LFR19 – Game 33 – OVER – Maple Leafs 0, Capitals 4

LFR19 – Game 33 – OVER – Maple Leafs 0, Capitals 4

HAT GUY: Man, that was a tough 
one in Washington. What are their tariffs on goals, too? What?? Steve??
LET’S GO – It starts with an A and ends with nxiety! – VARIOUS SCREAMS – Off the charts 
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– I AM GOING TO BECOME THE JOKER! – With you wherever you are. Welcome to LFR!
Hey. Leafs lose 4 nothing to the Washington Capitals. It’s Yelly Screamy Man. Yelly Screamy 
Man, here with a pillow. There’s my dead dog. On that pillow, I got a little doll. It’s a – It’s 
a doll of me and another one of my dead dogs. I got, I got a couple of those. Here’s the thing 
about being yelly screamy man for a living that they don’t really tell you about, right? Like 
it’s sick. It’s sick. This is a sick job. Like genuinely, like I love it. It’s a great time. 
Making like videos for a living is pretty sick. But like laughter oh, oh, did I hitch my 
wagon to such a lemon, dude. Joker laughter I chose the NHL, which isn’t is not 
a league, not even kind of, not even sort of a little bit. And of all the teams I 
could have, I could have chose. Joker laughter I make – I make Joker laughter I make 
a video after every, every game. I make a video after every game about just the 
Leafs! Joker laughter. 19 years. 19 YEARS! This is the 19th season. Been making videos 
after every Leafs game. I don’t even know what game number this is. You know. When the 
video goes up, like Drew puts the title in, right? Like producer Drew, like he’s so good. He’s 
so good. I thought I’d give him like the night off and just like give him an easy one, right? He 
might have to do some stuff with the audio. That’s my bad. That’s my bad. But like, I don’t know 
what game number this is. I don’t. And if you’re wondering why I chose to wear the Black Leaf 
jersey, the reversible Bieber one or whatever, is because it’s over.
It’s over. That does it, for this era of the Leafs. It is done. They had time to 
make changes way earlier years ago. I yelled and screamed about it the whole time. Actually, 
very literally yelled. People say that a lot. I yelled and screamed. I yelled and screamed. 
I yelled and screamed about it for years. They can’t get it done, and they wouldn’t 
do anything. And now they can’t do anything or won’t. “Oh, how are they supposed to make 
trades? They don’t have any draft picks.” Trade the players! Dude. “Yeah, well, it’s hard.” I bet! 
I bet. How does that fly at work for most of you, right? How does that fly at work for the rest 
of us? “Hey, uh, can you do your job?” “Oh uh, I’m well, I’m trying, but it’s hard.” You know 
what I mean? Like, how am I supposed to even have sympathy for that? How is anyone supposed to have 
sympathy for that? “Oh, making trades is hard.” Like I don’t know if firing Craig Berube is 
the move. I don’t. I don’t. But I do know that they won’t play for him. But we’re stuck in this 
purgatory, right? We’re stuck in this purgatory where the coach clearly doesn’t gel with the 
team and definitely doesn’t gel with the stars. Meanwhile, the stars absolutely do not deserve 
another head coach. They don’t. We brought up a good point on the SDP the other day. Like 
Connor McDavid has had a lot of NHL head coaches, so like who cares about giving him another 
one? But also, isn’t there also an added layer to this where like Matthews and Nylander and 
anyone else on the Leafs, you’re not even kind of sort of Connor McDavid? Like watching this game, 
right? I don’t know if it was Hildeby’s best game, but like he’s been pretty good. He has been, 
right? Woll’s been very good when he’s been in, right? He’s been pretty good. And like Stolarz 
is in witness protection or whatever, but like I think he’ll be fine. I think he’ll be okay.
The penalty kill looked pretty bad and then it got like good again. I like him. The Dcore is not 
good enough. Like not even close. But like they’ve been playing better over the last month and like 
they’re injured. Like I get it. They’re injured, right? OEL is having a pretty good season. Rielly 
feels like he’s been in the the in the defensive zone. He’s been gone for months. Feels like he’s 
he’s he hasn’t been on the team for months. Maybe getting some guys back from injury will be better, 
right? But like the fourth line and the third line I feel like are playing pretty well. I feel like 
Laughton, Roy, Dakota Joshua’s really picked up his socks, right? McMann’s had a pretty good 
season, right? I don’t really think the bottom six is the problem. There’s a few guys who like 
you can maybe take or leave and you could swap in or out or whatever, but I don’t feel like they’re 
the problem. The stars are the problem. Well, what about the power play? The Stars are the 
power play! Tavares and Knies haven’t I – like haven’t gotten a point on the power play since 
like several Thanksgivings ago. Like two nations have had Thanksgiving I think since the last 
time they even got a power play point. And they’re still up there on the top unit. That was 
a point that James Mirtle made. Right? Matthews is a husk of what he used to be. Rielly’s just 
kind of there. I’m not entirely convinced William Nylander is interested in hockey at the moment. 
Man. In the entire time I’ve been making videos, right? So, again, I’m going to preface this with 
it’s been nearly two decades. First of all, I’ve never done a video where I just lie down on the 
floor the whole time. Second, I have never seen a player so obviously and nakedly trying to get 
their coach fired as William Nylander is. Like, okay, they need significant changes 
to the roster, but they feel paralyzed about how they can make changes to the roster. 
Right. “Well, we don’t have any picks.” Okay, GM has to go then, right? I mean, that’s 
what it is. The general manager has to go. “Well, no, they’re not going to fire the general 
manager.” All right. Well, so you agree there needs to be changes, right? Okay. Yeah. 
Okay, great. So, then fire the coach. Fire the coach then? “Well, no. The CEO really likes 
the coach.” Then what is the point of the GM? What is the point of any of it? And if it is the 
case that the guy above the GM is not allowing the GM to fire the guy below the GM, then we just 
have a repeat of Shanahan Dubas Babcock. Imagine having a multi-billion dollar organization 
and never learning a single solitary thing. Ever! Once! Your favourite hockey team does 
not get bad overnight, right? There’s moves that stink. There’s injuries that stink. But your 
hockey team getting bad, takes weeks and months and years. And that’s the worst part. I enjoy the 
podcast. We do that three times a week plus four for VIP. This is me advertising VIP. It’s real 
good, right? I enjoy it. I wake up on podcast days like, yes, it’s a podcast day. I have started 
dreading Leaf game days. I had a pretty good day. Honestly, I did. Many a chuckle was had. And 
then like when your team is bad, games are LONG, bro. That was two and a half hours. You know how 
long two and a half hours is? That’s 150 minutes. That’s so long to watch something that sucks! 
Did you – have you ever sat through a two and a half hour movie that sucked? Yeah, probably. 
Right? Have you sat through a couple? Yeah. Yeah, probably. Right? Not everyone, you know, you’re 
going to enjoy every movie you’ve ever seen. Okay. What if you watched 82 bad movies a year? 
They were two and a half hours long. Okay, maybe they’re not all bad. What if like 50 or 60 out 
of 82? Do you understand, – you understand right? Like they benched Matthews, they benched Nylander, 
they benched the whole top unit. Then the top unit goes out there when the game is still winnable. 
They have an offensive zone draw and the Capitals score 9 seconds after that draw. It’s over. It 
cannot continue. It’s over. Whatever you got to do in order for it to be over, it’s over. 
And like people are like “just tank.” They don’t have their firsts! Once again, they 
don’t learn anything. I’m reading a book right now. I’m reading a book. It’s a good book. It’s 
called uh what is it called? Uh Finding Terry Punch Out or “Searching for Terry Punchout.” 
It’s a great book. It’s It’s fiction. It’s about this guy and he interviews his dad and 
his dad is fictional. He’s not a real person, but he used to be an enforcer in the NHL and 
uh he was a fighter for the Leafs. And during his interview, again, I know it’s a fictional 
guy. He didn’t actually played for the Leafs, but like when I read this part, I couldn’t help 
but feel like I was being spoken to directly. “I still wasn’t comfortable with my place, you 
know. Always felt like something would find me out uh for a fraud and send me packing. So, I just 
kept my head down and did what I was told. We missed the playoffs a bunch and the years we got 
in, we were shellacked and sent home early. You ever notice how Leaf fans, a bit of a sad sack? 
Like, they’re born that way? The feeling of being ready to lose is just part of them? I think that 
comes from those years I was playing there. We kept losing up the road to the Habs. Uh, and 
they kept winning. It got inside the fans, I think, and they passed it on to their kids. 
Made them a bit deranged, if you ask me. They think it’s fate or something. Completely 
separate from anything we did on the ice. It isn’t normal to expect to lose the way people 
expect the Leafs to lose.” joker laughter Bars! Auston Matthews scored 60 goals twice and he’s 
GONE. I know he’s still on the team. Actively the captain somehow. He’s gone. “Well, maybe he’s 
battling an injury.” What? For two years? “Well, then he should skip for Nation Faceoff then.” Oh, 
he’s not doing that? All right. “Well, he should skip the Olympics then.” Oh, he’s not doing that 
either. All right. Sorry. It’s not like you’re the captain or anything. I know it’s the Olympics. 
What? I know it’s a four nation face off, too. What? They don’t pay him 13 and a quarter, do 
they? They don’t pay him to be captain, do they? No. No. You’re playing at like 60 or 70%. And 
you’re going to go to like a three-week tournament anyway. Oh, yeah. Go fill your boots. You go have 
a great time, man. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Like what am I supposed to be jacked about 
that? Is anyone supposed to be jacked about that? American Leaf fans, maybe. That’s 
about it. This is what we get. It’s cruel, but this is what we get. They really made us 
believe that they were back. They really did… It’s over, dude. It’s all over… And 
there’s still so many games left.

Steve Dangle recaps and analyzes Game 33 of the Toronto Maple Leafs season against the Washington Capitals. What’s going on?

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