The Steve Dangle Podcast - Shawn McKenzie | August 1, 2017

Episode Date: August 1, 2017

00:00 - Adam had a weird dream 03:00 - The Miseducation of Shawn McKenzie 14:40 - Work on The Fourth Period 16:00 - Interviewing John Tavares 18:30 - Asking coaches / scrum questions 34:00 - Having family in the BIZ 40:00 - Bobby Margarita 43:00 - Adam’s talk with Alanis 45:00 - Shawn’s talk with Robert 55:00 - Doing live TV 58:00 - Twitter and being PC 1:05:00 - The great 16/17 Leafs season 1:19:00 - The upcoming great Leafs season 1:30:00 - Not being a fan 1:34:00 - Newzies getting in the dressing room 1:44:00 - Talking media with non-media people 1:50:00 - Press Conference (CJ & Mirtle Questions, Nashville stories, ice cream, voodoo dolls) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S.C.P. The Steve Dangle Podcast with your hosts, Steve Dangle and Adam Wilde. Okay, before we introduce our guest, which you already know because you probably read the title of this podcast. You have Twitter. I just want to throw this out there. My morning went like this, okay? I did breakfast television, then I went home, did a little research, took a nap, And then at the end of my nap

You know at the end of like a sleep You have that one little spot where you're like I can't I'm like dreaming but I'm not dreaming You can't move You're having some terrible dream about saying toxic shock on television Yeah or rolling your dog off a couch You know whatever

We've had a great month Yeah it's been great Me and Anthony Scaramucci just killing it Here's my end of dream Okay I know in my sleep I'm sleeping and I know I have to get up and go to the podcast I know

And I'm running in my dream Towards this building that we are currently in I'm like Sean McKenzie is going to be on the podcast I gotta be there on time It's a big deal And Scott Moore stops me Scott Moore, head of NHL at Rogers He's like you need to eat this jam and toast

Then you eat the jam and toast So I was eating the jam and toast He's like now you need to eat another jam and toast Scott tells you to eat the jam and toast You eat it, right? So I've had three jam and toasts in my dreams this morning. And then finally, Steve's text woke me up. It was like, meee.

And I was like, you know those violent wake-ups that you have? And you're like, meee. And it's like, I just want to check and see that my friend Adam is okay. I'll be right down. Nice of Scott to feed you, though. Yeah, it was great. I thought so. That's a good guy.

Yeah. Adam, have this jam and toast brought to you by Rogers. It's got the Rogers logo on it and everything. Hey, Sean McKenzie, welcome to the show, man. Thank you for having me on. Thank you very much. Very, very excited. Jesse, Jesse's also here on a fourth mic, which is great.

And, and if he sounds a little bit different, that's why. But Sean, dude, how's the summer been? It's been outstanding. And I want to start by saying this is actually the first time I've ever met Adam in person. Yes. We've, we've been Twitter friends and social media friends. Just kind of creepy. You know, you lob likes back and forth, but this is the first time I've actually met him

in the flesh. It's awesome. That's, that's like a weird new thing where you can know someone online for years. And it's weird because you meet them in person before you meet someone in person, you'd be like okay what the hell is this guy all about is he a good but now you just know everything about them yeah and it could be a total fake social media you could be a horrible guy like you're a good social media i am like i said me and scaramucci you could be a bad bad dude but i've like oh this guy's awesome i've known him for like six years on social media yeah it was me

and andrew berkshire in philadelphia at the draft like we had never met before and then first things first it's like i gotta pick up something in my hotel room i'm like sure stranger You seem like a Trustworthy twitterer Just come on hang out You're one of the last ones I haven't met And I

For One of the other ones Was Danielle Michaud From City TV And also And she was She seemed really cool And then I met her

And I'm like Oh actually you're really cool That's great Okay Surprise Thank god I went to school with Danielle She's awesome

She is Yeah we graduated In the same year College of sports media CSM The one and only Was it Was that a good school

Yeah it was unbelievable Yeah I went to Fanshawe before And I hated it Okay I won't get into the details But I almost went to Fanshawe as well

Yeah Don't ever Okay That's my advice to everyone Not to tear down a full college Opinions not reflected Of the entire show Isn't Fanshawe the school

You went to for like two seconds No no no No I I had my I had my room booked there Like I had my apartment Set up and ready to go I was gonna go to their

Broadcast program Which was the joint program With Western University Yeah And then Ryerson let me in Nice Good choice And then

They let you in They allowed you They kicked you out I thought you left No, they were like, oh, you got an RTA. And I was like, what? Yay. And then they're like, no, sorry, you can't because your grades aren't high enough.

Yeah, it was the weirdest. It was a bizarre sign. Adam and I applied to the same program, and I got in, and he didn't. So long story short, Ryerson's dumb. Well, whatever. Actually, Jesse got in, too. Adam's the only member of the show who didn't get in. Yeah, well, I'm with a bunch of university-educated folk.

Well, I'm high school-educated, man, so it's all good. It's the best thing about media. So I guess, I mean, do we like, do we start there with you? Cause like, I mean, is that kind of where it started or were you? No, it was before that. Cause when I was younger, I used to travel with my dad to the world juniors all the time. So like, even when I was like four or five, like we'd take family, like our family trip, like it wasn't like Florida in the summer, Disneyland or something.

Cause we'd be playing lacrosse and hockey, but it was like Sweden for the world juniors. Cause that was the time when. Bummer. Sounds way better than Florida. Yeah, it's horrible. But it was cause my dad was going away for Christmas. And so he was gone for the first like 20 Christmases of my life type of deal. But we would go with him because that was the thing to do because he was gone for two weeks.

So it was early on that my brother went to a lot more than I did. He was kind of the diehard. And I was kind of just the lazy kid that wanted to sit at home on Christmas and eat, which is still the exact case. I think that's you mean a normal person? Yeah, like everyone. I think you just described Christmas. This whole room at least. Yeah.

And then I went to the one in Vancouver. I'm drawing a blank on what it was. The Justin Povey year. It was 06. and I was like 14 or 15 and it was just like the best time ever like I was right at that age where like we were going out for dinner every night I got to sit on the set for like 12 hours a day and see all like I would sit with my dad and James Duffy and all those guys and like see how all that goes into it and then all the fun they have after and I was like I could do this I can talk

about hockey and then go out for drinks after like this is a life for me and then that's kind of when I got hooked and then I did a co-op in I took a victory lap in grade 12 because I wasn't ready to move on uh and did a co-op at rogers tv okay and in durham region and i had a guy named donald beattie who was the best guy ever he was a local sportscaster there and he liked to anchor and edit more than he really liked to field report so the first day he was like go do a report for me and if it's good you're a new sports reporter i'm like okay so i'm like i'm like 18 years old and i'm like okay so i went out and did a story he's like it's good enough and then for the next like i don't know 60 70 days every day i did a report i was like this guy's the best and that

was kind of where it started then i went to school after that and so i knew like young that i wanted to do it so that's that's a great example of like kind of making your own luck you know yeah you not everyone would get the opportunity presented there like not everyone would be paired up with the guy who's like i don't feel like doing that today yeah but a lot of people would also be like i'm not ready for that and say no yeah and it was a little bit of both because he was the like he was a great reporter and great anchor and everything but he had so much on his plate like we all know those jobs were whether it's you know local tv or local radio where they're like do this this this and this floor on your way out and then walk up and like this guy just had

so much on his plate and was so interested in other things and was so good at other things that he was like well i'll give you the opportunity if you want it and i was like damn right i want it i was scared shitless like i think it was i went into a golf thing and he came back and he had a reel-to-reel edit so it took me like six hours to do but he was like no this is good and that's he had a reel-to-reel edit oh yeah like i we like i learned reel-to-reel then and then i worked in ctv barry before sports net and i got hired that was just a three-month stint and i got hired there and it was still reel-to-reel and this was like five years six years ago so we had you know i was in barry almost 10 years ago that's where i started okay okay so i was at rogers tv

Barry I was at B101 and Barry And then were you there when it switched to CTV at all Or well it was it wasn't A channel It was A channel then CTV almost Yeah yeah yeah so I was there for three months Still real to real Is that where you're like gluing No no it's you're basically

Digitally gluing if that makes sense you're like You put in the tape that you shot all your Crap on during the day and you put in a Blank tape in this other huge big Archaic looking machine and you put Ins and outs and if you miss your In and out by like half a second your whole reel is screwed up because you miss i did something like that a couple times yeah and so yeah so i

learned that and that actually saved me down the road but that's what sucks so much about like local tv going away oh yeah i think we've all done it right like you look at now where do kids get a chance like youtube yeah yeah i guess but even so you know like the the thing about youtube is it's so uh and look at me talking about it it's so self-starter right um that you don't have like the old guy the old crusty guy who's been there he's like this is how you tell a story all i ever did like at the beginning uh like kind of leafs tv and all that was like complain about all the older people getting in the way of my creativity but like i needed their mentorship you know and you know that's something that's hard to replicate on well yeah let's say my girlfriend's a blogger

and she's trying to get into youtube and vlogging and so we have a camera she shot all this great stuff in the vacation in greece but she was like i don't how do you edit right and i'm like well like i i can kind of just from all the stuff i've done but like that's the thing is now she has to go teach herself how to edit so you say self-starting like you can't just shoot stuff and put it out there and go this is great it's like you gotta take hours to piece this crap together make it look good and that's where the old guy you sit now it's unreal to real like you got to click this and i'm like this is ridiculous this is the dumbest thing i've ever seen sure enough it's like it saved my life my career is basically just a bunch of old guys teaching me stuff and

That's how I've cobbled it together. I can't wait. Well, compared to some people, I can't wait to be the old grouchy guy. Really? Like you're doing a bad job. What the hell are you wearing? That Sean McKenzie sure is scary. Yeah.

I can't wait for that moment. Well, we'll all be around then. We'll do a podcast then. Perfect. Sean, so you'll be listening. We'll just be sitting here complaining like, these microphones aren't working and it's Remember when SoundCloud was great? I remember whatever happened to classic YouTube.

Right. Just all this crap now. And whatever happened, just stupid dog videos. Yeah. Yeah. Like, remember, like, Q107 at some point had to just be called rock and not classic rock. Well, now it's not classic rock again. Now it's just rock again.

But yes, it was. For 30 years, that's all it was, was just a rock station. Psychedelic Sundays. And then it became classic rock. Yeah, it became classic rock in the mid-90s. This podcast is going to become the classic podcast soon enough. That's right. It's going to become vintage.

This isn't your son's sports show. No. This is your dad. talk in a Pokemon show. We only talk about the original 150th. I say this out of irony because it's funny

how everything becomes cool. Like I'm wearing a Guns N' Roses shirt. I could name a Guns N' Roses song but I'm not necessarily a fan. I've never seen them live. I wouldn't necessarily

go see them but rock t-shirts are cool now. It's like girls are wearing Metallica t-shirts. Like guys are everyone's

like half these people have never heard of Metallica in their life but that's what's become cool. Name three songs on Enter Sandman. Or not on Enter Sandman. Oh my God.

On Master Puppets Yeah Which is not on NSF You know how many people Don't like you right now Oh no I listen to it I don't need to prove it

To them or not But yeah I mean remember I did just wake up But yeah you're right Like it's It's those It's the local TV

It's the local radio That you know Pays you nothing And you work Ridiculously hard Like you just said You did what 90 days of reports

Yeah and then I came out of school I left Fanshawe early Long story there And I contacted The same guy At Rogers TV And it was shortly after

This was before everything got really bad, even the way it is. This would have been maybe six years ago. No, actually, it's longer, sorry, eight years ago, something like that, right, when I came out of school. Because 2008 is when it all kind of went to hell, right? Yeah, so it would have been right around that time, but there were still local Rogers. Rogers Durham was still, but it had taken over by new management

and they had new rules in place. So I contacted the same guy. I said, hey, I would love to come back. I had applied to the College of Sports Media. I said, I want to come back for six months just to fill the gap. I said, I want to do the same thing I was doing. He's like, you honestly need to apply. You need to be approved.

Like there was like a hundred step process to even get the opportunity to volunteer with Rogers TV. Whereas before I said, I just walked in as a high school in co-op and was like, here's a camera, go to a golf story. And if we like it, we'll put it on the air. And now it's like, well, now they don't even have that position anymore, let alone have to jump through hoops to get it, which is crazy. Yep. And I remember that too. But you know, it all kind of happened for us anyway, the beginning of our careers. I was in Halifax when that crash hit, and I remember them coming in to a huge boardroom

and then saying, so we've lost probably three quarters of our revenue right now, and we're not sure how this whole year is going to shake out, but don't worry, everybody's going to be fine. Don't panic. Don't panic. There'll be no layoffs. We have no money. We're not firing you.

Don't worry. Wink, wink. Do you just wink at me? Did that guy just wink at me when he said he wasn't firing me? Yeah. Yeah, and I was the overnight guy going, uh-oh. Like, this is great. and yeah matt like and like it's horrible to say because i get kids all the time that say

you know you know i'm close to the same age as you or you know i'm a younger person coming to school trying to do this what advice do you have and like the advice that i was given and that wasn't that long ago is so drastically different from the advice i can give kids now because it was before it was like volunteer volunteer move anywhere and it was like where do you volunteer now the advice you said has changed it's youtube it's blogs it's it's doing your own work where before it was like, go to Rogers TV, you know, grind it out. That isn't even available anymore. Nope.

So it's just in the last 10 years that I've been in the business, that's how crazy it's changed. And it's scary. Like what's the next 10 years going to be like? I don't want to think about it. And we were, we were lucky enough to both go to school and have internships, but it used to kind of be, uh, you could go to school and if you couldn't afford school, the great equalizer was getting an internship.

Well, you can't even do that now because you need to be in school to get an internship. Well, like the College of Sports Media was amazing because they placed you in your internship and depending on how, and it was a great school because they basically pulled no punches. Like if you were a kid that didn't show up, they didn't care. They were still taking your money and then they just screw you on an internship. Like it was the real world. Like the guy who ran his name is David Lannis. I remember him from the score.

Yeah. And, and like, he's a great guy, but kids would come out of there and be like, I hate David. And you'd be like, why? Cause you didn't show up to class and he gave you a crappy internship. It's like, no, that's the real world. Like your boss isn't going to hold your hand in this business. He's going to hand you toast, Scott Moore will come along. He's going to make you eat it before you interview Sean McKenzie.

No one is that nice. And people are like, I hate this guy. He screwed me up. Well, it's like, yeah, because you didn't work hard. And then you look at all like Danielle Michaud, you know, George Poplis, you know, he left the business, but he was really good. We all got internships in the places we wanted because you actually worked hard. And that's kind of like the real world. It wasn't school where, you know, we'll give you a grade.

they would just give you a 50 or 60 pass if you move you along where other schools it's kind of like they hold your hand and make sure you're set in this way

they were like oh we're just going to treat this like the real world I like that I like that so you go from there and I know you worked on the fourth period

for a bit yeah that was while I was in school those guys were awesome that was even before I went to that was while I was in Fanshawe

and they would just they needed internet content and I wanted to do it so I basically just said whatever you guys need and I look back at some of the old Like I interviewed like John Hamm, like on the, in Vegas on the red carpet.

And I was like a, like a 19 or 20 year old kid. And like, at that point you're just so, I don't know, not cocky, but you're so excited about it and you're so new to it that you have nothing to be scared of. Now you're like, oh my God, is this guy going to yell at me? Is this guy like, before then you were just like a young kid. Like, Hey, what's up, John? He's like, who the hell is this guy? Like now you're like, you've been yelled at so many times, but people are like, okay,

what's going to happen? But it was so like back then you're just, I was on the red carpet, like calling celebrities over like i was their buddies and now oh wow no that's that's i think that's a sign of confidence because yeah but i don't i don't know that i would have had that either i'm the same but it's i'd have been freaked out just night well you're freaked out you're almost so naive to the whole thing like there was pr people like trying to drag them away i got i don't know what a pr person is at that time so i'm like come on over like you're just like you know now you're like talking to pr person you're so aware of everything it was almost nice to at that point just be so ignorant to the

whole process i used to think if you like interrupted a celebrity or like even like a third liner in the ohl armed guards would come take you away well then they will make it seem like that or uh who wasn't the no the london knights uh oh yes they were they run it like an nhl organized it's different they were yeah brutal to deal with but that was also a very long time ago so i won't i won't hold it against them even though i do a little bit It's Jesse's favorite team It is Along with the

Kings and Frontenacs And all other teams We're cheering against Just not the generals Whatever it is It's anybody in general It has to like the generals My first ever interview

I've ever done And I remember It was with John Tavares When he was with the Jennys Unreal It was when Oh what a terrible First interview

And it was Same guy Donal Beattie At Rogers TV And this is the stuff That like Doesn't really happen That much anymore

It was my first day On the job Because we're going down The Jennys are unveiling their new dressing room i don't know if you guys have been there but it's ran it's amazing like it was uh yeah it was the first ever like round dressing room and it was all the owner was there and john taveras was the captain at the time and donald beat he was just like you want to want to interview him i've interviewed him a million times i'm like no of course i don't like i know i don't

he's like go do it i'm like what do i ask him he's like i don't know just ask him whenever you want i'm like uh thanks man and like he just gave me the mic and i then i'll always remember that first interview because i was terrified like and you forget that like the guy was he was younger than me at the time but you're looking at him like oh my god oh my god what if he yells at me like he's not gonna yell at you you're just afraid of somebody yelling yeah that's all i i live my life just afraid someone's gonna yell at me every minute came to the wrong show yeah i know and that's what we do he's just gonna start screaming what a lot of people i a lot of people i've met like recently, think I'm that way

all the time. Because that's the only way they see you. Well, I mean, yeah. They do see you in like short snippets. I always direct, whenever people ask me about that, I always direct them to listen to the show. Because the majority of the time, it's like very calm. But then the 2% that it's not, that's the stuff that stands out in people's minds.

You go, what? There was the infamous fuck a duck rant. Yeah. There was, I wish we had video back then, because there was legitimate fear in your eyes. Because you didn't know what I was yelling about yet. Yeah. Because I had looked it up on my phone and John Michael Lyles

had scored against the Leafs after they got rid of him so you're not really disproving the point that he doesn't just yell all the time it started off like you know Steve's really calm

but then he had fear in his eyes because I didn't know what he was yelling about well I too live my life afraid that people are going to yell at me you know I just

I hate it and it's funny you meant like little snippet it's funny and that's how like I covered the Winnipeg Jets when Claude Noel was there

I've covered a million press conferences with John Tortorella and the same thing I would go into those and you're like okay this guy is he's angry and he's sarcastic and so you're terrified to ask a question because you think you have a good question but you start second guessing like what if he snaps at me and

but you know you're always thinking these things when you're a young reporter like how do I get the best answer but I also don't want to be the butt of every tv joke you don't want to be the guy that gets yelled at and you realize that the play yeah you realize that like Tortorella 99% of the answers he gives are really well thought out he's a soft-spoken guy like he's a really really thoughtful guy but you only see the snippets right it's like steve doesn't always yell but he always yells if you watch his stuff like if you watch his shit you're like that guy's always yelling same with torts same with claude noel like and they will give it to you but there's so much that people don't see that if anyone actually watched a full press conference

and we get it more now because you can watch the full press conferences online and is glenn galutzin really that morose all the time yeah okay all right i just wanted to check and see Yeah, he just seems upset even when they win. Okay. Yeah, like there's- It's like he's upset the other team even bothered to show up. Why did we have to play them? Yeah, like we didn't need to do this.

Yeah, no, this is stupid. Silly formality. What you see is guys, what their personalities are, but then there's a lot of extra to it. Although Babcock, basically what you see all the time is kind of the way he is. Like that's Babs. That's Babs.

Like he's just like a father figure all the time? Yeah. Yes, I don't know. It's hard to explain the way Babs is. like you ask him a question and babs is going to answer it and he's going to give you a great answer but he's going to answer it exactly how he wants like he might not actually listen to your question go okay well yeah like he has something and he always has a message that he wants to get across which is part of his coaching strategy like he's just he's an

interesting guy how would you compare him to uh randy carlisle did you get much of him not i wasn't there a ton I wasn't there Randy was different Randy was more he didn't give he was more emotional like sometimes Randy would come out and give you he'd be joking around and laughing and he would go longer than Babs sometimes and then he would sometimes give a little bit of emotion or anger at a question or he'd laugh like my favorite Carlisle story of all time and people have a million I was only there for like one or two Carlisle years but this was classic randy he was babs is tuned into his own like when he comes and does media like nothing is getting him off his game he's in he's out he's gonna give the message he wants like he's

not gonna be caught off guard by a question where randy was a little bit more hey guys what's going on a little bit more in in a different world so it's a pretty big scrum in a least practice and you guys have been in media scrums where there's probably five or six reporters they have their mics and they ask questions and it's usually the same five or six every time but when all the news cameras show up it gets a little crazy we always laugh when we see the tv trucks parked out front you know city tv or either something bad happened or something really good happened and there's going to be some pretty funny questions and usually when it's really bad it's like it's interesting because the news guys what do you say to the fans and that's a constant joke

and you get it a lot and it's it's they're just doing their jaws but so there's a lot of videographers the guys that do both in the news not so much in sports that doesn't really exist in sports there's always a set reporter so some guy behind the camera just yells hey randy and he asks his question and randy's like who was that and the camera guy's like he's like hey and he's like they let you ask questions from back there and like you didn't mean as a slight But we're all like Oh right And the guy's like

I think so And he asked his question And Randy's like I didn't know They were allowed to ask From back there I'm like The poor guy

Randy's just tearing him down But that's Randy Where like Sometimes he gets lost In his own little world He seemed like a fun guy He was It just was not a fit here

And we went over We have many podcasts Dedicated to why it was He had some serious edge to him Like a lot of coaches do If he doesn't like The way you ask a question Or he just sometimes

Would get fed up And kind of just storm off but he was funny at times we've seen the whole like good one randy the toaster that's right that's randy okay he's almost like a lovable goofball but not at the same time and then you got peter horacek for a minute and nicest human being ever in the worst in the worst of circumstances i don't know where he is now i don't know yeah nicest we always like we always see him around we always see him around in florida and everything he's scouting now is he but you'd see him in the like the media room and he'd hey how you doing shake your he'd sit and have a dinner

with you like the the best thing i ever saw peter horacek do was it was an off day and there was a practice and there was only about five or six reporters there and one of them was a news reporter and it was a girl from it was city or cp one of the one of the news outlets and we went and we did our four questions with them because it was just it was right within the least we're just none none of us wanted to be there he didn't want to be there the players didn't want to be there so yeah it was a really quiet day and so we got we got peter and the news girl comes up hey peter i'm so sorry but we want to go live and i'm like oh crap and now we're all sitting back like huh let's see how this goes and the pr is sitting there like what's going on i want to go live

and peter's like oh no it's fine i'm like and she's like i'm not really a hockey person so he's like okay well what kind of points do you want to make what do you want to get across and he guided her through like five questions before they went live to make sure that she did a good job wow to kind of plan the way she would ask and he'd respond just to help her out like i've never seen a coach do that before no no and i've spoke to some coaches that is like i can't think of a single one who if you ask them to go live most would blow you off in a second and say no but he was like maybe you should ask it this way and then i can come and i'm like this is the nicest human being in the world wow i've never seen that before wow that's i don't think babs

would do that no no no my my they would just say no one of the first times i ever got yelled at was by babs he yelled at you yelled at me yeah in front in front of about 40 people in a playoff press conference that's my nightmare good good so that was was that here or was no that was with detroit okay what happened so this goes to speak to being just a young naive reporter where they sportsnet sent me to cover my very first play my first playoff series ever was the leafs Bruin series Sorry Steve I'm so sorry

I'm so sorry You know it's a rule It has to come up It has to come up It's They were the way Now we're moving on But I was the second reporter

Rash Mudandy Did all the leaf stuff I did the Bruin stuff So I wasn't That involved I wasn't kind of The main guy So I didn't really ask

The press conference questions So after that They sent me My boss phone He's like You got a rental car I'm like yeah He's like well

Go drive to Pittsburgh I'm like okay So I did Pittsburgh Ottawa series With Ian Mendez And then that And those two games ended, and they're like, well, do you want to do Detroit-Chicago? And I'm like, sure.

So it was games three and four. You were given the choice? Well, it wasn't much. It was like, are you all right driving? Because I'm just driving around, and I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll drive. So I get in the car and drive, and I get there. And it was when Taves had shut down Zetterberg really, really well. No, sorry, Zetterberg had shut down Taves.

Okay. And Detroit, I believe, was up 2-0 in the series. This is a conference final, right? This is second round. Second round. I'm trying to remember what year. This is second round. 2013.

2012, 2013. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The series ended up going to seven. Right. So I got there and again, I hadn't really done a playoff press conference and it was a big, huge room. I don't know if you guys have been to the Joe Media Room

where they do it. I haven't seen it. It all set up as a huge press conference and it's pretty packed. The difference between regular season and playoffs is pretty strange, eh? Oh, it's insane. Yeah.

Yeah, it's crazy. Even the off series where there's not, like Chicago Detroit has a pretty good media contingent but it's nothing like Toronto Boston but it's still tons and tons especially the second round so my boss has said you know we want a story about Taves and Zetterberg of course yeah that's the biggest story so that's the lead is all about what kind of response will Taves get in game three against Zetterberg and so being naive reporter third question and I get the mic and like Mike uh you know Zetterberg has done a great job on jonathan taves kind of what do you expect from from jonathan tonight and he kind of looks at me

he gives me you know a classic babs answer where he talks around and just basically says nothing like he's a great centerman he's a great guy he was a great man very good player and doesn't say a word about taves and i have my whole story done because i talked to all the players and i see there's just a hole that i need babcock to talk about so just being an idiot and like again now i'd be so scared to do this because you know you're gonna get the backlash i just say but what kind of response do you expect i just kind of slid it in and there's like that four second pause where he just looks and i'm like did ice just enter the room and like people next to me are like shuffling over they're like they're like getting out of the way like i'm like oh crap

like i'm kind of like okay and like so he goes what do you want me to write your story for you like like what what can i do more like do you want me to actually write your lead well yeah I need to leave And so then he's like And he just I don't know what more do you want me to say And then he goes Jonathan Toews is a Stanley Cup winner

And he lists off all of Jonathan Toews' accomplishments What do you think He's going to have a great game tonight He's going to respond and he's going to be amazing What else And so I did my story and my boss was like That's an unbelievable first clip So I'm like okay

But then eventually my dad Is pretty tight with Babs And eventually months down the road He kind of laughed and said Thanks for welcoming my son to the media And he kind of told him Oh crap I thought that was some little shit Chicago reporter

Looking for a tase angle So you learn that He thought I was just some Chicago reporter Fishing for a positive tase angle And afterwards I eventually talked to him And said sorry Well I'm sure it wouldn't be something he held on to I'm sure he's had his fair share of questions

The other thing is he hadn't forgotten you yeah and that's the thing is most coaches you take it so serious like you know you get kind of reamed out or they don't like a question and unless it's really bad most coaches or players will just you know whatever you know you can say sorry man after that or something but sometimes if you take a guy off you'll go in and the next question you know he's just waiting for you to kind of tee off on it depends how personal it is or it's not like uh i it's what i'm saying brooksie it wasn't one of those no no no no no nine i would say 99 times out of 100 like because it's so easy to get caught up in a moment i know of another reporter who got uh kind of scolded by

here get a little closer to the mic man oh sorry you got scolded by a coach and he's just like i don't know man this coach doesn't like me like i don't know i'm kind of afraid to ask him questions i'm like just pull him aside and explain what you were trying to ask him the first time he's not going to care man and okay i don't know are you sure sure enough you talk to him and turns out that coach was a human being yeah that's and reasonable yeah weird and then they were able to move on yeah you forget and you also forget that half the time like like babs thought i was trying to fish for an angle and that's what sometimes players and coaches think is they think you know the way you ask a question you're trying to get something and some people do that

and that's what i know upsets a lot of hockey players where they think that sometimes the media is just trapping them in a question like they're asking it like i i know what you're trying to get at where a lot of them are pretty paranoid yeah and and rightfully so sometimes the questions are they lead them down that path and they make a mistake and all of a sudden it's all over twitter and it's easy to understand we're all part of the problem like you know myself included because we all do the reports on it and we tweet about it and everything but sometimes a player just thinks you ask something for a reason that maybe you didn't like i i remember in the cup final i asked sydney crosby a question and it was about going up against you get sassy yeah and i've known sid

for a long time and just i've covered a handful of cup finals he was in and tons of series and i've never had an issue or anything with them and he took three or four questions about the suban breath comment oh yeah and so you could tell he was kind of okay we're over this yeah we're over this and then i asked him a question about going up against the predators top d-men and what kind of challenge that and it was just a general hockey question but because of the previous three questions he took it as just going up against the pk question right so in that context and so he you know he kind of snapped back and said you guys know i go up against more than pk like i go up against good defense in every series and afterwards i just said hey i i didn't mean

just pk oh sorry i know i know i didn't and like he just said i just took a bunch and sorry about that. We're just a normal guy. It's understandable. He's a human being. Again, get closer to the mic. Sure. No, I'm sitting like this so that the camera can see him and then when I have something to say I'll... Okay, I just want to be sure. Because I want to make sure that I don't get tweets going, why did you turn your

mic up and Steve's down? Because he's yelling all the time. You never know. Peaks and valleys at this guy. No, I have a question. No, I'm kidding. Have you ever had a player tell you straight up don't write about me or don't talk about me? No.

because they're they're not that involved like it's different with i might have i may or may not have had this happen i want to hear that story but it's different in my job because it's different in my role because i'm not writing full like my role is less i'm in less of a position to get into it with a player in that sense where i'm not a columnist or i'm not an analyst where my job isn't to go rip on guys or dig stuff up or write stories about why a guy's struggling like i usually have a live hit with clips or i have a two and a half minute piece to put together and more often than not it's either positive or telling a story or weaving some kind of a an angle about the game whereas i understand why a lot of the columnists and maybe

someone in your role where it's more opinionated and more emotional would get that kind of response but my job is more go get some good clips about the game or about a story i'd say it's more of a it lends to more of a positive angle than maybe a columnist or someone in steve's role where you actually have to entertain people not that we don't entertain but it's different it's more structured yeah and it's i mean you can't for what you do the truth to your own perspective like i can't go on a live hit and start tearing a guy down like and start making jokes about like You know, I'm not on a radio show. Like, that would be different.

That's where guys probably listen and go, well, that's a lot of opinion, or he thinks that of me, where I don't really get paid to go on and give my opinion. I get paid to more lay out and tell a story involving the facts. There's a pretty big difference between Roman Polak was a minus two tonight and what the hell do they even have this guy for? Right. And they'll have him again. Oh, I think they will.

That's probably the reason they haven't signed Conor Brown is they're waiting to get Roman Polak out of rehab. They're doing the hard negotiations with Roman Okay guys, I understand if you don't want We'll give you four million dollars No, I think I'm just gonna Five, five million dollars Just come be a warrior, please

Alright, so let's, I mean You mentioned it before, you and I have something in common Sean, in that we've got family in the biz Family in the biz Family in the biz So we'll start with the most important member Which is your brother Much

Much more important By the way Do you know you have Your own elite prospects page I think it's somebody different Because I was Because it says Your brother and your dad

Listed on it Really Your dad is listed as retired And no stats And you have no stats And you're listed as retired Your brother's got his ECHL And his AHL stats

Okay those are both true Me and my dad are retired Are retired A long long long time ago And your brother obviously Is a general manager Yeah He played

Four years of college St. Lawrence uh played in the coast in the a he played two years before packing it in he kind of and that's the good thing we're having a dad in the business where he's pretty honest and my brother got to a point where he easily could have been playing in the coast or maybe a third or fourth line ahl he could still be playing to this day but my dad has seen enough and he's been through enough where he kind of said to him like this is the ceiling like you're a great college player great junior player good east coast hockey league player put up tons of numbers but that's kind of where it is

like you're not gonna be an nhl guy so you know make the he wasn't the type of dad where it was like you know maybe we'll get you try out here we'll move you you know that was the kind of dad he was which helps being in the business because he's seen so much of it so i think that helped my brother that's not an easy conversation to tell your kid hey you know your dream not gonna happen because so many so many kids and i don't blame them your dream yeah yeah that's right Yeah, and my brother was smart enough too that knew, like he, in his final, he had, what was the exact scenario? He was playing in Houston in the AHL and got a broken foot, blocked a shot and broke his foot and, you know, whatever. So that was a bit of a damper. He'd just gotten up to the AHL and was putting up, you know, not numbers, but he's playing decent minutes. It's a classic story, right? Yeah.

Oh, if only this didn't happen. Yeah, and so then he was rehabbing the foot and finally got healthy. It was just a minor fracture, and it was like a four-week thing. But still, it's your foot. Exactly. So, you know, he felt fine.

A little bit important. So they said, okay, we're going to send you down to the coast for a conditioning stint. You're going to go back down to, he wanted to go back down to the Florida Everblades. That's where he was playing. That's where all his, he had his car there. He had a condo there,

because that's what they called him up from. But he'd been up with Houston for like two and a half months. So he's like, so you're going to send me down to Florida, right? That's one of their fields. It's actually, no, that team's full. So we're going to send you down to the Ontario rain.

And it was like California. Yeah, Ontario, California. So he was like, okay. And like as a hockey player, you just say yes and you go do it. So, you know, he did that. And so he played, these details are all a long time ago. So I don't know if this is exactly the way, but it's something along these lines where he played three games,

supposed to be a three game conditioning stint, talked to someone, they're like, well, we're still out of town. So just play the fourth game. We'll bring you up the next day. In the fourth game, he got a concussion. So like at that point, that's where it was kind of like, okay, Like, how long can you keep doing this grind? And then finally, it was like, I know I want to get a job in hockey.

I might as well retire and start now. And that's kind of where it took off from there. So he is the general manager of the Kitchener Rangers. Yeah. Just that little squad. Yeah. Those guys. Yeah.

I mean, he was Jeremy Bracco's general manager. They're not the London Knights. I mean, that's pretty amazing at 31 years old. Yeah. And he was always a guy that he was just kind of a student of the game. He was always a guy That loved video work And he's the only guy

In the family That actually likes Working out And eating healthy So we laugh We say he's adopted He's such an idiot Like he's actually

He's not a member Of the margarita family No no Like he'll have like one Like he Don't get me wrong He's fine But he'll have like

One margarita And I'm like okay I'm going to the gym And I'm like I'll have another three And then I'll fall asleep In the couch Yeah exactly

He's like I don't want to say He's a serious guy But he took You know training And nutrition and playing like super serious and that's kind of where he gets it all he always did the video work he's always dialed into you know the systems of the game and thinking the game and then once

he got out he knew he wanted to do coaching and actually steve spot gave him his first chance really just kitchener yeah yeah he kind of game came to a coaching clinic and there was no real jobs and i guess he impressed steve spot and ultimately said well we can give you like a basically an assistant assistant coach type of role where he was booking travel he was you know making sure that kids had their tim hortons he was doing like book booking the buses that kind of thing and just kind of slowly worked his way up and worked his way up and most canadian job of all yeah exactly like please make sure you have the double doubles yeah make sure that tim hortons is fine the hotels are good and the buses are on time and that was basically his

role you call them donut holes you're fired yeah and so that's kind of how he did it and worked his way and he did it quickly i mean that's yeah he's 31 yeah and again it was like what we talked about is where you kind of just make your own luck in certain ways where right place right time if you work hard and eventually the opportunity might come around and you know if people like you they will say okay we'll give you a shot at the opportunity well there's anything that people have said about the mckenzie's on the whole it's that you guys aren't very likable no not really nice yeah just terrible terrible to deal with bad bad people tim hortons is always cold when you deliberate it's brutal it's bad uh but then i'm and and obviously we gotta we gotta mention your

dad who is obviously a legend i don't think we have to have to mention he's a nobody i wonder i wonder when i was when i was researching clarify for everyone who is that um some guy at some network his name is he's like a script runner or something yeah that will not be named he's gonna kill me um well i would hope so i'd be honored if you listened yeah truly if he made Time for this I mean as a fellow Podcaster He does have his own

Podcast now I actually listened to it And he inspired me To read 10% Happier The Dan Harris book Which was worth it He does love reading

Like every time We go to the cottage He's got some new book And he's reading us Like passages of it And let's read Oh my god Does he do it

From like a tall Wicker chair Just make the damn Margaritas man Like I don't come here For those books Yeah like He has to read me

A passage of his newest book before he gives me the margarita i'm like just okay fine i'll do it i have passages of wisdom to bestow upon are his margaritas legitimately better than most margaritas you've had or are they are they base level margaritas see this this might spark some controversy because this is gonna him and my mom don't use the salt rim oh i know i know it's very this is going to be the biggest controversy okay summer they go like a kind of a sugar rim so it's more of like a sweet kind of yeah sweet kind of thing which it might start calling into question the authenticity of the margarita right it's like a daiquiri margarita hybrid wow yeah wow okay now

i love that was a very babcock answer because you didn't give me a definitive either way no because i'm not gonna get that i can't because what like what if i rip his margarita and i never get one again then i have to make my own mart and he's got like a machine that like it's margaritaville yeah yeah exactly does he really does he have the Jimmy Buffett oh yeah

that is so awesome that's amazing it's great because he we always laugh about my dad saying he's very

I don't know how to he gets really wound up and then he calms right back down okay like he just like he's like Steve

like he'll like yeah exactly I know a guy that's funny you say that he'll just like drastically over exaggerate something and then we'll laugh

at him and he'll be like oh yeah okay whatever like like like the other like the other day like i'm up there and we're making margaritas it was like a saturday or sunday or a wednesday doesn't really matter might have been midweek but all of a sudden the margarita machine starts making all these loud noises and he's like jesus god thing's done need need a new one i'm like is it really done and my mom's like just kind of laughing and he's like we need to get the bigger one and i'm like i'm like it just made a funny noise like he's like freaking out all of a sudden we go and try it again and it

works, and it's perfectly fine, and we're like, oh, it's a new one. Shut up. He just walks away. And we rip on him pretty good, because he flies off the handle and stuff, and then, like, instantly calms down and is like, okay, it's maybe not that bad. Maybe not that bad. Okay, all right. Mrs. Engel is going to really enjoy listening to this one.

Yeah, I actually think... You're shut because he's dead! Caprice will, too, because that's what I do, and it's like little things. Every apartment in the house is broken. And all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, and then you just walk away for a minute. Yep. Shit. Might have overplayed that one a little bit yeah overplayed my hand yeah all right we're gonna pretend that didn't happen

and moving on um but you know okay so here's the conversation i had with my mom when i told her that i wanted to be in radio was she her answer was a flat no she said no you don't no you won't no not no and i said well no i'm gonna do that and she said well no no you're not no you're not uh because at that point there was a bunch of like mid high school there's a bunch of layoffs going on and things would turn into automation and they were getting rid of it. The signs were there. Yeah, so we were kind of like, okay, the industry was in contraction.

The long short, like the plot of the long short was happening. Yeah, sorry. The big short? Is that what it's called? I don't know, what are we talking about? The movie. The big short. Yeah, a lot of the big short was happening. Was the economy crashing? Yes.

We were two years away. I don't know if I would compare the radio business slowly getting smaller to the whole economical failure of the U.S. No, they were trying to get cheaper anyway. But I'm into exaggeration. I don't know if the whole

housing market crashing would be the same as the small. The economy could be the best it's ever been. Did you know that James Riemer is a Vesna Trophy nominee? Don't change the topic.

No, but that's... Okay, sorry. So the long short... The long short is that... Great movie, never heard of it. So she says no, and I said,

well, I'm going to do it anyway. And she said, okay, fine, well, you're not going to get any of my help. And being the cocky teenager that I was, it was like, Screw you, mom.

And under my breath, F you, I don't need your help. And that's the way it was. And I actually, I ended up with an internship at her station, but not because of her. And she just like glared at you from across the room all day. In fact, emailed the DJ that I did it with and said, you know, you better make sure like he's, he's going to university. Look at that cocky little asshole over there. Like don't treat him any different.

Like he doesn't deserve, he doesn't deserve any, any fair treatment or whatever. And I remember getting my first job and she said, no, you shouldn't take that. and then I remember getting my second job and she said no you shouldn't take that and then a job offered to Toronto no you can't stay anywhere you're you're you keep leaving these jobs and so it was like a fight to get her to come around to the fact that this is what I wanted to do was it the same for you um not I wouldn't say it was a fight it it was more when I said I wanted to do it I think I'm sure in his head he was probably thinking the same thing like oh great like the business isn't as good as it was the tv business was still fairly i don't want to say

lucrative because i don't think it's ever been lucrative but it was still a fairly big thing like i said there were still tons of local roger stations people were still getting jobs you know tsm was in sports that were still hiring tons of new anchors that type of thing but he basically said and it's the reason i did the rogers tv was he's like i'm not sending you to college or university to do something as specific as sports tv because i knew right away like if you would have asked me going into college like would you want to be an editor or producer or and i i would have said no i want to be a sports report like anchor and so it was so specific he was like well i'm not spending a ton of money on college or i'm not you know sending you away to school

without you knowing you want to do it for sure so go go to an internship so go go to a co-op and i and i think looking back on it now he actually wanted to see if i was any damn good at it because if i did six months at the rogers tv and i was horrible some people just have it and i think he probably would have been like no you're not doing this you're bad right like he would have been honest enough just like the same thing with my brother in hockey where sorry you're not going to be an nhler this is kind of what you're going to be if i was horrible after that co-op and rogers i think he would have said find something new to do and i probably would have listened to him but he wasn't anti it i think he just wanted to make sure that i was fully committed and that i was

good enough at it to make it in a business that not a lot of people kind of do mostly because i specifically wanted to do one thing and one thing only that was on air right me too yeah so i think he just wanted to know that i actually was serious and that i was any damn good at it i wasn't no me Me neither. I was absolutely horrible. We fooled them. I have a friend who is a family member in the biz who's not Adam. You have more friends than Adam?

I don't know. No, I don't think so. I mean, it's not a wide group. Okay, we were listening. I was listening to Sony. If he doesn't count. He yells all the time. Here's how many people Adam knows.

I was listening to a song in the car, and Adam's like, oh, who's this? I'm like, oh, this is Bishop Briggs. I really like her. He's like, oh, yeah, she's super nice. I talked to her. Oh, yeah. We had coffee. Yeah, yeah.

I have a friend who is a family member in the biz And he got a job at the same company As his dad Who was high up in this company But he got it on his own merit And he intentionally Left the company to go work for another one To get out from under his shadow

He didn't want anyone to perceive him As, I don't know, kind of being daddy Yeah, I feel that Yeah, of course Our parents work for Bell We work for Rogers Hey Rebell

Rebell Rebell Not re-bell Yeah That could be That could be like your gang though Cause you're rebelling against Bell That's right

You could be Rebell Yeah Well my mom every time I go out of the kitchen She reminds me That she's like You know this kitchen Bell paid for this kitchen

So I'm like Okay well that's great Thanks mom Thanks mom Thanks for making me feel welcome As did I make more money than you Bell paid for this food Bell paid for the seat you're sitting in

Pretty much Yeah Was there any sense of like, because I assume you could have gone to a variety of places. Was there a sense that, okay, I can go anywhere, but I don't want to go to TSN? No, not really. To be honest, Sportsnet gave me my first chance. And I was, and this isn't, there's no knocking anyone because I wasn't ready at the time. But I was, I worked at TSN from the time I was like, I don't know, 14 or something, just archiving clips and, you know, basically cutting highlights in the newsroom, that type of thing.

And when I graduated school, I did a summer at TSN where I was kind of, uh, holding mics for Argos practices and going, you know, I went to the, you know, the, the Rogers cup tennis and did interviews. And, you know, I, I never, there was never an on-air thing that was more of a field producer type role. And then eventually that led to CTV Barry, which led to doing the updates on city, uh, city TV on the city news channel before it went defunct. And that was the first, Sportsnet gave me the first opportunity. A guy named Jeff McDonald basically called me in almost straight out of school and said, I saw your demo reel. It happened to fall on my desk. I don't mind it.

You just need more. Like it was, he's like, it's not. I don't mind it. Yeah, it was basically, it was like, it's decent. And I was like, okay. You're adequate. Yeah, exactly. This is decent.

Congratulations on your mediocrity. Get better. and basically I'd get more experience and I went to see TV Barry and did some live work there and did some anchoring and then I just

sent him an updated version and then he called me in and basically was like well we don't have anything and I'm like great another another meeting

where someone's like we don't have anything but keep trucking yep oh you're gonna have a lot of those and then he finally then he kind of

buried the lead and was like well actually we have these updates on city news if you want them and I'm like don't downplay

we'll take it yeah like I'll do anything just put me on put me on now yeah in Toronto in Toronto yeah that's amazing right the studio we're in right now basically just downstairs and that was kind of it so sports net really gave me my first opportunity then from there it just was winnipeg

and that was so it's always been for me sports net well and if you're if you're in the states listening to this understand that starting in toronto is like starting new york chicago la like they they are the top three city centers in the states toronto is is all of those in in in canada right it's just that big compared to everything else so to start here is is a major accomplished and i was fortunate there was again like it sucks to even think about it because there was the platform of city news where it was you know two updates every hour and now that's gone too so it's like everywhere that i got my start and everywhere that i did is now kind of in the past which is so that's where it's hard to think what the the next wave will do but you guys

like you know youtube vlogs that type of thing but yeah it to start in toronto was awesome and then i moved to winnipeg and then basically i again got a break with ian mendez leaving ottawa so i did all the sense broadcasts wow and kind of got rushed into a little bit but it was like okay go do this were you in winnipeg when the team came back no no i was there it would have been like the midway through the year after okay okay so it wasn't the first season with midway through the next and i bet that enthusiasm had carried over because i was in calgary at the time oh yeah yeah they were still in the honeymoon stage like i've never seen hockey that was that exciting it would be like against the florida panthers on like a tuesday night and you go in

that building you'd be like this is the best thing ever because it was just like it was so loud it was so ridiculous the vibe outside the building was insane where like people sometimes ask like oh i was living in winnipeg you know moving from toronto there on the weather i'm like i honestly don't remember anything other than how amazing it was to go to that building i was only there for two months mind you but like but it must have been cold and did you like the city i'm like Yeah, it was amazing because I was there watching that. Cold is cold, man. Yeah.

Yeah, really. I mean, Western cold is a bit different. I'll take Western cold over Eastern cold anyway. You bundle up and you're fine. You wear 100 layers here, it just eats your soul. Yes. It just soaks into you and it's damp and cold. It's wet.

Yeah. I mean, minus 15, minus 40, it's the difference of a few layers. You're not going to the beach that day. No, exactly. I'll go down. Although we say that and then you get to Winnipeg and it's minus 15. They deal with it for like six months. I apologize.

In the summertime, it's plus 40 there and mosquitoes. It's crazy. I apologize to anyone out west who thinks we're downplaying their cold. Oh, no. Because it sucks. Well, no, they're proud of it. When I moved out there, they were like, oh, get ready. The winter is going to be great.

It's like Game of Thrones. The winter is coming. Are you sure? And they're like, well, we get Chinooks, which melts everything. And you'll find that it's a dry cold. I'm like, okay. Thank you. And so you get into your house and you can just brush the snow off.

But in the East, as you know, if you live in Boston, New York, Montreal, whatever, it soaks you. You're wet. You're just wet all winter. Like a drenched cat. Yeah. You turn the heat on and it's still damp and cold. Yeah. I've got a buddy from Winnipeg who will just wear one of those bubble vests and minus 15,

standing outside, waiting in line, and just be like, this is nothing. If you're from Winnipeg, you're tough. You are mentally and physically tough. It's like Russians. They're just tougher. Yeah. They're just, they're tough, cold, tough. They're the climate has just made them a tougher bunch than us.

Easterners. Yeah. Um, so, so you go to Ottawa. Yep. What happens there? So basically it was, I was in, I expect to live in Winnipeg for like ever. I like, you know, like I was so pumped to go cover the jets and be a part of that and have a full-time sports net job.

And I remember my first ever, it was a, it was actually taped live hit, um, in Winnipeg and it was with Mark Spector. and so it was my first time on national tv and you know mike english who was my boss at the time came out for the trip and he was just standing behind the camera like that's just walking i'm like really because he was like and he wasn't like he wasn't doing it to be he was just there and enormous pet peeve oh no you get i would i mean it's your first hit i wouldn't have sent him off but if now i'd be like please and he was such a nice guy we're like you know just i just assumed he wants to watch but it was taped so it wasn't too bad okay still like it's pressure it's

basically like you know i'm not gonna do 18 takes and him go why the hell did we hire this kid like and so we got through it fine and you know but the whole time you're like you're just terrified and mark's a pro oh yeah yeah and he you know he he handled it so well and he was he was so good about it and then so i did that for a little bit cover the jets and there wasn't a ton of work out there at the time just because by then they were already over playoff position it wasn't we didn't have a full-time camera out there but i remember my first ever live hit was in buffalo and it was the jets they were kind of making a late playoff push they sent me on the road for it and i remember them counting me down in my ear and they're like 10 and i just remember like blacking out like i

don't remember a thing like i don't know what i said you throw the clips you come back and like i remember i phoned my dad like you know five minutes after and i'm like did i swear did i am i gonna be on youtube like what did i say he's like no it was fine oh good and he was like you did a decent job i was like oh my god thank god then your dad called you adequate that's awesome Yeah, exactly. So basically, the moral of the story is I'm just a mediocre human being. How do you guys do it? What?

Like, live television. Oh, live television's fun. Yeah. Once you get, well. Because it's exciting. Yeah. Anything can go wrong. Yeah.

And it will go wrong. I've had the earpiece 10-9, and that's terrifying. I've done it with you, and that's easier because you and Dina are like mom and dad. Like, you just kind of guide me through it. But even the clips I do in my basement that end up on Hockey Central during the year, this is how I watch them at home. I've watched the file several times, but it's going on air, and I don't know what to say. I'm going to bug you again, but come closer to your microphone,

because I know it's going to sound like you're far away. But the thing is that you record those clips, and then you watch them. We don't. You watch it as an air check. And that's what's great about... That's horrifying. But the thing is, we don't have to go and see it later. that's what's great about live

is it's gone like it's and if you screw up you just keep like when you're taping something and you have like one little

you know you say the wrong word or you kind of stutter all of a sudden you're like ah enough do it again it's all good

oh I do that many times a show with live like it does you can't just stop okay take two like you just gotta power through it

which is and afterwards though it's exciting like it's you did something you kind of get that excitement of like it's live, it's exciting.

The hardest part I find about it is just the, like this morning, there was two shootings in Toronto in two separate places last night. One at Sherbourne and Queen, which is not a great area anyway, but there's a pub there.

And then there was another at Bathurst and I forget, Bathurst and St. Clair or something. And both super tragic, right? Like bar fights, stuff like that. And, you know, you're going from, all right, we're doing a fitness segment, everybody get up too.

Two people have been shot and Melanie, please give us more. and I don't know I'm from radio right so we make you know butt jokes and then

make fun of the Kardashians and then there was a shooting butt joke yeah exactly so I'm like actually Mel actually

had to say to me yesterday Melanie who does our news and she's like listen you're very expressive and that's super cool but when you're throwing the news to me

just bring it down just a little bit because we don't want like wow holy shit you wouldn't believe what happened last night so Melanie

was a fire I understand how you guys do Like I do hockey And it's like Nazem Kadri had Three goals and he's you know Playing on a line now with so and so and so and so Or like you have to talk about shootings and fires And stuff that

If you're not politically correct on it You're in trouble Where I'm just like Kadri had a good game I go to Tim and Sid and he's talking about Ridiculous stuff I can go wrong too He did not have a good game, actually.

Oh, man. The worst thing is you maybe say a stat or forget a name where you guys do a news. It's kind of scary because there's more at stake almost. Well, and again, thankfully, I don't really have to. We can comment on the news. Thankfully, I don't have to read it, though. Reading the news would be- Especially with everything so politically correct now.

One slip of the tongue and you're done on Twitter. You make one- Honestly, I look at it like this. There's a whole culture right now of gotcha. It's this gotcha culture. They're like, we're going to uncover all the cover-up racists out there when somebody just slips and says something wrong, right? And you make a mistake, and all of a sudden people know,

they know exactly what's going on in your head, and you're a racist or you're a bad person. It's like, well, some people just make a mistake. Some people just say something stupid. And here's why that's problematic. And it's not, and yes, people that say stupid stuff online deserve to be reprimanded for it. But I don't think it's the public's job to tear someone down.

Publicly shame. Yeah. I disagree. I want to know what a Leafs six-round pick said when they were 12. Yes. Well, that's because you are a freak. You are a weirdo, and you are obsessed. No, you are Twitter, man.

No, this needs to be a BuzzFeed thing. This right here, what I'm looking at is just Twitter in a grown man's body. No, but I mean- I'm kidding, by the way. Yeah, of course. But the thing is that- Some people aren't. At a certain point, you have to just accept, listen, am I a decent person or am I not a

decent person? Whatever you are If you're hiding the fact That you're not a decent person Then yeah Eventually you're gonna get caught But if you're a decent person And you make a mistake

And people give you hell Then they give you hell Well like for example For me the one that really Stood out was You saw The Bachelor yesterday Bachelorette Bachelorette

Yep Get it right See Everyone on Twitter Get on Steve Get out But actually Bachelorette Thank you very much

The guy that threw the beer can On the field At the Rogers Center Right Who was a member of the media Oh no was that Yeah yeah Yeah yeah

stupid stupid stupid move like really dumb it's a mistake though like we've all and and hey yeah he he had his day in court literally it's a big mistake it's a big mistake literally yes he got in trouble for it but it was just everyone needed to crack a joke other media members you know everyone needed to get their joke in and then you find out like the guy got let for go from his job his livelihood is now done like and like i said people deserve to get reprimanded for their mistakes but in a way that doesn't totally like let's not try to ruin everyone's life over a mistake yeah there was a thing written today that was basically it was uh like a long read about just what his life has been like since that incident and what was amazing to me is all

the people who were responding like how dare you like try to excuse this person and give him a I'm like okay He didn't kill someone What would be enough For a beer can Yeah What would be enough He was charged

Lost his job Lost his job Humiliated Has felt terrible For two years Has been humiliated By every single person In Toronto

On social media Basically I think we agree He deserved to be punished What is enough Yeah I have no problem With them charging the guy

And banning him From the Rogers Center But you have to Hard labor And that's what it is 40 years That's what it is now You make a mistake

On social media Or it gets captured On camera And that's the world we live in Where you're going to be embarrassed for it And people are going to tear you down I look at it like this though I've done and said pretty much everything wrong

I've basically done it all You knocked a dog off a couch Yeah, on purpose You did, I saw that The anger in your eyes was scary It was wearing a cone Why was it wearing a cone? The first time you knocked it off the couch

What did you do to your dog, Adam? First I stomped on her paw Then I brought her in to show off what I'd done and then rolled her off the couch because fuck her. Wow. What did I agree to sign up for today?

Welcome to the Sean McKenzie podcast, everybody. This is all his idea. Can I take my name off this thing? No, we just got to, I think what we have to do is, and this is hard for people because it's always like shame, shame, shame from Game of Thrones,

but you have to allow room for people to improve and to make a mistake and come back. Yeah. And there's mistakes where people say some stuff or do stuff. You're like, OK, sorry, you're you're on your own. You're gone. You're done like that. Like, you know, there's certain criminal. And we all know what that line is. Exactly. But there's certain things where, OK, like, you know, you might have made a stupid tweet. well there's a great there was a gq article the the woman who was going to south africa and she made a racist remark and she said she like i think it was like a 10 hour flight woke up and her phone had like 80 000 tweets and people waiting at the airport and so oh yeah people waiting at the airport she got she got depressed her life became a disaster they basically forced

her job she can't get hired to this day hey stupid mistake she never should have done it twitter basically made it their job to ruin this girl's life yeah and hey you got to think before you tweet that's the simple fact she didn't tweet that she would still have a great life but you know there's certain things where it's that strange line right like we all agree it's a mob mentality on twitter now where one person makes a joke and it just starts to snowball and spit and all of a sudden that person is the butt of a joke and god forbid that person's a human being that actually sitting there going oh crap like i'm my life i'm embarrassed like my life's over but we agree there should be a consequence there was one yeah where does it where's it

consequence a consequence is supposed to end right you're supposed to do your penance and then move on like my the one that i laughed at was sean spicer it sean right yeah yeah where he everyone thought he called justin trudeau joe oh which was just like like oh i don't even was it such a nothing clip to keep up with anyone anyone nothing anyone in tv is smart enough to know that he literally went to go say justin and and just prime minister trudeau yeah and he clearly stammered on justin and said joe and then finished it but then there was people on tv like that make a living on tv that know that but yet just were like what an idiot colleague of joe trudeau i'm Like, the guy does enough stupid crap.

We don't have to make stuff up about him. Yeah, it takes away from the legitimately stupid thing. You don't have to just grasp at straws to find something stupid this guy's going to do. And I remember going on BT the next day and I said, I know it's not going to make me popular, but I have to defend Sean Spicer. And I tweeted that and I was like, guys, like, let's be honest. Everyone knows he didn't actually call him Joe. Yeah. Oh, you Trump lover.

I'm like, no, I'm just pointing out an obvious fact. Clearly you are. I mean, but, you know, you're right, and it's, yeah, exactly, it's a little aggressive, it's a little aggressive. I quit my job, and I left my pregnant girlfriend to be on this podcast. Wow. Wow. You should text her when she has the baby.

Nah. Congrats. Hey, grats. I'll eventually see it. I was trying to figure out which was the most disrespectful part of that sentence. My girlfriend's not actually pregnant. No, we know, we know. Yeah, again, you have to qualify, because Twitter.

But, okay, so let's, I want to know about, you know, you followed the Leafs this year. Yeah. And, you know, you saw them at the end of, you know, Randy's tenure and then, you know, through the painful year that was last year, you saw them this year. And Steve made a point on the way over, you know, you're putting together a video series and you've had to cut some Leafs stuff. And you're like, they had a legitimate, insane year. A legitimately insane year.

For the 100 and 100 series, we're taking a, we're doing a video every day for 100 days Of some of the greatest moments Of this past season And yes I'm obviously There's a lot of them I'm biased towards the Leafs A hundred percent No

Shocker Shocker But we had to cut So much Leafs stuff Out of the top 100 To not seem biased Against the Leafs We were cutting out

Legitimately incredible moments The Leafs Canucks brawl Did not make it Which was a crazy moment That was like the biggest story Of the month The year before It was the opposite

You were having to cut out You'd be like Salute gate Was that the worst moment Or was there Like there was a hundred moments of just horrible like you could have done that

a hundred moments the year before and there would have been as many horrible moments as there were and that's the crazy contrast between that year and this year like I said I haven't been in this business for 25-30 years but I've never seen a turnaround that was so negative and so dark

to so good never, never, being around the team could you sense it in training camp? Oh yeah, it was just, it was lot more light more fun and the leafs are an interesting dressing room to go into because and this is no knock on anything it's just the way the landscape is is it's more of a covering the leafs you don't get as much of an insight into the team or the room or the guys

because there's so much media oh and so when i covered ottawa for example like that's a great group of guys because you actually got time to sit and talk to them like you could be in the senator's dressing room and eric carlson would finish his scrum with four or five of the locals and then you could just sit and shoot the shit with them because you know what's going on carl like you could talk to mark methaw i was there when spezza was there you could sit and talk to jason spezza about his new car he got just because there was only five or six other media where guys felt comfortable where and it's no knock on the least players whatsoever but in toronto there's so much of it that if you were to go to try to talk to austin matthews even just off the record

like hey austin what's going on man i saw you got a new line tattoo like who did there'd be five other media that would come over because it's kind of a mob mentality of oh crap we can't miss out on austin matthews clip so the players are a little more quick to the dressing room isn't necessarily i don't want to call a safe space but it isn't necessarily a lounging area for them where they'll do their media and they'll go and i don't blame them that's no that's no knock and it's not saying they're a worst group of guys than the Sands or any other team, but because of the level of media and the amount of people,

if they were to sit out there and tape their stick and do all that stuff, they would be doing media for four hours because it would be wave after wave. It would be other reporter. And there are quiet days where you can, like there were days, you know, in years past where you might get a conversation with Phil Kessel

about something where they might, and you will get conversations with guys, but it's just different. It's, I don't. It's less of a community. Yeah. it's more of a professional exactly exactly where ottawa and even winnipeg and you know a lot of these teams that you go and cover you can sit and talk to a guy because they feel

comfortable that you know someone might not be overhearing or listening or it might not end up on twitter where there's just so much going on in the lease room and i think there's been so many years of maybe negativity or stories that they don't want out there that it kind of changes their mindset of i'm not going to sit around and talk to people and it's no knock on them i wouldn't either like and their paranoia has been validated exactly exactly yeah um i'm excited for this upcoming season because i think there's a lot of really good storytelling opportunities when it comes to least i'm excited to find out who this past season's rookies are like because now you can actually talk to them yeah and that's the exactly well that's yeah and for someone who

does broadcast not not least broadcast per se but you know i can really looking forward to seeing them in game like you know like you know last year christine simpson wasn't able to talk to those guys they'd have an amazing period i did just talk to like four guys exactly really yeah and you feel so bad because like you know i did a handful of these broadcasts last year and you would get like bozak or cadre and they'd come out and like they would be having a decent game you know they might be having a great game but matthews or neilander or marner did something amazing. And like, you just feel like an idiot saying to Nazem Kadriou, just how about that Marner goal? Like, it's like, you're talking to a guy that scored 30 goals and like, but you feel

like you almost have to do your job because you know, fans want to hear that. But you're asking a veteran guy who's an outstanding hockey player about a rookie where it kind of, you know, I don't blame them if they were like, enough, I'm a good hockey player too. But there was three guys that Exactly. Exactly. So that's why I'm, you know, as a broadcaster, it's exciting because now when Austin Matthews goes end to end and does something amazing, you can get him and say, how about that? Instead of asking somebody else to talk about him, which I can understand would probably be annoying. Like, you know, if people kept coming up to me and being like, Hey, I saw Steve's video. What do you think? Sure. It's great. Like as much as you love the guy, as much as your team,

And I'm sure it would, you know, talk to him about it. So that would be cool. And the other thing about this year's lease was there was just so much more. And I talked about not being able, you know, you don't get the same opportunity with a team like the lease to sit in, but you can, like, I've had conversations with Matthews for broadcast about his suits and Marner about the purple one where that is different last year where these

guys have a lot of personality, not that the guys didn't, but they're young. They're not afraid to share it with you. They they'll wear crazy hats and they'll wear purple suits. That is kind of a different feel They're excitable Yeah and they're entertaining When things are going well It's easier to be that way

I think When you're last place And you're loosey goosey People think you're a joke Yeah and that's Again that's the That's the twitterverse Where you know

Every little thing Well you know If Austin Matthews Wears a purple suit Or a fedora You know The guy's amazing If some other guy does it

That had a horrible two weeks How dare he wear nice clothes Like he should be wearing Reds Now Kadri doesn't care About winning What's that? They're in the playoffs

And he's the exact same Yeah like how The Florida picture When they were fishing Yeah oh my Don't even get me Don't even get me started They lost that game

Because they caught a fish You guys Oh that was the Dumbest thing Like what Were like And that's And there's a lot

Of smart hockey fans But do hockey fans The ones that roasted The fishing guys Do they really think Like of all the options That those guys Could have done

In Florida During that trip Fishing is The least of them That's a fascinating thing About Twitter Because I Ask myself that question

Often When I see people react Crazily to things I don't think they do Which makes it more confusing Do they not understand That like 10 years ago Those guys

Would have been at a bar All night long And then played the next day And no one would know Any different Like that's what I don't even want to say 10 years ago

It could have happened There could have been 4 or 5 other guys On that trip And I'm not saying, and I'm not saying I know, like, I'm just. How many fish did they catch? Yeah. Right.

Like, like, and it's like, oh my God, they went fishing in the sun. What do you expect these young 19 year old, 20 year old millionaires to do on an off day? Well, like I want to be a lot worse than fishing. Yeah. It could be a lot worse than fishing. and that's what sucks sometimes about twitter and about the level of media in toronto is that there was that was a quiet trip for us there was only four or five media there so that's when you get the good stories that's when you and then all of a sudden you're there and they're sitting there

reading all these tweets and all this crap about lockdown and you're and you're there and you're like and like you actually feel like going to some of the guys and being like hey sorry like It's not me like it's but you can't because then you just look like you know then you're just trying to like you just have to trust that and most those guys know like for example and I think it ended up actually going to air I think it was Bozak or someone started the scrum with like they had a great win the one in Tampa right after. And he started the scrum with Bonding trip And like that was his reason for the win Someone was like you know what it was a great team bonding trip And like he just started killing

And afterwards he was joking with us So I think these guys get it but it's hard Because they get ripped for something like that And then they have to go face the media And it's like well it was you guys that did it Yeah that was the Florida trip I think they like didn't they get destroyed Horribly

It was the worst yeah The game they should have won against Florida they didn't The game they probably shouldn't have won in Tampa Exactly And they were in a playoff race And people were emotional And they lost a game they shouldn't But guess what?

Hockey teams suck sometimes Yeah Good teams, bad teams There's 82 games But it was just It was poorly timed Because they were so close to the playoffs The Leafs weren't

They weren't the Pittsburgh Penguins They weren't a team that's expected to go in every night And just crush teams Like yeah They had a horribly shitty hockey game We've seen that before Took us about three or four months to get spoiled Like we expected them to miss the playoffs

By like a wide margin And then They're still in it Let's go It was like After that Florida I remember It was like a feeling

Of like Is this really gonna happen I felt bad for people Like you Me too Whose emotional status Rests on what they do With the entire last

Like I don't know Two months Of the regular season We were talking about Like no If they miss the playoffs I will be devastated Everything I said before

Is out the window That's off the table I will be broken hearted If they miss You would be walking down Blue Ridge Street Just screaming Just yelling

No I think I think Steve Steve and Jesse and I Were having a conversation About it in I want to say December or early January If you remember Jesse

Let me know But it was Steve was like Because we had all Started the year with like What's your What's the percentage chance Of making the playoffs

I said 25 I think you said 25 Jesse's like No they're going to make it Just because Jesse Likes to make Outlandish claims like that And he was right

I don't think you can call it outlandish Well it felt outlandish at the time Jesse don't take this crap And I'm leaving And Steve by January was like Well if they don't make it now It would be somewhat of a disappointment And then by March

You're like this would be horrible Another collapse, it would be worse than Boston It's amazing how that negativity Is just rooted in your brain Of like they're treating us to something so special When's it going to collapse When's it gonna fall apart Earlier in the show

You were talking about Babcock trying to get A message across And it was amazing Like as the regular season Was winding down His message was purely Just do it

Like you can do it Get it out of your head Get the past out of your head It was his version Of burn the boats And he was also good at Kind of just Like everyone calm down

Like losses Wins, losses He was all Like just calm down Like he was almost Preparing for either the euphoria that they made it or the devastation that they didn't.

One of those was going to happen. And he's a smart enough guy to know that there would be a lot of emotional swing either way. And he was almost preparing. It was more of a message to the media. Everyone pumped the brakes and whatever happens is going to happen, but we can do it.

It almost felt like, because those games towards the end, it does swing because when you're actually in it, and that's rare for us, you're not used to the emotion. I felt like we were rookies, too, going back as fans, right? You're almost like a rookie fan. You forgot how much you invest in these games.

And I almost felt like that particular run, you know, they get in with one point. Yeah. Prepared them for that series against Washington because— They were going and playing their best hockey. Yeah. So when you were there, from what you saw, is that kind of the impression you got that they were sharp and they were ready to go? Yeah, they were rolling in hot. Like they were on an emotional high and that can either be great the way it worked out for them or detrimental where all of a sudden some teams would make it and it would be this emotional high and then it would just crash and four game sweep to the Capitals.

You know, that we thought. Which everyone thought was happening. Which would, yeah. And I think that was a fair assessment to think that they made it, the Capitals or the President's Trophy winning. They're amazing that that high was so high that, you know, it's, but then it just kept going, going, going. The Caps had recently beat them pretty handily. And the Caps, the Caps went in not looking like the Caps, like, you know, and it was almost the perfect storm of two teams, one kind of peaking, one a little bit on a speed wobble. And ultimately what was probably going to happen, happened, the Caps won. But that, like, if you're a Leafs fan, like I ask you, like, how excited are you for this to start up again after that series? Oh, I, I, well, I'm worried because it was almost too high of a high.

Well, so last week we talked about Where the Leafs rank in the East Or at least the Atlantic And I'm like, I don't know, second? Like maybe I looked at the playoffs So, you know, the Penguins broke a record Most times outshot on route to a Stanley Cup win

Not calling it luck or any of that But there is a little bit of luck involved in sports The Leafs had six one-goal games Five overtimes against the Capitals The Capitals, flat out, end of discussion, should have beat the Penguins. They should have. And they did not. The Leafs were this close.

This close. I know it was six games, but they were this close. Like, it's hard to temper expectations. But then, I mean... Tampa's never going to be that bad again. Tampa's never going to be that bad again. Well, the team I have the Leafs behind in the Atlantic is Tampa, who didn't even make the playoffs. If Nashville replays Chicago, is it a four-game sweep?

I highly doubt that. Minnesota probably beat St. Louis There's so many Ifs A buddy of mine once said the best team in hockey Rarely wins the Stanley Cup And my if and my concern for the Maple Leafs Is

Just their health Like that was an anomaly I don't think you're ever going to see The Maple Leafs in the next little bit be that Healthy again Like you won't have that many impact players You know the Matthews The Marners

Even the Connor Brant Nobody went down And that was just consistent Mitch Marner got one The shoulder I believe He missed about a week But still broke the rookie record In points and that sort of

For the least Brown had 82 games, right? Yeah No, no 72 Nine guys had 82 And Nylander had 81 Yeah

So it was basically I think Brown hit his bonus Brown played them all He played them all He had a bonus because of it He started on the fourth Because I was like Milan Mihalic

Who came in for him Yeah Forget injuries It was amazing He started opening night Yeah That's the And so that

If Sash is healthy He probably doesn't You know The odds are You roll the dice That there's going to be A sophomore slump For one of them

Yeah There's going to be injuries And that's you know Maybe not But there isn't going to be That same level of consistency I don't think And that's not to say

They won't easily deal with it And just like most teams do It's so many factors Yeah But they're an Unbelievably talented team Whether they're injured Whether they're

You know Sophomore slump They have so much skill And so much talent What their back end's Going to do That's Going to be a predictor

Hopefully You know Will Freddie be the same Guy we saw That you know Finished the season That's a huge factor He looked like a number one goalie

And if he is Then the Maple Leafs Are going to be a great team For a long time One thing I was excited for Last year Is I thought You know

The NHL team May or may not be great We didn't know But I had a lot of confidence in the AHL depth And we didn't even get to see that So that's another one of the variety Of factors Might have some injuries

Some guys might get better Some guys might get worse AHL guys might be really good AHL guys might be really bad It's always funny to see the correlation Between when the Marlies were super good And the Leafs were bad Then it starts to level off

And then the Marlies start to not be as good And it's like, I don't know if you ever want your AHL team to be like the championship team full of 35-year-old stars. Like, you know, like you almost want your AHL team to be decent, filled with some prospects. But, you know, the Leafs... Well, that was the 2012 team. Yeah, because they were just waiting for all those guys that are now impact players, where now it's going to be the Leafs that are kind of benefiting from that. But like, I look at the current team they have.

They already up front have like an extra line. Like they're going to have to wave guys There were points where like We were watching games and seeing the line matchups And going like their depth is stupid Like their forward depth They were matching It was just like so much skill

Their fourth line had so much skill On it at certain points This is unbelievable Well yeah when you got a Kapanen and Brian Boyle That was crazy When you can roll that line out As a fourth line in the playoffs We saw what it did against the Capitals

It's pretty damn good So you saw this, you saw the team, you know, intimately, you were in the dressing room, you've talked to the guys and that sort of thing. Patrick Marleau. I don't need to, I don't think we need to get into whether he was overpaid or too many years or whatever. What I want to know is what is he, what do you know about Patrick Marleau personally that we, you know, we wouldn't know? And then what do you know? And what do you think he brings to that room? Personally, I can't speak a whole lot about him because we only cover a handful of sharks, you know, and he's a guy that you would talk to in a scrum and you do the normal hockey questions, but he's not a guy that you would ever kind of sit down with and get to know. But I've never heard a bad word about him. I've never heard. And I, people a lot of times, oh, he's going to be a great mentor. Not really. Like, you know, you're, he's there to play hockey. And sometimes a lot of people got asked, the older players, that when they came to that dressing room, are you going to be a mentor?

Even Brian Boyle kept, you know, he's like, kids are pretty good. Like, I don't, like, I don't need to have the world for dinner. Also, he just got there. Yeah. What did they expect him to do? All right, everybody who's been here all year. Yeah, like, Carpool, like, no, these guys are there to play hockey and they're there to get wins.

Like these guys have a mentor, Mike Babcock, Brendan Shanahan, Lou Lamorello. Like, yeah, they need leadership. That's, that's not at all a question, but Patrick Marlowe is there to score goals and I can't speak to him like as somebody, he can skate, he can skate, he can skate, he can skate. This isn't like, this isn't like signing Yager and saying, well, I wonder how we'll fit into our, he can skate. He can skate with these young kids

And skating is just I know you don't love his stats Do you? You didn't hate that deal Well it's a little long for me But this day and age You say it's a little long With the way the Leafs do the cap

Are you really that concerned about the third year? I liked the goal total a lot And then I looked at the points And I'm like how come he didn't have any assists Oh Joe But Thornton was setting up all those goals goals for me it's i love the deal because so you have you have to give him the third year because if you don't give him the third year he's not coming it's free agency he's going somewhere

else you have to yeah for everyone the leafs have a window it's a big window don't get me wrong but you're coming off last season you can't sit here and go well we're maybe we'll wait three or four years no because you're gonna have to sign the big boys you're gonna have to start worrying about the cap even more so than like after the mcdavid deal what do you sign matthews to what What do you sign Marner to? What do you sign Nylander to? So you have all these guys right now locked up under good term. This is a window to do something.

And their window will be past this too because they're still going to have a ton of talent. But you can bring in a guy like Patrick Marleau and, you know, that just pushes them over that edge. If they have another year like they did last year, they have even more depth. So you take your shot. Yeah, it might cost you one extra year you don't want. But you're bringing in a guy that can skate That is as much as People maybe don't want to hear

But a great room guy, great intangibles I know that's a word that sparks some debate Amongst hockey people I think because it's overused But there are, I mean, to say that a guy's If a guy comes in and he's a negative asshole That makes a difference, right? Like you don't want that

Intangibles and great room guy Is negative I think when it's all you got Yeah It's Patrick frickin' Marlowe If Patrick Marlowe couldn't skate And was on his last leg Had broken two legs And maybe was signed

To a three year contract Something like that I don't know who You're talking about If he couldn't skate If he didn't put up Good goal totals Then people

Why the hell are we You know just cause he's That's why I say The leadership thing Like that stuff I feel Gets overblown Yes he's a great leader And he's gonna be

A great guy But you sign him For what he does On the ice And he can skate And I'm really curious To see what a guy That can skate like that

Does with this much skill Imagine some of these guys that he can either find them the puck or he can find them the puck. And where do you see him slotting in? Does he sit on that Matthews-Nylander pair? Or does that remain Zach Hyman, who played a useful role?

There's people that argue that he didn't, but I think he did on that line. If it's me, I want to see Marleau there instead of Hyman. And that's no knock on Hyman. Just because there was times throughout the season where Matthews would give the puck to Hyman in the front and nothing would happen with it. Yeah.

But that being said, how many times was there when Hyman went and got the puck for Matthews and Matthews did something with it in front? And I'm not one of those people that hates Hyman on that line.

I just think if you have someone with a bit more skill that can skate the way he does, then you try it out. And I've also never covered a team that, like Babcock didn't change his lines last year. No.

Almost never. It was the best team to cover because I never had to once, maybe a few times, but it was never one of those things where I had to go to him on his skate and be like, so-and-so is with so-and-so yeah and it would be a big freak out like it was just consistent brown

was the only guy who played on all four lines if i'm not mistaken i don't think anyone else did there wasn't major shake-ups there wasn't major moments where you show up and go there was a couple practices where you go this is weird and then you talk to babcock after he goes well i wouldn't read into it and you can actually trust him because next game the morning skate it was back to the way it was right but i think i think you get a guy like that you're gonna try him You're not just going to lock him in on the second, third, fourth line and go, oh, that's what he is. That's a breaking back book.

You're going to try him with Austin Matthews and see what can Patrick Marleau do with Austin Matthews. I love Zach Hyman as a hockey player, but he doesn't earn that right to be locked in on that line. It's not like two guys that have played together for 10 years, and it's not Marleau and Thornton here. I'm really interested. Part of me, it's a super unpopular opinion,

But part of me says just keep that Matthews line together And then you can put Marleau You know, in a more sheltered Environment On a line that is basically just as skilled If not more, and he can still tear it up You can put him with Komarov and Kadri If you wanted to

That's got a 30 goal scorer on it That's the thing about the Leafs depth There are a lot of teams that you sign Like Patrick Marleau, right now I can tell you Who he's going to play with And GMs and coaches would say We signed this guy to play with so and so We signed Patrick Marleau

To play with this guy With the Leafs You don't have to do that Because you can say Well we'll play him with him We'll play him with Kadri We'll play him with Matthews We'll play him

Dominic Moore Am I right? Am I right? No Okay Sorry Alright fine Yeah

Even then It would be Marleau More like Kapanen Yeah Well that's what I mean Very fast line So like It's

Oh god I love this It's not It's not A locked in situation where Marleau fits just with one player and that's what's so great about the Leafs right now

is Steve's like shaking with excitement I watched I watched a video the other day it was the final five minutes of the Pittsburgh clinch game

and then the Kapanen double OT and the the game three win and comeback that I was at my blood was made of like Red Bull

and gasoline I just wanted to run through a brick wall like I can't believe this season the regular season is two months away I'm dying man

I can understand Because I got a taste of Like I'm not a fan Of any team I was a Colorado Avalanche fan When I was young That faded A lot of guys were

Yeah well A lot of guys in Ontario were I was When I was six It would have been Ninety Yeah I was six or seven

I saw them win the cup In ninety six The triple overtime Uwe Krupp goal Wow In Florida In Florida yeah We went down to visit

You were in Florida Yeah When you need a dog trainer, you go with Krupp. Yep. What a goal. Do you know that story? No. So he scores that goal and then signs, what, a four-year deal with Detroit worth 20 million

bucks and has a back injury and ends up on ESPN3 with dogs or something at a dog training. Yeah. That's amazing. And there was a huge thing about it. If it was today- But he scored that one nothing goal. Yeah. He would have been eviscerated today, but back.

He rode that goal to 20 million bucks. Damn right. That was a hell of a goal. It was. I remember I was, and I was, so I was only six or seven. And so I didn't, like, I was just a potato. Like my brain wasn't, I just wasn't even a human being. I was just like nothing.

And so I didn't have any thoughts of my own, but all I went and bought the plastic rats. Cause that was when the big rat thing was, was huge. And all I wanted to do was throw my rats on the ice. And so it's like single over time. I'm like, Oh no. And there hasn't been a goal. So now I'm like, I just want to throw this damn rat on the ice. and I have like 10 plastic ones

and second overtime, nothing. So third overtime and I just start. And I love the Avalanche jerseys. They're cool. As a six-year-old, you see the like brand new and you're like, this is amazing. So then I became a huge Sackick and Forsberg fan. But back to the main point,

I haven't, I don't have a favorite team. You just, you lose it covering so much different hockey because you start cheering for certain scenarios. Like you cheer for, like, for example, not to bring it up, the Bruins Leaf series. Go ahead. I was only covering the Toronto side of that. I wasn't going to Boston and back and forth

the Rashford Madani was, but there was two scenarios. I was either going to get in the car the next day and drive to Pittsburgh to cover the Pittsburgh Ottawa series if the Leafs lost, or I was going to be the only reporter on the Leafs Ranger series as like a 22 year old going to Manhattan. I was like, so I'm like, so you cheer for things that help you out.

And that's what the media is kind of all about. So I've never had a team, but even watching Last year's playoffs Like I could understand The feeling Leafs fans had Because I wasn't cheering for them But you're like this is the most exciting It was the best hockey I saw at playoffs

I covered every series and I didn't see a series like that It's a little bit like Nashville Oh my god that was amazing How many people around the hockey world outside of Tennessee Were like go Preds But they were fun And the fun the city had was infectious And you start to feel what

Kind of a fan might feel You don't feel the same You know The You're excited for them Yeah exactly And like you know You don't feel the same

Let down when they lose Or the same You know high when they score But you're like Oh this would be Imagine your emotional Investment riding on This Leafs team

Oh yeah Yeah I'm pointing directly At Steve Like I don't know Like when they lost It was just kind of like Oh that's a shame

It's like whenever we bring up The Boston Vancouver series Oh yeah And I bring it up So nonchalantly And every time I get tweets Like fuck you Why are you

Why are you making me That was six years ago How dare you You never know how to act Like I had to cover The losing dressing room In Nashville And you like

You always have to do The fake sort Like you never know Like what to do If you're just like Kind of like fake How did that feel Like you're always

Like fake And you always give Like the What are you feeling right now Yeah Like you're like Hey what's up I know it sucks

Like you're like Whispering Like what did you say You ever seen You ever seen reporters Like Like You ever been part of a scrum

where everyone unanimously took mercy on the person they were interviewing and just ended it? Yes and no. Cause you, everyone's, you know, when that's the thing is, you know, when to show the times you see a lot of mercy is when

something like really bad happens and all the news people come in and I'm not knocking the news people, but they come in for three, two or three times a year. And they just hate, like they just, cause there's no mercy. And cause their job and they have a job

produced to go there and demand answers you know it was and they're used to dealing with politicians too right exactly and that's a different ball game and so that's when you don't saw it but you almost you have to almost play the mediator because you need your answers like you need real hockey answers like after the salute gate for example yeah like 30 media cameras running around full speed like it was it was almost like it was like a uh an election or something they were rushing guys and the peers trying to calm everyone down but normally we would just casually even on a day like that you go up you get set you you know and you ask fair questions and because you need your answers and you need to write your story on it and it started to become like what

were you thinking what like who orchestrated this and it was like like and then you're the guys are getting more and more riled up and you're missing out on the stories you need for like the clips i need where a logical this is what you know and so then you almost have to not show sympathy but kind of bring it back like hey like listen what then you have to ask kind of the logical not softball question but maybe a little bit more empathy than just what were you thinking that type of thing so there's scrums where yeah they're going with a little bit more like you also know when yeah the wrong time to go in hard on a guy might be and just not get anything i i think i get where you're coming at because like it's it almost sounds like the news people

You might be listening to this And go well they have more journalistic integrity But because they're there two or three times a year They're able to just napalm The entire dressing room And then leave and come back several months later And that's the frustrating thing about And I understand

Where fans come from Where they want more They want hard hitting questions But there's also People don't realize you're not going to get anything You can ask it First of all you're never going to get the answer you want like you you go into a babcock scrum and fans want to know why do you keep playing

zach hyman with this thing why is zach hyman still with austin matthews okay that's a fair question we asked it we asked it once and because i want i want him there he gets pucks and he's a good man and he helps austin okay there's your answer so fans aren't happy with that answer so it keeps going on so you try to ask it again to babs and all of a sudden he snaps at you and then he's never taking any of your other questions serious like there's only so many times you can ask a guy something or there's only certain ways you can ask a guy without him because not only do you not get the answer then you'll never get another one no then all of a sudden yeah then when you actually need a real like there you pick your spots pose it as a twitter question listen

babs i know i've asked you this before but goku 69 wants to know well the infamous um kessel fest chuck oh that which one oh the this guy's an idiot right this guy's tough to coach one so fest chuck asked a question that way and you know he asked a question that was fair you know people were saying that kessel was uncoachable but phil said well who said that well people are you saying that and that was the exchange and like Fester's not going to say yes it was me

because it wasn't him but it's a question that had to be asked but Kessel took it you know he saw the little window of well this is what I'm going to pick on and it was neither side's fault

and then people on Twitter go what's this idiot doing asking Kessel that or Kessel's an idiot for snapping at him well that's kind of how I thought I thought like what the hell is that

what does that question possibly do at this particular moment right and maybe I'm wrong I'm fine with that and so it got a sound bite sure did

And I don't know if that was his intent, but Dave's a great writer and he had us, we all have a story or an angle that we need. And that's what people, so some people hear a question, that's the dumbest question in the world. That guy had a reason for asking it. Sometimes it's a dumb reason. Sometimes it's not like, that's what is kind of misconstrued. We don't go in on a day-to-day basis and just say, oh, I'm going to fire eight questions that I haven't even thought about. See what happens. Yeah.

Like you have an idea of what you need and how it's going to play. And I know a lot of people, why don't you ask this? Why don't you ask that? Like, I would like to see half the people get in front of Mike Babcock and demand an answer for something. Good luck. Demand anything. Yeah.

Like good luck. I haven't even introduced myself yet. Yeah. Like good luck. Like it's, it's not, and I'm not saying people should have sympathy for the job, like, cause it's an unbelievably amazing job. And, but there's also certain nuances that I think people on Twitter don't necessarily understand.

And why would they? They're not there. They weren't trained. And it's not, and they have a right to say we want more different questions. But there's also, if I ask that question, I'm never getting the answer you want, nor will I ever be able to ask a question again. That's kind of the simplest way to say it. A couple of things. So going back to the Hyman thing, I know a lot of coaches really hate lineup questions.

Oh, yeah. Who are some of them who like have just, you know, you maybe ask why someone's on the left wing or something and they just blow up at you. Most coaches are good. It all depends on the context. Yeah. Like the Hyman one would eventually like, cause it got so old for Babs where like, if he, if he put somebody new with Matthews, you would ask, why does so-and-so fit with Matthews? Oh, cause he does this well. But if you ask, why did you move Hyman off that line? It's all how you word things. Cause Mike's a really literal guy. So if you ask him something, he won't like, he's not going to guess at what you're meaning. He's going to give you the answer that you ask. So you need to be straight with your question. You need to be straight.

You need to be, you can't, he's too smart. You're not going to trap him. You're not going to lead him down. You need to just ask him the question that you want. And you might have to word it in a way that isn't so like, yeah. So if you wanted, like, if you want the answer and why did you move Hyman off that line? He might not give it to you, but he's going to address that as your point. Whereas if you say, you know, why is Connor Brown playing with Austin Matthews?

he'll just tell you why Connor Brown is where other coaches might say, well, we moved him up there because we wanted Zach with somebody else where Babs will give you exactly what you asked and that's it. So you have to always formulate what you're going to ask to get the right answer. I asked that one because do you know Rob Wong?

Yep. Is, I think it's like first ever scrum or it might've been his first Raptors scrum. He asked Sam Mitchell, who's Raptors coach at the time. Rob Wong, by the way, sports, a sports anchor. Great guy. We should say that.

Yeah, my bad. This is This is why You're a professional person And I am I just want anybody Listening from Kentucky

That's a hell of a host Right there Just traffic copping So He He asked Sam Mitchell About someone's minutes I don't remember who it was

And there's just This legendary clip And it's his first Friggin scrum And he just Mitchell just Tears his lip Ice time

Like that's a tough one Like asking a coach Why they used A certain play Like we had to do it With Ovechkin In the Pittsburgh series

Did he get his Ice time slash Yeah Yeah I think I remember In the last He like got benched Last couple games

Well yeah And again Is like We all thought Maybe he's injured But you can't not ask Because he played Some ridiculous low

Was it Was it 15 minutes Or something like that Yeah it was 1490 1460 or something like that Like rookie third liner Yeah He was playing

Like he was like the Eighth most played Player on the team Or something like that And so you know We had to keep asking Where's the coach again? Yeah, we had to keep asking.

And, you know, part of it in the back here, you're thinking, okay, maybe he could be injured, but you can't just assume he could be benched. So you have to go ask the question. And, you know, Trotz is a pretty good guy. Like he'll answer the question and stuff, but other coaches would just blast you for it. Because each game, why were Alex's minutes only 15?

Well, because of this. Why were Alex's minutes only 14? It's like, how many times can you keep asking, asking before a coach is like, enough? yeah that's kind of the it's like groundhog day man it's it's an intense intense thing i have to say though i love as much as we get nothing out of them i do love the way the maple leafs are handling the media because they finally figured it out and you know it must be frustrating when you know connor brown eventually signs and we don't get a we're not going to get term like

they'll tell us maybe three years or whatever it is but they're never going to tell us how much and we're going to sort of piece it together uh for you uh sean is that frustrating or is that kind of like okay is this let's get creative here you could only work with what you're given like there are people that probably get frustrated you can only do with what you have like you know they give you and again it's not if i'm someone like elliot friedman or something then maybe it's a little more challenging because all that's the job is to find the numbers to get the inside scoop where i'm not an insider or an analyst so i go to the they name in a media avail time you know Connor Brown signed.

He's going to speak at, you know, three o'clock. And then I tell that story. Okay. Whereas, you know, I'm not trying to crunch the numbers or find out this or find out that. You can only work with what you're given. And so my job would be more to tell the best story with the information I have. Do you, um, so Adam and Jesse for me are different. Um, but do you talk about your job much with your friends?

Cause again, Adam and Jesse are in media, so it's different. I don't like talking about what I do that much with my friends who aren't in media because I feel all my complaints are so trivial. Oh, yeah. We have a friend who's a police officer, and I don't even – I don't talk about it with him. Yeah, no. I don't talk about it with him. And paramedic.

Yeah. Because, like, Chris Johnson referred to it as, like, we work at the toy factory. It's true. And, yeah, it's – we've all had that moment, like, where I always say the only people that we can complain to is other people in the business. yep like i could have a full conversation like so i did all four rounds of the the cup final or sorry the playoffs and you know it's hotels it's flights and it's like i could and i travel a lot with chris johnson i got like i could sit with cj and just bitch and complain for like 10 hours about how great it is to work here yes exactly how much we love everyone how much you feel bad

that nobody else is working and like i could complain about how the western in the western in Or how we were out of Weston And then it got sold out So we had to move To a courtyard Right Like shit like that That like we would

And we would just Cause that is affecting Our daily life Like and in our own way That's the stuff That is just We kill time By complaining about it

But like Yeah a crackhead Came at me With a knife today Yeah Two days Earlier this day And now I'm sitting

Here in front of you Like I imagine I'm texting a buddy Who's like working Like a ridiculously long shift Or something And I'm like Yeah man

The courtyard The waffles today At breakfast sucked The free breakfast was I missed it by 20 minutes Or the room service was slow When you're on the road for a ridiculous They become little things

That start Flight delays is the big one So many people go on Twitter and complain about flight delays No one cares Because you're flying To some event They're not doing it to be an asshole I'd rather be in that airport than wherever I am

Your job is, but by the outside world, and it is, your job is considered a dream job, something that anyone would give, you know, okay, I got delayed two hours going to Pittsburgh for the cup final. Like, if I go to Twitter and say, this is bullshit, I'm- At Air Canada. At Air Canada. Like, how many people are going to go, you're flying to go watch the cup final to be paid for it.

Like, you got delayed two, like, who cares? And you get a free ticket in. Yeah, there's certain things that you lose awareness of when you do this job is like the little trivial things don't really matter at all. And you start to complain and sometimes you catch yourself like, it's not a real problem. No. Like that isn't an issue. Like, you know, your press box seat has a bad view or it's cold or something. It's all just bullshit, little like first world problems.

But when you go, like, you just get in your own head when you go on the road for so long. And CJ is just the worst, isn't he? He's the worst. I love CJ. Love him. CJ's the best guy in the road. First word, love to mine, dick. Dick.

Actually, that's his face next to dick. CJ's a great guy in the road because he's always out for, you want to go get dinner? Yeah, sure. Yeah. And it's horrible because you just eat and drink the whole time. And he's always interesting. Yeah.

No matter what is happening. Sounds like I should go on the road with CJ. Like, I'm not always interesting. Every time I talk to CJ, though, he says something interesting. I'm like, wow. And it doesn't have to be hockey related. No, no, no. He's just interesting.

and that's that's the thing about the road sometimes is you get so hockeyed out yeah sometimes you want to go out with guys that don't want to sit and break down lines and that's the thing with sometimes like you run into people at bars or you get certain not your your close buddies don't bug you about crap like that because they know but like you'll run into like you'll go to a bar and it'll be a saturday you'll run into some guy you haven't seen for a couple weeks and oh how about that play and you'll be like enough no more hockey yeah so on the road sometimes you go to a movie or you go out with guys that just you talk about anything but hockey yeah which and then eventually it always comes back to hockey somehow but you just like need which is fine but

as long as you had your few minutes away from it yeah yeah yeah yeah it comes up naturally yeah that's why i love going to movies alone on the road call me a weirdo but oh i love going to movies alone i love solo movies oh me too like you give me a road trip where i got a day off like i'm not going fishing i'm going to a solo movie it's good i love you too um what do you want to do what do you like is this what do you want to do when you grow up yeah when you grow up your plan like i mean what's the end goal for you what have you always dreamed about do it um kind of like i've been asked that before basically what i'm doing now like i'm not i'm not a guy to sit there and go i need to do this like i always when i was going to school i always said

like i want to be on tv before i'm 30 like that was always something i said and i always i always want to be on a major network covering and i when i was young thank you i'm old now high fives high fives when i was always like thought about like you know anchoring would be cool when i was like in school and then all of a sudden i started with reporting and now i'm like i don't want to anchor i want to report and but ideally like i'm what i would love to do is like like i look at someone like scott oak that's like a dream job for me like i i get like i've done a ton like not tons I shouldn't say, but I've done a lot of hockey night rink side games. I've done lease rinks, like that kind of thing.

Did a lot of Sanders games. That's something where if you told me I could do 50 hockey night games next year, rink side done, sign on the dotted line, do it for 35 years type of deal like that. I find it so exciting to be in the rink, to be on the bench. Like there's nothing like, you know, it's sometimes you get moments where you're on the bench during warmup and it's like a big game and you're looking around like, holy shit, this is really cool. Like, this is my job.

and then the guy comes over and you talk to him and you're like, this is a pretty good dream job. So I wouldn't say there's anything different I want to do. Just more of what I'm doing now. Jeez, that's a great answer, man. That sounds amazing. Sounds like you've got it figured out. All right, now I know we've got to do the press conference

because we've kept you for a while here. So do you have any more before we get to the listener questions? All right, let's do the press conference. But there is one thing. Oh, okay. No, I'm kidding. The Presser SDP. The Steve Dangle

Press Conference Jesse What's the press conference? Well we have We have a press conference But you are You're Babs Okay

Except don't be like Babs We need We need like Better than Lou Better ask good questions Better ask good questions I'm only giving you What you ask

Hopefully this person Asked a good question His name is Chris Johnston Oh I hope there's A story behind this He says Question for Sean

Does what happens In Nashville Stay in yes of course yeah no uh most of it it was a long let's just it was a long i was there for two weeks and like three days in nashville is horrible like you go it's like vagus like you leave there and you're like never again i need an iv that's how we left yeah and we were there for my wife got home from nashville yesterday and i was just like they're there yeah so i i was there for 14 days and it wasn't just the dangerous part was is like you can have enough fun with guys that

you work with but there's a guy that plays for the predators and his younger brother is my best buddy so he was there the whole time so even like when the series shifted back to pittsburgh they just left me there because it was nashville flights are horrible they're so expensive so it was cheaper to keep me there than fly me either back to toronto because we had a reporter covering the pittsburgh set or to fly me to pittsburgh to do it right so my buddy was there the whole time and so we have days off and what did you do i just sat at the local establishments and read the bible i talked to the locals and had a few waters wow that was basically the gist of there was also a mcdonald's like half a block from my hotel that i abused i abused my body so bad

that trip well we did too uh we were there for two days where do you guys hot chicken oh yeah what what bars do you go to we god where do we go if you remember the names did you really go yeah we went to one bar every okay not every night um most most there was a place called crazy town so think about nashville and you guys been so like tootsies and all these places are amazing but they're a little bit older it's a lot of just a guy sitting there i love like i could go sit from noon until 2 a.m and just listen to country but sometimes you want a little more of a lot especially when you're with buddies and so the two weekends i was there i had five buddies come down to watch the games so i like all my buddies from toronto were in nashville so there's a place

called crazy town that was like country bar mixed with rap dj mixed with everyone there was like 25 years old it was sounds like crazy town it was crazy town sounds amazing well we when we went we went to a i forget what the bar was called but it was awesome and we did like a podcast Meetup so where people driving in to Hang out and we drank their local Several liters of coffee beer Which we were wired up and then Steve wired up is a horrible thought

Yeah Like do you drink coffee anyway I try to limit like two a day max Because I actually can't handle Naturally caffeinated We get out of there and then Steve's like Well CJ and a few other guys Are at another bar

Usually I'd be ready to go to sleep After that much beer But it was all coffee beers So I think Wyshynski was there And Bruce Arthur was there And I really stepped on Bruce Arthur's foot And it was the first time

Meeting him But I was like Oh man I really admire What you do And just slam Right I felt like And he was like

He stepped back Bruce has no feelings Well tell him that I love you Bruce Chris turned into dad Chris He did CJ turned into dad

Chris for sure But it was like It was crazy But that was one night One night But they're all like that Well, yeah, one of the, it was like the fourth last night I was there, like one of the, Ryan Rashog, we were sitting at a bar just having a drink and some food and his cameraman texted

me and he was like, yeah, some guy named, right across the park, there's a free concert, some guy named Jason Aldean. What? And I'm like, he's like, is he big? I'm like, yeah, he's probably the biggest country star in the world, one of them. He's like, well, he's playing like a free, and we walked up and there was like probably a few thousand people just kind of hanging around and he just came out and was like, what's up guys?

And played like six songs. And I'm like, this is ridiculous. Free concert. Yeah, just for no reason. It was CMA week, so all the big stars were there. I'm like, this is unbelievable. I could live there in a heartbeat. I loved it there.

Oh, the schvill? The schvill, yeah. I don't know if people call it that. I don't think they do. I think they might punch you in the neck. Nash Vegas. The second question should be also a good question because it comes from James Myrtle.

Oh, Myrtle the turtle. He says, ask him what goes on the ice cream. the ice cream the 10-year flight so we the story behind that there's so many dumb roads like this is the thing like i'm gonna tell this story and it's gonna sound probably really stupid to people but it's just like the long road life and you do this stupid stuff that becomes funny so we're making fun of myrtle because we went to a place called burn steakhouse in tampa okay and it's like the one of those famous steakhouses in the world and it's got a

wine list that's like 600,000 almost half a million bottles Wow ones that go back to like 1912 and I love wine like I love love love wine so we go and the wine list is honestly like this big like so whatever so it's me Mark Masters Myrtle and Mark Masters also you're sitting in first class I was Masters is one of the

funniest human beings in the world too many good stories about Masters who was the i'm drawing a blank and the other guy was he's listening right oh his cameraman his cameraman yeah yeah yeah and so when we go when we go to the front desk to get our seat like do you want a reservation in the dessert room and we're like what like the dessert room like sure we don't know what that is so like so we finish up our meal we're so they're like we'll take you up to the dessert room you have a reservation like okay so there's a room upstairs that's separate that you're you can't eat dessert at the normal table they have to take you up to the

dessert room so it's this cool room and it's all these old big huge barrels that have been turned into tables so you're in your own little barrel at the door and there's a phone there's a piano man and you can phone and request songs to the piano guy from your booth what yeah it's oh we have to go i gotta go it's unbelievable it's one of those famous daycares james bond ass yeah yeah this sounds like a bar in new york that's like one of those you know the snl sketch like with uh it's Create, yeah. Like, what is this? And so we get the dessert list and the dessert list is, and then there's a wine dessert list.

It's like this big too. So long story short is we start ordering stuff and Myrtle wants port. So we're like, okay, well, I'll try some too. And it's called like the, it was the 70, I don't know, 50 year flight or something it was called. It was like a 10-year port, a 20-year port, and a 30-year port. So 60 years, something. And so he starts drinking the 60 or the 30 and then the 20. And he's like, the 10's a little tough because it's like a younger port.

And so he's got ice cream, so he pours on his ice cream. And so the rest of the time we're making fun of him for pouring 10-year-old port on his ice cream like it was just some simple syrup crap. And so that became The joke of What goes on the ice cream The 10 year port That's amazing

Oh my god It's like the Chappelle show Schedule He opens his fridge I got a dinosaur egg And that's yeah Like I said For people at home

It's going to sound So stupid and trip But like at the time When you're like 30 days on the road You start laughing Yeah it's like a road trip story Like Mark Masters

Was phoning the piano guy And requesting like Ridiculous songs And then he'd play them And then Myrtle would get mad That it didn't sound Like the original And like

The guy's name was like Steve or something And like Myrtle I'm like Steve And like You'd hear the guy like Trying to play the song In the background

Just stupid Stupid crap So remember ten minutes ago When I said Our problems are Relatively trivial Yeah Yeah

So like Why do my ice cream Yeah Steve Yeah like the ten year old Isn't good enough It's ice cream topping Now

That's awesome That's the shit that You complain about That ends up being funny And James Is awesome James is awesome. He's just awesome.

That was a great dinner. The final question is from Matt. He just wants to know, if you sat on a voodoo doll of yourself, would you ever be able to stand up? This is like one of those stupid, is a hot dog a sandwich questions. You get them every show.

I know. Where do people come up with this crap? I applaud you for the creativity, Matt. What was his name? Matt. Matt. But like no You wouldn't be able to stand up at all

You'd be crushing yourself What part of the doll did you sit on? But you wouldn't be able to sit on yourself Because then technically that's two different positions Between the doll and yourself If you're sitting and the doll's under you You'd be laying flat So therefore you'd have to be laying flat on it

See Matt you have a flaw in your question It should be if you laid on a voodoo doll of yourself You played yourself Matt Whoa Mic drop You played yourself Unless like It was sitting

In a chair In a chair And you sat on the chair Right But he didn't specify that No no no Matt did not See these are the details

That you have to think about That's right This is coming from A true reporter Who has to You know Think about these details Yep

Can that please be like The first question You ask Babcock this season He would honestly Look at me like Next question That's what he does Either when you ask a question

That is a good question That he doesn't want to answer You ask a question that Is There's no answer to or it's stupid He'll good question Next and he'll look That's gotta be a good compliment though

But you have to weed through if it's The good question you didn't want to answer A question that there isn't an answer to Or if he just hates the question Like either It's a really good question It's too obvious or he hates it That's the thing with Babs

Sometimes good questions just don't get answers Sometimes he goes oh that's a good one Well that doll is a good doll But it's also a good man I just Good people Sean We could keep going

For four hours man It was It's been awesome Having you in I know you have a life And you're on vacation You have other things That you want to do

I have nothing Like I honestly I've been on vacation For a month now And it's starting to wind down But I've gotten so lazy That like I was so pumped To come on

But I went to bed Last night And I'd be like Do you get up at 11 To go meet these guys Like that That was like an issue I'm like I have to get up

Like, so damn early. It's bullshit, right? It's bullshit. How'd you get that, uh, the gun show bruise? Uh. That looks like you blocked a pretty good shot. Nasty bruise on you. No, that is men's league hockey.

Okay. Um, my elbow pads are so shitty that the top strap doesn't actually, like, there's no Velcro top strap, so I just use tape. Okay. So it got, my jersey was pulling and the tape was digging in the whole game. I didn't realize it. And then I just. Jesus, you did that to yourself?

Yeah, totally. You played yourself. I thought there was going to be some amazing thing where like, yeah, it went off my arm and in. We won in overtime. I would never block shots. I would never in a million years be caught blocking shots. All right. It was a real pleasure talking to you today, man.

Thank you so much for coming on. It was good to be on. Great to finally meet you in real life. Yeah, really, really. I guess we can go back to being social media friends. Yeah, I know. I'm not going to like as much as your stuff now that I know you. Right.

Okay. I felt obliged because I didn't know you where I had to be like, hey, nice tweet. Right. Now I'm just going to be like, I know the guy, so I don't care. I don't need to try anymore Nice Scaramucci thread Those days are done I didn't know much about Scaramucci

And then I googled him just to find out Isn't he worth like 1.2 billion? Yeah he's done well for himself He's a Wall Street guy Well I mean he's still With the divorce I'm sure it'll be about half I'll take half I'll take 10% of that

Anyway yeah Sean best of luck this season Hopefully we can catch up during the season too Even if it's on the phone and catch up with you and bug you like we bug CJ a little bit too so take the pressure

off him because we're always harassing him like hey man you want to come on the show and he's like he's always really

good about it but CJ will say yes you can call us from your platinum chaired golden eye ice cream wine lounge on a plane

that was Myrtle that was not me yeah that Myrtle yeah anyway Sean and Eva you're the best man thanks so much

for coming on and thank you everybody for listening we'll be back next Tuesday I think so yeah do we have anybody booked for then too

what day is that August 8th. Final, come on again. That's August 8th. We got Mike Oshawa. Mike Oshawa. Mike in Buffalo. Yes.

Awesome. All right. That's the Steve Dangle podcast for this week. We're out. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle at Adam W-Y-L-D-E

and at Jesse Blake. The Steve Dangle podcast. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness. Thanks for watching!