So moving on to the press conference part of it, because obviously we talked about Keith here. Brenan was asked by Luke Fox of Sportsnet, Hey, I got to give Luke Fox a lot of credit. And there's another person, a few other reporters I got to give credit to because they asked very bold questions. The Toronto media did its job today, I feel. Luke Fox asking Mitch and John to waive their no trade clauses went right at him and said, Are you going to ask them? Brenan Shanahan said this, and again, he repeats the answer, but it's important that you note it. Everything is on the table. But it doesn't serve the leaves to discuss those things prematurely. The focus right now is to find a new head coach. I do believe there is time for preaching patience, but he did say he doesn't believe that time is now. He was preaching patience last spring. He was preaching patience the previous six years before last spring. And then here's the great follow-up. Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun. Steve says this, In eight elimination games, your team has scored 11 goals. Why should we Why should we believe you when you say that you can change this and the time for change is now and you haven't been able to get it done before?

And Brandon...Legit. And I think that's a great question.Legit. And Brandon said, That is the challenge. We wake up every day thinking about ways we can change the narrative and the results. And he said, You got to get into the dirty areas. Brandon, this is important. You got to get into the dirty areas. Aside from the Tampa series, and he referenced the power play, in all other series, we haven't gotten those results. And he's talking about playoff goals.

Which is something that Sheldon Keef has emphasized with his team for at least three years.

So there's a clip that we can't play, which is funny because we had to deal with Amazon when this came out. But there's a clip that we can't play because it's part of the Amazon doc where Keef is meeting with Joe Thornton, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and a few other stars.

We probably could play it, but we're not going to. We're not going to. It's on our YouTube channel.

Yes, it is.

We wouldn't flag ourselves.

I know. I don't know if the whitelist thing lasts three years or not.

We could play it if you really wanted to, but let's not.

Let's not get demonetized. Sorry, everyone. Basically, it was making the rounds yesterday, and it's Keef talking to the guys with masks on. Yes. About what it is to score a goal in the playoffs and how this is going to be different. And Joe Thornton, notably in it, which went passing at the time, but has really resonated in the three years since, says, Give us a break. We're in first place. Or lay off, we're in first place, I believe, is what he said. And Joe, and I liked him in Toronto. He wasn't great, but I liked him. He's a great personality. He was pretty old. He was brought in to be a mentor to the young guys. And that is not what anybody wants to see or hear from their favorite team going into the playoffs.

Part of the reason people are frothing at the mouth right now for Craig Berubey is a clip that's going around of Sheldon Keef before game seven this year. And he goes, All right, guys, relax. Have fun. All that. And then they show a clip of Craig Berube from before game seven, 2019 Stanley Cup final in Boston, by the way. He's like, We're taking the fucking cup. Like just hellfire and brimstone fired up. Let's frigging. And the Leaps just haven't They haven't had that. Yeah.

They haven't had that. Mark Masters, as you look back, why do you think, and I'm paraphrasing Mark's question here because it was hard to hear, why do you think they haven't got... Why hasn't the core four got this group over the top? Brett and Shana. That's a difficult question. There is a time where the right answer is patience. New information has evolved, and you just have to adjust the way you're thinking. Chris Johnston.

What?

So what he's saying is he He doesn't know why the core four theory didn't work.

No, I need you to read it again.

Okay, so Mark Masters, as you look back, why do you think they, as in the core four, haven't been able to get the group over the top? Good question. Shanaher. That is a difficult question. Again, I'm paraphrasing some of the things. There is a time where the right answer is patience. Sometimes new information, and he says evolved, new information has evolved, and you have to adjust the way of thinking, or you have to adjust your way of thinking, which goes back to his initial statement. Word salad. No, I don't think it is. Yummy, yummy. I actually disagree with you completely on that. I think that is 100% saying, We're changing directions now. You would be right to say, The time to change it was Last spring, Shani. The time to change it was probably when you look back, your cup window with Tavares was 19, 20, and 21. I know there was a pandemic, but that was your cup window. The time to change things in retrospect, hindsight being, 2020, was that. Okay, we didn't get it done against Montreal, but Tavares got injured, so let's do it against Tampa. Oh, we didn't get it done against Tampa.

You know what I mean?

There's so many times they could have pulled the shoot. Covid genuinely boned this team. It boned this team more than any other.

But you know what they did about it?

In terms of strategy. And what they did about it is nothing, right? So if it wasn't 2021, it was damn sure 2022. 2, and they didn't do anything. And then they win in 2023 and you go, Oh, hooray, and then they lose.

Well, I guess the organization as a whole, they're showing a pattern of doing everything about a year late. I wonder with Shana and his job is Was this the year to move on from him? And are we going to sit here next year and be like, Okay, now's the time to move on? We're all like, It's a year late. You know what the Sheldon Keef stuff with trading Marner, it was a year late. His no movement clause didn't kick in. With having the core established and saying, This is our time to go for. It was two years ago.

Replacing the GM. Replacing the GM if you were going to do it, you do it after you lose to Montreal and Tampa in success. If you were going to do that, if you were going to make changes, that was the year to do it. It doesn't mean that Duby should have been let go. It just means that if you were going to do it, that was the time.

Their mentality in all of these decision makings is we don't want to make a rash decision. We don't want to jump into something too soon. But that has led them over this length, this 10 years of and a Hands' Run to doing everything a step too late. That's left them just trying to chase these things that they should have been doing a year or two earlier. I feel like we're just on this constant loop of, Okay, you made this decision It's the right decision now, but it should have been made this season prior. I feel like every single time we're in this instance. Chris Johnston, I assume you're going to get to his question about the contract. He's the next one. You can read it because I think that's an important one there where his contract is expiring.

Before I to what CJ said, and I think it's important. I want to add to your point, Jesse. There's a theory in war gaming, bear with me, that you arrive at a battlefield, the other army arrives at a battlefield, and it's called seizing the initiative. There are, Hey, we could fight the battle in battle A, or we can fight the battle in battle B. And what the least do is they go, I'll let the other team decide. It's called seizing the initiative. So what great generals do is they seize the initiative. They go, No, we're going to fight it this way because my team does this well on these with these circumstances, and this gives us the best chance of winning. We're not going to let the other guys decide, We're going in this way, and this is how we're going to fight it. We're not going to react. We don't let it come to us, and that's what they're doing now.

Never once during the Bell Roger's 10-year Shana and Ron, have I ever seen them be proactive in any of these decisions? It's always reactive. It's been very disappointing. I don't think that's a recipe for success.

Chris Johnson, can you clarify to Shani, your contract The situation, I'm not going to go into the details. It's not a focus for me. Then he went on to talk about how his previous contract was a month from expiry before they re-signed the new one. Chris, in his question, mentioned something about performance objectives as well. Like, hey, is there performance objectives? And obviously, I think Chris knew that Shani wasn't going to fully answer that question. I think he knew. But you got to ask.

Yeah, you do. I mean, I don't know. It's press conference is one of those things where you're like, well, what do you expect them to say? I don't know. Not much, but they might.

Got to try. That's their job is to ask the question. They might answer, they might not. But your job as the reporter is to ask the question.

The no move clause for Marner and Tavares. You know what would have been great there? Yep. We're moving them. We're going to ask them to move their thing. We actually sent Tavares a text right before his plane took off to Prague just to piss him off. Anyway, good luck at the worlds. You're never getting that answer. No, but you know what answer we didn't get? No.

Which is what we got emphatically last year.

Yes. Which is an answer in and of itself.

Right. I am not asking those players to move. They're no move. I mean, my favorite? Anything other than... Imagine you're those people, right? Anything other than a no makes you uncomfortable.

Of course. My favorite answer like that in hockey history that I can remember is when at the draft in 2016, Mark Bergevin was asked, Are you trying to trade PK Supan? And he said, No, we are not actively shopping PK Supan. And he was traded like a day later, two days later.

Which no, we are not actively shopping him is so different from no.

Very different.

It's no with a bunch of herbs and spices.

Shani was asked, Can the core group win? There's a time where you look at the age and development of a player, and then he's talking about patience. And then there comes a time when trends repeat themselves without getting specific. When we're taking this team into the playoffs next year, We want to be more confident the team can get results. I think that's a big quote, too, because it lends itself to the fact of this year, we weren't totally confident. Whatever confidence we had, we knew there were holes, and rightfully so. You know your team strengths and your weaknesses, but the least strengths and weaknesses were essentially the same. And I look at this personally and say, This is the most we've ever gotten from Brandon Shanaher, if you're really listening to the quotes, because it's the most he's had to say. And I can understand, by the way, people ask why Leef fans are so upset and frustrated all the time. This is why, because we could have told you three years ago, and we were told, no, no, you don't know better. You don't know better. You watch. It's going to turn around for us.

We need to be patient. We need to be patient. No, at a certain point, this is pro-sports. This is not the patience game. This is not, hey, I'm building a sandcastle over the course of several days. This is years and years and years of work, millions and millions of dollars. And by the way, millions of dollars spent by Toronto Mapleree fans on jerseys, on beer, on tickets, corporations buying those outrageously priced platinum seat tickets because, by the way, no human being is buying that themselves. They're buying that as a write off.

Burger flippers with a piece of game used stick as the handle. Exactly. That's something they sell.

A hundred %.

I almost bought one.

It actually sounds like really good. I want that for Christmas.

They have a bunch of stuff in that store where I'm like, You should really tell people you have this. That's cool. I always find it strange when the leaves are selling something and I'm learning about it for the first time. I'm like, Wait, okay, did this come out today? Who's pulling my leg? What's going on? Anyway.

That's significant. Now, another significant thing comes up with Brad Treleving. First off, he's instantly asked about Craig Berube, and he's like, I'm not going to get into specific individuals, of course. On the Leaps' lack of scoring in the playoffs, is it systematic or is it personnel? He said a very... Brad's very funny. He's actually got a good sense of humor. And he said, We seem to be turning the other team's goalie into the first star every night.

Man, there was a game. I don't remember the season. I'm going to say 2021, '22, early in the season. And the Leifs got 40, 50 shots on Egor Shesterken. Sheldon Keef said, We made his night It was really easy. Something along those lines.

I remember that podcast, actually. I remember talking about that.

And people were like, Dude, you're nuts. They had 50 shots. I'm like, How many of them were dangerous? I think they had two goals that game. They lost 4-2 or something like that.

By the way, advanced stats love games like that. Oh, they at least should have won.

Well, it's a deserve to winometer feast. And speaking of, we'll talk about Carolina a little bit later.

Sorry. Publically available advanced stats. The private ones are actually brilliant. Well, yeah.

I mean, a lot of the public ones are made with blood, sweat, and tears. Anyway, that's a whole different discussion.

It doesn't make them accurate.

He wasn't... He being Egor Shostorkin was not being adequately tested by these shots. Also, he's an incredible goalie, but he wasn't being adequately tested by these shots. I mean, we talk about, oh, man, when things get tight, when it gets tight. Dude, have you seen the first few games of the second round? Wide open. It's teams blowing other teams out of the water. There was an odd man rush every 45 seconds in Rangers, Carolina. Holy shit.

What a series. Jesse, you must have had fun stream in that one.

Yeah, it was really good. I assume we'll get to the game. Yeah, we will. Dallas blew a three-nothing lead and then very narrowly avoided a four-nothing lead.

Edmonton blew a four-one lead?

Edmonton blew a four-one lead. And Boston kicked Florida's ass game one, and then Florida kicked their ass It's game two. It's been a lot of goal scoring. Now, maybe it's early series, and then it tightens, tightens, tightens. You got to be able to win both ways. And I'm happy that the Leifs showed like, Hey, we could win two at a three in elimination games, they always find a way to lose that last one. There was some stat I saw yesterday where Sheldon Keef is only... I think his playoff record was 16 and 21. I'm like, how is that possible that he's only lost five more games than he's won? How the hell is that possible?

Because they go to game seven, game five.

He's three and four every time out. That makes a lot of sense.

I want to say it was one goal against Columbus.

Five for twelve at home, by the way.

Yeah. Oh, good Lord. I'm surprised it's even that good. Five and twelve. One goal at home against Columbus, one goal at At Home against Montreal, one goal at home against Tampa, two goals on the road to close out Tampa. Florida, you got your ass kicked. And this year, one goal on the road against Boston. One goal, one goal, one goal, one goal, one goal, one goal. It just keeps going that way.

It was interesting to hear his assessment of it because I agreed with him that scoring is clearly the issue. They're perfectly fine. But his assessment is like, We need to score in the dirty areas and all that stuff. But you could also beat them with the offense if the offense is high flying and it works in the playoff.

Dude, the tip Panarin had last night, I think it was the game-winning goal, made me physically ill.

Yeah, that was the OT winner. Saying, We need to move off of skill, he said in a way. He was talking a lot about skill, and it's not that we need to lose skills, it's that we need guys who can play the other way, something like that. But you can also You also need the skill.

We need to move off of low percentage plays that come to us easily.

Yeah, that's fair.

I think that's a really good way to put it. They're so good at caving teams in with those goals in the regular season because, I don't know, man, this is night three of four. I'm on the road. I don't give a shit. I always wonder, and there's no way to ever know the answer to this, but sometimes I'll watch a bottom five team, and I go, I wonder what they would be like if they were just placed in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I bet a lot of them do completely differently. I mean, look how many times we've seen that. Chicago beating Edmonton in the qualifying round in 2020. They were the 23rd seed. Montreal beating the Leifs. I might be screwing up my ears.

Colombus beating the Lefs.

Yeah, I might be screwing up my ears. But the Habs The Habs won against the Leaps is the... No, the Habs beat the Penguins is the 24 seed.

Yeah, the Habs won in the Canadian division season.

I don't know. Sometimes I just get curious. I'm like, What if you just took the Ducks and were like, You're playing the Brewers?

Yeah, but sometimes then you get the Washington Capitals of this year. Right.

That's very true. I mean, listen, I'm not saying they would go on a run and win the Cup, but I am saying they're two completely different styles of hockey.

I don't think the Leaps have the ability right now to win in the way Colorado did in game one, where they charge back and they take back a 3-0 lead because the Leaps can't do that. I don't think they've proven now they can't win this way, where they can't win the 2-1 game against the Bruins.

They can't neutralize the other team's best player either. Let's just look at game one, and I know it's one game. Game one, Edmonton, Vancouver, because that's the game I watch the closest. Yep. Mcdavid did not have a shot.

For the first time in his playoff career, bananas. I didn't know Vancouver was capable of that. I'll just straight up say it. That's the reason why I picked Edmondson to win the series. If you were to tell me a team blew a 4-1 lead in that series because the team stormed back to win it.

You'd be the team with the-How did Edmondson do it? Yeah. It would be the team with the rookie third string goal tender, too.

Another one for CeeLabs.

Has he lost the game? One, I think. I think he's lost the game. Yeah, he did lose the game.

Unbelievable. Like, Edmondson's taking on Vancouver's third goalie. How many people listening to this right now heard of Archer CeeLabs for the first time in his first game of these playouts?

Oh, yeah. Why would you pay attention to the third string goalie on Vancouver? Unless you're a Vancouver Knux fan or there's something related.

I'm not ripping a lot of Abbotsford games. I'll put it there. If you were like, Hey, you know Archer He loves to be like, That's a person.

I knew he was in Vancouver's depth chart. I couldn't have told you much about him.

It does seem a little bit like a creative player name, too, because Archer is a goalie name for sure. Could have been.

Dude, I had players on my NHL 2001 team who were creative players, and I still remember their name because they were valuable parts of my Stanley Cup winning teams. Shout out Jeff Svohm.

Okay, there you go. The other major thing that you should take away from this press conference was Brad Treleving on goal tending.

Oh, this was-Oh, Sam, he's so gone.

He said, I got faith in Joe. Sometimes bad luck happens. But he mentioned, is this an injury prone player? Is it a training issue? Is it off ice routine? He said, We have to support Joe. Elia's contract is up.

Again, he can say things very plainly. What could he I have said beyond, I am not bringing back Elia's stuff?

You can't, though. You can't. No, I know. You can't. I know. And I had somebody who's well placed and knows what they're talking about say, Listen, everybody talks about the leaves needing to move this or move that. He's like, The number one thing he believed, and he's been in the I know for a long time that the leaves need as a goal tender this year. And isn't it funny that one of the best ones available is in Calgary? Not that they'll do a deal with Toronto. Which means he's going to New Jersey.

Guys, I don't have the energy. If you have a leaves trade proposal, make sure it's not the flames. It's not happening.