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Can Of Anxiety - Tougie's Take Podcast (1/8/24)
201 Plays1 year ago
- On this edition of the show, the Fella's are back together to talk about William Nylander's new contract with the Leafs, the PWHL's record breaking weekend and more!
- Subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel!
- Check out our Discord!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Naming
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Toogies Take podcast, or as Endo's alternate title that he suggested happens to be, Toog and a Half Men. We are back again. It is us, the guys, the fellas, ready to talk more about the world of hockey.
00:00:26
Speaker
and family guy for Sin and I as we'll continue to make references throughout every podcast. Sin, you're here. How are
ECL Cast and Upcoming NHL News
00:00:35
Speaker
you? I'm doing good. You know, we just had a great ECL cast and now we're doing a podcast because I guess some big news happened in the NHL. More on that later. Stick with us.
00:00:49
Speaker
Nintendo,
Twitter Backlash and Resignation Jokes
00:00:50
Speaker
you're here. Any idea what this big news could be about that has us recording on a Monday again instead of just on a Thursday? We're resigning. This is it, everybody. It's the moment you've all been waiting for. We're fucking done. I got cooked on Twitter last night, so we're done. I've had enough.
00:01:15
Speaker
I did. You did?
Personal Catch-up: Super Bowl and Relaxation
00:01:16
Speaker
More on that later. That's not. You should work that into a into a show topic. It's going to be fun. Gentlemen, how was the weekend? How are you? I don't care about hockey at the moment. I care about my friends. And how are you? Oh, me, I'm good. I got my friend Yoshi in the back there. Got your Yoshi, the big Yoshi.
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's all good. It's playing some good nice head thoughts. Head empty. No thoughts. Music in the background. It's nice. It's going good. It's going good. Got this fancy aluminum cup. Ball cup. It's great. Should get a copper cup. What
Stanley Cup Discussion and Cultural References
00:02:01
Speaker
are your thoughts on the Stanley Cup?
00:02:03
Speaker
Oh, that fucking bullshit, the suburban mother's fucking holy grail. Jesus Christ, I could go on, but I'm going to stop myself because that's my nearest resolution. Unless you want me to keep going and I can. You already went full Pierre by looking around your room to see what else you could talk about. Oh, I have this trophy. That's not mine. I also have that. Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker
The Stanley Cup is stupid. You don't need more than one fucking thermal cup of that size. That's all I'll say. Jesus Christ. Take that, white women. I'm not fucking Pokemon. Collect them all. Fucking motherfucker. Sid, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. The weekend was pretty good. I liked it better when it was the weekend. And before we changed the name, he had a good Super Bowl performance that birthed a lot of memes.
00:03:02
Speaker
as we affectionately call him around here. The weakened. The weakened. You have to say it in a Stewie Griffin impression, though. The weakened. Brian, I want to say the weakened. Oh, God. So fun fact, we actually do have a lot to talk about today. In regards to hockey, it's been a busy couple of days.
00:03:31
Speaker
But before we before we get into the the big topics as we do Every once in a while. We like to hit a lovely little warm-up question and my question is for sin You mentioned the sports gamer broadcast today was day two of five in a row in terms of broadcasts are we going to survive
00:04:00
Speaker
Yes, it's yeah, we're going to make it. Oh, yeah, of course. It's playoffs, baby. I'm glad we're covering all of it. We covered less of the regular season to cover more of the playoffs, which is the fucking correct decision. Very true. Very, very true. And you're right. It has been fun so far. Our real first question. Is this and it comes from one bouncy McBlink blank. What is a team building tool?
00:04:28
Speaker
meaning draft, trading, salary cap, et cetera. What is a team building tool that you would like to add and take away in the NHL? Endo would like to take away waivers. For gold tenders specifically. Perry Sateri was a leaf for like a week. Five minutes. Five minutes.
00:04:58
Speaker
I don't know. I feel like it's kind of good. When I think about it, I wouldn't get rid of trading. No. I wouldn't get rid of the draft.
00:05:13
Speaker
because certain teams would be fucking boned. And look, the era of the past in Montreal's dominance, you can't take it away from them. But you also can't pretend that the Montreal Canadiens didn't have, well, yeah, you can, you can try. You can't take away from that era of dominance, but you can't deny that the Montreal Canadiens essentially had first crack at every top prospect in Quebec.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah. At a time when that was probably the most important region in hockey to have dibs on. To be honest, it is. And had the drafts not become a thing, Ray Bork would have been a hab.
00:06:02
Speaker
Mike Bossie would have been a hab amongst numerous other people. That era of dominance wouldn't have ended. And it would have really changed, I think, the course of the hockey history in so many ways beyond just cups, like the effect of what if the draft didn't become a thing until 20, 30 years later? I mean, the era of Montreal Canadiens dominance wouldn't have ended. That's just a fact.
00:06:30
Speaker
I would take away the draft lottery for the next three seasons and then put it back in. Good call. Good answer. Good answer. Good answer.
00:06:48
Speaker
I, I gotta be honest with that would be my, my choice. I mean, that's the thing though. It's just team building tools. I don't know if we can get rid of the lottery without getting rid of the draft entirely, but I am perfectly okay with not
00:07:02
Speaker
having a draft lottery and just having it be NFL style, if you've finished in last, you get the last pick. Unless you're the Carolina Panthers and you traded that pick away to the Chicago Bears, who did not finish in last, but the Bears will still have the first overall pick in this year's NFL draft. No Bears. No Bears. Shout out to the Patriots who will pick third, by the way. Third. And they'll pick up a guy from a two-star college as a project.
00:07:31
Speaker
West Cornell University of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, California. The Polytechnical. Draft a U-sports guy. God, I want to see like an NFL team actually draft a U-sports guy. It very rarely happens, but it'll be really, really funny to see. Oh, God. Yeah, with the third overall pick, the New England... Granted, not quite an E-sports guy, but the New England Patriots select Gut Fox.
00:08:00
Speaker
For those of you who pay attention to the Madden community, that was a great joke. For those of you who don't, there you go. It is what it is. There you go. Yeah. God, I could talk about the Patriots for a while, but I won't because, oof, depressing. Bill Belichick might be gone. We don't know yet for sure. Depressing. But yeah, in terms of answering the question, I don't know. I feel like the lottery, like in terms of taking away, I feel like the structure for the league is really, really good. I wouldn't take away the salary cap.
00:08:29
Speaker
because then you would still... We're gonna talk about a certain team who would benefit greatly from there being no salary cap right about now. I think most of their fan base wishes there wasn't a salary cap. More on that in a moment. I think True Living thinks that there isn't a salary cap.
00:08:47
Speaker
Fair. Fair. They thought Dubas was bad. It's all true living in the moment, baby. This is when you get a very large inheritance and you just start spending money or in shack when he got his first big contract and he bought like cars and houses and shit. And then this financial dude called him and said he has 50 grand in debt. He's like, no, I'm not. I only had a million. I only spent 500,000.
00:09:15
Speaker
Shit and then Shaq proceeded to buy every fucking Papa John's every shoe shop everything I Mean, yeah, he's Shaq you can afford it. Yeah, that's Sure, you can afford it now. It's dr. Shaq actually you got a doctorate Does he yeah, he's got a doctor. Dr. O'Neill. Yeah, dr. Shaq I was like oh my dr. Oh
00:09:42
Speaker
He's got, he's got a PhD in Dunkin Office. It's required to break a backboard like he did multiple times. Oh my God. Here you go. Those are some of the best sports highlights of all time, by the way. It's just Shaquille O'Neal obliterating backboards. Yes. God damn the 90s. Yeah.
00:10:04
Speaker
I like you won't likely once the last time a backboard shattered in the NBA like I feel like I've seen Like the you know the mechanism hoisting it up like malfunction and it drop but in terms of like shattering the backboard I feel like they've There's like a shack rule in terms of how they're manufactured and that just doesn't happen anymore But if I'm wrong, please let me know on Twitter. I would love to see somebody modern
00:10:32
Speaker
Make that happen really quickly Only because we just talked about it I was doing one more scroll through of reddit and on my front page Oh Lord
00:10:47
Speaker
was this and give me one second here for those of you who obviously aren't watching the video side of things that is what it is and it is a thing right here from the New England Patriots subreddit in which a mock draft has the Patriots taking an offensive lineman and the person comments i swear i'm jumping off the zakeem bridge if we take this so um that's that's where Patriots fans are
00:11:12
Speaker
right now in terms of the. You got to protect Mack Jones, give him more time to throw so he could throw a pick. Oh, he's going to have a lot of time to figure out how to throw a football when he's on the first bus to fucking Cleveland. I don't know where else he's going, but it won't be in England. In terms of additions. To the league. I don't necessarily have one either.
00:11:40
Speaker
because as fun as it would be in a scenario to be like, promotion, relegation in the NHL, the infrastructure is not really there. Yeah. Right? Like, they're not. The HL is a feeder league. They're already on NHL teams, most of them. Like, it doesn't make sense.
00:11:58
Speaker
I mean, in fairness, like that does work in football, where a lot of second tier teams have loaned out players from the big clubs that they're trying to develop those guys that they don't have space for them. So it could still work in that way. But yeah, I mean, you're talking about completely overhauling the system. So I I got to be honest, I don't have a good answer in regards to what to add or what to take away from the building, I think, is the best part of the NHL and how it's set up.
00:12:28
Speaker
I think it really is. Trading free agency, rookie deals.
00:12:37
Speaker
The draft, even the lottery, and the hard cap, it's great. I think it's fantastic. That's at least one thing that's been done positively in the NHL to make it a pretty competitive league. As much as they want to say, we don't want people intentionally tanking, you got to be bad sometimes to get good. Fuck me, the Leafs were shit.
00:13:02
Speaker
For so long, they had to be. That's how you build a team. The lightning or shit for a long time. Colorado was shit. Like this is just the cycle. And I don't, this is a weird thing that Gary Batman's taken the stance against like tanking. It's like, it's gonna happen. The thing is. Even if people don't try, it happens. Exactly. Like if you let teams actually tank,
00:13:31
Speaker
odds are they're going to build themselves out of it. But if you have a lottery system and a team continually loses said lottery and loses out on that franchise level pick, you end up in a situation where they can just perpetually be caught in that rebuilding situation.
00:14:00
Speaker
And then sometimes they dig themselves out of it. And I think of a team like Columbus, who have what, one playoff series win in their franchises history. And more often it ought to have been a lottery team. Here's the thing about Columbus. They tried to not tank. They got Lionel, they signed good Goudreau. But they did what the NHL wanted and they're going to be fucking punished for it. They're being punished for it.
00:14:27
Speaker
Fifth bottom from the league right now. Bottom five is Columbus, Ottawa, Anaheim, Chicago, and San Jose. So San Jose and Chicago actively tanking, right? Actively. Anaheim, Ottawa, Columbus thought they'd be better. We had no choice though. Chicago fucking tried to. Just saying. Just saying. Just saying. They sold off young talent too. There is a chance.
00:14:56
Speaker
that neither the sharks or hawks will have the number one overall pick this year. And to me, that's just kinda, yeah, right? The idea that like,
00:15:10
Speaker
Minnesota if they stay where they are at 500 right now they are eighth from the bottom in the league on points percentage the idea that they can jump right based off of the rule changes they yeah they can still jump from eight right or is it five spots i forget i can't remember
00:15:28
Speaker
Case in point, a team outside the top five being able to move up. There was the rule change, though, and that, you know, I don't quite remember what those are right now, I'll be honest. But in in that regard, right, even if you're talking about how it's just changed. Think about how many teams have been shafted by being consistently at the bottom. The Arizona Coyotes. Have never had the number one overall pick. Neither of the sharks. And the sharks were pretty bad in the 90s when they first got involved.
00:15:58
Speaker
Think about the years of the Detroit Red Wings and the Vancouver Canucks Not getting number one overall picks and having to try to make things happen through other avenues and you know for the Canucks It's worked out. Well, they're fourth and league right now in points percentage, you know, Detroit they're gonna be in the playoff mix We'll see if they make it but it took them a while To even be in this conversation and honestly, no one thought the Canucks were gonna be as good as they are this year so
00:16:26
Speaker
I don't know if that's an acceptable answer in terms of the lottery, but I really wouldn't mind seeing that system taken away. I am very intrigued to know what other suggestions people can come up with in terms of the only one that would make sense that I think would trigger a lot of people is just fucking doing away with the draft lottery. It feels like there's some big aspect to this that we're not thinking of.
00:16:53
Speaker
That's my problem. It feels like there's a big aspect or an obvious aspect to this that we're missing. And I don't know what that is. So let us know. I'm intrigued. So with that, let's move on to our big topic. The reason as to why we are recording the show on a Monday as opposed to our typical Thursday as of late, at least through the busy holiday season, we'll see what happens moving forward. EnduranceM. You're alleged.
00:17:24
Speaker
favorite team has done a thing. They did it. They did the thing. They gave him the money. A lot of money. Like the cap to like four fucking dudes. Man, Toronto Maple Leafs today announced that they have resigned. One William Squilliam Nylander.
00:17:53
Speaker
who was on the final year of his deal at a very nice $6.9 million. They have resigned him to a Steve Dangle called it the Brad Tree Living Special, a player in his mid to late 20s signing until his mid to late 30s, as it is an eight year contract with a full no movement clause at $11.5 million per
00:18:24
Speaker
with a very nice $69 million worth of signing bonuses in that time, by the way. Because that's an advantage that Toronto has, of course, which is why, thank God, there's a salary cap or else the Toronto Maple Leafs would dominate the league. Sorry, at least, fans, but they got the money to throw around, clearly. Yeah, William Nylander. Is a Toronto Maple Leaf until age 36?
00:18:49
Speaker
And speaking specifically about Nylander before we talk about other aspects of the team, other players, their contracts. Nylander jumping from essentially seven million dollars to eleven and a half. When there were a lot of Leafs fans saying, Oh God, even nine million is a lot. Is indicative of two things.
00:19:15
Speaker
One, the Leafs probably waiting too long to sign this contract. And two, William Nylander stepping up into the role that they were hoping he would be as a former eighth overall pick back in 2014. He's been a monster this season and he's always been good.
00:19:37
Speaker
I think, but this season he's just racking up the numbers to prove it. How long was that point streak? Cause he might even still be on it. Probably not, but like he had just such a long point streak going. It was getting absurd and that's what they need. Like that's what the team needs. They need a consistent point production guy because Matthew seems to score goals and bunches a lot. Yeah. Marner seems to just forget how to play hockey at times.
00:20:04
Speaker
Which is unfortunate, because he can be a dominant two-way player when he's had his best. And Nylander has just always been there. He's, honestly, a lot of the time has been the guy that everyone calls out, which is, in my opinion, stupid. But now, he won't be a... Fuck me. It's a lot of money, man. And I think this contract, I'd have no issue with this contract if they...
00:20:33
Speaker
the bullet was bitten and they moved Marner before his no move kicked in. Sorry, but he was the guy in my opinion to kind of trade, which a lot of people, I'll probably catch some flack for that. But if you, if you're going to trade someone and try to fill out your, your, your, your roster with a lot more talent, he's the guy just because of the inconsistencies I talked about. Yeah, he was a selkie finalist last year, but like,
00:20:58
Speaker
He, I don't know, it's just something, he starts off the season and he won't shoot. And then he'll have, he'll get going and then he'll have moments where he'll just be making stupid passes all over the ice. Then he'll forget how to defend. And then he'll remember again, he's, I don't know, he's just too inconsistent for my taste to be one of those top line guys. While Matthews scores more in bunches, he's not an inconsistent player. He's always trying to take over the game in some way.
00:21:29
Speaker
You know, the past few seasons has really been like the William Nylander breakout party. Um, yeah, he had been a guy who had hit 60 points a couple of times in the past, then 2122, 80 points in 81 games. They couldn't extend them at that point, right? A year out. So then, you know, last year, 87 points in 82 games.
00:21:56
Speaker
If they negotiated this offseason, his extension before the season starts, does that cost him 11 and a half million dollars? No, I don't think so. Maybe 10, but not 11 and a half. And some people might say, but that one and a half, is that really worth worrying about? Yes, look at Ryan race. Probably took your point, but I had to get that out.
00:22:27
Speaker
William Nylander this season, 37 games played 54 points. He is on a career high pace of 119 points. No shit, he earned that money. And yeah, he was gonna get paid one way or another, whether by the Leafs or in free agency. It's just surprising to me that they waited
00:22:58
Speaker
I mean, you know, the narrative could have always changed. 87 points last year, say on this season, he was on like 21 points in 37 games and all of a sudden it's, oh my God, the sky is falling. But you probably knew if you were Brad Tree Living that William Nylander was staying because a big part of the reason as to why Kyle Dubas was let go was the thought of getting rid of one of the core four. That was at least a factor.
00:23:28
Speaker
And that brings us to the rest of the team. We're starting next season. The core four will be paid as such. Austin Matthews will have four years left on his new extension at 13.25 million dollars per season. Again, right now he is getting paid 11.64.
00:23:58
Speaker
So Matthews is getting a raise heading into this next season. You'll have Nylander going from $6.9 million to 11 and a half. You have John Tavares in the final year of his deal making $11 million. And Mitch Marner, the final year of his deal at $10.9 million.
00:24:29
Speaker
That is $46.65 million against the cap with a projected allotment of 53% based off of what the cap is currently and how much it might go up, whatever. Four players, 50% of your cap with a team that is already struggling in terms of depth.
00:24:56
Speaker
in terms of money handed out to John Clingberg, even though he's currently injured. David Kampf making 2.4. Ryan Reeves making the 1.3 or whatever it is that he's making. And at the end of this year, Sure, Bertuzzi, Domi, TJ Brody, Mark Giordano, those contracts are up.
00:25:22
Speaker
But then you're right back in that situation of needing people to take sweetheart deals to try and chase a cup, essentially. And so far, that has resulted in one playoff series win. And that has been a strategy now for a couple years, at least in terms of, again, Matthews to Varys making $11 million each.
00:25:49
Speaker
I don't know how much optimism I could have as a Leafs fan. I think I'd be very conflicted as most appear to be because you are happy that you're keeping a player, the caliber of William Nylander. But look at what the narratives for the Leafs have been this season over who's on defense and actively playing who the hell's in goal, which by the way, shout out to one of the NHL's three stars of the week, Martin Jones.
00:26:19
Speaker
Sin, any guess of what Martin Jones' numbers look like so far this year as a Leaf? Oh, they're gonna be pretty good. He's got... How many games has he played? 11. What the fuck when he played 11? Yeah, he's played 11 games. Jesus. Um, 11 games. I'm gonna put him at a 9-17 in those 11 games. And 11 games played with a 7-3 record. Mm-hmm.
00:26:49
Speaker
A 2.08 goals against average. And a 932 save percentage. Fuck! For 33 year old Martin Jones. Hey man, he's always had this capability.
00:27:04
Speaker
He's always had the capability. He's not always brought it, but I've fucking seen it. That's why I got the extension in San Jose. We didn't just pay his ass for no reason. Like he was, he was good those first few years and a monster in the playoffs. Like for the most part, you gotta see fucking dragged us to game six against Pittsburgh.
00:27:25
Speaker
It just makes me wonder how the Leafs are going to be able to pull this off, especially to win goaltending. They can't afford to spend that much money. I hope Marjan Jones keeps it up. So he actually earns another good contract and the Leafs can't keep him. That's likely to happen. I mean, he's making 875 right now. If he keeps up this level of play, he's going to make over a million bucks next year. And did the Leafs keep him? Probably over two. You know, it's like next year there's a very realistic shot that the Leafs will try to roll.
00:27:53
Speaker
with Joseph Wall, who will be on the last year of his deal at 766,000. And then maybe Dennis Hildebee, if he proves he can be a decent backup.
00:28:05
Speaker
And that's the point. They're gonna have to play this NHL franchise mode where you don't spend heavy money on a goalie. And that's not because in real life, high rated goalies play like shit all the time, EA. It's because they're simply not gonna be able to afford that high level goaltender. So you are going to need to rely on those Aiden Hill-esque performances
00:28:32
Speaker
to get it done, but the problem is those Aiden Hill-esque performances are the exception, not the rule, in terms of what teams look like when they win a Stanley Cup. Yep. And then the depth surrounding them is going to have to be weaker in a lot of ways. You brought up my next point. They're essentially playing franchise mode, and they're not doing the 15% trick.
00:28:58
Speaker
And you get to that point where your core is paid for, whatever, and at that you're just stacking your team with all the assets that you're able to get of all these entry level guys coming through and filtering out and things like that. That's what they have to do right now.
00:29:18
Speaker
And they're not going to have that many good entry level guys left. Like they've got fucking lucky when you think about knives. And when you think about bunting, even they've gotten pretty lucky so far with some of those later round type guys. And then even you think about Benoit second round pick, I believe Benoit came over from
00:29:45
Speaker
True. Yeah, I know he was there, but like my point is... What? Yeah, I'm surprised by that. Who am I thinking of? That's a second round pick. I think it's Nyes. I'm probably Nyes. No. What? Because he was a second round pick. Okay, that's what I'm thinking of then. Okay, I was getting a little bit confused. But yeah, again, you get a great fucking player like Nyes who looks like he has top six potential. True top six in the second round. And he's on a steal of a deal.
00:30:14
Speaker
You were able to use Bunting for a while until he classed out of the money that he was making. It's worked, but it hasn't. It's kept them in the hunt and all these things. They've been able to use guys like this. Robertson's now another one who should provide for good depth scoring. But you keep getting to these points where you're going to be a playoff team.
00:30:38
Speaker
maybe you don't always have your first though, they did a good job of keeping their first even at times people thought they shouldn't. Eventually you're gonna run out of all of the entry level guys that you can chuck in there. I mean, they're pretty close to that now. And it just makes me wonder, like, okay, what is this season at this point? Like, do they have enough to go on a run this year? And if they don't, it feels like they're gonna have even less next year.
00:31:08
Speaker
And then after that you okay, you can rely on John Tavares Taking a multi-million dollar pay cut you would expect I mean he has 34 points and 37 games as you like John Tavares has been good Has been 11 million dollars good. I would say But say he takes a pay cut down to Seven or eight God even less would be amazing for them if he stays
00:31:33
Speaker
You presume he would, but you never know for sure. Marner's deal will be up as well though. So, you know, he'll be wanting to get towards the $12, $13 million amount if Nylander's making an 11 and a half. And Marner at that point will be a UFA if I'm not mistaken. He will indeed. They walked both Matthews and Marner into UFA with their contracts.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah, I just, I think the problem is for Leafs fans, it never ends. It just never ends. It always, you just keep like kicking the can, the can of anxiety. We have an episode title. You keep kicking the can of anxiety down the road, but it never absolutely stops essentially, right? Like with the Tampa Bay Lightning,
00:32:27
Speaker
They were able to lock in their core and you knew, okay, we are going to lose certain people, but it's not going to be anybody that is so brutally detrimental. You know, when they were winning the back-to-back cups and Christ almost won three in a row.
00:32:48
Speaker
You know, now they're at the point where they had to start paying people and all of a sudden, hey, they're looking a little bit shaky. But at the end of the day, they knew that they had Kucherov, they had Point, they had Stamkos, they had Hedman, they had Vasilefti. All on pretty damn sweetheart deals, none of which, by the way, make double digits even currently.
00:33:06
Speaker
And it's just one of those things where it's like, OK, you know, we're going to lose certain pieces. You know, we're eventually going to lose, say, what's his name to Calgary. We're going to lose Blake Coleman. But we're still good, you know, whereas the Leafs, it's like, OK, who are we going to lose?
Toronto Maple Leafs Strategy and Core Players
00:33:25
Speaker
Shit, we got to lose Zach Hyman.
00:33:28
Speaker
And that's been a huge problem for them. He has been incredible in Edmonton, next to Connor McDavid, 40 points in 35 games. Okay, we gotta lose Michael Bunting. Yeah, that one doesn't hurt as much, 26 points in 39 games. That's because he was essentially trying to be the Hyman replacement and he wasn't as good. And this is the cycle. You lose the Hyman, you insert the Bunting,
00:33:54
Speaker
Next man up. I'm looking at Endo's face. Oh, goodness. But yeah, I am. I'm in agreement, basically, right? Like you continually degrade in terms of those skill positions, those secondary positions until what's left. And for the Leafs, it feels like they've
00:34:23
Speaker
gone on a speed run of that degradation process without any of the success. And the big question is, yeah, have they been spread too thin already? You know, you look at that lineup right now and it's like, okay, Tyler Bertuzzi, 18 points in 37 games. It's not too bad, I guess.
00:34:50
Speaker
Make him 5.5 million dollars? Bad. Fucking horrific. No, that's a 41 point pace. No, at least basically a 0.5 point per game, so. Yeah. You know, and then you have other people filling in the lineup. Pontus Holmberg, two points in 11 games. Bobby McMahon, four in 16. David Kampf and Noah Greger, both on seven points, have played almost half the season.
00:35:19
Speaker
it does come down to that question of like, okay, is the depth spread too thin? And the problem is, even if they're healthy, how much is Ryan Reeves adding to that team if he's healthy? John Clingberg, I mean, we don't even know what a healthy John Clingberg looks like at this point because, you know, dealing with such a major hip injury. I just wonder, yeah, if they've been spread a bit too thin. Ando, do you care
00:35:50
Speaker
At this point, is it just a situation where it's like win a cup or leave me the hell alone? How do you feel as a as a Leafs fan? Trying to why you guys are going off on there when the tangents and everything I was just thinking the entire time and I'm like He got paid Yeah, I paid a lot of money. I don't think
00:36:20
Speaker
The concept of the quote-unquote core four is a stupid marketing gimmick and it's been sold to Leafs nation and half the fucking NHL and Sure, they're great players, but they don't play well as a unit You know some nights some players taking nights off Some players show up some leaders don't have the same heart the same bite every night You know, they got paid and everything William Nylander getting eleven point five
00:36:49
Speaker
Congrats to the guy. He definitely earned it, but will he play to his value? I don't think so. I think he's a consistent player. Yes. Do I think he deserves more ice time? Probably. And that's where getting rid of someone a part of that quote unquote core four might actually be a benefit. Because if you have too many star players and too many players with a certain caliber on one team, they're not going to mesh well.
00:37:16
Speaker
like you see in the nba you can build super teams and then they they do well and some super teams don't really necessarily make a championship team they just have star players that really go anywhere i think that's been the toronto may believes for the past couple seasons they have star players who play as individuals
00:37:33
Speaker
or as they should be playing as teammates. I mean, you can say the same thing because, you know, Neil... No, not Neil in there. Midge Marner has, like, the most assists in, like, whatever, like, period point of, like, 400 games played or whatever the fuck it is. He's, like, a franchise leader at this point, considering, like, the ratio of games he's played and the amount of points he has and the amount of assists that he has. Like, he... What, he's selling a franchise record for fastest, like, what? 500 or 400 assists? Can't remember which one it is.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yeah, to build off of Endo's point while he looks that up. I have to agree a lot of the times they'd seemingly play as individuals and other times they seem way too comfortable. Like they seem way too comfortable for a team who only got out of the first round once and then got demolished by an 8 seed.
00:38:28
Speaker
I think they're all very, very comfortable, especially the core four. They're known like, I'm not going anywhere. And that's why I was, that was the biggest reason I was pissed that they let go of Dubis because he was going to change the Shana plan and the fucking suits were like, hell no, you're not. We pay, we sign your paychecks. We sign all, you know, and they got rid of him.
00:38:48
Speaker
Honestly, that would have, that would have probably been the mentality shift that they needed. No one's fucking safe. Yeah. And that should be what the GM says. Like, Hey, I like you. You're a great player. Someone offers me five first rounders for you. I'm fucking taking it. Like, you know, or something of that nature. No one, I mean, you can have an up untouchable, I think. But when you basically have four, they're just like, yeah, we're the, you know, we're the three, we're the.
00:39:18
Speaker
whatever this, you know, we're the four horsemen of the apocalypse. There we go. And then also Riley. I think they're all way too comfortable. I really do like you can have a marketing gimmick core for these are the guys, but you have to be willing to like, if it ain't working,
00:39:41
Speaker
You can't just move in the other pieces. It seems like that they're really willing, like, all these other pieces can be moved out these four stay, you know, trying to coach. Okay. Hmm. All right. Well, I kind of like the management likes this coach. Well, whoever does get rid of the GM now, because he's suggesting to this huge, huge change and
00:40:04
Speaker
I don't know that that's that's my biggest thing is that they all seem way too comfortable and they they seem to know that they're untouchable. And. Yeah, another thing to there, it's just like you said, uncomfortable, they're comfortable. I think you said Morgan Riley, who apparently isn't a part of the core four, yet he signed the most team friendly deal out of the entire roster, save for Nazem Kadri when he was a part of the Leafs.
00:40:35
Speaker
It's how it's kind of like like, you know, even in the core for defense is an afterthought, even in the core for. Get rid of someone from that core, bring bring Morgan Riley back in the fray. I guarantee you, if John Tavares didn't sign with Toronto, Morgan Riley would be the captain of the team and he'd be the marketing part of the core for or whatever the fuck they want to call it here in Toronto.
00:41:03
Speaker
Well, actually, it was gonna be Auston Matthews before he took his butt out and mooned that cough. If you recall. Oh, yeah. Fuck. I forgot about that. Yeah. I think that the thing that we've stumbled upon here is that they need to stop treating Morgan Riley like Alan. You know? He's not Ken, but he's more than just Alan. You gotta treat him with a little bit more respect, but the problem is the media's mind is so small.
00:41:32
Speaker
that they can't move past the fact that core and four rhyme. Yes. So we need to find a word that rhymes with five or come up with something like the fabulous five to include Morgan Riley. That's just the way it, you know, the foundational five. Why not? There's got to be a way to get this to work, to give Alan, I mean, Morgan Riley his proper respect here.
00:42:04
Speaker
Yeah, the bridge truck and the underpaid employee The Brinks truck and the go get fucked yeah The Toronto Maple Leafs the Brinks truck being the for if Morgan Riley's just out in the cold Bridge truck and the scapegoat and the scapegoat changes every game Every game every minute. Oh, yeah judging by Twitter. Oh
00:42:33
Speaker
So overall, I think we're all in a pretty similar spot on this where it's just like, it's just the Leafs being the Leafs, and we'll see if it works. I mean, it could, and if they win, it's just who gives a shit at that point. It's like every other cup winner. If you win, who gives a damn of, could you have won? I mean, granted, again, the Leafs headlines will be, here's how they could have won it sooner. Here's why they won't win it next year, but at the end of the day, they would have won. But,
00:42:59
Speaker
You know, it's just funny how they're like the only team we're keeping someone like William Nylander is viewed as not a universal positive because it can't be. No, it's because they, like you said, spread themselves too thin. And I'm sorry if you're paying that much to forward these star fucking players, all of them in double digits now. I mean, it's not kicking in, but like you're ninth in the league. You should be top fucking five. Oh, but we've had injuries in the goaltending question.
00:43:30
Speaker
It's your own fault. It's because of that, that you don't have enough depth. It's true. I will say the final thought endo. You get it. I will say
00:43:46
Speaker
This move would have been okay perfectly fine if you didn't bring in players who are now almost all of them on LTIR or have been injured having cap like cap liabilities in a sense.
00:44:01
Speaker
If you didn't bring in Klingberg, this would have been fine. You would have had more money. You could have probably offered some defensive offensive players so that way you wouldn't have to go and grab like a second line AHL player and have him play on the fourth line and trying to just squeeze through so you have enough people to basically be on a lineup every night. If you didn't do any of those moves, if it was Klingberg, Reeves,
00:44:29
Speaker
I think the only move that's worked out so far is Simon Benoit and that's because everyone's bought it on him being kind of like the guy everyone loves because every year with the every year with every team there's the one guy or it's like We love him. He doesn't do shit for us offensively, but he will hit everybody and beat people up He's basically this year's Luke Shen on like League minimum Hey, remember when they didn't get Luke Shen back?
00:44:56
Speaker
I mean, in fairness, based off of how much money he got in Nashville, it was probably a good thing they let Luke Chen go. Yeah, maybe. But still, man, like you play one year in Toronto, you make you do good. You go somewhere else, you get paid. Justin Hall. It would have been better for them to spend the two seven five on Luke Chen than the four or five on. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. They would have still had more money to spend.
00:45:24
Speaker
That leave team looked fucking great when Luke Shen was back on the team. I will say that. That team had grit. That team actually wanted to be out there. Other players were buying into the physicality. I mean, they are now. But, you know, again, you would probably still have Luke Shen in your lineup and not sitting out with a hip injury. Klingberg, it's unfortunate, you know, he never probably healed. And I guess he got the bag.
00:45:52
Speaker
Like yeah, he's an offensive defenseman. I they didn't need that I I still will never forgive true living for that signing because it made no fucking sense at the time It's still living in the moment that's I know has said so many times for living in the moment With that I feel like we could just continue to pile on the Leafs for a while because
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. We kind of ruined the whole big news. Neil Anderson signing with some, you know, with some what has to be talked about is what comes next. But, you know, 30 laundry. That's the point, though. That's the story. It has to be. It's just how it is. But you have you have that sect of Leafs fans who you can never, ever criticize the blue and white. It's true.
00:46:43
Speaker
We will move on to another viewer question here that I found to be pretty interesting. Comes from Unscruppy Newport. Question for the podcast. Now we had talked about on the last show the importance of the Olympics as opposed to like some in-season international tournament like Gary Bettman said at the Winter Classic they were working on. So Scruppy asked this, what if that best on best international tournament was three on three?
00:47:14
Speaker
Who would you like to see representing the following country? He names a few. Each team gets two forwards, a defenseman and a goaltender as their top line. So I wanted to go through this really quickly. Maybe not every nation, but I do find it interesting. Let me know if you disagree or if someone else comes to mind for who you would play. In talking about Canada, I feel like the top two forwards would have to be Conor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon.
00:47:43
Speaker
Who the hell could compete with that? You know, you could throw out like a Crosby if you wanted. Connor Bedard. Dude, yeah, I mean Hawks fans. Nope, Connor Bedard right now. Put him out there. Do it. But I feel like it would have to be those two. He's a child. Yes. Defensively. That's a tough one. Kale McCarr. He's Canadian? Yeah.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah, he's Canadian. He was a part of the 2018 World Junior Team. But he didn't do it. He didn't do it. We still don't know who did, but don't worry. They've almost come to a conclusion. They said a year ago. Almost. One of them's fled the country, allegedly. I mean, that's filthy for three on three.
00:48:31
Speaker
Right. David McKinnon and McCar. Yeah, it has to be that. Like, yeah, I was I was I was sliding the Crosby way initially, but like McKinnon Crosby either. But McKinnon is. He's like he has a lot of Crosby tendencies. Hmm.
00:48:51
Speaker
and he's just so fucking dialed in all the time. He's one of the most intense players on the planet and I love that. Did you see when he reverse hit the rookie and he like looked him dead in his face and hit like a basically perk angle fucking yeah in his face. They're going to have to eat more chickpea if you want to compete with me, bitch. Whatever the hell he eats. Just pasta, raw pasta. For goaltenders.
00:49:22
Speaker
Just pasta and water. Canada goaltender, hmm. Like chits. I don't know, they don't have that many good go-tenders. Just saying. Mark Andre Flurry. Mark Andre Flurry, who made a crazy fucking save the other night, by the way. Jesus Christ. Arguably the best goaltender in the league this season, Cam Talbot. Martin Jones. If you need someone to swing a stick at someone's head, Jordan Bennington.
00:49:51
Speaker
God, get him away from team Canada. It's got to be Mark Andre Fleury. Tristan Jari Carter. It's got to be Mark Andre Fleury because he's, he's an acrobatic goaltender already. Um, he's a, I think it has to be him and he'll keep things, he'll, he'll be the counterbalance to Nathan McKinnon in the locker room. He'll keep things light and he's a great personality and it's gotta be Mark Andre Fleury. It's a fair way to look at it.
00:50:22
Speaker
Endo, any disagreement or shall we move on to the United States? No. No, go to America. All right. For the US, in terms of forwards, again, for three on three, I mean, obviously you have Patrick Kane leading the way for US scorers, still is an active player. He's been very good to Detroit.
00:50:45
Speaker
Joe Pavelski, Johnny Gudrow, J.T. Miller, someone who I think has to be on the list, Austin Matthews. Three on three, though. Noted All-Star, Nick Foligno. Not Nick Foligno, excuse me, but I saw someone on Twitter, just be like, how'd Nick Foligno make the All-Star game? And it's like, it wasn't him, it was Boone Jenner. And he's like, what's the fucking difference?
00:51:16
Speaker
That's brilliant. I'm talking about the All-Star game again in a little bit too. There's a lot of options here. Dylan Larkin, Kyle Connor, Alex Debrinkit, Clayton Keller. The US for me is just a- Just send Larkin and Debrinkit, dude. Just as a duo. Fuck. They've slowed down a bit. I mean, if you're going realistically the best of the best, it's got to be Matthews and Kane.
00:51:43
Speaker
Potentially, I didn't even mention Jason Robertson or Jack Hughes. Fuck Hughes. You know what? Because Auston Matthews is so shit. Just sitting on three on three, sorry. I don't have an answer to this one because I think there's way too many options and potential combinations, but I am intrigued to know. It's not as cut and dry as Canada, obviously, but... No. Fuck Hughes. It's a tough one.
00:52:13
Speaker
We'll move on to defense here, because again, I think there's so many different combinations that would work for that, and I'm intrigued to know again what people would think. Defense gotta be Quinn. Yeah, 100%. I mean, for defense, the only other person I'd say in the Quinn Hughes category is Adam Fox.
00:52:31
Speaker
Um, which we know sin wouldn't take him. So it's between guys off the ice, create more space. That guy's going to be a fucking, no, I'm sorry. Uh, it Quinn for three on three. It's Quinn. It's Mike. Sorry. I don't care. Rangers fans. You can hate on me all you want. I'll hate on Adam Fox continually. It's Quinn for three on three. Yeah. I love Charlie McAvoy too, but it's, it's Quinn. In that case, fuck it. Send Quinn, Austin, and Jack.
00:53:00
Speaker
Just send the Hughes, brother. Have Quinn play forward, put Luke on D and Jack in the middle. Beautiful. There you go. For goalies, it's actually a little bit easier because right now there are only 19 goalies that have played an NHL game that are considered active for the US.
00:53:24
Speaker
Jonathan Quick, who has been awesome for the Rangers, I think is in the conversation. Right there, flat out. I was going to say, like you have like John Gibson, Ottinger, Swamen, the Smith guys like that. It comes down to one of two guys, Connor Hellabucker, Thatcher, Demko. Yeah.
00:53:42
Speaker
pick your poison either. I mean, not even pick your poison. I mean, pick your fighter either way and they're going to do a hell of a job for you essentially. So if you're trying to get as much NHL representation as possible, you'd send hella suck just cause Quinn's going to be the guy, but I don't know if that matters too much, but yeah, straight up like, yeah, I'd say, I'd say hella suck. Sorry. I'm a dick. It's so normal for me to say that shout out to my be a pro series when I was on Winnipeg. There you go.
00:54:12
Speaker
We'll move on to Russia. Which, for the forwards, it's interesting. Because obviously in the past, it's like, do you go with Ovi? But now, I think that, I mean, Malkin's still in that conversation too, but I think the key guys that you're looking at are Kucherov, Panarin, and Kaprizov.
00:54:41
Speaker
Yeah, who's taking face offs? That's the problem, right? I mean, because then the thing is, I think it's off. I love Pavel Bushnovich, but three on three. I don't know if I'm I'm probably overthinking of thinking someone has to be geed up on face offs too. But like, I'm always thinking, okay, who's the center? He's going to go. There's not a lot of fucking Russian centers.
00:55:02
Speaker
Oh, like Malkin is the guy and he's not amazing on the draws. He's deep. I don't know. Let me look at his percentage. No, better yet, I'll tell you what his face off rating is for me in NHL. It's 75 in the in like baseline. I believe he's got like an 81 face off for me. So he's all right.
00:55:22
Speaker
You see he's always he's a lot sub 50% actually right now he's 50.9 He's over 50% for just the second time in his career. So fair that he's at a 75 rating. Honestly, you know Again a lot of possibilities. I think offensively Kucherov and Panarin probably win for most people probably defensively
00:55:49
Speaker
Woof. Here are some of the names in the conversation. Dimitri Orlov, Mikhail Sergachev, Provarov, Kulikov, Nikita Zadorov, Nikita Zaitsev, Gavrakov, Zuba Romanov, Lebushkin, and then- Scott needs Sergachev, probably. Well, here's my choice. 39 career games played.
00:56:17
Speaker
for the Anaheim Ducks in the overall in 2022 of Pavel Minchikov. I think I'd take him already. That's pretty good. Well, you know what? I wouldn't think of that. He definitely has probably more offensive upside than Sergachev, but three on three, there's so much space. I mean, you know, all those NHLers can do skill moves. They just, a lot of them don't because of the right.
00:56:40
Speaker
In all honesty, I mean, yeah, it probably is. Sergachev in a lot of ways, but I just love Pavel Michikov. I'm stanning him from every early on. And I guess you can't send Sergachev as well, because you're also going to send Vasilevsky. Well, yeah, right. In terms of goalies, I mean, you have a choice. It's not Popirovsky. It's probably not Varlomov. Is it Andre Vasilevsky anymore?
00:57:06
Speaker
Because for me, while there are some other names in the conversation, it comes down to Vassie, Shasturkin, or my choice, Ilya Sirokin. That's a good choice. He also plays in front of the Islanders, or behind the Islanders. Yeah, he used to face shots, and I called him that. Yeah, I'd have to go with Sirokin. Let's move over.
00:57:33
Speaker
How many more did we have here? He did say Czechia. Sweden next, baby. Sweden, Finland, at least. We're not going to do those two for last. Okay. Because Germany, for example. I only know one Slovakian player. I was going to say, here's the problem. So for Germany, you're looking at, no doubt, dry-sidal Stuts, a little more at cider.
00:57:54
Speaker
That's it.
00:58:08
Speaker
Bring back Thomas Christ and his totally not SS mask. Oh my god. Oh yeah. I mean, oh no. God damn it. You said mask and I typed in German helmets so much a Nazi helmets popped up German Goldies and you said mask. No, I don't want soccer. No one cares about soccer. Shots fired.
00:58:32
Speaker
Um, for the record too, with Slovakia, they currently do not have a goalie in the NHL. Um, your forwards, Tatar, Ruzichka, Slavkowski, Defense, Chernak, Fehervari, and again, they don't have a goalie. Simon Nemecz, I mean, Nemecz, it's just...
00:58:50
Speaker
There's not much there, so we're down to the chest. Bro, it has to be Grubauer for Germany. There's like no one else fucking good, unless you bring Ole the goalie out of retirement. Right. Yeah, limited options. Check, checkia. For the forwards, let's be honest, David Pasternak and Tomasz Hurdle. Future, the Azure Bruins top line.
00:59:14
Speaker
Yeah, you better be willing to pay a hell of a lot, son. Oh, god. There are some other decent names for the forwards. Palat, Zaka, Neches, Verona, but yeah, no doubt. Like those two are a clear cut above for the forwards. Defensively, four options.
00:59:33
Speaker
David Dierczyk for the blue jackets, Jan Ruda, Radko Goudis, and hands down, the choice, Philip Ronic on Vancouver, who has been insane this year. Are you kidding me? I'm going with Goudis. Fair? No, no, no. Yeah, it has to be Heronic, yeah. Chronic. For goalies, pick your poison. Peter Merazek,
01:00:03
Speaker
Oh, Dave Riddick. Oh, VTech Vanna check. Karl Vimalka. Dan Vladar. Yuri Patera. You're missing someone so important. Or is it Lucas Dostal? Okay, I thought you were fucking missing him. It's obviously Dostal. It might have to be.
01:00:27
Speaker
God, I mean, Mirazik, who has half decent numbers for Chicago, Vamilka is kind of okay for the guy. I mean, you might as well go with Dostal and just see what the hell he can do, right? I would go with Dostal because, you know, if you're marketing, I think you always got to have some way of marketing the younger talent and the hurdle's not that young anymore, pasta's not that young. You're going to get them because they're the best and that's what you have, but you also need to have that, like, one young, young dude. Who the hell is the defenseman again?
01:00:56
Speaker
Um, on defense for them. Yeah. Yeah. For church. Yeah. Goudes or, uh, for the chronic. Yeah. Oh yeah. Herronic. And again, he's not that young anymore. I think you got to go to because he's like the, yeah, he's good. I think he's solid and the ducks are a shit team. So his numbers aren't going to be as good. Um, you got to go with him over. I feel like for the Swedes, speeds, the speeds.
01:01:26
Speaker
For the forwards, Mika Zbanajad, Philip Forsberg, William Nylander, Elias Pedersen, Jesper Bratz, Adrian Kempe, you know, all in that conversation, among others, I would say. Pedersen Nylander up front. Yep. And put a fucking period afterwards. No one else goes. I don't, Zbanajad's great, but it's Pedersen Nylander up front. Has to be. I agree.
01:01:56
Speaker
I agree. You guys aren't wrong. You guys have a good take so far. I got nothing defensively. You got some options here on defense. I'll say that. Nope, Carlson. Does anybody top Eric Carlson? You have Hedman, Ekman, Larson, Klingberg, Ekholm, Hompis, Lindholm, Rasmus, Daliin, Jonas Brodein. Oh, yeah.
01:02:22
Speaker
It's Dolly or Carlson. And it depends on how much emphasis you put on defense. Patterson's good at defense. Fucking send Carlson. God, that is tough. Yeah. Neenlander, Patterson, Carlson, though. Honestly, Carlson would probably be like, yeah, you can go to Nalene. I've done stuff like this. He's like, I'm preparing for the playoffs. He'll probably do an OV and be like, nah, I'm good. Goal tenders, there are two.
01:02:52
Speaker
Jacob Markstrom or Linus Allmark? Linus, clearly. Markstrom's had a pretty good season. But he's not Linus Allmark. But he might call me bias if you want, Linus Allmark. I'm more biased than you are for Allmark, I feel like. Fair enough. And last but not least, the greatest of them all, Finland.
01:03:21
Speaker
For the forwards, Barkov, Rontenin, Ajo. I feel like that's where you can stop the list, right? Like, Laine is probably not in that conversation right now compared to those three. Oh, you know who you're sending at center, though? Mikhail Granlin, the legend. No, yeah, it's Barkov and Rontenin, like 100%. Yeah. Right? Probably. I mean, Ajo's so good, too, though.
01:03:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was really good. But if you want a sentiment, it's gotta be... It has to be Barkov, in my opinion. Defensively, no-brainer, Mira Haskin. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. I was like, I don't think there's anyone else, but it is Miro all the way who's better than Adam Fox. And better than Rasmus Ristolina. Yes. Barely. In goal. Did you see Saros?
01:04:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Right. I mean, other considerations, Ranta, Corpus sallow, who's so cockin and lankin and Lucanin. It's Sorrows. It's Sorrows. Yeah. So with that, let us know if we got any wrong and especially if it's your land.
01:04:43
Speaker
That's just not enough. Let us know, especially for teams like the US, where there's a lot of options, who you guys would go with. What do you mean there's not enough? Is there not? You have them all on one team. Nico, he's your team. Oh, Myra, Kirsh, me. Just send the devils. Also, Roman Yossi, Jonas Siegel. Oh, yeah. Fair. So what happened for me is that I was on quant hockey, and they didn't show up under nationalities for Switzerland.
01:05:13
Speaker
Um, so that makes sense. I didn't bother with Switzerland. I'm so sorry. But yeah, no, that's actually a fair point. That Swiss team is actually going to be fucking good. Oh, my God. So hold on. Hold on. Yeah. Hold the Nino Nita writer, dude. Dennis Mulligan, either. So for forwards, I know. But I'm just saying, like, if you look at obviously we're just naming the top three players, but they would probably be one of the more deeper teams forwards.
01:05:41
Speaker
You could go need a rider, Fiala, Myer, or Heesher. That's not bad. No. Having to choose two out of those four? Defense would be Roman Yossi, as you mentioned. And then in goal, yeah, it'd be a curious... It's honestly, I don't think that's the worst team. No. I don't think so. I think the Slovaks were the worst.
01:06:04
Speaker
to remember if there's any other team that we missed, but I don't think so because Norway only has Matt Zukarello and Emile Martinson Lilleberg. Yeah, they're too busy playing with their oil money over there in Norway to play hockey. Latvia could run Zemgus Gurgensons and Theodor Blugersch, Uvis Balinski and Elvis Merslikens in goal.
01:06:29
Speaker
They might win a game. They sure might. Let's just keep going. This is fun. What other countries can we do? Give me Kazakhstan. Give me Kazakhstan. Oh, in Denmark, by the way, they don't have a defenseman. But you could run Ehlers, Eller, and Bjorkstrand as the skaters with Freddie Anderson in goal. There you go. It's not too bad.
01:06:51
Speaker
That's a choice. Belarus doesn't have a goalie. Austria only has Marco Rossi. Endo said Kazakhstan. No active Kazakh stany players. But you would be looking at Nick Antropov and probably Nigel Dawes. Yeah, technically by nationalization. Yeah. God, that's. I have winning a block off will finally represent where he was born and play again.
01:07:22
Speaker
I wish there was a way to run a three on three tournament in NHL. That'd be so much fun to put this into action and see what happens, especially too, because you can make up the number with having multiple different Canada teams and US teams and just be like, okay, shit, which one is the best one? What is the best combination? So that'd be pretty fun. That would be a blast.
01:07:41
Speaker
It would be an incredible question. Thank you very much for that. We do have a couple other things to talk about on the show really quickly. One of our other big topics, of course, we joked about it in the episode title of the last show, the PWHL had another tremendous weekend capped off by the game between Montreal and Minnesota, the home of the Minnesota wild, where the attendance record for a women's professional hockey game that was set in Ottawa a week ago
01:08:11
Speaker
has already been surpassed with an official attendance of 13,316, witnessing Minnesota becoming the first team in PWHL history to win on home ice, which is hilarious that it hadn't happened yet, with hell of a name, Grace Zumwinkle.
01:08:32
Speaker
Securing the PWHL's first star of the week with four goals, including a hat trick against Montreal. The other goal came against Boston. She had one hell of a week, to say the least. Meow's had Alex Carpenter and Corinne Schrader, who second time we've mentioned her on the podcast, as the other two stars of the week.
01:08:58
Speaker
There's not too much else to add in terms of the PWHL right now, just aside from the fact that Jesus Christ, this league is so fun to watch. They have so much momentum going for them right now. The pessimistic side of me is like, God, don't fucking, you know, don't fuck up in the future. Like, how are they going to handle
01:09:17
Speaker
Um, maintaining that goodwill, right? Like we talked about on the last show, the teams and the idea of, did they go with generic branding so that they can sell the franchises next year and let owners put the spin on it? A similar conversation can be had about airing all their games on YouTube to show, Hey, here's what the viability is. And then they go out and get bigger TV deals. And then all of a sudden you got to deal with restrictions and help.
01:09:43
Speaker
Difficult it is to follow the NHL is it gonna get that way for the PWHL and the answer is hopefully not but for the moment it is pretty much a factor of just trying to enjoy This league right now for what it is because they are crushing it in terms of positive energy right now PWHL yeah Another PW hell yeah because it's the HL
01:10:08
Speaker
Ah, so many potential episode titles for this one, huh? Tremendous. But yeah, shout out to Minnesota, who are 2-1-0 right now. Big part of that gray zoom winkle. Unfortunately, there was supposed to be a game between Ottawa and Boston that was postponed due to weather, but hey, we'll get that back.
01:10:26
Speaker
I just hope it has staying power. That's all it is. I just hope that, you know, the... I just hope attendance stays relatively high. It might drop off, but, you know, if it's consistent, it's good. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, I was at my in-laws on Friday and then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, the PWHL is on.
01:10:48
Speaker
YouTube, and I'm watching it that easy. Like, there's almost no excuse to not check it out. Like, it is so accessible right now. Take advantage of it. Get on board, God damn it, because it is a league that is 100% worth being on board for here in the early days, especially when it's so, so important. Yeah, get in early so you can be one of those people hopefully years down the road. I mean, like, I was watching the first games of this. Like, if this becomes a successful league, like,
01:11:17
Speaker
We're at the bottom man. Like we're, we're, we're getting in at the bottom and it's, it's, it could be fantastic. And I hope it is because dude, they work so hard. They put their skills as hell. They deserve it. So like, you know, if you're about hockey, man, support, support these women, dude. I just love the sentence, support these women, dude. Support women. No, I mean, hell yeah, dude.
01:11:46
Speaker
In other news as well, it's a smaller topic for us because we admittedly, for the most part, weren't able to follow too much of the tournament. Did watch the gold medal game though, in which the United States of America, suck it Endo, you Canadian. Yeah, communist. The US.
01:12:07
Speaker
beat Sweden What was it six two in the gold medal game? I Loved the chippiness of it. I'll say that especially at the end all this talk about your classless No, you're classless. No, you're all class like it made the internet a pretty fun place But yeah chow to the US for winning this particular tournament
01:12:37
Speaker
Again, it sucks for Sweden. You know, anytime you get a chance for someone to win on home ice, it's like, hey, you kind of hope they pull it off. But it was what it was. With the U.S. winning gold, you had silver for Sweden and your bronze medalist, Chechnya, as Norway. We're relegated, by the way. So tough break for Norway. But the World Juniors.
01:13:02
Speaker
It's always a good time. Even if, you know, when games start at 11 o'clock in the morning, it can be a little bit difficult to follow, just a bit. But it's gonna be back in Canada next year, apparently. So it'll be easier to follow. So that's good. Good stuff. Our final topic though, the kind of big topic to really sink our teeth into to end the show is kind of a couple of different aspects wrapped up into one. And it's, in general, physicality in hockey.
01:13:30
Speaker
I want to first mention because we talked about again on that last show, one of our better shows. Go check it out if you haven't. We talked about how the NHL has a marketing crisis where they want to try to essentially have their cake and eat it too. We
NHL Marketing Challenges
01:13:44
Speaker
want to tout the skill and the speed and the athleticism, but we're afraid to turn our back on the monkey brain. Ooh, big fights. There's a reason for that. Variety of reasons, really.
01:13:55
Speaker
And it was highlighted in the past couple of nights by a fight that took place in the AHL during the game between Belleville and Manitoba, where Boko Amama and Terrell Bauer went to goddamn war. And this is a clip that went viral by Mike Kelly right now of this video.
01:14:16
Speaker
I'm seeing on Twitter 37 million views. Holy shit. I haven't seen it yet. It's from the video was taken from a TikTok account that at the time already had 300,000 likes. This fight went viral. And that is a huge part as to why the NHL is afraid to fully step away.
01:14:42
Speaker
is because there aren't too many examples of skill that will result in a viral moment such as this. Because whenever a crazy fight like this happens, you will always have comments of people like this who aren't hockey fans going like Jesus Christ, huh? They let this happen? The top response on this Twitter post is more sports should allow fights.
01:15:09
Speaker
You have NFL players. In fairness, I don't know if it was actually Jabril Peppers or the Patriots. It might have been a troll account. But I did see an account being like, they should allow this in football. Just fucking let guys go at it and settle the bullshit.
01:15:25
Speaker
You're always going to have these moments of fighting kind of going viral and people being like, oh shit, they still haven't banned that yet. That's a good thing. That's a bad thing. It always leads to that conversation. And it was a hell of a fight for the record. Again, Monkey Brain, absolutely loved that fight. It was great. Just seeing two guys go toe to toe like that, throwing punches. And honestly, it was a good technical fight. It wasn't just haymakers. It was a lot of body shots like NHL 04.
01:15:51
Speaker
We need to play NHL 04, by the way, where you could throw body shots and fights, gentlemen. Very fun. I have it downloaded and ready to go. Anytime you're ready. Anytime. And, of course, we had the 2K5 skills competition from All Star Weekend coming up. We got good things whenever you guys are ready, and we'll get the fellows together. But you have that example, right, of, oh, here's the thing going viral.
01:16:15
Speaker
Around the same time, you have another crazy deal, which is the Connor Bedard hit by Brendan Smith that caused a lot of controversy. And of course, the debate was dirty, not dirty. You had teammates of Bedard saying, I think it was dirty. But then you had the head coach in Chicago, Luke Richardson, saying, quote, I don't think Smith stepped up on him. I think he just kind of stopped and Connor ran headfirst right into him.
01:16:43
Speaker
That's the head coach saying that, for God's sakes. Of it being one of those hits where it's like, for as much as you have the conversation about players needing to protect themselves and not put themselves in the bad situations, I think that's a pretty good example of it, personally. Of course, the downside is Connor Bedard is now on IR with a fractured jaw. It might miss the all-star game, but hey, at least Boone Jenner will be there.
01:17:11
Speaker
I love Boone Jenner. I do. Jesus Christ. Boone Jenner All Star is quite the sentence. I had a video out on YouTube going through who the pick was for every team and who it could have been instead. Why the every team has to have an All Star thing is fucking stupid. So check that out if you haven't already, because, yeah, it's fucking weird.
01:17:36
Speaker
And it all kind of wraps up to that conversation, right, of the NHL marketing what it wants to be. Do you want to emphasize the fighting? Fighting goes viral and is marketable, so do you do that? Then you have the example of what I deem a clean hit on Connor Bedard being contested as, is it a clean hit? Is it not a clean hit? What's the deal there?
01:18:00
Speaker
And then there was another incident where the Red Wings played the Ducks and Dylan Larkin was cross-checked by Mason McTavish and left the game. I don't know if it was for a little bit or not, but it's not even the first incident involving Dylan Larkin this year where he was injured in that fucking crazy incident involving David Peron getting revenge with the cross-check that got him suspended for six games.
01:18:25
Speaker
Right. And kind of talking about how safe are players at that point and how safe does he feel as a player? And yesterday, there was a highlighted hit in the King's Caps game where the fairy air hit Martin Fehervari. And for my money, bit of an unnecessary hit. Not the dirtiest, cheapest thing I've ever seen. But it's a rather unnecessary hit that results in a player going awkwardly face first into the boards.
01:18:55
Speaker
And obviously, I was met with a good amount of pushback that I had fun with. Honestly, it's always fun to argue with people on Twitter. I enjoy it quite a bit as to what's dirty and what's not. And you get into that conversation of players protecting themselves. But imagine how many people saying that that hit was fine or saying that, no, Carter Baddard hit was dirty. I feel like it comes down to who's involved in the situations as to what a lot of people deem dirty or not.
01:19:20
Speaker
And then you get into the conversation of the DOPS' role and how the hockey guy put out a video that I thought was stellar talking about how we're heading towards another fucking Steve Moore incident of what he labeled frontier justice, which is amazing, by the way, because the DOPS doesn't do anything and the refs are completely goddamn incompetent and either don't know the rule book or don't care enough to call it.
01:19:44
Speaker
We couldn't go through a show without talking about some of the negative aspects of the NHL, but it's just interesting how that's all bundled up into this whole conversation about what's a dirty hit? What's the referees doing their job? What does the NHL want to be? What don't they want to be?
01:20:06
Speaker
You know, you have that comparison to like what the PWHL is doing right now. And it's like, ah, yes, it's that good feeling of what it's supposed to be like to be a hockey fan and enjoying the product instead of whatever the fuck the NHL is right now. So I've joked about being a PWHL podcast, but only only mostly. Only
Favorite League and McTavish's Cross-check Incident
01:20:29
Speaker
mostly. This is still my
01:20:32
Speaker
my favorite league at the moment, easily. Thank you, gentlemen, for allowing me to go on that little bit of a rant. I don't know if you have anything to add into any of the points, but feel free. You know what? The thing that's blowing me away the most is, did McTavish get a penalty for the cross check? I don't believe so. I can double check that just to be sure. A couple of seasons ago, they
01:20:58
Speaker
Cracked down on cross checks For about a month and then they went right back to not doing anything had they continued that that He called he did I mean probably cuz there's an injury But there's dozens of cross checks every fucking game that nothing happens with him, which is stupid It's it's honestly one of the most dangerous plays in hockey. I
01:21:21
Speaker
Cross-checking someone taking your fucking stick and and a lot of times they aim for where there's no pads to like it's fucking Vindictive it's kind of gross when you think about it. I'm gonna try to hit you with this, you know Very hard on mostly unyielding object right where you have no pads I Just sent the clip to you guys at this cross check I'd say skip ahead to the 42nd mark and
01:21:49
Speaker
to really see this. And Larkin was pissed when he went off the ice. If you freeze frame at about 41 seconds, and I can do it here for those on the video side of things as well. I got a freeze frame up on screen right now. And this is clear as day. How he skates in.
01:22:13
Speaker
And it's like a sandwich hit involving Radco Gudis, and you can see Dylan Larkin's neck snap backwards because his body has nowhere to fucking go. Again, it was called a penalty, thankfully. A two, by the way. But this is such an intentional
01:22:35
Speaker
targeted hit in my opinion or at the very least if it's not and you want to say that McTavish is puck watching and then puts his arms up to defend himself his first instinct is to put his arms up in a cross-checking motion so for as much of that debate as there is about oh players need to know how to fucking protect themselves a big part of how the rule book is written is the guy
01:23:06
Speaker
Performing the action, a check, a cross check, whatever the hell, is responsible for his actions. That's how the rules are written. Look at how the boarding rule is written, for example. So, yeah, I don't know. Oh well. I guess we can't cut down on cross checking. We've tried very little and it didn't work.
01:23:31
Speaker
Oh wait, it did work, but we just stopped for some reason? Yeah.
NHL Critique and PWHL Hitting Concerns
01:23:37
Speaker
Well with that everybody, we get to end this show on the high note that the NHL provides. Case in point, yet again. But we did have some fun today. Although Endo is either feeling under the weather or quite tired, but regardless, I thank you for making it through this particular show. I will say one thing about hitting.
01:24:01
Speaker
The women in the PWHL are trying to hit, some of them still don't know how to, and it's an effort. There was a hit during one of the games where someone went for a hip check and then just collided straight on with someone's knee, and I'm like,
01:24:18
Speaker
And then a whole discussion started happening where it's like, oh, the girls should be attending a hitting class or a clinic for hitting, which is something you do in minor hockey when you're, you know, starting to play a little more higher level and context starts to get into the game, which is like 14 here in Ontario, I believe.
01:24:39
Speaker
That might be something they mean to look into because you know Canada the Canada the Canadian and US players You know, they're familiar with it because a lot of it is here in Canada in the US Hence what like the rivalry series and like a few? Oh W Ontario women's hockey league games that I've seen like the the minor league games but the Europeans
01:25:04
Speaker
They don't really know, I guess, from what it seems about how to hit. So that's one thing that's cool too. Those freaking Europeans and their advisors, they don't know how to project. I think really honestly, one of the main reasons why the double IHF didn't allow women to hit in the international play, especially with the women, is because the Americans, the Canadians were typically bigger size players.
01:25:31
Speaker
And it was kind of like a safety issue in some certain cases. And that's why the Ravelry series is the only series in international play that has not full contact, but a lot higher contact than other international games. Fair enough. Fun fact. There you go.
Endo's College Sports Series
01:25:52
Speaker
Endo, as we bring this show to a close, what do you have going on?
01:25:55
Speaker
I have a checklist of names for players because you are running your, you know, your almost annual series of college football or college football games or college sports games. Excuse me.
01:26:11
Speaker
And, you know, you check it's a rename. There ran a bunch of was it just the the freshmen's or what they really had the new recruits that we bring in. We started on college football last night. Chat voted on it. It was going to be one of the worst teams in the game. And that team ended up being Navy. So we are in the Navy. We are semen. The midshipman. Yes.
01:26:38
Speaker
And it's great because I have some great names like Latrice Longbottom the 16th, Inspect Element, Cody Friedman, because we all know Cody's going to add himself in the game so want to get it out of the way, literally as I've written over there, Ni Hao, Ni Hao, Huang Dong Tiger, and my favorite, Math U, Lombard D.
01:27:06
Speaker
Also, yeet Blackburn. All caps yeet and just regular Blackburn. There you go. I'm excited to see what people come up with. I needed a series to run on nights that we weren't playing games on parsec.
Conclusion and Future Plugs
01:27:20
Speaker
So it worked out well. Sin for the win. What are you going to cast? Yeah, just nothing much. Check out my YouTube. I got stuff up there.
01:27:32
Speaker
There you go. Same for the wind productions on the YouTube side of things. Catch him every single day on Sports Gamer GG on Twitch. I'll be right there with him unless I lose power on Wednesday. Because global warming is real and we're getting violent windstorms instead of snow in January in Maine. It's great. We have fun here. We'll see you all either later on this week or potentially next week. We shall see. Until then, take care. Brush your goddamn teeth.
01:28:01
Speaker
and we'll see you next time.