Spaghetti. The Steve Dangle podcast with your hosts, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. Hey, just a reminder that you can get all sdps ad free, plus your vip episode, which is the fourth episode of the week for $6.99. If you only want the vip episode and you just want the normal stps, there's the $3.99 option on YouTube.

Oh, but, Adam, I don't know if I want to make that perfect.

Yeah.

Well, that is the only thing that Jesse wanted for his birthday.

Wow. Oh, yeah. Which was yesterday. That's it.

That's what I wanted.

Wow. Were you gonna take that away from Jesse?

Yeah.

I mean, all you.

Look at that innocent face. Keep the camera on, Jesse. Look at him, Jesse, look sad.

Get me a present.

Look pouty. Jesse, look pouty. Oh, wow. He does a good pout.

That's a very good pout.

A good pout.

All he ever does is, oh, see, like, I'm actually kind of sad. He's like an old dog.

Yeah, a 32 year old dog. Yeah. Like a basket. How does it feel to be 32, Jesse Blake?

It feels splendid. I'm reaching my peak.

Peak, Jesse, form.

Yeah, I'm not quite there yet. I'm getting there, though.

Jesse once said to me that my peak will be somewhere in my late forties. He's like, that's what he was, right.

I think I've been pushing it back in my head. Yeah, I think we're reaching, like, now. It's with the eclipse stuff. I don't know. We're reaching like 60.

Oh, really?

Maybe your peak of your.

Damn.

Your adulthood.

Damn. Yeah. Well, listen, it's. There are some people that are upset about the fact that I didn't find the thing that they find interesting as interesting. Well, it's crazy. It's like, what do you mean? Your opinions don't align directly with my opinions. Like this and the opinions of my children.

Like the sun and the moon aligning.

Ah, I see what he did there. Yes. Whoa.

Crazy smart for you.

No, I'm operating on a. No, no. That's over the head catch right before the.

Steve, how tired are you?

I'm fucking wiped. I'm exhausted. I'm miserable.

I don't know if you've noticed, Adam, but Steve seems like he has gotten no sleep in the last couple weeks.

Yes, he does seem like that. And the reason he seems that way is because he has, because it is true.

And he has gotten no sleep.

Normalize calling the newborn phase miserable.

It's a terrible. I told you that's why I only had one.

It's terrible. Oh, don't you love your kid? Of course I love my kid. Yeah, but this is fucking miserable.

I hate it.

I should save this and what?

We should actually save this for the vip.

Vip.

Fine. I will. I'll still be miserable then. I'll actually be more miserable because. Cause I will have just done an hour and a half show for another 45 minutes.

One. Fuck. Anyway, we'll have more eclipse talk in the vip show, too. But I want to talk a little hockey at the moment because the biggest goal in the NHL was scored last night. The biggest goal this season, the most consequential goal this season, and that is Alexander Ovechkin scored his 30th goal.

That is not what I thought you were going to say.

Alexander Ovech is the snowboarder. Is the first player in NHL history to have 1830 goal seasons.

What would goal was it?

What goal did I think he was going to say?

Yeah.

The goal that everyone listening wants us to talk about. Your ice, Lavkoski. First career hat trick.

Wow.

First career hat trick.

Wow. Noted. Not a bust.

Nope.

Noted.

No. That hat trick brings him within a hair of 20. Let's go.

That's great.

Let's go. 19 to match his age.

Let's go.

I don't know if Bobby McMahon's gonna be able to catch him at this point.

No, no. He's going to leave Dubois and his dust. But I don't know if he's going to catch. Slap.

That's true, by the way. Slaps 19. We don't think he's a bust. 18th 30 goal season of Alexander Ovechkin's career. Nobody in the history of the NHL has ever done it.

That's really, really stupid. There are so many seasons throughout his career where he should not have hit 30. The first lockout speaker. One of them.

The first lockout of his career. As in not the O 05:06 one. The one that was like the half season he. Well, he didn't score much. Technically.

The first lockout of his career was 0405.

I know. Okay, so the second one, guys. Okay. What I'm talking about is the season.

Got it.

Which is 1314, right? Or 1213.

All I'm saying is he would have.

Played 1213 is the season you're thinking.

And he scored nada in the first half of that, which was like, what, 45, 50 games long? And then 48, 48. Went on an absolute terror.

Scored 32, 32 and 48 in the shortened season.

Yeah, he scored it like was over a 50 goal pace like there are. For the amount of 50 goal seasons that he has, he should have scored 50 at least, I don't know, three or four more times.

Yep.

He's. He's a marvel.

Yeah.

If you look at Ovechkin's DB, he has 49 in 82 one season. He has 48 in 68 another season. He has 24 in 45 in the 21 season. And, yeah, there's a lot of goals left on the table. 46 in 82 in his 0607 season. There's so many goals left on the table. If you add in the lockout, the two lockouts he experienced, and COVID, here's.

How ridiculous the expectations were on Alex Ovechkin scored 52 in his rookie year. In a sophomore year, he only hits 46.

Loser. Bum.

And the price of his rookie card plummeted.

Did it.

And I know that because I had two of them that I had found, like, on my own in packs. I still have one, but I sold one because I was in university and badly needed the money.

Money?

How much?

And I was like, what did I get? Oh, it's gonna hurt. It's. Oh. Hmm. I believe the answer this hurts because it's like, hundreds of dollars. I'm pretty sure it was $40.

Adjusted for inflation, that's $6,000.

I needed it. I needed it, dude. I was like, 20.

That's okay.

Yeah, it's all right.

But you got the other one. Do you get them graded first before you sell?

I haven't. I've never got a card graded. I have graded cards that I've gotten from people, but I've never had one graded. I have an Ov. Never got my hands on a Crosby. I have a stamkos. I have a few good ones. I have a Lundquist that I should probably get graded on account of he's already retired and in the hall of fame. Yeah, there's a few that I should get graded.

A listener at an event. I think the one at the rec room or most recent one, gave me a William Nylander. Graded.

That's right. Oh, PSA.

Ten card from his rookie season. I was like, I don't want to take this. And they're like, no, please take it.

I'm like, what?

Thank you, man.

That's so cool. What a nice person.

That's extremely nice.

Yeah, I've been gifted, like, I don't know, more than 50 William Nylander cards from listeners of the show.

Wow.

I have a, like, a serious collection of Nylander cards, and I appreciate it every time.

You know what? You should.

But that was. That was the, like, best one I've ever received.

We should get you, you know. You know those. There's those hockey card plaques where you can have, like, 20, and then there's the ps de resistance in the middle.

Oh, yeah.

We should get Jesse that. And it's just William Nylander.

Yeah, I have enough. I literally have probably over 50. Yeah, I could doodle it up.

We need some. We need some artwork up around here.

I made myself that at my house, actually. You know what?

So, Steve, every now, instead of spending, like, a couple hundred bucks, you know, get actually framed, he's like, oh, DIY.

Then, hey, I was watching the broadcast the other night, and this still happens all the time. I was watching the broadcast the other night, and there's just a camera shot on a random piece of memorabilia, and then the camera pans out. Have you ever. Have you been watching the hockey night in Canada set? And there's this random, like, Walmart frame with a Felix Potvin card in it, and it's got, like, a Felix Potvin pog.

Yeah.

And a bunch of Felix.

I know. That's yours.

It's mine.

Do you think they'll give that back to you?

I have a mole who I'm hoping will get it for me very soon.

Yeah. Cause there's. It's. That's left over from the ice surfing. Ice surfing.

Yeah, I didn't bother grabbing it.

Also, can I quit? Can I ask a question now that you don't work at sports? That. And this is not to trash them. Okay, so let me just be clear about that. How did you end up being the one who decorated their set?

I just. No, I just brought it in.

Yeah, that was willing.

I just brought it in on my own accord because I wanted to. Dude, I was getting in. I think my record for least amount of segments on ice surfing was two. Like, I wasn't. You were in a lot. You know, I wanted to stand out, and so I brought in some of my own stuff to make it look a little bit more like home. I was standing there with my thumb up my ass, like, so much of the time, I might as well make it look like home.

No. And I start, like, as much as we made fun of you for it, because that's what we do. Because that's what good friends do. It was a big. That was a big step for you.

It was. And Sportsnet was wrong and short sighted to quit on that show. It was a good idea.

I think it was the wrong platform.

It was the wrong platform.

I think YouTube would have been a better platform. Cause they had more followers there.

And that was the only problem with it. It was a great developing ground for so many producers. There was. Man, I miss working with Yorkie. He was so fun. I just. Peter Mansbridge was like gassing me up when I was a guest and it was the weirdest thing. And he goes, there's a magic to what you do. And Peter Manjbrid said that, and I wasn't looking at him, but I just heard Jason York in my monitor go, oh, my God.

Jason York. He's such a nice guy.

Oh, my gosh.

So to the game that everybody wants us to talk about. It was announced before the Leafs Devils game that Jack Hughes is going to go get that labrum repaired. That is allowing his shoulder to fall out of place multiple times. If you've ever separated shoulder and then not got it surgically operated on, you know what we're talking about. As I've told you many times, my dad, it was so bad that he was petting the dog and it fell out.

Jack Hughes has been busted for months.

Yes. The reason people were like, why are they doing this now? It's because they were trying to make the playoffs. That's. And your separated shoulder, you can pop it back in and then within a day it's going to be okay. But it will get worse.

It's manageable.

And he'll be ready for training camp. It's a four to six month turnaround, so at very latest, he's. He's available late September.

It's a lot of months.

You needed to cut bait now so you could guarantee that next season he'll be good.

Yeah.

And this was time, you know, you fell out of the playoff race. Let's just get him. Get him to surgery. You know, it's over.

And the nail in the coffin was the Leafs beating the Devils last night.

Although at one point it was over a little bit.

Sorry. What I mean is that they officially eliminated them last night. Mathematically, I forget a month.

If they trade for Jake Allen two weeks earlier, are they in the playoffs?

No, no, they got to be.

Metro stinks, dude.

They got to be close.

No, no, they'd be within.

They're already within arm's reach.

They had.

They have more problems than just goaltender.

No, I agree. But that he's so good. Like, he's so good for them and he's fit in really well.

And they won that game last night. Right?

Well.

Well, the last time the Leafs played them. The Leafs did the same thing. They outshot them by double, and Jake Allen stood on his head. And I don't know if Jake Allen's just the most underrated goalie in the NHL, or if he's Hasek against the Leafs and the Leafs only, but he was. He was outstanding both games.

Some goalies only know how to play well on terrible teams.

Yeah, I know.

It's kind of Craig Anderson's thing. For a long time, he's. Listen, I am. I specialize in games where my team gets out shot 40 to ten.

I think Reimer was really good with that. With the Leafs.

He was. He absolutely was.

That's a good example. But, you know, so let's. Let's talk about the leaf side of this year.

On the last Jake Allen point, the Devils traded for Jake Allen on March 8, I believe is the date on. On March 8. Since March 8, the New Jersey Devils are six, nine and one. Oh, well. Having Jake Allenton turn around their season.

Never mind. Suppose. What's his record?

That's the 25th best record in the NHL. I can tell you his record, but I don't have right in front.

So he's only good against the Leafs.

Hockey reference would give it to you fastest.

Wow. Yeah.

But, yeah, I can do it.

Okay.

Yeah, maybe he's got the alexander. You argue where he's like, you know what? I feel like making 45 saves tonight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

No other night.

Jake Allen with the New Jersey Devils is. Eleven games played, ten starts, five and five. A 911, which is great.

That's a good save for.

Yeah.

Which means there are more problems than the goaltending, because they're getting 911 goaltending and have still only been five, five and one during his time.

There was a lot of problems in Jersey. Yeah, there are.

But I'm not selling that stock. No, no.

Nobody's saying that next season. They can't bounce back.

Oh, I think they're in the playoffs next season.

I think what we saw last year is more true to the form of the Devils than what we saw this year.

I 100% agree. They have Dougie Hamilton the whole year.

I think they have the biggest. They showed on the graphic last night. They have the biggest drop off in points from last year to this year. And the second place there is the Bruins. But they set the whole time record in points.

They're in first.

Hilarious.

Frig off.

But, yeah, you don't have the biggest drop off and you're like, okay, this is the true form of the team. No, there's, there's a lot more problems. Coaching was a part of that. Defense was part of that.

So let's, let's talk about the leaf side of it, which I want to start with Nick Robertson, who scored for the fourth time this season after being scratched.

Don't you dare trade this kid.

He's going to get 20 goals next year.

I will fight Brad drilliving. I will get on a ladder and fist fight him if he trades Nick Roberts.

And it was a great shot. And you know what I like about that is this is a guy that's fighting for a spot in the lineup. You know, people have asked, is he in the starting lineup for a game one against likely Florida. Every, you know, to a person, everybody's saying no. And he's saying yes, even if the answer is no. You need a player to be going. You don't want a player to tuck tail and be like, well, life's unfair. He's like, no, f. You put me in the freaking lineup.

I'm still not a thousand percent convinced he won't be in the game one lineup. It's not looking good. Um, but they're trying stuff, right? Like what I say about nice. I said, it's not impossible that it could be him. So he gets dropped down to the fourth line because it helps accentuate what Nick Robertson can do on the third. So. Okay, let's see what you can do in a fourth line role there. Matthew Nyes, are you useful in that role? Last night, he showed he, he is. There are more guys on this leaf team than in any in recent memory who deserve to be in the game one lineup.

That's great. That's great.

Who just won't be.

That's called depth. It's called depth and you need it in the playoffs.

It's, it's, it's really odd. It's been a work in progress throughout the season. And it's amazing how many performances they've got from within. Holmberg earlier this season, I'm like, what are we doing with this guy? You know? And then they tried him in some fun spots and, oh, he's good with Matthews for a few games, and then he turns into a pumpkin. And I've been watching the last couple of games. That's a playoff player.

Oh, yeah.

He won swedish league playoff mvp. Keep bringing that up.

I think that's an important point.

It's an important point. I mean, you want playoff performers. Well, he couldn't perform in the NHL playoffs before he got to the NHL. He did it in Sweden, and he was really good.

Well, and they were showing Tyler Bertuzzi, too, with his history with Grand Rapids and his. Oh, what was his team before Grand Rapids when he was a junior, anyway? Big playoff performer there, as well. There you go.

I thought. I thought nice was, like, fantastic on the fourth line, and if this is like, the lineup looked really good, I think Robertson has a case to be in there over Reeves. If you want to, like, just play away from the, hey, we need a big guy to beat up people in the playoffs. Like, if you just drop that narrative, then you can definitely go with Gregor in there and. And on the fourth line and Robertson on the third.

See, I'd rather keep Robertson in and pull Gregor out and put Reeves in. That's where I'm at. There's the.

Yeah, there's also that option.

There have been. There have been games where the Leafs haven't played Reeves and they've picked their spots. Carolina. He doesn't need to play against Carolina. Carolina is not going to engage in Ryan Reeves type things. The devils now have Curtis McDermott. Curtis or Lane Curtis. Curtis McDermott.

Yeah.

Checking knives when nice was on his. On his knees, and it was an accident. It was. It was entirely an accident. It was funny, though.

It was.

Yeah, it was funny. And, you know, Reeves might have fought him had he been in the lineup, but, like, McDermott is not the kind of guy who's going to run around, so. And outside of McDermott, the Devils are so. They're so soft. There's no reason to have Reeves in that lineup. Florida. Yeah. Ryan, you're up. I'm not scratching.

Sacrifice what Reeves lacks on the offensive side and what Noah Gregor can provide you. And. And I'd say defense, as well. Like, I'd say Nora Gregor, just in terms of offense and defense, is a more skilled player than Ryan Reeves. But Ryan Reeves has also stepped up lately, and he's been actually kind of useful in the offensive zone.

Gregor is definitely a better defensive player offensively. I'm not entirely convinced. Like, I've seen briefs put up a bunch of chances this season. I know he's got three goals. Relax. But, like, he's.

He's.

He's always sniffing around, and the fourth line is doing generally positive things when he's out there, and he's Ryan Reeves, like, he's a nuclear deterrence. And, you know, if they were playing someone else in the first round, maybe I'd have a different opinion. They're not. So I want him in there.

So Gregor's the man out or as Robertson.

Oh, Gregor is, I'm totally, I'm not ready. The man out, I'm totally not sure.

I'm still not sure where, I'm not sure what Gregor brings. Like, what exactly do you do here?

Yeah, I'm totally comfortable with him in there, but.

I know, but for game one, I.

Think for set, he's a more competent defensive player. And I think out of your fourth line, you want to be more assured that they're not going to give up an ugly goal in the playoffs.

Yeah, but I, what I think, I.

Think nice compf and Gregor provide that more assurance than Reeves there.

But what you're going to get when yarn crow comes back is that at a better rate.

I have no idea where he fits.

Well, I just don't know, like how injured is he? Well, and is he coming back?

Marner, the Marner Matthews thing. Nope. Like I saw some negative takes like ah, keef's going to go back to Marner Matthews at the first sign of trouble. I don't think he is.

See, now I disagree with you there.

Yeah.

Keef is exactly the kind of coach who will be like, hey, this is working, let's split it up. I just think so. Listen, I don't want. And they had three goals last night. The Marner, Matthews, Domi, sorry, Bertuzzi. Domi, Matthew, I know I said it, three goals last night.

Domi was the best player on the ice for a large portions of that game.

I've been saying it. He's a good fit to fill in for what Marner's role was.

The Devils were locking him up, locking him up, locking him up. And it took one shift of that line to go. What if we just didn't go through Matthews this time? They got two goals in 9 seconds. The Devils had no answer for it.

Domi's, I think, best play of the night, wasn't even on a goal, is the one where he was behind the net and he can't. And he threw the pass out front to Matthews, and Matthews shot it right off of Allen's pad. Yes, that pass was unbelievable. And then there's also the pass on the one that scored where he just whips it across the ice. And it's, it's a nice one timer, but like, I thought that like his, his passing ability this season, like has just improved as the season has gone along and he's like reaching his peak right now. It's fantastic.

His vision's amazing. Obviously he hasn't scored goals, but it's, it's I think in five on five assists, he's. He's like fifth in the league. And he's behind, like Leon Drysiedel and Connor McDavid and Jesper brought and Nathan McKinnon. And that's it.

And that's it. Like, it's here.

Like, that's crazy.

This. This is one of my favorite Max Domi plays from last night. Adam, can you find him?

I think he's on the right, is he not?

Nope.

I can't see him.

Jesse, can you find him?

Is he behind? Is he in front of the goalie? Yep.

All you can see is a stick. All you can see is the stick. That's the Giordano goal. That's the reason it went in. He can't see shit. Yeah, cuz he's got to go around Max. And then to go around Max, he can't see the puck behind. He sure like, it's. It's perfect. I've never seen. That's an eclipse.

Don't. Yeah, that's an eclipse behind. It's the Giordano goal. Puck is close to Giordano. He's about to slap it. And you can't see Domi behind Jake Allen. You could just see his stick because.

It'S the Allen Domi eclipse.

Yeah, I.

When I got this screenshot for the video last night, I thought I got the wrong moment. And then I realized, oh, no, he's there. Like, it's perfect.

It's great.

It's completely perfect.

Geo looks so happy to score that goal. Well, I should say everybody looked happy for Gio. Gio is like the guy who's smiling the least at that moment, to be honest. But everybody was so happy for Gio to get that goal. It seemed like he really. He needed that one well.

And the two goals that he scored since he's come back have been like, big goals.

The first one, like the. Like the game, he comes back after his dad passed, and then now this one. Like, I like Geo's game lately.

Me too. And I think it's because he's refreshed. He hasn't played a lot, and he had the. I know he had the. I don't know if it was a concussion. He got banged up pretty good. And that is what's so great about the Leafs defense this year is like, Joel Edmondson's out, and we haven't even thought about it. And the way we were talking about Mark Giordano at the beginning of this year is like, we knew what happened when he played as much as he did, and then got to the playoffs and got outplayed, man.

He had nothing.

But.

But I liked him most of last year.

Whoo.

He had nothing.

And listen, I think the same thing with, like, you look at a guy like Mitch Marner. Obviously, he doesn't want to be injured.

No.

But it is sort of like he's coming back more refreshed than most players, but.

Adam, what was your injury? Mitch?

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. Why were you out?

You know what? Mitch Marner in his villain era, I'm here for it. Get mad.

Just don't get mad at the press.

Get mad at the other team.

Yeah.

You know, his.

What is. What's his superpower?

Stop it. We're moving on. We're moving on. Bertuzzi scored two goals. He has ten in his last 13.

That's a good player, man.

21 goals this year. Um, and I'm. I'm. Again, I'm holding back on the Matthews thing. Bertuzzi, one thing that drove me nuts about last night, though, is you have an empty net, you're shorthanded, you've got a. And anybody who doesn't watch the Leafs, trust me. I forgive you for not knowing this, but the whole debate about Matthews not being good defensively, you're objectively wrong.

Who the. Who's still saying that?

There are. There are, there are. You can find. Remember, it's the Internet. You can find people saying, all right.

Let'S talk directly to them. Let's talk directly. Great.

Good at defense. He's good.

He might be nominated for the selkie.

Why was he. What I didn't understand with Keef is, why don't you just send him out there with the empty net?

I was getting upset.

I was also.

Were you upset? Yeah. No, I feel good about that. Me being upset about that.

No, I think everybody should be upset. Whenever there's an empty net for a guy who's chasing 70 goals, just put him out there.

And then they make a change and Mitch Marner comes on.

Yeah, no, it's.

What are we doing?

We can. We can abandon what you're supposed to do for 70 goals in a game that is over.

Yes.

There's a, like in basketball, when you're up 100 points, do you play your starters?

No.

You put on the bench players. When you're up two goals in the final seconds and there's an empty net, just put out Matthews to get a 70 goals when the season's over.

Here's the thing, Matthews plays in shorthanded situations. He's done it all year. They were six on four. They were the best face off guy.

They were trying to get him out there. He was standing on the bench.

He should have been out there before that.

Put him out there.

I was.

What if you simply did it?

This is okay.

So. Oh, no, we gotta put Holmberg out there because we gotta play right? No, no, no.

Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi shot it into the empty net and he scored.

Yeah.

And my first thought was, you son of a gun, why did you shoot that? And my second thought was, Steve, that's a bad instinct.

No, it's a bad instinct. And I get it. I get it. And I know coaches don't want to do that. And I see, by the way, I'm seeing players look for Nylander and teams are ISO Nylander because he's going for 100. I see teams looking for Matthews. They haven't been able to stop him. He seems to score at will, but they are trying to ISO him. I get why Sheldon Keef is going to be annoying head coach about this. You got to play the way that you played to get you here.

That's stupid.

But it's. Jesse says three minutes left. It's six on four. They're clearly pulling the goalie. Put Austin Matthews out there and let him play. Three minutes down here.

Move here.

Speaker three.

He's. He's not playing like a goal suck, though.

No, he's not.

No.

The. Cause he's not a goal suck.

If anyone is cheating for a Matthews goal, it's his linemates, Domi. Like, there was one where I'm like.

Domi'S, like, looking for me.

You had to shoot that, max.

Yeah.

Come on.

Matthews has changed nothing about his game. You're so right about that.

Not a thing. And he's scoring goals that no one else in the league scores.

Like, he's scoring like this. So why would he ever cheat for anything? Because that's just his game.

The Penguins won. I'm like, that's a one legged, lazy, piece of crap goal. That's only good because it's you. If it's anyone else, you yell at them like you need to practice your shot. And he just effortlessly. It's. He's Johnny Bravo out there. It's friggin ridiculous.

Yeah, it's great. Now, Matthews scoring this goal. There's a lot of stats to go through, so let's go through it. Austin Matthews is the first player to score 66 goals since Mario Lemieux in 95 96, which is essentially the 95 96.

You could go and look at the numbers. Is the dawn of the dead puck era.

Yeah.

The next season, the valve shuts off. That season was insane numbers. And then it just shuts right off.

He has 48 even strengths goals on the season, which would tie him for fourth place in the league with Nathan McKinnon. Just. If you were to take. If you're only to take his even strength.

Oh, I was like, what?

Okay, say this.

That again.

If you were to get rid of his power play goals, because remember, advanced stats. Power play goals are bad. I'm totally kidding, by the way.

No, the heart trophy discussion right now about people just being like, you know what? Even strength points, primary assists, like the. The gymnastics people got to go through to defend their guy.

Producer.

It's awful.

Producer. Drew was going off. He's like, people are saying Nikita Kutarov doesn't have enough support around him. I'm like, are you talking about the dude on the Lightning?

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

No, but the way he. Drew's also. He's.

He should bias.

He's biased about this. He's trying to defend McKinnon. He went about it doing like, oh, you got to cut off Lightning players at 70 points and all that. Why that?

Why that?

So it makes the argument for McKinnon look better.

Like, it's.

It's been awful.

Yeah. Yeah. So, Matthews. Yeah. If you were to take all his power play goals away, he's still tied for fourth total. Gosh. 17. And by the way, this is from big head leafs. 17 multi goal games. That's the most since 1993. And six hat tricks, most of which came in the first few games. That's the most since. 95. 90, 617.

Multi goal game.

Yes, 17. Matthews has also shown significant improvement in the defensive zone. Top five forward in block shots, top ten in stick checks, and has taken almost no penalties. There is the. There is the misconduct, though, which probably puts him out of the lady bing. Yeah. He is second in the league in plus minus at a plus 36, 34, 34. And by the way, I know that plus minus, as we always say, plus minus is a useless stat until it gets goofy. And Austin Matthews has scored 51 goals in his last 55 games. And in those 55 games, he had a stretch 13 games where he scored one goal.

Nice.

So that's it. This is. This is how crazy this is now.

No, wait. Sorry.

No, please continue.

17 multi goal games. 1234. There's only four other leafs that have more than 17 goals. He has 17 multi goal games.

Yes. The fact that the Leafs got him locked up at 13 and a half million, looking like that's a good deal.

He'Ll be the highest paid player in the league and it won't be enough.

And I look at. I look at this, too. You know, I obviously. I think they got to let him go for 70. Okay. They got to let him go for 70.

Wow. He's. He's got two games.

You think he sits 81, 82.

He's got two games. And then if he's not there. I think you have a really difficult conversation. Game 81.

Okay. Cause it was that game 78 or 79 last night.

78.

Okay.

So they got 7980-8182 so four games left.

Okay.

No, like, we had. We did this last episode. There's absolutely no reason he could. He should play game 82.

I agree.

Second half of a back to back.

I'd argue the playoffs one.

Yeah.

No, like, I'm on your side, but I don't. I don't think they have that mentality about, like, sit a hockey player two games to end the season.

Oh, my God. He shouldn't play in Florida at all. Is he soft?

I didn't play two games in a row, so.

Yeah. Well, get ready.

Get ready, because this narrative is coming. Moving up the playoffs is going to result in the final two days of the season being honka. Shit hockey. All the playoff teams are going to be resting. Everyone. Unless they have something to play for.

Right.

Especially the teams that play on that Thursday. And then they could potentially play like, Sunday, which is.

There are twelve teams.

No, Leafs. Leafs play the second last day of the regular season.

Oh, it's. So it's Tuesday, Wednesday. Yeah.

Six games on the Thursday. The playoffs start two days later. It's madness.

Especially. Cause it's a weekend, too. Like, what are you doing?

Weird.

So with all that said, one thing.

Austin Matthews does not lead in is expected goals. Zach Hyman leads an expected goal. Oh, that's a secret. Is Austin Matthews bad?

Yeah.

Okay. The advanced numbers say that Zach Hyman has been expected to score more goals than Austin Matthews.

So. And I love. I love Zach. I'm not. I'm not diminishing him.

I am.

You look at expected goals versus. Well, versus each other. Hymen and Matthews. You look at where Hymen scores his goals from and you're like, oh, yeah, I expect Zack Hyman to score from there. You look at where Matthews has scored from the last three games, you're like. You're everywhere.

Every zone, every zone.

Lazy piece of shit floaters from damn near the point on one leg. And you're like, all right. Like you even saw the body language of the Devils last night.

Like Jake Allen after that goal.

He's like.

They're like, what are you supposed to do? Because those are not scoring chances. They're not. Except for him.

Yes. And that's what makes it so special.

99% of players in the league can't score that goal.

Somebody asked me through Jesse the other day, because nobody has done 100 assists in the modern era, or it's been a long, long time. Still haven't. We'll talk about McDavid at 99 and Kucharov at 96.

Oh, but, no, he's a plus five. Take away the hard trophy.

Yeah.

I'm Drew.

I should say it. You should say it, Jesse, with your chest.

I would never want to diminish those players or whatever, but the. But here's where I'm changing my stance, and it's completely unfair. You ready? Two guys are going to do it this year. Very likely. If McDavid plays another game, he'll probably do it. Kucharov's likely going to do it. The fact that there's only one guy within ten goals of what Matthews is doing, I think, makes it more impressive. So, yes, the history is that only so many players, four players all time, I think, have done 100 assists.

McDavid will be the three, the fourth.

Okay. And then Kutarov will be the fifth.

And Kutrrav will be the fifth.

Yes. I think that it's more impressive that Matthews is that much further ahead in a category that is objectively more important. And I. And so. And I know he's not going to win. The heart. I know it's going. Here's where the heart's going. The heart's going to McKinnon this year. Cause I don't think he's won one, has he? So Kutcher off had one. Matthews has one. Sidney's got one. Uh, Connor's got one. It's going to McKinnon this year. It's going to McKinnon this year. This is Leonardo DiCaprio revenant year. That's fine.

No, he deserves to have, like, 140.

I'm just saying. So is Kucharov, and so is David. So. So that's how hockey writers are going to do it. Or whoever votes on I. That's where it's going. I make my pick is going to be McKinnon. I still feel like. I still feel like Matthews accomplishment to me, based on the fact that no one else is close, that's what makes it more important. We're talking about a 15% to 20% differential between him and the next most goals. That's crazy.

I'll be okay if he doesn't win MVP. I'll be okay.

He's not going to win MVP.

I'll be okay if he's not nominated. He cannot not be on your ballot.

He's got to be fourth or fifth.

Yeah, he has to. You could even have him in, you know.

Oh, I put him.

You can have him anywhere in your top five.

I'm being realistic.

He's top five.

Yeah, he's top five. You know, it's, it's, to me, it's, it's McDavid, Kutcher off McKinnon, and then Crosby, Matthews. And not, not in that order, but the first three guys are the ones that are the odds on favorites. And then you've got to put Crosby on there somewhere.

Cause that's.

You gotta put Matthews on there.

That's the consensus. And there's other guys, like, paneran's gonna get some hella buck should. Sure.

Yossi should. Pasternak. Absolutely.

Probably some defenseman like, like Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar is. He scored his 20th goal last night. He's ridiculous.

Yeah, he's a crazy, crazy defenseman. I'm just saying he's almost got a.

Little bit of the McDavid where you see his numbers and you're like, yeah, it's Kilma car, though. But this guy.

Yeah.

And you go over and look at Quinn Hughes, who like, this is a truly goofy season from him. It's just sort of expected of kale McCarthy. Like, there's a little bit of that going on.

Oh, yeah. Like, McDavid, he faces that every single season. He touches the ices. He could put up a million points. But we're like, yeah, but he's, he's supposed to do that.

Puts up three points and you're like, yeah, I've seen, I've seen that a hundred times.

Oh, God.

David's gonna get a thousand points in three seasons. Well, it's supposed to do that.

How did, how did, how did, who's the coach in Tampa? Why can I not.

John Cooper.

How did he not win the Jack Adams four years in a row?

It's not the playoff award.

Right. Like, what she did win a couple times. The playoff award. Yeah.

The Stanley Stanley cup.

Yes. But like, my point is, and Steve, Steve said this years ago, which is the Jack Adams usually goes to the guy that's like, oh, shit. I didn't expect that. Oh, yeah. You know, like the. The Andrew Burnett Florida season.

I've said this many, many times. Jim Montgomery won it last year. He deserves it more this year.

Yes, and he should win it. Do you want to hear an annoying stat that Justin sent to us from Kevin Paul Dupont, Boston reporter, Bergeron and Kraichie. Last year, 114 points. Zaka and coil this year, 114 points off. Don't you hate it?

That's.

That's amazing. Freaking Bruins.

Charlie Corner.

That's amazing, man.

Yeah, but holy. I didn't know either of them have that gear.

That's one of the best trades in Bruins history. A third rounder for that guy at a deadline who was like a throw in. Well, come on.

That's a great trade, Zaka. How did they even get him?

That's what. I don't know. Overall pick. I know. Why did New Jersey give up?

I remember, well, he was drafted a long time ago. I remember the. The William Nielander rookie Calder cup run in 2016 where they didn't make it, but they got to the conference final. That series against Albany. Anyone who watched that series was friggin awesome. Win seven games. Dickie Klune got the late game seven winner, but Zaka was a factor, and I want to say he wasn't in the first couple games. And then he joined them. Dude. He was a really, really good player. Really highly touted, and he just never hit it, really.

And here he is in the middle of July, 2022. The New Jersey Devils traded Zakka to the Boston Bruins for Eric Halla.

Good lord.

Yo, you know what's crazy is that that was a horrible New Jersey year. That was a horrible New Jersey year. And they.

No, because it was. It was the summer of. Of 2022. So it's heading into the good year last year.

Yeah, that was heading to the. Yeah.

What?

So that was. They were coming off a bad year, and they're like, we need.

So, wait, what was the Charlie Coyle trade?

Third round pick, 1 minute.

You want? You want.

I want the exact. Because we're doing this math.

It's a third round pick to Minnesota, 2019, I believe.

I think Ryan Donato.

I'll pull it up.

Was Donato in it?

I think so.

Here. No, we don't need a guess. Charlie Coyle was acquired by the Boston Bruins in exchange for Ryan Donato.

Oh.

Who was an AHL player at the time. A fourth round pick.

Webber.

Now a leaf, a 2019 4th round pick that was conditional. And the conditions were Bruins initially traded their 2019 5th round pick with a condition that it will upgrade to a 2019 4th if they advance this second round of the playoffs, which they did. So they, Minnesota Wild got the fourth round pick from New Jersey, from New York Rangers.

These two centers who have 114 points. The Bruins got Coyle and Zakka for Eric Hall, Ryan Donato and a fourth. Yep. Holy shit.

That's really good.

It's good.

That's good movement, man. That's crazy.

Charlie Coyle, who was once in the Brent Burns trade.

Yeah.

Damn.

Yeah. And Devin said a Gucci.

Devin set a Gucci.

That's when Burns went from forward with the Minnesota Wild to defenseman with the Sharks, too.

Yeah, no, that was a. That was a huge deal. There were some big friggin deals back in the day. Hot damn.

Yeah. Crazy. By the way, with the devil's loss last night, the 2024 2nd round pick that the Sharks that they sent to the Sharks in the Timo Meyer trade will not upgrade to a first round pick. Had they made the playoffs, it would have been a 2024 1st round pick this year.

Oh.

So it kind of, to be honest.

With you, it kind of works out.

For the devils a little bit.

That deal was like. It was like a twelve part deal.

Oh, it's crazy.

And you look at so many of the parts, you're like, none of these guys needed to be included in this trip.

Steven.

Yes.

Where do you sit on. Just go back to what we were talking about before. The hundred point thing that Adam was talking about. 100 sis, 70 goals. Where do you sit on that? Because I can't get over how rare. 100 assists. Like a 770 goals. You look at the list of guys who've done it. You got.

No.

Not to disparage people who've done 70.

Goals, but I think you are. It includes, I think you hate.

It includes Bernie Nichols and Alexander McGinley. Like, it's not just the all time great. Three people have done 100 assists.

There's. I mean, there's over 100 years of NHL history to draw from and there are no accidents over that amount of time. So to me, the tiebreaker goes to the more rare thing, which is the assist. Like, we're not talking about the goals record, we're talking about it's the cap era goals record, which I think matters. Like, I'm working on a little something and talking about some of the greats of our era, this current era. And the. I was trying to figure out what is the 30 team NHL record for Stanley Cups with one team. It's three since there became. Since it became a 30 team league. The record for players getting one cup with one team is three. Right. Like we need to talk about Crosby and Malkin and Latang and a lot of those Blackhawks guys. We got to talk about them in the same breath that we talk about like certain Habs legends because, oh, this guy won seven, eight when there were six teams.

Even when there was 16 teams, it didn't, you know, still. Right. It's.

It's so hard to win the Stanley cup in a 30, 31, 32 team league that the maximum anyone has done with one team is three. I know some guys have won more than three because they've gone to other teams. Has it ever been like the guy, like, like imagine a Crosby winning three with the Penguins and then going to Vegas and any wins is fourth with Vegas. No, no. Like this era hasn't had a mark messier who won four with the team and then went to another and won two or three. No, sorry. He won four with Edmonton. He won one with postgresql Edmonton and then he won one with the Rangers. Yeah, it's, it's. That's the bar. That's the bar. Anyone who has won three cups over the last, I don't know, 20 years, 15 years. That's the equivalent of Henri Richard.

Yeah. And when he won like eleven, it's something. Some crazy number. Yes. But again, half of that, I think half of those cups came in a six team league. And then half of them came when Ken Dryden, who I think game by game is the best goalie statistically of all time and never gets any play for that, by the way, the most.

Losses he ever had in a season was ten.

Like Ken. Ken Dryden's go. Look at Ken drives numbers. They're so crazy.

He had, I think it was 15 more ties than career losses.

He was so good that the Habs could just give up Tony Esposito, who is one of the greatest Chicago Blackhawks goaltenders of all time. Cause they had Kendra and it didn't matter.

That's the closest thing to the Michael Jordan story that hockey has. Like, be one of the best players in the world. Retire, except instead of playing baseball, you're a lawyer.

Yeah. And then you run and then you like. And then you run the. Run the Leafs and like, he was the Leafs president GM for a while.

Which I'm sure was weird for a lot of people.

Yeah. I want to throw this at you and this is a totally random stat, but Jesse, I just texted it to you. Um, and I just thought you'd find this funny. Cause it made me think of Matthews for whatever reason. You know how they always have those stats where. Um. And. And don't bring it up just yet, Matty. Uh, I don't want Steve to see it. Um. Uh, you know how they bring up the stats that, like, matthews is, like, the leading goal scorer since 2010, and he entered the league in 2016.

Stupid.

So this is baseball, and it's not a direct comparison, but who leads the Florida Marlins in home runs since 2017? For a guy, Steve, that you don't.

Watch baseball, the Marlins. I don't know.

Okay.

Ask you that kind of trivia, kind of useless.

So throw this up on screen. Okay. Giancarlo Stanton does.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Giancarlo Stanton left Florida after the 2017 season.

Oh, shit.

Wow. So.

Oh, my God.

We're talking total home runs. He had a 59 home run season, then signed with the Yankees, and nobody has surpassed him. It combined in the season since.

So they're not.

Ryan Anderson's within two. Wow. So the. I mean, the Marlins are terrible, but.

Okay, just to give you an idea, Brian Anderson, jazz Chisholm junior. Garrett Cooper, Jorge Solar. I don't know who those people are.

You know, Jorge Solaire is good.

I'm sure he is. I'm not as big a. I can't do what I do with hockey. With baseball.

I don't fault you for not being up one. I just think that's a crazy Marlins baseball name.

Yeah.

I can't think you get a pass sometimes.

Like, when other sports trivia comes up, I'm like, man, why don't I know that? And I'm like, because you can't know everything. Exactly.

Exactly.

It's too much.

Exactly. I want to say that. I want to throw this out there. The Leafs have 24 road wins this year. It's the most in franchise history. Let's go. That means something, right?

I think they didn't. They tie the record that they set last year.

This is.

We're in the greatest stretch of regular season hockey in Toronto. Maple Leaf history. Every year, they kind of get close to the all time record of points in a season. They're very good in the regular season.

Like, part of the reason ovechkin and I am bringing this back to leaves. Don't worry. Part of the reason he's getting his flowers is not just because he's becoming the greatest goal scorer of all time and, like, he's going to get that title. He got his cup.

Yeah.

He was already well en route to this before he got his cup. Then he finally got his cup, and everyone who denied him and said, well, he doesn't have his cup couldn't say that anymore. This is hands down, bar none, far and away the greatest stretch of regular season hockey the Leafs have ever, ever, ever, ever played in over a century. They need playoff success.

Yep. Absolutely.

Anyone to give it like. Like, Samsonov is the second fastest leaf goalie to 50 wins. That's noteworthy. A shitload of goalies have played for Leafs. Who's first? Samsonov did it in 80 games. This person did it in 75. Kutu? Nope.

I don't know.

Jack Campbell.

Really? Yep. Wow.

And no one gives a shit.

Yeah.

Like last season, the Toronto Maple Leafs had 54 wins. That was the most ever in franchise history. I don't care.

Freddie Anderson had the wins in a season record. I think he still does. No one cared.

All of these things matter. If they end up winning in the.

Playoffs, they're the sort of thing that, like, we can almost retroactively.

Yes.

Be like 100% it.

Like, we can go back and be like, well, Freddie was something and he was Matthews and Marner and Nylander. And I just feel like unless they get that run, everyone's going to put these qualifiers on it when the objective truth is, no, they've never. Dude, from 2016 onward, they've never had a stretch this good. No, the worst season they've had during that entire stretch was the 1920 season where we'll never know if they were going to make the playoffs.

Well, we. I mean, we saw how they played Columbus.

They had twelve games left, and it was not trending in a good direction.

Yeah.

And everyone was hurt.

Yep.

Which is apparently they're like Super Mario. Power up.

Hey, you. How well do you know your nuts? When was the last time you had a good old conversation about your nuts?

Little handshake with them.

That's right.

You're there.

I like the term package. Yeah, the last time you grabbed your package.

Well, see, the package implies that there's more than just the nuts. I'm just talking specifically.

Oh, yeah. You want to narrow it down to the cojones.

Exactly. April is testicular cancer awareness month, and you should get to know them better because young men tend not to talk about them most of the time anyway. Unless, you know, you're joking about them. Right?

Yes, you joke about your ball.

Yeah. But here's the thing. When we're talking about something feeling odd on your nuts, a lot of people don't feel so comfortable saying, my nuts hurt a little. Or, hey, I should talk to my doctor about my testicles, because the doctor might say, all right, pull your pants down, let's have a look at them. And people get uncomfortable with that.

And we've had this conversation about your most important piece of hockey equipment. Would you go onto the ice without your cup? No, of course you wouldn't, because they're important.

That's a good point.

Which means you got to take care.

Of them even when they're not in a cup.

But here's the thing, guys. Testicular cancer is the number one cancer amongst young men. We got to change our relationship with our nuts. They're not purely there to make us uncomfortable on hot summer days. Okay?

And you do that one step wide.

They need to be.

It's true. You do the one wide step. The old bstl.

Listen, if you're.

You beat me to it.

Yeah. Listen, if you're using baby powder on them, you gotta take more care of them than just that. Testicular cancer is highly curable when it's caught early. Yeah.

While you're doing the baby powder, take a look, see if you're okay, and take a feel.

Yeah.

Take a feel.

Yeah. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So if something hurts or something changes or just flat out doesn't feel right, let's take the boys to the doctor.

Yeah.

All right. And visit movember.com knows to see how you can get to know yours better. Connor McDavid is not practicing at the moment. He is at 99 assists. Do you guys think that this is a serious injury? No. Or is this a. It's a tweak. Let's let him rest. Who cares?

I think Connor McDavid gives a shit about scoring 100 assists. I think he gives more of a shit about winning the Stanley cup. These guys, from the moment their season ended last year onward, look hell bent on everything or anything that would get them a Stanley cup.

Except for the first 15 to 20 games.

It was the weirdest thing to see how they ended their season against Vegas, the fire in their eyes, piss and vinegar. And then how they started their season. But I wouldn't. I just wouldn't write them off. I'm like, give them a second and they win 16 straight games or whatever.

Yep.

Um. It'd be great to see him get a hundred. He'll probably do it anyway.

He.

It's more important that he be healthy for the playoffs.

Yes. Jesse, what do you think?

I think it's you. You raise an eyebrow. It's a little. It's a little. Cause he's probably going to miss Saturday's game too. You're like, okay, this is. It's a little concerning. You never want somebody have an injury this late in the season. But I imagine he'll be good for game 100%.

He's playing game one. Now let me throw this out there. Three players in NHL history have ever had 100 assisted to see three.

Okay.

Twa.

Yeah.

Did any of us know that before this, like, before he got close, did any of us know that?

No.

Because it's so rare.

Yeah.

When does it come up in conversation?

No, but it's rare and it matters. It didn't matter a couple weeks ago when none of us knew that.

Yeah.

Because nothing. There's no reason to talk about it.

No, but in his legacy, everyone is gonna talk about the cup.

Yeah.

They're not gonna be like, oh, yeah, you got 100 assists in a season right now.

We're not talking about that. We're at the regular season portion of our.

I know, but I'm talking about skipping ahead.

No, you're not skipping ahead, but related.

No, you're skipping ahead and looking at the bigger picture, which is like, what.

You'Re supposed to do.

That's not the discussion we have with the hundred assist things. We're looking at the minutiae of the regular season and the, like, heart trophy race and all that stuff. Those are. There's a different conversations between, like, let's take a step back and look at his career as a. As a whole.

I just like doing that with.

Yeah, no, I think that's fair.

Can you. I want to. I want to know what their final four games are. I feel like we did this the other day, but I forget. Yeah, the end of their season sucks. Right?

We talked about this just the, like, immensely.

It immensely stinks. Look at this.

Look at this gauntlet of nonsense.

Frig off. Okay.

Wow.

So I don't even know what today is. Today is the 10th.

Yeah.

So. Oh, wow. They have six games left. Holy shit. Okay, so honestly, Vegas, Arizona, Vancouver, San Jose. It's nice that all of those are home games. He doesn't need to play any of them.

I think I saw that he's sitting out through Saturday. I don't know if it's confirmed, but I think that's what they're speculating based on the injury here.

You want me to make this real easy for everyone? Vegas. Sit. Coyote, sit. Vancouver, sit. Let him play against the Sharks as soon as he gets a point, sit him, like, literally take your equipment off. And then Wednesday, Arizona, Thursday, call around. Literally, literally play the Sharks on Monday, lay the Sharks on Monday, and then Phil Castle, like, get him his point in the first 30 seconds of the game. Connor, thank you very much for your service. Get off the ice, take your equipment off. Go have popcorn.

I feel bad because you're taking advantage of the Sharks.

Yeah, I don't.

The Sharks chose this. They chose this life.

They definitely chose this life.

You circle this on the calendar, like, all right, so we can just play McDavid, like, a couple minutes against the Sharks and then close out the season.

You either do it against the Sharks at home, where it's easier to manage and matchups and all that shit, or you do it at Mullet arena on Wednesday.

He doesn't like, if he gets 100 assists on Monday against the Sharks, he doesn't travel.

I'm like, leave him at home.

Right?

You're getting this. You're getting. I'm dead serious. Leave him at home. Play him in that game. Put him out there. Don't even put a defenseman on the. Okay, no, no, no. Put Evan Bouchard out there and four forwards. Put him out there with the four biggest goal. Sucks. You can find Bouchard and make sure McDavid and Bouchard are passing it back and forth. So he either gets a secondary or primary assist, and put him out there with dry sidle, hymen and nudge. Run your power play unit out there. Get him a point. Thank you. Take off your jersey, send it to the hall of Fame. Grab the puck. Send that to the hall of Fame. Take. Take off your stuff, go home, and then don't go on the road trip.

Are they your favorite in the west, Steve? Because it feels like all season. The San Jose Sharks, do you think they're coming out of the Western Conference, of the Stanley cup for the Stanley cup final?

The Edmonton Oilers, the current Edmonton Oilers, are the hardest team to read in the NHL. In living memory for me, I've never seen a team so obviously flawed, so obviously dominant on the other end of the puck, so. Oh, yeah. Well, they're going to lose in round one. I could totally see how they would lose in round one. Oh, yeah. They're going to win the cup. I could totally see how they would win the cup. A million percent like, to bet against the Edmonton Oilers is to bet against the best players of her generation, and I'm just not going to do that.

I would like to add on to the Oilers conversation. We talked about the fact that Leon dries it. Vander Kane was scratched in a recent game, and he wasn't happy about it. And then there was a heated argument, one with dry sidle, and Kane got into an argument, and then Corey Perry and Kane got into an argument.

I didn't see the dry shot.

Yeah, I don't know what's the.

I didn't know that either. I'm looking at the older's nation article on it, but according to. According to Elliot and Jeff on 32 thoughts, there, there is a thought that Leon and Connor put Corey Perry up to it to kind of get Evander Cain back and engaged because they need him for this run because he's such a monster when he's engaged.

Do you see the play that he got yelled at for?

Yes.

It's a stupid, stupid play. Like, he's got Corey Perry with no one on him, just behind him. Or I can fire it off the side of the net and turn it over and turn it over with speed. What are you doing? No, it's. It's a lazy, silly, ridiculous play. It just didn't need to happen. And this is when everything's supposed to tighten up. Lots of teams are good from games one through 6065, and you see, around the league, everyone's playing a little better. And the Flyers, who I know we're going to talk about, they haven't been able to get to whatever that level is. They haven't been able to get there. The Oilers have been at this level since thanksgiving in the states. Um, but Kane's not there. Kane's. And there are certain players who can just loaf their way to easy cookies.

Yep.

Easy points. And there are other players who, when they don't play with fire, are useless. This guy plays with fire. He's one of the most effective players on the ice. You have to be afraid every time he hops.

Yes.

When he's not engaged, he's some minor leaguer, he's some Ahl guy. He just happens to be bigger than most of them.

Right. But he is such talent. It's crazy.

Like, he has the capability to be the Oilers best deadline pickup. He's. Yeah, he's just a mystifying guy. And, you know, how long has he been there? Yeah, that's about right. Like, I just wish he would change the story about himself.

Do you think that, um. I mean, listen, Evander Cain is. Evander Cain. He's a great hockey player. Um, I almost wonder if, uh. Cause he. He had a really good playoff the first year he was in Edmonton, which was two years ago now, 17 points in 15 games. He only had five and twelve last year. Do you think that he is going to be a guy that's going to be able to turn it on come playoff time? Like, can he just flick a switch? Because he does have just monsters skills.

The fortunate thing for the Oilers is there's six games left, right? If there was, you know, four, like, a lot of teams have three or four. There's not as much Runway six games. Like, he's got to be your best non Hymen or dry cytle winger. The life that Zach Hymen is leading right now should be like, that should be Kane. That should be him.

And they set him up. They set him up in that position early on, and, dude, they got somebody better for it.

Even the line with, I saw the Oilers dress Kane and Perry on the wings. It didn't matter to me who the center was. It didn't matter. I was just like, oh, that's a terrible time. And then in that leaf game, they didn't do shit because it takes a line. It takes a whole line. And part of that was just, guy was useless, and it was confusing to me. Like, really confusing to me. And, like, you know, maybe we already know because of the Mitch stuff. Like, players are weird about their injuries. Like, maybe he is hurt. Maybe he's just hurt.

Sure.

He might just be hurt.

Didn't sound like he wanted to be out of the lineup.

No.

Right.

But that doesn't mean he's not hurt.

Sure. I think everybody's hurt.

Like, remember how his saga in Winnipeg ended? He needed, I think it was shoulder surgery. He needed surgery of some kind, and he was putting it off to help them try to make the playoffs. And then the tracksuit incident happens, and he goes, you know what? I'm going under the knife.

He said, fuck them, guys.

And not entirely wrong. Honestly, he protected the rest of his career ahead of a team that didn't appreciate or like him.

Yeah.

Like, yeah, no, and the reasons for.

That can be with whatever the reasons are, but he did what he did.

I mean, whether, whether they were right or wrong to dislike them. You don't even like me, so I'm going to prioritize my health. He made a decision that a lot of people would have made under the circumstances. I wouldn't be surprised if he's doing that right now. But you got to find a way. Dry Seidel found a way to put up four points a game with a busted ankle.

Yeah. And even swivel on it that day.

You got it. He was just a civil war cannon like you just. You give him the puck and slowly trudge across the field.

He goes straight. That's all he does. He goes straight.

People hacking at his leg every other shift, and, oh, look, the puck's in the back of the net again. Kane's gotta find a way to be effective.

It might be eclipse day, but with shady rays. I wouldn't look directly at the sun, but I'm gonna tell you, they're great sunglasses.

There's an eclipse.

They are not eclipse class.

They are not, but they will eclipse.

Any glasses you currently own because they are amazing.

Why didn't anyone cover the fact that there's an eclipse?

Shady Rays is an independent sunglass company offering a world class product rated five stars by over 300,000 people.

300,000.

That's a lot. Hundreds of options to choose from. You're bound to find your perfect fair, your pair. And CJ's been wearing his around, like, literally everywhere. He took him down to Florida. He said they work great with the Florida sun.

It's really important he makes them look good.

Now, if you don't love your shades, you can exchange them for a new pair or return worry three free within 30 days. There's no risk. Plus, if your shades ever go missing or take an unexpected hit, it can happen. You know, we all like hockey. Sometimes somebody lays a shoulder, you're not ready for it. Uh, they have the most insane protection of all eyewear. Every bear is backed by a lost or broken replacements, uh, which is pretty cool. Yeah.

So Matt Rempy comes out of nowhere and shoulders you with face protect it.

I didn't mean to go to shady raise bomb. Go to shadyrays.com and use the promo code SDP for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Remember, it's shadyrays.com. Use that promo code stp 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. I'm looking at this tweet from Megan Shaker flyers play off chances by date. March 2488% damn, that was recent. March 3172% still good. April 5 53% 55th dude, they had.

Above 50% five days ago.

April 6 47% oh. April 7 22% April 8 19% after yesterday's loss 4% what? Now I'm going to blow your mind even more. Get ready for this, because this downfall, do you want to talk about downfalls that need to be studied. This is one that needs to be studied, because this losing streak that they're on. And this is where sometimes you got to look at this advanced stats. There are eight game losing streak. They are second best in the NHL in Corsi, four percentage at 58%. They have the best high danger chances at 64.48.

Stop.

They are out shooting their opponents 279 to 192. They have a 781 save percentage. Yep.

Waiting for you to get to that. I feel like this is so simple. The Flyers have zero goaltending, and it sucks.

Their shooting percentage is bad, too. It's under 7%.

Right.

I saw, like, I'm sorry, I saw some of these floating around last.

Yeah, but I think it's so simple. If you can't get a save, you can't win a hockey game.

I saw the stat going around that Jamie Drysdale was negative six in a game.

Like, oh, plus, minus.

No, I know.

Yeah, that stat, that's super. The super cool.

It.

When it, like, it speaks to everything.

I think we know it's goaltending.

No, it's. What I'm trying to figure out is like, listen, goaltending can sink your team. It can. Defense can sink your goaltending. Is it that bad? Like, Sean Walker was a big part of that team and they traded him. Right. And who did they add? Eric Johnson.

Whoo.

Like, you added. Drafted in 2006, I think. Well, like, he's on the back three.

But they were trying to, because they were trying to resign Sean Walker. They couldn't come to a deal. They. This is still a rebuild. Yep.

Yes.

And Danny Brier committed to that, and I respect the hell out of that. But if you are trying to push the narrative that the team is quitting on torts. They're not. If you're trying to even push the narrative that the team's not good, you would be wrong.

What is their record since the couturier scratch? Well, I know they won the two games after.

Not good. We'll put it that it's poor. It's poor, but I don't know. I don't think it's couturier. It's. How do you win with a 781 on safer. You can't win.

That is. Think of how useless, useless Ilia Samsonov was in the fall.

It was like an 820. Sometimes it wasn't even close to a what? A 7781.

Not even close. An 881 would be poor. An 881. Oh, 781. Who's even in net?

Felix Sandstrom is a 796 on the year? No, since March 15.

Still and fed a tov. It's a little unfair, but I would be worried because that's their guy going forward, I would think Carter Hart's gone.

So the Fedotov thing, he's a Ufa. He's a Ufa. So they might get, like, I don't know, half a dozen games out of him and then he's gone. I. I think he's going to stay in Philly, but I'm just saying.

And Sandstorm's never going to be an NHL goaltender. He never was supposed to be an NHL goaltender. Here's what I want to know. And I. Every time I look at his numbers, I go, oh, this is bad. Cal Peterson. How bad is Cal Peterson? Cause they have him.

Maybe they can't afford to bring him up.

Maybe they can't. But he's also bad. His numbers are terrible with Lehigh Valley. So in the minors. Well, it's not the minors, though. Hl is not easy on goaltenders.

No, no, I know, but I'm saying, like, you know a lot of bona fide NHL goalies, when they do a conditioning stint down there, they stop everything. Yeah, like Jonas Gustafson's conditioning stint with the Marleys.

They couldn't beat him.

They couldn't beat him down there. It's hilarious.

And that's why Jesse has his jersey.

Yes.

Jonas Guston.

That's not why. I found it one day in the kiss 925 studio.

Did you.

Mark Baglow gave it to me.

Did you know that they're discounting Dave Riddich and Dave Riddich jerseys now with the. At the Maple Leaf store, you can buy Dave Riddich.

And why do they still have them?

Because they made them. And no one's gonna buy a Dave Riddich.

Are they game used?

No, they're not game used. No, they're just Dave Riddicher.

Well, they wouldn't have any puck marks. He didn't. He didn't stop.

Exactly. Even when he did play.

He's now I do after that very unfair shot. He's been good.

Yeah, he has. He's been good. Yeah.

Cal Paterson makes $5 million. I assume they don't want to bring him up for that reason.

Sure. And fair enough. But. But wouldn't you throw everything at the wall going into the potentially bank in the playoffs?

Oh, it's the Flyers wall. So the puck would go through it.

It's bad.

Flyers, by the way, are one of those franchises that have always been done in by goaltending. This is not a new problem if you're a Flyers fan. There was like, a couple of beams of light with Ron Hextall. A couple of beams of light with John van Beesbrook and Roman Czech Monic. The chick magnets.

The chick magnet.

Brian Boucher's one great year.

Yeah.

Who else was it? There was a waste. Bobrovsky not there or. No. Who was the other guy?

Bob was there.

Bob was there. And then there was another russian goaltender who loves Brz Galov. Best interview in the world.

I want to say they bought out. I think it was a compliance buyout for them.

Yeah.

I mean, they drafted one adequate goalie in recent memory, and he's at the moment kicked out of the league. Like, dude, it's a goalie graveyard.

Yeah.

They went to the Stanley Khan final with Michael Layton.

That's nuts. Dude, that's.

Dude, you had to make a top five goalie. Like, Flyers goalie since, like, 1995.

Michael Layton's not on that.

Like, Robert Esch.

He had a good year, too.

He sure did.

But they were the kings of one year and then. Terrible.

Yeah, they. Oh, boy. Martin Jones had some wins there.

So I'm excited for whoever is the. The next goalie, like the next franchise goalie there. Not because I want to see somebody fail. The Flyers need to figure this out. They need to. They. Danny Brier, his number one job this summer is. And maybe it isn't one guy. Maybe it's two. Maybe it's your, you know, maybe they should call Ottawa about Yunus Corpus. El. I'm kidding.

You know what? Here, let me. Let me just turn the knife.

Can I turn, please?

June 22, 2012. Sergey Bobrovsky traded from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a second round pick in 2012 that was used to pick Anthony Stollers, who's a great goalie.

Actually really good.

Not for them. A fourth round pick in 2012. Tyler Taylor Lear. I don't know who that is. And a fourth round pick in 2013. Justin OJ. How many NHL games for the Philadelphia Flyers did they get out of the Sergey Bobrovski trade?

I think Stolars had to have played a couple seasons there, so maybe 60 games.

He played 19 games as a Flyer.

Wow.

He won six games, and you traded who for it, Sergei. Bob Rofsky. Did Taylor Lear ever play for them?

Ooh.

He played six games, ten games and 39 games. He is currently with the. He's with linkuping in the swedish league. And then there's Justin OJ, who never, never, never, not once played for the.

Philadelphia Flyers with the Flyers. I think it's important to remember that sometimes sports is just about the story and the narrative that we tell ourselves around these teams. And if the Flyers had started the season zero and 22 and then had fought their way to this point in the standings, the narrative of the Flyers going into this offseason is, wow, look at all the great pieces that they have that got them to this point because we all thought they'd be the bottom of the metro and now look at where they are in the standing so close to a playoff spot if they just played better early on. But the narrative of the season was that all season long they were in a playoff spot and then collapsed at the end.

And it matters that it happened that way, though.

It does.

But it's also, if you want to do the Steve Diego, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. We're rebuilding and now the expectation on this team should be that they can't hang in these difficult moments because we haven't built a complete roster with a goaltender that's competent with enough scoring to make up for a good goal, then with enough defense that can make it easy on goaltenders who aren't NHL ready.

Here's, okay, so ownership won't look at it the way I'm about to lay it out, but let's say the Flyers.

Make the playoffs, like now. From this point, let's say they make the playoffs, okay?

And they play, who would they play, the Rangers or the Bruins?

They would play the one or the other. Rangers or the Hurricanes.

Oh, okay. Rangers of the Hurricanes, they get killed in four games, murdered with a knife. We learn nothing about the Philadelphia Flyers from those four games that we haven't already learned over the last two weeks.

100%.

You know what I mean? So from a fan's perspective.

Yeah.

I mean, you want to watch playoff hockey, you're still learning the same lesson that you would have learned if they had made the playoffs. I mean, from ownership's perspective, you're lighting millions of dollars on fire and that'll make you upset. But from a fan perspective, that's the silver lining that I'm trying to put.

I think this is a very positive year for the Flyers.

It's impossible for them to feel that way, though. Like.

Yes.

From the players themselves?

Yes.

You cannot be happy about losing fans too. Sure, sure. If fans want to be upset that you missed the playoffs, being the in the position you were in all season long, you missed the playoffs. Adam went over the percentages of how you should have made the playoffs and he failed to make it, sure. But in the where we are in terms of our franchise and building back a contender that will be in the playoffs year after year after year. You have a lot more pieces than you thought you had going into this season, and that is a very positive thing for the Flyer.

I think you're totally right. Here, let me turn the knife one more time, just because. I don't know, it's. I grew up a fan in the nineties when the Flyers kept beating the Leafs and it made me mad. Um, Taylor Lear was the hundred and 17th overall pick. Three picks later, the Flyers could have had Jacob Slavin, and then Justin OJ was 103rd overall in 2013. The next pick was Andrew Kopp.

Hmm.

Just turn that knife just a little bit more.

It's a disappointing season, by the way. It played out, but long term, they're going to be very good if they can solve the issues that caused them to fall at the end.

It's.

It sucks. Like, it sucks so hard to be like, oh, my God, look how above heads we're playing. You know, we're going to be at a playoffs. We're going to be the playoffs. Like, we're in the playoffs all year long and then you don't make it.

That sucks.

But long term, this is a positive season.

Yes. On the whole, it's. It is. It's going to stink.

Yeah.

It's going to stink.

Yeah. Okay.

So are we burying the lead that they lost nine three to the friggin habs?

Yeah. By the way, a couple things note, and I think this is important. First one is that every single flyer was dressed and ready to talk to the press after the game. Good. John Tortorella. And we don't have to run it, but it's. It's out there on Twitter. Five minutes with reporters he gave them after the game.

And he didn't punch any of them?

No.

Not even in the neck.

Yeah. It sucks for him. I do feel like he's done a great job this year with this team. And as much as I disagree with some of the things that he does, uh, this has got to be incredibly disappointing.

You know, the stages of grief that press conference was acceptance. Like, yeah, that's just tough.

Your goaltending let you down. Like, don't feel too bad about yourself. Johnny Torts.

Exactly.

Your goaltending let you down. And you can't even be mad at the goaltending. No, you can't.

They shouldn't be your goaltender.

Should we at all touch on his quote that he sort of let slip about? They knew something was coming with Carter Hart.

I think everybody who was in had a player who was from that world junior team should be doing their due diligence.

Yeah.

About like, hey, something could happen. I don't. I think the quote was kind of blown out of proportion. I think it was John Torture Ellis saying, we thought about what could happen.

Yep.

And I think every team did that.

I had heard rumors in the summer the Flyers were suspiciously looking for goalie help. And everyone was sort of going, well, you got this guy.

This guy.

Wait, why are you looking for a goalie speaker?

Zero. Here's what happened this summer. They were. The NHL reached out to several teams and said to prepare for a massive pr event that actually happened.

Yep.

And so they knew. They knew something was coming, but you can't do anything about it until the thing happens.

To say they knew who the five were. I just don't know that to be true. And I. I can't. I don't think anyone can say with 100% certainty the Flyers knew, 100% certain they were going to be affected by this, or one of their players was going to be affected by this. But, I mean, if you had anyone from that team, you had to be like, this could happen.

Exactly.

Now this could happen.

And I think it's. It's. I don't know if it's bad reporting or whatever to just jump to a conclusion. Like, hey, somebody is doing the right due diligence on a guy who could be suspended from the league, and they're looking at, like, what are the possibilities? And then jumping to the conclusion that, ah, they knew. Like, that's. That's too far of a leap.

But someone well over a year ago made a comment during a Flyers Leafs game when the Flyers were visiting Toronto. They said, is this Carter Hart's final game in Toronto? Like, this has been whispered for a long time.

There you have the list of players on the roster. Like, I feel like it's. It's fair to just do the right thing and look into the possibilities of what could happen.

There were so many. I mean, someone put it. Put it this way. I've seen many lists put together before that real list came out, and none of them matched the list that came out. None of them matched. Five for five. All of those players.

Yeah.

The Flyers were just doing their due diligence.

I think just very quickly, the Nashville Predators have qualified for the playoffs. So congratulations. Dude, what are you doing?

Clapping.

I'm clapping. I am.

You said they were bad. You said they were bad.

The west, the team that sucks. Yeah.

The west is bad.

They made me eat shit. They made me eat shit. They did. And you know what? Congratulations, Nashville. You did. You did. I'm happy for them. I did. Listen, man, two losses, they can't see you, too. And then they win a bunch. Good for them. You'd be wrong. You know what, though? If they win the cup, this is my challenge to Barry Trots. You have to fly you two in to put them. Give them a private concert.

That's too much. No, that's too much money.

No, I think that's fair.

How much is that gonna cost?

It doesn't matter. To get Bono. You get fucking Bono in there and the edge. Okay. And you play your music.

I'm just. I'm watching the. The playoff game one at Bridgestone. See, I remembered one.

They got open with vertigo.

Oh, they. 100%. No, I was thinking beautiful day.

Oh, that's when they win.

Yeah, like that. Oh, that's gotta be your, like your goal song, your win song or something that. The playoff hype up video. It's gotta start with all the typical stuff that every team does. You know, that Godzilla's coming out of the water. Here he comes. But then it's got to break into YouTube.

Do you remember when we made. Or who was it? Was it Adam who made the Minnesota wild pregame playoff hype video?

Yes, I did.

We played it on the show.

I did make the Minnesota wild game hype video. Yeah. Yes. Because I said I liked them.

One of the.

It was positive.

Yeah.

And that was the big deal on the show at the time.

Congrats to you, Adam. Like, one of the side effects of talking shit for a living is I keep showing up in those playoff videos, but it's as the doubter. I was in the Vegas one the year they went to the cup final in the. The first time. And Dallas kept putting me in. I can't remember what year it was. They put me in, like every round. I was like, you guys suck. Stop it.

I remember we. Now that you mentioned that it was positive. Yeah, we came on the show and the whole thing of it, we were so happy because we made some news in a positive way. It was so surprising that a team took a quote from us where we're supporting them. And Adam was in it and he was like, yeah, I believe in this team.

And we're like, what? Better. Listen, this is. Listen, I'm one of the CEO's of this company. Carte blanche, Nashville Predators, social team and all that. Use my friend. Calling bad in the playoff hype up video. No use my friend calling you bad. Use it. Use it. Jesse, do you agree?

I agree two to one you're okay.

Okay. Now, this is the only reason when I talk about the coyotes, you only stand up when it's about the arena.

I'll be a big boy and sit down for this.

So this one's. This one's big.

Yep.

And there's stuff this morning. So I'm going to start from the beginning of this story, and we don't need to go too deep into it, because it's not that deep. The coyotes have been talking about this. This auction that they're going to have June 27, and that they're going to win the auction because they got $65 million. And so if anybody goes up against them, well, they'll outbid them for the land, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Scottsdale, the mayor of Scottsdale has come down and said, yeah, we're not down with this because you're going to be taking our electricity in our water.

So even though the building will not.

Be there, it's still a part will still be affected. Yes.

The resources will be affected.

Yeah. Yeah. So basically, we have issues like this in Toronto all the time because there's a lot. See, Toronto doesn't really end. It just becomes a different city. Right. Like, it's like, oh, we've. We've named this road. This is the end of Toronto. Now, you're in Hamilton, you leave Calgary.

And you're like, where's the rest of it?

Right. It's just there's, like, land. Right. Whereas the entire southern tip of Ontario from, I. Well, I think Bowmanville all the way down to Niagara is basically attached pretty much one big city. And essentially what happens is in these situations, and I don't know what the rules are in Arizona, but other jurisdictions have to agree to this stuff. So that seems to be another block. Now, what came out today, because I don't want to get too much into that.

Are you moving on from the mayor guy? Because he very much recanted everything he said.

He recanted it. Yeah.

And, like, in his next statement, where.

Wait a second. So now he supports it?

No, he doesn't support it, but he walked back a lot of it, and he kind of, like.

He said it wasn't welcome by a rookie developer. Yeah.

And now he's kind of, like, clarified what he meant by all that.

Well, he also called it, like, fantasy.

Yeah.

Which, I mean. Okay, so I was sitting over there for this conversation. That video was a joke.

Mm hmm.

The video, here's what it's gonna look like. It literally looks like a commercial for a college you've never heard of.

Okay.

It's terrible. And it's literally made up. Fantasy, like stock footage. That's it. It's garbage.

Yep.

It's good. And like, I just need, listen, I think there are a lot of coyotes fans who think we're picking on them and have always thought we're picking on them. And I'm not going to trust you because you're not from Arizona and I'm not going to trust you because you're not a, you don't know the government down here. And this, and what is it going to take for you to be a skeptic here?

Well, I.

What is it going to take?

I want to keep going because the story. Yeah. And is, I did. This is where, this is where the skeptic thing kicks in.

Yes.

Because, Frank, do I get to talk about the mayor?

No. Yes.

Okay. What do you say?

Oh, no, we don't care then.

I think there's politics at work here. I think he was, they're worried about. Okay, keep going. Keep going. Stay with the mayor.

If the point is the mayor of Scottsdale doesn't care about it, then, then he walks it back. I feel like that's a part of.

The k. Go ahead, let's do it.

He was a little unnecessary with it.

Yeah, he was. So he was his, in his softer clarification. This is from Cameron Cox of Arizona sports Twelve. A softer clarification from Scottsdale Mayor Otega on his Coyotes arena plan statement. Unfortunately, the coyotes developers did not consult with me or Scottsdale officials. The as LD bid documents will require the successful bidder to fully develop the 64th Street 101 access. Essentially, there's no, there is an open net at 64 slash 101. So the coyotes can score easily. So what he essentially said in a long statement, which I won't go through, is that all he wants is that the entrance of where the coyotes will, the Coyotes fans will leave the arena to be on a different side of the highway, on the other side where there's more businesses that they can walk through and that he's, he's in support of this, if they will consult him on the development plans of how everything is going to be laid out.

And I'm sure they will, but they hadn't.

And he was upset about that.

Okay.

So he came back and clarified and he says they had, they never consulted me on any of this. I want to be consulted because I think this should be there.

And that's his job.

Isn't his job to bring in money for Scottsdale?

Right?

Like, that's his job.

Speaker two.

And I think there's also some politics in that, in that Scottsdale didn't take the coyotes and that they're not, they're not going to be in Scottsdale. And it looks a little bad on the mayor that they're not going to get a professional hockey team and they're going to be literally a street over from where Scottsdale starts. And he comes out and he's like, I'm angry about this whole thing. Well, that doesn't look like it's going to be a deterrent to them actually winning the bid and hopefully building the arena there.

So this morning, Frank Ceravalli has reported, and there's a lot of speculation about two drafted schedules. One for the coyotes in Arizona, one for the coyotes not in Arizona, presumably Utah. Apparently the Utah owner, what's his name again? You know, oh, man, the guy from the jazz owner. Anyway, he's apparently ready and waiting to purchase. And what, what is apparently potentially going to happen here is, listen, maybe, maybe the coyotes do get this piece of land, but maybe a better solution would be the Coyotes move, they build the arena, they bring a team back to Arizona. Because here's the thing. As soon as the coyotes leave Arizona, the number one expansion spot in the NHL becomes Arizona.

And that's not us, that's CJ. That's, well, it's very much in the know, and that's beaten that drum forever.

And that's. So, so I think that actually might be like, give Muriello, give him, give, listen, I'll give him credit is that he's been bullish about these things. He wants to make it happen. He wants to spend the money to make it happen. And so you give him a franchise in which to do it. But where I still struggle is with what he's talking about building. I don't see three years, I see five to seven. And I, and I understand there's less bureaucracy down in Arizona, but at the end of the day, you have, you have to hire people, you have to get concrete, you have to get permits, you have to do all these things. And then they're going to be building up around it. Wouldn't it make more sense to move it to Utah, build a great market there? Tucson does great numbers. The Roadrunners, they're a great story.

And the minor hockey in that area is fantastic.

It's exploding. So then, and then you bring the team back to Arizona when they're ready and call them the coyotes.

Dude, this is. This has been the whole thing all along. It's ridiculous. They're playing in a college barn. It's ridiculous. And from the beginning. Yeah, well, they're gonna be in this arena now. Here we are. Lo and behold, they're fucking not.

Yep.

Which was always a possibility. Yeah, well, the voters were misled, and this. That was always a possibility. We gotta be grown ups about this.

Mm hmm.

There was no concrete plan. There was never a concrete plan. If there was a concrete plan, there would be concrete in the ground leading upward to a building.

Yep.

There is not. Just, like we all said from the beginning, would it have been great if it worked in Tempe? Yes. It didn't. That was always a possibility. Always, always, always. And to just, like, stick your head in the sand and be like, no, Canada. Boo.

Mean.

It was always childish and ridiculous.

Yep.

This is reality.

Yep.

The reality is this can't continue.

Yep.

The reality is also Arizona deserves an NHL team.

Yes.

The adult resolution here is move the damn team for a little. And then what happens a few years down the line when there's a new arena there, do, do. Does the team move back and then Utah gets another? Or does Arizona?

Who?

Whatever. You're going to get one. You're going to get one. You need an NHL building. There are cities large enough cities in North America that have NHL ready buildings that don't have an NHL ready team. And you deserve one because why? It's a business. Get a building. I don't have one.

I agree 100%. So we'll see what happens.

Ryan Smith is who you're talking about, by the way.

Is that who it is?

The owner of the Utah Jazz? I see who's chasing the NHL team.

You know? And this is the thing, right? Like, what makes the league look bad guys to me, is having it in mullet arena for three or four more years. And there are going to be stories coming out about what it's like to play there, and there have been reports. I mean, listen, we all. I don't know why people ignore this stuff, but, like, Clayton Keller's dad was pretty open about it on twitter about what it's like to play there. Phil Kessel was pretty open about what it's like to play there. And when you're looking at it from a revenue standpoint and a potential revenue standpoint, if I am a billionaire and I'm rich and greedy, why do I want this drag on my system? Yes. Do I want a team back in Arizona in five to ten years? Sure. But I would like a team that might have a chance at profitability, and they don't have that right now. And so what does that mean for me? Rich guy, owner. It means I have to pay them to stay there. Means I'm supporting their loss. I don't like that. I wouldn't support that. And I would be after 1520 years, like, okay, can we just, can we cut bait and do this properly next time?

Because we. And you know what? This goes back to the evolution of NHL expansion as well. When NHL teams expanded into the league years ago and Arizona was a part of the San Jose, Ottawa and who else came in in the league at the same time? It was San Jose, Ottawa, Florida, Arizona, maybe the Panthers.

I feel like it was a little staggered.

It was like the early nineties. It was like the early nineties, right? Early to mid nineties. Anaheim Ducks were a part of that.

Oh, yeah.

All of those teams came in. They came in with shitty expansion drafts. They were bad, a lot of them, for five years. Like the San Jose Sharks making the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994 was like a huge, huge coup. It was crazy that they did it and they would go in and they'd have these haphazard arena deals that weren't going to last. And, you know, you look at the way Seattle and Vegas have been done, it's a plus. They have an arena. They have a stable ownership group. They have fan groups that are fan bases that are jumping in. Vegas makes the Stanley cup in its first year. They win it in year six. Seattle makes the second round in year two. They didn't make the playoffs this year, but, you know, you still think the future is bright there. And so what the NHL is dealing with is how bad it was at expanding in the nineties.

Well, you know what? Seattle has a vague prospect of making.

Money, and that's why they're talking about going back to Atlanta, too, because people are like, oh, I never worked in Atlanta, guys. It didn't work in Atlanta because they had a bullshit plan in Atlanta. It's going to work this time. The NHL is a lot better at this. Listen, you could criticize Gary for a lot of things, guys. Good at expanding. Speaker one.

Yeah, it's, once again, this is going to come up for as long as I'm listening to the book. But Burke's law, it's a highly, highly, highly recommended book, but he has a whole chapter called Batman's league where he basically goes to bat for Bettman. And I heard it out, like, you know, I don't like the guy, but I'm listening to it, and I'm like, well, you know, like, no one is all bad.

Mm hmm.

He's really smart at a number of things. There are a number of things where he's, he's handcuffed. One thing I'm pretty confident he's gonna not do is put an expansion team in a market with no prospect of making them money. They're not going back to Atlanta unless it makes them Scrooge McDuck money, and then it will. And it will.

It's a huge. It's a huge market. Anyway, long story short, the, the, the Arizona conversation is exhausting as it is. I mean, guys, there is a chance that they don't even make it to the auction, and I think we need to be open to that. There's a chance that this team moves before the auction.

Yeah, there's always been a chance that they. He's been looking into selling the team, but there's also. I don't like how the two schedules is being framed as, like, they're leaving when, like, you can. You can frame the auction as they're staying. Like, there's no diligence. Like. Exactly.

Yeah.

Like, I feel like you can. You can frame these stories in whichever way you like. I choose to take the optimistic side and that it will work because there's a path towards it working, and I, and I like that path. But people love to jump on this city and this fan base and this team and saying, all right, they're, they're working on two schedules. That means they're gone. Because the second schedule is, is being planned by the NHL. Who's the governing of these, of these teams? And I think that you need to just take a step back and realize that, hey, both sides need to look at what the possibilities are here, and there's nothing wrong with looking at everything and how it can play out, and there's a path to them staying, and there's also a very disappointing path to them leaving.

Do you think, Jesse, though, that them staying and waiting for this arena to be built is the right thing for the league?

Yeah, I 100% do.

I don't think that leaving and then coming back is not better.

I think. I think if they, if they have the opportunity to. If the. If everything was spelled out with the land that they're going to bid on in June, if they win that and they build that there, I think that'd be awesome for the long term. Home of the Coyotes in the in between years, I think you can play games somewhere else. I think what you saw with, in the NBA when the Hurricane Katrina happened and the New Orleans Pelicans had to go play in OKC, and then OKC got the team eventually from Seattle. I think there's a path here where it's, hey, a college arena is a little ridiculous. While you're building your permanent arena.

Go play in Houston. Like, go.

There's a.

There's Toyota. I think it's called the Toyota center. I'm a little better at arenas then.

God, I don't know.

I think that's where the Houston Rockets, can they play?

Can they accommodate ice in there?

I believe it's. It's similar to, uh. I have to look it up to be 100% sure, but, like, if it's not the Houston arena, maybe go play in Salt Lake if you want, you know, go do that. I think there's a path to go play for a couple years and somewhere else and then put the team back. I think that's an easy possibility. But I like the idea of this plan here that they've outlined, Morello's outlined here with the. With the land and that working out.

I liked the idea of the Tempe arena. It was a fantasy.

Yeah, but. And then if that had played out, that would have been great. So I'm saying, like, if this plays out in that way, like, with. You can't say this is a fantasy. Like, this is. This is, like, gone and done. It's not going to happen. There's a possibility that this. That's obviously not going to happen, because it didn't.

But, like, you can win or lose an election, and they lost one, and shit, them's the breaks back to the drawing board. You can win or lose a land auction.

Yes.

But historically, like, the way these land auctions play out, you go unopposed.

Yeah. I don't think anybody's going to walk in there with $65 million in a different plan. I don't. I see them winning it.

It's.

It's.

It's not a matter of, like, the land.

If.

If they make the decision to move the team, they're not getting to the auction, because you need to move the team well, before that.

I just don't know how you build an arena fast enough without grossly violating human rights. Like. Like, dude, they.

Well, they can throw condo buildings up pretty quick, and I need a damn building. Yeah. I think, to me, that's why it makes sense. Move it to Salt Lake, sell the franchise and give Murillo time to get this built and give him the next franchise.

No, he doesn't. You don't give him back a franchise. If you can't. If you can't figure out this, you don't get enough speaker three.

Apparently that's what's, that's what's being reported.

You know, if you don't get chance number two, somebody else gets that.

Why not? I think he owns the LA. Yeah, but he failed. But, but I think that there is. I think that the NHL likes this guy. I think that they like dealing with this. Yeah, I. Well, clearly they do. And I bet he's still there any. And the fact that he's committed to it, like Gary could just say to him, listen, we'll lock in a price. Now, when you're ready, franchise is yours. But you got to.

No, no. If you move the team to. If you're saying you got to sell to Ryan Smith, then, like, it's like, that's done. That's his. That's it. If you want the team back to Morello, you leave.

You keep.

How let him keep this team. Like you don't have a little transition. And then you're like, all right, so we want a billion dollars now so you can get a team back. And he's like, no, you took my team away.

You know how I'm sitting? I'm losing patience.

Okay. We can move on. Do you want to do the press conference?

Yep.

Or should we just wrap? Well, we got vip to do.

Yeah, we can do anything else.

Jesse, what do you think that topic.

For a moment longer.

Steve doesn't want anymore.

I respect you sat down for it, and I respect that.

Yeah. Like, dude, I don't know. We've. I don't.

It's okay.

You don't anymore ground we can cover.

I just think it's an important story.

It is. We did it, and it's done.

What do you want to do, Jesse? Do you want to do press conference, or do you want to. Do you want to move on?

Moving on to what?

Well, we got virtual press conference.

If we have time to ask questions, I'll ask.

My food's not here.

Your food's not here yet.

Thank you, Adam, for carrying that segment while I ordered.

I like that.

Tempest. Wanted to just say this to Steven. Last night, I broke my first bone ever. It was my nose while playing hockey. Where are cage kids? Be better than me.

What are you doing? Yeah, dude, like, that's I assume that's your fault. Like, this is like, what are they on Lehigh Valley? Are they on, like, oh, is this some guy.

Some person on our.

Wear a cage?

Yeah.

Or a bubble or. Dude, there's. If you are not playing professional hockey, there's no reason to not wear full face protection. And if you are playing professional hockey, there's still no reason for it. But we're not there yet. Some guy, like, what do you do? I know a guy who. He got half his teeth knocked out, and he had to go to his union. It was an expensive enough dental surgery because in Canada, we have free healthcare, but teeth are luxury bones. And he had to go to his union and ask for the money, fight for the money to get his teeth repaired. And his own coworkers had to sit there in a meeting and argue against him and say, no, fuck you. Just learn to chew with your gums. And then after that argument, they had to all go back to work together. If you're a regular person and not Sidney Crosby or whatever, wear full face.

Protection, there's absolutely no reason. If you sit in an office all day at PwC and you just punch numbers and send emails that you're going home and you're not wearing a cage on the ice, like, what are you doing?

What are you doing showing up to Dunder Mifflin with a broken nose because.

You want to look tough to twelve other dudes in a locker room?

Yeah. Yeah.

Come on.

Yeah. Yeah. That's. Yeah. Way to start every Zoom meeting for the next month with all your face, Tempest.

Finish their question with. Anyhow, I just like to say I'm sorry for laughing, Steve. That shit hurts.

Yeah, dude. Dude, it's. It's still not the worst pain I ever felt. It wasn't that bad.

I'm not.

I'm gonna be honest. Like, it was. It was stunning. And it hurt for a moment, and then I think the adrenaline kicked in, and I was just like, oh, I'm leaking.

What about when they readjusted it, though?

Getting it readjusted hurt way, way, way more.

That's what I've heard.

Breaking it. There was no, like you always hear about, oh, do you snap it back into play? That wasn't my experience at all. Um, I wasn't put under for it. And I later saw an ear, nose, and throat doctor, and she was like, what? So apparently that. I don't know. I. I didn't think you were supposed to get put under for it, but I can say that I took that shit. No, the worst worst pain I've ever felt in my entire life was when I got my wisdom teeth removed. My birthday was shortly after, and my friend insisted on getting me pizza, and I shouldn't have been eating solid food yet. And I bit down on something, and I felt it go right into the wound, and I went, ooh, fiddle dee dee. And the next morning, I woke like this radish, and they. This is your three second warning to turn down the volume. Three, two, one. They drained it with no numbing or anesthesia or nothing.

That sounds great.

Easily, easily, easily the most pain I've ever felt in my life. It was fucking horrifying.

This is from Doug.

Listen to your dentist. Don't be an idiot like me.

Doug says, thoughts on Columbus being 20 points out from being a wild card chaser and the sharks being 20 points back of chasing the blue jackets?

Holy shit.

That's a. That's a great stat. That's my thought. What a great.

That is not where I thought that was going.

No. I gotta tell you, tank rebuilds. I know. The Leafs got away with it. Yeah.

So for reference, the Columbus Blue Jackets are last in the Eastern Conference with 64 points, and the San Jose Sharks are last in the Western Conference with 45 points.

That rebuild, horrifying.

They have 18 wins on this season.

They are bad, and they don't have a whole ton of prospects for being good anytime soon.

Can you give me the goal differential for the San Jose Sharks this year?

I wonder if it's triple digit yet. -101 Adam. I know it was in the nineties recently.

I'll say 102. Just a spruce.

D minus 137.

I win. Yeah, I guess that makes sense, right? Cause they didn't. They start the season like. And it was like, then they have a ten nothing loss every game.

They're getting blown back to back. Yeah. And then they beat the Oilers.

Yeah. They gave up. They gave up ten goals in back to back games, and then I think they won a game, and then the next game they beat.

It's my question. Like, okay, let's say they get celebrini, which they have the best shot at, then who do you surround him with?

Well, this is the problem. William Ackland is really good. Really, really good. You need more than that.

You do like Chicago with Berard or Burrard. I do like Brian Berard, though. Loved it.

They. The Sharks did not do a good enough job of surrounding their team with good vets.

Yep. They.

They got a bunch in the Carlson deal, which. That was a. I know. Kyle Dubas takes shit for that.

Mm hmm.

But, like, getting out from under Ruda's contracts, not that bad.

Yep.

It's not that great. Um, Mike Hoffman. Um, and who else did they get? There was another roster player that they got in that deal. Like, he dumped a lot. It's the center. I forget, but he dumped a lot in that deal.

There was. Before we wrap here, uh, this will be last thing. There was a viral post on Reddit. Um, somebody was asking. Okay, so you're. You're sitting there with a chess grandmaster. They used Gary Kasparov. Kasparov as their example. You are stuck in infinity playing this game of chess. Until you win this game of chess, you cannot escape infinity. So, like, they're like, how long would it take you to beat this grandmaster in chess? But I thought an interesting question to spin off of that would be, you are placed in an NHL hockey game in infinity. You start on minute one, it goes to the end of the buzzer. And until you score a goal in that NHL hockey game, you cannot leave infinity. It is the same teams, the same players. Let's say it's Leafs versus Panthers. You're on the Leafs on the first line with Austin Matthews. You're his right winger in domey spot. Until you score a goal in this game that just keeps looping in infinity. You cannot escape infinity. How long does it take you to score a goal?

Do the other players know that?

No. So the scenario.

So they just see me, and they're like, well, I guess he's my teammate.

Yes.

In this scenario, their brain, like Austin Matthews and the rest of your teammates and the team you're playing, their brains reset each time.

They don't. It's like day after tomorrow.

Exactly. They don't know that they should be trying to get you a goal. They don't know what world they're in. They just assume, like, oh, they think it's regular, oh, Steve Dangle's on my wing. But you're the only one who knows in this scenario that you are in an infinity loop. Do you ever escape infinity?

Dude, here's me trying to figure out how I would do it, and then I was like, bro, you haven't even scored on a goalie in a charity tournament. Like, I've got a penalty shot goal and an empty net goal.

Right? But in this scenario, you are also. You're not forgetting each time your skills aren't resetting, you're. You're getting better, but you're getting better at hockey.

So it just resets like a computer game. I think an injury. I'm. It resets. I'm fine.

Yo.

You'll be fine.

Yeah, well.

Or I think. Or I'll make you sit there for infinity until, like, you're broken.

I think Steve smart enough I to figure out where each player is gonna go.

Yeah.

And position himself in front of the net. And I think you do it within a hundred days. Well, so 100 days, 100 games.

Dude, William Langston doesn't have an NHL goal yet.

100 games. A hundred.

No. Okay. What. What would I be better off doing? Parking my ass in front of the net where I'm gonna be murdered.

Mm hmm.

Murdered. I'm gonna be murdered.

It's gotta go off. You and in though.

It's gotta go off. It's certainly not going in off my stick. No chance.

And Steve, the way you got it, you gotta be. You're gonna be there for like ten years.

Or. Or do I try to fire it in off of a defending player from the point? Because here's what could happen. I fire it in from the point and it goes in off one of my teammates.

And then I pick up an NHL.

Point and I'm still stuck in infinity.

I think you have got to just play enough games until your skill level is, like, adequate to where you can skate around and do something.

I'd be there years. I'd be there years.

Yeah.

That would be my purgatory. Oh, you like hockey? A, we'll have all the hockey in the world.

How many years we thinking?

Oh, like, I don't even know. Crossovers, bro.

Right.

So you.

I think you got to play just infinity games until you get your crossovers.

Oh, no.

Like, oh, no.

I don't think you realize how fast an NHL game. Well, you realize how fast an NHL game is it compared to your skill?

Well, they're not in on it at all. Like, no. Like, why did I do that? Who is that?

You're taking regular shifts.

Like, your max would not be the first time.

So.

So we're. So we're. We're just programming his. His brain. We're just doing obliviate like Harry Potter style. And he's like, that is a player on my team. He's on the power.

Where are you at?

I still say 100 days. I say a hundred days. And the reason I say a hundred days is that, uh, you. You have to think that the play is gonna start the same way every time, right? So you know what's gonna develop, right?

Yeah.

And so if you're playing with Austin, let's say Max doming, you know where you need to be, where they have to find you. So after a hundred games, I feel like it's like I know where I gotta be. That's where I'm going. One of these days I'm gonna. It's gonna get. It's gonna be fast enough to get off of a face off.

Just to get to the point. You need to be.

Yeah. So fast.

I would have to be. Be on the slot side of the fate.

Yes.

Here's what would need to happen. I would have to. I think they would just look at the worst build in the NHL and be like, I'm assaulting that person. And I would have to draw a penalty. I would have to wait for a reality where I drew a penalty and wasn't immediately hurt beyond standing. And then I have to hope we win the face off and keep the zone. And I would just go to the net.

Okay.

That's it.

That's all. Let me know this.

You're not doing that within a thousand games.

Who are we playing against?

Florida.

Florida.

Fuck yeah.

Here's the. I want to throw this at you. Yeah, throw this at you. Okay. You ready?

Yeah.

Are you going to be able to handle game after game the taunts from the crowd that you're going to get? Because, man, who is that? Who is that? Like, who is that? Like the second you take a stride, they're gonna be booing.

Yeah.

Dang. No. They're gonna be cheering. You think God is on their team?

Oh, I think this is negative points.

For me because it's impossible to play there so well.

The media will be really hard on you.

Oh, shit. Is I have to be interviewed after every game.

Your confidence is gonna be. Is gonna be shot by game 30. Like you're gonna feel so bad about yourself, but then you're gonna rebuild and then you're gonna find. You're gonna find a way through the thing.

I think you said that is the applies the most to this scenario and I didn't even think about it. Think about it like a video game.

Yes.

How many games of NHL would you play to become the best NHL player in the world?

Like, my God.

Cuz you gotta. You gotta get to that level where you're like Nasher, how long is that gonna take you?

It would take me quite.

It's the very similar except to real life in your skills.

I watched some of like the best NHL players in the world. Like I watched a little bit of the gameplay. It's not hockey.

Right?

Like not even video game, but it's.

The video game logic I'm taking here.

Yeah. Yeah.

You gotta video game your bot. I don't add them a hundred games.

That's why I think I'm sticking to my number.

I'm thinking, like, 10,000.

Also, Nashville not gonna make the playoffs.

I think it's like, 10,000 games. You gotta play or something.

It's gonna be 10,000 and I'm on the Leafs.

Yeah. You're gonna be there for, like, hundreds of years.

Like, who am I replacing?

Domi.

We already outline. Oh, fuck, yeah.

Oh, shit.

You're in Domi spot online.

Well, man, so he doesn't even have a good setup, man. Yeah.

And Bert's gonna be netfront. Like, what the fuck are you doing?

Yeah, it's gonna be Maddie that's gonna be setting you up. No.

And your personal, like, for you, if you were the person in the.

God, it would be a long time.

It'd be quicker than Steve. It'd be like.

It might. It wouldn't be, though.

I'd like.

It wouldn't be quicker than Steve because I'm. Yeah, it doesn't matter that I'm. I'm a better player than Steve is because I played growing up. I still know the. The amount of difference between me and an NHL player negates how different we are as players. No, there's no. There's no realm of possibility where that makes a difference. Yeah.

Ilya Leblacan is closer to Gretzky than you are. Closer to Ilya Leblanc.

Yes.

Like, that's.

That's the logic of it.

That's the best way to put it. Yeah, absolutely. Boosh is basically Gretzky in terms of.

Compared to really good.

It's like the difference between the earth and the moon, which is far, and the earth and the sun. You know, like, it's just enormous.

So they thought my example was good.

Yeah. I thought I needed to give another.

One that was a little bit worse.

Wanted to add to it.

That's the office bit I'm referencing, where. Where Michael does. He makes his own. Who's the one who guest starred and she was, like, the one who ran the Tallahassee stuff. Oh, what was her name? That actress? She's so good. Anyways, Michael gives some reference. He's like, so you have to go throw your own reference on top of that. And that's one of my favorite lines.

Yeah.

Yeah. I loved her. She's like. She's red hair, right? Yeah.

I'm butchering that.

I'm gonna say 2500 games?

No, not Nelly.

Not Nelly. Okay. All right.

Now, Nelly's boss, like, the one who was in charge.

Oh, right. Okay. Okay.

2500 games. That's how long it would take.

2500 games.

That little. Yeah. But just the sheer amount of chances. This. Dude, that's so many.

Mmm.

You're.

You're banking on within 2500 games. A lucky bounce.

I'm not scoring an honest goal. How the. I wouldn't know. I couldn't possibly. I could. I couldn't possibly score an honest goal on an NHL goaltender.

Wow.

One time I had a junior b goalie tell me my shot was heavy. That was. That was the. I rode that for weeks.

All right. Now we have. I felt so good about vip episode to do. So are we. I think I just. Before we get too much into your shot.

Yeah. Oh, no, it's great.

I'm sure it was. Hit him right in the 50 games.

He score in that goal.

I do not think that.

You said a hundred for Steve and.

I think 100 for me too. We're exactly on par. Exactly the same.

We're the same.

Yep. I don't be on Nashville, the Steve Dangle podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at Steve under.