[MUSIC] It's a big day in the city and this will shock you. I'm still reacting to it. Fan morning show continues. Frank Gunning, Matt Marchese continues, just starting. Come on, wake up guns. I know we don't have like a big sexy hockey topic. We had a big sexy hockey presser yesterday. We spend many moments speculating on who'd be up there. We now got our answer, John Tavares, new captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Austin Matthews, and the man with the plan, Brad for living up there yesterday. Matt Marchese, how are you doing on this wonderful Thursday morning, and we shouldn't celebrate before anything is over, but congratulations to you for making it through the morning show grind. I have been a morning person my entire life. I remember going to hockey practices in the morning before high school at teammates. Just shut up, no talking. And I'm like, why? We're all here. We're all friends. We might as well chit chat. So I've always been about that life for lack of a better term, but I know it's an adjustment for most. So just muzzled off to you, buddy. >> Thank you. I was one of those people telling you to shut up for sure. >> There were no people on my side just to clarify, like it was just me alone, like, we should chat and everyone going boo. >> Yeah, I was definitely not a morning person. I still am not a morning person managed to get in here. Every day on time, which is a goal of mine when we're doing honestly, it's literally the bare minimum you could do. But congrats. >> Yeah, it's just I did because once I'm in here, I know I'm fine. It's just getting in here with the long drive is like, okay, you know, that's goal number one. >> There's no way we should ever compare ourselves to professional athletes, but that is the one thing that like, hey, Mike goes on, you find a way like the energy begins to course through you. The energy has course through, well, let's be honest, let's say the city of Toronto, but like me personally all week long, sexy hockey news in the middle of August, today is going to be kind of, I think, our last day of Leafs captaincy, although Ennis has been hosting Jay's talk all week. >> He's going to have a taste. >> Sorry, Blair Barker. So I feel like we'll have to get him away in tomorrow. But finally got the presser, I guess we'll start with just kind of first blush reactions. I'm going to do big takeaways later on in the show. I have five of them that I've kind of set out that things jumped out to me. But just, you know, what did you make of the presser? And as I ask that question, I'll throw my answer is the first thing that kind of just stuck out to me from the very jump before I saw anything was seeing the stuff on Twitter of Tavares and his kids being there in the Matthews jerseys, some guys just get it. And I'm not saying John Tavares was super happy initially to have to get it regarding this topic in particular. But obviously once the writing was on the wall, he came on board and that's just the way to go about it, not that there was going to be any animosity. If there was, quite frankly, he wouldn't have been there at the presser if there was going to be any of that. But he was there. Kind of brave face. He smiled. He has his kids decked out in not the Tavares jerseys with the sea that we've seen them wearing before. Oh, I guess it was less of them, but his children wearing before. And now they got them all decked out in the Matthews stuff. It just, some guys just get it and he certainly does. He does. And the one thing that we've said basically all week, and kind of since John Tavares, his, you know, his career has risen to where it is today is the consummate pro. And he knows exactly what he's doing. He's John Tavares is far from a fool. But he also, I guess it was the thing that kind of that I can take away from it was just everything seemed like it was the right time. And I think that's, that's a big part of all of this is the right time in that, okay, the middle of August, whatever, that's not what I mean. But just the timing of everything and Brad for living saying this is not an indictment on John Tavares and the work that he's done as a captain, it's, it speaks to where Austin Matthews is in his career. And I think that that is very fair. And I don't think that that's some sort of way to spin it because of, you know, John Tavares has one year left on his deal. And how could you, you know, I don't think that that's it at all because John Tavares having one year on his deal and being the captain of this team that that doesn't, like those things don't matter in what you're going to get out of John Tavares in the final year of his contract, he's going to give you everything that he's got. So that part doesn't matter to me. But what I will say is that Austin Matthews when he said he got the call from Tavares and he said he got chills. I know there, there is a portion of this fan base, the cynical ones that will say, he's just saying that he's just, you know, he's just trying to, you know, pander to the, to the fan base. I don't think that that's accurate. I actually believe that this is a big deal to Austin Matthews. And the biggest thing of all of this is to me, this is a step in the right direction. And he talked about it of being a leaf forever. >> Yeah. >> And I think this is a massive step in that direction. >> I bet he would have given, I don't know how much, but like at least $100 out of his brand new sexy contract that's kicking him this year to have not had that question thrown at him yesterday. Not that he didn't want to be, but that was a guy who clearly understands like, hey, life is weird. I'm 26 years old man. I have no idea what the next five years entail, let alone the next 10. Can I just focus on being happy right now? And I believe he wants to be a leaf for life. I also think he is a completely understanding of the way things work. And, you know, like we don't need to go down this road today. But if he truly cared about that, and that was the only thing that mattered, they wouldn't have been these basically bridge deals throughout his whole career, it'd be eight year banger after eight year banger. But that's fine. Like he can put his, I was going to say money where his mouth is. It's really the least money where his mouth is in four years time and do it again, which I wholly believe he'll do. You know, the thing about him getting chills there is, and this goes to the Tyler Ennis clip that was making the rounds on chick with yesterday of talking about the way him and McDavid are just wired so similarly. And, and this put it perfectly for him, the goal was to make it to the NHL. Obviously you get there. You're driven. You're an athlete. You're a competitor. But that was the goal. Growing up on a rink, it was never, I'm going to win the heart trophy and be the captain of a team. It was a find a way or be a pro hockey player for a living. That might have been asked to Matthew's goal when he was, I don't know, eight years old. But from the time he was what, 12, 13 for sure, 14, 15, when he was ripping up the US national development team, his goal is to be the best player in the world. Now, maybe that's a fool's errand in a world where Conor McDavid did exist, much like it was a fool's errand in a world where Sidney Crosby exists, but those are the guys he views as his peers and forget the Leafs element of it all. Forget what that means to be the captain of the Leafs, only 26 men have ever had the honor. Like forget that it's that franchise for a second. Who were his peers in the league? Okay. No McKinnon isn't a captain, but maybe basically is the de facto captain. Let's just call, let's just call lives on the LTIR now. So until he's healthy, McKinnon's effectively the captain there, you got Conor McDavid. I don't think he looks at Sidney Crosby as a peer, but certainly an idol. That's what he's always been. And I think that that is just something that shows him, you know, there was a lot of talk about respect and what he deserves. And I think that's what this was wholly about. I don't think this had to do with Tavares and the fact that he doesn't have that fire in his belly or anything along those lines. I think this had, and not that I didn't feel this way heading into it, but coming out of yesterday, it was so, it's so clear that this is just about how they feel about Matthews. And it was not a dereliction of duty on Tavares as part, or they were going to take it away, even if they didn't have somebody to give it to. That was not the case. This is about rewarding a special guy for the special player he's become. Yeah. And in order to be one of the, you know, best Leafs ever, I think being the captain goes a long way in that conversation when we talk about, again, Darrell Sittler, Matt Sundine, Dave Keon, all of them, Doug Gilmore, Wendell Clark, everybody, they're all captains. But you know, even, I was, I had this thought yesterday about what this, what this means to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization as a whole. And I don't know that it moves the needle or anything. It doesn't really change a whole heck of a lot. But what it does is, you know, not that guys looked at Austin Matthews as lesser than John Tavares because he didn't wear a C, like he was still an assistant captain. But I think you're right, it is a respect thing for a guy that has literally carried this franchise for, you know, three years for, for certain. Yeah. And in order to be considered among, when we look at the greatest players of all time, okay, how many were not captains at any point in their career? That's probably a really short list. Yeah. Among the 50 greatest players, you might have one guy that was not a captain. Mm hmm. Right. So, so that this is again the respect thing for what this guy's done to your franchise. Sorry, I just have to laugh because I think that growing up and we've heard it all, we remember the dueling hat tricks in Chicago. It's like the one guy he probably idolized is most never a captain in Patrick King. It's just kind of funny the way that works out. Like your point totally holds, holds a lot of water. But if you think every American that grew up for the last 10 years, watched at HL hockey going, I want to be Patrick and that is absolutely 1000% my guy, never a captain, never was going to be. And I don't think that's just a Jonathan Taves thing. I think that's a like being a cap, cap driver. Okay. Like you said, I was going to go with more like the like Willie Nieland or he's the fun love and winger. But yeah, that as well, allegedly. So I think the respect thing with, we're at a point now also where whatever they've done hasn't worked and maybe you get maybe that little bit more that you get out of Austin Matthews being the captain is enough to push this team forward. I know people don't believe in that, but also the people that don't believe that having good leadership in a room doesn't mean anything or fools. Can I, can I ask you an extremely dumb question that started dancing around my mind as I watched this yesterday? If Austin Matthews is the captain of this team last year, like at the end of the regular season, I don't know why they would have made a sea change in the middle of the year, but live with me here. Does he play that game in Detroit looking for goal 70? Like is that enough of like, Hey, he's the captain man. He can't be going out there looking for individual cookies. I think the answer is no. I think the team clearly wanted it so bad he was going to go play for it. But I do just wonder how did these little things play out differently? Now I am also not somebody who believes in like the retroactive effects of him playing in that game is the reason why he got hurt in the Boston series. But I've seen a lot of people going, Oh, he just had to push for 70. It was a look at the end. I did. I was thinking about that. I think the answers know because I think the team wanted so bad and if you're the captain, you should probably go give the boys what they want and go get a talk and have 70 goals. But I don't know. I was thinking about that yesterday watching it does. These are those little moments, those little things. Does his voice carry more weight and saying, guys, I want 70, but I don't care about 70. I care about 16 wins in the play or, you know, whatever hokey captain line he goes with. It's just, I couldn't help but think about that yesterday. I think he still plays. Me too. Just because 70 is just some sort of nobody scores, nobody scores 70. I mean, nobody scores 69, no, it's where 60 like that's the, that's the reality of it. But I do wonder about, when you talk about those little things, I wonder where those things pop up in a season. Like, is it like, is it different when Arthur Matthews is wearing an A from him wearing a C if they're going through a five game losing streak, like does his voice carry more weight now than it did before? Like, I have a hard time believing that it does only because he's still the best player on the team. Now, I, the thing I'm trying to remember where I, where I heard this yesterday, again, it might have been the, no, it wasn't the Tyler on his thing, but it was talking about the area was the tri living. You know, he talked a lot about the, you guys see him. He loves this line. This is like, he clearly focused group this of you guys see him from seven 30 to nine 30 at night three times a week. I get to see him for the other 22 hours a day and how that extrapolates itself through an organization and like, no one is going to sit here and say that John Tavares does not work hard. Yes. Guy brings his own avocado oil on the road because it's better for inflammation or joints or health stuff. I don't understand. So no one's knocking him in that regard, but there's a difference when it's a guy who's 34 years old or at least is going to be by the time the preseason rolls around and he is clearly on the back nine of his career versus Matthews, you know, to an Easton Cowen coming up to a Fraser Minton coming up. He was just there. Okay. Not quite what those guys were, but you understand he was just trying to break into the league. He was just going through all of them, all of those things. And if those guys come into camp and again, it's not even about them because they've been around for the last camp when it was Tavares show and he was, but it's about the way this kind of, you know, normally is a bad term, but festers throughout the organization, it just gets fed through it. If he is and we have no reason to doubt it as driven and is dedicated and as much of a for lack of a better term, alpha, as he appears to be from the outside and everybody inside is telling us, then that's why you make them the captain as well is just what it permeates throughout your org and not that they're not the kids last year, we're going, well, I mean, he only wears an A at home. We probably shouldn't listen to him. No, of course they understand, but it just is about kind of putting a stamp on it. Again, so much of this does just go back to what they kind of danced around yesterday, but it's ultimately about he just flat out deserves it. Yeah. That's it. Like it's so like we sit here and talk about what does it mean and what's going to happen. No, guess what? He's going to be the best player in the franchise's history. He has checked every box you've asked of him for outside of taking a weird hit last year and going over against the Panthers. Like everybody did the year before. He's checked every box. You could possibly ask for, he deserves it. You want this thing. The least captaincy should not be, you know, a thing lightly handed about and it never has been in this organization's history. And I just think you want to have, when you have somebody like Matthews, that you want to be a lifelong leaf and you can see there being another decade beyond what he's already given this team if all the stars aligned, you want to be able to tell the story of his 10 year run as least captain and not, you know, the four years he had after JT retired after a success. You don't want that. No. And the other thing there too is when we're talking about Tavares and this captaincy. I had this thought as you were talking there, if John Tavares is drafted and developed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, is this the same situation happened? He's still, he's still a guy who came in from the outside as a free agent. Like, yeah, I wonder, I wonder how much of a difference that makes, regardless of where Austin Matthews is. Yeah. I mean, so much of this is like butterfly effect, right? Like what do the Leafs look like if they have John Tavares from what is it? 2009. No, no, of course they tried, right? And if that's the case, yeah, probably is a different animal. You know, I, I'm going to hit on this lightly here because this is a preview of one of my big things coming up after seven o'clock. I do wonder, and obviously Tavares is someone who carries the weight of expectations. He kind of has for his entire life, right? Like, not that there weren't special hockey players before him, but just the, and like sitting across became along before him, but doing it in the GTA and the epicenter of Toronto, the pressure that has been on him since he's 13 years old, I genuinely wonder, this is a crazy thing to say about a franchise that I expect to be around for hundreds of years still, but I genuinely wonder if not a Canadian, but if a local guy will ever wear the sea again in this market, it is such a crushing weight when you know exactly what it is. And Austin has had the opportunity to slowly walk into the water and like, Oh, is the NHL hard? I don't know. It's four goals in the first game. And then you bums lost it. No tea. I know he blamed himself, but it's okay. Is it even hard? Oh, okay. Boy, you guys get mad about the playoff failures and you, he was allowed to climatize himself to the market. I just look at a guy like Tavares, man, like go back to how it all started with him signing on free agency day, he's sleeping in the least bedsheets and he's six years old. Okay. Like, you know, I got my little guy. He's been decked out in leaf gear since we left the hospital with them. Okay. And there's so many kids who grow up in this city specifically with that that even the best hockey dads among us who were like, Hey, I'm not going to be crazy. I'm not going to be crazy. How if your kids showed any lick of potential? Could you not have the dream one day? And I just wonder if the weight of the market is so much to bear. That's not to say there can't be a special person who comes along. And that's not say Tavares did a bad job of it. So I think he was like Atlas holding up the whole world on his back for a lot of this kind of Leafs tenure. But I honestly watch that and I really did wonder are we ever going to see a local born and bred guy where the sea again, I don't even say that is it's a thing that has to be. It's an incredible story and we love to have it. But I honestly wondered that man. And also the other part of this as well is I've done my pie in this guy pipe dream of McDavid coming home and might have sailed that the ship might have sailed on that yesterday by making honest to Matthew's captain and not having that carrot to wave at McDavid as well. Because that's the only other guy I could see being able to take on that mantle. John Tavares is the most pros pro that ever existed. And just look at him yesterday and looked like it was a crushing weight. Not that he was happy to no longer be captain, but he did feel a little, I don't know, a little freer being able to hand this thing off. I really do wonder a lot. Oh, I wonder watching that. Are we ever going to see not a Canadian because there's too many good ones quite, quite frankly, at least I hope for the foreseeable future. But I really wonder if we'll ever see a guy from this market ever where the sea again. It is a good point that you, you know what the thing is when you're growing up. Like you, he watched Wendell Clark and John and Doug Gilmore and Matt Sundine. Like he knows what that means to be the captain and he also understands the pressure that goes along with it. That's why even in some weird roundabout way, as a, as the Toronto Maple Leafs look at this, you'd have to wonder if you say, okay, this is the last window that we have with this particular group, including Mitch Marner, including John Tavares, including, you know, insert name here, how do we get the most out of this group? Is getting the most out of this group, does that include John Tavares not having the answer questions every day as the captain of this team? Is that potentially how you get even more out of John Tavares and squeeze those last few drops? If this is it for John Tavares as a Maple Leafs, I wonder how much that comes into play as well. And they won't, they won't admit that publicly, but you'd have to think that being a captain of an organization, it's not an easy thing. To be the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs as a local guy, we're talking times ten in most markets. That's like being a French-Canadian captain of the Montreal Canadiens. It really is. Good luck. And no other market is it like that? No. I really don't, I don't think it's like that in Edmonton or Calgary or Ottawa or Vancouver, but in the, and don't just respect Winnipeg either. But in this market in Montreal, having a local that is the leader of your team, boy oh boy, that's, that's not an easy thing. Yeah. And I don't want to make this out to this is a one of one thing in sports, right? Like you and I are, we both grow up huge sports fans, generally speaking, following a little bit of everything, a lot of some things, right? I can appreciate what it means to be the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Like I, I got it. It's the, it's America's team. He gets paid a cajillion dollars. It's always his fault when they lose. It's never his, his, his, he's the, he's never the reason why they win. Got it. Like I got the gist of it, but it's not the same as some kid growing up in Arlington under the shadow of the Death Star, who again, from the time they could walk, it's like, hey, here's your helmet. Go get smoked kid. Like I just don't see a world where anybody from outside that can't be kind of crushed by the expectations. The difference is, is that it's not a job that's you're selected by a group of people. I mean, you are, but it's your place specifically. This is an extra thing where you have to be the right kind of person. And there's a virtue that goes, and guess what, Matthews checks all those boxes from everything we understand as well. Like this is the king of sick kids for a whole, we know, and he doesn't want anybody to talk about it ever. So I, I just look at it and I think that this is so fitting for the transition the team is trying to have and actually feel like the more I think about it, it's very fitting of the window that this team is in where, okay, things by and large are the same, like the leadership group. We could talk about that here in a second is going to stay the same, but there is a change. There is a shift. And I think that's what they want to go for again, like given true living's druthers, would he have blown it up this off season or at least made one big explosion? Probably. But also based on everything he said yesterday, this didn't happen because they couldn't make a change. This happened, this happened. And then at the same time, they weren't able to make the change. But guess what? If you would have blown up the team by trading Mitch Marner, because again, like just, he's the only one that would have made any sense that guess what you probably would have said, well, okay, we just shook the room to its core might as well give it another big shake right now. This was happening this off season one way or another. And I don't yet, I will admit at the outset of the timing, it looked like, okay, we tried. I've called, I called every team, I left voicemails. I sent WhatsApp messages, texts, every that carrier pigeon was involved, smoke signals. I just shouted. Really, really loud. Nobody was able to come back to me and get a deal done. All right, let's make this change. That is how I felt at the outset after hearing everything and thinking about it, digesting a more for a few days. I think this move was made completely in a vacuum away from not being able to change things. And I think it would be foolish to make that change because you didn't do anything else. Like again, right. The change for the sake of change is not always a good thing. It has to make sense. And in this case, it does make a ton of sense before the reasons that Brad's living outlined yesterday. Not an indictment on John Tavares, but it's a, it's just more of a spotlight on where Austin Matthews is at this point in his career as a Toronto Maple Leaf. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think that if you do just so many times, what do we, what do we say in sports? Sometimes the best moves you make are the moves that you don't make. So the making moves for the sake of making moves is not, it can be very counterproductive sometimes. But in this case with Austin Matthews, it's just, he deserves to be the captain of this team. He, he is a leader in that room, clearly, or else they wouldn't have done this. Like if Austin Matthews was a guy that was just very aloof and, you know, you know, he scores 55 goals, but you know, I'm trying to think of a 55 goal score that you're like, well, okay, whatever. There's not very many examples, but the point being is that they see what happens in the room every day, and the fact that they went to John Tavares and said like, okay, this is the change we're thinking of making. And I mean, he's not going to say, no, no, I'm going to stay the captain. That was never going to happen. But I could have, I could envision a world in which John Tavares is in that meeting with Brad for living and whomever. And he says, guys, you're right, it's Austin's time right now. And, and that's fine. Do you, do you think I'm just going to ask you the Rosie Duannel question? Do you think he thought about saying no, thanks for half a second? I couldn't believe that God, that was hilarious. It's like, we all get it. Like it's big news. You want to sleep on it? No, I think I'll be the least captain. Yeah. I think I'll say yes to you. I don't think it, I think it barely got out of John Tavares's mouth. And he said, it's like, hey, Austin. And he's like, well, John's all business. Lord knows he's not calling just to chat for a tea time. Yeah. I don't think so. So, so yeah, it's probably something. Okay, I want to keep not the Leafs chatter sequestered to hear, but I don't want to make everything in the whole world about Mitch Barnard, but obviously, he was there. Well, he spoke yesterday, okay? We did lead off the show on the day of the Leafs making their captaincy announcement with chatter about what it means for him. So, we should probably hear what he had to say yesterday. Here's Barnard and how he feels about the situation at hand. I'm not going to get in that too much today. I'm just going to say that. I love being here. It's definitely one. I'm very fortunate and lucky to be a Maple Leaf. And today is about these two amazing people beside me and that's what I'm going to speak on. You know, we're just excited. It's a lot of the same group that we've had. We know we're a great team and it's just about making sure every single summer you put the work in and you get ready to go and, you know, you get geared up for the new one and I'm talking with Craig about the summer. He's been amazing. He's bringing a lot of great new mindset to the team. I've talked to a lot of people that have been under his coaching and have only heard a great thing. So we're very excited to have him and fortunate. Yeah. Okay. There's nothing that is that is his chock is chock can be including Steve Keough or some member of the PR team going, did you have to say the thing about we're a good team? You don't have to throw that in there every time people don't want to always hear that. No, that's a that's a stock answer. I think it's very tough when you have these lingering questions about an organization. But I also think even like even us jackals in the media, I think there was a level of being respectful of the massive day that it is for Matthews and quite frankly, Tavares on the flip side of the coin, a massive day for him as well. You want to keep the news to that Mitch Marner's. They are no one's talk to him all summer. I didn't feel like we needed to do a whole topic about it, but generally speaking when guys have charity golf tournaments, the media goes and like talks to them and ask them questions. I don't know. Zach Hyman was in the city of people certainly did that with his Marner shield the people away from that. His prerogative he wants his charity tournament to be a happy, sunny day. That's fine. But this also means that whenever there's a glimpse here, these are the questions that are going to get asked. For a living God asked about Marner a little more sparingly yesterday that he did Tavares own conversations. This is what's going to happen when and I don't, you know, outside of the Marner golf tournament thing, which again, like I don't really get too worked up about because he was just going to say that there. So there you go. You got your answer that you wanted two weeks ago. But this is what happens when there are a lot of lingering questions and there's just been no chance to talk to these people is that you can want the day to be about Matthews as much as you want. And it should be quite frankly, but the Tavares question lingers in a big, big way. God asked about the A's yesterday. That's still a question that's lingering in a big way. And obviously Marner's situation, I don't think anything's going to change with it. Things are going to go into camp. He's going to play. He's going to ask about this contract probably 15 times even though he'll lay down the gauntlet on day one. And that'll be that. And then we're going to go with him having to do some version of this every three to six weeks when the team gets a little dry to talk about because they've got not stuck in their way, but it just they become who they become. And they're one of the upper third teams in the league and you know, the the the rudimentary nature of the season kind of kicks in. This is going to be a topic that's just going to linger. The fact like Mitch Marner walking in those doors yesterday made him a part of the story. Like had Mitch Marner or Morgan Riley not bit. If Morgan Riley's there and Mitch Marner's not there, that's when it takes a little bit of a turn. So I'm going to say I'm just going to do like devil's advocate of like, Oh, he knew they're taking away as a and giving it to JT. And that's why he wasn't there and he was pouting once Riley was there. He had to be. Yeah. And like, unfortunately or fortunately again, also he probably just wanted to be there. Well, that's the other thing. You know who is a huge fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs? Maybe not all the people who talk about them. Maybe not all the people who also love the Toronto Maple Leafs. Mitch Marner, huge fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You know, many Leafs captains he's seen in his lifetime? I'm sorry. I forgot Doug Gilmars, his favorite player even those two. Five of them. Okay. Yeah. Like this is a huge day. And again, like we'll take them at their word. Those guys are good buddies. Of course you want to be there to support your friend, but also if you're going to be there and we know about it, we're going to ask some questions. Yeah. And so as soon as he walked in the door, he was part of the narrative yesterday, regardless of how well or not well that press conference was going to go. But he's getting Mitch Marner is going to give you stock answers. Like that's, he's media trained. These guys aren't, these guys aren't fools. But there is part of me that does wonder about the jealousy factor a little bit. And, and for sure, man, I think he's only human. He's human. So people that think that he's, oh, well, how could he be? It's his buddy. As part of Mitch Marner that wishes he was the captain of the Toronto Maple East, the local guy, all of the, I'm sure that's the way I've always said it is that when Mitch Marner was dreaming of wearing blue and white, like we all did at some point in time growing up, he never envisioned, well, he would envision the first part that he would be this good a player. He could never have envisioned that there'd be at minimum one guy better than him on the team. You just say, wow, I'm going to be a almost 100 point guy, Selkie winger. And there's going to be better players than me on the lease. I just can't imagine he ever would have dreamed up that scenario because, you know, like we're all selfish when we're dreaming about ourselves, right? For sure. And, and so that's why I'm actually okay with all of this because don't you feel that there's going to be a very driven Mitch Marner coming into camp this year? Yeah, man. Of course. I think, I think this is just the best case scenario for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So again, squeeze whatever is left of this group before you have to make some hard decisions. And there are going to be hard decisions here. Like, I don't think that I don't think that you just look at either Mitch Marner or John Tavares and just automatically assume that they're going to be gone at the end of the year. Honestly, like I kind of go the other way. They would not talk about it yesterday and whether that's because they're having been conversations or they just wanted to keep it all about Matthews. That's fine. I guess the world where John Tavares falls on his sword like this and there's just not a way that him and the York find a way to make it work for at least a couple of years beyond the one he has under contract. And then if Mitch Marner goes and performs to the level that he, he is capable of and finally eclipsing the 100 point mark and all of that, there's going to be a lot of suitors and the idea of the Leafs just letting them walk for free is probably not going to be a palatable one. They're going to be able to take some of Tavares money, give it to Marner. Like, I know nobody wants to hear this right now. That is far and away. The most likely scenario. Yeah. This all plays. If everyone performs, why would you not bring them back? Well, and that's what it all comes down to is there. But I should throw in the caveat that we've had seasons like that where everybody performs and then goalie and then injury and then playoff fail. Yeah, there has to be playoff success. That to me is part and parcel of everyone performing here because if this team has playoff success, it's going to be because John Tavares has playoff success and Mitch Marner has playoff success. You need the other things to fall into place. But I don't think there's a world in which they don't and those two guys are, or they do and those two guys are, you know, invisible. What's the most leafy thing I'm thinking like, each of the big four has nine to 12 points in a seven game loss in which Joe wall gets hurt and it's like the hill to be spoken around in the crease there. That feels super leafy. Well, and at that point, if you go out in the first round, then there's, then there's big changes. But we'll have, but the only way it will happen again, because it's so leafy, it'll never be so easy as all these guys just lay an egg and it's like, okay, that's it. We gave you your last final chance. We're done. It's like, you know, that's the playoffs where Mitch Marner balls out in game six and seven. And then you're going to have to have those conversations. And he's never easy. Of course he should. He's playing for a contract. And so, but man, Brad for living, not committing to anyone other than John Tavares wearing a letter yesterday. And I heard that and I heard the answer. Did you not just go, oh, yeah, I, okay, I winced for both guys in attendance. And I imagine Riley and Mitch Marner would take that slightly differently if it was not them wearing the A. That's part of the seven o'clock conversation. They should let you know the iconic Canadian rock band blue rodeo hits Budweiser stage on Saturday, August 24th, along with guests, Matt May is in begonia to celebrate. We're giving away one last pair of tickets to enter. All you have to do is tune into the fan morning show and listen for the code word, then text the code word to 59590 standard data and message rates may apply today's code word is blue. Text blue to 59590 right now for your chance to win. We're giving away one last pair of tickets tomorrow, but if you don't win with us, make sure to secure your tickets on ticket master dot CA blue jays still in action. The season continues a sweep of the angels. Hey, they beat the white socks earlier and we celebrated and no one's as bad as the white socks will talk about that Jose burrios with a big bounce back. How important is this is it for these starters to find their groove and how much does that change the outlook for 2025 if they do in the last month and change of the season here. The morning show continues on the other side sports now 5 9 of the fan just very quickly did it cross your mind even for half a second to say thanks but no thanks. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL the JD bunk is podcast subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Young dumb having some fun blue jays pick up a sweep of the angels out on the west coast. It's amazing what a little new life and Jackson to you John Schneider doesn't have to talk about. I'm gonna drink a cold beer after this one he could drink a celebratory one but it doesn't need to be cold drama sorrows know we don't need to talk about that blue jays picking up wins. I don't know some people are are fanning the flames bringing us back to like Leafs and Raptors yester year with tank tank yeah if you're gonna watch these games they might as well win them 9 2 is the final again it's against the angels so a major league team more so in name than reality but hey they they got the better of them anytime you can get sweep a team you got to be happy about it. Where are you at let's just start there on the the tank talk there's been a bit of it for the uninitiated the A's they stink they're not allowed to have a top five pick. The white Sox somehow worse not allowed to have a top five pick either so that kind of boosts everybody's chances for the number one overall pick I haven't looked at the update of this morning but I know as of yesterday J's had the fourth best odds of that just where are you at on the idea of a tank in baseball Marquesi well for the blue jays specifically try something different. Sure you whatever it's been doing it's not wrong so let's try something different I don't I don't like it just because in baseball it there's there's so long before these first overall picks in I was generally speak generally speaking Paul schemes would tell you otherwise Steven Strasburg as well yeah there are there are exceptions to the rule and it's changed a little bit more but having said that even having like the second or third overall pick there's still potentially so much time before you see the fruits of that. I don't want to say labor because labor from not the operative word I mean like somebody went through labor like many moons ago correct correct so I don't generally as a rule like it because I think that I think that there are plenty of guys that have been massively impactful players that don't get drafted first overall yeah it's not one player is not making the difference on your team as bottom regular junior it's not the NBA it's not you know drafting a quarterback in the NFL no so no I don't I don't I don't love it that's exactly where I stood and tell well it wasn't six minutes ago because I was talking to you about the beliefs of Lord knows I would never distract myself during that but it was definitely last night when I learned who the presumptive number one pick is in next year's draft and it's apparently the younger and better brother of Jackson holiday and I am just such a sucker for this family lineage stuff and the way it's going now I know this has been like a bugaboo and like they just tried this with the core of all the sons of major leaguers and it hasn't exactly been the most fruitful time in Blue Jays land but I am such a sucker that I was firmly on your belief like Paul Skeens is a one in a million what they're gonna draft some kid and he's gonna have a nice slash line at double a he's gonna got a triple a and then maybe best case scenario 18 months from then you have a major leaguer I was very much of the belief of that and I still actually think that's the correct opinion to hold but I'm just such a rub I saw that it was Jackson holiday's younger brother and I said hmm you know what tank tank tank tank I need it now I need it I mean it is nice to have that because you also I get what I get what you're saying because there's also part of you that's like well when you have that major league lineage we see it in in oh no the world take continues more either I'm like the brothers a boss there's no way there's gonna be two of them yeah well that yeah well it could be the other way around right but I do believe that there is some truth to that the impact that players who have you know fathers and mothers who were you know high level athletes I mean the gene pool is pretty good yeah usually it translates pretty well but yeah as as a general rule I think it's just like you can get so caught up for sure but if it if the there's no way for you to figure out that a baseball player could be the next Conor McDavid no that and that's the biggest problem especially with it is generally speaking the guys that you've been the most sure about and they've arrived the quickest the last two anyways have been kind of schemes in Strasburg and the problem with it is no and no one wants to hear this but those guys are hanging on by a thread I mean Strasburg's his career is over so the thread hanging has been done by now but it's like hey Paul Skeens were one ouchy away from not having Paul Skeens for two years and then who knows what he's like when he comes back right like it's just a volatility of the position Ethan Holiday what was I calling them no you said brother oh yeah okay I thought I thought I stuck that in there I it's entirely possible I call them Jackson Junior though you know you know me okay so I think the biggest thing to come out of last night I mean man Varshow hits a bomb we certainly would have liked to see more of that last night but it's burrios there is nothing that you're going to see from this team this year that should change your opinion or alter it more than what version of a starting rotation with a one two three of burrios Bassett, Gosman and whatever order you like it in burrios one I think is the only thing that matters there is what do you get from them the rest of the way and how does that make you feel about if Uriel Rodriguez is the fourth man in your rotation versus a guy you're looking at to maybe need to fill a loft of your role and what does that do for the rest of your rotation because I still think that's the thing they're going to need to not buoy them you're never going to go back to what it was last year but I think that that's the thing that you're still going to look for and you can actually have tangible belief in if it comes back for the last two months of the season yes but the caveat to all of that is I just I really have a hard time believing anything that I'm seeing right now just because of who they're okay I understand they played the Orioles and I get that but you know they talked about it in that clip and I don't remember if it was John Schneider or Dalton Varshow that said it but it was kind of just like yeah we're all playing free and we're all yeah yeah because the games don't mean anything like your nine games back of a wild card spot you're obviously not catching anybody yeah you should if you're not playing free and loose at this point then I don't know what to tell you but that also you know could lend itself to the fact that when the games did mean something this team just crumbled under the pressure and that's not something that I like to read into too much either because I just don't know I think there's a talent discrepancy between the J's and teams that are actually playing meaningful games right now but the pitch the only thing that I will say about the pitching stuff is they it's not like they're pitching like this and I've never pitched like this before so I will lend some credence to what you're saying because it is good to have a good finish to the season and have you know those you know those positive vibes going into next year but boy it's they're beating up on some bad teams here although they didn't really beat up on the Oakland athletics who are not a very good team but beating the the LA angels of California and Anaheim and whatever the hell they're calling themselves this week that is to me I just I'm trying not to read too much into it only because I've seen them do this before I think that at the end of the day when you look at the J's next year the pitching staff especially Gosman and and Bassett are one year older and they're you know going to be over 35 like that is that is not nothing when it comes to this team burios I'm I'm fine with it's and it's less so about the three guys that I'm worried about it's how they fill out the back end of that rotation I think concerns me more yeah I mean you're a Rodriguez is a guy they'd love to step in there but this is a guy that's also kind of struggled with it's not been so much pitch count because they've let them get you know close not up to 100 pitches but it's been in Schneider I'm trying to remember I think it was yesterday I heard him on with with Dennis and Barker just talking about the idea that it's kind of been the longer innings that have been the downfall of him and that's what Rodriguez is kind of gonna kind of have to avoid if he wants to be a more consistent starter for this team and they're going to need him to be that quite frankly because again I'm with you that you can be the world's biggest believer in Gosman and Bassett I think burios is a slightly different animal in this regard that those guys are just going to have the natural regression that comes from ages you're gonna have good months they're gonna have bad starts here in there and there is a world where they still have a pretty competitive season but I also look at it and think that this is you know for a team that is going to need there's no world where I don't care how big a believer you are in Wagner in Varshow in the bounce back year and contract year from Bassett all that there's still gonna be a need there's still going to need to be a team that has at the very least an incredible strong starting staff to compete like this is not going to be a mashing lineup that just mashes their way to 10/8 wins next year they're still going to need those guys to be dominant and that's why I also think the track record part you hit on it there it's the reason why you can buy what you see you know Wagner can come up and have a hot month I don't know what to make of that even the horrible stuff I'm a little unsure about Davis Schneider we saw this movie last year what's he been this year yeah and I that's what so that's why I think you if you're reading into things the things you should put in the most stock into or what you're seeing out of specifically Bassett and gospel yeah and the I'm glad you brought up Rodriguez because I'm still I'm far from being sold on him being part of the rotation for next year so he's made 12 starts he's allowed three runs or less in nine of them but he's only gone six or more innings in two of them that's just that's just not enough to say and it's he's had a long runway here I know he they they've got to build him up and I and I understand that but I don't know to me he really feels like a guy that is probably if you have to rely on him and he's only giving you four or five innings a night that's very taxing on your bullpen I'd rather bring in a guy with a proven track record of eating up innings and you're all Rodriguez is potentially your two winning high leverage arm coming out of the bullpen that I think is the role that probably suits him long term regardless of what the contract says yeah things have kind of works a little backwards with him I remember talking with BNS at the very beginning of the season about you know what's a realistic best case scenario for Rodriguez and it was kind of have the year this year where he is the two three inning guy coming out of the pen or high leverage spot that's not a closing situation and quite frankly they've just needed him to be in the rotation I don't look at him as a guy that has shown oh he deserves to be in the rotation in pen I just look around at the writing on the wall they're gonna have so many other pieces to fill they've already given that guy term on a contract which go ahead and look at the books of this team pretty much nobody has with the exception of the guys we talk about all the time he's the only guy that's not kind of part of that club that has that security and I just think they're gonna need him in that spot because if you're gonna go and spend your 10 50 million bucks I mean I KF got you 10 million bucks last year and I think you're gonna want to do a little better than that for whatever position player you go get agreed I just my my thing he's never been a starter and that's where like Jordan Hicks started out like fire yeah this year and now look at what's happened yeah he's just doesn't have the reps and if that's where my concern lies but I do agree they're going to try and maximize that contract and where do you maximize that contract it's in the rotation and trying to squeeze as much as you can out of them yeah totally there's there'll be a lot more J's chatter with with the season that continues here and there'll be a lot more ups and downs like there's going to be for sure one more time in the season where they go ripped off a few wins against a good team what do we have here there's gonna be some drag weeks ahead of us as well it's an off night tonight before the J's start up a series on I always forget which side is which one of the sides of Chicago they're playing the Cubs okay that's what I know north side I always you know what actually I do know now because the white socks have those terrible only way and I take it back it's not terrible Jersey because 8,000 year old cryptkeeper Tony LaRusa had to wear it and no one has ever looked funnier in their uniform at a job like just any any job like you remember the first time you saw your buddy working at a fast food place and you thought that was the no Tony LaRusa agreed with like the the like cool font and the reverse pin striping oh god and yelling at his team for hitting homers and blowouts what an era somehow it's got worse in Chicago since who would ever thought that could be the case now time for the Canadian football report brought to you by Securian Canada the official life insurance partner of the CFL the kickoff week 11 the red blacks traveled to Calgary to take on the stamps Jeremiah Masoli is scheduled to make his first start of the year for Ottawa take over a QB for the injured Drew Brown the red blacks are one and two on the road five two and one overall on the season after last week's draw with Saskatchewan meanwhile Calgary had a peculiar season being windless on the road at 0 and 5 but perfect at home we'll find out if that trend continues tonight at McMahon Stadium Friday is the biggest game of week 11 with two division leaders swearing off Montreal hasn't quite quenched a playoff spot yet but at 8 and 1 they're pretty much a lock for the postseason the als go on the road to deal with 5 3 and 1 Saskatchewan that team is 3 and 1 at home Montreal the only team in the league to have a winning road record going 4 and 0 so far this season Cody Fajardo could return a quarterback for the als but the team hasn't committed to anything yet Davis Alexander has played well in his absence Saturday's game is on the opposite side of Friday as it features the two division bottom feeders in a battle of two and seven teams the alks were taken on the Tycats in Hamilton both teams can't afford a loss if they want to keep their slim playoff hopes alive may depend on which team's offense can be more efficient as their defenses are also bottom of the league despite leading the CFL in passing yards and touchdowns Hamilton's bow Levi Mitchell has been benched for Taylor Powell who threw for 319 yards and two TDs in relief against Montreal last week the week ends with a game between the three and six blue bombers taken on the five and four lions that was the Canadian football report brought to you by a security in Canada the official life insurance partner of the CFL this will shock all of you listening I have more thoughts five big ones in fact about what we saw yesterday with the Leafs changing the captain see naming Austin Matthews the 26th captain in team history what are the five big takeaways I'll tell you next on the other side fan morning show continues sports net 590 the fan
