The Steve Dangle Podcast - Scratchadelphia | March 20, 2024

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Summer CJ (00:00), the Flyers scratch their captain Sean Couturier (03:00), the Leafs lose to the Flyers (35:00), CJ speaks to Brad Treliving (1:02:00), salary Cap projections (1:24:00), news and notes from the GM meetings (1:27:00), Pierre Engvall and Steven Stamkos (1:38:00), Chris Simon (1:46:00), and watch SDP March Madness: https://youtu.be/WKORZmMavgw (1:51:00). Join 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 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! 👍 RRROLL Up To Win is back for Tims 60th Anniversary! And to celebrate our big year, you can win some big prizes. All-electric Volkswagen ID.4, sun-soaked Hilton Getaway, and cash with a daily jackpot of ten thousand dollars! Play today on the Tims App: https://www.timhortons.ca/rollup Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code SDP for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. However you hydrate, grab your Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier Sugar-Free in bulk nationwide at Costco or get 20% off your first order when you go to https://www.liquid-iv.com/ and use code DANGLE at checkout. Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join 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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completely risk-free with Nord's 30 back, 30 day money back guarantee wow i screwed that up but you got it thank you let's start the show drinking out of a cj show mug after watching the cj show from florida whoa uh stick taps to cj for standing there and i you know the thing was he was standing there in the heat in florida with his like tsn you know nice guy nice jacket on jacket yeah right like a blazer a handsome boy jacket in the blazing heat he could have just taken it off but he didn't it completed the look while pierre lebrun snaps paparazzi photos of him yes exactly exactly i was really whatever the setup like

pierre do some real journalism and go find kate and what's going on there here maddie if you want to bring this up here there's cj recording the cj show what a hottie in florida look at that guy he's so freaking handsome yeah yeah doing a great job every time i see cj i'm like he's so handsome i forget sometimes that the first time we had cj on the show which would have been like 2015 2016 like a long time ago he didn't have a beard he did not that was uh that was the episode we had doug sifu on i believe oh yes cj had to leave yeah because doug sifu was gonna be on yeah that That was wild. Yeah, anyway.

Hey, we're also recording some SDP VIP content. If you haven't signed up, it's an extra episode. And it's all the stuff that we used to get to within the episode that we can't now because it's just, it's all hockey wall to wall. And I've got some, I've got an update for you on Kate Milton. Just throwing that out there. Oh, man, that's so good. You know what? I always loved the road less traveled.

I have texted Steve no less than 20 videos about this. Because I know his wife's into it, too. Guess how many of them I watch. None. It better be all of them. None. You jerk. None of them.

Okay, so listen, guys. There's a lot to talk about. We've got the GM meetings, as you saw with Chris Johnson. You have some rule changes. We've got some salary cap stuff. But the most important thing is not even the Leafs game last night. It's Sean Couturier getting scratched. No, it's not.

Because that preempts the Leaf game. My name's John Totorella. Don't ask questions about the very notable thing that I did. the flyers first came back from suspension the flyers scratched couturier 34 days after being named captain while he's so he hasn't scored in a while his offensive production is awful but someone posted is like underlying numbers like his offensive impacts and defensive impacts he's still a very good player well and he also is coming off of an injury yes and the fact that he came back to the nhl after not playing for two years because of an injury it was multiple back

surgeries that he had over the course of the last two seasons he played a little in the 21 20 or he missed the entire no yeah he played a little in the 22 23 season no that would have been last year he missed all of last year a little bit in the year 21 22 i think you're my years yeah it was like two games though 24 yeah yeah but basically two full years because of back surgery he has an opportunity to do something i think i'm quite confident no nhl player has ever done which is be named an nhl captain be healthy scratched and win the masterton in that order in the same season oh yeah it's you know that's gonna happen right yeah like there's there's i guess i think there's some other contenders like but i think he's the front runner right now he should be gotta be like

nominated everybody's not everybody's one nominee because if you look at uh patcher ready like i I feel like there's a very similar case. But I don't know if we need to run down the front runners for the Bill Masterson Award. Whose struggle was the hardest? Yeah. It's a ridiculous debate to have. I'm not going to have it.

I'm not going to have it. The old Greg Wyshynski thing. What's that? Whenever everyone's going through what they did to deserve the trophy, he does an impression of Bill Masterson, and he goes, yeah, I died. Is that what Greg does?

He used to do it on Merrick vs. Wyshynski. Yeah, I was just going to say. This is the second straight show we've brought up Bill Masterson. That's right, because he was... His jersey's retired in Dallas. That's it. That's my guy. He knows.

Jesse knows. He does know. First North Star ever to be retired. Bill Masterson. He is. No, so this is 34 days after Couturier was named captain. Now, it's really important, I think, for context here. If you're not following every Philadelphia Flyers outlet from the entire year

because you're not a Flyers fan, It's important to note that torts was emphatic before the start of this year. There would be no captain. Well, Adam, not every flyers outlet, all but one, because one cannot get their questions answered. Which one's that? I think his name's Anthony San Filippo. Is that the guy from the Kevin Hayes thing earlier this year?

From the Kevin Hayes story. Oh, and torts was like, I'm not answering your question. Yeah, but it was the first question yesterday. He goes, John, blah, blah, blah, blah. And John goes, not answering your question. And then they move on to the next reporter. I have the, do you have it, Jesse? Because I have the Tortorella press.

Oh, you've got Couturier already. Yeah, I think it's more important. Well, I think that's where you're going, right? Yeah, so I was going to do that. And then I was going to send you Rocky Thompson's press conference. But let's do that first. Let's do Couturier. Yeah, so here's Sean Couturier pregame after the morning skate being asked about being scratched.

Talked yesterday how trying to fight off frustration is this kind of testing your frustration and patience. Definitely. Like I said, I control what I can control. It is what it is. We'll move on. Have you spoken with Tortorola about this yet or no? Somewhat, but it doesn't matter, honestly, what I think. I've got to leave my ego aside, I guess, and hopefully the team finds a way to get a win here tonight and I can get back into it soon. You were the last guy off the ice. I know you're a pretty driven worker, but how much is this driving you even more? Yeah, it's tough.

I feel like I've been putting the work in for a while. I know I've been struggling trying to work on my game, so definitely frustrated the way I've been treated around, I guess, lately. But it is what it is. Bless him for answering these. to what he needs to see from you or what you need to work on to make sure you're in the lineup and getting a lot more minutes than you have been? Not really.

I've gotten the same answer as you guys, just need to see more. I'm still looking to find out what that is, but I'm trying every game. It's not like I'm just sitting around or doing nothing, I think. Like I said yesterday, I felt the last couple games with the limited ice time opportunities i've been getting been been doing all right but um i guess uh i guess we're going and you know with the best lineup available tonight to to make it to get a win so um it is what it is and adam you know we keep bringing up coaches being mean like the nashville predators but gosh darn it they win they keep winning so coaches need to be more mean it couldn't be because

it's so when here's what's going to happen first off we're gonna we're not going to talk about this yet because we need to hear what rocky thompson well with the that clip yeah in there what two things he said that were really important were that he said he was he's doesn't like how he's been treated lately which is a big thing to say to the media and he doesn't know what he can do to get back in the lineup he has he said i have the same information as you guys which is very telling well and and this is why i want to get to rocky because his agent spoke to the athletic so I think not not Rocky's agent did speak to the athletic so we're going to get to that in a second but first Rocky Thompson is the assistant coach of the Philadelphia Flyers why is he taking

a morning press conference in Philadelphia well it just happened to be the time that torts was getting his cast off it couldn't have been over his suspension it had to be at that moment and that time that Rocky Thompson had to take the press conference not torts couldn't wait till after to get a cast cut off had to be then towards had to be right then torts has the most fascinating relationship with the media i know it's where and last night's press conference like hold on we're playing a clip yeah oh yeah play the clip play the clip and this is what he had to say about it this is all that was said remind me uh rocky with um tron couturier played a lot of hard minutes early in the season kind of like what he you know had been doing before his injuries

His role has diminished a little bit. How much do you think maybe that is watching his minutes but also understanding it's performance-related as well? Well, I think that that's more of a question for Torts and how Torts manages his minutes. I can't get into the mind of our head coach that way. So I think Coots has done a good job. He works extremely hard in practice,

and he's trying to get himself better without a doubt. How about the – So that's more of a Torts question, and then torts when he does show up we'll play that too we're gonna play that because i think it's important but i want to say here's here's what torts's boss said i can tell you one thing with john tortorella it doesn't matter who it is that's what he's known for he treats everybody the same way yeah that was daniel briere yeah gm and then back in his guy so and then here's what couturier's agent said about it because this is i think really it really key to this who is uh

Let me just pull it up here. Okay, so. Pop quiz. Hold on. You go ahead and say, I've got to pull up the article because I got the wrong link here. Okay, sure.

One like positive piece of feedback with John Tortorella that's always been there is he's tough, but you always know where you stand with him. Players, you know, who go to bat for Tortorella

say we always know where we stand with him. Does Sean Couturier sound like he knew where he was? Not in this case. No, Jean Couturier sound confused, unsure of what he can do. He didn't really understand why he was in the position he was in. And one thing I thought The Athletic pointed out that was interesting about this scratching, it comes off of Saturday where he played the least amount of minutes he played all season, 11 minutes. yeah and he got demoted to the fourth line midway through the game when they came out for the second period he was bumped down to the fourth line after starting in the top six but then in the third

period i believe when the goal was scored he he directly caused a goal with a four check something that is like hard working it's it's something the fourth line is supposed to do on the fourth line and when you lead to those goals usually you should be rewarded with more playing time that's so i'm also confused as to i get he hasn't been playing well for a long stretch of time clearly the the couple weeks he's been playing but it's just a little confusing because he doesn't have answers himself well and here's what the agent said uh he agent hasn't spoke to him his name is eric lupian he only has two contracts he's got sean's and he's got gabriel fortier from the uh tampa bay lightning um and uh couturier was at one point up until january 13th

as Jesse said, 20 minutes on ice a night, and then it's fallen since. Here's what the agent said. He was clueless about his ice time and why his ice time went down when he spoke to him Tuesday, and this is before the scratching. But he said, I'm just going to manage

and maybe manage the minutes he wants me to play. If I'm playing 14 minutes, I'm going to play 14 minutes. Throughout last year and the beginning of this year, in conversations with Sean, he always told me that Tortorella had him as a pretty good, you know, had a pretty good relationship. as soon as we get through that character he's a pretty funny guy and the conversations with him are good and he knows what the team wants from my point of view uh when i saw the news that

couturier was scratched i'm like i really hope the communication why and the reasons why are really clear i hope he's going to get an explanation soon because he's the captain and he's the leader of this team that's why he want he said yeah and he's had philadelphia tattooed on his chest since he was drafted that's why he wanted to sign there long term i hope he's going to get that respect from tortorella he has not been spoken to directly about this so i'm sure he has now i'm trying to figure out what order to do this in so in defense of tortorella's decision right yeah so i marked i i talked about his underlying numbers and and what just bad no no they're good oh the underlying numbers yeah on the on the season on the season yeah but since

it's since mid-january is the point of when they're he's struggling so this is this is the problem yeah um so like you go oh why it's pretty obvious you look at his game log so and yes this is just counting stats but it matters February 10th against the Seattle Kraken that was Sean Couturier's last goal he had a goal and he was minus one that night the next uh game February 12th against the Arizona Coyotes he had an assist again he was a minus one the next night or next game minus two next game minus three next game minus one next game minus one next game minus two even though he had two assists um then he was even then he was minus two then he was minus one even even even even even minus one his last plus game so his last goal was February 10th

his last plus game was a game where he had no goals no assists against the Florida Panthers february 6th that was his last plus game plus like dude that's really really tough i i we gave sean his flowers earlier in the season and he deserved them torts might have a point since since that just to back up your stats since that one goal game january 10th if you include that game it's one goal seven assists total minus 16 so minus 16 since january 10th is when was well when was he named captain because it was 34 34 days ago so it would have been right around the time this streak began yes yeah yeah like midway through i guess because it would have been february uh like 20th or something so basically the moment

he was named captain his season started to go south yeah and tortorella's like all right i'm going to make a point here and oh go ahead well and someone who it's hard to keep track of who likes who and who just likes who i would have thought brandon dubinsky would be a huge john tortorella advocate um he was his coach in columbus and brandon dubinsky embodied a lot of the things that john tortorella demands out of his players he was hard-nosed he sacrificed he blocked shots and everything this morning he tweets torts your tactics are getting old instead of scratching and embarrassing your captain and one of your best players how about try and tell him i'm giving you 20 minutes tomorrow night no matter what with power play and pk and go play free have fun and

fucking get it done hashtag free couturier which uh will become a thing now and this is a long running thing that john tortorella does the most famous one being scratching roberto luongo in the outdoor game the heritage classic game oh my god way back when and luongo being still upset to this day about it disastrous just a disastrous year in vancouver and saying uh anthony duclair can't play before anthony duclair decided to go all the way off and is still playing and is still playing and weirdly when he's not on the worst team in the league uh puts up points jesse i sent you Tortorella's press conference Yeah the post game one

I got that And then I want to Read you guys a tweet You want it yeah Go ahead Not answering your question Next question He's wearing the cast

So that's what I was told I was told that he was Getting a cast off And a new cast on Or something like that That was the reason given I'm not saying that it's I am merely repeating

What was reported but he is wearing a cast so it's a good catch I don't think he was lying about it I think the timing is suspicious it's curious to skip the media veil after your morning skate on the day you scratch your captain

that's all I think it's on purpose but anyway not answering your question next question John was there any effect I'm sorry what do you gotta say steve i interrupted steve gets interrupted adam you get an interrupt i'm

sorry it's a free interrupt today okay a man in the mouth subplot to this yeah i'm i'm like listen i'm not saying the dude doesn't deserve to be freezed out frozen out whatever necessarily i'm surprised it's still going on i think it's hilarious he's still asking questions uh i find it odd that the outlet hasn't stepped in not that they could compel john tortorella to speak and i find it uh um not even odd just noteworthy that no writer or anyone at any outlet in philadelphia uh is saying no answer his question i guess we all know how it'll end yeah and i don't think you're going to compel torts to do anything but i would say this you know as bad as the kevin hayes thing was you know obviously i don't know i don't end up i don't

know what ended up happening did he have a bad source or if it was a fake story or because i don't it doesn't seem like he would just make it up but it's usually bad source bad source probably yeah so he got you know and everybody from the top down when you're in journalism these guys i i'm not going to mention names but there have been some some some sources that have just blown people up in the last yeah well yeah there's a there's one that doesn't hurt anybody right but there's there's been ones that there's been a lot at stake and those sources have burned the reporters and so you know i what i will say about this guy and i don't know what he's like and i don't know what he represents and i'm not sure what his outlet does i will respect the fact that

he shows up and still tries to ask a question i'll respect that it's my favorite recurring bit i'm just i'm fascinated it's still going we should probably do a super cut at the end of the year towards saying he's not going to answer that guy's questions. I bet there's going to be 67 of them. I'm sure Flyers Nation is all over it. It's been at least four. Flyers Nation is a great account, by the way. You should follow them.

At least four that I've seen. All right, Jesse, go. Jesse, pause. Not answering your question. Next question. John, was there any effect, do you think, with pulling Sean Couture from the lineup? What were you looking for from the team by making that move?

As I told you, I'm putting the players out on the ice to win a particular game, and these were the 20 that we decided to go with. Not talking on Sean. I'm not debating with you. I'm not conversing with you. It's between Sean and I. So just talk to me about the game, guys. So you won't talk to Sean?

You won't talk to them? It has nothing to do with Sean being out. Are you asking me about the team? Our team played good tonight. There you go. And then somebody says something with Sean Couturier's name in the question but about the team and the response, and he's like, it basically makes him rephrase the question later on oh yeah so about three minutes in uh we're not

gonna watch the full three no no i know i should have got the time state jesse can you go to like three minutes 30 seconds no no this is a 40 second it's a 40 second oh never mind i watched that was that was the end of the club see no someone i don't know who it was uh asked a question about the team maybe maybe you and i are talking about the same one and they framed it in a way that got a really insightful answer out of torts and i'm like torts doesn't realize it right now but he's answering a question about sean couturier right like the question is about the team and everything but it will absolutely be framed in a way that it's about sean couturier because it is and and he scratched the captain yes so uh i think it was nick andrade producer nick he goes when was the

last captain who got scratched and the only one i can think of is andrew ferentz why did he oh he was the oilers captain yeah and they were awful yeah but it was that was like a very long time ago yes probably what 15 years ago i don't know about 15 but like maybe a decade yeah it's quite a while yeah yeah it doesn't happen this is mctavish era um at least he was he was the captain he was in the lineup and then the longer his tenure went on he was the captain but he wasn't an everyday player yeah yeah um this is uh i want to read this tweet it's from acting the fooling and i love this tweet i bet you do the basic theory of john tortorella is a he'll get the most out of a team with few stars on it and b he makes it considerably more likely that you will

have such a team and that tweet is from march 11 2021 oh wow who is he he would have been with columbus and i think i think i i hate to bring this up because i know it's a sore spot actually don't hate to bring this up but i know it is a sore spot with flyers fans no one's ever got an answer as to why cutter goche was like yeah i'm not gonna play here and i i i would imagine i would posit that that might be part of it and i think and and listen that's that's there's a big gap between here and there i recognize that yeah but he all of a sudden just didn't want to play there so philadelphia i think that's a fair point adam but the counter is all right we're gonna send you the anaheim then i don't know dude they're they're almost a carbon copy of what they were

last year ah we're sort of competitive we're fun and we're scrappy and then uh just a point happen sometime in the winter where they're just like we're actually the most joyless hockey team on the face of the planet yeah because the vibes were good for a bit for a bit yeah they they do all right in the fall right and then holy shit they are unwatchable now i i like you know there was an there was a culture issue in philadelphia or at least if you ask the flyers that's what it was under john fletcher right uh they have gotten rid of some of the players that were part of that culture issue um torts got a win last night right everybody's treated the same according to danny so he's right okay so when sean couturier inevitably comes back and plays well people

are going to attribute it to the scratch oh this happens every time and what i would like to to tell you before this happens is that sean couturier is a good player who's come come through crazy back surgeries and an injury this season in season to play and he was playing well at the beginning of the year Sean Couturier will play well when he comes back because Sean Couturier is good at hockey it's not because torts benched him it's because he's a good player coming off an injury not finding his game it'll also be because his teammates are gonna try to find him they're gonna try to find him for a goal like we see it uh you know and does torts know that is that the genius of torts i don't know this is where he loses me every every coach wins this situation no matter

what um because no one like let's say couturier just sucks for the rest of his career then everybody's gonna be like he was right he was right and no one ever goes well he was part of his downfall they just go no the downfall happened long before he was scratched he's just garbage now and if he comes back it won't be about well he was good earlier in the year it'll be uh John Tortorella but guys will try to find Couturier for a goal now we see it when guys are approaching a milestone and I heard a funny story that I think I've told a few times on this show where a guy was close to a milestone that would have earned him a bonus in his contract final game of the season and he's like boys you got to find me boys you got to find me boys you

got to find me and he was being annoying about it so no one was passing him the ball all night except for one player lower in the lineup who was like the basically the story is this player walked into the room second intermission and said i'll give 10 grand to whoever assists so a kid who is like i could use 10 grand they're like well i could use 10 grand so they just started passing to him all third period and uh at some point during the third period he fed him for a wide open net and he missed and so the guy who set him up walked into the dressing room he goes i don't give a shit i demand my 10 grand because i set you up for that and you screwed it up wow yeah i'll uh i like that i don't remember if i ever said the name so i'm not going to say

them now no that's good though that's a good story it's a great story um and you know i i would bet money on couturier scoring so i would i okay and and i would too what's your prediction guys on how this all goes is this something because because here's the thing with torts is that oftentimes this does happen it's usually not to such a important player to the roster like it's not usually to the captain uh but it's never to the never to the captain that's why it's such a story but i i'm how do you think this goes for philly after this they did win last night we will talk about the game what's your prediction for the remainder of the season is this a he got benched and this is the turning point now they're going to make the playoffs or is it a the room split

and they're pissed at the coach if they if they make the playoffs i think it's business as usual we go back to talking about the usual flyer storylines which is they're a pretty decent team um if they miss the playoffs we're talking about torts's job jesse i don't think that's the case at all about him losing his job because we're talking about it i don't think so because i think i think right now like what were your expectations of the philadelphia flyers coming into the season oh they'd be poor exactly and right now they sit third in the metro division comfy not comfy in a playoff spot but in a playoff spot and looks like they should be able to hang on based on the percentages of how many games are left and i i think i'm in the minority that i'm i trust daniel

briere and john tortorella right now in what they're doing because they're so far above anything i could have ever imagined so i'm willing to give them leeway with this decision i think i'm not gonna criticize Tortorella for scratching Couturier even though I don't understand and I think he should explain to Couturier at least why he's scratched but I trust from the outside looking in that the Flyers are doing something right here because that's all they've proven where how am I supposed to look at the Flyers organization and say no they're they're a mess right now when all they've done so far this season is exceed expectations tenfold so I'm gonna trust that right now they're still doing that and that this decision is gonna in the end prove to be fruitful

for the team and they're gonna probably be in the playoff spot to come the playoffs and everybody's gonna be shocked and not it's gonna be a win for them all for the whole year so so one thing for torts and one one thing against the thing against that it just it gets on my nerves is a reporter asking a question about sean he goes that's between me and sean and then you hear from sean and he goes i don't know what's going on and then you hear from his agent and he goes i don't know what's going on and and then you gotta like trick him into inadvertently talking a little bit about sean yeah like a dog trying to give me the pill yeah you gotta put in some cheese first like i understand yeah exactly like you gotta feed torts some cheese so he can take his medicine this yeah

here let me slather some flea and tick medication onto this peanut butter oh wait i gotta oh shit Sorry, Iggy. Anyway, shut up and eat this. Iggy, you like peanut butter, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, it's just ridiculous. I understand the old school hockey thing. Oh, it stays in the room.

No, it stays inside of the skull casing of John Tortorella because he won't let anyone in on the decision, including the player who it was made by. The thing in favor of him is he's perhaps doing something that a lot of coaches are just not able to do, which is he's seeing beyond the letter he's we none of us would make a fuss at all about a player with the stat line that you just outlined jesse what what was it uh since january 10th so that that last goal he's he's got one that goal one goal and then none since seven assists minus 16

i mean that's miserable yeah the plus minus doesn't matter until it's egregious yes on either end and minus 16 since january 10th is a lot yeah i mean dude you don't have a plus game and that's crazy minus 15 over a season's a lot yeah yeah and one minus 15 since january 16 16 jan 16 that's crazy and like let me just i'm trying to see like what he so what is he so torts is making a still minus six you're regardless of the c on the chest i i think where you err if there's one place where i would say torts come on uh couturier says i'm looking for what exactly he's looking for right uh and if the answer is more it can't be that this can't be one of those things where you know you ask somebody like are you mad at me and they

go yes and you go okay why and they go well you should know that is not how this relationship needs to work you need to say um as the coach sean i recognize that you're struggling right now let's go through the stat line you know that you're struggling you don't have to tell players they know yeah unless they're completely diluted okay yes uh and some are but sean it does not strike me as that and then you say i'm sitting here for a game and when you come back i need a b and c uh otherwise there's going to be deeper conversations about this but if what john Tortorella has been doing has been working and which has been not giving Couturier the answers and whatever coaching style he has has been he's been doing that for the six months of the season

been going on if that's been working I have a hard time telling him change your ways because what you're explaining Adam is the right way to go about that human to human business to business but John Tortorella doesn't operate like that right and so far it's been successful it's how are you not kind of pissed off as John Tortorella that the guy you named captain immediately turned into a pumpkin? I think there's something into that. I don't

think he named him captain. Torts didn't want a captain. I think that came from above Torts. Yeah. Well, that's no bueno. I think you can read between the lines here. I think you can read between the lines here in that he probably doesn't look at Couturier as his captain. Oh, you have a coach undermining

their GM and a GM undermining their coach. Good luck. Well, always works out. I think that's a whole other bucket of, like, is Couturier the captain in Tortorella's eyes? But I think it might be in play here. It's the 60th anniversary of Tim Hortons' roll up the rim to win, and we're still waiting for Steve to win so we can all go to San Diego.

You know what? I'm not bringing you. There's two ways that we could go to San Diego via Steve. It's if he wins the $10,000 daily jackpot, or if he wins the Hilton vacation, which is also available. And you can see all this stuff on the cup There's Hudson's Bay gift cards There's Instacart

I use Instacart all the time, by the way I love Instacart Cineplex store Rakuten And Steve's favorite show, Bass Pro Shops Gift cards to Bass Pro Shops You know who I'm going to bring instead of you? Who?

Tim Horeini Tim Horeini? Yes, because From our Formula One show? Yeah, if I need someone to drive around San Diego He'll go very fast And also, his name is Tim It's fitting

Oh, Tim on the Tim Steve has been vindicated. Why? I know. Major League Baseball. They did a player survey and they asked, what's your favorite road city in Major League Baseball? No.

Number one. No. On the entire list. No. Of all the cities in Major League Baseball. San Diego. San Diego. Give it to me.

We're going. We're going. You can earn rolls on your Tim's faves, including hot or iced coffee, breakfast sandwiches, loaded bowls, and more. Make sure to play on the Tim's app, available for download on the App Store or Google Play. Tim's 60th anniversary of Roll Up the Rim to Win is on now until March 31st. Time to get rolling.

Rules apply. Canada only. No purchase necessary for contest entry. Visit the Tim's app for details. Do you want to look cool this summer? Yeah, but I need something. Well, you probably need polarized sunglasses. how about more than one pair of polarized sunglasses because shady rays look at jesse

oh damn shady jesse look at whoo oh wow the aviator look is that looks good on you shady rays damn you got this handy dandy mouth guard that's right not great for commercial reads but great for storing your sunglasses i don't think that's what those oh this is not what it's for but it's okay you looked cool while you were doing it i did definitely did shady rays has giving out the best deal of the season head to shady rays.com and use sdp for 50 off two or more polarized sunglasses try for yourself the shades that are rated five stars by over 300 000 people jesse how much cooler so like okay normally on a normal day how cool do you feel out of 10 uh one one now with your shady rays sunglasses how do you feel out of 10 a million give me a

Give me a quick finger guns. Can you give me a double finger guns? Ba-bam! Wow. It's the sound that really... He did that in the sunglasses. That's cool, man. He's got a good snap.

Again, ShadyRays.com. Use the code SDP for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Shady Rays and SDP and Jesse looking cool. I'm winking. Jesse, take them off. Take them off. Oh, what a dork! Hold on, hold on.

Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. Now the game.

Tell me if you disagree with any of this. Leafs were sloppy. Yep. They let in a goal in the first 20 seconds. They were completely unprepared for what Philly was going to bring, which was the most obvious thing in the world. They hit six posts. Yep.

They come back and make it 3-2, but then let the Flyers get the fourth on a yard sale play. Horrible. Tavares scores late in the game. Hooray. And that's it. Yep. First time in eight meetings, the Flyers have actually beaten the Leafs.

Sheldon Keefe saying this. Didn't like anybody. Didn't like the forwards. Didn't like the defense. Didn't like the goaltending. So here's what I want to throw at you. Oh, man. This Toronto media.

We're really hard. Quoting a coach verbatim. Let's talk about score-adjusted expected goals. Hell, yeah. Cool. What's that? It's the sexiest stat in the world, guys. Explain it to me.

I remember when I met Natalie for the first time as a divorcee with a child. The way that I attracted her into my web was, let me tell you about score-adjusted expected goals. And she was like, damn, that's hot. Let's get married. Yeah, I didn't previously have a high expected divorces ratio. I did. Skyrocketed. So last night, McKay Benoit.

Benoit gets back in the run. No, explain to me what the stat is. Well, Steve, you could probably explain it better than I can. The Leafs did a better job of controlling instances where the puck might go in their favor. It's possession stat. Yes. What? It's possession of play stat.

What is score-adjusted expected goals? Let me see. Expected goals? Yeah. And then score-adjusted Corsi. Score-adjusted expected goals. Yes. McKay Benoit, 56.

You want to be over 50%, right? Yes. Look at it like face-offs. If you're over 50%, that's good. Hooray. McKay-Benoit, 56.2%. Yep. The good pairing that's consistently good was good.

Edmondson-Lilligren, still figuring it out, 42.6%. They had a monstrously terrible first period and then recovered. Riley-Lilligren, limited ice time. And score effects. But 95.6%. Yeah, holy shit. Riley-Brody, 29%. i um i am going to i got another one for you yeah before you go before you go do that you're ready

for this is it also hard to understand riley with brody 47 expected goals riley without brody 52 expected goals mccabe with brody 41 expected goals mccabe without brody 53 expected goals lilligran with brody 47 expected goals lilligran without brody 54 expected goals again you want to be over 50 here either this player is bad or this player is struggling or the coaching staff has absolutely no idea how to deploy this human being like i never thought we would get to the point where i earnestly thought the leafs playoff roster would feature tj brody as a healthy scratch but if they're healthy riley labushkin give me that pair we've seen that pair work and bush wasn't in last night because he had like the flu or something yes mccabe benoit absolutely give me

that pair i've seen it work and then the third pair i've seen brody lilligren work i've seen it not work uh i didn't get edmondson to sit him yeah i've seen edmondson well exactly i've seen edmondson lilligran work i've seen it not work so brody is the sixth or seventh defenseman by my estimation you can't okay pick a leaf defenseman at random um jake mccabe okay jake mccabe's hurt all right don't like that he's hurt we don't like that so what are your new pairs well you would want riley boosh yep you probably want edmondson uh lilligran because you're trying to make that work trying to make fetch happen yeah right and you go benoit lilligren that makes some sense benoit lilligren could work that makes some sense yeah oh wait wait no i think but i

think you keep lilligren and edmondson together lilligren and edmondson oh yeah sorry i screwed it up so that means you gotta do uh connor tim brody with benoit and you probably do brody on the right i guess they can both sort of switch yeah okay that's fine we can do that we can try that especially if it's the third pair yeah limited minutes you know what you can't do ever again ever fucking again after last night ever again or i will protest outside a scotiabank arena like lisa simpson outside the nuclear power plant i will write a song and bring a guitar and everything if they put riley and brody back together never again that's enough holy shit do you know how many guys would need to be injured before i'd even entertain that

again name another defenseman at random connor timmins he's already out of the line oh you mean like yeah sorry name a defenseman who played last night uh morgan riley oh shit well no adam that fucks the bit up okay name a defenseman not riley okay lilligren lilligren great lilligren so lilligren is hurt and jake mccabe is hurt oh oof my own what do you do well you got to have connor timmons in there because you had to keep him over will legacy yes for sure so guess what riley bush that stays did you think it wouldn't it stays so lilligren's out uh we got benoit i guess Brody and then who else is there? Edmondson. I guess you got to go Timmons

or Gio or Gio Edmondson or Gio. Yes, two lefties because you couldn't have gone out and got another right. You just couldn't have that's you can't put Riley Brody together. You can't do it. Jesse

yeah, you by chance have the goals on your computer screen right now. Which one do you want any of them that Riley and Brody were on for? Yeah, we can do the first one the second one i'll send you a let's not do goal one because that was edmondson lilligran i believe also bad first uh no the one the first one oh no yeah i'm talking 20 seconds but not after 10 seconds into the game okay okay that makes sense i just sent you what i think is the three nothing goal sure and it's a it's a great one it's a super good one you want the let's let's

go and let's go in order no the second goal here no you're messing me up no many airdrops coming by the way uh this was the first goal which which angle do you want do you want do you want me to pause it on yeah when it goes in yeah right around there yeah just right as you're about to take the shot yeah because you know you want to see it right before what went wrong now let's bring it up on screen maddie if we can don't don't put our don't put our faces up here let's just look at this thing sure okay so we've got austin matthews is in the middle there it's a bit blurry morgan riley is behind austin matthews covering nobody at the at the red dot right there and then can we put the where is what's what's tj brody up to over here in the front there yeah you ever you

want to go back a little you can see how the movement happens yeah it'd be great let's have a look you ever see brody's here you ever see a christmas tree at the side of the highway that has exactly one like bulb on it that's what he looks like on this play he's just kind of hanging off the guy vaguely and gently okay okay you're looking at it well here's here's here's what i on where is number 78 down here that's right yeah what is number 78 doing right now uh moving to these where the puck is is staring at the back of how wide open flyer how did they get there it's my question now let's move forward a little bit jesse yeah okay moving forward again this is grade school stuff this is house league stuff we got bertuzzi cheating a little bit down we got

Matthews hooking, hooking around into where he should be as a center in the defensive zone. Morgan Riley was on the guy at the boards. He's got to leave the net open, right? Like this is on TJ Brody. And let's go forward just a little bit further. I don't love the forwards here either.

Like just in fairness. Okay, so TJ Brody right here, right here is exactly where he needs to be. What the defenseman needs to do right here is he, you tie up the player's stick even if the player is bigger than you and you try to move them out of the way. People listening, where is he?

TJ Brody is in front of the net with the Flyers player. I don't even know who it is. And he is all over. He's like white on rice. Like maple leaf white on Flyer black and orange. Okay? All over him. What's that face?

You never heard that one? Oh, yeah, no. It's very old for him. It is old, but that's fine. Like shit on Velcro. I love that one. Let's keep going. That's an old man phrase.

A little bit for him. A little bit for him. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is that better? Oh, TJ Brody. Now he's standing directly in front.

of the Philadelphia Flyer defenseman. Who's in front of the goal. Or offensive player. Yeah, who's in front of Ilya Sabes enough. So what T.J. Brody should do here is, again, he hasn't done it yet, tie up his stick and move him out of the way. No, he's filming a Rihanna video. Work, work, work, work, work.

He is, and then move forward just a little bit further. And now he has moved himself completely off of the Flyer player in front of Sammy, who Sammy has to come out to cover the angle, but he can only get out so far because the Flyer player is still standing there and TJ Brody's got his stick right around where the flyer player's waist is and in front of Sammy's eyeballs I don't love the game Sammy played but like good lord what's he supposed to do they really made a job especially difficult where in there guys did TJ Brody attempt to move this flyer player we talked about what Brad Treliving wants out of this

defense core right he can't do it and and he can't because he is the lightest defenseman they have But he doesn't even try to. He may not be able to move that player. That player seems a lot taller than TJ Brody is. But you can tie him up. And you must tie him up. He just doesn't do a good enough job of it. I would healthy scratch him.

I'm serious. If the playoffs started today. Everything we've been told Brad Treleving believes about what he wants from this team and defense and all that. He doesn't do a lick of it. Well, and I think he's probably a holdover from what Dubas wanted. which is smooth skating puck moving defensemen who are not that physical this is a guy that brad's already let walk once i think it's gonna happen again uh jesse could we go to the next

goal sure would that be possible i'd like to run through this we don't do this very often uh crediting the team that scored the goal but travis lanheim does a good job uh getting loose on the side of the zone such a good game he he did a great job there getting getting wide open for that wrist shot that went in. So, low credit to Mr. Sandheim. Something that I want you to look out for, too, when you're watching the Leafs play defense, especially like this week,

we saw it versus Carolina, is how deep the forwards are collapsing in, too. It's way... They are not gapping up on the point, and it's costing them. Sandheim could have the game that Sandheim had last night because nobody's covering them. Okay, now pause here.

Can we bring that up on the screen? Sure. Look at this. I can't help but notice it's the same group of clueless forwards. Okay, fine. It's Matthews, Bertuzzi, Brody, Riley who are all on for the last goal. They're all back there on this one. When you look at this, Bertuzzi cannot skate fast enough to catch Sanheim there.

If the puck goes to Sanheim, Bertuzzi, what are you doing? You can't. And part of me feels like this is the game plan. Like, Bertuzzi doesn't have the foot speed to catch Sanheim quickly enough to challenge him for the puck. And if you notice, when the Leafs play in the other team's defensive zone, so when the Leafs are in the offensive zone, their forwards, most teams' forwards that play with the Leafs well

and the Flyers did last night, are all over. Wait, are you saying Bertuzzi couldn't get to here? No. You don't think the puck is along the other side? He skates like a Zamboni. There's no way. You don't think Bertuzzi could take two steps and walk over here? He's trying to.

Too far away. The Leafs are two-on-one on the puck carrier, and he's hoping that one of them can dig it to him, and he can at the very least chip it out. Is that not what's happening? I think so, but if you don't have possession, you have to gap up on that defenseman. You do.

You flat out do. Listen, Bertuzzi's not known for his foot speed, guys, especially his first three strides. No, but if I'm him, I'm assuming my boys are going to win. So you're hoping in this battle that the puck comes through center. Yes. No, most likely it would go to Brody right there, right? Probably.

And then he's got to ring it around. You've got to have a man. So what's Bertuzzi doing? This is my point. And then you go to look at, okay, so you look at Riley. He's the winger who's high. Riley's on four. They all can't be down low.

I'm asking him to stay high. I'm telling him to get higher because all the guys are down low. Riley has a responsibility, right? Yep. And now no one's got anybody. Look at this. Now we got Riley. You can see him there with the assistant captain on the jersey.

You got, and again, where are the forwards? Are they gapped up on the defense or not? They're not. There are... What's Bertuzzi... Look, Bertuzzi just let him go. He has three open men he can pass it to and a deflection completely open in the slot.

Like, it's so bad. And so you look at... It's so bad. TJ Brody is going to sort of kiss this flyer person. And Morgan Riley is doing what? Screening his goalie. So what happens? The goal goes in.

Go fast forward a little bit, Jeff. And it's Sammy's fault, apparently. and they're here's the thing you saw where tj brody was a second ago he was on that player with the nine on his jersey and he let him go look he let him go he lets him go yeah because the puck is being shot but like so like you're not guarding this player if the puck's like coming at you i i'm sorry i put this squarely i put that whole game squarely on the coach uh they were completely unprepared for the beginning of the game first 20 seconds i hate this pairing of riley brody with all my heart and he keeps deploying them with the same group of forwards

who don't know what they're doing it did work when when brody first arrived in toronto riley brody worked because the the the one before it had been riley cc and marlo was a 20 goal scorer exactly like times change man that's enough we have like at least two years of runway of this being dog shit exactly we gotta stop we're like not just dog shit like easily their worst option here's a question just should should we get back on screen yeah at some point i missed my face there you are your face even more brad sure living have traded tj brody on the trade deadline uh yeah if he was a in a gm that could look a little into the future a little better uh is that not the right move he should have made i mean hindsight 2020 well what what's no

like you're screaming here about something that is factual well it hasn't worked i didn't think he was so bad you needed to get rid of him but it makes sense with the contract expiring him not coming back plus you acquiring all of these depth d for all of your draft picks instead of getting packaging them for one big one why not move off of this now and you have the bodies that can fill that in if you're not losing anything based on how he's playing if you can move off a brody and bring in another d like i don't think they could have afforded to be net down a defenseman no but if you can move off of brody and bring in another d one that shoots right oh my god um i'll just yell and scream about that until i i die eventually i guess um yeah i would have been on board with

that um but they're determined to not do the obvious thing there's there's no reason that because so much brody's five 4.5 is it brody uh five five on the button five on the button um there's no reason you can't move out that for even if it's just somebody who wants a defenseman you sell that for draft picks and then you go around and you flip that for you and now you have the five million dollars in cash space that's like three defensemen who went at the trade deadline you could have got dumba stetcher everybody else you wanted and just added 10 guys for that cap space my guess is no one wanted it like dude you're trying to give me an expiring defenseman who makes five

when there's all these other guys available who are playing at least as well as he is. Yeah, you got to eat half. And the Leafs go, well, I'm not eating half. And the other team goes,

no, I'm not doing it. The best time to do this would have been in the offseason. If the Leafs are even selling Brody at half, that's still 2.5 free in cap space.

I don't think anyone wanted it. I wonder if it was even on the table because based on how Bradshaw Living has operated I don't think he even thought about it Matt Dumba was traded for moving back I think it was 60 picks yeah from the fifth round to the seventh free like yeah which which means I don't think there was a trade out there for TJ Matt Matt Dumba was also remember the reason it was so cheap was that nobody wanted him and the Arizona Coyotes wanted him off the

books before the end of the year because they don't want to pay him anymore and he was cheaper he's he's got a lower cap hit than Brody like I don't I don't know if there was a move out there And, you know, Brad Treliving had a funny quote in a – I think it was a CJ article. We're going through that, too, later in the show, but you bring it up. Well, the quote was basically, well, there's not much to do with the rest of the season except drink coffee and swear. Yeah. Which I related to deeply. You know, so, like, to me, the Brody situation is spilt milk.

You've got to ice your best roster, and he ain't on it. So the reason I wanted to start with Couturier is because I was thinking, listen, it's a bit of an odd situation in Philadelphia, but when you get dive into the numbers, you can sort of understand it. Sure. I wish the Leafs had that. This is what I'm saying. Like torts as, as rude as it is.

And as much as, you know, I wish he would communicate with the player. He's seeing past letter. He's seeing past career games played. he's seeing past uh cap hit he's seeing past all of it and he's just going here's my best roster of 20 men and uh to me when they're healthy brody ain't on this list of 20 men something else that i think is bubbling under the surface first off you should know that last night's game was game 67 of course it was um i should have made a bigger deal of that i was too busy eating mustard Does no Marner equal no Matthews?

Has Mitch Marner made money on his contract negotiations this summer? Listen, we're the Toronto media. We're so tough. We're so tough on them. This is the first topic on TSN 1050 today. Absolutely. I'm not moving off of what I said last show. They don't have depth because of the money that they spend on these players.

they they cannot replace they can't even kind of replace what Marner does you know what I mean like your top goal scorer or your top playmaker goes down of course you're going to have a really difficult time replacing them they can't ice a line with the best goal scorer in the world that looks playable it's really really bad so you put out Max Domi because Max Domi we talked about last show good passer he's the best playmaker on the team not named mitch marner um you could throw william nylander in there except william nylander i mean boy boy boy boy cannot force him to give a flying fuck about the defensive end of the puck um it's max or willie willie max always tries and is just bad at it whereas willie is just aloof

and the games where he's engaged he's one of the best players in the world and the games where he's not he's uh he's a absolute liability in his own end so Sheldon won't play them together won't play them together um Bertuzzi's hot right now so he's put Bertuzzi with Matthews what I would do what I was thinking last night is I would reunite Bertuzzi Tavares Nylander but then who the hell does that leave with matthews you leave him with nize who was his previous line mate and then who max domi i guess then your third line is robertson with freaking like what do you do what do you do right now with yarn croak and marner out of the lineup robertson had a bad game last night he did horrible game bad bad game after scoring in the the previous one

uh i know he looked terrible i know he's still figuring it out but and i understand why and i would want him to be pissed off that he was demoted for contract reasons and all that stuff you know like he was one of the guys that could be demoted when everybody was healthy for a split second there yeah uh but you could completely see why he was and i've been i've been beating that drum all season i think there's a really good player there yeah uh but games like that you're just not gonna get in he doesn't have good decision making i wish he i wish he was better i wish the game was slower for him so we could make better decisions because it seems like when he's entering the zone or he's trying to exit the zone like if he has the puck at that point he's just

not good at making the the best decision at the moment for his team yeah the the i think it was the 4-2 goal the scott lawton one yeah blown zone entry on the power play blown zone entry on the power play can't handle the pass puck goes the wrong way and uh you try to block the shot with your neck and it doesn't work yeah um like last night watching matthews with whoever he was playing with like because it alternated a little bit you know what line it reminded me of was matthews with andreas johnson and casperi capitan you know what i'm just gonna put them with two grunts and that was another coach who did that by the way that was mike babcock who tried that i'm gonna try one of the most gifted hockey players in the entire world with grunts who can do some stuff

they can do some stuff tyler bertuzzi is up is far better than either of those players you could argue uh max domey even at this point in his career is better than either of those players ever were um but it just seemed like a like a premium version of that line yeah would it not be advantageous to staple nylander to matthews while marner's out you just load up yeah but like is that not the smarter play here i mean i think so i keep going back to the dicky d analogy when i went to summer camp as a kid i would have change in my pocket excited for the dicky d man to show up the ice cream man to ride up with his weird dicky d bicycle and i would try to get a dollar fifty or two dollars or whatever it was god i sound old for the chocolate baseball

glove with the bubblegum ball. I'm glad that you pointed it out. I know. That chocolate baseball glove was always very underwhelming. The chocolate ice cream sucked and the bubblegum, there was no taste to it. Yeah, but guess what? It was the cheapest thing the Dickie D man had

to offer. Now it's $17. You b-rabbited me. I was just going to rip on you for being the oldest man here. No. You're talking about how you get ice cream for a penny. I do live in a trailer with my mom. But you got there first. Anyways, continue.

I do have a best friend named Cheddar Bob. Sorry. Anyway, what was I saying? I would have the change in my pocket. Back in 1942. I would have the change in my pocket in 1942. Laurier was prime minister, whoever it was. I don't care.

Listen, I would have three quarters and two dimes and three nickels, and i would stack them up on top of each other and i would try to make them add up to the two dollars i needed for the chocolate baseball glove and sometimes i would put the quarters on the bottom and the dimes in there and then the nickels and no here let me rearrange it and i'll do it from smallest and i couldn't make it add up to two dollars that is me looking at the leafs forward group every freaking year. It's not under this current setup. Not enough. It's not

enough. And you're like, but I have three quarters like that's not enough tonight. Can I throw something at you? Willie Marner like or last night but I have three quarters. Matthew Stavaris Willie. That should be enough. It's not let me let me be

the voice of reason for the rest of the lineup is nickels and dimes in the last 21 games. The Leafs are 15 six and one. Yes. Good. Yes. It's good. I agree. Can they win four rounds of a playoffs? I'm merely stating a fact. I know it's a miserable existence to have to ask that question after every loss.

But, like, yeah, that's this team. They deserve it. When was the last time that you guys went on an adventure? An adventure? An adventure that lasted too late into the evening. Well, one time I went into the forest and I met this special goblin who gave me three wishes. But I woke up because it was a dream. Jesse, what about you?

uh this one time i had to go to mordor and find these rings oh my god and then i was i was on like a long journey my friend frodo was there i was talking to me go was like you need morning hydration to bring you up you need liquid iv is what i'm trying to say no what read it again what it's liquid the fourth oh it's not liquid the fourth it's not iv it's liquid iv i've been calling it liquid the fourth this whole time yes yes oh listen i thought there three liquids before it it's great for your daily workout when you feel run down when you've had a long night out when you've had a long flight that's when you need liquid iv and by the way we all use it that's true and maybe i need some right now and maddie does too maddie's maddie's

all the way in on like when you gotta go find those rings and throw them into a giant eyeball of fire you know you need some liquid iv for your adventure it is non-gmo and free of gluten dairy or soy there are eight vitamins no artificial sweeteners uh however you hydrate grab liquid iv hydration multiplier it's sugar-free and you can get it in bulk nationwide at costco or 20 off on your first order when you go to liquidiv.com and use the code dangle d-a-n-g-l-e at checkout again that's 20 off your first order when you shop hydration today use that promo code dangle d-a-n-g-l-e at liquidiv.com two in five canadians will hear the words you have cancer That's why every step and dollar raised matters.

On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. You've got to try breakfast at A&W. You gotta try breakfast at A&W And what better way than with a delicious Pret organic coffee Starting at just $1 all day, every day, now until December 31st

You gotta try breakfast at A&W At participating A&W locations in Ontario Now, CJ interviewed Brad Treliving On that roster, this is a good segue. They've got nine, basically, here's CJ Reitz, and then we're going to get into a quote. So CJ Reitz, they've got nine proven NHL defensemen, for example, and some tough decisions to be made in the bottom six forward group

once Mitch Marner and Callie Yarncroke return from injury. Quote, we may not have the best top four on defense, but if you go deep, and we wanted to, we wanted to make sure we had seven, eight, and nine that were better than anybody else's so we don't have that big of a drop. you've got to try to win in a margin somewhere so we thought that was the thought process adam i had such a hard time paying attention to what you just read why because can you start can you start

from the top no there's a line in there that is uh it gives you insight into how brad's thinking about this do you want me to read from the cj line or the brad the the cj line start from the top so they've uh cj says they've now got nine proven nhl defensemen for example no and some tough decisions to be made in the bottom six forward group once Mitch Marner and Callie Yarncroke return from injury. Nine proven... fucking who? No, you extraordinarily

do not. Riley Brody. One. One. Okay, fine. No, he's a proven defenseman. Fine, fine, fine. I'll give you that one. McKay Benoit. Sure, sure. Edmondson Lilligren. Sure, sure. Then you've got

uh... Giordano is a proven NHL defenseman. He's proven. He's the oldest man to play hockey this year. Yes. He is proven. But can he and has he played hockey and won a Norris trophy? That's not what's happening right now.

Yes, he has. Sign Nicholas Lindstrom. I don't care how long he's been retired. That dude was a star. Is Jake Muzzin on there? Jake Muzzin. add matt murray to the he got two cups yeah he got two cups matt murray stanley cup champion ilia labushkin john clingberg ilia labushkin john clingberg uh-huh sorry okay ilia labushkin

brody riley why do we're not so why are we starting this again because i lost track brody riley can i read from cap friendly please we'll make this thing a whole lot please riley brody mccabe lilligren timmons edmondson benoit labushkin timmons absolutely not no timmons not But Giordano, I would say, is. So, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, plus Gio. That's eight. And then check injury. Who else is injured?

And then who am I missing? I guess that's eight. Eight. You're not counting Gio. No, eight with Gio. So, you guys aren't counting Timmons or Benoit or whoever you want to take out. But you've got to count one of them. All that was was CJ's part of the article.

And I think he's saying, can these guys play NHL minutes? You know who's a proven NHL defenseman? Robert Bertuzzo. And imagine you had eight of them. You have... There you go. Roll out those eight. So here's what Brad said.

Are they good? Are they good? So Brad said... And do they play well together? We may not have the best top four on defense, but if you go deep to make sure you have seven, eight, and nine, make sure your seven, eight, or nine are better than anybody else's so we don't have that big of a drop.

you've got to try to win in the margin somewhere. So that was the thought process. That's what they're trying to do here. So if you can't have the top end talent, at least make sure the back end talent, there isn't like a false left. They can't do Makar and Taves. So they're trying to do our seven through eight

because we're going to have to do that because of the playoffs. Right. Because of the playoffs. Yes, exactly. I'm trying to reason with you because somebody doesn't think this is a reasonable conversation.

Here's what I want to throw out there. When we started the playoffs last year in this very studio, So Jesse said that the Vegas Golden Knights are mid. They're mid at everything. Which was the best thing ever. And you said it at the time. I was complimenting them by calling them mid.

And so maybe Brad heard that and was like, Jesse's got a point. How about we get a bunch of mid guys to play mid hockey? And a couple of the mid guys will go down. We'll have a couple more mid guys to jump in. And by mid, I mean they can run all four lines. They can run all three D pairings because they're all good. They're all good. Yeah.

No real standout stars. They have the high-end talent in Eichel and Marcia Stone and all of them, but you'd say that they're a complete team. So what Bradshaw Living's idea here is that he's going to build a complete decor that no matter who's in, they'll have a certain floor for the playoffs. And Steve does not like that. And he's mumbling to himself. What is it, Steve?

Anybody listening can't see you mumbling to yourself. Sir, what I said is if the playoffs started today, the Leafs would be playing Florida. What a waste of time. On NCAA free agents, when the Leafs acquired Connor Dewar at the trade deadline, they sent Marley's forward, Dmitry Ovchinnikov, back to the wild, along with a 2026 pick. That was by design. Ovchinnikov didn't end up moving. He was immediately loaned back to the Marleys.

But by shifting his contract to Minnesota and their reserve list, the Leafs now have two available slots to sign other players before the end of the season. true living has been scouting the ncaa and confirmed he has interest in a few college free agents eligible to sign uh for teams once their seasons and now i like that i like that little uh nugget so that's interesting so kade weber has said uh kade weber by the way was the big six foot eight guy that they acquired from carolina for a sixth round pick or something six yeah uh and he said that the plan is to sign in toronto but i what i would be interested with with kade weber is i don't think he signs before before the playoffs i don't think he signs before

the season ends that's a guy to me that they signed this summer and they try to go get two ncaa free agents outside of him because you got till august 15th to sign kade weber he wants to be here they want to sign him you know that and you say to him listen we're not putting you in the playoffs this year uh you've just won defensive defenseman of the year in the ncaa which is fantastic don't know how much that translates to the nhl but he's six eight every time he steps on the ice and oh yeah and so so so that we like that that's an interesting move maybe they do sign kade weber maybe that is part of the move and that's their ninth guy maybe that's their night we couldn't find the ninth guy maybe that's the ninth guy the words were proven nhl defenseman

okay not proven you're right um doesn't play the game of professional hockey uh now this i i thought was interesting and i agree with this and i'm going to bring up a different example on the core the playoffs and the lack of success they're in in true living's view his core just needs to keep knocking on the door quote i need you to hear this i look at those red wings teams he said i talked to steve eiserman and he said at 27 28 i was the guy who could never win i won at 30 right it was a long time coming so you've got to keep hammering away now obviously it's under different circumstances there is no cap detroit was a high spending team even back then right but if you look at Mario Lemieux's career Mario Lemieux was 24 or 25 before he even made the playoffs

Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins were bad they were bad when he showed up he was great they continued to be bad and they were bad until he was almost Austin Matthews age so I agree with that now I don't necessarily agree with all the things that they've done around it but I agree with that and in the last one and this is where it kind of plays into it on scoring outside of the top four because what happens in the playoffs guys you shut down Marner you shut down Matthews you shut down Tavares you shut down Nylander the Leafs don't win and Brad Treliving watched the Leafs play last year and said here's how they got to win they got to get secondary scoring and that is why he signed guys like Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi who have both been very good playoff

performers in their careers yep and have emerged Bertuzzi was unfathomable to start the season it was bad he's he's emerged he's officially in there as a secondary score so what do we think of the quotes the thought processes i really like the ncaa one um i mean the thought process i could have told you that i mean yeah you better fucking get production out of bertuzzi and domi who you spent eight million dollars yeah a million dollars on but the thought process behind it was interesting because when you look at last year's playoff roster, who were the Leafs going to get secondary scoring from? Their completely new line of Achari, O'Reilly, and Nyes.

Completely new line? Completely new. So that's interesting. You got guys like Kerfoot, who was paid $3.5 million, more than Domi. Overtime winning goal scorer. I know, but not great on secondary scoring overall. Generally, no. Right?

Right. And then their fourth line was who? Well, Engvall was in there. Oh, he was traded. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. Their fourth line was a mix of guys.

It was Kampf, Aston Reese, Lafferty, Lull. And I know those three were together for at least part of it. Yeah. And just for reference, O'Reilly had nine points in 11 playoff games. Oh, my God. He was good. He was good. Matthew Nyes had four and seven.

And then you get the drop off of everybody putting up like three points. And this year they got Connor Dewar. They showed up in that Tampa series. They did. That was a good series. It was. They got outplayed. The Leafs got outplayed every game.

Yes and no. I think most games they got outplayed and Sammy Bale. I think they were in every game, which is all you got to be. Yeah. They pulled out four. Yeah. Which is something they didn't do for two decades. And they won it.

Yes. They won it. Did any Leaf fan give a shit? No. I'm just saying. That Tampa outplayed them. The deserve to win a meter was rarely in the Leafs' favor. And believe me, I don't give a shit about the deserve to win a meter.

And it's interesting. When that first came out, people were like, this is God. And I remember somebody tweeted it at me. I'm like, well, I'm glad they deserve to win because they didn't. But I'm glad people were like, what's wrong with you? You're stupid. You don't like advanced stats. and i was like okay and then you know a couple years on it's nice to see that it's a stats thing

that's nice doesn't make me feel better yeah right it's a fun tool it's a cool tool for sure adam to earlier in the show about 20 minutes ago where she did the if we were still back on radio and this time was a sports show and you led the the top of the hour with hey is this mitch marner earning money on his contract you know that that's the topic there to add fuel to that um last playoffs mitch marner was second in the team in ice time amongst everybody so including defenseman he had 24 minutes and eight seconds of average ice time how many points did he have jess uh he had 14 points which led the team in the playoff how many points after the first three games did he have i don't have that so when people quote me that stat uh mitch marner is undoubtedly a very

very i can tell you very important player for the toronto maple leafs in the playoffs and it's something that i want you to watch because i've never been certain that the way mitch marner plays in the regular season translates to the playoffs uh because he when he when mitch marner decides to drive drive the net he's actually really good at it i know i just don't ever see it enough because he's a pass first guy and he could shoot and he could he's got all the tools we all know mitch marner's super talented jesse can you give me the readout of his points sure yeah after the first four games in the Tampa series so everything beyond that Mitch Marner had three points you're not gonna win and it's it's curious no not gonna win this adds to the conversation of how important

Mitch Marner is to the team well the one game they won if he's not if he's not the one game they won against Florida Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist when he struggled and he had three points in what is that six games they lost four of those games Mitch Marner is very important to this team and and by the way yeah he better be he makes 11 million dollars for matthews and neil andrew tavaris but my point in in the mitch marner conversation is i actually didn't think he had a great playoff last year i think he had four good games maybe five four and a half i don't think listen man we're and and it and it and i said the same thing against montreal and i got a lot of shit for this there too mitch is so vitally important and he's so talented what i want to see

from him is the stuff that i saw when he was scoring in the tampa series and the stuff that i saw was him driving against florida and i grant you florida's a much tougher physical team and matthew nyes got you know torpedoed and all those things i get it i get it but if the leafs are going to win in the playoffs this year that player that player more than anybody else kneelander produces in the playoffs we know this matthews except if phil to know is staple to him performs in the playoffs. Tavares scores overtime goals to get you to the second round.

He's done that twice now for two sorry-ass franchises. Sorry-ass. I think the road does run through Mitch, and it's more than just what he brings to the penalty kill, which is considerable. We need Mitch Marner

scoring evenly throughout the playoffs. I think there's something to be said for the game doesn't translate to the playoffs because it's different hockey. Can I break the conversation down as a cynic? the 11 million dollar player needs to perform yeah yeah yeah but like but he did but people

will say if you just look at that stat line it's pretty nice led the team in points during the playoff stuff but there's more to it than that we already have access to uh what was the set that was going around it was like him in the first four games of a playoff series versus games five six and seven like we are we have that information yeah it's terrible um again this this i say this every year listen if they win holy shit you did it holy shit you were right we were all ready to blow it up multiple times and you friggin did it congrats to you and only you because we have little faith and you of all the faith and you did it they lose in the first round or even second you you have to take a a nuclear bomb to this core yeah that's enough and i and

and so with and you're right yeah oh i don't think he's bad i don't say he's bad the other thing that i love about it doesn't work the right yeah and it's not and again that doesn't go back to mitch marner's fault or austin matthews or william neil and or john tavaris it's we're putting too much pressure on four players it's the allocation of the money in a salary cap system look at the winnipeg jets and what they have done with blake wheeler's contract off the books and what they got back for uh pure luke dubois and not doubling down on pure luke dubois yeah yeah they they got gabe velarde they got alex i follow i know that velarde's out with the enlarged spleen but when he was in wow what a factor i follow what a factor and you're going so you know what

are the arguments about the mitch martyr thing and i bought into this for a long time and it's Not just Mitch, by the way. It's Neil Andrews, Matthews, everybody. Is, okay, so you're going to take that $11 million. What are you going to do with it? You don't have that player. You won't have a guy with that skill set. Insert core four member here.

Five more players? What would you do? And I think that's going back to Steve's point, which is I have three quarters in this cost of dollar. Meaning that when one of those quarters is injured, it makes it very difficult to find two dimes and a nickel to plug that gap. And that's what I'm looking out for in this playoffs.

And by the way, if you're a Leaf fan or an observer at very least, and you think right now that this can't be done, all the evidence in the world supports that, right? If you, forget fandom for a second, and I know that's really hard. If you forgot, if you betray the team and go, I don't know if it can work,

what evidence would you have that it can in the playoffs? beyond a lucky guess right so if it works this year i'm not shit it worked i'm not gonna hold it against you that you've been wrong every year since 2017 like just you know yeah it's listen i want them to win dude i hitched my wagon to this shit do you know how tasty that youtube revenue would be if the leafs did the thing for god's sake if they lost in four games yeah in the conference final yeah do you know what that would do they win two lousy series and then get pumped do you know what that would do how bad i want that and how bad we need that i want it to happen i just what you're either asking me to tell you what i think or asking

me to lie to you i'm just so so i think it's fair to be like i'm concerned right i think it's fair to be i'm excited i think it's fair to say as a fan i don't care about the evidence i'm a fan rah rah rah go leafs all that's fair what i am looking for objectively as i can right because i'm a leaf fan is can these guys and i've seen matthews do it and i've seen neil andrew do it I've seen Tavares do it. I'm looking for all four of them to do it throughout. I'm looking for all. By the way, Nathan McKinnon.

Nathan McKinnon, Colorado Avalanche. If Nathan McKinnon went four out of five games without scoring, are the Avs going to win? Probably not. Probably not. That doesn't happen to Nathan McKinnon. Bingo. That's because Nathan McKinnon freaking drives the net

because he's a maniac. At the start of next season, there will be 17 players making double digits. One of those is Carey Price, so 16. Four of those guys will exist on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Four of the 16. No other team... You're assuming a lot. ...has more...

I am. I'm assuming they don't blow it up. No other team has more than two guys on their roster making double digits. And that one other team is Florida, who has Bobrovsky. Who's making double digits. So if you just count skaters, no other team has multiple double digit players on their team. Wait, who does Florida have? They have Bobrovsky and Barkov.

Oh, what was his extension again? $10 million. Oh, yeah. Okay. I was like, wait, Kachuk? No. No team in the league has multiple double digit skaters on their roster. except for the Toronto Maple Leafs

that will change who have four that will change that will change but yes maybe two is okay maybe even three two's unforeseen

yeah we've never seen except for Chicago when they had it and they didn't win anything cap was lower I'm talking about next season right now

contracts on the books Toronto Maple Leafs got four no other team has two here's what i am telling you and i'm almost guaranteeing it you don't see a third round this year that will no longer be the case yeah i have three like you know i get i get frustrated because the internet is uh the place of permanent opinions oh yeah and i was bullish like i was like no they can do this they can do this they're gonna be fine they can and they will or we can

we will fuck yeah kyle let's go love that and it was exciting to see something different they were coming to the table with a different idea yeah which was you know previous to the dave knownest which is we're gonna get all these these knuckle draggers and nobody who can score but then they we can and we willed and i went oh and then the world stopped and i went oh and then they continued to commit to the four before they were all making

dude. I know Mitch Marner when his contract expires is not signing for a dime less than William Neal. Well, so let's throw this out. Not a shot in the world. Ryan Pike, who is a reporter for Flames Nation. Really good guy. Yeah, retweeted

something today from Frank Servali Gary Bettman. Don't tune me out i'm not says that the nhl's latest projection i was doing the arizona coyote not the arizona coyotes no no do you see the renderings of the building it looked good no no no don't don't don't let him out of the no don't let it out there's there's drawings now for the auction stay stay stay you want me to send them by the way they're playing in arizona next year anyway sorry um I'm going to hop over the table.

Do you want me to send you the drawing? No! I don't want your stupid macaroni picture. So, Saravalli's tweet, the original tweet is, Gary Bettman says the NHL's latest projection for HRR, hockey-related revenue, this season is $6.2 billion. Wow. Give me some.

Ryan Pike, who knows a hell of a lot more about the cap than I do. That's not saying much, though. Sorry, Ryan. Under the quote-unquote lag formula, because there is a lag to this, right? because you have to calculate HRR, and then you discover the cap. And remember, usually there's a two-year delta between the HRR being fully calculated and the cap being adjusted. And they paid off COVID, right?

Oh, my God. They paid it off. They paid it off. Very likely it was paid off mid-last season, but they didn't know. That was Gary's thing. He was like, well, it can't raise anything because we're not sure if they paid off COVID. They paid it off probably by this time last season, but they wouldn't they hadn't done the calculation yeah so it's possible the players owed 50 million

yeah so they withhold money it was ridiculous so under this lag formula which does exist how do the players agree to this that's bad that's bad representation that's how the players agreed to this bad representation bad representation bad representation if the cap eventually caught up with this season's HRR. If it were directly comparable. HRR is 6.2 billion. Let's say they don't have a lag formula. Sure.

What do you think the cap would be? What is it right now? It's like 87? I think it's 87.5. 93. Wait, how many years from now? Two? No, let's say if it was right now,

if all things were equal, 6.2 billion is what the NHL is making in HRR. 93. Okay, Jesse. 95 96.8 caps going up this year but also i think it's important that we understand that under dubas's original plan in 18 and 19 to to back your point up right the plan was for this time to be around the time that the cap hit 95 96 97 million dollars it was an interesting bet that is going to follow him for the rest of his career.

And it's just, it's not fair that he made the bet. It's unfair that he stuck to it. Because COVID happened, salary cap stayed the same, and the lease went, well, we're not going to change. Yeah, you got to go, oh, shit. We should do something about this. Right.

And they did not. Bingo. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer.

Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. You've got to try breakfast at A&W. You gotta try breakfast at A&W And what better way than with a delicious Pret organic coffee Starting with just $1 all day, every day Now until December 31st You gotta try breakfast at A&W At participating A&W locations in Ontario

Now also at the NHL GM meetings Because that segues us perfectly colon campbell still employed father of gregory campbell assistant general manager of the florida panthers uh the nhl is proposing a six or seven rule changes uh according to cj and there's a few of them and i'll bring them up uh colon said they're not exciting changes don't get don't get too excited now michael russo went into some of them uh and so did chris johnson actually this is a chris johnson tweet he said with the puck over glass and friendly fire high sticking penalties you'll now be able to challenge them.

So if I'm playing on Steve and Jesse's team and there's a defenseman between us and my stick goes up and I hit Steve in the nose and he's bleeding and the ref calls a high sticking on the player between us. Let's say it's Jesse who's in between us

and Jesse didn't high stick Steve, I did. You can challenge it and you can have that call reversed. But they can already review that. But now you can challenge it. that doesn't make sense well if it's a two minute you can't review it it's only when it's a four minute

right so yeah but referees these days just call everything four minutes and then they go review it and they make the call now they don't have to you can't call a four minute if it's no blood by the way no but they do to check for it they do it all the time

it's a fucking waste of time sorry no my bad one thing that I think the Leafs will do a very good job of is getting those right. Their video review team in real time, crazy. The way they get goalie interference and offside and everything,

crazy. They're really good. They'll be good at that because they have a video team dedicated to this. What's the bit? Where are you going here? The bit here is get an eye in the sky team

to friggin review these things so that you know why am i challenging reality yeah that's do your job that's the whole thing here is it's a tremendous waste of time to make this a challengeable situation when you can just employ three guys to watch the game and phone down instantaneously and tell the ref in an earpiece that was over the glass is the penalty that was not over the glass reverse it you're putting it get it right if the if the idea of the challenge is to get it right why not just simply get it right get it right and not not have it on the the coach to play a little game of tic-tac-toe

with the referee and the video review people to try and maybe get it right or lose the time out or get a penalty or whatever the fuck the penalty is this is like the nhl discovering self-checkout actually you're a cashier now like you know what actually you just be the ref it's fine you be the Ref, you figure it out. It's a tremendous waste of time. You can just have somebody get it right. They're not exciting. Watch me, colon.

Here's what's interesting about it, though. And also, the puck over glass penalties can now be challenged, too, which they couldn't before. But what I think is very interesting about this is if you challenge any of these and you're wrong, you're now down five on three. Great. So how many coaches will actually dare to do it? You better trust your video team.

so sheldon can that's basically you're being penalized a goal can the video team send sheldon some some tape of riley brody together do you think holy fuck this reminds me of uh paying your taxes and that meme that's gone around where the government's like we know how much you owe but you have to tell us but then if you get it wrong we're gonna penalize you gonna go to prison you have the video two referees you know if it's right or wrong simply look at it and tell us don't be don't put the onus on the coaches to be like you tell me if you think it's right or wrong but if you get it wrong you're in trouble yeah no just tell me um players will face a penalty if they sit over the boards uh basically the ovechkin rule as chris johnson calls it um what

is it uh basically if you've got a you can't lean over the boards you'll get an unsportsmanlike penalty uh because earlier this year a linesman was cut by a skate blade of a jets player during a minnesota winnipeg game because you got one leg over and it's you know it's around the um i mean that's reasonable i think that's reasonable you can't have a leg it's not a penalty initially it's a warning and then a penalty yeah so you if you're over like your foot's over you won't just automatically get a penalty they'll warn you and then after that if it's once again then you get a bench minor it's a reasonable rule change but old habits die hard yeah that is going to decide a game in overtime this well next i think if if a guy does it once during the game he's gotta that's

on him um old habits do that there was a suggested adjustment of the accidental on purpose matt nature of pushing the nets off their mooring um i'm just going through the highlights because some of these like cares like it's so boring some of it um no wait wait they haven't changed anything but they're noting it where oh so there was a game last year where matt murray knocked the net off like three times and do you remember who it was against for some reason my brain is telling me it was the wild wasn't it and then the wild was michael russo who started commenting on it and now i think he he's like this should be the michael russo rule but they had it that's pretty funny but then people were saying minnesota like is notorious for having that issue that rule

in particular feels like the sort of thing that i mean not that anyone would ever cheat but it just feels easily exploitable one of the things that obviously has come up is the the use of long-term injury reserve and should it be applied in the playoffs um and so the there is an executive committee which is in its second year of general managers dog armstrong kevin Sheveldayoff, Steve Eisenman, Lou Lamorello, Ken Holland, Don Waddell. Those six guys are responsible for a set amount of general managers. So it's six guys, 32 team league, right? So they each get their allotted general managers. And Bill Daly said it came up for maybe 90 seconds. But what Bettman said is, listen, if you believe there needs to be changes,

then each of you gm executive go back to your gms try to get some sort of consensus then bring it to each other try to see if there is some sort of consensus on what it should be changed to and then bring it to me fair so which is fair i mean you can't be getting 32 gms giving you all these all this different feedback right and gary betman did say that he thinks that it's probably not being abused um and i i actually tend to agree with him on that it's also something that can't be changed it's because it's in the cba so this players have to agree this is a cba discussion even though the gm's like they'll come up with something and they'll recommend it to the league to then go fight for it with the players in the next cba negotiation so it's not like they

can just decide something and then change ltir for next uh next season can i just say uh remember uh cap geek oh yeah and gary betman uh said well i don't think fans are that interested in it And then Sight came around. General Fanniger? It was called General Fanniger. And then the Vegas Golden Knights hired that guy. And he has a cup ring. And what have they done since?

And now he has a cup ring. And they are the single greatest team in the NHL at using the rules. Anyway, don't make fun of people with fun hobbies. Because they win Stanley Cups. Note on that. Did you guys see the Calgary Flames recently? who tried to sign a player to an ELC, except he's not

eligible for an ELC. Because he's 25, right? By the time he'll sign, he won't be of age to sign an ELC, and they have to go sign him to a different contract. Which is hilarious. CJ said this happens all the time when we talk to him about it, but what was interesting is the Flames announced it before head office vetted it.

Yep. I think that's hilarious. That is just the Flames. What are you doing? That's the Flames. Aren't they also the team? I know it was different people in charge, but weren't the Flames also the team who offer sheeted Ryan O'Reilly? Yes. And they had a team scooped him up,

they would have lost him to waivers? Yes. Something like that? Yes. Top down. What's the common denominator? If you don't think that teams are better at running their teams than other teams, it's not true. Oh, of course. Teams are better at

things. Now, there was also the outline schedule, and we're going to talk about the actual games here in a second, too, because there are a couple notes I just want to make. Bill Daly outlined the schedule for next season's Four Nations face-off that will feature the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland, Feb 12th to 20th. There will be no All-Star game next year.

And actually, I think for the next two or three years. The latest, the last NHL games before the Four Nations will be February 9th. The four teams competing will practice Feb 10-11. Tournament begins on the 12th. The two cities hosting the tournament haven't been finalized

yet. They're saying they're close. Here's what i'm going to almost guarantee it's montreal and boston um that's my my i'm almost positive on that um players not competing in the four nations will get an eight-day break um before resuming practice february 18th the nhl schedule will resume february 22nd should be a really fun tournament and they're only skipping the all-star game for one one year oh i thought the olympics the islanders are hosting it in 2026 oh cool yeah yeah better shave before you go to the all-star game right but there's even cut your hair yeah there's they they awarded them the all-star game like last month so there's gonna be an all-star game and an olympics yeah oh so next season's

gonna be long long uh no two seasons two season after yeah yeah yeah we don't have to worry but that's two seasons problem now i want to know something very quickly before we you know go to a press conference here do the vegas golden knights want to make the playoffs uh no that's why they got all those people because last night's game was bad oh yeah well i don't know if you saw the highlights this morning um i i only saw the score because i was doing the lfr video i saw that the score was tight did it not end tight it's just bad bad goals oh dear and i know listen the lightning are in a race too right oh so they but got their guy they would bargain bin shopping they found a dude who if he played the full season on the lightning would probably have 25 30 goals

to Claire and oh boy how good will the lightning have to be for us to have a conversation of uh-oh the Leafs might be a wildcard team uh well I don't know if they're quite there yet but uh no but this is how it starts uh the lightning scored two in the first three in the third uh and the Vegas Golden Knights scored one each period Adam I think this is a question for you more than Steve Do you think it's funny how Stephen Stamko still doesn't have a contract? Oh, no, I'm not surprised. They said that he wouldn't get one and they've not talked to him about it. And that's it.

Do I think it's funny? I think it's interesting for the legacy of the Tampa Bay Lightning. But again, on the other side of it, I wish the Toronto Maple Leafs sometimes would not do right by the player, which is what the Lightning are doing. The Lightning are doing right by the Lightning, which, strangely enough, normally, if you make the right call, is doing right by the fans of the Lightning, which is, we'll sit and wait, and if this works, great, we'll retain, and we'll continue, and we'll sign an extension, everybody's hunking.

If there's a problem, and I don't think the Islanders were wanting or expecting to be a wildcard team this year, they're looking older, then maybe they gotta get younger. The doing right by the player thing that we keep bringing up with Dubas. So as a GM, your job is to do right by the team. But him doing right by the player was what he thought was doing right by the team. Because I'm going to do right by these guys, and it's going to help attract players. Dubas was able to consistently get free agents. But in terms of keeping those players that he did right by, was he ever able to retain any of them?

No. He did right by Ilya Mikheyev by staying with him in the hospital when he injured his wrist. that came back to him with Ilya Mikheyev going, you can knock like 15 grand off my contract so that we can sign someone. I can't remember who it was before he almost immediately submitted a trade request. So it's just, it's something that we bring up all the time,

but I wanted to mention. Hockey's a business, it's transactional, it's part of it. Yeah, I wanted to mention his human reasons and business reasons for doing it and why it also didn't work as great as it ought to have. The Washington Capitals, gentlemen, have two games in hand of the Detroit Red Wings, who currently sit in the second wildcard spot.

Who had a great, gritty win last night. They did, against Columbus. Patrick Kane is really trying to will that team to the playoffs. He is. Hey, hey, hey. Lucas Raymond was the star last night. Yeah, but he didn't get the OT winner, so who cares? Yeah, boo, hiss.

Tomato, tomato. Um, the Washington Capitals gentlemen have won three straight and they got two games in hand. Then they're one point behind the Detroit Red Wings, the New York Islanders. Again, I ask, why can't you simply be good? Um, they, their goaltending has not been good. And that has led to three losses or two losses in a row. They, uh, they did not have Pierre Engvall.

That's why they lost. I think so. Yeah. You want to hear Patrick Waugh talking about scratching Pierre? Hell yeah. Of course I do. All right. Oh, he scratched Pierre, right?

Healthy scratch, Pierre Engvall, Patrick Waugh talking about it. You scratched Pierre Engvall. Just what more do you have to see from him when he's on the ice? I wasn't too happy about this play lately. So, I mean, sometimes just have a night off watching the game from upstairs, and then he'll probably be back in the lineup against Detroit. But sometimes, I mean, it's something that someone needs. I mean, I saw that with other teams.

I mean, Couturier was a healthy scratch, and Philly is the captain of their team. I mean, Pierre needs to understand we need him. We need him to play a certain way. I mean, I know he's not an over-physical player, but, I mean, he's capable of giving us a lot more than what he's been doing. Do we have... Is he?

Do we have the frontrunner for understatement of the year? I think it's very funny that Patrick Waugh mentioned Sean Couturier more than John Tortorella did. Yes. Also... Oh, that's a good point. I said this to Islanders fans in the Pierre-Yves Valtrade video.

6'5", 215 listed on HockeyDB and you must go, oh my god every time he puts on his skates every time he puts on his skates he's 6'5", 215 his abs has abs his neck has abs

his Instagram is just shirtless Pierre Engvall he is so in shape there's this one Leaf clip where he's sitting there shirt off, he knows for sure he's on camera and he's clapping in the weirdest way because he's flexing the shit out of his biceps so that he can just look jacked as fuck on camera. If someone's getting the belt,

I know exactly the video you're talking about. It's like Nicole Kidman at the Oscars. Yeah. And during a game, the way he shows his toughness, he's the biggest expert at flashing his teeth. And he flashes his teeth at you like a rabid animal. But what else does he do to back up the teeth?

Fucking nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dumbest cardio. fucking peloton engvall this dude i i i was so surprised when the islanders went out and got him because i was like this guy is the antithesis of what this team is trying to be but when were you even more surprised when was i even more surprised when they signed him oh to the seven years and not only do we want this we want it for seven more seasons dude it was my first thought when they signed patrick waugh i was like oh the islanders have a bunch of players who he's gonna

love and pierre engvall also like he listen he made it to the nhl the way he made it to the nhl he got his long contract bless him he got his comeuppance on on the leafs you know he gave him a wet fur he got the the game-winning goal took away two points from them good for him uh he's 27 at the end of may he's gonna be 28 uh i don't think he's gonna start hitting like i don't think he's just gonna he's randomly one day start hitting does that mean he signed till he's like 34 or 35 he's signed like forever dude wow yeah like i oh he's not i didn't realize physical player like he is he should be in the all-star game every damn year with with the body and the skill set that he has he does have crazy tools but his decision making is so mystifying

on a lot of nights and there are some players who when they're struggling they're like well fine i'm just gonna hit everything in sight and he won't do it it's so frustrating i don't know how many hits he ever threw ever that i don't know um patrick was being nice by saying he's not i think like that's gotta be hockey coach speech speech you know and stevie say uh that guy's a bad guy like that's the worst thing you could ever say about a player yes patrick was saying that pierre engvall isn't really a physical player is like holy cow he said a player isn't isn't that physical that means he's zero physical and dubas would never have allowed keith to say it no because you notice keith by the way is far more chatty this year you notice that maybe so maybe too much

so he's feeling you know he's he's feeling himself a little bit it's almost like moved out of the house it's almost like his gm told him to to button it when it came to criticizing players for like four or five years and now this year he's like and you can eat shit and you can eat shit it's like that kevin hart bit where his mom uh uh told him to tell the teacher to mind her business and then he goes mind your damn motherfucking piss it's it's it's like that he's he's gone out there and he's experiencing freedom for the first time as a head coach and he's lost his mind chris simon i want to talk about chris simon before we go to the press conference here i think we'll have to close there oh we'll close there okay yeah because we don't run it on 145

Oh, God. Okay. All right. I want to talk about Chris Simon. 52 years old, passed away. If you grew up in my era, you remember Chris Simon. I remember him winning the Cup at the Avs. I remember him, I think, going to the finals with Peter Bondra, Adam Oates, and that Washington Capitals team. They were so good.

They were so good until they hit Detroit and all their literal all-stars. No one was beating the 97 Red Wings. No. So, it was the 98 because 97 was Philly. Ah. um in a national post article on chris simon from 2017 this is from alan walsh uh he has symptoms this is a quote from the article he has symptoms of cte which are said to be uh thought to be uh attributable to significant trauma during his hockey career a doctor reported

that simon who was in more than 100 nhl fights racked up 1824 penalty minutes and received two the longest suspensions ever handed out in the nhl also suffers from depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder and arthritis to his shoulder hand knees back and neck um just uh and he was also a part of the nhl class action lawsuit against the nhl seeking millions of dollars for its handling of concussions the reason i bring up that article because usually deaths on this show it's like you know we're usually kind of a high like we're trying to try to have some fun trying to have it to have it easy but bill daly came out today and said that the connection between cte and traumatic hits to the head and hockey um is lacking it's still lacking

uh meaning that it's lacking evidence well that means we need more research right and i would like uh all of the uh front uh front office people people with high ranking positions in nhl to donate their brains to science like you know we need more research here be a part of the solution i agree with you so be a part of the solution we know why the nhl does this but i think what's more important than this is understanding who chris simon was to people peter bondra put up a really nice post about him but i actually somebody messaged me uh her name is jessica and i'm just gonna leave it at that and she said this i um she said i i'm asking you to bring up chris simon because i grew up in sault ste marie and lived on the same street as chris simon when

i was a kid i can barely begin to express what a lovely man he was back then just a great fucking guy i was maybe 10 or 11 at the time hockey crazy and he lived right next door to me i was sort of right next door to my best friend must have been playing for the greyhounds then he was so kind to us always hanging around outside of his house because they would just go to you know he's a greyhound oh my god yeah you go hang out outside of his house he'd play street hockey with us and he once brought us out to some french canadian uh uh sugar pie so he once brought us out some french canadian sugar pie that he joked had been baked by martin gelina who i believe was on the team as well well i don't uh know why but i remember that part so distinctly and i i can't

imagine it was true. But I do fondly remember the times that we played together. She said he was a real gem of a human being in real life. And I'd love for people to know more about him. I'm crushed by the loss of Chris Simon. And this is someone who barely knew him. And knew him in the fan sense, which is how most of us know these players. And I think it's important that when the NHL does this, it's a cold calculation. We don't want to be responsible for this because we don't want to have to pay the lawyer bills or pay out these players. And the NHL so far, whenever these lawsuits come up as class actions, has done a pretty good job defending them from an NHL perspective, which is we don't have to pay out money. But one day, one day, that is going to

change. Gary and Bill are playing for time here because they both know they'll likely be retired when the NHL has got to pay that piper. But at some point, the NHL, the CHL, all of these leagues are going to have to reckon with this because these guys dying at 52 years of age, and there are other players that I'm not mentioning, but I want to keep the focus on Chris Simon. This has got to be reckoned with. And I say that as a person who stands up

whenever there's a fight in a hockey game. There's a dissonance to it. I realize that's hypocritical of me, but I do think we got to reckon with this sometime. And it would really help if the number one sports organization in the world for this game would help it would help research would help at least how do we prevent this how do we diminish this what ken dryden said in his book about steve montador you're never going to

take headshots fully out of the game you're never going to take violence out of the game probably not ever going to take fighting out of the game but how do you bring it down how do you make a headshot be something where people go okay i i better not throw this check because i might hit this guy in the head because it's, you know, I could be suspended or this could be a major penalty. That's what we're looking for here. We're not looking for hockey to be less violent, like the violent gentleman, you know who I'm talking about. We're asking for somebody to say, hey, there's probably a link here, whether or not the evidence suggests it. Why don't we protect the human beings that make us millions and $6.2 billion in hockey-related revenue? Why don't we

just protect them a little bit better? Why don't we take measures to make it a little bit better? They're not interested. That's all. I just want to say my piece. And thank you, by the way, Jessica, for writing me because that was really powerful. So anyway. Want to end on something positive? Yes.

All right. March Madness Tournament starts tomorrow. Steve Dangle built a bracket. I did a great job. It is a joy to watch you discover that there's a team called Longwood. Longwood and what was the other one? Moorhead. Morehead and Longwood

And you went in on that And it was a good time Adam Wild what do you think about your bracket I'm feeling good Washington Cougars they're winning Washington Cougars Is that who you picked Yeah that's who I had them That's because both of my cousins went there

And my aunt and my uncle as well They're all from in the area So they all went to And so the Cougars are in So that's what we're gonna So I was at my cousin's wedding this year And they did the Cougars chant at the wedding They stopped the wedding and did the chant.

Listen, it's religion, man. I had the Wyoming peaches. I like that. Matty also did a bracket. Yeah, and that's also what I was getting to. Matty, you can bring down your mic. Matty also hopped on and made a March Madness bracket. So we have a little group going on Yahoo for our Madness bracket.

Some of the other SDPN members are in there. And winner will get coffee from somebody else. Matty, what do you think about your bracket? How was it being on cam doing that? My debut. Finally giving the people what they want. You want to see my face? I've been there.

It's there. So I'll drop that link in the description if you want to go watch. The SDP family makes the least madness bracket. He's winning this, right? Oh, run away. Moorhead Longwood. Who doesn't? You know what I mean?

Your run through on it was great. Yeah. I thought so. It's fun. Making it up on the fly. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. S-T-E-P.

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