[MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, Joe Sportsnet 590, the band man and his friend gutting good morning to you, Brad. Good morning to you. Great job by Sandman kicking that up. What's ringing in my head now? And it's like maybe just the Bob Cole of it all from this week. But they're going home. But that was like in a bad way. This is in a good way. Also, Matthew Knives. We got him. And then it's like boy, hockey player is in the bus. I'm just going to say the same thing. The Arizona kids say, hey, we got him, baby. Go on home, eh? Mission accomplished. Put up the banner just like Bush. And yeah, it might be fitting. Joke, given what's happening tonight. But how are we doing? Mission not quite accomplished. No, but I mean, you know, they're one of the game. They win a game. They extended the series tonight is Game 6, Leafs, and Boston Bruins. Just like temperature check from you to start, because boy, Saturday felt like the Nadir felt like it couldn't get worse than Saturday. And perhaps the takes will all seem so silly in retrospect. One game does not, in fact, do that yet. Like it's not done just because they won a game in overtime, in Boston. Still riding a six game postseason home losing streak. The potential for embarrassment still exists with this Leafs hockey team. But where is, where are you mentally going into Game 6 tonight? OK, mentally. Wow, wow, this could go a long way. I'll try to keep it somewhat on the rails. I wore the hat. I wore to do the show before the last time they won a game. So I'm trying to do my part here. I did think, you know, I'm driving in. Maybe I got in like a touch later than I normally do. But maybe it was just less cloudy today. I felt like I saw the sun poking throughs. Those crews invited on the DVP. You could sit like it was almost like it wasn't sun. I don't know when sunrise is. But like at five o'clock in the morning, you can see like a light blue in the sky, in the eastern portion of the sky. Yeah, so I don't know. The sun was coming up now. You could also tell me it's like, make peace with the day of your death. And this is going to be a nice tranquil start to your day. You could talk me into that, but no, I'm feeling pretty good. I think a big, big part of it is how, I mean, they did it to themselves, but how embarrassed this team was last time they played on home ice. And, you know, I don't, I don't think it's a guaranteed win tonight. I would go as far as to guarantee it ain't going to look like what it looked like on Saturday last time the Leafs were at home. I mean, it's hard to imagine it looking any worse, especially through the first 40 minutes of the hockey game. Hey, they scored a goal on the third. That was nice. And it got, it was such a nice goal. It really was like it got, it gets papered over because who cares? Three one, but like, and this is the beautiful thing about postseason highlights is that when his whole career, you're putting it together, you throw that one in there a thousand times out of a thousand, but it's tough. And they know one goal and a three one. I think if the Leafs lose tonight, no matter what, Mitch Marner does, it'll still be the image of him throwing his gloves. Oh, of course. The defining image. I told you that it's already the defiant, the second it happened. I said, that's going on the DVD for the Leafs postseason. That's the cover. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's not nothing that that happened in the second period. And he came out with his best period of the game. Playing guilty, playing mad, whatever you want to call it. And then followed that up with a nice performance in game five on the road. Mm hmm. All right. So Sheldon Keefe, how do you feel? Are you excited about returning home? Obviously. What does it mean that the next playoff games will be at home and you get to have all these loyal Leafs fans be watching? Quite honestly, it makes nothing. We have to play the exact same way, wherever, wherever it is. And we're happy to give our fans another opportunity to, you know, to play in front of them. But we have to approach the need, no different than we have on the road in terms of our plan and what's required. You know, we don't have to impress anyone. We don't have to do this or that, need to win the hockey game. In order to do that, just a process and a plan that's been put in place. And when we've done it well, we've been successful in this series and when we haven't, we haven't been successful. So going to this portion of the series, both teams, I don't know exactly what it takes. And it's about execution and performance. And that's where our focus needs to be. Didn't really answer the question. But if you don't want it, he actually did. Right at the very, very beginning. What does it mean to you? You just take the first word of that answer, nothing. We're not trying to impress anybody. We're just trying to win a hockey game. That would be impressive in its own right. Yeah. There's, yeah, going into the House of Horrors with your season on the line. It's not supposed to be your home building. But honestly, what's more, a House of Horrors right now? Because Leafs have two wins in this series, both in Boston. And now I guess like game seven in Boston is a different deal. But like, what's the bigger House of Horrors? Two wins in Boston. They have no wins on home ice. They have no wins in the playoffs in home ice in six. What's the bigger House of Horrors for the Leafs team right now? Just go to my green. That's the one that they have the more consecutive losses in. It's the one that they most recently embarrassed themselves in. Say what you will about the losses in Boston in this series. Say what you will about even the back-to-back week of 4-1 losses that they had where Joe Wall started, both of them. They didn't look like that Saturday night game. It hasn't looked like it's looked at home. And, you know, yes, is TD Garden until you ultimately slay the Dragon. And again, like it should be ours. It's named after a Canadian bank, like go in there and own it. But if it gets back to a game seven, it becomes Boston's House of Horrors. Because this is everything we talked about leading into it. And what happened with them last year and them being unable to put away, you know, the team that everyone seemingly finds a way to put away in the NHL over the last six, seven, eight years of all of this. So yeah, it's no question right now that it's Scotiabank Arena. And it's only powered by the fact that if you slay your Dragon tonight of winning a game at home in the playoffs, an insane thing to say. If you're able to get over that impossible hump, then you put Boston in the exact position you're in tonight. Okay, do you remember the last home playoff victory for the Maple Leafs? Nope. Game two of the Tampa series. It was after that same. Yeah, after the seven, three loss in game one in which it was, oh my God, same old Leafs. Like, except worse this time, they bounced back with a better performance in game two. That was it. That was the end of winning on home ice. They had a chance to to salt away the series on home ice in game five and lost five or four to and then went on the road to Emily Arena in overtime, winning game six, two to one. But game two of the Tampa series was the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won a playoff home game. So yeah, you gave us your, your feeling going into this game. Oh, for me? Yeah, you're a person with feelings as well. I should check in with you. Yeah, not the same as me. Like, you know, you're more of an adult and. Yeah, I mean, I'm older than you. So like just from a sheer mathematics perspective, I've been following this Leafs team longer than you. True. And so it's just that's that's that's math. Did you just did you just score board being on fan? I sure did. Yeah, but then we could go like anguish per 60 and it's not even close. Yeah, I I've gained a little, I know you talked about the perspective that you've gained now with your child and how like score and ball hockey means more than the Leafs. But I only get that back like it's gone. He didn't have ball hockey last week. So I'm two weeks removed from it. I won't get it again until Sunday. So it's like, I will eventually have it again on Sunday, but I have lost it already. I've also been in this industry for 20 years, which is like it does impact the like fandom part of it. But yeah, keep score board decade for me. But I will say that, um, yeah, again, we keep calling it hockey. It's goal-tending and that the Leafs at least have like are on equal footing with Jeremy Swamin and the Boston Bruins with what they can provide between the pipes. I mean, that's that change to me that changes everything. And I wonder if it changes the feeling going into this game tonight. I got obviously the start is so insanely, insanely important. And even if they get the same score board at the end of 20 minutes that they got, at the end of 20 minutes of game five, but the shot chair looks like that, the effort level looks like that, that building will be rocking. Okay, you will not be booed off the ice if you're out shooting the Bruins 30 to 10. Even if you're down to one going into the second period, if there is an effort, if there is, if there is a, the desperation level that we so wanted to see on Saturday, if you see that to start the game, no matter what the score board reads, right? Like that's, that's the thing. It's like, it's not just that the Leafs were down three nothing in that hockey game. Hey, you're allowed to be trailing. Yeah, and we know that in the best version of this Toronto Maple Leafs team, they can erase whatever deficit you throw at them. It's that you look like you care as much as the fan base cares. And they did in the opening 20 minutes of game five in Boston. Replicate that in the opening 20 minutes tonight, and you have everybody on board. You have everybody believing anything is possible, especially when you have the most important thing in hockey, maybe trending in your direction in Joseph Wall. Yeah, it certainly looks like he could start taking some strides in that way. You know, it's funny, there's been so much crowd talk, and I think we're going to see another evolution of it tonight. I think that everyone got on them heading into game four, and then they went, okay, we're loud. You didn't give us anything good to be loud about. So we're going to be big loud and mad about it. But now I think, and you know, it's not a one to one. Like it's not like the same 20,000 people that were in there on Saturday are going to be in there tonight, although there's a, you know, a fair amount of overlap at this time of year with season ticket holders, those types of things. I think there is a want from the crowd to show that they can cheer this team in a positive way. If they give them, it's not going to be- Dude, I thought that existed on Saturday. I think everybody in the building on Saturday wanted it. Well, and understood the narrative surrounding, like they'd read the thing, they saw the Joe Bowen tweet, right? They all- And let's be honest, that's like, that is their patron saint. They listened to him all coming in, you drive him home, like, yeah. Guess what? We weren't having the conversations about the crowd that we were having without that tweet. That was like the patient zero of- It's true, in Toronto Maple. We all kind of dance around it. And then that's like, oh, okay, well, the Pope said it, so. Yeah, I don't know if we've even said it explicitly here, we should. Yeah. Yeah, Joe Bowen said the thing that started the conversation. But yeah, I think anybody that was in attendance on Saturday understood that narrative, understood the people coming out of the woodworks to make fun of the sushi eaters and make fun of the people that aren't there to start the period. And part of it was also they had the Bob Cole thing before the game, which got their juices flowing even more. Mm-hmm. That crowd was ready to be supportive of this hockey team. Unfortunately for them, they got served, not just gruel. It was like moldy gruel with like rat feces in it. Wow. For the first 40 minutes I get, like even if the leaves show something, like a couple of big hits, a couple of big saves from Jeremy Swamin, it's a different deal and they're not getting booed off the ice after 40 minutes. Just don't serve them rat feces filled gruel tonight. I'm going to ask for a little more than that. I'm not going to go as far as- Just do that. As caviar. How about just normal gruel? Normal gruel? I could have normal gruel. I think those people would gladly eat up normal playoff gruel tonight of a one, one game where it's just a slog out there and yeah, you're getting your chances. But the whole game kind of feels like overtime. Oh God, I can't believe I just spoke that into existence. But everyone in the building would gladly, gladly sign up for that tonight. So yeah, I think that is the other part of this as well. You know, we talk about it, how important starts are all the time with this team. You know, until the next time they play a game at home, which is entirely possible next year, if it doesn't go well tonight. But this is just another example of the most crucial 10 minutes start of a game you could possibly have. And I think the emotion is going to be such a big part of it. You know, again, I'm just, I know people hear me mention the word official and they think I'm about to start crying about it. I'm just mentioning a fact. Go back and remember the least first home game of this series and it's Max Domi and he breaks his, he didn't get penalized for it. He breaks his stick, cross-checking Brad Marchon in the arm and the rest just let it go. You're not going to be able to get too many more of those freebies in this series. And Domi is kind of a guy in particular. And I think he's done a good job since that game of kind of finding his right level. He was amazing at just a player. Forget about the emotion and his discipline in the last game. But he is the guy who has got to kind of find the right line, especially, especially if there's no Matthews and, you know, maybe that's where we transition, although what's to say, but the, but if there's no Matthews, I think it almost helps Domi find that line easier because you need so much more from him. Not that you don't need a lot when Max Domi, if he's riding shotgun with Matthews or if he's your 3C or wherever he is, but if all of a sudden he's your number one center and it's Mitch Marner and him and Bertuzzi, it's a very different role than if you're the tertiary piece. And, you know, Marner's still the guy driving that line much like Matthews is, but it's different being number one center than it is being a support piece to us to Matthews. Yeah, I think what we said yesterday is the key point here is like there's no more tone setting. You set the tone like on the opening phase off the game one where the officials are coming over to you, Max Domi and saying, "Hey, listen, my eyes are on you. Don't be stupid here." And there were a myriad of stupid penalties over the first three games of the series. The specialty team's part of this series is the entirety of the series. I think anybody that's played in this series understands the stakes here to taking a stupid penalty in the hockey game. It could mean your season's over. So, yeah, if you have to eschew some of your physical play and even some of your hitting to not make sure that you do not take a penalty, I think you're doing that. Because it's the most important thing that you keep this game as much at five on five as humanly possible. Yeah, and I think that that is it's going to be imperative for them to kind of find the line there. And I think this is the thing about playoff hockey is that you've got to find it pretty early on in the game. Boston, they have experience in these things. And again, like I can roll my eyes at as much as I want. Brad Marchon does find a way to be on the right side of these things. It's not lost on me that the only time we got called for a penalty, it's when somebody else was going to get taken along with him. Boston's very good at finding the line. And again, this isn't, I know people hear this and they go, "Oh, crying about the rest." No, the rest have not been bad in this series. I've had my issues. Like, we can have the McElboy Suplex conversation or, but I don't think it's been completely tilted in Boston's favor. And it doesn't matter because the Leafs haven't been able to take advantage of the thousand penalties and it wouldn't matter. They've had the majority of power play opportunities. They've scored one time. So it doesn't matter. I don't know that this is in the rules. And I will actually do it. You're not allowed to do this. But I wonder in the meetings that because it's been Brad for a living, apparently he's been handling dealing with the series supervisor, not Sheldon Keefe, which given Sheldon Keefe's reputation with the officials, maybe not the worst way to go about it. But I wonder if tri-living is working at it, that every time Boston gets called for a penalty, the Leafs can just bank it and then nullify one of theirs later on. Oh my God. So it's like, "Hey, Brad Marchon hooking. You know what, don't worry about it. We'll just keep playing five on five." But it goes on the board. It's like, they can use the time out. Like, you know, in NBA, it's like you have the time out. So along the bottom of the scoreboard there, it's like six and a half or whatever it is. It's like, "Hey, look at the Leafs. They got two banked penalties that they could cancel out of theirs." I love that idea. Could you imagine how good that would be? I love that idea. By the way, I do remember, upon reflection, when I think I asked you the other day, "Hey, do you remember the Leafs' power play goal?" I did remember it in the moment. I just had to look at the hamster wheel moving a little bit. But yeah, it was in game two to even the series or even that game up at twos, allowing Austin Matthews to score the game winner on the breakaway. But it was just... Yeah, Johnny T. Johnny Toronto. Oh my God, did the Leafs bunch of aligned captain who, yes, makes too much money for the 65 points he scored in the regular season? Did he score a big goal for the hockey club? I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Okay, so the way I was going to phrase this next topic was, like, who has the least to lose? Because I think the guy that has the most to lose is kind of obvious. And maybe you disagree. I think it's pretty clearly Mitch Marner because... Oh yeah, I was like non-coach edition, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But honestly, yeah. Sheldon Keefe is what the extension has even kicked in yet. And he's going to get another kick of the can somewhere. Yeah, there's no way that it's not going to be immediate. There's a ton of good coaches. See, all the guys got fired. But yeah, the idea that Sheldon Keefe's never coaching in the NHL again, highly doubtful. For Mitch Marner, they lose tonight. And it doesn't matter really in what fashion it comes. And despite the fact that he played very well in game five and scored the only goal of the hockey game in game four, it seems pretty clear. And we'll talk to our good buddy, Nick Kiprios, who's going to be all over this thing in the off season. Seems pretty clear that no extension will be forthcoming on July 1st to him. And then at that point, it's, hey man, do you want to just be the sour puss for an entire season here? Because you control your destiny in the no trade clause and then hit free agency where we're clearly not bringing you back, barring some miracle. Or do you want to wave it and your tenure with your hometown team and get paid somewhere else? So like clearly the stakes for Mitch Marner are like a dream continuing or ending in horrific, horrific fashion where the lasting image will be of him throwing his gloves on the bench in this first round playoff series. It's hard to look at anybody else. I mean, when you look, when you think about the Leafs, they're player wise. There are five players that come to mind. It's the core for and Morgan Riley. Morgan Riley has his fair share criticism. He probably has skirted it, quite honestly, because of all the other things that have happened in this series. But he can wear the failures that have happened to this point. But it's also locked up on a team friendly extension and say what you will about Morgan Riley. But the knock on him is that he's not a number one defenseman. Right. And in his heart of hearts, he and his cap hit would say, agreed. They would agree with you on that. So you can only pile so much on him. I'm not absolving him a blame, but there's only so much that can be had there. Tavares copy and paste every conversation we've had since he signed, since he played in Luke and up until now, we understand where we stand with this player. There are maybe things he can lose, but I don't know that it is everything like it's possible with your talk about with Marner. William Neelander, he was absolved from the first three games of the series. We can have a conversation about, oh, it was a headache. I think we all understand it was not. So, you know, his play tonight, if you if Marner is dominant, it's one of the guys that I think has the least to lose. Like he's already he's he's well compensated now. And plus, even if he's a non factor, he's going to be down the pecking order. Plus they'll be the caveat of the the migrants. So this is where I think it's interesting in terms of what does to lose have to mean, because Marner has both, right? Like there's financial stuff and there is public perception with Neelander. It's the opposite. The financials are baked in. So the public perception is the only thing and how much does he care about that? I think that's a totally fair question. But, you know, we we talk about it like it can happen, but if Marner has two dominant games and the least wing game six and game seven and will William Neelander is whole humming it and he doesn't have any goals in the series. And yeah, did he have a great look in game five? Sure. Great looks aren't what we talk about at this time of year. I think that he can kind of wear some of it. And then Matthews, again, we will find out someday what is going on right now, but pretty hard to criticize him for what's happening in a series that he's not playing in the back half of. And then everybody else on this team to a certain extent, sorry, is inconsequential. And I don't say that about their play, but just in narrative terms. So it really can only come down to Marner or to Neelander. The only guy I suppose I can make an argument for elsewhere is Joe Wall, but it's more him not gaining than losing. Yeah, because Joe Wall has a chance to be great in these two games and win them a series. And then he gets to say the exact same thing. Samsonov had said about him all year long, but he does it while the team's invested in him and he's dirt cheap. I think wall can handle wall can change what type of competition he deals with next year in these next two games, but his spot on the team, I don't really think is that much for grabs. I still think you need a nice safety net for him considering the injury possibility with Joe. Oh, I think that part of it. But I think there's a very different thing between your, you know, I'm just going to pull out a guy who we had on the show this week. You're Jake Allen, who it's like, Hey, this guy can be a awesome stalwart versus somebody you want to push Joe Wall. Like if you bring in a guy who it's Hey, you are the one B you're going to help shepherd this guy along. Don't worry. He's a panda. You're going to get your fair share of games. That's very different than and not that they do this again. I didn't even know who this guy is, but doing the Elia Samsonov competition where it's a young guy wants the net open competition. I think Joe Wall's performance in these next two games very much could dictate what type of goaltender they want his tandem partner to be next year. Honestly, maybe I'm too much of a weather vein, but I watched the performance in game five from Joe Wall. And I'm already like, okay, well, this guy's you feel pretty confident that he's your number one going into next season, no matter what. And that like, yeah, the only thing you need is a guy to cover off the whatever 20 games that he misses, because he's going to be injured. That's just the way it is. I mostly agree with you, but it's hard to shake the two games he played against Boston. What? Three months ago? Yeah, that was the room. No, no, hold on. I was saying the Joe Wall yesterday and then you and McKee were yelling at me about those games. So does it matter or not? Nah, it doesn't matter. Depending on the take, I guess. Yeah, the other guys that I'm curious as to what you think about the importance of the result of the series to these guys who are on one year deals, Max Domie and Tyler Batuzzi, who have already, you know, they've contributed pretty significantly in the series already. Max Domie leads the Maple Leafs in playoff points. He's got four. Seems good. And he has a goal and three assists and he won all the face offs in game five. And already he's, I mean, he's, man, I talk about the Dante thing. Like, hey, I'm not even supposed to be here today from clerks. Like he's not supposed to be here. He's not supposed to be centering in a top line. Well, Mitch Marner and Tyler Batuzzi. And not only is he doing an admirable job, you're like, yeah, keep it going. Like that's, you need that. And he's providing what you wanted and then more considering the face off wins. And yeah, the scoring opportunities that are coming his way, Tyler Batuzzi as well, he's racking up points. And boy, he changed the narrative on his whole season. I think those guys, whether it's in Toronto, and I think it means more obviously to Max than it does to Tyler. Tyler's like, whoever's going to pay me the most money. Listen, I'm not, I don't want to speak for Tyler Batuzzi. This is seems more like a mercenary than Max Domie, who's like, I would like to find a home obviously with the franchise I grew up idolizing. Yeah, I think largely though the the die has already cast, maybe not as being Toronto Maple Leafs. Again, if like Max Domie, like a huge part of going into this off season is him wanting to extend his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs. It probably does require at least a series win because you're not going to want too much of a reminder about this series. But I think both guys have established their value on the open market. I don't, I know, I agree with almost everything you said until the very last point about Domie. I think it has gone so swimmingly that short of him, be short of him losing a screw in tonight's game. And then the Leafs get scored on three times on penalties that he's serving. I think I don't think it's a game depends on the cost. That's the thing. You know, if he's going to take less, which like there is an indication that like if there's ever a guy who's like, yeah, I've been around the block. I haven't made a ton of ton of money, but like, yeah, I know the off-season earning potential. Yeah, I also, I just think he is, it is gone so swimmingly and he has shown such chemistry with the guy who matters the most on this team that reminder or not of how things have gone, how this season ends and how much you want to be. I think that they would gladly bring them back again, cost term, all that matters. Also, how dare you questionify the, the Leafs love that Sudbury native Tyler Burtuzzi, but I mostly agree with you that he's just like, give me the money, give me the money. But there's nothing, there's nothing to lose for those two players. Again, there's the very, I shouldn't talk about it, like it's such an impossible, happenstance with Domie. There's the chance that he does short circuit and then they get scored on a couple of times while he's in the box and he's seen to have cost them a game. I don't think that would change his impression here, but I think that that would kind of, we'd be having on a much smaller scale, but kind of cadre-ish conversations about can you trust players emotion, yada, yada. But those guys only have things to gain from this point. They both have done enough, shown the body of work have been the type of playoff performers and competitors you want, and both showed an ability to play with an elite player this year in Matthew, especially down the stretch that it's really only, they can only gain. There's nothing to lose for those guys here. We haven't really talked about it to Austin Matthews, what he has to gain or lose. I mean, I think honestly, even if he doesn't play and tonight's game, he has a huge amount to lose. This is the greatest goal scoring season in modern history with 69 goals. You will not be able to reference it without the caveat. Obviously, a non-leaf fan saying, well, yeah, what an embarrassing postseason. The guy had one incredible game and then departed for unknown reasons. And now I suppose there could be a reason that we find out he's missed these games, and it does change the perception of the player, but it's still going to be a matter of fact that, yeah, once again, the results in the regular season did not carry over into the postseason. It'll be honestly like, there'll be a level of tarnishing of what was an incredible, incredible regular season with six hat tricks and 69 goals. I'm sorry. I would wholeheartedly agree with you, even if he was banged up and he was playing. But I, if he misses the last three, three games in a period and in the first three games on that series, he won one of them single handedly. It's, I'm not saying that that narrative won't exist, but there will be enough to, again, we don't even do these in sports anymore, but to have like a bar debate about whether it's impressive or whether if he, even if he was banged up, even if we're all sitting here going, Oh, well, this is clearly 60% of Austin Matthews and the Leafs went out and he had one or two goals to show for it. Then yeah, I think that absolutely happens conversely. And you know, who knows. And I shouldn't talk about this. Like this is just the thing he can decide to do because I would imagine if he could just decide to play, he just decided to play. But man, you want to talk about legacy changing stuff like for a guy who, and I think his play has changed a lot in this regard this postseason, but for a guy, we've all kind of danced around it. But you know, for as big and as strong as he is, a little perimeter, a little not wanting to engage in the tough stuff to have the lore of this mystery ailment. And it's kept him out. And he comes back for, you know, I'm not even saying tonight, but like he comes back for a game seven on the road in Boston and doesn't even matter what he does. They just win that game. And he's a part of it. That almost stamps at home the 69 goal season more than him having five goals in the first round series. So I don't even want to talk about it that way, because I don't think this is just a flip, a switch he can flip and go, okay, all right. No, the doctors have to switch right. Right. And as I said yesterday, it's like they won't even tell the doctor which one's making the call. They go ask like five guys. But I so that's the guy I think is the one that could be changed the most in terms of the kind of core guys is if Matthew's comes back and they win. It honestly doesn't even matter what he does in that game. If they if he comes back and they win this series, can't just be a game, but he comes back and they win the series. It's amazing how much that would change that guy's perception. And this is the thing about the core forward. Maybe tomorrow is a little different. They could all use a moment like that. Be it a marner, be it a knee lander. And I guess you're kind of seeing it with knee lander. I'm coming back from the migraines. But yeah, they need that. We need the Gary Roberts black eyes playoff moment. Like we just need something that harkens us back to that. And yeah, like we got the dummy McCabe goal. That was nice, but it's not quite the same. We'll talk to some insiders later on in the program who will attempt to give us their more informed speculation about Austin Matthews availability tonight. But all right, give me your sense. Do you think he's playing tonight? No chance. I don't I don't see any way. No chance. I don't think so. No, I just it's my feel on it. Again, we're all just gut. He barely skated two days ago. He skated I guess a little more yesterday. I don't think he's playing. I don't know what this is. I I the explanation. It's so hard to picture one that makes any sense for this. But yeah, I just my gut read on it. I don't think he's playing. I do think he's playing, although if it's is the Leafs say that it's up to the doctors, he's never playing another hockey game ever again. Neither would anybody. Yeah, no one should be like they're going to play no sport. Yeah, just be like archery and pistol shooting. I don't know. Yeah. Well, not shooting each other with pistols. Like I'm talking like the potential on sure. Like it's not you don't intend to do. Well, you think you're not a Mel Gibson situation at the by Athlon? Let's know. I think the doctors want to mitigate risk as much as possible. So it's just like, you know, you can you can go into one of those sumo suits. That's that's the one sport that exists. It's like the body temperature can heat up and then. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Like people broke in their wrists and those things. Okay, never mind. Yeah, it's too dangerous. Tiddly winks. That's it. It's like one in the eye. Well, I'll just send our homes, law and darts. Both dangerous. I don't have watched a brand. All right. Anyways, I do think he's playing based on nothing. Okay. Good. Well, one of us gets to be right. This would be great. He's, you know, skating more skated more yesterday. That's it. You know what? Never mind. Not based on nothing based on something skated more yesterday. Wow. So yeah, I again, though, if it's up to the doctors, the doctors are never going to say play in a playoff hockey game, especially if they know what one is like if they've watched the series. Could you imagine asking just a doctor just showing him a bad example of Spencer Strider sees his arm exploded. But Paul Skeens are managed like, you, you okay with that? Yeah. Absolutely not. I'll know. Tell him to put that baseball down right now. Yeah, doctors that they would not let us play sport. Maybe golf, I don't know now, Tiger. God. Yeah. If you want to perhaps burnish your, your reputation on Smith is again, like not if it's something that's like seriously impactful to the rest of his life. But yeah, the urban legend of him and all the doctors telling him, don't you dare get on that ice and him pushing them aside, perhaps pushing them down to the ground and saying over my dead body and playing in tonight's game six and potentially Saturday's game seven would yeah, you want to talk about a narrative changing that would be it? Yeah, I'd say. Bear naked ladies, the big racket will be performing soby stadium on June 27 to celebrate we're giving away tickets to enter all you have to do is tune into episodes of the fan morning show, listen for the code word, then text the code word to 59590. Today's code word is the big racket. Text the big racket to 59590 right now for your chance to win. We're giving away another pair of tickets tomorrow. But if you don't win with us, make sure to secure yours at tikka master.ca. When we come back, I'm old enough to remember when the Blue Jays scored more than five runs for the first time in 21 games, that might happen. They scored one and back to back and they lost two or three to the Kansas City Royals. What's got to give here? Like at a certain point, don't you have to do something even if it's just window dressing? We'll get into that and more next as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his friend Gunning, Sports said 590 the fan. Hey, it's Aylish for a fire. And I'm Justin Cusfrey. Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night. It's the fan pregame, 6 p.m. weekdays on Sports Dad Sports Dad Sports at 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Fan Morning Show Sports that 590 the fan, Ben and his friend Gunning. Yeah, that's all well and good. You scored one run and then really, Seth Lugo's good. Guess what? Like most of the pitchers in Major League Baseball are quite good. I've heard actually. It's kind of like been a talking point across the sport. Yeah, there's no, yeah, there's just they don't face the pitching machine team. Actually, maybe they already did the Rockies. They played the Rockies, right? Like they did that factually. And I guess there's like the White Sox upcoming. So I guess you got that to look forward to. Also, like it could be worse. You could be playing interest squad games and have to go against all your good starters too. Like it's just it's infuriating. This, this death march of an offense. Okay, so it's not the worst. Okay, come on. It's not the worst. I didn't say it. It was a death march. No, I know. The A's and the White Sox are scoring more or fewer runs per game than the Blue Jays. End of list. Okay. That's it. It's just the A's and the White Sox and the A's, by the way, who are only two games out of first place in the AL West. Weirdly, not close to being the worst team in all of Major League Baseball and Ross Drippling with the nice and loading yesterday, anyways. But yeah, it's just the A's and it's just the White Sox who are on pace to be like the worst team, the White Sox. They're not particularly good, are they? The White Sox have been shut out. I want to say like seven times already this season. It's insane. That's what that's the level at which this Blue Jays team is playing offensively. So they're obviously going nowhere if Bo and Vlad continue to do what they're doing. That's pretty clear to the core. Yeah, then the offense hits the ball to the core of the earth and the core will be disbanded at the conclusion of the season. Maybe earlier than that, if this continues. So yeah, I'm not saying start benching those dudes and by the way, Vlad was the only guy he got on base twice yesterday at the first hit of the ball game at a single. He looks a little more heterish recently. But yeah, Bo continues to struggle. I mentioned that he's had a worse start to a season than this. It was 2022. And then he ended up with an OBS over 900. But it also should be noted in that season. Remember 2022? Yeah, where there was a managerial change. I do remember that. Charlie Montoya before the all-star break and that horrible sweep in Seattle. Yep, they waved goodbye to him and brought in brought in John Schneider shortly thereafter. John Schneider in his first kick of the can as a major league manager, you know what he did? Bump Boboshette down to seventh in the order. That's all I've been thinking about lately. And maybe like causation, correlation is not necessarily causation. But yeah, after that, Boboshette was a man, possessed. Mm-hmm. Okay. There was not a ball that got past his bat, went back out to the outfield and sometimes it went over the fence. Again, not saying it's as the result of being bumped down to seventh in the order, but it did come after being bumped down to seventh in the order. And we know more about Boboshette now than we did then. Like at that point, I remember thinking, oh, well, no, this guy, like the conversation we were having about Vladimir Guru Jr. and never reaching the heights that we thought he would. I think I was having those same curiosities about Boboshette. Now he finished the season with the 800 OBS. He had last season where he was on pace to be the same dude again before he got hurt at the end of the season. So I still feel pretty confident that Boboshette's going to come out of it. But I get at a certain point, is there something that needs to be done understanding that, hey, as long as they're on this team, George Springer, Vladimir Guru Jr., Boboshette, those guys are all playing. Is there is there something drastic that needs to happen now? I've been wondering about this for a while. And it's not so much because of the lack, I mean, the two things are obviously tied together. It's not as much the lack of production of what you're getting from Vlad and Bo and, you know, Springer to a certain extent, although it's like, hey, he's at least ran into a few this year. The thing that I keep coming back to is wasting this staff. And I don't mean just the starters. The pen's been, you know, it's had its hiccups here and there. But for the most part, the pen's been very good. I'm a believer in this pen, and I'm a believer in this pitching staff. And the idea that you're going to have a better pitching staff, and again, the idea that it's surrounding Vlad and Bo, that's very much up for discussion, depending on how this year goes. But you're not going to be able to supplement the offense with the staff better than this. I'm not going to say ever or anytime soon, but it's just we all we talked about heading into this season was pitching regression. Eventually, it will come and not being able to take advantage of this. I don't know if it's a call up Martinez situation. I don't know if it's tried to drop bow down to seven to see if something has to give, but you cannot just continue to run out the exact same lineup. And honestly, I feel differently about it. If you work getting the performances, you're getting from the starting pitching because you'd say, okay, this kind of is what it is this year. Let's see if we can let people figure it out. But this staff is proving that they deserve so much better than that. That's the thing I keep coming back. It's a one issue problem. 2021. It was a one issue problem. They had no bullpen. Like Trent Thornton was out there trying to save games for the Toronto Blue Jays in the year of our Lord 2021. Dark time. And they went out and they acquired not like a role this Chapman in his prime or Mariano Rivera. They got Trevor Richards and Adam Simburn was like, Oh my God. Capable relief pitching. Those guys were good. And like, yeah, I think Trevor Richards, I think has been better than most people anticipated. Even when they acquired Adam Simburn, there was like Adam Simburn, like he was good. But like, comparatively, comparatively, again, they were trotting out old Trent Trent Thornton in high leverage situations. Those guys were a manna from heaven. And it took a while until they were able to acquire those guys because trades in Major League Baseball, it really is hard to do anything of any significance before July at the very like the trades don't happen in May. Like there's just there's no way you're going to trade your way out of this. But yeah, that was a one issue problem for the 2021 Toronto Blue Jays. It is a one issue problem for the 2024 Toronto Blue Jays. It's pretty big problem. It's like the whole offense. And there's nine guys that are contributing to that. I mean, I'm going to exclude Justin Turner. I'm going to exclude Dalton Varshow and to a larger, large, well, I'm also going to exclude Danny Janssen. But to that point, you need to maximize the bats for those guys right now. You're not benching Vlad, you're not benching Bo. I don't think you're benching George Springer, but there's absolutely no reason that you can't make drastic lineup decision. You can't make drastic lineup changes right now with the understanding that, yeah, those guys will come around. You can say the same thing that John Schneider says yesterday. And of course, he's going to say that these are good hitters. And eventually, they will get hot and restore their normal offensive value. That's you can still have those conversations, but you could also say right now they stank like you're never going to say that explicitly. But with your actions, you can say, hey, right now they're not hitting, and the guys that are hitting are going to get the majority of the played appearances by being elevated in the lineup, because this is untenable. This cannot continue. And you know, maybe there's an ancillary benefit to that. Like at one, you get, yeah, more bats. So like Danny Janssen is hitting third maybe. And and Justin Turner's hitting second and like, I don't know, David Schneider's leading off like honestly, just off the top of my head. Funny that you end up there. You're not on the games. Yeah, like it's hard to disagree with that opinion that David Schneider has one of the the better on base skills on this Blue Jays team. You might have the ancillary. So the number one benefit would be like, okay, maximize the advice for those guys and try and create runs that way. But also the ancillary benefit of like just rattling people's cages. Again, maybe not the reason why Boboshette responded and had the incredible second half he did in 2022. But maybe it did contribute. Maybe it's like Bo and Vlad looking at each other and they're hitting seventh and eighth on this team. They're like, what the hell? And and maybe it's it spurns them onto a great second half of the season. Yeah. And I understand the second half. I mean, God, second month, literally, we just started the second month of the of the season. But the the other thing I look at when I I look out with this group is that to you know, and Bo and Vlad or different people, they're different players, they respond to different things. But we know one of them responded to that. And to your point, it's not a it's not a direct correlation equals causation. Like it doesn't it doesn't always mean that. But Beshette has been a guy who seems like maybe like to is a strong term, but he's perfectly fine with average cage rattled a little bit. He's he's he's cut from that mold. And I don't think you're going to see him sulking or moping. And guess what? Even if he was, if he got dropped to seventh, it can't get much worse than this. Yeah, that's the thing. If there's a George Springer who likes to hit lead up who cares like he's yeah, go be the lead off hitter from the first two games of the season or go bit in the nine hole or wherever yet the other the other name that I've been thinking about in all this as well. And this wouldn't have changed everything because if this guy's here, you're not having Justin Turner, I'd imagine. Who is the second best hitter on this team last year? Was it not Brandon belt for at least long stretches of it? How different? And again, the answer is probably not because Justin Turner, I imagine that's just like a one to one. You want because again, there's only 10 games are allowed to play him in the field this year, Justin Turner remember. So you couldn't sprout in another DH, but that was a bat that was consequential for you last year and just having lost that for nothing. And again, you did a good job in replacing that kind of part of it with Turner, but it's just the offense struggled last year and you took out one, there just wasn't enough reinforcements brought in for a group that struggled. And I don't say that to take the heat off of bow or flatty or Springer, they all should wear it. They all are wearing it quite frankly. But there was also a group that even if those guys were at the, well, I shouldn't say the absolute best versions of themselves because if those three guys have their peak seasons, then it's a very different lineup. But you needed to supplement more beyond that. And yeah, like your, you know, your hope that your Elvis Martinez could come up or somebody along those lines, but it's just there was always so much hope from the bottom two thirds of this lineup. Sure. Yeah, you needed to dad more offensively, but you know, the gamble that this front office made in the off season and told us explicitly it's, Hey, we think there's enough internal improvement. Like if they got good ish starts to the season and maybe this incredible second month plus of the season is about to occur for Vlad and Bo. If they got like 800 OPSs out of Vlad and Bo in the month of April, it's, I mean, maybe this is overstanding. It does feel like there's like five more wins out there. Yeah, no, that's not overstating. I get feels like there's five, which is an insane number, like honestly, an insane number for a month. But, but look at the score lines, like look at the games they've lost and look at the like fine margins that they're operating with. And like what I'm talking about here is like a couple extra home runs. But yeah, that's, that's, that's the difference between this team having a better record and being above 500 and being, you know, talked about as a team that's off to a good start and what we have right now, which is a team two games under 500. But Chris Bassett said, you know, it's kind of impressive that they are only two games under 500. Sam made truly one bad pitch all day, past cantinos double. Outside of that, I didn't make a single bad pitch and past the point of thinking that it's about the results and just not there. Just keep worrying about what I can can't control. And that's obviously what I did today, but it just, like I said, I'm so, I'm beyond frustrated about what the hell's going on. I mean, I got a 5-5 ERA and I feel like I had one bad game and it's just, yeah, I'm just pissed. I mean, this is no disrespect to them because I think they can win the World Series, but Houston might be the worst team we've played so far. I got a 5-1/2, GAWS got a 5. I mean, we played a really hard schedule and having played our best and yet we're close to 500. Like, I think a lot can turn really fast. It's just, I think a lot of guys are frustrated with where we're at right now. Yeah, there's no question. Don't talk about your pitching performance as being any part of the reason the Blue Jays find themselves two games under 500 because I agree with him. Like, he's been fine. Don't look at the ERA. He's been gambling of him. Yeah, no, it's not my fault. Yeah, no, you're fine. Chris Bassett, you're hitting 96 yesterday. Like, I don't know. Actually, I thought I saw 97 from Chris Bassett yesterday, which is outrageous. No, he's been fine. Well, that's bad, though. Remember, here's the guy who's like, don't do that. Yeah, right. Careful. You risk your UCL if you do that. No, he's not the problem. As far as the Blue Jays playing a tough schedule, I mean, that's all they do because they play in the toughest division in all of baseball, but he said it. They played an Astros team that is, has been rancid. Maybe the end of the season won't be rancid, but they played them like in their rancidness and lost two out of three. They played a Rays team who's the only team in the division below them in the standings. They only split that series. They played a Rockies team that hasn't led in like a quadrillion games or innings, and they took two out of three, but only two out of three. Like, there's been, okay, you can talk about it being difficult. And I, and I, and I suppose there is those two White Sox series upcoming at the end of May, there's, there's no punching bag when you're in the American League and in the American League East. This is life, man. You got to beat good teams. And if you're making your bones against the crappy teams that they did a season ago, even if you make the playoffs, it doesn't bowl well for postseason success. Blue Jays were only an 89 win team because of the damage they did against sub 500 teams last year, and they stunk against good teams. Guess what happened when they faced a good team and good pitching the postseason they couldn't score again. So yeah, no, sorry. You got it. It doesn't matter that you've played the occasional good team. There's nothing but good teams when you play in the American League East, and you're supposed to be one of those good teams and capable of hitting good pitching. I'm so happy that it's Chris Bassett who said this because my God, if this came from almost anybody else on the other team, but not the Gossman hasn't kind of found it like you mentioned there, and Kakuchi's been good. But God, could you imagine an offensive player talking about it in this way? There's, there's no way that it would be remotely tenable. Yeah, you, you have to beat good teams. Would everybody love a bit of a cupcake schedule to get off and running to start the season? Yeah, that'd be great. Like, no one's going to sit here and say that that wouldn't be wonderful, except for the fact that he'd have to go 16 and four in those games because that's what you have to do against those teams. So yeah, have they faced good teams? Yes, congrats. It's major league baseball. Everybody's good and weird because by the time post season rolls around, we'll be saying nobody's good. But right now, everybody's competent at least. You're going to have to go through competency and guess what? Looking right at you, a Nationals team, perfectly competent, 15 and 15 on the year. Yeah, they haven't played the Orioles once yet. And they, they brother them pretty hard last year. Yeah, they be in the year of 13 games against Baltimore Orioles. Let's see how that goes. All right, can they hit? They're pretty good at that. Well, Bluetooth could pitch themselves. We'll see. All right, we'll, we'll see whether Austin Matthews plays in tonight's game six at Scotia Bank Arena. We'll talk about what the headline could be for the Maple Leafs. If they win this series without him and the Oilers advance on the strength of their special teams, huh? What's that like, I wonder? That more next, as the fan morning show continues, Ben and his Brent Gunning Sportsnet 590, the fan.
