Speaker
and a group of wrestlers walk in, including currently on AWW television, Matt Menard, Daddy Magic. Nice. Angelo Parker at the time as well. And someone that Chicago fans would know or if you'd like to know a lot of wrestling stuff behind the scenes. It was R.D. Evans or he had a couple of different names, right? But you know, I see them walk in. They sit down in the booth next to us.
00:14:02
Speaker
And I'm just like, I can't say nothing. I can't do it. I can't bother them. They're just normal people. They're just normal people. But they noticed my friend's shirt and it's like, Oh, would you go to the show when, you know, we talked to them briefly, but it was one of those things where I could never bother somebody. Like it would have to be a situation where even if I was in Toronto and say, it's like, I don't fucking, you are just like, Hey, Casimir, Caskey Swo's here. My best friend. I'd be like, hi, how you doing?
00:14:29
Speaker
That's it. I'll get a picture with him. He's like, yeah, take a picture with me. I'd be like, ah,
NHL Video Game Mechanics
00:14:34
Speaker
I don't want to bother. I'm actually going to go see him play. He plays next week because the rocket are coming to town. And it's his first game back in Toronto. So I'm going to message him and ask him, hey, he's probably going to know the day of if he's going to play which day. They're playing Friday and Saturday. So I'm going to be like, hey, are you playing on Friday or Saturday? And they'll probably go and watch this game.
00:14:59
Speaker
He was my favorite goalie. It's weird to say growing up when the guys literally five years older than me. But when I started watching Marley stuff, when he first came over, I just like the style of play. And from there, we started talking a little bit, not too much. Right. You mentioned you.
00:15:19
Speaker
You mentioned that NHL tournament as well. You know, the reason why sin's not on the show, you know, we delayed a little bit to be like, can you make it happen type of thing? But he's been doing broadcasts for sports gamer that he's been running solo because they weren't able to get anybody else. I wasn't available to do them because
00:15:37
Speaker
I already had stuff scheduled like our our elite season ended and I'm like, okay good I'm not need to be on those dates. Let me schedule stuff Including today trying to get our fucking heat pump fixed. It still isn't Fixed so that's fun. Adulting has been the name of the game. So that's why he's not here. But you mentioned 24 and
00:15:59
Speaker
There's been a series of updates, like over the last week there was one and then the other day there was another one that I just find it interesting. On one hand, it's really nice to see them be so consistent with updating the game, especially compared to last year's game that was just set and forget for the whole year.
00:16:27
Speaker
But man, are they in a freaking unenviable position where no matter what the hell you do, like, it's just going to be so much negativity surrounding any decision.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think the reason why it's like that is like it's funny how I say ripple effect, considering that's a studio where a former lead developer of the game, Mr. Clement Kwong used it actually now works at so it's a ripple effect of NHL 14 and 15.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I think I said this before when I was talking to myself thinking about ideas of whether to make a video. And it was that the progression from NHL 07 to NHL 14, I don't want to say it wasn't a lot. It was a big jump. But the problem is, I don't know how they word this properly. The price of the...
00:17:31
Speaker
Say that it's terrible and it's the worst. The price of development is one thing, but the... How do I word this properly? They've hit a point where you can't change too much because it's hockey.
00:17:47
Speaker
And with NHL 24, they added a whole bunch of features like the pressure system, the fatigue, the pitting and all that. And so many different things and so many different things that are like they're on. Yeah, in theory, they're great. I got tongue tied in theory. They're great. They're great things, but they needed more work.
00:18:11
Speaker
And even to like now where like the pressure system that shit doesn't even fucking move. Like have you played a have you played a game with the.
00:18:22
Speaker
No, I haven't played the game since we've last played. Yes. It's all on stream, which was okay. That's that shit is a, that's a, is a snail's crawl. Like you hold that fucking in that zone that you are waiting fucking three minutes for that bar to fill up all the way. Three actual fucking minutes is insane, which is it's great, but now it's like you rarely ever get pressure.
00:18:47
Speaker
It's but it completely nerfs the idea of just being able to rag the puck in the zone and just build up meter without even making a single pass or a play or anything. So that's like a win on one section. And then you have like the new updated goalie patches where now it's.
00:19:03
Speaker
The main thing was everyone online picks a super tall goalie and gives it speed. And I always knew this was going to be an issue, even just in general, with how the game's programmed. If you grab a player that is 99, max height, max weight, and everything, they move the exact same speed, exact same pace, have the exact same reach as a goaltender who's super small.
00:19:27
Speaker
and has that but they don't have the reach and they don't really go out and try to make saves and stuff like that like they're kind of just standstill and there's also an issue about you know shots breaking the goalie tracking because they don't like the animations like how them extend outwards but
00:19:44
Speaker
it's still confined in a box. And now the way they've changed it up now is there's even more leeway and more animations added into the goalies for gloves, saves, blocker saves. And if you have certain attributes on, it increases the range as to which you'll be able to make those saves, which is like, goal attending gets a boost.
00:20:04
Speaker
and then offense gets a boost and then like bumping people in front of the net gets a boost and then you're stuck with defense not having anything whatsoever to improve it and I think uh daddy padre put it the best where it was uh ash and another trainer with metapods using harden and it's just them just just come on you know we're we're poofing weaving these up and we're gonna leave out defense entirely
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, nothing you're saying makes me overly interested in playing the game anytime soon.
00:20:40
Speaker
I will say AI logic is one of the reasons why I'm also mad because they said they fixed goaltending and it's like, oh yeah, now it's some more contextual. You won't have guys using like the reverse VH or the VH for goalies on the post, like covering the post with the one pad up, there's the one pad down and two pads down on the ice. You know, we'll have better examples of them like not doing that. And then I'm holding the puck in the corner and like he's using our VH.
00:21:09
Speaker
where you're only supposed to use our vh when the puck is within a stick length like uh the shit like the uh the not the shaft but the um the flat part of the stick like the the the paddle when that's like within that range and i'm like as a goalie that is wrong
00:21:26
Speaker
And that's one of the reasons why people just pass the puck right in front, and it's an easy backdoor goal. Because the logic there is wrong, and the AI logic is still wrong. And apparently, they're like, oh, we didn't fix it. But we added a system that has
Communication Challenges with NHL
00:21:41
Speaker
We added the pressure system, but we're not going to program the AI to work with the pressure system. So we're going to put that in there and it's going to be like that. I mean, there's probably an actual response that Mike probably has or whoever on the team actually has for that, but we'll never hear it because, you know, you have to go through hoops to get an interview with some people. That's all right. Just message them in the Discord. Or DM them.
00:22:08
Speaker
Oh no, DM them and then have them refer to the community manager and say, you have to sit up through them and then post something on Twitter being like, Hey, I want to talk to this guy, but I can't. And then afterwards getting a message saying, Hey, you want to talk about something? We can talk about it here. God bless your territory. God bless your heart. It's a fun time. Well, now that we're nice and depressed.
00:22:33
Speaker
I'm not depressed at all. I genuinely like the updates and how it's gone so far I just need to see how it is an online play not 1v1 like 66 get me on that and I'll see how it is Well, I wish you luck because I don't know if I can bring myself to mentally play that video, you know Just just one game before you stream just one. That's all I ask
00:23:02
Speaker
one crumb of chalice please one crumb oh god i'll title the stream hey chalice like the gym blossoms anyway um
00:23:16
Speaker
We didn't really have a set order for how we were gonna talk about things today, but you know what? Like I said, now that we're nice and depressed, I'll still use that as a segue.
Hockey Canada Scandal Discussion
00:23:25
Speaker
We're gonna get into some viewer questions and the fun stuff, but why not talk about the biggest reason as to why I haven't been all that interested in the NHL this week and continually, because we can't escape stories like this. It is the biggest story in hockey right now, and that's Hockey Canada, baby.
00:23:45
Speaker
Oh, I thought it was, uh, Cole Swervin, Irvin's birthday. That was the biggest story in hockey. Cause he loves to be birthday swerve. You have a new ownership group taking part of the Baltimore Orioles and it's fucking cow. Riptick recalibrated. Junior's a part of it. Congratulations. It's never, it's never gone wrong to have a club legend. Be a part of an ownership group, you know?
00:24:11
Speaker
Well, the boys are going to get paid. So, you know, power to you. There you go. Oggy Canada. Let's get that. Let's get that. So everybody knows the story at this point. We knew it was a handful. You know, eventually it was. OK, so this originally started. This story came up about a sexual assault from 2018.
00:24:37
Speaker
The news of this drops and people start immediately trying to deduce who it is on this team. Leads to a lot of players putting out statements, it wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't even there, yada, yada. Eventually it comes down over the last two weeks of, okay, hey, there's five of them, and they have been told to surrender to face charges of sexual assault, which they have all now been charged with. The first domino to fall,
00:25:06
Speaker
was Alex Formanton, who it was announced that he was taking leave of absence from his team in Switzerland and surrendered himself to police in London, Ontario. He was probably the least surprising name of the bunch to be alleged to be involved in this due to the fact that he was on the senators one day and then wasn't.
00:25:35
Speaker
in a very untraditional move for a player of his caliber. His last season on the Sens, which is rather relevant in this situation, he had 32 points in 79 games. That is not a player at 22 years old that you let go of.
00:26:00
Speaker
Or that it's, oh, we had a contract negotiation snag. He's going to Switzerland for two years. Like the writing was essentially on the wall. People were just waiting for it to be confirmed. And it was confirmed. And he was the first person to take a leave of absence from his team. Not long after that, the Calgary Flames announced that Dylan Dubay was taking a leave of absence due to a mental health issue.
00:26:30
Speaker
from the team. And of course it has now come out that he has been a part of this. The Flames put out a statement yesterday saying, we have now become aware of the charges of sexual assault. We take the matter very seriously because it matters now pending. We have no further comment. But they also noted that they didn't know. Yeah. And I do believe them.
00:27:00
Speaker
that they didn't know. I do think it's a bit naive in a way to have not questioned it with him of all players and the wording of the statement was the primary issue that didn't help them.
00:27:18
Speaker
You look back to Oliver Shillington, when he took time away, they used the term personal matters. It eventually came out that it was mental health issues. I just think the wording of mental health issues when, you know, it was Dylan Dubay stepping away, they didn't really set themselves up for success in that regard. I don't believe they were covering for him or making light of it. I think it was just a poor choice of words.
00:27:44
Speaker
Um, you know, I put out a tweet last night that I, that I eventually deleted because I don't stand by it after thinking about it a little bit more. Um, because, you know, Hey, you got to admit when you're wrong. Um, I, again, in terms of the word naive or whatever, I don't think they were necessarily dumb about it. I just, poor choice of words. And it happens. Dylan Dubey on the other hand, or his representation. Holy fuck.
00:28:15
Speaker
Because if the Calgary Flames are stating they didn't know, then you used the words mental health as a shield. The Calgary Flames, if they heard from you, man, I got some stuff going on mentally, I gotta take care of, and they said, hey, we're not gonna dig into that, we respect that, take the time that you need, they did the right thing, the Flames. But if the Calgary Flames are telling the truth, that means that
00:28:46
Speaker
Either A, they used that choice of words incorrectly based off of what was told, or more likely, Dylan Dubay, his representation, a combination of the two, used mental health issues as a shield when they knew exactly what was coming. And that is beyond fucking gross, to say the least. And certainly doesn't make you look
00:29:16
Speaker
Innocent? Even though it is innocent until proven guilty? That doesn't help your case too much. Yeah, I mean, there's always two things. There's the court, there's the actual fucking court, and there's the court public opinion.
00:29:33
Speaker
You could be non-convicted, things could happen in your favor, and the public finds you guilty no matter what. There's not much you can do about your reputation. We've had examples of people who've been dragged through stuff like this before, and finds out later on they didn't do anything. Or people say they didn't do anything, and it finds out they did do something. And it completely changes everyone's perspective. I think this whole thing is terrible.
00:30:02
Speaker
Arable just in just in general, you know how to be fucking rocket scientists say that's terrible but just the the fact that it went the way it did especially the way you know that the flames handled it I think the the best way to summarize it is I was listening to the what chaos podcast I you know DJ beat and be black or anything summarize of the best was saying that It could be for mental health reasons, but that's not the reason why you have to leave
00:30:32
Speaker
You have to leave because you're summoned to court. You sure you probably have a bunch of stuff going on mentally about, you know, like essentially your career possibly being done and stuff along the signs like that. We won't find out the end result about this until like maybe like two years down the line, like at the earliest two years from now is what they're saying. Yeah. I think it was Rick Westhead of TSN who mentioned that lawyers who specialize in criminal sexual assault cases have told me that a trial in this case is unlikely.
00:31:00
Speaker
before 2026 due to just a backlog of cases within the judicial system. And even then, I think Pete even said himself that it's a weird perspective here for the NHLPA because, you know, the players union is going to represent the players whatsoever. So it's like during this time,
00:31:25
Speaker
from now until the sentencing and they actually find out if there's like convicted of it or not. Are they going to be allowed to play in the league? Are they going to be able to like have their stuff come back? I know this was a contract year for Carter Hart and all that. And so that's another perspective on that as well too that I didn't really even think of. But just a lot of stuff that we're not going to
00:31:49
Speaker
Find anything out. And I've heard rumblings of other stuff on Reddit about maybe their person was involved and maybe not all five people or whatever. There's a bunch of dumb speculation. I'm like, just let people with professionals deal with it.
00:32:06
Speaker
We'll obviously see what we see on social media and everything and vote from actual reputable sources. But the more you paint the picture on other people without actually having a finite result, that gets you into like libel and slander. And you don't want to end up with a massive lawsuit in your favor.
00:32:27
Speaker
I'm sorry, against you, because you spouted out some information, I was completely wrong. And you tarnished someone's name when they were completely innocent or whatever it may be. I think overall, with the whole hockey Canada thing. I just there is the whole innocent before proven guilty type of thing. And like you said, the freaking libel and slander cases and all that. We have to see what's going to happen here.
00:32:58
Speaker
As of right now, we don't know. London Police Service will be holding a press conference on the 5th of February, which is this upcoming Monday. Coming Monday. Yes. We'll see. Right. I mean, in the meantime, there's just there's obviously going to be a lot of questions in regards to what's going to happen. You know, you look at how certain teams have handled things. Ottawa not signing Alex Forminton. Did they know?
00:33:28
Speaker
Or was that a preemptive measure to say, well, just in case this does come down, buddy, until you're in the clear, we're not signing you. Like what? What was that situation? How much did they know? We don't know. Right. And of course we don't because the NHL still has transparency issues on topics like this.
00:33:53
Speaker
You know, we, we don't know what the future happens to be for Dubay, Carter Hart, Cal foot, Michael McLeod. We don't know. There's a chance that every single one of them have played their last NHL game. And, uh, yeah, if they're found to have been involved in this, it should be, um, you never say never because there's examples in every sport of people.
00:34:17
Speaker
coming back, you know, being involved in incidents, very serious incidents that end up coming back. That's just how it works. It's happened in hockey as well. You know, right now, I don't believe he currently has a job, but a good example is Craig McTavish.
00:34:46
Speaker
who in 1984, 85, he missed the entire season because he was convicted of vehicular homicide, having killed a woman while driving under the influence. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know about that. He got a year in jail.
00:35:10
Speaker
was able to watch, this is an unsighted source, but while incarcerated, he watched most of the games that were televised. But he came back. He came back. I mean, never, never say never. I mean, he won three straight or two consecutive Stanley Cups in three, he won three Stanley Cups with the Oilers after that happened. Damn. Within the next like two years.
00:35:40
Speaker
That's a good fucking Oilers team. That's all I gotta say about that too. There you go. It's just like, you never, you never say never. And again, then it comes down to, well, did they serve their time? And so on and so forth. It always comes down to that too, of, you know, Michael Vick, he served his time. He served his debt to society. It's like, there are still some people that have the viewpoint of like, yeah, that's cool.
00:36:05
Speaker
It still doesn't feel right seeing you make millions and millions of dollars afterwards because you can run a football fastly. Yeah. Lastly word, you get the point. Fastly, yes. It works in this context. It's one of those things where, again, if these five are found guilty of this, you'd like to think their careers, at least in the NHL, are over.
Transparency and Scandal Progress
00:36:25
Speaker
Never say never. And that's, I think that's a big part of the problem as to why it feels incredibly gross. And, you know, I talked about Foreman to not signing with Ottawa. What about Philadelphia? They tried to shop Carter Hart a lot. Yeah. Why? Is it because you didn't want to pay him? Is it because you didn't think he was the guy?
00:36:49
Speaker
Or is it because of this? Because Ottawa clearly knew enough about Formington to not want to commit to him long-term. So did you know too, that he very well could have been named in this? And is that why you were trying to move him? It's just, again, it's a lack of transparency. I think the weird thing though is during like the talks of, I always forementions like contract,
00:37:15
Speaker
I believe it was with Ottawa, there was no mention of the hearing at all, like about the case that happened beforehand. And they're like, well, they can't come to terms on this contract. And then this news comes out in 2022. And then like the talk about with Alex for mentioned just silence after. Like, oh, isn't it go play in Switzerland? Everyone's kind of like, oh, okay.
00:37:38
Speaker
And then more news came out, it was five players. And then people on Twitter are trying to like, cross examine like, well, he played on like, he was in like the national development team program, he played in the AJ, this guy was over here, over there. And I'm like, just just wait till the news comes out. Like, you know, you actually know, now we know more information. I don't know, obviously, the full extent of who was there and everything. We know what what happened, allegedly. But
00:38:09
Speaker
Just a lot. And so to lighten up the mood on this a little bit, my, my favorite reply to this, I'm not trying to be morbid at all, is on the official London police service, Ontario, Twitter, you know, announcing that the media conference gave me on Monday, February 5th. And one of the replies is Rick was, is someone replies saying Rick Westhead on February 5th. It's a picture of like Miami Heat, LeBron leading over, like gonna play. God.
00:38:40
Speaker
And I mentioned the lack of transparency and obviously it's something that's like, okay, it's a pending case. But again, there are ways to handle situations like this to stop people from, you know, dangerously speculating. We saw an example earlier this year of people dangerously speculating Corey Perry in Chicago. Oh my God.
00:39:06
Speaker
There is a way, should there be a pending case or a way to protect people, to vocalize and make clear what happened and what didn't happen, to try and stop as much speculation as you can. Because at the end of the day, odds are, because we still don't fucking know for sure, that nothing happened with Corey Perry and uh...
00:39:31
Speaker
And now it's and then when he signed with Edmonton, everyone's like watch out for your mom, McDavid over every corner. I'm like, this is this. I said before hockey, I want to say hockey bros, but like not the hockey community, the hockey community hockey bros, they they get one joke.
00:39:51
Speaker
And they just run it right through as much as they can like there was. A lot of talk recently about.
00:40:01
Speaker
like some like influencers in the hockey community who like you know they have the shirts here like hitting clap bombs wheeling moms or whatever like clapping bombs wheeling moms and people are like this is kind of disgusting kind of perpetuates whatever culture and that gets into a whole giant utter debate that I definitely don't want to have because I'm not as educated and all that shit is as the other people are but
00:40:25
Speaker
I mean, it kind of puts a bad taste in me considering stuff that's going on, not just this situation, hockey Canada, but just generally hockey Canada it is right now. And the state of hockey in Canada, North America, and just like some stuff being perpetuated. Oh, that was weird. I'm perpetuated in the media and everything. So, no bueno. There's just been so much now in the past couple of years. The Kyle Beach stuff, really like opening the floodgates.
00:40:55
Speaker
And it just hasn't stopped. You know, I think the thing that people don't realize is that stuff like this has always happened. That's the part of it. That's the part people don't want to admit that this stuff has happened before. And people are now feeling more comfortable to come out with these stories and, you know, speak their truth.
00:41:18
Speaker
I think one thing that had a lot of this stuff coming out was the pandemic. A lot of people had a lot of time to reassess themselves, figure out what's
00:41:31
Speaker
what's going on with themselves and to find peace. I mean, when you're stuck, you can find your home for months on end for some people. Sometimes you really evaluate what's going on in your life and sometimes you can find tranquility in that. I mean, I know I did for myself. I'm not going to speak for other people, but a lot of movements and a lot of stuff like that happened during the pandemic and afterwards. And I think that was, I want to say it's something that we needed.
00:42:01
Speaker
But I feel like it brought a lot more unity, a lot of people to be more open with certain things. Hence why more stores are coming out, not just from like hockey world, but other sports in general, which is how people are being treated and stuff happening in the past too. I think that's a part of the frustration that a lot of people have at the NHL right now is
00:42:26
Speaker
Like on one hand, you can view a story like the Hockey Canada story as a lack of progress. On the other hand, it is progress because in the past, this just would have been a situation that we never would have heard about. Yeah. But the fact that in the last six years. You know, player meets a woman at a bar, they can centrally go back somewhere and hook up and then he feels confident enough to be like, fellas, get in on this. And they
00:42:57
Speaker
sexually assault this person, allegedly. It just kind of offsets, like I said, other progress that you feel like is being made. A good example, I think, is the NHL Player Assistance Program, where we've had a lot of stories now in the past couple years of players who have elected to enroll themselves in this program, the most recent being Patrick Leine.
00:43:24
Speaker
You know, I think in the past, like, number one, something like this wasn't available. And secondly, I think a lot of people would have been afraid to get involved in something like this because you're going to be seen as weak and stuff like that. And it doesn't really happen anymore. You know, you hope now that Patrick Elina is going to be able to get him, you know, self back to where he recognized that he wasn't.
00:43:51
Speaker
You know, obviously people have speculated, you know, Oh, the guy lost his dad in the last couple of years, stuff like that. Like, you know, I never released some comments on it. We don't know for sure. Um, and then of course the fucking hockey bros. Yeah. I'd be depressed too. If I had to play for the blue jackets, they're fucking terrible. It's like, yeah.
00:44:11
Speaker
There were two entirely different conversations, obviously, between the freaking assistance program and how bad the blue jackets are, which they are terrible, by the way, fucking up David Iero's sex development. But anyway, you were going to say?
00:44:23
Speaker
And Kirby Reichel also chimed me in a little bit too with how things are over there because he was buried. Kirby Reichel was buried in development. I want to say development, how he's an individual, not a fucking video game, Jesus Christ. But he was plagued with being stuck in the minors, not really having a shot. A guy who could have been a good third line player playing fourth line minutes. I could have been a contender.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't for a bum establishment. The Blue Jackets organization hadn't changed. You guys won the bidding war for Johnny Goudreau, and he's got like, what, 30 points? Yeah. So I think Yarmul's going to go.
00:45:14
Speaker
I mentioned like the positives and the negatives offsetting themselves, right? It's like, get the negatives of the hockey Canada story. The positives of players feel uncomfortable enough to be like, yeah, I need help in the player assistance program succeeding.
NHL vs PWHL Public Perception
00:45:27
Speaker
You know, you have someone like Connor Ingram, who's a success story so far from that program, who not all that long ago was entered and then should have been an All-Star this year for the Arizona Coyotes. You get like the positives on ice of
00:45:43
Speaker
The Oilers had a perfect record in January, but barely gained ground on the Canucks, because the Canucks have been insane, and, like, they still have a lead on a team that just won fucking 16 games in a row, and that's nuts. And the Canucks are doing great, and just extended Patrick Alvin, which is cool. Like, you get, like, the cool on-ice stories, but then you also get the shit on-ice and off-ice stories. Like, Brendan Gallagher's suspension. Five games for the most blatant elbow you'll ever fucking see.
00:46:14
Speaker
Like a suspension where you have an amazing opportunity to say, what the fuck are you doing? 25 games. And you know, he's going to appeal it. So maybe it drops to 12, but 12 is still a hell of a lot more befitting of the crime than five. Nobody doesn't have a previous history. And then you get into all that shit and it's just, it's exhausting. It's depressing and it sucks. And hockey's just not as fun as it was. And it's funny in a way, I was talking to my wife the other day,
00:46:44
Speaker
And we had the conversation about how much less I'm putting hockey just randomly on TV. Like if we're sitting on the couch, you know, finish eating dinner or whatever, we're sitting on the couch, she's reading, what am I popping onto the TV? It used to be hockey all the time. You know, we started dating at the beginning of 2020.
00:47:13
Speaker
And then we were together when the bubble started for hockey. And we had games all day long. And that first day, I watched hockey from noon to midnight. And if not noon to 1 AM, and never changed the channel. Because we were all just so excited to have hockey back.
Declining NHL Interest and Controversies
00:47:35
Speaker
And nowadays, I barely, like I have the Hulu TV package that gives to me ESPN plus and like Disney and all that shit. So I get access to every out of market, every non Bruins on Nessen game. And so infrequently now am I just being like, oh, sharks and kings, put that on like, just find another stuff to watch because it's like,
00:48:04
Speaker
They're, they're destroying my enjoyment of this league, essentially. Like I'm still enjoying watching the PWHL. There is still that anxiousness about that league of like, you got to land the next steps. Like there's a lot of excitement about the success of this, the successes of this first season, but there's still a lot of nervousness in there, but yeah, it's just been this podcast.
00:48:35
Speaker
has, and I just came to this realization, you know, the last show of 2023, we talked about like the invasion of all the bullshit from outside the sports world, invading the sport and ruining it, the pride debates and all that fucking nonsense where people can't just let people be fucking people. This podcast has served as a time capsule for my declining interest in the NHL.
00:49:06
Speaker
I started this show in 2020, obviously Dij was here first, and then Endo and then we brought on Sin. And I feel like my interest there, I talked about it, right? How often I was watching hockey, my interest was at a nearly a lifetime high. And now over the last couple of years, I feel like people have just been watching the chart trend downwards in terms of my interest in the NHL as a league.
00:49:32
Speaker
It's an interesting thing to think about. It does correlate with what I said before is the openness and people being willing to talk about the uncomfortable shit. I think the fact that there's this much uncomfortable shit that we know about so far is probably one of the reasons why you're
00:49:55
Speaker
care. I want to say care, your your attention span for watching live, not watching hockey on TV is like drop down a bunch.
00:50:04
Speaker
I mean, I'll be honest with you. I barely watch fucking leave highlights because it's the same shit every day. Um, but I will watch like an occasional like clips here and there on Twitter, social media. I've been doing a lot more of that. Just watching it on Twitter or X as a, as I call it now, everyone calls the phone. Sorry for that stupid. Um,
00:50:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's just generally the way it's been, you know? Yeah, the thing that you loved has a dark past to it. And I kind of like, I don't want to don't really want to associate with that. That's why I like Marley's. That's where I like that's why I like a show hockey, because it's very rare you see bullshit like this. And anytime there is bullshit, like, something, not not not like the stuff that we've seen with the sexual assault and all like that, but like,
00:50:56
Speaker
They handle their shit fairly fucking well. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't heard a lot of major controversy out of the AHL, except for like something about the commissioner, like getting people don't want a commissioner there and he doesn't want to be there anymore, whatever the fuck or something like that. I don't know. I'm just rambling on right now, but yeah. The fact that you can know, it's not obviously a direct one to one, but the fact that the NHL reminds me more of the WWE,
00:51:23
Speaker
than I'd prefer it to, especially with the big story going on in that company. But don't worry, they had an amazing week. Triple H said at the press conference, an amazing week. It's just, I just want to be able to enjoy the cool thing. And shitty people within the cool thing are ruining the cool thing. Yeah, some people are able to turn that off and ignore that. Some people can't. There's nothing wrong with that either. Well, no, because if you can't turn it off, you're a liberal snowflake cuck.
00:51:52
Speaker
I thought they stopped watching once they put, once they wanted to make the blue line black and had the people in the kneeling in the front and the, in the center rice and all that stuff. I thought they stopped tuning in there. Kind of like, um, the, uh, what is it? The, what was it? Kind of like, uh, you know, when people got mad during the NFL, just Kaepernick kneeled and they're like, yeah, I'm not going to watch the game. And now Taylor Swift has a combined 22 seconds of airtime in the last game. You know, like she's ruining the game. It's like, she's had 22 seconds of, of actual.
00:52:22
Speaker
air time. She has less air time than the kicker does when he's on special teams. Yeah, I hope the chief's in the Super Bowl now, by the way, just to piss those people off. Get the script called out. Yeah, I won another Super Bowl. Oh, boy.
00:52:47
Speaker
Um, no, it's, it's, it's not funny, but you know, you were talking about the hockey Canada thing in regards to, you know, we've seen it, you know, kind of destroyed lives when it turns out like, Oh shit. Hey, they didn't actually do this. Like I was thinking of that, uh, Bill's putting Matt Arisa, I think it is.
00:53:03
Speaker
where it's like, yep, he lost his job with the bills and then it came out. Oh, shit, didn't do it at all. And that that's just a whole other aspect to this whole type of story is the idea of the balance between you want to, you know, take it seriously, but you also don't want to ruin someone's life in case it turns out like, oh, shit, they didn't actually. It's just a fucking mess. Yeah, it's just a mess at the same time.
00:53:29
Speaker
It comes down to, is it believable that you could have done this? And the answer is yes. And that's, that's the real shitty part of it, right? Is whenever I saw a lot of Flyers fans, you know, obviously so disappointed in the idea that Carter Hart could be named in this, but you know, it's one of those things where it's like,
00:53:54
Speaker
I don't think you're going to. Hey, I might be wrong. This would be devastating. But you think about someone like Patrice Bergeron. And that's just a player where you're just like in this again, please don't God, don't let this age like milk. That's one of those guys where it's just like you're not going to find him named in a situation like this. But yeah, hate to say it. Milan Lucic. There were a lot of stories about him as a player in juniors.
00:54:22
Speaker
of just being a douche. And so a lot of people, when, what happened at the end of last year, when that happens, they're just like, can anybody really be surprised? Look at this, this, this, and this, you know? So it's just, it gets tough to root for people because you're just like, oh good, I might be rooting for a terrible person. It's all a fucking mess. It takes away from the ability to be like, hey, Auston Matthews, fastest to 40 goals in the last 25 years. It's like,
00:54:53
Speaker
I don't know, the people that can just be like, that's what I'm focusing on and not the other shit, I give you props, I give you credit.
00:55:01
Speaker
And then, hey, if the hockey Canada stuff does bother you, don't worry. There will be a coincidentally perfectly timed example that Utah is looking for an expansion franchise.
NHL Expansion Rumors
00:55:11
Speaker
Baby, what a time for that news to drop. Hey, also, apparently, according to Kevin Weeks, the arena in Georgia is apparently going to happen.
00:55:24
Speaker
Yeah, like they're they're starting the the groundwork for that shush shush. Um, she god damn it. The Catholic trip me up. But yeah, they're apparently gonna be working on a working on a full size arena for hockey again, which is great. I mean, wouldn't you want to have like good attendance for the Atlantic gladiators first? They're still a team, right?
00:55:50
Speaker
Okay, good, good, yeah. I guess the tennis numbers there are good. Also, speaking of teams, the OHL's Mississauga Steelheads have decided that they're going...
00:56:05
Speaker
They're moving down the street. They're moving to where the Brampton Beasts, also the Brampton Battalion, now the North Bay Battalion, used to play over at, I believe it is Capital One Arena. They changed it so many times. It used to be CAA, CAA Center. CAA Center. I believe it is still CAA Center.
00:56:28
Speaker
cool. And Brampton, because you know, it's worked out for them twice, you know, they, I mean, the Brampton bees closing down was due to the pandemic. So that's, that's, that's something else viewership viewership as well. But also the pandemic, a lot of teams fold in the NHL because of the pandemic, you know,
00:56:50
Speaker
The bison are going to be coming to the ECHL as well. We didn't talk about that last time. That's a big thing as well too. Their secondary logo looks absolutely fucking sick with the script font. Beautiful. The regular logo with the bison on there looks derpy as all hell. I'm not sure what it is, but just the perspective of it. It looks like clip art to me. I don't know. But yeah, there's been some good developments.
00:57:17
Speaker
And I'm happy to see hockey coming back to Brampton. Maybe, who knows, I'll get season tickets there as well. Bucket, why not, right? There you go. So you mentioned the Atlanta thing. We actually had a question from Red's Rebels. We were going to end the show with a bunch of questions, and we still are. Why do people hate the idea of Atlanta getting another franchise but love the idea of places like Houston, who haven't held a team more than 20 years? That's not true.
00:57:42
Speaker
the Rockets and the Astros, um, or Quebec city. Um, so I don't know if people do like the idea of Atlanta getting another team. This would be their third attempt after the Atlanta flames and the Thrashers. Um, Wasn't the flames due to like a weird contract thing and then the
00:58:06
Speaker
the Thrashers was because they sucked. And because they literally drafted and built up out of diversity that have representation on their team, which, you know, back then wouldn't have gotten blowback. But now you would get blowback for that, which is absolutely hilarious, considering how much a decade changes people's opinions. So for the Atlanta Flames, the team story as old as time the team was playing poorly.
00:58:38
Speaker
So, you know, they they weren't doing too well attendance wise. It's funny to say they weren't doing too well attendance wise. Like they were still averaging like 10,000 people a game, which isn't too bad. But they were playing at the Omni, which was Atlanta's big arena at the time. And it was out of date, essentially.
00:59:06
Speaker
It wasn't a state of the art arena with luxury boxes and stuff like that to really generate those extra profits. So the team's not playing well. They're in an out of date arena. They were struggling to sign a television contract. And there was a real estate crunch in the 70s.
00:59:31
Speaker
So basically, over the course of, and I think the rumored number, like over the course of eight years, their owner lost $10 million or something like that on the team. You know, the typical combination of stuff, and it's funny, not funny, but ironic, that's what screwed the Thrashers. Not that they were in a necessarily bad stadium, but
00:59:59
Speaker
they had mixed attendance because the team was often completely shit. And initially they had a really competent ownership group led by Ted Turner, a founder of CNN, you know, incredibly rich man, wrestling fans and all from founding WCW, stuff like that. The problem is,
01:00:25
Speaker
Ted Turner stepped down in 2004 2003. And they ended up selling the team to a group known as Atlanta spirits. And the spirit.
01:00:43
Speaker
group was fucked from day one, literally after almost immediately after buying the team, they almost sold the team because they had a bunch of lawsuits directed towards the group. And man, they were cursed. It was like a week, week and a half, maybe after they bought the team, the Atlanta spirit group that the Danny Heatley, Dan Snyder crash. Oh,
01:01:13
Speaker
So you're talking about a tragedy striking the team. Eventually, you need to ship out Danny Heatley because it's just too fucking awkward. So like, yes, you still have Kovalchuk, but one of your stars you're having to move on from.
01:01:33
Speaker
You know, post lockout, even muffin can't believe it. Post lockout, you know, they had like one good season where they made the playoffs winning their division, but they got swept in the first round. Right. They end up again, struggling financially. You end up with the Ilya Kovalchuk trade and.
01:01:56
Speaker
It just came down to financial losses, the ownership being trash. I mean, the Atlanta spirit also on the Atlanta Hawks and that team was struggling at the time too. Um, you know, if they head back to Atlanta, they're going to solve the issue that the Atlanta flames had because they are going to be in a brand new state of the art arena.
01:02:22
Speaker
The biggest thing for them will be locking down ownership that is stable and consistent because on ice they will presumably be okay. Now obviously we don't know for sure if it would be a relocation or an expansion. It feels like it would more than likely probably want to be expansion because the NHL
01:02:46
Speaker
I think would love nothing more than to get the $600, $700 million entry fee that we saw Seattle pay. And if anything, they might be able for Atlanta to push that to a billion dollar entry fee. I don't think that's the realm of possibility. It's pure speculation, but you think about the success that the Golden Knights and the Kraken have had, you would think the NHL would be able to dictate we can command more money from you. And you look at how the NHL has changed their expansion rules.
01:03:16
Speaker
where the original Thrashers, the Preds, the Wild, granted the Wild made the playoffs within a couple of years, went to the conference final. But for the most part, those expansion teams in the 90s, Sharks, the Sens, they fucking sucked. The expansion rules at the time were so heavily favored towards keeping good players on the teams they were already on.
01:03:43
Speaker
And you often had two teams entering the league at the same time, meaning you thinned out that player pool even more, and those teams fucking sucked. They didn't even have a chance to be the Kraken, let alone what the Golden Knights were able to do, because GMs were fucking stupid. But that expansion draft, I mean, that's famous at this point. That's an understatement. That's an understatement completely.
01:04:07
Speaker
I don't know if fans are excited over the idea of Atlanta getting a third shot at it. They should be because for the benefit and health of the league, having a team in an absolutely gigantic market like Atlanta and succeeding and thriving is only good for the NHL. That's just a fact.
01:04:28
Speaker
You know, should Houston have a team? Probably. Given the size of that market, it probably should. Professional sports have succeeded there with the Rockets, with the Astros. You'd like to think hockey can work too, given that it's worked in Dallas. You know, Hartford, unless they were to get a new arena, they probably don't have a hope in hell. And let's be honest, Hartford,
01:04:52
Speaker
It would be really cool to see the looks in the jerseys come back if they were even allowed to do it because the hurricanes might say no, because they've made that a huge part of their branding is having the hurricanes throwback or the whalers throwback stuff for the hurricanes.
01:05:08
Speaker
But I think the Whalers would struggle again in terms of being little brother to not only the Bruins, but New York. I mean, they would be pinned right in between the Bruins, Rangers and Islanders again in terms of competing. And maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn't.
01:05:28
Speaker
Quebec City, who the fuck knows? I mean, they built the fucking Centa de Videotron a decade ago to try and get an NHL team back, and it still hasn't happened. We've talked about that a ton. There are cities that deserve teams that should have teams. I don't think, though, to answer Red's question about why do people hate the idea of Atlanta getting another franchise, I don't think they do.
Potential NHL Team Locations
01:05:54
Speaker
I think it just might be more passionate about the idea of other cities either getting their first shot at it like Houston or a city like QC getting another chance, which people have waited for for a long time. Yeah. I'm just looking up something right now. Uh, look at the average attendance for Atlanta gladiators games last year. It was 4,696. Uh, that was around April 3rd, 2023.
01:06:22
Speaker
That is, that's more than Arizona's getting right now, but their capacity for their arena, gas south arena is 13,000. So hockey DB has, and I'm not sure how accurate it is. Again, I can only go off a hockey DB, but they have ECHL attendance for this season.
01:06:47
Speaker
Um, they haven't landed listed on average at 3,928 fans per game, which is middle of the table. Um, the highest end, the only team averaging over 8,000 fans a game right now in the ECHL is the Jacksonville Iceman ice men. I call him the Iceman, the lowest, uh, the Iowa heartlanders at just 2000 people a game, but they are also.
01:07:14
Speaker
They're also the ECHL's most recent addition and obviously Iowa, not the most traditional hockey market in the world. You know, you've had AHL teams and Iowa, you still do with the Iowa Wild. There are some teams that do better than others is the best way to put it.
01:07:34
Speaker
Shout out to the Savannah ghost pirates, though. They are top six in terms of attendance right now, and that's actually unfair. Yeah, no, they're the most recent, aren't they? Who came first? Yes, they're the most recent, but regardless, you have Savannah, a Georgian team.
01:07:51
Speaker
You know, you got a couple of teams in Georgia at this point and you start to think, well, if Savannah can pack in almost 7,000 fans a game, you have the Atlanta gladiators and almost 4,000 a game. And then if you're built right in downtown Atlanta, that's easy to get in and out of the arena. Like you can see how it would succeed, but it would be, like I said, contingent upon ownership, actually having this shit together and the team not being complete dog shit year in and year out.
01:08:18
Speaker
Because that's what happens. No matter where the hell, with the rare exceptions, no matter where the hell a team is, if they are shit, people don't show up.
01:08:31
Speaker
That's just how it goes. Again, rare exceptions. You know, like Montreal has had some rough years. That building's always great. Shout out to that. That fan base is fucking amazing, though. You know, Patrick was what second game back was against the Habs in Montreal. And that fan base treated him like the royalty that he is to that fan base. I mean, like I said, there are rare exceptions, but for the most part,
01:08:58
Speaker
If your team is complete dog shit year in and year out, yeah, attendance is gonna slip and the money's gonna drop. That's how it works. That's what it is. So.
01:09:08
Speaker
Got to a couple other questions here unless you have anything else to add. I'm just looking at the attendance for like AHL and everything and looking at the rate that the is the first thing I thought of when we mentioned like attendance and everything was comparing what they're making with the PWHL and their attendance versus what they're getting paid in the A and the ECHL and all that. And it kind of adds up a little bit when you look at it that way.
01:09:33
Speaker
You know, guys in the year making like 30 to 30 to 40 a year. At most, usually because of the way their contracts work, they're really fucking weird. And in the end, there's no there's no salary cap so they can get paid whatever the fuck we want. So, yeah, it's about fair for what they're asking, what they're bringing in for attendance, but fair. A question from young burrito. If you had to live inside one video game, what video game would it be?
Humorous Video Game and TikTok Discussions
01:10:04
Speaker
Fortnite. Fortnite. What video game would provide me the most interesting life with the least amount of danger? Hmm. Some people might be like Spider-Man. It's like Peter almost gets killed on a game by game basis, you know? Yeah. Pretty cool, though. It's a tough one.
01:10:36
Speaker
I don't have a good answer for this, do I? Fortnite's an interesting one. I mean, think about the dangers of Minecraft. Like, is there a... How about the most recent Peppa Pig video game? So I can fly to Cameroon for pennies on the dollar, because money doesn't exist. They're gonna say you could see the queen. Because the queen, yeah, the queen's in the fucking game.
01:11:13
Speaker
I watched the Game Grumps play through. It's funny because if you haven't seen it, people don't watch Game Grumps and you know, don't like comedy. So what they did is they played the Peppa Pig game that came out and there's a section where Peppa, you basically visit like doing a world tour kind of thing, do a little whatever tours and visit different places and learn about different things. It's the children. They go to England and they meet the Queen.
01:11:32
Speaker
I added a rest in peace to the Queen!
01:11:43
Speaker
And we're supposed to be like a whole cut scene where like, you know, they say bye and everything, but they skip the cut scene and they're just with the queen and they just hard cuts the black. And as the picture of the queen and like splashing it, it poses rest in peace, her majesty, the queen. Holy shit. Oh, it's so good.
01:12:08
Speaker
Hmm. From lights fly. What bread slash other bakery item would make the best shoe? Um, like a giant French bread. But the big fucking one and then you make like clogs out of it after it hardens like a, like a crouton. Hmm. There you go. Like I wanted to say like a muffin because, you know, it'd be like, it'd be like a Dr. Scholz, you know?
01:12:37
Speaker
Um, but it would break apart too easily. So you do need a bread that is not going to break under the wear and tear. Oh, the long bread. Yeah. I'm going to go on the East side. Mario's home loaf. Um, slap those on the dogs and call it a day.
01:13:00
Speaker
with dogs and cheese. I was telling my wife about how that's made such a comeback. And I don't know why. The dogs are barking. Jesus, dude. So my. My niece, who is. Oh, God, how old is she now? Eleven. My parents came up to visit and she tagged along. So did my nephew and
01:13:30
Speaker
They walked Emmy while my wife and I stayed and made dinner. And my niece walks in, takes off her shoes and goes, man, my dog's a barket. What is TikTok doing to our children? Oh, man, I'm telling you, the real bioweapon was TikTok, OK?
01:13:55
Speaker
All the tin foil hatters talking about how like Kobe was a bioweapon and all that shit. No, it was TikTok, buddy. TikTok is what ruined a whole bunch of people. Your wife's a teacher. I've seen so many TikToks and posts over the past couple of days where guys like
01:14:13
Speaker
You know, I want to be a teacher, like, you know, better the kids and everything, but they don't read at grade level. I got kids in like seventh grade who can't read at grade level. I'm like when I was like two years old, I was reading like fucking books, not like fucking Horton Hears a Who, but like literal, like the born identity, reading shit like that, like not even joking. Fucking. I don't know, man. Maybe that's the reason why I'm fucking weird. But like.
01:14:42
Speaker
what is what what you know i think it is it's the parents y'all y'all never beat your kids enough to have them read a book god damn it it shows trying to be your fucking son daughter's best friend fuck you you're an adult you're their parents it's supposed to fucking teach them not trying to be like oh my god Billy oh you're okay oh here's a cookie uh no cries okay nah fucking
01:15:11
Speaker
Throw a book at them. Spit on them. Know your place. Trash. Holy shit. This is 26 years of trauma just coming right out. No. Fucking tablet, kids. Don't even know how to read. Yeah. Y'all cowards don't even smoke crack. What the fuck is wrong with you?
01:15:38
Speaker
Oh man. Being a teacher is a scary thing right about now. Yeah. I've thought about it in the past. And then I've heard so many horror stories lately where I'm just like, I don't know. Not even that. It's like you have to learn these kids' names and every kid's now has got a fucking name that's like something with like an ahh at the end of it. Ahh? Like Jacob? Savannah? I can talk shit. My name is endurance.
01:16:07
Speaker
with a fucking E-N-D-O-R-A-N-C-E. I can't make fun of anyone's fucking name I want, okay? I've lived, I've spoken my truth. This is, I don't know why I'm going so hard right now, but I've spoken my truth for 25 and a half years. I called myself Endo, because my fucking college professor was like, hey, Ender, and there's a long ass name, what should I call you? I'm like, call me whatever you want, how about Endo? I'm like, I hate it. And now that's what I use for everything. But like, man,
01:16:38
Speaker
People's names, man. Am I wrong with like, everyone's got a fucking Anna at the end of their name, like Josiah, like what is going on? My. Favorite. Subreddit. Is R slash tragedy.
Modern Parenting and Unique Names
01:17:02
Speaker
Spelled T R A G E D E I G H.
01:17:08
Speaker
And it's a forum where people share the crazy names that people have named their kids. Oh my god. Can I tell you one name? This is someone that I knew. I was really close friends with her. Her name was spelled Mar-Caelan. M-A-R-C-A-I-L-Y-N.
01:17:38
Speaker
It's supposed to be Marcellin, but I called her Cale for like the good fucking three, four years. I'm like, fuck it, whatever, it's fine. You know, she had like fucking like eight brothers? Eight brothers, dude.
01:17:51
Speaker
I didn't even ask what their fucking names were, because I know if your fucking name and your daughter, Mar-Caelan, Marcelin, whatever, like Marjorin, like, it's gotta be something fucked. And like, the mom was like a librarian. So you know that bitch was owning a persusaurus, so whatever the fuck, I can't fucking pronounce it! God damn it!
01:18:11
Speaker
The cinnamon book. The cinnamon book. That's what it is. The cinnamon book. We have an episode title. The cinnamon book. It's like that one person, there was a story where someone, they tried the right, her name is Charity, but they wrote Chastity instead. And it's like, what is in a name? Like, does a name define
01:18:39
Speaker
Your actions, or whatever you are. And I'm like, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Like, my name isn't in the English tongue. My mom's like, oh, it's French. I'm like, that's not in the French language! You made up a word! Let it all out, buddy.
01:18:59
Speaker
Or if I go by my middle name, Baron, B-A-R-O-N, did I tell you about this? They misspelled my middle name on my, um, not version again. They misspelled my middle name on my, I believe it's my health card or my health card. It's B-A-R-R-E-N as in like empty.
01:19:20
Speaker
So, like, I got nothing, dude. I got no real first name, my middle name is misspelt wrong, and my last name is McLennan. When's the last time you see the black Scott? You've been working on the stand-up routine, eh? Dude, this is my life. Oh, God. It's great.
01:19:48
Speaker
Great question, by the way. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Just cut this part out. Just post it on Twitter. Fuck it. Oh, yeah. God. From ghost of Gary Batman. What was one public moment of embarrassment that you witnessed someone else have that was so bad you couldn't help but feel awful for the person? Oh, I have one.
01:20:18
Speaker
So senior year of high school, final days before graduating, I think it was the day before we graduated high school. We're driving around town, like we were on break for lunch for like an hour or something like that. In between like, okay, here's the assembly for this and then you're gonna do this and practice this and blah, blah, blah. So we're just driving around town trying to figure out where the hell we're gonna go for lunch. And we get stopped for construction, some road work.
01:20:45
Speaker
there was a dude who was like pulling on a rope and I don't know why or what he was pulling on but whatever he was pulling on gave way so he does the you know if you're doing a tug of war and you let go and the person just falls on their ass that type of that fall um and the four guys that are next to him
01:21:09
Speaker
turn, point, and go, oh! And just start laughing. And the poor guy sits up onto his ass and just puts his head in his hands. Oh my god! Well, his fucking coworkers are laughing at him. Oh, I got two.
01:21:32
Speaker
I got one that was during my, um, my high school graduation. Um, then the other ones, uh, Paulina's gonna hate me for talking about this one, but it's really funny. Uh, which one do you want to hear first? The Paulina one you want to hear the high school, but which one for the high school one? Okay. So I school, I graduate. Uh, one of my friends is like super smart, super educated, like honor roll. She was like the, she had like a 98 fucking.
01:22:00
Speaker
Overall like grade for graduating. That's fucking insane. Like she had like a she's really fucking smart. So she goes up to Get her diploma And she she gets a diploma shakes shakes the principal's hand everyone claps right everyone's clapping and then she dabs and the crowd goes oh
01:22:31
Speaker
And it was funny because before that, I was hanging out at her house with her parents, I think, because they're going to go to semi-formal. And I think because I took an extra year to get through high school and get extra credits and all that. I was like, you know what? I don't want to go, whatever. I'll just chill out their place and fucking eat chips and do whatever. Wow. And so this is like three days. What?
01:22:55
Speaker
It wasn't eat, hot, chip, and lie. Eat, hot, chip, and lie. So this is like, because our graduation was like in like November for some reason because they wanted to do it that way. So like if people had to get extra credits in the summer, they could take summer school and end up graduating so you don't like fall behind kind of thing, which is pretty sweet. I forgot to hand in my community service hours. You have to do 40. I handed in 1,000.
01:23:22
Speaker
Because I did a lot of work for New York. Try hard. What? Try hard. I called her a try hard when she dabbed. No, you were the try hard. 1,000 hours, man? Yeah. Well, I was supposed to get a bursary for it for college. But that fucking went up in flames because I didn't finish college, as you can tell. I'm here in the fucking basement apartment.
01:23:53
Speaker
I just love ripping on myself, it's fun. I miss doing that. So, I was chilling at their place, and our principal is black. And I was joking with her dad, and I was like, so like, when I go and pancake Miss Edwards, do I hit her with like the black slide, or like what? Dapper up like Cody Rhodes. Yeah, big dog.
01:24:23
Speaker
And he loses his shit completely. He starts, like, cry laughing, and we're just laughing up like crazy.
The Salad Incident and McDonald's Choices
01:24:30
Speaker
Okay, but the second embarrassing one is, I think it was right before the pandemic happened. We were just grabbing food, and we grab a salad from McDonald's, because that's the healthiest thing you grab. And we bring it home so they can actually have the salad. What? Didn't they find out that there were other menu items that were actually healthier than the salad?
01:24:51
Speaker
Oh yeah, we weren't talking about that, though. OK, fair enough. But you know what it is? It was the salad dressing that gets it up that high. Because that shit was like the written. I'm not sure what it was over there, but here we had Rene's. But I know the American one was like loaded with like a whole bunch of sodium and all that on there. USA, USA. GMOs, GMOs. High fructose, high fructose.
01:25:20
Speaker
High blood sugar. Oh, I can't get off. I'm like, what? It is numb. Oh my god. Anyway. Too much sushi. Can't fuck brother.
01:25:36
Speaker
Okay, so on to the story. It's been just I've been trying to get to it So she's like I can't have my salad and everything and so she puts the salad dressing in there and then she like puts it up to shake it and I look away This is when we're laying like a we're in our bachelor apartment So I look away for like not even two seconds and then I hear like a thud
01:25:55
Speaker
And then she's just like, no! And I look over and there's just salad all over the kitchen floor. I'm like, oh my god, are you okay? And you're like, no, I dropped the salad! And me, because I'm a fucking asshole, I pick up my phone, I grab a video of her just like, oh my god, what happened? She's like, no! You just dropped the salad? Yeah, I dropped the salad!
01:26:17
Speaker
I wonder if I can find that, but I have the video of it somewhere on my phone, because Google Photos stores photos and videos if your face is in it, like it recognizes who you are, yeah. It's still looking at my fucking face scanned and all that shit, whatever, I'm gonna die young anyway. So I have it somewhere here, if we're just like crying,
01:26:44
Speaker
Hold on, I think I found it. I'm seeing cute pictures of us when we were younger. God, I'm getting old. As you look for that. Yeah, as I look for it. As you look for it.
F1 Financial Dynamics
01:26:58
Speaker
I will quickly answer AJ's question about F1. He said, with F1's boring past season with Max Verstappen's dominance, you believe F1 should consider an outright equal chassis for all approach like NASCAR's done with the next-generation.
01:27:13
Speaker
affirmative action and for race cars my brother in christ you're a billion-dollar organization why do you gotta fucking why are you gonna add inclusivity you mad that uh oh god
01:27:31
Speaker
Sorry, go ahead, go ahead. It's just one of those things that probably won't happen. Like, that's just what F1 is, is about who's got the most money and who can whip out their big money cock and lay it out on the table and make the biggest thud. Like, that's what the sport is. I mean, they... What?
01:27:50
Speaker
I just think it was like a Vince McMahon voice. I got my money cock. I think that was in one of the texts that were revealed. That's when he called one of his dildos the money maker. Yeah, it was dressed like Shane McMahon and had arms. Here comes the money.
01:28:13
Speaker
Fucking Christ. I mean, the news from F1 today was that they rejected Andretti's bid to be on the grid. Like, it's just, it's all about the money. And that's what F1 is. It's not about who's the best racist. It's about who has the most money, basically. That's what it has been. That's what it will continue to be. The end. Ta-da. But don't worry, it's very fun to root for someone to finish eighth instead of ninth.
01:28:42
Speaker
It's a good time.
Wrestling Events and Personal Experiences
01:28:45
Speaker
Speaking of wrestling from Sister Christian Cage, what are each of your favorite pro wrestling moments? Hands down, I'm super biased towards Forbidden Door. That was the first event I've seen before
01:29:02
Speaker
before seeing Chris Benoit when I was like six. So it was great. That's like a big moment for me. It's always going to be a big moment for me. It's just the atmosphere for Forbidden Door. Yeah. For me, there's too many of the name, to be honest. It's too tough to pick between
01:29:23
Speaker
Whether it be, you know, nostalgic moments, like growing up watching, whether or not it be, you know, events that I've gone to or just even something as simple as like, okay, going to events, you know, being in the car with friends and just shooting the ship before getting to the events and just hanging out with friends that way. Like those are some of the better moments as opposed to some of the shows that I've seen, which I've talked about it. I went to the worst survivor series of all time in Boston.
01:29:50
Speaker
Okay, did you find the salad clip I found I found it's not it's not a video. It's a picture It's several pictures. Oh, it's fucking great It's like Ralph like if it's slow motion, you could just see her heartbreaking. Yeah Show you
01:30:14
Speaker
Okay. Okay. If you're, if you're listening to this right now, uh, we've gone this far. Thank you for listening to the podcast, by the way. Um, this specific spot right now, whatever time step it is, go to the YouTube version of it and watch it there because this is fucking alert. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven. Uh, why didn't you just take a video matter with you?
01:30:55
Speaker
This was the first year of us being No, just look at that just go sad she looks
01:31:04
Speaker
This is my salad. If your relationship could survive that, of course it could survive getting rid of a cat. She's putting the salad back in with her head.
Relationship Mishaps and Humor
01:31:22
Speaker
No, I can salvage it. Oh my God.
01:31:34
Speaker
Oh, that poor woman. Oh my God. Can we make this the fucking photo for the thumbnail? That would be so cruel, but... It's okay, she's got a sense of humor. We had some other questions about, like, okay, coming up on the deadline, who's gonna buy, who's gonna sell, stuff like that. We'll get to those in the near future.
01:32:01
Speaker
You know, all-star break, we're still what? Trade deadline's beginning of March. We'll have plenty of time to talk about stuff like that. So I think on the high note of a dropped salad, he can look to wrap things up for today. I can't stop laughing. I'm so sorry. He was putting it back in the box. No, I can't save it.
01:32:30
Speaker
It was on the floor for like a minute. I would say you could find Endo Mills at Endor and Sam on Twitter and Twitch, but he might not live to see tomorrow.
01:32:46
Speaker
Oh my god. I'm gonna, I'm gonna call her and be like, Hey, remember when you dropped your cell? Right now. If she responds, I'm going to do right now. Hold on. In time before we end this episode, I want to see if, uh, Oh, she's tweeting right now. Hold on. I'll call her again. Do the clients again. She's tutoring. All right. Let's see what happens. Come on. Pick up. Please.
01:33:16
Speaker
Will we get the Paulina guest spot? Hi. Oh, you're at tutoring? Yeah. Oh, I was going to say, um, Hey, remember when you dropped your salad in like October 2019? Yeah. Yeah. I just remember it on the podcast and I just, we just talked about it for a little bit and you're like putting the salad back in the bowl.
01:33:44
Speaker
I love how my pain was amusing to you. It was funny. The tragedy of Washburn, how dare you. Okay, I'll talk to you later, okay? Okay, I'll see you when you go. Okay, alrighty, love you, bye. Love you too, bye.
Podcast Closing and Humorous Reminders
01:34:08
Speaker
that that was the tone of a woman who's put up with a lot of bullshit she's like i'm working right now what do you want like i remember when you dropped your salad yeah i remember when i dropped my salad oh bless her for putting up with you huh that's a true bless her heart moment jesus
01:34:33
Speaker
With that, everybody, we will be back in the very near future to talk about hockey and not hockey, because that's what we do around here. Again, thank you all for listening. Thank you all for watching. And we'll see you very, very soon. Don't try to eat the salad if you drop it on the floor. It's gone. It's gone, dude. It's over, dude.