The Steve Dangle Podcast - Hangover | February 23, 2026

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, 00:00 USA wins gold 11:00 CAPTAIN Auston Matthews 15:00 Bridesmaid McDavid 29:00 Team Canada roster construction mistakes 45:00 Goaltending development in Canada is a problem 1:06:00 Apologize to Guewvin 1:11:00 Quinn or Cale 1:21:00 Leafs practice lines! And looking towards the deadline 1:34:00 The Bronze Medal game Visit this episode's sponsors: For 40 years, Canadians have been rolling and winning great prizes from Tims®. This year, there are two ways to play—in the app and on the cup—and millions of great prizes to be won! Ready to roll? Visit https://www.timhortons.ca/rollup to play now! Go to Duer.ca/sdp to get 15% off your first order! The Little Native Hockey League has grown from 17 teams in 1971 to 270 today, transforming a history of exclusion into a powerful celebration of Indigenous talent and resilience. Hosted by Wikwemikong Unceded Territory, this year’s tournament focuses on "Empowering Girls and Women" to elevate youth athletes and strengthen development pathways across Ontario. Learn more and support the league here: https://page.spordle.com/little-nhl-tournament For all the odds, T’s and C’s, and to learn more visit ⁠https://betmgm.com/DANGLE⁠. 19+ to wager. Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Watch all episodes of The Steve Dangle Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEidkgWpSiHVkYT7HrIzLPXlY Watch clips of The Steve Dangle podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEieOJuIrqWyZPWSIJtVMCbLz Buy SDP merch https://sdpnshop.ca/ Check out https://sdpn.ca/events to see The Steve Dangle Podcast live! Watch hockey with us! Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEifCTX0vkKEaGg9otrW4Zl2k Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join Subscribe to SDP VIP!: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe - Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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download that. TaskRabbit.ca. Code Dangle. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcf walk.ca the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wild and jesse blake i bet you're wondering what kind of mood we're in i bet yeah i bet there's a lot of americans

going in like yeah yeah do the do the sad dance canadian yeah do the sad dance my god say it moisturize yourself skyrocketed in people whose personality is just spite hey jesse can we just can we bring this up can we just bring this up this first one this is this is you know the last year especially i mean i'm going to include a toronto a couple of toronto events in there but one of them was a national toronto event because there's been a couple of things that have just been right there it's right there oh okay now first of all we'll start with game seven in toronto before the game started it sure felt like it was right there and i'm talking about leafs and panthers it didn't ultimately end up being right uh six to one

then you're getting really good at that by the way jesse well because i lost my voice i had to do something the farts no it's really good jesse will know this better than anyone world series it was right there the ball getting wedged under the the the padding ikf's weird run to home it was right there and then we got this it was right there two times well that's just the one time that's the tase time but well there was also the mckinnon time and it was right there so the mckinnon one's so much worse yes you think so there's the one americans are going to remember and there's the one canadians are going to remember americans are going to remember this one an american did some crazy safe it's an unbelievable save welcome

to the paddle save emporium connor hellebuck the one canadians are going to remember can i tell my story sure last last night i'm at beer league and i'm bad i had a good night though my line mate takes a shot they miss wide goes off the end boards and wouldn't you know it right on my tape oh perfect triangle bink bink if i if i tried to do this in warm-up i couldn't do it i air mailed it i sent wow so you couldn't do it in the game either i sent it over that yeah i guess you're right maybe you should have tried it more i sent it over the damn net oh wide open too and after wide open oh and after slamming my stick i go back to the bench and the entire bench screams at me mckinnon

this dude better pray he wins the stanley cup this year because it is going to take him years to escape that look at that look at that that's pain look that's pain and i know it's nathan mckinnon and he should have scored damn isn't that the way to look at it adam should have scored put it home like put it home what i was gonna say is well you know he usually would well he didn't did and that's why you're there at the olympics and for anybody who wants him to take more time on that play fun fact he did if you watch the full replay of the thing he gathers it he sets it and then he takes the shot he couldn't have taken more time there he didn't try and one time it off the pass it's it's just it's a miss i have no explanation for let me try i think aura is a

factor here he has a wide open net to shoot at and he's like no i still have to place this perfectly because it's connor hellebuck and he might fly over and stop it yeah shoot it at the net yeah shoot it at the yawning cage that's the only well there are two explanations one is that's what he was trying to do two he just missed he just missed he just missed sometimes in life you miss sometimes in life you miss we won our game uh oh yeah that's the final score five four we scored uh with 32 seconds left where do you sit in league points uh we're like i don't know third or fourth out of six you personally too where do you oh um are you ahead of that guy who listens to this show i don't know how many points he has i last night i got my last night was the final

night of the regular season and i got my eighth point so i missed a lot of time wow i also got it he's gotta have more yeah i i certainly hope so i was expecting more we gotta expect we gotta have that guy right in again yeah four and four you might have like really sparked his pro hockey career i hope i did go on summer i'm on your ass i hope he's part of the summer league so plan i gotta ask you guys a human being question just just being human yeah how did you spend other than playing hockey yesterday yeah how were the hours after the game what'd you do how'd you feel well sad yeah obviously but like there i've obviously been a part of uh several notable losses and um this one was sad this one wasn't anger like i i think with ah maybe it'll turn

into anger because they should have won they should have won and they didn't right and people are going to scream cope because again that's their entire personality but i it's not cope what i'm acknowledging they didn't and i this isn't torino i think is something important to get out of the way torino was like oh the program might be in trouble like these guys are not making the right decision the young guys are coming up we didn't get a chance to see them in olympic action so who knows i look at the canadian program and i'm like they're gonna dominate for a long time i am concerned about the goaltending but they're gonna be so good for so long they're in such a good place on the men's side they're gonna be great i didn't ask for your analysis i asked

for how you felt and what you did well the analysis had to do with how i felt so when did you start to feel better or have you um and jesse i'm coming to you next i don't want hockey answers i want human being how did we feel when my daughter asked for a ring around the rosie oh that's where i just pick her up and spin her around i love that that was it i watched zootopia too with my kid on the couch jesse how how did you feel immediately after what did you do with the rest of your day did it stick with you i made content as is my job um i made a couple videos about the olympics and the olympic hockey so you worked your way through yeah it was uh it was upsetting obviously with the loss because one you never it's it's worse when you feel like the team

deserves better yeah it'd be better if they got pummeled six to nothing but here well no i guess i know which one i matter after i uh i don't yeah i don't know if it's better you know that's you're you're right to question that because yeah you sit on both sides and like if they get pummeled then there's concerns and you're concerned from the future but here where they lose a game where they looked really good and the other team just happened to win you're you feel okay with that because you're like you're okay with what can it is because you're like hey they play us the game again maybe they win maybe mckinnon puts that i think nine times out of ten they win yeah so um yeah i don't know if it's better if they get pummeled you're you're right to question that

the leafs are listen to hype angry music and lift heavy things uh kind of vibe team canada losing is listen to sad songs in the rain kind of vibe it's sad it's sad yeah uh my my wife went to bed afterwards because she was like so sad and she even texted me this morning she's like i'm still sad it was done at 11 in the morning i know she went right back she was like i need to take a nap like one o'clock like i can't handle this you know i i and i fell asleep on the couch watching zootopia too while my daughter played but you know the the you should stay awake the thing about it is it stings because it it was awesome and the entire tournament was excellent and that game was an incredible game and there's going to be plenty of questioning and could they have done

this could they have done that i'm here for that we can talk about that but you know if i had told you at the beginning of the tournament that this was going to end canada united states in overtime yep and i wouldn't tell you which team won you'd have taken it all day probably yeah that's probably the result most people thought would happen and in two finals in the last year so obviously four nations and then than this they've played each other twice both scores have been two to one they're tied three goals each right like it's it is it those are two unforgettable magical finals obviously the gold medal game means more duh um and i i think um there were some good things to come out of it um one thing though that i want to talk about first more than anything in the whole

world is the fact that team usa brought out the gadreau kits and the gadreau jersey uh for the celebration which i thought was awesome and then there's that picture of jack hughes missing part of his mouth after scoring the goal great stuff with the with the flag and everything it's great theater i don't gotta like any of it but no it's great stuff well the good girl stuff i obviously like but the the jack hughes stuff i'm like yeah it's a sick picture please stop showing it and if you're a toronto fan uh like a leafs fan you're you were your options yesterday oh so canada loses incredibly easy choice by the way Canada loses and McDavid's not a winner you know you know the the Kachuks always a bridesmaid never a bride sure USA loses Austin Matthews

is a terrible captain and the Leafs will never win anything with him sure I know which one you would take but we ended up with actually Austin Matthews is a winner and you know it's funny to see the Quinn Hughes quote about like yeah take that Toronto media and we're like hey we were supporting him. We were the ones that were saying he's fine. It was the American media that was on him. I want to know for you guys, because Toronto has obviously taken some shots with the Marner thing and the Matthews thing or whatever. I want to know if this has changed anything to do with Matthews for you. Was that ever him being able to get one across the line as a leader? Was that ever a concern for you? Was that something that ever weighed in your mind? And has this dispelled

anything for you because he had a primary assist he played unbelievable defense I thought the I'd never I watched every minute of the United States in that tournament there was not a single minute until that Canada game where the Kachuks and Eichel were not a factor and I don't think there was a single minute in that game where the Kachuks and Eichel were a factor but Matthews Boldy Gensel was always oh yeah no that was that was probably their best line um as a Leafs fan who's watched hundreds of Matthews games I didn't learn a single thing about him at these Olympics okay not a single thing he's an elite two-way player he's got an incredible shot um he gets ripped on in any game where he goes over and uh when he scores it's like oh okay good

you know uh that's you're always just reaching for breaking even and i i guess maybe when the standard you you start with is four goals in a game uh it's it's difficult to ever top that it's ridiculously unreasonable expectations turns out it comes from not just one place um and uh he got it done like he had i think two point blank chances to finish it he passed on one of them where i think he should have shot well no i'm talking about the four nation face oh that one yeah two point blank chances to finish it and he he didn't score why because he's a bum but jordan bennington robbed him robbed him blind right i don't think anyone's saying devin tave sucks at hockey because he got robbed by connor hellebuck sometimes you get robbed nathan

mckinnon's another story you didn't get robbed you missed um no i didn't learn a single thing about matthews jesse what about you we're talking about the narrative you know the narrative i think you're asking the wrong audience because we understand what kind of superstar austin matthews is and what kind of player he is like his defensive game i don't think any of us were shocked at how good defensively he was in this tournament um it would be the people who didn't understand what kind of superstar he is who would be shocked by the results of this tournament like he's a i think he's a great captain there's a reason he's captain we defended his captaincy throughout this tournament and they ended up winning there's there's a lot of people who

complain about the um how there's too much leafs coverage and they obviously don't consume any of it he's a good player guys he's a good player and and and i think that's the that is important right you want to we do have to kind of you know if we're going to take the hits i think it's important that uh we also say hey uh now we could kind of quote say this guy actually can get it done uh and maybe to quote mark stone it is a leafs thing certainly this year it is it's a leafs management thing this year and i know that going back to watching morgan riley pass it to philip myers at the blue line is going to be painful after this dude but agony there is a superstar here and i think it's okay to just acknowledge that everybody back off now i have

the same question about connor mcdavid because you know the the the thing is now that's two stanley cup finals he did win the four nations but everybody knows that that is a mini tournament that's not the olympics that's not the stanley cup final special special and then there were people who are complaining that he went uh in the three on three overtime went in by himself against two three other players twice twice in that short overtime period yeah and to be honest i know nobody was really with him but are those the smartest plays probably not does that make you know because again it's all narrative driven i i think a lot of this is also just first take a palooza like what the effect that first take has had on talking sports i can never remember

having great players like this in like the 90s and people going that guy i'll never win he sucks like the first time i can ever remember that happening was like phil mickelson when he'd been in like 45 majors and never won one with conor mcdavid people are going to chirp this guy they're going to give him shit okay um do you think you learned anything new about conor mcdavid in this tournament not a thing not a single thing i've watched lots of conor mcdavid hockey he is a driven winner ridiculously fast incredible vision incredible execution um but like my main criticism from that game you know it's interesting like a lot of the conversation when canada was losing to czechia when canada was losing to finland before the comebacks

was they should have brought scheifele they should have brought bedard and they should have brought hyman and they should have brought schaefer and they should have brought bouchard and it was all their best players let them down in that three on three um that's probably the hardest part to swallow from a team canada perspective nathan mckinnon was incredible did not do well in that overtime kale mccarr was incredible did not do well in that overtime it's like you could put some of the first goal on him then he tied it then you could put some of the ot winner on him um and yeah mcdavid just really baffling choices in that overtime like if he carved through three guys and beat them no one would be surprised we consider it one of the greatest goals of all time

yeah but also it's the olympics and you're not going up against bad players and what are you doing what are you doing yeah three on three overtime is entirely about possession and it's terrible decision making by him to go up on the rush all by himself against the entire other side of the team and think that that's a smart way to win three on three overtime it was bad decision making for him in that case because he needs to have resources with him if he's going to shoot the puck and the team's going to maintain possession and nobody else was with him and he decided to do his own thing and they lost possession and things going the other way and he did it twice and that's it's to me it screamed of a little bit once canada didn't get the five

on three done didn't capitalize on that they didn't capitalize on the they had no power play later after that you abbreviated just had the abbreviated one the one yeah the minute 10 that they had after uh the penalty there and then like mckinnon missing the wide open net all that stuff the overtime felt like they squeezed their sticks a little too tight and they're doing they're playing a game where it's like we gotta we gotta get this done here we gotta finish it we gotta finish it early and they completely rushed it and especially mcdavid on the rush and that's what leads to opportunities for the other team like it's just it three on three so specific in that you go one way and you try and make a play you are guaranteed to leave your opponent a chance

to go back the other end if they still have legs if you've tired out their legs and they can't really make it and it's one guy going back then you're okay but if they have legs to go the other way if you're taking a shot at your end they're going to get the opportunities and that's exactly what happened and jack hughes unlike team canada took care of his one opportunity um like you know when it comes to moments like this all you really have is a small sample size and even a big sample size in moments like this are a small sample size and connor mcdavid has a big sample size of moments like this and came out on top last year like i don't know like i i can't really make a broad sweeping statement of him it was it was two rushes two baffling rushes

like there were a few you know some of the things that are going around like you you look at some of the micro moments of the game second or third period colton pareko gets like three shots in six seconds and wires two of them wide i i he didn't execute he's got a bomb of a shot he does but of all the players on the ice you want taking the shot it ain't him you know um the five on three in a gold medal game what a gift for nearly two minutes and they what a gift and they couldn't get it they couldn't even get the offensive zone pressure no and like like they couldn't get in in that case you gotta also give credit to the americans who absolutely just like the women's team had a perfect penalty kill throughout the olympics that's amazing both programs perfect

penalty kills hats off to you guys that's incredible canada they got they got stopped and that's that's the case there and with mcdavid's legacy it's not the prettiest resume because like the winning side of it isn't pretty you know because you want the greatest players in your sport to have no championships associated with that and a winning legacy with that and Sidney Crosby the reason he's so revered is he always got it done and he always got the winning part

of it done the numbers are there but like the dude doesn't lose exactly like it's silver was very odd it's it's crazy to look at how his career went and how much winning he got done consistently year after year and McDavid's not gonna have that for the beginning

portion of his career at least for this first decade right um but there's there's time to turn that around and with mcdavid if you go to the specific teams that lost like the 25 finals the one that just happened against florida that i don't blame that one on his individual efforts i think the other team was better the 24 finals you can shut down mcdavid and you can try and have the rest of the team pick them up and i don't think there's enough pieces in edmonton to do that and that was the deeper of the two yeah which is crazy florida i think was still the better team florida i think they've

been so good the last couple years i don't know if any but that's the best player in the game and he's not breaking through that unless he has better resources around him and it's so much of a team game that i'm willing to excuse the poor resume he has on paper because of the individual resume he has and all of the heart trophies and all of these mvps and winning and losing situations which is insane so mcdavid we gotta look at the way his career has gone in a different light you know and kind of excuse the losing and he's never going to be revered like crosby unless everything flips right because crosby had both and that's just really unfortunate for him and he's not going to win that battle if i can jump in on that for just a second sure

a couple of things with mcdavid that are differing from crosby and by the way for anybody that's listening that might be a huge mcdavid fan who's going how the hell can you do him this dirty or whatever i am not one of those people that doesn't think mcdavid can win um i i i am not going to be one of those people ever i think this guy is going to get it done it's just a question of when it's just objectively true what what Crosby had early on in his career that McDavid did not have was good management and I'm not talking about his personal management the Pittsburgh Penguins built themselves into an incredible organization not only did they have Crosby but they also had uh which stall brother was it Jordan Jordan they had Gino Malkin on the way up they had

Marc-Andre Fleury they had Chris Letang they had older guys Mark Reckie Bill Guerin you know some of these uh pascal dupuis some of these guys that kind of came in whereas edmonton had horrible management for years imagine an edmonton remember their their penalty kill was like around 50 at one point like yeah historically bad um but it was very specific it was only on at home i think yeah it was weird it was really odd jesse do you remember when we were at boston pizza keith acton's boston pizza in stouffville and he said and this is two years ago when when the oilers went all the way to the finals and they weren't even in the finals yet he's like but if they go to the finals and they get this done mcdavid will be in my mind the greatest player ever because

he got it done without the supporting cast and that's a former nhl assistant coach stanley cup winner saying that the supporting cast just isn't there now this time it was it didn't happen but i feel like you know the chirps for mcdavid you know he remember he also didn't win in the ohl either yoshua generals beat him in the ohl final went all the way to the final so one of these days that championship's going to happen and i'm curious about what the look on his face will be it's he i like listen sports records are made to be broken and you should never say that something's never going to happen again because it will this will never happen again in a two-year span or three-year span conor mcdavid won the con smith trophy without winning

the cup an olympic mvp without winning gold that will never happen to any individual ever again ever until the sun explodes no one's ever going to be able to pull that off and i think it says something about the team there it's it's insane to me that he hasn't won i i don't have a good explanation for it i don't think anybody does this morning i think again that's why it stings now i want to bring up imagine if he had evan bouchard i want yeah and i don't think we were doing him dirty i was just trying to paint a picture of his current resume and you weren't i would have got this shit for it because i was the one that brought it up so it's no no i i jesse i wasn't trying to say that you were doing him dirty i'm just trying to say that oilers fans

are a little touchy right now the bouchard and hyman thing and then obviously mcdavid two stanley cup finals and a gold medal game and no no championships in any of the three of them sometimes life throws your curveballs and you don't have time to get to them and that's where task rabbit comes in and i think you should check this out because here's the deal one of the things one of the weird quirks about my condo building is that they use my floor to repel down and clean all the windows but they never clean my windows oh and their way around on that is like well it's a patio window you can do that yourself and i'm like well hang on a second what if i don't want to i don't have the stuff because you gotta have that scraper thing and the and the washer thing

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two in five canadians will hear the words you have cancer that's why every step and dollar raised matters on september 19th join thousands in toronto for the princess margaret cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca i i want to ask you about this the too many men call that didn't happen yeah i want to i i i'm gonna just do a cope for just a second i just want to know how like i i listen the game might still have been i mean we had a five on three we had the chance to close it i get it but how does that happen they don't they played the puck yeah they

don't call the rules it's game management it's uh that's the way hockey is done okay yeah that's not a part of the outcome for me like refereeing mistakes aren't that's a part of the game yeah i think that's that you get that on both sides consistently that's not the results to me don't rely on what the referees are going to do on each side because they're going to miss calls on for everybody all all cope like it's wrong it's straight wrong but anytime you bring it up to like a quote unquote hockey guy they go oh you're whining and you go okay just have a shitty sport i guess like i i don't know what you want yeah call the rules no okay um the uh i'm looking at some of the ice time from yesterday i want to talk about roster construction because we talked

about it a little bit um we talked about it a little bit before the weekend and you know i i I know our good friend CJ over at the CJ Show thinks, hey, this roster was great. You get to overtime in the finals, there's not much that you can do to improve on that. And respectfully, I disagree. I think, guys, this was a team that was so much better than what they performed.

And I'm not just talking about this game because they performed very well in this game. Mm-hmm. But against the Czechs, went down early, had to come back, squeak through. fins went down early had to come back controversial calls squeak through yep i don't think it's unfair to say the team canada needed some depth scoring and without josh morrissey in the lineup and i and again no disrespect to shea theodore their defense could not move the puck as well

as it needed to drew dowdy unfortunately to me looked every bit his age out there Brad Marchand, who I keep hearing is probably headed for surgery and may not finish the season, had his first, I think, bad game in his whole life. I didn't think he was great. He wasn't very effective. Sam Reinhardt, guys, played six minutes, 657. This is the selkie runner-up.

He had almost 50. 40 goals. He had almost 60 goals. He had almost 60 goals once. You do miss Sorelli, sure. You miss a Braden Point, no question. but what they did with sorelli defensive forward they replaced him with sam bennett that made sense to me i thought i like seth jarvis's speed my issue was the lack of finish on the rest of those

lines there was a reason why mckinnon played 22 minutes mcdavid played 24 and uh celebrating played 22 minutes and it's because when those guys weren't on the ice the chances of the team scoring i know that suzuki had a goal to tie it up i know marner had an overtime goal but the chances of tying it up were just not there especially without crosby in the lineup and the other thing i want to raise to you guys they couldn't win a face-off no no i wonder a little bit about um you do got to throw a little bit of arrogance in there um because john cooper had i i think generally he was he was up and down but he talked about the difference between five on five hockey and three on three i've looked up at that canada box with all the management all

the coaches in there you don't know who the best three on three players in the world are if it's so different john and you're gonna wax poetic about how different it is then treat it like it's different which is to say get nick suzuki on the ice are you out of your mind if mcdavid and they don't start with celebrini in overtime he's leading them in goals oh they could have put they could have put mckinnon suzuki out on the second shift he he on a team just stacked with stars a lot of them didn't find their role which can be a player problem can be a coach problem um he rode his horses into the ground and you wonder if that you'll always wonder if that had an effect going into overtime you'll always wonder if it's if three on three is so

different and of course it is it's three on three you treat it differently you know they went to three on three three times they won two of them you know maybe this is just cope but i mean that was exceptionally bad every bad decision they could have made they did jesse yes i i have to i disrespected thomas harley he had a very good tournament yes he did yeah when it comes to the face-off situation that was the thing that surprised me the most uh the fact that this group i know eichel and matthews are just dynamite in the face-off dot they always have been but mckinnon who is a career 54 55 guy mcdavid's a good face-up guy what when you look at this roster they didn't win so it's so you can't say it's perfect

what tweak do you think you could have made or would have made in retrospect and and that's it's a totally unfair thing to say but that's what we fucking do totally yeah but i'm trying not to make too many grand proclamations about the roster just because mckinnon can't hit a wide open net yep like i don't want to revisionist history too much of team canada because he just wasn't able to make one play that he's made a trillion times in his in his life so if you're making changes to this roster they have to be based on the entire tournament and not that one game and you'd have to that's why i think depth scoring 2030 and going to that and like okay what do we need more of and i don't disagree that a player like bedard would be more useful in this

team there's a more offensive minded player we all know his head coach had to come out and defend his defensive side of the game but like that wouldn't be why you're putting bedard on the roster you'd be putting him on there to hey go go shoot the puck like go do some fun things with the goal with the uh with the puck there and shoot it so like i definitely think if if you're going to 2030 you think okay how do we generate more offense out of the top guys because he clearly leaned on them and steve with the three on three overtime they didn't get it done and mcdavid was ugly in it but if you're not starting mcdavid mckinnon mccarr in overtime you're getting to gretzky not in a shootout that was their second go around though it was but you have to that's

all you got to do those are the guys no it's 20 minutes you have you have to try and put those guys out there to win because then it's the other side of it and it's like you put nick suzuki out there ahead of mcdavid even though that's probably the right thing to do and if gretzky's not the guy to put in the shootout it's still absurd that he wasn't there i don't think cooper would wear that but we'll never know one one thing that is like just straight up true the combination of marner and stone were so dynamite early on and when they lost crosby i'm not making excuses for oh if they had crosby they'd win but cooper didn't know what to do and it wasn't about losing crosby it was about losing an entire line like marner and stone got lost in the shuffle and i thought they had

found a solution in suzuki he played him less than 11 minutes yeah he played suzuki 1031 bennett 11 55 and horvath 10 21 and marner got like 17 minutes just getting out there and hanging around yeah penalty kill a lot of penalty yeah a lot of penalty power play and they did a good job on teams but yeah that's the fourth highest time on ice amongst forwards right yes yeah mitch marner did but yeah a lot of that's the penalty kill and clearly john cooper had once the tournament got to the elimination rounds he said i have three line i have one line and three guys that can score and i'm just gonna hammer away at these guys and that there because that's a bigger sample size of like the whole seven games of the tournament you say okay we should have got

him some different pieces that can actually put the puck in the back of the net you know so like i would have brought zach hyman i think he would have been more useful and conor bedard needed some serious consideration because we know doug armstrong never even thought about this man Like, I don't even know if he has Conor Bernard's number because he said not since not even in the fall was he a consideration for this team. That's a little ridiculous. It is. And it the tournament sort of put things into perspective, not just seeing things play out, but numerically. Sam Reinhardt's playing six minutes.

That's a waste of time. That's a waste of time. Clayton Keller. Do you know how much Clayton Keller played in that whole metal game? Go ahead. He played 38 seconds. That's correct. That's correct.

Noah Hannafin played six minutes. 38 seconds. Bring it. Like, okay. He got a shift. How bad, how catastrophic of a defensive liability would Conor Bedard have to be that he couldn't give you six good minutes? Even if you have him as a power play specialist. If you think that is the reason his defensive numbers look bad.

Which is what Reinhardt was. Right. Right. Right, and Reinhardt's not a center. The thing about... Sometimes. The thing about Bedard, he's not really. Bedard's an always center.

Yes. The reason Bedard's numbers look like shit on defense is because he is up against, like his coach isn't wrong, although I don't think his coach is the greatest coach in the world and probably isn't the guy to be criticizing Team Canada management having won literally nothing at the pro level. But Conor Bedard plays the best players on every team every night. so for that not even to have been a consideration that is that's the part of the torino thing that

comes back to me and and i torino for the torino team for people that don't remember because again this is like steve and i's last year of high school that's how long ago it was 20 years ago damn the the torino team blew it because they brought old guys and and the young guys that they did bring didn't play didn't play and the guys that they left at home were it's embarrassing when you when you look at it the this tournament to me Steve and Jesse what it drove home was guys like Marshan who's clearly injured and is clearly got to shut it down at some point here unless the Panthers go on some Cinderella run again I don't think they will because I don't think Matt Kachuk's even fully healthy yet Tom Wilson had his really good moments in the tournament but

ultimately he got lost ultimately in a game like that non-factor i thought he was dynamite yesterday bennett was a liability marshan was a liability and wilson got lost uh i think it's a young man's tournament i think that is what that's the thing about the youth right i do think it's a you know not a 30 to 35 year old tournament i think it's a 22 to 27 year old tournament especially when you have access to the best players in the world that's got to be your core and you augment with legends like Crosby. At the next Olympics, it'll be Connor McDavid that's the older legend.

I do, there's one guy who I don't even think had a bad tournament, but like when you put it in the simplest terms, is Drew Doughty one of the eight best defenders in Canada? No, that's a loyalty thing. That's what I don't think, they gotta get away from this. In Canada? No.

All of Canada? No. The entire country? Steve, we all know Evan Bouchard is better, we know. i think the list is a lot longer than that i agree with you but they brought him for you know vibes and he's been there before and he's won gold medals and all that but i i think my issue and and and this is where i i think they ran into problems was they had loyalty to people blindly from the four nations team they had hagel they were sorry

they had point and they had sorelli and then those guys went down so like okay we'll just bring the four nations guys and they didn't change the defense at all you have to look at this is pro sports you got to look at what have you done for me lately it's hey it's so nice that 18 months ago austin matthew scored 69 goals do you think anyone gives a fuck today no nobody cares they were saying before the tournament all this guy's lost step he's terrible blah blah blah blah blah bad captain doesn't nobody's leafs are terrible look at what he's done to them you know it is literally what have you done for me you're just gonna go right back to that by the way i know i that's that's why it's like that's an easy one to push you know that is that for me is i understand the loyalty

on a human level but this is a ruthless sport and the americans were pretty ruthless clayton keller got 38 seconds that's how connor did not play again in the final i didn't realize how little he played because during the medal ceremony obviously they all have their uh helmets off and i'm like his hair is bone dry yeah because he didn't play the one shift where i think it was chris cuthbert is like oh that's clayton keller that was it buddy they scratched 40 goal score kyle connor it's again yo that's what i'm saying what do they have against that man i know that and and and you know that is that's the part for me where i do think in games like this with a rate of play you will watch the stanley cup finals in a couple of months time guys

you will not see a game played at that skill level no because they're busted and they're just not as talented these that that was the best hockey game i think i've ever seen in my life this week is going to be one of the worst hangovers in canadian history and it's a back-to-back yeah against the panthers and lightning i know on the road terrible do i have to you do oh um on the on the american side um i gotta say hats off to quinn hughes and charlie mcavoy for being the real like the only two defensemen to me that really were effective in this game and if you look at their ice time they played seven minutes more than the next closest guy jake slavin geez so each of pretty good he was too favor was also up there even a guy like zach rowinsky who is a norse candidate

this year in my books probably is going to win it um if he had one good shift he made it a good one he was phenomenal up until this game they gave him 12 minutes that's great he played travis sandheim played three more minutes than he did that's great can i add him to the list who top eight travis sanheim i i agree with you up eight travis sanheim played 15 28 how much did shea theodore play uh shea theodore who i think anybody would be like that's the better defenseman better offensively bobbled the puck a lot i thought yes i thought sanheim was a little bit more steady as she goes he can play both maybe he has i'll say seven minutes okay yeah it's a little more than that it's nine yeah sanheim nine minutes shea theodore sorry theodore nine minutes

sandheim 15 and a half and i listen this is what you do after games you pick it apart you go ah what could we have done right and then if you're not doing that then you're not getting better you go back and you go okay out of the three games canada's played against the united states over the past year best on best this was canada's best performance by leaps and bounds yeah like by a crazily wide margin and that's why and they lost and that's why jesse makes such a great point i'm not going to put too much on a team that you know couldn't finish it at the netter i'm struggling for nitpicking the roster like you guys are on the defensive side because i look at the team and i say they did enough to win the gold medal well and it's about execution there

just on the margins and they weren't able to do that i think that's how shows like this work uh question debate answer and now i assume you'll get to the goaltending that's what i'm going to come into yeah because i have to ask you that's what was going to be my next thing yeah i have to ask you about connor hellebuck your favorite goalie in the league if i'm do you want to go through you did this do you want to go through my incredible history of uh connor hellebuck fraud watch yes because it's it's retired and not even retired it went to the nursing home and then unfortunately passed away he has been buried for a long time now that thing is so dead he has a vesna a heart and a gold medal since you said he wouldn't have a 920 save percentage

and we saw last season we saw signs of life we did two times last year four nations lost championship game even though it's like not on him still didn't get it done yeah and then the playoffs you can't get a second round and the goal is like oh is that a pulse the goal post moving for him in the playoffs was crazy they're like he was kind of adequate yeah that man won mvp what are you talking about and now that thing's done it's dead and i look at connor hellebuck and i say that's the part of the team counter roster that i want to nitpick and i want to go through okay and i say that's the part we don't have like i think sanheim and dowdy and theodore there were enough there were enough to win this tournament they just didn't do it

the goaltending though the state of goaltending in canada we don't have that and in every game when you go up against nhl best on best and they get to bring an nhl goaltender and our country has jordan binnington most of the time 90 of the time on paper we are going to have the worst goalie even if it's uc soros if it's connor hellebuck whatever country pick them the finish whatever we're gonna have the worst goaltender and that's a problem for canada and they need to fix that by 2030 because you can't be bringing in a guy who's 31st in nhl save percentage to the olympics and say we're going to out-duel Hellebuck and even though in the championship game he did enough like he has done every single time he's been in that over time should have been over twice

oh yeah should have been over twice did a fantastic job but if you ever get in a situation where you need a Connor Hellebuck in net where he stole that thing so many times and he was perfect in that game his positioning was never out of place in the entire tournament I've never seen a goalie perform this well at that high leverage of a situation we don't have martin brodeur anymore we don't have carrie price we don't have patrick wall we don't have any of the great legends curtis joseph none of those guys are andre flurry was the third mike smith was the third why don't those people exist in our country anymore and that does upset me yep cost cost oh the other countries able to do it they are able to do it but like um they have bigger scale of people and

probably more money i've seen all sorts of uh canada hockey i've seen all sorts of like skits and stuff where you know parents are walking down the aisle at pro hockey life or whatever it is and the kid starts looking at goalie equipment and you're like get get away from that get away from yeah and like i don't know my son likes playing goalie and i'm like what about skating hey don't you don't you like scoring don't you go bringing this up and then not let your son play hockey and play hockey goalie oh he's playing hockey goalie next week okay good just saying for the third time this season i think more than any of his teammates well play it again yeah no he he likes it so i don't know there's probably a wide variety of

reasons uh like not to single out like a province but like the the um quebec used to be a factory the health of hockey in quebec is up for debate not a single french canadian on the team not a single one and like you look down the world junior roster i'm sure you could look at the world under 18s under 17s go look at the talent in the queue compared to o and dub and like i knew this was the case i didn't know it was this bad until we started making all the highlight videos and the whl the future of the canadian program runs through that league holy shit the little animals that they are developing over there oh my god they're all named caden they're all named brayson caden

granola and place friggin clayson and oil grenason and oil yeah wow that's a great by unleaded premium yes and diesel diesel mcringle's a good one yeah and guaranteed there's a kid in the dub named diesel there i put money on that b does does crosby count played for ramuski for two seasons okay he was drafted in 2005 on the team hey mark andre came through the queue QMJHL star QMJHL drafted in 2003

yeah right I think that's a conversation worth having yeah that's crazy it's

it's definitely a bit of a side quest from what you were asking but like all our best goalies

a lot of them came from there Luongo did we even mention Luongo earlier no no Roberto Luongo

Wa Broder Wa Broder two of the best goalies that's pretty good those two are on anybody's list wabroder should be in the top five and then price played in the dub but

quebec claims them so this is four yeah like yeah it's we need you you're kind of a big part of the fabric of this country when it when it comes it's something you only notice at these tournaments and we haven't had one in 12 years so i think it's a question mark it's just what happened to the state of canadian goaltending and like are they are they coming up are they like well who knows with goaltending the little honestly who freaking knows the whl uh players they have coming up are little killers some of the kids they have in the o are little killers uh and then there's the q and like there's some exceptions like justin carbino is a great prospect first round pick of the st louis blues um there are a couple goaltending prospects but if i'm not mistaken

they're not canadian so it's that doesn't help it's an interesting aspect of the conversation and it's not blame but it's concerned like that's uh that's what the second second biggest province in the country oh you're specifically still going aqua back i'm talking about just as a well and goaltending as uh the ohl is allowed to develop them whl is allowed to develop them it's a sore spot yeah and like i said jordan bennington isn't the reason that they lost the one game but going into the tournament evaluating the roster as a whole you'd like better options for canada i think that's if i'm if i want to make adjustments on the roster i'm i want to go back and adjust people having babies and developing goaltenders i don't i agree with him he's got to

be the strangest goalie to coach in the world because every game it's like okay shitty first period goal you'd like a save second period goal highway robbery uh in the final five minutes of basically every game yeah and then a complete game stealer in overtime but apparently you only get one of those jordan bittington you need to score four goals in a high leverage game to win but guaranteed to win honest to goodness and i i i will never doubt him in a high leverage game again i don't know when he'll get back into the playoffs but we don't have he's a big game goalie we don't have grant fuhrer anymore like a goalie who just wins he went oh is it ugly how many goals he led in seven but ignore that he won the game like he's got to be the closest thing we have yeah

he's and it's i'm not even calling uh grant bad but like no grant just played in the 80s his yes and won the most in the 80s which is probably why you look at his numbers you go what the um but he his statistically he's an enormous outlier you're like how did this guy win yeah yeah like oh he had an 880 when the game was 8-6 back then yeah like it's not it's not crazy when you kind of grade in on the curve and by the way he went on grant fuhrer and that's a really good comparison went on to a pretty successful career with st louis too uh that's right oh god i hated him in st louis he was great that's what i knew him in the 90s a kid that's a team that should have won in the oilers that that st louis team several years they should have won

the cup and uh you have nick kiprios to blame that's right so you know uh jesse it's a great point about the goaltending in this is the first tournament first olympic tournament and i can remember where canada's goaltending was even a question at all and so you know like i remember that the torino ones where curtis joseph got the start wasn't good pat quinn switched him out that was salt lake oh salt lake and and they won but curtis was mad so he went to detroit um you know that that is the other than that i can't remember there being a goaltending problem so i think that that is going to be a major major thing but here's the thing what do you even do about it i well that's a hockey canada issue yeah you hope something emerges at the nhl level like one of

these guys takes over the next couple years that's four years you know and we have an option yeah yeah you know they also think about hockey canada that like because i'm sure they do a lot but how come an organization like hockey canada has never done anything to bring a generic or discount brand of hockey equipment to the country obviously you know we we had um uh swift hockey sticks that we did some promotions with and obviously that was on dragon's den and the whole point of swift hockey was to make sticks more affordable because like when we were growing up i used to buy the mario lamu stick which was not actually mario lamu sticks and there was a reason you called them twigs because if you hit the puck too hard they'd snap in half but they

were ten dollars yeah and then the most expensive stick you could get were those eastern ones where you could flip out the blade and they were metal and they would never die but they also blunted skate blades and people got away from those and then i remember towards the end of like my house league days they had the carbon fiber shift uh sticks come out and those were 300 and people were like for a fucking stick now good luck getting one for under 100 bucks they're all that leo's leo stick that he hasn't started using yet because it's too big 70 bucks how old is he he is five that's insanity so i bought him and guess what parents guess what parents listening to this don't make the same mistake i did go to sport check go get yourself a wooden sherwood for like

25 bucks cut that shit down put a little tape on the butt end they'll love it just the same yeah he will not he won't switch to the 70 dollar one because he likes because he likes the heavy wooden one i don't i don't know if you need the 70 dollars you don't no because i couldn't find a fucking stick oh yeah for his height yeah yeah and i'm not oh and i'm sorry uh kids playing goalie at at five six years old the pads don't need to be twelve hundred dollars oh my gosh wow they don't no they just don't yeah and we need like i i think it's got to go beyond sticks you got to have discount like not discount brand generic brand yet and when you talk about generic brand like i i i'm gonna take i'm gonna draw my shopper's drug mart experience when you go to the the pharmacy

and you pick up Advil. There's the thing next to it that's not Advil. It's acetaminophen and it's generic branded. Ibuprofen. It's made in the same factory. It just doesn't have the branding on it. And it's two or three bucks less, probably. We need that for sticks.

And it's got, we need that for gloves. We need that for shin pads. No frills, shin pads that just say shin pads. A hundred percent. Yes. The one thing I worry about is that Hockey Canada doesn't care about that because they're happy with hockey being a rich sport for people who can afford it and that's the

class of of customer they want because at the end of the day like that's what they're trying to convert families being customers to the hockey system and that the people who are have some sort of affluence are happy with that and it becomes this next uh higher level tier of sport where they keep out the people who would need a generic brand of equipment uh they're happy with those people not being able to play their game yeah this isn't the pace for everybody but uh rick westhead's new book we breed lions very heavy book extremely heavy but there's an entire chapter in there i believe it's the fifth chapter i think it's called hockey inc and it's entirely about the business of hockey and what a racket it is for kids kids i'm not talking about your

12 year old playing rep or what kids tiny little barely graduated from being a toddler kids it's crazy hey we had a sustainable we had sean fitzgerald on he's got an article or he had a book out in 2019 we had him on to talk about a call before the lights go out and it's about the decline in membership in canada and i know we're a bit on the side track but whatever it's a fucking podcast um uh i think they should have scored the goal when they did not score the goal jesse you are absolutely correct i think when it comes to hockey canada they'll tell you we want everybody playing their action you know i don't give a shit what you tell me no you don't i care what your actions tell me and their actions don't tell me anything other than that the problem is

in that strategy you look at the places in the united states where hockey's growing and it's all very wealthy areas california uh arizona hockey is becoming really big in california yeah tennessee in the in the in the metro areas where there's a lot of money florida's had huge upswings texas but even that's becoming a racket well yeah because they're buying if somebody's buying up all the that's all somebody the dallas stars are not just that but i don't know if you guys saw there was like a whole i think it was front office sports or sportico or somebody had somebody's buying up all of the little leagues in every sport and charging parents through the roof to even enter them which is insane how's that a thing you can buy let's not get into that

my point is if if hockey canada continues down this way we have 40 million people they have 400 million they're millionaires and billionaires even on a per capita basis to canada in the states it's like 10x there's not it's not comparable and i remember when i was um one of my one of my old radio bosses his name's chris his son played pretty high level junior and actually alan walsh was one of his his kids advisors he didn't make it but he was an advisor and chris when he moved back to california to work in la as a program director for a radio station had to drive his kid like two hours one way two hours the other their youth league coach was scott niedermeyer because it was in anaheim and they were based in la that's crazy and it cost them like and he made

a lot of money it costs them 10 or 15 grand a year and that's without the gas and all the other shit it's if it remains a rich person sport in canada i don't know i think if you go to the la metro area you can find plenty of people who can spend that kind of money yeah i don't know a lot of average canadians who can my son's been on the ice with nhl players but like like for skating he's five that's cool but my point no no but what i'm saying is like it's again it's a racket but it's a racket my point is they have to change that too they have to change that hockey was a poor man's sport it was it was supposed to be my dad used to tell stories about like he'd take his hockey skate out of his bag and the the the boot would flop over it was all how about the puck

used to be shit yeah dog shit or or horse shit literal shit this is the thing so so to get back to the original point we do need to take care of our game uh regionally locally and we are going to start to see issues with the americans because they can just straight up outspend us and out population sizes we have to get efficient in the next 30 years with how we develop talent and bringing more people into the game it can't continue to be a top 10 earner sort of sport it can't it can't no now here let me give you some good news you want some good news i love good news i'll give you some good news nathan mckinnon probably going to be there next time kale mccarr probably going to be there next time

connor mcdavid probably going to be there next time uh macklin celebrini probably going to be there next time connor bedard probably going to be there next time gavin mckenna i think is probably going to be there next time i'm just going to the young guys if you're looking for a little hope in goaltending the future is teal joshua ravensburgen um first round pick i think from this past draft i wonder if he goes i wonder if he's the future of the program and there's this kid who we keep featuring on big dubs or whl videos landon dupont he's 16 and as a center he has 15 goals 38 assists and 53 points in 52 games wow okay now what if i told you i'm lying he's actually a right-handed defenseman oh okay all right there's so many of these little

barbarians rattling around this country we're gonna be fine we're gonna be great i think um the young players in this sport um at the professional level are in a really really good place i think this program is going to be in the mix for gold hopefully forever but there are some things around the edges we need to clean up oh steve cool quarter zip buddy yeah thanks are you a quarter zip guy now now that you're a hockey dad could be the move i sure am and this one is brought to you by doer yes i like that you have a little light green and a little dark green it's adam i'm beautiful today it's a good fit jess really good jess are you are you comfortable with steve entering his doer quarter zip era yes but doer is not just about the quarter zips you

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So my next question is, does everybody owe Bill Guerin an apology? Yeah, the Americans. Well, yeah, we weren't critical of him. We loved it until we didn't win. I mean, does, you know, Caulfield, Robertson not being there? Yeah, JT Miller didn't have a point. I don't know if Vinny Trocek did either. Yeah, he was a big part of the PK.

But he won. Yeah, he won. No, Bill Guaven gets all the credit he deserves for creating a gold medal team. As much as we want Jason Robertson, we think Jason Robertson should have been there. They won without him. They made the right call. Stamko should have been there in 2010. No one cares.

Yeah. At the end of the day, the results are the results. And if the results are you won gold, it's hard to question the strategy you came into it with. Do you remember the controversy with the 2014 Canadian roster? No. Adam, do you? No. Martin St. Louis was the reigning MVP and they left him at home.

Oh, yeah. And that poisoned his relationship with Tampa. Yeah. And then he ended up going because he was an injury replacement. Yeah. Reigning scoring title winner. Or he might not have been MVP. be i think he he won the scoring title and the art ross probably asked for a trade yeah because

yeah upset at that situation why wouldn't he be you know does anyone remember oh well i'm sure rangers fans remember and bolts fans remember canadians gives a shit yeah they won i think about adam fox and how his own gm or don't head coach hates him uh and doesn't want him on the roster and hey drew was the assistant gm too right right yeah like there's a lot of rangers management there with team usa and all of them were like hey we're not going to consider adam fox even though he wouldn't have been able to play because of the injury that he's still i think working through so it was kind of okay the point doesn't matter but he was never up for consideration even when he was healthy which is crazy to think about for from his own head coach and general

manager he didn't just not make the team he did not make the team he didn't make the whiteboard in their room when they're talking about with the magnets yeah he wasn't on that he wasn't on a magnet no he was on a piece of paper that they threw at the wall and spit on literally to the floor am i crazy to think that adam fox is low-key one of those the next superstar to shake loose from a team i think he would do really well with a chain like quinn hughes six months ago if i told you quinn hughes is getting traded you'll be like yeah maybe in a couple years not this fall i think adam fox should get traded i think the situation i think it's a good that might be a good thing for both sides and i hope the leafs get it decisions happen quickly when the when the

situation changes quickly i think i think quinn's situation changed quickly and it made sense to trade him when they did um fox i mean if i'm the rangers i probably don't move him who the hell are you replacing them with i know i don't think the rangers are long for this world in terms of this roster well i don't they seem to hate it which is odd because it did really well and then they went and just snapped it they broke it over their knee like bane and threw it down the gutter yeah of wayne manor and i and i i don't understand it but they're it's too late like the damage was done well over a year ago i like i think you're on to something i just don't think it makes much sense i think that's a phone call you have to make as a gm you got a call you have

to okay so bill garren gets his apology and i think his apology is a gold medal and he'll be fine uh and i'm sure bill garen by the way bill garen is now apparently going to potentially trade both clavye from the uh slovak team and potentially walsted as well to get the assets he needs to go get a guy like vinnie trocek nick was names out there um you know like there are not the same person not the same but what i'm saying is no i know they they do you really want ryan hartman as your second line center right i mean he's guaranteed a suspension at least once in the playoffs then who do you have erickson x one of those guys where like you're so close to cooking there but he needs support he needs support and if he gets injured you're you're just so screwed

i think erickson x is the ultimate is the elitist of elite second line centers in the league if you have a swedish ryan o'reilly yeah if you have him behind a mcdavid or you have him behind a whoever whatever centerman you want to name that's amazing that's your guy and i think and you can play i I mean, you can play him at 1C, but I do think... Platoon him with Trochek. There you go. You have the talent on the wings for it. Sure.

Or talent on... Yeah, on the wings and... I would be shocked to see the Rangers sell more. Would not be shocked at all. No. Are you guys going to be more open to the conversation about Quinn Hughes being the best defenseman in the world? No.

Since we're on Minnesota. He's the second best defenseman in the world. I love Quinn Hughes. Nothing about that game flipped a little bit. quinn was better than kill that one game okay i can i can give you that i can give you that and i think quinn was their mvp all tournament he was amazing yeah but this this is how it works but we're talking about if we're talking about best defenseman right now even in season kale mccarr is still better who am i starting my franchise with probably kale quinn was better

whom i'm taking tomorrow you're taking quinn tomorrow i might well you know it's like the remember a few years ago like is matthews better than mcdavid no this year yeah 69 goals probably probably want that 69 goal he didn't he got fewer votes the year he got 69 than he did the year he got uh what was it 60 how many i think it was just 60 flat yeah yeah like that one i think that was the year he won the heart and then 69 i don't even think he was nominated i think he was nominated no go check let's uh go look i don't think he was nominated let's check that i don't think he was nominated i think he might have been fifth um so like that's what it comes down to is over his career has kale been better yeah in recent years has kale been better yeah who's better right now

i can tell you who was better at that at that one game one game and kale scored too i would say quinn i mean i did i did say the mobility of the american defense was something to be reckoned with and he's most of it quinn had more to work with yeah certainly certainly he did um in the 23 24 Four season. That's when Austin scored 69 goals. Where do you think he finished in Hart Trophy voting? I'm going to say fifth. Fourth.

Fourth. Fourth in Hart Trophy voting. Not even nominated. The cap era record for goals. Top three is nomination. Not even. That's insane. He got two first place votes.

33 second and 53 third. But fuck. That's a lot of votes. Sorry. I said fuck him. He's a loser, right? Yeah. Who was nominated?

mckinnon kucherov and uh mcdavid i don't know them i don't know mckinnon's heart trophy year i have to say i don't hate that they were pretty excellent yeah 140 144 and 132 points mcdavid got one that's so crazy one first place vote yeah yeah that was the dueling 100 and 100 assist season wow who voted mckinnon fifth with 140 points show yourself take away their vote kucherov 11 fifth place votes with 100 assists and 40 frig off it's the same people who are not voting belichick in the hall of fame it's the same dude from pittsburgh who uh made jokes with his vote they're different guys but they're the same it's the same shit yeah there's a brand like stop you fit into a category you don't deserve a vote you're supposed to be objective

about these things yeah this is my one time to get oh i'll show everybody i know different you can also tell when there are certain writers who it's so funny like i i wish more journalists would just admit that they're a fan of a team uh because all of them will claim they'll all tell you oh i'm not a fan of anybody i root for players blah blah blah some is some that's true others i'm like okay this is why i don't just say you're a fan yeah and then we'll get past this and i'll still read your shit this is why and and i i know what you are that's like there's so many tweets i see where i'm like i know what you are well you don't have to admit it but i know what you are that's why i'm like listen at least people are like you release fan i'm like yeah yes yes at

least i'm honest about it yeah i have this show is we talk about the entire nhl i am a least fan steve's least fan jesse's least fan okay yeah but if you're a journalist and you claim objectivity which is impossible and you strive for it you strive for it but it's impossible and then you go ah well i don't care about the teams yeah you fucking do yeah you do and i always can tell from those votes who's voting not based on the performances but some of these guys will fucking vote like i don't like that fan base so go fuck yourselves i'm not giving you my vote and that that to me crosses the line that's why matthew should have got the heart twice that's why when what is it mcdavid got a fifth place or mccruder i've got a mcdavid had a fifth and

kucherov had 11 fifth place vote 11 fifth place votes with 144 you guys don't need to vote again that's okay we don't i don't think we value your opinion 144 points should i say it again do you think he got you think he got those because he was a sourpuss of the all-star game that year like i like what could possibly be you have 100 assists and 44 goals wasn't mcdavid a jerk too the most egregious one that i saw come up recently was ichiro suzuki uh in baseball he received one he was one vote away from being unanimous hall of fame yeah uh uh entrant into the baseball hall of fame and one writer's just like you know what screw this guy i'm not gonna give him that one vote fuck that dude's like you shouldn't be allowed to be voting on history

no like this is no a hall of famer deserves to be in the hall of fame and you ruin the unanimous ballot and each year i ended up taking a shot at him like in his hall of fame speech which was awesome what do you say i mean i don't remember the exact line but he like threw a little side jab at him i'm sure it was classy yeah it was awesome i love it but yeah like that that stuff bothers me me too i do think uh i think there should be some sort of driver's license for those votes uh honestly i don't know what would be the professional hockey writers well i know i know they released the ballots yeah they do they do that's how we know about the pittsburgh guy who's always doing weird shit with his ballot it's like oh why is this one guy always voting wonky

could it be for the attention that used to be something i wanted and i'm just like no i know what you are no you still want it yeah because you want to know you want to know i want to know what do you mean well you say yeah they used to no no no i meant the right to vote oh the right to vote yeah well why wouldn't you want that meh i don't want that i think it'd be fun it's a lot work what an honor it would be let's do it it would be an honor but it's one of those like that's your booze mean nothing i've seen what makes you cheer when when you see some of the votes you're just like all right is this really the uh the group of peers i need to be well every once in a while you get you know in this job you get criticism leveled your way whether

it's direct or indirect sometimes you have entire articles written about something you said on a show and and they won't name you but they'll be like well this is for the man and i'm like i saw the way you voted and i don't feel bad about it there's nothing wrong with being the weirdo and i don't i wouldn't want to vote because i know i would do the level of work that is should be required for that uh vote like you should know all of these players on this list and how they played from game one to 82 and have a real opinion on everything that's on your ballot and i would take up that personal responsibility and i don't want that it's just too many it's too many to work for you the people who should be doing it like you should be doing that and

that level of work and um i can pass jesse i would argue that that makes you my opinion that makes you more qualified to do it because the that's the philosophy with politicians too you don't want to vote in somebody that that is all they want to do you want to vote in somebody who has better options who's like fuck i'll do this for a bit and i'm going to make the right decisions because i'm not going to hang my whole life on this political career that's what you want and i think i think somebody who's like i have to treat this with this is so much fucking work and i don't want to do it that's exactly the guy that i want doing it who will do it i know how much cj knows about the entire league and about hockey and how individual players and have

an impact on their team and the way he can speak about any player in this league that level is like what's required to have a vote and like he's a person who has a vote and should be a person who's voting this third liner in the western conference watches edges yeah you'll ask him mouth. And you watch it and you're like, it's like butter. Yeah. So that, that level, like, that's what you gotta be. And I feel like a lot of people who have votes in these things aren't at a level like he is at. I would treat it with integrity. Coming in at number one, we have Bobby McMahon. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret

cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca the lnhl or the little native hockey league uh has its big tournament march 15th through 19th this year and there's a link in our description we've talked about this formed in 1971 out of the painful reality that first nations children were being left out of tournaments uh beyond their communities because of anti-indigenous racism it started with 17 teams there's 270 as of last season it's going to be a monster tournament four and a half days over march break 707 games unreal uh so if you want to support you want to be a part of it

again check out the link uh and this year's theme is empowering girls and women so it's a great cause It's a great thing to be a part of. And we love celebrating youth in hockey levels and at all hockey levels. But this one in particular is a big one. So check out the LNHL. research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca speaking of let me run you through the leaf lines and practice yesterday thanks to david alter for these um i texted him i said how many people were there he's like you'd be surprised there's a lot of people yeah yeah no people are always at practice uh he said okay so first line no no you get your fucking microphone back up no no you have to react to these it's a podcast you're paid for this okay first line and again

no neil andrew no matthews mcmahon domey cowan shit yeah dude second line michelle tavaris yarn crock this is just cardio right third line nize wah robertson okay hey that's that's a line fourth line i was happy to report to see and report lorenz lotten and dakota joshua is skating that's great man dakota joshua was playing so well before he went down yeah he's been cursed with bad injuries and he had cancer a couple summers ago he's like that he honestly i love this player when he's at his best he's amazing and then you got are you ready for this i actually like this riley carlo because i think carlo's playing great riley's gonna play like riley's gonna play mcmahon or mccabe oel what's that adam mccabe oel love that benoit stetcher

don't mind Myers on the outside wall stallers are the goalies so it looks like at at very least healthy

put together I should hope so you slot Nylander and Matthews back into that lineup while Matthews is going to be on the first line

Nylander is going to be where Yarncroke is with Tavares and Michelli I don't know if Nyes is going to be on the third line but I don't mind giving him a shot

spread the talent around yeah um and we don't know when matthews is going to be back and this is pretty normal for guys that win the gold medal like he might miss a game sundine did after the 2006 gold medal for sweden um because they're going to the white house i think tomorrow uh kneelander i think has been hurt all season um yeah he's the asterisk there yeah to me but oel skating is good yes um i gotta ask that's an ugly forward group it's pretty rough let me ask you if this team ever lost austin and willie oh we'd be in dark well we're back to we're back to 2015 very micro shout out you're listening to a podcast you care shut up um during the olympic break they called up will

villeneuve and bo grew just to sort of give them good some cookies which i think is nice that is nice hopefully they get paid two guys who super deserve it they got nhl paychecks out of that right i believe so good um i want to ask this and i know we're gonna have to ask it a little bit going into wednesday but you know the rosters are unfreezing now a bunch of people are getting called up in other markets could be some trades blah blah blah we got two weeks less than two weeks 12 days until the trade deadline right now wow what if darren drager's report on first up last week is true which is toronto's gonna wait to make a decision based on how they do in the next two weeks please gag me um um you should all be fired you should all be fired so so jesse

i'm gonna start with you because i'm gonna make steve steve's like the bull just in the uh what if the bull was just depressed what do we expect uh before depressed bull takes over what do we expect from this lineup you're gonna be there you know you you be around practice and stuff like that what do we expect from this this lineup here before the trade deadline can they be what they were for that beautiful sexy little window for two or three weeks in january or because they've got time to get healthy they rested they can come back rejuvenated maybe matthew nye's knee is okay or is this team just kind of a fart in a windstorm and we write the season off i don't think you should be confused by any type of winning that the leafs have in

the next week and a bit like that we know what this team is and it's not good enough your your goal this season and every season is to win the stanley cup we heard keith pelly talk about how they're not there to sell jerseys and all that they're in championships and they're not good enough to do that and bradshaw living has to recognize that whether you beat tampa and florida on wednesday thursday back to back or you lose both games the team is the team and the team needs to retool and you need to go sell the assets that are available to sell in the next 12 days and go get whatever you can to be better for next season glass half full they've won their last three games glass half empty they're four five and one over their past 10 did they win their

last three games going in the break they sure did because it was easily the funniest thing they could have done oh this is the western road trip wasn't it easily the funniest thing they could have oh i forgot uh vancouver and calgary and then edmonton second half of back to back of course they equipped that one out hilarious there are six points out of a playoff spot right now with ottawa washington and columbus ahead of them as non-playoff teams and then you got to pass one of buffalo boston detroit montreal or tampa tampa who has 78 so no they also have 78 injuries which makes them stronger sorelli's injured points injured hagel's fine yeah kucherov is fine i think that's all you need i think it might be a repeat of uh 2022 in the cup final what do

you mean tampa colorado oh yeah could be um yeah 72 points for the hab 72 points for detroit so the leafs have had one good stretch this entire season they fired mark savard and for three weeks they looked like the best of the 80s oilers and then after that they were awful and before that they were awful so i'm gonna bet that this team isn't good enough and that even though they win a couple games here that they are what they are and that gradual living needs to sell steve you've been yelling it for yes two months the only argument i will sort of even kind of hear i think i still disagree with it is a guy like oel who has term you don't necessarily have to trade them so don't you can do that in the off season you could do that in the off season if

you want to do that here's sometimes it's not your year let's pretend they're not nearly as bad as we're saying if you changed and i said this before the olympic break you all forgot i'm gonna remind you if you changed nothing about the current nhl standings except for you took the leafs from their current spot which is 20th in the nhl and you made them 11th 11th out of 32 is that good that's pretty good is that good yeah it's it's you know top third of the league they still wouldn't be in a playoff spot because five of the top 10 teams in the nhl are in the atlantic division yeah well they're in the atlantic division yep they're in the atlantic division and it's always been tough the the worst cope is oh my god the leafs would

be second in the pacific they're not they're that's not how the world works they play in their division that they are currently they're not yeah you'd go 82 and oh if the team you were playing that night never showed up like guys yeah you're the the odds of them making the playoffs six points isn't six points it's the amount of winning they have to do and the amount of losing that the other teams have to do the odds are not good and it's not something you should be chasing at this point no and i know mlse wants the five million dollars or whatever they're gonna make in gate revenue for each playoff home date but it's not worth it for the longevity of the team that said i wouldn't be upset if they bought but it's a question about how they buy because because

hear me out listening if you cycle players out like a bobby mcmahon maybe a scott lawton although that would break my heart nick waugh whatever the assets you bring in whether you buy at this trade deadline which prices are going to be high or you buy at the draft this team is supposed to make the playoffs next year are they not yes so at some point you do have to try to get good yeah it's the retool i wouldn't call it buying i think we're doing the same thing of like it's the boston retool of ashton boston kind of bought in the same sense at the at the deadline but they sold the important pieces to bring in the things that are helping them this season to be a good team in can i um this i learned about when i was doing trade trees at sportsnet this was sneakily one

of the best or most fortunate whatever you want to call it trade deadlines by a gm in recent memory and it was brad to live it's 2015 he was selling with the flames he traded sven barchi oh or sorry no no yeah sorry he was with the flames he traded sven barchi vancouver to vancouver for a 2015 second round pick sick second round pick Sven Berchi got Sven Berchi he also traded and this was the big one Curtis Glenn Cross oh that got a good return I remember that for a 2015 second round pick in a 2015 third round pick he acquired two 2050 he acquired two second round picks for that draft and a third do you want to know why that's one of the most impressive trade deadlines because of how they they drafted they made the playoffs oh hey all right that's good

you can sell and make it when the move makes sense and make the playoffs how did bradshaw living's tenure in calgary go not good what did he do after where did he go work after oh god uh toronto uh by the way i don't but that's like the media though that's the media i don't think glenn cross played much more than after that season like i remember him i think he came to toronto on a pto like the next season like his fall off was crazy no he um here let me look it up he that was the cardiac the cardiac flames they were unbelievable uh johnny could draw um yeah oh my god he retired that year he got traded to the capitol he didn't retire he couldn't make the leafs the next year no no well sorry it was the last he got they got

a second round pick for a guy who had literally nothing left in the tank four goals and three assists seven points in 18 games and then in that playoff run which is what the capitals got him for in 10 games one point it was a goal that's it wow one point it was a goal uh the trade was jeremy lozon and another guy who didn't make it that's fine you still had the uh the the pieces like dude it's you are allowed i promise you to sell and win games at the same time you've even done it before you specifically does this team look like that one you tell me brad you tell me well it'll be interesting to see what happens maybe goaltending saves all. Stallers

will come in and they make them look better than they do and they sell at the deadline and then make the playoffs. Who knows? Basically on goaltending. We can do that. Who knows? Alright, well I guess we'll wrap it up there because there's plenty to talk about obviously on Wednesday and that will be sort of a preview for the rest of the week. As Steve sort of mentioned, the Leafs

are playing Tampa Wednesday, Florida Thursday. Get ready to drink from a fire hose because the NHL is coming back and there's going to be game after game after game, so that should be good. Anything else you'd like to hit i've won that before we go uh sven bergy the second round pick was rasmus anderson hey all right um uh just one one quick stat before we fire it off uh in the metal uh round action quarterfinals on this is michael amato great follow on twitter in 183 uh 183

minutes and three seconds of game action during the metal round canada led four oh not very much 90 seconds well it's higher than that give me a real answer well no they beat finland seconds they beat finland and oh no they were up on the checks at one point where uh 15 minutes jesse uh 10 six minutes and five seconds there you go why was my answer ridiculous because 90 seconds six minutes success you're intentionally throwing the bit when you say 90 no because i i was like wait did they lead against czechia they didn't lead against finland till late and then yeah don't tell me that roster couldn't have been constructed better it could have sorry end of story now let's end it we'll be back you left two things out of the show what uh one there

was a bronze medal game on saturday uh you streamed that game how was it uh i thought finland good performance by them to pick up the bronze there i'm very proud of the slovakian team and what they achieved this tournament yeah to be back in the bronze medal game after playing in the bronze medal game with no nhlers last olympics four years to be at the same level where you're back in the bronze medal game i think it was very impressive and the finnish program i did not have them earmarked for bronze i had think sweden in that anybody had sweden in that spot without barkoff right without anybody would have had sweden in that spot over finland without with finland missing that's a pretty crazy miss yeah yeah to not have him totally um but yeah i thought

finland played a great game they took care of business it was good they killed them what did you what did you think you streamed the whole thing um i thought it was it it was disappointing for the slovaks there's like seven nhlers and none of them are crazy big stars except for slavkovsky who comes in and out of being a star in montreal um he was phenomenal in the tournament held basically until like garbage time held basically off the score sheet not much going i think that the you know we talked about it on agent provocateur uh alan's former client miroslav shatan who sabers fans will remember and lee fans will hate remembering um you know scored 40 goals in the dead puck era miro took over that program and apparently has his detractors

in slovakia but he took it you don't remember like from like what used to come out of slovakia peter bondra um marion hosa marion hosted i think char is is char not no oh yeah yep yep you know he's slovak he's like they had these freaking unbelievable players you're a slav a lack and then nothing yeah and he's bringing that program back so they were the cinderella the story of the tournament jess to to your point but ah the fins were so good in that that game it was it was unfortunate i was hoping for a closer bronze medal game we will always have the italians leading the swedes for like five minutes that was cool that was so cool and david clara watch out for him uh anything else what was the other thing the other thing was agent provocateur

i wanted you to pump his tires that came out just after the bronze medal game and you guys went over a lot of the stuff at the olympics one thing i thought that alan talked about was very interesting that kind of happened in the bronze medal game was the ice conditions you know the arena talk it never became a talk during the actual games and them not finishing the building even though they did in fact not finish the building they just blacked out half of the seat or a quarter of the seats because that they knew they weren't gonna finish but the ice conditions in milan were not good and in the game i don't know if you remember the specific goal but there was two czech players who fell down uh when nobody touched them they were just trying to do a little cut and

turn back up the ice and both of them fell down and that to me is little stuff that you can blame on the ice in milan where it's they probably have their edges there if this is a little better ice and alan who was over there for a good what like seven days yeah and talk to the players he talked about how that was one of their main complaints is the ice was real shit and it wasn't how the ice in edmonton is which is some of the best ice in the league and how it was very soft and choppy and if you are the best player in the world and you're playing at these like really slim margins little stuff like that affects your game because you notice it because everything you're doing is at the 0.0 percent of how skating is done so i wish uh they could have got this thing done a

little bit earlier for the guys there and maybe next time in in france they'll have better ice they said they're what do they say about pro players when the when the ice is bad their legs get really heavy really fast so the the guys that were that had the conditioning that's why i say it's a young man's tournament um played more the guys that didn't maybe played less um alan i'm not going to ruin it but alan tells a really funny story about the commercial breaks and how they call them power breaks and what they came out and did there's a very funny story with a thermometer that is hilarious and we i won't ruin it but you gotta it's actually some you know what jess i'm glad you brought it up it is one of alan's best podcasts it's awesome his whole rundown is great

and despite the kevin fiala stuff the nhl is going back they are going back they're they're committed they can't get out of it they just they used john tavaris as an excuse they sure did liars they sure did uh anything else i thought the olympics as a whole i thought they gave us like such great storylines um on both sides of it like positive and negative and that like you do the sam halam or team italy like on the women's and the men's side team italy won their first ever olympic game on the women's side i don't know if you knew their win there they had been pumping money into their program for these games and they won they won two games this tourney in the prelims and they reached the quarters against america and that's the furthest furthest

italy's ever gone on the women's side of things and the men's side they hang in two games they score four goals in the tournament are over under like at the beginning we're thinking like oh are they gonna score anything and they have a lead against sweden that's really cool for a home country to do that and out of out of nowhere i well they ran philip gustafson out of the tournament yeah we were talking about it i didn't think they were going to score three goals yeah they got two in the first game and the second game they break that you know and the finland game is 11 nothing but that's how we thought all of their games were gonna go we thought every all four games they were gonna play were gonna be 11 nothing and they didn't do

that you know they had they hung in these games which is awesome and i think um i think these were a fun olympics with the nhl is back it's a shame gary betman the owners took this away from us for 12 years but um i think we got a good olympics and 12 maybe but maybe by 2030 there is no gary betman and at the leadership level oh maybe that'd be nice i doubt it it's just gonna be his lackey though yeah it'll be bill bailey it'll be yeah it's like it's like hey kim jong-un just got re-elected in north korea isn't that crazy i thought i thought he was gonna lose this time yeah you know it was it was a slim 99 margin that he won by but you know i guess that's where we hit the exit button he'll get a consulting job he will you know

Did you guys enjoy the last 12 days? Some of the greatest in our entire company history, too. Loved it. Thanks to everybody that watched. Incredible game, incredible sport. You win some, you lose some. Ah. Ah.

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