Transcript of Buyck Stops Here | The Steve Dangle Podcast

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

Let's go. Hi, everybody.

Hooray.

Coming off a win. It's been so long.

You know what? It's all fixed.

None of it matters anymore. It means how I feel.

None of it matters.

I think it's because of you, Adam.

Is it because of me?

You're undefeated on Leifs games on Mondays.

Jesse, is that the Bet MGM big story? That I'm undefeated on Mondays. It should be. Yeah, it is. That's coming up, by the way.

Yeah, and we're going right into it now.

No, we're not.

If the Lefs are playing on Monday, but not in the Amazon game, are you streaming the leaves?

That's a good question. I mean, is that a thing? I think every Monday that they play, Amazon is streaming.

I want to say there's a handful. I don't know.

I think there's a small handful. I think you should just do the leaves.

I will do the leaves if they're playing Monday. Yeah, sure.

I know the thing about your stream is I'm streaming the Amazon game, but if there's other games on the Monday, and it's one of them's the leaves.

It's not really. It just happens to be Monday Night Hockey is the official... It's like a national night now in a way that it never was because For a while there, they tried to make Sunday a hockey night, which was stupid because it's the NFL night. Let's go look at the schedule here. I'm looking at the schedule. We got the double Mondays. I thought there was only six that were going to end up on Amazon. No Mondays for the Leaps and November, one in-They do spread it out pretty good. One in December against Chicago, and I don't know if Amazon has that or not.

So there you go. That might be the first one. Oh, it's Prime.

No, that's Prime. There's Prime on it. Wow. That would have been good. And then there's another Prime one in January, and that would have probably been it for the season.

It's December 23rd. You skipped over that one.

December 23rd.

December 23rd, the Leifs are playing Winnipeg. That is not a Prime game. That's a TSN game.

I'll be doing the- Because it's at, I think, 2:00 in the afternoon.

It is at 2:00 in the afternoon. It is at 2:00 in the afternoon. It's on the 23rd. Okay, there you go. I think you should probably do the Leifs. I'll stream that one.

Also, there's a Sportsnet, Ontario one on the 10th of March against Utah. Utah. I'll do that one. And there's a few other Prime Mondays in there. So, yeah. Okay. Then I will be doing eight leaf games this year. You can expect them to go eight, 0-0. I like the Jets.

Yeah. I don't want you to break that streak. We need to keep it going.

No, I think so. And you know what? There were a lot of people asking the chat last night, and specifically, Steve, is it time for you to yield leaf games to me because they never lose. They never lose when it's me.

I said that verbatim.

Have you had a win yet this season?

I think so.

First Saturday was a win, wasn't it?

Oh, first Saturday, yeah.

First Saturday, who did they pick?

Because you did the Rangers, they lost. That was a Saturday. Yeah.

And they won their second game. Now I already forget who it was again. So I know they lost... I guess they're one and two. I'm looking it up. I guess they're one and two. Or one, one, and one.

One, one, and one. Was it not Pittsburgh? It was Pittsburgh. There it is.

Because Boston, they lost. Rangers, they lost. And then Pittsburgh, they won. So you've seen one victory.

One, one, and one on Bettman 500. Here we go.

Yeah. And you've got no Saturday game this week.

Do I not?

No, you don't. The least do not play. Oh, wait, no, that's just the November calendar switchover. You do have a Saturday game, and it's St. Louis. Redemption against St. Louis, baby.

I thought November had the weird schedule. Okay.

No, November.

The 23rd, there's no Saturday game.

That's why I'm going to Halifax.

Yes. Have you announced Have you got that yet? Yes. Okay. Where?

Halifax.

You just didn't. Oh, where have I- No, on this show. Have we said that?

I'm pretty sure.

Okay. I'm not sure. I know.

Booktour. Halifax. Booktour. You're doing Mickmack Mall, and you're doing Dartmouth Crossing right now. Oh, my God.

Oh, Holy God.

I'm pretty sure it's Mickmack Mall and Dartmouth Crossing. Let me- Let me represent.

I don't think we've...

Have we gone over this on the show? I'm pretty sure we have. Okay. Okay.

Okay. November 22nd, Indigo, Halifax, 540 Spring Garden Road. At 7 Atlantic. And then the next day, chapter's Dartmouth, 41 Mickmack Boulevard.

That's Mickmack Mall.

2:00 PM.

Yeah. Nice.

Spring Garden, by the way, is the cool street in Halifax. It's where you want to... It's where you want to... Spring Garden, baby. I think that's where you want to be, or at least it used to be.

Do you have any plans for when you're out there besides the signing? Sign books. Yeah, besides the signing. Do you have any things planned already?

I understand. I think there's a Mooseheads game. You should go. If If I'm available for a Mooseheads game, I'm going to go. I have never been to a live QMJHL game. That would be cool. Outside of the Memorial Cup.

I'm very jealous of you. I love Halifax, and I wish we were going out there for a show. Alas, not in the budget this year. No. But we will definitely make that happen at some point. Very, very cool. And we do have a live show ourselves to announce. Shoeless Joe's, baby. November 12th.

Just show up at a random Shoeless Joe's and hopefully you pick the It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great.

It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. It was great. Yeah. No, it's Shoeless Joes, 249 Queens Key. So we're going to be right on the water. And it's a leaf sends game. And it's 6:00 PM show time, 7:00 PM game time, 10 bucks for your ticket, which gets you a guaranteed spot. Or you can pay at the door in the URL for that to buy the tickets right now is in the description. Whether or not you're watching on YouTube or you're listening on Spotify or Apple, it's always in the description.

Now, this is important. I haven't looked this location up. Is this West of Young?

It is West of Young.

All right. Best of luck, boys. Have fun with that show, boys.

That's Shoeless Joe's, a true Canadian sports grill. This is one of their best locations. It's right near Scotia Bank Arena. So it's perfect for if you are going to a game. Look at that lovely picture of us. They look so cute. If you're going to a game, this is the Shoeless Joe's to go to because it's got that perfect walking distance. We're very excited about this. This is going to be the first of a few Shoeless Joe's shows that we're doing over the next year, and it's going to be all over Ontario, which is awesome, too. So we're very, very excited. I'm excited. Also, they also recommend-5 to 10.

Oh, my goodness. They're all there.

If you see a win, a lot of people just go home. And the better thing to do is to go out and then go home because the traffic's crazy. So if you're feeling a little amped up after a least victory, they also recommend, Hey, come to this Shoeless Joe's, hang out, let traffic, and then you can go.

That is easily the veteran It is the vet move.

It is the vet move. You got to expect to be out till midnight because I have a friend of mine that lives on the Esplanade, which is near there, near where the leaves play. And to get out onto Lakeshore from their place on the Esplanade to walk is two and a half, three minutes. To drive the other day, it was 50, 5:0.

Hey, you ever spend a bunch of money on a really good night and they win and you're so excited? Get ready for the excitement to leave your body as you travel two city blocks over the next 45 minutes.

This is what I'm saying.

Yeah, no. Or you can go to a fun place with fun people and have fun chicken fingers.

What if you took transit? No. It's actually really easy to leave via transit, Scotia Baker Arena. No. It's anywhere.

It's go transit, not via transit.

You can take the go train is leaving-A video transit joke. Very often after the games, the subway, you squeeze on to the first one, but after that, they're usually clear. Then you can walk somewhere.

Okay, but if you didn't, if you drove-Why?

Go to Seelis Joe's.

I'm just saying, plan ahead, maybe take transit.

You know what- Yeah, no, you should take transit.

I also want to say this is our first show since our Oshua General's live. It was an amazing, amazing night. Thank you to everybody who came. I have not recovered in the last minute. The live show was awesome afterwards at Bond Street. If you live out in Oshua or in Durham region, definitely check that place out. It's amazing. The Jenny's were spectacular. It was so fun to work with them. Yes, we do have more OHL dates to announce, but not yet. We're not talking about it yet.

A lot of string lights in downtown Oshua. They really upgraded.

We love a string light.

We were walking downtown amongst all the string lights, and there was a Quiznos, and Quiznos has been shut down for a long time, and Justin and Maddie got so excited.

Wait, is it an open Quiznos?

Then we walked a little closer to the Quiznos, and we get there and we're like, We're getting Quiznos. It's been shut down for so long. This one was also shut down. Oh, yeah.

They I think the brand's gone.

They left all of the façade up outside of the arena, and they did not get their Quiznos.

I'm cheering for Oshua big time because it's a huge combination of really, really old stuff that somehow hung on throughout all the years. A bunch of really new, gentrified stuff and stuff that's just sitting in the heat. Just dilapidated.

But you know what there is there?

They're coming back.

They're really up and coming.

There's space. There's space to be creative and do things. I was talking to the guy that owns Bond Street, which is a big event center building coffee house restaurant, and Offset played there. We talked about that, right? We played underneath where Offset played. And he's like, Yeah, this used to be where the union employees met. This was a whole General Motors thing. I'm like, Man, he's come in, and him and his family have taken over this building, cleaned it up. It looks amazing. I didn't want to- Man, if we were smart, business people, well, no, we still wouldn't do it all the way out there. Sorry.

If we were smart business people and had lots of money.

No, but what I mean is there's so much space to do studios and other things like that. You can make the drive to Toronto.

It's starting to fill out because A lot of schools are expanding out that way. There's a lot of people, like myself, who grew up in the Toronto city limits who are like, I can't afford to live here anymore. Oh, okay, let's go to Oshua. There's a big expansion out that way.

The string lights It came with you.

Hell, yeah. There's a little food hall next to the arena. I was like, This is such a great idea. There was a big sign, Come here before the game, and all this stuff, and it's brand new. There's a lot of just brand new spots, but then it's mixed in with everything else. But soon, all of those places that are run down will be brand new spots, and the city will be very nice.

Go look at pictures of me before I move to Oshua and after. Underrated food scene.

Good place to eat. Good place to eat. All right, so we really enjoyed that. You know what, boys? I think we should just do the Bet MGM big story now. Should we get it? Yeah. Let's do it. So Mark-Andre Fleury is due to make his final stop in Pittsburgh, final start in Pittsburgh, stop and start with the Minnesota Wild today. I think the penguins have already put out on their social media accounts some of the pranks that he pulled when he was with the team, and there's going to be a touching tribute tonight. And this is going to be a really nice two It's newer for him to end on certain dates. And here's my question, though. Is it like an automatic win for the Minnesota Wild because you know he's going to play like crazy?

Oh, my God.

And the penguins are bad right now.

Flurry is He's tricky, right? He's one of the older goal tenders in the entire NHL. He might be the oldest. His numbers aren't always exactly what they used to be. When he's in top form, he's still crazy. He's still so good when he's in top form. I don't think Sid or Gino are getting one.

That's what I'm looking at.

There's no way he's letting them beat him in his final game against them. Wow.

Really? Yeah. Damn. Now, they currently sit third in their division. Now, they've played a game less than the Jets and the stars, and they're only two points behind the stars. And the Jets are eight One and O, as we know, because the Leaps beat them. And yet, because it's early season, the Wild are really only four points behind them, which goes to show how well the Wild have played.

I would say the Wild and the Blues are two of the teams in the league where anything could happen. Yes. I think to their season. They could finish in a divisional playoff spot. They could be a wild card team. They could potentially be in the lottery conversation. It's like anything could happen, and I would believe it.

Jesse, do you think that... Are you betting Sid or Gino to score tonight?

No, neither of them. Neither. One thing I was looking at for the bets was, how can I make money off this, first of all? Mark Andre for his last game, he's going to make a whole bunch of saves. He's going to be on top of his game. Last game in Pittsburgh, I should say. The over-under on his saves for tonight are 27 and a half. I'm like, Yeah, he's going to probably make a whole bunch of saves, but do I think Pittsburgh is going to fire 28 plus shots on him tonight? What's their shot average? That's where I'm like, I don't know where I should lean on the over the under. Steve, if you were to make this bet on the over the under, 27 and a half saved for Flurry tonight, where are you leaning?

I don't need this menu. No, I don't. I already know just what I want.

I'm taking the over.

Give me the over. You believe Pittsburgh is going to be shooting a ton and he's going to make a-The light's out. Okay. Adam?

I think I'm taking the... I think Pittsburgh is going to be shooting a lot. They have scored almost as many goals as the Toronto Maple leaves this year. The problem with the penguins is they've allowed... Their goal differential is negative 13.

Yeah, goal tending in defense.

It's a bit early in the season for that, fellows. They need Eric Carlson to care. I know he's like, It's all badass when he has that cool quote in the athletics. Like, Yeah, I don't care. Whatever. Like, your team sucks, dude, and you're given the fuck away a lot. Maybe care a little.

Didn't he follow that Did he come up with a dash three? Yeah, he did.

Can I hear your Eric Carlson impression again?

First off, you got to look like D'Artanian to pull it off properly. You got to flip your hair. Media could say whatever they want. Eric Carlson. It's like, No, man, stop. It's only cool when you're winning. It's only cool when you're winning, dude. When I saw that quote, everybody's like, Oh, he's badass. I was like, No, he's not. He's also tanking my freaking team.

We found it. We found it.

There we go. Adam, you guys are both on the over?

I'm on the over. Absolutely.

So I'm on the under.

Okay. Now I know where I should bet. All right. That is the Bet MGM big story. Don't forget, Bet MGM is an official partner of the NHL in Canada, and they're the king of sports books. Check about betmgm. Com/day. I have never in my life experienced an October 28th game that meant more.

We changed the... Don't lie. We changed when we We recorded our show. Don't lie. In part due to that.

We also were leaving the venue at 1:00 AM going.

I was tired. We were tired.

That was so tired. But you know what? It actually made sense that we did this, and it's the stakes, right? Okay, so the leaves go into this, and their record is 4, 4, and 1, which is the same record as everybody in their division saved the teams from Florida. Every team in the division were 4, 4, and 1, except for one team, which were 4, 4, and 0. Every And all of them are bad, except for Boston and Toronto, who I think eventually will be good.

The rest of them, even the Panthers are ass.

No, the Panthers and Tampa had different records. They were not a part of that. They're ass. I just said that. Now, the Winnipeg Jets are going after a piece of history that the Leifs share with the Buffalo Sabers, which is a 10, 0, 0 start start of season. The Leifs did it in 93, 94. Who cares when the Sabers did it? I'm kidding. I actually don't know when the Sabers did it. The Sabers did it last year. The Sabers did it when When they were good.

That was a crazy team. I believe both those teams went to the conference final.

There you go. Lefs got pumped by Vancouver in that conference final. No one talks about it, but it was Pavel Bergen.

Sabre's lost to the sentence.

So you go into this, and not only is it a 4, 4, and 1 record, which is overly magnified because we're looking at the first month of the season and everything's out of whack, but it's Toronto coming off of three objectively bad losses. Terrible loss Loss versus Columbus. I would say bad loss versus St. Louis, and I would say you deserved it, and it wasn't horrible against Boston, but it was horrible against Columbus, right? We're grading on a curve here.

It was so much of the Bruin series in a nutshell, I thought. The Leaps did find a way, well, late in the series, to keep games close against them, but they were the second best team. Right.

You could argue for both of these teams, so far, This is the most important game of their season. And not every week do you get to say that. The Jets were really going for history. They hate the Leaps. The Leaps hate the Jets, right? And the Leaps come out, and what do they do?

They slaughter them. It's the best period of hockey, the best first half of a game they've had, period, this season.

When have we ever got to say the Leaps started a game on time?

They started a game on time and kept their foot on the gas until they completely ran out of gas.

Well, I don't think they ran out of gas. I think we'll talk about what happened in the second and third. But that first period for me, guys, one of the things that drove me nuts about the Keith leaves was they would start Five to seven minutes in after a bad game, and it would mean that they would have to come back from at least a goal.

They had two gears to start games. There were no whole hum starts. No. There were still literally unconscious and murderers.

That's That's right.

We're down 2:00 after six minutes. We're up 3-0 after five.

There's no in between. Notable, too. There were some lineup changes. Nick Robertson came out, even though he's played well and the coaches complimented him. He just hasn't had the results. It's not a big deal. And Max Patcheready, who is in for the second game in a row since his latest scratching, but they have a rotation going, and they tried out some new lines. So Nye's Matthews, Marner, that stays the same. Second line, Patcheready, Tavares, Neylander. Third line, McMandomi, Holmberg. Fourth line, Lawrence, Komp, Reeves. I'll just say it right now, Ryan Reeves had a terrible game last night. He used some bad giveaways, was not effective, wasn't great.

There are Too many instances where he goes for a hit and it's a cuddle. It's just a cuddle. I'm like, Okay, if you're not doing Ryan Reeves things, then perhaps we should Ryan Reeves out of the lineup.

He made a pass. He was entering the offensive zone for the Lefs, and the pass went right to the jets. I cringed at that moment because I was like, Okay, you're on the ice for such a limited amount of time. Your job is to affect the game in positive ways and not make big mistakes. I was like, Okay, you got this little scoring chance, and you just gave away the buck. Those things aren't helpful out of your fourth line.

What I would do next game, Robertson, third-line, right-wing, Holmberg drops down to fourth-line, right-wing, Reeves sits. Yeah.

I understand why they have Reeves in that game because the Jets and leaves hate each other. There is a rivalry there dating back to 2021 when they played each other all the time.

Tell Logan Stanley, watch his ass.

Yeah, exactly. That's basically it. Exactly. The game starts, 12 minutes in, John Tavares scores. Hey. And nobody on this team needed to go more.

No. He has picked up a few points recently, a couple points. Don't get distracted. Don't get distracted. He's looked terrible.

But last night, he looked good.

Well, where did he go? I think he has the... Now, looking back on that little week where he was taken out because of his sickness, and then it's three games after that, he's bad. You lose eight pounds. I feel like there's an excuse there at this early point in the season. If it's the playoffs, it's a little different because we're talking like, or if there's something bigger on the line and we're saying, You're in there, you have to be performing. If you can't perform, why are you in there? But it's mid-October and he's very sick and he's still playing. I feel like there's a built-in excuse. Now that we have nine points in nine games, five goals, I don't really think there's anything to complain about right now.

To me, it's a different conversation then. The conversation is why is a player who is good and important to this team playing games he very doesn't need to that could keep him out for potentially weeks or months?

I don't think sickness isn't like playing on a hurt ankle. I don't feel like being sick is going to cause you to miss more time.

No, but dehydration can greatly increase your risk of injury. If you lost eight pounds, I assume that's part of it.

Totally. But I feel like you get up to the point during the game where the medical staff gets you IV drip, whatever it is.

Yeah. They have a B shot in the ass. Yeah, whatever it is.

I don't think it's as physical as you think it is in those moments. He's clearly not up to speed. That's clearly the case. But I feel like there's no long term risk in playing through the flow.

That is still a show waiting to happen that I need. It's just an experience I want to experience. I want a professional sports team's medical staff for a week. Just fix all my shit. Just fix it.

Jesse, do you have game center up? You know the goal simulation thing that you're- Goal? Yeah. Can we bring up the first goal?

Bless you, Adam. I almost did this in LFR.

I want to bring the goal simulation into this that Jesse has unlocked for us because this is so key to Tavares' game, but it's also key to somebody else who badly, badly, badly needed some points who I don't think has played poorly, but needed some results. And that is number 67. That's right. Former Montreal Canadian captain, Max Patcheredi, wearing 67 on the leaves.

I don't know about played poorly, but he's definitely just been a guy.

Prior to tonight. Last night, not a guy. Last night, look at where this end. So obviously, we're in the leaves zone.Tavares is down low in between- Winnipeg zone. Sorry. Winnipeg zone between 4 and 54, and then Connor Hela Bucks in front of him. And then you've got 67. That's max patch ready. And go ahead and press the play on the simulation.

I believe that's Piank Samberg out there for the Jets.

So there's newly signed, McCabe over to Tanev down at the blue line. And so here's where we want to stop.

This is basically a four on five, by the way, because of the line- Neilander is not really involved in any of this play.

He's not a factor. No, because Mitch goes off for a line chain. Yeah.

No, I'm giving them credit.

That's a compliment. Because it's not Willy driving everything that's going on with this line, which could be what people talk about today. What I love about this is look at where 67, you can't even see Tavares, even though he's the goal scorer with two lines around him. Look at where Patcharetti is. Look at where Tavares is. If these guys are going to be successful, and I think that they work together. We saw that in preseason before Tavares got sick. If they're going to work together, this is where they need to be.

I see them on paper, and I was like, they're two guys. They have similar skill sets. They have similar limitations. I don't love the idea of playing together. Last night, give me the bug. I want to see it because they're smart. I want to see it more. Well, they're smart.

Hockey IQ with those two is pretty high.

Nothing wrong with an identity either. Yeah. It's okay to have players who play similarly. You just got to deploy them properly. And this is a road game, too. Scott Arneill and the Jets could have exposed these guys, and they were the best line on the ice.

They were. And the game ends with-With this goal, underrated part of it, it started with Mitch Marner dumping and chasing the buck.

I think that's Craig Garoubeh hockey right there. He had a good game. He comes in on the right wing, I believe, and he dumps it down, and they get possession in the zone because of that dump and chase. I love that. That's great stuff from the Lefs. Awesome on winning that Puck battle behind the net, and then that continues, and then we get this cycle where the goal simulation starts and they score a goal.

Jesse, would you not say that Mitch Marder doing that also shows that he has trust in the guys on the ice to forecheck and get the Puck?

Yeah. No, it's a compliment to all five guys out there. When you dump the Puck in and you're against a tough team like Winnipeg and you come away with it and you're able to maintain possession and it leads to a goal.

That was the Bruin series, Dumping, not chasing. That's what they kept doing. They dumped it, but it was dump and here you go. That was all it was.

There's different strategies we've seen the least employ over the last couple of years, through the Dupes era, and then now we have this new era. Their whole thing for a long time was just maintain possession. If we're going to enter the zone, we're going to enter with the pocket, we're going to shimmy back to our own zone just so we can hold on to it, but then never have a good entry. Now it seems like they're willing to throw the fuck there and just go chase it and battle and keep it in that way.

They have two guys who can be Monsters down low in Tavares and Patcharedi, and their movement from the back end is so much better. Oel Tanev is just an insane upgrade.

O'hiel is meaner than... I never thought that he was this mean.

He won a Stanley Cup at the Florida Panthers.

So yeah, does that rub off on you? Because was he this mean in Vancouver? Was he this mean in Arizona?

Well, he definitely wasn't this mean in Vancouver. The Coyotes were an underrated an underratedly chipping team for a long time. Again, I don't think anyone ever watched them. They were an underratedly chipping team for a while. But OEL is such a difficult player to grade because the Coyotes were ages ago. He hasn't been a coyote for a long time. The Knucks were obviously not an accurate portrayal of what he is. All I have to go on is his most recent foray, which is with the freaking, we can do whatever we want Florida Panthers.

It's funny, the guys that win the Cups, like when Jake Muzzen was on the team and he was the only guy who'd won a cup. Who was the toughest guy on the team? It was Jake Muzzen. And it was that chippiness or whatever. He knew it's like, this is what we got to do because this is what works, right? I know. It's a shame. He should still be playing.

I don't remember if it was 2018 or '19. I guess it would have been '19. I don't think it was here in 2018. He beat the shit out of pasta. I don't know how that guy was able to play beyond that series. He didn't play for long beyond that series. Or wait, no, 2019, they went to the final.

O'hill was one of the perfect examples of your contract isn't what the player should be. When he was an $8.25 million player with Vancouver, and they had every expectation on the world on him, he was never going to live up to those expectations. It was the contract said, You are supposed It was supposed to be this, but he just got paid a bunch of money and accepted it. But it wasn't like that was his skill level at the time, and he was never going to live up to it. But now that he's, what is it, $5 million? I was just pointing up there. That's where he should be.

He didn't sign that deal there. That's the key, right? He signed it in Arizona, where he was a standout. He was one of the best offensive defensemen in the league.

3.5. I said 5. 3.5 million.

Can I give you an example of this? Cory Perry was bought out June 19th, 2019. He's still an incredibly useful player. But because he was bought out, we're like, Oh, well, he's cooked.

That's the end of his career. Adam, I cut you off there. You're saying he didn't sign that contract in Vancouver.

And Vancouver moved a lot of money off their books because the coyotes felt like, Oh, well, we don't want this long term deal. So Vancouver used short term money to get it off the books and do the flip. And what kills me about the Vancouver thing is, look at the roster. This is a Vancouver team when he was playing that, that they're like, You know what? We need Jay Beagle, and we need to pay him 3 million. And 3 million Not now. 3 million five years ago when the cap is in the '70s, right? Not in the '90s.

Post-cup Jay Beagle, though.

Yeah. You got to pay the tax. Who was the other guy that they hired? We're getting post-Cup OEO. Who did they hire from... Who did they have signed from Dallas, too? There was the... Not for Met. It was- The Knux? The Knux signed a guy also at three million bucks who also was not good for them. I remember a bunch of Knux fans when J. Beagle scored in the playoffs in 2020. They were like, Shit, Adam. But you got to embrace with that, Adam. 100%.

Oel won a cup with Florida as a 2.2 million defenseman. That dude, he's amazing at that.

What value?

There was a part of me the day that was signed. I'm like, they're going to win the cup.

That's ridiculous. But then you put an eight million dollar label on him and you're like, Fuck that guy.

Get him out of BC. He was a million % worth it when he signed. That was something we covered extensively on this show, but it was years and years and years ago, so we probably forgot. But there was a time where Carlson, Dauty, and OEL were all potentially available, which was nuts at the time. And OEL signing for that amount of money was actually, I think, less than a lot of people thought. He was so good. He used to be so good. He's still pretty good. I thought, since we're on him- This is the Brandon Sutter, Troy Stetcher, Antoine Roussel, Louis Erickson.

Oh, Roussel. Vancouver Knucks, also J. B. It's a little bit of a different team.

Sorry. No, when he signed that contract, like you said, he was very good, but he was a different player. He was more offensive, obviously, and now he's grown into this spectacular other role.

Yeah. Since we're on I hated the penalty against him. Don't skate backward into your opponent. That's a bad idea. He got fined for skating backward into his guy and hitting him, and then he got a penalty because the guy skated backward into him. I don't know. I think that hit looked a lot worse than it was. Is Nemestikow got the worst of it.

I thought the refs had a little bit of quick whistles last night. Oh, yeah.

There's a lot of-I think they wanted to keep a lock on that game.

I don't like going down that road unless you really earn it because I don't know, people are always like, the refs. Reilly put it over the glass. He shouldn't have done that. Benwa, starting to get on my nerves.

Yeah, but Eelers fell like a house of cards.

No, you're sticking his skate. They're going to call that every time, especially in October.

Yeah, Ben was got to say. I guess the Willy one, too. There's no excuse for that. He just wrapped right away.

Yes.

Willy, come on. You lost your man. Now, before we get to that, Willy does score next. So the Leaps go into the second period up to to nothing. And it's notable that Max Pache ready, collects his second assist on this. I want to move past that, though, because I want to talk about the first goal of the second period. Again, my question on the stream was, Hey, they had a great first period. Two goals is not enough. How slow are they going to be when they come out? Because that's usually what happens, but it isn't what happened this time. And within a minute, within a minute, the Marner-Mathieu's Nye's line, which had a great first week, terrible last week, hopefully they have a great this week, gets a goal. And I want to throw up Jesse Blake's screen grab. The Jesse Blake screen grab of what happened to goal-tending position. And Steve, you explained it so well in the LFR. I know. Marner, or Matthew's with a shot, Marner with a shot, Matthews with a shot, Matthew Nye's with a shot.

And Nye started it all, though.

Yes, he did.

Because he got those guys the fuck, which is- Which was on a four check. On a four check, an animalistic four check. Brad Treliving needs to be, whoever his agent is. He's got to be calling him off the hook.

I told you Jake Sanderson money. I told you, and you guys laughed at me. That's what he's getting.

Sign him before it gets insane. No, no, forget Jake Sanderson. Alexi Lafrenier just did GMs around the league, a huge service. He did. I'm not saying they're the same player. Meanwhile, Dylan Genth is screwing it up for everybody. Here, it's on the screen now.

Now, Jesse loves this because in the season previews, what did you call Connor Hallib Is this a picture of a television?

Why is it in the corner?

What do you talk? I put it there so we can have our picture. Got it.

No, here. Can you make it smaller?

What's wrong?

No, just make it smaller. What's wrong? I'm showing you that- Here, a little smaller. No, I'm just being an asshole.

So, Jessie.

I'm just needling you.

I'm just needling you, Jesse. What was wrong with- Nothing was wrong with it.

Have fun on a Tuesday.

Jesse. I don't think- You tweeted this because Jets fans have been on you.

Conor Halebuck has been great. Myself and the city of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Jets have a challenge I created at them. I called it the Conor Halebuck 920 Challenge, where I said, Conor Halebuck this season will not have a safe percentage over 920. Because it's a very hard thing to do. And he's done it the past two years, and I'm like, three years in a row is impossible. I think last night we all saw that we now have to start something new.

What's it?

Conor Halebuck Fraud Watch.

Oh, okay. Conor Halefraud?

Halefraud. Fraud. It might be a look. I don't know if this is how you goal 10, but he's a million feet out of the net right now. He's trying to stop a buck. And they face a good team like the Toronto Maple East. He had just made two incredible saves.

Maybe they had eight straight games of teams that weren't very good, and now they call them a real team, and he gets exposed.

Five goals.

I think what is...

No, five goals, and then the empty net.

I think what is closer to accurate is the Leaves did against the Jets what they didn't do against the Rangers, which is they took the good goalie out of it. They made him less of a factor. They made his job harder to do by being animals in front of the net.

Or maybe he was never good to begin with.

It's probably closer to that.

Look at the shot counter. It's a minute into the second period, and the Leaps are about to get their 20th shot. To compare and contrast, Winnipeg had six to that point. People on the stream were going, Are they going to pull Hellebuck? I was like, When they were at 25 shots, I'm like, To be fair, he's let in four goals, but that's normal. 25 shots, four goals, that's not like... I mean, it's a little worse than what he's used to.

You can't pull Piank Samberg, I guess. Yeah.

So Matthew Nye scores here.

There's five jet skaters in this picture.

Yes.

That's how-Yeah, and zero goal tender. I know.

That's how unreal they were last night down low. They made everyone's job so hard. They did this in Winnipeg, too.

It's worth mentioning, too, that Matthew Nize has five goals in 10 games this season. Only an assist. I shouldn't have dropped. He's selfish. No, I'm kidding.

I picked them up, and then they had a couple of bad games. I'm like, nah, I think I might have to grab him again.

Somebody hasn't already grabbed him.

Oh, God, I hope not. Yeah.

So then there's this goal, and then obviously, Morgan Reilly with his beautiful goal, Neelander and Patch ready with the assists on that. Reilly off the bar. So one of the things with Morgan Reilly, that shot was really interesting because he doesn't have a shot anyone's afraid of, but it is accurate.

He hasn't had a shot anyone has been afraid of for a few years. So I still look back at the season, he had 20 goals and 72 points, and I go, did this fall out of the sky? And it sure didn't feel like it at the time. I mean, we all knew he may never get this again, but But he has that ability. He has that capability. And it turns out going from a below replacement level version of TJ Brody to one of Chris Tanev or OEL is a hell of an upgrade, and it makes your life easier.

What did you guys think about the defenseman switch? Because that was a major story going into the game, too. You have Oliver Ekman-Larson, who had been paired with Jake McCabe and Morgan Reilly with OEL. The reason you do that is because OEL and Morgan Reilly are the Puck movers. Mccabe, Tanev are more defensive, musclier defensemen. What do you think about putting the two Puck movers together and the two defensive guys together?

I was okay with it because things were going south in a hurry and the Leaps hadn't really moved off their pairs at all. Beyond swapping guys out on the third there. They hadn't screwed with the formula because the formula did not need to be screwed with. They were doing quite well. And then they lost three straight, and it was like, Okay, let's maybe fix this.

And a lot of goals. To add to that, and Jesse, I want to get your opinion on it, too. Sure. Connor Timmins, nick Richard, who is a writer for the Leifs Nation, said, Connor Timmins deserves some credit for taking advantage of a fresh opportunity under a new coach. A lot of us thought he was halfway out the door, myself included. I thought he was all the way out the door. And he is currently leading Leifs D-men in expected goals, 4% and goals against per 60 through 10 games. That's so crazy. Now, that's third pair of shelter minutes, whatever. It doesn't matter. Those are numbers that you do not expect from Connor Timmins.

No. And it's not killing penalties.

Yeah, that's new.

He was a crazy defensive liability. Yeah. He was. He was. And we would see him put up points. He was scoring at something like a third of a point per game or half a point a game. And you'd be like, how isn't this guy in the lineup every night when you look at his stat sheet? And holy shit, he was brutal. He was the cause of so many goals. Whatever the Lefs were doing previously was not gelling with him at all. This is working so much better than I could have ever imagined.

Jesse, you're at a lot of the pregame skates. You're at all the home games. What did you think seeing those top four shifted around like that?

I don't think it hurts at all to play your strengths and manage your weaknesses, as you always say, Adam. I feel like it's another evolution of the team where you can throw Ouel and Riley out together. Because Steve, you've been talking about how Tana is like his best partner forever, but it's an interesting new look. It's like, okay, we know the generic, you throw out the Puck Mover with the stay at home defenseman who's going to block every shot in the world and Chris Tatev. But if you need some mix up, why not throw out two guys who are really get at one thing and have them dominate that part of the game when they're on the ice.

I think they're guys who are specialists who can do everything, though. Oh, yeah. Morgan Reilly's got a little bit of snarled to his game. Oel has a lot more than any of us thought, but those are the Puck movers. Tanev is just a frigging stay at home, shutdown master, and McCabe will, I think, eat your heart. But both of those guys can move the Puck. That's why the top four is in such a good place right now, because even if you have the Puck moving pair and the shutdown pair, they can both do both.

Yeah. I don't want to frame it like, Reilly and OEL or Eric Carlson, where it's all all the time. Yeah.

Thank God.

Adam nailed it in a heartbeat.

I'm thrilled about that. Please never be that. I am so disappointed with that guy, by the way. We do need to talk about that.

Throw up 100 points and be minus 30 at season's end. At the end of the day, the point of hockey is to outscore your opponent. And I think as long as you're doing that, you're winning.

Jesse, when is Yanny Hockenpaugh able to come back? I'm not injury-wise, just like contract- Game 11. So he could play Thursday? Yes. Okay, because that's the next game.

They can activate them for game 11.

So this is interesting because if Connor Timmins' numbers are that good, right? If Connor Timmins' numbers are that good, the least we're playing Seattle, that's a good team, is, are You bring in Yane Hockenpaugh against Seattle, assuming he's healthy. And do you pair him with a guy like Connor Timmins? Because I look at Yany Hock and Pa and I go, That's a guy they need to be a really good... He's the third big, muscly defensive defenseman on this on this team in an ideal scenario. Connor Timmermans has been really, really good. I think Benoît has been adequate. He hasn't blown me away yet. And I do believe in Simon Benoît's talent. We saw it last year. He was very, very good. Is there a possibility there of a shift? Does that make sense? Or do you get a Marshall Refie, out of the AHL? Well, that's an interesting idea. Timothy Lilligren, it's pretty clear, is not in the plans long term, at least right now. So that's why I'm not bringing his name up. And also we're talking right and left shots.

Because Hakenpaa and Connor Timmins are not the same player at all.

No, they're not. And that's why I think the mix up of them is a good thing.

Lilligren and Timmins can do some similar things. Meyer's the same. Got the frame of Hakenpaa, not quite the defensive ability of Hakenpa. The idea of Rafei instead of Benoît is fascinating. At what point does Benoît find himself in the rotation?

I think he- He's taken too many calls. Well, and I agree. I think that they can't do a rotation right now because they have three million sitting in the press box. If and when that moves, and it will, unless Timothée Lilligran blows them away the next time he plays, I think that you've got an opportunity here to do that rotation, whatever that next move is. The least can't trade Lilligran right now because nobody makes a good trade earlier in the year. You can't make a trade until a team goes through injuries like what Utah is.

The Dushane trade was pretty good for Colorado.

Okay, but that's a rare circumstance. I know. That built all summer and whatever. We're talking about out of training camp, rare that we see a trade. It's not Matt Dushane, it's Timothée Lilligren. Right. So Timothée Lilligren at 3 Mill. I'm looking at this and thinking it would be nice to see these guys have to earn jobs, too. It certainly worked, I think, upfront a little bit better. I know they had some bad losses in there. But I think that I like the fact that there are people who are like, no, we got to raise our standard, otherwise we're going to be sitting on the bench.

It's nice, isn't it? This is something that we criticized Sheldon Keef, and he deserved a lot of it. But this is something he just wasn't able to do. This is one of the things that cost Jay Woodcroft his job last year. I don't remember who the reporter was, but they straight up asked. They're like, are you able to do the things that you want to do? Because I don't think the oilers had any spares. And he wasn't. Craig Berube is able to go, You stink, sit. You stink, sit. You're actually playing pretty good, but you're not good enough to not be in this rotation, so you're sitting. Like a guy like Robertson. That's a guy who he's praised, he's praised, he's praised. You haven't really put up any points, and you took an offensive zone penalty that I didn't like the other night. So even though you've been playing really well, sit. There's nothing wrong with raising the standard.

Jess?

So I think it's interesting to note that Hawk and Pa and Duer were on this road trip in Boston. That's notable. And Winnipeg. They traveled with the team, and they have a decision to make because as of Saturday, they can play both of them, and that'll be 10 games in 24 days. So we might see somebody significant go away because those two guys can play hockey.

Potentially, Wavers, you think?

Yeah. Well, I wonder if that's not... I mean, they've probably called a round about Lilligren. Truly. And I think that losing him on Wavers would be bad asset management. But I also look at that and I go, is that a guy? If Lilligren is the guy that goes on Wavers and goes down or whatever, assuming he makes it, does he go through because he's a $3 million guy that isn't playing regularly?

If you ever want to sneak somebody by Wavers, you should have probably done it a little bit ago when everybody's tight. But I think there's an opportunity he could sneak by. But if I'm a team, I take a chance on Lilligran. I think he can be a solid player in the NHL, in in the right place.

There's nothing wrong. Well, first of all, I'm convinced if he goes to Edmonton, he's winning a cup. There's nothing wrong with having a guy in case if you can afford it. If one of OEL has been playing the right side or Tanev or even McCabe, I guess, because he plays the right often. If one of those three guys goes down, being able to throw Lilligran in-Oh, it's huge.in an injury situation.

Yeah, that's a huge. But That's a huge. Then my question is, if you're activating Hock and Pah and Dua, potentially on Saturday, and you don't have to. You don't have to.

Well, that might be the solution.

Well, you can only lie for so long.

I've watched He's in practice for a month and Hock and Pah looks decent. They got Duhre listed as a centerman, but his face-off wins are concerning because he's never won more than about 45% of them. You need a fourth-line center to do that. The guy that I would see him pushing out is David Kompf because he'd be a cheaper, younger David Kompf. But can you trust him to win the face-offs? You need him to win.

I actually think Duhre being activated is the more interesting conversation because with the defense, we already got guys who are on the... What are you pointing?

I was trying to do that off camera, Jessie. I was going to be like, Hayden, do you have anything to offer on Connor Duhre? Oh, because he's a wild player. Yeah, we didn't get to see a ton of them.

Okay.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to interrupt. I was trying to subtly be like, Do you?

It wasn't subtle.

It was subtle because it wasn't on camera.

I know you were throwing to somebody.

No, I wasn't bloody throwing.

All right, all right.

Let's continue that conversation, then we'll get to Hayden on the Duhre thing. Jessie, If you activate Connor Doer and he can't play center, or you can't win face offs at center. I know he can play, and I know he can play well defensively, and we saw him kill penalties, and he got injured towards the playoff. So I don't even know if that was a really accurate portrayal of who Connor Duhre can be. They clearly like him. What do you do in that situation? Because the Lilligren thing, I think Lilligren is a lot more valuable to the depth of this team than David Kamp is. The only thing David Kamp has is he is strong defensively, and he can win some face offs. But he's not tremendously outstanding at anything else. No, he's not.

Can they- Yeah, and let's not also forget that Calleigh Yarn Cork exists. There's another body that can hopefully fill in somewhere if you end up losing David Kamp.

There's such a bizarre amount of guys ready to come back.

David Kopp, by the way- A lot of money. In nine games this season. And again, he's only got a point, and he's a dash four, and he's playing 11 minutes a night, but he is winning 57% of his face offs. And coaches, they do at least want to rely on you for a defensive zone draw. They do. Is Jarn Croke a good enough center to be playing it all the time?

And their penalty kill I mean, before last night was really good. It was top 10. I think it was ninth. They surrender two to the Jets who had the number one power play in the league. That means you're in a good, a decent spot with your penalty kill. How bad do you need to be making these adjustments?

Kyle Connor scores two power play goals, as Steve mentions, right after the Morgan-Reilly. And this is where the Leaps run into trouble. It ran into trouble in Montreal with this. I think New York with this. Three penalties in a row, two extremely avoidable One of them, the Morgan-Reilly one, it's going to happen, but it sucks. I think one of them was the knee lander where he's just... He's hugging the guy. That's a bad one. The other one is, and I'm trying to figure out the other penalty that I can't remember. Oel? Oel penalty. And Morgan over the glass. Here's what killed the least momentum last night. Penalties. Yes. Killed it. They were destroying worlds, and then they got three penalties in succession in the second period.

I think it's the best power in the league.

And that power play got them right back in. Kyle Conner's goals were really good.

They scored the first one, and they had an air about them. They're like, Oh, shit. There's a lot of time left in the second one. And the second one-And by the way, it was 4-1.

It was worth mentioning it was 4-1.

It was 4-1. Well, no, 4 Nothing is more dangerous in that building. Oh, really? Third game in the Matthews era. I'll never forget it. They were up four nothing, and Patrick Laine gets a hat-trick in overtime to win five, four.

Wow. Oh, yeah. It was Lina versus Matthews.

If you were a Leifs living in Winnipeg, I have no doubt that was the worst day of your life. I have no doubt that at the height of Matthews versus Line A mania, blowing a four nothing lead and Line A getting his first career hat-trick, I have no doubt that was the worst day of your entire It's a good life.

The one we forgot is Humbert cross-checking against Morrissey. That's it. Oh, yes. Because the Willy penalty never got to a penalty because they scored on the delivery penalty. Right. They scored. Yeah. Oh, shoot.

I forgot to mention that in the alley.

There was actually five infractions, and Then only four got to the penalty.

It was three of the Jets' four goals then were man advantage. Yes. Because power play, power play, extra attacker. Yeah. Shit. I forgot to mention that in the alley.

Then who was the first penalty? It wasn't Willy.

It was Humbert. Humbert cross-checking against Morrissey.

I remember thinking that, and I felt like that Humbert penalty was completely avoidable because, again, you could push off with your stick. You just can't hit him out here, right? I think he was trying to push off with a stick. And I feel like that's a guy that's a little under fire right now.

He's playing desperate and unconfident hockey. You just see it in his body language. He's very compact and tight, horrible body language, and obviously taking penalties. And you're in the lineup in no small part because of your penalty killing abilities. Dude, he's out there for that five on three a few games ago. I can't remember who was against. And Kemp's a healthy... Or no, Kemp was a healthy scratch the next game. They didn't use Kemp, they used you. And then he's a healthy scratch. And you responded with probably your worst game in the season. And I mean, I'm putting Robertson right back in the lineup. Whether it's Humberg or Reeves coming out, to me, is immaterial. If it's a conversation of the three of those guys, Robertson is by far the most useful. And he was sitting last night. So that's the one thing I'd change for Thursday.

Humberg makes so little, too, that he's not somebody you can move off the roster because it won't move the salary.

I really hope they don't wave him. I think he's useful enough that someone will get him, and that'll be a guy you miss. Like Lagoson last year, they lost Lagoson, and it's like, that would have been nice. That would have been a nice luxury.

For 800 grand, Holmberg becomes useful when he's playing well. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Agreed. Now, to end that period, and this was key, you don't want to go into that period after allowing two power play goals and then killing the third penalty, which they did. You don't want to do that and then go into that and be in that building and let the fans work themselves into a frenzy. It's a loud building. You got to score before the end of the period, and John Tavares does. And it's a Nylander-Eckman-Larson assist count, but Tavares gets another goal, and that's a major one.

Jets absolutely win that game if that goal doesn't go in.

I think so, too.

I'm not even just talking about, yeah, five is bigger than four, Steve. Idiot. I'm talking about the Leaps would never have gotten a fifth one if that one doesn't go in.

I agree.

And then- No, it was good. And again, go to the fucking net. Go to the net.

So Mark Shifley scored about seven and a half minutes into the third period. Now, this is on the man advantage, but Neelander had taken a penalty, but it never became one because it was a delayed-It's essentially a power point. Gabe Velarde then makes it 5-4 with four minutes He had left to go. People were pissed about this. It should have been Kyle Connor, I think.

Well, people, they thought it was Kyle Connor. They threw hats in the ice. One guy reached out to me. He's like, What the hell? I bet on the Kyle Connor hat trick, and it was then taken away from me. I just took it at face value. I'm like, Well, it was Kyle Connor.

I had no idea. I thought it was.

I didn't know it went enough someone else, but they gave it to Velarde.

Now, Velarde is interesting because because he also scored with the man advantage. They pulled the goalie with four minutes to go. That was a six on five. So all four goals. Were man advantage goals.

Oh, that's crazy. I need you guys in the room when I'm making LFR. But I thought that was interesting because First off, it was smart.

And when they did score, they didn't just pull the goalie again. They left the goalie in for a bit.

One, and Berube and the team's four check kept HelaBuck in the net.

Yeah, I think they left the goalie in for a bit, not any plan. Want to do it? I think they had to because remember, they had the face off in the neutral zone, I think, and then the Jets ended up icing it. Then it goes back down to the other end, and then there's another face off, and then they finally get out and they pull them. It was good defense, by the least, at the end of the game there.

It was. John Tavares completes the hat trick with a backhand from center ice.

I was like, No. Oh, it's going It's John.

Man, he needed a goal. He needed a hat-trick. You got to feel like that felt real good.

We were having the John Tavares conversation. I saw a bunch of comments. I'm glad we're finally having the John Tavares conversation. All right, let's have a conversation. Last year, he didn't hit 30 goals. His save percentage was through the Earth's crust.

Wait, what? Shooting percentage. Shooting percentage.

Yeah. And what I said heading into the season was he will score 30. Guarantee you he will score 30. Yep. Over the past few games, I'm like, whoa. You can't count on shooting percentage regression if you don't earn it at least a little bit. You can't just be like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to fluke into shooting 10 % this year. You can't rely on that. Last night was to a T, him doing all the things that he needs to do to be the best version of John Tavares.

Maybe having better line mates is good for him.

Man, I would have never put him with those two. Putting Tavares with Nylander is something I think throughout the regular season, there's 82 games. It's so many games. You try. It's not something that I thought was the best version of the second line. And Patch ready, no, I wouldn't have put him up there. Has he played top six in a game that counted this year?

No, I think that's the first time this season. It started, at least in the top six.

And there was a game where, I can't remember. They lost, but he had the second best expected goals, but it was still like 0.3 or something terrible like that. He played under 10 minutes in that game. Seeing him slotted into the top six, I'm like, Where is this coming from? And then he has his first, second, and third system of the season. So it's a line I wouldn't have gone to. It's a line I would happily go to again.

Yeah. And I think, what was it? Because we talked about it on Friday, the Lawrence, Tavares, and who was the other person on his wing? Reeves.

Oh wait. No, no, no. Oh, Robertson?

It was Robertson. Robertson, most of the season. Robertson, Tavares, Lawrence line on the Thursday game, it was there. And I believe that line scored a goal. But it's like, those aren't the wingers with JT at this point. He needs a little bit more assistance there and just somebody who's going to play with him. I think Willy was a great match, and Patrick just came to play. It was great stuff.

Mcmahon was probably going a little too much. So on the third line, that might be a better role for him. I like him with Domi. Putting Robertson on that line, I think, makes it a lot of fun. I want to see them try it.

So what would that be?

It'd be all you do is swap out Humberg. It's McMahon, Domi, Robertson. Oh, I like that. Yeah. So you have Domi Domi in between two dudes who can just frigging rip it.

Yeah, I like that. And there's enough size on that line, too. Like, McMahon brings a little bit of size, right? Because Domi is tough, but he's not huge.

And a defensive babysitter.

What's up, Hayden?

I was just going to say I do the stat sheets for the streams, and I was looking at the worst four-line other than a fourth-line has been Robertson, Tavares, and Holmberg with It's like an expected goals per 60, 0.84..

Oh, God.

That adds.

Last night, Patcheready, Tavares, Neylander together. Expected goals per 60, 6.95. Bam.

That's huge. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, a whole- Dude, you've choked.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

Good job.

In just a few days at Burlington City Hall, Hulton Women's Place and over 350 community members will walk for Hope in Every Step, standing in solidarity with Women and Children Overcoming Abuse. This walk is more than just an event. It's a powerful movement of hope, resilience, and support. As they approach the final step, they just need your help with their just giving fundraising goal of $25,000. If you want the link for it, by the way, it's in the description so you can give. Obviously, they would love it. If you walk since 2018, the number of women killed each year in Ontario has gone up by 68%. Your support is more than just a donation. It's a lifeline. We hope that you'll be able to join in making that pledge today, even if he can't be there like we can't. But listen, not everybody can be- It's too far for Steve.

Yeah, it's past- We've been over this time and time again. He doesn't like sitting in his car for very long, and anything in the West End is too far.

Have you ever done any book signings past Young Street?

Yes, I have. My contribution is I'm not going to sneeze during the sad read.

Like last time, yeah.

Now, haltonswomenplace. Com is where you got to go if you want to be a part of it. But like we said, obviously, we have the link in all of our descriptions, be it audio or video. The only women's domestic violence shelter in Hilton region is this one, and it's hope in every step. Check it out. It is notable, by the way, that Choked on a stat. The Leaps did not get any power play goals last night. They had two power plays. The first one looked good. The second one, I don't think, did. They did scramble their lines. That continues to be an issue.

The bad was pretty obvious.

The five on five play is great. You do need to capitalize on a man advantage, though.

I know.

It's a serious problem because not being good on special teams can sink a team. Yes. We saw the penguins who we like going back to about the parts of the team that suck, and one of them was the power play all last season. If you can't get that going, it could become a real issue.

You know what I almost just said? You know what I almost just said? It's a habit. It's a habit you get into. They finally switched up the power play groups, and they didn't score. And I was about to say, But they just got here. They just got here. A guy who did not just get here and is staying here is Jake McCabe.

Five years, 4.7 in actual money, but 4.51 because 200,000 or roughly 200,000 will be deferred each year over this five-year contract that Jake McCabe stays with the Leifs, which prompted our good friend Jonas Siegel to write, Have the Leifs committed too many years to too many old defensemen?

Is it good?

I'm sure it was really well received.

It was not well received, but you know what?

Oh, baby.

Jonas is like, You know what? Screw it. This is how I feel. I like this because it really doesn't matter what five years is. Five years is five years from now. And this deal doesn't even start until Until next year. That's six years from now. I don't care. Right now, you got to win. Right now is the window. Matthews, Marner, Neylander, they're creeping up to their late 20s, early 30s. You got to win now. You got to do it. So what do we think, guys, of the Jake McCabe extension? Now, I know you did a quick video on it, Steve, but I think it's important that we unpack it a little bit here. This guy, since coming to Toronto, has been a factor. It's probably one of the best trades Dubas ever made because of the retained money and the fact that he was able to get a first round pickback for Rasmus Sandine later on. What do we think about Jake McCabe long term in Toronto?

First of all, just Dubas did leave a few pretty good parting gifts.

I have always said this. His best thing was trades. He's a good, really, really good at trades.

Except for country. Yeah, okay.

That was bad.

The McCabe deal ruled. Drafting nice. Thank you. God bless you, Kyle. Thank you for that. It's not a bad cap hit at all. It's really good. I need CJ to come on here and explain deferred money to me like I'm five.

Yeah, because apparently it doesn't count against them.

I don't understand. I just straight up don't understand.

There's like a percentage you can go to.

I don't get it. Yeah, I got to call them. It's 190 grand a year. They're saving, basically, and apparently it just never counts.

Should have done that with every deal.

Why didn't you do that? Yeah, I completely don't understand it. No, this is a very useful player. And he's also barely getting a raise. People forget, at least against the cap. He's a $4 million defenseman. The Leifs are paying him, too, because the Blackhawks retained half for several years. Crazy. The fact that he's been playing this well, and he's barely getting a raise. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Jesse, thoughts?

I'm just reading some of Siegel's thoughts here on McCabe. He was talking about how, Oh, you got to lock him up because these defensemen become He might leave for more money. And he's like, he doesn't find that to be an argument for keeping him. And he's writing that, Defensemen, just like McCabe, tend to become available annually at the trade deadline, like McCabe did for that matter in 2023. Acquiring said defender does mean parting with quality assets. So that's a strike in the favor of a deal like this. So is the price point of free agent defenders in McCabe's ballpark. Montor and Katie Shay each got pricey seven-year deals this past summer. Brett Pesci and Matt Roy got six years a piece at annual numbers higher than what McCabe got from the least. Still, could this deal not have waited until the postseason, until after that is, will he see whether this team can make a run after years of playoff failure until after they see whether this top four on defense is good enough.

I have to say I disagree with that.

He's talking about the group, which is fine. There's enough sample size of Jake McCabe that you know he belongs in the top four of this team, on the left or right. He can move the buck decently enough. He'll kill guys. He'll do whatever for his team. I get the impression he's really liked.

Ryan Reeve said, he might be my favorite defenseman in the league. He does a little bit of everything. He's got great poise with the puck, breaks out well, plays physical, block shots, and even adds a little offense, too.

There you go. So I understand Jonas looking at the whole picture. That does make sense. But to me, it makes more sense to commit money to McCabe than it does to commit to two guys who had not played on your team in Tana ver OEL. I'm not saying he's better than those two.

But you know what you have with him, and here's the thing, guys.

If you're talking about how someone fits into this team, you default to the guy who's played over 100 games with this team.

Jake McCabe fits in with this team. That's right, because you always take a risk. You never know if a defenseman wants to stay or you're going to fit or whatever. Here's the other thing. He signed for He has to spend the last money to stay with the Toronto Maple Heaps.

What a shot.

He's an over 5 million defenseman every day of the week in free agency. In U. F.

Yes. All day? Yes. Maybe six. As a UFA- If the bidding were?

Yes.

As a UFA, depending on the class of the- And it's thin.

It's getting thinner. I think Ekeblad, if he resigns in Florida, that's going to be real thin.

No, 100 %.

I'm going to bring this up to Jonas Eagle. I think I'll probably see him maybe at Morning Skate on Thursday. All I'm a loser. We have a show tomorrow, so I can't go to practice. But Thursday Morning Skate for that Seattle game, I'm going to tell them we brought this up on the show, and Adam and Steve shut down this whole argument.

Yeah, we're like, Hey, Jonas, you've been nothing but great to us. How about we... No, Listen, I think it's okay to have differing opinions on this. Oh, yeah.

I'm kidding.

This is a Brad Treleving special, by the way. Long term, older defenseman.

Man, he loves an old dude. One thing I think is handy is this chart he had on the article in The Athletic. Go subscribe to The Athletic. They always make great content. It's an outline for everybody listening. It's an outline just in chart form of the defensemen that are signed throughout their contract. We got Tanev, Oel, McCabe, Reilly. They're all signed through 2025 through 2027. And then through 2028... Sorry. From 2030, we have Tanev, McCabe, and Reilly all still signed.

He did make a good point about TJ Brody. He's like, The fall-off was huge there, and TJ Brody was 34. Yeah.

In 2030, when you'll have Tanev, McCabe, and Reilly still under contract, Reilly will be 35, McCabe will be 36, and Tanev will be 40 at the end of their deals. And then 2028, when all four guys are still signed, Raleigh's 33, McCabe's OEL is 36, and Tanev is 38. So you're going to have a very old top four going forward for many, many years.

No, I have two counterarguments. One is Raleigh is 24. Get away. He is 24. He has always been 24. He will always be 24. It feels like that.

He has a baby face. Hold on, I want to say something.

Sure.

That graph that you brought up from the athletic is true. But let me If we're talking about the Jake McCabe context outside of the vacuum of just the Jake McCabe contract, in the context of the top four defensemen who are now set in stone, that's pretty much who they're going to be. I don't really mind a 4% cap hit. Assuming there's no work stoppage, by the time we reach 2028, we're looking at a $110 million cap the way things are going. The league revenues are not just going like this. They're going like this. They're going up fast.

Adam's hand changed angles.

It's calculus, baby. So it's a multiple of itself. And I'm looking at this and I'm going, okay, so once we reach 100 million, that cap is 4.5% of the cap. You know what's 4.5% of the cap right now? What? Timothy Lilligran.

Actually?

Just about. And so you look at... It's about three and a half.

I don't like that.

So you look at Jake McCabe's deal as it gets to year four. I'm We're thinking by 2030, it's going to be at least $110 million, assuming no COVID or workshop stoppage, right? Two big assumptions. If you're planning for that to be the case, which is the most likely scenario, I'm not worried about Oliver Ekman-Larson making that because that's what third-pairing defenseman will make at that point. I'm not worried about Jake McKeebe making that because that's what third-pairing defenseman will make at that point. Chris Tanev, I think, is going to retire before this deal ends anyway.

Yeah, let's be honest. Are The guy blocks too many shots when he's 39. Ltir doesn't exist?

Come on.

Right? Well, way more likely LTIR than retirement because it's 35 plus contract.

Yeah, we're saying the same thing.

Yeah. Well, and you guys are forgetting the number one criticism For Jonas. Jonas. Jonas.

Sorry. His name is Jonas, like the song.

It's very confusing, Jonas Egl and Jonas Siegel. Don't kill my vibe. No. I didn't say you were wrong. No. I just don't want to hear that.

Listen, sometimes we don't want the voice, but that's Jonas. And I love that. I'm not trying to bash at all. I think it's more just like, I disagree. I think this is okay. We're not talking about massive crazy amounts of money. And it's not... Morgan Reilly makes what he makes right now because of what he did when he signed the contract, which was 70 points. And he deserves it. And he's looking better. He was a monster in the playoffs against Tampa when they actually won the series. I'm okay with this.

It's just me at the bar in my early 20s. Yeah, I know this is a bad idea.

And isn't it cool that we have-I didn't need you to tell me that.

I'm having a good time.

We have a top four that isn't, oh, man, if all things go right, barely above a replacement level player can play next to Jake Muzzin. That's what we were at.

And it just doesn't feel yet, we may change our mind as the season goes, but it doesn't feel like you're asking any of them to overperform.

No, you spread the work around. Now, worth mentioning today, Jesse, did you The four guys, they eat up about $20 million on the cap, he writes, and I'm like, That's also reasonable.

It's pretty reasonable. What is that? A quarter? Less than a quarter.

If the cap is 100 mil, like you're saying, it will be $20 million for your top four defensemen. I'm like, Oh.

Yeah, that's good. Well, it's 92 and a half already. It goes up another four. We're a year and a half away from basically it being 100 million. So I'm okay with it. Don't kill me. Not bad. Fraser Mitten was activated today, set to the AHL. It's worth noting that the Marlies are second in the AHL, but only because they played one less game than the Wranglers and the Hersey bears. The Marlies have 13 points in seven games, so it's a pretty good competitive environment to step into. Alex Neelander is on an absolute tear. If the Leifs do need some depth scoring at some point, that might be a guy.

You got to sign it through a contract, though. You do. And they're cutting contract. You do.

Would he need entry waivers? If they sign him to an AHL deal?

That's a very good question.

I don't believe so. No. Well, you got to check on that. That's a good question.

Because KHL, I believe you would need to do that. I'm not sure about AHL. I'm trying to think of the last time they signed an AHL midseason.

The entry waivers are always going to have a sore spot in your body for-Hari Satari. Harry Satari.

I will never, ever get over it.

That will always make me laugh because you are the only person, I think, in the universe besides him and his family fighting for this young man and the rest of his NHL career.

He wasn't a young man. No, they torpedoed any chance he ever had of becoming an NHL goalie for a meme.

For just to be like, Do this.

Kiss my ass.

I know in those situations, yes, you'll need reentry waivers, but I don't think the AHL to NHL one should require it. But let's check on that because we could lose Nielander that way.

We could. Sure. Let's check. I don't think it's going to- William, two.

It's a clause. Shut up.

You could. Yeah, Nielander, five goals, two assists in seven games. Not bad. Hooray. Not bad at all. Moving on to other things that happened in the NHL last night. Stephen Stamkos made his return to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hooray.

Hooray. And had a nice little video tribute, and he went and waved to the crowd. I don't know if you guys saw it, but there was somebody in the crowd who was a Lightning fan who wrote My GM Sucks on their T-shirt. So some Lightning fan not happy with it.

Producer nick lost his money.

Why? Oh, because the Lightning have won champions.

Two cups, you spoiled pizza.

It was a great tribute. Stephen Stamkos got his first assist of the season. Very good. Because he's had goals. But I thought it was interesting that the game went to overtime. Nick Paul, who we hate, but we also love. We would love him if he was a leaf. Sure. Scores the goal, but who set him up?

Who did set him up, Adam?

Stamkos' replacement, Jake Hensel. That's tough. You know today Julian Bresuah is feeling himself just a little bit.

You know today, I'm calling it right now, that's the Nashville Predator's YouTube moment. You think so? A hundred 100%. They're about to go on a tear. Watch.

Really? Oh, yeah.

That loss is not going to sit well.

Three, five, and one. It's not been a good start. It's been okay.

They've recovered after a really bad start. They're going to go on a tear.

Watch. I'm ready for that because I had them predicted to be one of the top teams in the division, and they can't let me down like this.

Everyone's mid. There's like, what, three, four really good teams, a few teams just dying. Everyone's just mid. Yeah. Eric Bettman is just loving it.

Jesse, if you were Julian Bresua today, would this be the, I'm right and I'm going to feel good about it all day today?

The game last night? Yes. Julian Bresua, for the reason he is the way he is is because he's ruthless and always thinking about the future. I assume that game last night was sad because Stamkos is back and everything, but he's like, I want a cup this year. I'm not even I'm thinking about today. It's like, how does today impact our Stanley Cup aspirations? And that's how you want every GM to be.

I think it's been almost half a decade since Julian Bresuah cared about a regular season.

Yeah. That's what I'm getting at.

You're telling me that didn't mean anything to him? Because I can't imagine a competitive person being like, oh, who cares? I think he absolutely cares.

His bar is the Stanley Cup. His bar isn't beating Stamkos on a Monday in October. It's, I'm going to raise the cup with Jake Gensel, and Stan Coes has to watch it as the predators lose.

The fan who had that T-shirt, you know what they did when the Lightning won that game in overtime? They cheered. Yep. He's doing his job.

Do I suck, ma'am? In the in the front row. That's what he's thinking about.

I think they cheered. I think it feels good. I think it feels a little good.

I have an answer for Alex Neelander. Reentry waivers from Chris John He just did. Oh. Official answer is no. They just need to sign him, but they need the room to sign him in the CAB space, which they don't have, but no re-entry waivers for Alex Neelander.

I wonder if there's a handshake in there because let's say they had signed him. He would have simply been waived, and there's a really good chance he simply would not be here anymore. They still have a bunch of stuff to figure out, and I think they'll figure it out, and then they'll be like, Oh, there you go.

I also don't think they had the cap space to sign him because patches was the final dollar, right? So even if they wanted to, it would have been a case of like, We can't even fit you here.

One of the huge problems of the Dubas era is they would maximize every little dollar for the beginning of the season, which is great. But then you got to get through the season. Yeah.

And the Leaps-You have to emergency call up a goalie so you can sign Matthew NICE. Yeah.

The Leaps have, at very least, kicked this can down the road. And at the end of the road, you get back three certifiable NHL players. Yeah. That's pretty good. It's going to cost you potentially two certifiable NHL players, but you probably prefer these three.

But yeah, for the idea for November, you're adding Duhre, Jern Croke, and Hock and Po. That's pretty good. You could do worse. And then Minton going down. You'll always have Minton to call up if you need a center. You have to fill on the bottom part of the lineup.

This is his first pro-year, so you got him in three years to do that.

No, he's going back to junior.

You watch.

I don't know. Everyone was like, Steve, and I'm like, I throw myself in the mercy of the court. I thought he was junior eligible.

I want to throw this at you. We've seen teams fall apart. Okay. 4-1, the least safe lead in hockey. Going into the third period with a 4-1 lead, Steve, Jesse, how does it make you feel? 4-1 lead, team you should be going into the third period.

It creates a fight or flight response in me that makes me want to vomit whatever I've eaten that evening.

We've had some bad experiences, Jesse.

Generally, it makes me feel pretty good.

Jesse, you I don't think you feel as sick as Steve and I do because you're not as reactive as we are. Is that fair?

Sure. Are we talking like Bruins leaves?

I'm talking actually- Game seven or are we talking October hockey? Utah, winless San Jose Sharks.

I think that's just hilarious for the Sharks to do it that way.

So with five minutes to go, Utah, which has been struggling and their D-line has been decimated, and I wonder if Timothée Lillegren ends up on it one day. Decimated Blue Line. Sharks have outshot them, but there's a little bit of score effects going on here. And five minutes to go, Fabian Zetterland scores.

Well, good moral victory there.

1528, to be exact. Then with another offensive zone face-off, almost the exact play to a tee happens again 20 seconds Twenty seconds?

That's so few seconds.

That's so few seconds. All of a sudden, it's 4-3 Utah, but it's still 4-3 Utah. They're fine. And then less than a minute and a half later, we're talking less than 90 seconds. Tyler Toffoli is at the side of the net. No. Ties the game. No.

Like his name.

Tied Foley. Oh, my gosh. And then the guy that the New York Rangers traded for last year at the trade deadline, I think, wasn't it? Didn't they trade for Who is the player? And Wendberg. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They did. Good one. Before you get to the OT one, the Tyler Toffoli one is a good goal simulation if we want to bring that up here. Let's see it. Let's see it. Because it happened off of a face-off draw, and you don't always get goals off the face-off draw. So it's fun to see the goal simulation off of a face-off draw. So we get the sharks there winning it back. You see the little battle with the puck here? This is when the ref is... So For everybody listening, everybody's at the face off. All the little circles are lined up like they're taking a drop. Then the puck isn't dropped yet. You see all of the little moving numbers just hover at the face off circle as the ref isn't dropping the puck. Then it goes back and there's a pass to the blue line, a pass to the middle, and then the goal. Then we see everybody come in the corner and celebrate.

I love this celebration at the end. I love that they let it run.

This is one of the best goal simulations I've seen recently.

Jesse, if you bring up either the other two goal simulations, they're almost the exact play, except for 96 to 64 would have been a cross-ice pass and a goal. The Seterland and the Grandland goals are the exact same. They're the exact same. It's crazy. They pulled this play off three times.

You know how I know those two teams are struggling? Look at the frigging numbers on the ice.

Oh, it's a lot of weird high numbers.

Man, there's not a 10 or an 18 inside.

Adam couldn't be more right about This is the previous goal ahead of the one we just watched. It's literally identical.

I think it's all the same players.

It is.

It's the same line out there, except we have new goal scores. Not fully this time.

Over to the defense, then back to the net.

It's a play off of the face off, and this time the defenseman shoots it, and everybody comes over here to celebrate.

And then go to the other one. Go to the other one. Is that Ingram?

39? Or no, that's Vamelka.

Yeah, it's Vamelka. And then bring that off, and then we'll go to the Fabian Zetterlin one, the earlier one. Go to the Fabian Zetterlin one. Yeah, the one-off of the draw here.

We need to stop talking about the NHL site being bad.

No, this is not off.

No, I actually use it a lot, and I really like it.

Yeah, me too. That's great. This is the one before that. We have a new goal scorer. It's fun how they have different goal scores in each one.

96, 64, shot at the net, tip, in.Beautiful.Beautiful stuff.

Yeah, goal, Sele.

The only difference with the third goal, the Toffoli That's easily the best part.

That's easily the best part.

The only difference, though, with the Toffoli.

I want to fight after a goal. So you see them just... These little video game I saw the goal simulation.

Somebody posted on Twitter for when Malkin had his 1,000th point, or 1,500th point. Or 500th goal. 500th goal. I forget. Was it against the leaves? The one he just had the other day, and everybody came off of the ice to celebrate. You see on the goal simulation, the bench clear.

No way.

All the little circles come on and they all go on the ice to celebrate with us.

You know what? Anytime something big happens and it's a bench clearer, we got to go. Yeah, we got to watch the goal simulation.

We got to watch the goal simulation. I got to find it.

If you go and you watch those goal simulations. The only thing San Jose changed from the first goal to the third. First and second is the exact same play. Third goal is they didn't pass it across the blue line to the other defenseman. That's the only thing that changes. It takes Wendberg winning those face Off for that to happen. But man, what a come back. And of course, he scores in overtime, his first goal of the year.

Looks like truth is back on the menu, boys.

Right now. Let's go. The last thing I want to say, because we'll do a press conference tomorrow because we're doing another show tomorrow. Yeah. Sure. Is the PWhL has announced its plans to add two more expansion teams for the '25, '26 season. Pwhl Senior VP of Business Operations, Amy Sheer announced. Haley Salvian had this story. Espnw had this story. We obviously don't know what the teams are, but when the six teams were announced, there were a lot of cities were like, Hey, WTF.

Who are we going?

It looks like two more well. Now, I'm thinking, You have a bunch of people just throwing out city names. The reality of the situation is it's expensive to travel a hockey team, especially in a new league when revenues are not eclipsing expenses. This league did not make money last year. You've got to have something that's somewhat close.

Do we know if it's a Canadian and an American? We do not.

I put money on it's Pittsburgh. They've been asking for the team, and they did a whole feature in the athletic when the season launched. How disappointed they were that they couldn't get a team. Because it's not like a regular, like all the other league where you just buy a team. The league owns all the teams and the owners of the penguins have been doing a lot for women's hockey over the last couple of years, and they were very disappointed that they weren't amongst the team. I I think that's going to be one of the cities.

The reality of it is Canada is big and sparsely populated outside of Southern Ontario. The idea that it's going to be equal Canadian and American teams going forward is just not going to happen. I agree with you on Pittsburgh. I also think it's going to be Detroit. That'll be good. I wondered. Because it makes too much sense. You got Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto within a five, six hour drive. Well, okay, longer than that. But if you take trains, if you take planes, it's real short. And you got to build out from the Northeast as the revenues go up.

And you got to inch out West. And Detroit helps you do that.

Minnesota is your closest thing to inching out West, right?

Yeah, because the market that's really being left hung out to dry here that people often forget about is Calgary. They had the Inferno, and it's crazy they had the inferno because given where all the other teams were, often a frigging Narnia. They'll make their way out there eventually, but not yet.

Yeah. Also Buffalo, if we're going back to that time, Buffalo had the Buffalo Buttes. They're also being left out here. But I think it would make the most sense right now to go Detroit, Pittsburgh.

I think it comes down to this. Pittsburgh is one of the best local hockey markets in the United States, as in local viewership, local participation in the game. Pittsburgh is a sports mad town anyway. And Detroit, it's just obvious why Detroit. It's a bigger city. It's one of the top 10 markets. I believe it's still, well, maybe it's top 12. And there's money there and there's growth there and there's places to play there. I think it makes a ton of sense that it's Detroit. But Buffalo makes sense, too. I just don't know that the same financial top end is available in Buffalo versus Detroit.

And it makes more sense to be on that side of the- Yeah, rather than having to go around the country than to be over on the Buffalo side, just for the logistics of all where the teams are.

Buffalo is interesting because I wondered about Hamilton.

I don't think they're doing another... I mean, if they do, they are renovating Cops Coliseum. Oakview Group is in there right now. Not yet. But not yet. And there's a whole bunch of red tape. Somebody was explaining it to me, actually, at the the the the game, the in-game host. He's a great guy, and he does a great job for the Jenny's. He was saying, Listen, I'm from Hamilton, and it's a pain with Cops Coliseum. I think once they get that done, then it makes sense to put a team in there. But the reason and Lauer moved the team out of there was that they basically said, Yeah, we're going to renovate it, but you can't play here for a year. There's a lot of red tape there. I just don't think that market's ready yet.

I understand. This is good news.

It's great news. Great news. Very, very cool. And hopefully, they launch with names.

They've got time. I think they might have learned that lesson. They've got time.

Pittsburgh would become the Southernmost city in the PWhL.

And Pittsburgh is a five-hour drive from Toronto.

Isn't that crazy?

Here's a map of where the teams are right now. Elite prospects has one. And if Asman is right here, right? It would be the Southernmost city.

Yeah, Detroit would-We also didn't mention-I think Stutt, Minnesota, just fine. They are so far away from the other five.

And if Philly doesn't get one this round, I would think Philadelphia gets one the next one.

Yeah, Philly makes a lot of sense.

It does.

You do got to... So many people live in the Northeast.

Well, yeah.

And as soon As soon as the airlines stop charging insane amounts of money for small trips, then you can expand faster. But it's too expensive.

You know how land doesn't vote? Yeah. Land also doesn't go to hockey games.

Just for the geography of travel, if we go Pittsburgh's about here and Detroit's here, that's perfect. Then you get closer to Minnesota with these teams. You have this little group of circle of teams. I think it just makes perfect sense.

The West is always going to be a little bit more so.

I I also think in a couple of years after that, if they don't do Chicago or Philadelphia, they'll do that in the next round.

I would say Chicago ahead of Philly. I think Chicago would be perfect market for your first expansion, even more west of Minnesota.

And I wouldn't do another team in Southern Ontario until Ottawa and Toronto's revenue stabilize. You got to make sure that they've got a good base of clients and sponsors. And there are people going to those games, and Toronto sold all them out. But Toronto It's going to be in a different arena this year. They're going to be in a bigger arena. That means the costs are up, and that means you got to make sure that you got a good fan base in there, show to advertisers, Hey, this is worth sponsoring, build that client base. I think you're going to go States. You can scale much faster there. And, Hey, listen, we got three teams right off the bat in Canada. Most people would have been like Toronto, Montreal, and that would be it. So we got three. It's not bad. It could be worse.

It could be way worse. Sorry, I was staring at the map there.

My bet is Buffalo gets a team eventually.

Oh, yes, 100 %. Yeah. I wonder if the next two... We're talking about expansion, not this coming round, but the next one, probably before summer time, before 2030. I would imagine that the next round after this one is not two teams. It might be four, right? Because you get only We're going to get our ownership groups together.

Four and two of them are Canadian? No.

No? Four of them are American. No, Steve. There's no... Steve.

Adam hates Canada.

You piece of crap. It's a money thing.

It's completely down to money. You're garbage.

Oh, wow.

It's completely down to- You really don't like this country. I don't know if you know this or not, but there's a lot more money in the States. A lot more, and a lot more people. You're trash. It's crazy. I know. It's crazy. Anyway.

You're going to wear your poppy? Yeah, of course. Okay. Just checking.

Just checking if you're trash.

I I don't know anymore.

Oh, wow. I guess we'll leave it there. Should we leave it there? Let's leave it there. Yeah, we'll do a big show tomorrow. Press conference.

We got to check in with our favorite dealership.

Horsch North Detroit. It's electric. It is. Oh, man. Have they reached out?

No, they haven't sent.

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