Transcript of Self-Gaslighting | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Hey, look what's back. Roll up to win. Back at Tim Hortons. And that means you could win millions of amazing prizes with the swipe of your thumb. Yeah. Yeah. You ready for that?

Yeah. Well, swiper your thumb or you do that thing with your teeth a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. Go like that. Imagine turning your routine, your routine Tim's run into an unforgettable vacation with sell off vacations, maybe a $1,000 Racketan cash prize, the all new, all-electric 2025 Volkswagen ID. Heck, even the simple joy of winning a free coffee or a donut can make someone's day, but you only have until March 23. So open up that Tim's app and get rolling. This is our game. So listen, you got to make sure you get this cup. By the way, I just want to say I love the physical roll-up. I love that that's back. It makes me so happy.

But you do need both. You do need the Tims app. You do.

Yeah. So play roll up to win on the Tims app now until March 23. Rules apply, Canada only. No purchase necessary. Please visit Tims app for details. Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam Wild and Jesse Blake. Now, that is some darn good coffee, courtesy of Tim Hortons. I just want to give them a big shout out. Love Tim Hortons. Hey, so we're back to like NHL stuff now. Steve did a stream last night of an NHL game. How weird is that?

And it was a TSN game, which I've never done. You've never done a stream? I don't think I've ever streamed a TSN.

You streamed Saturday.

Saturdays, yeah. I do Saturdays in the play-off.

But you had something going on Saturday, so you were like, I'll do Sunday instead. Yep.

That's great. No, I said, I want Saturday off, and you guys said, Do Sunday.

Yeah.

So I was like, Yeah, okay, fine.

Now, listen, before we get into everything that was this weekend, there's plenty of teams to talk about, including the Leaps, the Bruins, the Panthers, the Preds, and so many others. And Trevor Zegris' hit that was wild.

Yeah, he's going to get suspended.

Let's talk about the big news of the day. Number one, our show at the Alibi Roadhouse is officially sold out. Great. Yeah, baby. We're so excited.

Hey, you can't get dick as to this thing.

But I just want to say thank you, everybody, in Southern Ontario. Loser. You can't be there.

Where's your ticket? I'm waiting you out there hoping to be there. You can't. You can't come.

Bummer for you, man. Maybe move on your tickets next time. Get off that wallet. You know what I'm saying?

If it makes you feel any better, you can see how good of a time you missed after.

Yeah, we post the video.

Yeah, all of our live shows go up as an episode, so you can watch it and be like, I missed out.

The other big news today is defense of Stalwart, Noah Juleson has been claimed by the Florida Panthers. He was put on waivers yesterday by the Vancouver Knux. I don't want to get weird about this, but they did the same thing with a guy named Gus Forzling. Oh, boy. From the Carolina Huracanes. They have a good record of picking up defensemen on waivers, those Florida Panthers. I don't know.

No. I don't know.

Washed. Washed? Yeah, he's washed.

Totally washed.

The Knux had a bad weekend, but we're not going to start there. That's a tease. We'll go there, too.

So you just wanted to slap Maran. Hey.

Move on. If you're a Knux fan, get ready because It's going to get... Well, you actually already know. It's the non-Canucs fans that probably don't know. I can't believe Canucs Twitter this morning and how depressed they are. But we won't get into that. Let's talk about Leifs Twitter. Let's talk about Lefs. Let's talk about two wins back to back, and we'll We'll start with this. I think it is worth noting that there was significant booing during the anthem at both the Leaps and the Raptors game. And for the Leaps game on Saturday night, they just shut the mics off. So you could not tell at home. But, Jesse, you were there, and it was.

It wasn't throughout the whole anthem, but definitely at the beginning, there was a lot of guys getting really loud because the anthem's quiet. When we had regular anthums, the anthem's quiet. When 20 guys want to just boo during it, it makes a lot of noise. It was quite a significant amount of booing off the top, but you guys couldn't hear it at home.

Okay, so I didn't have the sound up because first periods involve my son now. I didn't talk about it in the video. That happened for sure. Obviously, there was booing, you were there. You saw it on TV, no sound.

No sound.

Because I couldn't find-You could hear the anthem singer. Well, yeah, but they cut the crowd noise. Yeah. I hate that, and that sucks a lot. I'll tell you why. It's not about whether you are like, Yeah, screw them, screw that. I'm going to boo the anthem, or, Oh, that's classless, and you shouldn't do it. It's Sportsnet. It's the NHL rights holder augmenting reality. That's a dangerous precedent to set, and it sucks, and they should stop doing it.

Pretty sure the NHL called them, and I wouldn't know this for sure, but I'm pretty sure the NHL would call them.

Then don't show it. Then don't show it at all.

You're strictly speculating. Yeah, of course. You have no information on it.

Hey, listen, I agree with you. Stop fucking showing the nathom. I hate the nathom.

Why do we have to watch this? Either you show it in all its ugly reality and the fact that people are booing it now or you don't show it. You do not lie. Oh, they lie all the time. It's tantamount to a lie.

They lie all the time.

You're showing it and you're shutting the crowd mic off. I think that's garbage.

Now, Carolina had to walk to the arena because There's traffic in downtown Toronto, at least in that portion of downtown Toronto, especially near the Gardener, is so bad that you can't get in there.

They're at least the second team this season that's had to do it. Yeah. Wasn't it Minnesota? Yes.

Yeah. It's great because we have the World Cup coming, not this coming summer, but the next. And that construction is supposed to last far beyond the World Cup.

Good. Good Toronto foresight.

Yeah, it's great. No, definitely plan this one. As always. Yeah, here they are, walking And this is from the Carolina Huracan's account. They look really well dressed. I have to give them credit. Sharp guys. No, you don't. Looking good for the game. Screw those guys. Boo. Now, what was most surprising about the Carolina game is that it was the Leaps who came out and were great right off the bat. That is not something that we're used to after a break. Usually after a big long break, it's like, oh, they're refreshed. And they'll probably blow the first two games off the break because they just won't be ready.

They were ready. No, you had to be ready for a genuinely stupid weekend of hockey. The Saturday, 48 hours, less than actually, after the Four Nation Face-off ends, you have 28 teams playing, and two teams scored eight goals. The Capitals scored 15 goals this weekend. They scored eight. Then they went to the next town and scored seven.

Yeah, they're good at hockey.

It's classic beginning of the season hockey, in a A bit sloppy. Yeah. No one played their best games, even the guys who did well.

In the first period alone, you had Steve's, Holmberg, Kompf, and Tavares all scoring.

Now, you're Maddie, can you ISO Adam? Adam, like- Yes. There we go. Get to the middle.

All right. I always believed in Alex Steves. I've always believed that Alex Steves could do it.

I think you need to... That's good. I think you need Can you start with an apology?

No, I think that what I said was, I can't wait for him to do it. And so I will take credit and say I motivated Alex Steves to score his first goal. I love, by the way, it took 2 minutes and 50 seconds After I had said, what's the guy done at the NHL level? He's never scored a goal for him to come out. And that fourth line to look the best it's ever looked. The best, Alex. If Alex, if you're watching this, that is the best this fourth line has looked all season. Easily the best. He's not. Alex Steves, congratulations. I apologize. I was wrong. But don't make me right again. Meaning keep scoring, please. We need the depth scoring. It was great. It was a great goal.

It's a goal scorer's goal. My Here, here, here.

All right.

Here, camera on me. A goal scorer's goal.

There you go.

There we go. So the people who haven't watched Alex Steve's, which I assume is a lot of people, unless you're locked into Marley's hockey, But one person who is is nick Bardin, who covers Marley- Who the hell is that? Marley's consistently and covers the Leaps, too, for the hockey news. He was laughing post-game when he was asking the Steve's questions because Steve scored from the Steve's spot. If you're not aware, where he scored, where he one-timed it from that position, is where he's been hammering pucks home all season long for the Marlies. I'm not going to say it's just like Alexander Ovechkin, but he's got a little bit of it in him. He's a great scorer, and he has a spot on the ice, and that's where he scored from. It's cool that you see something translate from the AHL to the NHL level because sometimes it's just completely different.

Tj Brennan.

Guys go off in the AHL all the vibe, and we learn when they get called up that they're actually 4A players, and they can't make the jump. Alex Steves, in one game, one very small sample size, recreated his magic that he had down below at the AHL level.

I thought he played really well with his fourth-line line mates, but what did I frigging say? I was like, well, in his cups of coffee in the NHL, he's just been playing on the fourth line. That's not conducive to success for him. That's not putting him in the best position to succeed. John Tavares, here you go.

Beautiful pass. Here you go.

Less than three minutes.

I want to say this. If Steve's was anybody else on that fourth line, let's say they'd started Duhre instead who was ready to go. Let's say they'd started Reeves. I don't know that they would have been in that position, and I don't know that they would have shot like that.

There'd be some fan in the 13th row with a broken nose. Yeah.

Steve. I took a picture at the game, and I want to know if you wanted to frame this and put it in the office.

Let me see. Oh, look at that.

Look at that ice time.

Look at that.

This is exactly what you wanted, right? For anybody listening, it's Steve's on the ice with Tavares and Nylander. He's not on the fourth line. After he had a little bit of a good start to the game, he got bumped up for a little bit. That's cool. He was playing up there. And this is what you wanted. This is how you wanted him to be utilized, and they did it.

I should say, I said a minute ago that no one played their best hockey this weekend. I was wrong. David Kemp and Steven Lawrence randomly decided to become the Sedine. I don't know. It was always going to be a weird weekend. It just worked out in a delightful way for the Leifs. And Steve's is... I mean, I was about to say he's making it difficult for them to pull him out of the lineup. I actually don't think they're going to have any difficulty with that, but he's playing very well, and he's a legitimate NHL option.

Some goal scores that have scored, and this goes back to before see Four Nations face-off. Here are some of the goal scores. Philip Myers. We got Philip Myers, McCann, Nye, Reilly, Steve, Holmberg, Komp, Tavares, Matthews, Holmberg.

You mean McMahon?

Sorry, Macman. Excuse me.

I wish, Adam Wild. I freaking wish.

I'm still upset about the McCann thing, too. Holmberg again, Robertson, McCabe, Robertson, Tanev, Holmberg. A lot of depth. That is from @MatthewsFan, and I checked that. I was like, Hey, that's interesting, and I better check it. And I checked it, and it was true. And I think that's... The worry has been the depth score.

Yes.

And this weekend, and we're going to combine talking about both games, we got depth scoring from the fourth line, and we got depth scoring from the third line.

And two goals from D.

And two goals from D.

Had a little bit of everything.

Yeah. Tanev and McCabe.

Yeah, man. Their second goal each. And an own goal. Jordan Stahl freaking loves scoring in Toronto, and he will do it at all costs.

He can't score anywhere else, but he can score here.

It's the weirdest frigging thing.

Right. And I'm looking at the third line yesterday, guys, and I get it's Chicago. I get it. Okay. And And I get Chicago on a back-to-back. They'd had a game the night before. Leaps had a game the night before.

Our Chicago.

Our Chicago. But it was nice to see that line click a little bit, wasn't it?

Yeah. I mean, I've said this before. This is what they do against weaker opponents.

That used to not be the thing that Leaps did against weaker opponents.

That is true. Domi and Robertson. I'm so mad for Domi that Nizar just panced him. Oh, my God. He did. 8 seconds after that. But Domi and Robertson were clicking. Two really nice plays from Domi. That two on one with him and Robertson was way harder, I think, than it looked. Not just getting the pass across, but winning the foot race and having to navigate finding the tuck through the legs of the ref.

Yes.

And then sending it across and Robertson with two great shots. I hope after a week Something like that, everyone has confidence. It's tricky to get into game shape. It's a weird interruption to the season. I think starting with confidence is probably the best thing for you after something like this. You're not going to play your best game. A lot of guys didn't. Win. Winning is always a pretty good consolation. Just win, and they won. Hooray. They won both. And now they lead of the frigging division.

Now, they did give up three goals against Carolina at the end of the game and make things interesting.

No, it didn't count.

Oh my God. It felt like old leaps, right? You had over the course of three and a half minutes, Gostasberg, Svechnikow, and Slaven all scored Jacob Slaven, who was haunting Canada's nightmares, just generally.

The Gostasberg goal, I'm like, That's a really good one. Then by the time I got to the Slaven one, I'm Okay, so it probably hit the roof of Scotia Bank Arena, plop back down right onto his stick. Frigg off. It started to feel like the hockey gods hated the least moment.

But then Matthew scored his 21st, and Pontus Holmberg got his third goal in two games. Sorry, one of his three goals over the two-game period.

Pontus Holmberg didn't score a goal on a goal tender because one of them was an own goal and the other two were empty nets.

So I screwed that up in the LFR last night because I forgot what one of his goals were. It was literally two empty netters and an own goal.

Pontes Humbert didn't really score a goal this weekend.

His goal total went from 2-5. Who scored more goals than him this weekend around the NHL? Not many guys. Ov. Ov, that's about it. Jason Robertson. He didn't ever once use his stick to score a goalie.

No. He more than doubled his goal total.

I love it. He's now up to, I think it's 17 career in a chill goal.

Sometimes the stats lie a little. Yeah.

Hey, listen, let him have it. Let him have it. Let him have it. You know what? I think the next... I don't even know what his first goal looked like, but maybe his next goal will He's going to be his first on a goal tender this year.

Does he have one?

The first two? He's got four now total. He had three this weekend.

He had at least another empty netter.

Isn't it five?

Yeah, he's got five this season. I don't know if any of them are on a goalie.

Yeah.

He's one of the most fascinating players, dude. Playoff MVP in Europe. He's young, NHL draft pick. It's obviously there. Then I see him out there and I'm like, Well, he sure does try his ass off.

He does try.

But there's a clear upgrade for the Lefs. They need to go out and get some forward, and there's somebody who can easily come out of the lineup and you plug in to whatever trade deadline acquisition you get. Alex Steve. Or that. Right there.

Alex Steve.

He tries his ass off, too.

Too bad he's not a 6'4 center.

Damn it. Adam, you mentioned the Carolina stuff and how it feeling very leafy that they were blowing that lead, and Carolina comes all the way back, makes it a little close, and then they end up cleaning it up. I want to dispel the narrative that the leaves from this season are the leaves of the past in terms of blowing leads because they haven't done it all season long. They are 25 5-0 when entering the third period with a lead. They have not lost a game when entering the third period with a lead. They often make it close. On Saturday, they shut down completely trying to play offense when the first period ended. They said, We got four goal lead. Four goals will be enough with our goal tending and our defense to win this game. They tried like hell to win it without playing any offense, and they barely did. But they don't blow leads this season. They also are one of the best third 3rd-period comeback teams. They have a 261 win percentage when entering the third-period trailing, which is third best in the National Hockey League. They've actually been really good at coming back, and they haven't relinquished a third-period lead, which is great stuff.

Jesse, great points. All valid. You know, they play the Bruins tomorrow, eh?

You think that streak ends?

Well, thanks for coming out, Jesse. I'm sorry. Thanks for pointing that out right before they play the... Is it in Boston? Let me look.

It is on the road. Yeah. Son of a gun. Whenever I tweet things out like that, I'll be like, Oh, the Leaps are unde when it's in third period with a lead or something like that. And then people are like, You're jinkster. Shut up. I always write back, I wish I had that power in the universe.

I don't play for them.

The words I say affect the power in the universe to make the least lose. I wish... I've never won the lottery before. I don't have that power, so I'm I'm not too worried about it.

Jesse, can you make me 6-2? It's not an unreasonable request.

No, I have that type of power. Come on. Carolina was shaky, but Craig Berube has them playing different than Shell and Keith, and they have been really good defensively and holding leads. You saw it with Chicago where you get down early and then you're like, Okay, it's Chicago. They're going to eventually get a couple of goals. Even if they're bad goals, they'll get a couple.

But it was Arvid Soderblum. Yeah, who has been good this season and is good against the The Leaps. Really good against the Leaps.

Chicago legitimately made his job hard all night. You know how a goalie's job is just to give his team a chance to win? Chicago was like, hell-bent on making it impossible for him to do that. Yes. They He screened him all the time. The puck went off T. J. Brody. I know that's just a fluke or whatever.

I have to tell you, there's a couple of things, though. Like Arvid Soderblum on his own. I think the fact that the Leaps hadn't won a regulation game in Chicago since 2003. That's a crazy stat. I couldn't believe that. And it was Ed Belfour who was in that. That goes to show how far, how long ago it was. But beyond that, Soderblom had the Leaps number last year, embarrassed them. And then this time, I actually thought the same. He has been good this year. I thought he was good last night. What was interesting was how bad Chicago's defense is. And it starts with a guy we know really well in Toronto, TJ Brody, man. This guy, I don't know what happened, and it does happen very quickly to certain players. I just don't see it anymore.

Well, they're playing them on the right, and the Lefs... He had some great success as a left-handed D, playing on the right for the Lefs. Last year, which was a frigging nightmare for him, to me, far and away, his best games were on the left, and they're hell-bent on doing this. I do want to say Chicago is also just not good. They're not good. Yeah, they're terrible.

It's hard for anybody to look good.

Seth Jones sure doesn't.

Seth Jones didn't look good. No. He got walked a couple of times, and I don't understand his trade request because nobody-Oh, I understand the request. I understand the request. I don't understand the reality him thinking that anybody will trade for him.

No, he said, Jesse, I get the trade request. What I don't get is I want to be on a contender.

Buddy- Who wants him?

I think the only team right now is Columbus. They're the ones that are openly going, We'd like to have him back. And they make sense because I don't even know if they're at the cap floor yet. They are. They have so much room that that nine and a half doesn't matter. And they were saying on the broadcast last night, I don't like Seth Jones at nine and a half, but five or six million. Five or six million is a lot different than nine and a half.

But if you're Chicago, you don't retain on Seth Jones because that takes up a retention spot for the entire length of the contract.

Which is five years.

He has five years left?

Yeah. You don't have that sit on your cap for five years. It's ridiculous.

Stan Bowman, parting gift to Chicago.

I wonder if he ends up in Edmonton. I do want to say this. Time flies absurdly fast. Seth Jones is 30. Yeah, crazy, right? I don't know when that happened. Because what I was going to say is, I think requesting a trade out of Chicago is a I think. He's at an age where it's not a mistake if he wants to win, yeah, he should probably get out of there. But we talked about the Black Hawks at length a few weeks ago. We talked about how crap they are, and we We talked about how crap the rebuild is going. But then as the conversation progressed, we talked about, well, maybe there is hope. I've fully come around to, I think they're going to be good, and I think they're going to be good in a shorter order than people think. Their decor is a nightmare. It's still so bad. But up front, holy shit. Sure, Shaphan and Bedard. Chicago is going to score so many goals. Bedard, Nazer, I don't think anyone, unless you're a huge OHL fan or you watch, oh, wow, on the Sdpn YouTube channel, knows who nick Lardis is, but he's the third round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, and he's scoring, I believe, over a goal a game.

Is he an overage, though?

In the OHL, I think he might have another year of eligibility. He's crazy. He's absolutely crazy for the Branford Bulldog, Zack Hyman's new team. He's shooting the lights And the idea of adding a Michael Misa to this team because they're going to get another high pick, very likely going to pick in the top five, again. The idea that they're going to get another elite young player, Lev Dunov is going to come in there. Khrushchev is going to come in there. Bedard is playing with Landon Slagert, who's another third-round pick who looks like the Black Hawks hit on. I mean, Fuck. They're going to be good in short order, but this season is a nightmare. Every time I look at the Black Hawks lineup, Bedard is playing with someone who has single-digit goals this season. He's on an island. He's completely alone.

And still putting up pretty good offensive numbers.

Yes, he is. And he's so unbearably alone. But I think that'll change in short order. Just not yet.

All right.

We'll see about that defense, Steve. The decourse. We'll see about that.

Awful.

It's just so bad. Yeah. By the way, yesterday, too, Jason and nick Robertson made a little bit of history. They scored five goals, combining for five goals, which I think is pretty cool. They are the first pair of brothers to score multiple goals on the same day since Pavel and Valéry Bourre, March It was the first 2000.

Wow. I wish nick got a hat-trick so bad. He could have had one, frigging Brody clearing it off the line. He had such a good night.

Yeah, he did.

Damn. I'm glad they didn't force the empty net to Robertson. He was out there briefly. He was out there, but it wasn't like when they were trying to get Matthew 70 and they stopped playing hockey.

And Marner 100.

And Marner 100, and they stopped playing hockey and just tried to get that one thing. At least they didn't do that last against the Black Hawks. But if there was any team to do it against, it'd probably be the Black Hawks.

It's cookie night. Things are going your way. Speaking of, the fifth goal. Which one's that? The offside goal that wasn't offside, the one that William- The one that William Nolander-Oh, the Kael Mccar rule. An NHL player was like, I thought I was offside. You saw him say it. I think that rule is so silly. Yeah, pretty silly. Tavares didn't He possessed the tuck, even though he passed it to himself?

No, he was in the middle of a dangle. That's so silly. So he relinquished his possession. No, he didn't. In that half instance where he doesn't have a stick on the pocket, that means he doesn't have control. It's silly. It's very silly.

It's the dumb rule. What if they just instituted the technology and didn't have to go to a 20-minute review over it, too? Over an empty net goal, too.

Technology wouldn't have helped.

Yeah, that doesn't fix that part of the rule. You don't think so?

No, because it's about Tavares' It's a relation to the Puck, not the Puck's relation to the blue line.

Or the other player that's coming on offside.

The idea that Tavares didn't have possession is silly.

It's poopy. That's not right.

No, it's complete semantics.

It's a joke.

And The Makar goal, I vaguely remember it. I want to say it was the Oilers' Ave series. So that was in a playoff game, I think, which if I'm an Oilers fan, man, I'm not a huge hockey conspiracy accuracy theorists, but they get jobbed in the playoffs a lot. They really do. That's such a silly rule. It's a very silly rule. To me, it's use the line and the fuck and nothing else. What does it matter? The only time I have some time for the rule, and this is where the waters get muddied, is if a player is going in backwards, but they have possession of the But also you could just make it very easy by being like, no, you're offside if you do that. I don't know. You have the line, you have the buck. Make the rule just that.

The Leaps have five games in eight days to start right after the Four Nations. So that means you got three more this week, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I believe, is what we have. So tomorrow night versus the Bruins. I believe the Rangers are Thursday and then I have no idea.

I cannot believe how many players who are in the Four Nation face off the tournament, and especially the final, how few players missed a game.

Yeah.

I can't believe it. Yeah.

Slaven looked good.

Marner and Matthews played both games this weekend. What? Yeah. Slaven did.

Season doesn't stop, Steve.

No, I know. But like, Matthews was nursing an injury during the tournament. Marner was nursing one before the tournament began. I don't know. I thought they might have missed a game or two.

Matthews only had to play two games in seven days or six days, two games in seven days? Six days. Because he plays Saturday. Or no, sorry, three. No, he plays Saturday and Thursday. He takes off Monday. So that's two and six, right?

He's a bum then.

So I'm just saying it's not that stressful.

Yeah, but no. I think, guys, this is time for us to... We're three guys with mics, right? Let's talk about kids these days and how they're He was a little bit left.

No, I think we could make so much more money if that's all we did.

Yeah, they don't understand what it was like when I played.

You saw it with McDavid. I thought you could tell he was a little slower on Saturday's game, especially. They played back to back, wasn't it?

He might have had his worst statistical back to back games of his career.

Yeah, Sunday was a little better, but Saturday, especially, I thought McDavid was a little slow. And you're like, Yeah, he's played a whole bunch.

You see that stat where no Canadian scored on Saturday. Almost all of them were a minus. There was one loan goal scorer, Sydney Crosby.

Oh, yeah. Because of course. But they got dog walked.

Yeah, no, they got fucking killed. Who cares that Crosby scored? Man, I felt horrible for the Penguins. I know you're talking about the Knux had that weekend, and we're getting to that. But penguins got, yeah, dog walks. It was the Caps. 8-3. Crosby did get a goal, but they got killed. The next day, and I watched a big chunk of this game yesterday, they are murdering the Rangers, murdering them. At one point, the shots were 26 to 5. The score's 1-1.

Yeah, you had a good game.

A good game. And they lost. They lost. Poor Pittsburgh. That's dropping four real important points.

We're talking about the leaves, though, right? What? We're talking about the leaves.

Are That's what we had planned. That's what we were doing.

Oh, did we? Now we're talking about New York and Pittsburgh.

Okay, so this is fun. Right at the top of the hockey section of Bet MGM's website is Ovechkin Chases Greatness. Okay, so we got three that I want to run through today. First off, he's got 13 goals needed to reach 895. Gretsky famous, he is 894. Yes. And does he do it this year? Yes or no?

How many games?

There's a lot of games left. I think there's like 20 something games left. Oh, baby. Now, yes is a 1. 56. No is a 2. 35. Does he do it this season? Does he do it this season? Yes. Jesse, are you saying yes?

Yeah. I want to know how many games. How many? What's the scoring pace has to be, right?

It's basically a goal every two games.

20 games to do it in as many games Czeskradski, but I don't know how many games are left this season.

How many?

The Washington Capitals have played 57 games.

There you go.

67, 77 plus 5.

25.

That's right. So it's half a goal a game.

He looks so motivated that I'd say yes.

And he got a hat-trick this weekend. Yeah.

He could have had more. Oh, he should have had more. No, I'm going with it's going to happen. Okay.

This is where it gets more fun. That one's fine. That's It's a good little taster, but this is the fun one. Method Ovovichkin's 895th goal. Even strength is a 145. Power play is a 250. Shorthand is a 67. Do you put two on the 67 just in case. No, that's a donation. No. Now, I'm going to go power play.

I'm going power play as well.

Jesse, do you go even strength-Yeah, let's make it three for three.

Power play. Power play? That's fun.

Okay. Now, then we get to the schedule. So Well, let's get the capital schedule up because the interesting part now is you can bet on what is the most likely team... Sorry, does not score 895th goal, obviously, is an option, but who does he score it against? And so the Capitals have a bunch of games towards the end of the year that you might be interested in. Working backwards, their last game is April 17th versus the Penguins. They've got a game versus the Islanders on the 15th, a game against the Blue Jackets on the 13th, a game against the Blue Jackets on the 12th, a game against the Hurricanes on the 10th, Islanders, Blackhawks, Hurricanes, Bruins, Capitals, Wild. And that brings us all the way back to March 27th. And we're talking that's 15 games from now.

Give me the Blue Jackets on the 12th.

Blue Jackets on the 12th, so the first half of the back-to-back. So the Blue Jackets is the most likely at this point. Oh, really? Wow. How many times your money. 6. 5. Now, Jesse, I have never bet this way before. There are some that say it could come as early as, say, the Panthers, March 22nd, or the Jets, March 25th. Would you be willing to go that early?

No. I would go with the Blackhawks on April fourth or the Hur hurricanes on April 10th.

Hur hurricanes are eight and a half times your money. The Black Hawks are twelve times.

You know what? Give me the hurricanes because then I get two games. I get April second, Wednesday, April second, and I get Thursday, April 10th, so I'll take the hurricane. Okay. Because you're not betting about the game, you're betting the opponent. Right. So I get two dates there. And that's why it's interesting- You get two dates there, too, with the blue jackets.

Because they're back to back, April 12th and April 13th. Yeah.

So I'll take the hurricanes.

It's a fun one. It's a fun one. Well, how do you think that they celebrate this? Do they stop the game?

I definitely think they stop the game. Okay. Yeah. They stop the game. Everyone comes off the bench. I don't know about a ceremony, though. I I think- Here's the clearest- Hold on.

You stopped the game, but you don't have a ceremony?

No, here's what you do. He scores in Columbus. Everyone comes off the bench. They congratulate him. Yeah. Maybe a little thing goes up on the video board. All right. Next day in Washington, the game starts 45 minutes late.

Because they do a full montage. Yes.

No, they do the ceremony at the time. Yeah?

Yeah. Even if it's away?

Yeah. I assume they'll have the traveling squad with I'm like, I assume Gretzky will be traveling to every game and all that stuff. And you stop the game, you bring him out, you give him whatever golden stick you have, platinum stick that Gary Bettman hands him, and that'll be the big ceremony.

Now, because it's the NHL, and this is the last question, and they like round numbers, does We're going to get 900 this year?

No, next year.

Next year?

900 is too much. Okay.

All right. So you can check that out right now at betmgm. Com/dangle. It's betmgm. Com/dangle for terms and conditions. Florida. Speaking of missing games, both K'Chuck brothers were out. Braided looks like it was just like a rest.

That's what we're done with the leaves.

Well, unless you got something else you want to add.

They won. Hooray.

I think it's a good start.

It's great.

I want to move on to... This is Leifs news, though. This pertains to the Lefs. That's how I set the show up, actually. Because the Lefs are...

You were done with the Lefs, and you said, yeah.

This game left the Lefs in first place. This weekend left the Lefs in first place with a couple of games in hand on the Florida Panthers. Matthew Kchuck, Katie Kchuck both sat out. Katie, not for long, looks like. Matthew, if you were to believe Renault Lvoie from TVA, He suggested that there is some concern that his season might be over. He said, We're waiting for some important medical results. We're hearing his year might be over. We don't want it to be, but there is some concern. Now, today, Paul Maurice said, Matthew Cuch is still being checked out by doctors and that his injury could cost him some time, but, he's playing for us this year. Now, he didn't specify, which I think is important, his calendar year? As in, is he playing in the fall of 2025 or will he be playing this season?

No. I mean, his regular season might be done. And then, oh, game one of the playoffs. Here we go.

Okay. Now, then you add on, and we're going to go a little deeper into this, but not yet.

You think Vegas is the only team that can do that? You think Tampa is the only Florida team that can do that?

There were multiple articles from Bruins outlets this weekend saying essentially the same thing that the Bruins look like they're waving the white flag on this season.

Well, they're both Boned. To lose Charlie McAvoy potentially for the season and Hampus Lindholm, it seems like confirmed for the season, that's your top pair.

You're boned. The Leaps are currently in first with a game in hand on the Panthers. Okay. Good. The Bruins are actually just a point out of the playoffs. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. The Florida Panthers might lose Matthew Kachuk for a very least the rest of the regular season.

Or let's say a month. It's a lot of time.

And the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are better than people give them credit for. They've been ignored. And you saw that Brandon Hagle goal this weekend. It was crazy. Winners of five straight. This is the Toronto Maple leaves time to win this division, is it not?

You're probably not going to have a better opportunity, man.

You do this now. You go in now, right?

You got two goalies who give you a chance every single night. You got one of the better shutdown pairs in the entire NHL for the first time in ever. The core four is clicking pretty well, and they got a little bit of help from guys like Nye and McMahon. Trade deadlines here, you can make some very obvious additions to your team. Yeah, go for it, dude.

Do you think that they will? Because we've been warned by Calgary Flames fans that Brad True Living is a dud when it comes to the trade deadline. People keep saying, joking about how it's going to be like Ryan Donato in a pick or something like that. That's what Flames fans have said. Now, I don't know that that's necessarily the case, and it also might be a different situation. Maybe ownership wanted different things in Calgary, and they didn't want to give up pick as it picks. If you're the Lefs, what are you willing to sell?

Well, this is the thing. I know everyone wants a big swing. I'm not really on that team right now. I'll get excited if they do it. Don't you worry. But if you had to ask me what I'm looking for, unless you're willing to do what Colorado did and empty the frigging cupboard. Just lay it bare. I don't It's going to be a huge swing here. You said, Oh, it's going to be like Donato. And I'm like, I'll take Ryan Donato. That sounds great. You can get him. Versetile forward. He can play every forward position. He can play a little center, score you a few goals. Yeah, I'll take Ryan Donato. Hell, yeah. I know it's not the sexiest thing. It's not the most exciting. I would like to see them make upgrades at several positions, and you're not going to get a superstar at two or three different positions. You're going to have to-Pick which position? Well, you're going to either have to take a big swing at one spot and then live with the rest of your lineup, or you're going to have to be like, All right, here's Ryan Donato up front. Maybe we get another depth forward, like a Brandon Tanev, and a defenseman, left or right, probably right.

Who's it going to be? Oh, it's going to be Eric Carlson, I bet. No, it's going to be like, I don't know, Connor Murphy played last night. Maybe it's a guy like him. It's not going to be sexy names, I don't think. I think there's going to be some unhinged behavior at this deadline. I do. I just don't think it's going to come from Toronto.

Really? Yeah. That is so disappointing to hear. I know. Jesse, do you agree with that?

I think it'd be ridiculous to sit on your hands this trade deadline. I don't know when. If you're not going to go for it this year, I don't know when you're going to go for it. It's been so long where they haven't done anything in the playoff of significance that every year needs to be this needs to be the year we're getting it done. I don't want one game on the weekend or two games, really, on the weekend where you got some depth scoring to cloud the judgment of the front office and believe that they have depth scoring now. It's not true. Go out, make your big swing, and add to the team. I will say- If not this year, then when? We're going to wait for next year?

I think all their decisions are made. I was saying, Oh, yeah, get Kelly Yarn Croke in the lineup and just see. No. No. There's five games left. I think your decisions are made. The Four Nation Face-off was very fortuitously timed. If you're a GM who wasn't a part of the tournament, you had all that time to be like, All right, there's a two-week lead up to the trade deadline. Let's make our wish list. Let's start those conversations. If they haven't already begun, I just don't know if any surprises are going to spring up.

I'm going to ask this question. I think there's going to be a lot of surprises. I'm going to ask this question because I think I know what your answers are going to be, but I'm curious if you will have different answers, starting with Jesse. If there's a position you take the big swing on, what's the big swing position?

Isn't all year we've been telling them to go get a center? That's what I I think I don't want that conversation to change because they're good now. It doesn't mean they're better at that position because they've been good from October to February 24th, and they've still always needed a center.

Here's the big swing I take if there is a big swing to be taken. Center, just like you said, and they got to be locked up going forward to me. I don't care. I'm not enthusiastic about rentals.

Why are you worried about next season?

Because it's a good way to operate, win the Cup.

No, not when you have to win this season. It is a pivotal season. I hate that mentality where these GMs will be afraid. They want to hold on to a draft pick. You know when that draft pick is coming up? Like five years from now. 2030. It's so unimportant if you're trying to win and you see a team like Colorado go out and trade everything. You see Vegas go out and trade everything. Be bold and make a decision. I don't care about the draft picks for coming up.

Jesse's correct, and I'll tell you why I'm wrong. I'm going to analyze me for a second. I'm wrong because all season, I and a lot of Lee fans have done an exceptional job of ignoring the fact that Mitch Marner and John Tavares have expiring UFA deals.

And Matthew Nies doesn't have a contract.

And Matthew Nies doesn't have a contract. We're doing real good, guys. Way to really, hey, old school. Don't address the problem. Push it down.

Be a man.

Yeah, be a man. Push it down. Don't address the issue. Marner is not a UFA, and Tavares is... You just push it down. Until, I don't know, at some point, I clutched my chest from the stress in June. You're right. Any other team in the league we'd be looking at and going, Why are you sitting on your of hands. It's like the Brad Marshan conversation. Any other team in the league trades that player, probably. You either, with Marshan, I think the Bruins, either have to sign him for the rest of his life or get rid of him immediately. Yeah. With the Leifs, they're very literally maybe no tomorrow, and maybe you should operate as such.

Just fast forward to, was it eight weeks from now? Leaps losing the first round. That's unforgivable. They lost the first round.

Now we're talking about bigger changes, right? Yeah.

You got to look to the very near future and say, Okay, so we're not going to do anything of the trade deadline, and then we lose in the first round, and you didn't do anything on the trade deadline? That's ridiculous.

This is Anthopolis 2015.

Even when they won a round in 2023, and they still only won five games, how did they win that one round?

The biggest swings of Dubas' tenure. Yeah. You went out, you got Ryan O'Reilly, you got Jake McCabe, Luke Chen. Holy shit was he active. He had a fun few weeks there. Itchy thumbs, Kyle. Scratch him on your phone.

You know what's interesting about that is there's very little fallout from those trades. Is anybody upset about how that all played out? No. None of those players stayed.

Are you pissed that Jake McCabe is still a leaf?

No.

Not really. Kind of cool. God, he was fun last night. He was great. I don't know when he turned into this player because I swear he wasn't this when he arrived.

I think he was good when he arrived, but he didn't figure out the system until the following training camp.

I just feel like he was a generally solid defenseman that was mistake prone, and now he's just this T1,000 frigging robotic animal that just fucks up everyone who comes across his path. Him and Tanev, forever. I don't care how old they get. Yeah, all right. Yeah, you can talk me into that. I'm pretty down. I'm pretty down. That's a great pair, man.

Do you care that Tanev signed till he's 41? Nope. Why do you care about losing a couple of draft picks this spring and getting the center that Jesse's talking about? All right.

Easton Cowen, I'm for Ryan Donato. There you go.

I'm sure Chicago would love that. There you go. So Steve, is your answer different from Jesse's? You take a big swing in any position. Would it be different than center? Because here's the thing, that the center one is the most compelling. If Matthews or Tavares goes down, even if you like the lineup as it currently stands, if Matthews or Tavares goes down, who takes that spot? It's tough. You saw it against the Bruins in the first round last year.

So I'd like them to take a big swing at center. I look at their back-end. Mikaib Tanev has been so damn good. If you take a real big swing back there and you know your goal-tending is solid, And you know you have these 4-6 assassins up front. Doesn't that make you formidable in the Stanley Cup Playouts? You get one really, really solid. The problem is Who is available that is like that? A true top pair, top four, great player, ideally locked up for the future. But even on a rental, who's selling?

Well, I think Boston is.

You know what else I hate? There's all these teams that are in the mix. They might be interesting, and they're all in the Atlantic. Nick.

Yeah, that's hard.

Buffalo? Okay. Well, no. Well, maybe it's Buffalo.

Pittsburgh selling pieces?

Who are they giving up on the back end?

They already gave up Marcus Petterson. They'll give you Ryan Graves.

That was the one. No. No. Petterson would have been great, but he's gone. Habs fans need to stop texting me with this Jake Evans, David Savard stuff.

Ryan Graves still has no points this year.

That's unbelievable.

42 games.

That's unbelievable. And it's not about Jake Evans or Mark Savard. Sorry. David Savard being bad. It's about making a trade with Kent Hughes and the Habs that I'm just not enthusiastic with at all. Trading with the Bruins I'm not enthusiastic with at all. Listen, Brad's reputation from Flames fans is earned. I want him to surprise me.

That brings me, guys, to a report from Elliott Friedmann, which was on Saturday night, which said some teams would like to look at the option of uniting, not reuniting, uniting the Shauna guys. Braden Chen and Luke Chen. Put them both in the same team. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. Now, the cost for Braden Chen that's out there is minimum a first-round pick plus, plus, plus.

That's a terrible idea. I don't know about a terrible idea.

Those players, and I know Braden 10 is not the player he once was, but those players solve what the Lefs need. Do they not?

Yeah.

They're exactly what they need. If you walk away and those are the only two players you get at the deadline, that's a 10 out of 10 success.

You put Chen with Reilly because you already know it works.

Which Chen?

You take Luke Chen, put him with Reilly, you already know it works. That's the second pair behind Tanev McCabe. Yep. Lol.

Already lull. Oliver Ackman-Larson is now third pair.

Then it's like, O-E-L Benwa, O-E-L Tim and Zoya, or maybe Hakenbach comes back. All of a sudden, that's a much better looking decore. Then, Braden Chen I mean, even if he's lost a step or whatever, grossly outperforms anything the Leaps have had in that spot this season. You can even have him. You probably don't do this, but you I would even have him on Tavares' left wing with Nylander. And then your top six is Nye's Matthews Marner, Braden Chen, John Tavares, William Nylander. And then your bottom six still sucks is the only problem. Right? So maybe don't do that. But it's a team that's just not far away from being crazy. They're already good. But it's funny. Last night, I was Oh, yeah. The Leaps are... If they win this game, they're going to be first in the Atlantic, which means they're probably close to first in the East. Nope. And then I checked.

Not even a little.

They're still... Because the Caps won, too. I think they might be 14 points behind.

Caps are amazing. Holy shit. Yeah.

So you're playing... If you get top spot in the Atlantic, you're playing the top... Sorry. Yeah, top spot in the Atlantic, you're getting the best wild card team.

Which right now, I believe, is Ottawa. It's Ottawa or it's Detroit. Oh, it's Detroit, actually. Detroit is ahead of them.

Even that's fun. You're probably playing an Atlantic team. You can't escape this damn division. No. You can't. You can't. You can't. No, I would really like to see them improve at multiple positions. I'm looking at this. Jesse's right. I think we're both right. Jessie's looking at this.

Jessie, do you think we're both right? No. Because your example about Braden Shen is really good because that solves both problems.

Braden Shen signed for the next, I guess, two and a quarter seasons, two years after this season. You get long term assurances there with a 6. 5 million 3C, plus you get the center for this season. There's two problems solved there.

I'm looking at it like you have your big swing or where you have your solve multiple problems, and I'm having trouble being optimistic enough to tell my brain, no, both are doable. You can do both. I don't know. I don't want to be the fan who's like, no, my team is getting everybody, but I want them to get everybody.

It'd be fun. But you lose in the first round in four games to Ottawa, and like, Mitch Martin is no longer a leaf. I'll never recover. That's on the line.

I'll never recover. No, shut up. Jesse, I've done such a good job pushing this to the side. You stop it. I've done such a good job.

I think you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you don't try it to add to the team.

No. Hey, counterpoint. What if I continue to gaslight myself for two months? I'm going to do it. Jesse- I'm going to gaslight myself so hard.

Would you do the Shenz or would you do something else?

I don't think Luke Shenz is the defenseman. I don't know if that's the correct guy.

Who would you want them to go after? Who do you I don't know.

I haven't really looked at the right-hand shots that are available. Luke Shenz is the archetype you want, but I don't know if he's the exact guy. The contract is really good and you get him for next year, but they have so many defensemen right now. I don't know if it's a little clogged if you bring in Luke Shenz.

I wonder It's like a Timmins or Benwa goes the other way if that deal happens.

Yeah, that would probably make sense. Benwa didn't have the best game last night.

No, that pair didn't have the best game. No. Chen having another year at 2. 75 is so appealing. I don't care that he's 35. There's options, man. And getting Luke Chen would involve the leaves doing my favorite thing, the thing that all smart GM should do this year, calling Barry Trotz. That is a rudderless, clueless team at the moment. Call them. So let's talk- Get two phones and call them twice.

Here's how bad it is in Nashville now that you mentioned it. Nick Kaiser, who is a reporter for 102. 5 The Game, said this is the seventh time in their history that the Predators have been shut out at least eight times in a season.

They've been shut out what?

The last time they were shut out this many times was '13, '14, and they were shut out nine times. And And also of note, gentlemen, I thought you'd find this interesting, from the Tennesseean, which is Alex Dautry, I think is how you pronounce your last name. Sorry, Alex.

Well, it's actually pronounced the Tenashon.

The Tenashon? Yeah. Is that what it is? Stephen Stamkos. Nine consecutive games without a point. The first time it has happened in his entire 17-year career. He has since January 25, zero goals, zero assists, 19 shots, and he's averaging only 17 minutes a game.

Why aren't we talking... Listen, caps going up, let's get insane, right?

Could a Stamcoast to Toronto thing make sense?

Stamkos to anywhere.

Stamkos to center. He could play center.

He can. He sure shit can. God, that'd be fun.

It'd be great.

That'd be fun. I mean, is Stamcoast as your third-line center? I think you survive. I think you're okay. Can he reunite with the man... Matthews fought Stamkos in the playoffs.

That's right. He did.

That's such a bullshit Five Minute Major that Austin got. That wasn't a fight. Yeah, no. I'm definitely picking apart all parts of that corpse. I think the pred should be open to everything, including throwing both guys. They signed a huge deals this summer.

Marchesoe and Stamkos. Oh, my God.

Who the hell is not kicking down the door to get Marchesoe?

Playoff performer to the Mac.

Yeah, you want to con Smythe. Who's We're not kicking down that door. Now we're cooking with gas. Now I think, are we more in your lane now?

Marchesoe to the leaves?

Well, screw it.

Or to the any one, really.

Would you do Stamco? Stamco to the leaves would be pretty fun. Stamcoast is probably a bad idea. That would bring full circle the offseason when he didn't sign with the lease, right? That's right.

That's right. The pre-Tavares offseason. We don't talk about that here.

Depression is learning. Julian Briesblad nailed it.

Well, so Steven Stamcoast makes $8 million until 2028. Jonathan Marsha so, 5. 5 until 2029. Stamcoast is 35. Marsha so is 34. Now Stamcoast can play center. Marshesou is a left winger.

Marsha so at that number is crazy.

That's a crazy number.

Not a great age.

Not a great age.

But that number is pretty good.

Ryan O'Reilly, four and a half for the next two seasons.

I mean...

No A trade protection for him, to you.

Which is really stupid. All parties involved.

Chen has no trade protection as well.

You have to admit, at least one party there is being stupid. Either it's the player for agreeing to no trade protection, or it's the team for make believing that they do have trade protection. You could one-stop shop. I know we just did Braden Chen and Luke Chen. One-stop shot. Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Chen. Get the band back together. They both play for you next season. Good Lord. And I know Ryan O'Reilly, I don't know exactly what it is with him, but I question how much pressure would actually be on him.

I think at this point, it wouldn't be high.

Well, if Matthews and Marner, sorry, Matthews and Marner. If Tavares and Marner both stick around, Sound, it's still them. The expectations still fall on them. Everyone, I think, is savvy enough to know what you are at this point in your career, which is like a premium third-line center. Who can play second-line if someone gets hurt? First-line if you're really screwed. But in the playoffs, you're ideally middle six. You run the middle six. I don't I think the big swing... No. See, now I'm getting insane. This is why I was like, no, I want a few little trades. And now here I am going, why not get both Shenz and O'Reilly? Why not?

Well, they could never make that work.

See, I can't. You give me a rope. I want to be a cowboy. You can't do this with me. No. Connor Murphy, Ryan Donato. But wouldn't it be fun?

Jesse.

I hate what you've done to Jesse Blake.

Would you find a way to fit Steven Stamkos' $8 million till 2028 into the Leaps cap?

Probably not.

Would you find a way to fit Jonathan Marsha so's five and a half, even though he's a left winger, and they could use some left wingers.

Yeah, Marcia So would make a little bit more sense, but it wouldn't make total sense.

Marcia So, Tavares, Neelander.

Would you find a way to Ryan O'Reilly? And there is some grumbling in the market about Ryan O'Reilly because he was offered the same deal by the Leifs.

I would rank Nelson and Chen over O'Reilly, but O'Reilly is probably third.

Okay.

Dude, Marcia So and O'Reilly. The thing about- Marchesoe O'Reilly Chen.

The Luke Chen stuff didn't really make sense to me when it came out of the weekend because Luke Chen is not somebody who was on CJ's trade board for the athletic, and he's not on TSN's trade bait Bored for TSN. So I didn't imagine that he's on a bunch of teams lists that they're going to trade for him.

But this is the tricky thing about this deadline and navigating it is we're now, for the leaves anyway, we're five games away from the trade deadline for some teams, probably maybe a little more, maybe a little less. How many teams truly stink in our punting on the season? There's not a ton.

Yeah, but if you're in Nashville, I think that's a piece you keep for next season. You're not trying to-What? Are you going to be good? Yes, they're not trying to be bad next season. I think they were trying to be good this season. So I don't know. They're not going into a rebuild right now. They just signed these contracts. And I think their mentality is next season we're going to compete because that's what we were trying to do this season. And this offseason because they have so much cap space and a lot of draft picks. And picks, yeah. They're going to make a lot of moves to try and be competitive. And Luke Shen is going to be on the team, and you can always just trade him next year if you're bad again.

Why isn't Nash Nashville, a team that's frequently mentioned in all these Dylan Cousins talks. They need a center so bad. They have the cap space. They have all this draft capital. Is that not the perfect landing spot for him? And they have no interest in being bad.

I think their return to Buffalo would be too many futures because Buffalo doesn't want futures. Because what does Nashville have to trade off the hockey roster?

Give them a Stamkos. No.

It doesn't help, right?

Yeah. Okay. And if your Buffalo flipped the first. It's an asset, right? It's a great asset.

But I can totally see. That makes sense. Go after a play like that because you need a center.

Interesting. Let's face it, guys, after a night of drinking, we don't bounce back the way that we used to, which is why we want to tell you about pre-alcohol. It's a surefire way to wake up fresh after a night of drinking, and it's a Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink. It's a mouthful, but it actually tastes great. It's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by scientists with PhDs, which is a lot more education than we have. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into this toxic byproduct, and it's that byproduct that makes you feel not great the next morning. It's not dehydration. When you drink pre-alcohol, there's an enzyme that breaks this byproduct down. It's important to snap back into place the next day after a night of a few drinks, because why, Steve?

Life.

Kids, I think.

That's part of life.

Kids don't recognize you not snapping back. They don't understand that. Nope.

Neither does your workplace.

Jesse. That's true. Jesse, is there a day where you go, No, I certainly couldn't use this.

There's so many. Whenever you enter your 30s, these things become more and more important as your body is no longer young anymore and your bounce back ability isn't quite there.

Yeah. All right.

Listen, all right, I bet this helps you. I'm not old.

Okay, so grab pre-alcohol before you go out and be ready to cheer on your favorite team all day and all night. Go to zbiotics. Com/dangle to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Dangle at checkout. Zbiotics is backed by a 100% money back guarantee. If you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Product only available in the US. Remember, head to zbiotics. Com/dangle and use the code Dangle at CAC for 15% off. Now, we have to do this because the trade deadline is March seventh. We're doing our Trade Deadline special here at Sdpn. It's going to happen, as we always do. This is the time when we actually have to dig deep. And now I want to talk a little bit. I do want to go a little deeper on the Bruins because they did say we're probably... Sweeni said basically yesterday, We've got two routes. We can buy, and they have bought a a lot at deadlines in the past. I'm going to run down some of the names. I always tell you guys this. I'm like, They're always the guys that get the name.

Okay? So Lee Stempniak, this is how far back this goes. Drew Stafford, Marcus Johansson, Rick Nash, Dimitri Orloff, Tyler Bertuzzi, Charlie Coyle, Hampas Lindholm. Those are some of over the last nine years, the players that Boston has gotten at the deadline. To varying degrees of success. Obviously, they got to the finals in 2019, but we're not able to actually close out the job against the St. Louis Blues. Now, Now, they don't have, according to Flutos Shinzawa, a lot of help coming. Fabian Laisal, the team's 2021 first rounder, has nine goals, seventh most on the Providence roster. Dean Laterno, the Bruins 2024 first round pick, has zero goals as a Boston College freshman. Oh, no. And those would be guys that you might trade. You've also got Kastelik, Callahan, Lorai, Wallstrom, Beacher. They're players that I think have potential Social, but a lot of those guys are going to be fourth-liners, third-liners.

They're not like an old team.

Except for the high-end talent. That's the problem. They don't have a lot of assets to attempt teams with to go out and buy, and they I don't know how much they have to sell, but it looks like they're heading towards a retool, and I'm just curious what they might do.

It only needs to be a one-season retool. Totally. I think some teams stink, and some teams had a season get away from them.

And that feels like this, you think?

Yeah. Well, okay. Let's say McAvoy and Lindhome are both kaput for the season. Mcavoy plays 23: 40 a night. He's one of the best defensemen in the week.

In the week. Yeah.

Hampa's Gaelin home is second on the Bruins, 20: 51 per night. So your top pair is like what? Zdorow Lorai? Zdorow Carlo? Lorai Carlo? You're Asking. Who knows? It's the Bruins, so maybe it works out for them, and Lorai all of a sudden becomes crazy and the team does great. Maybe they tweak in. This is a perfect season for the Bruins to just tinker a little bit, do moves that make sense, and retool for next year.

Trent Frederick is a name that comes up because he's a centerman. He's 27.

I wish they would shut up and and not kiss.

Do you think that they keep a guy like that? I think Brad Marshan is pretty clear, guys, that Brad Marshan is going to stay in Boston. I would be shocked if Brad Marshan did not extend in Boston, and I think they would be, too.

I don't think they're bad enough to trade him. The way we're talking about him, this is one season that got away from them. So you extend him and you keep him.

Right.

Unless you're planning on being bad. With Trent Frederick, every now and then, a team and a player show up, and they are in trade rumors for their entire life. It was Jake DeBrusske. And Jake DeBrusske absorbed so much oxygen in that conversation that we ignored that Trent Frederick was always in that conversation, too. I said this years ago with Patrick Laine in the Jets. Okay, you keep talking about it. Either sign him to a lifetime extension or get rid of them. Enough. And that's how I look at Trent Frederick, who was made in a lab with beakers and shit to be a Boston Bruin. Seeing him in another uniform is going to be very odd, but might be time.

You think it's time?

Because they also have- Well, you keep talking about it.

They've got Coyle, they've got Lindholme, they've got other centermen that are highly paid and they're longer. Do you trade a Charlie Coyle? Do you trade a Pavel Zaka? Who might have significant value.

Boy, they just don't... I know we're talking about, Oh, yeah, retool, last season. Man, they just don't have a whole lot of interesting there, right?

That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah.

Marshan is a UFA. You probably don't move him. I'm surprised he's a UFA. That makes sense unless you extend him because he's not old. Your RFAs, I mean, why would you lose them? They're They're RFAs. You should probably hold on to them. There's nothing on the back end that interests me.

Justin Brazeau is a UFA.

Justin Brazou is very interesting. Friggin, 27 years old, one of the biggest players in the league, and he's actually established himself as a legitimate NHL player. He's not just some guy filling in. He's maybe the one guy and maybe Wotherspoon. Other than that, it's not a whole lot interesting on the Bruins.

Jesse, would you You're going to trade for... If you're the leaves, would you go after a guy like Trent Frederick, who is a... Oh, shit. Yeah. Captain Boston.

Yeah. No, I think Trent Frederick would be really useful on the leaves.

I like him. I like Charlie Coil, too.

I don't want to trade with this damn division. I don't.

What if it wins you the cup? Do you care?

What if it's the next RAS for Raycrap?

It's a different management group, Steve. It's a lot different.

Who's the least most recent fifth rounder?

I have no idea.

They trade him for Trent Frederick. And guess what? Hall of Fame. That's probably what happens. Nikita Grbebinken.

Oh, God. Another team we got to watch is Vancouver. And back to Jack losses to start right after the weekend. And this is one that really was interesting. If you watched even the highlights last night, you saw Elias Petterson get an assist, but then also miss on an absolute easy gun of score moment. He's so miserable. Vancouver were limited, I believe, to 15 or 16 shots the entire game against Utah. And this is what Rick Tuckett had to say. And then this is what Elias Petterson had to say, gentlemen. So we've talked about he has to move his feet and he can't double clutch with the buck. I think he's waiting for something. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence in his shot, but as soon as he has room, he's got to take it and just blast it. I'd rather him just rip the buck right now. He's not moving his feet. I thought today, some shifts, he was moving his feet, and it looked like we had glimpses, but six on five there at the end, it's the same thing, waiting. If he just takes three or four strides, I don't know if it's a mental block right now, all year, he's got to move his feet.

And Ian McEntire, who wrote the article, went with the Media Scrum to Petterson, who talked after the game, and said this, When we asked Petterson whether confidence is a factor when struggling to score, the alternate captain said, and that's an important sentence, It's more annoying dealing with the media.

I would love to hear and see the quote, to see if there was a hint of joking behind it.

It doesn't read well, though.

No, it doesn't read well. Well, and not knowing the answer, my money's on he's being sincere. Man, we all thought his season would turn around or hoped his season would turn around. Jt Miller's He's not there anymore. What do we got to do? What do we have to do? Okay, you're the highest paid player on this team, one of the highest paid players in the National Hockey League. Therefore, one of the highest paid hockey players in the world. That doesn't put you in a good mood? Okay. You don't like JT Miller? You guys don't get along your oil and water? Okay. Well, we traded JT Miller. You're still not in a good mood? Okay. Well, the coach caters to you at every step of the way. You're still not... Okay. So what do we need to do to make you happy? What do we got to do to put you in your happy place? What do we got to do to make the $11. 6 million you make money well spent? He's dealing with an injury, supposedly. Oh, my God. Okay, well, then he doesn't play. Oh, he's playing. Well, then every team has to deal with something like this.

Jesse, is that the video?

Yeah, if you want the video of Petterson postgame in Utah, this is it.

I need to see it because it's important. Okay.

Yeah. He was available postgame. The video is 40 seconds long.

Obviously, a frustrating one.

What led to the outcome in your Small details.

I think we had enough to win today, but another tough one.

Can you just say the loss, obviously, but Artus loves making 30 saves in the night. You How did you feel about him?

Yeah, he played great. He kept us in the game. Just the whole game, he kept us in the game and made some really big saves.

How much are you missing, Quinn Hughes, in a game like this tonight?

It speaks for itself. I play that when we're missing him. Obviously, we want him back, but I hope he will be back soon.

That was in postgame. Oh.

But where was that quote about- You mentioned liking some part. Where was that quote What about the confidence? I don't like talking to the media.

Did it happen pregame?

No, it happened. It might not have happened on camera. This is an Ian McEntire article from Sportsnet. Okay. So it may just be that it didn't happen.

Because I was watching that, I'm like, Okay. Vancouver Media, I know they're probably top five. I don't want to deal with these guys in the league, if you're a player. Softball, softball, softball. Hey, you're a leader. Talk about how good Sylav's was. Talk about how good Quin Hughes is. I know these aren't questions that are going to win anybody a Peabody award or anything, but But for the love of God, what do we got to do? What do we got to do? What do you need? What is the bridge that we need to build between you and contentment in your game? It makes 11. 6 million dollars. This Knux team doesn't stink. They're good. I think they're good. But what is holding them back currently is their best forward, highest paid forward, does stink. He's certainly not 11. 6, right? Like, oh, he's doing the right things defensively. Petterson should be like... Petterson is a 50 goal scorer, isn't he? Like a perennial 100-point guy.

49 points in 71 games since the extension. How many goals? Good question. Has he hit 20?

I don't think he's hit 20. I'm pretty sure the answer is 16. Guys, the Knucks I mean, talk it if he had any, he would be pulling out his hair with this guy. I thought Ryan- I was about to say, and then I looked over at Jesse's screen and I went, oh, wait.

I thought Ryan Henderson had an interesting take. Ryan is the producer of Donny and Dolly, which is a huge show in Vancouver. Ryan said The reality is it's never been easier being a Knuck in terms of dealing with the media. The media size is a third of what it used to be for the 2011 core, and most people don't travel anymore. Meaning that media used to... If you were a newspaper reporter, you were a reporter Sportsman or TSN, those Beat Reporters went with the team everywhere. Yes. They don't do that anymore because the money is not there.

They can't afford it.

So David Alter is like a...

A unicorn. Unicorn.

And that's Toronto, a market that is probably double the size. My Might even be bigger. And so I think that's interesting as well. And yeah, is it a mental block? Very, very probably a mental block, as Rick Tauke had alluded to. The Yips. Is it the Yips or is it this guy might need to get traded, too? Maybe you need a fresh start. That is a top five salary in the league, is it not?

For a forward, probably. Probably. Okay, McKinnon, Matthews, He's tied with Panarin. Driesaddle doesn't kick in until next year. Marner probably passes him, Rantin probably passes him. But again, none of those things have happened yet. I think what's frustrating with Petterson is we've seen him dominate with our own two eyes.

Well, that's why it's a story.

This isn't a guy where we're like, All right, we're waiting for him to break out. No, it's a superstar that went away.

Dan Richio said, When Meller was traded, Petterson said he wanted the added pressure.

And five seconds later-That was a month ago. Oh, the media. Mm-hmm. Man, what do you do? What do you do? How do you make this guy happy? It's distracting from, How do you keep Barack Besser? There's another guy who's always mentioned, and maybe he's gone. What do you mean maybe he's gone? It's Brock Bester. Yeah. The Knux are as trying to look at the Knux neutrally. People tend to confuse where Lee fans talking about what we want to happen to other teams in context of the Leaps. That's not what we do when we're talking about situations like this. As a neutral fan, trying to get in the mindset of like, Okay, I'm a Canucks fan. What would I want to do What would I want to happen in this situation? I'm pulling my hair out here. This shouldn't be a bad team. This shouldn't be a bad player. You mentioned the potential of trading him. One, that's heartbreaking for Knux fans. Two, who's taking that? 11. 6.

If you're taking him- I think if a team like Columbus is willing to take on Seth Jones, they'd be more than willing to take on Elias Petterson.

But But you have to admit the Blue Jackets would be blindly guessing that he's going to return to form. Yes.

Or guys, do you give it to summer and go, Listen, I know that everybody wants them to win now, but do you give it the summer and go, you need to go and do whatever it is you need to do to get back on track and then judge it next year?

Well, that's what the Jets did a couple of years ago. The difference was they kept the team together, right? The difference was Shifley stayed, Halibuck Wheeler stayed.

Wheeler stayed, but lost the captaincy.

Yeah. Well, Wheeler was like very end of his career, so it's a little different, I guess. So maybe that was enough of a change. But I mean, the Jets were this irredeemable, unsavable situation, and now they're one of the best teams in the league. So if you're the Knux, maybe you just hope and pray because you're not going to get adequate... You're not going to get fair return for the player you had a few years ago. You're going to get, if you're lucky, adequate return for the player you have now, which is a decent player on a Superstar's contract.

Jazzy, are you team Trade or team Keep?

I'm on team Trade because this summer... We have a PK-Suuban situation going on because this summer, his no movement clause kicks in. I feel like that's a very underrated part of this story is that come July first, you cannot trade him anymore. So you might as well get it done before July first and get those assets because otherwise, you're just hoping that he turns back into what you hope he is, and he hasn't been that player for quite some time. And Steve, you're talking about 50 goals. He's career high is 39. He hasn't been a 50 goal scorer. This is who you have because this is the moment where he has to step up. There's the possibility that he's injured, but if he's this injured, then you keep him out of the lineup, right? And I feel like there's going to be a taker around the league, especially with like Columbus or Buffalo. Buffalo. That just needs a shakeup that if you're in Vancouver, I think it's time to move him.

The foundation of the trade is so obvious. Petterson, Cousins. Okay, what needs to be on either side to make it work. But that is the foundation from where you begin. Easily.

I think Columbus is a little more likely, too, just because of the position they're in where they look at least the a little better. That's the thing they've always struggled with is down the middle. Here you have a team with tons of cap space that can take a chance on a player like this because they probably won't be able to sign a guy in free agency like Petterson because they don't come up a lot available and they don't usually go to Columbus, even though we saw it with Gujro. He went to Columbus and we all question that. But I don't know. I think if you're a Columbus, this is the swing you got to make.

See, Columbus, though, you got to remember, all right, what's happened with that franchise. There was a very brief period of time where they had a bunch of stars. It was crazy. Panarin, Bobrowski was a star for that.

The Rick Nash years?

Well, the Rick Nash, they drafted first overall, and then he left. But every time they've tried to recruit a star, it hasn't really worked.

Except for Johnny.

Except for Johnny. But well, and those teams weren't good around him. I'm going all the way back to Jeff Carter. That didn't work at all. Patrick Laine, that's a big swing. That didn't work at all. And if I'm looking around and going, okay, so this guy, he's a top five pick with crazy scoring potential, and he makes a ton of money, except even though he has all this potential, he doesn't score. Am I just reacquiring Patrick Lina. No.

I know they're not the same. Different management group.

I know they're not the same. Petterson is a far better defensive player.

Different position.

Different position. Well, not if you ask Columbus. They freaking put Lina at center. I feel like Columbus has found a good thing, and I don't think... I don't know if a big swing is what they need.

They need to do something to take another step. It's not just about sitting around. Eventually, you need to take a step, and here's an opportunity, and you don't know when this opportunity is going come around again, and you're in prime position to just like, if this doesn't work right now, who cares? You're at $68 million. The cap floor is 65. You need money.

To me, Columbus is a improvement moving young team that is taking obvious steps. The Sabers have all the young talent Columbus does and still suck. I would probably take Buffalo's goal-tending over Columbus's, and they still suck. To me, that's their swing to take, Buffalo.

I don't think for a team that has a bunch of young talent that has consistently underperformed or just never grown up into the ability that they think they are. I don't know if Petterson and the Sabers are a good fit. I agree with you. I see Petterson going to the Sabers and just being more of Petterson.

Yeah, but that makes him... He sounds like a Buffalo Saber already.

Well, that's why I think Columbus is a better fit.

Then you shouldn't I didn't do that. I guess you're right.

I think Columbus is a much better fit because they've got vibes in that locker room. And as much as-Let's fuck them up. Vancouver has... Well, Vancouver doesn't... They had vibes last year. And so, Columbus is a team that-There's a swagger in Columbia. There is. And there's also a new management group and a new coach and a new outlook, and things are looking up there. And I think I agree completely with Jesse. Those are the types of guys that you can't... Like the Raptors or the Blue Jays, you can't really sign them in free agency. Here's what I wonder. Go make a swing.

Here's what I wonder. So Carolina has been rumored to be in on Petterson. Yeah. Don Wendell was in that management group five seconds ago. And I got to believe these conversations with Carolina predate his leaving, Carolina.

Maybe.

That's a pure guess, but I think it's a good one. So maybe there's something there. Well, do you- Columbus.

Yeah. Well, maybe if they've got it, if Columbus goes and says we can't sign Rantanin, how do we make a three-team deal with somebody that does one? Oh, let's cook with gas.

I love these shows. I love using my imagination.

Go get Petterson. Because you know what? He does play well on the defensive side of the park. Brinda Moore would like that. They've got a good dressing room in Carolina. This is the...

What is it? 10, 11 days left until trade deadline? Yeah. Oh, Every... We should get rid of our theme song for the next few days and just go with Barney. Just make it that.

Did you see... Imagination. To switch gears here, looks like there's going to be a hearing for Trevor Zegris today.

It's a terrible hit.

For this terrible hit, Michael R O'Neill-Rusman. Now, this one is actually on the line for me, and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Let's have a look.

Well, I know exactly why. I thought the same thing this morning. Did you? I won't blow it for you. I won't blow it for you, but I think I know where you're going.

It feels like, and I'll do this for our audio only listeners, it feels like he caught him on the wrong side and didn't want... I didn't see I don't know if I saw malicious intent. It looks horrible. But Rasmussen is bent knee going into this.

Admiring his past is what I thought you were going to say.

Well, there's that, too.

Or not- It is Zegress, Mr..

With the Department of Player Safety? I know he's had a rough year.

I know he's frustrated. What are you arguing?

I'm arguing that I'm not totally... I'm trying to put myself in the place of NHL player safety, which is very difficult to do. He clearly beans him. Clearly It literally hits him on the head.

Primary...

Primary contact, he's going to be suspended. I agree with that. Is it going to be the one that people... People are like, They want blood on this one. Is it going to be that?

Well, Jeff Marek said two games.

I think it's going to be one. Because I don't see Zegris as, A, the type of character who normally does this. B, I don't see him there going... He's not raising his chicken wings. His elbows are down. Rasmussen is looking the other way. But if Rasmussen is standing up or normally higher than that, Zegris catches him on the shoulder or in the chest.

It was avoidable.

Okay.

This head contact, I think, was wholly avoidable. What I'd like to know, and I I don't know because I only have two eyes. I couldn't watch every game, is what led up to this, because Rasmussen is becoming a well-known agitator.

Which I love.

Good for him. Well, remember, early in the season, he scored the empty letter, and then he stood over Jack Hughes, and the Devils didn't like that. And that's Jack Hughes. Nikita Kutrow very literally intended to injure him on that trip with the empty net, and I went off on that. And That's Nikita Kutrow. And now here's Trevor Zegres, who is expected to be a big part of this Anaheim Ducks team. This is an agitator, and guys are trying to hurt him. And Trevor Zegres There's no way he's playing next game.

I don't think so.

There's no way. And I don't think Zegres should either. To me, it doesn't need to be a complete greaseball he meant to injure this person type of hit. But I think players line up a hit, and when they see it's someone they hate.

Makes it more fun?

Well, they can't help themselves. And I think Rasmussen puts himself in that position as an agitator. It's an all-head hit.

Jesse, do you have a prediction on how this will go? Is this a $5,000 fine? Is this a suspension? What do you think?

No, my money would be on two games. I don't think it's malicious. I don't think he was going out headhunting, but he did the thing. He hit him in the head, clear as day with the shoulder to the head. So I think that deserves two games. Especially because on the ice, there was no call. They just played the rest of the game. Trevor Zegris got to play the rest of the game.

If he had gotten five in a game, would you bring it back down to one, guys?

Maybe. But in the reality where he doesn't get a penalty at all, I think it's two. I think two is fair.

Now, you're leaving out something very important. George Peros used to play for the Ducks, so discount.

I also want to say It's looking like, I'm reading some Detroit reporters this morning. Andrew Kopp might be very seriously injured. He's been out, but his nameplate is no longer in the dressing room. Oh, holy shit. So I will follow that. I don't know anything beyond that.

There's some really serious injuries in the NHL this year.

Yeah, and that's a big loss for Detroit. Andrew's had a... He's had a really good year. He was probably on pace to beat his career high. His career high in goals is 15 from five years ago. He has 10 and 56 already this year, so I think he's been a valuable piece for them.

If the Red Wings end up making the playoffs, and right now they have that advantage, Kopp's a big loss. He was pretty good for the Rangers. Yeah.

Yeah. Not great. No, not great. So we'll see I don't know what happens there. And lastly, I wanted to ask you, I wanted to play this because... So this is a bit of a Shameless plug, but it's from Alan and I's show yesterday. And the reason I want to play it is because I asked Alan about free agency and about trade deadline and some stuff, and it's towards the end of the show. I asked him about because what we saw in '15 and '16 when the NBA cap exploded was guys like LeBron James signing, essentially rolling one-year contracts. Lebron would sign a three-year deal and opt out of it immediately and then go and resign the next year with the same team, which was Cleveland at the time, for just the max because the max kept going up by X % every year. And I asked Alan if we were going to see that. And I think because everybody has said in the NHL for years, oh, NHL players would never do that because it's the attrition in the sport is so great. But have a listen to what Alan had to say.

That's exactly where we're going. You're going to see top NHL players signing for one in two years because the only reason players in the past were signing for in eight years was financial security. If a player is already making... I just had this conversation with the GM, NHL GM, yesterday, who said, pretty soon, We're going to be... And he said it in a positive way. He said, I can't wait for the first $20 million a year player in the NHL. Good for that guy. I'm proud that the players are getting there and I'm happy. And he's a former player. He's rooting for the first $20 million player in the NHL. If you're making 17, $18, $20 million a year, you're not selling eight years of your career to a team for financial security, you already have it. Now you can take that out, which really negates the need to go long term. You can say, You know what? Great group of guys. We're going to try to win here for the next year or two. But in two years, I get to go back to the market. Number one, with the cap going up year after year after year, likely get more money.

That's what's happened in the NBA. With the cap jumping, guys got more money doing short term deals. That's certainly a motivator. But also the ability where if things are going well with the coach, things aren't going well with the direction of the team in any way, you get to go back to the market and make another choice.

So we can pause there. So You should check out the rest of that show. It's really great. But what I think is going to be interesting is NHL fans' reaction to this, because when Matthews didn't sign for eight years, he signed for five.

It was an enormous failure.

I can't believe it was an enormous failure that he did that. William And Neilander signed for eight. That's true loyalty. He got three more years than Matthews.

Neilander for eight years, knowing what we know about the cap is awesome.

Yeah, he's leaving money on the table. Nathan McKinnon, look at the money he's left on the table over the course of his career. But guys, I wonder where the guy like Miko Rantan. If he's in that position, no matter who he ends up with this year, if it's Carolina, which is obviously the most likely, or if it's somebody else, if he gets traded again, he still does not need to sign there because what he can then do is if he wants the long term, and from what we've heard this weekend, $100 million contract was offered to him. Duh, of course.

That's eight years, 12. 5.

If he wants that deal, he can go out and get maximum on one year and then three months three months later or three months into the season, sign an eight-year extension on top of that. Because that's the whole thing about free agency. Well, if I sign in free agency, I can only get seven years. I can't get eight. Well, actually, you can. The Carolina Huracanes did it with Jesperry Cough in EME. He was an RFA, but they did it. So I wonder if a guy like Nico Rantan goes, I'm still going open market, and I'm going to sign wherever, and if I like it, then I'll sign eight years. If for Leef defense, are you prepared to be okay with Mitch Marner signing for three? That might just be what it is. It doesn't mean he's leaving. It just means I'm only doing three years because the cap's exploding.

Every time there's a canary in the mind situation with the salary cap, it's always here.

Well, I mean, it's a good position to have because it means you have good players.

That's right. Yeah, it is right. I mean, I... If you're him, why wouldn't you do that? I know. No, 100%. He's got a family and everything, a growing family, but I think he's doing okay. This isn't a guy at the very beginning of his career. I don't think this is a guy whose pocketbook is hurting. It wholly depends on his priorities and what he wants. He holds the cards, and he's earned the ability to hold the cards.

Jesse, what do you think he does? Do you think he does a full eight? Does he do five? Austin, does he do three?

No, it makes a lot more sense for him to not do it. I think it's outlined there that we get a four-year deal. The salary cap is just going to be so ridiculous. We're going to see that $20 million player. It doesn't make sense for Mitch Marner to sign eight years. So we can't have that expectation.

If he does four years, for instance, okay, that puts him up the same year, I believe, as Austin.

So you'll want to I do want to stagger them, I guess. You do want to stagger. Yeah. So you want five or three.

He's 27. He'll be 28 in May.

So this signs him till he's 31 or something.

He could probably sign a two-year deal this summer for real good money. And if he wanted to, when that expiredires sign an eight-year.

Yeah.

Or do two, four, and four.

Yeah.

And then that probably takes him into the sunset.

You're leaving like tens of millions of dollars on the table if you sign an eight-year deal.

Yes. And I look at Vladislav Gavrakov, when he signed in Los Angeles, he signed a two-year deal. And everybody's like, why did he only sign for two years? Oh, he nailed it. He absolutely nailed it. He said at the time, I know I'm going to be able to make more at the end of this contract.

And no one took that risk, really? He did. He nailed it. Good for him, man.

So I think we talked about a little bit earlier, and Steve, you mentioned that things are going to get goofy at the trade deadline. Things I think might get goofier July first. This could be...

I'm so frigging pump for the next few months, dude.

It's awesome.

Just as someone who gets to talk about this stuff for a living, God, we're going to have a lot of fun. Yeah, the leaves, I'm sure, will traumatize me at some point in the middle, but the trade deadline, the playoffs are going to be unbelievable, and then we head straight to the draft and free agency. God, we're going to kick ass this spring. There you go.

All right. Now, let's do the press conference. The Presser. S-d-p.

The Steve Dangle Press Conference.

Steve, this was a question for you because you collect hockey figurines. Yeah.

Thank you for... Hey.

Corleos on our Discord said, Question on collecting hockey figurines. A shop near me is starting to sell a few, and I'd like to support them. Got it. They're locally owned. Got it. Is there a particular brand that is more valuable, or is it more player-based?

It's player-based. It's conditioned because... Well, I'll get to that in a minute. It's player-based, it's conditioned, and it's year. So what I'm starting to notice, and this is very good for me because I have 80 of these things, they've been around for a long time. So McFarlon is making them again. For a while, it was Import Dragon, Imports Dragon. But McFarlon did all the hockey figures for a long time. I bought a Chris Chelios the other day. I haven't bought one for a while, but I got a Chris Chelios. Because I don't have a figure of him, and I played with him at the Easter Seals tournament, and I have a photo with him, and I want to add that to the Blue Room. The photo is... Sorry, the figure is of him in a Blackhawks uniform. It's from 2003. Three. That's a 22-year-old figure, and I bought it. The package is in excellent condition. It's not crumpled or nothing.

Not sun-burned or whatever?

The sun-dying is bad.

It's bad.

Not on this figure. For those of you who don't know what that is, and this can happen with memorabilia a lot, but it can just happen with stuff around your house. If it's exposed to the sun through your window for extended periods of time, it degrades. It gets yellow, especially white stuff.

Same thing can happen to your headlights on your car, right? Can't it? You get a hazing on it. Yeah.

Oh, there you go. I have a stick signed by the '08, '09 leaves. Now, luckily, it's signed by the '08, '09 leaves. But it got sun-died bad to the point where it basically eroded the autographs.

Oh, that sucks.

Not all of it, but yeah. Some of the the figures I have, the packaging got yellow. So over time, stuff gets opened, stuff gets damaged, stuff gets sun-died. And all of a sudden, this stuff that's like a quarter century old becomes more and more and more rare, which is delightful to me because I have so much of this shit, and one day, maybe I'll be able to sell it. So When it comes to value, it's rarity. There's a Brian McCabe with a yellow mohawk, and that's a special one. That's cool. The Rhymer one I got was a variant. There was the word I was looking for. That's why it was 60 bucks because it's rare. But you're looking for condition of the packaging, age, and rarity. That's what you're looking for. Okay. Did that answer it?

Yeah, no, totally. I think that Kalitos or whatever their name was, is probably very happy with the answer.

Awesome.

Now, to end two Four Nations things, one with the leaves, and then one a question from Discord. A Leifs thing, Willy on the Four Nation final, I shut it off, he said, of getting sleep for Friday's practice. It didn't matter to me. I have two great teammates on either side. It would be good for one, tough for the other, but they both played great. Then John Tavares said something similar. He He said about the Four Nations final. You never know how long the game is going to go with how tight the game was. Ot started at 11: 15 Eastern. He was already pushing it. Watch with the kids upon waking up. We got Willy and JT both turning off the Four Nations final because they need to get their sleep. What did you guys think?

Jt, by the way, said he watched... He T-voted or whatever and watched it in the morning with his kids.

Yeah, he watched with kids upon waking up.

You're telling me he didn't know the result? I don't I hate when players say they don't watch the playoffs. You know it's a pet peeve of mine. When JT said that, I was like, Okay, that's on brand.

That's the most John Tavares quote of all time.

That's what he does. Because Willy framed it like I got two great teammates, and John's like, I had to get to sleep, which is very John Tavares. He nailed it. The intensity of that frigging game. I want every player of mine to put a blanket over their TV and just focus on that, go under it and just watch. I want you to channel everything. Dude, we watched two games this weekend. The pace The break-neck difference between the pace of that tournament and these games is crazy.

It's crazy.

Insane. Yeah. And those are the games you have to win.

I think for both of them- John scored a series winner for believes he gets a pass. I know, Jess, this is my opinion on it. I think it would have been harder for both of them to watch. And I say this because John went out of his way to be at the World Championships last year, was the captain of the team, and they told him, Listen, if you go, it's going to dramatically increase your chances, and then he doesn't get to go to Four Nations, right? Yeah. Willy and Sweden had as many points as Canada did. They only lost on wins, and every game that they were in was like a one goal game. So Sweden should and could have been in that final just as easily as Canada United States.

It was the head-to-head because they lost to Canada.

Oh, they lost to Canada. Okay, fair enough. Whatever it was. Sweden could and should have been in there. One goal goes the other way, and Canada loses that game against Sweden in that bar in Stovall on that snowy night. They're in the final. So I think I can also imagine. Listen, I want players to watch the playoffs. I agree with you, Steve. For that one game, I can imagine for those two guys, for different reasons, it would have been like nails on a chalkboard because it would have just made them competitively angry.

I think John Tavares is a very patriotic Canadian. If the Leaps get knocked out early in these playoffs, I don't think you'll catch him dead at the World Championships this year.

No, I don't think so. I think that message was said. Does that make sense? Is that fair?

Yeah, I understand.

I understood when he said it.

It's just I want players to watch.

The other way you should look at this is everybody going into this saying, Oh, it's a made-up tournament, and they should prioritize their teams. Look, Petrangilo is, or maybe some of these other guys should consider that. That John Tavares and William Neeland are sticking to their routines is putting the least first. I'm in Toronto now. I'm back in Toronto. I'm going to put my team first, and maybe we want to look at it that way.

Once the tournament ends, your priority is to your team, and you're going to be doing Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner far more favors by going to sleep and getting ready for practice than you are by watching them on TV.

Yeah. William Neillander also doesn't have a rooting interest. He's not rooting for Canada or the United States. He was rooting for Sweden. He got eliminated. So I feel like he did the right thing. You paid $13 million to prepare to be a Toronto Mapleleaf. You should probably go to bed and prepare to be a Toronto Mapleleaf. It's crazy.

He's Canadian-born. How dare you?

He didn't have a rooting interest. No, you're right. For the team he played for. You're right. And they're out. Drawn meaning 77 on Discord had a follow-up about the Four Nations. They wrote, Hey, guys, why can't hockey games start on time? Trying to watch New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins in its 20 minutes past Puck Drop, and the Puck has yet to be dropped. The NHL is an all-time high coming out of Four Nations, Why do they keep shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to starting games on time? I don't think this is a coming out of Four Nations thing. This has always been a problem with the NHL, and they don't start at the time they announced.

Hey, you know what? You know what's crazy about it? Here's the answer. It's money. It's always money. They want you watching the pregame show, going, When the hell does this freaking game start? That's what they want.

The pregame show brought you by.

Exactly. Something. They want you watching that pregame show as much as possible. The thing is now, you look at sports networks, and they're doing... Sportsnet and TSN will do their version of Sportsnet, and then they'll do a half an hour around the league pregame, and then the game is supposed to start at seven, and they're doing 20 minutes on just that game. They're trying to get as many viewers as they can in for that commercial revenue.

Tsn was a jump scare for me last night.

It just started, boom.

Well, because I'm so used to Sportsnet and Hockey Night. We only stream those games, or I only stream those games. And then TSN, no Anthems.

I'm so glad they've cut those.

We're back from commercial and the players are on the ice and boom. When you come back from commercial, the game starts within 30 seconds.

Yeah, it's great.

It's awesome. I was... And you know what's great about that? I screwed up intro. I had all this stuff I was going to say, and I'm like, Oh.

What's great about that, too, is if you are the commercial ad buyer, if you're somebody that has bought that commercial, you're pretty pumped about that because it keeps people through the entire commercial break. Whereas when you go to the Anthem, people get up, they go to the bathroom one more time, they put the TV on mute. Honestly, the reason the Anthem became a story is because of the booing. But most of the time, I think 90% of Canadian and American fans are like, I could give two craps about the Anthem every game. I understand it in certain instances. I understand it in special occasions. But the fact that it happens 82 times a year plus the playoffs makes it not that special. It's not great television. Let's just put it that way. It's just not great television. That's what drives me nuts with Sportsnet. It's like you got the long pregame show and then you've got the anthem. By the time the game starts, it's almost like you've been stuck in the mud in a car and you're trying to pump the to get out.

Because it just slows everything down. Can I tell you a very interesting observation I made yesterday? It was very interesting to me anyway.

They didn't show the anthem. Jesse, are we rating Steve on his interestometer here?

No, it's very interesting. Trust me, you're going to love this. Tsn didn't show the anthems yesterday, and everyone survived.

It's crazy.

Everyone lived. They went home to their loved ones. Everything's fine. You don't need it on TV.

Yeah, you can do it at the game. Don't need it on TV. It's bad TV.

Some people will say you don't need it at the game. But I would. You definitely don't need it on TV.

Yep, I agree. I agree with you. So that's it. That's it for the show today. Yes. But listen, I hope you had a good time. We'll be back Wednesday. We're into a normal schedule this week. We're gearing up for the Trade Deadline. By the way, brand new CJ show, which is going to have lots of interesting bits on just that because we are full trade season, baby, and probably some extensions, too. Cool. Is it?

The Steve Dangle podcast. Follow the guys on Twitter at steve_dangle@adamwylde and at Jessie Blake. Connection complete.