The Steve Dangle Podcast - Pete Blackburn | September 21, 2017

Episode Date: September 21, 2017

On this episode, Pete Blackburn!! (0):00), Pete’s firing, Fox Sports, & the #PivotToVideo (02:00), how hockey is perceived in the U.S. (14:00), the Boston Bruins (21:00), new face-offs & slashing rules (32:00), Kings & Canucks in China (39:00), more Lupul (42:00), Francesa, O’Donnell, and the pythagorean theorem. Originally aired: September 21, 2017 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/rTtjWzJqMug Follow us on Twitter: Pete Blackburn @PeteBlackburn Steve Dangle: @Steve_Dangle Adam Wylde: @AdamWylde Jesse Blake: @JesseBlake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S.T.P. The Steve Dangle Podcast with your hosts, Steve Dangle and Alex. Well, just hours after the NHL wraps up their very foggy and under-attended game, the first of its kind in China, we have... There's really no connection here. P. Byford! Try that again?

Try that again. I'm going with this. Sure. Just months after Fox Sports 1 Officially pivoted to video We now have CBS Sports Digital writer What would you describe your

I'm just going to read his Twitter Sports, pop culture, and less important things Writer for CBS Sports Podcaster for Listen to Brunch And Section 10 Podcast The one and only Pete Blackburn Hi Pete Take two was better

Two was better than one So Pete man Okay, so first off, we just want to say congratulations. We understand that now you will officially be able to leave your mother's basement. Yes, I guess, but I probably won't. Yeah, that's where all his weights are. That's true. He's definitely not going to leave.

He's got to do the California workout. As the most jacked person in sports podcasting, I'll call him. I'm sure that's a real tough title to attain. I don't think it is. I don't think it is. No, you're right, Pete. All the InShape guys are doing this right now. Yeah.

Well, Cam Chiron could have been. He was like a personal trainer. Was he? And then he's like, oh, math, Leafs. Yeah. Pythagorean theorem, you might say. Pythagoreans, I cannot wait to get to that. We are going to get to that.

His whole show is just banter around that. So we've got a few things that we've got to talk about. Pete, are you upset about Torrey Krug? I am upset about Torrey Krug. I love Torrey Krug. What happened to Torrey Krug? I wish all the best for him, and I don't want to see. He has a nice handsome face, too.

I don't want to see his handsome face adjusted by shots taken to the grill. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to miss that. Yeah, he's going to miss three weeks for Puck in the Mouth. Oh. So that's not cool. It's a bad condition to have, that old Puck in the Mouth. So, Pete, before we really get started here,

a lot of people are going to know you, especially from Canada, a lot of people are going to know you as somebody who is absolutely hysterical to follow on Twitter. But you've also worked for Uproxx, Fox Sports 1, now with CBS, sports uh if you were to give us like a quick resume where did you start how did you get into this what did you do and then we're going to talk full-on sports because there's a ton of stuff it's a ton of ground to cover uh well i started in college i started blogging uh with my own blog uh and i did that for like the entirety of my college career so like nine years trying to get

my undergraduate degree um and then i spent nine years in getting your undergrad to achieve a four-year degree um but i so i did that and i kind of got a little bit of a following from there so once uh once i graduated i was put in charge of like a it was this kind of like startup site um and i ran that for about two years and then from there is when i joined onto uprox and i was at uprox for about a year before fox sports scooped me up um and then i was at fox sports for a little under a year before they decided to pivot to irrelevance. That's awesome. Tell us how you really feel, man.

Sorry, can we just back up a little bit there, Van Wilder? Nine years to get your undergrad? Is that what I heard? Yeah, that was a joke about me. So in the room, Pete, you missed this, but in the room, Steve asked that question

while you were telling us the answer and you didn't hear him so Jesse's like no ask it again because because Jesse and I picked up on the fact that you might have been kidding but I used to tell people I do a podcast with my friends so you're obviously you know with CBS sports so what are you doing that you're having you're you're writing words on on a on a computer screen, and then posting that to the internet, which is something that Fox Sports is no longer doing. What specifically are you doing there?

My official title is Trending Writer, so I'm going to be covering the stuff that basically the internet's talking about every day, and I'm trying to do it. The reason that they brought me on was because they're looking to get more voice-driven stuff, And if there's something that I have, it's definitely a voice, whether you like it or not. So I'm going to be kind of just doing that stuff every day. And I'm sure there'll be hockey stuff once the season starts. I'll be writing columns and stuff like that.

But I guess my main job title and duty is to kind of cover what the Internet's talking about in sort of a humorous fashion. So it should be fun. Well, you're terrible at that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. As someone who has been laid off many, many, very many times themselves, how good are you feeling right now that you're like, I think, what is this, week one at the new gig? Yeah, so this is my second day, and I'm already taking time off to do this podcast.

That's good. I'm sure the second layoff won't be far behind. But, yeah, no, I feel really, really great. And honestly, it really couldn't have worked out more perfect in the sense that I was laid off immediately after hockey season, and I was unemployed throughout the entire summer. So it was a pretty good summer of peat over here. And if you're going to get laid off, might as well be in the off season, might as well be during the nicest weather of the year. and you know not to mention the fact that i ended up landing in a spot where i'm happy i'm working with a bunch of really good people and and you know i really really like the uh the direction

that we're headed and my bosses seem to really understand what i'm able to do well so uh it should be fun um it's it's very important to have bosses like identify what you're good at and actually let you do it i've learned that that's the biggest thing for me it's like i need to be able to work with somebody who understands my strengths understands my weaknesses and kind of just isn't a dick like you're only deep man that's that and that's not to say that that was the case at fox because i worked with some awesome awesome people over at fox uh and the whole team was great which is why i was so bitter about the fact they just dissolved everything um but i have learned that you're only as good as your boss lets you be.

So that was really, really important to me when I was looking for the next gig. So, I mean, since we're on the subject, what happened? What happened to Fox, and why did they do it? Why get rid of all your editorial content? I mean, if you're looking for the answers, you're asking the wrong person,

because I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. From what I understand, I mean, the reason that it happened is because somebody who doesn't really understand editorial and doesn't really understand how consuming sports content works looked at numbers on a page and said, hey, video revenue is more lucrative than selling ads for digital stories or digital journalism and things like that. So they just decided to completely pivot the video to make money. But when you do that, you kind of just ignore the fact that most people don't go to websites to watch video. No, no. Like if I'm in an airport and I'm on the Sportsnet app, I'm looking, I'm reading. Right.

Like if you're in any public place, even if you're at home, I feel like most people don't want to watch a video. They'd rather just quickly read an article and get the same sort of content. I guess if you're super-duper lazy or if you're on Facebook, you'll love videos. But, yeah, I just think that, you know, most of the time, especially for people at work or people in public, they're not going to watch a video. So, you know, I still, again, I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. But I think the fallout of that decision has really kind of proven that it was, you know, proven everybody thought that it was a bad idea when it happened,

and the fallout's kind of proven that that was correct. Yeah, Jesse just showed me the smoldering poop emoji that is FoxSports.com, like I'm looking at it today. It's a Tumblr page. What they invented was a Tumblr page. Yep. That's all it is. Did you happen to see the statistics that came out last week?

Glad you asked there, Peter. Glad you asked. So are you talking the Jimmy Trena tweet? Yeah, there's a couple of them. Richard Deich and Jimmy Trena put out a couple nice little tidbits about their traffic numbers. Well, here's the one I got. So uniques. So what would a unique be, by the way?

A unique view, you mean. A unique view? Okay. So that would be like one, it's, it's like, cause there's views and then there's unique views. So if I go to a page 10 times, it's still one unique view. Okay. That's how I understand it.

Am I wrong, Pete? Yeah, no, that's correct. Okay. So uniques, August, 2016, 26.4 million. That's amazing. For foxsports.com. This past August, August, 2017, nine. Wow.

Time spent August 2016 136 million minutes That's a lot August 2017 56 Sorry 56 Million

Million Yeah no it's not even 56 million It's just 56 minutes Just 56 minutes Less than an hour And video only uniques In August 2016 1.4 million

And in August 2017 103,000 Whoa So wait, I'm sorry Is that how many people viewed a video On FoxSports.com In August Pete

103,000 That's it I guess It's just insane to me When I was there I don't think I was The highest ranked person there But when I was there

my benchmark was three million pages uh a month so you know just looking at those numbers and seeing that they're having trouble even cracking that is crazy to me it's insane but it's not and the worst part is it's like it's kind of predictable i think everybody could have said that this was going to go poorly i don't know if people thought that it would go this poorly this this fast though so you got to think that they're going to self-correct here pretty soon and start hiring editorial staff back no i mean you would imagine but i want to see how that goes just because just because i mean they had such a great staff in place beforehand like and that's not even blowing smoke or not even you know obviously i'm biased because i worked there and i was part of it

but i really really love the team that we had and you know we had a lot of people who understood the internet a lot of people understood how uh you know how to actually make a a profitable and enjoyable website that was fun to go to um and was also able to cover news and do opinion and do just like that kind of fun stuff uh it was a great great great mix of that stuff and you know they threw it all away so uh that's tough to get back uh you know there are a lot of websites that that cover sports on the internet and not a ton of them do it well so it'll be interesting interesting to see how they uh they put a team together uh if they decide to do that again but i will say they do have the money to be able to do it so yeah they do we'll see yeah that's crazy that's that's why i

think there will be a correction here like when things started to go downhill like uh you know maybe leafs tv when i was there or cbc like it was budget restrictions like they were broke right Fox isn't broke they're just dumb like for what they did so I gotta assume they're corrected the interesting part for me and Pete you know a little bit more about this and I want to segue this into the NHL and the United States

because ESPN did something similar and I want to kind of get how it's viewed down there because you know we only really have the Canadian perspective but you know when you look at the chasm between what management knows about the internet and what you know

about the internet i wonder when this decision was made did anybody go to the guy in charge and it was one guy and strangely enough he was let go a week after all these layoffs happened uh for sexual i believe there's sexual assault allegations you um harassment harassment okay um you know did anybody pete go to him and go like was this a surprise or did anybody go at him and go hey you're making the wrong move here like do you know anything about that Oh, I think there was plenty of resistance. So I first got wind of the possibility that there would be layoffs a couple of months before that actually happened. But I was so disconnected from the rest of the team there because I'm in Boston and they're based out of L.A.

and pretty much everybody works in L.A. who works for the website. So I was very much out of the loop. But, you know, from what I heard, almost everybody else was kept out of the loop, too. Like my my boss didn't know what the hell was going to happen until the day that I was laid off and he was laid off as well. But the guy who actually hired me, I know that he had discussions with with Jamie Horowitz, who was in charge at the time. I know that he had discussions trying to convince him not to do the whole full video thing. And, obviously, they didn't really work, but I know that he did his damn best to convince him not to do that because he saw it for what it was, and now he works at ESPN. Wow. And ESPN has cut a lot of their NHL coverage, so being down there, and I know you're not exclusively in the NHL with what you're doing with CBS, but it seems like it's your first love.

how is it perceived by the fans and how is it perceived by the media outlets because you have the benefit of being able to look at it from both perspectives so is it is it that the the media outlets down there don't see it as enough of a

money winner which you know in many cases it's not and do the fans see it as you know the fans are like small and hardcore or how does it work down there I mean it's There's definitely, I have the benefit of living in a really great hockey city in Boston. I mean, it's about as good here and like in Minnesota, probably the two best places to be. But, you know, as far as that goes, I don't know.

On the digital side, I know that there's an audience for hockey, but the ceiling isn't quite as high in terms of readership here. So, like, I was doing well with my hockey stuff at Fox. It was read consistently, and I would hit my numbers and benchmarks. But, you know, the stories wouldn't take off like some of the NBA stories would, and they wouldn't gain that traction. And I think a big reason why is, you know, hockey doesn't have uh the pull in terms of names and uh and and you know pure stardom down here uh when you look at at the nba it's like you got lebron you got steph curry uh durant uh like those

names people will read stories and you know have interest or watch tv segments just based around of those names um and you know the nhl doesn't really have the same effect here uh you know if you ask a casual hockey fan or somebody who you know only watch a few games a year down here like i did this last year most people that i talked to just didn't even know who conor mcdavid was and that's insane to me i know that i know he's only been in the league for a few years but he's arguably like the he's probably the second best player in the game right now if you asked me, and the fact that most casual fans just don't even know who he is or what team he plays for is crazy.

It is insane. It shouldn't be that way. Is it because they lack the pizzazz, like personality-wise? And pizzazz is such an old word, but LeBron's a personality. Kevin Durant has multiple Twitter accounts. You know, there are guys in the NBA and the NFL who have real outlandish, crazy personalities, and the NHL doesn't seem to have that. Is that part of it? Yeah, and I think part of it is that they're really not allowed to or it's not encouraged for them to have those loud personalities or, you know, be more than just like a team guy. You know, anything that a guy does to kind of build his own brand or his individual interest

is looked at a lot of the times as him being selfish or him being a diva or, you know, trying to command too much spotlight for himself. And, you know, it shouldn't be that way. It should be guys should be trying to build up their own brand as much as possible because that brings attention to them. It brings attention to the game and it just creates interest. and I've had that stance for a while, and it's just frustrating to see how much,

like, because hockey players are interesting. They are interesting despite what they might come off as in interviews and stuff like that with all their cliches, but these are, like, really humorous, a lot of times really humorous, really good guys with great personalities, and they're just not allowed to put them on display. I think that's probably true.

Because you talk to any of them off camera They're just regular They're just regular people They love to crack jokes They probably trash talk more than You know, most other sports And then, you know You put a microphone in front of their face

And they say nothing Here's my gauge For personality and fame These days Is there an NHL player Famous enough And charismatic enough To do an episode of Hot Ones

Do you know that show? Yes, I do know that show, and my answer would be probably one single person. I bet you can guess who it is. Alexander Ovechkin. No, but that would be a pretty good one. Yeah, he'd be fun. Oh, I was going to say Shea Weber, but yeah. And not Sidney Crosby.

That's interesting. Yeah. McDavid, maybe. Like that new EA commercial, it was kind of a glimmer of hope. Like, maybe we're actually going to let this guy have fun. Like, maybe we're going to let him have fun. But if you put Sidney Crosby on an episode of Hot Wings, I guarantee you he would share all his wings with his teammates.

How can I incorporate this into hockey? How do I make this a team game? He would just keep handing wings to Chris Kunitz and Connor Sherry, even though Kunitz isn't on the Penguins anymore. That's my new gauge, though, because Kevin Durant went on Hot Ones, and it wasn't weird. It wasn't weird. Like, he has a personality.

He's funny. A persona. And he's on a bad day a top three player in the league, right? Mm-hmm. So does hockey have that? I guess the answer is... Probably not. Not really.

No, if you look at somebody like Lonzo Ball, who's never played a game in the NBA, he's more famous than every NHL player, I'd say. Lonzo Ball's dad is... That is true When was the last time A hockey player Was on Monday Night Raw Yeah

Right Never Never Right I'm trying to think What do you think Is a bigger brand CCM down there

Or Big Baller Brand I think it's It's gotta be CCM No okay Nobody gives a shit About Big Baller Brand Yes Yes

We got one Even the balls Even the balls Don't give a shit About Big Baller Brand I don't know, man. I could really go for some $600 shoes or whatever the hell. Those shoes will be the lightest shoes ever.

Is that what they are? No. They'll also fall apart probably. Nope. No. They're $400. They're $400? And they're the lightest shoes ever.

Man. That's scary. So, Peter, we've got to talk about the Bruins here for a sec because it was sort of an interesting summer. And if you look at CapFriendly, which I love to look at CapFriendly every day every show

there was one particular player who until recently did not have a contract and I wanted to know how terrifying was it having the prospect of David Pasternak not coming to camp it was the most terrifying you know when

you're a Bruins fan every summer there's something where it's like alright what could go wrong here because it's absolutely going to go wrong and it's going to be the worst uh and you know for bruce fans it was the past in our contract this year and like it was very very hard to explain because in the back of my mind i i knew that they were going to get it done i knew that like there's no way that they can screw this up again oh there's a few ways and they almost got there uh but just as it kept going on i was like

there's no way that they can screw this up but then you know i kept tricking myself into into thinking well they've done it before they can definitely do it again so i was like torn in in the middle uh and i think i was just more frustrated by uh like the reaction to uh the fan reaction to to kind of the negotiations as they were going on like somehow at the beginning of the summer you know he deserved a big contract and you know he was in line for a huge payday after last season and then that shifted as the summer went on and fans were like well he's only had one good year so you can't pay him for for seven or eight and he doesn't deserve uh you know he doesn't deserve more than seven million a year or whatever and it's like dude he just he just came

up a season as a 20 year old in which you know almost like nobody has done that other than great um so and then obviously a classic bruins fan move is to blame peter peter shirelli for for setting the bar way too high and screwing up the current current state of the bruins even from edmonton so uh it was so so frustrating and and when they finally got the deal done uh i was almost disappointed that uh don sweeney won because that that deals great and i love i love criticizing don sweeney and i and i uh you know it was you know as a negative pessimist person it was a bummer to me that i couldn't uh hold that over don for me definitely won in the negotiations and then stalling there so i i got a couple questions there uh one is do you

find Bruins fans are more likely to turn on their own than others because that is my observation or at least the media in Boston yeah absolutely I think you know Bruins fans they're from Boston so they automatically just hate everybody pretty much anyway so you know but I will say that Bruins fans do turn on each other more than uh most of the other sports here it does seem that why is that uh because i think there's such a big divide between like old big bad bruins and like the old time style of hockey and so like a lot of the older fans are very very resistant to you know you know analytics and kind of the way that the game has evolved and they they just like when they see a guy like david back so like oh big time leader in the room and

And, you know, he plays a tough physical game and he plays with a ton of heart. They see that contract and they're like, oh, what a great deal for the Bruins. And then, you know, smart people look at that and go, wow, that contract's going to look bad in a couple of years. Right. And, you know, I think there is such a big divide between those two styles of hockey fans, especially here. Kind of seems like there's a divide in management, too. yeah i mean i think that you know cam neely has gotten away with uh has escaped without a ton of blame but i mean if you're going to point the finger at somebody it should be that guy rather

than peter sorelli or don sweeney i mean a lot of the decisions seem to be coming from cam neely and you know it's it's a weird position to be in as a bruin fan now because you look at you know the pipeline and they have a lot of good young players coming up uh and there's a lot of reason to be optimistic for where the team is headed but then you also look at you know the david backers contract you look at the matt baleski contract you know like well they're gonna have to pay these young guys and they're in kind of a tougher position than they should be because they still stink at signing players right yeah it's it's a real tough position to be in like they're good they seem to be good at scouting they seem to be good at uh you know building the

pipeline but they just really make questionable moves in terms of uh player acquisition the other question i had and it's it applies to the bruins now and for me it applied to the leafs i would say as recently as last year definitely two years ago how do you balance cheering for what is best for the team and what's hilarious because for the longest time the leafs oh just nothing but hits nothing but hits hilarity but it made the team really really really bad you could say you one might say that you established your career on the misery of leaf fandom if the leafs made the playoffs four times uh you know in my first nine years doing videos i don't think anyone would have cared like i think it's because it's a bonding experience yeah and the one time they make it

It's friggin' Game 7. I will speak from personal experience. Steve, you definitely built your brand off of Leafs misery. My first exposure to you was when I was in high school, probably like 10 years ago at this point. It was you screaming into a YouTube video about two garage shutting out their Leafs. Crying out loud!

I forgot that happened. uh yeah so that was that was my first exposure to you but uh in terms of that in terms of that question i think that there's an answer in it i would rather see uh i would rather see the bruins be absolutely hilariously terrible than see them stuck in the middle uh and be you know just uh bubble team like they've been for the past couple of years um you know this you can't seem to move forward right if you're a bubble team yeah if you're a bubble team it's you're just stuck in mediocrity unless something brilliant happens to you which you know you're you're probably gonna wait a while for that to happen um so yeah it's like if i hate the moves that are like oh

they'll it they'll be a better team but it's not gonna put them over the edge so i'd rather see them be horrible uh knowing that i'll be able to get good content and be able to you know make fun of them and at least make it a little bit more entertaining for fans uh then see them kind of toil in mediocrity and just be like oh well this team's not going to do anything so what will the bruins get for zidane ochara at the trade deadline uh i don't imagine that happening you're all the way wrong but continue steve has this dream that he's going to come to the leafs somehow yeah and we're going to go from martin marincin to dan o'chara and it's going to be dope it would be like it would be a solid pickup for the least

we're able to get in but uh yeah i don't see it happening because i think the bruins believe that they can compete whether that's correct or incorrect we'll see but i do think that this this front office won't concede the fact that you know that they're either selling or you know giving up on competing so they're not going to trade char and i also think that they want to keep him probably for a couple years beyond this year wow a limited life okay i think that he might stick around beyond the season. Right, and, you know, I mean, if you limit his ice, he's still a pretty effective guy just based on his size.

As long as he can skate a little bit. It's his workload, yeah. Yeah, like, you know, he's not a top-pairing guy anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not very effective. Yeah, I think that, you know, he's one of those guys that gets an unwarranted amount of criticism here. I mean, I think, you know, a lot of the fans like to criticize him for being slow and old, and it's like, you was never fast.

He's a huge, monstrous guy who is still pretty good and pretty sound defensively. So, I mean, he's not your number one, or he shouldn't be. He has been your number one because guess what? The rest of the Bruins defense has stunk over the past few years. And that's not his fault. If he's in a role where he should be, and if he was a second-pairing guy, that would be unbelievable. and you know I still think that

there's a chance for him to have a role that fits him here in the next few years if the Bruins defense pans out with the young guys like McAvoy and Carlo he shouldn't have to be the guy

and you know I think that if you know if the Bruins management realizes that or puts him in a position where he doesn't have to be the guy I'd like to see him stick around. Well, and yeah, I mean, he's... Ottawa Senators fans are going to hate this,

but he's a Bruins legend. Like, he is. Like, he's going to be one of those guys, I think, that, you know, 10 years from now, they go back and they honor him because of the amazing accomplishments, including, you know, a Stanley Cup. Guy's been around a very long time.

Like, he... There's, like, a Wayne Gretzky anecdote, like, where he was on the Rangers and he sees Zidane O'Chara get on the ice with the Islanders And he just skates over to the bench He goes, yeah, that's why I'm retiring But that's how long Char has been around

He got to play against Wayne Gretzky Now the young guys See him on the ice and they're going to say Well, I'm just going to scoot around him Yeah, and he can't even slash him anymore Can't even slash Anybody anymore Oh my god, are the new rules just going to drive

Bruins fans Of all the fan bases they could piss off Bruins are like probably top Philly's in there it's basically the NHL has limited

Brad Marchand's game his face-offs the way he takes face-offs and the way that he uses his stick to me this is that's his game

Dustin Bufflin is going to average 45 seconds of even strength ice time a game yeah Brad Marchand is going to have 4 million penalties yes he is

he'll still score 40 goals but like those are the things that make him supremely effective in getting under opponent's skin breakaways coming out of the box

The guys who are good at face-offs, I think they're going to benefit from the new face-offs. You think so? Yeah, because nobody's going to want to be able to take the risk, and it's going to be more fair. So the guys who are actually good at it are going to have an opportunity to show their skill. Well, that's interesting, though, because the two Leafs who have struggled the most are Moore and Bozak. And those are supposed to be the strongest. Yeah, those are supposed to be the guys. So if you're now relying heavily on Matthews or Kadri, Kadri's never been a strong face-off guy.

I don't know. To me, I said this on the radio yesterday, and sorry, Pete, we're going a little leafy here, but it's a great opportunity for Miro Altanen because you look at it and you go, well, he's a European, he's going to have trouble adjusting to the North American game, so that's going to be hindering him making the team. Well, Dominic Moore is having trouble adjusting to the North American game because the North American game changed overnight. So who is the new face-off rule going to benefit?

I don't know, because I think the guys who are best at face-offs are the best at cheating. Right. And now they're cracking down on cheating. Well, and I couldn't—and I know there's a lot of people saying, don't complain, you know, this will even itself out, and I'm sure it will, but it sure is really annoying. Like, it's—I don't know, Pete, if you've seen—I don't know how the Bruins have done in the face-off circle recently in the preseason, but it's a little bit frustrating to watch, and the flow of the game gets interrupted. Because now, instead of the ref not dropping the puck, you have an alignsman not dropping the puck, which was annoying enough. Now you've got them dishing out penalties for pointless infractions, right? Yeah, I mean, I guess if you want to look at the silver lining, if there's more penalties, then you're looking at a possible increase in scoring and power play scoring.

So we'll see how it goes in terms of that. But it's so frustrating to me that with the place that the game is in now, if this slows it down any, it's a bad thing for the game. Because the two biggest rule changes that seem to have come out of the past year or year or two is that the offsides reviews and then this now. And both of those could actively work to slow the game down, which nobody wants well and also like from a visual standpoint like yeah power plays generate more goals but power plays are like kind of boring aren't they like i don't know they're

exciting for one team they're excited right it's all in one spot and it's just four guys looking to guard five guys and they're all pretty much standing still there's no flow there's no you're not utilizing the skills of today's hockey players, which is speed. Yeah, and then icing the puck is just, okay, we're going to kill 20 seconds and watch everybody skate to the other end and then come back in the zone. That's not exciting at all. Yeah, you want to see McDavid take a rush? Yeah.

Or do you want to see them frigging play Harlem Globetrotters around the zone? I'll just watch basketball. Yeah, right. I mean, that's what I'm saying. If there are more power plays, usually power plays slow the game down because it just allows one team to set up and kind of just rotate, pass back and forth until they're able to find an open guy

and just bury it in the back of the net. It slows the game down. There's no end-to-end action usually in power play. With the slashing, do you guys agree a little bit more with that, with the fact that, you know, because, I mean, there's a ton of that going on, and, I mean, didn't someone break their hand last year? Mark Mathot almost lost a finger.

Mark Mathot lost a finger. Johnny Goudreau Johnny Goudreau always gets slashed Yeah Johnny Goudreau I think was out for a while I want to say Brendan Gallagher But I know he also accidentally blocked a Weber shot Wasn't there someone on the Bruins as well? I know a few years ago

Torrey Krug I think he suffered like a wrist fracture Slashing the wrist He's had a good couple years then Wrist and jaw Yeah for sure Yeah, no, I just, like, I feel like with the slashing thing, that makes sense to me. That makes sense.

It's like, okay, fine, you want to cut back on the slashing. You don't want, you know, somebody else walking around with half a finger like Mark Pathot did. I get that. I wondered, though, with the face-off violation, other than Jeff Merrick, I don't know a single person who noticed or cared about how those face-offs were going. Like, do you remember a single fan at any point going, And boy, I sure hate that Brad Marchand or Sidney Crosby cheated. Logan Couture sure had a point two Stanley Cups ago.

You know what I mean? Remember you made that comment about how Sidney Crosby cheats in the face-off circle? Oh, yeah. So who is this to benefit? That's the stupidest thing because everybody cheats. And if everybody cheats, the playing field is still level. Yeah. Yeah.

Ah, the old... Steroid trick. Lance Armstrong defense I'm a Patriots fan I'm a Patriots fan well I was if everybody cheats

it's fine absolutely absolutely I was at the game on the preseason game on Tuesday and everybody started actively booing

every time somebody got kicked out regardless of which team if it was an auto player or a lease player who was getting kicked out the face off just because it was

delaying the game we wanted the action to start back and gotta take 10 seconds to throw somebody out I would rather see two guys cheating than see guys just constantly getting kicked out of the face-off circle.

I don't need to see that. Just get on with the game. And what's wrong with what they were doing? The official just doesn't drop the puck. It's annoying. But at least it's not, okay, now we've got to stop, reset, send somebody off, and then we're going to go to commercial break, and then we're going to come back, and okay, now we're good to go.

And now if you punch someone in the face, you get the same ramifications for if your foot is over the line. Yeah. In the face-offs. It's dumped. Now, to kind of counter something that we just said a minute ago, they want this to be a teaching thing. The goal is not necessarily, well, I don't know if I believe this,

but the goal is not necessarily to increase penalties. It's to get these players to stop doing it. So they're getting them to stop cheating in the face-off circle, but also if they stop it with the slashing, if they reduce actual slashing, the game will be faster. It will be more free-flowing. The slashing makes sense. Again, I feel like people are—you look at the way Marchand and Crosby and these guys who are really, really good at this,

who people call them cheaters, I almost look at it and go, are they cheaters or have they innovated? Are they just doing the thing that no one else has thought of yet? Marchand's a cheater. Marchand's a cheater. Bergeron, I think, is an innovator. Right? I don't know. I just feel like—and I could be wrong on this, but is Crosby not creating?

Are you limiting the creativity of the face-off? And if that's the new way to take the face-off, then that's what they do. And if you've got to slap another guy's stick out of the way and that's a little bit of gamesmanship, that's kind of fun, isn't it? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. I just never had a problem with it.

I think it'll leave it out for a guy like Crosby, right? Because now he can no longer cheat in the face-off circle. But what happens when you can't slash Sidney Crosby anymore? Right. The return of the 120-point season. Oh, that'd be nice. That'd be good. So, Pete, did you catch any of the game this morning with the Kings and Canucks in China?

I cannot say that I did. I had very little interest. I had very little interest in preseason hockey to begin with. But when you put it on, what time was that at? 7.30 this morning, Eastern Standard, yeah. Yeah, I'm not getting up at 7.30 in the morning for a preseason hockey game. Well, and which Canucks fans and Kings fans saw that game? Yeah.

Because I would have been at 4.30. Right. That seems like a gigantic oversight. Well, New York time, it'll be 7.30. But you're right. You're right. Who watched this game? Also, it's a weekday.

And nobody was there either. Nobody in China was there apparently either. Better question. Did this game happen? Do we have... Okay, we saw a box score. Do we have proof that those things happen? Do we have video?

Let's go to FoxSports.com to find out. But guys, they're really trying to grow the international game. That's why they're putting preseason games on at 4.30 in the morning local time and not sending players to the Olympics. That's their business plan. That's a great strategy. I hope this continues because they'll continue to be just North America only that way. Well I've got

One of the guys who actually writes for Hockey Buzz Kind of did a really good kind of breakdown And I'm you know We got a couple friends that work there And he said the NHL will be in China A minimum of six times in the next eight years Could be more Can't confirm yet

That doesn't seem like very much No it's like the NFL in Canada right They're like yeah six times in the next eight years That was a huge success Can't confirm regular season NHL games in China at this point there's apparently 15 teams including the Bruins, Islanders, Capitals and Canadians have expressed interest

NHL representatives met with Kunlin Red Star which is a KHL team and they do every single time that they go out to China and CWHL team as well apparently they are working

with that, this is where I thought it was interesting that the NHL and the KHL are actually working together in China to grow the game because they believe there's mutual benefit there. And that was an interesting point. I thought that's kind of cool. If I know anything about the KHL, it's that, I don't know. I think they have something nefarious going on.

Do they owe the NHL money? How much? And how long have they owed them that for? Was it given to them in a brown paper bag? They're saying this is a 20 to 30 year plan to break into China. And there's a chance that, they haven't confirmed this, that an NHL team in a preseason game will play Red Star. The NHL might not be able to break into Calgary, which is a market they're already in. I'll believe it when I see it.

Pete, what did you think of the Joffrey Lupo stuff? I didn't actually see what actually happened there. I caught up on it a little bit this morning. But what did he actually say? So, okay, he tweeted a picture of him snowboarding Down a pretty rad slope And he basically said all work is what? Which is, you know, the Mayweather thing

But then someone talked about Someone left a comment like Didn't you just fail your physical? Because it's true Like less than a week before he posts this Lou Lamorello goes Oh yeah, both Nathan Horton and Joffrey Lupo Failed their physicals

Right And then Lupo posts this thing of him going down a hill So that guy leaves a comment, and Lupo leaves two comments in response. One of them was, I'm just waiting for the call, which is kind of cryptic. Oh, here it is. Thank you, Jesse. Yeah, just waiting for the call. And then the really bad one, ha-ha, failed physical?

They cheat. Everyone lets them. That's basically just suggesting that they just let the Leafs stash him? Basically Now what's interesting is that Everybody assumed that he was on LTIR Last year And he wasn't

The Leafs actually had him on the cap Now if they wanted to make It only activates if you're above the cap So they were below it So it didn't need that If Philpula had accepted the deal From Tampa to Toronto with Brian Boyle Then it would have activated

But because it never happened And he didn't want to go play for Babcock It ended up being that They didn't have to use that space So he never actually went on long term injury reserve And he's still on IR He's not on LTIR Which is different

He's on he might come back injured reserve Yes And he said today Now this is what he tweeted out last night I just wanted to complete the story Pete He said I responded earlier this week to some negative comments on Instagram It was an inappropriate response And I deleted it

but I take full responsibility. It's been extremely tough not to be able to play for the last 1.5 years or one and a half years. I will not be seeking a second opinion, but I hope one day to be able to get back on the ice. I apologize to the media, fans, Leafs organization, and most of all my teammates for this unneeded distraction. Pete, you're a Patriots fan.

Is this cheating? Yeah, and I do think there is some shady crap that goes on around the league. I thought the hostess stuff was pretty shady in Chicago. What about Datsuk in Detroit? Yeah, I mean, like, there's definitely circumvention that goes on around the league, and, you know, I don't know how you deal with it. I just think that, you know, when a guy comes out and says something and maybe suggests that there's some shady crap going on,

don't write it off immediately. And I know that he's probably forced to apologize, but there's probably something there. And, you know, I wouldn't be quick to write those guys off. I agree. Well, and, like, we kind of freaked out about it last show, and I freaked out on Lupo, and I freaked out on Kadri. Like, I think now it has the chance to go away,

which I think is exactly what the Leafs want, and I think it's what Lupo wants too. But on that note, it doesn't necessarily excuse what's going on, whatever that is, because we don't know. It was suggested in the city that the Leafs have something on him. Now, I don't know exactly how accurate that is, but if they're holding something over Lupo's head, that's definitely a problem. That's basically like blackmail.

It is. However, if you have an agreement with somebody, that's different. So if you agreed that, hey, we won't come out with this, but also understand that you're not playing for us, and that's the agreed upon thing. That's still a shady agreement. That's a mob agreement. But if he agreed to it, that's my point, right? Like, you know, I don't know.

Would he have lost money if they bought him out? I don't know. I'm sure he would have lost some, right? We'll ask Chris Johnson next week. Yeah, because I'm not sure how that, I'm not sure fully how the cap works on that with players over the age of 24, but apparently, isn't it like, you don't get...

I think the bio penalty for him would have been pretty low for the Leafs. But I think he still collects that salary. Okay, he does. Okay. Full salary. No, I think it's like two-thirds of the salary is what he would collect. So then they could say to him, listen, we can buy you out,

or we can just pay you, and you can be quiet and make your money. Make all of your money. Or you could do none of the work and, yeah, make all of the money. So I wonder about that. And I guess he wants to make a comeback next year, which is going to be tough after two and a half years away from the game. but um now i want to get everybody's opinion on this because the cap circumvention thing has always sort of been an issue ever since it was instituted and lou lamourelle has been really at

the forefront of that um is it cap circumvention if it's legal so if if you know the the ilia kovalchuk deal at the time was basically legal except for the fact that it was not in the spirit of the cba and that was what the nhl i believe took issue with they had to basically change the rule like that was the i'm surprised it's not called the lou lamorello rule in the same way that it's called the sean avery rule yeah for waving her stick in the goalie's face like it was him yeah it's his fault yeah so is that is that really caps for convention or is it just people being people taking it to the letter of the law and going well this this is allowed so i'm going to take advantage of it? And is that not just

a competitive advantage? Beep. I mean, like, if you... I don't know. I think if you... If you can do it within the letter of the law and get away with it, then that forces it to be

written in. So, I mean, again, I hate to keep bringing up the Patriots, but Bill Belichick does that all the time. He'll just exploit things that are, you know, basically frowned upon but it's it's legal and he can do it if he wants to uh and then until the nfl says all right now we're going to change the rules because you're being a dick so i think if if you can exploit it to your advantage then all the power to you um but i mean when it when it

affects you know when it affects other people and kind of you know puts them in in a tough spot i I think that's when you kind of got to look at revisiting and not allowing teams to do that. Are you a fan of Apple Watches, Pete? Nope. Hey, okay. That is also probably the lamest sports controversy, quote-unquote controversy, in the history of sports.

I think a lot of people agree. That's why it's kind of like up here it was a big story and then it went away. Is it still a big thing in Boston? no no nobody's talking about that here um okay so uh what are your thoughts on videotaping the practices of the opposing team if it helps you win a super bowl what about deflating footballs uh again if it helps you win a super bowl uh i'm all for it but i don't see how that helps you win a super bowl when you ran the ball like 80 percent of the time uh in your afc championship

game and still won by 40 points. And have you read Tom Brady's book where he wakes up apparently every day and says he drinks 25 ounces of electrolyte-balanced water? He has a health book out. Did you guys read this? No. So I guess he's got a ridiculous routine

and health professionals have come out and said, no, you definitely shouldn't drink that much water. Like, have a glass of water, but not 25 ounces or whatever it was. But I think the guy who's the greatest quarterback of all time knows a thing about What if it just happens to work

Yeah I think we should trust a 40 year old Who's still playing in the NFL I'm saying the research is For most people it does not work But for him it just happens to work So let Tom Brady be Tom Brady Is what I'm saying

Jesse I want you to drink one of those giant Office things of water Like just hold it over your head tomorrow morning And I want to see you Become quarterback for the Argos Do I look like I have five Super Bowls? Pete? I love Tom Brady with all my heart,

but there's absolutely no way that I am taking nutrition or just lifestyle advice from that guy. He claims to never have coffee. I'm already out on that. I would be an absolute monster if I could not drink coffee. And then he goes to bed at like 8.30 every night. Not interested in that either. And he doesn't eat

Like half of food groups He doesn't eat mushrooms or tomatoes Living like that He won't eat mushrooms, tomatoes, things like that He's like I remember the quote I loved from him was I don't need to taste a burger to know it tastes good He's like

I would go to war for Tom Brady Eight days a week But if he said that in front of my face I would probably just walk away Like you're my friend and I love you But I can't with you right now I'm leaving because I have to Because I don't want to say anything that I'll regret

I need to walk away from you right now I was on the radio last night With JD Bunkus and Ashley Docking And Ashley Admitted on the radio Pete That she has chicken fingers With A sauce that is ketchup and mayonnaise

Which you might know as Fancy sauce from Step Brothers That's disgusting I'm not allowed to be her friend right? I'm an anti-mayo guy, and just combining mayo with anything just sounds like a bad time. Wow, see, now, Pete, mayo's fantastic. I don't know what you're talking about. Mayo is tremendously overrated.

You guys are, you're wrong about mayo, okay? I love you both, but you're wrong about freaking mayo. We're not, we're not. Okay, so I got some audio we want to play. Oh, the internet's back. So the internet is back. Pete, the reason we haven't got to the audio yet is the internet, for some reason, inexplicably went down. But there's some things that we got to talk about.

The first thing is a little bit older. Obviously, there's some clips that blew up today. But this one is from Mike Francesa at WFAN in New York. Now, just a little background. Penn State won a football game 56-0. And it was against Georgia State. No, they didn't win 56-0. Oh, sorry.

Yeah, yeah. Penn State, well, I guess, okay. So there was a field goal attempt. And I'm going to play the clip. Field goal attempt with a few seconds left. And here's what happened. Ready? I'm ready.

All right. to do with we had our fourth team on the field and we don't have a fourth team field goal block they don't even really know how to get lined up with the mix and match guys that we had in there so we called time out to get the second team field goal block in there um and that's just kind of how it played out so georgia state was basically they had marched they're down 56 to nothing they march into a field goal range and they're like okay we might get a we might get a field goal here, so it can be 56-3. So at least we get on the board, right?

Get on the board. Don't get shut out in a football game, which I feel like is hard to do. So what you heard there was the Penn State coach talking about why he called a timeout right before they were supposed to ice the kicker when they were up 56-0. And the kicker missed.

Oh my god. So the coach said, well, we had our fourth team on, and we couldn't get it together, and people are saying, well, who cares? Mike Francesa had this to say. Penn State coach James Franklin called a timeout with his team leading, and as Georgia State attempted a field goal with 11 seconds remaining.

With his team trailing 56-0, Georgia State kicked a Brandon Wright, lined up for a 31-yard field goal, and a shot to at least get on the scoreboard. But James Franklin wasn't conceding anything. Georgia State snapped the ball and right launched a kick through the uprights, but Franklin got a timeout in just under the wire. That is an absolute disgrace. And his stooge tried to alibi around it. And these fans, who are happy now that they're winning 56-0

and couldn't give a damn what they did to Georgia State, sit there and make excuses for him. Didn't have a kick block team. He's got to try and block a kick at 56-0? He's a horse's ass for doing that. That's a quote. I had to do, it had to do with we had our fourth team on the field. We didn't have a four-team field goal block.

What the heck do you need to block it for? Let the ball go through the uprights. You jerk. So we called timeout to get the second-team field goal block in there. What a bunch of garbage that is. He sells you that, he'll sell you anything. The guy iced him, plain and simple, because he wanted a shutout. And he got some grief, so he came up with some lame excuse

that the alums could sell somebody. He's getting pregnant pause. Anybody watching knows that is complete nonsense. The guy kicks it again and misses, right? That's the bottom line. So I hope he was proud of himself as he ran across the field. You know, I hope he was proud of himself for getting that 56-0. I hope he was real proud of him.

I hope he was proud of himself on a coach's show. Show it a few times. I could keep going. Now, I want to compare and contrast that, guys, because, you know, Mike Francesa sometimes gets fired up. Rarely does he get fired up. But when he does, it's interesting. Now, I want to know who did a better job.

Was it Mike or was it this guy? Pete wrote about this guy today, And I'm Pete all morning I've been wanting to talk about this with you three All morning Is his name David Santana? Or is it Michael something? I don't know this guy's name

But he's from ESPN Radio in New York 98.7 Nice Pete Do you know? It's something His last name is Two things Don LaGreca

Is his name Don LaGreca, okay. Don LaGreca looks like an older version of Guy Fieri. He looks like the child of Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salter. There you go. So here's what Don has to say, and this is also football-related, about math. Did he have to throw the football? Come on, stop it already.

Everybody's coming up with these stuff. Oh, well, this offensive lineman, only 27% of the time was Eli pressured from his left side On Monday night, when Sean McDonough's being announced, stop. Stop creating some narrative that you, everybody knows football better than somebody else. Your eyeballs tell the story. The offensive line sucks. Period. That's my stat.

You want a stat? You want sabermetrics? Offensive line. Don look. Don look. Greco tweeted last night or said on the Michael Cajun. Offensive line stinks. That's the stat.

Give me a break. That's what we're going to do, Michael. We're going to be like accountants now in baseball. What is it? The Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean Theorem says that the Giants offensive line, that their record should be 1-1. That's what the Pythagorean Theorem says, that the Giants offensive line, that their record should be 2-0. When I talk Pythagorean Theorem, I sound like that?

No. The people that trust the Pythagorean Theorem, the people that listen to the Pythagorean Theorem, the people that sit there at their desk, that only know the naked body through National Geographic, that do the math to come up with the Pythagorean Theorem. That's what they sound like. It's football. I've been watching it for 40 years. 40!

40 years! 40! That's one of the worst offensive lines I've ever seen. And they have not gone this long without scoring 20 points since 77-78 when Joe Pasarczyk was their quarterback. Patterson played Joe. So take that with your Pythagorean theorem The Joe Pesarchic theorem

You're dead He is as orange as his shirt By the way when this ends Listen first it was Kevin Durant You do not want a problem with me Pythagoras You so called ancient Greek Pythagoras

Oh my god I'm a man I'm 40 guy Off the hook Yeah, for sure. I have two strong takeaways from both of those clips. And the first one is I could not disagree more with Mike Prinzessa. Sports is not about protecting people's feelings. Thank you.

If you can shut out a team, you've got to go for it. You've got to shut them out if you have the opportunity to do it. And that's not even to mention the fact that by calling a timeout, If the kicker still has an opportunity to do his job, he didn't do his job. He missed the kick, and that's his problem. It's not the coach's fault. If you can win 56-0, that's better than winning 56-3. And you're not doing your job correctly

if you're not trying to beat the opponent as badly as you can. So that's my take on that. And then this guy, there is a 0% chance that he even knows what the pipe that green is. it in no way applies to football at all um it did build his house though which is interesting i mean you use that you know you use that in engineering built his house adam men with with with brawn and their bare hands and then when they went home they went and watched football for 40 years 40 years that's how they built his house also the the most underrated part of that clip is him thinking

that nerds have to go to National University. Thank you, Pete. My big takeaway from this, so I listened to this in the car, on my car speakers, blaring it like it was the Wu-Tang Clan. It was the best. And my first thought

when I heard that quote was, this guy fucks. Here's this guy making fun of nerds who probably spend all day on the computer and all day online and thinks that they have to go get a National Geographic magazine

to see naked women. Definitely not aware of how the internet works. No, no, or... Is there another way? How the internet might have, like, grown? We don't all just have serious catalogs? Okay, so last clip. Last clip.

Now, this doesn't have anything to do with sports, but I still think it's important that we play it because it's an important clip. It's another freakout, and I want to compare and contrast with the first two, okay? Are we ready? You know what's...

Here, before you play it, before you play it, Pete, damn it, I'm so happy you're back doing what you do. Like, you got to write an article about that clip. What did you say? I know. You're living the dream, dude. I know. It really is the best.

And that's why I'm so excited to be able to write about that, about the stuff that people are talking about online every day, because usually it's dumb crap like that. Like, that is where I thrive, and just the dumbest stories in the sports world. So I'm very excited about it. Please change your name to Pete Thagoras. Oh, my God. All right. So this is from MSNBC, and I think it's O'Connell?

Something O'Connell. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't matter. You've heard the clip, but we have to play it again. He's forever the hammer guy. Michael Iscoff has the latest on that. Lawrence O'Connell.

O'Donnell. Lawrence O'Donnell. Stop the hammering. Stop the hammering out there. Who's got a hammer? Where is it? I don't know. Where's the hammer?

It's on a different floor. Is it on the other? Go up on the other floor. Somebody go up there and stop the hammering. Stop the hammering. I'll go down to the goddamn floor myself and stop it. Keep the goddamn commercial break going. Call fucking Phil Griffin.

I don't care who the fuck you have to call. Stop the hammering. Fuck, it's out of control. Shit. now he released a tweet and apologized sucks it fucking sucks to be out here with this out of control shit did you see the whole eight minute clip it's eight minutes eight minutes that's eight minutes yeah so this is i feel i felt bad for him yeah okay because it's eight minutes long there's a solid four or five minutes of him freaking out which was probably over the course

of potentially a couple hours because it's just his right it's just right yeah so we're missing all the sought so this is going on what was driving him nuts is someone's just having a casual conversation in his ear about some other shit and you just see him like like he's about to keel over right and he's so controlled in his read otherwise right what's amazing he goes from angry to like very controlled yeah and he's not he's not very verbal about it he's just like there's someone in my ear there's some and it gets more and more there's someone there's a woman talking in my ear and you see him like like he starts to get up from his death but he doesn't actually say anything and then that fucker with the hammer and he just pops now it wasn't just

that that there was a lead-up to it because you shouldn't freak out on people like that Who released that footage? Yeah. It's now my life goal to put that clip on audio and then just walk around into Ram Stranger's house while they have sex and just start playing. Stop the hammering! Stop the hammering!

If the Leafs or Bruins ever get blown out this year, we should just put that clip out there. Stop the hammering! That has so many uses, And I'm going to use it At every given opportunity That's amazing Stop that poor guy

Why did he tweet an apology I'm sorry that someone on my staff Released this footage No he said a better man Would have handled the situation You know would have handled The situation better I understand why he issued one

Also shout out him for having At Lawrence on Twitter Wow that's It's just Lawrence Lawrence is his Twitter handle Okay that's pretty cool He was on that early Yeah

That's cool That's pretty cool If you get one name You're in charge of one guy It's like him, Drill, a bunch of other ones. So we're running out of time here because we started a little bit late today. Things happen. But Pete, before we go, those three clips, which was the best freakout?

Which was the one that you're like, man, I could listen to that over and over and over again. I'll never get tired. Well, I mean, it's tough to say that the guy who went on for eight minutes didn't have the best freakout. freak out but i will say i think the oh man that's such a tough question i think i think the pythagorean theorem one is probably the best just in the sense that it makes absolutely no sense and there's like zero there's zero connection and none of that rant makes any sense at all like you can see where the other two guys are coming from uh so i i when when picking uh the best rant i'm gonna go with half of the most nonsensical and that's for sure the giant pythagorean theorem

one uh i couldn't agree more because one was a guy having a very bad day the other was mike francesa who if he had just been like i called a timeout what a jerk he hammed it up this other Dude went deep Into his past And into a deep Psychological scar Deeply deeply hurt at one point in his life In his high school career

Oh yeah well and You gotta listen to it again because He goes on about Pythagorean Theorem Pythagorean Theorem and then finally he's just going Oh He's just screaming to the point Where his co-host is trying to reel it in And while his co-host is talking

He's just screaming through it It's like a guttural instinct almost He's screaming at his grade 10 teacher Right now And he did a lisp on command Yeah A great move during a rant Just implement a lisp

Yeah just do whatever Like the 60s Whatever you would taunt a nerd with Back then Bring that out That's been in the locker for 30 or 40 years Now, you bring that out now. Oh, the Pythagorean Theorem!

It's nice that outside of hockey, the analytics debate still rages. I'm glad it rages in football. I'm glad it rages a little bit in basketball, too. It's nice to know that it's everywhere. Pete, I bring this to you. Who would be the most likely person to have a Pythagorean Theorem rant in hockey? Jeremy Roenick. What a great pick!

Wow. You know, I think it'd be a good one, too. I'd watch that. Like now, because if Milbury did it, I don't know if I would enjoy it as much, but I feel like JR would at least be really funny about it, even if he was wrong. JR, the Anakin Skywalker of hockey broadcasting. Why do you call him that? You were supposed to be the chosen one.

It's true. I think Milbury would do it justice, but I think that he would be able to kind of form sentences better than Jeremy Roenick. I would rather see Jeremy Roenick just do absolute nonsense and just throw the Pythagorean theorem in there somewhere. That'd be good. Throw a water bottle from the bench. That was great.

That was great. In such a short time, I feel like we haven't had three real good viral breakdowns. Not in a while. Okay, random question before we go here. How much does your staff have to hate you before something like that gets out? Like, I almost wonder if that can't be the first freakout he's ever had, right? Because, you know, at a certain point, you're like, okay, well, we'll keep this under the rug or whatever. But if you're like that constantly, it's bound to get out.

That's why I always feel like, okay, you see one rat, there's like a nest that you don't see. Do you know what I mean? One cockroach, yeah. Yeah, so I wonder if— Sorry, go ahead, Pete. That's like the Bill O'Reilly thing where he's like, fuck it, we'll do a live. Like, you know that that guy had a million of those rants over the course of his career. And they just ended up picking the best one and putting it out there.

And it is a dirty look how much of an asshole this guy is. Underrated aspect of the Bill O'Reilly one, though, fuck it, we'll do it live, and I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. That's an old clip. He was doing entertainment at that point. That means someone saved, like, a beta tape. Yeah. Yeah.

That's like OG internet days where there was, like, three videos on the internet, and that was one of them. Yeah, they had this thing, like, the size of ten iPads stacked on top of each other. in their house for probably a couple decades. And transitioned it. And then they saw him on Fox one day and were just like, you know what, fuck this guy. They converted it.

They had to convert it to digital and then upload it. They had to really put effort into that hatred. They hated him. You have to hate someone. There's some passion there. That's passion. That's dedication. I want this to go to as many eyeballs as possible.

I want them to be a co-worker of Pete Blackburn. Absolutely. That kind of dedication and hard work. Pete, good luck this season, man. Whenever the Leafs play the Bruins, we're going to harass you on the phone and make you leave work for a bit. But we're so excited for you as fans of you because it's amazing that you're back at work. And I'm glad you had a great summer. And frankly, I'm a little fucking jealous, okay?

Thank you very much. You should be. I had a great summer. Good. Good. I'm glad. Well, hey, how's unemployment going for you, Pete? Good one, man.

Good one. Hey, congratulations on the sports extension, by the way. Thank you. I didn't tweet that for, like, everyone was very nice. And they're like, hey, man, congrats. That's so great to hear. I literally just did that to troll the athletic. Like, I thought it was funny.

Right. I said, big day tomorrow. And then I'm like, ah, I'm just staying with the company you probably thought I was going to stay with anyway. Ah. And then everyone was, like, really nice, including Pete. So thank you. Well, don't get used to it, because that's the one time the internet will be nice to you this year. Yeah.

Yeah, so. I'm going to get laid off and people are going to be like, oh, I bet you were, Steve. Boy, you cried wolf. I'm screwed. So, Pete, we'll be looking out for you. Follow Pete Blackburn on Twitter. And obviously, again, we'll be on to chirp you about the Bruins

and how terrible they are this year every time they play the Leafs. Okay, man? Perfect. All right. And looking forward to the Steelers-Patriots matchup, too. Do you think that New England's defense is the worst or second worst in the league? No. No, they'll be fine.

They'll be fine. And Bill we trust See Patriots fans man They never have to worry They never have to doubt Nope Never

Alright we'll be back Next Tuesday I believe Is it Chris Johnson Will be on Yes Chris Johnson will be on From Sportsnet And I think that's it

Is that all we have to do I will say tentatively Tentatively And he said tentatively A billion times Because you know Hockey happens Right fair enough

Pete thanks so much We'll see you guys Next Tuesday Follow the guys on Twitter At Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E and at Jesse Blake. The Steve Dangle Podcast.

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