What Chaos: ‘Heated Rivalry’ Obsession, Quinn Hughes trade talk and ugly jerseys
We’ve been wanting to orchestrate some sort of weekly attempt at What Chaos!-style notebook for a little while now, and Daily Faceoff has graciously offered us a key to their place as we look to find ourselves in the written world.
Each Friday we’ll take some time to look back on the week in hockey and the podcast, and dump out whatever remaining thoughts we have left. It’s not exactly a plan, but it’s a concept of a plan. Those are hot these days. Starting to think this could be like 32 Thoughts but with approximately 32 total braincells.
I assume that we’re most likely gonna trash the place and get evicted sooner rather than later, but in the meantime let’s try to have some fun.
What Chaos! is national hockey show hosted by Pete Blackburn and DJ Bean on The Nation Network. They take you around the league with new episodes every Monday-Thursday, live at noon ET on YouTube.
Thank you and welcome back, Oilers
At one point early this week, I yearned. The realization hit me that we were approaching an uncomfortably extended period of time since hockey had blown my pants off. Outside of Heated Rivalry, at least.
It felt like the league was in a bit of a dry spell in terms of super exciting games. Then Oilers–Sabres happened on Tuesday night, and the counter was blissfully reset. Game of the week. This one had a nice mix of genuinely great highlights and runs of play, but also a few laughs (thank you, Evan Bouchard) and one of the season’s most insane finishes. Ultimately, what’s really important is that both these unstable teams found a way to look inept in the most entertaining way possible.
The world needs messy idiots, too.
The Oilers mounting an insane late comeback only to lose IMMEDIATELY in overtime because they forgot to defense? Perfect. The Sabres blowing a three-goal lead in the most painful way possible in order to make sure they STILL stay winless in regulation on the road this season? Sick puppies.
But I also couldn’t help but come away from that game feeling like the Oilers might finally be waking up from their annual two-month sleepwalk to start the season. Yeah, they scored 15 goals in the two games leading into Tuesday and that’s nice and all, but the Edmonton Oilers I know aren’t fully back in business until they spend most of a game playing like crap yet somehow miraculously find a way to fall ass-backward into a win thanks in large part to Connor McDavid. It’s not Oilers if there’s no circus. See: their trade for Tristan Jarry.
They only got one point in this instance, but maybe it’s enough to feel like themselves again.
This Week In What Chaos!
I know I couldn’t even make it one section without mentioning Heated Rivalry, but I do have to give a full-on shoutout to that show and the buzz it’s generated in the hockey world just after just a few episodes.
In terms of views and subscribers/followers, this past week was our podcast’s biggest since launch. A huge part of that is the wave of fans who have found us through the new hockey smut/romance show on Crave & HBO.
These are all words I never expected to type, at least not in that order.
We discussed the show ahead of its premiere last month and we were always pretty interested in keeping tabs on it, especially when it was picked up by HBO, but it’s far exceeded expectations in terms of entertainment and impact both in the hockey world and in our podcast’s universe.
By the time we talked to showrunner Jacob Tierney this week, we were already all-in on the ride that HR is taking us on, and yet our conversation with him about the show and his own hockey fandom somehow locked us in even more. He was a pleasure to talk to, even if he absolute sucks at coming up with fictional podcast ideas.
We’re ending the week with more than 21,000 subscribers on YouTube, a number we’re pretty proud of. A sincere thank you to everyone who has jumped on board and to everyone that has made the newcomers feel welcome.
Does feel a little weird to pick up this much momentum simply because we talked about a TV show that’s (kind of) about hockey? A little, especially considering DJ and I previously spent almost a decade doing a pop culture podcast that never grew out of being niche. But make no mistake about it… Heated Rivalry’s fandom has proven to be a beast of its own, and this show is having an incredible moment right now, one that actually seems to be pushing some fans toward the game itself. All of that absolutely rules.
If you happen to be a newcomer yourself, this week we spent some time putting together a guide for fans in search of a favorite team.
This Week In Quinn Hughes
It never seemed impossible that Quinn Hughes might ask out of Vancouver, but it feeling like an inevitability before Christmas? That’s a special kind of disaster.
It’s also the reality we find ourselves in as the Canucks sit dead last in the entire league, and most of the trade chatter around Hughes has pushed you to envision him with the New Jersey Devils (obviously, given the familial ties) or the Detroit Red Wings.
But are we not thinking outside the box enough? If/when Hughes officially becomes available, I have to imagine almost every team will at least check in on what it might take to land him. We talked with Steve Peters about potential fits for Hughes and tried to flesh out what’s realistic and what’s not.
On Jerseys
Anyone familiar with our show knows we’re all obsessed with aesthetics and uniforms, and this was a big week in that department. Let’s run it down real quick:
- The Oilers are undefeated in their alternate cream jerseys this year, going 3-0-0 and outscoring opponents 21-9 in those games.
- The New York Rangers are winless in their alternate centennial jerseys this year, going 0-5-0 while being outscored 16-2 in those games.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins unveiled their Stadium Series jerseys for their outdoor game in Tampa and it’s going to be loud and hideous. I know the Stadium Series is where teams love to get weird and experiment, but some of the choices made for these uniforms have massive “What the hell were you thinking?” energy — namely the choice of crest for each side.
This game is ugly as hell. Cancel the Stadium Series.
Weekend Slate Notes
I’m sure everyone will be completely normal when Quinn Hughes heads to New Jersey to play on Sunday afternoon. Devils need to get their act together and shake off their burial ground curses before then, because they’re not exactly putting on much of a sales pitch lately.
Somehow we’re less than two weeks from Christmas and I have yet to dip into a winter The Holdovers rewatch. That’ll probably change this weekend and if anyone wants to talk Alexander Payne or Paul Giamatti, you know where to find me.
See you next week.