The Steve Dangle Podcast - Oh Captain My Captain | October 2, 2019

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Jason Spezza is a healthy scratch in game 1 tonight and the world is upset! (00:00), this is the most complete Leafs team we've ever seen, so who deserves the A's and C (12:00), are the players on waivers better than the Oilers? (31:30), Mark Borowiecki has some things to say about Auston Matthews (49:00), the Canucks didn't include Luongo in their tweet (55:00), EA Sports predicts a Bruins Stanley Cup (1:00:00), and Stanley Cup trivia! (1:02:00). Originally aired: October 2, 2019 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/Nxek4wZIx94 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 Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! God dammit, I'm pissed about Jason Spezza. Are ya? I'm so pissed. How can you not start a 36 year old guy who was supposed to be a fringe forward? I'm pissed! So what's great is this show won't be up until at least after the game has started. And my bet is Nick Shore scores the Leafs' first goal of the season. I hope so. I hope he scores the Stanley Cup winning goal. But we can't celebrate that goal because Jason Spezza's not on the ice. It's not effing Jason Spezza.

We can't celebrate anything this season unless Jason Spezza is playing. It's going to be Nick Shore wins the Stanley Cup, assisted by Nick Patan and Josh Levo somehow. With Frankie Carano from The Point. A hundred percent. It's going to be, yeah, Frankie Corral to shot, three-way tip, Jonas Enroth in net. It's going to be sick. Can't wait. Yeah, I don't know how it's going to affect the game tonight.

It's a peculiar decision. You know, it's weird. I don't think it will. Interestingly, no. Aren't fourth-liners the direct result of how you win the Stanley Cup? It's your fourth line, right? A lot of people would say yes. If you ask noted hockey men, yes.

Come on. but but come on like it's true guys come on come on just come on it's it's a joke and that's the that's the part that you got to kind of keep in mind is that like people are freaking out because there's nothing else to freak out about when when someone has a really good life if you live a life of privilege and your shirts are not pressed properly and you and you live any layers back and and he just acts to the onion or you've got like let's say you you didn't the the house cleaner didn't clean your your rug properly that is a problem to you like i work out at a gym where some of my my uh my my buddy who trains me some of his clients literally have never worked a day

in their life have never actually worked they have family money and then they married into more family money like what a weird so he said their view of the world is warped because of that he's like they can't properly could never understand what it's like and so right now our problems are Jason Spezza is not playing, that's because we haven't figured out what other things we could be focusing on. Good things, like Kasperi Kapanen's in the top six. Yay!

We like Kasperi Kapanen. Andreas Janssen is finally playing with Matthews and Nylander. Nylander is finally playing with Matthews and Nylander. The Leafs are somewhat deep at the right hand side on D. No, but we gotta focus on Jason Spezza versus Nick Shore, who by

the way, we would have killed to have Nick Shore on the team at center on the fourth line last season yeah if if if it was me making the decision because Babcock has already come out and said uh Spezza is going to play on Friday against Columbus first half of the back-to-back um if it was Spezza starting tonight and then Nick Shore on Friday we'd all be like yeah yeah okay yeah yeah um I I would have put Spezza in in the home opener slot um but I'm starting to think about this from a historical context so we at the time we're recording this don't know the captain that's pretty right I I'm gonna

go ahead and assume it's John Tavares so I'm picturing myself 10-15 years from now and my kid hopefully you got a kid at least one comes up to me and they go hey young Caden Steve goes hey Caden and I'll be like what's up future WHL player and because we moved or something and they're gonna be like what was the day john tavarez got named captain like and i'm gonna say well we spent the whole first half of it complaining that jason spezza was scratched instead of nick shore what do you remember what do you remember the most about the year the leafs won the cup like imagine imagine well i remember day one started with we got mad jason spezza wasn't in the lineup man last year neilander wasn't playing and wouldn't

play until december 1st the come on the fourth line could have a terrible game beyond the ice for a goal maybe even two and it would still be inexcusable for the leafs to lose the ottawa senators just like it was last year the leafs should not be dropping games of the ottawa senators no columbus blue jackets too uh no disrespect but like neither team is expected to make much noise uh this season no so i find the decision strange but i'm choosing not to get worked up about it because i i'm sure there will be plenty of time to get worked up about other stuff yeah but also like well you know ty goes to the veteran oh mike stop that okay jason spezza doesn't play in the home no not that way you know like well the the mike all right careful what you

wish for you little shits yeah little twitter blog exactly exactly it's just sort of like you know what just i really it's like if you if you really want to get down to brass tacks too And as much as I think it's great that Jason Spetz is a Leaf, and I'm sort of excited about it, I know that the advanced analytics on Jason Spetz are not good. And I'm not talking about power play. I'm talking about five on five. And he's been a drag on possession,

and he's been a drag on a couple other things, and not good defensively. And we know what Mike Babcock wants from the fourth line. He wants a penalty killer. Yeah. And listen, Jason Spetz can win face-offs. That's awesome. Jason Spezza can play power play.

That's awesome. But it's not like the Leafs are lacking in power play weapons. So at a certain point, you can understand what Mike Babcock's doing. They're going to tinker a lot. Yeah, of course. And they've got lots of room to tinker. He's going to play. He will play.

And you know what hasn't really been considered, if I'm not mistaken, because guys like Patan and Agostino, for example, have cleared waivers, over the next 30 days, they can just be called up and sent down whenever without having to clear. We might see Nick Patan. This upcoming week. We might see Kenny Agostino. Like, who knows?

Can I also say that I like having a coach who doesn't care about what people think. Imagine if it was the other way and Babcock reacted to the fans. That'd be ridiculous. He's, like, legitimately colorblind to certain things. Like, he doesn't understand that Jason Spezza playing in the home opener against Ottawa means something to anyone. Yes. Like, it's not that he doesn't care. I just don't think he even

sees it, but I definitely understand what you're saying. Tell the 1499 game story. Oh! Man, I want to say it was heading into the playoffs, but I'm not totally sure. The Red Wings went through this weird phase

where they were like, we're going to ruin everyone's one year or one team in their career thing, and they got Daniel Alfredson for a year that was really weird, and they got Mike Medano. Mike Medano was at the end of his career, and he wasn't very good anymore. That's sort of what happens

when you're ancient. It was like the most recent few Bon Jovi albums. They sell because they're Bon Jovi, but they're not good. I can see. And Mike Medano sort of had Mike Bon Jovi hair. Right. Is it Mike Bon Jovi? No, it's John. John Bon Jovi? What?

I don't even know his name. Mike Bon Jovi. Is it Brad Halen? Car Halen? Jeff Halen. Jeff Halen. Yeah, yeah. Mike Bon Jovi Robertson, the defender. The Rolling Rocks? Yeah, that's right.

The Rolling Pebbles. Yeah, Pebbles. That's it. Yeah, anyway. What is it? The Roaches? The Roaches? The Cockroaches.

Right. Say it. Be mature. Anyway. So Mike Bon Jovi, Mike Medano, John Bon Medano. He's sitting on 1,499 career games. It's the last game of the season, so Mike Babcock scratches him. I would love to know, because, okay, when you hit 1,000 games,

you get that silver stick, right? Eric Brewer got one in his, like, fourth game with the Leafs. Remember that in that godforsaken season? I don't think we – that was the first time in my entire life that the Maple Leafs weren't selling out games. They were selling out. No, they were not. Oh, they weren't even selling out.

They weren't selling out. Oh, really? I thought the ticket was spoken for, but they just didn't go. Was not publicized. Was not selling out. I went to a Leafs-Oilers game when both teams were thoroughly bad. And just looking from the press box going, oh, there's a few seats available. Good thing one of those teams is good now.

Yeah. No, well, if you tweet certain things, which perhaps we'll get to. Both teams are good. Both teams are good. Right, Steve? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

By the way, Thomas Jerko, first line center, or sorry, first line winger, is not going to be able to play because he is injured. Thomas Jericho, who played all of last year in the AHL. I feel horrible for him. He's like, what a golden ticket. And it's not an easy injury. It's something that'll keep him out for a couple weeks. It sucks.

Oh, really? It really sucks. There's a bunch of really unfortunate stuff that got announced within the last 24 hours. Brandon Montour with the Sabres, out for like a month? When is that team going to catch a break? Eichel? Come on. Also, when are we going to shorten the preseason?

Well, the Leafs' preseason will be shortened. Yeah, they're going to play the minimum next year. They're going to play the minimum six games because you have to play a minimum six. The Leafs used to play eight because guess what? It sold tickets and it does. I want to say they played nine one year. But I don't think it matters to the Leafs anymore because they don't make the majority of their money off ticket sales anymore.

Like the ticket, what you make in the ticket sales is nothing compared to what the sponsorships are. Like you think you think people spend big money on boxes and they do. But you think around like you look around the arena. What are there? Twenty, twenty five, thirty. Seats? Box seats?

Oh, I don't know. So you got that. But those things are, believe it or not, small potatoes compared to the partnerships that they have for advertising. That's where they make their big money. Obviously, as you saw with the naming of the arena and, you know, $800 million. Jeez. So it's... John Suarez.

So why are we paying... Why are we bothering to play an extra couple preseason games if it could injure a couple players? And let's be honest. I mean, with the exception of maybe Dmitry Timoshev, we sort of knew what the roster was going to be. Even Sandin had sort of distinguished himself three games in, right? We knew. It was kind of like, oh, he probably will. Well, and it's like obviously what this first week or two is going to be.

Like, you can use the first part of the season to still figure it out. Like, there's no real rules to this. And with the Leafs, it's not really. Like, it's been figured out. You're tinkering now. They should also extend the regular season. Extend? Yeah.

No, just the length of days in the season. The NBA did this, I think it was, they started it last year. That is an unpopular opinion. No, but it helped with injuries. Yeah. Because there's more time in between games. There's more time to recover. Yeah, because the NBA compresses a lot, right?

Yeah, so they had, they used to just play a whole bunch of back-to-backs, and they got rid of a couple of them because they extended, they delayed the preseason, or they moved it up, I forget, or whatever they did. But yeah, if the NHL just gets rid of a couple preseason games, you start the season a week early, and there's a week extra of stretching out the season. Cap it at five.

Right? Cap it at five. Or, I mean, was it Eric Engels tweeted something about when the preseason started? He was like, oh, here we go, like a full month of this. And he's right. He's right. Even the reporters don't want this.

Hockey is trash. It's bad hockey, so make it four games. Cut it in half. It's two weeks now. You can figure it out. And if teams don't feel like that's enough, okay, play against each other. Like, figure it out. Sure.

Play scrimmage. And that's all you need. I mean, it's not like the players are going into camp going, I got to get in shape now. They used to, but they're in shape, man. If you're not in shape, you're Jake Dodgion. You know what I mean? There was that. There was that situation.

You just, yeah, you can't do it anymore. You're in shape. That's what you are. So the training camp is really to figure out not who's in shape, but who's good enough. It used to be about lifting weights and, okay, we can't have as much pasta as we used to. You've got to stop drinking now. Yeah, you've got to stop having liquid lunches. But they wouldn't stop drinking non-cigarettes, you know?

Have the drink in your hand. Should I stop drinking this? Anyway. Perhaps not. So instead of focusing on the fourth line, which we've done so well recently. They have six lines. Can we revel in the fact that this is the most complete Toronto Maple Leafs team we've seen in our entire lives? Win or lose tonight, absolutely.

If you look back to, you know, everybody glamorizes the 93 season. And to an extent, the 94 season, too, where they got out to, I think, a 10-game win streak. But people don't realize they won 10 games in a row and then played 500 hockey the rest of the way. Gord Stelic. I was talking to him and Chris Johnson last night at Sportsnet Grill. and Gord, you thought I was damaged. Gord knows every bad thing the Leafs have ever done because on top of being a super fan,

he was also their GM. Yeah. And had to deal with Harold Ballard, poor guy. Yeah, and he brought up the Vancouver one because it was the way he said it. He's like, well, I know a lot of you are still mad about L.A., but how about Vancouver?

Ah, Gord, stop! But they were swept by Vancouver, right? Were they? At least with L.A., it was close. Yeah. Well, Bray McGilney, like, it was crazy. Kirk McLean was on the top of his game Trevor Linden was amazing

That was a great Vancouver team The terrifying Here, I'll just Real quickly Gord Because apparently the Leafs were winning Heading into the third period of game six I was too young

Was this LA or Vancouver? This was LA Yeah And Gord remembers being like We're going to the final Toronto, Montreal How cool is that? And even for game seven

He's like Game seven, how cool is this? Oh man Fuck Damn it, Gord That's what 2013 felt like. Yeah. Well, if you look at the road that the Leafs could have faced in 2013.

Oh, stop! After they got past the Bruins, it was like a totally destroyed Penguins team. They had a chance against the Rangers, and they played the Penguins really well. They would have got shit kicked in the Stanley Cup final. Yes. We don't know that. There's an argument to be made that that team, as bad as they were, as flawed as they were, could have probably taken advantage of a situation that was in their favor.

Or how about this? They could have won at least one series if they were winning by three goals in the third. The magic of that season was that it was 42 games. 48, yeah. 48, sorry. And that when the Leafs usually fall off is around game 60-ish. So they could have just rowed it to the point where

they didn't even have to play the amount of games to where they would fall off. And they were already speed wobbling. That's the scary part is they were already starting to fall off the tracks. But they could have just, it was short enough that they could have just snuck it in there. James Reimer is the best first 42 game goalie the Leafs have ever had. Did you see the April Reimer tweet? Today? Yesterday.

Because I should say, I haven't seen anything today. So there's this famous picture that wraps up the Leafs in a nutshell. It was either the lockout shortened season or the 13-14 season. And it's like four Leafs in the corner against three Hurricanes. Jordan Stahl standing alone in front and Reimer pointing at him and going and she's like this is James pointing to his

future path because Jordan Stahl just got named captain of the Hurricanes and Reimer is now on the Hurricanes it made me laugh and also hurt my heart the reason we bring up all those other teams is this is the most complete Leafs team that probably has existed since the 60s

and I'm not kidding on paper for sure it's a matter of now can they execute and you know i think uh you you do have to learn how to lose right you do have to learn how to um to lose and then hope that you're going to win and i know that sounds super oversimplified and really stupid my point in that is there are there are teams that learn how to lose and then remain losing there are teams who learn how to lose properly and then win afterwards and this is the season where we find out do they turn that corner this is a big big year ottawa for a long while last year

before they traded everyone and the wheels really fell off. Man, what a pesky-ass team. Like, just a joke on paper. Played the Leafs great. And obviously, everything off the ice was terrible. Played the Leafs great.

But if you watched a lot of their games, they were watchable. Yep. Because they tried really hard. This is what I always dumped on with the Oilers. Because believe it or not,

I've watched more than just the Leafs. What a defeated bunch. What a defeated... And Detroit tried really hard last year and I think the Sens and the Red Wings are going into the season with this mercenary mentality the Sens I I don't think there's any illusions about what's going on here the Red Wings it's pretty pronounced yeah and there was there's already been talk are the Red Wings worse than the Sens they just might be because they have like three or four guys on Grand Rapids who should

be up with the big team but they're strategically uh not so how do the Leafs then mentally prepare to go into a game that they're just like, eh, whatever. Well, it's the start of the season. If you can't mentally prepare for that. Yes, I 100% agree. I was thinking about last year. Their home opener against Montreal was terrible. They were lucky to win.

Yep, I was there. In overtime. Yep. The game against Ottawa was a joke. Yes. It was calamity. And that was the first Saturday, their second game of the season. Yep.

It was terrible. So they've got to find a way to play a really motivated Sens team, play a really motivated Blue Jackets team. Like, even though I look at the Leafs on paper and I go, there's absolutely no excuse, it's a tight enough league where if you sleep for even five minutes, you're done. Well, and that's a really good point. I mean, if you look at the Leafs against Ottawa last year,

the season series, I believe, was 3-1. as in Ottawa won three games against the Toronto Maple Leafs which is a joke and you know people were super pissed I remember this and they weren't close

yeah no they weren't these were blows it was so bad that Ottawa played the Leafs goal song in the last time they played each other they played Hall & Oates

to troll us which I thought A-class troll it's their Stanley Cup final yes and like you gotta know that when you play them so the frustrating part

was imagine the Leafs had won those three games those first three games forget the fourth game imagine the season series is flipped though The Leafs have won the first three games.

Wouldn't they have home against the Bruins? No. They would be a point behind the Bruins. And all the Leafs, then they're motivated. Because now Boston's staring you in the face. Then they're motivated. And it's keeping that in mind over the course of a marathon season. You have to beat the bad teams so that you'll stay engaged at the end of the season,

which they have not done the last two years. Last two years, they fall into this mid-January funk. and it has it not been the last two january februaries some of the most boring hockey we've ever seen i think a couple januaries ago in like 2017 it was because babcock clamped down and said okay enough of the seven six games we're gonna play defense now and well because they the team i have trouble faulting babcock for that because they keep coming out of the gate playing that way he's right i want to see them right i would love to see the leafs win three two three one tonight i you know what six one would be a lot more fun six four

something like that but um they had i said this on the radio uh in matthews and marner and you know that whole kids year third game of the season they're up four nothing on the jets they lost that game five four in overtime linea had a hat trick and the game winner embarrassing the next year home opener against the Rangers second game of the season the Leafs are up 5-1 Rangers tied it 5-5 Leafs won 8-5 and then last year there was that shit show against Chicago the 7-6 game the the dueling Hulk Hogan celebrations Morgan Riley wins it in overtime because neither team could stop a beach ball if we could avoid a 7-6 game or you know not surrendering a three or four goal lead in the first

five games, I think that'll be a victory in itself. Yeah, absolutely. And then Mike doesn't have to go, alright, Roman Polak's are top. You know, right-handed D. Yeah. And all that, you know. So, you know, we're staring at what could be a potentially great season in the face, and the

best part about it is there's no sort of Damocles sort of hanging over it. There's no big scary thing that's like, well, will Nylander sign? There's no, well, will Marner sign? Matthews is locked up. You know, people are, you know, already, they're talking about like Muzzin and Barry and like to me I don't think fans actually care about that you know if it's they're your if they're drafted here they're your guys right right Matthews your guy Nylander

your guy Marner's your guy Tavares skipped town on the on the Islanders gave up the captaincy and said I'm coming home that's our guy too right that's how you feel but like with Tyson and Barry sorry Tyson Barry and and Jake Muzzin you're like and Mike they're really great they're yeah they're really great but they've played a grand total of 30 games for the leafs and all of them have been jake muzzin and so it's like i don't really you know i'm not too worried about that what i'm worried about is winning and winning now the city's ready to love jake muzzin though oh like nothing against uh like some of the other new guys they have but there there's a lot of hockey fans in the city who have been dying for someone to like you you see the way he just crunched david

Pasternak over and over again threw someone into the bench during a preseason game this city uh if he gets off to a good start they're ready to love him so on the captain situation and I know Jesse's sorting some stuff out here but I want to get Jesse's opinion on this too because I think this is important okay okay so the captaincy situation is one of two guys and we know we think we know who it is but let's just for for the argument's sake let's say we're shocked today okay it's John Tavares, or it's Morgan Reilly. And you could, there are people that argue that the Leafs turnaround started with Brian Burke

being able to draft Morgan Reilly. Which is a real stretch in my books, but hey, I think we just got lucky in getting him. Right? People say that the Leafs, the Leafs true turnaround started when Morgan Reilly became a Leaf. Don't think so. It could have gone many different ways. Yeah, no, I think it

started with Brendan Shanahan, and we'll go from there. But, um, Morgan Reilly, been here for he's only 25. He was drafted seven years ago. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe that.

It's insanity. Is a leader no matter what, whether he's got a seat on his chest or not. So we know they're going to do a big buildup tonight. We know they're going to announce the captain. If it's Morgan Riley, are you okay with it? Absolutely. Okay. And what do you think, Morgan and Jesse, are you cool with it?

Yeah, I think either way, the guys in the locker room are going to be okay with it. Right. Which I think is the important thing. That's, yeah, that's a good point because it's the face of your franchise, but it's... But is Morgan Rielly the face of the franchise? Well, that's what they got to decide, right? So what is it first and foremost? Is it face of the franchise or the locker room leader?

I think it's the locker room leader. Because if we're going locker room leader, I'm still not going to totally rule out it's Matthews. It might end up being him. Do you imagine? I don't think so. I mean, the timing is terrible. terrible um but maybe like so okay so if i'm gonna give so so if you were to cap it if we're gonna put like a percentage on it okay all three of us what percentage do you give morgan riley

being the captain tonight what percentage out of 100 because remember you got to split this three different ways right so yeah i i'm on the 90 percent of ours 10 percent riley zero matthew OK, Steve, 70 percent Tavares, 25 percent Riley, 5 percent Matthews. So I'm going to say 5 percent Matthews as well. I'm going to say it's more like 40 percent Riley. Wow. You think it's that high? Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's I think it's like and 55 percent Tavares. Can I read you the part from 31 thoughts about the captain? Please. I'm one of those people. This is Elliot Friedman. I'm one of those people who believe Toronto's captain is John Tavares. And I'm also one of those people who believes it was decided three or four days before the news of Matthews' disorderly conduct charge hit Twitter.

I suspect Matthews knew about it, too. Not everyone is going to buy that, which is fine, because there's nothing anyone can do about it. But I think a small group of coaches, executives had a vote. While there was support for Matthews, Tavares had more. There was a rumor, which has been denied, that the Maple Leafs plan was to transition. Tavares would be captain. The Matthews would take over. But he doesn't know how that would work.

Well, that's pretty easy to do that. I mean, San Jose set a good precedent with that, with Marleau being captain and then Thornton being captain and then Burns being captain. And they were all on the same team together, right? It was Burns? Not Burns. Pavelski. What am I thinking? Pavelski, and now it's Couture.

Yeah. It's hard to keep track of. But there are guys that have been there forever who just gave it to say, OK, my time's up. Next guy. Yeah. yeah it was amazing that yeah they played together so coaches and executives according to friedman voted on it i mean it's a good pick it's a good thing that they had more than one candidate like it's better than a few years ago when hey should it be matt staging or ian white

it's better than they acquired finuf and he was just the default captain because he changed the music that was the big thing well you should listen to the music he listens to that's crazy young guy listen to those hippity hoppity beats oh my god it's it's unbelievable that that was even a thing please burn that ash we were so desperate at that point we were willing to go okay like it's crazy the real big piece of the oh my god yeah uh but no they now they've gone from having absolutely no candidate to like a default sort of candidate to legitimately like three at least two yeah i think it's fine there's a reason why islanders fans were so upset when tavaris left like he was a heart and soul guy for them and in terms of and he's got a great he's got

great leadership and he did so over there under some pretty tough circumstances and matthews has been visiting sick kids without a letter on his chest yes he didn't need the captaincy to do that no um in terms of like the on ice uh i'm happy to have morgan riley go over to the ref and yap about him i'm happy to have john tavaris do that nice and calm uh talk about kale who yeah talk about kale muzzin will probably be another yeah and wait have they already named no i guess they they wouldn't be able to now how what's paul marner's reaction if mitch doesn't even get an a i don't know well we already named three that are absolutely deserving of it yeah so you got Well, you got, yeah, Tavares, Matthews.

No, I would say Tavares, Riley, Muzzin. You would give Muzzin an A over Matthews? Oh, this is a much more interesting conversation to me than the captaincy. Who are your two guys, three A's, if Tavares is the captain? Like, in terms of yapping at the refs, right? Like, Muzzin's going to have more opportunity to do it. In terms of, like, infractions and stuff, he's going to be involved. I just feel like

in a lot more of those physical confrontations than Matthews. Matthews is the guy who he takes like five or six minors a year and he draws a lot. So what's he going to do? Like complain a bunch more? I think part of the reason he draws so many besides

his skill is he doesn't do that much talking. He doesn't yap to the ref. So like I don't think Marner needs one. I don't think Matthew needs one. I think you've got to make them both assistant captains. It's a tough look if Matthews has nothing. Right? I don't know.

I don't know. I don't. Who are your three guys? Riley, Matthews, Marner. And the reason I say, like, listen, I don't know. It's tough to say because it's. So now you've got Marner wearing one and not Matthews. I said Riley, Matthews, Marner.

Oh, Riley, Matthews. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah. I was thinking in my head. And the reason I say that is that I think you've got to, at some point, turn the, like, because I would include Tavares and Riley in the older leadership, and then Matthews and Marner in the younger leadership. Yeah, right. Stupid. But that's what I would do. And I would say Matthews and Marner are the next guys to sort of take the mantle. And if you have two stars like they are. And yes, you can debate me on how much of a star Mitch Marner is. Sorry, guys. He did get 94 points last year. That's pretty good in my book.

I don't think anyone's ever denied. Oh, I think there are people denying it now. Yeah. And I've seen them. And let's not overdo it. The point I'm trying to make here is you've got to have a young leadership group and an older leadership group. And I think that it's imperative that those two guys especially are pointed out as we expect stuff from you. like if you don't give them some ownership of this process that they are truly the reason it's all happened the reason Tavares is here the reason Morgan Riley got 70 points last year I would say a good chunk of that is owed to not because they're not talented on their own Tavares would have never come and Riley would have been stuck playing with Roman Polak's for the rest of his life had they not brought in these young superstars and I think you got to turn some of the leadership and ownership of this process over to them because it's because of them that they're in this position.

It's because of Matthews and Marner and Nylander and Jansen and Kaepernick. You go down the list, but it's because of those two, three guys that this has happened. And I think if you don't give them ownership of this, they're going to go, okay, well, what am I fighting for here then?

But isn't this great that we have at least six legitimate candidates for all this? I also don't give an assistant captain to somebody who could be gone in 82 games either. Well, because I was going to say, if we're going to go leadership and tenure, why not Tyson Berry?

There's a potential one. He's new. He's too new. Matthews and Marner have already played 200 games for the Leafs. I think they're leaders now. Oh my god. Yeah, 82, 82, 82. I mean, Matthews maybe not because he's injured. Don't those guys still feel new?

Yes. Yeah, definitely. I saw Nylander get picked over five years ago. He still feels new. Wow. You know, like, I'm just not used to them being any good. And I've had three years to get used to it. Matthews has played 212 games for the Leafs.

With all his injuries and everything? Yeah. I'm looking at Mitch here. Hang on. I'm just trying to look it up. Wow. 241 Mitch has played. Where has the time gone?

That's my point, right? Like, these guys are now vets. They passed the threshold of they hit on the picks. Yeah. They were good picks. They passed 200 games. Yeah, these guys are vets now. Spezza?

No, I don't think so. I'm sure somebody will be upset about it. Anyway, so it's just interesting stuff. Now, yeah, we saw in the last little bit here, the RFA conversation happened. And it's very funny because... Which RFA conversation? Well, the RFA, not with the Leafs, sorry, not RFA, waiver wire conversation happened. And there's a great argument to be made.

that the majority of the wingers available on waivers were better than what the Oilers have under contract. So if you are Ken Holland, you could upgrade your team immediately by dropping most of your wingers. And if you want to debate me on it, there are numbers that support that. Not just goals and assistant points,

but also the advanced stats as well. How they would rather have Riley Sheehan over, say, like a Nick Patan. You can put Nick Patan on the wing. Or even... Sven Berchi's another guy that came up. James Neal is going to score more than seven goals. Okay. Thomas Yurcho might be a

decent offensive producer because he has been at the AHL level. Okay. There has to be better options. Daniel Sprung, Nick Patan, Kenny Agostino, Josh Hosang. I don't know about Josh Hosang. A lot of models love that guy.

A lot of models love that guy. But you can't, at the same time, it's like, apparently one of the biggest problems about Josh Hossain is that when he's given opportunities to shoot, he doesn't. Oh, well, yeah. If you're with McKinney, you need to shoot. He's not a volume shooter. Yeah. Like, James Neal's got, yeah, he's going to get more than seven goals.

He's got the cushiest job in the sport. Oh, my God, yeah. No, and listen, I think Josh Hossain's an NHL player. I'm just not sure he's the right fit alongside McDavid. How about... But why not? Why not? Dry side will nudge.

Yeah, exactly. You know? So you could have upgraded, and they didn't. And that makes me wonder something. We've been talking about the McDavid clock, and tell me if I'm crazy on this one, because I know Oilers fans already think I'm crazy, and that's a complete Toronto construct that a superstar in Edmonton might want to get traded. Wow, have we forgotten Wayne Gretzky already?

But whatever. A superstar in Edmonton without good players around him. And I don't care what city it is. He could be a superstar in Toronto. He could be a superstar in Miami. He could be wherever it is. if they do not have people around them that are going to help them win

and even make the playoffs, even have a shred of a chance. If the Oilers were in the first round and they got knocked out every year, we're not having this conversation. But because they're not even fucking close, we're having this conversation. Why?

How dare you? Right, exactly. How dare I say something? So here's my theory. I think Ken Holland thinks he's got more time. I think Ken Holland, much like detroit's doing much like ottawa's doing is not trying to win this year so there is an argument that and elliot was making this in 31 thoughts there's an argument that if you're

going to tank this is the year not every year is the year but this is the year alexis uh lafreniere yeah it's going to be disgusting yep by the looks of it the top 15 or so of this draft merrick won't shut up yep jeff merrick loves this draft so that's why i mean ottawa i think business as usual they're rebuilding um detroit is actively tanking by the looks of it the oilers but you're wasting another year and if you are gonna tank he's already injured pull him well if he's if he's good to play he's good to play actually i got a message a really great message about a pcl injury which is what he has i don't even know i'm gonna find it i'm gonna find it because it's really really good okay before you before you you get there then or while you're

pulling that up uh so i sent a tweet where i was talking about uh the mcdavid's wingers had seven goals last year because thomas yurcho didn't play a single nhl game last year uh which Which is wild. It's wild that he was even penciled in next to McDavid at all. Yeah, it's crazy that he's a top line winger. I don't give a shit what he looked like in the preseason. I don't care. You shouldn't have even tried him with him in the preseason.

Well, I guess you have to. But the amount of Oilers fans, and I know most of them don't listen to this show. That's fine. You're cool. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you understand where what I'm saying is coming from. the amount of Oilers fans who just Toronto, fuck you because I had anything to say about

their team was mind blowing the amount of Oilers fans who said, well what did you expect Ken Holland to do look what Pete Chiarelli's done to this team we can't all have what was it, like 13 million dollars on LTIR like the Leafs do

well they can, the Oilers can what a loser excuse a loser excuse that what did you expect them to do oh i don't know not have a guy who didn't play a single freaking nhl game next to connor mcdavid bare minimum how is out of what color are oranges they're orange how are mcdavid's wingers unacceptable like for stating a fact just because of where i grew up who pissed in your cereal i i don't get it i don't get it and and And let me tell you, I hope you get everything that you asked for.

I hope everyone leaves you alone and keeps slopping from the trough. Because you seem to love it. Whatever they put in that shit, you seem to love it. Edmonton, by the way, can afford that. Edmonton is one of the richer teams in the NHL. No. And the answer to the Ken Holland question, what is he supposed to do? His job!

Something. It's Ken Holland. Cup winner Ken Holland, who has one of 31 available GM jobs on planet Earth. Yep. There are 31 GM jobs in the National Hockey League. He's got one. I know he's GMing against 30 others. Nothing.

Can I read something from 31 Thoughts that might give an answer? That'd be great. Elliot wrote, Ken Holland seems pretty calm in Edmonton. Some of that is the security of a five-year contract. Some of that is he's 63 and has seen everything. But it's also that even though fans and organization crave sustained success, he sees this as a slower process. Holland told ownership this was not going to be a quick fix,

and he is determined to stick to that. So they're tanking. They're going to tank. So they're tanking. They are tanking. McDavid plays 60 games this year. I think you're right. And maybe that's the right move.

I think it was Ryan Fancy tweeted. He's like, if McDavid gets injured, the Oilers win. Or the Oilers get 45 points. And I go, no, because that would involve them winning 20 games. So check this out. Do you hear? Why do you care? Why do I care?

Because you have the best player in the world. I want to watch him in games that don't suck. I don't understand. I keep slopping from the trough. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. So your PCL is your posterior cruciate ligament in your knee, and only about 10% of cruciate ligament injuries involve this. This is what McDavid had.

It's an awkward spot to get hurt. This is according to Colton Phillips, by the way, on Twitter. In fact, it's more common in motor vehicle accidents when people's knees get smashed through the dashboard. But if you remember the play, it's almost exactly what happened to McDavid. He skates as fast as a car can drive, which is true, and he hit his knee against the post, tearing the ligament with a hyper... He basically hyperextended his leg in the knee,

and it drove the tibia, the larger bone in your lower leg, back into the PCL. In terms of why it may have been a rough summer for him, 60% of those knee injuries include some other structures in the knee, usually medial or lateral ones. Knee injuries typically require you to rest, ice, compress, and elevate your leg for a while, then go on crutches, then wear a brace. I don't know what grade his tear was, but without surgery, grade 2 tear takes about 6 weeks to recover, let alone rehab to his standards.

If the three of you can handle a bit of a gross visual Get ready for this Oh, okay Well, there's your warning, folks Okay, three, two, one The test for a PCL tear Whose Twitter account is this from? This is from at C-P-H-I-B-B-S-13

Colton Fibbs C-Fibbs What's their, like, did they say what their expertise is? He is a, um, uh He just knows the injuries here So I'm just going off of this So we're going into this knowing that we're reading Yeah, I'm writing a Twitter thing.

Yeah, okay. But it might be right. It might be. It might be wrong. It might be completely wrong. Yeah. Don't think so. So, when you look at the PCL injury, it's called a...

You don't have pictures. No, I don't. Okay, thank God. The tear, they do something called a SAG test. Sorry, and how far back on this account is this? I'm just trying to bring it up on the screen here. What do you mean? Oh, this is a...

No, no, no, no. Sorry. He DM'd me this. I'm sorry. Sorry, I was looking for the tweets. I can throw it up on this nifty thing here, but they can't. Okay, keep going. He basically is going to school right now.

So he said, I remember you guys saying on the podcast it would be really interesting if someone broke down sports injuries, and I gave it a bit of an overview. And when you were discussing McDavid's knee injury on the show, it reminded me of a lesson I had in class last year. It turns out I have a few pieces of information on PCLs, which is why he sent that to me. Great. okay so that apparently and i look this up and this is true one test is called the sag test for your pcl sounds awful that is where the patient is seated seated excuse me with their

feet on the floor and with a little pressure on the thigh it it go the knee goes just above the thigh so the thigh the thigh starts to sag below the knee a little bit and that's how you know you've got a PCL tear. So they probably had to do that with Connor McDavid. Before his rehab, his thigh probably could go below his knee.

Oh, my dear God. Isn't that fucked? Anyway. It's dirty. Dirty. Wow, man. Wow. Wow.

Crazy. That's gross. Yep. That's really shitty. Crazy stuff. I love those injury overviews. They're so interesting. It's wild what athletes

do to their body, man. Yeah. Do you ever just, like, think about that? It's not good for you. Holy shit. It's not good for you. No, it's terrible. You know what's interesting?

People are going to say, you know, when we talk about Ken Holland, what happened in Edmonton this summer? You got a new coach. Yep. And I feel bad for Dave Tippett because he seems to absorb teams in their worst states. Like, the LA Kings from 99 to 2002. Then you look at it, and then he's the Dallas Stars from 02 to 09. They were okay, but there were some rough years in there. Oh, then Arizona

Which did have the 2013 conference finals that he was the coach of that Mm-hmm, but he has managed through some really rough situations and like two games in To that. Did you see his comments like two games into the preseason? No, he's like wow This is a this he said I didn't realize it But this turned out to be a tryout for a lot of players on this team because they got Slammed and he was like this is these are a bunch of these players are just not making it. Yes. It's wild man I don't know how you can I'm on Oilers fans side

Well you're from Toronto so you can't be I know I guess that's it I'm an elitist It is very very interesting to see what's happened So it'll be very interesting to watch Darcy Kemper Signed a two year extension by the way this year

Nine million bucks Because Auntie Ranta I believe is injured again Yes and my One of my favorite fantasy sleepers As you found out yesterday Darcy Kemper. He had an unbelievable year last year. 9-2-5 save percentage, played in 50 games.

And I picked him. 55 games. I had Rene earlier, but I'm banking on this game. Because Grubauer was taken. Yes. I think Grubauer is going to have a really good season. See, I took Pecorine because he's an established guy, but then Kemper was still around, so I thought, well, Steve does make a good point.

You guys play in a fake fantasy league. No, I help him play in a fake fantasy league. Because I don't like the maintenance of it all. Our league includes Corsi, but it's on ice Corsi. It's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. If the three of us are on ice together and I get five shots, that Corsi counts to you guys. But it's not personal, right? It's the most disgusting thing.

Do you play head-to-head or table? It's head-to-head. So we're doing head-to-head matchups. Is there money on the line? I don't believe. There was no buy-in. I think there is a buy-in, but I don't know if I paid it yet. I've forgotten.

Sorry, Josh. But anyway, I joined this league because every person in this league is like a million times way smart. Not that that's this is not abnormal for me, but most people are way smarter. But these people are like a million times more qualified and smarter. And I'm like, I might learn something. And it's that we went with like the fact that Corsi gets you a Corsi gets you points and that the Corsi is if you've got one good player on your line like McDavid, you could pick a Yurko and you get all the McDavid Corsi. Basically, right? That's not.

Another, I mean, everyone's fantasy drafts. Okay, you guys are playing fantasy completely wrong, first of all. But go ahead. I'm loving it. I'm excited. What was amazing? I'm so excited. So I helped Mrs. Dangle with hers and you with yours.

Yeah. Someone who's probably going to have a pretty good season possession-wise, probably going to put up a bunch of points, plays with really good players. But you usually look at the cluster of people who are coming up. and you look at, you know, max, like, 20 guys in that range, and you go, okay, well, I'm smarter than the algorithm or whatever, so I'm going to pick the guy seven people down. You do a snake draft?

We did. We did a snake draft. There's your first problem, auction draft only. Oh. You guys got to step up your fantasy game. Yeah, okay, all right, all right. Auction draft next year. Okay.

All right, keep going. Well, so you know who's, like, super-duper far down the list because they had bad seasons last year is guys who got injured. So guys who are available way later than they ought to be. Torrey Krug was one who you picked up. William Nylander is like... 155th or something. Oh my god!

So I was like, watch this. So far down. And I got to pick, because I was the 12th overall pick out of 12 teams. So I got to pick first in the... I would pick two or twice in a row. Because it's last and first, first and last. And I was able to pick up Krug and Nylander back to back. And it's kind of like, I was like, watch this.

And then you see all the see like Ian Tulloch and all the offensive zone entries and stuff like that. And and then at the end of it, because Ian Tulloch's name, like team name is Dermot's Edges. OK, I'm team potato, by the way, because I have the intelligence of a potato compared to these people. I picked up Travis Dermot just to be a dick. And they laughed. But somebody on Twitter chirped me like, yeah, so you got a third pairing defenseman who's injured. What's that? I'm like, no, it's the principal. No, it's the principal. For the lulz.

And also, Rachel Dory, big Damon Severson person, was able to pick him up. And apparently we're supposed to work out a trade, but she better offer big money. That's all I'm saying. Better be big, Rachel. That's all I'm saying. Well, and you, we wanted Nico Heischer really badly. Yeah. But time ran out, and it auto-drafted Bo Horvat, and we looked and we're like, oh, okay, no, yeah, that's good.

That's okay. I ended up with Nazem Qadri in the late round pick, too. What? I didn't see that. Yeah, it was after everything else. I got Qadri. So I was like, great. This is awesome.

And we did. This is so in-depth, Jesse, that we have a prospect's draft, too. And I wasn't able to be there for that. Okay. I have not great prospects, but I did end up with Capo Caco. What is your prospect's draft? Well, that means players that could make it, and you can trade them and stuff. And I think we do get, based on their junior numbers, you get some points as well.

I hate your fantasy league so much. Oh, I'm loving it. It's so exciting. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Play real fantasy. I love it. Steve is upset. I love these guys.

I'm so excited, man. I'm going to update you guys. I've never heard of anything worse. I was just like, you guys have Corsi? Yeah, on ice Corsi. Oh, you guys are sick. What? Do you also have plus minus?

Oh, no. No, there'll be no plus minus. Okay. How dare you? All right, good. No, don't insult them. Come on. But I'm really pumped.

I think this is going to be wicked. So I'm going to make sure you guys know about my team. I did get Thomas Chabot. I got Elias Pettersson. I got some really good players. We now have my least favorite segment every week. I don't know what Team Potato is doing in this market. Adam's funky clown show fantasy league.

I want Adam to beat both Staff and Graf. Yeah, it would be nice if he beat them. And all these people who are like, yeah, they do this for a living. like I just want you to be like especially staff am I right yeah oh my god especially staff

screw them screw her go potato um alright so let's talk a little bit about and this is uh this is strange

but um I never thought we'd be talking about this guy again but Mark Borowiecki oh yeah so

this is what I'm this is what I'm yeah go ahead alright now this is this is Leafs related But I tag this under senators because this is a senator's thing.

And, you know, when you you know, when you you know, when you read a comment from somebody. No. And they're like, you're like, oh, you're just trying to be a hero. Yeah, I think what Enrique Iglesias version or what they did for the Spider-Man movie way back when with what's her what's her futz from Evanescence and guy who sounds like he's from Creed. remember which one was that there's a lot of references yeah i don't know what the hell you're talking about there's a hero song oh and they say that a hero can save yeah wasn't nickelback on that i don't know i don't know anyway they all sound the same when someone's trying to be a hero a cape baiter yes was mark or whatever the futz was he cape baiting let's let's see when when we when referencing scott saverin by the way who had seven ahl points what happened

the quotes on the screen oh he could touch it we're referencing scott saverin who had seven ahl points last year slew footed austin matthews in the preseason sorry um and matthews went who are you again yeah yeah uh borviatsky thought said i thought it was a little disrespectful to be honest duh that was sort of the point uh we're not all blessed with austin matthews talent unfortunately i'm not sure austin appreciate what it's like being a fighter down there it's a role he's never had to play whoa now i know that's not the whole quote but that's the joy of boiling it down because that's most of it how much of that is okay that's my teammate and i just gotta go out and say the correct thing

that's it right and it's it's what i was saying like okay you don't got to win every game you got to beat the leafs right or you know we not every game is this sound like a final but oh sorry let me let me we got to beat the leafs let me say this we're not all blessed with austin matthews talent unfortunately but i truly wish i was some of us had to do it the hard way wow wow yeah you know some of us when the owner's like i want you to be part of a shitty interview with me have to suck it up and go right okay what are we gonna do here like it's yeah it's devoid of context like the reason matthews did it is sabran was being a shit like he's supposed to sabran he got his job because he did his job yeah dude in the pre-season he got austin matthews attention

and punched max domey for a guy who and beat beat max domey to fight yeah well i mean right once When Domi hit the ice, he still had a glove on. So I'm going to grade on a curve there. But, you know, far be it from a Leafs fan to defend Max Domi. But did you know he has a book? For a guy who put up, like, less than fourth line AHL production last year to accomplish that in a preseason game, even if he had dirty tactics to do it, I mean, good on him.

And he's going to make more money than he ever has in his entire life. although he did you left out a quote there the $70,000 one well I mean this guy made he's been making $70,000 and a lot of people are rolling around like MUFFIN $70,000 American

to play hockey but yeah I understand it's really tough when you know you're going to fight double digits every year and ride the bus around and get paid $70,000 So you get $70,000 to ride a bus and punch face.

There's a lot of people I know who would take that. Should we be disappointed that Sabrin's in the league? No. That the NHL hasn't phased out this type of player by now? It's 2019. I mean, the NHL might phase him out by Christmas. Who knows? I think he will phase himself out.

Who knows? I mean, former Oshawa general, so he's a good guy, obviously. But the point is not Scott Sabrin. The point is this dumb quote. Yeah. That's dumb. That's fair. Of course.

Listen, slew footing a superstar in preseason is disrespectful, too. Of course. But we're seeing the Senators' strategy at play. They're world beaters. And they've got to tell themselves that they're world beaters. And if you're Jeff Blaschel or anyone in the Detroit locker room, that's your job, too. If you're, I don't know, maybe the Kings. If you're not expected to do well this year, that's got to be your mindset.

Like, we always talk about tanking teams, and no, I don't expect the players to tank, but the organization's got to make a decision to sort of strip it of talent and get different assets and whatever. But the players in the room, like, I don't know, good on Borough for doing that, and Sabourin for doing his job, not necessarily the slew foot. I kind of liked Adam's angle of it's a dumb quote. Oh, it's a dumb quote. It's the dumbest quote. It's a dumb quote, but, like, I get what he's doing. Sure. It's also kind of dumb.

It's pretty dumb. Yeah. Well, they have to tell themselves they're world beaters, but they won't beat anyone. Like, let's just be... Craig Anderson. They live or die by Craig Anderson. They'll play fun games. What does that mean?

They're going to lose 7-4? They skate real fast. They try real hard. They score goals sometimes. Although, when they traded Mark Stone, that went away. So, I'm interested to see how that goes this year. I'm excited to see how Mark Stone does in Vegas, by the way. He's going to kill it.

Vegas is going to do really, really well, I think. Because they did so well last year after starting garbage. So, is this a Dick move? Yes. The Vancouver Canucks are going to name a captain this season. We're going to name a captain this season. It's a special moment. This is from Travis Green, their head coach.

It's their 50th season. Yeah, something our fans should be able to witness firsthand. We'll make the announcement Wednesday at our home opener. So, tonight we'll also know about the Vancouver Canucks captains. It included a picture of several Canucks captains, Naslin, Linden, Sadeen, not Roberto Luongo. So Roberto Luongo retweeted it and photoshopped himself into it. It's pretty funny. It's really funny.

But isn't that kind of shitty as well? No. Wasn't he captain for like less than half a season? Two years. No, he wasn't. 08 to 2010. Actually? Yeah.

I didn't know that. That's sort of shitty. Yeah, but wait, what years? 2008 to 2010. Wow. Dude, they were a great team. They were a great team, but they got better once he was not captain anymore. Was it just an error by somebody who sounded like an intern?

Well, they also didn't include Marc Messier. Oh. That's smart. Could be an error. Is there? I can't imagine. Because here's the thing. I'm going to go through Canucks captains in history.

They don't exactly have a plethora of great names to pick from. The first one was Orlin Kurtenbach from 70 to 74. The curtain blog. Andre Bourdre from 75 to 76. Chris Odomson, 76 to 77. Don Lever, 77 to 79. Kevin McCarthy, 79 to 82. A lot of turnover.

Stan Smeal, 82 to 90. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then it was Dan Quinn, Doug Lidster, and Trevor Linden in 1990 and 1991. They were tri-captains. and then Linden from 91-97, Messier from 97-2000, Naslin 2000-08. Messier was three years, huh? Roberto Luongo, yeah, he was. Roberto Luongo, 2008-2010, and Henrik Sedin for eight years after that.

I'd say they're on a good little run. They're on a good little run now. But you can't include Roberto Luongo? Yeah, why did they do that? I guess they could have. I don't know. I don't think it's that huge of a deal. He was captain for two years.

Most people don't seem to view it as that great of an idea. He's the best goalie in franchise history. Could have included him. But maybe you only wanted five, so you could have a guy in the middle. I don't know. What? Why are you making excuses? This is so weird.

I'm not defending it. I just don't care. I don't think it's that big of a deal. He was captain for two years. Two years. No, but they did a thing about the captains of the team. Yeah. And they just arbitrarily left him out.

Who are the captains in the photo? Well, a couple of them I don't recognize, to be honest with you, because I don't know. There's a particularly older gentleman who I assume is like the first. Okay, so who we got? Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I don't recognize the two guys. Naslin, Sadeen, Linden are the only ones I recognize.

Yeah, like those guys were captains for a long time through a lot of success. Yeah, but the guy with the V jersey on probably wasn't, unless that's the guy from the 80s. Yeah, but then you're going with nostalgia. Then you're going with nostalgia, though. I don't know. I'm having a hard time getting worked up about this, and I get worked up about a lot.

You don't include Roberto? Come on. That's shitty. I don't care. I don't care what anyone says. You could. That's total shit. Leaving out Marc Messier is funny.

Well, yeah, you want to, though. That was crappy. See, that's an interesting one. So Messier's relationship with the Vancouver Canucks is always fascinating to me because how many teams have a guy who was captain for multiple years who the fan base seems to universally hate?

like is there a leaf captain who like you just can't use in anything he was the uh that you can't dion for enough oh there's one yeah so mark messier is there dion for enough yeah but in a worse way because trevor linden was beloved and they signed messier and it was sort of like oh no not now i'm going to be captain and he's leaving that's how it went like if you go back and read articles from the time and you read about the situation Messier pushed Linden out, and the organization was like, well, we need Messier, not Linden. See, I guess I just don't know the context.

They turned on their guy. Interesting. And was Messier the better player? Probably. But Linden was Vancouver's guy. Probably not by then. Maybe not by then. Maybe not by then.

I remember, do you remember, was it Nagano? Yeah, he didn't go to Nagano. He wasn't in Nagano. And I remember waking up and watching the highlights, and when they announced the team, he was, like, crying on the bench. you know who made that team rob zaminer wow remember rob zaminer the examiner the he wasn't but it should have been yeah rob zaminer did there was a few weird ones on that team and ray bork took a penalty shot they lost go figure um lots more around the league but again

it's hard to get too deep because again we are well there's games tonight yeah there's that's It's going to happen throughout the season. There is. I do want to point out that EA Sports NHL did their simulation of the playoffs. There's a notable thing. Before we get to the press conference, there's a notable thing, which is Boston wins the Cup. Yep.

And in the first round, beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. four games to three so i have a conspiracy theory do you think they did that on purpose yeah they photoshopped that yeah 100 i hope they did that's the right what are they going to show you the record of the simulation no it's way funnier it's way funnier god damn it can you imagine oh i don't i don't even want to think about it oh i might have to take a break from LFR is like I don't know you said that you did say that last year it was

heartbreaking can you imagine this three years in a row yeah that'd be insane yeah by the way I can't believe this is the seventh full season of the podcast coming up I know and the 13th of LFR what

the how old am I old I'm like 47 right yeah oldest shit man should we do the press conference we should do the press conference all right someone had this great idea that for trivia we should do stanley cup champions i forget who tweeted it to me but i thought it was a great idea i like this we're gonna go back until what year you guys are born the same year what year were you born 88

88. We're going to go from the year you were born until 2019. Most correct answers wins. Okay. Okay. All right? Let's try this. All right.

Do you guys have a pen and paper? Oh, boy. That will be required for this contest because I don't like cheaters. I have a Post-it note. Do you have a pen? I have a pen. I have Post-it notes. Give me a Post-it note.

You got two pens there, Adam? Yep. I've got my Virgin Radio pen here. I'll give it two because I'm a great guy. Noted great guy, Steve. Noted great guy, Steve. 1988. Who won the Stanley Cup?

Who won? There's need a name in the team. Man, I'm not good. I'm not good with the 80s. They beat the Boston Bruins. Reveal your answers. Oilers. Oilers

Gretzky's last cut with the Oilers I think you're right Gretzky's last cut 1-1 89 I think I know this

but I'm not totally confident Reveal Steve Flames Adam Flames 2-2 Okay 90

Steve Oilers Adam Oilers 3-3 Okay Uh Okay

91 Who you got? Steve got It's correct Adam Both Penguins 4-4 We've been alive too long

92 Mm-hmm Pens Adam Pens 4-4 Alright, now it's 5-5 93, easy

Adam, will you go for 93? Canadians 94 Steve's written down the correct answer Adam? Rangers I'm trying to write as fast 95? You just keep going You know where the next question is going to be

95 Adam's got Correct, Steve New Jersey Devils 96 What do you got? Abs Abs, 96

97 Steve's got it Adam, what do you got? Wings Correct, 98 I just put times 2 Nice Wings

Nice 99 Correct What you got? Stars Correct, Dallas Stars It shouldn't have been Nope

We're sorry, Buffalo Sabres. It gets foggier for me as the years go on. Not that it shouldn't have been the Stars. It shouldn't have happened the way it happened. Right. Yeah, it could have still been the Stars. Probably would have been. Now we're at the 2000.

I'm not sure. I think I might get this one wrong. The millennial year. How many is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Between 2. 1 and 2. There's 2 teams that I'm thinking of.

12, 12. Oh, I know who it is. I'm honestly not sure. I know who it is. Shoot. 12-12. Who won the Stanley Cup in the year 2000? My pen died.

The year that the world was supposed to come to an end, and it didn't. My pen died. Do you have another pen? Okay. All right. And also, turn off your sticky notes so I can see it, because you've run out of room. Damn it. Adam, what's your answer?

This one's dead, too. I'll say Devils Steve has it correct Adam you are incorrect Oh no way What was the Ray Bork here? I think it's the next one So I had Devils crossed out

It's 13-12 for Steve Dangle 2001 Adam who you got? Avs Correct Mad 2002 Steve's got to correct that

Wings 2003 Oh no I'm foggy I am too I know I'm really Oh Okay

2003 Yeah Hurricanes No Oh, 2003 was New Jersey Devils. Ah, again. That makes it 16 to 14 for Steve. That was Jaguar.

That was the... Oh, the Ducks run. That was the Ducks run. The bad card run, the original bad card run. That's right, that's right. All right, 2004? Yeah, I think I got this one. Tampa?

Hurricanes. Oh, no. Adam, you are incorrect. Fuck, when did the Hurricanes win? Didn't they win? They're coming up. I'll tell you. Fucking Hurricanes.

All right, that's 17 to 14. For Steve This is where This is where it gets foggy for me Yeah From like 05 to about 09 It was really bad 05 there was no winter

There was a log out Right 06 It's a fucking hurricane I'm gonna be so mad It's the hurricane Okay thank you I'll give you that boy

That sucks 18 Typical hurricanes You always think it's gonna be them Always yeah 18 to 15 2007 Oh

Who you got Adam I got mine I'm just gonna tick it I know I'm right. Devils. Nope. Fuck it. I don't know.

I don't really know. The Anaheim Ducks. Anaheim Ducks. Right. That was a sentence. Spezza. That Anaheim Ducks championship put the Leafs behind so many years. 2008.

It's 20 to 16 for Steve. Freaking thing. 2008. Steve's got it correct. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Wings. Adam's got it correct.

21-17 for Steven. 2009. Got mine. Got it right here. It's the Penns. Yeah, look at that. Crosby's first cup. Yep.

2009, 2010. Got mine. Devils. No. Black Ops. I don't fucking know, man. 2011. Sorry, 2010?

No, Chicago was 2010. Yeah, you got that correct. 2011, we all remember. I don't know, do we? Maybe we don't. Kings. No, that was Boston Bruins. Hurricanes.

Good one. I don't know. It was Boston Bruins, 2011, 2012. Oh, fuck me. Of course it was. 2012. Steve's got it. Kings.

Kings. There you go. All right, I'm just checking. What am I at? It was Kings, 2012, 2013. Got mine. 13, Adam. Blackhawks.

Blackhawks. 2014. There it is. Should I just start writing? Steve's got it. Got it there, too. What did you write? Kings.

Kings, yes, correct. Bastards. And 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Steve's got it. There we go. Let me check. What year? So now I've lost track.

So we're starting at 14. 14. 15. I'm so fucking braindead right now, I don't even know. I don't even know. Give me 18. I just want to see if Steve can do this. 18.

Yeah. Did I get them all? Yeah, there you go. Okay, what are they? Steve's going to clean up. You're winning. 2014, the Kings. 2015, the Blackhawks.

2016, the Penguins. 2017, the Penguins. 2018, the Capitals. 2019, the St. Louis Blues. There you go. I did, man, those early 2000s, because it was just, it was like three teams. I could tell you, I could tell you this, most of the 60s, all of the 70s, all of the 80s. I couldn't tell you any of that shit.

And most of the 90s, but I can't tell you, I could not tell you, like, I struggled from 05 to about 2013, because the Leafs were so fucking bad that I stopped paying attention. I would, I don't know any of the 70s, except I believe 79 was the Habs, because that's regarded as one of the best teams ever. And that was like the end of five years. The great thing about the 70s is five of them were in Montreal. You can just guess Montreal and be right. Two of them are Boston and two of them are Philly.

I believe you. Sure. Oh, yeah, Philly's 74? 74. Or 75? Yeah. Wait, are they one or two? Anyway, whatever.

I don't know. It doesn't matter. I think it's two. Hey! I feel good about myself. Good victory. Stephen Dangle. There you go.

Flawless victory, Stephen. Well done. We'll call that the start of the regular season. Steve's up 1-0 There it is There you go There it is Yeah preseason doesn't matter

Yep Here it is Alright Cool Good show Good show guys Fun times Alright so we'll be back Sunday

Bigger show Believe we're gonna book One of our marquee guests for that But I'm not gonna say who Because we haven't fully Fully done it yet But hoping Very excited about

Having him on And listen We're super excited About this season Thanks so much for listening This is the season We are like Two episodes in now

To season seven Unbelievable Thank you so much for listening. And obviously, thank you so much for checking out our new camera angles, which we will figure out. We've got a lot of people who are like, oh, I don't know about that particular angle. Just give us a freaking minute, okay? Give us a sec. We just got the equipment.

Give us a sec. Half an episode, you know? Give us a sec. I am so impressed by Jesse's ability to, like, carry on a conversation and, like, do his wizardry over there. It's not the best of abilities, but it works. Jesse actually knows how to do some crazy stuff on there. There's, like, polls and, like, what else can you do on there? I tried the scoreboard for anybody watching.

They saw the scoreboard come up when you guys are playing. That's so great. I got to 27 to 19 that I gave up Can you like what's what do they call it when they put your name across the bottom of the screen a key? Yeah, when they connect yeah, I can I can key I can key you right now. I'm gonna write something me Steve It's on Adam cam right now So we're gonna can I tell you I might not be in my cam most of the time you're in your game Don't worry. Am I even over here? So we're going to write Adam.

What do you want to write, Steve? Loser. Make sure he doesn't know what he wants to write. Potato idiot. Shout out to the Corsi Hockey League, by the way. It's my fantasy league. Potato idiot. Adam can't hear me.

No, he can't hear you. I'm going to write Adam Wilde. Potato idiot. And now it's there. Now it's on the screen. I love the future. That's crazy. Big potato idiot.

Adam, it says you're a potato idiot in your camera. Potato idiot. Look at that stupid smile. There you go. By the way, I just want to read one quick comment from Daniel Nugent Bowman from the Athletic Edmonton. Yes. Some lunchtime reading. I spent time with Oilers GM Ken Holland this summer as he packed and planned.

His message for McDavid as the Oilers rebuild. You look at Ovechkin. He was number one overall. It was 13 years in the league before he won the cup. What? and Andrew Berkshire retweeted it and said, if I'm McDavid and the GM says this, I'm asking for a trade

immediately. The Capitals were amazing for like 10 years before they won the Cup. The Capitals could have won the Cup five different times. How many President's Trophies do they have? What the hell is that? And somebody said to Andrew, you could never be McDavid so you don't have to worry about this. And Andrew said, damn, I never realized

that at 32 I could not be the best hockey player in the world. Really disappointed. good luck connor oh god 13 years what is that for oilers fans i got five seven five to seven years left we'll save you 97 but 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.