[MUSIC] Now here's Debraskin with a shot blocking save at all, and a save may make left with us. His best save of the series, he goes post to post to make a save. >> Yeah, it was great. You know, obviously some really huge saves, key time. This one started very third, started stands out, one started the second. So yeah, he's important to me, I thought we played another really strong game defensively here tonight. It's never gonna be perfect, the team, you know, they do a lot of good things. They are going to stress your team defensively and he had to be there for us for sure. So, you know, he's a big part of this one here today, like I said, it's a great team effort. We had some great individual efforts, no doubt, but it's like a really good team effort. [MUSIC] >> Fan Morning Show Sports 759, the fan, Ben and his Brent Gunning. May believes first lead against the Bruins this season. May believes first we in against the Bruins this season. >> Good time for it. May believes first post season game scoring more than two goals in eight like that. >> A lot of things happening for the first time in a long time for the May beliefs. Now, game one, scoreboard blowout, 5-1, couple of power play goals for the Boston Bruins. I don't know if the game, I mean, one of those goals is an empty netter. So let's talk about a 4-1 score line maybe and a couple of power play goals. Run a play, I don't know if the May beliefs were blown out of the water. No, pretty similar honestly, run a play to yesterday's game. Some great great saves from Jeremy Swamin and game one. That's why part of the reason was so surprising he didn't start game two. >> Yup. >> But they lost the game. Now, they won the game yesterday. Has your opinion on who has the greater talent? Like we're just, again, just throwing the names, putting the rosters up against each other. >> Yup. >> And we're saying like who should win this series considering the names that I put forth. And there's a blue line discrepancy, no question. >> Yeah. >> But has that evolved? Now, the May beliefs have shown proof of concept that they can beat the team that, yeah, we've said this all season long. This is like a more beatable Bruins team than we've ever seen. Well, four times during the regular season and once during the postseason, it hadn't happened in five straight that they even took a lead against them. Now that they've not only done that, but completed the victory against the Bruins. As your thought evolved, comparing the two rosters. >> If heading into the series, we were only talking about the 18 skaters aside and not the goalies, then I always thought the Leafs were the better team. Just they had the better collection of talent now. I believed in heebie jeebies and championship DNA and culture and all that. And I think that stuff, some of it is ghosts and goblins, but some of it matters a lot. And I think that that is what allowed Boston to be the favorite, was that they had all of that X factor type stuff. But if you were just looking at the 18 skaters and doing a draft, you'd wind up with more Leafs than you would Bruins before you got halfway through it. The Leafs have the better collection of talent. Yeah, the Boston blue line is better, but the Leafs forward group is better in spades. I mean, they haven't had a good game from Mitch Marner yet and the series is tied. That in and of itself should set you up to say, well, you think he's gonna play five more bad ones? I know there are people out there who say, yeah, I do, but I don't. >> Well, that's the thing, it's, okay, Bruins have played pretty well. They've gotten great goal-tending. It's hard to imagine the goal-tending being any better than it's been for them in the last two games. >> For sure. >> It's been outstanding. The power play, this is not the Bruins power play of old vintage. >> No, that was one of their chief concerns heading into the series was what's wrong with their power play. >> Well, and maybe, yeah, that's a two-pronged thing where it's like the Leafs penalty kill has a lot to do with it, but they've scored three times. It's hard for me not to think that the Bruins have played closer to their best game over these first two games than the Maple Leafs have. Now, I don't know if Austin Matthews can be any better than he was yesterday. It's pretty damn good. >> Yeah, but yeah, Mitch Marner has been non-existent. John Devara scores in power play, but yeah, the secondary scoring, I mean, David Camp scored the one goal the Leafs had in game one. The fourth line's been pretty good, but there's, I think there's some improvement still possible for the Maple Leafs. >> Yeah, and there's that guy who's been bumbling around on the ice, apart from the team in the end, or should he show up with a broken spine or whatever. >> Whatever. >> I don't say that it's a shot, it's just like he's apart from the team. >> Yeah, he's not, he's not apart of the team right now. From now for our insider, brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit donvalleynorthlexus.com. It's talk to Jason Bucholas, sports on hockey analyst. How's it going, Jason? >> Good morning, fellas. Been pretty good. How about yourselves? >> Very good. What a wonderful game. >> Wonderful. >> Yeah, incredible, incredible hockey game and it allows everybody to just kind of like take a breath, reset themselves and yeah, just view game three in a more normal fashion until the conclusion of the 60 minutes and then yeah, our hair will be on fire once again. I wonder what you think about my premise there, though, that the Bruins have played closer to their best game over the first two games of the series than the Maple Leafs have. >> I think you're pretty, pretty accurate with that, to be honest with you. We knew going into the series as a, you know, as a media that the scoring depth for Boston isn't on balance equivalent to Toronto's and I don't know, it seems to me, especially last night when they were chasing the game, it became even more apparent how important that's going to be for Toronto going forward in the series. They looked uncomfortable, even just breaking pucks out on the power play and trying to execute and make some plays. Now, Samson, I made a couple of huge saves in the third period, granted that was, that's a reality, but I don't know when I look at the Bruins exactly where they can be a lot better on the roster individually. I suppose Swamin could come in and, you know, Allmark didn't play poorly last night, but he certainly looks different in the net, doesn't he? He's more acrobatic, kind of unorthodox, if you will, but yeah, I think that's pretty accurate observation, for sure. >> So with the Boston goaltender decision there, they didn't lose that game because Allmark was in there last night, but sometimes you can make a good decision and it's still the wrong one. And that's kind of what I think happened with, with the Bruins. What did you think of their decision to go to Allmark again? Like it's not a, it's not a problem. It's not why they lost the game by any means, but Swamin just felt so infallible and he's been so good against the Leafs this year. I was surprised they, they went with Allmark. >> Yeah, I was too. I mean, Swamin's numbers are ridiculous against Toronto this year. I mean, he's, he's, what, hovering around one or one two for his goals against. And it's a percentage of like nine, six years, something's insane. You know, I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I'm pretty close for sure. I, I personally would have went with Swamin, I, I think that, you know, when you're playing playoff series and everything is decided on the edges, like, you know, like all small decisions become magnified, like everything's so much more important. And, you know, sometimes I'm not suggesting for a second the Bruins aren't more confident or art equally is confident in playing in front of Walmart because they're Swamin. But I just feel like Swamin has a look about them that gives the group, you know, that type of confidence coming off a great green one that, that potentially it was a small little difference maker. It didn't lose them a game, but it could have got inside their head a little bit. >> What do you, what do you make of that, that process of decision making? This is a Bruins team that factually had a deal on the table, sending Linus Allmark out the door at the deadline that he vetoed, yeah, he's going to, he's got one more year under contracted five million per in Jeremy Swamin, the restricted free agent. So obviously part of that is maybe freeing up his, his money, but I, I, I'm of the belief that also there's like a packing order thing that they would have liked to have cleared up that there is, there was not a decision to be made here, and this is, we've seen multiple gold tenders come in for teams that go on long postseason runs, but usually eventually one guy like his certs himself as the number one of the two, and maybe that'll happen for the Bruins if they advance here. But like I certainly can't remember a game plan like this, especially after a victory in game one to go to the other guy in game two. >> I can't recall it at all. I mean, coaches historically have always been, you know, have playoffs if you win, you're in, right? Like, you know, you just keep the net until you, you run out of steam. And I mean, you have to significantly run out of steam at the hardest time of the year before you lose in that if you've been on a run. I mean, if you look at Vegas last year guys, you know, Borsoie, obviously Thompson and then Hill, Hill gets the net at the end and they, you know, he keeps it and then, you know, they win the Stanley Cup. But yeah, I, I don't think that we'll see all mark again. I think that Swamin is the guy and, and I'm, it was such an important game for the Bruins to try and get up to, to Cobb here on the Leafs and, you know, for them not to, to have their best potential roster, I would put it to you that way. I think Swamin presents them as their best roster. Like, when we talk about, I don't know what else they can do as a group, I believe in Swamin more than I believe in all mark. And yeah, like they were trying to trade this guy, the trade deadline. So it was a curious decision. >> Yeah, Kings sitting there last night getting shell shocked by the Oilers in the first period going, Oh, can we have them, please God, we need them right now. Although all Mark probably didn't want any, any part of that is, I don't know anybody was stopping McDavid and Cole last night. That was special, but sticking with, with the Leafs, obviously big topic coming out of the first two games. Yes. Matthew's special and getting off the Schneider breaking his own postseason goal drought. But it's the second line that we've been talking a lot about and just the lack of what they've got out of them. I mean, Tavares scores on the power play last night, but at five on five, him and Marner and, you know, alumni's in there as well, but now shouldn't be the guy making that line go. Him and Marner just struggling to create a ton. And then even the, you know, the underlying numbers just really kind of showing that that group struggling as well, what do you see him from Marner through the first two games of the series? >> Oh, not enough. Not enough. I mean, I wrote a, I wrote on dot C, A, S, D, but I'm, you know what, I'm, I'm trying not, nobody, it's not human, I don't believe it's human nature, just to, you know, pick on people or be, you know, super critical about people, but guys, this is a $10.9 million player. And this is the trauma may believe some playoffs. We got four shots on goal and two games, all four come from way on the perimeter, like way on the perimeter. And if I want to break down his game defensively, because when you're not scoring, you have to do the other things, you know, very well, obviously, you know, you have to have the other detail, you know, obviously he's not going to have a lot of bump to his game. That's not his emo. But even on the, on a couple of goals against just a little late rotating, listen, the set play at the end of the period there last night, when the first, that was a heck of a play back door, but there was a lot of chaos that went on there and he was part of that. Like he lost his band as well. But, you know, we need him to be a lot better as a team if I'm the Toronto Maple Leafs. And, and it just, you know, four shots on goal through two games played, you know, that's it's just, it's just not good enough. Yeah. Is there anything this Sheldon Keith can do? Like do you mix up the way you're just, you just pray and hope? Like, I mean, obviously you don't want to mess with the top line success, but I don't know. Can you go through a whole series with Mitch Marner looking this way? You're going to have to hope that Neil Andrew comes back in and load up the top six. Like we have to, as a group, they're going to have to, you know, try and push Boston to be on their heels as much as possible. So I do believe that the knee lander absence factors into all of this. But historically speaking, you know, Marner, although he did have a good, the decent run last year, points wise, it's the presence, right? And that, that guys, like that's, that's either part of your, part of your DNA at this time of year or it's not. And there's a lot of players historically who have been very, very good regular season players and you'll come playoffs. They've been, you know, a shell of themselves. Like even Yarmul Yager would, would go on runs of great regular seasons and then, you know, couldn't, couldn't really produce at the toy, especially towards the end of his career in playoffs and it was always curious, right? So I don't know, you just got to keep rolling them out there and, and hope that the good things happen. But it hasn't been good enough. I was, I'm not as frustrated today because on balance, the team was better, but boy was I frustrated after Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. No. I, I read what you wrote on sports. I thought it was, it was very accurate. But yeah, it was very pointed as well. Is there a, listen, you're not a doctor. I don't think Jason, I haven't looked enough into your background. Maybe you do have an MD, but I don't, I don't think Dr. Bucala has a ring to it. I got to say, I would sign up for that guy to be my family doctor 100% anyways, like, is there anything in his game that you're like, Oh, well, maybe, maybe that is related to the high ankle sprain. God. You're so nice. Yeah. You're grasping. No, I do believe that injury, like that lingers right into the off skis and I'm not going to deny that. I mean, high ankle sprains for hockey players are one of the worst injuries you can have, you know, outside of, you know, breaking or like that thing and, and it just lingers and lingers. I mean, but I watched him straight. Like I watched him last night closely, skating on straight lines, cutting his edges, all that stuff. He doesn't look like he's skipping a beat pace wise right now. So, uh, unless it's something that I'm missing, I'm, it's possible. I'm going to give him that as a little bit of an out, but that you said it. You said it. Yeah. It does look like an injury. He just needs. He needs something to go right. Like how different it, and again, it's like, yeah, scoring early, we know it's important and getting the first goal. God, wouldn't that be nice against this team? But you know, we fast forward to tomorrow night and Mitch Marner, he doesn't even have to score. It's like he just makes a great play. And Maras is snapping at home and he just seems like such a player that thrives off momentum, but that can go both ways. Like it, when things are going well, he seems like he's shot out of a cannon and unstoppable. But when you're on the other side of things, it just seems like, and hey, like we all, you know, everybody, everybody has different personalities, it takes many different personalities to have a hockey team. He just does seem like someone who, when things, again, he seems a little bit kind of swung by the tides, either way, he can be riding them when they're really high. But when things are going low, it does seem like it can kind of, it can kind of take a little bit of a bigger toll on him, maybe more so than others. And I think a lot of that is the pressure of the market. Like when we talk about the pressure of being a leaf, you know, it means more to different guys. And I think it's pretty safe to say that he, he takes those pressures on maybe more than most. I agree with that. I absolutely agree with that. I mean, he definitely, he definitely absorbs a lot of outside noise. But then when he's asked the pointed questions, has a difficult time just being, he gets very defensive about things. And I guess that's human nature. But, you know, guys, again, there's an expectation, if you're going to go into your general manager's office or the team president's office and say, I'm worth this, okay? The expectation of the organization should be worth, should be in return, okay, we get it, but we need this at the hardest time of year. And it's a give and take and hopefully he can be better for the group, you know, because if he can be and be landed, comes back in, which is another very curious thing to me when I watch them, yeah, meeting and all the highlights when you're buzzing around like that and you're still with the team, you know, gosh, like if you're that injured or whatever, why you, why you down there practicing, why you've been on the road for 10 days or whatever they've been on the road for your get home, get healthy, get whatever so we can get you back in the lineup on home ice, that's another curious. But if it comes back in and Marner can be the best version of himself offensively, I like with these chances, but this is like a day by day thing. Let me redirect you back to a couple sentences ago when you were talking about William knee lander because I need, I need more, Jason, because yeah, the process here is bizarre. You would know what it looks like behind closed doors here and the conversations that are being had but like how unusual is it for a guy to take the skate in the day before the game and then in the off day before that and then to be out yet again after playing all 82 regular season games here, I don't know, I'm not going to ask you to speculate unless you want to or you have inside information, but what the hell's going on? Very well, but I think it's bizarre, I've never seen anything like it to be perfectly honest. Like, you know, when we in our history, you know, when in Nashville and Florida, when we had injuries that kept guys out of line up and playoffs, we sheltered them from view. If you will, they rehabbed or skated on their own with, you know, whoever if we have the development team in there or the aces doesn't matter, like they, you know, they were out of view. And when you're taking line rushes and doing the things or whatever, if they're having flow drills and the things that were going on in practice and it's in plain view, it's it permeates a distraction, like guys, I think it's and I think that the team, they sit there and they look at them buzzing around, they're like, you can't go today because the league at this time of year fellas is full. There's a lineup around the corner with guys battling injuries right now, I mean, it's line up around the corner. So again, I can't speculate what the injury is, hopefully you can come back, but the whole way the process has been handled has been different. Let's just say that. Okay. What about this? What if it's all subterfuge? What if like William Neelander is out for the entirety of the postseason or at least this series, like they have no hope of him returning at all this, this, this series and it's all, you know, making Jim Montgomery in the Bruins think about the possibility of game planning for him. Yeah, I guess it could be that it could be that and I guess I would counter that with by saying that, you know, if you need the call out Robertson or somebody else in your lineup to have a few more reps or not be looking out of the corner of his eye that he's going to be taken out of the lineup, you know, having that additional stress, which obviously he will be when Neelander comes back, you know, maybe that's not as good for your group either. You know, I, I don't think we would sit here and say that the Toronto Maple is sort of the strongest team mentally at the, at the hardest time of year, they're trying, you know, but we haven't seen it yet. So the less is more in terms of internal distraction is my, is my vote there. But I see the strategy. I mean, there's all those mind games that go on with your opponent. Yeah, who, I mean, yeah, I, at this time of year, I'm not ruling anything out. My belief has been that they have a pretty clear picture and what that is. I have no idea of when he could possibly be back and this, that having him in such plain sight is all about just give him boss and a little something to think about, but who, who knows. Or every series has got going now. We've got to look at everybody who has impressed you the most or maybe there's been a team that you just think has no business being here, but has there been one kind of standout team one way or another through the first couple days of playoff action here? Well, Adminton looked like they were absolutely shot out of a cannon last night. So I mean, that's LA can't chase the game with the way they play with that one three one, say four check and they're just not, you're not programmed that way. So Adminton looked very good. The score was, you know, didn't really indicate for me what the, what, how the game was played. I thought Vancouver was resilient coming back. Winnipeg, I don't know that they can run and gun like that with Colorado. Like Colorado's bullpen was probably as bad as it's going to get in all the playoffs. So we'll see where that goes. Curiously, you know, at the New York Islanders, you got a, I don't want, I don't feel bad for anybody at this time of year because I know how hard it is, but they had that, they were in game one and then they had game two and they let it slip away. But that's probably the best version of themselves, but Caroline is just too much of a wagon to make it happen. So, and then let's just circle back on Vegas last night. I mean, the first period, what was the three, three or whatever it was, you know, a fire wagon type of stuff, but still on the scoring on his first shift. Amazing. It's like you can't rate it, you know, you could even imagine it and it happens and you know, everybody's thinking the same thing. So the first round is always fun, a lot of storylines. Yep. And a little more excitement in the building tomorrow in Toronto after the Leafs take game two in Boston. No question about that. Jason, really enjoy our chats and really enjoyed the piece on Sportsnet.ca. Thanks for this, man. Awesome. Appreciate you guys. Have a great day. Check out those Jason Buchola Sportsnet hockey analyst and our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley North Lexus dot com. It's one thing for us to sit here and say, like, that's weird. The Neil Andrew stuff. Weird. Yeah. And the rollout of it is weird. Yeah. And the skating is weird. It's quite another for a guy that spent, you know, decade working in pro hockey to say, that's I've never seen that before. And that is not, that's not according to Hoyle when you have an injured player. Yeah. It is jarring. The distraction thing. I brought it up yesterday. It is odd that for a team that tries to minimize outside noise as much as possible. They have been like blowing a bullhorn like look over here. It's only the guy who was 10th in the NHL and scoring kind of sort of maybe practicing. It's weird. The idea that he's on the ice while the players are on the ice and then, oh, power play drill, get out of there. Can't have them anywhere near that. It is all so odd. I, like I said, I think they have a somewhat clear picture on this and that's been communicated to the rest of the team. It's like, here's the deal with William Neelander. He's out for the series, but we're going to throw him out there on game day, much like Boston. And I don't know. Maybe their clarity is the rest of the series. Maybe it's, well, see at the end of the week and there's nothing this week, this possible. Who knows, but much like, I think it's a very similar thing to what Boston's doing where Jim Montgomery's not coming out and telling us who the starting goalie is. I don't think Brad Marchon is surprised when he looks back at the opening face off going. Who is it tonight? Oh, Linus. Okay. Nice. I think they have an understanding of this much like the Leafs do, but yeah, when you want to limit distractions and just have everything be quiet, it's the Leafs that can never be quiet. Having said that, though, is it not a little better for at least one leaf that we have something else to talk about? Because if the Neelander thing is here, like how much oxygen is that taking away from the Marner struggling conversation? Yeah. Yeah. It's not all of it. Like, don't worry. If you listen to the show, you know, we've, we've touched on it. It's hard to because Leafs just played an incredible game and then in thrilling, thrilling victory and are in a good spot coming home. Great spot. With a chance to win the series and now with home ice advantage after splitting in Boston. But yeah, this guy's making $11 million and he's doing extension in the off season. And he's been not just non-existent, like, like actively bad. Yeah. And then when you throw in the stuff about, and I don't have the exact numbers, but like game six and seven and maybe lump five in there not going well for him in postseason fast, we're running out of road where he has typically thrived in, in postseason series. And I also think there is, there's an, I won't say an overcorrection because I don't think anyone is soft peddling the criticism of him. But there's an understanding that like, you know what the player has available to him in terms of like what he can tap into. So it's like, you don't want to bury the guy because you know he can do it. But on the other hand, it's like, does that not make you want to bury him even more? Cause you, you've seen it proof positive. It's just, it is, and then Tavares being there, like it complicates the picture as well. Cause hey, he's the captain of the team, he makes 11 million bucks too. He could certainly take some of the blame, but we also know what John Tavares is in the second of the last year of his seven year deal. Yeah. It's an interesting, um, hypothetical as well. If William Neelander does play in game three, not hold my breath. Yeah. Me neither. But yeah, loading up that second line. It's, it feels like a different conversation now considering the injury that he has sustained and the ability for the second line. It's like before it was like, well, you got to spread out the scoring and have three great lines. And by the way, the fourth line has looked like not the fourth line, but yeah. Now instead of that, it's like, we got to have that second line be good at all, right? Yeah. Like it's, it's entirely a different conversation than Tavares and Marner, they're controlling the play and they're bringing back memories of five years ago. And there's Neelander and I get it. He's, he's not exactly surrounded by talent, but this is a near 100 point guy himself, 40 goal score that he can drive a line. Now it's like, well, you got to actually put those guys in the best spot to realize their offensive talent. Yeah. The idea of loading it up. But also it's like, is it loading it up? If you bring Neelander back, what version of Neelander are you getting? Does it affect the amount of minutes you want to play? Does that make it just the easiest thing? Obviously, this guy has got his opportunity partly because the, the Neelander injury partly because of Robert or the, um, the McMahon injury, but Nick Robertson getting a chance to play. I think it's really important for this team to have him forced in action. Obviously, we just rather have McMahon and Neelander and them both be healthy and that's a better version of your lineup, but he hasn't been killing them. He's been playing on that third line that has had moments. They haven't, they haven't been tremendous, but great opportunity and we're obviously having a very different conversation if it goes in. But yeah, I think it's important, like this, something I kind of wanted to get to at Brooklyn and just kind of ran the conversation went a different way, but how beneficial and let's dream for a second. The Leafs get through this round and hey, maybe Neelander is back. Maybe he's not. Who knows what version of your Nick Robertson, Connor Doer, he wasn't promised any games in this series of both those guys are healthy and do her more so than Robertson just because of the nature of what you expect from him, but I've liked on a, you know, on a sliding scale. I've really liked what you've got out of those guys. So I think there's a big silver lining to be had the, you're, you've split the series, Matthews had the game you needed him to have and the guys down your lineup, they haven't contributed in the goal scoring way you need them to and do her in Robertson I'm talking about, but you've found that you have something there. And if later in the series, let's say McMahon and Neelander are healthy and you had to go back to do her in Robertson, you wouldn't feel like you're panicking there or playing somebody who hasn't handled themselves fairly well. Yeah, the Neelander thing like obviously capable of factually putting on skates and stepping on to a surface of ice and moving like I guess a little bit how do you easily but do you think he'd have handled that past your neck reverse hit last night? Yeah, maybe not good, but it is the postseason, right? And at a certain point, like you just whatever diminished version of yourself, you just, you just play. Yeah. Well, that is, but if you continue to win games and you put yourself in a situation where that becomes less a thing, right? Like man, going back to the 2019 NBA Finals run Raptors had against the Warriors and was like Kevin Durant, like inching closer, he's not at 100%, but like the more the Warriors win and stave off the impetus to get their best lineup on the court, the easier it is to not force him back into action. And to add fuel to that fire, you don't know what kind of a version of Neelander you're getting. Yeah. Steve Salus yesterday, is there a higher probability that William Neelander is playing in game three? We're obviously you can't go down three, nothing even if he's at 65, 70%. I think so. I would think so as well. That's the, I think that's the thing that is, you know, coloring this conversation as well. And like, let me just, let me say the thing that I think everybody is like kind of half thinking here. It's like, we all hear the stories of Patrice Bergeron play them with a punctured lung. So the idea of hearing that somebody has a sore back or they tweet their neck, it's tough for people to wrap their head around that. I don't think William Neelander is sitting there being able to play and going, oh, but I'm sore. I have this pain threshold that's way less than every other guy in the NHL. I don't think that's what's happening. But because of the lack of certainty around it, people's minds have to go there or not have to, but it's only natural for their minds to go there. The other thing about this is, thank God, he was 10th in the NHL and scoring this year. Think about the version of William Neelander. We've talked about not so much last year and definitely not this year, but in the past of Willie and there's a reason he gets paid less than all these other guys that I am so happy that Neelander is built up the equity with the other half of it. Like there was a half of this fan base that already had it. I'm so happy he built up the equity with the other half of it because I think that is keeping this conversation somewhat on the rails. I don't think anybody sits here thinking Neelander's faking or anything on those lines, but here all the stories of playoff lore, and it is kind of tough to square your head around it. I think, yeah, I would like to think that he wants to play of that horse. He's maybe even asking to play of course, but that everybody agrees that like, hey, man, we just give this a couple more days. You're going to be closer to 100% and putting you on the ice right now is actually maybe not even a net positive because you're, you're such a diminished version of yourself. I was listening to bunk yesterday and he had closed Julie on Julian on and he was talking to him about exactly this thing and it was like, how does that work? How do coaches decide? And he said that once the, if the medical team is telling you like this can get way worse, then that's a medical team decision. And you know, obviously different teams handle things slightly differently. I just love the way Julian phrase this, but if it's a pain issue, then he's mine is what he said. And I don't think it's a pain issue. No, keeping William knee lander out. I would be hard pressed to believe that quite frankly. So I know it's frustrating. I know everyone sees in there, we're all thinking the exact same thing. I just wanted to give voice to that because I think there are a lot of people seeing that and having the exact same reaction, quite frankly, I'm having of going, Oh God, like, I don't think he's sitting here fake and nobody say in that, but it is incredibly frustrating that it is this wishy, washy thing that we're not going to get any certainty on until one, he plays. And then too, we're still not going to have it. It's just going to be his back. We're not going to have any certainty on this until the season's over. And like I said yesterday, I don't want to have any certainty on this anytime soon. Yeah. And only maybe will we get certainty at that point. I mean, the Leafs are so tight-lipped, like maybe even when the season's over, we don't hear definitive. Well, I think that only happens if they win at least around. If they lose around, it becomes such a critical question of why and how and that's obviously very different with knee landering. If they win this round and then things go on, then I can see, yeah, maybe it just gets lost to the sands of time. Well, okay. So Leafs finally have a victory over the Bruins after finally having a lead against the Bruins after finally scoring three goals in a playoff game against the Bruins, still haven't yet, they've yet to beat Jeremy Swaiman, who I assume is going to start game three. We'll talk to Carter Harten, former NHL goaltender, current analyst for dailyfaceoff.com about how bizarre this rotating playoff goal is thing is for the Bruins. That's next. The fan morning show continues. Ben and his friend Gunning sports net 590 the fan. Diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL, the JD Bunken's podcast, subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning, shows for said 590 the fan, Ben and his friend Gunning, Jim Montgomery and the Boston Bruins going galaxy, Brian with leanness, all mark yesterday. And you know what? Shout out to down goes Brown, who alerted me to this little statistical nugget. Same for the playing series against the blue jackets, which is not, I mean, retroactive late's been deemed a playoff series. I thought we said, I'm counting great Matthews moments, yeah, and it is playoffs. So take that one out. Every postseason series, the Toronto Maple Leafs have played in the Austin Matthews era has been against a former Vesna goalie. They faced a former Vesna goalie, Braden Holtby out of the gates. They faced a former Vesna winner in each and every series. They beat him. Haven't beaten Jeremy Swamin, but yeah, leanness, all mark. Of course, the reigning Vesna, it's a good way to frame the pain. I hadn't, I hadn't thought about it. And honestly, like just while you're plugging down goes Brown, like this is his season. He did the like playoff pressure rankings. The other day, it's going to give me the wonderful, my favorite old guy without a cup ranking. I believe he's coming this week. So yeah, like he is a great guy, I mean, wonderful leaf fan as well. All right. Let's talk to Carter Hutton, former NHL goaltender currently analyst at dailyfaceoff.com. How's it going? Carter. Good. Obviously a little better today after that big win, that was a fun one and good thing for Leafland. Oh my goodness. Yeah. The narrative would have been, and the tension, the anxiety, all of it would have been off the charts headed into tomorrow's game three back in Toronto. Let's start with the decision making though by the Boston Bruins to go to Almark in game two. It felt like that was preordained before the series started, started that they were going to do it. No matter what happened in game one, Swamin was awesome in game one and they still went to all mark who was good in game two, but yeah, what did you make of the thought process? No, honestly, I feel like I'm on the other side of this. I honestly don't mind it. I know a lot of people put a lot of stock into it, but like for me, it's the fact of they've been going with this rhythm all year, you know, and this is now you're going to play Swamin on one day and one day wrestling is going back in the pipes. We're all mark. We're not talking about the difference between you're having the, you know, the former Bezna Trophy winner on your bench, right? So it's not a huge difference. Now it's Swamin's crease, I believe. If he goes into Toronto and can win that game, then now you're talking about it's Swamin's crease. I think because they had established this so early in the season that they were going to rotate and especially I think last year, looking at the way all market played and they waited too long to go to Swamin against Florida. So I feel like that kind of helped this decision of at least getting all mark in there. Now they can go back to Swamin. He's still on his normal couple days rest and he's feeling good from the last game. So that's the way I see that they saw it. Yeah. The way I've been kind of phrasing this is that Jim Montgomery made a good decision that might have been the wrong one is kind of how I look at it. And like it was not all marks fault. They lost that game last night, but Swamin has just been so nails. What do you make of the kind of psychological element of this from not from the Bruins perspective? I think they have complete belief in both of those guys and they should. But from the Leafs perspective, I mean, Matthews goes in, he scores on the breakaway there. That far from ice is the game, but gives them the lead and, you know, all of a sudden Matthews has one on the board in the series and they're, they're, they kind of feel like they can, you know, pick up a win overall mark where Swamin has just been this boogeyman for them this series. Like how important is the kind of mental game aspect to this, both from kind of the Bruins choosing the right goalie, but what the Leafs have got to face as well. Yeah, I think it goes both ways here too, right? I agree. I think there's a hum to get over with Swamin. You know, he's had their number. You looked at this season, how well he's played against them. But if I'm Toronto, I'm feeling really good right now. You have that psyche of, you know, Austin Matthews gets a huge goal for you. And for me, obviously, I love the goalie storylines. You look at Samson off when the games to two, like at the start of the third period that save on March on, Monge, getting over that hump of I can win in Boston, we can beat this team. You're starting to give him faith. And I think going into this series, if there was two key players you said that need to have an impact, there's obviously more guys that you could, you know, haven't shown up yet, but getting Austin Matthews on a score sheet, he dominated last night, just not in that goal, just all over the rink. It was the normal Austin Matthews were used to seeing. And then for Elias, Samson off to make a few key saves at the right times, keeping them at two goals against, you know, it's, it's, he started to get a little bit of a confidence, but I hate to say this is what this Leafs team does to us all year, right? We watch him one game and you're like, wow, this team can win this down the top. And then you watch in the next game and you're like, man, are they going to play the Marley's and the miners there? Yeah. You have still, still waiting for Mitch Marner to show up in the series as well. But boy, if you can get that version of Austin Matthews, which we've seen a whole lot this season, it's a pretty good start as he was unbelievable yesterday. So yeah, Jim Montgomery waiting till the last possible second to announce that it was Lina Salmark starting in that game. And obviously the Bruins knew everybody in, in that locker room understood. And I don't know if it changes too much for the Maple Leafs, but like there must be some reason to wait until the last possible second, right? Like how much does the game planning revolve around who's in net and the opposition, you know, changing their offense ever so slightly because of a different goaltender. You know, honestly, not as much as you would think, but there's more stuff that goes into it as well nowadays. Like I remember when I first came in an NHL getting the playoffs, I was with the San Jose Sharks my first year and we were, that was early with the conference final and I remember they didn't do any video on the goalie. They would just talk about like where, you know, the pocket gone in consistently on where later in my career in the playoffs when I was in St. Louis, our goalie coach Dave Alexander who's like, you know, boy wonder when it comes to goal attending knows everything. There would be full breakdowns of tendencies, where to shoot from plays that create more and head coaches would start to bring goalie coaches in to meet with the players to go over what goalies do, where tendencies, how can we exploit certain guys. So for me, it kind of is a little bit of game of cat most, but also, you know, I think on the other side of it, you know, you kind of have a general of the idea of who's going to be in that. And most teams will tell you it's about what we're going to do, how we're going to create, you know, that the tail is all this time, like we need to take care of our business. But I think at some point, you know, it's important to know who's in because there's different ways to attack different goalies. Yeah, there certainly are. And, you know, one of the things that I think the Leafs did last night that worked for them was just kind of getting more pucks to the net. I mean, you've played against, I mean, myriad of different style of teams. How much, and look, if the Leafs are snapping it around the way they want, it's not easy for an opposing goal tender to deal with, but it seems easier to deal with stuff that's from the outside than when we see these moments in playoff series where it's a house on fire in front of the net. And there's, you know, I know there's only 10 skaters allowed, but there's somehow 10,000 bodies in front of you and pucks are tipping all over the place. It seems like that is such a recipe. You just talk about how much, how much, how difficult it is for goal tenders to deal with teams that kind of want to have a lot of traffic and pack the front of the net. And then I imagine a big part of that as well is that, you know, you're allowed to get away a little more contact both ways at this time of year as well. Yeah, that's definitely a, has a huge impact on the game is the fact that all of a sudden you go from this skilled wide open hockey in the regular season where you can't really obstruct guys and all of a sudden you're obstructing guys and you get away with a little more. So it jams up the front of the net. And for me, it's a big adjustment. I think you always see these goalies come over from Europe in my experiences and they get to the North American game. And all of a sudden it changes because there's so much traffic and then that's tenfold come playoff time. And I think the Leafs did a great job last night of staying away from the perimeter, getting to the net, getting to Hallmark's eyes where nothing to take away from Swamman in game one, I thought he saw a lot of things clean. And when you have a goalie that's dialed in and you're seeing the puck clean, man, you could be a fact event. In my experience throughout like by NHL career, when the passing offensive zone majority of goal tending is just competing to try to find the puck. And now when you add in that element of getting there deflecting pucks, creating chaos because any NHL goalie from the perimeter is going to save the puck if you can see the puck. That's, you know, if you're letting those ones in, you're not going to be playing anyway. So I think the Leafs did a great job of that and that's something you have to continually need to do, especially when you want to play that rush offense, when you have that speed, I think in zone offensively is going to make a big difference, you know, making it hard on Swamman or Hallmark, no matter who's in that, who they face. Yeah, you mentioned battling through screens to see the puck. I mean, those were a couple of the goals that you, if you were going to be critical, Amelia Sampsonov in game one, that he was unable to do. I mean, that's us from like a layman's perspective, breaking down Sampsonov's performance in game one. It wasn't the sole reason they lost, they only scored once, right? And it was a fourth line goal. But yeah, in your break down of the game one loss in Boston and Sampsonov's performance in there, like how not egregious, but like how critical would you have been of his performance just breaking down goal by goal? You know, goal by goal, I would say there's definitely a few where you just need a big save, right? It's a time of year and, you know, we always talk about goal-tending like make the ones you're supposed to and then a few that you aren't supposed to, right? To be, you know, have a winning thing. But this is the playoffs. You can take all that and throw it out the window, in my opinion. You need to be the best player on the ice. If you want to have a chance in the playoffs, your goal-tending, when's the last time someone won a Stanley Cup or got to the Stanley Cup without amazing goal-tending? Look at Sergey Brabrowski last year, Aiden Hill coming off the bench. Well, so for me, Sampsonov is one of those ones where, you know, it's his first game in Boston. There's a lot to take in. I think there was a lot of good to come from that game. But what I'm really taking away from this series is how we bounce back. We talk about what he's been through this year, you know, his little hiatus where he had to reset himself. And now he does that in the playoffs and he comes back last night and he's absolutely rock solid. He gives up a goal to pass for an app, which is not his fault by it. And you're not going to leave that pass for an app to take a one-time route from the hash mark and expect to save that. But that's late in the period. That's a lot to sit on. You can go in the locker room and stew on that. He comes back out and shuts the door for the rest of the game. So as a goalie and a fan of this Lee's hockey team, that's really reassuring to me. Yeah. The bounce back they showed. I mean, specifically Sampsonov there, but I mean, the Bertuzzi goal gets disallowed as well. And then they're able to find it, you know, just a minute, minute or two later on there or a minute later on the power play even to start the game, right? Like they give up the first one and then Dolmy comes charging back and gets the goal a minute or two later. You know, you've been, you've been a part of teams in the playoffs. Teams always talk about wanting to minimize distractions. Can of distractions got to be locked in? All I can think of is this knee lander thing being a massive distraction for the team right now. Now, I know they obviously have more information than we have. I'm sure the guys on the team have some indication whether he's going to play or not that day. It's not a surprise to them. But just how much would this cause of a distraction kind of buzzing around the team? I mean, throw in the fact that he's also the 10th leading scorer, nearly 100 point guy and you don't have them. That obviously hurts you, but how do you think the team around him would kind of be reacting to the, the knee lander situation right now? I think you try to keep it internal, right, where you guys know where he's at. You know, he's closely stating, but for me, playing for the Leafs, you probably already learned how to block out the noise, right? I would assume that the media noise and the outside noise is a lot louder than what's going on in that locker room. And I also feel like this could be something they can rally around. You just went into Boston without William knee lander and you just beat them on their home ice to split to come home with the potential of him coming back and talk about the shot and the arm of energy getting William knee lander back into this lineup. So I feel like for this team, that will be important, you know, getting him back. And at some point, it looks like he's going to be ready to go here. And also, I think there is an experience of these guys that have played for the Leafs. You've been in the playoffs. Have some veteran guys to just teach guys, you know, stand off social media, just stay within yourself. Talk to your family. Don't be worried about all the outside noise because trust me, that stuff can be overwhelming. It's great when things are good, right? It's great hearing good things about yourself. But trust me, when things go bad, it's not the easiest thing having that down your throat every day. Yeah, lots of good things to be said about this Leafs team yesterday, specifically Austin Matthews. So yeah, he can take a peek into social media today, but then shut it off. Carter, I always appreciate the time. Thanks, man. Hey, thanks for having me on guys. Carter Hutton, former NHL goaltender, currently an analyst for dailyfaceoff.com. Now, it seems like obvious and I was of the belief, always the dealiest Samson off was starting game two. But there was like a non-zero possibility that Sheldon Keefe after what he's gone through with the Elias Samson off this season was going to start Joseph Wall in game two. Now it seems like a brilliant, brilliant decision, because he was pretty damn brilliant, especially at the end of that hockey game. Like the marsh and save, the toast save on marsh and in the third period, it's like a game saver, man. Yeah. And yeah, again, I think the penalty killers did a great job killing off the Bertuzzi penalty in the third period, but had to make some saves there as well. I can imagine we're talking about a scenario where you had gone to Joseph Wall and he wasn't as spectacular coming off a longer layoff with a lesser postseason track record. I know the same percentage was pretty high when he came on and relief in that Panther series. But the win loss wasn't. No. Yeah, it seems obvious. And again, it would have been my decision. So I'm not surprised that they went with Samson off, but I wonder how much a conversation that was in that Leafs brain trust going into game two, who starts a net? Yeah, God, give me the, I hated it when I was watching it after the fact, but God, give me that Amazon series right now. It's certainly love to know. I, I think this was, I think the way they had scripted it was Samson off gets at least the first two unless it's a blow up. I think is probably the way they were trying to get it if it played out, like it did after game one of last, like if he had been pulled after 40 minutes of game one in the this series against the Bruins, I don't think he's yeah, I agree. Yeah. So I think the stakes of them and again, like five one not being a blowout, you know, feels a little blowouty, but the empty net goal changes things and that's not on Samson off. Yeah, you're right. Like we talked about sliding doors moments, we also talk about copycat league and guys getting in their own heads and, you know, I'm not going to sit here and give Sheldon Keith credit for not going Galaxy brain, but good job not going Galaxy brain. You got the other coaches going, and flip my goalies, I'm going to, I'm going to make one of them play with the other guy's pad. So we get a little piece of both of them in the net, overthinking it like crazy over there. Sheldon Keith has been want to overthink some things in his time here, specifically with the forward line combinations and things along those lines. So yeah, good job by him sticking with the plan that I imagine they would have laid out here. And yeah, I think that game goes differently. I like Joe Wallace, though, faith in him. I think if he needs to come into a series, you're not in a terrible position, but that was obviously the right call to go to Samsonov and obviously, obviously he gets the net for game three. Okay. I think the Bruins do from here on out in this series. Okay. So, so, I mean, Carter said, yeah, it feels like Swamans net now. For sure. Swamans starts tomorrow. Yeah. No, he's starting tomorrow. Yeah. Okay. Let's play out the scenario. Okay. I think we're going to play the scenario where both goalies are good, like if anybody's bad, then it changes something. But like, okay, say they win the game, the Bruins win Swamans good. That's the scenario you're laying out, then you would be an idiot to go. Yeah, but they were an idiot to go to Allmark yesterday agreed and I said it was the wrong thing. Yeah. But I think they're going to go to Allmark again. I think they got what changed. What is different in game four on Saturday lost? Yeah. That's what's different. You should in the playoff series, you should do a certain extent, play the results. But by all means, by all means, if Jim Montgomery wants to have already decided that Allmark is starting game four, I would like to shake his hand right now and say thank you. But it's an easier decision if Swaman, even if he plays well, but they lose tomorrow, then I do think you can go back to Allmark. I think you're going to Allmark either way on Saturday. I mean, that's nuts. I agree. I thought it was not going to start Allmark yesterday. We're in agreement that that would be insane, but I don't think you're insane to bring up the possibility very much in the card. Think you should steal yourself for some insanity on Saturday. It's the Leafs in the playoffs. I steal myself for it literally every day. All right. Well, it's another edition of the Fan Morning. Joe Bennett, his friend Gunning, supports that 5-9 in the fan. Good morning. [MUSIC]
