When they talked about the head coach thing, somebody asked him about Keef, and he said, I don't want to say that the players stop listening, but the message stops hitting home.

We know that- But that was three years ago, the message stopped hitting home. Exactly. We know that almost for certain... No, it started to work. It started to work. They scored more playoff-style goals. It was working. And what series? Well, this is the thing.

Which consecutive game where they didn't score more than three goals did No, I know.

It started to work.

No, no, no. The one where they scored two or the other one where they scored one? No, but I started- Or the other one where they scored two.

Jesse, there was one where they scored three. The one?

When I started watching that Amazon, or after I watched I said Amazon documentary, I started watching the Leaps through a bit of a different lens, and I started going, okay, beyond the fact that they won 4-1 tonight, which is great. How did they win? How did How did they do it? How did they get those four goals? There were games where the Leaps won, the Leaps lost, where I'm like, wow, I don't know. This one hit an ass. This one, I don't know, goalie probably should have saved it. This one hit the linesman, stuff like that. But I started to watch. I'm like, Okay, is that goal going in in the playoffs? All right, dude rips it down the wing, and he comes in, and he snipes it top Chad.Not.

The Leaps.Glove side.

That happens. But not the Leaps. It decreases in the playoffs big time. We were just talking about Panarin. What do you think about Panarin? What do you think? High-end skill, being able to kick yourself in the forehead for some reason. Vision.

Yeah, great Sally.

Yeah, vision, being able to make plays. That's a tippin. It's a high-end, nice-looking tippin, but that's a tippin. That's how you have to bloody score.

Well, what about on the power play? That's something that the Lefs could do because they're given a million opportunities and they have an inability to do that. That's something that is a skill and coaching issue, and they need to solve that.

Perimeter, perimeter, perimeter, on, stop, because it's a low percentage shot. No one's there for the rebound. Clear. Try to gain the zone fail. Try to gain the zone fail. Try to gain the zone fail. Line change. Try to gain the zone fail. Try to gain the zone. Get it. Perimeter, perimeter, perimeter. Soft shot on. Stopped. Cleared. Penalty is over. How many power plays do we see that way? You know what I mean? And they're not... The Bruins will just send enormous bodies in front because it's hilarious. They sent Patrick Maroon out. They sent Justin Brazzow out. I know this is long-spilled milk, but 2013, when the Bruins tied the game, I against the Leifs, game seven. Go look who's in front. Who's at the point? Is it Zdeno O'Chara, who has maybe the hardest shot in NHL history? No, he's the net front guy because it's hilarious and effective. You take away the goalie's ability to goalie. He can't see shit. The Leifs started for a while there to do a really good job of taking away the opposing goalie's eyes. And against Boston, they just stopped doing that.

I think this is why it was more than enough time to move on from Sheldon Keefe. And as MLS does, it's a little too late, but he never figured out how to get the players he was given to score in the playoffs, and especially on the power play. And the players that are there don't know how to score in the playoff.

And you know what? Neither could Babs. I'll give Babs credit. They did score more goals when Babs was coaching in the playoffs. They just let in a pile of bad ones, I also don't think, and we can get into the minutiae of this, but I think of things like the Leifs' sixth defenseman is Travis Dermot, and he does a spin-around in overtime, and it leads to a goal when the Lefs come out like a house on fire and have 15 shots on net, and the one shot the Habs get goes in.

It might have been their best period of the series, and they lost.

It's stuff like that where that's where I say part of this wasted. This is a wasted... We wasted time here, a lot of time. One thing I'll say about Brad is that he did bring in veteran presence and didn't allow guys like Giordano and Brody who were clearly not up to it to play in this series much more than Brody's one game. And the Edmondson effect, was Edmondson great? No. Was he solid? Yes.

I liked him as an option.

I did, too. And I think that's... I like that. At least the team is going that way. Now, the last thing, Trille even answers his last question by saying, Short answer. We have to look at everything. We've got good players, but it hasn't worked. Duh. Now, all that to say, you're going to hear a lot of people say, Well, they didn't take account disability, or they didn't do this, or they didn't do that, or I don't know any more than I did before. Yes, you do. First off, you know Sam, he's as good as gone. They're going to find any... If Sam is back as the lead school tender next year, something's gone really wrong. And he It was their last option.

I mean, we've seen it happen before. I'll be stunned.

I'd be stunned. But again, I was stunned when the Leaps actively went after Matt Murray as their goal tender, and I ended that with Peter Morazek.

What was the plan there?

There wasn't one, Steve. That was a bad day in Montreal when we found out that was happening because that's when it was. When we were in Montreal for the draft, when that happened. We were? We were. I remember when that. Good I don't remember. Friege has gone on the Jeff Merrick show, by the way, over the course of this recording and said that he believes that Baroube will be the head coach at the Toronto Mapleies by the end of the weekend.

By the end of the weekend.

It's Friday. By the end of the weekend. All right. Kipper was saying, I think earlier that they've made contact with Baroube's camp, which would make sense. Did you listen to hear him say this or did you see a tweet? It's on Twitter. It's out there. I I'm thrilled that Todd McClellan's name is not in there because that's a Babcock guy, and I'm not interested. We've done that. Been there, done that. He's a Babcock disciple. No, end of story, not into it.

Can I say a terrible reality?

What?

Lots of coaches are Babcock disciples. Dude, Jim Montgomery. I know. Contacted him before game seven, and none of us wagged our finger.

Listen, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I also think it's You've been down that road. Find somebody else. Are you telling me there's only 40 guys? Is that what you're telling me?

Well, it's funny. The Leaps, they find themselves in this loop where they look at themselves and they go, Wait a second, where are the leaves? We have to get someone with tenure. We have to get the best available because we can afford the best available and we demand the best available. That's why I was so shocked. 10 years ago now when they got Kyle Dubas, because I was like, this is the guy they would never get, and they're going to develop him, and it's going to go really well. And I was right on some-They didn't do that with Sheldon either.

Sheldon is a first-time NHL head coach. You know what? You're right. They didn't have that philosophy the last two hires, so why not try it this time?

Well, now I wonder if they're ever going to do that again. Yeah.

I think they proved that we tried it. Both of those guys were here for a long time. They didn't win. We also didn't give them the freedom to do whatever they wanted because the head honcho up top, Brenda Shana had made most of the decisions. But the first year head coach thing, promoting the guy from literally the Toronto Marlies, the HL, to the head coaching job didn't work. He didn't get them over the home.

Also, the Leifs had a lot less to lose back then. There's a lot more on the line now. You don't do a rookie head coach when you're in this part of the development. You're at risk. The next five years are supposed to be Matthew's best, supposed to be Nylander's best. If you miss on this, and I named those two because I think they're the ones that are going to be around leading this team. You miss on those, or you get a bad coach now, you are maligned forever.

We don't want to think about it this way, but the reality is Austin Matthews will not play hockey forever. There's going to come a day when Austin Matthews isn't a Toronto Maple leaf anymore. And if you don't capitalize on having one of the greatest goal scores of his generation on your team, you're going to miss out on a huge opportunity, and it's going to be unforgivable for the franchise. Who knows where the franchise is going to be at five years from now if they don't win something and everybody moves on? Are we going to go back to a rebuild?

Dude, that gave me heart palpitations. Maddie just went. Sorry. But you look at a situation where the San Jose Sharks are right now.

You look at the situation where the Chicago Blackhawks are right now. The Chicago Blackhawks, I I couldn't even use the example because they won. But yeah, at least they won. The San Jose Sharks are, I think, the best example. They're a team that was very competitive for years and years and years. They make a final. They're in the Eastern Conference Finals every year. They're always in it, and then they just fall short. And then now look, they're competing for the first overall pick. They get it, finally. But after years of competitiveness comes years of drought. And with the least, you need to get one within your because eventually, it's going to come the other side where we're back in the sunken place. Nope.

What if I live in ignorance until that day arrives?

The Pittsburgh Penguins, they got theirs, and now They're on the outside looking in. If we want to throw in the teams that one, the Blackhawks are a great example, too. They win. Now, they're in the sunken place.

Yeah, and then what? Connor Bedard.

And then Connor Bedard?

They're going to get one of the Russian kids.

They already got a bunch of- The difference is the NHL wants Chicago to do well. They're trying to rebuild this franchise. Toronto, they're going to be successful, whether the least are good or not. We've already seen that. We saw 15 years of the least being bad. Do you think at any point, Gary Bettman picked up the phone of the Maple Leifs or the pension plan when they owned that team and said, Guys, hello.

Hello.

If you guys are good, imagine how much money you could make. Imagine not being terrible. And by the way, that's the The reason Shana Han is still here is the money they've made in the last twelve years. He's got a great ally in Gary Bettman, because here's what will happen. If the Leifs move on from Shana and, here's what's going to happen. The Keith Pelley will call Gary Bettman and go, who do you think? That's what they did when they were looking for a general manager. All right, everyone.

Thank you for coming today. We'll open the floor to questions. I'd like to welcome the new President of the Toronto Maple Leaves, George Paris.Do.

Not be surprised.Bang. Let's go. Oh, God. Finally get some calls.

Yeah. Oh, yeah? You think it works that way?

Yeah, finally get some calls.

Do not be surprised.

Would the Leaves hire Greg Campbell, too?

If Shani is not successful in this next year and making this team much better. Do not be surprised to see him back in an NHL head office role almost immediately. I don't know. No, no. Don't be surprised. I'm telling you.

Oh, fine. I'm telling you. Is this advice you're giving me or a command?

I am commanding you to not be surprised. You're not allowed. I will come to your house. I will knock on your door and be like, Are you surprised? You're my friend.

My patience is running thin with this organization. I hope so. I hope it is. I hope the fans also feel that because it's been a long time. Like I said, you're not going to be in a position where you have these collective individuals who haven't been able to get it done, but you clearly have something there in terms of the regular season success. And if they don't find a way to get it done, it's like, What do we do here?

Here's what I don't want. Fans who watch the Lefs out of habit. I keep coming back to that video of that guy, and his name is Every Dad in the Greater Toronto area. And classic dad build, too. Bald, goatey, picklefingers.

It drives a truck.

Picklefingers, yeah. It probably drives a truck. Probably barbecues the shit out of anything you put in front of him.

Saturday's smoker day.

With the thing you're talking about, the flipper with the hot of the game, you stick on it.

100 %. You walk into the in the backyard, and he greets you with, Here comes trouble.

Yeah.

And he says, Oh, yeah, let's go out there and have fun. When he's watching, Sheldon Keef's thinking, Dude, I have uncles like that. They watch them and they're like, Oh, yeah, there it Oh, yeah. There you go. God. I never want to be that. But also, they hurt so much less. They don't expect anything. They're given nothing, and they're not disappointed. Whereas I live and die for the stupid team. And it's a lot more dying than living, at least when it comes to the spring.