LFR19 – Game 27 – Smiles – Maple Leafs 5, Hurricanes 1

LFR19 – Game 27 – Smiles – Maple Leafs 5, Hurricanes 1

Huge win. Absolutely huge win. Yeah. Yeah. You think they’re going to tell us what’s wrong with No, I didn’t even tell you the player. Let’s go. It starts with an A and ends with anxiety. Off the charts levels of passion. This is a going to be with you wherever you are. Welcome to LFR [Applause] Charlie Iggy. Victory puppies. We’re going to be doing 50 bucks to the Humane Society of Durham Region. That’s 50 bucks for every win. That’s 150 bucks over the last three games. This is going to Are you guys going to be expensive? I upped it from 20 bucks a win to 50 and they haven’t lost yet. Leaf win 5 to one over the Carolina Hurricanes, ending their road trip in an amazing way and losing their starting goalie in the process potentially. We have no idea how long. We’re not going to know how long until uh never. Joseph left the game and we’re not going to know where he is until the next time he plays. That’s how the Leafs operate. Luckily, Dennis Hildabby has been pretty good and he continues to be pretty good. And also, the Leafs play hockey now. Is everything perfect? No. But when is anything going to be perfect all of the time? Look at the Panthers for example. And I’m not even talking about how they’re playing this season. Some Leaf fans look at that series from last year and they go, “Well, the Leafs push them to seven.” You think the Panthers care about that? They had a chance to finish them in six and then got shut out at home. They don’t care. They won. Anyone remember what happened in the Stanley Cup final two years ago? Yeah, they almost blew a three nothing lead. You could argue they did. They had a three nothing series lead. They blew it and then game seven is jump ball. No one remembers because they won. Anyway, why am I talking about the Panthers? How did I get here? All right. Nothing is going to be perfect all of the time, but the last three games are as close to perfect as you’re going to get for a team that has been dying for points. Any points in the standings, the Leafs have gone six for six. Let’s talk about it. And let’s start with easily the dumbest stat you’ll hear today. With Bobby McMahon’s goal at 53 seconds of the first period, the Maple Leafs become the second team since 200910 to score on their first shot on goal in four consecutive games, joining the Tampa Bay Lightning November 20th to 26th, 2021. Here’s what you should take away from that. The Leafs have scored on their first shot on goal in four straight games. Here’s what I’m taking from that. What a weird unit of measurement. They became the second team since 200910 and the other team was from 2021. What? Listen, all I’m hearing is the Leafs have done something for the first time since the Lightning in 2021. And what did they do in 2021? Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. It’s coming home, baby. No. Anyway, the reason that happened is cuz Bobby McMahon and the third line cooking like they’re on the bear. They can’t stop. Will not stop. But also, I got to stick up for Freddy. I couldn’t believe the treatment he got in this game in Carolina. I I know he’s struggling, but the Bronx cheer after he makes one save loudly at home in the first period. Like, I’m checking the standings right now. The Hurricanes are fifth in the NHL. Second in their division, second in the East. You bunch of ingrates. How dare you be ungrateful? People out there are Leaf fans. There was even a smattering of booze throughout the game. Now, he did allow the first shot he faced, but also don’t feel too bad about that. He’s the fourth straight goalie the Leafs have faced that’s done that. And worth mentioning, even though the Hurricanes won the shot battle in this game, I did not love their defensive game. Like, right away, Jake McKay breaks out of the Leaf zone. The puck goes through the neutral zone. And it’s immediately a threeon two lined up at the blue line because the forwards aren’t helping out the D in Carolina. And the forwards can’t catch up either. It’s a nice pass from Wad to McMahon through traffic. He shoots it off the post. It hits Freddy and goes in. Would you like a save there? Yeah, but we all have our complaints. You’re complaining about a goalie you have. Leaf fans are complaining about the goalies they haven’t. You take the good with the bad. This is still a winnable hockey game, but whatever. Less than a minute in, it’s one nothing Leaf. This next one about 11 minutes later, I mean, this is just the hockey gods saying they hate you. Can’t imagine anything the Hurricanes might have done recently that would make the hockey gods hate them. Fans, don’t worry. I know that one’s not on you, but the scoring on this goal is objectively funny. Simone Benois and Philip Myers get assists on this Scott Lton goal that is essentially a funny bounce off the stansion. So, how did those guys get those assists? Here’s Simone Benois. This is a picture. Uh, this is him in a battle in front of the net blocking a shot by accident. Shout out to the officiating crew who was like, you know what, Benny needs one. Philip Myers collects the puck. He dumps it in from the neutral zone. It takes a funny hop off the stansion. That is luck, but you make your own luck by going to the net. Scott Lton, hilariously, his second goal in as many games after trying to not just get a point, but get in the lineup and the Leafs have a two nothing lead. Now, I got to show you something. I know it’s a three-game win streak. It’s the end of a long road trip. And I know we’re all we’re all worried about Wool, but the vibes, dude. Look at the smiles after this goal. Look at Lton beaming from ear to ear. Look at Robbie in there. He’s so tiny. Myers. Oh, maybe Robbie just looks tiny next to Myers. He’s huge. And it’s nice to see them finally enjoy it. And it wasn’t even the last time. Now, there are still some kinks to work out. It’s a good thing that lines 1, three, and four had a good night because line two, I thought, had another hoham game after basically carrying the Leafs through the first month and a half. The Hurricanes are attacking. Ecman Larson and Riley are back. Riley’s gonna get grief for this play for how he played Gost Despair, but he’s pointing going, “Someone up front, please help.” I don’t want to single the kid out because he’s been very good recently, but rookies are going to make mistakes. He’s he’s hoping for some help from East Cowan here. Cowan will not be able to get there in time. And so Riley now has to make a choice because he’s got Gost Despair barreling down on him and he’s got Seth Jarvis barreling in there as well. He basically has to pick his poison here. He can take the pass. He can take the shot. And he figured he had the better chance taking the pass. And honestly, I think he’s right. It just didn’t work. The Ghost Bear gets it through. Jarvis buries it. And he liked that pass a lot with the with the face with the Dairo face. And so even though they’re down 2-1 at home, even though Freddy’s getting the Bronx cheer, this is still very much a winnable game for the Hurricanes. Then the second period rolls around and I’m like, “Yeah, no. Okay, the Leafs are winning this.” Because there is something that I’ve been saying about this Leafs team, mostly something that I said about them heading into the season about the uh different uh uh complexion of the roster. And it’s kind of become a bit of a joke on account of they haven’t been very good to start the season. But this goal is the perfect dictionary definition of beef. Leafs in a defensive situation. Max Doi gets the puck to the blue line and Matthew N gets in a battle with Shane Gosspar. While they’re tangled up, Gosses Bear drops his stick and N is off to the races. This is a bad situation for the Hurricanes. N gets to the Hurricanes blue line and Goss Bear actually does the right thing here. He doesn’t have a stick. He’s not going to catch him. He’s not going to beat him in a just battle of brute force. So what does he do? He shoves him right in the hips. That knocks N off balance and he falls to his knees. But he continues to stick handle from his knees and he gets right up. But that momentary little dip in his speed allows Sebastian Ao to catch him, which allows Matthew Ny to throw Sebastian Ao like a labubu. Oh my god. And the finish. No, no, no. And it was all smiles after the last goal. Look at nice eyes. Look at this. All business. All beef. All Look at Tommy. Look at that. Is a hockey face. Oh man. He looks happy to be up on the top line. I’m happy he’s up on the top line. I’m happy he’s on the wing. Well, we’ll talk about that in a minute. Nice. Holy cow. It’s 3-1 Leafs. Holy cow. Beef. I didn’t even mean to do that. Anyway, six minutes later again. I don’t know what the Hurricanes are doing here, but this leads to what is basically a threeon-one, sort of twoon-one, and it’s Max Doi with Austin Matthews. Now, Doi has been shooting a lot more this year. He has. It’s true. He has. But he knew. Matthews knew. Every member of the Carolina Hurricanes knew. Freddy knew. Rod Brydeore knew on the bench. Both of his pecs knew. Everyone in the stands knew. Everyone watching at home illegally knew. Yeah. Do you feel seen anyway? They all knew Max Doi was passing this puck and he did it perfectly. Poppy bless it. And oh, do you think he’s happy to have Max on that line? Look at the face. Look at that. Matthews with his second goal in three games. His point streak is now at four games and he’s got five points during those four games. The Leafs are starting to build. You know, there was a time where, yeah, that wouldn’t have even been noteworthy, but this season, it’s extremely noteworthy. Not to mention the fact that they’re up 4-1 on a really good team in their barn. They get through the second period. They took a couple penalties. Maybe they shouldn’t have. They killed them off cuz apparently Scott Lton is the straw that stirs the drink in this whole operation. And the Leafs head into the third period up for Where’s Where’s Joseph? Where’s Jo? Where is Jeppe? So, Joseph Wall does not come out for the third period and TSN on the broadcast showed him tweaking something earlier in the period. He stayed in the game, played all he didn’t allow a goal. They showed him shaking his leg off, shaking it off. I’m hoping he’s fine. I’m hoping Hillbey’s in there just as a precaution. I think it’s a very easy assumption that Hillbe starts Saturday against Montreal. And Hillbe to his credit held the fort, looked great in the third period, looked great as he has all season long, whether he’s starting or in relief. This is the funny thing with Hillbe because it kind of gets lost because the team has been awful before this recent stretch and he hasn’t played the full game for every game. He’s only got one win in seven games that he’s played. But his save percentage is 919. This is not the 878 guy that we saw last year. This is you can tell by the way he moves, not just by the way he actually stops the puck. He is not playing the same way that he did last year. He doesn’t look like the same person. I’m cool with Hill to be playing a bit more. I mean, Wool’s been playing so well, but like Wool was never meant to be an everyday starter on this team. Stallers was never meant to be an everyday starter on this team. And now it’s not even Christmas and both of them have done it and both have hurt themselves. If Wool was just pulled for a precaution, Hild Debby should play Saturday and they should maybe go 1212 for a little while here because Anthony Stallers has not been on the ice since November 11th, which was nearly a month ago now. And the Leafs aren’t going to tell us why. And they’re definitely not going to tell us when he’s coming back. But if Wool is out for even a week, maybe two, I don’t know what you do in net. Well, that’s not true. You put Hill to be in and you’re fine. But when it comes to goalending, you’re always an injury away from an extremely different situation. Now you’re an injury away from Archer Actimov being your starting goalender. And I think a lot of hardcore hockey fans watch these videos and a bunch of you have no idea who I’m talking about. Do you do you like go out and get a guy? Do you do you claim a guy? Bird is out here guessing because we have no idea and we’re not going to have any idea. I’d be shocked. Listen, the Leafs have this thing where they want everything private. Okay, I understand. I I I suppose I understand. And listen, you don’t got to tell us why either guy is gone. I don’t need I don’t need to know why. I would like to mentally prepare myself for what’s going on. Who is going to be in net for the team that I like? You know what? Instead of just doom scrolling and theorizing what’s wrong with Joseph Wool, let’s just ask the Leafs. We now go live to the Leafs talking about what is wrong with Joseph Wool. Oh, do we still got a number for that kid? Kaden Prima. Oh, it’s you. Oh, you want a health update? Go ahead. Keep asking for a health update on him and we’re going to need a health update on you. Thank you. That was very helpful. Anyway, might have to do something, but I’m not going to yell that at you again. By the way, since the do something LFR, Leafs are three and 0. Questions. This first one isn’t a question, but it’s a crazy stat from Luke Fox. Blocked shots in Raleigh tonight. Austin Matthews six the Carolina Hurricanes four. Listen, Matthews scored tonight on a one-time. And everyone’s going to feel good about that and love that. But the six blocks, it’s just such an underrated part of his game. He’s hitting a lot. He’s blocking a lot. And he’s been doing it for at least a couple years now. Think of how bad this team has been, right? Think of how awful the last two months have been. He’s plus 11. And I know it’s plus minus, but how? He’s the top forward on the team in that regard. Jake McCabe is the only player higher at plus 12. And I’d like to know how on earth he pulled that off. Troy Stetcher is getting his flowers in Toronto and deservedly so. But Jake McCabe has really held this thing together. From producer Drew, can they start losing again? Nobody wants this. Hey, so I’m a Leafs fan. I want the Leafs to win. Beginning, middle, end. Is it better for this channel if the Leafs lose? No. It’s better for this channel if more people watch. More people have chosen to watch when the Leafs lose. But regardless of that, all I want the Leafs to do is win. If they could go 82 and 0, I’d be chill. Can I show you something like so bad? The last LFR video, the Leafs won. I was very happy about it. That video got 46,000 views. That’s a lot of views. They Oh my gosh. A few years ago, I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, this video hit 46,000 views. I must have gone viral. I’m going to be on the news this season because of Manny Crash Out.” No, 46,000 is not very much. How not very much is it? Look at this chart. If you’re just listening to this, I’m not going to be able to do it justice, but the little gray area, the top of the gray area is the high end of viewership. The bottom of the gray area is the low end of viewership. The blue line is this video. On my last few LFR loss videos, I was calling out the people who only watch when the Leafs lose. And it when I used to do that, the comments were like, “Ah, you got me.” And they were like playing around and like cheeky and ah, you know, this is fun. This year they’ve been like, “You’re damn right. All I want is your pain. I hate you, Stephen.” Got the hiccups again. And I don’t I wish they didn’t hate Steven so much. What? Now I’m going to wrap the video because I’ve screamed myself into hiccups again. So that is it for this one. Thank you very much for watching. Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really liked it. Tell all your friends. Okay, maybe they’re gone.

Steve Dangle recaps and analyzes Game 27 of the Toronto Maple Leafs season against the Carolina Hurricanes

NEW BOOK!: https://www.harpercollins.ca/9781443469968/hockey-rants-and-raves/
BECOME AN SDP VIP! https://www.youtube.com/sdpn/join
SDPN: https://www.sdpn.ca/
ADVERTISE WITH US! https://sdpn.ca/sales/
SDPN DISCORD: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7
AUDIOBOOK: https://bit.ly/2GIgYya