The Steve Dangle Podcast - Issa Hat-Trick | January 15, 2020

Episode Date: January 16, 2020

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, who wore the crown?!? (00:00), Steve's going to the All-Star game! (17:00), Sandin, Dermott, Muzzin, OH MY! (23:30), trading Andreas Johnsson (57:00), the Knights fire Gerard Gallant (1:03:00), Thoughts on recent news: Ray Shero and fallout from Kassian vs Tkachuk (1:20:00), All-star game notes (1:32:00), Goalie things: Connor Hellebuyck breaks an Atlanta Thrasher record and Carter Hart is out (1:37:00), Nicklas Bäckström negotiates his own deal (1:42:30), do the Chicago Blackhawks need to rebuild? (1:47:45), and Auston Matthews records his first hat-trick (1:54:55). Originally aired: January 15, 2020 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/-Z7lH2Erous Merch: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/fancydangleshirts Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/steve-dangle-podcast/id669828195?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S-S-D-P-P, the Steve Dangle Podcast, with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! What would today's show be like if the Leafs lost last night? Like, it's going to be a celebratory show. Miserable. But it would be an absolutely miserable January day if the Toronto Maple Leafs had lost last night. January 15th, mark it down on the calendar. It would have been the saddest day of the Keith era so far.

He would have been fired. Four straight losses, which I think that's enough. I've seen enough. That's that! The Vegas Golden Knights have never lost five games in their entire franchise history. Really? They hit four, which is their franchise record, and their coach was fired. Why are we talking about them when we are living in the center of the universe?

Who cares about some outpost of hockey? Does Gerard Gallant have the shortest leash of any NHL head coach ever? It makes you wonder, what did Gerard do to deserve this kind of treatment? And did they call him an Uber to the airport? They did. They must have. I hope it was at least an Uber. There's just so many general managers looking at their coach right now and going,

no, no, I want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Gerard Gallant has a bad week, and they're like, out of here, you bum! He freaking brought them to the cup final five minutes ago. He won the Jack Adams Award. He won the Jack Adams Award, which is a death sentence, by the way. He was a blown five-minute major in the playoffs last year, away from God knows when. Maybe a cup. Who knows?

You know, let me tell you, as host of this fine program, there's nothing I love more than Steve blowing up for our second segment 20 minutes before it happens. Oh, yeah. It happens all the time. Did I not start this show with the Leafs? I could have sworn I started the show with the Leafs. Should he be the new head coach of the Leafs? Yes or no?

Adam. And I just, I'm just wondering how we got here. You do a show with me? I'm just wondering. You do a show with me? That's how we got here. Let's get into Who Wore the Crowd so I can get you back on the Leafs. All right.

Adam, who wore the puberty? You. What? That's the end of that segment. Honestly, if one more person goes, hey, sounds like you're losing your voice. What's wrong with Adam? He sounds like he's 14. Another thing, thanks for all your terrible comments in the YouTube comments section.

Jeez, Adam, get some lemons and get a head. Yeah, well. Get to drink some cayenne and get a head. I mean, at least they weren't derogatory towards women. So your voice will have to take the hit this time there, Adam. Or conspiracy theories. Or conspiracy theories. Do we get conspiracy theories in our comments?

Yes, YouTube. That's all YouTube does. That's true. That is true. Hey. Yes, Elizabeth Warren is going to get in and make the WNBA vice president. Who wore the crown? If you live generously and life will treat you royally, you know this.

Why not put yourself in a friend of Crown Royal? Why not? Because we're about to talk about who wore the crown. Where we, with the help of you, recognize one leaf player each show that gives it their all for the blue and white. Because it's our town. It's our crown. It's not about what you have, but what you have to give. So let's crown that leaf.

Brought to you by your friends at Crown Royal. Live generously and life will treat you royally. Get into it, Steven. I'm going to go ahead and give it to the Sandman. I got to give it to Rasmus Sandian. Now that Babs is gone, is anyone calling that? They should. Okay.

It's still cool. Is it? Yeah, it's still pretty sick. He doesn't get everything. Babcock did some stuff here, but he also did some good. Yeah. I mean, yeah. But here's all I know.

Over the past week, Leafs wins without Rasmus Sandin. Zero. Wins with him. A hundred percent. So it works. Cannot argue with that. How it works. And that, I mean, that game was an ungodly mess in the third period.

But I think part of that is because it was over in a hurry. And Rasmus Sandin was a big part of that. Two assists there in the first. Got to give it to Rasmus. I was hoping for him to get that third point because I think he would have been the youngest Leafs player ever to get three points in a game or something. No, he couldn't have. Or something.

There was some sort of stat. Maybe defenseman. He could have tied. Yeah, defenseman or something. I was about to say Austin might have something to say about that. Yeah, yeah. Probably defenseman. But anyway, I was hoping for that third point.

I don't know what stat they mentioned on the broadcast last night. But it was something that Sportsnet Stats found because they're really good at that. They are freaks. They're freaks. Yes, they are straight up scary. Mine's going to go to the easy one. Austin Matthews. Me.

Second career hat trick. Debatable. Jesse. Not debatable. Not debatable. If you want to have the debate, I am always willing to debate. No way. Not you.

Adam. I hate debating. If there's one thing about me, it's that I don't like arguing. Adam. I have to cut you off, as I often do. I can't get through the show without asking this question. Jesse, is a hat trick that ends in an empty net or a hat trick? Yeah, it's a goal.

He has spoken! We're having this debate later on anyway, so don't get into it now. What did Gerard Gallant have to say about hat tricks? Let's talk about that! We just got this whole beautiful show planned, and bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Yeah, well. According to Luke Fox. So the Montreal Canadiens, you know.

Oh, dude. Let's just talk about that now. Yeah, I wonder if they hire Gallant. Oh, maybe. Here's, okay. He has a French last name. There you go. You should hire him.

That's it. Luke Vox, Austin Matthews, or AM34 as he put it, scored goal 34 on the Leafs' 34th shot of the game last night. Whoa! To complete said hat trick. Austin Matthews on fire. And I just want to do a quick shout out to our buddy James Myrtle, who continues to post the austin matthews um i say he does it yeah he posts he posts every game what he's on pace for

and then he goes i say he does it and he's been doing it since it was like 46 he's been doing it since it was like 46 yes austin matthews is on pace for 59 goals yeah why aren't we talking more about he has a legit shot at 60 because no one no one believes it no one believes it okay well We are Leaf fans, so we do not have goal scores. If he goes on the worst streak of his entire life, he'll hit 40. If he slows down, he'll hit 50. Let me throw you this. Steven Burch.

Steven Burch. Steven Burch! The first thing he tweeted this morning, and this was fascinating, and again, I don't know why Steven Burch is giving this away for free on Twitter. This posted at 4.15 a.m. And how many sweets was this right? Currently sitting on the toilet knowing all this more shit. Don't hate on Stephen Birch.

His wife gave my wife a delicious recipe for sausage stew. No, Stephen's great. Sausage and kale is healthy. But Stephen gives away some, he's got some takes. And I respect the fact that he's militant about holding up to them. However, I don't know why he gives information like this away for free. Because this is really good. In this economy, at that time of day.

In this part of the world, centralizing this kitchen. Yes. So Matthews has 18 goals in 17 games. Okay. He also opened the year with 7 goals in his first 7 games. And then he said he only scored 9 goals in the 23 games in between. So Matthews in a slump this year was a .39 goals per game, which works out to about 32 goals over the course of 82 games.

That's so dopey. Isn't that insane? That's so dumb. He's also on pace for, I think it was, 99 points. So he has a shot at 60 goals, 100 points. Forget the Rocket Richard for a second. He does have a shot. He has a shot at that.

Would you not say, if he continues on this pace, you know, continues a torrid pace. I love that word, torrid. Torrid. Would you not say that there's a little bit of, there's got to be one of the two MVP awards that the NHL announces. There's the Ted Lindsay award, I believe. Which is the one voted on by players. Right. Yes.

And then there's the most valuable player to his team award voted on by mostly people from Eastern Canada and Eastern United States and nobody from the West. Who will never vote for the Leafs because they're ashamed of it. Never will they vote for the Leafs because they would be afraid of being called homers because also their votes are now public. Yeah, not a problem they have in Montreal. No. No, they're like, tell you what, Mike Comisarik.

Yeah, exactly right. How about that, Mike Comisarik? Like, Toronto is a bunch of self-loathers and then Montrealers are like, no, Jerome McGillin, never heard of him. Jose Tator. There you go. Jerome McGillin, not top five. Jose Tator, six.

Six votes. You have to think. You have to think just a little bit. Not that he would win it. I'm not suggesting he would win it because I don't think he would. But you have to think that there would be at least a nomination there, an honorable mention there. Top three, yeah.

It's tough because the heart is involved. We kind of ruined it a couple years ago. We ruined it? Well, the hockey community and also me, because I agreed with it at the time, by not giving it to Conor McDavid, who's the most valuable player in the entire world. That was so stupid. When he didn't make the playoffs. Who won it? McKinnon?

No, Paul won it. It was stupid. McDavid absolutely deserved it. And you guys were like, no, he can't have it because he didn't make the playoffs. Garbage. But now it's the... I think winning matters. But now it's the monster

Monster player on the team That shouldn't have been in the playoffs That barely scrapes into the playoffs So McDavid's gotta be the frontrunner You know who's got a shot at it If his team makes it, it's Jack Eichel But it's also, it could also be The best player on the best team award

Could be, well yeah That's how a lot of guys win that as well Yeah, so he should be in the conversation I think winning, I don't want to get into The whole Hart Trophy debate, but winning Definitely matters It should. It should.

Yeah. Well, and Taylor Hall won it because they won just enough. You know what I mean? Yeah. We sort of screwed it up. Garbage take, boys. Garbage take. Garbage take.

Garbage take. But Matthews, legit shot at 60, legit shot at 100. It's wild. It is wild. Jesse Blake. Yes. How are you going to finagle... I don't know if it's going to be hard to finagle.

...a Pierre Engvall crown into this? I don't think Engvall deserves the crown this week. No. Or at least for this episode. I think the man most deserving of the crown for this episode is, surprise, William Nylander. Whoa! I know, I'm going out on a limb here. Whoa.

But he scored his 20th goal of the year. How many? 20 goals. Oh, damn. 2-0. Double Steve's number, which is 10. That's more goals than Mitch Marner. More goals than Rich Darner.

Yeah, that's true. Rich Darner sitting in an office in Richmond Hill right now going, damn, I don't have that many goals. And Sprague and Odie Cleghorn combined. Rich Darner. There's none there, hey, Dave, though. No. By the way, there's a Rich Darner that listens to this show. Just throwing that out there.

That's me! Finally! I'm Rich Darner! I'm so sick of turning around and it's not me! Yes! Everybody keeps yelling, go Mitch Darner, but I wanted to say, go Rich Darner! Thank you! I bring a marker to every Leaf game.

Never. Not once. Finally. He's always trying to sign autographs. Everyone's like, no. Imagine he celebrates like that. Puller did. Like, he's so excited.

Like, who do you think you are? I am. I am. The best celebration of all time. One thing that's very interesting from tweeted out from Mike Kelly last night. Uh-huh. Oh, that was a great one. A graphic of where William Nylander has scored.

Yes. I'm so glad you're bringing this up. Naturally, all center ice. From the outside. Hockey, Steph Curry. I don't know where all William Nylander content is at all times on the internet. You're right. You have a nose.

Because I do know where it is. You have a bigger crush on him than I have on James Reimer. That's a lie. So my understanding is, before you get into this, that Mitch Marner scores goals only from Bay Street, Front Street, or that weird little circle that becomes Maple Leaf Square. Some people would call it the perimeter. Bremner. Ah, perimeter.

He only shoots from Barry and further on. Wow. Tyson Barry's house. Crazy. Which is actually Nazem Kadri's house. Nazem Kadri's house, exactly. So many references. So, perimeter player William Nylander has scored 16 of his 20 goals from the net front area this season.

That is the second most by any player in the NHL. Actually? Yes. So he's basically heyday Milan Lucic, David Clarkson. 100%. Yo, he's eating John Tavares' lunch right now. Yeah! The guy who's mastered it for his career, George Averis.

I wonder what the Severson overtime winner counted as. Was that a shot from the slot? Okay, if you want to call it 15, whatever. No, I don't know. That's how it works. Steve, you don't know. I don't know. Oh, you didn't know?

I don't know. Who do you think you are? I am. Sorry. So, notorious perimeter player, William Neylander, that's just untrue. He scores most of his goals from the front of the net. he's as good as anybody in the NHL because he's second place in it. Or as

bad. Or as bad. That's who gets my crown. Let's go for 34. Honestly, it is so much fun. When he scored last night, and it was such a great setup. That Engvall setup to him was beautiful. Freaking filthy. And we'll talk about Engvall in a second, who probably

if we had a fourth person, he could have used a crown several times this year. I don't know if he's ever gotten one. We should bring producer Drew on sometime. From the Dangits and be like, hey Drew, Yeah, what do you think? It'll be like somebody from Colorado will be like, get off the show. Nathan McKinnon McKinnon.

As we like wrestle. Nathan McKinnon. It's Engvall. Shut up. You had the heart trophy. I'm saying shut up. I'm breaking up. Nathan McKinnon.

Sorry, anyway. Anyway, Steve's buddy, producer Drew, who doesn't exist, according to our comments, by the way, on YouTube. He does. I'm looking at someone like James Van Riemsdyk, who makes about as much money as William Nylander. James Van Riemsdyk, who is a very good player. His teammate, Kevin Hayes. Kevin Hayes, who also makes the same amount. William Nylander has more goals from where those guys score than they have goals.

Hayes has 14, Van Riemsdyk has 12. And if I'm looking at Nylander's points, look at this, 41 points in 47 games. You get 24 from Van Riemsdyk and 46, 26 from Hayes. Now, those are just two examples. But you cannot tell me that that Nylander contract is not turning into one of the better value contracts in the league well it's it is on its worst day it's really good yeah yeah 100 you should be getting on its worst it's it's over so when what at what year is it year two or year three of matthews marner nylander that people finally say hey that

is a good negotiator because i gotta tell you the trades that he's made prove to me that he's a good negotiator signings the the free agent signings i should say yeah the development but i go back to the Colorado trade. With, uh, for Nas. How did you get Barry and Kerfoot? Yeah, I don't get the hate for that deal. They're so boned without Barry. Oh, man.

I get that he's been disappointing. They are beyond boned without Tyson Barry. My only thing with the Marner and the Nylander deals was that the number that they are at seems like it was available very earlier on. That's

my only, I guess you hold on to see if you can move it a little. But then they eventually settle on a number that seems like it was available at the beginning. And it was. That was a little annoying. And you know what? You're right. And the anguish mentally had caused this.

It was painful. And Twitter was a dark place. It's part of the reason I pulled back. Another guy on a career pace is Marner. Oh, yeah. When he got that money, I said, you know what? 94 points isn't even good enough. And he is on base for close to 100 points, even with missing 10 games.

Yeah, and if you were to do the 82 game pace Yeah, he's absurd But we don't get summer 2019 back, you know? Right We don't get that hell of two months Yeah, you didn't have to contain Steve Dangle for two months, you bastards Yeah, that was So I might be going to the All-Star game

Let's wrap up the segment, shall we? Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure Can we just No, no, I was going to link it, Frigg I wanted I wish we had like a ding of how many different topics If Steve was a battleship, he would be firing every direction I'll have a four sentence transition to make and it'll be like the and you go You rube you youtubing peasant I had a plan who do you think you are I am

One day I'm going to break whatever this is. That's Who Wore the Crown for this week. Brought to you as always by Crown Royal. Next time, the puck drops. Why not live generously? I am! Andrew, your life's true to a Crown Royal old-fashioned. Woo!

All right, what were you going to say about the All-Star Game? I don't know! You're going to the All-Star Game. Oh, yeah, so I might be going to the All-Star Game. And it sounds like I'm going to get to interview a bunch of folks. And some names got brought up. Mark Messier. Yeah, Marc Messier.

If you think I'm going to ask him more than one question, you're wrong. Are you actually? No, no, Adam made that up. No, are you? I would literally come armed with, can you hold this cookie above your head? Would you do that? Yes. You'll ask him again?

Yes. Okay, you have to buy a stick. Marc Messier's not my boss. I don't care. Can you tell the story for people who've never heard of the podcast? Oh, my God. Okay, I'll eventually get to what I was going to do. uh so there was this hall of fame stamps thing it was a nothing event but it was an opportunity to

interview some cool people mark messi no no sorry that was the second time i met mark messier the first one was at a rogers event i don't even know if i'd been hired by sports night yet but they had these stanley cup cookies and i was like okay you know what i'm gonna get some funny social content and i'm gonna get mark messier who has won five stanley cups to hold the stanley cup cookie above his head and take a photo of it and i handed him the cookie and he goes no and i went okay and i walked away and felt quite dry and it wasn't like a polite though no and then uh don't ask me to do this it was it was a uh it was a look as if to say who let this child in yeah is that lanyard real it it was not kind

It's still one of my favorites. I didn't walk away thinking Mark Messier was my friend. See, there's two ways to look at this, right? On one hand, you're just holding a Stanley Cup above your head, and it's kind of fun, right? Why not do that? Dude, I'm Mark effing Messier, and you're asking me to hold a cookie above my head? I held the real Stanley Cup above my head. Yes!

So hold the cookie! You jerk! I called game seven, or game six, against New Jersey in 94. I don't need this crap. Wow! Oh, wait, no. He won six Stanley Cups. That's right.

I said five. Could have had seven! Mark! Does he have one for the other hand? He does. Yes, he does. Oh, wow. Because he had five with the Oilers, one more than Gretzky did because they had the one

after Gretzky left, and one with the Rangers. Wow. Pretty good. I want to say the only person to ever captain two different teams at the Stanley Cup. Is enough made about how little Los Angeles did in those first couple years to surround Wayne Gretzky with depth? No. I didn't think so.

Somebody needs to deep dive that. They beat the Leafs, so I'm mad at them. They just piled on a bunch of ex-Oilers who weren't Messier. They did bring in Yari Curry. They had Sandstrom. Yeah, they just tried to rebuild that team. And then I guess Gretzky and Robitaille didn't get along, so they traded Robitaille, which was dumb. Oh, did they?

Yeah, there's a story there. Yeah, there's one of those weird early 90s stories where Wayne Gretzky was the GM. Sorry, that's best left winger of all time, Luke Robitaille. Without question. I love Luke Robitaille. Except Alex Ovechkin. Okay, fine. Plays both wings.

Apparently. He's not done yet. Depending on who you ask. Yeah. I was going to start with, so I'm going to the All-Star game. Going to be interviewing some players. One of the ones named was Austin Matthews, and I'm like, oh, that's cool. I've never actually met him.

I've met his parents, but have not met him. But then Mitch Marner was also brought up. Oh. And I was like, hmm, don't know about that one. Why? What's wrong? You were critical of things that were okay to be critical of? I don't know if

I don't know if he personally was mad Oh we know people around were mad Yeah people around were mad Yeah they were mad at us By the way that's not just you that's us all of us So he can't be mad at you On behalf of all of us Want a bit?

I don't think so I think he's going to let it go They're professionals and they're going to act professional Yeah and anything Anything that you said There isn't something that everybody else wasn't saying. Oh, I don't regret it. No, I'm just saying.

I said what I said. Yep. And spilled my coffee. I think Mitch Marner is going to be a great interview. I hope so. I've met him before. I don't have anything against him. Why would you?

He's great. He plays for my hockey team and he's really good. It was just there was a tactic happening and we were calling it out. It wasn't even him. It was his agent. Anyway. Wow, it's the same guy every time. Weird.

This guy knows his stuff. Again, like I said, I don't know how Taylor Hall's going to hold out next summer if he's a UFA. Who's he going to hold out against? Sorry, NHL, we're going to Europe. He's going to hold out against his own production at this rate. Ooh, I know he's costing himself some money. He did score last night. One thing he's not going to be this winter is cold, because he's just lighting money on fire.

Wow. Yeah. Not good. Now, before we get into this, people were asking, Hey, what the hell happened to Mortina Ortiz-Luis? Last night before the game Our anthem singer Who's amazing

Wonderful Been doing it since she was 16 She tweeted this out Wild Minutes ago Minutes ago being last night At 728 Same thing

It was in your Hi guys As I said yesterday I'm joining the cast Of Winona Earp For their upcoming season Which requires me To be in Calgary

For the next few months I'm going to miss Quite a few Leafs games This season She goes on to say Some really wonderful things She said I want to thank

MLSC and the Leafs nation For always being so supportive I miss you guys Alright don't make me cry I'll be back hashtag Leafs forever so we will get her back hopefully for the playoffs but it will be the organ until then you know like I understand this must be so hard for her and you can sort of tell like by the words she used um what a ridiculously amazing position to be in right your options are have a pretty big role in a tv show I think still as a teenager she might be

20 now? Or be the Leafs anthem singer. You're doing alright, Martina. Don't worry. She's doing great. And also, let's just throw it out there, she needs to use this as a jumping off point. Oh, and when she comes back, I'm assuming she comes back, it's going to be an

uproar. It's going to be amazing. I haven't seen Leaf fans get behind an anthem singer like this, ever. Scotty Newland. Oh, Scotty Newland. Yeah, true, true. People love Scotty. Now, The Leafs beat New Jersey 7-4. And in typical Leafs fan fashion, I don't know what New Jersey is focusing on this morning.

Probably not on the Devils. But Leaf fans this morning, I found at least, were more worried about the 4 than the 7. Nah. Not here. Not here. Not me. Now, because going into the... I think they were up 5-1?

6-1. So they're up 6-1. Three more goals. It became a game. It became a game. And had Subban scored, so the Devils got a late power play. Subban had two really good chances. If he scored on the first one, the Leafs still would have been down a man.

Because it was five on three. Subban missed, I think, four seconds elapsed or something. So the Leafs got a man back. So when they scored, the penalty was over. But they were very close to still having a six on four down two with two minutes to go. Not good. The question everybody seems to be asking is, can you win playing like this in the playoffs? And nobody wants to answer the question, no, you can't win.

Then you start crying. Can you win with a Dermott Hall top pairing? No. But they're not going to. The Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016. What were they, Hainsey and... That's true. Hainsey was on the top.

Hainsey and Guy. And Steve. Yeah. I don't even remember. You can win. Yes, you can. You need Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin. You need seven goals.

It's also the weak decor and this kind of hockey. That's the issue everybody seems to complain about. And this kind of goaltending. Freddie is... Right, but how much of the goaltending is the lack of, like, all the odd man rushes they're allowing? I think it's a pretty decent amount. Yeah. It's a pretty decent amount.

Because Freddie had stopped 20 of 21 when it was 6-1. and then like blake coleman's no joke that first goal was really really good really good second effort from him which is what he does uh tyson berry got beat gusev with a great zone exit and set up for coleman the third one i thought was weak from freddie but it was equally weak by travis dermot in front and the fourth one was a it was a five on four but it was really a five on three bomb from the from a guy who knows how to bomb it right and also you know if you look at Don't put yourself down too, man. People are a little worried about Freddie, and again, I get it,

but goalies are allowed to not be spectacular all the time. And I also think Freddie was pretty spectacular in the first few minutes there, too. He made a couple of really great saves. Kapanen with the butt save, I forgot to mention that in the video. Yeah, people are very excited about Rasmus Sandin. They ought to be. And I want to deep dive in on him a little bit here, because I think, first off, James Myrtle is beating this drum,

which I'm thrilled about, which is play the Lilligren and Sandin pairing together. Apparently Lilligren will not play tomorrow again. Boo! Boo! And Mike Stevens said it too. All of us are just about done with what we've seen with Cody. CeCe, he's fine. But you think that it—don't you feel like it could be better?

Oh, 100%. But if you think an NHL team that is down Morgan Riley and Jake Muzzin is going to be like, okay, now we're going to take out this guy who's been with us all season for a guy who's literally never played in the league before. If you think that's going to happen I think you're a little misguided. Why wouldn't you? Who cares? I would.

I absolutely would. It's one game. It would be neat to do for one game. I don't know, maybe he gets like a sore knee. Cody, how's your... you alright? Do you think the guys in the room would look at it strangely?

If you're like, hey, you're taking out this guy who's been here forever, all season. It'd be a bad look for the rookie. Oh, so you think it's political? I think it's political. I think it is, yeah. Cody Ceci's a human being. That's not going to go well for him. And he has been key for them at times.

At times. And big eyebrow raise on that. I have not loved it. I have not loved it. I think if it's Babcock, he might do it. Just from the perspective of he doesn't care about what the guy in the room would think. Yeah, but he liked Ceci.

Yeah, he had him on the top pair. But if he didn't like him and he wanted to make the swap, I think he wouldn't care what anybody thinks. Your logic's dead. But I think if Keefe's looking at the situation, he's like, no, I'm going to do the right thing and have the guy who's been playing all season stay in the lineup, unless something catastrophic happens. That's a tough word. And Keefe highly praised Marincin after the game.

So I'm looking at it like, we're in a position now where the Leafs are so boned in terms of defensive personnel that they should just forget about handedness and just throw out your best six guys. Yes. But they clearly love Marincin. They're not going to take him out. The only guy to take out is CeCe. I just think it's really tough politically.

I don't know how Lilligren gets in, but I also think it makes absolutely no sense to have him not playing hockey. I don't understand why you can have guys that you can scratch and dress based on the day on the fourth line, but you can't have that on defense. I don't understand that. And Cody CeCe, I don't care about the politics of this. If I am the manager there, whose contract extends beyond this season? Lilligren.

Yeah. Whose doesn't? CeCe. Who's not going to be back next year? CeCe. So why are we worried about that? We don't know that. Yeah, it's true.

We don't know. Dude, we're paying you $4.5 million to be the sixth defenseman. Be happy. You're making millions of bucks to be the sixth. I don't know what they're paying him $4.5 million to do. Well, I'm not sure either. But that's what currently… We asked the question at the time.

That's currently his role. So at a certain point, you've got to have a look at what Timothy Lilligren is going to look like. And maybe, and this is what I think they're probably doing, because Keefe talked a lot in the pregame yesterday about how with Sandy coming back, he wanted to make sure that he was up to date on some of the finer points that they had been working on and the systems that they had changed, because it obviously was different under Babcock. So you give him, I give Lilligren a couple practices. Maybe he doesn't play tomorrow night, but he's got to play Saturday, right?

I would hope so. And, yeah, one game before the All-Star break. It's not going to throw off anyone's rhythm. It's going to be thrown off anyway. Right. Oh, is tomorrow night the Leafs' last game before the All-Star break? Second last. Yeah, they got Calgary tomorrow and then Chicago Saturday,

and then that's it. Yeah, they went every other night since Sunday. Jesus. Yeah, it was Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I'm trying to look at Leafs PR right now because I'm wondering if it was just a paper transaction. Because they're at home, right? So you can call him up, his cap hits on the books, then you send him down, call him up, send him down, call him up, send him down.

That's the benefit of a homestand. So it looks like they're jerking him around, but I think it's just cap shenaniganery. I don't think the Leafs think this is a good idea, to just have Lilligren sitting there. You know what I mean? So you don't think they brought him up at all? How could they benefit from having him up? Sorry? Cap-wise, how could they benefit from having him up?

They need to be as close to the cap as possible to get the full benefits of LTIR. I've had it explained to me a thousand times, and I still don't fully understand it. Basically, when you're dipping into LTIR, you've got to, like, use it. It's... Oh, wait. So when you're dipping into LTIR, you've got to use your full cap. Something like that. The closer you are to the cap, the more benefit you get.

The more you get to go up off it? Yeah. And, like, or something like that. Like, all season long, the Leafs have been within, like, 50 grand of the cap when factoring in LTIR. So, I think it's just a paper transaction. That's why they've given, like, they've called up a bunch of guys and, like, either barely used them or not used them at all. Marchment was barely used. Brooks, I assume, is going to get sent down pretty soon because it sounds like Trevor Moore is close to coming back.

Tamu Kavihami got a call up, never played. Lilligrain got a call up, never played. Bracco got a call up. We didn't even discuss it because we knew he wasn't going to play. Right. We didn't even know if he left the Marlies. He might not have. Hi Jeremy, bye Jeremy.

I think it's just a paper transaction. We're probably making too much of it. But if they're holding him in the press box and he's not playing hockey games, that to me makes no sense. So there's that. There's that. I don't know. I want to say of all those guys I mentioned,

He probably has a higher cap hit because he's a first-round pick. Like a higher hit than a Brooks or a Bracco would have. That's just off the top of my head. Okay. So I don't know. Interesting. Well, I want to ask you guys this because— I want to answer it.

The word is, so if they can make it through the next two games now, it looks like they'll get Muzzin back after the All-Star break and the bye week because they go bye week All-Star, which is great. Nice little combo for them, right? Yeah, they should definitely not rush him back. There's no reason. There is no reason. and it's so funny watching, you know, Tim and Sid and stuff,

and Sid loves to just poke at Leaf fans, and it's so funny because every damn day they go for it. Every day. Wouldn't you go back to the river if fish kept jumping out at your boat? Yeah, so Sid's a genius because he goes, yesterday, if the Leafs don't get a defenseman in the next month or so, they're not making the playoffs. Not making the playoffs.

Yeah, he's like, they can't. He's like, it's probably not even one. It's probably two defensemen. Yeah. Which, A, there are not two defensemen out there. Okay, here's one. Jake Muzzin. Yeah.

Here's another. Morgan Riley. Yeah. But, you know, I know what Sid's doing, and it's fucking hilarious. It's amazing. People are so upset. This isn't bad for the Leafs. I was going to ask you a couple things.

Is it, A, good for the team to ride it out, and B, good for the assets to ride it out? So by the team, I mean, listen, we need to see what Dermott can do. I need to see what Travis Dermott is outside of the third pairing, because we know there have been flashes of things here and there, and he's been up and down and injured and all these sorts of things. I want to know what Travis Dermott is. I want Travis Dermott to play major minutes, and there was no way to justify that unless Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin are down. And they are. So now's the time. Yeah, and Kiefer said that.

Because if you see what Dermott is now, it helps you decide whether or not Jake Muzzin comes back. Which, by the way, we've heard Jake Muzzin and Kyle Dubas have sort of started talking about an extension preliminary. I'm sure it's just, yeah, Bob McKenzie reported that a couple nights ago. Oh, that's what you meant by coming back. I'm like, well, he's coming back. Yeah, no, I mean coming back to the Leafs. And I think that helps you determine the value. Now, Jake Muzzin brings things that Travis Dermott does not and vice versa.

You know, Jake Muzzin's arguably the only tougher guy on the team. And I think part of that is the beard. But he also throws insane hits. Dermott's a tough prick. No, I know, but Dermott's not going to lay a guy out. But Muzzin's the only guy on the roster right now who's defensive first. Probably. Yeah.

You go down the lineup, Dermott, Barry, Riley are all offensive defensemen. Right. It also is going to help Travis Dermott figure out what he's going to make next year, because if I'm not mistaken, he's up. This is the big thing. He's up, and I remember at the beginning of the season, someone, I can't remember who, posted an idea of what his contract extension might be. I can't remember the amount of—

They said $3 million a year or something? I think it was three years. That's 3.5. That's high. And right now I'm looking at him as a player and I'm going, explain why you should make more than Justin Holl. You shouldn't. Not yet.

Explain why. I'm not seeing it. I think Dermott absolutely has the potential. He is far younger than Justin Holl. This is it. Show me. This is the time. All-star games in the show-me state.

And playoffs. Show me the playoffs. He's already 23. How much better is he expected to get? Well, defense, when they say mature, like right up until they're 25, right? So he's got the talent. And also, you know, you had inconsistent play under Babcock, and then you had a nasty injury, a really nasty one. So I give him that.

Not everyone bounces back better. No, not everybody's Zach Hyman. What a cyborg. Yeah, crazy. Holy shit. But with Travis Dermott, I agree with you. And I wonder with Travis Dermott this summer if he doesn't take a bet on me deal. So they offer him a three-year deal that looks like Justin Hall's,

and he goes, well, I'd like to make $3 or $4 million a year. And then he takes the Andreas Janssen $700,000. Yeah, he wouldn't take $700,000. But remember, Janssen did that last year and then got his deal because he earned it. And I wonder if Dermott doesn't do the same because there needs to be – he needs to be a part of this team next year. He's obviously a part of the future. But when you look at the results so far, Steve, you make a perfect point.

Tell me he's worth more than Justin Hall. based on the numbers, based on the advanced stats, based on everything that you've seen. There's not enough consistency to his game yet that you would say I'm going to commit much more than a couple million bucks a year. And now there's a question of where do you fit? Where do you even fit?

That's what I mean. If Muzzin's coming back, where are you going to put him? Yeah, fully healthy. You got Riley. You got Muzzin. You got now Sandin. By the end of the month, it's going to justify being higher in the lineup than Sandin.

Or by the end of February. You know what I mean? Yeah. One hell of a pick. Now, we know Dermott can play the right side if you need him to. We know Riley can do that too. I don't know if that's the best use of him, but he can. And is that the best use of Dermott's development, to play him on the right side?

I don't know. I don't know. So it's a really – there is endless opportunity for him and a lot of questions if he doesn't grab it right by the horns. The other one I want to talk about is Muzzin himself. Now, Jake Muzzin's 29 years old. What a geezer. Yeah, I know, right?

He feels older than me, and I'm like two or three years older than the guy. I still have a big problem with that. I know. I always look at these guys like they're way more adults than I am. Almost every player on the Leafs is older than me in my eyes. Yes. It's weird when you cheer, especially a couple years ago when Matthews was like 19 or something. We're like, go!

And you're just like, this is a little teenager. Go, child! Yeah. Go, guy. You are a hero! Well, I remember walking around the Leafs locker room one day that year during the 16-17 and just looking around and going, oh. Like, it just dawned on me. I'm like, I think this is the first time in my life I've been older than most of the Leafs.

Except for like Hainsey and Polak. Just basically. Right. I'm trying to think of who else. There is a lot of money coming off the Leafs' defense next year. And two of the names are Barry and Muzzin. And mentioned in LeBron's column today, Pierre LeBron for The Athletic, he said this,

I believe re-signing Jake Muzzin is probably Toronto's number one priority. But seeing how Tyson Barry has responded to Sheldon Keefe must give the Leafs pause. Barry will be looking to earn a raise from the 5.5 he's earning this year. He only counts for 2.75 against the cap. But what I would say is that for a while, all of this appeared like a moot point because he wasn't going to come back, Babcock was burying him, they were looking for potential trades, remember?

I remember. A month into the season, they're like, we might have to trade Tyson Berry. I kind of wonder how much impact Tyson Berry had on the decision to fire Babcock. I think it would have been big. Because they're like, okay, you know what? He's genuinely fucking up our roster at this point. For no reason. No.

None. None. We're going to make Tyson Berry be friggin' Sean Walker. Like, we're going to make him be someone he's not. Yeah. It made no sense. So, he said things have changed. He's enjoying life as a Leaf and under his new coach.

And this is the quote. He said, yeah, Sheldon's been great for me. I love the guys. And I'm starting to love the city and get to know it a little better and getting more comfortable. I have no idea what my future holds. It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds. But definitely, I'm a big fan of it here. So, my question is, I mean, Tyson Berry, for sure, has burned some money.

You know, he wants to make $8 million. He wants the John Carlson contract from a few years ago. I don't think he's going to get it. Yeah, John Carlson's, like, going to win the Norris. Yeah. He's not going to get it because he's not that popular. Honestly, we thought the Caps were nuts for signing John Carlson to that. Whoops.

We were wrong. Whoops. But I have to say, you know, if you have Tyson Berry and you have Jake Muzzin, and this is going to be an unpopular opinion, my opinion is that maybe you want to take that money and invest it in Tyson Berry. He is two years younger. He has got wheels. And I wonder about the miles on Jake Muzzin's body.

I really do. Because when Jake Muzzin slows down, it's going to be real quick. He's one of those players that it's like Cliff. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. His contract is going to be a big – term is going to be the biggest thing. Yeah, hard miles. And he does – he plays the sort of game where when it stops, it's going to be with a thud.

That's a very good point. And he made – remember, he was on every Los Angeles playoff run. And for years and years and years, they were two or three rounds deep minimum. Won a couple cups. But also, on the years that they didn't, they were the toughest team in the West. And it was a shock when anybody got past them. Those wars with Chicago. Yes, yes.

Oh, man. And he was a part of all that. Now, he's only 30 years old, but part of me wonders. There's going to be a lot of GMs who are willing to pay big dollars for Jake Muzzin. And I love Jake Muzzin. I'm saying this. But you have a cap to look at. And with Tyson Berry being 29 when next season starts,

are you comfortable committing five years to Tyson Berry or five years to Jake Muzzin? Or do you let them both go and go hard after Petrangelo, which could cost you $11 million? there's there's a lot there's a lot happening here so not just petrangelo so the the big thing that we were talking about before the show on hockey twitter today is why not go out and get suban if you can do suban for suban seems like he's got a back issue and i i don't you know you see what's happening with jake gardner right now yeah roster right now who are better than pk suban so why where are you putting him so the the justification i see there is he's got a he's got a back issue right now he may not always have it right like he might be able to rehabilitate it

maybe the Leafs or the look at what's happening with Jay Carter though who didn't have to have surgery quote-unquote right he can't even find a spot in Carolina I think Subban if you were to acquire him and that's any team I think that's an off-season move yeah if you want to optimize them that's an off-season uh move now everyone trading Andreas Janssen right away because and i understand it and we've done it on the show um because of the emergence of a guy like pierre engvall and even soup before he went down um oh we can afford to trade him i agree that is why you trade him in the offseason there's no reason to trade him right now unless you want that backup goaltender that i keep saying okay do you want the backup goaltender for the playoffs or do you

want to have a truly formidable undeniable offense you need too many good players you do You need too many good players. And that's a good point. You don't want to trade all your depth because people are not going to be healthy all the time. Can they trade Trevor Moore? Absolutely. You might end up needing him at some point. I don't see a problem with this team going into the playoffs.

I don't hate it either. Healthy? No. Yeah, I think this year you can try it out. I don't see the rush for a move at the deadline. There will be those, Jesse, and I'm only playing devil's advocate on this, that are like, well, that's two years for Dubas and he hasn't got past the first round if he doesn't get past the first round.

What is it? If he hasn't got past the first round, here's my call-a-blah-blum from the sun. You sound like that guy who's like, what's up, me and my boys are going to go see Uncle Cracker. Yeah, that's what I mean, from the sun. Because the guys from the sun hang out at the beach all day. That's what I'm saying.

Right, right. No, I agree with you, but there's going to be a huge call from, how come they can't get past the first round? And it's got to be the D. So what would you say to that? I'd say, well, it depends on how that first round series goes. If you go into this playoffs and you get hammered

because you can't score in the playoffs, then that's a problem. And then if you can score, but the other team scores more, then that's what you need to address. I feel like you've got to give it some time for him to see what this team is. Right. Because that's all he's been saying. That's all he wants to see is what these guys are. And finally, we finally get a year where he's got his guy behind the bench

and it's not Babcock who's going to run Matthews out there for 12 minutes in the third year. And there's the entire game, game seven. And now you can finally run his horses, play three lines, and see what they can do. And hang on to that point for just a second, Steve. To your point, Jesse, there is this narrative that's been out there for a while, and I don't understand it, about how the Leafs are, the playoff, the window's going to close soon. No, it's not.

Ridiculous. Let me give you right now. No. It's going to open up wider. Let me give you the healthy players, average age on forward right now. Can anybody guess what it is? What's the average age of the healthy Leafs forward lineup right now? Forwards.

24. 25. 25. And that's because Spets is 36. Ah, damn it, Jason. Yeah, take out the 36-year-olds. Take out Jason Spets and you're right. Who, by the way, is on pace for his best season in three years?

For the healthy Leafs defense, which is a little bit younger, obviously, a little bit skewed. But still, what would you say? Is Sandin in this equation? Yes. 25. I've got from the opener. Oh, okay. No, I can't.

24.3. It's younger. It's younger. I'm surprised. So the thing I want to point out to you here is that's five good years from everybody. Everybody. And for everybody that says, well, what if they are not able to replace the depth? Guys, they have the superstar signed.

Forever. There's a draft every year. Yes. And it's funny because the Leafs took essentially a second round pick for that first round pick, that Sandin pick, and they drafted Rasmus Sandin. Mikheyev is the guy they just found They're going to be able to do it So if you want to play for the Leafs, sure

And all of those 22 and 23 year olds They're only going to get better They're not regressing Man I haven't seen As much evolution in a player As I've seen in Austin Matthews That guy is so quick

And it's ridiculous He was in I would call him like super Kessel territory where he had this one undeniable thing like Kessel sort of I remember Ron Wilson making fun of him like man take a slap shot like take a backhand

like he did one thing and it would get him 30-35 goals every year but he did one thing Matthews had this bazooka of a wrist shot and now he's he can tip it in he can blast it he can wrist it through your legs he can

dangle you and pass it to somebody else He's ridiculous. The awareness on the redirection from Mitch Marner, where he's just standing next to the net and he just kind of flicks it. He made it look so effortless. And he does something that the best goal scorers do. He knows how to turn into a ghost. No one knew he was there.

He knows how to float and get away from the defense and go to the weak side and just disappear. And then all of a sudden the puck's on his stick and he scores. I like what Kessel did a couple times last night. Did you guys see the highlights? No. He was, one of the shots was, it was key, it was vintage Phil Kessel, hash marks, top corner, absolutely stunning. Lead leg.

There's another one where, and I forget who the center was, I think it was Stepon or something, does a spin around in the offensive zone, finds Kessel, and Kessel, and I'm not kidding, is at the hash marks, wide open, flying in, and is in the net so fast that even the replay you have a hard time seeing the puck. And that's his second goal And it's exactly what you guys just said Goal scorers do that They disappear The nights when Castle's on you're just like oh shit

There's no stopping this It's not every night But he's there And Matthews is such an anomaly Because normally you see that from a winger This is a centerman that does this Most centerman I grew up watching Were passers

And Matthews is a finisher Clear cut The game's changed. All the games are changed. It's so much easier for the winger because you're the third man in after the other two forwards, and you just kind of come in behind the D, and then you find your spot, and you kind of disappear like Kessel. But for the fact that Matthews can just do that in the offensive zone as a center, it's unbelievable.

And on the power play, it's an amazing way you can do, and you don't just have five guys standing still anymore. Right. Yeah, isn't that great that they move? They use their skates. It's so weird. I feel bad for Sorry DJ Smith and Jim Hiller

And Dave Haxtall and Paul McFarlane Sorry to all of you I get every Every Leafs win makes me as mad As the losses these days Why is that? Because I look at what they're doing And I'm like I didn't realize how on the nose

We were the whole time The whole time It could have been like this The whole time The whole time! Do you remember when you just sit there and watch the power play and be like, alright, they're going to pass it over the point and then go around to the Mitch and Mitch is going to stand there

and pass it off. Oh, drop pass at the blue line. Oh, that didn't work. Another drop pass at the blue line. Oh no, it's been an entire minute and they haven't gained offensive zone entry. Oh, let's switch it off for the very much inferior second power play unit. How many times do we see them try a zone entry the exact same way three times and you look down and half the penalty's gone and now we bring on the second unit?

F Wasted opportunities Matthew's tip in goal was a minute into the power play Last night That was the 5-1 goal That's line change time A couple months ago That's line change time

Drove me nuts Like a month and a half ago So recently But we started this conversation talking about the Leafs Defense Talking about Playoff experience There is a guy who went three rounds deep, narrowly missed out on the Stanley Cup final.

His name is Cody Ceci. I wanted to look back at that run. Okay. And how he did. The Senators run? Yes. The 2017 one. 2017, okay.

He played 19 games. That's a lot of playoff games. I would kill for, well, I want more than that, but unless they win 16 of them. All right. How many points do you think he had in 19 games? Cody Ceci Well He was playing with Carlson

So he must have had a lot I don't know how consistently he played with Carlson So 19 games he said? 19 games I'm going to say that Cody Ceci had 7 points 7 points in 19 games 7 points is what he has now in 47 by the way But he's playing with Eric Carlson a little bit

Okay well How many points? How many points did Cody CeCe having his playoff run where he played 19 games. Yes. 19. He was a point-of-game player. He had zero goals and one assist.

Oh, my God. Bro, so this guy, I feel bad for Cody CeCe because I know first-round pick and that's beaten to death. He just seems like the sort of guy who could have been developed so much better. Maybe it was never there. I think this all comes down to, we're trying to galaxy brain this defense and I'm just kind of like, I know you need too many NHL caliber players. I think he could be a 6'7". He makes too much freaking money.

If you can find a way to get him out the door and bring someone else serviceable in, you have to do it. I don't care what it costs you. if it's this year if it's picks i don't care what it costs you see i don't i don't mind them keeping him for this year i don't mind no like it no like i i on the list of priorities like i don't even list my number one priority for the Leafs right now is a backup goalie backup goalie above everything and if i had a sports talk tv show i would be the guy saying no not defense goaltending You have to find a comparable backup goaltender who not only is going to be great on his own, but is going to be the guy that takes over for Freddie Anderson in a season and a half.

That is what they need. That's the important one. Takes over for Freddie Anderson. You're not re-signing Freddie Anderson. Sorry, guys. I'm on that team as well. They have exactly one player in the system who even projects to maybe be a starter right now. Maybe.

Then that's Joseph Wool. Ian Scott is injured forever. He's missing a full year of hockey. He might come back and be good. Might even come back and be an NHL starter one day. Stranger things have happened. But right now, you've got to look at it. Like, Kasky Squaw might be a serviceable backup.

Maybe. And by serviceable backup, I mean equivalent to Hutch. Maybe 20 games. 25. If you're lucky. And I don't count on him being amazing. Yep. what I would do if I were the Leafs right now

is I would bring in that guy, try to find him in the next six months. Doesn't have to be right now. I mean, I would prefer it going into the playoffs. It seems as though the Leafs management is shifting their thoughts on Freddie Anderson. This idea of rest, it just doesn't seem to be happening. So Sheldon Keefe even hinted at it.

He said, you know what? When the guy's workload is high, he seems to do well. And I think a lot of assumptions have been made about fred anderson in the playoffs against the bruins especially that first playoff series where this narrative kind of picked up and you know the first two games he was awful but i think and then he stole the third he stole the third and and was the reason they made it to the seventh i think what happened was things things went crazy hockey's nuts and this idea that he's got to be stuck to 50 games it's just clearly not going to happen this year it's just not going to happen so you may as

well commit to we're going to play Freddie's legs off while we got him and while he's at this level you may as well ride or die with this guy but but no in the back of your head and the Leafs management has got to be thinking this goaltending has to be the number one acquisition priority your defense is going to be fine Sandin and Lilligren are coming in you're probably going to re-sign Muzzin you're going to have Riley next year like you're you've got Marincin for another year you'll find people dermot's gonna be back like there's five guys right there that you're like that's a pretty good top five most teams would take that but i look at i look at their goaltending and go that is a big fat question mark what if this is just an idea i have okay

so it sounds like getting a guy like georgiev is going to cost you an arm and a leg and don't forget you got to re-sign him too yeah so the best option available still isn't a great option what if you gave freddie a second bye week of sorts okay so he's got one coming up he's gonna get lots of rest it's clear his rhythm is thrown all the way off there's a lot of opportunity to get it back after the break after the all-star break they play a lot of games there's a lot of games against western opponents which kind of makes me want to play hutch in some of those but I want to get Freddie back into a rhythm. He needs rest before the playoffs.

Okay. And I'm just looking, I'm trying to look for targets here. I see they play Vancouver Saturday, February 29th. By the way, there is a February 29th this year. Is this a leap year? It is a leap year. It sure is. Wow.

Yeah, I know. So they play Vancouver Saturday, February 29th. Then they are off until Tuesday when they go on the California road trip against the Sharks. They get the Kings on the Thursday. So what if they gave Freddie or what if they gave Hutch the Tuesday? And, like, I'm talking even call up Kaskiswo for the trip. Yep.

And so maybe carrying two extra forwards. Have Kaskiswo there. Have him and Hutch deal with it for a couple games. He either comes back the Thursday against the Kings or the Friday against the Ducks because they have the back-to-back there. So maybe you just have Freddie sit the entire California road trip, but he's probably going to want to play against the Ducks. Have him come back against the Ducks.

There it is. Or just say, Freddie, listen, I know you want to come back against the Ducks, but we need you to come back against the Bruins or the Lightning in the playoffs. No, you know what? He'll get nearly a week off there. I'll make that concession to Freddie. He gets nearly a week off, and then pedal to the metal. Then he's got the Lightning, the Preds, the Bruins,

and it's going to be Freddie Mania. He's got a month to figure it out ahead of the playoffs. I think he needs a modified second bye week. It's a strange suggestion. Well, it's that or spend an ungodly amount on a goalie who may not solve your problems and may not stay. So, number 19 on 31 Thoughts, which was just released a couple minutes ago. Toronto fans tweeted up a storm of Jeremy Bracco trades to get Georgiev from the Rangers,

but it's going to take more than that. Georgiev beat the Islanders 6-2 on Monday, and while New York is looking for a talented forward who's ready to play, they realize how good Georgiev can be. That person is Andreas Janssen, guys. That's fine. It's a shame. You know what?

It's a shame, but I also said it last show, and it's not because I don't like Andreas Janssen. We know what Andreas Janssen is. This is what he is. With a healthy soup, I'd be more than willing to do that. And soup will be healthy eventually. Oh, I hope so. Dude, the Leafs were winning without him.

Engvall stepped in. I know, but now you take out Janssen. So who's on the third line there? Who cares? What do you mean, who cares? Who cares? Steve. Steve.

Who's there? You've got your goaltending. Adam, you've got to fill it. Who's there? Kapanen. Kapanen's on the right. Okay. Who's on the left?

Who do we have? Let me look at Daily Faceoff. Who do they have? Kapanen, Kerfoot. Is it Timoshev? Is it Moore? Moore's coming back eventually. You got Adam Brooks?

You're going to put him third line left wing. Where'd you put Angle? In the NHL. Where'd you put Angle? Second line. Oh. Okay. First line.

Well, he is playing on the second line. So Kerfoot goes to the third. Kerfoot's third line center. Okay. And then you've got... Wait, why are you moving Kerfoot? He's already been moved. He's third line center now.

Because they got Engvall where he was. Okay. Because that's what makes sense. So then it's Kerfoot, Kapanen... And? This is where I'm going. Who fucking cares? Me.

It doesn't... I care. I don't understand. How are you missing forwards? What do you mean, how am I missing forwards? There are enough forwards on the team. There are enough. You know who you could try?

Jeremy Bracco. Right. Third line left wing in the NHL. Why not? You absolutely cannot. You can't try Jeremy Bracco? You can try him. It's not what I want.

And then McCabe comes back. Where do you have Jason Spezza and McCabe and Goat? I don't think any of those guys are ideally third line left wing. No, Spezza's ideally the fourth line guy, but he's been great. I mean, you can't. No, let's not get the goalie of the future because our third line left wing. No, no, no. Hold off on it.

The third line left wing is missing. We can't get the goalie of the future. It's ridiculous. Oh my God. Oh my God. Well, I didn't realize we were handing out a fourth crown today. Your gift. Goalie of the future.

No, but that's what you get them for. Dude, you have to give to get, and it's time to give to get. You gotta give something to get something. Do it now, and here's the thing. You do gotta give something to get something. That is true. You know who plays left wing? Nick Patan.

Right. I forgot he existed. Yeah. You know who else plays there? Kenny Agostino, who's had a great year. Pontius Adberg. Nah. I'm just saying.

Well, they had him on the first friggin' line for a while. That was a little much. Anybody that's been watching the Marlies can tell you, Kenny Agostino's had a great year. Yep. And the fact that he hasn't even been up yet. That guy was in the NHL last year. He was another guy who got a call-up who didn't play.

Yep. You could even drag Gorshkov. Why not? Throw a couple games at him. Adam, thank you. I asked questions, you gave me answers. Now, we're cooking. No, I didn't think of those names.

It's just the sense that you're trading from a strength, and you can worry about it after, and you go get the thing you need. Yeah, but I want to make sure the strength stays strong. Okay. And that's fair. All I was asking for was solutions. Boom. Don't eliminate a strength to address a weakness.

I agree. All right. But if Andreas Janssen's what it's going to cost you, then that'll be what it costs you. Remember when Freddie Anderson was traded for? You remember your reaction to that? You were trepidatious I was trepidatious Because there was a first round pick involved

I had just been burned so many freaking times By the Leafs And especially California goalies It was pretty freaky So they traded for Freddie And then signed him to a 5 year 25 million dollar deal 5 times 5 I hated it

I didn't mind it He wasn't a certified starter yet And it was the second No it was the third straight time the Leafs had gotten the backup goalie from a California team and paid him starter money. He was a platoon. Excuse me.

He was, that's true. And there were a lot of Ducks writers, including our friend Jen at the time, who said, Jen Neal, who said, Freddie Anderson is the better of the two. They said the same thing about Bernier. They did say the same thing about Bernier. But you know what?

That argument shouldn't be true because Jonathan Quick, as Andrew Berkshire always says, has a couple good months a year. They just happen to be in June. Yeah. They want him some cups. Vesetasco at one point was supposed to be the best goalie out of three that San Jose had. The other two were Evgeny Nabokov and Mika Kiprasov.

I would have taken Nabokov in a heartbeat. Well, he was like a perennial all-star. I would have taken 38-year-old Nabokov that tried to sign to Detroit and ended up on the Islanders. Over Vesetasco. I forgot about that. Yeah, remember that? He had to clear waivers and the Islanders were like, yoink. Yeah, thank you.

As NHL 2005 Jim Houston calls him, Nabokov. Nabokov. Oh, right. Robbed by, or sniped on by Stan. Parse takes the puck away. How did you not know Parise at that point? Come on. Anyway, Golden Knights fire Gerard Gallant.

They hire Pete DeBoer. But why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Now, here's the thing.

I want to throw this out there about the NHL coaching carousel. You've got to remember about this, is that coaches on the bubble become more on the bubble when really good coaches are out there. And you've got two really good coaches out there. Laviolette. And now Gerard Gallant. And Mike Babcock. And Mike Babcock.

Not untrue. Listen, I think Mike Babcock's probably going to take the year off. I don't think he's going to. He'll come back next season. Jim Montgomery's a wild card in there? Jim Montgomery's in rehab right now. Yes. So I think he'll come back maybe next season

But I don't think he's going to come back That's Jim Montgomery's music I think he needs some time to heal What's wrong with that take? Well you mean next season right? You don't mean this season I mean in like a month I would tell you that

From my experience with people in recovery They don't want you to jump back into your old life very quickly Because that's what led you to that That's probably the smarter thing I'm just throwing that out there card. It's the National Hockey League. As if weirder things have not happened. Agreed. I agree. But it was very funny

that you said that anyway. Just throwing it out there. No, you're right. Bad idea, but it's the NHL. If you want to hear something really funny, Gerard Gallant will be the coach of the Pacific Division All-Star team at the All-Star game. Still? Yep. No. That doesn't make sense.

Is he still going to do it? Yes. Are they going to make him wear an NHL logo like John Scott? He's already been named, yes. He was named, but I assume they just removed it. No, you don't get that taken away. John Scott almost got it taken away. Well, John Scott was something that the NHL didn't like. Gerard Gallant.

Many hockey people love Gerard Gallant. Apparently not. Because they just fire him when he has a bad week. So, Gerard Gallant will coach the Pacific Division All-Star team. Where are you reading that? Elliott Friedman. He said he's still going to? Yes.

Oh my god. Why, NHL? Why not? No, that's way better. Gallant deserves this guys This is way better No it's not It's not even like

Like a prestigious thing It was just he led At the halfway mark Yep In the other Like in the NBA I know it'll be If you made the NBA finals

Like the year before Or something like that Oh okay And it's at least A little more relevant You know Do you understand Like this might

Actually be An all star game Worth watching Like the first Since John Scott Because the coach Is not employed By anyone

Because the coach isn't employed by anybody, which is wild. Has that ever even happened? There's going to be huge women's involvement. The players are going to be shooting pucks from the stands. I feel like there's 82 conflicts of interest if you have a guy who's not employed by anybody. Here's the thing. Jesse, you need to be pro-chaos. How are you not pro-chaos?

Because he doesn't work for anybody. Well, it's a great opportunity for him to interview for jobs. So you can coach for the NHL All-Star Game because you have no ties to anybody? Well, but you have to look at it in the sense that he earned it. He did earn it. Let me throw this out there. No, they got fired, so he didn't earn anything. I'll throw this out there.

No NHL coaches. They're great. He lost four games in a row for the second time in franchise history. What an idiot. He sucks. And they're tied for the wild card and three points out of first place in the division. Yeah, that's unacceptable. Because the Pacific's wild.

Why have NHL coaches at all? It's the all-star game. Like, what are you guys talking? Strategy? Yeah, but you've got to reward the coaches, too. No, no, Bonham. Charles Barkley, coach of the Pacific Division. Now.

And who else? We still don't know why that's Gerard Gallant. No, it is not. It's not, Jesse. It's the right move. I am upset. You are upset. And I am upset that you are not pro-chaos on this one.

How dare you? You've abandoned me. Actually, Daniel Negreanu can be the head coach of the Pacific Division. You see his tweet? No, what did he say? Yeah, the poker player. Vegas Golden Knights fan. pretty disgusted with today's firing

of Gerard Gallant. Not only was a good coach fired, the Golden Knights replaced him with a clown! Clown emoji. Oh, he hit him with the double clown. So hard to root for a team coached by this absolute clown. TRIPLE CLOWN! Horrendous move by

Vegas. DeBoer was called a clown by Gallant nine months ago. There's actually a clip of it. And I forget what the incident was. Do you remember? No, I don't. It was something with the Sharks. Anyway, Vegas, according to Sean Tierney at Charting Hockey, you should follow, has some of the

best underlying numbers in the NHL this season. They've struggled with some tough shooting and saves. Luck, as in PDO. DeBoer's going to enjoy riding that regression to the back half of the year. And by regression, he means regression to the mean, meaning they're going to get better. Well, and DeBoer's a good coach, too. He is a good coach.

He's probably going to get a lot of credit for things that were going to happen anyway. Yeah. And that's the weird part. Now, let's throw a little bit. I've got some tweets I want to read to you. Give me some tweets. Since entering the NHL, Golden Knights are 118, 75, and 20 under Gerard Gallant. That's the ninth best record in the NHL.

I'm surprised it's only ninth. I know. I know. It means there have been some really good teams. And an expansion team. The Golden Knights, according to Aaron Schuster, the Golden Knights have the highest rate of expected goals for and second highest expected goals for percentage five on five in the NHL.

They've been brought down by a ranking of seventh worst in save percentage and shooting percentage at 5-on-5, resulting in the fourth worst PDO in the league. And by the way, PDO means luck. PDO means goals that should have gone in and goals that should have been saved. Sort of. Mostly. Mostly. Kind of. I'm going to go with that 70% true. Now, Alex Mayer's got a good one.

Listen, it's 70% true. It's better than 10%, am I right? It works every time. Wow. Three of the last four coaches who lost in the Stanley Cup Final have been canned this season. DeBoer in 2016, Laviolette, Nashville 2017, and Gallant, Vegas 2018. Who's next? Bruce Cassidy? I mean, maybe. No, come on.

I'd be surprised, but oh my god, Babcock, coach of the Bruins. No, don't say that. Maximum chaos, I will say it. From the rooftops, Jesse. Well, we know what they'll do. We know how to defend Mike Babcock. You know? Here's my bet, guys.

What? Put him in front of a bunch of reports? Do you have something else? Do you have another tweet? No, I was going to... Yeah, Vegas, I didn't realize how bad it's been. So, Oscar Dansk played one game, got torched. Sparks played part of one game, got torched.

Malcolm Subban in 16 games has an 8-9-8. And Fleury in 33 games, two shutouts, but a 9-0-6. Speaking of teams who could use a goalie. Vegas is 8-6-1 in their last 15 games and three points out of first place. I don't think that's very bad. No? No, they're not. I think that's just, okay, you're average in your last 15 games.

Pete DeBoer joining a team that looks great on paper and can score but could use some saves. Well, at least it's familiar. Pete DeBoer left the same team that he was on. Spider-Man meme. Yeah, exactly. Same division. Unbelievable stuff. He's barely even changing the weather.

Do you think it was justified? No. No. I think there's something else. And I don't mean to say that there's something nefarious with Gerard Nolant. No. I think that whatever Kelly McCrimmon wants, because remember, Kelly McCrimmon's the, is it Kelly McCrimmon?

It's McCrimmon. Kelly McCrimmon is the general manager there now. And the- I forget who the president is. The president is, who was the Washington GM. Ah, Guy. And he is Guy. Alex Ovechkin.

So, Alex Leveskin, Alexander Seven, Peter Bondra, Olaf Kulzik's the assistant GM, Mike Green, Adam Oates, no, you know who I'm talking about, George McPhee, George McPhee is his name, so, McCrimmon, I believe, A, I think McCrimmon wanted his coach, he wanted his coach, that was McPhee's coach, McCrimmon wants his own guy, as Brian Burke likes to say save your damn bullet though he should have saved his bullet you as a gm you get one you better save your bullet man that's interesting though like is there a gun right now like there was no gun that's the thing that's my point that is my point why did you do this now because the next time you gotta do it because here's the thing now now you've put no one ever expects that

self-kill you've hired a really good coach and i said that last episode someone's gonna hire Pete DeBoer, he's a great coach, and somebody's going to get fired because of it. But McCrimmon did not need to do this. And there are people that have suggested that the players quote-unquote quit on Gallant, and you

can see that over the losing streak. Is it a player's thing? Have they just had enough? Which is weird because the Panthers players were in an uproar when Gallant got fired. Colin Miller today told Mike Harrington in Buffalo that he said the players loved him.

I don't understand. Like, I don't know what they're going to do. And that's surprising coming from Colin Miller, who Gallant sat all the time, who he is now in Buffalo getting sat all the time. Did you hear the quote that Mark Stone had after they lost? No. He said, it's tougher, especially when you're losing to teams you know that you're better than. We're a better hockey team, just have to find ways to put the puck in the net,

and we kind of got stale the last bunch of games. Oh, that's just a eulogy. One, hey, Buffalo, you should feel disrespected by that quote. Because they're the ones who beat you. I think there's two or three teams that lost to Buffalo and then fired their coach this season. Oh, it's a death sentence. That was looking up before the show.

I think it was Nashville. Oh, man. Anyway, that sucks. But, yeah, it's weird that they'd say that because they look fine. I agree. And I gave the Vegas Golden Knights an A-plus for my midseason. Gallant is hosting. He's coaching the All-Star game.

They were in first place. He's not going to do that. He is. He's going to be there. I will bet you. You should let him compete in the shootout. I'll bet you a delicious Hawaiian Panago pizza. All right.

Oh, you're killing me right now. I'm so hungry. If Gerard Gallant is the coach of the Pacific Division All-Star team, I will come in here on the Sunday or Wednesday afterward with a large Panago pizza. A pie. Hawaiian. Popping a wheel? If he does not coach the Pacific Division All-Stars, Adam Wild will come in here with a large Meat Lovers something.

Oh, you want a Meat Lovers? I want a Meat Lovers. I want a Hawaiian. To be clear, I get pizza either way? Yes. No. Why don't I get pizza? No.

If it's my pizza, only I can eat it. What are you, Conan O'Brien on The Simpsons? What are you doing, Jesse? I was once at a party, and my friend was really upset. We ordered five pizzas. That's a lot of pizza. And they showed up, and we had been drinking, of course. We're like 19.

That's like 40 slices of pizza. Yeah, it was a lot of pizza, and we'd been drinking, and so we were really hungry, and it's like midnight. Drunkery. And we find out that a couple of the pizzas, not only have the five shown up, but a couple of them have already been eaten. What? Yes, because nobody told us.

Sorry, it was three pizzas, not five. Three pizzas we ordered. And my friend, Derek, who I mentioned on the show, this is my goodbye when I was leaving for Halifax. He walks upstairs. He happened to be naked for some reason, too. And I have a video of him walking downstairs with the last pizza box. He then disappears to the bathroom, consumes the entire box,

and comes back out again. Because he was so upset. You know what's great about this? I'm pretty sure I was there and I ate one of the pizzas. Don't know why that happened. Not sure why that was the logic that he went with

because that left the rest of us hungry and we had to order more pizza. But that's what happened. And that's part of my childhood. I guess part of my adulthood, really. I was moving out to work, so. Anyway. Oh, Adam.

We had like nine moving away parties. Adam, we're going to miss you, bro. We had one. We had one party. One party. We should have had one every time you commuted to Barrie. It was so far. No, we had a Calgary going away and a Halifax going away.

Yeah, we did. I remember the Calgary. Here's my bet with Gallant. My bet is that he goes to the Wild. And I know that seems crazy because people are saying, well, what about Montreal? No, you're stupid. Where's Boudreaux going to go?

You're not going to fire Claude Julien. Claude Julien is not on the block. French name, but does he speak it? A lot of people are saying Seattle, that he'll go to Seattle. But if I am They've got a brand new GM in Minnesota Gerard Gallant is a guy Minnesota plays

Is the expansion whisper? Yes, but Gallant Listen, if I'm Seattle, I'm putting the hard press on Because look at how well he's done But Minnesota Plays joyless hockey They play sad Sorry

Boring, depressing hockey They've got some fiery players Yes and Gerard Gallant is a guy who players love. Minnesota, despite their lack of skill, needs a little bit of joy in that dressing room. They are going to overhaul the roster. And it's nothing against Boudreaux.

He's just been there a while. Yeah. I don't think it's Boudreaux's fault. I think he's saddled with Chuck Fletcher and Paul Fenton. That is a dangerous combination of bad GMing. Really, truly. Oh, my God. Terrible.

And I think the new GM, forget his name, doesn't matter, needs to bring in a guy who is a player's coach. needs to bring in a guy who can warm that room back up. And if you look at it the way I'm looking at it, which is Minnesota is essentially going to be another expansion roster anyway because they're going to have to blow so many guys out the door. There's going to be a lot of change. You need a

coach who is able to carry that change. You're going to be in tough taking him away from Seattle because Seattle is an amazing place to live. Not that Minnesota isn't, but it's exciting to do your own draft and do your own team like Gerard Gallant gets to go to the fun party again and gets to do all the drafting and all the player stuff again. Wow, that's

awesome. And you think in those situations there'd be no pressure, but Vegas proves otherwise. But if you go into Seattle on this expansion team, you think you've got, like, three years. Yeah. You would've thought going to the Stanley Cup, you fucking wrote your ticket and you had three years at least then. Right. You just reminded me. I got a subway ride

coming up. I'm gonna read that Russo article again. Oh, man. The Minnesota Wild One. It's delicious. It's too good. I think I've read it three times. I want to read it four. It's so good. Ray Shiro was also fired. Yeah. Called it. Yeah.

Last show. He was fired just after last show. Yeah. You asked for, oh, yeah, it was that day, friggin'. Who got an A for being a GM and who got an F? I gave him a big ol' F. And a good pick. Was it me?

Yeah. Shouts to the Devils for at least being honest. They're like, hey, Ray and us agree that we need to go in a different direction, and Ray's not the guy. Also, why did you allow your lame duck GM to trade your franchise player in Taylor Hall and fire your coach. Were you sure about both of those things? You thought this guy was bad at his job.

Otherwise, you wouldn't have fired him. Beginning to think that the owners are maybe getting involved in New Jersey. Not that I have any. I have no proof. I have no proof. Well, if a GM gets fired, it's probable. Well, yeah, but doesn't it smell in New Jersey like the owners are too involved? Doesn't it smell like it?

Like, you know teams that are in constant churning. There's constant churning going on It seems like something's going on From the ownership level They cannot find stability They cannot find stability Quit picking at it If you're wondering why it's not healing

Okay we're going to do this and we're going to do that I was sort of surprised about the fallout From the Cassian to Chuck stuff That lasted a lot longer than I thought In terms of them still going back and forth It's not done So I want to quickly ask you guys Cassian, two games, isolated from to Chuck

Separate the two. Is two games enough? Is two games fair? Is two games too little? Yeah. My answer is simple. I think it's the right number. It's...

I have to override my brain to say it's fair. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. The... Looking at what he did, which is pound on an unwilling combatant, makes me say, two, yes, he should have been suspended, of course. 30-plus years of watching hockey is making me go, what are you talking about?

Why didn't Chuck fight him? And it wasn't a matter of, you see Jamie Mann and Matt Calvert last night? No. That was funny. So Matt Calvert grabs Ben, he's got no gloves on, and Ben just skates away from him. Yes, that was so great. Jamie Benn does not need to fight Matt Calvert.

No, he never should. Matt Calvert is like a tough guy, basically, at this point in his career. Jamie Benn is the captain of the Dallas Stars, probably their best player, or certainly one of them. Why? Zach Kassian's on the Oilers' first line, regardless of what Matthew Kachuk thinks about him. It's not a great talent trade-off. But, like, you clobbered the guy three times! Usually that means you've got to fight.

But I'm not talking about Kachuk. I'm asking you to talk about Kassian. You've got to remove Kachuk from the incident. Is what Kassian did, is two games for what Kassian did, and I was not expecting to spend this long on this, but is two games for what Kassian did fair? Sure, if every time that happens, they get two games. And that's a fair answer.

Because we've seen guys punch unwilling combatants a thousand times. Lucic got two games for it last year. didn't he Kyle something from Columbus or there was some unwilling combatant I can't remember, oh did he? I do think I remember that I think his comments in the media post game are like

a half game tacked on that was the slam dunk, and I said that last show you cannot say that I think that's sort of why he made them, because he kind of knew I think he knew he was getting a couple games he's like, you know, may as well make it count and he's not backing down, and he said he'd do it again which is, okay

what is the difference now I'm galaxy branding this a bit what is the difference between that and John Tortorella? John Tortorella was directly undercutting the NHL, righteously, he was right, but he was undercutting the NHL. Kassian

gets a suspension and what do you always hear? You either hear nothing or you hear I'm sorry for my actions, I won't do it again or I understand their decision. He just goes I do it again. There's no rehabilitation there, there's clearly no

Remorse There's no remorse There's no They haven't They haven't provided I'm looking for the opposite of incentive Jesse My brain's not finding it There's no

Desentive? Desentive? I don't know There's no reason for him Not to do it again In his eyes Sure My

And another Deterrent Found it Deterrent is the word yes My other problem Well I guess One of the problems To add on to your

problems with the suspension is that the next game he plays is against the Calgary Flames. It's almost like they're doing it as a tactic. The NHL set it up in the worst possible way. Or best. No. No, it's tinfoil hat. It's on purpose. It's so bad for the league if this ends in some sort of line brawl.

I think it's amazing for the league. It will, but it will. This is going to be great press for them. Oh, it's great, but it's not what they want at all. It's not for the health of their players. It's the NHL in a nutshell. It's great for us. Yeah, it's awesome.

Fuck yeah. It's a slam dunk, grand slam smash hit for the NHL. If there's a line brawl, it's a disaster if someone gets hurt. Yes. Which, is that not the NHL in a nutshell? You give them that extra game just to avoid that mess. If he cold cocks Kachuk, if he knocks him unconscious, we're not even having this conversation. It's just throw the book at him.

For the Kachuk incident, and I'm asking you to look at both of these separately in a vacuum. Kachuk did throw two hits that hit the head. The first one in particular, I thought, was... But the second one is boarding at minimum. That's boarding. And anybody that tells me that's not boarding, you're wrong. You're objectively wrong. You don't know what boarding is.

It's boarding. That's what boarding is. We can talk about fighting's role in the game, but it's supposed to be there for when the ref doesn't do his job. did they no did this was no they didn't break this up so i want to ask you this sure could chuck getting nothing is it fair and what message does it send i don't know if what he did warranted a suspension but it at very least warranted a penalty within the game and they didn't even get that yeah which is absurd yeah um so it was weird usually i mean the nhl's

Way is sort of it's super with scrums that develop into fights I've noticed because and this has been happening for years when the initial play leads to a scrum So the initial play is somewhat close to illegal and I think that second hit for sure was boring When the player should be getting a two-minute penalty because it turned into a scrum They'll just end up giving two guys roughing penalties No, you also need to they do that all one last night was shocking shocking. What did he do give the guy? a penalty, and then give both of them a penalty, if you want to do it.

But call it like it happened. Call it like it happened. It doesn't make any sense. Why are you negating one guy's penalty? The incident that caused this, and I love Kachok. I love the way he plays. I do. But you can't tell me that wasn't boring.

It was. That's a two-minute penalty. Why is he not in the box? It reminds me of a light version of the Kadri Debrust stuff from Game 2 last year. Right. People, the thing was, Kadri shouldn't have done it.

Oh, no, absolutely not. In the same way the Kassians shouldn't have done it. But, the reason it happened is nothing was done leading into it. It didn't fall out of the sky. It didn't pop out of midair. Yeah, he didn't just attack them.

There was a build. If the first Kachuk hit gets a penalty, he doesn't do the second one. Yeah, and I don't, the Kachuk hit's weird because it was... For the second, and then there's no third. Right.

Yeah. I mean, the Kachuk hit is the first one I can understand how maybe the refs either didn't see it or it wouldn't work. I still think that's contact to the head, but that's a bigger NHL issue. But that second hit, you have to call that. A lot of the hits that are shoulder first and then it hits the head, those are difficult to call, I understand. But there is, and this is going to sound like a cop-out, but a lot of officiating isn't calling a fair game, it's peacekeeping. Like, how many times will they just give offsetting penalties just to keep the peace? We see it all the time.

Let's not say that's bullshit. It happens all the time. That's why teams' penalties taken versus penalties earned are about the same each year. I'm surprised it didn't happen there. You call things just to say, cut the shit out, boys. Just stop. Which is fair. Yeah.

That's fair. You're refereeing the game. It's your responsibility to do that. But when nothing is done, this shit happens. What about, like, Kachuk 2 for charging, Kassian, you could have given Kassian 4 there. Could have given him 10. Well, fuck, you could have given him 19. I mean, you could have booted him.

I'm thinking instigator, maybe roughing, on top of fighting, plus a misconduct. You could have given him a shitload and maybe avoided the suspension. Could have basically kicked him out of the game. Right. I don't know. By the way, just quickly on the Shiro thing. Apparently, part of the reason he was let go Is the

According to Elliot Friedman It was that there was a philosophical difference He likes to have a very tight management group New Jersey wanted Oh my god Who did they hire from the Athletic Tyler Dello They wanted Tyler Dello

I say he does it Will he become GM? I say he doesn't They wanted Tyler Dello and his crew to be a little bit more involved In the decision making process It's not what Ray Shero wanted, so that's why things. Why were they hired? Exactly.

Use your employees. Yeah, but I have a feeling that has something to do with uncomfortable with analytics as well. It's amazing. I have a feeling. So I'm just quickly jumping that in because I forgot to add that. Sorry. It's amazing how much of hockey is just let people do their jobs. It's amazing how much working in a corporation is that.

I was going to say, we see that in management all the time. It's, hey, this person is managing this, and they're not allowed to do it. It's never good when you're like, what do you pay me for? Most people actually want to do their gig Once they're there It's like going to the gym I hate going to the gym I like being at the gym

There have been gigs I've been given Where it'll be like Okay, we want you to do this show I'm like, great But we don't trust you to do this show Great So we're going to tell you how to do this show We're going to make all the decisions for you

Do you want to steal my voice? Like, is that it? Yeah Do you want to do the show but with my voice? Right, that's the thing So every show that I've been on Where I've been allowed to do the show Where I've been hired to do the job

That I was meant to do and was allowed to do it Those have been the successful shows If you have too many cooks in the kitchen Like this show is an independent show We do what we want on this show It's done well Our morning show, right now There's definitely discussions about how we're going to do things

How we're going to roll things out But when we say, no, this is what we want to do Management goes, okay Show's doing great, funny You've got to let people do their thing Yeah, I'm finally at a point in my career Where I just go, no, that doesn't make sense It's a great feeling

Also, it helps you do a good job No, no, no Well, now the Devils have A really interesting scenario Where they have all these people Who they hired and ignored And now they've got to bring in someone Who is cool with that

Like, cool with all them Or you've got to get rid of them This is Devils management Yo, you down with the analytics? And the guy will be like, yeah, I like that maths. I like maths. I like maths. And then that's how they do it.

I don't know who they bring in, though. Part of me wonders if they don't try to jump after, like, a Brandon Pridham or a Lawrence Gilman. You've got to think that. But you think the Leafs will be like, oh, that's great. Do you want to go to where we think there's some major issues? Yeah. Or do you want a whole bunch of money? Here's a lot of money.

You want to be the highest paid assistant GMs in the NHL. Just like we made Sheldon Keefe the highest paid coach in the AHL. What was he making? He was making more than the players. Wasn't it close to a million? It was crazy. I don't know. I'm surprised it was only that.

It's crazy. When you think about it, you should probably pay your AHL coach pretty well. You should, but people won't. They're in charge of your future. Not everybody looks at it that way. You could also say that about teachers. They're in charge of the future. Well, no, said a significant chunk of the province.

That may or may not be a topic in my house right now. Durham District School Board was off to that. Not Catholic, though. Did they have to stage the walkout on a day where it's supposed to be minus 14? Ooh, that sucks. Yep. I'm going to be bringing the teacher some coffee. So, going into last night's game, and this is what I love, guys,

because we're talking about the Battle of Alberta. We're talking about two teams that don't like each other. Cassian will be back. It'll be the first game after the break. It's going to be amazing. I'm jacked for this game. I am so excited for this game. Going into last night, the Flames and Oilers had the exact same record.

And after last night, they still do. They are tied for second. They have the exact same amount of wins, losses, and overtime losses. Wow. They are, in 48 games, both of them, 25, 18, and 5 for 55 points. The only difference is their goal differential. Edmonton's at a minus 2. Calgary's at a minus 10, but very quickly catching up.

They're both. Oh, wow. What's the ROW there? Regulation wins. That's the one difference. Edmonton 23, Calgary 21. And that's why Edmonton gets the edge, I believe. Isn't it?

Regulation wins? Yes. Did you see Drysaddle's comment that if he's on the ice at the same time as Kachuk, he'll get off? Yeah, because they've got to play on that Pacific team. Coached by Gerard Gallant. Oh, what a shit show. I love it.

Pacific All-Star is going to be the entire thing. Oh, by the way, I want to throw something out there. Chris Johnson says about the All-Star game, which Steve might, I don't know if you mentioned this, but he might be going. It's true. The elite women's three-on-three event will take place next Friday during the NHL skills competition. We'll pick Canada versus the USA.

Awesome. It will feature nine skaters and one goalie aside. This will only feature players from the PWHPA. The NWHL was not contacted. And the reasoning behind that, and I think this is significant, is the NHL wanted to deal with the best players and they did not believe that nwh uh nwhl has that um and i think that hints towards what's going to happen which is they're going to launch their own league well and eventually like they've been holding back like i don't want it we don't want to kill a league

we don't want it because they know as soon as they start the league the nwhl's toast right and and so they don't want to assume that the nwhl would want to be a part of it but i would think they would but they don't want to have two leagues again they don't want to do all this just to have two leagues the word on the street was that they were not even contacted and you have to think at this point if the nwhl was involved the pwhpa would pull out so that's how contentious things are and it's it's so much cleaner right yeah and we have one and with the news of the wnba uh new salary cap new salary structure the minimum amount of money you're gonna make in the wnba is 117 000 bucks the maximum for the better players i believe is five or six hundred thousand so you

look at that as a benchmark. And the comments were great. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, God. I would never have read the comments on that. I don't know why I looked. But you have to think that the NHL's looking at that and going, yeah, it's time. It's giddy up time. And really, does the NHL wait for the NWHL

to not be good? Or they have some bankable stars that have done extremely well, you know, Hillary Knights and Mary Philippe Poulin, and you can name a bunch of them. And just go for it now. And what an easy example they have now. It's just you can look directly over that other sport that's doing a great, that owns the team, owns the leagues, and here's just a direct copy NHL.

Go do this thing that's very successful in working for women's basketball, and there you go. It sounds like this event has come together very quickly. I feel like this was mentioned in 31 Thoughts last week, and now it's a thing. Same with the puck shooting stands thing. So they're shooting the pucks from the stands to do stuff. Yeah, that was suggested a while ago. I feel like that was thrown around as a, hey, wouldn't it be funny if?

And then enough people said yes, that they're actually doing it. It's like the Sundin-Gretzky commercial. I think it'll be cool, but I'll watch it on replay. I'll watch it live. And this time I'll be at an All-Star game without a freaking cannon. I can't pretend to be excited about the All-Star game, although I'm excited about Team Pacific with the fired head coach and three guys that hate each other.

I'm excited for Friday. You mean the Skills Comp? Yeah. Like the Skills Comp and the three-on-three. The Skills Comp is Saturday. No, that's Friday. Sunday is the game, is it not? No, they changed it.

That's how it usually is. Yeah, now it's Friday, Saturday. Now it's Friday, Saturday. But again, to me, you play the game Friday because the game sucks. And you're the Skills Comp Saturday because the Skills Comp is the better of the two events. It's like the slam dunk contest. No one cares about the game. They only want to watch the slam dunk contest.

And the three-point shooting. Is there a playoff football on Sunday? Yes, and I don't know that there is on Saturday anymore. Yeah, like no one's going to watch the game. Are we in the semis in the NFL? When is all-star weekend for the NHL? Isn't it this next weekend? This coming weekend?

Not this coming, but the weekend after. No, then that'll be the bye week between the Super Bowl. Right! Right! The weekend in themselves. This weekend's championship weekend. Oh, right. I messed up.

I'm so excited, by the way. The NFL has been amazing. Oh, so excited for my Titans. It'll be the Pro Bowl, the premier event of the television season. Okay, can we talk about the Steelers kicker, Reed, that got hurt in the Pro Bowl and never played again? What? He did something. Who tackled him?

No, he didn't get tackled. He did something, and it was like a funny play, and then he popped his knee, and I think he tore something, and now he's never playing in the NFL again. He's a Canadian guy. Oh, my God. And it just, your heart breaks, and you're like, why would a sport as physical as football do a Pro Bowl? Why bother? I saw a video yesterday of, it was like Pavel Barber and Nasher and How To Hockey, Coach Jeremy, all in sumo suits playing hockey.

That's amazing. And I'm like, can we send Freddie in that? Like, can we send him in the sumo suit? And you know what? Bring a couple extras. Give one to Austin. Give one to Mitch. Don't get hurt at this stupid thing.

Oh, my God. I hope they put on a show, though. I like them as a dynamic duo act. And Freddie is their dad. Freddie has to chaperone them. You're driving. Fred. They're not old enough to drive. Connor Hellebuck has set an Atlanta

Thrashers record, guys. Shut up. Connor Hellebuck has set the Atlanta Thrashers all-time record for shutouts. No more of this nonsense. For shutouts, not in a season, but in a career with the Atlanta Thrashers. He beat Posse Nermanen? He did.

He did. I can't. Name another Thrashers goalie. Curry Lettinen. Name another Thrashers goalie. There you go. I see Nerman in. Oh, my God. Andre Pavlik. Hey, Pavletric.

Connor Hellebrecht has recorded 18 career shutouts with the Thrashers as of last night when he beat the Canucks. When Atlanta beat Vancouver last night. You know who I think was a Thrasher for a hot second? Damian Rhodes. I think he was. He was selected in the expansion draft. Yeah, because he was a lead for a bit,

and I always had a soft spot for him. And I had his card. And you know what? Damien Rhodes and Felix Potvin would not have been a bad combo if they'd just been smart enough to hang on to them. And Felix Potvin turned down a contract from the Thrashers, and that's how he retired. Wow.

No, you know what it was? Because they slashed all the goalie equipment, and he was like, ah, I don't want to play anymore. Because Felix Potvin's pads were up to his chin. Yeah, well, I mean, he played in the 90s. Yeah. Hey, kids, if you want to have a nice laugh, go look at Garth Snow's pads. Oh, my God, I know.

He was this guy in real life He was pretending to be the Burley Lindros guy But also It explains why they're drafting Enormous human beings to be goalies now Because they can't do it with the pads You know guys like Darren Pang Not that Darren Pang did this but guys the size of Darren Pang

Could get away with it Because they had no restrictions on how big the pads could be You know what I was about to look up someone else But let me look up Darren Pang on HockeyDB It's the funniest thing Darren Pang 5'5", 155 pounds.

And was an NHL goalie. That guy was an NHL goaltender. He played 81 games in the National Hockey League. He played 45 games for the Blackhawks one year. Let's see how he did. Oof, Darren, out of respect I will not, but yeah.

Here's the thing. Darren Pang may not have been an all-star or a Hall of Fame goaltender in the NHL. Actually, he played in the 80s. Those numbers might be friggin' Vezna. But to me, he is an all-star slash Hall of Fame broadcaster.

I stan Darren Pang. He is my king. He, I, I, if I can criticize my employer for a minute, I thought they missed an enormous opportunity from what I saw behind the scenes.

Here's what the show should have been. The show should have been 10 minutes long, all right? So it's a sprint. And it should have been You just chalk Darren Pang and PJ Stock Full of Mountain Dew and Red Bull

And Pixie Stix And have them talk about Mitch Marner For half an hour and just have them Give them a bunch of props And get them to talk about whatever Because behind the scenes they were children It's called Whoa! With Pang and Stock

The segment could have been called You know what I find exciting? Everything! And they literally have a box, and it's a mystery box, and every single day they have to pull something out of the mystery box that they find exciting. So today it's a fork!

Oh, damn! Let me tell you stories about a fork. What are all the things it could be? It could be a nose, it could be antlers, it could be... It would be the best. It'd be like giving kids a bunch of building blocks. It could be great. Hey, I'm 5'10", I'm 174 pounds. Do I sound

like an NHL goalie? No. That is Timur Bilyalov. That is the KHL goalie that the Leafs are reportedly in on. Oh, Babs would hate. And everyone's talking about how, oh, there's your backup goalie of the future. Listen. He might be someone to bid you off. Maybe.

Oh, Adam. Bid him off. Jay Wild. How could you? Now listen, he's got a 952 save percentage in 22 games in the KHL this year. That is stupid. That's a little quick. That's a little amazing.

However, the KHL's a bit different. Yeah. He stops pucks. But, like, yeah, you're a bum if you have a save percentage below, like, 91. It's different. Still, that's pretty high. It's very, very high. Speaking of goalies, Flyers are going to lose Carter Hart for the next two to three weeks with an injury.

Not the best time, considering where Philadelphia is. Where it at? They are the last-placed wild-card team. The only reason they have the edge on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who also have 54 points. And I swear to you, if Columbus makes the playoffs, Torts is getting the Jack Adams again. 100%. Um, but Philadelphia, uh, has more, uh, they have played less games, so they're ahead. Um, but that, that is their guy, and they're losing their guy right now.

This next two, three week span, we're gonna find out what we, what we need to know about the Philadelphia Flyers. And Columbus, too. This is Columbus's chance. So it'll be very, very interesting to see what happens. Florida, a point behind them, if they could stop- Florida's behind them?! If Florida could stop a puck, they could against the Leafs.

Isn't that amazing? If Florida could stop a bug, Florida's in. Who would you rather have? Corpus Allo, or Bobrovsky? He's been 6-2-2 since he started playing. I think he got his first shutout last night.

Or Bobrovsky, Drieger, or Montembeau. Dude. It's bad. Lastly, I wanted to ask this. You're starting to hear more and more of this, but we've only had one player in the NHL that did it, but we were talking about Richard Sherman, who did it last episode.

Michael Crabtree Richard Sherman Drew Doughty and now Nicholas Backstrom have all negotiated their own extensions why not why not

well well well there's lots of reasons why not however what people don't realize with agents

there's lots of reasons what I can't do it there's lots of reasons why not if I were to say that

that that no but in all honesty things happen um yeah things things happen on this show um backstrom and why not is a good question because you have the option of of having an agent and the idea is the agent goes and does things and does what like st mitch marner's agent did or whatever backstrom's in a bit situation a bit of a different situation he would have been a ufa he's a caps legend. He's going to have his number retired by the Capitals one day. This guy

is so good, and it's too bad that outside of Washington does not get the due that he deserves because he couldn't with Ovechkin playing in town. I think that's a myth. Every NHL fan knows Nicholas Backstrom's friggin' sick. Underappreciated

maybe, but we are aware he exists. He is underappreciated. Hall of Famer. Listen, there's nothing wrong with being Robin. Yep. You get a spinoff. You get a movie deal.

Yep. And he's got 908 points in 934 career games. That is stupid. 668 of those are assists, which is right about how many goals Ovechkin has. So it's crazy. But what I want to focus on here is the fact that people are like, whoa, Guy negotiated his deal on his own. Is he nuts?

What does he think? He's some kind of lawyer. And that brings up a really good point. a lot of these agents charge a lot of money and there's actually one agent out there who's got a bunch of clients who we've talked about many times before who the word on the street is behind the scenes and i won't name him uh charges a very low percentage and that is why he gets these clients and that you know agents have their thing or whatever um that person's name is steve dangle all you have to do all you have to do is run your contract by a lawyer that's it you don't

need an agent. If you're willing to go to bat for yourself, and in Backstrom's case, he's got almost a thousand points. Yeah. I don't think he's got much left to prove. You maybe want to have an agent at the beginning of your career. Yeah, like Marner having an agent? Totally got it. Makes sense. But if you have the blueprint for a Hall of Fame career

in front of you, you just go, here you go. Here you go, and let me just run that by a lawyer real quick, and the lawyer will charge me a thousand bucks because he'll look over it in a day and I'll pay him for his time. If it's ten thousand bucks, I play in the NHL. It doesn't matter. Yeah, whatever it is, it'll cost me a flipping dime,

and then I take my contract, and I go, here you go. It's done. The, I want to say, was it on Chicklets? They had Nicholas Lidstrom, and they were saying, you know, he was one of the first players to negotiate his own deal. That's cool. And how much of a joke it was because he's Nicholas Lidstrom. Yeah, what are they going to say?

He just walks in and he goes, gimme. I'm the best defenseman ever, gimme. And let me throw this at you. And Backstrom's in a different case here. But since 2013-2014, how many regular season games has Nicholas excluded this year? Because it hasn't finished yet. Right. And I think he did get injured a little bit.

But how many games since 2013-2014, when this podcast started, has Nicholas Backstrom missed due to injury? I will say 30. Jesse? 40. 10. What? 10 games. And in fact, if you were to count the lockout year, he played all 48 games there too.

So 12, 13, 48. The next season is 13, 14, 82. 14, 15, 82. 15, 16, 75. 16, 17, 82. 17, 18, 81. Last year, 80. And he has missed, I think, 7 or 8 games this year.

Because Washington has played 47 and he's played 39. So this is the most games he's missed in a season since he was in a decade, basically. In an entire decade. How long is this deal? It's five more years. So it's next year. Five more years, 9.2? 9.2.

It's about a $45 million contract. It's one of those deals where I'm like, well... It could hurt them. We'll worry about your four and five when we get there. But I think the Caps know where they're at on that scale. Does that make sense? It's like, this is sort of, these next three years, you could argue this is the time now, and that's it. I was asked yesterday, like, what do you think about, like, year six and seven of Tavares' deal?

And I'm like, who cares? Weeeee! Well, I think Dubas has actually spoke to that. He said, like, when Tavares starts, he said when Tavares starts to maybe slow down, he actually said that. At the end of it, the young guys will be ready to pick it up. There you go. Yeah, and he'll still be a valuable part of the team. If Tavares is still scoring 50 or 60 points by the end of that deal, you're laughing. One thing that was discussed at the beginning of Ice Surfing that was surreal to hear, but it's surprisingly logical.

Is it time to start picking at the carcass of the Chicago Blackhawks? It is, but I don't think, if you are the Blackhawks ownership, and I don't know how this hasn't happened yet, Stan Bowman cannot be the guy that sells your shit. No. You cannot send Stan Bowman to market. We're talking about trading Kane. We're talking about trading Taves. We're talking about trading Keith Keith I get

But I don't Is Duncan Keith a 5 million dollar defenseman That's what he makes It's an absurd deal If you want to trade Taves and or Kane Do you have to sell them together No Who's going to take 20 million in salary

This is why you got to fire Stan Bowman Columbus could There you go Here's the thing Duncan Keith This is why I ask if he's a 5 million dollar defenseman anymore Missed 10 games this year He has 12 points

It ain't good 38 He has one 38 games One goal 11 assists It's like he's 30 years old No he's not 38 years old

No he is 36 Oh shit Now Much better Not a bad value add If his contract ended In a couple years

When does it end That's a good question I'm gonna look it up Oh boy Reminder This contract Is illegal Is illegal at the moment

Was not when it was signed Hang on The Blackhawks got their cups because they were really smart and really talented and also had two illegal deals. Yeah, but they were legal at the time, which is what matters, right? Yeah, well. Chicago, here we go. Duncan Keith's deal, which does not pay him actual money, it ends in 22-23. He will be 42.

Now, he's going to retire before that, but he's got a back-diving contract. Now, this is what's going to be interesting about this. Just start stitching Keith onto a Coyote's jersey. So, yeah, three more years. He gets 2.65 next year, 2.1 the year after, and 1.5 the year after that. So you're going to trade him to a floor team. I would say a really good team for him to go to, given where they're at, Ottawa. Huh.

Interesting. He's got to have a no move. He does have a no move. But if you're Ottawa and you try to sell Duncan Keith on Ottawa, and that's a tough sell because of the ownership situation. but if you look at where they're going and a guy like, imagine a guy like Branistrom with Duncan Keith as his mentor

like that's worth the price of admission right there and for Chicago, yeah you could try to get assets back for Duncan Keith but you're not going to get anything. It's a contract that is too long and too much money for what he is right now. The value you get back is 5.538 million dollars in cap space. Bingo

I wonder how much of how much of Duncan Carith Duncan Keith's career was spent in the 2015 playoffs. Yeah. Good question. It's one of the most deserving cons mites I've ever seen. Yeah, and you know what? Just carried the whole thing.

One of the most deserving contracts we've ever seen. Like, right up until this point, Duncan Keith has earned every dollar of his contract. You cannot take that away from me. There's another guy who's going to the Hall of Fame, and there's no shame in thinking about how his career ends. I had him on my all-decade team. I don't know how you don't.

I think Ottawa's going to be a good team within two years. Minimum. Sorry, maximum. I think they're going to be a really strong team. And he'd get to play his last couple years with a bunch of young guys. Complimentary role. Doing what he did in Chicago before as a 6'7 guy, eventually. I mean, he would start in the top four.

But, you know, ideally he moves down. That would be a pretty sweet deal. I have a suggestion for you. For a temporary stay over, whether or not he finishes his career out there or not. Dustin Bifuglian doesn't come back to the Winnipeg Jets. Chicago? Winnipeg boy, Duncan Keith. To the Jets.

Goes to the Jets. That's interesting. Do they have the space? That's why I say Buck Fulian doesn't come back. Buck Fulian. Yes. I am into it. Maximum chaos.

That's what I'm into. By the way, if Bufflin comes back, I do hope, as a Leaf fan, that somehow the Leafs make a play for him. For Justin Bufflin? Yeah, that'd be just amazing. I don't think it'll happen. I don't think he'd be available. I know.

Can I? Can I? And he probably wouldn't want to be in a big city. Yeah, and they need the help so much, right? Let me throw a wrench into the goalie conversation because we focused on Georgiev and we're talking about all these, you know, is there an AHL guy? Is there a backup out there?

Is there someone? Man, the Blackhawks are paying both Robin Leonard and Corey Crawford over $5 million. Crawford's had a bit of a tough season. He's got a 9.06. Leonard's pretty much right where he was. He's at a 9.23 now. 14-7-4

How many games are they splitting it? Pretty tightly, yeah Crawford's got 23, Leonard's got 27 I don't know how much injuries were a factor there I mean You don't need both No Unless that's your plan

It shouldn't be I think if you're going to get Robin Leonard, you get him for free in the offseason So is he a free agent? I can't remember. Yes, he signed a one-year $5 million contract. Oh, boo. Oh, well, so if you're the Blackhawks, why not trade him?

Why not? Well, they should, but because of the value of unrestricted free agents and how they don't have as much as they used to, if you're talking from a Leafs perspective. No, not necessarily from the Leafs, just anybody. Anybody who needs a goalie desperately? San Jose. See, here's the thing.

Chicago doesn't have to sell them because they're not going to make the playoffs. Right. We think they're not. unless they go on some stupid St. Louis run. And no team needs to take him because, like, for some – like, Chicago would be like, well, we want to sell him for good assets, and teams would be like, no. And they'd be like, well, fine, we'll keep him.

And then he'd be that industry-free agent. Like, I don't see – I don't see Chicago's need to sell, and I don't see teams' need to buy to come in and get him. Your need to sell is you suck, and you need to build for the future. Yeah, Chicago has a need to sell, but it's not just if there's someone out there who wants to take him. But if they were going to do that, they would have done that two years ago when they truly did suck and needed to turn it around and retool. Well, they were in complete denial.

Yeah. I still think they are. No. Really? Someone. Why did they sign Robin Leonard? Someone. Well, that's a very good question.

Stan Bowman's just not going to be the guy to rebuild this team. Someone up the line. Until he's not there and somebody else is in there to get rid of all these guys who won all those cups with him, then they're going to be kind of treading water. And that's another team that could be a quick-ish turnaround just because they have some really good young pieces. They've also had a little bit of bad luck this season, injuries and stuff like that.

But there's something there. They're an interesting team to watch. If they ever decide, oh, no, we suck, they could be really interesting. Just saying. Big names. UFAs. Let's do the press conference. The Presser SDP.

The Steve Dangle Press Conference. You are trying to do a second book tour. Yes. Do you want to call out to the people to bring some books to their city? Yeah, sure. Like, tweet me or let your local bookstore know that you'd like me to go. But I already reached out to a bunch of the stores myself. I have one booked in Waterloo.

I just don't want to say the date yet in case I need to switch some things around. um, reached out to here. Let me try to find that list that I made of all the cities. Um, where's the thing? Okay. So, so far I've reached out to Hamilton, Ancaster. These are all chapters are Indigo, um, Burlington mall, Mississauga square one, South London, Ontario, Brampton, Guelph, Peterborough, Kingston, Belleville, Sudbury, just to see, Windsor, just to see, Ryerson, Ottawa again, and Waterloo. There you go. That's great. But we'll see.

We'll see. I don't know. I don't want to do a right before the playoffs thing like I did last year that almost killed me. But maybe like a February-March thing. Awesome. I think it'd be cool. I think we should end the show on the fact that when you – I'm just going to throw out one example for you guys.

Okay. Just so I can clear this whole situation up. Whoa. When you hit a triple in baseball, you pass first base. You then pass second base. And then you land on third base. Naturally. And then the scorekeeper up in the press box, whoever is the scorekeeper for that game,

he fills out his little box and he writes down in your little batter's box that you got a triple. He does not also credit you for a double and a single on your way to your triple. Okay. You landed on the triple. When Austin Matthews scored four goals in his first NHL game, He scored one goal, and then he scored two goals, and then he scored three goals, and then he scored four goals. And he landed on four goals to finish the game.

And in that way, he landed on a four-goal game, which, in fact, is not a hat-trick. Three goals is a hat-trick. So Austin Matthews, last night, landed on third base. He hit his triple, and he finished the game with a hat-trick. his first one in a regular season NHL game wow

I think we're ending we're ending the show right about on time cause uh I don't know you smell that horse shit in this studio Jesse that doesn't make any sense that comparison a hit is not a score in baseball a single a double a triple

allow me to baseball-splain to you Mr. AAA baseball player or whatever it was no it's they're not goals they're not points The hat trick is not the point or the goal. That is the goal. You already have the stat for that. The hat trick is the entity unto on itself.

The entity, Jesse? Just like the double, just like the triple. The hat trick is the entity unto on itself. And when you finish a game with three, you get that designation onto you. When you finish a game with four, you do not, sir. Here's why that's wrong. Because it factually is? On the third goal, everybody's already thrown their hats on the ice.

And by the time the fourth goal goes, people go, wow, it's like dessert. The hat has been thrown. The trick which brought the hat off the head and created the frisbee motion to get it on the ice. And by the way, I feel bad for people in the front row because they always have to pick up other people's hats and throw them on the ice too. Just get decked with hats with bricks in them. If the hat has been thrown, the hat trick has been achieved. Achievement unlocked. Goal afterwards is the next hat trick.

No, according to Jesse, what should happen is all the fans throw their hats onto the ice for the third goal. And then they get them back. The fourth goal, yeah, all the arena staff just comes back onto the ice with their giant garbage bags. And they just huck them all over the class. If a player scores a fourth goal in a game, you should get your hat back. If I win the NHL, that would be the first rule I made. You get your hat back if a player scores four goals. That's it.

Come and claim your hat, fans, after the game. We've got him down in 106. Brenda sitting in customer service. Okay, so what you say your hat looks like? Oh, it's a Molson Canadian from 1982. Okay, well, let me have a look through 10,000 hats here and get it back to you. Got to make sure that you save this hat for the proper hat trick. Thank you so much for coming to the game.

Brendan Shanahan sitting up in his box. Why does she talk like that? It's a game in Minnesota. Yeah, exactly. Okay. All right, Jesse. Or it's a game everywhere in Canada. Minnesotans and Canadians are like, they talk the same.

Anyway. Small town Ontario. Yeah, for sure. I just like to end the show on that factual information. Okay. All right. You know what? Listen, you had good takes about Nylander, so you could have just stopped there.

But no, you must continue. Put on this clown nose. Put it on. Put it over your head. Jesse won the clown nose cup. Jesse Blake, nicer than Marc Messier. Is it still there? Not hard.

No. It's really hard. S-T-E-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle, at Adam W-Y-L-D-E, and at Jesse Blake. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness.

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