The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Canadiens Advance and Leafs Hire Sundin and Chayka ft. Marco D'Amico & Nick Alberga

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

Season 3 rolls on with Jeff Marek breaking down a thrilling night in the NHL alongside Marco D'Amico as they recap the Montreal Canadiens’ dramatic Game 7 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, digging into the key moments, standout performances, and what it means for a young Canadiens group finding its stride at the perfect time. The conversation then shifts to a compelling second round matchup as Montreal gets set to face the Buffalo Sabres, with a full preview of the storylines, matchups, and what to watch for in the series. Later, Nick Alberga joins Jeff to break down the latest in Toronto as the Toronto Maple Leafs officially introduce Mats Sundin and John Chayka to the front office, reacting to today’s press conference, what their arrivals signal for the organization, and how this new leadership group could shape the Leafs moving forward. Subscribe for more from The Sheet and never miss an episode#TheSheet #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #MontrealCanadiens #GoHabsGo #TampaBayLightning #BuffaloSabres #LeafsForever #TorontoMapleLeafs #MatsSundin #JohnChayka #NickAlberga #MarcoDamico #StanleyCupPlayoffsSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome once again to the sheet for this Monday, May 4. Oh, Zach, Zach, we got to get you up here. I need you to check something really quick. You got a browser open right now or you have a screen open front of you right now? I think Colorado just scored another goal. Can you check? I think they might have, I think McCar got another one. If you just want to have a look at that real quick and get back to me on the air right now.

So if you can have a peek and see if maybe... Oh, actually, oh, hang on. Minnesota just got another one. Minnesota just scored again. If you want to get on that, too, we've got to get the latest information to the people as quickly as possible in this Colorado Minnesota series. Ripped out of the pages of 1986, that game was. I can recall.

I'm old enough to remember. Doug Sotart being left in for 15 goals against Minnesota and Earth Stars once upon a time. So if you're Jasper Walsh stat, no, don't worry about it. It could have been worse. You could have been Doug Sotart and left in to rot for 15 goals. Anyhow, as I tried to say off the time. Oh, hang on a second. I think McKinnon just got one.

No, it's Lekinan. Hang on, check that. I think Lekinen just scored again. That game going from Montreal, Tampa, where it was... Oh, I know. The land goals forgot. Yeah, it was desperation levels to score or get an offensive chance. And then to go from that to game one, Avs Wilde,

was a nuts contrast for a Sunday night. I couldn't believe what was going on. It was a fun Sunday night, man. It was a fun fun. weekend of hockey too. Like I enjoyed the, the Carolina game against the Philadelphia. I don't know that Philly wins a single game in that series,

by the way, but that was, again, just a sort of reaffirmation that that Stankhoven line is problems. And I'll put my hand up. I didn't think that Stankovin was going to be this good as a center, right? Like we've,

and the history is on our side on this one too. It's like the history of small centers in the playoffs is not a very long one. You know, I ask the New Jersey Devils what that is all about and what that feels like. But Stankovin's been excellent. That line with Jackson Blake and Taylor Hall. Taylor Hall having a great second act in his career right now.

The point production, but how'd you like that hit on DeVorak? Holy geez. Yep. Yeah. Look, man, the one thing that I kept saying to myself watching that game was it must be miserable to play against the Carolina Hurricanes. Awful.

Terrible. Terrible. I like, I watched the clip in Ottawa of Stutzlaw on the bench saying there's no space. That's all he had to say. Yeah, yeah, we know that that's the case against Carolina Hurricanes. Then I watched that one yesterday and couldn't help but think it must be hell to play in that. And hell to go against the Kane's mascot too, by the way, Jeff, because he took a run at Gritty yesterday.

Stormy the pig. Welcome to hell, you Muppet Reject. What a tweet to come across the timeline. I was just stunned I'm like Am I really seeing this From like the origins of Stormy the pig And the poor fella inside the

The pig costume coming out to Center Ice and a Zamboni And the door got stuck And he essentially passed out for the fumes And had to be dragged out of the Like the worst debut of a mascot of all time To this To Storm Welcome to hell you Muppet reject

Ho Smoke between the hurricanes I think my personal theory, Rod Brindamore does a stormy account. I'm just saying I can't prove it, but I know that Rod Brindamore is not a big fan of the Philadelphia Flyers. It's all I'm saying. It's all I'm saying.

I'm just guessing that Rod Brindamor is in charge the stormy account. What would be a bigger story, finding out Sidney Crosby's burner account or finding out Rod Brindamor runs Stormy's ad quarter account? Hang on, boys. I'll talk to the room here in a couple of seconds. I've got something to do in the coach's office. I'll be right back.

He's like coming into the room after the game or between periods with his phone down at his side. He's so awesome. That was, and it still is a sort of white whale hunt, by the way, because it is widely believed that there is a Sidney Crosby account. And maybe when he retires, he'll tell us what it is. But anyhow, we got a lot to get to on the program today, and a lot of it is going to revolve around two of the oldest organizations in the National Hockey League, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Montreal Caneal. The Blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel coming up on the program. In a couple of moments here, we are going to be joined by Marco D'Amico.

One half of the Star on Demiko show. We're going to talk about the Montreal Canadiens advancing and how they did it as well. I think Martin H. has scored, by the way, Zach, if you want to check on... No, sorry, it's Valne Chush. I can check on that one, I think Colorado just got another one. We'll preview round two against the Buffalo Sabres. Nick Albreg, a host of Leif's Morning Take, we'll stop by. We'll talk about the new management team in town, and that is Sondin and Chaka.

The press conference is going on right now. Albrega joins us towards the bottom of the hour to talk about that. In the meantime, they continue to be a great story and a fun story as well. My favorite line from last night, when Marty St. Louis was asked about whether the players are going to go out and enjoy themselves, he said, I would assume some of the young guys will, but me, I'm going to bed. Marco D'Amico is our good friend. who's always kind with his time.

Editor of RG Media joins us now. What did you do last night because Martin Saint-Louis maintains he went to bed while his players may have gone out to the evening to enjoy themselves as much for all Canadians players like to do on this team. What did you do last night, Marco? Well, because my entire day was hockey, I spent the entire night having to take care of my newborn son. So, hey, that's awesome.

Congratulations, first of all. That's the best one. Listen, I've gone through it three times. you're never more tired and more happy in your entire life. So welcome to the club. That's great. How old is your son? Two months now.

So left hand shot or right hand shot? We've got to establish this early. If it's a right hand shot, yeah. He's got a stronger right hand. I think it'll be better for his career. If he's a right-handed, he might have a better shot in negotiations. So we'll see if we can push him to the right. Have you started agent shopping yet?

Have you gone that, Rudy? You're looking at CAA, the team, Newport. How we going? Yeah, okay, good. You got all the biggies covered off too. That's Sabian Saw, Sabian Saw. Nine shots on goal. I don't know where to begin other than that stat.

First of all, Jakub Dobish, especially in that second period, none of this is possible. The Sabres series is not possible if it's not for Dobish. Listen, the Montreal Canaanans have had an embarrassment of riches historically going back to the beginning of the league in 1917 with outstanding netminder. That is one through line all throughout the Montreal Canadiens organization

and another command performance by a Montreal Canadian's goaltender. I'm guessing he's not going to see a bill in Montreal for quite some time. Your thoughts on what we saw from Dobish, not just in this game, but in this series as well. Yeah, I mean, first of all, up until game seven,

Jakob Dobish and Andrea Vasselowski were basically even in terms of the amount of goals allowed. but Jacob Dobish had a higher goal saved above expected, and in my honest opinion, was more conducive to them being able to keep Tampa at bay during crisis situations and when Tampa started to pour it on from a pressure perspective. But last night was the cherry on the Sunday. Last night was just out of this world until I would say the last 10 minutes of the game, and then the Canadians began to play what I thought was some of their most structured defensive hockey

of this season in front of Jacob Dobis. So they kind of came in right at the end to help him out. But he is the one and main reason why they stayed in that game for as long as they did. And I felt like in this series, one of the elements that Jakob Dolbisch has greatly improved on. And, you know, tip of the hat to interim, I don't know for how long, but interim goalie coach Marco Marchiano. Yeah. Really helped him when it comes to his.

Interim, huh? Explosivity. Interim, huh? You think like, there's no. I know, technically, you're right. but sorry. We'll see about that. I just laugh when I hear interm in front of his name

after what we've been seeing. But anyhow, he's been great. Exactly. You look at the way that Jakob Dobis jumped from the NCAA to pro. He broke the record in the H.L for the most amount of games for a rookie goalie in the HL, then that gets called up to Montreal. What you're seeing or what we've seen since Marchiano has come in

is the complete control of his technique. He's less adventurous in the offensive zone. when it comes to trying to block a shot. He's more aggressive but controlled aggressive when it comes to one-on-one situations and his movements from lateral movements are far more controlled. He's going away from trying to just toss himself to the park. He's doing it in a controlled fashion to allow himself to recoup

and go back into position. So his combativeness combined with the improvement in his technique allowed him to be, again, as he is, or as he has been at other levels, an elite performer because, and as you saw it with Tampa Bay, the more the series went on, the more they would spend a second or two more to look for the perfect shot because they knew that if Dobesh saw it,

he would block it. And so that's where this game kind of went. It became a goalie battle by the end of it. And I feel like what ended up happening last night is Montreal got the lucky bounces, and Jakub Dovish was able to shut that door. What did you think of the new hook goal? Like I've maintained like in the regular season,

I want my goals to be pretty. I want like a ribbon around them. I want them to all be highlights. But in the playoffs, I want the opposite. I want really ugly goals. And that's why I love that new hook goal last night. That was a nice,

ugly playoff hockey goal. Your thoughts, Marco. I think that's the way that this team is going to have to learn the difference between success in the regular season and success in the playoffs. It's like you're not going to have the perfect play. It's going to be plays like that where, you know, Hudson's shot that hits off the boards, corrals in front, is able to deflect it midair, and that's what ends up beating Vasilevsky

because, you know, I've said this on multiple shows, 9.5 times out of 10, if Vaselowski sees a shot, he's going to stop it. So it's going to take chaos to get him off his game, and there's no bigger chaos than reaming a puck off the side of the boards and it bouncing back in front. And that hand eye, I mean, you've got to give him credit, that hand eye, to be able to flip it out of mid-air and get it behind Vasilevsky. Those are the kinds of clutch scoring, non-traditional means of scoring,

that you see more so in the playoffs, because when time and space is taken away from you, you have to be able to attack that high danger area in any other way you can. And if it means having to attack it in mid-air, and that's what you've got to do. It was great. It was funny.

It was, like, throughout that beginning of the third period, You're just saying to yourself, Montreal is going to win this game on six shots. Now, they ended up winning the game on nine shots. Like, you just sort of did get that feeling. And we just talked about Dobish a couple of seconds ago. It's like you got the feeling that everybody on the Montreal Canadians, the blue line, the netminder, just picked up a side gig as a part-time job as a wall. Like, you just got the feeling like, nothing's going in here.

And you know who really wore it on Tampa? Kuturoff. Like when you saw Kucheroff going at Dobish after the period, that's how you know you're in, and it seldom happens this way. That's how you know you're in Kuturoff's head. When he's like, that distracted, then all of a sudden, like, if I'm already Stanley Wayne,

I'm seeing that, I'm just like, that was like that moment when Alfredson shot that puck at Niedermeyer, and everyone in Anaheim said, we got him. We got him. When I saw Kuthorov going at Dobish, I'm like, Montreal's got him, as they said in slap shot, right in the mind. Got him right in the mind.

and that's where they seem to live. I also noticed it from Hegel as well to a degree, who was just an absolute demon for Tampa Bay in the first five games of this series. You saw, you know, later part of game five, game six, game seven, a lot of hesitation in his game. Same thing with Gensel. It was the bottom six, like Gonzalves or Dominic James,

who I've thought had fantastic game sixes and sevens that were the ones really pushing it. If you look at the way that the Canadians went about shutting down the top players on Tampa, but they were all supremely frustrated by the end of game seven because they couldn't make that difference. And even on the power play, the Canadians kept them all to the extremities

and made sure to clog up the high danger area so they wouldn't be able to do those cross-seem passes into the slot for Hegel or point to take advantage of. So frustration all around, and when you get frustrated, you make mistakes, and that's exactly what we ended up seeing in the third is unfortunate mistakes. And the Canadians would take advantage, clear the puck out.

And one comment you made, Jeff, that I really wanted to bring up. bring up. You said that the Canadians' defensemen are now part-time walls. Well, one guy who I also believe needs attention in terms of being a wall is Nick Suzuki, because who was there to block the last shot for Kuturag

at the end? It was Nick Suzuki. Last night, Nick Suzuki, I know that the playoffs don't impact trophies, but last light Nick Suzuki showed why he should be the front runner for the Selki. That kind of two-way play. I think he's getting it. I think that's well established.

I think he's got the Selki, but I think to more than anything else that like cements the reputation from the year. But I think exactly. Exactly. He's his. And I find it, I find it funny that,

or funny, it's always, hockey is a, is a story, right? And I feel John Cooper coming out and saying, you know, Canada needed a goal, Nick Suzuki answered.

The Canadians needed a goal, Nick Suzuki answered. And to see Nick Suzuki be the player at the end of the game for the Canadians to eliminate John Cooper, I find almost poetic with the way that the season went between those two. After the last time we saw him with the Bell Center just doing that one more game. One more game. Yeah.

One more game. One thing, I want to swing back to Hegel for a second here because there is one signature play. Like Hegel is like never quit on a play guy. And I still don't know why Slavkovsky didn't just backhand it. But the Hegel play on the empty net. Did you not watch that and go, holy smokes, because you've seen it a million times? It's the gimmie and the empty net. Brandon Hagle makes the incredible play

to keep it out and then Tampa goes back the other way and scores a goal. I was through my whole mind, I'm like, oh man, and we're going to be like, again, it's going to be like microphones in front of Slavkovsky. I should have just backhanded it, it got the puck up. I wanted to make it pretty, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

What went through your mind when you saw the Hagle play? Patrick Stefan. That's what went in my mind. The puck over the stick, Stefan. Yeah. I just felt like, you know, the possibility of it going back the other way, and Tampa tying it was right there for them.

And, you know, Slavkovsky, we're all going to be able to joke around with him now. But empty netters have not been his friend this season. I think the only empty net goal he has was from a shattered, his stick got shattered from a slash. Other than that, he missed every other opportunity. So last night was no different. But you have to, you know,

you have to have that killer instinct in those situations. That game would have been over and done, signed seal delivered. All you required was, you know, a little bit of a lift on that. backhand beforehand, pun intended, and it would have been taken care of. But again,

you look back on those situations, you laugh at him, he'll learn from him. He probably got ribbed a ton from it, you know, after the game. I will continue to probably for the rest of the year. But at the end of the day,

who was, what was he doing on the ice? He was defending that lead, and I think he did so quite well and has done so quite well in those two games, game five and game seven in Tampa Bay. Okay, a couple more things here quickly

about the Tampa Series. and I want to ask you about Buffalo on the horizon. There were moments where you're really happy for Texier. There are some moments, game one, where you're really happy for Slavkovsky. A lot of it, you're really happy for Nick Suzuki. We mentioned the Alex Nehook goal. The Dobesh story has been well told.

Was there a story that you saw in this series where you're like, hold on a second. This isn't getting enough attention. Or this guy's not getting enough attention. Was there anyone outside of the obvious players in all the wins here for Montreal where you said, We should be talking more about X. Who's that player?

What's that scenario? Is there someone that comes to mind for you? Yeah. My automatic is going to be Lane Hudson, but we want to get granular, so I'm going to go with Zach Budzer. Okay. I like that.

I think Zacharie Balzac for me truly elevated in the playoffs. And in a way where he needed to play the game that was in front of him. And throughout the season, he had trouble finding his identity. You know, was he that bumper shot, you know, that the Canadians did on the power play? Was he more of a skilled winger that they can insert in their top six? Well, he's kind of seemingly found his identity with the team, which is being that gritty, you know, in your face, pest-like,

middle six winger that can bring pucks to the net, play with pace. And, you know, the game where Kirby Doc popped off in game three in Montreal, a lot of that stemmed from great plays from Zachary Balzirk. And he took that momentum throughout the rest of the series. And I think other than O.T. in game six, you know, he played with such a level of intensity that he was able to, I would say, like after a Josh Anderson, he was able to come in and be that physical presence along the boards, winning his battles, getting Pucks out, you know, being able to filter it to the points, sustaining offensive zone possession and pressure, which the Canadians had difficulty doing in pockets in this series. I thought he truly elevated in this series. And if there's a player that went from, you know, being a healthy scratch in and out of the lineup to a guy that you can say has given the Canadians information about his future, a guy like Buzzerk is a guy that I think that they think to themselves now and say, that's a guy we're going to be able to have on our bottom six that's going to be able to elevate when we need him to. Great trade.

Great trade. Okay. So here's my question. We all know that Montreal Canadiens fans travel very well. Game one Wednesday at the key bank. If the microphone goes down again, will there be enough Montreal Canadiens fans in the building for chanté en Francaise to sing in French?

I'm pretty sure. I mean, listen, there's already a ton of Montreal Canadians fans in the Buffalo area. There's an even larger amount in the Toronto region, and I know many, many from Montreal that are going to be making the trip to Buffalo. So I think it's very possible. But also, just for the sake of it, tip of the cap to Buffalo in general for the classiness of playing both anthems.

Oh, they always do. They always do. Yeah, I don't think you'll have any issue. And I think that, you know, what I do respect, especially from the Buffalo Sabres fans, is they'll get into it as well. They'll help sing the anthems. So that's what I find is really cool about border cities like that is that at the end of the day, it's the love of the sport and they'll sing both anthems.

Sabre. What do you mean? I'm having a hard time handicapping this one. I really am. I'm looking at this and I'm like, man, Buffalo's hot and what a story this year, but, you know, very little outside of the Bruin series playoff experience, and Dobish is on a heater and, ah, they got like a Selky trophy, this major sulky trophy candidate here in Nick Suzuki,

and that's probably going to be a layup that he wins it as we just talked about. And Hudson and Hudson is back. How do you begin to handicap this thing? Like, what are the questions that you have going into this one for Wednesday? Well, I think where the Sabres have a net advantage over the Canadians is down the middle. But that will bring up further questions because, you know, Thompson, McLeod, but then after that, Josh Norris, and Josh Norris is health. And Josh Norris being able to play a full, full playoff round.

Is that going to be possible? Because they already lost Noah Osland, right? Yes, he's going to walk in a boot today. That's a center right off the bat, exactly, that they just, that they won't be getting for this season. series, Yuri Kulik is also out because of blood clot, so he's not available as well. Yep. So they have that structure.

They have that ability to go up and down their lineup at center. And I think one element is their top line is very dangerous. But that third line with Benson and Donne, that's the line to watch out for. That to me is the X factor. It was the X factor against the Bruins. I think it could be the X factor against the Canadians. and defensively, there's a lot of meat on that back end. They're a very big structured defensive core,

and they didn't give Boston much when the chips were on the table. I guess Boston did wins and were able to generate offense. But as the series went on, they just kept getting boxed out and boxed out and boxed out as they continued to gain that confidence in that experience. So I think the Canadians, having just gotten off a series against what I think is the most structured top-for defense, in hockey right now in terms of defensive ability in Tampa Bay.

I think that they've been properly prepared to play a team like Buffalo defensively. Now it's going to be seeing their top guys elevate offensively. Cole Cawfield has to have a much better series against the Buffalo Sabres. Ivan Demidov needs to take a step up against the Buffalo Sabres, and Yerai Slavkovsky needs to show that magic on a regular basis, not just in game one. So if their top six can match the intensity that the bottom six was bringing against Tampa Bay all series, this can be another long one that can go to six or seven. And it's very difficult to handicap.

Even betting odds right now have them basically even, which says something about the quality of these two teams. You know, one of the things, too, and they'll be able to get away from it in the first two games because they're playing in Buffalo. But I look at that because you mentioned that top, the Tage Thompson line with the Buffalo Sabres. And it was great to see the pizza out last night with Philip Dineau, by the way. It warms my heart seeing that again. But nonetheless, the Philip Delo line with Evans and Josh Anderson.

Like, that's going to be, like, Marty's going to try to feed a steady dose of that line to Tage Thompson. Boston wasn't able to put a line out there like that, especially not with somebody like Philippe Delano. That is going to be one of those stories within the stories that you fall. Because Philippe Deneau does not care about his points. He does not care whatsoever. He is going to live in Tage Thompson's hip pocket and make, life just awful for him. And then all of a sudden, if you can neutralize that top line with the Buffalo Sabres,

then are we looking at Montreal, Carolina? I'm like, I'm getting ahead of myself here. But that does make, that does make sense. Like that's going to be like the story here. Can Philip the Nose line take care of Tage Thompson's line? Yeah, I think there's three tiers of storyline here to look at with Buffalo. It's going to be how the Canadians are going to match up defensively, because the top line for the Canadians is still one of their best.

better shot is has been their de facto shutdown line all season and then you throw in the phil de no line which acts as the second so they're able to kind of rotate them and not get stuck in the matchups on the road which we saw against tampa so it's it's going to be something that they can utilize against the buffalo sabers second is going to be defensively will the structures of both teams hold considering the pressure that they both exert along the wings on the rush and then for me does Jacob Dobesh follow up that performance and will the Buffalo Sabres find consistency if Alex Leon is in Nets?

Right? Because that's where those three elements will really come into play. And I think we're going to get an answer almost right away because those two teams this season, it was an all-out trench war between the two of them. Yes.

In the stands too. In the stands as well. Yeah. But I think that both of them are playing much better defensive hockey right now than they were back then. So it won't be the goal. It might not be the goal.

that we saw during the regular season. And that's where I'm intrigued. Because we saw the Canadians being able to buckle down and play a defensive-oriented game. We haven't had to see Buffalo do that just yet. And that's where I'm kind of interested to see on a full seven-game series. Can Buffalo elevate on that side defensively to be able to match the Canadians top six? Let me close on this. Give us a scene set of what's happening in Montreal right now with this team.

Like have they named any schools after Yakub Dobish yet? Or do we have to wait till the end of the Buffalo series? Like give us how much is the city of Montreal in love with this team? Because we've seen this city fall in love with a lot of different Montreal Canadians teams. How much have they fall in love with this version of the Habs? Head over heels. Head over heels, love of first sight.

And, you know, the benefit is outside of Demadov, and they'll probably have to deal with that this summer. In my honest opinion, the entire. core has signed long term. So you have, you're not only just investing in what you see right now, but you're investing in the future, a future that is guaranteed from a contractual perspective. And I think that's what's super exciting is that year over year, they've exceeded expectation. And so there's a lot of hype involved. And so what does the scene look like? There were fireworks outside of the Bell Center last night after the win, a win that happened in Tampa, not in Montreal.

all. There are Canadians' flags and signs everywhere in businesses that normally wouldn't have Canadians' memorabilia. The entire city is watching these games. You couldn't go into any restaurant or bar last night without the game being on every single television. And, you know, even in the media, radio stations are making all kinds of songs and merch about the team and about the players. So I was talking about it a little bit earlier on national, but this is probably in terms of a core, in terms of a team, in terms of a culture, the most easy buy-in that the Canadians fans have had of a Montreal-Canadians iteration since the 70s.

Wow. Okay, so here's, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to throw a couple of darts here. My guess is Larry Robinson, mainly because I'm a huge Larry Robinson fan, but who we've seen Savard, we've seen Cornwallier, we've seen Nilean, who gets the torch for game three? I want Larry. I personally would love Larry Robinson, but my two cents. What do you got?

This guy. Oh, Bob Ganey. Listen, we started the conversation by talking about Nick Suzuki. Bob Ganey is the reason why they came up with the trophy in the first place. Bob's so good at doing this. We need to come up with a trophy for. Here's the thing about, okay, can I go on a tiny little bit here? Here's the thing that pisses me off.

Bob Ganey was a winger. They created this trophy for Bob Ganey and we only awarded to centers. Yuri Latenin was the last winger to win the Selke. We created the Selki for Bob Ganey specifically. And because Victor Tickenoff said he's the best player in the world. But we did this for a winger and now wingers can't win it. Nothing for Mark Stone.

No. Marion Hosa went through his entire career. Nope, nothing. It only goes to centers now. Pet peeve. Got to talk to the PWA. Oh, man. I got beef.

I got beef. All right, Marco, as always, thanks so much for stopping by. It's great to have you aboard and sharing your expertise. And just like a fun time in Montreal, man. Like, you want to talk about, like, first of all, you want to talk about a country that needs something like this? Canada does. Thank you very much.

Edmonton has bowed out. Like Montreal is the whole right now. Ask your next guest, who Canada's team is. Right now it's a Habs. Come on the Alphonseil, Zabiton. I'll tell Nick. He seems to think it's Buffalo. No, I mean, from the golden horseshoe area, maybe it is.

But outside of that, it's Les Abitans. You're the best. And you're team up my guest too. You're a great host. You're the best, Marco. Thanks, pal. We'll talk again soon. All is a pleasure.

Have a great day, Jeff. Be good. Marco D'Amico is one half of the star in D'Amico program and is awesome. And is, of course, the senior editor of RG Media, the Montreal Canadiens advance to round two. Zach, I think Brock Nelson has just scored. If you want to check that and get back to me on that one, we're still. No, and now, oh, Jack Drew, he's got one too. Hang on, I think we got a couple of morals.

Did you remember the Budweiser goal lights? No free ads, but remember the Budweiser goal lights? Yes. That would have been a nuts night to have one of those in your house. Hang on. Every 45 seconds going off. I have kids. I have kids.

And the two boys loved those things when they came out to the point where we had to hide them. because they were just like setting off the light like nonstop all around the clock because it was to them it was like the coolest thing in the world. Oh man, you could not keep enough Tylenol in our house. The best thing was when those would get off sync

so they would either be early or late. Oh yeah. And then you're watching the game and next thing you know the goal lights going off. Oh, who scored? Hang on. And there it is 45. Hang on, hang on.

Jeff's getting up from his desk and walking away for anybody's listening to the podcast. here. There they are. The corner in the basement. Oh, wait. Yeah. There's a gold one and a silver one.

I'll give these things away just to get them away from the kids. I'll put them up in the jail cell behind me. You want them? Yeah, look at you. Incarcerated Zach. All right. You know who's actually here right now too? Who's that?

Producer Vic is in the studio. He's not in this room with me right now. Maybe I'll get him later, but he is in the studio walking around. So I don't know if that's better or worse. for my case that I'm not in jail. He's not glued to the press conference? No, I think he's actually watching that in a different room. That might be what he's doing.

I just was on with Marco for like 25 minutes. Anything earth-shattering coming from the press? We're going to stand by here for Nick Alberga, a host of Leif's Morning. Well, Alberga is ready to break it down. So he would be able to give you a better rundown than I can. Well, let's get him on then for crying no loud. He is the co-host of the very excellent Leaves Morning Take. He is Nick Albregah to break it down.

So first of all, anything noteworthy from the past 30 minutes in the Maple Leafs presser. Steve Simmons just eviscerated Keith Pelly. He did. What do you say? Well, he held him accountable. If the team's not going to hold each other accountable, the media is going to certainly hold the team accountable. And pretty much asked him a question. Everybody's thinking the entire hockey world thinks this move is a joke.

And why did he land at this decision? to get the John Chike. The wording was really good. You guys got to go back and sort of listen to it. But he went straight at him and Pelley had minimal answers. It's about it. You know, the interesting thing about that is too, and I don't know whether Pelley would have hired Steve,

but they were both at TSN together once upon the time too. Now I know, of course, the roles are all different and everyone's grown up here and you can handle criticism and all that. But there was a background, obviously, between the two when Steve would have been doing the reporters. that great Sunday show with Dave Hodge and Keith was one of the people in charge of programming for TSN.

Anything else other than that exchange? Anybody else get the pinata stick out? So a couple of things because, and again, we're still trying to get to know Keith Pelly. Obviously, you know him a bit more being around longer than I have. But what I gathered from the press conference last time around a month ago when they can

Bradtree Living, pay attention to every detail. and he actually went out of his way to thank Neil Glassberg. He called him pivotal and integral. He said, Neil facilitated everything. And Merrick, this is interesting to me because of all the Thai Domi conversation over the last week. And so you wonder if he went out of his way to thank Neil Glassberg for leading to this decision. And he's saying, don't look here. So I'm always careful of that.

He mentioned that Sundeen and Chike have known each other since 2012. I'd love to see the text conversation of those two since the last 14 years and how close they truly are. But I think there's reason to be maybe confused, mystified, whatever word you want to discuss, because I think today was important for the unification, the clarity of the fan base, the belief of the fan base, and quite frankly, it's led to anything but. So I think it's a tough way for John Chayke to start, which, by the way, we haven't seen him on the international. national stage for a long, long time. He came across very, very nervous in his opening statement.

He was sweating a bit. He had a long, long speech written. Matt Sondin, by the way, season pro, season vet had nothing written down. But once Chikas started answering questions, he seemed a bit more free and easy. And you can sort of figure out what sold him to Keith Pelly. But I think the tough thing is that there's still a lot of questions and it's going to take a while to be answered here. So the thing about John Chica, and the last time I spoke with John would have been, so I hosted a panel at the Ivy Sports Conference. So John went to the Ivy School of Business.

He puts on this conference every year. I hosted a CHL panel and had a nice talk with John afterwards, mainly about his other businesses. But we did talk about hockey. And the thing that I came away from it was that this guy still plugged in and still very much pays attention. A couple of things that he said to me about a month like. both proved to be true and happen. I'm like, okay, so we still very much got his thumb on the pulse. The thing about John Chica is, and I've always believed this,

and first of all, I take all the Arizona stuff and I kind of throw it away, that considering it specifically under Alex Morello and his son, things were not like, they were beyond awful, and it's a really, really difficult place to exist. Like the best example is, look at Bill Armstrong as GM of the Arizona Coyotes. And now look how different Bill Armstrong of the Utah mammoth is. It is chalk and cheese, much like the difference between the Arizona coyotes and the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is a completely different beast. So I don't know that we can learn any lessons from the Arizona experience with Cheka and say,

that was, so this is, I kind of throw it all away because Arizona was its own beast. Now, the thing about John is, and I think this is what appealed to Keith Pelly. One, John's a fast riser, not unlike Keith Palli himself, who is a fast riser in media. So I think that that's attractive to Keith Pally. He probably sees some of himself in John Chica. And Chaka is a strategic thinker, right? Like he's wildly successful in business with his collection of restaurants. And I believe car dealerships, although I think he may have sold those.

And there's a belief that he carries that his type of strategic thinking can be applied to just about any situation. And right now he uses hockey as his domain to be creative and to be essentially smarter than everybody else. And I think that appeals to someone like Keith Pelly and probably appeals to MLSC. So I think if people are like, why him, why him? I think from a corporate point of view, he does check a ton of boxes. And he hasn't been around for a while.

and I think that's why people, like, I was laughing at this all day. People grump about, oh, it's the old boys club and just recycling general managers. And then when a new face comes on, it's like, what do you do when he's got no experience? So like either way, yeah, there's a pinata out. I get that. I just, my only pushback to that, it's been six years, 20 plus GMs have been hired in the NHL. Why did nobody think to go down the John Chiker route, but the Maple Leaf are the smartest team in the room and they're like, John Chike is the answer.

Like, I don't know. no. There's a lot circling when it comes to vultures and, you know, financially. We talked about it today. Was John Chekka just quite frankly the cheapest option available? I don't think he had any leverage. The Leafs are giving you any contract they want and that's about it. You're not pushing back. If not, they'll go another route. I think that's just the problem for me is like this guy's name hasn't even been linked to any other job since his, his... New Jersey. No, New Jersey. New Jersey. New Jersey. They were New Jersey. This one recently? Oh, it's a few years ago. A few years ago, New Jersey. Yeah.

Okay. But other than that, he, like, nobody's thought to even go down the John Chiker route. And then the other concern for me, and I think it's, it's valid is Arizona is Arizona. This is Toronto. What makes you prepared to handle this shitstorm here? Like, it started today. Steve Simmons was blunt. You'll never get something like that in Arizona. Ask you straight up. People calling this guy a sham. And now he's a GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But I don't discredit. I think this dude's a smart guy. You know, I was covering the league at the time. I saw some of the work he did in Arizona.

But there is major reason for concern. There has to be in this market right now. And I, you know, Rosie and I talked about even a Scott White. Like we talked about a pathway where people aren't up in arms today. I think it was as simple as naming a Scott White, the GM of the Toronto Maple City. Just anybody with John Chike. I think people are feeling better today. So you're saying you don't because, you know, you hit home runs when you swing hard.

Like I'm not saying this is going to be a home run, but this is like, this is a swing for the fence. Make no mistake. Like there are choices that Maple Leafs could have meant, which would have just been like, you know what? Single to get on base. Just single to get on base, single to get on base. I think it comes down to like, do you think this organization needs to swing for the fences right now? Or do they need a safer choice just to calm down? Because make no mistake about it.

Like this is a swing for the fence move. It really, really is. Is it going to work? I don't know. But at the end of it, I do like the idea that the Maple Leafs are trying something different. And I do believe that John Chaco would have learned from the Arizona experience. General managers tend to do better on their second goal around. C. Dubus comma Kyle in the Pittsburgh Penguin situation.

Not that it's going to be identical, but managers tend to do better on their second time run. Essentially, Nick, what I'm getting at is here, I have no idea how this is going to go. I don't think any of us know how this thing is going to go. I think they have big decisions to make based on can they sell Austin Matthews on the idea that they can turn this thing around quickly. And if they can't,

and the two sides, both the team, formerly Wasserman, led by Jud Moldaver here and the Toronto Maple Leafs, have to come together on some kind of resolution, i.e. either he stays and they turn it around, or they have the conversation about finding him another, not area code, but zip code, if you know what I mean. I think that's got to be front and center. I think the Burubi question is a big one.

And until they put together some sort of plan for how they're going to operate, until they settle the Matthews question, I don't think this team is going to have a direction anyway. That's fair. And I think just to add on that, like I just think this whole thing is so intriguing where the analytics community is up in arms over this decision. And this is an analytically based guy in John Chica. Like that's what would concern me when there's questions arising from that side of the conversation

where it's like what the hell is truly happening right here. And by the way, they asked Chica about Craig Barubi. I talked to Craig last night. I think he's a tremendous coach, a Stanley Cup coach, and a good person. He didn't add this, but I will. He's got two years left in his contract, so he's not fucking going anywhere. There's the response that I think he should have went with. He didn't.

And you could probably speak to this more. Does the analytics community, are they big on Craig Barubi? It just doesn't seem like a really good fit for the way they want to play. So that's what pisses me off more. And sorry for swearing on your show. But the thing that pisses me off more, Merrick, is that $33, days ago or whatever it was, Mr. Brimglasses himself comes out there and Keith Polly and says, I'll leave that decision up to John Chica.

Nobody in this conversation, nobody covering this team right now can tell me with a straight face that John Chica came to the conclusion. Craig Barubi is the guy that's going to lead this team. Give me a break. I wonder at the back, first of all, I think that when you go into a press conference like this, like we were kind of spoiled with Brian Burke who came out and talked about, you know, testosterone and truculence and all these types of things and saying his first order of business to try to get the first overall pick and get John DeVar.

Those are big, bold press conference moves. And the Maple Leafs market was kind of spoiled by having that. Like, all right, this is awesome. This is everybody gets a protein shake. Like you walk into the press room, everyone gets a protein shake courtesy of Brian Burke. I think when you go into a situation like this coming from a very corporate structure like MLSC, your job is to not make a headline.

And your job is not to put any deadlines on anything. No, you knew that you know this was going to come just by the nature of hire itself. But at the same time, I wonder, too, just like I think Edmonton probably wonders the same thing. You don't want to say anything definitive right now because I'll just be blunt. We don't know what's going to happen with Tampa's coach. We don't, right?

If Tampa is going to do that's four first round losses and are always just talking to Tyler U.Mchick about this on DFO live this afternoon. We don't know. and all of a sudden if that coach becomes available, guess what? You know, he'll be waiting at the front of the line, Toronto, if that happens. And I do think that that would be a challenge that John Cooper would embrace. Now, my instinct says Cooper's not going anywhere, but at some point he is not going to be the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

So that's why I just wonder too, like, why say anything definitive other than you just don't want to make a headline. But if someone like John Cooper becomes available, you say, well, look, it's my job to react to the marketplace. The marketplace has changed, and now all of a sudden, the situation with my coach has adapted along with it. That to me would make some sense.

But if it comes out blasting saying, like, I don't know about Ruby, I haven't been impressed. He's going to, we're going to have to have a heart to heart. Like, that all of a sudden, there's another pin pulled out of the grenade that you just rolled into the media's laps. Yeah, I just don't get the sense, Bruby's going anywhere. I think these guys are cheaping out. I think there's been a lot of examples

as to why they look like they're cheeping out. I mean, let's not get into everything, but I would not be shocked. I just it's stunning for me and I came to the defense of Craig Brubia and Leas won't he take today. I think he's a great coach. Want to stand the cup of the St. Louis Blues, brought the leaps to the furthest they've been in, you know,

two decades. But the team stopped playing for this guy this year. If John Chike has been watching the league, just watch a handful of these games. now, you know, the biggest one for me is you go into St. Louis a place. This guy won the Stanley Cup and they completely no-showed. Was it like 14 shots?

They nose-code. Yeah. That one was like, man, they have just tuned this guy out. Well, that's exactly it. I felt there was like 15 games where I actually felt bad for Craig Bruby and the players, like, I mean, if you've got a question the work ethic of a player for one game, never mind 60 of like 82 games, I think you're in big league trouble. And I, I, like, Mark, Mark,

my words, I think the biggest mistake Keith Pelley made was was deflecting and making the decision up to the next GM as to the fate of Craig Barubi. I just think you're kicking that can down the road. We all know what's going into the season. He's a sitting duck. He's not Chikeas guy. I mean, it's always the same guy. You rarely see a GM and a coach start at the same time. I was thinking about this yesterday. When's the last time it was a fresh start? It's always over that. Okay. It's a funny story. So I've had so many conversations with people about this. When you get a job as a general manager,

you know what your job is? You know your job is, Nick? To keep your job. So what you want to do, how long can I last? So what you want to do is you want to keep as many bullets in the chamber as possible. So what every manager says, even though they think like, yeah,

I'm going to, I'm going to dust this guy. Well, I just got here. I need to see how everything works. I got to figure out this relationship with this person. I'm not going to make any decisions on the coach. You know, I'm going to be right here. I'm going to be watching things and observing.

And then I'll make my decision. Essentially, what you're doing is you're buying yourself some time. And we've seen it a million different times in about a million different scenarios. So I don't know that we should necessarily expect anything other than John Chica saying, you know what? Craig Brewer is our coach. But again, if Tampa makes a move on Cooper, I think all bets are off for a lot of teams. even teams that have coaches right now, right?

All of a sudden, hang on, John Cooper's available? Well, guess what? It's the same thing as we saw with Drew Bannister and St. Louis. Jim Montgomery's available? Drew, we love you, but there's some pink paper in the fax machine for you because Jim Montgomery's coming in. And to your Cooper point, like I love the idea. In fact, I know you're a big proponent and big fan of Lee's morning take.

I brought this up a month ago. John Cooper, you should be the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Never mind the head coach. If you want a bigger and badder decision, we all know how Coop works, man. He's always, he's always hungry looking for the next best thing. I think that would have been something I would take a risk on. I would have a better, you know, at ease myself better, taking a risk on John Cooper being the president than John Chike at the GM of the Toronto Maple Leaf right now.

Again, I'm going to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. I also wonder, Merrick, where does Matt Sundeen sit in this conversation? It is difficult for me, a legend like Matt Sundeen, who I grew up loving and being a fan of. He's just a Merrill advisor to John Chicaa. But we found out today, Chica's got every call. He's a general manager of hockey operations. You can add that to a new job to middle in this league. Yes, I think we're all curious about the Sadiens position in all of this.

I think cynically you look at it and you say like, okay, so in any type of situation, whether it's sports or politics, you're always playing one of two things. You're either playing shield or you're playing sword. And you wonder in this dynamic, is it John Chica playing sword? and Matt Sundin playing Shield. That's kind of the way, I think. I think he's playing Carlton the Bear. Well, then tell him to put on some pants for crying out loud.

I don't know. I'm very skeptical. Like, I love Matt's, but Zach and I interviewed this guy like four months ago, and dude, he couldn't give a six words on Austin Matthews passing him for the most goals in franchise history. And now you're telling me this guy is advising John Chike. Like, we talked about. You're telling me he's going to be the mascot. You're telling me he's going to be Carl.

He'll be raising the Stanley. He's going to be enticing McDavid to come to Toronto. That's why they got Matt Sundian pretty much. Again, I'm not, I'm not ragging on Matt Sundian. I just, I really, really wonder what he's, what is day-to-day has looked like in Sweden with the time change. It's like six hours ahead. You're telling me he's up at 3. I'm watching San Jose play Columbus.

Like it's, I don't know. I just wonder what he's going to bring to the table. The only thing I'll ask. is like, and I hate to use Montreal as an example, but where's the pride? Where's the culture? Some of the buzzwords used today that I like from Chica, culture, alignment, honesty, discipline, pride, passion. Keep going, baby. You're exciting this market.

But I just want accountability, man. And it's been missing from this team. And then we talk about Craig Barubi. And like, that's the one thing we could all get together on. It's like, damn, he's going to hold these guys accountable. And three seconds in, the only guy is going to try. to do that with is Willie Neeland. Everybody else, no worries.

And there's a guy in Vegas. Congrats to him, by the way. He puts away the Utah Mammoth in Game 6. So a nice victory lap there. Yep. But it's the same old dog and pony show. And it's borderline frightening. They're running it back.

And it's not even a buruby thing. There is no chance in hell what I gather today hearing from these guys. There's no chance in hell, Nylander or Matthews are going anywhere, man. Again, I'll push back slightly on that in that. they'll run it back if they can sell Matthews on the idea that they can be better. But there's some heavy, like put it this way, every single team is going to be of the same mind this off season. Because July 1st, the free agent market is, with all the respect to tuck and Bobrovsky and Darren Radish, feathers. Okay, this is not, where you're not going to improve your team in free agency this year.

Every team's of the same mind. And you know Stan Bowman's thinking the same thing in Edmonton. Trade, trade, trade, trade, trade. like this could be the summer of blockbuster trades in the NHL because that's the only way you're going to advance your program and advance your team. And Jake has got to be thinking the exact same thing. And if they can't show a map to Austin Matthews

for how this thing gets better starting next season, then it's going to be difficult conversation time. And that changes everything for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's why when anyone asked me, like what's the first order of business? It's Matthews. and can you convince him that this thing can turn around? Like, I'll ask you this. Like, can you see this thing turning around next year?

Like, can you, in your own mind, show me a path where this thing, unless you just say, like, well, you've got to cross your fingers and hope that everyone's healthy, the goaltending, the blue line, like all of it? Sure, of course. But do you see a way that this team can get back to being a consistent playoff squad? They've lost the plot. A Stanley Cup is what you're looking. looking for. If your vision is to go back to the Stanley Cup playoffs, you're in deep doo-doo.

And I see the Leafs, even if they get back. Like to answer your question, sure, I think there could be a bounce back. I mean, things went so epically wrong for this team, couldn't get a save. Tanev was out for an extended period of time. Matthews, Neelander, the consistency struggle there, nyes, you know, so on and so forth. But I don't view this team, especially, you know, I hope somebody asked about a moving train today, because last time I checked Buffalo in the second round. So is the Montreal, Canadians. You know,

Jersey, or Detroit's going to be hornier next year. I don't think Tampa's going anywhere. Florida's going to be back in the mix. A lot of trains moving around, Merrick. And I just wonder if the Maple Leafs know what's coming, can they see what's coming?

And I think they've completely lost the plot in this market. Like, I'd rather take two steps back and then one step forward and try to get that Stanley Cup, not make the playoffs, man. I'm with you. I'm with you. but here's where it gets complicated. Like once upon a time

it was the Ontario teacher's pension, right? And it was the insistence on the like, whatever it was, like five to eight, 10% ROI every year that they have. We've talked about this before, how Ferguson had to submit two budgets. One for playoffs, one without. They always chose the teacher's pension did.

The one that gave them their ROI. So then Richard Petty can go out and say, John submitted the budget and the Ontario teacher's pension approved it. Nice and tidy, right? But no one ever bothered to ask. And I'm guilty as anybody. How many budgets did they have to submit? but now it's MLSE, which soon will be owned 100% by Rogers.

Rogers just entered a brand new, or is about to, 12-year multi-billion-dollar deal with the NHL, and I don't think that there's much of an appetite to start the first five years of a multi-billion-dollar deal with the cash cow rebuilding. Screwed. Good segue to this Friday. You know what's coming on Least Morning Take on Friday?

Who do you got? Dick Petty, Richard Petty. on these 20. No way. That's that. What's he doing? What should we ask him? What's he doing?

I have no clue. Well, you got to ask him about the Ontario teachers pension. You know what would be interesting too? How many ships has he launched? I'm always curious about executives like him and how many, like I'll look at someone like Trevor Georgie who runs the St. John Seedogues and he's moved up from various levels to general manager or president and now he's partners with Scott McCain in the entire business operation of what Scott McCain is doing.

I'm curious how many ships he's launching. I'm curious how many he's actually sent out there. You know, because the old joke about, you know, as great as Lou Lamarillo was a general manager was, he never really made anybody else. Right? Everything was Lou. Whereas you look at like Pat Quinn, it's like Brian Burke and Tambalini and McPhee. Like, I'm always curious about who else have you brought along to sort of make the place better?

Because, and Berkey's always talked about this too. that was never Lou, but there are other managers that have always done that. I'm curious what Petty thinks. What are your thoughts on, what are your thoughts on John Chikea letting Shane doan over breakfast? He fired him over breakfast in Arizona. How would you like to fire people? Is there, is there, is there, is there, is there a right way to do it?

It was done to me over Zoom at Rogers, so maybe Zoom. You know what? funny. I just mentioned George McPhee a second ago. You want to hear a great firing story? Yeah. I really kind of like this. Like, it's tough. And you always judge an organization, not by how they bring you in, but you judge

an organization by how they say goodbye. I really, really believe that. And so Bruce was on his way to practice and he got a call from George McPhee, hey, can you swing by my house on the way to practice? And Bruce is like, oh, geez, I know what this means. And so he gets

George McPhee's house and knocks on the door and George opens up the door and he's still like in his like casual like track pants and hoodie goes hold hold on a second I'll I'll be right back and he goes up into his room and he puts on a suit and he says we're doing business so I'm putting on a suit now and he ended up letting Bruce Boudra go but Bruce always said like you know what I respected that move that he's not just going to like let me go in his track pants and like roots hoodie like he went and put on a suit like if we're doing business I'm putting on a suit I like that I like that There aren't very many positive, positive firing stories out there, but McPhee at his house, putting on a suit to let go of a wardrobe. That always impressed me. That's a classic. I love that.

Gabby Coasted a couple weeks ago, and he brought up George McPhee as a name, like how often you bring up somebody who can do. That's a really nice story and a really nice touch because, you know, just getting back on the Done topic, it sounds like he's done. And I understand he was Trees guy, but he's, I'm trying to get a conference.

He might have one year left on his contract, but I think this is the last we've seen of of Shane Dohn and Toronto. And I think naturally, you know, the further along questions now, like who else comes into the fray? There's been reports of like Roberts and Domi. I've heard about Roberts. I've heard about Roberts and Domi, the Domino's story I think is getting well told now. I do think there is an interest from the Toronto Maple Leafs to have Gary Roberts in to do

something. They don't have Richard Rottenberg there anymore. I wonder if that's just that would be that transition. there, but there is definitely interest from the Toronto Maple Leaf song with Gary Roberts. Do you think Like, you're doing a good job of hosting the sheet, by the way. Well, I just, I think you're a fun person to be

as like my soundboard. Like, sometimes I go for it, man. He's like, uh, uh, throwing stuff like, the dysfunction in Toronto is what gets me. Like, if you're Darren Raddish, maybe he's the wrong example, but you're a Toronto native. When you look at the shit show in Toronto, do you want any part of this? Like, what leads you down a road where you're like,

going to go to Toronto and I'm going to be successful. So the thing about Darren Radish is he's a late bloomer. He spent a lot of time being represented by Dave Gagne and he's since left Gagne this year to go with Craig Oster, who's also the agent for J.J. Mosier, who we believe, you know, he'd be looking for a similar, if not identical deal. Radish knows this is his one chance to ring the bell. and if Toronto is going to be that place that can pay him the most the most money,

I think he would go for it, right? Like I think at this point, you got to start, because so many athletes are always like, it's not about money, it's about respect. And I judge respect by money. So like at the end of the day, who's going to pay Darren Radish the most? And if it's Toronto, he goes to Toronto.

Yeah, that's kind of how I just, because it's his one shot to do it, Nick. And he's had like the monster year. like this is his chance to ring the bell. That's how I feel about. I just wonder like how players around the league view Toronto, at least right now, considering what they've been through the last decade, where they're headed,

the uncertainty surrounding like an Austin Matthews. I don't know if it's as appetizing of a destination as it was even like a year ago, if that makes sense. Let me put it, let me try to put it this way. I think there are a lot of players that want to play in Toronto, but they don't necessarily want to play for the Maple Leafs. Because Toronto pays.

And Toronto is celebrity. And Toronto is in fame and all of that. But I'm not so sure that they're thrilled about playing with this team right now. Like, is that too fine a distinction? They'd like to play in Toronto. I'm just not sure about the Maple Leafs. Media's too hard. Too hard.

No, you know what? Here's the thing about that. I'll let me, I apologize for swearing on your show. But that's bullshit, Nick. And here's why. Yeah. And here's why. because there are 31 other markets that wish they had coverage like this

because this is an indication that your market is successful. And if you're running away from that or if you can't handle that, that's fine. It's not for everybody. But don't talk to me about growing the game. Yeah. Don't tell me about we need to grow the game. We got to grow the game.

Because the nature of what the Maple Leafs are is the example. in the NHL of growing the game because it is a $4 billion business or whatever billions it is. It's insane. And there are 31 other markets that are like, yeah, we wish our players had that much of a headache because our franchise would be worth $4 billion.

Or we wish it were like New York. So unless you're willing to embrace that, and if you're not, that's fine. But don't ever say we need to grow the game and we're interested in growing the game because you're not. You're not. pressure cooker. It is a pressure cooker of a market. And I think after I'm done with you,

I'm going to go try to track down Mike Gillis, wherever he is. What happened to that name? I really thought, here's the thing about Mike. Mike will insist. And I admire, I really admire this about Mike, full 100% autonomy. Like, I can see Mike succeeding in a marketplace where there is a single owner that he has a good relationship with as opposed to a board. And I can still see Mike Gillis being very successful. Now, I know more and more in the NHL. It's less about single owners and more about corporate structure. That's just the nature of where hockey is at right now or expansion franchises are to be.

But I think that there is still a place where Mike Gillis survives and thrives. It's just got to be a very specific situation where he controls all. all of it and answers and answers to himself. And I think that someone like Mike Gillis would do very well. Because let's not forget, too, he is very good at managing upwards in business. That's nothing to do to Mike Gillis. But good one. Good one.

Good one. Good name. Yeah. Next question. Well, no, I was just, I actually, I'm thanking you because I was a little hot in the caller. I don't know if you noticed. Like just we even did a show today. We had a lot of, a lot of people watching.

today. I just, I wanted some clarity with this organization, this fan base after this. I'm going to go check out the rest of this press conference, but it's amazing to me like a year ago we're doing watch parties and the Leafs are playing the Florida Panthers and producer Vic is like squeezing my

leg in the playoffs and they're up 3-1 in Florida. You were there. We're feeling good. Yeah. And now it's just like doom and gloom and like I tend to think that they're headed more of the Vancouver Canucks direction and making mistake after mistake than the boss direction. I don't know. I hope they can turn things around, but what did the Boston? Okay, so what

did the Boston Bruins do? Yeah. They didn't fire Don Swede. Remember how much it was like torches at the castle gate, got to get rid of Don Sweeney. He's the problem. They didn't get rid of Neely and they didn't get rid of Don Sweeney. They said, you know what? We're biting down the mouth guard and we're going to get through it. Now, they get lucky like Pavel Zaka has like the best year of his career. Yeah, absolutely. And Swamen's healthy and good state of mind and he had a tremendous career. And they were able to steal someone from the Los Angeles Kings and Marco Sturm. And meanwhile, as L.A. looks floundering for a head coach. You just lost the guy that probably could have been your head.

Like, things broke well because they don't panic. Boston don't panic, man. I'm always concerned about teams that look like they're panicking. And a lot of different times with the Vancouver Canucks, they panic too. And I think that's why you find yourself in the situation that Vancouver's in. If I applied the Canucks, like for a management job, I wouldn't want to leave the nation at work. I love it.

You get an interview, though. You get an interview? Do you think they get an interview? Why not? They're interviewing everybody. It's like they're an expansion team and they want to interview everybody in the world so they can get a sense of who these people are. Everybody is getting an interview there.

I'm Italian, but I don't know if I'd want to work for Akeolini. I'll be honest, man. I'll be honest. Yeah. He's a challenging owner to work. Like there are, like look at this. You know where it's really bad right now, I believe,

because the owner cannot be happy is Dallas with Tom Galardi. Like Tom Galardi has given the Dallas Stars everything they've wanted. Everything. Everything. And this is not a shot at Jim Nill at all. But everything that Jim Nill has asked for, he's gotten. Right? Everything the Dallas Stars organization has asked from the owner, he's given it to them.

Where's the return on investment? And right now the fear is, are the Dallas stars becoming the San Jose sharks with Joe Thornton. Ooh, that's a good comp, man. It's tough to win in this league. I know it's interesting. I check every day with the NHL. Every team's allowed to try.

Okay, Berkey. I'm going to go to Berkey quote there. No, he's no, no, what's, what's Berkey's line? They only award one cup. I check with the league, the only award one cup. My line is always, yeah. Every team's allowed to try. Every team's allowed to try out there, Berkey.

It's true. We often like bring it up covering the Leafs. Like it is a hard, hard league to win in. But you can get away from it quickly. It is like Dallas is harder soon. Add six more. Why not?

I'm always curious about the goaltending. Like who's, who's playing that? Is it producer Vic, the ebug or like a lot of questions, man. Going to be good market for goaltenders. It's going to be good market for goaltenders.

All right. Finish watching the presser. And cheer up. The sun's going to come up tomorrow. We don't know what's going to happen with the Toronto Maple Leafs. We don't know what's going to happen with the head coach. We don't know what's going to happen with Austin Matthews. But we do know that Leif's Morning Take will be all over all of it.

You know what we haven't discussed yet? What's up? Stanley Cup tomorrow, draft lottery. I want Vancouver to win it. Do you? I do. Because this is a team that even going back to its inception, first year, right, the roulette wheel,

teams, Buffalo and Vancouver. Who's going to get Gilbert Perrault and who's going to get Dale Town? And the Buffalo Sabres, like they have had zero luck in lotteries, in roulette wheels, in draft, all of it. Since the beginning of the organization, just for once. But then you know what? Part of me says, I don't want to be the team that makes a decision on Gavin McKenna. You don't think it's conclusive? He's going one?

No, I think he will go one. but he's a winger that succeeds very much on the perimeter of play. Can that translate in the NHL? While it did for Kuthorov, well it did for Patrick Kane, is Gavin McKenna that guy? Like, will his skill set translate to the NHL? It might,

but I'm a lot more comfortable with a lot of players after number one. So maybe I'm talking myself out of this. Maybe I don't want Vancouver to have to, make the decision on Gavin McKenna. I think we're, listen, he may end up being a home run and I may be wrong about all of it. I'm only too happy to because he's a wonderful kid

and he's a tremendous hockey player. I just don't know that I want to be the team that makes that decision. I'd be really happy this year in the lottery, Nick, if I got number two spot. I'd be really happy. Let's someone else make the difference decision. Just to wrap, this is a tone-setting day tomorrow.

the Chica Sundin administration fully underway. This sets the tone for the entire tenure. Like, you're probably going to laugh, but what a tough start that would be. Like, you're Boston, you just got eliminated from the first round. Here is a sixth overall pick. And you don't they're going to do? They will take a, they'll get a franchise defenseman. Like another franchise defenseman.

Going back to Frickin' Eddie Shore, the Boston Bruins have always had, you know, go ore and park. And I still maintain if his knees were healthy, Gorgh Kluzak. Ray Bork and Chara, Macavoy, like, Hamas Linholm. Like, they'll, they'll get what they want. They'll get another defenseman. Watch in the Western. Why not?

New Era of Maple Isaki, the TICA administration, we're fired up. We're good to go. Thank you so much to this therapy session today. But they'll have next year's first rounder, right? Philadelphia's knocking to, yeah. Oh, Philadelphia gets landed Dupont. Oh, gee. Yeah.

Don't set me up for that type of. road. The Leafs are winning the cup next year anyways. Curvers, curvers for Niedermeyermeyer. We're going to go back in history here. Anyhow, great catching up with you. Cheer up. And we'll talk to you again soon, bud. You'd be good.

Thanks for hopping on. Thanks for having me. Take care. Bye. Be good. Oh, man. Hey, Zach. Hop on here, man.

That was awesome. That was the therapy session for myself. I got to just sit here and listen to that and, you know, calm down from all the reports and the quotes and the quotes and all that kind of stuff that's out there. At the end of it, we don't know. We don't know how this is going to work. We can be as skeptical as we want.

I see this when any manager is ever hired. Really, we don't know. We don't know how it's going to work yet. We don't. I'm skeptical myself of the Chica hire just based on what happened in Arizona. You raise a good point about how it's hard to offer. Throw it away. Throw it away.

Throw it away. And I can understand that. It doesn't erase it from the back of my mind that that did occur. The thing for me, and it's less so about Chica, Jeff, is more so about the search party, the search process, however you want to define it. In a way, it kind of feels like it was a sham. I know Keith Pelley went up there and said, oh, Neil, you know, he did so much and Neil led this and Neil led that.

And I'm not trying to discount Neil Glassberg's involvement or what he did. But in a way, it almost feels like, you know, you know, when you kind of want something for dinner. You're thinking about maybe getting pizza, but then your friend says to you, hey, what do you want? And they start listening off all the things. We can get sushi. We could get tacos. We can get pizza.

And you're like, yes, pizza. Let's get pizza. I think that would work. Because you've already always had. Great idea by you. Despite saying, right, despite saying that you know, you're open minded. You've always had it. It kind of feels like that a little bit.

I don't know. Like I'm not mad about it, but it bothers me to an extent where maybe there were other candidates out there who would have done a good job and could have been good fits for the role in Toronto but it Pelly always had Chikey on the back of his mind and that's who they landed on you know what I mean that that it feels like that's around this search party that took place so you're saying it could be like if Vancouver at the end of all this just hires Ryan Johnson as we thought was going to get the job in the first place but they had to go through the whole show right the whole thing that is exactly what I'm getting at yeah all of it

bring in everybody Yes. Okay. I think you have you interviewed yet? I know you're on the horizon. I did get a call for Vancouver number earlier today. Oh, 604 to Zach. Okay, here we go.

All right. Jeff, it's been a real pleasure. Let me see if I can fix the Vancouver Canucks now. See you later, suckers. I'm going to fix the Canucks. This segment is a presentation of the Ninja Krispy Pro countertop glass air fryer. That's right. Shark Ninja is elevating the air fire.

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visit the link in our description, or go to shark ninja.ca.ca. Got games tonight, by the way. What? What do you got? Oh, I know. No, I was just going to say, can we just give you a moment here to applaud your victory lap on the weekend?

Oh, Sam Malinsky just scored, by the way. Sam Malinski just got a goal. So write that down. there were a million replies to you on your tweet from April 1st about John Chica. I just said potentially being a candidate. One name to consider. That's all.

Based on how Pellie was talking, that was one of the names that came to mind. That's all. Yeah, yeah. They called me mad. They called me mad. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. And then I just went through and I saw.

you reply to like 40 people. Hi. Hi. April 1st. Put that on the board. Another name to consider. Yeah. Based on what Keith Feli's talking about.

John Chica. Do we, I don't think that I did not put him, put this way, I did not put him on Keith Pelley's radar. Like, I don't think Keith, Keith,

I read my tweet on him. Oh, Maris got a point there. I better call John. No, like that's, no. No. No.

Yeah. But, uh, still funny. Does this mean we have to pay you more now? Because we do that whole thing. Oh, yes. If you want to get things right, clearly.

If I'm going to have my, my, rate just went up. My agent's going to call Amel right now. I'm going to, if I'm getting things right, I'm going to need more money. So what things work around here. Oh, Lekinen just scored again. Arturi Lekan just scored again. Let's get that listed. So this is my last until tomorrow.

Crazy game is just getting out of control here. We got a couple of games tonight, by the way. Anaheim faces off against the Vegas Gold and Knights As much as the Anaheim story is a fun one to watch I don't know that they can survive the depth of the Vegas Golden Knights Unless Carter Hart keeps Anaheim in this one

The Philadelphia Flyers face off against the Carolina Hurricanes I don't know how Philly wins a game here I'd love to see them win a game just to extend a series here because you want to see more hockey I just don't know how they can do it Did you see the tweets from Sends fans yesterday? they were victory lapping that they never went down

three nothing in a game. So a round of applause to the senators. Congratulations for not going down by three to the Carolina Hurricanes. I heard Steve's Deos will be opening next season with a banner hanging. Never went down three Cobb? By three.

Yes. Congratulations to the senators. Flyers face off against a hurricanes game two. Logan's Dankover's been a story. That whole line has been a story. How, by the way, It's one of the hardest things to do. Kandre Miller's back check on Garnet Hathaway

and the clean sweep of the puck. That was a... That right there, I look at it, I'm like, what do we always talk about? There are certain types of players that can play for the Carolina Hurricanes. You need to be athletic and smart. That was a perfect example of that.

Anyhow. So those two games on the board tonight, 7 o'clock Eastern, the Flyers, and the Canes. 9.30 Eastern, nice little stagger. and the Vegas Golden Knights. All right. I have a feeling we're going to hear about pizza and burgers and Chinese food. No.

No, no, no. Okay, all right, we'll see what happens. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season, and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Bet Slip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Miss Puck Drop, no sweat with the live same game parley.

You can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download Fandulul's sports. sports book today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, Zach, free of charge. No pizza, no burgers, no hot dogs. No fries, no rings, no Thai food, no what?

What do we got today? No, I was talking about, you know, the stark contrast between what we saw and the two games yesterday in Montreal, Tampa, into the Minnesota, Colorado game. And, you know, yesterday I was trying to, it's been something, I've talked about it before, my girlfriend is just getting into hockey. So I'm trying to really explain how important, really explain how important and big, like, gang sevens are. And I was pumped up to watch it. And, you know, with yesterday's games and leading from game seven of the HABs and the lightning into the game one of round two, I was already jacked up for yesterday's games. But seeing goaltenders shut the door to then what we saw in the Avalanche Wild game was jarring. Do you have any idea what the three could be before I show it?

Jarro something door and jarring but Tristan Jari is no longer playing hockey I know Jackson Blake jacked up Pavl Dorofiev oh very nice and Seth Jarvis $5 wins $150 and 70 cents very well done very well down you got two hurricanes and a golden night. Take the rest of the week off. We understand Vic is kicking him out. Maybe he'd like to do double duty. Is he sobbing in the corner after the press conference?

How's Vic doing? Vic, you're okay, buddy? You're surviving all the press conference and the news and everything? You're all right, Vic? What's up, bud, bud, bud. You feeling okay? What's that?

What'd you say? What a gong show that was, I said. What didn't you like about it? Your team's got a new manager. And a legend is back. too. They're going to bring the ghost of Johnny Bauer back as well. It's going to be fantastic.

It was awesome. I'm a little worried that, according to Steve Simmons, 20 of 30 general managers, hate the new guy, but, hey, we'll be on the ghost.

Oh, boy. What a day. Keep him away from bridges. Can you escort him home? Zach, do your buddy to solve him home? Make sure.

He's married, man. Tell him to stay out of the saloons on the way home. Like, if you got to hold his hand, whatever you have to do, just make sure Vic gets home. I'm afraid about him. Make sure he gets home, all right. Holy smokes, everybody. It's like what Ilya Brazcaloff said, it's just, it's just game.

It's just a hockey. Why you have to be mad? Tell Vic to get this mad when he votes. Tell Vic, say, Merrick said, get this mad when you vote. Get this mad. at a hockey team's press conference. Yeah, I will pass on the message. I will pass that on.

All right. I got to go watch this thing now because I'm getting texts from a bunch of people like you got to watch this. You got to watch this thing. Oh, I've done so many texts. I know. Stephen Ellis texted me. Did you see the Simmons question dot, dot, dot, dot.

I said, no, he goes, you've got to watch it. I got like, it's got to be. It's got to be. 17 messages just like, what was that? And you got to watch this. And holy, okay. I can't wait to see this. What is this going to be?

Christmas morning. Christmas morning. Again, my ultimate comment on it is, we don't know how this is going to go. We don't. Yep. You're right. We have no idea how this is going to go.

Thanks for watching. It's a really nice numbers today. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks for listening to the program. Plenty more on this. I do have the feeling and I suspect that you do as well. This is going to be one of those gifts that keeps on giving. and we'll ride that pony.

Trust me. Who the hell's calling this a gift? This is a gift. Unless you're a fan of the team. But even if you're a fan of the team, like maybe it's going to work out. You don't know. Again, you have really no idea of this.

But I'm saying like from what we do for a living. As you've always heard me say before, a low-hanging fruit is still nutritious and we are only too happy to pluck it from the vine here at the sheet on a daily basis. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching.

If you've subscribed to the channel, Thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so. To everybody in the chat, bless you for hanging in this deep. I know we've been disrespectful of your time. Taken over an hour. Blame Nick. He just wanted the host another show today. And so we just sort of surrender the technology to him.

Thanks to Al Berger for stopping by. Thanks to Marco for stopping by. Talking about the HABs. Talking about the Leafs. Tomorrow we'll talk more about the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the meantime and in between time. Take care of yourselves. Tip your Zambore.

driver on the way out. The sheet returns tomorrow at one of the evening.