Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam Wilde, and Jesse Blake. What are we going to talk about? Practice. Not yet. Not yet.

World War II.

Not that either. Well, first off, I do want to do... This is why I love our listeners so much. David B. I won't give his full name because he has not consented that. But David B.

David Banner.

David Banner. That's right. David Banner. Brother of Bruce Banner. The incredible David Hulk has given up his Kingston Frotnax VIP package. What we decided to do was upgrade within the people that had purchased. So, David B, thank you so much. Andrew Karskallian. Andrew Karskallian. Karskallian.

Andrew Karskallian. Yeah.

The Karskallens. It's the lucky winner of the VIP upgrade. So congratulations to you.

Congratulations, Mr. Karskillen.

And thank you, David B. We really appreciate it.

That's pretty cool that we can-You're lovely. We get to do a contest because David B is so nice.

David B, we want you, if you can, our next live event, we'd like you to be a VIP with us, so we'll reach out to you, my friend, and pay you back.

Why is he being so shy?

David B? No, honestly- Bowie.

His His last name is Bowie.

You're right. It is. No, it's actually because our VP of Sales, Christina, didn't send the rest of his last name. She just wrote David B. Oh, that's okay. That's got to be his name.

Well, maybe he doesn't want his government on the show. Yeah, that's fair.

It's actually Barcelen.

Stop it. The other thing we have to announce, finally, is All Star, Baby. All right, so we have some amazing things coming up for All Star Weekend. Friday February second, Saturday, February third, the Sdpn All-Star takeover. We're going to have live shows from the Sdp, Chris Johnson, Agent Provocateur, and an Sdpn All-Stars panel that's going to include a lot of familiar names, and we're like, I don't know if I'm allowed to say them. Should I say them? I think we're... Should I say them? Because I know who's going to be on it. But should I say it? I don't even know.

Who? For what?

Well, did Justin yell down the hall, no?

Oh, yeah.

Did he say no? No. Okay. All right. Basically, here's the first one. Okay, so the first SDPN All-Star takeover is going to be from 3:00 to 6:00 at the Rec Room. A lot of people went to the Rec Room for our one show there that one time with Puck Talks, which is awesome. Kevin Kennedy set that up.

That was 2018?

2018. It was the last game of the year because I remember I ducked out of there to go to the Montreal Canadiens game. That's right. Because I'm a big Habs fan. But this is going to be a major and very exciting thing. So 3:00 to 6:00 on the Friday. And then Saturday, we've got our All-Star takeover day 2. Same place, 255 Bremner Avenue, the Rec Room. And that will be from 12:00 until 2:00 because obviously, the All-Star game happens at 2:00. So we're going to do it before the skills competition. So you come down, you have a drink, you hang with us, eat a little bit. Then if you want to, you can mosey on over and see the skills competition in the All-Star Game, or you can just hang with us and watch.

Yeah. Or if we do a bad first half of the show, you're like, This is boring. Go play some video games. It's a record.

That's right. Also, we're going to do a little after-party from 7:30 to 10:00 at Isabelle's. That's 5:48, King Street West. Music, drinks, good times. It's an all-star party. For the parents in the audience, it's 7:30 to 10:00. You could stay after, though.

Yeah. No, there's no bassinets.

No, there is not. There's no kiddy day. No, but I figured it would be a long day for anybody that's been to the All-Star Game or was watching it and then whatever. We wanted to party with you, so we're going to do all that stuff.

If you need information- Where do you go? Go to the description of what you're listening to or watching right now. But, Jessie, where's that? The podcast app that you're watching or listening to. Are you sure? Go to the description. There are links to everything you need there.

Oh, Jessie in English.

Jessie, slow it down.

What are you talking about?

To get any information is there. We're so looking forward to seeing you, and there will be special guests, and we're very excited about that.

No.

We're not. No. We don't like that.

I might not go.

Yeah, listen.

That's a lie, by the way. That's where I'm going.

Do you have your skate sharpened for this weekend? Do You have your skate sharpened?

I thought you said seat, and I'm like, no, I've never heard of that in my life.

Do you have your skate sharpened.

No, because the last time I sharpened them, I found it actually much more difficult to skate. I like my skates the way they are.

Dull? Yeah. Yeah, When your ankle strength isn't like when you haven't been playing for weeks and weeks and weeks. All right, kiss my ass. What? Yeah. When you sharpen your skates and your ankles are not as strong as they would have been had you been playing all the time. Because you guys used to play once a week, right? You're not doing that. We still do.

We got hoggy tonight.

Yeah, that's right. There's been some disruption because of the weather and holidays and everything. Oh, okay. No, no. You know what it was? Is I didn't sharpen my skates for what I think might have been two years. Then I sharpen them and got on the ice and went, What the fuck is that?

Yeah, well, again, because when you're a kid, your angles are never that strong. Then you get to the point where you're like, Oh, I have to put my whole body into it. Then you prefer sharpened skates. But when you're like a little bit, I haven't skated in a few months, it's a little bit weird.

Skating straight ahead became much easier and much faster. Stopping became impossible.

Where you catch an edge and fall over yourself.

I like a nicely sharpened skate. I I don't know what you guys are talking about.

How's that ankle?

Fantastic. Yeah? Yeah. It's recovered very... Did you sharpen your skates before you wrecked it? No. No? I don't know. I think those are on doll skates, actually. That was in November.

I'm with you, Jesse. I like a sharpen skate. Yeah, I like a sharpen skate.

What do you talking about, Steven? Strengthen those ankles. Yeah, Steve.

Take playing tips from me, kids. I'm real good at ice hockey.

The Toronto Maple Leaves are not the top story today.

Hooray. Good.

The Edmonds and Oilers are.

Why?

How come? The Edmonds and Oilers have won 12 straight games.

And they beat Seattle to do it, who has also been maybe the second hottest team in the league.

Which, by the way, I'm feeling so much better. Second or third? They had such a garbage start, and I was all the way on the Seattle bandwagon to start the year, and I was like, Don't do this to me, man.

It was a battle. Just be you. A battle of two teams who just decided, actually, we don't know how to play hockey for about a month and a half.Yes. Yeah. And then went, just kidding, we do. Just out of nowhere, unexplainable. Seattle might be more confusing because they didn't change anything.

They just started playing better. By the way, it was the battle of also, two hot teams, yes. But two coaches that look identical. Have you ever seen Dave Hacksaw and Chris Nobleck in the same room? Well, last night was the first time you did, and yeah, they look exactly the same.

I never made that connection.

They're the same guy. It's almost like if you The Last Jedi, where they had that terrible scene where Luke is a hologram or whatever it is, that is what it last night felt like. That's for my Star Wars fans.

How about that terrible scene where they go, he's back?

The whole movie, the whole last trilogy.

You think Dave Hackstall and Chris Nobleck look the same.

Yes, they do. Are you pulling them up?

Yeah, give me a second.

Okay, we'll tap dance for a little bit while Jesse's pulling that up.

You're telling me they couldn't be brothers or cousins or something? Come on.

Here's what I love about the Noblech oilers. First off, I love saying the name Noblech again. It's a very A satisfying name.

It's great. He really fills the void left by Chuck.

Exactly. The second thing is he goes afterwards. They win their 12 games, and he just basically says, Listen, if we lose a couple, we're out of the playoff picture. We win a couple, we're talking about Home Ice Advantage. Like, the Edminton oilers have the mindset and the execution. What did they do? What did they do to get here? First, though, let's go to Jesse. We're side by side.

Let's go back. All right, so this is This is Chris Noblek. This is Dave Haxtall.

Stop. They could easily be related. Yeah. Easily. Oh, yeah. Easily. Okay, which is which? I'm seeing double. Four Crusties.

The only way that you can tell the difference is that one parts their hair on the left side and one parts their hair on the right side. That's the only way you know.

That's frustrating.

I think their eye color is the same. I'm pretty sure they both have blue eyes.

Yeah. It's pretty similar. It is.

That's a while. The ears are a little different. That's about it.

A little, Steve. That's just one picture. This picture is just at a different angle. Yeah.

No, the ears are the same. The ears are pretty much the same.

Look, they're both wearing Blazers with a dress shirt.

Well, that's a hockey thing. Thank you. What I loved about Chris Noblek after the game is he gets to the podium and he's like, This is where we're at. We lose a couple of games, we're out. We win a couple. We're talking about Homewise Advantage, and the Edmonton Oilers might just fuck around and this division.

What I tell you, I wouldn't write them off. I just refused to do it, even though all the evidence was screaming dead in my face that this team sucked. There was a crazy stat I saw. I can't remember after how many games, but they had five points in the standings, and they were tied with the Sharks, which was wild on account of the Sharks didn't win their first 11 games. Yes. How at any point this season were the Oilers ever tied with them after the first week? It was over a month into the season, something like that.

Now the Edminton Oilers have more than double the points that the Sharks do.

They can't lose.

Here-so maybe we need to start asking what happened with the Sharks.

Go to the league standings.

Why couldn't they do it?

Go to the league standings. I want to know, are there teams in the NHL, I think the answer is yes, who don't even have 12 wins?

The San Jose Sharks are the only team without 12 wins.

I just think you'll find it funny, too. The Leifs have played two more games that are only one point up on the Oilers. Damn it. That's nuts.

And it's not like, okay, I've been down on them this week. They had a losing streak just now. But it's not like, since the oilers were bad, the Lefs have been bad. Just consistently the whole time. It's just you can move up the standings rather quickly when you just simply don't lose. It's a great strategy. I wish more teams tried it.

Well, what? Simply winning? Yeah, win. I think that what the oilers have done, and this is where I pause to go to the more important factor, which is how much hack, stall, and Noblek look alike. What have the oilers done? Well, they could score a bunch of goals. They always could score a bunch of goals. That's great. Different coach. What they did was they played to their strength, scoring a bunch of goals, managed the weakness, which is their defense, they couldn't keep deploying Darnell Ners and Evan Bouchard that way. They They were getting eaten alive.

The points were always there.

Yeah, of course.

But Bouchard is another level.

But all they had to do was play their game, the thing that's made them successful the last couple of years. It actually strikes me as... I don't expect anybody to have seen this show, but there's a show called Showtime on HBO Max or Craved, depending upon what country you're in. It's about the Lakers dynasty. It is so good. One of the coaches basically tries to institute a system that, in theory, will work. The Lakers are like, They've just come off a championship. They're like, This is terrible. We can't play like this. He ends up getting fired. Who takes over? Pat Reilly. Never heard of him. Pretty good coach. But what's interesting about it is that the coach that instituted that system then took it to the NCAA and became the coach of the highest scoring teams in NCAA history. I'm not even going to say that Jay Woodcroft was wrong in his system, but he might have been wrong in this system for this team.

Which happens all the time.

Absolutely. We talked about on the last episode, what are the oilers at in terms of goals per game?

It was like a hair under five. No, it was dead four.

Dead four. And guess what they scored last night? Was it four? Four goals. Unreal. They're scoring four a game. You want to beat the oilers, you got to score five. That's really hard. That is the best defense is a good offense.

There was always going to be regression with the oilers. I didn't know it would be this hard. They're scoring everything. And by American Thanksgiving, the prospect of Stuart Skinner having a save percentage that started with a nine seemed ludicrous. And he's already there. It's difficult to point to an aspect to this team that's not to like. I know there's like, you prefer this guy in that line, and I know a lot of fans are still dismayed with Connor Brown and everything. They're winning. They're winning. They're How do you nitpick a team that's won 12 straight? That's awesome, man. Very difficult. Who on Earth wants to play them?

Nobody. This is what's great about this, too, is it's allowing their defense to settle in and become what they are. Their defense is never going to be otherworldly. It's going to be fine if they play their positions properly. Their goal tender, too, has finally had a minute to sit and not take 40 shots a game. Stuart Skinner's numbers, he's got a nine in front of his save percentage finally.

Yeah, I can't believe that. Good for him. The way it started. When Campbell was sent down, Skinner had the worst save percentage. It was like 8, 6 something. It was completely wild. There was always going to be a regression, but this is... I mean, watching him, he was bad. It wasn't just, Pucks happened to find a way by him. It's like, Yeah, because you're translucent.

They went through him like a ghost.

Now, they need They can win a cup of League average goal ten.

Can I ask you guys something? Mm-hmm. Nhl. Com. It's your job. I don't want to turn it into a complaint session because we already know it's bad. No, do it. But when you go through the categories in NHL. Com, say like games played, wins, losses, you can sort from best to worst or worst to best, right? Yes. When you get over past differential, you can't sort best home record. You can't sort best away record.

It's because you're on standings, right? Yeah. If you go to their stats page, I think you can.

Okay.

They have the stats available on the standing.

Yeah, they have different pages for stats and for teams. Oh, I see. They have team stats pages. It's stupid.

What if you made it available in both places?

No, it should be sortable on any chart form.

Here's my issue with it, Jesse, is that on the stats page, it doesn't show you their last 10. I would like to sort by who has the best last 10.

That's ridiculous.

I will say NHL's, their historical stuff, like their all-time statistics, are actually pretty- That's great.

I didn't ask about that. No, I know.

I'm grading on a curve.

I don't give a shit about the history rate.

Compliment sandwich. One thing that really scares me about the oilers, like Steve was saying that you can't nitpick anything about them because they're on a 12-game win streak, and I think that's so true. How are you going to say anything negative about a team that's won 12 games in a row? You look at some of their numbers and I'm like, it could get better. Because right now, they sit in Five on five. So take away their power play, which hasn't been the best. If you look at their five on four numbers, they're like, ninth, 10th-ish there. And goals four in terms of all situations, I think they're ninth right now. If you go to five on five goals four, they sit 12th in the entire league. That's not great. If you go to their expected goals for at five on five- They're in a new category above first. They are just so far ahead of every single NHL team. They have 106 point something expected goals for at five on five. The next closest for Colorado, I think they just crossed 100. They're in the '90s for most of the season. They're just so far above everybody at five on five.

It's been ridiculous. You're talking about they could get better. They don't need to go out and get Matias at home. They already got him. First of all, there's proof of concept that they actually can go out there and make a trade that will help their team. What do they need to go out there and get? Like, would the oilers be an improved team with Elia Labushkin? And I think his name is Alexi Torupchenko from the Blues.

Is that who they're targeting?

He's like a big bottom six guy.

It feels like this Barbi Shef. All right. Barbi Shef is better. You know what I'm saying? Yes.

No, I understand what you're saying. They really need to tinker. That's about it. And like, depth would be nice. Maybe a backup goal would be nice. But you're not breaking the bank. Not breaking the bank at all.

No. It's a great thing for the oil. It's a great thing for the league. Don't raid the Sharks. What's that?

Don't raid the sharks.

There's enough teams, I think, that are going to be sellers that there's something out there to get. Expected goals against as well, oilers lead. On both sides of the expected goals at five on five, they are number one. Florida second, but 75 expected goals against for five on five the entire season. It's crazy.

Yeah. They have Connor McDavid who's shooting the lights out again. They have Leon Dreisidal who's shooting the lights out again. And this guy who's on pace for somewhere between 50 and 60 goals, you guessed it, Zack Hyman. Anytime If you have a three-headed monster like that, you're simply not going to lose a big old bunch of games. And Bouchard. I wonder if by the end of the season, I don't know if he's there now, but I wonder if by the end of the season, Evan Bouchard works his way into the Norris conversation.

What do you mean, it works his way? How dare you?

Jesse did a video about that.

You did? I did. Yeah, the video. Oh, is that where you got that little idea from Steve?

No, I got it from being an Evan Bouchard fantasy holder.

I didn't just make a video and you retweeted it all of a sudden. You're like, Oh, somebody had this crazy idea that's originally mine.

No, take it. This is mine.

I think I was first. No, Did you say it on the show?

No, I didn't mean it.

Oh, well, then.

Then it doesn't exist. Choose, you lose. Yes, it doesn't exist. On my YouTube channel, which you can follow right now, I made the case that Evan Bouchard should at least be third in the Norse conversation. I think Kael Mccar and Quinn Hughes are just so far ahead of him right now that he wouldn't jump into the top two. But third, he's right there in terms of points, points per game, power play points. I believe he's just behind Kael Mccar. His defensive numbers aren't the greatest in terms of giveaways, but takeaways, he's right there. There's a serious case that Evan Bouchard should be third in Norse Trophy voting. It depends on if you want to go with Noah Dobson or Evan Bouchard for that spot.

I'd be, first of all, Dobson's ridiculous.

I would go to Dobson. It's because I hate Bouchard.

It's 1A and 1B, I think, in terms of the 3, 4.

I want to know what the splits for Bouchard would be defensively between Woodcroft and Noblock this year. Very interesting. No, he's a much improved player. When we ripped him earlier this season, I don't regret it. He deserved it. We watched several plays where he was... I mean, I'd love to call him a cardio merchant. It didn't look like he elevated his heart rate, bent his knees, or played hockey at all. Still put up points, but in the defensive zone, he was completely useless. He's been a marquee player. And producer Drew always gets pissed about this stuff because he's like, Kill M'Carr is the best player. He's the best defenseman of the league. How dare you say that's not what the Norris is. The Norris is not who is the best defenseman. It's who's the best defenseman this year.

Yes, and consistently. Year in, year out, I think it's Kalmakar, no question.

You're in, you're out every year.

Can be Adam Fox sometimes. Yeah.

No, that means two. You know what I mean? No. Macar is where the conversation begins every year, and then you play the games to figure it out from there. He's number one, but other guys can sneak in there. His defensive metrics aren't the greatest. Let me show you a guy named Eric Carlson.

Wow.

Who won it last year.

That was a whole That's the thing that needs to be debated as we get enough time from that season about, did he actually deserve it because he just put up all these points? I don't know.

I think a lot of people are like, Oh, there should be an Offensive Defenseman Award and defensive defenseman award. I the Defensive Defenseman Award would be the most annoying thing on the planet?

I think there 100% should be a Defensive Defenseman Award.

Yes, but the voting- Because there's a Defensive Forward Award. Yeah.

I don't understand why you can't show that other side of the game.

Like the Selky.

That's a great argument, Adam.

It's the only argument. It's perfect logic.

Why are we doing that for forward?

Steve's right in the sense, and I know where you're going with this, is that people don't know what a good defensive defenseman often is, especially the people that vote on it, traditionally. Usually, we'd have It'd be like, Oh, it's Adam foot again and Adam Futt again. It's like, Well, no. Actually, are you going to look, dive deep in the numbers and vote properly?

Stay off of Twitter the day after they hand out that award. That'll be the most Where do you get your numbers, Jesse?

Anyway.

It's just, Here's a big fella who hangs out in front of the net. Every year, it's going to a big fella. Derek Angelen. Yeah, man. Back when he was a defenseman, then became a forward and then a defenseman. I think it would be tremendously annoying as a voting process, but you're right. There does deserve to be that.

What would you call it, Jesse?

The Evan Bouchard Memorial. Oh, you want to go-Elea Leprecha.

I thought you were going to call it the MasterCard M&A.

The Defensive David Kompf Award.

You can't name it after a four-word.

No, the Defensive David Kampff Award. Whoever's the Defensive David Kompf gets the award. All right.

That's what I'm doing. My guess is the push from the old guard would be the Larry Robinson Award.

That's a great one.

Doug Harvey, even. Because he was actually the defenseman. Defensive, defensive. Larry was offensive.

Presented by Herbie's.

You probably do the Bob Yohr is the offensive defenseman, and they do Larry Robinson, the defensive defenseman. And then the Norris is the best overall? Best overall.

Listen, I'm all for more awards, and I'm always that type of person. I'm like, I don't care that much. I don't care that much, but it's fun to talk about now.

The NFL does best offensive player of the year because the MVP has just become the quarterback award. It's like, who's the best quarterback? So they have this offensive of player of the year, and that usually goes to Christian McAfee, the best running back or best wide receiver. I like that. I like that a lot. Let's break it up a little.

Larry Robinson has one of the most unbreakable records in hockey. Five players have ever gotten a career plus 500 or better. Bobby Clark at 507, Wayne Gretzky at 520, Ray Bork at 527, Bobby Orr at 582, Larry Robinson, 722.

Plus?

Plus 722 in 1384. That's bonkers. That's ridiculous. He had almost a thousand points. So maybe defensive defenseman is out the window.

Yeah, maybe we'll go back and talk to Jeff Marick and see who it actually should be.

We'll figure it out. Serge Savard, maybe. We'll figure it out.

That's ridiculous.

He's one of the most dominant players of all time.

Those Montreal-Canadian numbers from the '70s, look up Ken Driden's goal-tending stats. They're so ridiculous. You That's not fair.

What about the Larry Robinson plus minus award? I think-Awarded every year to the player with the best plus minus.

Plus minus is such a bad stat, though. I do bring it up from time to time because when it gets goofy, you're like, Well, there might actually be a problem here. But It is such a stat from a bygone era. It doesn't say much. You could be a really good player on the ducks. We say this with advanced stats, too. You could be a really good player, but you're on the ducks and you're getting caved. That's not a fair representation of how... And so as bad as you can be, you can also be fake good. We call that to John Gibson. Oh, yeah. No, I don't care.

He's good. I know he's been on a bad team for half a decade.

He's good. And people be like, maybe the team would be better if he was better.

What?

He's in a position in the sport.

No, you know what? I've watched Mackenzie Blackwood make 50 saves.

Yeah, Mackenzie Blackwood should be a goalie that people go after. In a period?

Yeah.

Get ready for Puck Drop at BetMGM, the official sports betting partner of your NHL. Can you believe that? Good for them.

I believe it. They're a rather large company.

I know, but I just think that's cool. From game-winning goals to spectacular saves, BetMGM gives you the chance to take those highlight real NHL plays to a whole new level. Betmgm has something special for every hockey fan, Jesse. When you go online this weekend and you're betting on something at BetMGM, what are you looking for? What's your thing? Oh, my God.

Give me the bills. Give me the bills all day. You're going bills? You're not even going to go to hockey. Bills minus two and a half, taking it. This is their time. Patrick Mahomes, Taylor Swift as Yoko Ohno.

Taking down the Chief.

How dare you? Even sarcasticly, how dare you?

Give me Josh Allen.

How? Good to the Earth, Josh Allen.

Take your shot to light the lamp or score a countdown with Bet MGM. Download the app today and find why BetMGM is not only official sports betting app and partner of the NHL in Canada, but they're also the king of sports books. Betmgm. Com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connect Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. He did it. He did it. You were covered. I made a mistake earlier on, but it wasn't a part of that part of the read, and I feel good about it. Before we get to the least, I actually wanted to ask you guys very quickly about Elvis Mersleekens.

The saga going on in Columbus.

Asked for a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets. The problem is that even if they wanted to trade him, it doesn't look like they can because nobody's interested. Now, is Elvis Mersleekens, and the reason I bring this up is we talk about John Gibson. Part of John Gibson is like, Well, he makes 6.4. It's three more years. He's an older guy. There is some injury history. And is he good? We don't know. The Ducks have been bad for so long. It's hard to tell. But we have seen players leave the ducks, at least skaters leave the ducks, and, Oh, wow, they're not so bad. Simon Benoît. Yes. Not so bad. I'm wondering the same thing about Merzlican's. I mean, clearly, the Columbus Blue Jackets are not a well-run franchise. I'm not... No. I am not... From top to bottom. People were talking about Pascal Vincent. He was the guy. We've been waiting for this guy to find a job. And so far- He's popular. He's done a terrible job. Listen, it's three or four months into his career, but look at the Columbus Blue Jackets It's line choices. They may not all be Pascal Vincent, but unfortunately, all I know is that Pascal Vincent is the guy setting the lines, and they're not looking great.

I think it's pretty obvious what the Blue Jackets are doing. What are they doing? Well, they hired Mike Babcock because they're like, We want a hard ass and then too hard of an ass. So, okay, let's bring in Pascal Vincent and tell him to be a hard ass. And he's healthy scratching guys, and guys are getting sent down, and you're getting moved to the wing. It's all just deck chairs. I don't love his coaching decisions this year, but there's no combination that would make that team any good.

Right. There is talent on that team, though.

There's talent there.

So if there was something to do, you played to whatever strength you think the team might Remember what Jason York said about the Sens being young up the middle?

The Blue Jackets are simply bad.

They're nothing up the middle.

They don't have guys.

They're Ted Johnson up the middle.

Okay, if you go Johnson, Fantilly-Jenner. Even that is still real green. Oh, yeah. Lots of potential there, but real, real.

Pascal Vincent the other day, one of the big things was Boon-Jenner came back, so they moved Adam Fantilly to the Which I think people overreacted to.

It's not unusual for a young center to play wing sometimes.

Quitten Byfield is doing it right now, isn't he?

Who?

Quitten Byfield? Yeah, but Fantilly and Byfield, I think, are different. I think that's apples and oranges, and not because Byfield's not great.

I think you look at- And Byfield is probably just a winger from now on.

Yeah, he might just be a winger. Austin Matthews couldn't win a face off in his first year. He did have two other centers on the team that were older and had been there. But he scored a bunch of goals and made a bunch of defensive mistakes. The Leaps were like, Well, he's going to be a center, so we're going to have to deal with the warts. Adam Fantilli is a third overall pick. You make him the center. He's now the center, and you let him figure it out. Why are you... Are you trying to win games at this point? No, you're not.

They're really going with whatever that spaceship is with the extra gravity that Goku trained in. They're really putting them through that.

And David, you're a check going up and down. You don't know. Shut up. Kent Johnson going up and down. I do know what you're talking. They're a thousand times gravity or whatever. Yes. That they run out for an entire year. That was such bullshit. There was no storyline in that entire season except for him working out.

Dragon Ball didn't have great story lines.

It's a terrible story line.

Hey, hey.

What are you talking about here?

But when they fought, it was cool.

Yeah, Dragon Ball was just sick because they had powers.

When he kills Krillin, how dare you?

With Elvis. It's so funny to see an insider come out. Pierre Lebrun was on insider trading or whatever, wasn't come out and say that there are no suitors for a player. That doesn't happen very often. Usually, if somebody's doing an inside report on a trade. They're breaking some rumors and give you some possibilities. For him to just say that flat out, it speaks to the situation that's happening with Columbus and how untradable Merzlican is right now. If you're a Columbus, you don't move him because you have to give things to move this contract. That is five point something million dollars through 2027. You're not trading this guy right now.

There was a move to be had, I think, something involving Merzlican and Jack Campbell, and I just don't know if it's there anymore. I just don't know if it's there. The other problem with Merzlican's, Pekarina was on again, off again. Serga Bobrowski was on again, off again. Merzlican's is on again, off again, off again, off again. It's been a while.

And it sounds like a pain.

Well, well.

You ever get the fight with Tom Wilson, and then he had to get benched after that?

Oh, I forgot about it.

Remember, he's had taxed Tom Wilson and all this stuff, and then now he's getting benched and he wants to trade. It doesn't seem like anybody is happy. It doesn't seem like Columbus is happy with him, and it doesn't seem he's happy with Columbus. So everybody's just upset.

Yeah. But I hate to bring it up, but he's also got... If I were him, I'd probably want out of Columbus, too. It's not just that things aren't working out. There was a tragedy involved there. I don't blame the guy at all, but the reality of the situation is...

How do you move him?

Someone's got to want him.

And nobody in the league wants to trade for him.

29 years old, 5.4 million for three years after this one. So you're taking a senator-size risk there. You're looking at a player that has put up really good numbers. But again, and I say senator-size because they keep taking risks on goal tenders for four or five years at that amount of money.

I think if it would have changed the scenery, he could be great.

You know what? I agree with you. If you look at his numbers, you go back and you look at his history, his numbers go how the Columbus Blue Jack have gone. In 2019, 2020, they were a really tight defensive team under Torterelle. And 2020, 2021, same thing. And those are his two best years. You need a save percentage of 923 and 916 in consecutive years. Now, The one year he played over 50 games was '21, '22. '907 save percentage. The team wasn't very good. He had a 3-22 goals against average. But again, goals against average is more of a team stat. I think this guy Probably, and from what we've heard, to be honest, the players are not thrilled about what's going on in Columbus. There are rumors about a lot of guys who are like, What the hell is going on here? And you can't blame them. I think this management group is gone at the end of the year. If the coach survives it, that's one thing. But there's no direction, and there is talent on this roster, so that's got to be extremely frustrating. I don't blame him for asking for a trade, but I do think you're going to have to find a team that's got cap space and desperate need for a goal tender.

And I don't think the Columbus Blue Jackets are going to retain on that deal.

I think if you meet your goals, you're not failing. So I don't think the San Jose Sharks are failing in the slightest.

No, I think they're meeting their goals.

They're meeting their goal. The Chicago Blackhawks are not failing. They are meeting their goal. The Ottawa senators are failing miserably, and the Blue Jackets are failing. Those are two teams who... I don't think anyone was like, Yeah, Columbus is making the play-offs. But it was supposed to be a step in the right direction, and it's not there.

The other question I have for you, gentlemen, is outside of your Connor Hela Bucks, your UC Soros, I mean, Barbarowski is one thing in Florida. How much money actually or how much percentage of cap, which is a more accurate way to look at it, are we spending on goal tending now? When we started this show, goalies were regularly playing. Starting goal tenders were playing 60 to 65 games. We've We've now seen that come down 10 to 15 games for the starter. So you're needing your backups to play 30 to 35. I remember Freddie Anderson, when Curtis McAlaney got in, it was only on the second half of a back to back. That's it, right? Jonas Enroth only got in on the second half of a back-to-back, right? Now that that's changed, how much money can you objectively tie up in the position? So if Merzlicans comes to your organization, and let's say he's making his 5.4 million. How much can you pay your backup before, and have a good backup, before you start to sacrifice at other positions? You look at the Leaps, the Leaps sacrifice on defense and some of their depth forwards so that they can have a crazy top four, and their goal-tending happens to be relatively cheap.

Relatively. Luckily. Luckily. By the grace of God.

Yes.

That's how they've decided to structure it. What team team. I think you're seven and a half, eight million bucks. You want to max have tied up in that position. That's tough.

Depends what you're getting. Okay, let's look at the best teams, right? So Hellebuck's 7.5. What is Bresoua getting?

Okay, I'll look it up.

I think the answer is you can't go over roughly nine.

And even that sounds a little expensive. That's quite a bit.

Yeah, it's quite a bit, but then- You better have one of the best. Well, Swane and Ulmark, right? Right. Hellebuck Bresouat. Surely Bresouat got a raise.

You want to know Bresouat?

I'm looking- After last year with Vegas?

Bresouat, 1.75..

Yeah, so there you go.

And he's a UFA next year. That would be a A depth pickup for a team. 8.5 million for Conor Halibuck. I don't know why I said 7.5, but it's 8.5 next year.

Oh, well, then they're spending quite a bit. But look how he's performing.

But again, he's the outlier. He's a top three. You don't Everybody else is good goalie, not great goalie.

The Leifs are a clear outlier because right now they're... Well, when Wolle comes back, it sounds like Samson is going back to the Marlies. The Leaps will be spending like 2.6.

On their tandem. And then 2 million on the goalie that isn't playing for them against the cap.

Something like that. Eight or nine, but it better be elite. For most teams, I think the answer is probably somewhere around six.

Then if it's around six, Mers Lekens is a tough call because it looked like he was going to be that goalie who-He was going to be him.

He was going to be him. Elvis Mers Lekens. He was going to give you 50 plus games a season at a nine point something. Which is good.

He's really strong. And he did.

Yes. He did.

But the team sucks now. I don't even think you can get the best of Elvis. It's not fair to look at it, but he's stuck. Unless the Columbus Blue Jackets want to hold back 2 million bucks a year for the next three years, I don't think he's moving until at least the summer.

Is anybody in Columbus happy?

No.

It seems like from the owner down to all the way to the players, everybody's unhappy there.

Think about this, Jess. Imagine you're a... I will. You're a... Think about nothing. Don't think about anything. I'm thinking. Stop thinking. Imagine you're a third-round... Third overall pick. Not a third-round pick. You're a third-round pick. Jesse Blake, okay? He's a creative player. He 6'5. Oh, yeah. He's 6'7. His screen is crazy. He's a centerman, and you go to the Columbus.

I want to play left wing. Sorry? I want to play left wing.

You want to play left wing? That doesn't matter. But this time, I'm actually comparing you to Fantilly, so I'm going to go to a center. Damn it. More responsibility. You're going to be a centerman, and you're going to go, and there's a probably Hall of Fame coach coaching you. The first time you meet him, he's like, Let me look through your phone.

That's uncomfortable.

Do we feel good about the state of things in Columbus? No. Here's the thing. If you're Adam Fantilly or you're any of these high draft picks, are you like, David, you're a check in there, Ken Johnson in there? Are you thinking, Okay, but they got rid of that guy. Yeah, but what about the two guys that hired him? What about the two guys that thought this was a good idea? You start to see how players can just start to doubt everything. Listen, if you're a player on the Columbus Blue Jackets right now, you're probably thinking, Okay, so Davidson and Kekalayanan have got to be gone at the end of this year. If they're not, then they got nude pictures of the owner on the beach somewhere. It's crazy.

Did you hear they replaced the cannon in Columbus? No. They did. It's now just- Did they bang? No, it's just an old man with a loaf of bread.

Stop it.

So that he could feed all the lame ducks. Stop it. He's just ripping off chunks, and there you go, Davidson. There you go, frigging. What's the other guy The Armokechaline, and here you go, everyone up.

They're getting canned. What is your desire to play for this coach when you know that the guys that hired him are probably gone. How detailed are you really going to be?

Well, can I answer for the people screaming at the screen right now? I think it's the millions of dollars. You know what I mean? Listen, out of the 32 situations, that one's got to be a bottom five situation. You're also in the NHL. Buck up. Yeah. I think the path forward for Ms. Leekins is, okay, you want to go somewhere so that you can be a good goalie for someone else. I have an idea. Prove you can be a good goalie. The reason there are no suiters is there's heightened skepticism that you can do your job at a $5.4 million level. Yeah. Go out there. Do your fucking best.

Steal some games. Steal. Mckenzie Blackwood.

Yeah, dude. None of us are looking at the Sharks and going, That's a great hockey team right there. But we're all looking at McKenzie Blackwood going, Fuck, he's doing his best.

I take him on my team.

Sure. Sure. And that's not something I would have said when he was in New Jersey.

No.

I remember when they made... I think when they made that trade, I said something along the lines of, yes, it could work out. And if it doesn't, they spent a six-round pick to get him, and they lose games, which is what they want to do anyway. It's win-win. Win-win for them. And this is the best of both worlds. He's stopping 40, 50 shots a night, and they're losing. Hooray. Let's go out there and get some Max Cellebrini kids. Yeah.

So Mersleekens has to prove himself. This segment isn't here to rag on the Columbus Blue Jackets. But Boon Jenner has been out. Lina has been out. Warenzky has been out. I get it. I get it. I get it. But if Blue Jackets fans are being honest, this is not what anybody wants. And the Blue Jackets need to pick a lane, and they need a new voice. And so Mersleekens may never get traded.

The shoulder is technically a lane.

Yeah, anything. Just go in a straight line for a while. Have a goal in mind. Have an identity. What are you? They have not figured out what they are post-tourts. The second he left, what did the franchise become?

They acquired some talent.

There's absolutely lots of talent on this roster.

But it's not good enough to just be like, Here are several players. It's got a, All right, you signed Johnny Goudreau. Why? What are you surrounding them with? That your top center is Liny? Who previously, I was unaware, played that position? What's going on here? When Goudreau first signed there, I remember being like, Oh, now guys are going to sign in Columbus because they're spending on Warenzky, they're spending on Goudreau. Now it's time to surround those guys with talent. It's going backward.

Well, and how many Any... Beyond just going backwards, you got Godreau's dad on Twitter saying he'd welcome a trade back to Calgary. It's not... I forgot about that. It's not like... This is not good. I think what we need to do is we need someone with a vision. Now, I'm I was sincerely hoping that they don't hire the assistant general manager of the Carolina Huracanes, who I was sincerely hoping would be the leafs. I don't think they can afford them. General manager. No, you don't think they can afford them? No. On a Carolina salary? Do you think Tom Dundon doesn't pay anybody anything?

Well, you got a point.

You got a point there. I'm not even going to say his name. I want him to be a leaf. The GM of the AGM.

Is it because you can't remember his name? No.

Maybe. But he's still my favorite GM. He works under Don Wendell. You know what I'm talking about? He was the guy I wanted to replace Dubas.

And I'm getting pissed. See?

I can't pull names out of thin air. Who's going to be first?

Carolina.

Just look it up.

Hur hurricanes, AGM. All right. We got Justin Williams.

Dustin Blackbury.

Steve, you listed all the Columbus Blue Jackets centers. Cole Cylinder.

Eric Tolsky. No, but he's greedy.

Eric Tolsky. I love Eric Tolsky.

Cole Cylindar, Boon Jenner, Dimitri Voronoff-Vronkoff. Vronkoff, sorry. And Sean Corrali is what they're going with right now. Boon Jenner is also day to day. Matt. Ken Johnson is on the wing. Fantilly is on the wing.

You're Are you telling me Fantilly can't play a Cole Cylinders spot? Are you telling me Boon Jenner, who just came off an injury, can't play the wing for a bit?

He's still day to day, so I don't know if he's going to play in the next game.

Also, Marchenko, somebody's got to pick that guy.

Line A is out. The lot? Warenzky is still out, I'm pretty sure. The forward group appears to be exclusively guys who can play center.

Mediocre. Like, play center if you need to. You know what I mean? Like, Rostovik is the center. He's on the wing. Fantilly is the center. He's on the wing. Johnson is the center. He's on the wing.

I like their fourth line. Teixeira, Krali, and Dan Forrest is a good fourth line. That's meh.

That's a big old a bunch of meh.

You got Chinnikow on your first line as like a...

You know what? He was still a good pick.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. He's like one of the greatest victories of Jarmo Kechalina's tenure there. Yeah. He drafted a guy in the first round who was ranked like 120th, and it ended up being the right pick.

Severson, Boyquist, Proveroff, Peek, Beane, Goodbranson. I like all of those.

I like Severson. I like Boquist. Proveroff has been a good player. Not recently. Peek's good. Beane has been relatively good for a third-pairing guy. Goodbranson is what he's billed and he's overpaid, but whatever. I don't see anything wrong.

He beat up nick Cousins, so I'm giving him a pass for the whole-Yeah, I'm pro Eric Goodbranson.

You get a six-month pass if you do that. No, you're good. That's the badge you earn.

Did you blow your assignment? No, it's your partner's fault. You didn't do anything wrong, Eric. Good job, buddy. Butt pats all around. Good job.

It's pretty thin in Columbus.

It is. I don't blame Merzlican. I don't think he gets traded unless the trade deadline takes off or whatever. But going to be fascinating to see what happens with Columbus and desperate for a new voice. I need a GM to sit at that table and go, We are going to be... Fill in the blank. What are you going to be? At least you know with your living, he wants more snot. Okay, cool. You knew with With Burke, he wanted truculence. You knew with Dubas, he wanted nick Patan and Dennis Malkin. Give me a message, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Give me something to work towards.

Yeah. Whoever gets that job next is going to have a task and a half to work with, but at least they'll have a direction because they're new in there and they're going to be like, Hey, I'm going to do this. So it'll be good. Exactly. Do you guys want to play goalie Trivia before we move on? Yes. Let's go. Since we've talked about goalie injuries and everything, Aiden Hill has been in and out of the lineup for months now. He's been out for the last 13 games-ish for the Vegas Goldenights. When he was in the lineup, he was leading the league in safe percentage. If you drop enough games qualified, I think he played 13 so far this season, he should still lead the league in safe percentage. That brings us to the question. They've been using Logan Thompson as their starter, the Vegas Goldenights. Have been. But who are the other two goalies that they've been using as an emergency loan on their roster right now? Can you name both? Oh, my God. Both emergency loan goalies right now on the Vegas Goldenights' roster. No.

They're Why do they always have this? Name a season in Vegas. It's like, Our girlies are all injured. They're all there.

They die. Guys on IR right now for the Vegas Golden Nights: Jack Eichel, William Carlson, Aiden Hill, William Carrier, Ben Hutton. Everybody is always injured in Vegas. I don't know how they do it. And then all of a sudden, they're all really good in the playoffs again.

I watched a game where Vegas was playing this guy, too, recently.

Can you give me one of the two?

They They have a European goalie. Oh, my God. What's his name? Does it start with a...

That's really great if he gets that. A P? The last name does start with a P.

Hey, come on. What's his name?

Oh, this is hurting my heart. He's 24 years old, makes under 800 grand. The goalies, by the way, combined on the Vegas Golden Nights right now make 2.3 million dollars. God bless. Logan Thompson is 766. This goalie is 775, and then the other goalie is 849.

Did Logan Thompson get an extension, by the way?

No, not yet. He hasn't. He signed through another season at 766. I hate them. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Aiden Hill For those of you who are thinking about with the extension, he signed for 4.9 in the offseason.

Which is reasonable if he can stay healthy. Is he Russian?

I don't know. Let me check his nationality. He is from the Czech Republic.

Yeah, he's Czech. I definitely know who this six One round pick from the Czech Republic.

By the way, you're allowed to say Czech Republic again. I didn't know that. For a while there, we had to call it Czechia, and then everybody's like, No, you can call it both.

Yeah, I think it's both because Czechia is established by the sporting body for their international sports teams.

But they represent the Czech Republic.

Is that what it is? Yes. Or I think you just call it Czechia. Either or, I think everybody's fine with.

Does your brain ever say the wrong answer over and over again, and you know it's wrong? Yes. I keep saying Prasvatov, but that's the guy on Colorado.

Yes, that is the Colorado goalie.

What's his name?

Yuri Patera. No!

No!

Damn it. Now, the other goalie who's on their roster will sound like something I just made up, but his name is Isiah S still.

That's definitely- Never in a million years. Yeah, that's a creative player.

That's the first I've ever heard of this. How do they keep getting away with this?

It's because they got good defense. That's true. They let the goalies come in like, Listen, goal tenders that make the NHL all have the town talent. They have the talent. It's do they have the brainpower to keep it going? You look at Samson off. He has his mental struggles. He objectively can play physically NHL goal tending. He can. He's not hurt as far as we know. Right. What Vegas does is they're like, How about we just play strong hockey in front of them and let them figure it out and be confident?

Let them figure it out. They haven't been playing well as of late. They've been slumping a little bit, but they've been trying to hold it together, especially with Jack Eichel out. That guy's such a monster driving the play on the ice. Having him out definitely hurts. Isiah Seville hasn't gotten into a game yet this season. I hope he gets at least one start. That'll be fun to see. Yuri Patera has got five games so far under his belt, 901 save percentage. Logan Thompson just doing a just tremendous job at 766 grand. Just holding down the fort.

Now, the Saturday night, Steve Dangle will be doing a live stream on the SDPN channel. Starting at... What time will you start? Because the game starts at 7:00, well, 7-ish. But are you going to start it at 7:00 or what are you going to do?

I'm thinking it'll probably be a hair after 7:00. Okay. Because Saturday games, usually, Puck Drop is usually 7:15, as opposed to weekday games are usually 7:07.

No, they're not. No, they're like every- They're supposed to be.

Every NHL game that's ever started has started 45 minutes late.

Yeah. So annoying.

They're like, All right, 7 o'clock Puck drop. It's 7:30. Let's start the Anthems.

Yeah, they did a... What was it last night? It was this This game was scheduled from 9:00 to 11:30. I'm like, Yeah, right. It'll be midnight. Yeah.

I like a good bag pipe, but whenever I see them on the ice, I'm like, Oh, we're going to be here a while.

We're going to be here a while. Oh, you're playing Montreal on a Saturday night? Okay, we're going to have some, but some, they're going to wheel out the 1956 team, and I can't wait. There's their wives. That's fantastic.

It's not even the first note that... Before it starts, I'm like, Oh, we're going to be here half-an-hour.

Oh, there's Glenn Healey.

There he is again.

Hello, Glenn. I get that for the ticket goer, it's supposed to be like, Okay, the show starts at 7:00. Then we start all of the things at 7:00. But I think we should establish, No, we start those things at 6:45, and the show is the game, and the punk drop has to happen at the time of the game. That would be much nicer.

Jesse, I couldn't agree more. I think the game start should be non-negotiable. If you would like do a 45 minutes ceremony beforehand, then start it earlier. Then go, Hey, tonight's special. You know why? 45 minutes earlier, we're doing the bag pipe thing.

You just reminded me of a mini story, actually. Tell me. It's my wife. Okay. It's not often-Waaf. My laugh.

We get it, you're married.

Every time I mention- You're a big wife guy.

Every time I mention that on Twitter, But yeah, we get it, you're married. We get it. She doesn't chirp hockey players very often.

She chirped one. Who? What? Glenn Healey. What? What's wrong with Glenn? He's a great guy. Because stereotypes are very fun. My wife, who's born in Aberdeen, Scotland, plays the bagpipes. She's like- Did she play the bagpipes? Yeah, she used to play in the Hamilton Police Band. She would drive from Ajax to Hamilton to play the bagpipes. No way. She saw Glenn Healey play because he also lives in Ajax and plays the bagpipes and freaking everything. She's like, Yeah, I play pipes better than him. She said she was a better piper than Glenn Healey.

Can we get a Glenn Healey, Mrs. Dangle bagpipe off one day?

She hasn't played for a very long time.

I want her to do Thunderstruck on the bagpipes. Just embarrass him.

I don't even know if she still has her pipes.

I don't know where they are.

Can I tell you something? Paul McCartney, this is going to sound old, Paul McCartney has a song called Mall of Kintyre, which is about a part of Scotland. It has bagpipes in it. One of the only places on Earth he will play that song live is Toronto because we have such a strong bagpipe community. When I saw him, I'm not kidding.

Is that a thing? That's what a hell of a sentence.

It's a great song. It gives you chills if you're into that music. It's a really good song. I remember when I went to see Paul McCartney live, 15 years ago, because I was trying to see all the greats before they got too old, Glenn Healey was on stage. Playing.

I've heard of this. Yeah.

It was Glenn Healey's bag bite man.

He told the story on Agent Provocator.

Yes, he did. Oh, that's the very first episode, I think.

Wasn't he there? Wasn't he your first guest? The first one was Flurry, wasn't it? No, it was David Peron. Peron was his guest. Healey was like three or two.

He was very early on.

Anyway, let's talk about the Leaps, and we'll just say this upfront. Two reasons they won last night. Austin Matthews, which if they're going to win most of the time, it's going to because of Austin Matthews, right?

It's fourth hat trick this season.

Which is bonkers. 37 goals in 42 games. Outrageous. Amazing. We'll talk about that.

On pace for 70 goals.

The second thing is obviously the video crew that the Leaps have. Now, let's start with the on ice product where The Leaves came out and had a terrible first period. Yeah, it wasn't good. My wife said to me, Adam, if they play like this all game, I don't think I can watch Saturday. I said, You will because you're weak. We all are. Damn. I said, You're weak. You're weak. You will back.

You will. I think I'm understanding the divorce thing.

He's looking for a third, everybody. Going for the Hattie.

Just like Matthew, Adam, what's the Hattie? Where's your wedding ring?

It's still lost. Anyway, it's not because the marriage is falling apart. I lost it on the beach. All right?

Then he said, You're weak.

Yeah.

Adam is not anti-woman. Adam Can you explain feminism in the Maddie room? Yeah.

So Maddie. Sorry. Yeah, tell me about it. See, here's what you chips need to know, Maddie.

I don't know about you.

Here's what a guy on TikTok told me. Anyway, the product was terrible. The product was terrible in the first period. But what was great was, first off, I love when TSN does a game. I know the Western people didn't get it. I know Sportsnet was doing that one. Mike Johnson is so good, so, so good between the benches.

He sees things lightning quick.

He's best in the business.

Yeah, I think so, too. I love Ferrara when he did it, and I know he's doing it in States. I love Mike Johnson. He's really good. He picked out a couple of things. One of the things was, and this happened later in the game, he was talking about Sheldon Keef, and he was saying that he's like, I just heard Sheldon Keef yell at two players in a way that I have never heard a coach yell at two players outside of Junior. He was talking about Bertuzzi and Nylander, and he was screaming at them.

Like they're 10 years old.

To get them off the Now, I wondered if it was because they were slowly skating towards the bench, which both of them are guilty of.

They're the worst line change team in the league.

Or if it was them just staying out too long and he's trying to get a new line out there, fresh legs. I don't know which it was.

It's probably both. Listen, Neylander, incredible player.

Dogs it to the bench.

He's one of the worst line changing players I've ever seen in my entire life. He's slow. He's slow. He stops skating at least 10 feet before he gets to the bench. I'm not saying skate full speed and eat yourself over the bench like a freaking video game, but have some purpose for God's sake.

Well, they can stop on a dime, these NHL players. You can actually keep skating and then stop right at the bench.

They're quite good at this whole skating. Edgework, wild. They're rather known for it. No, watch it. And you'll notice it a lot more if you go to the games. I love going to a game every now and then so I can really appreciate I appreciate the stuff that I miss on TV, and I'm a big enough of a nerd that I really appreciate that. You know who I gained a new appreciation for in Sweden was, I think nick Robertson got into at least one of those games. I love watching him play. When he comes off of the bench, when he's back onto the bench, and I mean, he probably plays 20 second shifts under Sheldon Keef, so maybe that's why. But there's an effort there. It's that one and two % that the Leifs have lacked for years. The one and two % that separates them from the team that beat them in the playoffs every year. It's not just... Like, toughness is the crutch that we lean on. It's stuff like that. Little things like that. The little things like Pontus Holmberg on the Oilers game winning goal looked like he was doing his job, didn't look guilty of anything.

And then you break it down afterward. It's like you're standing maybe five feet away from where you should have been. It wasn't a cardinal sin, but it ultimately led to the goal.

I'm sorry, but- Those little things. Are you talking about New Zack Hyman?

Yeah. Seven points in seven games?

Yeah. Pontes Humbert has seven points in seven games.

And for God's sake, that's the bar.

Yeah.

Do we think Pontes Humbert is the best left wing the Leifs have? No. I don't know if he's the fifth best left wing the Leifs have.

Just work hard out there. Just go into the corners. Dig the fuck out. That's all you're going to do.

Just do your job. He's trying Tyler Bertuzzi has gone up and down for me this season. He's spent a fortune. He spent a fortune.

He swung and missed- You mean in his next contract?

Yeah, he swung and missed on this deal. He only got a one-year 5.5. And the big long-term deal that might have been offered to him this summer, where'd it go?

Yeah.

Where'd it go? He's got six goals, man. Six goals in a relatively healthy season. He's spending a fortune. And who's your competition for that top line spot that was his? He started the season with Matthews and Marner. Who's your competition? A rookie who's also in the dog house, by the way. Robertson. Matthew Nies. Matthew Nies. And then there's Robertson. You ever seen a brick dog house? They put a foundation down on that thing.

He's going to have to dig under.

They got a basement plumbing. It's nice. It's nice in there. I mean, you got a set up for the winter. It's winterize. Yarn Croke is not on the left wing anymore. Domi is not being used on the anymore. Bobby McMahon was a call up. Then you have Pontus Holmberg, who they're like, Hey, you shoot left, right? How aren't you on that line? How aren't you with... He played some shifts with Tavares last night. It was a little touch and go. How aren't you this team's top-line left winger? How don't you have 40,000 points playing with those two freaks?

Well, and the way Austin is playing, the way Mitch has picked it up. Mitch had a fucking great game.

He had a fucking great game.

He had a great game. If you look at his last 10 games, he's been on fire.

He's got crazy- His counting stats have been very good. There's been some things- With the Pontes Holberg thing, the way Sheldon Keef is setting up everybody with these lineups isn't how he plays them during the game.

Because Pontes Holberg, anytime he's on the ice, he's with Matthews and Marner. But Matthews and Marner are always long shifting. Pontes Holberg last night had 11 minutes of ice time. Tyler Bertuzzi had 17 minutes of ice time. Wow. The way Sheldon Keef sets up the lines is, yeah, that's how you'll go out. But once we're doing these changes, Pontes Holberg isn't out there as a first-line winger. He's playing 11 minutes of ice time. Okay.

That's fair. Here's my question.

But he's only playing with Matthews and Marner during those 11 minutes. Here's my question.

Do the players hate that?

Yes, 100%. If you talk to any NHLer, what they like to do is show up to the rink. They don't have to look at the board because they know where they're playing.

Yeah. No wonder you lead the league in Too Many Men on the Ice. It's been a while, which means we're going to get one tomorrow. It's been like five games. Yeah, I know. But no wonder you get so many. It looks like the fucking Zodiac killer. Every time you look at the lines and what they're going to send out there. I know other teams with elite players have special lines, but the guy regularly playing on your top line five on five, played 11 minutes and wasn't benched.

No, that's just how he was deployed.

And late in the game, when they got to shut it down, they're like, we'll put Gregor with Matthews and Marner. We'll put Yarn Croke. Like, bless the coaching staff for this galaxy brain stuff that makes it look like they're working real hard. It would be lovely, and I think, welcome by all involved if they didn't have to do that.

Well, they're obviously going to have to make some changes. I wonder... I mean, Bertuzzi had... There's a lot of people that are hard on the guy, and I think rightfully so, but there have been some really great games from this person, and he has been snakebitten. There's no question. I wonder if some other team at the trade deadline goes, We'll give you value for value.

I really just don't want to go back to Boston.

He's not going to get traded to Boston. At least it won't do that.

Yeah, but maybe it's a flipper. It'd have to be a move where you think you're upgrading your team, right? Yeah. It'd be interesting if there's a player out there for that because It'd be with a contender who you're just swapping issues with, I guess. But just to finish off that Pontes-Holberg point with your very right about, Hey, when the game is on the line, he's not on the ice. During the third period, when they had their one goal lead for the rest of the game, Pontes-Holberg had three shifts. The entire third period. It's just so strange about like, Hey, you're going to organize this, your lines, the day of the game. You're going to say, He's our first-line left winger. But when the game actually matters, he's only going to see the ice three times.

What happened the previous game? They put him out there in the final minutes of the game, blew his assignment, they lost the game.

So maybe that should be a sign that he shouldn't be your first-line left winger.

Yeah, but he's trying to make a point. He's trying to make a point, man. Again, I'll say it every show.

Are there other ways to make points?

This man...

Besides ruining your hockey team?

You know, Jesse, that's a great question.

I would love an answer.

This man, I think, must punch the air every time he's in a room by himself, scream through the windshield, goes to church, and lights a thousand candles. He's fighting for Sheldon Keef. I know a lot of people don't love the job he's doing. That man is fighting for his freaking life. Every time he steps behind that bench, he might as well go, Pontus Holberg is on the top line, Brad. He's on the top line, and I'm right to do it. Brad! Is Brandon next?

I see you. You're 6'3. I can see you. Oh my God.

Get me someone.

I mean, the real quote was before the game, We're at game 42, and I still don't know who I can trust. Yes. You might want to wipe your chin, but I want to-No, that's a really...

Adam, what was the quote?

He said, We're at Game 42, and I'm still not sure who I can rely on, I believe, is the quote.

Okay, do you want me to translate that?

Please.

That's Domi.

Fuck. With that, it reminds me of a team that I love and I favor the New York Rangers.

Last season, Gerard Galant, there's 82 games in a year. Gerard Galant might have played 400 different line combinations against every game, every single moment. You never knew what line anybody was going to be on. It messed up Lafronier and that whole kids' line, and everybody got sick of it. What's the thing about Gerard Galant? He's two years as a head coach, and then you got to kick him out because everybody gets sick of it. That's one of the things that drive people crazy is how many different line combinations every single game. The lineup is completely different. We're seeing the same thing as Sheldon Keefe. We've seen this before. He loves doing it. He did this last year in January. This is his January thing where he just messes up the lines in every game. It's different. I wonder how long you can just keep doing this every single season. It's been so many years of this.

Well, this goes back to every freaking conversation we have about this team. This is what happens when you pay four guys everything. And then, I mean, maybe Maybe Sheldon just rotates a bunch of randoms in there because that's what the rest of the roster is, a bunch of randoms. That's what it is, man. It sucks. Brad, he's screaming it from the roof Top. And to say the new guys, too. If I'm Brad, I'm going, watch your fucking mouth.

Watch your words. Well, I think, what is Brad going to say to that? Like I said last episode, and again, they last night. What does he have to point to that's a win?

Brad for Living. Timo Benoît. Remember earlier in the season, we were talking about what his best signing was, and we landed on Noah Gregor? Crumple, crumple.

Oh, man, he's been bad.

So throw that.

Max Domi.

You got an assist from Max.

Listen, I like what Max Domi brings. I know there are rewards to Max's game, but I am all the way on Max Domi. He makes things happen.

I'm good with that. He scores 70 points in this league.

Max Domi had two breakaways last week.

Yeah, no, I like Max. Max, to me, is the best one. Yes. Simon Benoît is the second best one. But Ryan Reeves, whew.

Oh, you missed a big one. Claimant Greg, whew. You missed a big one. Their season would be cooked without him. Martin Jones.

You know what? That's the number one.

I mean, it's got to be. I've loved Benwa, and it's not like I'm saying Domi has been bad. I know Cheldon doesn't trust him in the slightest, but it's not like he's been bad. Their season would be absolutely cooked. They probably wouldn't be in a play.

But is it a win to say that Martin Jones saved your season? This is my point, is that even Martin Jones being your best signing is not a good look.

Martin Jones, Brad.

It's not that he could have accounted for Ilyas Samsonov. It's because no other player on this roster has performed not just above expectation. They haven't performed to expectation. No. No. Like, nothing. That's where it It's frustrating because last night, first period sucked. But at the end of the first period, what happens? Noah Gregor, you picked that crumpled piece of paper up, causes a turnover.

Well, causes a turnover, Steven. Yeah, causes two turnover There's one of his own doing.

But he got it back.

He got it back. Mike Johnson was hilarious breaking that play down because he's like, he might have got benched because he didn't have a good play. And then that happened.

It's not something Sometimes that we fall. It's how we get up. Damn. Okay? Damn, bro. I stole that from the first Batman movie. Damn, that was good. With Christian Bale. All right. Noah Gregor was like, wow, thank you, Batman's dad. I'm going to pass it to the real Batman, which is Austin Matthews. Wow. He comes in, he scores. There's five minutes left, and they go in. It's not 2-0, it's two to one. That, for whatever reason, is enough. Austin had an unbelievable second period.

He did, and he's getting all the flowers today because of the hat trick. I'm not trying to take those flowers away. Yes, you are. He's the best goal scorer in sports. Well, he's the best goal scorer in hockey, definitely. This sport.

Yeah. Sterling Holland might be the best goal scorer in sports.

No. Austin Matthews is the best soccer player in the world. It's weird having to justify saying you might be the third best player in the world because that's an insult. He's definitely the best goal scorer in the world. But the guy I want to give some flowers to because we've been giving him and I think he's deserved it. But he hustled his ass off in this game. And on top of the hustle, he made some elite plays, Mitch Marner.

He's been great.

He was fucking great. And I don't remember if he was the one who got Matthews the pass for the second, but the give and go with him and Willy.

Crazy. That pass making it through. I don't know how that got it. That was like NHL 15.

Neither of those passes should have gone through. No. Marner to Willy and Willy to Marner. That was sick. That was frigging sick. And then the fourth goal is Dan Vlida is not very good.

I was surprised they didn't start Markstrom, weren't you guys?

Well, that's where the leaves are at right now. You look to get your your back up some starts and you go, Well, we're playing a team that's playing real shitty.

Almost gave up the lead. And actually did give up the lead, except for the fact that that goal was called back on a Blake Coleman hand pass. Now, I saw Jermaine Franklin tweeting about it today. I saw some Calgary fans pissed. Actually, most of them got it. Most of them were like, Well, I hate it. I hate it, but it is a rule. The one thing I'll say about that rule is this, okay? You don't have to like the rule. There's plenty of rules I don't like. It's clear.

Yeah, don't direct the fuck with your hand.

You can't direct the puck with your hand unless it's to yourself, right?

Yes.

That's the rule. Now, explain goal tender interference. That's right, you can't. But at least you can explain a hand pass to someone. Whether it's intentional or not, the reality is, just like kicking, hand passes, they're not legal. If you have an issue with it, you got to take that up with the NHL. I don't think that they should be legal. If I was a leaf fan, I'd be pissed about it, but at the end of the day, it is the rule.

Hard to get that mad. I think I know what's going on, and then reviews happen, and I'm like, Oh, I'm out of my depth.

The one that confused me.

The Lilligran one.

The Lilligran one confused me because... Was it Charen Govich? Who scored that?

Monjupani.

Monjupani. It's kicks, and then it goes off of Lilligran and goes in. Initially, Mike Johnson's like, Well, it doesn't matter. It's a kick, even if it goes off the player. I was like, That doesn't sound right to me.

If it was accidentally off of Lilligran and then into the net, then that's a kick in the net. But Lilligran played the park. Yes. Yeah, is what the ruling was, which makes total sense. Adam, just to correct you on the Markstrom stuff, he didn't play because he's day to day. That's why they called up Dustin Wolf the other day because Markstrom- That's the guy I would have liked to see.

I want to see him. Wolf? Yeah, I like him. I think he's the start of the future. I like him. I also think the Wranglers have the best jersey in hockey.

And name.

Yeah, it's a great name.

But the man, their jerseys are-What is it? I don't know.

Have you never seen a Wrangler's jersey? Wrangler. It looks like a Flames' jersey, but it looks like an Atlanta Flames Jersey, and it's very cool.

Are the Swamp Rabbit still a thing? I don't know. I don't even know where they are.

The Solar Bears had a cool one, but the Wranglers were a great old-school yellow, red, and white Jersey. Perfect '70s, '80s colors, man.

This guy?

That's a great fucking Jersey right there. I've always wanted one. They're so cool. Where do they play? What's that? Calgary.

Oh, they're the Calgary Wranglers.

Yeah, it used to be Abbott. I thought that was starting No, no, no.

I know they're the Flames Farm team. They've moved a thousand times.

They're back in Calgary. They're back in.

Okay. Because they were...

Weren't they in Abbottsford for a while? Yes, you just said that. You just said that.

They just said they were.

And Evan Bouchard Norris, right? Adam Justin. For fuck's sake.

Listen, I know we don't know everything, but we know something. Those are cool jerseys, man. Those are so cool.

No, I don't think you're wrong at all. Those are awesome jerseys.

Look at the alternate there, too.

The horsey ones?

Yeah, the horsey ones. I still like the W better, but the horsey is cool.

I'm going to act the fuck up. Look at that shit.

Here's my question. Why did the Wranglers get the cooler jersey than the Flames? That's a better jersey. How dare you? The The flame should go back to yellow, red, and white.

Ahl teams generally have better jerseys. They do. There's a great collection of jerseys down in the A. They do.

If we had never seen the Flaming Sea before, we would say it's the best logo ever. I think it's familiarity.

For me, it's not that. I love the Flaming Sea, and I I also love that when they used to give the captain another Flaming Sea in the '90s, the captain was also...

I thought that was the thing. The sea was on fire.

Go back to that. But I want that color combination is clean, baby. That's so nice.

That's the biggest fuck-off sea in the league. I also like how the flame at the bottom of the W looks exactly like Charmanders.

It does. It does, yeah.

He's inspiration. Now, the video coaches saved the day. Mike Stevens tweeted about it, but there's a very cool story with the video coaches because these guys, first off, they've been ice cold. They've been amazing.

Sam Kim, Jordan Bean.

Sam Kim, Jordan Bean. Jordan Bean was a mascot for the Islanders, was he not?

No, Jordan Bean. No, you're thinking of Sam Kim. Sam Kim. Jordan Bean, I believe I used to work with his wife, and Sam Kim used to be Sparky the Dragon for the New York Islander.

Is that still their mascot, by the way?

Yeah. Sparky? He's good in the video games. Okay.

He's good in the video game. He's good in the video game.

Where you can play as their mascot. No, that is a true follow your dreams thing. You always hear about, he started in the mail room, and then he worked his way to the boardroom. It's hard. It's hard to make happen. But not a lot of people working in an NHL, I don't know if that's front office, I would say coaching staff, can say they were a mascot at one point. There was a great photo I saw. I think it was an athletic article. The video coach for the Capitals, I think, once served as the emergency backup as well. There's him on a laptop wearing full pads.

Do you know the Detroit Lion's general manager started as a PR intern for them 18 years ago? Not for them, for the Rams, I think. For the Rams.

No, never heard of that in my life.

Yeah. So when they won their first playoff game in 30 years, you can imagine how excited he was.

You just never know, man.

Well, this is the thing. Do chase your dreams. Because I know right now, it's like, wow, they must seem like there's a mystique around people in those positions of power in hockey and in any sport. But the reality is at one point, they knew as little as anybody else about the sport, and they just learned it.

I love meeting people who have it and knowing that they have it right away. When I worked for Junior Hockey magazine, that was the show I did with Gino Redta, I had to train the new guy. And we got about five minutes into training the new guy where I was like, this, he already knows more than me. There's no point in me trading. And it was Jeff Azeparty who went on to do Tim and Sid for God knows who. So right away, and he knew, too. He's like, this guy's fucking clueless.

There's a reason I'm not behind the scenes anymore.

I wasn't very good at it.

With Jordan Bean, that's somebody who grew up in Pickering, worked for the Kitchen of Rangers, worked his way up and video coach long time in the least. But one thing that's interesting about his journey through hockey, and I think might be something Adam Wilde can look into, he interned at Octagon. Cool. No way. He was an intern at Octagon at one point. Who do we know there? Who do we know there? If Alan Walsh, who is an agent at Never heard of him. Might know Jordan Beane and if he might be a guest on a future Agent Provocateur one day. I think that would be a fascinating conversation.

Could he be the first noted Alan Walsh intern?

Maybe.

We have those shirts.

Let's make him. Let's make him. The video coaches have been great this year. It did win them the game. Marner and Matthews being great, that's what you need. People are like, Well, what are they going to do? They have to keep relying on these guys. Yeah, that's That's how they built the team.

I don't know if he picked up a point, but I thought Tavares played his best game in at least a week, too.

Again, Tavares, the hate around Tavares is always so aggressive because of the cap hit. But this guy, there are some regression things.

Listen, it's getting to the point where it's not great.

The shooting percentage is down, but I think it's a little still overblown. Even I was on him last episode, but I do think there's something there. He's going to be fine the next year and a half. Don't So no fret.

The effort was 100% there yesterday. It was not a Mona Lisa. It was not a perfect game, but the hustle was there. That game was, what is it? Hard work and talent meeting each other?

Hard work. Height doesn't measure heart, I think.I.

Don't think that's it.Markus Stroman.I.

Think that's what it was, right?

New York Yankees legend. Marcus Stroman. Him in New York is going to be hilarious.

Yeah, well, because he never wanted to be a Met, right? So now he's going to be finally a Yankee.

Adam and I have a long saga with Marcus Stroman. From him blocking the fan 590.

That and also, we just found his Twitter account interesting for years, and everybody was like, Is everybody just going to ignore the fact that this guy seems like a lunatic? I don't know what to say. Just everyone's against him. He's just like, me, on his Twitter account, all this is me.

Everyone's against him. He wakes up in the morning and looks at the box of lucky Charms. Fuck you staring at.

Yeah, even his gardener is like, I don't want you to succeed, Marcus. It's wild, man. What a wild guy. Yeah, so you take away from this game that it was an exciting, fun game. It was also cool to see Matthews get a hat-trick. It was also cool to see Lee fans in Calgary, chanting MVP, because I'm not even sure they would do that in Toronto.

And just litter the ice with hats.

I was wondering this. Okay, so an opposing team gets a hat trick in the opposing team, one of their players gets a hat trick. How many buildings would hats? Or the Leaps, the Leaps clearly can do it. How many other teams can do that?

I would say more than half a dozen hats because every building is going to have one guy like, This is my time to shine.

We're talking the ice crew needs to get two bags.

Right. Yeah.

That's pretty good. How many teams in the league can do that?

I think a lot of Canadian markets.

Montreal fans a little.

Yeah, Montreal.

Could maybe Rangers at Philly. When Philly, it sucked because they're good this year.

Within the Metro.

Jersey at Madison Square Garden. Would they get hats? Are there enough Jersey fans that go to Rangers games where if he just puts a hat-trick, he'd get hats?

I think once you start going West and the commute is longer than a subway ride, it gets really difficult. I don't know how many stars hats you're seeing in Vegas.

Stamkos hat-trick in Amelie.

Wait, sorry. Say that again.

Stamkos at Florida. Hattrick. Amelies. Amelies. Amelies, Tampa. I did that backwards. In Florida, what's their arena called? They just had the All-Star Game.

I I don't know. Hang on. Panthers.

The Pantheon. Not Southwest. Southwest is where- Amaranth Bank Arena. Is that what it's called?

Yeah, it's a local bank in, I think, the Southwest or Southeast United States.

Stam goes gets a hat trick against the Panthers. Does he get hats?

I guess we'll find out because he's having a great season, right, Adam?

Listen, Stammer, five on five numbers are not great. They're just not. They're not.

I think it'd be interesting to go through I think it's like a handful. It's a very small number. It was a pretty special moment is all I was trying to get to.

I agree. I think you're right. You'll see it regionally. There'll be a lot of Rangers fans that go to the island or they'll go on the island, excuse me. They'll go to Philly, they'll go to New Jersey or whatever. But are you going to see a swath of New York Rangers fans in Anaheim?

This is across the country.

I think it's across the league. You got hats.

No, the trap I'm Oh, the travel, yeah. Toronto to Calgary isn't like from Toronto to Ottawa.

It's like a three-hour flight.

And he got hats. That's fucking cool.

Well, I'll tell you, when I was there, lived in Calgary, and the Leaps got... The one time I was there for a Leaps game, They got absolutely run over. They were a fucking terrible team. It was so embarrassing. But I showed up with my Leaps' Jersey, and my girlfriend showed up with hers, and we went, and half the arena is Leifs fans. It's because there's a lot of people in Calgary who are from Toronto or from the East Coast. If you grow up on the East Coast of Canada, a lot of times, sadly, you have to leave to go get work in the West. They'll bring their Habs Jersey or their Leifs Jersey or their Bruins Jersey with them. There's a lot of Bruins fans in the East, so we can't forget about that. Yes. It's right there. And Bobby Or.

And Oshua.

And Oshua, of course. You know what's interesting about Bobby Or? Because there's a ton of Bruins fans because of him in Oshua. Yes. There are not a ton of Flyers fans because of Eric Lindros in Oshua.

Right. And even Mark Savard, who had his jersey retired in Oshua, it's like, Oh, yeah, Bobby Orr. Oh, yeah, Mark Savard. Yeah, sure. Him, too. You know what I mean?

And I love both those guys.

He was so...

He's transcendent. He's one of the top five players I ever play. It's just another... And was the best player in the world for a long time.

A decade until A long time.

Like, Lindros won MVP one time. Bobby Orr was the best player for over half a decade.

Now, I saw something on the internet, and I wanted to bring it up to you. I'm so glad we... Hang on.

Is Paul McCartney getting run over on an alley road.

It was not Paul McCartney. Can you name the player? That's so funny. Here's what's crazy about Bobby Orr. Something that happened.

Yes.

Bobby Orr won the Norris Trophy from 1967, '68, all the way through to 74, 75. Can you name the player that won it before him and the player that won it after him? For eight years, he won it every year. You have a chance at the 75, 76 player. I don't think you have a chance at the 66, 67 player. Seventy-six has to be Larry Robinson. No, he's 77. Fuck.

Oh, no.

But another really good player, another great defenseman, Altheimer.

That's too early for Salming, isn't it?

No, Salming was playing, but Salming never won it. Wow, really? No, he never won the Norse. I don't think any leaf ever has won the Norse. I'm not mistaken, unless I'm losing my mind. Yeah, I don't think we have. No leaf ever has won the Norse.

Is that too early for Dennis Potvin?

It is Dennis Potvin. Hey, there you go. Now, 1966, '67, the year of Our Lord, the leaf's last cup.

Yeah, this is pretty difficult.

I'll even narrow it down because there's only six teams. It was a New York Ranger, and his name was not Adam Fox, Jesse, so you can't guess him.

Jacob Truba.

Jacob Truba. Stop it.

I forgot his name. What is it?

Harry Howell.

Oh, that was not my guess.

Harry Howell had 40 points in 70 games that year. Harry Howell. Now, Bobby Orr, when he won it, and I'm just going to pull up his stats because they're goofy and stuff. Harry Howell went in '66, '67. Bobby Orr came into the league and in 46 games the next year had 31 points, and then '64 and '67. And then in 1969, 1970, he had 120 points in 76 games.

He's 33 goals. Producer Drew keeps pointing out all the stats that show Kael Mccar ahead of Bobby Orr's pace. But there's going to come a point in the very near future where Bobby Orr from the past is just going to go, See you. Completely leave him behind. Completely leave him in the dust. Yeah. Well, maybe not. Kael Mccar could put up 80 points, and you'd be like, Holy shit, that's the best player in the world. And Bobby Orr will beat him by like, 45 points.

Yeah, he's like, I had 120 that season. But then there's going to come a point where Kael Mccar just goes to the moon because Bobby Orr didn't play very long.

Yes. Yeah, of course. Bobby It's crazy how- He'll beat them in the marathon.

Yes. He'll beat them in the marathon, assuming he can stay healthy as well. Now, I got another one for you guys. Sure. Okay. Austin Matthews had a multi-goal game last night. It was the 71st of his career.

Wow.

It also was his game-winning goal. Remember, his last goal won them in the game. He has now recorded the third most game-winning goals in Maple Leaves history with 56. Can you name four, two, and one on that list? Sandine. Can we pass somebody? Sandine is number one. How many does he have? Just guess.

And what's Matthews?

Matthews is a 56.

73.

79. Really good, Jesse. Okay. Can you name the other two? Their absolute studs. Crazy names.

Noah Gregor.

Not Noah Gregor. Not yet. Damn it.

Mahovlj?

Mahovlj is four. Matthews just passed him, so it's a bit of a cheat code.

Matthews had 56, so he's 55. The other great M name, Mikhaev.

Stop it. You out of control today. I know it's Friday.

No, he wasn't a leaf long enough.

Yeah, Mikhaev wasn't a leaf long enough. Shut up.

I would say Rick Vive, but the leaves didn't win a ton of games.

No, they didn't.

That's a good point in this conversation is you had to win the games to get a game-winning goal.

Game-winning goal is arbitrary because you could score a game-winning goal in the first minute, technically.

Then you would win nothing or whatever, nothing.

George Armstrong was there so long. George Armstrong?

It's not George Armstrong, but a good guess. It's the other guy who is also great, and you're going to be mad that you didn't name him.

Hapday or Babe Die?

Not those guys. A little bit later, but not too late.

Oh, you moron.

Darryl Sittler. No, Dave Keon. 63 goals for Dave Keon. 63 of them were game winners in his career. Now, I thought that that was interesting, and I also thought that you'd want to know that Matthews is directly behind Dave Keon for third in leaf scoring all time. We brought this up before, but we're now up to 336. 336 goals for Matthews. Keon, over the course of his career, had 365. Austin Matthews has played 523 games all with the Toronto Mapleies. Dave Keon with the Toronto Mapleies played 1,062.

Unbelievable.

It's crazy what's happening. Oh, my God. By the way, Austin Matthews' average ice time as a Toronto Mapleief thus far, I'm not talking about just this season. I'm talking about over the course of his career. Guess.

Under 20 minutes.

Under 20 minutes, 1943.

Wow.

That's his average ice time over the course of his career. That shows you how little Babcock played him, right?

Oh, my God.

He limited his ice time.

Oh, Adam. It's pain. It's Friday. Don't make me.

I know. Again, a team hired that guy this season. It's crazy. I guess we can stop there. I wanted to make sure we hit Mers Lekens. I wanted to I want to make sure we hit the oilers, and I want to make sure we talked about the Leaps. I thought the Flames, just want to quickly talk about that first off.

Did we talk about the Wrangler's Jersey?

We did talk about the Wrangler's Jersey. I had that penciled in there. For the Flames' side, I thought that they played the Leaps really well. Of course, Codre is going to score. You always bet, always bet the guy to score. But Huberto getting two assists in the first period has got to feel good.

Well, and I got to apologize to the Oilers fans because I said, Darnal Nurse has the worst contract in the league. And they were like, Oh, Huberto, dude. I was like, Oh, maybe you're right. Then he's like, Hey, Steve, fuck you. He picked up two points.

That's just how it goes. That's just how it goes, man. Playing the Leaps, instant points. Can we do a press comment? We have time?

Yeah, let's do something All right.

Hey, this weekend, check out Drew and stew.

And by the way-Not just this weekend. Every week. Two times a week on your favorite podcast app or on our YouTube channel. Why, Jessie?

Why are we talking about them on our show?

I know. It's, Screw Drew. But Kam. I agree. Kam's got great bets.

That's right.

And listen, they cover the NFL. They cover the NFL playoff. It's the best time of the year for the NFL. They got you come in two times a week. Their best bets and just analysis from the games.

Okay, now who's more likely to bet Pro Chiefs?

Drew or stew? Drew is on this weekend in particular, Drew's on the Chiefs. I think it's when you're a fan of a team because he's a huge Bills fan and you hedge on your team. So you're like, Hey, I want the Florida Panthers to win, but you're a least fan. So you take the Florida Panthers. So either outcome, you're either right on your bet or you're a team you root for. I can't do that.

I cannot bet against my own team. I can't do it.

I don't know how he does it. That's trying to have your cake and eat it, too. Oh, yeah. How dare you?

Trying to have your cake and eat it, Drew.

I want to put that bet through a Flaming Table.

If you're an NFL fan, it's a muscle-ish and show.

Drew and stew, check it out on Sdpn.

The Presser Sdp. The Steve Dangle Press Conference.

We have two guessing games to play. One is an oldie and a very goodie, and we're going to bring it back for today. Then the other is where we're going this We got to guess the location. Let's start with that. This weekend, where are we going?

Kingston, Jamaica. To do a live show at a pool bar. That'll be mostly P.

Dacries everywhere.

Dacries, yes. All right. A little umbrella.

Kingston, Ontario.

Sorry, Jesse, go ahead.

The Kingston Frontinax. This is your first guessing game. They play in what building?

It used to be the K-Rock Center. I remember that because I remember thinking it was so cool that there was a radio station in the arena. But I don't know what the name of it is now. I don't believe they're partnered with Rogers Radio anymore. They're now with Bell Media.

They didn't rename the building after Gore Downey. It's the street that the building's on, right? I'm pretty sure the street... I think so. Oh, man. What's it called?

It's called the New Orleans's Sinking Building.

And they don't want to swim.

That's right.

They play at the Leon Center. Very normal name, right? Yeah. That name is not going to last.

Oh, it's going to change.

It's going to change. Kingston has decided to take on a new sponsor, and the new name of their arena will be- The SDPN Center. Slush Puppy Palace. No way.

No way. That's awesome.

Are you serious? Slush Puppy Place, to be specific. It is not actually palace.

Now, for anybody that doesn't know what Slush Puppy is, Jesse.

It is a fantastic beverage Church. That's right.

It's like the gas station. It's your slurping.

Slush Puppy Canada has made the winning bid to take over naming rights of what is currently called the Lyon Center, according to announcement from the city and the Kingston Front, an on Wednesday. This was back in December. I love that. That means with City Council approval, the arena will become known as Slush Puppy Place.

It's a proposed 15-year agreement, $135,000 a year.

Yeah. The kids in Frontenax are excited to work alongside Slush Puppy Team, the Slush Puppy team, as the new Naming Right partner of our home arena.

Nickname the dog, pal.

I think that is so much fun. In Gatineau, They already have a Slush Puppy place. This will be the second arena.

What are they, Rogers?

They're taking over everything?

Slush Puppy place, Slush Puppy Arena, Slush Puppy Center.

This will be the second arena in two provinces.

It's good for Slush Slush Puppy.

Slush Puppy is taking over, you guys.

Let's go Slush Puppy.

Can we get Slush Puppy as a sponsor on this show?

I would love to be the SDP sponsor by Slush Puppy.

That would be incredible.

Sd Slush Puppy.

That's right. Let me pull up Slush Puppy. We're already in it. Wow. So everybody knows. That's cool.

Here's a promotion. Forget white ice. It's just a died blue and purple and red. There you go. You can't tell where any of the freaking lines are. No, the lines are white.

Oh, Oh, shit. I like that.

Why haven't they hired me? Get them on the phone. Get them on the phone so that we can...

By the way, more trips to the dog. Did you see last night that the Flames fans were booing the linesmen for not dropping the fuck?

No, but good for them.

Just saying. Are they your favorites?

Did you cheer for the flames? If you want to bring it up, just in case anybody's not familiar, this is what the delicious slushy beverage slush puppy looks like.

Look how content that dog is.

That dog is the happiest dog in the world because he has a slushy.

In case you're wondering, that's what childhood in Canada looks like right there. It's that color. And by the way, it's not just your tongue, it's your teeth that turn that color, too.

And your lips.

Oh, yeah. Did you ever kiss anybody who just had a slush puppy?

No, I didn't have that experience.

For any American listeners, it's just any gas station slushy. It's fantastic.

Adam, I didn't have that experience, but I did have a level 71 Pigeot. All right, next guessing game is We've had so many new listeners over the last couple of years.

We haven't done this game in literally years. It's because they took it away from us, and then they brought it back. Now, I think we should bring it back. It is NHL Headlines. For anybody not familiar, NHL. Com always has a punny headline on their website. They used to. Then they brought it back. We did this game so much that the guy who wrote the headlines was on our and DMed us and all this way. Way back when. We're talking like 2017-ish. I love this. The headlines have come back in the last season or so. What? They've actually been back for a little bit, so I think we should bring back the game. Let's go. I love it. Steven Adam, guess the NHL headline on NHL. Com. Got it. I give you clues as to what it could be. I give you the game, the team, everything, and you tell me the punny headline that NHL. Com came up with.

That's so cool.

Last night, well, I should say, NHL. Com is highlighting the Vancouver Knucks. As they should. They've had a lot of wins lately. They're doing very well. That's the first. I can give you more if you'd like, but if you have a guess, we can go from there. They beat the Arizona Coyotes last night in Vancouver. A lot of players did well. Let me see. We had a goal from Petterson. Dakota Joshua scored, who's been a fantastic value.

Man, what an ad.

What an add. What do you think the headline is?

Okay.

By the way, this is very competitive, and it means a lot to Steve and I. When you actually get one, you do cartwheel.

You guys usually go like two for 10. Every 10 we do, you'll get like two. It's hard. It's so hard and so much fun. Play along with us.

Can I ask if it is a team-based headline or player-based headline?

Because this is our first time back, I'm going to warm you in. Yeah, please. It's preseason. It is player-based headline. Nuts.

Well, then I'll tell you what my team guest was going to be because they have Johnny Knuck, I was going to say Johnny B. Good. That seems like the thing they would do.

They do much better.

Yeah, they could do better than that. Okay. I think Here's what I'm thinking. Petterson scored, Joshua scored, right? What can we do with those names?

For Pete's sake?

Pettersend.

Guys who had a cis. Hoglander, Teddy Blueger, Quinn Hughes, JT Miller.

I think it's just Teddy Blueger with three exclamation moments. Who was after Hoglander, sorry?

Blueger, Hughes Miller. Hughes.

If Miller had scored a hat-trick, it'd be its Miller time.

No, it just is throwing us off. It's got to be Joshua or Patterson.

Has to be. What was the score in the game, Jesse?

2-1.

Oh, my, Joshua?

Demko had a great game. Saved 20 of 21 shots. No, you're- Conor Ingram is also pretty good, but just his team couldn't put a couple of stuff.

Now, he's throwing us off. Now, he's giving us crap. You're just adding stuff. Who cares about Conor Ingram?

I'm giving you all the details. Okay. So you can guess this headline.

Pistol Pete.

Submit your guesses here, gentleman. I'm giving you 30 seconds to formulate an answer.

Vancouver, a whale of a game.

Or a whale of a time. I already told you that it had to be a player. Oh, shit.

It's a player. Shit. Okay.

I already got him. Steve, you got anything?

Dakota, oh, my gosh.

Adam.

Elias Petter Saint because he's been saintly with the way he's played.

The NHL headline from today is Just Quin, Baby.

That's a very good thing.

Nice hat line. Just Quin, Baby. I'm so glad these were back. This was so happy. We're doing this every day now. I would do this every episode. I love this. It's fantastic. I was trying to lead you down the path of the guys who got a cis. Quin didn't score. I was like, The guys who got a siss?

You can never trust Jesse with these ones because he does throw in shit. You threw the Connor Ingram in there as well.

Of course, it's not going to be with Connor Ingram.

You lost the game.

He'll be like, Oh, and the goalie made 12?

Maybe that's the headline. And we're all like, Baker's dozen.

Shit, that would have been good. No, but a Baker's dozen is 13. You idiot. Here, if the headlines guy is listening, this one's for free. If they ever beat the Blues, sing in the Hughes.

So they're-I'm giving away your good material. Their story, they have a story on Quinn Hughes and leading the team of the All-Star Game. That's awesome. The Knucks got so many All-stars and all that stuff, and they win last night. So just Quinn, baby.

Now, Steve, how is your live stream going to be against the NHL's number one team? If they come in and they act like the NHL's number one team because they sure act like it a lot.

I hope it is a great game, and I'm confident that it's going to be a great game. The Leaps have a little palate cleanser here with a nice two points over the Calgary flames. The Leifs and Knucks low-key don't really like each other, and the Knucks are going to bring their best, not just because of the number one team in the league, but because the Leaps ran their show last time.

This will be fun.

They beat them up, and They had a nice comeback win, and the Knucks are going to be very motivated to not let that happen again.

Well, let's have some fun.

Okay, so- And how do we watch that?

On the S Deepen YouTube channel.

You're playing me out while I'm in the middle of it. Okay, also, I want to say this. Because of our live show on Sunday- We should have led with this. We are going to have a day off Monday, so we don't die, and then we'll be back Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, next.

But you can hear Sunday's live show on Monday. You won't miss content on Monday. I'll throw tickets to the right group in the description.

The Steve Dangle podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter @steve_dangle, @AdamWYLDE, and @jesseblake. Connection complete.