The Steve Dangle Podcast - Isla | March 4, 2024

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, congrats Steve and Mrs Dangle! (00:00), are the Pittsburgh Penguins cooked? (03:00), Matthews 70 goals (26:00), more on the potential Penguins Rebuild (32:00), the Predators win 8 in a row (45:45), are the Toronto Maple Leafs good? (53:00), CJ's dating advice (1:29:00), are the Sens making more deals? (1:32:00), who makes a big splash this week? (1:37:00), and is Shanny gone? (1:40:00). Join 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 Visit this episode's sponsors: RRROLL Up To Win is back for Tims 60th Anniversary! And to celebrate our big year, you can win some big prizes. All-electric Volkswagen ID.4, sun-soaked Hilton Getaway, and cash with a daily jackpot of ten thousand dollars! Play today on the Tims App: https://www.timhortons.ca/rollup Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code SDP for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Visit https://www.betterhelp.com/sdp today to get 10% off your first month. For all the odds and to learn more visit https://betmgm.com/DANGLE Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. To learn more, visit: https://igamingontario.ca/en/player/responsible-gambling Or if you have concerns about a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600. Must be 19+ or older to play. 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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breaking news is steve dangle lazy is he lazy he's not here i mean it's not like he gave birth am i right am i right yeah anyway he doing now i know what the hell is he doing he's not here cj welcome buddy by the way thank you so much for coming in really appreciate it it's my pleasure especially under these circumstances now steve was trending this weekend i do want to bring up this video jesse of uh what happened if you've missed the news if you're if you've been living under a rock steve did not do an lfr this weekend because hey guys sorry i didn't make an lfr video for last night's game i really wanted to it was a really uh exciting game really tight there was a fight

Went to overtime, went to the shootout. Max told me he got the winner on his birthday. But I'm hanging out with my new friend, Isla. Daddy Dangle, that's my daughter, number two. So no LFR. Oh, you think so? No LFR for that cracker of a game. We'll see where this week takes me.

It's been a busy one. Thanks for your patience. Appreciate it. Much love. So the, so, uh, checked in with him this morning, everybody's doing well, uh, and healthy and happy. And, uh, the family's been in to visit the baby, which is kind of cool because over COVID when Steve's first child, Leo was born, they couldn't.

Oh, cool. Right. So it's kind of neat that they get to do that. And, uh, anybody that gave birth over that, over that period of time knows and understands the struggles with that. So big congratulations to Steve, his wife, uh, his son, their families. Um, and we cannot wait to meet Isla. I've already told them I'm coming over tonight

and they're not even home yet. I love that the first Leafs game in Isla Dangle history will be a Leafs-Bruins game. I know. It's so fitting. Yeah, so we may not get an LFR tonight, but it should be interesting. I noticed Pavel Zaka was taking line rushes this morning.

He's not going to be back, I don't think, for tonight, but he was practicing today. So I think he's been out for a bit or something like that with the Bruins. i don't know i didn't know there was gonna be a test cj's been doing uh so much work he just finished up actually doing the cj show um so guys i i don't know what you want to start with today but i wanted to start with this and and i know the new york rangers leafs game was extremely entertaining but i think the bigger story in the nhl is are the pittsburgh penguins cooked

is this it is this it for this not just this season cj is this it for this era or are they given this another shot i got some stats but i want to know short answer right now penguins cooked my view is yes because you have sydney crosby having perhaps the greatest age 36 nhl season ever certainly among them without question and it's trade deadline almost and they're 10 games back of a playoff spot like remember this same team last year they at least they played right down on the last day of the season with a chance to make the playoffs they ultimately didn't but they were not in sell mode at the deadline like they were in the mix they've been out of the playoffs since what december november yes and i know they had a nice stretch in january they

strung some wins together but they've never really looked like a playoff team all year and so my conclusion is last year was a step back they get harry carlson trade a first round pick do a whole bunch of stuff in free agency extend jari do everything they've done and they've taken another step back what makes you think it could get better next year so i want to run through some stats and and jesse i want you to jump in on this too okay so we got penguins currently are 25th in points although it's 21st in points percentage 26th in goals for but fourth in goals against 29th in power play percentage at 14.6 7th in pk percentage at 82 and 82.2 6th in shots for 16th in shots against both goalies have a 9 10 save percentage if i had told you those were the stats going in

you'd be like that's a team that feels like it has an outside shot right that feels like a new york islanders team doesn't score but doesn't allow goals either yeah and i think that makes the problem even more dire is that they're getting everything they need out of the goaltending and they still can't win you know that's that's what's the major problem when you have everything clicking and it seems like okay the process is successful and then you still don't get the wins that means like it's over for them yeah and defense right it's it's effort so there's still effort there's there's evidence of buy-in coaching yep you know mike sullivan paid as one of the best coaches in the league seems to be doing the part of his job he can control i mean how are they 29th

on the power play percentage that's crazy with whatever predictions we would have made it couldn't be that i would have even taken like okay they're not going to make the playoffs but the 29th after getting carlson and already having latang crosby gansel yeah they went a month without a power play goal in that november to december stretch and they still sit uh plus eight on goal differential which seems impossible with the amount of losing they've done and and how they've struggled but it just it's a testament to they can't string anything together they lose big and uh or they they they lose close games and they can't get anything uh going when they need to get a little win streak going and they melted down against i think the western conference version of them

which is the calgary flames right team with lots of talent that should be performing better that's That's how I look at the Flames. I mean, they're losing talent now. They're starting to trade it. But you know what I'm saying? It's it's I think there were higher expectations for the Penguins. I think there were higher expectations for the Flames. Penguins are up three to one on Saturday night and they lose the game.

And it's it's it's and I hate to say it. A couple of those plays are vintage Eric Carlson defense, like, you know, especially the second one where he's slamming his stick against the against the the net. uh it's obviously there's frustration obviously they knew this weekend was a big one and then they roll into Edmonton last night and it's five nothing by the end of the second period like what do you do and and and this is it's not what do you do this year this year you can sell Gensel can go and we can talk about that CJ but I'm asking you brought Kyle Dubas in on a seven year deal to probably chart the end of Sidney Crosby's career and then chart the new beginning of the Pittsburgh Penguins where the next generation of stars come in when do they commit

to that part of it because I don't know how you fix the scoring issue that they have considering that almost no contracts are coming off the books this year right and your your best players are getting older next year so just the odds go up of injuries underperformance decline whatever you want to call it I that's why I'm I'm willing to say and I'll be maybe I'll be wrong on this but i i do think this is the end of their empire that and look at every empire does fall in the nhl i mean the salary cap guarantees it and you know the the distressing thing for me here that i circle back on is crosby still like a ridiculous world beater and they're still in this position and and as much as i want cindy crosby to play forever because it's been so cool to watch his career

unfold as it has like we just know the reality is he's only going to be at this level for so long and so you you can even factor that into the calculus of the next couple seasons like what can you even expect from him moving forward and they've got no prospects or very few prospects they're gonna have a few more after this week i would suspect yeah um you know given that it seems like the gentil deal is likely to be a prospect driven deal um which makes sense because a prospect is a little closer to the nhl by virtue of of age than than a draft pick where you're making that pick and then you have to develop that person um so i i really do think that they have to have a hard look at where they're at this summer i don't i think you're right only so much

can be done in the next three days yeah yeah if you can trade lara zeller sure riley smith sure you know these guys have one more year on their deal freeing up that cap space for the future would be positive because it does you know increase the things you can do this summer but really you got to have a big conversation with 87 this summer because he can sign an extension as of july 1st i he's the most loyal guy in the world he's been given his whole life to the pittsburgh penguin like more than half of his years on earth he's been a member of the pittsburgh penguins he's been the captain of the team i think more than half the time he's existed as a human being so like that's crazy that's crazy right he's in his 19th coming up on 19

years anyway it's pretty close if he's not quite there he's he's at about 50 50 in terms of half his life as the captain of the penguins um so like i don't think he's gonna be he's he's not the first guy that's looking for the door when the when the fire alarm goes off but the fire alarm is blaring right now and what do you do i mean maybe do you know what maybe you just ride it out maybe you're like i've won three cups here this is maybe you go down with the ship so to speak you try to set the example for the next generation does that get them low enough though to get the next sydney crosby because here's the thing what people forget this when when when the penguins won the lottery and they did they won a lottery after the lockout in 2004 to get crosby

the the problem was that they were so bad previous to that that they almost left it took mario coming back it took um you know mario investing in the team and then mentoring crosby in his first year i think sydney crosby lived in his basement if i'm not if i remember correctly for years for like for years for like five or six years oh so it wasn't even just the one it wasn't just as a rookie you know he stayed there for a long time so so okay so then you know if Sidney Crosby's on your team you're not the Ducks you're not the Blackhawks you're not the San Jose Sharks you're not finishing last you might get into the conversation about lottery picks but as we know most years you're not getting a generational talent at pick five sometimes sometimes you get

it at 48th but usually they're in the top three to four if not first and second right mcdavid matthews and even then look at buffalo buffalo has picked first during this window twice right eichel and and dalene they've picked second when they got reinhardt they've had a bunch of other top picks and they're still like they haven't been in the playoff since the original winnipeg jets returned wow that's that's i'm just saying perspective too but i'm just saying like the math here should be really scary i mean this is just sports but the penguins have had such a disproportionate number of generational players like the math could go the other way and sure maybe the next 50 years they have none they had crosby malkin um letang who you know i think

crosby malkin you could say generational i think letang without injuries even close to that he's been a spectacular player in that in that camp put flurry in that another first overall and you wine you're like jogger lemieux like ron francis uh like there were great players on this team look at between edmonton and pittsburgh how many scoring titles and heart trophies have been won in the last like 40 years like those two franchises account for more than half of them now i granted gretzky won 10 hearts on his own but still like it's well if he hadn't probably messier would have but i mean the fact that edmonton was lucky enough to have a gretzky plus plus plus and then to have a mcdavid plus plus plus including dry side on the current guys and that you had a lemieux and

crosby nml kit like those two franchises have had a disproportionate amount of the absolute best players in the league i mean i'm i'm going down on a tangent here but i guess what i'm trying to say is it would be foolish of us to predict that pittsburgh is going to find that person it might happen but i mean even crosby they they won a goddamn lottery as brian burke said one day yeah i don't remember that way back when oh baby do i remember that people were like what are you gonna do the pittsburgh model he's like the pittsburgh model my ass they want a goddamn lottery that makes it okay if they take a next a step back in the next generation of time in pittsburgh because we look at all the teams that were really good through the 2010s the blackhawks

who are rebuilding right now the san jose sharks are rebuilding right now it's okay if the next regime of the penguins this dubious era is a step back where they're trying to build it back up because that should be the expectation they won these cups already it's okay now you can suck for a little bit right can you though well they're owned by fenway sports yeah so they got money they have very very very deep pocketed owners they have a new arena now which you know if you're ever in the old civic arena in pittsburgh which you know was like i i kind of have um nostalgic memories of it but it you know it was a barn it was a it was a strange barn with a retractable roof which was odd they could have done an outdoor game i think it was great didn't it start as

like an opera house so they turned into an arena anyway something like i don't know my point is it was an old concrete very strange building it was if it was still their arena now there would be all kinds of problems because there was not a lot of ways to monetize it whereas they've got a beautiful arena now in pittsburgh and so i think that they can withstand this for a period of time but i mean even this year i wrote the story about the jets attendance recently you know one of the teams that's way down is buffalo and probably for the reasons i mentioned like no one doubts buffalo is a fantastic hockey market but if you don't play a playoff game for 10 plus years i mean even even with the Leafs I mean Jesse and I went to a game with Kiss 92.5 when we were when we were

up and coming and John Tavares scored the overtime winner for the Islanders and the game was not sold out and that was big news at the time you couldn't sell off Leaf tickets scalpers were losing money on them uh which is you know pretty rare in Toronto standards because people just stopped going it was I think 14-15 it was the year before they drafted Matthews yes yeah and and so even then even in toronto it can happen and i'm looking at what was toronto was it seven years of the playoffs like to get to that point yeah oh no because they were 13 they got in in 13 and then before that it was like 12 years all right and it but it was like it ended up being almost 20 years between playoff series yes oh yeah 19 yeah pretty bad and i'm looking at that i want to look at the

pittsburgh penguins like scoring so you've got the the core four are five four of the top five scores. You've got Crosby, Gensel, Malkin, Carlson, Letang. We know that Gensel will probably be traded. One thing that blew me away on Saturday night with headlines, and I wanted to know if you could shine some light on this, is Elliott Friedman came out and said that he was told that Brian Rust will not be traded. And Brian Rust is the sixth highest scorer on this team. And it was something to do with respect in the dressing room. And it makes me wonder, is Kyle Dubas looking at this and going okay if we can just score a little bit more we'll be fine next year well I'm sure he is but I mean who scores better than Jake Gensel right Jake Gensel's been 35 plus every year just

put it guaranteed in the win column and then on top of that when he gets the playoffs he's like the one of the best ever scorers by goals per game in Stanley Cup playoff history now his his situation is different he's probably going to make north of eight million on his contract extension when he signs it he's 30 years old and so you know if you're in kyle dubas's office you're probably thinking we don't need to extend him in those years because we are going to rebuild somewhere you know i don't think kyle's of a mind to rip this thing down to the the shreds just yet like just clearly not but like you know and who do they sell outside again so who who do you think is legitimately a name that's out there riley smith is is probably the great playoff performer

and you know makes five million he's only signed through next year not that old and he just hasn't been a fit in pittsburgh it hasn't worked there you know i think it was a pretty shocking trade for him right he'd been a original golden misfit wins the cup uh with vegas uh last june and then gets traded at the draft like pretty quickly after and just you know it hasn't been the right fit so i could see him moving for sure by the deadline you know i've heard larzeller's name a little bit but you know we're all we're talking about guys with with term those are hard contracts to trade you know it's going to mostly be rental players like most deadlines that'll be moved in these next few days and so yeah they don't have in those situations we're just talking about guys

they could move off for something you're not getting a big return back I mean Gensel is their prize Gensel is I put a new trade board out this morning at the athletic Gensel's now number one on the trade board I think that you know he the return they get there is important because they haven't sold a player in 20 years almost as an organization like they they just haven't had these opportunities and i think they're going to take this one and they have no first round pick this year obviously because of the carl unless it ends unless it ends up in the top yeah which it honestly they might have a first round because it's top 10 protected so it's within 10 they they take it and with the brian rust uh not trading him i don't think what are there suitors out there

for brian rust because he has four more years after this year at 5.125 i believe and he's 31 years old i don't think anybody's looking to get that at the deadline exactly like that's an off-season kind of trade if if it ever happens it sounds like they're not we want to do it but then look at this is if this has been a disastrous year in pittsburgh there's no way around that you don't make that carlson trade and bring in all the guys who didn't free agency i mean they they were one of the big stories of the offseason right not just because kyle dubas took over there it's it's everything kyle did after becoming the general manager and president of the team and it they it's it's not worked well he's had to clean up a lot of the mess too and i want to be

fair to kyle here there was i'm not hanging this on his shoulder no but there's some messy deals from from the hextal regime right this was a suicide mission don't it's a good thing you got a seven-year deal and lots of money yeah this was always like everybody other than the fact obviously great ownership group and lots of resources to do i think innovative things behind the scenes and things that interest kyle and the fact that you like going in to take over a team with these legacy players and it's pretty clear it was probably going to be irreversible it's even more clear now 10 months later or nine months later like that was always that's a that's a shitty job man like i i my point is i'm not even defending kyle i just i don't blame him i i'm not

sure i'm not sure anything could have really been salvaged right right but they had to try one more time but they tried and it's it's just not remotely worked like it you know and so okay so we've you know eric carlson how do you think internally that trade has worked out through kyle dubas's eyes you know darren drager was saying you're calling darren drager at tsn was saying before the season started that kyle tried multiple times to get eric carlson to toronto although that never leaked at the time he really loved eric carlson's game wanted to be a part of the team a lot of people argued that chris letang was your eric carlson light already you already had a guy like that um how do you think they feel about making that trade now because there's three more years

at 10 million after this year they probably wish they didn't i mean how do we conclude otherwise i'm not putting all this on eric carlson no no no but he's another guy he's a year older now 10 million still a big chunk it hasn't been the fit they had hoped it hasn't invigorated the power play like the things you would expect from eric carlson and i think stylistically just hasn't ended up being a fit. But I also think they're kind of tied to him. I mean, I suppose there's a world, and again, we're not talking at the deadline,

but there's a world where Pittsburgh's trying to package him out and eating more of that salary potentially. I mean, you could have, some team could have Eric Carlson for five million bucks. If Pittsburgh goes full teardown, like if they call Crosby and they say,

listen, we're not sure that we're going to be able to do this. Maybe they give it one more shot next year. But there's a world where Pittsburgh eats half of that for two years after next season. and somebody gets pretty good value for an aging eric carlson right yeah i mean look the the odds are higher than not that he doesn't finish that deal in pittsburgh right because he's got three

more seasons yes and given what we're talking about whether they embrace the reality this summer or the next summer they're going to be rebuilding at some point and so yeah he would be one of the candidates to be traded with significant retention and what one guy i really i you know eric carlson's going to take up most of the headlines but ryan graves was one of their big july 1st signings and i got a lot of shit for saying that this was not i was like what are they doing with this like a seven-year deal are you kidding it doesn't have receipts on that i do have receipts on that it was on camera um uh what what happened here because it really genuinely i think it's gone worse on that one than they could have even predicted like this is not this

has just not been a fit yeah and his name has been out in the trade chatter too it's just he's not on the trade board if you can go click on that article because i just don't know you can move that contract not not in season but it has not been a fit he's not found comfort level there it that's a pretty significant free agent deal for a team you know like most teams in the league does not have a lot of cap space so and and you know what's working i don't have an answer he's got he's a left shot that's that's a bummer for him if he was a right shot they probably could move like the way you know four and a half million isn't like terrible right it's doable for some team it's like if you're trying to make your kid a pitcher it's like you want to be a lefty

yeah yeah there should be parents out there just trying to make sure your kid shoots right because the opportunities are there's big money in it more plentiful um yeah so i know i just these are the things that i want to ask you about because to me they've been one of the stories of the year again you know you go through it and it doesn't seem like um it doesn't seem like this team is all that bad and i know the way kyle dubas looks at this he's very process oriented like i remember this this is one that sticks out to me because it drove me crazy but i thought that cody cc and morgan riley were terrible together but after uh the season uh kyle said actually we thought cody cc was really good and they were stapled together um and i feel like

he's the kind of guy that's going to look at this data and go no but we're actually good what do you think he's going to say i politely disagree with that one okay i think he's eyes wide open to what this is okay i think that he's mindful of the fact that his job right now is not just building a hockey team but it's a bit of a political position in terms of how they it's not just the decisions they make to move on from the the key players as much how those players feel what they want um you know this is this is why i'm saying this is a tough job i i wouldn't have wanted this job do you think sydney crosby gets traded this summer what what percentage would you put that at like five percent okay so we're not there yet i mean do i think he should get traded

this summer yes but i just knowing him you know as we were talking about earlier he just he's given everything to that city that franchise i it's not in his nature at all to walk away now jesse blake you you of gm experience yeah having made multiple runs at the cup in uh ea sports uh nhl 23 yeah and never quite crossing the line never quite got there no what would be the first move you make after jake kensel after well looking at the the situation of pittsburgh from kyle dubas's point of view you got to say like only four guys really are guys he brought in it's it's nola chari in terms of like big contracts i'm not counting like pulley rv and all that but it's nola chari it's Lars Eller Ryan Graves and Eric Carlson like those are the really the four big names so he was

he he had this when he came in and he traded for Riley Smith and he traded for Riley Smith yeah so maybe it's five but I don't think this is truly Caldubus's team certainly not he had he had a month and a bit to try and figure out his whole situation you uproot your whole life you go to Pittsburgh and then you kind of do these things to supplant the the core that you had in Malkin and letang and crosby so from there it's what what can you get for any pieces at this point like i feel like kyle dubas is willing to admit that they need some sort of rebuild here and whatever anybody wants to take off his hands for future assets i think you got to go for it because all of their winning they haven't been able to get future assets so now it's about that next stage of

the franchise which i think is okay if we want to take anything from fenway sports group is that they're okay with tanking because the boston red sox right now are actively like cutting payroll being one of the worst teams in the american league and that's their ownership so i think they're going to be okay if pittsburgh chooses to go in that direction right it's also exciting to see red sox fans cry i love that they've made like trading away mookie bets who could be like a generation who is a generational talent and just like gutting the storied red sox you know it's It's disappointing to see, but as like a Jays fan, it's all right. Oh, I love it.

It's all right. I got to highlight something here, though. Please. This is not a league to rebuild your team in free agency. No, it isn't. Like, I haven't put out the free agent board yet, but I've started, you know, probably kind of come out after the trade deadline. It's not good.

Like, there are good players to be found there. Sure. But if you're a Pittsburgh or you're someone else who wants to be better in the fly, the path to being good is not built through signing those players. and it's so it's long-term draft develop and do or trade or if you can make a good hockey trade and he's good at that too right we just don't see a lot of them in the league anymore i wish we had more yep do you want to know something crazy i'm all over the place but i don't give it to no who cares all my excitement's coming out come on on let's go i had i stole some of steve dangle's

malteasers i'm all i'm all hyped up on chocolate yeah yeah oh yeah steve's got a lot of snacks back there including captain crunch which he eats after every show how does he eat that you know what i don't know because i have a very sensitive stomach in my 30s and it would set my it would set my insides on fire i don't know how he does it i remember as a kid it would like rip the roof of your mouth oh yeah yeah there's a whole family guy sketch about that yeah like steve like you got two kids now man like tighten it up a little can't be bleeding gums dangle here exactly it is time for the bet mgm big story and frankly the big story for the toronto maple leafs at least has got to be seven goals for austin matthews can he can't he chris johns definitely possible

i mean as we are sitting here right now he's on pace for 73 goals so not only is he is it within reach i mean he's got a little bit of room there that being said the room requires him almost to score a goal a game the rest of the season right uh you know which most humans find difficult to do but austin has done you know we saw it in the year when he won uh hit 60 goals he had a stretch where he scored 50 and 50 during that season so um i i think i think it's going to become a big enough target for him that he's going to be gunning for it his teammates are going to be gunning for it and i say he does it you say oh to quote james myrtle i say he does it i mean look i think 65 is the magic number for players of this generation right that's that's ovi's best

season that's you know post the 80s when when you know offense was at a little different level in the early 90s and and you know numerous players got to 70 and above 65 is the mark for for guys So I think that'll be the first one in Austin's mind. But then if you get to 66 and you've got a couple games left, I mean, he hasn't scored into an empty net yet. No, exactly. So he's owed a couple freebies here, I think, too. Jesse, being the gambler extraordinaire, what do you think?

Are you going, is it, are you doing 65? Are you doing 70? Where do you think you land? I would do 70 because to their fault, the leafs players really care about these individual accolades you see whenever the leafs have a big game like on long island and they want to feed jt or matthews is in arizona and they want to get him a game we see them abandon the game of hockey and just play let's get this guy a goal game and i think if matthews gets to 65 which i think he will they will abandon

playing hockey and we'll just say let's get matthews five more goals so i would bet that they do it okay all right i'm betting just because i like them just because i want it to happen i'm betting purely on hope and this is how i go into the playoffs too i have a rule never bet against the leafs which is not the way you should do it no so you have lost a lot of money that's why betmgm likes us so much go to betmgm.com slash dangle sign yourself up and have a look matthews 70 goals does he do it what do you think This episode is sponsored in part by BetterHelp. And listen, we talk about therapy all the time.

Winter is a difficult time with the cloudy days. Like, finally, we have a sunny day outside here as of this recording. But I got to tell you, like, cloudy day after cloudy day, that stuff gets to me. And that's when therapy comes in. Adam, if winter doesn't come and there's no snow all winter long, do you still need therapy? Yes, even more. Because I would feel the existential dread setting in, I think. Is global warming a reason to go to therapy?

Yes, in fact. there's plenty of reasons to go to therapy and better helps the way to do it because what's great about better help is you get matched with the therapist really quickly oftentimes when you go through this process and through other avenues it can take weeks and usually when people finally are ready to admit hey i need therapy they need it like now they don't need it like you know it's like i if you're if you feel thirsty you're already super dehydrated right so this is the same thing with therapy you get matched in about 48 hours if you don't like or don't vibe with the person you're matched with you can get rematched with somebody else until you find somebody you

got chemistry with chemistry is important right chris it's like the e-harmony of therapists absolutely yeah absolutely which fan base needs the most therapy for how stressful their season has been ottawa oh yeah good call we could send some down to the nation's capital yeah and toronto i think just as a baseline kind of underlying anxiety we're damaged yeah a lot of trauma there So I think that there's some things that you might want to talk through with a professional. So here's the deal. Betterhelp.com slash dangle. Get 10% off your first month.

Again, that's betterhelp.com slash dangle. 10% off your first month with BetterHelp. Here's my next question, guys. How long before Justin Holl is a penguin? And the reason I ask that is it's... Are you still obsessed with Justin Holl? It's an open secret that Eisenman's trying to move him. Open secret.

That's the guy he wants off the roster. Because he found out what we knew, which is Justin Hall played a very specific role in Toronto, saw some positive results, and absolutely was not worth the contract that Detroit sent. You know, gave him. Like, absolutely not. But he could work in a system with a guy that gets him. Do you think that Kyle Dubas would make a move like that? Valuable in the penalty kill? That sounds like a shot at a Leafs fan, from a Leafs fan who's upset that Dubas nothing.

And you know what it is! He didn't like Justin Hall and how much he played. CeCe's good Kerfoot's good Hall's good Yeah Sure they are Justin Hall is a sweetheart of a guy

I've heard of him He's amazing He really is He has a locker room Absolutely loved him During his time in Toronto Listen I'm not saying that

This is not a personal shot At Justin Hall I feel like we're talking about One of your ex-exes We're like way back It definitely sounds Like you're upset He makes 3.4 million dollars

I am not owned I am salty I'm salty Your ex has moved on To better things And you're a little pissed and now you're trying to laugh because it's getting scratched yeah yeah listen i just feel like i i do feel like there's do you not feel like there's something there i feel like they're

moving hall they're moving them now or they're moving them in the summer they're moving why would pittsburgh do that no because because dude is the entire conversation we just had about bring him in like bring him in great you can sell me on this in the off season or something like that maybe but why would you like okay guys we're 12 points out of the wild card spot but we have made a trade for justin hall because he's a process guy do you have a real question kyle i'll say this kyle is very i think he's very open to being wrong okay that's an important skill in that in that it is and and i just think back to the trades he made that didn't work out in toronto and then he quickly undid them or the nick ritchie signing for example peter marazic like i think that he

doesn't get married to well i made this move and now i gotta double down on it and so i think his off season will be fascinating because all bets are off and it's hard for me to imagine as much as i'm sitting here saying like wouldn't it be cool if crosby got traded i actually i'm in that camp it'd be cool and i'm sorry penguins fans i just think it would be such a cool story for the nhl if you still had this this guy chasing a cup somewhere and he's got to go to colorado I mean, you would think, but he's going somewhere where he feels he has a chance to win. I mean that if, if my 5% prediction is right, he's not like going to the bottom place team because he wants to live somewhere nice or whatever.

Like he's only ever uprooting his life to that degree for another chance at a cup. And the one thing that I think helps everyone here, that 2026 Olympics having NHLers, I just think that is going to be a beacon for like a Sidney Crosby to, you know, I'm not saying there's any indication he's stepping away, but let's face it. He's got nothing to prove. like have you seen where he is on the all-time list now it's crazy he's like right up there top 10 everything right get not quite with goals but he's getting there he's certainly got a chance to end up there he's got to get you know up over 600 he's in the 580s now but even points you know

1500 points like he's he's like chiseled on the mount rushmore pretty much of hockey players or he's he's in he's in the queue he's like next up to see to have his bust you know put into the mountain there so and he's having an unbelievable year yes on top of everything yes it's been so spectacular i think he should be at least a nominee for the heart i still think that i think he's had that good of a year at 36 and where are the penguins without him it's a hard one because you're you get three nominations yeah so who you take it out you got kucherov yeah you got matthews you got mckinnon mcdavid mcdavid you might have hellebuck you know like winnipeg i know goalies don't get a lot of okay pastor knock has a good argument to be in top five yeah do you not give

him a fifth place vote a couple fifth place votes for crosby a little love sorry i think he'll get heart votes i just i don't i have a hard time seeing him finish in the top three okay all right but i wouldn't be upset i mean look at as i said i'm a you know he's of my generation i was a young reporter when he was a rookie and like i've literally covered his whole career and spent lots of time around him i have tons of respect for him um so his success is kind of like oh yeah it's cool us old guys can still do it out here the uh uh the last thing i want to ask you on the penguins is this gino malkin if crosby gets traded where does evgeny malkin end up can you move that deal can you 6.1 for three more years he's got 17 goals this year three

something points i would worry about the three more years you'd worry about the three more if i was acquiring him yeah you're right 6.1 is not on the surface on an immovable object there's certainly far worse contracts in the league right now if if if pittsburgh were looking for value back they'd have to retain i think yeah or take a deal back you know like something to offset the the cap charge and it's only two after this season oh okay well that's that's i still think i mean he just doesn't move very well yeah like compared he was a freight train and oh like when when he was at his absolute best and he's like racing through the middle of the ice it's like who is going to stop him he's huge he's fast he's powerful he's got like vision like he was and a temper too which

is awesome that feels like a trade deadline 2026 50 retained somebody grabs the evgeny malkin to play on their third fourth line as their center you know that's what this feels like so sick but it's so similar to like patrick kane when he was traded to the rangers you know that kind of situation right and they were this close to not resigning evgeny malkin yes i remember that like i know for a fact that some in management at the time didn't want to resign him and that was the Burke Hextall years right that was not Dubas so and you know they they want they really wanted Letang and they brought him back on a six-year deal which was a lot at his age yes and then they gave Malcolm the contract too but out of I think like sort of nostalgia slash you know Crosby was

pushing for it I believe which is interesting like Crosby's been the one superstar that's never gotten involved in the running of the team like he'll do anything that the coaches want or whatever like I'm not saying he doesn't get back to the organization but he was never in the front office going like trade for this winger for me or anything like that he he kind of kept that delineation clear but i think during the malkin talks like he made it known he wanted those guys to stay which is also probably going to factor and you'd have to think in his decision making yes about whether he ultimately leaves he probably would feel like he's bailing on his buddies right right but it might give them a chance to win too yeah if they're all released from that

right if letang malkin crosby end up at good teams that you don't feel so bad about it it'd be it's certainly better than all of them going out and never making the playoffs again. Right. And just slowly withering. Like players are unrealistic about how long it takes to turn a team around. Yeah. Like remember Patrick Kane and tapes had like five years in a row out of the

playoffs in Chicago. Like it was a long time. Just, um, oh man, my phone. Are you getting calls? Nothing.

We can take breaks if you need it. No, I know that time of year. Like I feel antsy, but what's going to come. Of course. Of course. But,

uh, well, we are recording. So anytime you need to stop, you let us know. But those guys had to play out the string in Chicago. I think if Henrik Lundqvist really wanted to be there for when the Rangers rose up again,

they have finally done it well on the other side of his playing days. I just think it takes so long. It's going to take so long in Pittsburgh and anywhere. Look at San Jose. They've been bad for how long already? Yeah, two, three years at least. And they're three years away from being three years away.

Yeah. You look at the Devils rebuild after they just steamrolled everybody with Brodeur in them, and then they went what a decade being bad and that's the thing i'm not even picking on these teams or their management i just think it's the it's the market reality even chicago hard it's hard to be good even chicago like they've won bernard and and i i've been singing his praise like i don't have any reason to doubt that he's going to be all that he was hyped up to be but where else like what else do they have there really oh no it's it's i mean they're going to

need and they're going to be paying him soon yes yeah the his elc yes he's only got two more after this like he'll be signing that in summer 2025 and they're not winning anything next year and and they're certainly not going to win that deal rfa wise he can pretty much tell them what he wants don't you think yeah it's it's like here's a blank piece of paper eight years we just hope you don't put an extra zero there because no yeah like he's gonna be able to call a shot i would think yeah yeah absolutely um okay this is so this is and that's the thing like i think toronto maple leafs fans are a little bit spoiled because when the leafs decided to be super bad right when they actually got shanian and they were like we're gonna be bad the the draft that they ended up

winning uh was you know they first off they they won on the mitch marner pick they really won on the mitch marner pick they won on the kneelander pick before that they you know the fact that they had both kneeler kneelander and eelers available at number eight at people forget right a lot of teams had to screw up for those picks to be available and then they get Marner the next year at four and then they they win the lottery and get Matthews and on top of that they never got that bad no they were the best worst team in NHL history like they still had Tyler Bozak and James Van Riemsdijk and Nazem Kadri on that team like they didn't completely gut their roster of useful players and they didn't get 30 to 40 to 50 points in the standings I think they had 60

odd points 69 so like okay they were not good relative to the competition but they they weren't like we've seen some all-time bad teams these last number of years yep if you look at like the columbus and the anaheim's and and buffalo the uh mick eichel year oh they just gutted everything didn't want to win any game but here's the problem so bad is you need those other pieces right like cadre was on the team what three or four seasons with matthews easily yep yeah like my point is they had a useful center that they added those guys to yes morgan riley's been here through everything exactly i mean he's he's got some scars but he's he's yeah seen some stuff yeah they had jake gardner they had um they had roman polak for you know his warts he was a good

leader and a great dressing room guy and physical and they signed and traded daniel winnick twice for like second round picks but like my point is they didn't they weren't playing like they're they were they played with some integrity in their tanking is what i'm saying and i'm not defending them this isn't no it was a tank it was a tank yeah but it wasn't an outright tank right like it like some of these teams now like these rosters are all-time bad yes like i'm not trying to pick on anyone but look at some of these rosters that these teams are rolling out there like it's like ahl teams could beat some of the bottom nhl teams right now like the milwaukee admirals just won 19 games in a row they could probably beat some of the teams at the bottom

do you take the admirals or the sharks admirals do you take the blackhawks or the sharks winning is a habit man these teams have lost the habit that's why a full rebuild always sounds good like yeah it's it sounds good when you're you're being talked to as a fan base the living it flat out stinks do you take do you take the admirals to beat the ducks who have 10 points 11 points on the sharks the ducks are a little different the ducks are different i think the Ducks are ready to take a step. OK, Pat Furbeak is doing something I think that's interesting. He's bringing in guys like Radko Gudis.

You know, he doesn't want them to be. He is Frank for Toronto. He has Cam Fowler. They're going to sell the channel, though, aren't they? I would think maybe. Yeah, probably like 26, 27 goals. He's awesome. But he's still he's still signed for another season.

They can punt this if they want. Yeah, he's top 10 on the trade board, though. Is he? I need him to move. We don't need him. I just think he's like right. But they made the Alex Kaloran deal. You know, they're trying to sign legitimate NHL players to also have this rebuild and surround them with the young guys and the old guys and have them together.

And I think that's a lot more interesting way to go about it. Right. And their prospects are closer. Like this Pavel Minchikov, the defenseman, is like looks good. He's already in the lineup. Leo Carlson looks good. Like he's already playing. I'm not saying the Sharks guys won't get there, but they're not playing like their first round picks are not yet in their lineup from recent years. And so I think Anaheim is a little further down the road.

And as Jesse mentions, they have some better veterans. So maybe, maybe Milwaukee, like a seven game series with the Ducks might go to like game six or something. That's pretty crazy to think about. Well, I mean, they have NHL players there. Yeah. Have you seen, have you followed this Cody Hodgson story? Yes.

It's been spectacular actually. Like what are the odds? That he'd come back and be good too. Yeah. Right. Like, I mean, we saw, we saw a couple of comebacks because Peter Holland, that's exactly. And do you know what? Peter, I've texted him a little bit, not, not here of late, but he had some, he had

sort of like groin related he missed time with injury this year like getting back up to speed but if you look at his points per game like he's actually been productive down there i was trying to get i was trying to get him on the show did you say no he said not right now which was really nice of him hodgson yeah no no peter holland oh peter hall yeah because we like i loved peter holland in toronto i thought it was a good trade is good depth center for the leafs and i think babs very smart guy too oh yeah like well-spoken he yeah he came into bt once and was spectacular like he was representing a charity and i think he knew he was about to be moved and he still was like no i'm coming in i'm repping the leafs i'm doing this thing and and and he was really

professional did you know he got a real job between his career and what do you do back to hockey he he got involved with a crypto company wow really but he was like a sales guy no kidding yeah he finished out playing in sweden for your garden and he he kind of you know i think he told all this off the record but i think it's pretty like not that controversial but he he kind of lost the love of hockey while he was in sweden he told me yeah and so he moved home and he had a young kid and and he got a job on bay street in toronto and was selling selling crypto and whatever for at least a year and then you know i guess the itch was still there and he made his comeback man it's it's amazing what he's done and and by the way just peter holland's numbers

for anybody wondering uh 24 games eight goals seven assists 15 points that's no joke he's not like he's not awesome yeah i mean it's uh how old is he like he's not old in human years but he's old for hockey player yeah he's like 32 i think 32 33 and cody hodgson who's 34 five goals in seven games for the milwaukee admirals and he has not played a game for them that was his last team since 15 16 eight years that's crazy that's a really cool like very very cool story i don't even know how it's possible well i think athletes are different yes i think that they're they're like if you're examining like what do they always say like if you if you if if if this is 10 000 years in the future and whatever the next species is is taken over from humanity and they compare

uh danny devito's um uh bones to shacks bones are you gonna look at it and be like this is the same species you know what i mean like it's just such a i've never heard it put that way where did you forget that they're built different they're built different right they're just a different beast right but they're competing against other athletes who have been progressively getting better those eight years as athletes like while cody hodgson was you know some of it his his retirement was forced by injury right yes so like i'm sure i don't i don't know all the details but i guarantee you he wasn't working to be in the best shape possible as a professional athlete in that time because he's retired so the fact he could get it back together i mean it's wild oh it's spectacular

it's a great story now adam are you willing to admit that the preds are gonna be good now that milwaukee's listen milwaukee admirals their ahl teams such on i mean i'm happy for them i'm happy for them i just i will drop a nugget please oh yeah so someone who works for a very good nhl team that i was recently talking to said that they would trade their 4 through 13 forwards straight up for nashville's oh really meaning that all that like to to inverse that for everyone is that What Nashville is missing is the very high-end players, but that this person whose opinion I really respect says that they are deep through the heart of the lineup.

So I would say this. Hard to say no after hearing that, Jesse. Your argument during their... It was a nine-game winning streak, and then I think they upped it to 10 games against Colorado. They hadn't beaten anyone in that streak. Oh, is Adam anti... Yeah, CJ, you wouldn't know this, but...

I am anti the U2 sphere thing being that the reason that they want like they beat a couple playoff teams yeah okay now they beat colorado beating the pants off team yeah well i mean it must be the fact that i wish we had the stats like their goals for and against during that 10 game win streak i can tell you they're not winning 2-1 with you know 48 saves from sorrows i guess trots was right i mean i'm not saying it's the sphere thing but it it's it makes for a good narrative it does it sure does no i know you're not and i i think i think my thing with nashville is like and and this is my argument at the time was this team is an is a a mid-level team because as you said they don't

have the top end scoring talent and i i pointed specifically to things like gus nyquist is your top right wingling right winger like nothing against gus but he's he's not the he's not nothing against gus but yeah against god come on i mean like what are what are we are we kidding here that my thinking was like okay you're canceling after two losses to you two that was my my point and like barry look at your roster they're gonna lose games like that sometimes they are and look what they've done since that was my whole point i don't i don't think i was wrong i don't know you take it you dangle vegas in front of the boys you take it away oh you think so look at the response yeah but then now they can't go to vegas and youtube's left youtube's

not at the sphere anymore so it's not like you can re-reward them you know and they took it away from all the team employees and I hate that shit. I can't stand that. I want the equipment guys, the guys that are like, they're not making millions. They're making maybe 100 grand,

maybe less. I feel like those guys are the ones that are away from their families, supporting this team on the road and deserve the night. I've got a counterpoint. Give it to me.

Those guys are now going to get a playoff bonus. Do they get playoff bonuses? Oh, yeah. Oh, cool. And they weren't going to get a playoff bonus with where that team was at

10 games ago. listen so and so yeah you missed you too but if someone puts an extra couple grand in your bank account when you don't make again the big nhl type player money you probably take the couple grand in the playoff games the winning streak is eight in a row the last 11 games they're nine and two they're tied for the best uh points in the in the nhl in that span they have 18 points same with florida florida's played one less game however if we check their save percentage also So the Leafs and Winnipeg have 18 in that last. Yes, yes.

They're tied. Florida, Nashville, Winnipeg, and Toronto all have 18. What does this have to do with Toronto? 18 points. It always has to do. In that span. But Nashville's right there with everybody else. Plus 16 on the goal differential.

See? I also like that the PDO for all those teams is low. I know that some people think that's a flawed stat, but that's not like they're not flying in the 105s. That's a pretty low. That's a 97.4. that means that they probably even deserve better than they got. Yeah, so you're right.

Sorry, I'm looking at PDOA. I'm sorry, PDOA. Right here. 104s. No, they're in and around 100, so it's not too bad. It's not Adam's anti-Vancouver stance. I was not anti-Vancouver. I just said it's October.

It's been bad for five years. I don't know. Their PDO is very reasonable. It's 104, so it seems like they're kind of playing at expectations. But Nashville's been great. 11 games. That's since February 9th. That's a good stretch of hockey.

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Rules apply. Canada only. No purchase necessary for contest entry. Visit the Tim's app for details. You know, it's getting to that part of the year where, you know, this is the fun part, where the weather starts to get better, the hockey's good, but when you step outside, you need something to cover those eyeballs. How about Shady Rays, gentlemen?

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Well, I'm not returning mine because I got a compliment on Saturday wearing mine. oh there you go all right i am keeping those i'm not sending those back can i ask you guys a question because i know you host the show hit me are the leafs good i mean it's hard to say that they're not and it's actually a perfect segue because i want to go to leafs now anyway no but seriously because but like it's feeling like they are like i don't know what their record is what is it nine one and one or nine two i think they're nine or eight two and oh in their last

10 something like that i'm looking at it right now they haven't lost a lot lately i know they are also nine and two in their last 11 yeah yeah okay so yeah nine one and oh if you look at the teams that have playoff success the first half of the season doesn't matter yep i mean it matters because you have to put points in the bank but the teams that go on a run finish the year strong like almost invariably sure and they're getting goalies back healthy but it's not mentally like St. Louis was the extreme example when they won the Cup from last place. But even if you look at Florida last year,

a lot of teams have to get it together over basically 66% of the last third of the season into the playoffs is the most important for a predictor. Pittsburgh, the year they fired their head coach in January and they brought in Mike Sullivan, they win the Stanley Cup. They went on a tear. Yeah, it's very consistent throughout the NHL

is when that second half team, whoever's hottest, they're usually going to go on a deep run. la 2020 2012 was a crazy run too yeah and there's a lot of them like even the teams don't actually win the cup but like that have the runs it's it the point is is this if you just kind of like lollygagging like if you just like kind of cruising those teams don't seem to do well yeah yeah you got to be feeling yourself a little bit but you're boston last okay i'm just saying and boston didn't but it's not their fault but they lapped the whole league and then some how do you stay focused but here's here's the thing uh it's great that the leaves are nine one and

You know who else is? Florida. Yeah, I know. And, I mean, listen, the way... I did not say they win the cup. I'm just like, are you willing to get your mind around the idea they're good? I think they're good. Okay.

I think that they're playing... You know, here's what it is. They figured out the defense pairings. McKay Benoit is working. Lilligren Brody is working. Right? Who could have thought that? And then in the eight and a half minutes that the Leafs got Riley Labushkin on the ice,

their expected goals were 65%. I think they outshot opponents 9-3 or something like that. That's really impressive against the New York Rangers. That's really, really impressive. The Rangers are a spectacular hockey team. They're 8-1-1 in their last 10. There's three teams on a run right now in the Eastern Conference. It's Toronto, it's Florida, and it's New York.

And so I feel good about that. It feels like there's a commitment to team defense. I feel like you have something, obviously, in the first line. You have something in the third line. if Sheldon talked about how he had to have a chat with Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi about that line and William Nylander, who he benched in the Saturday night game.

And who had an awful line change in overtime and got bailed out. That was a hair. I saw that too. It was terrible. Yeah, it was bad. So I feel like, yeah, okay, that feels good. I'm just looking at this and I'm thinking,

I'm a Leaf fan and there will be always some sort of anxiety like there's a fire at the end of the rainbow. You know what I mean? like i i i don't know is you know jonah siegel has god bless him he's a great guy has gotten just lit up by leaf fans because he's not he's been the one saying i don't think domi is their 2c uh although i have to say that bertuzzi domi nylander line when they're trying they look really good yes right well and i don't know that how hung up do we have to get on two versus three

well i don't know do we that's what i that's why i want to ask you what do you think well i mean first of all the Tavares line played great on Saturday and so if you have two second lines and we can call them whatever you want and then you have the top line does it matter well it doesn't have to be perfect I think that's the point no team is perfect yeah and and we've seen a number of teams win the Stanley Cup basically rolling three forward lines that can score and that's kind of what the Leafs are aiming for here so like because you can if you look at the offensive the offensive side like if there's an offensive zone face off you're probably putting Domi Bertuzzi out there with Nylander if it was a defensive Yarncroke Tavares makes a lot of sense

right yeah and and I'm pretty sure and you can double check on this I think Nylander and Tavares end up playing almost the same number of minutes in that game so like you're kind of using those two lines obviously it's situational as you mentioned sure but you're not saying like the third line isn't getting significantly fewer minutes at five on five than the second line so I don't care what the the labels are basically you've got two pretty good secondary lines and you've got what should be one of the best top lines in the league uh with two elite offensive players and matthew nye's beside them and who's looking better and better and the fourth line is holding its own i mean what did you think of the tilton on on sat i was worried about i i said it

on saturday friday and i got a lot of shit for it about um you take a lot of shit it seems like like a common theme here just just throw your tomato here's the thing i like from a human level i'm worried about matt rempe's health right you should be and i knew that i knew that they were gonna go toe-to-toe but i was like this is not a good idea this is not a good like you saw him on the bench even now his his the swelling in his eyeballs have come down a little bit but you could see even in the fight with reeves which was spectacular and needed to happen especially after the labushkin hit he was like okay are we done like i'm tired of getting hit in the face here yeah i think so that i so i took a lot of shit for that but i was the one standing on my

feet going holy shit this is a great fight right so we're all a bunch of hypocrites i'm a total hypocrite that's why i take shit because i'm out there with it uh what did you i mean was it not a spectacular it was a spectacular matchup the game was great the fight was great and you knew it was gonna happen how long has it been since we've seen that how many hockey fans and i mean this with respect knew matt rempe's name like three weeks ago nobody no he's like everybody's talking about this guy he's he's uh what did reeves say about him because you were talking about that like reeves said that he's gonna be a menace in this league wow i think that's respect actually it's like oh yeah that's sort of like game recognizing game kind of deal and rempe had

nice things to say about reeves yeah they i mean there's definitely sort of respect among those guys look they need each other to stay in the league I mean in Reeves's case obviously he's getting towards a not just the back nine he's like he's like playing the 16th green right now you know Matt Rempe's in the first fairway he is who knows what his career will be but he's just started you know but fighters need someone else to fight them as long as there's going to be fighting and look at intimidation still part of the sport whether we like it or not uh and I get that the Leafs were were unhappy with that hit where Rempe leaves his feet Labushkin knocked out of the lineup you know we saw Bastion and New Jersey get hit pretty good by him I mean

Rempe's a weapon out there and so do you think that hit is should it should it have been a penalty should it be yeah I don't like the hit you don't like that I'm gonna be honest I don't like the hit does seem like he left his feet and yeah he's a big guy yeah it also seemed like charging like They rarely call charging these days, but he came from across the ice and he hit him. That's just straight charging. Are they going to suspend him? No.

Are they going to fine him? No. If they didn't do anything for the Bastion hit, like any supplemental discipline, I don't think this gets anything. No, it's nothing. I mean, look, it's Monday afternoon. I know.

It happened on Saturday night. I think it was Biz that was saying, he's like, well, they fought, so that's it resolved. No. It does feel a bit like, it does feel like if if that were um it's it's odd that that wasn't even penalized it feels like there there's a built-in excuse because he's in his sixth career nhl game and he's big so they're kind of excusing these hits as to he's got to learn how to throw these hits properly so we're

not giving him uh all these penalties that we should be but i think you teach him that by giving him giving him the penalties and the refs aren't calling it plus there's the big anti-toronto bias as you know well yeah how can i feel like a victim today chris that's that's really what we want to go with this that the the remember when morgan riley was suspended i think riley greg or sorry ridley greg um uh brought the team together they have not they have not looked back since that play the leafs have played the best hockey i think i've seen of the matthews era like they this is amazing this the way they're playing right now i don't know if it's the whole matthews era for me but it's certainly this season is not even a debate that this has been the best they've played i'm

i'm here for that argument by the way i know it's again it's a little convenient in narrative sure it's sort of sort of like the sphere thing but is it a coincidence or no if the if this this is true if the greek thing is true then the sphere thing is true no like you can't have one and not have the other i can and i will he can selectively pick which narratives and i will which narrative do i like exactly well i mean look at i think that what it did for them is they really had to tighten up remember the next game they lost both Marner and Tavares with the flu and you're right without Riley and they had other injuries and so like I think and that was the St. Louis game I believe were one of their better efforts of the year defensively I think it forced them to come

together and get a little more serious about certain things they've obviously experimented with the lines that you're now applauding and lauding with good reason they moved the defense pairs around and so it might be somewhat coincidental but that was the triggering event that forced a lot of those changes to be brought to the lineup and they've found something i mean bobby mcmahon yeah oh yeah find something in him he's cooled off a little bit but that got him back in the lineup that period of time and i don't think pontus holberg was in the opening lineup to start the season and he's been a pretty usable piece up and down the lineup too right yeah i mean they've it's just it seems to be coming together that was the original spirit of my question

is are you willing to after the start of this year where i think for months and months and months those that fixate or watch the leafs closely were like this just doesn't seem right and then all of a sudden it's like wait a minute feels good it does this is why next year when we're freaking out on november 12th about whatever we're freaking out about we should all remember it's a long ass season that's our job never do i will we never remember sorry i'm supposed to be yelling in this gym cj would you say it feels like they figured out 11 of the 12 forwards for the playoffs like i think the only spot that's up into question is if ryan reeves is in the lineup playoff game one but the rest of it seems to be solidified so you got gregor on the outs

yes and obviously robertson's been sent back the yeah because yarncork fills that spot i think holmberg's got a spot bobby mcmahon you can't take him out because of how streaky he can be and i think everything else is kind of solidified health permitting that's he i'll buy that i do think there's a chance here you'll see them get a forward too okay before the deadline and then the leaves yes holmberg's on the outside looking in i guess depends how good the forward is yeah okay like they could also be acquiring someone who's like the 13th forward do you think that they're so so i and i do want to ask you this because um it's been reported this morning that nick robertson hasn't been happy in toronto he was sent down but he that's a that's a numbers

thing and they did talk to him before he went down and said it's not because of your play but you're the only one who's eligible do you think that's a guy that moves or is that a guy that stays and like do you think the leafs management cares that he hasn't been happy well no i don't think they care that much i mean like look at it's this is a brutal business yeah so i'm not trying to like be flipping about it but i i think that their argument would be play better you know play to a level that we can't take you out of the lineup or this isn't an option um i don't i don't think it's likely he's moved it doesn't i don't get the sense that the market values him enough to justify moving him okay and keep in mind like he's he's going to be cost controlled still these

next couple years when that's going to be useful and and so i it's not as though he's untouchable like i should be clear but i i just don't have the sense that there's a team out there that really values him enough to make it worth the leaps while to pull the trigger on that and if nick's unhappy you gotta just outline him outline it to him and say like matthew nize is also eligible to be sent down and the reason he's not is because he can play on the first line he's proven his spot in the nhl so if you were that level of player right now you would also not be sent down but he's not and that's the reality of this situation and far from the only player this early in his career that has some ups and downs like philip broberg the defenseman in edmonton who's now in

bakersfield you think he's happy like call up his chart he's played a number of nhl games this year he's been stuck in bakersfield and it's the same kind of story like the oilers aren't just going to trade him for nothing um because they still think he's a valuable part of the future i think there's a world robertson still part of leaf's future i mean cadre went up and down a whole bunch early in his career in toronto willie did too even though it's different circumstances because they weren't trying to be competitive but willie spent a lot of time on the marlies well and when your team's as good as the leafs are with the ambitions they have i mean i think the message to robertson should be stay ready because first of all there's going to be injuries like sure he is

the first forward call up and i don't even want to but just pick it if any one of these top players goes out injured you don't think he's immediately in the lineup like not just not just playing he might be on like the second line he's one injury away from being on the second line so i don't think it's a case where they don't like him but he's he is not proving himself to be irreplaceable in the lineup yet right and so of course he's not happy because he's on his what fourth or fifth stint in the ahl he also shouldn't be happy if he was happy with this that would be a problem well and he's a proud guy and he works his ass off and and he's taking strides like i think he's getting closer but he's not there yet i mean you're watching these games he's not like how could

they send him down like how can they you know i'm not picking on him but he he he's not been as productive as he needs to be to be a full like to be what he's supposed to be in the nhl so with the leafs heading into the deadline i think everybody wants to know this that you know because uh you know the toronto maple leafs contingent of fans are obsessed with these things and they should be um you mentioned something about a ford i want to start with defense because it looks like they're going to carry three goalies it right into the playoffs right they're going to try because philadelphia needs a goalie and they would take martin jones in a heartbeat one the leafs can't be confident enough yet no no no like there is still a scenario where all three of those guys

play in the playoffs yeah like in one round even yeah all right and after next friday the roster limit doesn't matter it's just a matter of who you can fit under the salary cap exactly and and the leafs could obviously use the cap space by not having a third goalie i just don't think they can risk they know they're probably not getting jones through waivers and you know joseph wall's just coming back like let's yes let's give that a few weeks before we're making any predictions where he's at how he's going to be and then samsonob full credit to him the guys won a whole bunch of games here the last month but we also remember what happened in some of the previous months yeah i just i just feel like the leafs are like carolina's been the last number of years right

carolina's used anti-ranta freddie anderson and coach etkoff in in the playoffs like i think the Leafs are in that spot right now with this trio and so yes unless something weird happens they're going to roll with those three I think they're going to get another defenseman who can play on the right side do you think it's going to be a Labushkin type deal or do you think it's going to be the first round picks involved and this is a longer term play like a Jake I don't want to say Jake McCabe is not a first round pick trade but he was he did have you know two extra years on his deal i think i think they're open to both um and probably more likely to be a labushkin type deal okay if cj i don't mean to put you on the spot but if you were to create put me on the spot

a trade board that's just the leafs and i wanted the top three on the trade board what names are going up there zach bogosian oh oh wow would he come back i'm not sure if he has a say in the matter okay i mean like you can get traded here sure sure sure uh old friend zach bogosian matt dumba david savard but you'd have to blow the canadians away they're saying well yeah that's probably your first round pick kind of trade yeah because he's got a couple more years he's got one more year after this one and he wanted he would fit very well yeah he would fit and he's a defensive defenseman he's he's not he doesn't get the same sort of love as Chris Tanev but he's a if you look

at the impacts on the game it's Chris Tanev-esque I think he's very good at eating pucks and and giving you secure minutes and and that was something that Treliving outlined they wanted with with um Labushkin they wanted stops right they wanted defensive stops well I look at the game has played differently in the playoffs no one knows this more than the Leafs like we we have the same discussion every year like they they roll i mean this season's been a little different although maybe they're going to end up there anyway but it's like every year they get 115 points and then the game changes and it's like hey can this can be effective when it matters um and 3.5 million for your probably top pairing right-handed defenseman like that'd be fantastic for the

right and i'm not i don't know i i gave you those three names i don't know what the order is here's the thing brad true living which i think is a positive for his job is known for calling everyone on everything. Love that. So when you're me and you're chasing the crumbs here that always had conversations on this player, this player, this player, it doesn't necessarily give you the full roadmap of what's going on. I know that those are three players that they've at least had some discussions on. I think that they could have some time for depending on what the acquisition cost is and how other things break in the marketplace. Dumbo was a guy they looked at last summer, right? And he decided to take Arizona over Toronto because of some investments he has.

yeah i saw he said that to reporters i don't know that firsthand i i know he he the coyotes were in town last week and he said something to that effect what i know about him though was initially carolina or sorry carolina arizona was thinking first round pick then tanav gets traded for a second now it's like oh maybe dumbo might be a third round pick i mean you start to get to like if the cost is not too much he's only 29 and if you look at how he's played in the playoffs in the past i mean he brings some physicality i know he was sort of known as more of an offensive guy earlier in his career it's not really where he's trended out now what do you compare him to tool and i know that's unfair question but like tools wise like because i think a lot of people

still see him as the offensive defenseman yeah but he's trending way more towards being a stopper but he's not like he's not a tan ever savar you know who are really just i mean it's one dimension it's a very important dimension but you don't look at either of those players and care what their point totals no right they're not playing on your power play ever they're just there to do the hard things that really matter i mean quite honestly the difference in these games in the playoffs is it can be blocking shots it can be and support's good at that and punishing guys who go to the net right like radko gudas was crazy effective for florida last year in the playoffs and there's no way that the ducks would move him i don't know i think that they'd be open to almost

anything you know actually what i was told is there was no guarantee this is like a week ago they're going to move LaBouche get it and you know he gets traded so I think that they they're open to their veterans but they're they're not of the mind that they have to sell everything off so you know and Gudis is not a penny UFA right so I'm not certain they wouldn't but you know I the same time I don't think he's untouchable okay he's always been a guy I'm interested in yeah I think you want Radko Gudis until he's a leaf and gets suspended in the playoffs uh because because you know like it it's it's a fun fact but the the Leafs are the most suspended team in the George Peros era and Radko Goudas is just screaming for a suspension I like you know

what I mean and and I think he's he's a guy though is an effective player tough as nails big personality freaks people out I don't think people like playing against him but Savard could be that without you know the big beard and the big personality couldn't he yes he could and and you know i don't want to lead anyone astray i don't think that trades like on the no no but i do know it's something that's could like it's available to them and there's been some discussions and and i'm sure there's other players too that i didn't name in my three that i just haven't got a trail on the one thing i will be candid about is i'm not sure where they're looking for depth forward like i don't know who i don't know who to identify there nola chari would be really

nice i thought he was good last year he was i loved him and honestly they wanted to keep him i think he just he was gonna get more somewhere else yeah there's that was the theme honestly like luke shen wanted to come back and they wanted him but he got 2.75 right i mean three years of it too it's amazing he actually turned down a four-year deal too not from toronto no same money in the ballpark just a city that he didn't want to go to or maybe a situation i don't i don't necessarily mean it was a living situation it might have been more of a where he fit in the organization four years do you have any idea where the Leafs were willing to go with Shen not that high not that high yeah yeah okay this is well not look at Luke Shen and and I

I gotta say like I am fully I got Luke Shen as one of the great guys that I've gotten to know around absolutely like just an awesome personality really generous with his time but if you look at his like three or four contracts before that one they were 800 grand 800 grand one year or two year 800 grand like for him that's like life-changing money at the end of his career to be able to make like that's setting up your family right like it's like yeah he could have all the good vibes of being back in toronto and it's a good feel but you know that's you gotta make your money it's another eight plus million that like there was no way he was gonna have to play 10 years at 800 grand to make that and he's anyway good for luke good for him yeah no honestly he's

on a good team now like nashville he's going to the playoffs it looks like and i think the thing is is that the you know the luke shen type adam still don't call them a good team no he refuses i possibly can't i cannot possibly all they're beating is paper bag and the colorado avalanche that's it um no they're gonna be a pain in the ass in the playoffs like you've got uc soros and a tough team i think i think my thing with luke shen was i was disappointed he didn't stick around because i thought that that was probably the best defensive partner morgan riley ever had and it was probably the best pairing best top pairing the leafs had had in the matthews era right yes and in the playoffs they were they were awesome outstanding i'm pretty sure he wasn't maybe

one goal against a five on five or none and he played like meaningful minutes i mean he was so sure with the puck like this is the thing is you don't need to be fancy in the playoffs no you just need the defenseman not to turn the puck over like it's easy for me to say they're under huge pressure obviously there's four checks coming but but he just made the smart pass simple pass you know boxed out his guys like i just thought it was such a do you know what one of the cool moments i'll say game six when the leafs finally won that series in tampa and down in the dressing room i had a chance to chat with luke like like not with all the cameras there and he was telling me some of the stuff that the lightning players were saying in the handshake line to him

and he's like he's like i always believed i could get back like i could be this kind of player and but he finally felt like he did it in that moment like he was even saying because you know when he won the cups in in tampa he was often the seventh the like he played he played in the playoffs but He was not an everyday, certainly wasn't a 20 minute a night player. And one of the reasons he left Tampa at that time was just because he believed he could be more. And they just saw him as that. It was, it wasn't like animus.

I mean, look at, they gave him two shiny rings and lifetime, lifetime experiences like that he appreciates, but he, he left in pursuit of the ability to play more minutes and to be, have more of a role. And he finally felt like he got there in that series. And that, and like, I know some of his teammates, I won't share exactly who said what, but a lot of them basically were saying and telling them they missed them and that that they could have used them in that series and and like what a compliment that is and so that like good for him like like what his story is crazy from a fifth overall pick to like being tossed around the

league he was in the ahl like six seven years ago he thought his career was over i mean i love guys that stick with it because it's let's face it very few people are are picked at the top of the league and lead the league in scoring every year yes the the ones that are we know them by their first names sydney connor wayne austin yeah well it wasn't picked but like you know and i'm not saying those players don't have their own sort of adversity but like they're they're the next breed but but everybody else it's like there's a lot of you know this is why i love the playoffs is because i think that's when i think players get more reflective on their journeys i think like that's that's when you like prove if you've done it to yourself i can't i'm not explaining as

well like covering the playoffs is awesome because you get that it's so emotional and you get that that sort of you get those revealing moments out of players yeah i'm excited like i i'm already looking past the trade deadline are you what are you looking at what are you excited about tell us everything after march 9th for a period of time is basically just about hockey and like so much of my job really has nothing to do with hockey it's it's to do with the business of hockey it's to do with the decisions the teams are making based on where they're at hockey wise but so for that kind of window it's like the race to the playoffs and especially the first round and then you know by the time we get to the cup final i'm like covering the cup final but we're already

talking about free agency and this coach and that thing and you know like it's hard and look at i love what i do don't get me wrong but i just love like look outside the sun shining like you can start to imagine a world where it's not winter anymore like is there anything better than the first round of stanley cup playoffs nothing no no that's the best week of hockey all year long it's so awesome yeah and it you know it gets long and and if you're you don't have like certain interests depending on the teams like the playoffs can drag a bit because you know let's face it by june in canada it's actually nice outside yes like there's like you don't want to be inside watching hockey necessarily unless you have well most people take their tv outside and they're just

watching their backyard do you have that kind of setup i have a laptop i don't know i don't know where you're living i was like i go to my little square patch and i roll around and i go this is my this is my world i'll tell you back when i worked with nick caprios at sports that he was always generous to have us over at his house at times for barbecues in the summer and he had a sweet setup with a tv we'd like the jays game on like you don't like which i'm sure you were so reasonable about i mean this is usually july so like i i'm reasonable with the jays until it really matters and then i turn into steve yeah yeah that's good we've all we've been trying to get chris to do um uh blue jfrs but uh oh my god yeah it's just it's just not i'm worried that it

would ruin my rep you think so oh because you've got like a journal a serious journal because i'm like a station yeah and like i'm freaking unhinged when it comes to the jays i love it like they could they have had a worse off season they could no no it literally couldn't have been worse like are they just serving us this shit and telling us to eat it and be like hey that's hey this is this is all we could do guys it's pretty clear that they had one business plan for otani and another for non-otani and i think that um they've they've obviously had to leave otani in the dust and i think that they're just playing playing well we'll see where we get with what we got it's a wait and see game wait and see yeah and then you know my question is i can't wait till

we get to back to the playoffs and like the gm with the remote control out there is like changing his picture every three pitches terrible terrible terrible decisions and then the gm throws his coach under the uh under the bus too in the press conference love that like is it bad like i don't see i'm not a fan of other things right so i don't know like the hockey fans like is it bad if i'm kind of like i'm okay with the jay sucking this year if everyone gets fired and then we can like move forward no that's a very reasonable reaction i know it's a bit over the top but like that's kind of how i feel where you're sitting right now is kind of where new jersey devils fans are where they're happy if the team sucks for the rest of the season it'd be like

okay now we can blow out our tom fitzgerald and lindy ruff and actually get this team to to win again where they were last year you know i feel like a lot of jay's fans are like that with john snyder it's like okay how much losing we gotta do to get rid of this guy yeah i know that that like i'm a truther here but the original sin was letting alexanthopolis go yes yes like all the guy has done is like win world series and build the best teams in multiple places and the reason they did it was because uh shit politics chapiro didn't want to didn't want him that's that's our babe ruth trade yeah like that's that's where you go back to and you say okay they really screwed this up i was actually i've never said this but i was in i was in the office when anthopolis walked

in uh because believe it or not he had to meet with the head of media as a part of this and just days before he was gonna go like i was there i'm pretty sure i saw the precursor to the meeting like when they all walked in together because i was it was back on when rogers had media on the fifth floor did he show up wearing a dodgers hat no he didn't his typical blue hat with the black you know that is not blue hat blue blue collared shirt with like the black pants and he kind of walked in and uh and he was a hero at that point he still lives in atlanta uh it's crazy what's going on there and i wonder you know long-term baseball in toronto is going to be fine because they have an owner that's a fan that has lots of money but you know can you sign

bichette and guerrero if if uh um if the team stinks are they going to want to go you know this is they've just been gifted these two players and they can't surround them it's nuts just one thing on your luke shen point and how incredible his career has been just to go back to that for a second he's played 976 career games wow and there's only been uh it's 387 people who ever played a thousand games in the nhl go back to his page on hockey db there sure and then look up where he is in his draft class how many guys in his draft class got to a thousand games in terms of games played uh he is one two three four jordan eberly is going to reach a thousand he's four away oh wow there's actually a lot in this john carlson's gonna reach a thousand

then we got tyler myers eric carlson and then luke shen wow so there you know what that was the first nhl draft i covered in ottawa oh really and you know what happened there that's kind of crazy that's sort of been lost to time is matt sundin's rights were traded to montreal at that draft oh and he never signed in montreal obviously yeah he waited and signed in vancouver yeah but had he signed in montreal i don't know what like the least would have got something but it's just like it's hard to imagine that matt sundin's rights were ever even traded in montreal that's that is hard to believe i mean kujo's rights were traded to calgary i remember that yeah and did he sign there no no he went to detroit he ended up in calgary though later in his career he did but

like it wasn't as a result of that it's kind of like cadre blocking the trade to calgary and then still ending up there as a free agent um luke shen very impressive career yeah sorry i'm just like turning i'm not trying to get away from who cares who cares we're having fun what's the if um if there is a uh second line center that the leafs or a forward that the leafs go to you we ask you about defense what kind of four would they be looking at i think more of a depth addition the problem is they don't have any cap space right right or like sorry they don't have a meaningful amount of cap space but the fact that they took ilia labushkin's salary through new jersey to get it down under 700 000 is a sign of them wanting to protect more space to

to make future moves i mean you don't even need a press conference at that point it's like you're not bothering to do that unless you're anticipating something else happening i i think it's like a fourth line kind of you know versatile defensive player i mean if there's one thing i think the leafs lack in their four group is truly stout defensive players i mean yarn croak is one for sure uh camp has been that when he's been good this year's had a lot more ups and downs but you know like if there's a weakness to say like a max domey's game he's just not defensively inclined now he gives you enough at the offensive end i think you learn to try to live with it and try to balance those two things but you know i think that they could use a little bit more of a shutdown

presence to to maybe build a line that could be used in a shutdown specific way that because they just don't have that this year and so maybe someone like an achari makes sense you know i i don't i don't know that i just love him that's a rumor we're starting right here yeah and for pk especially the PK I love him doing that right and he hits everything remember he has like 10 hits in a game like he's rearranged his nose several times and like his nickname is cookie because he eats a lot of cookies that's right which is like all right got the cookie endorsement I'm pretty sure when he was when he was in Toronto for like three seconds lean into the bit I like this yeah and if you're calling it second line center like John Tavares is still the second line center he

out minutes is Max Domi if some of that's power play time obviously but he plays more minutes than Domi. I think that line is really the second line and how it's deployed. And the Max Nylander-Bertuzzi line is kind of the third line in terms of how they play, at five on five at least.

I'm with you. And how cool is that in a sense that you have Nylander six in the league and scoring as we're recording this, playing on a different line than Matthews and Marner. Obviously, they share the ice and the power play,

and that's where he gets a lot of his offense too. But I think it's a good thing. I think back to that first Penguins Cup under Mike Sullivan in 2016, phil kessel who a lot of people thought should have won the cons might that year was a third line winger for them yep like that was a strength that wasn't a that wasn't a knock on phil but he was playing with haglin and benino on the hbk line and and you know they did a lot of good work together and i don't think that takes away from like i just think that's a hard thing to match

up against and that's what the leafs are trying to build i think that's what vegas was last year yeah you know vegas had an interesting playoff run like if you look at jack eichel and some people thought he should have won the conspite last year but he didn't i think he had six goals in the playoffs like he and i'm not knocking him but it's it's like they overwhelmed you with the the fact that they had multiple lines that were putting up offense it doesn't all have to come from one person one line like there's more than one way to to win a cup being able to load up one line is efficient to get like good offensive chances and some scoring opportunities and some quick goals but the ability to roll four lines is how you win long term that's what it seems like

that's the most successful way to build a deep playoff team exactly and and and your stars are gonna have their moments but they're no star dominates all four rounds no you can't do it right like marcia so didn't score i think until late in the second round and then he scored like 12 goals from like and then he won the cotswine so like i just there's like i find the one thing i get frustrated with a conversation in toronto at times is like everyone can point to like oh this one player isn't exactly what you need is like there's no there's no perfect team there's no blueprint though there's no like roadmap i mean the the blueprint is to have as many really good players as you can um and spread them out yes and then like and make it really hard for

the other team to shut them all down at the same time and then hope you get some saves yeah because the way it's working right now is if mitch marner has an off night austin kind of steps up willie has an off night mitch marner steps up and they're all kind of trading opportunities last couple weeks and it's really been effective and it's really been efficient sometimes it's bobby mcmahon And then it's Bobby McMahon. Bobby McMahon will score four goals in two games, you know? Yeah. Yep, absolutely.

And having Bertuzzi scoring goals is good. Yeah, Bertuzzi's back. We like that. Well, in playoff, Bertuzzi should be a different animal, too. He was awesome against Florida last year. Awesome. And this is why they got him, right? They got him.

I think Sheldon might have said recently, I wasn't there that day, but I saw someone tweet a quote where he's like, you're going to see a different guy come to playoffs, too. now they're they want to probably set that expectation for him because let's face it they've liked the last couple weeks but there's a lot of this season they didn't right there's a lot of like disinterest or half interest from him a lot of nights where he wasn't engaged it's like okay we'll we'll give you that but you better give us you better get focused here when it really matters okay cj uh you ready to take some questions yeah what do you got Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters.

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You've got to try breakfast at A&W. At participating A&W locations in Ontario. The Presser S.D.P. The Steve Dangle Press Conference. First question comes from at the underscore cack on Twitter. They write, I have a conundrum. I met someone who claimed she was a huge hockey fan despite never hearing about Hasek, Waugh, Yager, or Merrick freaking Malik.

Was I right or justified to have the ick? What do you think, CJ? listen who could i wasn't prepared for this welcome to the stp partner that is quite a conundrum yeah i mean if you haven't heard of merrick malik i think that's grounds to end a date right there if you've never seen his top 10 where he scores on that penalty or that that uh shootout yeah i mean have you even lived no see i look at this is i don't see this as a nick this is an opportunity to say oh my god i can't wait to

show you yeah this could be a learning you can you can experience it together again they could have said like i'm a huge hockey fan but they're a new hockey fan you can still be big fan of something but new to the game and it's okay that you haven't heard of some of the older players like jogger and wall and hashek like even jogger though this is the last time he played a game 16 17 yesterday yeah he's playing for cladno like when did the traveling joggers have to retire is my question you know like they were out this season but they when they when they would travel to his games when was the last time he played and for whom it was like six years ago in calgary right and he just disappeared by the

way didn't didn't even say goodbye just like left mid-season oh he did sorry the team cut ties with him but he didn't i i because mark giordano was on the team at the time and i actually asked him about it like what was that like he's like i just remember it was around christmas time and then all a sudden yeggs was gone that's amazing uh too bad he never got to 2 000 points he was pretty close yeah and he's still not in the hall of fame which is because he's not because he's still playing right yes but he's basically like he's not coming i was gonna say what was in my mind and then i would offend a whole country's worth of professional hockey players but like the czech league is not the same thing as the nhl sure right and so i feel like given that he's the second leading scorer

all time in nhl history like there's no debate about his merits he's 52 52 like shouldn't we put him in like when it's ultimately his class he's gonna be going in with like guys that never even saw him play yeah he's gonna go in with like sydney crosby it's gonna be like you know he's like good to see you fellow kids or whatever when he arrives at the hall like with a skateboard be in a wheelchair yeah all right it's crazy sorry no no but yeah i don't think you're justified with the ick yeah i would say i would agree with that you you should get over that ick well and embrace the opportunity right learning experience for everybody involved all right next question is from devin olson there's a lot of a lot of chatter about steve steos maybe wanting to make a bigger

move aside from the names around this deadline chikorin tarasenko etc is there a more of a core player on the sends cj doesn't see on the opening day roster next year uh-oh brady kachuk's gonna be there is that is that what the question you'll be you'll be there yeah well i don't know there was recently some rumor that just as far as i could tell was like totally off base i don't norris pinto i think those guys are there yeah by the way the chikrin rumors according to dregger this morning have picked up as in like there could be something this week yeah and it makes sense right because you've seen some d come off the market and then everyone's like okay we can spend a third for this player or maybe just the first for jacob

chikrin who's younger and is signed for one more year you know i i think chikrin will move and only because you have sanderson and shabbat signed already on the left side for a long time so what are you gonna i mean you can't pay chikrin more than what he makes now um i don't i don't see them making a core shaking move i mean they have to get the goaltending figured out right like let's let's real talk about the senator it's the goaltending's battle like i know they signed corposalo is sort of like a name free agent last year but that that hasn't worked and you know i i i do think that steos you know he wants to bring in more veteran type of players i think he wants a little more um leadership whatever you want to call that some of the

intangibles maybe that's what tarasenko and jeru were supposed to be right jeru's worked out great for them but tarasenko hasn't and you've heard no talk about jeru being traded right uh because because of that reason i think that he likes it there and they like him but i don't think i don't think they're going to do anything from the absolute core guys like stutzler's back you know kachuk's back sanderson will be there i think shabbat will be there chikrin is the play i think and then and then obviously just adding to the group i mean if they ship tarasenko out if they ship kubelik out you know hamnick will be done like there's going to be room to turn over parts of the roster to to affect that change and then they need a better start i mean this season

it's a total gong show yeah we talked briefly before the show about how much of a failure the debris kit and chicken trades for ottawa could end up being in that you go and you try to acquire somebody and then you end up losing the deal in the end by making another deal early on those two guys yeah you overpaid initially and then like yeah yeah yeah do not reflect well in the end of the previous regime's era yeah i think those are pure dorian problem but someone this is funny someone who works for the nhl team said point this out to me the other day is like the problem with the deadline is you trade a first for one of these players that gives you 20 odd games and then you know goes to free agency or you hold on to your first and you trade it for

alex to bring it which is what essentially it cost to try to bring and they dumped kubelik's contract in that deal and or he's like you know you trade a second for these guys you think no big deal or you you hold on to it and you get davante's for two seconds which is what colorado got them for which is crazy and the point being is that like the prices now are ludicrous and it's just it's weird the jams are used to paying the price in this window and then there's some of them are like scared to pay it other times of the year yes they're the same picks right it's the same asset it's just like it's viewed differently it's in june as opposed to march right but this right this guy works for a team that is going to make a deal at this deadline and probably a pretty

big one and and he was sort of saying like we're stupid to do this but like this is the this is the game we play like this is yeah this also you're you you get visions of of uh of the stanley cop yeah you start to think we could yeah and you've got an owner yeah who's like what's going on guys what are you doing it's hard to be and lauer he's not he's not a guy that's right and i'm not talking about ottawa is not the example i'm using here i'm just pivoting off the question but I do think that it's kind of a crazy time of year yeah and you think they get goaltending this summer they have to well you got Forsberg and Corposalo locked up already to about yeah 6.75 million so one of those guys welcome to the league Steve Stales yeah it's gonna be a tough one I think

you're stuck with Corposalo until he can figure it out you know we're to me where Ottawa has failed in these last number of years is they made poor decisions around their core guys they did a great job drafting they've identified these players they've got them signed to i think you know reasonable smart contracts yeah great contracts but they they didn't make good decisions on the the fringes of the roster and they mismanaged their assets like and so i just that you have to start getting some wins there um getting tarasenko for me this like you know the the gambling thing aside shane pinto should have been in the lineup and they didn't need tarasenko right like it was sort of like just build the team and pinto and tarasenko fell into their lap

right yeah like yeah we don't you don't need to be an insider to to conclude that he didn't want to sign an ottawa on a one-year five million dollar deal on like august whatever day he signed it it just was that was what was left that was musical chairs and the music stopped and uh he's like canada here we go um he's had a good year though i mean you know honestly he's a strong asset i think he's like kind of under discussed when it comes to the trade deadline you know rental additions like i think there's a fair amount of demand for him uh jesse next question we got a question from kraken canada the uh what's up the the canadian guys seattle kraken fan base twitter account uh which team do you expect to overpay the most this week for a player

that's a good question yeah somebody who's got to be like really going for it and say vancouver yeah maximum chaos i love that and they should shouldn't they they should yeah and look at overpaying that's not a criticism no like often the the gm or the front office that overpays knows they're overpaying yes it's a conscious decision like we haven't been in the playoffs in a number of years we've had this season we got to give our guys the best chance i could see vancouver with gensel or something like that um you know if they come out on top there that that could make a lot of sense edmonton i would put in the same mix or vegas because they're those are three teams that could be first of all

they're sort of got to go through each other in some version to get to where they want to go to and then they're all kind of competing for top six forwards yeah so edmonton could gensel land in edmonton by the way yes that is scary that's scary like what like i don't i think i think edmonton keep an eye on them with toffoli too which is would be another great pick yeah they need one more forward why not go get the best one yeah best one available yeah if you're edmonton this is the year i i wondered about toffoli back to vancouver too because it did work out really well there for the short time he was there it did i and i think edmonton's one of the teams that really like him now the devils haven't fully committed to selling him but i mean look they

just had a tough run through california they can look at the same standings we can look at and come to conclusions but i think that if they get a first round pick there it's going to be hard to say no to that for a player they like look at they might sign them back as a free agent i mean that sure that happens from time to time like he liked it there and and it's not his fault that they are where they are i think he scored more than 25 goals already this season like he's he's doing his job like that's what they acquired him to do um but it's been a weird year in new jersey they had lots of injuries and and just looks like time's gonna run it seems like the buffaloes and the New Jersey's had bad luck injury years

and that just happens. Yeah, I'm willing to especially say that for New Jersey. I don't think Buffalo was as good as we thought they were. I think there's still a lot of deficiencies with that roster. It would appear so. Certainly no depth. Yes.

Nobody to hold the fort while the big guys, when they go down. I want one more question, then we'll let you go because I know it's been a long time, CJ. Yeah, you had a long time. This is from Nick again off who asked, does Chris Ignatiff Ignatiff off?

Yeah, yeah. Does Chris agree with Adam Wilde that Shani might be done if this season ends in the first round again? No. I mean, sorry. I'm far less certain as you seem to be. I will say this. I mean, let's just look at the facts as they are.

The Maple Leafs Sports Entertainment is bringing in new leadership, Keith Pelley. And, you know, we're several years into the Shana plan. And there's a lot of pressure on everyone in the Leafs organization to win. but i don't think that he's i don't think he's at the tip of the spear right now but i'm not gonna look at adam has sources too i can only go on what i know so i i i don't think they're playing for shanny's job but i i it's very clear that the job conditions the working conditions are going to change anytime you get a new boss it can be stressful but it's not we shouldn't

look at it necessarily as job on the line playoff series for shanny well in your eyes sorry just wait if they get to the second round and losing five games like they did last year is that progress like i don't know i i guess i don't know what that threshold is i think that that he's going to be under new scrutiny though because there's a new person evaluating his job performance and you know i think there's some question just around where this team goes in general right i mean this is as much as we were kind of excusing kyle dubas for some of where pittsburgh is i mean brad for living was thrown into a similar situation in toronto he gets a chance now to take a fresh look at the roster he's got a big decision on mitch marner's contract extension

coming after the year i just think change happens in sports if you don't win so and i think that that new perspective of the new president ceo is something that could lead to a lot of chaos within the organization you know it's usually not usually stable if a new guy comes in you know it's not usually just business as usual well and i'll say what's interesting is under michael frisdale who had previously ran MLC. I know he left a couple of years ago and the team was being run on an interim basis, but he didn't want to be public in any way.

So the boss, like the Brendan Shanahan's or the Masayu Jury on the basketball side, they were kind of the final word on the team, right? They controlled the apps. Like when they spoke, that was the highest level you're ever going to get someone in front of a microphone or a set of cameras. I think that's going to be different now.

And so that changes the whole dynamic of leadership, of messaging, of where the pressure lies. you know it's going to be i just think it's going to be interesting no matter what happens the leafs could win the cup and i i still might say like this you know let's watch and see how this all develops like i don't i don't know how that will suit brennan shanahan you know i don't think it you remember like what it was like when uh what was the guy's name help me out uh like wiki yes yeah like he he came in and put everyone on notice right yep he's like yeah i got a parade route yeah here it is in a china shop like he did everything every day i liked him a lot yeah yeah

Because he was challenging everyone that works under him and he was making sure no one was too comfortable. And so I don't know what leadership style that Keith Pelley is going to adopt here, but it's definitely going to change Brendan Shanahan's day-to-day job, just as it will anyone else in senior management. On the Raptors side, the same deal.

So I'm not saying you're wrong. I just don't, I'm not sure it's so absolute, I guess. This is what's clear. The board loves Shanahan. How much time does he get? I think that's my main point here. And I'll say this, having worked for both the major telecoms that own this team, they're not patient. These are not patient organizations.

They want now. And I think specifically, you look at something like Rogers, and this is just the business aspect of it. When the Jays went on those runs under Anthopolis, funny that we bring that up, in 15 and 16, I guess 15 was under Anthopolis. The Anthopolis team was still playing in 16. I give AA all the credit for that 2016 team. Yeah. I don't care how anybody wants to phrase it. And they could have won a World Series in 50.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, 100%. Absolutely. If David Price had been better in the playoffs, I think they do. He was great in the regular season, but he's not a playoff pitcher. The...

I know. The stock price for Rodgers kept going up and up and up, and it was just... They only could attribute it to the Blue Jays. Do you know how many tickets I bought those years? Oh, and crazy amounts, too. I spent stupid amounts of money.

I remember spending $600 to go to a game because i was like i have to be there i don't regret it game you were at the bad flip game in the crowd my my my new wife is at the uh was at the bad flip game too she said i was scared she's like i was scared like i thought there was going to be it was a top three sports memory for me ever like of a building i've been in and i've been getting paid to go to olympics and cup finals and all this i was i've been at the masters i've covered the british open at st andrews i got i've been lucky to do everything you got to the masters three times he's eating the sandwiches at the masters i didn't know that oh my god the egg sandwich i ate so much so many sandwiches aren't

they like three bucks because they keep the price yeah but when you're a media guy they're free that's so cool this is old school because i i went in 2006 2007 and 2008 so this might have changed because i know they actually built a new press center but at the time too they just had like a beer tap and you could just pour yourself a beer in the media room cool now again this is it's a new era maybe that's maybe i'm referencing like something like from grandfather time but that still existed when i covered the master and you were like that's the thing you were a golf reporter for a long time people don't know that yeah and i love golf yeah do you know what this one of the cool moments 2005 british open is at saint andrews i mean saint andrews first of all

you can just it's like going to the vatican if you're catholic and i'm not catholic like it's so cool like it's just such a neat town like the 18th green is 200 feet from the best bar in town like literally it's in the town anyway so jack nicholas i was the last professional major he played and it's the friday afternoon and he's coming up 18 and so like literally he's in the town so like there's just thousands and thousands of people and he goes up there and he gets he has a putt for birdie on the 18th and he makes it so he birdies his last ever professional hole and he comes in the media room and he said i knew the hole would move wherever i hit that putt what a lie and i'm like goodness what a legend like i do you know how many hours of press conferences i

i've sat through since and i still remember that because i was like that was so cool that is amazing and you know what all the journalists lined up after his press conference to get their badges signed by him and i didn't do it because it's like such a professional faux pas and i kind of regret it yeah i was gonna say do you regret it but i was a young reporter and i wanted to take it yeah no i get it i get it i get it i know but i was like maybe a little too rigid because yeah i would i don't keep a lot of mementos or anything but i would i would have my jack nicholas signed pretty sure anyway that's sorry i'm all over no but i want to ask you the bad flip game just want to because because jesse was at the kawaii shot game i was at kawaii shot yeah

and uh and edwin walk off against the oriole yeah that was my best toronto memories yeah from what i have heard from everybody that was at the bad flip game it got scary like yeah because very dark people were like frothing at the mouth and throwing beers on the field and yeah and then when he hits that home run there's this gigantic snap like release and anybody that's been like i was the best one i've been to and no one remembers this game but i do gary roberts triple overtime against the senators i was there i remember it was amazing um the snap of the of the energy that goes through the building when something like that happens playoff overtime but oh it's amazing it's the best drug in the world what did what did that

what did the batista like what do you remember doing how do you remember reacting i i like literally was stone sober and you just feel like you're like inebriated like just the the rush of all the emotions and everything it was a 4 p.m first pitch i was supposed to go to dinner after the game because you know i think it's ending at seven i just was so emotionally distressed i like could barely stumble back to my condo i remember buying a burrito like a takeout burrito to just like go home and be on my couch and just like watch the highlights and eat my burrito it was amazing the crosby golden goal is my number one oh yeah steve was there for that too that was like i don't think i'll ever feel something like that again like from sports

yeah you know i mean like like that was it was pretty special just the whole build-up to it the way the like just it was it was amazing i'm sure like canadians that even weren't there couldn't understand i remember what bar i was in the joy of or just like the release of that like canada had to win right like it was they almost didn't right well but like that was almost like they won it was almost like relief right it wasn't necessarily enthusiasm because they just couldn't screw it up and then of course it's crosby that scores the goal and it was really dramatic it was an awesome hockey game too yes it was yeah okay damn chris i got chills i'm excited for the playoffs now let's go oh man so it's after this week you're doing trade i want to give a shout

to what you're doing you're doing trade center with tsn on friday yep uh we'll be doing our uh our show here um are you on the whole day are we on the whole day no we don't do the block programming thing what we do is every time a trade breaks we just do a quick breakdown and throw it up so you guys are living in the future i know yeah you're gonna do the whole lot better i'm like strapped in and it's like if i have to pee i gotta debate like is it worth it yeah because like you gotta take off the whole pack and walk out and yeah no we we just figured that was just too much air time to fill and people get bored now we don't have a guy like duffy on our on our uh talent roster so maybe it uh it helps to have a guy like that but i think we're also

going to be in studio on thursday night are you what what are you doing just what i i'm so excited to see what special music video segment oh whatever tsn comes up with that you're shooting they were pretty good last year oh yeah you were i'm not saying i was asked but you remember bruce brujo did one where he was like yes like yeah like hyping us up and then we did the goofy music video thing no i loved tank tank for bedard that was it amazing it was so good and james wrote that himself did he not yes with with uh i can't remember the gentleman's name but there's a someone that helps out musically that they wrote that unbelievable be crappy for connor be bad for but is it like winning is easy losing is harder i don't know something like it was good it was

great it was so much fun so i'm excited to see what comes you're not no spoilers well i actually don't i know that we're doing some kind of material i don't know actually know what i gotta say what i respect from all you guys on the tsm panels there's some people out there that are like too serious to do shit like that you guys are like let's let's go we're ready yeah sign me up put the shutter shades on let's go i think we all realize it's like way overkill yep at this point but like we're all kind of strapped in and it's a day to talk about hockey it's a day to talk about all the big storylines obviously there's going to be trades i just think it's like it's become its own kind of holiday and so yeah it's like a bit patently ridiculous at this point overkill's

fun though what's wrong with overkill what time do you guys start i think eight eight oh wow and we're there till six we're not just there like we're not just there it's not like three o'clock hits we're like all right you know checking out like we have to do you know we're on air but then we tape stuff for the night show anyway whatever it's fun it's it's once a year i mean if it were well it's sort of twice a year but it's not the same feel for free agency no there's an urgency right now because the cup's waiting yeah and like free agency we usually sort of know what's going to happen a little bit better no no one talks before the day all the contracts wait until july first i'm not saying there aren't free agent surprises but it's not quite as like dramatic

and everybody like those other guys who have cottages like literally leave from that show and drive to their cottage like pierre lebron doesn't come back to the city for two months god bless him i would love to live that life me too but i'm just saying this it's a different feel it's like it's almost like a gone fishing sign yes whereas this is still the season oh yeah oh yeah this is i i don't know it's my favorite part of the year i love this week and i love this lead up and i love the first round it's like this is gonna be amazing i'm fired up this morning or this afternoon now and i'm getting away for a couple days on saturday so are you going somewhere warm good for you yeah good for you and then it gets crazy yeah i mean but it's as i said it's

like the fun part yeah it's the this is actually i don't know why i don't know maybe it's because it's been so quiet but i don't usually i feel like absolute death this close to the deadline usually like i'm totally like strung out and just too much too much exposure too many requests too much you having fun maybe i guess there's been like one trade yeah probably a lot easier maybe like i don't know actually know what it is maybe it seems like you've been having fun like yeah i think the athletic gig's been great i think tsn sometimes getting older isn't the worst thing i think maybe maybe i have like better perspective on it all and i'm not taking it quite as seriously like not to say i'm not taking my job seriously but maybe i'm not stressed out the way that you

would have been before yeah because like it sometimes it's uncomfortable when it's say like the saturday night like we just passed just before the deadline maybe you're going to see friends or family whatever and you're just worried the whole night like what's going on your phone like i think sometimes that it can be a negative i don't know this year i just haven't felt the same stress so i'm glad hopefully it's hopefully it's a far more active deadline than we think and i think john buchigrass said uh uh yesterday on twitter among other things that he thinks it's pretty much the 16 teams are pretty much decided especially with nashville going on the tear that they have now there can be some flips and that sort of thing but if you're looking at it this

could be the deadline it's like we already probably know most of the teams that are going to make the playoffs two weeks ago we really didn't know that there was going to be a lot of sellers a lot of people believed they were in so this could make it a lot more interesting than we thought yeah like if seattle sells it's like five or six more adam larson to the least let's go pretty good players like i'm not saying they're gonna sell but like if they do that's something all right well cj we're looking forward to everything thank you for everything you've done today you did cj show here and then went directly into sdp it's a lot so thank you for coming in and making time trade deadline week it's great to have you in and uh congrats to steve yeah i'm happy for you

as we call it put your feet up papa the steve dangle podcast follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y l d e and at jesse blake connection complete 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. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it.

I'm Siaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Don't miss the new season of North of North starting September 8th on CBC Gem.