Hockey Illuminati GOES OFF on Leafs Management and More - CTC Live

Mike Commodore, Andrew Raycroft, and James Cybulski were joined by The Hockey Illuminati and Matthew Barnaby for a very special LIVE Clearing the Crease Episode all about Leafs fandom. We have special, exclusive interviews dropping on the Ozoon Canada YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed!

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

Are there any toxic relationships right now with the case? With the Leafs? Yes. Me and myself. Me and Keith Leaf Nation and Keith Pelly. Not a Keith fan? No. No. Not a hockey guy. Not a hockey guy. Doesn't know anything about the game. You can't run an organization. Like, seriously. Did he ever play? Does he come from a hockey background? No, he's a corporate guy that Rogers put in to to um jack ticket prices to make money.

SPEAKER_08 0:35

Clearing the crease.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Everybody, well played. I'm James Sabalski. You know Kami Razor. Uncle Barney's back here with this edition as well. And this week's guest, uh, I don't know if you know what you're getting in for here, the hockey Illuminati himself.

SPEAKER_07 1:15

Pleasure to be here, fellas. I'm glad you sat me next to the former Leaf TV.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

I wore blue for you too.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

You're a gymnasticist. Oh, you're a gnastochist.

SPEAKER_05 1:25

Barney, like you've as a guy on the ice who loved to stir things up. Um, I'm sure you got you heard the business end of a lot of fans' mouths over the years. So you could back and forth, I'm sure. But like diehards, like, do you did you chirp a lot of fans?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Uh all the time. Yeah. Actually, one time in Carolina, it happened, and I almost like they were giving it to me pretty good. I made some gestures back to them. Got a call actually from Gary Bettman. Come on. These people, I it was so bad what I did, and I I can't even say it because it's it's that bad. But let's just say I made gestures towards the mom. Oh boy. Yeah, and her two kids were there. But now these guys were giving. Kids were there right now. The kids, I came off the off the ice when I was getting into it on the ice, but I can't remember with who, I think Byron Richie. And they're literally giving me the finger. Like they're they're giving it to me right behind the bench. So you came back and I came back hard. I mean, I came from the top rope, super fly, snug up. Like it was, it was it was bad what I did. Um, the the four fans, the mom, the dad, the two kids, they returned their seasoned tickets to the NHL.

SPEAKER_05 2:37

Oh, yeah. It was that bad. What did the commission say?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

I said, you cannot do this. He goes, We should suspend you or fine you, but we don't want to bring light to it. So I got away with it, but that was like that was the worst. And you know, Philadelphia was bad. Toronto was bad too. Like people, what was it?

SPEAKER_05 2:55

What Leaf fans were.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah, Leaf fans are bad. Well, they're delusional, right?

SPEAKER_07 2:58

So, like the stuff they come up with, like we used to be bad. Now the real fans don't get into the rink anymore. Yeah, no, it's just corporate. It's a shame, it's a shame that our our atmosphere has been corporatized to the max. Yeah. And like you see, other atmospheres, Philly, Montreal, Buffalo, like that rambunctiousness of energy. Leaf Nation has that potential. It was kind of like that a little bit at the tail end when you were there. But really, in like the heart of the Sun Nina era, like that's when we that's when we saw it. And that's when that's when you had fans going out. You guys remember the story when someone threw a waffle at Colby Armstrong? Yeah, yeah. I don't. It was me that did that. Oh, you did. I did the waffle. I told Colby. It was me. You know?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

He was on the ice and you hit him with a waffle. I tried to hit him.

SPEAKER_07 3:38

I wasn't that my aim wasn't that good.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, good try.

SPEAKER_07 3:41

Yeah, but I mean, again, we used to have that type of atmosphere, but now all the fans are outside because it's too expensive. The diehard fans are, you know, in their basement in Oshawa, watching on at home on TV. They're in Peterborough watching, listening on the radio. Like it. The other problem with with Scotiabank and where the Leafs play is that like the rink is like kind of like inaccessible. I don't want to say inaccessible, but like it's in the heart of this major city. Where do you park? Where do you park? Well, by the way, do you got 60 bucks for parking? Oh yeah. Right? Exactly. You know what I mean? And like a lot of people, it's just become a burden. It's become a pain in the ass to come watch the Leafs. Yeah. You know, and and it's such a shame that that we have this potential to have these types of atmospheres, and it's like we're suffocated.

SPEAKER_05 4:23

But you can't complain about having a downtown arena. As some as two guys who grew up in Ottawa, like it was a dream to go to an NHL game, but when it took what, one game to kind of drive out to the OG Palladium or Corel Center, Canadian time, and it was like, wait, that just took two hours, and that's sitting in traffic.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

For eight years I've lived on the east side of Orleans where you're from. Yeah. And it's quicker for me to go to Montreal, jump on a train, or go to the room. All the time. Going back to your thing about the fans, my favorite was Philadelphia. Because they are nuts. I don't care if you're a Flyers fan, an Eagles fan. I don't know much about the Phillies, but they're nuts. And the stuff they would scream out, but it was great. Like some of my best lines, I loved interacting with the fans because it would pump me up any even more. Like I'd get death threats when you'd go in for the playoffs.

SPEAKER_05 5:08

Oh, anger.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Anger. Screaming at you, you suck, this and that, and that's that's great language, but you know, just respond like, oh my God, like if a guy's yelling beside his wife as you're coming off, you're like, hey, enjoy, enjoy that work shift at 6 a.m., buddy. Thanks for paying my salary. Or oh my god, how'd you get out of my room this morning? And now you're with your husband. Thanks, thanks, buddy. Like, are you going home to do what? And you're doing that in Philly? Oh, well, everywhere. Everywhere. But Philly was especially good. I'm a Jets fan. I'm a New York Jets fan. Yeah. So I'm delusional. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, I'm hey. Sorry to hear that. We're both in the same line. It's a good boat to be.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Jet coordinated, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

While we're on the topic of arenas, what is going on? I put this down in my notes. Yeah. What was the name of that arena? What's going on? The one where you went, you I saw you in front of like city council? You were you were talking about the one you wanted to see.

SPEAKER_07 5:58

Weston Lines Arena. What's going on there? Okay, so we we have saved that. Congratulations. I saw your video. Thank you very much. Yeah, you were good. Yeah, all about it. Thank you. I appreciate that. I felt like I was walking into game seven. You know, like you were good.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

I was like, holy shit. Over time.

SPEAKER_07 6:19

You know, I was like in the hallway, like, because you have five minutes, okay? Okay. So basically, I did a I gave a deputation a speech to city Toronto City Council members who had voted to knock down this historic hockey rink.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 6:31

This is one of their problems with Toronto, okay? Is that the city has gone so delusional, not just the fans but the team, just the the corporate suffocation of our of everything, including our culture, and like they're slowly destroying parts of our history to build condos, okay, and just develop. Anyways, the second oldest rink in the GTA, Weston Lions Arena, behind Maple Leaf Gardens. Okay. They voted to knock it down. Yeah. Um and the community rallied, and uh there was an opportunity to speak before council on the matter. Yeah. And it was kind of a last ditch thing. Yeah. So I was like, again, in the hall, like I was preparing all day, five minutes to talk to them. Yeah. So it's kind of like, what's the best, what's the best speech a coach ever gave you, like before a game? Like, is there one that stands out, maybe before a big game where you're like the coach came in and he's like, damn, you really got me fired up.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

And well, anytime I had a speech to me, it was like, don't take a stupid penalty, idiot. That was kind of the gist of any of my coaches' speech to me. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Daryl Sutter was pretty good. I can't remember, I don't remember any speeches in particular, and kind of same as Bar. I preferred if nobody talked to me, because usually if they were talking to me, it means I screwed up. Yeah, yeah. Uh but Daryl was pretty good at pissing people off. Yeah. And then guys who get so mad at him. Like I remember one in Craig Conroy in particular. I can't remember exactly what he said, but we were down a couple goals in Calgary. You know, I wasn't in Calgary long, but Daryl kept pushing Craig's buttons. Okay. Like little jabs, little jabs in the room. And you could, I was on the other side of the room. I only played 18 games there, period. So obviously I wasn't there long.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

And you run the alumni. And I run the alumni. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Craig Conroy is getting pissed off. And finally, and Daryl had his hands on his knees. He's going back and forth like this, and I'm watching Craig, and Craig is about to explode. Finally, Daryl says one more thing to me, like just little jabs. I can't remember what they were. Craig explodes. We're going up for the third period. Craig snaps, explode. F you Daryl, this and that, runs out of the room. We're all sitting there. I'm like, wow, what this is interesting. Yeah. We were down by two, three goals. We went in the third period, kicked their ass, won the game and too bad. Oh, Daryl was so pumped. Daryl was very good at that.

SPEAKER_07 8:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I mean that's that's kind of how I was feeling like a coach going in to give a pump-up speech to city council. And let it be a lesson because this is a theme, unfortunately, in Canada, um, where we are tearing down hockey ranks. They've tried to do it in Toronto, they tried to do it to Moss Park. Okay. It was another historic rink, and the community did rally and stop. Um, and I got messages from other people, you know, over across the country, Ontario, oh, I wish we had you in this town a couple of years ago.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

I'm sure it's happened in lots of times.

SPEAKER_07 9:07

It happens everywhere. So just let it be a lesson. Like whenever unelected officials try to tear down a hockey rink or rip away a piece of our culture. No, like the hockey community is resilient. Yeah. And you know, we don't just band together to fight for one another on the ice. You know, it's about other things too. So it was it was a cool demonstration of how the hockey world could come together. Yeah, yeah. Everybody reshared it and and now they're saving it. Yeah, great. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

SPEAKER_05 9:33

Let's let's talk a little bit about your growth to go from Frank Krupi, diehard, a hockey fan, throwing love muscles on the ice to sit next to the guy who was in bed that makes sense. To give a new meaning to Lego My Ego, to all of a sudden becoming the hockey Illuminati to where like you have become a very successful hockey influencer here now.

SPEAKER_07 9:53

Yeah, within Leaf Nation, for sure. Yeah. Um definitely like one of the one of the voices, one of the key guys.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

No, but you've had you've you've made it onto other podcasts beyond just ours, and and like you've got a profile.

SPEAKER_07 10:04

You know what? It it really started during COVID. We were all locked down, and we were spending a lot of time either consuming content or wine. Or wine, yeah, that as well. But it was like, oh, okay, I'm like, we're locked down, we're sitting around, I'm just gonna start making videos for fun. We got nothing else to do. And that's kind of how uh the Illuminati evolved, just being goofy. And as time went on, I was just creating videos almost like just life as a Leaf fan through my eyes. Totally unfiltered. Here's what I see, here's how I feel, it's raw, it's just it's just me, you know, and you know, people resonate with that, people resonate with that slowly, slowly, and I mean it's it's kind of funny how it snowballed.

SPEAKER_05 10:50

Well, who there's gotta be a couple of celebs who I'm sure have liked or followed along. Like, is there any any names out there?

SPEAKER_07 10:56

I got four right here.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, yeah, guys, you would have yeah, you would have grown up watching, but like this shirt too is timeless. You'd be able to wear that forever. It's great. I love how we tried to kill you with kindness and the curse.

SPEAKER_07 11:10

Yeah, what's I'll get you on? What size are you at?

SPEAKER_02 11:13

I am a medium fan. You can just put dot dot dot. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 11:18

We're trying, buddy. We're doing everything, we're doing and that's also part of the brand, too, is like, um, what can fans do to make a difference? I mean, we have fun with this curse called and that is a real thing, by the way. We do have to address that. But um, how can the fans uh support the team and and you know contribute as almost members of the team and not just as bystanders watching, you know? Um you know what a big problem in Leaf Nation is? There's a, and this is a real thing. There's a uh a collective consciousness around Leaf Nation where we have thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of Leaf fans and also non-Lif fans, that every single year, what do they think? Oh, they're not going anywhere. Oh, they're not going, they're done. They're done. Think about it. Everything is energy. We know this. Thoughts are real things. And what you literally, how you guys know is you're pro athletes, okay? You know, you know it's all in in between the pipes, right? Everything. And when you have tens of thousands of people that every single year are thinking, the elagues aren't going anywhere, they're gonna lose again. Another game seven, does that uh uh energy hover over the team, hover over into the subconscious of players?

SPEAKER_05 12:28

But that's generational, right? It's not it's not just your it's not just kids right now, it's not just your generation, it's your parents, but it's also your grandparents. Like you're talking four generations, so there's uh an element of a body of evidence. It goes deep. It's deep, yeah. It's deep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Which it doesn't overflow to the players, though. Guys get into that room and training camp, they believe they're gonna win the Stanley Cup. They believe there'll be playoff players uh playoff team and you don't feel you don't feel the energy. I mean you feel the energy, but you as an athlete, you believe that you're going to win. You you believe that you're gonna win the game, you believe you're gonna make the playoffs, you believe you can make a run. Now, you uh guys are realistic too. Yeah. Like when I'm playing in Tampa and we weren't very good, I'm like, I'm praying to make the playoffs. I'm not thinking about a Stanley Cup. Well you played in noisy markets. Yeah, yeah. There's only one one one time I felt I really had a chance to win a Stanley Cup, and that was in Colorado. Like all the other teams, yeah, I I didn't know if we had the goaltending, I didn't know if we were deep enough, I didn't know if we had the scoring. So, but when we went into a game, we believed we were gonna win, and or I thought we were gonna win on some teams in Colorado. We went in expecting to win. And some teams in in Tampa or Buffalo, depending on how your team was made up, you're hoping to win.

SPEAKER_05 13:37

And there's a big, big you play so you played in noisy markets. Yep. Come on, you were yours were a little quieter, so I I go to you after this, but like well no, but you were I'm in Calgary, but but uh at the same time, like from your standpoint, could you could you could you feel the noise or like what Frank's talking about, or would you say that?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Well, in Victoria was the good noise, right? Like I was on a great team. Like everybody expected us to win. It was we had the twins, we had Roberto, we had Kess, we had all those guys. So um I think I think at times the Leafs have had But I when I was in Toronto, we knew we sucked, right? Like we knew we were bad in 07-08. I mean, we knew we knew we didn't have anybody, like the salary cap issues and all of that stuff, right? Like we just we didn't have good players.

SPEAKER_05 14:17

But um And do you feel the noise from the street?

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Well you feel yeah, you do, but again, I'm what's interesting about Toronto is like they've actually had good teams before, like in the last couple of years. Like they they had a really good team that should have been Boston, two or three of those years. Many times sevens, the whole thing. They had the bull ten. Should it be Columbus? Montreal, like Tanto, they had a three-two lead, uh, Florida claimed them, yeah. So what's happened now, I like it, and obviously I grew up, like I've been around Boston when they won, they broke the curse in Boston. Yeah, it they had to do it from three love down to the Yankees. They needed to do it in extra innings, they needed to get lucky. And they had a group of guys that really, for lack of a better term, didn't give a shit about the North. Like Pedro didn't give a shit. Bunch of jerks, right? Yeah, they were drinking whiskey before. Like they didn't have a lot of people. Yeah, they did. They went hard. So that's what David Ortiz would be hard about getting hockey guys. Damon and Veritek's. Hockey guys to be able to do that in Toronto. Like, that's how I see Toronto winning a Stanley Cup is having that kind of a group of people. Yeah. The like literally 20 Brad Martians. Yes. A group that does not really do truly doesn't care because the guys in Toronto have always cared. Right? When you go to Toronto, you knew those guys heard shit, you knew they'd got it beat down, and you knew that you could get them, right? On a Saturday night, you're going into Toronto, like you know, we're gonna get these guys.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Isn't that the outside noise right now that they don't give a shit?

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Well, yeah, but it's in the it's in the wrong way. Exactly. It's in the wrong way. They need it, they literally need guys that um, you know, who's gonna win the, who's gonna, who's won cups who who don't really worry about another cup, or don't worry about all of that. That's how it's gonna break. I think of the Red Sox and drinking whiskey before. I think it's a great point. That's how the Leafs are gonna win. I drink whiskey before. It's not with the We do the light stuff. You just stick to water.

SPEAKER_07 16:12

Water. Yeah. You don't need any whiskey. The Jibley water, right? Little vodka, eh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:19

So, Frankie, here we are. Um, we wanted to bring in here and we wanted to talk about some good times and all the feels, but then we thought, you know what? Let's shake it up. Let's have Barney here, the keep it real police, to also help be mindful of this. And we thought we would tee you up. What are, you know, we have Ozun well played or not? And in this particular case, we are going to lean towards the not. What are the five most heartbreaking moments in your leaf fandom? This is fun.

SPEAKER_07 16:51

Barney, I want you to kind of every fan's gonna have a different uh outlook. But what's your my five? Okay. I I put I put the Hobbes loss, the 3-1 loss above all else. Above all else, yes. Because it was against the Hobbes, our biggest rivals. It was against a uh a team that in a regular year wouldn't have made the playoffs because of the Canadian COVID alliance. Yes, yes, the North. Horrendous. Uh you know, like going into that. Well, the last year's very good. They were very good. Right? And so yeah, you had a three-one lead, and and that for me is I put that a notch higher than the Boston collapse. Because the Boston collapse happened in 12 minutes, and that was against a team that we weren't expected to beat. You know, everyone, everyone in the world expected Leafs to that. Should have been the Leafs coming out year. Yes. You know, they had just blown the bubble to Columbus. You know, you had the back-to-back Boston losses uh prior to COVID. That was that we finally had a good group then. You know, the decor was solid, yeah, uh goaltending was clicking, you know, we had like Spezza, and it just it was a good team. Yeah. Um so that that's number one, the Boston collapses, too. I remember Barnaby, you fought Domey one time and the refs broke it up, and I was really upset. Yeah. You want to see him pound the shit out of it? Yeah, he was he was I'm glad the refs broke it up. Yeah, he had you, he had you, and he was and he got one in. I don't know if you remember that. I checked out a couple of the on the way and they broke it up. I was like, oh, I would have to see Barney get fing pump twice.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Well, there's four other times where he fing pumped. Right, there you go, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:27

Yeah, but I wanted to say I wanted that fifth time, though. You know, yeah. Uh honorable mention for that one. Um when they raised ticket prices again last year.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Isn't it wild?

SPEAKER_07 18:37

Here's another one's another 20% on, fellas. Well, I don't know. I stopped counting. I can't count that high. I don't know. But but no, that's another honorable mention. The worst, the worst things started to go downhill when they traded Codre. They traded Codre. When they traded Codre a little bit, a little bit, but it was it was this is number three now. It was a knee-jerk reaction. Okay, they had just lost to Boston again. He had just taken another suspension.

SPEAKER_05 19:06

But that was a second straight, was that second or third straight year that he had been suspended in the playoffs? Second straight year.

SPEAKER_07 19:11

Now, the second time around, the first time the first one was nasty. The second one was a little like uh like that wasn't as bad.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

But because you But he was a known offender, I think probably guilty.

SPEAKER_07 19:22

You pay the leaves tax, you know. Um and they're here we go. The leaves tax. It's a real thing. Get me started, fellas. It's a real thing, okay? I'm telling you, okay?

SPEAKER_05 19:35

Anyways, um Just for anybody out there that's not a Leafs fan, explain the Leafs tax from the Hockey Illuminati standpoint.

SPEAKER_07 19:42

There's okay, so there's two aspects to it. The first aspect is that literally you have to pay players more to stay here, okay?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Because of the That's a Canadian thing, too.

SPEAKER_07 19:52

Uh but it's yes, it's I don't think that's a Toronto thing. But it's no, it's a Toronto thing too because his life is more expensive in Toronto.

SPEAKER_05 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 19:59

Okay? Life is more expensive in Toronto.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

Than New York.

SPEAKER_07 20:02

Uh, but than other places. Uh I understand that, but but you you have to. No one's taking discounts in Toronto.

SPEAKER_05 20:09

Who's taking discounts in Toronto? And I agree with you. Wait a minute. I mean, there are guys who wanted to play with the Maple Leeds, and I think exactly. Johnny Tavaras is John Tabaris. But Jay Z didn't take a discount. Not early on. Not early, but John Tavaras taking a discount. How about Joe Thornton at the end of his career? How about Spetz uh? Those are late 30s doesn't count.

SPEAKER_07 20:26

Give me, give me a player like like what McKinnon did in Colorado, or like what um McDavid. Like McDavid, or or what's his name in Tampa? A Hagel. Hagel, yeah. Six and a half, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:36

So look at Mitch Martin as a perfect example. Yeah. He takes less to be, gets no state tax. That's a real thing. I people are out there, look, and Bettman and Daly will say, no, it's not, it's not, that has nothing to do with it. Of course it has something to do with it. I signed in New York, I think it was like 1.8 a year. By the time I'm paying $10,000 for my rent and this and city tax and all that, like I didn't have a choice because I got traded there.

SPEAKER_06 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

So I'd much rather be in Vegas or Tampa or Dallas at $1.8. I'm gonna get an extra couple hundred thousand in my country.

SPEAKER_05 21:09

But but let's but let's factor in. There are how many no stat how many teams that have no state taxes right now?

SPEAKER_07 21:15

But there's more than that too, because Alberta also, Alberta doesn't have provincial sales tax.

SPEAKER_05 21:19

Yes, but uh, but how many people are banging down the door to go play with Connor McDavid right now? Right? How many people like where where amongst the no fly list, respectfully speaking to the city of champions from the 1980s, how many people are saying, you know what, I want to go play in Edmonton right now? It's probably right there with Winnipeg in terms of the least desirable places to play for hockey players.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

You go to Winnipeg is because you have to go to Winnipeg.

SPEAKER_05 21:42

Yeah. Yeah, an amazing fan base, right? Like if you win, like you're gone, but like I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 21:47

I've never been by here it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

Yeah, but I but I so I I I hear I hear what you're saying, but I think that there is I I don't think Toronto is immune to it. They also have, there are way more competitive advantages to being a

SPEAKER_07 22:01

Some players aren't interested in that though. Right? Some players don't want the smoke. They don't want the noise. They don't want to be able to do that. If they don't want that, then they're then they're weak. Then they shouldn't be then they shouldn't be here. I agree with you. Then we don't want them, we don't we wouldn't want them to be leafs or any team. It's not just it's not agreed. It's not a leaf thing, you know. But okay, it it is a factor, we'll say the leafs tax. Okay. Okay. A small factor.

SPEAKER_05 22:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 22:22

All right. Now, the other tax is that, I mean, I know you guys are gonna think I'm crazy, but like I there is bias against the leaves. I really do think so. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

But you don't think the NHL wants the leaves to do well with the market that it is?

SPEAKER_07 22:33

They don't need the leaves to do well. They always want the big market stuff. But but but regardless of what happens in Toronto, you know, whether they win or lose, they're making money and they're and they're I mean, this year they weren't selling it, which was a new thing, but but and everybody loves to hate the leaves. Like when the leaves go down, there's nothing better for the NHL's engagement. Okay and you know, I I've talked about um, you know, just certain things. Uh, who is it that was suspended this year? For the Leafs? Yeah. I've done a bunch of side-by-side videos where it it it shows that it seems there's a history of the Leafs getting disciplined a little, just a little harder than other teams. And you guys may think that's crazy, but it but it's out there, and I I'll pull it up and I could I can show you. But I would court of law I can show it.

SPEAKER_05 23:17

But I would also say, like, you look at look at Rod that too. I believe it's a court of law I can show it.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

I saw you speaking. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

When it goes to suspensions and George Perrils, half the time we're wrong. We're like, oh, this guy's getting 10 games, and like, oh no suspension. That's a $2,000 fine. Like, it's all over the map. Right. But this year, like, I I'm a big gambler, and I love it. Well played. I love it. Well played. Three rolls. Yeah. Big rapper's fan. I am. I'm a huge rapper's fan of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go around. Who was that the other day? Off the rim, straight up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Pow. There you go. Give me some money. Oh, yeah. Hey daddy.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Didn't even need to watch the last one. But like three years in a row, not this year, they were like plus 700, okay, to win the Stanley Cup. Like fourth in the league behind like Colorado and Dallas and Carolina, whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_08 24:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Tampa's always up there. Mitch Marner, and and I'm in group chats with my buddies. It's between Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. And it's ruthless, this group chat. Yeah, I love that. Especially towards Toronto, like you said. Oh, of course. They hate them. Yeah. This year they get rid of Marner. Well, Marner leaves, doesn't get rid of it. He chooses to leave. And for the first year, they aren't plus 700 anymore. They were plus 1,400 to win the Stanley Cup. So Vegas and sportsbooks knew right away, because I'm reading on Twitter, oh, we're going to be just as good without Marner. You lose 103 point games. It's probably me that tweeted, though. It was probably our door.

SPEAKER_07 24:48

We're going to be smelly cover. It's going to be our baby.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

You're not replacing that. Everyone's like, oh, we're just as good. We don't need Mitch Marner. We're going to replace him by committee. But Vegas and lose Marner and they go from plus 700 the year before to plus 1400 to win the cup. Okay, let's talk about the Marner thing, him leaving and leaves fans where they are now with what happened.

SPEAKER_07 25:12

I I think it was a toxic relationship that had to that had to end. You know, it was just it was just it had to end. We had to go separate ways. You know, like you could you can't that core had to be broken up. And the fact that it was Marner was the first one to fall, it was almost by default. It just so happened that he was the last one to get his contract. Tavaris got his, then Matthews got his, then Neilner got his. And then when Mitchie came around, it was like, shit, can we really keep all these guys together? Can we really pay four guys 10 plus? Or you know what I mean? So it's almost like if things had been reversed, maybe a Michie got paid before Neilender, then maybe Neilner would have been the one out the door. Now, Mitchie definitely took more heat than anybody else come playoff time. And I I mean, I don't care what anybody says, but he was a total ghost in games five, six, and seven. Okay. Whatever you would say, and they all were. All the players were. Okay. This wasn't Leafs didn't fall on their face because of Mitch Marner. But uh, when you're paid like a uh superstar, $12 million superstar, we're gonna hold you to that level of availability. Level up.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

That's all it is, right? Are there any toxic relationships right now with the Leafs? Yes. Me and myself.

SPEAKER_07 26:25

Me and Leaf Station and Keith Pally. Uh not a Keith fan? No, no, not a hockey guy. Not a hockey. Not a hockey guy. Doesn't know anything about the game. You can't you can't run an organization. Like, seriously, did he ever play? Does he come from a hockey background? No, he's a corporate guy that Rogers put in to to um jack ticket prices out of the room. To make money. Rogers, Rogers, this is a this is the biggest problem with the Leafs, okay? And we can talk about the fans and the players and you know the curses and this and that. We have we have an ownership group that is, we're owned by the biggest company in Canada, more or less, one of them, right? And they own the Blue Jays, they own the TFC, they have the Argos, they have the Raptors, they've got everybody, okay? It's like if you've got five kids, okay, can you give all five of those kids the same amount of love? Would be tough, right? Would be tough.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

I love my daughter more than my son, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 27:26

Right, but you like right, but like you know, you might my daughters remind us all the time, you love her more than you love me. Right, and it's not like um, it's not something that's done like intentionally, it's just like human name, like you can't it's hard. It's hard to balance resources, it's part hard to anyways. Rogers cares more about the Blue Jays. Okay. Um and when they when it comes to the Leafs, I think they're just using them to try and chip away at their debt. Rogers has a ton of debt. They have a ton of debt. And that's why we saw this past season they were making decisions to um to balance the books.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

A thousand dollar flag waving? Yeah. Right, right. What was that?

SPEAKER_07 28:04

Oh, so okay. So at some point during this past season, they the Leafs realized that they were not gonna make the playoffs. Yes. Okay? And the attendance wasn't quite where it should have been. Wasn't packed. Wasn't packed, and they sat there and they were like, oh shit, we're gonna miss out on that playoff revenue. How do we start to make that up? Not shit. Should we bring a different GM in for the deadline? Should we think about uh replacing Brube? Should we maybe look at seriously some moves, some like should we take the tanking more seriously? They should have taken the tanking more seriously. We wouldn't have we wouldn't have had to be worried about if we're gonna well actually we don't know if we should keep this. Anyways, um but they they took away player discounts at at the team store. They took away to hear about this? They did. You didn't hear about this? Oh, it's my pleasure, it's my pleasure to inform you. They they took away player and player discounts and family discounts at the restaurant and on team apparel. Family and friends ticket discounts gone. The kid that comes out and waves the flag, a thousand bucks, please, for that kid.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Hold on, he had to pay to do that? Yeah, yeah, they they were paying. They were paying the kids to go be the flag guy.

SPEAKER_06 29:19

They canceled the father's trip.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Oh, poor dad's got roasted too.

SPEAKER_06 29:24

They canceled the father's trip.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

That would have been tough for me because I my dad left when I was one and never he wouldn't have been on the noise. But they made it a safe space for you. I didn't know this was gonna be therapy. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:42

You're sitting out with Leaf Fan here, but every day's therapy, you know. So when does uh will Austin win a cup in Toronto?

SPEAKER_07 29:50

Obvious, obviously, yeah. And he's gonna hand it off to Matt Sandine first. Yeah. I had this vision when I was driving in here. I was like, you know what stock a candidate to Bork? Yeah. You know? And it's like, has there ever been anything like that? No. No. No, right? Like where the captain, that's the only time that's happened in history where the captain gave it to someone else to host.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

And uh Will Matt's have his gear on when that happens? Put his gear on the case. Good question. Yeah, he might be in the suit.

SPEAKER_07 30:19

He may be healthy or he may be hurt. Yeah. Yeah, I I I I think I think we could see him passing it off to Matt. I don't know what's gonna happen with Matthews. Like, I I know he does Does he retire relief? We have to see what happens in the next year. If you had to, if you had to play something, I don't know what's going on. Retire relief? No. No. Because there are very few guys that play their whole careers with one team. Very, very few guys. Um I could see him, you know, if he does go somewhere, it would, you know, I could see him one of the California teams. It'd be hilarious if he went to Vegas and teamed up with Marvel, but I could see that happening too.

SPEAKER_05 30:54

Of course, we can all see it.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

There is zero chance he wins one in Toronto, and he will go somewhere else very soon. Okay, that is happening. Don't say zero, Barney. Give me something. I'm gonna be like, wit. 0.000 chance he wins one here. I think he is a very good player, a a great player. Mr.

SPEAKER_05 31:12

October.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

But he is he's not going to lead them to a Stanley Cup. And everyone, I said on a video that we do and put out on Twitter, everyone's like, oh, you're such a hater. I said, I don't hate any team. I really don't care who wins. I really don't. It doesn't matter to me. I like to see Buffalo go far. I'd love to see the Leafs win. It's not happening with Austin Matthews. They're like, well, he just won Olympic gold. I go, yeah, because he's with 18 other superstars that are equally as good, if not better, than him, leading the charge. So yeah, I enjoy the curse is gonna be a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 31:47

So I'm not I'm not comparing Matthews to Ovechkin. And no way am I doing that. There's only one OV, he's the GOAT. Yeah. Uh and they and they play differently. But do you recall when they used to say the same thing about him in Washington at one point? I agree. You know? Yeah. At one point it was like Ovi's not a fucking leader. He's not a winner, he's not going anywhere. And then in one year they they flipped it. Now that Washington team was was good. Obviously, really good. They had goaltending, they were deep. You can't. So I hear what you're saying, but 0%?

SPEAKER_02 32:15

No. He could be part of a Stanley Cup team. I'm not saying he's never gonna not gonna win a Stanley Cup. I think in Toronto now because of where he's contract is, the noise around it, and I think he's now he wants to win here, but if it doesn't happen soon, it's gonna be like McDavid. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_07 32:31

Well, yeah, and I think I think that they they intentionally I mean they have the same agent, right? Oh yeah. And they they both made sure that they were walking into free agency in 2028 at the same time. Yeah. I think to maybe do a maybe do what LeBron did, you know? Taking their talents to South Beach.

SPEAKER_05 32:48

There's either Panthers are landing in 2028. There you go.

unknown 32:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Increase. We'll be covering it. The decision part two. Decision part two, yes. Hockey edition.

SPEAKER_05 32:59

Um thanks so much for doing this. Last one for everybody here. Uh give us an exact year when this curse will end.

SPEAKER_07 33:08

So, you know how all the kids have been doing 6-7 for the last year? Right? Maybe that means something. 2026-27. For the Leafs, you know? You know what I mean? Hey, Barney, listen. They won't even make the playoffs in 26. Yeah, I know. They probably won't, they probably won't make the playoffs. But listen, there's been a lot of teams, okay? So when St. Louis won the Cup.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Maybe 36-37.

SPEAKER_07 33:31

St. Louis won the Cup, they did it in a year, no one expected them to do it. Okay? Same with Washington that year after a number of failures. No, the Leafs are finished bottom five. Like they probably won't make the playoffs this year, but god damn it, we're gonna hope we're gonna believe. We will never stop loving. We'll never stop loving the boys. Believe.

SPEAKER_05 33:50

Where can people find you on social hockey Illuminati?

SPEAKER_07 33:53

Uh everywhere on social, hockey Illuminati, and uh with the Clearing the Crease fellows from time to time as well. Thanks for having me. There we go.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

The Hockey Illuminati. Also check out the R Year series as well. He is Frank Kruppy, the Hockey Illuminati. He's Razor, he's Barney, he's Kami. I'm Saboscu. See you next time on the Clearing the Crease podcast, powered by Ozun. Well played.