The Steve Dangle Podcast - Chucky Cheesed | January 12, 2020

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Steve saw the Joker (00:00), WHO WORE THE CROWN?!? (11:30), Flames versus Oilers (22:30), the Montreal Canadiens beat the Senators and it Carey Price bad? (45:00), Tampa has won 10 straight and a DimFip tweet (1:00:00), should the Leafs trade for Alexandar Georgiev (1:09:00), the Sharks are not giving up (1:35:00), Adam thinks the Marlies could beat the Red Wings (1:55:00), what does Steve think of Wes McCauleys birthday? (2:03:00), and mid-season GM grades! (2:20:00). Originally aired: January 12, 2020 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/7lJfKRJtc68 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

So instead of watching the good old hockey game last night, well you did watch one of them, right? Yeah. Yeah, sorry, I'm a little sick obviously. Instead of watching the good old hockey game last night, Steve actually had time to watch a movie. And what you're about to hear, before we get into Who Wore the Crown, is Steve's movie review, a short one we think, on the Joker. well because because literally it was like he said i saw the joker and then i said oh how was it and then steve said well movies today are different they're just different and then and then jesse started laughing and we both said and you just said no please save this for the show

so you can publicly announce what you thought of the joker 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! He's got brain trauma And childhood trauma And all these terrible things And it's the story of how

It basically convinces you Okay, here's how a regular human being Goes to be insane Yes, and could become someone like this Right Whereas the first Batman movie that came out, I believe, during our lifetime Was, oh, some guy, he fell in a toxic vat of goop And that made him crazy

Is that how the original Yeah, with Jack Nicholson, he like falls in a vat of something And that makes him He's already kind of nuts though, he's already like a criminal or something Yeah, but then he goes crazy But that's a different story It's like if you're telling Spider-Man today You still tell the story of a kid getting bit by a spider

and his parents dying and all that stuff. No. The Joker is a different movie. It can't be he got bit by a spider. It's everyone's got to, every movie now is, here's how this could really actually happen. Whereas back then it was, and then a spider bit him and he fell in a toxic thing of, oh,

and then he's the spider Joker. And like, I feel like a Spider-Man reboot, like you couldn't have Venom because, ah, Venom, that's too ridiculous. You can't have Venom. They just haven't done the crossover yet. No, I know. But, like, the new, new one.

Ah, it's impossible. Can't do it. The biggest grossing movie of all time is The Avengers. I don't think your argument holds up. And it's, but it's, like, the end of it, though. Right? Like, are they going to keep doing that? They're going to, they're doing some more movies.

Yeah, they've got new Avengers coming. Yeah, I don't know. Here's how someone could actually be Captain America. I feel like they would reshoot Captain America, and, like, during the experiment, he just dies, and that's the end of the movie. No, it'd be like, guys, keep that needle away from me. Steroids are bad. I'm gonna go to the gym. Yeah, actually, that's bad.

In 1940. Yeah. And then he'll eat a plant-based burger. Yeah, that's right. Damn, that's good. No, and it just records his five years. And the protesters outside saying, there are 40 different chemicals in that, sir. Please. You just need that. Back off. This movie is problematic. Captain America, like the new one,

would just record his five years being shamed for being a man on the home front. People throwing white feathers at him? Oh, that's... And then he's just very sad. That's First World War. Oh, whatever.

Captain America's Second World War. Oh, fair enough. Yeah, the First World War, they used to hire young women to walk around the streets in England, and if they found a young man, you know, in their 20s, they'd go up and they'd surround him,

and if they found out he hadn't enlisted, they would throw, like, white feathers on him and make a spectacle of it, embarrass him. Oh, wow. Into going to a recruiting station. To basically say... The white feather was a...

Because you're a coward? It was a... Yeah, it was a sign of cowardice, And that dates back, I think, two or three hundred years before that, too. If someone gave you a white feather. So it's got to be realistic. It can't be, oh, now he's jacked. And he also lives for a hundred years.

There's a really long movie involving Kate Hudson and Heath Ledger from back in the day where Heath Ledger doesn't go to war in the Middle East, like British colonial times. And his friends all give him a white feather. And his girlfriend or his fiancée gives him a white feather. And then it's called The Four Feathers and he has to give the feathers back and be brave. And it's just obnoxiously long and no point. Great. Sounds good.

What's your review of The Joker? Yeah. I don't know. I liked it. I thought it was a good movie. I could definitely see why it would make people uncomfortable. I think that was the point. What did you like about it?

I don't know. Just sort of the, I wanted to see how he got there at the end. And like, I don't know. I don't want to spoil too much, but like, you know. It's okay. I only saw it yesterday. Listen, if you don't want to hear it, then fast forward this part for like five, three minutes. Yeah, don't give us the entire part, but yeah.

Well, and there's an aspect of certain things that he thinks are happening you find out did not happen. And then because of that, everything that happens, I start going, okay, are we about to find out in 10 seconds that that didn't happen? So when he shoots the guys in the train, I immediately, I'm like, okay, now go back to where he's just getting his ass kicked. Oh, no, he shot them. Oh, okay. Then he stabs the guy he used to work with. I'm like, okay, surely they're going to go back. Nope.

That actually happened too. And the reveal about the girl, I don't know, I liked it. It shows you how life is, even for people that are on the edge, all about perspective. Your truth is different than the other person's truth, right? Yeah, that's what I found so and the kind of interesting about it the the way they worked Batman into it But then the the original twist that they put on and I'm like that's bullshit. No, no, you can't have that and then they Turned it around. I like the movie. I was entertained Steve Dangle. I liked it I think it bugged my dad my dad said he's like I I don't need to watch that again I was like wow

I guess that was all too real I don't need to watch well and Steve is kind of right about movies he's uncomfortably thin yeah but it's a violent it's a gory kind of move yeah it's a It's tough watching, that's what I mean. My, you know, Steve's right about movies changing, though, because in the 90s, I went, on Christmas or whatever, when I was in the States, they were running, for some reason, the old Batmans, like Batman Forever, like the one with Mr. Freeze and the one with the Riddler and stuff. Like, come on. And they're horrendous. They're awful. The Riddler dies because the Batman gives him a riddle that, like, keeps riddling itself, and then, like, a chandelier falls on him or something.

I don't even remember that. Cartoon-y. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and like, Two-Face, like, sort of only dies because he loses his footing on a beam. And like, and it's just so dumb. And I'm watching, like, that's Tommy Lee Jones! Yeah.

And they made him into this guy with a weird face. Yeah. Yeah, they had huge actors, like, accomplished actors. Yeah, really, really big stars. In these shitty, shitty movies. Yeah, terrible. George Clooney and his armor nipples. The armor nipples.

Come on. It's funny that the world lost Robert Downey Jr. to Iron Man. It's like, once he had that role, you don't see him in anything else for the next 15 years. Yeah, and now he's in Dr. Dolittle, and I'm like, are you sure you don't have another Avengers in you? Right? I am excited for Dr. Dolittle. No, you're not.

The two movies he did do that I really liked were the Sherlock Holmes ones. You didn't like those? I thought they were good. I thought they were entertaining. They're not particularly deep or whatever, but it's a rainy Sunday. I'll do it. Adam, are you going to be able to make it through the show? I don't know.

You sound like you just dropped my taco in the fryer. That was good. Mister, I dropped your taco in the fryer. I know, I know. Man, okay, this cold has been so whack because it hit me on, like, Monday morning. And you know when it's coming on, you're like, shit. And I thought, ah, I'll be through it in three days. And it should keep, like, every time I defeat one of the bosses, which is one symptom.

Your princess is in another castle? Yes. And then another symptom comes at me. And so now today it's my voice naturally And it has been all weekend It's like I had a sore throat And then I got through all this other stuff And then it returned to a sore throat

Only sore throat, second generation But Adam, don't worry, it pays to have friends And sometimes your friends offer you advice And you've been taking all the remedies I've been telling you to Steve wants me to drink oil of oregano And I'm like, that only helps when you're trying to kill the cold at the beginning Which I didn't do So I'm not doing it

Not at all true Because it's disgusting You ever had it? The thing about the common cold is that no matter what you take, in three to four days, they usually say it'll pass. So it doesn't really matter. All of these old remedies that work usually work because in three to four days, your cold passes. That's sort of what I've heard about certain things that certain media personalities may or may not have endorsed. You know that there was a set of pills that you could take?

Oh, the cold, I don't know, can I even say it? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, cold effects. Wasn't there like a lawsuit? Now, I always got right into the cold effects thing. So did I. But my understanding is that it's all hug wash. It's hibbity dibbity.

Wow. Is it hooey? It's hooey. If you just drink some soup, have some tea, it'll be good. Drink a lot of water, you'll be good in three to four days. Yeah. Calm and cold. It's a lot of glass in your body.

It's a South Park episode where everyone has SARS and they're all like, Stan, the only cure is chicken soup. Can you please go get us chicken soup, Stan? Stan, there's only a 97% chance I'm going to make it. That's right. What was great about SARS is everybody flipped out about it. Now, I imagine it was not fun to have. I think it lasted for like two weeks.

However, most people lived. Yeah, it sounded... Like, especially healthy adults that were... It wasn't going to kill you. No, it was just going to make you really sick for a few weeks. But anyway... This is what we talk about when the leafs don't budge. Some people did pass away, did they not?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't want to... Yeah, but, like, that always happens. With the flu? Yeah. And, you know, it's funny. They had the, um, I had swine flu a couple years ago when it was, like, remember when swine flu was, like, the big, there was, like, holy shit, the pig flu was gonna come, and

it's gonna get you, and it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna throw you out of your house, and then it's gonna smack you, and then it's gonna leave you just to, to die. Yeah. Die in the gutter. Then it's gonna wedgie you and embarrass you in front of that girl you like. Exactly. So what they found was This is a year later

I had it the next year So if you'd had the flu shot the year before Which I never did You wouldn't have got it But I got it the next year So you had swine flu and no one cared What the doctor said to me was It wasn't trendy

He's like what you have is swine flu I'm like oh okay And he's like so here's the weird thing with swine flu We thought because it's so intense That it would hurt very young Like the very young like babies and stuff And the very old And that's always the fear with flu, is young and old.

He's thinking, unfortunately, with them, it just sort of passes right through. It's everybody in the middle that seems to be worst affected by it. Oh, no. He says, so you being 26 or 27, whatever I was at the time, he's like, you will be harder affected by this than anybody else, but it'll pass in a few days. Thanks, Doc. Yeah, I was like, great. Good to know. So, anyway, weird facts.

Let's get into Who Wore the Crown, shall we? Sure. Has there been a game? Technically Wednesday when we last recorded That night they played And that was Winnipeg lost Where they tied it with 12 seconds left

Got it I'm back The idea here guys is if you live generously Life will treat you royally Why not pour yourself a friend And a friend a crown royal Because we're going to talk about who wore the crown Where we with the help of you recognize one Leafs player Each show that gives it their all

For the blue and white because it's our town It's our crown and it's not about what you have But what you have to give let's crown a leaf who lives generously by giving it all for their team Brought to you by your friends at Crown Royal live generously and life will treat you royally. Let's get into it Steve day Well not to name the same guy every time because I feel like that might become boring But I'm gonna pick Austin Matthews just because I'm starting to wonder where the hell the team would be with this guy There's people Flirting with the heart conversation. I don't think that's gonna happen for a variety of reasons, but

But there's a real good shot he could win the heart. The heart, damn it. Rocket Richard. The Rocket Richard. And, of course, he finally pulls within one of Pasternak, and I think he got a hat trick the next game because, of course, an actual hat trick. Do you think RV, Mr. Ricky Vive, his record goes down this year?

What was his record? 54. 53? 54. 54, yeah. 54. I think he's on pace for 56. Yeah, but do you think he does it?

He's got to keep it up. If he plays all 82, I say he does it. To pull a quote from Myrtle, I say he does it. Do you think he plays all 82? Yes. Yeah, oh, so. 54. There were some feathers ruffled because CJ said that Matthews is playing through pain.

I'm not flustered by it. Okay. I was worried about Morgan Raleigh because he was playing worse. I started to worry a little bit about Freddie Anderson because he was temporarily playing worse Matthews is getting better and over

the course of an 82 game season yeah, like hockey players are going to get hurt. Yeah, I think the thing about being an athlete is most people are hurt a little bit all the time. Like sore yeah, it's really hard to stay fully healthy

Sidney Crosby at any given moment is battling two or three things Connor McDavid, didn't he have knee surgery or something in the offseason or he had some sort of knee injury? Do we think he's feeling 100%? No, but he's still skating 44 kilometers an hour. So if Matthews' play takes a dip, I will be scared. As for now, it's everyone else that should be scared.

He's a monster, Austin Matthews. Austin Matthews, and I think that's a really good choice. I'm going to take one of the two last men in for the All-Star game. It was Quinn Hughes and it was Mitchell Marner. Great pick. You know, as much as, you know, I think, especially at the beginning of the season, I mean, we were hard on the whole team, but especially on Mitch Marner. And it was less for the contract reasons.

Like, you do talk about, okay, well, you know what? I'll just go ahead and talk here. I thought you were just going to. That's cool, man. Whatever. Steve was showing me his hat in a distraction. You got your Eric Lindros hat on there, Steve? Well, it's a William Nylander hat now.

Oh, I see. Is that what you wanted me to call out? No, I just wanted to show you it while Adam spoke. You maybe could have showed him that when he started talking. You know, Adam, maybe I could have. Maybe I could have got some more supportive friends who don't give a shit when I watch the Joker. I don't have much of a voice here, but I guess I'm not going to get listened to at all.

No. Here, I'm going to shove a donut in my mouth. That way I can't interrupt you. Here's the thing. Mitch Marder came into this year and struggled like the rest of the Leafs, and then he got injured. But one thing that was clear when he got injured, Well, first off, he was leading the team in points.

Second, it took people like five games to catch up. And third, he's come back, and in 34 games this year, has 42 points. Now, I understand people are like, well, there's a lot of power play and whatever. I get it. I get it. Those don't count. They very much count. And he's got 15 of those 42 points on the power play.

So the rest of them are not. Yeah, and that was very front-loaded. So he's been doing so much of his damage at 5-on-5. And by the way, this pace, you said 42 points in 34 games? Yes, that's right. So if he were to play all 82 games, he'd be on a 101-point pace. Right. Which is better than last year, last time I checked.

Yep, and that's, what did we say when we were yelling and screaming about his number? All right, pressure's on, kid. Like, you better be even better. For that amount of money, you better be better than you were last year. And he is. And he is. He is better, and it's been great. Part of that, too, you can credit Sheldon Keefe for that,

pairing him with Matthews finally. But, you know, those two, the two highest-paid players on this team are delivering the way they should. And, you know, Tavares, especially of late, has been even better. It took him a while to sort of get going, and I say that while he plays at almost a point-of-game pace. Yeah, he had a real tough game against Winnipeg. He did.

And he was still a key player in the third. You're going to have that, but I think in this case, These are the two guys we needed to succeed. Can you imagine if they weren't? Thank goodness. And Mitch Marner, you get my crown. Absolutely. Great pick.

Jesse. I got to bring up the athletic here. Jesse, I'm not wearing a hat today. Did you want to talk about that? No. Unless your hat has a specific number on it. You want to point it out in the middle. I'm the one guy not wearing a hat.

And who would do that? Who would do that? What a douchebag. What kind of a guy would do that? I got to pull up the athletic here. Because in between games, when you have these little stretches where teams aren't playing, you always get the fun personality articles. Oh, yeah.

Here's what they're like on their days off. Right, right, right. You always get to peek into the guys' regular lives. And in the Kessel years, it was like, oh, I'm in Bozy playing Xbox. Right? Oh, it was painful. Oh, they live together. Yeah, whoa.

Who has the basics? Here's one of three guys that'll probably be here next year, so here's the human interest piece on that person. Right. That was the Leafs back then. It was just, you couldn't interview Nazem Kadri for every single thing. So tell me the story about your dad bringing you to the hospital and Tom Cochran, big leagues playing again. One more time.

Anyways, all right, you were saying. This time, the focus for this human interest piece was young William Nylander. Wow. Joshua Cloak, he did a beautiful piece in The Athletic because it's beautiful because it's on William Nylander. But the most interesting part I found was the story about how William Nylander gets to practice. How does he get to practice? Anderson said, he's never late, but he always just gets there at the right time. He's rarely the first one to arrive at the arena for a game.

He understands every player has his own routine, but he marvels at Nylander's ability to get ready promptly. I know he definitely likes to push it sometimes. He's extremely fast at getting dressed for the ice. A clock in the dressing room counts down to 1600 when the Leafs take the ice for warm-ups. It's a countdown that Anderson has said his whole life revolves around. The same is evidently not true for his young teammate. Anderson estimates he starts putting on his own gear anywhere between the 30-minute mark

and with 27 minutes to go as the clock counts down. He generally sees Nylander getting dressed in the low 20s, even the 19s. Whoa. It's crazy. He literally takes two or three minutes to get dressed. He's got it down to a science with all his little straps and stuff he needs to take care of. Nylander said he's always gotten dressed late But never stressed about missing

The deadline to walk on the ice I usually don't like to sit in my gear and wait So I just wait until the last minute to get ready I think It's fascinating that this little piece Comes out because you kind of understand The narratives that the media has pushed If it's like they hear through the guys

Like oh Nylander he's always One of the last guys to get dressed He's always the last guy in the locker room To get ready to get on the ice Then they start going like okay he's the last guy there does he care so much and then he is right season easy article you push it out Nylander doesn't care hot dogs we're fucked gets his equipment on last every time the guys are out but then you you learn you read this when he's having a

great season you're like oh that's just he just doesn't like sitting his gear and waiting around that's a different dude it's just a different dude instead instead of lazy and lackadaisical he's like enigmatic and whimsical right and I I find it so fascinating how easy you can bend the narrative to whatever you want it to be. Right. When in actual fact, what it is, is probably a guy who doesn't like downtime. Sounds to me like this is a guy who's like, I got stuff to do on my own time. And when I get to the ring, I don't want to sit around my equipment for 20 minutes and then soak.

And then get out. You know what I mean? And there are some people that like that. Like for me, I'm always late for everything. So when I do show up early, I really enjoy it, and I take my time and enjoy it, which is rare. But with Kneelander, it's like there needs to be that little bit of edge of, I need to, I got a deadline to meet. And, you know, I don't know how you guys were in high school or in the years of university that you spent or the year of university I spent. Everything was done last minute.

I don't do well unless it's on a deadline. There's a certain push that you get when it's like, this thing needs to be done now. Yes, and I think that's why I do well in my career is because everything's last minute. Everything has to be. My wife used to write essays and start them an hour before they were due. Wow. I don't know how. And she could do it.

Because, and every single time. Mechanical. She was a monster. She was, if I ever tried to do that, I'd fail everything. I just, I cannot operate that way. Some people do. Yeah. No, you got to do what's best for you.

That's cool. Right. It's a really cool piece. I like that. Is that why you get your crown? That's why he gets my crown this week. Because we get a little peek into the mind of William Nylander. And there's so much more.

That was just the whole paragraph of the article. I love when they can do that stuff on guys you know nothing about. Right. Like, we know a lot about Matthews. We know a lot about Marner. We know a lot about Tavares. We know a little bit more about Freddie. Nylander is just, I think the reason that it's been so negative towards him is because

he hasn't put a lot out there for you to know. For as long as he lives, he will not be a good interview. No. And that's okay. And he will be gorgeous. Mike Agiello, when we were covering the Marlies together, when Nylander was still there, is like, it's, what do you call him? Like 90 or less Willie or something?

It was something, it was really inappropriate the way it was worded, but I pull out my phone after we're done recording, and I'm like, 87 seconds. You nailed it. Yeah. He comes over for a full press conference, answers like five questions in a minute and a half, and he's done. Wow. That's just how he operates.

Amazing. What do you want to know? I don't have anything to tell you. And that's what, that's, excuse me, that is Who Wore the Crown for this week, brought to you as always by Crown Royal. next time the puck drops why not I just thought

I'd point at my hat live generously and treat your Leafs crew to a crown royal old fashioned give them a why not people have been waiting why not

thank you last night cause no one can hear you point at your hat my buddy scolded me he's like okay listen I've heard you dial back

the why nots no you gotta give the people what they want that's bullshit yeah you do you're the band that goes on stage

and plays all the album cuts that nobody wants to hear like we're here for the singles okay I don't know I don't know how much Eric Clapton you guys know But I have friends that went to an Eric Clapton concert

And they paid $250 per ticket Oh gosh And Eric Clapton gets out on stage And he's got 30 guitars behind him And He starts off the show Not with a song but with a statement And the statement is

There will be no rock and roll tonight And Eric Clapton Proceeded to play 30 different guitars Sometimes a couple guitars per song all of his hits without any pace to them. Is that not just masturbating in front of an audience? Yes. A thousand percent what that is.

Yes. Jesus. Eric Clapton, never been accused of being a nice guy or a friendly guy or a guy who cares what his audience wants. But, all the same, you would expect that he would at least know that. Isn't Layla about someone's wife? Yeah, George Harrison's wife. One of the Beatles' wife.

Who he ended up marrying. What a dick. And then divorcing because he fell out of love. wow there's a song by cheryl crow and i believe it's called the only thing you bring me is down and that is about eric clapton yeah can you imagine having a song like like taylor swift just like i knew you were trouble like you ruined my life yeah you only think yeah like that is that's man that's damning all right um yeah well i mean guy can play the guitar that's about it Sure could.

Sure could. Last night was the first time since 1990 that a battle of Alberta would determine first place in the division this late into the season. Wow! When you think about it, right? Like, after 1990, you know, the Flames, they ran into Neuendijk trouble, sort of, you know, a couple years later started to fall off, and the Oilers started to fall off. Still, that was 30 years ago.

20... 30 years ago. Oh my god, yeah. 30 years ago. It's not 2010. We've got to adjust that thing. I've been... Wow, you're right.

30 years ago. And the Canadian dollar fell off and whatever. So those two teams were pretty bad throughout that early mid-90s. But that's why I said 30 years. You throw in all those factors. How don't you luck into it once? And we're not even talking about the playoffs. We're talking about first place in January.

When you think the 2004, 2005, 2006 Flames and then Oilers were pretty good. Both of those teams made the Stanley Cup Finals. Yeah, in back-to-back seasons that were spread. And I think Ottawa was in there too, weren't they? Weren't they in the 0-4 final or 0-3? I want to say Canada had like, Canada was in like three or four straight finals. Yeah. And no success.

No success. But it goes to show that it's been a while since both teams have been good at the same time. And this rivalry, this battle of Alberta that our dads talked about, really hasn't existed in the same way, much in the way that the Montreal-Toronto rivalry hasn't really existed for a long time. No, it's always been chippy. The games have been fun, but the stakes just haven't been there. They're not there.

It's been more Ottawa-Toronto. Yes, without question. And you know what? Ottawa got the better end of that most of the time, except for the playoff series that Toronto won. Well, that was the best part of the Battle of Alberta. The Leafs losing 7-8 in the regular season. Ontario, yes.

And then freaking sweeping them somehow. It was ridiculous. And that goes to show the rules in the playoffs are different. Yeah, and they catered to the Leafs back then Yeah, the objectively worse Leafs Were better than Ottawa in the postseason Yep Well, okay, objectively worse and dirtier

Leafs Oh my god So, you know, the game didn't disappoint Which is great for the rivalry, it's awesome What is, and I'm going to leave the room For a second to warm up my coffee There's nothing worse than cold coffee on a Sword throw, but what is better

And I'm asking you both better rivalry in the sport Cassian Kachuk or Dowdy Kachuk okay think about that good question break it down give me a sec I'll be right back Steve where do you side I don't know should I wait for Adam to leave the room

and that way it's a secret I am going to say Cassian Kachuk by far Dowdy Kachuk has always felt you know what if it was just left alone I would like it so much more But now every time they play

Oh, everybody Get ready for fireworks It's Kachuk Doughty And I'm like, you are not bullying me into caring about the Flames vs. Kings Right You are not And even though they're in the same division Their rivalry

Unless they play a couple times in the playoffs or something Will never be as important to me as Flames Oilers Flames Oilers is timeless It's what all the best rivalries are Which is Regional Right?

Regional and As of yesterday Fueled by hatred What's the highway that goes from Edmonton to Calgary? Freaking Adam with his microwave I don't know Adam would know

Because he's gone It's called the 25 The 25 Man it's just I remember going up and down The 25 and being like, I'm in Alberta right now. It means more because you can take the 25 up from Edmonton to Calgary.

Adam, what's the highway between Edmonton and Calgary? Isn't it 53? 53. Nailed it. We made up 25 because we didn't know. What the hell is it? Is it Highway 3? I feel like it's got a 3 in it.

Hold on. Does not matter. Everyone who's listening to this from the West Coast is getting so mad at us. Yeah. So, like, Dave, Doughty Kachuk has had great moments. Fucking two. The two. Sorry.

Dowdy Kachuk has had great moments. It will never... Anything Oilers Flames will always get an unfair advantage to me. And at least for me as well, there's actual aggressiveness going on now. I feel like with Dowdy Kachuk, it was just kind of words. Both Cassie and his fist being thrown. Yeah, it'd be like words and like, ooh, I jammed my shoulder into you. At least with Cassie and someone tried to eliminate another guy's head a couple of times.

And they're being coy about it. Right. Whereas Cassian's like, no, I would like to remove this person's head. Right. I will beat him into a bloody pulp if they allow it. Which, I don't know, is that not better? The post game was good yesterday between the two of them. Both had great quotes.

Well, I was just saying to Jesse, so I would expect Kachuk is going to get a hearing. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that either. He is. Because Chuck, not Cassian. No, no, no. Cassian's a scheduled for tomorrow. See, Kachuk, to me, needs to get one too.

If you look at some of the replays, he's clearly, you have to at least acknowledge that the puck exists in the NHL to throw a hit like that, and he doesn't. And there's multiple different angles on it this morning. That's such a good way of putting it. Well, you do, that's the actual rule. And so it's funny that... It's never enforced. No, it isn't. Ever.

It isn't. And especially with the Department of Player Safety being what a wreck it is, there's going to be no way that anything happens. they both, do I think that Kachuk should get as much as Cassian? No but clearly when you look at I think you gotta, there's an angle on Twitter right now and I'm looking for it and I can't find it. I have them here

I can send it to you. You have the Kachuk one that he's just, where it's like him, he just sort of skates into the corner and nails Cassian's head. The one, yeah the first one. If you make, and I've always said that if you make head contact it should be an automatic. Yeah That's the thing, he makes head contact

and he might have meant to, quote-unquote, hit him somewhere else. And I'm sure, I don't know if Kachuk is trying to injure Cassie, and I don't think so. I think it's more along the lines of he's trying to embarrass him. And that's fine. Go out and embarrass each other all day. I love that kind of competitiveness. Absolutely.

But the second you make head contact, whether it's meant or not, that should be what the NHL really, if the NHL wants to come into the new millennium, which it still has not done, then that would be my thing to them. have a minimum you hit the guy's head doesn't matter if you meant to or not and that'll get guys thinking oh man i can't really do that cassian uh his response uh was a little aggressive but i think it looks a little a lot aggressive i think cassian's response looks a lot more

aggressive because kachuk didn't fight back and very clearly got light on his skates like cassian literally at one point picks him up with an arm like with one arm and i know cassian's body and Yeah, like everybody who's like, oh my god, I can't believe he did that remember who he's throwing around It's Kachuk. Yeah, he wants this is all theater And this is what these guys him and his brother are brilliant at this whatever Kadri got it I'm like, I don't like it because he's on my team, but I get it. Yeah I understand that you don't like him. I so out of the three I don't know. I think there were three incidents that could potentially be punished and as of right now

I don't know exactly what the status is on all of them So there's the Kachuk hits, there's the Kassian quote-unquote fight or beating, and then there's Kassian's post-game comments, which I was saying to Jesse before he got in. He used the B word. He did, and I think that to me is a slam-dunk fine. Oh, yeah. If what Tortorella did is a fine, you've got to at least... I don't know if it has to be a suspension, but there's got to be something for that.

Will there be a five-part memo on it? Probably not. No. Because no one from the NHL was directly embarrassed Ah, no, Colin Campbell Colin, ah, just And it wasn't in an email Oh

So there's that On Monday night when we're all watching The Bachelor I think we get a tweet that says Kassian's suspended for three games No, it's when are we going to be done recording this podcast Like as soon as No, but we know his hearing isn't until tomorrow So Kassian's the only guy who's like doomed

Like he's for sure getting something Kachuk, I think, might skate away scot-free You don't need a hearing to get under two games though, isn't it? No, if it's a hearing, I think it could be five or more. No, if it's in person, it can be five or more. But a phone call. If it's over the phone, then it can be five or less. Oh, okay.

Or four or less or whatever. Or something like that. I bet it gets three. Yeah. And I bet Kachuk gets nothing. Which is unfair, I think. Well, it's, yeah, I agree. I don't like that.

Well, first of all, how many times have we seen a guy beat an unwilling combatant? I think it happens a lot. these days. And Kachuk has already said, I'm not going to fight you. So Kassian fell for it. Kachuk wins this, by the way. Kachuk absolutely won.

And then the power play that they had got the game-winning goal. If I'm an Edmonton Oiler today, I'm pissed at Zach Kassian. I don't think any of them are. Well, then you should be. Oh, they should be, but they aren't. Is it a little disrespectful

that he didn't fight him? I don't know about disrespectful. You're there to win. Who cares about disrespect? He out, a rat found an easy mark and he worked his magic. Oh boy, did he ever. He, okay. If you're willing to take that beating, which Kachuk is, literally willing to take the beating

and dish none of it out, Cassian's got to be the easiest mark on the Oilers, isn't he? Oh yeah. You're looking for the guy you can most easily get mad. Zach Cassian. Easy. Now, he might be the shitter to you, but if you survive it, which Kachuk did, you have a pretty good chance of giving your team an advantage and winning the game, and they did. And we're okay with, because the unwritten rule in hockey is, if you do that, you gotta

stand up and fight the guy. Right. And we're okay with him skirting that. Yeah. Okay, here's how I look at it from start to finish. The first hit from Kachuk I thought was the worst one. So there's the first one, it looked like it was a lot of head contact. When the second one happens, it looked a lot more clean than the first, but in the moment

at that speed, and if you're Cassian, and of course your bucket pops off again, I think you think, okay, he did it to me again. I didn't get a call the first time. I got to do what every hockey player has done since the beginning of time and stick up for myself. So he drops the gloves. Kachuk turtled. If Kachuk punches back, we're not talking about this today.

We're not, but he knows. told Cassian before. Cassian even referenced it in the press conference. He said he told me last year that he wouldn't fight me because I was just a fourth runner. Well, now I've got 13 goals and he still won't fight me. You know why? Because he's smarter than you. Because he's smarter than you, Zach.

He just outweighed you again. And you know what? And Kachuk got him again in the press conference because he said, listen, that's not a fair trade. I fight Zach Cassian, Edmonton wins because Calgary doesn't have me. It is true. And he's right. He's absolutely right. I saw the comparison made.

I don't know how much I agree with this comparison. So McDavid is exempt from it because he's just this mutant from another dimension. But like, what if Luchich tries to go at Dreisaitl for a hit that Dreisaitl laid? Yeah, Dreisaitl skates away. Yes, as he should. Yes.

So, I don't know if the skill discrepancy is quite the same between Kassian and Kachok, but there is a chasm there. The principle is what we're talking about. Not the exact... If you want an exact apples-to-apples comparison, Good luck finding that on your own. I'm sure you can do that.

But you know what the principle is behind this, which is if you are a more skilled player, even if you're tough, don't fight some goon. Like Zach Kassian, as we've talked about before, has played extremely well, has got his personal life under control, which is awesome. He plays with an edge.

He plays on that edge. Unfortunately, sometimes that edge can go against you like what we saw last night. Nothing can be taken away from the effort and the progress that Zach Kassian has made. however he is not either kachuk yeah right right and when a guy says when a when a goon like marshand which is what those guys are they're all in that same rat group if they don't if they say they're not going to fight you they're not you know why brady brady drops the gloves in that

situation i think brady's gonna stop dropping them eventually so he drops them now because it's entertaining i guarantee you when the senators are good brady kachuk is not fighting Why would he fight? Why would he fight? There's no reason. Brad Marchand, when you see Brad Marchand actually fight, you see him get hit all the time, punched in the face all the time. Who was the guy who ragdolled Sean Avery?

Remember, Avery wouldn't fight him, and so the guy just humiliated him by, like, yanking him to the ice three or four times? Like, should Cassie just have done that? Was he a Dallas Stars player? I really can't remember. I don't know. I think it might have been while Avery was on the Stars. Oh, okay.

I can't remember. I seem to remember a green jersey in there. I don't know. I can't remember. I can't remember. But even that, what is that? A two-minute roughing penalty? Was it Clarkson?

You know what? I think it was Clarkson. Maybe it was. I think it was David Clarkson. I just Googled Clarkson ragdolls Avery. Why are we surprised? Clarkson went to the extremely sped-up career trajectory. Yeah, that is Clarkson.

Clarkson had a very condensed Milan Lucic career, where there was a time where he was a physical force, could bury 30 goals, and then when it fell off, Vroom! It was gone. Yes. Forever. Yeah, I think you're thinking of David Clarkson. Yeah, why? I don't know.

Okay. I need you two to help me explain to me why I don't really blame Zach Kassian for what he did. I'm trying to figure it out. Because that's just the order things happen in hockey, isn't it? Yeah, Zach Kassian did what Zach Kassian does, except he lost because Kachaka was smarter than him. Not even just Zach Kassian, though.

Like it's every hockey player that, I think it's also tough for Zach Kassian because William Nylander gets decked a couple times, we're going, where are his teammates to stick up for William Nylander? Zach Kassian gets decked, it's, alright, now you gotta pay the price. So he gets clocked, potentially in the head, at least once, maybe twice, and now we're expecting him to get up and fight his own battle. Yeah, because that's the game Kachuk was playing and he goaded him into it and he played it well.

No, and I'm saying the expectation is for Kassian to stick up for himself. He doesn't have to. No, he doesn't. It's the expectation, but he can hold back if he wants. Sticking up for yourself and going after a guy outside of the play and taking yourself out of it is not sticking up for yourself. That, to me, is where you cross the line. Listen, hockey culture is hockey culture, whatever.

But if you were to really put some truth serum in Edmonton Oilers players last night and this morning, especially when cooler heads prevail, and you were to ask them, Veritas serum, I believe it's called. Ah, yes it is. If you were to have them chug that, I bet you they'd tell you, I much rather would have won than see Zach Kassian, or at least go to overtime, than see Zach Kassian give away two points. Because at least if it goes to overtime, the Flames only edge the Oilers by one point.

Now they've edged them by two. Now the Oilers have to win two games to surpass Calgary. And that's the problem. This isn't just a game. This is a divisional game against the rival that is three hours down the road from you. And you're a team that has surprised everyone, shocked everyone. And one of your guys, who's been really good, one of the shockingly good guys, gave away two points. That's what happened.

Zach Kassian gave away two points. Adam, if you think Bob Nicholson, Ken Holland, Dave Tippett, Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, Well, potentially Wayne Grimsky. Hold on, let me look up the 1986 Oilers. I'm sure they're on probably a page top. 1986 Oilers roster. I think you are drastically... As a Deaconin, Andy Moog.

Oh, you're reading the roster. I thought you were reading the front office. Charlie Huddy. Yeah, man. I think you're misreading NHL players. Kevin McClellan. What? What do you think?

Mo LaMae. I think he's misreading NHL players. Like, oh, we'd rather get the two points. No, they'll look at this as an investment. Right now, Edmonton's sitting in the wildcard spot with 53 points. Calgary is currently sitting in first place with 55. Last night, that fight that he tried to get Kachuk into was worth either being first in the division or being in a wildcard spot. I think you'd rather be first in the division than having, hey, I'm a tough guy hockey guy.

They're not looking at it as Zach shouldn't have fought. They're looking at it as we got jobbed. They didn't, though. No, but I'm telling you that's how they think about it. They got jobs, but it's their own fault they got jobs. I think so. Someone else should have stuck up for Cassian, I think. I'm trying to think of who else was on the ice.

I know McDavid was one of them. Jesse, to your point, if Edmonton goes to overtime last night, they are now tied with the Coyotes for second place. If they lose to Calgary in overtime, they're tied with the Coyotes for second in the division. Can I just, before we continue into the camera, I am so sorry, Arizona Coyotes fans, for ruining your season entirely.

Oh my god, I was like, oh, Darcy Kemper, forget Avezna, he's having like a heart-caliber season. He gets hurt, and they are just nosediving right now. They just got Taylor Hall, they got shut out back-to-back games. Is that good? Can someone help me out? Is that good? They're last ten, they're five and five. Yeah, they're falling.

Everyone around them has been sucking. The Flames are first in the Pacific with a negative eight goal differential. Can someone explain that? It's the difference between teams now at the beginning of the season. Like, it's crazy. It seems like half the league has been, hey, they started off hot and now they suck. Or they start off slow and now they're great. Everyone has either had a winning or losing streak of at least nine games.

Except for Washington and Boston. Like, that's it. Yeah. They're the only two steady teams so far. Well, St. Louis hasn't been too bad either. St. Louis, yeah. But let me ask you this. Is there anything more damning, personal stuff aside, okay?

Is there anything more damning about the way Babcock and Peters coach? I'm not talking about what they did off the ice. I'm talking about strategic systems. How both of their teams have done since they left. Oh, I know. Is there anything more damning and more proof and more evident that the game is not what those guys are anymore? Forget, I don't think, Bill Peters isn't coaching in the NHL again. Bill Peters has no track record of success in professional hockey.

But he plays the Babcock system. He's a disciple. He assisted him for years in Detroit. to so many first-round exits. But the point is, I don't think you need more proof than Calgary and Toronto being where they're at. Toronto and Calgary are a point apart. Calgary's got 55, Toronto's got 54.

I didn't realize how deep of a hole the Leafs were in. Huge. Because they went on that ridiculous run, and I'm like, what do you mean if we lose this next game, we're one point up on Florida? What? But there was a point when the idea of an Atlantic team even taking a wild card spot was outrageous

to think about. And that's because the Metropolitan has calmed down a little bit and the Atlantic has gotten really hot, especially Tampa and Toronto. We'll talk about that in a second. Well, Philly was like in the second wild card and on pace for 100 points. Yeah, yeah. For a while, I was like, what the hell is this?

Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this about the Oilers and Flames last night. Sure. McDavid steals the puck off of Hannafin. Literally takes the puck off of Hannafin. Yoink. And then Blasts into the flame zone, scores a goal. Does that make him now worse than Riley, or as bad as Leafs fans thought Riley was when McDavid beat down Riley?

Where did it happen? Where did it happen? It happened in between the blue lines. No, no, what city? It happened in Calgary. I think it was in Calgary last night. Then, no, not worse. Not worse.

So it works. I don't see any Calgary Flames fans freaking out about Noah Hannafitt this morning. I'm just throwing that out there. Does it happen there? Not worse? Morgan Riley is still the worst defenseman to ever play hockey There is that Yeah guys I know he scores like 70 points or whatever

But have you looked at these defensive statistics They're terrible In the battle of former 5th overall picks Who got stripped by Connor McDavid for a goal Oh you see Pierre Maguire I would say Morgan Riley More humiliating

Well done You can't remember any number but you can remember stupid drafts Dumb shit like that Oh, my God. Okay, here's one. Give me one. Give me two. Moving on.

I can handle it. Moving on. After eight straight losses. Eight. One point out of a total 16. And by the way, this is the second time this team has done this this year. Actually? Yes.

They have had two eight straight losses for the first time since the 1940s. Merit. Montreal scored on their own net and took one of the league's worst teams to overtime. Montreal scored all three goals last night. That's funny. But they had... Ilya, I'm going to give you a Rolex for your number. Kovalchuk.

Yep. Score the winner. O-C-Y. I saw, I think it was Mark Dumont saying, oh my god, this Flames-Habs game, or Flames, sorry, this Habs-Sens game sucks. And I'm like, yeah, you miss us now, don't you? You miss the Leafs now!

No, that was... I did find it extremely funny that there's no Toronto game last night. And it's like, whoa, we got this blistering matchup of Ottawa-Montreal, which they knew before the season at least one of those teams was going to be bad. However, the Calgary-Edmonton game made up for it. It is what it is. What a great game. And thank goodness, right?

If you work for Hockey Night in Canada, that's for sure. So Kovalchuk's averaging an ice time of 19 minutes and 57 seconds. He's putting up points. He's played two games and they have no players. Yeah, they're... They have nobody. The sign of a really good organization is, can you survive the injuries? Pittsburgh is the best organization in the NHL.

Yeah, that's a little odd. And I can't believe I was, how dare I? Can I just issue an apology right now? This is the second one now. Forever saying the Penguins should just give up. My God. They don't die. Crosby's back this week as well.

Who is? Sidney Crosby. Oh. I don't know if you've heard of him. Never heard of him. No. But yeah, he's not going to play tonight against Arizona, but he should be back by, I think it's Wednesday or Tuesday.

Since he's gotten hurt, they're the best team in the league. Yeah. That's fucked. Shout out Malkin. That is ridiculous. Shout out Brian Rust! No. Look at Brian Rust totals.

Yeah, I do. Look, it's absurd. And does that guy not personify Mark Donk and Buzz Flipit? His name is Brian Rust. If you gave a non-hockey fan three names, you go, name which one of these guys is real. Mark Donk, Brian Rust, Buzz Flibbit. Most people, I don't think, would be able to do it. I don't know which you'd pick.

Confidently. Brian Rust is the most reasonable, I think, of them all. By the way, when I used to go see Toronto Rock lacrosse games at Maple Leaf Gardens back in the day, they had a house band playing at the time. And they were called... And they were a classic rock band. Donk Flibbit. And they were called Rust.

Now let's say Oh hello fans We're going to commercial break And let's say hello to Rust Rust Followed by the Trues Because that's They're at everything

The Penguins are 17-6-4 Without Crosby Heading into tonight Stupidity And you gotta shout out Dominic Cahoon as well Who is Buzz Flibbitt? He's been amazing

Dominic Cahoon The whole So this is all from that Act in a Fullman tweet Tristan Jari, who's on his way to his first All-Star game. Unbelievable. Like, their backup goalie, sort of, is going to the All-Star game. Unbelievable.

It's preposterous. By the way, in terms of hockey Twitter, is Fuleman having an MVP caliber year? He's having a very good year. He's having a great—did you read his Babcock piece for Pension Plan Puppets? No, but I saw good reviews. It was so, so, so good. So well-written, and it was exactly—it was like, wow, that's exactly how I felt at that point. Wow, that's exactly how I felt at that point.

And who the hell has acted a Fuleman? He's having a Brian Russ season. He is. He is. Or a Jake Ketzel year from last year. He's on base for 40 goals. There you go. What I'm saying.

So, sorry. You were talking about the Habs. I'm talking about the Habs. Yes. But it's interesting you bring up Pittsburgh. Really interesting. Because Connor McKenna, who is the TSN. We're done with the Habs?

No. No, no. I'm going to Connor McKenna from TSN Montreal. Basically, I was using the Penguins going through injuries and going, wow, they're so amazing. And then I look at the Habs going through about the same amount of injuries and going, and they're dying. So it's an organization that's doing really well, and the Habs.

And Connor McKenna made a good point a couple weeks ago along those points. And Eric Engels brought this up too. Montreal has had some serious injuries to some very important players, right? Jonathan Drouin was having a career season? One of the things that Connor McKenna said is, yes, but the difference between a great organization and an okay one is depth yep and bergevin was supposed to be the guy that could get you the depth that it gets you through now i understand that the penguins have two hall of famers in malkin and crosby and my

understanding is this year at least one of them has been on the lineup each game yeah but it's very rare they don't have either very rare but i would argue that carrie price might be on his way to the hall of fame so there's your hall of fame player probably the most important position in the sport and has not been great and I what if you stink for the entire back half of your career I don't know then right like if you retired now maybe but like yeah like what if he plays another how many years are left on his deal six seven six more years what if he stinks for six for half a dozen more years do we think uh do you think Carey Price stinks right now he's average which for the money he's getting paid stinks I don't think he's average man I I don't let me bring him up below

average well below especially for a 10 million dollar goaltender and we like he's getting paid miracle worker money this is what we talked about with marner and matthews it's i don't care what you're going through i don't care who's playing against you who you're playing with you're getting miracle money give me a miracle when he signed that contract it was after 17 18 it was an eight year deal and he had just put up a 311 goals against average and a 900 save percentage now he was injured a lot of that year but it doesn't matter bergevin still did it you don't give an eight-year contract to a guy who was injured the whole time right but what he what he had come off of his four straight years of 927 933 934 923 okay so you go okay well but i agree with you steve

after an injury plagued year i would have been like no and carry prices people would have been I'm like, then fine, trade us. So here's what's happened since. Last trade, a 9-8 team with a 2-49 goals against average. This year, it's a 2-95. He's averaging letting in three goals a game. But more importantly, his save percentage is 9-0-4. That's not, guys, that's not average.

That is not average. I'm trying to find the tweet. I want to say it was... As I said to you, Carey Price has got to post a 9-20 before the Habs are going to get back to the postseason. He's got to post a 9-20. He should be, for the money he's getting, money in the bank, 920.

Now, maybe his team's offering him no help, but, man. How much of that is there's no defense in front of him? They're bad. Or the system they're playing isn't helping. But they were never great. That was the thing. Like, last year when they made their push, nobody accused the Montreal Canadiens of being this, oh, this great team that got robbed.

It was this scrappy team that almost got in. They were always going to be a scrappy team that was biting at the edges. The problem is that they've run into some injuries. I'm sorry when, as Steve said, even with injuries, I'm sorry. Carey Price admittedly by himself has not been good. He has not been good. And if you watch the highlights for every Habs game, they all feature at least one Carey Price robbing a goal save.

Yep. So, I don't know how you bring Bergevin back. He's got, listen, he's had a clear problem for at least a couple years and free cap space on one of the richest teams in the sport. And does nothing with it. He hasn't been able to. He hasn't leveraged, though. He hasn't even leveraged young assets.

Like, what he could have done is what the Ducks apparently are going to do, which is, hey, we'll take your crappy contract, but you've got to pay us young assets. Montreal could have done that, and they didn't do it. And that's where that depth comes from. If you had done that a couple years ago, even if you were making a push for the playoffs, and you get some guy who's like, I don't know,

the next for a leaf stick, like Andreas Janssen, something like that but you take on a bad you know six million dollar contract then that player is a fully developed player at this point and he's the depth you're looking for and that that is a problem you're absolutely right and that's you know i i know eric eric angles said when he was on the show last or the last show he said their effort has been unimpeachable what's unimpeachable sorry what's peachable for me is or impeachable is the lack of skill yeah if they try every single night, which the Habs clearly do if you watch them, and they still cannot win.

It's on the GM. It's on the GM. The coach has them motivated. That's the scary thing. Julian's getting the best out of his players. That's terrifying. But that was...

They were always going to need some injury luck. As in, hope and pray that we don't have any injuries. They were always going to need that. Yeah. We need that coming in. And here's the thing. Penguins without Crosby, Blues without Tereschenko. Yeah, and we talk about, well, maybe Montreal's defense could use some work. Shea Weber is having the best year he's had in five years.

Jeff Petrie's on fire. I'm sorry. Carey Price has help. This is also on Carey Price. I know nobody wants to blame the goalie. I think in this instance, the numbers and the guy himself have said, this is part of the problem. Carey Price is not having a Carey Price year.

And when you make Carey Price money, you have to have a Carey Price year. You think if Matthews had 15 goals right now, we'd be going easy on him? No! We'd be like, what the hell was that about, man? And for most players, 15 goals, you're on pace for about 30. That's a nice little season you're having. That's not an $11 million year. Nope.

But here's the thing with Matthews. We'd be like, either what's wrong with him, or we expect him to bounce back next year. Carey Price is a guy that I expect to bounce back. And I know he's a bit older, but I feel like he's going to be better next year. I really do. There are two goalies in the NHL who make 10 and up, and they're both over 30. Bobrovsky's the other one. It's dumb.

It's not a good way to be. Vasilevsky signed his extension. I think it was 9.5. But for me, it's okay because he's like, what, 24, 25? Yep. I would expect him to bounce back, for sure. We're talking about a guy who's got X amount of NHL seasons under his belt already at an age where, like, most goalies are just breaking in.

Carey Price and Sergey Bobrovsky, like, they're not getting better. I think if Carey Price can be 90% of what Carey Price was a couple years ago, they'll be fine. Post a 920. We don't need a 934 from Carey Price. We need a 920. He was so stupid good. He was.

That is a no-win contract situation It's just the perfect storm Although he does win because he gets that paycheck every week No, but if you're Marc Bergevin, you have hands down the best goalie in the world You do He's the best goalie in the world No, but at the time He had the best goalie in the world

And then he has a catastrophic injury A recurring really bad injury He signed it a year ahead of time. It was just the perfect storm of awful. It was. It could have gone so good. Oh, well. But he had signed until he's 38.

So what do we expect for the next six years? But if you look back at that time, right? And so you're Mark Bergevin at the time. Yes, Carey Price had just posted a 900, but you knew he was injured. You knew what the injury was. even though he'd had forced trade years of almost like 930 save percentage what do you do they didn't do you trade you've just blown pk suban out the door and it was a very unpopular trade it's done well with time it has done well with time but what do you do with carrie price at that

point 17 18 what would you guys do would you let him play the last year of his deal he had one more year left to go and then sign him because here's the thing what i would have done what's he gonna to do? Get more than 10? Well, that's my point. I don't think he was going to. Yeah, he's not going to get more than what he got. The one smart thing that Lou Lamorello imparted, I think, onto the Leafs organization, there were many smart things, but if you have time,

use it. Yeah. Lou Lamorello rarely, if ever, I've ever seen I've never seen him sign a wild contract except for the Kovalchuk deal, and when he signs players, it's because their contracts are up. A wild contract for a star. He

signed some really bad depth contracts. Yeah, Yeah, but what I mean is that he never signs a contract 12 months before it expires. You know what I mean? He doesn't do that. And he's like, if you have time, use it. And I think you both nailed it right there. If Bergevin had waited, and Price had played, and he played well the next season, what's he going to get?

10-6? 10-7? He was like that. That was right around when Conor McDavid, I think, was getting ripped on for, you know, some people were going, well, he took a discount, and other people were going, you greedy bastard, $12.5 million. When he signed that deal How many players were even making

I want to say it was like Kane and Taves Who else made over $10? I think it was just them And he signed for $2 million more He's the highest paid player by $2 million And he's outplayed it Yeah He's so dumb good

He outplays that contract every night This is why I talk about the Oilers With such stress in my voice I'm like how do you miss the playoffs with that With that mutant I don't think they're going to miss playoffs this year. You don't think the Oilers will? I don't think so.

I think they're feeling pretty good about themselves. It's a tough one. It is. Really shitty division. You know who I think might fall out of it? And they'll look good. You know who I think might fall out of it? This is sad to me because I want them to make it as Arizona.

Oh, that's a disaster. Right now they could both make it. They could. But I also think Winnipeg's going to make it. And that means, I think you're going to see Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg in. Winnipeg makes it, they should really start considering Paul Maurice for the Jack Adams. Yes, I agree. They're tied right now for that second wildcard spot with Vancouver.

They have no defense. They have nobody. It's interesting that the Bufflin story went away. Completely. They were supposed to get an update. And it was like, oh, this is the date we get the update. And then the date came and went, and there was no update. And everybody's just kind of not reporting.

Is he even allowed to play? Is he even allowed to play if he comes back? We don't know. We have no answers. Justin Williams is back. With the Carolina Hurricanes. Which is great. Good for him.

Yeah. I mean, it would have been interesting to see him become a Leaf. I think it would have been weird. To me, I'm like, give me something else. I need something else. Yeah, I think. Well, and we'll get to that. We haven't really talked about Toronto yet, but we don't need to yet.

They don't play until later this afternoon. Tampa Bay has not lost a game since December 21st. Unbelievable. They are 10 straight now. Fire John Cooper. They have outscored. Fire him. They have outscored their opponents in that time, 43-19.

What? Yeah. Including last night, 1-0 win. And here's the thing, last night, they only allowed 23 shots. And they went all season with no shutouts. And I want to say either two of their last three or their last two they have shutouts. This is a high-powered, insane offense, and not really known defensively. They have great goaltending, and they do have great defensemen.

But talk about locking a team down. Philadelphia is not a joke. They're a good team. They can score. They can score. 23 shots? Wow. That's just over seven shots a period.

That's crazy low. Crazy low. So Tampa, I mean, everybody's like, well, I'd rather see Tampa in the Leafs than Boston in the Leafs. You are out of your mind. You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind. I don't know what I'd rather see.

I'd rather see neither. My therapist. I'd rather see my therapist. You'd rather see Tampa? 100% Tampa. It'd be fun. Tampa's never done it. No.

They're in the same boat as the Leafs. Why not take your chances with the inexperienced team that crapped out last year in the first round? This is the problem with, like, hoping the Leafs win the Cup, is that there's a really good chance that their road there involves both of them. Is it going to be Tampa first and Boston second? Or Boston first and Tampa second? Either way, it seems like it's going to have to be both of them. Right. It makes it more fun. It does make it more fun. Listen, we know if they ever do the thing, it's not going to be easy.

No, it will have to be painful and awful all the way up. All the way up the chain. it's uh islanders in the conference final every game is wrestle frigging mania for some reason right now people bring live snakes jazzy you'll love this for some reason right now a tweet from november 21st 2018 is going viral okay it is from tsn i also noticed the trade kneel kneel network i couldn't spit that out trade kneelander network for like three years toronto sports network should the leafs consider a kneelander facade trade Is that what the tweet said? Hell yeah, and there was a video on it too

And that was when I made my famous The sod trade was a mistake And people actually disagreed with me Do you remember that? Yes No, because you called it The worst trade in the history of National Hockey I said the worst trade since Subban for

It turned out It would have been better if I said Hall for Larson But yeah Awful trade, horrendous trade And all the Hawks fans were like whatever, he's going to sign here in two years anyway. Where's he playing now, guys? Where's he playing?

Who's Panarin playing for? I'm just wondering. I don't know. Third highest paid player in the league? Yeah, it's weird. It's crazy. And he's having a great season, too. Yes, he is.

Even though New York started really slow. Wow. Really good. Vancouver won last night. 6-3, but forget the game. Forget the game? Not forget the game. I mean, obviously.

Forget the game. There was no real major storylines to come out of the game. Certain games that people play, like with Calgary and Edmonton, there's major stories around it. Vancouver won a really good game and Vancouver played great. But Adam, forget the game. Let's talk about this. Dimitri Filipovich. Oh, baby.

I bet he's not being cantankerous. Man, he's on fire this year. He said that was Louis Erickson's 36th goal with the Canucks, which now finally matches the 36 million he signed for four years ago. he scored i didn't know this that's his 36th goal in four years or three and a half wait what what is it reading up that was louis erickson's 36th goal with the canucks uh-huh which now finally matches the 36 million he was signed for four years ago wow that's been a little bit of a disaster sure has you know what louis erickson underrated just under

times they change time's such a bastard there was a time where everyone's like Louis Erickson bro I'm telling you he's great while he was traded for Sagan played well in Boston problem is that was like 10 years ago we've talked about this before but like I remember there was an all star game

when I worked at Leafs TV I was either an intern or an employee so it's only a difference of a year and all the players all of them oh Louis Erickson most underrated player in the league Man, that was a decade ago. He's not that anymore. Well, I remember there was that summer when the Leafs still had Nones as GM. And I think...

That was a great time. God, when was it that we weren't convinced that the Shanahan era was going to turn things around because he wanted to retain Dave Boland? He wanted Boland and he wanted Josh Georges. Right. And Josh Georges refused to come to Toronto. Thank goodness. Thank God.

Yeah. Now, what's interesting about all of that is that I believe that was the really bad free agent summer that everybody talks about. And who was the guy in Anaheim that had his scorching playoffs? Matt Boleski. Do you remember? And I single-handedly started the campaign where I was like, please do not sign Matt Boleski. He's going to fall off a cliff. And he signed in Boston.

And didn't they already have Clarkson? And it was like, oh, hey, we're going to just replicate this mistake the next year. Yes, because... Are you out of your minds? Here's a guy with, like, 40 goals and two assists. Shows how much he drives play, right? You don't even need to look at it. Anyway, Boston, of course, he signs in, and it doesn't affect them at all.

Negatively at all. No, he was in the minors by, like, the next season. Yeah, crazy. I want to say he's a ranger. I think he's a member of the Wolfpack. Like, the Hartford Wolfpack. Is he? I think so.

He's in the minor somewhere. He's making his money. Good for him. Can I read a piece from thecomeback.com? Uh-oh. Read it. Sam Blazer wrote on May 15th. Hell yeah.

Sam Blazer. Sam Blazer. Sam Blazer wrote on May 15th, 2005. Or 2015. Ah. He wrote, A player who's improving his stock much more than anyone else with each game played is Anaheim Ducks winner Matt Boleski. while having a strong regular season will most certainly help his case this postseason may just

end up putting him over the top as slam dunk free agent this summer i'm gonna just scroll a little beware the hot playoff guy yes yes people have been worried about the proper value of matt boleski after he broke out with 22 goals and 10 assists this regular season but as a regular listener of the steve dangle podcast i've heard multiple times from their host adam wilde about Howie believes Boleski is only a player having a career year and will have a past similar to David Clarkson after his signing with the Leafs. Is this real?

Delving a little deeper, we can see just how similar they are almost to a startling degree at times. Yeah, it's an article from 2015 from Mr. Sam Blazer. Sam Blazer! And then he goes on to compare Clarkson and Matt Boleski and how their careers are very similar. There you go. I wonder if you're still listening, Sam.

Hi, Sam. Appreciate the shout-out. No, we probably pissed him off at some point. How did you find that? I googled Matt Boleski's Steve Dangle podcast. Wow. Really? Yes.

And of course it was Adam. There it is. Friggin' Adam. One of the major stories to come out of headlines last night, and headlines is always an unmissable segment. It's the best. I knew I would fall asleep midway through the game because I've been sick. I set my alarm for like 9 o'clock just to make sure that I could watch it.

Man, headlines, unmissable, second intermission. But I tell you what, a lot of people, oh, what the hell is going to go on with first intermission now that Coach's Corner is gone? You know who's been carrying a lot of that load? Christine Simpson, man. All her features, all her interviews, she's so good at her job. One of the most underrated people at the network. Yeah, but sorry, what were you going to say? And unlike Louie Erickson, will still be underrated.

Well, it could still be great in 10 years. Nope, now she's overrated. Shoot. Darn, I ruined it. Ruined it. Sorry, Christine. And Hometown Hockey was in Vaughan, was it not? It's in Vaughn tonight.

Yeah, tonight, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and Coburg last, and I think Chris Johnson, I think he had a heart attack and excitement. Like, he was, he just loves, I don't know. Listen, the next time we have him on, and don't tell him you're going to do this, count the Coburg references, okay? Okay.

There's like, I think there's like a Coburg, we've got to play a Coburg shot games. Yeah. Put it right over his face. For sure. One Coburg. I may lead him down that path a couple times. Count Berg.

Nope, we'll work on it. We'll work on it. The Rangers will listen to offers on Georgiev, which is what we thought anyway. But here's the ask, and this is where it gets really interesting. It will probably cost you a forward, according to Elliott Freeman, who's either as young, who's really young, or either ready to play or close to it. They won't listen to anything that doesn't impress them beneath that. They don't need defensive prospects.

They don't need goaltending prospects. They need young, good forwards. Weird. What team do you know with a plethora of young, good forwards? The Edmonton Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs Damn it And so immediately my wheels start turning

Who is that? Who could that be? How close Because I don't think this gets it done But how close is Jeremy Bracco to getting that deal done? I don't think close at all No Okay

I think you need an established NHL player Georgiev's played games What were the words though? What were the words? A forward who's either young or either ready to play or close to it. And sorry, it says, it's weirdly worded. It will probably cost you a forward who's either as young and either ready to play or close to it.

I think he misspoke when they directly quoted him. But essentially young and ready to play or close to it. Jeremy Bracco's not that guy. No. It'd have to be Bracco plus, I would think. Could you give several guys? Because are you, would you, I kind of think Kapanen might be too much. No.

I do too. But then also the Kapp hit you're relieved of. The Kapanen hit. I look at Kapanen as the piece. It's expendable. It's somebody who they will be able to plug in the lineup. He seems like a perfect fit. Well, I also got a question about that.

There's something there? Yeah. I got a question about that. Because the Leafs, it's funny, if you'd pitched me the Colorado trade with Kadri, I'd be like, How are the Leafs getting Kerfoot and Barry? That's surprising. Right? And they're retaining half on Barry?

Yeah. How do they manage that? It was a steal. I think it was a great deal for both sides. I really do. And I think Dubas is a good negotiator when it comes to that stuff. Listen, I miss Naz too. They did pretty well on that deal.

Oh, yeah. 100%. No one's going to argue that. He already has in the last year of his deal, he's 23 years old, so he's going to be an RFA. So he's a $2 million goaltender, maybe next year? it's tough. I don't think he can ask for a ton. No, he can't. He can't. Something like, yeah, I think right around what you said. My question is, if you're trading Kapanen, are you trading a strength to address a weakness? This is the problem. Because what you need to do

in this position is you need to trade from a positional strength, but I wouldn't say skill strength. The difference I'm making here is, and I think this is where Jeremy Bracco comes in, And Kapanen is a member of the Leafs lineup right now and has not had the best year, but he's been bumped around and they traded, changed head coach or whatever, and he's still been pretty good. When I look at what he's brought, like the guy is, I don't know if people know this or not,

but he's fifth in team scoring. Kapanen. Yeah. I don't think. He's had a tremendously, genuinely, and we throw this word around a lot, he's had an underrated season. He's always a lightning rod for criticism,

and he has consistently put up points. I don't think it's fair. And played on the penalty kill. That Kisperi Kapanen, who is behind Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, and ahead of Morgan Rielly, but Morgan Rielly is a defensive, but still, in points, I don't think it's a fair trade for him to go for Georgiev. And whenever he was in the top six, he was in the meat grinder role, and so he's been having most of his success third line right wing.

What if I tell you it's Chris Kreider and Georgiev for Kapanen plus maybe a pick? It's a lot more than that, I think. Chris Kreider? More from the Rangers? You get 20 minutes of Chris Kreider, basically, right? You get him, and then he's off to free agency, isn't he? Probably. Yeah, he's a UFA, but that's all you need.

Chris Kreider might be... How far back are the Rangers now? Because they were right in it for a bit. They're still right in it. No, they are 46 points, and Philly's sitting with 52 in the second wildcard, but they're behind two other teams. Rangers are in a wicked position where they have these guys. They can move if they want.

They can keep them if they want for the playoffs. They're rebuilding, but they don't have to be rebuilding. A lot of the pieces are already there. But you just look, you're going to get one of their UFAs. It's either Fost, Kreider, or you go down the line. Greg McKegg's not going to get it done. So it's Kreider or Fost, and I don't mind Chris Kreider and Georgiev for Kaepernick. No, of course you don't.

No, Chris Kreider would be amazing. Rangers fans would ship themselves. Kreider is better than Kaepernick. Yeah. But what you have is Kaepernick cost-controlled for a few more years, and Kreider in four years is not going to be better than Kasper Kaepernick. And that is worth something. Yeah, well, I don't look at Kreider as somebody who's on the Leafs pass.

The playoff run Probably not I would really like Chris Kreider to be a Leaf There's something there But that's why I didn't bring up Kaepernick The guy who they've been missing Since Babcock was fired Name the player

Since Babcock was fired? They haven't had Trevor Moore the whole time Not the guy I'm talking about Who are you talking about? I keep thinking With Jake Muzzins out But they had him for a bit Soup was there

Nope For a bit Nope Andreas Janssen basically Hasn't played under Keefe Andreas Janssen That's a guy So you think he's part of the deal

So I think Andreas Janssen Is what the Leafs give And I I think Even with Mikheyev out If Mikheyev's ready for the playoffs Then you're laughing It's great

I don't think he plays again this season Mikheyev? Yeah I think Well God I hope he does Yeah it's funny I think he will

I think he will Because it's really It's a cut right And I think that I don't know It depends on what tendons happen. We're severed, so we'll see. His shot for the rest of the season will be useless.

Yes, but it was never good anyway. He never had a good shot. No, so it'll be a true defensive role. Right. Up front. Which is great. Which is primarily what he was used for. I think we've seen the best of Andreas Janssen already.

Any playoff MVP, but again, it's the minors. It's not the same. I think Andreas Janssen is the piece. And I think they bring him back. He's going to play great. I think Adam's right. But I think Andreas Janssen is the piece. That's the guy I'd go.

Now, I don't know what New York's expecting in terms of like. He's a good player. I like him. Yeah, he is. But also I look at the way Pierre Engvall stepped in. And the way, like Pierre Engvall for me is the piece, right? If Pierre Engvall hadn't stepped up, I wouldn't be saying this. Right.

But Pierre Engvall's a guy that I'm like, oh, I think. I don't know if Pierre Engvall becomes Andreas Janssen, but I think he might. He looks like it. Kills penalties, whereas Janssen, they sort of had him doing that for a while, and sometimes he would be like the third rotation that Keefe likes to use. Yep. No, not really. If Engvall played every game, Engvall would be scoring at around a 50-point pace.

With zero power play time. And that's none. And Andreas Janssen's on the power play. So I think your asset is Andreas Janssen, and I think he is a valuable piece. Like, you know, Toronto, we haven't seen him play in a while, but he's a great player, great guy, all the other things. He's on a cost control deal. Not that that matters in New York, but you want to have those second and third line guys

who can put up 50 points. It does matter. And when we were talking about Kapanen, so right away I start making my fake roster in my head i will okay i don't got to worry about the top six on the right side forever so there's neil andermarner done okay now who's who's our fourth line right wing because he's probably going to get bumped up oh it's goat huh all right well that's not going to happen okay we can't do that then i go to the left hyman he's got a permanent spot in the top six there yep angval is definitely going to evolve to be that guy right yeah well and they got kerfoot there now

Peace work He has been but I think for this team to have Playoff success he's got to be at center Kerfoot? I don't like Spezza As the third C. I think it's too high for him Going into Sparingly. This year's playoffs you're going to break out Kerfoot, Tavares, Nylander?

No Coach Steve Dangle is It's a tough decision because I think Janssen, Tavares Nylander could be special Yeah but one has already proven to be special Yeah see Bergey said something interesting he said there are a lot of teams out there with one like i think he used killer line and he said one line that's pretty good he said the leafs have two lines that are killers absolute

killers right now yeah and he said that is more than most teams most of the best teams that even win the stanley cup and so i think when you're looking at the third line you got to stop looking at it in terms of the way babcock did where or like barry trotz does where it's like five minutes left. We're down by three goals. I'm going to put on my fourth line guys. He's going to roll his killers. He's going to roll his killers. And I think I don't mind Spetz at 14, 15 minutes. I don't.

That's fine. Especially when you look at Matthews has been playing since Keefe took over 23 minutes a game. And he basically does not use his fourth line. No. And then you've got Tavares has been at 21, 22 minutes. I like Brooks.

No, I know. But look at just those two together. 21 plus 23. What's that? Oh, boy, Adam, why'd you do that? 44. 44 minutes out of a possible 60, which leaves 16 minutes. Right, that's math. So that means that you can play Spezza for 10 and then your fourth liner for 4.

Or, sorry, 6. Or you can play Spezza for 12 and your fourth line setter for 4. That's probably closer to the truth. That's what I'm saying. And I think some of the offensive plays that Spezza's made this year have been amazing. Defensively, he drives me nuts. But does run a shitload of faceoffs, and he's a gifted offensive player. Steve, I'm going to hand you a clipboard and a white and a race marker.

Okay. A race board marker. You're setting the lineup. Are you breaking up that line now that Adam's convinced you that Kerfoot should be on the top line? Okay. Is everyone healthy? Yes. Yeah, let's just say it.

We're doing the roster going into the playoffs. But what I love is that every team gets healthy going into the playoffs. Right. Wow, we're magically healthy again. I'm not going to play with a broken leg. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy, isn't it? How is Eric Carlson ready to go?

Oh, magic. Yeah. Okay, well, I don't break up Hyman-Matthews-Marner. Nope. Let's keep Kerfoot-Tavares-Neil-Ander together for now. So, Adam has to change your mind. No, no. I'm trying to figure this out.

I'm figuring out what it could be with what it is. You know what I mean? Yeah, where does Janssen fit? This is my point. And wouldn't you rather go into the playoffs with Matthews, Tavares, Spezza as your top three centers, than Frederick Anderson and Michael Hutchinson. And you can use Goat as fourth seed? No, no, no.

You can use Brooks? Frederick Anderson, Michael Hutchinson. Frederick Anderson goes down. Then tell me what you're thinking about. I would much, I'll take a Georgiev, especially given the games he's played against the Leafs. He's been unbelievable. With Hutch as the starter in a God-forbid scenario,

they might win a playoff game. They're not winning a playoff series. They're not winning a series. Adam might have it. That's a tough trade for that organization to make. And you know the Leafs have to rest Anderson going down the stretch. And they are still in a battle. They're still in a battle.

If they lose tonight, they're one point up on a playoff spot. That's right. So this is the point. The Leafs have to make a deal. I think the Leafs have to go after Georgiev. It's incumbent on them. This is one of those things. It's more important than the right-handed shot defenseman debate ever was.

this is this is the this will be their make or break this year you haven't changed your mind on Hutch at all like the past couple games

no listen man the guy can play at the NHL level he was playing badly at the NHL level and the Leafs were playing badly

sure in front of him but you just said it right there you have a goaltender who you cannot win a series with I think Georgiev could

I think he could too so why I don't think it's likely but you expect that people are going to get injured like look at what happened with pittsburgh look at what happened with washington they pulled holtby out and put grubauer oh no yeah they pulled holtby out during the stretch

so grubauer could play grubauer was the starter when they began that cup run they lost two straight games like okay i guess we'll put holtby back in we'll see where this goes and they won and that has happened a startling amount of times yes uh i remember brisgalov was the duck starter in 07, I think, when they won. Yeah. And then friggin' Jaguar was Jaguar. Yeah, it's happened a lot of times, man. The Leafs.

Murray and Fleury. I don't care what anyone says about the defense. I think the defense looks better. Yes. I think the reason the defense looks better is because this team is finally playing the way it should. The Leafs need to make a deal. I think Georgiev's the guy.

That's just my personal opinion. I know as much about goaltending as the next guy, Which isn't much because who knows anything about NHL goaltending. It's a weird thing, but if I know That here's it. Here's the thing with Gyorgy of two. We have guys how many more years until Freddie Anderson is up. Yeah And when Freddie Anderson is up He's going to be in demand. He is phenomenal. Are you gonna want to pay? 31 or 32 year old Freddie Anderson. We're gonna be in the same position as the teams. We just criticized Well, there's no reason the Leafs shouldn't sign Freddie Anderson after this contract.

That's what I said this summer. There's absolutely no reason. And they have goaltending prospects coming up, but none of those guys are even ready for the AHL. No, and there was the TSN top five prospects that came out. I thought they did a really good job until they named Ian Scott number five. What? I have debate as to whether or not he's even their best goalie prospect, but the dude's got an injury that's going to keep him out until training camp.

so by the time next season begins, he will have not played hockey for a year. That guy's not the Leafs' fifth best prospect right now. Well, I mean, I think if you're going to pick a goalie, it'd have to be Joseph Wall. Yeah, and I wouldn't put him—I don't know if I'd put him fifth. Five? No. So, there are answers there. Stop asking me, by the way, about the KHL dude. That is magic beans.

Has that even—have they even signed that guy yet? No, I don't think—I don't know if they're going to, And if they do, I don't think he's a magical fix-all. Dude, KHL goalies stop. You're a bum if you stop 92% of your shots in the KHL. And, like, that's Vezina numbers over here. It's just different, and you can't. Also, how big is that guy?

What is his name? I want to say Ilya. I remember Alvis Kalnich. I think he's on Akbar's Kazan, if you can look them up. Yeah, he is. A.K.A. Bar's Kazan. um he's short if i remember correct and just not what's working in the nhl right now yeah and that it's unfair at every other position because it's it's funny every other position is getting smaller

goalies need to be able to take up more and more of the net they do dude bernie bernie i i don't think scouts were wrong on bernie i think they read where the league was going wrong yeah i think Bernier, if he played five, six years before he did, would have been a monster. And he had a couple good seasons. But, it's too small. I don't know how to pronounce it. Timur... Timur...

Bilyalov. Bilyalov. I don't know. Timur. It was either Toronto or Montreal he was going to sign with. We just haven't heard who. Yeah. And like, it's like what I said about I think Eric Comrie. Like, sure, I like having him

in the system, but like, That's not a needle mover at the NHL level. Or you can't bank on him. Right. It's Magic B. It's like signing Enron. And don't you want a guy with, I think, the skill set that Georgiev has to be around a guy like... Proven.

Proven skill set that don't you want him around Freddie Anderson who is cold as ice? Yeah. Who is like ice cold in his veins. And he's learned from Lundqvist already. Yeah. Like, talk about great exposure to great goalies. Come on. Yeah, really good.

Really good. And I don't know. I just don't think—I think you take your chances. And I think we've seen—and this is going to be an unpopular opinion with a lot of Leaf fans— I think we've seen, despite the injuries, the best that Andreas Janssen has to offer. I think we saw it last year. I don't think Andreas Janssen is much more than what we saw, which is still a very, very good NHL player. And the fact that he was selected in the seventh round is insanity.

But I still I think there are guys In the lineup Who can replace him At a cheaper price Right now And they're playing And their name is

Pierre Engvall But it's I think it's also Going to take more Than Janssen I think it will be Janssen Just Janssen Janssen plus something

Because here's the thing Georgiev's not like It's not like he's He's not I don't want to give up Much more than that It's still At the end of the day

It's the backup Sure You know what I mean Like he's You're talking about A guy who's going to play Would you do Janssen In a fourth

No I think I think it's just straight up. But what if that was the deal breaker? What if they're like, we're going to hold on to this, or it's Janssen to fourth? I'm giving you a quality NHL player at a position of weakness with control.

And I'm getting a backup goalie with an expiring contract. And I say, no, I'm not going to do this unless I get a fourth. Are you backing out? Now you're asking me for a dollar. Yeah. I think it depends on how up against the wall you believe you are

if you're the Leafs and I think when I look at Georgie of stats right now I've pulled them up you know his best save percentage

was his first year in 17-18 he only played 10 games this guy has never played more than 30 games more than 35 games at the NHL level

like he's 63 total but in one season also is he hurt? he has been this year I believe because his numbers this year

are not sterling his goals against average this year is a 3-17 guys and I know that's not the be all end all stat His save percentage is below average, 909. He had that ridiculously bad game against the Oilers,

where the Oilers were up, I think, 6-0, and they ended up winning 7-5. Georgiev smashed his stick on the goalpost, and if you go watch the replay, he held his hand after. That's his blocker hand. Oh, he's there. He's been hurt, yeah. So the other thing, Jesse, is if you said that to me, I would say I'm giving you a proven guy

who can score 45 points at the NHL. You're giving me a guy. You've already said all that stuff. What if I said, if you want to do this deal. Then I say, go find a better deal. And then there's no deal to be had. You don't have the only goalie. Yeah.

There are other teams with good goalies that would be more than happy, I think. I think. But I think Georgiev just seems like, that's a guy I'd place a bet on. That's just me. And if you trade Janssen, you can afford a more expensive goalie. Yeah, you can. Sharks don't think it's over. Sharks are not going to move anyone from their core.

They will as an offer is on Brendan Dillon, who apparently the Leafs are in on. What? Yeah, I don't hear that at all. And Melker Carlson, who is the least good of the three Carlsons in the league. Of the three Carlsons, Melker's the last guy I'd want. Sorry, that caught me off guard. Brendan Dillon, I think the Leafs apparently called on Brendan Dillon, quote unquote. I think the reason that that made it into the piece was because it adds validity to the statement

that they'd listen to Brandon Dillon and they're trying to up the value on Brandon Dillon. Brandon Dillon's not a Leaf, I don't think. I don't think in the system that they're currently playing. But the bigger question I have for you guys is, are the Sharks in denial? Or can they actually come back and be great next year if they figure out the goaltending thing? Well, no, they have some serious flaws. But if you're the Sharks, they are very much built to win now. They're 100% built to win now.

For them to be in the position that they're in right now is embarrassing. And I think it's on them to get a goalie. Not necessarily because they don't believe it's done, but because you need to find an answer to what the problem is. And what's the problem? that they cannot stop eight pucks a game from going into their net. Right. People talk about the Leafs being bad.

Holy shit. Yeah, that's bad defense and bad goaltending. Yes. That's bad goaltending. Now, you can survive with bad defense if they score a lot and you have a good goalie. They don't have a good goalie. Aaron Dell has, like, stolen Martin Jones' job,

and he hasn't been doing great either. So I think the Sharks management group owes it to themselves, to the hard work that they've done to assemble the team that they have, to go out and get a goalie, see if that's the issue. If that fixes it, wonderful, I guess your job's done. If it doesn't fix it, now you have no excuse not to move off of parts because now you know you have conclusive proof your team's garbage. You go out there and you get a goalie who can actually stop pucks

and they stop them, wonderful. Jesse, what do you think? If they can't, you're garbage. I think it's also just a thing you say when you have a locker room full of guys that you're trying to motivate. Like, I don't think you can publicly say at this point in the season, hey, we're going to start trading off assets when you're the Sharks and you've gone all in with this group of veterans

who haven't really won anything yet. And you don't have a first. And you don't have a first-round pick. I think just to save face, at least, you have to say, hey, we're not giving up and we're going to trade some guys and get you guys some help. I got to tell you something. I think the Sharks are in complete denial.

Yeah, I think it's the wrong thing at all. I think you should start trading yesterday. Yes. But I think they have to say this to themselves just because they are in denial. True. Does Joe Thornton want a cup? I think Joe Thornton's happy in San Jose. Okay, remember all the judging we did of Shane Doan when he didn't want to get traded out of Arizona his final year there?

Because, no, Shane—no, that was different. Why was it different? Shane Doan was like, I want to win a cup in Arizona. Like, okay, man, well, that's not going to happen. Okay, but if— What is it? Okay, I don't know if Thornton's done, so this is different. I don't think he is.

Okay, if he's not, fine, whatever, stay in San Jose. And honestly, next year, they're one of those weird teams that could have a terrible year, make a couple moves and be fine. Yep. So fine. But if we know Joe Thornton's at the end, and he doesn't ask for a trade, if he doesn't actually try to win this, I got no sympathy. Well, no, but I think the Shane Doan situation was different

because he bitched and whined about all of the players that Arizona was trading away when they were trying to get better. And they couldn't trade him because he wanted to stay and he was the captain. And they were trying to get better and they were trading Nagy and all these other guys. Remember? Yeah, this is, not to sound disrespectful, but earlier when you were talking about the Oilers, you're like, oh, they should be thinking about it this way. Adam, you are grossly overestimating

the critical thinking going on in NHL locker rooms. I understand that, and I'm not expecting that. But the criticism for Shane Doan was he bitched and whined and complained when his friends got traded when they underperformed. The Shane Doan conversation was a different conversation. Yeah. Yeah. Joe Thornton is not saying anything.

He's like, I want to be a shark. Joe Thornton is not out there going, I want to win a Stanley Cup. He's saying, I want to be a shark. I'm sure he wants to win a Stanley Cup. Of course. But he's got He's got 19 points in 47 games this year. He might be done. Okay, that's part of the problem territory. Marleau and Thornton.

Well, Marleau's got eight goals this year. It's not bad. He's just not been, you know. For the amount of money he's getting, I guess. That's not bad. That's not a bad purchase. Here's my issue. Beyond the Eric Carlson paid the sum of money of God

until Jesus returns, literally. like his he's eric carlson will still be making 11 and a half million dollars in 25 26 oh 26 27 yeah 26 well yeah cap friendly ends and it keeps going and he's basically robocop my big issue with the way san jose is set up is mark edward vlasic that deal they have so many bad 32 years old vlasic will still be signed and making 7 million bucks here until 25, 26. And I don't know how... Well, Logan Couture, too, signed until 2027.

But all those contracts... Or 36. All those contracts, we don't discuss them. Like, the Kings, we look at and we go, yeah, you did some dumb contracts, but whatever. You got two cups in three years. I get it. I get why you did it.

The Sharks are in that territory where they signed those deals so that they could win now. Exactly now. I think now was two years ago, though. Two years ago, last year, now, and even next year, I would say. And then after that, you're really pushing it? I don't know why they haven't been more aggressive. Have they made a trade this year?

What are they going to make a trade for? Who are they going to trade? That's their problem. Like, they don't even have their first round pick for this year. Oh, no. What are you going to do, trade your next year first round pick? If you are smart, if you are smart. Should have held on to Mike Hoffman.

Should have held on to Mike Hoffman. If you were going to go for it, you signed Joe Pavelski for three more years. You know, if you were going to go old and crazy, you may as well have kept Pavelski because you're missing that. And I think, I think. Keep Pavelski at the cost of losing Carlson and you bring in a cheaper defender who can move? Yes. Yeah. It's just funny looking at a roster with two 40-year-olds.

Yeah. Carlson playing like one. I hate to say this. Like, and there'll be a bunch of San Jose Sharks fans who are like, he looks great. Okay. But, like, you've seen him not pivot on that one foot, right? It's the left foot? Right.

You've seen how he can—guys, like, I get what you're saying. But the San Jose Sharks have enormous cap trouble. And it's—their general manager deserves all the credit in the world and deserves the chance to undo some of this. They've got good deals. Evander Kane's not a bad deal. Timo Meier's a good deal. Thomas Hurdle's a good deal. Timo Meier's a great deal.

They're, like, really good. Like, good stuff. Eric Carlson's so good. We're talking about him like he's a washed-up bum. He's got 34 points in 46 games. Yeah. But the criticism is not... It's not this year.

...is not the point totals. This is the first year of the deal. The deal was signed in July. Yeah. It just got started. And they didn't have to sign it. He hasn't played 82 games since 15, 16. Well, 82's a lot.

82 is a lot. Okay, fine. He hasn't played over 70 in, well, I guess only two years. So it's not that long. It's long enough, man. It's a trend. I don't know. It's a trend, man.

I think San Jose's dreaming. And I think even if they have a good goal, they make it in the first round and then what? And even last year, man, 16 points in 19 playoff games. Freaking guy puts up points. The points is never the point, though. It's what else? Like, you've seen what happens when people go, yeah, I'm going to go left on you. Right

And he goes, yep, you are They need to get a specialist for him to play with I don't know who his partner's been I don't know Brent Burns is having a good year too Offensively Offensively Can you trade Martin Jones for anything?

No No And that deal sucks 5-5 to 23-24 You can only trade him It would have to be like a Neil Lucic thing Where you're going Here, let's trade each other our big ol' piles of nothing

Yeah, here's a sucky goalie for your sucky goalie. And what's funny is it's kind of worked. If I'd known Calgary was going to trade James Neal, I would have traded Martin Jones to Calgary because at least they could have used a goalie, right? And James Neal could score some goals and would have looked good in San Jose, I think. That would have been a good deal.

It would have been a fair one. But I think they needed to make sure that Martin Jones was going to suck. And you know what? I also wonder this. And now Arendelle's your savior. Yeah. I wonder this about... And a Brendan Dillon deal.

Oh, Jesus. Man, by the way, that guy makes $3.3 million, and he has 11 points. Yeah, no, he's not going to the Leafs. But my question, guys. He's big. Yeah, it doesn't matter. That's neat. The whole point here is I wonder if you look at San Jose and you go,

okay, so they have, like, who else has got a bad contract on their books that could trade? You've got Louis Erickson in Vancouver. We're talking legitimately bad contracts now. Martin Jones has underperformed for two years. Is Martin Jones a goaltending coach away from being Martin Jones again? Potentially. Like, if you look at the resurgence of Semyon Varlamov with the Islanders.

That was one I didn't expect. And the resurgence, you're before Robin Lehner with Steve Breer, isn't it? No, he's, so I think I screwed that up. I think he's still with the Leafs. Who's the guy, he was the Marlies coach or something. There's somebody from the Leafs there that's coaching goaltending. I can't remember. On the Islanders?

On the Islanders. That Lou brought with him, which was really smart. Yeah. Like, I wonder if you can get the right goaltending coach in there, because I'd be getting rid of whoever the goaltending coach is. Mitch Korn. Mitch Korn. Korn.

It doesn't make sense, because they keep saying they're trying to win, but they have to sell off guys who aren't performing, which isn't what teams who are going for it have to do. No. So the two things don't line up. It's like, how am I supposed to sell off this asset and get something in return so I can win now if I'm selling off a bad asset and nobody wants it. Right.

Okay, so Mitch Korn is the director of goaltending for the Islanders. The guy the Leafs lost to the Islanders was Piero Greco. Okay. That's why I screwed that up. Yeah, Steve Breer is still the Leafs guy. Okay. Are you a good goaltending coach away? I wonder.

Maybe. But, I mean, there have been people in writing for years. I think Cat Silverman had an article a couple years ago about martin jones and the enormous gaps in his game and this is before his safe percentage took a you know jump off a cliff so i didn't know he was this bad though like you can be a flawed goalie and be okay but that's the thing is that like he's got a really good team in front of him so there's no horrible defensively the chances they allow are stunning but again now we're looking at a team that is just as fascinating to me if not more than the

st louis blues of last year interesting where i look at them and i go what is going on here and the answer last year was very literally a goalie and the coach yeah it was a goalie and the coach sharks have already fired the coach yeah and tried nothing new with the goalie other than giving aaron dell a little bit more so and i think they fired a good coach yeah i was not of that was Heinz right no they fired Pete DeBoer and now they got Bob Bugner back there Bob Bugner is a good coach too he was the coach of the Spitz when they were winning Memorial Cups I think Pete DeBoer sorry I think both John Heinz and Pete DeBoer I know Devils fans are gonna hate me for this I think John Heinz is a good coach and I think Pete DeBoer is a good coach too I think

they're they're new age guys I think they're they're a lot better than what they've been given credit for those are two coaches there if I'm like if if I'm looking at if I'm didn't nashville who did they just hire john heinz yeah and there's a reason why and look at that not only uh people were making fun of me i made a voldemort joke about john heinz because i think he looks that way and i said well he has a goalie and people took that very seriously and within my voldemort joke he's got a goalie pecorino scored a goal that goalie scoring goals give him the Vesna. John Hines is a miracle worker. Sheldon Keefe, who?

You're wrong. Yeah, I don't know. That team is just as fascinating as the Blues. They are. I don't know. Listen, I would love the Leafs to go out and get a really good backup goalie, a guy who can be like a 1A, like he's

1A quality anyway, who could win you a playoff series if he had to. I would love that. But when I saw Georgiev was available, I'm like, the number one team should be the Sharks. The Sharks don't have what they need. The Sharks don't have a good young forward to give up. The Sharks have a bunch of guys who are 26-plus.

Unless you're trading Hurdle or Meyer. Which they're not. You're not. The Sharks do have an interesting trade chip. The trouble is its value, and I don't think it provides any value to the Rangers, unfortunately. Merkley. Yeah, I know he's a defenseman. The Rangers aren't interested.

Well, he's a defenseman and supposedly a jerk. See, that's gone away a little bit. Yeah. Well, because it's just defensemen's stop and start, you know, it's not what they want. Also, can we, I think we need to, you know, I understand there's personality characteristics that go into every player, but when you label a 16-year-old as a jerk. Or an 18-year-old even. Yeah.

Even that, yeah. Yeah, like listen, I can understand. Leos Anderson and everything going on with him. So that's an interesting thing too, and I don't, we haven't, have we fully tackled that? I don't think we've talked about it at all. So he's asked for a trade-out, and apparently, Leas Anderson, being the defensive prospect for the Rangers, he's asked for a trade-out.

He's a forward prospect. Jesus, sorry. He's the Swedish World Junior player who threw a silver medal into the audience. Right. Crowd. Which, you know, I don't know if that says anything about his character. I mean, don't do it. Like, okay, I can...

Steve. What? If I were to say, if I were to base my judgment of you on that time that you almost threw a punch at Derek's dad. Yeah. Or did throw a bunch of Derek's dad I would think you're a terrible guy No but I look back at that time and I go

What a chuckle fuck I love that What an idiot But I grew So I can look at someone's actions now And be like man you are not ready for the show But also say you could mature Yeah and I don't think it would

Even take you that long To do it It's not that hard I think well first off the Ryan Merkley stuff disappeared, which has been good. Is it Ryan or Nick? I know there's two Merkleys. It's Ryan Merkley on this one.

Okay. Yeah, I'll go San Jose. So, Anderson's sitting out right now. That's right. Because he was sent down to the Wolf Pack after a brief stint with the Rangers, and he wasn't happy about that. My heart stopped for a minute. I thought you were talking about Freddie.

You're like, Anderson's sitting out right now, and I'm like, pardon? What? So. He's in Europe right now. Did he go back to Europe? I thought he was. I don't know. I just read that he's sitting out because he wasn't happy with being sent down to Hartford after not playing well.

Right, and then there was the Dreger tweet that everyone was freaking out about because he has not been diagnosed with depression or anything like that, which isn't to say he doesn't have it. Did you see any of this? Sorry, what? Yeah, here, let me try to look it up. I'll look it up. I'll look it up.

Sure, sure, sure. Just look up Darren Dreger, Leah Sanderson. It was an interesting little hot topic for a few days It's amazing what you can do when the Leafs don't play for a little bit I had brunch today for the first time in months Because the Leafs weren't playing and I didn't have to make a video This is just me filling time So Darren Dreger called Titan Sports 365

Which is, I believe, his agency He said, I called Titan Sports 365's Jarrett Busquet or Busquets following up on Lea Sanderson's situation. Busquets clarifies Anderson has not been diagnosed with mental health issues and doesn't suffer from anxiety or depression.

He is, however, upset with his situation with the Rangers. Where did that part come out? What do you mean, where did it come out? It sounds like Dreger was calling to verify a story that somebody had said that Anderson had depression. No, what people I think

had a problem with, he hasn't been diagnosed with anything and up to that point in the tweet i'm like yeah okay fine but then to say he concretely does not have something or is not going through anything or battling anything or is even bummed out at the moment um was a bit presumptuous yeah to put it out there as a as fact like i'm still pointing out was irresponsible really i'm really confused as to why this was asked. I think it's similar to, who was the guy in the Sabres

who just disappeared? Berglund. Yeah. We were all like, where'd he go? Yeah, where'd he go? In a different situation. Did we not wait for Berglund

to come out with that story on his own? Yeah. Okay. I think we did. Well, I think what we probably did at first was, man, how bad is Buffalo?

Yeah. He doesn't even want to make millions of dollars to play there. I think the difference with mental health is I think that should come out should that not come out with the players direction rather than

I don't know I don't envy a reporter's job Twitter is a really clunky way to address that you know what I mean I don't know I'm not a journalist it's hard for me to criticize that well it's not hard for me to

criticize that I just, there's something, it doesn't feel right about that. I don't know. Am I right? Yeah, no, there's a stank. Okay. Maybe I'm just being too sensitive. Did someone step in something?

Yeah. Beyond the, like with the Leah Sanderson situation, you not look at that and go, man, what a perfect trade. Pull your RV for Anderson. Pull your, Merkley for Anderson. Why are you trading Merkley? Why would the Sharks trade Merkley? He's great. I don't know.

Also, Anderson's not moving the needle for the Sharks. The Sharks need so much more than that. Yeah, they need Barkley to stay. He's their... No. Also, oh, oh, you're saying Puglia-Yarby can be a piece for the Rangers going forward and Anderson can be a piece for the Oilers now.

Yes. Sure. That's interesting. Anderson still hasn't proven, though, that he's an NHL player. Right. No, but... Some would even say Capocacco.

But it's better than a guy who's not playing. Yeah, Capocacco had a... He's put up some points, but his possession numbers are really not good. Yeah. Yeah, he's had a tough start to his career. Doesn't mean he's over. Doesn't mean it's over.

Doesn't mean he's over. I did end up with him in my fantasy, and that did not work out. It's unfortunate. Wasn't that me going, Adam, you've got to get Kako? Yeah, I think so. Sorry. We all thought he was going to be great. He's going to be.

I think the point with San Jose and with all this is I think San Jose's dreaming if they think that they can bring this team back to the Stanley Cup Finals because that's what you have to do. With the contract situation the way it is, forget the playoffs. It's not about the playoffs. Now it's about winning a cup. And if you are not going to win the cup with this group, and I don't think you are, and I know that there's going to be Sharks fans that are like,

what the hell? What's wrong with you? Look at these players. They're really great. I don't think the Sharks are going to win the cup. Now watch them go all the way to the finals now that I've said it. I mean, this is when, historically, this is when the Stanley Cup champion turns it on. historically as of last year beginning of january yeah um the blues really did screw it up for a lot

of people yeah the ducks um and i mentioned this earlier the ducks want to clean up your garbage but it's going to cost you what they're sick of having corbinian holzer play second line right wing well what they're saying is they've let it be known that they've got cash and cap space they're willing to listen to you if you want to help clean up your cap problem however it will cost you good young assets well sharks are a non-starter you know you don't want to help out your division rival no i wonder i mean i know vancouver's on the west coast but i wonder but it's different it is different and i wonder if louis erickson's not a duck at some point soon it's one of those things where like the leafs are in the same division as tampa but like i'd make a deal

with them it doesn't mean the same to me yeah they're not in the same the panthers right state okay bruins well no yeah habs well okay i don't need can it's that bad what are you what are you doing yeah yeah it's a little i wonder i wonder to me i think the canucks are going to call them i don't think the canucks need to call them yet but i think the canucks will need to call them at some point in the future and it doesn't have to be erickson it could be beagle it could be Sutter it could be you know Roussel it could be anybody but there are there are contracts on that team and if you give them a better player like Beagle's still a good player Roussel's still a good player if you trade those guys to the Ducks what you have to strap along with them won't be

that much but it will clear a lot of cap space and I think for Vancouver that's going to be really important this summer I do for them to move forward and for them to move up they need to spend their money in different ways than the way they've spent it. And they've already spent themselves pretty much to the ceiling. They've got $30,000 in cap space right now. The Canucks?

Yeah. And this is a team... There's so many teams in cap space. What's their deadline cap space? Sorry? What's their deadline cap space? Deadline cap space will be a million eight. Oh, gosh.

So not a lot. No. And I look at a Roussel or Beagle contract, especially jay beagle 34 years old now and he's got two more years after this like that's where you're like man yeah no i i definitely feel you there okay here's a team okay the team with this idea that the ducks have should always be the team in last place yes this should be the red wings what are what's the red wings cap situation like because aren't they really tight Hold on, let me find out.

And by the way, if I'm the Red Wings, I would have been firing everybody to get DeBoer or Hines. But no, we're going to extend Blaschel. Do they extend Blaschel? No, they're going to. What? That's what they're talking about. Are they taking an extra two? Ask your boys from the Wing Wheel podcast.

They are thrilled. Oh, boy. I don't know about that. Detroit is up against it. Their deadline cap space is going to be, well, it's not bad. No, no, no. Actually, they're not bad at all. Today's cap, it is $80 million.

but the current cap space apparently that they have is 10 deadline cap space can be 10 million oh okay so they can take on a couple problems yeah they can take on some problem contracts by the deadline ah okay never mind i was i was trying to come up with some harebrained scheme where they could free up some cap space and then maybe do the same thing as the ducks but how does that make any sense you're just no it doesn't make sense i was trying to come up with it on the fly if everything remains the same their defensive expenditure from this year to next goes from 19 to $4 million. So Green, Erickson,

and Daly all come off the books after this year along with Alex Viega. You talk about a bad read. Remember at the time when Trevor Daly signed? We were like, what? No, no, no. The sun is setting there, my friend. Why are you signing with the Red Wings? Poor guy.

Yeah, I felt bad for him. That was a bad sign. I never looked at Trevor Daly as a mover. He was a great NHL video game guy. forever. Yeah, forever. He was. Why, though?

Well, he was fast. Yes. He was fast. He was easy to put up points with. Okay, and can I just say, it feels like, again, Detroit has learned nothing. And I say this, like, I love Stevie White. He's great. But why did you give Val Philpula

$6 million over two years on a 35-plus deal? Why? It's like the modern Tim Connolly deal. Yeah. Remember that? 4.5 over 2 someone brought that up the other day you know how hard it is for me to forget a Leaf thing

from recent years and I forgot Tim Connolly was a Leaf like Detroit knows Detroit knew going into this year that they were going to be bad you could have found you can't tell me there was a market for Val Philpula

and you can't tell me you can make an argument to me he scored 17 goals last year He's a centerman. He's played in Detroit. Loves it there. I get it. But you can't tell me that the market for Val Philpula with his 31 points last year

was so great that they had to give him two years. I think you bring in a guy like that. Listen, I don't love that signing either. Sign him for $5 million and one. I bet the thinking was you're going to come in. We're going to give you a lot of money because we trust you and we think you're a good player and you're going to be a good influence. Habcock isn't here anymore.

And the team around, yes, Babcock's not here anymore, and the team around you, know this, Val, is going to suck. So, we're bringing you in. They're paying him to give away his golden years to a bad team. You're going to be a talented babysitter. Okay. And if there's an opportunity to trade you to a contender, we'll do it. There won't be. Can we play my new favorite game?

Let's do it. Could the Leafs alumni roster playing at Nathan Phillips Square today beat the current Detroit Red Rocks? All right, let's go. I want to hear it. Who do we got? Steve D'Angelo, do you want to? So, as they are today, at their current age. These guys who are going out on the ice right now, at their current age, could they beat the Detroit Red Wings?

Okay. Doug Gilmore. Dave Reed, who I'm pretty sure is like in their scouting department or something. Greg Hotham. Don't know who that is either. Nope. Kevin McGuire. Nope.

Rick Vive. Okay, I have seen Rick Vive and Ally Afraidy and Wayne Primo play. Okay, Jesse, already going bad for this alumni roster. I have played with three of the names we've mentioned. But? Or are they still good? That doesn't make them bad. Right.

Makes you bad. Mike Zigamanis is on the Sportsnet 590 The Fan morning show right now. And is still in as good a shape as ever. He is actually. He's like, oh, you know, let me just do a morning show and I'm going to run a Super Bear fund. Just because you worked with some of these people doesn't mean they're bad at hockey. That's true.

Thomas Caberle, who I think is still a local. Lou Franceschetti, who once screamed at me at Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer. Why did he scream at you? Because I flamingoed to block a shot, and then he slashed me and said, You block it like a man! Wendell Clark. Rick Natris. Peter Ng.

Tom Fergus. Dave McIlwain. Dan Dau, Bob McGill, who I would still not look in the eye. Big Daddy Bob McGill. Stumpy Thomas, Shane Corson, Dimitri Moronov, and Nick Antropov, current Marley skills coach. I'm sad Tucker's not out there. That is a bummer, Tucker's not out there.

I think he's in Vaughn today with Scotiabank. Oh, he's doing hometown hockey. He's doing a lot of stuff, yeah. I think he's doing, who's in net? This is very key. So they have, I think it's a couple Ryerson goalies who get to play in that. Oh, because I was about to say, Peter Ng is listed as center, and I don't think that's right. So they have the goalies playing out, but yeah, yeah, they have a bunch of Ryerson goalies.

Well, Ryerson goalies, okay, so automatically advantage Leafs alumni. Okay, well, no, let's take the goalies out of it. Let's say both teams get NHL goalies. Who are you picking? And these guys at their age. At their age, could they knock off the Red Wings? Leafs alumni. I'm going to take it because they play with heart and grit.

And, okay, it depends what kind of officiating we're getting. If we're getting old school officiating, these guys will just, I don't know, hack the Red Wings until they have twice the amount of bones. We're playing by 80s rules. 80s rules? Yeah, there's no trapezoid. Leafs alumni. Yeah, the Leafs alumni.

The Red Wings will be dead by the end of the year. Nick Antropov is going to snipe from the blue line. I don't think that the Red Wings are going to lose to the alumni Leafs. I do think if you put them up against the Marlies, the Marlies will win. No! Yeah, I do. Nah! Is that so crazy?

Wow. Okay, who is a better goalie, just in general? Jonathan Bernier or Casimir Kaskiswo? Bernier. Bernier, yeah. Okay, so advantage there. Okay. Do the Marlies have a player as good as Robbie Fabry?

Do the Marlies have a player as good as Tyler Bertuzzi? Or Anthony Mantha? Tyler Bertuzzi's a damn all-star, Adam Somebody had to be an all-star I mean, he's a bit of a Leo Komarov all-star But he's a damn all-star Dylan Larkin Dylan Larkin's a good player

Listen, no, I think I think you look at You look at the Marlies up front I think they're going to outscore them Put it this way If the Marlies and Red Wings played a playoff series The Red Wings would not sweep them Yes

But you think the Marlies win that series I think they'd have a pretty good shot at it Wow That's so disrespectful I don't think Red Wings fans would even disagree They'd be like yeah probably Do we get a better pick if they do? Please just give us a Lafreniere

I think they would disagree You think so? Lafreniere is going to the Habs by the way Does everyone know that? He's going to be a Hab Did you see that he missed I think it was 14 games Because he was at the World Juniors and then he came back and he still leads the league in points.

That's so stupid. It's stupid that he even leads his team. He leads the league? What's he at? What's his... I'm having it up. You've got to see this. It's...

When's the last time we had a number one pick out of Quebec? It's too bad... It's a tough league to gauge. It's too bad Detroit won't get Lafreniere because Lafreniere is Zedina just as a line pairing. Yeah, that'd be ridiculous. Think about that. Oh my god.

And Valino, I don't think, has played in the NHL. I'm not saying he's going to Montreal because he's French. Ottawa is 50-50, man. They're fully bilingual up there. I wonder, Lafreniere? Lafreniere, Kachuk, Byfield, on account of the Sharks still suck. What if they pick one-two? With Brandestrom up as your right shot.

You know how mad I'm going to be if the Leafs are finally this good and friggin' Ottawa gets the first and second pick? Go away. Go away, this friggin' division. Damn it. He's sitting at 73 points in 33 games for Rimouski. He has 40 more points than games played? The Oceanic always ends up with these generational...

The Quebecois Knights? Are they the Rimouski Knights? They should be. Yeah, they might as well. They should be. They're owned by the Hunteras. Okay, here's the Memorial Cup. The Rimouski Knights, the London Knights,

The Vancouver Rough Riders And the Saskatchewan Rough Riders I like that That's staggering There were some big deals In the OHL I think I gotta go see the Peterborough Peets Did you get off the phone with Akil Thomas?

I did, yeah, so I just got off the phone with Akil Thomas He said, thanks for having me on Ice Surfing And I said, it was great, everyone watched it Scarborough Scarborough No, so the Peets who already had Liam Kirk, SDA, and Nick Robertson. Went out and got Akeel Thomas.

Does that mean the Leafs are drafting him? Yeah. And also Jack York, who is Jason York's son. Wow. So now I've got to go see him. My ice surfing line mate. They acquired so much ice surfing. They acquired the son of ice surfing co-host Jason York

and ice surfing guest Akeel Thomas. And you both knew that because you watch all the time. What did you think of Wes McCauley's birthday posts? I did not see it. Oh, from the NHL. I saw it. Everyone tagged me in it. I did not watch it.

Do you hate anyone more in the world than Wes McCauley? He's the most overrated personality in the sport. Person on earth? Maybe. Whoa. I know. Hot take. Steve.

Who's more banned from the show? Wes McCauley or Gary Bedman? Wes McCauley's not banned from the show. You would have Wes McCauley on? No, he seems like a funny guy. And so in this environment where it'd be cool to be joking around making yuck yucks, I think he'd be great would you tell him

to his face that he's the most overrated personality in hockey yes and because he's in hockey culture you'd be like

yeah there are better ones no he's a ref if you were gonna say that to somebody in the NFL they'd be like

what fuck you he's an NHL ref the amount of shit that players say to him and the retorts he has to have I'm confident that if I talk shit

to Wes McCauley's face he would snatch the soul out of my chest oh yeah Oh, yeah, it would be a bad day for me. However, oh, did you see this? Wasn't it so funny? I don't care.

You know what it is, Jesse? It's not about Wes McCauley. It's about the state of the NHL. Steve's gripe is not with Wes McCauley. It's with the fact that it takes Wes McCauley for the sport to have any personality. That might be it. You have no issue with Wes McCauley. Probably not.

None. It's the fact that Wes McCauley is noticeable I divert to my psychologist Adam Wilde You have no issue with Wes McCauley You have an issue with the fact that a ref Gets a lot more play Than some of the superstars in the sport That's probably it

It's Wes McCauley going fighting Or a sardine They both get the same reaction Don't care What? Gritty Gritty's funny, he's got a green belly button And a jolly gut They do a really good job with Gritty

Like, honestly, they're very, very well done. The Flyers flyered Gritty into working. Yes. Everyone right away was like, this is terrifying and stupid, what are you doing? And the Flyers just went, more Gritty! And they just went all eggs into the Gritty basket, and somehow it worked. But what if Wes McCauley, Wes McCauley'd himself into working? Like, he just doubled down on his nonsense.

Oh, I think he has. What, and he was just friggin' Leslie Nielsen, just fighting! And he punches himself, knocks himself out, gets carried off in a stretcher, comes back and does a pirouette at center ice, and then the game continues ten minutes later. Imagine how many GIFs there would be from the NHL GIFs account. So many Wes McCauley GIFs. Oh my god.

Wes McCauley! Hands up emoji. Just the lamest thing in the sport. It's so bad. I think Steve Dangle versus Wes McCauley is the battle I'm looking forward to in 2020. Isn't it funny the first time? How many years is TSN going to run that you can't do that soundbite? I think that's like five years old.

That was funny. Five years ago. That is funny. Five years ago. Also, it was exhibition. He called a penalty in an exhibition game the way it should be called. You can't do that. That was funny.

I'm not saying he's never done anything that made me laugh. Wes McCauley has made me laugh. But I think, yeah, you might have nailed it. Is that Like okay We're talking about Okay Wes McCauley's

Entertainment value Is third line at best Yes And we're talking about This guy like he's McDavid And yeah Yeah That's a good point

Yeah That's what I'm saying There it is I found it Okay now I like him There you go It's not Wes McCauley I like third liners

I like Engvall I like Kapanen But everybody's paying him And treating him like He's first line Yeah Whoa Man I'm not giving him

Twelve and a half mil What are we doing here Didn't you like Tyler Bozak a lot more when Austin Matthews and Niles and Kadri went 1-2 on the Leafs? Sure did. I like CeCe a lot more on the third pair. Right? There it is. We found it.

He's getting too much play. I don't know if you guys saw any of the NFL yesterday. I know Steve didn't. But Richard Sherman had one of... Are the Titans in something? The Titans won. Yeah. And they beat...

That's my team. They beat Minnesota. Oh, great. Oh, those damn... It's the Vikings, right? That's right. Stupid Vikings. They beat Baltimore.

Oh, Ravens. Sorry. It was one of the purple ones. Ravens. Ravens. It was San Fran that beat Minnesota. But it was funny because Richard Sherman, who's always a good talker, he is one of these guys that even if somebody,

even if everybody's complimenting him, he still believes that there's somebody out there. Don't you ever talk about me! Who's talking about you? Crabtree! Crabtree! That was hilarious. That was so funny because in the game yesterday, he had Kirk Cousins through the ball,

literally right to him, and it was an interception, right? like it was like richard sherman read it perfectly got it and whatever and when you hear the call the the announcer's like wow that is why richard sherman is so great richard's you cannot fool richard sherman is what what the quote was and that is like the ultimate like you can't say anything better about a defensive back than that you cannot fool this guy there's a lot of teams that just won't even shoot there won't even throw the ball to him um and so richard sherman gets off the field and he's like i'm tired of everybody saying oh it's it's the quarterback must have had a bad game or the right receiver must have had a bad game or slipped or something he's one

of those guys and it's like and he's like if you look at every defensive uh thing since i got into the league i show up in the playoffs i'm number one in every category blah blah blah and i'm like richard no everybody thinks you're great nobody nobody thinks you're bad he needs that he needs it yeah he does but one thing he did do this offseason which is now he's dunking on everyone is he negotiated his own deal like Drew Doughty did. And it was all bonus laden. And this guy's in his 30s now, right? So in the NFL, he should be basically out of the sport.

He got $2 million as a base salary and then a bunch of other bonuses or whatever. And I guess he hit them all. And so he went back through Twitter and looked up all the Richard Sherman takes. This is why education is important. Richard Sherman should have hired an agent. And then said, oh, it's looking pretty good now.

And he retweeted like 10 different guys who were like, this is a bad idea. So why do we give Kevin Durant shit, not Richard Sherman? Because Kevin Durant goes on his secrets accounts and argues with people. About Kevin Durant. Yeah, about Kevin Durant, or openly does it on his own stuff. With Kendrick Perkins, I saw.

With Kendrick Perkins, yeah. But Richard Sherman is just like, hey, I did great. Look at me, I'm great. Oh, he just says it to rub it in your face. Yeah. Okay. And Richard Sherman also was like, I got something to prove. Kevin Durant's not about something you prove.

Kevin Durant gets his feelings hurt. Right. That's what's happening. Yeah, the fragility. And it's about, it's not that he gets his feelings hurt. It's why he gets his feelings hurt. Nobody denies that Kevin Durant is great. It's the fragility of Kevin Durant's ego that is so annoying.

And it takes away from what is just a beautiful basketball player. Right. He's an MVP. Former MVP. Oh, yeah. He's amazing. You see it across all sports, and it's in UFC, too, where you've got to believe you're the baddest and everyone's against you but then you run into a guy like khabib who he does not

need that he's like no i am the best and i will run you over and he's proven and then i will run the next person over that's how it works when is the mcgregor fight isn't he back i'll watch it it'll be entertaining but like to me like you can't beat donald cerrone and then be like i need a shot at the title why not mcgregor is a part-time fighter he doesn't get to he doesn't get a title shot. And if he does it waters down the belt. Except it won't because he's not going to win it because Khabib's going to kill him again. What if he wins?

He won't. He won't. So we've got a bet on our hands. I will bet on Conor McGregor losing that fight. Alright. Definitely. If it ever happens. Apparently he looks really good in training. Everyone looks really good in training. Carmelo looks really good in training too

and now he's come back at the top level. What? Carmelo Anthony was looking good in the gym. We were all laughing at him. Now he's going back and scoring 15 points a game for the Blazers. Just saying. Maybe he is. Maybe Conor McGregor has got his... Listen, I'm a doubter too. He doesn't train with Khabib.

You can train wrestling all you want and then you get in the ring with Khabib and you're like, oh shit, I wasn't training against someone good enough. That's because the best guy is Khabib. Sorry. When is the Cerrone fight? It's really soon, isn't it? Like a couple weeks? January 18th. That's this Saturday. Damn.

Okay. So on Sunday, looks like we're going to have a little UFC talk. Steve Dangle's going to do his UFC segment. He's going to put on his... It'll be just as groundbreaking as his Joker segment. You know, fights today are different. You created the Joker segment! I didn't want to talk about the Joker!

It was good, Steve Dangle. It was good. I liked it. I liked it. You know what we could do is try a little bit of that friendship and hang out and watch the fight. Maybe go for a little skate, a couple laps beforehand. Are you going to iron your tap-out shirt?

I do not have a tap-out shirt. You retract that right now. No, wear it on something. I do not have a tap-out. I don't think I have any UFC anything. I found out my friend on Friday. I found out my friend has a tap-out water bottle. Oh, no.

Why? Does he fight? No. No, but he wants to let everyone at the gym know that he does. Or might. Might, yeah. I don't even think he understood the reference, but yeah, it was pretty bad. He doesn't

He didn't even know That tap out was like He's not into fighting Like he's Anyway I still had to make fun Of him for it That's a tough one

Yeah no you have to You have to make fun Of someone If they've got tap out on Yes Unless they're one of those Big guys with tap out on I'm like okay

Well you're You look like you might Actually make me do it So No never mind Yeah Never mind Exactly

Exactly Okay Only make fun of people Your own size Yes Or lesser than Yeah Also beware

Of the small bouncer You ever been to a place with a small bouncer? Yes. There is a reason why shorter guys and shorter girls can get bigger muscles, shorter levers, and they have way more power than you do. No, but if you see, like, my buddy, it was a bar in Toronto. The bouncer couldn't have been more than, like, $1.65, 5'7". And I'm like, no, trust me, that guy could kill you in less than five seconds.

Yes, he could. Absolutely. And then we drunkenly asked him, we're like, yo, you know Crazy Stuff, right? This was years ago. and he's like oh yeah like military and just starts naming off every martial art in the book I know it takes a certain

kind of person to get into that but like what kind of person because I don't know a lot of like I know people in the military but they're like you know there's people in the military that train like they're in the military and then there's people in the military that are soft that are like yeah

well I used to be in shape but I'm at a desk job now yeah oh yeah 100% my friend in the army right now he's like well there's those guys that he's like you can tell the guys that have come out of basic training the guys have been in there for 20 years well i think i think it's a demeanor thing because we we've known people who they definitely they know their shit oh yeah and chivalrous and obviously highly trained highly educated and we know guys who are there because they're friggin

Jarhead Yeah I don't even want to talk about it There was one guy we grew up with where I'm like You're giving him a gun? At least he's on our team I guess I guess

No I just think it's No and then he went to training and came back and was more that guy And I'm like oh no I don't like that What kind of guy does it take To train like that Like look at what Tiger Woods used to do That Navy SEAL shit and he was in amazing shape and like tiger woods didn't need to do that no and he would have still

been the best golfer in the world i have i love like even the david goggin stuff like we laughed but that's the kind of mindset it takes and i wonder you know because i i never grew up with anybody that had i was never close to anybody that had that mindset so it's hard for me to understand it uh but i i find it fascinating because it's just someone who is addicted to the absolute extremes of where your human body can take you. And I think that's fascinating. It's the, the, a different version of that is I just, there's a Kevin Hart, uh, docu series on Netflix.

Don't, don't screw this up or don't fuck this up. Don't fuck this up. And I'm watching it just going, I would never want this like that. Oh, and he can sleep two or three hours a night. And I'm like, no, that's a nightmare. And like being away from your family, all of a sudden, what are you? Well, that's just him though. It doesn't mean that every, every celebrity is like that either.

No, I know. but i feel like and it's sort of going away but the the hustle culture of you need to be pushing yourself to the fucking brink like no you don't no you don't no you don't how do we get here i'm just talking just talking about khabib and shit yeah no i i think um oh yeah you were talking about richard sherman and i brought it to you for no that rise and grind shit is it works for some people yeah it doesn't work for others it's not there's no one universal thing and i think you can be like winston churchill for instance very successful person i think we can imagine you know wasn't successful and then all of a sudden you know was yes uh winston churchill up until his

mid-60s was noted as a failure uh but this guy this here's a guy that like i always love when they when like forbes post those dumb clickbait articles like here are the highly successful habits of these people well they're all different and like for instance winston churchill would not wake up until like six he'd wake up at six o'clock in the morning he'd work till noon he'd sleep for three hours and then he'd work till midnight and then he'd sleep again and that was the sleep schedule that worked for him yeah there were other him specifically him specifically the key in life is to find what works for you yes right it's not about like there's a there's a uh a guy online who's famous for like jacking you up and if you listen to him he's got one of those

like things were like man i want to go out and and just succeed at everything all that stuff scares the shit out of me Eric his name's Eric Thomas and he's actually he means well in that sort of thing and he goes to communities that are um that are really in a tough way especially around the states and he goes you gotta uplift yourself and here's how and he's like really brilliant okay but he's like one of his things he's like on Monday I grind on Tuesday I grind and he does that he's like even on Sunday I wake up and I grind and it's like well no eventually you're gonna burn yourself out but if that works for you great but at some point you've got to find just what works for you and it can't be that

except if you're like a David Goggins like I don't care I'm not putting on sunscreen that is for soft people. I don't care that my lungs temporarily stopped working. Yeah. Or that I had a heart attack mid race and like that's what happened to him. You're in wicked shape and you had a heart attack. Don't you? You're not seeing the trend here.

But that's again that's why I'm so fascinated with that mindset. It is so different from my own that I think it would be just fascinating to get a look into. Sure. I would never be friends with it. No? I think you could be friends with that. I think it'd be exhausting. I think it's as long as they don't force you on it, right?

I think you could be friends with anybody as long as they don't force their views. Can they not? Huh? Can they not force that on you? You mean like... I don't know if they're capable of that. I don't know. Everyone around me has got to be...

Well, Tiger Woods... He's got to be about it. You never heard Tiger Woods really talk about his training regimen? No, and then he freaking, like, you know, cheated on his wife 500 times. Okay, fair. Fair. There's something going on there, right? The apple's warm and orange is there a little bit.

No, but... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. He cheats like he works out all the damn time. I think I'm going to have this last 10 minutes here. Tiger Woods is not a soft motherfucker, you catch me? Adam's talking about pee-pees.

Yeah, that's right. I got it. Anyway, let's do the press conference. And then we're done. I think you can be friends with anyone, Steve. I think it's just a matter of whether or not they push their shit on you all the time. It would get annoying. David Goggins would have slapped that donut out of my hand.

List people you can't be friends with. Gary Bettman, Wes McCauley, David Goggins, Tiger Woods, Conor McGregor, for sure. I don't think that's too hot of a take. I'd talk to Khabib. Khabib would be interesting. Are you actually, is this an actual question, or is this just Jesse asking? No, I think it's a legitimate question from Craig.

Arthur Fleck. Could not be friends with Arthur Fleck. Wow. Brendan Dillon. No, I don't know. I don't know the first thing about him. Jesse Blake. If you had to give, if you had to grade the GMs for their mid-season performance,

who deserves an F and who deserves an A+. Wow, mid-season? Mid-season. I like this. Great question, Jesse.

That is very good. Is that for both of us? For both of you, yeah. Who deserves an F and who deserves an A+. We don't care about those middle grades. No, because the worst place

to be is in the middle. Right. I'm going to say. Okay. Say. I'm not I don't want to fully answer the question, but I'm just going to throw it there. Ottawa deserves an A+.

Really? They're doing what they're supposed to do. And that's suck bad. They are owning it. And acquiring assets. And acquiring assets. And they're doing both. They're going to do it again.

I bet they get another first round pick at this trade deadline. That would be awesome. And I think Duclair is going to go. I think Peugeot and Duclair could be going on. At some point, you've got to keep somebody. Peugeot's the guy you keep, then. You don't keep Duclair. Maybe you're right.

Yeah. Honestly, Peugeot, we've never seen Duclair do this before. We've seen Peugeot do this. No offense to Anthony Duclair, but we've never seen this from him before. And he's a UFA at the end of the year. Sorry. But that's the guy I go, I keep Peugeot if I can. I already said this before, but Duclair's career has been so tumultuous.

No, I know. If I was him, I'd talk to Ottawa. Listen, I want to get paid. I want to get my money. but how do we figure this out that I can be here long term? Give me a couple years here and then we'll talk.

If I were him, I'd be like, give me a couple years here to prove that I can do this and then you can get big money long term. Give me... I'd try to get term out of it.

Would you? I would try to get term out of it. Three, four million? And sacrificing money per year. What do you think it's worth? Like, on the open market, I don't even know. Like, is Duclair...

He's capable of getting at least 10 million in a contract, like... Over how many years? Like something like three point something over three. That, yeah, I don't hate that. Yeah, like a Janssen-ish deal.

So if he gets a three-year, $9 million extension from Ottawa, you don't hate that? No. No, not at all. I think that's a great deal for Ottawa and a good deal for him considering what he's been doing. And if he keeps it up, then he'll get a big fat contract at the end of it. Who gets your A-plus grades? I don't know if they've done the best job that it just came to mind because they avoided the mistakes that so many teams make

and they did make some changes and they acquired nice little assets that they can use down the line without sacrificing too much from their roster. Tampa, teams make so many awful mistakes when they have a really disappointing playoff loss. And they could have fired John Cooper. They could have looked at their roster before the previous 10 games and been like, we can blow it up. We're going to move this guy. We're going to move that guy.

We're going to shake it up. And it turns out they're still just frigging Tampa. So they didn't really do anything, but that puts them ahead of so many different organizations. So many different organizations panic in that situation. So I'll say Tampa. F? Oh, boy. Who's done a really shitty job?

Did you give your answer yet? No. No, I can do it. Do you want to? My A is going to go to Vegas. Oh, interesting. Vegas. Vegas, only because of this.

Now listen, they haven't had a stellar year. They got 54 points. They're 12th in the league, whatever. You can give me... Vegas just this year has left it alone. Don't play with it. You got a good thing. That's what I'm saying.

Isn't it weird that the best teams, that's what they have to do usually? And I like... Listen, I still think Vegas should have done whatever they needed to do to get Eric Carlson two years ago. I think that would have been the difference of them winning the Cup or not. And whatever asset they refused to give Ottawa was a mistake not to give.

However, since then, they've avoided signing Eric Carlson to a massive contract that I think would eventually hurt them. And you look at the guys that they have, like Mark Stone, who we don't hear about anymore because he's not on this coast.

But you've got Marcio at $5 million, Riley Smith at $5 million, William Carlson at 5'9". Stasny's got a year left after this one, and then he's done. Patrick Reddy's signed for three more years after this one. And Stone is signed forever and ever on men, but he's one of the best players in the league. And I love their defense.

Listen to this. Nate Schmidt at 5'9", 5'0", till 24, 25. Shea Theodore at 5'2", till 24, 25. And McNabb's at 2.5. And it kind of falls off from there. I don't love that they gave up Branstrom. I'm a huge Branstrom guy. I think he's awesome.

But you got Stone. But you got Mark Stone. And I think with the goaltending that they have, Marc-Andre Fleury's having another good year, if they can find a backup for him, I don't know, is Malcolm Subban the guy? I don't know, to back it up. Assuming Marc-Andre Fleury's healthy

and Cody Glass continues to be what he is and that sort of thing, I think that there's a real, this team's going to be really good for a long time. It's insane. and that you look at going into this draft this year they got a first rounder two second rounders and two third rounders next year they got a first rounder three second rounds whoo like like it's insane this team has done an amazing job of acquiring good young guys let me let me one of

those the pittsburgh pick i think it's the pittsburgh flurry pick yeah that's unbelievable that they're still benefiting from that let me and let me run you through these age groups right 27, 31, 34, 27, 28, 29. Those are the top forwards. 28, 24, 28 defense. Those are the age groups you want. And I think Vegas has just been lost. They've just been Vegas this year.

They've been a good, solid hockey team. They haven't done much, and I don't think they need to do much. I think what they need to do is win a little bit more in a division that's been a bit topsy-turvy. And I think they can do that. I think they get minimum second round this year.

I'm struggling to hand out my F, but I think I have it. I can give you a brief moment. Give me an A, Jesse. A little more. The Leafs activated forward Andreas Janssen from injured reserve. Defenseman Jake Muzzin has been placed on IR. So does that mean Janssen can play tonight? He can.

It depends on how he does in the warm-up. Yeah. Oh, very interesting. I did not know he was that close to coming back. There you go. Okay. All right, I'm changing my answer on the fly. I thought about the Sharks.

Don't tell us what you thought about. Just go with the guy Alright I'm gonna go with The New Jersey Devils Okay They did so much shit In the offseason

And we were talking about Look at them All of the shit They're all of the shit And they're gonna be So much better And we're talking about A team that was

Garbage last year Changed Everything And was still garbage Well they didn't address Their one issue Goaltending And they just called

Cory Schneider up Did you see that? Yeah Wee Um And so much of it comes back to goaltending too, because the other two teams, I was going to say, Montreal has got to be in the conversation. They're getting a lot out of their coach. They're getting a lot out of their players when they play. They're getting a big season from Shea Weber, but we talked about the Penguins as an ideal organization because they were able to survive through the injuries. What does that make the Habs then? Their depth sucks. And I thought about the Sharks, but Martin Jones was actually pretty good up until last year. So the time to make a move there is now.

Yep. Arendelle actually hasn't been as bad as I thought. 9-10. Still not good enough. But not disastrous. The time to make a move is now. It wasn't necessarily last year. Right.

Jesse, who do you give your A to? I give my A to Ottawa. Right. Yeah, oh yeah. And who's your F? My F goes to the Florida Panthers. Wow. For signing Sergei Bobrovsky.

That sucks, eh? And looking no better than when you were when you had James Reimer. Yep. Hey, hey, hey, hey. And the Carolina Hurricanes looking good with James Reimer, so you shut your face. You had James Reimer and Roberto Longo, and you paid $10.5 for Bobrovsky? No, no, just $10 flat for a 31-year-old goalie, and you signed him through 2026. So I don't know how you're going to come out on the right side of that deal,

but I don't think it's going to happen, and this year it looks like it's not going to happen. So now it's time for a playoff spot with all this money and zero cap room. You went for it this year, and it doesn't look like it's working out right now. So I can't give you anything above an F. Panthers win tonight.

They're one point behind the Leafs. Columbus is tied for the second wild card. How? Well, and so... How? So that's why we'll get to our honorable mentions in a second. Yeah. But let me give you my F.

Who's your F, Adam? Chicago. Yeah, I thought about them too What have the Blackhawks done this year What have the Blackhawks done Last year What have the Blackhawks done the year before What have the Blackhawks done

That has been positive for their organization Since they lost And scored like three goals against Nashville The year that Nashville went to the finals What have the Blackhawks done They fired their head coach That's it What have they done

They got good goaltending They still have two super-duper stars. They got some really good young pieces. Still suck. What's going on? Yeah. What's going on, man? Their depth is just not there.

The Blackhawks? And their D.E. And the thing is, yeah. I mean, that's, honestly, when you've got stars, and Dubas pointed this out, actually, in the offseason. He said, you know, we've got our stars, right? We've got our big guys. Chicago's got their big guys.

Now, one of them is, like, Seabrook's never going to play again, I don't think. I don't think so. Duncan Keith is not Duncan Keith anymore. No. But that's why his contract's nice, because, you know, $5 million to Duncan Keith, eh, it's not bad. It's illegal. It's also illegal, but who cares? It wasn't illegal when it was signed.

Right, yeah. The point here is that Chicago has done next to nothing to shore up issues that have been issues for a long time. Stan Bowman needs to be held to account for that. And I'm not saying Stan Bowman is a bad general manager. Because Stan Bowman's won Stanley Cups But what is he doing? What's he done recently? What have you done for me lately, Stan Bowman?

Yeah, no, that's the thing You can be a GM that led your team to success And right now he is leading them In the opposite direction of that Yeah, and you're wasting Prime years of Kane and Taze Who are now both 31 And they got the band back together

With Sod And man Not every Not every band should do a farewell tour No Sometimes you're too old and it's sad And your second highest paid defenseman is Ole Matta I forgot they even had him

Right? And then Connor Murphy after that You shipped Chalmerson out for no reason You shipped Panarin out for no reason How much better are the Hawks This year if they bite the bullet How much better are they The last two years with Panarin

And how much better are they last year with Chalmerson All they had to do Was hang on to them I know that their contracts were expiring You traded Panarin with two years left To get Sod And that was the thing It wasn't because they traded Panarin

Because they didn't think they could sign him That's a bullshit excuse and we know that They traded Panarin because they wanted Sod Because Kane and Taze wanted that And the second the players started calling the shots It's wrong And they got Andrew Shaw back What are you guys doing?

What are you guys doing? And then, you know, and I get the Rob... Play a different song. Play a different... I got the Robin Lander signing. I thought that was... Hey, why not? It was smart in that Corey Crawford is wicked, but they didn't know where he was health-wise.

Right. He had a bad hip and stuff, and that's tough. Yeah. And, I mean, it's okay to have too many good players at a certain position because then you can trade them. And you bridge to Brincat, who is your real up-and-coming star. He's going to make 6.4 for the next three years. And then when Kane and Taze are up in three years,

Debrinkat will get paid. All that money. Well, I don't think he's going to make $20 million a year. No, yeah, when third-liners are making $10. There you go. It's a... I don't know where... To me, the most damning thing a team can be is,

what are you? What are the Chicago Blackhawks, guys? They're a big pile of what the hell are you? Can you name any characteristic, anything tangible? that's what I have to say I'm so mad that they kicked the Leafs ass under Babcock

oh yeah that was dumb that was such a stupid game honorable mentions can we wrap because we're at 2.30 oh are we yeah

how that was a fun show alright good shit hey give us your honorable mentions in the twitter mentions twitter.com

tell us what you thought of the Joker the steve dangle podcast follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y l d e and at jesse blake brought to you by panago pizza order at panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness connection complete