The Steve Dangle Podcast - BUY A DAMN TICKET | October 27, 2019

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

PLAY STEVE DANGLE IN VIDEO GAMES ON NOVEMBER 2ND AT SCOTIABANK THEATRE! BUY TICKETS HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rachels-raiders-fundraiser-tickets-78526864967 On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, BUY A DAMN TICKET (00:00), who wore the crown? (08:00), the Leafs beat the Sharks and lose to the Habs (16:00), fun sports fanbases and the crowd in ScotiaBank Arena (36:00), Gary Bettman says things about the playoffs and Toronto (55:30), the Heritage Classic happened (1:05:00), the NHL's WNHL plans (1:12:30), LeoVegas and come see us live! (1:20:00), Neutral market NHL games (1:24:30), Will Dustin Byfuglien return? (1:27:30), Penguins trade Gudbranson to Ducks for Martinsen, seventh-round pick (1:33:30), Marleau on Matthews and Babcock on Marleau (1:38:00), and the press conference: HAT GUY WILL DO AN LFR (1:42:00). Originally aired: October 27, 2019 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/gHux7vGm51M Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts 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.S.D.P.P. The Steve Dangle Podcast with your hosts Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! Okay, before we do anything, before we break anything down. Breakdown in tears. That, before we break down Pittsburgh, actually making a good trade. It's depressing. It's depressing. It's a lie. Let's talk about...

Yeah, I know. I know. It's like they tease us. They're like, we're going to be betting now? Here's the deal. We've got a huge event next Saturday. This is a big thing. Steve, you want to explain? Because it's about Easter Seals.

November 2nd, damn it, for the Eric Lindros Celebrity Hockey Classic. November 2nd, charity. Charity, damn it. Are you ready for so much giving? There you go. So you get to basically, people get to show up and own you at NHL on the big screen. Or get owned. You want to be taught a lesson?

you want to be taught a lesson folks what happens to the first person that actually loses to steve at shell oh the exact same as what happens to the second and third and fourth person who loses to steve at shell you're all going down so you get to play steve november 2nd you get to lose steve you get the privilege november 2nd uh at scotia bank theater from 2 to 5 p.m we're going to be streaming nhl 20 live yes it will be streamed on my youtube channel if you're not from the gta if you are from the gta or if you're willing to drive or fly or perhaps take a boat kayak maybe even you're gonna get your ass to the scotia bank theater 2 to 5 p.m tickets are 20 dollars and 69 cents i did that just because of the sex number get a

ticket so and adam and myself will be there yes we'll be there yeah who cares adam and jesse will be there uh chris johnson said he might make an appearance oh he's on another popular television show that night. It's called Hockey Night in Canada. Never heard of it. I don't know if you've... Working on some others, but the important people that I want there is you! I intentionally got the biggest theater possible.

We got 370 seats. So I want to pack the damn building to stream NHL 20. All the money. All of it is going to Easter Seals. All of it. Yeah, a lot of people were confused about that. Your ticket is your donation.

So you're not coming here to donate. You're just buying the ticket and that's your donation Yes But you can also donate on top of it But you can also donate Jesse, you're going to be refreshing the donation page and all that Sure, yeah The tip jar will be enabled on the stream

So if you want to do that, you can do that as well We have a donor So We're obviously going to be accepting donations all throughout In several forms There's going to be an auction I'm going to be auctioning off one of my Dangle jerseys At least one

I think I'm going to do more. And also, because he doesn't want it anymore, the Montreal Canadiens 69 Jerkshire jersey is on the table. Can I add the jersey to that? Would you like to? I have a jersey in my closet. It's a Jonas Gustafsson jersey. And Jesse Blake will sign it. Steve will sign it.

I will sign it. Adam will sign it. Adam will sign it. We'll all sign it with 69 at the end of our day. You'll get that Jonas Gustafsson jersey. Yeah. So that's what we're going to do. All proceeds are going to go to Easter Seals Ontario.

That's a charity that helps kids with physical disabilities. We're going to put a link down below for tickets. Now, here's the thing. And here's where you get the ticket. Or if you can't click the link, where do you go? What's the website? It's my pinned tweet right now. It's a video of me talking about the event with the link.

Okay. Yes. Cool. So I changed my pinned tweet. It still all goes towards Easter Seals. Here's how you kick double the amount of ass. So if you get a ticket, if you make a donation during the stream, if you buy one of the auction items, we have a donor who is going to match every dollar that we raise for this thing.

So if we make 10 grand off of this thing, guess what? 20 grand. Wow. Alright. Guess what? That's that! What was the other one? Why not?!

There you go. Why not?! Come on down, November 2nd, Scotiabank Theater, 2 to 5 p.m. We got, where's the, where's the crest? Well, and here's the thing, as part of, you haven't mentioned, okay, so as part of, a part of this. What haven't I mentioned? Is you get to play with Steve. You get to play hockey with Steve.

Yeah, with or against. Or against. It's up to you, we're gonna be, oh yeah, sorry, that's the whole point. Right. We're gonna be auctioning off spots to play either with or against me. Right. Um, I was thinking threes, but like, we'll be flexible. I mean, if you spend enough money, I'll be like, yes, I will play ones with you.

Yeah, whatever. Sure, sure. Whatever. Of course. And just like in real life, Steve has only made room for himself to play. Meaning he will not pass us the controller, Jesse. We are not on the table. It's crazy that you made this event just for you to play all of the games.

I know. It's not like anybody else there could play. If someone wants to play Jesse Blake and they win it. No, that's not on the table. The event is the Steve Dangle Plays Chell event. Because he won't pass the controller like the puck I will not I'll kill McCarran

And just my own end Neutral zone, other zone, friggin' goal Maybe we should have Line bets on this too for charity So like what's the Over-under on Steve showing up In clothes that he did not pay for What's the over-under on

Side bets Yeah, for people at home You know what I mean? We should come up with some stuff So if you've got any suggestions, leave them in the comments. Oh, and the whole thing, all the best plays, because you know I'm going to have a lot of really good plays, because I'm sick of chill. It's all going to be gifed by my new favorite gif account, Tic Tac Tomar. I've been calling him the wrong thing this whole time.

Tic Tac Tomar. I've been calling him Tic Tac Omar, because I know his name is Omar. Tic Tac Tomar. Right. So he's going to gif all the gif-able moments and all that. November 2nd, 2 to 5 p.m., Scotiabank Theater. Link down below or in my pinned tweet. Get a damn ticket.

That's fun. It's going to be a good time. I sort of ran out of steam there. It's going to be a great time. The title of the show will be Get a Damn Ticket. Get a damn ticket. Now, also shout out Colby Armstrong for making a donation I saw in my email just before I arrived. Shout out Armdog.

Hashtag team unit. Actually, I want to shout out Nick Gould, who donated like, what was it, like a thousand bucks to me and 500 to someone else. Nick Gould, part of Gould. Yes. Crazy. So Easter Seals and I are reaching out to that individual to find out who they are on account of in total between donations to me and you and Jesse and I think Mike Stevens

and Harrison Brown as well. And our friend TJ. And TJ. He also got some nickel donations. He's donated $8,000. Wow. Yeah. So Nick Gould is a G

That's a lot of money Capital G And that makes a big difference In the lives of very many people So if you want to be like Nick Gould All it costs is $20 And the sex number I am 50% of the way to my goal

Which is funny because I checked it online And my goal is 69, 69, 69 However Easterseals in my email Every time I get a donation I get an email They've rounded it up to 69, 70 because they're mature people. And I think that's wrong.

That's wrong. Don't give Adam a cent more. But Tracy Tariska, who is the latest person to donate to me, it was just this afternoon, and I am almost, yeah, I'm exactly 50% of my way to the goal, which I have to be honest with you, I was like, that is ambitious. That's a lot of money.

Isn't that more than you raised last year? Oh, it's double what I've raised. I think I raised $2,000 last year, so I'm already $1,500 ahead of that. And you and Jesse are like neck and neck. Are we? I think so. I have closed down my donations.

Are you done? I want our donations to go to Steve now. No! I think that makes sense. I've already reached my goal, so I'm very satisfied. Yep. I've got to reach mine, so please keep donating. Help the other guys reach their goals.

I'm still trying to get to 50 grand. Exactly. I'm almost at 35. There you go. So that's pretty good, and we've got a couple weeks left. But the big one is November 2nd. Amazing. All right, now it's time to find out who wore the crown.

It's brought to you by Crown Royal. Why not pour yourself and a friend... Excuse me, Steve. Why not... Why not... Pour yourself a friend, a crown royal, because, hey, listen, we're going to talk about who wore the crown. Where we, with the help of you, recognize one Leaf player from each game on each show who gives their all for the blue and white because it's our town, it's our crown.

It's not about what you have, but about what you give. And we've been talking about charity. That's fitting. Let's crown a Leaf who lives generously by giving it all for the team, as hard as that might be, given the last two games, brought to you by our friends at Crown Royal. Live generously, and life will treat you royally. Let us get into it. Steve Dangle, kick us off.

I think Muzz Lightyear to the rescue. He has been the only noticeable leaf. Yeah, he was on the ice for a couple of those odd man rushes or whatever for Montreal, but he single-handedly dragged the team back into the San Jose game. He dragged the team somehow back into that Montreal game. Actually made it look like they were going to pick up points for a second. Got to give it to Jake Muzzin. Holy shit, extend that guy right away.

I am also going to give it to Jake Muzzin. and all the reasons Steve mentioned, but I'm also going to give it something else. When Jake Muzzin arrived here, it was under a cloud. Remember, there was the whole thing about him not being a right-handed shot. Who caused that cloud?

That would have been Mike Babcock. And I think the Leafs were, quite frankly, at the end of the season, they looked a lot like they look right now. Just all over the place in Rocky. And he came in and looked really good. But I think that a training camp and, you know, not being traded mid-season,

the fact that the Leafs were able to get him, and I think it was Mike J. Stevens who said this on Twitter, or it was by Mike Stevens, whatever. One of the Mike Stevenses. How are the two Mike Stevenses talking? I know, I know, I know. Mike Stevens basically said the fact that they were able to get him without giving up a roster player is unbelievable.

Now, Sean Jersey might become a great player in Los Angeles. Carl Grunstrom looks like he's fine. Yep. We thought he'd be fine. In a second round. We thought he would be, yeah, in a second rounder. So you never know. But for what the Leafs needed and for what the Leafs gave,

what a pickup, what a guy, and is the only physical presence on a team that, dare I say, and we can get into this later, maybe needs it. Oh, my God. Oh, we're getting into it later. Jesse. When you walk into a store and you buy something, you go to the cash register, you do your debit, you do your credit,

you do your cash, whichever one you want. Yeah, you pay for it three different ways. One of the three ways. And then after you do that, you pay for your item. What do you get? An item. You get your item, and then what do you get? Out of the store.

A receipt. Thank you, Adam. Thank you for understanding. I'm following. You get a receipt. A receipt. So my crown, in part, goes to the STP listeners, because they keep giving me the receipts.

The receipts on why William Nylander deserves the crown. Oh, all right, all right, all right. Are they tweeting at you now? Each week now, after every episode, I get tagged in a whole bunch of William Nylander tweets on to why he was clearly the best player on the ice every single game. Okay. Do you remember Riley's goal from Friday? I do.

That little beautiful one-timer. Which is rare for him. Usually, like, just throwing a muffin at the wall. Oh, my God. One-timers are not his thing. Weak shots are his thing. I love Mo. Maybe it's time for Riley to be there.

Not Riley. Sorry. Barry. Maybe it's time for Barry to be on PP1. Do you know who fed him that puck? Who fed him that puck? William Nylander. William Nylander skated the puck through all three zones,

made a gorgeous pass to Riley, and not a single commentator mentioned him on that play. No, isn't that funny? It was ridiculous. That's funny. I thought I was crazy. Okay. I watched that play.

I was like, holy shit, Nylander. And then they're like, wow, Morgan. That's more of that Morgan Riley leadership. Quality. wow with the skating and the shooting and wow and I'm like but no one hears Joe because he's just on the radio

and no offense Joe come back to TV please you know I think they've been doing a good job with the clips they're the best but Joe needs to be on TV for the least the local games I understand not the national ones he's our guy but I think

the thing with that honestly like when can we just admit like when can everybody just admit That they just hate him Like it's just a There's just a general Dislike for this guy From a certain group

But that's the group That's doing the The tastemaking Yeah Right That's the group That's on TV Yeah

The tastemaking Yeah They're the influencers Oh I've never heard You've never heard Tastemakers No

That's Essentially the people That lead the charge On the conversation Right Okay That what your uncle Rhymes back to you

The next day at work You know what I mean Like when you're When you're talking When you're When you're going to work The next day your uncle calls And they're like

Steve They say it's Uncle Rocky I don't know what his opinions on hockey are. Uncle Rocky? Say Uncle Rocky. He's got an Uncle Rocky. Yeah.

So he's got an Uncle Rocky, and Steve's driving in to do the podcast, and the Leafs have played the night before. Uncle Rocky, chances are, is going to repeat back what he heard Brian Burke say on the segment the night before. Or he's got opinions. Does he have opinions?

It's Burke or it's Cherry. Burke or Cherry. Yeah. It's what Don says. Because Elliot and Chris try to not have opinions. They're journalists. They're trying to be just, here are the facts.

Here's the news I heard. But then there was guys who were like, this is what I think. I mean, I had members of my family back not 18 months ago saying that Mitch Marner needed to be traded. Because he was playing on the fourth line and it was time to... Noah Hannafin. Oh! Weirdly. And he sat down on TV.

Nick Caprios. So it is interesting that the people who make the taste, the people that drive the conversation, at least among people that don't have time to get on Twitter and tweet relentlessly about it like we do. people with families and jobs and maybe who are not internet savvy and maybe a little bit older. We have to recognize that that is a thing that's been happening for a long

time. But I wonder how many good players Leafs media run out of town because they just didn't like them and they just decided, I don't like you. Is there a podcast with people maybe double our age like, I don't know, the Leafs Boomers podcast or whatever and they're going, so there's these

online tastemakers like a Sean Tierney. I'm trying to ram it down my throat that William Nylander's been good when clearly, like, I don't know. I just wonder if there's, like, an opposite side of that. No, the opposite side is the people on TV. Yeah, that's their fucking podcast. That's their podcast. It's funny.

The opposite is the people we're talking about. People talk about, like, oh, William Nylander never gets a fair shake. And I'm like, I don't see it. And that's because I spend all my time online. Yeah. Amongst people who would give him a fair shake. He does not get a fair shake. There's no question.

That's from Rayhef underscore Issa on Twitter. Oh! Do that and I'll follow. Yes, yes, absolutely. Also, small note from Nick Richard. With William Nylander on the ice, this was also Friday night versus Sharks. The Leafs generated 23 shot attempts to just 7 for the Sharks. He also had a primary assist on the game-winning goal after skating the puck through the neutral zone,

hitting Riley with the beautiful pass. That was that pass. And then his Corsi 4 percentage was 76.67. That's a great Friday night for William. Would have been great to give Hutch that game. Would have been great. Now, that's who wore the crown for this week. Brought to you as always by Crown Royal.

Next time the puck drops, why not live generously? Why not? And treat your friends and Leafs crew to a Crown Royal old-fashioned. Now, let's talk about the last two games. The Leafs win, the Leafs lose. Concerning about the first game, they win and the arena's dead. Concerning about the second game, it's a repeat of every other loss they've had this year on a back-to-back. I can't get excited to watch the Leafs.

And that's concerning, right? Fans can't get excited. I'm not excited to watch the Leafs. I can't get excited to watch them play the Sharks. Because I know that even if they win, they're going to lose the next night. They're going to. oh you know we almost had him and you almost had the Bruins and you almost wow you know what you keep putting those almost points in the bank and you're gonna almost make the playoffs i'm i'm i'm exhausted i'm exhausted i know that they head into every back-to-back with the goal of getting

two of four mission accomplished and like they went into this week with a pair of back-to-backs with the mission of getting 4 out of 8. You got 3. Ah. Well you know what though, 3 is almost 4 so WOO! Mission accomplished! Ugh! Like I can't get excited about that. The narrative that this team doesn't stick up for itself? The first time someone got decked I'm like ah whatever. Matthews gets decked I'm like hmm that's a little bit concerning. got decked yesterday, and I'm like, can someone frigging do anything? Like, slash him. So to that point,

Mike Babcock said, who's going to do that? They asked him between games, are you upset about the Brendan Dillon hit on Matthews and the lack of retaliation from your team? And he asked and no reporter had a follow-up. He said, who's going to do that? A reporter should have said, any freaking buddy. Sidney Crosby

fights. Evgeny Malkin fights. Pavel Datsyuk once beat the shit out of Corey Perry. He beat the brakes off of him. Paddle that, Zouk. Stick up for yourself for crying out loud. Brendan Gallagher is a thing. Are you joking?

That's not these guys, though. Okay, well then, they're not winners. They're not going to win. It's not retaliating. Is that what winning is? Retaliating after a big hit? They're trying to... No, but for fuck's sake.

Make it look like you give the remotest shit. They're trying to instill a way of thinking with the Leafs right now, which is tough for us because in the moment we're fans and we want to react. They're trying to say, okay, but our retaliation is our power play.

Our retaliation. But the problem is when you have, there were some missed calls in Boston and again, I want to stay away from criticizing the refs because it's so fucking boring. They're terrible.

No one cares. They're awful. It's subjective and every other fan base is going to go well we have our complaints too and I get that Max Domi, there were Montreal reporters last night who were like how did Max Domi not get

a penalty for punching, who was it in the head? Alex Kerfoot, after Kerfoot and Domi was right to stick up for himself he just got decked from behind so he gets up he does a 10 times more aggressive version of what Martin Marincin did to David Backus

nothing, fuck all The worst officials in professional sports They're awful Have you seen basketball? Yeah, basketball Basketball is a joke Forget the fact that Basketball officials were literally caught

Getting paid At least they got caught They actually got paid So they intentionally threw games NHL refs just don't give a shit I'm surprised you have this opinion That you think the Leafs winning and losing is dependent on them retaliating to Brendan Dillon.

No, okay. I need to calm down. Because there are people that are going to take this part of the conversation and before they hear the whole thing, they're going to go, I can't believe it. Oh, my God, you guys have completely thrown everything that you've ever said out the window. Totally.

But every now and then, let them know you still exist. Get angry. Like, our retaliation is our power play. One, you score one out of five times. Your retaliation is one out of five times if you're lucky. Also, you've got to rely on the worst officials in professional sports to provide you with that power play. Nope.

Second worst. The worst. The worst. Also, they might be tied with NFL officials. Right after that New Orleans game. Holy moly. That's New Orleans, the entire city, how they feel about the NFL officials. Just the elbow, the direct head hit, and you don't.

That was exhausting. With the Brendan Dillon stuff? The Brendan Dillon conversation on Twitter. Clean hit. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Despite the fact that... Open your fucking eye!

I was sitting there looking at my mentions and just going, I have nothing for these people. I have nothing for the... It was like I could have just posted a picture of an orange and had everyone tell me it was a lemon. He hit him in the fucking head! Open your eyes!

Direct! Direct to the head! I think, though... Oh, he's admiring his past. Fine! He hit him in the brain, idiot! What? What?

I'm telling the truth! The way I hit to the head... Fun show. Is... The way I hit to the head as judge is if there's contact, right? How do you argue with people who just don't see what's in front of them? How do you argue with people who dispute reality? Because, Steve, their entire existence, that sort of hit has been illegal.

And it's only, or sorry, legal. The only time that's changed is in the last three years. And you know what the NHL has done a terrible job of doing? Employing anyone who gives a shit. Is going out and saying, this is what a head hit looks like. And here's what one doesn't look like. And here's what's on the line. And here's what we would do about that.

And the reason they haven't done that is they don't want anyone to pin them when they fuck up. So the NHL says, yeah, anytime there's head contact, it's a hit to the head. Except when it's not. And that's the problem the NHL faces. And as a fan, you face because the NHL is really smart. The NHL is a lawyer. The NHL is Gary Bettman. Gary Bettman is a lawyer.

And Gary Bettman knows not to paint himself into a corner. Kyle Dubas could learn something from Gary Bettman in that regard, by the way. How? Can and we will. Oh, yes. He's a little too matter-of-fact about things. I love Kyle Dubas' confidence, but is there a more damaging statement in his tenure as a GM? And he did it right away.

But the NHL loves to exist in that gray area, because once they do, then they're free from criticism. Because they're like, alright, we're on both sides here. You can't criticize us. No, they love to live in that white-haired area. We got George Peros and a bunch of dudes in their 50s and 60s who played hockey in the 70s and 80s, making decisions about head contact, and we're not going to get a fair shake, folks. Our retaliation is the power play. Abandon that plan. You are not going to get ahead with that plan.

Abandon it. Stop relying on the decisions of others. Last, here, let me. Especially the way they're playing. By the way, we need to talk about that. Yeah. Penalty kill looks good. If you were to tell me before the season, which guy is going to look great, Dave Haxtell

or Paul McFarlane, I'd have been like, Paul McFarlane and not Dave Haxtell. And guess what? It's the exact opposite. The Leafs PK looks great. The Leafs power play looks abysmal. abysmal again. Do we owe DJ Smith an apology? No. No.

DJ Smith was the penalty kill guy. DJ Smith insisted on having Hainsey and Zaitsev out there. The PK looks good with Axtell. Might have been a good option as a head coach. Oh, come on, man. No. They like him? That's not good enough. Sorry, man. That's not good enough.

No, no, no. That's not good enough. Everyone's telling me how good this team is on paper and all they need is a motivator. Fine. We might be wrong about that. We might be wrong about how good they are on paper. We might have overvalued their skill. That might be a thing. From Andrew Berkshire, 2.92 power plays per team per game last year,

the lowest since they started recording it in 1963. Wow. Do not rely on our power play as our retaliation. It's simply not. You will be let down. Abandon that plan. So the solution to that, though, if you are going to go down that road, cannot be go and get another

Frasier McLaren. No. And this is the problem. And I, so you've got two sides here, two competing sides. You've got one side that's like, just outscore them. You've got the other side that's like, well, we need a little, we need, go get a tough guy. Three tough guys who go out there and just rock them, sock them robots. And that's not going to work either.

What you need are guys like a Brandon Gallagher, who gets in front of the net, who's a pain in the ass, who occasionally punches people in the face. Zach Hyman. Zach Hyman, yeah, that'd be great. I'm dying for him to come back. It would be great to have, if you could again, a guy like Leo Komroff.

Not Leo, currently, but if you can find the guy with that pissy little attitude that drives people nuts, that's, like, Brad Marchand's the perfect example of a guy who's tough, but scores a pile of points. You can find both. You gotta draft for skill first, but

we need some of that, and I agree. Was it a bad decision to trade Nazem Kadri? No. No. I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so. Isn't he that guy that you just described? No, he's the guy that blew it for them twice in two years. I think he's, he's, he, I'm sorry, with Naz, for me, shame on me you fooled me once, sorry,

shame on you you fooled me once, shame on me you fooled me twice. As in, he had his chance. That was it. That was it. And also, I can't put it any more bluntly, he ruined two playoffs. Let's not pretend. I love him with all my heart, but he ruined two playoffs. He wasn't great last year either.

He was okay. No. And he wasn't, he wasn't doing the things last year that made him success. Remember when they were like, remember we were flirting with Kadri Frisalki, that sort of shit? Like we were joking about that? Not a chance in hell, by the way. You were joking. I wasn't.

Someone was serious. When Kadri really committed, and there was that one game against Edmonton, and forgive me, Oilers fans, for bringing this up. He shut down McDavid. Yeah, he shut down McDavid. That was that one game. Which, he didn't. He didn't.

Like, by the numbers, absolutely not. But he scored the overtime winner. Yes. And people are like, Nazem Kadri's arrived, and this is the guy he is. The things that made him great in games like that, he stopped doing last year. Oh, yeah. And then he did what he did in the playoffs. I don't think trading Nazem Khadri was the problem.

I think you've got to have somebody who, and this is going to sound, again, against what we've always talked about, which is what the numbers say, which is, by the way, the Leafs are in third in the division. They're behind Boston. They've got more points than Tampa. They're tied with Pittsburgh and the Islanders. I mean, this is not bad. This is not a terribly bad start.

However, I will say this. The Leafs have played 13 games. Boston's played 10. The Leafs are still two points behind them. That's a problem. But they're in the exact same position as last season. Bingo. If it ended right now, same series, same thing.

I think the problem is that's not good enough. And they do need someone who's that emotional, physical presence up front. Maybe it's Zach Hyman. But Chris Johnson said this week, apparently, on Account for Hockey's Another Great Folly, you should you should did 20 games in there will be some sort of personnel change if this doesn't doesn't stop and i don't think kyle dubas is um he's not an idiot he's not an idiot i think he can see what's going on and i also think i grew up watching the same hockey we did sure i think that you you go into the season you go okay well you got dermot out which is why we got to throw

cc in that in that role because we don't want to have you want to you want to candidate for a fight Cody Ceci. You're not doing anything else. He doesn't fight, does he? I don't give a shit. Someone's got to. So what, do you fight and then embarrass yourself? So get out there and fight.

Yeah, if Cody Ceci turned into our tough guy, I wouldn't hate that. Someone's got to and you're bad. Share Ceci. Come on down. Someone's got to and you're bad. Throw a punch. He got embarrassed a couple of times with Montreal. Against Brendan Gallagher.

Against Gallagher. The one play where he was in front and he did a little spin on him. Embarrassing. Come on. Oh, it's bad. There's guys in junior who could have done the same move. That's embarrassing. Whatever confidence Cody Ceci had coming out of preseason, he's lost.

Oh, yeah. I don't think, I've got to be honest with you, and this is so funny because, you know, Manny had the, is Cody Ceci actually good? Bingo. We're all on it, by the way. You know, I don't see anything beyond a No. 7 defenseman there. He's not better than Nikita Zaitsev. Good God.

I wanted, I was like, all we need is 5% better than Zaitsev, and we do not have that. No, you have worse than Zaitsev. I understand the purpose of the trade. He's worse than Zaitsev. Yeah. Yeah. So, with that in mind. They lost more from their roster in the CC trade than they did from the Muzzin trade.

Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Because they got rid of Connor Brown, too. With a guy like Cody and with Travis Dermott potentially coming back this week because he's now officially able to be activated along with Zach Hyman, you know, the face of this team could change a little bit you could have as soon as Tavares is back because Tavares is out too um you get that Tavares um Hyman Marner line back together and things start to click and then you know you're good but one thing I do want to talk about and I was concerned about this I was thinking

about in the shower because that's where I think about everything when I when I hear that a guy makes double digits in the NHL I expect that guy to look like they make double digits in the NHL every night has mitch marner on any night this year looked like a double digits nhl player and and i say that in direct contrast to myself 20 days ago when they signed the contract and i said well as long as he continues playing like he did it's not a bad deal but the problem with it is that when times it's not when times are good it's when times are not good that we need guys like him to step up and i'll get to matthews in a second but let's start with marner the city's still mad at him. The fan base is still mad

at him. But is he playing well? He's leading the team in scoring. That doesn't matter though. No one gives a shit. Is he driving play? I know. He's leading the team in scoring and no one cares because he doesn't, yeah, he doesn't look good on it. But he's not driving play. I wouldn't say he I thought he was good against Montreal but yeah, like

you're getting paid like wrath of God money. You should scare people. Every time you step on the ice, you're the best player. And every time Matthew steps on the ice he's the best player. Those two step on the ice at the same time The other team should be shitting themselves

And they're just not Well It's okay though Because like A two million dollar left winger And a guy on the third year Of his ELC are coming back Guys

When you get a chest infection Don't disrespect them No no I'm not going to disrespect them But like that's the glue that's holding the $11 million. Well, Tavares 2. Tavares 2. Yeah, Tavares 2.

They look the same. Adam, when you have a chest infection, what do you take? Cough syrup, for sure, so that you can extend that chest infection for a month by feeling slightly better and just hacking your brains out while the issue is not addressed.

So you're saying they at least need antibiotics. This team needs antibiotics. What's the antibiotic? I think we've talked about it already. So you've got Matthews in the past five games, all of them without Tavares, and this is from Jonas Siegel of The Athletic. Here are his possession numbers, guys. Last night, 44% versus Montreal, 65% versus San Jose the night before,

42% second half of a back-to-back against Boston earlier this week, 62% against Columbus, and 43% against Boston before that about a week and a half ago. They just keep getting their friggin' lunch fed to them on the second half of a back-to-back, and they keep doing the same shit. Get a clue. Get an actual clue. You lose every one of them. Hutchison has actually given them a fighting chance.

Especially last night. Yeah, last night was not on him. No! I would say the Boston game, he was weak. But Montreal, I was impressed. Yeah, they had one good period, and that was the second. And the first and the third were just shots fired on Hutchison nonstop. That's it.

You can also tell, by the way, on their second half of their back-to-backs, I think they were, weren't they tight with Boston until the third period on Tuesday? I can't even remember now. They're exhausted. Yeah, they run out of ammo. But by the third period, it was 2-2 going into the third last night. And then it's like, I'm looking at it, like I'm sort of watching out the corner of my eye at dinner, and I had it on my phone, and I was, I'm like, how is it, I'm like, it's 3-2, okay, well, how is it 4-2?

Like, how does that happen? And they just don't have, they don't have the legs. I wonder, too, you know, if... But they should have the legs. They should have the legs. They're a bunch of 21-year-olds. Well, I've always said about that, okay, yes, they're 21-year-old professional athletes going up against rested professional athletes.

Sure. San Jose look like shit. San Jose doesn't stink, although the record's pretty bad. San Jose look like shit. They're on the second half of a back-to-back on the road. It affects them. They play too many goddamn games. If there's a back-to-back, I think it's weird that any team has to travel on the second

half of a back-to-back. The Leafs have 10 before New Year's Eve. That's a lot. What did they do to deserve this? Well, maybe we'll be happy about that come March when they haven't had as rough of a schedule. Yeah, I think it's going to be like four in the second half of the season. This is when I just said play four times in 2020.

Right. No, that seriously might be it. That might be it. This is what I said today. I'm turning over the hourglass. You have one month to impress me. You've made all these excuses. You have one month.

They have three back-to-backs in November, but one of them doesn't count because it's a home-and-home against the Sabres, so you're playing against a team that is equally as tired as you. You have one month. You're getting Hyman back. You're getting Dermot back. You're getting Tavares back. You have one month.

Okay, Friday to Saturday, you're going Toronto to Montreal, no customs, hour in the air. Are we sure it should have affected them that much? No. They should have gone the next morning and just skipped the morning skate. Yeah, why do they do that? Why do they do a morning skate in Montreal? I don't get that.

Because it's old. It's what we do. Well, it's what we do. Like, I don't know if it was him, but, like, this. Like, that's where Tavares has to step in and be like, yo, Mike, chill out, man. One thing in my criticisms of Mike Babcock, I hope I'm not putting anything on him that should be going above his head. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know what decision.

But, like, isn't that a no-brainer? Yeah. Isn't that a no-brainer? Should be. You won the night before. You played freaking great. You traveled. You should be traveling the next day, sleep in your own bed.

And like you said, it's Montreal. You could drive there and still be there in time for lunch. Just put them on the train. Put them on the Via. It's great. Seriously, Via to Montreal. They would never do that. The Via to Montreal is awesome.

It's nice. We've done it. Together as friends. We're the three best friends. And I was so goddamn sick. Fun fact, for my own bachelor party, I was so unbelievably sick that I went to sleep at my own bachelor party. However, on the train ride there, and I give full credit to my buddy Matt,

he had those big SodaStream containers, and they had lemon, vodka, and soda water in them, which is exactly what you need when you're sick, it turns out. It just cleared my throat right out. It was great. Not recommended. No doctors recommend that, by the way. That was just me. Adam literally was in bed when we were about to go out, and I elbow dropped him like Macho Man Randy.

Yeah, there was no chance you were standing there. And we went. You want to get one of these, asshole? All right. And then we went out in Montreal and ran into a couple Canadians. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we did. Brennan Gallagher.

No, was it Gallagher? Are we allowed to say it? Yeah. We can now. It was Gallagher. Yeah, it was. He literally just sat there with a drink in his hand on his phone. And he was allowed to have a drink in his hand because the Canadians won 10-1 that night.

Oh, yeah. That was a great game. That was so much fun. And they kept playing it every time. Was it the song they played? Hey! Yeah. Oh, my God.

The song they always... I don't know what it's called. Yeah, forget it. Man, Montreal is such a fun... Did you see the crowd shots from last night, too? In Montreal, people dressed up and that sort of thing. They just have so much fun. The Bell Center is a great time.

It's a party. It was like that. Montreal and Nashville had two best arenas seen hockey in. You know what, man? Even though it's torture, Boston's pretty good. Boston was fucking crazy. Dude, we lost 6-0, and I had a ball. In the playoffs.

The fans in Boston, I think, are what make it. Everybody in the crowd there knows they're hockey, and they're just having a good time. And the lunatics. We had a good time there before they replaced all those seats, and now you have to be 50 pounds before you can actually fit into them, though. Did you see that? Yes.

We talked about it on the show. Oh, we did? Okay, all right. Holy. Pittsburgh, the atmosphere in Pittsburgh I, like, related to. It was during the Stanley Cup final, and, like, they were raucous and everything, but, like, you could tell. Like, you go into Boston, they have this, like, Greek warrior friggin',

we're winning this thing. Pittsburgh was like, oh, God! It goes well! And then, like, you could tell they were all terrified. Pennsylvanians are very, they have a lot of similarities to Canadians in their temperament and manners. Careful, Philly's in Pennsylvania. Parts of Pennsylvania.

Get out of here, asshole! You drive a few hours up the road? Yeah, you know what? Maybe Pennsylvania is both halves of the human body. It's like Pittsburgh's nice and kind and we're really, you know, lots of success and winning. And then Philly's like, I'm going to fucking kill you. It's like calling Edmonton and Calgary the same. Yeah, no, they're not.

They're not even close. But there's like, but you know what I mean? When you go to, Pennsylvanians are very nice. They're very nice. And they're known for that. Yes. I found. Except for Pittsburgh.

Yeah, sorry. Piece of shit. Did you see, did you see they brought out, speaking of crazy fan bases, they brought out Mitch Trubisky, who's the Chicago Bears quarterback. They brought him out at a Blackhawks game. No, no. They brought out a young fan

wearing a Mitch Trubisky jersey and they booed him. Blackhawks fans are nuts. It was the kid wearing the jersey and he got booed in Chicago. That's hilarious. I'd love to go to the United Center.

Oh, me too. I want to visit everyone. Except for the Florida Panthers. I haven't seen a game there. I've never seen a Panthers game. No, you've seen Tampa. Oh, Tampa. Never the Panthers. I'd love to see the Panthers, though.

No. We'll be the only people in the arena. The only place I've been where, like, the energy was, like, a little bit off. Well, two places. Buffalo, because they don't – Sabres fans do not embrace the rivalry at all. They hate it. Yeah. No, and they don't want – the building is 75% Leaf fans,

And they're not stoked about it at all I haven't been to a Leafs game in Ottawa So I don't know what that's like But the Sabres fans don't embrace it I think you need to go to a Leafs game in Ottawa When Ottawa is in a better spot than they are now Maybe You wouldn't even get an accurate reading now

Ottawa plays them every year All the shit that Eugene has started I think that I don't think That's not an accurate reading But maybe if you went five years ago It would have been a different feeling I've seen a game in Ottawa I had a friend go to Buffalo

and see another team and it was just another team playing the Sabres and I forget who it was they asked about Toronto fans there and I think unfortunately what happens yeah they do because it's the hooligan Toronto fans it's like the hooligan Yankee fans

that come up to Toronto for the Blue Jays no no I'm not kidding it really is like starting fights in the parking lot and now Buffalo spade to spade here Bill's Mafia, you know, like, I mean, let's not. They're the Mount Rushmore of crazy fan bases. Right.

It's Bill's Mafia. Yeah. They're number one. So I think there are Buffalo fans who think Toronto fans have no class. However, there is a reason that people have been rowdy in Buffalo for a long time. Yes. And that is because Buffalonians are also rowdy. since we're in this territory uh brian burke always talks about um he always had to hire

extra security when he was uh gm of the canucks for when the leafs played in town because there was always fights and his takeaway from that was oh it's the leafs fans not the fact that a lot of people from out west hate everything to do with toronto all i'm saying is it takes two to tango well i doubt leaf fans are walking in there like right then there is some of that yeah however i'm sure vancouver also has its own reputation for things yeah so when they lose stanley cup things didn't go well right yeah they don't like it when you bring it up and that's fair i wouldn't like that either uh i i i i'm i'm once terrified and excited about when the leafs actually do make the finals one day because if they don't win that is going

to be oh it's going to be that is going to be like anything anything we've seen in vancouver i'm a little bit concerned although torontonians are a little bit quieter montreal they they rioted after metallica metallica and guns and roses were on tour together and metallica was out first, which was, in retrospect, a terrible idea, because they're a far better live act than Guns N' Roses. And James Hetfield got burned by one of the flames that came up through the stage.

Really burned. You know how hot those things are when you're in the audience? Imagine you're standing right beside and you got burned. So you got third-degree burns or whatever all over his arm, and they couldn't finish the set, and they had to get offstage. And then Axl Rose came out. I think they played three or four songs, and then, because he was a gigantic asshole on a ton of

drugs, said, fuck off, and they left the stage, too. So everybody left and just started fighting each other so there was a riot after a poorly executed metallica guns and roses concert in montreal every fan base has it right yeah i've always said this but the uh the gold medal game in vancouver i just remember leaving and this is pre-2011 riot yeah i just remember looking around and going oh my god this could go sideways so quickly I didn't see a single thing No

Not a single thing So Back to The other arena Was Edmonton But they were just sad Because they sucked at the time Right

Yeah This was like 2012 And when it comes to Arena passion I want to bring it back To something I mentioned earlier And something I noticed During the Tampa Bay game

When we were there Now we were there For a 7-3 shit kicking It sucked Not us We as in Well We were at the Tampa Bay game

No it was 7-3 Oh I thought you were referring to, like, in Tampa Bay. Yeah, sorry, no, I should have cleared that up. No, when we went to the Crown Royal seats,

and by the way, congratulations, one of our listeners won the Crown Royal seats to the Boston game, which was awesome. And I believe that was the one that least beat Boston,

which was great. Hey, yes, the overtime winner that seems ages ago. It does seem like, it's almost like we've forgotten it's happened. Oh my God.

Don't ever beat Boston. They literally just beat Boston. Yeah. They've beaten Boston six times in the playoffs in the last few years, just not eight times. This is not four in one year.

But the point I'm trying to make here is I'm noticing a very... Like, I've always been a defender of what the Air Canada Centre, now Scotiabank Arena, could be with fan support. You could see it with the Raptors. You could see it with the Leafs when the Leafs were good. The Jays. I'm talking about Scotiabank Arena. Well, I'm talking about fans in the city.

TFC. TFC, you're right. TFC? No. Marlies. Wolfpack. The horse show. Wood button racing.

What is it, the Royal Canadian Winter Fair or something? Yeah, whatever that thing is. They shut down the Marlies for like a month. They're going to go on a road trip. The boat show. Yeah. Where they flood Rico. Sorry, professional hockey team, we've got to fill the building with sand.

What about the car show? What about those fans? Crazy. They go nuts. Lots of car show guys like to go and they like to take pictures with the car show models who unfortunately have to take pictures with them. They like to post those on Facebook Oh Adam

Every stupid guy I know goes to the car show Takes pictures with those girls And they're like yeah check me out with these girls And I'm like oh man this is so embarrassing Like why does it have to be like this They post that picture right after They post their up the camera selfie Where it's just their chin

And they're like this You're getting really specific Goatee sunglasses Own an ATV A lot of goatee sunglasses thought Brendan Dillon and laid a clean hit. My dad's the only person I know who goes to car shows

and takes pictures of the actual cars. That's all he does. He just takes pictures. I know, he's a weirdo. No, he's crazy. What a loser. I know, loser. Oh, cuck is what I had.

Yes, for sure. I wonder who he voted for. Yeah, right? No, but the point I'm trying to make here is what we saw at that Tampa game and what I've noticed ever since is it's like the air has been sucked out of the scotiabank arena even by its quiet standards now are we quieter based on uh uh fan support than like inside inside the arena than other arenas

absolutely there's no question but if you want to see the wild and crazy fans show them the camera outside where there's another another 20 000 people right like there are the hooligans are there the crazy fans are there it's just not every the price of a ticket in toronto is so expensive and they're so hard to find even if you have the money you can't buy them they're not there they don't they don't exist adam so i have a wild idea so here's the thing sure let me finish this sure i'm concerned about this i'm concerned not necessarily about home ice advantage because i think home ice advantage is more you got to wake up in your own house and sleep in your own bed it's not yeah the fans get excited but i don't know last change yeah i think it's yeah

Last change, stuff like that. Last change that you used to send out your second line in overtime. The San Jose game should, to me, be a real wake-up call. They won the game. Look into the camera. They won the game. Dead. And the arena was dead.

And that's scary. That is scary. I'm terrified of that. And it seems like what you're feeling, the frustration you're feeling, the frustration we're feeling, the frustration everybody who's listening to the show and commenting on the videos are feeling is echoed in the arena. Something's up.

And even when they do win, it feels like there's not a reason to cheer. And I'm wondering are our standards just too high now? Is this how it is in other markets when teams struggle? Like do Bruins fans get on their team like this? Yeah, probably. But they boo them at least.

They make noise. Are you ready for this? I'm ready. Sorry. Score the first goal once. Steve holy shit they have three times in 13 games

three times out of 13 yeah 10 of 13 score the first goal once but they start on time there are people claiming that they start on time and there are stats

that say they start on time what are those stats well there's pace of play stuff like Arvin did a really good piece and he broke it all down and I understand

where he's going with that he's not he's not wrong in that they might be dominating play but if you let in the first goal every time it's still not successful

The thing that matters is how you win the game is you score more goals than the other team. I think if you're not scoring the first goal, then you're not starting on time. I think it's that simple, right? The one thing they're leaving out of it is there are games... By the way, that article is for the Pension Plan Puppets for anyone that wants to look it up. Oh, there you go. A-V-R-I on Twitter. I got that right, right?

I think so. I'm going to check that. That was a... It's a good read. The San Jose was a great example of why that's weird. A-R-V-I, excuse me. A-R-V-I. A-R-V-I.

The San Jose game was a great example of why that's weird, because the Leafs, I thought, did control the play through the first five, ten minutes of the game. The problem is, the five or ten percent that they're not controlling, they pick one or two plays in particular where they just fill their pants to the belt. And I can't, for the life of me, explain it away. But the frustrating thing with this team is there are so many nights and so many stretches where they do genuinely look like a dominant team and the better team, and they still find a way to come out of it losing. You can just point at PDO. You can say it's lazy to point to, well, they get scored on first 10 out of 13 times.

I say it's equally as lazy to just point at PDO and go, well, there it is, and it's going to regress. Why do you say that? Because dude, I'm okay. I'm not about to watch the games this, but I am about to watch the games this. You can't PDO explain away brain farts. You can't PDO explain away shit that they do all the time. Like it's not, PDO is not gonna make Cody Ceci better at what he does. It's not gonna make the team tougher in front. It's not gonna make them better at clearing rebounds, it's not

going to make them take fewer penalties. These are all recurring issues with this team. You know what, man? He's really looked good in stretches and I've been critical of Mike Babcock, but if Mike Babcock locked Alex Kerfoot

in a bathroom stall for the next game, I would have nothing to say about it. Honestly, if he healthy scratched him. Really? Yes. Why? He's been good with Kabadon. That's great. Stay out of the fucking box. Stay out of the... How many penalties does this

guy have? How many penalties does this guy have? Perfect. Yes. And they're not good penalties. They're the hooking, slashing type. I know what you're saying. He just told me a little harder. He's got 12 penalty minutes, so six penalties. I would be curious to know

what the game log is. Like, how many of them have been in consecutive games? Because it feels like every game he's taking something. I don't know. Okay, I got it. If he hits Tony Lovell harder, we're talking suspension. Last five games, Montreal 2, nothing against San Jose, nothing against Boston,

one against Columbus, nothing against Boston. Yeah, I think this is... I'm stunned. I think this is an in-your-brain thing. That one's stunning. Okay, that one's one where you look at the stats and you go, okay, I'm wrong about that. He got penalties against Ottawa in the first game, Montreal the third game, two penalties against Minnesota, which is probably a frustrating...

It was, yeah, not a great game. And then the other two were the ones I mentioned, Columbus and Montreal. However, it's part of a team-wide issue of hook, slash. Yeah. Like, they do have an issue with, and the reason that these issues occur, and anybody who watches hockey with any regularity can tell you this, when you're out of body position, you will take penalties with hooking and slashing and tripping. You will always do that.

And, I mean, we saw that if, who scored on the breakaway last night with Muzz and Trailing? Oh, my God. Well, you're asking me to pick between three breakaways. I don't remember. And so if he doesn't score there And I think it was Druin Muzzin gets a penalty Because he's hooking him

And you can't have It sucks And you know what The first guy who needs to improve that Is Austin fucking Matthews That guy needs There are opportunities And you can see it

And they show it on the replay on TV The announcers know it The reporters know it The coaches know it austin knows it what is it going to take for him and mitch marner to have a positive effect defensively that's what is it going to take so they're going to regress to being better defensive players is that what i'm to understand no i think that they're going to regress to having better body position i think they don't know how to do it i think they gotta they gotta put them

out there and put them in those positions or i could just do the same shit i've been doing for four years. How's that? I'm very obviously done with that. It seems like when Marner and Matthews don't have the puck, they kind of lose focus a little. Yeah. Like when they don't have the opportunity to go play and have fun. Marner a little bit reminds me of sort of what Gus Katsaros talked about years ago with

Nikolai Kuliman, where when he doesn't have the puck, he tries so hard. You cannot accuse Mitch Marner of being lazy. No, no, no. He's always back. balls to the wall. He's always back, but it's not always necessarily... Yeah, it's not... He's not using his energy effectively

all the time. He's just using energy. He's just going. He's just going, and the puck's this way, and I'm going. And now I got the puck, and I'm going. Except I'm exhausted now. He intercepts passes in the butterfly position. Yeah, right. That guy is extra,

and it's great sometimes, but I don't always know if it's the best. I feel like they just need to, like, focus on the play a little more and just play a little smarter on the defensive end. Like, I'd like Matthews to know how big he is. Right. And, like, there's a couple guys, going back to the earlier conversation, like, you know, Crosby sticks up for himself, Malcolm sticks up for himself.

I'm not looking for Austin Matthews, who has a concussion history and who knows might have gotten another one against Brendan Dillon. I'm not looking for him to be starting fights. I'm not looking for Andreas Janssen, who has a history of concussions, to go out there and start fights. I am looking for something. Yeah. Anything.

Yep, we're not looking for face punching. Well, maybe a little face punching. But it doesn't have to be just that. Punch a guy in the face. Okay, punch a guy in the face. Punch a guy in the face. It's hockey. It's legal.

There are no laws. Might as well take advantage of them. Do you think that's going to help them score a goal? I don't care. At this point, do it to make me feel better. If you're going to lose, punch someone in the head. Do it for Steve. Hashtag Joe for Steve.

I get it. That's not how the Leafs should be playing hockey, to make you happy. Should they be playing like how they did last night? No, they should be playing to win. I think the, I think, I get that, I'm up in the middle between the two of you. Stick up for yourself every now and then. I think every once in a while you do need to, you do need to go, hey, wait a second. Not, no, you're not going to do that.

But I also think if you overcommit to that, then you're fucked like they were a couple years ago, right? So you don't, that's the thing, is that like there is, there is a common ground there. But maybe there is a personal change in the future where you find it, like, remember Wayne Simmons, what he was like in his prime? Before all the injuries. He's still a bad man. Yes, he is. But he was a bad man, and he would score 25 goals and get 30 assists and scare the shit out of teams. And guys like that, going back to that, that's what we need.

Now, I want to switch gears for a second here and move on to something that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in Regina on Friday about potential changes to the current playoff format. He got some laughs because he said, we think the format we have has been working extraordinarily well, unless you're a Leafs fan. right now is he wrong yeah you think he's wrong I've never seen like does the MLB give this little of a fuck about the Yankees I think the NFL MLB does what the Yankees want I don't think I think when you talk about Yankees in Boston I mean they're they're the biggest generators right it's open contempt from all levels of management throughout the league they hate this team and city and the money that it makes it are we sure that's true yes or that or he just had used oh i'm in western canada and i'm gonna take a shot well yeah that's exactly what it's a lawyer he's

a lawyer yeah however in what other steve makes a good point though in what other league and alan walsh actually tweeted and then deleted this in what other league oh did he what in what other league no no he's right yeah man i think honestly yeah i haven't even heard what he's okay what is In what other league does a commissioner openly tease and make fun of his best revenue-generating team? Have you ever seen Adam Silver come out and say, fuck the Lakers and fuck the Knicks? Should have never deleted it. Should have never deleted it. Now, I'm paraphrasing what Alan Walsh said, but he said basically openly kind of like, in the MLB, you never see it with New York.

In the NFL, you don't see Roger Goodell coming out and saying anything about any teams. and like imagine Roger Goodell made a snide remark about the Cowboys you know what I mean he did have his open thing with the Patriots while being in bed with them simultaneously so the point

the point here is it's fun to burn the Leafs I get it, if you're outside of Toronto you're not a Toronto fan, you're listening to this show 100% and you know what, some of that's earned the Leafs were awful for 40 years

50 50 years awful awful mostly awful they were the butt of the joke but this is the biggest problem i think brennan shanahan has as the president now the team that he's assembled on paper even though they haven't put it together on the ice yet so let's forget about that for a second has what it takes they have enough talent they could do some damage i think we're agreed on that it when they're playing at their best they're a dominant nhl team so he doesn't have to worry and asterisk on that they never play their best fair but we're not worried about that right now we're not focusing on that kyle dubas is a good general manager uh he's done some great things he's done some things that are questionable but show me a general manager that hasn't okay

so he doesn't have to worry about that brendan shanahan's next war his next goal to me and i think brendan shanahan knows that is to go up against the office that he left knowing that they were incompetent and knowing that they were in trouble when you look at just that take the concussion emails that bob mckenzie and who's the guy that's got you blocked from tsn that's like rick uh westhead oh yeah for some reason she blocked it i have no idea why is that still a thing rick does a uh investing a lot of investigative reporting especially about the concussion stuff and when rick came out with all those emails and you got to actually read how uh how head office talks about things about concussions it's not hard to extrapolate that

think in 20 in 2019 100 and and this is this is the thing that i think brandon shanahan now has to do how is it that the highest revenue generating team in one of the most popular months of the nhl season which is the first one i mean the first ones everybody's rearing to go right november december january february you know there are dips and stuff holidays happen you know the fact that kids have hockey whatever but the first couple games are like big big shit right until the playoffs and the fact that the leafs have one of the toughest nhl schedules in one of the most popular months is a joke and and beyond that the commissioners out there making jokes about it and i don't think and then making jokes about the fact that the leafs are not making the the the second

round of the league which is objectively bad for the league the salary cap i hate to tell you this and you're not going to like this if you're not a toronto fan but this is not this is not a toronto So, Slant, this is truth. The Leafs make the finals. The cap goes up. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That is mathematics.

How about this? They helped a brand new team. They helped an expansion team that somehow found itself in a catastrophic cap crunch. Two years into the league, they helped a team out of an enormous cap crunch. The Leafs are paying like $115 million or something like that. The league's goddamn piggy bank. They're mad about the front-loaded deals Is that what the NHL is?

100% They're mad about the front-loaded deals And I wonder who Bettman cheered for growing up Rangers, I would think, wouldn't he? Islanders Really? Was he an Alice fan? So beyond all that I think Brandon Shanahan's next job

Is to say, okay Now he can't really call Gary Bettman Because Gary Bettman's going to laugh him out of the room With Bill Daly But Brandon Shanahan's next job Is to reinstitute this team as one of the leaders in this league. No more high fives with Jeremy Jacobs,

with Bettman and Jacobs. I know they're buddies. I know they go way back. I get that. This whole buddy club, this is the team that is basically, besides the Rangers, I guess the Rangers are the higher valued team because they're American and they're in New York?

I don't know. One and two. No one generates more money than the Leafs. And it's a Canadian dollar team. Or spends it. Or spends it. Time for a little bit of respect. No, I think it's time for them to be exhausted on the second half of the back-to-back nationally six times before New Year's Eve. And if you are, yeah, I know, and if you are, if you're the fan of a smaller market team, you're probably going, yeah, these guys sound like arrogant jerks.

Think about it in our perspective. Think about it from a major market perspective. I hope you enjoy your hockey team that you still have. You're welcome. This is your team that spends the most money, that does the most for the league, and the league just goes fly throws up a finger in your face and goes yeah well too bad also i think betman has a point the the nhl playoff format does work because it creates great matchups early and as you see with the mlb just hold on a second colorado sucked okay that's one example

toronto was a great story because of how much it sucked toronto boston did not suck But the thing was, the NHL playoffs were great even before this playoff format. To say that the NHL didn't have the best playoff format before this was a lie. Everybody said it. Everybody knew it. There were great matchups before this. And, by the way, in the 1-8, 2-6, or whatever, the Leafs would have got Pittsburgh and the Islanders. The Leafs would have got Pittsburgh coming off back-to-back cups and then the Islanders last year.

If anything, it would have been better having them go against John Tavares' ex-team. That would have been amazing. That's better than Boston. Oh, my God. It's a thousand times better. So I guess my point in all this. And if the Islanders beat them. Seriously, it's better.

If they're, I think that you can't lose on the way the NHL format works just because of the way the game lends itself to the playoffs. Well, you can lose when a better team is not being rewarded for having a good regular season. Yeah. I feel like if you're a top three team in the conference and you're playing on the road in the first round of the playoffs, that doesn't make sense just from a logical standpoint. Because then what's the point of playing 82 games and playing well in them? Fair. Fair? I think that the NHL loses, though, when their commissioner comes out and throws a middle

finger up at the piggy bank. Oh, I was joking. Oh, I was joking. No, that's... Just like Brad Marchand with the refs. I was joking. He's got jokes. He's got jokes for the...

Licking Leo Komarov. Kerfoot's got to work on his material. Just, you know, become a friend. Just, we're all friendly here. That's Brendan Shanahan's next thing, is how about a little bit of respect here, Gary? Yeah. And I mean that. And that's not – if things –

You should friggin' lease him up. Well, yeah, I would love to have him again. He was a son of a bitch to play against. Might hit someone. But I think that that's the next thing. We can't – you can't have a league that actively makes fun of and denigrates their best team money-wise. You just can't.

Sorry, you can't. The reception to this is going to be really – I don't give a shit. I'm right. That's bad business, man. That's just bad business. However, funny burn, and I get it. Because you know what?

Everybody wants to burn the Leafs for the reasons that I just stated. In a market where support for the sport is dying every single day. In Toronto? Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. It's dying. There's 30 last names in the NHL.

And they're all former NHL, like their NHL families. That's another problem. Oh, the son of the nephew of the… That's a serious issue. That is a serious problem, by the way. No, no. Because it now is starting to mean that those with the resources to get the right trainers, to get the right...

Yeah, and I understand there's a genetic component to that. I do. There is. Well, if the league keeps expanding, the stalls and setters are going to have to have more kids. Come on, guys.

Let's go. It is an issue. Let's go. The fact that I've got friends in... Come on, Ty. I've got friends in L.A. It costs them $20,000 a year to keep their kid in hockey

and their kid's good. Really good. Yep. Going to the O. $15,000 to play double A or something like that here? It's crazy. Who's got that money?

So, I think that's another issue and I think we're going to have Sean Fitzgerald on eventually. We've been meaning to have him on for a while. He's got that new book called... He's going to be playing with us. What's it called again? Before the Lights Go Out.

And it's about just that issue. Yeah, and he followed around the Peterborough Peets, who happen to have noted defensemen, Nick Robertson and also SDA. And they make appearances. Last show, we talked about the Heritage Classic and how neither of us even knew it existed. The what? The Heritage Classic.

Exactly. It was between who? Calgary and Winnipeg. And they had their throwback jerseys, Which I don't understand why both teams don't just use those jerseys Because they're way better Before the lights go out A season inside a game worth saving

Sean Fitzgerald Who won? The Heritage Classic No idea Do you know? None of us know Can I just say It's a little unfair the narrative of

We didn't know it was happening Because it's not a national event It's just like the All-Star game By the way it's Winnipeg and OT Oh, hey, that's exciting. I heard it was a good game. It was a good game. But it's a local event for the local people.

It's just like the All-Star game where we're generating interest in the market. We're going to Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan fans are going to be happy about this, and it doesn't really matter that people in Toronto, because they're going to be watching the Toronto game. Yeah, no, 100%. We talked about this with the Montreal-Boston outdoor game a few years ago. it rules to go to

and it sounds like this ruled to go to the All-Star game rules to go to. Sucks on television. So why over promote something that's not going to be entertaining on TV anyways. And we were mentioning that around the last All-Star game I think like we talked

we've had this I think conversation two years in a row I think it made a lot of sense that we didn't know a heck of a lot about it. Why spend the money? Why not spend the money? Spend the money in Saskatchewan. Spend the money in Calgary. Spend the money like in alberta i guess spend the money in manitoba but beyond that one of the biggest problems the nhl has that baseball now has is they don't have a lot of bankable superstars when you look at um when i when i see that the lakers are going to play houston i'm going to

and i this is coming from a guy who probably watches less than 20 raptors games a year i'm still going to try to tune in for at least a little bit of the lakers versus houston you You know why? Because I want to see Harden and Westbrook try not to pass to each other. And I want to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Danny Green, who randomly is just racking them up. I want to see those stars play each other. I think that's important. There are football games that are like that.

It's Brady versus. The interesting thing about the Lakers-Houston game is you have three guys with LeBron, Westbrook, and Harden. I don't know if you want to throw Anthony Davis there and make it four. But you have at least three guys who are more popular than probably the sport of hockey. Yes. Oh, my God. Like, internationally. Yes.

On a cultural level. And those three guys are playing in that one game. Yes. So, like, how could you not draw this a massive amount of interest? 100%. And that's... I'm not asking Sidney Crosby what he thinks about Hong Kong. If you have...

They're not. If the NBA ever did a streetball game, so they set up a court, but it's outside. And I don't know how you do that unless it's in the south in the wintertime. But it would be a really cool event, right? It would be really explosive and big. They would never allow it, but... Well, they might. They might.

Not on concrete, anyway. No, no, no. It would be a typical stadium, but we call it street ball because it's kind of, you know, that's how those guys... It'd be cool if it was a video game. But... And they have fire. They have game breakers.

Yeah, it's NBA Street Vol. 2. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, what was it? NBA Street Vol. 2. Yeah. No, I think I just said, like, a Mortal Kombat thing in the middle of... Whatever. The point is, people would tune in for that because there's bankable stars.

These are celebrities, right? I don't think the NHL has that. So in their marketing plan, I think it makes a lot of sense to market to the local markets because they care. If the Leafs had an Ontario Classic between them and Ottawa, and let's say Ottawa's in a better place too. How have the Leafs and Sens not played in outdoor games? I don't know. I don't know. Remember, Eugene Melnick doesn't do well with outdoor games. That's probably why.

Or even Leafs and Montreal. I know. Now, how about Detroit twice and Washington? But if you have—well, that makes sense for the American markets. When you have bankable stars that transcend their market, transcend their league, then it makes sense to advertise nationally. I just don't see that, unfortunately. Like, Calgary fans can hate me for this, Winnipeg fans can hate me for this,

but you don't have stars on that team that transcend the sport. And I think there's only, like, two guys who are in this sport that transcend it right now, and that's Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby and even then it's only very slightly you gotta be this is this is gonna make Canucks fans mad but try to

understand what I'm saying Elias Pettersson is must-see viewing for hockey fans Connor McDavid is must-see viewing does that make sense? you know what I mean? you don't need to be a fan of hockey at all

to look at Conor McDavid go around Justin Braun and go, oh shit, that's an alien. Yeah, yeah. Whereas Pedersen is just really really really sick. I'm not doing a great job of getting this across. No, it makes sense. It's like LeBron. LeBron's a freaking alien. The guy's bigger, stronger, faster

than everybody else and has been for 12 years. LeBron, Kawhi, basketball fans know how ridiculous Spicy P is. Yes. You know what I mean? But I'm not tuning in just to watch Spicy P. No. Not from, not if you're in uh not if you're in florida if you're a miami heath fan you don't care about the raptors versus the lakers no bucks fans going and to go along with the marketing thing hockey likes being

a local sport like they love marketing hey we're the local thing they kind of have to be they have a whole uh hometown hockey is built around being hey we're going to local communities because hockey is your local thing that's another thing that's fun to go to i went to it when it was in yeah but it's fun doesn't make for the best tv you know tv's interesting Well, I think it's also, and Ron said it best when he was on the show, it belongs on CBC. Right. Because CBC in Canada, yeah, CBC in Canada is supposed to not, it's a not-for-profit broadcaster. It's there to support Canadian culture.

It is there to highlight communities like that. And that's what hometown hockey is. So, unfortunately, it's not. It's on Sportsnet. And I think there's a reason with that with the NHL. But he said, if I were to do anything, I'd move Hockey Night in Canada away from CBC and put it on Sportsnet, because Sportsnet owns the rights, and I would put Hometown Hockey on Sundays on CBC, because that's what the CBC mandate is.

I think that the NHL is actually kind of smart in what they're doing with their marketing. If they don't win on a local level, they will not win. They've tried for years to make this seem like this big thing, and then they'll have the All-Star game and Kid Rock's fucking playing, and you're like, are you serious? They got to win these local markets again. Chris Daughtry. Yeah. They need to stop trying to be the biggest sport.

They're not. Because they're not. They're not. It's like us trying to go up against Hockey Night in Canada for ad revenue. We are not going to win that battle. We win the small ball. They win the big ball. Does that make sense?

I guess. Like we, it's like they're like, okay, you'll pick up the phone and you'll call us. Whereas we're like, hey, we got to battle for some funding here. And that's the difference. The NHL's got to battle for that funding. Now, speaking of which, Elliot Friedman reported yesterday on headlines that there is apparently, and they're not commenting on this, a plan in place for a women's hockey league funded and created by the NHL. Now, it would be, quote unquote, the WNHL, but they don't want to get involved, as we suspected, because the NWHL still exists, and they don't want to put anyone out of business. Which I have to say, as much as I don't, as far as I know, I don't think it's a good look for the NHL to put anyone out of business.

Say what you want about the NHL. There are people that love the NWHL. There are people that hate the NWHL. It's not a good look for the big, bad NHL to put a women's hockey league out of business. It's just not a good look. The stance they're taking is a fair stance. It's hard to criticize them when they're trying to protect a league that's already there. The other side of this is they should have been on this 10 years ago.

Sure. But they weren't. We don't have time machines, you know? Right. You can criticize them for their past decisions, but now they're doing the right thing. At least, yeah. Yeah. From what we're hearing.

Although, like, all the people who cover women's hockey, like, hardcore, were like, yeah, I'm not over the top stoked about the NHL running that league. That's what I was trying to say in the interview. Right. I was like, are we sure we want the NHL running this? Yeah. With Liz Knox. Remember?

I said, are you sure that's what you want? This is a league that's behind on all these issues. And she said, and you go back and listen to the interview. It's a fascinating one. Her answers were, well, the NHL needs a PR win. Support women's hockey. Liz Knox and Anya Packer, we had them on back-to-back shows and it was fascinating. I just think, I'm, you have the, the thing is you want them to be able to control their own destiny.

And if they work with the NHL, they won't necessarily be able to do that. The NHL still has some say, right? However, they've tried it the other way, and it's not working that way either. They're there if it's dire. If it becomes dire. And I guess it's just not there yet. I just, yeah. I hope that if the NHL does do this, that it is viewed as a separate league with a separate commissioner, with a separate mandate.

And it's the best idea. Yes. It's the best idea for everyone involved. Okay, this makes the most sense. Let's go for it. Right. It's not there as a supplemental to the NHL. It's there as a, we're doing this because it's important and because we've got to create the sport for both sides.

It can't just be one-sided anymore. I think the most crucial part is just the financial support. Yes. That's why people want the NHL to become involved. Because if it bleeds money in the first five years, they can handle that. And it seems like when they're trying to do all these independently, CWHL and NWHL, it's just they can't. The Coyotes bled money for a quarter of a century. Right.

Don't tell me you can't support that. But they saw the value in keeping them. Right. Because they'd have lost their TV deal. And they were right. So, taking the lesson from that. I don't think there's any reason that it can't be profitable. I just don't think it'll be profitable.

Yeah. I don't think it's profitable right away. I think that's any business, though. Most businesses bleed money until they don't. But most businesses aren't like the Facebook movie where it's like, oh, I've got this great idea. That I'm going to steal from two guys. And there's a kaboom, I'm a billionaire. And then I'm going to say I started because of the Iraq war

and I wish Facebook was around then because then the war couldn't have happened. A thing Mark Zuckerberg said last week. Slowly turned into a cannibalistic alien. Did he actually say that? Yeah, he said that last week. He said if Facebook was around during the Iraq war, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Sorry to derail this conversation.

Oh my god. He's a monster. He's literally the devil. Oh my god It was rough It was a tough watch No question And he's slowly drifting into crazy billionaire haircut

Oh yeah He's got the Al Davis Jr. haircut going on It's rough Did you see AOC roast him? No what did she say? She just gave him the business She just kept asking questions and he had no answer He'd be like Congresswoman

And she'd be like next question The problem that they're having too is that most of the guys that are elected in the states don't use their email. There are a significant number of congressmen and senators that have never used email because they have assistants to do it for them. They're so old.

That's crazy. It's crazy. It's pretty tough to make laws about something you don't understand. You're asking the government to regulate a social media that they've never looked at or used or don't understand. We're getting dangerously close to talking about Rudy Giuliani

and then we'll never get the show. Oh, the butt tile. Oh, my God. That was great fun. Nope. That was great fun. Anyway, back to the— We'll never get it back.

Here's where we stand in it, and I think you know this if you heard the interviews. We want women's hockey to not just exist but to thrive. Yes. And who cares if it doesn't make money in the first five years? Honestly, for the NHL, it's a drop in the bucket. So I'm glad that they have a plan. I don't think it's right to cheer against any league, especially in the precarious nature the NWHL is supposedly in right now, although they've attracted a lot of sponsorship this

year, apparently. You know, I don't root for, I'm not going to root for them to fail, but I'm happy that if they do, the NHL's got a backup plan. But if they don't, things will get better for the women playing in that league. And, you know, they'll get more than one game a week. And, you know, they can't even get ice time. Like, it's ridiculous. So that's where I hope we get to.

And I don't want another generation of professional women's hockey players to go by and have these same fucking problems. That's the problem. You know what's going to be awesome? What? When you and I, Steve, buy Everly Wild jerseys when she's on the Toronto unnamed women's team. Do you know that she's already wearing her nine-month-old pants? Like she's We took her to the doctor

She's a big baby Yeah She's four and a half months And she's already Like out lengthening Oh no And so the doctor said You know she's like

In the 98th percentile In terms of babies Her size This age She's like me Yeah so she's big Does she eat a lot Oh hell yeah

Just crushing it She's got the wild genes Yeah When did she start Eating solid food She They start Well we're starting her

At six months People are back and forth on it We're just going with what our doctor says Because we trust the doctor Some people start early, some people don't I was a very agreeable baby But I stopped sleeping And I would get upset all the time

And I just couldn't eat enough And then my Nona, being a Nona Was like, feed him solid food And my mom's like, he's four months old And then she started feeding me solid food And I slept through the night I'm convinced that as soon as we switch her over To squash and potatoes or whatever

that she'll sleep the whole night. I'm convinced. I want to bring this up. Panago pizza, you've got to figure that. Ah, yes, yes, definitely. Put it in the blender. There is a book, a novel. No, make her chew it.

Make her earn her keep. Don't be soft. And you've got to get cheesy bread, too. What would David Goggins say if you blended Everly's food? There is a book. A novel called Breaking the Ice by the author K.R. Collins. It is about the first woman to be drafted into the, not the NHL, but the fictional...

Women's league. Equivalent. No, no. Oh. Men's league. But they can't use the rights in the book. Right. So they made up, hey, this is the professional hockey league.

Yeah, there is a novel. I received it in the mail. It's currently on the set of Ice Surfing up in the background right next to this other great book. It's called This Team is Ruining My Life. And I know. It's shocking. I know. But yeah, Breaking the Ice, K.R. Collins.

And if you look in the acknowledgments, you'll see the Steve Dangle podcast. Hey, that's cool. That is pretty cool. That's really cool. That's amazing. Yeah. Thank you for that, by the way. I want to read that book.

Thank you, K.R. You're such an author. I should have done S.P. Glenn. S.P. Glenn. Yes. Leo Vegas. That's Sundin Fall Edition. We now have some names that you'll be playing hockey with

if you are going to sign up for this. Now, it's leovegas.net. Click on Matt Sundin's jersey, number 13. And by the way, people are like, what's Matt Sundin doing at all these games? Did you notice that he's wearing a Leo Vegas thing? That's what he's doing in all these games. No, he's not going to be the next head coach.

Thank you, everybody. He didn't even show up. Is that a thing? Yes. And people were tweeting like, well, is he the next guy to take over? Is he going to be a part of the management? He didn't even show up for his jersey retirement, guys.

Do you really think he's going to join management? He's done. He's here just to play with you. Exactly. Now, Steve Thomas, Nick Kiprios, and Freddie Modine will be joining you. Kipper? Shit, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, no way. Yeah. And by the way, Kipper, man, if you get to play with Kipper, you're going to have a good time. Yeah, you'll hear him from several blocks away. You will hear him from several blocks away when you take the ice, Steve. Yes, yes. I'll try. LeoVegas.net for the Matt Sundin hockey experience.

Remember, this includes some travel expenses. This includes a party night. You're going to hang out at the Delta. You're going to get to play with these guys. There's going to be lots and lots of fun. And it's coming up real quick. Yeah. Like it's in three weeks.

Yeah. Yeah, a couple weekends. Two. Two weeks. So make sure you're there. Yeah, get your entries in. Also, I want to mention the Steve Dangle Podcast will be live at Regulars November 7th. Now, we have a show that week on the 6th, which is a Wednesday because we do Wednesdays and Sundays now.

But this will be a little extra. So Steve Dangle Podcast, live at Regulars, downtown Toronto. There's a game that night against Vegas. God save us. Because Marc-Andre Fleury has just been unbelievable this year. Oh, Garrett Sparks, shut out, Adam. I know! Ah, of course!

But we are going to be there live, doing a quick show before the game. So make sure you come armed with books that you want signed, questions that you want to ask, and maybe a rant or two about how the Leafs are doing. Hopefully it's better by then. We should do, like, all Q&A. You want to? We never get enough Q&A in at these things.

You think so? Yeah. You know, it's funny with Q&A, though. I always find that until the first person asks a question, no one wants to ask anything. And then the first person asks it, and everybody goes, oh, okay, I guess it was okay. All right, I got a question. Yeah, yeah. And then you see the question.

They didn't die. Well, they weren't attacked by wild boars. It's a human thing. I don't know why we're like that, but we're like that. I was like that in school. Okay, who wants to present first? Not me. I never wanted it to be me.

I would always, did you always strategically try to present after a presentation that you thought would suck? That's ruthless. I can tell you that in the band I was in, we never wanted to be the last act. Because it was always like the headliner. You always want to go right before the headliner. So if you had a great show, you could blow them off the stage. And if you didn't have a great show, people kind of forgot about it. Yeah, you're right.

But it's like, okay. But you didn't want to be the one that people were there to see. Oh, Adam, you in your leather pants while we underage drank at the bowling alley. You always tore the house down. What do people have to search on YouTube to go watch that Leather Cracks video? It doesn't exist. What's the name of his band? The Rebblers at the El Macombo, I think.

Let's try it. No, let's not. Come on. She wanted to fly. Is that the name of the song? No, it's 18 is the name of the song. Okay, so let's move on. Neutral NHL cities.

Going up for the city. Apparently Regina was... No, seriously, let's talk about this. Because no one gives a shit about my old fucking band. I don't know. Heritage Classic. Apparently the city of Regina really got behind this because, Steve, what do you always say about Saskatchewan?

There's nothing to do and everybody's at the nothing. So this was something. And John Shannon tweeted, you got to wonder what an NHL team in Saskatchewan would look like. And I don't think that, I think that the economics would prevent that from happening. Although, you know, you'd never, you'd have no problem packing an arena in Saskatchewan.

Or even a stadium once. I don't think you'd have a problem packing the arena for 41 games. I don't. Really? I think the issue comes down to it's the people aren't making money. I wish that somebody would come down with a breakdown of how much money teams actually make from the gate, and it's very small. It's very, very small.

Your gate admissions isn't where you make your money. You're making your money on premium boxes, advertising sales on the boards, things between the periods. If you go to a Tampa Bay game, everything is sponsored. It's the McDonald's door opening ceremony. thing it's the kfc shift of the game like it's you get a you go to tampa and i i don't know if this still exists they have a ford grill so you buy a burger and they burn a ford logo into it they sell i'm not joking they sell everything because that's how they make their money that's how they they can afford this stuff and i don't know if that money i don't i saskatchewan's got

lots of money there but i don't know if the corporate dollars are quite there yet to support that however it would be amazing what i want to get into is neutral market games so quebec city got an arena kansas city's got an arena houston used to have an nhl team they have an arena places where there are perspective there are rumors about nhl team so imagine five years ago let's say seattle actually had an arena that could support it i know the sonics had their basketball but i'm not sure that was ever convertible into a hockey rink um imagine that the NHL had gone in and brought in two mega teams and played

and I wonder about how that would go. I would love to see a Quebec City game. I don't know who it would be. It would have to be Montreal and something. So Elliot said they tried this about 25 years ago and they did it all wrong. He said because they do it on Tuesdays

in weird arenas and nobody would care about it. But he said now if they try it, it would be in Kansas City or in Houston on a Saturday night between two teams in the area that would matter and it'd probably

100% work I think it'd be fun it's a win-win situation Saskatchewan can support at least a game a year give it to Saskatoon next year I don't know

well I don't know they don't have the outsource whatever Saskatchewan can support it it would fall along the lines of hockey

as a local sport you're going to these other markets and you're trying to just build it locally I think it's a win-win yep I agree I think

yeah I think the NHL had a good little strategy with Vegas I'm sure they're going to repeat it with Seattle and if they continue to do this, they'll grow it on the local level like they need to. It seems like on that, at least they're on the right track. But I think it's kind of a cool idea.

Now, Winnipeg's struggling on defense, although they did win last night. They're cobbling this thing together. I hate that they're able to do it in the Leafs. I know, I know. But Dustin Bufflin. So we're a month into the season. Still no sign. Still no sign.

Let's say Dustin Bufflin signs December 1st just like William Nylander did last year. He doesn't have to sign. He just shows up. Sorry, shows up. Yeah. He just shows up to work. That's true. He's under contract.

He is under contract. If Bufflin does come back, what is his impact? And that's not to say that Dustin Bufflin's not a great player, and Dustin Bufflin's game is admittedly much different than William Nylander's. However, it takes a while, especially at Dustin Bufflin's age and after his injury history, to get up to speed in the NHL now because it's so much faster than it used to be. my question is if you've missed training camp and you're missing months of the season

anybody that sits out sits out that long does it make sense to come back mid-season are you going to be able to be i mean he'll be more effective than the defense they have just based on his talent but is it going to be dustin bufflin as we've known him can i can i make a off the board suggestion as to how you can ease him back in the lineup with controlled minutes Briefly Make him a forward again Oh he was a good forward Remember that?

It was a wrecking ball It was also like Seven Almost a decade ago Yeah It was a very long time ago It would be fun It would be fun

It would be a lot of fun Dustin Bufflin The fun thing about him Is he could be Off his game And he's still Such a unique player In this league

He's the heaviest player In hockey And he's got some wheels too For a guy his size And they will not be there. He's not going to have his breath. There's no way. Not for the first little bit, anyway.

Oh, my God, he'll be sucking wind. Like, you'll have to have him on the third period. Well, he can't play 30 minutes a night. No. Not to start. You might actually kill him, like, at that weight. But he's such a unique player that if he hits you, you're falling down. If you hit him, you're falling down.

He's a treat. Yeah, he's a unique player in that regard. And if he just stands in front of the net and you're trying to do the same thing, he's going to win. So he's a unique player. I think he'll have an impact right away, but they've got to manage his minutes hard because there's no way his condition is anywhere near where it has to be. You thought Nylander was bad. Nylander was at least jacked the whole time.

And I'm not ripping on Buff. I know he's in great shape, but there's a big difference between managing Nylander's, what, like 195 pound frame if that and so i got 300 pounds when he's not on the ice is like 300 pounds that's wild yeah that's a lot and it wasn't an ankle problem yeah and that's the other thing is the injuries he did have i think he only played like 30 games last year blank concussion yep you got the jamie alexia so you're not you're not gonna have the same mobility just based on that i mean whatever he had ankles do take a long time um even high ankle sprains will have you out for six weeks sometimes uh but i think i just wonder you know winnipeg really wants him to

come back understandably so but at a certain point and i've said this before do you just say listen bufflin take the year take the year come back you got another year in your deal we'll talk in the summer you know he's an emotional leader i get it like he's a he's a big big big part of that team but if he comes back acquisition hell yeah but if he if he comes back is he going to be the piece that they need is he going to be him is he going to be worth the seven million dollar cap hit pro-rated well right it's like um you know when a friend at the end of high school tells you you know i'm going to take a year off and you go well that's okay if that's the plan you stick to You know what I mean?

Most who take the year off don't go back. It's like, are you? Yeah. Are you? So, like, if he takes the year off with the plan of just taking the year off, and he works towards, I'm playing in 2020, 2021, he'll be fine. But with that amount of money, oh, this doc's really nice. Cancun's pretty cool.

You know what? Like, oh, you want me to get out there and battle with, I've got to battle with Mark Stone every night. And I've got to chase Nathan McKinnon around the ice. And I've got to somehow get in Conor McDavid's way. And he's won a cup. He's already done it. Yep.

I've got to intercept this. Leon Dreisaitl. And Zach Kassian's bothering me. It's really getting on my nerves. You know? But then if that's, like, and I don't pretend to know his personal situation, but he must know that it does put the team in a bit of a pickle. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Not his problem, really. No. I really hope when he comes back, if he comes back or if he retires, that we get the story. And it's not just, if he comes back, it's not just a copycat hockey player line of, I just need some time to take. I know I'm back here. I'm ready to focus and play.

I hope we get some sort of athletic op-ed or player's tribute op-ed. Sportsnet. Or a big read from Sportsnet.ca where it says, like, this is what I was doing with my time, this is what I was thinking about, and this is who I am as a person. Here's how I've grown from it. I hope we understand what Buffman's going through at this time. Because it's fascinating. It is.

I'm truly interested. That's something he's done his whole life, and all of a sudden he's just walked away. Not walked away, but taken a pause. Yeah. And then if he does walk away completely, I want to hear that, especially. You'd be amazed what some players go through. Oh, I'm sure. That's why we want to see it.

I hope he's willing to share. Me too. 100% agree. Penguins traded Goodbranson to the Ducks for Martinson in a seventh round pick. You saw everything happen. It's unfortunate that Goodbranson-Johnson pairing is now done in Pittsburgh. Unfortunate for you. We hardly knew ye.

But, boy, it was a beautiful thing. And I want to read this tweet from Mike Darnay. The Anaheim Ducks traded Carl Hagelin to the Penguins, who then traded Carl Hagelin for Tanner Pearson, who then traded Tanner Pearson for Eric Goodbranson, who was traded to the Anaheim Ducks. Just crazy. Jim Rutherford being praised for cleaning up Jim Rutherford's mess.

And he's trying to get rid of Jim Rutherford's Jack Johnson signing. Is he the most fascinating GM in the NHL? He's up there. He's up there. Well, because if Jim Rutherford stopped making 30% of the Jim Rutherford moves, he would be the best general manager of all time. He didn't? I can't get over.

He makes bad moves and then makes great moves to make up for the bad moves. As a Leaf fan, as a fan of a team who never wins shit, I can't get past the thought process of not liking how you won back-to-back cups. They didn't win Back to back cups In a way that he liked It sounds so ridiculous To say out loud

I'm dying to find out how else I should be saying it They didn't like how they won back to back cups So we've just ruined the team I don't get it man I don't get it Yeah you had to pay Matt Murray Yeah Vegas basically stole

Marc Andre Fleury Yeah I get it It was so strange how everybody kept paying Vegas to take the problems when you could just sat back and let Vegas just take the player. It was so weird. I wonder if it's the same thing that's going to happen with Seattle. Or are teams going to learn that, hey, we can just let them pick whoever they want and we don't also pay the picks on top of the picking?

But that's going to be amazing, though, Jesse, is when teams go, no, and they don't trade with Seattle, and they just get ripped off anyway. But it's one guy, you know? And then maybe they guess wrong on the one guy instead of, hey, here's the one guy you were going to take anyways, plus a first. Here's Riley. Like, what? Here's Riley and Marcheseau.

Yeah. Like, I don't understand. Yeah. There needs to be a book, a very nerdy book, written about that fantasy draft. It was a fantasy draft. It was. Then they should call it fantasy draft.

I would love, five years from now when it doesn't matter anymore, I would love to know about the conversations that went into each and every single one of those moves. They had three first round picks in their first draft. They used those picks to take Cody Glass, a really promising young forward. They got rid of Nick Suzuki, who they converted into Max Pacioretty. And it should be thrown in there that they spent a first on Thomas Tatar, who they also threw away in the patch ready trade

but we'll ignore that for now and Brandstrom partially converted into Mark Stone which I think I'd say that makes up for it

he's a pretty damn good player but it's also weird how a team that had literally a zero salary cap is now in salary cap trouble

hell like salary cap hell how did you manage that for yourself they didn't need to do what they did no

no they were like they were good and if they had just left it they'd have been really good and they are really good but there are some moves

there that I go there's still there's some pause there's still fun at least at the end of it they have an elite team yeah and they started

with an elite team so you can't really criticize them for that but they did yeah at the beginning of the summer they were at like 89 mil

I told you the biggest mistake they made was not paying Ottawa the extra whatever it took to get Eric Carlson because then they pissed that whatever it was

that extra first round pick that went to Detroit for Tatar and that's they should have just said you know what? What do you want, Ottawa? We'll give it to you for Eric Carlson. I'm starting to disagree

with that. I agreed at first. You don't think that year with the Cup, with Eric Carlson, they would have won the Cup. I didn't say sign him to an eight-year deal afterwards. That deal is horrible. It is so

bad. Well, we're only 13 games into it, man. So... Do we want to talk about the other news that came out of San Jose on Friday with Patrick Marleau? With Mike Babcock made the comments he did that he wants to break Gordie Howe's team record. There were a couple things there, Adam. And also the Matthews issue. Oh, so Marleau knew about what happened with Matthews during the summer.

Yeah, you got to watch. It might be on Sportsnet. Yahoo Canada was the only place I saw that had the video. And I don't know who asked what, but Marleau talked about, yeah, you know, learning experience for a young player all these things that made people super uncomfortable but the the primary focus there is he knew about matthew's incident from the summer i don't know who the reporter was who followed it up but they were basically like so sorry you knew about this and you just see the wheels immediately start turning in marlo's head where he's like oh shit

i really shouldn't have said that it just i i tweeted i tweeted i think i'm gonna skip gray and go straight to bald. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think Dubas probably feels that way too. He's disrespected. The players don't respect him. Yeah.

I said it before. Well, I also think the agent... You mean? They don't respect him. Dubas. The agent, I think, gave Matthews bad advice. Yep. That was not the way to handle that.

There was a lot of things bad about that, but in this particular isolated thing, not telling Kyle Dubas, although the agent has doubled down apparently and said, no, this is the right thing. It was not. It was bad advice. He should have come right out and said,

I did this thing, it was stupid, I apologize and it probably would've she probably would've said, you know what that was fucking idiotic, but I'll let it go she's already said that if it was handled differently, she wouldn't have even exactly, like this is the whole thing like it's just ridiculous

I can't believe it is October 27th and we're still getting new nuggets about this freaking thing well well you part of that is is um i think you're right i think there's a

there may be a bit of a pervasive culture in the with the leafs that that that there is i mean i wouldn't call it mistrust but it's just sort of like yeah i can kind of get away with that yeah they don't like babcock and they don't trust dubas i don't think it's that they don't trust dubas i think it's that they don't feel the need i don't think it's i don't think it's trust i think it's respect yeah it's yeah sorry i'm sure they trust i'm trusting why wouldn't they trust They don't like Babcock. They don't respect Dubas. They don't.

Hey, just hold out and you'll get all the money you want. I'm not going to tell you that I am in trouble with the police. It's crap. It's crap. Are you out of your mind? Yeah. I still... It's crap.

Yeah. It's... Listen. Matthew should have known better. His dad should have known better. I cannot get past the agent thinking that was the right course of action. Yeah. Anyway.

Anyway, we're just reopening. It just reopened it again, and it's probably going to happen again. And what was the Babcock quote about Marleau? Oh, he's playing to beat Gordie Howe's games played record. We also said when they signed him, they knew that they couldn't keep him for the third year. And that cost them a first-round pick. So when Babs and Lou were pretty tight, and he said when we signed him, Mike Babcock was really involved in that.

um and so when when uh when that happened um you know he he and lou were putting the full court press on marlo to sign and marlo's like you got to give me the third year otherwise i'm going to stay in san jose did they ignore dubas for four years and then hire him yes yes cool they let him run the marley's good team and so you know for them to say it's okay that a first round pick was given up to to blow a guy's contract out sucks that's i mean mike come on man don't even just don't say it like don't even say it oh if you're dubious how don't you just rush and just barge through the crowd and just duct tape his head like just immediately yeah shut up mike that should have been it like okay you want to keep dealing with that fine

like shanny you want to deal with that too that's cool Shut that guy up Oh my god this team I'm sorry What am I supposed to cheer for Exactly I'm exhausted Let's do a press conference a real quick one

Because we're running late on time For real I'm supposed to be excited And cheering for what They're not winning games so in absence of that what man listen what you're right i know it's frustrating we're all frustrated but it can't be that it can't be to me it's still in my brain and if i tell you this you're gonna hate me but the leafs are third in the division they're in a playoff spot securely cody cc has positive possession numbers this year.

Mitch Marner's still leading the team in goals. Matthews is still second or third. Sorry, Matthews is still leading the team in goals and is second or third in the NHL in goals. Marner's leading the team in points. Tavares is out. Dermott's out. Hyman's out.

Got some new players. You got nine new players on the roster. So that's the other side of it. And we haven't practiced. That was the other one. We haven't had a chance to expose the players to the depths of my brilliance. Well, wait a second.

No, but they had an entire training camp. Yes, they did. Yeah. Is that what he said? No way he didn't say that. He said they, well, he is right that because of their schedule, they haven't had like a proper practice in God knows how long. They have a pregame skate.

What the hell do they need to practice for? They have skate in the morning. What are you practicing? Dude, they're not good enough. Larvitar Candy on our Reddit page wants to know, when are you guys going to do a live podcast in the uk oh my god i would love that oh that'd be amazing what i'd love to no i listen uh we can work towards it i want to do it i'm in well maybe every two years anyway we need yeah no kidding we need the problem quite frankly and this is not going to be this isn't a call for

money but we have we do not have the money to bring it over yeah um it would cost thousands of thousands of dollars. We can't just do that casually. Tens of thousands, because we've got to get there, we've got to bring equipment, we've got to clear it through customs, by the way. You can't just show up with a bunch of podcast equipment. You have to bring that through customs. You have to go

a month early to get your permits for it and everything. If we brought nothing except for just ourselves and slept on the street, it would still cost us $4,000. Yeah. So love to have to find a global sponsor who'd be

willing to work with us on that one. But, you know, maybe Nike's like, we need more hockey in the UK. It's ambitious. I do, though. I still want to buy and I haven't had the chance to because of, you know, having a kid and that sort of thing and not having a whole bunch of...

I do want to buy a Great Britain hockey jersey. They are the coolest, coolest jerseys going. We know it. They're amazing. No, but I'd love to. It's just right now, money's just not there to do it. If it came to the point where we could, maybe we can reach out to the, I know the British Ice Hockey Association follows us all.

We probably could reach out to them and come to some sort of thing. We'd love to. We'd love to. And you know what would be really fun is if we were able to go at a time when the season's on and we were able to do like YouTube videos and talk about the actual league over there because I think it'd be fascinating. I'd love to do that in Australia. I'd love to do that around the NHL or around the world with various leagues, Switzerland,

Sweden, whatever. But yeah, money's the biggest issue, quite frankly. We all love, I mean, Steve and I love the UK. Jesse, you've never been there yet, have you? No, never. I've never been overseas anywhere. It's great. It's so great, except for the Brexit thing.

But the actual place is amazing. I want it to be emceed by the guy who goes, Order! One day. Who is that guy? The guy, the Speaker of the House. One day we will be able to go over there. I'm convinced about that.

We just need to find the proper avenue to do it. That's all. We'll find it. Yeah, we will. Update from the Joker steps that I said were a bad idea to go at. A new video surfaced, throwing eggs at tourists who wanted to take some pictures at the staircase where Joker does his famous dance. Oh, wow. So don't go to those steps, people.

Please stop doing that. I'd like to read a DM if I can. Oh, got it this morning from Cameron Hufflin. Diaz. Oh, Hufflin. Yeah. Incredibly savvy DM coming in, but I had to send it. I've been an SDP listener since the show started, and I was in high school. Yikes.

This is our seventh season. Long time. Currently backpacking Europe solo for a few months, and it's incredibly fun, and I'm learning lots. But sometimes it can get exhausting and lonely, and I just wanted to say having the podcast to listen to and be able to look forward to helps me through those really rough homesick patches and is really special and a guaranteed pick-me-up. Saved the last episode to listen to on my birthday yesterday, which was really fun. Anyway, I don't have a point other than I just wanted to drop in a DM and say It's awesome what you guys do, and it's so incredibly appreciated

So thank you so much for being so cool for so many years And I have to say First off, Cameron, happy birthday Happy birthday, Cameron, happy birthday It's your birthday, Cameron, yeah It's your birthday, Cameron, yeah I don't know these songs It's your birthday, birthday day

That's Jesse's birthday song That's the birthday song Where does it go with this? No, that's the official birthday song. Is it? Yeah, yeah. National birthday song of Canada. We do birthdays different here.

And then it's like, birthday song, yeah, yeah. No, it's like the South Park. What is it? Going down to birthday, gonna have a... Imaginationland. Imaginationland. Imaginationland. We were talking about that in the studio at Virginia the other day.

That has to be the three best episodes of South Park all time. Yeah, if you're going to take any three-episode run, it's probably those three episodes. I think it's the best episode of all time. If it's three episodes in one, it's the best episode they've ever done. Really like Black Friday, but yeah. Black Friday. Oh, yeah. That's the PS4 Xbox war run.

Yeah, that's good. That's a close. If anyone thinks that you're going to beat me inside that mall. Scott's a promo on the news That was really good Man, that's funny That's really funny Happy

Birthday It's your birthday Cameron, yeah You okay, Steve? What happened? I got caught up in our very expensive equipment Are we good? Was that the end of the DM?

That was the end of the DM So happy birthday, Cameron And by the way, I wanted to say this is this is to everybody that ever drops me a DM. I can't read them all, but I get them all the time. Other than hatred from Penguins fans and every other fan base. Penguins fans have been amazing, by the way. I do want to say we get amazing messages like that all the time. And I don't think we get the chance to thank everybody because we are literally flooded.

And just want you to know that that means a lot to us. We don't take that for granted. The fact that you make time for this show in your life It's a big commitment time-wise It's a lot of show The fact that you make time for us Means the world to us So we might disagree on hockey opinions

But one thing that we are really appreciative of Is the fact that you will listen to this show We are so glad that you're along And that's for Cameron and for everybody else That's ever sent us a DM Thank you so much I get DMs too, I just don't feel the need to Flaunt them on the podcast

It's okay Adam You're just like a really great guy. I'm just trying to thank people. No, yeah, you're not. Adam's a great guy. He's also, more importantly, he's better than us. Apparently I'm a bad person for saying thank you. No, it's okay.

Steve, final question. I just want to be an asshole. This is also from our Reddit page. It's from Omila. Okay. Omila wants you to let Hat Guy do a full LFR. He's close. Will you let him do that?

I mean listen rather than talk about how so here wait let me let me look this up when's the Leafs next back-to-back because rather than just complain about they did the thing that they always do again right I mean when the Leafs lose that game and they will uh I'll just let hat guy do it Why not? Why not? Here, what do we got? So we got their next backup is Saturday, November 9th, they play Philly, and then Sunday, November 10th, they play Chicago.

So when the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 10th... Can you let Hat Guy do the full LFR? He'll do the whole thing. Is that a promise? Yeah, when Michael Hutchison gets shelled with 43 shots at the United Center. Yeah, sure. Alright. He can just do the whole thing.

Listen. No, no, you have to... You have to commit to this If the Leafs lose against Chicago on the 10th On their back-to-back That night's LFR Which will be, we'll do a podcast that day And then the game will happen

And then you'll probably come out Monday Hat guy has to do that full LFR If the Leafs lose Since nothing matters Since absolutely nothing matters Alright Listen, if no one's gonna change it up I might as well

Remember The Leafs need to win For Steve They do You're joking No one watching this Thinks that's a bad idea Mike

If you're watching this Please coach For Steve's specifications Coach the way That I want you to Specifically I'm really smart We will see you guys

Wednesday When we have exactly One game to fret about And then Sunday next week when we'll have another game to fret about. There are only two Leaf games this week. Wow. We'll have to spend time with our families.

Boo. God, it's so weird. Ugh. I'm okay with it. Me too. It's less depression. No. And stuff your face with deliciousness.

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