(upbeat music) - Van Marnachos, 4759 of the van. - Van Ennis, Brent Gunning. This is the extra day that the Boston Bruins and poor Jim Montgomery have to spend at the Ritz Carlton. - I've been checked the Boston weather. Maybe he did have a like to stand on. - Yeah. - It's been kind of crummy here. - Isn't it great? - No, it's. - Yes, today was sneaky nice though. I went to the driving range, so. - Yeah, it's cool, but it's sunny. - Yeah, okay, so they're in the city of Toronto still as they have to wait yet another day to play game four against the Toronto Maple Leafs. When they do play in game four, well, they may see William Neill and are across the way, potentially. But they will certainly, at that point, still have the special teams advantage. Five to one is the difference. We've got power play goals for the Boston Bruins against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Has not been necessarily close. It's been very close, five on five. In fact, these teams are tied at five on five goals. It's been the number one differentiating factor giving the Bruins a 2-1 series lead headed into tomorrow's game four. If the Leafs lose the series as the result of special teams. So I'm talking about two things. I'm talking about the penalty kill and the power play, which are entirely different. I mean, we can talk about making a delineation as to who takes the blame. But if it's the special teams that cost the Maple Leafs a chance to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, who is the face of that? Who wears that the most? The man who will be fired if they lose to the Boston Bruins, Sheldon Keefe. He will be the first line of defense. And by that, I mean, the first man to blame for all of this. I mean, we've talked about it. They're just, I don't care how hard fought the series is. I don't care if D-Lander doesn't play. I think that this was a team that was trending towards a coaching change at various times this year. They were trending towards one certainly last season. That is obviously the kind of first point where blame would stop. Obviously there's some individual players that we can certainly pick at. But yeah, I mean, maybe they make another assistant change. Lord knows they tried that a thousand times, but I think there'd be a lot of assistant changes if you're changing the guy behind the bench. So I don't think it's Keith's fault necessarily. I think when you got $40 million of forwards, they should be able to figure it out. But I think Keith is the first guy that'll wear it and he'll be the one who actually takes the consequence of it. Yeah, I think if it's the penalty kill, like if the Leafs, hey man, they score, they finally start to score on the power play. But they're giving up just as much on the kill as they are on the power play. It continues to be leaky. The Bruins, they're gonna long at 50% on that thing. And that's the reason. I think you're probably right. It's Sheldon Keith that wears that. And part of it, you can point to, and maybe this is a roster change that we do see tomorrow night that TJ Brody enters for Timothy Lilligret. But that's a guy that's a guy that's spent a ton of time killing penalties this season and has not yet played in the series. And guess what? They've had trouble killing penalties. I'm not saying he's missed her. All of a sudden, the penalty kill problems go away, but it is funny that a guy that it was one of your starting defenseman on the penalty kill isn't playing in this series. And I understand the reasons why. And you were hopeful that Timothy Lilligret was gonna create more offense for you and not fall down behind the net before Brad Barshan goes top corner for the game winner less than a minute after you tied the game. Like, ideally, that's not the case. If it's the power play though, man, it's just- - Hold on, before the power play, just on the Brody thing. I hear the argument and I think it makes a lot of sense. But we also can't paper over the fact that he played the most penalty kill minutes for a penalty kill that stinks. Like, we're not sitting here talking about, well, I mean, that's the key and you took him out. No, he's the key to a unit that's been no good. And that's not TJ Brody's fault. The penalty kill has been no good this year. But it is funny the way we talk about it. Oh, wow, they're really reinventing the atom here. Yes, it's stunk. So they put new people on the penalty kill. It actually makes a lot of sense to me. I have no problem with going back to Brody. That's what I would do. I think especially a, you know, you get an ornery, maybe a slightly more angry TJ Brody. He's fresher, deeper into the series. Well, if he is, we'll find out. I don't know, but we'll find out if he, if he, and I'll think so either. But if it's there, if it's there, hey, man, he's the second I has paid defense man on the team and he's just been told to go sit in the press box and he popped for him for three games. If he ain't angry now, he's never, he's never gonna be. But yeah, that is, that's the thing I keep coming back to with this TJ Brody penalty kill stat because everyone's right to point it out. But he's the key to the unit that's not called here and we've complained about. So maybe it did make sense to switch some things up. Yeah, but yeah, God, you're right. Just like, I keep hearing it. I heard it over and over again. It's like, you know, you know me. I'm just, I'm just searching the streets. I'm like, are there any least takes to be had and everybody's just like, oh TJ Brody, at least he has utility. No, no, I want to be clear. He makes sense for him to come back. Utility, right? Like again, Timothy's a little grand, sure. Maybe he can move the puck a little better at this point on the right side than TJ Brody. I haven't necessarily seen him pop yet. Again, like the most recent memory I have is of him being leveled behind the net or being on the ice at least in the game winning goal going in a couple of feet away from him. I also think part of it is that, I mean, Kneelander potentially coming back obviously changes some of this. I think that the fact that the whole fourth line has been so good, I think there's a chance they would have gone 11 and seven, but I don't think they want to take out doer. No, and that's the guy that I think would have been the easy. I mean, Robertson, but Kneelander's taking a spot. So, I mean, we presume. So I think that that's the other part of this is I could have easily seen a world where they keep Lillegrine in there and they go 11 and seven. That's what they did to close out Tampa last year, but I just think that fourth line has been too good and then you get Kneelander back in the mix. Obviously, you want your full compliment forwards there. If it continues to be bad, that it being the penalty kill and the power play continues not to score, it's going to be the power play though, that supersedes the penalty kill. - Thousand percent, not even close. - And that's to me a different conversation. And so, I mean, Sheldon Keefe has fired if they lose the series no matter what. Like that's, okay, we don't. So there will be some like physical blame headed his way either way, but like the people who know, the people that will have the serious conversations about what happened in this series won't lay it at the feet of the head coach. I guess in theory, could have done the thing that I keep saying like, hey, I know it makes no sense and it's got to be on the $40 million worth of forwards to score, but they haven't. And it's been so long like just do something, mix it up. - Something. - You break up the top unit. I know it makes no sense, but you got to win a hockey game and this isn't working clearly. But I think it'll be absolutely on those dudes. And as much as Austin Matthews won a single game on his own in game two, being in on all three goals and the game winner on the break away with the great flip pass for Max Domi in game two, he's not going to wear the majority of it, but he's going to be part of that conversation. It's going to be everybody on power play one. It's going to be Morgan Riley. It's going to be Austin Matthews. It's going to be John Tavares. It's going to be Mitch Marner, who like, yeah, okay. He relieves some of the pressure because he's on the board with a great pass across to Tyler Burtuzzi for a goal that gave them the lead in game three, a game that they ended up losing. But yeah, I think the pressure's back on him. It's going to be less Tyler Burtuzzi because he's just like, I'm not even supposed to be here. - I'm literally leaving, so. - And in no matter what kind of factor William Neelander plays in this series, like he's just like, - The blame game can't be played with him. - No, but it's those other guys. It's those guys, and specifically Mitch Marner, because he plays on both units. He's going to be the guy, man. I can't get away from him being the guy if they don't win this series. - Yeah, is it fair? Yeah, a little. When you make the second most or I'm sorry, third most on the team Tavares still makes the second most, it is a little fair. And I've asked him Matthews, if when we're looking at the end of a six or seven game series, we have one Austin Matthews game to show for it and then game and then the rest of them are more like what we saw in game three. Don't you worry, the blame will find its way to him. But we have to say this is that when you have the track record you have, and most of it should exist in the postseason. Oh, I keep waiting for it to happen with this group one day. We'll have a postseason track record, but they don't. So you got to look at the body work. When you've been a heart trophy winner, when you scored 69 goals for your team in the regular season, this isn't to say that there shouldn't be expectations on him, but there has been more goodwill built up. To your point about Marner, I think we're going to, again, like it's entirely possible. They get one on the power play tomorrow night. Series is tied to two. We're having a very different conversation. But if this series trends the way it's trending now and Marner has, let's I don't know, three points in a seven game loss or something like that, yeah, it's going to be disastrous and he is going to be the guy to wear it. It's not wholly fair because Morgan Riley should wear a lot of it too. And John Tavares, I think wears actually the proper amount of it. I think we finally have arrived at a place with John Tavares where the scrutiny makes sense. People are understanding of what he is at this stage of his career, but he's still the captain and he still makes 11 million bucks. So you're allowed to criticize him a little, but unless there is the Marner game, like we've seen the Matthews game, how could the eyeballs not go to him? And that's not fair, but that's also what the money's for. That's what the money's for. God, I wish I had access to the numbers and the information that Justin Borne has. Oh, yes. My Kelly Nurd school are there, yeah. It's not even like, so there are nerd stats like expected goals for which like, it is nerdy because we don't know how those numbers are put together. Here's something we can understand. Yep, the average distance you take a shot from. That seems very straightforward. Right, like you would seem that the closer is the better. You know who you should ask, Zach Hyman. The closer is the better. And also like, things get harder and it gets harder to get closer in the postseason. So if your numbers start to decline in the postseason and your distance from the net, where you shoot from, it also increases. Well, that makes a whole lot of sense. Guess who that's happening for the most? And it's a small sample, it's only three games. Mitch Marner on average. His shot is coming from 22 feet further away than it did during the regular season. Austin Matthews also a little bit further, a foot. Okay, a foot. John Tavares is actually five feet closer on average. Actually, that tracks. Yeah, so these are, again, this is a small sample. So like you take a couple of shots from just inside the blue line. And well, part of that is also Mitch Marner has. Like how many shots do they have in the series? Well, man, and he just, God, I'm not trying to derail the point you made, but you mentioned the shooting there. Was that not a huge topic of conversation? All of the Leafs narratives, du jour from every year have kind of run together for me, but it was either at the beginning of this season or at the beginning of last season, that the Marner shot, this was more of a thing. And there were moments on the power play in the last game where, and look, you know what happens? If Marner shoots it in the moments I'm talking about, Jeremy Swamin probably swallows it up and it's a moot point. But Marner has chances to shoot from good spots in this series and I get it. He's a playmaker. He wants to set somebody else up for the goal. That's the best way for him to be effective. But they are playing in him to overpass in such a way that you do need him to just start firing the puck. Would you also agree that shooting from the slot is a good position to shoot from? I think that's as good a place as any to score goals from Ben. Well, I would tell you that both John Devars and Austin Matthews are doing that more in the postseason than they have during the regular season. I like that. You know who's doing it 25% less? David Kampf? No, I bet it's higher actually. I feel like he's been all over it. You know what? I can't tell you. I know, I know. All I know is that Mitch Marner shots are 25% less likely to be from the slot in this postseason. So yeah, all that matches the eye test. Like that's that's wild wacky stuff. And I'm sure he's dealing with an ankle thing, but boy. OK, so how much like because I know again, like the Civil War, the factions in the fan base, whatever, how much is it fair for and again, like if the series is over in six or seven games, we're going to get whatever the story is. How much is it fair for that to color it? Because the injury? Yeah, I mean, Newlanders going to come back and we're going to have a not a referendum. But I think we're going to pretty quickly have a understanding of how fair expectations there are to be had of William Newlander, depending on what you see from him in this series. If Marner's dealing with something, especially a high ankle thing, if it's a lingering thing for the type of player he is, that says debilitating an injury as you can have. But if you're playing, we should be able to, you know, judge the fact that you're playing. Like, I will have plenty of time to pick at this if it's all over in a few days here. But how fair is it for that to be a thing? Because if a agility base player has an ankle injury, and I think we all look at it and, you know, who knows? I think we all assume there's something going on there. He does not look as dangerous. He doesn't seem to be able to cut and move in the same way. His edges don't seem to be as dangerous. And all that would lead to those numbers. You just ripped off about it. How fair is it to say he's dealing with something, and that should color the perception of this playoffs? - Not one little bit. - May I direct you to 12 months ago? - Yeah. - Austin Matthews, what an awful regular season. He had 40 goals. - Right. - He's like a brutal, awful, he was a bum. - Yes. - What was wrong with him, though, right? Like, we're like, what's wrong? This is weird. Like, it's like 40 goals. I like the shoot for saying super low. Then he manages five goals in the six game series against the lightning. But none in the Panther series. And he wore that. - Yeah. - Off season, he had like a procedure on his wrist. - Right. - Okay. Then he came back with 69 goals. Pretty clearly there was not a 100% Austin Matthews throughout the entirety of the postseason and the 11 games he played against the lightning and Panthers. So what? Like, I brought it up. And people are like, oh yeah, because nobody cares. Nobody cares. You shouldn't care. You're only ice? Everybody's injured. Capable plan? Play. Play the game. - Well, and this is, it's, I mean, it's unfair, but so is life that if there is a divinish version of Martyr now, it's one, he's only drawing more attention 'cause the lack of William Newlander and they only need him more 'cause of the lack of William Newlander. So I don't like, obviously, Martyr wants to play. But from a narrative perspective, he would be gladly going tradesies. Why don't you get in here and I'd be the guy coming in on the white horse to save the day. - That's a great spot for knee ladders. - Oh, there's no bad version of knee. Like, there's no way this works out poorly for him. - 100% and looks like the best version of himself and scores and all of a sudden the power play is good. It's like unbelievable. What a hinge point in the season. And it's like, oh, he's underpaid going into next season, right? If he's the reason they win this series, he plays on Saturday. And if he's not, it's like, well, you know, what are you gonna do? - It's dying. There's nothing we could do about it. - Yeah. - A couple other things before we move on from Leafs. It's like, where are you on the Elia Sampson off leash? 'Cause, man, God, game three started so incredibly well for him. And we talked about the home crowd and them get, and there were Sammy Chance. - Oh, yeah. - Deservately so. - Dying to do Sammy Chance. - Holy cow, C-Mom Benoit looks like, yeah, he needed a change of underwear and the first couple of- - He looked like Mitch Meiner in the Montreal, so yeah. - Yeah, he looked not so good. And Leafs have to do the thing that they're worse to doing in the first 30 seconds of the hockey game, and they kill it off. Thanks, in large part, to some incredible saves from Elia Sampson off, but he lets in the goal, right? And it's like, in a one goal hockey game, and it ends up to two, much to my chagrin, who had Leafs plus one and a half, because of the empty netter. But it's a one goal hockey game because he allows the Trent Frederick shot, which is awful. It's an awful, awful goal. And it shouldn't be this way. Like, your offense should score you at least three goals of hockey game. That should be a minimum. - Yes. - But like four for the first time in 11 games would be nice too, but he did allow that. And maybe Joseph Wall doesn't. I almost call him Justin Hall, but yeah. - Oh, okay, wow. - Joseph Wall, it is funny how similar their names are. - Is that color your person? Like, should I read in to how do you feel about Joe Wall there? - Yeah. - But Joseph Wall maybe doesn't. - Right. Like, where are you on his leash? - I think that outside of anything disastrous, like Sammy can get pulled tonight, but I think he would have to be really bad for them to even look at that to go away from him. It was a bad goal on Frederick. And I have been writing Bart Simpson's style. I will not keep complaining about the officiating regarding Brad Marchon on the wall. So I won't go into my spiel, but you all know how I feel about the thing that led up to that. But it's not an excuse. She got to be locked in. I think it was a weird game for him after that point. There was that one shot that came in and like hit him in the collarbone when he's standing up and it seemed to have surprised him. I am not sitting here telling you, I feel 10 out of 10 confident in Ilya Sampsonov right now. - Oh, you're talking about the one right off the face off at center, right? - Yeah. - I would love to, did anyone ask him about that? Hey, did you see that? - No, I think honestly, it's like, not that the, you know, they're all journalists. They got to get to the story there, but it's like, don't put that in his head. Don't ask him about it. He might have to engage with them or think about it. - I think it's quite possible. He's like, oh, oh, oh, okay, we're back. - Yeah, we've all, hey, goalies, man, they're goalies. I think that you have to, Joe Wall still potentially is a role to play. I'm not worried to put Joe Wall in, but I think right now, your best bet to winning this series is Ilya Sampsonov being the goalie of record for it. It was the way it worked last year. - No, it has to be an absolute desperation point. You have to be down like three-nothing after one or like, yeah, four-one after two. - And even that doesn't necessarily mean anything 'cause we saw that last year. - Yeah, I think if you're going to Joe Wall, you're like, this is a last-ditch attempt. Like we're in desperation land, which maybe you did be in. And obviously if you lose-- - If you're down three-one in the series. - Listen, if they lose tomorrow night and Ilya Sampsonov lets in even just the one goal, like if it's the same, you lose three-two the same way you lost game three. - Yeah. - I think Joe's of Wall's start in game five. Like I think that's a reasonable conversation. - And the good thing is, is Joe Wall has had such a good record in Boston against the Bruins this year. - Yeah, well, I mean, that's the-- - What are you going to do? - No, you're not wrong. It's just that's the, we have these hinge point moments, right? And we talk about how the season would have played out differently if what, like God, if the Leafs would have had their druthers again, would they not have handled that situation? Maybe they would. Maybe they love that Sampsonov didn't go against him. And he got to come into the series feeling confident. It's a fair way to look at it. But man, if they have to go to Joe Wall for a do-or-die game in Boston, where he has not, I think he's like, I think he's a masked guy. So he should be, you know, should love play in there. It's how it always works here. But God, it's not quite putting Andreas Johnson in off a knee injury into a do-or-die game five, but I don't feel great about it. Let me tell you that much. - Okay, how great would you feel on placing in an over one and a half penalty minutes bet on Brad Marsha and for tomorrow night? So there's no one minute penalty. So like, yeah, one minor penalty. Is he going to take a minor penalty at least tomorrow night? No, I don't think so. - You really? - I don't think so. No, I think he's going to, I think, again, like I roll my eyes and I get as frustrated as anybody about the Brad Marshawn knows how to play this game. But God, does he know how to play this part of the game? He knows, he knows Keith was working the refs at the end of the post game. He knows the Leafs in between have been working the refs in terms of, you know, there's a series official, they have meetings with the teams every day or in between all the games. Obviously, that was a big point of contention. They're going to be watching Marshawn like a hawk with the express purpose of being able to say that, we did it, we call the penalty on him. Look, no more complaining. And that's why he is going to be on his best behavior. - Altar boy, Brad Marshawn. - I don't disagree that he knows that the spotlight's on him, but I don't think Brad Marshawn can play a Brad Marshawn game without at least having some play that like you could conceivably call a minor penalty. - Yeah, oh, you mean like the plays in game two? You mean like that? - Of course, but yeah, I think the narrative surrounding Brad Marshawn and God, like it's only, you can only avoid the Toronto media circus of surrounding one topic for so long if you're the officials. And I think there is some placating of everybody if they, and plus, maybe this doesn't enter their minds, but I'll say what might be subconsciously true is like, eh, we could at least powerfully, they're not going to score in any ways. We're not impacting the game either way. And look, everybody gets to be happy. We call the penalty on the guy that hasn't served a single penalty minute in this series. I think there is 100% certainty that Brad Marshawn spends at least two minutes in the penalty box tomorrow night at Scotia Bank Arena. - Um, no, I stay steadfast in my belief. I will say if he spends two minutes in the penalty box, it will not be by himself. Like it'll be like him and Bertuzzi both go. - Oh, well, okay. - And that doesn't count. - That doesn't count? - It might, like the point that the Leafs are trying to make is that this guy gets away with murder. So the idea of like, all right. - Well, you're both going to the clink. - No, no, he's supposed to be punished. Don't punish me 'cause you had to punish him. And I also, this is unfair. And this is where you do get to be like, I'll grow up at me. I do always have this belief that like the refs call it, down the line, like they call it how they see it. But in the back of their mind, it's like a parent reffing his own kid's little league game where you're like, eh, Ty goes to the other team. - Oh, grow up. Tell me I'm wrong though. - God. - Yeah, you don't think I am. - No, I don't. I mean, you do love yelling grow up at me though. - Grow up. - Yeah, you're basically my father. You old man. - Yeah, just grow up. All right. - I love you, Ben. - I know you. - I knew you. - I knew you. - I knew you. I could see, that's how good a friend and coworker I am that I could see. I don't, I don't know why it made you so happy, but I could see-- - I was up at seven o'clock, but I love you. - I love what I'm in you. - Oh, he found it. - Oh, I'm sending stamps. I don't say he's hard for that. I'm allowed to say it, but they haven't put that on me. But actually, I'm just such a good friend and co-host 'cause I could see how happy you were like, I don't know. Your family needs to tell you that they love you more 'cause you were like, you do? - Yeah. - You seemed so happy to have heard that. - No, I think people of my vintage and your vintage, you're not that far off. - I think we heard, I love you so little, like from our boomer parents. - Yeah, I know, see, I had very-- - It's so much a part of the dialogue between me and my children. They're like-- - Yeah, we know, shut up, shut up. - I had the opposite. I had like, like a father who's like, you know what I mean. Can't say that word though. And then a mother who like overcompensated about being-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. (mumbles) - And I love you mom, you know that, but that is what happened. - Yeah. - Oh yeah, my kids all the time, it's like, oh my God, it's like, is my name, I love you? - Yeah. - It's like, I love you Gordon, it's his full name. (both laughing) - Okay, there's stuff we didn't get to that I wanted to, but we've got lots of time. - Yeah, yeah. - But what we have to do is make time for our next guest. - Worked on a space. - Commander Chris Hadfield, we'll talk to a human being who's been there. How would you like to hear from the first Canadian to ever spacewalk? And no to leave fan. - Dropped a puck from space. Went to high school in Oakville. - Wow. - His father, friends with my father. - Oh my God, I went on a boat together. - I am, what? - Yeah, I was. - Come back for all that. - Yeah, Commander Chris Hadfield, next 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. (dramatic music) - Fan morning show, Sportsnet 590, the fan, Ben Anis, Brent Gunning. - I think I've done some things. - Okay. I have my-- - You wanna name one? - Yeah, I was going to. - Okay. - You guys do that. - I do. - I'm like, go ahead. - No, yeah, like that's literally, no. I've done some things, end of conversation. I've done some. I've done some things. I have my private pilot's license. - I think that's very impressive. - Hey, I broke 80, like more than a couple of times. - Those are both things. - Those are both things. - Yeah, I'm not a good golfer. I could also shoot 95, like no profile. - I think it's gonna happen starting in about three hours. - With the greatest of ease. - Have I gone to space? - No. - No. - Am I also multi-talented, like musical artists? Like, Chris Hadfield, no. It's pretty unbelievable when you talk to people and we will talk to Commander Chris Hadfield in a couple of minutes. It always amazes me people. And you know what, we talked about Bob Cole. Off the top of the show, this is a guy who also had his pilot's license, you know. - Of course he did. - Had engine failure and one of his Piper Cubs, like, and had to land in a field somewhere and wait for hours, if not days, for somebody to come rescue him. - It's amazing, you know, he's also skipped a team in the Briar for Newfoundland. It always blows me away. People can be the best at one thing, but also like pretty damn good at these other things. Like that, it hardly seems fair, to be honest. - Yeah, you mentioned, like, this isn't exactly what you're talking about, but just, I mean, you mentioned like the Bob Cole, the story there, it's like the one I always think of is Johnny Bauer signing up to go fight in the war. And it's like, I don't know, he keeps getting younger every time the story gets cold. But he's like, he was nine years old, right? And it's like, well, all his friends were going there. So what else was he gonna do? And yeah, it's just, I mean, you think, I mean, or another one, like, Ted Williams is the greatest, he's the greatest hitter of all time among them. And it's like, yeah, also an amazing fighter pilot, apparently, like it's just the people, I am of a belief though, like special people are just special and there's some stuff. Like, you know, we see it with athletes all the time, right, like a shocker, a lot of guys in the NHL, very good golfers, you know, it's like, but when you're able to do something that aren't wholly connected, like you mentioned, I mean, like the Bob Cole thing, and it's like he's Bob Cole, but he also like skips in the briar and flies planes and with Hadfield, it's incredibly impressive. - No, I can't even begin to think about it though, 'cause it's like, I could barely do this one thing. - No, it was good, you took the correct tact where you're like, that's so impressive. Again, like, I punctuated my take on the matter with like, that's not fair, it's really not fair, like, it's weird 'cause that's normally where I find myself. I'm the king of complaining about fair, not fair, and certainly where I go, but I think it actually is fair. Feels fitting. - Yeah, let some other people have some things, don't just be like so amazing at all the things. And I mean, you go back, so the various Toronto sports teams have their, quote unquote, mascots, right? Or their celebrity fans, right? And obviously the Raptors, I mean, he's on the payroll, so the Drake and the Raptors, maybe the Raptors don't get the all-star game in Toronto without Drake. - Not back to you, though. Don't disrespect, like, if we're doing mascot fans. - Sure, there's multiple, but if we're talking, like, not bad, yeah, it became a celebrity because of the Raptors, it wasn't, okay, he wasn't a celebrity three Raptors where it's like Drake and-- - No, no, that's fair. - Drake was Drake, and then the Raptors are like, can you be Drake with us? And he's like, sure. - I would love to. Yeah, for my-- - It would be, it would be my pleasure. I don't know who that is with the Blue Jays. I mean, it seems like it's every hockey player that's from this area. - It's every Canadian professional athlete. Like, you can't go to a golf tournament in the summer without talking to these guys, and they're like, oh, what's going on with the Jays? That's what it is with them, but, yeah. - Okay, for the Maple Leafs, it's our next guest. It's Commander Chris Hadfield, Officer of the Order of Canada, first Canadian to perform a spacewalk. He dropped the puck from space from the ISS for the Leafs in their season opener in 2013. He joins us on the line right now. How's it going? - All right, it's going great. Thank you, it's a beautiful sunny morning and really looking forward to tomorrow night's game. - Yeah, thanks for doing this. I feel like I need a pep talk from you. Like, I feel like you can give us something inspiring. What is your level of confidence in this Leafs team trailing two games to one, headed into tomorrow night's game four? - Well, if you're gonna express it that way, you're gonna get yourself dug into a hole. So what's really happened is that we've been playing during the whole season, what was the best or one of the very best teams in the league. We beat 'em once. We took 'em right to the edge twice. And I mean, that last game, it was anybody's game. If we just responded a little quicker after we got our goal, you know, we let them get a quick goal, everybody's still a little bit, you know, right in the rebound, it would have been our game. So it's super close. And if you look across the league, I mean, there are some of the other guys aren't doing so well. You know, it's already three nil, you know? And so we're right in there and we're playing at home on Saturday night. So, I mean, it's not perfect, but it is great. And we're playing in Superb hockey. So yeah, we got a whole bunch of work to do, but I'm really looking forward to boys showing what they could do on Saturday night. - It is funny, you know, just from my perspective, like we will sometimes be lucky enough to talk with a celebrity like yourself. And they say, oh, they, you know, they love the team. And then we'll get talking with them. And they go, they like the idea of the team. But I can tell you're locked in. How do you feel about this group compared to teams in the past? I mean, it's a pretty different team than what we've seen here, Chris. - Well, what we've needed for several years, I think, has been someone in our defensive zone that the other team is wary of and concerned about. And, you know, a little bit frightened of. And we haven't had that for a long time. We've been all offense with the best offense in the league. You know, best goal scorer in the league. And where we're superb at that. I mean, there's nobody like Martin. There's nobody like Matthews, you know. And we got a bunch of people that are really good. But when they got in our end, it was a bunch of good competent defensive players. But nobody that people were really afraid of. And we've made that change. And I think it's important. We've still got all the great skill players. And we've made a couple of real good smart trades, I think, that have set it up as well. So I think that's a big difference. And we're playing, I mean, shoot, we're in the playoffs. A lot of the teams aren't. We've got one game we scored in the playoffs. I mean, they got great goalies on Boston. But we scored on both of them. So, okay. So, you know, it's not easy, it's the playoffs. But we've won one game. There's nothing stopping us winning this next game, except ourselves. So we're just going to get at it. - So everybody in our listening audience has experienced playoff over time with this Toronto Maple Leafs team. So they understand that stress. But I need a point of comparison here, Chris. What is more stressful? The third period of a tied Leafs game or playoff over time or sitting on the launch pad as countdowns about to hit. - Well, it depends who you are. For me, the most stressful launches are the ones where I'm not on board. Because I have no control over what's going to happen. I'm just a spectator watching while friends of mine do something extremely difficult and with a very high level of danger. And so all I can do on the sidelines of watching the rocket launch is kind of, you know, clenched and unclench my fists and yell and hope, you know? Whereas if you're on board, if you're the person, you know, in the arena, then it's up to you. And you feel a lot more in control. And you can actually, through your own efforts and your own preparation, you can help determine what's going to happen. So I wasn't nearly as nervous on the three spic rockets that I helped fly as I was watching other people launch. And it's a little bit the same at a Leafs game. The guys on the ice shoot, they're in the thick of it. They're playing. They're, you know, they've heart and soul and mane out there and right in it. Whereas us and the audience, you know, we're like on the whipsaw of emotion and all we can really contribute is our voices that are, you know, our thoughts. So, yeah, I think there's a good parallel there. And I would much, I'm not a hockey player, unfortunately, or at least I'm a terrible one. But, and I really enjoy being in the audience, but I think I'm much more emotional as an audience member than I would be if I was actually someone playing at that level. - Yeah, hockey is like the only thing you don't do. Like, yeah, it gets the one thing missing from your resume. You almost had a perfect resume, Chris. You missed it. - Yeah, that's a shame. - I was also-- - Hey, I did want to mention, I met Bob Cole once. - Oh, yeah. - I went to an alumni-- - The floor is yours. - The one-night dinner. I went to the alumni dinner once, you know, for the Hockey Players Association, had a really nice meeting with a lot of the guys who've retired from active playing and Bob was there. And he was just, I mean, everybody who's ever met him knows he was a gentleman, a thoughtful guy, an original, he recognized the importance of how he brought the game to everybody, you know, and how he shared his love of it with everybody. And he knew that he was sort of setting the standard. You know, the way he spoke, not really a good parallel, but I worked in Mission Control for 25 shuttle flights in a row, and I was the Capcom. I was the person who was the voice between the crew on board and everybody in Mission Control. I was there a trusted agent, and I would express what the crew was thinking and doing and try and get everybody in Mission Control to understand that, and also vice versa. 'Cause, you know, what is the crew here from everybody else? And recognizing the responsibility of his role and doing it so exquisitely well, you know, so that everybody else sort of goes, "Okay, that's the standard that I'm gonna do my best to be a copycat of that." Even the guy who hosts Survivor, if you ever listened to the way that he narrates how and the actual events are happening, he's completely channeling Bob Cole, but he just, you know. - He's cliffing him. - Yeah, so to me, that's the greatest form of compliment is, you know, that they're just recognizing he was an original, and he lived a long, great life, and he's missed. - Yeah, and who doesn't say, "Oh, baby." Yeah, when something awesome happens in a hockey game. I don't know if that's what you said is those three separate rockets we're launching that you were sitting atop of, but yeah, it would have been a nice exclamation, "Oh, baby." But yeah, I was going through. - Yeah, but the thing is you don't want everything to be happening. Only the things that are supposed to be happening, not everything. - Yeah, you don't want to be the Bob Cole. Everything is happening. So, yeah, you were on three separate excursions to space. Your last one on the ISS, Expedition 34 and 35, you were on board the ISS for multiple months and dropped the puck, of course, for the season over in 2013. I'm just like, I need a nuts and bolts answer to this, Commander. 'Cause you came back from the ISS on May 13th, 2013, and people may, that date might not ring a bunch of bells for people. It should, it was the date of game seven, four-one Leafs leading in the latter stages against the Boston Bruins. Were you, like, what was your understanding of that game? Like, did you, like, obviously your focus was elsewhere. When did you find out what happened in that hockey game? - Yeah, I was the pilot of the spaceship that was bringing us back to Earth. So, I was distracted, you know? - I had the attention to fly in that spaceship. So, I thought, okay, so how can I contribute to this pivotal game? Well, you have to wear a specific, a pressure suit in case your spaceship springs a leak coming back down through the atmosphere. So, you're wearing this suit that can hold the Earth's atmosphere right around your body and keep you alive. But I thought, and yet what you wear inside it is pretty important, so it's not flammable and it fits and everything. But I thought, hey, you know, what are they gonna do? Fire me, this is my last space flight. So, I was wearing my leaf shirt underneath my pressure suit as I was coming back down through the atmosphere. And it took a few hours from the time we undocked and then fired our engines. And then you come just incredibly fast into the Earth's atmosphere and the flames are licking around your ship and you're using the air to slow yourself down. And finally, after being crushed into your seat for a few minutes, you get down low enough, you open up the parachute opens and then you're whang, whap into the world. It's so hard, you tumble end over end a few times. It's so violent, getting back to Earth. They drag you out, they stick you in a deck chair so the doctors can start gathering all of their data and information. And one of the first things they do, after all of that, is hand you a sat phone to talk to your family. (laughing) And so the first thing I, you know, I'm all dizzy 'cause, you know, I haven't had gravity for half a year. I just feel terrible. But so they hit a sat phone in my hand and my wife's name is Helena. And I'm like, "Hey, I love how are you, fine, oh, I'm fine." And, "Oh, it's cool, great to have you back." "Yeah, I'm doing okay at everything." And how do the Leafs do? - Oh, God. - And she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I lost a good seven." And I was like, "Oh, geez, what a, well, that's just a shame." But yeah, that was a third period meltdown. So, you know, but that was a whole different group of guys. And-- - Yeah, have you retired that shirt, though? That shirt's cursed, maybe. - Yeah, I don't-- - I have that, yeah, I have stuff in the hockey hall of fame. I think that's where it's in there. But, you know, it's a different group of guys. My great-grandfather was a physical trainer for the Leafs back just before the Second World War. And so I was, you know, born, raised as someone who enjoys watching hockey, watching the Leafs play. And it's year by year. And there's been some years we've won, some years we haven't. It's been a while since we won the Cup. And I'm really looking forward to Saturday's game. And I'll be there cheering until I'm even a little bit hoarse still from the night before last. So I'll use up all my voice and do everything I can to get those boys revved up and have them play their best hockey possible. - Yeah, I hear you talking about it. You can tell how much the team means to you. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and ask you to rank it. But I mean, when, and, you know, Bob Cole on the brain here, I'm not rushing you to the grave. But when it's all said and done, like, on the list of things you've accomplished and honors you have, dropping the puck from space. Like, I don't think we can kind of overstate that. Mike Weir dropped it in the green jacket. That was pretty cool. I don't know that we could ever top dropping a puck from space. Like, how much does it mean to you to have got to do that for a team that clearly means so much to you? - It was so cool because up there, you don't get real time, any sort of broadcast. But the Leafs organization was nice enough to send me an immediate recording of every game, commercial-free, and so while I was exercising, 'cause you have to exercise two hours a day up there, which is that the other 22 hours you're floating weightless, you get zero exercise. And so while I was exercising, I put the game on. And Roman Romanenko, one of the cosmonauts on board, he'd come and float behind me and watch some of the game while I was exercising. And so when they said, you know, and that was a delayed year for the start, and they said, "Hey, you wanna drop the puck?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'd absolutely love to." And I'm like, "We don't have a puck up here. "This is gonna be difficult, but I'll figure out something." And so I hunted around, I found this can of tuna or something, and it was sort of puck-sized. And I was having my black sharpie and trying to make the tuna can black, but it didn't look very convincing. And then Kevin Ford, one of the other astronauts, came over with a lens cap of a camera that was exactly the right size and jet black. And I thought, "Perfect, that looks like a puck, that'll be fine." And then, you know, I did it from orbit, and then the way they did it on the ground was I think Felix Potts, and then he ran it through. And I think it was Johnny Bauer, actually, who took it out onto the, you know, Johnny Bauer, hero of mine, Johnny took it out onto the ice. So for me to be part of that, and I could feel, you know, I'm named for my great grandfather, who was a trainer. His name was, one of his names was Austin, and one of my names is Austin. So to have that link and to be part of it and recognize, you know, hey, this is just fun, but it's way fun. And what a cool thing and a good way to honor the team get things going that year. So yeah, I'm really, I've got to stand on the ice and sing "Oh Canada" before they play as well. And those, to me, those are huge honors and treats and privileges. And I treasure and cherish them. - Yeah, it's unbelievable all the things that you've done, all the things you're capable of as well. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you one space question before we go. Are we going to Mars in my lifetime? I'm 40 years old. Are we going to Mars, Chris? - Well, we've been sending robots there since the '60s. We've got robots driving around on the surface, digging, looking for fossils. - Humans, I mean. - But for people? - Yeah. - Yeah, humans. You're 40? - Yeah. - So you'll probably live another 45 years? Yeah, I think. - Fingers crossed. - Mars. Yeah, I think so. But we've got to invent better engines. Right now, we're basically just, we've burned, you know, methane and oxen. We're burning fossil fuels. And it's super powerful. But it's, the trouble is Mars is way further away than most people think. Like, and if you're just going to fire some big burning engine for, I don't know, 10 minutes, and then coast for six months and hoping. And then when you get there, you're going blisteringly fast. And Mars is atmosphere, it's sort of like reverse Goldilocks. It's too thick to ignore, but too thin to use. And so you can't slow down in the atmosphere like we do on Earth. So that means you need to bring a bunch of fuel to slow down. And I don't think we are going to find a way that is safe enough and financially worth it in order to send people to Mars with the engine technology we have right now. We've got to, we can do better, we're smarter. But we've got to invent something. And it's hard to predict when you're going to invent things. But I think, assuming you live to be Bob Cole's age, assuming you got another 50 years or so, then I think in the next 50 years, yeah, we have a real, I mean, look what's happened in the last 50 years. Oh my God. You know, we went from just barely able, we've had people living in space for the last 23 years. And there's a Canadian, Jeremy Hanson, who's gone to the moon in a year and a half. And we're, you know, so huge advances, we're a smart species, we'll figure some stuff out, and we should get at least some of our eggs out of all the same basket. You know, it's good for the future. So I think so, but you may be retired by the time. But that's okay. That's fine. We just need to do it when it's the right time. Yeah, when I go home today, I'm going to tell my eight year old and six year old sons to get on, like figuring out a new way to propel spaceships because we need to figure this out. And they'll drop the puck from Mars. Yeah. (laughing) Commander, this is an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for doing this. Appreciate it. Good to talk to you both and go Leafs. Appreciate it. There is the great Commander Chris Hadfield, Officer of the Order of Canada, the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk, dropped the puck from the International Space Station in 2013. One of the great Canadians in the history of this country. Yeah, man. He went to space. He walked not on the Earth. It's incredible. And the thing I love the most about it is that that's real. This isn't like, you know, we know. There are celebrity fans who it's like, they like to be on Gucci Row for Raptors games or Knicks games or whatever. That's real. That's like, I mean, literally steeped in it. His name is like, is a middle name or something? Is Austin? I love me some serendipity. I love that. And God, don't do it for me. Do it for him. Yeah. Yeah. Time now for the wake and rake, presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly. All right, game four, hockey night in Canada, Bruins, Leafs, Scotiabank Arena, eight o'clock on hockey night in Canada, sports net CBC, sports net 590, the fan. And it's just a plain old coin flip. Minus 110, both teams. The total, we got to have a goal in this one. It's six with an unconfirmed goalie, I guess, for the Boston Bruins. I guess you got to open it yourselves up to the possibility of it being Lienus Almark. I can't imagine they go away from Jeremy Swamman. I can confirm it'll be a good goalie in that for Boston. I won't do the Jim Montgomery. I'll be like, what was your vowels in his name? I've been taking under all series long when it's been five and a half for some reason. We're getting an extra half goal tonight. You got to pay a little vig. I know minus 120, but yeah, give me the under in this game. It's the thing I'm far and way most confident about. Believe in yourself, leave fans. Believe in this team that, you know, it's always darkest right before the dawn. Oh, okay. Leafs minus a goal and a half plus 220. Come on, have some guts. I don't. You think this is going to be a cakewalk for the Boston Bruins? I don't think so. At least this is going to a game six and probably likely a game seventh. Yeah, I like the Leafs to bounce back with William D. Lander maybe in the lineup on Hockey Night in Canada. That was the Wakenrake presented by Sports Interaction, your homegrown Sportsbook 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Frank Cervelli, president of hockey content at dailyfaceoff.com. The fan morning show continues. Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, sportsnet 590, the fan.
