Alright, welcome back, welcome back. In case you missed it, before we start, we gotta talk about this crazy Ike Runner story. Did you catch this one before, there in the pregame? I didn't see it during the pregame. I had seen it pop up on my phone earlier today. It was a little bit of a crazy day. So I never read the article, but you were talking about it and then they talked about it later on in the game. Oh, same.
So I kind of turned on the pregame just in the last couple of minutes of it to see the end. And I kind of could put two and two together of what had happened, but I didn't know the whole story. So I read the article in the athletic from CJ. And what a wild story. So these two teams prestige worldwide and the Jaeger bombs like couldn't be more of a random ass league. These guys are playing on one of the ranks at, I guess, the Leafs practice arena. Can you just rent this? This is a thing.
I've never looked into it, but I think you could rent the MassCard Center. I guess these guys must have had like a tournament or something going on. So anyway, Ike shows up and he says he mentions he said he mentioned he mentioned seeing the all the players cars were there. So they must have just finished practice and that the ice was all nice as though it had been zamboni properly and everything. So they were still in the building that had left yet.
And a freak accident skate comes up and slices his throat. And within a minute, it's like the entire Leafs medical staff is there helping him and. literally saved this guy's life. Like, who knows what could have happened otherwise if they had relied on, you know, first response time to like get an ambulance over there. The guy could have bled out. Like, that's wild.
Oh, yeah, it really makes you think and the fact that, you know, the game's been around for well over a hundred years and we're only really seeing these types of injuries lately. Like the first one I ever recall seeing, obviously there was cuts, but there was never anything severe until Clint Malarchuk. And then, you know, we had a really good run after that, right up till Zednik, just after the lockout. And then obviously this year has been bad for it.
Yeah, I don't know if there's anything we can attribute to it other than bad luck. Like, I don't know if changes in equipment, you guys are more confident when they have more padding on than they did back in the day to not control their flailing limbs as much. I don't know. It's hard to say. like, if you took a skate blade from a skate today and compared it to back in the day, it's like comparing a katana to a butter knife, but also the speed of the game, I think.
what helped Ike's cut not be as bad as it could have been. They said because it was so sharp, it was a clean cut. Sorry to get graphic, but like, I mean, that's how these things work. Like if it was a shitty, dull skate blade like back in the day, it probably would have done more damage. But yeah, I guess the speed does account for it. If somebody goes down, they have more likely a higher chance to have a leg fly up than they would if they're going half the speed. So. Mm -hmm. It's freaky.
Freaky deaky deaky. Bow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow Alrighty, welcome back, welcome back, Leafs. Late night. Or it's never too late for the Leafs. Presented by Inside the Rink. Where you can get all of your fun NHL news, updates, and stats on all the players, all the teams. There's many different podcasts for all the teams you follow and articles on all the goings on. So head on over and check it out. You also got merch.
Go and get yourself a National Beanographic shirt that I spent so much time designing. It's beautiful. Took me months and months to come up with it and all of a couple hours to put it together. So please support us. Buy yourselves a National Bena graphic shirt or a Leafs late night tote bag also available now. So we had some interesting news come out today. Obviously Leafs goaltending has been in flux. There's been people hurt and we've had many guys take the net this year.
But the news today was that a fifth locker was added. So we have Martin Jones, we have Ilya Samsonov, we had Dennis Hildeby, we have Joseph Wall, who is now practicing again, and Matt Murray. Where's my button? Not even that one. Bigger. Guys, Matt Murray. This was like, loophole slash Robi dot island. We thought this was to tuck him away for the year, let the contract run out. He'll be fine after 12 months of rehabbing. That's how it's going to go. But lo and behold, he's back.
We don't know how back he is, but it seems he could be taking practice soon. Holy shit. Yeah, it would definitely be a surprise, especially when you have, you know, the lower body history that he has in that position, but it's definitely doable. And I think it, if I remember correctly, I think it was Marty before the season called it that he'll pull a Kutcher off and come back for the playoffs, didn't he? I mean, look, we'll take it, I think.
But it opens up an interesting conundrum here where you don't have the money to activate him even if he is healthy. Yeah, but there's a lot of time for him to have to rehab. Like, you figure this is probably the first time he's been putting skates back on. Oh yeah, he might not play this season. It's definitely a giant question mark.
But look with the medical staff that we know the Leafs have, look at that Amazon documentary when we saw him wasn't hooked up to a literal electronic bone mending machine. Like these guys will get them back as fast as they can, I think, unless they really don't want them to come back as fast as they can. But look, it opens up the opportunity to... potentially move somebody if he's going to come back and walls going to come back and like you you literally have too many goalies. Who do you keep?
with the injury history that we have, do you have too many goalies? Well, if they all come - if they're all healthy at the same time, yeah, you do have a problem, because you're gonna have to wave somebody. Well yeah, so realistically with how it's been going, I don't think you would want to gamble with anything more than Joseph Wall and Ilya Samsonov. Maybe you hope Jones clears waivers and you can send them down. See, I don't think Jones clears waivers anymore.
I think a couple months ago he would have, but because of the opportunity he's gotten and what he's shown, like there's a lot of teams looking for at least a backup that would grab him. With his last handful of games though, I don't know. Because I'm not saying he's been horrible, but he's been, you know, regressing back to the mean. it's fair.
But again, people I think are more likely to take somebody that they've seen play games this year than where he was at before, where it was just a kind of a roster move. Yep, no, you're right. If Trey Living has balls of steel, he might try and like trade Sammy and activate Murray or something crazy like that. But I think that would be a crazy gamble.
Like I would love the story for Murray to be able to come back and, you know, potentially play really well for us in the playoffs if something happened. But you can't be expecting that. We've got basically a week and a half for Wool and Murray both to get completely healthy and start playing games before the deadline for us to be able to make a confident decision here. So I don't think that's happening. Joseph Wool might come back though.
Like that's a definite possibility for the next week or two, it seems. So in that case, like I'm still asking, do you waive? say Martin Jones and risk it or do you trade Samson of like trade Jones like what's the what's the play because I don't know if you can carry the three of them and then you've got like if you trust Hildebe to be the backup in these emergency situations he can be your third or fourth guy like he doesn't have to be the fifth at this point. I agree with that.
I'm still a little pissed that Keith hasn't at least given him a game. Yeah, I don't know why we keep bringing him here if he's going to sit on the fucking bench for games that like he could definitely be playing in. With how the Leafs have been keeping opponents to like less than 20 shots a game, especially when they don't trust their goaltender, let him have one of those like we've got Arizona and St. Louis and. Like what's the other one?
There's another easy game, but Anaheim exactly Anaheim or the Coyotes let Hildeby play. Yeah, no, I do agree. He needs to get a game in here and there. We need to see what we have. It should have happened earlier in the season, but I don't want to get into coaching tonight. I've been doing that a lot lately. Yeah, but like, I still think at the end of the day, Wall's probably our guy going forward.
So as long as he can... you know, show you or instill in you a little confidence that he has recovered from his injury to at least be what he was earlier this season, then I don't think you need to do anything too drastic. No, and I think really what this comes back to, if you missed our last episode, is the cupboards pretty bare when it comes to what the Leafs have to make any moves at the deadline.
So if you can turn one of these extra goalies into even a second round pick, like that opens up a huge opportunity to bring in somebody for the bottom six that they desperately need. Like, oh my God, we're so happy that Bobby McMahon is the next is like the Seymour Benoit of the forward group. Like, great, you're here and you're working. Reeves, pack your shit. McMahon got your spot.
Like this guy is playing his heart out and kudos to him, but we need somebody like with a bit of experience back there to keep it solid. Well, I think you need a little more structure really. Like, McMahon, Greger, Holmberg, Robertson, like, we have guys who play the s or who can play the style that you need to play in that bottom six. So if we're gonna be using assets, I don't know if we need to necessarily use assets to - to reinforce that. If everybody plays a little more structurally.
I just feel like they needed an anchor back there because it hasn't been camp and it's not Domey. Like, I don't know. Somebody's got to really like drive that identity. Like, like tell the other two guys, like, this is what we're doing, you know? Keith's not gonna play them anyways, even if you won't get someone. I just the most even I think I've ever seen the ice time for any of the Leaf games this season.
Well, and I mean, you're also trying to nurse the fact that two guys are coming off an illness and couldn't even play the other day. So it might be some of that working into it. So you can't even give them that much credit. What I do want to talk about with tonight, though, is my God, the Leafs were a completely different team getting JT and Mitch back. Like they play so much differently when they're shorthanded their stars. Like, I mean, obviously Riley's still down, but it was night and day.
the team that hit the ice in the first period. They've always been like that though. Like right from the beginning of this Matthews era, 100%. Like it'd be a big storyline, oh Matthews is down, how are the Leafs gonna do? They're gonna struggle to score and then they go out and they put up four or five. Like it's kind of similar to the Penguins. Anytime Crosby was out, people would worry and worry and worry and Melkin and LaTang and everyone else would step up and there'd be no concerns.
So. I think that just goes to show that the players know how they're supposed to play. Like if they played every game, like they played the St. Louis game, now unfortunately I had to work super late that night, so I couldn't watch it that night, I had to watch replays. But that was one of their best games all season. Like structure -wise as a team, right? So they can do it, they just need to do it. And that's preparation and commitment and...
Cool. Yeah, I mean, not to dwell too much on the coaching, but it does seem like there's a strategy like he knows how to work with a certain format of team. But as soon as these guys come back in, like he doesn't know what to do with them right now. And it seems like I don't want to blame the rest of the guys for, you know, oh, the stars are back. Let's phone it in because it literally seems like they're playing a different game in a different structure when these two guys get put back into it.
And it's a game that doesn't work and is proving it doesn't work the last month and a half. So I don't. I don't know why we're not building on what works instead of going back to fucking anyway, not to dwell on coaching. Like I said, Sammy tonight, not good, not great, not bad, not great. Yeah, not horrible, but not great.
Like... a little bit of swimming, he had a couple decent saves, the one bomb on the power play late, he did get it with his glove but he couldn't hold on to it, so like, better than he was to start the season, but not how he was before the All -Star break if we wanted to sum it up. I'd say the only one that I like back from him is that second one, the big rebound that ended up coming back in.
But really, like the fact that the Leafs gave up a shorthanded goal and two power play goals, like it's really hard to put any of it on him. Holy shit, they were bad, like sloppy game tonight. I mean, the first period was obviously the worst. The second is all Austin Matthews. Like, I mean. Obviously, Mitch was setting him up and everyone kind of feeds off of that.
But it seemed like in between those little spurts of Matthew scoring, like two minutes before he started scoring and two minutes after the team just deflated. Yeah, and I couldn't help but think of previous comments between you and I when Matthew's got his first goal. As you always like to say, if he's not scoring, what are we paying him $12 million for? And it's like, yep, there's the scoring that we're talking about. Just walks in and rifles it. He made that look so easy.
It didn't even look like he put anything on those shots. It was just no celebration. There it is. I'm glad he at least smiled when he got the hat trick. But like, holy shit, this guy was just a mutant tonight. He was scoring pissed. This was like, I can't believe that I have to do this alone scoring. That was the look on his face like, fine, I'll do it. You're not wrong. And then they got a little cute trying to find him for the fourth goal. Like... was, oh my God, Mitch, come on.
Don't make a six inch pass. Like you made it all the way there. Just take the shot. Fuck. He already has the hat trick. What are you doing? I could get it if it was like he's going for the double hat trick or like Sittler's point record or something like that, but for just a four goal. in a game against Philly in February. Like, don't do this. Yeah, no exactly. But some sloppy penalties, I mean, in the offensive zone, like what is Bertuzzi doing? Gio with the embellishment there.
I do want to get to that, but like just some bad penalties. And they got away with murder before too. Like there were two missed high sticks that they showed replays of. Like, oh my God. Yeah, the... Like, I don't blame anything on the officiating, definitely not for this game. It was bad play and bad structure by the Leafs that caused... that allowed the comeback. But, um... Like, Gregor's penalty... Okay, yeah, he shouldn't have done it, but Sandheim probably could have got brought.
Yeah, you know, that kind of situation. You take both of them or you take neither of them. Yeah, Philly is really embracing the Broad Street bullies again this year. Holy like that fight Benoit. I know. I know. But that that thing with Benoit, I don't understand how it's not an instigator. Like if you hit a guy and another guy comes in and shoves you into the boards, you can't go anywhere and they start hitting you. Like, is that not an instigator penalty? Deloria got the instigator.
Not on the... Diddy? Mm -hmm. Oh, okay, then I missed that. I thought that went without one. Yeah, no, he definitely got the instigator for that one. Okay, good. The other one the embellishment on geo, like that was probably the most embellishment embellishment call, but I do think that they need to be a little more consistent.
Like if you're going to call embellishment ever, then call it like we, we can't say people are good at drawing penalties, we can't use the term drawing a penalty if there's also a penalty for embellishment. Like if someone taps your foot, and you fall down and they get called for tripping, like you're telling me that guy couldn't have stayed on his feet if he wanted to, if he really wanted to keep going? No, he went down because he drew a penalty because that's how hockey is played.
That's what we call drawing a penalty. Well, yes and no. There's definitely people who are better at it. Like Tim Stutsell, for example, he is a notorious diver to the point that he's got a reputation for it now. And then you go to the other end of the world, the best player in the world, Connor McDavid draws, I think he's in the like the bottom five or 10 in the league for penalties drawn, which is absolutely asinine.
Oh, and mean, Crosby went through the same thing, and mean, Matthews has gone through it. It's hard for the stars to draw penalties because the refs, I think, just figure that they're always going to be chopped out. If you're going to start calling everything, then it's just going to be nonstop. But what I like, OK, I'm not against diving, getting called if there is no contact and they're trying to make something out of nothing.
But if there is a penalty on the other side, like if it's a a hooking call and embellishment. This is a bad example because honestly, Gio did sell it. Like if you're what they try to call is you're showing the ref something and trying to do their job by being like, oh, look, he hooked me. It's like, yeah, I see he fucking hooked you. You don't need to act it out. I'm not blind. I was going to call it.
But because you did that, you insulted my intelligence and I'm going to send you to like that's what it feels like to me. Yeah, but players would be a lot less apt to try something like that if the calls were actually getting made. Exactly. This is my point is like, you can't call embellishment when you're officiating is so shitty.
Like, it's so inconsistent and like, naughty, like Department of Player Safety aside, like just in game, roughing calls, like we saw, like I said, two high sticks missed, and then they're gonna call embellishment on this. It's like, you have missed things in this game, I need to make sure that you saw this happened. Fucking sue me. Like, I just. It's in theory and on paper it makes sense, but in the context of how this game is actually officiated, it's almost impossible to call it accurate.
well especially with the speed of it. Yeah, and it comes back to all of it or none of it. Like, you know, it's it's same with like this offside review thing, like review all of them or none of them, you know, the Matt Duchene thing needs to just be an outlier at this point. Like, I'm so done with this. It should be an outlier, but it also never should have happened in the first place. Exactly. Oh my god. hahahaha a tracker in the puck. I'm done with wasting time. It's so frustrating. Anyway.
trackers in the puck, but they can't start using them accurately because then they wouldn't be able to call goals back against the Leafs when it fits their narrative. Hehehehehe the Panthers, like it's happened to us. Yeah, that one that Morgan Reilly definitely scored. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. I need to breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe. my new meditation button, it gives me 10 seconds to just collect myself and feel pretty good. That's what I'm gonna use that for.
That wasn't what it used to be for. But let's use it for what it is actually for, who was pretty good tonight. Um, well, if you take the obvious out of it. as we try to do with this segment. I'm gonna have to say Lily. We were shitting on him the other night. And you know what? He's so far, he's actually stepped up pretty well in Riley's absence. And yeah, OK, that's fair. I'll give him this game was good. The last one was bad and people were saying it wasn't.
And I'm like, you didn't watch him then. I'm going to give it to Kaber because he has really been the one that's had to step into Riley's role and take the most minutes on and going in in overtime like that, like he's not the person that you would think the Leafs are going to play there. But because of where, you know, Brody and Geo and Lily's play has been, Timmons is out like who? Like we don't have a puck moving defenseman. He's like the next closest thing.
So the fact that this guy is kind of stepping out of his element and still holding it together, like, I don't know. I think I give it to McCabe. Lily's definitely a little more of a puck mover, but he definitely has not been playing the greatest this season. So that's why I had to kinda give the shout out to him. know. And I get that. I just think for as far as overtime went, he doesn't have Keith's trust right now to take that spot.
Which is a little surprising because they were pointed out on the broadcast too, Lilly's basically his entire time in North America he's at Sheldon Keefe as his coach. Eight straight years. Yeah, and I feel like guys can fall in and out of favor, right? Like you make a couple of mistakes and they start benching you. We've seen that with a lot of guys with Keith. Like, I mean, he was laying into knives tonight and sat him for a shift. Like that one goal was his fault. So. -hmm. 100%.
Yeah, I mean, it's one of the things that I will give Keith. He's not afraid to, especially now that Dewis is gone, he hasn't been afraid to sit guys for shifts and say how he feels without walking it back. But, yeah. Yeah, but if you did it more often it might actually have an effect. Like if you actually did it when someone deserved it, not just when you're trying to shut the media up. Well, it seems like he still can't talk about Mitch, but you know, that's another story in itself.
Over time, though, William Nylander. Thank you, sir. King saves the kingdom, as I said, because my God, someone needed to. It was like the deserve to win a meter was shifting too far the other way. Like, honestly, it was never in the Leafs favor except for like that span between the first and third goal that Matthew scored. Other than that, I think like. They were playing pretty sloppy and Philly took advantage of it a lot.
Sammy saved their asses on a few breakaways that happened, turnovers out the ass again. Like I just. Oh, Willie, thank you for putting it home. Core four. Let's do it. Well, even all of them in overtime, like Marner and Matthews, I think they're starting to kind of realize that, okay, you know what, the glory would be nice to get the goal, get the beautiful play, but they're trying to be a little smarter when they're trying to go for it.
Because especially with 3 on 3, if you miss the net, it's pretty much a guaranteed goal the other way, right? Because you're always outnumbered. which is interesting that they let Nylander shoot it because he is notorious for either scoring or missing the net entirely. So good on him for hitting it. Yeah, but he also had nobody on him. No, but that never matters. You kidding me? Like if that was if that was the case, soccer would have every ball go in the net all the time.
Players choke when they have wide open nets. No, but honestly, Nylander and Marner. Did you come back to that in a sec? I think from coming back from an illness like Marner and JT both had pretty good games, Marner especially. I didn't notice JT as much, but Marner with Matthews, they were really buzzing. Matthew's definitely missed his buddy. He was not as not as noticeable offensively. It was just him and Newlander the other night. So it was good to see back.
But with Ridley Greig, did you see someone broke down like other types of wide open net shots you could do instead? Oh, no, I didn't see that. Oh my God, I'll maybe try and find it for the end. But it was, he had one like the canoe where you're coming in and you sit on the puck and like ride it into the open net. Tiger Williams. Or if you're coming in and you stop it on the line and wait for the defender to get close and then, oh, I almost had it and tap it in.
Just like every one of them I'm watching, I'm like, these are all going to get you jumped in an alley after the game. Oh, definitely. Speaking of, did you hear Torz's comments on it? Uh, no I didn't. Okay, so they asked towards about the situation, which is interesting because I thought, you know, it's already Thursday. I don't know why we're asking what John Tortorella thinks of this from Saturday, but. What do you whose side do you think he's on?
Um, from what I've seen in the past of Torts, I think he would probably be on Riley's side. Like, you don't do that type of thing. You would be correct. And his stance was basically that without naming names, but everyone in the comments is like, wow, that was very obviously against one of the two. He goes on to say that a lot of the young guys are moving up the ladder too quickly and thinking that they deserve more respect than they have.
And they're surrounding themselves with entourages that are hyping them up too much and making them think that they're bigger than. than they are and guys think that they're stars before they actually have anything to prove it. And I'm like, holy shit, this dude is ripping Ridley Creek a new one. Well he, he hated, uh, wasn't it like the, the Zegress and Sonny Milano goal? Like the Michigan pass or whatever the hell they're calling it. Like he was ripping that.
Cause I think he was a panelist at that point, was he not? Yeah, that was his panelist year before they were like, okay, you are out of touch. We're gonna go a different direction. Thanks for trying though. Oh my god, I can't spell Ridley Greig. Oh, there's no E, that's why. on one hand, I guess you don't want to pull like a Patrick Stephane, but yeah. We talked about it the other day, you still can't do that.
He said I guess the thing with the young athletes is sometimes you have to wait your turn, right? As far as gaining respect and not wanting everything right now and not expecting everything right now as far as ice time as far as your contract whatever it may be sometimes it's good to just wait your turn and earn it. I think that's where athletes have changed. They have entourages around them that I think direct them the wrong way.
The hierarchy of a room, the hierarchy of what it is to be a pro, the process you have to go through as a pro I think has lost a little bit with the athlete now and it's something I miss terribly in being in the league for so long. Seeing where it's gone now. Great athletes, great skill, great speed, but the mental and understanding what it is to be a pro and respecting the National Hockey League. That's where I have some struggles. Holy shit, Torts. Well said.
That's somebody who I just said out of touch and removed from the panel, just dropping bombs. Oh. Meanwhile, did you see the Morgan Criley shirt? Oh yeah, the one you posted in our group chat. Yeah, so it's actually a, here. Somebody posted it in the Leafs Reddit. It's actually a friend of a friend, I'll say, who is the one who makes these, which is pretty funny. Where's my button? How do I share this screen? How do I share my screen? Share screen. If you all haven't seen this.
So if you know, Brian believes who does all the doodles and comics and drawings of leaf games. There is Doodle and Darryl, who basically does the same thing for the sense. And he made this shirt. So on our side, we've got Joey Ferg making motorious and they made Morgan Criley. Like, get the fuck out of here. It's so good. And like the NHL posting the the Valentine's Day card that says with like Ridley Greig, it says, I'll shoot my shot like.
It's honestly I like what it's done for the entertainment of the game. Like it's gotten people talking about the right things. And on the other side of it, I guess we could talk about the NHLPA appealing Morgan Riley suspension today, which is something that Southey and I said we probably wouldn't see happen just because it's five games. I mean, it's usually takes that long of a process anyway. But hey, if it means you get some money back. Apparently, Dra - Yeah, cause he needs the money.
Apparently, Drager was saying that Betman's expedited the process. Apparently. So, they're thinking that if it does get, you know, dropped at all, then he might be good to go for, I think they said, Wednesday's game. So that would end up being what three games? Four, okay.
So even if he misses four games and Betman reduces it to three, he would get the money from that fourth game back, which is what the PA wants to do, because it's their job to have a resume that they've always fought for their guys. And you know what? Marty Walsh is having a good year, so I'll let him keep going for the dubs. So. We might have Riley back. Is that the Anaheim game? I know who we're playing. Anaheim's Saturday. Wednesday should be Arizona. Yeah, Mondays blues, Wednesdays, Arizona.
Yeah, it would be nice to have him back before we go Golden Knights, Avalanche Golden Knights, so he gets like some reps in after missing a week, but wishful thinking. We'll see. Anything else happen? Any other things? What else is going on? Um, I've been really swamped at work so I haven't been following much more than the Leafs lately. But you know, everything's picking up in the league a little bit. We talked last night about LA being on an absolute downfall. They lost 7 -0 the other day.
I mean, we looked at the numbers. They're not as bad as you would think. Like, they've lost, I think... I think they've won 4 of 12 or something. Like, it's not good, but it's the way they're losing, 7 -0, 5 -1. Like, they're getting absolutely caved in. They can't score. They have no goaltending. Like it's that's kind of the story right now, at least for for me. Dallas just beat Nashville nine to two. Holy Frig. And Jamie Ben has donuts. Thanks, you useless plug.
Ugh. Anytime I'm looking for for news, I just go to fantasy and something will pop up. But yeah, nine to. Yeah. St. Louis beat Edmonton 6 -3. That's pretty embarrassing. Yeah, thanks Skinner. Cheers. Yep. Well, I think that's it then. We'll just keep it a quick one and then we'll be back on Saturday. And, you know, maybe we'll have more of the gang and do a full play some games. Cool. I think that works. deal. All right, we out of here.
If there's a game that you want to have us play send in some requests. We'll do some I'll write a couple and you can pick your faves. Cool. Cool. and TikTok. Man, TikTok is crazy. I'm just ending on this. Okay. Algorithm wise, I have for this, for our show, our Instagram is at 500 and something followers. I posted a reel. It got six plays. Okay. In that same amount of time, I posted that same thing to TikTok where we have six followers and it got 1200 plays in that same five minute span.
I do not understand that fucking algorithm on TikTok. It is nuts.