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Yeah, save money, too. Let's start the show. The Steve Dangle podcast. Us with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Let's go. You okay? No. Jesse, are you okay?

Yeah, Steve, the whole, Oh, is Steve okay? I thought your reaction was the reasonable one because you didn't... Okay, so when initially I heard like, Oh, the LFR is crazy and all that stuff. I watch every LFR, but I watch it the next day. I'm not staying up till 1 AM when Drew is uploading to watch it. That's fair. I heard like, Oh, there's some scuttlebutt about the LFR, and Steve went off and all that stuff. But your reaction in the LFR wasn't tears that you're facing Boston. It was actually a very... It wasn't nuanced, but a very loud opinion, and I think the correct opinion, that no matter who you face, it's going to be difficult. Oh, you wanted Florida instead. No, Florida is probably a better team than Boston.

I'm that villain where, Oh, they're crazy, and they're the bad guy. If you listen to what I'm really saying, though, damn, he's spitting.

Yeah. I didn't think you had a meltdown. I thought you had a very good analysis that, Yes, it's the Stanley Cup playoffs. Every team is good.

Well, It was about two minutes into the video when I stopped laughing.

Yeah, after the laugh.

I spit blood after shooting that.

That was two minutes of laughing. And then what? It was eight minutes of actually good hockey analysis. For the most part, I I don't think you need the biggest hug today. You seem okay.

First of all, I always need a big hug.

Everybody needs a big hug every day.

Second of all, okay, I'm real mad about them playing Boston. I don't want them to. But the other option was a team that outshot them 31 to 4 in a single period last night.

Can we spoiler alert? The least would have probably lost to Florida.

Can we spoil alert? There's a very good chance they lose to Boston.

Yeah, because those are two good teams. It was you want a good team or you want to play a good team.

It's so annoying because I really put the Leaps up against just about anyone else in the East, except their two most likely first-round opponents, which were the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have owned them. They own their hearts this year. I know it's the regular season, yada, yada. The Florida Panthers Panthers, for the most part, have owned the Leaps. There was one game where the Leaps won, I believe. I'm pretty sure I'd have to look this up, but the season series between the the Leifs and Bruins and the Leaps and Panthers combined, the Leaps are one and seven. Kill me. Please kill me immediately.

Wow. And the Leaps are oh and seven in their last seven meetings with the Bruins.

Oh, I believe that. And you look at where they are in the league, they're killers. They're a really good team. Team. Carolina, I think, would give them trouble. That'd be a great series. Leaps' Rangers would be an unbelievable series. Leaps' Lightning Rubbermatch would be an unbelievable series. But it's the fucking Bruins or the fucking Banthers, and now we know it's the fucking Bruins. Fuck.

Now, there's a couple of conspiracy theories floating around.

The Islanders, that'd be a fun series.

Couple of conspiracy theories floating around today. Capitals. One involving John Torterella, which we will get to. The other one is that the Boston Bruins, did they put in a lot of effort lately?

No, they lost on purpose, 100%.

You think so? Absolutely.

No, no NHL team is losing a game on purpose. I don't think so either, Jesse. I don't.

But the It beats the purpose of competition.

Tim McAkalff tweets, Things that make you go, The Bruins had a season low 16 shots on net in a 2-0 loss to the Caps on Monday. That's the fewest shots in a game for them since 2013. Tuesday versus the senators, a season low three shots in the first period.

Yeah, no. Yeah, but no, but yeah. No, let's ignore all the evidence of our eyes and ears for sure.

What if another team just beat them?

Yeah.

What if they were simply beat?

The Capitals who made the playoffs with the worst goal differential in NHL history for a team that made the playoffs. Now, although I agree with you, Jesse, I'm going to push you on this one because you can see how people would say-No, I can't see how you jump to the conclusion that an NHL team is throwing two straight games.

If that's what you're implying, I think that's a real leap of a logic. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I think this is a real stretch.

Do you think that they can continue throwing them into the first round?

Because I would. Maybe they're just not that great.

Now, do you think maybe they're beatable? Well, listen, every team can lose.

We watched- Looking at the Bruins on paper, ruins my day. Adam was Midson.

I don't give a shit.

It's the Steve Dangle podcast. Yeah.

Damn right.

We all do that sometimes.

Yeah, of course. Sorry. Continue, Steve. I made my point. Oh, okay. Well, I was just going to say, listen, the Tampa Bay Lightning at their We can argue their critical height, the best that they were, lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Was it four or nothing?

Oh, yeah. They didn't win a game.

They didn't win a single game.

They were up three, nothing after one and died.

Just died. Now, not likely that that happens in this series, but I do think it is hilarious. And I-Oh, you're not doing the follow-up?

What's the follow-up? The follow-up to the Lightning?

They won the Cup.

No. Last year's Bruins, the greatest regular season team of all time lost in the first round of the Florida Panthers. What was it?

Twice in four years or twice in five years, a team set the record for wins, won the President's trophy, lost in the first round.

Everybody's It's hockey. It's so random. Yeah.

I look at this and I think, I'm Zen. I'm very Zen right now.

I wish everyone would stop being so full of shit.

I'm Zen.

Embrace your fear.

Let the hate flow through you. I'll tell you why I'm Zen.

Yeah? Why are you Zen?

This is the actual inflection point for this franchise. This is where...

They fired their GM last year.

Yeah, Yeah, but they didn't fire their GM because of performance. They fired their GM because of a corporate power play. If they had fired their GM due to performance, they wouldn't have offered them the extension that they offered him. That's part of it.

Dupas got fired because he wanted Shana and his job.

Yeah, he's like, How do I boot Shana and out of the corporate structure? Oh, that didn't work? Man, how did this $50 million deal just show up on my desk? That's so crazy. That's It's so crazy, man. It's almost like he had it in his back pocket the whole time. Anyway, almost like. Almost like. But he would never. He would never make-No.

Because we don't believe in conspiracy theories, right?

Most guys make a corporate power play-Bisous, you missed it.with no backup plan. Most guys make a corporate power play with no backup plan, just like Dubas. Dubas is a super no backup plan guy.

He was free balling it, for sure.

Absolutely. Long story short, what I'm trying to tell you is this is the most consequential set of games that the Austin Matthews era Toronto Maple leaves will play.

Until the last hearse.

No, no, no, no, no, The last time these two teams played in the playoffs, these guys were boys. Now it's time to find out whether they're men or not. You look at the last time they played, the guys were 22, 23 years old. They're now in their mid to late 20s. They all have big contracts, which some of them did back then, too. It's time for them to decide whether or not they want to continue to play here. I don't mean Austin. This is, and I've said this for months. This is it. If they can't get through this Bruin's team, it really doesn't matter that, Oh, well, the salary cap screwed us, or, Oh, well, COVID, or, Oh, well. None of that matters anymore. Now is about Austin Matthews and these guys, William Neillander, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, everybody else, it's about all of them doing this one last time to see if they can actually stick it out and make this work. If they don't, I'm very confident there will be massive changes in this offseason. For me, looking at this, I'm going, I actually do believe in this group. I think they're a good group.

I think that they do stupid stuff. Like the second period yesterday, they do confounding things.

However, I would- Marty Biron talked about one goal that Joseph Walsh should have had. I'm like, I think you're burying the lead there, Marty.

Yeah.

They got out of shot 31 to 4. I don't think it was the kid.

I think that they reset the shots, by the way.

It came out to 29 to 4. Whatever. The NHL went back and recal.

Oh, that's nice. My point in all of this is saying that, guys, you're about to witness whether or You could witness the end of an era, or you could witness the capstone, an incredible moment of this era. Good word. I think that is something as a Leef fan to get excited about. Guys, the Leefs were always going to have to go through Boston. Always going to have to go through Boston. It was always going to have to happen. They weren't able to, to use your words earlier in our careers, slay the dragon earlier in their careers. But Brad Marshan is now 35 years old.

And has only ever won a cup as a role player.

Patrice Bergeron. Wow. True. Actually true. Krejee's gone. Patrice Bergeron is no longer there. It doesn't mean that Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zaka, who are fantastic players, we've been talking, raving about these guys. But my point is now is the time. Now the tables are a little bit more even. You've got a little bit more maturity on your side. You have run around. You've done it. I'm going to be looking for a few things. We need Austin Matthews to be dominant. We need Willy and Morgan Reilly to be They're a typical playoff dominant as well.

Where's Willy gone?

Well, and this is the thing, Willy has been, of the three of those guys, the most consistent playoff performer. If you go back and you look through Leifs history since those three guys got here, Willy is the guy that always shows up and always performs at least a point of game.

And last night, I was talking to someone. They showed the game score. Labushkin was last. Reilly was second last. And they're like, I don't know about this Labushkin thing. Reilly's right there. I don't care who he plays with. At some point, it'd be nice to get a good result. He put those up in the playoffs last year. He did.

He's a monster.

And we now know if he does not have a good payoff, they're dead.

And the last thing I'm looking for is Mitch Marner to really come in and show what he can do in a tough series, like a physically tough series. Because Mitch Marner really plays well in the perimeter. He really does perimeter hockey well. The problem is that the Boston Bruins are really at defending that. He scored? Yeah, 100%, but they're good at defending that. He's going to have to drive the net with the buck. He's going to have to shoot. He's going to have to not overthink things. There is a huge... This isn't me putting the pressure on Mitch Marner. I think he knows. If he scores, they win. If he is putting up points, they're winning.

This is me putting the pressure on Mitch Marner.

Okay.

The 800-pound gorilla that you feel on your back every time you get on the ice for a Stanley Cup playoff game, it's not actually an 800-pound gorilla. It's the back of your jersey. The name Marner? No, the number 16. Every time you pick up your jersey, you look at the front. That's your childhood. That's your childhood right there. This is what you have always wanted. You turn it around. It's your frigging name above the amount of games you need to win to achieve the thing that you want to achieve. Best you've done is five. I don't want to put pressure on Mitch Marner. Not to be Dawn Draper about this. That's what the money is for. Star money, star expectations. If he is regular-season Mitch Marner in games five, six, and seven, if he's A 100-point guy, if he's 30 goal, best playmaker they have guy, why shouldn't they win?

Oh, they'll win the series if he plays that.

Of course, they'll win the damn series.

That's what I'm saying. Is that like- That's what we need.

Pressure's on. Pressure's on. Do you need great hockey players or elite athletes? I think the answer is elite athlete. Elite athletes have to be better at... They're better at something different. That something different is these moments, these situations. If you're an incredible hockey player, except for when it matters, then you're not an incredible hockey player. We need this. This city needs it. Your legacy needs it. You need it. Your teammates need it. These guys that you fought with, bled with, cried with, forever need you. That goes for Willy.

And Austin.

That goes for Morgan, goes for Austin. I mean, it's not like Austin has been consistently awesome in the playoffs.

No, I mean- He's been better recently. Especially, Montreal was really bad.

Yeah, man.

I think they were able to ISO him because Tavares went down early, and then you stapled Phil Deneu to him.

Yeah.

But you can't win.

Tavares still makes 11 mil last time I checked. All those guys, it all... Listen, the depth is better than it has been in previous years. It It all comes back to, if the stars don't do it, they're dead. If they do it, the real good chance they win.

One thing with Mitch Marner last night, I shocked that it's reached this point, but Max Domi wasn't in the lineup, and he's been an incredible X-Factor for them with that line with Bertuzzi Domi-Mathias. And Mitch Marner seems to be a lot more comfortable recently with the Tavares line. So I wonder, come game one against Boston, if Mitch just performs It's better because he's not in this role with Matthews anymore.

I hate those two together, a whole big bunch. Why?

You said that at the beginning of the video, and I was lying in bed watching it this morning because that's what I was watching. I took my daughter to school. I'm like, You know what? I'm going to take a lie down. So I watched the video, and you said you don't want them together. No. I've been pro-Max Domi all year, despite all the people tweeting me stats saying he's bad at hockey. I'm like, Well, Matthews sure got a lot of goals.

You were early on that. You really were.

Well, and by A lot of people's standards, he's still not a good hockey player. I don't see what they see. I love Max Domi. I think he's spectacular.

I think you're losing the plot against the anonymous haters. But my point is- It's not about putting all the best- Let us digress.

We have an hour and a half.

It's not about putting all the best players together. It's about putting the best lines together. They found it, I thought.So.

What is it about, and obviously Domi wasn't there, but what is it about Marner and Matthews together now, which has worked so well in the past, including a 60 goal season. And a good chunk of the goals this year. Why?

When the mob wants to get you, they track your A to B. They find out where your morning starts and where you're going. And when the Bruins wake up, the Bruins Mafia wakes up, Marner's A, Matthew's is B. Marner has the fuck, and it's his job to get the fuck from A to B. And it's the easiest thing to shut down for teams that are worth watching. A lot of teams can't do it. A lot of teams can't do it. There were shifts last night against the Panthers where the Florida Panthers didn't let Matthew Stick touch the ice. It's just he's too big to body off the buck. He's too strong. But his job is to get into open areas, get into spaces, and they're just lifting them all day long. They're all over them like a weighted blanket. And they're leaving Mitch to the perimeter. The whole All the time he's on the perimeter, he's skating, he's skating, he's skating. And we're happy that the Lefs have Joel Edmondson. All these guys have Joel Edmondson, too. They all have some sociopath who's willing to put just shards of carbon fiber. Carbon through.

Through your back. Carbon through your back.

And Matthews is just getting the shit beat out of him in front. Over a seven-game series, that's going to take forever. What we saw over the last month or so with Bertuzzi, Matthews, and Domi all together, man, they would just pull a rabbit out of a hat. It didn't always have to go through one guy. They're chaos.

The other thing I want to throw out there is Max Domi is not going to lie down for anybody. No. There's a toughness. Neither is Tyler Bertuzzi. There's a toughness to that line. I think that's who Matthews needs to play with. When Domi's on it.

Yeah, that's who Matthews needs to play with. I I don't really know if their styles mesh. I mean, they're elite players.

Like, you mean Marner Matthews?

Yeah, they're elite players. They will always pull off magic together over the long run. But during these battles of frigging attrition, you need a chaotic battering ram of a first line. When there's enough chaos and enough distraction, Matthews will kill you. He will eat you alive. He's the best goal scorer in the sport. What about... No, no. Stop saying all these lesser thans. He's the greatest goal scorer in hockey. He needs distraction, right?

He needs room.

He needs room. Tavares is a capable goal scorer, capable board battler. Marner is a really dynamic player, dynamic skater. And you can put them with either one of Nies or McMahon, and they'll be fine. That'll be a great line. Third line, Holmberg has upped his game, knows how to be a dick. Great job.

And then beyond that, you're just figuring it out.

You're just placing role players at that point. Sorry, Nylander. Yeah. Should have thrown in there. I was like, Wait, who am I missing? Role player. Sorry. Outside, yeah. Nylander with Holmberg, and then it's like, take your pick, right? You have the fourth line that plays like a Fourth Line. Cool. Good. I'm not worried about the Fourth Line. I don't think that's going to be the come to Jesus savior. Oh, thank goodness for the Fourth Line. You need a capable Fourth Line to get through four rounds of the playoffs, but that's not exactly what carries you there. All right. Then you just need someone who is a positive contributor, whether it's McMahon, Yarn Croke.

I think McMahon should have that spot on the second line. I'm with you. With JT.

If he's healthy and concise.

That's the thing. Once we reach Saturday, if he's able to play, I think he deserves that spot over Nize just based on how they both played in this calendar year. I agree with you.

Nize is more his game better suits a bottom six role at this point in his career.

Yeah.

He'll probably be a first or second-line player, but not yet.

Yeah. And the conditioning thing he always bring up with Nye is maybe in limited minutes where he could just run around and then lose all of his breath and go back to the bench is probably the best situation for him, as opposed to the second line where he has to play some serious minutes. I hope McMahon is, fingers crossed, he's healthy for Saturday. Even if he's not 100%, I think 90% McMahon is still dynamic for that second line.

He's a huge factor. It's going to be one of those things where I think the least are going to have to... If you look at the Bruins, David Pasternack has scored almost 50 more points than the next closest Bruin.

Dude, I can't believe their roster to look at it.

110 points for Pasternack. Next closest is Marshan with 67. And then the next closest is Charlie Coyle, 60. It has to be 67. It has to be. Now, they have good scoring spread throughout the lineup. I'd say that a bunch of guys in their 30s and 40s in terms of points is not a bad thing to have. But David Pasternack, especially against the Lefs, is an absolute weapon and has been for time in memory, like when he was a young player.

Well, and these these penalties they keep taking.

A lot of hooks, a lot of holds, a lot of I got beat, so I'm going to grab you around the waist. Matthew Nize, he's got to stop doing it.

Oh, dude, Bertuzzi, the amount of offensive zone penalties this guy takes. Brutal.

That goal tender interference thing last night.

I'm going to hop behind the goal.

What are we doing, Tyler? What are we doing?

That was awful. Awful stuff by Tyler.

Yeah. If you're I'm getting a piece of a guy in a Scrum or whatever, yeah, no, fill your boots. I don't care. There were two scrums where the Panthers came out of it with a power play, and I'm like, All right, yeah, sure. It's a league, I guess. But just the hooks, the holds, the trips, the goalie interference in the offensive zone, those are unforester.

Yes, 100%. These are the types of things that in the playoffs go down, but you can bet on the Leaps and the Bruins each game getting 2-3 penalties each. And what concerns me is David Pasternack, his 12 power play goals, and the Leifs' anemic terrible penalty kill.

It's brutal.

If you're going to take a penalty, it better be worth it because the types of penalties that they are taking, even though they are regular season penalties, and we all know it changes in the playoffs, if you're sitting in the box for something stupid in the offensive zone, like what Bertuzzi did last, that was just a brain fart. I'm just shocked that he did it. Or what Domi did the previous game where it was a hooking right before overtime against Detroit. Trip, yeah. Yeah, or tripping, whatever. You know what I mean? Stick around place it shouldn't be. That's the shit that's going to kill them against the Bruins. That is the thing of all the things. I told you, I'm very Zen. If I'm worried about anything, if anything keeps me up at night, it's that stuff because the Bruins will kill you for that. They're known for that.

It will win or lose the series. Yeah, It'll win or lose the series. There's going to be a shitload of calls in the first two, three games.

Then it'll even out. It'll slow down by game 5, 6, 7.

The intensity of hockey ramps up. The infractions ramp up. The rate at which those infractions are called drops dramatically. I don't know how you would ever, ever prove that. I don't know how you would ever get a number for that. What you would need is a Is that website willing to track it and qualified officials willing to offer their expertise to the cause. You'd have to be like, That's a call. That's a call. That's a call. That's a call. You'd have to have the regular season evidence to compare to the playoffs. But we all know.

It's a feel you get.

It's a feel you get. You just watch lots of attempted murder, and they're already settling hanging into it. Nikita Kutrow just allowed to shorten guys careers. It's fine. It's fine.

Well, and so when we talk about this line and when we talk about this matchup, that part freaks me out. The other part is I've loved how Elia Samson off has played second half of this year. I don't know as a lead fan how you can't. I'm concerned about Joseph Wall. When he's come back, since he's come back, he's been Matt. It's so bad. It's not because he's a bad guy, everybody. I know we're all fans here. It's because his performance hasn't been up to par. I don't know how you don't have Martin Jones as your backup come game one.

Before this season, how many games did Joseph Wall start in his career?

Oh, God. I think Yeah, maybe 10 or 12. Then most of them were in the playoffs last year.

11 regular season game. Wow. Yeah. I think if we're disappointing Joseph Walsh's play so far, he's not an NHL product yet. This is his first full season as an NHL tandem starter. But we've seen him play better than this.

He was incredible before he got hurt.

In about 20 game sample size? Yeah.

Less, I think.

No. If you add the postseason 2 and the beginning of this year in those 11 games, it's like 20 game sample size. We're like, Oh, my God, Joseph Wall, established starter. No, it's 20 games. It's going to be a long journey for this kid to really establish himself as an NHL goal tender. Right now, he's struggling. And who do you trust? I think that's fine.

Who do you trust coming in cold, though? Martin Jones or Joseph Wall?

I think Elia Samsonoff.

Well, that's what I mean, though, is if Elia has a bad game or he gets injured, who do you trust coming in cold?

I think it's Elia Samsonoff and once from there, then you're panicking because those options aren't great.

Oh, man. I got to say, Martin Jones' numbers this year are pretty good.

Yeah, but when was his last game?

Right. Even.

That's a good question. I think three weeks ago?

Yeah. Right Well, right now, you start Joseph Wall. I don't think it's a debate. He's your backup goalie. He's been starting all these games. He's the goalie. He's going to go in there. Too late now. Fingers crossed, nothing happens to Elia.

Well, I mean, All right. If we're panicking based on recency, all right, Wall starts game one then.

Oh, no, you don't start.

No, no. That's what I'm saying because Samson had a tough last couple of games. This is your bed. I think by the time you get to Jones, it's probably too late.

Okay.

Right.

Looking at the save percentages, so Martin Jones played 21, Joseph Wall played 25. Joseph Wall and Martin Jones have essentially the same save percentage, 907 and 908. The goals against average is a 270 and a 294. 294 for Joe Wall. Joseph Wall is 12 and 11. Martin Jones is 11 and 7.

The team does not play great in front of Joseph Wall.

I don't think they trust him. Kind of like how they played in front of Ilia when he was battling.

What's the game plan there? Allow 30 shots a period?

That's a good question.

I just don't know how that's on.

How was that Walsh's fault?

Well, he should have had that save, the 20th shot of the period.

Come on.

One out of the five because he got frigging shelled?

When it was 34 shots before they not corrected to 29. It was the second most shots ever they allowed in a period in the history of the franchise that's been around for 100 plus years.

That's your last full lineup game before the playoffs. That's terrifying.

Yeah, it was awful. I don't want to blame Joseph Wall for that situation.

Yeah, but I don't think he's been great at all. We have to look at this. You have to look at it like the way the Bruins do. You've got an obvious upgrade for They're both goalies, Swayman and Olmark. The only reason they didn't really, I think, that they didn't beat the Panthers is they didn't move off Olmark fast enough when he got injured last year.

Who's their game one starter? Is it Swayman?

Yeah, and they tried to trade Olmark, so I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know, man.

It's going to be a-I mean, it's not like...

Sometimes when a team moves off of their starter, you know it's a mistake and you're like, Oh, good. Now we can feast on the other guy, too. But the Bruins, you chase Swayman, and it's like, Oh, fuck.

Yeah, but I think you got to have it. Yeah, but the Panthers made it work. Panthers did it.

Panthers did it.

Panthers could tweak in, and they do it, and they have a great goal tender themselves. I think the One thing I'll say about this team, this Leeds team, is they have not felt like they get shaken as easily this year.

Yeah, they allowed two goals in 10 seconds last night, but I know what you mean.

Three in three minutes.

Yeah, that to me is brain fart. That to me isn't shaken. That's not focused. No. It's not fear. Before it was fear.

Yes, you can tell the wheels are falling off and they're terrified. And not only are they dying in this game, they're never coming back. You just don't feel that with this group. I really do like this group. I hate that they're playing Boston.

Jesse, do you hate that they're playing Boston?

No. I think the way we kick this off, when I was talking about your LFR, when we kick this off, it's every team is good. You want the hurricanes, you want the Rangers, you want the lightning, you want to go to the West, you want to play Dallas. I don't know. Every team is good if you're in the playoffs. It's tough teams all around.

I do appreciate a lot of actors come from LA, obviously, in New York, and I'm thinking more of them should come out of the Massachusetts area.

Why is that? Why do you say that?

The amount of Bruins fans who are like, Oh, I don't know about this series. Shut up. Oh, you must be so traumatized. From six consecutive wins dating back to before your dad was born.

The Leaps have not beat the Bruins in the playoff since '59.

You know how long ago 1959 was? The Leaps have won four cups since then. Shut up.

Do you want Justin Fisher, our social media manager, do you want his 1959 Trivia?

Yes.

All right. I guess it's not Trivia. We can just do 1959 fun facts. Montreal beats Toronto four games to one to win the Stanley Cup final.

Oh, no.

What famous dictator established power?

In 1959?

Yeah, we could do a little Trivia on this.

That'd be Fidel Castro?

Good one.

You seemed about right. Is it that or the guy from Egypt? No, you got it. That's it.

No, yeah, stop guessing.

You're good. All right. What popular toy was introduced in America?

Barby. That's correct. Let's go.

You guys are two for two on 1959.

Wow, '59 was a big year. Who knew? The Lefs didn't even win the Cup that year.

No, they lost 4-1 to Montreal. I just learned that.

Two states were introduced to the United States.

Oh, boy.

Okay, so Hawaii? You got one? Hawaii? Yeah. And is it a state or a territory? Because if it's Puerto Rico, I'm going to be really upset. No, no, no. Puerto Rico is not a state.

Like, actual states. Okay.

Yeah. I'm going to say...

So at the beginning of 1959, there weren't 50 states in America. That's right.

Okay. I'm going to go with the Simpsons here because Abe Simpson had a 49-star American flag because he refused to acknowledge Missouri.

It It can't be Missouri.

I don't know.

So we got one.

I'll say New Mexico.

You said your first one was Hawaii.

Because it's not new in the name. Oh, I'm going to say New York.

Okay. No, I don't know. So incorrect. Hawaii and Alaska. Really? The continental United States was established, and then they brought in Alaska and Hawaii.

Because I thought they had Alaska before that, but I guess it wasn't a state.

It wasn't a state. Yeah. In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th US states.

Because the Brits were like, Hey, Canada, get fucked. We're going to give it to these guys for no good reason.

I don't think you'll ever get this. What took photos of Earth from orbit? Do you know the name of the machine that was in space that took pictures of- Sputnik? No. Not Sputnik. No.

The Polaroid droid.

I don't know. Explorer 6. Oh, I would never know that. Justin wrote, Explorer 6 takes the first photos of Earth from orbit. There's something that happened. Then lastly, this was invented. It is a machine that replicates things.

Xerox? Photocopy. The photocopier. Probably by Xerox.

The photocopier was invented and released in 1959. Wow. There you go. 1959 Trivia.

Hey, I love 1959 Trivia. So weirdly Steve, what?

Leifs fact. Why are we bringing this up?

The leafs have not beaten the Bruins in a playoff series in six attempts since 1959. Jesse, when could women vote in Canada?

1920s. What about the States? No, no. First World War. First World War for both.

When can women vote? Do you want to know Canada or America? Which one do you want?

Both. 1916, I'm going to guess for Canada.

Women's right to vote in Canada looks like it's around 1916. Yeah.

The leaves, I mean, that's pretty recent then.

Oh, 1918. 1918. It's just a quick Google around then. I'm trying to think of-1914, maybe-ish somewhere.

My family had been in Canada for, I think, four years.

Interesting. Yeah, there was a whole debate, by the way, when that happened is it went to the Canadian courts about, Are Women Considered Persons? She should look that one up. Fun times. Anyway, the The thing is, this is going to be a series that makes or breaks this era, and I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready for this. I'm ready for this. I'm so excited for this. Why not face the Boogie Man right now?

Why not? I feel like I've said that every other time they've played them, but you're right, Adam. Julian McKenzie was saying, Steve, no. What LFR needs to be is embrace the fear. Yeah. I am not going to lie to people and sugarcoat and be like, I'm I'm not scurred. I'm quite scurred. But I'm going to embrace the scurred and try to face my boogie man, face my fears.

Now, I'd like to quote Dune 2. Yeah? Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its death.

I thought the quote was, Don't fuck the bucket.

No, it was not.

I also thought we were going for a second. That would have been much better. Also, don't do that. Is Dune good? I haven't seen it.

Dune One is good. Dune two is spectacular. I felt like a kid again.

Because it's two and a half hours, right? Oh, it's three. Did you watch the whole thing in one sitting? Yes.

I actually purposely didn't drink any fluids for four hours before it because I was like, I'm sitting down this whole way.

Did you get the bucket?

I didn't get the bucket. The bucket was sold out. I was going to bring it in.

No, the bucket is not available in Canada.

What? Oh, that's why I couldn't get it. Okay. I thought it was sold out. Yeah, I know. Apparently, Deadpool is going to make one, but it's going to be- The Ryan Reynolds, the hole in the bucket, apparently, is going to be in the bottom.

Oh, no.

I'm Which is amazing.

Anyway. Sure. It really is win or go kaboom. Way, way, way more than it was last year when Dubas got kicked to the And had Dubas stayed, it would have gone kaboom in June last year. Yeah. At the end of the day, the guy who made the decision to fire Dubas is still there. The President has been the same guy for 11 years. If they lose this, it's going to be explosive.

Yeah. But it doesn't mean they'll be bad. It just means a bit of a change of plan. Hockey's greatest duo is at Tim Hortons. We warned you about this. We told you it was coming. Introducing Hockey's Greatest Duos trading cards. Each card features two players, including NHL Legends, Retired Stars, and Women Superstars, all interconnected in special ways. Steve, you picked these up. I did. On the way.

In Ajax.

You could find a collect to win card for a chance to win a Hyundai Elantra or Venu, too, as well. So let's open this up. Let's see if we want a car.

We are opening up our packs for anybody listening. What? Braden Shin.

Okay, no, but who's the duo? What?

What?

I got... Oh, on the other... It's on the other side. I got Braden Chen and Jordan Kyru.

Nice. St. Louis Connection. Austin Matthew.

And on the other side, Johnny T. His Daddy, John Tavares. Nice.

I got Seth Jarvis, and I, with my whole heart, thought the other one was going to be Patrick Marlowe, but it's not. It's Sebastian Aho. Aho. For a little Carolina connection. We got, oh, Adam, you'll like this. Yussi Sarros and Roman Yossi.

Oh, because the Nashville connection.

And then I got an insert. This is a special card. What's that? It's Rank Rivals.

Okay, who are the Rank Rivals?

It's actually a PWhL card.

Nice.

Or a PWhPA card. I guess this is before the PWhL. Wow. Emirates Mashmire in Net, as well as Anne-René De Bien.

There you go. There you go. Oh, my third card. By the way, I also had a third card. Rooky Connections, Austin Matthews again, and Tate Thompson on the Blues.

Because that was before the O'Reilly Trade, right? Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Pretty cool. Okay, now I've got to start off my PWhPA card is Aaron Frankl and Maddie Rooney. Mad Dog Rooney. There's that. Now, we've got a couple of... Now, I've got a singular Trevor's Egress, but also connected to Mason McTavish for the Ducks of the Future. Then, of course, I got... This is cool. Jack Eichel and Clayton Keller. What are they linked by, you wonder? What? They're linked by the number 9. See? That's what it is. That's what's fun about this. It's like, wait a second. What are they linked by?

They're Americans who have to fight over it every time they play together.

There you go. That's right. Maybe they should just wear 99. What would be the problem? No problem. No, just wear two nines.

What notable person has ever... Okay, other than Wolf Paymon.

Exactly. Here's the thing. These are Two hockey icons on every single card. Rivals, teammates, family connected like never before. It's the new Tim's Hockey Greatest Duos Cards. You can get them right now at timhortons, along with Timbits, which Steve picked up for the office today.Thank you, Steve.Woo. Appreciate No problem. Let's get our Conspiracy Theory hats on. Jesse, you made a video about this last night. Let's talk about John Torterella pulling his goalie against the Detroit Red Wings in overtime when Pittsburgh's entire season was on the line.

No, it wasn't overtime.

It wasn't overtime? It was pre-overtime.

It was tied 1-1 in the third period. That's why it's important. Right.

So go ahead. Take it. What?

Take what?

Take it. Talk to me Did it happen? Did Torterella purposely sink the Penguin season? Did Philadelphia say, You can't have it because we can't have it either?

Setting up the play.

It's 1-1 in the third period. I want to say it was 4:11-ish on the clock. As they are in a timeout for the Flyers, the Flyers are in a TV timeout in their game versus the Caps. In that timeout, that's when John Torterella made the decision to pull the goalie. As they're in that timeout, simultaneously, the Detroit Red Wings tie the game against Montreal, Canadians to force overtime, meaning the Detroit Red Wings are going to pick up a point and eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers. In that moment, the puck is being dropped. The Flyers go. About 30 seconds to a minute elapses in their game time. The Caps go the other end, score an empty netter.

So apparently, it's 36 seconds of real time.

I-ish. I did some serious digging on this to find a couple of a side by side to actually verify that it happened in real time. This is what I pulled from the ESPN feed of the actual play. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see Kevin Weeks there in the ESPN studio. On the left side of the screen, you have the as. It It says 4-3, but it says seven seconds left in the third-ish. But that's the moment that Detroit scores to tie the game. On the right side of the screen is the Flyers game in the timeout when Torterella pulls the goalie.

So we know that- Wait, and to the right of that is the Bruins intentionally throwing their game against the sends.

So we know that in the moment when John Torterella said, I'm going to pull the goalie, he didn't know know that Detroit had tied it. Exactly the moment that he decided to pull the goalie. So the pull the goalie thing is all fair. And where we get into, did he try and screw the Pens and Red Wings? Is he left the goalie out of the net. Right. So if he decided here and he says, somebody in his ear says, Detroit is going overtime. They got a point. We're eliminated. You can just win the game normally. Does he decide to put Irson back in the net?

Does he have an earpiece in, though?

I think he does.

Because he admitted after, if we want to play the audio from the press conference, we can play that. He admitted that when the empty Netter went in is when the video coach told him. So he was being fed info about the game during the game.

Well, Sheldon Kee, for example, does not wear an earpiece. He has Dean Chenowith, I believe it is, who does the little wrist microphone thing. Other guys on the bench are miced But the head coach is not necessarily.

Right. When I say somebody told them, the assistant coach who's talking to the video coach tells John Torterella. John Torterella says that that happened as the empty netter went in. After it went in, he's told Hey, Detroit went to overtime. We're eliminated. I'm just wondering, did Torterella decide to not put the goalie back in or leave him out of the net once he knew? And did he, in fact, know while it was out of the net? Or is he telling the truth here and didn't find out until after the goal was scored?

See, I'm going to point something out, Jesse, because a lot of people are suggesting John Tortarella did this on purpose to screw the Penguins and the Red Wings and just be spiteful. What you're suggesting is scandalous. Yeah, it's not. Oh, yeah, he owned them. Oh, flyers and penguins, rivalry. Isn't he so cheeky? No, that's Point shaving, actually. No, it's not. It's an enormous... Fucking right it is. He intentionally lost a hockey game. Yeah, man.

He was trying to win a hockey game is how he phrases it. It's not that he was intentionally trying to lose. He put his team at a six on five advantage to try and win the game. It's not- Why doesn't everyone do this thing?

Well, I think in this particular case, I actually agree with John and with Jesse on this one. What is he going to do? You have to go for it. You must go for it, right? Because you got to hope that something magical happens in the other game. Now, is it funny that he screwed-Your game plan shouldn't change. Is it funny that he screwed Pittsburgh and Detroit? Hilarious. Yes. I think it's hilarious, especially Pittsburgh, because they're across town or they're across state eight rivals, and they should be, and whatever. But I actually don't believe that John Torterelle is the guy who's like, You know what? Let's point shave and fuck these guys. That's the one thing I don't believe.

I don't go out there and loom.

I just don't think that's a Torterelle thing. Go ahead and play the audio, though.

Here's what he said postgame.

The goalie pull. Were you getting info about the status of the Detroit game, or were you solely focused on this one?

I got info on the Detroit game right after they scored their empty netter. I think it I think it happened pretty close together. But I was pulling them. I'm pulling them, and that was the right time to pull them. I didn't know anything was going on with Detroit at that time. But immediately after that, our video guys told us that I probably just went to overtime. Who's this idiot?

Who's this idiot? Get off the screen. I like the fact that this happened. This was a fantastic race all the way through. I know people are pissed at him today. Listen, Detroit fans and Pittsburgh fans, you can get mad at John Torterella, or you can be honest with yourselves and say that both of your teams were pretty flawed. You didn't have a great shot I said at this at the beginning, you were always going to be a seven, eight seed. And I'm refusing to call these wild cards anymore because there's nothing wild about that card. Fuck off with that, please. You're seven, eight seeds, and you were always going to be fighting it till the end. And I know that Detroit went on a tear at the beginning of the year, and that's cool. But what happened after? They became themselves. I know that Pittsburgh had a bit of a tear in the last month, but what about all the other months where they were basically themselves? Guys, if you're pissed, what you should be pissed What you're talking about is that your hockey teams let the Washington Capitals who are old and bad and have the worst goal differential in NHL playoff history, they got in and you didn't.

You should be pissed at your GMs. You should be pissed at the system. You should not maybe make the signings that they, We warned you about Justin Hall. We warned you about Graves in Pittsburgh. These guys, literally, Dubas needs to, and I think Isermann does, too. From what I understand, anyway, there is significant pressure in Detroit to make the playoff. So this is a huge L. More than Pittsburgh, Detroit is one team that you should keep an eye on, not because Steve Iserman is in trouble or anything like that, but the Illage family is like, we have this beautiful arena that everybody acknowledges is the best in the entire sport, and it hasn't seen a playoff game.

What are we doing? If this year isn't it, which I don't think it is, next year might be.

I think you're on the clock. And I think with Dubis and Fenway Sports Entertainment, I don't think Mike Sullivan is a bad coach. He's probably the Olympic USA head coach or whatever. But you got to figure out what you want to do with Sydney's last year's here. Because frankly, the team, no matter how many times I got tweeted, No, the team's good, the team's good, and all the way down the stretch going, Oh, Pittsburgh's going to make it. No, they're not. They were never a playoff team. They were never that good. Sydney Crosby is good. Surround him with good players. Michael Bunting is a great star. What a great time. He's been awesome since he showed up in Pittsburgh. Full march for that one. It is time to cut the dead weight in Pittsburgh. There's a lot of players that just don't contribute much. They show up, they get dressed, they don't do much, they go home. Enough. They got to figure out that goal-tending situation a little bit better. I know Nadelkowitch had a really good... Had a Really good stretch there. Really good stretch is not really good, guys. It's not good enough.

You need a full year.

Or do you say to Sydney, Listen, we're a couple of years away from being a couple of years away. What do you want to do?

Adam.

How are you going to rejig this?

Here's why I think you're completely wasting your breath. What are the Pittsburgh penguins who are old need to do?

Get younger, get better.

How do you get younger and get better with a bunch of old guys under contract?

You try to trade and retain. You move off of guys. Yeah. I don't know how you do that in this case.

Kyle Dubas has not been an NHL executive for... Well, he's been an NHL executive for 10 years now. What defined his time in Toronto? Loves his guys. Not moving off of his guys. Enjoy.

I think you have to take... Pittsburgh, for instance, has to take a good hard look at Carlson, has to take a good hard look at... That Carlson trade might go down as one of the worst additions in history. And it's not because Eric Carlson is not a good player. It's because you have Well, move off of Littang then. Yes. If you're going to bring in Carlson, Littang has got to go. Well, Littang can't go because him and Crosby and Malkin wanted to stay together. At some point, you got to be ruthless here. That's what I'm asking Fenway Sports and Entertainment and Kyle Dubas to actually do. I've never seen Kyle Dubas be really ruthless, to be honest. In fairness to Kyle, he alluded to being ruthless and it got him fired. Yes. It may not be all his fault, but it's time for things to get real in Pittsburgh. It really is. And Pens fans, I'm not trying to dump on you at all. I think that- They know. I think they know. They know. I think Detroit, if Derek LaLonde's job is not on the line a little bit here, I think Detroit spent a pile of money.

I think their pro-scouting needs to give their head a shake. Justin Hall not being in the lineup, we could have told you in Toronto. We could have told you.

Hall Petrie is tough. Real tough. Dude, Petrie and do the sun. Into the sun.

That's enough. I think you look at the talent they have and you go, Well, they should be better. But is this Detroit team inspiring anyone? Is anyone like, Holy crap, they're up and coming and there's lots of talent. I look at a team like Montreal, who admittedly has made some weird draft picks, but they got the Lane Hudson's coming up and they've got... I'm not talking about nick Suzuki, who I think is the second coming of Saku Koybu. I don't know if he's going to be a 100-point guy, but I he's a valuable player and a great leader, and they're going to be fine. I look at Montreal in two years, and I look at Detroit in two years, and I think, Montreal gets a goalie, I feel like Montreal is on a better trajectory.

It's a big ask, though.

Getting a goalie? Yeah.

They'll find a goalie. Steve's not wrong. They'll find one. If goal tending is your biggest issue, it's hard to find that guy.

That's the flyers. They've been looking for a goalie our entire life.

Yeah, 30 years.

I had a couple of questions there. One, Detroit The story fans seem content with Derek LaLonde. He's been there for two seasons, and I think more of the blame should be on Isermann and the guys he's giving to LaLonde. But I would look at it and I'd say, I can see how Isermann might put the blame on LaLonde and say, I think I built a playoff team and they collapsed with Dylan Larkin going out late in the season. I don't know. If Isermann says, I gave you all the right pieces and you failed, then maybe it's Derek LaLonde's fault and his job is on the line. So that's an interesting piece there. Where do you guys sit on... Just to close this out. Where do you guys sit on what happened here? Do you believe Torterella's sequence of events that he was told of the Detroit goal once the empty netter went in? Or do you believe that it happened, he was told before, like 30 seconds before that, while the goalie was out?

I think this was always the game plan. Yeah. It was always the game plan. You're going for a win. What do you do? Well, let's stop then. Let's stop trying.

No, because if they were eliminated, why would they go for the regulation win? That doesn't make sense. Right.

I think the time between the decision and the goal, it was too slim.

Right. That's where I landed, too.

I don't think you can make a call like that. I don't think torts would do that.

I don't think you can unpool the goalie just because you were eliminated from the playoff. Yeah.

Philly was desperate. They had to do it.

It reminds me a little bit of-They had to do it up until Detroit score. Yes.

Remember there was a night, Kyle Lowry hit a buzzer beater to send a playoff game to overtime, and there was a walk-off home run for the Jays.

Yes, I That was the- That the Edwin- That was the Edwin when I was at it and I walked outside to the Raptors fans coming out of Scotia back at the same time. I believe is how it went.

Those moments were, I think, exactly a minute apart. It's It works out that way, right?

Yeah. Then a final thing, the Pens. You're talking about the pens there and LeTang and all that stuff. Did you guys know that Malkin, LeTang, Carlson, and Crosby all played 82 games this season? Wow. When I read that last night-That has to be the first time. It's got to be. It has to be. When I saw that, I said, Oh, so you know what you have? You got them all healthy for 82 Who has gotten Eric Carlson for 82 games? It's unbelievable.

There's so many games.

I don't think there's any excuse for Kyle moving forward. You know what you have.

Here's the other thing, man. Okay, so Ned is up, Nadalkovich is up, and you probably can resign him. But the only guy who is UFA of any consequence that you knew who was probably going to retire anyway is Jeff Carter. That doesn't free a ton of cap space for them. They're going to have to move off of... Guys who have real value here, you could trade Carlson. Anybody would take a little bit retained. Anybody looking for an offensive defenseman would take Eric Carlson. But you are going to have to retain.

But that's also- If you're going to do it less than 12 months later, the guy you acquired.

Here's what kills me. Yes, agreed. But if you're going to make a mistake, make it quickly. That's the thing. If you're going to make a mistake, own it, move on. Boom, done.

If you're going to make a mistake, make it over the course of half a decade.

Chris Littang, 36. Four more years on his deal.

Oh, no.

Okay. Evgeny Malkin, 37. Two more years on his deal. Okay. I don't know how you feel about Brian Rust and Ricard Raquel, 30, 31, both of them making around 5 million bucks. Both of them have four more years left. This is what I'm talking about. And then Graves, who I believe is sitting on the sideline with long-term injury and Nolachari as well, this team has got to get younger, and they're going to have to make some really tough decisions. To me, you got to start to rebuild the defense around Marcus Patterson, who's 27. Oh, boy. Or you move off of him, and you get some value.

Free Stock, the damn cupboard. They got nothing in it, man. They got a few who might turn into depth guys.

Dubas is good at finding those guys. Oh, yeah. He's really good at that.

College-free agents, European.

But I just... I don't know, man. This should be the turning point for the penguins. I, for one, am ready to see McKinnon Crosby in Colorado.

By the way, to our goalie conversation about the Habs.

Yeah.

Just get a goalie. I tried to look up the last time the Flyers had a Vesna nominee.

I couldn't find-That's not fair. Vesna nominee.

Well, I couldn't find nominee, but the Flyers have a Vesna winner more recent than Detroit.

That's weird. Wow.

This is a team... Well, I can't even find the last time Detroit had one. The Flyers had Pellie Lindberg in 1985.

He was great.

And I know Hextal won one as well. Oh, Hextal won one in '87. And Detroit. I'm scrolling. I'm scrolling. There's a Bernie Perante one in '75 for the Flyers. Where the hell is Detroit? Have they ever had one? Oh, there it is. Terry Sauchuck, 1955. The Toronto Maple leaves have beaten the Bruins in a playoff series more recently than Detroit has a Vesna winner.

Yeah, but they've had good goalies.

I know.

And they also, sometimes they didn't need to. Nothing against Chris Osgood, but when you have Lidschrebs.

Adequate.

Yeah, adequate is fine. But I think this Detroit team needs a solid great goal tender.

I think Isoban needs to rethink the Hussle, Lion, Rhymer trio.

What would you do with that? I don't know. You got to keep Hussle. Hussle has been valuable for them.

Hussle can't stay healthy. It was weird from the moment they locked it up. You can't rely on Billy Hussle, unfortunately, to be your everyday starting goal tender because he can't stay healthy. He's locked up through next season, so he's going to be on the team at 4.75 million. You hope that it's a healthy year for him? But he's always going to be on the team. It's going to be Alex Lyon at 900K as the backup. And I think you move off a Reimer. And I don't know if maybe there's another depth goalie because you always need more than enough goalies. There's got to be somebody else you can bring in there in place of Reimer there.

I do not understand why Lyon signed that deal.

For that little?

You had a really good run as the backup goalie for the team that went to the Stanley Cup final. You signed a $900,000 deal with a non-playoff team to be one three goalies.

I don't think there was-Who told you to make that career choice? I don't think there's room for him in Florida anymore.

It didn't have to be Florida. Detroit was the best situation you could find.

You're sure?

All right. Something you should keep in mind, too. Here are the UFAs for Detroit. Oh, boy. Peron.

That's tough.

Cain.

That's tough.

Sprong.

That's tough. They'll get that done. Christian Fischer. He's too good.

Okay. Zack Aston-Reese. Austin Zernick, and then Shane Gossesbare. Now, here's the RFAs, which is even more interesting. And these three RFAs are the ones... Oh, by the way, James Reimer is a UFA, too. But I think they're probably moving on from that. Here's Detroit, by the way, who has $81 million in salary cap this year. Have to resign Lucas Raymond, Joe Valeno, and Moritz Cider.

Oh, that sucks.

You've got Justin Austin Hall making 3.4 for two more years. Jake Wallman making 3.4 for two more years. Oli Mata making 3 million for one more year. And Jeff Petrie, 2.3 million for another year. I did not need to make that move. And also Ben Sherratt, who has his value. I'm not disputing that. Ben Sherratt is their highest paid defenseman right now.

For the next month.

For the next month until Cider resigns. But that's $0.7, $5 million? For a guy that's supposed to be your playoff performer, but you guys can't get to the playoff?

Yeah, it's tough. That's tough. Yeah. No, I know, Adam. I know.

Nobody's saying that they're not good. Everybody's saying a lot of this doesn't make sense. I think the Pro Scouting Department Should be sweating right now.

They've done a... Isoban has done a very good job, like the job done in New Jersey, where they've kept the top end of the contracts really low. Yep. Having your highest paid defenseman make 4.75 million is a tiny piece of work. Having your top forward make 8.7 million is really good. But that middle area where you're handing out these $3 million to Justin Hall and just loading up on those mid contracts is a little questionable. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, but then Dylan Larkin goes down and...

And then you're dead.

You're dead. Yeah, you're dead. Yeah, and you can't get anything back. You go on a terrible losing streak and get no goal tending. You can't build a whole roster You're out of mid players.

He comes back and he keeps you alive. But the damage was already done. It was already taken out of your head.

To end the season, the Washington Capitals went 4-4-1 in their last 10. That's not 10 games. In their last nine.

That was their heroic-Watch the Caps just go on a roll here.

You're telling me if you're one of those teams and you look at how bad the Caps were and even bad down the stretch and you missed the playoffs to that?

Yeah. That sucks.

Hey, speaking of the Habs need a goalie for their rebuild, Charlie Lingerin.

Charlie Lingerin should have hard votes.

Yeah, he was great.

He got the Caps to the playoffs.

There's one. Wait a second. If you went Lengren-Alan.

Why are you thinking that they could just take him? What are you talking about?

No, they take them. They had them. That's what I'm trying to point out.

You mean if they stuck, if they had Lingerin? Stuck with it.

Then you got Monson I thought you meant this offseason, go take them. Yeah, take them back. I mean, yeah, they should just do it anyway.

You know what? They should go and take Patrick Waufe from the bench of the New York Islanders, put him in a jersey again.

Slivkowski for Lengren. He says no.

I want to point out just an He had an oddity in stats. I'm looking at Alex de Bruyne cat's season. 82 games.

That's so many games.

Played 82 last year. Last year, he had 27 goals. This year, 27 goals. Last year, 39 assists. Okay. This year.

39.

Close. 37. 40.

Moving on up. 66 and 67 points. Okay. His penalty minutes are '45 and '34. Plus minus differential between last year and this year. This year, he was a plus one. Last year, a negative 31 in Ottawa. That's the major change. Oh, wow. Random. Now, again, plus minus doesn't matter until it's crazy, until it's absolutely bonkers. And then you're like, something went wrong there. He should be better than that. I think that, ideally, Detroit was hoping to get the 35 goal score that everybody thinks is.

He was on a crazy pace to start the year, and he tailed off to a very mid-level.

No, I was about to say, and Detroit gave up Frank Nazer to get him, but no, that was Ottawa. Ottawa gave up the seventh overall pick for this guy.

Niz Nazar? Nazar?

I assumed it was Nazar, but I kept hearing Nazar on the broadcast. I'm like, Am I wrong?

I always assumed the broadcaster was right. No, it's the children who are wrong. One that I've wanted to bring up for weeks, but since we're on the topic of names, Yarn Croke. Yarn Croke.

I say Yarn Croke.

I say Croke, too.

Okay. I've heard Yarn Croke a lot recently.

We always think it's Russians or something. No, Swedish are the most bushered names in hockey.

Forsberg.

It's Forsberia.

Is it?

It's Forsberia. Yeah, but that's their language. We're speaking English here.

Okay.

Wow.

All right?

We're speaking English. Matt didn't like that.

It was a joke, guys. It's a joke.

It's just joking.

It's a joke.

Learn English.

Adam, what are your thoughts?

Shohio O'Tani. You'd be a bigger star.

Who the fuck said that?

Steven A. Smith went on television. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. That is a thing he did. Yes.

Adam, what are your thoughts on milk and honey?

I'm ready to... Welcome to the melting pot. Yeah. I'm sorry. This is America. We speak English here.

Damn.

We speak actually American here.

We have freedom for us.

That's right.

God, I'm so uncomfortable. Well, I don't even remember what the fuck- Well, no, I didn't finish it. What were you talking about. It's Yarn Croke, I think.

Oh, yeah. Yarn Croke.

It's Yarn Croke. You know where I always hear- And this as fast as possible?

I always hear Yarn Croke, and Matty can attest to this because sometimes we'll play in the office, on Kipper and Borne. They're big Yarn Croke guys, both of them. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So I'm like, should I trust Justin Borne on his pronunciations?

I think you can trust him on lots of things, but I'm not sure I trust him on pronunciations. I trust him on hockey breakdowns. Yeah. But you know what? That's a challenge to Justin Borne. You know what? Prove that it's Yarn Croke, Justin Borne. Prove it.

I'm going to throw it a theory. I don't think it's Kipreos.

No, it's not. It's not. It's actually not.

You know what? Good point.

Is there a soft K in Greek? Because every other letter is a soft one. No idea. Like, Rupreos or Yipreos or something. No idea.

You know what? Hey, guys, let's go out after this and order some gyros. What do you think? We don't know how to pronounce it.

We don't. Yiros.

Yiros. Just to mention for Detroit, because we spent a lot of time criticizing them, they hit it out of the absolute ballpark with the Patrick Haynes signing.

Yeah, they did. You nailed it. Now he wants to go to Florida, so good for them. Great audition. Well done, everybody.

That was a spectacular move. They nailed that.

I can't wait for May or something when the report comes out that Cain has it narrowed down to Florida or Boston.

Can't wait. It's probably going to be something like that.

Just kill me.

Hey, this show is sponsored by Better Help. Listen, it's playoff season. It's actually technically not playoff season. This is the weird week before playoff season where players go down and get injured and you get sad.

This isn't the ride. This is the line before the ride, which I always thought is worse.

That is. It is. It's way worse. Especially if you need a little bit of a pick me up. And listen, it's been a long winter. The economy's tough. Or sometimes it's just like, I'm sad and I'm a fan. It could be that, too. For whatever reason you need therapy, we want you to give it a try with better help. Remember that you can get matched with somebody very, very quickly through this a lot faster than other therapy. As well, you could comment on or you can talk to each other via text. You could talk via phone, and you can talk via FaceTime. We want you to find your social sweet spot with Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp. Com today. Betterhelp. Com/sdp gets you 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp. H-e-l-p. Com/sdp. I do want to say this. We've gone hard at the penguins and red wings, and I feel validated, by the way, based on my preseason projections. Oh, my God. But I do want to say that-We're idiots in our predictions were so bad.

I got eight out of eight playoff teams.

That's great.

In the West, I got eight out of eight. Good for you. You guys were six out of eight in both conferences, and we were all three, six out of eight in the Okay.

That's pretty good.

My aura was terrible. Well, the Sabers killed us all. Sabers are devils. Yeah, the devils, man. But I also want to say, I just want to say that the Washington Capitals deserve a heck of a lot of credit. That is like old man's strength. When they talk about dad's strength, you've been working out at the gym and you're like, Come on, dad, let's do an arm wrestle. I don't think I've ever-And your dad just... Well, you know how some dads are like, Yeah, let's do it. And then dad just destroys the 21-year-old because they got dad's strength. I've lifted kids with these hands and groceries, and I put shelves together and IKEA furniture. I think that those groceries will take two trips.

Fuck, did you just call me?

Yeah, right? What? Washington Capitals are old. But depending on who you ask, they're not maybe that good either. But that really doesn't matter. They're in the playoffs, and I think that they deserve flowers. Let's do a little game called Say Something Nice About the Washington Capitals.

Despite going 4, 4, and 2 with a negative seven goal differential in your last 10 games to end the year, I think you Did a good job by being very mid and making the playoffs. God damn.

I'm not impressed. You're still- You know what we were right to, would say, calling it the midtropolitan. It is the midtropolitan.

They didn't win their spot.

Listen. They didn't lose it, though. And all the other teams did.

Everybody else stunk really hard around them, and they stunk a little less bad.

Here. What did I say at the beginning of the season was the big difference between the Penguins and the Capitals?

I don't know.

The Capitals have already started restocking the cupboard.

Yes.

They've had draft picks, and they've done well with those draft picks. Connor McMichael, 18 goals, 33 points.

As we've said, the better Conor Mc.

Yeah. Alexi Produs, 78 games played, 29 points. It's not bad for a young guy. Sunny Milano, only 23 points. You got 15 goals out of this cast away from the Ducks. How old is Sunny Milano? 27. Okay. So maybe a little older than you think. And the capital's leading scorer, you guessed it, Dylan Strom.

Yes. It's the first time in Ovechkin's career that he is not the leading scorer. And how about this?

The fifth leading scorer on the Washington Capitals is still a guy they traded a month and a half ago in Anthony Mantha. Oh. He played 56 games for them, and the trade was traded from Washington to Vegas for a second round pick in 2024 and a fourth round pick in 2026.

How many second round picks has Anthony Manth had been traded for? It was like two in Edmonton, two Washington.

Edmonton?

Yeah. Wasn't he traded to Edmonton?

No, he was traded to Detroit to Washington. That was a crazy trade. Anthony Mantha traded from Detroit to Washington for Jacob Vrana, Richard Panek, first round pick in 2021 that turned into Wyatt Johnston. Oh, man. Wow. So that ended up getting flipped, and a second round pick in 2022. I don't know who that person is. The Capitals got some great performances out of this guy, out of that guy. But their youth movement is already in the system, already in the NHL, paying dividends, and that's what helped get them over the line to the playoffs. That and they got like 20, five goals in the second half, where there were only eight in the first half from Alexander Ovechkin.

Ove came on hard the second half of the season.

It's a huge, huge, huge swing from being a guy you can barely rely on for anything to, Oh, he's lethal again.

After the All-Star break, it seemed like he just reset and everything was spectacular for him. We started being like, You might not beat Gretsky.

And he was like, Motherf.

Watch out. I mean in my compliment section to the Capitals. I do owe somebody in the Capitals organization the biggest apology.

Who is it?

Lauren O'She. Lauren O'Shee, I thought, had cursed the Capitals into oblivion. If you remember a couple of weeks ago, she put out a Instagram story asking for, Hey, is anybody in the local area available to do Wagon jackets for the playoff? So we want to do our Washington Capitals playoff jackets for all the Wags there. And I thought she cursed the team. That was it. You can't go do that, and then you're not in a playoff spot right now, but you might be. And then what the Capitals did, they ended up making the playoff. And now we have from Taylor Strom, the partner of Dylan Strom, Ryan Strom. Which Strom am I going with? Dylan. Dylan Strom, the wag jackets that Lauren Osi coordinated. Oh, cool. So shout out at Red Bull Tropical, who screenshotted Taylor's His Instagram story of the wag jackets. I'll go a little closer here. These are the caps, wags, jackets for the playoffs. What do you guys think? Sexual.

Licking a stamp, right? Is that what it's supposed to be?

Yes.

Putting their stamp on the season. I like it. It's very special.

It is. I like to see them on, but they've been secured.

I want one.

I I want one. What's wrong with that? I don't think there's anything wrong with that. They look cozy and nice.

My shout out, I want one.

I formally apologize to Laura Noshe. You were correct in hunting down these wag jackets.

My shout out is to Charlie Lingran, who was a goalie that nobody was paying attention to before this season started. This is a guy that played 50 games for them this year. He started 48, 25, 16, and 7. That's amazing. A 911 save percentage.

This year, that's pretty good.

That's amazing. That's amazing on a team that can't score a lot and can't defend.

Well, not at first. They couldn't.

It's crazy. The other guy I want to shout at is Ovechian. By the way, I predicted, I believe Steve, you had Ove at 30 goals. I had him at 35. He scored 31, so congratulations.

Hey.

Oh, did I win?

I don't know what you win.

You probably said 31, just to be a dick.

No, I said 35. I did say 35.

Where are our apples?

That's a good question. They're in a store somewhere yet to be purchased.

I forget. They're on a produce track. I forget what the apple bet was. Adam, you don't have to get us apples as long as you get me a wag jacket.

Okay, I'll get you a wag. I'll message Taylor Strong We go way back and I'll make it happen.

Who are you the wag of?

The Lefs. You're what a Lefs wag jacket.

The whole team.

The whole team. I'm your sweetheart.

I like that. Let's do the press conference.Oh.

We're done?Yeah, we're done. I thought you were chatting about Charlie Linger.

No, I just say, Well done, Charlie Linger.911. Also, they got to figure out Darcy Kemper, but that's a next year problem. Yeah, well.

It's on the note of wags.

Yeah.

Little Spoon. Goted. Being the Little Spoon? Yeah, it's goated. It rules. Except I don't call it It's a little spin. What do you call it? Well, because my wife is tiny, so I call it jet pack. I like that. She's my little Jetpack. Don't you just like a good snug.

I get it. Big godlike.

These were, I think, this at a sneak peak. The Ladyleaf's Wag Jackets from games one and two. This was last year. A lot of them. These just look like the basic- Those are Toronto Maple. Jackets from the leaf store, right?

Anybody can buy those. Those are Drew jackets.

It looks like We just went with the Drew House jackets last year for the leaf swags. I don't know. I like Maddie. Just straight up, these aren't as good. What's your opinion on this?

They aren't as good as the other ones. No.

The other ones are campy.

I love them.

But what are these ones?

These ones are, I don't know. They're just basic.

The other one has... I love the idea of licking the stamp.

That's so funny to me.

Do they get a new one every year?

Yes. Maybe there's something there where we try and collect all 16 teams as Wagon jackets and we review them and rank them. Maybe there's something there. What does Wagon stand for? Wives and Girlfriends. Okay. Sorry, I just keep saying Wagon.

Actually, if you look in the distance, you can see the tower that they own. Pwc stands for People with Coats.

Stop it. What? Can we just move on?

What? That was bad.

That was really good, actually.

I forgot I'm going to bring this up in the main show, The Coyotes Will Play Their Last Game Tonight.

Wow. That's just depressing as hell, and I guess we'll talk about it Friday. Will there or won't there be something thrown on the ice? My bet is absolutely yes.

I was listening to the CJ show yesterday, and Julian was talking about... Because CJ had never been to Mullet Arena, and he's going to be there for the last game. Julian's like, You know, Mullet Arena, it's something you have to experience. If you're a hockey fan, you have to go down there and see a game. I was like, Julian, they're not going to be able to watch a game there after Wednesday. Tucson.

I'd like to ask CJ this, and I'm sure there's an answer. The Tucson road runners don't do poorly.

No, they do really well. I believe that they have a 10,000 seat or two. Why weren't the coyotes moved there?

They'd probably still be there.

Well, and why is Tusan leaving? Why are the road runners leaving and going to mullet.

Yeah, I don't understand that at all.

There's a lease agreement. There are some hockey needs to play.

Yeah. They're saying that Morello wants to maintain whatever agreement he has with the University and that he might move that because he's still going to own the Tuscany Roadrunners. So he's going to put them- Stop calling them Tuscany.

Wait, he owns the Tucson Roadrunners?

He's not selling Tuscany. He's going to keep them under this agreement with the NHL. He's still going to own the HL team.

Isn't the Very obvious solution there. Put the coyotes in Tucson and put the road runners in Mullet. What? No, from the beginning. Obviously not now. But they're like, Okay, let's put this NHL team in a vacuum cupboard, and let's have this AHL team play in a decent-size arena that is well-attended. I don't understand that at all.

I don't know the logistics of is the arena, could they make it NHL-ready and all that stuff? Is it, Toussaint, a good market for the NHL team? I don't know. I don't have any of those. I'm sure there's reasons. Right. That's what I'm saying.

It seems so obvious, so I don't understand.

If it seems so obvious and it was the right solution, I'm sure the coyotes He didn't have done it. Yeah.

That's fair.

I was like, Oh, Jesse, Jesse. He cooked good.

Let's get to a question here. Which team are you most disappointed in this season? Who had the most disappointing season from all of the NHL teams?

The Leaps. They have to play the Bruins. No.

Let me look at the standings here.

My quick pick is Columbus, based on how the entire season played out. I had them a little higher. The kicking it off in preseason with the Mike Babcock stuff, you completely... From there, you're tanking your season, and they've gone on to do nothing. So Columbus is Mike.

It's a four-way battle.

No, pick one.

No, pick one. Because I have to make a pick two. So pick one.

You can't just cover the league and do a good analysis.

Hey, it's all the teams that just missed the play. It's St. Louis, Minnesota, Calgary, and Seattle. Four-way tie.

You know, whenever I get dumped on, I get screamed at from both sides. Oh, Maddie Mike. Maddie Mike. What's up?

Steve, what happened to your Sharks merch?

It's still in my house. Are you still a Sharks truither? Oh, yeah. I think they could come back.

I still do. I like that.

I think Steve's biggest disappointment is the Sharks.

The Sharks. Because, okay, they're the biggest disappointment because I wanted to keep the bit, and they were so bad, I didn't get to keep the bit. You know what? Good answer. I was going to say Buffalo, but good answer.

Adam, who you got?

No, I was also going to say the sense of Devils. Who did you pick? There. Now, you got no one. Who did you pick? The Sharks.

Okay, Sharks.

No, but give a real answer.Sands.

Of Devils.The Sabers.

The Sabers? The Sabers. I really thought we're going to get good goal tending. They were going to shoot the lights out. It was around Christmas where I was like, I don't think it's coming, folks.

Yeah. My pick is the Devils. I think they made the play-off. Same thing. You lose a couple of guys to injury. Then the important guys, Hughes and Hamilton, I get it. Couldn't figure out their goal tending all year. Probably should have had Markstrom. Calgary is a pain in the ass to deal with what's new. I think that the Devils will be back and on fire next year.

Yeah, but you saw what the Flames got.

They got to piss off their goal tender that wanted to stay there and now doesn't want to be there.

Yeah, but they also got, which is what they always get in these situations, and I think they did very well. I I hate their owner viscerally. I wish good things on Craig Conroy and on the Flames fan base. Murray Edwards can fuck off.

I think we have to wrap because Steve's Food is here and he needs to-Let's wrap it up.

All right. Steve's Food's here. We got to go. Don't forget, we'll have playoff previews coming up.

You might want to run and go get the Uber guy before he leaves with your food.

Okay, playoff previews coming up this week towards the end of the week. And SDP VIP coming out tomorrow. Love you. The Steve Dangle podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter at steve_dangle@adamwylde and at Jessie Blake.

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