The Steve Dangle Podcast - Rat to Back | June 18, 2025

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, 00:00 The Leafs are the 2nd best team 07:00 The Florida Panthers win back to back Stanley Cups 27:00 Is this all Stuart Skinner's fault? 48:00 Knoblauch and McDavid 57:00 Bennett, Tkachuk, and Evander Kane 1:06:00 Paul Maurice and partying Panthers 1:18:00 McDavid's next deal 1:22:00 Rempe vs Robertson 1:23:00 Z-Bad hasn't waived yet 1:24:30 Will the Islanders trade to get Hagens? 1:32:30 Tage Thompson is shocked 1:40:00 Marchand to the Leafs? 1:51:00 Harrison Browne joins us to talk about their new book, "Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes." Find it on Amazon, Indigo, or at your local bookstore. Visit this episode's sponsors: Get Exclusive NordVPN deal here ↣ https://⁠nordvpn.com/DANGLE It’s risk- free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee! 👍 Donate to our virtual 5K team!: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/team/sdpn SDPN will be participating in the Get Real Virtual 5K fundraiser to support Rainbow Railroad. Your donations and efforts to fundraise will help us reach more schools and students to share this education and tools so that kids in the 2SLGBTQ+ community will feel less alone and safer in their school. Your donations will equally help the Rainbow Railroad evacuate more Queer individuals fleeing dangerous environments around the globe to find safety. Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join - SDP VIP: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe - Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.BlakeJoin us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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download that TaskRabbit.ca code Dangle. Trade ice skating at Nathan Phillips Square for ice cubes in your umbrella drink. Let Porter Airlines fly you from Toronto Pearson nonstop to 10 top sun destinations in mexico the caribbean and costa rica enjoy award-winning porter service toronto has loved for 20 years and start your vacation as soon as you're on the plane book your sunny getaway today at flyporter.com and actually enjoy economy and somewhere at this moment probably still partying at the elbow room because there were videos of them this morning uh the florida panthers stanley cup champions second year in a third year in the finals.

Four goals from Sam Reinhardt. Unbelievable. And Leaf fans, I just want to get something off the table. Oh my gosh. I got to get it off the table enough. Just because the Panthers took the Leafs to seven, or the Leafs took the Panthers to seven games. I said that the wrong way.

It does not mean they were the second best team in the playoffs. It does not mean they should run it back. Paul Bissonette is trolling you. uh this is please do not forget games five and seven the panthers are the best team in the league by a wide margin and that's just the end of it but it doesn't mean that the second round leafs no are the second best team it does in the playoffs it does how many times are we gonna do that it means that there was no sports works had they won game three or game five or game seven there was a path to the final that's all it means no they won that's all it means won the stanley

cup last they did yeah it's crazy can we stop being a meme i just we need to stop being a meme i'm i'm sick i'm twisted i'm broken you can't fix it yep now billy talent um listen it's a good song good it is it's a very good album ben kowalowicz what's your message to least fans who are coping very hard stop it just accept that it wasn't good i refuse to say we're better than this we're not yeah what let's admit it we're we're pond scum did you just get here we're we're awful there we're obviously not better we're sick and wrong in the brain uh but no we're better than the oilers oh yeah you know here let me tell you this is let me tell you how not close the leafs were actually give it to us how not close anyone

was so it's what what was good about the the the the leafs took them to seven discourse what was good about that is it caused me to take a deeper look at the panthers run yeah no disrespect to the lightning the leafs the hurricanes or the oilers no one was close no one was even sort of close right panthers scored 94 goals in these playoffs yep that is the most since what year go ahead and guess it's the most ever isn't it no no 94 or 93 93 the 90 91 mario lemieux yarmir yager ron francis penguins is that good it's a little bit good out of most you're thinking about road goals oh is it road goals okay okay that would make sense yeah that would make sense so that i haven't checked what i was trying to check was goal differential so nhl.com doesn't

actually show you goal differential so uh like for the playoffs so you have to go through manually i was looking it up on the train i got back to 95 96 and the panthers were still first they and like i i don't maybe it's the record i don't know i would have to go back further but they were a plus 38 they murdered the lightning murdered dead national television no arrests the leafs they pounded three times in that series pounded them and the most important it made adam react like that murdered the hurricanes nearly swept them and after four games against the Oilers it was tied but it was two Oilers overtime wins and highly unlikely overtime wins and I'm left with after four games okay it's a tied series the Panthers are the

better team game five they went you're right Steven game six they just toyed with their food in an elimination game it was it was sick and deplorable and sadistic and no one was close we have to stop yes no one can hang their hat on their series with the panthers not one of the team they didn't have all mice advantage in any series they played like garbage heading into the playoffs it none of it mattered absolutely none of it mattered they ripped each opponent limb from limb and like the boa constrictor i always say that they are they got stronger as time went on the more you tried to breathe in and out the harder they squeezed they only lost back-to-back games once during the entire playoff and that was against the games one and two against one and

two against the god forsaken other than that what did we do to deserve them other than that every time they lost they bounced back with the victory i also want to say that being second place isn't the goal so everybody that's like run it back i'm like hey uh that would still make mean them they would lose in the first or second round again go ask oilers fans this morning how much second place matters no adam if you run it back that means maybe a bounce goes your way oh that's how the panthers won final you know what the panthers just had four or five four rounds four rounds and entire seasons the things just happening to go their way no you win because you're the best you don't win they were so far away the evidence you ignore the evidence you

flush it you block out the noise i'm gonna punch you you learn your huge lessons yeah oh my god come back the next season and you just play your game again which you played well it's just the bounces didn't go in your way you're gonna flush those bounds and yeah and and paul marise is right they were really close in games five and seven uh also it's the fans fault here's what i want to do what if we're all dead and this is purgatory it's steve's fault steve got brendan what if we all died what if i died 37 years ago and was born to live this life people people don't i don't think quite get it the being a leafs fan is like sisyphus pushing that boulder up the sisyphus and tantalus yeah um now i want to i want to throw this at you oh yeah tantalus i guess is the one

that pushes it up isn't it no sisyphus is the push the tantalus is the water it was the food water okay yeah uh now i want to bring you back to april 11th 2023 the most consequential hockey game of the last five years in the nhl at minimum it is a game between the pittsburgh penguins and the chicago blackhawks i watched the highlights last night and the ap let me just get to that headline before you tell anything the headline says Penn's playoff streak in jeopardy after 5-2 loss to Chicago here's what happened in the game scoreless first Connor Murphy scored for the Blackhawks in the second Malkin with a power play goal his 27th of the year uh to start the third off and then Buddy Robinson Buddy Robinson Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Johnson

Andreas Athanasiou off a goal that should have Tristan Jari in jail. Buddy Robinson, by the way, got an assist on that Athanasiou goal. He had a multi-point game. Tyler Johnson on an empty net, but then Danton Heinen scored, and then Mackenzie Entwistle got an empty netter from Zaitsev and Andreas Engeland. Prison. Prison.

The Penguins should. You know what? You have to trade Crosby now. No, you're not allowed. You're not allowed. you're not you put the league through the florida panthers you're not allowed oh he should retire it no he shouldn't sit in it you deserve this i don't think people understand what the what the consequences of this okay sorry let me get to that go ahead this is why i need to tell the story

the story is if the penguins win they're going to the playoffs if they don't the the already called soft on toronto radio florida panthers by keith kachuk they they would not be going they would not be going to the playoffs they would not be going to play boston it would have been pittsburgh boston but pittsburgh loses a can't lose game against the blackhawks and by the way there are only other meeting that season happened in october where the penguins beat the blackhawks five to three and so what we have here is the one game that arguably gave rise to what is now close to but not quite a panthers dynasty the panthers don't have that 2023 stanley cup final run they probably don't have the experience to get it done in 2024 and they probably don't have the

experience to get it done in 2025 the penguins and blackhawks completely unbeknownst to either of them created the closest thing we have to a dynasty right now and it's important to remember how bad brobrovsky was going into that run he was not the starter in game one against boston who oh i think it was alex lion oh my god you're right yeah and he started the first two or three games oh my god and so like this is this is what is so crazy about that game april 11th 2023 dubas wasn't even the gm yet uh no he hadn't been fired yet that game set up the next three years of playoffs the entire that inconsequential somewhat game for about you know oh penguins just need to get one win and they're in the wild card that game set up three straight stanley cup finals

it had unprecedented consequences for the eastern conference it's crazy for three years and who knows what happens next year i really don't potentially for potentially for but like when When do they lose? The Panthers? Yeah, when's everyone like, oh yeah, the window's closed? I think when you start to, and this is where the Panthers will need to be careful this summer. Stop.

You have to put your money to the right guys and hope that they hold up. I think they will. Yeah? You know what? I think the Florida Panthers might actually spend their money right. Now, let me bring your attention back to May 2019. This is from The Athletic.

On Monday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets were eliminated from the playoffs. And with it comes the opportunity for the Seattle Kraken, who did not quite exist yet, to take a hard look at Columbus assistant general manager Bill Zito. Oh! It wouldn't be surprising at all if he has moved up Seattle's list. And for good reason. he's been knocking on the door of a GM job for the last couple of years, including a lengthy interview with Bob Nicholson for the Oilers position

that ultimately went to Ken Holland. Oh, my holy God. So Zito could have been GM of the Oilers or the Oilers? Yeah. Wow. That's evil. Last night, he said he wants to bring all Bennett, Eckblad, and Marchand back. We're not sure if he's going to be able to do that, but I don't blame him for saying it.

I think he can do two. He did say he bought a Dairy Queen to keep Marcian in town, which I thought was hilarious. Dude, these guys are just working on material. They are. Throughout the playoffs, it's crazy. They didn't. They were never worried. No.

They never needed to be. No. No. This is his dominant team we've seen. Yeah. I'm trying to think of a more dominant cup run in recent memory. The 2012 Kings. 2012 Kings is probably it.

yeah it's the it's probably the 22 avalanche who were first in the west uh won the division uh and had a really good playoffs and like they got up against tampa and like they weren't looking back in that game six and then you probably have like the kings in there and i don't know how far you want to go back but i'd throw in the 13 the lockout shortened season blackhawks oh my god they were stupid they never lost no they were good from day one of when they re-dropped the puck to when they lifted the stanley cup like 23 straight wins that's the most dominant run i've seen from regular season through the playoffs and i think the most dominant playoff run is the kings one i shouldn't have taken a drink at that time yes i think i think very valid and then this

team i think probably comes in third behind those two teams but then if you want to go further back like the 08 red wings are just like there's so many hall of famers on there i don't think anybody's being any like prime against prime i don't know if anybody's being the o8 red wings i would say between marsh and cups the panthers are third at worst are they i think they might be second they might i have to be honest with you guys i wonder and this is like a question that you can't really quantify but i think these panthers would beat any team that's won the cup in the capper like in a series yes if like if they were time travel time travel taking the 08 red wings over them you're taking the 08 red wings over there yeah which rule book are we using that's

a good point we'll use the current one i think the red wings look pretty good through the first three or four games and then and then the panthers just beat beat them to death beat them to death like i so i started talking about this in in the cup check video yesterday and i'm not whining and saying this is why the panthers won the panthers special teams were exceptional right like they got it done on the power play they had a really good penalty kill and frustrated the oilers if there were more calls they might have won by more but there were 33 power plays through the first three games of the series there which is 11 per game for those of you play in the home game there were none last night that's that's and they were very clearly some

some penalties that could have been called pure fiction uh uh there was zero wrong uh try again actually like if this was groundhog day if this was like one of those weird movies where you had to keep living the day over and over one each side at least your standard was 11 they like they change the rule book it month to month in the regular season yeah and game to game in the playoffs people like oh round one round two round three it is game to game and what's great is it's not the deeper you get into a series the Panthers aren't dirty no they get all that out of the way at the beginning they get all that out of the way at the beginning to soften you up but the remember we had Frank Corrado on and he was talking about the overtime series winning goal

Pasternak scored on the Leafs last year and he was talking about how when Mike Babcock was his coach in toronto he said to get a little skin on him get a little skin on on your opponent what that means is interfere with them but not enough to get called like don't set a pick don't knock him down just get a little bit of skin on him they skinned connor mcdavid raw all night so there wasn't an inch to breathe i'm glad that you bring that up because i want to talk about that okay matthew kachuk said about the win heart meets talent our team was a team when things were getting hard for them they looked to one guy but for our team we do it collectively and that's why we're lifting the stanley cup right now because we're a team not a bunch of individuals

i mean one day he if he wanted to he'll be a fantastic analyst absolutely like he has no filter now people are dunking on conor mcdavid this morning specifically in three do or die stanley cup scenarios that he's been in in his career zero goals zero assists zero points four shots 10 for 31 on face-offs and a dash three uh 10 for 31 what are the scenarios people are using because last year they had four straight games where they could have been eliminated no i think i think it's like games where they oh i guess yeah right because so that doesn't make sense like it's because also like completely cherry picked right because yeah well this is this is my point on a guy who had 33 points for a second because i want to push back on yeah so yeah this

year they had one game where they could be eliminated and last year there was four yeah we're talking five game sample size and those those numbers aren't from all five games i don't think he had any points in six or seven last year how about this one okay uh josh yohi athletic pittsburgh this is so ridiculous and josh if you hear this don't take it personally go ahead josh i think try it took a samurai sword and tried to slice off mcdavid's head with this uh with this sweet it's crazy he said i feel for mcdavid remarkable player but he's never won anything other than four nations lemieux and gretzky uh never were silenced with the cup on the line it will live with him until he finally wins it he's not mario or gretzky might want to pipe down

comparisons until he wins it all oh my gosh how betrayed do you think some pittsburgh writers felt in 2016 and 2017 when they too didn't get a ring? Yeah, this is just a Pittsburgh person defending Sidney Crosby. He doesn't mention Sidney Crosby. No, he even says

it in the reply. Look at the first reply. He doesn't mention Sidney Crosby on purpose because he's blatantly just defending Sidney Crosby against Hunter McDavid. Might I mention too that Sidney Crosby did not score in games six or seven of the uh of the penguin's first cup adam and you know who he had scoring for him other people max talbot jordan stall tyler kennedy max talbot and max talbot hey adam great point but

how about you pipe down with the i think that's that was me i brought that up i was the one that said that at the beginning of the finals that might be a direct shot at me i'm not i'm not fair i thought you went a little early with the mcdavis we need to have that conversation is better than I think he's already better than Lemieux. I'm not out here trying to make enemies. I don't want to make an enemy out of Josh Yohit. That tweet is humiliating. Yeah.

That's humiliating. That's genuinely embarrassing. You want to read it one more time? Okay. The tweet's crazy. He said, I feel bad for McDavid. Remarkable player. Sounds like it.

I would love to have Josh on to debate this, but he's never won anything other than Four Nations. Lemieux and Gretzky were never silenced with the cup on the line. It will live with him until he finally wins it. he's not mario or gretzky might want to pipe down comparisons until he wins it all that's just crazy and and by the way somebody said he's not better than 99 or 66 but both of those guys had hall of fame goalies and josh responded hall of fame goalies because they played with 66 and 99 damn that's crazy now grant fear if you look at grant fear save percentage

it's like bad but it was the 80s connor mcdavid same with barrasso yeah we gotta all accept that conor mcdavid's the best human to ever play the sport i i agree with that as time goes on people get better at things and right now he is the best player at hockey which means he's the best player to ever play hockey does that mean his nhl career is better than gretzky's career no but he's the most skilled player to ever play this sport and that deserves a lot of respect he's also won a lot hey he has a whole bunch of individual trophies he's the one shit and the thing josh yo he's talking about here is team trophies yeah and that depends on the team around you as matthew kachuk rightly pointed out hockey is such a team sport which means that steve's taking away

my mic because i think i'm making because you need to pipe down no this probably doesn't deserve any attention no i'm probably wasting too much air on this this deserves a ton of attention that is listen if you're gonna tweet that you gotta you gotta expect people to react to that i think that josh knew that if an nhl player for the reaction if an nhl player invited me to their cottage fed me drinks all night and gave me a million dollars i wouldn't defend them this way that's just embarrassing so i mean listen mcdavid's already better than lemieux we know that he's better than crosby whoa whoa i mean we've got no i'm kidding i'm totally i don't want all of pittsburgh to come for me but when crosby gets traded uh it's going to be

really really interesting to see the reaction from pittsburgh adam he he might stick around for like a bunch of 22nd place appearances it's 32 thoughts this week both times elliot friedman has said the only team that is not trying to get better are the pittsburgh penguins which is yeah no no no for sure keep them be loyal that's great what do you got what a shame what a shame yeah this doesn't deserve uh i want to i want to actually i sent you a text i just want to say something funny that the um go for it the stanley cup didn't even leave the ice before it was broken by the pittsburgh or sorry the florida panthers last night what happened i think they dropped it i don't know what happened they oh yeah there was a bend and at the bottom

of it and there was a tear which i've never seen yeah in the actual cup part you must have dropped it but well i actually uh spoke to some people who were there last night and they confirmed it's all an accident they didn't mean for it to happen and they actually played with the stanley cup last year oh so they're friends right when the cup was on its way to the hospital throwing up because i had trauma um they actually uh texted them that they how sorry they felt there you go yes they ripped the florida panthers are so on brand they're the champs at montreal 1993 93 i think it says no no that's not 93 man that's like 33 probably no it looks like 93 because montreal yeah it does now right yeah no i've never seen i've seen the cup get dented

you should go back and look at pictures of uh michael rider i want to say it was the 2011 cup he fucked it up yeah he just battered the thing i've never seen it with a tear how do you even fix that you gotta weld it i don't know how that happened you just weld that but yeah they break this cup all the time yeah i know i mean it is kind of old yeah well and it's also but they they also have silversmiths who can fix it they also have two of them yes yes which is a secret the hall of fame doesn't like talking about can i tell you like one of the most frustrating conversations i've ever had in my entire life okay phil pritchard um who is is the so you know how there's two guys who wear fancy super mario gloves and carry the cup he's the blonde one

so i got to talk to him at the hall of fame archives in toronto uh upstairs from the practice facility it's unreal in there and uh we were shooting a video and there were he was talking about how there were two cups and i go well which one's the real one and he said they're both the real one yeah and i just sort of chuckled like yeah but like which one's the real one because they're both the real one and i'm like okay how much do i make this like a haha bit for the video and how much do i go kate yeah but like there was a first one though yeah which one was made first they weren't made at the same time you'll never get that never no it's it's one of my favorite like hockey

conspiracy theories they have two cups there are two they're supposed to be the cup but they're both the cup which is nonsense yeah one hangs out sometimes at the hockey hall of fame and the other goes on events and then they swap and then they do their thing and one's on the ice which one is it i have two co-hosts on the steve dangle podcast oh which one's adam and which one's jesse pretty clear both my co-hosts one of them is the fan cup no one of them is the real cup no adam they're both the real cup you can't but you can't like there's no way to know okay so when lord stanley donated the cup to the league in 19 tickety two which one was it which is the one babe die kissed yes yeah which is the one charlie conacher and newsy lalonde blessed with their with their

puckering lips their back passes no forward passes none none but they won't ever reveal that no that's hilarious fascinating i wonder if they do keep a record of that or if it's like it's better if we all forget wins when you have twins at the hospital you put a sticker on one yeah mess up the babies what boy girl uh that one's kind of obvious oh is it oh yeah i don't think you need a sticker for that one that these stickers all right um i i don't know what you guys are talking about uh it took me three months to figure it out no i'm kidding uh now the the jesse can you bring up the goaltender tweet that i sent you because there is a quote that is my favorite quote every year you get your favorite quotes of the season this could be my favorite quote all

time and i just want you to look first off because this is tragic it's a video jesse just freeze it at the at the first frame oh this is cal picker did the right thing he went out he gave stewart skinner a hug and he sat out there with him while they watched the rats rain down i think a few of them hit them and they watched the penguin celebrate and this is before the handshake line which we're getting to don't you dump the gun on that and these two guys were a tandem that got them there two years in a row both played playoff games consequential games and probably both i think are gone and both i think i i don't know how and i think the day as i tweeted last night a day that will live on in infamy the stan bowman quote and it's a short quote do you are

you going to get a goaltender at the trade deadline? No. I have to say, and I know that Oilers fans are going to be in my mentions like you were last night going, that was not Stuart Skinner's fault last night. If you want to tell me that an average goaltender, an average goaltender wouldn't have set the Oilers up for better success throughout the playoffs. I'm not even talking about a 915. I'm talking about a 905 goaltender. If you want to tell me that you couldn't have improved at that position that it wouldn't have bettered your chances i don't know what to tell you if you think that that goaltending and that stan bowman and jeff jackson deserve to be let off the hook for being confident in that style of goaltending by the way a lot of oilers fans

were pissed at the deadline when they didn't go out and get a goaltender and they did some good team went to game six of the stanley cup final this year and game seven last year with those two guys who are i think not much better than mediocre generally i think skinner could be a really good tandem backup sort of goalie i'm sorry whatever it is it's not good enough no no i know i know mcdavid and dry sidle two years in a row with these two goalies and you could have had anybody last year especially there were plenty of good goalies available you could have spent that jeff skinner money on anthony stallers and got him for three million bucks and damn and i'm just i just makes two and a half. Stoller makes two and a half. Jeff Skinner

makes more than that. Former Oiler, actually, Anthony Stoller. Is he really? Yes, he is. I didn't know that. He pinged around for a long time before he found relevance. My point in this is if there is, it's not to me McDavid and Dreisaitl not scoring in the last few games. And I said it in the LA series, even though the Oilers came

back and won. I don't think there was like one game where they let less than four goals in. You gotta have an average goalie on this Oilers team. It doesn't have to be Bobrovsky. They allowed at least two goals in every first period i in six games i don't how do you win you can't well you can just not four out of seven what do you what are you supposed to do i you know what would have made this conversation so

much more complicated is if skinner was great last night and you go well you can't blame him what the what was the third goal third goal was terrible i still have no idea and i doubt and by the way the third goal people don't remember it's it's a puck off his chest that he needs to he needs to smother and catch and it's a nothing shot it's a flop shot it's a trickle of piss from carter verhage there's a way of putting it that he booby deflects to alex barkov i don't know what he was going for who he thought was there what he thought was going on but the best two-way player in the game caught the puck with one hand apparently because he screwed up his hand in game one we learned after the fact and he sends it to one of the most lethal goal scorers in hockey

what so the panthers you had to basically play mistake free hockey against them especially when down 2-0 i've never i don't think i've ever seen a goalie do that yeah not quite like that what were you doing yeah i want to know what he was going for now it's up on the screen now maddie if you want to throw it up it's it's this it's i don't understand what he was thinking you'll see the shot come xg of negative six like this isn't going in yeah it you'll see the shot come right at his shoulder and like you said it's just a muffin that's being thrown on net just to get something there and stewart skinner's decision making in that moment is to just shoulder it right over to the pan and look at look at Barkov reading like he isn't actually oh he is he's

passing me the puck he passed him the puck like he froze in the moment yeah he froze in the moment like you can't blame that on anyone but Skinner the defense of Skinner is that the evidence last year is that they got to game seven of the Stanley Cup final and it was a 2-1 game and that game wasn't Stewart Skinner's fault at all I thought he played a great series there he had a great playoff run once he got going and yeah had a terrible run against the Canucks let's just we all forget that yeah well when things matter Stuart Skinner stepped up last playoffs and the bet was that this playoffs again we're gonna have that playoff Skinner because the evidence is there through four rounds of playoffs so he had a few exceptional games I understand the decision

making yeah because like if you go to last year's Panthers and you say um you're gonna have a terrible regular season but we're gonna trust you once the playoff time comes around they're gonna be like yeah that's how it works and stewart skinner didn't have the best regular season but we're gonna trust you when the playoffs come around because you did it last year and there were nights he rewarded them for it yeah and the the goalie thing on the spending the money stewart's gonna make like 2.6 million dollars like it's a great deal picker makes a million dollars great deal you're spending so little on your goaltending like that's great value for a guy who got you to game seven of the cup final but in this run you see the evidence is there now

You're going up against Bob. And by the way, the run, the evidence was there all season. That's the problem. Like when we were talking about Stuart Skinner, you're right. Game seven last year, you know, they get all the way. And everybody, if we went into last season, the shock was that Sam Montembeau was in play for Four Nations, not Stuart Skinner, right?

It was like, what? And then Stuart Skinner proceeded to have a really bad October and then not a much better November, but not great. and all season long he's been really really streaky that's why i mentioned like the panthers in the tough regular season because the you can't take so much from the regular season we see that with teams all the time and you can turn it on when the regular season's good we started this whole thing by saying bob wasn't the starter on their first play 100 so taking oh stewart's gonna wasn't that great during the regular season i don't know how much you can really hold that

against him when you expect him to show you're letting stan bowman off the hook for this no not at all like i think there's there's evidence to say like this time okay we know it couldn't get done you should have done a better job utilizing the only the million dollars pickard makes as your backup to go get a solid number two for him i don't know if you should have trusted pickard as your number two and instead you have stewart skinner who's making so little you can pay a backup a little bit more than that how about surround one of the youngest starting goalies in the league with someone a little bit better than calvin pickard yeah stewart's 26 years old 26. He's one of the youngest starters in the league.

He's younger than Wohl, I'm pretty sure, who we look at as like a tiny baby boy. He'll be 27 at the beginning of November, but he's also been the Oilers' starting goalie since for at least three years? Yeah. A couple years now. Come on.

I think the decision-making from Stan Bowman should have been to get help in net, but to still have Stuart Skinner as your starter. You're getting the 1B, but Stuart Skinner should be your 1A. I think the wrong choice there is having Pickard as your backup. Calvin Pickard was a 1B for a Calder Cup run. I saw it, and it worked, and it was great.

Again, he had the great record, and I think that's a testament to how good the Oilers were. People are talking about them this morning like they suck. Oh, no, they're terrible. The Stanley Cup finalists do not stink. I mean, they're not terrible. They're amazing. Yeah, they're really good.

I think it's a testament to them. That's why I feel like why would you do them the disservice of not getting help? I agree. I just don't understand it. And we did say this on the show. Even in game four, when Pickard came in in relief, I think it was game four, and only allowed the one goal,

he looked terrible. Yeah, he was shaky. He was all over the place. Now only one went past him. That's good enough. Great. All due respect to that guy who is such a great story.

The Oilers not being able to do better than Pickard for two years is it's unforgivable it's not that they couldn't do better it's that they chose not to and i think that's where you've got no no you could have done better yeah you could have easily done better there were other options last year you could have done it you didn't do it you could have done in free agency you could have done in the trade deadline you didn't do it so the idea that they couldn't you're telling me not a single other goaltender would have could have come to the Oilers? No, that's not true. That's objectively not true. You just chose not to. And I love the pickup of Wallman. I love the pickup of Wallman. I love what they did, but let's be straight. Let's

just be honest here. This was never good enough. Oilers fans knew it. Management said, no, we're better. And by the way, I'm going to be straight with you. Stan Bowman doesn't exactly have a great record with picking starting goaltenders dating all the way back to their last cup run. Like once Crawford was done he was done and then who replaced him exactly it's just a bunch Mraz it's one of them but the Chicago Blackhawks goaltending since 2015 has been pretty suspect and I think I think you need to get a guy in there as an AGM who goes uh Stan here's a good goalie here's what one looks like here's found value I know we're capped out right now here's somebody like an anthony stallers and no brossois was signed in chicago and he was injured most of

the season but here's somebody that we can pay less for that we think we're going to get better we're better than their contract even if you sign brossois and he gets hurt like everyone at least understands that yeah everyone's like well he got hurt but just do nothing do nothing right um come on i think the mistake is with pickard and not with skinner i think stewart skinner was good enough and had enough evidence to show that like hey we can trust this guy remember jack campbell was the original plan and five million dollars they had him around and they tried so hard with jack campbell and stewart skinner is the one who emerged out of that yep right and that so if you get leafs campbell who there's a reason he made five million it didn't the oilers didn't lose

their minds like he played really well um if that's your tandem going forward campbell the established ish starter making as much as Aiden Hill currently does like it's crazy your established starter and the young up-and-comer in Skinner who probably overtakes him down the line man that makes a lot of sense that looks a lot better and wow did it just super not work out yeah looking at your team and saying Pickard and Skinner once again is what we're gonna roll with is it's a mistake yep I also I also don't think they're beating the Florida Panthers with um Grant Fuhrer in that well certainly not Grant Fuhrer they I think they got confirmation bias from last year and they're like we can we can go cheap here we can go cheap

here we know Skinner's good when it matters you guys aren't Grant Fuhrer fans no he's good I didn't say anything but I think I think you you need I don't think Grant Fuhrer was the most dominating goaltender of his generation but he's a good goalie he was good so he was good with Grant Fuhrer I have to kind of take the word of people who were old enough to see him play in his prime. Like, growing up, to me, Grant Fuhrer was a St. Louis Blue. Yes. Because I saw him in a game, the first game I ever went to with my dad. The game-winning goal ended up going in off the back of his head.

It flipped in the air. He couldn't find it. He went like this, and he knocked it into the net. That's an NHL video game. It was awesome. Yes, it was. It was awesome, and I've looked for the footage, and I can't find it. It happened in 1996, I think.

Anyway, to me, he was a St. Louis Blue. So when people tell me about the 80s Grant Fuhrer, who would allow five, but he wouldn't allow the six. And they say that with a straight face. I'm like, all right, I'm going to have to take your word for it. I think Grant Fuhrer doesn't get enough credit because he played in the 80s. Yes. Every goaltender who played in the 80s was Swiss cheese.

Except for Patrick Waugh. except patrick wall was unbelievable from day one 90 no started in the 86 he won a cup in 86 he won a cup like on his own his true i think about his peak happened in the 90s yeah that's another difficult one for me i wasn't alive 93 and 96 where obviously the the canadians and the abs runs but the the the mid 90s ones but i i mean he was like that canadians team was okay but he how many goalies the oiler should have won that cup too it's my point here's the other thing about like you know winning matters how many goalies even won a cup in the 80s yeah billy ranford billy smith got like four yeah ranford won the first one one or two with

the oilers and then no i think he got the last one oh who was the other guy then fear yeah no ran for i thought ran for ran for got the 91 and then i think vernon was in net for the flames yeah is it like five or six like no one practically no one right so this is why i think we look back at this small pocket of guys who you look at your their numbers and you're like that doesn't make any sense but you look at their accolades and you go oh well they won you have to throw them in so for people who didn't watch them at their peak it's impossible and you go back and look at the highlights do none of them look like they knew what they were doing hockey from the 80s is hilarious yeah it's objectively hilarious to watch yeah so funny seeing gretzky take some

slap shots from like outside of the blue line and go in and then the goalie doesn't know and the strategy of this didn't work here wait now you got handprints on the mirror in the window behind you The goalie is standing as straight as a tree. And it's just going right through his legs. You had Darren Pang in net who was more pads than man. It's a weird era of hockey. Yes.

And I'm not taking anything away from those guys. Again, I wrote about this. I'm so glad you guys brought all this up, though. Because that does mean McDavid is better than Lemire. Sorry. I mean, okay, who's better? McDavid who, without surgery, repaired his PCL. Or a dude who was hacking darts.

Between shifts? Was Mario smoking? Yes! There's pictures of it! It's crazy! Mario, you're crazy, man. You're crazy. It's crazy.

Actually, I would argue Mario's better just based on the fact that he could do it with cigarettes. It's kind of more impressive. It is, isn't it? Like, okay. I'm going to take away my own lung capacity. I'm going to even this. Imagine he'd never smoked in his life. What's more impressive?

Steph Curry hitting a half-court three-pointer or Larry Bird doing it in jeans. Like, old sports are so funny. They are. And they all wore Converse back in the day, too. There's a reason. Oh, yeah. They all have just flat duck feet now. They're all broken.

None of their bodies are shaped the way a human body is supposed to be shaped. Yeah. Like, there's a reason they're starting to make all these shows about sports from decades ago. 70s and 80s. It's so funny. yeah it's really really oh if you didn't like them you could just fight them yeah hardwood floor i think there was a game just they're doing it i think bill simmons is doing a celtics version of the 80s because there's like obviously been the lakers one and it's it's on it's on crave it's

on hbo and one of the times at boston garden during one of the finals like the air conditioner didn't work so they i believe so they had like 20 000 people in there plus a game in in the heat just all getting heat stroke just dying they'd shut it they'd shut a game down if there was no air conditioning today wow yeah it's just crazy sports photos look so cool is because the air is smelled with filled with cigarette smoke yes that that smoke hazy effect is literally cigarettes in the stadium and that's why the photos look so iconic and here's a 26 year old man definitely not on steroids with george costanza's hairline like man i i like i was watching some uh tiktoks about 90s late 90s baseball yeah and seeing jose canseco hit home runs when his shirt couldn't fit

him he was just fantastic barely move he was so big how did how did he get away how did anybody from that every baseball player from the 90s looks like those pink mannequins that you beat up in the gym like they're all just lats and traps and rage and they're like jogging around the diamond for their home runs and they're like barely trotting okay they're so yeah they can't move they don't stretch yeah they their knees there were juices all right here comes mark mcguire he ran an impressive 17 seconds in the 100 meter dash like they're they're just roids on top of roids on top of anyway so mcdavid's pretty good yeah he is stewart skinner in grant fiora i'm taking care every day yeah oh right yeah yeah yeah that's fair that's fair

goalies couldn't bend until like we were born hey man that usually it was like the same stuff that filled your couch was their goaltending equipment so it's kind of nuts to think about in retrospect just a bunch of feathers there's we could do this all day yeah you could do this all the edmonton earlers i think lose the stanley cup no matter who's in net uh unless unless it's i don't know you get somebody standing on their head for four games but even if they go and they get whatever's out there available for them. I still don't think they can beat the Florida Panthers, but that doesn't mean it's not an excuse for

not, I think, replacing Pickard and not Skinner and getting a solid one beat. I was getting chirped. Throw our land on the goalie. I was getting chirped for this. Losing Zach Hyman, it probably having him probably isn't enough, but it would have made it a lot more interesting. I think game seven would have been. It's

the playoff leader in hits. Yeah. The playoff leader in hits. The Panthers, by the way, led the playoffs in hits this year and last year actually where where was the stat i had there the panthers of this year and last year are like the only teams of the last like decade or so to reach over a thousand no one else had hit 900 wow like and just hyman's four check his goal scoring ability his defensive ability when they lost him like people were like oh it wouldn't have mattered oh yeah losing someone

on your top line doesn't matter you're right valedictorian were you no one intelligent said that no one dude the oilers lost depth they already didn't have and to me it was the final nail if you're missing out on your favorite show because it's not available in your country or with your preferred streaming service or if you're visiting another country and you're like you know i would love for my information not to leak out that'd be great i don't want to have to call aquafax every time somebody tries to open a credit card in my name nor vpn can help that very specific well it happened actually it happened to my wife the other day her information leaked on the internet there's somebody trying to open credit cards in her name right that was me

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Visit Buick.ca for more details. the Zach Hyman thing I think dovetails into Chris Knobloch a little bit because I don't think he had a good playoff blind panic yeah he he lost his way coaching that team at some point during the playoffs and I don't know what it is but the lineup decisions he would make constantly were questionable just like moving in and out Skinner and um the scratching of Kapanen made no sense even the goalie controversy we want to put a little blame on him too going back and forth with them and and who we wanted to start at any moment i think chris knobloch got a coach and i think connor mcdavid admitted it yes postgame connor said connor mcdavid said if you didn't

hear it we were banging our heads against the wall doing the same thing over and over again that to me is coaching because doing the same thing over and over again is structure that's that's what you want your team to do is you want to play with your structure you want to go out there and just play your hockey game i think that's connor mcdavid admitting that chris knobloch had them out there doing the same thing that didn't work against the Florida Panthers because they are so good defensively. What the Oilers were trying to do wasn't working, and

Chris Knobloch told them, just keep going and trying. And here's the thing, that's his pick for coach. That is his OHL coach. Maybe now it's like he's not backing his decision anymore. Maybe now we have evidence that Chris Knobloch got outcoached, and he

wasn't a very good coach in this series. I'll say two things. One, in defense of Chris Knobloch, there's no line combination with the men they had that would have done anything it wouldn't matter I think they lose anyway they lose anyway Trent Frederick's on your third line like it's the goalie thing it didn't help or

that you had those goalies I don't think you win anyways but doesn't mean you shouldn't fix it the Panthers are the deepest team of this generation Marsha and Lundell Lusterine and on your third line go to prison they had two first lines a second line and a fourth the guy who scored four goals

last night makes 8.6 million and two top pairs and was nominated for the selkie just throwing that like it's it's disgusting yeah the other thing i will say you don't win with better coaching because you know you're not being these florida panthers you get closer yeah same thing with the goalie situation i'll say more than anything that happened yesterday that connor mcdavid quote is what sends a shiver down my spine if i'm an oilers fan that was bad the the question i would have steve is okay if it would send a shiver down an oilers fans spine why uh your superstar the best player in the world who is eligible for a contract extension as of noon on july 1st i'm sorry pipe down oh boy

oh boy sorry second best to every penguin if connor mcdavid he's no brian russ was brian russ it's the name right it is it's a great name it is that's why we both thought the same thing same wavelength high five for brian russ anyway if connor mcdavid was anything like brian russ they'd be fine um listen your superstar who's the best player in the world who's eligible for a contract extension noon on july 1st is unhappy now there are levels to unhappiness there's i'm unhappy right now in the moment i just lost the stanley cup for the second straight year i'm unhappy about that he was the only oiler i saw answer any questions was was he the only one no no dry sidelinek home did oh okay i didn't i didn't

see i got a bunch of their quotes okay i didn't look particularly hard it's just you know i was clearly well i was up to three bloody last night and then i came here but uh sometimes you say things that your friends or co-workers or teammates might forgive you for but they'll they'll never really forget too many passengers that's matthew's quote after the uh after they got eliminated you know what would have been great follow-up question who this team's gonna bring back a lot of the same players who are the passengers Austin Connor same thing we're trying the same thing over and over and over and over how am I supposed to interpret that as anything but an indictment of Chris Knobloch well what

did Nathan McKinnon say after game seven against Dallas this year it was sort of like I don't know what we're gonna do but we can't it was sort of like and then Joe Sackick immediately is like we're bringing everybody back and then sign brock nelson and who didn't have the best first round and and we might do this later but the the the tage thompson quote we'll get to that yeah we'll get to it yeah but like it's a cry for help and sometimes you say things in the heat of the moment but i take connor mcdavid at his word would you fire chris knobloch no oh no two he's two years in a row he's been in the cup final i don't think you can fire him for that but he has been even jay woodcroft was rough like his win percentage was insane yep yeah it was firing

chris knobloch would be far more unjustifiable i mean if chris knobloch's job ending first i think you gotta switch the goaltending first i think there's clear evidence that he got out coached and he didn't really know what he was doing come the end of the finals and like the pete deborah situation like i don't care how much you almost win if you don't get it done you're not the right guy well pete deborah is available do you go get pete deborah and have him bench connor mcdavid i think that would be the western conference fine that would be lunacy lunacy i'm kidding by the way i don't think any of that's gonna happen yeah the block's gonna be fine yeah yeah i mean cheese if he's not safe who the hell is yep um but it was definitely it was

definitely here's a cry for help i think from connor here's some of the other quotes that connor gave he said their four check was great they tilted the rank they were able to stay on top of us all over the place and we really were never able to generate any momentum up the ice we kept trying the same thing over and over again banging our heads against the wall they have great players how many guys had 20 plus points this postseason six uh that's what he said uh they're as deep as it comes um and i i don't know if you guys want me to i've got leon's as well sure we battled but we're not leaving here as winners they were just better just deeper i mean the third line scored how many goals which was eight it wasn't their top two lines the third line did a lot of

their damage we saw that in the leaf series they just ate the leafs alive um that third line is as good as any second line in this league and you could argue like lindell could be the first line center on like 20 teams in this league i'll i'll i said it before i'll say it again leafs are up two nothing on the florida panthers matthews is straight up one-on-one beating alex barkov game three leafs go up it's matthews and barkov again he's eating his lunch again they swap Barkov and Lindell series is over they win four of the next five

kill them the dude's incredible it's crazy that he's 23 years old it's crazy that he went on this playoff run as a third liner it's crazy that he's locked up long term it's ridiculous the luxury they have with Lindell

the Panthers have never ended a season with Anton Lindell without winning a team trophy president's trophy eastern conference stanley cup stanley cup this is this stat i'm about to give you is the reason why i believe the oilers need to go further than just replacing cal pickard next year okay the panthers led the series 255 and 49 seconds 255 minutes and 49 seconds the oilers led it 33 minutes almost 34 33 51 i'm surprised it was that much i don't think

uh they also florida took control of every game from the first period they outscored edmonton 10 nothing what in four of those opening frames so basically that's a quote from a spec article but 10 nothing in four of six games in the first period is freaking how do you do that it's a slightly cherry pick stat but yeah it's it's it's crazy i i don't i don't mind four out of the six games like what what happened to the other two well hey what's their record in games they lost how many guys i actually think i think listen far be it for me but i think specs on to something there because they lost four games in the series the so if you just took the score from the first period in every game this series it would make the same point but there was no need for him to

yes thank you it was nothing so much cleaner but it was so widely lopsided in the first period just take that number it actually would be more impactful because it'd be the whole series Connor McDavid has never scored on a shift where he was scored on. And until he improves that stat, the Oilers are going to keep losing. I want to talk about Sam Bennett winning the cons. My 11 first place votes out of the 18 voters. Marchand was pretty close. Yeah, Marchand was pretty good.

I'll give you the full vote breakdown. So it was Sam Bennett got 76 points in terms of the votes. So, 11 first place, 7 second place, 0 third place. Marchand got 7 first place votes, 11 second place, 0 third place. Bobrovsky had 10 third place votes. Dreisaitl got 7. Forsling got 1 third place vote. Okay.

Forsling, who, again, I don't think had the greatest playoff, had a very good final. He shut down Conor McDaniel. People are upset that Barkov didn't get any votes. I'm like, I don't know if you were watching the series or not, but he was not at his best. That's purely name brand. Yeah, 100%.

And he wasn't bad, but no, he was playing hurt all playoff. He had to glue his hand shut after game one, which is kind of nuts. That's all come out. Yeah, and he got frigging drilled in the first round. No, all playoff long. I think, are we all in agreement that this year's Panthers are clearly better than last year?

Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah. What makes that Herculean to me is Reinhardt was playing with a what was it partially torn or sprain mcl barkov was playing with the hand injury i think kachuk's got a knee injury pretty sure no it's a torn a doctor oh off the bone oh yeah he revealed it in the in the post game to pang kachuk so he wouldn't reveal it to sports that they asked him hey and then he gave it to that was weird he has ties with him because they're uh st louis connection right yeah but he's i think peng's known him since he was a kid yeah so he asked

and he gave him the info sure i get it fine yeah it's but he's in in their two cup runs in 23 and 24 cup final and cup kachuk was dominant dominant and and like even though he he still found a way to put up points he scored a few goals in the series it's clear he wasn't the same he like couldn't carry the puck right like think of how many shifts like it's all Bennett yeah on on that line a lot of her achy but as things went along he did which is crazy he was like actively recovering as the playoffs went yeah like absolutely insane but think of how important Barkov is how important Kachuk is how important Reinhardt is all of them were hurt and I know guys are always dealing with injuries especially the deeper you go into the playoffs Kachuk's injury is gruesome yeah he said

the adductor off the bone but he also said in some kind of hernia thing like that's the yeah you got a hernia um cali yarn croak i think had an injury that then led to a hernia which is why he missed so much time this year so i think why did he play through it like a chuck oh well i think kachuk is saying kachuk's maybe better well i don't that's got nothing to do with better that's just what you're willing to play through in 2023 he played through a broken sternum and here he played through a torn off the bone adductor. Yeah, he's also

better. Yes. Oh, yeah, no one is better than Kelly. You're saying Bolt is the you know, well he's not the fastest man alive anymore, but whatever. Let's say he still is the fastest man. He breaks his femur. I guarantee you I beat him. Yeah, you know what I mean to your point about like he couldn't

move. He dominated on the power play. Yes, I think he had 11 power play points throughout these playoffs and that's because he didn't have to move. They part they He knew where to park him, and when Kachuk could just stand still and not have to move his torn adductor, he was still the Kachuk guy we know. And as the playoffs went along, he was talking about how he was healing and getting better, and you could clearly see it by the time the games

four, five, and six roll around. He was basically almost close to back to Kachuk. Every time there was a foot race, he lost it. Every time. And then the defensive plays he made last night to clinch it. This year's Panthers are clearly better, which is insane because their best players from last run were clearly worse. Yes, but the reason they're clearly better

is because they're deeper this year. Yes, they're deeper throughout the entire thing. And one of their best defensemen got a nice little break right before the playoffs. I don't know if that suspension has ever been better timed than Aaron Eckblad's. And they added a right shot who's just as good as the guy. Because Aaron Eckblad was suspended.

No, they didn't do that. How could they have afforded him otherwise? They couldn't have afforded Seth Jones without Aaron Eckblad, I don't think. Or somebody else on LTR. It was Kachuk and Merchant. The timing doesn't line up there. it's just extraordinarily about that oh i am too i am too because uh i'm willing to bet he didn't

take the piss test that day yeah they knew that he was suspended uh listen that is not talked about nearly enough and i think people really like aaron eckblad i like aaron eckblad sure but 20 games for performance enhancers right before the playoffs i'm gonna go ahead and say that's not enough i think it helped him he's fresh man he's fresh he missed a quarter of the season and also let's just throw that let's just call it what it is like uh the the the salary cap issue in the playoffs has become such an issue that we already know that the next uh cba which is going uh which is going to be revealed in the next couple of weeks here is going to have a provision for salary cap in the playoffs they are bringing that in it's funny it's funny because

the league did flag that issue with two teams this year. Who are they? I bet the Leafs. The Avalanche? Uh-huh. And the Oilers. Oh! Because of Landiskog and Kane. And oh, they had to set out a couple extra games. Panthers? Precious baby.

Precious baby. I thought it was really smart of them to bring in Jones and have that He was so good! first pairing defenseman on their second pair right side, right after ekblad like it's it's it speaks to just how incredibly deep they are and you have a guy like nate schmidt who at one point was a top line defenseman and now he's transitioned into his

third pairing and it reminds me of what they had with oel last year yeah where you had a guy who was tasked with all of the big minutes in arizona and then he goes to vancouver and we know that mess went and now you bring him to florida where it's like you can just sit back do your thing we got our big guys here and then nate schmidt's the same thing and seth jones same thing they're so incredibly deep it's unfair drew uh asked me on the stream he goes how many goals you think their decor got throughout the playoffs and i i went with what i thought was a huge number i said 15 yeah he goes 17 all seven defensemen who took the ice for the florida panthers in this playoff scored a goal at least one including uh was it uvis uh balinska yeah balinskas has a goal

yeah also they against the leafs seven defensemen scored a goal these playoffs it's crazy what is that that's video game numbers what and it's you know you know what kills me i think if i'm an oilers fan because yesterday in the video i go the panthers had 19 different players it was either get a point or score a goal in these playoffs and i was like that's so incredible and i said to myself you know what just check the oilers just in case they had 20 hey there you go yeah but for the oilers it they they weren't there in this series anyway yeah no No, no, no. Like, goaltending, yes.

But, you know, Connor is getting a lot of flack. Dreisaitl's getting a lot of flack. Not nearly as much because he had the two OT winners. Who else showed up? Yeah, I agree. Nuge was good at the beginning. You had to demote Evander Kane and bench Troy Stedra. That's where Knobloch lost me.

Why are you benching guys in the finals? There's a story untold there, by the way, and it sort of slid under the radar. Because supposedly, I don't know if this is 100% true. I wasn't looking for it. when Kane was kicked out of the game he did not come back out for handshakes that is a fact that is fact yeah baby it's a horrible look and I'm not about to defend him what I am going to say is James Duthie before last night talked about there are lines that you don't cross

typically and this year they don't appear to be there when it comes to trash talk in the series the first thing i thought of was 2022 matthew kachuk mouthing well not mouthing he said it to evander kane but he did this sign just so we all knew exactly what he was going through his bankruptcy you need some money you need some money i mean that's a piece of shit line to cross the hate between those two men is very genuine and i think if evander kane goes back out there for handshakes to throw in hands while he is or you could be an adult yeah i just i do agree i'm sorry you have to get his 30s you have to go out there i agree in your 30s it's time you're making an excuse here no no yeah that's defending him you have to go out there no it's not you have

to go out there i would just love to know what was said i think i think i agree with you there i'd love to know what was said you're kidding me yeah you don't love drama come on i want to know what he said i don't think you can say not to defend the guy and then provide a defense for That's not a defense. That's an excuse. If he had gone out there, they might have fought. Nope. Evander Kane, to get himself thrown out of the game,

just started slashing the man. Like, you can't do that. It's the Stanley Cup Finals. You're still not... Like, you can come back. You're the Edmonton Oilers. What are you doing? And he got himself kicked out of the game,

and I think he's a big baby for not going back out. It's an absolutely abysmal look. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Another abysmal look. uh jesse can you uh can you pull up the handshake line uh picture that i sent you uh because i can confirm through somebody else and i won't say who that there was a discussion

had about the coaches in the handshake line uh and my god and that paul maurice did signal to chris knobloch to not go into the handshake line with the players and chris knobloch completely ignored him and went in and so therefore paul maurice went into the handshake line yeah it wasn't a discussion i think it was it was paul maurice was like stay over here tried to do his thing and nobody listened and chris knobloch said you're not big dogging me dude so i respect the hell out of chris knobloch for that can you show the picture please i can't no you can't why not I'm waiting for it to load. Oh, okay.

All right. There was a tweet of, it was Paul Maurice holding the Stanley Cup and kissing it, and it's on camera, and he's on the ice, and everyone can see it. It's a tale as old as time. The head coach gets the hoist of the Stanley Cup. As they should.

It was conmen1 on Twitter. It said, I'm shocked he lifted the cup. I mean, the players want it. They don't want to see some guys in suits lift the cup, do they? listen paul maurice is a lovely man a lovely quote and a great coach he's got to knock that shit off who the fuck cares get in line and shake hands you weirdo well and don't and if you're an opposing coach don't acquiesce to it rod brandamore i think his well they know each other greatest no i think he's great if you were to ask him honestly he's been openly talking about it i

think one of his great regrets from this playoffs is not going into that handshake line yes why would you listen to the other coach i don't care if i know you i'm getting in the handshake line who are you and and i i gotta say do you guys remember do you remember the sean fitzgerald article from the athletic so about mike babcock's accent and how they couldn't place it because he'd made it up yeah fantastic paul maurice is developing the same accent go and listen to a paul maurice press conference and then compare it to mike babcock it's the same it's i mean he's coming up with his own rules you don't like this man adam oh i i i like him fine i just think he's full of himself and you know what he should be i mean like john cooper's full of himself like all

these guys are not listen i'm not mad about it yeah i if you were to say who would you rather have in the leafs organization sam bennett or paul maurice it's sam bennett 10 times out of 10 yeah well like but uh i think that you have to give the respect where it's due but i also need to tell you like i don't think anyone talks like that and and whatever i like beyond that the i'm begging the press corps like i know we're grading on a curve here in the nhl but every mid joke that paul maurice tells like i'm not it's like it's new west macaulay oh for fuck it is oh my god it is there is paul maurice was very right to do the handshake thing maddie threw up the picture now um i think this proves the point that it was never that big of a deal to him and

he acts like things are a big deal and yeah to draw attention to you justify this that's why i i was trying to explain like when this originally came up like paul maurice is just doing this for attention because it's good for his team when he gets attention it's not on the players and now now he's going back on like like his morals like his no he he explained he's like here's why i don't do it even though i've done it many times including recently yeah including two weeks before here's why i don't do it all right i'll do it so it was he just said that to say it because it was a good quote and it was never about like anything deep in his core he did it like you said a week earlier a series earlier and they did this time because in that moment he just felt like

saying that it made a big headline and they weren't talking about the players and everything's about paul maurice and that was good for his team to win and now it doesn't really matter he's lifting the stanley cup who cares what i did and now that it's the off season he can put one of his paul maurice fart scented candles into the stanley cup light it and sniff out of the stanley cup This was a master class in coaching. Yeah. I think two things can be true at once. He is the best coach right now, anyway.

And that's fucking weird. What is weird? The handshake thing. No, but I don't think it's weird at all because he never meant it. I think, Jesse, you're giving him too much credit. I think you're giving him too much credit. I think we're saying that Paul Maurice is doing this on purpose. but I think he's trying to get his camera moment.

I don't think he's not trying to get his camera moment. Is the cup not good enough? But it's not for the betterment of the team. It's for Paul. You say it's for the team. I do not believe that. Not for a second do I believe that. You think he's an egomaniac.

I kind of believed it heading into the cup final, but it's like you won. When does the cup winning coach not shake hands with the other team? That's insane. Well, he did. Well, he did. No, no. I know he did, but he tried not to.

He did try not to last night. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just stick to the bit. I don't think he's that smart. I don't think anybody's like, oh, man, I know how this will play out. I think he is. I think he is. I'm giving him credit.

I think he knows what he's doing. He would love that you're doing this, by the way. He would love this. Good. I'm giving him credit. I think he knows what he's doing. I don't think he's – I think when he's – he knows everything needs to be about the team. It's something the Florida Panthers preach all of the time.

everything is about the team it's the first thing matthew kachuk talks about the first thing everybody credits them with doing is having the best culture in the whole league i don't think paul maurice is out there trying to do things that are above the team i think when he does something he is it's for the betterment of the entire organization and the guys on the ice i i tell you what i don't think there's been a team in recent memory that was so only appealing to themselves as is Florida Panthers. But man, if you were a Panthers fan, if you're a Panthers fan

freaking love these guys. This has been the best. This is the greatest thing 16 months of your life. One day this cup streak will break for them and it'll be somebody else. It might not. I don't think you might not. I don't think anybody will enjoy it as much as the Florida Panthers. Nobody's going to do it

like these guys because they're so good at the media narrative thing. They're so good at talking about being panthers and just dunking on everybody dude uh could chuck uh talking about mcdavid and going you know where yeah he's gonna win a cup wherever that is you're you're a sadist you're a sadistic piece of shit and then singing pink pony club in the locker room the oilers win song nobody's gonna do it like yeah ever they are just turning the knife and i gotta say it's tremendously on brand that's why i'm i'm gonna give paul maurice the credit i think he knows what he's doing

i think their cup parade is gonna come and you know how they're always wasted when they get on the mic the greatest offenders of that in recent memory were the capitals in 2018 just plow marsh and in 2011 trying to do black and yellow yeah i thought about that too oh so you know we got brett hall during the blues parade we went blues he didn't even play like we we got marsh and with his liver 14 years older yeah yeah yeah yeah like great in dad mode if he's not asleep he's gonna be and these guys are honest to god i wouldn't be surprised if they get on the mic and they're just like tampa shit toronto ass carolina bullshit they're just gonna keep turning that player in the world calm down yeah what are you saying connor pipe down pipe down was it pipe down

nothing's stopping the capitals i think they peaked at drinking beer tj oshi pulled his shirt over his face and drank a beer through it i don't know jesse did can you play without audio can you play the video this is a cell phone video of uh nate schmidt at the at the elbow room a few minutes ago oh they're just like actively on a reign of terror yes yeah that's hilarious and also i got this picture of brad marsh and i don't know oh uh this is great like this is all happening in real time yes yeah the videos are sort of coming out and they're celebrating and by the way at the elbow room earlier this morning panthers fans were chanting thank you boston when marsh and just why not why not enjoy it right enjoy it so that's nate schmidt having the best

damn time in the middle of the parade not parade just like not parade yeah just celebrate the non parade the celebration and then if you could pull up this Brad Marchand Brad Marchand thing I sent you by the way this is Danny Knoll that posted it

bleacher report reposted it and Brad Marchand has one two three drinks and a cigar um i need a coffee a spiked iced tea and an elbow beer because he's holding the beer with his elbow uh so i assume this cigar is the same cigar place that i'm about to talk about but the person who runs the cigar shop where the panthers get their cigars from offered to send us some of the championship cigars and steve said no i don't smoke cigars adam do you think

that was the right decision to turn down these free cigars. No. We could have just had them and put them in the office. Why didn't we take them? Can we say yes? Steve said no. I asked him. Why would you say no? Because they offered to send them to Steve directly. It wasn't to all of us. It was to Steve. They reached out. You don't

puff on a cigar? What's in your life? I've done it. I hated it. That's all he said to me. I hate smoking. I don't smoke cigars. I hate smoking. I've hated it since I was a kid. But it's about the keepsake. What am I going to say? Adam, first of all the king of just throwing shit away do you want these cigars you're not gonna use

yeah oh yeah you want these cigars you're not gonna use i would i would puff on a cigar if there was a reason to sell it i've never seen you puff as a scar i have done it when uh it's been a while not listen you gotta have things to celebrate like you gotta have a stanley cup that's fair thing to celebrate he's got a point that adam would probably throw them in the trash that hour after they no no no not the cigars all the other he'll re-gift them to us for christmas yeah yeah 100 i i know i listen i look at steve's desk which he never uses and it's populated by so many so many pieces of merch uh it's literally steve's desk is only there to hold up the merch that he has that was overflowing in his house it's funny because you said that and i'm like

i have lots of stuff that i use my desk all the time oh the one at the office yeah oh no i don't No, you don't. Okay, so... Marchand. Marchand. Marchand looks like he's having a good time. Look at that. I assume the cup's still broken.

Yeah, I would think so. They haven't taken the soldering gun out yet. Unless they got the second one that is also real. Justin Fisher sent over something about the Stanley Cups. Apparently, there's three of them. Oh, piss off. Because they have... And they're all real.

They have the one that's like the fan cup. Let me just pull this up. There are actually three Stanley Cups. the original bowl of the dominion hockey challenge cup the authenticated presentation cup and the spelling corrected permanent cup oh so and that's on display at the hockey hall of fame whenever the presentation cup is not available um so which one do they have right now we don't know are you ready to hear the next look pritchard will never reveal it the new core four oh this is from the two muds hockey podcast starting next year the new core four uh will be on the edmonton oilers 14 million

for leon dry sidle 12 and a half for connor 10 for evan bouchard and 9.25 for darnell nurse that bouchard deal is not real well it's gonna be it's gonna be and by the way what's connor mcdavid gonna make connor mcdavid's gonna make an insane amount of money like if if july 1st rolls around and there's no like who cares what the oilers do july 1st don't even bother just just be like connor let's sit down and talk about if leon makes 14 i don't think the oilers should pick up the phone with a number lower than 15 like i'm talking i'm talking that's where the negotiations begin i hang up you i hang up on you and get a u-haul bound for toronto judd moldover's gotta start at 17 yeah oh at least he might honest to god start at 20

start at 20 and obviously come down i don't think conor mcdavid's gonna make 20 you could justify he might 31 other teams would pay him that you'd be dumb you'd be so stupid not to right right do you think a deal gets done early july nope no you think he waits and sees yep do you think so this wound's fresh do you think do you think guys that connor mcdavid gets to the summer without an extension done because i think it's through the summer if he if we go to training camp and there's no extension done the only thing people are talking about next season is when's that connor uh the mc extension gonna be done and if it's not we're talking about july first real early like july 1st 2026 do the oilers have incentive to sign it oh yeah okay

yeah does connor i don't know i know no what if he wants to stay in edmonton yeah other than that if he wants to stay in edmonton you get it done but even if he wanted to stay in edmonton um and like i'm not saying he's he's leaving what's the rush just go see what they do first yes i'm obviously not happy my bet is how things went august 14th conor mcdavid signs the next day right in the middle of our vacation something like that where it's like after all the deals are done he sees the team he's thought about it a little he wants to commit like dry sidle and i don't think it's eight years i don't think connor's i think he's too smart to sign an eight-year deal at this cap hit when the cap's going up to

reported now it's going even higher than it was before that's from like the chris johnston show could be like 118 in a couple years i think he signs like a three-year deal mid-august i'm gonna go if he signs an extension in edmonton right before the olympics okay that's a long wait it It sure is. It's a long wait. I think it gets done. I think it's a short one. I think he re-ups in a couple years

for the $25 million. Yeah, because they cap the season he's going to make. Is Drysaddle's eight? Eight years, $14 million. Yeah, it's until 2033. I think Leon maybe shouldn't assign it such a long extension.

Yeah, Drysaddle. I think he's fine. You think so? You think he's okay with just $14? He'll be okay. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive advantage you can get.

Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you. SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core, working across every system. And it's ready to go from day one, so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow, AI cloud ERP for any size business. I think he likes Edmonton for $14 million. Speaking of notable extensions, Matt Rempe has re-signed with the New York Rangers as of this morning. We just started the show with that. I know we should.

$975,000. How much? $975,000 each year. Oh, wow. I know. You know what's crazy about that? Think of the amount of conversation that has had about Matt Rempe around the hockey world. Two years, $975,000.

Yeah. Like any other player, you're like, why is that even a story? One of the higher selling jerseys on the Rangers too, Rempe. He's underpaid. Just based on that. This is like us making a big deal about the Nick Robertson extension. Yeah. Which could be coming any day.

Who makes more next year, Robertson or Rempe? Robertson. Robertson made like 1.2 this year, didn't he? No. No, he made 8.75. I think it was 8.75. Oh, was it not a million? No.

Oh, I thought he got up to a mil. I think it was 8.75. Oh, all right. I guess we got a challenge here. What are the betting odds? We should check BetMGM on that one. Oh, no. Interesting.

I think Robertson. Robertson more. robertson's last contract was 875 you guys are correct he's made this minimum 796 and then 890 875 was this is a new cap hit so i'm for a raise i guess adam said with the leafs or not not not me too i believe not as well uh freeman also said uh today that uh zibin jad has not yet been asked to wave his no trade clause by the rangers despite reports out of new york that maybe that's already happened that doesn't mean though that they haven't talked to him about it he just hasn't been asked to wave the one thing i will say that makes it uh a lot less interesting

but usually the boring outcome is the right one uh is mike sullivan flew to sweden to meet with mika and his wife nice so i mean that's a good head coach but if he just wanted the trip what if you just want to go to it's nice get some warm it's very nice you know i could see that on james dolan's money i would love oh no james dolan to make you pay for that no wow did mika zabana jad meet mike sullivan at the burger place he owns oh that's a good question i forget what it's called but i went there and it was lovely mika's burgers yeah uh it's a burger jad it's a The Burger Jad. That's good.

Actually, I forget what it's called. That's good. It should be that. That's one of your best. One of his best, Jesse. No way. The Burger Jad. Jesse's like that quick?

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. There are rumors this morning swirling about, there already was rumors between the Isles and the Bruins. Apparently the Bruins really want JG Paggio, which is interesting because getting another defensive-minded center that doesn't score is a hilarious choice for the Bruins. Got to have a brand Lindholm is not Lindholm's not scoring 40 goals again,

but that's your, that's your guy. Fine. They want to get Paggio because they got to replace probably Charlie coils role. And what's interesting is this trade may evolve because Matthew Jarsh, by the way, this will be the first trade he pulls off.

Matthew Jarsh is interested in acquiring the Bruins seventh overall pick ostensibly i mean so am i so they have a choice so they have the opportunity to get james haggins as well because i think it's going to be schaefer or misa that go at the top haggins grew up an islanders fan uh had islander seasons tickets and obviously the islanders are looking to get a lot younger despite the fact that uh lou lamorello locked up two old guys right before he left because uh lou always gets the last laugh i do think darsh's vision is to make this team a lot younger and bring in a guy like Higgins and hopefully Higgins seventh is the furthest he will probably fall isn't the better route to take three from the Blackhawks who are also shopping that

pick I like I would take Higgins at three I think the question is what do the Blackhawks want that the Islanders can give do they want Paggio are you trying to say the Islanders would go from first to seventh or first and seventh and yeah okay and they're giving up what to get well we don't know yet but pajo will be a part of the deal and there would be a lot more there's a lot missing from that deal well yeah yeah obviously i said it was a pajo deal that's now into a bigger deal that would that would be huge that would be i mean that's transformation and i wonder if i wondered if weird noah dobson or do they do they do they try canadian noah dobson do they try to solve that he's still a really young defenseman do you try to solve that problem internally by just

bringing him back to what he was or is like is that something but yo mcavoy dobson holy shit now the problem there is like dobson can't get the most money right out of that situation because it doesn't make any sense you have mcavoy making nine ish and he also had an off season he was not as good last year oh dobson yeah i was like well mcavoy got hurt but man that would be insane i just don't know i just don't know how that money would work i just wondered about that because they're they're saying bester's not gonna go and uh who was the other guy it was untouchable on their roster like who my question is for for the islanders if they're gonna you mean horvat is sorry there you go horvat not pastor why did i say it that's

yeah Horvat and Pedersen no Horvat and the Barzal there we go there we go BXA yes those guys are the untouchables I just

I'm curious about how Matthew Darsh wants to play this Paggio leaving makes a lot of sense yes it does that is a confusing one for Boston I still I don't think Boston thinks they're bad no because they're not they're right and that's why I think if you're Ottawa or Montreal

you can't expect that you're going to make the playoffs next year because the Rangers will be back and the Bruins will be back I'm not saying that they'll be great but they will be back they're both good teams on the rise um good young teams on the rise but uh too many things went wrong for Boston last year and too much of them falling off at the end of the season was artificial injuries injuries injuries and they traded everything that wasn't bolted to the floor like they traded justin brazeau trent frederick marchand trent frederick marchand's a little you know different but like dude they coil they got rid of everybody yeah uh they have some holes to fill and they have some assets to do it and they have lots of money in free agent they're

starting goaltender didn't have a training camp yeah i wonder if uh fraser minton goes to the islanders i'll beat you up no i wonder hmm because because you know if you've got a young center and the islanders are looking to get a little younger and pajo that actually does make a lot of sense yeah i'm just saying it does i don't know if higgins is sticking around till seven i don't know that he is either but that seems to be why they would want to do it right i think like i think he needs to be an islander it would be so cool and i think three would probably be like safe for that like ideally you get like five but like that pick's not trading the blackhawks seem to want to move out of three to get some help so i don't know i don't know if he's fallen till seven

uh i am immediately going to cory pronman's mock draft from the athletic because this sick individual this absolute nut what happened it pronman pronman yeah why he did and so this is his article nhl mock draft 2025 starting with schaefer pronman makes all 224 picks what a lunatic what you didn't know he wrote this lunatic what is wrong with him complete nut so i'm not gonna read his whole article but here's how he has it shaken out schaefer one misa two uh two so sorry schaefer islanders misa two to the sharks frondell three to the blackhawks for brady martin to the utah mammoth uh caleb denoyer fifth to the uh preds jake o'brien six to the flyers roger mcqueen seven to the bruins and then james hagan's eighth oh to seattle all right maybe they

looked at that and said well yeah if lightning mcqueen is going at seven then we we got a chance one of those names wasn't porter martone i just for my own curiosity who's going 224th that's insane patrick volus to the edmonton oilers look out for him it's happening what are the who are the leafs selected who are the leafs selected like what's the first pick second line second uh second round the leafs are proud to select with the you gotta do a lot of scrolling 63rd overall pick peyton kettles a defenseman 6-5

from Swift Current. I hear he burns hot. Hey! Oh, he's steamy. Peyton Peddles. What's the T on him? Hey! A Swift Current Bronco. Yes.

There you go. I don't know. Born September 1st, 2007. Defenseman. He's 6-5. That's what it said. 196 6'5, 196 pounds No, it's centimeters

I was like, what? He's 194 pounds No, my god Right shot Yeah, that's hilarious I don't know how much else 6'5, 194 You just hand him a water bottle

He takes a swig, this is peanut butter Yeah, get drinking Yeah, drink some gravy, buddy uh the uh if so first off it's so nice to know that the Leafs are going to draft the next Norris trophy winner that's great I'm so excited to see where they trade them the new Quinn Hughes 14 points in 53 games how many 14 points all 53 that's a tree living guy right there that has Emily Rassanen written on it yeah 100 um okay uh on the Buffalo Sabres uh it's first off we got to talk about this clip from the uh what's that cam and strick podcast uh tage thompson

was talking about remember the the hit where he got lit up by who was the guy on the new jersey devils like stephan nason stephan nason and he said would i have liked for someone to step in for sure i was a little surprised by that and then he goes on to say he loves you know his teammates and blah blah blah but you know what was the most fascinating part of the cam and strick clip with tage thompson is when tage thompson unprompted defended mitch marner I thought that was really interesting. Did he? No, he didn't.

Yeah, he didn't. I was like, where was this? Yeah, that happens a lot on the Cam and Strick podcast. Yes, it does. The unneeded. It's just something I know. Oh, 100%. It's just something I know.

There's a lot of Mitch Marner defense just falling out of the sky. Oh. Uh-huh. And so, you know, and listen. That's just, you know. Hey. We'll get to that in a second. I do want to say on the Sabres, J.J. Paterka was left off the German team announcement.

not because he's not going to be on it, but because he doesn't have a contract. And Freedj actually went into the weeds with this. If you don't have a contract, they don't want to pay your insurance because the insurance on a player unsigned is crazy. So he'll have a contract and he'll be on the German team, but they didn't want to name him

and then be forced to pay how much it would pay to insure him if he didn't have a contract. No, the Tate-Thompson thing. That's actually a really reasonable explanation. Yes. You're not moving on from Tate, are you? Yeah, I am. Oh, dude.

What more is there to say? They're a loser-ass team. Yeah, but that's like an epic cry for help. Yeah. Like a complete... One that you cannot ignore. Well, and I think we'll find the solution in this next segment.

Oh. Because I have an idea. Okay? The JJ Paterka sweepstakes. Buffalo was like, no, we won't. No, we won't. And now they're going,

well, maybe we have to. Complete failure. You know what Buffalo could use as more scoring center help? Is there a deal to be worked out because both teams are trying to get better with the Minnesota Wild for Steve's favorite player, Marco Rossi.

Adam's least favorite. Why, Adam? I think 5'9 Marco Rossi could have stepped in and saved tape time. You know what? This makes sense because the Buffalo Sabres would then be trading for a player

who, as Adam refers to him, is hot ass. I didn't say he was hot ass. You said he was complete bullshit. I said he didn't play much in the playoffs, but it doesn't matter for Buffalo because they got to get there. It's fine.

Yeah, neither do they. What are you proposing? I'm proposing Paterka for Rossi and whatever pieces you want to throw in to make that even no it's an interesting thought I am not trading no matter what I am offered JJ Paterka yeah he's getting traded I'm telling you he's getting traded then Kevin Adams is a complete failure Alex Tucker he's already that Steve I know like again okay who's next who's next who's the next young player because they have a great crop who's the next young player

who wants out of Buffalo who they pitch out the door. I already know. Because they suck shit. I already know. Who? Rasmus Dali. Do you think that

that Paul Bissonnette rumor wasn't real? Oh, it was real. Yeah, we found out it was real just in a different way. They had the conversation with, he had the conversation

with Kevin Adams. He was unhappy, but he didn't request a trade or anything like that. So Dali goes in last season and says, I can't do this anymore. Tage Thompson says,

yeah, it'd be nice if somebody stepped up and and helped no he said it was a bit shocking it was a bit shocking that's a big thing for an nhl player to say guys yeah no like i don't think we need to emphasize the point that the city of buffalo is burning down and terry pagula needs to sell the team and kevin adams needs to go far away like they all just leave there and everything's fine and they just keep chucking along and losing i will gavin mckenna is going first overall next year i will burn next season to the ground before I trade that player for any price.

But they're not reputable or interesting or relevant, so they're going to trade him. I'm not saying this is Gavin McKenna's personality or representation at all. You mean particularly? No. I'm talking about McKenna. Let me get to the point. You said McKenna.

I said McKenna too. I know. Because I was halfway through my sentence and then you interrupted. I liked what I was saying. I was wondering if you're McKenna next season and a team like the Sabres is the first overall pick are you

pulling the Mario Lemieux Eric Lindros and people forget Mario wouldn't get up and put a Penguins jersey on because they wouldn't they weren't going to agree to his terms Eric Lindros said I will not play for the Nords I will not play for the Nordiques this owner's a lunatic I'm not doing this the Sabres are in the exact

same position as the Nordiques were at that time they got an owner who is fans are justifiably furious at who is not running this team properly you've seen what's with conor bedard in chicago do you really want to step into that if you're gavin mckenna well and the rumor with him is he's going to leave the whl for college yes hearing that too i get drafted by the sabers yeah you know what i love learning free agency i love free agency i love learning where can we move buffalo to i don't think you move buffalo rochester you move the

owner yeah but remove yeah but i'd like gary to step in i want big gb to get involved here can an owner get fired for just being shit they should they should well like the pirates owner should be fired for being shit total shit yeah the guy hasn't i don't think they've made a free agent signing in what like seven years or something like that like it's it's like a crazy stat like their last big free agent signing was like 2017 or something and they it was like francisco francisco lariano or something like that and so like that's that's my point like oh the pirates it's very cool it's like the sabers no no the pirates the pirates yeah got it the no i think you move buffalo to like where what city do you hate steve just like somewhere that you hate

mississauga no yeah so you move them to mississauga because steve hates mississauga because that's where i'm from and then you let mississauga deal with terry bagula yeah you give the fans of buffalo a good team a new team a fresh start with a new owner and you have them play out a paramount you can own the buffalo 150 fans show up the buffalo dangles yeah they'll play yeah paramount fine food center nobody will show up in the middle of the worst location any arena has ever absolute shit where like where who built that thing the buffalo sabers need a fresh start with a new human being running their team it's unfair to these fans that terrible is still running this thing with his man he groomed to be a general manager with no experience in in kevin adams who

fired everyone the day he got in there and decided to get no help and then who's the help they decide to bring in now adam uh yarmo kekalainen favorite human you know it's crazy it's just mr burns and smithers running around the power plant running the thing by themselves the blue jackets had bill zito you know we talked about how the kraken and oilers could have had him the blue jackets had him and they're like no we we prefer yarmo i loved our episode names we titled smithers because he came up with he's smithers evan adams is smithers terry you're quite good at turning me on like they're so embarrassing uh bro bro jj peterka is gonna win a stanley cup with the florida panthers Yeah. I'm going to tamper right now. No, I'm texting Alan. Don't you dare.

More time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. for any size business alan don't you dare okay here's so here's my question guys uh when it comes to free agency walsh um the report this morning is that marshan's camp so cj's been saying it it started out as a potentially a three-year deal at eight million right now cj's talking about well they're thinking it could be four now and drag said this morning it could be as high as eight and a half million dollars per season i thought i thought you were about to say years i am ready i was gonna throw this table i am ready to overpay for that i'm prepared to

overpay for brad marchand but at what point does that become a really bad idea like the leafs i want him to come to the does he do the funny thing and sign with oh buffalo i'm sorry like no no i know that's not a funny thing that's the sad thing that's the no it's funny because he's just ripping them off you know what makes a lot of sense for brad marchand san jose and anaheim young guys teaching the culture and i think anaheim might be closer than san jose is to the playoffs but like there's a reason why anaheim is getting guys like chris cry they're trying to show people we're trying to win now let me give you absolute doomsday scenario okay marshand and marner end up in san jose with celebrini that would be a nightmare that'd be a nightmare oh

I think Marchand in San Jose is something there. I think you nailed something. Give me the 63 Marchand teal jersey. Yeah. Like, imagine, okay, who's touching Celebrini if Marchand's on his line? Or Eklund? Or Smith? See, Marchand has always, there's always been a bigger bear.

Yeah. When it comes. I think you're bringing a bigger bear. Yeah, Marchand's not really that guy. But he's not going to put up with somebody taking a run at Celebrini. No, he's not. Just like he never did with Pasternak. I knew they were frigging winning last night, just the way he was playing.

But also, it's second intermission. They're up. It was two or three nothing heading into the third. And he's the one taking shots at Oilers players after the horn. I'm like, there's something wrong with you. That's something they should be doing to you to get the boys going. And he's just taking swipes at guys. Something wrong with that man.

The Leafs do. They're not. do an eight-year, or sorry, a four-year, $8 million-a-year deal with Brad Marchand? I'll die miserable. Will you die miserable? Yeah. You won't like it for the first couple years and go, screw it, who cares what happens after that?

There are ways to get rid of contracts. Do they win? You know, that's the only answer. I hate that it starts there. They would be a lot more likable. For me, the Leafs' first goal this offseason is to become likable again. Brad Marchand solves that problem.

Mitch Marner leaving is going to help. i think i said this before i'll say it again opening night in toronto there should be no less than eight fights well i agree and and people are like what are you talking about i love the leafs same with me uh but my point is uh usually when a fan base reaches a point where every time specific players are touching the puck in a playoff game and they're getting booed in their own arena i think that's a i think we've reached a point where a lot of people don't like these guys you can't more emphatically be like fucking change it up so would brad marchand then be worth it have we talked ourselves into a 20 24 no 32 million dollar deal this this has been

the problem uh with me like talking about the leafs is you're so right like you're nailing it they do have a likability problem because oh you know what should the leaves do this off season for me uh the word i begin that sentence with is always i don't know man yeah you do yeah you do you do marsh and i don't i i think that's a beginning conversation but what i'm trying to say is you do actually know it's the reason you you're reacting that way is you're applying the last five seasons to this yeah they have a real opportunity here to like if they come in and they show heart and soul, which is, I think, the issue that Toronto fans have had,

then I think instantly likable. That's why you say eight fights. I think you're hitting on something. To say that you don't know, I think, you're applying Brandon Shanahan logic to it, and Shanahan's gone. They got to do something for me and I think a lot of Leaf fans watching this right now

to get our blood pumping. Get me excited. Get me through the summer. Get me through the summer. Tell me some hope. sell me on some hope baby and then when next season arrives just beat the shit out of a few guys is that too much to ask beat the shit out of oh you need a willing combatant uh i just watched the florida panthers no you don't grab someone and punch them until someone stops you and for

anyone being like oh that's terrible that's what winners do sounds like you want ryan reeves in the opening day ross no i said strategy i said grab someone and punch them until someone pulls you off reeves wouldn't catch anyone yeah worth beating up i don't know i want them to win in the playoffs i do too yeah starts in the regular season though not really not with these teams not with florida florida sucks for a lot of this season if the leafs put together a cup winning roster will we have any idea what it looks like no no like if dude even if they were first place in the league next year, we'll be like, well, they're going to fuck it up in the round. We're going to fuck it up. 100%. Or they

could go into the playoffs the way the Panthers did this year and we'll be like, they're going to get fucking swept. I think the Leafs need to show here's the deal. Here's what needs to happen. Let's just be straight about this. The Toronto Maple Leafs need to be planning for Connor McDavid's free agency. If you're not, then you should all be fired. If it comes around.

No, no. We don't know so you must plan anyway. No, I mean like if he signs in August, then you can stop. Then there's nothing to plan for. But this free agency So you have to treat it like Connor's going to be a free agent next year. You have to. You have to have a plan for that. Is this going to be a slow?

I don't know what happened to my voice there. Is this going to be a slow July 1st? No. Now, hold on. Hold on. It's not. Let me finish the point. My mouth moved and nothing came out.

Balloon losing air. You have to, if you're the Leafs, plan to take a on paper step back and teach this team how to play like a team. I think they played more like a team this season than I have seen them play in this era. I give them a ton of credit for how they worked against the play in the games that they won against the Panthers. They were truly impressive. And I and the games that they won against Ottawa, they were truly impressive and they won the division. Their defense looks better.

Their goaltending looks good. There are plenty of reasons to hope for this team. Sure. But what I need to see is more throughout the entire lineup. Right. I need to see Matthews have a rebound. I need to see Matthew Nyes hey you want to make 8 million bucks buddy

now we're going to be on your shit play like it and do you think this will lead to them signing Conor McDavid I think that you if you show that you're a Conor McDavid away that's the convincing point because Conor McDavid is not just going to sign here because it's Toronto

Conor McDavid is going to sign where he thinks he can win so if you show hey we're a second round team second round but man we went down fighting and we could have just used choose one more guy. And we think you're that guy. And he goes, hell yeah, I am. I am that frigging guy. And I'm going to, and I am going to come home and we are, or he's going to say it to whoever else is at the table at that point. Anaheim, San Jose, a bunch of maybe Florida's

in there. Maybe Vegas is in there. Whoever's in there, right? You got to make sure if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs management, you're not building for 26. You hope to get as far as you can. You're not going to spend big at the deadline. You're not building for the cup in 26. You're building for the cup in 27 this is a two-year plan the Leafs have my full permission to try to win the cup in 2026 they do but you're not this is not an all-in year what percentage chance are you putting on it that Connor McDavid is a Toronto Maple Leaf to start the 26-27 NHL less than one percent Steve because likely he re-signs 15 that's something I think that's very reasonable you think it's reasonable yeah i i have fits of reason you must you must must must plan for it

you must oh definitely you have to act like it's gonna happen and i don't think the leafs have anything we keep saying oh the leafs have nothing to trade you're funny man why it's just you're talking about connor mcdavid and this morning i was looking at like david conf on the puckpedia bio calculator you're you're thinking the way you guys should be thinking in the big way yes you have to be thinking like that you can't be paid you also people have a point like you can't be paying david comp two and a half million dollars to play sometimes fourth line you can't be paying uh max domey to be uh what do you do in this lineup during the regular he was good in the in the postseason i think they got to find him a spot and i think his spot is next to austin

matthews next year stop playing him in the middle i know it's insane i'm i'm getting fucking mad it's like patrick line i playing top line center what are we doing here like okay lotten as a Deadline pickup, not playing center. All right, fine. He's a center. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

You paid a first-round pick for this guy. Yeah. People were worried about Reeves. Stop. I mean, you're going to bury him. It's going to be 200 grand against your cap. Who cares? Literally, who cares?

I honestly think a team could be convinced. Sure. Maybe they trade him, but I don't think Ryan Reeves. Whenever people list him as an issue, I'm like, guys, be serious. Callie Yarncroke. I am a fan of Callie Yarncroke. I know he's not great in the playoffs. If he's gone, fine.

but you have got to focus on people that actually make the difference because every year, what do we do? We go, man, if we could have just surrounded the core with this guy who Edmonton or Florida plucked out about security. What if everything went perfect? Exactly.

Now that we don't have to look at it like that, you need to look at, here's the big player that's going to make a big difference. And I think this is a two-year thing. This is a 24-month plan. If I was Brad Treliving, I'd be going to Keith Pelley going, this is not the year we're going all in we'll go as far as this team will take us but we need to

be planning for the best player of this generation to be a free agent and we need to get him and we must get him and we must do everything we can to get him well that and by the way our best player happens to share his agent that means all the dead wood on your roster you have to put it the 50 yard line and kick it between the wickets uh we're going to bring harrison on i just want to quickly mention uh sdpn participating in the get real virtual 5k fundraiser uh and we did some shooting yesterday uh i'm exhausted are you are you sore i'm actually no just i got that pump going okay healthy quads going we we got a video coming out about uh no spoilers we have a video coming out and steve is skating in it i'm sure the rest of us that's hilarious

on its own uh but anyway we just want you to click the links the sdpn team link is below we're trying to raise four grand get real 5k hashtag rainbow railroad 5k and remember rainbow railroad evacuates queer individuals fleeing dangerous environments around the globe and obviously uh get real goes into schools and helps kids who are of the 2s lgbtq plus community and also kids who are not in education and to learn more about that we're bringing on harrison brown you're good at this let us play it's a book uh winning the battle for gender diverse athletes it's by a friend of ours named harrison brown welcome back to the show thanks for having me thanks for having me now harrison is also a uh longtime member of rachel's raiders so you know we and and thankfully every

time you suit up for us you're the best player on the ice by far no and no yes was it lindros who saw harrison play and was like who's that who the hell is that oh yeah and they're like oh my I was like, who's that out there? I should have quoted that. I was like, who's that out there for like a plus? I was like, yeah, I'm a plus. And my two other forwards were you and Eric. So yeah, pretty good.

Let's talk a little bit about this book and why write it. What's important about this story? Give us like sort of the lowdown here. Yeah. So what it originally started out as a memoir based project. And obviously writing a book is pretty crazy of an endeavor. Yeah. Yeah.

it's pretty nuts we've been adjacent to it a couple times and steve's a little yeah gets a little stressed i bet yeah how many times did you have to whine to your friends like i can't yes right now i gotta do something yeah so yeah i employed i employed my sister to help me with that so my sister is rachel brown um and she's an investigative journalist award-winning like vice news mclean's um global everything so uh teaming up with her made this like a digestible thing But it also made us change it into a more global scope because we were able to use her perspective of like unbiased things in any way. So we made it more of an all encompassing conversation because when I came out, I came out in 2016 and trans participation in sports wasn't as much of an issue, wasn't as much of a topic. And we saw that wasn't politicized, wasn't yeah, wasn't politicized.

And we saw the discourse really change in a negative way. So we really wanted to kind of dispel these myths and explore the moral panic of trans athletes right now. So we talked with trans kids, families, athletes from Olympic level to recreation all over the world to just kind of break it down and what's really going on right now. So, OK, and I think that's the key, because there's a lot of frankly, there's there's a lot of misinformation out there about it. And I think, um, usually when you, it's so funny, you, you hear this from people who have really no involvement in sports, uh, really no involvement in, in, in trans or actually to SLGBTQ plus issues on the whole. It's just a lot of people who are going, I didn't grow up with that.

So I'm not comfortable with that. And what we don't hear a lot of is from your side of it and, and the people that are living it. And so what are the what would be the main if there's a if there's a it's not it's not fair. You've written an entire book. But if there's something here, that's the main thrust that people can kind of grab on to, you know, about this particular issue, because it's a big one, especially in the States. It's so highly politicized. It is red hot right now. What what would what would be the thing you would say? Well, I would say that trans participation in sports is not new.

Trans people have been participating in sports for decades. When I was playing college in 2011, there was a trans policy that was put in place and it's not a new thing. It's only been this new sensational thing in the media because politicians are using it right now as a political tool to get votes and to be a savior in a moral panic. That's the biggest thing that I've been seeing. But trans participation in sports is not an issue. There has been no Olympic gold medals won by a trans woman or Olympic gold medals in all of NCAA. There is 500,000 athletes. There are 10 trans participants. This is not this is not an issue at all. And I think people really need to scrutinize what they're seeing in the media, especially when it's about underrepresented minorities. this is a i i was taken by uh using the term right now you know you know they're using it right now can you imagine a world where the i don't know they move on to something else because like it it does feel like whatever moment in time we're in uh whoever's on the wrong side of history has to pick a thing and right now this is that thing yeah yeah that was the the biggest thing that um I really learned because we had to do a lot of history. We had to do a lot of research of why this is happening.

Why now? Exactly. Because like it was gay rights before. It was racialized topics before that. We're just finding new scapegoats everywhere we go. And trans people, in particular, trans women and trans athletes and sports is being weaponized right now in a way that I've never seen it. And it feels so personal to me. And that's what really inspired me to do something about it.

Yeah. The numbers thing, that's what really stands out to me when you when you dig a little deeper into what you're just not seeing in the media and you find out it's 10 athletes out of 500,000. And how do people go about combating that? Because that's when you look at the politicians talking about it feels like every other athlete is a trans athlete competing in the NCAA. And it's really just the smallest of percent of percent. So how can like the average person combat that misinformation? Because that's what it truly is. Yeah, education is the biggest key and scrutinizing what you read in the media, not taking everything at face value, especially when it's coming from something like Fox News. But we're also seeing things like the New York Times spreading misinformation. So we really need to stay vigilant right now. But I think really equipping with stats has been really great for me, like just those numbers that I just read off. It makes people think and they're like, oh, OK, because it's like you see trans women are taking over women's sports. It's just this general blanket statement. But when you break it down by the numbers, it's just not the facts. Who is dominating women's sports? Cisgender women. There's not enough trans people in the world to even make that an issue.

I wonder with this, because, you know, you have seen, I remember when we first talked and we were talking about, and this is years ago during Pride, we were talking about your transition and that sort of thing. And the if I remember correctly, there's a bit of loneliness in your story where you felt you felt very much like you didn't fit. There was some some sort of thing. And then obviously now things are different. I wonder for you, how lonely does it make you feel when you see that stuff? How does that hit you day after day after day? Because we get hit with that sort of story every day. Every day you log on to Twitter, it's like whatever Elon Musk decides.

It's, you know, the plight of people in South Africa. It's Iran, Israel. It's transgender athletes, that sort of thing. It is literally on the front page of the Internet. It's a lot about how he's been wronged. Yes, 100 percent. And how hard life has been for him. I'm wondering for you, how are you feeling day to day about this? It's it's bleak. I got to say it's it's bleak. Like I've had to mute Apple News on my phone. So that it's not something that I wake up every morning and see this headline about my community. It's hitting so close to home in a way that I've never experienced it. Growing up LGBTQ+, obviously there's always going to be backlash and there's always going to be people that say things, but it's just reaching this fever pitch that I haven't seen in a very long time. And I think what people aren't understanding is that it's a really hard thing to talk about. As soon as somebody finds out that I'm trans, that I'm an athlete, all they want to do is debate me. They want to debate you?

Yeah, they want to debate me. They want to talk about this topic. And I'm forced to educate people. I'm forced to advocate. I'm always on the defense now in a way that I've never had to be before. But it's exhausting. And yeah. do you you don't feel the responsibility to have to take that up every time do you

I do I think I'm in a space like god that's gotta be trans people like you can you can pick and choose what battles you want to have and not everybody has to be an advocate but I think for me my visibility um and the the influence that I was able to have as a trans athlete that was celebrated, that it was a positive story. I think I'm really responsible for this. And I find that sports, I'm preaching to the choir here, sports saved my life. Like I don't know the identity of being a hockey player, the identity of being an athlete, the life lessons, the friendships, everything that I had as a child, the fact that some kids are not going to be able to have that because of how they identify, that scares me so much. And I really want everybody to be able to

play sports because it's such a special special thing yeah and we spoke to a representative from the get real movement was it last week and we were talking about just how important sports is to a community and people growing up but it's not so much as like the playing sports part of it it's the camaraderie and the team that the team bonding that goes on around sports and for a lot of people like sports is where they find their community and their people and their friends and for for people like you need that to be a safe space you need that to be friendly for everybody to be invited into so the work you're doing to create that space in sports is really important yeah and i think the discourse right now like trans participation in sports it's all about fairness

and winning and medals and it's like we need to get back to the ethos of sports when we can not look at it through the medals but we think about it through the enrichment through the health through the things that you can really gain as a child like i think we need to get back to what that is really about yeah there's a there's a lot of tiktok stuff about uh third places you know you go to work you go home and a lot of people these days because it is a lonely world when everybody's on their phone they don't have third places to go and i think sports is one of the best third places for people's lives and it just needs to be a comfy third place for everybody yeah for sure i thought you're about to talk about bronze medals

what were what were some things while writing this book that brought you joy oh yeah joy uh you know like i just feel like listen so everything's hard right like no what were some things throughout the process of writing this thing yeah brought you joy well i wrote it with my sister and I think that that is such a special thing to write something and to have a project like this with a family member I learned a lot about her and a lot about her her work through this because she's able to come to my hockey games she's able to see tangible things this was the first time that I was able to see her in when we were interviewing people and doing what she does for a living and I was like astounded by she's so smart she's so good at it it's crazy

But learning that and being able to feel empowered by her and see what she was learning through this, because like as a trans person, I learned a lot. But as a as a cisgender ally, just seeing seeing how humble that she was with it and how much she learned and how fierce of an advocate she is for this community. It was just really special to do that. But also talking with trans kids. We talked to a trans kid out of Boston and his dad and his dad coaches his hockey team. he plays on a co-ed team um and just to hear um how much he loves sports and how much his dad wants to protect him and champion him as a trans kid it just when i finished that interview i started crying and um i sent him one of my jerseys uh and he has it beside uh marshawn jersey and matthew's jersey in his bedroom and he sent me one of his afterwards and it yeah so just hearing

from these resilient kids just makes me so so like just fills me up yeah yeah so listen the book is let us play winning the battle for gender diverse athletes it's by harrison and rachel brown yes and it's in stores now and congratulations on the book we know that this is uh not just a labor of love for you but also a labor of education for the rest of us and we very much appreciate it great No, thanks for having me, guys.