The Steve Dangle Podcast - Top Toronto Maple Leafs Moments of the 2010s

Episode Date: December 27, 2019

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake give their picks for the top Toronto Maple Leafs moment of the 2010s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panago Pizza presents S-S-D-P-P, the Steve Dangle Podcast, with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! Top Leaf moment of the decade, and there was a lot of not top moments. Let's be honest, let's double negative the hell out of this, because it was a double negative decade. They had zero playoff wins. The first time in their 100-year history, 102-year history, that they've ever done that. Gone an entire 10-year stretch without...

A playoff round. A playoff round. Now, a playoff round victory, that is. So, you know, things weren't great, but if you were to pull some positives out of it, what would you say? Top moment this decade as a Leafs fan for you. Ooh, I don't want to go first.

I can bat leadoff. Yeah, you do. I think this is a... Somebody teed it up. It was an Andy Pettit 85-mile-an-hour fastball, but I was expecting it, so I just crushed it at a left porch at a Yankee stadium. There you go. July 1st, 2018, John Tavares signs $77 million seven-year deal

with the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you have forgotten, the Maple Leafs were one of six teams Tavares spoke with. It was the Kings, the Islanders, the Bruins, the Stars, the Sharks, and the Lightning. Wow. The Sharks, who offered him $13 million. When he went home and had time to think, and there were no games to play, the playoffs were on, and there was nothing to occupy his mind

except another year without competing in them. That's where it turned. When he was sitting at home thinking about, hey, where am I going to be next year? And then the Maple Leafs, Kyle Dubas rolled up with his pitch to him is agent Pat Brisson, and they said, we're not going to pitch to you about coming home to Toronto.

You can go play anywhere. This is a global, the world has turned into a global place. Any major city is any major city. You make your home. You make your home

wherever you want it. You come to Toronto because you get to play with these boys. You get to be on a team with Anderson and Mitch Marner specifically, who they ran

in their pitch video. I want to see that video so bad. Yeah. They had him dancing on the ice, showing him what he can do. And that convinced John Tavares to change this franchise. Because when John Tavares signed with the Leafs, that's the turning point of the page in the book. That's when you go from, we're rebuilding for the terrible Leafs, to, okay, now it's about winning.

We got the guy to come here. Now we're on the other side of this whole thing. Because this entire decade was this leading up to this moment where it's okay, we did all that nonsense and that losing, getting Matthews, getting Nylander, getting rid of all the other guys, to reach this point where we can sign the top free agent, the top center who's available, and have him on the line. Most expensive free agent contract in NHL history. NHL history, and now he's our captain. That's why July 1st, 2018 is the most important Leafs moment of the decade. It's good that you brought up Nylander, Matthews, Marner. Those are all guys who had to be here.

John Tavares didn't. He chose to be here. It's a beautiful thing. What is yours? Mine is very me. James Reimer. I wrote a book. April Reimer tweeted me once, so it was cool.

She's tweeted me several times, actually, on behalf of James. Okay, first of all, my friend, April Reimer, will not be slandered on my show, actually. No, he will not slander my friend. Did James Reimer read your book? Yeah, he did. And now look at him, playing some of the best hockey of his life. Get my book, you'll become amazing. My favorite moment, or the moment to me that defined the decade,

For one This happened May 2013 May 2013 Boston Game 7 The Leafs make it 4-1 Oh why are you doing this What the

Can we go back to the This is the top moment The top moment man This is my You're asking me my top moment Adam it was the happiest I'd ever been In that entire decade For one fleeting moment, I thought this garbage heap, this team of bums, was actually going

to beat Boston. They were going to come back from three games down to one. And I thought they were going to serve it to them, in their building! After all that crap they talked, after how terrible the team looked all season, I thought that my goalie and his band of merry men, with Nazem Kadri, finally on the top line Because Bozak was hurt, and that's the only reason that it happened. I thought, for a fleeting moment, they were going to do it. And that, to me, was my moment.

Who scored the goal to make it 4-1? I can't remember if it was Kadri second and Kessel first, or the opposite. Because they happened so close together. I think it was Kadri who scored the 4-1 goal. Kessel to Kadri. And when Kadri pots that, that's the happiest moment. That's your top moment of the decade? I just remember being flabbergasted.

Like, when the 3-1 goal went in, because it was 2-1 heading into the third. When the 3-1 goal went in, all of us were like, oh shit, what? Because I was in Maple Leaf Square. And we were like, wow, they could totally screw that up. But I am also very surprised that they have a 2-goal lead right now. Giving up a 3-goal lead in one period was freaking unheard of. it actually quickly came into fashion after that yeah but i just remember in that moment in that isolated moment it's like my robin hood movie thing it's if if i just didn't have to see

the end of the movie for one shining moment i thought the leafs were gonna do it that pretty much sums up being a leaf fan you know i wonder i was wondering what you're telling that story If you could have told yourself in that 4-1 moment What would have happened next And then with Washington Not just then But in the years following The 18-wheeler going off the cliff

The 18-wheeler going off the cliff again The rebuild Peter Horacek Losing to Washington Losing to Boston You're going to drink on camera a lot Would you have continued your YouTube channel If you knew what kind of pain was ahead

Oh I don't know Like, if you could see into the future and know how much pain was ahead. I don't know. I think. Because we're not out of the woods yet. Like, they're not even in a playoff spot as we record this. I couldn't have known. It wouldn't have been the same because I think part of what made the videos great for a while,

like sort of in that little era, was my utter befuddlement with how they found a way to lose. 9-2 Nashville. Every game. Turning point. Every game. Yeah, they could never just lose. they had to allow Taylor Beck to score three points. And a friggin' 9-2 loss to the Predators.

Like the Matthews game that opened the season versus Ottawa. He had the best debut in over a century, thousands of people, and they lost because he blew his defensive assignment in overtime? That is the most Leafs thing that has ever happened on this planet. Yes, Adam? I'm going to give it to Connor Brown, tipping the goal in past the Penguins, to the Leafs to clinch the playoffs in 16-17. Yeah.

That was, and again, you could give it to Bozak when they scored and went up 2-1 on Washington. Or even Kapanen scoring the double OT winner. Yeah, that could be, you could give it to that too. But I think when Connor Brown did it, the relief and the joy, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it. Oh, yeah.

The relief and the joy and the, oh my God, we finally at least are going back to it. Like, thank goodness. Honorable mentions too, Matthew's four-goal debut, I think. Babcock's hiring yeah huge Lou Lamorello's hiring

I remember being I remember being like that's weird it was different for me because it was on the day of Smash Fest so all the reporters were like

just scrambling over from the Lou Lamorello press conference right there were a lot of people who found out

Lou Lamorello had been hired before they knew he'd left the Devils wow it happened that fast damn I'll give an honorable

mention to something that happened during that Pittsburgh game Curtis McElhinney's save at the end of it. Yeah. Because Connor Brown gave him the lead

but they still could have screwed it up. It doesn't have the save. Yes. And it was an unbelievable save but no one remembers the save. Everyone remembers the goal. Yeah.

Oh, I think plenty of people remember the save. I think that's a Steve Bang thing. It's downtown Connor Brown. It's the Connor Brown game. Yeah. And just the... I remember the crowd shot

they had. They panned over the crowd and just people lost their minds. Oh, no! Yeah, just lost their absolute minds. Anyway, so that is

Top Leafs moment of the decade. Hopefully, when we're doing this in 2029, it's better. It's at least the playoffs. All right. So they made the second round one. Yeah. S-T-E-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle, at Adam W-Y-L-D-E, and at Jesse Blake. Brought to you by Panago Pizza. Order at Panago.com and stuff your face with deliciousness. Connection complete.