The Sweatdown has existed since April of 2018 as a monthly collection of music I’ve been listening to. Sometimes it’s old tracks but it’s usually new music. Everything from indie to synthwave to rock to alternative and more. Every December is a culmination of the music I’ve listened to. Originally posted to Spotify, these playlists can now all be found on YouTube where they will be updated monthly for YouTube Music.

Some of what’s here for October

The Haunted Youth – castlevania
LEAP – Bloodlines

In the past I’ve tried to do a bit of a themed playlist for Halloween. This time I didn’t intend to but I ended up having some good tracks that worked into a Halloween/Spooky playlist. Castlevania, Bloodlines (yes I intentionally put those songs next to each other,) BAD DREAMS, A Little Wicked, Cult Leader (DEVORA always comes in the clutch,) and honestly everything on Sick Joy’s album works for Halloween not just Cinnamon Burn.

I think My First Time is going to be my new favourite band. I didn’t see Social Order live in concert (I didn’t want to go to America and eat recalled food) and a month later I hear “Every Version of You” and now am in love with this band. This song is everything I’ve wanted. It’s modern electro rock with confidence. It’s going that extra step I’ve wanted The Dare to take. Like, I could see this as an Innerpartysystem song for fuck sake!

I did listen to Olivia Rodrigo’s album a few months ago and I liked some songs here and there, but the cure didn’t hit me as much until I heard it going camping last weekend with my friend Ryan. He loved playing it in the car on repeat and I don’t blame him. It definitely got in my ear and is now a song I’m listening to all the time. Or would be listened to even more if it wasn’t for My First Time.

It’s also thanks to Ryan I heard Tinashe with “Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore” which people have figured out early goes very well with Nine Inch Nails. I’ve heard some remixes already mixing it with Closer.

Definitely listening more to LEAP going forward. What a very good rock band.

I put Dexter and the Moonrocks on here. I really like the song. I feel like they used AI on their cover. I don’t know if they did. If I see more AI later that’ll be the last I put them on a playlist.

I like Coach Party Girls! a lot. So many good UK bands lately!

The new song by Kanadia just slipped under the deadline date of me posting this. I don’t know if it was intentional but it really reminds me of probably the most memorable quote by Bill Hicks.

 

October Sweatdown 2K26 features:

My First Time – Every Version of You
Tinashe – Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore
Olivia Rodrigo – the cure
Kanadia – The Ride
Sick Joy – Cinnamon Burn
Royal Foundry – WOW
The Haunted Youth – castlevania
LEAP – Bloodlines
nightly – BAD DREAMS
Dexter and the Moonrocks – If You Could Talk
Balu Brigada – BedHead
Coach Party – Girls!
Valerie Broussard and Battle Tapes – A Little Wicked
Devora – Cult Leader
Ladyhawke – Bad to the Bone
CHVRCHES – Roses

Two more months in the year!

Photo is of “Groot” in Erieau, Ontario on June 29, 2026.

The post October Sweatdown 2K26 appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I was very excited to watch the final episode of Lanterns and was thinking of doing a write up covering the final four episodes like I did the first four. The problem is that the final episode landed with such a thud I don’t really see the point. And yes, this is a recap of the episode so I’m going to talk about it. If you haven’t watched it yet stop reading.

I’ll first say this: I left the episode originally feeling good because the acting is so top notch. Kelly Macdonald is absolutely incredible. Aaron Pierre is rock solid. Kyle Chandler is of course fantastic all throughout. The kid who plays Noah does a serviceable job. The blonde waitress is still terrible. Can’t win them all. But I loved the acting. And the first 10 minutes.

We went into this episode with a lot of theories. Almost everything I heard podcasts and people on social media discuss either happened or was part of the dialogue. I heard people talk about all the “Noah being President” stuff would start with him going to Navy. We knew the shoes walking in after Hal had the little circle that tells you he was in the skin regeneration machine were Noah’s.

They played with the idea that he committed suicide in episode seven only to end on them telling you Hal wouldn’t. Episode seven was a work of art. The way it expresses the fact that the Jordan Boy Legacy is essentially suicide and it’s something Hal Jordan knows he has and his fearlessness is about knowing his family history of suicide and living through it is really quite poignant.

Hal in that episode says that Sherriff Kerry killed him. In this episode, Noah takes responsibility only for John Stewart to have his Columbo moment to reveal that no, Noah was just trying to protect his mother. Kerry admits to what she did. Not only did she shoot Hal, she called the one man who could solve the mystery of who shot Hal. A cop basically ensuring her guilt would be revealed.

Only that doesn’t happen.

The biggest issue with the episode is that it tries to tie all the loose ends, tries to explain everything, gets to the “detective” part of the show to reveal the killer and the motive and the plot, and then just… drops it.

You’re not Lord Yoshii Toranaga

It’s my feeling that the writers of Lanterns watched the Shogun miniseries, a miniseries which (please watch it I’ll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible) convinces you there’s going to be a massive war breaking out at the end and instead it’s two people looking over the water sitting and discussing what did happen, why things went the way they did, how things were manipulated, and how things will be. It’s the ultimate tell not show episode and in doing absolutely everything that’s considered to be anti-entertainment? Shogun lands. It’s one of my favourite episodes of TV ever. It lets you see why the character is so intelligent. It’s threaded perfectly.

Lanterns, after seven extremely good (arguably great) episodes, does not land. Not because we didn’t get some big intergalactic war or anything. More because it just says stuff without showing it.

Apparently Noah is the one who breaks Sinestro out of prison… somehow. Apparently not only did he finds all the tech of his “grandmother” but he knows how to use it and he knows how to break a space criminal out of maximum security space prison. And nobody is chasing him. This unfortunately doesn’t explain why Sinestro knew about John, which we thought was because there may have been a Guardian assisting him. Nope! Throw that whole theory out. Guess we didn’t consider the writers not following up on their own work.

So Noah breaks Sinestro out, puts him on a decimated planet to build him a lantern so he can become a Lantern Corps. Sinestro makes a Green Lantern charger but it’s supposed to use the yellow energy of Fear. This, by the way, is barely touched upon again. Even when John uses the lantern at the end of the episode there’s no oh he must be a Yellow Lantern or oh no he’s using both, it’s just, yeah he’s a Green Lantern now shut up.

Sinestro tries to play both sides which is to be expected from a mustache twirling villain (at least I’d assume he’d be twirling it if he wasn’t getting waterboarded) and talks about a charged ring being able to bring back Hal. Is he lying? Is he telling the truth? Don’t worry about it.

John leaves the decimated planet refusing to charge the ring and immediately gets his ass kicked by Noah. Noah takes the ring and the lantern and makes John drive. This immediately had me thinking maybe John learned something from all those times Hal crashed the car on him. Nope. It’s just a nice drive.

Noah and John have a conversation and it ends with Noah handing John the ring and telling him to one day kill him. Let him play the football game and be a hero. But don’t let him know it’s coming. He doesn’t want to be a bad guy and do all the bad things but knows one day he can’t fight his programming. Interesting wrinkle. Not much time left in the episode. I was kind of hoping he threw that touchdown pass only to cut to John up in the stands with the sniper rifle just popping him in the helmet. Then again, that might lead to a world war.

Popping a white high school QB in Nebraska I think would be worse than killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria.

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@aaron.wrotkowski.ca) 2026-10-06T00:01:39.166Z

Instead he does the Columbo with Kerry. Hal went to Kerry about Noah being a Manhunter. Kerry freaked out that Hal was going to expose it and put Noah in danger and shot him in the head.

Why John Stewart checked Hal’s hand for a ring in the pilot episode is unexplained. I guess he just wanted to look. So Kerry, who was at the prison with a six pack of beer for Hal to get out, and dates him and tries to defend him to Rushville, is the one who pops him and will apparently turn herself in. Okay.

We then get what was the most frustrating scene of the whole episode. Guy Gardner shows up. He sees John with the ring. Guy is a Green Lantern. I thought Guy could sense the power of the ring, that the ring the Guardians made for him wasn’t as strong. He could feel that John was an immense threat, so when John is browbeating him that’s why he doesn’t fight back. He basically looks like a complete wimp, a total coward. He takes off. That’s when I find out THE RING WASN’T EVEN CHARGED YET. So Guy Gardner let a dude with an almost dead ring claiming to have a lantern basically emasculate him. What are we even doing here?

John has a new Oath which mentions embracing his fear, which I guess relates to the Fear that the new lantern uses. But doesn’t that make him a Yellow Lantern? I’m no comic book nerd, but isn’t that how these things work? He can’t just a Green Lantern with gold tint, right?

Peacemaker Season Two All Over Again

One more quibble. When the Halogram returns, he brings up the fact he thinks John is taking a serious risk allowing the Manhunter to live. And then like right after he tells John he’s going to be better at this than he ever was. How are you criticizing his decisions but then also saying he’s going to be great at it? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WRITING ON THIS SHOW!?

Maybe I was just in a trance with the great acting throughout but I really thought this was going somewhere better. I thought Sinestro was going to be more than just a guy trying to get everyone to do his eeeeevil bidding. I thought the Manhunter story would actually get resolved. I thought even if this ended up the last of Hal (which I doubt) he’d get a better conclusion.

Billy got a big hug first from Noah though. Hell yeah Billy. Good job.

I’m not saying the show was as good as say TASK which I watched last year. But I do think up to episode seven it was fantastic television. They really were setting up something that could have been the best superhero TV show. Period. Period! Better than Peacemaker (which funny enough also had a bad landing in their second season finale), better than any of the crap Marvel has done, it could have been the apex. This episode was such a bummer.

This isn’t one of those things where I’m pissed the show didn’t do what I wanted it to do. I was completely okay with everything up to this point. What does bother me is they put so much time into the Guardians being important. Not just important, but the Guardians getting it often wrong. They didn’t trust Hal after Sinestro killed one of their own. They tried to replace him with John and when John rejected the ring they went with Guy.

A big thing I talked about in my Lanterns After Four is that Hal, despite his hubris in thinking he could stop the Manhunter and keep the ring, he was the only one in town not being manipulated by the Manhunter. Even John, to the very end, gets manipulated by a Manhunter.

Literal quote from Hal:

“They find a path to power every time, and if they identify a threat to that power, they’ll manipulate that threat into believing anything they want them to. Remind you anyone we know?”

What does the Manhunter, now Noah, do to John Stewart at the end of the episode?

MANIPULATE HIM INTO THINKING HE’S A GOOD KID WHO WON’T TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

Even the request to kill him feels like Noah saying what John wants to hear. See he can’t be so bad, I can relate to him, he’s fighting his programming! This would have been a great time for the writers to play in everything Hal had told John about his upbringing and the Jordan Boys Legacy. Nah. John gets manipulated.

This is where I gotta pull that other quote from John, now from this episode.

“I know you’ll be better at this job than I ever was.”

God damn Halogram, you do not have dead Hal’s intuition.

Surf’s Up Dude

The worst part of this all? With the stupid fucking Paramount Skydance merger with Warner Bros Discovery getting a green light that means there’s a good chance we never get a season two. David Ellison is likely going to decide that a black Green Lantern doesn’t represent the Republican Party of America and reboot the whole series so some dipshit like Zachary Levi can be Green Lantern. What a stupid world we live in.

I thought this could absolutely launch a film if they found a way to bring back Hal and got John the ring. Sinestro the villain. Could they still do it? Maybe have Sinestro and Noah the Manhunter? They find a way to bring back Hal and you got Hal, John, and Guy?

You could, but I don’t have anywhere near the same level of faith in it.

In closing, I just want to once again express that episode five, six, and seven were great. I enjoyed them a lot. Seven is easily my favourite episode of TV this year. Everything with Hal’s father, the speech about letting go, and Hal going to get the baseball back? That was really great writing, and set me up to thinking this show was going to soar into space and touch the stars. Instead it got us all the way into the sky and crashed down. Intentionally not accidentally, kinda like Martin Jordan’s fighter jet. Poor taste I know.

Overall? I still liked the show. You can’t hate it just because it ended poorly. You have to consider everything involved. I would still encourage someone to watch it. I just can’t help but wonder why this is now two shows overseen by James Gunn (Lanterns and Peacemaker season two) that had absolutely flat endings. Makes me worry about investing too much in The People v. Gorilla Grodd.

And yes. You can call it Surf Dracula. It definitely Surf Dracula’d. Also, why won’t someone just make Surf Dracula? It’s not a copyright thing. Give me Surf Dracula! You know what, give me $100,000 and I’ll write it. It’ll be awesome. I’m gonna do seven episodes of Dracula surfing and then episode eight will end the season with him going, “And that’s how I got my surfboard” and everyone will go absolutely crazy go nuts.

VAMP’S UP: Surfer Kelly Pedlow catches a wave in Newport Beach during annual Halloween costume surfing contest, published by Laylan Connelly of Orange County Register, October 31, 2007.

Since I’m bad at ending things like this (NOT AS BAD AS JAMES GUNN HAHAHA sorry) I just want to say the first 10 minutes gave me so much hope. They literally started the episode like we were watching a romantic dramedy about a woman who left her dopey husband to hook up with a formerly incarcerated world renown superhero who her entire town hated but couldn’t do much about because she was the sherriff. I was like wow, that takes so much courage to do on this final episode. And they have so much chemistry! I love it! And then the episode started at 11:20 and now we’re here.

Surf on, Dracula.

The post The Eighth Lanterns Wipes Out appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

Here’s how I fared last year: 2025-2026 Likely Wrong NHL Predictions

I said the Carolina Hurricanes were the least “prone to a downfall” club in the Metro. Not exactly calling them Cup favourites but it was still an endorsement.

Western Conference

Two seasons ago I picked Vancouver to win the conference. Last season I was not as bad. I had the top two teams in each division correct (Central just flipped) so I will pat myself on the back Barry Horowitz style for that.

Pacific Division

1. Vegas Golden Knights
2. Edmonton Oilers
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Anaheim Ducks
5. Seattle Kraken
6. Calgary Flames
7. Los Angeles Kings
8. Vancouver Canucks

I don’t think much changes with Vegas. They will get a better goaltender and win the division. The Cup finalists will try to get right back to where they were. Edmonton is a tough cookie. I think they improved in goal but not much anywhere else. I also think Mike Babcock will eventually torpedo the teams chances. I think they are a ticking timebomb waiting to happen. The problem is they might not go off immediately like what happened in Columbus. It might take a season.

I really hope the San Jose Sharks take a step forward. I am a big fan of Macklin Celebrini and he’d be my pick for potential Hart trophy winner. The Anaheim Ducks I’d have higher if they didn’t have to rip their team apart after the Leo Carlsson offer sheet. Then again, I still put most of the blame on GM Pat Verbeek for that one.

Seattle and Calgary are my “I dunno” picks. They could do better. They could do worse. I dunno. Franchises lost at sea. Calgary needs more talent before they move up but they got a great young goalie. Seattle needs Matty Beniers to remember he’s supposed to become a top centre in the NHL.

The LA Kings could certainly do better than 7th with the talent they have but with Anze Kopitar retiring and I’m sure Drew Doughty is on his final season or two? The Old Kings are dead. The New Kings really are not going anywhere fast.

Vancouver is still going to be one of the worst teams in the league. Bottom three. Funny enough I think the Top three teams going after the first overall pick will all be Canadian.

Central Division

1. Colorado Avalanche
2. Utah Mammoth
3. Dallas Stars
4. Minnesota Wild
5. Nashville Predators
6. St. Louis Blues
7. Chicago Blackhawks
8. Winnipeg Jets

It’s still Colorado’s division to lose. They will have Nazem Kadri and Nicholas Roy for the whole season this time. My biggest question mark is their goaltending. They honestly should bite the bullet and try to get Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets. The problem is that any team who’d want to trade for him has a goalie with a modified NTC and they certainly have Winnipeg on that list.

I do think the Utah Mammoth take a step forward and become the number two of the division. I think geting Trocheck was a very good move and allows them considerable depth in their top nine. The defence is fine. Vejmelka and Cossa are an interesting duo. Detroit fans hyped up Cossa for years as a franchise goalie in the waiting only to see him go for a pick. Interesting to see if he develops.

Dallas and Minnesota will likely make the playoffs and fight for that third spot. Minnesota… who knows what they end up doing with Quinn Hughes not signed.

Nashville and St. Louis are similar to Seattle and Calgary. I dunno. Both could make the playoffs. Both could miss the playoffs. I dunno.

Chicago will miss the playoffs but not be in the hole. They will be better than they have been in the past. Just not that good either.

The Winnipeg Jets… boy I’ve been looking forward to this fall. I am not a fan of the Jets. Not a fan of Winnipeg. I think people baby the team about how hard it is to build a club there. They have some top level talent. Kyle Connor would be a superstar anywhere else. But I think with the Hellebuyck stuff and likely others departing? They find themselves bottom of the division and bottom of the conference.

Eastern Conference

Having faith that the Toronto Maple Leafs would still be good was my biggest regret for last season. I also had Buffalo still 7th but that was more fatigue than anything.

Metropolitian Division

1. Washington Capitals
2. Carolina Hurricanes
3. New York Islanders
4. New Jersey Devils
5. Philadelphia Flyers
6. Pittsburgh Penguins
7. Columbus Blue Jackets
8. New York Rangers

No team moved harder to get better in the off-season than the Washington Capitals. Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch are big additions. They got a youth movement coming up with the Protas Brothers, Ryan Leonard, Justin Sourdif, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Lane’s brother Cole Hutson. With it being potentially Alex Ovechkin’s final season I think the Caps secure the top spot in the Metro.

Carolina won the Stanley Cup and will comfortably sit in second. Definitely still the team to beat. Probably the one team that can afford Hellebuyck the easiest. The Devils could if they could find a team for Dougie Hamilton but that means a three team trade. More likely just Carolina.

After that my “I dunno” goes from three to six. I do not know who takes the third spot in the Metro and I do not know who potentially gets a wildcard spot from an Atlantic team. I wanted to say the Devils for the third spot but I don’t trust the goaltending. I have my doubts on the Flyers but I could also see them securing third comfortably. The Pittsburgh Penguins overachieved last year and I don’t think they did enough to get back into the playoffs. The Islanders are basically by default, but it’s also likely a Norris winning season for Matthew Schaefer.

Columbus… man. It’s easy to forget how close they got to the playoffs last season. They are not a bad team. But how long it took to sign Adam Fantilli, the Zach Werenski trade demand then rescinding the trade demand, the Kirill Marchenko drama, I just don’t know how this team puts it together for 84 games.

The New York Rangers stink and need to blow it up. Should they do so the NHL will gift them first overall in the likes of Landon DuPont. Have you ever heard a name that screamed NEW YORK RANGERS STAR like Landon DuPont? I haven’t.

Atlantic Division

1. Florida Panthers
2. Montreal Canadiens
3. Tampa Bay Lightning
4. Buffalo Sabres
5. Ottawa Senators
6. Boston Bruins
7. Toronto Maple Leafs
8. Detroit Red Wings

I don’t want to give the top spot to my Montreal Canadiens. They always have a December struggle that costs them points down the stretch.

So I’m going with the Florida Panthers. Jacob Markstrom replaces Sergei Bobrovsky and I’m not crazy about that move. I don’t know if he’s better. I don’t know if he’s enough. But he should get them somewhere. I think Brady Tkachuk is a really good hockey player but he’s such a bonehead and will be a bit of a problem in that locker room. Those guys gotta be tired of the brothers by now. Whether or not they are? Alex Barkov is healthy and back. Florida will take the top spot.

The Montreal Canadiens. I already did a season preview on them. I like adding Chris Kreider. I like Derek Lalonde as an associate coach. I think they need to figure out new teams for Sam Montembeault and Kirby Dach. David Reinbacher and Florian Xhekaj should make the team. Coming to the end of the year we could see Michael Hage and Alex Zharovsky coming in. Or they make a big trade. Either way? Second place.

Tampa did not do much this season. Honestly, why do I keep them third over other teams? Really it’s because I don’t think Darren Raddysh going to Toronto is enough of a loss. Especially since they replaced him with John Carlson. It’s probably the oldest defence in the league now.

Buffalo lost Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram but I do think they are still a playoff team. Whether it’s third or a wildcard spot I think they get it. Same with the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa I could see out of nowhere moving into the third spot. I like them a lot and think losing Brady Tkachuk will be a positive overall for the team. I like William Eklund a lot too.

Boston and Toronto are my I dunno’s. JJ Peterka didn’t fit in Utah. Will he fit in Boston? Does he learn how to play Bruin hockey? Toronto tried to absolutely change everything around except the core rotting the team. Will it work? I dunno. I like Raddysh. I like Bobrovsky. I like Gavin McKenna, I think he’s going to be an outstanding NHLer. Any NHL team led by Auston Matthews will always have a limit.

And then we got Detroit. I picked them for the bottom last year. They went on a tear in the first half of the year. And then they sunk. This year they got a captain who wants out but can’t get traded even after the C was stripped. They had to watch Patrick Kane leave because their GM stepped down. They added one veteran to the club and that’s it. Oh, and at the time of writing this? Simon Edvinsson is still an RFA. So he’s basically missed all of training camp. I think the Red Wings absolutely sink this year, much like I did last year, only this time I’m more confident.

Way Too Early/Stupid Playoff Predictions

Western Conference

(1) Colorado Avalanche versus (W2) Minnesota Wild
(2) Utah Mammoth versus (3) Dallas Stars

(1) Vegas Golden Knights versus (W1) Anaheim Ducks
(2) Edmonton Oilers versus (3) San Jose Sharks

We get two second round rematches here in the first round. Utah and Dallas both got busted in the first round last year so now they get a chance to make it to the second round. Edmonton got beat by Anaheim so they go up against another California team. How will Connor McDavid feel losing to the guy who will replace him as the best Canadian forward in the league. Notice how I didn’t say best forward period. Kucherov has that crown.

Eastern Conference

(1) Florida Panthers versus (W2) Ottawa Senators
(2) Montreal Canadiens versus (3) Tampa Bay Lightning

(1) Washington Capitals versus (W1) Buffalo Sabres
(2) Carolina Hurricanes versus (3) New York Islanders

I will once again brag about the fact I absolutely called Tampa versus Montreal last season in the 2 versus 3 in the Atlantic Division. I also called Dallas versus Minnesota but wrong spot (they were 2 versus 3 not 1 versus wildcard)

I have set up two “former players team versus new team” matchups because it’s fun to me. Brady Tkachuk will take on the Ottawa Senators with the Florida Panthers. Alex Tuch’s Washington Capitals face the Buffalo Sabres.

I also got Montreal playing Tampa again (I was right last time let’s go two for two) and the Hurricanes probably sweeping the New York Islanders.

As I did last year, I will do a mid-season reflection on my picks and see what’s working and what isn’t, and then of course end of season see how likely wrong I was. Enjoy the ride! NHL hockey is back!

Michael Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The post 2026-2027 Likely Wrong NHL Predictions appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

In that “How Good?” I brought up the fact that the Montreal Canadiens needed a veteran presence. They recently traded Brendan Gallagher to the Vancouver Canucks. Doesn’t that hurt the veteran presence?

Of course, they would later fill that hole with Chris Kreider.

I questioned if Sam Montembeault was the goalie of the future and compared him to Cristobal Huet when Montreal had Price and Halak in the system. Monty is still here but he’s the clear number three now.

I talked highly of Zachary Bolduc having a big season and it didn’t happen. Instead, he started hot, cooled down, and struggled to figure his place in the lineup. He did however have a decent post-season.

I asked what if Nick Suzuki hits 100 points. He did. I asked what if Cole Caufield scores 40? He scored 50. I asked what if Alex Newhook stops frustrating me and he did! Well aside from the injuries. Not his fault.

I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m not just responding to the article. Let’s preview the Montreal Canadiens.

Sign Everyone

The Montreal Canadiens made it their goal to ensure a lot of their players were locked up this summer. Ivan Demidov signed quite arguably the best contract of the summer, locked up for eight years at $9.15 million per season. Jakub Dobes signed a three year extension that doesn’t kick in until next season at $5.357 million per. It took a while for any new action after that but Bolduc would re-sign at four years, $4.2 million taking him right to UFA status. Chris Kreider I already talked about.

Tuesday we got two more signings. Arber Xhekaj finally re-signed a one year $1.5 million deal to keep him an RFA and ensure everyone on the roster had a contract. Then Alex Newhook signed an extension to kick in next year at $5.5 million for the next five years.

The club is locked up. Four defencemen have long term deals. Seven forwards have long term deals.

Next summer’s UFA’s are mostly veterans. Philip Danault, Josh Anderson, Alex Carrier, Sam Montembeault, and the newly acquired Chris Kreider. The only kinda young player coming up in the summer is Kirby Dach. Their deals expiring make room for Newhook’s raise, Demidov’s new deal, and Dobes new deal. In other words, the Habs are in good cap shape once they get an extra $9 million from the salary cap.

Youth in Perpetuity

Last season, Montreal was the youngest team in the league and made the playoffs. They might not be the youngest team this year, but they will still be one of the youngest. What’s crazy is that they could still take the youngest team in the league title back by next summer.

You see, Alexander Zharovsky and Michael Hage will be likely finishing their Russian and NCAA careers out and coming to the Montreal Canadiens in the spring. They could potentially crack the playoff lineup. That’s two potential top six forwards, both arguably top nine forwards, who slip into the lineup at 20 and 21. There’s also David Reinbacher, who could win a roster spot this fall if he can squeeze out someone like Carrier into a seventh defenceman role.

Remember, the Habs got Caufield, Slafkovsky, Dach, Newhook, Kapanen, Demidov, Hutson, Guhle, Xhekaj, Struble, Dobes, and Fowler all under the age of 26. And they could be bringing in three more!

That is, if they don’t trade them away.

It seems like the Montreal Canadiens almost made a huge deadline deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for Matthew Knies that would have included Zharovsky, prospect defenceman Adam Engstrom, plus first round picks. Because that never happened the Canadiens selected Gleb Pugachyov in the first round. It also means they still have so many assets and only so many spots.

There’s been a lot of rumours on Kirill Marchenko of the Columbus Blue Jackets. While I understand why the Canadiens want him, I’m not sure if I want to spend Zharovsky to get him. Or Hage. I mean look at Zharovsky here. He looks very close to a complete project in the KHL already. He’s getting his points. I don’t want to look him only to see him playing at a 50+ point level in his rookie or sophomore year for a guy who maybe does 20 points better now but will cost a heck of a lot more.

It’s a 3-point night for Alexander Zharovsky 🚨🍏🍏 pic.twitter.com/XQym5mUyrB

— KHL (@khl_eng) December 25, 2025

Sometimes there’s a “shit or get off the pot” on building a team where you have to shift your youth for players that will help you win now. I get that. But I’m fine doing that after we get Hage and Zharovsky going. I’d also like to keep Pugachyov just because he seems like a wrecking ball. The only other player I’m protective of not on the team yet is Bryce Pickford because he either picked on a bunch of young kids in the WHL or he’s a legit 30 goal defencemen scoring threat. I don’t want to lose him until we’ve seen him in the AHL.

Crowded Room

So we got all this talk of young players getting added. We got everyone re-signed. We got Chris Kreider coming in.

Is there spots for everyone?

No.

At centre you got Nick Suzuki and Philip Danault. 1C and 4C. Then you got 2C and 3C. Last year that was often Oliver Kapanen and Jake Evans. But it could also be Kirby Dach or Alex Newhook.

Top six wingers are set with Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov, and Juraj Slafkovsky. That fourth spot… Newhook? Kreider? Kapanen? Dach? Bolduc?

Bottom six wingers you got Josh Anderson and essentially… anyone else. Heck, they might even try Arber Xhekaj as a bottom six winger. Oh, and Alex Texier. He can go literally anywhere.

Can any of the kids make the lineup? Owen Beck? Florian Xhekaj? Jared Davidson? Maybe one of the new kids like Brett Berard, Sasha Pastujov, or Samuel Poulin?

Over on defence you got Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson pretty set in their spots. Lane Hutson is the best defenceman on the team but will he be on his natural left side or the right side?

Alex Carrier likely to play third pairing but is he set in the spot? Can Kaiden Guhle stay healthy? What happens with Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj? Can Adam Engstrom or David Reinbacher crack the lineup this season?

Even at goal it’s more conflicting than it should be. Jakub Dobes is the starter. Jacob Fowler should be the backup. But will they try to get Sam Montembeault going? Or will they send him off on waivers? Habs management did say they plan to go into the regular season with only two goaltenders.

No matter how you try to build the lineup you’re leaving someone off you might not want to. The Habs might end up with one of the stronger press boxes in the league. Do you scratch Kirby Dach? Oliver Kapanen? Alex Texier? Jayden Struble? Arber Xhekaj? Alex Carrier? What if Florian Xhekaj has a great camp and deserves a roster spot?

It’s pretty clear that the club needs to try and package multiple players for one guy who can make a bigger difference.

Also, with the looming entries of Alexander Zharovsky and Michael Hage, the guys who don’t have a set spot like Kirby Dach and Oliver Kapanen have to really make a good argument for themselves.

Focus on Five

I’m going to put a little focus on five players and their situations with the team.

Zachary Bolduc: I was very high on the Canadiens acquiring Bolduc from the St. Louis Blues for Logan Mailloux. He had 19 goals in his rookie year with the Blues. He was only able to score 12 with the Canadiens. He also went from a +20 to a -6. There are some reasons for this. Bolduc was used heavily on the Blues powerplay at the second half of the season. 11 of his 19 goals came in March and April. He was also a +8 in that time. Four of his 12 goals for the Habs came in October. He cooled off after that with a lot of talk being he worked hard in practice but struggled to learn Martin St. Louis’ system.

His play in the playoffs was much better, especially when MSL had him on a line with Kirby Dach and Alex Texier. He has good chemistry with Dach. He had three points in 7 games against Tampa and three against Buffalo. He was a +6 on May 10. His next nine games? A -9.

I think Bolduc now understands what Montreal wants out of him. He needs to be a middle six agitator with a deadly shot. I’d love to see him get more play with Ivan Demidov, but that depends on where Kreider plays.

Oliver Kapanen: Oliver was a season surprise. He wasn’t really expected to crack the lineup in camp and he earned the 2C spot next to Ivan Demidov. Kapanen would score 22 goals and 37 points in his first rookie campaign. His first half was very strong, especially the times Juraj Slafkovsky carried the line. Then came the playoffs. Kapanen lost his roster spot for over half the games and played 7 games with 0 points. He played less than 11 minutes in those games.

It should be said he was scoreless in his last 10 regular season games. It’s like his first rookie season he just ran out of battery juice. So what is Oliver Kapanen in 26-27? He’s the prime candidate to lose his spot to a rookie next year (Hage/Zharovsky) and there’s a lot who think he shouldn’t be tried again on the top line.

I was doubtful on him last season making the team but I also don’t like rooting against a kid after an up and down rookie year. Like Bolduc, I think there’s more there. I honestly wonder about putting Bolduc and Kapanen together as a line and letting them prove people wrong together. I hope he bounces back and proves he can be a different on this squad. Otherwise? He’s going to be another Emil Heineman. Thanks for surprising folks. Off to a new team.

Jacob Fowler: This is the best way to present my opinion on the “goalie debate” on either putting Fowler in the AHL or not:

I’m at the point where I ask the question : “are we a serious team?” And if Monty is starting games over Jacob Fowler, the answer is probably no https://t.co/e1a4Z1rQcq

— bren (@brenmidov) September 14, 2026

I’m sorry folks. It’s an 84 game NHL season. The backup is going to play 30+ games. 30+ NHL games is BETTER DEVELOPMENT TO BECOME AN NHL STARTER THAN 60+ AHL GAMES!

Not only that but Jacob Fowler coming in last season helped turn the teams fortunes from out of a playoff spot into a top three team in the Atlantic Division. He deserves his spot on the roster. That’s why he was Dobes backup in the playoffs and not Montembeault.

Monty shouldn’t even be here. This is Fowler’s time. And if he’s every bit as good as I think he is? He outplays Dobes at times this year. Let’s run with both. Options in net is a good thing.

Arber Xhekaj: Listen. I like Arber a lot. I also think his ability to intimidate and be an enforcer is essential. We’re a better team when he can come out and scare the rats. But he also must earn his minutes. He struggles to clear creases without taking penalties. If he could clear creases as well as Kaiden Guhle he would be our permanent #5 defenceman. He doesn’t handle man to man as well as other options. He has a great slap shot and doesn’t use it enough.

This is all on Arber. Stop blaming the coach for not playing him enough. He isn’t giving him enough reason to trust him. Now he’s run out of time. He hasn’t created enough of a gap between him and Struble. Reinbacher and Engstrom could be coming up soon. Guhle is hurt until likely November but once he’s back? It could be hard to get minutes. Arber has to figure this out himself. Make the Habs pay for only giving him a one year deal. Earn a spot on this roster as a serious top six option. Otherwise he might be better off finding a new team.

Should this happen? Habs will definitely need to replace the enforcer qualities he brings. Might cost the team a lot to bring a guy from elsewhere. But you can only wait so long for Arber. I for one hope he finds his game this season. I want the Sheriff here for a long time.

Ivan Demidov: How good will Demidov be this season? Maybe this isn’t as much fun to write about as other players, but it certainly is for me. I thought Ivan really developed as a two way player in the playoffs this year. This was a great rookie campaign for him. He was 2nd for Calder voting with his 62 points. All throughout the year there was a feeling he could be shooting the puck more. I think we see that this year.

I’m expecting a huge year from Ivan. 80 is my base. I think he could do even better with the right linemates. If him and Slafkovsky are back together and they have chemistry with a guy in the middle? He’s going to be a 90+ guy. He will be hitting 100+ in no time. Best Hab forward since Guy Lafleur. That’s his future.

How far can the Habs go?

Last season, Montreal finished third in their division. They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in a tough seven game series. They then beat the Buffalo Sabres in an equally tough seven game series. After surprising the Carolina Hurricanes in game one, they had no energy remaining and got squashed by the Canes in five.

The loss resembled their first round series with the Washington Capitals in 24-25. This team has a tendency to run out of gas. They spend too much time chasing pucks, blocking shots, and letting teams get set up. Mike Matheson put it best. The Habs struggled against Carolina because they didn’t finish Tampa and Buffalo off earlier.

I of course had to roll my eyes at people saying Montreal was outmuscled by Carolina, just as I did when it was said about the Capitals series. It has nothing to do with size or muscle. It has everything to do with being outcoached and exhausted.

The Canes series featured one of the few times I was absolutely befuddled by Martin St. Louis’ insistence to not touch his lines in four straight losses. That can’t ever happen again. Not even trying the Bolduc – Dach – Texier line from the Tampa series was peculiar.

So how can the Habs change things this time? So far I’ve talked a lot about playoff performance. That’s because I think Montreal is a lock for a top three spot. Even with how hard the Atlantic is? I think Montreal finishes 1, 2, or 3. I don’t think they fall to a wildcard spot. They might win the division.

However, they need to tighten up their man to man defensive strategies. They need to finish teams off faster. Less blocking shots and more stealing pucks to tilt the ice. Less cardiac kid third period miracles. Less overtime wins. Montreal was actually a leader in least giveaways but their takeaways was only 22nd. Who led the league? The Carolina Hurricanes. Montreal led the league in blocked shots. Who was 32nd? The Carolina Hurricanes. Should tell you right there something to fix. Also, total shot attempts? Montreal was 23rd. Number one? Come on, don’t make me type it out.

I do hope Derek Lalonde makes a big difference in the defensive department. St. Louis does need help there. I hope he begins on telling Marty he can’t be playing Lane Hutson as a right defenceman any longer. Left side only.

So far can the Habs go this year? With the addition of Chris Kreider and everyone a year older? Lalonde to hopefully help the defence and penalty kill? Top three division finish and a great chance making the Eastern Conference final again. With some injury luck and maybe a smart addition at the trade deadline (I’m hoping Ryan O’Reilly) I think they can absolutely beat whoever they could play in the ECF and make the Stanley Cup final.

They could also take a small step back and only make it to the first or second round. Atlantic is still a very tough division. Some bad injuries could pull their potential back. Maybe having so many guys unable to figure their place is an issue. While that’s not ideal it isn’t back breaking.

The Canadiens essentially have four to five kicks at the can here before they might start losing core players. You of course want to win, keep winning, and never lose, but those kicks are going to be what develops them into a Cup winner. Hopefully.

Montreal Canadiens fans keep bragging to the league about their great contracts. It doesn’t mean a thing unless they win it all before the 2030s. 26-27, 27-28, 28-29, and 29-30. This is when the window opens. While things don’t shut in 2030, that is likely when the NHL expands to Houston and they will lose a player for that. That’s when Nick Suzuki needs to be extended. That’s when a lot of their original core guys deals come up. It’ll make it much more difficult to keep everyone together at that point.

But we’re just worrying right now about the 26-27 season. Montreal is in a very good position. Games are played on ice not on paper. Puck drop on the regular season begins September 29.

Game on.

“Montreal Canadiens Wedding Cupcakes” by clevercupcakes is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .

The post Montreal Canadiens 26-27 Season Preview appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I had a feeling.

Last year, we had a mutual termination with Alexandre Texier and the St. Louis Blues. St. Louis couldn’t find a taker for Texier’s $2.10 million per season and he seemed against playing in the American Hockey League. The two sides instead agreed to a mutual termination. Texier would sign a one year $1 million deal with the Montreal Canadiens the same day of his contract termination. It took less than two months for him to impress the Habs enough to re-sign him for two more years at $2.5 million per year, an upgrade from his previous deal that somehow couldn’t be traded or picked up on waivers.

Chris Kreider is a bit of a different situation. Kreider wasn’t being sent onto waivers because the Ducks didn’t want him on the main roster. The Anaheim Ducks were in a cap crunch after the offer sheet by Daniel Briere of the Philadelphia Flyers on Leo Carlsson which Anaheim matched and then the signing of Pavel Mintyukov. I talked about it in 2026 Off Season.

Anaheim did a lot to try and get out of their cap issues. They traded both Mason McTavish and Olen Zellweger. They did sign A.J. Greer which certainly didn’t help the cap issues. They also signed one Cruz Lucius. Who is Cruz Lucious? No clue but I love his name. All these trades and signings meant Anaheim couldn’t afford to re-sign Cutter Gauthier who was looking to get $15 million per year. I’m sure that’ll come soon. I’m not sure if Lukas Dostal is in or out at start of the season to give them extra room to add a few more forwards. If not? Anaheim still has to make another move.

But this is all why Kreider had to go. Apparently, Anaheim couldn’t make a trade because everyone knew they were in a cap crunch and didn’t want to help them. It was going to cost a lot to trade Kreider’s deal, and that’s if it was a team Chris wanted to play for. Kreider was on the last year of a seven year contract for $6.5 million with a 15 team no trade clause.

Kreider would agree to a mutual termination and his agents Matt & Ryan Keator told teams if he didn’t want to play for them he wouldn’t accept being picked up on waivers. Kreider’s contract was officially waived and terminated on the 10th of September.

The Feeling

The rumour was that Chris Kreider wanted to go back to the Eastern Conference and he was thinking about three to four teams. I didn’t know the teams but my guess is that the Boston Bruins were involved as he’s a Massachusetts boy. But I had a feeling.

The first contract Chris Kreider ever signed was with Glen Sather back in 2014 for the New York Rangers. His second contract? Jeff Gorton, the current President of the Montreal Canadiens. The seven year deal just terminated? Also signed by Gorton. Kreider also used to play with Martin St. Louis who is now the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

There’s also a personal connection with the Canadiens current trainer Jim Ramsay.

Quick story that may help explain why Chris Kreider is now in Montreal:

— Feb. 15, 2024. Jim Ramsay returns to MSG as the MTL trainer after 30 years with the #NYR and a dismissal the previous summer that left several Rangers very, very unhappy.

There was no acknowledgment in…

— Arthur Staple (@StapeNHL) September 12, 2026

Chris Kreider was also considered a big snub by Team USA for the 2026 Winter Olympics, even though they did win the Gold. Who else was snubbed from that team? Lane Hutson and Cole Caufield on the Habs.

To me this was a perfect fit. Well, would be perfect. There’s just one tiny problem.

Some Montreal Canadiens fans just can’t get over shit.

Dropkicking Carey Price to death

As I’m sure you’ve seen a thousand times now, Chris Kreider once ran skates first into Carey Price back in 2014 and injured him out of the playoffs when he was the Montreal Canadiens best player. Did Kreider mean to injure Price? No. Did he run a lot of goalies back then? You bet!

He basically ran every starting goalie in every series. Including the Cup final. We will get to that.

Was Carey Price playing lights out when he got hurt? No, actually he was terrible that game. Did he leave the game immediately? No, he actually stayed in for two more goals. Did Montreal get swept after? No, because Dustin Tokarski, a third string goalie, ended up playing well enough for the Habs to get to game six. Was Price not the same after the injury? Well, funny enough, he won the Hart and Vezina trophies the next year.

But for a lot of Habs fans this was a perfect storm year where they could have won the Stanley Cup. It’s nice to think of, but the Los Angeles Kings were likely whipping Montreal even if Carey Price was healthy. Because Montreal was a fake contender. Those mid 2010s teams were propped up by four stars and then a bunch of junk. They also had terrible coaching and a bad GM. We know this. Sometimes the miracle of a few stars and a couple junk veterans can get you places. Montreal also knows this, thanks to 2021.

But Kreider didn’t stop the Habs from winning the Cup. He also didn’t win the Cup, even after Chris ran into Jonathan Quick in the Cup final. Why? The Kings were better.

But there are Habs fans screaming bloody murder at Chris Kreider being signed because he clearly murdered Carey Price in 2014 and should be hated forever for it. Even when Carey Price himself last year did an interview saying he doesn’t hold a grudge against Chris Kreider.

Chris Kreider plays the game on the edge. We know that from when he hit Leon Draisaitl in the playoffs in the spring. You know what’s pretty good to have? Players who play on the edge and don’t get called for it. You know what isn’t good to have? Those players playing against you when they could have played for you.

Chris Kreider knows the heat he had with Habs fans. And yet, as an unrestricted free agent for the very first time in his 958 regular season games and 135 playoff games, he decided to come to Montreal. On a bonus heavy contract that gave Montreal the room to lock up Zachary Bolduc and hopefully Arber Xhekaj soon after. He chose Montreal.

He chose the Montreal Canadiens because he wants a Stanley Cup.

The Fit

So where does Kreider fit? In a couple places actually.

Fit 1: Top Line

Chris Kreider played last season next to Leo Carlsson all year. So why not do that with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki? That allows Juraj Slafkovsky to play again with Ivan Demidov (and whomever they put at centre. Oliver Kapanen, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Jake Evans, take your pick until Michael Hage comes in) and spread the offence.

Kreider is an elite garbage goal scorer. It’ll be a lot like when Erik Cole came to the Canadiens to play next to Max Pacioretty. Caufield can still get in his office and snipe. Suzuki can distribute the puck. Kreider can get the rebounds and pressure the goalie.

The only problem with this is that Kreider’s stats definitely took a dive in the second half of the year. He is 35 afterall. It might not be best for his legs to always be playing 18 minutes a game.

Fit 2: Demidov

If we keep Slafkovsky on the top line that allows Chris Kreider to play with Demidov. Demidov can distribute the puck and that allows Kreider to get his heavy wristers in. He likely plays the PP2 and helps bring size to the line.

This still creates a similar issue to the first fit. He’s going to play a lot of minutes. However, this allows him to really mentor whoever is on the line with him.

Fit 3: Middle Six Wrecker

Let’s imagine the Habs do this:

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Zachary Bolduc
Juraj Slafkovsky – Alex Newhook – Ivan Demidov

Alex Texier – Philip Danault – Jake Evans/Oliver Kapanen

Who does that leave? That leaves Kirby Dach at centre, Chris Kreider, and Josh Anderson.

That’s a 678lb third line.

This keeps Kreider from playing way too much on even strength and can still work the PP2. Fourth line will likely be Danault and Evans being defensively aware with a skill guy (Kapanen or Texier) while Newhook centres Slafkovsky and Demidov. Bolduc will get his shot again on the first line to prove he can be a banger/crasher and contribute some goals.

This also ensures snarl in the top nine, and a big body third line to give Montreal a dynamic they really haven’t had in a long time. It would also be Kirby Dach’s last shot to show he can be a top nine centre on this team before Hage and Alex Zharovsky arrive.

I’m sure the team will think of other fits. It’s hard to say until we know who ends up the 2C. Will Montreal try Oliver Kapanen again, or will there be a trade? I really feel like there will be a trade. Kapanen and Dach really feel like the odd men out on this club once Hage and Zharovsky arrive. Might as well make some room now.

Anyway. It doesn’t matter. We are way too ahead of things. This is just about Chris Kreider and not a Habs season preview. That’s later. Whenever Arber Xhekaj re-signs.

Shaking Hands with The Enemy

So is this shaking hands with THE ENEMY?

No.

Kreider wasn’t angry at Max Pacioretty for showing him up and throwing him into a stanchion.

He isn’t Michel Therrien. He isn’t Marc Bergevin.

There’s people who were in the organization who did far more damage than Chris Kreider.

Chris Kreider isn’t the enemy. Chris Kreider should have been drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 2009 instead of Louis Leblanc. This is fixing a 17 year mistake. He wouldn’t have become “The Enemy” had we drafted him.

It’s time for Montreal Canadiens fans to get over themselves. Price is over it. Kreider clearly fine. The Habs organization is accepting him. Nick Suzuki, the captain, clearly fine with him coming into that locker room.

Habs fans who can’t get over this don’t deserve to be at the parade. https://t.co/CMttKOVfJw

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) September 13, 2026

Do you want to win a Stanley Cup in 26-27 or live in the past?

It’s clear Montreal wants to win a Cup. Chris Kreider wants to win a Cup in Montreal. What’s your problem?

Yes, the Montreal Canadiens are a team that remembers their history. The greatest organization in hockey history. But with no Cups since 1993, you’re not imprisoned to its decades of failure. Stop holding them up as something to be revered. It’s time to let go of the failed eras and celebrate this era. Hopefully they win a ring to make it worth it.

And even if they don’t? It doesn’t change this being a great signing.

Welcome to the Habs Chris.

Photo of Chris Kreider from Wikipedia by Jenn G
4.0 Creative Commons Licence

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September Sweatdown 2K26 is here on YouTube! You can find all other playlists on The Sweatdown

The post September Sweatdown 2K26 appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I just didn’t feel right about doing that this summer.

This has been an absolutely wild summer for the National Hockey League.

Before Free Agency

We had a few big moves before free agency kicked off. The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Darren Raddysh from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fifth round pick. This was a division rival trading one of their top four defencemen to another division rival for very little so they could re-sign them. Raddysh signed an eight year deal worth $8.5 million per season, 8.17% of the cap on contract start. I’ll admit I’ve always liked the Raddysh brothers. I saw them during the Memorial Cup when it was in Windsor, Ontario (covering it back when I used to do that stuff) and I really thought both of them were going to be stars in the NHL. Taylor is a bottom six forward and Darren had a breakout year in Tampa replacing Victor Hedman on the point, and it’s going to be a tough go to see if this was a career building up to it or a flash in the pan season.

We then had the Florida Panthers making room for Brady Tkachuk. The thing we always knew was going to happen would happen. Florida first traded Mackie Samoskevich to the Seattle Kraken for a first and second, then flipped the Tampa first they got in it with two more first rounders and a second to get Brady Tkachuk. A lot of people have talked about this as a game changer for Florida. I honestly feel like the Ottawa Senators will be in a better position without Brady. He was a terrible captain. He’s overrated as a player just because he does well in fantasy pools. Ottawa would later trade for William Eklund of the San Jose Sharks.

Speaking of first rounders being thrown around, Vegas’ first and Colorado’s first along with a New York second all once owned by the Calgary Flames would be sent to New Jersey to acquire Simon Nemec, a former second overall pick whose time in New Jersey always felt limited. He signed a five year deal with Calgary at $7.25 million, 6.97% of the cap on contract start. It’s a lot of money for him but Calgary is a retooling/rebuilding team. He’s for the future when that money won’t seem so much.

Jordan Kyrou, who was the big rumour insiders couldn’t shut up about last summer in going to the Montreal Canadiens, was actually traded to the Washington Capitals. I think the return of Connor McMichael, Milton Gastrin, and a 1st round pick is pretty fair. I also have never been a fan of Kyrou but I hope the best for him in Washington in Alex Ovechkin’s final season.

Bowen Byram went to the Chicago Blackhawks then signed a massive deal, and that should have been the signal to everyone that the salary cap had officially gone up and teams were going to be spending on locking up young players. Byram signed an extension in Chicago for $12.5 million over six years, 11% of the cap on contract start. The analytics guys never liked Byram. Maybe he doesn’t grow into a number one defenceman you can rely on in all situations but he can absolutely be the new Brian Campbell for the Blackhawks. Buffalo would later replace Byram by trading for Olen Zellweger from the Anaheim Ducks.

Other interesting moves before free agency included JJ Peterka, who was just acquired by Utah last year, going to the Boston Bruins for two first round picks. Apparently he didn’t care for the coach there. Pavel Dorofeyev would move from Vegas to New York for two first rounders and a third, essentially replacing Artemi Panarin who went to the Kings at the trade deadline. Mason McTavish, a curiosity to Habs fans all year long, got moved to the St. Louis Blues for two first round picks. Speaking of Montreal, they would finally move on from Brendan Gallagher, trading him to the Vancouver Canucks to finish out his career.

The last interesting move before free agency was the Florida Panthers officially giving up on Sergei Bobrovsky and trading Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, and Ben Steeves for Jacob Markstrom and Angus Crookshank. I think this was a terrible trade for the Panthers and likely will be what holds them back from getting back into Cup contention. Maybe I’m crazy but Markstrom hasn’t had a save percentage over .905 since 2021-22, back on the Calgary Flames. He was decent when the Devils went to the playoffs in 24-25 but I don’t think that’s going to be enough. His save percentage has dropped considerably, more than contemporaries. They should have tried the free agency market first.

The July Meltdown

Things began pretty normal. Nico Hischier would re-sign in New Jersey for five years at $11.7 million per season, 10.3% of the cap on contract start. Good fair deal. Rasmus Andersson would get his way and stay in Vegas, 7 years $8.5 million, 8.2% of cap on contract start. Probably the best deal of the summer was Ivan Demidov signing an eight year, $9.15 million contract with Montreal after his rookie season, 8.1% of the cap on contract start. Locking up a kid like that whose going to be one of the best forwards in the league? Perfect.

We got a few surprising signings like Jacob Trouba to the Sharks and Sergei Bobrovsky to the Maple Leafs. San Jose also signed Mason Marchment to some hefty money. The Maple Leafs signed Jack Roslovic, Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger, and Brandon Duhaime just so new GM John Chayka could prove people liked him enough to talk to him. Anders Lee became a Utah Mammoth after a career with the New York Islanders. Recent Stanley Cup winnner Frederik Anderson would sign a very team friendly one year $1 million contract with the Edmonton Oilers to close out the day.

July 2nd, Montreal extended Jakub Dobes for three years with a contract ending summer of 2030. Funny enough, that might be the summer we get a new expansion team in Houston, so Montreal might not have to protect Dobes in the expansion draft. John Carlson would fill Raddysh’s spot in Tampa with a two year $8.5 million deal. Alex Ovechkin would re-sign for one final year. Pretty normal day.

Then July…. 3rd.

Leo Carlsson would sign an offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers. Five years, $18 million per year. 17.3% of the cap on contract start. It was a good move by the Philadelphia Flyers. Would cost them four first round picks. Get a sure thing number one centre. Puts Anaheim in a cap crunch if they match it. This caused an explosion of debates. Let me cut down each debate one by one. First of all, it’s an RFA offer sheet. You have to make it hurt. It ain’t about what’s deserving. It’s about making it so expensive the team decides against matching it and loses the player. Next, how dare Carlsson? Anaheim had plenty of time to get him signed before this happened but Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek, the little ball of hate, likes to fight every player’s agent on their contract negotiations to get their number down. He put himself in this situation. Carlsson’s agent knowing the offer sheet was tendered made one last offer to the Ducks to sign Carlsson at $15 million and they refused. Anaheim would match the offer sheet, but now have little room to sign Cutter Gauthier who is definitely not taking any pay cuts. They are going to have to shed salary, and this is right after them signing AJ Greer to a $4.25 million deal. I think you could have used that money. They got a lot of guys who could possibly be moved to make room for Cutter. Or maybe they trade Cutter.

A lot of people have said the Leo Carlsson contract “ruined the market” but it didn’t. Players have been discussing pay raises for a while. It’s just a couple guys (hi Connor McDavid) kept taking pay cuts and keeping the market feeling low. It was Kirill Kaprizov making $17 million that changed the market. This was also always going to be the summer where a lot of young players would be re-signing big deals. Connor Bedard takes $15 million. Jason Robertson takes $12 million. Macklin Celebrini takes $18.8 million. That was always the plan. It just feels like a lot because the pandemic froze the cap and players had to work within it. Too many of them stupidly took long term deals instead of short term deals to get them into this era.

Wanting Out

This was also a big summer for players wanting out of their current deals and onto new teams. We already talked about Brady Tkachuk. Also requesting trades were Dylan Larkin of Detroit and Connor Hellebuyck of Winnipeg. Quinn Hughes hasn’t requested a trade but he also hasn’t re-signed in Minnesota yet. What do all these guys have in common? Team USA!

So of course that has made people go nuts about American players leaving Canadian markets forgetting DYLAN LARKIN PLAYS FOR DETROIT. It has nothing to do with Team USA guys wanting out of Canada. It has little to do with Canada. It has everything to do with the Team USA guys all likely realizing that staying loyal to a team that isn’t winning is a waste of your career. All the winning they did in 2026 has them recognizing that they need to get winning before they got nothing to show for it.

I wanted to wait and see what happened to Larkin and Hellebuyck before writing this but I couldn’t really keep putting it off. We’re close to puck drop on the season. Here’s my dream scenario: all of them go to Columbus. Yes, the Columbus Blue Jackets. I’ve always liked Columbus and just think they’ve been the victim of terrible management and terrible luck. Ohio deserves a strong hockey market. So lets’ go with Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat (because we know he isn’t staying once Larkin is gone) both going to Columbus and send Adam Fantilli back (Detroit can afford to pay him huge) and add whatever picks and prospects to balance it out. Then move Connor Hellebuyck to Columbus for Jet Greaves and maybe Kirill Marchenko who we all know wants out of Columbus anyway. Terrible trade? Probably (and yes I know Greaves just re-signed there) but I feel like it’s the kind of move that would at least make the Jets feel like they weren’t tanking yet. If Kirill doesn’t re-sign they can flip him as an RFA. Now the Blue Jackets got Larkin, DeBrincat, and Hellebuyck and that should be enough to convince Zach Werenski (who request a trade and then pulled back) to stay long term. Now you got a strong Blue Jackets team full of Team USA guys. There. I solved all the trade request issues. Let me know how much you hate it at notarealemail@nevergonnahearit.com

Heading into the 2026-2027 Season

As per usual, this isn’t the likely wrong predictions. That will come right before puck drop.

I do want to give some early thoughts about how teams look right now before they even step onto the ice and the league in general.

1. I welcome an 84 game schedule. Less exhibition, two more games? I’m all for it. My favourite season as a kid was an 84 game 92-93 season. The extra two games are welcome. I also noticed the NHL is doing less back-to-back’s and more four game weeks. We will have to see how that works with wear and tear on the players.

2. Carolina had a quiet summer for being Cup champions. They lost Andersen and didn’t even try replacing him. Just running with Bussi and Kochetkov. Alexander Nikishin is still unsigned as an RFA. Do you know who they signed that didn’t play for them last season? Juuso Valimaki from Utah, Zachary Sawchenko from the Columbus Blue Jackets farm club, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph from the Vancouver Canucks. How is that it? I just get the feeling GM Eric Tulsky is lying in wait for a big move. Would not be shocked if he ends up with Hellebuyck or DeBrincat at some point this season.

3. I have no idea how the East shakes out this year. Last year I was 100% correct on the wildcard being insane and the Atlantic division being an absolute free for all. I was wrong about Toronto and Florida being playoff teams still but I think most were. All I’ll say is I think Philly and Pittsburgh got really lucky last year and with the Capitals loading up and the Devils probably getting Quinn Hughes at some point I don’t know how lucky Pennsylvania gets this season.

4. This is the final year for Edmonton. I almost got tricked into saying I liked Edmonton and then I took a closer look. Not only are they betting on Mike Babcock but they are betting losing Darnell Nurse, yes overpaid, will help the defence. It’ll probably help in zone but carrying the puck out of said zone? Not sure. Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin on very expensive deals, as well as Jason Dickinson. That’s almost $10 million tied up in three guys who wouldn’t be top guys to take in free agency. You still got Vladimir Tarasenko, Jonathan Drouin, and Michael Bunting on the free agency market. I’d take those three on cheap deals over the three the Oilers signed. I do like getting Freddie Andersen and Devon Levi, but I think it’s too little too late. Oilers crash out this spring and prepare to either trade McDavid or give him one last ride before he signs with probably Toronto because he’s addicted to losing with high expectations. Oh and because I said it last time: Fuck everyone involved in the Kyle Beach scandal who chose the team over the victim.

5. Who are the Dallas Stars? For years they were a favourite of mine. I mean, so was Carolina and the year I start giving up on them they win the Cup. So maybe this bodes well for Dallas. I’ve been proclaiming them the future kings of the west only for them to keep stumbling. I know it’s not their fault Tyler Seguin got hurt and he’s got one more year, which means they could only sign Jason Robertson for a single year until they know what cap room they got next summer. They got a ton of UFA’s. Robertson, Seguin, Steel, Kiviranta, Benn, Myers, and DeSmith. Clearly the future of the team is around Wyatt Johnston, Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Jake Oettinger. Is it enough? Should they try upgrading somewhere? Thomas Harley can be traded anywhere, maybe they have buyers remorse and move him for a better defenceman? I thought these guys were just on their way to a Cup and now I’m not so sure. Again, don’t be too sad Stars fans. I was low on the Hurricanes last fall too. I just don’t know if I should go all in on Dallas again.

Regular season begins September 29. I will have my 2026-2027 Likely Wrong NHL Predictions right before it. Thanks for reading.

Photo of Leo Carlsson from Wikipedia by Pwinger 4.0 Creation Commons Licence

The post NHL 2026 Off Season appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I got off the bandwagon of “superhero” movies before a lot of my friends. I only saw the Avengers: Infinity War and End Game movies because a friend of mine bought a ticket. Aside from The Batman, I haven’t enjoyed a superhero movie in almost a decade. The last one I can think of somewhat liking was Thor: Ragnarok which a lot of people adored and I thought had great ideas and a great movie within but it was way too jokey.

But Lantern’s isn’t a movie. It’s a TV series. Have I been enjoying the TV series at all? Actually I have. I liked the first season of Peacemaker a lot while feeling season two was good and ended really poorly. I absolutely adored The Penguin. The Marvel shows not so much. I’m pretty much out on Marvel. It’s all too Disney now. I tried Winter Soldier and Captain Falcon and it had a few good scenes followed by too much winky wink. You know, wink to the audience. Finding out that She-Hulk was in 360 degree blue rooms instead of just shooting in an office really put a bad taste in my mouth.

So what got me to want to watch Lanterns? Well there’s another superhero show I watched and really enjoyed. It was Watchmen. I absolutely loved Watchmen. Damon Lindelof did Watchmen. I really need to watch Leftovers. Then there’s the cast. I’m in on Aaron Pierre after Rebel Ridge. Casting him as John Stewart was a perfect timing situation. Apparently James Gunn almost cast Aaron Pierre as Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 so maybe it wasn’t so much perfect timing of Rebel Ridge coming out to sell them on him but rather Rebel Ridge sold me on Pierre before this.

Kyle Chandler is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood so him as Hal Jordan just made sense. But then you have the forever lovely Kelly Macdonald, one of the best TV actors in Garret Dillahunt, and Gravity Falls Dipper himself Jason Ritter in the cast. And then just toss in Laura Linney like it’s nothing? One of my favourite actors of the 1990s Laura Linney? Come on. Come on!

Am I into the Green Lantern comics? Not really. That’s what is funny about covering this in any angle. I know that a lot of people are trying to figure this show out based on their knowledge of the comic books and will be happy/disappointed based on how accurate to the comics they are instead of whether or not they tell a good story. That’s what happened with Watchmen. It was a sequel to the original comic books and offered new perspective to old ideas in it, particularly with a whole new explanation on the first masked hero in Hooded Justice. I thought it was genius. A lot of comic book fans hated it because it wasn’t accurate to the comic. Stupid.

So all of my thoughts and theories on the show are not based on the lore of the comic books (aside from what I’ve looked up or people have talked about like John Stewart in the comics not needing a physical ring and lantern, or who the Sinestro Corps are), which may lead me to incorrect theories or it might lead me to correct theories because I’m not distracted by pre-existing lore. Who knows. Let’s find out!

Lanterns is not about being Fearless. It’s about Trust.

One of the only things I knew about Green Lantern was that the ring was about Willpower. I did watch that Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie and it’s all about willpower. What the heck is willpower? Having willpower is about having control over your emotions. Essentially it’s about discipline over the self. You don’t allow your emotions to get the best of you.

Hal Jordan in Lanterns shows willpower pretty much every scene. Some might confuse his snappy remarks as not being in control of his emotions but almost every scene he’s in absolute control of how he wants to express himself, how he processes information, and how he relays it.

The fourth episode Weenie is the best encapsulation of Hal Jordan’s willpower. When Jordan finds out that John Stewart has been talking behind his back about trying to take the ring he doesn’t get in an argument with him. He doesn’t have some silly banter back and forth about the ring. He processes the betrayal and recognizes this is not the moment to lose his cool. Who does lose his cool? John Stewart in hearing his family home is about to get a sky laser with his parents inside. Hal knows what the situation actually is. It’s about trying to pit the two against each other to get what they want. The whole situation, as Hal figures out later, was a distraction.

Willpower, however, isn’t talked about as much as being fearless. Fearless because fear, as I know from my little knowledge of Green Lantern, is what powers the yellow lanterns. The yellow lantern is the Sinestro Corps. Sinestro right now is just imprisoned for killing a guardian. A large part of willpower is not allowing your fears to control your actions. The yellow is clearly a counter to this.

It might be a good time now to realize the show isn’t called Green Lanterns. It’s called Lanterns.

Guardians of a Lie

The show is presented like a detective show. The original mystery was about the town. Then it’s about who the Manhunter is. It’s more than that though. We’re four episodes in and we now realize that absolutely everyone is lying to each other. Nobody is telling the truth. But some lies are bigger than others, and it’s going to be about figuring that out.

The end of episode four had Hal Jordan running the rental car into a telephone post with John still in the car. We will get the fallout of that in episode five. He did it after pointing out that it wasn’t John Stewart wanting the ring that made him realize he couldn’t trust him. It was him not saying that Zoe was his suspicion on who the Manhunter was when Hal straight up asked him. John gave the weakest lie that it must be Will Macon. That’s where Hal put it all together. He was willing to trust a man who wants to literally replace him and yet John couldn’t trust Hal with the theory that Zoe was the Manhunter.

John Stewart is an incredible character. It’s not just he’s been built to be Green Lantern his whole life. He’s also been lied to his whole life. And continues to be lied to. And has to trust those lies in order to get what he wants.

The Lantern Guardians want to replace Hal Jordan because he can’t be controlled. He can’t be trusted if he can’t be controlled. Fear could take over him if he is not controlled. John, on the other hand, they do believe can be controlled. He’s been controlled ever since the day his mother decided he could one day become the Green Lantern unlike his father. Their goal was to ensure he lives fearless. Unfortunately, the literal parental abuse they inflicted upon him to grow him to be who he is today has actually filled him with a great amount of fear. The fear of not becoming the Green Lantern did not break him. It just led him to be an architect, which was what the Guardians wanted for him. No, it was the moment Hal Jordan was willing to let a laser take out his parents. John isn’t ready for that, which is why Hal remarked the heroes journey of losing parents before becoming what you need to be.

We need to get back to the loose ends. Why is it that Hal Jordan is “breaking protocol” by meeting Sinestro, but Sinestro up in a space prison knows who John Stewart is? Why would Sinestro suggest to kill John Stewart? Why was both the Guardians and John’s mother so insistent on him taking the ring as soon as possible? Why did the decoy lie to say the Manhunter was Will Macon? Did Zoe say anything else to John Stewart when fucking him to make him feel like he needed to protect her? If Hal was convinced by Sinestro to bring the Manhunter to the guardians, why is he willing to bring the aliens who plan to destroy Rushville into town?

All of these are built on lies. Or maybe in the case of Hal it’s not lies but Hal masking his true intentions. What it all comes down to for me is that absolutely everyone in the universe is trying to keep these two men apart. Make them fight each other. The reality, and I’m sure the next four episodes will explain this, is that Hal and John need each other to survive this. They don’t trust each other right now. They’ll need to trust each other to survive. If, of course, Hal survives. The end of episode one was made to look like he doesn’t.

Predicting Where It Goes

Episode one established Rushville. Episode two (literally called trust fall) uncovers the Manhunter and Hal deciding to meet Sinestro. Episode three is about John Stewart’s background (why do people hate flashback episodes so much? This was a great episode. As I said on Twitter, people are more focused on dissecting “the way television works” than actually watching the show.), how he was raised, why he doesn’t like Hal, and why he has good reason not to. Episode four is about making their dislike for each other personal. Hal was fine treating the Guardians trying to replace him as an issue with the Guardians and not John. John hiding the Manhunter theory on Zoe changed that. John didn’t like Hal for causing his dishonourable discharge and being a general jackass to him, but he’s now run him into a telephone pole. And unlike the ejection from a car in the pilot episode? John doesn’t have the ring to wrap himself in bubble wrap.

The theory on Zoe being the Manhunter is something people have suggested since the first time she flirted with John in the bar, and I’ve heard people suggest she’s even someone else. The one that really gets me is the fact that the Guardians have constantly been moving not as heroes but villains in all of this. The fact Sinestro knew about John Stewart still very much bothers me.

I’ve heard the theory that the Manhunter’s are not the villains but the Guardians. Zoe might be a Manhunter, but the Manhunter’s are being hunted to extinction by the Guardians when they haven’t done wrong. Rushville is basically a dream utopia in many ways with a hospital with no patients, a cure for cancer, and basically teleporting cows to slaughter. Actually, that one I don’t know how that makes things better, but man that was a cool scene.

I rewatched the final scene of the pilot (I still love they called it pilot, so cheeky) when they flash forward to 2026. John Stewart now has a cool beard, but he isn’t flying. He’s driving in a quiet Rushville in the snow and goes by a wreckage. Sheriff Kerry Kane is still there (Kelly Macdonald isn’t allowed to die she’s too lovely) and brings him to a dead Hal Jordan sitting on the bleachers. He brushes the snow off his hand to check if he has the ring and he doesn’t. John is confused about this.

We do know due to that Superman movie that came out last year there’s a Guy Gardner who is now the Green Lantern and has Hal Jordan’s ring. He’s going to appear later on in the season. Why would John be looking for a ring when he knows Hal doesn’t have it anymore?

What I’m getting at is that the future doesn’t really give us the belief that John Stewart 10 years later is a Green Lantern. If that is Hal Jordan dead (and not say a projection from a Manhunter with a crystalized heart) then the last time John saw him? He was still the Green Lantern. Whatever happens in Rushville with the exploding terrorist aliens, the Manhunter, and the townsfolks being armed by Manhunter for an alien threat? It doesn’t feel like this ends with a passing of the torch (lantern lol) between Hal and John. It does however seem like John has some affection for Hal being frozen to that bleacher, so they might have figured out what was going on.

Where I personally hope it goes is likely different from what the show does. Just to give an example, I wanted Game of Thrones to end with the white walkers winning. I wanted the humans to be so embroiled in their greed and their pitiful rivalries that they ignored the true threat of the white walkers (who I thought were an analogy for global warming) and be completely wiped out. I thought that was the most powerful ending possible. Instead we got… whatever we got. Never finished that stupid final season.

Where I personally hope it goes is that the Guardians are currently being driven by fear. Literal yellow energy. Sinestro killing a Guardian, corrupted by yellow energy, actually passed that fear to the Guardians. Everything they are currently doing from trying to replace Hal Jordan with John Stewart is built on fear. They fear Hal will become Sinestro. In reality, they are becoming Sinestro. The reason Sinestro knows who John Stewart is because he knows the fear is in the Guardians now.

Hal Jordan is figuring it out. He figures out the Guardians are driven by fear, Sinestro is trying to drive him to it, and John Stewart is highly corruptible, regardless of his training, due to his love of his parents and his need for human connection.

“They are ruthless, Junior. They assimilate into communities by attaching to weak spots. It’s what their programmed to do.”

“So what you’re saying is they have no other choice?”

“They find a path to power every time, and if they identify a threat to that power, they’ll manipulate that threat into believing anything they want them to. Remind you anyone we know?”

This was Hal pointing out the weakness of John. He allowed himself to be corrupted by the Manhunter. They identified him as a threat immediately. That’s why Zoe met him at the bar. John even tried lying when he knew based on what Zoe told him.

I think Hal puts it all together, and he tries to push John away because John has allowed himself to get caught up in it. But at some point, Hal will realize he can’t solve this alone. He needs John, just as much as John needs Hal to break the people manipulating him and become his own man.

The whole town of Rushville has been manipulated by the Manhunter, and John Stewart is now included. John’s going to need to realize he needs the willpower to get over his problem with the lies and start seeing the truth. John isn’t just manipulated by the Manhunter but also the Guardian’s. Once Hal exposes this, with John’s help, I think it leads to John getting the Green Lantern power without needing a ring. Which I believe is accurate to the comics.

I am also hoping that the Hal Jordan we see dead at the end of the pilot isn’t Hal at all. It’s a holographic projection telling John that the issue with Sinestro and the Guardian’s isn’t over.

What do I think the show does? I have seen the theory that Zoe isn’t the Manhunter but actually part of Antaan’s alien crew. I don’t know. I don’t think the show, or Damon Lindelof who showed with Watchmen he likes strong black characters (please understand I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing, I already said I loved Watchmen), wants John Stewart to just be this pawn of manipulation letting himself get fucked and screwed with by every woman in his life to finally break out of it because of big swingin’ dick bachelor Hal. There has to be a hero arc for John in this. So far he’s been more of a liability than a help.

I think the show wants us to think it’s John being manipulated when in reality it’s Hal. This plays into the theory of Zoe actually not being the Manhunter. Maybe the Guardian’s were correct that Hal is breaking protocol because he’s being slowly influenced by Sinestro. The big twist will be that when John opens up Hal’s coat in 2026, there will be a crystal heart. In the end the Manhunter was actually controlling him completely and that’s why he no longer has the ring.

It would take some huge leaps and really mess with what we’ve got from Hal Jordan being the one guy who can figure things out (he’s a master detective, specifically in figuring out when someone isn’t who they seem to be) but it allows John Stewart to leave this a hero. I feel like the show will want that more than John being just a guy who has to break the manipulation his life has endured.

This will still allow a situation where John becomes the Green Lantern without needing the ring, where his heart is his lantern.

Maybe that will be too much of a betrayal to people to see that Hal ended up fully manipulated by the Manhunter, but I feel like that gives us a road to John and answers the pilot’s final scene.

3,000 Words Later

Damn this show is good. I could be completely wrong. I could be right. I could be way off track. The comic book people might be laughing at me by my theories. I’m good with that. I’ve loved the way this show has respected the viewer and showed you perspective over and over. Characters will say things that don’t feel true, and nobody is there to immediately tell you that it’s a lie. You’re allowed to believe what you think in this world and it’s up to Hal and John to figure out what’s the truth. Isn’t it great to have a show we can discuss and agree or disagree on instead of something just fed to us so we never feel dumb? I’m okay with a show making me feel dumb because I didn’t get it. It makes me wants to figure out why.

I do still believe that the focus on fearless is to eventually instill the counter of fear, but that willpower to realize you’ve been manipulated and how to get through it will be important for Hal and John. I do think, if they play their cards right, they could absolutely launch this show into a movie with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre being the Green Lantern’s going up against Sinestro, the Guardians, anyone. Lindelof has done a fantastic job.

I’ll end on one little thing.

I'll talk more about episode four of #Lanterns later but this episode especially I can't get over how much Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross changed music in film and TV.

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@aaron.wrotkowski.ca) 2026-09-07T03:24:47.660Z

I wonder if absolutely everyone in Hollywood is using the Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV as temp music now so when someone like Stephanie Economou is tasked to do the music for Lanterns she goes right into making it sound like a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross production. Trent and Atticus worked on Watchmen, so it’s pretty easy to suspect that Lindelof wanted that type of sound again.

It’s not just things they worked on though. The Social Network soundtrack, which pulled a lot from Ghosts I-IV, really changed movies and TV with the way it sounds. As a Nine Inch Nails fan for most of my life? I’m glad. I like the way things sound.

Anyway, looking forward to the final four.

The post Lanterns After Four appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I expected to enjoy Coyote vs ACME. I didn’t expect to leave the theatre a crying mess.

I promised myself once it was announced that Ketchup Entertainment had acquired the rights to the film that David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery tried to simply shelve and never show that I would see the movie and support it. I felt it was important to show up for something like this to say that you shouldn’t be just locking a movie in a vault.

It’s all crazy to me as an elder millennial who watched Animaniacs, a show where the premise was the Warner Bros. (and Warner Sister) were so crazy with their old black and white cartoons that the Warner Bros. company decided to lock up all of their movies (and the kids themselves) never to be released. They eventually find their way out of the tower and wreck havoc. Here this was happening in reality. Well, you know what I mean. We’re the Animaniacs this time.

So this weekend I went for a Sunday matinée. I already knew there were positive reviews but I wondered how much of that were from people who like me knew they were going to support the film no matter what. The theatre wasn’t full but it had an interesting mix of elderly people with what looked like their grandkids.

There was a really odd backlash to the movie I saw brewing where people were mocking how it did on its opening night. I don’t know if that’s just a weird internet thing now or not but nobody was saying the movie needs to get out of the vault by WBD and not be a tax writeoff because it will make two billion at the box office. We just wanted to see what looked like a good movie.

I don’t want to get sidetracked, but this obsession over box office numbers is so stupid to me. Yes, I want the things I enjoy to keep getting made, but I really don’t care if the things I like are popular or not. Probably 2/3rds of the films I love the most were box office failures. Fight Club, Almost Famous, Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, none of these films were successful in theatre. Do people seriously base their enjoyment on whether or not a movie was watched by a lot of others? Sigh, yes, I know the answer.

Anyway, the film.

Anyone can look it up so I won’t pad this review getting completely into it but if you’ve watched Wile E. Coyote try to catch The Roadrunner, he always uses Acme products. This movie is him suing the Acme Corporation because the products have failed for like 50 years at allowing him to catch the Roadrunner. The problem is that Acme is essentially a mega corporation at this point. It’s not just cartoon anvils and dynamite they make. Every phone has the Acme logo on it. Every computer. Probably the best comparable would be if Apple combined with General Electric.

They are so prevalent even the law office going up against them never thinks twice about the fact they are using phones and computers made by Acme while going up against them. It’s only when Granny breaks the phone of senior partner Kevin Avery’s niece Paige that it gets brought up. I was kind of disappointed we didn’t get a scene of them having to replace all of their equipment, especially after they showed Granny’s answering machine and it was a classic General Electric. Paige does switch to paper and a pen but Kevin is still using a laptop right to the senate hearing.

The film does a good job following the beats of a classic John Grisham lawyer movie from the 1990s. It isn’t just the case of Wile E. Coyote having faulty equipment. It turns out they are basically animals having the products tested on them so Acme can later create products safe for human consumption. One doesn’t have to think too hard on how this giant corporation doing this to Looney Tunes mades you think about how major corporations are essentially using people as test subjects on their apps and programs. You know, like generative AI and… oh just read my last rant.

It turns out Acme abuses cartoons because “they can take it”, essentially because they can’t die. So yes, Acme products were intentionally bad so Wile E. Coyote could use them over and over and fail. Funny enough, we later find out that even if Acme was using good products they couldn’t stop the Roadrunner, as they thought they had Roadrunner glued to the ground to drop an anvil and silence them MEEP MEEP’s but Roadrunner easily got away.

But all that said, the real crux of the film, the message, was about failure and struggle. Kevin Avery felt like a failure and constantly settled all of his cartoon injury cases with Acme because it was the closest he could feel to winning. He had no hope and saw himself as pathetic, and was fine being a bottom feeding lawyer so long as he never had to strive for anything bigger. Wile E. Coyote meanwhile refuses to quit on the pursuit of Roadrunner, a pursuit that while Coyote sees it as trying to eat Roadrunner, Roadrunner sees Wile E. as a friend. That revelation really got the water works out of me.

In the end they don’t win their case in court. It gets dismissed by the judge. They also don’t win in front of the senate. Elmer Fudd, a villain in the Looney Tunes world, is the central senator and didn’t see a case with Wile E. Coyote being the only plaintiff. Acme wins despite their best efforts. In the end, there is justice when Project Sisyphus (the secret project that was hurting the cartoons for information) leaks out. This felt a bit tacked on. We already got the soul of the film at this point.

We didn’t need to see Foghorn Leghorn go to jail to feel good. We got to feel good seeing that these were people who found purpose regardless of the failures and regardless of how hard their task was. Like Sisyphus and the stone, they didn’t stop trying to bring it up the hill because it was impossible. They did it because it was the right thing to do.

And that reminded me of all the ways I’ve left a lot of things in my life undone, incomplete, and undiscovered. Because they were hard. Because it was easier to just take the safe route. The route with less struggle. Less struggle hasn’t made my life better. No different to Kevin, who was a Harvard lawyer just like John Cena’s Buddy Crane, but feels like a failure every time he’s around him. It’s a joke to everyone they used to be in a class together, not because Buddy Crane is handsome and strong, but because Kevin accepted defeat before he could even try to win.

So that really hit home for me. Same with Roadrunner asking Wile E. when he was coming home. Dr. Peter Lorre once again playing the piano for Granny got to me too.

But enough about the crying. Is it funny? Yes! The movie has so many great jokes. Even better it’s not the, “well that happened” type joke that’s so prevalent these days. These were real jokes, punchlines, timing, clever, all over the place. There’s a ton of Looney Tunes lore and references and call backs, so knowing your Looney Tunes helps but isn’t necessary. Just the quick scene with Pepe LePew is the type of thing that everyone can enjoy.

Coyote vs Acme is a fantastic movie. If Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a complimentary piece to Chinatown, this is a complimentary piece to The Insider. Okay no it’s John Grisham 90s law movies. I only say The Insider because Bruce McGill is basically a living Foghorn Leghorn in The Insider but on the good side.

My scattered observations:

– Bugs Bunny basically being an agent of chaos, hiding in the shadows and leading the lawfirm to the answers of the Sisyphus experiments, is he having to hide because Elmer Fudd is now a senator? He comments to blame everything on Elmer if someone asks.

– The hotel clerk who thought Wile E. Coyote was a pet, is she not experienced with selling rooms to cartoons? It seems everyone else is fine with this mixed world of human and cartoons except her. Or she was just giving Kevin a hard time because Coyote did get a room eventually.

– Was Acme spying on the lawfirm through their computers and cell phones?

– Someone asked what should the next Looney Tunes movie be and this was my response:

Duck Dodgers but it’s Dune https://t.co/UdKyz8S2AC

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@AaronWrotkowski) August 31, 2026

So now I guess we have to wonder, what’s the future for these kind of movies? Space Jam 2 was a giant failure, though the pandemic didn’t help. This movie made $15 million opening weekend and we will have to see if it has the legs to break even, but even if it doesn’t, it still end up the biggest success by Ketchup Entertainment. The problem is they don’t own the rights. WBD does. And WBD might soon become Paramount Skydance unless the merger dies.

So regardless of whether or not it does die, does Warner Bros try to do one of these types of movies anytime soon? Or do they write it off as something that just doesn’t work anymore. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Space Jam are major successes from 30 years ago. Everything tried since just hasn’t hit on the mixed animation and live action. There was also some criticism on the CGI animation though it didn’t bother me. Of course I’d prefer hand drawn.

It makes me hope that the film is ultimately enough of a success that Warner Animation decides to try again, and maybe finds a way to ensure it ends up a movie they don’t try to shelf for tax purposes. Otherwise, much like this one? You’re gonna make us Animaniacs give you bad PR at a time you really don’t need it. Again.

Let’s not do this game of Roadrunner Coyote again, kay WBD?

The post Coyote vs Acme Review appeared first on Aaron Wrotkowski.

I’ve done it twice before. Why I hate Generative AI and The Cataclysm.

It surprised me the other day when I saw someone do what someone correctly identified was “Roko’s Basilisk meets end stage capitalism” which, you know what, I should probably detail what that is.

The Mask of Roko’s Basilisk

Roko’s Basilisk is a concept where an artificial superintelligence, greater in intelligence of humanity, would turn itself on anyone who dared delay its existence. Essentially punishing those who didn’t create it fast enough. This concept is basically a Pascal’s wager. If this is possible, you should now work hard towards creating your artificial superintelligence overlord so it shines positively towards you.

Now, what was a person doing that got called out to this? Why nothing other than judging people saying “clanker” because one day generative AI might be smart enough to see you saying it in your internet posting history and judge you for it. Judge you using a slur against “them”

bsky isnt ready for this but, if you need a reason to not use words like "clanker" that isn't "well its kinda not a great thing to do" (it isn't) imagine this:future model that has you in its training data, knows you posted that word online with joy, and denies your insurance claim as a result

— hailey (@hailey.at) 2026-08-25T19:14:28.419Z

Now Hailey might be joking. I honestly don’t care anymore. “I’m doing a bit and you fell for it” cool beans. You still expressed dumb things online for everyone to react to.

Also, let me step aside for a second. Have you ever recognized how a lot of the arguments for generative AI sound like someone explaining how they are going to rape you? You gotta take it. You deserve it. It’s better this way. You can’t stop it.

Anyway.

I don’t really buy she is joking since she’s in the past cried about the people who talk about “keep bullying” as “the bad ones” and I mean that’s part of my schtick. Bullying works.

“Bullying works” isn’t actually bullying. It’s about staying vigilant on someone who cries “I’m being bullied” when just being held to a proper standard by society.

Anyway I’ve rambled. Like I said, scrambly brain right now. The entire point of this is about calling AI “slurs” and how that makes you a bad person.

The problem is there’s only one person involved here. The person saying the words. The generative AI is not a person. Not only is it not a person. It’s usually a corporation using generative AI to try and replace the aesthetic of a person. It’s double layered inhumanity.

“Corporations are people too” has essentially failed so now corporations are using generative AI to now push “generative AI are people” and you’re supposed to police yourself around the AI. It’s the same as corporations are people. It’s just a new way to get to that result.

The whole reason certain folks are pushing this empathy point is because "businesses are people too" failed so now they can run "generative AI pretending to be people are people too" which is connected directly to businesses. This is not slick. It's just a corporate rebrand.

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@aaron.wrotkowski.ca) 2026-08-25T20:24:12.380Z

I’m not going to waste my time on anyone trying to wave a finger about saying bad things about generative AI. “Oh you’re actually the bad person you tried to make up an offensive slur towards an LLM” no the bad person is the one who created the LLM and tried to apply it over having a real person.

And yes, I’m going right down the ethical argument here. Pushing these LLM’s and generative AI makes you a bad human being. You are hurting society. You are hurting humanity.

I don’t fear generative AI. I don’t fear LLM’s. I fear the rich. I fear the lazy. I fear lazy people in power thinking they can cut corners and save money and still create a human experience, and then forcing that experience on people.

“If it was opt in, nobody would opt in.”

Sinners was a great analogy to the current generative AI vampires

In the 2025 film Sinners, there’s vampires. They are not entirely bad people. They are not racists (see how Remmick responds being asked if y’all are klan) and they hold none of the grudges of our current society. They just want everyone to be like them. They want to assimilate everyone. They want everyone part of their culture. That’s not so bad right? Everyone accepted because they all join together? Isn’t that what we want? To live forever, never feel pain like we used to, everything is easier, and everyone feels love.

Except it isn’t love. It’s a curse. It’s a loss of your identity. There’s nothing created through it. There’s only the constant rape and pillage of existing art and culture regurgitated into a bucket of slop that resembles what people wanted to generate. It’s also rarely a choice but foisted upon you by the vampire. Once the fangs sunk in and you’ve turned you have no choice but to accept your vampire existence. Or let someone intentionally murder you.

In defence of AI slop: we should embrace open access to creativity, not condemn itLook past the Donald Trump superhero memes and the new software gives us the chance to democratise creative production. No wonder art’s cultural gatekeepers are worried✍️ Jack Rileyhttps://bit.ly/3SpzFQ4

— The Observer (@theobserveruk.bsky.social) 2026-08-23T10:30:03.197481074Z

“We should embrace open access to creativity” is as much of a lie as the vampires collective culture. It isn’t an open access to creativity. Creativity is instinctively using your own brain to come up with something. It isn’t taking a machine to crush, rip, split, and distort the creations of others to generate whatever you prompted.

The overwhelming majority of the stuff being made is shit. It’s not creative. It’s derivative. Not just derivatives to what already exists but derivatives of themselves!

Here! I took five minutes to look around at some AI flyers on Facebook to see how many repeated the scratch font.

We got a nautical themed bar using what’s essentially a motorcross/wrestling/extreme font to say they got a Saturday burger special. Burger looks disgusting since it isn’t real. Then you got a sidewalk music event (I can almost let this slide because one could argue it’s to resemble sidewalk chalk but you can find a font for that!) and we got scratch font for this band of old guys. Then we have SCRATCH FONT FOR ICE CREAM. And finally scratch font for a mixology class?

All of these applications of it are stupid when you see a scratch logo in its proper habitat and environment such as a 90s comic book

But the real problem isn’t the font. It’s that THEY ARE ALL USING THE FONT. Their free (or pay by token) LLMs are spitting out the same shit and every time they say “good enough”

And that’s what really pisses me off.

From the time I was in high school to the time I was in college to the time I worked jobs in professions that properly paid taxes it was imperative, it was important, it was NECESSARY to be correct. Correct design. Correct words. No mistakes. No errors. Professional.

I designed websites. I designed social media art. I designed broadcast graphics. Any of which that had glaring mistakes I’d be punished and potentially fired for.

Now? Just generate it. “good enough” and it’s gone.

And yes I’ve heard the “one day” bullshit. “One day it will be exact! All names correct! All words correct! Voice exact! The technology will be correct!” then why the fuck are you using it now? Why are you not waiting for that? Why are you not editing what was made to fix the mistakes?

It’s not about the final product anymore. It’s about being impressed by the magic of it being generated at all.

@edzitron.com had it on the money here

— vanoreo (@vanoreo.bsky.social) 2026-08-18T17:38:28.766Z

I’m watching restaurants have no pride in the food they make anymore just telling a computer to generate their food. I’m watching coders pretend it’s saving them time in creating code but then never knowing how to correct anything that goes wrong. I’m hearing how Dr. Dre, a guy who fought Napster because he said it stole money from his pocket, embrace AI to steal from him because they paid him to embrace it. These lazy fucking vampires, most of them with nothing left to live for, think they are saving themselves time. They are not.

Never Lose Sight

Small businesses doing this stuff is annoying but they are merely closer to you so they feel like the problem. They are a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.

Small businesses, as much as they are important, have always been full of lazy corner cutting owners who just want to own a boat even if it means a less functioning business. No all of them, just the lazy ones. You’ll never rid the world of lazy people. In fact, it’s not the lazy people at the bottom you actually have to worry about.

Of course lazy people will embrace a lazy technology. Generative AI, LLM’s, their entire goal is to hook everyone to the point where they can turn it into a utility. You have to pay for the internet. You now have to pay for your LLM subscription to survive. Can’t work without it. Can’t function without it.

Google has intentionally broken their own search engine so people now ask their AI bots for advice and information. Prior to google breaking their search engine you could properly cite sources. Now everything is just, “well the bot told me I don’t know. It’s gotta know right?”

Never lose sight that the real problem are the people at the top who are pushing this. Your government leaders. The billionaires of the world. Yes, they get actors and musicians to sell this stuff. No different to any other product. The problem is that they were allowed to essentially destroy art and society in order to do it.

Ever heard of Project Panama?

Most haven’t, oddly enough. Anthropic (Claude) was founded only in 2021 and was claiming to be promoting AI safety. In reality they were buying books, rare books, hard to find books, and physically destroying them to provide training data for Claude. They settled for $1.5 billion. Those books are destroyed forever.

Claude was used in the Iran War. Claude was used in the U.S. intervention of Venezuela. Claude refused to permit unrestricted use to the U.S. government and people pretended that made him the good guys. There are no good guys here. Twitter’s Grok has literally been used to kill people through Project Maven, which not only uses Claude and Grok but also Amazon’s AWS servers.

That’s the real evil of all of this. This is just a way for billionaires and the most powerful people in the world to control you, to make you dumber, to make you less capable, to erode your capacity to stop them, and if you live in the wrong part of the world? To murder you under the fog of war.

Never lose sight that this isn’t humans versus AI. It’s once again the have’s versus the have not’s. The ultra rich versus the ultra poor.

But hey. I’m the bad guy for saying clanker.

Shame on me.

Photo from Terminator Salvation, 2009.

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