GREG MILLEN On Game One Of The Eastern Conference Finals, The Impending Re-Location of The Arizona Coyotes & The NHL.

This is the Bob and Count podcast and it was brought to you by Bed Rivers. Download the Bed Rivers online casino and Sportsbook app today. Well Shannon, we'll just your agenda for this weekend. An app. I need an app. After last night's endless hockey game, you mean? Yes. I stay it up. You know, you have to stay up. Of course. Of course. You did too. I was going to phone you and say, no, I didn't go. I watched some movie last night. That's what I watched. And three sequels because that's what it would take to watch this game. Well, I get it, but I actually went to bed at what 1231 o'clock? I don't care what time you go to bed. Well, I watched the game. It's relevant given that this game was played until the middle of the night. Two o'clock. About two Eastern time. Well, that's ridiculous. What if it had been a Western game? What is the game of the two Eastern time? Well then you're talking five in the morning. Would you have stayed up for that? No, no, no, because in the conference finals, they adjust to Eastern time. For instance, the Vegas game tonight starts at five local time. Well, what if it didn't? I'd still be up watching, baby. Exactly. We'll find out whether our friend Greg Millen was watching the game last night and what he thinks about this endless overtime because I'm not a big fan of it. But we'll talk to him about it. Hockey on the docket. Greg Millen will be with us after these messages. Hi, this is Bob McCowan for bet rivers dot com. Hey, if you're looking for a sports book or casino app, you should check out the bet rivers sports and casino app today. Play all of your favorite casino games for real money anywhere and anytime. Plus get in the action with each sports game with hundreds of sports betting options and get ready to feel like a VIP because you'll earn both loyalty level points and bonus store points on every real money wager you make. You must be 19 plus available in Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, contact Connex Ontario at 1 866 531-2600 or speak to an advisor free of charge bet rivers dot com. The common Shannon back with you. Greg Millen is with us today. I'm surprised you two guys are up. I imagine you both watched till the end of last night. There's no way that Millen watch the whole thing. There's not a chance. Probably not, but I'm not going to reveal that this morning. Like I saw the whole thing right from start to finish. Well, I didn't waste a minute of my time watching any of the game. That being said, to go into almost five over times and play five on five during overtime when during the regular season, the game would be over in five minutes, playing three on three. Tell me why we don't play three on three during the playoffs. Well, I'll go a different way. Why don't we play five on five during the regular season? Well, because we'd be up all night. That's all I get it. But then just do it for 10 minutes and then what didn't isn't that the way we started? We did start that way and then do it for 10 minutes. I know you're stupid. Shoot. I'll tell you why because there are hundreds of overtime games in an NHL season and nobody gives a flying for do. Do you think that watching true? Do you think watching four periods of scoreless hockey in the middle of the night is entertaining? Because I don't. Well, how would you know you didn't watch it? That's exactly why I didn't watch it. I don't know. I guess I'm a traditionalist. I mean, you're right. Bob in theory, you're bang on for sure. I can't argue with you, but there's something that there's something that's still, you know, part of the game that's kind of mysterious and fun and everybody's talking about it today. There's no doubt about that even though lots didn't see it. I don't know. I get the best. I still love the overtime and playoffs, but in theory, in the new world, in this day and age, with everything going shorter and people needing more time to do other things. In theory, Bob, you're probably you're right. This actually may have been the best thing to get attention to a conference final that people had forgotten was starting last night. And now, as you said, people talking about it, people will now tune in on Saturday to watch and see if they'll go again to another quadruple overtime. I had to learn how to spell quadruple last night. So it was you and I must sitter. Is that even allowed on that platform? I mean, well, not a crap channel. I've had fun. We are fun. It's fun. For a hockey. I ridiculous hockey, not like you, maybe. Yeah. Well, that's it. Watch all night if they if there was a game on. But you know what? I must admit, had it gone 13 more seconds, I might have changed the location where I was watching the game and I probably wouldn't have lasted until the start of the start of the fifth period. So Mickey wouldn't have let you she was watching off in the bed. No, she doesn't get no, she wouldn't let them go out in the bedroom. No, no, he does not ever. That's what I would have played Bob. Game or no game. I might have I might have been at the Fairfield in watching the rest of the game. Well, look, I gotta I gotta tell you, you know, it's not just hockey. Over time in any sport is fine for a period of time. The NBA, I think with a five minute overtime has long had the best idea. But it's easy there. There's so much scoring, Bob. And so there is a bet there is a better chance of a DNN with playing three on three, which they do during the regular season. Yeah, gives you that opportunity to to end it more quickly, which is why exactly why they did it. And why I honestly have to be different is crazy. Yeah, I honestly can argue with you in theory. I still just try and let it go. But you're I still like the tradition. I will say that this is the conversation that is occurring more and more and more after these long games occur. That why are we doing it? We don't do it for the regular season. Why are we doing it now? You know, the world cup, the football world cup ends with penalty kicks. We saw that after 100 and what was it? 25 minutes in Qatar. You know, I I'm still not used to it. I mean, I'm not sure I would. I'm not sure I would. It has not been very long since baseball said we go to the 10 innings. We put a runner on second base and we go from there. And basically the game ends quickly 90% of the time after 10 innings. It ends quick. Do you like? I have sat at exhibition stadium and at the Sky Dome and watch 16 17 in games that went on till the middle of the night. And you know, when you do that, you think that's fine. I don't know whether you think it's great, but you think it's okay until you realize there's a better way to do it. I don't want to I don't want to sit and watch watch a game all night. I think I think what will change at all, Bob, is it always does is money. So like, are the sponsors really doing, you know, is it doing them justice going to the middle of the night? What about the buildings, all the staff, you know, the players, all of these things at the end of the day, I think we'll probably end up having a solution to this and it'll be yours as you follow the money in sport. And so it's coming. You know, it was an interesting last night. So I I watched the TNT version of the of the game. And obviously there are no commercials during play. There's no stoppages for commercials during play in overtime, which makes overtime periods that much tougher on the players when you think that you don't have six minutes of rest in in in playing time. But they don't have any commercials in the intermission. So they have no commercials left. They've run them all. So they know, but you know, all the bonuses, wouldn't they? No, but you build in you build into your sales packages. If we go to overtime, you know, will you pay more? We build that it's not a question of bonuses. It's a question of building in extra package, but they didn't have any, which I found, which I found interesting. I think in the end, you're right. The pressure is going to come from, you know, the the networks more than anybody else who are starting to pay compared to the other league's real money for for TV rights. And they're going to they're going to put something on the table. I still remember sitting in a in a meeting in the mid one was it mid 90s at the NHL office in New York. And Michael Eisner, who was the president of Disney at the time when they owned the docks, he suggested, well, this is stupid. We we've got to go to like a 30 minute periods and halftime and then do the shoot out right away. So well, the shoot out is a stupid way to end the hockey game. So well, I mean, I don't think it has to be the should it should be regular hockey, but the three on three doesn't bother me at all. Yeah, it was your proposing Bob Dennis forget the shoot out, what you do do in the regular season because of time. Right. So you're just saying three on three over time until they score and they're not going to go all night, which is probably fair comment. Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what I would do. Yeah. And then the playoffs, I do three on three as well. You do it all year long. It's not that big a deal. And maybe a copper maybe a compromise for the first 10 minutes or something and play hockey. And then you I don't know, maybe there's maybe there's some sort of a hybrid to maybe it's maybe it's maybe five on maybe it's five on five for the first overtime for four for the second overtime and three on three for the third. And then we know you're in the three over times now. Yeah, but it's still it. But that is stupid. You have a magical upside down this year to shorten their games. Yeah. And they now average like 240. Okay. So what in the American League divisional series that the J's might play in or the or the World Series this year? Are we going to see the guy on second base? I don't know. I don't know what they do it in the past. We're not. We're not. We're going to see traditional baseball. What do you mean traditional? We've been old old time baseball. Yeah. No clock. No clock. I don't know, Bob. I'm just saying that people have when they when they have made these adjustments to the game the way it's played. What they do is they say, well, we're we can do that in the regular season because we have so many games, but we don't want to damage the integrity of the game when we compare the World Series of these are conversations had by one versus people with other stupid people. That's that's the problem with this. Is there a bunch of people who who you're calling Paul beast and stupid? If he was involved in those conversations? Yes. Okay. I'm going to phone him and tell him he's the case. The answer is yes. Well, I know you're stupid. No, I just like I like I like old time hockey. So it was great. Greg like was a long I like you. I listen, this game you played in Greg. I remember doing a game. I can't I can't I can't remember. I want in St. Louis. It's a Lewis game. Yeah. When I was with Pittsburgh, it was it Mike, Mike Zooker, Mike Crombie, Mike Crombie, never forget it. Yeah. Yeah. I actually produced that game. Right. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. I was 12. And I was actually I was asleep that night. I can tell you. You weren't even watching. You didn't care. No, I don't. You know, I think I think we should end this because I agree with Bob that it's going to change. I understand John and I want to hang on to it, but it doesn't make sense. I mean, you're right. We're going to have to we're going to have to figure this out at some point and it's coming because the world's changing. And I think John, we got to change with it, even though we don't really want it. I think I think it's going to I think it's going to change. You mean we have to evolve? Yeah, exactly. All of your really selling books. Heaven forbid. Let's change the subject. I'm sorry. I got on that. Yeah, it's your fault, Bob. Are you right? You brought it up. Well, hopefully we awaken some people. There's some people that are still asleep who are watching this who will say, you know what? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Let's hope. We had another story this week that hasn't received a huge amount of attention. I think because everybody nobody cares is the Arizona situation. Tempe turns down the arena. That had to be a shock. I'm sure for ownership, but certainly for Gary Bettman. And now Arizona sent out some kind of a thing to its fans and said, did you see that? Yeah. What other Arizona city should we build an arena in? You build an arena wherever you want, pal, if you've got the money when you want somebody else to pay for the arena, they're going to make the decision. What happens? Does that, you know, John and I have talked about it. I think this Arizona team should have left the Phoenix area years ago. I don't think they've they really have any kind of chance of being a profitable or significant part of the NHL ever, no matter whether they build an arena and no matter where that arena is. I think there are better markets out there. What do you think? You get out of Arizona now? Well, here's the business side, Bob, and you can follow this. Yeah, there might be better markets for sure. I mean, there's two big ones out there. Atlanta and Houston, they're huge television markets, huge US markets that I'm sure that Gary would like to hang on to to create a situation where he can get a lot of money for the owners in those two spots. Atlanta, it looks like they're going to build at a facility in an area where people might go to the games. And then you got a situation in downtown Arizona where the basketball gentleman might be interested in doing something. That was an arena that was crummy at the end. They're going to have to do it over again. And then if that's not the case, then I think that you may see Utah with a with a scenario because that will keep the league alive on the other two big markets if there's ever a chance to go there. John, you agree with that? So, I've been saying Salt Lake City all along. Yeah, Bob knows that. You know, and I think what what they've done now is by announcing that the Coyotes will play in the Arizona State University arena for one more year. I think they're buying themselves some time to get all the ducks in a row and announce that. They're trying to do what they're trying to do is stay in Arizona for reasons that are inexplicable. No, I think, well, let me know. No, I think what they're doing is I think they're buying themselves a year to either get the team sold to Matt Ispia, who's as Greg talked about owns the Phoenix Suns, or have all the preparations done to move the club, sold and move the club to somewhere else. I think that I think what they learned, remember, it was about this time in 2011, about this time right now where we were all in Winnipeg when they announced the move of the Thrashers to Winnipeg, and it was a chaotic summer. And I don't think they want to go through another chaotic summer of moving a franchise in a short period of time because they don't necessarily have one owner ready to go yet. They will over the next six or eight months. So, I think that's what's going to happen. I really do. And I think they are going to move. And I think we're going to see, we're going to hear about the move a year from now after one final season at Mulliterina. Is Bethnig going to fall in his sword then? I don't know. I was wrong. I think what, yeah, well, as he told us 10 days ago, Bob, he hates relocation. And he only does it. He needs relocation. Relocation has been an inevitability. And he's gone through it. He only he will only do it when it's necessary. And now it's necessary. And he knows that in his heart, in his heart, necessary last year when they went to this 5000 seat arena, it was this, it was this situation many, many times over and over again between ownership, having no money, seeing the team being sold between, you know, having empty seats over and over again, you know, you know, oh, no, Bob, it's a logical person who's looked at the Arizona thing. And I like to think I'm kind of logical has said it doesn't work. Get out of there. And I, you know, I said that 10 years ago. Oh, no, I'm here we are. But what happened every about every four years, there was, there was somebody who would pay the pay the money to buy the team and try to keep it. Right. I mean, look at that. But a lot of those, that's public relations stuff. That's the national hockey league doing whatever it had to do to try and make Gary Bettman's vision come true. And it couldn't. Well, and I, well, and I think, I think the, the referendum on Tuesday, I think was that revelation. And so finally, yes, it will come to fruition that the team will inevitably move. I do. I think that's what's going to happen now. Mr. Quick story about that, too. It's pretty interesting because I spent a few extra days in the area right where the building was going to be. In fact, I could see it, the location from where I was. I was a garbage dump, right? Having a refreshment in a nice place in one of the hotels there and got talking to a lot of the locals because I was on my own. And a couple of them were from what I could tell. I mean, you never know, but seem like connected business people in the area. And they were convinced that they were going to get it. I mean, all of the locals that were entrenched in the situation were, they were sure that this vote was going to go in their favor. So I think there was a huge misread here somewhere along the line. You know, and Gary Green, our friend who does a lot of this work and builds buildings all over the world and has done it for years told me always that, because we both, referendums, they never win. Rarely, rarely, rarely do they win. In fact, hardly ever do they win. You know, we're talking about a local building here in Peterborough someday. And that was brought up. And that was the first thing he said immediately. And I never forgot that. I didn't forget it when the when the boat went on because I thought, you know, there was greenie again, he's right on this one. And he was right. Yeah. Well, and the polling that the coyotes had done said they were going to win by 10 points. Well, they lost by nine. So they were 19 points out. Yeah, amazing. What about stupid is that like how can you how can you be that dumb? Horrible read? Yeah, real read. Yeah. So I feel bad for I feel bad now for the players who are going to play for a year at least not knowing, you know, and when you have paid, I think you had paid the same as if they were in a 20,000 seat arena. Of course they do. Yes. So I'm glad you feel sorry for them. I know. No, no, I listen, as a someone who has seen families go through issues, when you're when you're a 29 year old guy playing hockey, and yes, you are a millionaire making it. But you go home and your wife says, well, I want to do this with the house and and I want to do that. And what do we do with the kids in school next year? It's the outside. It's the outside stuff that will drive you nuts. Am I right? Am I right? Am I right for a guy who got traded to go back and his wife didn't want to go to go to Quebec? Am I right? Actually, actually my wife wanted to go. I just didn't want to hang around a 40 point team at the end of my career. But there was more to it than that. I had a contract on in St. Louis, but we're not going to get into that, John. That's too long ago. But being traded is not fun. And living with things that you're living with. Yeah. No, it's hard on the families. And I still think and I hear you, Bob, they're all making great money today. But still, we are all humans and so are the families. And it's it is an uncomfortable situation. I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of the players just send their families home, you know, where their summer places are for the winter and unless they're already there and do a temporary situation. I mean, especially if you have children and children in school. And now you're, you know, all of those things come into play and older children. I mean, older, they always adjust well at that age. But still, it's it's something that is a factor and I wouldn't be surprised somehow or somewhere at some point the players association type up on this one. They've been pretty quiet so far. So stay tuned with that. You play sports part of the deal. That's right. From the beginning is the possibility of being traded and having to work in a city that maybe you don't aren't comfortable with. You don't want to be in or your wife doesn't want to be in or you don't like the school. I mean, there's a million reasons. But you make that decision as a player, as an athlete, at the beginning of your career. And that's what you got to go through. I mean, I'm not unsympathetic to the idea, but you don't contemplate, Bob, you don't contemplate that the franchise will not be there. It's not a question of you being traded. It's a question of the franchise being traded. That's why I don't that that's out. I mean, that's outside the norm. What is that? Outside the norm. So what are we supposed to not do that because of the because of the poor players? No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't realize I don't remember saying that. I just said, I think that one of the elements will be the human aspect of families and and players and the off I stuff. I still remember all those guys that played in Winnipeg when in that last three months, when they knew they were moving to Phoenix and how much angst it was on their families and them. And it was hard. It was hard. Can I can I just add one thing to that, Bob, at our age, it's easier to say that because we've been, you know, through and we can rationalize a little bit when you're in your early 20s and mid 20s that these kids are young, their families are young, their wives are young. Yes, you're right. That's what they signed up for. That's what the women signed up for. I get it all. I understand what you're saying. But I will say that we forget that these folks are young young people and you know, things get affected in a different way at that age, particularly with little babies and two year olds and all of that and in or preschool, whatever it might be coming into play. That's all this point is. Yeah, that's all. Well, you know, I'll tell you that, you know, what if you're one of those players in the National Hockey League and there are plenty of them who've been traded five times or 10 times over the course of their career. There you go, over the over the course of your career. Is that any different than the franchise moving? Yes, I know why. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Why is it different? Because you when you sign that contract as a player, you don't think so great? No, I'll tell you why. John, the way I disagree with you on this is because you know this is going to happen with this situation. You can plan a bit when you get traded. Like I did when we just built a house and told that we would never get any. No notice. And I slept in at two nights and your wife's behind with two kids at that point in our lives. You're no notice. So at least at least on this one, you know what's going to happen. That's a bit of a bonus almost this time or it's good and bad. But I'd rather that than just saying, you know, walking into a coach's office and saying goodbye, you're gone and then having to go home and tell your family that I'm on the next, you know, flight out at three hours from now. I think the fact that, you know, when you walk into the coaches room, it's done in two minutes. When you're when you're going to play for the Phoenix Coyotes or the Tempe Coyotes or the Arizona Coyotes this year, this is like living on death row for eight months. Well, let me ask you guys. If you're going to be asked this question and I know that's part of the job. You're going to be asked this question every time a road team comes to town or every time the team is on the road. You're going to get asked this question. So bad. What are you going to do? What happened? And this this is one. This is one that's totally out of their control. Well, let me ask you this. Trait is a fact of life. This is a free agent. And Arizona made you the best offer. Would you go there? No, no, I'm not going there. Sorry. No. What if you're Austin Matthews, let's say, and got traded to the Arizona Coyotes? Now, I can't he can't anyway, but yes, he can. He can't. All right. To the life. Sure. He just doesn't go. He'll be fine. He waited out. Do you think players would do that? You think players would do it right? Like you're right now. I honestly don't think I think players, I say this with all love and affection players are sheep and they'll do what they're told. Unless you're Austin Matthews. Unless you're unless you're a superstar because you don't have to because you don't have to. Yeah. Yeah. What about the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bob? What's your thoughts these days? Don't start me. What? Well, the whole thing is a joke and the way they're running it now is a joke. And I don't know whether it's the board's fault or whether it's individuals in the front office. Mind you, I get rid of all the front office. I get rid of the president, the general manager, and the coach. All gone. Bob's bringing punch back. Well, I would. You would know if he was a live. Yeah, because that worked so well when he came back the second time. Then he won, didn't he? Not the second time. No, he was a disaster. Don't forget the second time. Did punch him like when a Stanley Cup or two? They won four. Well, there you thank you very much. In Toronto. But but that was ancient history compared to when he came back in 1979. So you can you can slag them all you want. No, I'm not slagging. I won't tell them the guess you are. It's exactly what you're doing. You're bringing Mike Babcock back. Oh, I'm not going that far. Although who knows? I'm not sure that the coach is really a big problem. But he may be. Here's I'm getting rid of the whole front office. Here's the big problem. No brainer. Here's the big problem in my opinion. This is a pretty good hockey team. It's a real good hockey team. If you look at what they've done throughout the course of the regular season, that was a heck of a hockey team you watched all season long and there wasn't a lot of bitching going on in this market at all about the Toronto Maple Leafs. In fact, it was they all had the parade route as usual lined up. Now, the one missing ingredient and where things fell off is they didn't have. You know, when you've got Luke Shen as your second best defenseman when he couldn't even play on the Stanley Cup championship team Tampa Bay in and out of the lineup in the playoffs, you got a problem. And so to me, the biggest problem with the Leafs, whereas the one miss for me, and it's easy always after the back, and maybe they couldn't because they, you know, their salary structure wasn't in a situation where they could, but they didn't have the big defense one or one that could carry the mail for 30 minutes as good as Morgan played. So now what do you do? Okay, well, if you can't get that defenseman within the salary structure, you don't trade one of the big four because of production, even though you didn't like what they did in the playoffs, because that could change in a minute. You may have to trade one of them to get that defenseman, or to get the salary relief. Yeah, that's right. Or get that. But they do have some cap room all of a sudden. So picture this Bob per minute. What if you did nothing? And you got a defenseman that to actually give you that. Would you be talking about this right now? Yes. I don't think so. This management team has failed. Period. Only that the only family has failed. I don't care what they did in the regular season. They didn't they didn't get the defenseman for whatever reason, whether it's because you cannot sit there and say if they had a stud one stud defenseman more that they would have won round two that they still be in the playoffs and going. I'm saying I think they would have. Well, yeah, I really didn't score. I know they didn't score, but they if they would have had somebody to advance the puck a little more out of their zone. You know, nullify the Ford Chuck a little bit. And by the way, the Florida Panthers look pretty damn good last night. And the Florida Panthers are going to try to beat up Carolina and we'll see if they can do it. It's going to be interesting. And which regular season team had the fewest points that got in the playoffs? Yeah, I know. Yeah. Well, so don't tell me about the regular season and what they did done in the regular season. You know, I acknowledge you have to acknowledge it's mathematically accurate to understand the Maple Leafs have been a good regular season team. And what we also say, but kind of as a an aside is they haven't been any good in the postseason. And that's what matters. That's what we remember. That's how we judge a team is how they play in the playoffs. I'm not going to disagree. I'm not going to disagree, but I can't. The pitch. No, you can't. But the pitcher to me would look very different if they would have had the if you look at the teams that if they would have had my TS echo, rather than the right. I did. Yeah, but they didn't. If they had a goal. What a fun. Yeah, I see. I think that I think that's a bigger question. I think that that's the between the defenseman and you see, there's more of a little situation. That's the goal. The goal tending is there's something wrong with the goal tending. It's it's it's it's it's it's having a defense. You didn't have a goal tending that could win you a cup and your four big four million dollar players up front. What couldn't perform in the postseason? There's three problems right now. The biggest problem in my mind is in the postseason, what we wind up talking about is that third or fourth line guy who steps up big. It happens almost every year. We taught this at least one guy, usually more than one who played big for the team that win the sustainly cup. Well, the Toronto may believes third and fourth lines are crap. Why are they crap? Because all the money is being spent elsewhere. And all they can do is get guys at seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to play on the third and fourth line. And they they just aren't good enough. So assess what you want. Who makes those decisions? In my mind is the president and the general manager who makes those decisions. Well, Dubas made those kinds of decisions years ago. And now we see what's happened. You know, the it's not like, you know, we have coaches and general managers that last less than a year. This guy's been around what six years? Dubas and Shanahan six seven years. Well, I think Brandon's longer than that. I think he brained this year. That's long enough for me. You know, well, there comes a point where you got to say, okay, you had your chance. It didn't work. Did you screw it up? I don't care. You're responsible for what's happened. Goodbye. See you. Go find somebody else. And I really don't care who else you find. Well, you know, you do care. You do care. Well, I really know. I really don't. Because you don't want to you don't want to train wreck. You you you you this Toronto Maple Leafs are not a train wreck now. No, I don't think they're a train wreck. No, they're not. They may be they may be derailed a little bit, but they're not a train wreck. They need they need if they tweet a few things here coming up in an important way as the way the Florida Panthers, they got a little lucky, mind you. But if if they do a similar scenario, then they've got a pretty good hockey team ball. You can't underestimate what they did. And I know I get it. It wasn't the playoffs. It was a regular season. But you still have to look back and look at this hockey team and say to yourself, you know, with a couple of adjustments with the right situation with another year under their belt now that they're all they seem to be, you know, projecting now in a better, not good, but better area. I mean, I think you'll see Dubas back and oh my god. Oh, yeah, I do. Well, I will have watched my last Toronto Maple Leafs hockey. I think you'll see Dubas back. And I think and I do think that this is far from over in terms of success. That area. I really do. We got to take a break. We're we're past time. Greg Bellen is with us. We'll be back after these messages. 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We are back with Colin and Shannon and Greg Miller is with us. We're in the midst of discussing the Toronto police, which you could do forever and ever and ever. We've been trying to do that on this program. What I say is a week or so. You have no choice. You have no choice. You're sitting on the side of the road and you're and it's driving by every day. The thing that I the thing that is always a curiosity to me, Greg, is and you now look at the four teams that are left is you have to ask the question, why doesn't this team? And I think the question can be asked to a lesser extent to Deadminton too. Is why didn't they play with the urgency that these four teams have? Well, I think that speaks a little bit to what Bob's talking about with the depth of the forwards and the depth of the teams. I would agree with that. I'm going to throw something that Bob will probably hate. I'm going to do it anyway. It's always kind of fun. I can tell you because it's easier for an athlete for sure to play in the southern states or to play in an area in the US where hockey is number three or two or four or whatever it might be. They go to the rink, they play hockey, they get the same pressure at the rink, but they don't have to walk around every day and people tell these young men how good they are and they're going to win the Stanley Cup or how bad they are or how bad they are or go to a restaurant and get go nowhere and hide in their condos because they don't want to go out anywhere. These markets, I can tell you, are really hard to win in Canada period and you can say what you want. It's great because our fans are unbelievable. They care. They're passionate. I love our fans in Canada. I love the passion, but for an athlete, you got enough going on and then it just never stops. It's 24-7 and if it's not 24-7 on you, it's 24-7 on your wife and if it's not 24-7 on your wife, it's 24-7 on your poor kids that have to go to school and listen to why daddy gave the puck away last night because somebody told the kid that. It's not easy to win in Canada and I believe that. Yes, please do. I really, but I threw him in the car. Then get a job. If you're unhappy with playing in Toronto for the Middle East, go get a job. I'm not saying that they're unhappy, Bob. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that the pressure is too much. Go do something else. Bob, it takes a special athlete to handle it as a group because I've often thought that Toronto Maple Leafs always have overestimated themselves as an organization, as a team and as players because what happens is you start listening to all this stuff. We used to come in here in St. Louis with a little team that could and beat them all the time and there were years we should never beat the Toronto Maple Leafs but we knew we had them because again, they won the first round here and you would have thought that this place was like it was a Stanley Cup. I get it and they forgot there were three more rounds. It looked like everywhere. It was in the press, it was in the fans, it was in the management, you across the players and then all of a sudden they weren't ready and bang they're gone. We used to always joke that you play in one of these markets, you're 30% better or 30% worse than you really are. We all have friends that have played in the league and played in these cities and then went to other places in Excel and you'd say, well, why did you do that? He said, I love playing in Toronto but boy, boy, it was certainly easier in Detroit. And you know how many players have gone from the Toronto Maple Leafs and everybody thought they were stars and then they go down to another team and they're no longer nearly what they thought they were because the media, everybody builds them up including them and the players get built up and then they walk around with their chest out of these young men think there's something that they're not and before you know it, you lose your team structure and it's very, very hard, extremely hard to keep your team structure at times in these markets. So what, I know the fan doesn't want to hear it, you probably don't want to hear it, Bob, but it's not. No, I think I lived in both. I played in both areas. Don't care. So what kind of job did Sheldon do this year, Greg? What do you think? It's a coach who knows? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I really know I'm a big Sheldon fan. I know you are. I think he's a heck of a coach. But to Bob's point, he's got to be better because they didn't excel when they were supposed to excel in the second round. Right? So he asked to own some of that. Kyle has to own some of that. And the players really have to own most of it in this case. But at the bottom line, I mean, I think he's a heck of a coach. I think he's going to be a coach in this league for a long time. Did I mean, I'm sure he's asking himself the same question right now. What happened? What do I need to do to be better? At the end of the day, we evaluate a team based upon their Stanley Cup playoff performance. That's how a team is evaluated. We will soon forget the Boston Bruins regular season. There you go. Yeah. It is essentially inconsequential. The only thing a regular season does is is get you a playoff spot. And Florida is proving that that's all you have to do. Be one of those 16 that gets in. The other is noislers years ago, worse, what 16th and made a run. Well, that year that year in 2006, both I think Carolina and Edmonton were both the eight seeds. Well, there you go. And you got to stay lucky in terms of being healthy. You got healthy. You got to stay healthy. And that's okay. That's fair. That's a factor. Yeah, that really is. And we don't know. We don't know like it was funny. The Leafs didn't really come out like most teams and do their laundry list of injuries, which I found intriguing unless they didn't have any. Did you see anything, John? I don't know. I'm not sure. Yeah. But we don't think Matthews was right, but we never had to look like a lot of teams that give you the laundry list and who's heard what they had. We heard a knack for the goalie, but we didn't hear much. And I found that intriguing. I don't know if there wasn't anything or who knows. Well, we know the teams lie in the NHL too, about injuries. And I don't understand that one either. They don't lie. They just don't tell you upper body or lower body. Well, that's what I mean. You know, that's not lying. That's just that's just saying he's hurt. And the guy has a lower body injury and you announced he has an upper body injury. I've never seen that. How do you know? How do you know? Well, Bob, all I can tell you is if you were on the ice in the playoffs and you had an ankle problem and I was playing against you, first thing I would do if you were a star, I'd take a two-hander on that ankle when the referee wasn't looking as hard as I possibly could. And if it wasn't broken, I'd make sure it was broken. That's so the hockey mentality. That is why they don't I mean, that is why they don't do it. So the national football league, there's no more violence in sport than the NFL. They announced injuries. They don't announce upper body or lower body. They tell you what the problem is. I think we're going to get to that in in hockey too, Bob, for now. Because what I'm asking because there was no there was no need to with sports betting until this year being a factor. Sports betting is going to change the disclosure of so many things. 1980s and everybody I did. And why did they? That's right. But why did they disclose it? You know, as well as I do, why they disclosed it in football. Well, right? I know I don't agree. I don't I don't think Betty had anything to do with it. I don't think they give a damn about about sports betters or they certainly didn't then. Now you have millions of people involved in it. Maybe it's different, but I doubt it. I doubt it. Maybe you know, and I know Bob in the US because he lived there as well, but sports betting with the bookies and in the NFL was bigger than the game when I was down there. It was crazy. Everybody. Everybody. You know, and they knew that the NFL knew that. I mean, obviously, kept them alive for a while. I think they didn't kowtow to sports betting, you know, as as people believe. In fact, the national football league, I used to go to Las Vegas. When I lived in Las Vegas, I used to go to Caesar's Palace on Sunday mornings. In the NFL season, Caesar's Palace had a chairs that were essentially giant helmets. You sat in a football helmet. To watch the game. You're sitting that Bob? Did you sit in that? Yeah, I did. You only sat in the Cleveland Browns helmet. Yeah. Okay. All right. He had the Cleveland Browns reserved. Like a picture. Give a picture of that. I don't. But I did sit. I did sit in the helmet. You know, and at that and then the national football league took a look at this and said, you can't do that anymore. So they had to get rid of the helmets. They used to put up on the board, you know, giants versus patriots. That was how the NFL games were put up on the board. Then all of a sudden it was New York and New York American and New England. They couldn't use the nicknames of the teams. This is every sports book in Nevada. Could not use the nicknames of the teams. And that was just the national football league being assholes, which they are most of the time anyway. No, they just wanted to be paid for it. That's why. Well, of course they did. They want to be paid for everything. Sure. Right. You know, they want me to pay them every time I say NFL. You know, and stop saying it. Well, I don't give a damn about them. That's that's the truth. I'm not paying them. Even if they say Super Bowl quickly 10 times. Super Bowl quickly 10 times. There you go. I love it. You know, what we're talking about is economic. We're talking about money. We're not talking all the time. We're talking about money. We're not talking about anything else. Yeah, we can talk about teams and strategies and ownership, you know, reasons for doing things. It's all about dollars and cents. At the end of the day, you know, what did Gary Betten care about? Does he care really whether the Arizona Coyotes are there or not there? He cares about dollars. Well, that's his job, right? To get the owners as much as they possibly can. And so, and well, it is. He's got an answer to them. Well, you're supposed to run the league. They're supposed to be making all the decisions and decisions that are in the best interest of the league. But this isn't this isn't kennison mountain land us. This is, you know, where a commissioner was put into to to create the integrity of the league. The world has changed in that time. He works. He works as much as you think, john, he works for he works for 32 owners. I get it. You know, he has a partner. He tells those two owners what they're doing. He has a he has a partner in 800 players. And I know it care less about the players. Oh, I know he'd like to get the contracts down to five years. Well, whatever, you know, he'd like to do what he wants to do. You know, he should get the and you know what, he should get the contracts down to five years would be a better league. Oh, come on. Oh, what was the longest contract you signed? Three. I see it now. You're just four four four four year deal. Yeah. Well, you know, something that's going to be a lot of, as you know, john contracts that well, we've got one in Toronto that the wheels are starting to fall off and too long. And it's not good for anybody except the player, of course. But yeah. What do you think to me? Well, since we're on the topic here, we only have eight minutes left for you to go quick. What do you think to maybe at least do as far as the players are concerned? You don't think they'll change the front office? I think I think what they're going to have to do probably based on the cap, depending on how much room they have, they got to get a defense so they're going to have to trade one of the big four to do that if if they need the room to do it and the other variable is who's available, which which would be for what you trade. Would you trade again, Bob? It depends on what you're going to get and who you're going to get back. I mean, obviously the two players that you hear a lot about are Neil and her and murder. And but again, you've got to have a dance party. You know this Bob, you got to have a dance partner, you got to have the right player on the team. You got all of those things. But if you were Kyle, you were the point toss and say who are you going to get because there's too many variables involved. But my feeling is they got to get number one defenseman that could carry them out. And you have. Okay, before they do that, are you signing Matthews to a new long term contract, which I think would be five years at $14 million a year? Are you signing that? I think you got to sign them. Yeah, I think you have to sign them in this market. But you got to be careful. You can't let them lock Bob. You can't. I mean, unless unless unless this demands a ridiculous, but like ridiculous, Billy, Bill Zito, Bill Zito seem to do okay with Matthew Kachok. You know, you're you know, Brad Trilevin, you know, traded. We thought he was trading for two quality players in Huberdough and Uighur. Yeah, somebody's going to want Matthews and the deal is going to be they're going to go to Matthews and give them a long term contract, the new team. I guess the bottom line, I guess, to the answer to the question, would be the saying that we would all do in the chair. Well, see what he's going to see what we can get for him. See, we get for anybody. That's all. But at least you make those calls. So that's the that's the bottom line as a businessman. You've got an asset. What are you going to give me for the asset? And if you give me, you know, way too much for the asset, then I got to entertain it, whether it's Matthews or whether it's anybody on the team, for that matter. And I hate to say you pray it's diverse. That's not happening. That's not John's fault. And you know, no, it's not John's fault. And you know what? It's not Kyle's fault either. By the way, Kyle did sign him. No, not for that long. No, no, he didn't. John. Okay. Somebody else did. Well, you can't blame Lou. No, Lou wasn't here. He was here. No, he wasn't. Lou was here. No, he wasn't. No, Lou was in the island. He had to. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, I got no opinion on that. You do get to know yourself. We got to get out of here. Okay, I got to go. I'm off the Pittsburgher. What are your favorite places, Bob? Have a nice time. Say a little to Sydney for us. That's right. He's a bomb. He's in the bomb. He's in the bomb. He's looking after the fans like he always does. Yeah, he's one of the best. Goodbye, Greg Milne. Thank you very much. Are you the general manager of the penguins? Are you the next manager of the penguin? Oh, yeah. Let's start that. Let's start that. Former penguin returning triumphant, you know, that would be good. Get a good out of here. We'd get free nachos. We'd get free nachos at the arena. Goodbye. Goodbye. We'll be back after this message. We all know how to use the internet, but most of us don't know how the internet uses us. So instead of figuring out how I can protect myself from the unknown, that is the world wide web. I just got Nord VPN to do it for me. First and foremost, what's a VPN? It stands for virtual private network. Pretty much a VPN creates a secure connection from your device to your network. And Nord VPN does it the best. It took me literally the click of one button to connect to their security package. And now all six of my devices are protected from malware, web tracking, intrusive ads and infected files. Also, it has access to over 6,000 servers across the world, which means if a TV show or movie doesn't stream in your country, you can just switch to a country server where it does get four extra months and a 30 day money back guarantee when you buy Nord VPN by heading to Nord VPN dot com slash Bobcast. Go to Nord VPN dot com slash Bobcast for four extra months on your security package. We are back. Our thanks to Greg Milne for joining us. What else Blue Jays played last night lost to the New York Yankees has three or four that they they lost to the Yankees. You know, the more I watch this team, the more I I am concerned the Blue Jays, the more concerned I am about how good they are. Is it just the pitching? No, it's not. It's the hitting really. The pitching I think is fine. I think the pitching was fine last night. You know, they gave up three runs in total. You were supposed to win those games. Yes, you are. You know, this team has not been scoring at all. They've not been hitting at all. The only guy who's been hitting is the shortstop. The shit other than that. Matt Chapman's kind of hit a wall, right? At the plate. And they got a bunch of guys hitting one something. Yeah, even Jensen has been the hero twice in a week is like 180 hitter. That's just not good enough. And their record right now, Bob, against American Least opponents is horrendous. The other thing too is they're getting tons of hits but leaving tons of guys on base. You know, they don't seem to have anybody who can get up there when it matters with two out and a couple runners on and get a hit. That has happened over and over and over again over the last week. Now, maybe this is just a cycle. Maybe it's something we're going through. But I suddenly look at this team and I wonder, are they good enough? The bat, you know, as well as I know, 162 game season bats do get bats do get cold. They do go cold. And then they come back. So the cycle could be that June, July and August, they could be hitting the cover off the baseball. You know that. Yeah, I do know that. But they got to be got they got to win some games in this division. They got Baltimore next. I mean, what do they what do they what do they get swept by Baltimore? Like the red Sox already. So that's a good question, isn't it? Yeah. You know, they're one game on the last place. Well, we could say there's six and a half back of Tampa. Yeah, I know. But six and a half is a fair distance. Now they're now they're fighting for their wild card lives, Bob. Well, they have who the Orioles in this weekend, Baltimore, who have had a surprisingly good season. Yeah. Only marginally surprising because, you know, they played well for a good portion of last year. Yeah, I thought Baltimore was an upcoming team. We got to go. They proved to be. We got to get out of here. Okay. Have a nice weekend. Everybody will see you next week of the quick don't fly or dry. Goodbye. And thanks for watching and listening. You need a nap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. .