The Steve Dangle Podcast - King of Cobourg | April 14, 2023

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Kyle Dubas to the Penguins? (00:00), You Can Bet That with Sports Interaction (13:30), do the Leafs have any excuse if they lose? (18:00), does Matthew Knies play game 1? (25:00), how will Michael Bunting effect the series? (38:45), can the Tampa Bay Lightning play better than they have recently? (43:00), and what will Steve do if the Leafs win the Stanley Cup? (50:00). Recorded: April 14, 2023 Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. To learn more, visit: https://help.sportsinteraction.com/hc/en-us/articles/216779528-Responsible-Gaming-Self-Limitation-Self-Exclusion Or if you have concerns about a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600. Ontario Only. Must be 19+ or older to play. Visit this episode's sponsors: https://sportsinteraction.com/sdpn Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Steve Dangle Podcast, powered by Sports Interaction. Want to bet? Backhanding. Woo! S-D-P-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast, with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wild, and Jesse Blake. Well, well, well. A familiar face, and he's still tweeting.

Chris Johnson, it's a busy time of year. It is a busy time of year. It's crazy. I'm going to be obnoxiously on my phone during this. Are you? I'm sorry. Oh, that's okay. It's kind of like a, you know, they call it Black Monday in the NFL when all the coaches

get fired. It feels like a little bit of Black Friday kind of vibe in here. Interesting. You talked about it yesterday on the CJ Show, and today we find out, like right before the show starts, that the Pittsburgh Penguins have let go of, among the names, Brian Burke and Ron Hextall, which are kind of the two key names that you need to know. And, you know, it's president, that's general manager, this is a team without direction. the vancouver canucks have got to be so mad that they can't offload gt miller's contract so easily

this offseason um you never know but one thing you did say i don't know i'm hearing i'm hearing it's gonna happen we're here probably no i don't one thing you were talking about is does fenway sports group make a big play for kyle dubas should he become available and and there's this is one of the questions i've been meaning to ask you all season cj and that's why i'm so excited to have on where do the leafs stand with that this is a really good looking team going into the playoffs and he's on an expiring deal oh yeah yeah nobody's talking about it's not really happening like it really hasn't been a part of the discourse in the media i mean what's there to say when they're not talking right i mean there's no they're not talking well not because they're

fighting i think they just agreed last summer that he was going to play out the year and they'd see where the chips fall and you know go at it now i think it's a risky strategy you know i've been consistent whenever i've talked about this i wrote a column at the start of the year like i think they're absolutely nuts to not have him locked up because no matter what and i get i know what's happened i've been there i've been at all those games are you sure you know but my point is like i i don't think we have to go over the history but this is the history i'll point you to they just finished this season with 111 points they finished last season with 115 points then we had all those weird covid years but they were playing at the similar type of pace i mean they

are objectively one of the best teams in the game he's consistently managed the salary cap and kept them competitive and found ways not to have them become the penguins of this year where they just didn't have enough around their stars to to pull them through and he's not even 40 like obviously he's got some learning curves we could point to some mistakes you know one thing i like about him too when he makes a mistake he'll make a move to undo the mistake like he doesn't keep doubling down right like they brought in Nick Ritchie a couple years didn't work didn't work Peter Moraz traded him and got Labushkin as well as part of the deal like he didn't just offload him like he's creative and MEGM when you examine a five-year record which is what he has now in

Toronto as the general manager is going to have some misses in there but there is nobody I don't think that there is a more qualified person in the game that could come available that anyone would want wow the one thing that scares me maybe doug armstrong is that insane if if he were i'm just saying if he were like oh if dubas was to leave it would wouldn't be for another gm job i don't think it would be for an upgrade right and the penguins now have the opportunity to offer him president king of the castle kind of job and that's probably a little enticing if it's out there for him it could be i mean like i think what look at another way like one of the other things that I think Kyle's done really well is he has built out a massive behind the scenes you

know several departments right the Leafs lead the way in sports science the way they treat injuries and recovery you know a lot of the things they do for families and the like like every new player that comes through the door you know most recently it's been Ryan O'Reilly I've seen talking about this they've like never seen anything like the Leafs operation now that costs a lot of money and there's there's not very many other places you could do that and so I you know it's not to say that Kyle wouldn't necessarily embrace if he were to have a job in the future where he's got to maybe do things a little differently.

I mean, in Sault Ste. Marie, he had a pretty, you know, bare budget operation by OHL standards. Did Kyle work in the Sault? Nah, I hadn't heard that. Oh, man. Every time you see him, he'll remind you some way.

So is it with a trade? I meant more a comment. Like, oh, like, you know, did you see the Greyhounds game? or you know whatever it's definitely top of mind for him that he's so

but I'm from Coburg and I bring that up at every available what I am in no position to be throwing even like indirect shade

at him for that you two you should go for you should take him out to Coburg can you take Kyle to Coburg do a little interview

with him or something like that he's probably got more important things to do he's got two kids okay he runs a

organization pretty big operation you know fair enough I've never heard of it fair enough i mean maybe if i got him there on a chopper or something it's gonna take 20 minutes of your time but um listen we'd set it up kyle if you're listening we'll we'll we'll pay for the dinner

too can you imagine we did like a show with kyle dubas and like a place no i cannot imagine it would be amazing amazing um would love to do it when i was a kid i'm dating myself but john olerud came to coburg and signed autographs whoa johnny i waited in line for like three hours to get his autograph like i remember i can still picture where i was on the main street of coburg wrapped around behind the police station to go and get John Ulrich's autograph. Best swing in the game. And then I finally get in the store

and he's not wearing the hard helmet. And I was a kid. Oh, yeah. And you're used to seeing that. I was like, oh, yeah. Because you only saw him in the hard helmet. You don't know. Jesse, he was known to have the best swing in the game.

He had the best, the most perfect baseball swing. That was John Ulrich's thing. Oh, yeah. Now, I want to... Anyway, I'm just saying, if we could get Kyle Dukes to Coburg, it would be... It would be... Well, we'd have to...

There would be a lot of people. We would have to accommodate a lot of people. we can get them for our event yeah are we having an event we're having an event i'm speaking it into existence is it in my dad's backyard it should be oh definitely would he host that it would be like chris stock he would yeah my dad's pretty proud how big is the backyard it's not that it's big enough but it's you could probably have like 40 people back there okay that's not big enough no but we could do like a cj vip party yeah yeah where julian does a keg stand what do you think oh hell yeah yeah so the penguins i'd hold him up for that yeah

has anyone here ever seen julian drunk no no way yeah last year and he is fun lots of fun because i feel like i you know as we share a pod we spend a lot of time together i've never really seen him drunk obviously we're not in the same place too often but he gets more energy that's impossible i know yeah no no it's crazy not we're recording an episode and it's like 6 30 his time in the morning and he's covered a game the night before and he's probably like four hours sleep and he's like cj what's going on let's go no coffee whatsoever yeah he's also got 40 shows to do that day too right god and radio hits and all that so so okay let me ask you this we're slightly off topic already who cares who cares we're all about that dubas first time if not

kyle dubas if not kyle dubas then whom and this is a question for everybody i've got a name but I want to know what your name is. Who do you think the Leafs go after if it's not Kyle or if he decides he wants to go? I'm not even entertaining that question because I just don't. You stink. Come on, CJ. Give us a name.

I just think they would be absolutely insane. But what if he says I don't want it? This is the TSN coming out of you. It's not. He's a pro. It's not. I just live somewhat more in reality than you guys. That's true.

what if what if they lose in a bad way to tampa i think if they lose in a bad way you bring them back and and you start making other changes like i'm not saying status quo for the whole organization let's not forget like this is the most obvious thing but and it's staring us in the face austin matthews has to be signing a contract on or about july 1st yes and the leafs you know i think game seven of the playoffs might be may 1st if i'm not mistaken so like the leafs theoretically i'm just for the fun of this could their season could be ending may 1st you've only then got two months to and so if you're getting rid of a gm somehow doing a process hiring a gm and then expecting that person to win to i think it's so risky unless you i mean i don't even want to say

these words into a microphone because i'm going to get radioed no so don't worry about that could but i'm just saying like unless you are comfortable maybe losing the face of the franchise like to me it's all tied together could kyle dubas's hypothetical departure jeopardize a matthews extension yes because because of the unknown like who's that person like we who are they bringing in and do they have a relationship chuck fletcher i'm kidding you know but let's face it austin is at a point where this is this is his ufa year i mean he's got one more season after this but this is his decision where the alternate world is he can go play anywhere else that wants to sign him again not till 2024 but this is the decision that impacts what happens in 2024 and so he's got to

be comfortable that the Leafs are going to be good like who's in charge what's their vision what's their plan what's their track record and you know obviously Kyle Dubas has been in Leafs organization since the day Austin Matthews was drafted like they have a very good relationship and I think that you know Austin is very comfortable with the direction the team has taken I think he's I think he's happy I think he loves Toronto like I think he wants to stay but it's like any job if you don't know who your boss is like who your boss is is important well on along those lines then what about shanee and dubas how are they doing you know i'm not sure entirely like i i don't know that there's necessarily anything

bad bad there but you know i think that this is this there's been tension right like think about it these these losses cumulatively they take stress on guys like steve but and others around the city but there's no one that endures more stress than those that are devoting their entire lives 24-7 essentially trying to to knock down the wall and make something happen here and so I think it's only natural over time and look they had to have a discussion last summer whereby the news was delivered to Kyle Dubas we're not giving you an extension you know you're going into a contract here and so I like I don't want to portray it as is awful but I think that it's you know winning solves everything winning like seriously if even if like look

there'll still be disappointment if the Leafs lose in round two I don't think there's any way around that but I think a sign of progress this spring like if they get through a round I think it just reaffirms a lot of the decisions they've made and things that have gone on and I think you know I think a little tension in a professional sports organization is it's inevitable between a coach between a GM between whomever because it's it's high pressure it's very public and there's high stakes too so the number one question has been playoff performance and how's that going to be and you you just can't predict that in october november december how has the has anyone in the organization changed their approach to how they evaluate the regular season

and what success is what do you mean like everyone keeps asking me hey okay what do you think is going to happen or how do you like this team and basically every conversation i have ends with but it doesn't matter until april right but i feel like if it's your job to evaluate how good or bad the leafs are you can't do that you have to have this game was good this game was bad this performance was good this performance was bad have they changed the way they evaluate this team this year compared to last well their defensive metrics are much better yeah if you look at it that's the underlyings that's the more traditional stats like shots against and goals against were improved uh they weren't as dangerous offensively they didn't you know produce as

much in that area obviously some individuals like awesome matthews had a personal fall off in his otherworldly production from last year um i think i think there's more of a commitment to playing a specific style of game designed to win in the playoffs and so and i think you've seen it honestly i agree if you're if you're looking objectively like if you just dropped into this season and you didn't carry the knowledge of the previous seasons like i think you'd be feeling really good about this series with tampa the leafs are such a unique team because every other team is like oh yeah you know dallas has this strength or that weakness with the leafs it's okay if you were an alien from space and you just learned about hockey like oh my god they're just impossible

dude i really need them to win man so i was at the last game that they played where they won a playoff series in 2004 i was a university student and got tickets and was in the crowd and now i'm sitting before you with gray in my beard and like look at all that's played out and including my entire professional career in that span and they and they haven't got it done like it's it is actually crazy when you look at it well and this is what we want to get into next but first we did chat with uh dave bastl uh a little bit before this we have a couple of jesse bets literally jesse betts you're a big one my big connor mcdavid one it's right now and we'll be back with cj and preview next and we're going to teleport you can bet that with david bastl

brought to you by sports interaction get in the action and make a play 19 plus please play responsibly heartbroken heartbroken what was that and not just because the nashville predators and calgary flames won't be making it and the jets will be uh i'm heartbroken because i picked in like february conor mcdavid to score between 65 and 70 goals the oilers won five to two last night five different goals last night i'm gonna i'm just gonna name them guys i'm gonna go through it because I feel like we need to talk about this okay five different Edmonton Oilers goals against the San Jose mother effing and it's the Sharks Matthias Janmark goal Leon Dreisaitl goal Evan Bouchard goal Matthias Janmark again goal and Evander Kane Connor McDavid has 64 goals this

year and he played all 82 games like it wasn't like he sat out for anything and he missed some time. Connor McDavid was out there swinging. Dave, I'm upset Dave. Does it sort of count? I guess you're not getting any Bouchard jersey anytime soon. No, I won't be. First off, Bouchard on both of those goals the last two nights

that he's had them could have passed to McDavid for a wide open look and I just want to know why he wasn't looking out for my $2 bet. That's so true. You know what? That was a lot of fun. I think we're going to bring that back next year because you're You're speaking to the masses right now.

I've had so many people come up to me and say, oh, I thought he'd only get 55 because he'd slow down, or I thought he'd get 70 because the guy – yeah, Steve's another – exactly. Oh, I thought he'd get 70 because this guy is, you know, monster. I don't know. I think we'll do it with a couple players because I think you have to do a McDavid again. I think you have to do an Austin Matthews, of course, because you think that he's going to score more than 40 next year.

And I think because of the way Ovechkin's creeping up on the Gretzky record, we got to do something with ovechkin too it's not going to be as high like i don't think ovechkin ever scores another 50 goals in a season but he's he's going to produce something so challenge number 38 is it 40 is it you know so here's the other one i would i would i want to say because like because like uh no one's talking about pastor knock or um or dry side hit 60 yeah like like there's got to be some sort of you know mcdavid versus dry sidle versus pasta versus matthews versus whoever else got 50-plus goals. There was five of them.

You know, it's a – I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty excited. But I'm excited. You want to hear a quick story about pasta? So I have a couple friends that have bet this. There were two different numbers out there for Pasterniks over-under total. One was 60-and-a-half goals. The other was 61-and-a-half goals.

Oh. And there were people on both sides of the fence. So you missed it by that much, literally. That's tough. Oh, my God. That's like Adam. It is. It's so bad.

Imagine being like Adam. All right. Now, two more I want to talk about because these are both Jesse Blake bets. Let's go. William Nylander, the 50 for Willie. Did William Nylander score 50-plus goals this year? No. No.

I had Willie's goal totals at 42-and-a-half, and that did not hit. You guys were offered that one as well. That's right. I think I took that late February, maybe early March, and, yeah, he trailed off a little. But the other one that did hit, Matthews and Willie in the 40-40 club. 40-40 club. That's it.

Last day of the season. There you go. Dave, I won a whole $1.44 for that. Oh, you took it too? Oh, yeah. Nice. So I might be buying myself a little latte after this. I think I got a no bet because I had Matthews –

or, no, I had Nylander not leading the team in goals, and he's tied for the lead in goals. So that's a no bet, right? They finished tied. Yeah, they're 40-40. Yeah, they finished tied. 40 each. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So, yeah, you got your money back. You got your $2 back, Steve. I'll try not to spend it all in one place. Dave, on Monday, we've got a whole big thing for the playoffs, including something to do with pick-em, but we'll talk about that then. For now, enjoy. I'm assuming you're going to the Jays game tonight

if you're wearing the Blue Jays jersey. I am. I am. I hand-pick Jays games where the opposition pitcher is outstanding and what the Tampa Bay Rays have to offer may be the best in baseball. That's all I'm going to say. So I love watching matchups. The Rays finally lose tonight.

They're going for the all-time record. Yeah, they're tied with the modern day record for wins to start a season. They're 13-0 right now. They're trying to go for 14. You can witness it in history. Dave likes two-hour games. He does. Enjoy, Dave, and enjoy the playoff glow for this weekend, my friend.

Absolutely. Looking forward to Monday. Big news on Monday. CJ, Steve keeps saying this to Jesse and I, he keeps saying, if the Leafs go into this playoff series, if you're looking at it from like the outside perspective, there is no excuse not to win against the Tampa Bay lightning. That is his big sentence. Do you agree?

And that's a little stronger than I'd put it, but there's no excuse for us not to say they're favored. you know i guess maybe that's like just a watered down version of what i'm saying yeah but i'm not saying like come on in any of the playoff series and i mean any of the eight that are going to go on like either team could win i think you can make a case but they're no excuse right because you could make excuses if edmonton loses to los angeles you go well la has a really good team they've come on strong lately even though edmonton's super hot uh but maybe they're stronger on defense and goaltending i don't know well what happens if like five guys get knocked out with

significant injuries okay isn't that an excuse like it's not an excusable thing it's not an excuse that you want to make but like you also only have the players you have but the leafs have healthy players evidently ish today right now well i mean i mean i don't even want to bring it up but like it wasn't it six minutes into the series against montreal when that with tavares injury like yeah you never know what's like if you look at all the last playoffs then you had columbus with uh muzzin muzzin again got knocked out in the montreal series like you know there's always something that comes along right so so but it could have come along for the other team too look at tampa played last year's stanley cup final without brayden point yes so you know if you're a

lightning fan you're going like hey we might have won three straight cups if our you know we had that guy and that's 100 point brayden point to everybody i think he got 100 points didn't he Brayden, 100 point. Yeah, the three goals. Did he finish at 49 goals? I think so. Yeah. Oh, man.

Marner with the 99 points. Oh, that was real tough. That sucks. I was rooting for that goal at the end of the game last night to count so they could go to OT and, like, maybe Austin sets up Mitch and he gets 300, or Mitch sets up Austin. Mitch would have had a five-minute overtime shift. Oh, yeah.

Because there's nothing else to play for, right? Yeah, he would have stayed out there the whole time to get 100 points. He would have just been like, stay out there. He basically did at the end of regulation. Sorry, Braden Point got 95. I don't know where I got 100 from. It must have been somebody else. Well, it's like Sheldon said.

You just round up. Yeah. So what are you looking for going into this series? Because obviously, Leaf fans, we know the Lightning well. Maybe the hatred isn't the same as the Boston Bruins because those losses were- Did you see the Leaf-Chen fight? Yeah, and that's his former teammate, no?

That was odd. A little bit. I think that's like it's on. I think there will be hate. I mean, look, as much as these two teams, It's not the 80s again. Yeah, yeah. I'm not predicting line brawls,

but I do think that, I think the edginess, the after the whistle stuff will be a kind of talking point around the series because typically Tampa initiates all that stuff and teams like Toronto get dragged in and take penalties. I think it's going to be a bit of a hateful series, honestly.

Okay. So then how does Toronto stack up? What are you looking for? What needs to happen? Well, you need Ilya Samsonov to be what he's been all season long. and you know you don't know if you're going to get that because he's played what eight I think eight uh previous postseason games in his career he's won one of them and you know history isn't

a predictor of these things I mean look those are all different circumstances different team different time I think he's got a lot of reason to be confident he's played more this year and he's played well I think that's going to be a huge thing for Toronto I'm also looking at their power play which is kind of a boring thing to say but I think it's actually cost them a couple playoff series because they've consistently been one of the best regular season teams in the power play and then something happened it's like the clock strikes midnight right before the playoffs and they can't convert and and reasonably the montreal series two years ago and last year they're one goal away from advancing yep in both game six and set like it's that was how close the

margin was and they and they couldn't buy a power play goal so i know that that isn't like the sexy answer you're looking for you want me to go like i want to see matthews versus point and whoever gets the most points wins a series i don't think it's that simple but i think you know how simpson samsonov holds up will be key and then if the leafs can get some confidence from the power play because all the hate that's gone to the top players and leafs during some of these playoff series that would have been solved if they just put in a few more power play goals and that's what those guys do i mean i think they have the third best power play this year in the regular season it's consistently been top five during their their years here so reasonably that's like because it's

hard to score at five on five in the playoffs we know that we're going to see it they're going to play like a 2-1 game or 3-2 game in game one you watch but where you get those goals from they need to they need to make good on the power play chances so i mean we have to go worst case scenario the i mean look at who we're talking about here so we're a couple weeks down the line it's game seven uh samsonov makes an amazing save to force game seven but he tears his groin doing it matt murray has recovered from his injury he's off ir but they also have joseph wool who's starting game seven i'd have to know the circumstances more but i'd probably say wall at this point hell yeah wow great answer great are they they must they're really do they they're big believers

hey he's unreal he's had a great year i mean there's not much not to believe in if you know what i mean well i get that but but sometimes nhl organizations are really funny about rookies right they're really weird about young players so you know and I know the Leafs are not traditionally that uh especially in the Dubas era but it is goaltending right right well and the one caveat I'll say like if Matt Murray's back on the ice this weekend when the Leafs practice and so he's practicing fully for two weeks leading up to game seven he's probably in but if it's a situation where he only returns like midway through the series to practice you know they're still sort of feeling it out like you can't just go I mean these pro athletes are amazing but you can't go

from doing nothing on your couch injured to playing in game seven of a playoff series like I think as much as there's an unknown a huge unknown with a young goaltender like Joseph Wall how he'd handle that like he's played consistently well wherever he's played games this year once he was healthy at the start of the year he's been great and he's been great in the NHL for Leafs in a very limited sample like I'm not arguing you go to him over the other guys because you think he's better but I think in a pinch you're more comfortable with him than say Matt Murray who's been consistently injured and maybe like hasn't worked out fully yet because he's dealing with a concussion you're two dollar steve and you got to put down a bet and the bet is matthew nye's will he start

game one yes or no where are you throwing your two bucks break the bank cj here's a problem we're gonna there's gonna be three days of practices right after we record this and it'll probably be obvious so i'm purely guessing that's the point no but i'm just i'm making that clear That's what $2 steving it is. It's a complete guess. Did you know that Matthew Nye still hasn't been in a practice with the Leafs? Oh, I did not. Oh, wow.

He joined the team and they played three games in four days. They didn't practice. Wednesday, they were off. And then today's Friday, they're off again. That makes his pretty good play that much more admirable. Yeah. I think he's in, honestly. Wow.

And I wouldn't have said that a week ago. I was more thinking, okay, you have him in the bullpen. and he's he's sort of like he's you know because sometimes in a series like the momentum and even like the feeling around a team they'll put a guy like that in it's almost like something to rally around for everyone else like if he's sort of like break the glass in case of maybe not emergency but things aren't going well we got to try something um you know i'm thinking of like when andreas johnson came and played in the must win game against columbus after his knee injury like when you do that you're trying to like rally the team around something he'd been a long member of the

team and he was coming out from injury you know we've seen other teams play rookies and and like i just think anyway i'm getting off track but now seeing them play three games and seeing kind of i mean the leaves stretch themselves into like pretzel to to make the cap work to even like get them on the ice i didn't notice the high school students playing for them if they had actually if there was one more regular season game left you were going to be the backup goalie so i was i had all my equipment that i borrowed from david ayers who borrowed it from antoine bibo that's amazing um yes so i look at he does something they don't have a lot of he's big he's one of the biggest by weight and height

members of the team he plays hard along the boards he wins puck battles he can we've seen now like he can control the puck down low in the offensive zone there's big question marks right like if you dress him you probably you're if you're sheldon keith you're not putting him as much as you can control this in any dangerous situations the problem is the playoffs everything's dangerous like every moment could be the moment the whole game changes on a mistake or something like that but i i think they're gonna play him it just it just feels like it's going there i mean it's easier not to right because your next question is gonna be well who do they take out of the lineup and i don't know who that is you're right and i don't know like is it sam lafferty no would it zach

aston reese they can't take aston reese see i totally agree they got him for the playoffs and he's been really good like in his role and what his job definition is he's like if you're if you're doing a performance review on zach aston reese you're giving him marks across the board like you're giving him a raise it's not just like when i was at wendy's and i got the 10 cent raise you're getting like the 20 cent no oh you're a manager um no i was not a manager i'm just i'm looking at the i was manager of how much free food i could give my buddies on a friday night i think it's safe enough distance where i can admit that it's a really good yeah i think you'll be okay what's 20 years i mean i'm looking at i mean obviously i'm looking at

game 82 here so connor timmons is their their bottom line right winger i'm assuming he's not going to be there uh but you know at worst nize is 13 though like i think he's above simmons yeah definitely in terms of like if we were slotting it in order i don't know who you take out like may to me it might be lafferty i think he struggled a bit but you know you just traded for the guy he's got more experience like he's such a good skater i i feel like the kiss of death for him being in the game one lineup came before he even played when keith said he really liked the Aston Reese, Cam Flafferty, fourth line. Yeah.

I was just like, okay, well, coach likes what he likes, right? And I feel like you're overthinking it by throwing Nyes in there in his fourth career game. It feels like the easiest thing is, hey, it's game one of the playoffs. Let's just run with the lineup that we've had for a couple months now. But they haven't had a lineup, right? Yeah. That's true.

Well, and also, it's literally been like throw a dart at the board. Who's playing with whom? They probably have to check twice each day because normally this becomes automatic. It's like each game, it's been different. Yeah. That's true. My sense is they want to go bunting with Matthews and Marner. Interesting.

Okay, that's not what I thought at all. That's the next thing I'm going to bring up anyway, so that's good. I don't know what they're doing with line two. Okay. Yarn Croak? I think Yarn Croak will be on line three in that case. It sounds weird. If he's not with Matthews and Marner where they had a lot of success,

I think he's down in line three. Some version, of course, of Nylander, Tavares. Do you have O'Reilly there? Do you play Nyes there if he plays? and then maybe drop like I don't it's so funny because most teams

like they have not rolled out like I guess everyone's played with everyone at some point but it's not like they played the last

three games with static lines or the last 10 games with static lines like really ever since the trade deadline when they were carrying 28 defensemen

and four forwards like it's been it's been like a bit of a grab bag right I think Shen's in though I do think Shen is in their top six it seems that way

to start the playoff seems that way and that fight will run out then I think yeah and he hasn't been great to end the season he didn't handle the whole deadline well because erasmus or well i don't know what it is and i'm not in his mind i think that maybe he was having a good year and then i this disrupted things right all of a sudden maybe he didn't know his place as

much and he's seeing all these veterans brought i mean they traded for three defensemen at the deadline so if you're him you're probably doing the math and going like this isn't so that guy you know he's played 400 games this guy's played 900 games like they they didn't bring those guys in to eat popcorn with CJ like those guys are there to play and so I just think that that got him out of a rhythm or whatever and maybe there's the personal aspect too like I don't know that but yeah you know he and Sandin were close he you know also Pierre Engvall the Leafs had quite a Swedish contingent and they they put a missile through it they did I think they had seven players they kept the Swedish Canadian and Willie though so it's all good but I don't know if Jonas Siegel

actually had a great story in the athletic this year about how they they had like a Swedish supper club and they were like always going out to dinner on the road and like there was the whole game but who chooses a restaurant and all this oh really anyway i mean like it stands to reason you're comfortable speaking your native language with sure yeah you know like i don't know that it was like a clique that they needed to break up i'm not actually not presenting that as a fact it just it just seems like they might have been friends which is yeah it's funny though when you mention something like that when you say well they had like a you know seven swedish guys and they would go off to dinner whatever people instantly assumed the worst was really they could just be a great

support system and you know your friends with people on your team are among the nicest people you could ever meet yeah generally i was in sweden last summer like everybody was so nice that's cool i like cars like stop because you might cross the road like to just in anticipation that you might want to like it's like you know i'm just saying very genteel nice people uh as much as you can generalize a whole country but you know what i'm saying lilligren also last year played two games and then was scratched for hall that's right they've kind of been through this and they probably have other defensemen coach like sky right yeah or ahead of him in the pecking order right and come on luke shen fights and hits and and you need that

you do need that he's also luke shen which is awesome yeah have you considered the fact that he's luke shen yeah i have and it's great they the leafs organization when they brought him they must have been like this is kind of cool they must that must not be lost on this front office about the history there but also what he brings yeah i gotta say i thought it was kind of cool it is cool like literally the first draft i went to as a working reporter was 2008 in ottawa oh and luke was obviously the leafs traded up from seven to five to get him an often forgotten part about that draft the leafs traded matt sundin's rights to montreal and they were only going to get something back if montreal signed up but they didn't sign them

right it was like in advance of july 1st you imagine the leafs had traded matt sundin to montreal and signed him well he swore about it remember so there were rumors the leafs were trying to trade him to montreal and into a microphone because he didn't know the rumor someone told him oh yeah they're trying to send you to montreal and he goes oh fuck that's awesome you didn't remember that it caught everyone off guard they were like you can't say that mats do you know what's cool so luke shen little story just because i don't know we're here yeah give it to someone might be listening that cares uh so in 2020 you know we have that whole COVID thing you might remember it and I went to I was inside the bubble so to speak

I didn't live in like the hotels but I literally went to like 80 playoff games actually because they were all played in one venue um and so I was covering that of course and Luke Shen was with the Lightning and people don't remember this but he didn't play I don't think he played at all in the first round and maybe not even in the second round so here's like Luke Shen at that point again like barely hanging on to his nhl career and here he is same thing he had his wife had just had a baby he was like living behind a fence and not playing and but every day i would watch him and he was doing the craziest bag skates you could ever want to do like to keep himself in shape just in case i think there was an injury or some situation maybe they started going 11 and 7 and it opened

up a spot for him he starts playing for the lightning in that playoffs he fought once at least but he he uh you know started doing what he does he wasn't i don't believe on the ice for a goal against even though of course he plays like eight or nine minutes a game like we get we get what he is and but like he wins that cup and like i'm like that's i i'm a sucker for stories and i'm a sucker for like sometimes the 23rd person on the roster you know what i mean like it's so cool that's the most dramatic usually right it's sort of well this guy again i know he's still playing so it's great but we didn't know at that moment it could be like his last nhl season it's a pandemic he's like literally living behind a fence not even getting to play the game

skating like himself into the ground just in case and then he gets in and he gets like he gets some momentum he plays a bunch of games he wins a stanley cup and then he goes back and wins another one the next year yeah it's cool and here he is to try to win a third one and basically you know remember when he was drafted the leafs hadn't had a high draft pick right yeah that was a year that was a year before they drafted Kadri and so it was sort of like he's here to deliver like I remember when he was a rookie like this how freaking old I am that at least had a defense named Mike Van Ryan at the time I remember him and I remember after one of the games I think Luke fought in the game or something he had like a big night and Mike Van Ryan's like he's the next cat

he's the he's a future captain of this organization like you know of course we do what we do but we were anointing him like he was the Lion King people were comparing him to Chris Pronger they're like he's gonna be the next Chris Pronger Scott Stevens as well yeah but I mean you you mentioned it when they when they uh when they did draft him the league was bigger and heavier and the league moved away from that when he was in the midst of probably the prime of his career right and this this is what's wild is he's way older and league scoring has gone up and speed has gone up and it feels like the nhl is going in the opposite direction of where luke shen should be going or the type of player that he's always been and he's having this career renaissance

like it's it's really impressive it's the this is the perseverance piece right he didn't give up like he could have pulled the shoot like i assume i mean who's for me to say i'm assuming he's kind of got enough money ish probably you know like he could easily move on to other things like i do know he is a hockey nut like i i would i don't know what he's good i haven't had a chance to ask him but i would put money right now without ever even asking him he will work in hockey beyond just playing like he's just one of those guys he has that feel very astute really pays attention to the league um yeah i mean like it's it's kind of cool to see him back wearing the leafs and like if they win a series with him and he does something i don't know i feel like this is

what jason spezza was a little bit too right it's a bit of a totem for everybody right joe thornton was supposed to be maybe that didn't yeah that didn't turn a pan out to be fair that was like a season with no fans and yeah it sucks i i want to say that now like am i allowed to admit that that all really sucked oh it was horrible i had to admit it at the time yeah it was kind of hard i was like hey i still have a job like there's people with actual things going it still sucks though yeah it still sucks it sucks no do you anybody want to watch a hockey game with no fans no if i ever go to another hockey game without fans like an nhl game i i might just turn in my past really i've had enough i went to i i literally so that that

2020 year i went to edmonton they had the conference finals and the stanley cup final there so there's a game every day like one day it's eastern final one day it's western file same time of day i think it was six o'clock local starts or something like that and every i felt like i was like going to a factory like it sounds weird but like i felt like churning out playoff content well there's just but there was no joy like you when you walk up like the coolest part of my job well there's a couple but like objectively one of the coolest parts of my job is walking up to a stadium where the stanley cup final is being played that night doesn't matter what city you're in like we've experienced that that is very cool but talk about a buzz man

oh yeah and it's explosive and it's september in edmonton and it's gray and the whole world is melting and i'm just like trudging through the streets there's nobody there there's no buzz no vibe nobody has any idea it's just so weird um it's no one's fault either just like it sucked yeah and then the next year we come back and somehow don't get me on yeah i don't it's it's somehow ontario can't open for like seven years while every other place is yeah oh yeah can i ask about tampa and the other side of the hey can i ask one thing one thing before you do that sure I just want to ask about Adam and Jesse sorry I just before we move to Tampa I just want to talk about Michael Bunting for just a second because what I saw in Tampa

was they were targeting him Corey Perry uh Pat Maroon um the refs uh what is the Michael Bunting factor here and then we'll move to Jesse's question on Tampa and I'm sorry Jesse I just need to know are the refs going to continue to call him this way where you know there's six people in a scrum and he's the only one that gets the penalty are the lightning going to use michael bunting as a way to get the leafs to make mistakes this year this series they're gonna try i mean that's evident i mean did kyle call the league did he talk like like shelvin said he would i i don't know for sure but i imagine he did like like the league gets called every day to be fair yeah i told the story on my pod but like just in case you weren't listening like you go to the

you go to the gm's meeting though and it's so funny because like there's like the official agenda but then you always like talk to someone privately like did you see this call in our game and like some everyone shows up with beef from like november 10th or something and they're like i want answers for this like you know like it's an emotional game and lots of stuff happens um but i think michael bunting is very like this is a fascinating this is a target though cj this is obvious you want to talk about a story this is a guy that had to earn it the hard way to even get to where he is in his career he finally establishes himself in Toronto he is an unrestricted free agent who the Leafs have to this point shown really no interest in negotiating with

and last year in the playoffs he was injured like he was injured right before and was never himself so like when you talk about the the confluence of events like he has to have a lot on his mind like let's be honest and I think really badly wants to have success here because he doesn't know if he's back like he's living the dream right this the scarborough kid man and you know he this he has to approach this like you know it could be his last period in trial i'm not saying it is or it isn't they have the cap room but they also had all year to try to negotiate with him didn't get get down to business and so you know and then sorry and then on top of that as i say i think he's going to start on the top line again and there's this all this penalty thing and he's

Like, he can't be taken bad by Malise. Did he end up leading the league in minors taken? He was, anyway, he was right up there. He's up there. He's a high event guy. He drew a lot. He took a lot. This question is born from,

I actually loved the idea of playing him lower in the lineup because it takes away Tampa's power to have an impact by egging at him or egging him on. And now he's on the top line. And whenever he's off, you're down a top line winger. well he just can't take penalties oh okay hey mike have you ever thought of that no but i'm saying like this is this is the challenge before him this is

this is it laid out especially if he's on that line like he's got to be helping them produce offense he's got to be and and not be a distraction i think maybe you don't you almost maybe sit him down on your shelf and keep you like we don't need you to agitate to the like if you're you're normally set to 10 let's dial you back to a four because he does lots of great things in the offensive zone that's a part of his game yes um but you know like they have bottom six guys now like nola chari he's not a big guy but he hits hard oh he's awesome love it he barely stopped himself from crushing a couple guys last night because he was like yeah maybe i'll save it which is good good thank goodness you don't need anything like we saw in the

minnesota game this week where guys are getting suspended oh man oh yeah i mean as much as that was highly entertaining it was a fun game but like kind of a shitty hit oh yeah sorry i'm not celebrating dirty play like the whole thing like the dean evison reaction incredible like i'm actually like like that is that's great i hope they play each other somehow some way come over here and we'll talk about it yeah so i would never do that to anyone do you think they'll be able to Do you think Corey Perry and Pat Maroon are going to be able to use their Jedi mind tricks, which work on everybody else? Belmar, too.

Get Michael Bunting to snap. Pull that top line off the ice. Corey Perry's still mad the Leafs didn't sign him, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because it was between him and Wayne, right? I'm getting the years mixed up, but I know he wanted to come here. Okay, not anymore. Jesse, go ahead.

Sorry. Yes, that was in the COVID years. Yes. So Tampa Bay Lightning are... You got a cute photo of your dog on your phone. Oh, thank you. Yeah, Waffles, she's a gorgeous little doggy there. I got momentarily distracted.

Send me your dog memes. I just love dogs. Oh, I love my dog more than anything else. At Reporter Chris. Tempe Lightning end the season 1-4, last five games, I believe. I don't have hockey records in front of me, so I'm trying to do this in front of my head. 3-8 in their last 11.

and since february 1st they're 14 15 and 5 so under 500 in gary's nhl are they that team or game one do you see them rise to some other level that they weren't the last three months of the regular season i don't know how they're gonna do it i mean i'm putting myself out there a bit but i it's really hard to finish the season as uninspired as they were you saw john cooper pushing a lot of buttons with them whether it was sitting the guys down or some of his comments in the media and i just didn't see a lot of response there i'm not saying they've given up on the coach like it's entirely possible they're just too wounded i mean they played a ton of hockey um but i'm probably going to get bit by saying that because the one thing that they have

is they have so many individuals that have are just proven like gamers like guys who've consistently showing up and got the job done whether it's vasilevsky you know the one year he had shutouts and all the closing games you know like basically when there's a chance for them to win it he gets it done i mean braden point is just an animal he's like my height uh which is not tall i don't know what he's listed as but he's not a big guy by professional athlete standards and he just is fearless like he is through the middle of the ice all the time usually ripping your heart out if you're on the other team uh and scoring goals like in overtime in game six last year you might remember um you know and then we're not even getting to stamkos headman like it's just it's

such kucherov who had another monster season that no one talked about or noticed somehow um i so i just look at those individuals like they have so many guys that could win games when they don't have their best as a team but something feels off right yeah as a team they're not winning they have all the individuals and obviously three straight three straight stanley cups but as a team they haven't been winning on the ice in in months and the way they won like last year this is this might sound like a hot take last year I was most impressed by Tampa of all their playoff runs and they didn't win the cup yeah but like Stamkos was awesome in last year's playoffs like he's like blocking shots and like it's you know I'm getting a bit into like

rock'em sock'em kind of like I just he was like like literally well tell us what you saw you were there right but he was like literally and figuratively like the leader and he scored lots of big goals and like seriously i had a consummate vote last year like if they had to win the cup like i think he would have been my number one i mean that's a hypothetical because maybe someone else scored seven goals in the two other games they won and it would be different but like i just want to say something steve and i are having heart palpitations over here based on what jesse is saying i mean because it's it's the the leafs who there you go and the sentence there you're yeah exactly no because they've been fantastic but you have to ignore the evidence of your eyes

and ears because of history and then there's tampa who's been crap and you have to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears because they're historically great so i feel like analyzing the regular season is a waste of time do you really think so it might be but like what else are we to do like this i know right yeah like i also think the meaning of life steve like We just spent six months. At the dawn of time, first there were protons and neutrons. But seriously, we just spent six months watching this, fixating on it, going to games, doing all of the content we all do.

We just recorded a season preview, or season preview, playoff preview for the Leafs and all the other friends. Did anybody pick the Leafs? We all did. I believe we all did. We all did. I don't know why you guys are so worried. I think.

In how many games? I always pick the Leafs. I'm always going to pick the Leafs. So you're 0-6. It's been a rough decade A couple decades I said six I think I might have said six

I said seven because I want Steve's heart attack So you both have them going into Amelie Arena On a Saturday night And facing a game six and winning I see them going up Like 3-1 in the series Like I see them getting And then bouncing it away in game five

Yeah obviously Who invited CJ well it's funny like no one make any life plans based on this but because the schedule isn't out but i heard that there's gonna be two off days between games four and five so they would come home with two off days no and if they're up imagine they were up three one and just like and it's gonna be spring outside and like whatever they call that thing outside the arena there'll be a million people out there and oh my god lose game four on purpose okay so how are you gonna handle these next two weeks horribly terribly absolutely terribly this is i i okay truth like

do you enjoy it or is it like excruciating no i so i thoroughly thoroughly enjoy it um it's it's funny before the show you're like so you like watch every game well i meant like if you're doing an lfr on game 81 or 80 or 82 like do you actually watch the whole game do you watch it in 10 minutes like a snippet yeah like these last two i went into both like what's the point and then the lightning game ended up actually being pretty exciting and but the the rangers game what there were 12 shots each between the leafs and rangers heading into the third period they did not give a shit and it wasn't until the third period where they were like well we're in madison square garden i mean we might as well try to win i watched it at

a bar so i didn't really i yearn to watch a hockey game at a bar it wasn't i'm not able to do it anymore i gotta say it was a bar that was more into the jays game than the leaps game that's how little stakes were on the leaps game wow yeah it should be yeah sorry i'm not yeah no like game 82 that jay's game was really good it was it was victory you know yeah i don't blame any fans for that it was a good game yeah okay steve you had a very funny line about if willie wasn't going for a goal number 40 the shots might have been like five each because oh they really just kept firing neither team would have hit 20 shots no neither team would have hit 20 shots but do you think connor timmons has a future as a forward i would love to see him pull a uh what would that be

reverse reverse ian white that's how ian white got into the leafs lineup with paul maurice oh man i don't know why i remember that i probably because i'm ill and care deeply about this team and was palmer you say the coach like 2007 yes like you just like six seven you're just cold referencing things from 15 years ago yeah from about the leafs too yeah but like not about like a big playoff moment you know you're referencing minutiae from 15 years ago so to to let me type the time daryl boyce got in the lineup and ripped his nose off and that was kind of notable it was yes it was nosable you see because um no here let me answer this in the longest way possible so michael misa who's gonna go first overall in like what two years something like that he was born the

month i signed up for youtube and i have not made a second round leave video that is how long i've been yearning for this thing and god bless everyone who's watched all the regular season lfrs but there has been an air of all of this feels like a tiny bit, even 10, 5% of a waste of time because we're all just waiting for April and now it's here. And it's like four to seven Superbowls until hope they hopefully win a series. And then it's four to seven Superbowls again.

It could be four to 28 Superbowls. Exactly. Right. Imagine if the Leafs played 28 games in the next two months. yippee yippee yeah and my son is like none of his clothes fit anymore like i i i um there are games in the season where i there are games in the season where like on the live streams and in the lfr i feel the audience in the room with me and it provides a tremendous amount of pressure right you feel six digits like just like have you ever in your mind mapped out what it leaves

when the cup LFR would look like? All the time. I still haven't come up with an answer. Do you think that it'll just be like spur of the moment, it'll hit you if that happened? I live stream myself walking from Ajax to Maple Leaf Square. Celebrating and drinking all the beers. How many kilometers is that?

Like 40, 50? Yeah, you wouldn't make it. CJ could do it in a jog. CJ did that today. 20K today. He did 20K today. That's crazy. That still took almost two hours.

I'm just trying to think like... It'd be like an eight hour walk. You don't really want to do that. I don't know what I would... This was an easier conversation to have with my wife before we had a son. But I like what I've always... Before you had responsibility.

I've always told her to wait 72 hours before calling the police. I'm going to leave. You're not going to hear from me. Just wait 72 hours. Hour 73 comes, you know, maybe be like, hey, I haven't seen him.

do you know what my most fine hockey memory celebrating was because like obviously but you can't do it in this day and age like doing my job right you just would never come about but when canada won in 02 that was fucking awesome the canadian men and it was a sunday afternoon if i'm not mistaken and we had like 30 people in my parents living room which was 28 over capacity and they won and i just remembered like ripping around coburg like we had like canadian flags like it was awesome i was doing the exact same thing i was riding my bike uh up lawrence in scarborough and uh with the canadian flag uh waving off the back of my bike and cars were honking at me it was awesome joe second geo what a first call and the first

time and the best time joe was ever two syllables and fuck what a game second steve to answer your question for you you better be in the building if they win the stanley cup like what a shame What do you work for Sportsnet for? What a shame it would be if you weren't in and around Scotiabank. Are you going to live stream yourself walking from the press box to Maple Leaf Square? Because that would be considerably less interesting. I mean, yes. And I would get dirty looks from people.

And I'd be like, fuck you. They won the cup. You can't just tell people, fuck you, and Scotiabank Arena will never let you win again. Fuck you. I don't need to go to another game. They won the cup. All I ask. Leo's birthday is June 22nd.

I need Carlton the Bear to bring the Stanley Cup to his birthday party that's all I need in the world why are you laughing why are you laughing I need Carlton the Bear to bring my son the Stanley Cup and we'll get him baptized again

I like that I'm pretty sure that the last possible day of the cup final is June 19th oh wow that's later than usual we're still recovering a little bit a little oh just a hair no not because even the draft i think is june 28th and 29th and free agency is july 1st normally there's five to be tight yeah give me a tight oh my god it's

gonna be chaos oh yeah i can't wait no we'll be and also from nashville what's that we'll be flying home from nashville on the 30th the morning of 30th and then turn around and be in here doing and we're doing a free agency special stuff yeah so it's it's nuts um hey i have a question for the room before we kind of wrap here because this is like a an abbreviated cj show uh we'll obviously have cj on again is this even a show i don't even it's like a snippet this is our full show because we've got our previews coming out this weekend so we're you know the rest of the content is still coming don't worry um i want to ask the room what is the and you have to remember that all these seats have already sold out so it's a resale what's the lowest priced leafs ticket

for this weekend, the answer might surprise you, said BuzzFeed Adam. $150. Okay. Stephen? $250. Jesse? $1. $200. Steve is the closest, without

going over, $277. Whoa! Okay. Standing room? Those are actual seats. Oh, okay. Because the Raptors sold standing room tickets for... Oh, sorry. It is standing room obstructed view. yeah holy shit that's to watch half of the ice yeah yeah no the raptors sold those tickets to the obstructed stand room they got down to like 80 bucks as someone who had obstructed view seats

for a playoff game it's fucking awful okay so so much will not be there yeah you can't see what if it happens on your rink your side of the rink yeah leaves had a five on three penalty kill against the caps in game three and i couldn't see the net so i was just every time the cap shot it i had a heart attack for a single seat that non-obstructed view 325 is the lowest price bet that's that's 270 plus ticket masters 55 fee now how do they have a 55 fee well just wait till we go to the biggest because they fucking suck yeah that lawsuit i hope they help they lose um okay so here's what we got now best seats in the house most expensive seat section 109 which is just off of center across from the benches so you're not on the bench side you're non-bench

side your penalty box side and you get one ticket row one you're along the glass how much money for but are you just staring at like the back of the penalty box no no you're you're beside the bit because 108 is where the penalty box is right 109 is to the left so you actually do get the better view says a guy who knows because he's been to the lower it's where my seats are it's actually Adam's ticket that he's reselling okay so he's trying to get people to buy it

that's the whole point of the segment so what does Adam seat in section 109 by the way if I had season seats it would not be in section 109 it'd be section 105 or section 112 you gotta be in the corners and up high how much money

are these seats $1967 Oh, I like that. Good answer. $1,500. $1,500. Jesse, $2,000. So, Jesse is closest, but he went over.

$1,995. Holy shit! But your Ticketmaster fees are $408 for one seat. Ticketmaster realizes they just transfer you something to your phone. like it's free and instant and it doesn't that's what it's not those it's 408 dollars it's not instant and free to send the qr code yeah like literally why don't they just come to your house with a gun like that's equivalent that is the equivalent that's insane that is a wild price but two so you're paying uh for anybody wondering two thousand four hundred and three

dollars and 98 cents for that seat if you choose to buy it wow that's verified resale that is not the Toronto Maple Leafs. The slogan should just be a gun cocking. Yeah. Holy cow. What you gonna do? Did I ever tell you

at the time I snuck into a Maple Leafs playoff game? How did you sneak into a Maple Leafs playoff game? I certainly didn't pay the ticket master fee.

What did you do? So I was a bit of a nerd. Hello, I'm James Moodle and you just did a really good impression. So I was a... I don't know if you ever heard of a thing

in high school called school reach or reach for the top. No. heard of it it was like it was like trivia i was on a trivia team okay thing and we reached the provincial finals which were in toronto and so we were staying at the uft and my dad actually i remember i'm like it's like one of these moments with dads he like peels off like 100 bucks and he's like you know go get a ticket to the game 100 wow well i mean this is in 1990 i think it's

99 or 2000 even then and so i go down and like i'm just so happy to be in toronto i'm like hey that's cool and and like i'm you know all the other kids like like actually are like hanging out at the university of toronto and to be clear is this gardens or air canada it would be air canada center yeah and uh there's all these kids that are like are also in the school reach thing they're like playing chess and doing like dirty things like you know but i like peel off and i go this is my big break and i go down to air canada center and i'm talking to scalpers i'm probably scared out of my pants and a hundred bucks ain't getting it done. And I didn't have, you know, I was working at Wendy's. I didn't have like a lot of powder beyond that too. And so like,

I was like hanging around outside and I noticed there used to be this door. It's actually right. It's actually right. What is now the media entrance. But at the time it was not a media entrance at in Maple Leaf square. And they were, and the first intermission, they're letting people out to smoke. Oh, wow. And like, and so literally I just like walk towards the door and just like, probably tried to act like i knew what i was doing and then like once i got in i just ran and nobody chased me and i got into two wow two periods of a leafs playoff game for free do they wow they won oh let's go who's it against that can't happen anymore i think letting out for smoking holy yeah they don't do that i think it was pittsburgh i want to say i

was at that series as well so man cote scored a goal 4-1 honestly i came back i was like six foot six walking back to res like i got into the game that is and i still got my dad's hundred bucks sick wow wow that's such a key factor of the story you still have the hundred bucks did you give it back no chance no chance my dad i'm sure i didn't come right home because i was still a teenager right i didn't probably come right home to my dad and be like hey i snuck in oh candy was a nickel my point is it's like now my dad would like to hear that story because i didn't get arrested but at the time he wouldn't be like yeah great job sneaking in son like he probably would have been angry with me so i had to keep this inside and just save it for the steve wow

you know what bless you i don't think we have anything else to add why don't we leave the story i don't think i've even told anyone who works for the leaf side store like i don't like would they be mad in retro or they're gonna send you an invoice but i'm not trying here's the thing and a cop i'm not trying to encourage anyone to try to do the same now like doesn't exist anymore you can't good fucking luck trying to do it now yeah seriously i was a desperate 9-11 people were still allowed to smoke it during the intermission that never happens anymore and honestly i was just sitting out there like i wanted so badly to go and i had to i stood out and because you could watch it on the screen so i was like watching it outside and then i saw my chance and i just went

for it you gotta you gotta act like you belong i don't know i was a kid like i did it though you did it seriously like i wish i had a picture of me from that day like i probably was so conspicuously out of place like i didn't even know my way around toronto like i don't even know how i got there they definitely thought you were like one of the black aces that's jeff farkas there's lonnie bohanas yeah i'm just gonna say yeah 90s 90s ahl legend lonnie bohanas love that love that all right well listen last last question go hit us cj who's your stanley cup pick and who are you taking the leafs lightning i'm gonna take the leafs leafs okay in six games oh thank you nice because i have no faith that if it gets to a seventh that

no there's no way we've all been down that road a few times um and i'm picking the edmonton oilers to win the stanley cup it's not a bad pick verse who i mean i'd love it to be the leafs just because i want to see an all canadian final it's one of the last remaining things on my professional bucket list is to cover all Canadian Stanley Cup final

so because I know the audience here and I haven't made a pick anywhere else I actually have picked Edmonton to win the cup elsewhere but I haven't picked their opponent

I'm going to pick the Boston Bruins wild play that means if the Leafs if CJ's right the Leafs would then have to lose to Boston again

in the second round I've been to every Leafs playoff game since 2013 Damn it, CJ Damn it, CJ The Steve Dangle Podcast Powered by Sports Interaction Wanna bet? Follow the guys on Twitter

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