The Steve Dangle Podcast - 7eafs | October 5, 2017

Episode Date: October 6, 2017

On this episode, Marincin and Pickard are on waivers (00:00), holy crap the Leafs last night (11:00), Leo's visor (21:00), Eric Fehr looks great! (27:00), the battle of Alberta (35:00), the rest of the games last night (41:00), Eichel's extension (45:00), Mr Pythagorean Theorem again (1:01:00), and the press conference!! (1:12:00). Originally aired: October 5, 2017 Follow us on Twitter: Steve Dangle: @Steve_Dangle Adam Wylde: @AdamWylde Jesse Blake: @JesseBlake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was more for the fact that we have actual games games to talk about and news that because

of traffic we didn't miss. Wow. We might have missed that news if it weren't for traffic. We're starting an hour later than we normally would. I'm sorry. Well, Steve, you can't really help it. No. There is one main artery in and out of Toronto.

It's called the Don Valley Parkway. It's three lanes. It's three lanes, which is stupid. And guess what? Today, it was two. Why, Steve? So that they could park trucks with orange construction things on them and then do no construction.

I've noticed that happening a lot in our city. There is a- Right behind the Bloor exit, which if you're from here, your neck is full of veins. In Toronto, we have the longest street in the world. Yonge. Yonge Street. And we have one exit to get to Yonge Street from the west side of the city. Right.

That exit has been closed for six months because construction. it and and it's it's it's great because now we're taking car lanes and we're making them into bike lanes in a country where for six or eight months of the year it's below zero it's below freezing and you know what isn't amsterdam the same way or the netherlands when was the last time the netherlands got snow bombed i don't know i don't know enough about them i think i know they were all too high to care a little bit warmer but it's in scandinavia and they all ride bikes that's what But I figure they get a lot of snow. It's a little south of, the Netherlands isn't like Norway, Sweden, Finland.

No. It's like on that hook down, like it's across from London. Like it's not far. I've never been there, but I hear Russia is entirely bike land. It's just paths of that. I have been there. That's why the Russians are such great skaters. Exactly.

That makes sense. Okay, now we know. Ovechkin grew up riding a bike everywhere. Amsterdamgorsk. These are facts. I hope you guys all know that these are facts. Yes, F-A-X. Yes.

Know the facts. Absolutely, ESPN. So, Steve, is that damn video up yet? Because I'm going to start tweeting you about it in a second. All right! You bunch of lovely people. So, we've got a lot to cover on the show. Let's talk a little bit about Yager's bonuses.

We're going to talk a little bit about the games that happened last night, of course, and Jack Eichel's contract and a whole bunch of other things. However, we must first start with the breaking news. It's so far down. Breaking news. And this is not huge news, but it's still pretty big. Las Vegas obviously picked up Malcolm Subban on waivers. A bit of a confusing move.

Not that he's bad, but that it'd be like the Leafs claiming a winger. Yeah. You got one. Or ten. Yeah, you have 90. Yeah, so they pick him up. And obviously Marc-Andre Fleury is supposed to be the starter there. Yep, looks good.

And we thought, okay, well, you know, and all of us, I believe, had Calvin Picard picked as, or Pickard, as the guy, Calvin Pickard picked as the guy that would go as their backup. And he played well enough. Picked, I see. And unfortunately, it looks as though Mr. Pickard is on waivers today. It's a bit of a confusing move And I'm trying to figure out the logic behind it I can't imagine they're going to send him down Well, I don't think that he's going to clear waivers

I think that there's going to be a lot of teams Leafs included That will put in a claim on him Absolutely How would you not? Well, and Now this is interesting I'm not sure exactly how this works

Because waivers goes in order of the standings Does it not? Yes Well, the Leafs won last night Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that there would be a billion teams before the Leafs that would claim him Winnipeg? Yeah, like Winnipeg, maybe We'll get to that in a second

But I find that crazy, like Pete Blackburn actually just tweeted He's like, man, Malcolm Subban must have had that one great practice And George McPhee did say that he's not good enough to play in the NHL right now But they are going to keep him up, they want him, they believe in him So that's really interesting The Knights, so I had to check, the Knights have six goalies under contract. Oskar Dansk, Maxim Legacy, and Dylan Ferguson in the minors.

And in relation to Manny? I was wondering that. I do not know. Malcolm, there is relation to PK. Calvin Pickard and Marc-Andre Fleury. Six goalies. Six. Not Calvin Pickard anymore.

My guess is... Oh, he's gone. He's gone, for sure. I think he's gone. Kind of interesting that there's a lot of teams that need goaltending. I almost wonder if Calgary would put in a claim on him, too. Because they would have... And how would that work?

Because we're one game into the season. They just signed Eddie Lack. Who's less in the standings? Calgary or Winnipeg? Is it Winnipeg because they had more goals against? I think it would be by goal differential. So Winnipeg lost by five, Calgary lost by three. But I don't think Calgary would put in a claim.

It's one game. I don't think Winnipeg's going to put in a claim either. I think it's got to be someone who began this season unsure of their goaltending situation. I think Calgary signed two guys going, and done, we addressed it. And Winnipeg signed a guy going, great, we addressed it. Signed them to two years, Steve Mason. So they've got to make that work. The Leafs make a little bit of sense.

But again, they just signed Curtis McElhinney for two years. Well, and that's the thing, is that you can then send Curtis McElhaney down. You can. I'm just, I'm trying to figure out, I don't understand, like, it's so good that Vegas doesn't play until Friday. Because how do they have a cap-compliant team? Well, not cap-compliant, but how do they have a 23-man roster? They sent Shipachov down to the minors in a paper transaction. I have no idea how this works.

I don't get it. Like, CapFriendly still lists that they have 10 defensemen right now. Yeah. I've wondered about that, too. And there are 10 NHL defensemen. Jason Garrison, Lucas Pisa, Clayton Stoner is on IR. Nate Schmidt, Braden McNabb, John Merrill, Colin Miller, Derek Engeland, Griffin Reinhart, Brad Hunt. And none of them, I don't know, unless I'm reading this wrong, none of them are waiver exempt.

That Derek Engeland deal, man, I do not get that. I found the information I was looking for. Oh. What do you have? If a waiver claim is made before November 1st, waiver priority is based on the previous year's standings. Oh, so the Leafs would be right in the middle then. There you go.

Probably. Flames would claim after them, I think, and Winnipeg would claim before them. I'm trying to think. Just based on the teams we brought up. Oh, you know, okay. If he makes it this far, you know where he's going? Minnesota. Really?

I would think Minnesota. Dude, they're one of the top teams in the league. There's no way they make it. They are, but they got Dubnick. And who? Who's their backup? The last I checked, it was Alex Staloc. Wow.

Who couldn't stick with the Marlies. Former Leaf great. Yeah, Alex Staloc. Former Leaf great, Alex Staloc. Trying to see. They got Adam Vey. I don't know anything about him. Derek Barbaro.

I don't know anything about him. Steve Mihalik. I don't know anything about him. Nicholas Vedberg. I have heard of him. Yes. Yeah, I don't know. I think Pickard makes some sense for Minnesota, if he makes it that far.

Let's have a look at last year's standings. Can you pull them up? Oh, my God. Jesse, you got them? Jesse's got them. Jesse's got them. Okay, so Colorado could put in a claim. Oh, that's conference.

That's by conference. Let's go by league. I mean, Colorado putting in a claim makes a lot of sense. Because they just get them back. Yeah. I didn't even think of it. Well, yeah, but they got Bernier and Farlemuth. Vancouver, Arizona, New Jersey, Buffalo, Detroit.

No. Dallas. They've kind of solved their thing. Florida, L.A., Carolina, Winnipeg. Philly, Tampa, Tampa finished that load. Who's backing up Vasilevsky? Budaj. That's a pretty good one. Yeah it's not bad. Islanders who I think still have two or three goalies under contract I'm not I'm not really sure. This is the problem with the beginning of the season you if you had gaps you made signings to fill them.

There's a chance there's a chance he slides to Toronto there's a chance because I don't I don't think the Leafs would do it. I do I don't see why you You wouldn't. It's just money to McElhinney. We have money. We can bury that. It's true. And listen, if you want to free up that million dollars later in the season,

then you just put one of them on waivers. Pickard, by the way, as a rookie, 16 NHL games was a 932. Very promising. The following season was a 922 in 20 games. Very promising. Last year played 50 and was a 904. On the worst team in history. On the worst team, banged up team in the league.

Yeah. I wouldn't worry about that. Yeah, and I just wonder, why wouldn't you take him to see what's up? And also, I think we should mention, and people have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this to happen, Martin Marincin is officially on waivers as of today. We spent the first five minutes talking about Pickard. There will be $200,000, if he makes it down, which we assume he probably will, makes it down to the Marlies. See, I don't know if he's going to be assigned.

I don't know if he's going to be assigned. I think they're putting him on waivers, and then I think it's over the next month or whatever the rule is, they're able to send him down. But they don't need to right now. Like, I thought the whole point of having Rosen in the minors was to get him games. Right. So, I don't know. So, do you put him on waivers and just keep him? I don't know.

So, if they did, if they did send him down, I think $200,000 of his contract would sit on the Leafs NHL roster? A little... Yeah, roughly. So it's, you know, it's not, it's negligible, but it's still enough. Interesting to see if, you know, what happens there. And I'm wondering if they would have known Vegas, like, is there a correlation? Or is it like, you don't know if another team is putting somebody on waivers, do you? Vegas needs another defenseman even less than they need another goalie.

Well, I don't mean it like that. It's not going to be them. I don't mean it like that, but I wonder if Toronto knew Pickard was going to be on and they needed to free up a roster spot. And they thought, well, Marincin. Yeah, I wonder. Colorado should claim both. Yeah. Why not?

Who's going to be in their opening night roster for D? He just got into a winning team and then back to the basement. Like, that would suck. Oh, poor guy. Well, that's what you got to do when you're Marty Marincin. I mean, you know what? I don't feel bad for him. Like, we went to bat for him for a long time.

There was reason to believe in him. He had every opportunity to, like, all he had to do was be bottom pairing lefty for a team with bad defense. And he couldn't do it. So how bad am I supposed to feel? Right. You know, I'm not glad, but like, I don't know. Bye. See ya.

I don't feel... Feel good that you failed. That's you, Steve. Idiot. Piece of garbage. Crap. I know. Poor Marty.

Poor Marty. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it sucks, but you know, that's kind of part of the game, right? That's what you sign up for. So we'll see what happens. It'd be very, very interesting to see if the Leafs put in a waiver claim, but we won't know until 24 hours from right now. But what we do know is that the Leafs strolled into Winnipeg last night and kind of surprisingly kicked a lot of ass.

And it could have gone either way. It could have gone Winnipeg's way. It could have very easily been 7-2 Winnipeg. Sorry, the Jets on the power play were 0 for 8. That's crazy. That is incredible. I think I saw a stat. Ron Hainsey played 12 minutes on the penalty kill.

JVR only played five more seconds total than Hainsey played on the PK alone. Wow. That's 36-year-old Ron Hainsey. And Eric Farrer? Was fantastic. He was fantastic. I was bummed when the Jets scored a goal with him on the ice and that fourth line on the ice because he was great.

The Hainsey-Zaitsev pairing was on for one, and I was bummed for that too because they played fantastic. But, I mean, that game's over. Like, that game's over. I wanted Freddie to get the shutout, but that game's over. The Leafs had a goalie. The Jets did not. And that, I think, is the game.

I think it was a few factors. The Leafs kind of came on fast and furious. And one thing, like, one thing Babcock does really well, I think, that some other coaches do not, is he kind of keeps a level head about everything. It's difficult to tell his emotions. Other than he thinks every call against his team is stupid Right

Every time What was going on? Like he went to the Leo Komarov school of confusion But Leo Komarov put your face mask down confusion? Yeah Oh my god We'll get to that

Yeah He definitely did Okay But Maurice The second that puck goes in And he's not wrong to have this reaction But it's got to go down your entire bench He just goes

Fuck off Like you can completely read his lips Because I think the Jets had three or four power plays before that To start the game What did they shoot, a 16-3? 15-3, 15 shots in the first 13 minutes Ridiculous, Leafs first opportunity, bang It's in the back of your net, and it's Kadri

Hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles But then, like that one was like bad defense A little bit of bad luck I'm trying to pull up the, I'll pull up the box score in front of me Defense and bad luck, but then the rest of the way Like that's just Mason Being a dog pile That was

Yeah Thank you This helps me remember it Okay Bozak winning it to JVR That's a nice Quick little play Should have never gone in

It was like a It almost looked like a Just a quarterback pass Like it was just It kind of sailed in On an arc It was weird Nylander is

Never going to get That much time to shoot Ever again In his entire NHL career And he was patient too He was like No I'm going to wait Okay now I got it

Like that's a goal scorer Like that's hilarious And I know the defenders were screening Mason, and he never even saw the pass, but holy moly. Before we get too far with that, can we talk about Jake Gardner's vision on that play? And I think that's something that's going to be a big factor this year, is his vision. And I saw it a little bit in the preseason. There was times where Jake Gardner's just toying with people on the ice. I'm sure, and he made one mistake last night where he was a little bit too patient.

He's Jake Gardner. People, I think, who have been big Jake Gardner thumpers this entire time Are going to groan when I say this But I don't remember him ever being this poised Like, he looks fantastic And I don't know if it was the playoffs that gave him a boost If he did something extra in the summer That made him extra happy, extra confident

I don't know what it is, but that guy will just hold on to the puck And does not worry about it Because he knows he can get rid of it He knows he's Jake Gardner And he knows he's setting up Austin Matthews come on or no what did he do no it was matthews to gardner to kneelander sorry yes yes it doesn't matter but it doesn't matter it was on it was gardner's vision to find kneelander before the rest of the ice even realized that the puck was over there right they hadn't even reacted to the

fact that the puck went to jake gardner before he got it to kneelander right so it's kneelander's goal it's mason's lack of reaction it's the defense screening but the reason that goal happens And the reason he has all that time in the world Is because Jake Gardner is just a step ahead Yes Didn't look good on Mason though Marleau's goal was I'm sorry for Steve Mason I just feel so bad

He kind of de-dangled him It was rude and terrible He dangled him out of his contract Like one game into it He dangled him out of his contract And what I loved is that it came from Austin Matthews And people made a lot of Sid60 came on this podcast and said

What are you going to get Patrick Marleau and not playing with Austin Matthews. But what everyone forgot, that I forgot until the game started, was there's five-on-five, power play, which Matthews and Marleau were always going to be on the power play together, but there's also that goofy little after-the-penalty-kill line that he puts out. Yes. Started with Marleau-Matthews-Nylander,

and then went to Marleau-Matthews-Marner, the Mar-ma-mar line. Mar-ma-mar. Math-mer-mer. The mer-mer-mer, mer-mer-mer-mer-mer-mer-mer. They have weapons, man They got a couple weapons Fifth goal shouldn't have gone in Which was again, Patrick Marleau

36 seconds in and then it's dead And you get Mitch Mutter on the power play Shifley and Perot did add goals And you know what, when Shifley scored There was like a genuine fist pump And people in the MTS center were super jacked and I felt it reminded me of

remember when I think it was Colorado that was losing huge and Matt Duchesne scored and it was like they were losing 4-0 and it was 4-1 when he scored and he like fist pumped and then Patrick Waugh got in front of the media the next day and was like I can't believe he would do that. I mean what is that? What is that?

That was terrible I sound like the wild and crazy guys from SNL. But I think I think anybody that has a problem with that doesn't know what it's like to be continually frustrated with a team. Like, I would have been, had it been

the other way, I still would have been like, yeah, come back. Because I'm that kind of fan, I think. You know what I mean? Oh, as a fan, I mean, I saw them in the stands a little smirk. You're like, hey, hooray. Can't get your shout out now. Yeah. And I mean, you do play for that, I think, when you're getting your ass

kicked 6-0. Sure. You're like, okay, we can at least, okay, what are the things We can take away from them. We'll start with the shutout Now we'll see if we can actually make a game of it right right because you know how it's gonna look on the highlights You know, it looks better than you know, six nothing or six one six three. Let's go for that Let's try didn't happen in a game like that fights. Where were where was all the chippiness? It's pretty much gone other than Zach Hyman running into dust the wall of Dustin Buffalo and you know what Andreas Borgman and inch here or there, connecting with Shifley, there would

have been a fight. He almost killed him. Borgman almost... You know he's 230 pounds every time he steps on the ice? Every time he steps into your life! Oh my god. He didn't look out of place to me, either. Not at all. I thought him and... I thought Carrick...

Fantastic! He looked great! Great game. And it's like... Thank you for validating me, Connor. All preseason, I was like... They put Connor Carrick in a position where he should have been last year, which is third pairing right deep

he just he looked more confident yeah because like during the preseason he was part of the outside

looking in lineup very often and I think I wonder if having the other more experienced veteran guys

in front of him helped I don't know I don't know what to tell you but he looked extremely confident I think the fact that he doesn't have to play

with Gardner or Zaitsev or Riley in that pressure cooker right the fact that Hainsey's there and as much as

you know I don't want to I know people who are especially advanced stats people will be all over me about Ron Hainsey and I understand that but I think

that Ron Hainsey there's something to be said for a guy that's just done it been there unfazed by it mentally I think Connor Carrick's a top four defenseman

when he reaches his peak for sure but I think that you gotta give him a couple years or just even a year to go okay I don't have to be that

right now let me get comfortable which they didn't let him do last year it was like you're all we have please Just please hold the fort and then he got injured and then he wasn't playing as much and then it was you know

He never found his groove again. I think him and Borgman together. They're not gonna play hugely important minutes But every minute's important to a point and you got to have those guys be solid and they were very solid name play you remember of Morgan Riley's Just mostly power play stuff like fucking around and that sort of that's like that's it good good great keep it that way. For the rest of the season, keep it that way. Just be boring. That was great. I noticed Morgan Riley a lot last season. He took a penalty?

Right? Oh, yeah, that was a dumb penalty. Didn't the entire team take a penalty? Connor Brown took a penalty. He had 10 penalty minutes last year. Wow. I know. I think he had a penalty in the first two games, and then he had six the rest of the year. Wow. Like, he's just the penalty differential god.

You know, a few really dumb penalties. Should we get into Komarov? Well, I think we should. Here's the thing. So, Right call, right? Yep. So then why tempt fate? To see.

If he knows. To see. It's the first game of the season. All the players and all the fans are heading into it going, well, now that the games count, they're going to call the games differently. And game one is an important game for the refs, too, because it's their opportunity to go, nope. Opportunity to go, nope.

No, it is not. Guess what? Slashes are still getting called. I'm still going to be a dick in the face-off circle. I told you about that stupid visor. Get that stupid visor done. They talked to him before the game. What are you doing?

Well, I wonder then, first off, why the rule in the first place? What does it do? Why does it matter? It's probably a liability thing. Safety. Yeah. Like Komarov, here's the silly thing. So Komarov does not have to wear a visor.

No, he's easy. It's a grandfathered in sort of thing. Oh, he's still on that. He's one of the last guys that can still. Yeah. So he can just take it off. Which is what he did. They took it off him.

Oh, okay, I missed that part. And he said after the game, he's like, I hate it, I'm uncomfortable with it, but they swear that I have to have it that way, and he said, I can't see the puck the same way. He said he feels unsafe without his visor. Your visor doesn't protect you, Leo! That's a good point. What are you doing? It's a hat brim!

It looks dope, it looks really stylish, looks cool, but I don't want a kid emulating Komarov, and I don't want Komarov losing a freaking eye. This fan base knows Brian Berard, man. Wear your visor. Get used to it. Or don't, I guess. But if you don't, at least you won't get us a penalty.

Wear it. Get used to it. Exactly. Wear it in practices. Why he wouldn't just... And I get that NHL players are super specific and super suspicious. Or, sort of, superstitious. That's what I mean.

Wear a bigger one. Like, even when it's down, it doesn't look like it protects very much. Wear a bigger one. Wear it down to your nose. They are superstitious. They're picky and finicky and that sort of thing However, you are a professional athlete You're being paid millions of dollars

That little piece should not affect your game that much And that's coming from a Leaf fan Who loves Leo Komarov Come on, man It was a distraction in the first period of the season We didn't need that From a guy who might end up on the fourth line Who's supposed to be a leader

You know what I mean? Okay, we love Leo Just like we love Nas And everyone thought I friggin' hated Nas I have a personal vendetta against Nas I hate... I disagree with one thing that he did, therefore I hate him. The only person I hate more than Asim Qadri is Leo Komarov.

I liked Illmatic, and I'm a supporter of his. Oh, I see what he did. See, I was more supportive of Jay-Z. Oh. But Ether. Ether wins every time. You know? The precursor to Sheether.

Oh, my God, Sheether. I'm sorry. Wow, wrong. Wrong. You got a little deep into hip-hop there. Wrong. Wrong. We have not mentioned that Ron McLean was on our last show.

Well, he was on our last show. People can go listen to that show. No, I just feel like on any other day that wasn't the first game of the season, we'd be like, oh my God, that was crazy. Let's unpackage that for an hour. But no, we're not going to do that. No. We're talking about a reaction podcast.

Yeah. So we had Ron on, and now we're going to talk about how we had Ron on. Well, someone from Sportsnet is like, can you write a post around the podcast? So I might do that. Oh, that'd be cool. That'd be cool. Meant to tell you that. You're fine to go now.

So beyond that, let's just break this down. And I thought this was really important. I want to look at the Leafs goal scores, okay? All right. So we have Kadri, Van Riemsdyk, Nylander, Marlo Marlo, Marner, Matthews. Firstly, Marner, Nylander, Matthews each get their first goal. And it almost looked like Kadri had his second on that Matthews goal. So either way, Kadri came close to a hat-trick last night.

He did. He was a couple inches away from, I think it was Marner's goal and Matthews' goal. Then on the assists, Van Riemsdyk, Bozak, Bozak, Gardner, Matthews, Matthews, Marner, Kadri Komarov, Van Riemsdyk, Morgan Riley. For those keeping track, that's Van Riemsdyk with three points, by the way. Connor Carrick, Andreas Borgman on the last one, which is cool. Yep, Borgman's got that first point out of the way. All the guys who were supposed to score goals for this team this season,

scored goals last night. That's a great way to look at it. So all the guys that are supposed to get the job done got the job done. Now, I'm not expecting them to do it all on the same night every night, but I think that's a great start. It is something that weighs on them.

Patrick Marleau, it's like, you get that first goal, and that Matthews setup was fantastic, and he dangled Mason. Yeah, as you said, dangled him out of his contract. He did. He dangled him out of his contract.

Frig, I wish I thought of that for the LFR. It was. to me that was like somebody sent me a tweet and forgive me I forget your exact Twitter handle

but someone said all my memories of David Clarkson and my worries about Patrick Marleau faded away I mean this isn't the most

encouraging comparison but you know who it reminds me of a little bit Owen Nolan first game as a Leaf comes in veteran

all this prestige and all these expectations heading into what's supposed to be a playoff run first game two goals

Yeah, and it just gives you that little bit of ease And from the Sharks Yeah, I hope in Patrick Marleau's case That he, you know, this is a way for him to go Huh? You saw it on his face I think it was You saw it on his face, all gone

And those are the first two goals he's ever not scored For the San Jose Sharks In his entire career He's up to 510 now 508 with the Sharks So it's Hyman is the only player in the top nine who didn't get a point?

Which fits. I mean, what do we expect? Six and a half minutes on the PK. And again, that's not... No, I know. That's what he does, right? And he looked great last night.

They all looked great. I thought it was a really, really good look except for that first kind of shaky period. And you know what? They took too many penalties. That was it.

And they locked down that penalty kill, which was awesome. I want to focus on Eric Fair a little bit just because two weeks ago we all said it's going to be Miro Alton and if it's not going to be

and if it's not Miro Alton it's going to be Dominic Moore and then yeah Eric Fair will be a spare as you said in the minors now Eric Fair has come in and for the one game he played with the Leafs last year he looked pretty good and it's wow

that's a great solution I think Dominic Moore might have been sitting up there going, uh-oh. I thought he was a team guy and he's going, hooray. I mean, he gets a million bucks no matter what. And at this point in your life. If they want to send him down to the minors, he gets a raise. Doesn't have to pay

escrow. But yeah, Farrell looked great. Farrell looked very, very good. He's one of those just condor wingspan type guys. He's thick. There was one play

where he just kind of Like, he used an edge and, like, two strides to basically carry him from halfway through the neutral zone to behind the other team's net. Like, just battling. Like, he's a – you know what is going to turn into more of a story, I hope, anyway, is the Leafs murdered that trade. They killed it. They got a player who's on their penalty kill and is a key part of it.

He's on their fourth line and is a key part of it, obviously. And a fourth-round pick. And a guy who's not around anymore. For Frank Corrado, who's in the minors for the Penguins and may never play. That's a pretty good trade. That's a great trade. It was supposed to be a cap dump. A little bit like the loophole deal, which is now looked at in a different light.

But, you know, that was supposed to be just a throwaway cap dump. Here you go, take this bum. I don't know if the Penguins quite had that in mind or the Leafs did, too. Really, it was the Leafs helping the Penguins out of a bind. Heading into a playoff run, I guess. or adding veteran depth for a playoff run. I'm really not sure. I'm not sure.

We didn't know he was going to break his finger. Well, and there's a lot of people, a lot of very well-respected and educated hockey people who were like, don't understand that trade. Don't know why they did that. And, I mean, whether or not they intended this, it's great. Some of it, I think, had to do with the expansion draft. They could have exposed him.

They needed two people or three people or something like that, which is also why they signed Ben Smith and yada, yada, yada. But, no, he looked great. He looked great. And I love righties, so. So, Freddie Anderson, and then again, we've got to talk about the Winnipeg side, too. Freddie Anderson apparently is in the best shape of his life. Looked it.

I've got to say that Matthews, Nylander, Marner all look like they're in great shape. But I think Freddie, of all the guys on the team, like last year, he had that injury, right? Shoulder, yeah. And that's tough when you're a goalie because you're lifting heavy equipment. There was a save he made on line A in the first period That First five games Freddie last year Would not have made

He had to get that blocker right hand up as fast as he could And Like think of how different that game goes And how differently You know the mood is in Winnipeg today How different everything is If line A puts the Jets up 1-0 there Right yeah

And it's line A and he scores again on the Leafs Now with Winnipeg they didn't look bad I mean they really didn't Especially in that first period, obviously we took a lot of penalties, or the Leafs took a lot of penalties, but, you know, Winnipeg are a great team. They ought not to worry too much. I think goaltending is going to be an issue for them. With a great power play. With a great power play.

And probably one of the top lines in hockey. Is it the Shifley-Lyne-Ellers? Mrs. Dangle was doing her hockey pool, and I was telling her to load up on Jets. Yeah. Wheeler, Shifley, I just wrote a big fiddle. I wrote an era-adjusted piece that's going to come out about Shifley versus Dale Howarchuk. Cool.

Which sounds stupid, and the conclusion it came to was not stupid. And, yeah, Lyon A, Ehlers, they got... Trouba Myers-Bufflin is as good of a right side as any team in the league. They looked fine. They looked fine. It just didn't go in,

and their goalie didn't make enough saves. Do you think Steve Mason just had a rough night and that was it? Maybe. I mean, what I said in my video, like, what I want to try to do this year is, like, an If I Were You segment. So, like, I'm always talking from the Leafs fans' perspective. So I'm going to try to get into the— Jets fans' heads. Yes, and whoever happens to be playing the Leafs that night.

But, I mean, I want to know, I want to hear a clip from after the first game last year. But I want to hear what we were talking about with regards to Frederick Anderson. We probably felt pretty similarly to how Jets fans feel about Steve Mason right now. New goalie. We had four goals from one player and we still couldn't win the game last year. That's unbelievable. That was the first opening game win since 2013-2014. Really?

Yeah. By the way, I calculated it last night and tweeted this out. Austin Matthews in game openers, like in two season openers. Has five goals and two assists. First player to ever have at least three points in each opener of the first two seasons of his career. He's the first player ever. Yeah, I saw that tweeted by the NHL account today. Multiple points.

Sorry, yeah. Let me look that up exactly because it's very specific. Oh, here. Let Jesse look that up. Do you need the computer? No, I got it right here. Okay. Austin Matthews is the fourth player in NHL history to start his first two seasons with

three plus points in his team's season opening game. Who are the other three Justin Williams of the Flyers Kent Nolson of the Flames In the Late 70s early 80s And Cy Denany

Of the 1917 To 1919 Ottawa Senators That's a different sport Can they pass forward at that point Because remember hockey used to be Only a pass back sport

So, you know how we're doing that whole centennial thing? All right, well, the first one. So, if we're counting things that happened post-NOM. Can you write an era-adjusted piece on that? Yeah. They have era-adjusted numbers for back then. Really? Yeah, it's crazy.

Matthews versus Howie Meeker. Howie Meeker's nowhere near far back enough. No, you've got to put on your 19-tickety-two voice. and, ah, Odie Clegghorn with the hat trick against the Montreal Maroons. Well, there's one player, they call it the greatest Stanley Cup of all time, and I think he was an Ottawa senator, I'm pretty sure. Didn't he score, like, ten goals and then go off to World War I? Like, it was, like, crazy.

Yeah, there's a story about that. I'm sorry, I'm probably missing a detail there. But I read it, and I was like, so he scored, and then he goes, and he's an officer in the Army, and he came back and played. Yep. No big deal. No big deal. Crazy.

Crazy. Man, our grandparents and our great-grandparents. Different generation, man. Anyway, let's move on to the Oilers and Flames. Yes. Now, it's so great to have the Battle of Alberta back. Oh! It is just like, I mean, it was back last year, but it is.

You're talking about an offense-heavy Oilers team and a defense-heavy Flames team. And it's not to say the Flames don't have offense or that the Oilers don't have defense, but let's talk about their strengths, right? But, like, I mean, the Flames are building their team to stop Conor McDavid. Well, if you've got to play him five times a year, six times a year, right? You know what's great is the Leafs aren't in the same division as Conor McDavid. We do have Jack Eichel, though. There are, how many teams are in the division? Seven?

There's six teams trapped with that monster, that lunatic. Skates up to 40 kilometers an hour, like, coming in on the net. So that was the second. So it was basically Connor McDavid 3, Flames nothing last night. It literally was. Yeah, because he hit the hat trick. Patrick Marleau, until that third goal, was leading the league, leading the NHL in goals. Until freaking Connor McDavid.

18 minutes into the season, Bozak was leading the league in scoring. He had a goal and an assist. There you go. Tally Bozman. Well, I just meant goals. No, I know. But I think Van Riemsdijk, Matthews, Connor McDavid, and maybe, is it Bozak had three points last night? It might be someone from either the Penguins or Blues.

Had three points. Because that was a high-scoring game, too. So, Wayne Simmons had a hat trick. Oh, right. Last night? Yeah, last night. Oh, man. That's amazing.

Good for him. A friend of mine texted me this morning that she entered a hockey pool, and someone in their pool picked just Leafs, and they had 17 points last night. They destroyed. What a great start. Yeah. The thing is that in a pool, too, in that situation, if you jump out to an early lead, it's hard to lose it.

Like, it's hard for people to catch up. Whoa, hey now. Oh, in a pool. Yeah, in a pool. Sorry, I thought you meant in a hockey game. I'm like, did you do that? No, no, no. Do you have amnesia, Adam?

Two of McDavid's goals were unassisted. So it was the McDavid show. I mean, it's to his benefit to just rush the puck up himself. And that's not an insult to the Oilers It's Rushing the puck up himself allows him to get to his top speed Which is a speed no one Can handle

He made Travis Hamanick look like Alright everybody We need, does anyone play defense And they just pulled him out of the stands And that's like their new Big addition Oh yeah and Jager, did Jager even play No he's not

He probably won't be ready for a bit He said, like, I got to get into game shape. I got to get into the systems. He's like, I'm not sure how my body's going to react. It was interesting watching his press conference because he tempered a lot of expectations. You could tell they're jacked in Calgary to have him. But he did the Mike Babcock. Well, we got to do this and this and this.

And I'm like, wow, you sound like a wily vet, which is what you are. Justin Bourne had very, very, very good insight on Yarmir Yager last night. And that is going to be my tease. What were you doing last night? I was doing Puck Talks at the Rec Room, which, if you live in Toronto or the GTA, is redonkulous. The Leon's next to Steam Whistle is now basically a giant Dave & Buster-style restaurant with crazy arcade games and a movie screen. It's owned by Cineplex. It's absolutely insane.

And so I was on a panel with Carly Agro, Andy Petrillo, and Justin Bourne last night. Oh, those bums. Oh, those bums. We're hoping to get Justin Bourne on the podcast at some point. Yeah, I think we're going to be able to because he's now signed to do Mondays with Sportsnet 590, The Fan. There's a few people from The Athletic we'd like to have back on, James and all the guys that have been on this show before. Yeah, so I will let him give his Yager insight, but I will just tease that it's very good. It's got great stories.

It's very good. Do you guys want to hear some things about the 1927 Stanley Cup Final? Is this what it was? I don't know, but this is very interesting because, first of all. Isn't that when Maple Leaf Garden was built? No, it was built in 31 It was built at like the height of the depression They planned for it in the late 20s

When it was like the roaring 20s And then they crashed Conn Smythe still built it So maybe this is when Conn Smythe bought the team 27 is sticking out in my head for some reason He bought it in the 20s And renamed it the Maple Leafs After his World War I regiment, right?

Yes, I think So Two games Maple Leaf Regiment, yeah In the 1927 Stanley Cup final between the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins, finished in ties. That's great. The Senators won the series 2-0-2.

So Boston didn't get a win. Nope. They got two ties. Imagine it would be 1-1-2. It's like an ultimate tie. So, like, you tie two games and you win and lose, so it's like a quadruple tie. We're just going to split it in half.

If you take that, I'll take this. If there was Twitter back then, do you think Boston fans would be bragging about, Whoa, we got two drawers! You got two what? D-R-A-W-R-S drawers. And the other fact I want to share from the 1927 Stanley Cup final, after the game, Billy Coutu assaulted referee Jeremy Laflame. I mean, assault isn't funny, but I guess 100 years later it sort of is.

Literally, 100 years later. I mean, at what point is assault funny? That's a joke, people. It's a joke. No, I know. Anyway, what is assault funny? There's so many Winston Churchill quotes that everyone's just like, ha, ha, ha. But if someone said that tomorrow, you'd be like, what the...

Who is this fat man? Fire them. Resign. Coutu, I don't know if I'm saying that right. He was barred from the league for life. And Smith, who caused a bench-clearing brawl, was given a one-month suspension. How vicious would it have had to have been to get a lifetime ban in the 20s? Pretty bad.

Pretty freaking bad. Maurice Richard broke his stick over someone's head. That happened a lot, by the way. And they gave him a playoff ban. Yeah. And then there was a riot. Because how unfair. I think somebody in the Montreal form, when they banned him in the playoffs,

when they came back, I believe somebody set off fireworks in the Montreal form. Oh, God. And they had to clear it out and everything. It was bad. because they were I mean rightfully so he's the best player in the league

and they just suspended him for the whole thing because he almost killed him hey life is out life is out

I like life they fucked up I give the middle to them I love Rob Mahons RIP yeah so man okay so can you

look up the 10 goal Stanley Cup performance because I would like to know that Penguins St. Louis yes I have not got to watch this

well it was a 5-4 St. Louis victory Petrangelo in the overtime Or shoot it. Well, I don't know. No, no, it was overtime. It was a goal.

It was overtime, yeah. Yeah, because it was a goal. But Petrangelo had two goals last night. And, you know, I have to say, not much to deduce as it is. It's just one game. But again, I want to look at some of the names that St. Louis had scoring for them. Are you ready? Okay.

Shen, Brayden Shen. Fifth overall pick. Who is now in St. Louis. Forgot about that. Right? That was, I tweeted when that trade happened. And I go, oh, my God, like, how is Braden Shen worth that much? Because I think it was like two firsts or something like that.

And then I saw Yori Letera's contract, and I went, oh, boy, is it bad. It's bad. Very bad. Braden Shen, and then Pareko, Colton Pareko, and then Petrangelo, and then Stastny, and then Petrangelo again. Guys that you need to score for you. And some help from the defense. Absolutely.

And that's going to be St. Louis' strong point is their defense. They are just so good. The answer to my question about Calgary earlier Maybe St. Louis Yeah, true Justin Schultz, Ole Matta, Crosby It's good for Ole Matta to get that goal out of the way For some reason he went from

Like upcoming hero To zero in Pittsburgh Well, a lot of health issues So is he Is he not going to be a great defenseman? Is he too slow? I think Penguins fans would tell you he's okay He's okay

I think he'll get better as the season goes on. He needs to play a full year. Right. Or a couple full years. Crosby, of course, because it's Crosby. From Malkin and Jake Gensel and then Connor Sheery as well. From one Greg McKaig. Now, Greg McKaig, I just thought I'd throw this out there,

was trending in Pittsburgh last night. He's their third line center. But apparently you did a great job. All right. They're very happy with him. I didn't think that guy was ever going to be a full-time NHLer. Greg McKaig, if you don't remember, was the guy the Leafs traded for Zach Hyman to Florida, who then gave him up for nothing.

That's right. I forgot about that. And also, I remember, Steve used to do a podcast before this podcast years ago at U of T with Justin, and Justin Fisher, at the Justin Fisher on Twitter, said, I think in the second round, you guys did a pre-draft show, he said, I think in the second round, they're going to go with Greg McKaig. And he nailed it. And he also nailed the Leafs trading up to, like he specifically said, the Leafs are going to trade up to draft Brad Ross.

And they did. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out, but he nailed it. And the Flyers beat the Sharks 5-3 as well. Giroux, Jordan Wheel scored, Wayne Simmons had a hat trick. And it's nice to see Wayne Simmons get that empty netter at the end. Jordan Wheel. Jordan Wheel. Jordan Wheel.

Could have been a Golden Knight. Or a Leaf. Yep. Yeah, but I guess the Flyers are happy they kept him, and holy smokes, the Wayne train. Chugga-chugga. Well, yeah, and Shane Goss' despair with two assists there. I mean, that's honestly—

He had a brutal season. He did, and Vorchek with a couple assists. I mean, these are the guys you need to come through for you. Flyers are a little scary. Did Nolan Patrick get anything? Not from what I can see, no. Okay. But he made—I remember his—I read an article in June,

and it was Nolan, he was a Wheat King, right? Yes, Brandon Wheat King. So the coach and the general manager said, listen, Nolan Patrick is not ready for the NHL yet. He said, but what you're getting is a guy that will be incredible and have a great 15-20 year career, but he needs a year.

And the fact that he came in... He had a similar injury to Morgan Rielly, I think. Was the hernia? When he was in junior. Not hernia. Hernia? No, I don't remember, but basically he missed... It's, sorry, similar to Morgan Rielly's injury in that he missed most of his draft year. But came in with all this, you know, all these accolades.

Right? So that is what I think he meant by he's not ready. Not, he's not very good right now. No, and he wasn't, he didn't say it wasn't a bad thing. He said, I just think he needs more time. But I think it's pretty cool that he made the Philadelphia Flyers. And I also don't, I can't, don't sleep on the Flyers or the Carolina Hurricanes, man. They are both teams.

They're not easy anymore Both those guys are in the Metro division Thank God You know the Monster division? Yeah, it's got two more Monsters Every team is a Monster except for the Devils Well, Islanders, I don't know, maybe They're interesting, we'll see

So Jack Eichel and Nikolai Ehlers both signed their extensions yesterday So Jack Eichel has the most to compare with A Connor McDavid in terms of contract. Well, no, no. Oh, yeah. And might be a precursor to what Austin Matthews commands or measures himself against.

And I'm not saying, like, I'm sure everybody, I think the measuring stick is Conor McDavid, but when we're talking about elite players, all three of them are. If you're Austin Matthews and you head into your next, well, your, I guess, first real contract negotiation, you're comparing yourself to Jack Heichel. And not Conor McDavid. You know why? You scored more points than Jack Eichel.

Right. And way more goals than Jack Eichel. Like you want to talk about Like I'll take that bet on Jack Eichel. I think he's gonna be sick, but he has a career high of 24 goals Like even if he were healthy, it's like a 30 goal pace Good, very good, but like a 30 goal 70 point pace I'm Austin Matthews, I can do that. Yeah, I can do that. I've done it. Yeah, so give me my 10 at least Maybe even 11. Because if I go using McDavid as my benchmark, what's he getting? 12.5?

Man, he scored 31 more points than Matthews last year. Think of how good Austin Matthews was last year. There was a player in the league who scored 31 more points. Yeah. McDavid's not fair. Like, if you got him in your pool, like, congrats. You win. You win.

You probably didn't even pick that good of a team. It doesn't matter. You got a guy who's going to win the scoring title by minimum 15 points. And he sure is exciting to watch. Man, he's great. I'm trying to think of the last player who there was no answer for. We agree Crosby's the best, but there are strategies. They don't often work, but there are strategies.

How do you compete? Nazem Khadri. Yeah, exactly. Because he shut him down in that one game and we made a big deal of it. Which no he didn't No he didn't Like you know Got caved in

Five on five Corsi All that crap Just Kadri got two goals And he was front and center With McDavid on that one play But there's no answer For that speed

There's none None And no one has hands That can keep up What was it that you said to me Because Sportsnet did A graphic about this But what did you say about

His speed on the second goal So his speed I believe Was 44.1 kilometers per hour which means that he wasn't legally allowed to travel in a school zone when he scored his second goal. Yeah. It's speeding. I want you to think about that.

26 miles an hour or something like that. Okay, so here's what I want you to do. Refer to the American Listers. Yeah. If it's possible, if it's possible, and the American Listers have kilometers on the dash. Literally no one else in the world. In Liberia, I think.

It's like the states in Liberia. But they're sticking to that system. But inches, you guys. Inches, man. It's way better. What was Connor McDavid's speed in Fahrenheit? I'm so sorry. I'm punchy.

I want you to look at your, even if you're an American listing and you have a car, you have kilometers on your dashboard. It's just in this, it's the smaller one. I want you to, I want you to have someone drive you down the street. Okay. If it's legal, where it's legal, I want you to go 40 kilometers an hour or whatever it Miles per hour Which I think is what

24 And stick your hands Out the window And stick handles It's such a Ridiculous comparison Just stick your head Out the window

And feel what that Feels like And imagine Trying to plan moves Avoid human beings And shift your own Body weight back and forth And then he came

To a complete stop After he shot the puck In front of him Imagine how much Imagine how much force On his knee joints It takes to stop On a dime like that

Imagine what That was the most Impressive part Like what is it What kind of leg power Does that take Because I, like, from playing hockey, you know. Ankles, calves, feet.

Like, and your thighs. Your thighs, when you stop, you're swinging your whole body. Everything. Crazy. Absolutely. It's, it's, I wonder, like, if he's just one of those freak athletes, whether it's genetic or whether it's, you know, when was he, when did they, like, start putting him in hockey school? Like, age of three, something like that? Because his dad, I mean, his dad's like a OHL team owner.

Yeah, Jesse's got the clip right here. This is. So yeah again Rush it because it's never Not the right decision to rush it If you're Connor McDavid How does he stop on a dime like that Because it wasn't he got to his top

It wasn't like an Olympic race Where he gets to his top speed and then slows down a bit His top speed was at the very end When he made his move There's no answer for that That's the best player in hockey Something you should look at too If you get the chance to re-look at this clip

The puck is on its side! Oh, I didn't notice that. Look at that. Look at that. Oh, it's rolling. Not that that matters for him. Wow. It doesn't seem believable.

Here's what I want you to look at, though. And you see Mike Smith go, oh, nuts. Look at Mike Smith's chest after a Connor McDavid stop. So after the goal goes in, just look at his chest. Look at how much snow is on that jersey. Oh, yeah. Look at how much snow. The sea is almost white.

The Calgary Red Sea is almost white with snow. There's a divot in the ice there Absolutely unbelievable That's crazy See I don't think he I don't know exactly how Connor McDavid's built That's Hammonick and Brody by the way on defense too

Oh I know but if McDavid ever Decided it's like Marner threw Like a surprising hit that led to a scoring Chance last year and everyone's like how the hell did Mitch Marner do that Centrifugal force my friend speed McDavid's not the biggest guy but if he comes at you with that kind of speed and he's not charging

granted, he's gonna flatten you. Like, I don't want to touch Dustin Bufflin, but Bufflin can't do that. No. He doesn't have the mobility to do that. Matt Martin can't do that. And I'm only picking on Matt Martin because we're talking about big tough guys you don't want to mess with. So we wanted to talk about

Jack Eichel. So Jack Eichel, $10 million, 8 years, I think that's a pretty solid bet. Yes, but it is just that, a bet. It is... Now, why do you say that why do you say it's just a bet why don't you say that's a solid deal and that's what he deserves it is a solid deal and it is what he deserves and it's a bet you know why is it a

he had a he had a great rookie year no one's taking that away from him he had a great season last year after coming back from injury no one's taking that away from him but when it comes to that kind of money that kind of generational wealth i'm connor mcdavid i'm a 100 i'm a 100 point scorer you know how you know that here's 100 points that i scored jack eichel you're buying theoretical points i think he's going to score those theoretical points if you drafted him in fantasy congratulations you got a guy who might score 80 90 points this season but he hasn't done it. What's his career high? 64? So what

would be Buffalo's motivation to get him locked down now? Because again, they have until next summer to really worry about it. That's a good question. I would worry about Jack Eichel being

offer sheeted. I really would worry about that. Because that to me is worth it. Why not? I don't think it would happen. I wonder... Yeah, I guess it's one more thing you don't even have in the back of your mind. You can go forward and plan your team like you're financially

you understand the roadblocks the $10 million roadblock that's going to be in your way. I can't imagine the worry is he's going to score 100 points and be able to command more than 10. That's what I wondered. Is it that they were worried that that's

an acceptable price now and we better get it while we can because who knows what this guy's going to do. I guess. And then the other thing is, if you look at Buffalo's Cap Friendly, how much is Kyle Ocposa making? How much is Ryan O'Reilly making? Seven plus seven plus. So you've got

in your first two centers you've got seventeen and a half million dollars wrapped up in your first two centers. You know what though? If you're going to wrap up seventeen and a half million dollars, there's a worse duo you could have. Pretty good, but boy is it a lot of money.

Boy is it a lot of money. Yeah. I don't know. That's the direction it's going. The contract that's most interesting to me is Ehlers. Because if you... You know, everyone seems to think, oh, Nylander's getting more than seven, more than seven.

Not necessarily, man. Just because the Oilers signed Leon Dreisaitl to a ridiculous contract. Like, that contract looks... I don't think they wanted to, by the way. I think... It looks more silly with each passing day. Had that Connor McDavid contract not leaked,

I think that leaking cost the Oilers like $20 million. Yep. Yeah, yeah. That's an interesting way to look at it. Because I think that they had him in the 7-8 range. You can't tell me Drysaddle. And I bet he was like, are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, you can't tell me Drysaddle is that much better than Ehlers.

Pasternak is a big one. There was another one signed recently who was a really good comparable for Nylander, and I'm trying to remember who. Nylander, I would hope, will get in the neighborhood of six and a half. If he gets 70 plus, yeah, that number's going to start with at least seven. Still, there'll be more than enough to go around. We know Matthews is going to get the sun and the moon because he deserves it. The guy where there's a little bit more of a question mark is Nylander.

And Marner, too. And Marner, too, yeah. So as these comparables start to get signed, I think you have a more clear picture of what the Leafs are going to look like. We know Matthews is getting 10 or 11. We know that. Good. Give it to him.

For the love of God. It's the other two that I'm more worried about. I wouldn't be worried. I think they're going to be fine. With every contract that gets signed, I'm less worried. When Dreisaitl got signed, I was worried. And then, dink, dink, dink, dink, dink. Go down the line.

And I think I look at it and like, okay, are we, if the Leafs spend that much money on high-end slash elite skill, that's great. At least we're not spending our money on mid-range, might get you 20 goals for $5 million skill. Alexander Muginley. Muginley? Muginley. That was a contract that was worth it. I think he scored 40 goals in his first year. Muginley was great here.

Yeah, it's not the best comparison for bad Leafs. McGillney was amazing here. Yeah. I mean, Clarkson. Lucic. Lucic might be one. That is going to be interesting to see. Here, I'm looking up McGillney with the Leafs.

First, oh, okay. First season, 24. Next season, 33. And then the next season. When did we sign him, though? Huh? Well, he was already, you know, 10, 15 years in the league at that point. Asterisk, Jesse?

No cap. Nah. Who cares? I think they paid him like $4 million a year or something like that, which was pretty big for the time. I think it was more than that. Was it? Dude, Sundin was making like $9 million.

Wow. I know. Times, man. I know. Do you want some old man hockey stats? Yes, please. Because I was trying to find your Stanley Cup final guy. Right.

And three guys scored nine goals in a Stanley Cup final. Cyclone Taylor in 1918. Frank Foyston in 1919 and Babe Die in 1922 What a name! Babe Die Steve, what are you looking at? What's the matter? Something breaking?

No, I got a text from someone who said instead of worrying about traffic, you should ride a bike and I'm like, did I tweet that I was in traffic? Yeah, you said traffic held up the show Oh, I did. Okay, I was like, is someone is this, are we live? Sorry, I was very confused Hey guys, now you know what Steve's text said

I said never mind I said never mind You guys are dicks I have terrible friends Babe Dye is such a great 20s name Babe Dye Got on the board early last night His full name was Cecil Henry

Babe Dye Of course it was He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs Actually and the New York Americans And then he also played professional Baseball and played football with the Argonauts go nuts an athlete Wow so there you go good for a cyclone Taylor I don't know much about him but he is a Canadian professional hockey player cyclone

Taylor it's good news absolutely Frank Foyston he was a player coach for the Detroit Olympics when Canada went there in 1928 player coach there's some old man And facts. That's so great. I love it. Man, the 20s. 20s. 20s.

The ticketies. I assume they were all drunk when they scored their nine goals. Oh, my God. You know, Johnson, your problem is you're not nearly drunk enough. Ehlers, did the deal, to me that deal struck me as fair. Yes, which is why I'm happy. It's good. Yeah.

I think it's like the whole Nylander's not going to negotiate his contract with the Leafs throughout the season. Yeah, that's advantageous Nylander. What if he plays all season with Matthews, goes out there, puts up 70-plus points? He can go into his next contract and be like, I can ask for more kneelers. Yeah, for sure. I still love Pasternak for signing the deal that he did. But yeah, it doesn't make any sense for Kneelander to sign an early deal.

No, why would you? Jarmer Jager's bonuses in Calgary, according to Elliot Friedman, involve games played thresholds with one minor exception. There is a two-parter that is not triggered Unless Calgary makes the playoffs So he said, I'm not 100% certain as I write this But he needs either 50 or 60 appearances Plus the postseason to get one particular bonus

So it's a $1 million contract with a $1 million bonus Have I told... I've probably talked about Jason Allison before, right? Yes, you have In his very expensive punch Yes Yeah, he was one point away from getting a million dollar bonus One game away

It was a games played bonus. He made one and a half million bucks. I'll just tell it again. One and a half million bucks. His bonus was $1 million if he played in 64 games. Game 63, gets into a fight, breaks his hand. Justin Bourne, I was talking about that again with Justin Bourne yesterday. I'd be like, it's fine.

Just tuck his hand behind his back. It's fine. Yeah, put me out there, coach. Seriously, I wouldn't. Yeah, you grid it out for a million dollars. Yeah. I'd just show up to the rink wearing my gloves. Yeah, don't tell him.

Don't tell him. Jesse, you brought forth a piece of audio. Remember the Pythagoras guy? Oh, I can't wait. I'm so excited. I've avoided this. This is a guy that was ranting about football and advanced stats, and he said, the Giants, they just suck.

They have no offensive line. That's what he said. If you haven't seen this rant, you would think Steve's making fun of him. That's what he actually ranted. He said, duh-duh, in the red. Oh, Pythagoras theorem. So here he is on the Yes Network, and I don't know, what's this man's name? Oh, God.

Pythagoras. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Don LaGreca. Okay. Don LaGreca. If you watch Don on the Yes Network, tweet us. I'd like to know what your thoughts are, just because he seems like a character.

Yeah, he's one half of the Michael Kay show. Every time I'm in the States watching TV I feel like I'm watching Rick and Morty alternate reality TV I'm like what planet is this No one talks like this This has to do with the Brooklyn Nets Who are awful And their

Their draft pick situation is horror awful I'm not sure if you know this Yeah aren't they shitty and have no picks They traded all their picks to the Celtics And they're not lottery protected And they're the worst team So the Celtics keep getting like first overall picks And they keep trading them

I don't know why they don't just draft Are they going to dig up stupid like the Leafs did When they got rid of the Lindros pick I don't know man it's bad Anyway you ready I just want to throw out there Listen to when he goes to his hotline The things that he has to say

Just to get to a caller because they've sponsored the hotline Oh no It's like NASCAR Literally everything has a sponsor The Taco Bell McDonald's hotline It's like it is listen to this listen to this. Oh, this is somebody that's really angry Tri-state B.O.G.M.C. Listen, I'm Brian in Manhattan

I would not I would not pay for that if I'm if I am the the guy wanting to Put my sponsorship on there. He doesn't even say the name here's several thousand dollars millions of dollars can you please Please say our company name, but do it like an auctioneer. Oh, this is somebody that's really angry. Tri-State Buick GMC. Brian, why are you so happy today? Oh, I'm so happy.

You don't understand this, McKay. First of all, I'm sick that you're not going to be doing the Yankees game. I'm sick, too. I dated this girl all year. Now someone else is sleeping with her. I hate taking her to the prom. It's on Rex. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. But what really kind of makes me a little happy is that Don's Mets and his Giants, his football and his baseball season are over. And it brings me such nausea. But, Brian, I don't care. So, for context, the Giants are 0-4, so the cause called in to taunt him and be like, hey, your team sucks.

And the Mets are the freaking Mets. And then the Mets didn't make the playoffs. They're terrible. So, Don has said four words. Brian, I don't care. I can already tell. He cares. Football and his baseball season are over.

And it brings me such knock-ups. But, Brian, I don't care. You don't understand. I don't care. But, Brian, why, though? I don't care. Don's not a guy who really does anything annoying as a fan. It doesn't bother me.

He annoys Brian. But, Brian, what is it? Well, actually, Peter Slopopotamus, what it is, is that I don't... You're a bad guy. Him and Rothenberg are... I mean, they make comments about the Yankees, about how they watch Yankee games,

so they lose. How they just... I've been here two years and never heard Don say that once, but real quick, who's your football team? Oh, please. Brian, who's your football team? Brian. I don't watch football.

Oh, man, you know what? You're a fraud. Yes, you do, and you have a team that stinks. You don't want to say. If you're a Yankee fan, Brian, you're probably a Giants fan. Yeah. Yeah! I am a Oakland Raiders fan.

You didn't have a team, but now you have a team. And a team that's lost two straight and is in peril. Oh, you have no guts! You are so gutless! The Raiders, isn't that the team that my team utterly embarrassed last week? Didn't we destroy? Didn't you have 78 total yards in the fourth quarter? Brian, I don't like the way they're treating you, Brian.

I don't like it. No, but listen, I respect the Raiders because what I love about the Raiders is that they've got names for their games. You know, the Sea of Hands game, the Holy Roller game. They were great back then. But the thing, Brian, you're gutless. You said you didn't have a football team, and then you told us because you're gutless. Gutless. Oh, my God, this is great.

For all the years that you've been calling and killing me, you were on the air and showed zero guts, Brian. How awesome is that? because I might be a Met fan and a Giant fan, but I'm not gutless. I'll come on the air and I'll tell you how I feel, but you have no guts. Yes, I don't have a football team, but you do have a football team.

Oh, my God, you're so weak. I can't believe it. I'm actually jumping up and down. I'm giddy, baby. I'm giddy because you're a clout show. We've been going at it for years, Brian, And I finally win! I win! I need to dunk something! There's a reason why!

I need to dunk something! There's a reason! Woo! Yeah! Yeah! He's out of his chair and running around the studio. He's carrying the chair. You have to watch the video. Yeah!

He's wearing a chair on his head now, Brian. Oh, he's throwing chairs. That chair's broken for sure. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Winning winner chicken dinner Clown show Clown show

Clown show Clown show Clown show Clown show Clown show Brian it's a clown show Brian I got your back my friend Brian I got your back

Wow there is a lot of footage left Oh my god Just looking at the bar A conversation that I often have within my own head and with others is how old will I be by the time yelling and screaming at a camera in a room full of toys is weird I think

that's your thing how much money do you think Don LaGreca makes more than you a lot no offense but no more than if none taken are we probably six digits Adam oh without question I think multiple six digits. You think seven digits? Maybe. I mean, he's in New York

but they're covering the Mets and the Nets and the, you know, like, I think they're the I mean, it is, listen, it's Yes Network. Does his paycheck start with at least a five? Oh, yeah. I would think so. But I think the guy Get used to me yelling and screaming, everybody! I made it to

win it! I'm gonna make it! Clown joke! Clown joke! Clown joke! What I can't get over is how cheesy they are Like if you're gonna If you're gonna win like I mean I get being excited but like Man

I mean okay if I was a If I listen to the show every single day And that guy calls in and he's like Oh you guys you guys Shitty teams and it turns out he cheers for a perennially shitty team. Yeah, I guess it's kind of funny. And also the Raiders who are supposed to be good this year.

Oh, Don's got him! I want to know who the listeners are who are like, Don's got him! Like butters watching Cartman debate Wendy Testerberger. Oh, he's got her now! Hey, whatever gets you through the day, man. Wow. He turns several shades of purple in that rant, too.

Like he gets, there's some blood flowing. There was some blood flowing. Clown show. What's the name of their show? Clown show? No, the Michael K. Yeah, I would think Michael K. is up in the millions. Who's Michael K.?

The guy who the show's name's after? No, but which one of those guys? The middle guy. He's in the power chair, don't you know? Is Don McGreco the stunt boy? I think he's just the co-host. A lot of times you have a guy who is a straight-ahead host, who is knowledgeable and whatever,

and then you've got a guy who adds a little color. Are they just doing their best And trying to have a fun segment I think so Oh I think it was fun Oh I had fun Did you not have fun Oh I had fun

I had a great time I mean I think with that one I'm laughing with them I wasn't laughing at them I think I was laughing at him With the advanced stats thing That was funny Yes

100% laughing at him No I think I'm laughing I'm laughing at Don Point Don Yeah And you know what Sometimes when you get one over on a guy who's been giving it to you for years, it feels good. And you slam chairs and chant clown show.

Yeah. But I guarantee you, the guy that he eviscerated on the air there, he didn't really eviscerate. Brian. Brian the caller. Brian from wherever. Brian from New York. Brian from New York will be a forever listener because of that segment. Like, Brian is immortalized, and he will never not listen to that show.

He's gutless, Adam. You need to go... He sort of is gutless. I mean, they are right. They're not wrong. They nailed him. Go on I think it's on Netflix

Look up Big fan The star is Patton Oswalt If you're into sports And particularly Sports radio Fantastic movie

Is that where he calls in a lot? He calls in a lot He writes out All the stuff He's a parking attendant So all he does Is listen to sports radio And then the story

Gets dark and crazy And I don't want to Spoil it for you Really good movie Really good movie And I think Brian Will be as dedicated As Patton Oswalt

Is in that movie Shall we do a press conference? The Presser S.D.P. The Steve Dangle Press Conference. Finally. Been a while. Finally. The earth was telling us not to do one.

In an effort to improve overall safety for both competitors and spectators, NHL officials issued a warning Friday to remind hockey fans that banging on the glass scares the players. Wait, I thought that was a beach. Isn't that the zoo? All attending games should refrain from pounding on the glass. Is that? It's very disorienting and gravitating for hockey.

That's a Beaverton article, right? It's got to be. It's from The Onion. Oh, The Onion. Okay. Scares the players. Beaverton, by the way, is a Canadian onion. Yeah.

Wow. I was like, please tell me. I believe it. I would believe it. If you could tell me a lot of things about the NHL, I'd be like, yeah. I believe that. I believe that. I get it.

All skates are made of rubber. No? I get it. Yeah, sure. Sure. Absolutely. Hope the Leafs are still good. Producer Jesse, have we got any questions?

Outspan asked something interesting. Outspan. Since the league seems determined to modify rules to race scoring, what do you think of making it illegal for defending teams to make a hand pass in their own end? Isn't that illegal already? No. What do they mean?

Not. So the defenseman whacks it out of the air with his hand and his teammate picks it up on his stick? Yeah. I thought that was already illegal. No, apparently not. I thought the play was blown dead. Does he mean make that a penalty?

Not a penalty, but I think the same stoppage of play you get with a high stick or a hand pass anywhere else on the ice would be a good starting point. How many more goals a year are we going to get from that? Like, I don't know. This is the thing that – don't you love this sport? Don't you love it? Leave it alone. Like, unless you're going to make a major change,

it's actually going to make a difference. Like I'm getting tired of all this Like calling slashing as it's supposed to be called I get Calling the faceoff rule is annoying But I get it Calling Kamara for his visor thing is annoying But I get it

Telling Eric Ferret to untuck his jersey Or Connor Brown to untuck his jersey is annoying But I get it At what point There's as much scoring as there is Unless you're going to make a major change Like they did in 05-06 That's not going to solve your problem

In a league where every team scores, what, like 260-ish goals? Oh, great, now they all score 262. Because you got rid of that stupid hand rule. Percentages, brah. Yeah. When is Josh Levo going on wafers? There are at least three Marlies ahead of him on the depth chart. And if you don't want to get rid of him,

if you don't want him, get rid of him like Marinsa. I disagree. I disagree, too. Yeah, I disagree with that. I don't think there are three Marlies that are ahead of him on the depth chart necessarily. There are guys who I expect to be better down the line. Bracco, but he's not ahead of him right now. Kapanen, yeah, you could argue that.

Kapanen's ahead of him. Sosh isn't, I don't think. Sosh isn't. I think Sosh was in the lineup last year. People are going to say, well, he was in the lineup last year. Well, I think Sosh was in the lineup last year because Sosh plays a role. And if you look at the way the Leafs build their team, they build the Marlies the same way. If you are a third-line right winger and you play that role,

then that's what you're going to play in the NHL, too. I think if Nikita Sashnikov plays an NHL game before— I think if Nikita Sashnikov plays an NHL game in 2017, it's a mistake. If he comes back second half of the season, great. But this guy, he needs to get some consistency under him. Ever since he got to North America, it's just been injury after injury after injury, and he comes back too early, and it's an agonum, and he's got post-concussion syndrome, and what?

He couldn't fly to Russia all summer. Couldn't fly to Russia all summer. Preseason comes, there he is in the games. Sash needs to play some healthy hockey in the American League for a while. I don't think the Leafs are going to put Levo on waivers. I don't think they're going to go from asking too much for him, like Chris Johnson said on the show, to getting rid of him for free. I just don't think that's going to happen.

Yeah, and I think you've got to look at it like, what are the benefits to losing a guy like that? unless you get the price, whatever the exorbitant amount that we're asking. Unless you get that. I mean, you've got a player who... You've got a conditional six for Peter Holland. Yeah. Like, it's something.

He got, what is it, 10 points in 13 games last year when he played. So that's significant. And you have to remember that last year, and we keep saying this, but the Leafs did not have a major injury last year. Not one. One of those wingers goes down in that scoring position, and especially in that top nine, one of those guys... Levo was literally waiting for one of eight guys to get hurt,

and last year, no one did. Right, yeah. And you'd think maybe at that point Connor Brown moves up, Levo goes under the fourth, or whatever it is. Yes, no. But how not rare is it to have a couple wingers go down over the course of the year? One of Marner, JVR, Connor Brown, Leo Komarov, Zach Hyman.

I mean, Jesus, the way Zach Hyman's played the last couple preseason and regular season games. He might need a break. I think he might be volunteering. You know, yeah, Levo's going to get in, and he's going to play well because he's a good player. And he played really well in the preseason. He had a great camp. He's not going to go on waivers.

In nine out of ten seasons, Levo plays much more than 13 games last year. And also, he started last year hurt. Yes. He wasn't prisoner the entire time at Corrado. So, yeah, I disagree with you on the depth chart thing, and I disagree that he's going to go on waivers. Who is your Stanley Cup final prediction? Yeah, I've got to change that. Yeah, we can do that.

Because my last pick on this show was in June, and I said the Ducks. Yeah. I've changed that. What is it now? They're going to stumble out of the gate because of their injuries. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. One game into the season. My bold prediction for this month.

Tampa versus the McEuelers. I was going to say this exact same thing. So in the interest of saying something different, I am going to say... Well, okay, so your official pick, though, is that Tampa versus the Oilers? You know what? Because people have been keeping track of this. Yeah, you can say the same thing if you want, if that's what you think. It's so hard to think that—

You can give a secondary pick. I'm just not going to give you credit for it if it's right. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, Tampa-Oilers would be the right. But I also think Tampa-Nashville is very possible. See, Nashville is in a very tough division, and they're without Ryan Ellis for a few months. They might not make the playoffs.

If they do make the playoffs, they're a contender. They might not make the playoffs. Yeah. Ducks, too. Like, it's crazy. It's totally crazy. Like, Western Conference Final could easily be Ducks-Preds again. Neither.

It's possible both might miss the playoffs. Producer Jesse. The correct answer is Toronto versus Edmonton. I hope that happens. Genuinely hope. How far-fetched is that? It's the correct answer. I think it would be.

I mean, it's not far-fetched. I do think it improbable this year. The Metro gets jumbled, eh? The correct answer is one of five Metro teams. But let's go with Tampa or Toronto because they stick out more. I do think Tampa's the best overall team in the conference, period. That's just my thought. It doesn't mean that they would beat Pittsburgh.

It doesn't mean that they would beat Washington, although I do think they would beat Washington. I think it would be a slugfest with Pittsburgh. Boy, Pittsburgh's bottom six. What if, with no pressure, this is Washington's year? I wonder about that, too. I mean, how much worse did they get? They won the President's Trophy by a country mile.

And you would have done it without Kevin Shattenkirk. And then you lose Carl Alsner. And Nate Schmidt. And Nate Schmidt. But who was kind of a 6-7 guy, really. I mean, he didn't even make it into the second game of the playoffs with the Leafs. Branagh gets in. Jou gets in.

You've got Burkowski. You've got, like... I don't know how to say it. D-J-O-O-S. Jou. Yeah. Jou. Jou.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't think they're... I really don't see how they got worse. They got worse. They got worse, but, like, they still got, like, one of the best goalies in the league, a very, very good tandem, one of the best snipers in the league, one of the best playmakers in the league.

Kuznetsov was not mentioned within. And the best team rarely wins the Stanley Cup. Oshie. Yep. 100%. Yeah, and they did lose Justin Williams as well, which hurts a little. Justin Williams locked up Oshie to a good deal. We'll see what the kids do. Speaking of which, shout out Australia.

Nathan Walker is about to become the first ever Australian-born player to play in the National Hockey League. That's awesome. Wow. Somewhere Sasky Stewart is throwing a party, I think. Oh, she tweeted like she's crying. That's cool. That's very cool. It is very cool. If I remember the story about

him correctly he left australia at the age of 14 to play pro hockey in the czech republic and worked his way up uh i think he signed a deal with the caps ahl team they actually drafted him with a fifth rounder he's fought for a couple years now he's in the show welcome to the show kid that's pretty crazy um any more questions nope okay i have an announcement And this is a podcasting news announcement And this is sad Jeff Merrick tweeted today Unfortunately due to circumstances out of our control

Greg Wyshynski and I will not be able to continue our podcast No Wait what happened? Merrick vs Wyshynski's last episode will be next week Oh no According to Jeff He said we're planning a final pod sometime next week Where we can provide more details

But right now we just want to thank everyone for listening This was a goofy hockey podcast Greg and I decided on midway through a phone call in the summer of 2011. I've never had more fun on a show than I did working with Greg on the pod, and I'm really thankful at how many friends I made because of it. Neither Greg nor I are looking at this as any kind of final goodbye. We'll still try to find other ways to work together on other projects, so thank you to everyone who downloaded, streamed, tweeted, played along.

You gave us six years of great times. What a shame. What a shame. When it comes to hockey podcasts at the very least That's Ron and Don Yeah Bummer Well okay so Jeff

Is You're going to be able to listen to him He's going to be on For several hours every Saturday night On the radio with John Shannon He's got a new national show coming So that will be available nationally in Canada And I think I saw him tweet

that you'll be able to stream it as well. Nick Alberga, formerly of NHL, the NHL Network, and Rory Boylan, who's been plugging away at Sportsnet for a long time, got the opportunity to do the second half of that show. I guess it's going to be the western half of that show. But, man. And we still, has Greg announced why he left Yahoo Sports? No, he hasn't.

He's leaving Puck Daddy. Puck Daddy is leaving Puck Daddy. I know that's not his actual name. Shut up. Is it? Yeah. It's on his license Like that's a seismic

Shift In like The hockey The online hockey world Yeah It is And it's a shame I mean I hope they work together

And whatever it is They're working on next If they work on projects together That's great But man What an influence Great guys Genuine

Like you know We've had the The luck to have them both on And They're just genuinely Good people too And that's kind of To me

That just makes a great show even better and uh it's too bad that that it's happening but it may just be scheduling it may be whatever greg's doing jeff can't work with him i know nothing yeah it's probably it probably yeah we don't know anything but it's probably something along the lines of conflicting other corporations or something so a shame but both wickedly talented on their own and at least we both we still have them and of course uh you know greg's got his uh podcast with dave lozo So for Puck Soup, and that will continue. So that's great.

Yeah. Merrick was like one of the first ever mainstream guys. I'm talking, I'm like eulogizing them. But like they're still around. Merrick was one of the first, probably the first mainstream guy to really give me a shot. Recommended me to a producer at Hockey Night in Canada that I be part of the 2009 playoff preview show. And they had me do a video. I stayed up all night.

And that was the first time Ron McLean said my name. and then he said it again this past season which was nuts but i think where jeff might have discovered me was on puck daddy because it was like in 2007 maybe even 2008 in my first or second season i just i got a bunch of messages not even tweets i got messages on my youtube channel it was a thing that happened to like little bloggers back then you've been puck daddied you got featured in the links on Puck Daddy or sometimes he might have even written about you. So like to see the Puck Daddy blog disappear like that

or at least, I mean, it's going to be different without Greg, right? I don't know if the Puck Daddy blog itself is disappearing, but that's the end of an era. Wish not being on Yahoo Sports and Merrick versus Wyshynski not being a show. Yeah, it is. But change is change, unfortunately, inevitable.

But or is it two guys who should have always been bigger than they are who are now being the gift being given the opportunity to be as big as they are? Yeah. And sometimes, unfortunately, projects, you know, that are great have to end to make room for other projects. Ron McLean knows the most out of anybody in hockey. Who second? Like, I think it's Jeff and then the rest of the world. really like in terms of guys who can just talk talk and talk and talk you know there's there's insiders who are extremely good at what they do and you know that's another echelon but in terms of guys who can just talk about hockey who's better than jeff damn i would have said pierre

mcguire can you name someone better at talking hockey than jeff merrick i can So we'll be back next Tuesday We're going to have actual Saturday night hockey to talk about This is fantastic We're back into the season ladies and gentlemen Hosting the tailgate party at Maple Leaf Square So definitely don't come down to Maple Leaf Square What time is that?

Tell people I think it's 5 to 7 From 5 to 7 at Maple Leaf Square 35 Bremner I made up the number 35 is that correct? I don't think so That might be where the Panago is

Go to the Panago Pizza on Bremner, everyone. Here, I can get you an actual answer that's not incorrect. Nope, not in that email. Oh, well. Panago Pizza on Bremner Boulevard in Toronto, Ontario. Go there. From 5 to 7. Potentially 4 to 7.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's 5 to 7. Totally, 7 to 2. There you go. See you next Tuesday. follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y l d e and at jesse blake the steve dangle podcast brought to you by panago pizza order at panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness