We'll see you in the next one. >> Good morning, Ben, Josh Hader's nasty, but he throws with the left hand, so basically owning by Divish Knight. He throws with a hand because enough of this, like, left the masher, which is true. But I mean, he has reverse splits in the minor leagues, he has to play every day. Like, I don't want to. >> I don't want to do too far. I was just trying to say a nice thing about the babe. >> No, it's not. And you were like, damning with faint praise. >> Oh, he's like, throws with the left hand. >> I got to, he's allowed to hit a home run off. >> I wasn't even trying to say that. I was just saying, like, how dare Josh Hader and walk up there thinking he was gonna, that was gonna go any other way for him. >> No. >> It was a weird home run too. >> No, stop, weird game. Just did it like that, that home run, but fitting the game that I watched last night. >> Well, cuz off the bat, I was like, my God, did he crush that? And yes, turns out he did crush that, but that ballpark is so strange. And then of course, the way it hits off like the brick wall, which turns out it was the longest home run ever hit off a Josh Hader slider in his entire career, 423 feet. >> Not too, not too derail us from the chief issue of today, but again, my election platform for 2024 get rid of lines on outfield walls and just if it goes over a wall, it's a homer. I'm done with like, where on the wall did it hit? >> Like this is like a schoolyard like stick ball game or something. >> And again, not to start like far a field of the point here, but this play did involve David Schneider. How about like not have jutting out like corners of walls where it's like, hey, which side of the wall do I stand on to catch the baseball? >> What's worse that or when they had the hill? >> The hill was, yeah, the hill was, I like the hill better because listen, you hit it where the hill is like, okay, it's fine to really put the fielder out of this advantage. >> There's a flagpole on the hill? >> Yes, they sure did, it was in play on the hill. >> Yeah, no, that's the worst I'm gonna say. >> Yeah. >> I'm gonna go out of them and say the hill was the worst. >> Yeah, where David Schneider ran into some trouble in left center field, like that's just, that's a normal place in a normal ballpark where fly balls are caught. Anyway, Crawford box though, so. >> Let's start at the beginning, okay. >> I was right. I've always been right. There was a boy named babe who was born wherever David Schneider was born. That's where I thought we were going with this. >> No, I'm no longer taking crazy pills because the world is my oyster, mine and I guess to a lesser degree, David Schneider's. But yeah, I was correct here. >> He just did a thing. You were right about him doing it. >> Yeah, I guess that's true. >> For the team where you bled, you wonder how they're gonna create offense out of the top four guys and thank goodness that one of those top four guys was back on the line. I've had the first hit of the series for the Blue Jays in the game in Bulbish yet and right away. >> I had no problem with him challenging the arm of Jordyn Alvarez, who's playing left field. >> My goodness. Wouldn't adventure that must be, although not on that play. >> No. >> Made a good play. And getting him at the plate to erase what could have been go ahead run for the Blue Jays. But yeah, top four looks like that's gonna be the recipe for success. We talked about the leaf being top heavy when it comes to their four group, Blue Jays I think more so. We're back in the Alex, there's a bunch of Alex Kerfmann hitting five through nine on this Blue Jays team. So you better get Austin Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares hitting some home runs at the top of this Blue Jays lineup. If you got somebody, anybody capable of hitting a baseball over offense, that human being better playing a baseball game. Thank goodness twice he's done it. And all he's done is hit home runs in both of his starts. David Schneider, the narrative boy that it's, again, you don't wanna take too much of the temperature from Twitter, but the fan base is ready to allow all the vitriol through the dam, okay? And they had to retract some statements and it's right there, again, like if they lose the rubber game of this three game series, and again, don't score a bunch of runs, they're ready to turn on this Blue Jays team, considering the lack of offense that we had a season ago and considering the off season. So there's two guys that were watching that game, they mark Shabiro and Ross Atkins, who must have been high-fiving each other, like, okay, that was nice to win a baseball game in which we got the pitching that we expect to get this season and just an off offense. But yeah, kudos to me. I was right on David Schneider. Yeah, I mean, I like forget about that again, forget about the game, forget about what it means for the Blue Jays. What does it mean for you, Ben Ennis? And it means dislocating your shoulder, patting yourself on the back. When you look at the bottom of this lineup, even guys that like we're, I think some of us are talking ourselves into like and like an Ernie Clement, it's, we know what the bottom of this lineup is. I mean, Kevin Kiermeier is a guy down there who you were pointing out the very real possibility of regression in terms of his offense. Kind of fella, he's going to continue to get a hit that he does not deserve every single night. Seemingly is how this is going to go for him. He gets the swinging butt last night, but he's not doing any, any damage. Schneider's the only guy down there. You know, even, even a guy like Kevin Bijio, if you're going to, if you're going to throw him into the mix, he can give you a good AB. He can work a walk. He can see some pitches that can be beneficial throughout a game, but the team doesn't need a guy to see some pitches or work on AB. They need a guy that can actually run into one and he's the only guy of that group that has the power to do it. Again, like, if you think or Elvis Martinez is coming up, I don't know. Maybe he has a similar profile and he can be somebody who, who does provide you some occasional pop here or there, but of the guys that are in the mix right now, yeah, Schneider's the only guy. I mean, we can keep climbing up. It's like, who do I expect to do more damage at the plate, Dalton Varshow or Davis Schneider? It's not even close and it's not the guy that traded the best prospect for. Yeah, it's one thing to have an incredible start to your career at a three game series at Fenway Park and then, you know, have a nice 30 game sample in the major leagues of baseball and yes, rightly pointed out that it didn't quite look exactly the same for Davis Schneider in the final one, 10 days of his first season in the major leagues because yeah, unfortunately for him, he couldn't maintain the 1400 OPS only finished it over a thousand in his first foray into major league baseball, then to go in and into an entire off season where it's like, okay, well, that was a fun, that was like the one fun moment of that entire season, which the Blue Jays did win 89 games, got into the playoffs, only scored one run and losing the first two games, but that was nice and like, Davis Schneider is, okay, that'll be a nice little footnote in this era of Blue Jays baseball. I must admit, is still a possibility because two games does not a career make or 34 games now total, whatever Davis Schneider has in his career, but I'm just telling you, building the resume here, man, like how difficult must that be to have everybody, I think, almost universally, including like some really smart baseball people, right, that's why I felt like I was taking crazy pills, seeing what I saw, and we talked to Joe Sittle last week and like, he still needs to see more, he's not 100% convinced to go through an off season where you've got that discourse surrounding you, that there's a real possibility, I mean it would have been shocking to me, but like there was a non-zero possibility, especially if they wanted to hold on to Santiago Asmonall and keep the glove men have as many as possible on this team, that Davis Schneider started the season in AAA again, yeah, to go through all that and to understand that you're playing time is going to be limited, and all that you do in the two starts that you have is hit home runs, including one off the best, arguably the best reliever in the sport, a day after you've been no hit and you have no runs, and there's two outs, and it's the top of the ninth inning, and then to hit the longest home run that that reliever has ever seen hit against his best pitch, no, like, no, it's like nothing, no, like it's, it's, it just happens every day, like what are we talking about? Okay, so if I want to be clear, I'm with you, I'm like, anybody saying not to put them in is taking crazy pills, but if I'm going to, you know, try to see the light of what the doubters have been saying, how many guys are doing that with the slide, like, don't be wrong, Josh Hader, incredible reliever, the slider, a devastating pitch, not that one. No, it's a bad one, but that's so what? No, well, that's the argument, the, I think the argument that the Joe Sittles of the world would have against a Davis Schneider, and I want to, you know, we probably should stop making it his argument because he's going, don't, don't make it my argument today. He's just the most recent guy I asked, and he, he was not, he was like, like I said, yeah, and I maybe like extended my question a little too much, but I ended it with like 10 years in Major League, which is kind of like, he did slough at that, and it's very funny that, yeah, yesterday, we were celebrating 10 years in the show for first time ever. I think they can give him a silver bat. What's going on here? But I think the argument to the people who are less bullish, who wonder about the potential flaws of a Schneider would say, okay, that's great that he was able to do that with that pitch. How many times is he going to see that pitch? Now, don't, this, I actually believe I'm trying to replay the answer in my head. I think somewhere in the answer was, you can't make a career just off of hitting people's mistakes. If he's going to see mistakes like that every single at bat, and he's going to do damage with 30 somewhat percent of them, then yeah, it's an interesting career. But I think if you're somebody who wants to poke holes, that's what you would do. You would point to that pitch last night and say, that wasn't, take the name off of, take the name plate off of Josh Hader, that wasn't a Josh Hader slider, that was Reliever X. Now again, it doesn't work that way. I'm mostly with you. And the other thing that has to be said about all this is, who's he competing with? They didn't go out and get second baseman X or, you know, left field or X. They already have Ernie Clement and I's in a wonderful effort in the game at the same time, like every day now, like I guess, those guys have to play because I got no other options. So I think that's where there's no room for any other side of the opinion in this discourse is if there was, if they went out this off season and said, okay, yeah, we like what we saw to Davis Schneider, but I'm not buying it. I'm going to go get somebody with more of a track record. Then I think that would be a fair argument to have and we could have that discussion. But guess what? The guy with the track record that went off and get is went off and got his IKF. And he's swinging a wet noodle up there. And Davis Schneider's not doing that. So it's a moot point. Like I'm with you. I just think, I think we're going to sit here and have the Davis Schneider, you're so right, Fest, which we're going to have. No, and we're correct to do it. And that's all anybody wants to hear. Is it? Got to throw in there that that slider was the most hanging mistake. I defer to Joe Sittle on all things. I was just going to say hitting major like, yeah, all things baseball. It would be great to thread that needle. It's like, I don't know, catching stuff. Maybe you got him. No, probably not. No, no, no, Joe Sittle is the man. And again, I don't know. It's just the most recent example. He's not the only one. No, no, you're right. You're right. It's everybody, I think. Blue J's opineers. You're not wrong. Yeah. Can't make a career out of hitting mistakes. Maybe. I mean, maybe you can't be an MVP candidate. You certainly can. I certainly would like to run back the tape of Vladimir Guerrero, Jr's 2023. And how many pitches that were mistakes? Totally. Middle middle. Yes. That didn't depart the ballpark. Hey, we just watched Isaiah Kiner-Folefa throw a scoreless half inning. We did. Okay. Just because a pitch is middle middle, and it's not his best pitch of his entire career, those don't always go over the fence. No, again, you could actually never happen for Josh Hader in that one. No kidding. You think it's the only hanging sliders ever thrown his entire career? I will argue that is in the upper like the 3 percentile of hanging sliders. Josh Hader's throwing in his life, I will say. I told my kid, I got my kids the show for PlayStation 5, and I started playing it again. And it got the games take too long to play, but it is so fun. But yeah, that's one of those pitches where it's like, oh, you don't swing or like you're off balance. And you're like, oh, you like throw the controller a little bit, or you get, I do at least. I'm excited into you. Yeah, that was middle middle. You can do a lot worse as an offensive player than taking borderline pitches. And yeah, maybe striking out a few extra times because you get yourself, hey, pitcher makes pitchers pitches and you don't get a mistake. You're battling and you got holes in your swing. You can do a lot worse if that's your game plan, forcing a pitcher into a mistake. And when you get it, depositing it, it's hard because my nose is stuffed up. But and depositing that over the fence. By the way, also, whatever, yeah, sorry, like somebody made me sick. No, no, there's no pass that this is how it works. You can't be blaming anyone before you. It's all your fault. Anyways, you could do a lot worse than what Davis Schneider has done throughout the course of his very brief major league career, but throughout the entirety of his minor league career. And maybe this is the wrong like tenor to start the show with because this should be a show where it's like joyous, what an incredible victory that we might look back at that as being the best win of the season for the Blue Jays. Like that's not out of the realm of possibility. It's just like again, the Davis Schneider discourse for me made me feel like a crazy person. And I just I feel vindicated in these two starts and and clearly everybody, at least for the time being, has to be on my side. Like today, at least, can we all just shake hands and agree with me today? What is my favorite part about this is I often will see an athlete like they'll accomplish something. And the first thing they say after this is not like look how great I am or I accomplished. It's like the haters and doubters of which there were many. You eat this. I was like, I will worry about my own accomplishments in a second. But first things first, know that you accomplished nothing because you were wrong and you're taking the exact same tactic. I just love you for it. I just I just want to get that on record. One other thing on Davis Schneider for me, this is also my favorite day. One of my favorite things going in sports is professional athletes whose literal job is to just think about and do this stuff all day long, not knowing the rules of the sport they play. He was getting interviewed after the game and he's like, I don't even know we could do that still bringing five infielders in. Oh, yeah. Come on. Yeah. No, I know they did change the shift. I know. And I K F is just like come over here. Can you play? He's like, I'm going to stay right here. He's like, no, that's what the picture is. Yeah, it's not great. It was just it was all very funny. He's getting gloves switched off in the middle of it. It's right before he goes yard. And yeah, just an adventure of a ball game in general, but he was at the crux of it. You already mentioned his little adventure dancing around the corner or whatever was going on around the Crawford box and Altuve a weird night for him. Yeah. So the two separate plays, I will say upon sober second thought with the Altuve a place. So the first one's going to be the third out of the inning. I don't know why we're making a huge deal about him getting hit by the ball. There would have been an error. The idea I have to imagine trying to get inside Jose Altuve's head when he's not attaching alerting devices to him. Yeah, it's what you mean. Devices that alert him to the nature of the pitch that's coming his way or he got a tattoo. Really bad, which we haven't seen yet. So like, yeah, it must be so bad that no one can ever ever see it. Anyways, so what I have to assume he was trying to do is yeah, like distract the feeler third base and get in his way and do whatever he can to create something out of what is probably nothing. So that I put in a separate box. The other one, you're already up one nothing. You're trying to, we just saw and like, it was so bizarre. I don't blame the broadcast for this, but it's like, yeah, where he saw second base taken on Alejandro Kirk, because he's, I guess, not paying attention. So the idea that he would try and literally if Alejandro Kirk throws that ball back to the pitcher, well, that too is trying to steal home there. 100%. With two outs, it's not the worst play in the world. But yeah, it stands out in a game you lose two to one. He also hit the home run the accounted for the only run of the ball game for the Astros. But yeah, the play is, it's not the result you want if you're Jose Altuve, but I actually kind of didn't hate the process. No, I don't think there's an issue with it at all, especially when Jan like Siddle did a great job in the in the post game, like kind of expanding on that point of Kirk. There clearly being a book on him just not paying attention. Now again, I think if you're also going to like mention that there's a book on Kirk not paying attention, I should probably give him credit for throwing out Jose Altuve at third, like that he was that part has to be mentioned of it. But there's not really a parallel in other sports of because Jose Altuve is not doing that. If he is the eighth guy in the lineup, who is not like an amazing base runner, right? Like you only get the license to do that because you're Jose Altuve. And I just can't think of a parallel in another sport where a guy, I mean, it's kind of, it's like a little Neil, William Neelander like dipsy doodling at the blue line. You go, well, he's allowed to do that. It's Willie. And sometimes it goes back the other way, but it's just such an odd play where you see a guy. It's like, yeah, he's just screwing around out there like with a purpose. But to a certain extent, he is just screwing around out there. And it's God, it's the, it's the only sport where you'll see stuff in Little League. And it's not the exact same, but it's like you'll still see it. The major leagues, it really does continue. Like we're not doing it in ball tricks, but stuff like that does make its way. You know what else I was thinking about? And when it comes to the Astros in that game is that, yeah, I always forget when we talked to Frank Saravelli about baseball that like, there's people on the other side of the fence of the 93 World Series. It's like, oh yeah, there were Philly fans who were like, oh, that is devastating. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. The Astros have five losses. They've blown leads in all five, like all four of the Yankee games. And then of course, like none worse than that game. Yeah, imagine. And so we're not feeling bad for Astros fans today. I would never. Yeah, you can't, you can't do that clearly with the run of success. And yeah, everything that encompasses being an Astros fan over the last 10 years, but my goodness, it's gonna be tough to watch today's game. If you're an Astros fan, if you're not like covering your eyes and like looking through your fingers, that's, that's tough to be one in five, all five losses being bullpen implosions. And one of the guys responsible for it, it should be said not the only time he's given up run this season. Josh Hader signed massive, massive deal, man, in the offseason. Yeah, that's, that'd be jarring. The hater of it all. Like, you lose ball games early in season. How many times the good teams look back and you go, okay, that's what it was. We would start to the year. The hater thing is super concerning. And I don't know, the Astros, they just like, they have this feel of like a crumbling empire or something. It's like, the infrastructure is not so good. All of a sudden, I'll two days a little lesser version of self careful. This sounds like no, no, I know. This is the raised thing. Yeah, but they're they're over there in the West. So it's like way less, way less consequences to just just just stalking it into existence there. A couple of other things from last night. The you tweeted this and I agree with it. You know, Boboshette rush to throw is a tough play. Well, he is allowed like they was a nice, it's a nice big glove. They give you it first. Yeah, you're allowed to scoop it. You don't, you don't have to not pick the ball when you have an opportunity for boat to even get the ball. And to get it anywhere near first base and like the idea that you almost intentionally bounce that ball instead of throwing it over the first baseman's head, like the one from earlier in the season, one of the games in the race series, I don't recall obviously because Bo didn't play game one of the Astros series. That one was intentionally bounced towards Vlad. And yeah, I think the discourse around Vlad being like this tremendous gold glove defender at first base, I would like to think is behind us now. He makes wild plays, but they have some like that too. He has a great arm. I would say he has a great arm too, right? Well, and he I think the other thing that like leads into the discourse of that is he has like its first base. What are we talking about here? And I and he doesn't show it in this one facet when it comes to like holding the bag and picking balls. But I do feel like he has pretty good range. And I think for a guy who we spent the first what seven years of his career just talking about his weight and his health and his ability to move, I think that there is something that bleeds into that that he does make some range plays where he's going in a foul territory. And again, this isn't to say like he is this gold glove defender like you're talking about, but I think it goes into perception as well that people think of him as one thing. And then they see a different thing and they go, wow, look at this. I think there's an element to that. Yeah, he won a gold glove because he had really good offensive season coming off the second in the MVP voting season. He was a known commodity and we're like, oh, I made some plays. Yeah. So we want to go glove. I'm telling you like first base, unless you're Don Mattingly, it's not likely to matter, although it's mattered on two plays and Vlad hasn't made those sideburns, those two plays. So mentioned it yesterday, Blue Jays hadn't had a leverage moment out of the ball, but I had many of them yesterday. Boy, did they and boy, did they come through in spades, right? The Houdini act in the seventh, Yimi Garcia, putting on a show there, getting out of a runners on the corners, no out jam. Tim Mayser not having his best stuff was rightly pointed out by Dan Schulman, throwing nothing but sliders, but getting the job done enough and then Chad Green putting himself in tough situations to get his first save opportunity in that type of a game where it's like, that's not a normal save, right? All the positive things and all the positive feelings Blue Jays fans have today after the Davis Schneider to run home run off Josh Hader just for like Davis Schneider's sake. Chad Green had to lock that down and to look and to look as good as he did and battling back. And yeah, I took advantage of a guy falling down trying to steal a second base. Yadda yadda yadda. No, that was like, that did again for a guy who is going to take a couple of victory laps today. The perception I had of this bullpen despite losing its closer and set up, man, that there's enough arms there to get the job done. Small sample here and the Astros are off to a rough stuff start offensively. Alex Bragman looks like he has no idea what's going on. But yeah, that that played through in spades yesterday, even without Janis Escobar who had a suspension walk down to two games. Could you just hold the door for me in victory lap central station that you're walking into there? Chad Green was my ex-factor season. So I feel pretty good about that. I was what was it? The first batter that he goes down 302 and then that was the play where there's the error or the no scoop, whatever you want to call it. But yeah, just to be able to battle back in that spot to put yourself in bad positions. And I think the, I think the, again, it's like Schneider obviously would love it to be super obvious. But this is also a good scenario as well as that. I don't think he learned anything about his pen. He's like, all right, I put three guys in tough spots and Tim Masa wasn't in his best. I'm not going to, I'm not going to hold that against him too much that I don't know that he feels one lick differently about those three guys today than he did going into it. And I think that that was always going to be the interesting part of doing this without the set up band and the closer was what was going to be the packing order that kind of shook out from it. And what would that mean once those guys come back? Yeah, as good as the pitchers were rewarded for that performance. That would have been a rough loss coming off being no hit for Jose burials. Again, without his best stuff either to gut it out, get into the seventh inning and to suffer a one nothing defeat would have been rough. Dave Schneider saving the day. Last thing for me, it didn't end up mattering. But I do think, I don't think we're going to look back at this season and say, wow, look at all the runs the Blue Jays scored. They scored so many runs. Probably not. What a slugging team that was in 2024, unless everybody becomes David Schneider, but Justin Turner. Yeah. And Justin Turner is off to a great start too. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what else to say about that. But yeah, Justin Turner, victory laps for either of us. No, no, no, good kudos to you, Justin Turner. Good first impression as a member of the Blue Jays. But yeah, I think this team is going to have to grind it out to score runs, especially with all the Alex Kerr foots at the bottom of the order. Yep. How about like a stolen base attempt? Like, how about like a hidden run? Like, how about something? Like there were multiple opportunities yesterday and Buck rightly called it out. I was like, yeah, I put the runner in motion here. Stay out of the double play. Those guys, I mean, say what you will and I have about big urn and IKF. Yeah. And their limited offensive versatility or ability. Yeah. They generally can put the bat on the ball. Like, let's see some hidden run and Ernie Clement, especially with him. Yeah. The sprint speed is apparently elite. We haven't seen enough of him at the major league level to say this. Like, steal a base. Like, let's, let's get something going on the base pass here. They have no stolen base attempts here as we now played five games this season. Yeah. And I can understand the spot early on in the season. You don't want to get yourself, you know, running into out. You want to see if your offense can kind of do its own damage. But I think we're, I think we're seeing what's what's happening there. That's not exactly a you don't need to be protecting anybody's bat there by, by not running. I think I'm holy with you. I'd like to see them get a little more creative there. And it's just a matter of challenging guys to do different things. You put the pitcher in a more precarious spot. You get better pitches to hit. Say vicious, vicious cycle. So yeah, I would, I'd like to see it as well. And I wonder, I do wonder though, it's like, if we're going to talk about that and that not having happened yet. How much of that is a John Schneider? How much of that is a overall team philosophy? I don't know. Like, over the course of a hundred and sixty school game regular season. My goodness. I don't think the micromanaging happens. I don't think, I don't think it's like a pitchcom in Schneider's hat that's like hit and run. Like, like we heard with, with Kiki Hernandez and the Dodgers gave me the clearest pitchcom. But I don't think it's something along those lines. But I do think it's a, like, those are things you talk about heading into the season of how much we want to hit and run. How much do we want to steal bases? And the fact that you've seen literally none of it yet? I don't know. That, that feels to me like, or I shouldn't say none, but such such that it's been so sparse. I don't know. I do wonder if that's more of a team. No stolen base attempts. So then it's a, then why are we thinking it wouldn't be some overarching team philosophy? Yeah. I mean, Ernie Clement can run. This is what I'm told. Yeah. But running and stealing bases are different things. I, I guess, yeah, because, yeah, I can run. DVD. Who wasn't in the ninth inning? I can run, but it's a, anyone can run. It's about staying up, right? And not falling flat on your face. Also, I'm going to say to some, but like, you know, baseball stuff like jump. No, no, no, I mean, just balance as well. So yeah, well, balance is part of it. Don't fall down. All right, Blue Jays and Astros, rubber match tonight, eight, 10, Chris Bassett, Christian Javier, Blue Jays Central, seven, 30 on Sportsnet, one Blue Jays talk after the game on Sportsnet five, nine to the fan. When we come back, Leafs lightning tonight, and the Panthers, they want to give away second in the Atlantic. I mean, that's one thing to lose to a Leaf team. It's pretty good. It's got taken to the woodshed by the Montreal Canadiens and Paul Maurice, some interesting post game comments. We'll talk about that in more next. The fan morning show continues, Ben Addis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet five, nine to the fan. Hey, it's Aylish for a fire. And I'm Justin Cunford. 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 Sportsnet, Sportsnet five, nine to the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Uh, fan morning show sports at five, nine to the fan, Ben Addis, Brent Gunning, that, of course, all Maurice. As his Florida Panthers follow up, there's six four loss in regulation to the Maple Leafs on Monday. The next night in Montreal, five, three regulation loss to the Montreal Canadiens, they have lost eight of their last 10, 271. They, uh, and I'm doing so well right now. And all of a sudden, the Leafs only four points back and now have two games in hand. Now they don't have the tiebreaker regulation over time wins on the Florida Panthers. So you can't say they control their own destiny, but you can because they have one more game remaining between these two teams. Um, yeah, they're not playing right now. And just like the Leafs, it's all about the postseason for the Panthers. But yeah, does, okay, as much as he's trying to, like, tamp it down. Yeah, I do, I do find it interesting that that tactic of saying the Aaron Rogers, Hey, R-E-L-A-X relax. Yeah, it's, it's not nothing that he feels the need to say that. I also think it's not nothing that that comes after questions in a real hockey market. Like, they're in Montreal. So if they don't, you think the Montreal reporters have anything to tease out of that game from Montreal's perspective, it's like, Oh, awesome. The carcass of the cats is rolling through town. Can't wait to pick at it. I do think there's some element of that. It's like, Oh, wow, it's really loud up here about how, how much we stink. And then we're going to go home and no one's going to say boo about it to us. Because we're the Florida Panthers. I think there is some element to that. I just love playing Jersey swap. And like, if you just put the Leafs, just give the Leafs this stretch. The, the, we'd be talking coaching change. There'd be nothing off the table if the Leafs had a two seven in one slide at this point in time with such little runway before the playoffs. It's remarkable. And like, I think the right answer to this is somewhere in the middle, obviously, but man, it's jarring how much this Panthers team has just hit the, hit the skids here. Yeah. And Paul Murray's knows what it's like to coach the Maple Leafs. Right. So like on it. Yeah. It is true though. Right. Like, what would the messaging be? I mean, I guess you, Sheldon, he would try to tamp down the, he won the cry from the market. He wouldn't be going full towards to be going the opposite. Yeah. I don't know. It just, something about it. And, and something about Paul Murray's in particular. Yeah. It's just, it, it's grating. I'm growling. All the, all the descriptors of his team he gave at the beginning of that answer. That's me every time I hear him speaking. And I know he's not, yeah, he's, he's just talking about his team. He's not comparing it to the Maple Leafs, but yeah, there's another answer there. He's talking about, oh, you know, guys are sick and it's all late. Now I know what they're going through. It's like, okay, Leafs have been without their number one defensemen with their second best forward, arguably, for forever. And one of their great utility players in Cali Yarn, we don't even talk about like his potential return, like, which is seem, I don't know, close. Their biggest deadline acquisition, which I mean, is grating on a scale. I'm not huge, but Joel Edmondson also like gone forever. Yeah. Well, John Klingberg, dead. He who was signed at the beginning. I mean, that counts for, for something, right? You, you look at it, the leaf and I'll just read you the Panthers injury report, because the way he was talking about it, you'd expect there to be 37 guys on it. Yeah. Aaron Eckblad, day to day, as you've said, that's the Tom Brady shoulder injury of NHL injury reports. It's like, obviously Aaron Eckblad is day to day, obviously. And Verhaggy and Kajak both missed last night's game. It's like, okay, you're missing a center in where? Leafs have certainly been in that spot before. And it's like, is Math Kajak the most important player on that team? Yes. Austin Matthews has missed tons of time for this team at various points of time and Marner's been out. And as you let you know, injuries happen, these things happen, you have to find a way. So yeah, he's not saying that you don't, but it's just, I can't, I can't help. But yeah. Oh my God. If Shelton tries and compare, guys are hurting. What do you want us to do? We're two seventy one. Yeah, that is what we would say. We would all, we would all be Al Davis just win, baby. I mean, penguins are just winning right now too. Do you see like multiple come back yesterday and third in the third period. I mean, the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff race is such that despite there being two teams ahead of them that are not in the post season picture looking in that you can't discount. And despite the fact they only have seven games remaining and find themselves three points back of a capital team that has a game in hand. But the capital, the capital's road is death. I forget exactly what it is, but it's just every night, tough road to, but they've beaten some good teams recently. This is a Sidney Crosby tour de force. He's just putting the team on his back. They tried away his favorite live made in Jake Gunsell. He has barely missed a beat. If at all, he's already, I think he joined like Wainer is the only guy to have 19 straight point per game seasons with what he accomplished the other day. It's just remarkable seeing him do this. I do ultimately think they're going to end up end up coming short of this. But if there's a God in this world, yeah, that's the thing. It's like I have no dog in this fight at the bottom of the Eastern Conference except for that team. Like if it happened, even with, and well, you're a Kyle Dubas defender, but this has nothing to do with him. This is all about said, like, yeah, okay, Kyle do. Oh, yeah, we're going to, because we're going to give Kyle Dubas so much credit for that team sneaking into the playoffs. Like, what do I care about that perspective of it? I wasn't even going there because I just don't think it's going to happen. I just think there is such little runway. There's so much math that works against them. 20% shot is what the nerds say they have. Okay. Well, I don't know what the nerds say about this, but if there's a God, Gary Betman, you miss your opportunity to rigolodry and car McDavid home. If you King, but Queen Sydney Crosby with the first overall pick and have that be the thing that like extends this, this machine along, I certainly would love to see it. Obviously, I'd love to see him just get in. I just don't think there's enough math there. Well, okay. So a huge matchup coming up tomorrow in Washington against the caps at Tampa, Toronto, huge matchup at home against the Red Wings. They got Boston Nashville Islanders. Yeah, tell me where did the automatic two points come for the penguin? Now good news for them, though, like in the instance of Washington and, yeah, Detroit is ahead of them, but not in a playoff spot and the Islanders too. Those are teams that they are competing with for a playoff conference, all right in front of them. If they go win, you know, eight of their last 10 games or whatever the nine or six of their last eight or whatever the number is, then they can do it. It's just that's just, that's such a tough ask at any time of year, let alone this one when every team you're playing is fighting for it. You thought this would be like a footnote in Sydney Crosby's career. If he goes on an insane heater, I mean, again, two goals yesterday, but he's the reason why the season is salvaged. And yeah, they put up a fight, maybe win around. Who knows? Like, here's the thing. I feel pretty comfortable with the Rangers or the Bruins or the Panthers against the Capitals or the Flyers. I don't know. Give me like Sydney Crosby in a two week series. It's amazing how much that changes the math, especially when, yeah, it's when you're looking at no offense to Travis Connectney and Morgan Frost. No kidding. It's a little different if it's if it is said waiting there. And again, like, I just think unless you're a fan of any team that he's directly competing against who in the who in their right mind just not want to see that. No one. No one. So imagine it leaves lightning tonight on Wednesday night hockey, let's go back Wednesday night hockey on sports net leaves the lightning. We will see Morgan Riley. It seems like tonight, but no much smarter despite the fact that he's eligible to return. They didn't like canceled the practice yesterday. I've been doing that a lot. Yeah, because so many guys are sick and there's just no way they could ever carry on. But I think Mitch Marner needs a practice is what I was told to get into a hockey game. So I guess Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens would be the next possible game that he could play. That's that means 12 straight games for Mitch Marner. It's nuts. What do you take out of that? Like, is that just the player having a setback or is like, do we have to not trust this organization with the injury information that we get from them? I think that it was always an injury that had a pretty wide breath of of healing time. Like, I think there are some guys if you're Wolverine, you're back from that in three weeks. And I think there are other guys who, if it just takes longer, then you're going to see a drag on to the extent it has. I also think it's something of of the market. Like, again, I think if this is, you know, pick on the Panthers again, if it's the if it's Mitch Marner having this ankle injury for the Panthers, I think they just go, yeah, maybe it's four weeks. Maybe it's eight. I don't know. We'll we'll see. And everyone goes, okay, that's that. But here, I think they try to keep noise at a minimum. This was trying to remember this was post deadline. So it wasn't complicating anything regarding that. But I do think it still think there's an element of not wanting to, you know, allow panic around the team or panics too strong a term, but allow it to be a storyline. I do think there's an element to that. I think it was mostly that it was a very up in the air could be four weeks, could be a injury. I think there's some element to that. And then I think there's also the organization does just have a secretive bent to it in terms of injuries. Okay, I don't understand like the competitive advantage you get from that. You don't. I just I don't. And more people can prod around the more. Well, this time this time is different than when the Marner injury first occurred as well. Like, I think Morgan rather than not giving a concrete answer to like, why are you out? Why aren't you playing what's hurting? That's very different with what three weeks until the start of the playoffs than than when we're talking a month ago when this Marner injury first crept up. Well, and we do know it's a high ankle spray. Yeah, I although I don't know if that's been explicitly said, but no one is also explicitly denied the thing we keep calling it. And I don't just mean like you and I everybody. So no marner tonight, probably Morgan Riley. I would imagine Joseph Wall tonight as well. I have no clue. I was listening to so much like conversation about this. And every time a person opened their mouth to say so definitively who they thought the starter was I was floored because it felt like a pretty 50 50 split. You and I did the show yesterday and we said either I or at least if I remember correctly, I thought it should be Samson off. But I feel like a lot of people are thinking it should go to to wall here. I think that this is a very you can make no right, but also no wrong decision with the with who starts in net tonight garage. Yeah, tonight given the way the two guys have played. Yeah, if it is wall, be interesting to see how he responds to being the decided underdog, right? Like to start the season, he was the backup. But pretty clearly first two games from Samson. I was like, Oh, yeah, please, please. Okay, the other guys playing well now, how do you like we always talk about, hey, how does Samson off respond to the challenge and like the competition that exists in goal and not generally, it hasn't gone so well for him. And it did take Joe wall going down and it's like, Oh, Martin Jones is the guy I got a I got a surpass and beat to reclaim the number one job. And he did that. But yeah, what does it look like for Joe wall when he is the decided backup and the other guys playing well enough to deserve the number one job? Yeah, that's a that's honestly a position he hasn't really found himself in. And I think that it's something that you want to see how he handles because if you're a believer in Joe wall, yes, a lot of it is just blindly listening to what, you know, all of the goaltending experts tell us and believe in that. But there is also an element that no moment is too big. He doesn't get too over swept by it. The emotion doesn't work his way into the game. And if you're a believer of that, then you should be able to answer the bell, presuming he he gets it tonight. The thing with Tampa as well is like, can we preset the stakes for the referendum that this loss or win will be on this game? Like we're doing the thing with the Panthers there where they lose to the Canadians and okay, they have a few guys out, but you still point to that as like, that's a pretty damning loss when your team's been fighting it. What are the stakes of this game? Like how much is it play here? If Tampa takes a leaf to the woodshed, are we feeling or I guess I'm asking myself the question, but it's like, does that make me feel differently about these two teams than I did heading into it? Like it's just been so long since the two teams have seen one another. The version of Tampa that we've been talking about all year long and the version that it's arriving at our doorstep right now could not be more polar opposite teams. There are eight one and one in their last 10. Like what are the stakes of this thing tonight? Yeah, still. I mean, if we're going to talk about the Leafs finishing as high as I guess first in the Atlantic, you can't discount it. They have two games in hand on the Bruins. We have to talk about the possibility of them falling into a wildcard spot. Not out of the playoffs entirely. That's impossible. And it truly is impossible. At least with that B.A. Team Miller going off the cliff stuff. Yeah, that would be literally no points seemingly in the remaining eight games for the main beliefs. But yeah, the the lightning are only six points back in the Leafs. Nobody with it with games in hand. Leafs have taken the first two games of the series, but if you will recall, those two games were Ilya Samsonoff, Evomiting all over himself. Yes. And then Joseph Wall picking up the pieces. I do. And the Leafs coming back in incredible fashion twice. Now I will say also in those games, the last one early November. Here are some of the guys that were patrolling the blue line in that game. Would you like to hear the names? I'd love to. I can't wait. You mentioned them early. One John Klingberg played in that game. Feels 100 years ago. William Lagerson, my boy. And Marc Giordano. That was 50% of the blue line and G.O.'s back in there. But yeah, yeah, two of those three. Yeah, it's not not factors. Let's see many more. Yeah, even the third guy is like not one of the six. No, he's not. He's in there though. He's in the mix. I mean, so outside of just like the roster, how different is this Leafs team than the one that saw the lightning two times already this season? Yeah, it's a very different group. But I think conversely, the lightning are a different team not in terms of the actual roster makeup of the group, but just they've found their footing. I think the thing we always felt about this lightning team was that if anybody had proven they had the track record to kind of sleep walk through a season and find it as they went along, it was this group and lo and behold, they're doing that exact thing. So you're right to point out, hey, look at all the guys who were playing for the Leafs. I mean, we can do that from three days ago when Connor Timmons is on P.P.1 for this team. So there is definitely an element to that. But the lightning are not the lightning from that November game either. It's not the only guy who is is Nikita Kuchrov. He's been Nikita Kuchrov all year long, but everybody else from the lightning seems to be back finding their form. I mean, obviously, I'd imagine a circuit chip would have played in that game. He's out now, but yeah, this is a all of a sudden lightning or all the way won't go as far as all the way scary once again, but they're pretty much back to, I don't know what we thought of as kind of like beak of their powers lightning in terms of this, just because the run they've gone on. How can you not look at them that way? Yeah, no Andre Vasaleski in either of those games either. Seems like that. Seems significant. I would say the number one difference for me for if we're going to contrast and compare two Leafs teams, the ones that play the lightning twice and this one is it's not it's not the blue line necessarily because it's like different dudes, but it's the same idea. It's like, hey, do enough, but not exactly over a while. I'm on paper. It's the feeling and the production around the two off season acquisitions in Max Domie and Tyler Bertuzzi. Like that was the heart of the what are we doing here, Brad? I think John Klimberg's playing in these hockey games and those were the guys who went out and got Tyler Bertuzzi looks incompetent and the head coach, not exactly like with a glowing review of him, Max Domie? This is your guy? The guy that is obviously like pretty well a one way player can play up the middle, but you're not happy about a defensive zone draw. And yeah, the feeling is very different. Now both of those guys are also playing with the potential 70 goalman right now. Certainly helps. But yeah, those were those were different days for those guys in the market. Boy, boy were they? Yeah, like night and night and day for both of them. I mean, yeah, some of it and some of it is that yeah, they've found their footing alongside Matthews, but they found it long before they got stapled next to him. I mean, when Marner was there was the two, it was the two of them playing with Tavares at points and times. The other thing that I think will be interesting kind of discourse wise coming out of this game is and again, I think so much of it has been what Bertuzzi and Domie have done that's quieted this down. But I had a lot of people or I was sharing a lot of text around deadline time far be it for me saying like the Leafs must go out and get Anthony Duclair. But he felt like a classic great lightning ad guess what he's been exactly that he's playing on the first line with point and gooch off right now. And then Dumba is another one of these sliding doors doors guys, right? Because at the beginning of the off season, there was some belief that him in the Leafs mutual interest and then couldn't find a number. He ends up in Zona ultimately gets flipped to the lightning now. And those are kind of two guys that I think just from a narrative perspective, there's no way they don't factor it in a big, big way tonight. And again, I don't think anybody's going to be having that conversation of, oh, how could reliving have missed out? Because I think people like Ebenson to fight to despite the fact that he's hurt right now. And even a guy like doer. I think they like the the acquisition that he's been there as well. But yeah, I think that's going to be a talking point one way or another coming out of tonight as well. Did the Leafs own the lightning? I mean, they're the lightning are like, I mean, if you're going to look at the other 28 franchises and who they're laughing at, it's like you lost a postseason series to that team. The only one they've won in the last 20 years, and then you blew leads in the first two regular season games and granted different teams, both of them and no Andre Vasilevsky, but the Leafs own the lightning. This is a bad way for somebody whose job it is to talk into a mic to operate. But you couldn't pay me my yearly salary in cash right now to say that on the eve of a lease lightning game. There's no way that if I sorry, the day of right, yeah, I wouldn't say it last night either, just for the record there. There's no way you could like you would have to and boy, we'd be having a conversation with HR if this happened, you would have to go full ventriloquist dummy to get me to say that right before the least played the lightning. You don't like that. Now you're taking media just for that visual. Yeah, that's rough. What if I said it? You can do whatever you want. You're not going to come over the desk. No, I just hold you. I just I just like, I just want you to be clear that the Leafs will be held zero percent accountable for whatever happens should those words escape your mouth right now. Listen, Leafs have regular season magic. Yeah, agree. They also handshake. They also own the lightning. Oh my God. Hey, you're so much. Everything that happens just for the record. Oh, when we come back back into David Schneider and how mad I'm going to be if he doesn't play tonight against a righty and also Joey Votto tweeted about watching the broadcast and then deleted it. What's happening there? And okay, speaking of this lightning game, are they the Leafs biggest rival? Hey, I honestly, I don't think so. All right, that more next the fan morning show continues. Ben Dennis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590 the fan.
