The Steve Dangle Podcast - Yoffs | May 13, 2021

Episode Date: May 14, 2021

On this episode of the Steve Dangle Podcast, Sportsnet's Chris Johnston joins the show to talk about, the useless Canucks games (00:00), Leafs vs Habs: Frederik Andersen, defense, and extra forwards (10:00), Oilers vs Jets (36:00), the Jack Eichel debacle (41:00), a look around the Stanley Cup Playoffs and we make our picks for the 1st round (51:00), Steve remembers a game (1:27:00), the Leafs PP (1:35:00), and Farmer's Only! (1:41:00). Originally aired: May 13, 2021 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/MwPxMg1wodo Visit https://sdpn.ca for merch and more. We've joined The Athletic and you can too! Hit the link to subscribe: https://theathletic.com/sdp Visit this episode's sponsors: https://Freshly.com/sdp https://magicspoon.com/sdp https://turbotax.intuit.ca/ https://helixsleep.com/sdp https://www.getroman.com/sdp Follow us on Twitter:@Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake Follow us on Instagram:@SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

the Steve Dangle podcast with your host Steve Dangle Adam Wilde and Jesse Blake Steve you're looking a little different these days it's weird am I Steve I think you have to be today Chris uh no babies in this house welcome to chris johnston back to the show the fourth member who is right now the third i don't know steve uh steve's running late we have no idea what what he's doing or what the problem is or whatever but uh if you're not uh if you're not watching the show um chris has got his juggernaut shirt on he's ready for the playoffs i'm assuming one more game to go um and chris i mean like i i feel like we it would be bad if we

started getting into leaf stuff right now because i feel like steve would be upset that he missed it but like how um how pumped are you for the playoffs to start saturday literally a day after the last game of the season i'm pumped well it's not the last game of the season because we got that whole vancouver calgary series next week who can forget about that yeah uh important big eye roll here for those that aren't watching um but i'm pretty pumped you know i it's it's nice to see the weather turning a bit like it's starting to feel like playoff time the fact we're going to have the you know i think actually honestly right across the board the matchups are pretty appealing the way it's turned out and then to have a couple all canadian series another one in the second round

ahead one of the canadian teams making it to the the semi-finals the third round i mean it's this is going to be a pretty cool few weeks i think the thing people seem to be complaining about the most today was the series that they have to play tomorrow and the fact that the Leafs can't play until Thursday when Vancouver wraps up their season. What's the specific reason they're doing that?

Well, I can tell you the fans, if they're complaining about that, they're aligned with the front office and the organization. I think that all the Canadian teams would prefer to get going early next week. Obviously, there was a couple extra games tacked on this week, regular season-wise

for the Canadian teams that are going to the playoffs. But, you know, with the Leafs and Jets wrapping up Friday night, you know, they could easily be launching in a series by Monday and still have travel time, a little bit of rest time, what have you. You know, I think ultimately what the NHL decided is they wanted all the regular season games in the books first. So those Vancouver-Calgary games will get played over the next few days. I believe the last one for them is Wednesday afternoon.

And then, you know, Wednesday night you have the Oilers and Jets playoff series start in the North Division. So, you know, the, the, the sum result of this that I think is actually worth thinking about is that, you know, now they have more compressed first round, you know, with, with both the North division series, having a back-to-back in it. I presume it could be a more compressed second round, depending on how everything shakes out. And so by the time one of these teams reaches the third round, they will probably played more games in a shorter stretch, unless of course there's some sweeps or that mixed in. So it's not fair. It's imperfect, but it's, this has been an imperfect season across the board. Right. How do, uh,

like have the Canucks and flames even, even spoke publicly about this, the players, like, is anyone even going to throw a hit? I don't see how they could honestly. I mean, it's basically shinny. Yeah. Um, you know, and, and I say this with respect, like, look, it's an unfortunate circumstance here with the Canucks getting a COVID outbreak that's led to this happening, But there's nothing on the line for the team. It's weird.

Afternoon starts. It's happening while the playoffs are happening. Like everyone's going to be fouled. They're like, did you see that Tampa Panthers game last night? And then, you know, and then they're going to have to go play. Literally, I can't think of a more meaningless set of regular season games we've ever seen. The fact that they're happening after the playoffs have started.

I don't think it's ever happened in NHL history. But as I say, this has been a season. I think the leagues had to adapt and do some things that wouldn't normally do. And this, this falls into that category, but yeah, no hits, no hits, no, no excitement, just, just dreariness. Run out the clock. What, what would be the reason for not delaying the playoffs? Like, couldn't you just let all the teams get a little healthier, give it a week.

I think you're worried about losing momentum in the U S obviously, because you know, they wouldn't be showing these games down there anyway, even a normal course even if they meant everything and you know i think also look they have to get the stanley cup handed out by july 15th and you know usually it takes about two months from the very start to a potential game seven of the cup final and so i think the sooner you can start it and my dates i don't even know what day it is but so what they're starting on may 15th that puts them in a good spot to hand the stanley cup out no later than july 15th and so you know i think it's it's a combination of the schedule pressure but also you know the regular season ends you

don't want to have to wait two weeks until the first playoff game and so this is a bit of a compromise i really don't honestly personally i don't truly understand why we can't start the north division playoffs as well overlapping with those games just because clearly they don't impact anything one way or another but the league isn't comfortable with that yeah or they could have done the major league baseball thing and just cancel the games you know if there's games uh that don't matter in the standings in baseball they just don't play them if it comes down to if they're rained out during the season like the nhl had options and it's weird that they went with this one yeah i think the thinking there is there's there's all these financial obligations that

teams have with sponsors and things like that that you know probably tv sponsors people i work for i you know i don't know how all that works but the truth is is i'm pretty sure that would result in them having to make up some give away some stuff for free next season and given the economic uh disaster this season has been as expected nothing unusual but um they're just trying to claw back as many uh financial things as they can do you think they rest their stars like does you know is it just an all-rookie tournament like what what do you what do you expect to see like because i the last thing you want is somebody really good like i'm thinking calgary markstrom is i think key to the future of their goaltending or key to the now he's got

five more years after this let's say he goes down with whatever knee injury freddie anderson currently has i it seems to me anyway that like you wouldn't want to have that happen in a nothing game against calgary are you going to see the stars show up i think you'll see some of them arrested for sure i mean look vancouver's played a crazy amount of games since resuming you know from their covid pause as it is and so they've they've been cycling a lot of different guys in and out of the lineup i know they've brought a couple more players up from utica and who've served seven-day Canadian quarantines and will, I'm presuming, now play.

You know, that's one way of getting through this. I know there's some salary cap limitations on what teams can do. Are they really still applying the salary cap now to these two teams? Oh, yeah, man. Oh, my God. It's all...

Somebody's out there with an abacus, you know, writing everything down, making sure everything's good. I mean, even the Leafs, honestly, you know, they play their final game against Winnipeg on Friday. They have 18 skaters they can choose from. Like they can't, they can't bring anyone else into the game because, you know, of their

salary cap situation since activating Frederick Anderson. So, you know, had they had players get injured in Ottawa, for example, they would just be playing short players for Friday just because of the cap consideration. So yeah, all these teams like the Leafs or Vegas or Tampa, all these teams that have really been dancing a fine line with the cap, can't wait for the playoffs to start because then you can actually just choose which of the players you have in your organization you want to play each game. that's crazy man wow how you doing good buddy what's going on nice you to join us on your

podcast yeah sorry about that no uh one thing threw everything off and now i'm uploading the lfr and i'm talking to you guys and it's a it's a special show when it's adam and jesse i can screw with their time doesn't matter but when you're on i mean geez it's the juggernaut you can screw with my time but i i have a firm out for you today so you know basically the later we started the less time i was going to be on so no no it's up to you no no so how's how's it all been so far you know what high quality i give it a i give it a seven or eight out of ten it's weird it's only gone downhill in the last minute or so i don't know the show's just started tanking for some reason yeah yeah we had to talk about sabers at 2015 right now did you talk about the the number

one topic on leaf's twitter's mind is how frederick anderson is somehow going to come in and and start game one of the playoffs despite not like playing one game is that level of galaxy braining happening oh yeah and it's not even for me that's the crazy part steve can you turn down your mic a little no yeah thank you i'm coming to the party late and i'm bringing fireworks yeah there we go yeah hot makes and hot takes so exactly chris that should be our man that's got to be our tagline um chris you know that is that's the number one topic for sure today and like my whole thing is i don't know how much of a football watcher you are but the rob johnson doug flutie situation where doug flutie basically dragged the bills kicking and screaming into the

playoffs and uh is that the music city miracle i don't i don't even probably yeah i think it is and then and then the owner's like well we're paying rob johnson five million dollars a year he should be starting and they started him and they stunk and didn't make the playoffs for the like the next 10 years um i'm hoping the leafs don't do this with freddie anderson because it's not fair to fred based on what we saw last night and it's also not fair to a team that's finished first in the division largely without him with jack campbell in there okay so i gotta be really clear like i never lie to you guys this has been so obvious to me that jack campbell starting i haven't even asked anyone who would know so this isn't an informed opinion in this case i just

thought it was so clear and obvious that the goalie that's 17 2 and 2 has played 93 of the game since march 19th till now you know that's helped the team win the division i mean it like are we really thinking frederick anderson might start game one like i just don't even think it's possible but like lee fans come on i mean how we are geez when you put it that way it almost sounds like an irrational fear well i think he's gonna play games in the playoffs i don't know exactly how it's gonna you know i it's hard to predict how it's gonna roll out in terms of sequence but I think you're starting the sequence with the guy who got you there. I know Jack Campbell kind of got the number one job through an injury and

that's supposed to be a verboten thing in sports and something that can't happen, but come on, like, let's, let's not overthink this. You know, Frederick Anderson has played one NHL game, one full AHL game and then a half AHL game since March 19th. He hasn't looked particularly great in any of them. You know, it's not that he's been awful, but he certainly hasn't been like, wow, this guy's so sharp and so ready. we have to throw him in there to win game one against Montreal. I mean, I,

it just nothing, nothing about the way the Leafs operate leads me to believe that there's, there's any possibility he's starting game one. Okay. Well, I feel better, but you know, if, if they lost game one with Jack Campbell in that and it doesn't go well, like he might be in game two. Like, I'm not saying he's out of the mix. I just think where you start is important. And Jack Campbell got them to that game one. And I think he's the guy that's going to start game one.

I have to ask, based on what we've seen from Freddie in the three Marley starts and then the start last night against Ottawa, should he be in the mix? Should he be two of three? Oh, yeah. I mean, are you now lobbying for him not to play any games under any circumstances? I'm saying that I love Freddie Anderson's legacy, but legacy shouldn't be the thing that gets you into the playoffs. It should be how you're playing right now.

And I'm concerned. I think you got to trust track record, though. Like would you rather than play David Riddick or Michael Hutchinson in a game without Jack Campbell? Like that, that's really the question you're asking. I mean, I think they had, look at, I know one thing that that's been going on behind the scenes is that with Frederick Anderson this whole time, while he's been rehabbing through his injury, there's been a lot of trying to frame this as a positive that in each of your

previous four years in Toronto, you were basically playing every game, you know, no goaltender other than Connor Hellbuck has played more than Frederick Anderson the last five years in the NHL so like the Leafs have ridden him hard and in most of those cases they didn't really have a second option they trusted at all to play big games and so now this is a little different right he's gonna be well better rested you hope he's healthy you know I don't know 100% if that's the case we saw him flexing his knee a little bit in that game against Ottawa on a couple occasions on you know when he had to go down and make a tough save and you know the idea is he doesn't have to carry this team I mean who knows how many games he's

going to get to play but I think they're trying to psych him up for the possibility he comes in and gets to be a savior or hero at some point of the playoffs and I don't think that's that's crazy I mean the one thing about the Leafs this year that it's easy for people to miss I think is they're so much better defensively like it's it's night and day from the first four years where Frederick Anderson at times had to wear a cape in the crease I think you're you're really just asking for the guy playing net to to be average or a little bit better than average and you trust your team to win and so this is a different set of circumstances i think that there's a nice redemption narrative here for frederick henderson i just don't think it's starting right out of the

gate for the playoffs with the defensive angle i i mean i 100 agree that they're way better defensively but last night and for a big chunk of the season even though they're in first Morgan Riley's just been getting hammered on Twitter, and I see him with easily the best partner he's ever had. How do you view his season so far? Is he battling something? Is it physically? Is it in his head?

Or are we maybe overthinking it on account of they're a pretty good team? Well, you're definitely overthinking it, but that's what makes Leafs Twitter, Leafs pod world. I mean, that's what makes Leafs Nation what it is. I mean, I love that. keeps me employed. Um, but I'll say this, I think Morgan Riley kind of is what he is. You know, he's a better than average offensive defenseman. And at times his,

he makes some, some tough defensive decisions that, you know, to me, the positive in this is that he does have that partner, unlike really any partner he's had, at least while the Leafs were good. Um, you know, he's not carrying around a Ron Hainsey or, you know, go down the list, Cody CC. Um, And there's been a lot of different partners the last few years for, for stretches of games. And, you know, I think in this case with TJ Brody, it balances itself out. I mean,

the Leafs top four to me is look pretty good. You know, we can isolate mistakes in games. Of course, you know, I think that happens for any team, even the teams that go on and win the Stanley cup. But, you know, I think that the blue line has really solidified itself. And, you know, I don't, I'm not that worried about Morgan Riley, I guess, you know, I'm not sure what the fans are all saying. i am sure they don't like some of the defensive miscues but he's still pretty good at moving the

puck up and i think he's an asset to this team with with the high-end forwards they have what do you attribute that defensive change to because um i remember um when that when the lightning won the cup i think it might have been joe smith or it was somebody at the athletic um wrote an article about how the team had committed to doing things along the lines of you know pushing people to the outside so if they are going to get a shot it's a low low danger shot obviously they've got norris caliber defense um it seems like every defenseman on the uh lightning could win the norris at any time and then you've got andre vasilevsky but there was a commitment to team defense that we hadn't seen from the lightning before and it can't just be with the least with like can it just be tj

brody that's all they really needed and now they're good at defense no i i think it's i think it's a mindset the same way and not everyone's going to like to hear this because you know the Leafs were built to have more scoring lines in the past right like their third line used to involve guys like Jansen and Kapanen and players with offensive upside whereas you know we don't know how the lines are going to shake out right now but they're you know they're they're trying to build a third line pretty clearly that's just meant to keep the puck out of the net you know I think the Leafs have completely changed the parts around the core of the team the core and the spirit of what is going to make them successful or not the matthews marner neilander

tavaris you know that hasn't changed but everything else has right and and so to me the way the leafs are now built is a you have those guys i think showing a different level of defensive commitment than they have in the past you have a team that's not trying to win seven to one you know i know there's a handful of games this year where that happened but for the most part the leafs were winning four two games with an empty netter kind of thing like like they weren't blowing everyone out of the water in terms of the goals in the net, but you know, where they really exceeded with excelled rather was, you know, in the underlying metrics, how little they gave up. I mean,

they went from a bottom team and goals against to one of the league's better teams, high danger shots against odd man rushes against, I mean, they made sizable leaps in all those areas. You know, some of it might come from who they're playing. But I do think there's just a commitment there to do it. And look, this, this core i mean these guys aren't dumb right that everything that the that you guys are feeling as leaf fans the players are feeling too like they knew this had to be the year like this still has to be the year they take steps forward i think they've unquestionably done that in the regular

season but they have to take those steps or they're not going to get to be here forever you know something's going to change and so you know i think that you had a combination of you know players that are coming into their own getting frustrated by their lack of success as a you have a coach who had a whole year and clearly highlighted that from day one, a training camp, uh, about, you know, where they had to improve. And you've just had buy-in and I think these guys are having fun. Honestly, it's fun to win as much as they have. And, you know, they won the division. They're going to finish anywhere. What third, fourth, fifth overall,

the standings, you know, they're favored to get the round three for sure. I mean, this, this is, uh, this is a good team. And I think, I think that they have achieved that level of buy-in that Tampa did. Now we just have to see if they can get similar results. Oh, God. Oh, God, I love it. Hey, you're going to be so nervous, though, Steve, because there's going to be so many 2-1 games, I guarantee you.

Like, games that are – it's going to be into the third period tight, not a lot of chances. Obviously, we know the Leafs have those individual weapons, but, like, this is not going to be comfortable. They've won, like, a surprising amount of those games, like you said this year um i want to play a little game and i want to say some names and i want you to tell me if they play in game one assuming no one gets hit with a meteor or something like that in the next few days you ready yeah one of those chinese rockets falling from the sky why not why

not has that happened yet did that fall in canada i heard i saw some sort of tiktok on that but i thought that might be fake no it was real i don't know where it ended up landing but like last weekend it was all the news like there's this rocket that's going to hit the earth at some point this weekend seemed like an underrated story yeah 100 it could have been a lot worse i guess and right before the playoffs um alex galchenyuk not playing game one okay whoa really No, I think he's right. Riley Nash playing game one. Interesting.

Is he playing against Winnipeg? No, he's not allowed. They're not able to, rather. They don't have the cap space. So his first game as a Leaf is going to be game one of the playoffs. Yes, and you guys have got better memories than me. This doesn't happen much. It happens, obviously, sometimes when you have a prospect

like Nick Robertson last year who comes up at the end of his season, but he's still kind of been in the organization has been through a training camp, say, or a rookie camp, but it's really rare to have a new player in the organization starting the playoffs. I think I have one Phil Housley. I don't know. He injured when the Leafs traded for him. Pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. And I think he played two or three games in the playoffs or something like

that. I remember being so pumped that the Leafs got Phil Housley. He wasn't good. He wasn't great. The Leafs added a lot of late career hall of famers. like ron francis and brian leach and doug gilmore tom barasso doug gilmore for one period in 2003 i was so excited he was back wendell clark came back he's is he a hall of famer yet he came back twice no well sorry the second time i remember the second the first time i was a little young the second time i remember the comeback oh yeah i see it's a little flex here i'm a little younger than you i'm only just now getting my vaccine you got yours like months ago old man

i'm gonna go get mine at the zoo there's there's a mass vax thing at the zoo and there haven't been enough in durham so i think i'm gonna go to the zoo i have to respond to a text message mid-pod i'm sorry that's okay that's perfectly fine uh to expand on adam you big idiot phil housley actually played one regular season game oh and then three in the playoffs and then none can i can i say of all the late the late season hall of famers the leafs added in that era ron francis is the best he was he was great that regular season um in the remaining games for the leafs uh i was gonna say owen nolan arrived to the leafs injured but he did end up getting 14 games in and he had seven goals five assists for 12 points and i remember in his first

game as a leaf he had two goals and we were all like oh yeah this is the guy this is the guy this of the year it was not you got to turn your game your gain down just a little bit still yeah it's not the volume it's the gain it's the top top button at the thing it's just your little crackly my good friend i think something's up with uh my mic hey steve hey sorry give me give me a little test hey rasmus sandin blah blah better better okay so continuing the game rasmus sandin game one yes sir he's in dermot or hutton dermot dermot okay who else is in there uh pierre engvall no chance no chance wow no chance that's it can i well again this is this is with no injuries in friday's game right i don't know when people be listening to this but assuming a healthy roster

then no chance just yeah yeah who's the backup ridditch or anderson anderson are they are are they happy with big save dave or are they not happy with big save dave i i think big save dave is just big save insurance he's even you know i'll say this polite he's like michael hutchinson insurance you know it's sort of the way ben hutton is martin brinchen insurance you know it's it was one more player to put in front of the guy you really don't want to have to get there when injuries hit or if injuries hit the buoy yeah well martin morinchen played right after jake muzzin was injured last year in the playoffs oh i recall um and michael hutchinson played game seven for colorado last year he was their number three you know i think it's it's just about having

it yeah it's it's the buoy as you say the life jacket yeah yeah interesting and i guess adam brooks is also a no shot he's a no shot although the way he played is kind of interesting but i still think if we listed these out in order he's probably their 15th forward option again with a fully forward fully healthy lineup 15 16 he's not that close what was there injuries or or bad performance to get in i i know he's a long shot to even get in the game but um is there an update on nick robertson i know he briefly left uh yesterday's marley's game i haven't heard one i actually i think he like i have him sort of embarked down in my mind is is like the nuclear option for them like if if one of their top two lines is really missing something or if they have

an injury there like i i think that nick robertson is the guy who goes in like i i don't think you're going to see him play on the fourth line of playoffs i think it's like if you know they need someone to play with tavaris and elander or something that's where he plays how do you feel the leafs feel about the felino trade so far i think that i i they definitely like the guy you know they're impressed with the way he's come in it's not easy to join a new team man and he was in columbus a long time like the pro athletes are among the most i guess routine oriented people on earth in terms of just how things work and seeing the same faces and doing the same things taping their stick at 448 with you know certain you know like just crazy to those of us in other jobs it's

just like they really like things a certain way and and i think nick has really endeared himself to his teammates you know the fact he spoke up before his first game i get the feeling that really sat well with the guys like they he played his first game in winnipeg and and i think he said something to the effect of just like what an honor it was for him to play for the Maple Leafs and that he appreciated this opportunity and yeah I think he just the benefit sometimes of getting a veteran player is that he's he's seen a lot of other guys have to do this with with his teams and you know I think that he hasn't stepped on any toes if you know what I'm saying he's just kind of come in and you know obviously the real measure of the trade will be the playoffs and and what he brings there

but I get the feeling they're they're happy with it and they're comfortable with the deal they made to this point i just like the fact that we got the guy who captained the team who knocked out our team last year you know if anybody's going to have the intangibles to take beliefs over the next step is the guy who beat them yeah i think riley nash wasn't he on boston and columbus yes yes yes he was he sure was twice he's twice knocked the leafs out yeah in the last four years all right i don't like him i don't like him get him off the team so what are you gonna say when he scores in like the first period of his first game you're gonna be buying i always like riley nash i always i approved of that trade and i got his jersey it's it's just in shipping it's on the

way you'll be ordering it at the first intermission if that happens oh a hundred percent a hundred percent so you know i mean this is it's it's an interesting matchup with montreal because we as leaf fans yes we've we've seen some wins against montreal especially lately we haven't seen carrie price and carrie price under pressure is a different carrie price uh so you know that alone has me it's sort of like it's like do you want the vesna guy from a couple years ago or the vesna guy from last year for the leaps you know and that's the thing a team that's built on scoring although they do have defense now it's a little bit of a tricky thing how do you see this matchup with montreal is carrie price going to be ready to go game one

and and what do you think the least strategy to kind of um combat the fact that montreal is a much bigger team at least or was a much bigger team than this year than they've been before um you've got guys like josh anderson who are playoff built players what are your thoughts on that well i mean i think that's why they think the power play going because you know that montreal is going to just try to bash the heck out of them and might take some penalties in the process. Yeah, I think the Leafs would feel a little bit better if their power play was clicking,

but we'll move elsewhere on this. I mean, I think Montreal has matched up reasonably well against Toronto for a couple reasons this season. The Leafs love to control the puck in the Ozone, right? I mean, we've seen it where they sort of peel back and come in waves. And I think that actually works in a team like Montreal's favor because their defensemen aren't the most fleet of foot.

but when you are more stationary in one zone, you know, they can hit you, they can punish you. And we've seen guys like Ben Sherrod, Joel Edmondson, you know, Shea Weber has been injured, but I presume he'll be back. I mean, they're going to make it hard on the least players to establish any sort of position in close to the goal. And, and then you got, you know, Carrie Price or Jake Allen, who I think is a pretty good goaltender too behind that.

And so I think that Montreal is going to try to win these games two to one. I think a key for the least will be to stay patient. If it doesn't come early or easy because of the way that the Canadians defend and, you know, the key for Toronto, I think quite honestly, is not in the offensive zone, but it's, it's in the chances they give up in transition, especially that the Canadians love to jump on you, get a two on one. You know,

that's the way we've seen them have success when they've had success against the Leafs in the regular season, you know, guys like to fully and that have feasted at times on what the Leafs can do there. And so I think it's going to be a little bit of a tight checking meticulous series unless it things turn ugly and there's a lot of power plays and one of these teams shows that it can have some power play proficiency because neither of them neither has really had much success there for you know especially late in later part of the season who's unfazed guy

because it's the anniversary of game seven from 2013 oh and and one of the most it is and one of oh but outfitting cj my mentions did you buy it did you buy it a cake like did you get it a gift this anniversary like i i got it uh no leo made it a gift this morning um you see because he poops you see because babies so all i remember from that game well i remember many things but one of the most haunting visions the leafs go up for one the camera goes down the bruins bench and they all look dejected except yarmir yager who's literally he's just making this face lip out shaking his head not even impressed who's that guy for the leafs spezza yeah uh it's got to be an older guy like i just remember the game spezza fought in the playoffs

last year for goodness sake yeah and you know joe thornton's got to be a bit of that right i mean i think that's why all these guys are here now honestly there's probably not just one um and And, you know, playing in Toronto, playing for a team that hasn't had this success, there is some level of ghost there or doubt or whatever you want to call it in all these guys' minds, I think. Especially if there's reason for it to appear. If they lose game one, if they get down in a big game, you know, if things don't go your way.

Because every single team that pushes down the door and wins the Stanley Cup has to go through moments where it's not going in their favor, whether it's injuries or things that happen, penalty calls. You start listing the ways. You have to find a way to stick with it. And so that's, I, you know, that's why way, you know, Wayne Simmons could be that guy too. Um, you know, rep and Scarborough on the bench, they're just not given a shit, not, not, not too worried by this to nothing deficit early in the first period. Um,

you know, and someone who's going to go out there and do something about it, if there's a fight to be at, or just even some good hard clean checks to be thrown. Um, you know, I think the Leafs have a lot of that now, and I do think that's helped them this season. And, but the real task, Like this is why the playoffs are awesome. You can watch 56 games or 55 right now and you can reach some conclusions.

And then what we see on Thursday might change some of our conclusions. And like, that's, that's what makes the playoffs so awesome. So tense. And why Steve, Steve and Leo might need a diaper. Well, I'll definitely need one. I'll definitely need one. They come in my size. I checked just in case you got to be prepared. That's that's the key thing there. So, guys, do you have any more questions for Chris about the Leafs series? Because, you know, when we talk about this series, it's sort of like,

I think, Chris, you think you summed it up perfectly there. What else do you know other than, okay, so we've seen 55, soon to be 56 games here. I'm assuming, you know, Friday night, the Leafs are just going to be like, here, you guys have it to Winnipeg. Like, they probably don't care. The Jets probably don't care. It's sort of one of those, you know, we're not going to play our stars. and I know we hate each other,

but we're not going to go taking shots at each other with the playoffs on the way. The Leafs are going to play their stars, though, because they have no choice. They have to. They have to. I actually think the Leafs might surprise you on the Friday game. Really? Why?

Because it hasn't really gone that well. The Ottawa game Wednesday, the Saturday night, I know they won. They haven't been great the last week, really. And I think it's the last sort of tune-up. It's sort of the dress rehearsal for the real thing. and you know they do have a carrot like i don't have the standings in front of me but they can they can actually cross a couple teams in the standings if they win and that might matter in round three and i think that's the way they're thinking right now and so just sort of the fact

they haven't played their best and it's the last chance to do it and you know i don't think the jets will roll out a complete lineup i think that's setting up like a leaps win okay well but don't go put your money on my predictions because honestly i would have led you so astray over this season with my predictions so the leafs can leapfrog the panthers and they can hold pittsburgh at bay they can hold washington at bay and it looks like when they when they pass carolina though too with oh no carolina has 80 points no okay no they can't uh they'd still be one point back so they can uh they can tie the panther actually i don't know if they can pass them but they they can hold uh pittsburgh and washington at bay i think florida has the tie

breaker there it could potentially be the difference between home ice advantage and round three or not and they are definitely talking about that stuff behind the scenes if matthews scores tonight uh he'll be at number 200 or sorry not tonight well the next game he'll be at goal number 200 for the career oh and you know like he just scores every night so i mean you might as well book that one you can write your story early early yeah yeah that's kind of true and it's you know it's awesome only three empty net goals out of 199 in his whole career wow I think Patrick Marleau had like six the season he was here the first year when he had like 27 goals or whatever it was I'm in leads the Leafs like from this gen this recent generation I

don't know he had like 12 or 13 last time I looked I also over a couple seasons right right I want to throw this at you guys too uh when Matthews inevitably scores another 30 next year he will already be top 10 all time in leaf school scoring he is 30 goals away from passing ted kennedy or at least sorry tying ted kennedy i'm 31 away uh if he scores another one tonight or sorry tomorrow night um he will be right up there with ted like passing ted kennedy which is he's pretty monstrous he'll be just the 14th leaf to hit 200 that's pretty and it took him five seasons and he had an injured season he had a been two pandemic shortened seasons essentially yes but charlie konica did it in fewer games

way back in 19 tickety two do you know what though if you look i think that there's he has a credible case is this is the greatest goal scoring season in leafs history if you look at goals for a game and without question has to be like you know it's a shame in some for those that like the big round numbers that it's not an 82 game season just because 60 was very much in play for the way he's gone this year wow he's uh the best 50 goal scorer to never hit 50 right now yet right now yet so far so let's move on to the other north division matchup chris what we got you here we're just going to go through everything um oilers jets um you know i mean this is literally what's connor mcdavid gonna do

seems anyway whatever he wants based on what we've seen the last four months um you know the the jets are in in a world of trouble here i think i mean if you look at the regular season i don't have those numbers but i know that they are not flattering for winnipeg i think they went two and seven against edmonton in their nine games uh they couldn't control mcdavid and dry sidle which isn't in itself a sin because that that basically went for everyone in the north division but now they have to play them up to seven games straight and try to win four of them. I think I don't like their odds. The jets have really struggled down a stretch.

I just don't, I like, I always try to come up with a contrarian idea to my initial idea. Like my idea is Edmonton is going to blitz them in this series. And then I try to think, okay, what am I missing? What could go wrong? You know, how, how, how do I invent the circumstances? And beyond Connor Hellbuck, just having like a series for the ages, which can happen uh you know it's a game played with rubber on ice like a lot of weird shit happens it's not all it can't all just be predicted based on you know what we expect

but beyond some outrageously good goaltending performance at one end or outrageously bad from mike smith who you know credit where it's due at age 39 has had a pretty darn good season for edmonton i just don't see any way that the jets defensively can hold up in the series against you know the most dangerous weapon in the world but you know leon dry sidles not too far down the list whether it's two three four or five wherever you want to put them so you know i i think that this is going to be one-sided series and i think we're going to see mcdavid matthews in round two which which if that's a case yeah i want everyone to just have a sniff of the flowers and the butterflies and remember because that might only literally happen once with the teams they would

have to in future years happen in the stanley cup final or something for that to ever happen right with the the way that we're going to go back to the old division so you know this is setting up as like a dynamic first two rounds for lack of a better question what is the winnipeg jets deal because no it's not every year but it's not every year but sometimes there's a team where you look at their month leading into the playoffs and you go you're not even a playoff team and to me that's the jets they they've been absolutely terrible but not just terrible they've been miserable like in in the media and angry and i know they've they've got guys out and they've been missing guys everyone's missing guys uh i mean the habs have been missing guys and they're finding ways to win

games what's their deal i don't have a good answer for that i mean like in all seriousness we shouldn't look past just the challenges of a covet season i hate to use that as a blanket possibility for everyone but it's a blanket possibility for everyone that it's just gotten miserable it's been hard i don't know about you guys i've had way more bad days randomly in the last few months than almost ever just because and there's not there's not really usually an explanation other than like holy shit every day is the same i can't see my friends i can't see my family works harder it's just everything is hard right now so i i wonder if it's that for them a little bit um but you know the injuries haven't helped conor hellebuck not being a

that's in the trophy guy the last month, uh, probably hasn't helped. And I just don't think they're good enough. I mean, this is a team for two years, like their shot metrics are, are really bad. They're, you know, for a team that has high ambition. I mean, and so I think they just give up too much. And so if they're not getting that kind of goaltending or outscoring their troubles, um, you know, it's problematic. And, and frankly, Nikolai Ehlers probably was their best player this year and he's been injured

for the last few weeks. So that, that that's hurt them. You know, I don't think the Dubois trade way too early to draw conclusions, but it hasn't made the kind of impact immediately that, you know, you might've thought it would, maybe that shows up in the playoffs. So, I mean, someone I think that can play a good role in a matchup type role as a centerman where you're not just looking at his points to decide how effective he's been. But yeah, I don't know what their deal is.

I think change will come there though. If, if this ends in the first round, you know, I wouldn't be surprised to see an interesting off season in Winnipeg if, if they don't get past Oilers. interesting like big name interesting i well i don't the truth is i don't totally know but like i could see a scenario where they're looking at a coaching change i could see a scenario where they're looking at some some player changes as well uh you know they resisted making a big trade at the trade deadline like they were kicking around on guys like josh manson and matthias at home and you know ultimately obviously there's some impact defense but it didn't get traded

anywhere but you know i think the jets resisted the urge to maybe hit the trigger then um but depending on how this goes here in the playoffs you know you might see you just might see a little bit more than the typical offseason for a playoff team interesting very interesting cj i'm saying as much as i can out loud is is our time with you done i can give you like foul three more minutes okay sorry i'm really sorry to make other plans no no uh pick one uh the sabers or the rangers what has you more uh intrigued really sabers i love chaos okay so is this so what's happening in new york is just like not chaotic it's just totally normal where you fire everybody that's nuts what so i am genuinely confused by the eichel situation

it sounded like he wanted a second opinion and then last show we weren't sure if he got it but it sounds like he got it but the sabers don't want him to get the surgery but he really wants the surgery what what are the ins and outs of him a being able to make decisions about his own body and uh where is he getting traded because he's very extraordinarily getting traded the only reason this is confusing is because everyone can't say everything out loud like connected to the situation but like it's actually pretty simple the sabers doctors don't believe he needs a surgery wanted to see him go through this 12-week period that ends may 30th and and see where he's at then because they think the surgery has some risks i think every surgery has some

risks but the particular type of neck procedure he's looking at has never been done by an nhl player and so you know if you're the sabers on this obviously everyone wants jack eichel to be healthy like that's that that is definitely 100 fundamentally true but the sabers have a lot of money tied up in him and obviously they want to make sure that he doesn't become damaged even worse in in the course of the surgery jack eichel through whatever medical advice he's gotten independently you know wants to have that surgery believes it is the best way for him to get back the soonest and to play at his best and you know at this point the sabers haven't allowed that to happen that there's language in the cba essentially uh there's a whole like huge section about how you

can get second opinions and the way it all works but ultimately what it boils down to is the team has to sign off on what happens a player can't just say f you i'm getting this surgery it's my body uh that's part of signing a contract in the nhl i know it sounds it's almost hard to wrap your mind around but remember the sabers gave him an 80 million dollar contract and so they get a say in these matters because it pertains to his ability to do his job and so i think that's really where they're at you know may 30th as i mentioned is when this rest period ends so you know it's as that gets closer i'm sure they'll revisit this in one way shape or form i think it's actually probably an understated part of the trade discussion is how do you trade him

when his health is a bit of an open question mark um and i don't want to make any light of that i you know he was bad enough he missed most of the season and neck injury is nothing to trifle with at any age um so you know let's hope you can get back to to be in there and where he gets traded open question like the rangers in la are obvious they've been there they've had those discussions in the past i think they have the kind of pieces prospects and motivation to make a big trade i think teams like calgary montreal columbus you know there are some teams out there that have obvious needs i think for an impact number one center that and and we'll recognize that you can't get that guy very often unless you draft them but this is the one chance you might

have to make a big trade to do it so i could see them being sort of low-key in there minnesota is all of a sudden maybe an interesting option because of the wild have become fun at some point magically in a pandemic yeah and i mean really fun i'm actually not being sarcastic like oh they're awesome totally they're fast and fun and kiro kaprazov is just just dynamic i mean it's it's great. But then there's probably some mystery team. Like I don't, I'm not starting to, please don't tag this, but like even if you're like a team like the least or the Oilers and you're good at center,

aren't you at least exploring to see if you could get even better somehow? Like if there's a trade that might make sense, like, it'd be great. Well, look at it. Great. Here's a, here's a thing that's going to happen at some point. And I don't have the date, but at some point, I think it's reasonable to expect that John Tavares has moved to the way. And that happens to all kinds of players as they age and they can still be super productive.

Like Steven Stamkos has played a lot of the way in the last few years. And if you look at his points per game, he's still giving value, but it's, it's probably easier to shift someone like that to the wing at some point. So if you're going to use that as your premise, you know, the least we'll probably need a number two center. I'm not saying it's next season, but like they know that's coming somewhere down the line. And so maybe there's an incentive to go and get someone like Eichel.

now i would say if we had to rank teams most likely to trade for him toronto's in the 20s so like i'm not saying this is likely to happen but what i do believe is that teams that aren't even obvious fits are going to explore the possibility just to see how do you work well and the trade kneelander crowd is gonna just love hearing this because that's got to be the obvious guy to go the other way if that were to happen i hate that crowd i know i want to see Tavares, Eichel, Nylander. That's what I'd like to see. So you're telling me there's a chance. But I will say this,

that this is, I think this is a big playoffs. I mean, it's a big playoffs for the whole team, but you know, if they have to address the core after this playoffs, you know, Nylander's probably the most tradable asset, frankly, that they would consider trading. So the trade Nylander crowd won't be totally silenced. And I think

it's a, look at Willie's had a second straight, really strong regular season, especially the second half of this one, but he hasn't really shown it in the playoffs in the prior years and so you know there's something for him to prove there he doesn't have to carry the team but i think you got to see a level of consistent competitive instincts fire whatever you want to call it and a bit of production or else you know at some point something's going to change and a team like buffalo wouldn't care about his playoff performance because they're not going anyway for a while so it's probably going to be like you know

i also think i also think people are like well how could they fit the salary i'm going through my head now chris because i'm a leaf fan i know you gotta go morgan riley salary coming off the books freddie anderson salary coming off the books like i mean morgan will be another year but there's a tradable asset you can make that happen yeah i mean look these guys are gurus they can make anything happen like what they've just done so that the roster that i think they're going to ice for the first game of the playoffs just just the players in the lineup and and not the ones scratch are going to be 86 million in an 81.5 million dollar cap world so you know they can make it cheating it's not well the lightning did the same thing right they're all of a sudden

adding a nine and a half million dollar player in kucherov on game one of the playoffs and that's to an existing roster that was you know at the cap so this is how these are the rules of engagement if you're trying to win in the nhl and and the and the reason i would say it's not cheating is look at all the picks they had to give up for salary retention on nash and on felino like that's how they made it happen in part. They also made it happen by convincing Joe Thornton to take a league minimum deal by retaining Jason Spetz at 7,000. Like they've been value shoppers,

but they've built a pretty damn good team in a cap environment with a lot of money tied up in their, their top offensive players. Chris Johnson, Sportsnet. Thank you so much for all of that reporter, Chris on Twitter. We love having you on excited for the playoffs.

We know we probably won't see it till afterwards. So like have a good time and, And, uh, and when am I, am I being kicked off the pod? No, like you're busy back in CJ. If you join us mid playoffs, I promise to actually be there for the start of the show. Well, I'll make this promise here. If the Leafs win their first playoff round since 2004,

I think you got to have the arm to break it down, to look ahead, to talk about history. Cause I'm one of the few old enough to remember 2004 without needing an encyclopedia, young Adam. I can remember that. I can remember that. And I think it'd be pretty cool just to see what happens in the city. If that happens. And if they lose,

you're probably going to want me back because I tend to set fire to all my relationships after their church, the day that they clean out their lock. Right. Well, we figured the end of the season, we'd have, we'd have you back, but man, Chris, if you can make time for us, we're always in for that. So thank you for coming on. I know your, your fervent followers will remind us two weeks from now, I'm going to be appearing on the pod. Oh yeah. Especially all the Habs fans. Chris Johnson.

Thank you so much. Fourth member of the show. We love you. Good luck. Love you guys. Good luck to the juggernaut crew out there. Keep representing. When WestJet first took flight in 1996,

the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere. And two out of three women rocked the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96.

Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. So I have to say, guys, Jack Eichel. I don't know whether I'm more excited about the first round of the Leafs getting Jack Eichel. I'm not really sure. It's kind of exciting. I want the Leafs to get Eichel and keep Nylander.

I'm sure they could. Ready? It's going to be, oh, yeah. Morgan Rielly off the books. You'd have to flip Morgan Rielly, but like you're losing Sandin too, right? aren't you no no it's okay it's gonna be Bracco somehow even though they don't have him anymore Nielsen um a third yeah Bracco Nielsen and a second I think it is second that's it Evan Adams

is gonna put on his negotiator hat and he's gonna get a second well anyway very interesting to see what happens with Jack Eichel now uh let's I mean this is sort of the playoff preview show so let's move forward here we've got carolina and we've got nashville in the discover central division um two teams who look i mean you sort of feel like i mean the 16 point spread sort of says it all right carolina's got 80 points nashville's got 64 nashville's one of the hottest teams in the league bud i'm just saying they sure are and listen i think i do think that matters right so the the spread obviously matters of course carolina has been the better team all season long of course but how you play leading into the playoffs i think says a lot

about your team uh carolina's five two and three that's still really good they've lost their last two whatever um but nashville seven two and one one of the hottest teams um and i mean let's let's call it what it is they've been in a playoff race they've essentially been in a series with dallas and they beat them didn't they adam they they beat the dallas stars uh they've sort of been in playoff mode so i don't think carolina sleeps through that series i think nashville is going to make it as hard on them as possible carolina is still going to win i think but nashville is uh they're not a pushover four seed we talked a little bit on the uh on the podcast last week but now we do officially know that we're going to get the all florida tampa tampa panthers um the

one thing that the tampa is adding is nikita kucherov but he hasn't played so not that that matters because he's nikita kucherov but florida which had slightly more points this year can they contend with that or is this just like is this the two three matchup that's like okay well we really know who the powerhouse here is i mean they've florida and tampa have played each other recently um i want to say they had a mini series it was uh four nothing on monday for the panthers the panthers beat them yeah and andre vasilevsky did not look sharp he was featured he got a double dang it in steve's dang it's which is very rare um but like tampa they're so playoff hardened and florida's been this team for years like oh they're gonna make it they're gonna make it

they're gonna make it they never make it they're finally here after ridiculous playoff success um but like tampa they're just they're so deep like even like kucherov he hasn't played right that seems like an issue right tampa is deep enough that they could like shelter kucherov and have them on like i don't know the third line something like that um i i it's difficult for me to not put my money on tampa just because of everything that team has been through what do you think joel quinville gives the panthers uh in this playoff series that maybe they wouldn't have had otherwise oh man that is a very good question um because chicago they don't they don't they really don't get enough credit for being feisty and scrappy and i don't mean necessarily

tough i mean tampa won last year because tampa should have you know what i mean whereas chicago the three years that they won uh every year they were bashing heads with the kings who in any other year could have won and every year they were bashing heads with the blues who in any other or could have won like there were no of the the red wings on their way down you know like there were sharks too the sharks like there were no easy paths really for those chicago teams and we we joke about the 2015 one i mean quenville is a master of matchups on account of he had three functional defensemen and won a stanley cup uh with um uh the one the one thing that i think he's going to sorely miss is Aaron Eckblad.

Yeah. You know, that does make things... Yeah, it makes... And especially against Tampa, for the love of God, who just comes at you in waves. But you've got to make Barkov the... This is his coming-out party. I mean, we've all known about him for a long time,

but he hasn't really been viewed as a superstar. And if he finds a way to not just shut Tampa down, but outscore them while he does it, like actually find a way to turn the puck over the other way, put it in the back of their net. If he can do that, if he can be Jonathan Taves for Joel Quinville, they got a fighting chance, absolutely. There was one stat I was looking at today

that I thought was pretty interesting, pretty cool. It was that Tampa is the only team this season to win every game they led after two periods. So when they lead after two periods, they are 26 and 0 this season so the last team to do it was the pittsburgh penguins in the year they won the stanley cup uh that was 39 and 0 in 15 16 and then the team to go undefeated after winning after leading after two years before that was a chicago blackhawks who won the cup in 14 15 they went 25 and 0 so i don't know what it seems like there's something in it in it and

know with teams that can shut it down after you have the lead after two periods because i feel like tampa they know how to win and i'm not gonna i don't want to pick florida in this matchup because i think there's too much experience there with the team who if they get the lead getting going into the third they can guarantee themselves hey we're gonna walk away with a victory in this game and i just thought it's fascinating that the other two teams go undefeated were the lat pittsburgh and chicago who won went on to win the stanley cup it's an interesting matchup because it's one of the rare times where the numbers all point to one team and our hearts and minds completely disagree with the numbers,

like just based on what we've seen and it's nothing against the Panthers. I mean, Jesus, they're one of the strongest teams in the league, but they're going up against easily the best three seed in the league, in the entire league. And they might finish with fewer points in Minnesota. They still got a game left, but how is the reigning Stanley cup champions? you have you have home ice advantage in round one and you draw the reigning stanley cup champions who are getting the the heart winner from two years ago back oh life's not fair florida finally

gets in and that's the the hand they're dealt all right good luck and like not all the numbers point towards tampa because uh florida did they led the division in goals per game they let in shots no i'm saying the numbers favored florida oh okay okay yeah yeah yeah okay yeah florida is definitely the better team statistically but i don't think anybody's really picking them um yeah only because and i think i think there's also just from a fan perspective even if you don't watch the teams regularly it's just this tampa's been a monster to play against since at least what 2013 24 i know they missed in 2015 but stamkos was out like it's it's they've just been every year there's this they're seemingly unstoppable they did win the cup finally

last year but they're just this unstoppable force every year usually for a while there's a little added incentive too for the tampa bay lightning because a lot of them were with that 2015 team that ended up going to the stanley cup final against chicago and losing right and it stuck in their craw for years and they were finally able to you know exercise those demons and win in the bubble and now you got a chance to get your vengeance face to face against Joel Quinville interesting and he's he he knows them so it'll be very that will be a more interesting matchup than I think people are giving it credit for now let's move on to the mass mutual east division Pittsburgh just one thing just to mention uh for the Tampa Bay Lightning they did

on uh the Monday game versus the Panthers they're the first NHL team ever to like uh ice a line of three uh black players that's right the where are they the rain i think out in california yes they ontario the ontario rain yes they did it with uh the ahl team there but tampa became the first ever uh nhl team to do it it was walcott uh smith and uh matthew joseph yes i think yeah yeah so shout out to them for that that's really cool and joseph uh he was a guy who was highlighted is just he i don't know if he even got into a game in the bubble but he was just this like this uh beacon of positivity for the team and everything it's it's great to see him like guys who won but they weren't quite in the lineup it'd be nice to see him get a more

prominent role here in this this playoff run i know too that uh it was funny hearing the head coach talk after the game because he said you know as much as this is a historical moment it'd be nice when this isn't news anymore yeah you know it's wild it's still news yeah yeah and i think that's you know it's a really salient point it's like we got to get to the point where this isn't news anymore but it is and it's historic and it's incredible and it's too bad it took us this long great to see yeah no that's a very good point because we shouldn't be in 2021 talking about oh three black players were on the ice that's wild but we literally are the the uh the jackie robinson movie uh and like harrison ford is branch ricky and they're like on the phone

like branch we're not even gonna play you if you put jackie robinson in and uh and then i feel like the nhl what was that voice well you know we're not gonna play it we're gonna we're in his old timey voice yeah you know and and 1940s voice i guess and uh and and i just it's like the nhl I was like, now. That's happening now. Right. Anyway, let's get on to... Progress is slow.

It's molasses. They should bring back those 75 patches, but underneath, just write years behind. Oh, Jesus. They are. They're almost literally... When did Jackie Robinson play his first MLB game? It was in the 40s, Jesse?

Yeah. Early 50s, 51, 52, something like that. Somewhere in there. He wore 42. Maybe that's where some of the confusion is It's ridiculous It's a little bit ridiculous 1947

Come on You see Branch We just wrapped up in Europe We're not going to play it Tampa's got this new line Stop It features three players Stop

I've never understood the stop East division Let's get to it pittsburgh and the islanders this will be interesting pittsburgh is much better than we thought that they were going to be this year yeah we saw them as like a playoff team but i don't know if anybody saw them as being the dominant force that they've become uh norris candidate cody cc leading the way but really i mean the story is i i know i know he's been good i know i'm mad listen i'm upset about it i don't like this could he do this for us

dubas should be screaming i was right to everybody in the media because He's a competent player for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Dubas saw that in him, and he never got it out of him when he was in Toronto. He looked fine on their third pair. Right. Maybe if they had played Oregon Riley, it would have been okay. But anyway, we move on.

Islanders, Pittsburgh. You've got Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin. I mean, it's been the Sidney Crosby year in Pittsburgh. It's been unbelievable, and you can say that for most of the last 15 years. um but the islanders play this style that sometimes bores you to death but it's very effective are they going to be able to contend with the pittsburgh penguins i like that you called them a boa constrictor before um they're so far behind uh i don't because nhl.com is terrible

i don't know where they rank in terms of goals scored but they're their bottom half yeah they have 156 and for context the pittsburgh penguins have 196 and they lead the league they lead the league they lead the league with 196 but only vegas has allowed fewer goals than the new york islanders 128 you take a breath they constrict you take another breath they constrict i will say this um usually the hallmark of a real great team is killer road record their home record is nearly undefeated and it should give pittsburgh pause holy cow do you need to win i would say both of the first two games of the series the islanders are 21 4 and 3 at home but on the road 11 13 and 4 yuck and pittsburgh has a better record than them at home do they not oh do they

yeah pittsburgh is 22 4 and 2 so and and what what uh what do they got on okay it's not much better on the road but at least it's above 500 and they're tied for the hottest team in the league um it's them in florida and edmonton by the way who have eight wins in their last 10 games let me throw this at you too um just i don't think this stat matters but the penguins who have scored 196 have also allowed 156 which is as many goals as the islanders have scored this year gee i don't know if that means anything but i just thought that was a funny coincidence and by the way they're spread it doesn't the goal differential doesn't really it's not that it's not that different like we're talking 30 goals for the for the penguins right 40 goals

and it's plus 40 for pittsburgh plus 28 for the islanders closer than you'd think yeah closer than you think uh the least by the way when when did the leafs get the fourth best goal differential in the league anyway sorry just i was very distracted by all that um pittsburgh is an interesting team because they changed the story um you know last year i think some teams uh like the Habs in a good way allowed the bubble to sort of write their story um they had a winning record when they fired Claude Julien which is odd for a team that finished 24th in the NHL last year but because they won that series against Pittsburgh they gave the Flyers a run for their money they said to themselves this is who we are but it's the Penguins who buckled and look how they

answered back right they've answered back sydney crosby has been fantastic they've gotten far better goaltending um they've gotten some good performances from you know unusual places matheson trade's been okay cody cc's been pretty good jared mccann having an extraordinarily underrated season there brian rust having a very underrated season there it's when the penguins are good this is what it looks like it's yes their star players are good they're always going to be dependable but they're getting performances out of guys where you go oh i love their complimentary pieces around crosby and malkin like you go down the list of their wingers and it's it's kapanen it's zucker it's genzel it's rust it's tanev like that's it's a solid core around

those two guys and even like jeff carter as the third center and teddy blue oh like i forgot about him it's a really it's a really talented team hey here's the stat every team that's ever traded for jeff carter at the trade deadline has won the stanley cup yeah is that true i know but the la kings end of lists it's true man he's he's uh in 14 games as a penguin nine goals two assists for 11 points bro it's been real good i didn't know real good awesome real good no penalty minutes plus nine goofy goofy um and you know on the islanders they got leo komarov on the first line listen that's that is uh that's impact player leo komarov who's who was on waivers earlier this year yeah but he butt-ended david poshenok so we're all talking about him okay yeah so so i want to i do

want to move on to the next the next matchup in this division so we can get to all the mashups washington and boston they actually finished the season playing each other washington took that two to one let them fight yeah because this is going to be and we mentioned this last episode this is going to be the heavy hitter series this is i think the one to watch outside of whatever team you're cheering for and whatever team you've committed to this is going to be nasty i feel like this is going to be a throwback to like you know six seven years ago mean you know remember the flyers and penguins and and the washington penguins like just nasty mean series and that's what it seems like this is going to be it you know we we have been defending the north division an

awful lot but uh outside of i mean philly was weirdly awful especially in the back half this year we all knew new jersey was going to suck we all knew buffalo was going to suck uh but i looked at this division we all looked at this division at the beginning of the year we went okay there's the rangers who are up and coming there's the islanders who seem like a gimme there's the capitals who seem like a gimme there's the penguins who seem like a gimme and randomly we just throw the bruins into the mix like i mean that's probably the best group of four teams right i think so it doesn't mean it's the best division but it maybe kind of does for sure best top four uh certainly i think the north is a little bit more even but uh that's the that's

the best top four there's nowhere to breathe um the penguins are unreal capitals unreal bruins they don't care that they're the lower seed and don't have home ice advantage islanders same thing um and like you said it's gonna be nasty and watching the bruins play zidane ochara in the playoffs oh santa i don't ask for much give me seven please give me seven i just want to see seven santa please give me seven make them all go to triple overtime who do you give the edge to in that series can i weigh in yeah yes i'm hoping you guys do the the edge i think goes to the bruins simply because the big four i'm calling the big four ovechkin oshi carlson backstrom all within the last week have been out with injury so i don't know how healthy uh this and i'm i'm

leaving out kunetz off because he's on the uh covid uh protocol list so i don't even know if he's gonna be ready for game one so i don't i don't know going against the bruins who all they do is bully people if this half injured everybody's injured at this point of the season but if you're missing significant time within the last week heading into the playoffs especially ovechkin i think you got to give the the edge the slightly healthier team who likes to push people around and let us not forget that the Bruins acquired Taylor Hall for a second-round pick. Who has been extremely good, by the way.

That's what I mean. That backhand goal he scored? If he was playing like that in Buffalo, it would have been a first. So I was looking up his numbers. I probably won't be able to find them in time. I know what you tweeted, but pull up your tweet. Pull up your tweet. All right, let me try to find my tweet here.

But basically, Taylor Hall, a lot of people don't like him. I get it. He's overrated. i get it sure sure sure fine fine fine but one thing i can tell you about him even if you don't like him he is not going to shoot 2.3 percent forever and i think he he had the fourth worst shooting percentage out of all forwards who had played at least 10 games or something like that that simply wasn't going to remain a thing um i can't find it i can't find it right now but his shooting percentage right now with the Bruins is something like 20 so now it's maybe a little

higher than it should be but he's shooting like 10 times the rate that he was uh with the Buffalo Sabres and there's David Krejci who turns it up every year I'm sure Bruins fans are dying to see what Trent Frederick brings against a guy like Tom Wilson I think you're right I think I might actually favor the bruins here yeah i'm i we could live to regret this i also think uh outside of boston i don't think bruce cassidy gets enough credit for how good of a coach he is he's a really good coach the big toss-up the big toss-up this series besides not even knowing who's going to be playing or not is uh the goaltending now it's really young in washington and the bruins have sort of had this carousel of rask and halak and swayman who's been really good um i'm very

interested to see which team wins the series and who their starter is for the clenching game dark horse interesting note for the offseason i wonder if this is tuka rasks last year in boston feels like it is it's weird he's one of those guys who it feels like it could be his last year then like he's not bad enough to retire but it seems like the only team he wants to play for is boston yeah uh steve i think i found your uh the taylor hall shooting percentage tweets here so he was shooting uh with buffalo he was shooting 2.3 percent like you said and chris johnston on april 12th tweeted that that was the seventh worst single season shooting percentage among all nhl player since 2013 14 and then since the trade he's been shooting 16.7 which is two percent more

than his heart trophy winning season so come on guys you don't got to think he's going to maintain that and like you could cut that in half and it would still be four times better like this was never going to sustain um and i mean he i didn't he lead the league in breakaways and he didn't score on one of them or something like that heading into his trade against boston he had like nine and he didn't score on any of them michael grabner like it's it was never going to maintain then all of a sudden they the bruins add him and he's with creche and smith like oh man i'm sorry caps fans but that is it's a tough matchup take it from me uh now going on to the honda west division so everything's sort of sorted out here i like how

you get in the sponsorships uh yeah i just so do they why not why not why not they paid all this money for it why not why not a niche podcast um the so we've got vegas and st louis colorado minnesota i want to start with vegas and st louis because i think colorado minnesota is more interesting there is a 21 point spread between the st louis blues and the vegas golden knights vegas obviously wrapping up i believe the president's trophy last night with the leafs losing and um you know it's it's pretty insane to think that like if i had told you in 2017 that this team was going to be not only in the stanley cup finals and then they i think they did a conference finals or a second round after that and now they're winning the president's trophy

i don't even know if the least have ever won the president's if colorado wins their last game they get the president they get it okay they own the tiebreaker over vegas i think the tiebreaker is head-to-head or is it regulation wins because colorado is 34 it's not that because um else the else vegas would have clinched already and they still have an x next to their name if you look it's not a y all right so they haven't clinched yet so we're gonna have to play hypothetical today okay because st louis is playing minnesota tonight too so this will be very interesting although it doesn't really affect their their standings that much if vegas plays st louis what's that series look like who do you guys give the edge to i think st louis will die at the hands

of whoever they face there dude there are two teams in this year's stanley cup playoffs who have a negative goal differential um well st louis can change that they would have to really kick minnesota's ass um but they're a negative five the habs are negative nine um vegas just mercs them colorado just mercs them i mean this game is extraordinarily important you want to play minnesota or st louis i think you want to play st louis come on you got a team that's negative five goal differential versus plus 25 not to mention well actually st louis has been pretty decent lately i was expecting to see something totally different there's six one and three however over the course of the whole season i mean ah there's if you're st louis

you're watching and you're just going to bring it on who cares like it's it's not going to be fun no matter what um and you're going to have a hard time uh beating whoever you face philip grubauer by the way for the avalanche is quietly put together like a vesna worthy season i meant to shout out chris letang as well um with pittsburgh's talking about a trope a guy that could get some uh trophy votes chris letang with all the injuries he's had holy shit he's been great sorry i just wanted to throw that in there it's gonna be a weird year uh in terms of voting because like i i got someone chirping me like oh i bet you don't even watch their games or whatever and i'm like how many hours do you think are in my day do you think there's more than 24 is that

how you think this works how much hockey do you think and like it was easier like back you know if i was in the sportsnet studio and i had a literally wall of televisions yeah it was easier but no so people are going to be going by numbers a lot more and a guy like letang if he's got amazing numbers is going to get more votes no steve why didn't you watch philly detroit on a tuesday night like how dare you from little caesars because i value my humanity like what the i you know how many i'd rather just i'd rather play red dead all the way through until i was done and i'm not allowed to sleep until i'm done i would honestly then then that stop that how dare you what was the original question the original question and i all amend the question who matches

up better against minnesota so whoever takes this is going to be vegas or colorado st louis is like oh we'll have to take whoever we get who has the better chance against minnesota who i think are better than what their record suggests and that's not like they have a bad record but i think if they had been like this all year rather than i think the first 20 games they were sort of figuring themselves out and then capri is it caprizov or caprizov whatever let's stick with one i'm gonna say caprizov when he shows up holy shit it's it's a just a different team and we He talked about them selling at the deadline. He had those conversations, and then for some reason,

their season just turned around. Playoffs are a different beast. You got two goalies. Marc-Andre Fleury does not care about how old he is. He disregards. Every year, the number on his cake goes down. It doesn't make any sense. They got Petrangelo, who you can use to target someone.

They got Mark stone who you can use to target someone. Um, and I'm not saying Minnesota is a one line or one player team. They're not, but I think Vegas is better suited to handle a team like Minnesota and it's nothing against Colorado. It's more about, uh, Colorado's had a few more injuries. I want to say Nathan McKinnon missed a game or two, uh, or had to leave a game or something like that. i just think vegas is better suited for minnesota but i i just i i think those are two of the best

teams in the national hockey league is vegas colorado in the second round because i think we all agree that the west division is going to be vegas colorado in the second round is that the stanley cup final it could be the two three matchup in in the first round in the central like it could be florida tampa like is there's no uh there aren't any bad teams in this year's playoffs yeah yeah uh you know every year you go them like there's always at least one team no no i don't know adam what do you think about the preds buddy they've been good i don't know what you want me to tell you dude steve steve lots of teams have been good for 10 game stretches this is not wow not a great team you know who's a good

team you know who's a really good team when we talk good teams the ottawa senators that's a good team the ottawa senators are going to make the playoffs next year there's my big prediction i i had a line in my lfr today heading into last night's game i was saying to myself all right the leafs have two games left they're gonna play the third best team in canada and the jets the sends legitimately they're amazing if you erase the first like what 20 percent of the season really not that much are they're a playoff team and i think had this been an 82 game season which it isn't they would have made it oh yeah oh yeah the way they're going you guys are overrating a portion of the season where they weren't in contention there's something to be said for

a team that's not playing for anything playing above expectation i think i think that i take that point jesse but i think when you've got it when you've done it for 35 of 56 games the way they have uh i mean really it was what game 2021 that they really kicked it into gear um to me they're i mean the leafs the leafs had a a hell of a time with them this year what did they did they even split the season series that ought to win the season series like they might have i don't it wasn't good um i i don't know i i actually think i i agree with you in the sense that next year people will play them differently play them harder won't take them won't take them not seriously but i also think the ottawa senators now have that kind of young ignorant confidence

that young teams get where it's like we can literally do anything and and i think that they're going to be able to add this off season sneakily and if yeah well attending thing sorted out calm down whatever it is they need to do i don't see any reason why they can't make the playoffs next year shades of the leaf still because they were up 3-1 and those two goals like you tend to not look at it this way like when you're cheering for a certain team you cheer for your players and what they do um and all Tavares and Matthews did was shoot because no one was anywhere near them both those guys make over 11 mil can someone get these guys a game sheet there was there's they're still real young and still real green defensively um but they try

really freaking hard and they can score and when they get a few saves which gustafson made for them they can do anything as long as we're talking about the playoffs how do we get on to the sins sorry um what i do want to get back to is this okay i'm going to give you because this is really really what it comes down to no offense to st louis but this is what i think is going to happen in the west you're going to have two teams out of these three they're going to make it to the second round who are they going to be vegas colorado minnesota jesse blake who do you think i have vegas and colorado steve dangle yeah those two i'm gonna say minnesota vegas yo okay so blues fourth negative five goal differential minnesota third plus 25 huge jump

colorado plus 60 vegas plus 67 but i like i said like with ottawa minnesota wasn't this good that we talked about them potentially selling at the deadline minnesota is not this good was not this good is this good the the number one defense of the north division by the way is the west uh because it's vegas colorado and minnesota kicking the shit out of the kings sharks and ducks and then there's the blues and coyotes like we don't like you and sort of fighting amongst each other and the blues ended end up winning but it's it's vegas colorado wouldn't be shocked if minnesota squeaked out a series win there but it's those two let's be honest i get your other two teams picks for the

other divisions i'm sure write them down so we have them for uh the next round we could look back and see who got the uh most right we should write them down yeah all right who are you who are your north division picks i've i've vegas minnesota for adam for the west uh vegas colorado for steve and vegas colorado for me for the west okay so we're going north now north yeah toronto edmonton yep there it is east division uh east division oh baby pittsburgh no disrespect to the islanders i'm doing it again but uh pittsburgh and i got boston actually i actually think it's going to be all black and gold in the east division as well pittsburgh boston and again no disrespect to the islanders or the caps um i'm just a bruce cassidy

guy and also i've i should have learned my lesson uh what two years running now betting against the islanders but here we are see see you see you in the final there boston and my therapist two weeks later jesse who are you taking in the east adam so you were boston pittsburgh right that's correct yeah all right um i also have it boston pittsburgh and do you have toronto edmonton in the north i of toronto just so we're clear okay carolina uh nashville carolina come on now oh i thought everybody was a big old preds fan on this show i didn't know that oh better eat some girl no adam it was your battle was nashville dallas all right and they lost they they won that battle of cowboy hats they did they did they did all right stevie going with carolina who listens to country music

and their truck harder you know nashville tennessee apparently like we all expected um jesse uh i'm going with carolina tampa but now that i'm looking at like all my picks i have it as uh chalk except for tampa and like i feel like it never it's never gonna play out that way with one upset unless it does but so i might go ahead and change it then coward but uh i'll stick with it i guess i don't know i'm i'm gonna go carolina panthers carolina and the panthers so then the carolina panthers can shout out carolina and the panthers for playing in the second round but also i think i think here's the thing with the tampa bay lightning that that people don't focus on enough unless you're a tampa bay lightning fan they have this

gene i know they won the cup where they do explode or implode maybe is the right way to say it there are times where the the lightning do lose catastrophically they're like a sports car that has one faulty part and it goes bang now they've changed a lot obviously they won the cup but i want to i'm for funsies i'm taking the panthers one of my favorite points cj made last year was game one Tampa Columbus went to quintuple overtime and if Columbus wins that game Tampa might be up first round but they happen to win it holy shit boys we did it and all of a sudden they make quick work of them and basically everybody else um and they end up winning the cup I have the Hurricanes and I have the Lightning that's the smart pick I know no one's gonna deny

that that it is the smart pick i mean if you're if you're if you're putting money on this those are the that's the pick you should make in the tampa versus uh panthers series you have to but that's why they play the games yeah that's right you know that's right okay so shall we do the press conference let's do it all right the steve dangle press conference steve i have a game for you oh boy okay is your brain ready there's only one way to find out all right let's dial it back all the way to 2017 on February 6th

the Leafs had a game they played the Islanders the Leafs had a significant event with young players on that team what happened in that game February 6th 2017

this is from Grins Above and I think you're going to get this game, and then there's a specific thing Grinzebub wants you to do with the events that happened in this game. First, you've got to tell me what happened.

See, I'm thinking of the I'm thinking of the 5-0 win where Hall got his first goal and Dermott got his first goal but I believe that was the next season was that on the dad's trip

I think it was 2017 maybe Grins Above has the game wrong can you check I will check because I don't think Dermott made his Leafs debut until the following year

so you think at this event so i think you're right because i just googled it and it may have been 2018 wow steve better than the question i can't believe it okay so was i right it was five nothing so um well now that you know the event i think it was and it was hall's first goal and it was dermot's first goal all right i'm gonna read the whole tweet to you so i can find the actual game february 6 2017 the leafs played the islanders in brooklyn the leafs had five in brooklyn yes oh no this is a different game the leafs had because that was in toronto five rookies score in that game can you name all five and what was the final score i do remember this game it is the correct game

it's the correct date I found it here I have all of the rookies who scored and you name them all 2017 so you do not know better than the question Steve you're not that smart you're not Ken Jennings

oh oh boy this game i believe it was a mess defensively you know the final score no thank you for naming rookies give me was it six five you nailed that okay uh-huh so they got one from a non-rookie nope they uh they lost six five oh they lost six five yes yes the leafs lost this game in overtime to the islanders brock nelson scored an ot that's such a leaf thing they had five they had five different rookies scoring a game and they lost

yeah oh and a guy scored four goals in his debut lost jesus guys okay okay like you'll never understand cheering for this team if you don't watch your blood pressure I am gonna no I'm not ready okay you'd think Matthews has one of them you got one correct answer

um Hyman you have two correct answers do you have any more correct answers there were four goals in the first period it's 2-2 at the end

the Leafs scored Kuhlman scored that game for the Islanders because i what uh i soshnikov you have three correct answers you are three for three so far wow sosh i forgot about sosh oh how could you forget about sosh how dare you what's he how dare you mr lighten up the khl he's great he's uh he could get an nhl job if he was assisted by nikita zeit zeit so marner was obviously on that team and in that game i don't think he scored and zeitsev i want to say like he took forever to score his first goal

but that's february you said yes february 6th 2017 i think zeitsev was one of them no first incorrect guess so far i got hyman matthews sosh you got two more goals you got one more guess right now you're three for four it's pretty good if you win if you're playing baseball and you're you want to play and you hit three for four that day i'd be like that's a pretty good afternoon at the ballpark so kapanen wasn't really on that team until like the end of the season okay i guess uh logically marner but i think it's wrong yeah marner did score he scored in the second period well there you go so you got four out of five that's not bad and then take a stab at the last last one who else was a rookie who else was a rookie

was nylander technically a rookie nylander scored there you go there are your five rookies all right that's not bad i won one zaitsev zaitsev had like three goals and i guessed him uh neil anders gordon he was assisted by connor carrick and nazim kadri no man i wish connor carrick worked out here man i mean he worked out here but he didn't work out oh he worked out oh yeah he didn't work out connor cakes thick legs connor got the boy cakes man he was he was electric with the Marley. So electric. All right. I'm very disappointed in my performance. Adam,

are you ready for a question? Yep. Do you think the Leafs downfall will be their power play? That's from Pepler Travis and this for me. Yeah. Well you and Steve, but Adam, you can go first. What do you think?

You know, this playoffs that the downfall is going to be the power play because no, I think the biggest area struggle. I'll tell you this. Your power play can get going it could be streaky now they've had a pretty rough go with their power play um but i think i think i'd be more worried if they were struggling five on five and that's something that they had been struggling remember they had dominant power plays in the past but five on five looks a little shaky i'd much rather be solid as hell five on five because that's how you're playing the majority of the game yes do you want the power play to be humming along at a hundred

percent sure but you're going to have every team is going to have problems there's not going to be a perfect nhl team anywhere especially with a salary cap and even if you didn't have a salary cap and could spend 150 million dollars you'd still have weaknesses it's just the way it is and so if that's the weakness that is a manageable weakness not only do you only get about six minutes a game on the power play but the toronto maple leafs have the firepower to figure it out they do I think uh they'll go back to a more similar setup to what they had earlier in the season where Tavares and Nylander on the second unit and all of a sudden you know your top PK units going Jesus what do we do yeah um and also I hope they look at the tape and they look at uh

the goal that they scored yesterday and they go oh it's because we tried something different because wayne simmons gets the puck in the corner and every other player out of the 10 cycles that around the boards and wayne goes it's wayne simmons time and he crashes the net with it and he doesn't come away with a shot on goal but he's got two guys on him now puck squirts loose to kerfoot he looks at the net i got nothing passes it behind him telepathically to thornton who gives it to muzzin blast it it goes in i don't know if it's the neatest play of all time but a guy who didn't even get an assist decided leroy jenkins and i'm just gonna do it i'm just gonna do something different like they they gotta identify the issues with their power play

and a big one is they love holding on to the puck it's mine mine in completely completely not dangerous scenarios you can't just have it you got to at least have the goalie heart rate go up by having the puck in the slot for god's sake you know what i mean but i totally agree with what adam said i'd much rather be better five on five awesome awesome and i have to shout out uh michael lang who sponsors today's podcast i want to read his little note here uh michael says he's in the state so he donated a couple dollars 55 to cancer research institute it's been two years since we learned that my dad had esophageal cancer, and since

he's older, I didn't know how much time I would have left with him. Fast forward to today, and he is over a year removed from being told he is cancer-free. Round of applause. There we go. We are lifelong Red Wings fans, but he happily jumped on the bandwagon with me when I became a Leafs

fan in 2011, even though I refused to cheer for his beloved New England Patriots. Thanks again, guys. Love the pod. That's from Michael. what a fulfilling life dude cheered for the red wings up until recently and the new england patriots but the rough part is is when you're like hey i'm going to be a starting in 2011 yeah oh terrible great what made you think that was okay it had to be tim brent

had to be that's what that's what got him over the block the slap shot with his nuts and he's like that's my guy who's the one that blocked the slap shot with their face on the leafs and it was like holy crap there was a morgan riley game 7 2018 i'm talking earlier i'm probably we're talking like we're talking like 0908 something grobovsky scored a goal with his head was it last playoff or the playoffs before where mitch had his block at the very end of the game 2019 game three that was okay 2019 yeah yeah that was that was a cool one by Mitch I think we were all there yes we were well Adam and I were in the lottery seats I believe yes we were you were up top that's when Pierre Maguire was tapping Brad Marchand's butt we were like what's happening

here why is this that's enough of that how about you quit it maybe I don't know I mean I guess it's not that big of a deal they could be buddies I mean hope not but back then I was like oh man because the Leafs are losing and I'm internet mad about it and I was I still love that I made half the Bruins bench turn around in 2018 what did you do there was a face off right next to the benches and Marshan

Tripp Marner off a false face off like off a false start and I from those seats between the benches go typical and like Danton Heinen looked at me like a bunch of them turned around did any of them recognize you I don't care

I don't know. It'd be nice if one of them like waved and gave you the finger or something like that. Hey man, frig off. Yeah, Marshan stuck his tongue through the glass. Yeah. Well, it's going to be very, very exciting. And obviously, I cannot wait to watch Boston and Washington on Saturday night. It's going to be an incredible, incredible playoff year.

And we'll leave you with just the most, just like the funnest thing. And that is the playoffs. It's a demolition derby. The first two rounds are always the most fun for everybody. So enjoy this. the next month is going to be a ride and no matter what happens let's all have fun together and thank god the leafs don't have to play the bruins isn't that great well maybe we'll see it's not great but but still better still better anyway we'll see you on monday uh shout out to

adam wild who got his vaccine today congratulations damn looking vax bro look at that look at that You got a farmer's tan already? I know. What is that? So it's because I have the convertible, and I've been outside for like three days, and I already have my farmer's. I have, okay, if you've worked outside for like,

I have like a built-in farmer's tan, so all year round, I have this. But then in the summertime, it just gets crazy. Your arm looks ridiculous. I know. I hope you know that. You have, Adam, it was like nine degrees like two days ago. Literally.

i have a farmer's tan that is always it's it's fried into my skin no two weeks ago i know i know and it's like the second their son my farmer stands like hey you want to not get laid this summer cool so anyway all right unless it's in like a cornfield because you're a farmer that could be that it's not that though i'm farmers only.com should check it out anyway not part of our advertising schedule yeah have you ever heard of farmers only the dating app farmersonly.com they have that jingle for their the commercial because steve only a farmer could understand dating a farmer okay that's part of the commercial steve you need to look up farmers only commercials that's so specific well i would imagine that it's difficult to date a farmer

because it's a very specific career it's a lifestyle really i'm gonna play you a commercial who's easy to date and like no but that's different it is different i can understand is there a like a morning radio show host one no there is not you get up at like 1 30 in the morning and like like that's got to be difficult play it jesse whenever you're ready where are all the country girls they're at farmer's in the country you moron

so to just to describe it to you it's a guy he's on at the beginning when the music playing he comes in from the field and he goes into the the barn where the bar is and then he uh he asked the guy he's like where are all the country girls and then he's like they're on farmersonly.com and he pulls out his iphone and he goes to farmers only and then they sing the jingle anyways that's that's it they also own you ready american dating traditional dating rural dating christian dating and senior dating rural dating is the same thing they've built a network of yeah yeah for very specific niches oh so it's a widespread grift is what you're telling me there's a um oh there's a there's a blog welcome to the farmers only official blog

would you like me to read some of the success stories yes yeah yeah uh okay i'm gonna read one they got it you gotta look like a farmer here so i'm gonna my favorite outro ever this one is called never give up tricia was searching for love but having no luck she was about to give up before throwing in the towel she decided to give farmers only a try and ended up meeting jay She knew he was the one when he was excited to go to the circus with his two grandchildren, as well as two of hers. Not only did that catch her attention, but they seemed to balance each other out well. Quote, he loves my crazy side and I love his calm side. Close quote.

Trisha shares when they announced their engagement, pretty much everyone's reaction was, well, it's about Tam, including their grandchildren. Their families had been able to see their love for each other the right way. So the engagement came as no surprise, uh, through getting married during a pandemic, sorry, though, getting married during a pandemic meant their wedding looked a little bit different than they'd hoped. They said, I do with a beautiful ceremony by the lake with their children, grandchildren and Trisha's father in attendance, all 10 of our grandchildren walked me up. And the youngest one was a month old.

This yo, this is how crazy it is to be a farmer. You have to be walking at a month old. Um, so anyway, she was the flower girl. are their oldest grandson was the best man oldest granddaughter was the maid of honor after saying their vows tricia and jay had special grandchildren vows during which they took them as during which they took them as their grandparents and put their names on a board and said grandchildren are a blessing from god i want tricia says that i want my life back tricia says that you're someone special is out there waiting for you never give up and you will find them on

farmers only it's kind of sweet i demand you give me the last 90 seconds of my life it's really sweet though like no adam every time you did that accent it felt like i was getting tased like i oh oh my god farmers only huh jeremy and rebecca both signed up for farmers only on a whim after seeing this commercials on tv this is from hank h jeremy had a friend who met his girlfriend on the side so he figured might as well go for it rebecca on the other hand signed up more as a joke but was hoping to find someone special quote and i did on the first day of having an account i guess they're both 49ers fans good for them bro there are so many people yeah but like have you ever driven through the midwest in the united

states if you're a farmer you kind of want to date a farmer yeah you got to get the life it's it's a different life and i've driven through montana idaho ios um most of washington state outside of like seattle and and uh is portland no it's that's another anyway like it's there it's it is very rural and i can imagine that you know if you've got a town of 100 people how many people are in your age bracket how many people are there to date it's tough i don't blame them i think it's great good good for you go find love that's amazing why do they need a farmer specific app well if you are a farmer tweet steve tell him why no but like if you what if you just both had tinder and were also from the sticks wouldn't tinder be like here's a person from

the sticks as well and then like why do you need a this person is from the sticks and has a basil farm i don't know why i picked basil do you have to specify what farm you farm well i i know on the love the farmers love blog here um i i can read to you maybe this will help steve understand because because i don't know if it says you have to specify i haven't seen me i'd have to sign up for a profile but uh should we get you on farmers no please because then i gotta pay for it aha so well yeah i don't want to be hooked up with those stupid pumpkin farmer so oh you were doing so well until i found out you were pumpkin farmer having grown up on a farm and still tilling 2 000 acres of corn beans wheat barley and stop it jeremy knew that farmers

only was his best chance to find a partner who understood the long hours and dedication to his lifestyle demands and that's the thing it is it's it's a it's a job that like certain seasons you don't stop working you sound like woodland critters christmas good now come on y'all why we all get on farmers.com i have a million dollar idea we launch a dating site specifically for leafs fans oh that's a great idea leafdate.com dude can we know yes branch what it's called branch oh yeah download branch because we make the connections through the leafs do you have to specify twig size no it's important question that's just you can't discriminate based on how many oh and for age you put how many rings are on your trunk nope these end the show and i'm

gonna end the show and set myself on fire how's that certain questions on your bio have to be favorite Leaf player. Has anybody ever met somebody that they're currently with at a Steve Dangle podcast event? That's so niche. Dude, staff and graph. Rachel and Mike met at my

book launch. That's true. There you go. I mean, it's not the same. And now they're married. They have 14 children. It's crazy. I don't know how they had it. And they joined FarmersOnly.com together, looking for a third. Welcome to BloggersOnly.com.

podcasters only just hey just 98% dudes in their basement like you want to hear what my podcast sounds like do you know that your opinion is so important so do we that's why

at podcastlovers.com or whatever the fuck we're going to it's your promo code it's your promo code sdp on podcastdate.com to find your love oh man oh youtubers uh youtubers only would be funny too you want to smash that like button no that like buttons in my pants they're already on youtubers only all of them hang out in la

together and intermingle he stole floyd mayweather's hat and then my heart this is how i met oh god oh my lord lord all right what other niches we got for our dating network peanut peanut allergy dating the peanut allergy dating um it's actually practical what is it lululemon headbands uh if you're into lululemon headbands just add them on the hey guys say do you want to meet someone except you're a chode here at lululemon headbands we find the chode for you by the way people keep asking me about this man what the fuck i haven't had a haircut since october i don't know what to do with this shit let the man where it is you guys oh we're out of

here that was great it's really fun look out for uh what are we calling branch look out for branch the dating app coming very branch.stpn.com yeah to a app store near you um and and i cannot wait for this clip to be the one we upload to youtube love you guys we will see you monday the steve dangle podcast follow the guys on twitter at steve underscore dangle at adam w y l d e and at jesse blake connection complete