[MUSIC] >> Good morning, Joe. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> You're just making sure I get it a lot. >> Yeah, yeah. >> I don't know. I feel like you get really mad if I don't come out of the gate with a good morning. >> This is a little different. >> Good morning, that's why we drove in together, which we don't normally do. >> Yeah, I was the wonderful co-host. You were regaling me yesterday. You're like, have you ever taken a new bird for 40 in the morning from Burlington? And I'm like, generally speaking, no, why don't I just drive you to work? >> I was like, all right, seven minutes apart from one another. >> Right, right, right, and my house is on the way for you. >> You keep mentioning that, like you'll throw it in my face if the rules ever need to be reversed. >> No, I'm just saying you've made a point of mentioning that a lot. >> Well, you know what it is, it's protecting myself because I feel bad asking anybody for anything. >> But you didn't ask, I offered. That's the difference. >> No, I know. But even still, I feel bad. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you again. >> Well, I would like to commend you. >> What? >> Everyone can learn a lesson from what you did heading into this car ride. Now, just to pull back the curtains here, I have been told by people who have worked in this time slot with that I could be a little hot to trot in the mornings. I'm a little more ready to do the show. >> Well, because the eyelids open the most. >> Because the eyelids have been open for hours for you. The rest of us whose alarm clock goes off at 4.20 in the morning, this is like nightmare stuff. >> But you were saying to me, you're like, when we first started working together, it's like I can't do so much banter in the morning, and you've actually got a lot better at that. You did a classic under promise and over deliver regarding our conversation in the car this morning. Because you said, you could talk all you want. I'm just not going to have anything for you. That was exactly your words. And I don't know if you planned this, like we were going on a first date, but you were throwing conversation topics at me, you were giving me news from the night before. You did, for somebody who, like, let's just be honest, did not want to talk to me. You did a remarkable job. >> So I appreciate you saying thank you, but I would like to commend you for being an exceptional passenger this morning. >> I was pretty good, because here's the thing though, I don't, you're right. I don't like to converse so much before we have to converse, like we're contractually obligated to speak at six o'clock. So yeah, I'm good then, as far as you know. But yeah, before that, I don't like to do it. You know what I like worst is like the silence, we're going to, what, sit in a car for 40 minutes, not even looking at each other. >> I'm listening to your Credence Clearwater, which I was going to say, a person should know that Brent hasn't heard a new song, I mean, the Credence, it was around before he was born. But he hasn't, it seems like, hasn't heard a new song in his entire life. >> There were white stripes on that playlist. >> Really, we never got around to that one. >> They started. I actually, right before you got in the car, pressed next, because I thought icky thump would have been a lot for you, right, when you got in the car of just Jack White giving it to you. So yeah, you're right, I did, I thought it curated a nice playlist that if you did want silence, we both would have been happy. But I was thrilled that you brought the heat for a pre-show meeting. >> You know what I was, so again, like I don't like asking people for things and very appreciative of you driving me in today, because I'm going out after the show. But I'm also, I was very nervous that this big snowmageddon thing, which is like, I don't know, 10, 15 centimeters snow, which is not ideal, some of you want, listen, I'm not saying you want it, but like acting as if it's a front by God, like that you can't possibly conceive of the idea of accumulating snow in March in Canada. >> Welcome to the world. And it's fine, again, it's fine, and it'll probably be gone early next week when it's plus double digits almost, but yeah, fingers crossed. But yeah, I was very terrified that we were going to be driving in blowing snow and I was going to feel really bad. Well, one, because I made you drive me out of your way, and even though it's only seven more minutes that it's extra time in a snowstorm, and two, I would have felt bad because I would have feared for my life, because I don't exactly, I don't think of you. >> In the same category as like a Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen, like those guys, and I don't consider my, maybe that's too far, but like I don't consider you, you're more in line with like my 73 year old father when it comes to driving. >> No, I'm more of a Yuki Sonota, you know, I just don't like to push it too much. >> Look, I'm a big fan of setting my cruise, what's the old infomercial? Like set it and forget it, I love nothing more than setting my cruise and forgetting it. I do want to be clear, I remember I'm on the road and like, you know, take heed of staying in lanes and things along those lines, but yeah, I do, I love setting crews. And don't, you can't have it both ways though. You were criticizing someone who was going full Fernando Alonso just to throw another F1 driver in here, there's a nice middle ground there that you can live in. >> All right. Next I like to live in. >> All I'll say is next time I go out of my way to drive you into work, maybe don't compare me to a 73 year old lady, at least on the air, you do whatever you want off. But yeah. >> That's okay. >> Again, thank you so much. >> And again, and thank you, you were, you were an exceptional passenger. We had excellent conversation. I enjoyed it. >> You're welcome. >> Edmonton Oilers played last night, getting set for their big game on Hockey Night in Canada here in the Big Smoke, they're Super Bowl before the postseason when things actually matter. And despite being down two to one, they were able to race that deficit quite handily and beat the Buffalo Sabres eight to three, Zach Hyman with another two goals, Conor McDavid with four assists in that game. So Zach Hyman now sitting on 48 goals, Brent. The possibility very much exists that this weekend, he could record his first ever 50 goal season. Is that, is that of intrigue to you? >> Yeah, of course. I mean, I think that Zach Hyman is the, it's funny, everybody, even with all of the core guys, right? We've had the Marner and Neeland or civil wars and there's been the Matthews criticisms because of Florida, but Zach Hyman was the perfect middle ground guy. No one ever expected a thing from me just worked all the time. And even people who weren't as high on him, he couldn't possibly have a bad word to say about Zach Hyman. I think that there is not an unlike the, unlike the cadre trade, they could have, they could have kept him. It's not to say there was nothing they could have done to have kept him in Toronto, but it wasn't them jettisoning a player away. It was the end of a contract. He goes somewhere else. So I just imagine that no one's going to be happy to see Zach Hyman talk too, because you know, that won't be great for the Leafs. But if he were to get his 50 goal season in Toronto, be an awesome piece of serendipity. So, so long as the Leafs are able to scratch like four or five across. Yeah. I mean, I don't think anybody could have envisioned this. Like anybody that thought that Zach Hyman was a 50 goal scorer is out of their freaking mind. Like even the Edmonton Oilers and their, their most optimistic projections. And you know what, I wonder if, if given their druthers considering how disappointing Jack Campbell was and how onerous that contract is, although like putting up nice numbers now in the NHL was checking in on him recently with the condors. Um, but yeah, I think like almost the combination of those two deals, like Zach Hyman's deal is so good. And yeah, Jack Campbell's deal is so bad that you'd almost take like, if you had to take one with the other, would you, would you take it a few of the others? I think it's a discussion. I think it might. Well, he's been so important to them. And they've been able to get by with the Campbell cap conundrum. So yeah. The Campbell cap conundrum. I didn't even mean to do that. But that, yeah, that, that's a thing. The way, the way I look at it is that they, they're the one of the few teams that you would say that because Zach Hyman, and you know, this is not a knock on him, but he's not scoring 50 goals if he's not Conor McDavid's winger. And hey, maybe he does it with Nathan McKinnon as his winger, some big goal on those lines. Maybe, but he's not doing it with Austin Matthews as his, as a center. He's not doing it that way because Matthew's going to suck up all those goals rightfully so. I think there is some element of the perfect player and the perfect kind of compliment. Not that McDavid's a compliment to anybody, but you know, he allows Hyman to thrive in that way. And they've been able to get by with the contract. Like if you just said you get both those contracts off the books, what are you having to pay the guy who's replicating Hyman's production? It's 10 million a season or something along those lines because that's what a 50 goal man who works the way Zach Hyman does would get paid. So I think as crazy as it is to say, yeah, you're right. I think they would kind of bite that bullet again. >> Yeah, I, who didn't like Zach Hyman when he was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs? He did have the stank of being Mike Babcock's favorite player, right? Like, so if you were the anti-Babcock, Cameron was hard not to me considering some of the deployment and some of the like necessary meetings between he and Austin Matthews every off season we talked about, hey, you know, okay, what are they going to talk about? Are they going to men fences? How's the relationship between he and the team's best player? But I looked at the contract he signed in Edmonton and I was like, well, I mean, you can't do that for that type of player. And retroactively though, you do look, I mean, final season with the Leafs, he was on a 30 goal pace. It was a guy, you know, he suffered some injuries and notably some injuries in the post season as well that he was able to play through. Maybe we should have seen something close to this, right? A guy who carved himself a career out of sheer will seemingly, that given an opportunity to play with elite level players, which he got a chance to for sparing moments with Austin Matthews, maybe not 50 goals, but maybe we should have seen this. Yeah, it was always a possibility that the offensive production would take a big uptick. But I mean, you just go through his DB page and there was nothing before he got to Edmonton that would show you that he could do this. I mean, he scored 21 goals in the 51 game season. I think that's the thing that people will point to and say, are you sure? Are you sure? But when you look at that, that felt like his ceiling with the Leafs in terms of production, not in terms of what he could have been as a player, but just look at the centermen the Leafs have and look at the centermen the Oilers have. They got two centermen, they want to dish it all the time. And Hyman is in the perfect spot to take tap and feed from those guys. And I don't say that to have a knock on Zack Hyman's goal scoring. No, I don't care where you score them from, you get 50 of them, it's impressive. But I just think you could not have seen this with Toronto because it was not happening with Toronto. Again, just about any other team in the league, this isn't to say that Zack Hyman wouldn't have been incredible and wouldn't have been worth his money, but he wasn't going to be this if he wasn't playing with one of those two guys. Yeah. Yeah. Conor McDavid, pretty good at distributing the puck. Yeah, I'd say. And again, like has an outside chance at 100 assists this season. And the other thing, like there's, you know, there's going to be the revisionist history of you should have paid him, you should have paid him, and I don't think that's a crazy conversation to have. But you have to remember the injury stuff that was happening with him at the time. But he was able to play through like his blown out knee. So we've seen that, we've seen that before though, and then the guy has a procedure in the off season. Yeah. I mean, after like I'm not saying this is the Patrick Kane thing, obviously Kane's a lot longer in the tooth. But Hyman's 31 years old now and I got to do the birthday check and he's turning 32 this summer. Oh, so again, this isn't to say it's a bad contract or anything by the Oilers. Of course it wasn't. But you can't just go back to look at what the player was. You have to throw the injury stuff. Muzzin was already kind of in decline or on L.T.I.R. at that point that already bit once by doing that, hindsight 2020, of course, of course you would have just paid him this because it wouldn't have been this unlike in other sports that maybe we'll talk about later this hour. There's no Toronto tax for the Leafs with that player. I guarantee you it would have been that or a hair less, if anything. But they were banking on skill, not just guts and guile and effort level, right? I wonder if the decision is different if Brad's for living's running the show? Well, I don't think so because that would predicate Brendan Shanahan having no say or matter on any of the decisions here. If Brendan Shanahan thought that Zach Hyman was the absolute most important player, guess what? I'm pretty sure he would have been back on the team. That's remember? That's what the fight was about with the autonomy and money and other things too, but partially autonomy. So... Like mostly money. Okay. Well, we'll never know. Yeah. Yeah. That story kind of went under the radar. Yeah. Kyle Dubas said, "Hey, you're not going to hear it from me. I'm not going to retort God." What an incredible day that was the Brendan Shanahan outlining every single moment along the way. Can you put your... Okay. I have like a derail in the conversation, but we're here now. That's a Friday. Yeah. I don't know all kinds of stuff. Can you put yourself in the head space where... Because I'm just reading between the lines and correct me if I'm reading this wrong. But that comment to me of, yeah, it might feel good to come out and say it, but it wouldn't help the penguins. It wouldn't help the people I care about. Sean says, "I don't agree with his version of events and I'd like to maybe say my own." And that to me is what that looks like. Sure. I could not imagine the wherewithal of having, man, I got access to this mic and I can't wait to hop to it and say what I've got to. I could not imagine every hockey person in the world being like, "Please take a hundred years. You can write a book. You can go on a podcast. Tell your story." Saying, "You know what? No. I'm just going to hold my fire. I'm just going to talk to my family about this or Jason Spetzo or whoever." Well, the seven-year deal with Pittsburgh, I mean, makes it more tangible. You don't want to... Yeah. I think if things continue to go the way that they're trending in Pittsburgh and he has an unceremonious departure from Pittsburgh and, I don't know, God forbid, like the career, I don't know, comes to a close? I mean, what's his third chance look like if Pittsburgh doesn't make the playoffs, they're irrelevant. They have no future because they haven't been able to build up the young players. What happened? Where is Kyle Dubin? Is somebody handing the car keys to him? Does he have to restart in a different role? Like, I don't know what that looks like at that point. Are you looking at finally putting all your cards in front of us and giving us everything that we so desire? And especially if the Leafs have more success without you, like, you want to change the narrative, I'm sure. Yeah. Who knows? Man, the good thing is, well, I mean, good and bad, but like, he's a young man. We have a whole lifetime to tease this out of him. So get to work hockey insiders. He'll be our co-worker soon enough, like, seems like a guy that would probably do well on a panel in media at some point. Yeah. I don't disagree. I just, uh, seven years long time and not to say he'll be there for all of it, but he's getting paid handsomely, so he'll be there for at the very least most of it. Um, I don't remember. Oh, Zach Hyman. That's what we were talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll swing back around with the others and just saying, I should have sent an email to Sportsnet stats last night. You should have. Has there been a calendar day this NHL season where both the Bruins and the Panthers both played and failed to pick up a point? Florida could not believe that happened. Yeah. Very, very bizarre as the Leafs, uh, now have three games in hand on the Bruins, which is a potential six points, not nine. Okay. Thank you. Uh, so they're, they're 10 point back at one time and look what happens. And they have a game in hand on the Panthers who are seven points up on the Maple Leafs. Yeah. Very bizarre to see those two GT teams, uh, lose in regulation. So there's still like mathematically something to play for for the Maple Leafs, but still again, as Luke Fox alerted us to statistically the team with the least on the line because they're the most locked into third in the Atlantic division. The Oilers pretty locked in themselves unless you think they have a chance to catch the Canucks who also won yesterday. I, I tend to try to track. Yeah, it's, it's they're playing well and, and, you know, the Canucks had a little blip along the way, but they, I think they've read it the ship anyways. So neither team Leafs, Oilers have much to play for standings wise. Mm-hmm. Carmically. Yes. Who has the most to play for tomorrow night at Scotiabank Arena, Brent? It's on first blush, you say Conor McDavid because, you know, it's his town. We all saw his face on draft night. Okay. He's made his piece. He's very happy in Edmonton. We all saw the face. Okay. We know where he wants to be. One day he'll reside, well, I mean, he won't live there, but, you know, his plaque will reside in the, the Hall of Fame right down the road there. These guys come into town. They just always put on a show, but that doesn't mean he has anything to lose. I, I think it's the Leafs that have more at stake here. The Oilers, part of it is that, you know, later games not being picked through as finely. Once they went on that heater, we just kind of put all concerns we had about them in the rearview mirror and rightly so you win the number of games they won in a row and you, you buy yourself some time off. But I think we're constantly, and again, it's a local market thing, but we're constantly picking and poking at the flaws of the Leafs. Well, kind of glossing over some flaws that the, the Oilers have. They were a perfect team. They wouldn't be in second in their division. They'd be, they'd be in first. So I think the Leafs kind of have more to play for because they win against the Oilers will be seen as more impressive than the Oilers beating a Leaf team. That's kind of my readout. I think, despite the fact that they're both, you know, not at the top of their divisions, I think one team. And part of this is the trade deadline that the Oilers had as well. I mean, they went out and got Adam Henryk. They went out and got Sam Carrick and not said the Leafs didn't do anything, but Adam Henryk would have helped the Leafs. And that was not a price they were willing to pay in the Oilers were. I think you look at those two teams very differently as far as their Stanley Cup aspirations. Part of it is the first round series they're going to play too, which we'll get to. And right now, it feels like the Oilers locked into a first round series against a Kings team that fired their coach like yesterday, like, it feels recent that that was a team very much floundering and righted the ship a little bit where the Leafs could in the first round. And yesterday's results only adding credence to this could be playing one of the cup favourites, if not the betting cup favourite in the first round. And the first game that these two teams played against each other with the Leafs let a lead slip away. I think that plays into it. And I also think like the, not that either team has had the ultimate success over their best players tenure, but yeah, the Oilers have made a conference final, right? So we look at that, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, they've also missed the playoffs. Yeah, Conor McDavid, which is insane to do, and maybe the Leafs would have in the weirdo season. But we'll never know. Yeah, they didn't, or to some people technically they did, because I was like, playing round. Yeah, whatever, whatever. The Oilers have had more success over the Conor McDavid tenure than the Leafs have had in the Austin Matthews tenure. So I think that plays into it too. Yeah, I do think it's at this moment in their respective histories that it's the Leafs with more to prove, just karmically, not that it's going to like, oh, they win tomorrow and now all of a sudden the Leafs are on top, but I do think they're, now, well, they're the big brothers as far as market share and attention, but the little brothers as far as success and expectations this season. Yeah, you're not wrong, but since the Oilers have had their run to the conference final, we also saw, and I know everyone's going to say, oh my God, forget about it. Everyone hated that season. But it's like, we've also seen the Leafs whip through there and shut them out with three different goalies and all that. So I, and then also lose up three, one, two, of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah, because Alex Scott Cheniac is a mole and then we're ever doing lead in them here, but that's neither here nor there. It is all until, until the Canucks, you know, hey, Jets can enter this equation as well, but until one of these other teams proves themselves to be somebody, and again, like the Leafs haven't proven it in the playoffs, they've won one series, but they have consistently proved themselves over regular seasons to be among the upper class of the NHL, until the Canucks do this, well, until they go on a run this year or have another season next year, like they have this year or same goes for the Jets. These are the top two teams in Canada, they're always going to have it. And maybe that shouldn't matter, but it does. It's never not going to matter, having that kind of belt of being the best team in Canada. The other part of this is that I don't know how much either of these guys care about it, and maybe I'm wrong. Does it not feel like the Matthews McDavid rivalry has shifted a little bit to McKinnon, McDavid? Like it seems like he's kind of taken the one B chair a little bit, and maybe it's just that I watched them play last Saturday night, and I have this adora of quote, ringing around in my brain, but we've also been calling them heart trophy contender. Well, I was going to ask this, okay, we all referenced the 2015 Josh Donaldson season and him winning the MVP, because they played the Angels and Mike Trout in the last couple of weeks of the regular season. And Josh Donaldson won the narrative award in that series, just thoroughly outplayed Mike Trout. And especially next, he's put like baseball, where you play 162 games, a three game series shouldn't matter all that much, but it did. And they were very close, right? Like the statistical case for both guys, it was very close. So you're like, well, let's go to the tie-breaking scenario, which was, well, they just played each other. And the proximity to the end of the season, yeah, he left a lasting impression. This is obviously the second and final meeting between these two teams. Now the Leafs do have two games against Nikita Kucharov and the Tampa Bay Lightning. So, I mean, depending on how you view Kucharov's heart trophy case, maybe that's another, I mean, he does lead the art Ross race with 122 points. But I think, honestly, if it were me, I would have McKinnon one, McDavid two, and maybe Kucharov three with Matthews four, if you're the same way, does this have a lasting impact on the way you will view those two, if like Matthews comes out and just takes the game away from the Oilers? >> It has to, it can't just be, I think the answer to this is no, we're too far away from the finish line for this to actually be the answer. That is the problem, because it's a narrative thing, you can't make the case that this one game matters. If this was when the Florida Panthers game is the second last game of the regular season, and the Oilers needed a win to keep home ice, and Matthews was like, you sitting on 60-70, he has a four goal game to get to 71, and they take the game away from the Oilers, then we're talking. I think that it would have to be so overwhelming, and Austin, if you're listening, do not take this as a shot at you, I just don't think this is gonna happen. It would have to be a Sheldon Keefe is just throwing Matthews out there every time McDavid is over the boards, and they are crushing expected goals, possession, all that stuff. McDavid doesn't get a sniff, Matthews has two and two, it would have to be so overbearing, and I'm not saying it's impossible for that to happen, I'm just not banking on anybody shutting down Conor McDavid on hockey night in Canada, Saturday night, the way he's rolling right now, feels like a tough ask, but if it is, because it can't just be, Matthews outperforms it. McDavid had one in one, and Matthews has two in two, and Lee Swinn, it can't turn, it has to be overwhelming. But the Donaldson series was overwhelming. But it also has to be, because unlike in baseball, I'm mistaken on this, I don't think Donaldson was pitching the trout in the series, I don't think he was, is that there's a chance for Matthews to affect what McDavid does, whereas there was nothing, I mean, unless you're a believer, and I'm not totally blanking on this stuff, but the idea of Josh Donaldson just like, he overpowered him, he just got in his head, he's like, oh, this guy's too good, he is the MVP, I'm a bit of a good guy, right? But you don't have as much of an impact in hockey, there is the possibility, and hey, Matthews, like he's that dude, nobody shuts down Conor McDavid, but Matthews is an incredible center, he's an incredible defensive center. The first goal, he scored in the game the other night, he came from him being way above the puck and not cheating, and then he gets to slide into that spot, so it's possible that happens, it's just, it's such a tough ask, and again, if this was the last two weeks, maybe it's, or this last week, it's different, but we're so far away from the, like, we're close, but it's still so far away. Yeah, it feels close now, but yeah, there's, there's many different, what's close in games, if you're like, oh, there's only X many games, but then you look at a calendar, right? Oh, right. So far. Yeah, like, it's not a month, but it's almost a month. Exactly. All right, so we don't know, line up decisions yet, it does feel like Ilya Samsonov's gonna be the guy that starts tomorrow night, and it's a back to back, they got Carolina on, on Sunday, so it's, yeah, tough test for both, both gentlemen, but if we're going on meritocracy and we're alternating starts, no reason for it not to be Ilya Samsonov. I assume TJ Brody is going to be back in the lineup tonight, boy, that would be something if they're just going to roll with the lineup that they were dominant with in that victory over the capitals, and TJ Brody is a healthy scratch for a second straight day, that would really tell you something, but I'm assuming TJ Brody back in the lineup, is he now wearing the crown? It's a crown you don't want to wear. It's gonna say a crown of thorns. Yeah, is he now the number one guy under the microscope on this Leafs team, because I would have argued that it was Timothy Lilligren after the deadline, and especially the comments surrounding him, and hey, guy needs to have his confidence and went through a deadline for the first time, no obvious name was there to replace him. He's been given more responsibilities, now quarterback and power play one. I think he just handed the belt, you're right, it shouldn't be a crown, it's a belt, handed the belt to TJ Brody, the guy most under the microscope outside of the goaltending, because that's totally undecided, but yeah, I think TJ Brody is the guy that if we're evaluating, hey, how the lineup is gonna look for game one, he's the number one guy for me, I'm evaluating on a game-to-game basis these final 15 games. It was a great topic, I'm glad you posed it, but I can't shake the idea of what this person's wearing, because it's not a belt either, it's like, we don't have these anymore, and I'm not calling TJ Brody one, but it's like, it's really the dunce cap is what it is. You don't want that, but it kind of is, that's like a cap of shame is what it is, and you don't want it. I think it has to be him, you can, if I'm gonna get cute, I'm gonna make the argument that it's not it, and this isn't of shame, it's more, can you keep doing this, it's Bertuzzi and Domi collectively, like if I'm gonna, if I think we're Sheldon Keefe's eyes are kind of most trained, he's obviously watching the D like a hawk, he needs to figure out these payers heading into it, but I think that, and again, I'm gonna take his messaging of face value, maybe I'm being dumb doing that, but if he did just think TJ Brody needed a reset, a break, that wasn't to punish him, then I think he's gonna put him back in there and expect he'll put him on the left side and have a better version of TJ Brody. I think he's still watching Domi and Bertuzzi going, don't you dare let up for a second, we're so close here, you've done so good, I think he's the guy, but like Brody is, Brody is far and away the guy that makes the most sense for that, I just think because of the, but he's still faith that the coach has in the players, but Bertuzzi and Domi are gonna be in the lineup. For sure. Well that's, yeah, like we're talking about TJ Brody, maybe being a healthy scratch for game one of the postseason. It is entirely possible, I think that how, how he performs in these back to back games is gonna be massively telling, I imagine he gets both of them, I can't see a world where he comes out for the second one unless he is an abject disaster, but even. 40 years old either, like what was he, 32, 32, 33, something, something along those lines, but hey man, like when it goes, it goes, you see it all the time. And I'm not saying TJ Brody fell off a cliff, but like there's been a precipitous decline going back to last year's playoffs. Part of it is you just can't play them on the right side anymore. Part of it is you probably shouldn't have him playing against top competition, I forget the exact number, but I saw on, on Twitter yesterday, it was the defenseman that have played the hardest minutes in the NHL this year. And I mean, I shouldn't be shocked by this, but like most cider was at the absolute top of the list. And it's because they got nobody else. Right. And you're just getting fed to the walls all the time. Young man, sink or swim, we got to pay as an RFA. So if you have a bit of a rough year, not the worst. But TJ Brody was, I think he was 12th in the league in terms of the hardest minutes he's played this year against elite competition. That's just a tough ask for a guy who's 33, who is in the back half, or not the back half, the last year of a deal that you paid, knowing it was going to take him to his mid thirties. We always look at these deals now is, okay, well, you're not getting your full value during maybe the last two years, they didn't, they didn't have him fall off a cliff for the last two years. It happened in the playoffs. He's taken, you know, he's been able to find some, some level this year, but it's not been anywhere near where he's been. It's just what these guys look like. And I think if you play him, it's much now the problem is at least have too many of these guys, but much like Timothy Lilligren. Yes, if you blame against top pair competition all night long, he's going to get fed his lunch. But if you have him as a third pair guy, or you kind of mix and match his minutes, then he can be a service will player to you. And I don't think TJ Brody needs to be protected in quite the same way, but you cannot just feed him to the wolves the way this team has had to throw to his entire tenure here. Some, some people did predict his removal from this leaf lineup. Who? That's me. Oh, okay. I said it made the most sense if you were going to have a look at perhaps the optimal lineup. Hours later, he was being healthy scratch for the first time as a Toronto Maple Leaf. Some people also predicted that the guy with the long disciplinary track record, like Tom Wilson, you don't give the benefit of the doubt to, you know, who agrees? NHL Department of Player Safety, which is, but maybe not hold my breath until they actually suspend him. Yeah, maybe, maybe that's, maybe that's not a compliment to me that like I have the same opinion and of the, the Department of Player Safety. Yeah, great. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to be aligned NHL Department of Player Safety. That's right. Yeah. That's you. Me and George Ferris. Same Z's. Just a couple of violent gentlemen. Yeah. So Tom Wilson has an in-person hearing, which allows for a suspension of longer than five games. We saw this happen with Morgan Riley and he got exactly five, but obviously everybody else seeing the thing that I saw in Tom Wilson's incredible acting performance now, it must be said, because you said it was impossible that like George Ferris thinks it was acting of coddling Noah Gregor after smoking him in the face with a hockey stick. Not good enough for them. I'm actually dying to see the video that comes out of this because they talk about intent in these things all the time. They're going to have to mention that as part of it. I bet he gets five games because once it gets to six, it goes to the independent arbiter. And then once you do that, all you get to do is point at the NHL and and look, the arbiter could say, ah, don't care. You smack the guy in the face of your stick. But if you look at the track record, you could just, you can make a case for anything you want based on what's happened in the NHL. Do you think the Leafs have something to do with this that there was such a, they were going to throw their weight around? Yeah. Well, the Brendan Chan hand, like they were all going to make the trip to New York and then there was a snowstorm they didn't, so everybody did it via zoom. But they were obviously not too pleased. That's right. There were none too pleased. And Brad's were living like was about to do, he was about to take questions and to have a statement about the Morgan Riley suspension, and then he's like, nah, I can't, I shouldn't do that. That's going to, but they were obviously very angry in that moment, and this happens in a Leafs game. And yeah, I don't know if it's an apples to apples comparison. Have you, their guy got dinged for five games for, yes, the intent thing, like there's no debating that Morgan Riley wanted. No man, it's just kidding. And he had a trip to Greg, like, so there's no plausible deniability whereas I guess if you wanted to defend Tom Wilson, which you so desperately want to do, you could do it. But yeah, I do think there's something, man, we talk about the Leafs getting the short end of the stick and discipline all the time, I think not that this benefits them greatly, they don't play the capitals again and it cares, really. But yeah, I think there's a perception thing here that, yeah, if Tom Wilson was slapped with a fine, I think you might be hearing from Brendan Shanahan. Yeah, I honestly hadn't thought about that because Tom Wilson getting suspended or fined or, you know, put in stockades and told to stand in this city square, will people throw rotten vegetables at him, whatever the punishment is, it doesn't affect the Leafs a lick. This isn't even a case where, oh, you're going to, like, you need them to take care of the team. No, no, no, no, the Leafs don't care about any of this. But it's a perception thing. The perception part absolutely has to play into it. It's just, forget if the thing happened with Riley this year, even, just that it happened in a Leaf game. It draws more eyeballs, it garners more attention. Yeah, I, there's definitely some element to that, but I don't know, if you're Brad your living, do you want to wait, we talked so much about him wasting using his bullets in terms of, you know, trade chips and all that, do you want to waste your bullets arguing about a suspension that does not affect your team at all? Like, let's, let's say they were, let's say they even find or suspended him, but it was a light suspension of two games or one game, tri-living in a get-up in arms about that. What does he care if Tom Wilson is suspended or not? He doesn't. Yeah. I think it's more a perception because it's the Leafs as opposed to what the Leafs will react to it. And, or how they will react to it. The way I always think about these decisions when it comes to discipline is like, what's going to make the fewest number of people upset and no offense to the caps who, yeah, are battling for a play of Tom Wilson's integral part of their team, but like, they have a minus 10 million goal differential and like, okay, the Red Wings have seemingly figured it out at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. And nobody's crying any tears safe for you about Tom Wilson being slapped at the five game suspension. Well, no, I'm not crying about it. But here's something I think you gotta, if I'm now, you're going to say I'm crying about it because I'm going to act as a lawyer for the second. Don't put it in the newspapers that I cried. Yeah, don't please, Streisand, in fact, do not do it to me. Is we hear all the time that, how does the math work on playoff suspensions? One playoff game is two regular season games. Sure. What is a game worth to a team who's pushing? No, no, like, honestly, like, if you're, if you're the Capitals, can you not make that argument that, hey, what, you wouldn't do this for like, do you understand what I'm saying? Sure. We take into account this nebulous like ads just understood it's a two to one. Is it one and a half for every game that this time of year? Cause they matter more to the Capitals versus if they were homing cool, then it was the mileage suspension, seven and a half games. Cause remember that was preceding the seven game winning streak, right? That was like, not that they were too early in the season. Now we're in crunch time. Okay. Now we're talking playoffs here. God, I'm asking. I am not saying, well, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're taking, if you're in the PA, which again, it's hilarious that Noah Gregor's Players Association is going to be in there being right leave our sweet Tom alone. But if you're in the PA, if you are, I don't remember who the GM is there, but if you're the GM that makes the trip with them, the coach goes down with them, whoever it is, how could you not throw that in his party argument? It's an NHL suspension hearing, it's all wishy washy. Who knows? You have to make that. I think it, I think it has to be considered. I don't think they'll actually change anything for it, but I don't know. It just, it crossed my mind the math. And if I'm the NHL Department of Players, I'm like, Hey, let's protect people's eyeballs from seeing the Washington Capitals in the postseason. Like, let's, let's do that. Oh, yeah. The wings can be so much better. There's the problem. And then they have a positive goal differential. But at least we get to see Patrick Kane in the postseason, and I mean, well, that's can exist. I sure. It's the same thing. I guess. All right. When we come back, JD Martinez, the final Boris, well, no, Jordan Montgomery is out there, I guess, but like the, one of the bigger name free agents, finally Boris boys, finally finding a home. The number is going to shock you, especially when you compare it to the Blue Jays own DH and Mark Shapiro spoke to the media yesterday and done it and that and more next is the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sports Set 590, the fan. Hey, it's Aelish for a fire. And I'm Justin Kuntzberg. 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 free game, 6 p.m. weekdays on Sportsnet, Sports Set 590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. It's a Blue Jays full time DH and it was kind of confirmed by Shida VD yesterday that it sounds like like at most Justin Turner is going to play 10 games at third. Third base this season, so he's a DH fella. I just, I like thinking of, because they plan on all these things, right? It's like, have they already in pencil, written them down, they're like, all right, this one, May 3rd. Gotta have it. He's playing third there. Yeah. That's just funny. And well, and it will also be interesting to see if Isaiah Kiner-Felefe doesn't hit a lick, which is a very realistic possibility despite him being a great glove man and Blue Jays aren't scoring enough runs. How in flocks, how, how unmovable Blue Jays are with that idea that Justin Turner can't play third base, but he's a DH, pure DH, 39 years old, but like at a point in his career was capable defensively. Yeah, definitely. I'll play in the field. JD Martinez is never really like he's played the outfield, they've given him a glove before. Yeah. It's like how my kid is a defenseman in name only like yesterday was blowing the zone, the defensive zone playing defense like, yeah, no, he's a donut. You're a fence man. Got you on your toes. Yeah. Well, and the good thing is for Martinez, like, I know he had other stops as well, but it's like he could also just pop him in front of the monster and say, don't go anywhere. Just like let them all care him. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, he's played the outfield. So yeah. I mean, boy, Adam Lynn played the Chris Colleville Edwin and Carnassie on play the outfield. Anyways, JD Martinez hits. Yeah. Yeah, King of his entire career. And I don't really think there's any debate that he was the best available DH only bat. I thought, and I think Scott Morris certainly thought he was going to break the bank. He was going to be compensated as such. The difference maker at that position, like, ideally, you want a guy that is not clogging up your DH, but if that's the route you're going down, that's the best guy. Despite the injury concerns of the last couple of years, scoreboard, like this guy rakes. But Blue Jays seemingly didn't want to go down that path of paying for even more than one year with a guy who's going to make significant money. So they did the Justin Turner thing, and I understood that. And then yesterday happened where not only did JD Martinez only signed for one year, he signed for 12 million bucks, which is less than Justin Turner's 13 and a half. I want to say he's making at least 13. And you know, his base salary is for this season, I do Martinez as two and a half million. The Mets are deferring almost the entire salary on a one year deal. Now part of that is the luxury tax situation and the Mets are in because they made a lot of mistakes you may have recalled last year, spending a lot of money on a team that was no good. But JD Martinez, I can't imagine the Blue Jays are going to argue with this. Because they were seemingly in conversations with him as well, and the price was just too exorbitant. Given their brothers in a vacuum, would prefer JD Martinez over Justin Turner and who wouldn't. But it was, they weren't operating in a vacuum, he was going to cost more except he didn't. So part of that is hey, maybe he wanted to play for the Mets more than the Blue Jays. I'm sure there was a price that the Blue Jays could have paid where JD Martinez is a Blue Jay does feel like they've misread the market on a couple of different fronts on Cody Bellinger on Matt Chapman and on JD Martinez. Yeah, the Martinez one's interesting, right? Because it all comes down to what you think the Toronto taxes. That's really the question here. And I think we all have to at least operate with the assumption that there was one. Is it a million dollars? Is it two million dollars? Is it more than that? How much is the ballpark a factor there? I would think not, but does that weigh into it? I'm not saying that Martinez wouldn't have been more of a help to this team, but I think they also, and now the part of them, them saying they only want Turner 10 games is curious to me because I would think part of the decision there is having, albeit limited, but some flexibility with the player as opposed to with Martinez where he is a DH, DH only. I think that weighs into a partially, but yeah, I think you, you have to look at this and wonder what their price would have been, and that's really the, that's the most frustrating part about all these conversations is what is the Toronto tax? How much does the deferred payments change how he feels about it? It should make it a worse offer. We did, we've done this already with Otani that money today, more valuable than money tomorrow will be. So yeah, I think there's definitely a world where the J's could have slid in there, especially if they weren't deferring payments, which I have no reason to believe that they would have been. Yeah, I, it's, it's just such a black box, like it's kind of a hard, hard to know for me. It was hard to envision this market playing out this way, but it does remind me of the Kendra's Morales off season. Remember that it was like, hey, Edwin, here's our number. Yeah. Would you like it? And like, I, yeah, I'd like to shop it around a little bit and they're like, all right, we're pivoting. And then all the money to Kendra's Morales, and Edwin's like, uh-huh, and then the number he ends up signing for is not exorbitant and probably feel more comfortable. Obviously, in hindsight, you felt more comfortable re-signing Edwin and Kardashian as opposed to outlaying the money they did for Kendra's Morales. It feels like Blue J's had their number. They had their expectations with how the market was going to go and how it was going to play out for these guys, and they are wrong. It's a hard to argue with that that, and again, it's not just like maybe it's not apples to apples. What Matt Chapman got in San Francisco, hey, Blue J's just offered the same thing here in Toronto, and he remains a Blue J maybe, Matt Chapman did want to move on to greener pastures, but obviously there is a number that they could have paid Matt Chapman to retain him. And as much as I thought that the player was far from perfect, especially the final five months this season, I like him more than Isaiah Kiner-Folefa at third base, and this JD Martinez thing kind of plays into the same narrative. They didn't envision the thing that makes sense that these guys didn't get paid. Well, the Chapman one's interesting too, because of the term of the deal, right, especially with the window that you're in right now where it's okay, like, let's see what happens this year with Bowen Vlad, and then we'll move on from there. It kind of feels like, and we've done this a few times now, but it feels like we're in the last year, or the first of a 10-year deal, or something along those guys for where they're at. So to have the Chapman one, I'll follow you along more there. The idea of have a guy, you get them on a three-year deal, that doesn't believe has a one-year deal, right, that doesn't opt out after the first two years. Exactly. So then that's perfect. To your ops out, you got to pay Bowen Vlad. Awesome. See you later. It could not have worked out better for them. Again, what's their price? Probably a touch higher, but you can make that work. That's the one that I feel more, which is crazy to say, because I was so fine to see Chapman go, but just given the position of need where they're at, that's the one where I think I would have the most issue with them misreading, I guess. I mean, Justin Turner's had a fine spring, which, as we know, means a whole lot, only if you wanted to. Yeah. I don't know. It's fine. It's like David Schneider hasn't hit much, but we're like, "No, but he's the big. Come on. Who cares?" Whatever. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But Otto, who didn't play in spring yesterday, had a long screed about Love Is Blind. Did you see this? No. Have you ever seen Love Is Blind? Oh, I've seen like memes about it on the internet. So my wife watches, you know, I was thinking if this is like a TLC show where they go to different countries, but no, that's a different one. My wife's all into that one. I have not. I feel like I watch season one of Love Is Blind in a pandemic, maybe? I don't know. Yeah. Anyways, Joey, so the Blue Jays are doing a thing that has become more in vogue in social media circles. Now is their social media person poses a question to all their players as they enter the facility. Yeah. And so one of the- Sometimes they're good. Yeah. Yeah. Yesterday's question was, "What show are you binge watching?" I said, "I don't watch TV," which was like mind-bending. Okay. All right. Love it. No, no. What do you read? Like what do you do? What do you do? Tape, obviously. Anyways. Yeah. Joey Votto had- Yeah, Love Is Blind. And then he went through like all the- Like this is not a joke. Like he was going through all the storylines and his takes on all the storylines. Funny guy. I mean, if you were- If you were of the conspiracy theory type and he was also on Twitter interacting with people talking about- There was a video of an incredible two-seem fastball thrown. I forget who it was. Maybe it was you, Darvish. Anyways. He was going back and forth with the people very much interacting with people on social media yesterday. If you were of the conspiracy theory sort, you might think, "Oh, this is a guy who understands that, hey, maybe the ankle thing is worse than he anticipated, or maybe his belief that he can be a major contributor this season is waning, and that he's transitioning more into his post-playing career mode." I'm not saying that I believe that, but the alarm bells were ringing a little bit. That's not where I go with it. I think, and again, the Blue Jays aren't going to make a roster decision at any point in this year based on, well, I mean, maybe if things go completely tail and there is September's a disaster, maybe some guys got a call up for PR reasons or something, but they're not making roster decisions now or in April or in May for a PR move. But I think there's some element of, well, can't hurt to endear myself furthermore to these people. This is where my bread's going to be buttered. It's not in Cincinnati, so I am a cynic about it to a certain extent. I don't look at it so much as he knows he's done, but he knows he will be done soon. No matter how highly he thinks of himself, he knows the writing is on the wall here. This is not the beginning of a five-year run with the Jays, so yeah, of course he's kind of leaning into this, but I don't know that I connected so much to the ankle or the performance. Yeah. It is you, Darvish, to see him fastball, and if you'd ever had any doubts about baseball being insanely hard, just go look at the video taken from the catcher's perspective. He couldn't pinch in Ninjas grass, Joey Votto, and lee pitching ninja. I mean, he quote tweeted pitching ninja. I know with the video. I'm just saying, if you're a baseball fan, it's like, hey, you can tweet back and forth with pitching ninja or Joey Votto. I think most people, not me, most people, taken Joey. All right. Before we take the break quickly, and we'll talk to Shida Vidi about these comments because he was there in the scrum yesterday, and Arden's welling doing a great one-on-one with Mark Shapiro yesterday from the facility in Dunedin, Mark Shapiro. To the microphone, held the scrum, like I said, addressed a couple of different things, talked about the Shohio Tani interactions, and I guess there's no tampering now that we, like if you talk about it in hindsight, even though he's now signed one of the, anyways, yeah, I was very glowing in his assessment of how that went down and obviously the disappointment. But yeah, it was incredible that they were right there down to the wire with this, one of the greatest free agents of a generation. The payroll stuff was the thing that caught my attention the most, said these new renovations with, I guess, also coming with it, the increased prices that are going to be paid to attend Blue Jays games in these luxury suites will better support the way we spent the last few seasons. Upper levels of payroll are likely to be where we are, or where we've been at for the right player in the right situation, though, at the right moment in our team, there's always an openness with this ownership. They've been unbelievably supported, whether it be $400 million, I would add parenthetically, that's the total we're talking about for the two years of renovations or renovation, or whether it's taking our payroll to an unprecedented levels. In two years of exceeding the CBT, Brent, where's your confidence level at, that the Blue Jays will and can continue to spend their top 10 in payroll? >> Yeah, I've got it. I've got it. And depending on which number you use, 'cause there's like, hey, the actual amount they're paying on payroll, and it's the amount that is used to calculate the tax. >> Tax. >> The tax. >> Okay. >> So the seventh rate. >> Yeah, of course, seven forbid to just be straightforward in baseball. And you're right, they are seventh rate, depending on either of those metrics. I understand people getting upset about the, you know, there's been years past of the team has felt much closer, and you need the one more thing. But this isn't a one more thing situation that one guy would have kind of pushed them over the top. The thing is, is that they've proven they'll spend, again, they're one of the seven or eight teams in baseball that are in two luxury tax thresholds. And does anybody here, like, if you disagree with this, I feel like you're nuts. Does anyone here think that if Bo and Vlad had proven that they are worth the contracts? And they said, please, I would love to sign it that both those guys wouldn't, like, are we honestly believing in that world where they just say, no, no, we're not going to pay that. This is not going to be a Mookie Bet situation. If those guys deserve the money, they're going to get it here. So I don't, I understand the frustration at times and you miss out on on Tawny. Yeah, just go spread that money around. That's foolish thinking, especially for a team that is again, seventh or eighth in payroll, depending on how you look at it. I agree. I think this is a huge season for a number of different reasons. Partly is because of the contractual status of both Bo and Vlad and a lot of this team's core. But yeah, those guys perform blue jays win 90 plus games and are in the postseason and win playoff games and God forbid win a World Series or get close enough that you're like, Oh man, it's right there. And they don't pay either of those guys and don't make a legitimate effort at Juan Soto this offseason. Then you can come at me with your your cynicism. I think if they do the things that I outlay there that they will be a big player for the biggest free agent and the guy that makes the most sense in Juan Soto and resounding both Vlad and Bo. But you got to see it. You got to win more than 89 games. You got to you got to win a postseason game at some point. I know it's not your money guys, but you can't just why don't we talk about with the Leafs for the better part of a thousand years of just giving these guys money and it's like, Oh, we'll figure it out. No, maybe make a mernet. Okay. Yeah. All right. When we come back, get back into Leafs and Oilers and does a Canadian team winning a cup change the narrative that surrounds every player wanting to play in Florida or Vegas. and more next as the fan morning show continues back on his Brent County Sportsnet 5.9 of the fan.
