¶ Standings and Team Performance
9 to 1, are you joking? Wait, 2? 9 to 2. 9 to 2! What? And there were two 9 to 2 games tonight. What? Yeah, that's unreal. Kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty kitty Oh, baby. I got to be careful because we both have cats walking around us right now. And at any second, I could get a claw on the leg. All right. So I realized right before starting the show that it hit me. I've been hitting the wrong intro. I made a new one specifically for this season and I premiered it and everything.
And it disappeared from my board. And I've just been hitting one that was labeled intro new. And it didn't even hit me like this is not. the right one. So welcome back. Welcome back, new old new intro. So that game was a little nutty, like talk about records. I mean, the whole time we've had these guys on the team, it's been we're always talking about fastest Leafs to do this fastest leaf to do that. But some weird ones this week where we saw Bobby McMahon, an undrafted player.
First one since Tyler Bozak on the Leafs to score a hat -trick. Then the next night we see Matthew score a hat -trick. And then tonight, Matthew scores another one, and McMahon almost gets another one. What is going on? Can you imagine if you go in the next game too? Four in a row? Like what's the stat on that? Four in a row? I have no idea. They said three in a row was Washington in 09, I think? But Matthews is the first since Gretzky, they said, to get two in a row.
Yeah, he's also the first since Lamu in 95 to get 6 in one season. And it took Lamu a whole season to do this. He still has 29 games left. Yeah, there's only a handful of guys who have seven and then it's eight nine ten Gretzky with ten. chat tonight, you said he could hit 10 and I've at first I looked at it was like there's no way and then it took me like half a second to realize Like this is a real possibility.
This guy could hit 10 hat tricks in one season Yeah, because it's not like he's done it spread out. They've all come in spurts. Like the first three were in five games or something. And then now we see two and like this is nutty, absolutely nutty. I mean, obviously, Anaheim is in a whole whole my God, I'm sorry. Later rivals pod. They're not in great shape, but man, Matthews is on another level like he didn't even want to celebrate.
like he was doing pretty good at the beginning of the year, but he was not getting the puck look that he was now. So it seems like it's more, it's progressing more to the medium and like every time you shoot, you just think it's going to go in, right? Yeah, it's just the confidence is flowing through this guy, like the prime energy he's being sponsored by.
And meanwhile, in the absence again of JT, and obviously Riley, we have McMahon stepping up Domi taking second line center, like everyone's really holding on to these roles. And we've talked a lot about how the struggle with this team has been in development, the The spaces aren't there to give these guys the shot. So this has been a really good chance to see a world without the core, you know?
% because like more more added responsibility added ice time it will make or break players and it has been it looks like it's been really making these players right like McCann Domi everyone Robertson's playing better with this added ice time the only guy I can say who's kind of regressed might be Gregor. Yeah, Gregor, I mean, who'd have thought the guy who scored the first goal of the season for the Leafs would be, you know, in the same boat as Bertuzzi looking for his first since December?
He had over 15 minutes tonight and like I really didn't recognize him almost at all. No, especially with the rest of his line being so loud all night. I mean, there were a few. Don't you step on my keyboard, you little shite. There's a few chances he had where he at least kept the puck in the end and fretted over. He was playing with with McMahon, right? Like that was that line. Am I wrong? So. was out there a lot of time with him.
So I mean, of course, McMahon was the workhorse tonight and, you know, fighting from his knees again to keep the puck in. But look, those things don't happen without the whole line. So I mean, as unnoticeable as he was, I do have to at least give him give him credit for. not being shown on the score sheet. I mean, we hope so, but he has been quiet for too long and I am hoping for more to him.
But I mean, if your other 750K guy and McMahon is working out, I think the plan there is offer him something cheap before he starts scoring more. Yeah, 100%. Get them on a really nice team friendly deal. Yeah, and I mean, you do have to be careful because look at the situation we've got ourselves in with camp for, you know, you expected to to continue or go up and it just kind of regresses. So maybe maybe a couple more games, but. It's not it's it's really not.
bad game or anything, but he just doesn't. Even like compared to last year, he doesn't push the needle nearly as close as he did. His penalty killing is great, but like he just doesn't do that much for us right now. Don't bite my headphone cord. Oh my God. His penalty killing has been great, but it's not been the same offensive threat that it was last year. Like he's great in his own zone, but it's not like, oh, he's going to get himself a breakaway that could mean something.
Now if camp gets it, I'm like, oh God, this isn't going in. does his defensive responsibilities in his zone and he starts to take it to neutral zone, then that's it. His play just dives off. He dumps it in and maybe change. So just to go on somebody good again for a change here Timothy Lilligran who I've been ripping on the last couple episodes three points tonight has really stepped up in Riley's absence He was playing on the power play.
Yep, five points in two games now Yeah, like I said on the power play was getting some good looks moving the puck. Well Broke up some play. Yeah broke up some plays going the other way with from Anaheim Even setting up that play with Robertson at the end there, like that happened because Lillagran broke a play up. So, I mean, he was doing well. be in the game. It was like, what was it? Two and a half minutes into the game.
Anaheim was kind of they came out a little harder than we did, and they had a good cycle going on and Lily just crushed someone in the corner, ended the cycle, got rid of the puck, and that was game. After that, the Leafs never looked back. So he he's slowing his game down a bit. He's been a lot more responsible. His giveaways have been weighed down. And you're finally seeing a really good side of him right now. And God, I hope it keeps up. Oh my God, talk about a good night for stats though.
Guess how many points the Leafs had in total. Ooh. eight. 27. very close. I got 26 here. Ooh, that's pretty good. Yeah, five for Matthews, Lillagren and McMahon and Nylander all had three. Yeah, I mean, it's I know if Don Cherry were here, he'd say not to to keep trying. Like, look, the Leafs were trying to score right up until the buzzer went like they were trying to pull plays off literally up until the end of the game. It looked like they let up a bit in the third, but yeah.
For sure, but they didn't exactly kill time for the last 30 seconds. Like they were going for the 10th goal. And look, I know I know Don Jerry would say, you're not supposed to hem them in when you're already up by this much. But look, when so many guys have been so hungry for points and like Bertuzzi especially take advantage of games like this where it's just a shit show and put one in like stand in front of the net and just get it. guys need to feel good about themselves right now.
And that's why I thought when Keef did that challenge, maybe you're up 8 -1, right? You really don't need to do it. It's not going to have any significance on the game. But we don't owe the league or the teams in this league shit. So I'm really glad that he did it. And it sent a message to his team. It sent a message to his goaltender who has not been playing great the past few games. And I thought that was a great move.
And... Like I said, that encompasses exactly what they have been doing this whole game. It's just not letting up. And the confidence really spread to the physicality of the game. I mean, Ben Wall, absolutely demolishing people and McCabe demolishing people. Domi demolishing people. OK, Radko Gudis is officially the most hated NHL in Toronto. I'm so glad, like the amount of people that are just fucking screaming every time he touches the puck. It's great. Yeah, so good.
McMahon scores that beauty. It wasn't much of a cross -check, but he pushed him. And it's still, see Domi coming after that? So good. just flies in, dad's in the crowd too. And last but not least, Ryan Reeves, who finally showed what we're paying him for for a night. Like it's been a while since this guy really showed his teeth, but oh my God, he had the crowd going every time someone backed away from him, people were booing, like, we'll take him on.
Oh my God. the way like he didn't fight anyone like he said his actions tonight that presence that's not something that leaves have had in a while and even his play like his play has been a lot better since he's come back from that injury and I'm not a Reeves fan whatsoever but I feel like he's earned his spot on the roster right now especially after tonight. The penalty you drew at the end there, the unsportsman, like even the the announcers were like, oh, wait, it's not on Reeves.
It's like, no, he's. at the end too, they gave him 10 minutes. That was the quickest 10 minutes they've ever given someone before. Like, just get him off the ice. so good. It's like he's gotten to the point where I mean, look, if when it's eight to nine to like, don't step on my keyboard, you fucker. When it gets to that point, like the amount of chirps you can throw at the other team, like anyone tries to fight you, it's like, buddy, you're down like 80. I'm not touching you.
And then you can get that rise out of them. That's the best opportunity for Pertuzzi and everybody else felt it. be fighting reuse when it's that score to be fair. Like everyone who's getting mad about it, like he's not going to do it. No one in the right mind would ever do it. But the fact that he can get under his skin and make that a storyline in this game is really, really big for the Leafs. trying to pull up how many penalty minutes you got tonight.
Domi had 11. too, he had a really good chance. Why does it say Reeves only had two penalty minutes? Mmm. Is that right? Like am I... am I crazy or did he have way more penalty benefits than that? Well, he did get that 10 minute at the end. No, it wasn't him though. Oh, what, wasn't it? No, so, let's look at some penalties. How do I look at that on this frigging plate here? Play by play. Pims. Penalties. Yeah, you might be right. Eternal is 15 this game.
wow i thought he got more than that that's crazy so domy ended up with the most Yeah, he played a beauty game. Like he wasn't really potting goals, but the stuff he was doing, like standing up for his teammates and just flying around out there and hitting people. Papa must've been proud in the stands. So Reeves just got that one unsportsmanlike against Guddus when Guddus met the roughing against him.
Yeah, that's it the whole night Domi got the one for fighting Guddus and Hooking the Toronto and Roughing against Guddus and a double minor there. So yeah, and Sam Carrick got the 10 -minute misconduct at the end Okay, Reeves didn't get one as well. No, that's why everybody was surprised, because he was just egging him on to the point where the character snapped. for the rest of the ice. The rest of the game, sorry.
Yeah, and it's weird in that situation for the refs to be like, no, we're going to take a... Carrick. He's the instigator in this situation. Reeves has not been the problem all night. Oh my God. What a fun game though. It was. I mean, like, it's been a bit of a strange couple months in the new year and with the suspension and the illnesses, it's been weird. So the fact that the Leafs have won a couple in a row here and the game was exciting, it's nice for the fan base, right? 100%. Um, okay.
Sorry, go on. There's something I really noticed tonight too, and like there's a lot of people talking about the whole captaincy thing, but you can tell Matthews is like the defective leader of this team now. Everyone wants to sit beside him on the bench. They rally around him. He's laughing with everybody. His demeanor is so much different right now than it was even like a couple months ago, especially like early in his career. He's really taking this team and like he's leading them now.
It's really, really, really fun to watch. Oh yeah, I mean when he's on the whole team's on it seems like. Even on the bench, like he's laughing with people, he's interacting way more. It looks like he's having like a lot more fun out there. Him and McMahon on the bench was great to see. A prime example, like this kid is getting so much confidence just by being around Matthews right now. He is the leader of this team. what did McMahon have on his career?
Two or three goals coming into the other night when he got the hat trick. Now he's got like more than he had in his whole career in three games. And you get to sit beside the leading goal scorer and a Richard winner. It's like, you know, that's just the little things. Yeah, that feeds your ego. That makes you a better player. I hope so, because if McMahon can keep it up, then it really answers a lot of questions that we have.
Like we were talking at the last episode, we got to find a lot of the solutions within because the Leaps have nothing to trade. So if you can find some diamonds in the rough here in the absence of some of your bigger guys, great. Yeah, like you got Min coming up, you got Cowan who's on like a 22 point game streak right now, game point streak. It's unreal what that guy's doing right now too. Soos. So I guess the elephant in the room is, I mean, the Leafs do really well without Morgan Reilly.
And no one can explain it. Like, is it a fluke or is it something worth? are just stepping up. Morgan Riley is not a detriment to this team. I don't even think that's like an argument. No, I don't either. I think it's just one of those things where, like we said with everyone else, people get into a higher role that they've been practicing for, you know, they know how the team works so they can step into it. They've been watching that person like it's not sustainable over 30 games.
Like it's it's something that the Leafs are good at doing. Like when Matthews goes down and the Leafs have a crazy record, you can't say that the Leafs are better without Austin Matthews. If you played a full season with that lineup without him, you're gonna be way worse than you are with him. The only one that I'm kind of questioning is John Taveras because of the, I don't know, just the value of that second line center spot.
Not that you want to just have a roundabout group of guys filling it in, but I think we've gotten to the point where we might be missing out on some guys that could have filled that role. Like I'm tired of seeing guys on other teams that are ex -leafs doing so well when we just couldn't give them the opportunity here.
And I think now that he's getting to the end of the deal, it's like, if you're like comparing cost with production, he does make a shitload of money that that that makes the pill really hard to swallow. But when he's on, there's no one that you're plugging in that position that's gonna be better than him. No, I think it's more that you're not giving yourself the opportunity to find somebody that gives you production for a much cheaper contract.
Like you're handcuffing yourself to always running that back. the move is you start to put him at wing. I mean, yeah, I think if it's really going to depend on what his next contract looks like if he sticks around with the team, like if it's something where you can feasibly put him as your maybe third line center or a second line wing, like I don't I don't know what it is, but. line. He's not a third liner.
It depends how much he's going to want and how much his, especially like, I think his skating has regressed by then. If not, then I don't really think he makes sense with this team. You don't think he would play like at a reduced role on the third line and at center to keep that to give somebody else that's younger and faster. Maybe you'll play like second power play unit too, but like you want your third line center to be able to back check like crazy.
That guy's got to be able to contain even a matchup like the first line center. Um, yeah, I see him as like a second liner, but a third liner. That's, that's hard for me to see. Okay, fair. Quick question here from the crowd. We got a bunch of them tonight, but let's jump into one. Do we have the new McJesus in town? I mean, it's not the McJesus we wanted, but it's the McJesus we deserve, whatever the line from Dark Knight is.
He'll hold the, he'll keep the spot warm until the real me Jesus comes in a couple of years. Exactly. Who do we trade? Cam for Reeves. One needs to go. I mean, if you can get someone to take on Reeves, not Reeves, as a Camps contract, do it without giving away like a high pick, but I don't see any of them actually being traded.
I think if you're going to trade one of them, I agree it's camp because Reeves contract is cheap enough that you can obviously scratch him and bury him in the HL as they've proven much to his chagrin, but you can do it. Camp just making over two is a lot harder to do that. You don't get the cap relief. Yeah. get rid of camp, I think you get rid of camp. Yeah, just again, I don't I don't really see anybody wanting to take that on and I don't want the leaves to have to pay to have someone do that.
I think that's just you got to swallow that pill. to you that if you bury him, his contract doesn't count against the cap? Yeah, and there's something about the buyout on it because it's it is a 35 plus but it's not protected against buyout so they they could if they want to but it really doesn't make any sense you might as well just bury it. Does that loss for the ducks make any difference for the value of Adam and reek come trade deadline? No, this guy is 34 years old.
You know what he is at this point. One loss on a shit team isn't going to make a difference. Yeah, I checked his numbers. I mean, he's been on New Jersey and Anaheim. Both of them, well, they've been not great. And he's a career 40 -point guy. Like, he's never really faltered from that. Like, the lowest is 30, the highest is 50. Like, you know what you're getting with him? I think... David Camp if David Camp were good. That's a good way to put it. He kills a ton of penalties.
He's a great penalty killer. He's like 55 % I think on the faceoff. Reliable. Yeah, I think it's a really good depth pickup for a team that's already full going for the cup. Like, I think Vegas might go for it or Colorado or like one of those guys just because they can. use a solid pickup. I don't see the Leafs doing it because we don't think we have the room for it, but...
From Maple Leaf Fan here, sorry I'll shout out everybody we got at Leafs34 McCabe's nose at Moose Koken and Mike23Dreamer thanks guys for the questions. Next we got Maple Leaf Fan, do we make it fourth hat trick in four games if yes who steps up to do it? I mean, easy money. Supposed to be on Matthews, but if someone's gonna do it, I'd say Willie. I was going to say if it's not Matthews, it's Nylander because he has been kind of floating around the edges and still scoring through all this.
And I got one tonight and he's been looking hungry. So yeah, I think it's one of those two. If it's McMahon, I'm just like throwing everything out the window. McAddy, if he does it again and they just keep going back and forth, it would be the most unreal thing. Oh yeah, that's like a storyline for the rest of Leafs time. And who do? Yeah. And what do we get next? Arizona? Like, oh no, St. Louis and then Arizona. Still doable.
Second part of the question, for what it's worth, Riley needed time off. He was playing mammoth minutes. A nice rest will only help him. Same with Gio, the older players in the league. Although it is terrible what happened to him. Rest in peace, Mr. Gio Dano. Yeah, agreed. Thank you for that. totally agree. You want to... Keith hasn't been great at doing time management with older players this year, or even like his workhorses, like you said.
Raleigh's been playing a ton of minutes and he just hasn't been getting much of a break. So this is... You don't want to see him sit over five games, but this is a blessing in disguise. Yeah, I mean, and apart from Matthews getting five points, this was the lowest time on Icee's had all season. He only played like 14 or 15 minutes. Fun fact, this is the only time he's ever gotten five points in a game. I blew my mind that stat. Yeah, especially because he got four goals one game.
It's like, bro, you. Hatties this year and he's only, he's never gotten more than four points in the game. That's why that Coach Chippy video was like, hey, boys, what's that? What's that a category? Austin, that's a sis. Oh, what does that mean? You get you get a point. You get a point for passing the puck to the guy who scores. You get a point for that? Yeah, so good. Yeah, it's pretty wild that the guy has scored four goals in a game more than once and has never had five points.
Yeah, that actually blew my mind. Wow Can this team win against a contender? Oh, we'll see we got Vegas Colorado Vegas. So gonna find out real quick tough three games after St. Louis. But yeah, they can. fan of Van, what is Bobby McMahon? We said it earlier, McJesus. No, he's a player who is just starting to find his confidence. He's been playing the way he has been playing his whole life now. He's not afraid to make mistakes. He's playing up to his potential, and it's really fun to see.
How old is he? He's 27? Are you joking? I didn't know he was that. I knew he wasn't like, you know, 20, but I thought he was like 22. like he held the stick super tight. He was afraid to make a mistake and he's just not playing that way right now. Wow, so this guy just looking through his career here, 2021 Wichita Thunder in the ECHL, then the Marlies, Newfoundland Growlers, Marlies.
Like, can you believe that during the pandemic, this guy was playing with the Wichita Thunder of the ECHL and now he's got fucking, what's that, 13 points in 29 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs. it up with Oscar Matthews on the bench.
Absolutely incredible for an undrafted player Yeah, it's it's great and although the media attention he's been getting I mean everybody wants to talk to him that everyone's loving the story It's it's something that we don't have often, you know, it's great It's a really, really feel -good story. A great feel good story. But but but but who do we got here? Mikey D start bench cut. Oh my god, so it's a bunch of variants of Reese's. I don't know if you've had any of these.
There's Reese's cookie biscuit. I have not had this. Reese regular Reese or Reese's with Reese puffs. What's a Reese puff? Well, I think it's like the ones that have the cereal inside of them. I've never had this. He said Walmart's got some elite Reese's merchandise. I have not had any of these. I mean, obviously I've had a regular Reese, but like these special ones, I'm, what is this? Sorcery. I'm so lost. I don't usually fuck with chocolate, but I do like Reese.
So the OG has to be, you start that one, right? Yeah, I'm gonna start the OG, but do I, I'm just looking at the picture here. He's got of the Reese's Pieces with Chocolate Cookie Biscuit. Cookie biscuit, that sells me. You bench that and you cut the puffs. Okay, so what it looks like is, you know how there's the like the way that peanut M &Ms are shaped. Imagine that. But instead of like replace the chocolate with cookie and replace the peanut with Reese's.
And it seems like that's what it is. It's like a Reese's pieces covered in a biscuit with the coating on the outside. Yeah, that's. Bench that one, and then I'm cutting this this Reese's with cereal inside of it. Don't need that unnecessary. Yep, that Frank and Reese can go, thanks. Okay, thanks guys for the questions. Moving on to other news. Yarmouk, Carolina and after 11 years in Columbus is let go. Only weeks ahead of the trade deadline. Weird -ass timing.
super weird timing. Apparently, John Davidson, the owner, or not the owner, the president said that he had back surgery and he's been out for a bit and that's why the timing happened what it did. But like, you couldn't have done this before, you couldn't have someone else do it. Like, it - over like a trade deadline? Is it is John?
They said that he's like acting for now while they search for someone, but it's like, I feel like they, John Davidson knows that his job might also be in limbo right now. And they're not naming him as like the actual interim. They just said like, we're looking for somebody. So I don't know, things are not going well there. And I can't at all feel bad for Johnny Goudreau. No, no, definitely not. Man, I bet he wishes he had a redo on that one.
Like if anyone in the league had a redo on where they signed he's got to be top of the list like he, but if it was failure Columbus, he must've been wishing like he was in failure right now. And that's not even saying that much. Mitch Marner, it's literally you get to see the Marvel what if. If he went for the money instead of, you know, stability. Oh, my God. who are they going to hire? Like they said they wanted someone with good experience, but. Man, that place is a dumpster fire right now.
Yeah, and as far as experience goes, I mean, there's not many guys that for good reason are out of a job, you know, or with like, how do I put that? All the guys that don't have a job right now don't have one for a good reason. So your, your pickings are slim. experience, like a Billy Garren, what he's doing in Minnesota right now. He would be a great fit. That type of person in Columbus.
Yeah, I don't I just don't know how someone's going to come in literally like it could be a week or two ahead of the trade deadline and is supposed to supposed to move something. happen. You let John Davidson and that team run it until after deadline at least. The other rumor was that did did Yarmou pitch a trade that was just so, OK, we can't do this anymore, that they were like, we're not we're not letting you go to the deadline because you might do something that's like.
shot down in like NHL 24. It was so bad. Yeah, I just - to be like atrociously bad for that to happen. That's such a knee -jerk reaction. There isn't such a shitty situation. I mean, they've got guys that are underperforming. Obviously, Linus going through his mental health struggles, and we hope that he can work that out. But I mean, that's one of your top guys down. Gatrow's underperforming. I mean, what do you... You got some guys... at the end of this at the season like.
All -star Boon Jenner. Isn't that bad pickup? You're talking about Henrique. I think Boone Jenner is a better pickup than him. Well, that's the thing. There's a lot of guys on that team that are on the trade board and without a stable GM or potentially Davidson doing it like you have either. I think it's one of two scenarios.
They make a bunch of bad trades or they don't do anything and these guys just sit and then they've wasted the pieces that they have on expiring deals and then they just run it out. You trade off a couple of your pieces like Jenner and whoever else, but then you just, you figure out what you're going to do in the off season and then go from there. Because you figure every GM is going to try and take advantage of this and blow up their phone with like the worst trades possible. Sure, 100%.
You're not doing your job if you don't. But like the whole Gujuro thing, that really hurts. They banked on him being infinitely better than he is. Well, I mean, yeah, he got 150 in points. Yeah, he was legit. Just like they have a couple of shit contracts there on defense too, right? Like, oh yeah, so Wuranski, nine and a half and then Severson at six point two five Ivan Provrava four point seven five. Eric and Branson at four like.
But. If that's like twenty three million dollars between four defensemen, that's a lot. I mean, I was coming from a Leaf fan, but. Then then you're. now too, I'll have to listen. Elvis and Tarasov. They don't. Jake Bean is their cheapest defenseman at two point three million like that's that's rough. All other guys make more than two. It's and they take the hit on forward. I mean, this holy shit. OK, so Goudreau makes nine point seven. Roslavik makes four.
Boon Jenner makes three point seven five. Karali makes two and a half. Taxier makes one and a half. Look, that's how quick this drops off. Oliver Matthew makes a million. Everyone else makes under a million. That's insane. No wonder this team is shit. Like, yeah, obviously, Fantilly and Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger are in there. But and Igor Chinnikov, like they're taking advantage of so many cheap deals.
But like you this is the same situation in Anaheim's and you can't have a bunch of 18 year olds on fucking ELCs skating around there with no help. it out with some professional hockey players, right? Like some older vets who've been there who can show these guys how to be a pro. And that's supposed to be line A in Godreau and that didn't work. Nothing against Lainey's struggles, but even without that, he's not the type of guy I want ushering in like a younger group of forwards.
No, and I don't think either of them would be penned as like star leaders on their team, right? Like, they're, I mean, we talked about this before with them. They're not like one A guys. They're the one B. They're like a complimentary to your star player. They're the Mitch Marner, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. men. They're going to score a bunch of points, but they're going to have to do it their way. And if it's not their way, they're not going to be fun to be on your team.
Yeah, so honestly, I'm excited to see if Columbus just ends up selling the entire varm. Like, I mean, look, they have all the young guys, they don't need the picks. If they can move some guys and get something useful back, like maybe this is the time to do it, but who's going to do it? I don't know. really don't see them doing too much other than like dumping Jenner at the trade deadline. Yeah, I think any adjustment there is going to be signing somebody in the offseason.
Especially if you're having like a new GM come in, he's going to want to put his fingerprint on this and just have a couple like a five year plan going into it. Yeah, really, it's just going to suck for a couple of these guys that could potentially go to a playoff team, but might just end up having to spend the rest of the year in Columbus. Could be, maybe it will happen. Maybe. There was something else wasn't there that happened.
I mean, obviously, shout out to the PWHL Toronto Montreal game on Friday night, Toronto winning three nothing, the solo crowd. as a tenets ever for a women's hockey league? A hockey game rather. I think people are really getting into this. I mean, I think I know it seems. I heard that people are not going to buy tickets for women's hockey though. Wolf, come on. I mean, it's crazy seeing how it was predicted beforehand and you can see based on the size of the arenas across the league.
Minnesota, for example, shares their arena with the Wild. The 67s share theirs with Ottawa's PWHL team. So it's not NHL size, but it's big. It's OHL. And then Toronto plays in a 1 ,200 -person practice arena above La Blas. one. Yeah. But like I don't blame him for wanting to do that right at the beginning of the year because you don't know what's going to happen in the inaugural season. But what it showed last night is that people really care. Like that building was incredibly loud.
The vibes there were huge. Social media was really big. They checked off every box. It was it was awesome. Oh, hell yeah. And no, my point was more just that it was so unknown how this is going to do that, like the capacities across the league are just like so vast. But it's awesome that in creating that bit of exclusivity, I guess, with Toronto, when you do open it up to to Scotiabank Arena, everybody that's been waiting gets to go. So and it's people that have been waiting for this.
I mean, like a lot of like young girls that have wanted to watch women's hockey that haven't had a chance to and. mention, like, think of all the people in Toronto who maybe want to bring their family to a hockey game, but they just can't afford to do it with the Leafs. So now they have this other great alternative.
That's exactly what I was going to say is it's a professional hockey game you can go to in Toronto in Scotiabank Arena that's not $500 a ticket to bring, you know, your two or three kids to, right? Like it's a... young girl who's like five or eight years old and their eyes just light up and all of a sudden this changes their hockey career. Like their path rather. Yeah. And I don't know if you saw it was Sarah Nurse was on with what's his name.
Yeah. Talking about the branding and how, you know, obviously it'd be nice to have a name and everything. But like they put this together in six months, which you really have to give them a lot of leeway with. There's the fact that they've been able to put this great of a product on the ice and have a whole rulebook together. I mean, look, the NHL's rulebook is such a piece of shit. The fact that they were terrible. an entire league from the ground up in six months is insane.
So. it's going to be like an ever evolving thing, I think, for the first like two to even five years. It's going to be molding it into hopefully what's going to be like a really, really strong and good league. Yeah. And I mean, like everybody, including myself, had a lot of criticisms of them starting without names and logos and the branding and everything.
And like, like not that my mind has completely changed on that, but I think now that there's been so much hype around it and people are kind of waiting for it, it's going to sell like crazy when it does come out. I mean, asterisk, if the team's names and logos are good, because if it's anything like the ones that were registered a while ago, they were not great. branding is pretty important. Young people are really successful to this and they're going to latch on to it.
So if it's something they can really connect to, that's an important thing, right? You just don't want to be called the Ottawa hockey team. Exactly. So I think once people have a name they can latch onto, it's going to bring this even further. So the fact that they've been able to do this much without names and logos and being able to like it. Yeah. Yeah. The fact that people are buying sweaters that just say PWHL Ottawa and PWHL Toronto and everything is awesome. So they're. Oh, God, yeah.
a lot more physical than I thought it would be too. That's one of my biggest surprises. Yeah, same. I didn't realize like, obviously international hockey has different rules than, you know, the NHL does. So I didn't think about the fact that when you get these women to sit down and hash out a rule book together for like a national league in North America, they can say, OK, like what level of hitting do we want now that we're not in an international tournament?
And they accepted, OK, as long as it's along the boards, we're not doing open ice hits. Cool. Great. Let's do that. And everyone watching was like, I'm sorry, what? We're going to watch people smash each other. you're good. Like you can rub up against each other. You can plow each other on the boards. It's been really good. Yeah. And I mean, the some of the highlights, the goals have been great. The the goaltending is great. The fact that Toronto has Campbell in net. Come on.
We got another soup. Probably the best Campbell to ever play in Toronto. I mean, come on, Jack Campbell. Jack Campbell's elite, remember? Oh, she did. And I mean, look, to just bring it around to something else here to close it off, talking about branding, after we signed off last night, Justin and I were looking through KHL jerseys. I mean, to say anything, we were looking specifically through players that are just still kicking around in the KHL that we forgot about.
But and looking at the jerseys were like, damn. Can I buy this one? Like, where do we get this? Some of these are pretty sick. So product aside, I mean, if you have a nice looking Jersey and logo, people will buy it. will buy it, even for 300 rubles. It was actually 400. Oh fuck. Also, you cannot find a Kuhnlin Red Star Jersey. Like, it is so hard. It's like not possible to buy one in the West. Like, you probably have to buy one. is the old Soviet Union, like the CCCP one with the iron sickle.
Such a classic. Yeah, we were we were trying to find the Red Star one, but I think you have to buy it like in like through China somehow and have it shipped here because like you can't actually buy them from our Internet. Just back channel. The other hilarious thing actually about that team here, I do want to bring this up for a sec. So when you go to the team's website, it says that all all their players are Chinese because they've like gotten nationality or whatever.
If you go to like elite prospects and look at their team where it says like where they're actually from, it's so funny. OK, so this is. This is China's KHL team for anybody that doesn't know. Illinois, Minnesota, Illinois, BC, Ontario, Saskatoon, Massachusetts, Ontario, Ontario, BC, Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Alberta, Ontario, California, BC, BC, New York, Finland, Ontario, Ontario, Alberta, Alberta, BC. One European, that's it.
Yeah, and they've got I did skip over there's like one or two Russians. Yeah, there's two two Russians on the team, one Finnish guy. And what is what is BLR? I don't know what that is. bunch of yanks are Canadians. I don't even know what this country is. But yeah, so their whole team is literally... Oh, there you go. Yeah. So their whole team is just a bunch of Canadian guys. And it's so funny. Like... Yeah. I mean, get your quop however you can, right?
Never give up, the dream's still alive, yeah. Jake Chelios, any relation? Father, Chris Cellios. Yup. I only thought he had daughters. That is crazy. So his kid, Jake Cellio, is 32 years old, plays for Koonlun Redstar. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Keep getting them checks, buddy. Yeah, good for you. So, wait, let me get this straight. Chris Cellios only retired from the NHL in like 2010? His dad's probably still a better player than his son.
Wait, so he retired from the NHL in 2010, and in 2010, his son was playing for the Chicago Steel. That's wild. I'll you. My god, I this is what we did the other night you just dive down if you're ever interested in like where some of these players disappear to Like Valtteri Filippoulos playing in the KHL like there's so many random random names that you can find still kicking around over there. Yeah like players you completely forgot about. Oh, God, yeah. Just search by like age. Yeah, exactly.
Just search by age and like nationality. Look for any Canadians still kicking around over there. It's pretty funny. beauty. Um, last thing, because I didn't get to talk about it with you, I think, but Phil Kessel joining the Vancouver Canucks. What do we think? Is he officially joining them? He looked pretty gassed when he was at practice with Abbotsford. Oh, is that, uh, I haven't seen that update. Isn't that where we're at with him?
From what I understood, it was just like, come show us what you got type of thing. Canucks continue patience with Phil Kessel. Future Hall of Famer must pass checkpoints. Okay. Canucks downplay Phil Kessel News. Okay, so they're trying to like, whoa, cool the Jets. We just. this under the radar, but like you can't do under the radar with Phil anymore. No, as soon as he gets invited anywhere, it's going to be, oh, finally.
Because I think the thing with him is anywhere he signs, they have the responsibility of keeping his Iron Man streak running or not. That's a thing too, right? But I'm sure he must have had talks with him. That doesn't mean anything to him at this point. He probably just wants to play. Yeah, and the other thing is because playoffs don't count for that, I think we might see him sign with somebody close to the playoffs where he can play maybe the last two games this season.
And then it's just, OK, we'll keep the Ironman Street going by benching you through the playoffs. We can play a couple of games as an extra in case someone gets hurt. you'd probably want to see him play at least 15, maybe 10. But even last year with Vegas, he was a healthy scratch a lot in the playoffs. So I'm not really too sure how much he can offer a team like that. I think he'd be good on the second power play.
Maybe a couple of second, third line minutes, but I don't expect too much from him at this point in his career. No, and it's unfortunate because, yeah, he's just so funny. Like, we need characters in the NHL. And of course, there's a lot that are coming up in the last couple of years, but it's just sad to see one go to retirement, potentially. I think he's got one last hurrah. I think that'll actually bring him on. I hope so.
It's just, you know, especially with the Canucks, they're so good and so deep that I don't see them really needing to play him a ton. But I don't know. Yeah, and I mean, that's that's what anybody would bring him for, but we'll see. he'd only go to a contender, right? He's not gonna go side with, you know, Arizona again or Montreal or something stupid like that. I don't think anyone's going to sign with Arizona until they know where the team's going to be. Yeah, yeah, no shit.
Quick look at the standings, the leaps did hop over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Woohoo! We're third place in the Atlantic, only behind the Bruins and Panthers. I don't... My god, Panthers won 9 -2 over the Lightning tonight. Who knows anything about that? Yeah, god. I have him on my fantasy team and I'm absolutely devastated. That surgery really brought him back to reality. It really, really did. They're going to have some questions come off season, especially with Stephen Stamkos' contract up.
That's a huge question. So yeah, the Bruins have 75 Panthers of 76. We've got 66 lightning of 65 so Kind of a toss -up between first and second and third and fourth. It looks like The Red Wings are starting to drop off a little but they're still right behind Yeah, and that's kind of it drop off a little more towards the end of the year as well. Man, I really thought it wasn't going to be Saber's Canadian Sends at the bottom again.
I really, really hoped we'd see a little better out of the three of them, but fuck. thought Montreal would be down there, but Ottawa surprises me more than even the Sabres. Yeah, I mean, it seems like the second half of the year is great for both the Sabres and the Sens every time. And you think like, oh, this is promising. And both of them go into the offseason. I mean, look, we always say the Sens win the Cup in August. Like, they always look like it's going to be good.
They're building on success. And then they just don't. I heard it from somewhere tonight that the comparison was that the ducks were the sands of the west. Just a lot of good pieces, but they can never really break through. Yep. And every year it's a question of, you know, do we trade this one guy that we've been holding onto for a while? Yeah, and like at least Anaheim has legit gold tender. Yeah, I mean, as long as he's not in trade talks.
Or hurt. But Jacob Chickren could be on the move again. Which like this poor, this poor guy has spent his entire career on the headline of Where is he going? I get the vibe he doesn't want to be in Ottawa though. This guy hasn't wanted to be anywhere he's played. He's a good player, but he's hurt a lot too. I don't think I'd want him on my team. No, and it's unfortunate that he's had all the injuries.
I think if he'd been on, you know, been traded from Arizona to a better team a lot sooner, we wouldn't be talking about him this way, but... he, like he had trade rumors for like three years before he actually got traded. god, literally. Okay, um, that's all I've got for tonight. Anything you want to touch on before we skedaddle? I do believe that is everything. Well, let's hope for another hat trick because it is just unbelievable the amount of goals these guys are pumping out.
St. Louis, we got a chance. We do. I would love to see Bennington and Net and just see him and Reeves chirping each other all night. Do we think Tavares is back? Like, what's the word there? Was that the illness again? No, it sounded like he has a minor injury. They didn't reveal what it was, but nothing serious. Okay, well we'll see. Not like anything was rough tonight, but interesting to see in a different scenario that's not the ducks. Yeah, I have a feeling you're probably not gonna see it.
Well, no skin off my back. Where where the frig is my outro? well We out of here remember to give us a Like and subscribe and follow the video will be up on inside the rinks YouTube channel If it's not already there when you're listening to this go over and check it out Have a good night. It's never too late for the Leafs only sleep Hmm. My cat is sleeping or I would have picked her up as well. Wah wah. Yeah, mine was too, he's actually been quite a good boy. But I woke him up.