The Steve Dangle Podcast - The Announcement | September 23, 2021

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, THE ANNOUNCEMENT (00:00), what we’ve learned so far from Leafs training camp (41:00), Jack Eichel is stripped of his captaincy (1:15:00), and Julian McKenzie joins the show to talk about THE BIG NEWS (1:22:00), Originally aired: September 23, 2021 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/ttamZ9XuUC8 Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. We've joined The Athletic and you can too! Hit the link to subscribe: https://theathletic.com/sdp Visit this episode's sponsors: https://betterhelp.com/SDP https://nba.com/ https://manscaped.com/ Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's big announcement day. Well, it's supposed to be two big announcement day. It's going to be one big announcement day. It's going to be one big announcement, but the trade is Tuesday is two big announcement day. Yeah, Tuesday is two big announcement. This is one big announcement day, and I'm excited about one big announcement day because the big... Oh, yeah, but that's not all. Like, there's more announcements to come even after that.

What? I know. I would also just like to say that, Adam, you let everybody down. Why? I'd also like to say that, but what's your reason? you tease for weeks and weeks that today's the big announcement it is this podcast is going to go up at 1201 so tomorrow's the big announcement you piece of trash terrible okay well listen let's let everybody down i did not deliver on thursday right i've let everybody down so before i do it

again let's get to this okay so here's the thing first thing i put it up in our discord community what do you think this is and i said i'll give you one of my adam wild mugs with my big stupid face on it if you if you guess it correctly so let's go through some of these okay okay number one if it's a big announcement it's got to be panago coming back which it's not it would be nice we'd love that back but it's not very small announcement you guys are doing a live show well maybe we have something about that later on uh is the dangle navy team starting a uh gthl team called the sdp and sailors like are you guys oh i kind of thought we should sponsor a gthl team why don't we do that okay um you know tavaris and sam gagne have like you think we have the same

pull we have no but you know they always have like mcchicken on the background or something You know, like, we can be one of those. We can be a jersey sponsor. Oh, it's got a little logo on the jersey. Yeah, what the hell? Why not? Yeah, come on down to Bob's Hardware Shop. Yeah, yeah.

When I was at West Hill Goldenhawk, it was Chicken Joy. Miro said, STP getting a subscription service. No, but that's a good idea. They said, Joy said. Subscription to what? And OnlyFans? Yeah, OnlyFans, where you post rants. Joy said, maybe it's a live pod with Sportsnet.

It's not that. Somebody said, is STP the new Tim and Sid? It is not that. Definitely not that. We are the friends. Jonas said, is Tim coming on as a fourth member in the Tim and Friends time slot? I don't know why the Tim and Sid connection. I don't know.

I don't know how that happened. Is SDPN starting a new eSports brand? No, but good idea. Zach Hyman threatened me and told me not to. Okay. We were going to call it 12. The N in SDPN stands for Kneelander. This is called 11.

It's a very funny joke. Sorry, what did you say? The N in SDPN stands for Kneelander. He will be the new fourth host. Yeah, but now the Leafs have a huge hole on the wing. The N stands for nation, so the SDPM bought a country. Not that. Somebody else said maybe they're bringing back ice surfing.

Why are you laughing? Yeah, ice surfing, everybody. Yeah, give it up for ice surfing. Never missed an episode. Hey, Jeff Merrick, Jason York, Statman Stan Narodka. How dare you? You know, you always have to save it and watch it on Periscope the next day. Cole.

Yeah, you do. Nick Kiprio is joining the pod, and Steve and him are going to have a Paul Brother-esque boxing match. You and Kipper. Well, see, he, like, the Pauls win, though. Right, I know. Yeah. Well, one of them.

Another one here, movie deal for This Team is Ruining My Life, which would just be Steve at the zoo. It's me played by, like, someone with abs. That's in the contract. Jesse brings in money to the network By starting a betting show You know what Last episode I tried to do the odds

Out loud in my head And boy did the gatekeeping betting community Let me know That I did not calculate it wrong And you were right you would have got $90 On your $100 bet Listen just because you don't know what you're doing Doesn't mean you can't follow your dreams

That's what I did and it's worked out By the way write that under ideas to steal a few more steve dangle podcast going live in nebraska what no okay uh landon adam you're announcing your divorce sorry landon how many more of these oh just a few more a few more okay one of them said it's got to be one of these things chris johnson appears in person to some sort of partnership three all manscaped ad episode not that another one asked for farmers only ads uh steve bought a zoo adam does a history corner on divorce okay andrew berkshire gets a podcast okay file that file that justin fisher asked if it had something to do with him he's quote feeling

a little tired and probably how many how many more okay all right all right no here we go one person a few people got close penguin scroller from discord reporter chris joins the sdp full time close duke fan nine c joy cj joins the podcast full time as the insider oh closer and we just we just we come up with our stupid theories and then we go cj pull that up is that correct and then he just goes no almost every time and we continue and lastly george nailed it cj starts a podcast under the new network banner can you file that under ideas to steal oh hey guys what do you think how are you doing you know i think we could work with that all right Okay, let's do the intro then.

I just, idea's stolen. Spaghetti. Woo! S. D. P. P. The Steve Dangle Podcast.

With your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! Finally! Woo! Chris, I just want to read this thing before we get you talking full on this. Chris Johnson, now at the Toronto Star, and his media empire will continue to grow. I'm going to miss his weekly crypto updates,

Blue Jay's opinions, and reaching out to him to say, you have a good source here? Is there something you can check for me? Knowing this great teammate would always nail down the news that 2020s will be the decade of Johnston. That is from Elliot Friedman and 31 Thoughts. Wow.

32 Thoughts. Excuse me, Elliot. Sorry about that. That was the 32nd thought. That was the 32nd thought. And so, CJ, I mean, listen, I'm going to let you take over from here. What are you doing? It's a lot, man.

I'm a little emotional about the Elliot thing, I've got to be honest. It's pretty nice. It feels like a breakup a little bit, Elliot and I. But this feels like a marriage. And it's not one we're going to get divorced from before anyone gets uppity in the comments. Thank you. Thank you. More divorce?

so yeah we're gonna finally fucking do this and it's been months and months and months and months in the works blocked i even got lost on my way here like just comically lost like i was like in new market basically oh is that what okay yeah we started the podcast how did you pull that off it's it's been a long road steve to get to this point where we're gonna have a chris johnson show under the SDPM banner. And so it was only fitting that I would have a difficult time getting there. So I got to tell you,

there's some background here. First off, we will meet the host of this show, co-host of this show. Obviously, Chris is the star of the show. We got a host. His name is Julian McKenzie. You might already know him. If you don't, you'll get to know him.

Big ups, Julian. We love Julian. Very excited to have him on. And I think also what's important here is that you know that this was a long, long, long time coming. And this was, I think we're at 11 months now. We've been talking about this. Yeah.

Like we could have had a kid. This podcast could have had a kid. It is. I did. And basically, you know, so Chris, you know, this show, just so everybody knows, will run twice a week. And it will be half an hour a show. And it's going to be everything that you know and love about Chris when he comes on our show. And where can you find it?

on the sdpn youtube page uh there will be a chris johnson feed if you want to listen to it audio wise i mean you tell me head of production jesse blake where can you find it subscribe to it on all major uh podcasting platforms and then on our youtube page youtube.com i hope jesse's ready to work overtime i want to do like nine shows a week right now like i'm ready to run through a freaking wall the energy chris brought in here tonight was amazing i just gotta say like he's he i don't know if you can tell on camera but he's vibrating i'm weirdly nervous like not to be on with you guys but just like so pumped excited anxious like all those things you feel when you know you're going to do something cool and big and and like it's like it it's not to be too not to put too fun a

point on it but like but like life-changing kind of moment whoa wow i'll take it that far honestly it's been a crazy summer for me i didn't mean to switch jobs i switched jobs it opened up the opportunity to do this and finally after literally i don't know how many phone calls we had adam but a lot a lot of friggin phone calls a lot of talking it through getting excited getting our hopes dashed all this stuff and finally like we're actually here announcing this thing now we have to do it yeah which you know that's another thing first you sort of buy the house and you figure out how to decorate it yes yes and then all of a sudden you got a studio in the basement you just you gotta fill it with all the cj staples running advice quotes from the daily

stoic. Coburg tourism. Like, things like that. We gotta get you to do a tour of Coburg on our YouTube page. Oh, are you kidding? Yeah, like a top five spots to visit in Coburg. Let's drive there right now. Really? Let's go. Although the streetlights aren't so bright. We might need a little extra lighting there, Jesse.

I'll bring the lighting kit. I mean, this is the thing, right? You're not... It's a show, but it's... You've always come on our show and you've brought the A game. And I remember a couple years ago there was post-camp and I think this was right after what it was 2019 loss and like you know they were going to get tyson berry a few weeks later like

that's the context of that and i remember chris texting me going uh i might have dropped a few too many bombs on the show because it was the reaction was so big and i think the what i i mean what we love the the dangle navy community is amazing and everybody that listens to this show is amazing uh in the intensity that they bring but chris like the intensity and the love that they have for you this felt like such a natural fit yeah there was no way i wasn't settling for less than this and and honestly when you guys first told me you're you were putting an n on the end of your initials and that you weren't becoming a nation state that it was just a network and that there might be a way for us to work together uh or whatever i don't know are you

my boss i don't even know what this is no like we're partners uh but you know that we could do something like this like once you said that it was in my mind and my heart and there was no way i was doing taking this anywhere else you know even honestly my contract talks this summer with various places i had you know a few different opportunities you know some of them wanted me to do a podcast and in a weird way that became a negative for them because obviously if i went and did a podcast for them this wouldn't be happening so um you know it's awesome that somehow it all worked out sometimes universe works in mysterious ways and like literally two months ago i didn't know i'd be sitting here one month ago i didn't know i'd be sitting here but you know this is a long time

in the making so let me ask you guys what were your thoughts about this as this process happened like i know steve you're you're out of it you're completely divorced of all this because you're a busy man divorce okay more choice of words there's a reason there's a reason cj goes are you my boss now and then looked at you like and not me but like you're you're captain phone call like you're uh you've been i mean geez i i feel like jesse and i are like the maid of honor and and best man at a wedding between you two because like you you guys really hammered this out and made this happen right and i and i know this is something like you really wanted to do oh man and i'm fired up because of that and honestly like back in january i thought it was gonna happen

we all did it was we were at the altar or close to we were outside of the church at least yeah You know, we had the officiant all lined up. Somebody stood up when they said, does anybody reject this marriage? Does anyone? What I will say is that there is a lot here. I mean, every time Chris is on, you can hear the chemistry and the camaraderie. And by the way, for anybody asking, Chris will still come on the show. Don't worry.

Like, you're still the fourth member of the SDV. Can you imagine him joining our network being the thing that stops him from coming on the show? But you know somebody would ask that question. So that will still happen. Fair. but you know the the thing about this too that's special is that what what what you bring chris that i think everybody here recognizes and i feel like you're among families so we can say we um is that that you're a guy who is you know you're well informed you have all these connections

blah blah blah big deal but you're also a guy that we all kind of want to hang out with we all want to be friends like i keep saying to chris we've never done it am i the old guy you're just like no and just in case trouble breaks out you know mr johnson will know what to do no no it's just well there's that and yeah you also calm us down every off season when the leafs blow it but i think i think what it is is that like you look at the way that our listeners respond to you and how much they love you and i think that's the that's the part here that i think is going to work is that it starts here and and it starts with the the people that love you so much in this community and and we know it's going to grow it's going to be a huge show but um i i'm like so excited too

for everybody to meet julian because that is a guy there's a guy who's a rising star have we not had him on the show we never had him on the show no he's on tim and friends all the time now you've co-hosted a show with julian on tim and friends before he's been on this podcast yeah and he was i think it was actually both of you were on the same stream one uh playoff game i think was montreal versus yes yes yeah yeah that was i mean julian's unreal julian's unreal like we wanted to we wanted this guy we wanted him we wanted to put you with a host uh worthy of of you know he's at your caliber and uh we found one well it's cool so i didn't know julian when actually when we first started talking about this going way back more than a year ago and i started making some

phone calls with people i trust in the industry you know thinking of doing a podcast you know would love to find a young energetic host someone you know who do you think and like i kept hearing about this guy and you know honestly he came to me by word of mouth then obviously you guys are making these kind of choices as the overlords of whatever this is this nation state that you were building it's just a basement me and jesse basically steve i'm a silent partner but it's just jesse and i by no means that i hire julian or find julian but like you know when it came to the idea of working with him i just a lot of people that i trust implicitly in this industry just spoke to his work ethic how much he hustles in montreal you know like he's he's had to take

the hard way into this industry which a lot of people do let's face it there's not an easy way end of this industry nowadays really so let me ask you this okay so you guys especially the two of you because jesse and i came up through pop radio so it's a little different but when you guys started out when you were at your part-time job stage and you had multiple what were your multiple part-time jobs i know a little bit more about yours steve but it was nhl network cbc zoo well yeah toronto zoo yeah um oh geez if we're if we're gonna go non-sports like i work all at the same time i worked at hmv one christmas like i like for like five five minutes sold some cds cool yeah uh leafs tv um i i honestly forget but i've collected a paycheck from every major

sports outlet in the country yes 100 chris you did too right more or less and and i don't know how far back you want to go like honestly one of my first maybe my first job was i used to write physical letters and send them in the mail to nhl teams get autographs from players and sell them at the schoolyard no way that's like a real thing that happened and i actually have a bunch of the old ones that i never sold like team usulani and jets like stuff and and a bunch of others in my dad's basement like to prove that i used to do that that's pretty cool well so the reason i asked that is when i spoke to julian the first time he was working at tsn radio in montreal sports net had him writing some stuff uh he was working at ctv montreal doing like sports and weather

and like he and then he had two podcasts one with yahoo and one of his own he filled in on sports net and tsn in like the same month yeah like he's he's that good he's exceptional i had the pleasure of having zoom beers with him oh really a few months back yeah it was great so yeah and i had joked that we were the unholy media alliance he is single-handedly the unholy media he just works for everybody yeah and and honestly like he's collecting us like thanos yeah we're his trading cards and let's let's be straight obviously there's some media rivalries in this country but if all of us had our druthers we'd all work together right it's not it's not like that we don't have like a team thing it's everybody well every time you bring up the fact that you

for bell versus rogers we don't we'd all rather just work together and have some fun no i have a dartboard with jay onwright's face on it good do you know one of the more fun nights i've ever had in my career was i think it was the cup final in vegas and a group of tsn on air people went out for dinner with a group of sports net on air people and then at the end we did that game that nhl players do where everyone puts their credit card in oh no to pay for it and a it was just a really cool night because it literally was like six or eight from each network all together laughing breaking bread telling stories and lies and all the things you do on those things and then at the end someone had to pay and it was hilarious to watch david amber nearly have to pay

like for such a ripped jacked man yes david amber gets nervous that's like if it's oh yeah oh yeah he's facing oh yeah if he's facing a meaningless three-foot putt on a golf course like absolutely adam okay we gotta send him this clip you always describe watching a leaf game with me and i'm throwing my phone no that's him every night at work oh yeah is he a leaf fan by the way uh he's no he's he's he's actually canadian team pro canadian team okay but like legitimately yes like it's almost again that's even comical because we've been there at hockey night in like november and he's already worried about like where the jets are in the playoff race and stuff and like freaking out if they're down three to one in anaheim or whatever like he he

take that columbus who paid that night who lost night now this is hilarious so well depends it wasn't me so it was really hilarious it was an unpaid intern it was like a real dick move that they all did that it was producer drew like yeah no he's not it was it was bobby mack oh so the right guy yeah but it was legitimate should it was legitimate and it was down to bobby mack and david amber when there was two cards left in the hat wow and so david was like forget a three-foot putt he was he was freaking out and i should be clear here in case it's not it's i don't want anything to miss my tone like david amber is the biggest sweetheart of a man oh yeah i think everybody knows that super good friend of mine but you know as with all good

friends i know where i know where to poke him man he gets so nervous he's he's a guy that i've been dying to have on in this show he's unreal he just seems like first off when i he was at the dangle navy tournament right he was at the was he not no he wasn't able to but he made a big donation what did we see i saw him somewhere i was like yeah he donated the money he didn't have to spend on that dinner yeah he like first off clearly works out every day all the time uh and second it just seems like a big ball of positivity like i don't know if you could find a i mean maybe i know off off camera we're all a little different but like i don't think you can fake that that seems real oh yeah he's what you see is what you get that's amazing i love that and it's actually

great too because obviously in in media circles this isn't a commentary on anyone in particular but like some people are sort of divas or whatever i think some of that reputation is earned for people in television dangle what i know what's but like david is as genuine as they come and i think that that's like that really is my takeaway from working with him and spending so much time with him is like good for him for because he you know he co-hosts hockey and canada's ron mcclain yeah if anyone could have an ego yeah i think i think like the world would allow him to have an ego but yeah it really doesn't and uh he's just a super guy he my last like fun industry moment before everything shut down because of covid uh amber was my uber after oh yeah drove me to dinner

just no problem just yeah here hop in the back that's pretty me and jd bunkus five star rating i hope that yeah seriously yeah he hit a curb so oh uh so so listen chris i think a lot of people have watched this summer and we're surprised for you not to be at sports then anymore because we've just so used to you eight years there yeah eight and a half and you know really great memories and a great time and a great partnership between you and them and obviously you told that Elliot and whatever and and um I I a lot of people want to know what because I don't know if you spoke about it in the column but while you're here can you tell us a little bit about the what the what the role at the star is going to be and what you're gonna what you're hoping to accomplish there

because it is it is a really a new chapter for you it is and look you know i think change can be healthy for everyone um and and you know it really wasn't my intention at the start of the summer for it to go this way but you just never know when you i remember daniel offerton said when he left ottawa because if you remember the senators left him unsigned right up and that was when they started that free agent window and he said as soon as he got to the point where he started talking to other teams it was like he opened this door in his brain and he started imagining what it would you know because he'd been a senator his whole life and and so you know i haven't worked at sports at my whole life but obviously tremendously proud to spend four seasons

on occupying canada love my colleagues as i said but you know i started having conversations my contract is coming to an end and you know really what's taken me in this new venture where you can see my writing in the star now is you know they have a real specific plan and i'm not really at liberty to disclose it all because this this is definitely above my pay grade why not well look tell us here's the thing i want a hallmark of my show to where i'm not lying to my audience and Like I want the audience to know that, but you know, certain things like this, I really am not, I'm protecting obviously myself here, but, but you know, this isn't all there's a fiduciary responsibility with that public domain yet, but they have a very specific

plan for, for some, you know, evolutions in, in the way they do business. They, you know, really believed in me and, and, you know, had a lot of really open conversations with, you know, how they thought I could help and what they want to do. And, you know, I wanted to be a hockey journalist since I was five years old. and the reason that's the case is because literally every morning at the breakfast table my mom and I would sit there with the paper and I would always read the sports section and she'd read all the other stuff that made her much smarter than I was or am and you know that's really where the dream was born and you know I don't come from a family where you know my dad was an immigrant from

Scotland basically didn't go to school because you know he had a tough upbringing and came here for a better life as a lot of canadians do you know my mom went through university but you know my point was that i had no obvious entry point right other than i was there was no connection i was lucky to be born in canada and i had really supportive loving family so obviously i got a head start on a lot of people in the world but um you know it's not like they knew how to do it but my mom was just like yeah you could do that and so i read the newspaper and dreamed of it and honestly never really let go of that dream until somehow i did it and now i'm like mid-career and every once in a while i remember all this and i was like i'm not sure how that all played out

but you know honestly when the toronto star came to me and they have this this plan uh with with nordstar a new company they're launching uh which is who i'm technically employed by uh where i can be part of their you know this this new chapter in their business and and help hopefully you know take them to new heights and be part of a team there i mean it just it was such a unique opportunity and and honestly you know i'm a sentimentalist at heart like i can't hide that fact and there was just there was something pulling on you know the corner of my jeans there just thinking like there was a little magic in the possibility there and you know it's it's the same with this podcast like this only works like i'm taking a bit of career risk here let's just call it as it is

because like most people if they leave the set of hockey night in canada they do it with a you know severance check or something like it's because they were kicking and screaming because it's i mean you've got to live that dream too right but like that would be my dream i want to host hockey night in canada one day too i mean it would be amazing like every who doesn't want to do that right and but and look like i really like i was i didn't i almost felt like i never belonged there honestly for four years really oh man like i i did too i still i still got like i got nervous every saturday i think that's normal though isn't it yeah but like not the nervous like i don't want to screw up like it just sort of felt so big like it was awesome like and so i don't want that ever

to get twisted no i love the opportunity but you know again it's just like that part of my mind open and so I'm I'm taking a little bit of a calculated risk with my career but I believe in the audience and and this will only work if enough people go to my articles at the Toronto Star you know everyone you know has different everyone subscribes to a bunch of stuff right now I get it but if enough people subscribe to that and want to read what I'm doing and engage with what I'm doing there if we get enough listeners to the Chris Johnson show with Julia McKenzie you know this this only works if there's an audience and so I'm betting on the fact that there'll be an audience and that we can build something and obviously you guys are a huge part of that too

and so i'm excited to have my my work appear at the star and eventually some other places once they get their other businesses up and running and i'm excited to do this podcast and i don't know let's we need you guys so please please listen please subscribe please read honestly go to the star and subscribe on one of my articles and then tell me if you see me out and about i'll buy you a beer i'll reimburse you it's a great if they got a great deal on right now but but you know that's going to help make it successful for me. And, and obviously I want lots of people to keep listening to the SDPN because.

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

You've got to try breakfast at A&W. You've got to try breakfast at A&W. And what better way than with a delicious Pret Organic Coffee? Starting at just $1 all day, every day, now until December 31st. you gotta try breakfast at a and w at participating a and w locations in ontario well yeah and we've got other things cooking too right this is the this is the first step but what was important to us uh and it's funny because this is the first thing that firmed up frankly um but this was always going to be the first thing we announced because you know i can remember i

don't know if you guys remember this but years and years and years ago this has to be six years ago now chris made his first appearance on the show and he showed up in a suit and tie oh yeah and he had his briefcase and and i was i have to be honest with you do you remember this was that the that was on sifu uh doug sifu episode i think it might have been i was on one with him actually yeah yes and then you left midway through yeah and we were on were we on not on 31 thoughts yeah and we're like in the middle of our biggest interview that we had had up to that point and you and i are like taking selfies i was in bc and you guys sent me the audio because i wasn't there for that the doug see if you up because you're on vacation yeah i was in vancouver wow was that

my first time on though i might have been it might have been before but i don't remember i know i've been on a fair number of times i just remember i remember sitting there thinking like i can't believe this guy is making time for this weenie little podcast like really it was for us it was like i was like holy smokes this is great like in this stuff you said and i was like i'm like does he know that like we like i know we've got a good little audience here but i didn't i was i was amazed and and so what i've always been blown away by with chris johnston is is if you can talk if i can talk about you as if you're not here is you not only can say these things but you can carry a show and you can carry a conversation and there's a difference right there's um it's it's like what

you know elliot and jeff have it too right they they've got there's certain people that can deliver the information but can't carry a carry a show beyond 30 seconds and that's fine but chris you could talk to for hours and it's the humanity of chris johnson that i'm so excited for everybody to get to know because it's not only are they going to get you know the information that you provide and a deep dive into some of the biggest stories of the week which is what you do but they're also going to get to know you a little bit better and i think you know steve that's the balance i'm nervous about oh why really just like what's the line between obviously doing my job you know talking about a story of the week letting you know what i know giving you the context of why

decisions are made and then being a big idiot goof who's steve i mean that's gonna happen despite your best efforts and sometimes lackadaisical efforts yes that that will certainly happen but you'll um you'll establish a connection that i don't think you ever thought possible with people adam uh always talks about uh um you know i was doing my lfrs in my channel for a long time and to you know pretty i've seen some of the early ones it was a long time like to pretty they're not but they were they worked at the time right context of time matters i think too and then they started to click click click and then my uh friend adam decided he was he was done collecting air miles for a while and you put down some roots and you said let's start

a show and we it's amazing like we were i was like when we thought about the idea originally i was like i think i have three shows worth of material and then we're done like i don't i have not lived enough life yet i don't have enough of an in in the industry and i don't know eight years later we're still doing hour and a half podcasts talking about i don't know freaking you know all the hockey news of today the hockey news of yesterday video games pokemon chinese emperors hot dog eating contest victory i was uncomfortable watching that that was so the law i was uncomfortable winning that adam more so because he barfed yeah that was pretty rough sid six zero texted us afterwards he's like gentlemen that's great that was great yeah we're like

Why are you watching this, too? You know that Sid could just walk in there, no training, no nothing, and hammer you. We'd be totally done. Like, just give him the belt on the way in the door. Yeah, it's over. It's over. He'd be eating a hot dog just to celebrate afterwards. Which is somehow a compliment.

It's big kudos from him. Like, when I got to co-host Tim and Sid with him, I had chicken fingers with him because that's like having a blunt with Snoop Dogg. Like, you have to have chicken fingers with Sid Cicero. So the fact that he was like, that was awesome. I'm Sid Cicero. The thing I'm most excited about for this podcast is the relationship you and Julian are going to build with your audience. Yeah. Because I think like that transparency really comes through with podcasts because people are going to live with it twice a week on their commute, their every day.

They're going to have you in the years and they're really going to see who Chris Johnson is. And they're going to see your personality come through for hours every week. Warts and all. Oh, no. Because I don't think you really had that platform yet in your career because on Hockey Night, it's okay. You're gonna deliver the news you're gonna deliver the headlines and then your articles and radio hit radio radio radio Just give us the info. We got radio radio 40 at the at the bottom of the hour, you know

And then with your articles it's it's about the players and the storyline the game and now you get a chance to where you're really Gonna show like who you are as a person and build a huge audience. I'm excited to see where that takes you no pressure no pressure right no pressure it's not you know but i don't think it's just a modest audience yeah but i think a group of friends and family you might say that learn how to download uh yeah i'm excited to see i grew up in the same hometown as justin williams turn into your i drafted rick nash like i'm really excited i'm excited to see that i've tried to dial that back in general like who else is from coburn tell us don't dial that back you own that no it's the cover of your twitter i am the drink of go chris johnson is the yeah i don't know someone random just threw that

in there when i died when i first saw that like i actually laughed out like that that's very that was a legit laugh out loud when i saw that for the first time writing raps about like intersections both of them like whoa i'm from oshawa everything is so much bigger in oshawa you know me big city guy you know adam's always saying oh you city slicker so what and and i think to steve's point and what jesse said too is like literally it's it's steve steve's career obviously was was going just fine without without this show but then once people got to you know you're doing it we started in an hour and then we went to like two hours and then we went up to like two and a half hours and then we dialed it back and then we're like okay that's a little too much it's too goddamn much

we're exhausted um but but you know that's where people got to really know steve right and i think this is what's going to be so cool for you and for julian they also got to know him by yelling into his computer yeah yeah 14 straight seasons of leaf games but you've never you know when you when we like it's crazy we've been through uh what you go through on a show is you become like a family like you think about we've been through marriages divorces deaths births like everything all of it's just you adam peanut butter selling peanut butter um and so i'm taking trips to manitoulin island in the piss pouring rain can you believe this is in ontario sure can definitely can looks like alberta to me guys i'm not sure yeah you're wet and in a boat

that's yep got it got it how long was that trek across the uh the lake there well so so the the Cheechamon is what is it two hours hour and a half something like that and then but you're

we did it in a day so you're two hours one way and then you're there the whole day and then you're two hours back and then you get to your hotel so you had four hours of commuting and the thing is we were there on a

God bless them they were such a great partner to work with but it was like a it was like these they were so great I actually can't believe they're in Ontario

like literally like they were great the way you expect out in the Maritimes or something not some Ontario asshole though it was special weather statement that day so there was like

10 centimeters of rain or whatever and like it was just like this is the worst possible weather day we could have asked for. His weather app said Adam stop and turn around. Yeah. Honestly. Did you put the car, the truck on the boat, the ferry and ship it over? Oh yeah. Okay.

Do you want to hear some stories from that? Just one quick. I've really got nowhere to be. This is your guy's show. Listen, we're going to talk about Jack Eichel. We're going to talk about Leafs camp. We're going to meet Julian McKenzie but I got to tell you this so just this one story so it's early in the morning and my girlfriend God bless her is along with me for the ride

because you know in dating me you become my de facto cameraman for stuff like that and I don't think she signed up for that but that's what happened and so we get on this boat and it's a boat that you drive on to and it's clean it shows up on time all that stuff but you remember that like Manitoulin is farming country

right other than tourism I actually have no idea I'll take your word for it so there's farming there so a guy pulls up and it's 7am I'm not a morning person as it is. Neither is my girlfriend. You host a morning radio show. I'm not a morning person at all.

At all. It's a struggle. It's like I'm not a hockey guy. You're more into chess. Yeah. More of a chess guy. So we get on this boat and this guy pulls up beside us. He's got this huge Tundra pickup truck and he's pulling cattle.

And it's like a big cow thing. And it's not just, you know, you see cattle on the highway or you see them kind of at a you know thing and they're being loaded on a truck and they're fine these cattle are not okay these cattle are extremely agitated so so oh yeah so we get it's 7 a.m it's 7 a.m and we're and they're like you woke me up to get on a wet boat thanks guys hadn't had a coffee and yeah and they're so agitated that you're you're almost like you know when someone's stressed out in a room and you don't know them but you're stressed out for them you're picking up the cow's energy here and the cow every day they're like looking out the you know because they they've got the the block

so the cows can't see anything so the cows figured out that they get their big big black eyeball like a thing and they're like sticking their tongue out and going and and that won't be a meme it was yeah it was unbelievably uncomfortable i was like i i want you and then amazing that that didn't make your instagram no i know and then they and then of course these kids are like cows and they run towards the cows and then they're yelling at the cows banging on the cat on the thing i'm like where are the parents oh you know what i learned at the zoo is that is that hyper kids always make every situation better. Ah, yeah.

100%. Anyway. Did you work at the zoo? Yeah. So here's what I want to do. Before we get into Leafs camp, because you were there, Steve was there,

we want to get your takeaways and obviously the Eichel situation, Kaprizov signs, all that stuff. I do want to do, can we do the official jersey thing? Yes. I would love to.

Let's do it. So. Where is it? Oh, baby. Ladies and gentlemen, a first edition Chris Johnston jersey to welcome you

to the team. I thought you guys Retired number nine. That's a real one. We don't have any retired numbers. We have no retired numbers on the Daniel Navy, and we will never retire. Do we have to pose? Oh, no.

It's like our draft. Oh, yeah. This is awful. Jesse and I just, you know, we're just here. Get up and shake his hand. Shake the man's hand. Get up. Let's take our Steve Carell from the office poster.

There it is. This is going to be great for Spotify. All right, all right. Shout out Spotify, everybody. What are you doing? He's getting his jersey on. I don't know what the problem is here. Jeez.

This is great. There it is. Right there on the ISO. Yes. No. You're way too soft. You're not up for nothing. I was adjusting the camera.

So, Chris, Steve, you were both at camp for very different reasons, obviously. My stuff was better. Steve was there to... Can you scoot down a little? I don't know, Steve, what you can say about what you did. Yeah, because I don't want to blow it. Oh, okay. well no this is but but it's really like what you're gonna have for sports that's gonna be

it's gonna be very funny it's gonna okay i will i can tell you who i spoke to okay uh so uh it was a it was a very different media day than any of the very few that i'd been to um because like everything just went so fast because there were fewer people and restrictions and everything was very tightly scheduled if i had hit a lick of traffic i would have missed three guys really because we we had three guys done before we were even supposed to start so i'd been there like five ten minutes they're like all right here's wayne simmons and i'm like i guess i'm into an interview that i've wanted to do for a decade and and you know we're talking about scarborough and everything and and uh our producer graham who's from guildwood said that i'm from fake scarborough

He said Port Union is fake Scarborough. No, it's not. And he asked Wayne Simmons his opinion on that, and he said it is part of Scarborough because Wayne Simmons is right. Because he was from Port Union. How dare he? Yes. Because Wayne, he grew up in our neighborhood.

No, Graham's wrong. Graham is wrong. How far did he grow up from your houses? Oh, like, I can't remember where he lived. I know exactly where he lived. Don't give his address. No, I wouldn't. But it was right.

What's a social insurance? It was right away. How quickly can we get there? Really super close to Mowat. Super close to Moet. Near the library and like where Sugars was. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Where all of us bought dangerous crackers. Yes. And kids would pop them with their teeth. I used to hang out on the roof of that plaza. But anyway, yeah. But that was very definitely Scarborough. So if I hit a lick of traffic, I would have missed Wayne Simmons, Jack Hamill, and John Tavares in that order. Like that's a pretty unforgivable list.

But we got them all. All in an amazing mood. What would they have done? Like were you doing all the interviews? they would have just left yeah oh yeah yeah i did i did it all i i suppose the producer would have had mcclainy have like come in from the bullpen the producer or graham like someone would have just had to been like all right i'm steve now and they would have had to put me like fake me in later how come they did them so early like you had a set time right i don't know

i guess they were all sitting there waiting i actually think whoa let's not let steve off the this is a like if you're not 10 minutes early you're 20 minutes late kind of situation i was wicked early i was and thank god it better be yeah like what time did you get there uh at least 8 30 there was traffic did you take the gardener i took the 407 button 407 you probably got a transponder there big money bag that's what you do when you live in the uh middle of nowhere The shwiggity. Hey, can we redo my contract? I'm sorry, I can't make a transponder a part of it.

But yeah, you're coming in from even further than Steve. You're like, what are you, five cities over? You're six cities over? You're downtown. You're past Newcastle. That's where my heart is. But I'm physically in downtown Toronto. There you go.

Eight kilometers, door to door. The one thing I will say is that with the two of you and having been at Leaf Camp, is this is the one year I can remember where there really hasn't been some major dramatic story other than who's vaccinated and who's not. And I don't want to get into the vaccinated talk because everybody's getting into that. But if there was a takeaway from this camp-

And I don't think it's that bad in this case. No, it's not. Well, I know Nylander's got one vax or something like that, but then- Well, he had an allergy which can be made worse by the vaccine. So he was vaccine hesitant. And then as soon as the rules came out, it wasn't like he had to be arm twisted, I don't think. like it no you know there's there's definitely some cases around the league that i don't know

if we want to name names here but where there was like some pretty serious arm twisting just to get the backs like with william he got it and he'll be fully vaxxed like really like any day now okay so so then from your just just from the camp and we'll get to the nhl whiner in a second what's been your takeaway like what are you you know you saw yesterday was the media day today was practice like what have you seen what's it like what's the mood the mood's pretty campy it's normal okay like come like i understand a lot of the fan base or people listening might be hanging on to what happened in may but i really do think the players on the team like it's kind of exciting like when you start up a new i used to like the start of school i don't

know why it was that nerd but like it's kind of fun to get the fresh start and get back and see your friends again and do that so i think there's a little bit of that vibe that we all used to have in september when we went back to school they were really upbeat yeah i thought yeah well i mean like have you ever made a mistake in your life or like had a disappointment like you don't like have to live with it every day for five months like yeah i mean i it's not to excuse it or i'm not saying hey that was no big deal of a loss or nothing like that but my point is at some point these guys had to deal with it and move on and and their team's probably going to be awesome again this year and so i don't get the feeling other than all the questions about it that that they

much care about it to be honest you know i thought morgan like i don't know where everyone's at with this but like it's pretty clear to me the odds are on the below 50 that he'll be with the Leafs next season it doesn't mean they're zero like there's still time and things can happen and we don't know but you know you're almost seeing him kind of process or realize that in real time when he's asked like do you want to be a Leafy on this year and he's like you know I know how much I want to be a Leaf but there's a business aspect to this like you know that was as close to maybe of a flashy quote or or what have you um you know and then today was the first day of practice and it was insane oh yeah this is like i actually was thinking about like imagine they put the

reporters on the ice so there's two groups but for both groups their first 25 minutes no pucks on the ice literally just doing i don't know the politically correct word for this drill yeah well it used to be called suicides back in the day right i presume it's like a conditioning skate where you're doing the lines back and forth like stopping starting and literally for 25 straight minutes and we're talking about obviously well-conditioned athletes and these guys were dying i'm talking like actually crumpled on the ice like did you see the the photos and videos from the canucks camp yes oh yeah oliver eckman larson by the way if anybody doesn't know one of them pulled an adam wilde out there what's that didn't you uh oh he threw up um connor garland

threw up and olia levy was in a crumpled heap on in the corner and oliver eckman larson was lagging behind everybody else 25 minutes of suicides yes 25 minutes brutal are they what are they doing that for gosh they did it last year oh they just do it shelton keith said look there's no good time to do it so he wants to do it first it's just like he said he said it's hard to win it's hard to play a whole season it's hard to be in this league let's start off with hard and you know it was actually like it sounds repetitive it was interesting to watch because you're talking again about you know some of these guys like literally

don't drink any alcohol don't eat any sugar go to bed at 730 every night like these guys are doing everything to maximize what they can do physically and they are dying after 20 minutes of this and I was like let's let any random Joe I would love to see like a beer league team get put through the same exercise

it would actually be hilarious do you remember the beep test in high school yeah I definitely didn't go 25 minutes they've taken that out of school I think the furthest I got was 11 minutes on the beef test but they've taken that out of school because somebody complained that they like tried to prove that it was torture like actual torture it felt like torture it was terrible it was psychological just don't finish last it's funny sheldon keep actually said it was more about pushing the guy psychologically than physically it's about sort of like forcing you

already to dig deep and push beyond wherever you think your limit is what do you think so that was actually kind of cool like easy for me to say because i'm not down there doing it but it was really interesting to watch them do that usually the coach picks like a thing that's their thing at camp where it's like well we want to do this we want to accomplish this what do you think sheldon keeps focus for this group is so last year they were trying to set the standard okay this year they're trying to raise the standard and so i don't know obviously i think he's probably pulling a lot of different things out of that he's probably referencing that referencing back to that larger point when he's doing pk meetings people you know sort of specific things but let's

let's face it like the Leafs became a very very very good 5-1-5 team last year they allowed the six fewest shots against uh on a per eight basis at even strength and they were 29th two seasons before that like they they got a lot better last season um absent a couple games in yeah yeah yeah uh but i'm just saying i mean the regular season was still a good team steve for steve i'm so sorry steve well they were i feel bad for i feel i feel bad about it but i feel bad for steve about it yes right that they were but they were an excellent team and so i think the idea is that they they did take a step last year and so now it's they're raising the bar i mean look a lot of coaching is like there's a very tactical side there's there's

a psychological you've got to connect with your players as human beings maybe sense when something's wrong try to address things i mean it's it's a crazy job but there's also a sales side right you're you're almost just trying to like get their mind in the right place and come up with these snappy ways of of selling the same message um and we'll see if it works but it you know it's it's a very upbeat camp for those that are still sad about the result of last season so i there's a subtext to everything right so we're setting the standard then we're raising the standard the the vibe i'm getting is last year there was a you know a little bit of hand holding you know hey guys here's what we're trying to do and this year it's you're on your own like

literally you guys figure this shit out it we have to win this year we have to there's no other option like we have to there has to be a sizable improvement or half you are gone i'm gone someone else is trading you because i'm gone right that that is the vibe i'm getting from this team yeah there's no kids table at dinner at this family holiday anymore right like everyone everything's being called as it is you know i'm under the impression a week or two before camp open that kyle dubas had a series of meetings with you know the key guys and and you know i don't know all that was said there but you know i got the impression that some of it was just yeah this is like the last dance thing and i know some people want to push against that idea obviously

like austin matthews i'm reasonably sure like 99.99 sure no matter what happens this season will be a leaf and start next season but you know what he can't count on if you're him is who will be around him and you know he's been here a long time it's sort of like i was saying how emotional it was for me to leave a job where i have great friends like david amber elliot friedman carolyn cameron many other people like that that's hard like i didn't you know you want to take parts of it you want to take them all with you yeah sort of like it sounds weird or corny but like i i don't think that i think that that that does loom over some of the players that yes okay you probably won't be traded let's be let's but everything around you could look different at

this time next season and so you know i think that they're calling that as it is as you say like everyone's grown up no need to pretend uh you can't probably go through a season and lose a six straight year in the first round or first play in a game whatever the playoffs and just roll it back and be like all right i know we're gonna we're committed they sort of set the standard with the rookie tournament like uh they sort of took the focus off development and it's like all right which one of you is the best just show us just show us we're not going to give you any tips or anything just fucking wow go out there and do good and who do you guys think was the best at the rookie tournament nick robertson yeah okay he's actually he's actually played nhl games

so second best then they're well it's oh who was second best yeah like you know who would surprise i guess because i mean it could be like they took like 14 guys that aren't even in the organization they signed all these amateur tryout guys because first of all they didn't make any draft picks last year barely yeah and then they didn't have access to their players that are european draft picks like amarov or bonin or guys like that because they're on teams in europe right now so they didn't have a lot of their own prospects okay i was um well first of all i sort of called that months ago because like this is okay if you're the find a needle in a haystack team you're the what you know we have these expensive contracts but we're the smartest guys in the room

we're going to be able to find all those undrafted guys especially in a year where the draft was pretty unconventional like i want to see those guys at camp and doing well and who knows maybe some of them will get uh elcs i was um actually pretty surprised with like if you've played professional games you should be dominating these games and uh joseph duzak was actually extremely good um who barely made my prospect pyramid he's a little older but i you tell me if i'm wrong here i think i'm not stepping in i think there's a prospects isn't my thing really like well i pretend to be an expert on the prospect side of things there's a greater than zero chance he plays games for them this year maybe i i actually don't know what like beyond

their top six which is pretty obvious and set yeah i i don't really know what seven eight nine like it's there has to be injuries well well of course every i mean but it'll be interesting if they do run into injuries you know who is next up i mean lilligren's still there you know they signed dollstrom well they said that alex biega who's played a bunch of games for vancouver and detroit they oh i'll be at camp i forgot that they audio up front the but i'm just not sure like how they slot and we'll get a better sense with camp and the preseason games yeah because because i know keith said that lilligren and sandin are a lot further ahead this year than they were last like and you would hope that would be the case but that's you know that's that's a

good sign sandin did well in that in the the hockey beep test oh yeah oh yeah he was like leading his group every time no shock no shock and what's interesting there is that there was sort of an underhanded comment last season at one point from sheldon keith that sort of pointed to you know sandy maybe not fully getting the the workout side yet like it wasn't like a gratuitous shot this isn't like cadre back in the day where they called him fat but it was but it was more like i think they were just saying that he's got to learn some pro habits a little bit more and what have you and so i wonder if he internalized that because you know you get into that intensive a conditioning drill and he's he's beaten all the nhlers i mean that's a good side that's

fascinating because like wasn't he the 30 minutes a night guy or was that like to send a message hey you're not working out enough who's this sandin remember that was a thing in like exhibition games or down in the minors he was playing like half an hour right wow yeah oh yeah for the marlies yeah wow and i want to say in one or two exhibition games he played because over 25 because they wanted to push him but i think the context of the quote was last year remember he had that long stretch of scratches when he wasn't injured there was a there was a period early in the season he wasn't playing at all right and keith was asked sort of like how he can grow through that or whatever like basically what wtf and he was like well he's got lots of time now to learn pro habits and you know

it just it felt a little like they were just trying to prod him a bit okay what happens with the it seems like they have a dozen left wingers you know you run down the list it's hosang it's gusev it's bunting right but it's like when you have like three quarterbacks in football but you don't know who your number one quarterback is like there's a little bit of that going on right so at the end of training camp do like four guys just get cut and scratched like how is this gonna play out i'm not entirely sure like they have too many forwards in general um so somebody with a one-way contract or a couple are gonna go through waivers at minimum so i don't know if that ends up being like a pierre engvall or what have you you know there's also the possibility of a trade i don't

think it's that can be completely ruled out but you know i find it kind of interesting like on one hand you have if you have matthews and marner together whoever plays in our left wing it should be fine almost no matter who it is but i don't see an obvious guy that fits like long term there um elian mckay maybe i i just there's just not been enough finishing from him like i don't know if that makes sense but you know maybe it's someone like michael bunting like it's hard to know he's played 26 nhl games or whatever and had a great uh season last year in his time with the coyotes but you know there's just to me like nick ritchie was got the first sort of tour of it in the in the line rushes today but i don't know if that's the one you know could robertson ever go

there like i don't think it's necessarily likely but you know if he has a wicked camp but anyway you're right it's very open jesse and it's hard to say how that's all going to break i think it's going to be tough though for hosang or goose up to earn a contract i mean maybe if hosang's willing to go to the marley signed a two-way that kind of thing that might make some sense as he did say today that he would sign in the echl he said he'd sharpen skates he was very well spoken today was he yeah so the thing with him people always use this this blanket term character that's a character thing what is it really with josh hosang why has this not happened because this is a first round draft pick he said today that he's heard a lot of things over his life that he wasn't ready to hear

and that you know last year he played in Sweden in Linköping and he said that his head coach there changed his life and he said that he started to tell him some of the things he's heard in the past but he felt like the first time he kind of got it and so I don't know like I don't know Josh hosang personally um you know i've been part of interviews with him like today and other days and before but you know he certainly sounded like someone who's been through some things you know i actually asked him just because of the tone of his voice i said josh you know did you ever have your love of hockey challenge through all this and he said yeah and he said that you know he dealt with depression and anxiety and he didn't he didn't get into much more specific than that

but he was saying he had times where he didn't know how to handle those emotions, everything he was going through. And he's, he's almost had to get back to loving the game in a certain way and maybe looking at it a certain way. And so, I mean, it's hard not to cheer for a guy like this. I think just as a person, whether, you know, it doesn't matter where he ends up playing that, the beauty of it, a PTO, actually,

he could play great in a couple of preseason games and any team in the league could sign them at any point in time. Oh, so that you just take them. That happened with Christopher Stieg. that's right he um whole camp with the oilers and then sign with the flames like the day of the season hilarious hilarious wow and he's an alberta guy right he's from lethbridge i want to say i think you're right anyway um i was trying to look up who uh who sings coach was over there in sweden it's funny i asked someone i know in sweden they didn't get back to me because

of the time difference and so i don't have that answer because i don't know i don't know if this story has been out there before like i that was the first i'd heard of it but it it was kind of a moment today i mean let's face it the interviews are getting better because we are in person now and the zoom the zoom thing sucked straight up i think for the players for the media everything for the fans who want to learn anything interesting as a result now it's getting better because it is a little bit more human but that was like the most human thing i've been a part of going back pre-pandemic days just the way he spoke and and you know i i got the sense he's genuinely grateful for just the chance to as he said show sheldon keefe can still play hockey

so is it daniel erickson potentially head coaches or johan ackerman i mean i got hockey db too i think i don't know i don't know which i don't want to give credit i mean because it's a pretty big thing to say if someone says right yeah so i i don't know the whole story there and i'm not sure if josh will ever get deeper on why that was i hope he does yeah that's fascinating i mean look at i think we've gotten to a time where mental health and the whole thing like everyone a lot more people are sharing their stories and so i mean good on him for even saying what he said today and if he's willing to go one further if he earns an nhl contract i mean maybe maybe this is his story and he can be you know a hope for someone out there who's struggling and so you

know as i say no matter what it ends up with him you just hope his life is is in a better place now and that you know he finds happiness nick ritchie and andre kasha are big not wild cards for me but i'm those are the two people i'm most interested in in this camp nick ritchie was an assistant captain in boston and from what i've read he's probably that sounds made up i thought it was i thought is he not i thought i saw it hold on nick ritchie they have a pretty established leadership group i was like it's like i thought he was i think maybe it was an exhibition picture i saw he had an a on his jersey anyway uh maybe it was i don't know so nick all i know is that this is my captain so with nick maybe he wasn't an assistant captain i i thought i saw it on jersey

who knows i could have been sleep deprived um hey the trees take that off what we what we do know what we do know is that he's got something to prove or that's that's the sense i'm getting is that he's got the this is a big prove it season for him he's on his third team in what 2014 draft was he yeah yep so it's like third pro team seven years after he was drafted was the top 10 pick you know he hasn't been awful he's had a career he's played a bunch of games but you know he probably fair to say he hasn't played at the level that people thought he might when he was drafted you know he's coming home ish another ontario boy um and you know he's going to play on a team that wants to win a stanley cup so yeah this is big for him he

signed a two-year deal if i'm not mistaken so it's not all or nothing you know if he's great in this training camp it doesn't mean that everything's gone the wrong way but you know i think that there's look the leafs are banking on one of bunting or i mean best case for them is more one or more of bunting kasha richie being able to make an impact right i mean they didn't have a ton of cap space we all know that they instead of betting on the old guys and i know they brought back older guys wayne simmons and jason spezza but they're they're going with sort of mid-level bets now you know kasha's had some pretty bad concussion issues he's not played a lot of hockey uh so he's a little bit of an unknown what you'll get from him uh bunting's

only played whatever 26 nhl games but look pretty darn good in them and you know he did play in the sue so that means he's got to make a stop here while kyle dubas is in charge and uh sorry kyle low-hanging fruit can you imagine him watching this and being like is that a thing i do do i do that yes yes i'm not complaining but yes yeah um i i might i'm actually not making this up but i hope i'm not betraying any trust here but so on the night of the expansion draft uh ron francis was asked and ron francis is also from sous-saint-marie yes and he was asked about picking jared mccann and he pointed out that jared mccann had greyhounds roots and so he couldn't resist no and i tweeted the quote and then kyle dubas took the quote and and texted

her dm me i'm not sure and he said i wish there was something stronger than like that i could put so he's in on the joke he's in on the joke and and and he can appreciate it steve it's funny joke here's the thing feels good to laugh i think towards the end of the the year last year for leaf fans because things went wrong right it was like oh god like another and not that he's ever brought in anybody bad from the zoo like it's never been a bad thing but after a while you're like you know there were other jack campbell thing turned out sure did That's what I'm saying. I remember the night of that trade,

and there wasn't a lot of people out there with the hot take, like, this guy is going to be the Leafs' number one. No. Set all-time records. Right. So, you know, you're right. He hasn't, like, Jake Muzzin, that's been a great addition. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Even Sandin, like, where they drafted him, like, let's see what he becomes. But, you know, he has that. So, yeah, he's not betting on the wrong guys. Like, if I was a GM and I started taking everyone from Coburg and there's not a long list of any Josh and Coburg, that would be bad.

Justin Williams and Justin Williams. Justin, I know you haven't played in the league in five years, but we need you. With regards to Peter Morazic, which, again, there's a guy that I don't even think I've seen a quote from him. He was on the podium yesterday. Was he? What's your impression of him,

and what is your impression of their expectation of him? Is he challenging for the number one? Is it Jack's number one? Jack's got the number one, but he doesn't have a firm grasp on it. OK, like I would be it would take something monumental for him not to get, I think, the first run of starts that are where the number one will go. But, you know, performance will dictate it from there. You know, I think what's interesting to me about the Marazic contract and the decision

to sign him and look, they were losing Freddie Anderson for agency is like there's a real musical chairs aspect to signing goaltenders and for agency. Like if you don't make a decision and have some conviction, you might end up with something you really regret. And they signed him fast. They did. But they gave him three years. they gave him 3.8 million dollars and jack campbell is an unrestricted free agent in a year

and it's just hard not to look at that and go okay so as long as jack like if jack campbell has a good to great year like he's gonna be more than 3.8 million and you know like you've established the floor now i think if jack is your number one and he performs up to you know something that's acceptable well then and can they bring him back at four or four and a half or five and so you know it's an interesting decision because it kind of to me sets the table where unless jack campbell struggles this year which obviously they're not hoping for you know i think it's going to be tough to retain him um but again then they'll probably just spin the wheel again next year and get another goaltender there is anyone in the organization tired of this like as every

conversation around every pending free agent is well it's gonna be hard to keep them it's gonna be hard like i asked because i am tired of this they hate it and and look at it i'm a media guy and so like yeah let's face it it's it's sort of it's it gets some reaction um so there's a reason why i talk about it but it's also we're talking about their number one defenseman and their number one goaltender so it's not you know we're not cherry picking the fourth liner who might be walking away next year like right these are these are positions that will have to be filled and and likely cheaper than what those players are worth like that's the trick right and so yes i know you're bored of the conversation oh i'm like it's it's not that i'm bored of it it's that

this cannot sustain like you lose your number one left winger in zach hyman and i'm not saying they should have given him the contract edmonton did i think there's huge risk in that contract but like now we're saying like who the heck are the left wingers like how is this going to work without him because like you get i think a little bit worse and obviously they're paying those players not five million dollars which you know zach hyman's worth on the open market you know when you're not paying if jack campbell has a great year this year and you're not paying him five million someone else is well then you're getting another guy for two and hoping a little bit so look at this whole thing is built on the leafs winning a cup with the guys that make the

money like it's that simple really at the end of the day that's that's the bet and we'll see if they can do it you know i don't think there's any reason to say they can't yet despite you know what you've seen you know i i'm looking at mitch marner and awesome matthews is a fourth and fifth or third and fourth best scorers in league last year like not a lot of teams have that nope and i know in for one week or week week and a half in may it didn't work but doesn't mean it won't work next year when you get to april may on the note of um you know left wing got worse i think a lot just got less certain it might not be worse it's just kind of like i agree andre kosh has played nine games in boston right like we don't know well it's jump ball yeah so it's jump ball for spots

and with it being jump balls for spots i was shocked that alex galchenyuk was not brought back and that he wasn't able to cash in like we all thought it was going to be one of those two things probably him cashing in somewhere else and he didn't even do that i got a pto with the coyotes I thought he'd be back, but on just a similar kind of, you know, cost-effective deal. And I believe if he was willing to do that, there might have been an opportunity to have it happen. He didn't want to come back? I don't know if it was that. Look, he probably thought he was worth a bit more.

You know, he scored at like half a point. So he may have, and you're not confirming, but he may have overplayed his hand. It's possible. I mean, look, it's... He played well. I mean, he played well. He had, like, one horrific mistake. Right.

Basically, his entire Leaf tenure. Yeah, and it just happened to be the worst time of the year to have it. Well, you know. But, yeah, but, I mean, if he had come back on a- If he was a pilot. If he's back on a million- Jesus. Jeez, that's dark, Chris.

Oh, my God. If he comes back on a million-dollar deal, though, is anybody in this room upset about that? No one. So that's the weird part. And I was surprised that- It better be two-way. If he's going to- It better be a two-way deal.

Sure. If it's Galchenyuk. But if it's... He lives in Arizona, though, right? Okay, but he had a terrible time there. Okay, but he lives off-season in Arizona. Okay. He's looking at that team that traded everything that wasn't nailed down

and not named Phil Kessel in the off-season. That's true. Look at their draft picks, though. They're set up, if they draft well, and that's a huge if, and obviously the teardown is easier than the build-up. But they did a pretty nice teardown in terms of collecting assets. I think it's reasonable to think he can earn a contract there, that he can play lots of minutes there

and that he might get traded before the trade deadline for more assets and end up somewhere better. So this isn't necessarily the worst outcome for him. Like that's why I don't want to say he overplayed his hand, but I do think if maybe he was willing to commit to Leafs right away

on a really cheap deal, they would have looked at it. I mean, that's what Wayne Simmons did, right? Like Wayne Simmons signed and members during the Stanley Cup final. So it was in June and free agency was July 28th. He gave up the opportunity

to see what the rest of the league thought of him again to sign in Toronto on a pretty reasonable deal. I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head. 900? 902 years. But it was cheaper than this previous one. 1.5.

So he was willing to sort of work with the team. And I think that his cost, you know, in addition to liking the player and liking him, that they jumped at that. So, yeah, there was a chance to stay, I think. But I don't sense there's any bad blood there. No, no. It was surprising not to see him back. You kind of just go, well, you were a natural fit.

and play steve steve was always your thing was always if you're in your happy place stay in your happy place yeah like in his happy place was uh on john tavaris and william kneelander's wing and he put up a bunch of point like i think i uh i was looking at it the other day i think he had 12 points in 26 games but that includes his brutal tenure in ottawa so he was well over half a point game is a leave like that's that's just sign a one-year deal and go cash in but maybe it's happy places play it at home yeah could be on a pto well i think he settled for that you know maybe but sometimes people have ptos but they really have a contract well there are instances of that of course like this is recent like it was it was odd to see i think it was josh hosang signed a pto

on the wasn't it like the opening of free agency i thought that was odd so that's that's a guy clearly making a decision right but by doing my making that decision he was able to skate in toronto for a lot of the summer at the leafs complex with the guys i'm complimenting it it's it's great that he did that and then he can still go sign anywhere that wants him god i hope it's here i hope it'd be great to have him work out that'd be a great story they need and they seem to need um and he goes to arizona and teams up with galchenyuk and they have a monster season again oh my god with gusev they need they need a line that could have been can you imagine they need a they need a good story i think they need a uh josh honesang story i think there's still

i mean listen the season didn't end all that long ago either four wins out of seven yeah that too but i but i it would be nice more than once yeah yes yes a gentle sort of ease into this season with a nice story like josh hosang making it would be really nice too i think that'd be cool it'd be cool i hope he does it i'm a sucker for a good story i mean i i love guys that are long shots i love when andreas johnson made the team as a seventh round pick back in the day you know i i respect you know there's even a guy logan o'connery just signed a three-year uh extension in colorado and you know he was signed out of the university of denver like i'm pretty sure he was like forgotten about forgotten about in terms of being a pro player or not i guess my

point is he wasn't a can't miss nhl prospect and the avalanche saw him because it's in their backyard signed him and he's come up and he just signed a three-year deal and he's like 25 and he's played about 20 or 30 nhl games and i just think that's a cool story like that guy kind of had to earn it the hard way it's like julian uh joined in the cj show yes i respect that like people that were able to stick with it and and find a way to like i can't even imagine being someone and i don't know logan personally but being him and like signing a three-year nhl deal after taking sort of the back door into the job. He's with one of the best teams in the league, too.

Like, he's signing a three-year deal. Like, he might be signing a deal to win a cup or more. You know, pretty awesome. Anyway, I love those kind of stories. I'm a sucker for that. So there's a couple big things today. Obviously, we saw. I got some texts.

Oh, did you? Ooh. Uh-oh. Are they good texts? Care to share with the class, Chris? Hmm? I don't know where that accent came from. Will, I think it's the berries and cream TikTok

that you're addicted to. it's a Greyhounds preseason game update oh from Kyle probably stop the show right now read it out loud I do I want to ask about the reaction today around the league for Jack Eichel

so and I know that by the way I believe you're releasing an episode of the first do you want me to scoop myself what's the run of play here can you tease a little bit about what's going to be on the CJ show tomorrow about that Tomorrow?

Also, yeah, we haven't said that the first episode will be tomorrow. Oh, it won't be tomorrow? Okay, well, maybe it's not tomorrow. It will be. We haven't said that, I don't think. Okay, well, it's going to be tomorrow. On the show. It will be tomorrow.

Oh, sorry, that's my bad. Do you know this? I didn't know I worked Fridays. What the hell is this? Well, I... HR, line one. Yeah, actually, it will be... We should say this.

We're hoping for Mondays and Thursdays. Obviously, your schedule is all over the place, so there will be some flex days in there. But Mondays... Mondays and Thursdays... He's competing with us? yeah we'll be monday wednesday friday he'll be monday thursday what i know imagine people could listen to both no it's crazy it's crazy to think i can't wait until it's like november and i'm like guys let's do monday wednesday friday like we got a good one we start like moving in on your real

estate hey i'm fine with it you can have an entire show worth of content all the shit that we miss after we i'm just gonna oh yeah i gotta spend the whole day blowing up jesse's phone like hey i need your help with this man like dividing him away from the sdp yeah exactly exactly so you know i'll do it yeah calling him at exactly 1201 i'm coming in and i'm just gonna splinter this thing so so he's he's he's a double agent that's what's happened you're a plant um so sent you top line is that that jack eichel was stripped of the captaincy today don't give us more than a couple sentences on this and dive into it tomorrow because i know there'll be more in the story tomorrow but your sense of it is is there i guess the question is is there actually a deal close or

is this okay okay there's no deal no okay like oh boy no no no 1000 times no okay i mean how do you make a trade right now like they haven't even figured out his health like look at the teams we think might want to trade for him or have sort of kicked around there or might be a good fit like none of them have 10 million dollars in cap space you know a lot of those teams that would be trading for them are trying to win a stanley cup like this season right now with the players on their roster it's hard to predict when a trade will happen because things can change quickly but it it's this is a really awful situation you know i have a lot of empathy for jack actually here and for those you know those of us like i'm not i never played in

the nhl obviously but for those of us that never made a living the way players make a living this is a good reminder that like they don't really own their bodies and when it comes essentially to their work right i mean the way they earn an income and the way jack eichel earned that contract is by performing a sport and as part of the cba and the sport that he plays you know the team has collectively bargained between the players and the owners has the right to make these kind of calls on his health and and you know i think that that's a really difficult situation i'm not a doctor i don't know whether he should have the spinal fusion surgery or the the disc surgery that he would like to have that's deemed a little more risky or less tested um you know i i can't make

that call for him but i can put myself in his shoes enough to think like man what an awful situation like at what point did the sabers just cave and let him get what he wants you're you're gonna get shit all for him you got a second round pick for taylor hall like you're not exactly good at this let him get the surgery well there's an element of mutually assured destruction here like depending on how far both sides want to take this. Now, I do think, you know, Jack has changed agents to Pat Brisson at CAA. You know, it's not,

this isn't a comment on his previous agent, but I do think it's introduced a different dynamic to the table. And, you know, Pat is a veteran dealmaker, great relationships, great reputation, not known as an agent who throws grenades into situations. I believe Roberto Luongo might've hired him in Vancouver

prior to the deal to Florida, if I'm not mistaken and and so if someone is going to come in and not inflame a situation at CAA I would say and Pat specifically and so you know he's got a lot of powerful he just knows how to handle this kind of situation so I got to believe what's best for everyone here is for Jack to get as healthy as possible and for him to play hockey again somewhere other than Buffalo and so they as much as they are at odds over what the treatment plan should be they're not at odds over how this has to end like as peacefully as possible and so that i have to believe there's a way forward but you know a day like today it just reminds you about how fucked up this is is kevin adams in

charge oh that is a good question i know well he's a general manager i know and he has a boss or two and everyone has to answer to a boss and so if we look at the boston bruins don sweeney's boss is cam neely and cam neely has to answer to ownership and in toronto kyle dubas answers to brandon shanahan who answers to a board and so i i don't know how much we can say that anyone is in charge you know he's making the hockey decisions but obviously this you're talking about a very expensive asset that this organization has in in jack eichel and someone is signing those checks and obviously we'll have an opinion about how this should go and so yes i think kevin adams is in charge of taking the phone calls and trying to formulate a way out of this situation

but you know he wouldn't be able to make this decision without the input of ownership but i know i'm not sure that that's even though i sort of i think i know what you're alluding to you're alluding to the fact that he's young that he's not terribly experienced in the position you know he didn't he wasn't an assistant gm he didn't you know he was brought on because he was friends with them no no sorry kevin adams name was in the question but this is not a kevin adams specific question right but like my i guess my point is is that there would be heavy consultation on any team in the league when trading a 10 million dollar player okay or or handling a very significant decision to do with his his health okay there might be one team there might

be one general manager in the whole league that doesn't have to answer to anyone on this kind of Lou Lammarello. We don't even need a second. Yeah, it's got to be Lou. He doesn't need training camp rosters. He doesn't need to register contracts, no press releases. The guy's just Bane. Ownership goes, Lou, you can't do that.

Do you feel in charge? The standoff between him and Bodie Wilde is going to be fascinating. I don't think it'll be a standoff. Yeah, like Mayweather versus Logan Paul. Right, yeah. What a standoff. Kipper versus Dangle. Yeah.

um uh uh jesse are we ready to bring on julian we'll have to pause the show okay let's pause the show let's bring on let's get julian ready to go two and five canadians will hear the words you have cancer that's why every step and dollar raised matters on september 19th join thousands in toronto for the princess margaret cancer foundation walk challenge yourself friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca you gotta try breakfast at A&W. You gotta try breakfast at A&W. And what better way than with a delicious

Pret Organic Coffee, starting at just $1 all day, every day, now until December 31st. You gotta try breakfast at A&W. At participating A&W locations in Ontario. and welcoming on for the i was i i thought it was the first time but then i remembered we had him on before and i feel like an a-hole now julian mckenzie for the second yes hey so julian you will be the host of julian will be the host of of the chris johnson show to set chris up everybody some somebody has to alley somebody has to oop and uh and julian you are one of the hardest... He's going to carry me. Are you kidding me? Well, he's one of the hardest workers in the industry.

So, Julian, for people who don't know, you're based out of Montreal, and this is great because Chris is going to be on the road all the time. You guys are going to be doing this show mobile, but it'll always be on the SDPN. So, if anybody doesn't know you, tell us a little bit about you. What do we need to know? Okay. Well, for those who don't

know, I... This is also going to be your dating profile afterwards. Yeah, this is going on Hinge. Oh, I don't even get me started on Hinge. um i'm an editor at the athletic for their nhl team uh i'm the host of zone time for yahoo sports and i sometimes make appearances on the yahoo sports hockey podcast i host the hockey inside out show for the montreal gazette where we talk about the montreal canadians all the time of course being based in montreal i end up talking a lot about the montreal canadians and yeah man

just some dude who likes sports and hockey and do a lot of podcasts and a lot of writing and this year's been crazy man i started off just you know doing all these random odd jobs and then the athletic came calling and now this and like this year's just been crazy man so this that's basically me i don't want to give you the whole riot act because like we'd be here for like an hour you do a lot make no mistake this will be the oddest job of your odd jobs i've had way odder jobs i've had way odder jobs i remember i was like an intern for like a street team when i was still at bell media and we were doing this like music festival uh i think it was like an electronic it was a ilsenix this edm festival and we had this tent uh where basically

like any girl could like go in and they could get these like felt colored like i don't know like these markers in their hair they get their hair painted i had to be the dude for like eight hours telling people hey you can get your hair colored that's the oddest job i've ever done wow this will this is nothing compared to standing outside in the damn heat telling girls that like teenagers being like hey you want to get your hair color in this tent over here all right first first and last show with julian mckenzie oh man that is wild wow i guess that didn't come up when you vetted them yeah that's odd we should have vetted you no i'm kidding this is a this is something that like you know we we've all been kind of watching your career with with um with interest

i know from a friend of the show andrew berkshire uh absolutely loves you um couldn't say enough about you when we asked him about you and and and of course you know uh i hope he doesn't mind me dropping his name but arpin basu also just absolutely had nothing but great things to say about you and i think the the exciting part for us in this you know for the three of us and and for jesse and i you know doing the network here is that um you know we're excited that more people are going to get to know you because the more we get to know you the more we like julian mckenzie and uh and i just think that this is going to be such a cool partnership because it's probably two of the most likable human beings you've ever met and the great thing is is like

you guys i know a few weeks ago you guys got together for beers not knowing if this was even going to happen no very much didn't know at that time and and now and i mean i don't know you've been in the same room what three or four times ever one one time ever for the beer well we did zooms and stuff which in you know 2020 2021 yeah that's about the same room but i just three or four i just think it's so cool where we are because we couldn't honestly if we had tried this in 2019 we'd have been like well julian's in montreal how are we going to do this right yeah it would have been full stop yeah yeah very short conversation yeah so you wouldn't have had him like buzzed in on tv no this is like pretty cool right i like i feel like i'm in a real tv

studio yeah well that that was the that was jesse i feel like that's an insult somehow one day and was like i want to make a studio now and now he has because i walked through adam's house went down some stairs and then all of a sudden there's a tv studio yeah like i thought you were blogging in the basement down here i didn't think it was legit it's legit okay now so so julian you know uh your part in this show for for anybody that doesn't know obviously we We've said, and we also, I haven't done this yet and I need to, I want to thank our partners at The Athletic for doing the sales here because, you know, obviously we're a small shop and they do an incredible job with that. So thank you to them for all of that. But Julian, you're working

there. Your role on this show, if your mom or dad asked you what this show is about and what your role on it is, what are you going to tell them? Like, how would you describe it? i host the show and i ask chris questions that will hopefully get him to give all the answers that everyone's thinking about with the big headlines to talk about the national hockey league is that succinct enough but i hope that is but that's essentially it i like that almost too succinct you're supposed to like ramble on and then it goes into a story about working at hmv which yeah i don't like doing that i don't want to do that because like my mom is if i'm telling that to my mom my mom just could be like i whatever you're doing some podcasting

congratulations i love you son that's pretty oh that's nice so you're like good at this like it's sorry i'm not so like it's it's good to hear someone who's actually able to do this i can relate to that too because my mom also doesn't care what i do so she's like oh that's nice of a podcast honey she's never heard one episode of what we've done not one not we've done eight close to 850 episodes she's never heard one she's kind of busy ah give her a break does your mom listen to your stuff julian i don't think um there was like one no not even there was like one time when i was on tim and friends and it was the day when i was on with michael grange and donovan bailey and like there was like another time i had to be donovan bailey for a story

and i was telling my mom about it and she was all like oh my god i love donovan bailey you should tell him i say hi and i'm like yeah you know what you know i mean you know you i didn't actually do that but it's a fun thing to hear so i'm telling my mom like hey like i'm actually on sportsnet with donovan bailey she's like oh okay i'm like what are you kidding me julian and i have been on tim and friends together and then i see him on with donovan bailey who i like idolized growing up and i'm pretty sure i just texted you f you i couldn't i couldn't believe you you were not that mean you were not that mean you did text me but you were not that okay fair enough we're gonna have a different parent vibe because

conversely my dad will now listen to every second no kidding oh are you kidding so if you talk if you tell a story about your dad he's probably listening to steve dangle podcast right now actually guaranteed my mom listens to every episode really and and i don't mean this to you know my dad is a little north of 70 but he knows how to download a podcast well he barely does but he will figure it out over hell and high water that's amazing to hear what we're talking about i want i want to ask you to chris you have any siblings yes i got three siblings three siblings julian you have siblings you have a child two younger sisters okay all right have they had any reaction to this guys or do they care my siblings uh they absolutely could could give a

shit like like basically like my whole family like if i'm posting stuff on social media or i tell them about it they're they're basically they'll be incredibly supportive and what they'll also do a lot is like a lot of their friends that they know a lot of people that they know in the black community in montreal they'll they'll be like yeah you know julian's doing all this stuff he's doing all this great stuff and it's all great my dad i should shout out my dad because he's very supportive of me as well uh he works at concordia and sometimes like he'll talk to like other like professors and like deans at the school and they'll be like hey yeah how's your son yeah he's doing good yeah he did the weather right like he's doing some good stuff man yeah

so i think like my like my mom will won't pay attention to everything my dad will pay attention into more stuff and I think he low-key uses it as like leverage to like you know get in with certain people so I think it's very varying differences he might be disappointed when he hears our podcast this might be the opposite of leverage

I'll say this I'll say this I think I think one time I was like watching like Hockey Night in Canada and I showed my dad like hey there's that Chris Johnston guy I think I'm supposed to do a show with him oh okay don't worry

when he actually one day if it actually happens where he'll meet you man i'm sure he'll come away impressed actually what's funny too is not to hijack the show go ahead but um that's what you're on chris and i chris the time chris and i met up i was with another friend uh i think near ozzyton and there was like this brief like five ten minutes where like my friend and chris were just like talking and like my friend was just like yeah man your friend chris is like super impressive and i think he went over to like his girl's place and was like telling his girl's parents who i think are like big leafs fans they're like yeah i was like hanging out with my friend and he's like hanging out with chris johnston and they were like holy shit like you

know chris johnston so yeah man chris i'll tell you this like chris and steve and all y'all i didn't realize how big of a deal you guys were until like this year i seriously did not think you guys not to say i didn't think you guys weren't a big deal but like i was very amazed It's amazing the spell we've cast over you in this year. I'm glad we got your boost. People, like, after I was on the Steve Dangle podcast, I had people

messaging me all day like, yo, bro, you're on the Steve Dangle podcast. Oh my god, you're on the Dangle podcast. I didn't know all these people watched this podcast like this. This is insane. I thought people just watched and freaked out about the Leafs and that was it. That's something that's happened a lot with this podcast. Here, I'm just

e-transferring Julian some money. hey i appreciate you my brother chris do you not tell that story all the time like you're on hockey night in canada but the thing you get stopped most for is being here with steve i don't know about most but i definitely get a lot of that but say say most 94 of the times i've ever been stopped in public i love that i love that i will say i've never gotten used to it probably happens a few times a day still and i never got used to it like sometimes i'm up for a run and i'll just hear like someone's going like oh it's richard and i'm like just like they're watching like a middle-aged guy like just really unathletically you know sprinting down lakeshore in toronto well

sorry if that's anyone out there no that's everyone out there i think uh at least you're not one of those guys on the 60 000 bikes cutting people off and that sort of thing excuse me i'm lance armstrong and i don't know if you've seen that oh yeah so you got beef with the bike guys Oh, the bike guys are just the – He's got so much beef, man. They got their singlets. Like I have no problem with anybody who like rides their bike to work. But these guys who are with their singlets and they got –

So they shouldn't wear bike gear while biking? Sponsors on their bike and your bike costs as much as a Porsche. And it's like – and they're – everybody's – Oh, God forbid people have hobbies. Everybody's using the pathway. Everybody's using the pathway. Look at this exercise, Shannon. But we can't – we can't – we're not stopping for anyone.

Everybody else is using the bike lately. Oh, this is so Toronto. We're just not going to stop for anyone. I'm sorry. I'm on my bike and I'm training right now. And I have an issue with people who are like, you're using a public road. You probably want to run them over with your dad car. That's true.

No, my dad car couldn't catch up with him. It's a pretty slow car. But I'm just saying, it's the Toronto man with way too much money and a bike singlet scene is a little aggressive, especially in the West End. I'm surprised Chris hasn't been hit so far off the rails. I'm just saying, it's a rant. I'm upset. So what about Julian? Anyway.

So anyway. What about you, Julian? Julian, do you own a bike? Do you like bikes? I told myself I'd bike this summer, and that did not happen at all. So I do have a bike, but I have yet to pump its tires, actually. Are you a Canadiens fan, Julian? People are going to want to know that.

Here's the thing. After 2016, I kind of stopped. And then I moved to America for a year, and then I came back. And then all of a sudden, I started, like, I was at Habs eyes on the prize for a bit and I was writing about the Canadians, but I wasn't like a fan. And I figured that like, you know, if I'm going to be writing about hockey and trying to get into sports media, or at least in Montreal, like the way it kind of works,

not to ramble too much, but like people care about the Canadians. And then people don't really care about all the other sports here. So I knew if I was going to be in a position where I would ever cover this team, any fandom that I had or anything like that, I'd have to get rid of that. Sometimes like I go out of my way, like how i'm speaking on a podcast or anything if i accidentally say like a we or something i try to be like we is the media i try absolutely hard to not make it seem as if i'm a fan like at all and generally i'm like i'm not but i'm very interested obviously in what the canadians do living in

montreal and and i'll tell you what covering them going to the stanley cup final like selfishly for me as someone who had gotten a new job and gets thrown into that situation i enjoyed every single minute of it and seeing everyone get happy and and considering what people have been going through in the pandemic in quebec for the last how many months it was just something that the province needed so i took a lot of pleasure in seeing a lot of my friends enjoy the canadian stanley cup final run so i'm no i'm not a fan but i'm very much interested in what they do did you take any pleasure in seeing the canadians crush steve dangle's soul um i see that smile yes yes yes and and and shamelessly i'm sorry steve i sometimes go back on all your old videos where you suffer

and like i just watch i'm just like wow like this is enjoyable but i love it because you're so passionate about what you do no and you're really entertaining thanks i love it well listen like the like the zamboni driver day bro that's one of the craziest days ever man what was that i remember what are you i was covering a canadian's game that night and i remember just look at the score i'm just like i think that was also when the canadian the canadians had gone through like two eight game winless streaks that season and then the pandemic obviously kind of wrecked everything and i was just thinking to myself like it doesn't matter what the canadians do because at the end of the day they did not lose to a zamboni drive right that if anything like i

was like that's that's pretty much the highlight of the canadian season i'm sorry i'm not making this about steve i realize i'm really just trashing him but i love you man i got a lot of love for you man i got a lot of respect for what you do and i admire you a lot man yeah i remember thinking at the time i'm like this is the worst my life will ever get and two weeks later the pandemic started so it can't always get worse that was you know how we were talking about me anticipating like reaction through the camera on a previous episode i did feel a certain steve comment that night and um then at over 800 000 people watched me turn purple wow it was it was great what that did oh yeah like my uh like i had neighbors who didn't know what i did and they're

like who's the psychopath who lives across the street he just quietly puts out his garbage and goes back inside they had no idea that was me like they expect you to be that way on tuesday morning when you're walking your son or like on the street get the recycling you put plastics in the paper like that's uh steve can i ask steve a question please yes julian go ahead uh are you a fan of jim carrey uh i do i i like i like jim carrey he uh he was a big i remember seeing the mask when i was a little boy and coming home and sliding on the kitchen floor and being very hyper my dad claims to have once been at a party where he was present before he was famous because they they grew up in sort of the same area your dad was popping like that okay i was

just curious because like you just you see you you just seem to like embody like physical comedy a lot and i'm just like jim carrey does that a lot so i was just curious if like he was like an influence or anything i was i did something that he used to do which is practice faces in the mirror really oh yeah i can see that i used to in absence of a girlfriend i would come home and stare in the bathroom mirror and do eyebrows and stuff okay we're learning stuff about everybody today oh yeah in absence of a girlfriend what is going on so my buddies and i used to sit around juggling and seeing who could keep going the longest without dropping the balls like because actual like circus clown juggling yeah well not okay but just three balls 17 pins or like

chainsaws or anything like that but just gonna say you have to put on a show for us like i used to be able to juggle for like 25 minutes without dropping a ball what can you still i could juggle it would i would have to work my way back okay so kind of stamina you know one day what we'd like to do with this network of ours and we as we add more shows and things is we'd like to do like live shows where you know we chris juggler where where we know but where we have everybody kind of show up and and everybody does like a 10 minute podcast or whatever we just we have some ideas or whatever you have to juggle with that show oh yeah you do you have to yeah like i'm looking for any reason to that's why i told the story we'll call our event luck talks luck talks you know puck locks

puck law just not the name of the thing that kind of does that thing already you know we're doing our own name is something different and you guys are so original i did like literally 32 shows with luck locks and evan kennedy yes oh we did a show with them we did a show with them it's uh we did our biggest show we did a cross canada tour we'll be the fruit hoops to puck talks as fruit loops there you go yeah um so anyway listen we'll we'll wrap the show because it's been a long one but listen uh julian chris congratulations on the chris johnson show we're very very very excited to have you guys a part of this um and and uh and i think so the first episode is going to be recorded and will come out tomorrow maybe a little bit later in the day but we do know that

it is happening tomorrow so be on the lookout for that and by tomorrow i mean friday night um so good news good news adam says we get double pay when we work fridays so we're already it's already going but it's already going me yeah yeah i just i just want to say i just want to say thank you guys for for letting me be a part of this it's an absolute honor uh to be a part of the network and to be a part of the show with chris and chris i'm really looking forward to doing all these episodes with you and getting to work with you and i'm just i mean i i'm really happy for you man you you you're you're in a good spot at the toronto star and all the other things you got going on and big money cj you're big money cj for a reason man you've been doing big money

moves i don't know where you came up with that big money cj bro you big money cj like the truth is i'm big mortgage cj but like oh there you go it's better than me i'm not paying any mortgage i'm paying rent okay but i'm just i'm terribly in debt we're we're uh listen if you're if you're not terribly in debt you're not trying uh i just i want to say uh to everybody this episode oh i'm kidding i'm joking i listen uh to julian and chris good luck tomorrow on your on your maiden voyage uh to everybody it's youtube.com slash sdpn uh we will have all the links for you if you want to download it with audio you should expect it friday night so you can listen friday night or saturday morning or whatever and then it's going to be mondays and thursdays with the

chris johnson show there are more announcements coming next week uh so we have a huge announcement they will be much smaller than this one yeah they will i mean it's going to be tough to top this one this is a this is a major one but we have another big one on tuesday next week that we're all very excited about julian and chris we're going to force you to talk about it on your show too and uh and frankly honestly i'm so excited these are some pretty amazing teammates and after eight years this is our eighth season this is where we're at i don't think steve or i from that first episode would have ever expected this um and i think uh it's it's a big big day for us too in the sense that we're like we're really excited we're working with our friends

it's cool it's dope thanks oh my god i'm your friend we're friends absolutely we're friends now. Anyway, so we'll wrap it up there. Unless you ride a bike in a singlet. Don't you dare even talk to me. I'm not doing that. Absolutely not. You're good. So, look out for the CJ show tomorrow.

Look out for us on Tuesday. More announcements coming. Thank you so much. And congratulations to everybody in our Discord community who guessed it right. There was like two or three people that got it. Bang on. So we're excited for that. Anything to add, guys? Anybody? Tomorrow's a work day, Julian. There's a curfew

tonight. Get a good sleep. Behave. Bag skate in the morning for the healthy scratches. And we'll see you next time. I hope I don't throw up. Peace! Connection complete.