I'm ready to do a radio show called the Fan Morning Show on Sportsnet 590 the fan Ben and his Brent Gunning. Good morning to you, Brent. Good morning to you. I'm not betting cut you off because I was going to say I'm ready to say good morning to you, Ben and as that's what I'm ready to do. Yeah, you just said it. I know. And all done. Everyone knows now. Yeah. I'm like yesterday when I said a thing, I'm like, I wasn't, I wasn't trying not to say it. I just said the thing. Yeah. Well done. I don't know if I've ever seen this get up where it's a sweat. It's like a vest on top of a sweater. You okay with that? No, I'm fine with it. It's quite warm for even one sweater, but two, let's say you're taking it to another level. I don't, I don't feel like it's particularly warm in here. It will be particularly warm outside later and don't think you're coming in here all, all under in cloak and dagger because you have a sweater on. Don't think I didn't see your. Yeah. Only one sweater though. Don't think I didn't see your white golf ball poking around like you're a man who's going to abuse some turf later today. Yeah, I did. I, you know what I was yesterday? I was the first group off the tee. I was the first human being off the tee on the first day of my golf course opening up. I couldn't even wait. I couldn't even wait for, for Sandman hit us with that. I needed to give you my applause as well. Thank you. Good job there. You know, there are certain check marks. I, I, or just things you'd like to accomplish in your life. And some of them are grandiose. Some of them are less so like I remember the first time I played golf and hockey on the same day. Oh, wow. I was like, this is great. I walked to the rink and flip flops. I played some terrible golf earlier in the day. Deon Sanders, you know, Bo Jackson. Basically the exact same thing. Yeah. I like more, you know, Bo Jackson. He's more my physique. Sure. I'll stick with him. But yeah, it's like that is definitely something I would love to accomplish one day. First group out on a course for a year and you did a good job. A lot of pressure involved in being the first group off and hitting the first shot of the new year. Yeah, we're, so you're, you're basically Jack Nicholas, the master. That's right. And now this decrepit. Yeah, younger man, then, except unlike those guys who just hit the tee shot, somebody else picks up their ball. Like I had to walk to the ball and play the rest of the hole. It's also very kind how we've, and now we're just getting a feel of the things, but how we've changed the camera angle on that. Like I remember it used to be behind them and it was like, Oh, look at Jack. He's, he's still got it. And now they don't even show the making contact. I don't think. Yeah. Smart. Yeah. I mean, Gary Pirate can still swing it though. I feel like his. Oh God. Gary players are going to live to 200. We all agree. He's the fittest man ever. He was like Jack LaLaine before Jack LaLaine. And yeah, we've like, we've had him on the station before. He started talking about all the gold deposits in Western Canada. That's right. Certainly a thing that happened. Yeah. Okay. I have no transition. Okay. To the National Hockey League. But I will say, it's kind of a weird week in the Black Knight of, no, no, it's kind of a weird week in Toronto sports because, hey, the Raptors play tonight against the Pistons. Yeah, ready. Dwayne Casey. Well, no longer, but once upon a time, but we don't even have that tenant anymore. Yeah, no way. We'll be breaking down that game in depth tomorrow. It happened. The Leafs have this, this weird gap in the schedule as they play tomorrow as well. Hadnerd. In Philadelphia against the Flyers. We're coming off the trade deadline. You may have noticed listener that many of the hockey insiders are taking this moment in time after their hard work the previous week. And then before that leading up to the trade deadline, they've kind of taken a step back. Yeah, it's just kind of like a weird little quirk in in the Toronto sports schedule. That being said, allows you to expand your horizons, pay more attention to the the National sports conversation. I was noticing the Red Wings are very much in free fall right now. They just continue to lose the Red Wings losing to the Buffalo Sabres. They're six consecutive. All those games and regulation, by the way. And I mentioned how the Patrick Waugh thing and and the thing that you could have hoped for if you were a one of those Leafs fans that wanted a coaching change and and looking at the possible scenarios in which the Leafs get a boost and the lack of names that were available to deadline. And the one thing that could have really treated that team like it could have been the the the the gnaws in their gas tank changing the head coach and what it would have done record wise for them. Well, it's happening for the Islanders. They've already passed the Red Wings. Red Wings continue to flounder. They lose a 7-3 in Buffalo yesterday. I'm old enough to remember Brent. And tell me if you remember this conversation. Okay. I think we had it. I'm old enough to remember. No, I'm old enough to remember. I think it was October. Couldn't have been much later than October or November where we looked at some of the Atlantic division teams. We're like, hey, Detroit, hey, Ottawa. Like, is this the season one of those teams jump into the mix with Boston, Toronto, Tampa, Florida to a lesser degree? We didn't know Florida was going to have this type of season. It turns out, no, that's not the case. Did you know that we're headed towards a seventh consecutive season where some combination of Toronto, Boston, Tampa, or the Panthers are in the top three in the Atlantic division? So you can say that that's boring and it kind of is. And it's part of the discussion as to why the Maple Leafs haven't broken through more than they have in the postseason, picking up their first series win in 20 plus years last season. And their first series win in this Austin, Matthew's tenure. It's been boring. But the reason that the NHL has instituted these divisional rules as far as, hey, that the second and third team in the division play each other in the postseason. And we have three, four games between teams during the regular season in this division is to create rivalries. I don't know if you can argue against that over the last half or half decade plus. Maple Leafs and Lightning is a rivalry. As we just saw a couple of times last week, Maple Leafs and the Bruins is a rivalry. Partly is because of the regular season stuff, but partly is because of the recent postseason history. Leafs Panthers, despite them only meeting once in the postseason, there was enough physicality in that five game series a season ago that I would say that there is a rivalry between the Leafs and the Panthers. Is the NHL getting its wish when it first envisioned this divisional setup? Well, I mean, in order for them to get their wish, that would presume they want half a division to be on the outside looking in for at least half a decade. And I, I'm willing to bet Gary and co would say, no, no, no, we don't want to have the same set playoff teams. But to your point, I think each one of those teams is kind of different, right? Boston, you're right. There is recent playoff history, but so much of it is the jersey, so much of his Bradmarshan, so much of his regular season stuff, quite frankly, that you would have got if you just had one through eight, and they were just in the same division, and they were fighting for the pecking order in that division. Leafs Tampa, I can make no qualms about that was a creation of the wild card system and them having to play each other every single year. That job well done. Leafs Panthers. Now, I don't think this is going to be the case, but because of you want to talk about weird scheduling quirks, the jury is still out on they played once this year, and they played two more times. Now, I think the schedule has heard it the fact that there hasn't been these games peppered throughout the season two. Hey, remember, Matthew could check a like how fun would it have been if the second leaf panthers game came three weeks after Max told me was saying you're bald to say embedded like how good would that have been, but it didn't happen. It's not going to happen until the last two weeks of the regular season, basically. So I think to a certain extent, leaf panthers, I don't expect there to be a lack of animosity, but I just think the jury is still out on that one because the teams have played each other so sparsely. So I actually think those three specific teams kind of make the argument for it, make the argument against it and make the argument for we'll see with the Florida Panthers. Yeah, the Leafs also play in this this division that is one of the toughest in all the NHL, right? And they've they've been consistently outside of that first season where they were a wild card team and they had to play the top team in the NHL and the Washington Capitals, presidents, trophy champions. They're like, good enough to be in the top three, not good enough to win the Atlantic and not bad enough to be in a wild card spot where you play teams outside of the division. I was actually looking at who was it. It was Rennell of Wall who brought up the specter of, hey, let's just blow up the conferences as well. Well, he said the divisions and like, it's like, I go nuts, I blow up the conferences and just do one through 16. And I was like, hey, what is the scenario? Sure. Who would the Leafs be playing one if they blew up the divisions? And just did one through eight in the conference? And hey, who would they be playing if they blew up the conferences altogether? Turns out it's the same team. It's the Carolina Hurricanes, Brent, who are right there. Leafs and the Keynes are eight, nine in the National Hockey League, and they're four or five in the Eastern Conference. So it's basically the Spiderman meme. The Freddie Anderson Bowl is what that would be. Yeah, who's had his health issues this season, but back in pog form? I don't know how you'd feel about like, it would be interesting to, I guess, to see somebody different. And it's not to say that it's been nothing but Bruins, Tampa, and then Florida in the second round, because we had the blue jackets and the weirdo, which like at the time, what I was told was not going to be viewed as a playoff series in retrospect now is a playoff series. And then of course, the Montreal Canadiens in the North Division series. The way it works is they would have got no credit for winning that playoff series. Right. Because they lost it in embarrassing fashion that we do still. No, it's legit. Now that's how it works. All right, leave math. How would you feel about the Hurricanes and Jake Genssel in a first round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs? Me personally, I'd say, oh, that's different. That'd be fun. Me personally, I'd also not enjoy the, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't be clear. I wouldn't be bringing any of this to the mic, but the weakish of David Ayers content leading into that series. I just, I feel like we have to talk about that. I think there is some element of it that you would enjoy it, but I also think familiarity is what you want in playoffs. I mean, part of it is that they won all the time, but a formative memory for me as a hockey fan is battle of Ontario. And was that even better? Because it's actual provincial rivals. And there's real hate there. Yeah, but to our point, there's a lot of hate between the Leafs and Boston. There's a lot of hate between the Leafs and Tampa. It's entirely possible. There's still a lot of hate between the Leafs and Florida. And I don't think that exists at all with the Carolina Hurricanes. So I don't think they would be in a better spot. And to just to say they, the NHL would not be in a better spot. Here's, the Hurricanes could win the Stanley Cup this season. Of course they could. The Hurricanes were one of the most aggressive teams that the NHL tried deadline. Yeah, hurricanes are scary looking teams. The Hurricanes, I mean, to the David Ayers point, the Hurricanes can play some team defense. They can shut you down. And they got some game breaking talent. They would like more of it. Clearly that's been the issue for them, but Hurricanes are good. But just because of the number of heartbreaking losses in game sevens, and then finally breaking through in an overtime of a game six last season that you've, like you, look at the Bruins, you look at the Lightning and maybe less so because of the breakthrough against the Lightning. The Bruins specifically, because of the institutional and different generation of Leaf team for one game seven, yeah, because of the institutional or the generational trauma that you'd suffer, the hands of the Bruins, I think any Leaf fan given their brothers would say, yeah, give me the Hurricanes. Here's the thing though, out, like take off your Leaf hat for a second. Okay, it's tough. Just like, first thing I do every morning when I get in the car to come here is take it off. Yeah, well, I mean, you are wearing your NHL, you're wearing your shield or hat. Yeah, I'm Rob Lowe, protect the shield. Yeah, you're wearing your NHL hat today. Like just a hockey fan with no skin in the game. Don't they want to see Leafs Bruins again? Or are they sick of that? Like, I think they they certainly want to see the highlights of it was for one, right? Like they do want to see the couple of game sevens that Austin Matthews has played in against the Boston Bruins in this generation. I think the hockey world at large really is enjoying the specter of another Leafs Bruins first round series. There is no team in the Atlantic. And I'm talking about even the ones that aren't in the playoffs so that any neutral hockey fan would want the Hurricanes over would take the Hurricanes to match up over the Leafs. Like, if you just told a neutral hockey fan, hey, I know the Montreal Canadiens suck. It's going to be Leafs Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs that just signed me up for that. Because again, you have to, if you're asking me to put myself in the position of a neutral hockey fan, we basically go back to Blue Jackets rules where if the Leafs win that series, it's like, who cares? They beat it also ran. But if they lose, I get to laugh and point in embarrassment. Like, I do think that is, that's part of it. So I think that a neutral fan of course wants those Atlantic division teams infinitely more than they want the Hurricanes. One other thing we talk about with divisions and I, I think there's a pretty obvious answer to this, but I feel like it has to be raised is, and I'm just guilty of it as anyone else because I think it's true of the Leafs playing in the best division in the NHL. Not just, not this year specifically, but over the last four, five seasons, whatever you want, the Tampa era, however you got to want to earn the Florida era now, including the Panthers. Well, before that, I mean, listen, they lost in the first round last year, but it was like the Bruins, the historic regular season they had a season ago. If I'm a fan of any of the good teams in the Pacific, I'm raising my hand going, hold on a second, guys. The Stanley, the defending Stanley Cup champs who loaded up at the deadline, who everyone thinks are Frankenstein's monster, so long as they get in, are not one of the top three teams in our division. And I'm supposed to sit here and say that somebody else has the scariest division in hockey. Like, does the Pacific division have a gripe there this year specifically? This year, I guess. I mean, well, and considering the regular season the Canucks have had, and yeah, they're not the same type of juggernaut. They were at the beginning of the season, made yesterday. We'll see what happens to Demko. >> Well, yeah, he's weak to weak and that doesn't appear to be any real concern about him missing postseason games for the Vancouver Canucks. But I mean, I don't think you can just wash away the idea that it happens during the postseason for the Vegas Golden Knights. Even going back to last year, right? But this is a team that because they've had these Mark Stone injuries year over year over year, and this year it's a lacerated explain last year, it's like the back thing. And that's just kind of his deal. >> Yeah. >> He's on, he's on LTIR and then he shows up in the postseason that they haven't exactly had these dominant regular seasons. Yeah, they've had an incredible amount of postseason success, by which I mean, like, ending up in the Stanley Cup final in their first season of existence. And then finally, finally, that long last breaking through last season with their first ever title. But it's them, okay, the Kings are hanging around there. But like, in the Atlantic, it's the dynastic lightning. >> Totally. >> It's a Bruins team that's been in a final in recent vintage and won a cup, I mean, not in this generation, but- >> Grab our shot was there. >> Yeah, and then even Panthers during the regular season last year had to step back and end up in a Stanley Cup final. But before that, I mean, they'd want a president's trophy in this Leafs generation as well. No, it's just like, it's one after another after another after another. Yeah, you can talk about, okay, I guess if you were a Canucks fan, you can point to the Oilers. But yeah, the Oilers haven't had this overwhelming success over this near-decade span of Conor McDavid yet either. No, the Atlantic and stuffer. >> Yeah, I agree. I just had to throw it out there because I do think, I think you can, and it's like anything in life, especially when we're doing sports talk, it's like you can thread the needle to make a really nice argument for the Pacific. But overall, body of work, Atlantic for sure. >> Yep, just ask some of the teams that can't even make the playoffs in that division. >> Any of them ever gonna get good? >> I mean, certainly the Red Wings thought this was a year that they went out and got Patrick Kane and the numbers have been, it's hard to have expected more than what they've gotten at a Patrick Kane. >> Yeah, I just, but like no. >> The Sabres, it has to happen eventually for the Sabres who are getting some gold tending now. And yeah, Bobarum has like, he's racked up a bunch of points since he's been on the blue line for them. Maybe he's like the linchpin to turning them into a successful franchise finally. >> I like to think of them, and this is just for my own sake, but I hope what happens with them is they become defense Leafs. They go, my God, can you build a team with three 10 million dollar defense men back there in Daliene and power? And now you got by them, they gotta make a trade for a forward, they gotta trade one of these bums like just from a discourse perspective. What I would give for that, because it's like, don't be wrong, I like Taged Thompson, I like doing cousins, but they're a lot closer to Morgan Riley as a forward than the upper upper echelon than maybe some of those defensemen. >> Yeah, and what you've seen in a lifetime of watching hockey would lead you to believe that is the more prudent way to build the successful. >> Yeah, I want to be clear, yeah. >> Key team, except they haven't made the playoffs yet, and the Leafs, I mean, hey, it's different getting Austin Matthews one compared to like Rosmus Daliene one and Daliene's good, but like, and all in power. >> Yeah, but yeah, the Leafs have made the playoffs in each and every season of Austin Matthews career. I will say there's a lot of talk about them with like, can you have so many guys on the left side? I do love the thought experiment, I don't know that it will work, and I'm happy it's not my team running it out there, but I do love the thought experiment of three, kale macar light, not like, I want to be clear, light versions of him on the left side, and then a bunch of like, Iliya Labushkin's from the lack of a better term on the right side. What does that look like? >> I'd like to see, unless it works out too well, and then stop that immediately. >> Yeah, you'd like to see a simulation where that plays out, or if it's too good, then you would not like to see it in reality. >> I don't know, the NHL's adding new teams everywhere, it's like the sabers might be back in the Western Conference if they keep this up. >> That's true. >> All right, speaking of Austin Matthews, at last check, he was going through it a little bit, and it goes beyond the numbers, where he scored two goals in his last eight games, four points over that span. One of those goals was in the final minute of overtime against the aforementioned Buffalo Sabers, where he was largely absent, as were most of the Toronto Maple Leafs forwards in that game. This is one of the most boring 60 plus-minute hockey games the Maple Leafs have played this season. Maybe the most boring, actually. I mean, you just stack them all up against each other. >> You're just going to person ask. >> Yeah, it's pretty boring. No, the one in Buffalo wasn't boring that I went to. >> It's fair. >> There was nothing boring about a million goals. Yeah, nine of them going in against Ilya Sampsonov and Martin Jones. Anyways, this is a guy who had a disappointing 40 goal season a year ago, and you wondered, hey, is this a, okay, where, like, what is, how much did the potential hand wrist injury play into a season in which he had his lowest shooting percent engine? Yeah, 40 goals, but man, just rewatched the 82 game season. That didn't look like the previous seasons where we've seen this guy score 60. How much of that was just bad luck? How much of that was injury? And then, yeah, he gets off to this 70 goal pace and still close to it. But recently, it hasn't looked like the same dude that we've seen put up at a 70 goal pace. Frankly, the last eight games or so looks a lot like the guy that we saw a season ago. Now, it's you're allowed to do that when you're off to a 70 goal pace, and that's what Sheldon Keith has essentially said. It's like, that's the whole thing about a historic pace is it's historic for a reason. It's very difficult to maintain. And who knows? You could throw up a hat trick tomorrow night in Philly and we're not having this conversation. How much longer does it have to continue before you start scratch your head a little bit, though? I think this is a massive point for it because if it was, and again, like we have the conversation already this week about what's an excuse, what's just giving people actual information that affects a thing is if he has been sick, if it's been this flu bug. And hey, we've all been there, like, we're not all professional athletes, but we've all had days where we're just not at our best, or we have a flu bug or some sickness that just kind of lingers and you can't kick it and you're just low energy for a week or two. We've all been there. If that's what was happening or that is what's happening, I think that this is a massive game against Philly, not in the sense of he needs to be great or the Leafs are doomed here, but it would go a long way to have seen a guy who hasn't been on the ice or played a game in five days to look really fresh and spry and like he has some jump in his step and that allows you, I think, to exhale and go, okay, it was one of those weeks, it was an illness that's been bothering him. If that's not the case, this is a guy that's just been bit by the injury bug a bazillion times in his career. And again, I know people are going to hear that and say, ah, make an excuses for him. Maybe you look at it as an excuse. I'm just telling you what I think is happening because we know what this guy looks like when he says he didn't forget how to play hockey last week or he didn't forget how to two weeks ago. He's been injury plagued and sometimes it's resulted in missing games, but like quite often it's just plays through it. It's like, oh, well, why is he only on a 40 goal pace and not a 70 goal pace? It's like, oh, well, that's why he needs like risk surgery in the off season. Was that a factory goal scoring pace? Probably. It's insane that he scored 40 goals with a thing that was so significant, it required an operation in the off season. Now, if this is where I think if he doesn't look, and it's not all resting on tonight, it's coming out of this break, right? How does he look tonight? How does he look on Saturday? How does he look in the back-to-back she have coming up? I think you look at it part and parcel. Then we have to have start having the conversation. If it is not a return to form, is this something that is not hampered by playing through or is this something that giving him two weeks would help? Because part of the position that they're at in the standings, they're far from home and clear. They're pretty home. Well, that's what I was going to get at there. They're not far from home. No, no, no. I don't mean for a playoff spot. I mean, for one of the top three in the Atlantic, it's like, can you sit them down for two weeks? Is that going to help anything? Does the goal scoring pace he's on kind of make that a non-starter in terms of where he's at? Because if it's going to give you a better version of Austin Matthews, two months from now, then I don't think the goal scoring matters can come into this. But if that's just a thought, a theory, not a thing you know concrete, I think it's pretty hard to look at a guy and say, "Sorry, we got to put your 70 goal season on the back burner because this could maybe help. Maybe it'll get better. Maybe it won't." And again, I want to be clear. I don't know or even think there's an injury. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to this bug that's been around the team. And that's why a hope, please, fingers crossed that there's a more spry version of Matthews tonight, or sorry, not tonight, because heaven forbid the Leafs play a game this week when they inevitably play a game a hundred years from now. Right. Now that we're making, or we talked about the ability to make devil's advocate arguments and how that's crucial to being in this job. Oh my God. Sitting in this position. Is there an argument to be made that coming off the 70 goal pace is actually beneficial to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the long term. He still has six goals to go to register his second 60 goal season. Let's also not forget that he only played 73 games of that 60 goal season. Absurd. Which is ridiculous. So like, yeah. You know, that is of all the Matthews numbers that gets bandied about. That does feel like one that slides just a hair under the radar. Nine games scored 60 goals. Almost an eighth of the season. Okay. Like say, say 70 is no longer a realistic target for this guy. And there is a benefit. I do. I tend to think that, you know, with all as much as, you know, the individual accolades and the milestones are cool. I think everybody in their right mind understands that the ultimate goal thing, the postseason stuff, supersedes it. For sure. But it is a factor. I mean, just go back again to looking at that 60 goal season. He scored 60 goals. And he's like, I'm done for the season. Like, I'm finished. And I believe that was in game 80. Yeah. One again, the team force feeding him to get there. Yeah, we'll never not be hilarious. Yeah. Is there a benefit to him coming off the 70 goal pace and being you can be a little more judicious with how how you issue his ice time. It must be said, he's averaging almost a minute more per game this season than he did a season ago. I know what you're saying. And I can all I can squint and see it. But then I have to remove the possibility that Austin Matthews is not going to have forget hat tricks, but any more two goal nights, this regular season. And the Leafs need Austin Matthews to it's not a matter of him playing like the best version of himself, because I think he's a guy who can find his game pretty quickly. But the Leafs need all these guys, this sky high confidence wise as they can heading into whatever postseason series it's going to be. Be it against Boston, be it against Florida, whoever it ends up against, you need these guys in a good space. So I can squint and see that argument. But I think that the only way that that happens is if Austin Matthews has a kind of pedestrian last month and change of the season here and that is not a recipe for leaf success, forget in the regular season, in the postseason for me. So I think, you know, in a perfect world, he'd be chasing 70 chasing 70 chasing 70 and then you could back him off just a hair at the end when it's like, okay, you're not going to get three hat tricks in a row here to get your 70. But I think you want that as a carrot a little bit longer for sure. Yeah, and you want him to be able to to clinch the rocket, which seems like that's that's fair to complain. The devil did love that one though. He was like, hmm, good advocating, very good. So Max Domi was kind of sort of supplanted. Does the second line see and acquiring a depth forward? I don't think Connor Doer is like the guy that you're like, well, now there's no doubt. Imagine walking into the Leafs room being like, hey, Max, are you worried about your second line center spot now that Connor Doer is here? He's like, what? Yeah, why? Yeah, but you're not wrong. Well, and so, I mean, in early sample and you're right, we need to see what it looks like when Mitch Marner returns, which doesn't look like it's going to be tomorrow and maybe it's a different look. But at the moment, I think Sheldon Keith wants to see the look of David Camp, third line center. And that means John Tavares second line center, which means Max Domi back to the wing. Yep. Where at first love didn't go so well. No. Since then, he was put up the middle where he had great success. And as now had a number of moments in his first season with his hometown team, Toronto Maple Leafs, is the reason to expect a different result second go around as a as a winger on this team, right? There's reason to think there could be. I don't know. Expect is is strong, strong terminology for me. But I think there's a reason to think. I just said it with Matthews confidence is such an important thing. If it matters for a guy like Matthews, who can kind of turn it on in the moment, of course, it matters for a guy like Domi, who, you know, I don't think there's a knock on him to say he's not quite the hockey player that that Austin Matthews is. I think that you it's entirely possible you see a player who was able to get himself more engaged, find a role on this team, find his voice in the room. And I don't say that to think he was some wallflower at the beginning, but when it's not going well for you, it's hard to be that guy. And you know, I think it's pretty apparent that Domi's a pretty vocal guy in whatever group he's a part of. So yeah, I think it's entirely possible that you get a different version of it. The other thing I think has to be included in the equation for this as well is is Sheldon Keefe looking at the possibilities of one lineup at home when he can control last change and one lineup on the road when he can't. And does he feel better having a David Camp that he if the camp line is one he can trust, does he feel better having that on the road? Or does he feel better about a Tavares lineup top when he can kind of pick their spots for them? I think that'll be that's something I'm kind of keeping an eye on is I think we're going to get so caught up in the binary of is Max Domi a center, is he not on this team? I think it's entirely possible that there is a lineup at home and a lineup on the road and I don't know that bodies actually come in and out. It's just a matter of the way they're stacked up front. Yeah, I think it's also kind of a fool's errand to talk about the lines at any given point with Sheldon Keefe coached hockey team. He's been better this year. He's been so much better. Well, I mean, it's hard to go away from something that's had to success like a seven game winning streak or the run applied the Leafs have had previous to losing a couple to the Boston Bruins. But like even in game, right? Like the blender can come out at any time and if you're chasing the game more of a slap chop than the blenders. Yeah, the idea of putting together yeah, the high event line of Bertuzzi and Domi together when you're down a couple of goals and yeah, you can you can roll the dice a little bit in your own zone because it doesn't matter, you need goals anyways, like that that yeah, that changes things no doubt, but I it's it's got to be tough to come into a situation where you have such high expectations and boy, don't forget the comments that were made. I don't know if they were explicitly made to Elliot Friedman, but Elliot Friedman had the report that Max Domi would love to like make this more than a one year course deal in Toronto. Clearly this guy understands the insular things other than the on ice riches that come your way if you're a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs in good standing. I don't want to cut free just grass here, but I can report that that Max Domi would like to remain in Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, that's a that's a lot to put on you and you're one of the most notable additions to a team with Stanley Cup aspirations and to get off to the start that he did. Yeah, it's tough go. I do think there's something like it's he's only human to have the confidence of having success to be part of a team now that is at least good enough to finish top three in the Atlantic where that was not a guarantee even a month ago. Yeah, I think you're going to see it different Max Domi. I do too. I'm I'm excited to see it. And honestly, I think that, you know, it's a one off game. It's not going to be the be all an end all, but a team like the Flyers is perfect to get the best version of him. It's going to be a chippy game. It's going to be a little mean. They're going to be ornery because they don't have their beloved torts behind the bench. So yeah, it feels like a good night for Max Domi again, not tonight, but one day. The iconic Canadian rock band Blue Rodeo hitting Budweiser stage on Saturday, August 24th, along with guests Matt Mays and begonia to celebrate. We're giving away tickets all week long to Andrew. All you have to do is tune into episodes of the fan morning show. Listen for the code word, then you text that code word to 59590. Today's code word is rodeo. Now yesterday was blue. Today is rodeo. Text rodeo to 59590 right now for your chance to win. We're giving away another pair of tickets tomorrow. But if you don't win with us, you can secure your tickets on Friday, 10 a.m. Eastern time on ticketmaster.ca. When we come back, the players is about to start tomorrow in Florida. Scotty Scheffler learned how to putt. Does that mean we're about to see a Tiger Woods-like run? And also, have we seen the end of Aaron Rodgers as an NFL quarterback? Thank you, Aaron. I hate you, but thank you. Sports hate, I guess. Could we see him in the White House next? That and more as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sports F590, the fan. Hey, it's Ailish Forafar. And I'm Justin Cunford. 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, 6 p.m. weekdays on sports stats, Sports F590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. Sports F590, the fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, 5th major, starting tomorrow on Avidra, Beach, Florida, the players championship. What, you never called it that? No, I did like, I did like for the PGH Championship before they, before they, like, rejigged the order of it. I did, like, glory's lash for that one. That one I liked, but the 5th major, come on. It was a tournament of significance, though. Of course, of course, no, it is. But now they have elevated events. It's like, now there's, now you can't have the 5th major, because then you just have to go now to the 9th major, because of all these elevated events. So, sorry, you did this to yourself. Like many things, PGA tour, you did this to yourself. You're right. The elevated events have kind of flattened the, like, non-major elevated events. It's like the players. The waste management. The memorial. It's like, we keep going here. No, I know. But the 17th at Sawgrass, still, it's, like, if you're a, like, a peripheral golf fan, name the holes that you can name, it's the number one hole. You're right. It actually, I do think, if you just tell most casual golf fans, close your eyes, picture a golf hole. That is probably the first one that comes to mind. Yeah. Although, for me, like, 18 is the tougher hole. Like, wait, what a, wait tougher. What a vintage hole. Although, for me, you know, we're just getting into my golf game. It's like, you see me, you know, you, you know, I've been knowing to miss right on occasion. So, that one, for me, is great, because I would just aim dead into the middle of that lake, and I know it would find its way back to land, for me, personally. Yeah, you're right. For me, problem. What are you, okay, just doing golf nerd stuff quickly. Close your eyes. Think of a golf hole. Would it, like, just one come to mind for you? I agree with you. It is players for most casual people. Yeah. I got to say, like, 18 in St. Andrews. I close my eyes. This is a wrong answer, I think. I close, and I always get the whole number wrong. I think it's seven. The super shorty par three at Pebble. It's, like, eight yards into the, just to hit it into the Pacific Ocean. Good luck with that. Yeah, where it's 111 yards, but it can play, you can have like a three wood. Yeah, or it could play three yards long, and you can barely touch it, depending on which way the wind's blowing there. Yeah, give me 18 at Pebble though, too. Oh, my God. Yeah. Do you want to just talk about our favorite golf holes for what you're doing, too? All right. It's players. By the way, Golf Show will be coming back with myself and Sam McKee. I'll sneak a little plug in here, and you are more than welcome any time you want at some point this summer to come and discuss your action. How come people, you know, Twitter is all about, hey, name random relievers. You should just do a golf show where it's just name your favorite hole. Just name some holes. So this is now we're just a field of golf. Whatever. But here we are. You know who's scary good at seeing a picture of golf holes and naming them is Michael Grange. So TPC, I know free odds, but I will give them one quickly. I love it up there at TPC Toronto. They have three different top 100 courses, and all the time throughout the summer, they will just tweet out a beautiful picture of one of their holes. And I don't think I've ever seen Grange miss on 13 Hoot. Nine north. Like it's just he's incredible there. And that means you're a sicko. Grange, and I love you for it. But yeah, I do love just talking about great golf holes. I could do it forever. Yeah, Sawgrass has a few. It's an entertaining place to watch a golf tournament. It'll be more entertaining if like all the best players in the world were playing in this thing. And this is where I got to say I feel the live thing the most. Because the first time I felt it. Yeah, the majors, we get to see everybody together. And I listen, I like an elevated PGA tour event that isn't the players. And that, sure, it sucks not seeing everybody at Riviera, blah, blah, blah. No, this is different. Like, because to me, this tournament does have a special place in my heart and some spectacular moments at this tournament. And for them not to be there and for there being no path to them being there. Although Jay Monahan has talked about momentum being made between the Saudi Investment Fund and the PGA tour and the merger that they've been discussing now for months and months. Yeah, there's momentum being made there. But like also nobody has given us any specifics on what that means. No, I don't know what that means. By which I mean, I don't know if live players are going to be able to play on the PGA tour. I don't know if PGA tour players are going to be able to play on the live tour. I don't know if there's like some new team format that's coming to the PGA tour. We don't know what it means. It could just be like a sharing of money. Could be. Which would suck. But yeah, I gotta say, the shine has been worn off this tournament to a degree for me. That's interesting because I, and I'll just, for the 8,000th time, triple down and wear a mat on this. I loathe live and think it's just brutal for the game of golf. I hate what it stands for. I hate the idea of shotgun starts. I hate the idea of no cut events. And I'm all for music when I play. But I hate the idea of music being played during a professional golf. Shorts to me, like the shorts, it just gets me. All of it. Okay. Like I don't get as irked by that, but it does hurt me a little bit. But when I was watching last weekend, and I felt this a little through the Hawaii swing as well, is that this, the first time I have felt the missing of, but it's not the missing of the live guys. It's just one guy. Like, Cam Smith took his claret jug and left. And I have not thought about him for one second since quite frankly. Phil Beckleson, is he a fun character to have around? Sure. But guess what? It still feels like he's around because he's popping off of the mouth all the time. Dustin Johnson's fine, but I don't miss him. Sergio, same deal. And Brooks Kepka. I don't miss him week to week on the PGA tour. And he still plays all the majors. So I don't miss him. I miss John Rom. And he is the first guy of all of these guys who have left that you feel like something is missing from the product. You know, Sheffler ended up running away with the tournament, the Arnold Palmer last week. But he had a pretty good leaderboard there. And part of it was just how good he was at the tail end of last year. But I'm going, where's Rambo? It feels like he should be in there. Where is he? Right. Playing golf in a tournament that doesn't matter for money that he's already been paid. So that was the first time I really felt it. Maybe it'll feel different this week watching the players and no Kepka being there will get to me or Cam Smith or whatever. But Ram is the only guy of all. And I know my bias, but he's the only guy that's left that I feel. Yeah, here are the live players who would have otherwise qualified for the players, but it won't be there because they're banned. Yeah, John Rom, Brooks Kepka, Bryson de Shambo, Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Neiman, Terrell Hatton. Yeah. Okay. You know what? Terrell Hatton, he's a guy that I maybe will grow to miss as the season goes on because I'm like, Oh, no, it's been popping off saying dumb stuff on a mic, which I love. Keep saying dumb stuff. He's another guy who actually feels different. God loved Dustin Johnson at a certain point. He's just another guy out there. He's a very skilled player. I'm not saying he's just another golfer, but I don't know. The sex appeal has kind of gone away a little bit with him as he's got a little older. And in my opinion, Neiman is a great golfer, but I don't miss watching him for one second. It's like when he's there, I'm like, wow, look at that walk, keep Neiman. He's fairly, very flexible. And then when, when he's not playing, that's the madman. I don't think about you at all. Yeah, you know what's great about Rom is that he's got a very distinct swing, like with the cut off little backswing. Mm hmm. Yeah, had to do it because of the club foot and what a story. You know, it's also great about Scottie Sheffler. Same sort of deal. There's nothing, just to tell him I could swing it like, really? Well, because he, he can't, he will not set his feet to save his life. Right. So just go with it then. There's, there's nothing like watching a breakdown of what Scottie Sheffler's feet are doing during a drive. And everything that you were taught to do when you took golf lessons just doesn't apply to the world's number one golfer. There was a video from really early on in his career before he became like capital S Scottie Sheffler, where they showed like golf pros, not professional golfers, but like the guy who would give you a lesson, Sheffler's swing, and they were just barbecuing him. And it was like, this guy is a month removed from going on the all time heater, the PGA tour. So yeah, when you remove the name from it, it's not, how much think of a great golf swing. Yeah, it's not. That's what we said about Matthew Wolf. And then he won some stuff and then he disappeared into the ether forever. He's sad on live. Yeah, he's smart though to take the money. Of course. Good job at him. Well done. Anyway, Scottie Sheffler is the world's number one golfer coming off a victory at the Arnold Palmer, which is significant, thusly. Scottish Sheffler's gained 2.84 strokes in the field over the past year, which is more than a half stroke better than any other player on tour. And more than a full stroke better than all but four players. He's been insane. Tea to green like like Tiger Woods level stuff. Problem is he's been 144th on tour in strokes gained putting, losing nearly a half stroke to the field already has 11 three pots this season missed five pots from six feet, three from five feet, six from four feet and two from three feet this year. If somebody was throwing out the Tiger Woods stats of three foot pots and like in his career, I think he's missed like three with well over 10,000 pots from within three feet. Anyways, he switched potters and at the Arnold Palmer, he was a great voice of golf again. He can't help himself do it apparently, but he was the one who said he should go to a mallet. Yeah, early returns pretty good made each of his last 23 pots from inside 15 feet. And he one-potted each of his last seven holes in the third round of the Arnold Palmer and then yeah rattled off a 66 on the final round of the Arnold Palmer to pick up a victory. This is a guy who's already major champion who's already number one in the world. Yep. And this is being one of the worst putters on tour. Yeah. What if what he's like at the Gilmore and it's like, "Ooh, Scotty there in the pan." Yeah, what now? Well, I, I mean, I hope you don't like watching competitive golf if that's something that that intrigued you because if Scotty Scheffler is going to be that guy and be a half decent putter, it's kind of a wrap. It really is. You, you laid out some stats. Let me, let me lay out some others for you. And I did a good job. I think of cherry picking these so they're not super numbery because golf stats are, you think baseball stats are bad golf stats is so much worse. It's like, at least we have an understanding of what a hit is when we started getting into strokes gained. Yeah. I love golf and I barely understand what, what strokes gained is. But here are some stats for you. Last season, Scotty Scheffler finished with the seventh best adjusted scoring average. So that takes into account condition. So if everyone's shooting an 80 and you fire a 75, it's adjusted to field. The seventh best of all time. Spots one through six belong to Tiger Woods. Last season, he made bogey or worse. And this also puts in perspective of hard golf is the greatest, like we're, listen, everything we've just said about him. He made bogey or worse 10.7% of all holes. That's the first time a guy has been below 11% since Tiger in 2002, okay? The last time he posted a round above par on the PGA tour was August 26th, okay? And going back basically to calendar years, tell me if this is good. He leads the tour in wins, top five, it's top 10s rounds led or with the share of the lead all in the last two years. He is the leader of all of those statistics. It is remarkable. And this to me is the most interesting thing about Scheffler is I love sliding doors moments. I feel like you do as well. There is a massive one in his career. You got to be a little bit of a golf sicko to know this, but there's this lore of I forget if it was the morning of or the night before he said this into a microphone or at least to a writer's recorder that he was crying, shaking in his kitchen, wondering if he'd be able to do it with his, I think fiance at the time now wife. And then there was really never any pressure on him in the final round. There was one fleeting moment he chipped in on the second hole and he was kind of laughing after that. And did it just click for him? Is he a winner after that? If there's pressure on him on the Sunday, if it goes differently, does he become one of the all time chokers and he just realized he could do it early on? I love a sliding doors moment and that's never not going to be part of this story. Yeah, no, I've heard him talk about that moment before his master's victory and the Sunday that he put forth. I also have heard him talk about his big faith guy, big religion, and part of I'm not, I just be from my own experience. Part of my envy towards people who have that in their lives is that, yeah, you can kind of be like, well, you know what? It's not in my hands. Oh, that's great. That's so good. I think everything's my fault. Yeah. So it must be nice. Hey, he really did, you know, I feel like it would have the calm, would it would have come to him eventually and obviously, yeah, picking up the master's and his, to this point, one major championship. Yeah, makes it a little easier going forward. But no, it's, I think this guy always had it in him. Of course, yeah, he definitely did. And, you know, in a sport that is so uniform, right? Like everybody's swing looks the exact same. It's awesome to have a guy who just kind of does it his own way. Yeah, no more Jim Furek. No, no. Also this about Scotty Sheffler, I don't have this as an official stat, Justin Ray, the foremost golf stat guy wasn't able to dig this one up. I also think he leads the tour in America ride or cup face. Like, you want to talk about closing your eyes and picturing your golf hole? Yeah, it'll be 100 years from now on that. Well, I'll be long dead. But the ghost of me will close. I don't know if ghosts can close our eyes, but follow me along in this tortured analogy will close my eyes and it'll be like picture a Ryder Cup player and Scotty Sheffler's face. Well, he leads the league in America face. Yeah. And we'll see if this, listen, he does only have the one major title and has the master's, but he's the number one ranked player in the world right now. And he appears to be on pace to start racking up a bunch more majors going forward. That was the one hole in his game. It was like racking my brain trying to think of athletes in my lifetime that have had great careers. But I could have been the greatest if they had just like sealed off this one area of weakness. I don't know if Shaq and the free throws is something that fits into that more. Shaq is Shaq in general. He's the classic like, you know, Bill Simmons, just line a million times. Like he's a classic guy who could have got a 4.0 and it's like, I'm going to party and get a 3.2 and still enjoy my life. And that's kind of exactly what it did. Shaq is, I don't know that it quite fits into what you're getting at, but he is the most left on the table athlete of all time. Yeah, part of it. Yeah. Which like boy, who would we all love to have accomplished that much, leaving things up? Yeah, he's a, I mean, top top 10 player in the history of the sport. But I mean, we could have been talking about Scotty Sheffler that way anyways before he sealed up the potting part of it. And we'll see if that's the case going forward. Maybe it's just a one week blip at the Arnold Palmer. But yeah, there's reason to believe that there's staying power there on the greens. The other guy, and he left the game yesterday with a back issue again. And I don't know if this is the same when you're talking about injuries is like, if Kawhi Leonard was just healthy throughout the course of his entire career, man, are we not having conversations about him in like LeBron MJ tones? Yeah, it's entirely possible. Yeah, the health stuff is definitely there for Kawhi. I'm trying to think like there are other athletes like their own, their own missteps, their own undoing, right? Like, you know, I talked about him yesterday, so he's popping in my mind right now. It's like, what does Mike Vick's career look like if there's no dog fighting scandal? Like, remember the guy went to prison and then came back and was an elite NFL quarterback or, you know, quasi elite, capable, however you want to phrase it, after spending time in the clink. Okay, what would that look like? This is the guy who's the first player to ever go on the road and win a playoff game at Lambo, doing it the exact opposite of the way everyone my whole life told me you had to do it. So, you know, I know there's people out there who are forever going to, you know, want to, want to murder me for riding for Mike Vick like that. But that's the other one that jumps to mind for me. And then it's not a skill. It's like, you know, I suppose decision making is a skill. Yeah. Last one. Only Mitch Marner learned how to not throw pucks over the class of post season games. Hey, one little bug. I didn't think I don't think you had one last year. So he's baby steps learning learning. All right, learning. We will get to Aaron Rodgers killer instinct to skill. Oh, wait, that's too big a conversation. All right. We'll get to Aaron Rodgers at some point in the next hour, but coming up next looks like Jose burials is going to start game one of the Blue Jays regular season two weeks from tomorrow in Tampa. Did anybody else have a case to get that nod that and more next is the fan morning show continues Ben Anis, Brian Gunning, Sportsnet 590 the fan.
