Unintentionally the 5-Hole spends almost the full hour lamenting the fall-out of the NHL's hard cap and the mistakes Dubas and the Leafs have made in their management of it.  A couple questionable moves that have served to hamstring the club ever since.  And we go on... and on...  about it.  This may seem like a stupid thing to include in the summary of a podcast that is supposed to entice listeners... but we must include a warning... this Pod is for those who love detail and numbers served with a stew of jumbled facts.  Listener, you've been warned.    

The 5-Hole is back after ironing out some technical difficulties, ready to discuss the difficulties the Blue and White seem to be having to start their season.  Has Kyle Dubas run out of rabbits and failed to secure an adequate supporting group for the top-heavy squad?  What's going on between Leaf stars and their coach?  Why does that same coach feel the need to walk back an innocuous comment about his best players?  If this is the on-ramp to a championship season, it sure looks like a slippery one.  Leafland is never short on drama and we at the 5-Hole will not hesitate to ask the tough questions.  Answer them - no, ask them sure. 

They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.  Sort of like being a Leaf fan.  On the brink of the team's 105th season, the boys in the Hole are ready, once again, to buy a ticket on the train that hasn't reached its destination in more than 50 years.  Leaf management is intact, a fact that rankles some.  And the approach hasn't changed although there are signs that this may be their last hurrah without a change in playoff fortune.

Hey, last season wasn't so bad - 115 points, a Hart Trophy winner in Auston Matthews who also picked up his second Rocket.  But everyone knows how it ended - another first round defeat.

So join us for another rollicking ride - and imagine what might be.  We're excited - really, we promise.

The 5-Hole must once again summarize in bitter terms, another unsuccessful Leaf post-season.  We respond to the media availability session with Leaf management, the attitude on display and the direction forward, which according to this management group, includes precious little change.  Is the popular consensus to blow it up or to stay the course?  We know where Shanahan has landed on this.  It may seem that complacency has set in, not so for the 5-Hole's opinion department.

Brown eggs and white eggs, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton - what do these subjects have in common - they're all fodder for the 5-Hole.  Of course interspersed are discussions of HNIC features, underrated Leafs, Auston Matthew's pursuit of 60 goals, and of course the Holy Grail of team awards - The President's Trophy.

The 5-Hole tackles the trade deadline (belatedly) and how the Leafs, with a boatload of requirements, performed, with little cap space and diminishing assets with which they're willing to part.  Jason Spezza's future is touched on as well as Willy Nylander's.  We swerve into the reasoning behind the retirement of the number 5 in honour of Bill Barilko and trample upon that reasoning.  All this and another episode of "Cliff Fletcher - Leaf Consultant" is on tap in Episode 21.

The 5-Hole takes on the Leaf's goaltending debate as NHL contenders approach the trade deadline when those final tweaks are applied to lineups across the league.  Is it time for Matthews to inherit the C - stripping it from JT would be painful, but is it appropriate and fair?  Leaf fans can only dream about Lord Stanley's mug parading down the streets of TO, but on an individual level, several Leafs are contending for hardware.  We debate the chances for such success.  A couple media figures and their pod, elevated to an HNIC intermission feature, is reviewed - can't the old HNIC show model take itself a little less seriously?  And what the heck is going on with Brian Burke?  

The 5-Hole breaks one of their own rules in this episode - discussing a recent Leaf game, the splendid Monday night tilt with the Carolina Hurricanes.  What does this Leaf win tell us about the team and where they stand in the league amongst the upper echelon.  In light of Nazem Kadri's career season - the boys compare his contributions to that of the man who supplanted him on the Maple Leafs - namely John Tavares.  And what about that All-Star Weekend - we get the boy's impressions of the skills competition and the event as a whole.  Spoiler Alert - not impressed. We're treated to a rapid-fire list of hot takes on everything from players eschewing the use of mouthguards to the fact that Andreas Johnsson has transitioned... into Andy Johnson.  And what can we learn from Kyle Dubas's recent presser where he was asked about the Leaf's trade deadline strategy.  In honour of Paul Henderson, Bill Derlago, Joffrey Lupul, Tom Fergus, Jason Spezza and a bunch more - The 5-Hole presents Episode 19.

This week the 5-Hole examines the All-Star game - the selection process, the event as an entertainment product and the significance for the players of being selected.  The boys also look at the disappointing Alexis Lafreniere, former first overall selection in the entry draft.  Topics drift from Leaf free agents to the professional wrestling ring and even the tennis court as we look forward to actual Maple Leaf game activity picking up in the month of February.  

Unconfirmed sources indicate that this week's edition of the 5-Hole is filled with information that is unreliable, rife with speculation, innuendo and subterfuge.  Presented with such feedback and uncertain how to respond, the boys immediately looked up the words "rife" and "subterfuge" and were quickly satisfied that no one was questioning their love of the game nor their dedication to the Maple Leafs hockey club.  "From a hard-boiled journalist's perspective" King Conko clarified, taking no prisoners.

Episode 17 meanders from the future of Evander Kane to the present of Ilya Mikheyev, a likely post-retirement relationship between MLSE and Jason Spezza and the one-man highlight reel which is Cale Makar.  No 5-Hole pod would be complete without a spirited exchange on some off-the-wall rule change proposals and this one's no different with both a Gordie Lightfoot segment and a George Bell.  

The year 2022 is off to a less than blazing start in the NHL with Covid still toying with player availability and the integrity of the schedule but brighter days are around the corner - according to an unconfirmed source.