The Steve Dangle Podcast - Backpack Full of Weights | December 21, 2017

Episode Date: December 21, 2017

On this episode, the Leafs scored their 20,000 goal in their franchise history... BUT ACTUALLY (05:00), Craig Custance on Drew Doughty, John Tortorella, Mike Babcock, and more stories from "Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches." Find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B075H1NRSW/ (17:00), are fans cheering for Curtis McElhinney to lose? (50:00), Disappointing Bachelor bios (1:06:00), and Christmas presents! (1:32:00). Originally aired: December 21, 2017 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/mgOxV9rRlPk Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake 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

Panago Pizza presents S.T.P. The Steve Dangle Podcast with your hosts, Steve Dangle and Adam Wilde. Hey, before we actually get into the show, like the show of the show. Let's just leave. We should just leave. We're done. This is our last show before the holidays. We've got a couple of best of episodes coming next week that Jesse is already hard to work on. But Jesse is the subject of what I would like to bring up.

What did he do wrong? Everything. As usual. And actually nothing. And you know, I was watching yesterday or last week's episode, or last week's, last Tuesday, Monday's episode. When the hell did we record last time? Monday.

We recorded on Monday. Thanks, Jesse. You're a little late on that. As usual. What is going on right now? Great start. He brought up his announcement as sort of like a throwaway at the end of the show. Oh, yeah.

And I thought that was bullshit. And I know you're going to hate me for this. And you don't have to weigh in. You don't have to like me for this. But I just want to say how insanely proud and happy we are for our friend who is joining the Tim and Sid show. And I want to say at the beginning of the show, because that's where it belongs, at the beginning of the show. This is a huge life event for you. This is enormous.

And you brought it up as like a throwaway. And I was like, no, we can't have that. Jesse, joining Tim and Sid, doing social media, insanely proud of you and happy for you and so excited. So excited for you. That's it. This is so bullshit. Why? I brought it up last episode.

I know. If you wanted to say all this stuff, where were you? At the end of the episode. Oh, sitting two people, one person away from me is when you could have said all this. I know, but it was at the end of the episode, and I think that that... No. That's bullshit. Anyway.

It wasn't slotted properly. It wasn't. He was doing his job as host, and you know what, though? I'm going to criticize Adam. I would say this announcement doesn't even belong on this show, because Tim and Sid, is that what the name of this show is? No, it's not. So, A, why did you bring it up last time?

Why are you bringing it up again? Can we proceed with the Steve Dangle podcast? You're right, you're right. That's all I want to do. And for anybody that still isn't clear. Matter of fact, where do you get out of here? It's just you. Get out!

You, gone! Remember that one time you tried to do that? Yeah, I went poorly. On second thought, you guys stay. You guys stay. And for anybody that still wants to know, Jesse will still be on the show. Of course, obviously. Ugh, fine.

I know, what a shame. I brought it up last episode. You did, and I'm bringing it up again. You clearly didn't care. The show is how great of a friend you are. Okay, if you didn't friggin' try to too cool for the room, oh yeah, and by the way, just thought I'd mention,

I'm just going to humble brag that I got a... I'm just going to mention in passing I work for one of the biggest sports shows in Canada. If it was important, it would have been scheduled. And also Tim and Sid. It was scheduled for today. It would have been scheduled in the show

after I made the announcement. Well, you didn't first off. To be fair, you didn't tell us you were making it. First of all, you had a whole weekend after the announcement. Totally true. and I tweeted about it

but I brought I was going to bring it up today because tomorrow's your last day on Kiss too so I thought we would do you know that closer to the end of the week but since you brought it up

I was like here we go I'm stoked for you guys to have a really nice I know I want to see a real live fist fight tomorrow night I want to see this happen

well we're going out to it's the finally Jesse's fucking off my show party I believe is what it's called right?

is that what we're calling it tomorrow? it's called kiss my ass kiss my ass Jesse 92.5 we should make a shirt kiss my ass

Jesse would not sell make a stinger we should we should it should be produced you should produce it right now

cause you're so you're great with your mouth producing kiss my ass bye you know what's annoying what every time you do that

it is really cause like it's happening already yeah we paid for people to make that

you know at the end when it does the Alright You know what else is annoying? Jesse, let's ignore him for a second here You know when a baby shits themselves and you just let them sit in it? That's a really specific

No I saw you and it just popped in my mind Wow You just let me sit in my dirty dangle diaper Alright Dirty diaper dangle That's what we need to call your feature on Sportsnet 590 The dangle diaper

The dangle diaper Instead of the dangle dial You know how many, like, Alberta listeners are like, Adam's alright! Jesse's got a bitch or two. I like those guys. They need to drop Dangle. I hate this Dangle guy on his own podcast. Piece of shit.

You know what? You guys will never be Tim and Sid. No, we won't. Wow. We won't. It's true. My barber said I'll never be bald. Whoa.

Or Portuguese. I was told I can't be Portuguese. I'm too waspy. I don't know. I don't know. Rachel Dolezal has something to say about that. That's true. You can be whatever you want to be.

Adam identifies as Giorgio. She is the embodiment of you literally can be whatever you want. I don't understand what you mean. I don't understand. It's still such a great video. What a moment in time. It was a moment in time. I'm going to annoy you guys more than I already do.

Does that crack the top 50 weirdest things for 2017 if it were to happen this year? No. Not even close. No, I saw a BuzzFeed list yesterday of the craziest things that happened in 2017. And they just kept going. And I was like, I forgot all of these things happened in the last 12 months. Did aliens make it? No.

That happened two days ago. Yeah. And we were like, yeah, that's fine. When did you see that they're bringing back The Office? Oh, my God. It's going to be terrible. It's going to be bad, for sure. But Will and Grace came back.

And that was also bad. Yeah. That happened this year. Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about something that will actually annoy you. Leafs score their 20,000th goal in their 100th year game. That's so cool. It is.

Except that 52 of those goals are shootout goals. I'm so angry. So James Van Riemsdyk has the 20th franchise goal. But the way the NHL counts it is they count a shootout goal as a goal for the franchise or for the team, but not for any particular player. So, help me. Is it each individual shootout goal, or is this goals awarded to the team because they won the shootout? I think one goal is awarded to the team because they won.

That's it. That's how it's marked on, like, goals for that. And what's weird about that is that does that count in the goals for column? It does. As a team stat. What? Yeah. As a team, because that throws the stats off.

Because if we're talking, like, say, we're talking, like, goals four for a team, and we look at NHL.com, and we're talking, like, that would be included in that. And you were 8-0 in the shootout that year. You have eight goals in your goals four category as a team. That are completely unaccounted for. Yes. Well, they're accounted for as a team. So that throws all the stats off.

And I wonder if advanced stats takes that into consideration. I'm not sure it wouldn't throw it off that much, but, like, it's still weird. I just feel like I'm so prepared to be a parent one day. Because being a hockey fan my entire life, I know what it's like to give your unending, undying, unwielding support to someone and just have them repeatedly spit in my face and not be grateful for it. Why do I cheer for the stupidest sport? Imagine cheering for the stupidest sport and then having a girlfriend that does that to you, which I've had. So, you know, at least you never had that, right? No, Charlie shit on the carpet.

Yeah, but, I mean, he didn't do it on purpose. Imagine Charlie shit on your heart See we were giving him the benefit of the doubt And he just thinks you know We adopted him and then he starts doing all these things It's like that movie with that creepy little girl What's it called The Orphan or something Which is just a terrible title for a movie

And a terrible idea because it gives orphans Bad names too so that's not cool right She's like but she's actually like in her 30s yeah I just spoiled that terrible movie For you I'm glad The little girl is in her 30s Something like that I didn't even see it I was just told Yeah

Tell us more about something you didn't see. So the Leafs have 19,000. Luke Skywalker. The Leafs have 19,948 goals. Is Darth Vader's dead? I. You ruined it. Spoiler alert, everybody.

What? I'm so angry. That's so stupid. So how many goals do they actually have? 19,948. That's the correct number. To me, that's the correct number. It has to be in play.

Now, is that after last night against Columbus? Because I think now it's 50. It would be 1900, or 900, 1950. So are we going to do, like, another big announcement? Like, no, their 20,000th actual goal! Woo! Yeah. Sometime in

January or something. Stupid. It's funny how you can't compare eras in hockey like you can in other sports. Like, across baseball and basketball. That's kind of my thing, Jesse. Kind of basketball because there was no three-point line at a point, but kind of in basketball and baseball, you can

Compare eras, like in the 80s, it's still the same sport. But you look at hockey, and like 15 years ago, it's not the same game. No, it's not. Yeah, we literally introduced, A, there's no ties. Yeah. So, like, a lot of goalie stats are just out the window. And this is idiotic. It's not a goal.

It's not a goal. I'm so angry. I'm so angry. Which brings me to my position, which is, how do you have a competition within a game that doesn't count for a goal, but counts for a goal? It isn't hockey. Do you know what I mean? Like, how come shootout goals are not tracked? They don't count towards your goal.

If you score in the shootout, sorry, that doesn't count, even though it counted. Okay, so you win the shootout, eight goals to seven, and that's a goal. But not for you, if you scored the winner. No. Or any of the guys That scored on the team You can win the shootout 2-0

It's one goal No It's like a mini game It's like the game Is departed from the game It does make sense I look forward to Talking about the shootout

Like it's the flock Of seagulls haircut Yeah Where we just go Remember when we all Temporarily lost our mind Remember New Coke Yeah

Hey remember Frosted Tips Yeah Ah Well glad we're past that now Glad we have wins and losses And nothing else Limp Bizkit sure was a weird face Right?

Shootouts are our chocolate starfish. I hate it. And the NHLs keep rolling, rolling, rolling. See, no, that album is better than the shootout. Oh, yeah. Hey, I got nothing against that album. Come on. At one point, I cheered for that album.

I never cheered for the shootout. Question kind of related. Do you care that the Olympics are decided by shootouts? Yeah, I've always thought that was stupid. In soccer, too. I think it's dumb Although Soccer's a little bit more like

I guess They might die Yeah It's a little harder to score Yeah This game might be longer Than friggin Quidditch If we don't take it to

Penalty kicks right now Like don't certain cricket games Last for days? Yeah But those are set up To last that way Oh Like that's

You expect to play for four days Where soccer Is just that intense It's just that nothing happens Yeah So it's a little different That's not true Except for when TFC plays

That's exciting If you play 3 on 3 For 10 minutes 10 minutes Somebody will score What percent of games Go beyond 10 minutes

You think If you play Not even that If it's even 20 man Yeah Maybe like Think about the Leafs Even 2 years ago

When they were really bad You still have You still have Gardner You still have Riley You still have Parenteau was scoring You still have Michael Grabner Who is the fast

Like he is flame Shooting out of his skates Like you still have guys That can That can score a winner Right Even on the worst Worst

Like look at the Arizona Coyotes Oliver Ekman-Larsen Max Domi Who else you want Like Max Declare Declare

Declare Clayton Keller Every team has Three good guys Is the point Yeah Yes Yes

Or Three guys Or Connor McDavid And Connor McDavid And Connor McDavid

So Or You get tired And somebody scores Yeah Or the bad guy Like A goal will happen

I love I love when people go Oh, but what about the players? They'll get tired. Alright, use someone in your fourth line. No, I don't want to do that. Alright, well, I guess you should have thought of that. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, you're going to have to weigh that against how tired he is.

Okay, let William Nylander play until he falls apart, or play Matt Martin. You decide. That's none of my business, Mike. Yeah. That's none of my business. Is that an actual question people bring up? Oh, all the time.

Because people go, well then what would you do? I would go continuous overtime And that's when you want a maximized Four lines on the ice, right? You don't want to have a short bench You want to be able to play as many Of your four lines as possible Because that way you can spread that time evenly

If it happens to go deep Why won't this sport? Let me love it You can just leave it at why won't this sport Why won't this sport? There's the show title Why won't this sport? I know that in a month and a half when I see all the NHLers at the Olympics.

It's going to be a great time because the sport is doing great things. You know what's going to be great is when all the commentators can do is talk about the only relevant thing about any of these players and that is, here's the year they were drafted into the NHL.

And who they were drafted by. Here's how many games they played in the NHL. Here's NHL, NHL, NHL. That's a Pierre Maguire dream. Yeah. Just all the background knowledge. Jesse Blacker. Second round, 2009.

Pierre, who was Mason Raymond again? Vancouver was it Drafted by the Leafs Traded to the Ducks Ended up playing his first NHL game with the Ducks Might have been his only one And now he's at the Olympics

Look at him Good for him Ben Scrivens Glad you asked And like That's Yep That's all we're gonna talk about

They're all related to the NHL In some way Shape or form I had to do it When I did the KHL We were doing KHL highlights For a North American audience And if it's a former NHL-er

You have to mention them And where they're from And if they didn't play Any NHL time You have to Find a way to get people Excited for this player Sergey Mazakin

Well No he never played In the NHL But he was an Eighth round pick Of the Columbus Blue Jackets And he's led the league In scoring like

Five or six times Back when the Eighth round existed Back when the Eighth round existed Wow Doesn't anymore Jonathan Erickson

Detroit Red Wings Who just learned Respect in the Ninth round Whoa Oh, yeah, the Olympics are, yeah, the NHL used to have like 12 rounds. So imagine being a ninth round, being traded for a ninth round pick. Yeah.

How do you feel? Like, I would love to be part of trade conversations. I don't, it's like, I'll give you a sixth. Settle down there, Jimbo. Settle down. A ninth. I am going to hang up this phone right now. A seventh.

Make it an eighth. Deal. Really? or when you have to call a player and tell them that they've been traded and they ask

what was I traded for? A ninth round pick? Stop. It's worse in other sports because you'd be traded for cash. In baseball they do cash considerations.

Right, which means a dollar. So you don't even send the money you just eventually we'll send you something. Didn't the Yankees

give the Athletics or Cleveland paid for the Athletics Coke or something for a season from Moneyball? Is that a thought? Yeah.

And you have to pay for our soda. Yeah, I think it was a true story. I hope it was. I think it's in the book. It wasn't? Yeah. Oh my God.

It was in a movie. Athletics are pretty cheap. They have to be. How much money do you think that is? 25 grand? Yeah, but that would be a lot to them. Wow. I guess you're right.

I love that scene too where Billy Bean's talking to David Justice and he's like, you're paying me $8 million to play. He's like, no, the Yankees are paying you $4 million not to play for them and I'm picking up the tab on the other. It's like, wow. okay yeah yeah

awesome hey so beyond the annoying fact that it wasn't the Leafs 20,000th goal by the way we should actually track the real Leafs 20,000th goal

that's what we should do and have our own celebration when it happens or we put it out to the U-verse and then one of our great fans does it for us

somebody will somebody will cause yeah we should keep track of who we predicted was gonna win the Stanley Cup ah

someone else will do it and what's great is the person who's been doing it Ben Scarborough is going on vacation for seven months, so I think it was hard of Vlad. He was like, I'll do it. We still

don't have to do it. I do want to get into the Leafs last night, but we need to call Craig Custance because he is the Matt Damon to our Jimmy Kimmel, and we keep saying we're going to have him on and keep not having him, so we better call him. Are you sure we have time? We do have time. With apologies to Craig Custance.

Alright, he's the author of Behind the Bench, Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches. He is a legendary Atlanta Thrashers reporter, and also a million other things, too. The one and only Craig Custance, finally, he's on the show. It's nice to have you, Craig. Oh, it's great to be here. I like that my Thrashers coverage is what leads the description.

Really, that's what I'm most proud of. You covered them right out of town. No, to be fair. I covered him right into the playoffs oh wow there you go there you go

and then out of town actually I left before they did I believe wow so they followed you yeah I think that was like if I'm gone

like why exist exactly that's true that's why I look at it alright enough about this Thrasher stuff first things first

why did you drug Drew Doughty and how did you get him to say all those things about the Leafs like did he lose his mind or what oh my gosh

Drew Doughty's the best So I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm wondering if he'll even go down this path. Like, I knew it was, it's 50-50. I'm going to ask him about free agency in a year and a half. And he's going to go, oh, I don't, like, I'm not thinking about that at all. All I care about is tonight's game. Or he's going to go, you know, the route he did. And the second, like, 10 seconds into it, he goes, you know, he goes, you know, I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

And I'm like, oh, yeah. Like, here we go. Like, we're going down this path. And it was, he was great. In fact, I ended up running most of the interview on my podcast, The Full 60. So if you just want to listen to the raw tape of it, it's on there. And then we're done, and I shut off the recorder, and I go, Drew, I'm like, you realize this is just going to be craziness from here on out. And he smiles and he's like, oh, yeah, I don't care.

Like, this is fun for me. And I'm like, all right, we're good here. So you did him a huge favor. You gave him an out, and he still went with it, eh? well he was just you know like he doesn't care he's very um he's very confident uh person he's you know one of those guys is very comfortable in his own skin so and look i'm glad he did it not you know for a lot of reasons obviously obviously yeah right but but like this notion that hockey players have to constantly be like i'm gonna do what's best for the team and i want

to be loyal to the team that drafted me i have i'm glad that a guy's like no i'm i'm gonna do what's best for myself and he like he owes the kings nothing and eric carlson owns the senators nothing like these guys have like bled for that post teams and just because those are the teams that happen to draft them like i feel i i don't think there should be any loyalty there well and that's the thing is that you've got a um you got a player who clearly deserves it saying it like i I don't think anybody would question it if LeBron says it. But it's funny because the hockey culture has always been so different. And I think a lot of the time on this show, we've talked about the fact that's part of the marketing problem is that they don't have a brash personality to come out and say, OK, I want to make a pile of money.

And you know what? I would give Drew Doughty a pile of money. I just would. Why not? Yeah. He's deserved it. And, you know, like that's what I was talking about with someone afterwards. I'm like, if this because it blows up and everyone's talking about it.

I'm like, if this had been another sport, people would have been like, oh, good player wants to get paid a lot of money. Like, this is a non-story. But the fact that it's hockey and it's someone's actually, you know, saying what he should be saying, then it became this huge deal. Did he get any blowback for that? Do you know? Because Carlson made his comments and management got all upset.

And then they asked him for his list. No way. You wouldn't dare say it. He seems measured. Cantankerous owner was cantankerous. no but uh carlson said it and it became this big thing now maybe i've got my canadian goggles on and and that's that's the reason but did dowdy get any blowback for this like in the media or internally no and i think that's um you know that's probably an indication more of where he

plays and what he said you know if true dowdy was in ottawa and he said this i think we're probably still talking about it and like i saw this happen in atlanta and you know a lot where something would be a story and it had at most a 24-hour cycle with with the hockey team in atlanta because they just moved on to things they were more interested in and you know who wouldn't like it was a story in you know hockey markets i'm not even sure it was a story in la you know that drew down said this and i think there was probably some follow you know i think the the media there followed it and i want to say somebody talked to rob blake and just and he was like you know whatever there's kind of the natural job you do as reporters on your beat but i didn't you know

i haven't seen any blowback uh true dowdy now i i have a question for you when because eric carlson is also featured in that article but yeah and by the way the athletic is where you find that that's where craig works now um were you surprised that eric carlson was willing to talk about um yeah i guess so like i so i wasn't there for eric carlson so like it was it was you know drew dowdy i thought he called eric right he said he was gonna call it yeah yeah he is so he he kind of independently mentioned eric carlson and said yeah i'm gonna text him and i was which i again i found that fascinating because i'm like and i don't even wonder like are we allowed to do that like is this is this like some sort of opposite of collusion or whatever and and you know i'm

wondering and and so then the auto media at that point kind of followed naturally followed it up with eric carlson and well you know i think on some level and maybe i'm like over analyzing which I'm always guilty of doing. I'll throw that out there. My guess is I think Drew Doughty gave him the green light to say, like, I don't know if you want to be the first guy out to say this, if you're Eric Carlson, but the fact that Drew Doughty already said it, then you can come out and say, yeah, I'm not giving any discounts.

Like, this is what we're doing. Wow. It was a paradigm shift. And you can argue that. It's funny, like the Ottawa Senators 40 games ago were in the Western Conference Finals or Eastern Conference Finals and are now talking about relocation.

They're talking about trading their star player. Like, it's amazing what, I mean, literally six months ago, this was a completely different conversation. And it's amazing what one sequence of events leads to

because, you know, Drew Doughty talking about Eric Carlson brought up the conversation of how are we going to re-sign Carlson in 2019, brought up the financial issues the team is having. Eugene Melnick getting

into the public's eye and saying right before the the game starting uh you know on the friday night before their outdoor game going um well you know if if it becomes bad here yeah i'm gonna have to move the team or i'm gonna sell the team or whatever i mean this this all stemmed from that one article well let's call this what it is i mean he covered the thrashers and they left and now he's trying to get the sense to leave too this is all craig's fault he's making this happen on purpose damn it craig damn it don't ever come i did get a text from a gm that was along those lines he's like you know great work you're you know you're ruining the senators and i'm like i just i just held my microphone out like this is you know that's

that over the page this year do you have a sense although i say this like i am looking so i called john chaika yesterday because the kind of the third piece of the puzzle all of this is um all of reichman larson yeah and so now i'm like well we might as well like keep the wave going so i called him i'm like you know i'm not really trying to stir the pot here although i kind of am you You know, but, like, you know, we're all talking about Dowdy and Carlson. Maybe this is the guy that's most likely to leave because he's in a not a great situation. And sadly, John Chayka, unlike Drew Dowdy, did not take the bait and, you know, kind of stuck to the company line of we're confident we're going to sign him and all that. Good move.

Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Not good for subscriptions to The Athletic. Yeah. And it's funny because people have been ripping on John Tortorella recently for his very short press conferences, and I'm like, okay, if you're a reporter covering the team, I totally get why you're mad, but looking at John Tortorella's resume of flipping shit,

I think maybe it was actually a very mature decision not to say anything. How much do you talk about him in your book, Transition? Yeah, so that was a pretty good segue. My thoughts on that, because I heard somebody saying the same thing, like, you know, kind of taking a run at John Tortorella, saying, boy, you know, is he that burnt up over a game in December that he can't do his job and give quotes to the media? I can tell you, as a member of the media,

I'd way rather have him do that than come out and say, hey, we've got to try better next time, get pucks in deep or whatever, because now I've got a story. The fact that the head coach that I'm covering stormed off and was sad, upset about this game. Exactly. It made my job way easier. So, like, don't do anything on behalf of the media.

Like, if you want to storm off, like, by all means, do it. And it was interesting because he does that. And a few people that had read my book kind of were on Twitter saying, hey, you know, if you want to know why he did that, go read the John Tortorella chapter in Craig's book. And just to kind of give your listeners an idea, I sat down with 10 coaches in the game. we watched games on together and spent a lot of time talking to everybody

around them. And, and in John Tortorella's case, the conversation, because it's kind of an older, you know, we were watching the Tampa Bay lightning, beat the flames and to win a Stanley cup.

It was an older game. So we weren't, we ended up talking more about him and his career and basically his relationship with the media. Why would sideways in Vancouver and, and why he has a reputation he has, because at one point in the conversation, I'm like,

John, I gotta be honest. Like I, I wasn't crazy about the hiring club. this it was you know i thought they spun the pendulum way too far the other direction in terms of going from a player's coach to kind of a hard liner and i and in my opinion was really shaped on what i'd seen from john fotorello through the years and his press conferences and he did a great job i mean he really opened up and why he is that way and and how he's trying to work on that

and it was a really fascinating conversation what do you think you learned about the way i mean because we even heard it last year, Columbus was the number one team in the NHL for a good chunk of the season, and they still had to sit him down and go, listen, John, closed-door meeting, you need to relax. You need to bring it down a couple Tortorella decibels here. What did you learn about him in particular?

Because he is a fascinating figure in hockey. He's had success, and then he's had total failure, too. And so it's kind of like it's extremes with him. so i learned so much in in making it even more interesting that chapter i it's mike solomon and john tortorella and we all sat down together in a room we watched mike solomon's penguins beat the sharks to win a cup and then and then mike had to leave to catch a flight so then it was just john and i and so it was interesting to watch the two because they're really close friends it was interesting to watch the two of them interact so when mike

solomon who's still you know we're watching a game at the time that just happened so he's still very close to the situation and so he's you know kind of watching his words and John would just pipe in and be like you know Mike saw Mike can't say this about Sidney Crosby but I can and here's what we all thought of Sid and you would kind of see the things that you know maybe Mike was thinking and what was interesting about John was it became this almost like a psychoanalysis of why he is the way he is and the two things that I found most interesting one is how intentional he is about introducing conflict and it's all very planned especially with his players and so he like he just said you know if he senses some something's happening he's throwing it out there

and he's he's introducing conflict to the team and he's doing it out front of everybody and because his his thought process is if there's a problem right now and we don't deal with it and i don't light a fire under it it's just going to fester and get worse and worse and so he's consciously introducing conflict into the dressing room because he feels like that's the way to keep a healthy dressing room. And then the other thing I learned was I just assumed John Turrell is the way he is because he just doesn't care what any of us think, right?

Like, he just, you know, like, he snaps at reporters because who cares what, you know, the public thinks or the fans think. And, you know, there was a moment where I'm like, well, you know, do you really care what the perception of you is? And he's like, I do. He's like, I'm a human being. And it, you know, because I think there is a, it doesn't, the public perception of John Tortorella doesn't align exactly with what he really is.

And he'll be the person that is by his own doing. But it was interesting for me to hear that, like, he actually does care that maybe there are, you know, people don't see him the way he is. I want to go back to the introduction of conflict thing. Was there anything he did in recent memory that I guess was after your interviews where you just go, yep, textbook John? Because I'm trying to think, who was it who he sat recently and it was a shock? Wasn't it like Cam Atkinson? Yeah, Cam Atkinson.

Oh, you know, without talking to John, I'm sure that's an example of it. You know, I'm sure that was calculated. And Cam Atkinson, you have a guy who signs this huge long-term contract, is getting paid, maybe, and again, this is just trying to read the tea leaves maybe he's like okay i want to send this message right now that he can't just sit on his laurels here and and play out this deal like this you've done nothing yet and you know he's he's just not afraid to stir the pot and and you know the really one of the interesting stories and it was it was easier to tell tampa bay lightning stories because

so much time had passed and you know you know we all remember the battles with benito cavalier and he said one of the things he learned in those battles was he would sit down with Vinny and have these very private battles and their FUs back and forth or whatever it is, or at least it was one side of the FUs and there was no

progress being made there and he said it wasn't until I started doing it in front of the whole team, essentially embarrassing his best player in front of the whole team and that he felt like he was making any progress because the other players are like okay it's not just him railing on me he's like he's doing this now

I'm the best player and he felt like that was some sort of turning point and and I'm like man you're playing with fire here because you lose Vinny or you lose Brad Richards in this equation you're done like I don't care how good X's and O's coach you are and he's like no he's like you're exactly right and I'm sure he's lost players and and but what I found interesting thing was then when you trace it so he's challenging them he's calling them out and they're you know they're having these battles and ultimately they went to stanley cop and then he goes to new york and if you look at how many of those former players that he followed brad riches goes to new york feta tango goes to new york dan boyle goes to new york um he said benny

wanted to go to new york and you know that that to me shows you can do these things and still have the respect to your players and i think and this is a really long answer but i think he can do it because on some level they know it's not about him. And that's the one thing I'll give John credit for. He's not doing this because he's like an egomaniac. He's doing it because he's trying to get the most out of his players in the Wink hockey games. His motivations are very pure.

And I think once the players realize that, they're willing to put up with it. That's really, really interesting. Long answer, but a good one. One of a mystified, not mystified, A mystifying and almost legendary already figure in Toronto is Mike Babcock. And I know he is in Detroit, and I know he was in Anaheim. Very clearly, if not the best, one of the best coaches in the world.

I think the best coach in the world. What did you learn about Mike? And what can you tell us about the way he's coaching the team this year that makes sense? Because we're having trouble learning anything. Yeah. so i would tell you and you know this is very self-promotion of me but if you do that's the idea yeah i mean i guess that's why i'm here i don't want to chat with you guys but if you if you do nothing but buy this book just to read the mike babcock chapter i promise like i think it's

worth the 16 bucks or whatever it is but 10 bucks on amazon right now it's like he was so good in terms of articulating um his theories on not only coaching but on basically how to live your life and we had two very lengthy conversations even before we sat down and watched we ended up watching the gold medal the 2010 gold medal game uh canada us and which was unbelievable and but like mike he's he's so passionate about personal improvement and getting out of your comfort zone and what it really takes to achieve great things in life. And I ended up talking to people, not just in hockey, but that went to school with them or that were close buddies with them

to really try to get at what makes Mike tick. And you can see how his influence on them. One guy talked about going for a job with Mike, and essentially he wasn't happy in his job as a lawyer, but he had a good salary and a pension. And Mike's like, what are you doing if you're not passionate about what you're doing? and basically encouraged him to quit his job. And now he's got this really successful business of his own

that never would have happened if Mike hadn't put a fire under him. And that's just Mike. Like, he essentially, like, and I think on some level, like, going through this process of doing this book has contributed to me walking away from a really good contract offer at ESPN to go to the athletic because it was,

you just saw these coaches that were pushing people to be uncomfortable to achieve great things. And I think that's the essence of Mike Babcock. The second you brought up sitting down with Mike Babcock to watch the 2010 gold medal game, my first thought was Mike is definitely still mad they blow a 2-0 lead. Because he's such a perfectionist. It's true.

One thing I keep saying about Babcock is, I think a really underrated, underutilized thing, even in this market, in such a leaf-obsessed, media-savvy market, people don't watch his press conferences enough because I never, ever, ever get the impression he's being dishonest. And, you know, you talked about, like, Mike Sullivan kind of choosing his words carefully.

Did you ever get a moment that Babcock was ever trying to hide something? No. No, I don't think he's dishonest. I do think he's very calculated. and the example he gave so

it's like there's two chapters for your like Toronto fans it's probably like the back-to-back chapters are Ron Wilson and we're watching

we watch the same game so I'm watching it from the American perspective with Ron in his place in South Carolina and then I go to Mike's summer home

to watch the Canadian perspective and one of the things and I did Ron Wilson first and one of the things that Ron essentially said was nobody will ever win

in Toronto you know obviously he was frustrated from his tenure but you know the distractions too watch you getting piled on in the media he's like i didn't handle it well and i raised that with mike and he's like who obviously disagrees uh and he's like but you also have to you have to be smart

about it and and one of the examples you use and i love the story is he's like you know we played this awful game gotten blown out and there was that story on twitter about mark masters his wife was in coach and he got upgraded to first class yeah do you guys remember that like he got sensitive whatever we call it the cow car or whatever the birth of masters nation exactly so so that's you know that's what we're all talking about on twitter because we're all you know we're easily distracted and mike sees this and leads off his press conference was kind of a shot at masters kind of this joke and everyone's like you know people are talking about that everyone's tweeting out how the mike babcock is making light of this or whatever it is and that

becomes a conversation and he's like okay off you go and he's like he's like you guys just want something to talk about and so i'll be like i was very conscious to control rather than the team getting blown out the day before here's here's a little something else to talk about wow so it's just it's about controlling the message directing the message yeah and it was funny because so ron's with ron's um attempt to do that was he said he would have a team whoever was actually got who he said it was, somebody who works in the Leafs, would kind of lead off with a softball question. Paul Hendrick.

He would try to, yeah, maybe it was Paul, and he would try to kind of have that be the conversation. And, you know, I mean, if that's not what you're writing about through the competing media, then that's probably not going to work really effectively. Whereas Mike, I think he understands, like, sometimes if you can make it interesting enough, you can do it effectively.

Tom McClellan's having a rough year, along with the Edmonton Oilers. And he's one of the guys you profile in this book. And, you know, it's not like Todd McLeod all of a sudden became a bad coach. There just seems to be, it just seems to be disjointed in Edmonton right now. And it will probably rebound because the talent's there. What do you think about his style? What did you learn about him?

And what do you think he needs to do from his perspective to try to turn things around there? Yeah, Todd's an interesting one. So, and I kind of concede in the book that I cheated a little bit to get him in here because every other coach was either in this huge moment, like they were all Stanley Cup winners or playing for a gold medal, and then there's Todd McClellan, who I believe is a really good coach, and I really wanted him in there, and I used that World Championships game that he would soon join the Triple Gold Club a couple years ago in Prague,

and that became kind of our game to talk about, and really it was an excuse to talk to Todd because I think he's that next generation. who what he's really good at is communicating to his younger players why they have to do what they do. And I think there's, you know, some coaches that are like, here's what we're doing and let's just do this. And I think Todd's really good at articulating the why.

And that helps with the generational player now that isn't, you know, that's pushing back and what are we doing this for? And if you listen to a Todd McClellan practice, you can just hear him. He's so loud and he's barking it out. But you can hear him explaining the situations, you know, where this is going to come into play, why we're doing this drill very specifically. And then I think that helps these players kind of zone in and focus on what they have to focus on. So I think that communication and being very black and white and his ability to kind of have that back and forth with young players is one of his strengths. Did Sidney Crosby write the foreword to your book?

He did. How did that come about? So, well, I mean, he's a good player. I think that's a, you know. No, but it's pretty cool when Sidney Crosby is, like, endorsing your book, Craig. That's it. I know he's a good player. He's not going to write the forward to mine, Craig.

How do you get the greatest hockey player in the world to write a forward? I feel like I'm talking to Lou Lamorello. Answer the question. Well, Austin Matthews didn't write his forward to Sidney Crosby. Okay. Second best player in the world. Anyway. It's all right.

So, basically, there's, you know, we were talking about who should go forward, and there was four chapters where Sid ends up being a pretty prominent discussion point. So, it leads off of Dan Biles' month and Sid's first cup. Then you have Mike Babcock, and Sid's obviously scoring the overtime goal against the Americans. Then he goes to Prague, and it's Todd McClellan, and he's, you know, a central part of that success for Hockey Canada. and then um and then it's mike sullivan and the most recent and you know it's cupped in pittsburgh so like when you when i was trying to find somebody i didn't want another coach that was like okay here's you know here's a coach that i am squeezing in here in this way although i almost

did that i was like okay this makes a lot of sense to do sid and now i just have to convince him to do it and i approached caa his agent uh and said here's what i'm doing you know it's done the you the legwork's done i've got all these coaches they you know they talk pretty glowingly about your client um i just thought it would be cool that if sid would just basically talk about what makes a great coach and maybe highlight a few of these guys what he learned from them and it doesn't have to be incredibly long and i'll work with them on it and kind of held my breath and i remember getting a call back you know it's around thanksgiving a couple years ago and it was like yeah it'll do it and i'm like cool okay wow you know like it was like i'm like okay and so but

then it became then it was just logistics right so then well he doesn't want to do it during the season and i'm like of course not that my book was due i turned in my manuscript on this is like really inside baseball or a new year's eve last year so almost a year ago and they wanted you know the publisher wanted the thing in january from sid and i'm not gonna like i'm not gonna bother him in the middle of the season so i'm like i'm like look we can we can you give him all the time you want or we can get somebody else and they were great about it and they're like no let's wait let's it's sydney crosby and like hopefully they lose early in the playoffs and we'll have a lot of time nope and that's not how it played out and so you know the playoffs are

right and we literally get to the last day that he you know we basically had to go to plan b and you know again i'm like hey if you have to pump we'll punt and like no you know since then it's just you know he just want to cough and he wants to go on vacation all very reasonable things and finally you know it's like okay we're on down to the last day and and then it was like okay let's do this and it was and it was of course and then once it does it it's great like you know yes he's It's just, it's like, here it is, and it's perfect. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

All right, well, I'm going to get Sidney Crosby to write the foreword to my book, you know, because he's a pretty good player. No, I should get Austin Matthews. Yeah, you can. I mean, come on, he's not busy. I'll cheer against the Leafs in the playoffs like Craig. Now that I know the recipe for success. Yeah, Craig, I hope you're ready for all of Pittsburgh to hate you.

Well, I mean, maybe my reverse change, who knows? Right. I really wanted him out. And I was, so that, again, this is really exciting. So that was right after ESPN laid everybody off. So I'm the last kind of hockey writer standing at that point. And so I got assigned. And ESPN, like, they love Sidney Crosby.

So they're like, you're on the Penguins beat. So I'm like rooting, you know, kind of like want this to end. But I'm also there every day. And I'm like, I want to go home. I know I'm changing jobs soon to the athletic. It was this really weird time where I'm like, all I need is the Penguins to lose. and, of course, every, you know, magical run. And I'm like, they're not even that good.

I'm like, okay. Ron Hainsey is a top-faring defenseman, okay? He's shown that in Pittsburgh and Toronto now. And, of course, it's his will as he has done. Yeah, absolutely. Craig, we could sit here and talk to you for hours, but we don't want to spoil your entire book. There are some unbelievable names.

You've got Claude Julien. You've got Joel Quinville. You've got Dan Bilesma. You've got Ken Hitchcock and, obviously, the forward from Sidney Crosby. We'd like to talk to you again. You could promote your book again if you'd like, but we'd just like to get your insight on things. Before we go, though, we didn't get to this question

before we transitioned into the book, and I have been dying to ask. See, that's my fault. No, it's okay. Never let me run with it. No, man, it's good. Oliver Ekman Larson. Yes. Three options.

He re-signs, he leaves in trade, he leaves in free agency. What do you think is the most likely? See, I'm kind of influenced. I mean, just talk to the GM, who was fairly convincing. But I'm going to say he leaves in trade. Because, you know, not sooner or later, you know, I think they're going to wait it out. Because John Chayka made a good point.

He's like, what are you doing if you're rebuilding? You're trying to get a number one. Whether that's a number one center or a number one defenseman. and he's like we've been rebuilding a long time in arizona and we've gotten one of them oliver eckman larson so he's like i'm not eager to deal with this guy like i'm not i'm telling james no but ultimately i just look at it from a very practical and i may be wrong but a very practical point of view if you're oliver eckman larson and you're you can now pick wherever you want to go in the league why are you why are you picking the coyotes you know what i mean and maybe it's

john's argument is yeah he's been through a lot of pain here you can now see where we're headed And who knows, maybe they get a downtown arena between now and free agency. But as I look at the situation right now and how the team is kind of spinning its wheels a little bit and doesn't spend a ton of money historically, if I'm Edmund Larson, man, I'm walking and I'm cashing in elsewhere. And if that's the case, like John Czajk is a pretty practical person. If he realizes that's where it's happening a year from now, then you can't let the guy watch for nothing. So I'm going to pick trade. The correct answer is they will relocate

Because you spoke to them That is the correct answer But no that was a good one too I like what you said And as a follow up John Tavares This requires no journalistic integrity by the way We're just asking

What number will he wear in Toronto I think John Tavares I think that arena news is huge for him I think he Personally I think he was looking for an excuse To sign DeAndre He's a loyal dude And

Part of him Wants to see it through I'm sure With the team That drafted him So I think They've shown enough progress Now they've got

This arena announcement Money in turn Is not going to be An issue At all I think All the time I think he signs

With DeAndre But that's changed I was in Like he's walking Camp a few months ago Unfortunately I think I agree with you Yeah I think so too

Yeah I think so too Well Craig it has been an absolute pleasure and I hope we get to do this again soon and I promise we won't put you off

as much as we did the first you know the first time I don't promise that that's good I appreciate you guys having me on I appreciate all the help

the book is called Behind the Bench Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches forwarded by the one and only Sidney Crosby Craig Custins thank you so much

for being on the Steve Dangle Podcast thanks guys yeah are you starting back? yeah I guess I am yeah we're back Adam's still got

his headphones on Yeah, yeah, I don't need these anymore. Do I? I didn't want Steve to start back. I didn't know where we would go Oh, I was a little scared. I was hoping Adam would jump in. Oh, sorry. Well, I mean I know you want to talk about Oliver Ekman-Larsen, but let's go into John Doan-Dorella! No, I mean it sort of made sense to make the transition. I don't care. I even saw your face I didn't know what you were trying to say. I'm like, I made a mistake. I don't know what I did, but I made a mistake. I don't even get I didn't ask that question for anybody else. That was for me personally. I wanted to know I'm sure people want to know.

Because I think Carlson stays, and I think Dowdy stays. But Oliver Ekman-Larsen is the wild card for me. I forgot to ask Craig something. What did you forget to ask? I always wanted to know why he didn't start a custard business. Craig Custon's Custards? Mm-hmm. I hate you.

Shut up forever. He's got a podcast, right? Who? Craig? Craig, yeah. What's his stupid name? He can take a cuss dance on something. Am I right?

Right? Here's my cuss dance. I like cuss dances, Custer. Right? Yeah. I should have wished him good luck before he left. I should have said break it, Craig. Oh, my God.

Steve! Even for me, that's bad. That's bad. That was pretty shitty. Craig should cuss you out for that. Oh! Yes, he should. that's all I got

I figure I'll we're done so last two games the Leafs with Curtis McElhaney in the net the Leafs have scored three goals

and one of them came late in the third yesterday it seems with Curtis McElhaney and I want to get to Freddie Anderson in a second too

it seems with Curtis McElhaney it's almost as though it's weird there seems to be like a waiting to fail for who? the team?

I don't know if it's the team because if the team thought he was going to fail, they would have moved him already. And also, they would have played better in front of him. Yeah. The place I thought you were going to go with that is, oh, the team's playing on their heels, and that's why they're not scoring. No, they're letting him get shelled

every time he plays. Yeah, and I wonder, I mean, first of all, I think, I understand why fans feel that way, because his career numbers are not... They're poor. Yeah. They're poor. I have no fear of saying that. But since coming here, he's been pretty good. He's been fine. He's been a pretty decent backup.

And Elliott Friedman, Is So good At Making me feel Disappointed In myself He's very good at that

He really is good at Turning things inward on people He's really good As a fan Yeah Oh yeah And he During the broadcast

Against Columbus We haven't even really talked About the 8-1 win But during the broadcast Against Columbus He Goes I feel

I get the sense There's a section Of the Leafs fan base That wants him to fail And I was just like Oh like have I contributed to that like I never

meant to it's obviously never been personal against McElhinney but like you said there was reason to be concerned about his career numbers despite you know coming to the Leafs at the end of the last season and playing decently he had a good

game against Boston kind of early on this year but I mean Sparks I thought was going to be the future anyway they get Pickard, so the writing seems to be on the wall now. I don't know, were we cheering for

not his failure necessarily, but an excuse to start the next era, which is Sparks and or Pickard? Or are we expecting it? I don't know if we're cheering for it. Because that means cheering for the Leafs to lose and I'm not ever going to be that guy. I kind of like the Curtis

McElhinney story in the sense that this is a guy that has had to prove and prove and prove and prove and to me as a as far as solid backups go for what they need him for he's not been bad well and he's such a much better story than we got an NHL goaltender from Vegas and it turns out he's an NHL goaltender I like it much better with this Rudy thing we got going on with McElhaney like he looks so ugly in that net every single time he plays but like I think I think the Pickard Sparks era is going to come no matter what

because McElhinney is 34 years old. By the end of this season, ideally, the Leafs will still be in the playoffs in May. He'll be 35. It's common. It's common. But maybe we shouldn't

cheer for it to get here before it's ready to get here. Again, I don't think any of us are... I really have a hard time believing people are cheering for it, but I do feel like there's some sort of expectation. Because cheering for it's cruel, and I don't I don't think anybody's being cruel. Not everybody's going, yeah, suck, McElhinney.

That'd be great. Nobody wants that guy to fail. And he didn't fail. And again, last night, that's not Curtis McElhinney's fault. I think that's Corpus Allo's fault, man. Corpus Allo was great. 41 shots, 39 under saves. I would say McElhinney didn't have a banner game,

but he faced more point-blank opportunities than Corpus Allo did. now I'm just looking at McElhinney's numbers so he spent a little bit of 2011-12 in the AHL he spent all of the lockout shortened season in the AHL he had good numbers that season

comes out of the lockout with Columbus he's a 9-0-9 goalie in 28 games now here's what has followed that 32 games with Columbus a 9-14 18 games with Columbus an 8-90 last year with Columbus

granted just 7 games 924 14 games with Toronto 914 this season in 7 games 916 I look at those numbers and with the exception of the

one really bad year yeah that's a backup goal he'll take on my team his career is 906 and that is objectively terrible but the trend is good. The trend is

good. So, I mean, can we say with confidence Pickard or Sparks would come in and do better than that? No. They'd probably do about the same. At best. Yeah. I think ideally they'd come in and do about the same. No, well, ideally they'd win the Vesna trophy, but

you know what I mean? Let McElhinney play. Let Sparks and Pickard just get better. I mean, the fact that they're still playing extremely competitive hockey in the AHL Marlies have lost like three of four

yeah so I wonder how many people are going like have even noticed that and they're strong they're both strong goaltenders and

you know why not why not just develop some more why not work on your game I'd love to know what Pickard thinks like after last year

with Colorado he might be like you know what this is kind of nice I bet it is yeah I'm just gonna chill and it's not as though

he won't be back right also I feel like we've seen like his two worst games of the season in the AHL We are nothing but dirty jinxes for Calvin Pickard.

I want to know at what point, too, sticking with the league school attending, that Freddie Anderson gets his due. And I'm not talking about his due in terms of pay or in terms of team support. When do the fans start to realize, and I'm myself one of them, that Freddie Anderson's been pretty special?

I am a little bit surprised to hear you say that. Well, I understand that he's had a couple, like he started slow the first two seasons he's been here right and you know had an objectively

pretty bad first couple weeks this year and last year and last year yeah first impression stick they do

but when have you ever seen a goaltender go on a 950 save percentage run or according to NHL.com

a .95 oh my god a .9 save percentage run yes yes for as many games as he did

15-20 games This guy Freddie Anderson Is the reason Leafs are where they are Make no mistake 100% It's amazing

Like think of how bad He was to start the season He's a 9-23 Right now In 29 games If he finishes the season With a 9-23 We're laughing

Just Might get better No it's Anything That begins with 9-2 Is all NHL.com Will show you And also it's

That's a dream That's a dream If your goalie stops 92% of the shots he faces or more, you have a chance to make the playoffs and win a Stanley Cup. Less than a goalie game. Yep. You with that? Well.

Wow. You never know. Never know. It is the Leafs. They like allowing 40-plus shots. I just think that if he continues in this fashion, we're going to have to start to look at the Freddie Anderson trade as not an equal trade, but a steal.

I don't know about that. and I think we're going to have to look at Freddie Anderson as one of, pretty soon here, depends on what he does in the playoffs. It does. I mean, this is early, but I'm going to take a stance and say Freddie Anderson is one of the better goalies

already we've ever had. Okay, so now. Skill-wise. I'm not saying results-wise. I know he hasn't won a cup. I know he hasn't won a Vezna, but, I mean, God. Well, he hasn't even won a playoff series, though.

He didn't even win. No, here. Oh, yeah. Well, that's fine. I mean, to be fair, he's been here 18 months, right? Yeah, but you jumped to, I know he hasn't won a cup. You got to walk before you crawl. I think he's going to, I think what we're seeing is

the beginning of something great, is my point. My only problem with your point is, hot damn, the Ducks have done things with those picks. With the 30th overall pick, they selected Sam Steele from the Regina Pats. He was Adam Brooks' teammate. Last year in 66 games, he had 131 points. Oh, that's not bad.

And this year, I think he slowed down a bit. He's got a measly 35 points in 27 games. I think he's going to be on Canada's world junior team. Yeah, he was selected. And then I got to look up who they picked with the second rounder that they got from the Leafs.

I don't actually know that. Trying to kill time until I find it. Maxim Comtois, I think. Or was it Antoine Morand? Yeah, I don't know enough about them yet. Either way. Sam Steele looks good, though. Either way, if the Leafs... Okay, so Sam Steele

looks good are the Leafs better with Sam Steele or better with Freddie Anderson correct answer is Freddie Steele that's a better name just saying I think that that was he stole another one is what we'd be saying I think we're seeing the beginning of something wall all right all right I'm just saying knows how to

steal games I think Adam was trying to say something. He's got a steel mentality. I'm just saying, it could be the start of something big here. If this keeps up, and I'm not saying he's going to stay

at a .95 NHL.com, or a .94, but that is, I mean, when we got him, the only thing we could have hoped for was he's middle of the pack. The irony of all this is middle of the pack should be good enough on this team look at the composition of this team it's i'm

frustrated with how the leafs have played lately but it was so nice to not just watch but be at the uh 8-1 game the other day because i'm like ah i remember this oh this is nice making goalies look like they're bums i miss this a lot scott darling's not that bad or maybe he is i don't know What happened to Mitch Marner Last two games he's been on absolute fire And it seems like wow there's Mitch Marner From last year Babcock nailed it like an 800 pound gorilla

Came off his back with one goal One goal and it was like You couldn't friggin stop him And confidence is a very Funny thing It's you know They talk about like Hard work and grit

And heart you know being the thing that like analytics don't take into account you know there is something to the idea that analytics aren't everything and everyone who plays with them at all knows that's true but um it's it's just confidence mentality like i don't even know exactly how to describe it it's it's not about how brave he is or how hard he works i mitch Smart has probably been working harder over the last couple of months than he has in his, you know, short pro career because he was just trying to get out of it. But it was just a mental weight. You ever just have a mental weight sitting on your brain?

And it's like walking around with a backpack full of weights on. Like, you're trying to go about your daily life, and it's just not the same. It's just bugging you. It's always there. I think it was great how he used a backpack full of weights as I said it I'm like I'm an idiot I'm a freaking moron

that's going to be my mental weight for the rest of the day I'm going to be sitting on the Don Valley Parkway today going backpack full of weights Steve really? freaking dumbass they gave you a show? ah Steve it's a mental weight

it's like a backpack full of weights you freaking dick to be fair they didn't give you a show you gave it to yourself so yeah they would have never given you a show

stupid idiot get in if you're gonna get in but you got your signal on I hate this no wonder he knows that I'm an idiot do you guys want a fun

possession stat from Mitch Marner love to last night Leafs possession with Marner on ice was 79.2% wow

possession without Marner 42.7 yeah that's bad Leafs share scoring chances when he was on the ice 84.6 without

38.9 that's from James Myrtle of The Athletic wow so the Leafs really need to pick it up because last year

I mean all the focus was on Austin Matthews and the young guys you know Kadri's bid for the Selkie trophy and the shutdown line

and all that But I thought the games where they looked truly special and the games where they were extremely hard to beat weren't the games where Matthews was going, weren't the games where Kadri was going, it was the games where the Bozak-JVR-Marner line was going because that gave them three lines. Most teams have two.

And the Leafs definitely have two. They don't always have three. That line sucks sometimes. It has sucked this year. Yeah, almost all year. Almost the entire year JVR's been great Yeah

They had a really hot Like First week I think scoring But I think everyone did Yeah but the other team Just kept scoring on them

Yeah And they've been trash Until like recently So if the Leafs can get it Get it back With or without Matthews I mean jeez You got like Nylander

Or Marlowe Filling that void That's okay That's not so bad They'll be a really hard team to beat And the Rangers will Have a hard time Taking them on

On Saturday night Leafs Jesse we had some bits we wanted to get to we had some stuff we needed to get to and I'm saving time for it

because we have time do we have time Adam? we have time alright you'll have to give me a second alright you pull that up in the meantime

should I just open my gifts? I assume those are all for me even the ones I brought they're not they're not all fair enough I didn't wrap your gifts by the way

I feel like we're at the point in our relationship where I don't even need to try anymore that's not Jesse and I are pretty sure you just bought our stuff

at like the gas station across the road no no like that 70's show I can't Jesse what color do you think my funnel will be I have someone

that can back me up and when I give you the gifts I will tell you the person that can back me up and they're a legit source so you have to you have to go with me on this one

I just didn't wrap yours I'm sorry dirty liar yeah no it's definitely my fault I take full responsibility but whatever you're gonna like them anyway

we'll see yeah we'll see about that we will see in fact we will see the show actually it's on YouTube still waiting for Jesse here

just filling filling time and I'm waiting for Jesse he's already got it he's just waiting for us it's like I got these mental weights I need to be able to read this

are they on your back? it's like a backpack full of weights full of weights that are not do you put the backpack on your head? like how does

how does that work? I've been just thinking about that all like months Hey man, you're not the one who said backshins once, okay? Dude, everyone's going to be opening presents on Christmas morning and having a great time. And SL is going to be looking at me like, don't you like your gift? And in my head, all I'm going to hear is backpack full of weights.

You said backpack full of weights. You absolute idiot. I knew this guy who won the lottery and he got all this money. And he was like, it was like finding a whole bunch of cash. You know, just winning the lottery. I feel like I won the lottery. Man, you have a problem with that statement? How do you know you feel like you won the lottery?

You don't know. You don't fucking know. That's bullshit. What a bullshit statement that is. You don't know unless you've won the lottery. You have no idea what it's like to win the lottery. It's like you've got a backpack weighted down by money. Weighted money.

Gold bars. It's like when you have a mental weight. but it's on your back I really need to get a GoPro for the cars you idiot thank god I have the Harry Potter audio book

Jesse I bit my tongue yesterday it's been hard to talk it does suck so this season The Bachelor The Bachelor is Ari Lewendyk

Junior Ari so Ari is a race car driver slash real estate agent when he wants to be Shut up. Ari's boring, by the way.

Can we just be straight with that? I watched the last season. Boring. So we can start with contestant number one. Her name is Allie. Allie's 27. She's a personal stylist. And they asked her, what are your three best attributes?

She said funny, kind, and down to earth. Boo. Can you be down to earth if you call yourself down to earth? Does that make you arrogant about being down to earth? Yeah. That is like an alien definitely posing as a human being would be like, I am down to earth. I am just like the rest of humans. Allie only has one other interesting fact on her bio before we move on to Annalise.

Okay. She says, what's the most embarrassing thing you listen to? And she says, Nickelback. Ali, get off this show. These bios are supposed to be for ridiculous BS that may or may not even be true. That was so boring. Okay, next one. Where's your puppet?

Did she pull out a puppet? Event designer, 32. Let's go to this. What are the five things you can't live without? Oh, no. She says. I feel like the physical things are food, avocado, cheese, ice cream. I believe all those things are food.

Wait, say that again. Food, avocado, cheese, ice cream. Oh, and then she adds, but emotionally. But those were only four things. Those were four things, Annalise. But emotionally, love and laughter. But those are six things then. I think that's seven.

Also, we don't need to know the, obviously you can't live without like some sort of human connection. You can't live without love, Adam. Under weaknesses, did she put counting? I mean, you can live without love, so she could. She's just... You know what? I can't live without food. Adam can't live without food.

Jesse can't live without food. We haven't advanced to a point where we can't... We can survive without food. This reminds me of... If you didn't eat food, it'd be like walking around with a backpack full of... Sorry. This reminds me of... Was it the Liberty Village section where they were like, it's close to things?

And it's like, oh, no, because once you live there, you can't leave. Oh, it's like close to the grocery store. In Scarborough, people just starve. Yeah. There's no food. You can't live without love. Yeah, we just die. Thank God we live next to the farms near Curtis, Ontario.

The second part of her bio backs up the fact that she can't count. Oh, no. If you could be someone else for just one day, who would it be? She says. Tracy Ellis Ross Miley Cyrus or Chrissy Teigen. I don't know who that first one is um she was on Chrissy Teigen's good To do did today. Oh, she blackish But she was seen that show good. She's the mama blackish

It's hilarious Girlfriends good pick it's probably bigger show. Oh, yeah, that's true. I don't even know that one anyways. She's cool Yeah, you can be anyone. I'd be these three people people. Miley Cyrus is the one I'd be like, hmm, one of these things is not like the other. Those people are not the same. Yeah. Alright. Like at all. Amber, 29, business owner.

Are you going through this alphabetically? Yeah, that's how it is. Wow, okay. We haven't gotten out of the A's yet. How long are we going to be here? There's a lot of A's. Business owner, 29. Alright. Only 5'3". That's pretty regular. No, it's pretty short.

In Steve's life it is. For real? Yeah, I guess that's true. I guess, yeah, you're right. Read between the lines. Mrs. Dangle is short. A little bit short. She told me she was five foot nothing. She's a dirty liar. She's five foot and a half inch.

Wow, there you go. Jesse, what else we got? If you could be a fictional character, who would you be and why? She says Ariel because she's a beautiful mermaid that can sing. These answers suck. Yeah, these are so boring. You know what? These girls were one of the Chodes last season.

What was that? The Bachelor? That was The Bachelorette. No. Well, it's The Bachelorette. Oh, Bachelorette, yeah. Right. Because The Bachelors are going after The Bachelorette.

And they were all ridiculous. I like to go gold mining in the summer. Yeehaw! You know who wasn't? We didn't even mention in that particular segment. Aerie. Who? Aerie, sorry.

Oh, Aerie. Aerie. You know why? Because he's boring. Is he boring? And these people are perfect for him. You know those couples that you meet and you're like, wow, that's a good looking couple. And you talk to them and you're like, wow, I can see how they're together because they

We don't have much going on there. The most boring bachelors or bachelorettes are the ones who say, I just want someone to, like, get me. Oh. Ah! Yep. Yep. Drive into the sun.

See, this girl is, this woman, the most interesting thing about her is probably her name. Oh, dear. Her name is Bibiana. Bibiana. It's spelled B-I-B-I. I'm interested. A-N-A.

I'm interested. What do we need to know about Bibiana? She's an executive assistant, 30 years old, Miami, Florida. If you could be any animal, which one and why? She says, a free orca. I'd love to live with the ocean, and they move around. Plus, they keep their fam tight. Hold on, they live with the ocean?

Did she say, I'd love to live with the ocean? They live in the ocean. Oh, okay. I like that she specified free orca. Free orca. Not one of that SeaWorld bullshit. She avoided the plot to a movie. Like, I wish I could be an orca.

And then she wakes up in SeaWorld like, no! I got dark. Would you, they ask, would you consider yourself a lover of art? And she says, yes. Wish I could be art. That's verbatim. Yes. Wish I could be art.

Who's watching the show right now? This is really bad. So this is to sell you on the show. I'm so disappointed. Who's watching the show right now? Like, I'm so disappointed in this. Who are you supposed to root for? This is like eating drywall.

Caroline. She's a realtor. 26. Holliston, Massachusetts. 5'10". Whoa. Ugh. That's taller than 5'3".

It is. Here's this one. If you could have lunch with three people, who would you choose? She says Vince Vaughn. Five people. Oh, sorry. Vince Vaughn. Betty White.

And Ryan Reynolds. Those are not bad. There's an interesting person. I can root for that. All right. I can root for that. Caroline? Caroline.

All right, Caroline. I also like Ryan Reynolds and Betty White and the other one. Vince Vaughn. They seem like fun people. Sure. Vince Vaughn's a hockey fan. Ryan Reynolds, hockey fan. Caroline likes to laugh.

See? Give me something I can extrapolate. Yeah. Like, instead of, I want to be art, I don't know what that means, man. I want to be art? Maybe that statement was too artistic for me to understand. That's it. You're not compatible.

Brittany T. There's more than one Brittany. This is Brittany T. And the next one has a last name under T. Maybe I skipped the other Brittany, but this is Brittany T. Brittany T. She's a tech recruiter, 30, from Columbia, South Carolina. Where do you meet guys?

Her answer, I don't, JK. The past two I've met have been through a dating app, and they're terrible human beings. Tinder. See that's okay That's okay At least she's honest What's her name

Brittany T Brittany T Brittany T I feel like She's She's not the crazy one No Cause there's always

What the hell was the What was the bachelor Who was like Woo Ha Or whatever Oh He had a crazy saying

Adam Adam Who was the guy Who was like Advertising himself Oh Wabu Lucas Lucas

So, she's not the crazy one. She's not Lucas. No. But she's the one where they just allude to conflict for five or six episodes before going, Wham! Here it is. Betrayal. Ha!

Didn't even see it coming, did you? That's going to be her. Chelsea, 29, real estate executive assistant from South Portland, M.E. Maine? Maine. Is that Maine? Yeah. It would be Oregon.

It's Oregon and Maine. I'm going to go Maine. I don't know why. I guess because MA is Massachusetts, so ME would be Maine. There you go. Do you prefer hot weather or cold weather and why? Her answer. My ideal weather would be mid-70s sunny with a slight breeze.

Life is less complicated when neutral. Happy medium. I hope you're voted off first week. That's Chelsea. I hope you're voted off first week, Chelsea. Life's Less Caught Neutral? Oh

She'd be like Hey let's go both teams I just hope everybody has fun Is she the one who Every season there's a few That always stick around too long Is she gonna be the And you don't even know their name

Like all of a sudden You're in the fourth to last episode And you're like Wait a second Who are you again? Every time something actually exciting happens They're like Come on guys

Yeah guys We're here for What's his name Ari Would Ari be impressed by this The dudes say this too They always It's always the peace bakers

They go Guys Guys Come on Guys Come on Come on We're gonna skip Jenny

Cause Jenny's boring Well how boring She's very boring This seems to be the theme We're cheering for Caroline And that's it Yo Caroline's The best

Valerie She's a server 25 From Nashville, Tennessee Oh Alright Valerie's going to be great. 5'11".

All right. That's taller than 5'10". You want to know why Valerie is the one to pick? Why is Valerie the one to pick? What's her greatest achievement to date? It better be... Predator Stanley Cup Final.

She had a 72-ounce steak. Buying my first house in downtown Nashville before I was 25. I like it. She's ambitious. Damn, Valerie. That is definitely my type of person.

Well, yes. We can get together and talk real estate. I'd be down with that. Exposed brick? Is that exposed brick? You guys could have the most fascinating conversations, I'm sure, Adam. Listen, real estate is interesting, and I don't care what you say, okay?

See, that's like cheating, though. Because all these other people were like, come on, give me something. Give me something to work with. All she's got to do is drop Nashville. Nashville is such a cheat code these days. Nashville, Vegas. You can't be boring in Nashville. You can't.

They literally kicked you out. Yeah. Valerie might be a little weird. Oh. What's your favorite holiday, Valerie? Arbor Day. Halloween. I have 50 costumes in my closet.

I wish it were Halloween every day. Valerie's great. I'm out. Oh, you hate Halloween. I'm out. Halloween sucks. I'm out. Sorry, Val.

You're saying no to the love of your life, Adam. You're 25 and you can keep your house. Yeah, you keep your damn house and your costumes, okay? That's why you can use the house. Yeah, exactly. Hide the damn costumes. What do you do with 50 costumes? All right, so Adam's got one.

You could wear, what are you going to wear? One a year for the next 50 years and never buy another one? Adam's got one he likes. I have two. Jesse? Am I alone on two? You got two. What about you?

Oh, they're all cool. Oh, shut up! You're one of the boring ones. You and the neutral girl. When everything's neutral Seven degrees So it's a bit of a breeze A little bit of a breeze

Jesse's strategy On The Bachelorette Would definitely be Don't give her enough That she can confidently Vote you off Yeah Yeah it's true

And he would ride that For as many weeks as possible You'd make at least The top four You'd make it to hometowns And then it'd be up to your family Tia She's a physical therapist

Alright From Wiener, Arkansas That's hilarious That's a place What is the best trip you've ever been on and why? She says.

Cancun to a random swingers resort. Ha! It was actually fun. Why does she have to add that? I would imagine that... I like you so much before that.

What bugs you about that? I can't figure out why it bugs me, but what bugs you about that? You left me with the crazy. Or you could have just left me with the crazy

and you diffused it by going, ha, it was fun. No, actually fun Actually fun It was actually fun No, just leave it Leave it at crazy

I think it's kind of cool that you went to a swingers resort, man I want to at least hear that story Thank you Thank you Whatever Tia I mean, sex is fun, right? That's the idea

Tia can stay Two and a half For sure We got the two for sures And the half I'm a little concerned, you know She's wild We're going through these bios

Can we all confidently say that we would do better Uh yes I'm pretty sure I could Before you know Until they got to the picture yeah I'd be great until they got to the picture Yeah I just you know

We're judging the bios We're not judging them we're judging their terrible bland bios I haven't seen a single one of these people I don't even know what they look like The point is that from what we're getting personality-wise through the bio, it's not coming through here. Well, and you guys do the Tinder.

Not currently. Well, you did the Tinder. Did the Tinder. Jesse does the Tinder. No, I just stay on it to stay warm. I want to get practice in. Put in my reps. Got to keep my thumbs active.

In case I need anyone to come off the bench. So I was shoulder-tindering with Jesse. Oh, in Montreal. Fascinating. That was fun. Now, he did do a little bit of the guitar tendering, a little bit, but also- You mean the Lil Wayne? Yeah, a little bit, a little bit.

Who got money? But we would see someone and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then we'd read the description and go, no, no. The description, I think, is just as important, if not more important. And they're blowing it. All of these girls, yeah. Now, I can't- No, Caroline, Valerie, Tia is okay.

Okay. I think also that you got to remember that the producers control what information ultimately gets out because they obviously fill in a massive questionnaire. Right, but with the guys, it was, I make balloon animals, I run a tree sledge, yeah. That's true. At one time, it was with a pair of nuns. Yeah. I don't know why I went double religious there.

Okay, confirmed gascaping. But Jacqueline, 26, research coordinator from Morgantown, West Virginia. okay how does Jacqueline spell her name if you won this is very important she spells it normally

J-A-C-Q-U-E-L-I-N-E Jacqueline that's that's normal yeah that's how my mom spells it see it always goes with the O

not Jaislyn my goodness which is what I we got so I grew up with the Jaislyn Jaislyn so Jaislyn

is how I think it's spelled and every time I see a Q I'm like how exotic no Jacqueline it's a French name if you won the lottery Jacqueline Jaislyn

what would you do with your winnings Jacqueline says I'd get a backpack I know the feeling because I've won it before and winning the lottery

was like just getting all this money and winning the lottery so I'm gonna get this backpack and I'm gonna fill it full of weights

and I'm gonna walk around and know what Mitch Marner felt like Jaden Smith is definitely gonna tweet all of us and be like I thought you were

too hard on Steve I got what he was saying I understood it if you won the lottery what would you do with your winnings she says buy a penthouse

in Soho build a wild animal conservation in Africa slash India and have a pet cheetah

alright alright you know what if you want to have a pet that can eat you I respect that however I do

one problem I do have on a purely naturalist level is I believe those animals should be left in the wild I'm just throwing that out there We're just trying to get out of the bio You know what There's a little bit of danger in there

I like that I'm in No here's what she's doing She's going alright I'm going to help out all these animals I want one of them to roam around the house That's it I don't care if it's a cheetah

Also cheetahs are small It's fine It's like a house cat It's fine Yeah until you turn your back And it tackles you You're toast Alright

Jenna Social media manager from Upland, Indiana. 28. For Tim and Sid. The most... Hey! You better hope she loses.

I just better take my job. Oh, shoot. I was going to say you guys could be a match, but you're thinking... You're two steps ahead there. Oh, no. This girl.

She's on television. Anyways. Most outrageous thing she's ever done. Breaking her wrist on a mechanical bull. All right. She likes to party.

That's all right. That's all right, yeah. All right. I'm into that. Cool. You got to have good stories. When you start dating somebody, you've got to have great stories to share with them. And they've got to have great stories in turn.

If you haven't experienced anything, then what are you all about? How could you know yourself if you haven't fallen off a mechanical bull at least once? I don't know. I like Big Bang Theory. Okay, goodbye. Oh, bye. Two and a Half Men is my favorite. I have all the seasons on DVD.

Five things that Kendall, the 26-year-old creative director from Santa Clara, California, can't live without. Reading, family, love, curiosity, and cheese. You should have started with cheese. That's a good ending. Okay, here's how bad that was. I forgot her name. Kendall. Kendall?

Kendall. I thought it was R. I thought it was Rita. Seriously? Her name's Kendall. Yeah, you're booted. All right, we're going to go with Crystal and then Lauren B. All right, man, this is like the 80th Lauren B in Bachelor Heroes team, by the way.

There's been a lot of Lauren Bs. Like the Spice Girls. Five girl group, two males. Crystal, the fitness coach. CFL, five team league, two Rough Riders. You got it. If you could be any animal, which one and why? She says a unicorn, because those who believe in magic will find it.

Not an animal. Nope. No, she can say. Forgot her name as well. But it's crystal crystal. Yeah, do you support their unicorn? listen Of all the answers at least there was a creativity first of all unicorn before the explanation puts her top half right off the bat

Like just we're judging against the pack here, right? Mm-hmm. No, that was good. All right All right, and then she's talking about she's magical. I'm gonna give you the strongest at least she's funny I'm going to give you one of her answers to a different question maybe this will sway you either way

alright she had a one word answer to how good of a cook are you yes she said oh please let that be

her answer she said she said oh shoot my sweater got cut thebomb.com that's not one word that's one word

oh I suppose because it's a URL it's a URL well good she's thebomb.com also that needs to that phrase needs to

never be said again boy here's the thing when we're talking about the bios when we talk about quality of this show the bios

are sucking right now but I can guarantee that the actual show product itself will be far better I can't guarantee that than the guys

dude the guys are so boring if it's a boring Bachelor and boring Bachelorettes you're you're screwed

like I have to tell you the DeMario situation on the last the last season was the first time I can actually have

I can actually remember or just a guy with a memorable moment at all like it was and like that and like Juan Pablo who's an idiot

like you know like there's just The guys don't bring it, the girls bring it. They're competitive, they're there to win. And he got into like a, like an emo off with that. That other guy? They're from the same town and they hate each other? Yeah, like, come on.

If you're going to do that, throw down. Just for the second, they got eliminated together, didn't they? Throw down! And Lucas was like, he's doing his exit interview and Lucas was like, Wabu! In the background, just to bug him? Throw down! Alright.

Donnie Brooke! fight for her love I'm going to read through all of Lauren B's bio so I can prove to you how boring all of these are I skipped all

the boring parts but I'm going to go through Lauren B's perfect bio she's 25 tech salesperson from Virginia Beach Virginia

cool what are your best three attributes I'm open minded loyal and fun to be around what is your most embarrassing thing

you listen to T Swift hashtag so basic if you could be a fictional character who would you be and why Elsa

because I've always wanted to be a Disney princess if you could break any law what would it be I wish I could drive as fast as I want

what's your guilty pleasure television show botched and real housewives by the way how can your how can the broken law not be

a fucking bank robbery who doesn't want to rob a freaking bank you just chose something really practical I just don't want people to get in my way yeah I just want to

I want to get home faster at the end of the way no man I want to I want to roll up to a bank and break into a safe Time for a withdrawal!

Wild! Out! That's what you want. Mine is one legal punch. One legal punch. Fair enough, fair enough. The B stands for born. Last question was,

I hate it when my date, blank, and she says, text at dinner. Ah, fair, I'm with you. So there you go. I'm with you. I can be in just on that one.

There was no personality in these bios. No, there wasn't. But you know what? We're going to see it in the season. I have faith. Because again, like I said, the Bachelor season, the dudes are never as interesting

as the women. The women are way more interesting. And they don't tell you much in their bios, but it comes out in their interactions. And like I said, they are in it to win it. They're far more competitive than the guys. This is why I hang out with guys like you. Because the bios flopped, and I'm like, my very simplistic brain is like, so the show's going to be a flop. But you guys.

Inverse. You guys know that they were very, Adam in particular on account of he said it and you didn't. Exactly. Planet safe. They're planet safe. They're playing it safe for the bios, but when the cameras are on them 24-7 They're not gonna be able to hold it back and some crazy stuff is gonna go down and that is better Promo for this show than those bios and and they always find

Women with character whereas the guys is like well He's tall and has abs and is boring as shit, but you know whatever Did you play high school football like three games? All right, cool. Did you play? Yeah. Yeah, do you have a Letterman jacket? Does your older brother have a Letterman Jacket? Christmas present. Let's do it. Let's do it. Here's a Christmas present for you.

Uh, worst team, uh, winning records, percentage-wise, since November 16th. Uh oh. Red Wings, 4-3-3. They have gone, uh, 4-6-5. The Canucks, 4-1-2. They've gone 6-2, uh, 6-9-2. The Coyotes, 3-point-3-7-5. Not a surprise, 5-9-2. It's probably actually an improvement.

The Sabres 3-10-3 with a 2-8-1 win percentage And the worst team winning percentage Oh no The Ottawa Senators 3-11-2 with a 2-50 winning percentage Now what's funny is the beginning of this year was really wonky But with a few exceptions The winning percentages since November 16th

I think reflect what a lot of people thought the standings would look like at the bottom, at the beginning of the year. Except for Vegas' second in the whole NHL. Yeah. This is from Joel Windle on Twitter. Quick quiz for Adam and Steve. Which four former Leafs are on the Team Canada Spangler Cup roster? Four of them.

Mason Raymond. One. Oh, there's one. You guys. Ben Scrivens. No. Adam, guess. hang on

hang on hang on Tim Stapleton no Steve yes Brandon Kozen no

what Adam man man Ian White no Steve he's got

P.A. Parenteau he's got two letters for a first name P.A. Parenteau he's got two two more guys basketball basketball

Vince Carter? I don't know. No, if he added a letter, he'd be a basketball. Nick Spaulding. Oh. Spaulding basketballs. And one more guy. Mike Harrington.

Mike Harrington. Oh, that's Mike. You know it's... Mick. Oh. Mick. Mick. Joey McDonald?

Jay McClement. Jay McClement. Oh. I was going to say Jesse Blacker doesn't count. Who wrapped that? Stop it. You gotta open them in order. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Okay. Oh, we got cards, too? I didn't even get you guys cards. Oh, I didn't get you. Whoops. Oh, man. I accidentally pushed. Alright. Present time. I'll turn this upside down.

Yeah, pick a present, open it. Okay, you guys open yours. Okay, so mine's from Charlie. Is this poo? Oh, mine's from Iggy. Yeah. Jesse, uh, Iggy likes Jesse more, Charlie likes you more. Oh, okay. Oh

You got us boxes Yo, I can't wait to play with this box Your gift is not a gift as much as it is you Breaking even so Charlie ate a hole through Adams bag to get to Bindi's dog food so they got me a new converse bag got you a brand new bag So really you're just breaking even hey, so in a way this Christmas. I got you nothing. This is beautiful

Oh, this is gorgeous. Jesse got a stemless wine glass with a leaf logo on it And I think it's a leaf or a Marley shirt and a fidget spinner because you're a child You didn't I want my own fidget spinner because they're so nice. That's very nice. No problem. That was... I'm not gonna lie, that was Mrs. Dangle's idea. Open up yours.

Oh, oh. Where's the hole that I made? Here it is. All right. Ah, yes! I got the fidget spinner! I got the fidget spinner! Yes! What are the odds? That's amazing! That's hilarious!

Jesse knows I would've thrown it. Oh my god! Oh, and, and... Oh Feel that stress melt away Wow, yes, this is awesome. Let's spin together. Yes. Wait, let's You two are the worst And there's Adam over there, oh, yeah, you sorry there's something else in this box. Oh, I knew your that's amazing

Oh, is this a lego leafs logo? Yeah, you got don't they know those I love it! I love building things. It didn't come pre-assembled, sorry. I love building things. Oh, nice Marley shirt. Their new logo is great. It's so good. I want it to be the Leafs logo.

Oh, do you want to open this yet? No. A Rough Riders t-shirt. It might be a little big, but... You have a sixth sense of humor, my friend. Oh, it's a Superman Rough Riders jersey. Yeah! Where did you get this?

Uh, sports check? Of course, they sell Rough Riders gear in Toronto. They have all the... Wow. Now you get to be one of those guys. I'm gonna start wearing it. Yeah, that's why you got it for you. Exactly.

That's amazing. That or hang it up in your house. Rider Nation. Oh, and it's a Leaf fidget spinner too. I'm so happy. Did we get each other the same thing? Yeah, we did. The exact same one.

No, mine's a little different. Oh, mine's a higher end one. Look at the logo. oh like the one I got you oh I think it is maybe you like me more than I like you are we gonna open these cards or nice guys you don't know yeah my says Elvis instead of selfies Steve's open yours because it's ridiculous oh my goodness all right so it's in I what I think is mrs. Claus and Santa Claus turn around again baby you know how I like to check

everything twice wishing you a Merry Christmas and then some I hope your 2018 is filled with more doggie hugs leave victories and delicious wine Merry Christmas Jesse Merry Christmas Jesse Merry Christmas Jesse I screwed it up anyways Adam yours was a nice Elfie yeah I love it do you want me to read it out no yeah thank you Jesse I love this Elvis I thought it was funny it's you with your big red nose and then on the inside it's you and me hanging out

look we're hanging out that's so cute I was gonna color him in so his skin was darker but we got it okay guys you have to close your eyes and wrap your presents so I'm gonna put your presents in your lap you have to close your eyeballs

wait what are those? I got another present for you guys no no no let's do those I've decided he's the grand finale. Close your damn eyes. No, don't look the other way. Just close your eyes. I'm looking the other way and my eyes are closed. Okay, well that's...okay.

My hands are out. So you just hang out with your fidget spinner, Steve. Alright. It's a yellow sweater. Alright, ready? Go! Oooooooooooh! No way! I just hope I was

I'm sorry I couldn't give this to you two days ago, but I wanted you guys to have some arenas gear Oh, cool. Thanks for the arena sweater, even though I went to the game and couldn't wear this there. Thanks a lot Adam! This is awesome! Thanks, Deji! I just thought they were so cool I'm like we have and by the way the person who could who can back me up is Sasky Stewart because she came with me And help me pick them up. You have to be careful when you're opening these. They're the exact same thing. I got one for each of you Okay, don't squeeze it. Don't squeeze it. Don't squeeze it. Okay. It's very fragile. It's a wrap job on this. Can we just

Wasted Wow, no, that's just how I wrap, you know When you've got like a little piece of the end and you're like, I gotta put this on something. I feel like this is Santa dog Is it a rubber chicken? How awful must this be in like everyone's ears and car stereos right now swing me when I'm having an asthma attack My god well Roman pullecks on the ice so Throw that with your dogs and have a good time Leave those healthy scraps again

Mine sounds like it's having a tantrum They love these rawhides too Oh these are the best Benny will chew the shit out of these I'm a little worried Benny's just gonna chew this thing up That's the point Amazing Well I think the show is done

Hey Merry Christmas everybody Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Follow the guys on Twitter At Steve underscore Dangle At Adam W Y L D E And at Jesse Blake

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