The Steve Dangle Podcast - Woody | June 13, 2024

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

The Steve Dangle Podcast is LIVE from Boston Pizza in Stouffville!! On this episode, they are joined by former Leaf, Keith Acton who shares stories about Craig Berube, Guy Lafleur, and CuJo, and more. And then the boys take questions from the audience! Join SDP VIP: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7 For general inquiries email: [e-mail] 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

all right ladies and gentlemen boston pizza stovill thank you so much what's going on that's great it is really great to be here tonight like we're we're so excited we've been so excited for this this is a sold-out show in stovill baby that's right that's right Amazing. So it's all great. It's great that you guys are all here. Okay, so here's what I want to do first. Who thinks that they drove the furthest to get here tonight?

Put up your hand. At the very back. If you say Markham, I'm going to be real upset. What was your name? What's your name at the very back? Yeah. Yeah, you. Scream like you're in a room.

The one looking around like it's not you. You have sunglasses on your head. You got brown hair. You had your hand up. You're looking at the back right now. You're the one at the back. No, you. Who can say me?

Yes, you. Peterborough. Peterborough. Wow, that's a heck of a drive. Not that far. All right, do you have one? What do we have here? Mississauga.

Mississauga. Which, I think Mississauga might be further, right? Peterborough? Yes, 100%. It's a worse drive. Yeah, it's painful. Definitely an awful drive. All right, that's good.

That's good. What do we got here? Lindsay. Lindsay. That's true. Lindsay's not easy. Natalie, where are you from? I don't know because you're at every show,

So I'm like, oh, she's from Kingston. Also Vaughn and Bowmanville and now Stouffville. Natalie, where are you from? Campbellford. I don't know where that is. I know you've told us that. Okay. Two hours.

Wow. So listen, thank you for everybody who came from a ways away. I had somebody who said, I'm just on the Richmond Hill side of the border, so I get to pay their taxes. So I'm like, you know, the Richmond Hill taxes. That's really local humor. Yeah, it is. There's a lot of people shuttered there. You need to work on your type five, Adam.

I don't know about this one. Great to be here and stove him. A couple of things I want to do before we get to the interview here. Did everybody see the Utah jersey that came out today? Oh, no. You didn't see it? No. Okay.

More like poo-ta. Okay. Well, here's the thing, Jesse. I don't even really need to give you a picture of it because it's a jersey that is black. Justin Fisher is showing me it right now. And it says Utah on it. Utah Hockey Club. You could have stayed your ass in Arizona if that was going to be your jersey.

Now, here's the thing. I wish they went with more bold colors. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'm going to give them a pass on this because they got to get the jerseys in real quick, right? Because you got to get those printed over the course of the summer, right? You know that from having a book. I do.

Yeah. That's true. So they don't have their logo ready to go, but I feel like it'll be like what the PWHL did next year. They'll have a full logo, full crest. it would have been better if they didn't okay why why what's the problem because it's better to have a jersey with a logo like everyone understands why the pwhl did it that way because they kind of had to but it's not ideal right so when there's an nhl team with a way way way higher budget mind you true you'd like them to get the job done get it it's june for goodness sake it's june you're

telling me you can't get it done by by october come on yeah okay all right jesse what do you think i so they didn't choose a mascot or logo right they didn't yet that's not been announced i think at the draft that'll be announced it's just a guy walking around in the shape of utah like a rectangle or whatever it is yeah for the whole first season and then they'll get a new one if they end up choosing like yetis or what a blizzard or something like that then i'm like why didn't you just wait for that name to make your jersey? Why go ahead with the Utah Hockey Club jersey? But if they just go ahead with Utah Hockey Club for one season,

then I'm like, okay, I don't like the colors. I wish they went with bolder colors. Well, it's Tampa Bay, but with a little San Jose mixed in. Yeah, no, it's not great. It's black, a lot of black on the jersey. Tampa Bay, but like left in the sun. Yeah, not great. Boo.

Yeah, okay, so we're a little boo on the jersey. How are we on the Edmonton Oilers tonight? Yeah! Are we, yes? We got some jerseys here. How are we on the Florida Panthers tonight? Okay, all right. You know what?

You're all right. I'm tired of pretending like the team that I want to win this series the most isn't an asteroid. You know what I mean? If you're a Leaf fan, you shouldn't want either of these teams to win, but whatever. Right. I want the most entertaining hockey. And, you know, I got to say, Connor McDavid's pretty local, right? Oh, shut up.

Come on. No, but he's local. He revoked it. What do you mean he revoked it? He revoked it. He didn't choose to get drafted. You saw his face when he got drafted in Edmonton. You're right.

And I'd sign in Edmonton for 12 and a half. I'd figure it out. Also, we all know McDavid's going to be a Leaf in 2026. That's right. Right? He's coming home, baby. What, like Kawhi? McDavid's coming to Toronto.

That's right. That's right. He come. Oh, we could work on that. We'll work on that one, Adam. Yeah, anyway. All right, so here's the deal. We were here at the behest of the guy whose jersey is hanging up over here.

His name is Keith Acton. Keith Acton obviously played in the NHL and was with the Montreal Canadiens. Won a cup with the Edmonton Oilers. That would be Gretzky's last cup, by the way. And then went on to coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 10 straight years. So if you could please welcome

Keith Acton to the stage. He's just at the side of the bar there. Keith, come on up. Get up here. Come on up here. Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith, Keith. Here you are, sir. How do you do?

Steve, Keith. Good to see you, buddy. All right, come on in and sit down. So I'm going to tell you, I want to start this off by Keith is a very honest guy and I just met him and I'll tell you how I know. When we shook hands, he was very warm, very, very kind and that sort of thing. But he said, I'll be honest with you. I'd never heard of you. I don't follow any of that, but I called my kids and they said what? They said that you guys are unbelievably recognized, outstanding and the best podcast anywhere.

Yeah! He's lying. Now he's lying. Keith, you know, listen, we were excited to talk to you because there's so much history that you have with the game and we're all here because we're hardcore fans. We're all here because we love

this. And I want to know, first off, you're looking at the Stanley Cup Finals. Forget that it's the Edmonton Oilers in the finals, who I'm assuming you're cheering for. A little bit. I'm cheering for the Oilers. You're cheering for the Oilers. joking all right um what is it like to an hour before the game start putting your equipment on

get ready for warm-up for a stanley cup final game a great question i'll say this is uh you talked about wayne gretzky before and uh one thing that wayne gretzky he always said there's four segments to an nhl season there's the exhibition games then there's a regular season then there's the first three rounds of the playoffs and then there's the final element which is the stanley cup final and as you exit each one of those segments and move on to the next it becomes a situation where you have to be able to elevate your game to another level and experience uh is a big part of that uh i think if you talk to the oilers back

before they won their first cup and when they beat the Islanders in 83-84. 83-84, that's right. And they lost to the Islanders the year before, and they gained a lot of experience. I think maybe what you're seeing a little bit right now is the fact that maybe the Panthers, we can talk about abilities, talent, whatever with the teams, but the Panthers were in the finals last year,

and I think that's given them a little bit of an advantage at this point if you look at game one the Oilers were outstanding they were playing very very well they were they should have probably won the game but if you looked at the body language and looked at the eyes of the players you saw that the Panthers their body language in their eyes was that we're not going to lose we're still going to win whereas the Oilers were maybe not believing so much and a little bit apprehensive because they hadn't been there before so they gotta they gotta do some quick and some fast learning here and uh i think they will and i think they'll win the game tonight there you go all right there you go all right can i ask about paul maurice somebody you worked with

extensively in toronto it's just what's it like working with him yeah i mean uh paul's been a coach for a long time uh it was kind of a dynamic or volatile time uh when he came in here in toronto i started with pat quinn in 2000 uh we had some great seasons we had uh some great opportunities i think to maybe one of stanley cup the best one probably was in 2002 when we when we lost carolina everybody's nodding yes in the room everybody remembers oh yeah and i can remember pat after we lost uh game six uh at home i believe it was and uh pat came in and he said we're gonna look back at this as a big lost opportunity but at that time changes were happening in the National Hockey League and Leafs model up until

that point was how they had success there was no salary cap so the Leafs had lots of money so they would you know they would buy on July 1st and that's how they they accumulated a lot of talent maybe it was older but it was good and then before the trading deadline they would sell assets like draft picks and prospects and that's how they they were a really good team because they had you know the money to spend and that was a good model for the Maple Leafs and it was it was effective but then when the salary cap came in in 2004 I believe and the Leafs were spending like 70 million and had to cut it back to like it was 42 and a half okay so significant amount so you had to you had to take talented

players off your team and your cupboard was bare because you didn't have the prospects or draft picks and so now it was a big change for the Maple Leafs and it was it made it difficult and that's when Paul came in and we had you know not as good a year as because of you know the structure had changed but paul's a very good coach and uh he's a guy that a little bit different than pat pat had a great presence he was a big man he didn't have to say a lot you would just look at him and uh you would just draw strength from him uh because of his presence paul was you know a little more vocal a little more active and he's he's always been a good coach and good enough to always get another opportunity and he's evolved over that time he's been in small markets he's

been in big markets he's been in canadian markets and he's coached in a lot of different situations so now he's got an abundance of experience and it's coming out now was he always funny yeah i think yeah he was a humor he always had a great sense of humor uh pat pat quinn had a great sense of humor but you never saw it whereas paul would display it and he's become uh he's become very very good with the media uh he understands that today and it's it's more important for head coach to be able to you know function with the kind of media coverage that there is today and yeah he's able to do that and probably he's really good at it now because of his time in toronto which is a is a very difficult place uh with regards to handling media no offense to you guys

none taken none taken so there's a there's a photo of you uh drinking out of the stanley cup on top of your jersey in a building that you own which is about the biggest flex you can have in this in this country what is that moment like when the cup reaches the doors of the locker room well it was it was it was outstanding as you can see and uh i've never drank a glass of champagne ever after that night for obvious reasons and it was all killed by george armstrong because george armstrong had a good friend here in stovall and he was up here one night and he saw that picture and he said and he won many stanley cups and he said i would never drink out of the stanley cup because i've seen what's happened to that stanley cup

that's good that's good i didn't know it at the time so no so that just killed it i i think i gotta take that picture down now or just hang one of george next to it is that a stanley cup ring that you're wearing on your right hand um actually you know what i brought it out of the kitchen because um you guys were right that um i have it here at boston pizza and i and i we stamp every pizza with that stanley cup and it's i knew it and it goes i i don't know this is a rumor about something that you guys spread and it's true i don't know how you found that out but it's we stamped it with the cup and it's certified certified best pizza in the world it's a champion that's right oh so you do listen to the show

so uh yes it is and i'm very proud to wear it and uh it's a symbol of you know it's uh you grow up dreaming of playing in the nhl and you dream about being a stanley cup winner and uh you know we've all played in backyard rinks played on streets and whatever it was always for the stanley cup but it's a symbol of uh of i think back of all you know your teammates and all the sacrifices that they made in order for that to happen and that's what you remember you know uh steve pointed out something on that on that last show that we had i think it was yesterday uh i'm getting all my days mixed up right now because the playoffs have been so crazy but steve made a point that wayne never won wayne gretzky never won another cup without you he has zero zero post keith

so you know have you ever spoken to wayne about that did he ever say man you should have been in that trade uh instead of crucial ninsky like you know what how do we what did his game lack yeah i don't i don't think i think it's pretty obvious i don't need to make any comment on that i mean I mean, it's taken 36 years for somebody to figure it out. You guys are pretty smart guys. You finally figured it out. That's right. That's right.

That's all right. Keith, you know, a lot of us here are Leaf fans, right? That's right. That's right. Long-suffering Leaf fans. And, you know, a lot of us became Leaf fans during the runs that you were a coach on. And, you know, there's certain players that we got to ask you about. I hope you don't mind.

I want to start with Curtis Joseph. I want to start with Cujo as a goalie, who really seems like, every time I've met him, seems like a really great guy. What was... Not a good guy? Are you shaking your head? No? Okay.

Incredible person. Incredible person. What was he like to have... When you knew you were going to a game with Cujo, you knew that the form was going to be all over the place, but you also probably felt like, we probably got this because Cujo is behind us. What was it like to have him on the team? Curtis was a tremendous person, tremendous athlete.

as we know and uh we beat Ottawa out I think four four straight years in a row yeah we did and you know arguably people could say that maybe Ottawa's you know had a talent wise they might have had a better team they had a good team for sure and but we always uh we always had better goaltending and we all know how important and significant that is with Curtis and Eddie Balfour in those years and um you know Curtis was he he was a real workhorse and uh and our team sometimes during the regular season didn't have the same structure or discipline that you know that we needed but Curtis was the kind of guy that he excelled better if you had 40 shots against than if you had 20 and when he was getting the work and he was making

the saves and uh that's when he was at his best so we didn't design it that way but lots of nights it happened that way and and it worked for us so uh but no he was a he he was a big part of our success and you know we had a lot of character guys we had we had talented guys like uh Sundin and McGilney and then we had uh how would I uh noisy guys I would Ty Domi yeah Darcy Darcy Tucker yeah Gary Roberts Shane Corson and they knew that the you know emotion and noise was the probably the catalyst that brought out their physical attributes and then we had lots of guys we had Thomas on defense, Cabriolet, who was a very gifted player. But we had guys like Dmitry Yuskovich and Danny Markoff

and these guys that were polluted, saturated with sacrifice. And that's what you need in order to win. But obviously, Curtis was as big a part of that as a member of the team as anybody. One of the big conversations around the current team is the pressure of playing in Toronto. And Steve got really upset when Sheldon Keefe left and he called this the real NHL or the other parts of the world, the real NHL. And Steve yelled about that. But is the pressure in the media, is it different here in comparison to the other spots in the league?

Is that is that a true thing that the players got to deal with? Yeah, I mean, some some players really thrive in that environment. I know when I started in Montreal, it was probably a harder city media-wise than Toronto because, you know, a Canadian market, but you had double the media because you had French and English. I think it still is, by the way, a tougher market. I really do. Yeah, so it's hard, and some players really thrive in that. You know, Guy Lafleur, we have his sweater hanging here at Boston Pizza, and great player, and he thrived in that situation. There's others that they don't.

But I think the, you know, the Maple Leafs, they've got talent. They've, you know, there's areas of the game that they have to improve. I talked earlier about the fact that you have to start to elevate your game as you go in these different segments of the season. And they've struggled with that a little bit, I would say. And hopefully they're learning. Craig Berube is a good friend of mine. What do you think of Craig?

I think Craig's going to do an exceptional job here. He's a straightforward guy, and he understands that he's not going to be gimmicky or comical with media or anybody, but he'll be straightforward with the players, and he'll teach them what it takes to win, and he's got a firm understanding that over the course of the season. I think habitually with the Leafs, you'll see them win a lot of games on talent during the regular season, but they're not developing a structure or a method of playing that's going to be needed to be successful in the playoffs. And when you get to 15 games before the season ends,

your team's got to be on complete autopilot. This is how you play. This is what we do in this situation. This is our structure. This is who my D partner is. And I think you're seeing a little bit of that unraveling a little bit with the Oilers right now, like who's playing tonight on defense? Who's the D partner is going to be?

There's shuffling lines and the autopilot part of it is is maybe not causing panic, but it's causing a little bit of uncertainty. And I think Craig will really understand that when I get to 15 games before the end of the season, my team has got to be in a place where they understand how we need to play in order to win in the playoffs. And we do that shift in period in game in and out. And that's what we'll take into the playoffs. how do you feel about that that sounds good doesn't it just in case you wanted it um do you do do you have any stories about the presence of craig ruby like i heard one recently where someone on the ice apologized to him but this is when craig ruby was already coaching so like it wasn't even a matter of you know he could uh hop over the boards and kick your ass

the next shift uh he was already a coach so he's obviously a guy that uh commands a lot of respect No question. You know, Craig, he probably, and I don't mean this as, I mean this as a big compliment to him. He probably overachieved as a player in the sense that he, you know, he wasn't the most talented guy, but he was very dedicated and committed. And this will come out in his coaching too. He understands that my discipline, my dedication, my desire, my commitment has to go beyond the boundaries of all my opponents. and that's how he treated that's was his approach as a player and that'll be his approach as a coach and he will ingrain that into his players and that's probably one of the things that the Leafs really need at this point and I can tell you a funny story about him he was my left winger when I was playing in Philadelphia and when I started in Montreal I was I was an offensive

player and uh i spent a whole year playing center between steve shut and gila fleur uh i mean no big deal no no no no me too no i really buried the lead eh like what are we even talking about everything else for i really like that they didn't like it much but uh but anyways uh later in my career i became more of a defensive player and penalty killer and kind of i played on the fourth line and sometimes you have to reinvent yourself to have longevity and Craig was my left winger and uh I mean he was a fighter we know he's had a lot of fights and uh he a lot of nights he couldn't he couldn't find a fight because no one wanted to fight him so he couldn't get in a fight because there was nobody that was going to

fight him so he would come to the bench and he was screaming and yelling at me and my nickname's Woody Woody uh he just screaming at me you got to get me in an effing fight you got to get me in effing fight. I gotta be in an effing fight. Get me in an effing fight. And I said, okay. I said, who do you want? He said, I want Neil Sheehy. I want Neil Sheehy. I said, okay, I'll set it up for you, but you better get there. So I started it and, uh, chief didn't make it. How did that go for you? Uh, it was, uh, sunglasses for a week, x-rays on orbital bones on both eyes the next morning so i'm sitting in the penalty box i'm sitting in the penalty box and and and here's chief coming and he's got my stick in my gloves and he's gonna give them to me and

i'm i can't i can't say here in a public forum what i said to him sure we can assume and of course he's got no teeth and he's looking at me and he's laughing and i'm like where in the where you and uh said sorry woody linesman intercepted me but i need to be in a fight next shift that's like you're on your you're on your own now pal what a great story that's awesome oh man okay you know okay so you mentioned gila fleur what was he like to play with what was he like to pass to was it a little bit intimidating uh yeah i mean gila fleur was a a tremendous player but a tremendous person and he um he took the pressure it was not only uh and i'll back this up it he it wasn't just he needed to win it wasn't for himself for his teammates was important it was

for the organization it was for the city it was for the province and he took it so serious and it was so important to him and in those days on hockey night in Canada on a Saturday night it was eight o'clock and I lived downtown and I could walk to the forum and I walked to the and I was the first player there at 5.30. I was the first player except for one. The room was all done. It was beautiful. Sweaters were hanging, all set up perfect.

And here was Guy Lafleur, and this was him every game. At 5.30, he was fully dressed, skates on, done up. And it was probably not the best thing that he was doing, but it was the way he handled the pressure and he had to win and all he did from 5 30 to 8 o'clock was drink coke and smoke cigarettes and i'm gonna tell you a funny story about him when i was playing with him uh there was one situation when we came off the ice and uh you know not that i was ever going to disagree with Guy Lafleur, but he started to tell me, he said, Woody, he said, you should have done this. You should have went there. You should have done this. You should have

done that. And I said, respectfully, I said, yeah, I understand, Flower, but I thought. And he went, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You didn't want to go to school, call this so don't start thinking now that's a that's amazing that's amazing okay so so you you also played with the tops two of the top scorers of all time wayne mark mark messier what were those two like what was it like going to the arena with those guys yeah they were um you know wayne was uh they were both very very intense in different ways uh wayne was very motivated he was more methodical thinking things out where mark was more straightforward like battery ramp and they were both great leaders and you know leadership is you know as some people say that

you know they're people are born to be leaders and i suppose that's true but But leadership's a learned skill, too. And they both, over time, learned to be tremendous leaders. And it was like the Canadians where they talk about passing the torch and leadership was a learned skill. And they were both great in the sense they had an expectation out of you as a teammate that you were going to... And Connor McDavid's doing it now, for sure, in the same way. They have a certain expectation that you're going to give maximum effort. You know, you're going to sacrifice your skill set is going to be there every night.

Your mind's going to be there every night. And with, you know, with each of them, I'll create a situation, say that you had a two on one with them and you had the puck and you made a pass where they could have maybe had a backdoor empty net goal or whatever. And it didn't materialize. they had the distinct ability to distinguish whether it was you, it didn't happen, but you were still given maximum effort. And they'd come to the bench and they'd say, hey, don't worry about it. We'll get the next one. But if you weren't given maximum effort and they sensed that, then they'd give you a kick in the butt and say, hey, you're better than that. You need to do better. You know, step it up. And that's unique leadership and understanding. And I think you're

going to you're seeing that right now out of connor mcdavid he's doing a tremendous job with the oilers i think not to discredit anybody else on the oilers but uh when you look at supporting casts of previous you know i know you guys are too young to understand to know this but if you look at you if you look at the if you we talked about gila fleur and you know his supporting cast with Serge Savard, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe on the blue line and Ken Dryden and Nat and, you know, Steve Schutt and Bob Ganey and like 10 Hall of Famers, it's a pretty great supporting staff. He was a superstar.

And if you want to look at Wayne and Edmonton, he had, you know, you talked about Messier and Gary Curry and Anderson and Craig Simpson and Esa Tekin and great players in the year. I was there with a couple. we had, you know, a big, strong, solid defense that was really hard to play against. And Grant Fuhrer and Nett. And if you look at the Penguins with Mario,

I can't name them all, but he had Jager and he had... Ronnie Francis and Hatcher. Yeah, and Barrasso and Nett. He had a tremendous supporting staff. And I don't think, you know, not to discredit anybody on the Oilers, but there's not the same level of ability, talent as a supporting cast for Conor. You look at the Islanders when they had Trache, Vossi, Gillies, second lines of Goring and Nystrom, Tonelli, Potvin on defense,

Billy Smith and that. Deep, deep, deep teams with huge supporting staffs. And Connor's done. And, you know, he he may be if he wins the Stanley Cup, he may be the the superstar captain that did it with. And again, I'm not being not discredit anybody, but with the least of supporting staff to get it done. That's a really interesting point. I don't think a lot of us looked at it that way. I was going to make a joke like, you know, all they're missing is they simply need to be one of the best teams of all time, which is what you're comparing them to. But then I thought about it and I'm like, bad teams don't win the Stanley Cup. Yeah.

Like, it's incredibly difficult. So you can have one of the best players ever, one of the best players of the generation and still not even sniff the fact. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the fact that they're here is great, too. Listen, Keith. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

But, yeah, he's really – I just want to say one more thing about him is that, you know, and I think that Craig Berube is going to make the Maple Leafs understand this. Maybe they don't understand it, but Connor McDavid is a driving force for the Edmonton Oilers. And make no mistake, he's making everybody on that team better just because of desire, dedication, commitment. and for connor mcdavid anything less than winning the stanley cup is unacceptable and that's the mindset that's and you can see that in him in him in every every day and it would be every day at practice every day in the gym every day on and on and on and if the edmonton oilers don't win the Stanley Cup Connor McDavid will be he'll be the one that's he'll be more disappointed than

the fans than his teammates than the coaches in the city the organization he'll be more disappointed than anybody and he's a driving force and that's something that I believe at this point the so-called stars of the Maple Leafs don't understand and it's missing, and it needs to be that no, it needs to be, and I don't mean that in a bad way. No, everybody agrees. Everybody agrees.

Again, it's a learned skill. I'm not saying it's not. And I think that Craig Berube will be maybe instrumental in bringing that out in these guys. There you go. Wow, well said. Keith, you know, this is an

establishment that you own and take a lot of pride in and I just want to say thank you for hosting us here tonight and thank you for being so generous with your time and telling these great stories it really is an honor thank you and I just want to thank you guys for coming

I didn't know I didn't Obviously, I didn't know a lot about you guys before tonight, but I'm going to be following you now. And you're tremendous young men that are, you know, serving, you know, an interest for people. And I know you have a big following and I'm going to start following you now. And I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. It's a pleasure to meet you. And thanks so much for coming to Boston Pizza.

That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. so let me just say this round of applause again round of applause again for Keith Acton those are some great stories and that's

you know what that's what's so fun about talking to people around the game you're never going to see you're never going to read that in an article you're never going to see that in a post game interview it's the stories 20 years later that are so special and so cool and you get more of a sense

in that snapshot of Guy Lafleur or Craig Berube than you ever would in some article. I really like talking to players. Sometimes I try not to get too wrapped up in people who are really, really into the minuscule details of the game. I just want banter, just fan talk and everything. But I was actually talking to a former

professional hockey player yesterday, and he said something that as a 36-year-old I can relate to because he's only he's only a couple who so they said name names

name absolutely not no boo what's he that's a reasonable boo by the way that's a good boo

why you booing me I'm right ex-ex-leaf leaf no eastern or western conference yes

he's gonna play 25 questions with you you know you're gonna reveal it let's just narrow it down a little defenseman what decade

what what decade goalie yes no no okay so we got forward yes yeah okay all right all right all right we're getting close to center i don't know sometimes an orange team man what was the story though well so like this is a guy who he had a really really really good professional hockey career but like very little nhl never really got more hints close to the cup okay no okay he was working out with his trainer went and saw his trainer for the first time after he retired and the trainer asked him you know okay so you're no longer playing professional

hockey you're not playing to win a championship what are we training for like what what do you want and he thought about it for a second he goes when i get out of my car i don't want to limp around for the first 10 minutes and this is a guy he's like in his early mid 30s and he never got close to the thing so it's really really really hard like whenever we talk about guys especially at this stage in the season stanley cup final they're they're you know we keep throwing around stuff like oh they're 80 they're 90 no they're not no they're not like compared to their october these guys are like 15 percent like they're busted they're completely busted but they're driven by adrenaline and they want to win the damn thing yeah yeah leon apparently is dealing

with something in his wrist or his hand and that's why his his shot's been a little ineffective seven eight percent yeah and still one of the best players in the world like just killing it he was in the canuck series scoring from that one spot which seems like an impossible angle that he always scores from. It's like with Leon Dreisaitl, I feel like you know what? Everybody scores from all these other angles. I'm going to be difficult and score from this one. No one's going to see it

coming. And it's like Ovechkin in the sense that everybody sees an Ovechkin shot coming. They've seen it for 20 years and it still scores. The difference is Dreisaitl has to move. What a bum. Yeah, I know. That's true. You know what? Ovechkin's far more efficient. Just stand there.

Not even stick in the air. not even no and leon's got my favorite stick in hockey it's just a flat paddle like i don't know how he does anything with it apparently he he likes it flat because he likes playing on his backhand so much but it's just it's awesome to see what he does with that thing i love that you know what he probably doesn't even need to tape for it no that's what i'm saying stewart skinner ever leaves his uh stick in the corner or whatever leon yeah it's the same thing so here's something we're gonna do tonight that's really fun you guys have been watching the stanley cup streams we've been doing, right? The side streams. Yeah. All right. All right. So Steve's doing it live here

tonight. This is Steve's very first stream in front of people. Okay. So you're, I mean, we're making history here tonight, guys. This is going to be fun. Now he is going to be over in this corner, but your energy tonight is actually really going to matter. I did it for the third round at the last Boston pizza we were at. And I got to tell you, it's a whole different thing when you got people in the room who are excited up down whatever so make sure tonight that you make as much noise as possible make sure it's respectful noise okay we want respectful words okay but but this guy you know he's a really low energy guy and he could really use your help amping it up a little bit so you think you can do that for him all right all right i i think you saw during the

whole uh uh geith interview i had a coffee i always have a coffee before these events because i never know if i'm gonna need it and i got about halfway through that one and i went oh no oh no i didn't need it at all so yeah i'm just here clenching the microphone let's do how much time do we have we have some time i don't know we got some time yep okay you know what yeah we got time okay so evander kane is not playing tonight that was uh i think that was a bit expected because at practice he wasn't available it's funny because darnell was the guy i would thought like amanda's been playing kane's been hurt for a while yeah yeah so i think his ineffectiveness has been because of the injury sports hernia yeah yeah yeah weird he got a one

shot in it was pretty good yeah if you watched a good one if you watched on the empty netter that florida scored at the end of game number two kane was at the blue line going to pinch for the puck there and he couldn't get there in time and the i forget the florida player who beat him to that puck but you think like if Kane's healthy he probably gets to that puck they got 30 more seconds at the man advantage and maybe the game turns out different you know so that you

can see the elements of the injury just in his game so this is the 11-7 night maybe possibly I just asked Robert we don't know yet so I believe CeCe's out and Broberg's in there yeah okay what are we gonna Corey Perry in for Evander Kane Oilers going 11-7 there you go

Darnell Nurse banged up so they're gonna try to thank you there you go thank you Robert thank you Shout out to Robert, everybody, who we love. How about a shout out to me for being right about 11-7? Let's go. There's also somebody. Eat it, Adam Wilde. Boo.

There's also something. Yeah, fair, fair. Bring it on. Come on. No, it's all right. Get it out. Get it out. All right.

There's also somebody else I want to shout out because it's Mad Dog's birthday today. Hey! Happy birthday, Mad Dog! So Maddie, how old are you today? 24. And she decided to be here in Stouffville with us. We even offered to give her the night off

but she was like, no, work comes first. She's coming to the party town. Stouffville. That's right. Now this is a good opportunity because we have a little bit of time. We'd love to do some questions if you guys have any. So if you have any questions, just throw your hand up.

Oh, we got one right there. Yes, your name. Megan. Megan, what's going on? Megan from where? Megan from where? From where? That's right.

Megan from Mississauga. That works. So I wanted to know what you guys thought about Gritty being his number one list. What do we think of Gritty being? Is he the number one? I'm nervous. That's okay. He's the number one.

so Gritty's number one on BuzzFeed's list of 94 gay icons that straight people should know about good for them good for Gritty shout out Gritty yeah I didn't know

I had no idea I guess so I met them and they didn't say anything but i suppose they don't have to that's right no no that's a pretty gritty is the upon introduction yeah to be honest gritty is the best mascot in the sport and i really wish i really wish that hockey mascots in general did more um like carlton we love carlton but carlton waves the flag and whatever and you know you know there's a backflip he does the oh he does do the backflip now that's right okay because the raptor was like he was doing like cartwheels and crazy stuff and has

been doing that for 25 years but like hockey mascots have kind of been pushed to the side and it was when gritty was revealed it was like instantly this is the coolest mascot in the entire sport and up out in montreal who was the expo's mascot is now the canadians guy and i got to meet him once and i took a picture and i told him i was a leafs fan and he smacked me in the back of the head good as he should but he wasn't on the buzzfeed list no he was not on the buzzfeed list Go ahead here Elf in the room Mitch Marner

Frank Is Marner staying or is he going? Is Marner staying or going? Frank from where? Frank from Markham Is Marner staying in Toronto? Jesse Blake, we'll go through everybody We'll give it

What kind of rating out of 10? I'd say he's 80% gone I'm on the Marners Not going to be around Oh, hold up. Hold up. That's a whole other question. We got to listen to the first question.

We could spend an hour on that. Down the list. Steve, where are you at? I'm going to 80 is high, but I'll go 70. Pretty high, too. 70% got, yeah, but anyone who's ever brought a 70 home to their parents rather than an 80 on a report card, there's a difference. Hey, I was the 70.

So was I. The 80 was always the surprise. Adam, what's your percent? I think, Jesse, you nailed it. I think it's 80%. And it's not because this player isn't great. And, you know, it's... I hate that you have to say that a lot.

I have to say that. Why? I have to say that. Because there is a... Players never get traded? Right. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I think that there is a time when... And this happens at workplaces. This happens with your favorite bands. Things get stale. and i think it's a bit stale and i think if you keep going the way that you're going with no consequences you don't see anybody leave and you get to come back all the time and oh well i guess we'll get them next year i can't fly anymore and also there's a lot of executives one at the very top who might lose his job if they don't get stuff done so now there's a little bit of a fire under

their butts to get it done so there's a segment that was going around today which is why mitch marner was trending on june 13th or whatever here we go i love this place um uh it was from overdrive and darren dreger was talking about well he doesn't have to move his no move clause and what if he just signs a big fat extension and and brian hayes was humoring him and noodles was humoring him and jeff o'neill was the only one to go nope just throw down the gauntlet and be like they said they needed to make changes how on earth does signing him to an extension give them any of that right and oh well then do you just do you just walk him to free agency and lose him for nothing and jeff goes yes you do and i guess here's my question that i was shouting at

my phone while listening to the segment since reasonable reasonable exactly since when has letting someone go in free agency for nothing been a problem for the Toronto Maple Leafs. There's a bunch of them competing for the Stanley Cup tonight. Right? And I'm supposed to be, oh yeah, no, this one is where

we draw the line. Stop it! No! Just in the last decade alone. Hyman, Van Riemsdyk, Bozak, who else is on that list? Hyman three or four times. Gardner, like a whole bunch of them. Cody Cody Cece.

Cody Cece. That's a good point. Cody Cece did lead. Jack Campbell. All right, next question. Evan Rodriguez. Sorry, you two in the front. Just at the back there, right in front of the Pikachu hats.

Yes, sir, of you. How do I cope with my favorite player becoming the villain? How do you cope with your favorite? He's wearing a Mitch Marner jersey. How do I cope? Oh, I'm sorry. How do I cope with my favorite player becoming the villain? And I think here's the deal.

He's not the villain. he's not the villain take it I think the team that allowed this to go on this long I think that the management group that didn't make the calls the right calls when they needed to it takes

you know what would you get the script in a DM or what I think I think I would look at 2023 and it's this is your point I'm taking your point from right sorry I'm still I'm flustered from yesterday let's never fight again

until next week yeah i love you babe it's it's it's it's interesting because dubas sat in front of the microphone at the end of 2023 after the florida series and said we got to make changes and then he was gone and that was before the no trade clauses for marner and elander kicked in technically he was right he was yeah yeah gotta make changes he didn't realize he was the change I got to call a moving company. Yes. And so I think to say that Mitch or any player in this situation, Mitch Marner has been an exemplary citizen. He has donated to charity, in fact, created a charity.

He has showed up at, from what I've heard, every single event, public or not public, and been there with the kids and done everything that you would want a Toronto Maple Leaf to do. He is an exemplary citizen. This is not the enemy. The enemy is the person making the decision, and you have to hold management's feet to the fire because, unfortunately, Mitch is going to go because of performance issues, but the management group will still be here. The people that are making the calls will still be here, and it's your old – yeah, well, listen, you can boo. Yeah, boo it up. Boo it up. Yeah, I get it.

I get it. It's your pressure and your boos. Some great faces in the audience right now. it's your pressure and your booze they're gonna push them in the direction of oh we actually might have to succeed for this audience toronto fans are kind of getting a little upset here a little fed up and it's so i feel bad for mitch in that way because listen did he push it on the last contract absolutely does he have some people around him where you go i don't love the way his agent negotiates through the media as you mentioned earlier in the in the interview that

you listen to i don't like that i don't but the agent's doing his job mitch is his own man he hires these people not the enemy though that's what i would say that's my view have you considered damn that's crazy and they've lost seven out of eight playoff series yes damn that's crazy he's got what is it five points in 16 game five six or seven since 2019 that's uh that's probable cause or whatever that's it's grounds for termination okay fair enough fair grounds for trade to vegas i think we should get to more questions it's getting a little dark in here yeah uh next one where is mitch going no i'm kidding sorry yeah matt yeah so he asked uh what do we think of alex steen being the gm in two years in st louis i

kind of like it it's a little odd it's on because pro sports is so fluid like what if the team goes in the tank for the next two years and all the players stop performing well and you no longer want alex dean as your gm is there like a pull the shoot clause like are they allowed to do that gets drunk calls the owner goes you know what i really think yeah yeah like i mean those plans can always change right can i don't think doug armstrong would do that i'm just throwing that Can they change, though? I think they can. I absolutely think they can.

I think it's nice to say, here's who we're mentoring. It's a St. Louis Blue great who should have been a Leaf great. Leaf great, yeah. And I think Keith actually would have coached him. Did you coach Al? Yeah, you did, didn't you? Good player? Good guy?

Good guy, yeah. Good guy, see? What did you think of the trade? What did you think of the Lee Stemniak era, Keith? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I won't do that to you. Bad trade.

bad trade and so yeah i think plans can change plans can change i hope plans can change if they can change but like i think it's good that they have plans that's cool yeah you really don't get that from an organization because they're open imagine being planned wait couldn't be me no so hey remember that time i was stupid and i made a video about uh in the fall there's going to be a three-on-three league I didn't like how hard you laughed at that so anyway I was told a number of things most of them I put in the video there were some facts that I didn't that I was like oh these will come out later one of the things I was told is Alex Steen was supposed to be the coach of one of the teams oh I'm starting to think I was lied to guys starting to think oh maybe Alex Steen

did a power play on the St. Louis Blues management. It was like, guys, listen, if you don't do that, I'm going to Steve Dangle's league, all right? All right? You better hire me as the GM. And so they did. Yeah, they ran out of money. They spent it all on me. That's right. That's right. Hey, guys, listen, we have to let Steve

get to the stream because apparently it's 8 o'clock and Robert's like, hello, time, hello. So I want you guys to have a great night tonight. We're going to, we are going to pull the Blue Bombers game off TV. I'm really sorry. I know you guys are really upset by that. Blue Bombers, Ottawa. I know it's a huge matchup tonight.

But we're going to go to the Edmonton Oilers game. We're going to see Edmonton win. Or I want to know if anybody's cheering for Florida. Is anybody cheering for Florida? Oh, we know. We got somebody back there. We got the one guy. Hey.

I don't know what your name is, but tonight it's Florida Man. Don't Google him. Don't Google him, yeah. All right. Hey, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. the steve dangle podcast powered by sports interaction

want to bet follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y l d e and at jesse blake connection complete