(upbeat music) - Fan Morning Show Sports at 5.9 in the fan band, and it's Brett Gunning, and this segment of the Fan Morning Show is brought to you by Hyundai. Okay, two things are likely to happen. Sorry, only one thing is likely to happen. The other thing might happen. Here's what's gonna happen. Somebody's gonna have a hundred assists this season. I would think. Boy, the Oilers think or they better be praying that it definitely happens, because Conor McDavid is one assists away. He's at 99 assists, 130 points, but stay-to-day with lower body injury, no big deal. It's the end of the season. They've already clinched a playoff spot, which, yeah. - I defer to them, but this is a guy that's been in and out of the lineup all season long. Also, yeah, we need to be reminded. He's only played 74 games this season, right? Kuchrov's played 77, Nathan McKinnon's played 79. Kuchrov also had 96 assists, 139 points. And then the other thing that, you know, I didn't think was possible a couple of weeks ago, a month ago, felt like it was fine to score low 60s for the second time in his career. - The shame, yeah. - But 70 goals. It's not just back on a radar. I think it's at least 50-50 the way Austin Matthews is going needing just four in the final four games to crack that barrier. All right, Brent, everybody's had their say. I don't know, yesterday kind of felt like the day where everybody did it. I don't know why that was. What's more impressive, 100 assists or 70 goals? - I was about to do like the Hermit, where'd you play to win the game? So just like have that in mind with this. - You play to score the goals. You put the block in the net, you do that more times than the other team does it. It's more impressive now. Suppose you can make the argument if you're going to take the other side, which I'm not. But if you're going to make the argument, I think you would say that 100 assists is more dependent on teammates. And when you're a guy like McDavid, it's not you depending on someone better than you. It's almost you, always you depending on someone who's worse than you because you're Conor McDavid. But with Matthews, I just think you throw in the other stuff of how sound to way he is. But even if you remove that, the 70 goals, we've never seen it or I've never seen it. I've never been able to dream it. I suppose you could make pretty similar arguments for 100 assists, but the goal scoring is the point of the game, it's 70 goals. - Yeah, I don't think there's any debate. Now, I mean, the area that you can use numbers to have that debate is there's fewer players that have ever done the 100 assists thing than have scored 70 goals. But any time that secondary assists are part of your thing, and it's like not all secondary assists are created equal. Right? Sometimes what in the NBA, they call the hockey, like sometimes that is part that creates a whole goal. Sometimes it doesn't like your stick touch to puck that was dumped in that eventually gets you. All right, like it's, you know how many Conor McDavid has? - I don't, actually. - 38. And that again, to take away from Conor McDavid, but any time that you're using a thing, like secondary assists to build your statistical argument, it's tough for me. And yeah, like are not all goals created equal, I guess. But like-- - Not his. - Yeah, I, when you're the person who's stick touches the puck last and then it ends up in the back, then I just, there's to me, a huge difference. And we did this with the Mitch Marner thing, right? Like we, Mitch Marner, great player, great, great player. This team missed him a lot when he was out with an injury. But a hundred points and scoring 30 goals, different than scoring 60 plus, being an offensive universe all into yourself also. I mean, if we're just going with what we have to deal with this season, again, we're going to have two, we're going to have two 100 assists players in the NHL this season, because Kucharov is going to get there. - Yep. - It seems pretty clear. Awesome Matthews. - You don't think Reinhardt's catching them, eh? - Is going to blow the competition out of the water when it comes to the rocket race. And the only guy that's within, it's not even within shouting distance. The second place finisher is going to have a career high shooting percentage and like half his goals scored on the main advantage, which is like not to denigrate power play goals, because it'd be neat if Austin Matthews had an extra 10 on the power play, because it would mean the least power play was a lot better. But watch the games. Look at this season. There's nobody on his planet when it comes to goal scoring this season. - No, it's not even remotely close. I love the secondary assist or the second assist that you bring up and you're right to your point. But Conor McDavid, I could be wrong. I don't think he's getting a lot of quick little bank pass out of his own zone and somebody else does something and then dries out of his pass and gets somebody else second assist. That's not really Conor McDavid's thing. He gets, but what do we think of when we think of McDavid? We think of the flying through zone and leaving it right there for Zach Hyman or you know, seeing I pass the, you know, as a tap in for a van der Kain or whatever it is. With Matthews, the other thing that I think has to go into the equation with this and you know, I'm not going to pretend to say I've followed the Oilers lines day in and day out, but he's done so much of this without Mitch Marner. The guy that everybody would have said, well, this is at least part and parcel of the reason why he's able to get to these heights. And I'm not going to take credit away from the guys Matthews has played with. Domi, Bertuzzi, Marner, when has he been there, have been massive reasons for the success he's had. But you don't have to apologize for having good teammates. Conor McDavid certainly doesn't have to, but I think that part of it has to go into the equation as well. That Matthews has done it without the guy we all think of as his primary set up man in what will go down. Well, I mean, I shouldn't put a cap on him. Who knows what next year holds, but will likely go down? Is the greatest goal scoring career of his career? - Okay. And he's the greatest goal scorer I think of this generation. Now he's like surpassed in a single season what the guy who could end up with the most counting stats, most goals ever in the history of the sport and played Alex Ovechkin played in a different era than Wayne Gretzky. So we had to count the goals differently than Wayne Gretzky and Austin Matthews playing in a different era than Alex Ovechkin. In fact, it's a little more wide open than Alex Ovechkin. But yeah, we can also, we can do an apples to apples comparison there. I'm not quite at that point yet, but if Austin Matthews finishes like top five in the Selke award voting, ends up with 70 goals. And if he ends up with 70 goals, has a heart trophy, like where are we talking about this season as it pertains to it being the best of all time? It's not 92 goals, right? But again, like we can look at, it's hard to have these conversations without denigrating the greatest of all time and Wayne Gretzky, but like come on. Let's just compare the eras, right? Let's compare aesthetically what goaltending looked like in that era as well. But if Austin Matthews and Boyz playing Niko Hishir yesterday, like everybody has the same take, playing Sidney Crosby, same take, guys that have been Selke winners. Yep. If he ends up, I don't know, God forbid winning the Selke trophy, scoring 70 goals. And if he scores 70 goals, I know he feels like the third or fourth place guy when it comes to, if you had to vote on the heart today, but 70 freaking goals, man. It was the thing we said a month ago, why isn't it true now? If he scores 70 goals, maybe he does win the heart trophy. If he wins the heart trophy, finishes third and Selke voting, has 70 goals? Like that's gotta be a top five season in the history of the sport, doesn't it? I mean, it immediately vaults to the top of whatever you wanna consider the modern era. And for me, like I do not do this as a knock on Wayne, but again, like go look at the footage. What, at a certain point in time, and it was late in his career, the modern era for me began. And I know that's not like a technical term, but again, go watch it and I feel like you can see it. You know it when the Supreme Court said something about that once. So as you said that, I go, I go look at, I had to pull up the 81-82 season when he had the 92 goals. That season, he had 212 points in the next leading score, 147 points, like the gap of 56 to some odd points. So it's not that. But in terms of the seasons we've seen off the top of my head, I didn't say it was the best. No, no, no, I know you didn't. I just know people are gonna go there. So I'm putting the parameters on that. So it's not that. But of the seasons I've seen in my lifetime, it's like we're gonna see, he's coming up to Mario now, right? Like that was the next last guy to have eclipsed that he has yet to eclipse when he had 69 goals. Did it not quite an 82 games I believe, but was not a silky level guy. Now it's Mario Lemieux. I think he's probably, you know, like the behemoth that he was. He's probably pretty dominant in all facets of the game. But we're talking about Mario Lemieux, who's been retired for how long now. I would argue that if he, and it shouldn't even be about where he finishes in silky voting because I won't feel differently about how good his defensive season was if he is fifth in silky voting as opposed to a finalist for silky voting. So maybe that shouldn't even enter the equation. But given what I see, if he gets the 70 goals, I says it feels like it's hard to do this without recency bias. I would be hard pressed to like find a better season in the last 20 some odd years. - And he might not win the heart. Like I don't think he, I don't think he is going to win the heart. Like you know, if he doesn't get 70, there's not a chance. - Yeah, but if he gets, so I mean, and that's stupid in its own right, right? - Yeah, this was the Mickey Cabrera, like Triple Crown MVP way back when. But how can historically, the people that vote on the heart, Russell Westbrook, same thing. The people that vote on the heart. And if he doesn't win, like say he scores 69 goals and he has, I mean, he's had the defensive season, the overall 200 foot season that he's had, the separation between he and the second place finisher in the rocket, it is 20 points or 20 goals or whatever. It ends up being between him and Sam Reinhardt. And he doesn't win the heart. There might be a level of embarrassment from some of those heart trophy voters. Like no offense to the Nikita Kuchra thing. And like, yeah, I know internally, like the team discrepancy between his points and the second guy on the lightning. And yeah, he's also going to have 100 assists and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. But is Nikita Kuchra getting selfie votes? - No, I can assure you of that. One, he plays wrong position, like it's a winger. So it's technically like physically unable to. I don't know why it's like some with the hand. I can't check a box if it's a winger, unless it's Mitch Barnard. And then you have to make a point of saying how good he is defensively. But you're right, he's not going to be in the equation. I think in the moment it will feel, especially here, if he, it will feel like an oversight or like Matthews was slighted. But the farther we get away from this, especially if it's not 70 goals, if it's 68, if it's 69, you know, the idea of Austin Matthews being this great defensive player, it's not going to wane from our minds, but it won't carry the same weight, especially when you go look at Kucharov's counting stats and how ridiculous they're going to be. And then I do think you have to throw in the team points percentage thing. Like I don't think that can be, can be overstated with Kucharov as well. - I guess. I mean, I just look at, I mean, there's three guys up in and around the same points, Mark. - Yeah. - For the art Ross. Like the art Ross trophy's going to come down to the final days of the regular season. Nikita Kucharov leading the way 139 points. McKinnon, two back of him with 137, and McDavid, if he plays, you know. - Well, you can't rule him out at being 130. - It's such a narrative driven award. This is the kind of other interesting thing is, is the lightning second half surge hurting Kucharov's chances? - Yeah. - Like when they were barely the second wild card team, and it was seen as like, "Hey, Vashalevsky doesn't have it anymore. "Stamcoast is longer in the tooth. "It's just Kucharov carrying this core." - No, turns out this great franchise. - The team's actually pretty good. - Turns out they're pretty good. - Victor Hedman, like going to the Hall of Fame. - And how much does that, like I'm kind of joking, but does that affect the narrative of it? 'Cause so much of the case for Kucharov, so much of it was, look at the point, and still is, look at the points percentage to him, compared to other guys and his team, the gap between him and the next closest guy. But, you know, I don't have it in front of me. It's like, that's Brayden Pointer, whoever it is. It's a guy we super respect. I think it's a great player in the league. It's not as though he's doing this with, I don't know, I was about to pay, I'm Boongenner or somebody, you know? - Yeah, no offense to Boongenner, a little offense. - Yeah, to me, it's the argument is, yeah, that's a decent one, and if the narrative does weigh into it and it must, I guess. But yeah, to me, it's that a bunch of guys are putting up insane point totals. One guy's putting up an insane goal total, and it's gonna be 20 higher than the second place finisher in the rocket who's having an outlier season. I think when we look back on Sam Ryanard's career, like, this is gonna be like, whoa, what a season. - Yeah. - We're Austin Matthews, he's already scored 60 goals. And so like, yeah, 70, not far afield. - Yeah, I think part of the problem with the MVP discussion, and it's not a problem. It's a great thing 'cause, and I've made this point about a billion different things, but so often in sports, we don't get to have debates anymore. There's just a right answer, and some people are loudly wrong, and some people are loudly right, but there's a right answer to be had. The thing I love about this is that with an MVP debate like this is everybody's grading off seemingly a different rubric. Like, if you're a Kucharov guy, you go, look at my case, he checks literally every box here, but if you're voting for McDavid, you go, okay, have you ever watched the game before? Just look at him. If you're somebody who's gonna vote for Matthews, you get to point to the goal total stuff. Like you just said, that's the thing where there's, I mean, there obviously is a right answer to every person here, but there's no clear right answer. - No, I like the fact that it's-- - It's great. - It's nebulous. - It's just a good bar debate. - Yeah. - And I don't know, like, I'm sure some nerd will alert me to it. It's like, I'm so happy there's no war in hockey that somebody's just like, oh, look it. - Oh, there it is. - I know, I know. And it's like, keep it in your basement, locked up under lock and key. I don't wanna know anything about that. Newlander, how much does it matter if he gets to 100? - Yeah, I was gonna get to that. So William Newlander, it's right there. And it seems pretty clear that he's gonna get to 100 points except he only has two in what? His last six games, seven games. So yeah, like in a bit of a point right now, the possibility exists that we got a Mitch Marner's situation on our hands. - Very much so. - Where he finds himself ever so close, but not quite there. I think it's more important to him than honestly, it might be for Austin Matthews to reach 70 because Austin Matthews, we already view his transcendent goal score. And he did the thing scoring 60 before. Like he's been the headline item at the end of the season. We're like, oh my God, we have a 60 goal score again. Like what's happening? What did he do this game? - What is going on? - And then yes, in subsequent years, 60 has been broken through a couple more times so it doesn't feel as special as it did in the moment. Maybe that'll be the case with 70, where he breaks through 70, and you know, we'll have a bunch of 70 goal scores again in subsequent years. But yeah, for a guy like William Kneelander who's been on this, not slow build, but this build over the course of his career to sign the big contract, to be able to look at the triple digits at the end of the year, yeah. I think it means more to him. - I agree that it means more to him, but I also think there's not a guy on the Leafs who could ever dream of this accomplishment that it can mean less to. - Yeah. - He got paid. He's already scored more goals than his dad. I feel like that was probably like the thing he needed to have is more goals in the season, more points in the season, more career goals. It's like he's got it over on dad and a little brother's coming, but I don't think you need to worry too much about that. It's the beauty of Kneelander is that he just, don't get me wrong in his heart of hearts. Kneelander wants to say, yeah, it was 100 points square in the NHL and it's entirely possible. This is the highest point producing season William Kneelander will ever have. I'm not putting a cap on him, but I'm also not sitting here and guaranteeing. We're going to see two, three more of these things. So I think it matters in that way, but I also think for as much as we all think, maybe Mitch Marner and other guys on this team care a lot about those big ground numbers and everybody does, I think Kneelander, it's the beauty of him playing in this market is he cares, but he cares as little as you possibly could about such a thing. - Speaking of caring or not caring, as is the case. Masters start tomorrow where Scotty Scheffler is the favorite and should be. - And I know you've had golf channel on your TV all week. - I mean, every day. - I put it on like three weeks ago and no one's changed it. I see that as the ultimate sign of respect. They're like, that's getting golf TV. - Yeah, I love the sights and sound. Augusta National will talk to Adam Stanley in the next segment as well. Scotty Scheffler has the situation which we've seen arise a number of different times in the history of modern golf where his wife is pregnant with their first child, I believe, and he's said the thing that, I think everybody said, although if they didn't say it, it probably wouldn't make headlines, so I probably don't know about it. Where he's like, I don't care where I'm at, I don't care what point of the tournament it's in. If she goes into labor, I'm getting on a plane, I'm getting the hell out of here. One, do you believe him? And two, what does it say about Scotty Scheffler? - I think there's like a world where he leaves. - You don't believe him? - I don't know, man. Like, you got a one-shot lead at the Masters, you're two back. Everyone told me that having a child would change my opinion on such things. Now, I do feel a little differently about it in golf. No one's paying him to be there. I suppose Nike is or whatever, but I've always been on the opinion. I think it was Mark Tashara, famously for the Yankees one year. He's like, I was my fourth kid. I'm missing this playoff game. - I think this is Scotty's first kid. - I think it is as well, and that is different. I'm not gonna, and for some people, one, eight wouldn't matter what the number is, you gotta be there. I do feel differently about it 'cause it's an individual sport. You could do what he wants, and I don't feel him to have a way to him. When it's a team sport, I think you kind of owe it to your teammates and the org that's playing you, and yadda yadda yadda, but I don't think I'd be able to go. It's like, it's the Masters. If you have a chance to win it, he's looking to not repeat, but get back to the green jacket. It is the thing you obviously would say beforehand, but it's like, honey, I'll leave the bar after like, a couple of years with the guys, and then it's like, and you plan to, you do. But then, like, Daniel's telling some great stories. They're just, they're so good. And what am I gonna do, leave? Certainly not. You disagree. - No, I agree that, like, my own sensibilities would probably be in line with that, but I'm not Scotty Sheffler. - Oh, no, no. There is no question that Scotty Sheffler is leaving. Like, I don't care if he has one, like he's on the 18th green. - This is a great point. My sensibilities and Scotty Sheffers probably could not be more opposite. Here's the problem with it. It makes Scotty Sheffler like, unbeatable, because here's the thing about Scotty Sheffler. And he did his media availability yesterday, and he did the thing that is like, yeah, of course, I'm a golfer, but like, I'm a person. And the person thing is more important than the golf thing, which you're like, yeah, that's the proper perspective. And usually when guys have that perspective, they're not as good as him, right? Because you have to be a psycho. - Tiger Woods. - You have to be a psycho to be at the top of your sport, whether it be golf or baseball or whatever. - Yeah. - We've all heard the stories of what it took for those guys to just forget about their personal lives or have the hard, scrabble, home life, family life that basically was laser focused on getting them to that point, they're not normal people. They don't have normal sensibilities. They do not view the normal world and the normal things that human beings do as important to them. And you're like, well, that's why. And like the guys that do have the proper perspective, don't reach those heights. And you're like, well, that's good. Like, that's probably what I would do. But yeah, you can't be the best at your job if you're a professional athlete and be that. He gets to do both. - Yeah. - He's already there. And like, this isn't to say, Scotty Shoeffler doesn't work extremely hard. Like obviously he's at the range constantly, but he's already there. Like he's doing both. Like he's the best. He's the favorite at the Masters. He's already got a grain jacket and he has the proper life perspective. I don't know how we knock him off his perch. Like there's not gonna be a moment I don't think. That's the thing about golf. You're like, oh, a tight moment. Like, how are you gonna respond to this nervousness of being, you know, around away from winning yet another major? This guy has the right perspective and it's hard to fault him. But yeah, he's not a psycho like the rest of these guys at the top of their game. - I'm just, I'm just the worst 'cause I can't just help think of my own like parenting. And I'm like, yeah, we'll see how much time you spend at the range once the kid does come Scotty. But I think it's a little different for him probably. He's able to spend his law a lot of time at the range still. Like I think you're right. Like it is a, he seems to have it. It's, I keep going back to, I'm sure you've heard this story, but he told it after he won the Masters that the, I've heard it was the morning of or the night before he was crying in the kitchen with his now wife talking about how he couldn't do it and the moment was too big. And then he was just never outside. Once he chipped in on two, I think it was, he never looked back and there was never really, not to say there wasn't pressure internally, but nobody was pressing him. And now he's a major winner. And now he's become Scotty Scheffler, the major winner. And it really does feel like there's no looking back. And I'm just such a sucker for sliding door's moments. It's like now villain in my heart, Cam Smith. But God, why couldn't you have pushed him that day at Augusta? And maybe we never, it's like maybe we never would have seen this run from Scotty. - It's tough because usually when you hear these incredible pro athletes speak or you hear about their stories or what drives them and their mentality and you're like, oh, well, that's what I got. 'Cause I'm not that. Like I can't, and it's like, oh, no. Like, yes, Scotty Scheffler, like I can't relate to the religious aspect of his life and that's a huge part of it, no doubt. But like, yeah, he's like, this is my job and I work really hard at my job. But I also have like a life and like, that's more important to me or like equally as important to me. Those guys don't normally end up in the Scotty Scheffler position. It just may take whatever sport. I mean, you mentioned Tiger Woods. - Yeah. - Yeah, did anyone argue that Tiger Woods was a normal guy or had good life perspective? - No, but I also, I do think there's a world where you can, you can't do everything, but you can do both of like, 'cause what does Scotty Scheffler like to do? Like play golf, he likes to pray, he likes to hang out with his kids. It's like, I think you can fit those three things in. Tiger Woods, you know, to my knowledge and I'm not gonna make the joke you think I'm gonna make here. It's like, to my knowledge, I actually, now I would like to pay money to see this. I'd like to see Scotty Scheffler go do some Navy SEAL training. I'd like to see how that goes for him. Probably not very well. And he probably would never do it, 'cause he's not a psycho. And I think that with this one sport specifically, there's no teammates to worry about. You don't have to have a relationship with 20 guys. I think of any sport, you can do it. And it's because of the way he is wired, that maybe he is the one guy who can do all of these things. - Yeah, no, it used to, like, I like the idea of like, "Well, I'm not a pro athlete, I'm not a great golfer, but you have to sacrifice your humanity to do that." Yeah, no, no, fairly not. All right, this segment of The Fan Morning Show was brought to you by Hyundai. The 2024 Santa Fe hybrid NHL edition is made for those who drive hockey. Only 500 available order yours today. When we come back, Adam Stanley, live from Augusta Sportsnet's golf reporter. As The Fan Morning Show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, The Fan. - Unrivaled insight, analysis, and opinions on all things Blue Jays. Blair and Barker, be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - Good morning, Joe Sportsnet 590, The Fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning. - No, it's Tiger Woods, who loves golf. - Same, actually. - Who knew? - I mean, how much do you love it? Like, you're not playing today. Like, you're doing an appointment instead of playing. Like, I'm gonna play golf. - Yeah, but, okay, well, this is like more information than everybody needed. The appointment today is to make sure I can play as much golf as humanly possible in the future. - Mm-hmm, didn't do with that what you made. - Yep. - Uh, yeah, you're, you know what? You're missing out. Okay, let's just say, you have a vasectomy appointment. Like, it's a pre-op appointment. But this is, you're missing your window to have the procedure done. Like, you should be getting the procedure done. - I know, I know. - This is like, when you get the procedure done. - I know, it was not an option. I, like, asked. I'm like, do I have to do the, they're like, yeah. And then I'm like, okay, I guess. I'll come in and do the console, yeah. - Is someone with experience in this regard? - Yeah. - The, the console does, hey, like, are you sure you want to do that? - I'm like, yeah. (laughing) - All right, on that note, time for our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit donvalleynorthlexus.com. The great Adam Stanley Sportsnet Golf Reporter live from Augusta National Golf Course. How's it going, Adam? - Before you answer, true or false, that's the first time a guy has ever been brought in via, like via Augusta to an interview to vasectomy talk. Do you think that's the first time that's ever happened? - Yeah, you know what? Given the, the demographic of the media started here, probably not. - It may not have been. However, I, I could not believe what was being talked about prior to me joining my two beloved besties. Over there, it said five, five, nine be, but, uh, got it all, all my best. And maybe we can just leave it at that. - All right, I think we probably should. Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine. Yeah, it's not so bad, honestly. So I, how come you didn't weigh in on the tiger press? Or actually, I don't know. I didn't listen to the whole thing. I, I imagine you were there. Like does, it's tiger. So I imagine he has buzz, but is it the same amount of buzz as we've seen in previous years, tiger at Augusta? - Guys, the media center where they do those press conferences is very much like a university classroom. There's probably about, you know, 70 feet or whatever. And the 68 of them were filled for a tiger's presser. And then everyone else was standing in the back because they showed up late. Like he is the only guy that filled that place more than probably 50%. So, you know, the, the buzz, I mean, it's tiger, right? Like it's tiger and it's the masters. And he says he thinks he can win because that's all he's aiming to try to do. Basically prepares the whole of the off season to try to get back to playing here and doing it. And he makes his jokes about how, you know, when I hit driver, it's the only flat lie out here and everything else is hard because it's hilly. But again, it's tiger, it's the masters and he wants to win, he loves golf, it's all he knows. And I think people just can't help themselves, but during the Tiger Kool-Aid a little bit on a week like this, especially because like the actual forecast and, you know, the actual reasoning for him to potentially play well this week actually makes a little bit of sense. You know, it's supposed to be in the 80s Fahrenheit pretty much every day. This week it's supposed to be sunny Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, you know, certainly unlike last year, you know, this is going to be probably as good and as comfortable a weather forecast as we've had in a couple of years and a great pairing for him on Thursday, Friday. Now he just has to, you know, execute and make the steps and physically be okay to do this for 72 holds. But he knows what's on the line this week. He knows he can do it and wants to do it. It's just a matter of actually going out and doing it. - Yeah, so you mentioned what's on the line. Is it as simple as that? That getting the 24th consecutive cut made there, that would be a successful week. He would never admit that. You'd never, you could inject him with all the truth serum in the land. And I still don't actually think in his heart of hearts he would deem that a success. But I think we all would. Is that a kind of fair bar to set for him? You know, the thing I keep looking to is either that or like if I can really dream pie in the sky of like he makes the cut and then we get to like Freddy couples early Saturday moment morning where it makes a couple birds and he's better standing in the tournament than he will be by the days over. Like what do you think are fair expectations for Tiger for this weekend? - Yeah, I mean that 24 straight cuts like record is pretty darn impressive when you look at, you know, who he tied with and just the general body of work someone needs to have in order to have that much longevity and so far as playing well enough to play all four rounds at the Masters. Like this golf course is hard and Tiger Woods is awesome but he's also had a lot kind of negatively going against him over the last two and a half decades. So, you know, you're right. I don't think that he's going to get all jacked up to say like, yeah, you know, I made 24 straight cuts but you know, in the grand scheme of kind of golfing records it's a pretty impressive one. So you're right. I think he's got to make it through Thursday. He's only played what is it 24 golf holes all year long? Something like that. So, you know, he's going to almost match that total after Thursday starts. So, you know, we'll kind of see how it goes on that first round and then he'll do his cool down and he'll do his warm up and he'll come back out Friday and try to do it all over again. So, you know, this is certainly a shot at a time, day to time kind of thing but, you know, making the cut that's, you know, making it through Thursday, that's a win. Making the cut, that's an all time record, getting the Saturday and having a chance to make a move. You know, that's another win and if he completes all four rounds and 72 holes, you know, that should be considered a pretty big win for Tiger Woods, considering, you know, where he's been physically over the last six months or so. - Yeah, I imagine the media center not as full for when the Canadians did their media availability. I don't even know if they got to do it in there, like, or whether they had some separate scrums but yeah, quartet of them, Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Corey Connors and of course Mike Weir is going to keep playing this thing forever and ever and why wouldn't you after winning it all those years ago. So the bar for Tiger, make the cut. And Corey Connors, it was cool, like the run of top 10 finishes before the missed cut last season. But I think, is it fair to say, Adam, that the bar now for the Canadians is like, hey, it's not unacceptable to not win or be in contention but it's to win one of these things. - It's a great question and I think it's kind of this thread that like, that's gonna be the story or let's say the next probably three years worth of majors for this group of Canadians. And it's exciting, like, you know, I come on here and we chat, like, you guys love golf, I obviously covered golf for a living and you know, we wanna talk about the Canadians having success but this is really the first time kind of last year, the year prior and kind of over the next half decade or so. Like, this is the time for this group that is gonna transcend, you know, golf fans, it's gonna make an impact with sports fans and they're gonna tune in and these guys have a chance to win every single week on the PGA tour but winning on the PGA tour and contending and being in the mix at Major Championships is a whole different thing. That said, it is the same that these guys should be aiming for kind of now and moving forward. I mean, Nick Taylor obviously won earlier this year and won the Canadian Open, of course, but he missed all three cuts at the majors he played in last year. So he's, you know, he's fired up, he's ready to go. He's like, I'm the best I've ever been and now is the time to kind of do the darn thing at Majors and you're right about Corey as well, missed the cut last year but it came into the week after the win at the Valero Texas Open and admitted to me, you know, I was all over the place last year. So he's kind of, you know, back and feeling good. Adam Hadwin, he hasn't been here since 2020, hasn't played a true master since 2018. So he's probably gonna have a few more hurdles to get over than the other two guys but, you know, this is Mike, where's 25th master's? So kudos to him, that's pretty amazing in terms of longevity as well and record setting and record holding and, you know, he kind of repeated it this week to me just one-on-one and also just to media in general, like, this is the time I want another guy to join me in the locker room. I don't have a locker made. I want another guy to be there with me on Tuesday night at the dinner. Like, these are the things that I want and I want to see and this group is definitely giving Canadian golf fans and Canadian sports fans the best chance they've had in quite some time. - Yeah, I wasn't gonna dive into this but we're talking about weirsey so I might as well now. It's like, this is a busy week for him. He's playing in the master's. He has his championship dinner. He has to, you know, babysit all the Canadians like he does during his practice round but it's like a big scouting week for him. Like, he is the captain of the president's cup team. It's in Canada this year. Gonna be in Montreal in September. Like, I feel like this is a, not that, you know, like this isn't a coach going to watch the world juniors and see a guy having two good games ago. We got to draft him but, and I, of course with Canada, I have to do that reference but I do wonder how much this week kind of is a little fact finding mission or how much, how busy he is in that regard as well. I mean, I know it's a major. Everyone's got their work to do but I see all the stuff that internationals team is posting. It feels like they really are trying to develop some of that Europe style camaraderie. - This is like a big, excuse me. This is a big handshake season. It's kind of weak for Mike Weir for sure. It's an opportunity for him to, you know, kind of see, take stock of some potentials, re, you know, reintroduce themselves to some of the guys who have been on the team for a long time. You know, like an Adam Scott, for example, you know, the deck he obviously is playing some nice golf this week or excuse me, this year, he should be considered, you know, one of the top favorites for this week, you know, but he's kind of right there in the mix and Mike is playing alongside another Japanese golfer who was the DP World Tour rookie of the year last year and is a rookie on the PGA Tour this year. And you got to think like, he told me, like I'm looking at him, like he could be part of the team. Obviously the Canadians, they all want to be on the team as well. So wouldn't be surprised if there was three or four of them but yeah, this is, this is absolutely a week where Mike, we're just going to put in, you know, an hour's worth of golfing work and probably for every hour of that, he's probably going to put in at least 20 minutes of President's Cup work. And that's just the way it's going to be at events that he's going to be at now and moving forward. But he certainly has made time to have fun, quick story. I was invited again to the Mike Weir kind of family Tuesday night, green jacket dinner. And Mike popped in last night after the Champion Center. Apparently, John Rahm's speech went really well. The meal was absolutely fabulous. And him and Vijay Singh sat beside each other, ordered a couple of nice bottles of the Spanish red that they had served and put it on Rahm's tab and have been delivered to their bloggers for today. So he definitely enjoyed himself last night. - That's awesome. - Yeah, I think John Rahm can afford it, especially after he took the live money. Like that's fine, he better be able to. Bad decision, gotta be honest. - Yeah, terribly advice him terribly, terribly wrong. - Yeah, and we'll see if he can repeat his back-to-back Champion. I mean, Vegas has, Ben, you don't see this in golf very often, right? Because it's so hard to win weekly on the PGA Tour. And there's so many guys in the field, but Scotty, Chef, Lucille Hudds to win are just like the ridiculous. They're plus 400. - Like four to one? - Yeah. - Yeah, four to one, which is, yeah, for a golf tournament outrageous, but you get it, right? He's already won there. And it does feel like if he's putting, he's unbeatable, is that the field you get, Adam? - It's kind of a cliche, but it is like 100% true. Like, it's a cliche because it's true with Scotty. And I think the other part of it too, is just like the way that he conducts himself, like mentally and especially around this place. You know, best ball striker on the planet, best, you know, hitter of the golf ball. Statistically, the body of work on, you know, hitting ball from point A to B, it's just insane. Like it's just astronomically fabulous. Like, you just can't even find enough words to describe how good he is hitting the golf ball. So you're right, the putting is gonna be the thing that he's hitting, he kind of lives and dies on this week. But, you know, just kind of the way he handles himself, the way that he's kind of approaching, not only this golf tournament, but, you know, this every shot, every round, you know, this week, the extrications that are put on him, he's really kind of just letting them slide off his back. He realizes he's got something bigger going on in his wife's due in about three weeks for their first kid. So, you know, he just knows, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go try to win the Masters if I don't, whatever. If I do, that's great. But he's got all the tools and mentally, he just seems, you know, kind of really dialed in to make this happen. And, you know, he's very casually, could just go out on Thursday and shoot 68, like honestly, like it was nothing. And then do it again on Friday. And, you know, maybe be leading by three by the time we get to the weekend. And then I don't think anyone would be surprised if that ended up happening. And he would make it look very easy doing it as well. No, not at all. No one would be remotely surprised by that. It's funny, like we love these little checkpoints. I'm just, I've got golf channel on in front of me. And they have a little graphic up right now. So in 2001, Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitation at 15 under Scotty Sheffler did the exact same thing. At the players, he won after being six shots back after 36 holes, Scotty Sheffler did the exact same thing. And then that year, he won his second master's title, Scotty Sheffler, looking to do the exact same thing. We do love a little serendipity. - We love a research. - Yeah, we do. We talked, we started this off talking about the buzz that always surrounds Tiger. I'm gonna give credit where credit is due. This is a McKee take. So I'm stealing it from him and bringing it to you. Rory McElroy, as little buzz as humanly possible surrounding him, there's not no buzz. There's a little buzz surrounding him. He comes in late. He's treating it like just a regular tournament. I mean, we've all been there and trying to do something that you just can't quite get right. You're like, all right, I'll try this. And maybe it'll work now where we add on Rory into him looking for the career grand slam. - Rory could not be trading this week any more opposites than he has ever treated the masters. And I think because he's just probably gone down the laundry list of kind of major championship efforting as it relates to Augusta National. And this year he's decided to just go into like, full on, I don't care mode. For the listeners that were wondering like what ended up happening. Rory Trocke, he's the last guy to check in. You know, he arrives at Augusta National 30 minutes before his tea time. The green jacket in the front skips the flowery intro. We go right to questions. The place probably has like three or four people in it when he gets the first question. 'Cause everyone, the thing's supposed to start at 12.30 and it started early. He's done by 12.33, abrupt finish. And he is gone though. So it was a very like fascinating way for us to be introduced to Rory like this particular week. Now, you know, I think it's just one of these things where if like, don't bother me, don't distract me. I'm not gonna, I'm just not gonna care. That's my attempt this year to describe like how Rory McElroy is gonna treat his crap at Augusta National. He said he played two rounds last week here. So, or pardon me, the week prior. So he felt like he got kind of a golf course work in already. Now it's just kind of the mental work. Played nine holes with Ludwig Obert yesterday afternoon. No part of three contests from what I understand for him. So just a light, a light day or excuse me. Yeah, light day today, extremely light day tomorrow. And we're gonna find them on Thursday and see what happens. 'Cause there hasn't really been all that much up to this point. - So yeah, today is the par three tournament. Of course, notably no one's ever won the par three tournament and the tournament proper. Would you tank the par three? Like say you're, you got a one stroke lead in the final hole, the par three contest. Or are you tanking? We've seen this before, right? Like it, or are they handled? In the water. - Yeah, I'm tanking in the water. - Yeah, you are. There's no question? - No question. Yeah, big time. - Not me. I want the crystal. - Yeah, let's get up some more promise, man. It's still crystal from Augusta. Come on. Like, if I'm roaring, no chance. - If you make an eagle in the real tournament, you get crystal anyways, like you don't, you don't need the par three crystal. You just get the crystal in the real thing. - This is, this is, this is 'cause Ann Lee's, is Stanley so good. He's like, yeah, just make eagles all the time. It's not that hard. - I mean, he did birdie number 12 in the media event. Like, don't talk about that too loud. I feel like the Canadian golf media at large is still like sharpening the knives, wondering why they didn't get to go and it was him. - Eight years ago, but yes. - All right, last one. Did you get the master's branded eclipse classes? - I did. - Obviously. - I got them. Packed them up, didn't bring them home. Didn't really think much of them until such time as I opened them up. And it says, made exclusively for the master's tournament right there on the inner ear. And I was like, these guys think of everything. Oh my God. But yeah, it was neat. It was neat. For sure. What happened? They're coming home with me. - All right. Yeah, those are once in a lifetime collectors item, I think. Unless you plan on living 200 years when the master's has an eclipse again. Anyways, great stuff. Adam, we'll be paying attention to your output from Augusta this week. Thanks, man. - Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Good luck, man. - Thank you. (laughing) I was like, was he? All right. - Totally forgot as well. I was like, what? With the golf show? I don't know. - No, we're not doing one this week. - Monday, that was Adam Stanley. And he was our insider, brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus. Where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit donvalleynorthlexus.com. I think the part, a three thing for me is like, if you're like just a job or a guy, you're trying to win that thing. - Yeah. Like I know this guy ended up winning, but if you're like, Danny, will it? - Yeah. - He's like, yes, please, please, please, please. - Yeah. - But if you're a Scotty Scheffler or, I mean, Rory, doing the smart thing, not even playing in the thing. - It's a fat move. - 'Cause you know, you know the golf gods would just be like, "I'm ten straight aces for Rory McElroy." - My favorite is openly weeping as he's walking, of course. I can't believe I did this to myself. - My favorite thing instead of just dunking it in the water is like you hand the club to like your catty, who's like your wife or girlfriend or your kid or whatever. And it automatically de-cues you and we see it all the time. - Yeah, that's great. - Like that's the better move than intentionally shanking a shot or putting it in the water. - I will say, I remember, I don't know about you. I am a sucker for like all things masters. Like we all are, but I feel like you have a little bit more like the eye rolling in you about some of the like par three stuff. - I know. - Okay, I'm back. - About the mask? - I wouldn't thought you'd be a little like, like me, I, every year, you're, - I've been. - You may know that I've been. - No, no, no, okay. This make you roll your eyes, but it's like every year when I think the par three contests are going to show it today, I'm going to love it. It's going to be Jack Nick versus grandson. - Yeah. - Hitting an ace in front of Gary player and Tom Watts. And like, I am just such a sucker for all this. I am dying to watch this today. - Yeah, I don't know if I'm dying to watch this. - Yeah, see, that's what I mean. - See, that's what I mean. - See, see, see, if I was in front of a TV, I would watch it, I suppose, but like do it. - Yeah, I'm not, I'm not about to like cancel my round of golf to go watch the par three. - Yeah, that's fair. - Yeah. - That's fair. So people don't know, for the uninitiated, I won the Masters draw four tickets twice, two years consecutively. - Yeah. - One year I went for the Friday tournament round. I won the next year for the Wednesday. - Oh, believe it. - Four tickets for the par three. I would have gone. - Except I, like Scotty Scheffler, you know, value my home life, my child, my second child was due that week. - I think it's quite a different thing to like, hey, you know what, win the Masters or go to the Masters for a second straight year over the birth of my second child. - Well, the fact that it's the second year does eliminate it, but like, I don't know, man, I gotta be honest, like, winning a Masters lottery is some questions to be had. Love you, honey. - Yeah. All right. - So it basically could be the meme of like, oh, I got a wedding and tickets to the Masters. She'll be in the white dress. Like we've all seen the joke before. - I really need to lord that over my kid more often. - Ah, yeah. It's like you have PlayStation and that. How could he ever say no? - No, I know. - Time to have the Waken Reich presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. Well, afternoon blue Jay's action down at Roger Center, Mariners, Jay's is the Jay's trying to sweep away the Mariners. It is a Logan Gilbert against, you say Kuchy and the Mariners off to a horrific start to this season. A lot of their starters off the horrible starts, not Gilbert though. He's got a pretty nice ERA, but the Mariners are underdogs, ever so slightly in this game, minus 115 are the blue Jay's. Mariners minus 105, the total is eight. - I'm going to do what I did yesterday. I'm going to take the under. Both these guys, you got strong starting pitching. Blue Jay's bats woke up a little bit, but as we talked about, there are still limitations to this lineup. I'd hit it exactly yesterday. And I'm not saying they can't score more runs than that, but that does feel close to the ceiling of the output right now. Give me the under there, I like it. - I think the Mariners are going to win a baseball game. Logan Gilbert, like I said, the ERA is pretty good. Three, five, five headed into this start. And yeah, eventually, a team that has playoff aspirations is going to get closer to 500. Actually, like the Mariners minus a run and a half at plus 155 in today's game. Is that bit of a happiness hedge for me to know? And you to find out. - I'll answer that. - Yes. - That was the Wakenrake presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Dan Schulman, as the fan morning show continues, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet, 590, the fan.
