The Steve Dangle Podcast - Chara Wing | March 2, 2022

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Steve and Adam don't care about sdpn (00:00), more sanctions are levied against Russia and Ovechkin speaks (03:00), the Leafs beat the Caps, but did they get bullied? (24:00), should the Leafs get Zdeno Chára? (44:30), Kyle Davidson is the GM of the Blackhawks (57:00), What if the NHL had loans? (1:01:00), and Major League Baseball is ruining baseball (1:05:00). Originally aired: March 2, 2022 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/DBRNcup8h64 Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. We've joined The Athletic and you can too! Hit the link to subscribe: https://theathletic.com/sdp Visit this episode's sponsors: https://BetterHelp.com/sdp http://Stance.com/ CODE: ATHLETIC https://athleticgreens.com/sdp https://manscaped.com/ CODE: DANGLE Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wild and jesse blake wearing an sdpn shirt i am jesse's wearing a crab people shirt i am and i keep forgetting uh to order stuff from in the sdpn shop i you know what i almost did the other day i almost ordered you a bunch of stuff and just sent it here oh really yeah that's cool because i got some adam doesn't care about our company i do no he doesn't own a single oh he's not the only one that's you just look at my suspicions damn it i don't know going in solo if anybody is looking uh to fulfill a two ceo roles i'll be looking oh wow i am listen to this i'm kicking out my partners here and i got two roles to fill wow you know jesse my iso cam is is covered that's not your

iso that's not my iso cam oh that's my iso that's always this has always been your eyes that camera is the webcam that's the that's the web that's the webcam so when we have guests when we have guests they look through that camera and they can see us and it's the wide that's the wide angle lens so it gets the whole room yeah okay yeah i was like i thought jesse was was hurting my feelings for no reason no i thought i was gonna get my go look at your camera balls uh i thought i wasn't gonna get my iso shot today i want my iso shot damn it somebody messaged me today and they're like your chin is looking chiseled and i said thank you i better get my iso shot back oh welcome to 33 years of adam yeah almost 34 not quite not fucking

american dad over here i got a feeling that it's gonna be a wonderful day one of the most underrated characters on television is roger the alien oh yeah so funny and very lonely and sometimes so fucking gross oh yeah sometimes that show gets so gross and i'm like what happened did they stop running new episodes is it over now it's on a they moved over to like tbs or something but they still uh they still have new episodes they do okay yeah you can watch it on disney plus i'm doing a whole plug for american there you go on disney plus who does not advertise with us that's okay yeah but my bubblies are a problem no put that down adam put that oh so now you know that's your cam you know how you

know that's your true cam huh no cap because i can't wear a hat no no no cap oh and also that means no lies yes i know i'm on that wasn't very good i know it was very good it was actually quite good and underrated so so um i wanted to uh i wanted to start the show today with some astounding news astounding because obviously the the russian ukrainian situation continues and the fallout continue so you know there's certain leagues that are doing the right thing and that is for now you know like the nhl i have to give them full credit um stopping all their relationships with um uh you know russian money and saying we wouldn't even consider russia as a place that we would go and play hockey although i didn't know it was ever under consideration but i guess they had to

say that publicly i think for like regular season games right uh i want to say moscow has been in consideration okay so now they're not going to do that good um and then there's like the fia which is the formula one governing body and they said basically you can't you can bella russian and russian drivers can drive but they can't use a russian flag or russian colors on the car and that directly relates to the haas team which is sponsored by nikita mazapin's father or used to be and people are kind of laughing because it's like, well, we just used

Dmitry Mazepin's money to make a great car and now we're going to let him go. And Nikita Mazepin, according to the British Motorsport Society, I guess, is not going to be able, all Russian driver license for motorsport in the UK

have been suspended. So he can't even, if he wanted to drive at Silverstone, he can't. And then you've got another one out of England and this is the astounding thing. So I told you Chelsea

is owned by a russian oligarch right chelsea football club yeah okay they're putting it up for sale now so roman abramovich is the guy's name i saw that i saw that you see how much for sale chelsea like one of the probably one of the top three four brands in english football maybe one of the top 10 brands in the world for football right so i feel like the most expensive sports teams in the world are like three billion so three billion is the number that's the number three billion pounds oh my god okay so that's like five billion yeah uh three billion pounds canadian canadian in canadian dollars is 5.76 million dollars 5.076 million dollars billion dollars excuse me billion with a b oh my god oh my god yeah that's a lot and

what's interesting about that is countries like the united states and canada and i believe the uk have frozen the assets of all of the oligarchs and vladimir putin so my question is if he sells the team this guy sells the team and finds a buyer which i'm sure he will um when that asset is sold is that liquid cash or is that uh or or is that frozen too because i would imagine that falls under this is frozen and you're gonna you don't get to touch this i don't know pretty wild stuff it's the dude it's it's so so much of this is beyond me and oh all of it's beyond all of us okay like yeah come on like listen if you're if you're expecting me to come in here and be like well i've got the scoop i'm a journalist i'm not i'm just telling you what i'm reading what like

like like i'm seeing twitter posts like a bunch of ukrainian citizens captured a soldier i'm like that's that's wild continue and they're like here he is uh you know having tea and eating bread because they're feeding him i'm like wild continue um and uh here he is facetiming his mom how nuts is that and i'm just what what is this yeah what like this is the this is the first uh i i think you know and and uh i think it's the first time where you're you're i don't know what i don't even want to describe it but there is like it these from what i've heard there have been entire divisions that have surrendered without a fight because they don't want to do this and i think that that's quite powerful and you and as you saw he's facetiming

his mom right he's probably a couple hundred kilometers away not far not far um crazy i it's i i don't know i don't know how to put it into words and i remember you know again we talked about you know early teens being uh transformative years uh i remember watching just the start of the iraq war on cnn and just sitting there and being like the war is televised yeah yeah yeah it's weird right what like you can just now this war is on zoom it's crazy and and uh yeah what do you even make of that that's what they said about desert storm too in 1990 is like the first completely televised war i don't know yeah so i'm sorry i wish i had more to say about that what's what's interesting i don't know how to wrap my head around what's interesting about

this is rick westhead tweeted this out um about an hour and a half ago he said i have connected with uh about russia's war with ukraine with a number of nhl player agents who have russian clients the advice they're giving all the players is to be careful russian parliament is considering a new law that could mean up to 15 years in prison for quote spreading fake news about the war so you know i gotta say but what's really been interesting uh is the ccm decision to remove all russian athletes from um from all their advertising now you know i understand um i understand people restricting um athletes from playing in international tournaments i get that um i i part of this is you know people are going to look at this and go well like

um it seems a little unfair to someone like artemi panarin who has actively spoken out against the russian government right um is he among the players well he's they said all russian players right and so we get to the point now where i'm like okay and i i i think i understand what ccm is trying to do here uh but the idea that you're just going to blanketly remove all russian players to me seems wrong um i can understand alexander ovechkin he had the team putin thing and here's what i think with alexander ovechkin by the way a lot of people are really hard on him and i get it putin isn't his profile picture we saw dominic hasik light him up uh on twitter the other day and all that stuff and and his you know his weak ass response to everything but you know here's

here let me just pose something to you and just just to clarify none of the money that the uh that CCM owes any of these players, they're going to still pay. Still paying, but they're not using them in ads. Yes. They're still going to earn their money. They're still going to get their paycheck.

That's important. Yeah. That's a really important thing to say. As it pertains to Ovechkin, okay, I'm Vladimir Putin in this scenario. With all my Botox, am I being terrified of COVID?

You've seen him at the end of that long table. You know he's terrified of COVID, eh? Oh, I thought he was just like a Bond villain. Well, and the reason that he looks the way he looks is because he's obsessed with not dying. So he's getting Botox shots. He's trying to look strong. It's a whole thing.

There's crazy articles about it. And so I say to my cultural ministers or whatever, and I say, well, how do we maintain our presence in a strong man government, right? We're not elected. You know, we don't. This is not the will of the people. This is just we've decided we're here and we're here now. Well, you reach out to superstars. Alexander Ovechkin is a superstar.

Now, I run a regime that kills people who disagree with me. You know, they poisoned a guy like 10 years ago with like radiation sickness. Remember that? An alarming amount of doctors fall out of windows in Russia. Right. They have really flimsy windows. Yeah, exactly. That or their government are a bunch of murderers.

Right. So then I'm a representative of Putin and I go to Alexander Ovechkin and say, how do you feel about being a part of our social media campaign for the upcoming election and remembering that you're alexander ovechkin in this scenario yeah you got 100 million bucks you know you're a big big fat contract but you got family in russia and you also probably get a lot more probably yeah but you have family in russia yep and a lot of commitments so you got a choice to make that's your and it's and it's your home too by the way you love it there that's your home that's where your friends are that's where you grew up so then um so then you go

fuck what am i gonna do even if i don't want to support this guy i'm afraid of what he's gonna do to my family who are still all back there now does he along with other players like i think i think pavel burry was a part of that there's a bunch of other players that signed up for this kovalchuk kovalchuk was a part of it does he need to say yes to this i mean you could argue that he doesn't. But Alexander Ovechkin is the most famous Russian hockey player on the planet right now. So it's a big deal if he turns the Putin regime down. It's different for him than it is even for Kovalchuk. It's different for him even than it is for Pavel Bure. Both great players in their prime, both way past their prime. And right now, he's the most famous guy in

the world. Now, I saw a bunch of people on Twitter saying like, well, he's got the money to get his family out of there. Have you considered that maybe they don't want to leave? Have you considered that that's their home? That's their language? That's their culture? Of course they don't want to leave. I understand that. Have you considered that if it was that easy, they might have done it? Right. And it is, yeah. Is it easy enough? Was it easy enough to get people out of Russia at that point? Did he have the money to do it? Absolutely he did. But you have to consider that maybe they didn't want to fucking go. So then at that point, and I'm not trying to be an Ovechkin apologist here. But I do want to bring up this point of view, which is it's a poison

pill. It's take this or something bad potentially could happen to your family. Do you want to live with that stress? Now, I'm sure if that were the case, and again, this is a wholly hypothetical situation. I'm sure Alexander Ovechkin doesn't love that he was associated, doesn't love that His profile picture is Vladimir Putin. Still. Still? Still. That's what I was checking on my phone.

Okay, so let me ask you this. If he changes it now, if he changes it now, yes, that shows strength. But would this not be the worst time of all, if this scenario is true, for him to change that profile picture? I think it would be strong. The tide is turning. The tide is turning. Nikita Zadorov liked Artemi Panarin's post last year. Deleted his like.

Yep. and has since released his own statement now passionate about yes about a a week later now maybe he's set up in a different way um maybe he's nikita zadorov and not alexander ovechkin right he's not a big as big a deal he's um he doesn't perhaps have as much to lose i don't know maybe he's emboldened by all the other russian players to do it or russian athletes i should say but uh alexander ovechkin probably has the most to lose here i mean people looked at his um statement the other day as weak when he was just like no more war which yeah that's like the bare minimum thing you could say uh i saw anything that isn't uh outright praise of putin and the

things putin is doing i think is a strong statement it's probably it's as strong a statement is you're going to get from alexander ovechkin i think um you need to stop looking at him uh as you look at politically active players in canada and america he's an asset of the russian government whether he wants to be or not which is how they treated how the ussr which putin wants desperately russia to return to that's how they treated mcgillney until he left beret and all the the other, Fatisov, all those guys that came over and had to pay the Russian government 50% of their salary or whatever it was

during the last years of the Iron Curtain. The Russian government always treated its players like an asset. And his mom was an Olympian under the Soviet Union. Like this is, I'm sure this is nothing new to the family even. It's, we, I don't think, I don't think you can write.

Yeah. No, we can't. That's a great way of putting it, Adam. We can't relate. I've, I've had, um, you, you all know, I used to work for the KHL. I've had conversations, uh, that I found frustrating and fascinating because, um, it's, uh, you know, you're explaining the world from scratch and also having it explained to you from scratch in a way that you've never thought of in a, in a, in, yes, it's, you cannot believe the

differences. you can't believe the differences and uh i encourage everyone to step outside of their bubble and i encourage everyone to not invade fucking ukraine um i think is a stronger way to put it than no more war but i don't have as much at stake right i think i think we have to look at it uh through a lens of uh like great activists like uh like muhammad ali and just the the amount of strength that it would take to stand up to power or even like and he um he was in a free country with free speech quote unquote and the difficulty that we're putting on ovechkin shoulders if he were to say something against putin and like uh what was it two years ago now

when gm of the houston rockins daryl daryl mori said some words about uh the chinese government and the nba had to go and fix that entire situation because if we're being honest about it they were scared of the government that's that's why they were gonna lose millions they were gonna lose a whole bunch of money they were afraid of what the chinese government would do to the nba's financials and they did lose a bunch of money in the end because they took away some games and all that but we're seeing that standing up to a dictator dictatorship isn't as easy as it just as it sounds like we we if ovechkin came out and was like i'm i i don't believe in putin anymore my family's out of the country i i i don't support the war and he goes completely against the

president were that puts him in this other stratosphere of activists on a level where who's stepping up in a wartime against his own government. And it's hard for it's hard for me to say, oh, this guy should do it, because if he's not capable of that, I can't tell him to go out there and do that. That's that's something on a on another human level that we're asking this person to do and if he doesn't have that capacity to be that flag bearer of an anti-putin stance in terms in with celebrities then i can't be like oh man he's a shit dude for not doing that no because that's another realm of what we're asking him to do yeah i think uh i think this story is still being written here yeah but he is i do think it's fair to acknowledge that it's

impossible to talk about alexander ovechkin without this being brought up 100 yeah and you should ask him the question yes you should every single time he's in front of him here's the deal this is what was telling for me if this guy was really an unapologetic putin supporter like people are making him out to be and i get it believe me i still i was the one last week who was saying uh he came out with a putin team uh on his social media i think you got to talk to him about it but if he was an unapologetic uh putin supporter don't you think he would have got up in front of the cameras and said yeah and we're right to do it too no this is good i'm excited for this no like i don't you isn't that uh you know and and he would have trumpeted all the stuff that

you see on rt and the other propaganda arms and what the and and what the guy uh at the un the russian foreign minister said at the un yesterday which is um the ukrainians are fascists and they are you know they're neo-nazis and they're threatening russia and blah blah blah all the bullshit that they've been spewing don't you think ovechkin would be out there doing the same thing that's why i think i think that this guy was poison pill he was given a choice neither was good he took he took one that maybe you wouldn't have taken but he took it anyway and i i have to tell you if he was an unapologetic putin supporter i think he would have been up got up there and been unapologetic and the reason we remember uh the the activists that you spoke of jesse is because

what they did was impossible yes what they did was so hard yeah so oh simply do one of the bravest things ever think of how much we revere colin kaepernick and his life wasn't on the line but his career and his job was and in a situation with ovechkin we we think it's my his life or at least the lives of people around him might be on the line yeah if he did this his family could could disappear the stakes are so high here it's not as simple as just go out and do this there's a lot to consider here and there's so much nuance and i just hope people take that into consideration when you speak about the situation and when they ask you about the question because everybody will keep asking because that's a fair thing to ask i also don't envy the companies that have to make

these calls like i don't imagine it was an easy call for ccm to say we got to take all the russian players off i don't know how they ultimately came to that decision or why they ultimately came to this decision or why the fia in motor racing couldn't couldn't just step up and say we've got one russian driver and his dad's one of putin's buddies get him out of here why they couldn't just do that why it's taking the british motor racing association or whatever for them to do that to make sure nikita mazapin's not racing in their country i don't know why it takes this or how these people come to this conclusion. But even for a company like CCM,

that really, is CCM going to be affected by this? Corporately? Financially? Probably not. Even for them, it was a difficult decision. You imagine what it's like for the Russian players. And you saw what happened to Artemi Panarin

a year and a half ago when he said something pretty small. And then all of a sudden, he got attacked and had to go back home and leave the Rangers during the season. It's crazy that everybody forgets that that happened. imagine alexander ovechkin who is a hundred times more famous in russia so i i barack obama mentioned him ovechkin yes really yes well they went to the white house yeah well they went to

the white house but it was um i guess i think he was making us he was making some sort of speech while he was president and i think it was like a oh man i think it was like during talks with putin or something i can't remember but he was talking about alexander ovechkin yeah like what we're enriched uh by russian culture in washington because i get to watch alexander ovechkin i remember it oh wow it's i can't remember what year it's from but he did i hadn't watched they play i forgot they play where the white house is yeah yeah i forget that all the time barack obama is also referencing a local superstar right literally a local superstar and we we talk about Like, who's the face of hockey?

I think worldwide, it's Aleksandr Ovechkin. A hundred percent. But I think, to be honest, it's probably still Wayne Gretzky to the rest of the world. Which is pathetic. Yeah. Because he hasn't played in... Separate issue, but yes. Very many years.

We've had this conversation. Yes. But, like, no... Like, when was the last time a hockey player was mentioned by the President of the United States? Not when the Stanley Cup was there. Yes. Never. Ovechkin.

that's it yeah he's the most famous hockey player in the world there's a lot there yeah anyway it's a tough situation i don't know man maybe he is some unapologetic putin supporter maybe and if he is then disregard what i said because it was hypothetical anyway but i'm just saying you have to consider both sides here you have to yeah i'm not uh absolving him it's just it's i think it's okay to say you don't know here yeah i think it's fair enough i think it's okay for him to take a little time you know well i did not have an answer and all of us like you don't i to me i don't know if you need to have an impassioned opinion on opinion on this i think you can have an impassioned opinion about don't invade countries who didn't do anything to you i think that's an okay opinion

to have you can be passionate about that um but when it comes to this particular hockey player I just don't think it's there new from Nespresso blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range infused with functional benefits choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins like coffee plus B12

to help support immune function and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight our new double espresso with ginseng extract whatever lies ahead don't change your morning let your morning change you discover coffee plus on espresso.com um let's talk about the

Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals on Monday night and there's a specific play that everybody's talking about he was horrendous in that game he was he was terrible um there was a specific play where uh Tom Wilson bullies John Tavares to the ice with six minutes left in regulation and the next closest guy is Nylander and it's not like Nylander is going to be like all right, Tom, you and me, let's go. I thought Sheldon Keefe's comments on this were interesting. And Luke Fox put it together perfectly in an article. And he said, it's sort of symbolic about how the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to handle somebody like a Tom Wilson or Brad Marchant, I would think. That's the unstated. Keefe said, you know, it can go both ways for me.

I think there is a symbolic part of it where you're staying together and all that, but you can say whatever you want to Tom Wilson. It's not going to change a single thing about how he plays or what he does. So I don't know if it's really worth engaging in. There's a certain number of guys that it doesn't matter. Just like in a different way, it does not matter what you say or do to Michael Bunting. You're not going to change the way he plays. So you can pretend it's going to make a difference, but it's not going to make a difference. If I had my choice, I'd rather just keep playing. Play harder, be more competitive when the puck drops, and that's what Tavares did. so it is like the outcome is fantastic yeah i mean the new york rangers blew out half their

team because of what tom wilson did to them yeah i think what we well yeah but now look at them yeah they're looking pretty good looking pretty good they're like did did the rangers let tom wilson ruin them or did they learn i think they got a one of the best goalies in the last 50 years for that he has ego shisterkin by the way has the second highest save percentage of all time right now that's so dumb that with a minimum of i think it's 15 starts in a season he has the second highest save percentage of all time that's okay you're gonna win games i don't care what the rest yeah it looks like so stupid um and with that with the wilson situation the context of the game was that it was tied 3-3 with six minutes to go in the third period if you can't take a dumb penalty

against wilson there and then with 25 seconds left when it was five three leafs um wayne simmons did get out there and line up next to tom wilson in the face-off dot and try to engage with him and tom wilson kind of skirted away you wouldn't go so the this narrative that the least wouldn't retaliate it's like no they got the wayne train and every time something intense happens he gets out there on the ice and he tries to bully somebody you know so like i don't like that narrative that the Leafs get pushed around it was one instance where Tom Wilson pushed down Tavares and it was a 3-3 game so nobody did anything crazy and then when it was when they won the game when they were gonna win that's when they tried to engage with him and then he ran away now at least

did the right thing here yeah I agree um I think uh like as part of the larger conversation where I say the Leafs need to be a little bit more tough they need to be a little bit more tough because what tom wilson did is not a penalty that's true and that's so genuinely stupid like i encourage everyone to watch sports that aren't hockey because the more you do that the more you'll watch hockey and laugh the more you'll watch hockey and be like oh so you're just sort of allowed to assault people like that's fine well yeah yeah it's legal assault it's fine you can't do that in a bar what's what did john tavarez do there you're just allowed to do that like again this is why I was so passionate about Brad

Marchand not getting suspended for the Jari thing. If you put together a video package how many uncalled after the whistle punches to the face do you think we would find? Dozens and dozens and dozens. You're just allowed.

You're just allowed. And it's so unique to hockey because in any other sport you're ejected from the game. Yes. Yes. Even if you push somebody to the ground. They'll kick you out of the game in the NBA if you're rude. yeah like you say the wrong thing yeah like it's it's it's i i don't get it i don't get why you're allowed to do it um and years ago i fought that fight that oh gosh darn it they got to start

calling stuff guys have given up no don't ask the refs to do the right thing i've i've given up no here here's here's why i think the way i do about the toronto maple east okay i'll tell you all the story uh and i'm being very open with you uh when i was a kid i got wider before i got taller okay you know that's we all go through puberty differently that's how mine went i had the cottage cheese belly you know you know that one and uh i got i got picked on i got picked on at the bus stop and i was you know i would go home and i would talk about how i got picked on at the bus stop and they said be the bigger person you know do do not retaliate and so i tried that for a while and i kept getting picked on at the bus stop then they would follow me from

the bus stop up the street and i was still told do not retaliate be the bigger person because people will see that you're the bigger person and maybe they'll even defend you and the kids kept picking on me at the bus stop and they kept picking on me on the way home but you know what's happened what happened is eventually because i was the bigger person they stopped by the way the end of that story is a lie what actually happened is i got taller i chased them down and i cornered them in their fucking garage and they had to fend me off with a broom is that actually what happened yes that's what fucking how old are you you do not wait for help is what that's what i learned is being the bigger person gets you nowhere i need more details i need

more details on this fight when did you it wasn't long jesse so you you brought a broom with you no no no no no no no okay i chased this little motherfucker all the way home into his garage and he grabbed the first thing he found which was a broom and that was the only thing between him and the bear who's gonna maul him that's good fucking a right it's good i'm proud of you i'm proud of little steve and you know and you know like you know 13 14 year old steve you're not gonna take it yeah years later i felt a lot of guilt about it why i'm kidding oh i'm almost 34 it feels as good today as it did the day i did it that was that was over 20 years ago and i'm still i'm genuinely fucking proud of it

i'm genuinely fucking proud of it so anyway that's why i view the leafs as i do what does uh your therapist think of that story i haven't told him yet but thanks for the reminder i think i i think there's a lesson we learned there which is uh if you keep taking it people will keep doing it yeah and and and what i was always told and i come from a very non-violent family um if you met my dad you'd be like uh does he have a pocket protector or what's the deal like he's he's it's just not that kind of a guy but i was always told listen if you're if if if it has to happen if it has to go that way make sure you hit him first and and that's sort of always how i viewed hockey is it's like if if they're if they're gonna physically intimidate you over

the long haul make sure you get one in first i was never the biggest guy um and you know i could tell you on the teams that i played on and i'm just like i was a bum i was terrible hockey player but on the teams that i played on that hit first usually you win and i wonder i wonder what the toronto maple leaves and you've talked about this steve a few times about in front of their net like Like, I agree with Sheldon Keefe about, you know, what are you going to do? You're going to stop Tom Wilson from being Tom Wilson? No, you're not going to stop Tom Wilson from being Tom Wilson. Well, I didn't want to see the Tom Wilson versus Alex Kerfoot fight.

No, 100%. But when it's in front of the Leafs net, and this is something you've mentioned before, then I want to see some bodies moved. Yes. And that's where it comes back to the trade deadline. Go two, three, four on one. Every other team does it. Yeah, they do.

they do they just mob every other team doesn't beat them up until someone pulls you off them that's right and that's the strategy that's the move because that's allowed it's fucking allowed in this sport if you're not cheating you're not trying if you're not literally complying to the rules you're not trying i can tell you that much you're allowed do it this is why this is why i would call the islanders about the dino maybe you're right i should uh here let me make a quick call i would call the islanders about sedano and he's not he's not that good he's really not that good but it'd make me feel better but he's a big person i'd play sedano char on left wing bro what you do spezza spezza simmons uh

yes yeah absolutely sorry pierre but you get it right i worry about the bodies in front of the least net because when that detroit game like four of those goals were either floaters from the point and there's nothing in between or tip-ins from somebody who got to park out in front of campbell or miraza you know here you're you're pierre engvall you're about the same height you're pierre engvall i'm sheldon keith you come to me very upset. You're upset that Zidane O'Chara took your roster spot, okay? Tell me.

Keefy, I'm upset. Chara's in my spot. Oh, you want your spot back? Yeah. Okay, fight him for it. I'm not going to do that. He's big. It's his spot. I'd do it. I'd do it.

His spot. I'm telling you, man. Fight him for it. Chara's not playing weird. Straight up. just have some fun with me for a moment let's pretend we're in Kyle Dubas' shitty office at the practice rink oh god, look how boring this is

it's exactly as I want it the most interesting thing is what Kyle's wearing and the fact that his glasses match but they've got that magnet board with the player names on it how fucking sick would it be the first day you got to slap Chara up there

where are we going to put him? who fucking cares don't act like the Leafs are above it they traded for kyle clifford and actively pay him a million dollars chara on the wing is not weird i saw it just steve steve's a spitty talk i'm in a mood i'm just thinking i honestly think like remember how the the blackhawks won the won the cup in 15 with chemo team and then playing like three minutes a night and i'm not saying that the leafs cannot do that they can't do that but if if chara got into one or two games like if you had a bad loss and you got physically

outplayed and then zadano chara's dressing up you wait until there's five minutes and one second left in the game because if it's after the five minute mark you get in trouble and you confetti gloves and beat someone until someone stops you i mean i feel like honestly i feel like the just the size and stature and respect the zadano does and he's also such an a-hole to play against it stops momentum in its tracks. And I know I'm overestimating Zidane O'Chara's impact because I know he's not that good anymore. But to be honest with you, in the playoffs,

come on. Tell me, would you rather have or not have Zidane O'Chara as an option? I'd rather have him because the rules change because you're allowed to assault people in the playoffs. Thank you. It's simply how it works. Thank you. But Brad Marchand is going to get suspended for what he did to Tristan Jari in the playoffs.

Fucking get a lobotomy. It's just not going to happen. but no i'm like seriously but uh the leafs i i'm trying to keep my eyes in the prize here because john tavaris um showed tremendous toughness in the way that he responded to that by not just setting up the game-winning goal but like that was the leafs best shift of the game yes it was it was dominant they pantsed the friggin washington capitals it was embarrassing uh on that play and and like alex ovechkin like like a plastic bag in the wind on that play like horrendous horrendous but i feel good about that play and because i feel good about the outcome

uh used to drive me up a wall when babcock would be like our toughness is our power play and then the power play would get out there and be actively shit the Leafs power play has been really good this season but the best number one in the league the best

but it was bad in this game remember when I said last year like we were talking about that there was no excuse for the Leafs power play not to be the best

in the league I'm so glad they're fulfilling that potential now I'm so glad me too but it's a strength of theirs

that's going to disappear in the playoffs but they're penalty killing strong and they're 5 on 5 play strong and the need for that is going to

disappear in the playoffs the 5 on 5 play is strong The team is strong. The force is strong. It's a good team. It is a good team. And they're hunting down Florida.

Nobody's talking about this, but they might catch Florida. I do have my eyes on the process prize here. But the fact that they're finding ways to win games, ugly as they are, and they're keeping up with these monsters. Man, it's impressive. I got to tell you, it's March now. It's March now. I really thought they were going to find a way to drop out of this race.

Their goaltending has been atrocious. And they're still there. And they're still there. 14, 14 non-overtime losses this year. That's it. And let me throw this at you. Florida has played 53 games. The Leafs have played 53 games.

The Leafs are a point behind them. Tampa's played 52. They got 76 points. The Leafs have 74. It's conceivable, even though everybody laughed, why can't the Leafs win the division? Yeah. You have 30 games left.

All of that's still in play. It's still perfectly within reason. Yeah. Anybody who's saying the Leafs can't win the division is out to lunch. That's not true. They win the President's Trophy. Tonight, the Panthers play the Ottawa Senators in Florida. The Leafs play Buffalo?

Yeah. The Sabres. That one. If the Leafs win and Florida loses, the Leafs are in second place in the division and a couple points back at Tampa. It's all right there for the taking. If they pass Tampa in the next week or so and things remain the same, their first round opponent would be Boston.

boston's so close like what a ridiculous division they are also i said they'd be a couple points back and then they'd be tied with tampa 74 to 76 there's two points like i there i also want to throw this out there who saw the caps being a second wild card dude they don't have uh goaltending right now yeah that's wild and the but here's the thing the next closest team is columbus with 57 points they are like they're they're eight behind so it's not we kind of have a top eight yeah it's sort of it's sad right ilia ilia samsonov is has been in trade talks recently and you know oh do the capitals not believe in them i knew they didn't believe in them when they paid a second round pick to get vtech vanachek back from the seattle kraken they

don't believe in this kid and but not a first and a third but not a first and a third and let me tell you ron francis he was on to something he got zero first and thirds yeah but he got he did get his second though so we were we were talking about that before the show yeah and oh you know i'm so upset about the way we were talking about it because we hated losing jerry mccann this oh watch jerry mccann be their best player and now it's like jerry mccann's their best player yeah well and i also want to say people gave me shit ron francis did not do a good job guys i told you i told you he didn't do a good job did he not do a good job or did vegas set the bar too high no yeah that come on both both come on you're both the expectation that an expansion

franchise should be good is a unreasonable expectation with the rules that they had ron francis asked too much of teams for spots if he had asked for a bunch of second round picks if he had asked for just second rounders what like what he got for vanecek if he'd have all the second round picks in the nhl right now no but those belong to uh but what did he get what do you get and yeah oh he's gonna sell at the deadline right you traded tyler piller oh man but they're also an expansion franchise and the gms got better from vegas to seattle so they got better at their job i i don't think they did yes but no no they didn't guys they didn't get me they didn't get tarasenko they didn't get they got adam larson when they did not need to and then signed him to

a long-term deal and now he's on the trade block that's still they signed jamie alexiak to a five year contract they drafted a bunch of guys they didn't need to uh and like listen i get nikita zadorov's contract kind of sucks look at the flames yeah look at the flames yeah what he does for them i i just listen it's going to become more and more clear i'm not saying they needed to even be a playoff team but i can tell you for sure that this team is way worse than it should have been yeah the seattle kraken should not be here and here we are because uh ron francis wanted the first and the third had he not done that think of what you could do with a pilot like if you 10 second round pick do you have five you think you think five's crazy montreal had four the other

year i just uh i just realized where this conversation came from and it came from the capitals don't have a goalie and i think the most underratedly funny thing in the nhl this season that i don't think we've talked about on the show is supposedly the capitals have asked for mark andre flurry many times this season oh flurry has said no every time yeah l m a oh actually that's so effing funny whoa it's really really funny it's like you know what i do think it gets into your blood a bit remember um do you remember matt sundin's reaction when uh he was in trade rumors to montreal uh no i don't actually i do and a reporter goes uh yeah did you hear the rumor or whatever and sundin goes no what uh that you're heading to montreal and sundin accidentally

goes oh fuck in the microphone you can find it you can find and all the reporters sort of went because i think it might have been live on tv but uh yeah like it gets into your blood sundine didn't want to go to the fucking habs because he's matt sundine and mark andre flurry doesn't want to go to the fucking caps i'm mark andre flurry i get it and josh georges didn't want to be a toronto maple leaf so he chose the sabers thank you by the way i'm so glad he did continuously thank you thank you josh georges um yeah so long story short with the leaves i think it's pretty clear they you need a new to me it's you need a defenseman you want another power forward is that fair get your be both i'm indifferent on the forward group we have so

many forwards yeah very good i think they're okay yeah i'm just saying you want can't you want oh i don't even want like i have a i have i have a nice pickup truck i i want a ferrari right but you don't need one i don't need one but man if you got one it'd be great i'd be happy i drive but if you don't get one it's okay yeah all right and i'm saying all right don't put your energy towards that ferrari maybe put your energy towards i don't know the heat like the heat bill yeah you know you gotta pay you gotta pay your hydro yeah i'm still working towards that ferrari boys okay uh if the ferrari happens like oh you walked out but like don't put your energy towards that and i think but like winter is coming yeah and we're going uh morassic starts tonight which

is very interesting. Because first time in his tenure as a Toronto Maple Leaf and this season that he's going to start back-to-back games. I think again, the more time that passes,

I don't think we're giving we're putting enough weight on the fact that all the Leafs were sick in the Detroit game. And Campbell, as bad as he's been, allowed four goals in five minutes dude that he was on the verge of shitting himself let's let's call it what it was like i'm i'm pretty sure he was on the verge of shitting himself like and now he's

not playing back-to-back the you know he could have zero illness and that would make sense because i mean sorry buffalo should be getting the backup treatment win or lose they should be getting the backup treatment um but also i don't know i think he's recovering and um that's probably why kasha wasn't in the lineup against the caps excuse me keith even said uh in the pre-games today i'm reading mikey stevenson he's like it's no secret that jack struggled and we need to get peter into more games yeah and remember we were saying that a month and a half ago it's like you have another goalie play him it's okay yeah well and like now you do and like also marazic not looking very good does not shock me like think about william nylander season when he held out that's essentially

what happened to marazic by accident and and willie was healthy the whole time and has he been that bad i think he's been that bad he's he's he's he is not good for my heart i loved i love the way you summed him up it's like he he makes spectacular saves that are of his own making Yeah, he loves cleaning up problems that he made. I love that. It's true. He has no idea where his posts are. No, I like when a puck...

No idea. He needs to be one of those goalies that hits the post before... Yeah, a puck goes across the crease, and all of a sudden, he's in the corner of the ice. He has no idea. It's like, what do you do on the boards, Brazic? He's like, I'm not a goalie coach, but he has no idea where his posts are. It's ridiculous. Do you guys know...

You know when you play NHL 22 online, and somebody's playing goalie for the first time, and they like and they push off one pad and they just keep going yeah the other eye that's how morassic is watching him but wherever he's been he's been like this and he's always produced i don't know i don't mind peter morassic i think kind of he's never won anything man it's what's what's our definition of producing listen i remember a time not too long ago when i thought wow maybe they have some found value in michael hutchinson because i was at the game where he started for the first time and shut the Canucks out 6-0. We all

know where that went. I was there with my stepdad, Jim. So. That's great. Dr. Jimmy. So I just remember that. He's a doctor. And so compared to that. Yeah. Compared to Hutcherson, yeah. Yeah. It was like, okay,

so I tweeted. That made exactly zero people feel better. You just compared him to Michael Hutcherson. Well, so it should make you feel better because the team still should have made it passed the first round that year and would have the michael hodgson won two of three for colorado i'll never let people forget that's true um i i tweeted the other night um about michael kempney and that's like one of those michael kempney's deal with with the capitals it was like a throw

in like i think they threw like a i think it was a fifth round pick it was like nothing it was inexpensive and he came in and was really solid for them all the way through the playoffs and through the next season and caps fans got on me a little bit even russian machine was like uh you know that his like leg blew up right he's just come back from injury he missed all last season oh and and i'm like i'm like listen listen you guys you guys just don't get it okay you guys just don't get it and i'm not just talking about russian machine who we love by the way shout out and the whole crew there noted pieces of garbage garbage garbage people oh i love them um the uh The thing is, is that you have to understand Michael Kempney is a really good third pair

defenseman that they got for almost nothing. The third pair defenseman that we got for nothing or for a lot actually was Roman Polak. And we also have the team, and I mentioned this on Twitter, we were the team that had Ron Hainsey playing with Morgan Riley for two years. The Leafs stapled to Morgan Riley. I think the point you were trying to make is the Leafs don't have an extensive track record of acquiring defensemen via trade who stay. yes and it's not because they do a great job of it on forward like look at the look at the value

ads they've had did you know the leafs pick was involved in that company deal was it mother how did we how which team did we help this time so uh washington traded uh the chicago's or their own third round pick or the leafs third round pick of 2018 to chicago for michael kentty and it turned out that chicago received the 2018 third round pick from the leafs i have to know how they got that how they got i'm trying to think from the leafs i'm trying to think of how they would have what trade that would have been involved in 2018 that's so funny that you bring that up and it involves the leaf it must have it must have been a pick for pick deal like from the draft because i can't click the pick to find out the picks trade history here i'll be able to find

it in five seconds don't worry about me here you you guys you guys go off hey you guys so so what did the trade tree powers activate what was the trade jesse can we get to it was i yeah i said it it was a third round pick to chicago for michael company and the third round pick they traded had conditions because washington owned their own third round pick and the leafs third round pick So they said Chicago gets the higher of that pick, and the higher pick turned out to be the Leafs pick. I'm on it, boys. You guys talk.

I'll have this in a minute, baby. You still haven't found it. I'm about to. I found it here. No! You were looking. Did Jesse beat you? Toronto Maple Leafs trade 25th overall pick.

Oh, no. That was... That's not it. That's not it. That's not it. I found it. Okay, go. but oh my oh my oh my hey i got so much i got here too i gotta hear it's a lot oh wow okay yeah

wow to the to the blues right do you have that one uh there go just read it off okay this is from wikipedia the toronto maple east third round pick went to the san jose sharks as a result of a trade on june 23rd 2018 that sent a fourth and fifth round pick in both 2018 to arizona in exchange for this pick arizona previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on june 23rd 2018 same day that sent calgary's third round pick in 2018 74th overall to chicago in exchange for columbus's fifth round pick in 2018 and this pick chicago previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on february 19th 2018 that sent michael kempney to washington in exchange for this pick being conditional at the time of the trade the condition chicago will receive the higher of

toronto or washington's third round pick in 2018 was converted on april 25th 2018 when toronto eliminated uh was eliminated from the 2018 stanley cup playoffs uh ensuring toronto would select higher than washington washington previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on july 2nd 2017 that sent marcus johansson to new jersey in exchange for florida's second round pick in 2018 and this pick new jersey previously acquired this pick as compensation for toronto hiring lou lamorello as their general manager on july 23rd 2015 this pick that we randomly are talking about because you wanted to about michael kemny is as a result of the leafs hiring lou lamorello by the way for wow for any one of the odds for anyone who's ever watched the trade

video and gone i could do that stupid shit that's one pick one you know how long the Glyndra Street took forever. Yeah, so... That's wild. The Capitals have Michael Kempney because the Leafs got Lou Lamorello from the Devils. That's fucked up. That's insane.

Wow. Wow. Thank you for accidentally bringing that to the show. Did you have any idea? I also didn't know I could read that fast. That's crazy. That was wild, though. That was crazy.

Wow. That's wild. that's i'm like i don't know what to say now anybody who's watching the video i put up the wikipedia entry and it's like seven lines long about this one pick like it's insane wow wow that's wild i love that i love that so much i guess i was just thinking that yeah wow wow holy cow that's a lot i bet you were listening like where is this going steve oh there's my clothes that was what a good ending that was great i definitely thought wikipedia was going to m night channel on this but no that is a great ending good stuff i think we peaked in the show

yeah you want to end the show is that it that's it we're not we're not coming we're not doing better than that okay all right all right that is it for this one thank you very much for watching should we do the press conference at least yeah all right come on new from nespresso blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range infused with functional benefits choose the coffee you love with added b vitamins like coffee plus b12 to help support immune function and coffee plus b6 to keep your day moving or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight our new double espresso with ginseng extract whatever lies ahead don't change your morning let your morning change you discover coffee plus on espresso.com

the steve dangle press conference what it's just yeah crazy yeah it's wild oh wow news and notes since we last had a show uh kyle davidson named uh gm of the chicago blackhawks that's right they uh interviewed a whole bunch of people, and they had a huge big interview process. From the desk of Danny Wirtz! They part, they tweeted out on every single

person they were interviewing, which was a new thing. The dunking on Chiarelli was... When they announced they were interviewing Chiarelli. Pretty aggressive. And then in the end, they decide to go with the guy who's there. Yeah, I mean, you gotta do it. What was interesting

about him is that he said they are in a full-blown rebuild. And he said, Kane and Taze are extremely important pieces of the organization. They're definitely going to be brought into the loop on what happens. There won't be any surprises on their end on what we plan on doing. But here's the thing. They're a year away from unrestricted free agency. Taze has been half a point a game player this year.

Kane is still Kane. To be honest with you, if I'm Kyle Davidson, that's not the precedent I set. and maybe to maybe that's what he believes and maybe that's what the organization above him wants sometimes you have to sometimes when you work in a big organization you have to agree to do things that you wouldn't normally do because that's what the uppers want in this case the owners but i have to tell you um the brandon sod artemi panarin deal happened because tase and kane wanted it to happen i would not be like you're the general manager don't ask them tell them maybe you don't maybe they don't want to be surprised by a trade so you call them beforehand

before it gets announced but that's it i i'm those guys are there to play hockey they're not there to to reassemble the chicago blackhawks and to be honest with you i think it makes sense at least in jonathan tay's case to let him go at the end of this contract yeah well oh my god yeah i i think uh and maybe they're valuable and important pieces because they're going to get traded i gotta think patrick kane was brought up during the interview process for all candidates um and like what i would ask is do you want to be known as the general manager who traded patrick kane that's what kyle davidson signed up yeah but i think patrick kane is going to stick around he's still well over a point of game yeah but you can't if it comes to it you can't lose him for nothing

you can't well maybe they've had those conversations already informally saying listen do you want to stay that's what i'm saying i'm just i'm just saying it could come to that And on deck is Kyle Davidson. He might be the guy to do it. Who else is it going to be? There's only one GM. It's him. Yeah.

All right. If it happens, it's going to be him. Jesse, what's the question? First question, we're going to go to my DMs because a person named Mark DMed me something very interesting. I think it'd be a fun little rule change to the way the National Hockey League does deals. it'll it'll increase trades i think so mark suggested why don't teams do rental trades

with players on longer contracts so you trade in this example they're using marazic so you trade marazic a first and a second for thatcher demko which by the way is not a trade that either side or not a trade that vancouver would right just hypothetical so yes it is in this scenario yeah So this is the rental thing. Let me get through it. So you trade Mrazic first and a second for Thatcher Demko. But in the deal, he returns to Vancouver in the offseason. So after the playoffs are done, the team gets their player back.

What do you guys think of this hypothetical where you could put in trade scenarios where the team gets their player back? I mean, listen, it would require creativity. I think there's rules in the CBA against that. Like, I don't think you're allowed to just be like, here you go. Yeah, no, but they're saying change the CBA so that if you're on it, let's say you have a seven year contract in the middle of your seven year contract, you can be loaned to another team for a playoff run after the trade deadline. And then you go back to the other team for the start of the next regular season.

What do you guys think of this amendment to the CBA? Think of how juiced teams could be. It has to still fit under the salary cap. yeah but you could finagle that in a in a way yeah oh my god i think it'd be really cool it oh it makes the league more interesting which is why it absolutely won't happen um but think of the drama around uh so the leafs do it right they make this trade and vancouver goes great we got some assets and but we're gonna have to give uh you know a little bit of those assets back um to the leafs when we get him back as part of this deal and demko this is really good

like really good like really really good whatever success looks like and the canucks go we would like one thatcher demko back please and the leafs go no no it's there's it's written down that they have to i mean it's written to do it yeah yeah it's not this isn't this isn't like oh hypothetical what happens now no this is in the rules that on the day free agency happens you give back the player it's a loan yeah we're what if they had loans what if okay they already kind of have this pittsburgh fails like this season they have a terrible season which i hope they do screw pittsburgh am i right they're gonna finish like 28th or something they trade crosby to uh the flames for no make it more painful the flyers

they trade crosby to the flyers from the trade deadline to free agency or closet room for for a couple first round picks and they get crosby as a rental for those months i think a rental deals would be cool i think it'd be cool too if you could loan with you loan players but again And it requires general managers to take a risk, which they hate, and to be creative, which they hate even more. Because you could do this. You should be able to loan, guys. Well, you should be able to loan for compensation. Yeah, for a compensatory loan is what we'll call it.

A compensatory loan. And you know what would be great about that, too? It would solve a lot of the hard, some of the hard cap issues that you deal with. Not all of them. But it could, like, imagine you have a bum contract and Crosby's making 8.7. and so you give your bum contract, and then you take your bum contract back after the playoffs. Yeah.

There's something there. I think there's something in Loaning, guys. But that was tweeted to me as well, and I said that would require creativity. I don't see that. I don't see that. I don't see creativity here. Come on.

This is not a creative league. There's something there. There is? There's something there. It's fun to think about. Anyways, next question. this one comes from our discord server uh discord.gg slash sdpn that'll send you right to the we got a vanity link now we've had it for a while i just never uh use it but that's our vanity

link um luke says with where baseball is at who's the worst commissioner manfred or betman yes manfred yes yes is the answer yeah well manfred i mean gary betman has had since 1993 to fuck this up uh rob manford just got here you know what i mean yeah like he just got here yeah for god's sake it's it's uh i'm sort of shocked about like you know he got up to the podium yesterday and laughed and like i was gonna say gary betman at least pretends to like hockey except for canadian fans he doesn't like canadian fans no no no but like you know hockey exists outside of canada yeah likes hockey just hates when there's a canadian flag on it yeah for sure um but when it comes to baseball like rob manfred seems to have a genuine contempt for baseball and its fans

yeah and i think that's a horrible thing for the commissioner to be he doesn't like it seems like he doesn't like baseball yeah it's so ridiculous for baseball fans your your suffering and all this is not even a bargaining chip because he doesn't like you and like the best thing for mlb is that probably a lot of people won't notice that it's going on because the last couple years all they've been doing is killing the sport so the sport's dying and they're just gonna

keep killing it by not playing the games and the sad part is that like the Twins and the Orioles and these shithole franchises that are literally saving money no no and I don't mean I don't mean the fans and I don't mean the crest but the franchise

or the city no of course not the city sorry well when you say I said shithole franchise. You started that sentence very aggressively. Well, they are. Who's going to show up at Camden Yard in April to go to a game, other than the most hardcore Orioles fan, to watch a team that's going to lose 120 games?

Are you fucking kidding me? And the owner's like, this is great. Because now I don't have to employ people to staff the arena. I don't have to turn on the lights. There are a lot of teams in baseball right now who are thrilled that these games are being canceled just the ownership groups and the and the manage behind them and by speaking of which i'm not talking about the fans obviously i'm not talking about the players obviously i'm talking about how these organizations are run they're

thrilled that they don't have to host a game they're thrilled i saw one uh because the first two series are canceled for the jays yeah and um it was uh zoobs on on twitter he's like because one of the first series is the rays and he's just like well the rays are probably happy yeah i'm anti losing baseball games but i'm i don't know pro less raise i'm trying to think that's good yeah and this is this is a point like i butchered it i'm sorry um their baseball is trying to or at least the baseball ownership is trying to claim that you know um they're asking for too much money as for too much money trying to make too much money it's been financially really hard for us we've lost money in the pandemic everybody's lost money in the pandemic we only

made three billion instead of our 10 billion dude we all lost money we all lost money guess what when a pandemic hits people lose money except for jeff bezos who took all the money imagine defending the billionaire i i just well i mean rob manfred's paid a lot of money to do it the baseball thing here's here's what blows my mind you should read ken rosenthal's latest uh column in the athletic it's insane and i'll see if i can find it for you but in the meantime time um because i just want you to read the full the i want to read you the first um rosenthal i want to read you the first sentence because it's crazy here it is rosenthal mlb owners had every advantage and it still wasn't enough for them here's the first line how dare they

and he goes on to say that's all i keep thinking how dare commissioner rob manfred and the baseball owners treat their players and their fans like this. Don't they recognize the impact of canceling games, the damage it will do to the sport, the idea that baseball is simply an industry bigger than anyone, sorry, the idea that baseball is more than simply an industry bigger than anyone lucky enough to be a part of it? Oh, Manfred and the owners will have to object to that very premise, but tell you all about their love for the game and how the other side is to blame. But he said it for himself Tuesday, if it was solely within my ability for the clubs to get an agreement we'd have an agreement you know if it wasn't for those damn players and fans

right and this is the thing like i don't know in in the 1994 lockout the the owners did a really good job of of basically you know they canceled the season halfway through remember that and they did a really good job of the pr thing oh these players bunch of millionaires can you believe these guys and the fans bought it and the whole thing was oh this is millionaires fighting with billionaires. I hate it. MLB owners act like baseball players just woke up and were good at baseball. And that viewpoint has gone away largely because what the owners don't realize is a lot of us suffered through the pandemic. A lot of us want to be recognized for our talents and paid properly for our talents and can't find a place to be properly paid for our talents.

And we're looking at, I'm looking at this situation and I'm going, there are baseball owners who are intentionally tanking the texas rangers the baltimore orioles and there's a couple other teams have cut their payrolls by over 60 million dollars over the last couple years from like 100 million to like 40 million it's a joke there's there's been a lot of very large corporations who for a very long time have been able to go and do whatever they want and i am very extraordinarily here for the collective fuck you yeah absolutely and and here's the thing rob manfred and the owners can can do this but i think ken reed said it this morning on on the highlights he said uh he said it took me 10 years after the strike in 94 as an expo fan to go back

to baseball and actually watch a game wow 10 years now ken was salty about it and i get that i love baseball baseball's in huge trouble yeah i know they have a demographic problem they have a pace problem they have they're they're like hockey it's too traditional it's too boring you know you can say what you want about Bryce Harper I fucking love that Bryce Harper is at least willing to mix it up I don't agree with everything the guy does but at least he's got a personality I love what the Jays were last year I could be

happening at a worse time for the Blue Jays and they're fun they're young and they're fun and they have a personality all the things that baseball isn't are what the Blue Jays are and it's like who's not excited to go to a Jays game this year

I want to see fucking Vlad turn the ball into vapor dingers and the rest of them and now we can't all right fucking thanks a lot and with baseball all of their biggest stars again are on the worst teams you know they'll have like is is he's the second coming of babe ruth and his team will go uh 81 and 81 oh dude like mike trout for a decade has been the greatest baseball player ever and his team can't make the playoff bro i and they play on the same team by the way yeah i keep reading about how mike trout might be the best baseball player of all time and i'm like cool i have to take your word for it he plays for

the la angels i'm never gonna see him play i'm not gonna watch a playoff game and i'm not gonna watch a regular season eight angels game i watch i watch dozens of baseball games a year i'm trying to think if i've ever seen a mike trout one no i don't think so why would you turn on the angel they fucking suck like i don't know they always suck i don't know if i'd turn on the angels that they were playing my team like i don't care but they have the best player and the most marketable star ever show a atani and can't do anything about it it's gone anyway baseball's in trouble baseball's in huge trouble and they're hurting themselves by uh locking out the players it's awful and it's just you know the the only like the people who lose obviously the players are

gonna lose because here's the thing you got a really limited time to play professional baseball and make money right so every game that they lose they don't get back here's the thing though if you're the owner every game that you lose well you still got the team the equity still goes up and a lot of these owners like they've been around for so long that their 100 or 500 million dollar investment is now worth a billion dollars they don't care this is their toy thing on the side yeah they already made is going to go up yeah they already made 500 million on this what do i give a shit yeah yeah and all you want to tell me oh it's so hard we lost a little bit in our payroll. We had to pay the players to play baseball during the pandemic. Can you imagine?

And you know what? That's what kills me is that when they bring these arguments up, everybody, what they try to do is they try to fool you. There are businesses that are run that are for-profit businesses that run neutral. If you own a sports franchise, you don't need to run at a profit. In fact, you could run at a loss. And it's great because you're a billionaire. And what do you need when you're a billionaire? Write-offs. You need places to hide that fucking money. So at least it goes to your franchise and not the government.

What do you think they all use this for? Other than bragging to their friends that they own a franchise. What do you think they use it for? Rich guy shit. Just dumping money into it. Rich guy shit. Rich guy shit. It's crazy.

It's just mind-boggling. I love baseball. I love baseball. I associate it with my family. And as a kid driving around to Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie. fucking saturday and playing baseball and i love the sport and it sucks as a fan watching the biggest league in the world destroy it i hope they find some way to play some games and improve the sport i hope somebody picks up the japanese baseball rights i'd watch that well and and i

but i do i do i want everyone to remember this the next time they go kids these days with their e-sports and everything what you know when was the last fortnight lockout right what are you trying to say what i'm trying to say is it's not that kids are changing necessarily or kids just want to stay inside kids are lazy no the people who run sports fuck it up and for those of you whose kids uh do want to play sports it's gonna be basketball it's the only sport gaining any kind of traction oh yeah it's canada because it's fun as hell anyway because it's fun as hell and they don't stop playing all the time and oh man i just i just don't get it i just i oh yeah i don't get that the only league that

allows fun and never stops playing is having success it's okay we know you don't we know you don't get it oh the nfl's got a lot of traction too yeah but the problem with the nfl is the injuries yes yeah i read nfl is it some yes some no interesting hockey's not doing great of course it's not baseball's doing horrendously basketball yeah of course it stocks only going up because they've hit the next generation like they they've got the kids kids love basketball yep no because it's funny it's fun they embrace fun and it's cheap yeah you know it's not 400 to put a kid into pads for a game you know what i don't hear every five seconds when i watch basketball highlights collective bargaining agreement i mean they've

had their fight they had a lockout uh what was it five 13 yeah 2013 how long did it last half season yeah it's 48 game season yeah that's it yeah um which sorry as a hockey fan i'm like oh that's it right right yeah but uh and like in in the nba there's so many stars for the kids to look up to like kids love uh steph curry like that's that's just a thing kids love him he's such a showman he's such a great showman yeah he goes viral for warm-up yeah oh that was cool what you know what what any anybody in any other sport goes viral well what they didn't actually when you jesse when you talked about vegas what i loved about the vegas thing is everybody's there for warm-up yeah yeah i used to when my mom took me to games you bet your ass we were in our seats

for warm-up but nobody else was but i loved going to warm-up it was my favorite and it would be cool if they put on a little bit of a show and that's when you got the chance to meet players and they throw pucks and sticks and stuff into the ice and i loved warm-up and i love that the whole vegas there's a whole pre-game festivity outside the arena for warm-up and then the band leads you into the arena and then you're in there and everybody's out there warming up it's awesome experience when i go to a leaf game i feel like you ever go to a really loud house party and feel bad for the next door neighbors that's how i feel going to a leaf game because it's just it's like literally in the middle of a train station yeah and you know there isn't that atmosphere because

it's mostly just full of people quickly hurriedly walking because they're trying to get home yeah i would like to see that fixed they got a better utilize maple leaf square Because that's hilarious I don't know why They do it for the playoff games But why not have that atmosphere Every regular season game Where you lock off

The Longos Square over there And you have that For the fans Like do that Longos 11 Square That's a very niche joke A lot of you aren't going to get that But to me it's very funny

Well listen we'll wrap the show yeah it's been a lot of fun and i do want to say this we've got a very exciting every time i say announcement people roll their eyes so what can i oh here here here here sorry i have the perfect word for it please here jesse iso oh okay here hold on does he have an iso cam today he does hey hey announcement sorry Adam go ahead Friday very excited

big thing big thing history making history making you might want to set your watch I don't know why you would set your watch but you could just remind yourself set a reminder that there's something happening on the podcast on Friday that we're very excited about

we're excited to bring to you and that's that that's right alright we'll wrap it up there Have a wonderful last couple of days. The Leafs, when are they playing again? Buffalo tonight. Oh, yeah. It's Wednesday night hockey.

Cool. I'm excited for that. And then they play Saturday. Are you getting tired yet? There's a lot of games happening now in these things, and you have to do the LFR. I got a Saturday coming up. dangle at Adam W Y L D E and at Jesse Blake.