The Steve Dangle Podcast - The Habs Are Gonna Win, Aren't They? | June 23, 2021

Episode Date: June 23, 2021

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, the Habs take a 3-2 series lead over the Golden Knights (00:00), Tampa takes a 3-2 series lead over the Islanders (23:00), is the North division actually bad? (38:00), should the NCAA change its rules regarding OHL eligibility? (41:00), more trouble with the Sens foundation (53:00), an update on the lawsuit against the Blackhawks (59:00), trade trees! (1:11:00), and Adam's history recommendations (1:16:00). Originally aired: June 23, 2021 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/NcIPdZWIroA 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://magicspoon.com/sdp https://freshly.com/sdp https://helixsleep.com/sdp https://www.getroman.com/sdp https://betmgm.com/dangle 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

the steve dangle podcast with your host steve dangle adam wild and jesse blake but y'all can answer to win the cup aren't they yeah well this team's gonna fucking do it aren't they so how about this tampa's up three games to two montreal's up three games to two let's assume both make the stanley cup final yeah here's a weird little thing that i don't think will ever happen again this is now back-to-back years the teams that faced each other in the stanley cup final will be in the same division the following year oh tampa and dallas wow and dallas followed by tampa montreal how about that how about that well there's there's stuff to say about tampa and the islanders but i think we need to start with montreal and vegas because the real

story here is montreal up three to two um boy who knew that chandler stevenson would be such a hole for the vegas golden knights to fill but here we are and i i think i mean i don't know where to start with this game other than boy was i convinced last night that this team is going to the finals i do um if the leafs forwards as a group like one through 12 i know as if the leafs forwards as a group, 1-12, played the way Vegas' forwards are, we'd put them in a shredder.

We'd put them in a magic bullet. But that's also a great place to start because Montreal, they've shown just through three rounds an effectiveness to shut down offensive and especially the forward groups. It's two goals by

different Vegas forwards in this whole series. Over five games, they've only gotten two goals from Vegas forwards. And if you look towards the penalty kill, especially Montreal, they've stopped the last 12 power play. No, they haven't allowed a power play in the last 12 games. Yeah, since they were four against the Leafs. They're 20 for 23 versus Toronto, 8 for 8 versus Winnipeg,

13 for 13 versus Vegas. They've developed a system where they shut down forwards and their ability to score. And it's going to lead them to the Stanley Cup finals. they're a net positive on the penalty kill yeah they've scored more short i asked you at the end of last episode if you thought by the time we got here on wednesday that that that you would be convinced of one or two teams going we're taking this in six so i'm going to ask you guys that again are you convinced montreal's got it are you convinced tampa's got it

is it over tonight with tampa is it over tomorrow night with montreal i'm more convinced of montreal than even after an eight one win yep ain't nothing ain't nothing even worse uh and i'll and i'll tell you why that's and that's a one-off that's a one-off that doesn't happen yep vegas lost eight one to uh colorado like yeah those happen um and it just got away from the islanders it's it's the millhouse thing it started to fall over and then it fell over and it just sort of kept falling over um they're gonna the islanders are a really hard team to eliminate especially at home i don't remember who had the stat but there's something like six and oh in their last six attempts at um staving off elimination at nassau um montreal saint jean baptiste day after probably honestly

maybe their best game of the playoffs there against vegas at home i i don't see them losing i don't i you know we've we've we've christened the islanders as the boring team in these playoffs montreal did such an effective job over vegas and vegas was so futile up front vegas was the boring team never in a million years did i think the vegas golden knights who play in vegas by the way celine dion shiny jerseys mark andre flurry still i never thought in a million years they'd be the boring team brutal brits they were horrible they were horrible and the habs uh appear to be getting more and more effective at shutting them down with even chandler stevenson coming back and not looking all that bad what vegas forward has been noticeable oh that's a

good question and i think in this series i think in this series you're seeing uh you know what maybe there is something to the idea that Toronto is a difficult market to play in because of Mark stone, but in this effort as a leaf, again, we'd put them in the shredder. We did. Well,

I was, I was watching Max, Max patch already scored for God's sake. If he was a leaf though, he would have been on a bus out of town. Yup. That's what happened in Montreal. Good.

He was on a bus out of town. It's I, I said this repeatedly on the stream last night. If the puck is not on Alex Petrangelo's stick, nothing's happening for that team. The entire team is just stagnant. Tuck, Riley, and they look a little in their heads too. Stone has horrible body language.

Riley Smith with that just, that's a tap-in. That's a tap-in. Vegas is one goal back. All of a sudden, that building's absolutely shaking at the foundation, and who knows, maybe you tie it. Boy, they have four goals from their forwards through five games. I cannot believe it. Cannot believe it.

March or so, just constantly on the perimeter. Like, there's not a one. I keep bringing up Armia and Perry, you know, guys who give you these depth performances that you need to get far. Haven't noticed Colasar. haven't noticed no sick really who's had to fill you know top six bottom six whatever they're getting nothing nothing and i'm sorry if 12 guys out of 18 are giving you dick all you're gonna lose it's it's not good well and and and you know i think i raised some eyebrows

last episode saying dino's gonna get seven million a season this summer again i want how how can you deny it so i brought this up i brought this up we we uh we talk about um agents and their job representing their clients and everything and when when it goes to arbitration for example you're able to bring up comparables who on god's green earth is the 2021 comparable for philip dono who don mehan is his agent according to puckpedia.com um i don't know who you compare him to so we're really just making the number up um you know this guy's this guy might get six plus million dollars in free agency and give you a whopping 12 goals next season and you'll thank him for it there's no there's no center in the

league like philip to know right now none he's a truly unique talent i can't believe this team it's it's yeah it makes you the thing about the montreal canadians and i i hope that have fans are relishing this is it's made the entire entire sport question what we think we know about the sport all the fans media the i could guarantee you the teams watching them right now are going what the fuck this year has shattered my brain this year has absolutely shattered my brain oh yeah it's it's mind-bending and and you know what it's fun that's what makes it fun like you know uh me saying before the series that montreal wouldn't win another game there were a lot of people who believe that by the way i wasn't the only one and and there were i mean even drew said

uh after game four producer drew your sports that said they're not going to win another game this series and they come out dominate it's they are it they are hard to believe but at a certain point the results dictate that you have to believe them and they are winning and and the other thing is is that like things like little things like you know cole caulfield who's got who scored the most expected goals uh this entire playoffs for anybody body language body language that kid doesn't have a care in the world well and you know his little like fist bump with dino at the press conference where they're and then they kind of shook their hands and stuff like that's that's fun that's confidence you imagine you're 20 and you're a game away from the stanley cup finals

and you were playing college a month ago he was in college a month ago guys yep a month a literal month like I keep going back to it let me do some counting 6-1 there's 11-2 11-4 12-4 Leafs outscored Montreal 12-4

in the first four games of that series they were up 3-1 bro what the fuck I know I think it's about time to look at those games as the outlier like we gotta we gotta stop going back and being like, ah, they were that team versus the Leafs. No, they're the team after game four.

It was a four-game warm-up. Yeah, that's who the Canadiens are. Four, five, six, and seven team. Right. Four-game warm-up. And, again, I would love to bring someone on. Maybe we could have Dom on. But I just feel like Cole Caulfield is so good

that no model, I think, could account for him. How do you account for him after 10 regular season games and college and the world juniors? I don't know. You know what I mean? And, like, I was doing some stuff for Sports Interaction, who sponsors the Watch a Habs game with Steve Danglestreams on the Sports Night YouTube channel.

Check us out tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern. And, like, Vegas is still favorite. They're the odds-on favorite for game six. And no. like just just no in in my opinion like that's that's that's still uh like you're thinking about the 18th place regular season Habs you do we do any of us think the Habs finish 18th with Cole Caulfield no no I think they're a much better team with Cole Caulfield and I think I mean eight points in 14 playoff games will show you that for a low scoring team Montreal's not really usually

been the high flying scoring team that we've necessarily seen this playoffs let me ask you this and i don't know if it's too um i don't know if it's unfair to do this at this point but if you were to is this marner are you gonna say marner no no no this is for for for you jesse and you steve if you were to redraft the 2019 draft is there any way that cole caulfield doesn't go number one now based on what we've seen so like we've seen jack hughes play on a lesser team is that who went first oh my god and then and then you had capo caco and kirby dock bowen byram alex turcotte like you know there's names but names that haven't really fully come into the so caulfield who's only played 10 regular season games he's tied for fifth i was

talking about this on the stream last night he's tied for fifth in goals from the 2019 draft the So it's early, right? It's early. The guy he's tied – yeah, he's got four goals. The guy he's tied with is Dylan Cousins, who's played 41 games. Hasn't Capo Caco played almost 100 or more? Caco leads the draft class in goals with 19, and he's played 114 games. Jack Hughes has 18 and 117.

yo hoglander at uh number three there 13 goals 27 points in 56 games in his only season kirby doc very good coming over or not coming over overcoming i'm very tired but i'm coming a significant injury i think if you look at it i i mean i at this point if you were to look at it right from this moment there's no way you're not taking cole caulfield number one well like and there were 14 teams passed on this guy i know more than that oh no you're right sorry i thought he went 17th um we we've talked about this phenomenon on the podcast before the every now and then there's a draft and a player comes up who everyone knows is going to be good they acknowledge it experts acknowledge it teams seem to acknowledge it and everyone passes on them

anyway once upon a time that was Subban I remember all the coverage oh Subban's gonna be great oh you're gonna use the first on him oh no second round yeah he's gonna go in the second and the Habs benefited from that too Cole Caulfield the only thing going against the kid is he's 5'7 it's the only thing and it's never really come up like it's never I haven't really seen a play where it's been a factor i don't think you can use people tend to use size and i think in toronto we do a lot of this because we're you know we did like for a while our big blue collar teams and and um we haven't had smallish players since i think borchevsky uh really kind of take off and then you know obviously you've marner but um a lot of people and myself included have questions about

whether mitch marner's style can work in the playoffs and and a lot of people have chalked that up to size i don't think size has anything to do with it theo flurry was short uh played like a pitbull i think i think gallagher gallagher well you look at the way cole caulfield plays i don't think size is ever going to be a thing that holds him back i think he is just he's a laser it's it's amazing watching them watching him play and amazing watching the results efficient really efficient really smart knows where to be i mean his line is in in a in a playoff where size does seem to matter the lightning are pretty big and bruising generally um same with the islanders same with vegas on their back end montreal's throwing like

leckanen suzuki coffee all at you and and just scorching your life like just yeah brayden point is like five eight brayden point two there's another one playoffs and points that's one of the most fascinating things like i know it i feel like analytics has taken a bit of a hit uh this year um and we've we've talked about it a little bit and some things work some things don't one thing i remember i think it was on canucks army they a bunch of really smart guys were asked to rank um their prospects for whatever what was brayden points draft uh 2018 let me look no it wasn't 2018 no 2014 was he that long ago yeah i know i can't believe it yeah 2014 2014 round three round three 79th overall i know time flies um and uh

a bunch of really smart people were asked to uh basically do a mock draft there's the word i was looking for ahead of the 2014 draft and almost all of them had braden point as a first rounder i think some had him as high as the top 10 i'd have to look it up dude went 79th 79th someone's got to answer for that for the love of god like he's third in scoring you want to know the two guys ahead of him do you fire all the scouts no because then you're buffalo well then that's the thing is it's pretty hard to create institutional change if the institution needs to be fired for the change to happen you know what i'm saying like that's i mean that's what we're looking at here we're looking at a fundamental way of changing how you scout and

how you value what you have scouted can you can you name the two players i just blew it can you name the two players he's third in scoring for the 2014 draft class can you name the two players ahead of him dry sidle mcdavid dry sidle and then mcdavid went to next year oh david poster knock oh oh okay oh willie's got to be in there right that's willie's year he's yeah he's up there so there are four players who have 300 points or more nikolai ehlers who's played over 60 games more than braden point is seven points behind him and i think we all agree that nikolai ehlers rules uh sam reinhardt's fifth dylan larkin is sixth and william nylander who has taken a significant hit in games played uh is sixth leon drysaddle already has 506 career points it's fucking wild

is that it's dumb and what's uh what's even more dumb is he's actually a goal behind pasternak with 40 more games played that's how good pasternak is by the way wow well you know not bad it's so so i mean obviously we don't need to spend too much time on tampa and the islanders i know that you guys probably have some points on that but the end of the day like it was a game that got away i think like i said i think the story here is what is going on in montreal and vegas and what a game it's going to be on friday night like that is sorry thursday night so we'll be able to come here and steve i have to ask how is the reaction to you doing the live streams for montreal games gone as in like how do montreal

fans feel about it honestly um there was a little bit of resistance at first but they've been pretty cool they've been pretty cool honestly most of the most of the mean tweets i'm getting are actually from leaf fans and i think i think they're facetiously calling me like a traitor like i think it's a joke yeah i think they're mostly they're kidding some of them are like weirdly personal um you know a lot of older you know no no offense not to be ageist or anything but i'm getting a lot of shit from older tweeters the younger crowd's like hey this is pretty cool good job and like they seem to they seem to appreciate that i'm watching this with an an unbiased eye which i'm really putting an effort into it you know um trying to see

everything from everyone's perspective like for example that um who was it petrangelo high stick somebody yeah cockney emmy he he got cockney emmy in the face it's a four minute double minor and then they overturn it and they say actually there's no penalty with the conversation in this series so far habs fans are going to be freaking out and so i look at that and i go okay so they took it back because it's not a penalty because it's a follow-through so i was talking about the difference between what what march or so did to parry which it should absolutely be a penalty and what petrangelo did and if i'm petrangelo and i gotta stick up for myself what i'm gonna argue is i didn't do anything illegal and i wasn't negligent march or so was negligent with his

stick petrangelo was legally firing the puck and cockney me was doing his job by trying to defend him his stick rides up cockney emmys hits him in the face neither player asked for that and it wasn't negligent like you got to take care of your stick but it wasn't negligence that led to that play so i was like guys this is not necessarily the way that i see it but if i'm petrangelo this is how i'm arguing it right so i've really got my hockey man analyst hat on uh for this series habs fans have been pretty cool has it been kind of fun to watch the game and not be emotionally fucked up when they screw it up god damn it's so much easier so much easier so much better and berkshire was a guest for um i think it was game four never heard of him and he's yeah

dick and he's like don't let the rubber band break because he was a habs fan and i say was because he he refuses to say he's a habs fan because the pk suban trade broke him and he's like man i wish i was a fan right now and he's telling me to not let the rubber band break he could just be a fan he could i it is true that he could just be one but like what do you feel in your heart like what do you feel in your chest and what i what i told myself yesterday and this morning i think about it a lot is i must still be a leafs fan because otherwise i wouldn't be this pissed yes yes yeah yeah no i don't think listen we all piss and moan about being leafs fans but we we that proves that we still are like if we actually didn't care you just go yeah fuck it

it's like a bad ex just leave it alone but uh no there's a lot there's a lot to talk about there i don't know i'm sorry i don't know how i just don't know how i'm gonna enjoy watching the regular season next year is the chat civil on the live stream uh so i don't have the chat up because it's it's too much um and i also don't have the sound um for the broadcast so one one thing that happened flurry made a spectacular save when the habs were already up three nothing and i said this is the part where the broadcaster goes remember that save and i got a bunch of responses that two seconds after they go remember that saying so uh no drew uh if you ever see me look down during the streams that's because drew just text them to me okay like he

cherry picks them and text them to me because otherwise uh you know you'd see me squinting and i'd have to scroll back and it wouldn't be as good for the show but dude we had i think we're the number one trending thing on youtube in canada our stream from last night and we had as many as 40 000 people concurrently nice people are people are digging it i'm pretty sure game five for the hab series beat game five for the leafs hab series good good that means words word spreading and people are digging it they're worth watching i agree i do a good job damn it and also it's nice to see i think you know people probably like especially fans need to like a round off round and a half off. It was pretty rough, pretty heartbreaking. So now it's like, okay, we can

watch hockey. We still like this sport. We can just disinterestedly watch it. And plus it's you, so it's fun. Two in five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research together we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer register today at pmcfwalk.ca hear that it's your money calling it wants a promotion elevate your savings with the scotia high interest savings account always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest conditions apply visit scotiabank.com

slash H-I-S-A to learn more. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Now, do you guys have anything you want to say on the Islanders and Tampa game? Is there anything that needs to be said? Any deep insights in an 8-0 loss? Ah, throw it in the garbage.

Okay. Jesse? Barzal had a cadre moment. But that was... Which is, like, looking in hindsight, we should have kind of expected he would be the guy because he got benched towards the end of the season for performance and not trying hard enough. And now he has a little red mist moment

when you're down 6-0 at the end of the second. And I wouldn't have been surprised if he got a game. I understood why it was a fine. But it's still a cross-check to the face, which is, if it's the regular season, I can see him getting three games. But as a playoff, you give him nothing and you fine him. So I was a little surprised at that.

Yeah, I think, and this is where, um, foot, uh, not footage, but gifts, um, have made suspensions really hard to call. I think impact matters, right? Cadry wrecked the guys that he hit. I just, I just don't think Barzal's on. Who did he hit? Cernak? I forget.

Or Ruta. It doesn't matter. Whoever he hits. Um, I just don't think the impact was enough to warrant a suspension. I thought that was one where I'm like, all right, five in a game and a fine. It does still, there is still a problem, though. It was Ruda, by the way. Oh, it was Ruda?

It's this age-old problem where when the game's gotten away from you, especially if it's the playoffs, you might as well get your pound of flesh, too. And I just, I don't know, I think that's kind of trash. Because, like, what if he's injured then? Right. it's also like you're you're saying impact but intent was to ram his stick into the

guy's face yeah he missed a little he got he got him a little low yeah no you're not you're not wrong man you're not wrong at all um so um Sorokin when he got hit in the neck with the puck he definitely would have come out

of the game if it wasn't Varlamov who was already pulled and looking on the bench because Varlamov was like I don't want to go in there and then the doctor comes out and he's like hey you don't look well i'm gonna pull you and he's like no no let me stay and then he stayed in the game and that was a little questionable but it happens i do know one thing it will be it will be tough for tampa to close this out with the islanders fans being as loud as they'll be yeah you know that like that's the one thing about islanders fans like they've been tortured enough for 25 30 years um they're gonna be loud

and I wonder how much of a how much that plays into the game plan for you know tonight you know if it's if they are going to make a comeback you have to think that the fans are going to play a big part and I know that sounds ridiculous but in a post-COVID world we've played with empty hockey rings for such a long time you know even if Tampa's used to it a little bit you know playing in on on the island as we saw when Tavares went back it's different it just is you know what uh You got to give it to Tampa fans, though, because when the Islanders were closing out Boston, their fans were chanting, we want Tampa. And then Tampa absolutely pumps them and their fans go, you got Tampa.

Those smart fans. That's cool. I love it. I love it. I don't see the Islanders winning two in a row. Like I could see Tampa winning tonight or they win game seven. it's they've been 13 and 0 since the last year's playoffs in games where after they lost so even if they lose game six i don't see them losing game seven and i could easily see them winning

tonight like i think it's tampa series to take it yeah it's a that's a yeah it's just so hard to bet against the lightning and heading into the the the final four i was hemming and hawing about who I thought the best team was. I mean, it sure seems like Tampa, right? And this goes with our whole regular season conversation. Colorado was not the best team all year. They were the best performing team. Tampa was the best team last year when the season began.

January, February, March, April, May, now June. and when July comes I assume they'll still be the best team because I assume they'll still be in it if it's Tampa Montreal I don't know like that's

that's a tough series to pick you know if it's Tampa Montreal as a Leaf fan I look at that and go fuck I don't know how the Leafs are going to make the playoffs next year Tampa Boston Montreal and I'm still not convinced that Montreal is going to make the playoffs