[MUSIC] >> Bad morning Joe Sports at 5.9. >> Bad man, it's Frank, I feel like I'm back in your car. >> Yeah, it's my favorite song, you know, from when I was a boy. >> Yeah, who doesn't love a good CCR, honestly. >> Honestly, if you don't go to a doctor. >> Yeah, see, even some of the greats, okay. I can see while I don't agree why people might not like Led Zeppelin. >> Sure, I guess so. >> The Beatles, it's harder to see, it's like the Beatles. And not comparing credence to the Beatles. But I do think that if you just like music, you're not gonna dislike credence, clear water. >> Yeah, no, I could not put myself in the space of someone. I cannot physically put myself in the headspace of someone who cannot enjoy that. I also don't wanna be in the same physical space as someone who cannot enjoy that. It makes me just question your decision making skills quite honestly. >> Don't worry, you weren't in a space with someone who disagreed with credence, okay? >> Again, because I think it was a little bit odd that yeah, that was like your number one playlist was music from 50 years ago, but yeah. >> I mean, there's like, there's more contemporary guys like the Allman Brothers on there. >> [LAUGH] >> And he noticed readings on there, yeah, it's a good old man playlist. I am 70 at heart, like I like to complain about things, I like getting up early. >> Yeah, you're weird. >> That's really, I love golf. It's like all things old guys like getting up early complaining golf. >> You don't like to sleep though, I guess old people don't sleep either. >> How do you think they're up early all the time? >> Yeah, you're right. >> They're fighting the war against big sleep. >> [LAUGH] >> Leafs, Oilers, tomorrow night, hockey night in Canada. >> I'm 34 years old, just to clarify. >> Yeah, I'm older than that, although you were older at heart than I am. >> Okay, so we got two former heart trophy winners doing battle. And two guys that are in the heart trophy conversation this year, I think this is not being anti-leafes. And why would I do that? But I would think that if you were just putting out your heart trophy rankings that Conor McDavid would be ahead of Austin Matthews this season. I don't think it's like a huge separation. I don't think he's in the lead. I do think it's Nathan McKinnon at the tippy top and Kuchrov is in there. But I think at this moment, Austin Matthews might even be outside of the top four that could change with a performance on Saturday. But as you rightly pointed out, I think it's too far away from the end of the season for that to be a lasting imprint on the voters' minds. This is a regular season award, so this won't impact the voting. But what it might impact, what I'm about to talk about, the post season and what happens with those two guys and their respective teams or Nathan McKinnon or Nikita Kuchrov, we can't discount despite the regular season unevenness that's happened in Tampa. But that team finding itself and going on another incredible run, although it's hard to imagine Nikita Kuchrov gets anointed as the world's best player. Like we'll have to ask Nikita Zadorov at the conclusion of the post season, like, because he's now the guy that gets a decide for it, he's the guy that gets to decide who the best player is. But and also I wonder if it impacts future heart trophy voting. What happens in the post season, right? Like the Nathan McKinnon, you can make the argument for him because he is a champion. Does that play into the voting for the league's MVP? How much is on the line as far as the unquestioned league's best player? Now not most skilled, I think we all win, it's Conor McDavid. But like the guy that you would most want on your team, like is it possible that with an incredible post season run Austin Matthews, is it at least in the conversation to be that guy? The thing about it is that Matthews is the guy who actually has something to gain from the post season, right? I mean, McDavid wins a copy stamps at home. Yes, obviously he has something to gain, but he's already made a conference final and to say that the Oilers bow out in the conference final again, I don't know when the Edmonton is going to want to hear this right now, but it's like you fired your coach mid-season, you lost a thousand games in a row, that's a successful year making it to the conference finals, but it doesn't change our perception of McDavid at all. But if Austin Matthews gets the Leafs to the conference finals and there's no world where the Leafs are getting there without him being a massive part of it, then that does alter his perception because he's not the guy who just puts up stats and the team never wins anything, that's the thing, that's the reason why Zidorov said he would take McKinnon is because he's a winner, because he wins. So Matthews is the guy who has the most to gain in the playoffs based on perception. This is dangerous thinking, right? This is dangerous thinking, and I know as much as... So scared right now. I mean, imagine the Leafs win the Stanley Cup. I can't. Actually, like, I physically can't. Imagine Austin Matthews wins a Khan Smythe trophy. Okay. Oh my God. And it doesn't even matter that what happens with the Oilers, like say they get to a conference final, or maybe they're in the Stanley Cup final against the Leafs, the thing that felt like was... Ben, Ben, it's too early for us. Even in the stars when they were putting up incredible regular season statistics, that yeah, eventually we will have the All-Canadian Stanley Cup matchup, Leafs. Okay. You can't make that. I know. You can't make that. You can't make that. But just say these things. But yeah. I mean, I know it's like Silly to talk. We had our dalliance with Austin Matthews as the best player when he put up 60 goals in the next season, Conrad was like, oh yeah, 64 and quadrillion points. Like I can just do that too. Like it must be said that the possibility exists for the thing that I just said to happen. And if that happens, yeah, you'll be able to say with legitimacy that you have the world's best player. That is what's on the line in these postseason. Yeah. Because it won't just be that he, I mean, the winning will obviously be the biggest thing. But we'll do the thing we do right now with McKinnon and McDavid, where we use the separators. If yeah, if you just add up all the skill points each guy has, McDavid's a more impressive player. But you get to say that McKinnon's the driven guy. Right. Well, we talk about Matthews. These are great two-way center that he probably shut down a ton of guys on the road to that. So yeah, man, what a fun world to, to dream on. Yeah. So I mean, that's on the line. No, back to reality. That was fun. I don't know how long we're going to have to discuss this point because we're gonna talk to Shide David in a second. We'll bring it up and maybe we'll talk about it after we talked to him as well, or maybe we'll bring him in on it. And he loves his hockey. He still plays old man hockey. Love that. So say that happens again. I'm not. Yeah. I'm just going to lean back from the mic so any guttural moaning will be muffled at the very least. Okay. Say the Leafs win the Stanley Cup, or say the Oilers win the Stanley Cup. Yeah. Okay. The average age of an NHL player is certainly under 30. There is not a team as old as the Penguins are. They don't even average out to being a team with an average age over 30. 1993 is a long time ago. Yes, it is. Like a long time ago. Ask Jason. So like the majority, like the vast majority of NHL players, not even alive the last time a Canadian franchise won a Stanley Cup. Now maybe this isn't everything. Maybe it's just the flip-flop thing that is drawing every player, whether they're Canadian, whether they're American, whether they were born on Mars, to Florida, to Vegas, to every American market where you don't have to answer tough questions where you get to play in the sunshine. Yeah. But what is the thing, I'll just tell you from my own perspective, the argument I make towards, hey, you know what, that may be true. Like the climactic things may be real, not maybe are real. But the positives are so astronomical that to me, if you have a chance to do it in a way, the negatives of failure in these Canadian markets. Now, I can only say that, I can say it partly because of experience and I've seen some Canadian franchises go on Capran, like to the finals, but not win it. And '93, I was, you know, I do have memories of the Montreal Canadiens winning that. For these younger players, younger than me and everybody's younger than me, save for Mark G. or Dano, what would it mean to that narrative if a Canadian franchise, say the Leafs or the Oilers won the cup and those guys are sainted and their star, I mean, it's hard to imagine Austin Matthews or Conor McDavid star growing any brighter. But like, again, everybody, I think the argument is more of the guys, the ancillary pieces on those teams and what happens to their earning potential with a cup victory. Does that change the narrative that is ever growing around the talent drain south of the border? A little. I think there is a vast majority of guys who still prefer no tough questions. They just did a thing. The Florida Panthers, they had basically all live right by the practice rink. They just built, they all just drive their golf carts to it and they have chargers in the parking lot. There is a sub-sector guys who are never going to want anything other than that. I can't completely blame them for it. I do a little bit, but I understand it. But I just think there's some element to that. The other thing is, is that once it happens, it will never be unimpressive. It will never not matter. But the second one will, like the first one will carry more weight, especially, especially if it were to be heaven forbid, the Leafs. But here's the here's the counter to that is that the pressure is off. It's like nothing but positives after that. For that franchise. I don't know what else I think it's like say the Leafs win the cup or say the Oilers win the cup and the pressure that ramps up on awesome Matthews and this Leafs course, sure. For the other Canadian franchises that are in contention, you're right. The pressure raises. But like, okay, again, I don't know, do people like doing the thing where I talk about the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup or are they like cringing every time I 50/50. Some people are like, yes, let me dream and some people want to tape your mouth shut so you can't chinks it in further. I'm not, okay, I know it's a far-flung possibility. You can do this now, but once a playoff start, there's no more talking. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, say the Leafs win the Stanley Cup. Okay. And everybody's been knighted. Yeah, like, actually, okay, and even Kyle Dubas, he can be part of the parade, like, bring him back, whatever. He's Ray Bork. Yeah, sure, whatever, never a bad word ever to be said about Mitch Marner, William Neelander-John Dubas, Austin Matt, everybody, make as much money as you want. Mitch Marner, give him 20 million a season. They all get 20% of the cap, yeah. If you're a free agent and you realize that, okay, not only do you get the possibility of like this being a dynastic run and more trips to the Stanley Cup finals, that like, how bad is it going to get? Like, how much pressure are you really going to be under because of the weight of history being eliminated? They're that, that you are swaying me. And the thing you said about the like, bottom six, bottom pair, lower tier guy on the roster, those are the guys who would, would be swayed most by this because- Right. I know, Riley, is he making a different decision? I don't think so. I really don't. I think there's some guys who just don't want it and I don't, I don't think he has a cup too. Yeah, that's the other part of this that, that, that definitely changes the equation. Yeah, this is a, this is a topic I could go on for probably a hundred years. Yeah, maybe we'll revisit it and maybe we will, and maybe we'll ask our next guest. Shai Davidi, back in Dunedin, how's it going, Shai? Am I right? How are you guys? All right. You must feel back home. We're screaming about hockey. It's, I'm drinking Tim Hortons and it must be like a little homecoming for you. Yeah, it's the perfect way to start a morning. Yes. I know you have some hockey thoughts. So I'll just, I'll start off with, with the conversation we're just having. So like, it does feel like if you're a good player and you have your druthers, you either go to Florida or Vegas, you try to take your talents somewhat warm where you don't have to answer tough questions and especially if it's a good team and both of those teams are that you get the best of all worlds. How much or does it, the narrative change or the thinking change around those players, if we see a Canadian franchise win the ultimate goal, win a Stanley Cup, we haven't seen it since 93, none of these players were even alive when the Montreal Canadiens won it. Like does it change if we see proof of concept with a Canadian team winning? I don't know if it's, if it's like that, right? The advantage that the Sun Belt teams will always have, especially like in Florida, which is a zero tax state, is that when you make more money, you can offer players a certain lifestyle, right? How many other places can, in the middle of winter, can you go from practice and directly to say the golf course or the beach or something along those lines? Like that's pretty appealing. The California teams can obviously obviously offer the weather, the beach, the grand offer, the tax piece, but it's a different environment. But you have to remember that a lot of athletes are super passionate about the sport that they play. Like for a good reason, obviously it's their career. They've put tons and tons of hours of work into it. So you also will want to play in a place that where it really matters. I would think. Nowhere does winning Stanley Cup matter more than for a Canadian club. So it becomes a matter of personal preference, what you need in your life. And what sacrifices you're going to make is everything is trade offs, right? So you don't have the weather piece, you don't have some of the other elements I talked about with the Canadian clubs. But you win in a Canadian market, you have a legacy that you can't have anywhere else. And so it really just comes down to what is the priority for a specific player when they have that control over their career to pick their next destination where they're playing. But I don't know that I buy that narrative, because I really think it's player specific. I guess, it's all theoretical when you talk about all the upside. But yeah, if Max Domie is part of a Leafs team that wins the Stanley Cup, look what happens to that guy. And already he's a pretty visible fella and the last name plays into it, but look what happens like, and it's hard for me not to imagine that there is a certain sub-sect of NHL player that might be swayed or might have original hesitancy towards playing in a Canadian market. But then when they see how they're these players, lives are changed forever if they're on a team that does it, how that wouldn't sway them. But it's all theoretical because we haven't seen it since 1993. All right, so you're back in Dunedin and you arrive quickly, you can ask your question in a second. Great hockey takes. I love that try. Thank you for that. Yeah. Appreciate it. Look, I think both points are valid, right? And there is a ton of appeal. It's just a good lifestyle, like there's supposed to be a snowstorm today, I think it's Toronto, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you want to deal with that or do you want to wake up on the morning and see the sun? What do you think you get to do? You know, it's pretty nice. I'm not trying to brag or it sounds like yeah. But I think that's just a choice that people have to make. There is a significant lifestyle element that comes down here and especially in the cap world where every dollar matters, your salary is much higher here than anywhere else. But an $8 million salary in a no-tax state is significantly different than $8 million in New York State or California or a Canadian city. I like to think that there's more to life than just money. Shy? He's lying. Yeah. Not for me, but like the other people, yeah, other people, there should be more to pro sports than just the money. But yeah, like give me an extra dollar. I'll move anywhere. Yeah, all right, Mark Shapiro, like I said, spoke to the assembled masses yesterday. What was your big takeaway? For me, it did make it sound like, you know, despite other big name, baseball writers writing to the contrary that there was a big splash coming whether it was Shohio, Tony, or not, it felt like it was always Shohio, Tony, or boss that there was never a secondary pivot when it came to free agency. Yeah, that was definitely the way that Mark Shapiro made it sound. He said to Shohio, Tony, and if you don't sign Shohio, Tony, it was a conventional off-season. And the conventional off-season turned out to be the moves that they made, and that was obviously the path. And I think that you can understand why, for a few reasons, this wasn't necessarily a free agent market that was ideal for the Blue Jays' needs. Trades are obviously hard to pull off, and their farm system is in a state where there's not an overabundance of talent that they can trade from, like perhaps they did in years past when they acquired Josep Rios and Matt Chapman and others. And then you can think about where the Blue Jays are at, a little bit bigger picture, with so many significant players eligible for free agency after the 2025 season, that you have to be careful about what you're putting in place longer terms. So the way that it plays out, the biggest spend of the off-season becomes the Ariel Rodriguez and 32 million over five years. There's only one other multi-year free agent who signed. It's Isaiah Kreiner-Philoffo for two years. And the Blue Jays kind of maintain the floor from their roster last year. They essentially replace what they lost in free agency with a similar class. And then don't put anything on the books longer term so they can be, they have the flexibility to go a number of different directions, depending how things play out in 2024. So I thought that was one of the key takeaways. The other one that I thought was significant was related to how the revenues of the renovation are created by the renovation that's about to be completed will tie into payroll in the years ahead. And you know, March Paro said that essentially it allows them to sort of stay on the spending path at the run now. The Blue Jays are into the or pass the first luxury tax threshold for a second straight year, something that they, this is a first in franchise history for two years in a row that to be beyond the CBT. And so I think in terms of understanding what the spending ceiling is for this team, I thought that was pretty significant too. Yeah, it's pretty interesting, right? Obviously everybody likes seeing them being willing to spend into the, well, I mean, you know, maybe the guy signing the checks is a little less happy about them being in the tax threshold, but everybody's happy to see them spending that money. But it's also kind of, like you said, it's kind of set a floor now. I mean, not to say that this team has flaws up and down its lineup, but it's far from a perfect team. You would hope you, you kind of build it better. How important, I mean, it's important for this team to get into playoffs for a myriad of reasons, but you mentioned there, the ballplayer revenues and kind of, you know, spending money, you got to spend money to make money. How important is it for this team to have a playoff, you know, a bit of a run, not just for the players on the roster, not just for the performance, but to kind of make back the money they have spent to the renovations and allow them to, you know, let's dream pie in the sky. Let's say bow and flatty have the big years they hope to have extend those guys and that ain't going to be cheap. Sure. That's definitely part of it and, you know, this competitive window, it's shrinking unless some of those extensions happen, right? There is a very clear and definitive drop that date on this group, which is after the 25 season because it's not just bow and flatty who are going to be eligible for free agency. It's a number of other players too, it's a huge cohort and you can, I mean, it's hard enough to try and cover for Boboshed and Latin Ric O'Rourke Jr., but the, you know, Jordan Romano and a number of other players as well, that's really tough to replace. You can't just go into free agency and buy an entirely different roster. So you're going to need some internal development to help overcome that and the blue jeans, as it stands now, they don't necessarily have the depth of farm system to just turn over the entire core. Of course, there can be surprises and that can change pretty quickly in player development, but the way that at least things project right now, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. But the urgency to capitalize on this window is here because, you know, it was just, it was, you know, about five years ago, people were looking at this team and they're talking about them kind of the way people are talking about the Baltimore Orioles are right now, right? So while position, deep farm system, young core, and now that's starting to expire here. So you want to make sure that you capitalize on that before it disappears and some tough decisions start having to be made. So blue jeans did factually like dip into the free agent waters with Justin Turner signing him to a one year deal. So they were always going to make some additions and I understand the philosophy at the outset of free agency of not out laying the type of money that I thought Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and I guess we're still yet to see Jordan Montgomery obviously pitching is a little different because this team has lots of it when it comes to starting pitching. But yeah, JD Martina signs for less than Justin Turner on a one year deal and like only making two and a half million this year with the Mets and, and, you know, maybe it's not apples to apples because, you know, all things being equal, would he prefer to play in New York than Toronto? Maybe. But did the blue jays also misread the free agent class here because yeah, Cody Bellinger at like 200 million. I don't like that so much. Cody Bellinger at 80 million? I kind of like that. But it's also a matter of when they signed it, right? You think about the blue jays could have, they could have in theory tried to wait out the market and see if they could get JD Martinez now a week from spring training, but what version of JD Martinez are you going to get with, you know, less than a week of spring training to try and get ready for the regular season? And how does that fit into what you're trying to build and do in your clubhouse? And then would he have taken that from the glitches? The same thing. It'll cope the deal that Cody Bellinger takes, you know, is that a deal he's only doing with Chicago Cubs is the Matt Chapman deal, a deal he's only taking from the San Francisco Giants. And again, can you can you wait out the market to that point or do you want to try and have your team together and get them ready and allow them to build properly over the course of the spring training so you can maximize the group? I think that's part of the conversation. So there's there certainly have been quote unquote deals with some free agents to this point. You know, I think about, you know, Michael Arens in it that four and a half milk going to the Rangers, that's not a number I would have picked for Lorenz in beforehand. But again, you guys come in his camp late March, missed most of most spring training. They're playing catch up for a lot of the season. You've seen lots of players struggle in that boat trying to jump into a season that streams. So there certainly is some value to the certainty, just some value of going, which can have value of creating the letting the group dynamic develop a little bit more organically over the course of the spring training. But this has been a very bizarre market for obvious reasons. We're seeing some of the fallout from that right now with the conversations that the players you knew is having internally. And I think the blue jays, I don't I don't think you could characterize it as misreading it as opposed to just having a different strategy in terms of executing it. Well, I mean, yeah, you maybe you don't think and you're right, like it's not just money as we pointed out, like not everybody's entirely 100% motivated by money, but did they anticipate this? Like, you know, like when we see the numbers out laid to the players that seemingly are fits for this blue jays team, like is there not a like a paying of regret, do you think for Ross Atkins? I mean, again, there you I don't know what the conversations were like, but I could assume that with Scott Boris, if your time, let's say Cody Ballinger, you're having a conversation with with Scott and Scott, you it is going to be this price and he's not signing for less. And we're not having that conversation. And then things go on and things go on and things go on and options are disappearing. And it's like, okay, we'll we'll do the three at 80 with from the cops. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And again, if there's if there are two teams involved, then that that price might be different at that point in time, right? If the Cubs have to be getting somebody and and maybe it's it's getting higher at that point. And, you know, I think the blue jays would understand what the cost would be for that. And you know, could they have gone out and rescued someone if they were they're free agency was still lagging and they had no options? I do think that's possible. They did that with Joey Votto. Well, I mean, you know, that's to me, that's not that's not the type of outlay. I mean, by rescuing somebody, whereas, like, let's say Ballinger was still out there and it's like, okay, I'll do 30 over one. And you know, I think at that point, the blue jays are having a conversation with ownership and saying, hey, this is a unique opportunity, but that opportunity, I don't think presented itself to them. And that was there was a pretty reasonable consensus of the industry that Ballinger was going to end up back with the Cubs. There was a lot of sense within the industry that Chapin was wanting to go to San Francisco or that San Francisco made the most sense for him. Sometimes these things play out in a certain way for reasons to that you can't necessarily drive that decision or change that decision unless you overpay. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know how much PR plays into this, but there's certainly an element that it would have been a little unsafe for you to say, hey, we're bringing the band back together. Chapman's back. And, you know, I understand a lot of the team is back, but I especially just give it away. The season ended. I wonder how much that kind of played into it as well. We mentioned Votto there. What's the plan? What's going on? He tweaked his ankle. He stepped on a bat. I don't think anybody expects him to break camp with the team. I don't know if the Espinal trade changes the math on that. I don't think it does. But what's the update down there on Votto and do we know what the plan is for him as of now? Yeah. I still think it's just getting him into games. And it's kind of unfortunate because he goes and has that great swaying game. Zach Wheeler, you're like, okay, this could happen pretty quickly. But then it's all systems pause and just making sure that that gets out of there. So they're going to let Joey Votto's feeling or health really determine the next step or how he's feeling determined at the next steps. And you would think at this point, there are just four games, four days of spring left. And it might be, we might lose the game today here because of weather. Oh, I'm sorry. It's going to rain. And I'm not sure if it's letting up or not. Yeah. So there isn't a ton of runway for Votto to be ready. And then I think what the trade of Santiago Espinal did is it just cleared up some of the middle infield log jab and settled things there where, okay, it's going to be some combination of Cavio, David Stider, Isaiah Klein, Falesa, and who am I forgetting? And Ernie Clement in that middle infield mix. And then they've got Eduardo Escobar on a minor league deal, who, you know, depending if they really want him on the club for a reason, they can get him on now, too. I guess. But yeah, it's hard to imagine him and one of Daniel Vogelbach or Joey Votto getting into the mix. You would have to, there's a backup catcher that needs to enter the fray and take Santiago Espinal's 40 man spot, but there would be another one that needed to be freed up for one of those other guys. Is there an obvious candidate here? Is there another move to come? I mean, there could be, but I think what's interesting is the uncertainty around Will George Romano and Eric Swanson be ready to go and how does that impact some of your pitching decisions right now? Because if they're not ready to go, then I guess that's, you're looking to Zach Pop and Nate Pearson. And those were, you know, our guys that would certainly be of interest to some clubs where if you need to make a 40 man spot, make a move for a 40 man spot, maybe that's something that you do and, you know, there could still be a reason for the Blue Jays to do another sort of deal like that Espinal one where maybe you turn somebody who's current, but doesn't have a clear pathway to a lot of playing time into another prospect for your system. You know, you look at like Nathan Lucas should be on this team with the way that he's played and he might get squeezed out and it's not clear how he gets a pathway. Is he somebody who's stuck and that maybe kid, another team could find a better use for, but I still think there could be another move, but the Blue Jays are also going to be very worried about protecting their depth right now and, you know, maybe it's, you wait on a second minor league deal until Janssen's ready, Janssen could start throwing as soon as this weekend, like it doesn't sound like it's going to be terribly long for him and maybe you make a move with your catcher after all that gets settled and that's how you get one of both of the back arms. >> Shy, it's good to hear from you again. Like what are your travel plans? I imagine you're going to Tampa for the first series. Are you doing the whole first road trip? Are we not going to see you until April 8th? >> I'm coming back in between, Ben's going to do the Houston series, so I'm going to go to Tampa, New York. >> Okay. You're not going to see spring training baseball though today? It's going to rain. That's really sad. >> It's 50/50. There's, the Red Sox are coming from Fort Myers, so are supposed to come from Fort Myers, so there should be a decision on that pretty soon, but the weather reports are not particularly promising. >> Yeah, but as you pointed out to us, you know the weather report here, where it's snow, so yeah. >> Yeah. >> It's only so badly we can feel for you. >> Which is zero. >> Zero. Yeah, it's not a lot. >> I was looking for sympathy. >> No, no, no, I'm not saying you were. >> Sorry. >> But if you're expecting baseball today, there's a possibility there might not be baseball. >> Okay, good to know. Thank you. >> All right, see you, man. >> Take care, guys. >> There's a shot of Edie from a rainy Dunedin, or perhaps raining, a cloudy, oh, it couldn't rain. A little insight into shot of Edie's glass half full, glass half empty thinking 50/50, and he's like, ah, they're going to bang this game today. Like, no, there's 50% chance that they don't try. Come on. >> I always knew I liked them. >> Yeah. I always knew there was something about that guy I liked. All right, when we come back, there's still a lot to get to SGA in town tonight, again, that I'm going to. >> Yeah. >> How many people will be there? >> At least two. >> How much intrigue is there surrounding the best Canadian player in the NBA in a legit MVP contender? Is he the biggest draw outside of the Raptors, current players? And there is nobody currently playing for the Raptors that is a draw right now, because everybody's either hurt or away for personal reasons. And there's a huge Canadian soccer game over the weekend that people may have missed. I don't know if they missed the story surrounding Canada soccer, some of the dollars and cents being shared, that they're in a legit major league situation where the powers that be are like rooting against that team. Maybe there's a financial reason for them to do so. What does that mean for Saturday's game? That and Mournax is the fan. Mournax show continues. Ben Ennis, Brian Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan. Dive deep into Toronto Sports and the NFL. The JD Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ben Ennis, Brian Gunning, before you launch into this topic here, I think we stumbled upon something. I'm going to make a little eye contact with Josh Santos, our technical director, so he doesn't feel weird while I talk about him. I feel like he didn't know what kind of music I liked, and then you made a crack about me like, well, guys, stuff, and he's like, ah, a window to his soul, and I'm not even complaining. Great job with it. Sam, man. I just feel like these are all not ones we hear often. I know, like, back in podcast, but you know, we're talking about it. It's the Beatles. And again, like, I don't know anyone who's, like, fervently anti-Beatles. There are people who are like, no, the Stones, man, like, they have, like, again, the Civil War. You're hating the thing, but it's like you have to prop up, you have to bash one to prop up the other. I think that exists. Or I guess, like, Pulp Fiction, it was like either you're an Elvis man or a Beatles person. Exactly. Yeah. I think it's, like, you can be both. Yeah, my dad loved Elvis movies, so it's got a soft spot for Elvis. Okay. No, no. Guess what? No. Guess what's coming up at eight o'clock, some Elvis. Guess what? When I, when I do... I can see him, like, already grinding right there. When I do give the guys a Christmas playlist, you better believe there's some Elvis on there when I want it. Yeah. I am who I am. SGA in town tonight. Yeah. They don't go home the city thunder. I got to be honest. I could see him doing a little CCR, Clearance Clearwater. I feel like Elvis would be a tough sell for Shay. Maybe. Maybe not. He's eccentric. You're right. Um, yeah. He's, uh, obviously very welcoming of his Canadian roots and his heritage and tried to, well, did factually buy a house in Hamilton from the Crypto King? That didn't go so great. People were showing up being like, give my money! Yeah. Don't buy the house previously owned by the Crypto King, okay? God, what a nice house it must have been. Yeah. On the water. Yeah. The Crypto King. I mean, yeah, I wasn't living in Squalor. No. Crypto King's got to keep up appearances, okay? And then the Crypto King disappeared. Yeah. If you haven't got that story, just go look it up. Yeah. Crypto King, if you're listening, call in. We'd love to hear from you. Here's side of this. Anyways, thunder atop the Western Conference and Shay Gill just Alexander 2nd in MVP Odd Woods in the NBA, but Nicola Yokech, now minus money, is like around minus 260-ish and Shay plus 350, which is significantly better than the third favorite, Luca Donch, who's plus 700. But yeah, it looks like he's going to finish once again up the track in MVP voting, but getting MVP Odds. Yeah. Guys, right there at the tippy top of the Western Conference, they could win it all this year. He just led Canada into the Olympics, well, he will participate no matter how long the postseason run goes for the thunder. He's going to Paris. For sure. And he is going to be the head of the state. Canada has, I mean, I just told you, one of the two best players in the world, okay? And they got plenty of others surrounding him. Everybody's going to show up. I imagine Jamal Murray, as long as he's healthy, also going on, it doesn't necessarily matter how long his postseason run is. Those guys are showing up in the Olympics. The Raptors right now, you're not showing up to the arena, no offense, the Raptors, no offense to you. No, but you're not showing up for anything Raptors related right now. Like, and you could have made the argument before when Scotty was healthy and God, RJ Barrett is going to have to return at some point. That's going to be an emotional scene. For sure. Yeah. And maybe that's tonight. And yeah, manual quickly, you can make the argument for like, oh, well, even though they lose all the time, I got me interested to see what this young core looks like. Those guys are gone and they have nobody and they're getting blown out by like 30 points in the first half. Like they're playing three quarters of garbage time in these games. It's rough. So it's all about, hey, who's on the other team? And that's significant in the sport where they're legit superstars, totally. And LeBron James is still that. I think this year, Victor Webb and Yama was that definitely, but is Shay Gil just Alexander number one when it comes to, hey, I'm buying a Raptors ticket and yeah, maybe the Raptors are better next year. And I want to see them win. I want to see the Raptors, but it's more about who they're playing. Is Shay Gil just Alexander the number one guy that you're looking at the calendar for? Yeah, I think, I think it has to be you, you bring up LeBron, he until he retires is going to be top three on that list. I just think people want to see greatness and whether you think he's the greatest or second greatest or he's definitely on your Mount Rushmore. However you view about it, if you care about basketball, that you would want to see that, you know, a guy like, I, you know, this player isn't obviously as good. He doesn't have the connection to the market. I think somebody like Kyrie Irving is such a like singular talent. And yeah, don't get me started on all the other stuff. It's like I'm buying a ticket to watch him play and not hear him speak. Okay. I think he is just such a guy who plays the game in his own way, but so to say. So I think he's above him on that with any Edwards, you're going to crown some dudes. That's what I was going to say. He is the guy who has inserted himself into this, but even, even John is physical, freak, freak of nature. I've been there to see it. I watched them lose game one against the box in 2017. I was there, but I don't know, he's big and he's bruising and even a guy like Yokech. I mean, if you are, if you are, have great seats and you're in the lower bowl, maybe you can really appreciate what he does. Maybe arm scratches. Yeah. But I feel like it's kind of got to be Shay or I do still think LeBron is that guy. And when B, when B, that's the three. I think that's the three right now, when B, Shay and LeBron in this market, obviously, I don't know that Shay is up there in other markets, but he's not, he's not that. It's still, I still think it's LeBron one. You still think LeBron one? Because we'll see. I'll be able to report back next week as to, you know, the, the fervor, yeah, the fervor or the seats filled because, yeah, I imagine there's some people that envisioned this at least being somewhat entertaining from a, you know, the basketball, like yeah, basketball. I think you're there to watch. Yeah. I don't know what the spread is. I mean, if it's less than 20, I'll be shocked. But yeah, no, I think it's still LeBron James. You have a chance to see living history, right? The second or best player in the history of the NBA. I think LeBron is in a half for what it's worth. Okay. Like bang the thunder on that one, even garbage time. Like there's only, oh, it'll go from 40 to 25, right? Like, nah. Anyways, I got to get this in before we get to the wake and break because this is a story that was mind boggling when I read it earlier on in the week. So I was enthralled by Team Canada's run to the World Cup in Qatar. We all were. It was amazing. And I mean, the sporting moments I've shared with my sons, I don't know, I guess it's the Nick Taylor. Yeah. 73 foot. You're almost there. 72. You're getting closer. Good job. Your price is right. You lose, but good job. Yeah. It's that one and it's Alfonso Davies scoring a goal in Canada having the lead in their second game after by merit, deserving a result in the first game of the World Cup and thinking everything was possible since then it's been nothing but sadness. But like, it was incredible the way that team leapt into our consciousness. As I mentioned, since then it's been nothing but abject disaster. Now tomorrow they play in a last chance game to get into the Copa America. It was right there for them to get in through the Nations League, but they gagged it up. God, a loss against Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow is like, we're all the way back to like getting drilled eight one by Honduras. They should win that game. What's interesting is that people in charge of Canada soccer might not want them to win this game. So here are the numbers. Each of the 23 players on the team is paid a $9,000 bonus for each win. If Canada beats Trinidad and Tobago goes on to win two games in the Copa America. And again, the Copa America is, it's generally the South American championship now in Canada and the United States. Sometimes the North American teams are involved, but yeah, you get to play Brazilian like Argentina and Chile. It's gone in. Yeah. It'll cost Canada soccer more than $600,000 in player bonuses. In addition to $500,000 and the other things that are involved in staging a training camp headed towards this tournament. This is an organization that at the conclusion of this year, over the last three years, is going to be over $10 million, not in debt, like in cash reserves that they've had to pay that are exceed the amount of money they brought in. They're in overdraft affectionately. They lose money every time they win a game. It is more financially prudent for them to lose games. Now, the players don't cares, but there's a legit argument to be made that the people in charge are like, please don't win. Yeah, I mean, when you're a bean counter, that's your job is to care about the beans more than the results. I guess I just could not put myself in a position to operate that way. I also just can't believe that this has happened. Like off of the World Cup run, how has something like we have people who just like donate to build a skating rink under the gardener. How has there not been some rich person who just loves soccer, wants to ride in on their white horse and save the day? That is the part of this. I can't for the life of me understand. I know there's been disarray in the org and all of that is involved, but yeah, a crazy story there for sure. I wasn't sure necessarily if it was a bad deal that they signed with Canada Soccer Business and that's like the crux argument that they're missing out on all their revenue streams through sponsorship and media rights deal because so they sign this deal that goes potentially until 2037, just through the entire generation you're in now, yeah, that pays Canada Soccer between three and four million dollars and it's like, oh, well, they guaranteed themselves some money here. And then you compare to what Australia made in media and rights last year. And now Australia, they have a more forefront soccer program like that's the people had been following that for a while, $28 million, they made the last year, yeah. And that's money that Canada Soccer cannot earn anyways. I will say I like Kevin Blue, one of the new guys in charge there, he just former golf person like I've had some dealings with him and just you mentioning the idea of not wanting to win. Having heard him talk about his goals of getting Canadians on like different tours, that's not entering his worldview. I'm not saying there are some people there, but a very, very driven guy who's at the top there. Yeah, makes the money work people agreed figure it out. Now for the Wakenrike presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. It's the top two Canadian teams despite them not being the top two Canadian team point getters in the NHL. We all know it's the Oilers and the Leafs. We only get this twice a season didn't go so well for the Leafs in Edmonton earlier on this season, but the return affair on hockey night in Canada from Scotia Bank Arena on Saturday. Brian, how do you look at this matchup? It's not often you get it. This is going to be one of the rare times where I think you could get the Leafs at a decent number, maybe dogs as well. The Leafs, they play bad against bad teams. They generally show up against the good ones, especially this Edmonton team. It is both of these teams, game seven of the Stanley Cup finals every time they play each other. Leafs generally rise to the occasion. You could probably get a touch of value there or not a bad number, give me Leafs straight up on the money line. I like the over, the total is going to be high. It might be as high as seven in this one, at least six and a half and I don't know when under in the first meeting 4-2 in Edmonton, Ilya Sampsonov starting to show a few holes in his game. Big game for him. He is a big game for him and boy that that Oilers offense is just, it's formidable. Even if you get into a third period like they showed against the Sabres where the total hasn't quite been hit, they can explode at a moment's notice. So I think we might see a few goals scored in this hockey game.
