(upbeat music) - Good morning Joe. - It's morning, I'm out of the bed, I'm out of the bed. It's Frank Gunning, it's Thursday. - Good morning. - Good morning to you Ben. - I do good news. - I am? - Yeah, I'm in a spectacular mood, really. - Hmm. - Why, why? - Well, sound like you're in more of a sp, you're like, I'm in a spectacular mood. - What, honestly, what can I say to, you know, to convince you that one's an Earth-ish. It wasn't, being a happier. - You played golf yesterday? - I played golf. - The golf, the two of us should be as happy as we ever could be. - I am a psychotic person when it comes to golf. Well, one, yeah, the lengths of which I will push myself to get out on the golf course. - I'm trying to make it three days on the road today. - The finger fingers crossed. - The rebels might be a little less enjoyable than the last two days. - Yeah, last two days were spectacular, weather-wise, but I am like, I'm a high-variant golfer. I don't know if I need to throw the real numbers out into the ether 'cause that's always awkward when I tell you what I actually scored here, but no, I first, the first round of the season, it's the first round of the season, I looked like I'd never played golf before. It's like, oh, this is pretty good for a guy who like just started, what, like five minutes ago? - Wow, he had his right and left hands cut off and stolen on the opposite hand and look at him. - That's pretty good, well done. And then yesterday, I played with somebody and he was like, oh, what's your best score here? - It's like how many times you've broken par. It's like, what are you talking about? - God, I'm a 12. - Hold on, time out. - Time out. If I, now, did this person say this too early in the round or they saw you and they were just like, oh, this guy's dialed, he must break par here all the time. - No, it was after my first couple of holes. - Okay, that's very different 'cause I have to say, if I'm on the first tee with the guy and it's like, hey, I'm Dave, I'm Brent, and his immediate response to that is, how many times you've broken par here? I'm just gonna tell him to have fun and I'm just gonna go home. That's how that conversation would go. So I'm happy to find out that that wasn't when shaking hands and being like, familiarized with each other. That was after he saw you having your way with the course. - Yeah, that was a good day. Yes, right, I'm glad I was able to bounce back and look like I had a modicum of skill, especially considering how I played more indoor golf during the off season this year than I ever had in my entire life. - You played so much indoor golf that the guy came up to him and it's like, what are you doing here, buddy? You need a membership and you're like, I don't really want one. He's like, no, you do, that's happening. - Tough, tough for the indoor golf course community that the weather has shifted in such a manner that, yeah, people are outdoors now. Sorry to the owners and proprietors of indoor golf simulators. - I, again, I also would just like to say a quick prayer for them, but I'd also like to remind both of us how much of our money they've got this winter. - Yeah, that's true. - So they're fine. - Yeah, they are fine. All right, before we get to the Leafs, it is Leafs game day Leafs in Philadelphia. - Oh my God. - Against the fly. - I've never thought it'd come. Brent's gonna break down Raptor's Pistons for us in the final game of the season series. - They were shooting, they were dribbling, they were running around and it was a feast for the ice. And by that, I mean, it happened. - Yeah, no, we did it. - Great, great observation. - You know what, we should've had Drey's title break it down. He would've just talked about being pissy and it would've been the exact same thing. - Here's some numbers for you. So the Pistons with that victory, 113, 104 over the Raptors, in Detroit and it shout out to the Hardy Raptors fans that made the trip, they were before a one. - I made that trip before. - I've never done it for a Raptors game. I've seen Tigers games, Tigers J's games, and that ballpark underrated and the proximity. - Yes. - But people, if you haven't gone to see Comerico Park, I suggest you check it out. - Yeah, I went to school in Windsor, so Comerico was a fairly often feature. Raps Pistons, I did like a bus trip with people from there a few times. That was a lot of fun. We once got to, it's like part of the bus trip 'cause you buy like a group mission ticket, they let you on the floor after, to like to take a shot from half quarter or three or whatever it was. And I wonder if for Pistons games now, like if we came as a group, they would say, you know what, you guys have the second half, we're gonna go home. - Yeah. - Yeah, the Pistons are 12 and 53 now. So two of those 12 wins coming against the Raptors, they win the season series against the Raptors. - Now why don't they trust the process? - I heard that so often for all the other worst basketball teams I've ever seen in my life. - Yeah, yes. - 17% of the Pistons wins this season have come against the Toronto Raptors. That's not ideal. One of those also did involve like Pascal Siak and, Siak, you can point to the makeshift skeleton crew that is the Raptors and that's true. - Sure. - And the wins and losses don't matter. One Aoda and they're now tied in the loss column with the Memphis Grizzlies for the six-worths record in the NBA. But yeah, that's quite a thing. (laughs) And it's not like we're gonna look back on this season and you know, like that Raptors team that beat the 72 win balls at Skydon, we're not gonna look back on this season. It's like, wow. Remember that Raptors team that lost the season series to the Pistons, it's amazing. Pistons aren't even the worst team in the NBA anymore, but that's quite a thing to lose the season series to Detroit Pistons who are gonna finish with, I don't know, they got one more, two more wins in them, certainly below 20 wins this year. - Yeah, I would say so also just like, I understand how math works and I too can look at the standings, but just foreshame on the NBA that there's a worst team than that. And there is, I see the clips ever. I don't, don't you dare accuse me of watching Wizards games. But I see the clips of Jordan Poole. There was one from, I think it was a week ago where he fell down on a fast break and he was just sitting on his butt. And at first he went to make a pass, but then when that wasn't immediately available, you could tell he thought about shooting it while he was sitting on his butt. And the announcer openly said, he's not gonna. And then he eventually passed out of it and it was fine. But that is just like, that is, if you're not getting this on your Instagram, your Twitter feeds, whatever it is, you need to take in the social clips from everything going on with the Wizards this year 'cause it is an abomination. - Yeah, they're 11 and 54. And I should correct myself. Half game up on the Grizzlies are the Raptors at 23 and 43 and the Grizzlies 23 and 44. All right, that's enough Raptors, right? Anything else to add? - No. - Emmanuel quickly looks pretty good. That's nice. So like, I mean, it is a testament to the professionalism of the entire Raptors beat. Just good job by you and good luck the rest of the way. - Yup, all right. Bobby McMahon talk, okay? Buried, the lead. - Sounds a two year contract extension worth 2.7 million bucks. Let me take you back a couple of different moments this season. One, right before Game 1 of the season, Bobby McMahon. On waivers. - Yep. - Waver's exempt? - Nope. - Demoted to the Marlies, has to go through waivers. - Who knows how this stuff works. It's like he's been here for eight minutes. No, not Waver's exempt because of his age. - Yeah, it's 27. Skyd's played in the ECHL a couple of years ago. - He's a grouler. - Passes through waivers. All 31 other teams had a chance at Bobby McMahon. They said, thanks, but we're good on Bobby McMahon. Okay, let me take you back to another moment. - Sure. - February 13th, Bobby McMahon getting ready to wear a suit, sit upstairs in the press box, the Leafs getting set to play at the St. Louis Blues. And then everybody's puking all over the place. It's flu time. Everybody's out of line up. In goes Bobby McMahon. Up on the scoreboard goes three goals. - Yep. - And then here we are a couple of months later, one month later, and he's a bonafide NHLer, at least. Contractually, for the next two years, the pending unrestricted free agent, 27 years old, coming into the season with just 10 games of NHL experience. Now the proud property of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the next two years and under 3 million bucks. So what is that? One, three, five per season the next two years. - Yeah, this is twofold for me. On one hand, this is a fine, tidy piece of business to reward a player that has earned the reward. Quite frankly, the other thing that this is, is much like you take out insurance on your house or, you know, like if you'll see those contests where it's like, oh, this person can win $100,000 if they hit the half court shot. Guess what? The Sacramento Kings aren't cutting 100K check to that guy. It's all insurance that pays for that. This is insurance on the Leafs going on a run and Bobby McMahon playing most, if not all of the games of the playoffs. It's just that simple. Because Bobby McMahon wouldn't have to score 10 goals in the postseason to be sawed after. If the Leafs win heaven forbid, two rounds. And he has seen to just be a crasher and a banger in the bottom six. And this part can't be overstated with this part of the discussion. For the Toronto Maple Leafs, he would have got more than this on the open market. So I don't want to sit here and overstate what this is. I don't think this is a, well, I don't think this is some slam dunk, home run. Oh my God, what a steal by tri-living. I think it's a tidy piece of business that protects against this team going on a run and you no longer being able to pay that guy. Which would be outrageous. Yeah, I don't disagree though. No, I think, listen, and we know you can bury about a million bucks in the American League if you have to do that. See every conversation we had about Ryan Reeves for the first 12 games of the season. Yeah, it's 1.35 million bucks. Bobby McMahon, while he doesn't have like the draft pedigree, by which I mean, he's undrafted and also being 27 years old and essentially a raw rookie. Again, the 10 games of NHL experience coming into this season put up really good American League numbers, right? Like scored some goals too. 22, 23 had 21 goals and 30 games for the Marlies. Had a couple in the six games that he played this season. So the idea that he could be a guy that, you know, threatens 20 goals in a season, which is the pace he's on, 10 goals in 40 games this season. I don't think it's an outrageous concept to get your head around. And if you got a guy down your lineup on your third line, scoring close to 20 goals, yeah, you can more than live with that. I feel good when Bobby McMahon's on the ice. I really do. I have high hopes for the David Camp centered third line with he and Matthew Nyez. We haven't seen it for a long stretch of games, but I don't know how do you feel when Matthew, when Bobby McMahon is jumping over the boards? I feel great. I like what he brings. He brings energy. It's a guy who unlike, you know, but say it's not a shot, but yeah, sorry, it is a shot. Unlike Alex Steves of the world and your Nick Abrazzese that you've seen for four seconds, this is a guy who understood what was going to allow him to stick at the NHL. And I know everyone's going to point to the goal scoring that we've now seen. That's not what allowed him to get his opportunities. That's not what allowed him to stick. This is a guy who understood that he needed to play with a little jam, a little bite. And that's not to become something he's not, right? Bobby McMahon is not getting in guys faces left, right and center. But if there's a guy in his face, he's not backing away from it. There was a play, this is when he was still with the Marlies right after the Lola Grinn ordeal against the Bruins. And it was two, three days later and McMahon kind of snapped a little bit down there as a beacon to the organization, not 'cause that's in his nature, not 'cause that's who he is, but saying I understand the role I can play here. The other thing about this is that I know we've heard this before and I know we've been bit by this before, but if the cap, and I know it's only a two year deal, so it's starting this is gonna live in perpetuity forever, but if the cap's going up, that's what your 900K forward looks like. Are you still gonna have a Noah Greger coming through on a PTO next year, entirely possible? But you need to start filtering the lineup or the bottom parts of the lineup with guys that are not lottery tickets, that you actually understand what they are. Go look at all the teams we point to and say, ah, you wanna build it like Tampa was built all those years. Ah, you wanna build it like those Chicago teams of way back when? Even an avalanche team of right now, they have certainty in the bottom half of their lineup and what they're getting. You know who's centering one of the lines for the avalanche, Ross Colton, the guy who was doing it for the lightning for a big part of their run. So you need to have certainty is too strong a term maybe, but at least an idea of what you're getting, not lotto tickets and McMan has proven that. And he's one of the few guys that's come through in that area that's actually understood that and been able to do it. - I'm a sucker for that type of story though, too. The undrafted guy at 27 and it's not like he was making a pittance, right? Like these are professional athletes. He played with the Marlison. This season he's making almost $800,000 a year, but basically doubling his salary for next season and beyond and yeah, it's different than guys that have already established life changing earnings for themselves and if Bobby McMan has carved out a real niche on the most famous team in the National Hockey League, he's made the rest of his life. Like his professional life was uncertain coming into this season and there's very much a sliding door scenario. It's crazy, like I don't know how Bobby McMan's not doing this, thinking about that February 13th moment and if that doesn't go his way, if the flu doesn't run through the Maple Leafs dressing room and he's not getting into that game and maybe he's headed back down to the Marlies and maybe he never gets another shot at the NHL level and maybe he's, you know, he loves the game so he's gonna keep playing for the Marlies and maybe he's got an AHL pension but that's different than what now his life has become. I am a sucker for those types of stories. - Let me, you know, we've done a lot of numbers talk this week in terms of how much we're allowed to do, what bogs down things. This is a nice, easy one. What do you think Cap Friendly has Bobby McMan's career earnings listed as right now? 'Cause you remember-- - In the NHL or no, so it has the AHL salaries? - Based on this number, I am gonna assume they pro-rated of like you were in the NHL this day, you got an NHL salary, you were in the AHL this day, you got an AHL salary based on this number. I'll just give it to you. - Yeah, it's the-- - It's south of a million bucks, though. - 300 grand is what they have is his estimated career earnings and he just signed up for 1.3 and change a year for the next two years. The, just to add a little more color to that story you're talking about there, he gets called up on the dad's trip last year and his dad is-- - Was washing his underwear in the sink, right? - Yeah, I tell that story all the time and I feel like if I was Bobby McMan, I'm like, okay, we get it. My dad washed his underwear in the sink. Like, we don't need to talk about it every time I do something, but yes. But the other point is he was given quotes to, you know, I forgot who the reporter you gave the quotes to was, but just honestly, but this is not our life. Like, we come from small town central Canada. This is not like private jets and team boxes and suites for the Leafs. - I love it. - How can you, you couldn't have dreamed it. - It's a little different than Austin Matthews, like, anointed as the next one and gonna be the first overall selection. And instead of playing junior, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go make some money. - I'm gonna make some money. - I did see a video of him the other day talking about his first paycheck in Zurich and I was like, ooh, they were clearly paying him over there, like, good money because he talked about it in a way that I've never seen so I could never, my family had never seen that money. It was like, it's nuts. Again, these stories, but to your point, I didn't bother McMan, that's not Mitch Marner who was on CDTV and was four years old being yelled at. You know, it wasn't those things. It's a completely different scenario. And honestly, you know, sometimes you get too bogged down in this, but I do think there's some truth to it is that Leafs got a lot of silver spoon on the team, right? And I don't mean socio-economic, but I kind of do. We know where hockey is as a sport now compared to where it once was, but just in terms of what's been expected of them from their professional life, first overall pick, first overall pick, fifth overall pick, fourth overall pick, eighth overall pick, just keep going up and down the line up. There's a lot of that on this team and having a guy who, you know, eventually it'll go away. Eventually it's just gonna feel like what it's supposed to be, but a guy who, probably to a certain extent, considers every day a gift on this team. Like, I don't know that that can be oversteer. - I also consider every day a gift. - I don't, I need, it's like the last four days, not a gift today. - Oh, the gift is just a gift. - One of those guys that's one of those draft darlings will not play tonight, Mitch Marner, fourth overall in 2015. What did you make, there's a little bit? - Yes. - My flag for Ray is a little bit for me yesterday with the show, the key. - Didn't wanna go spidey senses. - Well, I'm not a doctor. - Okay. - And maybe this is just being, you know, overly tinfoil had a shock to find out you're not a doctor. - So he's asked about, "Hey, any updates on Mitch Marner?" He's like, "Nope, has he been on the ice?" He's like, "Nope, hasn't been on the ice since." He's not on the ice today. So, it hasn't skated. So, make of that what you will. The make of that what you will? Like, make of that what I will. Well, I can make a lot out of that. That's, you've given me plenty of ingredients. Like, it may seem like you haven't given me very much, and you've given me enough to make whatever I want out of that. - Well, I disagree. He didn't give you much. It's like the two ingredients he gave you that was like, "Hey, I'd really prefer if you didn't make a mess. "I'm just gonna leave this baking soda and vinegar over here. "But don't do what you will with that." - Yeah, right. - But don't make a mess. Don't make too much of it. But the only ingredients I'm giving you are baking soda and vinegar. - Yeah, so you're with me. Like, you're like, "Oh, that's curious." I mean, here's the thing. The Leafs don't have too much to play for right now. They must be stated. Everybody's aware of that fact. They still would like to finish as high up the standings as humanly possible. This gap and the schedule, everybody needs a breather right now. You don't think Austin Matthews, part of the slump that he's gone through recently, has to do with, "Hey, the schedule really becoming a grind." - Please let it be. - Recently, recently. - Please. - And there's a back-to-back coming next week. But yeah, this is a well-deserved breather point in the Leafs season. That's gotta play into it. But yeah, this is, "Hey, we're gonna talk about Austin Matthews." - Yep. - Chasing 70 goals. And it's not being the number one priority, but something that he certainly would like to achieve. His teammates would love to see him achieve. We talk all the time about the Mitch Marner and never hitting 100 points. But also, he was on a career-high goals pace, right? This is a guy who has a career-high 35. He's what, at 25 right now? Like, he could have a clips that could have a clips to 100 points. And it seems now that that is not likely to happen, 'cause if he's not skating yet today, they play today, they play on Hockey Night in Canada, they have a back-to-back next week. Like, I could very easily see a scenario who's missing five straight games here. - Yeah, I think that's entirely possible, especially when they're providing a lack of clarity. My actual read on this, and not that we're wrong to read into this, is that, you know, players are rusty when they haven't played for a while. This is just Sheldon Keith being rusty. Had the day off. I don't know what he did with it, but, like, I saw Tavares was at the CN Tower. Like, the boys were-- - I didn't say that. - I should say, I heard secondhand from Samaki, so a good source of Tavares was, like, posting things on his Instagram vote. - He has Instagram? - I'm just shocked, as you are, to find out all this. Anyways, so, but I say that to say that Sheldon Keith, like, let's guard down for five minutes. He forgot he was coach of not a hockey team in the NHL, but the Toronto Maple Leafs, where every single word is picked over and dissected. Me thinks he would have another go-round at that if he had a chance to do that. That's what I think. He would not answer that question again in that way. - I see, so, sorry, yeah, you were saying something. Anyways, I was like, I don't, I could tell I lost you. - No, no, you're right. Like, Sheldon Keith, he has to know that, if you don't tell us explicitly that he's not out for the rest of the season, and for the rest of his career is not over, then yeah. - Well, and the other thing is it's after the deadline, right? We could have heard a world where K.G. Sheldon Keith, and we all start going, oh my God, the Leafs have $20 million they can add, 'cause Marner's gonna go on L.T. - Oh, wait, that doesn't matter anymore. Deadline's gone, and I don't know if you heard this, even if they had all the caps based in the world, they really didn't have any assets. That message got out there, loud and clear. - Yeah, okay, so John Tavares, his foundation has an Instagram account, but no, he did tweet out a bunch of pictures of he and his good-looking family outside of the CN Tower. Boy, his kids are old. You know, it's making me feel old, 'cause I remember, you know, the little leaf jersey that Kyle Dubas handed him for his young child when he was given the sea. - Yeah. - But yeah, they were playing tourist. Here's the caption, enjoying the sunshine and playing tourist in our own city this March Break. How's everybody enjoying the week with their kiddos share in comments? That feels like probably not John Tavares is doing. - You don't think he added the like, I actually, I was like, I was kind of believing it, and then it's like, let me engagement farm at the tail end of this. And I'm like, okay, that feels like maybe not him. - Ilya Samsonov getting to start tonight, which is obviously no surprise. To me, the bigger indication will be if Ilya Samsonov plays well tonight, does he start again on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes with the back-to-back next week, Jill Wall is gonna play next week for sure in one of those games, and what does it take to get Samsonov a real run of games here? Is this truly a meritocracy? Also, Sheldon keep talking about, hey, Sheldon, do you like mixing the lines up? Or would you just like to have consistency? He's like, obviously, I would love to just have a set lineup that we can trot out there and circumstances do dictate that you have to mix and match. Did that mean anything to you in regards to how much experimentation we'll see down the stretch here? - I can't help but read into it, 'cause the question I've had, and it goes back to the comment he made after the Saturday game in Montreal about the idea of, well, Brad built the team this way, these are the six. I understand part of it is that it was a little more collaborative maybe with him and Dubas, and maybe he felt like more a part of the decisions being made in that regard, but I do wonder how much he not has belief in this team. I think he does have belief in them, but if this isn't exactly how he would have put it together based on what he's saying there. I think, and look, we talk about this to the most extreme example in baseball where somebody will never know who, but somebody thought it was a good idea to pull Jose burrios out of the game, and no one's gonna say who or what happened there, but much like in all sports, you don't think Sheldon Keith had a conversation after the trade deadline with Brad's living, I'd imagine Brendan Shanahan is sitting in that room too, and it's not, hey, Sheldon, put this guy here, put this guy here, play him X many minutes a night, but this is our vision. We went out and got these guys 'cause we think this makes sense. What do you think? So I think that's kind of my read on it. It is a little rich though, and I'll admit, this is, I'm not even bothered by the master tinkering or the blender as much as everybody else's, but for the guy who we have watched Tinker and try to fix every little thing on the fly, for his entire run as Leafs head coach say, I really just wish I had four lines like a run out there every single night. Yeah, it's kind of on you. Well, yes, it is on him, but it's also an indication that he hasn't been fully pleased with the pieces he's been given, I guess, right? Yeah, for sure. Like if Sheldon Keith said, yeah, you know what? Like I don't think that that's necessarily important, although I don't know if any NHL head coach is gonna tell you that necessarily, but if he admitted that that is, yes, indeed, part of his DNA that I like to tinker, that I like to put the lines in a blender and I don't think it's detrimental to this team, then yeah, I think the previous actions by Sheldon Keith take on a different tone were as opposed to like, yeah, I would, man, boy, would I love it to have four lines day in, day out that I feel comfortable in and that I could pencil into the lineup, I just haven't been given, he didn't say this part, but I just haven't been given the pieces that fit yet. Well, this is the part I wonder, and it's part of the, again, maybe one day, we'll move on from this and I'm as guilty of anybody else, but did he feel like he had more say in what used to happen here or not even say, but an understanding, right? I imagine Kyle Dubas makes a, let's just go back a waiver claim and Keith, if he has any familiarity with the player, doesn't have to wonder, think what he's thinking. He's got a pretty good idea of that. I just don't know how much that's still the case and it's only kind of human nature to look at it in that regard. The other good thing about it as well as when you're the coach and not the GM is you get to be kind of like uncle who doesn't have the internet when you make these arguments of, I don't know, I'd like a better center. Well, how's that gonna work? You don't like Max Domi? No, I like Max Domi the player, I just would like a different 2C. Okay, what about the 11 million dollar guy? Yeah, kind of like him in the 3C hole. Like that's the beauty of this is that when you're the coach, you of course have to be a realist and deal with the cap, but if you were gonna sit here and say, hmm, what would I have my druthers on the lineup? I still don't think it's, and this isn't my opinion necessarily but I do think it is Sheldon's is second line center Max Domi. I don't feel so comfortable with that at this time of year. And all it took was a car doer addition to move. No doer, Max Domi out of that position. All right, Leafs and Flyers tonight from Philadelphia. We'll talk plenty more about that. Last night in Vancouver, Canucks had a 3-0 lead and then they had a 4-3 overtime loss. The door of God is wish. So yeah, that's all well and good in the Canucks. Yeah, it's a learning process for them, okay? No, that's not the rules actually. That's a referendum on not being ready to win 'cause that's a cup of contender that did that to you. Sure, I just, I want to make sure we just carry consistent rules across the nation here. Fine, don't that your damn go and yeah. No, no excuse is what that is. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Kinda. The thing we're gonna talk about now is before the game though. Yes, Nikita Zidorov could have been a Toronto Maple Leaf and was not because the flames were not allowed or at least still to this point have not been allowed to trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's Craig Conrose in his feels. Yeah, and we'll see if that continues into the off-season, into next season. But anyways, Nikita Zidorov before the game has asked a question about Nathan McKinnon and some of the other superstars in the National Hockey League. Well, manage their first line. I think there's best play in the world up there. He's humming right now, so we need to stop him for sure. I think, keep doing what we do in working as the unit of five. Play strong defensive game. That's what we're talking about, David Matthews. But you've played with him and you're in your mind. Is McKinnon not the best player in the league? Yeah. Overall, the total package speed release. If I would have started team? Build a team, I would have built around him over those two guys. Because he is a winner. He won the Stanley Cup for sure. OK, Brad, I'll start off the characterization thusly. Is that weird? A little. In this sport, specifically, I don't think it'd be considered remotely weird in any other sport. Like, I'm just picturing the NBA, right? If you're a team that's a true, you know, bring it back to Pierre Dorian, we are a team. And you're going against Nikolai Oakich. I don't think it'd be at all weird to say, yeah, that's the guy I think anybody would love to build their team around. Or you'd hear that, I'm sure, about SGA in the Thunder, or something along those lines. We hear it. The NFL is a respect off heading into every week. It's all the greatest. Basically, the ghost of Tom Brady across the field from me here, how can I ever have any chance? We don't hear this in hockey. Oh, the other team? I don't even know they exist. I'm not going to talk about them unless it's really pointed, like, Leafs in Boston, Leafs in Tampa or something. John Cooper did like to pump tires. Pump tires. The Toronto Matthews, yeah. But it's odd. But I also think like we knew what he was doing here. He wasn't going out and saying, Austin Matthews is better than my best player. Wasn't doing that. And I understand that the Canucks don't have a guy that did in that class, so maybe it's easy to do that. But just odd. Just odd. And even made more so odd by understanding he has to go through Conor McDavid in all likelihood to get where he wants to go. He's also got to go through Nathan McKinnon to go where he wants to go, in theory. So yeah, that was-- I loved it. I loved the honesty. Thank you for giving me something to talk about. I wish more hockey players were more comfortable talking this way, quite frankly. But really weird in this sport. For sure. Secondarily to that, he's also right, right? Like it's, I think-- No offense to the other two guys, but scoreboard. Well, I mean, let's just plop. You're going to plop Conor McDavid on to that Avalanche team and tell me they can't win it. I'm not saying that, but here's what I'm telling you. Nathan McKinnon is in that spot, and they have one. And he's-- I mean, he's in the conversation, like the statistics are right there, pretty close to the other two guys as well. I loathe that at this point in these guys' careers. So if you want to throw in a Matthews face and say that he hasn't won yet, and that's why McKinnon is better than him, and there have been times this year, we've said McKinnon is clearly the better player. There have been times this year we said it's Matthews as well. I think that's fine and all good to have that. We got to stop doing this thing where we try to get cute about who the best player in the NHL is, though. That's not what the question was posed, though. It's like, if you're building a team, who do you prefer? It's not-- he was not asked who's the best player in the NHL. And maybe I'm parsing here. Sure, please. I don't think there's any debate. You're right. Like, you just-- hey, who's the one player in the NHL that stands out above the rest? Who, like, it doesn't matter if he's scoring goals or setting up goals or whatever he's doing. He stands out because he's, one, he's the fastest player in the NHL in Conor McDavid. There's no debate. Just player. Conor McDavid is the best. Who would I take to build my team around right now? And I do think Conor McDavid has more of the Nathan McKinnon in him than maybe Austin Matthews had. Yes. OK? I don't know. You don't have to tap dance into that. We just look at the way all the guys react, OK? Yeah. I will say that, yeah, it does matter that he has had the ultimate success in the postseason. You're right. Like, hey, that's a separate team. And he also had one of the-- I mean, at the end of his career, is Kyle McCargh, going to be viewed as one of the greatest defense men in the history of the sport? There's a number that helps. There's a number that really matters that I forgot to mention that we haven't mentioned yet. It's not that Nathan McKinnon won the Cup scoreboard to those other two guys. That's an important number, and you can bring it up. Nathan McKinnon at whatever the number was. Was it six and a half? Was it $7 million? You're going to say, it's this is a Black Hawk situation where you can't win once those guys' extensions at $10 million per year. I'm not-- no, no, no, no, no. This isn't can't win situation, but this is winning with a quarterback on a rookie deal versus winning when Patrick Mahomes makes $50 million. So I think, yes, if you took a six and a half million, Conor McDavid, and plopped him on to that, whatever it was, 20, 21 Avalanche team, I think you look at the team they were able to build around him because McKinnon was at six and a half. And this is part of a way-- They've got 46 goals at Hyman making $5 million a season. Well, they do now, right? They didn't have-- Patrick has to say, by the way. There was a-- the NHL-- I do not engage with the NHL, like, edge statistics, but they put out a graphic. And it was the leading goalscores from every quadrant makes it seem like four, but I guess segment of the ice because there's a million of them. And it's-- a guy has eight goals here, eight goals there. Drew Dowdy has nine from right between the tops of the face-off dots, weird. Nobody has double digits anywhere, except for Zack Hyman has, at the time, 31 goals right in the goalie's lap. And I'm sure it's 34 after last night. Outrageous. It really is. So we've got a little of field from what he's saying. The only argument I say is that I don't think you can just do scoreboard because the cat matters so much. And Nathan McKinnon-- I can. OK, sure. You're wrong. If Nathan McKinnon goes and stamps it again and wins another cup, which could easily happen, just like Conor McDavid could win a cup to a way lesser extent across the math. Yeah. But I don't think we think that could easily happen just because it hasn't happened yet. They haven't ended up in a cup final yet. And it has happened. Once you've broken through, once you've got the ring on your finger, it's a lot easier. I would think to break through. And the last thing for me on this is that, yeah, you're right. Because of the sport, it's weird. And part of it is, yeah, pumping up the guy and saying he's the best ever. Tim Thomas said I will not do that. Yeah. It's also weird, like, when it comes to the other guys and maybe less so Austin Matthews because they're done with the Leafs this season. But like, yeah, does it take-- are those comments going to be brought to Conor McDavid? The next Euler's Canucks game? I hope so. Is that going to be like fueled to Conor McDavid's fire? I tend not to think that he's like, oh, Nikita is the door off thinks I'm really good, but not as good as Nathan McKinnon because I haven't won a cup. But I don't know, it's just, it is, you know, I wish these guys are so low to do the ranking for that express purpose. They don't want to give anybody anything. I now wish, no, it wouldn't be offensive if somebody said that I'd rather have Nathan McKinnon than Lee on dry saddle. But I wish they did because he would give us the answer that you want there. Yeah. Whereas McDavid goes from this his opinion, he's entitled to a blah, blah, blah. I also now, sorry, I don't make the rules, although I guess I'm about to make this one. Brad's for living. There's now a bounty on UFA to be Nikita Zadorov's head this summer so that when he comes to Toronto, he starts his press conference by talking about how he's so thrilled to play with the best player in the world, the Austin Matthews, and the only guy you build your team around. Yeah, that's an interesting part of it too. All right, the iconic Canadian rock band, Blue Rodeo hitting Budweiser stage on Saturday, August 24th, along with guest Matt Mays and Beggonia to celebrate. We've been giving away tickets all week long to enter all you have to do is tune in to episodes of the fan morning show. Listen for the codeword, then you text that codeword to 59590. Today's codeword is try, text try 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, make sure you do secure your tickets tomorrow at 10 AM on ticketmaster.ca. When we come back, a day of good news for the Toronto Blue Jays. Hey, nobody roots for injuries, but Gary Cole's gonna be fine. Like he's, this is arm, okay? He's not dead. Yeah, he's, it's not a concussion or anything. But yeah, he's gonna be out for a bit. Does that impact how you view the Blue Jays playoff chances also, the story of the day, really? Homer jacket might be on the way back. Fan morning show continues. Ben Ann is Brent Gunning, sport set 590 the fan. Hey, it's Aylish for a fire. And I'm Justin Cusford. 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, sport set 590 the fan in wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show, sport set 590 the fan, Ben Ann is and Brent Gunning. So it is now two weeks from today. This very day that the Blue Jays open up their regular season in Tampa against the Rays. So no risk of a rain out, naturally, in a dome. Just a risk of watching a game in an ugly ballpark can confirm. They also play the Yankees in that first road trip of the season. Yeah, you know who they won't be facing? Gary Cole. I was gonna say they will be facing Mother Nature because it could rain there. Yeah, Gary Cole is out what they're calling one to two months. And I'm, I don't know for my money, I've ever seen that type of diagnosis. Like usually it's like month to month one to two month. That's like quite a variance. That's like 50% more if you had the second month. So is that like two to four weeks works the same way, right? I feel like you see that on occasion. I guess, but then, yeah, you're talking about a variance of two weeks. Now you're talking about a variance of four weeks. Anyways, whatever works. Yeah, OK, OK, OK, all right, all right. So apparently he does not have a tear of the UCL. UCL the Tommy John ligament in your elbow. I just know that I got to be honest. Maybe you look at this a different way. I hear tear picture. I'm out. That's not good and it didn't happen. No, no, no. But I know Dr. James Andrews is the the go to doctor, but Dr. Neil Elitrash. She's also one of those guys respected peers among each other or deaf feud between them. Ah, I think it's probably cordial. But yeah, there's probably some professional jealousy. You want to be the guy. Sure. And I don't get to that spot by not wanting to be the guy. People who know, though, know that Dr. Neil Elitrash is right up there with Dr. James Andrews. I feel like he's coming. Like if there's like trending like Dr. James Andrews, that's been the foremost sports doctors. Like as long as I have been spitting out these names, I do feel like Elitrash is coming for him, though. Yeah. And if you want to know more on the subject, I implore people to read Jeff Parsons book The Arm, where he goes in depth on exactly what happens during those procedures and who the doctors are. If someone does that, give me the Coles notes. I'm interested, but will not be reading. So if somebody, if you will, they'll do that. You have? Yeah, I have the book. You want me to lend it to you? No, no, no, I don't want your Coles notes. I want somebody who likes this stuff like 2% less to give me their Coles notes. All right, so Gary Coles out. Does that impact how you view this Bluejay season? It's the Yankees and it's not the good old days where you play your divisional opponents 19 times. You play them 13 times though. Does that impact how you view the Bluejay's chances in this division and the overall American League East standings as a whole. I think it has to a little bit. You're taking away the best picture in the division from one of your division rivals who, you know, whether you think you're going to be in the mix for the division. If you think that, then hey, you got to be better than the Yankees and you got to go through them. And I don't think that'll be the case. So if you think they're going to be battling for a wildcard spot, hello, that's going to be one of the teams you're doing it against. I know that obviously the Yankees would rather have this happen to Cole now than at the end of the season. But how many times have you heard this around August Ben? The games at the beginning of the season matter just as much as to your record as the games at the end. So yeah, I think it has to affect things a little bit because of the misunderstood or I shouldn't say misunderstood, but the wishy-washy nature, the diagnosis to your point about the one to two months. I think it should line credence to the fact that this might only become a bigger issue or a bigger factor in the AL, or the AL wildcard one way or another. So yeah, I think it has to affect things, at least a little bit. You? Yeah, for sure. And I'll tell you exactly why. Thank you. I'll get you laying out your case. Well, one, it's like an essay. So the Blue Jays and Yankees do play a three-game series of Yankee Stadium early April, April 5th to the 7th. So they go to Tampa for four games in Houston for three games and then at Yankee Stadium for three games and Fingers crossed. Yeah, the early April weather in the Bronx is good enough to get all three games in. Then they also have another series against the Yankees mid-April. So they go back to back, road swing and then homestand. Their first homestand of the season wrapping up with the three-game series against the New York Yankees. So six games at the very least, they will avoid Garrett Cole in that rotation. And maybe Aaron Judge too, who's dealing with like an oblique or midsection injury as well. And yeah, that guy, unlike Garrett Cole, who's been remarkably healthy throughout the course of his entire career, you take out the pandemic shortened weirdo season. Guys had six consecutive seasons where he's made at least 30 starts. He has been durable, which is incredible for a guy who, unlike Kevin Gossman, throws like 100. He's been really, really durable. This has not been part of the Garrett Cole equation. You know what his numbers are against the Blue Jays in his career? I did not. He has a long track record naturally against the Blue Jays. Didn't spend his entire career with the Yankees, but yeah, in the American League with the Astros and did start his career with the Pirates before he became Garrett Cole. You're never going to believe this. The Pirates screwed that up. Anyways, ERA in 16 career starts against the Blue Jays 2-7-7. You know, the Blue Jays hitters are OPSing against Garrett Cole. It is a robust of 5-83 in a huge, huge sample. Garrett Cole has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball over the course of a near decade now. He's with Aaron Judge in Juan Soto, one of the pillars of reasons to believe that the Yankees are going to be a World Series contender this year. And of course, as long as they get into the playoffs and he's pitching for them, they feel pretty good about that. But if you're the Blue Jays and yeah, your postseason spot is not necessarily a given, and you can avoid him a couple of times against what is still the favorite in the American League, that's obviously boosting your chances. And you know what else does? Is that they've already used their prospects on Juan Soto, so they couldn't get in on the Dylan Sees acquisition. As Dylan Sees goes from the White Sox to the Padres yesterday. I guess there's still the Blake Snell of it all? Yeah. And we'll see. Again, we had Ben Nicholson Smith on yesterday with the conspiracy theory that, yeah, another Boris client in Garrett Cole maybe did push this along. I think when you're missing two months, that's probably above and beyond. I think we can probably put the conspiracy theory stuff aside. But no, this is- I don't put anything past Boris. This is big for the Blue Jays. Yeah, it is. I think that, again, whether you think the Orioles are the favorite for the division or you think there's, you know, let's see it a second time. I am very much of that belief with a young team of, all right, there's very- there's a big difference of showing up and winning and being here and you're great. And everyone expects you to be great and winning. And you know, the pitching is going to be a question mark for them. It was good that they were unable to go get Sees. But I don't know that they would have done that in the first one. I'm talking about the Yankees here, that they wouldn't have been able to go get Sees. I do expect them to get Snell now. That's the thing that I've been wondering about all this, is that, you know, we've had this conversation a lot here in Toronto of how much pressure is there to win and how much do you have to push in. And obviously, the lack of a hard cap, there are obviously, you know, luxury tax thresholds and competitive balance and all that you have to pay into. But I do wonder how much the pressure now ramps up on the Yankees to go get Snell from- I mean, and, you know, there's been a certain segment of the fan base that I'm sure has been screaming it before Garrett Cole even thought about being hurt. But now, how much do you think it ramps up to pressure on them to have to go get him? Oh, yeah. There's huge, huge pressure on the Yankees. But is it seen as them punting? I guess maybe the better way, of course, there's pressure. Maybe the better question to ask is, is it seen on them, I don't know, punting on the season is probably too strong of a term, but a bit of a punt for them not to go out and get the guy. It's just money. This isn't a Dillon Sees trade where you have to have the fourth best farm system in baseball to go make a trade for the guy. It's only money. And I don't know if you've heard this, the Yankees have a lot of it. Yeah. And as it currently stands, like, who's your opening day starter if you're the Yankees? Not that they don't have arms. And Clark Schmidt at times has looked capable. Marcus Strowman, we know he's had a pretty good career as a ground ball pitcher, but acclimating once again to the American League. And that ballpark college where Don has been one of the worst signings in recent history. Now, I mean, he could bounce back into second season and is his most recent great for league outing. Apparently, it was much better than the first, but yeah, I don't think you feel great about him being your opening day starter. Nestor Cortez, he had a moment and then took a step back a season ago. Yeah, it's not an ideal scenario for the Yankees in the rotation. Now Blake Snell is not Garrett Cole. I know he's coming off of Syon Ward his second of his career. He also led all of baseball with 99 walks. And despite making 32 starts, still didn't get all that close to 200 innings, 180 innings. So Blake Snell in small samples is really good. And that's all you're going to get out of Blake Snell. Blake Snell ain't Garrett Cole. Garrett Cole is a beast. Say what you will about the guy is personality. All the Garrett Cole of it, scoreboard. Garrett Cole is incredible, has been worth the money. Kind of reminds me of the C.C. Sebastian signing for the Yankees where it's like, man, that's a lot of money for a pitcher. Are you sure in C.C. Sebastian was like, just give me the ball every fifth day. Yeah, that's not an issue for me. And I even had to lose the fastball. I'm going to figure it out. I was going to say, that's actually that was actually rest for him after everything he went through in Milwaukee, where they just gave them every other day. If they would have, he would have pitched alternating innings for the Brewers. Just you get every other inning for the rest of the season. It is funny that you mentioned that with Snell that he is not a guy who works deep in the games, because he was the, I won't say test case, because not that this has happened before, but it's like when he got taken out of the, was in the World Series, the C.S. When he had his shutout going, that it's funny that it's like, that's still forever, the first thing I think of. So when you mentioned that about Blake Snell, I always have to be like reminded that he is kind of five and divey and get out of there and it's not that that's the plan. It's just that he's going to, it takes him a while to get through his work. So it's just, it's funny that that is what he is as a pitcher, because I think the most famous moment he'll have forever in his baseball career for not himself, but for the, you know, the general fan that thinks of him is getting taken out when he was humming in the World Series game. Yeah, he would help the Yankees. Right. It's ruining it. Yeah, he's, he's, he's not Gary Cole. All right, we'll save the jacket combo for later on in the program. Can't sneak in the jacket. No, no, no. We can, I think we can sneak in Joey Votto hitting the ball hard twice in a minor league game. And, okay, just a word, Votto would bat twice making legitimately hard contact both times and it looked like it from what we could see and it sounded like it. Just a word of advice to the intrepid reporters down in Dunedin covering the Blue Jays. Let's get the angle from behind Joey Votto. You can stand anywhere, right? Like, I think? Can you stand behind? I don't know. Behind the backstop. Can we get a shot of exactly where the ball's going? Because, hey, I like seeing anything out of a minor league spring training game, which is, man, you think great for league games are fake. The minor league spring training games and Ben Nicholson Smith wrote about this, like the scoreboard wasn't working. And the home team is wearing great pants. And it's also like, it's a game in which it's still a professional baseball game. It's sort of, it's like, you can lead off the same guy every single inning. Like, you can just end an inning with two outs too. It's not, it's just, it's not real. But whatever, the pitcher's trying to strike Joey Votto out. Yeah, what's the tellers? In capable of doing so. What's the tellers grandkids about that one day? What if Joey Votto's amazing in the very limited grapefruit league schedule he's going to play? So the plan looks like it's, hey, another minor league spring training game and maybe Sunday making his grapefruit league debut. So that's, it's going to have like a week plus of spring games, which is not a ton. But what if he just tears the cover off the ball in those games? He, he would have to be like Barry Bond circa, I don't know, whatever year he had more, more all of them. Yeah, all of the great Barry Bond seasons in the Bay. He'd have to be that for anything to change my mind. I'm not saying it can't happen. We had two hard hit balls, neither of which lay in it for heads, we should probably mention that, not that it matters. But I think that that's the threshold that you have to see. I think that there is a, obviously, I'm not saying this is nothing. It's nice to see that was the thing you needed to see most was kind of hard contact and being able to do that. I just don't think there's enough time unless he is anything other than prime Barry Bonds. And I don't think he's going to be that. I don't know. I wouldn't rule it out. It, it, people do need to remember that coming off the shoulder surgery last year, he was not a participant really, and grateful games for the Reds. And then, yeah, slow start. And even in his rehab assignment in AAA, he did not hit the ball very well. So it would be a departure from even last season, if, if Joey Votto hit some minor leaguers really well. We'll see. Maybe on Sunday. All right, when we come back, back in the Leafs, who returned to action tonight in Philadelphia, also the players getting underway. Nowish, we'll talk to Adam Stanley, our SportsNet golf reporter next at the Fan Morning Show continues. Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, SportsNet 590,
