The Sheet with Jeff Marek - So What Now? ft. Pierre McGuire

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Pierre McGuire joins Jeff Marek to kick off the week on The Sheet. Discussing the Maple Leafs embarrassing Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers and what Toronto does next, the emotional moments on Saturday with the Winnipeg Jets and Mark Scheifele, and teeing up the Conference FinalsShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Ninja Kitchen Canada: https://www.ninjakitchen.ca/products/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system-zidFN101CGY?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=olv&utm_campaign=25Q2-Crispi&utm_content=en👍🏼Budweiser: https://www.budweiser.ca/ca_enReach 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/@Flames_Nation🚨 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-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Stylish selections and design assistance to help you every step of the way. Transform your living space today with Cozy. Visit Cozy.ca, C-O-Z-E-Y.ca, the home of possibilities made easy. Okay, I don't want to sound too gruelish in this annual tradition of the trotting a piece autopsy of another after another playoff failure. Resist the temptation to talk about the rubber blankets and the purple gloves and all that embalming fluid and all these things.

But here we go again. In the building last night, Game 7. Was there as a spectator. So I was out of town for the weekend. One of my boys had a baseball tournament. I get a call from my wife after Austin Matthews scored on Friday. I'm getting tickets for you and the boys for Sunday. Like what? So I went with the two boys last today to go see game seven. How often are you gonna go to a game seven live? A lot of excitement, a lot of

anticipation in the building, a lot of nervous energy in the building, but a really really good fan base last night and even early on and I hope you got a sense of this if you're watching on TV or watching on your tablet or whatever you're watching that in that first half of the first period where normally I would think Maple Leafs fans would kind of go oh here we go again as the Maple Leafs are completely getting caved in on the shots on the shot attempts. You know, I think a lot of people were this close to saying,

well, at least they'll only have to flood half the ice after the first period. Maple Leafs fans did something that, of recent note, I'm not really used to, and that is they really got behind this team. Now, mind you, the Panthers hadn't scored yet, so that made it easier, I suppose. But they really tried to will this team into success. And things changed around the, between the 11 minute mark and the six minute mark of the first period, the Toronto Maple Leafs

suddenly came to life and were saying things like, well, you know what, this is kind of like a Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs game where the Florida Panthers sort of controlled the tempo, controlled the pressure, but the Maple Leafs had the better chances. And that was true in the first period. Second period was an absolute disaster for the Maple Leafs.

And the third period was just more of the same with beers and jerseys and trade everybody and fire everybody by the end of the night. But I was really impressed at Maple Leafs fans. We're going to talk a lot about Maple Leafs fans today. Really impressed with them in those first 10 minutes with the Toronto Maple Leafs came out really really flat fell apart but the Maple Leafs fans never gave up on them. We're going to talk a lot about the Maple Leafs fans today and Zach I want to bring you into this conversation here. We're going to talk a lot about Maple Leafs fans. We're going to get to the what's next for the Maple Leafs with Pierre McGuire coming

up in a couple of moments. But as far as Maple Leafs fans go yesterday, we'll talk a lot about them because everybody was talking about them last night. Players and coaches and media, everybody having their own full-throated swipe at Maple Leafs fans. Like somehow this is Maple Leafs fans' fault and there's too much pressure on all these poor, gentle little hockey players who just happen to be paid millions and millions of dollars and know what the score is by now

when you sign or re-sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And you know, the Matthew Kachuck appearance today on Spit and Chicklets was an interesting one. Good on them, great get. Yanel calls his old Florida Panther buddy and gets him on. It's a great podcast moment for that pod. But the idea that somehow Maple Leafs fans are to blame for putting their players under too much pressure.

Now I don't have great context for other sports. I am a very, very casual sports fan. I am a very hardcore hockey fan. And I'll go deep and I've always been like this my entire life. You ask me about football or if you ask me about baseball or if you ask me about basketball or track and field or whatever, my knowledge of it is embarrassingly bad.

But correct me if I'm wrong. What the Toronto Maple Leafs are going through and always go through with this fan base is nothing compared to what soccer fans put their teams through all over the world is nothing what Yankees fans put their baseball team through what Knicks fans put their basketball team through. Like am I off base on this? There's a couple of more points about fans I want to make here but for a greater sports context like I'm not off base here saying if this is the worst that a fan base is gonna do to a hockey team in the NHL, compared to the greater sports universe, this is nothing.

This is nothing at all. Like, am I on base or off base on this one? 100% on base. I actually got a message from someone who watches the Sheet. Shout out to Jana. She is over in Scotland I believe maybe wrong in there, but she pointed out to me and messaged me and was like Hey, just wanted to kind of let you know about the fandom conversation That's happening here was like the way that this leaves fan base treats the team reacts to the team

whatever you want to say, is equivalent to like a middle to lower Premier League team, which would be the highest end soccer league there in England. And like effectively saying, it's not even close to what happens with the fan bases of like the higher end teams and the nuts like the psycho teams like I don't know you you would read these comments Jeff and you would think that these players are being assaulted in the streets here like they're walking down and having bananas thrown at them everywhere based on the way I'm here

reading this stuff like I'm all that is I'm old enough to remember the story of Andreas Escobar in 94 at the World Cup, the Colombian, the goaltender who put the ball on his own net and was gunned down by like a mob, either a henchman or a mob bodyguard. And the guy was chanting goal, goal, goal at him. He's just pumping bullets into him. That's bad, by the way. What the Maple Leafs fans put their team through as far as pressure goes is nothing. Now I know I'm going to the extreme with the Escobar comparison, but still.

This is what I've always, always felt. And it's interesting that this happened to the Maple Leafs against the Florida Panthers because I want to get to them here in a couple of seconds. But the one thing that I've always maintained is, maintained is this fan base in Toronto is what every other market dreams about and the NHL dreams about. If every market was as vibrant and healthy as this Toronto Maple Leafs fan base was, do you have an understanding of

how massive this league would be? Like if you had that type of fan base that spent that kind of money consistently, generation after generation after generation, how magnificent a league this was? Like me. That's not embarrassing or Isn't as embarrassing as taking the Stanley Cup to the elbow room and having a hundred people show up That I would rather have the hundreds of thousands of Maple Leafs fans Throwing a jersey or two on the ice which I don't condone especially not during the play like come on as Opposed to having to have your victory celebration in your arena parking lot a jersey or two on the ice, which I don't condone, especially not during the play, like, come on. As opposed to having to have your victory celebration in your arena parking lot.

Every other team wants the Maple Leafs fan base. I assure every owner does. Gary Betman does. Bill Daley, who will one day take over from Gary Betman, does. Players who are worried about escrow want every other fan base to be like the Toronto Maple Leafs like it is the model fan base in the NHL trust me on this one they write the biggest revenue sharing check they always have and they probably always will it is a model fan base again generation to generation to generation. Now, is every

player cut out to play in a market like that? No. And that's why I always, like the example that I always raise of someone that, you know, unfortunately was on some very mediocre teams, but really embraced the idea of being on this massive stage, it's Dion Fanoff. Dion Fanoff got out there in front of every single camera after every single game. Win, lose, tie, shoot, it doesn't matter. Faneuf was out there. And Faneuf embraced the idea of playing on the biggest stage in the NHL. Matt Sundin was the same way. There are just some guys that are wired for it. And there are some guys that aren't wired to play in front of the biggest stage and the biggest fan base in the entire NHL.

It's not for everybody. I understand that. We're going to get to roster composition in a second here. But before we get to what's coming up on the program here today, give me a hot 30 on what you took away from last night. on what you took away from last night? Well, the biggest thing for me is just that I think that that's the final straw in terms of the assemblance of the four. I am well aware, as many other people are, that these are very, very talented players and they probably will have success elsewhere, but as this is constructed that has to be the end. And just the one thing I really wanted to say here, because I know Leafs fans are taking up bashing here today, they were awesome in that game last night for the first period, even for the second period.

I thought, like they were very much in it and they were involved and they were there and giving that team energy. And the guys on the ice just didn't give them enough to continue to cheer about. And you could tell after the Panthers scored the first goal that there was a deflation amongst the players, not just the arena, the players. And then that just fed through. Like we did the show at Greta Barr and it was like the first one went in and it was a slumping I you know kind of turned to Rosie and Nick and we both kind of said to each other is like that that's it like that they don't have

what it takes to climb back to fight back into this I don't condone the jerseys and all that stuff too the last thing I'll say before you continue I don't like that stuff but I understand it because this is nine years and I think people have kind of said and tried to get their points across as a fan base. This isn't going to work. This isn't going to work. This isn't going to work. And then it's like, they get dragged right back in like me texting Jeff on Sunday morning saying, are they different? Here we go, let's get there. And like me, I'm just in there.

And then it's just like, rip my heart out the same way nine years in a row. And someone asked me on the post game last night, the Leafs fans know they're in an abusive relationship. My answer was, yes, we know. And for whatever reason reason we like it. Yeah, and it's been going on for generation after generation after after generation. All right, here's what's coming up on the program today and it's going to be a lot of what's next for the

Toronto Maple Leafs. Daily Outline provided and powered by FanDuel, our partners and our sponsors. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Our Friends at FanDuel, our partners and our sponsors. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, our friends at FanDuel. And coming up on the program, you know, it's a perfect day for Pierre Maguire. There's so much to chew on from a lot of different points of view and Pierre has observed it. Pierre has been part of it. Pierre has a unique 360 perspective on all of it.

So very much looking forward to our conversation with the great Pierre McGuire. And the number one topic is gonna be the leaf's meltdown. You might wanna put a comma and again after meltdown because this seems to be a sort of annual tradition for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And then the subsequent question of what's next. Now topic number four,

I might wanna make sure that we park some time to talk about this one because Saturday was just awful in our condolences to the family and to the friends of the Shifles after Mark Shafley receives the news of the passing of his father. He goes in place and scores the first goal and our hearts are breaking and our hearts are overjoyed at it and then takes that penalty late in the third period and is in the penalty box as Thomas Harley scores the overtime winner,

and he has to be rescued by his captain, Adam Lowry. We'll get to the Winnipeg Jets, and we'll get to Mark Shifely here coming up in a couple of moments. And if we have time, we'll get to the conference finals. They don't get underway until tomorrow, and that is Florida and Carolina. So we'll probably bench more time tomorrow

to talk about the conference finals, but if we can get there, if we get there, we get there. Essentially is what I'm saying, because we have a lot to get to today on the program. And with that, we'll bring on our marquee guest. This segment is a presentation of our friends at Budweiser. Budweiser is encouraging buds to make time for the playoffs,

it's not excuses. Every goal, every check, every win is better enjoyed with your buds. Phone a bud, text a bud, ping a bud and call out their excuses for bailing on the playoffs. After all, the playoffs are the most wonderful time of the year. Make them count. When it's springtime, it's go time. With that we'll bring aboard our someone who's perfectly suited for this day. He is the great Pierre Maguire, noted hockey

analyst who joins me there. Pierre, first of all, thanks so much for for joining me on what has been a very busy Monday and as we like to say in the industry, a pretty easy day in Toronto for Sports Talk Radio. There's a lot here. There's the what happened, there's the what's next. I just want to begin by, as we say, painting with a roller instead of a brush. Wide brush thoughts on what you saw last night? I was trying to make the point that as much as we're talking about fans today and Paul Maurice talked about fans and everyone's talking about pressure and fans and all these types of things, I still maintain that if every market were like this,

what a healthy environment the NHL would be with markets where you don't need any owners to write revenue sharing checks. And every franchise has generation upon generation of fan bases to build on. But what were your main takeaways coming out of last night's six to one loss by the Maple Leafs at the hands of the Florida Panthers again? Before I get to the takeaways, it's nice to be with you, Jeff, number one. And number two, Zach, I wish more people had the same omnipresent vision that Zach had before I came on. I thought that was thoughtful. I thought it was smart. I thought it was focused. So great job by Zach. That being said, my thoughts were when I watched the opening faceoff, I said,

Toronto has to have a lead start. I'm sure that's not a foreign concept to anybody that's in the game seven. And they couldn't have had a more dismal start. You get out shot seven nothing. They're on their heels, not their toes. Their goaltender is coming up large. They have some fortuitous good luck. They don't take advantage of it. Then they get the next seven shots. And it's like, okay, the crowd's into it. Everything's good. Maybe they get a bet and we just melt. They melt. And I know it's been cause celeb in Toronto. I'm going to throw this at you. Okay. Because I'm not sure you've had this take yet. Brandon Carlo is getting shredded for the Seth Jones goal. And I can tell you it's somebody that's coaching the league

and played a real high level. That's not on Brandon Carlo. That's a misread by Morgan Reilly. That's a misread in the neutral zone by Morgan Riley. And that's because there's no forward supporting. He can't step up there. He steps and Seth Jones jumps by the step and it's a two on one. Brandon Cardo played it. It's just a perfect shot by Seth Jones. But this is part of what ailed Toronto after that Seth Jones goal. Everybody started trying to do somebody else's job and they're burning back to what the Toronto Maple Leafs used to be. Full panic. For 82 games, we didn't see full panic. I saw it last night. You know who else we saw full panic out of? Craig Barube. And all season long, all season long, Pierre, you know, there's a, there's, you

know, at the whistle, there's the tight one shot to Craig on the bench and he might as well be the Buddha. He's just back there and he's calm and he's serene. And then those three goals go in in six minutes and all of a sudden the Buddha's going banana sandwich and just loosening on these guys. Haven't seen it all year. Who else did it? Mitchell.

Marner. Mitchell Marner. When was the last time you saw him having a little bit of a And just losing it on these guys. Haven't seen it all year. Who else did it? Mitchell. Marner. Mitchell Marner. When's the last time you saw him have a nuclear eruption like that on the bench? Probably never. You know, all the years. So that's what I'm saying.

So I'm watching that and I'm going, okay, this is not all on Morgan Riley, by the way. I'm a huge fan. I think the world of him is a person, is a player. But that's a major gap that never got talked about on the broadcast that I saw. And that's just, it's okay. I get it. It's just part of the game.

But then I saw the other guys trying to step up and do the other people's jobs. And that's when you know, it's a team that's not ready to win. They're not comfortable in their own skin. You know, what did you make of the, and I want to get to the Florida Panthers here and I want to specifically, I want to focus on Seth Jones in a couple of seconds here who may have had the best game of his season so far. He was tremendous last night. Um, what did you make of the Austin Matthews comments about too many passengers and second of all, are you, cause I'm stunned that after a loss like that, the captain of the team is coming out and putting his team on blast.

I'm sure that whether it's at the coaching level or the management level, maybe even at the ownership level, there'll be a lot of eyebrows raised about the captain blasting the team at the end of the season like that. But what did you make of the Matthews comments? Too many passengers. Unfortunate, not called for in that venue. Um, maybe a day later or two days later, or maybe in a summertime article, I didn't like it at all. Um, and I like Austin a lot. I just thought it was inappropriate, but I get it.

The frustration part of it too is there. There's no question about it. These guys were extremely frustrated. But I'm going to take you to a player that I had the opportunity to work with, Mary Lynn Neuva. And it wasn't when he was playing, Jeff. It's when he was in ownership. And they had just lost a major game five in Detroit in 2009 and they got blown out. They didn't just lose, they got blown out. And he and I just happened to be walking out of the Joe Louis Arena together. And I've been working for the team. I was working for NBC Sports. And I said, Ace, that's his nickname.

I said, Ace, tough one, huh? He goes, no, not a problem at all. He says, we're going to go back. We're going to win game six and we're going to come back here and win game seven. And so he went back to Pittsburgh and it's the stuff of lore. He went to the arena, nobody else was there, and he wrote a message on the blackboard in the dressing room for the players to see. And it was all positive stuff. and And I'm not saying Mary's responsible for the save, but I think it's just an example of what does a leader do when they're faced with misery or they're faced with difficulty, faced with the tough challenge.

It's easier to point fingers and to get positive. And I think that's what Austin will learn from this. Just as a quick aside, for me, I'll always remember that save because at that moment, Marc-Andre Fleurry completely abandoned his structure as a goaltender and just said, F it, I need to make a save. This isn't what I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna abandon everything and just make a save on it. To me, it's like from that era, it might be the most iconic save because he just said screw it, it's a structure. You know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of

Dominic Hastic. In all 100 It reminded me of Dominic Hastic. In all 100%, it was a Dominic Hastic type save and I will always remember that music. Yeah. You mentioned Marner a couple of seconds ago and the sort of theme of today's show and I do wanna get back to the autopsy here but I think everybody is wondering

what happens next with Mitch Marner? Listen, there is going to be a lineup if he gets to July 1st. We all know Darren Ferris of Core Texas has always been an agent that likes to walk his players to free agency. You've earned it, get there, see what's out there. You can see who's got what as far as cap space goes. And the salary cap is going up to 95.5. This isn't the most robust free agent market come July 1st. Everything is lining up for Marner to get a major payday. But there's still that tug. And he mentioned postgame yesterday.

You know, they took a chance on a skinny kid from Toronto. You know, play with the London Knights, Thamos Flyers, Von Kings, GTHL Kid, Hill Academy, whole deal. Whole deal for Mitch Marner. And I can't help, but you know, something you referenced with Marner losing it on the bench. You know, is that that moment where it finally dawns on him that this actually might be it for my time in Toronto?

You know what I remember? Yeah, for sure, Jeff. And one other thing. When he was doing that post-game presser, he didn't say, it means a lot. He says, it meant a lot. And maybe he didn't mean to speak that way,

but I took it that way. It meant a lot. And you're staying with the team. It means a lot. You know, it's funny too, cause John Tavares talked a lot about staying in his post game and you didn't get that. You got a lot of reflection from Marner. You know, this was as opposed to this is, or this will be.

I know we're trying to put the accent on the right syllable here, but I think you're really onto something here by, by how Marner is speaking about his time in Toronto. And I've maintained this, like Mitch Marner is an elite level talent. As far as skill goes, one of the best in the NHL, but not every player works with every team. We've seen, this is a, a story as old as the game itself.

If he goes somewhere else, I fully, and take your pick, Carolina, Utah, Detroit, wherever, he'll probably go there and be really, really successful and might even be dynamic in the playoffs. He's with a different team and a different style of player. I always go back to how Mitch Marner looks so different playing in the four nations with Sam Bennett, as opposed to Austin Matthews. Not a slight on Matthews is just playing with someone like Bennett

brought out different things in Mitch Marner in a really high pressure situation and he was able to excel. And if you can't change the whole team to make Marner work, then maybe it is time. And every indication is it's time. They're not changing the coach this time. That's your line. He can't change every player, but he can change the coach. A lot of changing the coach this time, my friend, they're changing players.

And I was thinking about that today too. And I just want to throw this at you and your viewers and listeners. Brad Marshand in the last two years has been the captain of the Boston Burms. It hasn't worked out. Didn't work out. After Krayche and Bergeron, Charra left. It hadn't worked out for Brad in Boston. Do you see that player playing on the third line with Mr. Inon? Oh, and Lendeli. Lendeli. You see that? See that player?

Yeah. Right? Probably the best player in the game last night, I would say, in game seven. And if he wasn't, he had set Jones for head to head. Yep. Because his role got changed, and he accepted his role, and he was comfortable playing with the people he was playing with. He wasn't comfortable being the captain of the Boston Bruins.

He wasn't comfortable playing without Berger on Craycheap. Wasn't comfortable in those situations. See, I think that if he's moved to the right, or he goes, he chooses to go to the right place. You could have a player and people saying, Whoa, we told you this guy, she was really good. And now all of a sudden his role changes and he is really good. Yeah.

He's really good. Well, what's interesting. And again, we'll see, like, I'm sure, you know, Bill Zito will have obviously a say about this before it gets there. you know, Bill Zeta will have obviously a say about this before it gets there. You know, I look at this Maple Leafs team and say like, everything they need is on Florida right now, whether it's Sam Bennett as a 2C, whether it's Brad Marchand as a, as a, as a top four winger and whether it's Aaron Echblad as a number one defenseman. Like everything this team needs

is on the Florida Panthers right now and poised to be a free agent. I don't know if they get there. I don't know if they want Toronto, but do you see the same thing? Like I look at the Maple Leafs and say like, they need two top four wingers. They need a second line center,

and they need a number one D, and maybe even if you squint, you can make a case about goaltending too. But do you see the same thing that I'm seeing here, Pierre? 100%, that's why I love being on your show, because you're reading this thing like a book. It's perfect. And the truth is, is that, yeah,

can you keep John Tavaris as a 3C at two to $4 million a year? I might do it. I bet you do. and believe that he's not in Calgary, but that's another story for another show. I still can't believe Matt the Kachuck's not in Calgary, but that's another story for another show. The general manager from Calgary is in Toronto. So you have to ask him that question. All that being said, the Rasha constructions don't matter a lot. They learned a lot, I think, from this series. And what they need to pay attention to is that objects in your rear view mirror are closer than they appear. Ottawa is closer than they appear. Montreal is closer than they appear.

That's a good point. Detroit is closer than they appear. I know everybody's having fun ripping on Detroit. I know their prospect pool really well, and I'm telling you, they're much better than people think. That Atlantic division isn't really going to take a step back. You think the Florida Panthers are going anywhere anytime soon? It's gonna be hard to make the playoffs in the Atlantic next year. It's gonna be real, it is every year. How's Boston feeling? I heard their press conference at the end of the year

and they said we don't just see ourselves as a playoff team, we see ourselves as a team that's gonna make serious inroads in the playoffs. Yeah. I just miss the playoffs. See, it, it, here's the other thing. And again, I'll throw another log on, on the Maple Leafs and what's going to, what's going to be a real challenge here for them going forward is this is a team that doesn't have any prospects that are going to walk in and change anything. and change anything. And they don't have draft capital either to play with. Like all of their problems here have to be solved

with the checkbook. And to make that work, like your question about Tavares is a really interesting one too, because again, you play on the hometown hardstrings. John, we remember the pajamas and the pillow and all of it, like, do you want to stay? You've put however many million in the bank right now. Do you want to play the game of hockey on the ice or the game of hockey off the ice,

which is I'm trying to get as much money as possible here because, and I keep coming back for whatever reason, I keep coming back to Utah for John Tavares. And look at all those young players on Utah, and especially down the middle, and I say, would they offer something ridiculous for two years for John Tavares? John, our young guys need you, they need an example. You're a great one, you wanna bring your family

to Utah for a couple of years. That's what I keep coming back to for John Tavares. But I look at this team and I say like, the only way they're gonna do this right now is to buy their way out of it. And then the other question here too is, you talk about what you've learned along the way and what you've discovered.

What they've discovered is Matthew Nyes is an exceptional hockey player. And the game of the general manager now is identify your core, pay them, and pay them for as long as you can and bet on them. What happens with Nice? What happens with Nice this off season?

So you got assignment, so you got comparables, power forward comparables. You have Brady Kachuck, I helped do his contract. You got, especially the cough in Carolina, used him as a comparable in the negotiation. And you've got other power forward around the league that you can utilize as a comparable for Matthew Nice. And I don't think they're obscene.

I think you got to max out at eight years and you know, everything starts at eight, I think, on Matthew Nice. And you go forward. But that's how the market is. I mean, that's how you got to do it. Again, it depends internally. I don't want to speak for them, but internally you have to be ready for those comparables. Sveshnikov and Kachuk are two that immediately come to mind. And then they got to work. I don't know if you can use

Matthew. It's a different era. Matthew's already got, Matthew's already won the Stanley Cup and then he'll file another guy. So I don't know. It's one of those things to live. But here's one thing and thing And waivers, and waivers with Forsling. That's all part of professional acquisition. Remember when Cliff Fletcher said, Josh Smilov? Yep, of course. Florida Panthers been saying that forever. You're not wrong.

And there's a couple of interesting things about the two Florida teams. Outside of Stephen Stamkos and Victor Hedman, I would always marvel at Tampa and say, there's no first rounders here. Like these are all like, you know, these are all like second and they did a great job on waivers and trades, like, you know, I mean, Vasilevsky is a first round pick too, so let's throw him in, but you're, you're bang on about Florida. But the thing about Florida under Zito was like, you know, they said the

thing that I, it wasn't that long ago that the Florida Panthers were considered an easy two points. Tampa was gonna give you a fight, but don't worry about it, because you're gonna pick up an easy two points when you played Florida. And then Bill Zito got the job, and the first thing he did was bring in Patrick Hornquist and then said, that's the kind of player we want.

And then it was Sam Bennett, and then it was Kachak, and now it's Marchand, and, and, and, and and and and and and and they just became awful to play against. I think there's no secret here. Like the marriage of skill and toughness is what wins you Stanley Cups. No matter how you acquire it. I do. I want to add one more thing and I say this with the highest level of respect. Paul Maurice is really good with a sound bite and he's unbelievable with

a quip. Paul Maurice is a tough guy. His teams don't play soft guy hockey. He looks like a professor that should be at Western or Queens or at University of Toronto. He does. But he doesn't like that kind of hockey. He likes hard guy hockey. Those guys play right on the edge and look at how many times they're over the edge. And look at after every whistle, they lure you in to being uncomfortable because that's how they're comfortable. That's their comfort level. They make you uncomfortable. And that's why we saw what we saw last night. The panic point of the Leafs was off the charts. That's why we saw Mitchell acting the way he did. That's why we saw Berube act the way he did. That's why Morgan Rielly makes a bad pitch trying to do somebody else's job because he's

trying to be aggressive. One of the things I don't want to get your thoughts on, the nature of the Maple Leafs in this division. So you look around and previous to this season, Boston, Tampa, always in that conversation. Now Florida has finalists and then Stanley Cup winners as well. You know, there's a, I can't tell you how many conversations

to have with people that said, like if they played in the Metropolitan, you'd feel different about the Toronto Maple Leafs. And my point back has always been, if the Maple Leafs played in the Metropolitan division, we wouldn't know who the Maple Leafs are. We would have a false sense of who they are. The thing about playing in the Atlantic that is so interesting is you know exactly what

you have and you know exactly what your team is. There's no lying, right? You can be a really successful, dissolved respect to everyone in the metropolitan division, but you can lie to yourself about how good you are as a team. Now, uh, how to look back at the, you know, the, as the Maple Leafs progressed through the playoffs and thinking about, and you'll

remember this, the days of the Norris division, right, where, uh, all you needed was 60, 60 points, Chuck Norris, everyone had like eight or nine sluggers on their team and what's this round black thing spinning around? Yeah, we'll get to that after we pick up the gloves you get 60 points and you make the playoffs You knew nothing about your team and then you get absolutely crushed But when you when you played, you know Edmonton or Calgary or Vancouver or Los Angeles anyone to win a big jets In the in the old smite division the thing about the Atlantic is there's no lies.

You know what you have when you play in the Atlantic division. Florida knows what they have, Tampa, Boston, everybody. That's why it's so hard for Buffalo, and it's so hard for Detroit you just mentioned. So when you play in this division, you know exactly what's under the hood. Do you have a thought on that one, Pierre?

Yeah, and I love that way you looked at that because it's a hundred percent true Austin found out really quick think about two years ago an eight seed goes in and plays a one seed the Florida Panthers and we Win a game seven in Boston that starts a downward spiral of awesome moves But and that this year two years later now the playoffs the Buffalo savers for years were equal with the Ottawa senators. Ottawa took the next step. Buffalo has not. Detroit was the same kind of rebuilding path as Ottawa. Ottawa has taken the next step.

Detroit hasn't. Montreal's leapfrog, both Detroit and Buffalo because of aggressive management and acquisitions at the pro level. So you, you know, again, you have a thought on it. Yeah, the Atlantic is really tough and you're spot on, you know, exactly what your team is. You couldn't do more. Yeah.

Yeah. You, you, you learn so fast. Let me get a thought on a couple of players specifically from last night. Man, it wasn't that long ago that everyone said like, ah, Seth Jones is done. He's washed. He's overpaid.

Look at him in Chicago. And we've seen this before specifically with, with blue liners. It's so tough to distinguish yourself as a high end player when you're, when you're playing as a, as a defenseman on a, on a really bad team. Seth Jones is an excellent defenseman. I'll tell you Dallas had a really long look

at Seth Jones this year. Like I thought that there, there were two that I was really wondering about with Dallas. One was Rasmus Anderson, the other was Seth Jones. And listen, Texas background, that's obvious, but they really looked at him and I thought that there were two that I was really wondering about with Dallas. One was Rasmus Anderson, the other was Seth Jones. And listen, Texas background, that's obvious, but they really looked at him. And I thought that was going to be one of NIL's major, major acquisitions. Um, Belzito gets out in front of it and brings in Seth Jones.

And we all kind of said, maybe that's just ECBLAD insurance. Who knows? But I haven't watched every Chicago game in the last two, three years since Seth Jones got there, however long it was from Columbus. That is the, like that might, that game last night might've been the best. I have seen Seth Jones since the early, or even since he, since he was dominating in Portland with the Winterhawks. Like it was phenomenal. When he played for Phil Housley at the winter hawks. It was phenomenal.

When he played for Phil Housley at the World Juniors first, 13 or 2014, and he wins, that was great, Seth Jones. I think part of the lure for Seth Jones to Florida, Willie Zito had him in Columbus. Paul Maurice spends a lot of time around Columbus. There was a lot of stuff going on about Seth Jones. There was a sense of familiarity bringing it on there. And here's the one thing, and you would know this for most of our viewers and listeners, they wouldn't appreciate this as much. Sylvain Lefebvre is not getting nearly enough credit coaching down in Florida with the defense.

And everybody marvels at Gustav Forsling. Everybody was marveling at Brandon Montour. and nearly enough credit there. And I'm glad that people are starting to realize that's becoming a really good place to send guys that wonder cheat maybe earlier in their careers. Yeah. They can go to Florida and they can learn from a guy that's learned from a lot. Sylvain learned from Jacques Le Perrier, the late Pat Burns, you know what Larry Robinson, a lot of good coaches.

Sylvain worked with a lot of good people. So here becomes a problem now for the Florida Panthers. And they're gonna have a really tough out here with the Carolina Hurricanes, who are a really frustrating team to play against, as we all know. But the problem with being a successful organization, now Stanley Cup final, win the Stanley Cup,

get into the conference final, they're not going anywhere. It's one thing to keep the band together, and all the players, coaches, assistant managers, like at what point does that, you know what it's like, Pierre, everyone looks around and goes, hmm, I wonder if we could wiggle this guy free because what the Florida Panthers are doing, we want some of that mojo here. Like to your now, like the end, like other teams have noticed, right?

Like at this point, like all of a sudden people are going to start to your now, the end, like other teams have noticed, right? Like at this point, like all of a sudden people are going to start to say like, okay, where are the Panthers vulnerable? Essentially what I'm asking Pierre is are people ready to play pirate and steal things from the Florida Panthers? One of the first things that's happened if people want to pirate anybody, the Buffalo Sabre should be talking to Rick about it. I, I'm on the road a lot. I watch a lot of games in a lot of different cities and a lot of different events.

Major, junior, college, USHL, BCHL. I watch a lot of games in a lot of places. Rick Dudley's in so many places. A lot, if you look at, now so their team down in Charlotte is in a real good position right now. They're ahead of the Hershey Bears in American Hockey League playoffs.

They're up through nothing in their series. And I just tell you that Rick's a big part of that. And you look at a lot of the players that have come in there at the pro level, those waiver pickups, Rick's got a lot of fingerprints on that. Just like Paul Fenton has a lot of fingerprints on that. Those are all the people that are insulating. Will he zero? So the answer is yeah, I could see people paying attention to that. It should be. Dudley to Buffalo. I mean, there's a background there. Does he bring the bandana along with them just for old time, for old time's sake? Can I just show this one out? You probably don't go for it. I'm a kid at the Forum. It's an afternoon game. I think it's a Saturday afternoon game.

They didn't have a lot of them back then, but I think this was one. And Rick Dudley may have scored, and I used to, only time I'd go to the Forum and not cheer for the Canes is when Boston came for Bob Uart. He's the only guy I cheered for for another team, was Bob Uart. So I'm sitting there with my brothers and Rick Dudley has his red headband on and he goes coast to coast for the entire team. It's one of the nicest goals. I think you can go on YouTube, it's still there.

I know. It's the best I've ever seen scored in the Montreal Porn or scored by Rick Dudley. So every time I see Dudley on the road, I'm like, dude, you broke my heart when I was a kid. You went through the whole team. I said, I got a little bit lucky. I got a little bit lucky. I got a little bit lucky. But here's the thing though about Dudley too.

He probably did that and then could have, you know, skated to the bench and challenged the whole team. Like great player. Like, was it Wednesday? Was it the Whalers or the Nurse Stars? It was Boston and New York. That's right. And he went out, it was great.

He did the T-stop and then in front of the bench he said, and then gave him one of these. Like, ah, no one's jumping off the bench. That's right. All right. A couple of final thoughts here as we circle back to the Toronto Maple Leafs and we wonder about what's next here. And I guess that the biggest voice in all of it in, you know, won't be Brad for living and won't be Brendan Shanahan. It'll be Keith Pelly, who we heard from last year. Like, what do you think happens?

What do you think happens here? I know Leafs fans right away, you know, the, the wound is close, uh, close to the bone. Everything's exposed right now. Everyone's really raw. Fire everybody, trade know, the wound is close, uh, close to the bone. Everything's exposed right now. Everyone's really raw, fire everybody, trade everybody, start again. And the reality is you're not going to do that. But how profoundly different Pierre, given the market too, like, let's not forget too, like this is right now it's torches at the castle gate.

Like this is like peasants and pitchforks. That's what they want, peasants and pitchforks. Um, how different does it look next year? I think it will look different from a player perspective. I don't think you'll see turnover in the coaching staff unless somebody gets a job somewhere. I think the staff will be back and they should be. They had 82 games of really good stuff.

They finished first in their division, a hard division we talked about. I do think there'll be some turnover in the front office. I don't know who or where. I don't think Brad True Living's going anywhere. Well, Brendan's been there, what, 14 years now? You know, it's been a long time, Brendan. It's been a long time. Look, Keith's the major domo. I was signed by Keith. I worked for Keith for 11 years. I have so much respect for Keith. He's orchestrated, he's professional, but people the And so I think he'll make calculated moves, but he will not panic. He won't throw people under the bus

and he'll take some time to, I think, debrief some of his other lieutenants before he does anything. Now, I was mentioning last week on the show, Anthony Stewart's dad has a great saying or a great question, are you a team or are you a club? And you look at the Maple Leafs and we saw what happened in seven,

we saw what happened in five. I don't think anyone said this team is a team, this team is a club. Talked to one other person last week and this person bluntly said to me, too many individual brands, too many individual brands. What do you think it takes to make this a capital T team? The deaf players have clearly defined roles

and they're not moved up and down the roster like they're on an elevator or an escalator. This is your job. This is what you're going to do if you don't like it, we're going to put you on waivers or we're going to trade you. So there has to be an in tough, tight, organizational message for every single player that's part of this group. Should you choose to accept the responsibility and the role we're giving you, you get to stay. Should you choose not to, you'll move. we're giving you, you get to stay. Should you choose not to, you'll move. It's not a threat, it's a promise. And that's how it has to work.

Most of my ideology in hockey comes from having learned at the foot of Scottie Bowman and Craig Patrick and Brian Burke. And these are all tough people. And they ran their business in a polite way, but in a tough way, very dumb way. And I think that's where Toronto needs to get to. And one other thing, just to build off your point, which I thought was so good, are you a club or a team? The thing about making Toronto different, most fans, not all, but most fans don't buy their tippets there. It's a corporate empathy. Would you agree?

It's not like Buffalo. It's not like Buffalo. Completely. It's not like Buffalo. I think there's going to be pressure brought to bear on a lot of these corporations and they're going to bring the pressure on the Leafs that you got to fix this. And if not, you know, the $300,000 worth of seats that we buy, we're not doing that. We're cutting it to 150. I can see that coming. And that's why Keith Peli is such an important part of this. He understands the marketplace. He understands it very well. Let's try to end on a positive.

Positive, we've already talked about Matthew Nyes. It's a wonderful season that he's had distinguishing himself. I thought Max Domi was really good in this series. I thought Max Domi was really good again last night. I thought Max Domi was really good again last night. What are some of, I know Maple Leafs fans may not want to hear this today, but like when I woke up where I am, the sun came up,

I suspect it was the same place where you are right now, Pierre. Any positives? You're a Maple Leafs fan. You're talking to a Maple Leafs fan. Like what are the positives you take away? Christopher Tan, Evan, his play. Simone Benoist, how much you've known. I'm, Evan, his play. Simon Benoist, how much you know. I'm really

positive about those guys. Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Wall. I think there's a potential to have an amazing one, two, 10 in there and it's for 5 million or less for another year. That's a tremendous position of strength for the Leafs. And then I would say the other thing is the coaching. I think their coaching staff is outstanding. It's not a little bit good. It's really good. If I have one rival with them, it was deferring to the five forwards in the power play for long periods of time, especially in this series. Florida was really predatory on that and they created a lot of momentum swings because Toronto wasn't as good and Florida was much

better. And so I would have changed out of that a little bit quicker. But outside of that, I have mostly pauses about this team. This entire year I thought was 82 games, they're really good stuff. And I think the future is great, but everybody wants a future tomorrow. They don't want it three days down the road. They want it tomorrow. And there's still going to be some patience required. But I sell way more positive than they're gonna be just doing this year. It's really hard to sell patience to me.

I get it. I understand what you're saying. It's so hard to sell patience to try to make beliefs. Fan base has been false started so many times. I mean, listen, you think about the Washington Capitals and they had like that one year and they won the cup and they've had hard times getting out of the first round. They'll make it there and they've had a hard time

and this year they won the round against Montreal and then got beaten by the Carolina Hurricanes. Like I keep going, I had an interesting conversation with someone, actually someone from another league last night who texted me and said, listen, I know it's 14 years of futility for the Buffalo Sabres but given how crushing these seasons are for the Toronto Maple Leafs what's worse? Like you know what are you you kind of frame what you kind

of frame it that way anyhow great stuff, great stuff as always. Thanks for grabbing a scalpel here for the Maple Leafs autopsy. Always appreciated Pierre. You'll be well and we'll check back soon. Thanks so much, Jeff. I appreciate it. Take care. Hello fans of podcasts. Max Rochden here from The Guardian Football Weekly which I think you should give a listen. It is good. Comes out three times a week and the podcast delivers you analysis, news, both the good and the bad from the beautiful game and maybe even the occasional laugh. He's angry about everything. He doesn't have a great poker face does he? I would like to play cards with Bruno Fernandandez. You can listen to The Guardian Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

Hopefully see you soon. There he is, the great Pierre Maguire, noted hockey analyst here, drives by the program regularly. Zach, I want to throw this one over to you before we get to what's on the horizon and the calendar. Was there anything in there that you thought that we missed on or left out or anything, whether it was people in the chat

and it's a lively one again today? Anything that you think that we should have gone over, anything you want to hear me go over that I may have left out? I tried to be as thorough as I can. I don't know that I did enough on the Florida Panthers there to be honest with you and how great Brad Marchand was. Oh, one thing I did want to mention. Okay, Paul Maurice is brilliant, as Pierre was just

mentioning. We all love Paul Maurice. You know, him talking about how good the Maple Leafs are and Brad Marchand talking about how good the Maple Leafs are. You know who wants the Maple Leafs to stay the same? Everybody who plays the Toronto Maple Leafs wants them to stay exactly the same. Like this could not have been more transparent. Oh no these guys are awesome. Oh this is a tough out. Like I, oh it's just if the fan base puts too much pressure on them, I wouldn't change a thing, oh it's all different now with this team and all I'm thinking in the back of my mind

is every team in the NHL wants to make beliefs to stay exactly as they are. Just right there, just like, and I'm like no, that's Paul Morais' master class again. Yeah, I thought that this was the closest iteration they've come to being like a tough team, annoying team, whatever you wanna say to play against. And yet they still had that in them, Jeff.

It was like, it was just easy enough where it was like, ah, no, they should stick to, I think they should give it another go. I think they should try again. Run it back. Run it back. Run it back. I don't want to hear those words.

I am glad, I am glad, I'll just say that I did not have to hear lessons learned. I know why Johnny T said it every year. I don't actually have an issue, but every year I go on the post game show after the final game and I'm like, oh they learned the lessons. Look, this is going to be a fascinating off season and I know so much of the focus is going to be on Mitch Marner and, uh, what happens and where does he go and where's the decimal point and how's he going to look, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Um, and Pierre and I kind of had this conversation, albeit briefly. I think that there's room for John Tavares on this team as a center, but not a 2C, they still need a 2C. John Tavares is not going to be a 2C, but I do see some teams out there that will be looking, and again, I'll swing it back to Utah, that are looking for a 2C that can really help them. Listen, there's a team in the province right next to Ontario that has a need for a second line center as well to play behind Nick Suzuki, who would probably look at John Tavares and make a suitable offer as well.

All I'm saying is, if John Tavares is gonna come back, it's gonna be a passion play for him to come back because there will be other teams that will offer him legitimate 2C money. It just can't be the Toronto Maple Leafs. Again, to me, here's the shopping list. And again, you don't have, there's no prospects coming to help,

no prospects coming to save, no draft capital, all of it is gonna be really tough. Number 1D, that's not cheap. Two top four wingers and a second line center. two top four wingers and a second line center. Until that, until this team gets that, those are the holes. Those are the holes. And I can see Marner going somewhere else.

I know there's all kinds of conversation about have to get rid of Austin Matthews and you got to trade the cap and everything has to be on the table. That's not gonna table. That's not, it's not going to happen. And I don't think Nylander is going anywhere either. Although man, uh, morning cuppa wasn't exactly and Colby specifically not exactly thrilled at the amount of circles that William Nylander was making last night. Oh yeah. And by the way, I gotta get back to the neutral zone there. But really, there's a big shopping list here still.

And as much as the emergence of Matthew Nyes helps, there's still a lot of work here. Yeah, my only thing with that is just, I feel like there's going... Look, this will be the second time I guess they've done this here now in this era or this iteration of this team, but I feel like they'll just approach this differently. My thought process behind it is along the lines of, is there anybody on Florida that is as skilled as Matthew Smarner and Tiberius? I would say no. Skill, skill. I'm like, I'm not talking about quality of play, just skill. Is there anybody as skilled? I don't think so. Um, that's not an offhand. Anybody on the plate?

There's kind of a guy there that like is going to win. There's, there's a guy there whose last name is finish for Bergeron. Yeah. Whose skill I will put, I will put up against a lot of people in the NHL. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I'm not going to dispute you on that. That's fair. But my point is, you look at the construction of that team and where each player fits in, and I thought Pierre said it very well, defined roles, defined roles. Maybe they just look to fit guys in who play a very specific role within that team. And maybe it's guys that fit into those positions that you're talking about.

The defense thing, I don't think that you can just find in the aggregate. Like, that's not happening. Tried some shit like that, didn't work here. But I think like the top of this forward group is the one that I could see them trying to get a little bit creative on, i.e. the Sam Bennett's and those types of players. You know, I wonder if they look out there and see who's available on the trade market, what players might need a new spot or what teams might be looking to move on from some guys who knows what happens. But that's the ones that I start to wonder and think about

how they assemble things. Because I understand losing Mitch Marner is a big loss, but again, um, you have a lot of the same player and I just wonder if they look to go and see what they can find that as a different style of player to fill in that role, it's not going to bring you a hundred points on that from that one player, Jeff, like that's the one thing Leafs fans need to be very, very prepared for. But I mean, look at what Florida did. They traded Jonathan Hubrido who, and I'm going to get the number wrong, but he had over a hundred points.

Yep. I think he's a hundred and 10, right? 110 or 150 points. He gets traded for Matthew Kachuk who let's not, let's not pretend that we all thought that was a beautiful trade, but. Hang on. Matthew Kachuk was part of the best line in the NHL with Lindholm and Goodrow. Like that was, I will put that against any line in the, that was the best line in the

NHL. They were, they were, they were, I know, I know I might be in the minority in this because I looked at that trade and I was like, Holy, first of all, I thought it was great for Tree Living that he got Hubert O and like, oh, this is an elite level playmaker. This is fantastic. But that's the thing about Tree Living. Like if you look at Tree Living's background,

if you look at the moves that he's made, you know what he always tries to get in every trade? He always tries to get a defenseman. He's a fascinating, Tree Living's a fascinating guy when it comes to trades. Cause he always tries to get a defenseman with everything that he does. Oh, I'm gonna make the Hubbard-O trade

and I gotta get a defenseman. You're gonna bring in Uyghur. But this is like his entire past. Is he always tries to get a blue liner. But I kind of looked at that and went, okay, we all know the situation with Kachak and we all know where this is heading and Tree Living's gonna have to make

the best of all possible worlds here. Zito just wants to get nasty players, and Matthew Kichak, even though once upon a time was Harold, there's, hey, maybe that's the next captain in the Calgary Flames, we all know that he was maneuvering his way out of town, and we all thought eventually he was gonna go to the St. Louis Blues.

But I thought that was a good trade for both teams, that it was addressing a need for both. Like they were going to lose Kichuck, and Tre Living turned into someone who was coming off 115 point season. Who knew he was going to fall on his face? Yeah. In Calgary.

My point is just, flipped out the guy with the points. I know Matthew Kichuck had a big season that year that he was traded. I think he had 104 points it was that season. But he was a guy who had put up 60-40 like in that range. So there was no guarantee that he was going to be putting up crazy points. And I agree with you and how good his line was. And they just said, hey, this is the type of player that we need.

We're not looking for him to fill 115 points of Jonathan Hubrido. We're looking for him to fill 115 points of Jonathan Hubrido. We're looking for him to fill this style of player. Now, he might be an anomaly in the entire NHL, not just his team, but regardless, that was kind of what they identified and they said, hey, this is what we have to do. This is how we have to change things. That is, but that Zito, the early days of Zito with the Panthers, again, that was a reflection of the Florida Panthers were an easy two. They were an easy two points.

It was, they were a pushover. Like you don't need, like, don't worry about ice in the room. Like no one's getting hurt. Like it's fine. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about making ice. We're, we're, we're going to be okay. We'll barely need the hot towels.

We'll just get our two points and move on. And they were like an easy team to play against. And Zito's like, enough, no more. Like you're just gonna get nasty, nasty hockey players. And if it's gonna cost us some points along the way, okay, we're never gonna win the division. Like, okay, fine, who cares? We're too easy to play against.

That was it. This was like, you know what it was like? I'll tell you what it was like. It was like the Philadelphia Flyers. Grandpa's gonna, grandpa's gonna go old school here. But you know the Philadelphia Flyers were a reaction to? The St. Louis Blues. The St. Louis Blues historically always had sluggers. And the Philadelphia Flyers would go to St. Louis and they would like physically get manhandled. Right? No Picard, Gassoff, the Plagers would like kick the crap out of the Florida Panthers, out of the Philadelphia Flyers. And finally Ed Snyder said, enough!

No more! We're going out and we're getting killers. Because we're not going to keep going to St. Louis and getting beaten up. It's the exact same thing, and they won two Stanley cups out of it. It's the same thing the Florida Panthers. The Florida Panthers story is not unlike the Philadelphia Flyers stories of the 70s at all. They went out there and got tough and were hard to play against and were miserable and treated suspensions like the cost of doing business. Same as the Philadelphia Flyers did in the 70s. It's not identical. What's the old Mark Twain line history doesn't repeat itself, but oftentimes it rhymes The Florida Panthers rhyme with the Philadelphia Flyers

From the 70s. It's the same type of construction and there would not have been a seven There would not have been a 70s Philadelphia Flyers with the two Stanley Cups if it weren't for the st Louis Blues. And we wouldn't have this edition of the Florida Panthers if there wasn't the previous edition of the Panthers, which got sand kicked in their face on a consistent basis. It's the exact same philosophy. This is nothing new. Again, there are no new ideas anywhere.

There's no such thing as new ideas anywhere. In entertainment, music, movies, TV, it doesn't matter. There's no new ideas. Same as hockey. There's no new ideas. Be hard to play against. Be tough and skilled. Jeff, I checked out Puckpedia, by the way.

Oh yeah? Where you can do like the armchair GM type of thing, which I'll probably fire up later. This I think you'll get a kick out of, and I think people in the chat will as well. Top five most traded players today. Number one, David Kampff. Two, Cal Yarncroke.

Three, Morgan Riley. Four, Nick Robertson. Number five, Austin Matthews. Top five popular signings today. Number one, Matthew Nyes. Two, Tavares. Three, Sam Bennett.yes, two, Tavares, three, Sam Bennett, four, Mitch Marner, five, Steven Lorenz.

And then I looked over, they have a pie chart. How many teams were created or like GMs, like were you, people were being the GM of today, okay? 5,542 total rosters today were created. 2,711 of them were Maple Leafs rosters. Well, that's the good thing about, I think there is, what is it? Three and a half million, four million who live in Toronto. And like our population in Canada is like 40 million.

All of them are general managers. Everybody in the country is a general manager and all living on Pukka. Which is a freaking awesome site. I love those guys. They do great work. I wanna do more on Winnipeg. I don't wanna, we're getting to the end of the show here.

And I wanna mention something about Winnipeg. Cause I just like everybody else, like Saturday was a complete gut punch for everyone and Codolence is the the the Shifely family. I do understand how it's funny I was having a conversation with my wife on Saturday about this. I was out of town calling her we were talking about the Shifely situation with Winnipeg and I'm like Shifely's gonna play and she said of course he is because if he doesn't he's gonna regret it his whole life. That he didn't go out and play and

I'm like that's that's a really good point because I think we all personalized like what would I do in that situation like when my father died I was working at sports net my dad died remember getting the phone died, I was working at Sportsnet, my dad died, I remember getting the phone call while I was on the air doing Hockey Central. It was at 12.30 and I missed the phone call and I'm like, okay, it's the hospital, okay, I'll see what's going on. And so on the break, I called back

and the nurse said, like, your dad's shutting down. And my first thought was like I gotta go I gotta go I gotta go but first I'm gonna finish the show and the two people that I was on with like not a freaking chance get out of here we will drive you to the hospital if you don't go and then you know thankfully I was and got to the hospital in time and he was he was going and thankfully I got to be there when he passed. Which if you've never, just as an aside, if you've never had that experience, it is one of the most beautiful experiences

you will ever have in life is being present when someone passes, specifically if it's a parent. It is actually, I know it's a horrifying thought because that little scared child in you dies as your parent passes, but it is really a beautiful, a beautiful life moment. But all that I did was like miss one TV show. I was doing the Wednesday show and we were supposed to be in Winnipeg and I had to stay at the hospital and make funeral arrangements and all that.

But so we always try to personalize it and I really don't know what my decision would have been if I was playing in the NHL until my wife said, of course he's going to play. Of course he's going to play because he's going to regret it his entire life if he doesn't. And if you've never had a parent pass, part of it kind of goes on autopilot as you get things done because there's a lot of things that have to happen. First of all, there is a shock to the system, obviously, but then you get into, okay, what do we need to do mode?

And you don't allow yourself the space to grieve. And for anyone who's ever lost a parent understands that, and that's why the visual was so overwhelming of when Harley scored that goal, the one shot of Shifely in the penalty box, I bet that was the first moment he allowed himself to grief because when he got the news there is the shock and then there's the I'm gonna play and that takes all of your attention and that smile when he scored That first goal for the Winnipeg Jets and then the whole Game went on and then that penalty which my personal theory is first of all

I think it should have been a penalty shot. My thought is the official did a real solid and said Let's let his team try to defend this. Let's try to make sure Shia Flea's team has an opportunity not to end the game like this, but then the other part of me went, oh man, don't end this game with him in the penalty box. All of it, like we saw all throughout the day and hearing Scott or Neil talk about it, that

moment anyone who's lost a parent or lost someone really close to him, I've lost both my parents, everyone who's had that experience knows exactly what Shai Flea's gone went through at that moment and has recognized it. There was two moments where I really saw it. One, sitting alone in the penalty box. Let's not forget, that might have been the only time that he was alone all day long, sitting in that penalty box. And then secondly, not handshake Allie itself, and I'm not a handshake guy. I'm not a forced handshake guy. I understand why Kelly Rudy never liked it. I understand why Stan Mikita wouldn't do it.

I understand why a lot of Billy Smith, like I understand it because of that nature of that competition. It's hard for some guys just to turn it off and say, no, I can't do it. But once the handshakes were done and he was skating off the ice and he folded over That was a moment for me

Because there are those moments That you go through after you lose a parent or lose a loved one someone very close to you spouse God forbid child There are those moments where your body just collapses And it was heartbreaking It was heartbreaking. It was just absolutely crushing to watch that. Every... and good on Dallas Stars fans who stepped up to donate money in $55 denominations to a lot of the charities that Mark Shafley,

the Shafely family, always supported in Manitoba. I thought that was beautiful. good on Dallas Stars fans. One of the best things we've seen all season long and man, you grieve how you have to grieve. And I was happy for Shafely that he was able to do that because I really do agree with my wife. And there's no right decision in that moment.

If he would have said like, I'm not playing, I'm going back to Ontario. I need to be with my family. And there's no right decision in that moment. If he would have said, like, I'm not playing, I'm going back to Ontario, I need to be with my family, everyone would have understood it. But I do understand the greater perspective of if he didn't play that game, he probably would have thought about it for the remainder of his life. I really, really firmly believe that.

As, again, as someone who's lost both parents, I know that feeling of getting into, I this to do I have these responsibilities I will grieve later I'll allow myself to grieve later the box and then the fold after that was it for me on Saturday I don't know about you Zack but that was that was it for me yeah yeah I sat there watching that and I watched the penalty and as soon as he laid out I was like, oh no, because he went out to make the play, to break it up, knew that that penalty was coming. I thought again as well, I also thought it was a penalty, I should have been a penalty

shot, but we're past that. But I saw him lay out, I'm like, no, like not him. You know, actually one of the things I was going through my head was, maybe this is good because starting the period with the power play is not always like the best thing for a team. I'm like, maybe they can just get out of here.

Like, break this up, whatever, 13, 14 seconds, get out, get out, get out, get out. When that, when I sat, I felt like I lost the game. That was like when the Leafs lose. I sat there just being like nothing. I just was watching being like, I can't believe that that had to happen like that. Just the hockey gods can be really cruel sometimes.

Then the handshakes, the hugs, Adam Lowry going into the box to get him captain that was the first moment for me where like I my eyes were filling and I was like I'm gonna this is I I couldn't watch that like I obviously did but just seeing him have to go in there to pick him up and get him out was like, ah, this, this burns. It was tough. It does. It's, it's awful.

Bless that family. And again, to every Dallas stars fan that did that on Saturday, you're beautiful. Like that's a, a, a wonderful thing to do. The height of a competition in the height of battle, the embrace with Jamie Ben who 48 hours previously was punching Mark Shifely in the mouth. That was a real special embrace as well. God, there was a lot there, but good on the Dallas Stars fans

and bless the Shifely family. Mark, good luck man and good luck to your entire family. There's no right way to do it. Do it however you want to do it. There's no book on any of it. Okay, we're gonna get to previews tomorrow. In the meantime, guess how many games there are tonight? Goose egg. The Sheet is powered by FanDuel. Let's see if we can stretch one here. She does power by fan duel home of the seven game parlay make every moment more on fan duel fan duel proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. And tonight, May 19th, we have exactly bagel zero for games. Go do something. Go make a baby. Go for a walk. Go do anything. Whatever you got to do. Go do something else. Go do yoga. Go for dinner. Do something. Because

tomorrow, I run a couple things down here. Tomorrow it gets really interesting and not just in the NHL. Tomorrow Western Conference Finals, Florida Panthers facing off against the Carolina Hurricanes, rest versus rust, all these types of things coming up. We'll see what happens and we'll do more on it tomorrow. Also Tuesday Game 1, PWHL, Walter Cup. Minnesota Frost facing off against the Ottawa charge. Also on Tuesday, USHL, Clark Cup, game five. Who wins the whole thing? Miss Keegan Lumberjacks, Waterloo Blackhawks. We will find out tomorrow,

or maybe Wednesday because game four went into double overtime. I think Laz is working that game. Oh, is that working it? I game five or six, I believe. Yeah, one sec. I can confirm for you if you are. Yeah, he's working one up on man. And then Friday, this might be the best field we've ever seen at the Memorial Cup. Game one, Friday, game two, Saturday.

Game one, the host always plays the first game, that's Wormuski. They will face off against Gavin McKenna and the Medicine Hat Tigers. And then Saturday, this one is going to be a great coaches battle. I will be watching this one specifically for Dale Hunter versus Gardner McDougal. Moncton takes on London on Saturday, Zach. I personally think Moncton is the best team in the CHL, but we'll see. Quebec despite whatever everyone says about them every single year,

seem to win the Memorial Cup every single year, Zach. Just crushing the OHL and the Western Hockey League as well. So game one Friday, Medicine not facing off against Wormuski, and then game two Saturday, Monkton taking on London. And the sidebar, Dale Hunter versus the winning machine

that is Gardiner McD versus the winning machine that is Gardner McDougall. So that is your schedule starting tomorrow. But tonight, no games, do something else. Find something else to do. What are you doing tonight? Zachary catching up on work. That's a plan for tonight. Your girlfriend puts up with a lot.

Take her out to dinner. You live like, walk up to King Street. There's a beautiful restaurant. I used to go to Hey Lucy. Love their Calzones. Go to Hey Lucy and have a Calzone. Come on, beautiful place to go take your girlfriend. I took her to a wonderful spot on 590 King Street West called Gretta Bar YYZ. Did she get the honey garlic or did she get the extra extra spicy chicken wings? So did you did

you splurge and get fries on the side too? We did the Jamaican spring rolls that was last night, I think we had that, and street nuggets with buffalo ranch sauce. Very very very kind of me, if I do say so myself. Okay, well you are romantic, you two crazy kids, you are romantics. Listen, thanks so much for showing up in the chat specifically, thanks for watching on YouTube, thanks for downloading, thanks for listening on your favorite podcast platform or as we always like to mention maybe your least favorite But you're stuck with it podcast platform. Thanks to Pierre McGuire for stopping by it. That was good Like we did I think we got as thorough as we could on this one and whatever is left over

We'll we'll do tomorrow on the program here. Thanks so much for joining us Zach scale of one to ten really quick before you fade yourself out here. How are you doing today just under 24 hours later after the decimation, the hands of the cats? Fine. I told you what was going to happen. I told you what was going to happen. Fine. How you doing, honey? Fine. I'm fine. I told you it was going to happen. Game six was the most predictable outcome.

But the problem was that I, stupid enough that I woke up on Sunday morning and was like, they could win today. I got you text. They could win today. Don't worry. We had interesting text exchanges on the weekend about what happened Friday subsequent. I don't know. Yeah.

I was never like overly upset after. The only thing that actually on the After Dark show like pushed me over the edge where I got really annoyed was when I read the Matthews Passengers comment. I had me and Rosie had some things to say about that one. Just that that was the only one where I was like, gotta be kidding me but I'm okay. We'll figure it out. So the stages of grief right? You had acceptance yet? Are we still gonna take a while to get there or did you hit fast forward? You're already there in acceptance.

Well, I'm in acceptance. I think being in acceptance on Thursday morning after game five probably helped expedite this point right now where like it took me that and then I went back and then now I'm back to acceptance and it's okay. So that was the primer before the painting. That one got you ready to actually okay let me prime before you paint. Okay, I'm learning a lot about you here, Zach. This is wonderful, this is amateur psychotherapy. Okay, thanks again to Pierre McGuire. Thanks to you for watching and or listening and hopping in the chat as always,

which I have a hard time keeping my eyeballs off of. Thanks so much for being aboard today. We are back tomorrow at three o'clock Eastern. Don't forget morning Cup of hockey tomorrow at nine a.m. Eastern. Johnny Lazarus and Colby Cohen, DFO Live at noon and then our little act here at three bells. Eastern. And we'll do it again tomorrow. And we'll preview Florida and Carolina and maybe whack the Edmonton Dallas pinata as well. We'll figure it out. We got 23 hours of sleep. Hope you can join us tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us today. Talk to you later. Enjoy tonight. Do something not hockey. Guess I can call it a ride I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like nah man that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew It's me, myself and Alice Gonna be fixing my mind I do wanna break it I turn down the music

I do wanna break it Thanks for watching!