The Steve Dangle Podcast - Steve Dangle on the NHL's Delayed Season

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

Steve's video from today about the NHL delaying its season and what happens next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was no game last night so how can we do victory puppies? In times like these people need victory puppies don't they boys? Don't they? You don't care you just want cookies? Everyone look at the adorable dogs everything's fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine! I love you boys. It's gonna be okay. Alright? It's gonna be okay. Alright! Well. This is the most surreal video I've ever made, which is surprising considering the hockey team that I cheer for lost to a 42 year old Zamboni driver who works for them a couple weeks ago. So the National Hockey League has postponed their season for the time being just like the NBA, just like MLS, just like MLB, just like basically everything.

And the things that are not closed yet will probably be closed by the time I'm done shooting this video or editing this video or uploading this video. I just looked down at my phone when I started, the University of Toronto and York University just closed their classes. Oh and just like that, there goes the Masters. Usually I make a video after every Leafs game and there wasn't a Leafs game yesterday on account of the league shutdown. There was almost a Leafs game, it was wild how close to game time, it wasn't until about 5 or 6 hours before game time that they actually announced that the season was being postponed. And we'll be uploading the audio of this video to the podcast's audio channels just so there's something to listen to over the next few days. As far as, the plan right now is to still have a show on Sunday as well Here's the NHL statement and we'll go from there. This statement comes directly from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman

In light of ongoing developments resulting from the coronavirus and after consulting with medical experts and convening a conference call of the Board of Governors The National Hockey League is announcing today that it will pause the 2019-2020 season beginning with tonight's games that obviously being last night. The NHL has been attempting to follow the mandates of health experts and local authorities while preparing for any possible developments without taking premature or unnecessary measures. However, following last night's news that an NBA player has tested positive for coronavirus and given that our league shares so many facilities and locker rooms and it now seems likely that some member of the NHL community would test positive at some point,

is no longer appropriate to try to continue to play games at this time. We will continue to monitor all the appropriate medical advice and we will encourage our players and other members of the NHL community to take all responsible precautions including by self quarantine where appropriate. Our goal is to resume play as soon as it is appropriate and prudent so that we will be able to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup. Until then, we thank NHL fans for your patience and hope you stay healthy. So from just the sports angle of all that, the number one question yesterday and it just

seems like it's not an important question anymore, I don't see as many people asking it, you know, will they award the Stanley Cup? What are they gonna do? What are the playoffs gonna look like? What are the standings gonna look like? Nobody seems to know. Nobody no one could know yet. Uh, this is, this is happening so rapidly, so ridiculously fast. Last, uh, yesterday afternoon, at about 3 in the afternoon, I earnestly asked a producer at Sportsnet if I was there the previous night. Cause I didn't remember. That's how fast everything was moving. Thursday, March 12th was the longest week ever. Like, isn't that what it felt like? And happy birthday to me. They cancelled the season. It was a pretty surreal day.

I'm 32. No one cares. No one cares next year. It's gonna be socks anyway. So what am I complaining about? I read that as part of the NHL's due diligence in this whole process And this is probably why it took so long to come to their decision they wanted to talk to teams and their arenas and just get a layout of What's the availability like in these arenas in like July because the season if it continues just as it was Let's say it picks up a month from now. They play the remaining 12 regular season games I suppose because there's some really tight playoff races and then the playoffs start and maybe the season just goes an Extra month and a bit but then what happens?

So let's say this is a best-case scenario and they only delay the season for a month and everything returns back to normal Everything is fine. They only delay the season for a month. The Stanley Cup is awarded at the end of July Then what happens? Players get like a month off and then it's the next season? So even if this current season that has been postponed is not shortened due to this virus Will the following season be shortened? I I just I don't know and I but I can't see a scenario Where both the Stanley Cup is awarded this year and next season is 82 games plus playoffs and that goes for the NBA too and a bunch of other sports leagues, I don't understand how you award a championship this

year and just get right back to business next year. Like this is going to have ramifications for I don't even know how long. And from a business perspective, the NHL's decision to do this and every other sports league's decision to do this should tell you exactly how serious it is because from that statement it sounded to me like they were like okay, what if this, what if that, what if that and they were trying all these scenarios where the season would not end. I mean these are business people and lawyers, they're not allergic to money, they wanna keep this going. To the point where just 48, 24 hours ago they were talking about playing in front of empty arenas so that, okay you don't get the ticket money

but at least you get something out of it like TV I guess. But it seems unfathomable and unbelievable that this could be such a huge problem in China, in Italy, in other parts of the world and it starts smattering in North America and it seems like the thing that really got this all going was one guy on the Utah Jazz. Rudy Gobert on the Utah Jazz. I don't know how to feel about this guy. I'm sure you've all seen the video by now. He wasn't taking all the precautions seriously. He was touching all the reporter's microphones. Now there's these reports that he was touching his teammate stuff in the locker room and And now he has tested positive for it, at least one of his teammates has tested positive

for it so far. Who knows about those reporters, I have no idea. And any of the buildings he was in, like he wasn't in Utah when he tested positive! Or at least the Jazz weren't and then they're spraying down all the seats and they go to this arena and that arena and what NHL teams now play in that arena and who might have got it and who might not have. And for crying out loud, the night he did that mic touching thing, later that night he played the Toronto Raptors.

And he didn't get kicked out until very late in the game when OG Ananobi and him almost got into a fight and thank goodness Serge Ibaka prevented OG from doing that. And then because the Raptors had a five day break before they had to play the Detroit Pistons, they're back in Toronto and they're like at events! And people went to those events and hung out with them and then they just go out into the world. so mad at Rudy Gobert, like, oh you thought this was a big joke, you thought this was ridiculous, and now look at what you've done. Part of me has some sympathy for him because think of how he must

feel right now. Think of the feeling he must have right now, knowing what has happened since he did what he thought was just a funny little joke. Not to mention that while he's feeling probably the most guilty and crappy he's ever felt in his life, he's battling COVID-19. But also, ignoring what you think about this one individual, this should show you how unbelievably inevitable this was. Like the NBA made their decision to postpone their season while the Chicago Blackhawks were playing in front of a sold out building in Chicago with like 19-20 thousand people. This decision was eventually going to get made with or without Rudy Gobert. He might have just sped up the process. Bruce Arthur tweeted that in a way Rudy Gobert is

a hero. That is not the word I would use but I definitely see where Bruce is coming from in that this sped up the process. I'm sure all the people including his teammates who have contracted COVID-19 and the people who are in self quarantine because of that would maybe disagree. This, it feels wild to talk about sports right now. Like it's weird. I was, I've talked about this before, during the 2012-13 lockout especially, I was a frustrated and angry young man. I graduated in 2010, I was hoping to join the workforce in sports, and you know, foot in the door, foot in the door, foot in the door, and then to have it all slammed shut

because of a lockout. That was extremely frustrating because, like, that was a negotiation thing, I didn't feel like I could relate to anybody in any of the scenarios. We're talking about millionaires arguing with billionaires and there's little old 23 year old me like, I want to move out of my parents' house. That to me was a lot more frustrating than this. This is the most surreal thing I have ever experienced and I'm sure it's the most surreal thing a lot of you have ever experienced. We've never seen this before. This isn't SARS, this isn't swine flu. All the schools, all the publicly funded schools in Ontario are closed right

now. After March break. So we got March break coming up and then for two weeks after at least it's going to be closed. And who knows when the reality is set in. Is it, did it set in last night when there was no hockey games? Did it set in today when you tried to go to the grocery store and it was packed? Is it gonna set in Saturday night when there's no hockey? I think it's gonna set in the following Monday after March break when no No one's back at school. But I'm not saying all these things to scare you, I definitely want you to come to grips with the reality right now.

But there is a tremendous opportunity in front of you and I hope you realize that. Reporter Chris, CJ, Chris Johnston from Sportsnet posted a couple things and I just, I love this guy. It's a couple real pieces of food for thought. Chris says, morning thought, less is more from all of us right now, and this is from Mary Armstrong Hugh, I think, you won't ever know if what you did personally helped. That's the nature of public health. When the best way to save lives is to prevent a disease rather than treat it, success often looks like an overreaction. This is something that

I was sort of goofing on on the podcast because what I'm sure you've heard a lot of, and I don't hold anything against these people saying this because they're just trying to feel better but well you know the flu has killed a lot more people than COVID-19. That's like if Thanos or like Predator, Alien, any evil monster that you can picture comes down to Earth, kills someone right in front of you and the person standing next to you goes, well you know the flu has actually killed a lot more people than Thanos. Yes that is true so far but in the meantime how about we call Iron Man? And there's an opportunity for all of us to be Iron Man. If that makes any sense. I don't think it does. Well I like saying

it anyway. And this also, if you can work from home please do, we're all in this together from Matt Pierce. I imagine all of the closures and cancellations give people a sense of ominousness. But it's really an amazing act of social solidarity. We're sacrificing so we can give nurses, doctors and hospitals a fighting chance. Start from there and hopefully we can figure out the rest. This is a wild time man. It's a wild time. I'm a yelly, screamy, hockey reaction man. Like I just, this feels weird for me to even be making this video. I don't even, I don't know. I don't know. This is how much my head is in the clouds right now. I feel like I'm sleepwalking but I shot the whole video and forgot to mention the book tour

and live podcast are all cancelled. I shouldn't say cancelled because we're hoping to do them another time, but for now, my Windsor book signing on March 21st is postponed until this is all solved. My Guelph signing, March 28th, same thing. My Kingston signing on April 4th, same thing. The live podcast is also canceled for the time being, and I'm told that everyone should be getting a refund, hopefully by or on the weekend. And April 11th, my book signing in Burlington is also postponed until whenever this gets dealt with. And it sucks. It was something I was really looking forward to all of them, but it would have been incredibly irresponsible and dare I say dangerous to go ahead with those things. Between the book signings in Belleville, Waterloo and

Peterborough. Over three weekends I probably shook six, seven hundred hands, maybe even more. And I go to any one of these lines and one person has it and I get it and then I give it to lord knows how many people. It would have been ridiculous. And actually me, while I was about to reach out to the bookstores, they were also contacting me. So it was a mutual feeling. A book signing right now is a ridiculous thing to do. which is why I'm not doing them, and also the live podcast, so I mean hopefully we can do it another time it's just the reality right now. So, here, let me you're scared enough, I'm sure, or you've heard all of this enough, I'll just cut right to the chase then. So this is a hockey reaction YouTube channel and a lot of people have been going, um, you make videos after every Leafs game

there are no more Leafs games, what are you gonna do? Well, I've already been talking to the people at Sportsnet about what I'm gonna do on the Sportsnet side We're figuring that out, but we are still gonna be making videos there Hat picks, dangits, all those staples on the channel I think we're gonna keep doing them But we're obviously gonna have to figure out a different way to do them on account of there are no more New plays to play off of. For this YouTube channel I mean, I talk about every Leafs game, but like I can talk about other stuff. I'm really passionate about Harry Potter

I already made a Harry Potter video. Would you guys like to see some of that? Maybe some Red Dead Redemption 2 Commentary, I don't know. I don't know. It's it's fascinating. Maybe maybe more streams maybe questions Maybe just question videos Video games are a thing You know there's there's lots of options, and I'm thinking about all of them and for the podcast I've been talking to the guys that the plan is to go on as scheduled Sundays and Wednesdays

That's that's the plan we're gonna keep her going and it's great It's great talking to Adam like that guy is such a ridiculous optimist like he's like no This is a great opportunity for us to like get creative and talk about this and talk about that and he's excited I'm looking forward to the challenge of having a hockey podcast with no hockey games but if any of you have ever listened to it, you know that it's a Hockey podcast like we sort of yell and scream about the Leafs a bunch of other teams And then it's like The Bachelor or something, but even that's cancelled! These are ridiculous Unprecedented times, but for now we're gonna keep doing them in the studio

We do them in because there's no reason not to yet And if we can't do that anymore, we'll do them at one of our houses And if we can't do that anymore, then we'll do it remotely. That's that's the plan right now Now I'll turn it over to you for some questions. Idea for Sportsnet. Well, thank you. We're looking for them Play the games that infamous Steve Dangle LFRs are based on with the LFR depending on length During intermission or after the game. I think you would love that. I don't know if everyone would I'm not everyone's cup of tea man, and I get it. That's It's an interesting idea and I have listen we've made so much stuff on that YouTube channel for so many years

I was saying like can we put it on TV like it? We made it It's already there, but again. It was made for YouTube not TV and would it fit and these are Listen, I don't think anything's off the table for anybody really. How was your birthday? Mm-hmm stressful extremely stressful. Dude, I work for Sportsnet and there are no sports. It's stressful for me. I got a mortgage, dude. But, you know, I had a moment of clarity where I thought about my day, right? In the morning, my wife got me donuts, birthday donuts. I like donuts. Look at me. I got donuts, took the dogs out, love my dogs, got to walk them, got to go see my parents,

mom made homemade macaroni and cheese, and hers is the bomb, she puts Gruyere in that! Got a lot of wine, drank a lot of wine, I earned it. Overall it was a great birthday, so it was alright once I put down my phone. You know, like, a few things have to change, but you don't have to be miserable, so, that's how I'm choosing to go about it. Coffee's still good. Can it be 2021 now? 2020 sucks. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Remember what happened last time? We got to 2020. Alright, just chill. Stay in the year you're in. You never know.

Like, you're gonna get into some time machine and the first second you step out of the portal there's gonna be some T-Rex. It might happen. There's a bunch of movies about how it might happen. There's a bunch of movies about what's currently happening actually. Don't watch them. No, no, no, no. Don't. You can watch anything. You can watch anything in the whole world. Why would you watch a movie about a pandemic? Don't do that. Watch like Hey Arnold or something. I'm gonna go watch Hey Arnold. Is water a sauce or is it simply earth juice? A reminder to my fellow Canadians that in in this trying time, it is legal. But you shouldn't drive on it, okay? I'm not talking

about water. You should have lots of water. Hydrate, for crying out loud. If they do cancel the season, and right now it's postponed, if they do cancel the season, who gets the Stanley Cup? I've heard the team with the most points, but I'm not sure if that's official or just Bruins fans wanting it to be true. No, the thing about the Stanley Cup does it mean something? And there's already a trophy for the top regular season team. It's the President's Trophy and hockey fans don't care about it. They don't. It's a hot button topic with the podcast like should it mean more but it doesn't currently. Winning the Stanley Cup, you cannot win the Stanley Cup for finishing the regular season with

the most points in a regular season that was cut short in the middle of it without, without any warning. The Stanley Cup has gone unawarded before. It's got to be unawarded this year if the season is cancelled. It's ridiculous. The Montreal Expos did not get a World Series for being the first place team in 1994 and then having the baseball season end. And ask the players, like especially the Boston Bruins, like a guy like Patrice Bergeron or Brad Marchand or Zdeno Chara, people who have won the Stanley Cup, gone through the blood sweat and tears process of battling for a Stanley Cup through 82 games and 2 months of playoffs. Ask those guys which Stanley Cup they would look back on with more fondness. 2011 or 2020? Now that'll

be a fun clip to use if the Bruins go on to win the 2020 Stanley Cup because there were playoffs, an actual Stanley Cup playoffs. But right now, you can't award the Stanley Cup, no matter who the team is, without the Stanley Cup playoffs. If the Toronto Maple Leafs were in first place right now, do you want their first Stanley Cup in over half a century to be? No. No. It's stupid. It doesn't make any sense. If the season is cancelled, simply cancel it. There's no Stanley Cup. It sucks, but it's better than awarding it based on pretty much nothing. It's kinda like when the Leafs lost to a Zamboni driver. It sucks to have lost to a 42 year old Zamboni driver who works for them. Can you imagine

the fallout if the Leafs had won that game? The Leafs lose that game, it's an embarrassment. The Leafs win that game, it's a scandal. So, thank you David Ayers I guess. More thank you Carolina Hurricanes and Rod Brindamore. Ugh, that sucked. How are the puppies? Can you give them victory treats because they are good doggos and deserve What can you time travel? I'm on it. I'm on it. Don't worry How do you feel for guys like Thornton Marleau who this could have been their last year to go for a cup and now they may Never have that chance. Well, I hate to break it to you But Thornton was not gonna win a Stanley Cup this year not with the San Jose Sharks

Patrick Marleau though getting traded to the Penguins Man, I don't know what his future plans are Thornton sounds like he really wants to play next year Man if the season gets cancelled, I can't imagine either of those guys calling it quits But it's not just for the older guys like the older guys that I mean they had a long career like Vince Carter, for example Never had a championship Had that cool moment in the final game before they cancelled everything and he got that three-pointer and that might be his final game ever He had an extraordinarily long career

20 years maybe more the athletes I feel worse for are like junior players and NCAA and in school players because some of them like March Madness for example March Madness is probably going to be the highest level that so many of these athletes play in they were looking forward to it their whole lives and now it's not there if you're a junior player like I'm thinking like Nick Robertson with the Pete's and and just anybody but like for example he has 55 goals he was so close to you know achieving these ridiculous numbers and milestones and the Pete's have a legitimate chance of winning the

OHL winning the Memorial Cup and like so many of those players won't get to because if the season's done they'll be too old next year or they'll graduate to the next level, they just will never get that shot back. So I feel bad for the players who choose to call it quits, I feel worse for the players who have quits handed to them. Bit of a podcast bit. Jesse stop laughing, shut up. Out of all the characters who died in the Harry Potter books, who would you have chose to keep alive? Only one! And what effect would it have? Similarly, which alive character would you kill? And what effect would it have? This was an actual paper I had to write and

college. What school did you go to Katya? I am not answering that question here. This I think is maybe a great way to end the video. Um, see? There's all kinds of possibilities for videos I could do and I'm hoping to make them and entertain you over the next gosh knows how long. Be safe out there. No one's asking you to stop living your life. Just Be safe, be smart, stay healthy, and don't endanger anyone who's vulnerable, and it's not just old people. So that is it for this one.

Thank you very much for watching. Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really like to tell your friends, and I look forward to navigating these uncharted waters with you. What a time.