[MUSIC] >> Yours Beiner back of the goal again. Center in front, nice guard, and the game, an overtime. Austin Matthews set up by Beiner, and the main beliefs will win this two to one. >> I was giving one, now we weren't great tonight. We didn't even for much break about as a result to generate much. And we did have opportunities to generate, I thought we were corrupted a little bit. And we tried to overpass him, and then he should or not. But the last time he played these guys, he gave him a knife. So you can understand why the guys are a little kind shy tonight. You know, we don't work careful. Overall, a night when we went out our past, we can beat ourselves. We've lost a lot of these in the next few months, and I'm just going to do that. [MUSIC] >> Good morning, Joe, sports staff, five, nine in the fan band. And it's been getting good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning to those of you who maybe fell asleep midway through that hockey game yesterday is low event, a low event hockey game. The sabers without a shot on goal until about five minutes to go in the first period. Unfortunately, it does appear that natural stat trick is still busted. Cuz I was like, it's not showing like the right side of the page, which has like expected goals and like high danger course before and against. So I, although the I test would kind of like match up to there being no high danger shot attempts at five on five for either team, the entire game. >> I think even the computer that is natural stat trick is like, we're good. >> Yeah. >> You saw it, we saw it happen. >> We don't need to relit again. >> That's passing in the night, they're playing Boston tonight. That's what the natural stat trick page should do. It should just have a big circle to the Boston game tonight. That's the one we're gonna take, take things out of. >> Yeah. And also yesterday being the de facto NHL trade deadline. I mean, there's still the Jake Genssel of it all and the Jacob Markstrom trade potentially to come down the line, but, and maybe a cold and Pareko trade, then maybe less. >> Everything happening yesterday, we'll get to that, Noah Hanifen, we have the full return on that deal, yada, yada, yada, yada, let's talk about the game for a little bit. >> For sure. >> For sure. >> Of course, at least play the game, we're gonna talk about it. >> Yeah. I'm still reeling from my vacation where I didn't get to do this every single day after a leaf game. So of course we're gonna talk about it. >> How about this as a place to start? >> Sure. >> I'm up to 54% Elia Sampson off and starting game one and five series. I don't think anything that happens this far removed from the playoff series has any impact one way or another. And I think that is such a bold thing to say before I know what I just said is gonna be contradicted by what I'm about to say before Joe Wall stay up to home that he's the game one starter. I mean, I have, I say it half jokingly, but if Joe Wall has a playoff performance tonight, Sheldon Keefe is gold starring this one and taking it to the bank when it comes time to have the argument. >> I'll say 48% for Sampson off and 52% for a wall if that happens. >> So I do like to rip you for your cowardly answer, although I did start the answer by saying, well, yeah, come on, have a stance. >> Yeah, I had Martin Jones at more than 50% a month ago. >> Well, okay, just because you took a stance once doesn't mean you can't again. No, I like, when I look at it, I think that is actually the right answer though, is that it's NHL goal tending and neither one of these guys is undeniable. So it is a complete still 50 50 proposition. I just, we go back to everything that's been said by the team. But from last night's game, yeah, Sampson off like he gets the one snap by him. You don't love it, but it's a clean wrist shot off the wing. >> That's always the toughest one, right? It's very hard. >> Well, and Olafson, Olafson's a little, you know, like to do sabers talk here for a second. He's a little bit of their Nick Robertson type, like the differences as he's done it in the league a little bit more, but smaller guy in and out of the lineup has a deadly shot. That's the mo on him. So if Nick Robertson walks down the wing and snaps one on the bar on somebody, we don't kill the goalie for that. So I'm not going to kill Sampson off there, you know, maybe Riley could have gapped him up a little better, but you know, that's neither here nor there. I thought Sampson was good last night and honestly in a, in a low event game, it's nice to see him thriving that way. Because sometimes it does feel like the more engaged he is, the better he has to be, he can kind of get rolling in that way. So it was nice to see him be able to kind of have to pick a spot. You go 15 minutes without seeing a shot and you still handled yourself really well. It was encouraging for sure. >> Yeah, it honestly, it harkened back to a couple of those games during the lightning series where it's not like he's not under siege, but like when the game gets tight, like in the third period in a one goal game and a tie game, coming up with some huge saves at the end of regulation yesterday, maybe his best save of the entire hockey game. Now he was, he was great is now back to back. Really good starts for Ilya Sampson out there's, yeah, still 20 games to go in the regular season and so much to be decided. The other thing I was thinking about is I'm old enough to remember when we were going to talk about how beneficial it was going to be for this Leafs team to be playing important regular season games down the stretch right until the end of the season. >> Yeah, that didn't feel like that and like maybe it'll feel different tonight, I guess in Boston and against teams that you could conceivably see in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But yeah, in an alternate sliding door reality where the Leafs don't go on that impressive winning streak and they don't rack up what the 14 wins in the last 18 and they are battling tooth and nail to get into the Eastern Conference playoffs. Maybe we see more events in that hockey game than we saw. You saw one team in the savers who are, yeah, they're all playing for themselves and trying to establish themselves as NHLers and win games, that would be nice. But yeah, it's a weird time and that franchises development, they're trading away, they're leading score, like they're about to get another great young defenseman in the building there but they're like a weird day for them, so you understand that, like the weirdness coming from their side and the Leafs like, again, they're only human, it's hard to get too geeked up for them, I'm sure, when they look at the standings and they look at the time of the month and they look at the important games still to come and to try and generate that juice in that hockey game. Yeah, but I think it's fair to ask them to do it. That's been the challenge for this group is to rise to the occasion, nobody does it every single night, okay? Pick your, pick your perfect team that never lets up. I think for a lot of people, that's the Colorado avalanche, who again, when the Leafs thump them, well, it's one of those games you gotta throw it away. But even they have stretches where they do not have it and every single night you can't be. But that has been the challenge for this Leafs group and, you know, the team this year is different than team last year. But what are we talking about? We're talking about the core of this team and it's get up for every single game. Now, when you're asked to Matthews and you're going to score it, I don't know what the number is because he scored last night, but 74 and he's still on pace for over 71. That's the one I can count and look at a box score, I know he has 54. Yeah, I got that, it was the pace I didn't have, but still above 70. You can't do that every night, but that's the beauty of Matthews is he has for him as pedestrian a night as humanly possible. And he still just snaps one under the bar two points later for the Leafs, not him, and they're laughing going home. So I just look at it as, yes, you don't want to, you don't want to kill him for it. And it's only human nature to look past it a little bit. But that's the challenge for this team is to show you can be engaged all the time. Scoreboard, scoreboard though. Yeah, no, no. Again, I'm not going to, this is not a referendum on the team or proving these guys don't want it. Everything you just said, the week that we're in right now. All the news around the league, again, it's about a 50/50 split, I'd imagine there are guys in that team who go, who got traded, never heard of them, honestly. And there are guys who were super locked in and they were followed for each hunt Twitter all day and seeing everything that happened, their heads just weren't in it. And that's human nature. So to see them kind of be able to start off strong enough, you know, they kind of did, they didn't score, but it was kind of the reverse Boston game. It's like they start off strong, they choke the life out of the Sabres, now the Sabres score first, I understand. But it felt like they were able to start strong and you just would have liked to have seen it kind of continue a little more throughout the game. That's how I look at it. Yeah, low event hockey game. I will say, I'll give them a little bit of credit in this regard. That oftentimes when you see a team try shut it down defensively, like I guess the Sabres were doing. I mean, part of that was their own doing is that the Leafs get overly aggressive and they start taking chances to try and force the offense, they didn't appear to be doing that too much. Powerplay still looking, that's a great with the Mark and Riley. Back to Matthews though for a second, I mean, this does qualify as a slump for him. And like, he ends up with the goal and he's still on pace for over 71 this season, it was looking like until the dying minute of overtime, we're going to have a situation of one goal and six and throughout the course of that hockey game, what did he finish with two shots on goal? Maybe that was his only shot on goal was again, puck was bouncing all over the place and I mean, you can guess as to how many guys are maybe dealing with the bit of the flu bug that's going around and Jake McCabe missing the game. But that's, yeah. As Matthews is a slumping right now. It's hilarious to say because he's like ties Gretzky for the on the all time list of game winning goals in overtime on a sweet finish on a feed from Mitch Marner behind the net in overtime. But not guys slumping, he's in a slump. It also just puts in perspective how good he is that a night where he has four shots leading the team. It feels like that. You're right, because it doesn't. We are so used to. How many of those were in overtime? Well, though, and look, you're not wrong, like it was a pedestrian game by his standards. And that is the beauty of him being him, honestly, is that you don't want him to sleep walk through games. And I wouldn't sleep walk is too strong of a time for last bounce. It was. It was just it was one of those nights. They happen. I'd rather have had it last night than tonight in Boston. So I have no issue with it, but that's the beauty of having a guy like that. You know, all these guys who have their kind of one of one skills, you know, how many times did a vet can I imagine stand there around not having a very good game? And then guess what? Blast two in the net. Who cares? Scoreboard. Yeah. He saw it from Matthews last night. The connection from him and Marner on that goal, that special stuff, that's what they're there to do. It's the magic of the the two of them. And yeah, it was awesome to see. Honestly, the are you good on Matthews? Yeah. The other goal was just as impressive from the leaf. Well, you know, Neelander was the best player on the ice far on their team. Yeah, they gave Matthews the third star or the first star of the game, which they do it to one. I don't care. You can give boss Matthews for a star every night, but yeah, it wasn't even close to the best leaf on the ice. Howly Yarnkrock got the belt to. Oh, I like that. I actually thought he had a very hardworking game. I thought he just had a lot of jump and the new Neelander that was most jump you've seen out of him. And part of it was that in a kind of sleepy, low event game, a player like him can just go. Now is the time because you did see it with a couple of rushes where he was just gone. He was able to create space there. He just seemed to have a lot of jump and yeah, like the goal goes in. But if he rings that one off the bar, I mean, it's a very different game that we're talking about and we're having a different conversation, but he didn't have a good game because he scored a goal. He had a good game because he was generating a ton of chances and just driving play. That's the good willy you want to see. Yeah, it is. You know, it's interesting. I was looking at this because remember immediately following the contract extension, he had the three assists game against the Sharks and then he went four consecutive without a point after the incredible point streak to start the season. You know what his pace is since those four games included since the contract extension. I do not. Okay. I got the pace for you. I figured you might. All right. Here's his 82 game pace since the contract extension. So that includes the three assists game and the four games without a point following that. He's on pace for 42 goals and 98 points since the contract extension. So the same, the incredible pace that earned him that contract, he's back to being there numerically. And then with the career high in minutes, yeah, this is mean, but that's also called Mitch Marner's career season is what that's called 42 42 goals and oh, well, I'm Marner at 99. So he would have eclipsed him by one point there. Here's another thing from Neelander. This isn't the be all and end all of him, but I think this goes to show the growth the players had and just how strong and what a man he is. Six to 10 in the dot last night, yeah, William Neelander. Yeah. And as Chris Cuthbert Riley points out, it's not every game he's taken 10 face offs. Yeah. So I don't know what goes into that. Maybe don't be just ristle jammed up something like that. I could see that being the case where you're just asking Neelander to kind of, if you, if you feel like that is a line, you have to keep together. And as you see all the centers in the league, getting traded elsewhere, I think they're going to stay together. Yeah. Is that Sheldon Keefe going, okay, like we're, it's almost the reverse, John Tavares, you're a winger who comes in to take all the draws. Like I can see a world where is that the fix to, now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that William Neelander is going to become silky Neelander in the playoffs, but it's been a good, strong playoff performer for them. Most of that we think about is the offensive production, but this is not a guy who shied away. No, that was part of how great he was yesterday and the penalty kill and then obviously. Oh, not taking the two on one, where he's absolutely gas and gee, Boucher giving him the dance on the back. They're going to, I'm, I'm actually surprised Sheldon Keefe didn't rip the belt out of Yarn Croc's hands and give it to Neelander, not again, not for the goal, not for the hit on the penalty kill, but for not going on, on the two on one. Is that like, I don't want to get too big picture here, but is that the fix for the second line is in? Well, they've empowered, trust me, he's been empowered. His entire career to take defensive responsibility more seriously. But is that the fix saying, Hey, dummy, you're the center in terms of how we play offensively, but when we get back here, Neelander, you're that guy. Well, yeah, and deployment is going to be a big part of it. But yeah, he, you know, if you look at defensive upside, he's the one of the three that can do it. Like he's capable of doing it. And this season has been asked to shoulder more of the load defensively playing shorthand as well. Yeah, I could see that evolving. But to your point, like that's, that's, apparently the second line, the second and third, like it's two and two A, I think between he and the tomorrow's lines, they have a clear first line. Yeah. And then he got some opportunities with Marner and Matthews. And you know what? I quite enjoyed that line getting an opportunity then right next. It's the hard for checking Tavares, Bobby McMahon, Kelly Yarnkrock line, which still continues to look spectacular. So hand up in the small sample of the return of Iliya Labushkin, very much an Iliya Labushkin enjoyer. Yeah, I really like this game last night, a heady play to get the puck in on the new ender goal. That allows, don't mean to win the puck battle, then great pass to set it up. But just a steady guy and, you know, I don't, like I don't think him and Riley were amazing last night or anything, but it's amazing what Riley beside a guy with some call or with some just comfortability of what he's going to expect there. And, you know, that doesn't mean he's the perfect partner. That doesn't mean he's the only answer. It doesn't mean you can't go make yours of our trade or whatever it is you want to do. But I, yeah, I mean, I, I feel vindicated. Well, and asked to handle the puck a little bit more than usually where I used to seeing Iliya Labushkin. I remember when he was first acquired and the, the ML being like, yeah, he's really good. As long as he doesn't have to touch the puck. Like, they're not really good. Like capable defender, as long as the puck isn't, uh, on his stick, got a few of those guys. Some on Ben one. He's the best player of the Bushkin, but hey, like that is there. When you're shopping in that depth of the waters, there, there's no such thing as a perfect player. These guys are all flawed. And, you know, if we're going to talk about a turnover of mentality, and I think this started to happen towards the tail end of the dubious tenure here as well, but how many times we have a conversation about who this guy is a smaller puck moving guy can come in and yes, that guy will have skills that Labushkin won't have or even some on Ben law won't have. But I think you really, really prefer the mix you're seeing with this here. And that's where I do think you have to give some credit to tree is that that's clearly something he values in teams, just go look at every team he's had any time to put his blueprint on. He wants a big beefy blue line. So the idea of Labushkin being there makes a lot of sense. Anything else on this game before we look back, I guess, and ahead towards tomorrow's trade deadline? Uh, no, I think, yeah, we hit on it all a really yarn crock. I thought Neil Anderson best player on the ice and Matthew's rip one under the bar, and we said good things about Samson off. So there you go. Oh, and, uh, yeah, um, yeah, quick, great. And then like William Nealander getting to stick healthy in the second period, but it's neither here nor there. Whatever. They got the two points. Yeah. Yeah. Which is not me if I can complain about something. Right. It's yeah. And against that saber's team, which feels like a bugaboo after giving up the nine goals in Buffalo. Oh, actually, I was a little disappointed that awesome Matthew's raspostale didn't hate each other so much last night, they, they tend to. So I just, I like that. I like that there's animosity. I like that that's seemingly the one guy in the league, him and Stamco's, I guess, are the two guys that can get under Matthew's skin. And I like to see that side of them. So I was a little disappointed that that wasn't there, but I just, I feel like it was just one of those nights. So it's neither here nor there. Yeah. Sleepy one. Not, not a 60 plus minute, uh, tape of a hockey game that you're going to show somebody to try and extol the virtues of the exciting play that you see night to night in the national hockey league. And I did have one more thing actually, the sabers. They warp how you feel about big hockey players because so I was telling my kid about Taged Thompson. I'm like, oh, this guy's a million feet tall. Da da da da. And they're like, which one is he? And I'm like, when you just see the huge Galuf out there, like you'll notice him and he's pointing at Owen power who's like six, five and I'm like, no, it's the other one because power looks, they just have so many big bodies on that team that even a guy like Taged Thompson and Owen power who are walkies basically do not stand out at as much as they should on that team. So yeah, I don't know what to make of that, but they're a very big team, sabers, but small at the same time. They have a huge guys and tiny guys. Yeah. Okay. Uh, walkies. All right. Uh, moving forward. I wish I could do the Chewbacca. But I can't. Yeah, I was going to ask you, I don't want to get too derailed here. Okay. I can do that. And any of the Star Wars movies, do we see another wookie like is Chewbacca the only one we ever see? Like, do we ever go to his home planet? We never do. Right? That's a question for Josh. Oh, they, Josh, do they, do they go to Chewbacca's home planet? Do we see, we see multiple wookiees? Oh, hold on. I feel like I've seen all the Star Wars movies and I don't feel like I've seen this in three, what like up, like, you mean the prequels? Oh, okay. The one where, uh, okay, spoiler alert, Anakin Walker becomes Darth Vader. Whoa, whoa. No, I missed that one. Oh my God. No, that feels like Disney Plus is, you know, has a five season series about Chewbacca and his own planet. It does seem like something they would do. And I just want to say like strong work by Natalie Portman in those films and we can move on. Yeah. Agreed. All right. Uh, so the Bruins don't get no ahead of him. Mm. Neither do the lightning. Yay. That's, I mean, honestly, positive takeaway. I guess you can quibble with the Vladimir Tarisenko to the Panthers thing if you want. And I do want because of that, I got traded to the Leafs even though I know like he's won a cup and all that. I just know exactly how that would go. And I also know exactly how that's going to go as a Panther. So that's why I will complain or quibble or be angsty about it. Yeah. Guy on a one year deal, having a full no move clause and deciding, hey, there's only one team I want to go to, uh, tempering the return that the senators get. But that's like, in an overall sense, okay, it's disappointing the Leafs can't get in on some of the bigger names that went, uh, across the board yesterday. But I think if you're going to have a glass half full perspective on yesterday, you'd say, okay, outside of, uh, the Rangers getting wenberg, the, the, the other teams in the Eastern Conference that you expect the Leafs to need to go through to get to the ultimate destination didn't get demonstrably better yesterday, there's still time. But the big names, the, the, the Noah Hannepin, to Boston or Tampa thing did not happen. Yeah, it's the inverse of last season where every single team in the East was loading up with everyone. They could get their hands on it was just a mass exodus of talent from one conference to the next. And now you're seeing the West. Everybody loads up once one team, one or two teams start to throw some chips in. You kind of got to make a decision at that point. Are you going to get involved or you're going to do nothing? Because there's no point in, uh, you know, tomorrow, uh, a Walter White, there's no point in a half measure. I guess that's Mike Ehrman showed, but, uh, breaking bad. But yeah, there's no point in a half measure when other teams are loading up in the way that, that you're seeing it there. The, when you, when you look at the, I mean, obviously the Hannepin deal is the, the biggest one there. There were a lot of interesting ones. I love the deal, the oil made, but yeah, I think it's, I think it's very, very nice for the Leafs thus far that nobody is, is kind of loaded up. And it's like what they got Wegberg is like, yeah, that's a fine player. It's like he might have a moment. Sure. Great. Well, they, and also, you know, say what you will about the Leafs center depth of, you don't love Max Domi as your two C maybe and John Tavares is an overqualified three C. The Rangers had to make that move. They had two centers drop like flies in the middle of the season. So they had to do it. And the Oilers need to be more desperate than the Toronto Maple Leafs because the clock is ticking on their dudes, unlike the, the Maple Leafs. It is, but it isn't. What do you mean? I, again, maybe David's leaving. I love, I love to see on dry side alone. I, I don't think it's impossible that Leon Drysidal leaves, but I feel the same way about Leon Drysidal that I do about all of these guys who already make big money on their teams is that there's no team that is going to be able to carve out the space to say, here's 12 million dollars. That's going to be good. They'll make it, they'll make it work. Unless it's Vegas. That's the only one. Well, you love that too. They'll just put the whole team on LTR and it'll be Leon Drysidal and a bunch of like concierge guys from a casino. Yeah. And guess what? He's a pretty good pastor. So he'll turn them all into Jonathan Chichu. Yeah. And so yeah, Mark Stone does like have issues, right? Like every year he goes on LTR like clearly that you can't just make an injury out of whole cloth. Like that's, that's none of it. No, you have to at least at one point in time be hurt. And he is hurt. Yeah. And Alec Martinez feels like he's going to move from injured reserve. Like all of a sudden that injury is about to get more significant if they're in on Jake Genssel. Weird. Weird. But he has to start with the base of having an injury. But yeah, here we go again with Vegas who acquired Noah Hanifen for a conditional 2025 first. Deneel Miro Manov, a conditional third round pick, fifth went to Philly for the double retention. The most interesting part of this for me, well, there's twofold one is like there was talk that there was going to be an extension like announced immediately upon the the consummation of the trade. That hasn't happened, but it does feel like they're grinding one out with Noah Hanifen. And they're going to figure out a way to keep him in Vegas. Also the conditional 2025 first round pick. I've never seen this condition, but the condition is, yeah, you can have the 2025 first round pick. We don't subsequently trade it in another move before Friday and then you get the 2026. So yeah, they're still working on making it work for Jake Genssel. It does appear. Yeah. I think the reason why you don't typically see that is just the way this draft year is viewed. So if you're, if you're the flames, you're saying, yeah, go trade the 25 first rounder to somebody else will take the 26 and a draft that is, I don't even know if it's supposed to be better, but it's just this one is pretty clearly kind of panned after the after the 20 mark. So yeah. And then the idea that it's a third rounder becomes a conditional second rounder if they win around. I'm pretty confident that they'll be be doing that. I mean, how, I mean, maybe, I mean, I guess I could end up with a Euler's golden nights first round series. I immediately bet Vegas to win the cup last night when I saw that trade was made. They were still getting very good value number even dropped after I got it in there. So I was feeling very, well, you are, you are a guy that got the, the chiefs at a good number. I do love, I do love me a future midway, midway through the season. But I just look at that and I think that for the flames, you know, I guess that's as good as you could have done. You get a first rounder, you get a potential second rounder. I think it'll almost certainly be that if it's a player who gets extended. I think that that's a amazing, I mean, it's an amazing piece of business for the Golden Knights, regardless. But if you're locking Noah Hanifin to the core of your team for seven, eight years, even six years for a roster player who doesn't matter for you, a first and a second round pick and then another fifth rounder for part of the retention, laughing, laughing, laughing is far and away. The best trade made yesterday. Yeah. And they just want a cup. So yeah, it's a great place to be in and yeah, you get to live in Las Vegas, I suppose. For me nuts. They don't, I'm sorry, they don't deserve this. There is, I actually don't think there's a team in all this sport that would be more fun to be a fan of right now. Like all here arguments of, hey, you're a, this one's crazy to start with, but you're a Spurs fan. You're on the ground floor of Wembin Yama. You know you're going for a, maybe the last seven years, but it's going to be an incredible ride with that guy. You're a Chiefs fan. You got Patrick Mahomes. You start every year thinking rightfully so, you're going to win the Super Bowl. These are all great things, you know, I, I was Patriots fan all throughout the Tom Brady run. Now it's a little less fun, but the Tom Brady run was awesome. But parts of that was the frustration of, but another guy's got to leave and he's got to leave. And this guy's leaving. And another player you love just left with Vegas guys leave, but they just immediately replace them with a nuts superstar. Every superstar that has been in play, they don't get every one of them. They're in on every one of them. They find a way to make it work. They never lose, it's a big heavy team. And unlike the earlier versions of Vegas where it was a big heavy team, but they lack the it factor, they got better Angelo and Jack Eichl and throw Mark Stone into the mix. Like they have the star power to go along with it. I cannot think of a franchise in sport right now that I would rather be a fan of than the Golden Knights. Honestly, like I'm sure there's somebody, I'm sure there's an obvious answer. Now that you feel better because I mean, they're racking up multiple championships and it's it's more predictable when you get into the postseason. Okay. That's okay. They've appeared in a couple of cup finals and won one. But yeah, like I said, they could end up against Conor McDavid in the first round of the postseason this year, right? Yeah. And okay, I think they'd be favored, but it'd be pretty close to a coin flip between those two teams and the Oilers. They beefed up yesterday as well with Adam Henrik, Sam Carrick, additions as well. So just lastly, they, I know, like everyone, everyone everywhere deserves nice things. Sure. That team should play in Canada. A big, heavy, angry team, scores, goals, plays great hockey, hats, they got guys who will fight team should play in a market that cares and I know Vegas cares, but they only care because they win. Sure. I mean, it's hard to know what the level of care will be when they don't win. They won right out of the shoe and they were the and they were. I imagine being the first, because now it's, we're going to have an NBA team there. It feels like in the A's or move in there and it's, we're going to have all the major sports in the greater, sure. But I think being first, I don't know, this is what I would imagine it feels like to be a pro sports fan in the city of Las Vegas that the Golden Knights have a special affinity for you because they were the first, because they broke through before those other franchises. And because they had the immediate success, I think there is an advantage that the Golden Knights hold over those other franchises. And it does feel like there's legit, you know, sports fans there. There's obviously transplants and there's there's people that live in Las Vegas because they're pro gamblers or whatever, yada, yada, yada. But no, there's Daniel in the grand new, like is that legitimate sports fan? Okay. I, here's what I'd say about that. I think the reason they will forever have a hold in that community, of course, is the winning, but it's also everything happened with the shooting right as their franchise was formed and that kind of became a crux point in the community. So because of that, I do actually think there will be some forever connection with the Golden Knights and stuff. But this just goes back to my opinion that people in warm climates can only care so much about their sports. Like they can't. It's like it's nice outside. You go do stuff. I guess in the desert, maybe it's not as nice as like I think of this as more of a Cali thing, but I know they just don't deserve it. I'm sorry. Yeah. Look at all the teams. Look at, look at the cup drought that this nation has had where we care far and away the most and we forever will, okay? And they get that in the desert, just drop to their laps. I think you're doing, yeah, you're saying they don't deserve it, but what you really mean is like you deserve a winning franchise in the, and people of Toronto deserve a winning franchise here. But like infinitely more than the people of that. Yeah, but that's really where the impetus for this conversation is coming from. Okay, like I'm making this about Toronto, but you know who deserves that team? Winnipeg who had their franchise ripped away from them or you tell me- Showing up for, you know, first place on that team. Don't disagree. I was the one who said that and you told me to stop trying to move the team. The other part of it is that, like, I don't want to see that team at Montreal and then be so good. Do you imagine how they'd be appreciated in that market? I don't know why you're saying they're not appreciated. I'm sure they're very much appreciated. Do you want to be like to a point? Okay. I have no idea. Couldn't tell you. Like the sports talk radio airwaves just lighting up because of the golden nights swinging the straight. Maybe I can't discount the idea. I also think there's probably an added benefit to like in the summer it being 120 degrees outside and really wanting to get into a hockey rink like that. There's probably something to that as well. Okay. It's good for you, Vegas, I suppose. Here's the other thing in a cap sport. There will be fallow periods for a team that's also like, yeah, Mark Stone's back is- She said this is, it's not a lot like it's made out of Lego bricks and yeah, we know Jack Eichl also literally might have a Lego brick as one of the vertebrae there. Yeah, he is a tiger spine. Yeah. So like, yeah, this is not going to last forever. There will be, we'll see. And then when that happens, we'll see if they start, if they continue to show up in life. Yeah, but it won't because they got the cheat code of winning right away. I feel like you're trying to start an L.T.I.R. conversation and I got to rail the of being mad that Vegas has the audacity to have the hockey team that I deserve to see. But the L.T.I.R. thing, it's all goes back to and shocker, another classic gun and grape. So it goes back to Kucharov, okay. There have been guys on L.T.I.R. before him. But the moment Nikita Kucharov was skating around for four or five weeks before the playoffs. And look, I understand, like guys need ramp up time from an entry. But the moment that one happened and then they won the cup with him being healthy, the second the playoffs started, we can never do anything about this. And to your point, yes, all of these injuries are legit. They, a guy can't, a guy can't accidentally stub his toe walking into work one day and go, Oh, no, I'm on L.T.I.R. That's not how it works. But there's also, we all have to admit an element of playing ball here and going along. Hello, Matt Murray, hello, John Klingberg, like I'm not saying it doesn't happen here among every other place, but the cat's just out of the bag with the L.T.I.R. thing now. I wish there was a way that we didn't have to think so much about it again in a sport where, or in all sports, we want the transaction. We want that conversation. And it's just so much harder in the NHL because this, the cat happened in the L.T.I.R. You know what the fix is? There actually is a fix here. What do you got? So it's like a month ago, the NBA's trade deadline occurred, right? These two seasons run simultaneous to each other. But the NHL, they have their trade deadline with fewer than 20 games to go in the regular season. All you have to do is move the trade deadline up a little bit. So there's more of the regular season. There's more of a risk of missing the playoffs because you're forcing guys to miss, you know, closer to half the season forcing them to L.T.I.R. and I think you eliminated a lot of what we've seen with the L.T.I.R. manipulation. Yeah, that would eliminate that. It would also create the problem of there being literally no sellers in the NHL. Did you imagine a month ago how many teams would get like, look at all the teams who are not in it, who are still going, "Hey, we're kind of in it." I'm cracking. I mean, at least they gave up Wenberg. Yeah. What's going on with the L.I.? What is going on here? Exactly. So that's kind of how I look at it is that it would eliminate the problem of L.T.I.R. shenanigans or whatever, however you want to phrase it, but it would create the problem of there being no trades in the NHL. All right. There's a lot more to get to from yesterday's transactions, including like the best hockey trade and the one that was just mind-bending, boom, byroom, leaving Colorado and joined. Looked very happy. Yeah. Well, he's got a lot of friends on that saber's team. Yeah, I know. I just, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be as happy if it was me. I mean, I know. There's also a little conversation about how he's, you know, he's never going to be Kale McCar on Kale McCar's team and he'd like to be Kale McCar. Yeah. That guy scored a hat trick last night. I don't know if the bone byroom's doing that anytime soon. Anywho. All right. Well, we'll come back. UFC 299 this weekend. We will talk to Kevin Holland, welterweight fighter, Naxx, as the fan morning show continues. Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportset 590, the fan. Hey, it's Aylish for a fire. And I'm Justin Cusbury. Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night. It's the fan pregame. It's 6 p.m. weekdays on Sportsnet, Sportset 590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. UFC 299 this weekend, Saturday from Miami, O'Malley versus Vera. This Saturday, March 9th from Miami main card studs at 10 p.m. available to order and stream on Sportsnet plus at an additional cost. No subscription required visit sportsnet plus dot C a slash UFC to purchase also. You can catch the prelims at 8 p.m. on Sportsnet 360 stream it on sportsnet plus with your standard or premium subscription part of the card this weekend is Kevin Holland against Michael Page of welterweight battle Kevin kind enough to join us right now. Kevin. Thanks so much for doing this. Where are you right now? At the Airbnb, Chile. So what's what's kind of the lead up to fight week like for you? I mean, you know, I don't get in fights regularly, but if I knew I had one come in, I'd be a little nervous. It's your job. What's it like the kind of, you know, I won't say anxiety, but just the kind of ramp up of emotions. I imagine you have kind of heading into it. It's so long. You guys, you know, most athletes prepare for a game. They play one a week, two a week, three a week, you know, you guys have so much time between your fights. What's it like kind of ramping up and getting closer and closer to fight night? Personally, I enjoy fight night. I enjoy a fight week. I saw the bull that goes with it before that that I honestly don't enjoy like the diet and stuff like that. But, you know, I have five weeks in a new scenery, you know, shopping, no, no, I need to put my hand on another individual at the end of the week. It's always a good week for me. I enjoy hunting and there's probably the best thing you can hunt in the roads and the main areas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's been some short stories written about that. Um, yeah, you're, you're, what about this stuff? Like doing the media element of it. You're known as one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC and it's like, yeah, your job is to just to win the fight, but it's also to be entertaining and to be worth watching. Like how much do you enjoy doing this stuff? Oh, yeah, I enjoy media. I mean, not all media is enjoyable with the others, but I enjoy media, especially when they put the story together, right? And, and then I'll use a crazy place for headlines. I enjoy it a lot, you know, it's a counter conversation rule of the nation and I never had a problem having a conversation with somebody. So you, you mentioned you get excited, you get amped up for Fight Night. What's it like coming to, and you know, I don't know that you ever made a concrete decision of, okay, now this is what I want to do. But what's it like deciding that that's what you want to do for a living, fighting other humans? I mean, I can hear it in your voice. You like it. It's fun. I imagine it's got to be a kind of an odd thing to find yourself walking towards as you become an adult. You know, I know you kind of picked up some of the martial arts in your, in your teen years, but what's it like just deciding like, yes, this is what I want to do. And it's hurt and maim other people legally. Oh, it's, it's pretty cool. I mean, I don't care how old you get, you know, it's always nice to know that dad or grandpa or a great grandpa can knock somebody out. And therefore, if you have boys that's underneath you like sons or nephews or anything like that, then they all get to know that, you know, they got some, some big, strong blood in their, you know, you know, it's like, I don't know, I enjoy fighting and I don't think getting older changes that, you know, fading, I understand I'm getting older and I can't fight forever. But the longer I know I can put it right across, cross somebody's face and knock them out. That always seems good. Yeah. So imagine you're keeping yourself occupied here ahead of ahead of this weekend in Florida. How much are you trying to stay away from activities that might end up injuring yourself? Like how do I, is that on your mind at all? They're like, Hey, I don't know if you, you know, you're playing basketball or you're playing a sport here midweek to keep yourself in shape because you'd be afraid of rolling an ankle. No, normally I do whatever I'm getting a little older now. So I don't play basketball as much as I used to, or pretty much any at all anymore. But no, it's my boys, it's my boy says he wants to go 100 gator on Friday or Thursday instead, or even today instead of going on Sunday, I'll go hunt that gator today. I'm fighting doesn't stop anything. I mean, yeah, it's my career. It's what I do for a living, but my entrepreneur got a few things I do. So no matter what, I'm going to make my money and no matter what, I'm going to live my life. Because I have kids, you know, and so no matter what, I'm still a man, I'm still a father in the day. So I just want one aspect of life. Okay. What about your vigilante stuff? Because your Wikipedia page and, and man, feel free to correct me if, if any of this stuff is incorrect. Like three separate incidents in a two year span, a couple of years ago, where you're like breaking up car jacking, you're pulling people from, from turned over tractor trailers. I got, first of all, like what, what exactly happened in that two year span where it felt like every time you stepped out of your house, I guess you were involved in something crazy like that. I mean, I think that you guys hear about, you know, two years is a short time. So I guess my name got big and I figured out how to wait and listen to things without being caught. So now I figured out how to get away from things without being caught because I just won't hear about it anymore. Hey, man, that's, that's still a quite a thing to have on the resume. You mentioned you don't do it much anymore. You like to play basketball now. I remember during my university time, I would play some basketball, pick up basketball with guys on the football team. And I was like the least fun thing I'd ever experienced just because they're bruisers. They played football for not a living. You fight for a living. What's your scouting report like? And why is defending you seem like the least fun thing I could possibly sign up for? I don't know, long, tall, long, rich, I still block people very well. You can defend me pretty good, I'm more like a defensive player, I'm really that great at offense. I get my job done on defense pretty well. I might say a couple of times, but I mean, you get five fouls again. Mm hmm. That's true. Or a six in the NBA. So you cited Georgetown Pierre as an inspiration, obviously our listening audience well-versed in his career. Why was George one of the guys that you looked to when you first decided to get into this line of work? Yeah, I think first UFC fight card I've seen was UFC 100 or 99 or **** like that. And then with the UFC one on one. So the first one I've seen had GSP there, I actually ordered a paper review. The guy was just a very, very, very skilled martial artist. And then over the years of career, you know, just looking up at a guy like GSP, he just always seemed to do the career right, you know, never got busted for anything, didn't take too many losses. And although he does have a loss in his event, you know, it's like just overall just a dominant guy, you know, very respectful guy, you know, kind of hell of a career and I think I like it. Yeah. And he, you know, he tried to do the entertainment part of it and do the mic work a little bit. But it was obviously not in his nature. Like how different is that from your perspective than what we saw from GSP throughout his career? Yeah. He feels good on the mic, wasn't, you know, everybody else's, you know, it's like, he just didn't talk crap or things like that, you know, he was nicer on the mic, you know, said what he had to say and left it alone at that. I just didn't think he ever stuttered or anything like that. So he didn't get it, you know, didn't have as much crafty words as somebody like myself does or Tom McGregor or ****, I don't know, Lee or somebody like that, you know, it's always a real crafty with a tongue. But no, overall, you know, the guy was phenomenal everywhere, you know, it's like a standout student and one would say in these days, I'm pretty sure he could be a standout teacher if he wanted to be. So, yeah, I don't know if I answered your question with the mic thing, but I thought GSP was well everywhere. Yeah, I know. I mean, not a bad word for me to say about him, you know, you lead up to fight the mic stuff. It's so much of what grabs the kind of casuals in. How much do you pay attention to it? You know, I know you've had, I imagine you've had fights where there's very little kind of back and forth. And, you know, here in Utah now, I imagine there's been fights where you have plenty to say and so did the other guy. How much does that kind of impact you or is it all just kind of part of the sideshow leading up to when you actually get to get in the cage? No, I'm really like, I really kind of like a, excuse my language, but I'm a kind of guy. So that really matters. If we're having a lot of conversation and that's great, it's a little bit more fun. If we're having a lot of conversation leading to this, why that's great, she was a little fun. Sometimes guys are annoying. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm annoying. So, you know, sometimes quiet, it's pretty cool too. So, just, you know, Jack and Walter, he's got to be able to talk, got to be able to not talk. You know, I got to deal with it all. It's like part of a road that we live in, you know, sometimes people would have conversations sometimes they don't, and me personally, I'm down for it all. All right. So, your opponent, Michael Page, 36 years old, making his UFC debut, coming over from Bellator, what should we expect and what are you expecting out of him? I'm expecting MVP to be MVP and I'm expecting me to punch him in his mouth as many times as I can. So, you'd be a good one. Yeah. I can't wait to watch it. Kevin, appreciate the time. Thanks for this, man. No problem, brother. I appreciate you. Oh, he appreciates me. Not you so much. It's weird. It's okay. Kipper, you made a great point to Kipper the other day earlier this week and he described it to me. So, yeah. I'd rather, I got to be honest, and this is only because I only have to interact with one of these guys. Mm-hmm. Rather, I've Kipper in my corner. Mm-hmm. See, yeah. Even though he's in Florida right now, Kevin Holland seems like good guy to have him in my corner. Cool with that. Kevin Holland, welterweight fighter. Incredible job by Josh Santos on the other side of his life. In live time, bleeping that. I don't know. He's weird. I don't know how he's able to do that. It is incredible. UFC 299, O'Malley versus Vera, this Saturday, March 9th from Miami, main card, 10 p.m. available to order and stream on Sportsnet Plus at an additional cost. No subscription required. Visit sportsnetplus.ca/ufc to purchase. Also, got three limbs, APM, Sportsnet 360, stream it on Sportsnet Plus with your standard or premium subscription. All right, we'll get back into the Leafs next segment. We'll talk about, hey, how many of these big moves yesterday, do you feel wistful about? Do you feel like, man, the Leafs should have got in on. Also, maybe we'll do this here because I think it's a very quick conversation. And I appreciate in a game where there wasn't a ton to talk about. Craig Simpson throwing something our way, something to chew on. Leafs in action again tonight, yes, against Boston, in Boston, Joe Wall got the start on Monday at home, yes, against the Bruins. Samson has been great now and two consecutive starts on Saturday against the Rangers and yesterday against the Sabres. Hey, we've seen it happen this season, and it was with Martin Jones, yeah, start on the both ends of the back to back, and it's not like he was peppered yesterday, he made the saves that he needed to make, but it wasn't like he faced 60 shots. Is there any part of you that thinks, hey, all right, I would like to give this guy a little carrot for the way he's played, and I would like to see a different look against the Boston Bruins. Let's start, Ilya Sampson off on both games of the back to back. No, no part of me says that, you know, when the team started Martin Jones in the back half of the back to back after he played in the first one, when they had no other option and they were terrified to put the Hill to beast in there, okay, that this welcome to the NHL in 2024, and it's going to be this way in perpetuity forever, unless you have a guy who is so night and day above the other guy, and guess what, if that goal is so good, you got to protect him and you can't be running him out there and back to back. The Leafs have two, is one guy going better than the other guy right now, I will, I will chip the cap to Sampsonov and saying right now, if you have recent sample size, that has been the guy going better, but not so much so that you think you're going to get a better result out of him than you would wall tonight. The other part of it is if you're doing it for the carrot, does it not, and I know we should maybe not think about the number one goalie or the one a goalie, one b goalie this way, does it not set him up for failure effectively, back half of a back to back against the team, they're sitting there waiting for you. It's Boston, they always bring it against the Leafs. Even if you think this guy is going so well, he deserves this, why would you do that to him right now? So the answer to that is negative, a billion. >> You know what I would actually be more tempted to do, and I don't think this is going to happen in probably not ultimately what I would do. >> Okay. >> I might do the Winnipeg Jets like Connor Hellabock never starting against the Leafs or like them keeping him away from the Leafs and saying like it's all gravy, here's Martin Jones. Hey Martin Jones, we got to keep him on the roster at least, you know, until the trade deadline and maybe circumstance forced us to finally have to try and slip him through waivers because of monetary considerations. But here's Martin Jones, we're saving all our bullets for the postseason anyways, like we don't, we're not taking anything away from these regular season matchups against you, Boston Bruins, we're keeping our powder dry, and all we expect to lose this game, we don't care that much, and it's nothing but positive emotions, if in fact you pick up two points on the back end of back to backs against the team that's ahead of you in the Atlantic Division standings against the team that you could face in the first round of the postseason with a goalie who's not even going to be part of your postseason future. >> Yeah, Joel has got to play. >> Like I hear all that, like I honestly- >> I'm just saying that I would more likely do that than start Samson off from back to back. >> Okay, actually, you know what, for once I think we found the first thing this year regarding Leafs goal-tetting we have agreed on. Good job, I agree with you that I would be way, I'd be more likely to start jet Alexander than I would. >> This guy's a real NHL or I don't know where he is, it's like I give Jonas and Roth the net before I would give it to Ilya Samsonov tonight. >> Little four-foot Jonas and Roth? >> Little four, I would dare give Michael Hutchison the net before he of, you know, I'd put he who shall not be named David Ayers and before I'd be putting Samsonov in net tonight. Now there's just no way you can do it and Wall's got to play and if you think he's the guy, you have to give him this tonight because not that he was bad, but he got out-dooled. And that was actually the story of all of the Leafs' playoffs for so long as not bad but out-dooled. Whether it's you want to talk about the goal-tetting with Freddy Anderson for so long, or just the team at large where hey, good series against the lightning but out-dooled. That was the story for so long and that was the case for Wall on Monday Night Against Boston so you got to go back to him. >> Yeah, and any questions we may have had about Ilya Samsonov's ability to battle against another potential starter and looking over his shoulder and whether that would affect him in a negative light. The last couple of starts hasn't been the case. I mean the start on Saturday came after Joe Wall came back and got a victory and a good outing against the Arizona Coyotes. I don't think we have the same questions about Joe Wall but Leafs feel like they're in a good spot. Goal-tetting wise, you got a couple of guys that are not being crushed by the pressure put on the other guy by the other guy and a couple of guys that their best can be above average NHL goal-tenders. >> They're in as good a spot as you can be in goal-tending without having one of the, and again, however small or large that club is for you, five, six, seven guys. They're as good a spot at goal-tending as you can be outside of the clubs who have one of those guys. >> All right, when we come back, talk a little bit more about tonight's game. And yes, revisit all the moves from yesterday where the Leafs have any regrets and maybe we can talk a little bit about Colton Pareko. >> Maybe. >> That and more next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Counting, sports at 590 the fan.
