Canada's ultimate challenge turns our country into an epic obstacle course hosted by Brandon Gones. It's a breathtaking, hard-pound cross-country adventure keeping you on the edge of your seat over seven weeks. Total strangers have to foreign teams and participate in 16 draw-drop challenges. And we saw Team Yellow eliminated last week. And there is an elimination in this episode, and we won't tell you where that goes.

The other one that dropped on Sunday. They're in the hammer.

Yeah, that's right.

They've gone to Hamilton. And you especially should have loved this episode because a large portion of it takes place on a World War II ship.

Then the second half, yes, Jessie, and the second half, they're dropping bombs out of a plane.

A fighter jet thing.

You're leaving behind my bag, which is they were paddling in a boat.

Yeah, big canoe guy over here would have nailed that challenge.

I would have nailed it. I was criticizing how they were taking those turns so hard.

How did your canoe journey go?

Better. It's important. Teamwork. You got to bear down there so you can take the turn nice and sharp. Then once you're straightened up, you go again. It's all about communicating.

For anybody that doesn't know, Steve once bought a kayak and then got out of the store and said, Oh, I don't know how I'm going to bring this home because he couldn't put it in. Then my friend brought their truck. That's why we get more hard time every time battles are involved. It's a great show.

It's a good episode, too. I like that one.

I got to tell you, the tension on Team Green for me has been there. It's like, We're a team, but I could kill you. A little bit too on Team Blue.

There's a little bit of a shaky relationships over there, too.

The drama is big, and you should check out Canada's ultimate challenge right now. It's on CBC Gem. New episodes on Sunday. Again, watch for free on CBC Gem. Let's start the show.

The Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam and Jesse Blake.

Let's go. Elias Petterson had one inner slot shot the entire playoffs.

What?

No. Yes. Wow.

He had his many-Aquording to who is tracking them?

Tsn.

That's a TSN. All right. Okay. And for the audience, who's that?

What do you mean? Tsn. Tsn.

Why are they credible?

They're called the Toronto Sports Network. Okay. And they only exclusively cover Lily.

All I needed to hear. You're telling me Elias Petterson had as many inter-slot shots on goal as Cody Ceece had game seven goals. Winners.

Yes.

Not winners. Sorry, not winners. How dare you?

Not winners.

First goal.

First goal. Do you see my stat this morning?

Let's read it. Cody CC. He just ready for this. He's so fired up.

Just so horny for the stat. I don't know why.

Eggplant emoji, for sure. Cody CC has as many goals in game sevens since 2022 as the Toronto Mapleeefs as an entire team in the same amount of games.

Wow.

It's bad. Also, do you know how many goals in elimination games Marner has in his last 20? The same amount. Two. Not game seven, just all elimination games. You want some more depressing stats? Sure. I'll look them up. Give me time.

Edmonton allowed three goals in the final two games of the series. Now, Jesse, you were doing the game seven finale. Yes. I want to start here. When the Knucks started to look like they were coming back, did you believe they could?

All along the entire game, I was like, We're going to get something here. There's enough guys on this team who aren't going to quit. The thing they never did was challenge Stuart Skinner. And once they did just a little bit, they scored a couple of goals. They had through the first two periods and a half, they had 12 shots on goal. Then by the time they had 17 shots, they had two goals. It was ridiculous the way they just sat back and played all game long.

The Oilers got lucky there at the end. I'm not going to lie. They were clearly the better team, but their bread and butter is, overwhelm your opponent. And they stopped. And they stopped with, I don't know, 12 minutes to go?

I think the pushback on the Oilers got lucky narrative is that with three minutes left, the Vancouver Knucks had 17 shots on goal. They ended the game with 17 shots on goal. The Oilers played exceptional defense. I don't think it's a matter of they got lucky. It's that They Got Lucky. It's that they played a game where they clamped down. They didn't allow the Knucks to do anything by the end of it. I think it's a new Oilers team in that we don't expect them to play that way, and they've managed to play that way in a couple of games now. I referenced Adam on his game 6 stream where you mentioned, This reminds me of the Nashville-Vancouver series. It is. But it's Edmondson and Vancouver because Edmondson plays a different brand of hockey that we think in our mind is just like, McDavid, go. Outscore everybody. Allow a million goals. But they also have exceptional team defense where they're able to clamp down and not allow a whole ton of high danger shots.

Okay, then let me correct then. For about six or seven minutes, they got back to bad habits.

They sat back and didn't play offense for sure.

Right. They did a great job pitting the puck to the boards for the last three, three and a half minutes. Zack Hyman, I thought, was instrumental and all that.

He killed 40 seconds on his own just by putting his skate up against the puck on the boards. It was a fantastic to watch.

I think had the game-winning goal.

Just what a grunt. Does he have the league's strongest ass, by the way? He is the king of just... I've got the puck. I got the buck, and my ass is going between me and you and this puck. He just swings that thing around.

I feel like I've First of all, he does. He's shaking. You're talking about that thing loving it.

Like a Polaroid picture, Steve.

Damn, he does. I've met a lot of hockey players. Not a lot of them are jacked up top. All of them are their legs feed the wolf type athletes. The tree trunk legs, big booty, like you mentioned, strong core. And then you get up top and they got enough, but it's lean. Hyman's huge. Hyman is frigging jacked. I noticed that shortly before he left the Leaps. Grown, single-tier. But that guy, he's a hunk of meat for sure.

I think So when Edminton really started to take off defensively in this series, it was when it was exactly coincides with CC Nurse being split up. And they started playing the exact same defensive scheme that Nashville played against Vancouver. The difference was Nashville can't score. And that's why I think Nashville will actually be a pretty good team next year if they get some goals.

Mitch Marner.

Mitch Marner and Steven Stamkos. There you go. Boom. Nashville, Stanley Cup. They're a really good defensive team. And so Edminton, which has been a good defensive team this year. What they did in game 6 that I think carried over into game 7, at least from the replay I watched this morning, was just don't let Stuart Skinner have to do anything.

He wasn't great, but he didn't have to be. That was the beauty He made a few- He made a couple of saves, but he wasn't great. I don't think you would ever sit there and say that Stuart Skinner stole that game from them. But the oilers, they did an exceptional job blocking shots. On top of everything they did defensively. They didn't allow things to get to Stuart Skinner because they knew if you get a lot of shots on him, they might not go your way. And Vancouver, they did not look up to this. They didn't look up to the tasks up until the final eight minutes of the game where they really turned it And they had looked up to it since game five. Right. And you credit that to the defense, and then you credit that to their play just wasn't at the standard that we expected.

The four-minute double minor, when I think the game was still tied zero-zero, I I mean, obviously, they didn't score, but they generated so little.

They had no shots on goal.

Yeah. But sometimes they'll get a chance, but like, Oh, I missed the net. So it won't register as a shot on goal. But they came pretty close.

It was nothing.

And dude, they missed Brock Besser so much. They score on that power play? Who knows? Who knows? We might be talking about a completely different winner today.

Well, and I think even before Besser and the unfortunate blood clot happened, I think, ideally, if you're the Knux, you need two more forwards next year of skilled players. Because listen, they had a good first line. The Suter, Miller, Besser, right? Petterson and whoever. And then they had a really good third line with Lynn Home, Garland, and Dakota Joshua. It was the second line, I think, where Petterson was forced to play with guys like Lena Carlson in no disrespect, but that's not a guy that's ideal.

Yeah, you got to drive.

Yeah, you got to drive, but no. I think it's like, okay, so if we took Matthews and we put him between two guys that really are not that great, or let's put him between David Camp and Ryan Reeves, who are not great on offense. I'm sure he'd still score. It would just be less.

I mean, they played him with Noah Gregor. They played him with Pontus Holmberg.

Yeah, but who else was with him?

Okay, well-Mitch Marner or William Neyland. Jt Miller played with better line mates than Elias Petterson because JT Miller produced.

And last night, Tucket gave Petterson to Miller. That was the first line. They got the lot of line back. That was the Makev Miller-Petterson line. And Makev had a chance early on, and he couldn't finish on the nice little one-on-one with the goalie. And they didn't look bad, but they also, up until the final eight minutes of the game, they didn't really do anything. But you can say that about the entire team outside of Connor Garland, who was exceptional throughout the entire week.

Yeah, man, he was great.

Really good. Lee fans, if you want to get mad all over again, go look at the chances Makey have had in game 6 against Montreal. When I saw him not be able to bury that one, I'm like, There he is.

Yeah, he's not his finisher.

But he's always in the right He's so fast.

He's just, score. The upset Vancouver fans in the chat called him a passenger. Makey? Yeah. He's been a passenger all season long. I was trying to give him some credit being like, Okay. But his role shouldn't be to be your big scorer. He's been doing his job is to get out there and just do the dirty things for that line, he's been okay at that, but he's also just been riding along doing a lot of cardio. I'm not going to argue against the Vancouver fans who think he's been a passenger this season.

What's that, Jesse? What's that? Oh, yeah, sure. I will tell you, Ilya Mikhaev's buyout, because a lot of people were asking yesterday. It is 1, 2, 3, 4 years, 1.15, 2.15, 1.15, 1.15..

I think you just keep them for at least another year.

I don't know if it's that bad. What? We're talking about-That's what I said.

That's what I mean. The Knux needed a couple of extra production Directive forwards. Somebody tweeted it out or something. I don't know if it was me or whatever. But, man, what the Knux could really use to fully intana of this series.

Man.

And they could have had them.

You know what's funny? You mentioned they could have used a couple of other forwards. They unloaded Anthony Bouvillier for nothing.

And then he went on to play them.

Well, yeah. And then he went on to play them in the first round. But also, there have been Brock Besser rumors for years, and then he frigging went off this year. But we were talking about Connor Garland at the beginning of the season, in October. It was a foregone conclusion he was gone. And part of that is their cap.

Jt Miller was almost a Penguin. Had the penguins not figured Had Hexstall figured out the cap situation, JT Miller would have been a Penguin this year.

Right. So they were trying to unload all these forwards. Petterson's getting an enormous raise, and they need more. I I think they just needed a healthy Brock Besser, and a couple of guys get a little older, and they'll be fine. That and their starting goalie. Silovs, Silovs, Sheilovs? Sheilovs. Sheilovs was really good.

It's not Thatcher Demko. Demko wouldn't have helped that game seven.

I don't think so.

No, Sheilovs saved, I think, three clear goals that should have been in the back of the net. Every goal Edminton scored was a goal. I don't think any goal he's really stopping. They were outmatched. You have the greatest goal tender in the net last game. I don't think they win the game when they have no ability to generate offense outside of the end there. And with the other guys in the forward group, I think you expected more from Lindhome. We're talking about you bring in the forward group, you expected more from Lindhome getting him at the deadline there. And guys like Lafferty, you expect it to step up and you don't get anything there. And they're obviously missing Besser, but if you look back to games six and even if you go to five, the Knucks finish the series. It's either 0 for 18 or 0 for 19. I'm pretty sure it's 0 for 18 on the power play to end the series. Brock Besser was in those games. Their forward group didn't produce offensively at all. You can't win a series when you can't score on the power play.

Well, you can't score on the power play. You get outshot into oblivion, which is what happened in the first round also, even though you won. Rick Tucket, I think, is a motivator is incredible. As a speaker, I think is incredible. I don't know if he had the greatest playoff, man.

He didn't adjust in the Nashville series when Nashville was shutting was shutting them down. And the only thing that got Vancouver through that was they were very opportunistic on the goals. They were consistently outshot, consistently outpossessed. And then you take it to game five and you're like, oh, Vancouver could actually do this. But in game six, Edmonton really put down the hammer. And what was interesting, the game five to game six comparable is in game five, Edmonton comes out, dominates the first, and then Vancouver really has the second and the third period. They really do win it outright. But Edmonton, in that first period, I think, learned something, and they were like, oh, we can just do that for three periods. And the next game they did, and there was no adjustment again from talking to the coaching staff. Give the Edmondson penalty kill credit, but I look at the- Give Edmondson credit.

I mean, they weren't.

But I look at the Knux power play, and it felt a lot like the least where you got too many stars on one. And it's weird because whenever Toronto played its second power play unit, it seems like things got done. Whereas you look at Vancouver's second power play unit, I thought they were more productive at times in this series. I think you got to spread the wealth around a little bit.

Yeah, I agree. I know the power play is going to suck up a lot of attention today. I mean, five on five, it wasn't close. It reminded me of games one through four of the Lees Bruin series. The Canucks were doing Dump and Don't Chase. They were just, Here you go, here you go, here you go, here you go. Here you go. Here you go. Here you go. And I know you're just trying to get it out. And every now and then, that's okay. Sometimes you just got to survive, but every shift, they were surviving. That was it. They were playing with fire from basically Puck Drop.

To Adam's point about Tucket and his not having a great play-off, I think it leans itself to he needs to be able to adjust the style of play for Vancouver to lend itself more to the play-off. Because the way they play in the regular season, which was very successful and very impressive to watch, was they were able to generate a lot of neutral zone turnovers. When they get those chances in the offensive zone, they're able to capitalize them. Every single chance they'd get, they didn't need a lot of them because they would always bury it. It led to some people looking at their stats and be like, Oh, they're on PDO benders. But that was just how they played. That was their formula for success, and it worked. When they get to the playoffs, you can't low shot your way to victory in the playoffs. It's not an effective strategy. And what they're doing, they're putting up 17 shots, putting up 15 shots in a game.

And they're not high quality shots. Let's put that that way, too.

No, and they're not high danger shots either. I believe they had the third lowest shot total ever in the playoffs through their first-Ten. First 10 games of the Stanley Cup playoffs. You can't win that way.

And it's a crazy stat because The teams that shoot that seldomly do not reach 10 games.

No, exactly. But the way they played against Nashville is the way they played in the regular season. And against a good team, a good coach team like the Edmunds and all, where Chris Noblek knows what to do to shut this play of style down, he did it successfully by the end of the series.

He made adjustments.

He did adjust, yeah.

He changed major pairings. He moved drysidal on to McDavid, off McDavid, depending upon the matchup. Nights. Dylan Hollowey all of a sudden was like, I'm going to be Dylan Hollowey now and be really good. He found a role. Yeah.

That's a guy who's really struggled to find his spot on the Edmondson Oilers. You got like, Connor McDavid, Zack Hyman shooting the lights out, dry-sideal newge.

Dude, hit.

Get your defensive stick in there. You're a role player right now. Yeah. Okay? I know it's not the best for your pockets. You're a role player right now. You'll score one day, set up guys one day.

And he had a good goal in game six. You know it's there.

Yeah, you 100% know it's there. It's just when I saw that, it's so silly because you see all the high-end things the Oilers can do, but you watch that every single game. When I saw that out of Holloway, I'm like, All right, that's exactly the guy that always seems to show up in rounds three and four, right? Yeah. When you need them.

One guy, and I think Oylers fans, if you were to rewind this to game five, there was a lot of complaints. First off, Henrique has been, I think, injured. So he's sick or injured, something going on. And then Troy Stetcher, who they also required, hasn't really played. There were people going like, the deadline guys we got are not playing, and our depth isn't showing up. And it did in game six, and it did a little in game seven, too. The one thing I will say is that I was surprised at how quiet Cory Perry was.

He hasn't been a very loud oiler at all.

No. Maybe they're asking that from him. But Cori Perry, the Cori Perry I know is a Montreal Canadian in Tampa Bay Lightning against the Leaps, just destroyed us from within, was able to get under people's skin and do this. And I just did not see any of that. You know why?

You know why? I know why. Because Cori Perry is the fucker upper when the other team outmatches you, when When the other team is better than you. Kings weren't better than the Oilers. No. Not even close. No. Knucks? They weren't better than the Oilers. They had them on the ropes with a 3-2 series lead. But Did they ever... I don't know if the odds for the series winner ever went to the Knucks, even when they were up three, two. The Oilers, it seemed at the beginning of it, and by the of the series, were agreed upon by most as the better team. So Dallas now is going to be very interesting because on paper, to me, That team's better.

Yeah.

That team is deeper. I'm trying to think of a dance partner for Perry. Who's going to swath away the flies? On on the Dallas stars? They got a big decor. I think this could be the Cory Perry series.

Okay. All right.

Also, guys, Cory Perry wasn't effective because he didn't play. He played. He wasn't in game seven.

Well, that's what I mean, though, is that games one through six.

That's crazy, though. He also wasn't in game six. He wasn't? No, no. Cory Perry was scratched six and seven.

Well, see, there might be the problem, too. I honestly was like, Where is this guy?

They were not on the ice.

Wow. All right. Well, there you go. Oh, yeah. Because Sam Kerr came in. Yeah. Yeah.

He didn't even play.

By the way, he played the- I do want to shout out Sam Kerr.

He played the first five games of the series, and then he got scratch six, and then they were like, Is he coming back in the seven? And he didn't play last night.

Yeah, the point still stands. Who is his dance partner on the Knux? Sure.

Listen, no disrespect here, but if Connor Brown is drawing minutes and Cory Perry is not, unless there's an injury, that is- Last night, some of the funniest stuff came out of Connor Brown's a breakaway.

Why? Because he shot it right into the chest of Sheilovs, and everyone's like, Connor Brown, when he's on a breakaway, and the goal is to shoot it right into the chest. It's like Michael Jordan.

He's played well.

He's got stone hands when it comes to a breakaway.

He's got the legs, though. He's still got the legs.

He does have the horse legs to get out in front of everybody, but in terms of dangles, nothing.

I wonder if it's an off-season of just working on that will get him back because he had so much time injured that you- His career is not over.

No. There's no way his career is over.

No way. Everybody expected him to do nothing on the breakaway, and it was hilarious when he shot it right into She Loves chest.

The way your brain works, or at least the way my brain works when my team gets a breakaway in order is, They have a breakaway. Who's on the breakaway is number two. Yeah.

Is it David Kompf? Who might surprise you.

He might. Oh, David Kompf, every now and then is like, I'm Pavel Datsun, actually.

I'm going to try a Michigan.

Yeah, it's just really rare. I want to say there was a takeaway in game seven for the Leaps. And I went, It's Connor Duhre. It's Connor Brown. It's the wrong Connor, I guess. It's not the ideal Connor.

But if it's Willy.

And he's got such a unique style where you go, Oh, they have a brand.

It's Willy. You just know right away.

Yeah. He got a turnaround backhand pass at center ice, and he's behind everybody. Yeah, it's a beauty.

But then occasionally It's David Kompf.

No, we just said he might surprise you. Yeah, he might.

No, I'm Pavel Datsun today. What is it? Tuesday? Yeah, no, I'm Pavel Datsun today.

Jesse, let's do the Bet MGM big story. With the Stanley Cup Eastern and Western Conference Finals, upon us, Jesse Blake at Bet MGM has the odds to win the Stanley Cup. Now, Jesse, you set this up because you don't think we're going to get it.

I honestly don't think you will have the correct answer. But that's a hint, I guess. Yes. I'm telling you it's going to be off the board.

We'll take the obvious answers.

Who would... If I asked you who is the favorite? I would say Dallas Stars.

Carolina Hurricans.

To win the Stanley Cup, who you got? Dallas stars. Steve, who you got?

New York Rangers.

The Florida Panthers. I believe it. Are the betting favorite to win the 2024 Stanley Cup. Can you tell me who's second?

If it's the Oilers, I'm going to laugh.

I'm going to say the Oilers.

I'm going to say Dallas.

It's the Dallas stars. Thank you. Yeah. Third? Yeah. Third, the Edmonton Oilers, and fourth, the New York Rangers. Oh, really? Do you agree with these odds?

I do agree that Florida is going to beat New York. So I got a conflict. That's what I think.

I got a conflict. My bracket, it's had its ups and its downs. But right now, my Stanley Cup final has... The final four has two of my teams from the Stanley Cup final. I have the Dallas stars, and I have the New York Rangers. If I If I had to bet right now, I'd put money on the stars to beat the oilers. If I had to bet right now, I would put the Panthers over the Rangers. Really? Dude, they're so, so, so, so good. They're so good I think the Rangers are going to be shocked by how violent that series is. Matt Rempe. Rempe Mania is going to run wild. And I know he didn't play in a lot of the Hurricane series. And the reason for that is what for? What on Earth for? But now Panthers? No, he has to be in the lineup every night.

I don't think you mess with the fourth line right now, the way they close it out against Carolina. I don't think he pencils in for game one, but if it gets a little chipping, maybe he gets in there.

No, game one is when you want to brutalize your opponent and break them down as much as you possibly can. He's going to play game one.

So the big story is that the Florida Panthers are the odds on favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

I'm surprised they're ahead of the stars. The odds are very close, but I'm surprised that they're ahead of the stars. I think everybody's on the stars right now.

Yeah, 100 %. I am. They're so good. But there's a lunacy element to the Florida Panthers. You know what I mean? You're not sure what they're going to do next, which means you give them room.

People forget the reason they didn't look close to Vegas or a big part of the reason they didn't look close to Vegas is their best player had a broken sternum, and they still got a game. This year, the team is clearly better and they're healthy.For now.For now.

It's cool to think about how in a couple of weeks, but like a month and a bit from now, one of Matthew Kuchuk, Igor Shesterken/Panarin/Trochek/all those guys on the Rangers, Joe Pavelski, Connor McDavid, and Leon Dreiside, a one One of these superstars on one of these four teams is going to have a Stanley Cup ring, and forever, his legacy is going to be changed. We're going to look at that player completely differently because they got it done. That's fun to think about. How about this?

Last show, all we did was talk about how no coach, other than Scottie Bowman, since the '30s, has won a Stanley Cup with more than one team. There's a 25% chance of that happening with Peter Lavuilette.

Yeah, we got a shot that he becomes number Four.

Wow. Four-slash-two.

Yeah, Scottie Bowman is really the only one.

That is the Bet MGM big story. So betmGM. Com/dangle for all of your odds. And obviously, those Stanley Cup odds will change as the series plays out. So if you like what you see right now, you make your bet now. But if you're like, you know what? A couple of games in, I know those are going to change, and that's when I'll lock in. You can do that, too. Betmgm. Com/dangle.

Adam, we did a lot of talking about the Knux and Oilers and how I was on the stream last night for game number seven, despite you streaming games one through six. Yes. Why? For everybody who didn't tune in to me stream because we're different flavors, maybe they're like, I'm going to skip the Jessie stream. I want Adam back. Can you let all the Vancouver Knucks fans know? Because they were very disappointed. Why did the people not get the Adam Wild biased Knux stream last night? What's your problem?

Because at Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law gave my wife and I Neil Young tickets for Monday, May 24th. This was before I even knew I'd be doing streams. Or not Monday, May 24th. No, that's not. Monday, May, 20th. It's the mother year.

Yeah.

The May 2, 4 long weekend is never on May 2, 4. It's stupid. Anyway, the thing is that I was like, Okay, well, I can't. If I had bought these tickets, I would have sold them, right? And then I would have done the stream. But I was like, This is a gift from them. I haven't seen Neil Young in years, and I really want to go and whatever. So you guys were cool enough about it. And Jessie's like, Yeah, sure. I'll cover whatever.

You never know when the next time you can see Neil Young. 100% because he's old. Just being completely honest. When's the next time he's going to be in Toronto doing a concert? Yes.

I have to tell you, how old is Neil Young? I'm just looking that up right now. Seventy-eight. Yeah, come on. And I have to give him credit.

He should change his name.

Neil. That's false advertising. The man could still perform. He could still sing all of his songs and stuff. The problem is that he chooses not to. So here's what I do. When I go see a rock act like this, I never- Did you have a bad time?

What?

So whenever I go see a rock act, I never check the setlist because for me, I want the surprise of what's going to come up. When you see classic acts- Damn, I feel that, though. You get hit after hit after hit after hit, and it's exciting. Now, I know with Neil Young, part of being a Neil Young fan, which I am, is you have to indulge him. He is self-indulgent and needs you to hear his new music, and that's fine. I went to see Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when they were on tour with my mom, and he They were on tour with your mom? With my mom. My mom was open. On the tour? Yeah, no. No, I went with her when I was 20. You have so many hits. They have so many hits as Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and then Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, that you're like, They could just do hits the whole time. But you know, because Neil Young just put out an album, this was back then, that you're going to have to hear five or six of his songs, which is great because you go to the bathroom, you grab a beer, whatever.

You know what? The CSN guys were good at about singing back up and playing along or whatever. And then they start to get into the real hits like Immigration Man and Teacher Children and all the other songs that you want to hear. Last night, I really should have checked. I really should have checked. And I looked it up in the New York Post this morning. Let me just run this. Here's what the New York Post had to say, and I know it's the New York Post, but they could still review music. Young made it clear, this is a show for real fans, and possibly himself. Those who have only heard his greatest hits album can check their bags at the door. Now, I have on vinyl everything from his Buffalo Springfield days to his- Those are two places. Buffalo Springfield is a really great band. Crosby, Still's, Nash & Young. I've got all the stuff through the '70s. He had some garbage albums through the '80s. I don't have those. He had some great stuff in the early '90s. I've got all all the key Neil Young albums. I've listened to the A-sides. I've listened to the B-sides.

What I heard last night was three or four of his major hits and 15 of songs I've never effing heard before. Oh, my God. You know what the craziest part was? Because I'm like, I'm among Neil Young fans.

That you missed Game7?

Yes.

Well, yeah. Yes.

The craziest part is when you're among Neil Young fans, you don't say this out loud because they're like, You're not here for the real music. You're just here for the greatest hits. I'm like, Fucking Lawn seats were $100. You're right, I'm here for the greatest hits. I'm going to the bathroom, and he's doing this song, and it's from his new album. It's about, I'm a vampire and I suck the blood out of you, which is very not Neil Young. And some old guy walks in, and he's like, I've been going to see this guy for 40 fucking years. I'm quoting him, 40 fucking years. I can't believe I got to sit here and listen to him sing about some vampire-sucking blood The bullshit. Give me Ohio. Give me Rocket in the Free World. And then the whole bathroom started applauding him.

I feel so bad.

They were pissed. And you know what else is crazy? You're at the amphitheater, and any concert venue you're in, they have cameras so that you can see the stage. You got to remember, Neil Young is 75 or whatever I just said he was, 78.

His audience can't see that well.

Okay? The audience cannot see that well. Guess what? Shut the cameras off. Why? So you can't even see. So we're back on the lawns and Neil Young looks like a little...

So they turned off the big screens at Budweiser?

No, you're just staring at the stage. What? So you can't even... My wife looked at me and she's like, because she's a lawyer and her eyesight isn't that good because she's been staring at computers for years. And she's like, I have my contacts on. Is he on stage? Because she didn't recognize the first song because nobody did. And I said, Yeah, he's the one on the right in the plaque. She said, Okay, so he is on. That is them. That's Crazy Horse. I'm like, Yes, that's Crazy Horse. Then the last thing, this is the craziest thing. Everybody's getting hot dogs or whatever. You can't get ketchup at a Neil Young concert. Did you know this? Why? I didn't know this, but somebody was complaining in line, and they were staff. They were staff, but also they weren't working. They were event staff, meaning they had done all their work beforehand and then were enjoying the concert.

This is all I want to talk about.

You can't at a Neil Young concert because he's so pro-organic farming that he tells every venue, no ketchup.

Why ketchup?

Because it's not made with organic tomatoes.

What about all the other stuff?

Well, I don't know.

What about the meat?

What about the bread? What about the people who's a bread? Which is highly processed.

What about every... We don't need to list all of the food items in the entire building.

But you're not going to get ketchup.

What about everything else?

If this was an event, guy, again, I didn't order a hot dog, so I didn't know. I don't know if the ketchup was pulled from me or whatever. But it was like salt in the wind. You're like, Man, when he did do the hit, so he did Cinnamon Girl, and then he had an acoustic session where he did Heart of Gold. For the first encore, he did Hey, Hey, My, My, and you're like, This is what I'm here for. You think you start to get going. Then he's like, he left for a second encore came back, and everybody's like, Wow, this guy's just totally... This is Ego Play. People were saying it out loud in the lawns. This is Ego Play. This is Ego Play. He comes back, plays two songs on the second encore from the new album. No one heard it. When When you buy a ticket, you know what they do? They send you a CD. Because for a while, you couldn't get them on Spotify. I believe he is back on Spotify now. Quietly, by the way, because remember, he was boycotting Spotify, but now he's back. But Joe Rogan is still on Spotify.

Spotify, didn't accomplish the goal. Listen, man. Is that why he left? Yeah, it was about Joe Rogan.

I don't know where that came from.

Yeah, he did. Neil Young left Spotify in the pandemic because of Joe Rogan's relationship with them. And he said that Joe Rogan was spreading misinformation about COVID and the vaccine and stuff, which to a large degree, there have been a lot of platform things on the Rogan show where they were completely incorrect about all the medical claims they were making. But Neil Young pulled his stuff. Crosby stills and Nash their stuff in solidarity, and now they're all back. Crosby, Stills, and Nash were back on in six months. Neil is quietly back on Spotify. But does Neil Young not realize that no one wants to hear his 2024 album?

No, I can take this. No. Yeah. The answer is no, right? He's 78, and there's no reason anybody should buy a ticket to his show.

Here's the thing. You want to play your new album, pick the six best songs, and start with hit, fire those six songs in, and then give me hit after hit after hit after that.

Yeah, but no ticket that was sold to Last Night's Show was based off of that new album. No. No one discovered 2024 Neil Young and said, You know, wow, this That's what things really got me into them. Let me go to this show.

This guy's about to blow up. Oh, wait. What do you mean? He's got a half-century catalog.

They're listening to that because of everything else you've released, and they might not even enjoy that. That's so disrespectful, I think.

I Sorry. He started with... The song is not unknown. It's called Cortés, the Killer. It's a song about freaking Spanish colonialism. You're just like, Okay, cool. We're at a Neil Young concert. Here we go. I don't know, Jessie, that you could actually have that conversation with a rational Neil Young fan, because Neil Young fans, you're going to see them in the comments. They're going to be like, No, you go for the new music and screw the old stuff and whatever. And it's like, Okay, cool. You can be like that. You can be like that. But I guarantee you that's 5% of the people there max. 5% of the people that bothered to buy the tickets are like, Yes, what I want to hear is the new music. I would say that's high. I want to know. I want to hear the shit that I grew up listening to, the reason that I like this person.

Because it's not like Ariana Grande, where she's in the midst of the middle of her career and she releases a new album and all of those songs on the album are popular and you go and you listen to that, plus some of the back catalog and all this stuff. The man has 40 albums.

He does. He has so many albums.

How many are good?

I would say more than half. He had a great run in the '60s and the '70s. In the '80s, he signed a weird record contract and intentionally put out bad records to get out of it. Like Prince? And then they sued him because they're like, You're not making commercially viable music, Neil. You're fucking us on this. I don't know how that ended. And then in the early '90s, '90s, when grunge came up, he was known as the godfather of grunge and actually had a resurgent with Harvest Moon and Rocket in the Free World and some of that stuff. But he hasn't had hits. Not that he's looking for hits, but he's not had Neil Young classic Oh, My God song since the early '90s, like Jessie's talking about. You can have resurgences. This just isn't one of them. Yeah.

I just feel like as an artist, as a performer, as a person who has fans, there's an obligation to to entertain them with things they want to consume when they are a paying customer to your product. As somebody who is just hearing the story from you and then commenting on that story, I just feel like as the performer here did a disservice to their fans by leaving, it sounds like the majority of them disappointed because they're there to hear a selection of content that you made that they're there for, and they didn't pay for this.

I have four things. Number one, applaud It was in the bathroom is wild.

People were pissed.

Absolutely wild. Number two, you going to that shitty concert is the reason that the Vancouver Canucks series is over.

Yeah, it's me.

And the season is over.

I was the Canucks good luck.

Justin Fisher put a poll last night on the stream, and he sent it to me. It was, Is this Adam's fault? It was coming towards the end when it was quite clear that the Knux didn't have it. Seventy 78% of people on the poll said yes. It is Adam's fault that they lost.

The remaining percentage selected super yes.

I mean, that's fair. What am I going to say?

Number three, if you'd like to become an SDP VIP, you can do that right here on the SDP and YouTube channel, and we can also do it on Spotify and Apple, where we talk about non-hockey stuff all the time, and it's really fun. Number four, to Adam's brother and My sister-in-law, he hated your gift.

I didn't hate it. He hated your gift.I didn't hate it.He.

Hated your gift.They.

Hated it.So.

Much.they hated.They were there, too.

Oh, yeah, of course they were. They hated it. They were pissed.

They hated your gift. My proxy, you.

My brother-in-law, Dara, was like, He kept looking over at me every new song. He's like, What the fuck is this? Every time, he's like, What's going on? Neil's new album has something like... Man, it has 17 or 18 new It's called Fucking Up. Yeah, and they played Fucking Up, and it was so... Oh, my God. It's so embarrassing.

Yeah, I'm on the Wikipedia page for Fucking Up, a live album by Canadian singer songwriter Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse.

He's going to play another show tonight, and Neil Young fans are hardcore enough in Toronto that they're going to buy tickets to both, right? And I think there's probably going to be one. I think there was one later on in the summer as well. And you know what sometimes these artists will do from this generation? And this fucking makes me crazy. His generation? His generation is that oftentimes they'll show up, they'll do a double night feature. The first night is all the new shit. The second night is all the classic shit, and they don't tell you.

So he's going again tonight?

I think he's going. Yeah, I think it was the Tonight Neil Young, Toronto.

I'll check that. Maddie, what's up? Adam? Yes. Did he play an old man?

I'll have to look at the setlist. Hang on. The fact you don't remember. Yeah, I was It obviously didn't resonate. Yeah. I can't even remember, to be honest with you. I was like, I know. Here's the ones I know he did. I thought you were quiet when I came in here.

He did Cinnamon Girl.

He did Heart of Gold. He did Down by the River. He did Hey, Hey, My, My. There was a few others. When there's 20 songs in a set, you're like, I don't know.

Also, I looked it up. There is such a thing as organic ketchup they could have got.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, but the venue is like, We're not going to pay for that. What the hell? Yeah. Where was it? Budweiser Stage? Budweiser Stage. Let me see if I can find the... Yeah, so he's going to be on tonight as well, or tomorrow night. Is it tomorrow night? Yeah, anyway, it doesn't matter. The setlist. Let's look at the setlist.

You paid $100 for the lawn?

Cortez, the Killer, Cinnamon Girl. Those are older songs. Vamp Blues, number 6, was the one where people were starting to get pissed off. Down by the River, Heart of Gold, Hey, Hey, My, My. Yeah, just not great.

I think the next concert is July eighth. That might be what you're talking about.

So that one, I guarantee he's going to come in and just roll the hits.

Yeah, July eighth says Budweiser's Stage, Neil Young.

Oh, man, it just drives me crazy. Just drives me nuts.

It doubles down and plays exclusively the new stuff.

I had a buddy who, years and years and years ago, went with his dad to an Eric Clapton concert. This is like internet, but it was pre-Twitter. You're talking about high school for us and before. Eric Clapton shows up and he walks out to the microphone when he opens, and he goes, There will be no rock and roll tonight. He proceeded to sit there with 30 effing guitars and do all of his stuff just himself. And people were like... Eric Clapton tickets are outrageous. They're so expensive, even back then. And so if you didn't know that beforehand, now you can do research. I purposely chose not to. It's my fault. I I purposely chose not to.

I shouldn't fucking have to.

But Eric Clapton will be like, Yeah, no, this is what we're doing. So if you're going to do something like this, if you're a hardcore fan of something, and this is what I think in music, and you want to do a tour like this, make it a small venue one. Don't go to the Budweiser stage with 15, 20,000 people and put on a show like you were pretending to put on a show with the real hits.

He should have been arrested for indecent exposure. That's just public masturbation.

100%. Do club shows.

That's all that is.

Billy Idle, who I love, did an acoustic tour with Steve Stevens, the guy he wrote all the songs with. Great name. They did all of their hits and some new stuff, but they did it at venues that were 300 people or 200 people for the hard course. You go, he tells some stories, he's talking to the audience, super intimate, that thing. Neil doesn't do that. And with artists like that, people will be like, No, that's the true artistic. No, it's not. Don't rip me off, man. I hate that. I hate being ripped off. And guys are like, they're yelling in the background like, I can't even fucking see the guy.

Well, the thing about Neil Young's course Our demographic is when they're upset, they never let you know it.

They're never upset with him. He's gone. Neil can do no wrong. That's what you're watching the comments. You're watching the comments. How many people are going to be upset with me for talking like this? Oh, you're just there for the greatest hits? Yes.

Adam, I think you're preparing for a fight that's not coming.

Oh, it's coming.

I think they're all going to agree with you.

Steve, who are you giving the goal-tending matchup to in the Edmonton-Dallas series? It's obvious, but give me your answer.

I mean, it's obvious, but Jake Ottinger, for as consistent as he's been in the playoffs, had his moments in the regular season. Stuart Skinner, I feel like we're acting like he's incapable of winning a hockey game, which just isn't true.

Yeah. Adam, you streamed games one through six. Who are you in favor of here? Where's Jalene? Edmondson or Dallas? Adam.

You got to take the burger out of your mouth.

Is that a 100% fresh, never frozen Wendy's burger in your mouth?

In fairness to him, I wouldn't take it out either.

No. Can you take a look at it, Steve? Is that a square-cut burger?

It sure is, and you can really taste the square.

Do you know why it's square? No. Because they don't cut corners with the freshness. Let's go. Adam, tell him. Adam, tell us how good it is.

It's so freaking good.

Best tasting burger in the game. Best taste test. The best taste testing burger in the game, easily. Adam, you got a lot of mayonnaise on your mouth.

Hey, there's a happy So head over to your local Wendy's.

Go to the description, find out how you can download the Wendy's app, and go get yourself a burger just like Adam. It's fresh, never frozen. That's Wendy's. Adam, thoughts?Delicious.

Shady Rays. Steve's wearing them, and he's brought them to the show many, many times and left them in the car and not brought his Shady Rays on the air. But now we finally get them.

And I got them. And God, I'm looking straight at our studio lights.

Those are dad glasses, man. They're fine. Those are dad glasses for sure. They look good.

Right?

Yeah. That's a man who's had two kids.

These are good lawn staring. I'm going to stare at the lawn so hard.

If somebody's making too much noise outside of your house. Here, wait.

Here, let me just... Yeah, good furrow grow glasses?

Yeah, 100%. Can't really... Oh, there you go. No, it's giving a big Dwayne the Rock Johnson vibe. Really, boys?

Really? Now, listen, Shady Rays are an independent sunglasses company, and there are not a lot of those left. That's important. If you look at who owns all the sunglasses companies, it's like two companies. Shady Rays are not one of them. They're independent. They operate-Let's get What's the name of that? A world-class product. Oh, there's lots of complaints about it. I'll tell you that. Yeah, let's do it five minutes on that. Their product has been rated five stars by 300,000 people, and their shades have durable frames, crystal-clear optics. It makes them the perfect choice for all outdoor adventures. Whatever your style It's not just what Steve has here. There are hundreds of styles at shadyrays. Com. And use that promo code SDP, because when you buy two pairs of polarized sunglasses, you're going to get 50% off the total price. Again, shadyrays. Com. Use the code SDP for 50% off get off. Two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. If you don't love what you got, you can return them 30 days risk-free. Well, let's get back into hockey. We have two previews to do, ladies and gentlemen. We got New York Florida, and we got Dallas, Edmonton, a really interesting Eastern and Western conference matchup on both sides.

We're going to do a 10-minute preview of both. I'm actually going to time it because we usually do these anyway. What do you guys feel like starting with?

I feel like Dallas, Edmonton is going to come down to how many saves Andy Mogue.

There you go. I like that.

Let's start there because that's the freshest because we just did Edmonton, Vancouver.

Let's do it. Okay. So Dallas, Edmonton, Pete DeBore is in his fifth conference finals in six years on three different teams. Very impressive. Very, very impressive. Let's start with the Dallas stars. Where are their weaknesses?

Last year. They don't have any. I guess it'll come down to, can they slow the oilers down? That's what it's going to come down to. But I don't know what their weaknesses are. I really don't. Their special teams are fine. They get saved. They have a huge defense core with some mobility and offense there. They can roll four lines as effectively and as deadly as anybody. This isn't a knock on the oilers when I talk about how good the stars are. They were my Stanley Cup pick for a reason. They're stupendous. They're absolutely stupendous. And they're the team that, I think, can survive injuries. I'm trying to think of what the most costly one would be for them. Obviously, Jake Ottinger would be bad. Mural Heiskanen could potentially sink them. I think he's that important of a player. But I mean, everybody else, the Dallas stars, especially their forward group, they just grow like weeds.

Yeah. And that's frustrating. Oh, Oh, my God. If you're a fan of any other team.

Oh, they just hit on everything. They had the old crew of Jamie Ben, who is still just getting away with murder. Tyler Sagan, Joe Pavelski, and then Jason Robertson comes in, and Wyatt Johnson comes in, and Ropehince, and frigging Logan, Stankhoven. They're absurd. They're absurd. There are no weaknesses. They can bang and crash with you. If I'm the oilers, what I do is I try my best to drag them into the nonsense, which I think the oilers can do. I think that's the only way to beat them apart from getting a few saves and elite performances from your elite guys. But where the oilers were clearly the better team over LA, so there wasn't much room for the nonsense. They were clearly the better team over Vancouver, so there wasn't much for it. I think with Dallas, they have to drag them into the muck. Perry is going to be needed. Sam Kerrick is going to be needed. Vanner Kane, I think, is going to be a huge factor here. Darnal Nurse, I want doing less of that. I want him focusing on what he did in game six and 7 because he was effective.

Him and Vinnie Déarna together are just enormous.

Yeah, they were effective in those games and in those roles. Leave it up to their forwards to drag them in.

I like that. Jesse, what are your initial thoughts on this series?

One thing I was looking at was that amongst the teams that are left here, the Dallas stars are last in goals four. They're also last in penalty kill percentage. When I look at the Edmondson-Oilers and I say, Okay, how can they exploit the Dallas stars? What do the Dallas stars need to clog up to win the series? I look at those two things. The Edmondson-Oilers, obviously, we all know, can be the most deadly team in the universe on the power play. If they're able to take advantage of a team that has struggled that nearly less than 70% on the PK that the Dallas Stars are at, there's an avenue to exploit them. If The Dallas stars are last in goals four, and they can't generate as much offense as they'd like to to compete with the Edminton always, I can see Edmunds outscoring the stars and outscoring any of their problems they might have and continuing to play good defense and finding an avenue to win four games like that. So that's where I'm thinking. Is Dallas going to get enough stops to keep them in this series?

Well, and they're not perfect because we saw them go up big on the avalanche a few times, and Almost every time, the Avalanche either made it interesting or came all the way back.

Now, Dallas did win the season series, the regular season series, 2 to 1. Interesting, though, McDavid and Dreisetel did not score in the regular season against Dallas.

That is interesting, especially because McDavid has looked the most human, I think I've ever seen.

Mcdavid in the series against Vancouver had three games where he was held pointless, and the only other time he did that was in his rookie year in the playoffs. That's wild. His first year in the payoff. Sorry, not rookie year, but rookie playoff year.

But how about that? He's got other guys around him in his core to pick up the pieces.

And that's the thing. There are now depth pieces in Edmonton, which is a luxury they didn't have before. Leon Dreisaitl has It's been incredible. So if you need like, Oh, one guy's got to be otherworldly, they have one, and the other guy's just been all right.

At least one. The matchup of a guy like Hakenpaa or something like that and Hyman, those two are going to beat the shit out of each other in game one. And I think that'll dictate how the series is going to go. The longer we talk about this series, there are avenues for the oilers to win, obviously. I mean, it's final four. They're one of the two best teams in the West, right? There are no flukes when it comes to the final four. I don't think you luck your way in here, but I just think the stars are a more complete team. They're just not immortal.

It's going to be very interesting to me to see the difference between the two decors.

Can you read that decor?

For Dallas or for Edmondson? Dallas. Dallas. So Thomas Harley, Mural Heisken. Ridiculous. Assa Lindell, Chris Tanev. Brutal. Ryan Suter, Alex Petrovik was in the last one. No, Hakenpah. Well, because he's day to day. Oh, right.

So just put him in.

Okay, so put Hakenpah in. And Rupahintz is day to day as well. But I would imagine he draws in at some point in this series. This is a really strong defensive core. The one thing about Dallas is when they made the Stanley Cup final the last time, they were defense, defense, defense, defense, right?

Oh, they're completely different. It's wild how completely reset they are from half a decade ago.

Isn't it? And by the way, can you believe it's half a decade ago? I don't know if I like that. I don't want to hear that.

Technically less.

Yeah, but no, four years ago.

Listen, it's COVID.

It's four years. And so with Dallas, the thing that gets me when I look at the lineup, just looking at it on paper. First line, Ben Johnson, Stan Cobin. Second line, Robertson, Dushane, who scored a big goal in the last thing, Joel Pavelski. And Joe Pavelski's playoff points are a massive part of this. You get to the third line and the fourth line, Marchman, Sagan, Dadenoff. That's a good third line. That's true. That matches up well against Edmondson's third line. And then Fashka, Sam, Still, and Craig Smith now, and I have not included hints in that. So that's a solid all the way through 12.

I don't know how you could possibly run the Edmondson Oilers and not think the muck is how you win this series.

So Cory Perry.

Okay. Evander Cain. That top line.

Ben Johnson-Stankhoven.

Ben is... I'm sure he's a great guy. On the ice, he's human garbage. Yeah. He's a horrible person on the ice.

Yeah.

But there's only one of them. And he's got two rookies basically next to him. He's got a sophomore and a rookie and an undersize one at that.

Maybe when Rupe comes back.

What's the second line?

Second line is Robertson Dushane-Powelsky.

You can rip those guys apart.

Especially if you're Edmondson's second line, which would be Hollowey, dry saddle, cane, not fun to play against. Or you can throw Janmark out there because he sometimes draws into the top six.

I guess what I'm saying is, Dallas does have agitators.

What about Marchman?

It's not enough. It's got to be throughout the lineup. And to me, that's two guys. You got Ben, who's a son of a gun, and you got Marchman. You know what I mean? The other guys, they can withstand. If Dallas is going to win this series, they're going to win the way Tampa won their Cups, where Tampa wasn't afraid of you, but they weren't the aggressor. Okay. You know what I mean? So that's how Dallas can win this series. But man, I mean, at this stage in their careers, in terms of how healthy they are, If you're the oilers, you probably don't want to have your whole game plan be Evander Cain or Cory Perry or Sam Kerrack. But I think that's how you do it.

Okay. Looking at the... Do you guys have anything you want to add? I just want to talk goalies for a second.

I think that's one of the more interesting sides of it.

This is a big differentiator. Now, we know that when Edmondton wants to, they can block you from getting any traffic in front of Stuart Skinner. And they did it against the Knucks, and the Knucks are pretty good on offense, even players not performing at their best like Patterson. The thing is, Stuart Skinner's got a less than eight... He had a less than eight save percentage going back in in his career in the playoffs. It was like a 793 or something like that. It's better now. But you talk about toughness in this series. If you get a little bit of a body in front of him, you have to think that Dallas can walk away with this pretty quickly if they get in early.

Pavelski is so good.

He stands in front of the net.

He's so old. He is, man. Once Giordano retires, I think he might be the oldest active player in the league.

Okay. I didn't know that.

He's old. 37, 38, something like that.

He might be 39. He's really up there for a professional athlete. You notice how I had to say that? I say that more often these days. But no, he's really old for a professional athlete. There is a scenario where I could see Dallas going up like two nothing in the series, and the oilers just beat the shit out of them and force them.

But goal tending, though. But goal-tending.

Well, to me, parking in front is up to the defense, right? I mean, Skinner does have to battle his way through.

He's got an 8-81 in these playoffs, and his career is an 8-82. Jake Ottinger has a 9-17 career save percentage in the playoffs, 9-18 this year so far.

Ottinger had a real up and down season, but in the playoffs, it seems like he's a pretty consistent player. So you know what to expect out of him. He's going to be That's exactly that. Jeff Skinner. I mean, Jeff Skinner.

Damn it. Jeff Skinner has never been in the playoffs. Yeah, no.

Stuart Skinner. Oh, my God. That's unbelievable. Stuart Skinner, you don't know what you're getting. No. You don't know what you're getting. He looked great in six and he looked great in seven. Cool.

All right. What do you get in game one? Did he look great or did he just not face any shots? That's my question. That's my question. I don't think he made any game...

Game seven, he looked great until he aggressively didn't. You know what I mean? And then what happened in the final three and a half minutes? Well, they just didn't get any shot. That's right. That's definitely an X factor.

With all of this said, because you just don't know until the rubber hits the road. What's your prediction going to the series? Who's the winner? How many games?

Edmondson and 6. This is a more even series than I thought it would be a week ago.

I'm going to say Dallas and 7.

And I will say Dallas and 6. All right. But you know what? It all hinges on one player for me, Connor McDavid. If he goes off...

I mean, if he has his best series of the playoff so far, over.

Jesse's right. We'll see. If he has it. Anyway, that is your Dallas-Edmonton preview.

How do we do it for time?

About 12 minutes. Not bad.

A little over. A little over.

Okay, now let's do the Florida Panthers, and let's do the New York Rangers. What a matchup.

Fantastic matchup.

And there's a lot of... I think we should start with the violence thing because that's what everybody's I'm most excited about. You got the Rempire State Building versus all the merrymen of the Florida Panthers who hook/punch. Brad Marshan actually came out today and said that he moved up his timeline and lied to doctors to play in game seven. That's how bad Sam Bennett got him.

Dude, Marshan has done nothing but say all of the quiet parts out loud.

Yeah, he has.

Well, you're going out there and you're trying to injure your opponent. Oh, I lied about my It's a head injury. Yes. Did he actually say that? Yeah.

Is it locking him? It's an article. It's an article with the athletic. I'll pull it up.

Wow.

Yeah, today. It's an article today. What did he say? I'll pull it up. You guys keep going, though.

Steve, I know you're on the Matt Rempe thing. What I saw out of them in game 6 against the Hurricanes, I don't know how you mess up with the fourth line. I think Jimmy Veecey had a great game. I think Goudro and Cooley, if that's the fourth line they go with, I don't know if Matt Rempe immediately pencils in. But I think it's going to be... I think right now, it lucked out to we have the two best teams of the Eastern Conference. I think that's what we've come out to in the East, going head to head. I think it's going to be a little bit more of a defensive battle, we think, because people don't give Bob the credit for being the otherworldly goalie that he is every year in the playoffs. Igor has been on his game whenever the New York Rangers are winning. I think we're getting a lot of low scoring games. And in those low scoring games, you are going to get the physicality out of it as well.

So you're looking at these lineups, guys. Kreider, Zbinajad, Roslevic, Panarin, Trochek, Lafrenier, who's had a breakout playoff to go along in this breakout year. Hiedel, maybe... As an option. Wendberg, Capo Caco, Cooley, Barclay, Gujrom, Jimmy Veasey. And by the way, Blake Wheeler will also be available for the New York.

He's an option, that's right.

I don't know if he's going to play, but he's an option. And then you got Tarasanko, Barkoff, Reinhardt, Verhege, Lundell, Kchuck, Bennett, Rodriguez, Lomberg, Stenland, Cousins, and Luster Reinen.

Yes.

So we're talking about, it seems anyway, up front, pretty evenly matched lineups. I just see a lot more violence on the Florida end. And what I mean by violence is like, yeah, okay, Jake Truba is going to lay out some guys, and yeah, Rimpy is going to fight somebody, maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe not. Florida is not known for fighting. They're really not.

That's actually an interesting point.

Who do they fight?

No, it scrums after every whistle, Every damn whistle. And I think that's going to wear on the Rangers potentially. I wonder about the decor. Here's the problem with talking about teams like the I talked about Edmonton versus Dallas, but also talking about the Florida Panthers. They're really good at hockey. Yeah. They're really good at hockey, and it's not just about being a bunch of assholes. And when it comes to the Rangers, They're underratedly tough. Again, it comes down to the perception is messed up because of Rempe, but if they're going to win, they're going to win the way that Tampa won in 2020 and 2021, which is by shortening the season. No, it's by... They're able to withstand the onslaught of the other team and not necessarily be the aggressor. Tampa They weren't afraid of the nonsense, but they never really initiated it. So that's what I... I think there's going to be more shots than you think. I think it's going to be more wide open than you think. I think there's going to be odd man rushes. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun hockey.

I was looking at this, guys, and I wanted to ask you something. Is this the best goalie Florida has faced in the last three years that they've been in the playoffs?

Okay, so who do we got? We got Olmark Swayman. I mean, Olmark won the Vesna last year. Joseph Wall. In the second round, they got Wall, and I think one game of Ilyas Samsonov. Don't remember who the hurricanes threw out. Probably Freddie.

Freddie and Kajekoff, maybe.

Right. And then Aiden Hill.

Who was on his game last year.

He was on his game.

And who did they play in 2022 when they won the President's?

Vasilevski in the second round. And then who did-No, didn't they lose in the first round?

They lost in the first round.

No, they lost in the second round. Oh, the second round. To Tampa. They got swept by Tampa. Oh, right. They beat... I want to say the Islanders.

Okay. So I think this is the best goaltending they're going to see.

I mean, it's Igor Shesterken. Depending on who you ask, Rangers fans. He was the best goalie in the world. He was the best goalie in the world.

He was the best goalie in the world. Oh, then for sure is the best goalie they've ever seen. Oh, my God.

Wait, was that Samsonov? I think it might have been.

Good question.

I think it might have been. In 2022?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

But yeah, it's Igor Shosturkin. And it's Igor Shisterkin playing how we all thought he could be. Remember last year, we were like, Oh, what happened to Igor? What What's going to happen to this guy? No, he's playing absolutely fantastic. It's going to be such an interesting adjustment from New York, too, because you have the Canes who aren't about the nonsense at all.

At all.

They just want to have the buck, shoot it as often as they can, score as often as they can, and fail to do so with volume. Whereas the Panthers, I think, are a little bit more efficient than that and welcome all the nonsense. Yes. So you're going from one of the least nonsense prone teams, one of the least after the whistle prone teams in the entire NHL to the heavyweight champions with the Florida Panthers. It'll be a really... That, to me, is a mental adjustment that the Rangers are going to have to make. They're going to have to stay out of the box, not get sucked into it, not lose trades. Because the deeper we get into the playouts, the more four on fours we're going to see. I don't want to call this. I don't want to call that. Don't take a stupid one, and make sure you don't lose a trade. If, I don't know, frigging, name a player, Ryan Lomberg gets in your face. Make sure it's not Mika Zabana jad going with them to the box, and they can talk about how glorious each other's hair is. You don't want that trait.

As the resident rangers fan, there's a couple of things that I'm specifically looking for out of this team in this series that I'm going to be watching. The first is the penalty kill because it's been so exceptional. They outscored the hurricanes. Not by the end. By the end of it, the Hurricanes, because they scored a power play goal in the game 6, so they didn't fully outscore them. But for most of the series, it was 2 to 1 in favor of the shorthanded team of the New York Rangers on the penalty kill against the Hurricane. I want to see if they can just keep that up and shut them down because that's been the best penalty kill in the playoff so far. Then the Truba Gustoveson pair that they had for most of the Hurricane series and the Lavalette finally went away from it, they got caved in every single time they were on the ice. I've talked about it a little myself where you thought about scratching Jacob Truba. It got that bad. Then they paired him with Keandre Miller. They moved him up. They kept Gustoveson on third pair. Now that he's Miller.

He does this thing where every time he touches the puck, he throws it on net. It's a hot potato with Jacob Truba when the puck's on his stick. It seems to suit his game a little better. He's still getting beat in the defensive end, but offensively, he has a bigger impact now. Scored that where he just beat Anderson clean on a break. Jacob Truba doing that. So it'll be interesting to see how they deploy Truba and Miller against the Florida Panthers who can beat you offensively in so many ways. Then lastly is just like, does Igor stand on his head and steal a couple of games? But yeah.

I know Truba is the heavyweight open ice hitter. But when I think about Jacob Truba and how he can be a liability at times, I think about Matthew Kuchuk. There was an interview he did mid-game. Was it pre-game or mid-game this season? I don't remember who it was against. And they're like, So what was the strategy? And he said, for the first 10 minutes, there's no puck. And I think that's what game one is going to be. For the first 10 minutes, there's no puck. Just throw hits. And any time Jacob Truba is on the ice, there's no puck. Just clobber the guy.

So my question to you guys then is, with this series, because we're getting on the 10-minute mark here. 10-minute preview. We are. Okay.

Well, that means we got two minutes to go.

Who do you give it to? How many games?

I picked Dallas before the playoffs began, and I stuck with them.

You're having a tough time sticking with New York.

I'm having a hard time sticking with New York, and I think the world of them. They're a really good hockey team. But the Panthers made the Cup final last year, and I think in a seven-game series, this year's Panthers team kicks the shit of the last year's. Panthers in six.

Jesse.

Panthers in six.

I'm not happy about it.

No, I picked the Rangers going into the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup. I don't think I can bail on that now, regardless of how good I think Florida really is. So I'll side with the New York Rangers in, let's say, six games.

I think we're going to war, boys. I think we're going to see a war, and it's going to be exciting because, Steve, you're doing the streams for this, right? I sure am.

Get wrecked, Jesse.

We're going to see, I think, a seven-game War of Attrition. I think in a war of attrition, Florida wins because I do think that they survive it better because of the nastiness they have throughout the lineup. And playoff, Barbarowski versus playoff, Shosh Torkin. The battle for who gets the net in Russia. Whenever they're allowed back. Yeah, whenever they get back. That's true. They're not allowed there.

If you were the Russian Olympic Committee outside of feeding everybody steroids, who would you pick for your starting goal tender for the Russians? The winner of this series.

Andre Vassilevski. But those two can compete for backup.

That is a very good answer, Steve.

I like that. All right, so those are your predictions. Moving on, I want to quickly talk about something that I love European media. European media, if you watch European Sport, is the best because there's salacious rumors and crazy stuff. The interviews are far more open It. And they'll go and they'll talk to your family members.

And that happened with a leaf once, and we lost our minds. This is why when people talk about how hard Toronto is to play in, and we always go, Oh, but imagine playing for the Knicks or playing for the Lakers. You got it wrong, guys. Get a friend from any other part of the world. This is a spa.

Oh, Oh, my God. These guys have it so easy.

North American pro sports is like a Nordic spa compared to playing over there. Yeah.

I'd love to know what Japan and South Korea are with baseball, too, because they're pretty intensely followed Probably polite and organized. Yeah, that, too. But they're also loud and aggressive about the sport. So here's what Martin Natchis' dad said to Denex Sport. Oh, I love those. Marty Natches' dad said, I I'd be very surprised if Martin Natchis plays for Carolina next season. Martin wants to be traded. In my eyes, Natchis is a great offensive winger.

Now, let me contradict myself a little bit. There is a dad in this city that is talked about a lot.

That would be Paul Marner.

I didn't say that, Adam. You just did. How dare you? But he's never come out and flatly said something like that.

Yeah, through intermediaries he has.

Through intermediaries, yeah.

There's a lot of-Not exactly that, but it was a negotiation point. Oh, they're going to go play with Zurich. Oh, Columbus is going to offer them 14 million, and he's going to sign it. It was all crap, but we all knew where it was coming from.

But this is Marty Natches' dad basically being like, I don't give a fuck. His name is Mike. You know that meme? That's almost exactly what he did. That's good. I like that. I don't give a fuck. He wants to trade. He's not going to play in Carolina next year. I think if we were to hear that, we would lose our minds here. I guess maybe that's the difference. I mean, that's wild. I mean, as a content creator, that's spicy. Give him another interview. Who else's dad is at the World Hockey Championship? Let's go. No, that's excellent stuff. I mean, we all have heard rumors that Natchis could be on the move, but we've never heard it flatly said by someone's dad.

Yeah. We've seen it tweaked by somebody's dad, though. Clayton Keller's dad desperately wanted him to get out of Arizona.

He was hacked?

Yeah, he said he was hacked.

Who's hacking Clayton Keller's dad and then tweeting that?

Who's believing that? It was people who believed that When the Blue Jackets were like, We investigated Mike Babcock and found nothing. And everybody's like, Yeah, you know what? Good for the Blue Jackets. And there was a bunch of people who just took them at the word, Stop it.

Other dad stuff. I I almost said Miko. I almost said Miko. Arturi Lekinen's dad. He was getting spicy in the Finnish media, talking bad about Miko Rantinen. And Rantinen basically said, Keep my name out of your fucking mouth. And then he had to go back to playing with his son.

Yeah, I think there was... Wasn't there like... Weren't they upset about that? Weren't they like... Didn't they have to do something? Oh, Brandon was- Didn't he have to apologize for that, though, his dad?

I want to say there was a back and forth. I don't think Arturi was ever involved. And I mean, sons are not their fathers, and fathers are not their sons. But those two want to cup together. And it was just fascinating that Lekanin's dad, supposedly in the Finnish media... I want to say he's a broadcaster.

Yes, he is. He is a broadcaster. And I don't think he wanted to start a fight.

No, but he said something like, Yeah, this offseason regime sucks. And then Rantan proceeded to light everyone on a fire.

Got over 100 points.

With Carolina, it seems like there's going to be a lot of turnover on that team and a lot of new faces on that roster, especially because they're going to have to move Marty Natchis, it seems, because he's in RFA, and they just won't have the room to pay him what he deserves to be paid. And just all of the UFAs that have stacked up in one year, it's going to be a completely different Carolina team starting next season, which will be fascinating to see how they navigate that this offseason.

I have some great career advice. Whether you're a general manager trying to negotiate a trade or you're a free agent trying to sign a deal, if Carolina calls you, hang up the phone because they are calling you because they think they can get you for less than you're worth. If they're calling you for a trade, they're doing it to pance you in front of the world.

The only person, I think, who got fair value on a deal in Carolina that I can think of is Tony D'Angelo.

Everyone has their blind spot. For two and a half mil or something.

I was like, that one.

Do you I think the hurricanes regret going so hard after Khaki Nyemi and then giving him the long deal for four point something million dollars?

It's more than that, Jesse.

Khakenyami's deal?

It's like six mil per year.

No, this first year was six mil.

No, no. His extension is eight years, $4.82 million.

The one year was to get him out of Montreal. Yeah.

They had to give him all that. Because they had the room to do it. But now that they're in their Cap Crunch era, this is their time where they got to pay guys and they have them on the books for $4.82 million for the next... He's only expired three of those, so six years. That's a lot of money that could probably be reallocated to somebody else.

Oh, would you look at that? One year left with no trade protection.

Oh, interesting.

Now, if I know the Carolina Huracan's pattern, he is gone.

But to who?

You think so? And for what?

Listen, he's not an appealing trade, but guys get traded. If there's a team with space, there were teams who were like, Yeah, I'll take Bovilli I can't wait to pick up a $27.5.

Million forward who had one single point in 11 playoff games this playoff run.

Yuck.

Like, dude, the guy's career high in points is 43 last year.

What about playoff total? When did he do it?

Don't tell me. I know the answer. You look at that deal for Caught Canyemi and you say, If we lose Marty Natchis and we can't do this RFA deal with him because we have Caught Canyemi on the books, you're sitting there as Don Wadal being like, You know what? That sucks.

The Carolina Hurricains are also your friend who, back when Facebook was a thing, would put their status as, It's complicated. And they like... Cry. Well, no. And they post cryptic song lyrics. Yeah. Shut up. They're so messy. They're just, oh, yeah, Rod Brindamore is gone. And also, they won't pay any of the staff or the assistance. And oh, never mind. He resigned. And then a couple of years passes and start posting Billy Eilish or Taylor Swift or whatever. And all of a sudden, I think he's going to leave. And there's a bunch of other openings. And then the play-offs end and, Oh, he's going to stay now. And the assistants are staying, too. And this guy is going to get traded, and that guy is going to... No. You want me to bet right now? Marnie Natches' dad is wrong. Marny Natches Rees signs with the Carolina Hurricanes. They trade Jesperry, Cough and Yemi. That's what the Hurricains do.

And to be fair to Cough and Yemi, he had a decent 22, 23, where he was half a point a game in the play-off. I think it was seven of 15, and then 43 points in 82 games.

So he's got the one full season left with zero trade protection. It's probably easier to move him in the offseason, but what could happen is you go, All right, next year, hopefully he breaks out, and then midseason, you get a decision to make.

Yep, absolutely.

Might be easier to move him midseason.

I do love the drama. How about a trade? Oh, we have a trade doing.

We have a trade? Yeah, because trades aren't... There's You can still make trades, just not with teams in playoffs.

So this one involves a former playoff team. Can you guess which one?

Is it the Toronto May police?

It is not the Toronto May police. Damn. Jesse, you pick.

I will pick the National Predators.

And they are involved. Can you name the other team, Jesse?

Are they not a player?

They are also playoff.

Tampa Bay.

That's right. What? Holy shit. Now, let's go for the three. Holy shit. Let's go for the three. Who's the player? And it's a player. There's no way. Yeah, you can. It's a player. Think about it.

Is it Steven Stamkos?

No, think about it. Oh, my God.

Come on, guys. It's not Tana Janouh.

Come on, think about it. These teams trade all the time. There's one more guy. There's one more guy, Jesse and Steve.

Okay, which team is the guy? It's a defenseman. It is. It's a defenseman. Ryan McDonald?

Ryan McDonald is Tampa Bay Lightning again. Again? Yeah. No way. I guess the Matt Dumba and whatever else experiment they had didn't work out. They have brought him from as far as I can tell. So the deal is McDonald and Edmondson's 2024, fourth round pick that Tampa somehow has. Oh, sorry. Nashville somehow has to Tampa. And exchange for the 2024 seventh rounder and a second rounder in 2025 to Nashville.

What? That feels like money laundering.

So basically, Ryan McDonald is back, and he was the guy that I think Tampa thought they really needed, and they tried to replace at the deadline with several different pieces. Well, they dumped him, but I don't think they wanted to. That was the thing. When they traded him-They couldn't afford him. They couldn't afford him. And then I think at the deadline with Dumba, and there was somebody else. Who else they bring at the deadline?

Claire, didn't they? Capfriendly doesn't even have this trade.

No. Chris Crenn is the one on my timeline, at least. He broke it. He's a Tampa Bay beat writer for the-Oh, my God.

Wow.

Yeah. So long story short, huge, huge piece for the bolts. Yeah, Nashville has actually announced it, too.

I'm surprised Nashville moved off him.

Did he have term? I think it wasn't that Nashville wanted to necessarily move off of him. It was that I think Tampa wanted him bad enough. And Nashville, McDonald was really, really valuable for them in the first round. But I would say that they can get a second round pick next year out of it, which means that they can move that at the deadline for something else.

There it is from CJ himself. So I think if you're Tampa, right? So Sergachev was out and broke his leg when he came back. I'm sure he wasn't 100 %. That put so much pressure on Headman. But when Tampa won their cups, we were like, Vasilevski. Oh, my God. Vasilevski. And they scored a lot of goals. They had guys who could score crazy goals. Kutrav was great. Braden Point was great. Lots of other great performances. What truly set Tampa apart from everybody and helped Vasilevski be as great as he was, is their left side was Headman McDonald-Sergechev. Unbeatable. Game over. Don't bother. Yes, They had to go to some suspect names on the right side. Didn't matter. At any given moment, Tampa had at least one of Headman McDonald or Sergechev on the ice at the same You're not winning. They're killing you. In the playoffs? Forget it. Who do you even hide your best players from? I guess we'll send them at... Who? Sergachev? That sucks. Mcdonald then? Okay. Barry is frigging stick right beneath your pelvis there. Dude, it's... As a fan of an Atlantic division team, I'm not thrilled.

Not thrilled. I think it's an indication that they definitely don't think their windows closing anytime soon. I think, is it a precursor to Stamco's coming back?

Jesse, I was about to say the same thing.

That's where my mind immediately went like, We're getting everybody back. We're doing this thing again. We think we're a lot closer than the Florida series indicates, and Stamco is going to be a lightning in a couple of weeks.

Steven, we I need you to take a big discount. I don't want to. What are we going to do? I want Ryan back. I wouldn't be shocked at all if we hear something to that effect. Or this makes it way harder to bring Stamco's back because they're bringing money in and no money went out.

I want to see. I don't remember off the top of my head what Ryan McDonald makes.

It's like six or something.

It's five or six. Let's triple check to make sure. It's a lot of money.

Unless he signed some extension with Nashville that I don't remember.

No. Why can I do this quickly?

Spelled MacDonach. There we go.

Ryan McDonald, 6.7 five for next season and the year after.

That is a lot more than I thought.

Which is quite a chunk of change.

He also doesn't suck.

Yeah, that's very true.

He has a no trade clause. He was very, very good this year. I'm guessing he waved it. I'm guessing he waved it.

The last time the National Predators of Tampa Bay Lightning did a little tradey doodle-do, it was the Tanar Janot trade, unless they did something in between that.

I don't remember, but the Lightning got killed.

And in that one, I think we're going to all agree that they probably look back and don't do that one again just because of the draft capital. So they have a great trading relationship Something you focused on in the past about Kyle Dubis and the teams he loves to trade with. And this seems like definitely one that the Lightning seem to keep going back to.

So wait then. Tampa gave Nashville two more picks. And the pick that Nashville gave to Tampa is an oiler's pick. So what I'm trying to figure out, the TradeTree senses are going off of my head, are any of the picks from this trade from the Jeunot deal? And unless the oilers one is, then the answer is no.

I wouldn't think so. I think these are other picks.

Is that Nashville? That's Nashville's picks?

For this upcoming draft.

That's a playoff team that nearly punched their ticket to the second round. They got a first, three seconds, two-thirds, three-fourths. They don't have a fifth, sixth, or seventh, but all the things that you said are why you don't give a shit.

Add into this another second round pick in 2025. Yes.

Question.

Another first round pick.

It's conditional.

There is a condition.

Trade protected. Our top 10. A question for you guys. Is there any way to look up just the trade history involving McDonald to the preds and then McDonald back. Yeah. Yes. You got it there. Yeah.

I'll be doing it in half a second.

Because the reason I ask is I believe Tampa had to pay assets for Nashville to take that deal.

It wasn't a lot. Because remember, there was one weird- No.

It was Ryan McDonald to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Philip Myers and Grant Mismash.

Okay, never mind. It was basically- And then they also held money. They held money.

They did?

Yeah, because if you look at this- No. No, no, no, no.

No, that's just the change in the cap. So they lost $4.2 million in caps.

I know, but doesn't he make $6.7?

No, it would have said- No, that's the change in what their cap was. So Nashville's cap went up plus $4.2..

Because Myers was making way too much.

Yes, he was.

He screwed his career up a little bit because he was not a bad player, but he wasn't 2.55. Interesting. It's almost like how Connor Timmen's numbers screwing his career.

The one thing I do want to say is the Nashville Predator seemed to be good at harvesting draft pics from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Yes.

I mean... Between this and Tana Jeanot, that's pretty solid.

The The list of trades Julian Breeswell has lost in recent years is a short list, but they include the Preds. Wow. That's a very big deal. And screw the preds for sending another really good defenseman to the Atlantic.

Yeah. Thanks for that.

I think it's clear that Julian Breeswell, when he has guys he likes, he likes them a lot, and will do anything to go acquire those players.

Nashville clearance space for Marner. There's Stop.

That's not a ridiculous thing to say at all. Marner makes a lot of money getting $6.75 million outside of your team. It's not a ridiculous thing to say at all. They need high-end scoring talent. They have tremendous draft capital to build around this playoff team, as you illustrated. He can play defense. And he can play defense in a pinch. He can be on the defensive side. It makes a lot of sense for this Nashville team to acquire player like Mitch Marner, and now they have some cap room to do it.

Okay, I want to talk a little bit about the fact that we're not going to do much on the Craig Berube press conference, and that is because we watched the whole thing and there really wasn't anything of notes. He's a big communicator. We read all that. I think the great breakdown- I'm going to overanalyze it when I get home. Okay, that's fair.

It could be a video on that.

The great breakdown of, I think, what you guys talked about was yesterday with you and CJ. You filled in for Julian on the Chris Johnson show, and I was listening to it on the way, and it spectacular, loaded with leaf stuff. So instead of not... I don't want to necessarily repurpose a lot of that. What I wanted to do was go through an article that Luke Fox put together for sportsnet. Ca, and it is 57 random thoughts he has about the Toronto 8 beliefs. We're not going to 57 of them, but I thought there were four or five that were-Fifty-seven? He has 57 thoughts about them. I thought you were going to say pages. You probably do, too. You just haven't written them down.

Oh, I have. And that is Hockey Rants and Raves. So I'm out from Harper Collins this fall?

So I'm going to pull some of these for you, okay? So the first one, and it's the very first argument that he makes in the whole... And these are all just random thoughts. The greatest and simplest argument for changing the Toronto-Maeble leaves mix might be watching the second round action and asking yourself, honestly, how would Toronto fare in this series? Apply it to any of the series. And I think a lot of people's answer would be not well.

The second round isn't the first. The intense The density ramps up. They play better. Everyone plays a little tighter.

Yep. Okay, here's another one. Sorry. I obviously copied and pasted it.

Too many? What if I close your computer?

We understand True Living's giving new coach, Barube, the option to chat with current assistants before rushing into things. But with Guy Bouchet overseeing the power play that tumbled from seventh overall in the regular season, from second to seventh overall in the regular season, and then flunked out with one for 21 in the postseason. He can't stay. There are whispers, and I think Barnburter said that Marc Savard is coming from Calgary.

Empty netters as well.

The Flames power play fell from 19th to 26th last year under Savard. How do we feel about that?

I think they're two different teams, obviously. The Flames don't have the personnel that the Leifs do. The problem with the Leifs power play is I feel like the Leifs power play is them in the playoffs. I almost feel like the team dreads getting it. They dread getting the power play because the expectations are so high. If that team is out of the top five, it's a failure, isn't it? Matthews, Tavares, Marner, Neylander, Reilly on the same What? A unit? Score every time. Score every time. What do you mean they can't gain the zone? What do you mean they didn't get a shot? What do you mean they allowed a shorthanded break away?

To that favor, to that. Luke Fox said, Love to see Barube start the season with two balanced power play units to up the urgency and internal competition. An easy reset and attention getter. He said, A quick glance of the power plays make the least five on four look stagnant by comparison. I thought the key word there was competition, guys. If the two power plays are competing for time, it is going to push them harder. Ever since Tavares got here, we've just given power play one. That's everywhere loading up, and that's what it's going to do. That seemed like the smart thing to do. But there is no competition between these two units.

He's probably their most consistent power play performer. Matthews and Marner actually struggle at times. It's either Tavares or Willy. Those are the guys who rake when it comes to the power play. I know what you mean. They do got to split it.

There's a bunch more that we can do here, but we are running low on time, so I want to do one more with you guys. I think this is one that has been whispered about, but hasn't fully been totally addressed by members of the media. I want to shout out Luke Fox for saying it. At various points this season, the organization sheltered struggling players from the media. If the leaves are serious about establishing a culture of accountability, that includes answering questions at tough times. Now, we talked about that after game seven when Marner and Reilly did not come out to speak to the media, both who were assistant captains who were supposed to be leaders on this team. To me, that is unacceptable. To this organization, they've allowed that to become acceptable. This is the first public part that we're hearing about it. But from what I have heard from people who are down there every day and spoken to many of them, absolute nightmare to deal with. The PR staff when it comes to getting players. You look at this from an outsider, and we've said this before, what do the quotes really matter?

It's true. It's true. It doesn't add to the story? Maybe not much. But here's what I would say from an accountability issue, and the least clearly have an accountability issue, having to go out and answer them. Forget what the answer is. Have the act of having to go out and talk Talk to the reporters after a shit game and explain your way out of a box. Even if you're boring like Tavares, well, we learned another lesson. Great, John. I appreciate that quote. I don't care about the actual work.

Go on, King. Give us nothing.

It's the act of doing it and being accountable. So for instance, people give Lou Lamorello, and I think sometimes, rightfully so, a lot of shit for his, Oh, you got to shave. You got to have your hair cut, whatever. I heard from somebody that knew Lou, why he did it, why he makes teams do And he said to the person, Do you think that I like getting up and having to shave every day? And the person said, Well, no. And he said, No, I don't like it. He's like, But sometimes it's about the act of starting your day with doing something you don't want to do because your day is going to be full of things you don't want to do that you're going to have to do anyway. You know what's funny? And that's his philosophy.

I, very low-key, started doing that. Shaving every day? Yeah. I'm obviously not today. Okay, because I'm feeling good about myself. If you see me with Stubble, I'm thriving. Yes, because I felt like complete shit after Ila was born because she's a newborn baby. And to give off the illusion of I'm doing fine. I started shaving every day because you look clean-shaven, you're taking care of yourself. Okay, great. And now I can tell you that was all a lie. It was a clean-shaving lie.

Sometimes it's a mental mindset. People say, for them anyway, it doesn't have to work for everybody, but make your bed every morning because it's the first hard... By the way, you shouldn't make your bed every morning. You actually should peel it back and let it breathe, but do it in a nice way.

From a germ's perspective, you should actually not make your bed run away.

But long story short-Cover it in dirt.you do it every morning because it's like, Now I've done something I didn't want to do, and I can do other tasks that I don't want to do. I think for the Lefs, the resentment from the fan base, the ang... Not resentment, is a tough word.

It's absolutely resentment.

The frustration from the fan base is, what do you mean you can play a game like that and I can spend my night watching that after a really hard day's work, or I spend my money watching that after a really hard day's work, and then you don't have to come out and answer for it? What do you mean? What do you mean my money goes to buying jerseys and buying this and buying cable subscriptions, mostly, or buying streaming subscriptions and watching these games and making room room in my schedule for you? What do you mean you don't have to answer four or five questions from the media for three minutes? Because that's all it lasts for. It's three minutes long.

If you're intimidated by a microphone, no wonder you lose to Brad Marshan or Matthew Kuchuk or Sam Bennett or anyone. Anyone. It's, again, is Toronto a tough hockey market? Yeah, absolutely. Tough hockey market. It's such a key distinction I don't think it's a difficult sports market, at all. In the grand-well, there's nothing great to compare it to, usually, unless it's like the Raptors won the Championship in '19. I don't even think it's difficult in terms of North America, but like we were talking about earlier, play a game ever in Europe. I love that video of Nikola Jokić, who gets to hang out with his horses now. They're like, Are Are you intimidated by whatever it was, the game? And he's like, I played in Serbia, brother. And then they show a game in Serbia, and the stadium's on fire. There's smoke everywhere. It's on fire. People bought flat. Where do you keep a flag the size of a garage? Where do you store that in between games? And why are there 12 of them? How did you all get that flag? You know what I mean? I understand, Oh, I don't to give them fuel or whatever.

I think, imagine a movie where an NHL player woke up as LeBron James. I think you'd shit yourself and die. You know what I mean? Yeah. Or woke up as Tom braided or woke up as any soccer player in the world.

And so because of this, the PR staff has to play a role. And it's not the PR staff. They're getting their orders from the top. Brandon Chanahan can't hide these guys from the world anymore. They're in their mid to late 20s. Especially the core four making over $10 million a season. It's enough.

Shanaher won three cups in the tiny Hamlet of Detroit.

Yeah.

Yeah, they just discovered hockey in Michigan.

Are you serious? I think that they thought that it would allow the players to focus more. And as usual-How did it go? Well, and you said it about Dubas a couple of times. Every time Dubas goes to bed for these guys, they kick him in the teeth. And it's been, it's like, I just need to stop speaking to the media so I can focus on my game more. How did that go? It's not the media. It's not the this. It's not the that. It's the you. And we got to get back to Because this team was more accountable earlier on in this decade. They were in front of media. The assistant captains before there was a captain were not allowed to hide away. And it's got to be like that again. I think that that is a You want to play here. You want to make a lot of money here. You want to be a God here. And I don't mean that just to target Mitch, by the way, because he's right. I love that quote. He's absolutely right. You're treated like gods.

Repeatedly said he was right and people misinterpreted the quote.

You got to stand in front of people and take some questions when it's uncomfortable.

Do you see how we talk about Mitch?

Mm-hmm.

Valid criticism, followed by... I'm not interested in doing that anymore.

Let's do the press conference. The press R-S-D-P.

The Steve Dangle Press Conference.

Since we last talked here on Friday afternoon, another Toronto team lost in the playoff in a devastating fashion. It was Jessie. I was at the PWhL Toronto game on Friday night, and unfortunately, they lost to Minnesota. We don't do a lot of breakdowns of games or anything from the PWhL, But they had a fantastic season. It's so unfortunate that Natalie Spooner got injured in the middle of the playoff for them, their five-game semifinal series, because she was their leading scorer, and it showed from the moment they went up 2-0 in the following games, they went on to score zero goals on Monday, zero goals on Wednesday, and then they managed to eke out a goal on Friday. But as soon as Minnesota scored one, and then they got another one after it was one-one, they got that second goal. Just scoring felt Well, a lead felt insurmountable for the Toronto PwHL. It felt like it was impossible for them to put anything in the back of the net. It sucks that their season ended this way because it looked during the regular season that this was the best team in the league. It looked like out of the six teams, once they got going, this was going to be the team that's going to go all the way.

And scoring just completely disappeared, and Minnesota was able to come back from a 2-0 series deficit to take a 3-2 victory.

Jesse, What was the atmosphere like?Unbelievable.Okay..

It's better than any hockey game in the entire city. It's the best atmosphere is in PWhL games. It's my second one. I went to one at the Matamee Athletic Center, and then now this one was at Coca Coliseum, both times, unreal atmospheres. You can see the crowds are different crowds. It's not the crowds that can go to leaf games because regular people can't afford those leaves.

Are they wearing jerseys?

Yeah, they're wearing jerseys. They're channing all the entire game. The music is better. To full credit to them, the in-game atmosphere is much better than a leafs game. It's a better crowd every which way.

Luke Fox actually mentioned that in the article. He's like, I'd Yeah, he said, I'd really like the Lefs in Arena staff to just dial it back a little bit because he's like this whole fake, the whole fake get loud stuff and whatever. He's like, it's drowning out the chance of Sammie. It's drowning out the chance of Sammie. It's rounding out the chance of Go leaves, go. And if you listened, I pay attention to this stuff because it's stupid. But if you listen to the music Boston played at home versus what the leaves played, the leaves played almost exclusively electronic music. And dance music is great. Electronic music is great. But it can't be dubstep every time. Sometimes you got to have a foot stomper or a klapper or something like that, or a shipping off to Boston or something. Boston plays feel good music. The least play...

No, It's 2011, Adam. Give the people what they want.

What's that?Dubstep.Dubstep. Yeah, 100%. Let's go. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, Listen, can we... I think he's right on that. I think he's right on that. Jesse, you pointed out it can be done in Toronto.

Yeah, no, it's fantastic. A lot of that, obviously, is the ticket prices. My get-in price, it was like 50 bucks or something like that. It wasn't bad. We're sitting there's only one bowl, so it wasn't like... I didn't have the standing room tickets, too, which were $44 or something, but I got an actual seat for a little bit more than that. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. Kristenin. They're a goal tender for Toronto. She had a 962 throughout in the five-game series. She was unreal, and the team just couldn't frigging score. It was devastating to see them go down this way because it's fun to see that in the PWhL, just like the NHL, there's two different hockey. There's a playoff PWhL hockey at a regular season, and then when it came to the playoffs, goals are hard to come by. This is a team that lost their leading score and couldn't score anymore.

Jesse, I think everyone should watch women's sports. Perhaps you and I should not.

Why?

Because Toronto lost because you were there. And yesterday, while taking care of Ila, Girl Dad, I was like, You know what? Playoff game isn't on for a while. Let me see what sports are on. I turned on the WNBA, and Kaitlyn Clarke immediately rolled her ankle.

And she came back. She did? She came back in that game. Yeah, she's fine. She'll be fine.

I was, unfortunately, in diaper town. But yeah, as soon as I saw it, I'm like, Dude, I tuned in to see her. I'm surprised she came back.

She did. Yeah, it wasn't too bad. But Indiana Fever started 0-4, and Kaitlyn Clarke's... They lost? Yeah. They were doing so well. No, she hasn't picked up a victory yet. But give her a second. The reason they had the number one pick is because they were the worst.

How many games did Wambud Yama win this year?

San Antonio is going to pick top five again. They're awful. There's a reason the bad teams have the number one overall pick, and she didn't go to a good team, and people need to give her some room to just grow in the league.

One of my favorite categories of basketball content this year was just people ripping on the Spurs. If you don't pass to him, I want you to wave tomorrow. Why aren't you passing?

Jesse, any questions?

I think we should work it around.

Give it to Wemby. First question comes from Maddie Smith, who wants us to react to Brenda Shanaher's face in the Craig Berube Jersey photo. Adam's doing a good impression of Brandon Shanahan's face.

Do we have split screen?

Can you do picture a picture for that? There you go. Oh, shit. There it is.

This is good. Oh, Oh, Adam. Now, I will say, I do think he's excited about the higher. I think it's just he's giving you the dad smile there.

No, that's how he looks.

He smiles better than that.

No. Go back and find Brandon Shanahan tooth all the smile photos. That's how we... Adam, do it. Do the face. I don't know why that's so funny to me.

Craig Barupe, it looks like he could kill you. He could. I know he was a tough guy in the NHL, but damn, those are some eyes.

He could. Those two fought, by the way.

No. Baruba and Shana. They did, yeah. The video has been going around.

Who won?

Not Shana Hane. Oh, okay. I can't remember if I said it here on my channel, but it's Devil's Shana. Which means early career Shana.

So he was very thin.

Which means he didn't check the game notes. No. He fought, I'm pretty sure, Philadelphia Flyer, Craig Baruba. You're out of your mind. Yeah. No, that was one of the toughest guys in the league. All right.

One question we did have from maybeit'sian on our Discord server. Maybe. Go to stpn. Ca or in the link in the description, you can join us on our Discord server. Maybeit'sian has a question for Steve. Steve, do you miss talking about the coyotes yet? You seem to really enjoy those conversations.

No. Actually, you know what's fun? We're in the final stages of editing for my book, Hockey Rants and Raves, comes out October 15th. Herbert Collins. You know what's been such a pain in the ass? One, updating stats for a book that I wrote midseason. That's been difficult. Number two, I actually did write quite a bit about the coyotes. Okay. And I had to delete almost all of it. There's one chapter in particular, without spoiling it, where I tried to be funny and just kept crossing out references to the coyotes and replacing it with Utah. Oh, okay. Yeah, you'll have to see it. I hope Arizona gets his team.

Did you know there was coyotes news, though? Today? No, It's just been coyotes news.

There's been a little bit of news about the auction that's coming up.

And the mayor saying, We're not putting public funds towards this, so don't even try it.

We never did the Katie Strang article, where they did a breakdown of how things went in Arizona and bills not being paid and all that fun stuff. The land auction is still maybe going to happen. I don't think... The way this is all trending. I'll shut up. We'll stop. Next question, we'll end on this. This is from WAM 876543, Columbus Blue Jackets fan. Prior to this year, when was the last time the President's Trophy winner got to the conference final?

Well, I can think of Vancouver in 2011. Didn't they win the President's Trophy that year?

A little bit of trivia.

Who won the 2020 President's Trophy?

That's a really good question. I haven't the slightest clue. Yeah, this is a steep question. I can't remember all the conference finals going back 10, 15 years.

I am going to blindly say the 2013 Blackhawks.

You are incorrect, but you are close. The 14, 15 Rangers. Oh, I think the point is to illustrate how winning the President's trophy does not equate to postseason success at all the last decade of hockey. They're two different sports.

Two different sports. They might as well play lacrosse.

Did they not make the finals that year? Did they not lose in the finals?

14, 15 is the year. That was a good team. Henry got them all the way to the finals, and they lost.

Alec Martínez.

But I think that's nine consecutive years of hockey. Now, the Rangers have broken that streak again. But nine years of hockey that the President's trophy winner doesn't make out of the second round. Crazy. It's different sports.

That Alec Martínez, cup-winning goal. There was a former leaf on the ice for the Kings when he scored it. Who was it?

Who was it? I don't know.

I don't know. Kyle Clifford.

There you go. Wow.

As you would expect. On the ice for a cup-winning goal.

All right.

We're back again tomorrow.

By the way, everybody is assuming that this McDonald Trade means Martin to Nashville.

And they're right. What?

We don't know that. Come on now. We don't know that.

We don't know that. But we can figure it.

The Steve Dangle podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter @steve_dangle@Adam, W-Y-L-D-E, and @jesseblake. Connection complete.