With your hosts, Steve dangle, Adam wild, and Jesse Blake.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, Boston Pizza Stoville. Thank you so much. What's going on? It's great. It is really great to be here tonight. Like, we're so excited. We've been so excited for this. This is a sold out show in Snowville, baby. That's right. That's right. Amazing. So it's all great. It's great that you guys are all here. Okay, so here's what I want to do first. Who thinks that they drove the furthest to get here tonight? Put up your hand at the very back. If you say Markham, I'm going to be real upset. What was your name? What's your name? At the very back. Yeah. Yeah. You.

Well, scream like the one looking around.

Like it's not you. What?

Your sunglasses on your head. You got brown hair.

You had your hair.

You're looking at the back right now.

Yes. You? Peterborough. That's a heck of a drive.

That far?

All right, do you have one? What do we have here? Mississippi saga, which I think Mississauga might be further.

Right? Yes.

It's a worst drive.

Yeah, it's definitely.

All right. That's good. That's good. What do we got here? Lindsay? That's true.

Lindsey's not okay.

Lindsay's not easy.

Natalie, where are you from? I don't know. Because you're at every show. So I'm like, oh, she's from Kingston. Also fun. And Bowmanville. And now Stovall.

Natalie, where are you from?

Campbell first, I don't know where that is.

I know. You told us that. Okay, 2 hours. Wow. So that. Listen, thank you for everybody who came from a ways away. I had somebody who said, I'm just on the Richmond hill side of the border, so I get to pay their taxes. So I'm like, you know, the Richmond Hill?

It's really local humor.

There was a lot of people shuttered there.

You need to work on your type five, Adam. I don't know about this one.

So great to be here. Stove.

Couple of things I want to do before we get to the interview here. Did everybody see the Utah jersey that came out today?

Oh, no.

You didn't see it?

No.

Okay.

More like poo talk.

Well, here's the thing, Jesse. I don't even really need to give you a picture of it, okay? Because it's a jersey that is black.

Justin Fisher showing me. There it is now.

And it says Utah on it.

Utah hockey club.

You could have stayed your ass in Arizona if that was gonna be your jersey now.

Went with more bold.

Here's the thing. Here's the thing. I'm gonna give them a pass on this because they got to get the jerseys in real quick, right? Because you got to get those printed over the course of the summer. Right. You know that from having a book.

I do, yeah, that's true.

So they don't have their logo ready to go, but I feel like it'll be like what the PWHL did next year. They'll have a full logo, full crest.

It would have been better if they didn't.

Okay. Why? Why? What's the problem?

Because it's better to have a jersey with a logo. Like, everyone understands why the PWHL did it that way because they kind of had to, but it's not ideal. So when there's an NHL team with a way, way higher budget, mind you, you'd like them to get the job done. It's June, for goodness sake. It's June. You're telling me you can't get it done by October? Come on.

Okay. All right, Jesse, what do you think?

So they didn't choose a mascot or a logo, right?

Not yet. That's not been announced. I think at the draft that'll be.

Announced, it's just a guy walking around in the shape of Utah, like a rectangle or whatever it is for the whole first season, and then they'll get a new one.

If they end up choosing, like, yetis or what, a blizzard or something like that, then I'm like, why didn't you just wait for that name to make your jersey? Why go ahead with the Utah hockey club jersey? But if they just go ahead with Utah hockey club for one season, then I'm like, okay, I don't like the colors. I wish they wanted bolder colors.

Well, it's Tampa Bay, but with a little San Jose mixture.

No, it's not great. A lot of black Tampa Bay, but.

Like, left in the sun.

Yeah, not great. Boo. Okay, so we're so, so we're a little boo on the jersey. How are we on the Edmonton Oilers tonight? Yes. Are we? Yes, we got some jerseys here. How are we on the Florida Panthers tonight? Okay.

All right.

You know what? You're all right. It's. I'm tired of pretending like the team that I want to win this series the most isn't an asteroid. You know what I mean? If you're a lead fan, you shouldn't want either of these teams to win, but whatever, right? Well, I want the most entertaining hockey.

And you know, I gotta say, Conor McDavid's pretty local, right?

Oh, shit.

Yeah. Come on.

No, no, but he's local. He revoked it.

What do you mean, he revoked it?

They revoked it.

He didn't choose to get drafted. You saw his face.

You know what?

Drafted in Edmonton.

You're right. And I'd sign in Edmonton for twelve and a half, 100%.

Also, we all know McDavid's going to be a leaf in 2026.

That's right.

Right.

He's coming home, baby.

What, like, Kawhi McDavid's coming to Toronto? That's right. That's right. He come. Oh, we could work on that.

Yeah.

Anyway, all right, so here's the deal. We were here at the behest of the guy whose jersey is hanging up over here. His name is Keith Acton. Keith Acton obviously played in the NHL and was with the Montreal Canadiens. Boo one a cup with the Edmonton Oilers. That would be Gretzky's lats Cup, by the way. And then went on to coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs for ten straight years. So if you could, please welcome Keith Acton to the stage. He's just at the. Beside of the bar there. Keith, come on up.

Get up.

Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith. Keith.

Keith.

Hey, Art. Sir.

How do you do?

Keith?

Good to see you, buddy. All right. Come on in and sit down. So I'm going to tell you, I want to start this off by. Keith is a very honest guy, and I just met him, and I'll tell you how I know when we shook hands, he was very warm, very, very kind, and that sort of thing. But he said, I'll be honest with you. I'd never heard of you. I don't follow any of that, but I called my kids, and they said what?

They said that you guys are unbelievably recognized, outstanding, and the best podcast anywhere in the world.

He's lying now. He's lying. Keith, you know, listen, we were excited to talk to you because there's so much history that you have with the game, and we're all here because we're hardcore fans. We're all here because we love this. And I want to know, first off, you're looking at the Stanley cup finals. Forget that. It's the Edmonton Oilers and the finals, who I'm assuming you're cheering for a little bit.

I'm cheering for the Oilers.

It's cheering for the Oilers. Yeah.

All right.

What is it like to an hour before the game start putting your equipment on, getting ready for warm up for a Stanley cup final game.

Great question. I'll say this is, you talked about Wayne Gretzky before, and one thing that Wayne Gretzky, he always said there's four segments to an NHL season. There's the exhibition games, then there's the regular season, then there's the first three rounds of the playoffs, and then there's the final element, which is the Stanley cup final. And as you exit each one of those segments and move on to the next, it becomes a situation where you have to be able to elevate your game to another level, and experience is a big part of that. I think if you talk to the Oilers back before they won their first cup and when they beat the Islanders.

In 8384-8384 that's right.

And they lost to the islanders the year before, and they gained a lot of experience. I think maybe what you're seeing a little bit right now is the fact that maybe the Panthers, we can talk about abilities, talent, whatever with the teams, but the Panthers were in the finals last year, and I think that's given them a little bit of an advantage at this point. If you look at game one, the Oilers were outstanding. They were playing very, very well. They were. They should have probably won the game. But if you looked at the body language and looked in the eyes of the players, you saw that the Panthers, their body language and their eyes was that we're not going to lose. We're still going to win. Whereas the Oilers were maybe not believing so much and a little bit apprehensive because they hadn't been there before. They got to do some quick and some fast learning here, and I think they will, and I think they'll win the game tonight.

There you go.

All right.

There you go. Can I ask about Paul Maurice, somebody you worked with extensively in Toronto? It's just. What's it like working with him?

Yeah. I mean, Paul's been a coach for a long time. It was kind of a dynamic or volatile time when he came in here in Toronto. I started with Pat Quinn in 2000. We had some great seasons. We had some great opportunities, I think, to maybe won a Stanley cup. The best one probably was in 2002 when we lost to Carolina.

Everybody's nodding yes in the room. Everybody remembers.

Oh, yeah.

And I can remember Pat after we lost game six at home, I believe it was, and Pat came in and he said, we're going to look back at this as a big loss to opportunity. But at that time, changes were happening in the National Hockey League, and Leaf's model up until that point was how they had success. There was no salary cap, so the Leafs had lots of money, so they would, you know, they would buy on July 1, and that's how they accumulated a lot of talent. Maybe it was older, but it was good. And then before the trading deadline, they would sell assets like draft picks and prospects, and that's how they were a really good team. Cause they had, you know, the money to spend, and that was a good model for the Maple Leafs, and it was. It was effective. But then when the salary cap came in in 2004, I believe, and the Leafs were spending like 70 million and had to cut it back to, like.

It was 42 and a half.

Okay, so significant amount. So you had to take talented players off your team, and your cupboard was bare because you didn't have the prospects or draft picks. And so now it was a big change for the Maple Leafs, and it made it difficult. And that's when Paul came in, and we had, you know, not as good a year because of, you know, the structure had changed. But Paul's a very good coach, and he's a guy that. A little bit different than Pat. Pat had a great presence. He was a big man. He didn't have to say a lot. You would just look at him and you would just draw strength from him because of his presence. Paul was, you know, a little more vocal, a little more active, and he's. He's always been a good coach and good enough to always get another opportunity. And he's evolved over that time. He's been in small markets, he's been in big markets, he's been in canadian markets, and he's coached in a lot of different situations. So now he's got an abundance of experience, and it's coming out now.

Was he always funny?

Yeah, I think, yeah.

Good sense of humor.

He always had a great sense of humor. Pat. Pat Quinn had a great sense of humor, but you never saw it. Whereas Paul would display it. And he's become. He's become very, very good with the media. He understands that today. And it's more important for head coach to be able to function with the kind of media coverage that there is today. And he's able to do that. And probably he's really good at it now because of his time in Toronto, which is a very difficult place with regards to handling media. No offense to you guys.

None taken.

None taken.

There's a photo of you drinking out of the Stanley cup on top of your jersey in a building that you own, which is about the biggest flex you can have in this. In this country. What is that moment like when the cup reaches the doors of the locker room?

Well, it was. It was. It was outstanding, as you can see. And I've never drank a glass of champagne ever after that night, for obvious reasons. And it was all killed by George Armstrong because George Armstrong had a good friend here in Stovall, and he was up here one night, and he saw that picture, and he said, and he won many Stanley cups, and he said, I would never drink out of the Stanley cup because I've seen what's happened to that Stanley cup.

That's good. That's good.

I didn't know it at the time.

No. So that just killed it. I think I got to take that picture down now or just hang one.

Of George next to it. Is that a Stanley cup ring that you're wearing on your right hand?

Actually, you know what? I brought it out of the kitchen because you guys were right that I have it here at Boston Pizza, and we stamp every pizza with that Stanley Cup. I knew it. And it goes. I don't know. This is a rumor about something that you guys spread, and it's true. I don't know how you found that out, but we stamped it with a cup, and it's certified. Certified best pizza in the world.

So you do listen to the show.

So, yes, it is. And I'm very proud to wear it. And it's a symbol of, you know, it's. You grow up dreaming of playing in the NHL, and you dream about being a Stanley cup winner. And, you know, we've all played in backyard rinks, played on streets and whatever. It was always for the Stanley cup, but. But it's a symbol of, I think back of all, you know, your teammates and all the sacrifices that they made in order for that to happen. And that's what you remember.

You know, Steve pointed out something on that last show that we had. I think it was yesterday. I'm getting all my days mixed up right now because the playoffs have been so crazy. But Steve made a point that Wayne never won. Wayne Gretzky never won another cup without you. He has zero, zero post Keith Acton Cups. So, you know, have you ever spoken to Wayne about that? Did he ever say, man, you should have been in that trade instead of Krushlininski? Like, you know, how do we. What did his game lack?

I don't. I don't think. I think it's pretty obvious. I don't need to make any comment on that. I mean, it's taken 36 years for somebody to figure it out. You guys are pretty smart guys. You finally figured it out.

That's all right. Keith, you know, a lot of us here at Lee fans, right? That's right. That's right. Long suffering leaf fans. And, you know, a lot of us became Leaf fans during the runs that you were a coach on. And, you know, there's certain players that we got to ask you about. I hope you don't mind. I want to start with Curtis Joseph. I want to start with Cujo Ezigali, who really seems like, every time I've met him, seems like a really great guy. What was not a good guy? Are you shaking your head? No.

Okay. Incredible person.

Incredible person. What was he like to have? Like, when you knew you were going into a game with Cujo, you knew that the form was going to be all over the place. But you also probably felt like, we probably got this because Cujo's behind us. What was it like to have him on the team?

Curtis was a tremendous, tremendous person, tremendous athlete, as we know. And we beat Ottawa out, I think, four, four straight years in a row.

Oh, yeah, we did. Hell, yeah.

And, you know, arguably, people could say that maybe Ottawa, you know, had a talent wise, they might have had a better team. They had a good team, for sure. And. But we always, we always had better goal tending, and we all know how important and significant that is with Curtis and Eddie Balfour in those years. And, you know, Curtis was, he was a real workhorse, and our team, sometimes during the regular season, didn't have the same structure or discipline that, you know, that we needed. But Curtis was the kind of guy that he excelled better if you had 40 shots against than if you had 20. And when he was getting the work and he was making the saves, and that's when he was at his best. So we didn't design it that way, but lots of nights it happened that way and it worked for us, so. But, no, he was, he was a big part of our success. And, you know, we had a lot of character guys. We had, we had talented guys like Sundine and McGilney, and then we had, how would I. Noisy guys. I would ty. Dummy. Yeah.

Darcy. Darcy Tucker.

Yeah. Gary Roberts, Shane Carson. And they knew that, you know, emotion and noise was the, probably the catalyst that brought, brought out their physical attributes. And then we had lots of guys. We had Thomas on defense, Cabrillet, who was a very gifted player, but we had guys like Dmitry Yuskovich and, and Danny Markoff and these guys that were, they were polluted, saturated with sacrifice, and that's what you need in order to win. But obviously, Curtis was as big a part of that as a member of the team as anybody.

One of the big conversations around the current team is the pressure of playing in Toronto. And Steve got really upset when Sheldon keef left and he called this the real NHL or the other parts of the world, the real NHL. And Steve yelled about that. But is the pressure in the media, is it different here in comparison to the other spots in the league? Is that a true thing that the players got to deal with?

Yeah, I mean, some players really thrive in that environment. I know when I started in Montreal, it was probably a harder city, media wise, than Toronto because, you know, a canadian market, but you had double the media because you had French and English.

I think it still is, by the way, a tougher market. I really do.

Yeah. So it's hard and some players really thrive in that. You know, Gila Fleur, we have his sweater hanging here in Boston, pizza, and great player. And he thrived in that situation. There's others that they don't, but I think the, you know, the Maple Leafs, they've got talent. They've, you know, they. There's areas of the game that they have to improve. I talked earlier about the fact that you have to start to elevate your game as you go in these different segments of the season, and they've struggled with that a little bit, I would say. And hopefully they're learning. Craig Baruby's a good friend of mine.

And what do you think of Craig?

I think Craig's going to do an exceptional job here. He's a straightforward guy and he understands that.

There we go. People are pumped.

You know, he's not. He's not going to be gimmicky or, you know, comical with, you know, with media or anybody, but he'll be straightforward with the. With the players and he'll teach them what it takes to win. And he's, you know, he's got a firm understanding that over the course of the season, I think habitually with the Leafs, you'll see them win a lot of games on talent with during the regular season, but they're not. They're not developing a structure or a method of playing that's going to be. That's going to be needed to be successful in the playoffs. And when you get to 15 games before the season ends, your team's got to be on complete autopilot. This is how you play. This is what we do in this situation. This is our structure. This is who my D partner is, and I think you're seeing a little bit of that unraveling a little bit with the Oilers right now. Like, who's playing tonight on defense? Who's the D partner is going to be. There's shuffling lines. The autopilot part of it is maybe not causing panic, but it's causing a little bit of uncertainty, and I think Craig will really understand that.

When I get to 15 games before the end of the season, my team has got to be in a place where they understand how we need to play in order to win in the playoffs, and we do that shift in period, in game, in and out, and that's what we'll take into the playoffs.

How do you feel about that? That sounds good, doesn't it? Just in case you wanted it, do.

You have any stories about the presence of Craig Barubi? Like, I heard one recently where someone on the ice apologized to him, but this is when Craig Boruby was already coaching, so it wasn't even a matter of he could hop over the boards and kick your ass the next shift. He was already a coach, so he's obviously a guy that commands a lot of respect.

No question. You know, Craig, he probably. And. And I don't mean this is. I mean, this is a big compliment to him. He probably overachieved as a player in the sense that he, you know, he. He wasn't the most talented guy, but he was very dedicated and committed, and this will come out in his coaching, too. He understands that my discipline, my dedication, my desire, my commitment has to go beyond the boundaries of all my opponents, and that's how he treated. That was his approach as a player, and that'll be his approach as a coach, and he will ingrain that into his players. And that's probably one of the things that the Leafs really need at this point. And I can tell you a funny story about him. He was my left winger when I was playing in Philadelphia, and when I started in Montreal, I was an offensive player, and I spent a whole year playing center between Steve Schutt and Gila Fleur. No big deal. No, me, too. You really buried the lead, eh?

What are we talking about everything else for?

I really liked that. They didn't like it much. But anyways, later in my career, I became more of a defensive player and penalty killer, and I played on the fourth line, and sometimes you have to reinvent yourself to have longevity, and Craig was my left winger. I mean, he was a fighter. We know he's had a lot of fights, and a lot of nights he couldn't find a fight because no one wanted to fight him. So he couldn't get in a fight because there was nobody that was going to fight him. So he would come to the bench and he was screaming and yelling at me. And my nickname is Woody. Woody just screaming at me, you got to get me in an effing fight. You got to get me in an effing fight. I got to be in an effing fight. Get me in an effing fight. And I said, okay. I said, who do you want? He said, I want Neil Sheehy. I want Neil Sheehy. I said, okay, I'll set it up for you, but you better get there. So I started it, and chief didn't make it.

How did that go for you?

It was sunglasses for a week, x rays on orbital bones on both eyes the next morning. So I'm sitting in the penalty box. I'm sitting in the penalty box, and here's chief coming, and he's got my stick and my gloves, and he's going to give them to me. And I'm. I can't say here in a public forum what I said to him.

Sure, we can assume.

And of course, he's got no teeth, and he's looking at me and he's laughing, and I'm like, wearing the were you? And said, sorry, woody linesman intercepted me, but I need to be in a fight next shift.

That's a great story.

You're on your own now, pal.

What a great story. That's awesome. Oh, man. Okay. You know. Okay, so you mentioned Guillafleur. What was he like to play with? What was he like to pass to? Was it a little bit intimidating?

Yeah. I mean, Gila Fleur was a tremendous player, but a tremendous person, and he. He took the pressure. It was not only, and I'll back this up, it wasn't just he needed to win. It wasn't for himself, for his teammates, was important. It was for the organization. It was for the city, it was for the province, and he took it so serious, and it was so important to him. And in those days, on hockey Night in Canada, on a Saturday night, it was 08:00 and I lived downtown, and I could walk to the forum. And I walked to the forum, and I was the first player there. At 530. I was the first player except for one. The room was all done. It was beautiful. Sweaters were hanging, all set up perfect. And here was Gila Fleur. And this was him every game at 530, he was fully dressed, skates on, done up, and it was probably not the best thing that he was doing, but it was the way he handled the pressure and he had to win. And all he did from 530 to 08:00 was drink coke and smoke cigarettes. I got to tell you a funny story about him.

When I was playing with him, there was one situation when we came off the ice, and, you know, not that I was ever going to disagree with Guy Lafleur, but he started to tell me, he said, woody, he said, you should have done this, you should have went there, you should have done this, you should have done that. And I said, respectfully, I said, yeah, I understand, flower, but I thought. And he went, no, no, no, no. You didn't want to go to school, Kalis, so don't start thinking now.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, so you also played with the top two of the top scorers of all time, Wayne, Mark, Marc, Messier. What were those two like? What was it like going to the arena with those guys?

Yeah, they were. You know, Wayne was. They were both very, very intense in different ways. Wayne was very motivated. He was more methodical, thinking things out where Mark was more straightforward, like battery, Ram. And they were both great leaders. And, you know, leadership is, you know, as some people say that, you know, their people are born to be leaders, and I suppose that's true, but leadership's a learned skill, too. And they both, over time, learned to be tremendous leaders. And it was like the Canadians where they. They talk about passing the torch and leadership was a learned skill, and they were both great in the sense they had an expectation out of you as a teammate that you were going to, and Connor McDavid's doing it now for sure. In the same way, they have a certain expectation that you're going to give maximum effort. You know, you're going to sacrifice. Your skill set is going to be there every night, your mind's going to be there every night. And with, you know, with each of them, I'll create a situation. Say that you had a two on one with them and you had the puck and you made a pass where they could have maybe had a backdoor, empty net goal or whatever, and it didn't materialize.

They had the distinct ability to distinguish whether it was you. It didn't happen, but you were still given maximum effort. And they'd come to the bench and they'd say, hey, don't worry about it. We'll get the next one. But if you weren't given maximum effort and they sensed that, then they'd give you a kick in the butt and say, hey, you're better than that. You need to do better. You know, step it up. And that's unique leadership and understanding. And I think you're going to, you're seeing that right now out of Connor McDavid. He's doing a tremendous job with the Oilers, I think, not to discredit anybody else on the Oilers, but, but when you look at supporting casts of previous, you know, I know you guys are too young to know this, but if you look at, if you look at the, if you, we talked about Gila Fleur and, you know, his supporting cast with the Serge Savard, Larry Robinson, Gila point on the blue line and Ken Dryden and net and, you know, Steve Schutt and Bob Ganey and, like ten hall of Famers, it's a pretty, it's a pretty great supporting staff.

He was a superstar, and if you want to look at Wayne and Edmonton, he had, you know, you talked about Messier and Gary Curry and Gary and Anderson and Craig Simpson and Esseteiken and great players in the year. I was there with a cup. We had, you know, a big, strong, solid defense that was really hard to play against and grand Fura net. And if you look at the Penguins with Mario, I can't name them all, but he had Yager and he had Ronnie Francis and Talkett and, yeah, and Barrasso and Ned. He had a tremendous supporting staff. And I don't think, you know, not to discredit anybody on the Oilers, but there's not the same level of ability, talent as a supporting cast for Conor is a lot of you look at the islanders when they had trachevossi Gillies, second lines of, you know, Goering and Nystrom, Tenelli Potfin on defense, Billy Smith and that, like he could deep, deep, deep teams with, you know, huge supporting staffs and connors done. And, you know, he, he may be, if he wins the Stanley cup, he may be the superstar captain that did it with, and again, I'm not being, not discredit anybody, but with the least of supporting staff to get it done.

That's a really interesting point. I don't think a lot of us have looked at it that way.

I was going to make a joke like, you know, all they're missing is they simply need to be one of the best teams of all time, which is what you're comparing them to. But then I thought about it, and I'm like, bad teams don't win the Stanley cup.

Yeah.

Like, it's incredibly difficult. So you can have one of the best players ever, one of the best players of the generation, and still not even sniff the thing.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So the fact that they're here is great, too. Listen, Keith. Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. Yeah, he's really. I just want to say one more thing about him is that, you know, and I think that Craig Baruby is going to make the Maple Leafs understand this. Maybe they don't understand it, but Conor McDavid is the driving force for the Edmonton Oilers. And make no mistake, he's making everybody on that team better just because of desire, dedication, commitment. And for Connor McDavid, anything less than winning the Stanley cup is unacceptable. And that's the mindset that's. And you can see that in him and every, every day. And it would be every day at practice, every day in the gym, every day, on and on and on. And if the Edmonton Oilers don't win the Stanley Cup, Conor McDavid will be. He'll be the one that's. He'll be more disappointed than the fans, than his teammates, than the coaches, the city, the organization. He'll be more disappointed than anybody. And he's a driving force, and that's something that I believe at this point, the so called stars of the Maple Leafs don't understand, and it's missing, and it needs to be that. No, it needs to be. And I don't mean that in a bad way.

No, everybody agrees. Everybody agrees.

To hear something again, it's a learned skill. I'm not saying it's not. It's. And I think. I think that Craig Baruby will be maybe instrumental in bringing that out in these guys.

There you go. Wow.

Well said, keith.

You know, this is an establishment that you own and take a lot of pride in. And I just want to say thank you for hosting us here tonight, and thank you for being so generous with your time and telling these great stories. It really is an honor.

Thank you. And I just want to thank you guys for coming. I didn't know. I didn't. Obviously, I didn't know a lot about you guys before tonight, but I'm going to be following you now, and you're tremendous young men that are, you know, serving an interest for people. And I know you have a big following, and I'm going to start following you now. And I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. It's a pleasure to meet you. And thanks so much for coming to Boston pizza stall.

Thank you, Keith.

Thank you. Thank you.

So let me just say this round of applause again. Round of applause again for Keith, aka.

Whoo.

Those are some great stories. And that's, you know what? That's what's so fun about talking to people around the game is it's, you're never gonna see. You're never gonna read that in an article. You're never gonna see that in a postgame interview. It's the stories 20 years later that, that are so special and so cool. And you get a, you get more of a sense in that snapshot of, like, guy Lafleur or Craig Berube than you ever would in, like, some article.

I really like talking to players. Like, sometimes I try not to get, like, too wrapped up in people who are really, really into the minuscule details of the game. Like, I just want, like, banter. Like, just fan talk and everything. But I was actually talking to a former professional hockey player yesterday and he said something that as a 36 year old I can relate to because he's, he's only, he's only a couple years.

So they said name names.

Name. Absolutely not.

That's a reasonable boo, by the way. That's a good boo.

Why you boo me? I'm right.

Ex. Leaf. Leaf.

No.

Eastern or Western Conference.

Yes.

25 questions with you. You know you're gonna reveal it.

Let's just narrow it down a little. Defenseman.

What decade?

What?

What decade?

Goalie.

Yes.

No.

Okay, so we got forward.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay.

All right, all right.

We're getting close to center.

I don't know. Sometimes an orange team, man.

So what was the story, though?

Well, so, like, this is a guy who, he had a really, really, really good professional hockey career, but, like, very little NHL never really got close to the cup.

No.

Okay.

He was working out with his trainer, went and saw his trainer for the first time after he retired. And the trainer asked him, you know, okay, so you're no longer playing professional hockey. You're not playing to win a championship. What are we training for? Like, what. What do you want? And he thought about it for a second. He goes, when I get out of my car, I don't want to limp around for the first ten minutes. And this is a guy, he's like in his early mid thirties and he never got close to the thing. So it's really, really, really hard. Like, whenever we talk about guys, especially at this stage in the season, Stanley cup final, they're, they're, you know, we keep throwing around stuff like, oh, they're 80%. They're 90%. No, they're not. No, they're not. Like, compared to their October selves, these guys are, like, 15. Like, they're busted. They're completely busted. But they're driven by adrenaline, and they want to win the damn thing.

Yeah.

Leon apparently is dealing with something in his wrist or his hand, and that's why his, his shots been a little ineffective.

This seven, 8%.

Yeah.

And still one of the best players in the world, like, just killing it.

He was in the Canuck series, scoring from that one spot, which seems like an impossible angle that he always scores from. It's like, it's like with Leon Dryside, I feel like it's like, you know what? Everybody scores from all these other angles. I'm going to be difficult and score from this one. No one's going to see it coming. And it's like Ovechkin in the sense that everybody sees an Ovechkin shot coming. They've seen it for 20 years, and it still scores.

The difference is dry. Cytle has to move. What a bum.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You know what? Ovechkin's far more efficient just stand there. Here we go.

Stick in the air.

Not even.

And Leon's got my favorite stick in hockey. It's just the flat paddle. Like, I don't know how he does anything with it. Apparently, he. He likes it flat because he likes playing on his backhand so much. But it's just. It's awesome to see what he does with that thing.

I love that. You know what? He probably doesn't even need to tape for it.

No Stuart Skinner ever leaves his stick in the corner or whatever, Leon. Yeah, same thing.

So here's something we're going to do tonight that's really fun. You guys have been watching the Stanley cup streams. We've been doing right side streams. Yeah. All right. All right. So Steve's doing it live here tonight. This is Steve's very first stream in front of people. Okay, so you're. I mean, we're making history here tonight, guys. This is gonna be fun. Now, he is gonna be over in this corner, but your energy tonight is actually really gonna matter. I did it for the third round at the last Boston pizza we were at. And I gotta tell you, it's a whole different thing when you got people in the room who are excited. Up, down, whatever. So make sure tonight that you make as much noise as possible. Make sure it's respectful noise. Okay? We want respectful words. Okay. But this guy, you know, he's a really low energy guy, and he could really use your help amping it up a little bit. So you think you can do that for him? All right.

I think you saw during the whole Keith interview, I had a coffee. I always have a coffee before these events. Cause I never know if I'm gonna need it. And I got about halfway through that one, and I went, oh, no.

Oh, no.

I didn't need it at all. So, yeah, just here clenching the microphone.

Let's do. How much time do we have? We have some time. I don't know.

We got some time. Yeah.

Okay. You know what? Yeah, we get time. Okay. So Evander Cain is not playing tonight.

That was. I think that was a bit expected because at practice he wasn't available.

It's funny cause Darnell was the guy. I would have thought, like, Evander's been playing.

Kane's been hurt for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I think his ineffectiveness has been because of the injury.

Sports hernia.

Yeah. Yeah. Weird.

He got his one shot in one.

If you watched on the empty netter that Florida scored at the end of game number two, Kane was at the blue line, going to pinch for the puck there, and he couldn't get there in time. And the. I forget the Florida player who beat him to that puck. But you think, like, if Kane's healthy, he probably gets to that puck. They got 30 more seconds at the man advantage. And maybe this. The game turns out different, you know, so that you can see the elements of the injury just in his game.

So this is the eleven seven night? Maybe, possibly. I just asked Robert. We don't know yet.

So I believe Cece's out and Broberg's in there. Yeah.

Okay, what are we gonna. Corey Perry in for? Vander Kane Oilers, going eleven seven. There you go, Darnell. Nurse banged up, so they're gonna try to thank you.

There you go.

Thank you, Robert. Thank you. Every shout out to Robert. Everybody who we love, how about a.

Shout out to me for being right about eleven seven? Let's go.

There's also somebody.

Adam wild.

Boo.

There's also something. Bring it on. Come on. No, it's all right. Get it out. Get it out. All right. There's also somebody else I want to shout out because it's mad dog's birthday today.

Hey, happy birthday, mad dog.

That's our. So, Maddie, how old are you today?

24.

24. And she decided to be here in Stoville with us. We even offered to give her the night off, but she was like, no, work comes first.

Party town.

That's right. Yeah. Now this is a good opportunity because we have a little bit of time. We'd love to do some questions, if you guys have any. So if you have any questions, just throw your hand up. Oh, we got one right there. Yes. Your name? Megan. What's going on?

Megan from where?

Megan from where?

From where?

That's right.

Megan from Mississauga. That works.

What do we think of Gritty being?

Is he the number one? Yeah, it's okay.

He's the number one. Hold on.

So gritty is number one on Buzzfeed's list of 94 gay icons that straight people should know about.

Good for them.

I didn't. I didn't.

Good for Gritty.

Hey, man, shout out gritty. Yeah. I didn't know. I had no idea.

I guess so.

I didn't know.

I met them and they didn't say anything, but I suppose they don't have to.

That's right.

No, no, that's.

Gritty is upon introduction.

Yeah.

To be honest, gritty is the best mascot in the sport. And I really wish. I really wish that hockey mascots in general did more like Carlton. We love Carlton, but Carlton waves the flag and whatever. And, you know. You know, he does the. Oh, he does do the backflip now. That's right. Okay. Because the Raptor was like. He was doing like, cartwheels and crazy stuff and has been doing that for 25 years. But, like, hockey mascots have kind of been pushed to the side. And it was when gritty was revealed, it was like instantly, this is the coolest mascot in the entire sport. And up out in Montreal, who was the expo's mascot, is now the Canadians guy. And I got to meet him once and I took a picture and I told him I was a Leafs fan and he smacked me in the back of the head.

Good as he should.

He wasn't on the Buzzfeed list?

No, he was not on the Buzzfeed list. Go ahead here. Name first.

Mitch Marner.

Frank. All right, we got Frank what?

Marner. Staying or going?

Question from Frank. Frank from where?

Frank. Is a Marner staying in Toronto? Is he staying? Jesse Blake. We'll go through everybody. We'll give it what kind of rating?

Out of ten, I'd say he's 80% gone. Yeah, yeah, I'm on, I'm on. The. Marner's not gonna be around.

Oh, hold up, hold up.

That's a whole first question.

We could spend an hour on that.

Down the, down the, down the list. Steve, where are you at?

Gonna eighties high, but I'll go 70.

Pretty high to 70%.

Gun. Yeah, but anyone who's ever brought a 70 home to their parents rather than an 80 report card, there's a difference.

Hey, I was the 70, Adam.

That's what the 80 was always the surprise.

Adam, what's your percent?

I think, Jesse, you nailed it. I think it's 80%, and it's not because this player isn't great. And, and, you know, it's.

I hate that you have to say that a lot.

I have to say that. I have to say that because there is a get traded, right? Yeah. And I think, I think that there is a time when, and this happens at workplaces. This happens with your favorite bands. Things get stale, and I think it's a bit stale. And I think if you keep going the way that you're going with no consequences, you don't see anybody leave, and you get to come back all the time and, oh, well, I guess we'll get them next year. I can't fly anymore. And also, there's a lot of executives, one at the very top, who might lose his job if they don't get stuff done. So now there's a little bit of a fire under their butts to get it done.

So there's a segment that was going around today, which is why Mitch Marner was trending on June 13 or whatever. I love this place. It was from overdrive. And Darren Dreger was talking about, well, he doesn't have to move his no move clause. And what if he just signs a big fat extension? And Brian Hayes was humoring him, and noodles was humoring them, and Jeff O'Neal was the only one to go, nope, just throw down the gauntlet and be like they said they needed to make changes. How on earth deciding him to an extension give them any of that?

Right?

And, oh, well, then do you just, do you just walk him to free agency and lose him for nothing? And Jeff goes, yes, you do. And I guess here's my question that I was shouting at my phone while listening to the segment since.

Reasonable.

Reasonable, exactly. Since when has letting someone go in free agency for nothing been a problem for the Toronto Maples? There's, there's a bunch of them competing for the Stanley cup tonight. Yeah, right. And I'm, and I'm supposed to be. Oh, yeah. No, this one is where we draw the line.

Stop it. No, just in the last decade alone, Hymen van Reamsdike, Bozak. Who else is on that list?

Hyman, three or four. Four.

Time gardener. Like the whole bunch of them. Just Cody. Cody C. Cody, CC. That's a good point. Cody, CC.

Jet Campbell.

All right, next question. Rodriguez. Sorry. You two in the front, it just at the back there. Right in front of the Pikachu hat. Yes, sir, of you. How do you cope with your fate? He's wearing a Mitch Marner jersey. How do I cope?

I'm sorry.

How do I cope with my favorite player becoming the villain? And I think, here's the deal. He's not the villain. He's not the villain. Adam, take it.

No, you take it.

I think the team that allowed this to go on this long.

Oh, stop.

I think that the management group that didn't make the calls, the right calls when they needed to, it takes.

You know what would you get the script in a DM or what?

I think. I think I would look at 2023, and it's. This is your point. I'm. I'm taking your point from.

Right, sorry, I'm still. I'm flustered from yesterday.

Okay. Yeah.

Let's never fight again.

Until next week.

Yeah. Love you, babe.

It's. It's. It's. It's interesting because Duba sat in front of the microphone at the end of 2023 after the Florida series and said, we got to make changes. And then he was gone. And that was before the no trade clauses for Marner and Elander kicked in.

Technically, he was right.

He was. Yeah, yeah.

You gotta make changes.

He didn't realize he was the change.

I gotta call a moving company.

Yes.

And. And so I think to say that Mitch, or any player in this situation, Mitch Marner has been an exemplary citizen. He has donated a charity, in fact, created a charity. He has showed up at, from what I've heard, every single event, public or not public, and been there with the kids and done everything that you would want a Toronto maple leaf to do. He is exemplary citizen. This is not the enemy. The enemy is the person making the decision. And you have to hold management's feet to the fire because unfortunately, Mitch is going to go because of performance issues. But the management group will still be here. The people that are making the calls will still be here. And it's your old. Yeah, well, listen, you can boo. Yeah, boo it up. Boo it up. I get it. I get it. It's your pressure and your booze.

Great faces in the audience right now.

It's your pressure and your booze. They're going to push them in the direction of, oh, we actually might have to succeed for this audience. Toronto fans are kind of getting a little upset here, a little fed up. And it's. So. I feel bad for Mitch in that way because, listen, did he push it on the last contract? Absolutely. Does he have some people around him where you go? Mmm. I don't love the way his agent negotiates through the media. As you mentioned earlier in the. In the interview that you listened to. I don't like that. I don't. But the agents doing his job. Mitch is his own man. He hires these people. Not the enemy, though. That's what I would say. That's my view.

Have you considered. Damn, that's crazy. And they've lost seven out of eight playoff series. Yes. Damn, that's crazy. He's got, what is it? Five points in 16 game? Five, six or seven since 2019. That's. That's probable cause or whatever.

That's.

It's grounds for termination.

Okay, fair enough.

Grounds for trade to Vegas.

I think we should get to more questions.

It's getting a little dark in here.

Yeah. Next one. Where is Mitch going? No, I'm kidding. Sorry. Yeah, Matt.

Yeah. So he asks, what do we think of Alex being the GM in two years in St. Louis?

I kind of like it.

It's a little odd. It's because pro sports is so fluid. Like, what if the team goes in the tank for the next two years and all the players stop performing well and you no longer want Alix Dean as your GM? Is there, like, a pull to shoot clause? Like, are they allowed to do that?

Armstrong gets drunk, calls the owner, goes, you know what I really think he, like, mean, those plans can always change, right? I don't think Doug Armstrong would do that. I'm just. Can they change? They can. I absolutely think they. I think it's nice to say, here's who we're mentoring. It's a St. Louis Blue. Great. Who should have been a leaf, great leaf.

Great.

And. And, you know, and I think. I think Keith actually would have coached him. Did you coach out? Yeah.

You did?

Good player, good guy. Yeah. Guys, what do you think of the trade? What did you think of the Lee stimniac era, Keith? No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Don't do that to you.

Bad trade.

Bad trade. And so, yeah, I think plans can change.

Plans can change. I hope plans can change if they can change. But, like, I think it's good that they have plans. That's cool.

Yeah.

Usually don't get that from an organization being so open.

Imagine being planned. Wait, couldn't be me.

No.

So, hey, remember that time I was stupid and I made a video about in the fall, there's gonna be a three on three league? Ha ha. I didn't like how hard you laughed at that. So anyway, I was told a number of things. Most of them I put in the video. There were some facts that I didn't, that I was like, oh, these will come out later. One of the things I was told is Alex Steen was supposed to be the coach of one of the teams. Oh, I'm starting to think I was lied to, guys.

Starting to think, oh, maybe Alex Steen did a power play on the, on the st. Louis Blues. Management was like, guys, listen, if you don't do that, I'm going to Steve Dangles leak. All right, all right. You better hire me as the GM. And so they did.

If they ran out of money, they spent it all on me.

That's right. That's right. Hey, guys, listen, we have to let Steve get to the stream because apparently it's 08:00 or Robert's like, hello. Time. Hello. So I want you guys to have a great night tonight. We're going to. We are going to pull the blue Bombers game off tv. I'm really sorry. I know you guys are really upset by that. Blue bombers, Ottawa, I know it's a huge matchup tonight, but we're gonna go to the Edmonton Oilers game. We're gonna see Edmonton win.

Or.

I wanna know if anybody's cheering for Florida. Is anybody win for Florida?

Oh, we know we got somebody back then.

We got some.

I don't know what your name is, but tonight it's Florida, man.

Don't google them.

Don't google them. Yeah. All right. Hey, guys, thank you so much.

Thank you.

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