[MUSIC] Bad morning to a 4-7-5-9 of the fan man, and his friend, Gunning, all the Toronto Maple Leafs into Shelley and Keith's good books as they hammer the Washington Capital's 7-3 in D.C. yesterday, next up, Conor McDavid, and the Edmonton Oilers on hockey night in Canada, Austin Matthews, with a couple more goals as his pace is up close to 70, not quite there, but goals number 56 and 57 and a half. And for a moment there, 58, negated by Tyler Bertuzzi, offside where he tried his darned us to drag the foot, couldn't quite do it. And yeah, in the moment, we didn't quite see a definitive angle. I eventually did see the definitive angle, whether it's just like no debate. Like, nobody challenges that call with any degree of uncertainty. Yeah, I know. I told you, in the Flyers game, they had the challenge and I went, "Oh, but this isn't not the game most recently, the one who leaves one." And but I was like, "Oh, Torx isn't there. It's the rookie head coach role. It's Rocky Thompson. No, it wasn't even him, but the other guy in charge." And guess what? It's the video coach who's making the call. It's not them, and they're always right. Yeah, so Tyler Bertuzzi, not great in that moment. Pretty good, standing in front of the net being big. Especially if he's sick since Blue Game. Yeah, allowing Austin Matthews to score on a long shot. Cody Franzen. Yeah, first time they've ever been compared to each other. I think that's true. And then nice hands in front of the net, scoring his own goal. Max Doming with four assists in that hockey game. And a great little dance after one of them. Did you see his little jig going into it? Yeah, he didn't like that. He didn't like that. He didn't like that thing. I know, it's fine. You seem upset, though. No, no, I think you're sensible. I'm smiling. Anyways, those two together have been interesting to watch. Now, interesting when it's been Doming centering the line with knee lanterns, you're like, Oh, look at all that offense. Oh, no, here comes the puck the other way. It's not so fun. Yeah. Together with Austin Matthews, really intriguing. Now, Mitch Marner is coming back at some point. Because he's day to day, we hope day to day from being day to day. Very cute, Sheldon. Is there any scenario where this thing has staying power Bertuzzi and Doming particularly? I think we're probably at the very least going to see Bertuzzi get another shot with Marner. Is there any scenario where you're like, man, Bertuzzi and Doming seem to have this chemistry. They need somebody who's more of a 200 foot player to play with them. Austin Matthews, I think is pretty capable in his own zone. Is there any scenario where it makes sense to keep them together when Mitch Marner returns? Of course, it doesn't mean it's the best answer long term. It doesn't mean that that's again, we get so bogged down in lines that when I say if they should stick with this line, it's like, what? Matthews and Marner can ever play together? No, eventually this was dry up and they'll play back together. But what was the whole point of Max Dolmy second line center? It was spreading the offense across three lines. And if all of a sudden, I mean, Mitch Marner, I believe we've all said this before. I know we all believe it. The winger who can drive a line, there's no reason you can't ask him to do that. And again, it's about getting the best versions of each other. I think the other thing that goes into this, and this is a two way street, is that one guy does have a milestone he's chasing. And it's Austin Matthews. Now they can't, we're not there to the close point of this yet, where you go, okay, who's setting you up best? Who are you going to play with? Who do you want to play with? But Marner doesn't have any milestones. So the idea of, all right, Marner, and like, forget what the creation is. I don't want to say it's Tamara's and Bobby McMahon or something, something like that. That's what you want to do. Then Marner's not looking at it. And he never publicly say, Oh, I can't pick up points playing with these guys. But it's not like he's pushing for his 100 point season, where you're taking away Austin Matthews from him. Why, presuming, this still looks good when Marner comes back, because I'm not assuming Marner's, I'm not ruling it out, but I'm not assuming he's back next week. So we'll see what this looks like, that yeah, keep it together. If it's going well, put Marner with Tavares, that has worked well in the past. You get a better version of JT. Why would you break this up if it's working? Yeah. And do you load up that second line? So I was looking at like the line combinations, not for one second have Marner, knee lander, and Tavares played together this season. But they've loaded up the Matthews line with both of those guys. And I think it's generally been knee lander playing on his offside on the left side, both right hand shots, Marner and knee lander. I mean, would you load up? It's hard to imagine Mitch Marner being the third line guy. I mean, how would you? Could you see a scenario where you just have a loaded up second line with with both knee lander Tavares and Marner playing together? Yeah, it's tough, because I think you would. The reason why you you don't want the three of them together is because of what it does to your bottom six. And I think if you bring Marner back, you do you don't need to capitulate to him, but he's still much Marner. You still want to play him with talent. So I think you have to have him with Tavares. I think I would probably go McMahon. The other thing that, and you know, I know the Leafs don't want it to bleed into this, but like Kelly, Yarn Crocs on LTIR, that's till April 8th, I believe, is he can't come back any sooner than that. You know, if Marner's injury bleeds in the next week, there's only a week or so between those two timelines there. So then all of a sudden you can have like a Yarn Croc Tavares Marner line, or you can put Yarn Croc with knee lander, maybe, you know, more of a, I guess you don't want him with camp. That's the only problem. But yeah, it's, I think you'd have to load it up at least at first, or it's not loading up, but you'd have to put Marner with Tavares. And then I think you can kind of figure out the pieces beyond it. It does feel like there's a lot still to be decided before the post season though. Like, and maybe the forward lines are the least among it. But I mean, we're still of the belief that TJ Brody's fit is at best like uncertain, but they don't have a pair. They don't have a pair if they trust that they can write in pen for the playoff shit. Yeah, a lot, a lot up in the air. Yeah, there's not a lot to play for standings wise for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the remaining games this regular season, but there's a lot of entry jobs. Yeah, there's a lot of intrigue as far as the way they're going to line up for game one of the postseason. All right, Dodgers trailing the Padres 5-2 in the second of two games in Korea this morning in Shoyo Tani one for one after a very eventful day in the news cycle for him. Let's talk to David Sampson of the Nothing Personal podcast with David Sampson. How's it going, David? Good morning. How are you? Good. So the story is a little bit confusing to me. What I know for sure is it's not good for Shoyo Tani. What do you mean? What were your initial impressions upon reading the ESPN report? Well, I had to read everything several times because you're right. It was confusing because I was trying to figure out who said what and when because there were interviews given on Tuesday, but then there were comments made on Wednesday as well. And then I was thinking about the time difference because all the people are in Korea who are saying these things. So I was trying to figure out, did he mean Tuesday here or was it Tuesday there? So I had my abacus out and I was counting and then thinking to myself, what is MLB going to do? That this type of distraction is happening to start the season while the games are going on in Korea with Otani playing for the Dodgers. It's just a nightmare situation and I'm starting nothing personal live in about 50 minutes and I'm still thinking to myself, having been up for hours, how I'm going to address this in the show. So I'll practice a little bit with you and just say that MLB has a problem because anything that's gambling related, it doesn't matter who the player is. Anything else, you definitely favor the stars. Of course you do. But when it comes to gambling, you have to be pretty consistent in how you apply your punishment and suspensions and it's hard to cover up both literally and figuratively when it's a star. When in other situations, it's much easier to cover up when it's a star. So I think that's what MLB has to deal with right now. Yeah, they certainly do and I think that's where they're in the biggest bind because we've talked about it. It's like the only thing worse than the crime, generally speaking, is the cover up. But if you're an organization, the only thing worse than taking the wrong action is being seen to do nothing. But there's so much, there's so many questions still in the air about this. I don't even know that Major League Baseball can do anything. I'm sure at some point today or in the next day or two, we get a statement of some kind. But it's not with all the questions we still have. It's not as though, and I'm not saying he even deserves this, but it's not as though they can suspend no tawny or take some big sweeping action that would be seen to have them taken this seriously. I think that's the reason why they're in the kind of toughest spot here, Major League Baseball is. Yeah, and I think that's the statement that you have to release if you're MLB that you were obviously, it's the normal vanilla statement. We're aware of the situation. We are looking into it and we'll have no further comment until such time as we, you know, find out what the heck is going on here. And I don't know that you would say it so colloquially, but you're exactly right. MLB is going to be very careful, very calculated because this involves the face of baseball. I mean, let's face it, Otani is the face of baseball. And right now, they need to be very, very careful because it's open fodder for us to talk about is this like Pete Rose? Is this what exactly are we dealing with here? Is it possible that Otani had no idea that he was giving his interpreter a million dollars for no reason or four and a half million dollars for something? Or did he actually wire an illegal bookmaker directly? Even any SPN may have proof that he did. So there is a lot left to be found out. And I think MLB is going to be quiet in the immediate future. Are you aware of how exactly the CBA is written when it comes to punishment for this type of stuff? So like there is, we know what the punishment is for gambling on baseball. It's severe, and it should be, but there is no implication that either he or his interpreter, any of these, these bets were made on baseball. And in most states, it is legal to bet on sports, not in the state of California. That's why this bookmaker is under federal investigation. So, so that's the illegality that that is the problem with all of this is that it's a legal gambling. Do you have any idea if there are actual guidelines in regards to into in regards to punishment for for for that type of action? So, so the gambling on sports that aren't baseball. No one's allowed to illegally gamble. It doesn't matter what state you're in. And doing it with a bookmaker, even in states where betting is legal, that's still illegal. You can do draft kings and tendual states where where sports gambling is legal down here in the United States, and that's fine, except you can't bet on baseball. So, that's the rule when it comes to legal gambling. But with illegal gambling, it doesn't matter what state you're in. It doesn't matter what position you're in. You cannot do it. And the other thing you cannot do is in any way pay money to an illegal bookmaker the way it's alleged that Otani did directly. So, the CBA doesn't lay out. It's not like steroids where they lay out exactly what the punishments are. It is truly a commissioner's discretion. But you can bet that the union gets involved. Everybody's going to get involved. Because it impacts the game on the field. It impacts revenue off the field. If Otani is suspended for any period of time, it impacts everything about our game. So, that's why MLB has to be super careful. But they certainly cannot be not diligent. Boy, that was way too many negatives. They have to be diligent because it's gambling. If this were something different, I think that you would see a different response. But when it comes to gambling, it's all about the integrity of the game. Yeah. And it feels like the Otani camp wasn't taking this seriously or didn't understand how big the story could be. It feels like they've bumbled it from the start here, David. And again, we're just going off the ESPN report. Yeah. Explain to us what your interpretation of how Otani's camp has handled this. Well, I guess I could just tell you that everyone in the industry looks at Otani's agents and does not exactly view him as he sort of uses like one of Brian Cox's sons on succession. You are not serious people. That's sort of how Ned has looked at in the industry. Obviously credit for the deal he got for Otani. But I think if you ask agents and I'm not speaking on behalf of myself, I'm speaking on behalf of agents, they would say to you, wow, this agent got 700 million dollars for a client like that's hard to imagine. And I think that when they say Otani's spokesman, I have not yet seen and maybe you have. Do we know for sure that the spokesman is his agent? Is there someone else? We don't know. I think it is, but I'm speculating, purely speculating. We don't know yet, but it certainly would not entirely surprise me. This is big, big news and it was handled as though no one would care. And that's how you get an interview done with ESPN. And then all of a sudden, you miss a ballot like we're in some sort of Jason born movies, where I miss a vow the story. It's it's asinine. Oh, I don't know if I can say that. I'm sorry. They already did. You did. And you could say anything once, but that one you can, that one you can say twice, three times, if you want. You're right. It's it is nuts. All right. We're talking about agents here. I feel like we could talk about this story for a thousand years, but we've we've we've covered a lot of bases on it. One agent in particular, maybe overplayed his hand a little bit. I'm sure Scott Boris will do a great job negotiating Juan Soto's contract next year when he gets a cajillion dollars. But did he maybe overplay his hand a little bit? And do you think that will impact free agency for some of the, you know, more mid tier guys next off season? Well, that now, now you're explaining in such a funny way, two serious stories that are going on with the muti that's going on inside the union where they're trying to figure out will Tony Clark keep his job? And it's the middle class players and the lower tier players who are going to lead that, that situation to get Clark out if it does happen. And then you're talking about Boris who only cares about the top of the free agent class. And he definitely overplayed his hand because he thought that an owner would bail him out the way owners always have owners always bail him out by giving years and dollars to his clients. And this year, nobody bailed him out for any of his players. And that is a big, big difference. So Snell, Bellinger, Chapman, they all got less than what Boris had promised them. And Snell said as much during his press conference that he had yesterday in Arizona with the Giants. And so does that mean that players will not use Boris? That remains to be seen. Does it mean that Boris is less powerful? The first way we will see that is if Tony Clark and Bruce Mayer are removed from the union, that means Boris will have lost power. Yeah, what is your sense of that? And his control over over the union because the way the power structure works in the MLBPA, it's changed recently. And the minor leakers and middle tier players have more of a say in the way things are organized to my understanding recently. But how much, how much sway, how much influences Boris have at the tippy top of that organization? Well, minor leakers are now in the same union as the major leakers. They don't have a majority of the council. There's 72 voting members in the minor leakers have 34 of them and major leakers have 38. But if you go back to 2022, Boris's players who were on the executive council voted to keep the lockout going. They did not want to agree to the deal that was agreed to. But all the player rep did. And that's how the deal passed through the players and the owners. And we got baseball again. Boris definitely was controlling that negotiation and was making it clear that he was not happy because all the players were about to give in in Scott's mind. And now what you're seeing is the union get ready for the next negotiation, which happened in 2026. And you're seeing a fight for power. And it will be very interesting to see who wins this fight because if Clark is gone and Marino steps up, got his power on the backs of minor leakers, that would be an indication that this next deal will really be about getting more money to younger players. Yeah, it's an interesting subplot in Major League Baseball. David, appreciate the time. And I'm glad we could act as a practice for you for your show. Okay. I meant that in the best possible way. I love being on this show. And I'm awake watching the baseball anyway, 92 San Diego. Yeah. And it was very important for the Padres in this game. MLB doesn't like it when there's a sweep in a series like this. Yeah. Yeah. Because owners don't like sending their teams and disrupting spring. If they're going to lose two games. Yeah. So a split is always preferable. And it looks like we're on our way to that. Still on the bottom of the third. Yeah. How do you think the Dodgers feel early returns on Yoshinubu Yamamoto, who only lasted one inning, gave up five runs? Yeah, it's not ideal. But you know what? It's one start of 34 starts and he had an entire country and area sort of staring at him and thinking about him. And I understand why it didn't go well. But yes, plus stuff is a long way to go. On the other hand, carnating him the Cy Young winner in the rookie of the year, I think it's a little early for that. And getting back from a start like that, your ERA is going to be inflated for quite a few starts. Yeah. It's going to take some scoreless outings to get that thing back into normal range. David, again, thanks for doing this. Hey, have a great day. Thank you so much. Yeah, you too. David Sampson of the Nothing Personal podcast with David Sampson. You know, it's interesting. And I'm not doing this. But if somebody listening was to infer that like, you know, it's just funny with the betting story going on. It's like Major League Baseball does have a preference of the outcome in this series, how it's working out. It's just, I don't know, like some people might connect those dots. Not me, obviously. Yeah. Just saying. It's whether why they hate that story, that right there. Yeah. I mean, whether or not Jo Hayo, Tony, I mean, gambled himself, not on baseball, but illegally within illegal sports bookie in the state of California, he will now be like the butt of every gambling joke that you have. Like, that's now a thing. Oh, it's already like looking at that caps money line like I saw a lot of those last night. Yeah. What do you think is? What do we think his vice was? That that's the thing. This guy feels like one of the most squeaky clean athletes that we have not in North American sports, but like in sports in general. Yeah. Feels like he has no vices. Oh, no, I mean, if he gambles, I'm saying, like, I'm going to even, I'm going to even assume like I'll take for now, let's just operate. I'll take a town. He's where that he was wiring to cover the debts of the translator. Like, what do we think the translator spice was? Oh, he said it was a lot of soccer. A lot of soccer. Okay. That's not as fun. I was hoping like, I wanted some Sony's horse racing was, was for sure in the mix for me, but I wanted like, I don't know. I would have taken like highlight or something, something uber obscure. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to gamble on highlight. My understanding of gambling on highlight, it's not on the up and up. Oh, this is what I heard. I thought you were going to say, this is gospel. When you do that, you're gambling with your life. Yeah. That is what you're going to say. No, but yeah, I don't know. The polote is hard to find. Like, if they move so quickly, it's very difficult to track with your own eyes. So you don't know. And who the hell knows how it's actually scored. So yeah, I stay away from highlight gambling. I'm going to be honest. I need to look at your bank. It feels like you know a lot about highlight gambling. Well, I'm interested in it. They get the big scoops. Yeah. Mr. Burns played it. That's right. Oh, boy, boy. All right. We'll come back. Uh, Nick Caprios, real kid from born as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his bank gunning sports at 590 the fan. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The J.D. Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on apples, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And morning show sports at 590 the fan band is friend gutting. Yeah, fortunate to get to see and play unfortunate. We didn't get to see goal number 58 and a seventh hat trick from Austin Matthews. Yesterday has to be satisfied with with six and having the most multi goal games and least franchise history as they beat the caps. I'm satiated. So he should be as well. All right. Let's talk to Nick Caprios of Real Kipper and born. How's it going, Kipper? I'm good guys. How are you doing? All right. Uh, what did you make of that as a response after the rather lackluster game in Philadelphia in which the head coach said he didn't like anybody in Philly against Flyers? Well, first of all, I really liked Sheldon Keith for not liking anybody in Philadelphia. And I get sometimes that you try to pull positives out. And that third period was fine for me in Philadelphia. But the message was clear that if we want to start games and play like that for 40 minutes and expect to win even against weaker opponents in the NHL, it's not going to be a recipe for success in the playoffs. So I think Sheldon set a really good tone coming off the Philadelphia game to go into Washington 24 hours. And how do I know that? Well, in Philly, they give up the goal in 19 seconds to go down one nothing. And then in Washington, they score 16 seconds in to go up one nothing. And we had a really good conversation on Real Kipper and born with Sammy McKee and Justin Born on how imperative it is that you're ready to start the game. And how it can be a domino effect for the rest of the night. And I just thought that for 16 seconds, the play by Domie, the play by McMahon along the wall and then the finish by Austin set the whole tone for it for last night. And you know, they never looked back. Yeah, no, they really didn't. I mean, man, starting on time, it's been a thing we've talked about this team going back to the to the days of Babcock. You mentioned to me there and, you know, his play on the ice. He's definitely stepped it up. I'm not even a notch and notch two, three, four as of late. I mean, the forest this last night. But the thing that's kind of jumped out to me is how much him doing his play on the ice has allowed him to kind of do a lot of talking off of it. I'm not getting into, like, who's the real captain of this team? But in a day on a team where there's mics in Tavares face every day and Riley's face every day feels like Domie is just a guy who's incredibly comfortable taking on that role and talking. I mean, he's been around the game his whole life. And now that his play is kind of following suit, it feels like it enables him to maybe have a bit of a bigger voice. What have you made a Domie as a whole as of late without a doubt? Well, first of all, his play has been terrific. His skills always been there, you know, and I got the chance through through tie to watch him as a kid growing up with the Don Mills flyers. And you can just tell that his skill level, his vision, his ability to to move the puck, see plays advanced has always been there at times. Of course, he can be caught like many trying to do too much. The one extra move that turned the puck over. He seems to have cleaned that up a lot in the last month. And I just think he's in a really good place right now. He doesn't feel the pressure to go out there and make big plays. He'll take what's given and he's limited his turnovers. And he's found a nice place with the Toronto Maple Leafs either, you know, at times at center or on the wing like we saw last night. But this is the way I envisioned Max really contributing with the hockey club. A guy that can move up and down the lineup. And right now he's he's doing very well at the top. Yeah, he's obviously a guy that likes to pass first. And he did that quite effectively yesterday with the the four assists. There's a lot of roster questions for this team headed towards the the postseason. And we saw TJ Brody as a healthy scratch. What is the the number one question? Mental health. Yeah, right. No. Yes. Yes. You're right. It wasn't a healthy scratch. Sheldon Keith positioned it as just a mental health day. What is the number one question you have about how this this team is going to line up for game one of the postseason? Maybe outside of the goal tending. I think defensive pairs and ultimately who do you like and who's in a rhythm and who feels good going into the Stanley Cup playoffs. And right now it's still up in the air. So for me, it's just about these last white dozen games or so that you have to have real purpose and meaning for Sheldon moving forward here. And you know, you still got a big game Saturday night, big game in the standings. No, it's not. But as far as the way you feel about yourself, you're going up against some of the best hockey players in the world and dry side. Old and David Saturday night. We all know what kind of years that time is having. It's it's it won't mean much in the standings for the Leafs, but it'll be a huge, you know, hurdle in terms of getting over a hump mentally about how you feel about yourself and as you prepare going in. So, you know, defensive pairs, lines continuing to roll. And for me, the foot soldiers in particular, Holmberg and McMahon and even Robertson last night and their development, we're going to need those guys moving forward here. So I put a great value now in the remainder of the regular season to prepare. Yeah, so you you lead me right where I wanted to go. You have a great article up in the star at least will be will be shortly. The idea of the Leafs needing to find out what they have and maybe test the McMahon's knives. You know, you mentioned Robertson, I don't know how much he'll factor in postseason, but they're, you know, if it's a deep run, they'll probably need him. What can Keith do to best prepare those guys for the postseason? Because, yeah, they can replicate it maybe a bit in that Oilers game or the hurricanes and they'll have a couple against the Panthers, but there's also going to be some, you know, Patty cake hockey where teams are kind of home and cooled and there isn't that urgency. What can Keith do to kind of prepare that class of guys on this roster for the postseason? Why you just put them, you continue to put them in positions to test themselves and hopefully succeed. So I think, I think Bobby McMahon's the best example of a guy that's come along in a very short period of time and now is going to go into the latter part of the regular season and the first round of the players or the playoffs as a a huge importance for this hockey club. And we know what the stars will mean. And yes, we all know that the Leafs will live and die by the production of Neil Anderson Matthews and Marner Tavares for sure. But those foot soldiers here now moving forward every other night to go and win two or three rounds has to lie on on Holmberg. Connor Doer is a guy last night again, probably played under 10 minutes. But you know, the ships were important. He had a physical presence. We know what he means to the PK. And then of course, you know, Bobby McMahon, another wet 16 minutes, another goal, a couple shots on goal. So big and heavy guys that can lean on people. And we've seen it before out of the Blake Coleman's of the world, partly Goudreau's, Alex Collor, and those type of players are imperative for playoff success. The Leafs have banked a lot. They've invested a lot in Holmberg and McMahon. And they're going to have to pay off for them despite their lack of playoff experience. TJ Brody has plenty of playoff experience. But yeah, that was an eye opening healthy scratch yesterday. Do you think there's a legitimate possibility he's not in the lineup for game one if everybody's healthy? Yes, I do. And you know, for whatever reason, there's just not been that consistency or that focus or just that that overall kind of feel that you're you're you're in safe hands when he's on the ice. And he's again, another one that has to use the remainder of the regular season to get back on track. Yeah, there might have been a hiccup here and there for Benoit on this road trip. But he's a guy that has a presence out there and you feel it. He's playing now 17, 18 minutes and a good first pass, but a physical presence is something that's impaired of this time of year. So again, if you're if you're now down to the fact that, you know, you can count on Simone Benoit in most nights, then it becomes that much easier to to sit out a guy when he's not on top of his game. And right now, there's no question that's that's TJ Brody. What do you what do you make of the messaging of the night off? He he could have easily called it a healthy scratch. He's not hurt and he was scratched. So technically it was one, but he chose to frame it a different way of want to give him some rest. It's a mental health day. It's just a very stark contrast to John Tortorella saying, yeah, I'm scratching my captain. I'm not answering any questions. What do you what do you make of the way that Keith is has message that that specifically last night? Well, first of all, Tortorella grew up in my era and not not Sheldon's, but listen to each his own. I don't know what he how he feels if if if TJ Brody felt like, you know, he he would come it he would come down as hard as Tortorella does on his players. You know, he should know his players better than me or you or Tortorella moving forward here. So if this is what he needs to to feel better about himself to get himself in a proper frame of mind, to come back to him is early a Saturday, then it's ultimately the message from from Sheldon is I gotta get TJ Brody going here. I don't envision success in the playoffs without him finding his game. So if he needs to say whatever he said, you know, the other night, so be it. I'm fine with it. As long as the message is rather clear, your game isn't good enough to be in the lineup right now and it's ultimately my responsibility to change that. So change it. However, you get the message. There's a moment there in the first period where Tyler Wertuzzi doesn't play like the first 10 minutes of the game. And you thought, Oh, wow, the game after the Tortorella healthy scratching of the captain. Oh, Sheldon Keith is benching TJ Brody or sorry, he's healthy scratching TJ Brody and benching Tyler Bertuzzi for like disciplinary reasons. Wow, what a what a departure from what we've seen from from this head coach in this era. Yeah, obviously not the case. Bertuzzi not healthy is dealing with whatever illness is running through this team yet again. But just in general, do you feel like Sheldon Keith has held this team accountable enough? For me, I'd probably be a little harder. And again, I'll go back to two games earlier against Carolina where they blew the lead and he spoke in his post game post game comments about finding probably 70% of the positive parts of that game. And for me, all that mattered was blowing the game in the last 20 minutes and not coming out prepared and all of that. So I mean, I'm a I'm a different kind of guy. I grew up a different way. I was really happy about the fact that he found nothing positive about Florida. And I think nothing positive about the Philly game. And I think it added to the importance of a good start for them. So I do think that the fact that, you know, he was a lot shorter with him and a lot more abrupt on his his point of view after Philly that led it to to a better start in Washington. But, you know, to each his own, again, he's he's dealing with kids today. I do as a parent, but not as 20 hockey players. And, you know, he should know, after all these years, he should know his team best. And if this is the way he wants to approach it, without the hammer, most nights, then, you know, it's up to him to pull whatever he cut out of his hockey club. Because, you know, if he doesn't, Sheldon will be held accountable, just no different than anyone else, you know, in any era. Yeah, certainly will be. And yeah, I think we I think we all know you'd take a maybe slightly different tack. It's like, I see how you get on Sammy when he like makes a mistake on your lineup. So I think we know you'd take a you take a different tack there. We're looking at more than two weeks without Marner for this team. And obviously you lose any player. You're going to miss them. But we've seen the record without Marner. It's been the worst of the kind of big guys when they've missed a lot of time. Matthews, it's great. Riley, it's great. Marner, it's trending better because they've been winning games here. But what can the Leafs kind of take out of this? And do you have any concern about what version of Mitch Marner they get back? I mean, we don't high ankle sprains can be weird. And not that not that all players wouldn't be affected by it. But you know, a guy who's so shifty and uses edge work like Marner, I can only imagine that ankle just takes a little more stress than the most players. What's your what's your read on Marner? You have any insight on when he should come back or kind of needs to come back maybe? Well, first of all, my read on Sammy McKee is I'm taking him to another level. Oh, you are. There's no doubt about it. Yeah. Yes. And that's that's all that matters. That's my old school. All right, Gunner. All right. As far as Marner is concerned, I really do believe that there you know, you hope that there's a blessing in all of this between him and Yarn Crock that again, you're you're putting the onus, you know, here and now on other players who can take that responsibility and feel like in a playoff round that I can I can contribute more when called upon. So I think that's that's the positive. I have no worries about Mitch Marner at all coming back and showing up and picking up where he left off and being the engine for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But to your point, there is that that that one see the doubt in the back of your mind is like a high ankle sprains. What does that mean? Is he is he going to be coming back 70% 80% 100% is he is he going to have to manage this? Is it going to bother him at times? That is the ultimate unknown here. But I like the fact that the Leafs continue to squeeze out more games without him, which means that they're giving his his injury the best chance it can to heal and be ready. But all this ultimately means is that you know, you get to learn more about your lineup with him out of the lineup. And if you can strengthen that part and then you get the strength of Mitch coming back, you're that much better of a hockey club. Noah Gregor's face probably not feels so great right now. What what was your interpretation of that Tom Wilson play? Yeah, I don't know. You watched him right after he hit him and it's like he's consoling him. He's got his arm around him. It's a mistake and it's like but it didn't really look like a mistake did it? It was it was a good shot for sure. But I don't think anything will come about it. And at the end of the day, it's Tom Wilson. I mean, they Gregor more than happy to go fight him after you got hit in the head. But you know, hey, there'll be a few more I'm like that along the way between now and in the playoffs. So again, Gregor's another guy. I thought they got some really good life out of that fourth line. Good energy. And you know, Gregor's also got to be one of those guys, one of those foot soldiers that when he's in, he's contributing. Yeah. And the thing about him that's nice is he does have a different skill set, right? Like you bring some speed that you don't necessarily see in the bottom end of the lineup. Doesn't mean he has to be in there every night, but it's nice that you can have a bit of a a change of pace. Last one from me before we let you go, Kipper. What was the more egregious error by the Leafs this week? Was it the Riley and Brody play that led to the goal in the fliers game? Or was it the entirety of the team standing on the ice last night when they got called for too many men? I've never seen so many dudes hanging out by a bench in the middle of game. What was the more egregious error, Kipper? Well, I don't know. Like, where are the Leafs on too many men? They still lead or it's kind of subsided a little bit. It has been cleaned up a little bit. But, you know, every once in a while, there are these blatant blunders that you can kind of shake your head at here. But they've been able to kind of clean it up a little bit more, which is, which is okay. But it's, you know, the other thing in my article today that I wrote is like, it doesn't take much to turn a series around or to lose a series. And that's the stuff that you really hope can get cleaned up by April. You know, you go back to the Philly or the Florida match, where the Leafs at times in the first two games looked like they were going to get at least a split to go back. And I don't know if it was Neelander that turned the puck over the neutral zone that led to a bark off goal. 19 seconds into the second period. And then the wheels fell off in game two. And, you know, it's really hard to recover off of those certain things. But you just hope that they can limit them. And they won't have such a big impact on a series and they can find ways to get over the hump. But yeah, every once in a while, those those hiccups come in, come on the Leafs side, which is a little frustrating for Leaf fans. But right now it is what it is. And they got, they got a few games here that still clean up a lot of it. Yeah, I don't want to be taking those type of penalties at the end of April. That's for sure. Kipper, always appreciate it. Thanks, man. Okay, you guys have a great day. You too. Nick Kipperios, coast to reel, Kipper and Borne, you can catch four to six PM on Sportsnet 5.9 of the fan and Sportsnet 360. I didn't ask him this question, but it's like, we just had the GM meetings and like, there wasn't much discussion about rule changes and what they want to expand replay more things challengeable. Sure. We're still fine with the way offside reviews happen that, you know, an offside can happen two minutes prior to a goal. But as long as the puck remains in the zone, we can go back and challenge that. Like, it seems to me, I don't necessarily love going to the microscope on the offsides anyways, but I understand it. If we're going to do that, how about only on goals that happen immediately proceeding with the offside? So like on the rush, once the puck stops and is cycled or goes back to the point, can't review it. It literally has to be part of the same scoring chance. Yeah, I think the problem with that is like, I'm just, I don't often do this. I'm thinking like a lawyer here. Just don't know how you would be able to write that. Like, would you write it like the shootout rule? Like the second forward momentum stops for a rushing player? I would. I don't like that. I don't like this either. Okay, just make it a time thing. Anything outside of 15 seconds beyond the puck crossing the blue line can't review it. See, I don't have as much of an issue with the length of time that happens. I have more of an issue with one, the length of the reviews. And I feel kind of the same way I do about the neighborhood play in baseball, it's second base. Like, if you use a microscope to zoom in and you can see like, Oh, look at this. It's like, cool that when we invented hockey, we weren't using microscope eyes. We were just using regular human eyes. And I think there is some element of, you know, it's not to say, ah, just watch it once at full speed. And that's that make your call. But I do like an element of there being some semblance of a time limit on these things. There being some semblance of a, you have to watch it. It, you know, I'm not saying it has to be full speed, but I don't want it slowed down to milliseconds that it takes or the idea is we were supposed to get rid of the egregious mistakes. Matthew Shane, it's like anything. There's one egregious mistake that got made and you say, we can't let that happen ever again. And then there's never been anything that's like that happens. And so we're still sitting here litigating all this stuff. I also think there should be much like majorly, I mean, different, different kettle of fish, but much like majorly, baseball has a ghost runner in the regular season and no such thing exists in the playoffs. I'm fine with one standard of review for a regular season game and a completely different standard of review or being able to, because of what it would be more stringent in the post season because you can't like loosen the rules. No, no, well, I mean, yeah, no, they definitely don't do that. Well, they definitely don't do that with penalty calls during the playoffs. So it's kind of the thing we love about the sport. It's weird. But I think I don't want to spend five minutes watching something get reviewed in a game in March. But if it's the Stanley Cup playoffs, I think it matters more and I can hear the idea of you have to get this call absolutely right. So yeah, more stringent. Yeah, we don't want to be watching a six hour hockey game in October, but we're more than happy to do it. Yeah, if you're watching hockey in May, you're pretty locked in. Yeah, I would say there's nobody here like, I'll throw it on. No, not really happening. Probably going to go do something if that's. Oh, man. Play off over time. It's fast approaching. Nothing like it. Well, it's like, unless your team's in it and then you go. Oh, yeah. As long as they come out on top, which least did in game six. Oh my God. All right. Time now for the wake and write presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. A very intriguing matchup, especially for Leaf fans tonight on Sportsnet from Boston, the Bruins hosting the Rangers top two teams in the Eastern Conference atop their divisions has the Bruins favored by the tune of a minus 135 money line Rangers plus 115 total is a low one, five and a half, Brent. Yeah, I think that's where I put my eyes. And I know it's a couple of good team stringent defenses, but they can both score as well. Five and a half. I know you got to pay a little for it over five and a half minus one 20. That's the most confident about in that game. That line is pretty much a pick up with minus 135 and plus 115 for a reason. So give me the over at five and a half. I like the Bruins. It just like their season hasn't made a ton of sense. And it feels like roster for roster. The Panthers are better, but the Bruins just keep winning. They just are never knocked off their, their spot, their perch atop the Atlantic division. I like the Bruins at home, minus 135. They also have listed here a prop that is called It's Morphin Time. And my kid just loves power Rangers right now. So a tro check to score game total over six and a half and Rangers win plus nine 30. Go bet that for my kid. Somebody do it. I like that. All right. That was the Wakenrake presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Luke Gazdick, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan.
