[MUSIC] And now losing his stick, Matthews is in. All in a huge save made there by Luke in the centering passes block. The Saver pulling Byron lost his stick, pass it, but they scar. There it is, number 60, and he gives it the big solo. Austin Matthews makes it three to nothing. And he pulls his career high, 60 goals, ladies and gentlemen. Puck still three, five seconds left, just flipping around back to the net. And for the first time since Andrew Raycroft in 2007, the Toronto Maple Leafs are gonna go into Buffalo and record a shutout, as they win it, three to nothing. [MUSIC] >> I chose the wrong game in Buffalo to attend. >> You did? >> You did. >> 10 morning shows, sports have 590 the fan, Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning. Yeah, my kid got to see nine goals scored by the Savers. And Austin Matthews limp off the ice, not because he was injured, but because he watched his team give up nine goals and then the lack of certainty in the Leafs net was very much in question on that night. Not so much on Saturday. No, Austin Matthews, goal number 60, those guys with the inflatable 60 doing work. As Maple Leafs come away with the three, nothing victory. Good morning to you, Brent. >> And good morning to you. Good job planning by those guys. I would have been worried about bringing that in that like, we're gonna jinx it. But I guess when you're already wearing his name across whatever seven guys or whatever many that equals up to behind the bench, you've already kind of put it out there. >> That was, that was what you needed. I'm sad for you that your child didn't get so much better. But I'm happy for me that I got to see it on my television. >> So did I, I also got to see how many tellers. >> Yeah, but it wasn't like, wasn't that Sabers game, wasn't it a weird start game, wasn't it like a. >> The one that I went to? >> Yeah, was it a weird afternoonish? >> No, it was a normal game, okay, all right, all right. >> All right, well, I retroactively wish you and your child could have had that. But they didn't. >> Did I also like look at, you know, secondary ticket sales for Saturday's game and think after a birthday party for my, today, six year old. >> Happy birthday. >> Happy birthday, Wyatt Ennis. He's turned six today, yeah, April Fool's, happy April Fool's Day too as well. >> Sick joke through your, it was your kid's birthday. >> No, my wife at the time, you know, she was induced labor on April 1st. And someone at the hospital was like, are you sure you want to do this on April 1st? We're like, let's get this over with. >> How about, come on baby comes out. >> Yeah, how about. >> Tired of walking around with extra 30 pounds. >> Just to clarify, not been there, but like been there in terms of the person I love most dear. >> I mean, that's my wife, not yours, just to be clear. >> Yeah. >> Can't be weird if I was just like, you know, the person I love, dearest in the world, your wife. >> Thank, it would have been a weird start to the week. >> Be, man, could you imagine just continuing with the show after that? >> It would have been tough, we'd have to take a break and have to look on the other side glass and be like, okay, we're going to take station break. >> Well, I've something to tell you. >> I hate to break it to you, man, it's something to tell you. >> The person I love most of the life, Austin Matthews, no, she's lovely. >> Okay, back to Saturday when I was celebrating my child's sixth birthday with his birthday party at Lasertag. >> Yes. >> Once that concluded, beautiful time, like goodness gracious, two hour birthday party, five kids, 11 to one. When the thing was over, I was like, well done, we all shook hands, we're like, we did it, we survived. I was like, woo, I mean, we could conceivably still make it for park drop and Buffalo with plenty of time to spare, couldn't quite get that over the goal line with my wife though. >> My lovely mother had an Easter egg hunt and Easter dinner planned Saturday, and you don't want to know how often I was doing the math of like, well, Buffalo's not that far, but no, you know, we prioritized family. >> Glazed hands, yeah. >> No, that was Sunday night at my house, where glazed hammer's eyes. >> Actually, I think we did have a glazed ham. >> Yeah, two glazed hands. >> Back to back glazed hands, yeah. >> I also, two 60 goal seasons were awesome, and back to back glazed hands. >> Two glazed hands in a single weekend for you. >> Yeah, I know, look at me, what a time to be alive it is. >> Not for long though, if you're having two glazed hands a weekend. >> I don't, I don't, I would argue that like, we're not doing glazed ham again until maybe Thanksgiving. I don't think it's coming back on the, on the skit. >> Left over glazed hands, well, you're not having glazed ham sandwiches. >> I sent that home with the in-laws, much of the, much of the glazed ham is left. There's like a little bit, might throw it in an omelet when I get home today. Do you want to know anything else about my life? >> No. >> You want to talk sports or? >> Yeah, Austin Matthews scored 60 second time in his career. It becomes ninth player in NHL history to have multiple 60 goal seasons. That includes Alex Ovechkin, who has the most goals scored by an active player at 65. He's only scored 61s, Austin Matthews has scored 60 twice. He's in his mid 20s, it's ridiculous. It took him 63 games to reach 60 the first time, which I don't know if we forget, but it's like, yeah, I mean, we'd be talking about the chase for 70 if he played 82 games that season as well. >> Yes. >> Only needed 72 this time around, only American-born player to do that, to score 60 twice. We need to take a second to stop and just talk about Austin Matthews for an extended period of time here, because I think even Morgan Riley said it's like, you can't help it. Like the guy's just so automatic, and even in a down year scores 40, that you can't help but take it for granted. And I already said it last week, I was like, 60? Got to be honest with you. It's nice, and like, you certainly want to see him do it. And boy, for those people that did make the trip to Buffalo well done by you and getting a chance to see that moment, and the atmosphere looked electric, electric and electric. >> I want to talk about that as well a little later on in the show. >> Sure. >> Saber's fans, were there any there? Like, I don't know. >> No. >> Anyways, yeah, no, he's automatic. And I am, I'm interested in seeing him record goal number 66, if that so happens. And of course, every goal from here on out will be a franchise record, but just an unbelievable feat, like twice in a career before the age of 30 scored 60. >> I have a couple other numbers to pinpoint it. After the goal last night, he has, so he was drafted in 2016, just to remind everybody of this. >> I remember that day. >> He now has more goals than anybody scored going back to the 2010 draft class. It's only Jeff Skinner, who was holding him back. He has now passed him of the 13 active players with more goals than him in the NHL right now. The only one that is not a mortal Hall of Fame lock is the guy who stole John Tavares' art roster, because he was so honorable, Jamie Ben. The other 13 players are virtual Hall of Fame locks that are ahead of him. That'd be impressive if he was 35 years old, and we were talking about his career. He's 26, 27 at the absolute peak of his powers. It is absurd. The amount of ways you can slice and dice this, you want to do goals per 60, you want to just do the clip, he shoots at whatever it is, throw in the fact, and this part I don't think can be overstated. It's going to get overstated today because we're talking about a big sexy round goal total. He does it all well being an incredibly responsible two-way sentiment. That part cannot be overlooked. The guy we think of, the guy who he is going to be held up against when it comes to goalscoring, is going to be Alex Ovechkin. And say what you will about Ovi, it's like he was his own force and nature supernova early on in his career. It was not because he was a lockdown Selke winger, like we refer to Mitch Marner. No, he was a kind of singular force and physical. I'm trying to take away from Alex Ovechkin was just a one-dimensional player. But in terms of dimensions, certainly more singular dimension than Austin Matthews is with his game. And that part I don't think can be overstated as well. Oh, we should probably mention as well, he's got over the finish line this year, well playing without the set up man that we all think is the, we don't say either one of these guys is a creation of the other. But you would think your 60 goal man needs his elite set up winger alongside him. Actually at a higher goal scoring rate without Mitch Marner. Right. There is no way you can slice this that it isn't part of this is hey, this is the pain of caring about the Leafs. But it's like there's no way you can slice and dice that this is not the most incredible, impressive thing you've seen from a Leaf in your life, unless you were live for 67. Yeah. And even then. And even then. Yeah. And he needs a long playoff run to become like, so I think there isn't a vintage of Leaf fan who will never move off of Doug Gilmore, Wendell Clark, those will be their guys forever and ever and ever and Matt Sundine, right? But his case to be like the the most beloved Leaf of all time. Like obviously this team wins a cup like I doesn't need to proceed all those guys. If this team wins a cup, the amount of got like no offense to Dougie and Wendell. But the amount of guys on this core that will be forever beloved above those guys. Eastern Conference final, which is as far as we've ever seen this Leafs team get. Like I wonder, I wonder what the conversation is as well, you know, and you bring up OV and thank you for doing so. I mean, we should also the caveat of this Leafs power playing being absolute dog do. Like I'm looking at all the rocket trophy seasons that OV won. And a lot of them he was also the leader in power play goals. Four, right? Like he did all his damage one time in shots from the left side on the power play. I was going to bring this up with Frank. And I wondered if it was too obvious even for Frank. Sure. And I think it's going to be too obvious for us here. Peek of their powers in the prime of their careers. Yeah. Awesome Matthews or Alex Ovechkin. I mean, how can I be sitting here watching this and say anything other than Matthews? But I will say there is a little part of the early Ovechkin that you would have killed for this player to possess. Now, I'm sure there are people who are watching this, watching early Ovechkin and watching and going, yeah, and if he had a little Selkie to him, maybe that cup would have come along before year 14. But I think that the one thing you would say when you're going to, if you're going to do the comparing and contrasting of Ovechkin is that you wish Matthews had that. And I don't want to say fire because you see the reaction to him scoring. You see the reaction to his teammates scoring. It's not that he plays the game without emotion or without passion. Grab the guy and he got a 10 minute misconduct at the end when Rasmus Dallian's putting TJ Brody into the forest. He did. He did. But I think that's the one thing. He was very surprised. That's the one thing when you compare and contrast the two that's always going to jump out is just the fiery nature that young Ovechkin and to a lesser extent, but it's still there. Older Ovechkin play the game with. It's not Matthews. Like he's always above the fray, not going to get sucked into it. And like, you know, we've had that conversation a million times, but I think that's going to be the thing that you always compare and contrast. But I also, again, if you go back to 2008 having these questions about, or I guess wouldn't be away, but like 2011 having these questions about Ovechkin be going, yeah, could he not float? Could he, you know, take three strides on a power play? Would that kill him? Like you would have been having all those questions. So you can poke, you know, holes. I'm using air quotes there for for either guy. But I think that's the, the kind of thing that jumps out. But in terms of all around full fledged game, it's on the heart. Like what's, what are we doing here? Yeah, that's what I mean. The blocking shots. Yeah. Not taking penalties, which I mean, maybe you can put that in the negative column, but it's like, he's also, well, you know, kill him if they ask him to, like, he has, they have used him in this, especially in this stretch when everybody's been hurt. Yeah, no yarn crock and no marner. Like they have used them sparingly, but they've used them. So nine games to go, sitting at 60, I think to me, the goal, and I think for him, the realistic goal is to pass Ovechkin 65 70 outside shot, right? Like we've seen him go on goal scoring tears, where he's rattled off 10 goals in a nine game span. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but I think, I think given their druthers, the least would almost prefer to, to, to, for that not to be a realistic possibility that maybe, you know, he scores 66 in game number 80 or 81, and then he rests for game 82. That, that feels like where we're headed. The 70 thing feels like it's pretty much dead now. Yeah, it does. One, one last thing I just had to pull it up because I wanted to, but I want to make sure not that I'd be okay and not that I'd be too pressed if we slide to Alex Ovechkin a little, but in his first five career seasons, four of them were over the 100 point mark. And Austin Matthews has had one of those seasons. He's going to have a second this year. Got to mention that as well. Like there, there is some aspect to that. Yeah, the, in terms of, in terms of where this team is now at and what they want to see for Matthews, you want to continue to have him scoring going into the postseason. You want to, you don't want the stick to dry up, but it is kind of a perfect world because there's no way you can push, push, push for 70. The only way, well, and I guess maybe shouldn't rule this out, it's been so long since he's had one, but a hat trick or two. And she's right back on. Yeah, hat trick to that. We're talking about eight and we're talking about the all time hat tricks, Mark being in jeopardy of 10. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not holding my breath on that, but the way he scores in bunches and the way, you know, it'll be really interesting to see how he responds to these two games. And I don't mean, you know, is he going to show up? Yeah, I bet he will against the Panthers. But does that milestone allow him to exhale a little bit? Okay, like got it. We can just play hockey. I don't need to be pressing for every goal or does it spurn him on? If he's feeling as good as he possibly can. He's the back, back, secure. He's, you know, 60 gold man in two straight full seasons for him. What does that mean? Like, I, I'm curious to see how he kind of responds to this because again, I don't think it was affecting the way he was playing. End of the Washington game. Well, that sounds good to say. The thing, yeah, I've never seen, for the first time this season, we saw him looking for his own shot, which is like, it's fine. Like, there's very few shots that are bad shots. I guess like, you know, you shoot on the opposite wing and bounces off the boards and you start to break the other way. But yeah, that's fine. Like, the guy who's one of the all time great goal scorers, you probably want him to shoot. But for the first time this season, the final five minutes of that Washington game that looked like a guy was like, please go in the net. And I do think he'll see that you won't see when he gets to 64. If he's sitting on 65, I think you'll see that again. But I don't think you see that now the rest of the season where he's just dying. I think he had to get over that 60 mark. He absolutely wants 65. He wants 66, but it's just not the round number. And you know, we think about it in the moment of the active player record. We're going to talk about this when he retires. We're going to talk about the title record, right? Like, like anything going forward again, franchise writer breaking his own six schools back of Dave Keon for career. Yeah, it's just it's absurd. It's absurd. Yeah, 60 back of Matt's for the all time record. So see you next year. Yep. Okay, so he's that is so perfect that every year heading into the postseason, he just has like this incredible milestone. It's like whether it's 60 in a season next year, he's going to become the leaf salt. I'm leaving the score right on the precipice of the playoffs. Yeah, well, it's worked out swimmingly every other time. So well, eventually one of these years has to result in well, not the ultimate success necessarily, but not the failure. Not the ultimate failure witnessed for the last seven years. Anyways, okay, so he's the number one store with the bullet for Saturday's game. Secondarily, Ilya Sandstrom, I'm up to 70%. It should be higher. But boy, it like, there's still nine games to go here. And season so long, it's it. I mean, at this point, if the postseason started today, and Ilya Sandstrom was not getting the starting game one, I mean, you'd say, I guess we defer to the team that knows better. But there you would be questions. You'd be right. You'd be well within your rights to have a severe question about the process that is involved here. Ilya Sandstrom is by the little, you know, has set back with the injury that wasn't an injury, but banging his leg against the post. He's been full value over the last two weeks. And Joseph Wallace had an opportunity to take him out of the pole position for the game one starter. But he hasn't, he hasn't overwhelmed and Ilya Sandstrom has. It's just, it's, you can't deny it with the shutout in Buffalo, at least in dominant, dominate that game. They needed Ilya Sandstrom to shut the door a number of different times. Yeah, I don't have it exactly in front of me, but they were, they kept high danger chances pretty, or to a pretty much a minimum through the first two periods. And then Sabers kind of packed on the chances late as one does when they're chasing. And guess what? Samson, I've answered the bell every time. I, I do think there's an element of going into a building or against the team that's scary for you and being able to respond. Now maybe he isn't worried. Maybe the nine goals is more of a that day thing than a Buffalo Sabers thing. Maybe this isn't a Washington capital situation for him. But I think proving to be able to respond is such a big part of what you're asking for him. I think that's the part that complicates the goal tending question so much is that these guys are being, they're applying for the same job, but they're being graded or interviewed off completely different tests with Joe wall. It's like, Hey man, speed yourself, be calm, go in there, shake some hands. It's like he's getting all the advice your parents give you and looking for a job. It's like, just go in there and shake their hand and tell them you're going to work hard. And Samson off is like applying for a job in 2023. He's like, check it in constantly. He's all over the place. And I think the other thing you need for him is you need Samson off to check more boxes or at least the team has apparently been asking him to do that. And since the blip and boy, what a blip it was that needed him to go down in the Marley's, he has answered it more times than not. He's the guy you feel the most confident in right now. And it's the problem again, it's not a problem for us, a problem for them that there's no way they can announce tonight's starter without it being incredibly telling one way or not. Yeah, if it's Joe wall against Panthers team that you can conceivably catch for second in the Atlantic division, who you have four points hanging in the balance in these final two games in the last one, the last game of the regular season, and you're not starting the guy coming off the shutout on hockey night in Canada in Buffalo. What are we doing here? After you've given Joe wall, the two Bruins games that would also have been the chance to prove his medal against the first round opponent. There's no way you could. How could you tell Samson off that it's remotely a fair shake unless they're playing 3D chess and they've swung back around the other way. Samson is our guy and I don't want to put him against Florida. I was going to bring this up like if it was baseball, like at the end of the pre season, if you're playing a team the first week of the season, you don't start your starter because you don't want to have another look at it. Yeah. Okay. The Leafs want to finish second. I guess like how much should they care about tonight? I think they should care. I just don't think it works quite the same way. I think it can. If Samsonov, let's say Samsonov gets the net tonight, he gets shelled. We're definitely talking about that heading into a round one series against the Panthers if that's how it shakes out. But I don't think it's a advantage for Florida and that they get a book on him or they're more comfortable against him. I think it's just a mental advantage. And you know, I'm sure for some guys, that carries a lot of weight. For some guys, it carries very little. I think given what we know about Samsonov, there is a world where you could worry about that carrying a lot of weight. But conversely, you can't play scared. Like if that's the guy you think is starting the game against the Panthers, why not give him the opportunity to be great against them and play up the seat of doubt. So I don't think you can operate in that way of let's say they have made up their mind already. And unless there's a catastrophic injury or he gets monster again, let's say they have decided Samsonov is the starter. I don't think you can play scared with him and say, Oh, you can't give him the net tonight. What if the Panthers get the best of them? Well, and then run them. Exactly. Well, there is some element to that. But that's the question you've been asked. You've been building a team to respond to all year long. You saw it in Buffalo. You've seen it more times than not kind of going back to that fateful Boston game. I think there's an element to that that you have to take into account as well. You wanted to talk about the crowd in Buffalo. Yeah, I've seen a lot of and I don't even I don't regret you everyone for this line of thinking about that's a real leaf crowd. And I think we all understand what's at play there. Do you think anything would be let's say, let's say MLSC could just like they contact the league. They somehow lie to all the season ticket holders like, No, the game's totally at Scotia Bank, but it's actually at Keybank Center in Buffalo and all the quote unquote real leaf fans are down there. If you could find some way to just transport that crowd, get all the sabers fans out of there, but you understand what I'm saying. Game one of the playoffs doesn't materially change anything because I feel like this is a debate we have. It's what we talk about with home ice. Does it get to them? Does it eat them up? Is it the lack of a playoff atmosphere? Because, you know, I've been down there. I've worked playoff games. I don't feel like the playoff atmosphere was going to say like the regular season Scotia Bank arena atmosphere is different than the postseason atmosphere at Scotia Bank arena. I don't think and ultimately I don't think you look at the the Leafs. Not so great home record during the regular season this year. You look at the five game series against the Panthers last year in the home. I generally just chalk that up to just total randomness and not necessarily something that you can put your finger on or or it's more like a Sheldon Keith trying to out coach, you know, he's putting his fingerprints too much on the game, not necessarily the fans. I'm not being said, like, I got a lot of time for the people to make the trip to Buffalo to gorgeous Leafs team because I'm one. Yeah, guess what? I'm not taking my kid to Scotia Bank arena. And like, yeah, the people that asked me find out what I do, like, no, we don't get free tickets to Leaf Games, right? No, no. So yeah, if I'm going to put down some ducats to then my kid watch a Leaf Game, it's not going to be here. It's going to and I live in Burlington. So like bubbles closer right there. Like, I'm going to drive an hour to go to Buffalo. So yeah, I I certainly feel more apart of that group of people that go see the Leafs in Buffalo. But I do think I don't look at the post season crowds and say, well, there's not enough energy there. Now, certainly, it's like a nervous when things start going badly. But I think the same would be true if that Buffalo crowd was put into a playoff game scenario and the Leafs were chasing the game or suffered, you know, even a tie game like an overtime. I think they would just be just as anxious. I wholeheartedly agree. The other thing I think is that I can hear the argument. And this is partially because they did finally went around last year. But it's also just partially a time marches on thing is that I did think there was a two year point, a nervous energy in the crowd, a little bit of type but going around. And I do think it would transport itself to the team at times in the past. But I also think that that's what and no, it wasn't the ultimate prize. But that's what having just one little modicum of postseason success is supposed to solve. It's that you actually do have not just an internal belief. Some of the guys on this team were here when a good thing happened in a game that we're getting more than respect in a handshake. You're getting more than respect. You, you, in fact, get to tell somebody how much you respect God. I would have been the respect King or to have been just like, I respect you so much. It was actually a missed opportunity by Sheldon Keefe to say we respect that the lightning team that we played respect. We gave them the respect that they gave us the previous year. They could have the respect. They have the respect belt now. You know what, go win another round and you can tell somebody else how much you respect him. But I think there is, I used to think that kind of transported itself on to the team more. But I also think that now with the team kind of maturing and growing more, I think they're supposed to get past some of that. And I think again, the little, little teensy-weensy God, John Tavares over time goal. So how dare I call that little tiny success. But I do think that's what's supposed to kind of help move this along. Yeah. It's supposed to have you not go down 3-0 to the next team. Yeah. And then losing 5k. No, I like, I know how it's supposed to go. All right. Before we end this section of our Leafs conversation, there's plenty more to come. And we want to go back to the Mitch Marner media availability. And he's been retroactively put on LCIR. So he's going to miss tonight's game against Panthers. He could conceivably return for Wednesday's game against the lightning. He's going to practice tomorrow. Here's Mitch Marner talking about his injury when asked exactly what happened. Yeah, I mean, I've been watching every game. You guys been talking about it every single game. So I think you guys are going to say whatever you want. It's behind me now, you know, and stuff that happened. I didn't plan to just go off on it. Whatever you guys want to say it is. But, you know, it's behind me now. I'm excited to get you back out right to you guys. Well, what's happening? What's going on? What's going on? Why? So, okay, you can't explain this to me. I was hoping all weekend that you, you know, like, an agent. Yeah, big time shambles. They're in my brain now. You aged father of two with the youngest who's now six again. Happy birthday. I was hoping you could explain this to me because I am at a loss. I've never understood something less. So again, I've been watching every game. You guys have been talking about it every single game. You guys can say what you want. It's behind me now. Stuff happened. So the most generous interpretation is like I'd rather not say sure. You guys have seen the play right and you can decide for yourselves what happened. But I think the way it comes off here is like, there's some criticism of him getting injured against the Bruins and maybe like the best I can do here, right? The best I can do is that he heard the because the play that it happened on was him not shooting on the yawning cage that he was hurt by that that he thought that that was unfair criticism and that this is what he's reacting to. But it's what it comes off as as a guy who's like, oh, you guys think I'm like not that valuable to this team. And you think that like I'm responsible for my own injury, what in fact, like the opposite has been true. Like, I don't know where that's been discussed in the discourse. Again, like I'm just parsing. I don't understand it. But I think it was so bizarre that it needs to be talked about. I think I'm going to concoct an even more generous assumption for what he was driving at is that you every conversation we've had is, well, we can't really talk about the power player, the penalty kill because Marner is such a driver of it. But he's offended that we think he's a driver of the penalty kill, nothing but like effusive praise. Can you imagine if this team had the record lifetime that it had without Morgan Riley, how he would respond to it? Like, and look, he'd become the Joker. He really would. And it's like, that will be me. And inevitably, if we have to go through the storyline one more time, but I look at it and yeah, it's just a guy who just a weird quote from a player who's always been a bit of a lightning rod on this team. It feels like the controversy is kind of like dissipated for everyone else. Like, even knee lander, we've had the post contract, you know, little talking to with him, he's back, he's back over 40 goals on page for a great season. It just like, it was the weirdest comment. I'm not going to sit here and say he needed to inject himself into the news cycle. He's Mitch Marner. He stands there and says anything we're going to talk about it. But it was as odd a quote as possible. Like, you guys have been talking about it every single game. Full Fox news, like, shut up and triple. Oh my God, like, what are you talking about? You guys have been talking about it. Yeah, I mean, that goes without saying that when you talk about the lines and, you know, who's in who's out, then you'd say, hey, this very valuable piece near 100 point person who plays in all situations, power play penalty kills missing. That's important to this team. I also, I guess, actually, it's like, was, was it like Occam's Razor is like the, the simple, simple as it's like, whatever. Yeah. Okay. Maybe this is a classic case of a guy just, again, as a guy who steps in front of a mic every day and talks for three hours. It's like, sometimes you just get, say, and stuff and you're looking for a bit of an on-ramp or an off-ramp. I do some, I do wonder if part of that is what's happening. Like, yeah, you got, like, he didn't, I, the other thing that I think I have to throw in here. And if you think any of these theories are good, maybe you're Mitch Martyr's lawyer because I don't. But the other thing is, did he think something nefarious happened on that play and we did not ride for justice? Well, then tell us. Agreed. But I think the, I think that's why the question was asked. I wholeheartedly agree, Ben. I'm just searching for answers. I, you know, it's like, I always joke about the Civil War and this fan base among, you know, like Marner and Neelander, whatever it is. I have had many, I have had many people from the Marner camp and not his actual camp, but like among the Civil War side of his fan base reaching out and even asking me like, you know, I defend this guy to the death. But what is going on here? It is just one of the more bizarre quotes. It's honestly, I think I finally landed on it. It reeks of a guy who's just played hockey his whole life. He's not been playing hockey long enough. He's just, his wheels are spinning. Like, I think, I think he gave us way too much to read into there. I just think he was, I think the theory I've landed on is that he was just talking. He was looking for an off-ramp. He's upset that he's injured and that's the route it took. It was weird, though. I'm not going to sit here and I gave you the generous interpretation. Give me the bad one. Here's the one that like, I'm immediately taken to. And I don't know if you feel the same one. This guy loves to play the victim. Oh. That he loves to be, you know, I'm unfairly singled out. I'm the guy that has to wear the crown of thorns at the conclusion of these post-season series in which we exit in the first round. I'm the guy that we're looking at as the last guy to get the extension and the guy that if things don't go well, well, he has no trade clause, but maybe you're just like better off letting him walk away, instead of giving him as whatever 12 million bucks a year for eight. And also, if I was going to take it even further than that, I would say that it's the result of a lack of accountability with his entire team that like, yeah, of course, like, yeah, you're entitled. And of course, like, there's something wrong with the discourse because it's not popping them up. It's us versus them. And the us has been so positive that the them must be super negative and that any like any little morsel of a perceived slight is blown up to a hundred times what it actually is. Well, let me just throw this at him that I don't have the exact number, but the Leafs are barely above 500 without Marner in the lineup when this thing started. They're definitely above it now. So here's the reality of the Mitch Marner situation, which Marner is an incredible player, like one of the all time great Toronto Maple Leafs by counting statistics now, right? It's been better, point getter than Nossamath, he's been unfreaking real. And yeah, he does that Gossamath, he's plays on the penalty kill, but like Mick Marner is in penalty killer, penalty killer. But yeah, this whole core wears the thing that, yes, he does wear with the lack of playoff success. And yes, he's had some notable moments in the postseason flipping pucks over the glass. But that's true of, hey, awesome Matthews didn't score in the five games against the Panthers. He also wears that. But yes, you wear that as well. But also, we can understand what a great player you are. And okay, it must be said that, yeah, the contract negotiation that does, for some people, it is still an element that Joey Botto, baseball Canada comments, it's still part of, it's still the back of their brain until, yeah, like all of it gets erased with some postseason success. But yeah, I think I think that's generally everybody's consensus opinion of Mitch Marner. Yeah, I think that there's, I think part of it is the problem of what he closed his eyes and dreamed when he was the leaf. I don't think he could have ever conceived there be in this many other good players on the team. Yeah, and that's not a knock on him with how good he is and look at most teams in the NHL. He's a best player on a lot of teams in this league. I just think the idea of to go down that path is, I think the idea of sharing the spotlight is not like, I don't want to say he's uncomfortable about it or whatever. But it's just like Austin Matthews, when he was growing up dreaming, it was, you know, maybe he wanted to be a yoke or a king or just in the NHL, William Newlander. You know, I don't know, it's like dreaming of Shasimi and on a beach somewhere or something. But if he won't dream about being a hockey player, it was an NHLer. This guy dreamed of this exact thing. And when it doesn't go, and part of that's the team's success. I don't want to just make this about like, oh, me, me, me, I didn't win a heart. I don't have my exact dreams come true. But I think there is some element to that. And when you're, and the other thing is that when you're out of it, he's been out of it. Like, he's not been able to. He's had to wear in his opinion, the stress of being a leaf. But this whole time he's been hurt, he hasn't got the spoils. He hasn't got to go out there and dip see doodle like he's Mitch Marner. And I'm sure that affects a player like him. And as you can see, it just affects him, it affects all these guys in different ways. Like what Tavares have said that, God, no, would Matthews know, Newlander? Oh my God, you wouldn't even see him. Very strange. Yeah. Anyways, we'll talk about Simone Benwall's extension later on the program. Milk man gets paid. Yeah. Just like the board man. All right. Grammy award-winning band Corn will be performing at Budweiser stage on Wednesday, September 25th, along with special guests, Gojira and Spiritbox to celebrate. We're given away tickets to enter. All you have to do is listen to the fan morning show for the code word then texted the 59590. Today's code word is metal. No, it's actually the word metal. The word is also metal, but it the word is metal. You follow? Text metal quotes are metal. The show is metal, but also the text word is metal. 59590 right now for your chance to win. We're giving away one last pair of tickets tomorrow. If you don't win with us, make sure to secure your tickets at ticketmaster.ca. When we come back, Bluejay's salvage is split. And in the book End Games, get a bunch of runs. That and more next as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his Brent Gunning, Sportset 590, the fan. Hey, it's Ailish for a fire. And I'm Justin Kusser. Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night. It's the fan pregame, 6 p.m. weekdays on Sportset, Sportset 590, the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. [Music] 2-2 again. Turner hits a high drive to left. A rosareta going back. It's off the top of the wall. One run is in. Springer coming into score. Guerrero stops at third. It's a two run double per turner. And he was maybe five feet for a grand slam. The 2-2. Jack Swig appealed over to first. He got him on a splitter below the knees. Six Ks in four innings for Kevin Gossman. There's the offering to Siri. It's lined up the middle diving play at second by IKF to win the game. He goes full extension to bring it in. And the Bluejay's win 92 and get a Siri split here, Chris, in the first series of the season at the drop. Good morning, Joe, Sportset 590, the fan, Ben Ennis, Brent Gunning, Bluejay's due salvage split of the four game series in Tampa, which is no longer the house of horrors, right? Like, do you Tampas? Like, I mean, visually, it's a house of horrors. I was like, other than the assault on my eye. Yeah, on my senses. Yeah, although Keegan Mathison, like, weirdly, like, actually loves it. I thought it was a bit that it was doing on Twitter. We love it. It'll be calm. No, like he's, and then he outlined the reasons why it's like, totally, it's professional reasons, right? Like, the workspace is good. And like, I'm affected by sensory situations, and it's not as loud. So, but anyways, no, for the normal person, great Keegan impression, and it's dying to come back on the shows, my guess, not listening. But yeah, it's an ugly ballpark. Agreed. And the Rays are usually good, even when they have no players. And even when, you know, they lose Wanda Franco, maybe forever, they got a guy who is like almost 30 years old, has never played a full season in Major League's baseball, well, one, he's getting Genesis Cabrera suspended for three games. And also, like, looks like a real guy through four games. Anyways, just it doesn't feel quite like the house of horrors anymore. It would be it would. Well, no, I don't you're laying out a lot of facts for an emotional argument. I think that's the problem there. You're going like, look at all these facts I have. And I go, but remember the time? And there's a lot of them to remember. It would be a shame if somehow the Rays pitching genie lab broke and they just had a hitting genie lab now for a for position player. I know I know I was I saw Waggis Pack poke his head out this weekend. I thought, Oh, is it going to work on it? No, it didn't somehow. Okay, good. It's good to know there is like a floor for these things that they can't just turn anybody into something. You make a lot of good points, but that's all they are is good points. It's not thoughts and feels and hearts and minds and unfortunately, for the sake of this argument, fortunately for everyone listening right now, we won't get to have a referendum on this for a thousand years into the season again. They mentioned that on the broadcast, like the J is not going down to the chop until late, late, late in the year. They only play 13 games in the division. That's how it works. You're right. It is funny, though, how it's like you get the one series early on and it's like, Mary, see you. Bye. See you in a couple of months. We'll be a completely different ball club, both of us. By the time we see again, you're right. It's not that way. But I think until the Rays prove to be not even like zombie Rays, but just dead Rays for a while, it's always going to have that feel for me anyways. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, let's let's spend a season where the Rays aren't a playoff team. Yeah, I guess. How about them bringing out the devil Rays fallbacks on like there was at the second day of the season? It's a choice. Okay. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of anything surrounding that organization. You know, these early season results are so like they're so magnified because it's all they have, like, yeah, it's a small sample, but it's the only sample we have. And especially considering the discourse at the end of last season, during the off season where they did very limited work in trying to improve an offense that clearly wasn't good enough a season to go. Yes, I felt like really important. And I know many today would have said, well, it's only the first four games and look how good they were offensively in the first game. The middle two looked pretty familiar, right? Yeah. Like that looked a lot like the team we saw a season ago where it's that was the movie saw the trailer last year. Yeah. And I mean, if you were going to go full panic mode, you would say, Hey, also like game one of last year, they put up a bunch of runs in St. Louis against the Cardinals and then lost the next two in that series. Yeah. So well, ah, but no, not only did they score a bunch of runs again yesterday, Justin Turner, man, first impressions to me are very important. Yes. And for him to get off to a good start, especially considering the options behind him, like there are, there are certain positions where there's not a lot of options. And like you got it. Hey, Alejandro Kirk is going to be captured him and Danny Janssen. He can split the job there. There's, you know, no friends to Brian Servin. Like the less we see of Brian Servin, the better. Yeah, this season. He's serving in papers to the minors. So it would be a second base. There's, there's some options, but like, DH is a ton of options, right? Like 1000 guys. Hey, and despite the fact that they're paying Justin Turner 13 million bucks, one year deal, and if Justin Turner ain't getting it done, guess what? Justin Turner's losing playing time. And maybe it means more George Springer at DH, or maybe it means more Daniel Vogelbach, or at some point in the not too distant future, Joey Votto, who apparently the only new news on is that he got new socks and a tweet to Shida Vidi. He becomes an option. So a huge, huge moment for him and his almost cycle, which is always hilarious. Like the guy who has nine career triples like triple away from the cycle. It's like, no, honestly, keep holding your breath. I'm sure it'll happen. No, it did feel like yesterday was important for the discourse, Brent. Yeah, they, they, they needed to have a return to form that they showed in the first game of the season. If it looked, if there were three games that looked one way and one looked the other, we'd be buying the three games more than the one. I think that the, the other big part of it is that, and maybe this is just how I was viewing things heading into the season as opposed to other people. Yeah, it's nice to Vlad. Soft to a good start. He seems to be seeing the ball well. It takes a walk yesterday, but there's nothing more important for this team, at least in my opinion early on, is Kevin Gossman showing that he's Kevin Gossman still. And yeah, he couldn't do it for a, for a long time or deep into the game, obviously on a, on a pitch count there. I think he had 12, 14 whiffs yesterday. It was, it was, it was vintage Gossman. Honestly, I thought I was a genius because I took the under five and asked, right? Cause I was like, does Vegas know? He's only throwing 75 bitches. Like, yeah, we know. Shocker. They knew. Exactly. Vegas. Vegas smart. Ben dumb. Me dumb. But I think that he, I mean, you can point to him and Vlad, you know, obviously can point to other guys on the team, but just with him having the start that he had coming out of spring, you needed him. And again, with everything we've talked about, with the uncertainty surrounding Kakuchi and I, as, as bullish as you can be on Bassett, I don't think you can sit here and say he's definitively having a better season than he, than he had last year. So you need Gossman to be at the worst, worst case scenario, the one be on this team. If you wanted to go places and he looked like vintage A.S. Gossman yesterday and you just needed that. You needed, I, maybe we didn't need to, but I certainly did, given the, the late start to everything you happened in spring. And maybe not necessarily surprising considering the one spring start he had against the virus. He struck out seven in the eyes. So maybe that's the indication that it's a great, great relief season though. Like what do we, what do we take out of that? No, I, I didn't think much. Cause again, I took the under five and a half strikeouts. I mean, done to get pedantic here, but like, and God, thank goodness pitcher wins don't mean anything. It's so stupid that Kevin Gossman can't get the win because he started the game and only went four and a third, didn't go five. So we got to give it to Mitch White, right? Yeah, get to get to Mitch White because he went three and gay and didn't give up run. That's good thing. I think when we did our season preview, we told everyone take the under on Gossman wins or at least I did. Yeah, whatever. It's stupid. It's irrelevant because like who even knows, would you like it? Who led the, the Blue Jays and wins a season ago? Was it Chris Bassett? It was Chris Bassett. Yeah. The only reason that I knew that is I, I just had a flashback to like a pointed conversation late in the season last year with Kaitlyn McGrath, where we were all surprised by that exact fact. Yeah. Who cares. What would you like better if there was a committee that was only like headed by you? Here's the thing. When a starter doesn't go five and the team leads after five, it's the score's discretion to give the win. It's not like literally is just a guy, this guy. It's discretion, but you cannot factually give it to the guy that didn't go five. You can give it to anybody else. Amazing. Let's do it as a bit then. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Just like, that's just allow us to give it to the guy that didn't go five. No issue with that. Anyways, again, it's irrelevant. It's not that important. I think him looking as good as he did. Way more important. Vlad, you mentioned it, is taking a few more pitches, takes three walks yesterday. And I guess the argument would be that a little too passive, right? That he's a little, I'd rather him err on the side of passivity. Honestly, there's some guys that I don't. Hey, do I want Kevin? No, swing it. Taking every close pitch. Like, I don't want him to deviate too much from his game plan. And what makes him valuable is the ability to get on base and get into favorable counts and yada, yada, yada. But I'd like him to use the swing to a little bit more, especially if he's going to be the guy that he's shown the second half of last year and early returns this year. Vlad, I'd be okay with him like, Oh, a couple of times a week takes a called strike three. That is a borderline pitch, but it results in a hundred walk season. Because to me, that's the missing value in this guy is during the 2021 season, took a ton of walks. This guy could easily be a 400 on base player in the middle of the lineup. And then you add the 30 home run power. Now you got something, right? It's not necessarily hitting 50 home runs. It's getting on base 40% of the time. And then add the 30 home run power. So when guys are coming up, like, we know, like, the hit tool is a thing power tool is a thing is I like on this 2080 scale, is that a thing? They call it something outside of magic. They don't play discipline. Okay, whatever it was, that was at least if not higher graded than the power and the hit tool was on Vlad. That was what made him 500 on base in the minor leagues. That's what made him special coming up. Do you know how many guys hit the ball? Like the waver? I mean, it's not a ton. It's not a million. But you can find guys that hit the ball the way he did in the minors. It was the plate discipline that he showed. So reverting back to that, to the best version of himself, if it ends up resulting in a more passive lad and yeah, he gets rung up for the odd third strike here there. My guess is that is the season gets goes on longer and longer in the tooth that those moments are going to feel bigger and bigger. And he's probably going to get the bat off his shoulder and in some of those spots. So I, well, what happens is that the other teams they have advanced skills that watch what's happening to him and they're like, Oh, this guy is like, he's not taking borderline pitches this year. Yeah, no, you have to pitch him differently. And again, like just like follow us down this, this path here, if you have to be pitched differently, you get better pitches to hit, then you could start to mash him. So yeah, I think you have to be nothing but encouraged, obviously. Yeah, you would, you know, for a guy like that, you don't, he's not going to walk his way to a, to an MVP season or to being a silver slugger, but it has to be at least part of the recipe. A couple other things quickly before we take the break here. Davis Schneider is the guy I think has the, the, the most difficult path to playing time on this team, right? Because he's right handed because they're going to defer. It feels like to Kevin Bijo, even against lefties like Kevin Bijo, they want to see if what they saw in the second half of last year. And then again, early returns this year is real at second base because the defense is kind of an unknown and left here. Well, here's what I, we know, it's not as good as Dalton Varsho, in left field that it's it. And people, it feels like not just fans, like people within that organization feel like they're waiting for him to turn into a pumpkin. If they're not saying it explicitly with their actions, like, even right out of the gates, he has the incredible series in Boston and then a couple other games after that, and he sits for a week, right? Like they, they're not all in on Davis Schneider, important for him to do what he did in his limited opportunity yesterday. It's the home run, takes a walk like looks like he's the guy that we saw for the first 10 games of his majorly career. This is not fair for me to say after a multi hit game for Isaiah Connor Filefea, but I'm already the place where it's like, let's see her and a Clement play third base like, looks the part. I know that that is not what you were coming to mean for, but that is, that is how I felt watching Clement play over the weekend. He just looks, I know him in a sound like Buck here, just looks like a ball player. But he does, man. He looks like a ball player. He has a good hit tool in terms of being able to get back to ball. And for a team that struggled so much with, and maybe this is the wrong way to look at it, but for a team that struggled so much with runners in scoring position last year, just having a guy in the lineup who will make contact, it can only benefit you. Like he's not going to have a bad bit of zero when he comes up. So I would just, you'd prefer him in that spot. He can play good defense. And not that this is some like future play, but it's like, it's a guy in your org. You need stories like that to be a part of it. One, for your own development, for you to realize that you can do this, like you cannot just go and paper over all these positions with outside acquisitions, not say don't make trades, nothing or you can't be afraid to operate in that way either, but you need to have some organizational success stories that aren't just the two and three hitter on the team any given night. Last one. Yeah. I love the player and the defense obviously plays and he didn't play in yesterday's game, but I think might have missed the potential Kevin Kirmer offensive regression conversation going into this season. Yeah, we did, because not that he was like an 800 OBS guy, but he played a lot of games and had one of the best offensive seasons of his entire career. He's like really never done what he did a season ago. Now he's like not hitting ninth anymore. He's going to be hitting up the lineup. I think he drove in the run. Yeah. I think that the possibility exists that yeah, you're not as pleased with the Kevin Kirmer offensive output as you were a season ago. But anyways, I think a perfectly fine start splitting four game series. All you're looking to do over these 10 games starting in Houston tonight and then day off on Thursday and then in the Bronx for the final three who look like absolute world beaters after sweeping away the Astros of four game series is yeah, five and five be perfectly great. Well, and just don't lose a series all year long and I bet you're laughing. You might want to win one or two on the way. I think factually, yeah, you had not all of them are four game series. So yeah, you're not losing one. Yeah, there you go. Some math works next to our only three game series. But yeah. All right. Back into the J's later on. But when we come back, I will talk to our pal, Gord Stellick, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Addis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 5.9 of the fan.
