The Steve Dangle Podcast - WHAT DO YOU WANT? with Eric Lindros | February 28, 2023

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

On this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast, Steve, Adam, and Jesse chat with Eric Lindros about his charity work with Easter Seals Ontario, the state of the Philadelphia Flyers, playing in tough marketplaces, and more! Recorded: February 28, 2023 Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. Any opinion expressed is not advice, a promise or suggestion that increases the chance of winning. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly. To learn more, visit: https://help.sportsinteraction.com/hc/en-us/articles/216779528-Responsible-Gaming-Self-Limitation-Self-Exclusion Or if you have concerns about a gambling problem, call ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600. Ontario Only. Must be 19+ or older to play. Visit this episode's sponsors: https://sportsinteraction.com/sdpn https://www.onepeloton.ca/home-trial https://betterhelp.com/sdp Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Steve Dangle Podcast, powered by Sports Interaction. Want to bet? Spank Andy. Woo! S-D-P-P. The Steve Dangle Podcast, with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go! All right, so we promised you this, and he's here.

Ladies and gentlemen, Eric Lindros. Woo! How we doing, guys? good to be here so first i think we got to talk about first um the two of you do such great work with easter seals we know your tournament your tournament's amazing but there's a huge number associated with what the kind of money that you guys are raising here and it's such an important thing steve you can speak to the family element in a second but eric can you you were just talking off air about this this the fundraising number that you guys hit yeah so we've uh we hit three

and a half million um which is a big that's a big digit not just raised it but if you look at how the money is uh is is worked through it uh our cost is about 22 so 78 of of every dollar raise gets directly to the easter seals and that's uh that's significant wow yeah and that that is high like you there have been some like controversies recently you hear about organizations giving up like i don't know they're only only like 10 or 20 percent of the money goes through it's normal that it's like eight they're running 80 90 cost if you're at about like what's normal like 50 something like that and around there i would yeah yeah so the fact that we're sports organizations ones though we're almost at 80 our goal every year is to hit 80 it is very hard to do with the rise

of insurance and the cost of ice and whatnot but we've got some wonderful sponsors we've got people that have come uh back uh and supported us for what we're doing this 11 years now uh yeah it's i missed the first half yeah yeah but since dangles showed up uh geez our fundraising's gone you know it's been it's been incredible he's been our lead fundraiser oh geez i'm gonna say the last six years wow every year you get like a little cup right and the first first overall pick too and that's all by the way we're watching and listening and donating that's it is it more is it more than a little different forum than the draw from the average guy but he does a great job doing it hello yeah is it six championships it's uh i don't know if we've gotten the team

championship every year there's a team every year but you have yeah yeah individually it's been good but if it's not the team then you know what's the point what's the point is it well we have fun too doing it right oh yeah it's a good time we went to scotia bank uh um the scotia pond this year and changed up where we uh where we host it and it's it worked out really well uh john cook did a great job with us and uh and gave us everything we needed and yeah we're looking forward to next year a question when you see some of the guys that that you know you played with in this tournament now like john leclerc was there this year uh ray bork and john leclerc comes every year he drives all the way he hates flying oh yeah he'd rather spend uh the time in his car he says listen by

the time i get to the airport by the time i check in by the time i fly by the time i get in toronto and sit in your traffic i'd rather your trap oh yeah you should hear him point you see him point the finger at the traffic right um he'd rather be in his car and uh that's the way he rolls he's not afraid of the eight-hour trip and he shows up every year never takes any appearance money he's just a fantastic guy just fantastic and i just you know i i wonder like you guys played at the top top level together um is it fun seeing where those guys are all at now in terms of their sure no we're horrible michael redford came over too right yes he was over here this year too and then we went and played in that hall of fame game and we were horrible that's kind of tough

hey play in the tournament like the whole day because you well you play with everybody yeah now yeah but uh like that day is a lot of that's a lot of hockey right and then you have the hall of fame game which i assume is a little bit more difficult than playing against well you know what it was it was fun it was great so we try and time it when the hall of fame is is uh is having their weekend uh so we don't have to um i mean if they're already going to be there let's come on over for easter seals we don't have to pay for your flight we're trying to save a few we got an 80 here to hit yeah we do but that's how we think that's that's brilliant that's how you do it we got ray bork this year ray yes and great you know ray's just such a classy classy guy uh he's he's

he's funny he's intense you know you still see him out in the ice and he's you know he wants to win even in these little you know charitable games he's uh uh yeah it's time to turn it on a little bit and ray can still go he he can still go i played uh left wing which was great because ray would just pass me with the puck and i would be like great job ray and that would be my contribution how many times a year do you hit the ice because i saw you make a goal line to blue line backhand sauce pass and it was fucking fantastic disgusting it was gorgeous and but you don't hit the ice that often right i do oh you do okay so we've got a group that skates tuesdays and thursday mornings over uh north toronto arena and we've been i've been running

that we've been running that skate the thursday skate since i retired and uh the tuesday skate uh i think it's been about five four four years now wow and there's some yeah there's good players out there there's yeah do you still do you still want to win when you play that for sure everybody there's no point in playing unless you you know you you want to is it the end all be all you know but does it affect your day yes that's the way it is and i bet you that that that goes for everybody in those dressing rooms when we come and play we have a great time doing it but it's you know you want to win you want to play well and you're a coach now too oh just the young punks and uh i'm learning quite a bit about

how this minor hockey works uh getting uh a real it's it's changed a bit it has changed a lot and things are happening way quicker than i than i thought but um and you know what used to be the norm or how you could uh you know uh maintain discipline i think uh it's just parents are really cooperative it's pretty soft out there right yeah there's some areas that there's some there's some situations where it's it's it's soft i don't know i didn't know how to verbalize it earlier but it's um i like that you'll still you're just telling us off the mic again that you'll still be like hey that's not good enough and if you do it again you're bad it's not that it's not good enough and i'm talking about we have eight-year-old kids on our my my older son's team

and i've benched my son before for sure you know if you don't you that you get benched i've taken them right out of a game for for um disciplinary reasons right like that's normal and they get how we grew up and then they change right yeah then they change you're out there you don't take a two-minute shift no one has a two-minute shift when it's time to change and you hear that door rattle get your butt off yeah i like that and you have to learn those lessons you're gonna miss your little rotation the next time you know even sitting in line and listening to what a coach has to say or you know and i've got really good coaches with us um you know pay attention if you you know don't be playing around it doesn't matter who's first in line like all these little things

because what it does is just allows the all the rest of the other kids not to be distracted by you know the rustling and the tussling that's going on uh by by three or four so get it straightened out and uh your team will be better off i like that yeah and if you learn those lessons early then when you're in your teen years you won't have them you know you'll know you would hope you would hope yeah you would hope i don't think you're playing hockey in the teens if you haven't figured this out pretty quick all right so so i gotta ask you about like there's obviously so much we want to talk about it's trade deadline week trade deadline yeah and i i want to know for you like yeah i mean you were never traded at trade deadline no i was waiting one year yeah

so can we stick i want to i want to hit that because i can remember that year yeah and here's here's what i remember i remember dying to see eric lindros as a leaf oh we were dying and i remember pat quinn going to the media here in toronto this is a big day this is where i went out and like she actually like bought a newspaper at 12 years old and and pat quinn going to the media and saying we had a deal and bobby clark walked it back that's what i remember now i can't remember if that was an off season or whatever no it was trade though it was trade deadline and bobby clark then came out and said i'm not trading for a player with a fucking broken back or something like that and i think he was referring to danny markov because it was supposed to be

danny markov was supposed to be included in that deal and then i guess he flipped it at the last second and said no we want cabriolet instead so pat quinn and bobby clark had it out what was your what was your feeling around that what did you know like what you don't know anything you don't know anything you really don't it's the same as uh that arbitration at the after the draft and and being picked you're in the dark right you're just waiting so um is it stressful yeah yeah for sure it's stressful it's i mean you want to play you want to get out and play and and uh and and move on and and and and and start over and and have a great time and uh yeah uh it's it's it's tricky one of the great things about the easter seals tournament is sometimes you you

you get to hear stories in the locker room behind the scenes oh yeah well that's the best part right Oh, 100%. The wildest one for me, I didn't know this, is Ray Bork said the deadline that he went from Boston to Colorado, he thought in his heart that he was going to Philly. Yes, I know. I know. So what happened there? Why didn't it work? I don't know.

Same with Cujo, right? Cujo, I had talked to Cujo up to, you know, free agent signing. Everything, I thought everything was set. I thought we were in good shape. From Edmonton to, it would have been Edmonton to Philly? In Toronto, he ended up starting in, uh, in Toronto, uh, that, you know, he had a, he said that, listen, I got my Flyers hat right here. I'm ready.

And the next. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that didn't work. I'm sure you're not. No offense to, you know, it's, it's whatever, uh, Kucho would have been a very big part of our team. Oh yeah.

Very big part of our team. So that was disappointing. but anyway we seem to uh we were we were second a lot for some of these things but what do you what do you think a team i've always wondered this because like you know we were talking about a little bit earlier the seattle crack and have kind of surprised in the west west a little weak this year but do you think that like what does a team need to do for a general manager to deserve by general manager standards to deserve getting an upgrade at the deadline what do you want to see is it is it is it placed in the standings is it how you play like you know because some gms

will be like yeah i don't feel like they earned it like the leafs when they dropped the david ayers game that's when they said we're not signing bogosian and we're not going to make any trades at the trade deadline didn't matter anyway it was covet season but um you know those are the types of things that gms when you watch hockey you watch it differently than the rest of us what are you i don't know if i watch it any differently than the rest are you yelling at the screen yeah i mean like be more specific with what you're you're saying well is it go time and when is it time to sell when is it time to hold yeah how do you know that's a tricky one i mean that's why GMs are GMs and it's not the easiest job in the world.

It's a real, it's, it's, it's hard. It's chemistry. It's trying to figure out what pieces will work together. It's doing your homework. It's having,

it's trusting your scouts, trusting your pro scouts beyond belief as to what during the season will be a good mix. You know, bringing in certain personalities and making them just because everybody's so good on paper, it doesn't mean that necessarily works when it, when it's a,

and it's time to put the, put the skates on. So having that, having a wonderful group that you can go to that's you know and sometimes they got to change it up right like having the same old guard all the time does not necessarily work yeah um uh getting fresh people in it'd be a really cool to see if you could set up some sort of scenario where you could judge scouts or rate scouts where they could be associated with a certain player that player goes you know you and you follow him for 10 years and that what did that scout say

about that particular player like everything was kind of public so that right you could actually create a scouts could create a market for themselves and and you know you put you associate your name with a certain player then and that player does really well and you do that with a whole bunch of players that are you know in the third fourth fifth rounds that really do do great well then you're coveted there there was that uh i want to say swedish scout with detroit who was credited with finding like zetterberg and holmstrom and can't remember if it was but the key thing with that was in the rules they didn't have to bring them over until they were 21 or 22 that was the difference because now you're bringing over there if you check out

their rookie years they're coming over at 20 i think it was 21 right they're men they've already they played pro for three years 18 19 20 they're not kids they're not kids anymore they're playing in there in swedish elite league which is a good league right so when they're getting and they're bringing them in they're they're refined they're it's not uh you know you're not getting the chevy impala you're you're getting the smooth driving you know no offense to chevy yeah if you're listening you're getting and you're driving impala let me go back to chevy then you're going you're getting more you're getting more of the cadillac well so i i think you know uh as fans obviously we follow trade deadline closely and that sort

of thing and and you know one of the one of the biggest stories not just um not just right now but this year has been the flyers and i mean i think we've played five five six oh sorry go five six weeks in a row we've been playing torts clips yeah um just why did hayes get uh why did they bench hayes i i why did they bench half the guys on that team well i mean the hayes one i did not quite understand no he was the leading scorer at the time and john torrella But listen, but if he's not playing up to par, I mean, I, and I didn't watch enough to know. I didn't, but it was really a weird one for me. They didn't talk about it either.

Like they, they benched Sanheim with his family, uh, in a period. Cause they're from Manitoba. They benched him right before the Calgary flames game. And he took warmup. And I believe he played junior with the hitman. Yeah. So he's like, you know, huge connection to the area. Like what?

Yeah. There's some weird things. And you know what? You see this a lot. It's gone on for years, but a coach never looks bad. when he goes and benches a top end player right because the players yeah they're going to come back and do really great and oh my god i benched him and he's gonna he's flourished now right or he does he he he does horribly and well that's why i benched him right because no it's not it's a win

win like i don't i don't get it like it's just it was a weird one for me but i i'm you know obviously i'm not in the dressing room i don't know what's going on but all these well the flyers were team though we've talked about this a lot i'm not talking specifically no no no no we know but i mean like they are a team with an identity there's a brand like boston's got a brand philadelphia philadelphia is a brand broad street bullies you guys legion of doom you guys were scary to play against um nobody you know what do they call that the uh in the 70s the philadelphia flu where guys would just magically become sick the philly flu yeah so like you know when you look at the flyers who i'm sure there's a huge emotional attachment to still sure you want them

the win what do you what do you think where do you even go where do you start well what's the plan what do you think the plan i don't know i haven't heard a plan i don't know what the plan is so i can't you can't unless there's you know you you say i'm going to accomplish this and these are my my three or four principal core values or goals uh and you say that publicly how do we assessed what your what your what your plan is and they haven't done that i don't know i mean i haven't heard it so i don't know i i mean and success helps right and they've had a lot of injuries you know let's not kid ourselves there's been uh you know missing uh cruises is a big one and ellis and whatnot but listen i ellis has probably done it right like let's not keep using

the old can't use that as an excuse well and then so now you've got you're in this position you're not making the playoffs right so what are you what are you doing how are you going to better yourself for next year how are you going to get yourself in a better position come draft time where you can i mean that's all you got left right you got draft and you got you got free agency and like they don't really have a franchise face but they've spent all this money in the offseason on you know because ellis looks like he's done they spent big on ristelainen they spent big on D'Angelo. D'Angelo I like.

That guy's got, I like him. Plays with fire. He plays, you need it. There's not enough, I don't know if the term's animosity or, I mean, it would be hate in the league. There's very little of that. I don't see the.

Aggression. There isn't, there's not that much. I mean, I look at that, you know, look at the Calgary, two weeks ago, Calgary Ranger game. Oh yeah. We're all talking about it, right? Everyone's talking about it.

Great game. Why? Physical, you know, great scoring, lots of good goaltending some wonderful plays um but there is there is hate there is a little bit of anger yeah i don't understand why a guy when he makes a clean hit like eight on the rangers did there uh the captain truba yeah he and he feels that he has to fight right after he makes a clean hit that to me is ridiculous there's got to be the guy that comes up to challenge he should you know two minute go sit in the box especially what do you like you don't even fight kid like right

right i don't remember who it was just like don't bother dube i think it was still in dube yeah and i get him trying to stick up for his teammate and all they don't blah blah blah but no don't don't that was a clean hit that's part of hockey that's part of hockey we can do without you don't need the fighting yeah i'm trying to think during your career did did you ever encounter a scenario like the current flyers where the coach is essentially the face of the franchise huh no no we had good we had good players we had good uh we had we had good players um it is a bit strange yeah you know when they're you know i mean i work for the team a little bit um in an ambassador role so i don't you know it's it's hard to it's hard it must be difficult to

market it must be difficult to um you know to keep uh keep your season uh ticket people happy your box is full well and the thing about flyers fans is they're not really shy to tell you they're not shy to tell you and you know what they know hockey they know when things are going the way they should they're not they're not fools they're passionate i don't know if you check the name on your license i don't think you're gonna lose your ambassador role you never know well it's it's you know it's difficult because you know uh the flyers are one of the more marketable teams in the nhl too right like you're talking about a team that's that's a great place to play it when you're rocking yeah you're getting into playoff time it is i can't think of another spot you'd rather be

it's i mean you can do your leaf nation bit here but i'm telling you philly is philly's intense it's good it's fun yeah yeah the league's better when they're good you know it's more exciting when philly's a place to be in a destination they're actually playing well yeah it's a shame that right now they're in this malaise where they're just kind of treading water and not really going in any direction right they're not bad enough to be in the bedard sweepstakes sorry sweepstakes really but they're not good enough to be in the playoff picture right and that is they're not even close to the playoff picture right no they're not how do you like what's st louis doing right retool okay and they're grabbing

not just retooling and grabbing draft picks they're getting players they're getting pricks oh yeah like they're getting think about no they are i thought you mispronounced picks i've got what they have here but no they're they're looking at their identity and they're going back to you know five years ago when they won four years ago uh 2019 yeah four years okay what was our identity then they were big and miserable to play against right yeah what are they doing now retooling in that direction and they've got two like i've got kairu and robert thomas locked up to long-term deals so you probably want to have players that mix that but here's what they've got here's what they picked up just this trade deadline oh this this tweets

So they've traded Tarasenko, Mikola, O'Reilly, Achari, and Barbashev. They've got a first in 2023, another conditional first in 2023, second in 2024, third in 2023, a fourth in 2024, which is conditional. And then Zach Dean, Sammy Blay, Hunter Skinner, Mikhail Abramov, and Adam Gaudet. Wow. And we're in the Timo Meier sweepstake. And Kapanen off waivers, too. That's true. They did take Kapanen.

Doug, he's active, which is good. Yeah. You know, because they need to go in some sort of direction because what they have right now wasn't working. and now he's actively trying to do something with the roster which is good to see was there um uh i want was there a team at when you can remember philadelphia you know when you roll it in town was there any building that you were like shit i don't want to i don't know if i want to play here or i don't know if i want to play against these guys or play against the guys play against play against the guys like who are the tough guys to really play against that wouldn't just give you

a headache like oh man like annoying there it wasn't like it was different though back then because you'd have fighters right so you'd roll into st louis and there's tony twist down the hallway it's great big dumbbells just like pump iron before the game when you see him down the hallway and you know then there's also you know who else is there is kelly chase right that's right and they all called it the race to chase because no one wanted to fight twist so you know like it didn't affect you know i didn't you know whatever you go to detroit you know hey bob how you doing you having a good day let's have a you know keep it real all right no problem good you know done you know so no there wasn't a city you there was no we didn't you guys

might have been the city we weren't there wasn't a lot of fear that at all out of we were we had we had a real good balanced group for the most part we had uh we never went through a season where we didn't feel that we had teamed up no we felt like we had lacked it so let's talk about i mean you were with toronto obviously it was a boyhood dream or at least that's what we were told i don't know yeah it was and when you watch the leafs now because you live here what do you see they're skilled they are um i mean i look at muzzin as being such a big part of this right if that if muzzin was in the picture with all this it would be i think you got i think you're that's that's a huge factor um listen do they play does the league we all know that the the rules kind of

change a little bit come playoff time yeah and what is a penalty during the regular season is possibly a penalty in the playoffs likely not possibly not um how does that group adapt to when they go and get stuff right um that's i don't know but riley's you know he's he's solid Achari too I'm surprised by how much I like him I hated him on the Bruins I also did That's probably why we like him

Those are the guys that you need The playoff toughness thing Is something that has been a narrative In this era of the Leafs because they are so highly skilled And Dubas has never really fully solved it You know because they haven't really won anything Listen Chris King and that group They run the level of how things are going to be called

And if you don't adapt to that then you don't win right right it makes it a lot harder yeah if you were staring down tampa and you're on the toronto maple leafs right now yeah what's your what's your way through i don't know because that's a team that's tough they're good they're tough i mean you look at maroon like oh yeah he gets it done yeah he doesn't just chirp and scrap he's potting goals he's making he's making his he does a lot of really nice passing on his his exits out of his uh out of his own zone like if you he doesn't he makes a lot of really good that third pass right or a second pass uh he's he's he does a lot more than people give him credit for yeah um but and you know you

look at the they've got guys that just grind yeah they just grind and they go where are you they wear on you and just when you think you're you know you've you've got a little bit of daylight then you're you know you're you're looking at headman right you're looking yeah they're just so they're so good to your point about maroon the last stanley cup final he wasn't in was 2018 isn't that crazy it was wild yeah no absolutely three in a row and then uh you know fell off the wagon there for last year oh nuts you can't win it every single year but oh gosh no he's like they've got all their parts going uh who is a former captain of uh the generals uh sorelli yeah yeah i mean they're just they they're skilled but when it's time to to hit that

let's get dirty boys let's get let's get let's get right down to it they're there they can do everything and it's led by the guys up front like kucherov's a tough player stamkos is a tough player like and then all the other guys follow suit kucherov loses his mind yeah like you he's an assassin sometimes i think you could say dirty yeah straight up a dirty player but like he's one of the best yeah he's one of the best yeah and yeah have you guys talked about his uh the after they won um when you know they're sat an entire year and then started playing well no memory Well, no, after they, they, they won his press conference after, you know, two years ago, that was amazing.

I just, I still. Number one bullshit. Just called it right out. It was, it was that, it was amazing. That was great. That really was. Yeah. So, so.

And their coach seems to just year after year. He doesn't get tired. Relate to them and extract, you know, what looks like everything that they have to offer. and he's been there like 10 years and hasn't gotten still exactly yeah that's hard so when you're when you're getting coached by a guy and if you're having like an off game and the coach is giving you shit how do they get the best out of you versus somebody that just can't get through to you you know from your day a lot of a lot of it has to do with getting to know each player and

everyone is different we're all different people you know it's the same thing as as physical training and and you know the old days are you know everyone goes and has the same bike program no it's not the way it works you know some guys have got the ability to ride a bike for 50 hours and other guys can't you know do a sprint and you know everyone's a bit different so how much do you know about that person's life are you asking questions are you hanging out a little bit is there is there some sort of connect that that you can you can draw from where you can it's not just nexus and those things it's more you gotta figure out what makes each person tick and go to your tool of tricks and figure out a way to to extract that's what it that's i mean

that's what great coaching is what made you guys take legion of doom that sort of thing what made you what what fired you guys up we just had fun together yeah that part was you know that that's the i think that's the biggest key to any team doing well is or line or whatever and hopefully team but having fun and when the team's having fun you're going into listen each schedule as good as one schedule may be there's always points in that you know especially you know now in the season where it's kind of those dog days of hockey is you know late late february and it's you know it's finding that way when you get off the bus after a long road trip uh you know and you're going into a crappy little practice rink that's dripping water and it's just stinks and you know

it's like what how can we have fun now like what are we going to do for the next hour and a half that's going to you know get us ready for the game and it's being creative and and coming up with different ideas to, you know, to, to absorb pop this week, more than probably any other in the season, you're going to have players walking into walls and stuff like that, you know, distracted by the trade news and stuff. Did you ever have to tell guys like mid game,

like, Hey, you know, you're not getting traded right now, right? Like we, we, we got a game to win here. We never had that. No, never had that problem. Oh, I never thought of the line. Was there a different way to say it? Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, maybe more diplomatic. Wake the fuck up. Get your shit together. You kind of stink tonight? I'd be a Johnny LeClair line. Wake up. He just has that presence where all he has to do is give you a look. And I actually saw him do it to you.

Because we got you on the team and I was like, you know what, man? if you could wear the leafs jersey that'd be sick and you're like yeah for sure but i noticed the flyers jersey was hanging in the stall i'm like okay interesting you put the leafs jersey on our first game was against john leclerc's team and he just looked at you and went really and you went yeah you're right you just turned around and put on your you're right he's a great guy what kind of a difference in play is there from the regular season the playoffs like not just the reffing i've heard it kicks up it's noticeable it is there is it's it's an intensity it's not that everything is just done with more purpose and

and and you know attention to detail there's just a real fiery it's just super super intense i don't know how else to describe it i'm running dialed you're right into it and you don't leave it at the rink too you're going home and you're thinking about it the night before and then you know if you're not playing then the other half the other you know the first round half the other group's playing and you're it's hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey and even when you're at home sometimes they have you stay at the hotel and so you're together now you're like you're in like you go home to go get some fresh or go pick up a fresh shirt or you know a blazer or something that's about all you're doing right it's it's go

time so it's it's this it's it's interesting it's uh it's an intense time yeah did you watch games like in your off time yeah yeah i it always whenever a team gets eliminated or whatever and they're like oh i haven't been watching the play no not not that much no i don't want you done now i watch i watch a little bit but uh not not why is that i don't know this wasn't if you're not in it all right yeah fuck it i imagine it'd make you a little i never understood cheerleaders right well you're on a podcast with him now i guess it's like showing up to work on your off day for you it's just uh yeah you know you'd watch the final you see you know you see some great

good really good stuff obviously you watch you know what's going on you watch the highlights and things like that i did anyway but everyone's different i guess of course yeah yeah well i i've it's just it's funny because you know you had some deep runs and then unfortunately in toronto it just you know that was just a beginning of the really lean years you're killing them but then you go to new york and i've always wanted to ask you about new york because i've heard it's a really we had kipper on years ago he said it's really i was in new york before toronto oh new york before toronto that's right that's where you really got so i heard it's a really special place to play and i just kind of wonder what your experience was like that you know the

city is the city is the city rangers fans are intense good fans real good fans wonderful building like historic it's just it's great it's a not the best ice quality i can always bug adam graves and adam graves is another guy that shows up at easter seals all the time every year every year uh you know gravy has scored 50 in the madison square that's like scoring 70 in toronto because the ice is you know you never know when the the the circus has come in and yeah stick handling over a bunch of elephant uh stuff yeah stuff um no but it's true like there was uh it was it was it's just a it's a it's a cool spot and you never know who's in the crowd and and you know it was just it's new york and there's a real i think it's hard to win

as a ranger playing at home because everyone's kind of amped up same way in toronto toronto's When you play in Toronto for the Maple Leafs, it's not the easiest place to have it. The guys are coming in Toronto. They know Toronto's a mecca. They want to do well. We hear that a lot, that it's hard to play here. Why is that?

Hard to come in? No, I'm just saying that when a road team comes in, they want to do really well. Toronto's the spot. I thought I didn't mean it the other way. Sometimes star players don't want to come in. then go play in arizona bye all right oh beautiful no i know i mean listen you played in like three of the biggest markets in the sport i know about it you like remember that restaurant called the

canary yes so in toronto we'd go stop at the canary for breakfast you know after a game on your way down to the lake shore arena or whatever and everyone in that spot knew that from the night before they're all reading the paper they're all watching that oh yeah they don't know if you had a stinker or a great game the night before even when you're getting your night like it's and that's there's that's good you know you want to do well you don't go like it's yeah you want to go hide well because i keep the places to hide what do they always say what's it brian burke always says it's like they got eight teams in the no trade and it's all the canadian teams in buffalo basically yeah and and toronto is always interesting because there's a lot of there has

been in the past hometown kids that don't want to come home yeah right so it's that's why i don't get it i just think it's so much fun when you're doing really well it's uh and even when it's you know some tougher times it makes those those good times wash it so far down the river it's uh it's a there's special places to play what's another special place do you think i'd love montreal would be great oh yeah yeah i mean i remember sitting in montreal and i was with i think it was with no rangers no i was with philly and we were up three to one going into the uh and we just finished uh the intermission you're going back to the bench and you're getting ready to start the second period and we had scored uh two power play goals and i was on for a goal against and

this guy's yelling from the stand you may have two points in the dress but you are still minus one i wonder what he's doing now but that's but isn't that amazing that's awesome that's a hardcore fan yes you don't know plus minus stats that's that's fun right you came up you came up in in and and really i mean at your peak were like it was like the peak of the dead puck era too thank you to the new jersey doubles for that but i i want to know there were some great goalies in your generation amazing hasik who was the best one hasik brother hasik hasik and brader i really i think where they were i mean yeah i think they're they seem to rise to the occasion they love the they love the attention which i think that helps

i think you need to i think goalies are they they need to kind of get a little bit of sunshine and and they they thrive under it um yeah those are two real special and for a different reason right you got dom who's he's gonna do let's stop it no it's completely unorthodox and then you've got uh you know more of your your your normal style uh goaltender with smaller pads quick um but also because of the rules and the way that they could they held up uh their defense held up so well when you went into fortune he really worked on his thinking and brodeur might he was fantastic yeah we remember the leafs played him a couple years ago playoffs i mean the trapezoid thing behind the net is because of marty brodeur he's too good at it yeah it's just too damn good

well no the trapezoid thing is because the rules oh okay were such that if you held up and ken danico wanted to make sure that you're gonna stay in the blue line and that puck you know you're there and you can hold hook hold whatever whoever that defenseman was then their whole team was very good at it right then there's time for whoever to do whatever they wanted behind sooner or later that puck's gonna get behind the net so it didn't matter if the trapezoid was in there were you part of the 96 all-star game where hasik stood on his uh freaking brain and nolan scored that goal against him finally the point yeah yeah wasn't i guess you would have been were you on his team or against them must have been on you must have been on right east it was east west yeah

yeah what was what were you guys saying on the bench he stopped like 30 shots it's the all-star all-star i know it's the all-star game but it's like the only one i ever remember being competitive yeah he's supposed to do that he's doing his job just another day hey is there anything is there anything they can do to make don't look surprised boys that's why it's here honestly it's like when a couple of bad men's leagues teams get a like a ringer goalie yeah right just one yeah what oh us yeah us what what can you what can they do to make the all-star game i don't know i watch that thing and it's it's it's hard you know you've got players are

running out of excuses i think you just i don't know what you do maybe so it's a celebration of acknowledging who's had a really good start to the year or the first 50 games or so right so you've got that you want to bring in your marketing people and you want to have a bit of a party for all your, your league sponsors. So you've got that. The game itself just doesn't, it doesn't make sense. The, the, as much as you try to dress up those

shootouts and you know, no, it doesn't, it doesn't, I don't see it anyway. I don't, I don't, I don't get it. Some of that three on three is exciting. Yeah. There's some good plays there, but is it, you know it's not competitive no no it's not um but so maybe just have a party you know let's honestly no hockey no hockey or whatever like do whatever like i don't know how

you set it up competition family feud anything but just bring in a bring in the group yeah and and acknowledge each one that's had a great start to the season and maybe you just i mean it's just not it's just not great yeah there's no reason to watch the game there isn't i like the party idea the party i'm sure and then you got you got your marketing group that's happy right and there's things to do at the at the at the party you know you could set up shooting competitions you could do you know crazy whatever you wanted to do you can get creative that way but the game itself in the skills competition yeah i like watching harder shot i like watching the accuracy I like

watching the speed yeah those things yes right but make a party around something that's like that yeah maybe it's just the skills competition because yeah that's been more exciting than the game on Saturday

as the Friday skills competition. Is it true that everybody's hung over for the game on Sunday anyway? I couldn't tell you no you can't I can 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 want to bet yep then get into the action it's sports interaction whatever your sport sports interaction has you covered that pre-game in-game or on one of the many unique prop bets head to sportsinteraction.com slash sdbn or in ontario download the app now using our qr code at the bottom of the screen 19 plus please play responsibly 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 um you know i i uh so in chris chalios's book he talks about what stevie eisman was like as a captain and i guess if you had a bad game steve eisman would would glare at you from across the dressing room and there are players who have stories out there of like averting their eyes because they didn't want stevie staring at them after a game what kind of captain were you i don't know i didn't uh did you like if they had a shit that's up for a guy like uh that's goofy to write a book are you gonna write one no i'm good um good call yeah no i don't think it's too long well listen it's just no need certain things just don't need to occur okay um no um no you're you gotta be

intense without intensity and without purpose and without accountability but it's a fine line of you know i don't know like the coach comes in and i got you know part of you is to build up a guy too right it's not just rip them rip the shit out of people that's not never gets you anywhere it's like it's like you gotta if the coach comes in and you think that he's excessively hard on some younger kid that you know it's just you know uh you get you know you make sure you get over there you invite them out for dinner you do whatever you need to do to to balance it out and to make sure that the next game that they're they're at the best they're at the they're they're at their mental best to be able to go and physically play you know right honestly no yeah there's it's one

to take somebody down but you got to also bring them up yeah right you got to be you got to have some positives there you got to when and when you're shit you got to call yourself out like when you're bad you got to get upset with yourself yeah no i just i wouldn't imagine that that's the only thing stevie did but i just i've always wondered because you at least in our dressing rooms what we've talked to you you're just a really like happy fun fun guy cracking jokes and that sort of thing and i just kind of i love practice yeah oh practice was and i had i sat beside some really funny guys you know uh there's our room i was uh some really good humor in it do you remember oh there's a bunch i mean daniel lacroix he used to come in even before he he got

in and uh he was an artist and he could do cartoons of funny scenarios and make fun of coaches and like it was unbelievable what he would draw it was really quite good well keith jones is one of the he's got some terrific dry humor johnny's flat out you know oh my god you said that yes you know what he's like absolutely there was a bunch of guys you know there was a good there was a good group and every dressing room this guy seems to have a you know a lots of humor everyone kind of finds their their role in it but it's it's fun it is it's a good time and then when it's it's go time for uh for games uh no none of that shit really uh comes out that much right yeah how how important is it for the guys in the locker room to like each other like is is that a

key to success or can you hate each other and still win that's a good question because i that's that's a really good question you know theoretically you'd love everyone to get along but not every you got 20 guys 22 guys 23 guys in that room mathematically it's that's not going to happen right there's there's going to be friction there's always going to be friction you're also battling for for for job right um and what how some guy acts one way is fine with a certain group and how he that he acts that same way and the other you know the other half might look at it differently it depends like so i don't know i don't think you gotta love everybody right i don't think so at all but you gotta respect them and if they're contributing and you respect them and

they're doing their job then let's go you know um like we're all gonna have different political views and we're all gonna have different the game is hockey so whatever the yeah let's go fucking play yeah and you can figure out the rest of it later but when it's time to go we're you know we're there and we got to support each other yeah and and uh we haven't had the chance to talk about this but you know steve longtime resident of oshawa he has uh abandoned them he's since abandoned i'm in ajax now but uh he's creeping west yeah creeping west so he's a creeper you i mean you you spend some pretty significant time with the schwa yeah what was it like you know jenny's in the in the 80s and you know you're a top 80s so yeah uh 89 90 and

by the way you're all over that building you bobby or and john tavaris are everywhere in there still um we had fun in the 80s no way all eight 80s i don't know what happened earlier we were having a good time um we were in that old the odd right with the the low you couldn't flick the puck very higher but he hit the roof yeah oh my god it was like a 40 it was like a 4200 seat arena or four they call it maybe it was like 36 in the you know the fire marshal one yeah yeah six um yeah uh it was so loud in there it was it was a riot and then you know you played peter on a friday night and uh you know the boys got out of uh out of work and they went to the bar and then they you know i'm talking about the people in the stands um they were loud

and vocal and it was intense it was it was great what's that like being 16 and being in a rivalry like it's awesome it's great well i was at st i played it for st mike's so when st mike's rolled in you know you came into st mike's our school the school was behind your team like there was let's you know it was it was on so i was used to that um and it was fun you you you you it helps you you uh you seem to play you play better like you just absorb that energy and you want to go go go it's it's it's the best i mean that's why it's such a big advantage to play at home a friend of mine reached out this past week because i did a video for the jumbotron in oshawa uh for uh the generals did pride night and he reached out to me he's like

that's really cool that you did that also fuck the gens go peets and then you know and that's that is awesome yeah 100 that's why it's but that's awesome that's great yeah you know applaud that celebrate that kind of stuff that's great that's what you want you know we go into peterbro it was no walk in the park no weird building too they still haven't figured out what a corner no no okay explain that guys have they gotten is the queen still up there last i checked yeah okay they got this mural of the queen oh okay okay is it the biggest you've ever seen in your life it's enormous it's an i was there like queen elizabeth just prior to covid yeah liz is liz is up there and it's uh it's probably uh it's probably a 60 by 40. whoa okay so it's big

that's big it's huge it's big and there's like practically no seats on either side of the ice like broadcast side of the ice but on one end behind one of the nets it just goes up really tall yeah yeah but let's talk about the ice itself their corners are they don't roll like a normal corner it's like oh it's like squared off it's good it's very really it's very boxy yes it's and it there's more i can see what you're saying oh what on what the wow those are you're you're not kidding no it's a it's a way different game to play in there right it's strange how is that even possible how does that even allowed i guess it's been like it's been like that for a long time old barn yeah wow it's a wonderful place to go play yeah i mean that's what's so great about

being at peter in oshawa is is you got peterborough close by you got kingston belleville you know ottawa's not that far you know it's it's a it's a real and you got all these universities uh to attend that's it's a great spot to play it really is it's fantastic i will always be an ambassador for oshawa what's your uh go-to order from teddies teddies what's teddy what on earth eric lendross teddies the the famous teddies where they have uh teddies it's it's right the hamburger spot yeah the greek is he greek no no it's like they have just an army of old ladies making pies yeah like turkey dinners no no no who was the guy on brock was it brock up near uh rosland uh and he and he made burgers and he'd yell at you

forget the guy's name what would he yell at you what do you want like it was it was he'd catch you off guard if you weren't used to him oh god Whoa, whoa, whoa, just one. Burger, please. Like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld? He might have started it. It was amazing. Well, now I got to go back to Whitby and try to find the place.

It's Johnny, Johnny Burger. Johnny Burger. Johnny Burger. It rings a bell. Johnny Burger. Go Google it here. You just did a bugger on. He'd scream at you.

What do you want? What do you want? Johnny's Burger. Johnny's Burger. There you go. it's got a four and a five rating that must have been you've never been you lived there for how long 10 years at simcoe street 433 simcoe simcoe oh yeah okay so that's uh okay you never went there no i never went there but now i just i want to go for the experience in there just and

hesitate when you go to order yeah okay i'm not gonna lie all right i'm looking at trip advisor everybody's like and then unpleasant owner rude oh wow there it is but like all these four and five-star rating yeah there's a lot it's great another another another one's a little bit better about it unpretentious the core is fine unpretentious johnny's not writing any hallmark cards anytime soon that's amazing yeah wow wow oh my god eric it's it's it's well this hasn't been any fun at all no no no man listen uh thank you for coming in and sharing your time and and obviously you know for being so great with us with the easter seals uh attorney as well but uh it's been a real pleasure to talk to you we all grew up like watching you worshiping you all that

sort of thing so thank you for for giving some fans some time we really appreciate it oh listen great for how it's wonderful to be here and congratulations to you guys you guys have taken this to the new level the next level and uh you're breaking that news we haven't said anything Yeah, well, let me break it for you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Moving on up. So that's terrific.

It really is. And yeah, joy to be here. I can't wait to come back. It's been a hoot. If the Flyers get pissed off, we'll give you a job. The Steve Dangle Podcast. Powered by Sports Interaction, Canada's sports book. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve underscore Dangle, at Adam W-Y-L-D-E, and at Jesse Blake.

Connection complete.