[00:00:05] Speaker A: Booyah. And it's time for the Game sports podcast. It is your host, David McCague Jr. The Game sports podcast is powered by 91 Network 91 n. Head on over to the 91 Network YouTube channel to check out all recent episodes, video versions of the game Sports podcast, as well as other content providers on the platform. If you're listening to the Game sports podcast on Spotify, Apple or any other audio platform, make sure you hit like follow and subscribe on those as well as again, a reminder, 91 n. A simple like simple comment, simple subscribe, or a simple five star rating goes a long way for us here on the game Sports podcast as well as 91 n. And speaking of 91 n, if you're currently doing a podcast and you want to join the community that is of 91 n, if you're either based in Sioux St. Marie, the Algoma region, or outside the Sioux, it doesn't matter. Reach 90
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[email protected] to have your content aired. Again, the Game Sports podcast is powered by 91 n. This is the technically are supposed to be second edition of the week or the Wednesday edition of the week. Doesn't matter whatever way you look at it as a viewer or a listener. So we do have a sponsor on the show, but it's not until the second segment and we do only have one upload that we are doing this week because we did have multiple uploads last week as well as our special edition with James Sabolski finally got uploaded and a lot of great interaction on TikTok for that as well as Instagram and the social medias. And again, if you're on TikTok or social media, that simple like or follow goes a long way. I'm going to introduce the one who's joining yours truly for the first segment. And then after we introduce this beautiful fella, I'll get to the agenda of tonight's show, the one and only Dane Hantrow Danner McDainer. How's it going, my friend?
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Connor McDanier. Yeah, my Red Lake nickname. It's going wonderful. I had you over last night for the big game last night, and Edmonton actually got the w in Edmonton, which has been few and far between against the Toronto Maple Leafs. So it was good to see continue that winning streak up to eleven and we got four easy games on the schedule coming up here, so maybe we'll get that to 15.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: There's two reasons that Dane is probably a little extra happy. One, of course, the Oilers did beat the Maple Leafs, and that's a rare occasion for when I watch a game with him and he'll test to that. It's very true. But he's also in a very good mood because his Edmonton Oilers have won eleven in a row and they had a start to the season that was abysmal. Awful start, very hot. And if you're an Oiler fan, there was obviously the right time. They had their little funk because now they are hot. And of course, if you're a Toronto fan, you might have woke up a little bit upset this morning. But besides that point, the Toronto Maple Leafs did play the Edmonton Oilers last night. We're going to get into that now. That actually segues me nicely into the agenda. I got a little topic I'm going to address first that's actually outside of hockey. We're going to talk about Pascal Siakam as his news has just broken just a few hours ago. I'm going to give you a little bit of insight on that and a little bit of reaction, as well as when we transition back to the hockey world, we're going to talk about Mitch Marner, and we're also going to talk about perhaps some other news that may have come up with that game that happened between the Oilers and Leafs last night. But continuing with hockey, we're going to talk about the NHL all Star jerseys. Look, we know it's been talked about, but we're gonna give our opinions on it. If you're on video, you saw my face reaction there. And then Dane and I are going to talk about changing draft rules, and it's something that I put on the script per se. So it's not really Dane's approval to have it on there, but we're going to have it on there and chat about it. We did plan to talk fantasy hockey today, but since Alex Parr's not joining us, we're going to table that and we're going to put that to the side. So our Monday edition next week, but to finish off the first segment after those other topics are touched on, we are finally going to introduce the a redraft segment. Everyone has been asking when we talk about hockey or with top shelf segment or when we had it as a podcast, what is the stick? What is that one thing that we're going to bring to the segment that's a little bit different, just like how in the pocket, which is our second segment, has the Pickham segment, but we finally found what the stick, per se is going to be and it's going to take about 42 episodes to go through all them. So I would call that a stick. We're going to be redrafting the NHL drafts that have happened. But we're going to start from 1980. We're not going to start from 1963. We don't want to go that far back. We're going to go from 1980 and up and we're going to do a top five redraft. Dane and I very excited about that. And as I mentioned in the second segment, that is the entirety of the first segment, only the second segment we will have in the pocket, and we do plan to have EJ Russell and Justin Heichel joining yours truly to talk football. And football is quite the topics we can get to, and I know Dane won't be taking part of those. And Dane is a Michigan fan and I'm sure he is still very happy what happened a few weeks ago. Gold blue. I will say that even though it's.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: An Oregon, he'll know how to deal with it. Right. I'm not used to any of my sports teams winning, so it still almost seems surreal. But yeah, national champions. It was a beautiful.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: I imagine you can think of your teams that have won and if you're me taking off my host tap, being a Toronto fan, I've seen the Raptors win and I have seen the Steelers win twice. So that's nice. There's a couple of other outstanding teams that have to do it, and you're still in that running. The Oilers have won a little bit in their lifetime, but it's before our time. Dan and I are both 91 birth years. Just I don't know if Dane wants me to say that, but I did. We're getting older, but that's what I mean. We're getting older, but we still haven't seen wins from our teams that we cheer on. But back to the show. Siakam. Okay, so Pascal Siakam, the news broke today that he was traded a few episodes ago. A few weeks ago, whatever way you want to look at it. And on TikTok, I had a prediction about Pascal Siakam getting traded to the Sacramento Kings, and I thought that was a good pick because of who they could have targeted from a young perspective and picks. And I think it would have been a little bit more attractive to try to get those first round picks. All right. Now the only team in the league that I feel like that can throw away some first round picks if they want to try to bring in some more talent is the guys. The team. The team has so many picks, it is ridiculous. I gave an absolutely astronomical amount to Dane yesterday when we were talking, and I'm not going to go get the exact number, but the Raptors here, when you trade pascal Siakam, bringing in a good piece that could be effective as well as getting some future assets, I think was smart. And let me tell you something about Messiah Yujiri. Messiah Ujiri is Messiah, okay? Trust the process. He is. And Dane's going to be on the other end of this. Probably going to get a little bit of a smile. He is one of very few that have brought a championship to Toronto. Okay? The last time there's been championships in color was the Toronto Blue Jays in 92 93 with Beaston and Cedo Gaston. Let's get some names, okay? Other championships to win are the Toronto Argonauts. Okay? That's not the same as hockey, all right?
The Maple Leafs won when there was six teams in the league and the colored television was barely just coming, all right? So Messiah Giri put a team together with the Raptors. He believed in a core, but he stepped away from that core, little hint, stepped away from that core, brought in someone who was just put them over the top. And in that trade, what he brought in was not just Kawhi Leonard portal picks, removed out picks as such, he brought in the trophy and that is worth it. And in Toronto, when it comes to the Raptors, there's been movement, obviously nurse moving on and Messiah moving up in the organization. Webster now the GM, there's been some patience required by Raptors fans, but let's just say how it is. The Raptors have been very consistent for the past 1215 years. They've made the playoffs consistently. They've done well consistently. They just ran into somebody named LeBron James. I'm sure you've heard of him. Second place to Michael Jordan, fact, I'll still stand by that. But still somebody who they ran into a very hot team. Then they made the finals. No one had them against Golden State, but some injuries on Golden State happened. The Raptors won. Messiah traded Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Paces for Bruce Brown, Jordan Rora and three first round picks. And the New Orleans Pelicans were also involved in this deal. And Kara Lewis also goes over to the Raptors. Now, I'm not going to get into dissecting stats of Siakam or with Rora or with Bruce Brown or even Lewis. What I see of this as is obviously Bruce Brown is a core piece of that from the Indiana Pacers going the other way. But those three first round picks is what I'm looking at. And Messiah Yujiri has went off the board a little bit on his first round picks. He's used those picks to bring in assets and he's been risky with those picks. What I want to tell Raptors fans, look, if you're looking at something from a statistics perspective, just go look on Sportsnet, go look on TSN, go look on ESPN NBA.com, go look up those stats. I'm not going to read them. You can pull that up on your phone yourself. Okay? But what I'm going to tell you right now is the Raptors did part ways with somebody who's a part of that core in the championship and Boucher is the only guy remaining from that championship. But times have changed. The Raptors are in a different direction. They're still a team that could be competitive. They brought in quickly, they brought in Barrett. Love those moves. They've been really good since they brought them in. Now they bring in picks. Look, Messiah Ujiri knows what he's doing and this is what, everyone knew what was coming. Everyone knew Siakam was getting traded. The reaction's not negative online. Not saying it is. Some people are questioning the return. Brown is a good piece coming back. But those three first round picks is what has me going, especially as a multi sports mind, asset management, what you can do with those picks, having a good draft. The NBA is very different than in the NHL, than with the MLB, especially in other leagues, the NFL. But the NBA, those picks, you can move up in the draft, you can move up to get another player, a younger guy bring in.
They've got an asset for Siakam, assets for Siakam. For somebody who wasn't a part of their future plans, this was a good move for the Raptors. I think it was a win trade for the Raptors. And guess what? And Dane will agree to this time will tell on what turns out those first round picks to be. If it turns out to be success, that will be the slam dunk pun intended to show that the Raptors won this trade. But to get talent, you need to trade a lot of assets. And Indiana did give up a little bit here, a little bit extra than I thought they would get. But those three first round picks, I applaud Messiah Ujeri for that. And the other assets bring it, such as Brown, Rora, Lewis, others, et cetera. This is a win trade for the Raptors. It's good for now, good for the future.
Are the Raptors done moving? I can't see them being too much, really that much more active. But again, trust the process with Messiah and whatever he does, believe in what he's doing. I doubted him when he drafted Scottie Barnes.
Was I wrong? Was I wrong? He knows what he's doing. And the return for Siakam is great. And Dane, the only comment I want to get for you from this is the asset management perspective. You're looking at a trade and you bring in first round picks. Every draft is different, but to bring in picks for a star player that is not in your long term plans, and Bruce Brown, good player. We don't have to get into him as a player, but I think those picks were very important for the Raptors to get.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Again, not a big basketball guy, but I do believe there's two rounds in the NBA draft. I could be wrong, maybe three.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: You got good. You got it.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: I mean, obviously the Utah Jazz, or I'm assuming one of the better teams in the league, or a player, at least if they're trading for a quality player like Pascal C. Akam. So Pacers, let's. Oh, sorry, Pacers.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: You're good. You were talking Utah before. It's all good.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: The Pacers, Indiana Paces. I know that team regardless.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: I mean, I guess it depends on the quality of the draft position, right. So you're trading for a guy like Pascal Siakam. They're a playoff bound team. You're probably looking at three first rounders potentially that are going to be on the outside of the top half of.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: The draft, first round. Right.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: But again, you got three chances to maybe draft a player that's overlooked by a bunch of other teams and turns into a superstar.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: So I think Toronto got their championship. Kawhi didn't want to come back. We kind of held on to this idea that, you know, the Raptors are going to still be able to know, productive and contest for a championship, which just has not been the case. So I think it's good. I think it's time to go full rebuild. I think Raptors fans know, I know that championship was what, four years ago now? Five years ago. So, yeah, I think Raptors fans are probably willing to be patient and just do the rebuild. Right. Stock up on draft picks, find your guy, build around him and go from there. So I don't think there's any rush for the Raptors organization to try to get better very quickly. Which obviously as we know in rebuilds if you don't stay on track it can become a bit of a shit show. So I like the trade. Again, not a big basketball guy but I think three first rounders for one guy.
On paper it looks amazing.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: And like I said, and as Dan, I threw Dane under the bus by throwing him into basketball just to loop him in. So the thing is with Pascal Siakam it's a good move. And us understanding the asset management, the picks, those are very important.
And could they have got more? Let us know below if you think they got too much. Indiana paid too much. Let us know below. Comment below interact it'll probably be me answering not Dane. But Dane will definitely sit back and watch the interactions and maybe give his little jabs to you after. But Dane, I want to say I put you on the spot on purpose. And people can call me a dick below if they want.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Ok. They're totally allowed to do that. But that was a good answer. You did good. You did good. The only mishap was the Utah Jazz. You can't, can't go wrong. We were talking Utah yesterday at your house. So I think I have it in.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Your mind they're an actual NBA team.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: It's not like you said, the Flint tropics. Okay, good. Little fun to Jackie Moon. Now let's get into hockey. All right? There's extra love for Pascal Siakam. Mitch Marner, Dane, take it. Give the comments.
Revamp. The Leafs lost the Oilers last night. The Leafs lost their fourth in a row. It's January 17, the day of this recording. The Leafs lost the Oilers January 16 at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Beautiful arena, by the way.
Mitch Marner and the Leafs brass, meaning the players and the coaches all have their post games. And Mitch Marner had his comments and they caught some hot water today with fans. And of course, if you're a Toronto fan, if you like to watch Steve Dangle, there's a little free plug to Steve Dangle. He reacted about it. Fans in general, if you're a Toronto fan, you've been quite active on social media. And I may have a little comment about Toronto fans in the segment if I have time. Or I might save it for par when he's here. But Dane, what did Mitch Marner feel like he had to say after the loss yesterday?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Well, I'll try to summarize what he said.
I'll start with I don't think lease fans are really looking for excuses right now, and Mitch Marner gave a lot of excuses. I will say that last night was a terrific hockey game on both sides of the puck. I think either team could have won that game again. Toronto gets out to the early lead, and I mean, like the first five minutes of the game, I'm like, oh, I've seen the song of dance before. I'm like, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be the team that breaks their ten game winning streak. Here we go again. But the difference between Toronto and Edmonton right now is the resiliency. I can't even talk right now that the Oilers have.
Yeah, that word. Yeah, I usually am able to pronounce that well. But anyways, so, yeah, the Oilers have been able to fall back in games and trusting their process. And it's not the dry side. Old McDavid need to spend time on the ice plus 1 minute shifts and go out there and try to score gazillion goals. Just trusting the process, getting down one nothing to nothing, and not switching your game plan and going from actually playing some structured defensive hockey and capitalizing on the chances that are given to you. Whereas the Leafs get out to these leads and they can't hold them right.
There was multiple opportunities where Stewie kept us in the game last night, where he made some really big saves, and that was the difference between a two nothing lead to a three nothing lead. And I mean, three goal leads in Toronto, I mean, haven't always been the best, so I don't know if that was better or worse.
Anyways, Edmonton wins. Toronto blows another lead, as they have in the last couple of games. They're on a four game losing streak, and Mitch Marner essentially comes out and says, I thought we've played really good hockey the last four games. We haven't got the outcome that we're looking for. And I don't think he's wrong in a sense. I don't think the Leafs played bad, but I think at the same time, they also threw a game that they should have won. They came out firing. They couldn't keep up the momentum. They let Edmonton, a very dangerous team, get back into the swing of things, and it ended up being a four two game for, I think, and then also Mitch Marner also kind of calling out the media. We know it's a hotbed for the media in Toronto. It's not easy to play in any canadian market, not just Toronto, and they'll praise you and you'll be gods when you're doing well and when you're not doing well. You'll hear about it. And you got paid millions of dollars and you want to play in Toronto. You don't have to play in to. If you don't want to hear the noise, go play in Florida, go play Arizona. Go play in a hockey market where the media doesn't come out and hit you with the hard questions and criticize your play. That is literally what they're paid for. And you have an obligation to talk to the media and work together to sell this product, which is the NHL.
I think he went a little bit too much in depth with it. I think he could have just kind of left it out. I thought we played a strong game. I think we let it get away from us. We had it in the bag and we let a really dangerous hockey team crawl back in. And again, I think any team could have won that game last night. It was a terrific hockey game playoff atmosphere. The fans were into it, the players were into it.
There's just this calling out the media for saying this and that. It's their job. It sucks. I know there's a lot of articles that are written that are unfair and know towards players and it is what it is. It's part of the.
On a four game, you're on a four game losing streak. I just think coming out and you got the fans listening to this, it's year after year after year, the same thing. Toronto hot start in the middle of the season. For whatever reason they always fade away. And then generally they come on strong and then the playoffs start and it's.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Like what happened to, we know that.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Narrative in this last 2030 game stretch. It's not the same team. Right. They lack grit. I think they lack leadership. I think Mitch Meyer being one of the leaders on the team, I think you got to have accountability and start figuring out what the problem is. Why can't you hold leads? Why are you on this four game losing streak if you were playing really good hockey? It's hard for me to believe that you're on a four game losing streak. Yeah, maybe you get unlucky and lose one. You have a couple bad bounces. Maybe it leads to two games.
And yeah, they've had some decent opponents. The Colorado game, I mean, that play, that not touch the puck on the delayed penalty was insane.
Insane. And that's just.
And that's what. That's the problem with the leagues. It's the mental.
Yeah, I don't know if it's a leadership thing. It's a structure and the coaching. I don't know if there's a coaching change that needs to be made, but fun stat. I will name you the couple hockey teams that are the only teams that have less wins than the Toronto Maple Leafs currently, and that is the New York Islanders, the Kraken, the Sabres, the Canadians, the Wild, the Ducks, the Senators, the Jackets, the Blackhawks, and the Sharks. The Islanders in Seattle are pretty decent hockey teams. Definitely can compete for a playoff spot. The rest of those teams are bad hockey teams and the Leafs are just in front of them for total wins, not points, because they have, I think, eight overtime losses on their belt right now. But technically, if you break it down, the team is below 500. If you incorporate those overtime losses with the regulation losses, not a good luck right now. Right? So something needs to happen in Toronto.
I don't think Sheldon Keith's the guy I know coached the Greyhounds, came with Dubis. I think that era that sue Greyhound Toronto relationship is long gone. It's done. Right.
I think a guy like Craig Barube to light a fire underneath these guys asses, kick them in the ass. Do what you need to.
Just. I think they need somebody hard and I think they need a guy know been there and won something to show them the just I think having like a rookie NHL coach coaching a mean. He's not a rookie NHL coach now, but when he came to the team, he was right.
What does Sheldon Keith want to. He want to call their cup. I get that sometimes transitions into the NHL, but it's the big boy league now. And I'm not sure if there's a lack of respect or the team's not listening to what he's saying or maybe what he's saying just isn't what the team needs.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: So, yeah, Mitchie went on a bit of a rant yesterday. He definitely ruffled some feathers. The media, the fans. And again, as you being a Maple Leaf fan, I think all you want is that team just to go out, shut up and just play some hockey.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: See.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: It'S year after year after year after year, the same thing.
Nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear the excuses.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: The problem was, and we won't go too much on this further, but I wanted to take the little bit of the floor with the Leafs because everyone knows outside of the show. Look behind me. Okay. That's my name on the Leaf jersey. I used to wear that. There's a reason why I show that it's personal. We'll get into that. But of course, the Toronto sports scene to be a Toronto fan. You got to have some thick skin and some strong mental capabilities. Okay, but same as other teams. But Mitch Marner, the key thing that took it away, quote unquote, he said we're not frustrated. But again, quote unquote, we got to ignore what everyone says. We know we're a great hockey team. We show up every night. I mean, this last four games that we've had leads, we played some awesome hockey, some great hockey, portions of the game.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: You've played awesome hockey, 60 minutes.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: No.
Everyone can look at this in a different and dissect it. Dissect it. I'll break it down in a podcast host, someone who played, someone who's coached kind of way in my opinion. How I'd break it down. One, say you're not frustrated. First off, inappropriate. Anytime you lose a game, you should hate losing even more than you want to win. Moneyball. Quote. Secondly, ignore what everyone says. I agree with that. Don't get absorbed into the media. But you are in the hockey hotbed of Toronto. You're the hockey Mac of the world. Okay?
You can't escape it. You just got to have thick skin and just go out there and prove the haters wrong. Thirdly, you're a great hockey team. Yeah, I agree they are offensively and I think there's some average area for defense and goaltending. But yeah, they're a good hockey team. I would say they're a great hockey team. I do want to say they're a great hockey team because what they have up front, but have they played like it?
Next point. They show up every night. Excuse me. No, you do not show up every night. You do not.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Very few teams in the NHL that show up every single.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Every night. Are you talking about every night? So you're telling me the twelve regulation losses and the eight overtime losses, you showed up. Heck, even your 21 wins, you've shown up some wins, you got some luck. You pulled it right out. You got lucky. You bow back in some games, got some late goals and won the games that you've lost.
This game against Edmonton's a prime example. Foot off the gas and you got trampled over after the first period. They do not show up every night. And Mitch Marner, you don't show up every night. The only thing that I see you show up every night in is dipsy dool and a little spinneramadou and a throw a puck into middle of nowhere hoping your buddy Austin Matthews is going to get that pass where he's on the other side of the net and you're literally just dancing around doing a little dangle. You think you're doing a silhouette. You're a dance. It's not a dance.
Keep the play simple. The only player that I want to see doing dances out there is Connor McDavid. Because he can actually pull it off and maybe dry sidle and McKinnon. McKinnon's very good at it too. Other than that, get the puck on your stick, move your little ass. Go down the side. Go. Use speed, contain. Go around the net. Use your hands that you have and use your iq. Don't use your legs to jump up and down and do spin twirl dances in the blue line, okay? This isn't Dane Hantrow and NHL 24 at the blue line, okay? Doing spinoramas. Okay. Next thing, and probably the last point that I'll bring into it.
This last four games you've had leads and we played some good hockey. You did not. You played one period. One of the games you played two periods. You leave your goalie out to dry. You leave your average to under average defense out to dry by doing your little dipsy do silhouette dances. I'm sure if that's a thing, I'm making it a thing. In the ozone. The only guys that have shown up this year is Austin Matthews, William Neelander. Not the last four games he hasn't. And I give credit to Morgan Riley. I'm a big Morgan Riley fan. And Martin Jones. The guy has come in as a third goalie and has done his job. He has done his job. Everybody else get a check. Sit in a room, close your eyes, meditate and do what you got to do to figure your shit out. I'm not going to sit here and say a bitch about they're in a playoff spot. They're overall they had some good hockey up to this dry spell. But again, the good hockey is because of result of wins. That isn't good enough. To leaf nation and Leafs fans, that isn't good enough. We want to win and get there. That's expected. It's winning. And what does it take to win? It takes a full team of players that are going to buy into a system and are going to play effectively. Is this team good enough to win a cup up front? It looks like it. Paper wise it looks like it. But let's talk facts on paper.
They're not. They're not good enough. Do I cheer for them? Do I think they're a favorite? Yes. And I know other hockey experts think that they are too, and they should be. But the way that they're playing and the way they have played and the way history has been repeating itself, Dane touched on it. They're missing pieces. They are not good enough.
They need something up front that is a three c bottom six guy, leadership guy. And they also need something that means playing defense. Their defense is not good enough.
It's very hard to win a Stanley cup without a number one stud d man. Morgan Riley could be that guy. But is he a one?
Not a. He's not a Nick Lindstrom. He's not a kale McCarr. Not even close. He's not those guys. This team is time to face facts. Dear Brad Tree living Dear lease organization the way this team gets better is from checking from within leadership, holding players accountable and giving them the right tools to succeed. I'm not putting blame on Keith. Sure, if you think there needs to be a change, I'm not going to disagree. But this team is truly perhaps it's time to face reality. Despite being my favorite team, taking my host hat off, this is time to put into realization that they may not be good enough to win a cup. They'll make the playoffs, but we're going to see the same narrative unless some sort of miracle changes. You can only believe in a core for so long, and you're going to have to believe in this core a little extra because they're going to be around a while. But changes need to be made in Toronto, not of the big nature yet. And what I mean by big nature is the core four. Someone from that core four. And it won't be Matthews and it won't be Neelander that need to move on. It won't be Tavares because he only has one year left on the deal. The other guy is Mitch Marner, the guy who had those comments yesterday. Maybe that is something. But again, this team is a little bit of pieces away to still be considered in my mind, a front runner to win the Stanley cup. Are they a favorite? Sure, they're a top ten favorite, top twelve favorite, whatever you want to put them, but are they a front runner? Top five? Should they be? Not the way they're playing right now, but should they be? Yes, but they're not. And you need to figure out your shit and what needs to be done to improve it. Moving on, NHL all star jerseys as I rant there for six minutes saying that I want to keep it lower. With that point, I think I had to get carried away and I will have more vents with Leafs fans because Alex Parr, analyst here on the game sports podcast, is fed up with Leaf fans. And I'd like to say that somewhat. I am online, too, but we'll save that for next week. Dane. All star jerseys. The Justin Bieber release of the all star jerseys.
Kaka. Okay, Kaka, but I'll give you the floor. I'm not a fan. I think you might disagree.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: I don't hate them. I don't love them. But I think because the game's in Toronto, Beaver is going to be there. I imagine he'll be one of the.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Guest coaches on him and Matthews.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah, he'll definitely be on the Atlantic team.
For whatever reason, I feel like these jerseys are going to have a weird nostalgia to them. Like ten years, 15 years down the road and people like, we'll get into this in our favorite all star jerseys after we talk about these ones. But yeah, they're cartoony.
But there's part of me that kind of likes them. They're not nowhere near the worst.
The games in Toronto, the all star game, for the love of God, can't be any worse than last year's, which, those jerseys were very nice. I thought those were one of the nicer sweaters that we've had in recent memory, was basically the only good thing to come from that all star game in Florida last year. But yeah, I don't hate them. I don't think they're overly too detailed. I think they have like a plain neatness to them.
I don't hate the logo, but yeah, a little cartoony. But again, like I said, I think down the line, down the road, people are going to come back to them and be like, okay, those weren't terrible, but I'm assuming you kind of disagree with that statement. You don't like them.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: I don't like them. Listen, this is nothing against Justin Bieber. Nothing obviously towards Toronto, nothing like that. But the design of this jersey is gross.
You bring up a very good point of the cartoon. Sorry. Yeah, the cartoon effect. But you bring up a good point of the nostalgia that's going to come back 1015 years from now where kids who are now three or four years old, when they're 18, 1920, and playing in men's leagues or playing in practices, they're going to pull these out for their men's league jerseys. That's 100% what's going to happen. I could not agree more. That's a very good point. I don't like the jerseys because of the design.
Maybe it's just something new that they're trying. That's going to catch on. Maybe they'll look good in the light and in the star. Maybe when the lights are dimmed in the Scotiabank arena in Toronto. I don't know. But these jerseys are atrocious. I don't know.
Listen, the NHL has a marketing team. They have experts in there that are educated in marketing and well experienced. There was some sort of board feedback or criticism feedback that they looked at and they got positive reviews on it. And it was obviously Justin Bieber endorsing them at some degree or full degree or whatever way you want to put it. So obviously there was something there that caught their eye and that they agreed on. Should we doubt what they're saying? I think we shouldn't. But right now, to our eye, looking at them, they are gross. They suck. I think they're ugly and they're one of the worst that I have seen.
What segues weigh me, Dane, into a nice way to put it, the worst jersey of all time. How about I tell you the best one of all time? Okay. I really like, there's only one answer.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: In my opinion, for the best.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: I was close for two and it was the one in 84 when they had the.
I know people liked 2000.
Yeah, the Wales jerseys, but I also liked the one in 2004. They were pretty nice. I forget where it was in 2004, but I think it was in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they had the white and reds. They're just really clean. It said western across.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Those are nice jerseys.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: I like those ones.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: I was going to put those in my top two as well.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: But the ones that I like the most to see, this brings such a good point out because you brought up. I like the ones from the 80s. You know why? Nostalgia. Right? I like them because of that. They're so cool. The black, the orange, the NHL logo. Gretzky can picture Lemieux and Gretzky wearing them. It was nice. And I would love to pull out some opinions and archives from people that would have saw their opinions when those jerseys were released in the day. And now what we're saying now about them, those are my favorites, though, from the 80s. But you got to give credit to the ones in four. They were good, but the ones I like are the 80s. Dane.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with you. I think the ones you were referring to, the nice clean ones, were in St. Paul, Minnesota. Those are kind of a little bit of comparison to Minnesota's jerseys at the time. But yeah, I'm going to go. I like the 83 to 86 Campbell whale jerseys.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Those are ones. Thank you.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: I couldn't remember the year to 1997 jerseys that people at the time, apparently from reading online, did not like at all. But again, nostalgic, right? Owen Nolan calling a shot on Dom Hasek. Love those jerseys. And I think growing up, for me, those were kind of like the first jerseys that I kind of remember for an all star game and seeing some of the legends of the 90s wearing those jerseys. For example, owen Nolan, Dominic Hasik, yarma, yagur. Like all those guys, right? So I really like those ones. And then, yeah, just kind of like a little special shout out to last year's jerseys.
[00:37:06] Speaker C: I thought those were cool.
[00:37:07] Speaker B: Really nice. And again, about the only good thing that came from that all star game last year, and I'm going to say it right now, Justin Bieber will 100% be on the ice during the skills competition, and he will be doing a shootout drill or something with Matthews and Marner. And I've seen him play a little bit like he's not bad.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: No, he's not a bad occupy.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: It's just like, come on, he's probably the equivalent of me.
So I think they got something in store with that. They're 100% matthews or Marner going to have him come out on the ice and do something with the guys.
I think for kids and stuff like that, it'll be good.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Honestly, what I like to see is the women out there, so we don't need to get into talk about the PWHL, which is just because of time. There's a lot to talk about there. But I like having them out there to do skills and having them in there. I love that. I just don't like too much of the kitty stuff where they put a hat on glasses. Right. My favorite all star game was the 2000 all star game. And if you remember where that was in 2000, it was my favorite one. Not because it was Toronto. I just remember the Chris Bronger, the ogs, if you're mining days, the ogs. Nick Lindstrom's at his prime. The hardest shot without McInnes with a PMP Sherwood 7000. That's the favorite stick. I like saying, I think that's the Paul coffee special, actually. But those are the ones I missed were actually the hardest shot and skills that actually had to be shown without being too cartoony about like the shootout. And they had to do a two on o with the goalies. One time I thought that was really cool, but that's kind of segued out. But the hard shot, the targets, I love the targets. The only thing that I'll watch is the targets because I think that's cool. That's real. People are shooting. Try to hit the targets there. Fastest skater. I like that. Just don't fall and break your skull.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: That always makes me nervous.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Right?
[00:39:10] Speaker B: McDavid's retired from it. I'm like, I hope he never does that.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Right.
It could happen, dude.
[00:39:18] Speaker B: Flying the boards, top speed.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: No.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Bucky on.
I also want to point out for the general hockey fans, it would be so nice if we just actually pick the best players in the league rather than having a player from each team. I get it for marketing and views. So you actually get fans from different fan bases maybe watching the game or the all star competition just based on the fact that they actually have a player representing the team that they cheer for. But I just think I like how it used to be. Are they doing the draft this year too?
[00:39:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I like they're bringing that back.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: There's a couple of great moments with Castle Castle.
So I'm happy they brought that back. I'll probably actually watch that. I don't know if I'll. I generally don't watch the game.
The all star competition is unique. It's like a one off kind of thing for the year and I enjoy that.
The free on free thing is just the lack of effort in it. And yeah, it's fun. Lots of goals, this and that.
But yeah, it would be nice for the general hockey fan if they just went back to picking the best player.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Never mind the best players. Even I know we're going to talk about this close to the all star game. For TikTok purposes, you interactors best player at that skill, target, slap shot. You can even look at making it the best player for that skill and get the best players for the game. But then it's getting too complicated. Right. If you're going to choose the best players, I love that direction. But if you're looking at spicing things up, I want the guy with the hardest know. I want that guy. I want the fastest skater. Besides McDavid, someone did beat apparently his record. His name is Anthony Greco.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: The NBA. Does they have guys doing the slam dunk competition that aren't all stars? No, they're just good at dunking the ball.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: It's there to be.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: If you want to have a player from each team being associated with the all star event, I think you have separate the game is just the best players and then have other guys from other teams that aren't necessarily All Stars but might excel in those categories.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: Categories.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: All star competition. And then it's fun for everybody. Right. But having like. Yeah, there's just some guys that you're like, how's Zach Hyman not on the all star team. Guys are going to have a 50 goal season this year. In this day and age, a guy that's on pace to score 50 doesn't make the All Star game.
I don't care who he plays with.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Did you know Toronto needs a guy that can put up 50 goals and.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Has only corners and throws the body around.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: I wonder who they could have had for that.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Someone that you want to play for your loss. We took some collateral for that when we signed Jack Campbell, too, so it's not.
[00:42:26] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good point. I didn't think of soup. I forgot about soup actually for a minute there. Poor guy. Now. All right, so dame. And this is going to be, I'm pretty excited to bring this in. This is new today in this topic today. Okay. We had to figure things out offline a little bit. Okay. So I'm going to summarize this. It's going to be the end of the first segment. After this, we will take a three second breather because as you know, we are still doing commercial free segments for your enjoyment before we do segment two, but in this segment, which we do consider our top shelf segment, but as today, you saw a little flavor of basketball being added into there for obvious reasons. But on our segments on the Monday or the first edition of the week, show, whatever show you want to call, I've heard people call it episode one of the week, which is pretty cool.
But the first segment of the first episode in the week, the Monday edition, whatever way you want to look at it. At the end of that first segment, myself, Dane and Alex. Alex, whom is not here, we're not obviously going to have perfect attendance every day, but we're going to have something at the end of the segment and it's called the redraft segment. The redraft segment is pretty simple. We are going to pick the top five players from that respective draft that we are redrafting and picking them in new order. No picks are decided before. We don't know who's going where or who's picking what. We are still going to do the same team draft order, but we're going to pretend that we're the GM of all five of those teams and we're making those five picks for them in a 2024 per se redraft. Again, we're redrafting the year. And to let you know, we are actually starting from 1980, not from 63 when it started. We're doing it from 1980. Then every episode, every week, we will have a year. Which next year will be 81 or next week will be 81. The next year will be next week, sorry. Will be 82, et cetera. We're going to draft the 1980. We're going to redraft the top five in the 1980 NHL draft, effective from stats and points today. Any comments or question below, feel free, but I think that's pretty simple. I think Dane will attest. I think I explained that in pretty good detail for you, but you'll catch the drift. So now we are in the 1980 draft. We're in the NHL draft, Dan, I are back in time. We got our suits on. We got our stash. He already has a stash. We got our hair going. Maybe some flow. Oh, yeah, we got the flow down the shoulders. We're one of those guys. Okay? We're the gms of the top five teams that have picks to remind everyone. The 1980 draft. The first pick was Montreal, then Winnipeg, Chicago, LA, Washington. The first overall pick was Doug Wickenheiser. The second was Dave Babeck. The third pick was Dennis Savar. The fourth pick was Larry Murphy. And the fifth pick was Darren Vitic. Now, those were the top five picks. And now we're going to go back in time and make it better picks for them or are we going to change any? You're going to find out right now. And to go. I'm going to go first just because started the segment. I am going to go first. I am on the podium. I have been invited up to make a draft for Montreal, Winnipeg, Chicago, LA and Washington. So with the first pick in the 1980 NHL Entry draft, the Montreal Canadiens would be proud to select Paul Coffee, the second pick by the Winnipeg jets. They would be proud to select Dennis Savard, the third pick from the Chicago Blackhawks. Be proud to select Yari Curry. The fourth pick from the Los Angeles Kings would be picked for Larry Murphy. Not changing that pick. The fifth pick by the Washington Capitals. They would be proud to select Brent Sutter.
Dane Hantrow.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we're four for four. You definitely missed a man.
That is way better than stutter. And again, biasing towards the stutters just due to their relationship with the Calgary Flames.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Paul Coffey moves up six spots from number six up to one in my draft from the kitchener Rangers. And then, yeah, going Denny Savard there for number two, Yari Curry. Obviously, Larry Murphy can stay right where he is at. Number four and then number five, I got Bernie Nichols.
Yeah. Has about 300 more career points than Mr. Brent Sutter there.
Again, me and Dave weren't around for this era, so anybody that is in their 50s that has any disagreement with that, we don't really know any better. We're basing it off of stat lines right now and very limited footage of older games that we've seen. So, yeah, that's what I got. I think we're pretty on par with that one. It'll be kind of interesting as this segment goes along. It might be a little bit more disparity between some of our picks, which will make it a little bit more exciting, but I think this one's pretty close. I think you can have the argument you can maybe switch Yari Curry with Denny Savard, but again, is he a product of the team that he played on? Obviously Paul Coffee played on the 80s Oilers as well.
Guy put up like 100 points every season playing defense.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: And let me remind you who the Oilers did pick that year.
They picked Paul Coffee that year, and the Toronto Maple Leafs did not have a pick in the first round.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: Oh, no. I'm also looking to see if we so the only goalies that I'm seeing that we could have maybe possibly throw in in this top five, and I still don't think they crack the top five. Andy Mogue and Kelly Rudy, some honor random show in the 1980 draft as well. So we'll say those guys snuck into the top 15 because they're very late draft picks in this particular draft. So not a lot of respect for the goalies in the 1980 draft.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Now, next week, let me remind you, next week, we're going to have a show on Monday. We didn't have a show this past Monday, but Dane is a part of our Monday show for the most part as well as Alex. So we are going to have our Monday edition, and that's where we're going to redraft 1981 for you.
I think we're going to have a little bit of difference, as Dane said, as the years go on. There might be a little bit of difference, but I think there might be a little bit of sue bias when.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: It comes closer to the years where we were alive and actually got to see a little bit of these players actually playing hockey that I think our draft order might switch up a little bit because it's not going to be just based off of especially, well, 81.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: Was kind of a good threshold because that's the year of Al McKinnis. There's Ron Francis, there's Dale Howard. Chuck, there's certain players from that draft that we did have the luxury of seeing. You bring up a very good point there. But Chris Cellios was also a Montreal in that draft, so that's going to be very interesting to see what happens in next year's.
Yeah, that was a draft where there's a lot of people that played a lot of games. It's going to be certainly interesting. And if you would like a fun fact, Toronto actually had a first round pick that year. The Edmonton Oilers did not.
Fun fact.
We will continue to chirp the draft picks that were exchanged from the past. But jokes aside, hopefully you enjoyed the first part of our redraft segment. Like Dane said, comment below. Give us a little bit of your wisdom. If you're a little bit older than we are, don't be shy to admit that that shows experience and wisdom. Let us know if you agree with our picks or if you would change them at all or any kind of opinion, or if you draft somebody else outside of that.
Next week we will redraft the 1981 draft year. Dane this has been a long, longer edition.
We always like to do that. That's why we don't talk about time here on the pre recorded segments any longer. So we don't look foolish. But we talked hockey to a big extent. A lot of, I know, six minutes of maybe a couple minutes more went into me venting about Toronto Maple Leafs and a little extra Toronto. But nonetheless, it is halfway point of the NHL hockey season. The all star game is around the corner, which we'll have more feedback about every year like we do. But now we get to actually upload things on TikTok about that, and it will be some good interaction there. But we're at the halfway point and I want to give quick, wow, quick grades on the canadian teams going around the horn before we round up. And as I told you, the redraft is going to always be the last part of the segment. But I wanted to add this in because it's something we forgot. So let me give you a quick grade going around the horn for canadian teams. I'm going to start from the Toronto Maple Leafs and just work around sporadically. No particular order. Toronto Maple Leafs C plus.
Little tough.
[00:52:09] Speaker B: That's what I literally had in my mind.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: Literally. That's where I am. The Ottawa Senators. You don't want to hear it. You failed enough.
Yikes. Montreal Canadiens. I'm giving you a c, maybe even a c plus. I was close because I feel like you're still at that retooling rebuild stage, right? And there's some opportunity. There's some in some bright spots, but still into a c. I'm going to obviously go into the next teams, the Edmonton Oilers, if it was the beginning of the year, but because it's still not where they expected to be, I'm going to give them A-B-A-B because they are hot right now. They're eleven straight wins, but you got to give them a b. And they were flirting with a b minus. Winnipeg Jets, a plus. That's all.
Vancouver Canucks, a plus. Look at that. Calgary Flames surprisingly got a little bit better as the year went on, but I'm going to give them the same grade as the trauma police. C plus to the Calgary Flames. Go ahead, Dane.
[00:53:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I can't disagree. Know the Winnipeg jets in Vancouver. I think two teams that are playing above expectations. If you ask so called hockey experts, they're first place in the NHL right now. Both of them tied at 62 points. So yeah, give them an a plus, whatever you want.
As we go down the line, we'll look at my Edmonton Oilers. I'm just going to disregard the first 13 games of the season. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. I think Edmonton is playing, I would say hard to argue, maybe the best hockey they've played in the McDavid era. We're winning games 213132.
We're playing sound defensive hockey, which I hate that it's taken seven years for this team to understand that if you just play decent defensive hockey, you have the talent up front to get goals without going out of your way to play high end, not high end offensive hockey, but basically abandoning your structure defensively to score goals, which is good because now they're proving them to themselves that they can actually do that. So I won't give them an a, but I'll give them a b plus. I think hovering on an a minus just based off of what they've done recently.
Toronto? Yeah, I think again, just kind of that stat showing the only teams that have less wins than them is a little shocking for a team that we're thinking a top five team in the standings point wise and we're flourishing earlier on in the year and they've doing their typical Toronto thing and kind of stumbling at that January 1 and the Leafs just take a month or two off and they'll be back. I have no doubt in my mind. So yeah, I'll give them. I'll stick with what you said. C plus is what I had in my mind. Calgary, they're so back and forth right now. They kind of get hot, then they don't get hot.
I'll give Calgary a b. -20 118 and five.
They're not doing terrible, but I don't think the expectations were terribly high in Calgary to begin with. I think they're on a four game heater right now, and as much as I hate to say it, but yeah, I'll give the flames a B minus. They need something in Calgary.
I'll shed a little love over there. Montreal, I'll also give a b minus. I think having a 500 record again, a team that's not expected to make the playoffs right now, still playing some competitive hockey, they're 25th in the standings right now. And then we will go down to the unfortunate senator sue. Yeah, they're d minus enough right now. Way too much talent on that team for them not to be somewhat competitive or at least in a playoff hunt right now. They essentially have already played themselves out of even having a remote shot at even getting a wild card spot right?
Mean, once Toronto gets their shit, it maybe this is Canada's year. It might not be the Leafs. It might not be the Oilers. Maybe it's Calgary. Maybe it's the. Maybe. Maybe it's the Jets. Jets are a scary team this year. They're playing five or four lines deep, telebucks back.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: Tough team, too. Tough.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Tough team.
And playing playoff games in Winnipeg is not an easy place to play. So it's going to be interesting to kind of see how that division in the central kind of stacks up standings wise, right? Because whoever that two and three seed are, it's a tough matchup whatever way you look at it. Is it Dallas and Colorado? Is it Winnipeg and Dallas? Is it Colorado and Winnipeg?
I think if you look at that, that's going to be the big matchup of maybe not on paper, but I think if you want to look at really good, intense playoff hockey, I'm looking to the central for a really good time. So might be Canada's year. This got we got four teams that can contend for a Stanley cup, and right now it's Edmonton and Toronto aren't the front runners in that category. It's Edmonton or it's, sorry, rather Winnipeg and Vancouver right now. So I think Edmonton's buzzing along right now. I don't see us catching up to Vancouver in the standings bar an epic collapse in BC right now, but I don't see that happening that team, though, a couple interesting stats for Vancouver, their shooting percentage and a lot of these kind of in depth stats.
They're way having godly numbers in those categories. And they also haven't lost more than two games in a row all season.
They're not going to keep that up for an 82 game. Every team goes on a little week where they take off and make strength together. Three to four losses in a row and I imagine Vancouver will come back down to earth a little bit. But I think they're still an incredibly good hockey mean start of the season. They owned us at the start of the year in Edmonton, so it was dark times. We're back. Toronto's going through their little spout as they do at the same point every year and I think they'll be back too. So I think we're just a fan of hockey and you know, we usually jump on the bandwagons once our team gets eliminated, whatever canadian teams left. And I like our ods this year. I think the cup's coming back to hope.
[00:59:18] Speaker A: I hope people in Canada are hoping so. People in the States may have a different opinion, but it's time for a canadian team, whoever it is. But we both know as listeners, you know who we're pulling for if you are a listener of the show. But again, a good time. Dane, we talked a lot of hockey. This has been the game sports podcast. I didn't tell you who we were. Usually I do multiple times just in case you're tuning in a little halfway throughout the show. But I've been David McCague talking for this first segment. You've had Dane Hanchro here. You will have me for the second segment. I do expect Justin Heichel to join me. I know EJ was tentative. We were hoping. I don't think he is going to be joining given time, but we will see whoever comes on the camera in the second segment. Dane, thanks as always, my friend. We went extra today, of course, but we'll ate up into a little bit of time of in the pocket, but that's totally fine. We're just going to be talking one thing about the NFL and in the pocket and it's the NFL playoffs.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: All I want to say is Bills, Lions, Super bowl, give the people what they want.
[01:00:18] Speaker A: They need it.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: Give the people what they want.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: Unbelievable. I might have to make that the prediction. Dane. Thanks, my friend. We got a recording on Monday and we'll revisit that draft again. We'll talk about fantasy hockey next week, about vetoing trades.
[01:00:34] Speaker B: No your league has no integrity. That's the only reason we will table that.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: We are going to table that because I know Parr is going to get a little fucking animated about it, too. And probably there'll be a few leaf games and some oiler games up to that point as well. So I'm sure there'll be some feedback as well as some other games that we will discuss. News, more news and more news in hockey, like there always is. This has been the game sports podcast, segment one. Dane, as I said, thank you for taking the time. We'll see you on Monday.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: Thanks for having me, Dave.
[01:01:03] Speaker A: Of course, again, taking a quick breather. When we come back, we got more of the game sports podcast, segment two, or should I say the in the pocket segment? Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game Sports podcast. David McKay continuing to host you this evening. And surprise, surprise, we thought we were saying goodbye, but that's not true. We got off the air and he said, I want to stay.
I'm not leaving. I want to stay. I was going to try to reenact the wolf of Wall street thing there, but I stopped myself mid excitement. The one and only Dane Hanchro continues to join us to chat a little bit of football. Thanks, Dane. Appreciate it.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: I figured I spent the majority of my weekend, multiple hours only watching football last weekend, so I felt like I had something to contribute to the football show. So here I am. I got a big Super bowl pick for everybody and I think it's going to happen.
[01:01:58] Speaker A: Love it. Justin, the usual contributor on the second segment on Wednesdays, Wednesday editions, episode two, the in the pocket segment, whatever, which way you want to call it, the one only has been here since essentially day one, as well as Dane, too. We got a good core of nostalgia here on the game sports podcast together in the room. Justin Heichel, my friend, how's it going?
[01:02:21] Speaker C: What's going on, fellas? Good to be here. Good to see Dane's lovely face. It's been a while. Like I said earlier, I just got to come to the Internet to find. That's, that's where he hangs out. That's where I hang out.
[01:02:34] Speaker B: I was going to say the real reason I came on was for Justin. Everything I all said before was a lie. Other than the hours of football.
[01:02:41] Speaker A: Dane has been on an in the pocket segment before, though, just so everybody knows. Nonetheless, this is the in the pocket segment or segment two of the episode here tonight, and we're going to be talking football in its entirety. And what we're going to be talking about is purely NFL today. There's going to be nothing about NCAA. We are not going to dive into any parts locally. We are sticking to 100% NFL today here on the in the pocket segment. And I must say again, the game sports podcast is powered by 91 n. That's 91 network. Head on over to the YouTube channel hit subscribe if you haven't yet. We had some recent uploads on there in the game sports podcast and we have some good views. And over 50% of you who view the videos and interact with the videos aren't hitting subscribe. But you like to watch what we have, so just hit subscribe. That goes for the same for TikTok, Instagram at the GaN Sports podcast or Spotify, Apple, Amazon or Google or Podbean podcast platforms. The in the pocket segment is sponsored by none other than sports center bar and Grill. Sue St. Marie, Ontario's best sports bar over six years in a row. Sue's best wings as well, voted. Listen. Sports center has been there since day one.
Five guys, one phone, one cup.
[01:03:57] Speaker C: So I was going to say it should have been like I said last week. We should have just called it five guys, one cup. That's it.
[01:04:05] Speaker A: If you know, you know. And if you're on video, get a little bit of a treat.
Does that look familiar, fellas? But not around. Walking, sliding across the table when someone was talking. Now we change.
[01:04:19] Speaker C: We explain that to be like, what are you guys doing? Oh, we're recording a podcast.
[01:04:24] Speaker A: People used to walk by us, just conversation. Don't give a fuck that we're talking.
[01:04:31] Speaker C: Congratulations on whatever you're doing. Well, what are you doing, sir? Well, I've been here since 330 in the afternoon, and I'm absolutely wasted. Let me give you my opinions.
Perfect.
[01:04:41] Speaker A: Even yelling in the background. Love it. 2016, when podcasting was still not really a thing in the world to start.
Yeah, it was before all that. But we're back on point. This is the in the pocket where we're talking. Tired of football? Let's kick it off, fellas. Kicking it off here in the first quarter. I've had the touchback. We're starting at the 20 yard line, and we're going with the wild card weekend reaction.
Listen, I'm going to get out of the way.
Look, everyone knows that as a fan of sports in general, outside of being a host, I am a fan of these Steelers. And I've said it on recent podcasts, I've said it all year. Frauds.
We said on this podcast as well, that frauds. But this team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are well coached, great defense. I would like to say the Steel curtains back in Pittsburgh. Offensively, Kenny Pickett's not the guy. Not the guy. You have some good weapons up front. Harris, Warren, some good running game. Pickens was great this year. Sort of a lot of emotion in that playoff game, too. He didn't like losing. Got to love it. But Mason Rudolph comes in a couple of weeks after the season, decides to slick his hair back, throw the ball a couple of hundred yards, and he gets into the playoffs. Imagine if you would have had a QB all season. It's like you had a QB for almost 20 years named Brandon Rothlisberger, who led you to three Super Bowls, but winning two of them, you lost one to Green Bay. Fun reminder for everybody. The Pittsburgh Steelers lost the Buffalo Bills this weekend. And people were texting me saying, how are you feeling, kegger? How are you feeling, Dave? If you don't know my nickname, it's Kegger. Fun fact of the day. And you know what? I'm just happy that they made it because the Steelers did not expect to make the playoffs. Not only did they make the playoffs, they kept Tomlin's streak going. Tomlin's coming back. For those of you who think he's not, you're crazy. I love how you walked off the.
I would love a Mike Tomlin on the Toronto Maple Leafs first hockey reference to the show, Toronto Maple Leafs coaching staff. But back on point, Mike Tomlin will come back as the best part about.
[01:06:51] Speaker C: All that is like some chick in the interview. Like, I don't mean that as some chick, but whoever know mediating the whole thing. Any more questions? And I guess someone. Hey, so what's your plan? And he's like, fuck you.
[01:07:05] Speaker A: He just left. Yeah, there's somebody who mediated that girl.
[01:07:10] Speaker B: Unless he doesn't want to come back. But he's never had a losing record. He brought this team who I thought had zero chance at making the playoffs. I'm like, Kenny Pickens is a bad NFL quarterback.
[01:07:24] Speaker A: It pickens. Pickens doesn't matter. Pick it. He's so bad. Pick it.
[01:07:28] Speaker C: I mean, the best part is that Dave's talking real optimistic right now. Not talking like the guy who's about to have a team that's running it back with the exact same team next year.
[01:07:39] Speaker A: That's the problem. That was actually funny that you say that.
[01:07:45] Speaker C: No, you're going into camp with Rudolph and Pickett and letting them compete it out. And, I mean, you still have Trubitsky there, too.
You just have a bunch of like, if this was Madden, you have like a 371 rated quarterbacks.
[01:08:01] Speaker A: The fans got to think it's.
[01:08:08] Speaker C: Going.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: To be a good quarterback.
[01:08:09] Speaker A: Well, the thing is, you think they're.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: Trying to, I hope he is.
[01:08:12] Speaker A: They're trying to improve. Trying to improve. And that's what fans upset. Time for change. Time for change. Look, there's a lot of organizations that never made changes in their careers, and they won a lot of championships. You can look at NBA with the Bulls. You can think of that with the Yankees. You can go back to hockey with the Oilers in the 80s. You can go any era that you want to get into, okay? And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Coaching ain't broken. Matt Canada was an offensive coordinator. That guy was a joke. Finally he's gone. Okay, you make the necessary internals, movements, but that, Justin, brings up a good point. The Steelers will be returning a team, but about this game, staying on point with this game. The Bills had the game from the outset, but the Steelers did make it interesting. They battled back. They tried, they tried, they battled. And that's what I got to give credit for to them is despite being a team that wasn't expecting to make it, they weren't as good as the Bills. They did make it a little bit interesting. Despite being a little bit out of range early in the game, they battled back. The Buffalo Bills. They gave them a little bit of a sweat, I would say, but the Bills pulled with the w and the better team won that game.
[01:09:19] Speaker C: There's no way Buffalo was losing that game. I mean, just given the entire circumstances, it was the most Buffalo Bills football game there possibly could have been.
Shovel your way to your own seats. Figure it out. You know what I mean? Snowblow your way to the stadium. We don't care that you've been drunk for three days in a snow. Just get here and figure it out. They didn't even tell people not to throw snow on the field.
[01:09:41] Speaker A: This, that's, they were throwing snow up there. I know we're giving a little bit of love to this game, but that's because yours truly is a fan of the Steelers. And I wanted to talk about Tomlin a little bit. The fans that just, and the media got to stop with the stupid questions. And that's another segment, another day. But I love how you walked off.
[01:10:01] Speaker C: Can we segue this to the stupid questions thing with the Tampa Bay coach?
[01:10:07] Speaker A: Yes. Let's go.
[01:10:09] Speaker C: Someone, one of the reporters asked him, I believe yesterday how he was getting the team prepared to play the game in Detroit with the weather the way it is. And he let the reporter go through the entire question, and then he just, it was like that awkward five minute, like not five minute, five second silence. And he said, you know that they play indoors, right?
So we'll be just fine.
[01:10:33] Speaker A: You know what I would have did?
[01:10:34] Speaker C: Well, he says, he goes, I can't really prepare the guys for the 5 seconds between the bus and the door, but I think we'll be okay.
[01:10:43] Speaker A: That's a good. I would have actually drawn a picture of a dome. I'm not good at drawing, though, so it would have looked very bad, maybe offensive. I would have drawn a picture of a stadium and I would have said, we're playing in here that we don't need to worry about out there.
[01:10:58] Speaker C: I thought he let her down pretty easily on that until the RKO out of nowhere with the. Yeah, I mean, aside from the 5 seconds we're in between the bus and the door. I mean, I don't know what the.
[01:11:08] Speaker B: Guys are going to do, but in a league that has, I think it's probably close to what half and half for indoor outdoor stadiums in the NFL and all should be. When you're talking about weather in particular affecting the game, it would be the second most important thing behind the weather on what you would be researching to make your point clear and concise and make sense. And it's just hilarious for me personally. The second thing I would check is this is an indoor and outdoor stadium. If I'm going to be talking about the weather affecting the bad.
[01:11:53] Speaker C: I hate that you think you get to the point where you can ask an NFL head coach, a mean, they're not letting us anywhere near these guys to ask them a question.
So you have to.
[01:12:10] Speaker A: Ask that question.
[01:12:12] Speaker C: I think we have a hell of a conversation with.
[01:12:17] Speaker B: That would be great. Imagine having a beer with.
[01:12:22] Speaker C: That's what it would be. You know what I mean? It's not like it would be an interview. It would just literally be sitting down having a beer with.
[01:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
Now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pull off a w over the Philadelphia Eagles and likely not official yet at this time.
The Jason Kelsey's last game, potentially. And if you're a follower of new heights, I like the new Heights podcast. Very good. They're emotional, both the Kelseys, they actually had a good conversation about it where Jason was answering the question today when they recorded it, and he said that he hasn't made his decision. You can't make a decision when it comes to after a game that's so emotional or intense like that. But as he looked to the know, he couldn't look at the started. He got emotional and even Travis, hey, now, and he started crying. He did his thing and his little thing and there's nothing more wholesome than listening to those guys. And truthfully, I know people get sick of hearing about the Kelsey's. Talking about the Kelsey's. Seeing the Kelsey's. Look. Travis is dating Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is literally a queen amongst everyone in the like. She's influential. She is what she is. And Jason Kelsey was almost voted sexiest man alive. And Amazon did a show on them. They're wanted. They are popular. They're not like the Paul's. They're not even close. But you don't want to see the Paul's. But they're on there because they're searched. They want to be admired. So if you don't like, watch them skip past their video. But I love their new heist podcast. And if that is his last game, I think that's such a shitty way for him to go. But it's not his fault. There was a lot of problems with the Eagles team, but I am surprised the Buccaneers won. Justin I thought they would rebound.
[01:14:02] Speaker C: This mean just on the. It's not. He's kind of got to cash in while his brand is hot.
You know what mean? Like, he's probably looking at playing year by year if he comes back to the NFL now, year by year contract, you're not making big bucks automatic. You're an offensive lineman, so you're automatically expected to take less, to just exist, to make everything mean. He's got to look at guys I know know beat on the Pat McAfee drum quite a bit here, but you got to look at guys like that and they're having such success with their podcast. Why can't he do something and get a big ESPN deal, know a network.
[01:14:47] Speaker A: Deal or something with new heights?
[01:14:50] Speaker C: Well, yeah, that's just mean. Like, I feel like there's more money in that now than there is in football. And that gives him, from what we've know, just on the Amazon show and stuff, he's a pretty genuine family guy. Gives him more time to be at home with his family, which you would assume at this point in his life is what he wants. And if he can make more money doing less while getting more family time, it seems like a know, just do it.
[01:15:18] Speaker A: But are you surprised, Dane, about Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay? Right. This guy gets washed out browns, the Rams. Right.
And as well as now he goes to the Buccaneers and they said that they found their, they, they believed in it. And Tampa fans, well, you had Tom Brady, right. And didn't work out and you had Winston in between and that. So you bring in Baker Mayfield. Right? And I know here on this podcast, like they're going to get absolutely Tampa Bay is not going to have a good year. But then you forget Baker Mayfield was a touted quarterback when he came out of college. They have Mike Evans. They got some good tools there in Tampa Bay. They have a pretty good defense as well. Pretty well played and structured defense. And the Eagles, I thought just were better overall. But Tampa Bay wins over the Eagles, eliminating the Eagles, and a big part of that was the play of Baker Mayfield in that game along with defensive side of the football and the Eagles just not being able to capitalize. But my question to you is, did you expect Baker Mayfield to be taking the Tampa Buccaneers to the next step in the playoffs or even in the playoffs at all?
[01:16:26] Speaker B: Well, in the playoffs, as a NFC salsa fan? No.
There's nothing surprising about that division.
You got to think a lot of the core of the team that won the Super bowl not that many years ago is still very much that same team. And I mean, replacing Tom Brady is not easy, but Baker Mayfield's had flashes.
He won a playoff game for the Browns, which seemed like an impossible feat years ago. Right? So he's had flashes. I think even last year when Stafford went down, he played some really good football games for the Rams. And again, former first overall, know the talents there. Right. And I think Baker Mayfield had a great season this, you know, kind of on par with Patty Mahomes this year, who really does lack a lot of targets outside of Travis, Kelsey and the drop balls. And we can go on and on with not terribly.
I think I'm less surprised than maybe some that I watch a lot of the Eagles games that they lost down the stretch this year, and they just did not look like the same football team and out of sorts and just what a. And jalen hurts just seemed like he just kind of lost his swagger, right? Like he didn't have that confidence.
[01:17:58] Speaker C: Watch a couple videos with Hertz and the head coach there on the sideline in the back half of the season.
[01:18:06] Speaker A: Even Goddard and Hertz, there was friction there during the game against Tampa.
[01:18:11] Speaker C: There's a couple videos out there where the head coach is chirping off to the other team's sideline and Hertz goes up and smacks him in the chest or swats his hand down and it happens like five or six different times. And just the videos that I saw and I mean, obviously people can cut and do whatever and make it fit their narrative of their story, but I found that interesting, that the quarterback is kind of getting his head like, behave, stop this.
[01:18:41] Speaker A: Bill Belichick, to.
[01:18:44] Speaker B: I don't know, I think games in Philadelphia, like we're looking at a different football game. Maybe the Bucks still win, but I think that home field advantage part to play. But when you're down so bad, who did they start? Like ten and nine and something like that.
[01:19:03] Speaker C: And then they went one and one.
[01:19:05] Speaker B: And six down the stretch.
You're so high and then so low, and you don't really recover from that low when you play your most important game of the season, the first round of the playoffs. And I mean, they put seven points up and it's not like the Bucks have a bad defense by any means.
[01:19:22] Speaker C: But no, but the Eagles are better.
[01:19:25] Speaker B: Weather is nice in Tampa. There's no excuses for that offense to only put up seven points in that game, or nine points.
[01:19:31] Speaker A: Three field 32 nine was the final score in that game.
[01:19:35] Speaker B: Wild.
[01:19:36] Speaker C: The Steelers put out a better effort.
[01:19:39] Speaker B: Oh, for sure.
[01:19:40] Speaker C: Well, the Steelers left it out there.
They went into a game.
[01:19:46] Speaker A: Steelers had a better effort than the Browns and the Dolphins.
[01:19:50] Speaker B: There was one good game in the.
[01:19:51] Speaker C: Wild card, I'll be honest. The Dolphins. The Dolphins.
Go for it, Dan.
[01:19:57] Speaker B: Oh, I was just saying the wild card round sucked for quality of football.
[01:20:01] Speaker A: Games more so, yes.
[01:20:03] Speaker B: But I think it's hilarious that the one game that happened to be tight was the game in Detroit.
[01:20:10] Speaker A: Love it.
[01:20:11] Speaker B: Lions fans could, could literally be on the brink of having a heart attack or stroke due to high blood pressure. And it's just funny because every other game was a blowout, right? Like even the games that kind of ended up being a little bit tighter in every team in the Cowboys game and then even the Steelers and Bills game, huge leads to start. Gap kind of closed a little bit to where it was on paper, a kind of respectable score. But every other game, they were entertaining in their own ways, but they weren't good football games. I'm hoping for the quality of football this upcoming week to be way better. I'm hoping because it was bad watching.
[01:20:57] Speaker C: The Cowboys getting taken out by in the woodshed. Was that, is that how the rest of the world feels when the Leafs lose in the playoffs? Because that's great. I don't have a horse in that race at all. And watching the Cowboys, like watching their fans just fall apart in the stands and people leaving. I have Cowboys fans in this one group chat. I'm in. And they were shit talking me Saturday night about the Leafs, like, oh, big contracts, can't do anything now your team's losing. Look at your team. You might as well pay Dak Neelander and Matthew's money. You're going to leave the first round. Like.
[01:21:37] Speaker A: That'S almost as bad as when Toronto lost to Montreal in the first round.
[01:21:40] Speaker C: The oh, that's as bad as the one.
[01:21:44] Speaker A: Oh, yikes, yikes. Good example. But I know we don't have any time to talk about every game, but the packers beat the Cowboys, the Chiefs beat the Dolphins in sub zero weather with Kelsey and players wearing nothing but their jersey and just showing their arms. No. And the Texans. And I know EJ is not here to defend today. I didn't talk about this at the beginning, but EJ is unable to join us tonight. He is selling vehicles at Riverside Superior. You could check out his facebook page too, of course, if you're purchasing a vehicle in the area. A little plug to EJ. But we're not going to talk about the Browns in too much detail today. A for sensitivity for EJ and Browns fans, but as well as just time. But CJ Stroud, whoa. Watch out for the Texans. They're looking pretty solid in my opinion. But the Chiefs, we won't dive into too much, but I do want to get into a little like couple minutes because I don't want to get into our pick them and proceed because of time. The Chiefs and Dolphins game freezing wild. I think that was obviously a big reason why maybe the Dolphins weren't as successful. I think they should still run it back with Tua, but Lions and Rams best game of the week storyline wild golf Stafford. The Lions traded Stafford to the Rams and they get golf and they flip that for more multiple picks that they brought in and flipped for a trade. And not going to get into all the details, but the Rams also traded for the trophy at the end of it all.
It was a good trade all in all for both teams success. And now the Lions are seeing the front of that success. And it was from last year, Justin, when Goff went up until the end of the season. He went ten plus weeks without throwing interception. And we started talking about him a little bit more on this podcast. So he's getting a little bit more comfortable under Campbell, getting more comfortable into the system in Detroit. Stafford, of course, coming off a know it's time for Detroit now is what I'm saying. Detroit gets the win in Ford Field in a very electric crowd that had a lot of people from Sioux St. Marie there as well. There's a good amount of sue people that attended that game. And now the Lions, they beat the Rams in a very exciting game that I feel was well played by both. I thought the game was going to end up 48 45, by the way. That game was going. I thought Justin's obnoxious score that we uploaded on TikTok of 52 24 was going to be a fucking thing, and it wasn't.
[01:24:12] Speaker B: But I laughed because the starting of that game, I'm like.
[01:24:19] Speaker A: Our TikTok would have went viral if that actually happened. They would have thought you had an in. Justin, though. The Lions pull away with the win against Stafford and the Rams. They're looking good, those Lions, to be.
[01:24:31] Speaker C: Honest, the second half was just all game management and it was awesome to see. I mean, Dan Campbell just abused that clock, run the balls, just chew up the clock. And they had Stafford on his ass quite a bit, too.
On one hand, you don't like to see the, is he a Detroit legend or is he just the guy that was there for ten years and didn't win?
[01:24:56] Speaker A: Or more than Megatron?
[01:24:59] Speaker C: But Stafford was getting beat up in the back half of that game. It looked like Carson Wentz was maybe going to have to come in. I was licking my chops there because, man, he's no, I mean, that's. It's just awesome for the Detroit, the city of mean.
I'm sure everyone's facebook here was going crazy. I mean, Dane was already blowing it up all week with the big Michigan win, and then the Lions win on the weekend. There's literally probably no alcohol left in the state of.
Not even the gross.
[01:25:34] Speaker A: Wings are overachieving. The Pistons suck, that's for sure. Pistons are horrendous. But the city of Detroit and the overall state of Michigan is feeling some thunder. We could feel it here in Ontario right now. Michigan's bumping, bumping. Ontario's quiet.
Ontario is quite quiet and cold.
The golf story is great. This is a guy, Justin, who made the Super bowl, arguably, though, the most boring Super bowl of all time, when the Rams played the patriots in that Super bowl. But this is somebody who has the ability to set the tone in the pocket, relax. He's able to really find his receivers. He's really to really monitor and be a professor of the game when he's out on the field. I feel that he has fit in so nicely in Detroit. Detroit's defense, everything is just clicking. Everything is working in Gibbs Montgomery.
The tandem that you have. Gibbs is such a powerhouse. Feisty little just, it's so exciting to see in the fans of Detroit, never mind are they pumped in blood pressure, they're crying is how excited Detroit Lions fans are.
[01:26:54] Speaker C: I'm going to say about wins, if they go to the Super bowl and win in Detroit. He just wins one Super bowl in Detroit. Is he like automatically a hall of Fame player at that point?
[01:27:09] Speaker B: For sure.
[01:27:10] Speaker C: I've been to the Super bowl once. He's a decent quarterback. He's got the stats.
He's not like he know Trent Dilfer back in the day with the stack defense. Just getting is he's paid his dues. I mean, if he wins the Super bowl in the city of Detroit, is he a hall of Fame quarterback?
[01:27:29] Speaker A: I love that question. And you know what? That's also, as people see me typing there, I did a little clip save. Just so everybody knows.
[01:27:36] Speaker C: That's a pat DeLuca question out there. Like a personalized shout out right there. Pat, answer that one.
[01:27:41] Speaker A: He is a fan, by the way. People don't know who Pat is. He's a friend of the show and a fan and a former in the pocket guest. He was on a few times on the show when we had five guys, one cup.
[01:27:51] Speaker C: I think he was there for the show. We do not speak of yes.
[01:27:55] Speaker A: Oh, he was there for that three and a half hour show. Dane, you were there, too. Were you there at sports center?
[01:28:02] Speaker B: I don't think any of us were there, but we were there.
[01:28:06] Speaker C: By the end of that show, most of the west ends had been on.
[01:28:10] Speaker A: Brian Greco, let's primo Jamie Antonello, Dustin me, Justin Dane. Pat jumped in. I even think the Alicia White jumped in there. Waitress. I think she might have got a little comment on the old segment, too. Okay. We talked about last week's games. Overall, I think it's fair to say that more than 50% of those games, and that's putting it nicely, were not thrilling by any means. But the Lions game was probably the or is was the best game of the week. And if you had to pick a close second, I guess a close second would have been and it's had to save. But the Steelers and Bills, I wouldn't.
[01:28:48] Speaker B: Disagree with that statement by any means.
I would say the opening to the Browns and Texans game, the opening exhilarating. Like the first half was good and then it wasn't so good after that.
[01:29:04] Speaker C: Unless he hit two pick sixes. It was kind.
[01:29:11] Speaker B: Of.
[01:29:12] Speaker A: Now, Justin, before we, I want you to announce the pickham. Just want to remind everybody Justin was the regular season champion this year for the, a little clap for Justin.
We do still count the pickham for standings for playoffs, but we always credit the winner in the regular season a lot as well. So Justin dethroned DJ in that. Finally, after two years, Justin wins his first pickup. And I think we've been doing this for six years, the pickup. So Justin gets his win. Jamie won twice, and we missed a year where we didn't do it. Then Nij won twice and I finished second every year. But this year I actually didn't finish second. I finished third out of three.
But the pickup standings, Justin, we're going to do into our pickup segment right now, give us the standings then. Before we make our picks, though, I'd like Dane to make his picks this week first. And then I want Dane to pick his Super bowl matchup and want, I don't care about the next round games, who you're picking. I care about this round's games, and I care about who you got winning the Super bowl and who's in it. So, Justin, pick them. Then we'll go to Dane.
[01:30:19] Speaker C: All right, so easy recap. This week we're tied across the board with 173 points.
[01:30:26] Speaker A: All three of us are tied.
I love it. You can't write.
[01:30:31] Speaker B: Are all tied.
[01:30:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:30:34] Speaker B: That's impressive.
[01:30:39] Speaker C: This pickham has been ridiculous for the last six weeks. It's been like a one point spread across the board.
[01:30:47] Speaker A: 173 to 105 is our records across the board, 62% with an average points of nine. Everyone has the same average points per week. It is unbelievable. It's down literally to an exact math that we're all tied this year.
[01:31:02] Speaker C: If I didn't pick the Colts to win all the games that they lost because I refused to pick against them, I'd be up by like six points.
[01:31:09] Speaker B: Oh, do you pick the Colts every single week?
[01:31:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I picked against yourself.
[01:31:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:31:16] Speaker B: That's like me picking the Falcons every week. I know it's not going to happen.
You know what if you should have picked them against the cold?
[01:31:27] Speaker A: I picked the Steelers to lose last week just to remind everybody, just so everybody knows.
[01:31:31] Speaker B: That was a smart pick.
[01:31:33] Speaker A: It was.
Dane, let's go. Wind it up. Wind it up.
[01:31:40] Speaker B: All right, let's let it ride here. We're going to start in the. Oh, no. I'm going to save the best for last. We'll start at the top here, Houston versus Baltimore. Love CJ Stroud's game, but being a Michigan fan, coming off the national championship, I am going to bet against the Texans and they are going to lose in Baltimore. Might be a little cold up there.
I mean, CJ's used to playing in cold weather, but regardless, I'm going to go with Baltimore for the win for that first seed. Just too good. I think the Texans got a good young team. They're kind of like the packers of the AFC right now. Good quarterback. Their future is bright. We are also now going to talk about the packers and the 49 ers in San Francisco. Imagine the weather will be beautiful over there.
Packers coming off a big win in Dallas. I hate both those teams, but I hate Dallas more than Green Bay. And it was very nice to see the people in the stand suffer and just glaze at that field and like, oh, I feel like I've seen this a couple of times in the last ten years.
I think Green Bay good again, good young future.
I just think San Fran overall much healthier than they were last playoff.
And I just think, yeah, San Fran has this game at home.
Think it'll be a little bit closer than maybe what some people might think. I think it'll be within like a two score. I don't think it's going to be a route or anything like that, but definitely going to go with the 49 ers. Then we got the two games that I actually care about. Buccaneers, Detroit Lions in Detroit hosting two home games in a row in the playoffs.
[01:33:23] Speaker A: Oh, dog.
[01:33:23] Speaker B: I don't even know if that's even ever happened before. If Detroit's literally hosted two home games in the playoffs in the same think. I think if you're Detroit, you're happy with this matchup. I mean, the Eagles looking really good early in the year, really nose like. I like Detroit. I think Jared Goff, he's had that pedigree. He's been to the Super bowl. The stage isn't too big. They've got over that hump. They won the first game. Give me the Lions. And now we're going to go to the big game. The prime time game. Round three. Round three. Kansas City's up to nothing in this series. Two really good football games. I mean, like the divisional, the, it wasn't the NFC championship, the one with all the touchdowns at the end. It was the one before that, the divisional round, that game, one of the greatest football games ever played.
It's the Bills time. We're hosting finally. Sorry, I say we as like I'm on the Bills bandwagon right hard and yeah, I think it's in Buffalo. I think it's going to be another epic matchup. Mahomes, Allen, they never disappoint. I just think Buffalo is kind of flown under the radar. They had that kind of rough start at the start of the season and kind of figured it out. Josh Allen sneakily has some MVP looking numbers. The guy ran for 15 touchdowns this year. That's kind of ridiculous for a quarterback. I'm not going to lie on top of his 29 touchdowns that he had. Give me the Bills. Give me the Bills and my Super bowl prediction because the world needs this. People need to heal. It's going to be the Bills versus the Lions and somebody's going to have to lose that game, which is almost more heartbreaking than like. I think it would be devastating for whoever loses that game, especially if it's the Bills because they have had a history of losing.
I think.
I think a lot of people that just love football in general would be very happy with Bills Lions Super bowl finally one of these teams been around for a bit. Going to win something.
I hope it happens.
[01:35:52] Speaker A: Let me ask you these then, because this is a part of the, you won't see the app because you don't have the app up, but the scores I'm going to give the games. You just got to predict your scores and then I'm going to ask you two questions after that. They're just quick answers with it. Score of the Chiefs Bills game. You picked the Bills, right? I think you picked. Yeah, you picked the Bills. Score of the Bills Chiefs game.
[01:36:12] Speaker B: Can you give me 5 seconds to look at the weather?
[01:36:16] Speaker A: No, I don't even look at the weather.
[01:36:20] Speaker B: 34 28, Bills score of Detroit and.
[01:36:24] Speaker A: Tampa.
[01:36:26] Speaker B: 27 to 18 Lions.
[01:36:31] Speaker A: Who scores the most points this week out of all the games.
[01:36:37] Speaker B: Total in.
[01:36:38] Speaker A: The total points out of all the teams playing, who gets the most points?
[01:36:44] Speaker B: That Texans Baltimore game is pretty intriguing. Pretty intriguing.
For the sake of my entertainment, I want to see a shootout in Buffalo. I want to see Mahomes and Allen throw the ball downfield. I want to see Kansas City's wide receivers drop a lot of balls in that process, but I still want to see that ball get chopped downfield. And I want Josh Allen to run for two. I want him to throw for two.
And that's what he's going to do. And I'm going to say Josh Allen is going to have whatever the over is on his rushing.
Do you see that 50 yard dash that he had guys like two whatever. 240 like six set down the field right there. What's that?
[01:37:42] Speaker C: That was sealed the game right there. That one.
[01:37:44] Speaker A: You got the bills with the most points. Who gets the least points this week? This is the last tiebreaker question on Yahoo that they ask the least points this week.
Love putting them on the spot. Makes people think. Love it.
[01:37:59] Speaker B: I'm going to say the Buccaneers.
[01:38:08] Speaker A: Good answer. Justin, who wants. Who do you actually, Dane, you choose who goes next for your guys?
[01:38:15] Speaker B: Pick them.
[01:38:16] Speaker A: Yes. Because we're all tied. I've never had this, so I don't know who to pick. To choose who goes next.
[01:38:23] Speaker B: I'm going to give Justin the spotlight.
[01:38:25] Speaker A: No. Yes.
[01:38:26] Speaker B: I'm going to give Justin the spotlight to go to give Dave set the tone here.
[01:38:32] Speaker A: The regular season champ itself, Justin. Not me. The Texans. Ravens. Here it is starting off with a bang. Texans over the Ravens taking it upset Stroud. Going to be a high scoring affair. The ride momentum. Every playoff needs a Cinderella story, and you'll see what I mean by that. By the next pick, the Houston Texans will be the continued Cinderella story of being the underdog and we'll move on. I got the 49 ers over the Packers. I need the packers little Cinderella story. You always need. Only need one Cinderella story in a playoff and that's going to be the Texans taking it. And I think going to this game with the Niners and Packers, it can go two ways. One, it's going to be a tight game or it's going to be an absolute slacking by the 49 ers. And I hope it's the tight game for the packers sake. And I think that's what it's going to be. It's going to be a good game. Packers got a bright future, but I'm taking the 49 ers. Healthy team, absolute dynamite team. They're at home. Can't pick against the Niners there. The Buccaneers and the Lions. I am picking the Lions. Of course, who isn't picking the Lions in this game? You're crazy. If not, this team is hot. This team is for real. Spoiler they are Super bowl bound. I am picking the Bills over the Chiefs. This is the year Josh Allen does it. This is the year Travis, Kelsey and the Mahomes and company are going to go take a little schnooze and relax and pass the torch. I have to re pick a favorite for the Super bowl in a winter since I actually thought the Lions were going to win the Super bowl. But I did pick the Bills at the beginning of the season and I have for three years straight now, but I'm not going back to that. I am with Dane. Lions, Bills, Super bowl final. And take a breath, Detroit.
You're getting your Super bowl because the Bills are going to lose again in the Super Bowl. I am sorry, Buffalo. It's just the narrative in Buffalo. The score 38 35, Bills over the Chiefs. That sound familiar? Yeah, one of their games. Rewrite the narrative. 20 817, Lions over the Buccaneers. And I think that's going to be the best game of the week by far. I'm giving the Buccaneers a little bit of extra love there. Most points of the week.
[01:40:42] Speaker B: You write that down, you pick the same score as me.
Did I not say.
[01:40:54] Speaker A: You said 20 418?
[01:40:56] Speaker B: No, I think I said 20 718.
[01:41:00] Speaker A: Oh, I said 20 817, Lions.
[01:41:03] Speaker B: Okay, very close.
[01:41:04] Speaker A: Very close. And I have the Niners with the most points this week. Sorry, Packer fans, I'm pulling for you.
The Buccaneers with the least. So the least points you're going to see this week is 17, obviously, given my score. And we will see a final four of the Texans, Niners, Lions, Bills, that will lead to the finals that we all want and need, baby. Justin, take it away.
[01:41:26] Speaker C: All right, so I got the Ravens over the Texans.
I mean, think Baltimore is just going to honestly smash them in that? I mean, Houston has been pretty good, but Lamar's got something to prove now. I think he's going for the MVP.
I've got the packers over the 49 ers. Not brought into the Brock purdy hype all year. I mean, if he wants to be a real mvp contender, then win the game.
[01:41:52] Speaker A: God damn.
[01:41:53] Speaker C: But the packers tend to show up in some of the NFL. What hockey fans would consider like an original six style matchup. I consider the packers and San Fran one of those in the football world.
[01:42:06] Speaker A: I don't hate it. I don't hate that pick. Even though I picked other way, I like that pick. That's not a bad pick.
[01:42:11] Speaker C: I mean, obviously I got the Lions over the Bucks and Bills over Casey. I've been saying all year that Kansas City's offense is overrated, and I continue that thought scores. Buffalo 34, KC 30. So not as overrated as I talked in my previous pick. Still being able to put up 30 points. Detroit 28, Tampa 24. So going to be.
[01:42:34] Speaker A: Holy shit, we're close.
[01:42:37] Speaker C: Little nerve wracking there.
Most points this week I got the Ravens, and fewest points this week we got a home. A clean sweep on this one. Tampa Bay this week.
[01:42:51] Speaker A: Hey, a lot of games.
[01:42:52] Speaker C: Quick note to add in there because this just popped up on my phone.
Packers are keeping Mike McCarthy or not packers. Sorry, Dallas is keeping Mike McCarthy. Packers did not keep him and that's how we ended up in Dallas.
[01:43:05] Speaker B: Oh, that means Bill or Jim is going to Atlanta.
[01:43:08] Speaker A: Oh, 1 second. I'm in. A two minute warnings coming up. That is a stupid move by the Cowboys. Stupid move. But yikes, I'll save that carousel. Look here, this pick him standings, Justin, we don't know EJ's picks. He will have them in. He always does. But Justin and I have almost opposite picks on those two. This is going to be a pivotal moment in the pickham this year. This is the week where it's pivotal right here. It might come down to the last game of the year where we're separated by one each and it comes to the Super bowl. Exciting.
[01:43:44] Speaker B: Mildly more invested in these football games just because of how close the sickam standings are right now.
[01:43:51] Speaker A: Amen. The options there every year and everyone in the Group gives it the old dirty R and says, nah, I'm in too much fantasy.
That's the faces. We get that face again. Great week in football coming up. Now, I don't want to dive into much time. We're already a little bit extra, but there's a lot of storylines into these games. CJ Stroud moving on. McCaffrey against the Jordan Love and the packers. The Lions are a storyline itself. Bills Chiefs times three cubed, whatever you want to call this game, wild matchups this weekend. A lot of notables that will be definitely should be factored when you're watching your football this weekend. But I know Saturday I'm very occupied Saturday, which upsets me, upsets me. But Sunday, I think is the day to watch football and I'm very excited about that to be honest. Watching the Bills Chiefs, but watching the Lions box first and start the day off with the Lions. Look, Steeler fan right here. Steeler fan. I got the jersey right here. I am so on the Lions bandwagon, there couldn't be anybody else who is the defines bandwagon more. But give me that Bills Lions Super Bowl Dane. God, that makes me excited. Makes me so excited. Give me all that. Might go to Detroit. No, it's not in Detroit. Can't go there to watch it. But we can go to Ford Field and watch the Super bowl in Ford Field. I'm sure they'd be airing it if Detroit actually made it to the Super bowl. But nonetheless, fellas, two minute warning. I'm at 44 minutes starting now. Now, two minute warning. This is usually what EJ does. This counts. My two minutes saving time. But I'm going to give you a little bit of news in a two minute rapid fire in the world of the NFL or in football. And I'm sticking to the NFL here. And I'm sticking to the NFL coaching carousel. You got Mike McCarthy who Justin just announced that he is staying with the Dallas Cowboys. Dumb move by the Cowboys. I think it's time for change. If you're a cowboy fan, disagree, so be it at me. Tell me I'm wrong. But look, it's time to move on. There needs to be a change. You had some good coaches available. Belichick, Harbaugh list goes on. You could have made a move. And that team needs a culture shift in the worst way. Teams that are looking for coaches, the Falcons, obviously the Patriots found their guy in Mayo. Love that move by mail. But the Falcons, Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh, the Falcons are going all in on finding their guy. And Dane Hantrow, who is a Michigan fan, you saw as a Michigan fan what Harbaugh can do with a program. And if you're a Patriots fan, you saw exactly what you could do when you have a quarterback named Tom Brady, a good pivotal quarterback and just win multiple championships. Success builds experience. And Bill Belichick was successful when he was with the Browns as not a coach coordinator. So Bill Belichick going to the Falcons, book it. It will happen. And the Atlanta Falcons, and as Dane has said off air, he owes the Falcons, does Bill Belichick. And it's time to get the right to ship there in Atlanta. They got a beautiful field. They got a team that could be if there's some reconstructive pieces, they got some pieces in there that could be if they meet their potential, such as Kyle Pitts, amongst others. This is a team that needs Bill Belichick. And I think the best fit Harbaugh to the Chargers. That is what I think is going to happen. It makes the most sense. Michigan football, I apologize, but may not be the same next year. Where do you think the NFL coaching carousel is going to stop? Who's going where? Bill Belichick, Falcons. Hardball Chargers. Book it. That's two minutes exactly. I've never done that. Two minutes exactly. That's wild. Besides the point as I toot my own horn over here. Feel it, EJ, who also can't do a two minute warning on time. Yes, you can. I'm just kidding. This has been the in the pocket segment of this episode. Of the game sports podcast. 1 hour and 46 minutes of content for you to enjoy here on the game sports podcast as we took a holiday on Monday, powered by 91 n and sponsored this segment, this particular segment too by sports center bar and Grill, Justin Dane, any final thoughts before we get to the conclusion officially?
[01:47:50] Speaker C: Justin, first, no, I think it's going to be a pretty wild weekend of football we got coming up this weekend. I think every game should be pretty high scoring and going to be fun to watch.
[01:48:02] Speaker A: 100%. Dane.
[01:48:05] Speaker B: If the Falcons either get Jim harbor or Bill Belichick, I forecast that within five years we will be part of a cheating scandal in the NFL.
And I'm okay with it. As long as we win a Super Bowl. I don't care anymore.
[01:48:23] Speaker A: It's definitely something.
[01:48:25] Speaker B: What do you think the scandal would be in? Know we got the flake gate, we got sign stealing that every college football team does.
[01:48:32] Speaker C: Yeah, Ludacris is hanging up from the top of the stadium stealing signs in Atlanta going on.
[01:48:38] Speaker A: I love it.
My last final thought is you Steeler fans and football fans out there that were upset about Tomlin leaving the podium, give your head a shake. Bow to you, Tomlin, for what you did this year for the Steelers. They would be nothing without Tomlin this year or watt. But that's my final thought. What a fun time talking football. Dane, thank you for taking the time, my friend and substitute of EJ Russell.
[01:49:05] Speaker B: Thanks for having me again. Again.
95% of the reason I stayed on here was to see Justin's beautiful face.
[01:49:12] Speaker A: That's fine.
[01:49:13] Speaker B: Just like to throw that in there.
[01:49:15] Speaker A: That's so nice. Look at that pose.
[01:49:16] Speaker B: Even father has just done well for your complexion. That's what I want to say.
[01:49:21] Speaker A: Yes. And he's got one of the best backgrounds on the show. Justin, my friend, it's as always, a pleasure.
[01:49:29] Speaker C: Good to be here. As always.
Not much to vent about this week. Honestly, it was a good weekend to play off football. I mean, had we got a snowstorm, I'd probably be a little bitchy about it, but no.
Looking forward to this weekend. We'll see what happens. I'd like to see Mahomes get smashed again. Maybe blow up another helmet.
[01:49:48] Speaker A: That's so cool. That helmet is going for $500,000 on eBay in the very near future. Is that a thing? EBay, Amazon, whatever the fuck it's going off of.
Nonetheless, the game sports podcast again, powered by 91 n this episode of the game Sports podcast. Second segment sponsored by Sports Center Bar and Grill. If you're interested in sponsoring the Game Sports podcast. You can reach out to us by commenting below or reaching out to our powered by, which is 90
[email protected] it's been great. We're going to take a little bit of a breather. We only had one episode this week. We are going to be back on Monday with the game sports podcast with myself and Dane and Alex with some more points. And there may be a little fun segment thrown in there from a recording with a certain someone. So keep an eye on that and then we'll be back with another Wednesday edition or second edition of the week as well. So we have two recordings next week planned. But until Monday, make sure you hit like, follow and subscribe and all the platforms against Sports podcast. As I said at the beginning, there's over 50% of you who watch and listen to our views and comment and repeatedly like. And I know there's a few of you who've liked more postings more than ten times. Yes, I can see that on TikTok and you haven't followed yet. If you like it, follow it. Very simple. We appreciate that support until Monday next week. I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch your touchdowns, drain your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
You.
