Seeking Passion | The Game Sports Podcast

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: It's time for the Game Sports Podcast with your host David McCaig Jr. The game is powered by 91 Network and featured on Spaces. 91N is a YouTube channel where you can check out video editions of the game and Spaces is presented and featured through SU Today and Village Media where you can check out the space that you enjoy most. The game is on the hockey and sports sports space of Spaces and there's much other spaces that you can check out and enjoy. The game is also on all social media platforms and on all audio platforms. You can just find us by searching pretty straightforward Spotify, Apple, Podcast, you name it. When it comes to social media, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all at the Game Sports podcast. You will see us on there and don't be shy to hit like phone, subscribe but also interact with all of the content that we upload. We enjoy that. Now this episode is going to be a little bit different than what we're used to, but it's also normal that we've been doing for the past 10 years because of it being Pro bowl week. We will not have in the pocket, but we will have some in the pocket type news. We will not have a top shelf segment that features me and someone else, but we'll have top shelf content because I'll be getting into hockey. But we will have a chuk a puck segment though. So we will have in the pocket and top shelf content future featuring yours truly solo in action and we will have a chock a puck segment. Now I didn't say that in the order that it's going to be in, but there's going to be hockey and there's going to be football discussed on this episode. Football in the brief portion. Hockey in the majority. Baseball gets to take a break this week, I guess based on the news. Well, we feel that we're still waiting for some dominoes to fall, maybe some more trades, maybe some more signings. But the news that we're sticking to this week is hockey and football. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Football. [00:01:52] Speaker B: And I'm going to start it off by saying before Trudeau comes on to talk Chuck a puck. I'm going to start with football. And I didn't originally plan to talk about football this week because as I mentioned, it's the week off that we do. But you know, the way the last weekend was, I feel like it's necessary to kind of at least touch on those games and some of my feedback. But also the Pittsburgh Steelers bringing in a new bench boss. They don't really hire coaches in Pittsburgh and me being a Pittsburgh fan, I feel like that's news I definitely want to touch on as also the Bills hiring original offensive coordinator Joe Brady is their new head coach after the firing of Sean McDermott. So there's some news that I want to touch on there. So I'm definitely going to start with last weekend's football games and when I look at New England and Seattle, that's the matchup that we're going to see in the super bowl that we'll do a Super bowl preview show next week on in the Pocket. We we're seeing a Super bowl that I feel like I've seen before. Oh, wait, we have the time when somebody ran on the one yard line and it didn't, didn't get the job done. Russell Wilson and company as they lost to the New England Patriots that year. But I what I want to say is this past weekend I was sad that the Rams lost. I would have liked to see Matt Stafford have another, have another run at it. And it's unfortunate the Broncos lost the way they did. You know, the weather was awful in Denver. They didn't have Bo Nicks. Okay, nothing against it that was playing, but when you don't have your starting quarterback, it's definitely kind of, it definitely impacts the game. There's some export reporting for you. Bonex has been such a tremendous X factor on that team and I think he definitely would have changed the outcome of that game. Drake May wasn't bringing his stuff. So the super bowl that's going in into between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. I really think the Seattle Seahawks obviously giving a little bit of spoiler, here are the team riding the most momentum and just looking like the heavy favorite. And I'm just going to leave it at that. But this past weekend, the most exciting game was the Rams Seahawks game. As I predicted, whether it could have played a factor. Obviously injury played a factor because who was quarterback in the Patriots and the Broncos game while Drake May is Drake May. But I would have rather saw Oregon legend Bo Nix there. So at the end of the day, you do not see the matchup that we wanted to see. But these are four teams in the NFL that we didn't predict that were going to be where they were. If you'd have told me that would have been the final four in this season's NFL going into potentially who's going to be in the super bowl between those four teams, I would have said you're going to, you're, you're, you're crazy. That's not anyone. If you don't have the Lions in there, if you didn't have the Chiefs in there, the super bowl that we get is the Seahawks and the Patriots and Justin and I will have that all for you next week. But what I wanted to touch on last game was just the reaction that it would have been such a different game if Bonix was in there for Denver. And the most exciting game of the weekend was Seattle. The last thing I'll touch on is Mike McCarthy. Mike McCarthy. Look, as a Steeler fan, I'm a massive Mike Tomlin fan, okay. And I've been able to watch basically one coach for the entirety of how long I've been cheering for the Steelers and they're a loyal organization, they're a hard working organization. They take care of their own. Obviously Mike McCarthy has roots in Pittsburgh, so he also has a Super bowl ring. This is somebody who had, has won a Super bowl after leaving a team after Green Bay. Right? But this is somebody that is bringing super bowl experience. He wants to be in Pittsburgh. He, he is. Wears his heart on his sleeve. He is, he is. If you watched his press conference, it was awesome to see. It was refreshing. He was emotional. He was excited to be there, excited for the opportunity. And I'm very, very. What's the word I'm looking for? I don't want to say curious, but I'm very excited. Maybe that's too easy of a word. Intrigued to see what the Mike McCarthy team looks like in Pittsburgh because of the way the Pittsburgh organization is shaped and the team right now that does need some changes and has some question marks going into next year. Things are going to go and what Mike McCarthy is going to bring to that culture there in Pittsburgh. I'm going to give you my rating on this. I think the Mike McCarthy signing is a 9 out of 10. That's a little high. You know, I would have maybe liked to maybe see an NCAA coach come in there. And I'm not looking at anyone in particular but someone may be younger or I know the interviewed multiple. I think that Mike McCarthy is, what I'm trying to say was not on anybody's radar for the Steelers to, to sign or to have his coach. And if anyone thinks differently, I'd be curious to know. Please comment below. Mike McCarthy coming out of left field to join Pittsburgh where we thought maybe there'd be a little bit of a different approach. But again, nine out of 10 signing. I'm curious to see what he does with this offense, with this defense, with the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinators with the organization with how his culture is going to is what kind of shift it's going to take in Pittsburgh and the team that they're going to field next year is going to be very dependent on how he manages his coaching style. And I'm intrigued about his coaching style because he's coached some greats, he has experience coaching Rodgers and bringing him in. It's not like you're bringing in someone young to help mold a young quarterback. It's maybe the Pittsburgh Steelers looking to bring him back Aaron Rodgers or they're looking at bringing in a quarterback to continue this form of the team that they have to try to be competitive. As a Pittsburgh Steeler fan, I would say that this is a 9 out of 10 signing but also going into next year I'd be curious to look at them try to shape and bring in something that's a quarterback for the future and shape up the roster for the future. But then that might not be in the plans of Mike McCarthy and management. So it'll be very interesting to see. That's the only in the pocket news that you're going to get because we don't have it in the pocket segment today, but we wanted to make sure we started off the show basically outside of yours truly for the first seven or so minutes talking about five football without my right hand man of football, Justin Heik. We're not going to get into too much news there. I want to make sure that we stick to the agenda. So let's get to it. As he's been waiting for the past couple minutes and listening to me rant about football for a few minutes. It is the one is the only getting ready with our Chuck A Puck segment here. Jordan Trudeau. Trudes, my friend, how you doing? Good to see you. You know what man, I'm good. It's a, it's, it's Sault Ste. Marie. It's cold. I just came from Toronto, was minus holy there and you know what? I'm over winter. I know that's a very lame thing to say on a podcast or say it's very normal that you would say to somebody when you walk out you haven't seen someone a while. Hey, that weather, eh? But this is weather to speak about because I'm actually over it. It's January 27th at the time of recording this and I've been over it since Christmas. I, I'm already over it and I, I'm don't want to rush time because that just rushes life But I'm done here. It's freezing. And you know what? Other than that, I'm doing good, though. Life's good, work's good, everything's good, Podcast good. We're good. We're talking sports. But the weather can go. Truths. The weather can go. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, the weather can go. I mean, I was. I was just snowballing my driveway again, and I think I mentioned that on the. On the other. The other show, how. How much I snowballed my driveway. And we're two for two this week because I actually ended up with a huge pile at the end of my driveway this weekend from the plow. And it's actually. Well, it's actually been there since last week, so, you know, I had to take care of that when it actually wasn't snowing, and then it snowed today. So, yeah, we're. We're still here. We're still doing driveways, but it's. It's a crucial time for the NFL, obviously. The Super Bowl's in two weeks, and so that's. That's getting down to crunch time there. An interesting super bowl matchup. Like you were saying, I was kind of listening in. I was also finishing up some. I did some stats here, some numbers on the greyhounds this week. So I was kind of half in, half out there, but, yeah, interesting. I'm excited to get things going here on Chocolate Puck because it's. There's lots to talk about. [00:09:40] Speaker B: There is. We got some. We got. Oh, we can touch on. We got hounds here on Chocolate Puck to remind everyone we talk. Ohl a major junior in general, but obviously specialty love, I call it. I give it a different word each week to the Suse Marie Greyhounds. So speaking of stats, there's something I do. Okay, I'm going to hold on it a Carter George stat. You probably have the stat. So I'll pump. I'll pump the break. I won't do it. So I know we haven't been able to dive into Chuck a puck for the past week or so, so I want to give you the floor on talking some Ohl news around the rink, and then we can dive into the Sault Sa Marie Greyhounds before we let you go today. [00:10:13] Speaker A: Yes, yes. I. So I really, really wanted to get some lowdown on some other teams this week. Unfortunately, I just didn't really have the time. But what I want to start doing is I want to try and do, like, a bit of a deeper dive on some of the contenders moving towards March and into the playoffs. Just so that Listeners can have an idea of, you know, who to look out for and who the Greyhounds are going to kind of going to be pursuing in the next few months because there's about seven or eight teams that are near the top between the two conferences and it's going to get close here. Now, moving into February, every game starts to count. So I'm, I'm going to try and do that. I didn't have time this past week, so. As for OHL news, I think really the biggest news has been Carter George. He has kind of taken the league by storm. In his five starts with the Greyhounds, he's 5, 0 with a.950 save percentage. He has two shutouts and he's recorded a goal. So he's been a bit of a big news around the league as he was named the goaltender of the week as well. As for other news, I think it was really interesting this past weekend that Flint and Windsor, who are the top two teams in the West Division and kind of fighting for the top spot there now, they played each other twice this past weekend, which was good for the Greyhounds because at least one of those teams was losing some points and the Greyhounds were able, were able to make up a lot of ground in this current winning streak that they're on. And they are now only six points back of both Windsor and Flint, who are kind of tied for the top spot in the West Division. Interesting stat. I didn't actually know this until I looked up in the rafters this weekend. The Greyhounds haven't won the division since Drew Bannister. They have not won the division under John Dean, which is kind of crazy because they have had some really good teams with John Dean as the head coach, but they have not won the division. So they still got some catch up to do. But they're now in the conversation much more so than they were at the start of January. So can they get John Dean his first division win? We'll see. So, yeah, Flint and Windsor, they're still going strong at the top. Kitchener is really the only team out of the Midwest Division that is going to have a long playoff run. London is sitting in second and they did end up selling their top two trade pieces at the deadline. So that Midwest Division is going to look a little slim coming down the wire here, which is very interesting and kind of rare. You don't really see London, Guelph, Owen sound near the bottom. Usually they're the toughest division in the whole league, so that's interesting. But Kitchener, they got A really solid team. A lot of their players are near the top of the league in scoring. You got like Jack Pridham, newly acquired Dylan Edwards, and it'll be interesting to see when they match up against the Hounds later on this season how the game will go between those two team. As for the east, the Brantford Bulldogs still sit at the top right. They're on a bit of a streak now again, too. Lots of talent on that team. We saw a lot of their players at the World Juniors. Adam Bennek playing for the Czech Republic, Jet Lucchenko and Adam Jirachek also Lucchenko for Canada, Jirachek for the Czechia, as well as Ben Danford for Canada. So they had a lot of representation at the World Juniors. A lot of NHL draft picks on that team. They're going to, they're going to make a case for the East. Ottawa's there hanging around, but you know that that Brantford team is still the favorite for the Eastern Conference. And we're now seeing teams kind of start to build towards next year. So teams like Guelph, teams like Niagara, teams like Kingston, even a team maybe like Saginaw and Sarnia, they're going to start to develop systems, hopefully build their structures so that next year they can hopefully take a step forward. We know golf's hosting the Memorial cup next year, so they're definitely working hard at developing their current roster into a certain system that hopefully they can keep, retain as many of the players that they have so that they don't have to make a lot of necessary moves in order to be the host team. So it's an interesting time. And the Greyhounds are right there in the thick of it once again. [00:14:33] Speaker B: The one thing I want to suggest, George, is the, the talk. But you, you talk about the power rankings. I'll touch on two things there. When you look at the power rankings, The Hounds are fifth in this week's Power Rank is the one out as of January 20, which would be Monday. We're recording on Tuesday night as we normally do. You got Branford, Ottawa, Kitchener, Barry and the Sioux are the top five in the power rankings. When I was looking up, I was, I was reading that the Hounds should be fourth, maybe third, and seeing different fan pages, but I think they're where they need to be. I think that is a fair assessment. I think the OHL has it where. Where it should be, but Rangers, I, when I look at that roster, if I'm looking at a playoff series, I know people may think this is nuts, but I'd rather play the Bulldogs in a seven game than I would the Kitchener Rangers. There's something just about that Kitchener team that is built different. I'll be saying that term a little bit later on when I talk about Toronto when I saw them play Vegas on Friday. So this little spoiler that that might, that term might come out again. But anyone who disagrees with these rankings, you know, sometimes I look at HL rankings OHL the tier 2 junior even I look at that once in a while. You come to the nodes and see where teams are. It's good to see how systems and systems, sorry how organizations. Sorry. Have have their placement in the season and if there's been any teams that have grown over the years but the Sioux being the top five is right. Being fifth is right. But a big piece that is because of Carter George and Carter George actually just to kind of share, he makes OHL history and if I'm taking one of your stats, I'm sorry, I was thought you might have touched on this beginning but Carter George becomes the OHL's highest scoring goalie. Fun fact. I want to make sure that I share that Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Carter George comes the OHL's highest scoring goalie. That was Posted by ian Campbell to CTV News on January 24th so it was an interesting little clip that you can check out. I'll give CTV a little plug because obviously I didn't come up with that stat, something I didn't have pulled out of my rear. And you can see the clip about when he scored against London. It was an empty netter here in Sault Ste. Marie and the fans were going great and there was actually a clip truths of someone on Tick Tock and I don't know the individual. Sorry, I do know. My apologies, I remember I do know the individual. I didn't comment obviously because of I oversee the game sports podcast account but I don't run it. I want everyone to know that I don't run it because I'm not the social media guy. But there was somebody who shared a clip of their their son, I believe was crying because they were so excited that they got to see a goalie goal. And Carter George is this kid's favorite player and he liked him even when he was back in Owen Sound and they were talking about how he scored against Peterborough I believe was the other one he scored against was Peterborough and this kid was crying and he had someone here in Sault Ste. Marie that was not crying because they were so excited. And you know what that's the effect that Carter George has already on this committee. The sue loves them. We love our. You know, I'm speaking our as a, as a community. We've seen a lot of goaltenders wear the red and white that were good Kaju skis. Murray's, we know. Mark Vistin, I know the goalie coach of the Hounds had very high praise to talk about with, with Carter George making, making that accomplishment. What a shot too from behind the net. That confidence is just absolutely unbelievable. But the clip, like I said, to wrap up that point, seeing that emotion with fans and doing it here in the Sioux and him saluting the fans, gotta love it. He's an instant fan favorite. But I wanted to make sure I shared that stat. That he's the OHL's highest scoring goalie and he did it while wearing a Greyhound jersey. That's pretty exciting to share. But the power rank, it's. The Hounds are where they are, teams are where they need to be. And the team that I'm scared about most is Kitchener. Telling you that right now, calling it sorry to the Bulldog fans and 67 fans out there, but Kitchener's the team. That's my opinion. [00:18:13] Speaker A: Well, I'm like anybody in the Western Conference, right? It's kind of looking like. To put it into perspective, the Greyhounds played the fifth place team in the Western Conference and the fifth place team in the Eastern Conference this past weekend. And the London Knights gave them a really good game. I think me personally watching that game back, I think I agree with John Dean. He said they made a couple mistakes that led to the back of their net. But I think when you look at that game, I thought the Greyhounds really drove the play for the most part. And I thought London's goalie played really, really well. I thought he saved, he saved their bacon a few times. So I think that point is where the Greyhounds have a little bit more firepower up front and they have a little bit more talent, skill to carry them forward past London in a possible playoff series. And then when you, when you look at the North Bay Battalion who came in this past weekend to play two games, I mean their fifth place in the Eastern Conference, they looked way, way weaker than London. And I don't know if it was just maybe two games or because even. Because Saturday night I was, I was waiting for the. This North Bay Battalion team to. That's big, strong, fast. And I just, I didn't really see it. I didn't see what people have been describing them as. So Saturday night I kind of took it with a grain of salt and I was like, the Greyhounds won that one, two, nothing. They didn't really give up a lot defensively. And I was kind of like, maybe it was just a one off, you know, we'll see next tomorrow how it goes. Not even 24 hours later, I thought they played a bet. I thought North Bay played a better game on Sunday, definitely more structured. But they got into some penalty trouble which really hurt them. So in terms of how we're comparing those teams against the Greyhounds anyway, it looked like a big gap between London and North Bay. So what does that really tell you about the Western Conference? You could make the assumption that it's much, much stronger than the Eastern Conference. So a team like Brantford maybe has inflated numbers due to that fact, due to the fact that they're playing more Eastern Conference teams. When you get to the playoffs, none of that matters. You have to beat the team in front of you four times. Four out of seven times. I know that is, I know that you know that the players know. So that's, that's the thing. And when you have the star power like the Branford Bulldogs do, you know, they're, they're in really good shape come playoff time. But yeah, this two Greyhounds team, I mean they're on an eight game winning streak. I might as well jump into my little stat thing I got going on here, on here. Like put a few things in perspective. During this eight game winning streak. I wanted to look at a few things and it turns out my assumptions were right. I figured they were solid. The reason for this eight game winning streak, the Greyhounds played very solid defense, lots of structure, the defensive zone taking care of their own net. And they also got good goaltending. That's what I saw from my own two eyes and heard on the broadcast. And the numbers don't lie. They averaged 22.5 shots against in the last eight games. So I'm counting from the Sudbury win, the win in Sudbury on January 7th till now, they have an average shots against total of 22.5. They have a save percentage of 9.952. So that's not just. George Miller played a couple of games in there as well. Miller played three of the eight games. That's huge. That's huge. And they're. And their power, their power play. We still need to see more from them, I believe because they are operating at 25 in these last eight games. However, they were 4 for 7 the other day against North Bay. So before that they were 18 so that was like a big jump. There's a bit of an outlier there. Power play still lacks a bit of structure, lacks a bit of meaning. I'm finding players need roles. They need, whether they have those roles or they need to be assigned new roles or they need to do their job or you know, they gotta, they gotta gel, they gotta figure something out to get the chemistry working on the power plate to, to work on that towards the playoffs. But hey, if that's your biggest problem right now, I'll take it. [00:22:22] Speaker B: You know, I think this is a good. And we've talked about different measuring sticks in the year and I obviously the Greyhounds are going on a pretty lengthy road trip. They don't return to home to Sault ste. Marie until February 6th where they play Flint. I believe that's a Friday, February 6th and right now we're recording on a Wednesday. So they're looking about a week plus on the road and they start that Thursday in Niagara. And you talked about Miller playing some games and almost 50% of the, of the games with the back to back, you know, coming from a coach's perspective, you got Thursday, Friday, Sunday, you got three games in the four night rhythm and you got to know that Miller is going to be playing one of those three games for sure. If not definitely we'll be playing if between Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Wednesday, those four games, he might get 50% of that. It depends. You obviously want to keep Carter George Large away from risk of injury, but the, the old school in me will say that there is no such thing as load management. But now there's a new approach to hockey and even goaltenders, when you want to have a tandem, now you don't. Gone are the days where you relied on Patrick Waugh, Martin broder to play 75 games and Corey Schwab plays six of the games. No offense to Corey Schwab, but you got Miller and you got, you got Carter George, who obviously his numbers speak for for himself. He's a goalie of the week as Truit's touched on here. He had two games played, two zero with a one. He had a goal, a shutout, like he had it all. So the Hounds are getting some good stability in that. But you mentioned a point where they said 22 and a half shots a game. Correct. Against shots against a game. Correct. That's what I mean. That is good. I'll tell you a goal that I'll say from a again former player and coaches and let me keep stressing to everybody Major like I didn't play major Junior, played junior A. Okay, true. It's gonna get a little smile at that as I sometimes throw that in there to remind people that I'm not just someone who likes to talk hockey and sports. Got a little bit of extra knowledge but we used to try to keep a goal was under 10 shots a period and when we were the when we're talking offensively we wanted more than 10 shots per. We wanted 12. That was a goal that we tried to get was 124 and less than 10 against in a period. So the Hounds are well under that goal because 10 per period, 10 times 3 last I checked could be wrong. Is still 30. If that's wrong, please correct me below. And I know that this is a team that has good when you have good goaltending, if you can have good defensive coverage and allow less shots, it's going to increase your likelihood to win games as long as you can put out more offense and shots than what you're allowing against. And that's what I'm seeing with the Hounds. Despite the power play struggle up. New words here. Troubles with struggle. The on the offense, they're capitalizing on opportunities. The dynamic of the. Of the is looking great on that team defensively and offensively. Goaltending is confident. This is a team that is, you know, really, really gelled and I think a big part of it, you know, cliche seeing that but seeing Carter George, it adds confidence to your team back there knowing and that's no offense to Miller. I know there's been a lot of feedback to Miller and not meeting potential and all that. Okay. This is still a someone who's under 20 years old and has NHL recognition right now and you know, will play professional somewhere if it's east coast or Europe. Not sure if he's going to be an NHL goalie, but I didn't know Matt Murray even though I saw this kid was a stud in Thunder Bay when I He was a 15 year old. Okay. But I didn't know this kid was going to be playing NHL and being a two time Stanley cup winner. Okay. Sometimes things occur and Miller could not say he's going to be that guy, but he's still a very good goaltender. Carter George, good goaltender, confidence in your net, less shots a game allowed. Capitalizing on the offensive side of the puck, the team jellin. That is something. The recipe right now for the Hounds. It's cooking. It's like my mom's homemade lasagna. It's delicious. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:26:07] Speaker B: And it's cooking well. All right. So big road trip ahead, though, as I talked my first point about four minutes ago, the measuring stick. I like measuring sticks of road. Of teams on the road. I like to see how they do it. And it's midway throughout the year and good opportunity for team chemistry to continue to build. And they have games where they play the Bulldogs in there. That game on Sunday, you know, Carter George is starting, no offense, Miller again. I'll say that again. But you know, Carter George is getting that game, all right. And it's going to be one heck of a matchup. No offense to Erie. That's a good matchup, too. And you know, Flint's down there. Like there's some good matchups coming. But the game that I'm highlighting, that I'm excited to put on the television on Sunday, is definitely the Bulldog game. That's going to be that outside of measuring sticks and this road, this road trip. But to go on the road and if you can steal a win in the. In the barn of the Bulldogs plant that seeded out and show that you're even more for real, I think that's critical for the Hounds on this road trip. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Well, yeah, Dave, it is. And that's a big game, like you said. Yeah, I forgot to mention that the two games before it are even bigger for me as well. Not even bigger, but they're huge as well because you know, you're going into an Erie Otters team, team that's outside of playoff contention, and you're facing a Niagara team that's sitting in the lower half of the Eastern Conference. Those are two wins right there that you have to get. So you're six points back of the division. You're six points back at the conference as well. And so you're looking to make up ground. You don't want to be handing. You don't want to be handing out two points against Niagara and Erie, so. And you can't take them lightly no matter where they are in the standings. So those are two big wins. That. Yeah, like you said, you figure Miller's going to get one, George is going to get the other. I'd imagine George is going to play Thursday, so he could play Sunday. Like you're saying, that could be the, the. That could be the formula there. And yes, that's huge. When you jump to the Branford game and then on Wednesday, Saginaw division rival and then into next weekend, Flint and Windsor come to town. So this is. We're heading into a stretch of four huge games for the Greyhounds biggest of the season up to this point. And you know, with the way they're playing right now, they I want to see them match up. How they match up against Flint and Windsor. It would be nice to get some reinforcements back. Brady Martin still on the shelf obviously no rush there. Same with Jacob Jakob Winklehofer again. He'll fill out the top five defenseman really, really well. But I mean Carter George has just yeah, injected a lot of life into this team so it'll be interesting to see how they continue to gel. But the strengths are there, their positives are there. They just have to keep running with it. [00:28:48] Speaker B: One thing I'll promote to with the Hounds, I'd like seeing it on their site. They have a family pack so two adult and two child tickets, four small popcorn vouchers and four small pop is $80 HST not included. So if you think about getting four tickets for 80 bucks, it's pretty good to come watch a very good hockey team. So if you're outside of the Sioux and you're passing by by this, not this week obviously, but the week of February 6th and the weekend of February 6th, come on and stop in the GFL Memorial Gardens. I'll always call it the Gardens. That's the nostalgia to come see an exciting team. And again, big week for Carter George and the Hounds last week. Big week in Measuring Stick as I like to touch on with the road this week and power rankings out for the ohl. Check that out. Comment who you think is the top five if you agree or, or if you disagree. Now Trudes, before I let you go, any final thoughts you want to touch on before I let you chuck that puck over the glass one last time on this episode? [00:29:43] Speaker A: Travis, I'm going to give our buddy Dustin Grandin his, his guy a little love here. I think, you know, it's, it's been debated among Hounds fans his performance over this this past year and maybe he's not, you know, where he quite where he should be. But I just, I want to give him some love because there's a, this is a guy that goes in, he competes game after game. He takes a beating out there and he's always in the corners and he's getting the puck to the right people. Whoever is on his line. Christopher Brown, Quinn McKenzie, Marco Mignosa. And you may not see the point production right now from Travis Hayes but, but he scored a beauty of a goal on Sunday and I think it felt really good to get two goals in two straight games. His one Saturday was An empty netter from their own goal line, which, you know, isn't the flashiest, but, hey, it got him going. Maybe he could start finding the back of the net a bit more and help this team's offense, but, you know, you're looking at a player that can really, really play strong along the boards well, so, you know, he's making stuff happen, even though he's not really on the score sheet. And, yeah, like, this whole team has their play level just keeps going up. And I don't know, I think that's just a testament to the players themselves, the coaching staff, you know, just what a great job this organization does at developing players. And they've done it all throughout Kyle Dubas years and Kyle Raftis years. This has been some of the best years of. Best decades of Greyhound hockey that there's. There's been ever so many. You know, they. They just. They got to keep rolling here. You know, they're on a good, strong stretch. Can't get too high or too low. Right? I mean, you're. You're not going to win every single game the rest of the season, but if you can maintain that structure and maintain that way of play, they're. They got something cooking, like you said. And I'm excited to see Brady Martin get back. I'm excited to see Winklehoffer get back. And, you know, even players like Harris Pangridic and Noah Laos, Ryan Kaczynski, Tobias Valinsky, the slow. The Slovak import, you know, I was looking at his point totals the other day. He's got six goals and six assists, 12 points. Not bad for a rookie season when you're only getting, you know, 10, 11 minutes a night. Their third and fourth line, they play their roles well. Their lines are very balanced, and they. They're very flexible. Like, when they move things around, it seems like players just are starting to gel with whoever they're on a line with. Let's hope they can keep that going. And, you know, boys, we're rooting for you and, you know, keep it up. Keep up with the good work. [00:32:18] Speaker B: One thing that I'll mention, you reminded me of, and we talked about this last year, before last season, you and I gave praise to Chase Reed saying that this guy stud. Everyone watch stud. Stud. I had somebody at my place of employment today come by me and said, dave, you know, love the show. I. I knew this person listens to the show, and it's. It's great to hear that feedback even at work. And they said, you know what? There was something that I doubted you on you and your. They said, co host, I believe his name is Jordan Trudeau. I said, yeah, that. That's his name. You guys talked about last year, Chase Reed, and you were talking about how you love him, how he's a stud, how he's a stud. And when I first saw him, I didn't see it. And this guy well knows his hockey, let's say very good at knowing his hockey. And he said, I didn't see it. But then I saw it and I saw it. And the other game, he's like, when I just. This season alone, I think about your show all the time. I see him on the ice because of how much you guys praised him on the show. And I saw it. He's like, how did you guys see it before? And I said, to be honest, you just. I just don't mean to make the sound conceited. I just knew. It's just. I don't know, like, for me and true. It's, you know, different eyes. It's was a gut feeling. Was it a lot. But there's just something special about him when you. When you first saw it. And it was just great to hear that comment. So I want to give. Continue to give. You know, obviously, Chase love the. The guy I'm hearing. I had someone come up to me and I talked about this last week. I think we talked. I think this is what was on a previous edition where somebody said that they would draft Chase Reed first overall over Gavin McKenna. And I said, listen here. I said a little bit of bias there. I. I don't. I don't know. And that's nothing against Chase Reed. I'm sure he's pumped to hear that, if you heard that. But you know what? He's definitely a top five pick, ladies and gentlemen. Okay. Easily a top five pick in this year's draft. Easily. And you got a draft of McKenna, Verhoff, Stenberg, Reeds, and like, it's a loaded draft class this year with that top heavy. Okay. So I'm a big Verhoff fan. Everyone knows how I feel about Verhoff this year. I think that guy is a difference maker. Telling you right now, but so is Chase Reed. So I want to make sure that I told you truths about my interaction today with someone saying that we were right and. Yeah, I know we were right. I knew we were right from the start. Once. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Once in a while. [00:34:38] Speaker B: Once in a while. Okay, Trudes, I'm gonna let you go, my friend. Thank you for taking a little bit of extra Time. Long overdue to chat some Chuka puck. So I'm gonna finish off the show with my area in Saskotia bank arena on Friday with Mitch Marner. Obviously, I got some NHL news to touch on and I'll. I'll touch on the Maple Leafs last, so people make sure you stick around. So before I get into that though, TR want to say thank you again and we'll connect next week for some more Chaka puck, my friend. Sounds good. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Sounds good. Take care. [00:35:05] Speaker B: All right, that's Jordan Trudeau talking. Chuck a puck with yours truly. Now, look, I saved this content for last. Not because it's the best. Tru is the best. Talking hockey in general is the best. All sports. Talking hockey, football, baseball, whatever sport we're talking here on the game, obviously the best to talk about. But I saved this content for last and I honestly almost don't know where to go with it because I don't know if I want to start with my recent trip or if I want to start with NHL. So I'm going to go off instinct and I'm going to go with starting off with other news in the National Hockey League and I will talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs. But because of my experience of school Spank arena with when Mitch Marner's return was there, you can check on our Instagram page the tribute video that I uploaded for Mitch for, for that game that was shown at the the arena. And I'm going to get into that because I have a lot of feedback and it's feedback that isn't a surprise to people too. So I'll hold that for a second. I'm going to dive into some top shelf news here, okay? And where I'm going to start is talk about Thatcher Demko. He's going to be out for the season. Look, Vancouver just be tanking for Gavin McKenna, okay? They want to bring in Gavin McKenna. Maybe they want to attract Conor Bedard to go there whenever he hits free agency after his entry level deal to go play with his cousin. I don't know. Thatcher Demko can't catch a break. This is a goalie who I looked at as a goalie being a, you know, in a very stacked US Goaltending caliber. When you look at Hellebock, you look at Ottinger and you look at who they have in between the pipes. This is somebody that, that's at an elite level of goaltending when healthy and he hasn't been able to be healthy in his career where he needs to be. And that's where I think if I'm Vancouver, if you're looking at a rebuild retool that this is somebody you have to consider trying to move out and trading to a team that can maybe have a different change of scenery for him. And I don't mean to speak because he's out for the season that you trade the guy, but at the same time I'm saying maybe it's something to to consider, but it's unfortunate that Sredamko can't stay healthy and that he is out for the season. So some news there that the Vancouver Canucks lose Thatcher for the remainder of the season. The next piece of news I want to talk about the outdoor games. Look, I was a big fan of when it first came and I was excited. And my favorite one and it's a little bit of bias is the game at the Big House between Detroit and Toronto. It was great. I wish I could have went to that game. It was legendary. The amount of people that were there and the teams that were playing. I'm not always a huge fan of them because is a truly home ice advantage. Oh, it's great for the game. It's a little bit different. But at the same time, you know, when you, when you start off your year playing outside or midway or later on the year for games that are very imperative for points. I know players have a difference of opinion and to touch on that. The, the outdoor game to me is getting to be something that I would like to see maybe on a set of a yearly basis, maybe on a bi yearly basis or something that's kind of used and implemented kind of sporadically, kind of like the All Star Game, but different. I think the, at least the, the winter, the Winter Classic, the Heritage Classic. These games that are very important for a lot of symbol but also just tradition and hockey. I would like to see a different approach to them. And I'm not saying bi yearly for it to be for sure, but something like a different approach. All right. I enjoy them. I am not a fan of the All Star Game. I used to be when I was younger. It's for the kids really anyways. But I think there needs to be a different approach to the All Star Game. But I've talked about that already. We're talking about outdoor games here. I'm losing that delicious taste of the outdoor game. That feel that I had never mind just when it first started. But over the years it started to lose and then that the game at the Big House picked it back up and there's been some series that in some games that have definitely been entertaining to watch but wasn't a fan of this year didn't like the location of it. Think it's interesting that they're trying to bring hockey to to a hot climate and do that but there's something that they're really missing outside of not being a fan I think maybe and what I mean by saying not a fan if you're not a fan of hockey, seeing this Winter Classic, it's. It's unique. It's cool, right? It's something oh you play an outdoor game. Has anyone watched sourcey lately? Spoiler if you haven't seen Jersey, I apologize but there's something that happens in the last season when it comes to stories that's a very unique approach but that's all all I'll say if you haven't seen Shorzy but if you've seen the trailers I think it's given a little bit away. But if you're not a fan of the game maybe the buy yearly or a different approach on it is unique to take and a hot take but something to consider. But if you're going to do it yearly and continue to do that, I would like to see games that aren't just put into a market because you're trying to attract just try to approach it the way like you did at the big House with Detroit and Toronto. I think that was perfect and outside of any of the Heritage Classic and outdoor games that you want to do and just an opportunity to make it better. I think the NHL has really dropped the ball on missing on a very key opportunity. And that opportunity is yes and there's no bias but it's true at me if you think I'm wrong. They missed out on playing at the Rodgers Center. They have missed out playing at the Rogers center for the outdoor games. I think the Rogers center would be cool and the next outdoor game that I think should be for the National Hockey League should be the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I think that should be game or heck put the Boston Bruins in the Toronto Maple Leafs there someone that has that original six feel again at the Rogers Center. And to make it unique have them have their baseball team logos on. If you have Montreal, have them wear unique alternate jerseys that are the Expos. And then the Toronto Maple Leafs were like a throw their leaf jersey but with a little a touch of the that gives love to the Toronto Blue Jays. Something that would just be great to see. If you have Boston right, you have the Boston Red Sox right You can give a little nod to them for that. It's something you can do that's very unique to the game, but also different. But in a stadium that hasn't seen an outdoor classic yet, that would be interesting. That holds a lot of people still. And you have a dome. You have a dome. How can that be used? You can make it an indoor rink if this weather gets atrocious. Because here in Canada, you know, the. The winters are very hit and miss. So you can always close the dome and have the system in place where the ice stays cold, or you keep the dome open and you just let it ride. The Rogers center is a missed opportunity by the NHL and the teams that you can have in that. That of course being Toronto, the other teams that you can have play against them. That's one. The other ones I'd like to see out at the. I'm sorry, there's escape my mind right now, but the Buffalo Bill Stadium, the. That would be great to see as well. Getting some Bills mafia and their Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs perhaps something that are next door neighbors to each other that would just bring that competitive edge to that. There's opportunities missed and I think they're getting these different teams in there and I'm not a fan of that approach. Obviously seeing Boston in there and seeing teams I understand, but I think the location. They're really missing some opportunities on. The biggest one that they're missing is the Rogers Center. To say I'm a fan of them, but I'm losing the taste of it. I'd like to see a new approach of it and I would like to see it at a new stadium, one that hasn't been done yet. That's unique, something different. And that is the Rogers Center. A newly renovated Rogers Center. How would that feel be to have an outdoor game there with the clubs that you have, the atmosphere at the ball game for the ball field. Sorry that they have. It's amazing opportunity. If you're anyone from the NHL that's listening, bring this forward, talk to Rogers, do what you got to do. I think it's an opportunity that's missed by the NHL and you don't always need to go to the unexpected markets to make it cool. Go somewhere expected, go somewhere you haven't been up the ante, up the experience. Rogers center is the place to be. All right, other NHL around the horn. What I want to touch on is the NHL standings. And listen one big stress I want to talk about in the Atlantic Division. The ISER plan. People doubt it. I've said since day one that the ISER plan will come into play and will work. They built through the draft. Sider, Edmondson, you know, obviously having Larkin there, you got Raymond. This team is sanding, pal. These guys are special. Beisherman built this team correctly. It took a little bit of extra time. He had a year or two more than what people expected. But this is a team that is keeps ascending and will get and is on the right track. And they're going to be able to be guys that they can form that chemistry together that the old Detroit blood used to have. And that pains me to see because I am not a Red Wings fan. I despise the Red Wings because all they did was win. But I have respect. And for people that didn't believe in the ISER plan, I've told you since the start, you've lost your mind if you didn't believe. And you got to be patient. And that's coming from a Leaf fan. Red Wings are for real. This is a team that's going to be exciting in the playoffs. I got a bold statement. I don't think the Sabres and Canadiens are still for real where they are. I think the Canadians are definitely a playoff team and they're going to be very good, especially next year and going forward. But this is a team starting to show a bit more of their true colors in the Atlantic Division. But Tampa Bay, like, I've had enough of seeing them up there, too. But you got to give credit where teams are just built very nicely and Eisenman was a part of that. Isn't it funny to see Tampa Bay in Detroit in the top of the Atlantic? As I'm recording this right now, what do they have in common? Steve Eisenman, obviously. Eisenman's been away for a few years and Tampa's had to do changes. They've lost stammer. So the Eisenman ingredient is still there. It's not the full ingredient, but it's still imprinted on that team in the draft approaches and the moves that were made for some of their impactful players. Detroit and Tampa, top of the Atlantic. Just saying. I wanted to point that out. The Metropolitan Division, I think you got to give love to Pittsburgh. It's hard to see, again, Toronto fans. But giving credit to Sioux native Kyle Dubas, who has the Pittsburgh Penguins in second in a tight Metropolitan Division between second, third and even the Flyers, the Capitals on the outside looking in last year was obviously not what it was supposed to be. But Pittsburgh being the playoffs is not Something that I had in mind this year. But Crosby, I think this guy needs to start being a very serious conversation for the hardcore this year. Especially if Pittsburgh makes the playoffs and stays where they're at. Eastern Conference, if standing is still all over, can't really justify if things are going to remain the same. Still a lot of time left, but there's some teams where time is ticking. A little bit of a hint. Central Division. The Avalanche are wild. That's all I'm going to say. And it's funny because Minnesota Wild. They're in second. [00:45:30] Speaker A: They're wild. [00:45:31] Speaker B: Dallas Wild. Utah Mammoth for real. The poor Winnipeg jets just can't catch a break. That Central Division is way too tough. Anyone from that division, when you look at the Pacific, I don't care how many Vegas fans are out there, even much love to the Oilers. I feel bad for Oilers fans, but no team is beating the team in the Central Division this year. And the team that I'm talking about is a Colorado Avalanche. And even everyone should be scared of the Minnesota Wild. No matter what Vegas and people think of Vegas, they should be scared. But that doesn't mean that I don't think a team from the Pacific like Vegas is going to come out of it in the playoffs. It's just very for people to point at Edmonton going back. I've heard people say Edmonton's a lock to go back. Crazy Vegas to be a lock. No, there's no locks in any of these divisions or conferences. And if you have any doubt about Minnesota or Colorado, even Dallas, you've lost. You've lost. That's. That's the term. As I'll say, you've lost it because this. They're top heavy. You can obviously predict who's the stronger teams, but the same time you cannot pick someone who you think is going to walk out of it on each conference. Even in the east, you can't say that Tampa is going to be your lock. Carolina is going to be your lock. The playoffs are going to be exciting this year, no matter who's in it. The last thing I'll touch on, the Ducks and the Sharks. I think both teams are a year ahead of what they need to be. But boy, they look scary. Do they ever look scary, these teams? You're going to start seeing the resurgence of the Ducks now. The Sharks are looking good. They're going to have some cap space to move and sign some players and do all the things to really capitalize on being a team that can make some runs deep and take advantage of the Money that they have to do so except the Ducks. San Jose is in a better position to do that. But these teams are battling this year and making Hawk exciting. Macklin Celebrini. It's exciting to watch despite, you know, seeing the Ducks win a cup before and, you know, seeing some of those teams who have, you know, watched in the early thousands have a lot of success and say, okay, it's time for some new teams. You're starting to see some of those teams in the late, early thousands, I guess, and the late 10s that are had their rebuild and retool time, starting to have that resurgence after a few years, if not more, more in the bottom of the standings. And the San Jose Sharks, a team that had so much success with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau and couldn't get it done. So close against Pittsburgh, but they didn't get it done. They're on the right track. So that's the round of horn I want to touch on. There's so many points to touch down there. But what I want to highlight is there's no lock for the playoffs. Colorado, Minnesota, Vegas. You can't pick between what doesn't matter if you pick Vegas or Colorado, it's going to be wild, unintended when it comes to playoff time. But in the Atlantic, big highlight for me is the two teams at the top of the Atlantic have their ISER plan fingerprints. Just letting you know that. All right, so the last point that I'm going to get to, yeah, I didn't talk about Toronto at all in the standings because they're not there near the top. I'm going to give you in the last seven minutes here because I have seven minutes until I hit the hour. So it gives me seven minutes to talk about Toronto, which I'll try to do in the best of my ability. I saw Toronto play Vegas against Mitch Marner and Mitch Marner's return to Toronto, and it was a very actually entertaining hockey game. There's a little bit of nerves for me at first when they were down early and down by a couple early, but they battled back. They worked hard to get back, but despite me saying that they bowed back and worked hard, I did not see a team on the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs that have that. That showed that energy, the it factor. The team that I've watched last couple of years in the regular season just run show and not be a playoff team. Of course. Of course. But not be the true team that I expected to see on the ice. Mitch Marner's return. There were boos everywhere. Boo birds. I don't know if anyone saw the clip yet. Keegan Kolizar rip out the jersey from someone's hands and throw it. You've had Mitch Marner get booed and then for his video tribute that I've uploaded online, there was booze at first, but then started to clap booze throughout the entirety of the game. Cheers. When he got off the ice, obviously from a points perspective, he didn't really dive on the score sheet too much. Mark Stone took over the game and Rasmus Anderson's first game in Vegas. He looks like a stud out there, but one thing that I saw Vegas do that I've been hoping to see on this Toronto team that I haven't seen since before the lockout is guys picking each other up when they were getting boo, when Kolsar ripped that jersey out, when Marner was getting a tribute video, Mark Stone being a leader, tapping him on the bench and just you can see Vegas was behind them and they came to play. They came to play not just for the themselves, but for Mitch Marner. That team that's out there is a team that's well oiled, well put together and takes care of each other as a team. When I watched the Toronto Maple Leafs on the ice that game against Vegas, I was watching teams, a team and players go through the motions and players that seem like they're collecting a paycheck, they're missing guys, they have injuries, so be it. Every team battles through injuries. Good teams find ways to win. It was exciting game. They almost did it, they almost came back. That would have been been great to see and a lot of points in that game, they were missing that urgency and that's why they didn't complete the job on the comeback. But overall, I'll say the game was a 9 out of 10 to see despite the only reason why it's 1 point less than 10 because there was a loss. Seeing Mitch Marner's return, this might be a sour taste for people, but despite Mitch Marner leaving and and wanting to leave, not wanting to stay then not wanting to leave to get us any assets, he wanted to finish his time here and that was his right. I miss Mitch Marner as a Toronto Maple Leaf because the effect had in the regular season. But I don't miss Mitch Marner for what he did in the playoffs. So do I miss Mitch Marner overall. He dedicated nine years to this organization. Regular season success, no playoff success, but dedicated nine years to this team and heart, sweat, tears, literal Tears he let to this team. He wanted to win a cup and bring something here. But. But what drove him away was the people that are criticizing me on the other end right now, the people in the crowd that were booing. And you know what, don't get me wrong, I caught myself a couple times just going boo, you know, just kind of playing around in it. But the true part of me really felt like that we gotta remember what Mitch Marner did for what he. He had loyalty to Toronto and wanted and wanted to play for this team. And as a fan and as fans, we drove him out. But every fan of Toronto, including myself, has a reason to be upset at Mitch. 100%. Their boos are justified. But obviously in a little side of me though, is to say that you got to remember what he tried to do for the city and why, despite the lack of playoff success, how much we took advantage of having such a talented player here on Toronto. Now that's not on the team. Mitch Marner in that game, terrific. The fans, I'm torn about the reaction. Boos are justified. But I do appreciate Mitch Marner for what he did for his service in Toronto. That's what I'll leave it at. But when I was at the game, I want to touch on. Fans were chanting, we don't need you. Only a couple people in my section. I didn't hear anybody else. I was sitting at section 107, row 13, seat 8. Seat 7, sorry. My wife was seat 8. And no one caught on. There's people beside me saying, I'm not continuing that chant. And I agreed. Nobody is going to continue that chant. We do need them. I'm taking my. I told you, I've taken my host hat off here a little bit. Put my fan hat on. I got both on right now. The Toronto Maple Leafs at the time of this recording at 8:44pm on January 27, are 24, 19 and 9 and 57 points. And they are just two points ahead of Ottawa to be last in the Atlantic Division. And right now they're playing against the Buffalo sabres and it's 3, 3 near the end of the second period. Okay, Buffalo Sabres, one of the hotter teams in the National Hockey League. This is such a critical stretch for Toronto, by the way, if you're a Toronto fan. But fans chanting, that is absolutely wild. Mitch Marner. Mitch Marner saying, we don't need you. You're wrong. Maybe you don't need him, but you need somebody like him. If you're a Toronto fan, which I am, you still you need that top six presence. Matthews looks like a lost puppy out there and a sad puppy at that. Again, the biggest thing I'll say about that atmosphere, it is such a damn library. And I'm going over my seven minutes here. I can already tell it is such a damn library that it's awful. Carlton's up on a, on a, on a. Carlton's the mascot of Toronto. For people that don't know banging the drums. Go, leaves, go, leaves, go. No energy. I've been to well over 25 games when it was the ACC in Scotiabank Arena. Very lucky to have the ability to have friends that have tickets and, and utilize that resource to go to a lot of games. And every time that I've went, it's gotten worse. And we've talked about the Scotiabank being a library multiple times on the show and I'm not going to beat that conversation up any more than I have to. You can listen to every year we talk about this here on the show. Me and Alex have talked about me and Brennan, me and Justin, Dane and I have talked about it back in the day. Bruxy and I talked about it. Scott and I talked about it. It's been talked about every year. But the, the overall direction of Scotiabank arena is awful. And as fans, I'll say something. The team has not met expectations. There is nothing to cheer about. I understand when your team is losing a game or when your team's not being successful or if you're at that game in Game 7 last year against Florida. But my wife and I were yelling at the top of our line saying, go, Leafs, go. In my section, there's some people going, but it is so damn quiet, the game. They were battling back. They were just down by one goal. And when they're saying, goal, Leafs go. You can't hear anything in there, Susan. Puck goes in the net, you can hear a pin drop in there. Even when they score a goal, there's excitement, but it's brief. The energy in that arena is an embarrassment. I'm embarrassed. If you ever compare the passion of a fan base, it's not to shown how much you love for the team, it's how much you showed at an arena. But let me touch on this, though. In my section, I was sitting, there was people and I laid out where I was. So some of the people in front of me probably had season tickets. So if they end up here hearing this, it is what it is. We're wearing suits. We're wearing suits in front of me. All of Them had their phone open. Older gentleman. One guy had OHL stats from the Kitchener Rangers when they won the Kitchener Rangers. Someone else had the Peterborough Pete's when they had Chris Pronger. Another person on my right had their bank account up but it was a banking app. I didn't see anything personal but they were talking about finances and deals at work. Whole section and looking throughout the arena. Suits everywhere, giveaways. People that don't care to be there while the game was on. The seven individuals in front of me did not. Did not. I repeat, did not. I don't think look at the game once during the second period. Fans beside me there was a dad and two boys. One guy was wearing a Matthews jersey like myself. The one behind me and was excited was engaged in the game. The fans chanting we don't need you for Mitch. They were pumped the whole game. Great to see. Do what you need to do to get the fans going. But the arena was so sad and as a Leaf fan that makes me so disappointed to actually see that. That's the first I've been to School bank arena in over four years. I've been. I traveled with them on the road to see them in Columbus last year or year prior and I've been able to see them on the road. That's what I want to do is go to different arenas. But this year my wife and I were so excited to go to Scotiabank Arena. It's hard for me not to call it the AC and it was an absolute for an electric game missing that true Leafs passion. I talked earlier on the show about having experience playing hockey and it doesn't matter if you have 500 people, 10,000, 20,000 people. Hearing fans be engaged it does motivate the team. This fan base for Toronto is so uptight and so upset, so angered but yet so in love but so torn to so many emotions that we and there's so much corporate at these games that it affects the environment of Scotiabank arena and it affects how this team plays. It is wild. I bet you the booze that's the loudest Scotiabank arena gets. Unlike Les to hear the goal horn with the guy going hitting the goal horn and some cheers on a goal horn. Other than that there's no goalies go. There's no excitement in that arena and hockey Illuminati. I had the opportunity if you know hockey Illuminati is on spitting Chiclets. I had some good opportunities after the game I saw Jake Muzzin and Kyle Clifford and was able to talk to Jake. He didn't remember who I was at first but started talking about the sue and all that and I think there was some memory coming back. I had some experience training with him, but before I ran into Jake Muzzin I talked to Hockey Illuminati and Hockey Illuminati had all of his fans out there that he has after every game has after every game and they were just chirping about and there's people saying how much they miss Marner, how he didn't have the right to leave, how he shouldn't have left, people miss him, how people should have left. People didn't have the right to boo, but some people did have the right to boo. Like I said, people should be upset with Mitch Marner. It wasn't the best exit, okay. It wasn't a good exit booing. There is a right to that, okay? But I will say despite having the being on the little bit of the boobird train there, I still miss and feel like I took advantage of when Mitch was here despite the no playoff success. But I've already talked about that sticking on point hockey Illuminati. He mentioned a point on his recent TikTok about how new ownership should be taken over Toronto. He had this new ownership in there that says they pride to win and there's been nothing to show that this year. Nothing. They just trying to keep doing the same recipe without and they Brad Tree living this offseason cooked for Toronto, tried to change the ingredients but weren't players that were impactful to really push the needle forward. If you're really truly pushing to make the playoffs again and win a Stanley cup and wow, I'm getting way over time here but there's so much to talk about and still even a bit more points at the touch on. So I'll try to be as quick as I can. So I don't prolong your experience of listening for the show this week, but I know that you're probably loving this content right here this week about the lease in my Scotiabank arena discussion. This is a team that in summary, when I talk about Hak Illuminati's new ownership, I'm just saying that he talked about new ownership. I want to see changes from the fans. As a Toronto Maple Leaf fan on the road, that's been my best experience. When I was at Columbia in Columbus, watching Toronto a year or two back, we were louder than the Columbus fans. The only thing that was louder than Maple Leaf fans was the cannon when Columbus scored once in that game that's what I want to see change is the fans but also an opportunity to change the price of tickets and get the true fans in that arena and get the corporate out of there. Change of attitude from fans. Change the corporate structure. And I'm talking outside of the team and let's bring the excitement and that team that I remember watching in the early thousands, late 90s, the Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfor, Matt Sundin, you can see the camera shaking when they won games in the playoffs. That is what we need to see in energy on the ice is a different story. There needs to be a, there needs to be changes on that ice. I'm going to top of that in a second. But the Toronto Maple Leafs, okay, was a heck of experience watching Mitch Myers return. But as fans in that arena we and you need to smarten up, get into the action. Who cares if they're losing? Who cares what's going on? You paid hundreds for those tickets, if not thousands for those tickets. Especially in the 100 level. Let's make sure that we are making it the best experience that we can for our team that we cheer for and the team that you cheer for. Be able to bring your best energy to help back up this team. Maybe you'll give them that push that they need, maybe that push that they need to try to get that game tying goal or battle back in the game or maybe want players to come here and play for this corporate market that is supposed to be the hockey mecca of the world. Fans can be a part of the change by bringing a new approach. And it all starts though with the organization's approach and how they treat their fans outside of what they put on the ice. Ticket prices, the environment of Scotiabank Arena. Close the library and open up the rock concert, baby. That's what I want to see at Scotiabank arena now Colorado's game. Watching that next gen game, Colorado seeing the team against Vegas and Colorado, Toronto just isn't, isn't there. Despite these injuries. I would like to see them maybe with the full lineup if there's anything different after what they did in Colorado a week or so back, this is a different team. It seems to be too hot and cold. They don't have it. They're not built for it. They're not, they don't have that it factor. They're missing key pieces to be that it factor. They don't seem to be playing for their coach. Players have hit a stopgap. Players are not playing like themselves. The energy is not there. This team needs to smarten up. And for the remaining games this week needs to win those games out or else before the Olympics, Bradshaw living better be on the phone because it's time to try to recoup some picks and do that early because you're not going to be making the playoffs, by the way. This division's been getting too hot and goes on a big stretch of winning games. Not saying rebuild, but you're going to need to move out some pieces and kind of move on from this year and see what we're going to be doing going forward. Because after what happened on Sunday, and yes, I'm talking about Willie Nylander in a second, these measuring stick games show that the Leafs need to show that they have that it factor and that they can do something even if they make the playoffs, that they can make noise, or if it's just going to be another one year in the playoffs and they lose in the first round, in and out. If that's the approach that they need, that they really want to take, so be it. But as a fan and someone who knows the game of hockey, that if you see that your team does not have it, you're out of the picture. It is okay to accept change and embrace the change. Just saying. Measuring stick week for the Toronto Maple Leafs this week. And William Nylander. What are you doing? You knew the camera's on you. You're giving the finger. Look, people talk about how this team and this world and sensitivity and everything like that. Look, I acknowledge that I'm a believer of you gotta be appropriate and professional. It's not about being sensitive. It's not about the world's take. You are a professional athlete. You are somebody who wears a professional. You're a professional athlete. You wear a professional organization on your sweater. You also represent the organization. And by giving the middle finger to the camera. Come on. Literally. Unbelievable. I read a comment that someone said this team's cooked. And you know what? The way this team is acting immature, it just makes you not love this team no matter what. Apology sent out in hearts. I didn't mean it. Yeah, of course he's going to do that. You did mean it. You gave the finger with purpose and intention. You know that. That camera's on you. Why'd you do it? There's no justification. They don't even. That's a rhetorical question. You don't do that. You don't answer that. That was awful. And it's unfortunate to see it put the cherry on top of a very bad weekend for Toronto. But just to recap 9 out of 10 game the experience was great. My even though the experience at school Shebang arena could have been better, I loved every second of that hockey game. And fans, come on, we can be a part of this change too. As Leaf fans, it was it was hard to be a part of that environment as a strong Toronto Maple Leaf fan. But no matter what, I will always cheer on this team. Host of a podcast not Whatever the case may be, there's no bias. I did tell you that I would dive into a lot of talking about hockey in Toronto this episode and I did say approximately 20 minutes ago that it would be seven minutes of that. I was wrong. I did more so we'll see what happens when it comes to this week for Toronto and as the rest of the NHL shapes up. As I was talking about the standings as going near the Olympic break, it'll be very interesting to see what happens before the Olympic break that being from team standings, teams on runs, teams on cold streaks, winning streaks, bouncing back, not bouncing back and potential traits. Vegas got the ball rolling getting Rasmus Anderson. Obviously Minnesota is the one who got the ball rolling earlier with all the trades getting Quinn Hughes, but Rasmus Anderson, what a pickup. What a talent for Vegas. They're looking real extra scary in a pretty loaded Western Conference with teams, but nonetheless this is the Game Sports podcast. I'm Dave McCaig, host of the Game Sports Podcast. I'm going to get to the conclusion here because I know I'm overtime but I hope that when I talk about Toronto for any fans that are out there in the world of hockey, they know I talk about all hockey and all different sports but I hope fans agree with my approach that as fans we can be a part of the change. Scotiabank arena is something that's not an enjoyable hockey atmosphere and it's unfortunate and outside of what fans can do to change a lot of onus on management, a lot of onus on who goes into that rink because of management with ticket pricing and the team that you ice injury or not balls in your court Toronto organization. But we also have a part in the play as well as fans and media. Why I mentioned media you think Mitch truly left Toronto as a growing as a fan of Toronto going up because he just felt like it. I'm sure 12 million bucks, 13ish million bucks. Benjamins were looking really good but maybe if his experience was a little bit better maybe he'd still be here. But but despite that it's okay that Mitch isn't here but I definitely miss Mitch, but Mitch isn't the factor we need. Mitch isn't the factor the Toronto Maple Leafs need what the Toronto Maple Leafs need is a real internal attitude check. Willie Nylander the fans need a check to make their experiences more positive. The organization needs to change the be a part of the change in the environment, but they also need to ice a team if they're serious to want to go anywhere. If not, time to put the for sale sign up. But I thank Toronto for the experience at Scotiabank. Outside of the quietness, service was great, the view was great, the game was exciting and I'm glad I didn't go watch Sunday against Colorado. Check out our TikTok and Instagram for all uploads, in particular Instagram first the Mitch Marner tribute video that I shared on there as well. Make sure you hit like, follow and subscribe on all the platforms of the game. We're also on 91 Network, that's a YouTube channel with video editions of the game. And you can also check us out on spaces where that's through Suitedae and Village Media. This has been the Game Sports Podcast January 2026 Week of the Game. Thank you to Jordan Trudeau where we talk Chuck a Puck. Next week when we'll be back, we'll have our original agenda and original cruise with me, Brendan, Justin, Jordan. Hopefully Alex can make a return or we might see some other family members of the game come back on after long hiatuses. Either way, the Game Sports Podcast is looking forward already to next week because of the super bowl preview Seahawks and also the Patriots an unpredictable super bowl. But nonetheless, we hope you enjoyed tonight's episode of the Game Sports Podcast. And until next week, I'm here to remind you to keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, train your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.