Transcript of Cutlery | The Steve Dangle Podcast

All right, Shoeless Joe's next Tuesday, November the 12th. We're going to be there hanging out Queens Key before the game and during the game. So you can hang out for the game with the Toronto Maple Leaves ticket on the Ottawa senators. Ten bucks for their tickets, and you can get the URL eventbrite, basically, wherever you listen. So it's on YouTube, it's on Apple. It's on Spotify. Just click the link, buy the ticket, be there. Already a lot of tickets sold, which has been great. We're going to be doing a live show beforehand, just so you know. You're not just coming to hang out. We're going to put on a show for you.

Unless you show up late, then I suppose you are. But you should show up for the show.

Yeah. And Steve's going to bring books.

Yeah.

Steve's not going to bring books.

Yeah, we don't know that yet.

But if you bring books, Steve will sign them.

There you go.

I'm going to need that. I do like it, by the way, when people say, Hey, why don't you sign Steve's book? And I'm like, I also worked. You did the forward. I did the forward, but that's a few pages. The amount of work that goes into a book, I almost feel bad. Every time Jessie and I sign a book, I'm like, I feel a little bad about this.

No, but you signing it at least makes sense because you wrote a piece of it. I did nothing to contribute to the book. It's not my- You're in it.

Except for being his support system.

I'm not in the book part at all. I'm in the thank you Yeah. I'm not in it. At least in your first book, I'm in it, the book part because you talk about the show and that stuff. But this one, I'm just signing it because it's SDPN adjacent.

I don't know. I signed leaf jerseys. I signed a baby in London.

That's wild. We signed-I had nothing to do with these jerseys pretty often.

Yeah. I'm always shocked with that. I think the one that shocked me the most was the Joe Thornton leaves Jersey be signed in St. Catherine's.

That was a fun one.

There's somebody with a Joe Thornton leaves Jersey. Somebody who's having-No, that was in Oshua. Oh, was that in Oshua?

Or it could have been both. Leaps fans are freaking weird, man.

Yeah, they are. It's crazy. Now, listen, I wanted to kick off today's show with some good news. No. Some exciting news. And really, For me, something that is nice because Quinn Hughes became the third fastest defenseman ever to 300 assists. That's wild. And I just think that's pretty crazy, right?

Yes.

And I'm bringing up all time scoring leaders, defensemen. Okay?

We're starting to see it more and more because scoring is up compared to where it was, I don't know, 5, 10, 15 years ago. So many of the records are... I mean, it's nearly... The scoring record books are very heavily catered towards dudes who played in the '80s and early '90s. So it's nice that some of those records are... I He didn't break a record. He's third. But he's in the conversation. Yes. It feels like we went through a very big swath of hockey history without anyone ever becoming close.

Now, 300 assists is not even enough to put you in the top 100 secret. So there's still a significant amount of time to go.

Yeah, that makes sense. He just started.

Yeah, but I think it's an incredible achievement. Sorry, that's points. What am I saying? Adam.

What?

One hockey with all these things. It's still not enough to put you in the top 100. But I'm looking at him. He and Justin Falk, who also just passed the mark. See, Quinn Hughes did it in 367 games. Justin Falk, for anybody paying attention, did it in 915 games.

And he's a pretty decent offensive defenseman. He's had a very good career.

Another defenseman that you would know that would be on this list that's still playing, a couple of them, Ryan McDonald, 941 games he's played. He's got 317 assists. Seth Jones is He's played 811. I'm just trying to... Nick Letty, 1,015 games, 338 assists. So you're talking about... And here's a guy who was known for some scoring for a while. Jeff Petrie doesn't even have 300 in 946 games. He has 200 83. So that gives you some context about how incredible this is.

Yes. No, Quinn Hughes is... I mean, it's an embarrassment of riches across the board. A lot of guys haven't done the best Recently, obviously, McDavid's had a struggle to start the season.

Matthew's. Oh, he's doing okay.

He is doing okay.

We're glad I have him on my fantasy.

To have Quinn Hughes and Cal McCar in the League at the same time, rules.

And Adam Fox.

Rules and Adam Fox. The fact that Adam Fox is like, we look at him and we're like, That's a Bronze medal.

Maybe he doesn't win a Norris again. He might not. He might not.

He might not. You know how many guys went through the '80s and '90s that maybe could have? It's It's part of the reason why the Hall of Fame discussion with some guys is so difficult, and it feels unfair. Okay, you never even won a league MVP or a scoring title. Right. Unfortunately, it says here his career span from 1979 to 1999. So good luck with that. That's Gretzky's entire career, the prime of Lemieux, the prime of Jogger, most of the prime of Jogger. And even that trickled it. What was the record? For 20 years or something like that, the scoring title was held by three different men. Yeah. That's it? Yeah. I know that's not defense, but I don't like records or conversations that last forever. There needs to be a chase.

Oh, it's way more exciting watching Ovi chase Gretsky than saying, Can't be beat. And that's what we said for a long time.

Stop watching hockey. Yeah. It's done now. It'll never be better.

To be fair to those people that said it, though, during the Trap era, it seemed impossible.

It seemed completely... Yeah. Jamie Ben, that wasn't even the Trap era, led the league with 86 points.

That's boring. That sucks.

It's boring and sucks and boo. Yeah. No, it was crap. Yeah.

Did you have the guys who got 300 assists faster than him?

I do not have that.

It's got to be Bobby Orr.

Steve, you want to play? I don't even know how to look that up. Both of you can play guessing games with that one. So Bobby Orr, free space, correct. Fastest to 300 assists.

I'm going to say... So how many... He's the third one, so there's two.

Third fastest, yeah. Only two men ever have got 300 assists. For me, it's either Paul Koffie or Larry Murphy.

But I'll go with Paul Koffie because the oilers were bonzo.

Ray Bork.

Adam was close. Koffie's in fourth place. Okay.

He's faster than Paul Koffie's wild.

That is crazy.

Hold on, let me make sure that- Because Paul Koffie didn't really play defense.

He was mostly a fourth forward. That was the criticism of his whole career.

Second fastest defenseman ever to 300 career assists, Brian Leach. Damn, wow. Who did it in 368 games. Brian Leach rules. Bobby Orr did it in 346 and Quin Hughes 376. He beat Paul Koffie by one game who did it in 377 games.

Fork not being there at all is crazy.

Brian Leach, favorite non-leaps defenseman until he was I believe. Always loved him. I wish we got that extra season out of him.

That's a huge what-if. To even be that close to Bobby Ork.

Yeah. No, he's not.

He's been missing by 30 games.

He's not crazy. No, it's in theory... Okay, so here's a question. Is Kael Mekar on pace to be better than this, faster than this?

Because I feel like they're roughly-He's played 328, and he only has 268 assists, so no.

Wow. Yeah, that doesn't match.

Unless He obviously gets 40 assists in the next 10 games, which is possible.

I don't know if you've seen his numbers.

I have him on my fantasy team. Oh, you're a lucky bastard.I got him on both of them in the first round. He's so good. Yeah.

You know, he's going to be up there. He's going to be up there.Yeah, which isn't insignificant. He's going to be one of the fastest.

He has goal numbers must be higher.

He has 18 assists in 13 games just this year alone.

Yeah, Mekar last year had 21 goals. He doesn't have those goal numbers. No. He had 17 Last year, actually. Which is actually extremely good. It's actually only four off. He does have those goal numbers.

To have two of them is crazy. Then also Adam Fox. Dude, there's a bunch of really good players. There's a lot to complain about with the NHL. We talk about it all the time. In terms of talent, it's an embarrassment of riches today, and it's never been better.

Sorry, go ahead, Justin.

No, I forgot Kael Mccar's '21, '22 season. He almost scored 30 goals. He hit 28. I completely forgot that was the thing that happened.

John Carlson, the only one to hit 30 in the modern era.

I don't know if John Carlson ever hit 30. It was Mike Green and Sheldon Sourya.

Was Mike Green. That's who it was. Mike Green. I always think Washington defenseman.

That's one of the... Remember bloggy Salming? Yeah. Bloggy Salming and Down Goes Brown, when they made videos together, and he did the Team Canada Disrap for the Vancouver Olympics. And he's like, Wait, Mike Green is not on this team? Holy fuck, we're staffed. Mike Green with 30 goals goals didn't make Team Canada.

Oh, yeah. There's only been 17 defensemen all time that have scored 30 goals in a season.

Mike Green is- Eighteen of them are Bobby Orr.

Sorry. It's 17 30 goal seasons by a defenseman, not all time.

Yes. Can we go? Okay. So obviously, can we go through some of this? Bobby Orr. Yep.

How many? Paul Koffie has the record. He has most goals in the season. He had five, didn't he? He had 48 goals in one season. Yeah. So he did 30 goals. One, two, three.

That's Bia Pro. He's not back checking for nobody.

That might be a tough one to beat.

Three times.

Three times. Bobby Orr, how many, Jesse?

Bobby Orr is on this list. He's in the top 17. One, two, three, four, five, five times. I mean, 29 goal season.

Bork has to be in there.

Ray Bork is... Nope.

What? What about Lawrence Murphy? Larry Murphy? Nope.

Wow.

Larry was a big-time scorer. That's crazy.

Ray Bork, I found him. 31 goal season, 15. There you go. In the '83, '84 season, scored 31 goals. There you go.

And Boston were pretty bad at that point.

Do you want the other names?

Yeah.

Doug Wilson in '81, '82, scored 39 goals. That's a fun Trivia effect. Randy Carlyle? Randy Carlyle, not on the list. Kevin Hatcher is in eighth. He has the eighth high scoring goal season for my defenseman. Mike Green is tied for 11th at 31. Dennis Potvin, 31. Phil Housley, 31. And then we got the repeat names, Bork, coffee, Potvin, Bork. Phil Housley, leaf. Wow. Yeah. So, Matty, if you want to bring that up now that we did the trivia. That's, yeah. Top most goals by a defenseman in the season all time.

Damn.

Great list. Kael McCar, right there at 28. Brent Burns had a 29 goal season. Kael McCart had a 28 goal season. Right.

Al McEnnis got so close.

Yeah, look at these 29s. That sucks.

Yeah, that does suck.

I would be so mad.

Look at Paul Koffie. He's got three that are just sitting on the outside looking in.

At the end of last season, I was so adamant that 70 mattered. Austin ending at 69 is like, It's really cool. It's a great accomplishment. But that round number of 70 meant something. Yeah, it does matter. Because when you look at the history books and you go back and We cut it off at 30. Well, go look at it.

Go look at it for just everybody. How many players have ever had a 70 goal?

Sure. Yeah, let's do that by-There's probably been 12 Ever?

There can't be very many.

14. 14? We're very close.

There you go.

Yeah. And Austin's right here at 18th. 18. Most goals in the season.

Look at how many guys had 69.

That round number matters. I'm sorry. It does.

Lemu 92, 93 is arguably the greatest season any player has ever had. In 60 games, he had 69 goals and 160 points. He was on pace that season if he had played a full season to beat Gretzky's goals and points record.

On that list is Alexander McGillney at number 5, 76 goals in 77 games for the 92, 93 Buffalo Sabers, which brings to an interesting thing. That's stupid. That's such a stupid amount. It's crazy. It's crazy. And it's crazy because the season before, Brett Hall had done '86 in '78. But what I want to highlight about Alexander McGillney is that guy, as far as hockey terms go, he's one of the most interesting stories in NHL history. He defected from the Soviet Union. He was one of the first players to say, Fuck off. I'm not paying you my... The Soviet Union used to let you go, but you had to pay 50% of your income to the Soviet Union. And he told them to fly a kite. And so he just left and said no and was open about how much he hated the Soviet Union. And that was scary at that point, right? That was still... The tensions were thawing, but it wasn't great. And this is pre-Berlin Wall coming down, whatever. And he's got guys in the league like Fatisov and whatever who are committed Soviet Union, going to spend the money or going to send it back to the homeland, that thing.

And he goes and he does this in Buffalo, and then he goes to Vancouver, almost wins a cup with Pavel Burry. They were spectacular together. Comes to Toronto, gets to the conference finals, goes to New Jersey. I think he- He has at least one cup. He's got at least one cup, and I think it was with Jersey.

It was definitely Wasn't Toronto.

And this guy-It wasn't Buffalo or Vancouver either. This guy is not in the Hall of Fame. He is the best player for my money that isn't in the Hall of Fame. And probably There is some political reason why, and I actually don't know. I don't think it has to do with Russian relations because Daxuit's going in this year. I think this is someone in there doesn't like him.

I've heard whispers of political stuff with Pat Burns, for example. That's why it took him so long. Well, he died.

Yeah. And then he got in.

He was going into the Hall of Fame. He was always going into the Hall of Fame. He could have gone into the Hall of Fame while he was alive, and they wouldn't let him.

And they knew he was dying. They knew he was dying.

They knew. They knew they They had a choice, and they have to live with that. And they didn't put him in.

As far as players going in this year, with respect to Jeremy Ronick and the career he had, Jeremy Ronick didn't have a career that comes anywhere close to Alexander McGillie. Datsun and Webber, I won't include the builders. I won't include women's hockey because they're just different categories. But Datsun and Webber deserve to go in. But if we're comparing each year, there's always a guy where I'm like, Yeah, I know that Pierre Turgeon should go in, but McGilny scored more and has more cups.

With Ronick, I'm willing to grade on a curve because he's one of the greatest American players ever.

A thousand %.

Yeah. And I know that until recently, the Americans probably have the best program in the world right now. A lot of Canadians don't want to talk about that.

Oh, man. Four Nation Face Off. We're getting our asses handed to us right now. They're easily the favorite. Hockey Canada, One day we'll actually get into it, we'll bring Sean Fitzgerald back. Hockey Canada needs not just a reboot upstairs, but the way we train players and that thing, we're getting left behind.

Oh, yeah, 100 %. But you see stuff like, oh, yeah. We get to see it up front with Matthews because every point he gets because he racks up so much, he moves up the rank of American scores, American goal scores. And you start to realize that the American recordbook is just not all that rich. It's getting there, it's building. But Jeremy Ronick's top five in a lot of categories. For me, I understand the grading on a curve there. However, Turjan last year, we already did that. We don't have to dig that up again. Ronick, Shay Webber is still actively under contract. I know he's never going to play again. Okay, why isn't price in? Mcgilney should be in the Hall of Fame.Easily.Easily. There's no There are several players. A lot of people, Theron Fleury is a fascinating argument. I wrote an article about him when I was with Sportsnet. Is this one of the free spaces that I bring up all the time? I can't remember. But I know what he's like on Twitter. Okay, I get it. I know the stains on his legacy. I'm eronic. No, I'm talking about Flurry. Oh, you're talking about Theo.

Okay. But It's about other guys who deserve to be in.

But also, if we're going to mention the stains, we need to mention what the man went through as well.

Yes, 100 %. And if you just... It's not the Hockey Hall of Good Guys.

It's also not the Hockey Hall of your opinion on It's what you did on the ice.

It is not the Hockey Hall of Good Guys. There are many people who, if we dug deep enough, they'd tear the four walls of that building down, let alone remove them from the place. But Theo Fleury, the Olympic gold medals, the Cups, just the points, the resume, there are several players who should be in that aren't.

If you just put McGinley and Ronick's career side by side, if the points are equal, if McGinley is at the 300 extra games that Ronick played, and you look at the individual trophies that both of them accomplish, that McGinley has the one up because he has a Lady Bing and Ronick doesn't have that. And their peaks of their careers in terms of their greatest seasons individually, McGinley gets that leg up because of the goal scoring. And I don't understand how you compare these players and one's in and one's not.

I think worst case for JR, not for JR, or worst case for McGillney, their peers.

Yeah, exactly. Here's why I think, and people are going to yell at me and go, Well, JR had more points. Well, JR played 1,363 games, 1,216 points. That is crazy. That's a crazy amount of points, especially in the deadpuck era. This guy played through that. He played through the late '80s, early '90s, and then into the deadpuck era.

His prime was deadpuck. That does matter.

It does matter.

That's what I'm saying about the 300 extra games that he plays. The numbers are the points per game by McGinley is more impressive.

That's my point.

That was the knock on Dave Anderchuk.

What I want to say here, 990 games, 1,032 points for McGilney. Ronick had 1,300 games He's got 1,200 points. I'm sorry. They're not the same. They're not the same.

I keep coming back to this, and we know why his career was cut short. Paul Correa.

Oh, I know. Yeah, Paul just might not show up, though. He still seems pretty ticked with the NHL. No, he's in. Oh, he's in? Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Because there was that whole thing about him walking away.

If I remember, well, he had horrible concussions and everything, but I think it was 989 points in 989.

But did you see the documentary they did on TSN about him? How pissed he was with the NHL about how they handled concussions?

He should have been. He should have been. Well, maybe that leads into another person who is getting into the Hall of Fame.

I bring up the Hall of Fame because I want to bring up the builder's category.

David Poil- And it's Hall of Fame Weekend.

Hall of Fame Weekend, yeah. David Poeyle, who built the now legendary Nashville Predators from literally, Brick One, until a couple of seasons ago, is going in, and that's well deserved. I don't think anything's going to argue that. The other builder that's going in is Colin Campbell. And nobody who you talk to can understand why. And when I mean who you talk to, I'm talking about people in the game. Colin Campbell did play for the Vancouver Knucks. He played for the Oilers. Yeah, was he good? Yeah, he played for the Pens. No, he wasn't particularly good. He was a junior player with the Pete's, that thing.

He's not going in as a player?

No. No, he's going in as a builder. Yeah.

His playing resume is immaterial to the conversation.

He was in the show. Yeah, 100%. It literally does not matter for the conversation.

He coached the Rangers for three and a half years until he was fired in '97, '98. Got as far as the conference finals against Philly. I think that was Gretsky's first year with the Rangers, and then moved over to Senior VP, Director of Hockey Ops, taking over from Brian Burke, who I believe went to Vancouver at that point.

Even his coaching resume, I think, is immaterial.

He only coached 269 games.

Yeah, it's immaterial.

Yeah. His NHL, he played 636 games. So he's not going in as a coach. He's not going in as a player. He's going in as a builder. And where I try to be fair with things because I understand running a multi-billion dollar business has issues. So you're going to have moments where things don't look the best, people don't look the best, someone does something out of your control under your watch. But as a leader, it's your job to handle it properly. And the NHL, as we know for many, many years, was able to get away with a lot because a lot of the journalism surrounding it required access. And if you went against the NHL, you lost access. And that's no longer the case, which is a good thing. You look at a guy like Rick Westhead or Katie Strang. Colin Campbell, for me-Oh, they love them. Oh, I love them. Colin Campbell, for me, is a guy that is there because he says yes.

Multiple people that I spoke to over the last few days preparing for this without speaking to each other said yes, man. Multiple times, the term kiss the ring was used, and he'll be kissing his ring today, this week as he gets his Hall of Fame ring. It's a disgrace. The word henchmen kept getting used. I mean, does being the henchmen for the guy in charge who is already in the Hall of Fame, does that get you into the Hall of Fame? Apparently, the The answer is yes. In court documents, complaining about the officiating of your son's hockey game.

Your son, who's now the assistant GM in Florida.

Who is still working for them in a scout, and his name is on the cup now twice, two different teams, once as a player and once as an exec. He talked to the head of officiating in the NHL about the way his games were handled. Mark Savard gets a concussion from a hit from Matt Cooke. There is no suspension on the play whatsoever. In the emails that came out in court documents, Colin Campbell appears to have a personal, at worst, personal vendetta against Mark Savard, and I think at best, personal bias against Mark Savard. If you want a clip to listen to that's not this show, Aaron Ward, I think he played roughly a thousand games in the NHL, former fifth overall pick. This dude went off.

On Mitch Melnick's show on TSN Montreal.

Yeah, on 960? Yeah. On Colin Campbell. Called him a henchmen, called him Kiss the Ring, all the stuff I just said. And he's got his own beefs with him. There was a sucker punch from Scott Walker in a playoff game that went suspended. And you can tell from the clip hearing Aaron Ward that he's highly suspicious of the reasons for that. And there was another incident that I believe was in the emails where Donald Berchier punched Ward right in the In the face, again, nothing happened. And Colin Campbell was quoted as, I'm paraphrasing, the little punk deserve to get punched in the face.

Well, and here's where it became interesting because you're talking about emails that were sent. Colin Campbell Campbell called Mark Savard a little fake artist in these emails that were dropped. He also, as you mentioned, Gregory Campbell, his son, took a high-sticking minor on Savard, and Colin Campbell sent emails to the Director of Officiating at the time, Stephen Walkam, complaining about the work of his referees who gave Gregory Campbell the penalty, and it resulted in a game-tying goal. And Colin Campbell only stepped aside for Brandon Chanahan as head of player for safety, just before his son began playing in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, Bruins versus Knux. And that was right when these emails all came out. So they had to move him aside because it was so bad and his son was about to play in the finals, and they were a vicious Stanley Cup finals.

And the Vancouver Knux received a suspension in that series that I believe was a record that still hasn't been broken. Which is what? Aaron Rome was suspended four games for his Nathan Horton. Now, horrible fucking hit, but it does bear repeating that it's a record. It's never been broken.

During the voting for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, you guys will remember if you've listened to this show, John Scott was leading all fan voting as captain of the Pacific division. In his piece for the Players Tribune, John Scott revealed that one NHL executive attempted to shame him out of competing, asking how his children might feel about his participation. We talked about this in the VIP episode that's going to come out. Imagine invoking someone's kids. It was revealed months later.

I hope it was over the phone.

It was revealed many months later in a Twitter tirade from Steve Downey that Colin Campbell was that executive. He is still Director of Hockey Ops at the NHL. I think it's particularly important because, listen, Gary Bettman, every time he steps on the ice to hand over a trophy, people boo him. And there are plenty of reasons to boo Gary Bettman. That's the commissioners' job. Your His job is to have tomatoes thrown at you on behalf of the owners. And guess what? Your paycheck is like $10 million a year. For 10 sheets, you can throw as many tomatoes as you want.

When did he get a contract extension?

He got it during the Kyle Beach saga fiasco, whatever word you want to use for that absolute mess.

That's a peculiar time to get one. Anyway, continue.

And what I think will be interesting this week, and what will be sad is that Gary will be probably out on the ice presenting these players and these people, and they'll introduce each of them in front of Leath Faithful, right? Because it always happens in Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame here. The guy who deserves the booze this weekend is Cole.

Oh, yeah. I'm sure that'll go great for the Leath.

I don't know if enough people realize that, and I think it's worth talking about.

This dude who has a documented history of carrying vendettas. Yeah, let's definitely have 20,000 people boo him. Go for it. Fuck him. He shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. If he's going in as a builder, it's a poor foundation, and it's going to fall down if you look at his legacy.

Aaron Ward made a really good point, too, in that Mitch Melnick interview. He said no multibillion dollar company would have a guy like Colin Campbell at the top of it, except for the NHL. Do you think he likes him? I think he doesn't like him. I'm only quoting Aaron because the other people I talked to requested not to go on the record because this man holds a significant amount of power within the league. Aaron was willing to come out and say it, but I want you to know that a lot of people feel this way. Oh, yeah. And that they are not happy about this guy going in. The last time. And that they think it's a shame. I had one person say to me, I hope that one day all the stuff about him actually comes out so they can kick him out of the Hall of Fame.

Dude, the stuff that has come out about him should be enough to kick him out of the Hall of Fame. It wasn't even enough for him to get fired. What's going to have to come out about him to get him kicked out of the Hall of Fame? He doesn't belong in there. It's a disgrace. It's a complete disgrace. The last time we did this rant, several people from around the NHL reached out to me and gave me a digital high five. I couldn't find anyone to say a good word about him, except That's hard. In the press release.

Usually, you can get somebody to say something good about anybody.

I'm a loudmouth who talks about hockey on the internet. There's no shortage of people willing to tell me to fuck off, and no one did it.

The one thing that I don't think is being talked about enough about why he's in the Hockey Hall of Fame is that from 2005 to 2019, I believe, whatever that 15-year span is, he was a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee. So he spent the longest term It's possible. There's 18 people who come together each year and they decide who's going to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a member of that committee for the maximum term of 15 years. That was throughout this previous tenure, just before COVID, that ends, and then now post that, they decide to elect him to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It feels to me very transparent that, Oh, yeah, this guy was with these people in the same room for nearly two decades, and now they're choosing to elect him to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It seems very transparent.

Jesse, when did you say he was in the induction community?

From, I believe, 2005 to 2019.

Let me double check. Okay, so he would have been one of the guys that voted Gary in in 2018. Oh, that's nice.

Isn't that nice?

Listen, you can hate the Gary's in. I would argue Gary deserves to be in. I don't think there's an argument against I do think there's a problem when you're voting the current Commissioner in. I think you got to wait till he's retired because players have to wait till they're retired.

When the fuck's that?

Well, exactly. So why do we have to wait for Jogger to officially retire for him to go in?

Jogger is not in the Hall of Fame.

But not full of Campbell, but not Gary Bettman. Jogger is not in the Hall of Fame.

Webber is.

I don't think it makes sense if you're active in your role as the builder, just be in the Hall of Fame. It's a joke.

That is a joke. The reason that they normally don't do that is they want to see your career as a whole. Also, don't put him in. He might fuck something up. If he's still acting, he might fuck something up and make us look bad. Don't worry. These guys can. They've done it before. I just look at this and I think, okay- Well, you got to get people into the Hall of Fame while they're still alive.

I think that's really important for them to enjoy that moment.

Fucking asshole. Do you guys see how you're trying to... You can't find anybody to a good word about him, but he sat with 17 other people for nearly two decades, and all those people are probably like, Yeah, we got to do Cole in this favor and put him in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I can absolutely see that's how it works.

I think that's how it works, and it's really scummy because his merit isn't there to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he's buddies with people, and they're giving him that favor.

Because he would be the only buddy that didn't make it in if it wasn't for that, right?

No. If you look at the list of people, they're all Hall of Famers. They're like, Okay, you've done this work for the hall itself for this long time. We're going to do you this giant favor and put you in. So now you are one of us. Even though your resume doesn't support that.

There's community ranked custodians that deserve to be in the Hall of Fame before Cole and Campbell.

But did that custodian sit with those people and rub elbows and know all of them? No.

Fewer people have done more damage to Hockey than Cole and Campbell.

Yeah, I think that there's... I think you're right, Jesse. I think that there's a Instantly, when you were like, Yeah, there's a bunch of people that had to sit with him, I'm like, Probably against their will. It's like, How many guns did he have in the room? You know what I mean? I just feel like there are very few people that I want to go this far with. But the reason that we go this far with this person is this person does not deserve it. We could sit here and cry about it, and he's going to go in, and he's going to get his ring, and he doesn't give a shit what we I think. But I got to tell you, this person is a gou, as far as I'm concerned, in my opinion. This person is... I could see Gary going in. I could see Bill Daly going in. I could see all the other guys, people that are maybe not liked. We're not He is not that guy. He never reached that level of success with anything.

We're not unreasonable people. Do I like the job Gary Bettman has done? No, not at all. He's been the Commissioner for 30 years.

And has built an extraordinarily profitable league. Sure. Sure.

I'll give him that. I guess the argument would be, you need henchmen to help you accomplish that. So good for Poland.

But the thing about henchmen is, henchmen are usually not honored at the highest level. Whenever you see a James Bond movie, you don't see odd job going, yes, I also want to take over the world. He's just the henchmen. It's not odd jobs. Like, no, I want to do a power sharing oligopoly agreement here. No, it's a freaking It's the bad guy, and he's the king, and Gary's the king here. And for some people, he's a bad guy. For some people, he's a good guy. But he's Gary. You're telling me the guy that carries out the dirty business?

And I think- The NHL is run and has been run for three decades by 15 people. Zero hyperbole. Between the owners of the most important group, and Gary, and Bill Daly, 15 might be too high.

Yeah. So we'll leave it there. I don't want to belabor the point. You know how we feel about it. Don't think it belongs in there. I think it's a disservice to a guy like David Poil. But to Natalie Darwitz, David Poil, Pavel Datsuk, Shay Webber, Chrissy Wendell, and Jeremy Roni, congratulations. Well deserved. To Colin Campbell, we all know why you're there. You know why you're there. I hope it's as empty as it feels for the rest of us.

Steve, are you doing any book signings in Tiltonberg?

Colin Campbell's house? Oh, sorry.

Tiltonberg? Yeah, Tiltonberg, Ontario. It's a town in Oxford County.

Oxford County.

I've been to Tiltonberg.

Why don't I know about Tiltonberg? Why do I know about Tylsonberg? Why do I know about...

It's southeast of London.

Oh, that's why.

Have I been to a wedding there? It's west of the street, though. Why? I don't think so.

I freaking drove to and from London the other day. Why?

They redamed a rink there, the Cole Campbell Community Rink. Jesus. Arena.

I'm so sorry.

That thing is going to sink into the Earth like the Tower of Peas. Are you going to pay a visit to the Colin Campbell Community Arena? Yeah. After about three coffees.

In Thilsonburg? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just checking if you're going to have your book signing there.

Also, could I just throw something out there? It's fucking Colin.

Adam.

Colin's apt, but- Colin's a name. It's apt, but it's Colin.

Stop. No.

You're trying to be difficult. I'd spell it difficult. Sorry, that was a cheap shot.

It is a cheap shot.

Whatever, though. I don't give a shit.

Oh, well, get mad about it and I'll accuse you of faking it. Fuck you.

There we go. So listen, I wanted to start with good, and then we went to sad and negative. I don't love that, that that's the focal point of the Hall of Fame weekend, but it doesn't have to be. Let's talk about how great Datsun is. Let's talk about how great these women hockey players are, how great David Poeyle was. They're such incredible names going in this year, and we shouldn't get that lost in there, although McGillney deserves it. But what I really want to do right now is bring it to the Super Happy, because we have a special guest coming on.

Her name. Before we do that, can I bring it back to Quinn Hughes? Oh, yeah. Because I did a thing on Quin Hughes's 298th assist. Oh, do it.

I love that you're doing this.

Just to tie that in. I just wanted to let people know that this thing exists. So on the Sdpn YouTube channel, I started doing these breakdowns of the goal.

No, no, no, you haven't. What are they called?

Nhl Edge, Blake down. Yeah. I was just playing without the volume. I did one on Brock Messer's power play goal the other night, but it was on a Quinn Hughes assist, which I highlighted. Go check that out on the Sdpn YouTube channel.

I love that you're doing that. Yeah, they're fun. They are fun to watch. Okay, can I tell you the great guests now? Am I allowed to do that?

I don't know, Adam. Do we have the means to bring on a great guest?

We have the What do you mean?

Do we have the right cups? Do we have the right plates? Do we have the right cutlery?

He's trying to... Okay, so listen, this is what I need you to do. This is what I need you to do. Hold that camera, Maddie, where it is. She is a longtime friend of the show. Maddie, you weren't supposed to go to him yet. That's why I said, Hold that camera where it is. For God's sakes, Natalie Spooner joins us on the SDP.

It's not really a secret when It's like the show. This isn't live.

Yeah, well, I don't care.

I wanted to build it up. It's in the description. Let me have my moment.

All of you guys.

In the thumbnail.

All of you.

In the timestamps. It's not... This isn't live.

Anyway, the new Scepter's jersey's out. Natalie's coming in to talk about it. Get ready for Puck Drop with BetMGM, the official sports betting partner of the NHL.

Does BetMGM fake Puck drop it?

No, they're not aligned. No.

Or are they actually just dropping the Puck?

No, they actually follow through on what they say that they're going to do, unlike NHL linesmen.

Adam. What? How dare you? What? I want to be able to bet on an over-under for players kicked out of the face. You know what?

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Do better next week.

Man, on Tylenol daytime colds, man. It's killing me. Welcoming on from the Toronto Scepters, long-time friend of the show, it's Natalie Sfuda. Look at this costume change that we just did, by the way. I know. It's crazy. We can be a band. Yeah. So Natalie, first off, last year, we found out, obviously, we weren't going to have names ready in time. So you guys had your just the city name jerseys. And I think those They're probably going to be collectible now, like their collector's items. But as of today at shop. Pwhl. Com, we can buy these and we can pre-order your jersey. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.

I mean, it's historic to think where we came from and now to have a team identity and for it to be launched and everyone to be able to get their hands on these jerseys, I think, will be amazing. And as a player, to be able to look out in the stands and see everyone wearing your jerseys. Last season was pretty cool, even just with the Toronto jersey. But now to have Toronto Scepters and it to become an iconic brand in Toronto is the most exciting part.

How close did you get to having a team name last year? Because I know it was just Toronto PwHL, but you had to obviously make some concessions because there was a lot of time.

I don't know if we were close at all. I mean, we just accepted Toronto PwHL, PwHL Toronto. Yeah, we just went with it. I'm not sure if there even was talked about that. The league came together so fast, really, if we look back. The success that we had was amazing for how fast it came together and everything we were able to do from breaking record after record after record. It's like, now, where do we go from there? How do we break another record?

Yeah, and I don't think not having the team names hurt the team at all, because I was down there at Matt and me, I was down there at Coca-Cola, and you see the atmosphere and how much people cared about this team. Having the team name, it didn't really matter. No. I know.

People embraced us and loved us and cheered us on. You know what? Maybe it even helped just getting the PWHL out there for year one to have that recognition of what's the eagres.

Yeah, it's good branding, right? Yeah. I want to say you guys broke an attendance record that has since been broken because Montreal has more seats than we do at Scotiabank. But I want to know what it was like being on the ice for that game, because I'll tell you, Chris Johnson, who works at this network, said it was the best atmosphere for hockey in Toronto he'd ever seen. And he's been to every game you can imagine.

Our fans are loud. Yeah. I think that that was the biggest thing is you notice how everyone is so into the game, no matter where they were seated. Everyone, it felt like they were on top of you. And I mean, the same when When we went to Montreal, that was very loud in there. I was like, this is probably not to code. I think people are blowing out their eardrums. Maybe they need to tone it down a little. But yeah, it was crazy. I think it just It was that we have such great fans that are so want to be involved, want to cheer us on and help grow our game.

Yeah, it's interesting because I say long-time friend of the show. We've known you since you were in several To see the progression of women's hockey in that time. We did an outdoor road hockey game with you, I think, eight years ago. To have imagined this, I think, for all of us would have been the best case scenario. How does it feel to finally be here?

Yeah, it's a dream come true. I feel lucky that it's in my time of still playing. I think it's something that we fought for so long.

Dominating, sorry. Not just playing, dominating. We were a killer last year.

It's something that we fought for for so long and wanted. Obviously, taking those years off was tough, not knowing what the outcome was going to be. But it really made it all worth it to know that this is something that now we've built and it's sustainable and it's going to be around. All those little It's like, your daughter will be able to play professional hockey if she wants and have a full-time career as an athlete and as a hockey player.

I think she'll be more into the interpretive dance side of hockey. She's just a little bit dramatic, but right now- I took dance as a kid, too. Listen, I'm taking her to work on a game this year.

I assume dancing helps with the hockey.

Yes, absolute balance. My daughter has this uncanny ability to have no coordination at any point. So if she falls, her head hits the ground before her hands come out. It's unbelievable. So I got her in gymnastics, and I'm teaching her to skate. I tried a little bit last year, a little bit this year. It's not maybe the natural thing, but we'll try. She's going to be a huge fan, though. There you go. I want to talk a little bit about last year, and I know Jessie mentioned this before we went on, but your season last year was pretty spectacular, but it ended with a little bit of heartbreak. I want to talk to you just about the season part of it, and then I'll let Jessie ask the follow-up. What did it feel like to start and be in the first year of this team in Toronto and absolutely go out and crush it, specifically you. I know you're a team person, but you scored a bazillion goals last year, and that had to feel great.

That was the official number. Yeah, bazillion, actually.

To be honest, it was just a whirlwind. Going Going into the season, everything was just happening so fast. And two, having a little kid, I was literally just trying to stay above water. So it was like every day I would just come in and try to do the best that I could. And luckily, I was able to produce and put myself in those good spots to help my team score and win. But yeah, I think at the end of the day, it was just like the season went over and it was like, What just happened? Where did the season go? It seemed to fly by. Yes.

Now that Adam buttered you up with the nice part of the season, the part that I'm just fascinated here, your perspective on is how it ended. Because in game three of the Minnesota series, you get checked into the boards, you get a knee injury, and that derails your whole summer and season, you're done at that point. And then at that time, Toronto's up 2-0 in the series, and it ends with them losing 3-2. How was it watching that from the press box, the three games that Toronto lost? And then how has the recovery been throughout the summer?

Yeah. I mean, it was heartbreaking for that to happen. In and to know that I wasn't going to be able to be there on the ice for my teammates. But watching them, I still felt super proud. I think we did play really well. We obviously didn't get the job done, and that's the heartbreaking part. But I thought the team went out there and did leave it all out there. So watching, I was proud. It was also pretty cool to see, in a sense, like Coca-Cola Coliseum full of fans and cheering them on. And it's like on the ice, sometimes you don't get to see the exact perspective from the fan side. I mean, I much rather would have been on the ice, but to see that, I think, was pretty cool. Just where the women's game has got.

And how's the knee?

The knee is good. It's coming along. I've been skating for, well, it might be seven or eight weeks now. I mean, from eight weeks ago, I've come a long way. So that's huge. And yeah, just continuing to strengthen my quad and make sure it's strong enough to be able to go out there and handle the physicality that our game has. So that'll be the It's a nice thing.

We tend not to think about this when a player is going through an injury and rehabbing it, but it's not just about how that injury affects you at the rink. What's everyday life been like? Just having to deal with that at home.

Having a two-year-old to run after.

The first few weeks were tough because of just pain. But then after that went away. But then July, I had Rory home with me, and that That was tough. I had to buy a leash to take him outside.

That's practical.

I could not keep up with him. I couldn't physically run after him. So we stayed inside a lot of the time. But then he went We went to daycare in August, so then we were all good. But I lent on a lot of people during that time. Luckily, I had neighbors helping to watch when I was going to rehab. It was a juggling act, but we got through it.

It is. Parenting is early. And how is he?

He's great. He's so So much fun. He'll be two in December, so he's into the no, no, no, and I'm my own person, but also all the cuddles and loves everyone. But he's a runner. He's a runner. He likes to run away.

Okay. I'm not surprised that he's a runner. I'm not shocked by that. The jerseys look amazing. What was your reaction when you first saw them?

I love them. I feel like it feels powerful to me. The colors are great. I don't know if people saw the numbers, but on our numbers, there's these little septors.

Oh, yeah. You can get that?

Yeah. There it is.

That's so cool. That's awesome.

So slick. Just the tiny little details just make them so nice. I'm a fan. I feel like everyone should rock these to the rank.

Absolutely. Now, I don't know what's in this box, and I don't think you do either, but this is supposed to be-Who's opening the magic box? Steve. Okay.

You do the honor. Cool.

He's like, Please, please pick me.

How do I open it? How do I open it? I don't like ripping things.

For anybody listening, there's been a blue box sitting on the desk this whole time, and it's filled with goodies.

Okay, first of all, this stuff is called Easter grass, and my wife hates it because every time we get a box in the house, it goes all over the lawn somehow. Look at this. Okay, so we got a Toronto Scepter's hat. Adam, it's going to go on your My enormous head.

Is it going to fit? Yeah, no.

We got... Oh, this is very cool. So this isn't just Scepter.

Tote.

Own the Ice, Tote with the... I don't know. Should I call you guys the original Original 6? I don't know. That's good. Original 6.

What else we got?

Who's it going to fit?

The answer is me. You guys did a collab with Peace Collective.

Is it a medium or a large?

It's beautiful. It's beautiful.

It's beautiful. It's a large.

Sorry, Jessie. Large. Jessie, by the way, is wearing a medium jersey. I could wear the large jersey. It does.

Slim fit.

This is, Thank you for the support. Who's it signed by?

That's Blaire. Hey, Blaire.

Very cool. I thought it was you. That's why I was being cheeky, and I'm like, Oh, wait a second. You're not 40. Okay. More. It's a bag within a box. Oh, wait. No, it's not. It's a hoodie.

It's a hoodie.

It's a very uniquely packaged hoodie. You can see how I thought it was a bag.

Steve, you can tell, has a big family and is used to showing off Christmas presents. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Here, let's all get around.

You're doing great with this. We do the same in my family, one at a time. Watch, everybody.

Oh, circle pants.

My wife does not I come from that family. She freaking hates it.

This, sick.

Yeah.

The black Toronto Scepters.

I have the matching one, so we can match.

Oh, buddy. There you go. Big fan.

Listen, we got to focus on That's what I'm also alert. For those of us who have enormous heads, the one thing I will say is that I can't fit this hat on my head.

If I put it on- You need an extender. Oh, my gosh. If I put it on last or second best, it might. No.

I mean, it's probably not going to I think Maddie, I think you got a hat. Maddie, I think you got a pretty hat. I think the hat's yours out of everything.

Every hat looks like a Yamaka on me.

I know.

I look like a Yamaka. No.

I have a Naguila and all that. Maddie, I think you got a hat.

I'm not a hat guy for that reason. Listen, Natalie, we love having you in. We specifically requested that you come in because you're so great. We just want to say we wish you the very best this season. Very best with parenting and all the other things that you're doing and the Jersey launch today. Thank you so much for making time. Yeah.

Thanks so much for having me on.

And single game tickets.

Oh, yes.

Still. I don't know what camera to look at.

A few. A very few. Available. What I've been told is that the season tickets are gone, the half-season tickets are gone. And this is at Coca-Cola Coliseum. So there's a lot more people. And there are some single seats available, but mostly standing room. This is where we're at now. You can't get in. So go get your tickets now. And it expanded schedule this year, too. So there's more games.

More games. Get out to them.

I like that. Thank you, Natalie Spooner.

Thanks so much.

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Mitchkoff is a healthy scratch tonight.

Wow. What?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. John Torterella. I shouldn't start with John. A lot of the Flyers reporters- Who did it? A lot of the Flyers reporters were not disagreeing with the decision because at five on five, he has struggled as of late. And John Torterella made the decision to send a message to him that like, Hey, you're still a rookie here. You having down moments at five on five consistently over the last few games isn't good enough. And we can healthy scratch you because you're just entering the NHL. So they've made that decision tonight.

So I have him on my fantasy team, so I am moving him off. I am moving him off and putting him back on the bench because I had put him in instead of Logan Stancoven. Not anymore. Now, I want to say this. I think this is an interesting move by the coach, but I And I think it's a distraction. And I think it's a distraction that serves a purpose. Kevin Kerr, who's a flyers journalist for The Athletic, I think, really nailed it. And this is something we hit on yesterday's show, how bad the flyers goal-tending is. And this takes the spotlight off that. So he says the splits are glaring. So glaring. Samuel Erierson, who is out with a minor lower body injury, is 4, 2, with a 268 goals against average and a 901 save percentage.

4, 2, and 1.

And 901 is not bad.

No. That is enough to get you in the playoff conversation.

You would be far and away the best oilers goalie. Damn. By 15 percentage. Gosh, darn. But the backup goalie position has been nothing short of an embarrassment. The Flyers have yet to win a game or even earn a single point in the six games that Kosalov or Fedotov had played. You ready for this? 0, 6, and zero with an 8-4-2 safe percentage. Combined. Combined.

So you remember we did this yesterday? Yes. Okay.

I did say that.

Yes.

I did say that. And I think that the Philadelphia Flyers, you saw it towards, right? We ran the clip yesterday of Torrance being upset after the thing.

And we have one of him today explaining Mitchkoff.

Okay. And we have to just hold that for just a second. Here's what I think is going on here. You can't play Arison if he's injured. You're going to get dumbied if the goalies continue to play like this. How do we, I don't know, send a message? This kills two birds with one stone because it takes the pressure off of management, which Kerr says essentially is... He said it's the first major error of this new regime. Not having good goal tender. It's a solvable problem to have a relatively okay backup goal tender, and they don't.

It feels like they moved heaven and earth to... Fedotov is making nearly $3 million. I know. In mind. I know. After playing basically no games. They moved heaven and earth to get this guy. He hasn't panned out. Kolesov hasn't panned out. It's bad, man. It's bad. And there were goalies to be had on the waiver wire.

And maybe Mitchkoff does deserve to sit. But I think that Mitchkoff sitting is a bigger story than their backup goal tender situation. And I think that this takes the pressure off of the goal tenders. And maybe, just maybe, they get a good start. Now, Jess, you want to run that clip? Because I would love to hear what Torrance had to say about it.

Here's Torrance, when asked about Mitchkoff. Goalie for Koli.

Any lineup changes to mention? Richie goes in. Michikow is out.

With Michikow, you've talked about this being a process for him.

This is probably just the next step than that. You just answered the question. With Richie I know he had a good camp. He was here pretty late. What did you see from him in camp that you're hoping translates? Yeah, he had a really good camp. Skates well, has played very well down there. Bring some offense. As I told him in camp, I'm hoping... I want him to take a chance offensively. I don't want him to worry about making mistakes. I want him to take a chance offensively, so he gets an opportunity.

When you went back through the tape of the last game, were there anything, any positives that jumped out of you when you had a chance to digest it in full?

The first half, there were some things that we had talked about being on our toes, but we didn't sustain it at all. I apologize if you answered any of these questions already, but I just see on that- Someone just walked in.

What is it that he's not doing that you want to see him do?

Just part of the process.

Is it more a teaching thing? It's just part of the process.

I told you guys, with young guys, they can watch games, too, as far as development. It's trying to help him. Was this filmed in my known as basement? Can we all address the elephant in the room?

It's not done. It's not done.

Can we? No.

You've got to say process.

It's in a wood-paneled cottage outhouse. Where is this room in the Welles Park?

It's clearly the Philadelphia's Health Club and Spa.Flyers Health Club.What.

Hunting lodge is this?

Here you go. Go ahead.

He should have shot this interview in one of those reflective jackets.

Why did that bother you so much?

It's my daughter's basement. I know that place smells like Maranera. Oh, my God. Anyway, sorry, Jessie.

Oh, gosh.

It smells like rosemary, basil, and garlic.

For everybody listening that doesn't know what Steve's talking about, John Torterella is standing in front of a wood background.

As far as development, so it's trying to help him.

With Anthony, he talked a lot about his speed during the preseason, and he brought that.

He got some power plays for him, too, in the preseason.

Obviously, preseason is a little different with the lineup structure.

Is he someone who could slide into that position? He'll be on the power play. He'll be on the power play. What is it that you want to see from him? Score.

Going back to the last game.

You said the first staff, you guys were on your toes. John, next question. Oh, comey stai.

Where is this room?

I need to know where this frigged wood-paneled room is.

I thought the way he handled the questions about Mitchkoff could not have been more John DoraDrala. Oh, yeah. I'm going to give you this answer about its process, and I'm going to give you nothing else.

Well, and is there anything more triggering to Philadelphia fans than the word process?

I It's got to be an accident, but that's hilarious.

Yeah. I don't think that Philadelphia fans are interested in your process. Okay. Find a different word.

Find a different stat plus minus. Here's why Mitchkoff is sitting. Okay, we can go through all his games this season. First game, nothing happens. Okay, no goals, no assists, blah. Next game, he gets his first career point with an assist. Oh, that's cool. Minus two. Next game, he gets two goals. His first two goals, minus one. Next game, he gets an assist. That's great. Minus two. Next game, he doesn't get a goal or an assist. Minus one. Next game, he gets an assist, even. Next game, goal and an assist. What a response. Minus three. The There's one outlier game. In fact, now that I look at it, it is through the first 13 games of his NHL career, the only plus game Mitchkoff has ever had. Goal, assist, plus four.

Wow.

It's his only plus game. But since then, zeros across the board, even. Zeros across the board, even. Zeros across the board, even. Zeros across the board, minus three in his last game, an assist, and even. A lot of pucks go behind Matfey Michkoff. That's not entirely his fault. I would need a Jesse Blake-Blake down. All of those.

You know what, Steve? You know where all should be sitting? Kael Mccar, also a Dash 8.

He's a dash eight on the season.

Yeah. And Kael Mccar, by the way, has, and I'm looking at it, 23 points in 13 games. He's a dash eight, though. That's crazy. He probably said, he doesn't understand five on five hockey. If we're going based on plus minus. No, no. A completely unfair and ridiculous stats.

I'm hearing you.

I'm listening. Plus minus can't be our bar.

I'm listening. And listen, I get what... I'm not even criticizing towards here. I have not seen Mitchkoff's last few games. I have no idea. This is why I bring it back to, if you're wondering why his stats are so bad, at least on that side of the park, all the pucks get behind him. Well, it's because they're playing goalies that are not NHL goalies. I would I would even argue that half of those goals probably don't go in if they have a goalie with an 890.

That is a very valid point.

And I look at the same thing with Kael McCart, who was also not had a whole lot of NHL quality goal attending until Eustass Annen showed up, who's been actually a nice little fantasy pickup for me. Thank you for picking that. You're welcome. That's the problem here. The problem is we got a guy who's on a bad team, and the goal attending is not an easy situation to fix. And let's scratch him. He can also learn from this, and this is part of the process. You watch the game, but it also takes the pressure off them with the goal-tending thing. Let's be honest about this.

I mean, this is the number one story with the Philadelphia Flyers today. Yeah. But it only buys you a couple of days.

Exactly. And good for Richie. I'm glad he had a good- Sure.

Sounds like he had a good- Anthony Richard is who he's talking about, right? Yeah. Richard. Where's he from? Quebec somewhere.

I'm going to go with Richard.

So he had a good training camp with the Flyers, and then now he's getting the shot for Mishkoff. And it's interesting because he's a very journeyman NHL player who played 24 career games and spent the time at the Bruins. And now, just because it was a good camp, he's getting called up. But he's getting called up and put in the same position where Mishkoff was. He's going to get time on the top power play unit, which I think is an interesting way to call somebody up that wasn't good enough for your lineup, but now you're inserting him right into the top power play. So I think that's a curious decision by management and Torterella there.

He's having an ass kicker of a start to the season in the A. Oh, yeah. Four goals, five assists, nine points in seven games, and Adam, most importantly, plus three.

So there's a good read. He's earned the call up. I don't think we should take away from that. But with Mitchkoff, it's interesting because this has been brewing. He got benched in the Blues game that the Flyers played a week or something, a couple of days ago, and then he got benched in the hurricanes game as well. John Torterella has been planting the seeds that this is coming. It shouldn't be a surprise, but it's also, do you agree with the treatment of young players and that this is how the development should go? Because you should expect growing pains from young guys learning the NHL and is watching from the press box and learning there and giving this hot AHL-er a shot the right way to treat your development project. That's the question.

His opinion is yes. One note that we made with Matthew Nies last year with the Leifs was the amount of games played. He's coming from a college schedule, the KHL is better, but it's not much better. They don't play as many games. Maybe it's okay to sit them. I'm also going to say this. That league is not where you to go to develop players.

It's clearly not.

I don't think it's good for them. Obviously, good players come out of that league, and obviously good players play in that league. He got benched basically every game to start last year with, I think it was SKA Saint Petersburg. That was stupid. Then he went to Sochi and was their best player. That was great. But I wonder about Ivan Demyodow as well. He's consistently playing on the third line of his KHL team with Evgeny Kuznetzov.

They have different agendas in the KHL in terms of who gets ice time.

Their agenda is to win KHL games, which is not the same as Developing an NHL player.

Exactly. And they'll also sewer their own team just to screw over an NHL team. They'll scratch guys that are like, Oh, you signed a contract? Well, we're not going to play.

Winning the trophy is secondary to politics.

Yes. Adam, what do you think about the process of getting a young player up to the playing talent that you think he's capable of and up to NHL speed?

What I respect about John Torterella in this situation is that John Torterella is going to challenge you to be better. And Michkoff might be better than, I'm just going to pick a player.

No, just go with Anthony Richard. Bobby Brink. Who's...

Okay. Rink with a B. Sure. Bobby Brink. Michkoff might be better than him. Bobby Brink. Yeah. But the goal for Mitchkoff isn't to be better than Bobby Brink. The goal for Mitchkoff is to be one of the top 10 best players in the league. The goal for him is to be better than Kareel Capriza.

Should win the Calder Trophy.

Exactly. And so I think Torrance is going, Listen, this season's probably already fucked. And the fact that-Based on what you outlined with the goal test. Yeah, they're starting Kolesow tonight, even though they're 27-year-old, 3.275 million dollar goal tender for this year and next.

Oh, he makes Morton, I thought.

Yeah, in Feditov is not starting.

He makes what Joseph Wall makes.

Yeah, dude. I look at this and I go, Okay, this is towards challenging a guy. I'm sure If you are a hockey player and you're proud and you kicked ass in Sochi and you were the best player on Sochi last year, you got some pride, and you're 19, and you're full of piss and vinegar. I like that John is challenging them. Now, one thing I do want to put out there is is that there are a lot of questions about John Torterella and young players, and how does he develop young players? And we talked about it a little bit yesterday when we brought this up like, Oh, is John Torterella in the hot seat? I don't think he is because I think he's the key guy. But I think he's actually the face of the franchise until Mitchkoff takes over. But I do question how much time John has left. And that's not this season or its next season.

In Philly or in the League?

No, just in Philly. He'll be back. But he's a four-year coach. And how much longer... Really, truly, he's a four-year coach.

I can't remember him ever being in a situation like this.

Oh, with a rebuild? No.

The Rangers, no. The Knux was a one and done gong show. The Lightning, no.

The Lightning, he did six years. The Rangers, he did five, Vancouver, he did one, and then Columbus, he did six. Oh, Columbus. Right. So, okay, he's a five-year coach. This is his third year in Philadelphia.

Year four is when you talk about it.

I just think- You start talking about it. I think that John John Torterella will go as Michkoff's development goes. And so John has as much to lose in this situation as Mat Bay Michkoff, so they better make it work. Does that make sense? It does.

I also want to say, if you're rebuilding, you do need to give opportunities to players who deserve it. That's really important. And to take the conversation away from Michkoff, Anthony Richard really deserves it. And everyone's trying to find the market inefficiency. And I mean, one of the market inefficiencies, I think, is dudes in their mid to late 20s who you just missed. He's 27. Yeah. Think of a Stefan Naison type, a guy who... He was a first-round pick, And he played, and he played, and then he stops getting called up, and he's, and he's, and he plays one game with Sheldon Keef in the Leaves. He goes to the minors, goes off, wins a championship. He's on the Hurricane's top power play unit, and now he's one of the most productive players on the New Jersey Devils. And guess who is coaches?

Sheldon Keefe.

Guess who likes him now? Guess who wouldn't dream of taking him out of the lineup? Richard, if you look through his His AHL career, it is a solid mix of meh to fine until, wham, 2022, '23 with the Montreal Canadians. He puts up five points in 13 games on a dog-ass team. But the reason he got called up, 30 goals, 37 assists, 67 points in 60 games. And then last year, he had a nice little cup of coffee with the Bruins, was really good in the minors. He's really good in the minors to start this season. He He had a great training camp. The new coach likes him, and he's not necessarily a banging crasher. This dude is 510 buck 86. That is a guy.

There's a reason Torterella is going to use him on the top power play unit instead of in Mitchkoff's place. Yeah, score.

What's he going to do?

Score. Yeah, I think the interesting conversation is how John Torterella goes about developing young players and how his coaching style fits with these players. Because we saw it last year where he was scratching guys. He scratched... Who was it?

Oh, Keturie. That's not a young player, but...

He scratched the captain last year. He's sending a message, though. Because that was somebody who's struggling. I think it was mid-February when we were talking about that.

He went like 20 games without scoring or something like that. Yeah.

So this is how he does business, and I think it's fascinating to watch how it hurts or helps the development of a potential superstar in Michkoff.

I want to say I'm using NHL rosters on Pugpedia, and when you go to Puckpedia, click Lineups, and then click the team you want to look at. I love this because I'm looking at... Capfriendly was cool because you had the cost of each player, but you didn't have which line they were on and how much they cost. I'm looking at the flyers' fourth line here, and I could see who's playing on it, how much they're worth, and what year of their contract they're in, and all that stuff. I didn't realize how expensive expensive the flyers' fourth line is. Who they got? Nick Delaurier, Noah Cates, and Garnet Hathaway. So 1.75 million for Delaurier, 2.65 million for Cates, and Garnet Hathaway makes 2.375. We could play in about David Koff and his two and a half million bucks. I'm like, that would be...

I like all those players. Yeah, they're all good players. Cates is a guy who I want to say as a rookie, he receives Silky votes. Oh, really? Yeah. And it just hasn't really panned out.

Also, deliciously, Travis Kinectny is in the last year of a six-year deal, and he will be a UFA at the end of the year. Just throwing that out there.

And he probably wants bank. And if he doesn't get bank from the flyers, trade deadline.

Too bad he doesn't play center.

I'll just say that you're allowed to have a bunch of money on the fourth line when you're not paying the rest of your lineup any money. True. No. True. Leef got a lot locked up with the poor guy.

There's nobody making 10 or over. I'd rather be 10. Yeah, there's nobody-Not even 10. They got one by-12. One guy's making-13.

11.

That's the lead. Cucurie is the highest paid.

7.75. I'd love 10. Bobby Brink.

Bobby Brink is a great hockey name. Yeah, good name. This episode is brought to you by Better Help. Now, life is funny. You might have a great start to the week. Maybe you destroy an Atlantic rival.

You kick Monday's butt.

You destroy an Atlantic rival, and then you're like, Wow, tomorrow night, we're playing one of the worst teams in the league.I'm.

On easy street.

Yeah. Then you get your butt kicked by them the next night, and you're sad. And that sadness carries over into the weekend. Sometimes we need to manage the things that we don't expect to happen. We expect to beat the good guys, but we expect to beat the bad, but we didn't. And why? Adam, what are you getting at? What I'm trying to say is sometimes therapy is a really good option if life's a little bit up and down. The thing about life is you got to manage the ups and the downs because sometimes the trip down is not fun. And therapy can help with that. And the great thing about better help is there's never a bad time. It works within your schedule. You book it, you choose your therapist. If you don't vibe with your therapist, you get to choose another one. And that's what's so great. And usually you're matched in about 48 hours or less. And we would like to give you 10% off your first month. Visit betterhelp. Com/sdp today to get your 10% off your first month. It's betterhelp, h-e-l-p. Com/sdp. Okay, moving on here. The Jets attendance. Murat Ates wrote a bit of a piece in The Athletic.

I can't stand that The Athletic has changed their links to The New York Times. Why? No, because you're not. You're The Athletic. You're not The New York Times. You're owned by The New York Times. I don't care. You're owned by The New... Call it The New York Times Sports section then. No, it's The Athletic. It's annoying. That's for The New York Times editors. That's for you. Stop it.

It's The Athletic. If I bought something for hundreds of millions of dollars or whatever it was-550 million. If I spent $550 million on something, I think I have the right to name it whatever I want. The Jesse Blake Sports Reports.

Yeah. Then call it X. Over my dead body.

Actually, you can't call it X because the URL is still twitter. Com. But anyway, If I die, I don't even want to be buried with my hands over my chest.

You type in X. Com, it takes you to Twitter.

Oh, it does? Yeah. You type in X. Com. Okay, all right.

I want my hands down on my side. I'd rather be creaming.

You remember Last winter, Chris Johnson talked about the fact, and he talked about it on The Athletic, and he interviewed Mark Chipman. He also talked about on TSN and with us here at Sdpn about the fact that the Winnipeg Jets really a transition. And Mark Chipman outlined a situation where he said, We thought we were invincible. And what we became was essentially something that wasn't really serving the fans. And I know the Canadian economy isn't really particular Really great, especially Manitoba is struggling in particular, along with a few other provinces. But Murat Natchez says this, My overall impression is meaningfully changing the momentum of public opinion in any field is a challenging feat to manage. But there are many factors here. For that reason, an increase in season seat sales from 9,500 to 10,000 seems like a disproportionately large win. The Jets have managed to stop the Boulder from continuing downhill. How have they done it? He said, As I wrote last season, I think it was important, True North acknowledged it had a problem. Fans had reported poor customer service experiences for years during the sellout streak. It seemed clear Winnipeg didn't do enough to retain fans during that time.

Chipmint's acknowledgement of this fact was an important first step. There It has to be more done, some more overlap between the story for the fan base and ownership. But obviously, things are improving in Winnipeg. And so if we're going to talk about-I have an alternate theory. If we're going to talk... Hang on. We're going to talk We do need to talk about the bad. We do need to talk about the good as well. You remember the Jack Campbell thing last year where you're like, Well, if we're going to talk about him going down, we do need to talk about him doing better.

I like your impression of me.

It didn't get that much better for Jack.

No, it did. It got better, though. It did get better. The highlight stopped showing up. No one was like, Oh, man, he stopped 29 to 30.

What's your big dumb theory, Big Dummy?

They're 12 and frigging one. They're the best team in the NHL.

Kyle Carter didn't get a point, I think, two nights ago for the It was the first time all season.

Peace of course. But the season ticket thing, increasing that happened over the summer. Yes. That was not the deal to do with the start.

Yeah, it's a idiot.

No, it's fans want to be heard. Yes. Fans want to be heard. Fans want to be acknowledged. Fans want to feel like Their presence and time is valued. And the Jets got away from that a little bit, and they got back. And they led a pretty domino's pizza Pizza-like campaign of, Man, we stink at this. Let's be better about this.

Our pizza is bad. Yeah, they didn't- By the way, I like Domino's Pizza the whole time. I don't know why everybody was hating on it, but I love Domino's Pizza. But anyway.

But anyway, they They didn't get defensive. They went, You know what? Gosh, darn it. The customer is always right. What would you like? Can we offer you a 12-in-1 team? I mean, they didn't do a ton to the roster. If these sales were over the summer, like you said, it's just they made the fans feel valued.

It seems like knocking on doors, asking people what you need. Can you support our team? We want to do right by Winnipeg. How can we get you back in the arena? It seemed like that grassroots stuff truly had an effect in Winnipeg.

I would be fascinated to know how Blue Jay's season seats are going.

Complete opposite. Oh, yeah.

Garbage.

Because does a single Jay's fan feel heard? No.

No. But Juan Soto might make you feel a little bit better.

Don't fall for that.

I won't fall for it, but I'm going to fall for it.

What's he on the same plane as Shohe?

The best 20 minutes of 2023 for me were the 20 minutes I thought that Shohe O'Tani was on a plane Toronto. That was my best 20 minutes. Oh, God. And then that guy from Shark Tank got off the plane.

Adam, where is he? I got some beans I got to sell you. I know. They're really good magic legumes.

Man, could I keep this money or could this money turn into these beans? And these beans could create so much more money. Yeah, no, no.

It's really magic.

Last thing before we do the press conference, Easton Callen has scored in 47 straight games for the Londonites. 47 straight games. That's bad, actually. That's actually bad. I'm excited for this kid. I am glad they sent him back this year. I'm excited for this new deal. And that brings me into this new deal between the NCAA and the CHL. We've talked about this. And this also includes, by the way, U-Sports in Canada, which is our version of the NCAA, which means that guys who went to university here, guys who were in the OHL, the CHL, the WHL, the QMJHL, they're all allowed to go to the NCAA as of this decision. And there will be impacts for least. Traditionally, in the past, the NCAA said that, Oh, because you had a stipend, you played professional hockey at 14, so you can't come play here. That's bullshit. It's been challenged. There's no judge in the world that's going to go, Yeah, no, that's... Thumbs up. Go NCAA. So the NCAA is accepting the inevitable, and it's coming to an end. It's going to boost the NCAA, but I also think it's going to boost the the junior league here in Canada, which have a long tradition of graduating a ton of high round picks in North America.

And the reason I say that is there's going to be a lot of overagers who go, You know what? Probably not going to make the show. I could go to school for four years for free and then go play in Europe. And graduating your 18s and especially your 19-year-olds off the roster, specifically with a guy like Fraser Mitten, I think about, who is now with the AHL Marlies, but had He had to go back last year. Is it the Colona Rockets that he was playing for?

Who was this?

Mitten.

No.

He's in BC. Damn it. You know what I'm talking about. It doesn't matter. Had to go back.

Saskatoon Blades?

Yeah, there it is, or whatever it was. It doesn't really matter. The point is he had to go back to junior because there is this rule that an 18 and 19-year-old can't.

Saskatoon Blades.

There it is.

He played for Kamloops before that.

That's what- That was it. Blades and Blazers. That's not confusing. Now, if a player is 19. Now they'll be able to be sent back to the NHL, so that's good for NHL teams. But I think graduating older players off the roster and into colleges and universities can be a huge benefit to the OHL because it's going to open up more spots for younger guys. And the OHL, the Q, the WHL, whatever league you were talking about in Canada, they thrive on the big, young, next thing.

The best players are still going to rise to the top. Absolutely. I also think- And people are not just going to stop going to those games, and they're not going to stop being hugely talented games. I think there's a notion of Junior A in Canada versus OHL, where if you put the two teams against each other, it's like, OHL team, first line, OHL team, second line, OHL team, third line, OHL team, fourth line. Then the fifth line is Junior A, first line. It doesn't work like that. If you're an overager, I'm probably not going to make the show. I might be able to go play in Europe or something like that. Odds are the best players in Junior A are taking your job anyway. It's not going to be as simple as, I'll just go play in college. It's high-level hockey. Not everyone's going to get in. Yeah.

I just think also for the general development of human beings, which we have to take into account here, for them to be able to take their hockey skills and parlay that into a four-year degree or more is significant. And the fact that they couldn't before outside of Canada is obnoxious. I've told the story before.

I'll tell it again. There was a goalie. It was our Junior A feature of the week when I wrote for RBC Junior Hockey magazine, and he got a full ride to Maine. Full ride. Don't remember his name. Don't think he ever played pro. I think I looked it up. Full ride. And he can use that education for the rest of his life.

Yeah. So I think this is cool. I'm excited for that. Shall we do the press conference?

We shall.

The Presser S-D-P. The Steve Dangle Press Conference.

All right. For today's press conference, we are going to play two games. To kick it off. We're going to play an old trustee called Point A Game. If you remember Point A Game, it is where Adam and Steve, if you're not familiar with Point A Game, Adam and Steve go back and forth naming NHL players, but they must name an NHL player who is a Point A Game player. It is based on their points and their games played. You've played 10 games, you got to have at least 10 points. They go back and forth until one of them doesn't name a Point A Game player, and that person loses. Adam and Steve, are you ready? We are going to flip a coin, and we're going to find out who's going to start first.

Here's the fake coin.

No, the listening audience doesn't know I flipped a fake coin.

So it's such a real coin.

It says Adam. First. Heads. Adam was heads. Kyle Connor.

Steve? Kyle Connor, Kael Mccar. Damn it. Adam?

Alexander O'Betch.

That's correct. Point of Steve.

He's been a point of game his whole career. Sydney Crosby?

Really?

Have I already lost?

That's risky. He's 15 of 14. He's got 15 points in 14 games. Yes. That sounds like over a point of game. I feel like there's so much more obvious I can go. Adam. Mitch Marner. Yeah, 16 points, 14 games.

Nikita Kucharov.

Kucharov, yeah. He's, I think, third in the league in points, 22 points in 13 games. You know what? I'm going to go risky. Why?

Because it's fun. Why would you want to not be risky?

It is fun.

Let's go Dylan Strom.

Dylan Strom has 19 points in 12 games. Holy shit. That's not even risky. He's the 10th overall in scoring.

Steve? Gosh, darn. Nathan McKinnon.

Nathan McKinnon leads the league in scoring 25 points in 13 games.

On the Colorado Avalanche train, Miko Rantinen.

Miko Rantinen, 17 points in 13 games. Steve Dengle?

Martin Nietzsche's.

Martin Nietzsche's. What's wrong with that?

I know, just the way he said it.

He's a little unsure, but Steve, you shouldn't be unsure at all. He has 20 points in 11 games. Damn. He's seventh in the league in score.

How is that seventh? I know. It's crazy.

Adam Wild, you are up.

I look at the league stats, I'm like, Oh, they're pretty good. And then I look at the league stats, I'm like, They're not so good. Okay. Who shall I go with? Leon Dreisetel.

Leon Dreisetel is a point of game. He is... Let me just double check. 16 points in 14 games.

Oh, barely. The oilers have struggled so badly.

They have, but that's why I went with that, because I'm like, If it's not Leon, it's nobody on that team.

Shout out Mike Ross. William Neylander.

That's an easy one. That's 15 points in 14 games. But you should know that William is in the game.

Yeah, you should probably know about it.

Adam?

So I wanted to go senators, but I know Josh Norris is not. I know he's not because he's, again, fantasy team.

I have a player.

Do you have a player? I do.

Okay. If you take him, I'm going to be cross.

Let's go risky again. Okay. Let's go Conor Bedard.

Conor Bedard. I don't have him right on the top of my list.

He's been hot. He might not be, though.

He's had a good few games, I'm pretty sure.

Am I out?

Adam Wild's out. Conor Bedard has 12 points in 14 games.

Steve has got to get his for him to win.

You have to get this one or you tie and we keep going.

Nico Heescher.

Oh, he's got it for sure.

Nico Heescher is 16 points in 15 games. Oh, baby.

Well done, Steven. Right there. That was good. That was a fun game.

Steve, do you want to keep going until you fail? No. He's solo. No?

All right.

Braden Point.

Braden Point is 13 and 12. You would be correct. Other names you could have gone with that would be surprising. Anthony Cirelli. Oh, wow. Nick Suzuki, Neil Peelank.

Neil Peelank has been an unreal.

Kareel Marchenko.

Yeah.

Matt Boldi.

Did either of us say Caprizov?

No, that was a bad one.

And I have Matt Boldi on my team, too.

Anton Lindell.

Wow.

Is he a Baby Barkoff? Yeah, point of game. You could have gone with, I said nick Suzuki. No, Timo Meyer doesn't count. Sam Bennett, Jake Gensel.

I wondered about him, and I just didn't have the Travis Kanechni.

Michael Grandland in San Jose. Michael Grandland.

Good for Michael Grandland, man.

Casey Middlestat in Colorado.

He's been real good.

It's a bummer that no one else is alive there.

Ivan Barbechev in Vegas is 15 of 13.

Whatever the leaf should have paid or could have paid to get Achari O'Reilly and Barbechev, they should have just paid it.

Did you say Mark Stone?

I did not say Mark Stone. But he's on there. He's got to be. Yeah, Mark Stone is fourth in the league in scoring.

Where's Stefan Naison?

Stefan Naison is up there, but I don't think he's point a game. Yeah, he's 13 points, but in 15 games, so that would have been wrong.

I just have a quick question about the senators when they disassembled what they had.

Bradley Kachuk is point of game, by the way.

He is a point of game. My question is, did they need to? Because I look at all of the players that they got rid of. So Carlson, still outrageously expensive. I'd like his attitude to be better. Please care more about defense, but still scoring points.

They literally could not afford to pay him.

Yeah. Mark Stone. Did you need to trade him?

That one, probably not.

And some of the other guys, I'm like, oh. You still could have bottomed out and had a pretty good team. And Mark Stone could have been on it. They bottomed out.

That was the problem. The Mark Stone trade was Eric Brandstrom, Oscar Lindberg in a 2022 for Stone and Tobias Lindberg.

Oh, boy. That's a just rip-off.

That could have gone better.

Man. You have to remember, Eugene Melnick, chaotic organization.

Different time, yeah.

But still, it still hurts. Anyway, last game we'll play today, last thing for the press conference, we have our NHL 25 Guess that starting lineup quiz.

Hey. Today, I will be giving you... Let me just double check. I got the right... Yeah. Okay. So on left wing. Oh, this game, I'll explain it for anybody who's not familiar with this game. We have the NHL 25 ratings of a starting lineup in the NHL. I'm going to give out the ratings for each position in the lineup, and Steven Adam must guess what team this is. I have two ready to go. I know who this is. We'll be guessing two teams. Adam's already ready. I know who this is. But I need to let the listeners know what the ratings are. Left wing, 85 overall. Down the middle, 89 overall. On right wing, 88. Overall on defense, left D, 87. On right D, 85.

Thank you for choosing the middest team possible. There's no one player that stands out where you're like, Oh, here's who that could be. No, it's just everyone's within four points of each other. I think I know who it might be.

Okay, you said- No, get your whiteboards. Oh, okay. Get your whiteboards out. Let's make this fair. Dunks. Write down your answers, and then we'll do a three, two, one reveal. Adam is up. No, Steve is up one nothing in press conference Trivia on this Thursday.

I love a press conference Trivia. It's fun.

Adam is ready. Adam has been ready to go since he started.

If I'm wrong on this one, I know that the team I picked is still close to this.

Okay. Three, two, one. Adam says, The Blackhawks, Steve went with the Blues. Both are incorrect. You will each get one more guess. All right. One more and then we will do the answer reveal.

So it's not the blocks, and it's not the blues. I shouldn't have wrote all that because now I have to erase all that.

Your board's a mess. Can you show the camera? You can't really see it on the camera, but it's really black.

No, I don't think it's that team. It could be, though. No, it's not that team.

Adam's guess is ready to go. He's already written it down.

Steve? Yeah, well, good for freaking him.

You got 10 seconds.

It's not the Black Ox.

It's not the Black Hawks. It's not the Blues.

Maddie's counting, so you better write faster.

She is the countdown.

Okay, I did it.

Adam, reveal. Adam says, The Sharks. Steve, what do you say? What was that supposed to be?

It's the Flames logo.

Oh, my gosh. That's really bad.

Also the Ottawa Chargers.

Both of you are in the-Who is it? This is the Montreal Canadian.

That was my first thought. You know what? And I didn't do it.

You know what your worst take of the season was? When you said you're looking for the Montreal Canadians to take a step forward, and everybody was like, You're an idiot. And then now everybody's like, When are they going to take a step forward?

In the Montreal Canadians lineup, we had 85 overall, Slavsky on the left wing. Down the middle, we had Suzuki in '89 overall. On the right wing, Caulfield '88. On D, Matheson and Gouly, 87 and '85, respectively. Gouly is in '85? You got a problem with it?

That was respectfully already?

That's a little spicy. You got it? You got a problem? That's a spicy rating. That's a Canadian fan at EA Sports head office there.

No, that's what threw me off. That's what threw me off because I looked at the forwards. I'm like, okay, yeah, that could be Suzuki in the middle. Slaff and Caulfield, that could be them. Matheson, that could be him. Who the hell is on the right? There's no one on the habs who is in 85.

You guys are not yet. You guys ready for the final team?

We're doing another.

Okay, so here's That's why I said Chicago Blackhawks, though. Bedard, I thought, he's got to be 89, 90, right? Because they never give it to you right away. And what's hilarious about this is Bedard's NHL rating is an 88. So you're telling me Caden Gouly is an 85? Sorry. That's a Habs fan.

A lot of players are within it. You got to earn that.

They do make you earn it.

The NHL games aren't the ones we grew up with, where there were NHL players with ratings in the '50s. Yeah. All right.

I just Yes.

Let's go. All right. Final Trivia. Stop it. For today, final press conference Trivia. Steve still up 1-0. You guys got zero points out of the last one. Let's see if Adam can steal a tie here and get the loser point.

94 is big. If Bedard is an 88- Let me do this.

Sorry. It's for the people listening who can't see that it's already on the screen. You're right. Left wing, 87 overall. Down the middle, 94. Right wing, 91 on D, double 87 overalls. Which NHL 25 team is this? Starting lineup, I should say. Adam's got his answer ready to go. He knows it.

I got it down to two teams.

You got two guesses. If nobody gets it right on the first try, we go again. And then Steve's trying to draw the logo.

Steve, why do you insist on taking the longest possible route? Can we just get this? I know it bothers you.

Okay.

It's the same thing when he's coming to work.

Steve says, Oylers.

Steve says, Oylers. Adam says-Drysidal and McDavid are way higher than 94.

Yeah.

What the hell are you talking about? Mcdavid 94? Pens. Adam says pens.

Because I thought LaTang Carlson.

Both of you are incorrect. Okay. Darn. Oilers is a terrible guess.

Thank you.

I feel much better about mine.

Adam, a reasonable guess.

No, that's a dumb with it.

Great top centerman.

87, left wing, 94, center, 91, right wing, 87, 87 D. Starting in the lineup. You know what? According to NHL 25.

I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. Pretty confident. Pretty confident.

Reveal. Steve says, Vegas. Adam says, the Minnesota Wild.

The correct answer is the Florida Panthers.

The Florida Panthers. 87. Carter Verhege, down the middle. 94, Barkoff, on the right. Sam Reinhardt, a 91. On D, Forzling, 87, Ekblad 87.

That's right, because Forzling and Ekblad are only two EA points better than Caden Gooley. When they make these games, they don't want one team to stink. Why? The Canadian stink.

Oh, they had no problem with that shit growing up. They're like, The Atlanta Thrasher's fucking stink. They did not care.

You're making enemies today, Adam.

You're making enemies. Dude, I'm not saying Caden Gooley is not going to be good, But Gus Forstling is... Gus Forstling is like an Aaron Ekeblad?

Having good teams and bad... My older cousin, who was so much better in video games than me, I would be Team Canada, and he would have to be like Team Japan.

I remember you could be like, Team Italy, and that thing. It's awesome.

By the second period, he's like, Fine, I'll play with an empty net. He would still beat me.

Anyway, sorry to all the Caden Gouly fans out there. I'm sure I'm going to hear from Habs fans in my DM. He's good. He is good.

He's good, and he'll be better. Yeah.

Not in '85. Yeah. Now, not yet. According to Adam Why. That's okay.

It's not yet, man. Not yet.

Lots of better leads.

The Steve Dangle podcast.

Follow the guys on Twitter @steve_dangle@adamwylde and @jesseblake.

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