The Sports Lunatics Show

Wild couple of days in sports. Kyle Lowry signed a one-day contract to retire as a Toronto Raptor. Daniel Alfredsson leaves Ottawa, the city where he has been lionized, to become an associate coach with the (checks notes) Toronto Maple Leafs? And the World Cup just keeps on being the most compelling sporting event on the planet...... Shawn and Howie discuss all this in a fast-paced and exciting ep...

The venerable Sporting News, which bears the nickname, 'The Bible of Baseball', unveiled their Top 20 NHL Teams of all Time recently. Were they right? Were they wrong? Howie sat down with SiriusXM's Mick Kern to look at the list and evaluate its contents and its accuracy and validity. Howie has at least a couple of issues with the list and the conversation is lively and fast-paced.

There's a lot in this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show. The day this was recorded, the Toronto Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard. Also, Lebron James announced that he was going to pursue free agency. The boys discuss these two events. Also, the Florida Panthers and Sergei Bobrovsky announced that they would be parting ways and this was a point of discussion. They also go over Stephen Eustaq...

The verdict is in. The playoffs in both the NHL and the NBA were spectacular television. Shawn and Howie talked about some of their favorite moments in each, especially since each of the winning teams hadn't entered the winner's circle in a while - for the New York Knicks, it had been 53 years. The boys talk about the stars and the great moments.

As Shawn says in this episode, what a 24 hours if your last name is Tkachuk. Starting with the trade of Brady from the Ottawa Senators to the Florida Panthers and culminating with the Hall of Fame selection of his father, Keith, it was a whirlwind day for the Tkachuk family. Shawn and Howie discuss that and the 2026 selections for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. There's some serious c...

On June 16, 2026, it was announced that the Saturday night broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada had come to an end. The agreement between Rogers and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had expired and there were no plans to renew it for the 2026-27 season. Shawn and Howie discuss the demise of Saturday night hockey on the national broadcaster, first from a business and contractual standpoint and...

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Howie sat down with Craig Wallace, author of one of the seminal books about the Toronto Argonauts of the late 1960s and early 1970s, A Slip In The Rain, and their iconic coach, Leo Cahill. There are some great old stories in this conversation that illuminate the personalities of some of the great people of that era. Get A Slip In The Rain on lulu.com an...

Sports fans have been blessed with a tremendous spring with the NHL and NBA playoffs giving everyone a boatload of spectacular moments. Game 4 of the NBA Finals saw the New York Knicks overcome a 29 point deficit and take the lead with 1.2 seconds left in a 107-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs to take a 3-1 series lead. Over in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes are giving...

Howie caught up with former Calgary Flames' Trainer and Athletic Therapist, Brian Patafie following the passing of Hockey Hall of Famer Cliff Fletcher. Patafie shares a number of stories of Fletcher's intelligence, generosity and his sense of humour. It's an enlightening and enjoyable conversation.

Howie sat down with Paul Woods, a longtime Toronto newspaper man and writer. They talked extensively about the league and the Argonauts and the books that Woods has written about the team. He's probably best known for his book on the Argos' 1991 season, The Year Of The Rocket, dealing with the ownership group of Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and John Candy and the recruitment of the supers...

On the heels of Howie's conversation with SiriusXM's Mick Kern in the previous show, Shawn and Howie talk about the 1993 Stanley Cup Final series between the Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens and the pivotal role played by an illegal stick penalty to the Kings' Marty McSorley. They also discuss the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks and the...

In this episode, Mick Kern joins Howie to talk about the life and career of the late Dennis Hull, who passed away on May 30 at the age of 81. He played most of his career for the Chicago Black Hawks but spent his last season in the league with the Detroit Red Wings. He was a member of Team Canada in 1972 as well. Then, the two talk about the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup which was...

On May 28, 2026, the world learned that Claude Lemieux, who just three days earlier, had participated in the opening ceremony at the Bell Centre before a Montreal Canadiens' playoff game, had died at the age of 60. That afternoon, as they were still processing the news, Shawn and Howie recorded this episode with their thoughts and remembrances of Lemieux. 

On May 21, 2026, racing superstar Kyle Busch passed away from pneumonia that turned into sepsis. His death rocked not just the racing world. People from every walk of life were rocked by the fact that this man with a young family was taken far too soon. Shawn and Howie talk about the impact of his loss and they talk about the night that Owen Hart was lost in an accident at a pay-per-view wrestling...

In an episode that deals with the present and the past, SiriusXM's Mick Kern joins Howie to discuss the 2026 NHL Playoffs, the performances of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens. They also talk about the 30th anniversary of the goal that Steve Yzerman scored when he blasted a slapper over the shoulder of the St. Louis Blues' Jon Casey back in May of 1996. They also look...

In this edition of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie discuss the ever increasing chaos of the Toronto Maple Leafs as we head into the summer of 2026. The situation in the front office, their coaching situation and the existence of some of their players with the team in the coming off-season are discussed. Some Toronto fans may not be happy. The guys look at the life and legacy of Ted Turne...

May 1, 1991 was truly a phenomenal day in baseball history. It was the nexus of two history-shaking events that took place the same day - one in the afternoon and one that evening. And the central figures in each event were men who would be eternally famous. Love them or hate them, the day was an iconic one. Howie takes you along the tale in this preview of his upcoming book, Fallen Angels. Listen...

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie remember the legacy of Yankees broadcaster John Sterling, Shawn delivers the incredible story of the late Alex Zanardi and the boys discuss how it must feel to be a Leaf fan given the management of the team over the last while. It's a lively and thoughtful show.

SiriusXM's Mick Kern guests on this episode and he and Howie discuss the life and career of John Garrett, the changes coming in 2027 to the CFL postseason and Mick's impressions of the NHL playoffs to this point. We'll see how his predictions stand up to reality.

Phil "Scrap Iron" Garner, the long time All-Star infielder, World Series winner on the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and Major League manager, passed away this week and Shawn and Howie discussed his career and what he meant to so many others as well. They also talked about veterans Alex Ovechkin, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick. Playoff prospects of certain teams and the possible future in Det...

A little bit of a different Sports Lunatics Show for you here. Howie looks back at a couple of anniversaries marking the releases of a couple of classic baseball movies - Bad News Bears and Major League. Both endured because of their raw realism and their underdog themes. What they gave their audiences has endured all these years later. Bad News Bears was released in April of 1976. Major League ca...

The Baseball world lost Davey Lopes this second week of April. Shawn and Howie talk about their recollections of Lopes, his infield mates and those great Dodgers teams of the 1970s and early 80s. They talk about the 2026 Masters golf tournament and the absences of both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. And they finish up by discussing the retirement of Joe Bowen and what he meant to both of them.

This was a lively and wide-ranging show. Shawn and Howie talked about who TSN in Canada chose as the Face of the Blue Jays; they discussed how Baseball is creeping back up in popularity ahead of a possible labour stoppage in 2026; they looked back upon the 30th anniversary of the passing on the field on Opening Day of umpire John McSherry and the spectacular final day that Jack Nicklaus had at the...

Howie takes information from a chapter of his third book, The Consequences of Chance, and talks about the best parts of the 1969 Montreal Expos Season. There wasn't much but they did win their first ever game, their first ever home game and the franchise's first ever home run was hit by a pitcher. Bill Stoneman provided fans with their first really big thrill. Their first big star was a...

This is a shorter Sports Lunatics Show episode. It's about Larry Bird and his collegiate rivalry with Magic Johnson and that incredible NCAA Final Game in 1979. It also covers how Bird's collegiate athletic career ended and it wasn't on that court in the final in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1979. Listen to this episode to find out how and where it came to its end.