[MUSIC] >> There's a sweep song, this is a fan morning show, sports M5-9 in the fan band, and this brand gotta get geeked up. The Blue Jays swept the Chicago White Sox, good morning, Brent. >> Good morning, plan the parade, no, that's only when other teams in the city get excited about winning games. There was a song for Austin Matthews scoring four goals. Of course, there's a song about sweeping. >> There's a sweep. >> You were listening to this on the drive-in, don't deny it. You know me, I was not listening to anything recorded after 1862, let alone 1962 with my music taste there. Yeah, they did it, they did the damn thing, I didn't know it was possible. I don't know that it counts with being against the White Sox, but good on you, Blue Jays, you. >> Did it, you have done it. You know what this is, I like to make this joke a lot, this is the time it feels very fitting. George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier, mission accomplished. >> Yeah, it's fine, I mean, it's better than the alternative. >> My God, could you imagine the other way? >> Give him six wins so far on this 13 game stretch with three remaining after the off day today. There's three remaining against the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend at Roger Center. You take two out of the three, you end up eight and five over this 13 game stretch, which is like that is the baseline for not horrible. But like anything worse than that would have been horrible, it's like not horrible. >> Is that nine and four is like good? And yeah, that's the potential that exists if they sweep away the pirates. But yeah, not horrible, well done. >> I was just gonna say, is that like the subheading on the book, the Blue Jays, 2024, not horrible. >> We'll see. >> We'll see. Maybe. >> Maybe. >> Like that horrible. >> Yeah, maybe. >> Honestly, so the two previous games in this series, even like that's a pretty good game. Like they, they looked capable offensively, they even added runs late in the game. You're like, okay, it's the White Sox and you can only play who you're playing, who the schedule says you can't just say, you know what, the schedule says, I'm playing the White Sox. Forget it. >> Forget the 27 Yankees, bring them to me. >> Today, right now. >> Bring me the Black Sox, I'll beat them even if they're cheating. >> Well, I mean, the Black Sox would have you win, yeah, they'd be betting on you to win. >> Yeah. >> But, so you can only beat the White Sox. That was like a normal game that, yeah, you could see you squint and you'd be like, well, there's like a better team on the other side. Maybe, maybe the Blue Jays even win that game. The way they're playing in this game yesterday was, I mean, that's- >> Only win you get against the Chicago White Sox. They got only two against Chris Flexin, who ain't Flexin these days, like he's not good. >> No. >> I mean, he's got a long track record against the Blue Jays, but he's just not good. He's kind of tying the Blue Jays up in knots. Your starter did not go to full innings and that's the obvious lead item of the game. And the White Sox did nothing. The White Sox had four hits. Alec Manoa left after an inning in 2/3. He got five outs and the White Sox in the game got four hits because, guess what, they're the Chicago White Sox. So kudos to you, wins a win. Three games under 500 now are the Blue Jays, but yeah, that's a game that you put forth that performance, that offensive performance against that caliber or pitcher. And you have that starting performance, which is no fault, Alec Manoa. You're not winning that game against anybody but the Chicago White Sox. >> No, you're not. And I mean, you even gave yourself chances, which I guess makes it more frustrating. It's like six, seven. You had men on in both innings. They are unable to kind of tack on the insurance that you needed there. It doesn't ultimately end up biting you, but it's the reason Romano had to work last night that you didn't, that you weren't able to tack on those runs. Yeah, that was not the, I can't say impressive about the first two or first, for a few games of the series here, but it was not an impressive win last night, far, far from it. That was back to the frustrating Blue Jays offense. We're generally speaking, what's happened there is that somebody's gone deep and it's not been a one run shot in a with a three run lead. It's been somebody giving up the lead and then the Jays can't get it back. And we've just seen that movie a lot of times with this team. So I mean, you should be happy, you get out of dodge with a series sweep. Five and one against the White Sox, just about as perfect as you can get against the worst team in baseball, which is what you have to do against these teams. The Blue Jays are not going to, they are not some group. We've seen this before where it's like, oh, they actually match up with better teams. You know, just as good. If not, but no, this is not going to be the Blue Jays. They have to make their hay against these kind of teams in baseball, very worst. I mean, the White Sox are factually, but we'll get to Jorge Lopez later. Like the Mets, I guess throwing their hat in the ring that the Mets is like, Hey, look at us. I was going to say, we haven't even been talking about the like, we've been having a lot of worst team in baseball conversations lately and that was very smart of him to throw his hat and other other things into the, into the ring there. But yeah, it's, you cannot afford like, you can go for him to against the White Sox, but then you got to pick some other also ran to go six and O against like you have to do this. This has to be a 600, 700 winning percentage against teams like this is what the Blue Jays are going to need to do to again, BNS laid out the math heading into this stretch or in the midst of it. They're going to have to play something like a 97 win pace if they want to sniff a wild card. Okay. Or I shouldn't say sniff, but like be comfortably in the mix for a wild card. And that's what it's going to take is beating up on bad teams like the White Sox. Yep. Who they've done now twice. They have two series victories this month against the Chicago White Sox. Those are the only series victories the Blue Jays have this month. The first, I mean, the last series victory they have against a team not named the Chicago White Sox have to go all the way back to April 19th through the 21st in San Diego against the Padres. It's a long time. They have the potential to win yet another series again against a pirates team that they're going to avoid the best pitcher of the bunch and maybe one of the best pitcher pitchers in baseball emerging Paul Skeens. But yeah, it's it's and you can only play the teams in front of you and they've they've done that. And they haven't picked up series victories against anybody other than the last the last place team in all of Major League Baseball, but good host to you. Sweet. First sweep of the season. Yeah, handshake again. Like it's the opposite of the Simpsons because we're not firing them, but it's like that's it. Congrats and good luck. I don't recall saying congrats. Just good luck. Doing what you're what you're doing here. The you look at the bats and like you're allowed to have a game where the bats don't come through in spades that's allowed to happen on occasion. Now it happens far too often for this group, but I think the tail of last night. I mean, obviously, Mino is the biggest lead item, but I mean, God, what a what a gutty performance from Richards to give you the three innings out of him. I mean, I know this is a guy who like from the jump or I feel like you've been somebody who's been like a Richards booster since his since he's arrived here. I feel like you got into or his wife had to like clarify the hair color thing with him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you have been on you've been on Richards Watch for a while. I just I didn't know he had that in him two innings of strong baseball from him. I could easily see that I could have checked that off on what I would have expected borderline in that that instance three and a third from him and that spot that is okay, like heroic is too strong. It's the White Sox after all, but that's that's massive. They don't get through that game without that x training from him. Not a strikeout in there, but the White Sox doing a good job with like their single digit pitch innings against Trevor Richards who gets who gets the victory. He's got his ERA down to three to nine. Anyways. All right. So let's talk about the lead item. Alec Minoa had the two straight starts where he went seven innings giving him no earned runs and then he stopped his toe a little bit. I tend to think in that Tiger's start like he wasn't clearly as good as the previous two starts. I'm done a lot by his defense in that game. Defense not good. And I know there were under and runs in that game, but like even go beyond that and how that changes like sliding door effects if he gets the plays made behind him that you would rightfully expect with one of the best defensive teams in baseball, which the blue Jays remain. He didn't get it. But anyways, apparently the elbow barking a little bit after that one, a felt fine as bullpen session felt a little bit hesitant in that start yesterday. And let her lose in the second inning. Got a little pinchy elbow discomfort, which Brent, it's, it's not at all what you want. The worst thing on it. People think, Oh, Elbow, Tommy John, that's the worst thing that can happen to a pitcher. It actually isn't like shoulder injuries are the worst thing that can happen to a pitcher. Elbow injuries, you can come back. It just takes a year. Like if you, if you blow out your UCL, you're gone for a year, but you can actually come back shoulder issue, your career might be over. I'm not saying that that that we're talking about a UCL Tommy John surgery for Alec Minnow, but that's obviously where the brain goes when you're talking about elbow discomfort. It's, it's one starter for a team that's been ridiculously healthy at the starting rotation, not just this year, but last year, I mean, this year, okay, they've had guys that are banged up and Kevin Gossman, you know, was touching go to start the season, but gutted through it. Alec Minnow has started the season on the IL that's like, so they've factually spent the season with one starter on the IL and now Yariel Rodriguez took over and he went to the IL and sort of bound in France. Those are not guys that were initially supposed to be part of your rotation. It is still hilarious that this team who like we view differently now after what we've seen through almost two months of the season, but this front office was like, we're going to win a World Series in 2024 that it's like one starter goes down. It's like, we got no answers like we got, we've been doing this for 10 years. We've been drafting and developing minor leaguers for 10 years. Yeah. There's nobody is like Ricky Tiedemann's injured. So yeah, I guess you get a little bit of a reprieve there, but we traded away Sam reverse Adam Clauffenstein and some other guys and I don't know, maybe there's some guys that the lower minor 10 years they've been doing this, there's nobody who's about to walk through that door and be like, Hey, finally, a major league opportunity is open for me because one of the starters gets hurt because that happens to every team every season. It happens to one guy in this major league rotation and the blue judges, I mean, your guess is as good as mine as to who feels that thing. They have gone out and traded for guys that they do not expect to be good for exactly this role. Now, Ross Drippling turned into an all star for them, but he was supposed to be this kind of, okay, swing man, okay, six starter, then they said, you know what, that worked out so well. Let's just go do it again with Mitch White. Guess what? Hard plan to replicate turning that guy into an all star, but the fact that you have to go out and trade for a Mitch White last year or two years, I'm trying to remember when he first came in, I guess would have been last year coming into the org. You cannot be going out and spending capital, whatever limited capital you have, and I don't mean that from a financial standpoint, but, you know, like your prospect covered to fill out spots that ultimately are just org guys. I mean, say what you will about the Blue Jays offense. At least there's a Horowitz poking around down in Buffalo that you could say, uh, what about that? There is none of that when it comes to the starting staff. And this has been a, it's, it's very tough to pinpoint because the front office has done an incredible job building one of, if not the best rotations in baseball over the last three to five years, but there has been forget, no, a lack of depth, it's been nothing, it's been an inch deep pool, there's been nothing there and it's remarkable that you haven't been able to have your, because again, it's like, this is just failed prospects that typically end up in that spot. It's guys who bumped their head up, we think of them as quad A guys and they just haven't had any of them, like it's like the TJ Zoix of the world. It's like those are the names that you're supposed to see in them. That's the bare minimum. How about like develop a guy who's like, Oh my God, this is an Alec Manoa to be fair. Alec Manoa was one of those guys and had a couple of years where he was like, he's doing it. Yeah, they don't lose credit because Manoa in a normal development curve is that guy now, but he has already had like an all-star Cy Young vote getting seasoned, right? And some of those guys, I guess you could argue, again, we're traded away, Sam reverse is having a nice little minor league season in St. Louis, part of the Jordan Hicks trade and Sami and Woods Richardson was part of the Jose burrios trade. And I guess those guys theoretically would have been options as well. But yeah, it's just like, you should have like more than like tricky teetamin as like the gold standard if if somebody gets hurt. Well, the guy who himself has been hurt throughout the course of his professional career and is hurt again. Well, and even even Uriel Rodriguez, like this is a guy who I think we've seen the stuff we all like there, you got to give him five, you got to give him term and money to find a guy who again, you know, I think can be a nice piece for this team. But the six starter swing man type guy or the extra starter in the, you're not supposed to go spend $25 billion on that, you're supposed to be able to develop that kind of organically in the system. So again, I don't, I don't say that as a criticism of them going out and getting Rodriguez. I'm happy they do, but it just, that guy is, he's honestly like a perfect pinpointing of the issue. Like there should be doubt in Francis's a plenty. And there's one. Wow. And, and yes, I think you're right to bring up the fact that they have built in an overall sense, a very good major league rotation, right? The other four starters are good. And the other four starters are very healthy too, should be said. Yeah. And that's part of the reason that they were acquired when Chris Bassett can't move. He's still healthy enough to pitch. Exactly. The body cast and he somehow just threw guile finds a way. That is part of it though. Like, I'm sure all these guys are banged up. Kevin Gossman's been banged up over the course of his major league career, but he figures it out whether it be the finger issue, whatever. Those guys figure it out. But yeah, beyond them, there's just nothing. It's just, we criticize this front office a lot for, I mean, we criticize them, then like I make us do a segment where we like, think about positives. And then I'm like, yes, good hair. But back to like our normally scheduled programming here, we criticize this front office for the lack of offensive additions in the off season in a clear area of need, which is like the number one feeling, I would say, of this 2024 Toronto Blue Jays team in the front office. But like number four behind is just the lack of pitching depth. And I mean, you can throw the bullpen in there as well. I tend to think that that's mostly a role of the dice. Oh, and hey, bullpen's, they've come up snake eyes so far and chad green like one reliever does not bullpen make, but he's seems like a huge difference. By the way, Jimmy Garcia looking all the way back to Jimmy Garcia yesterday. Again, we can grant us all with the white Sox, but it's this it. You should not ever be in a situation. If you consider yourself a contender or a playoff team where you lose one starter and you're looking around and you're like, oh, I mean, maybe Trevor rich. I don't know about like there. That's a joke, man. That's like, frankly, that's a joke. Yeah, but but it is and I'm not disagreeing with anything. It's just I never look at this because this is a conversation we've had in years past about losing one starter and all of a sudden you're staring down the barrel of Mitch white every fifth day is that it is never in my opinion, a failing of the previous offseason. It is a failing of the regime. I don't I'm not to say I don't want them to have had another couple of options there, especially if it's going to be a year that you feel you should win. Yes, you should check all the boxes off, but I don't want them going out and finding a six starter in November. I want the six starter to be some guy who's 22 years old and in the org. They're allowed to have pictures with Major League hope that are something other than Ricky Tiedemann and the best prospect in the system like guys, it shouldn't have to be this he's the crown jewel of the system and untouchable or they have a guy his name is Paolo Spino, he's 37 years old and they acquired him because they don't have that guy. Right. They don't have those middling prospects. That's the thing. And that is what I look at is the failing of or where you should go back to stop the failing of this. It's not November. It is an amateur draft three years ago or an international signing period two years ago because that's where it needs to be coming from, not some 37 year old because they have none of those guys. They don't. And I guess it means that you're done, but I get to still hold out hope. Keep that arm fresh and maybe one day. Yeah. Okay. Good. Yeah. Fingers crossed for you. Who's factually going to fill that rotation slot? Well, I would argue that Trevor Richards should be prominent prominently and involved. I understand he's a two pitch pitcher and he didn't strike anybody out yesterday. And again, it's the White Sox. He is as every reliever is a failed starter. We haven't seen him as a starter with the Toronto Blue Jays outside of, you know, some opening assignments. He obviously has the length to be able to cover off a bunch of innings about and Francis is on his way back. That seems like a pretty clear. That seems like a pretty cut and dried. Hey, simple enough, Alec Manoa goes on the aisle today, Bowden Francis, who I think at last check was throwing 60 pitches in his last rehab assignment with the Buffalo Bisons. That's what you do. I wasn't exactly overwhelmed in the brief foray into starting pitching that I saw from Bowden Francis this season. But I think that's the easiest, most cut and dried way to do this. Yeah. I mean, Rodriguez, obviously a little farther back there. He did have a nice little louding over over the weekend there. It was a second rehab appearance, but I don't think you're close enough there. I think that is the way you, you have to do it. I think with Richards, the two pitch thing does worry me a little, but you're not, you're not asking him to go six innings here. You're looking to get once through the order, maybe a little more than that. You can do that with two pitches. I think he's the guy that makes sense. And Francis, I think is a, maybe this is a chance to kind of have an exhale, a bit of a reset for him, not to say he doesn't expect to be in the Major League rotation, but that was, there's a lot for him to start the season in there. And yeah, we thought Manoa was coming, but it's easy to think that now after we saw the two starts, we saw to Manoa, but that was far, far from a guarantee. So I've liked Francis, like a more in kind of mop-up roles than what we've seen, but yeah, that's the way you'd have to do it. Rodriguez would be the far and away answer for me there, which is not ready. Yeah. He's not ready. Maybe the Blue Jays, even though they did cap his innings limit, but maybe they pushed him a little too much considering he didn't pitch at all last season. Yeah. I think they're going to put the brakes on a little bit with the Ariel Rodriguez. They could use them out of the bullpen as a one inning. Well, yeah. If you're going to lose Richards in that spot, right, it just opens up a job for somebody there as well. Let's reminisce about Alec Manoa this season, if in fact he's lost, you know, fingers crossed. You never know. It's the thing with these, hey, having a pinching sensation or feeling a little bit pinchy is the way he described the elbow pain felt a little pinchy. But again, when we're talking about elbow discomfort, you never know, like it's possible that we've seen the last of Alec Manoa this season. And if it's something as dire as Tommy John, like until what the All-Star break of next year, it is truly amazing and it's the reason why you should do the thing that the Blue Jays did with Sami and Woods Richardson, where it was like, yeah, you got a guy that looks like you could be a thing. And it's why people shouldn't have been terrified of trading Ricky Tiedemann. Who knows? Who could be a real major league caliber starting pitcher? You know what the likelihood is? He's not. Because even if they reach the heights of Alec Manoa and look like a guy who won felt like he was most built for playoff baseball and the brief moments we saw him in the postseason didn't look that way. And two looked like he was never going to get hurt because he was a ginormous fella and didn't rush it up to 99. Yeah. Yeah, he got hurt because that's what happens to starting pitching. If you've got somebody and they have trade value and you don't have an immediate need is probably a good idea to trade them away, not to say that like Alec Manoa should have been traded after his second top 10 American League Cy Young Award campaign. But the idea that you can bank on a 20 year career is why like the Justin Verlander's Max Scherzes of the world are so mind-bending and even those guys have spent time significant amounts of time on the IEL. But to have a 20 year major league career as a starting pitcher is wild. This is what happens to these guys. It's amazing the Blue Jays have gone out and wisely gone out and acquired guys with good health track records like Jose burrios like Kevin Gossman like Chris Bassett and like you say Kikuchi. Yeah, it's been it's been massive for them to be able to do that. I agree with everything you said to I quick like little point of clarification is I am always a little more I agree with you trade the prospect. I am a little more hesitant when it's a hitter because I feel like that is easier to bank on and the health stuff doesn't scare you nearly as much. But I'm still with you that you trade it because generally speaking it's almost even the best prospects in the world almost never amount to what we actually think they're going to be. I'm wholly with you and but just from a positional standpoint if they're a pitcher I am so much more on to the train of trading them while they have value and again that's not say Tiedemann will never have value or Minoa won't be back. But I mean we see this all the time I mean who knows what Spencer Strider is going to look like when he comes back like it's just we have seen this among the elite pitchers of the game with Minoa how can you not feel awful for the guy I mean that's rough. You look at the frustration the ups and downs that the player has had and with Minoa he is such a kind of like heartbeat guy it feels like he was really kind of getting back and not not that the last outing was one that you say who now he's really building something but that was the check mark he needed to get over it was easy to be Alec Minoa when he comes in and has two great outings how can he bounce back and be Alec Minoa you know what's the thing we always say about Chris Bassett or Kevin Gosman is that they're great because when they have their sea stuff they still find a way to get it done and that is what's going to allow Alec Minoa to get back to the heights he's reached is if he's able to get it done with less than his best and I just would have loved to have seen him been able to kind of fight through it and I don't say that as a knock on him like you're hurt you're hurt obviously but man it's just it's so frustrating he felt like you're building something and you're right back to square one potentially every fifth day when he started it was like some of the more intriguing baseball the Blue Jays played just because it was like and this is sounds like a pejorative but it's not it's like it's it's like the mystery box totally what are you getting like we've seen him look like the old Alec Minoa into consecutive starts less so and that start against the Tigers like is he back to being a front end starting pitcher can you dream on a rotation where you have couple of guys that look like ace type starters and him being lost this season would be hey listen in general I my thought with fifth starters which he is and was factually coming into this season had to earn his way on to the Major League roster to begin with but when he was there nobody considered him anything more than a fifth starter my general thought process revolving around the fifth starter is like yeah that's like you're hoping to get league average starting pitching out of that out of that spot not when you're one of the worst offenses in baseball the bar is much higher and going to an even bigger unknown mystery box about in Francis and Trevor Richards is terrifying for a team that is yeah life and death that the score four runs one from and this isn't a this year thing this is a you know I mean how many conversations we had about the big conversations this team has to have be that the deadline be at this winter if it's worst case scenario for Minoa now you go into another offseason where you're wondering if Minoa stayed healthy yeah this year you know it's pitching I don't know that you're going to say there that's the baseline we know exactly what is war is going to be next year get the fan graph projections ready but you'd have something to go off if this is worst case scenario we now have another offseason where you go okay but it's even worse because you did see a glimpse of it it's like we get to point to the two seven scoreless inning starts that he had you know half the starts he potentially could have had this year and that's the thing where it would just add another level of mystery intrigue and quite honestly a another hurdle for the front office to to figure in in this puzzle that they're going to have to put together here because I think one of the things you love to have most at the end of this season is clarity on what Alec Minoa is and if this injury is worst case scenario you're not going to have that no it's not ideal is what I would say I got man I'd agree not ideal also not ideal the Blue Jays set a franchise record not scoring in a 21st consecutive first inning which is like that's outrageous also that's a great time yeah that's yeah I didn't heard that one in a while yeah there you go uh there've been some bad Blue Jays teams like 1977 a couple of years after not a one went 21 consecutive games not scoring in a first inning and I would hazard a guess that not a one of those had players the caliber of Vladimir Guerrero Jr and Boba shed and you know they must be said Danny Jansen now batting in the first inning and Davis Schneider yeah and Davis Schneider but yeah it's pretty embarrassing anyways yeah it's not good let me just all add my own that's not good to that yeah good job by you thank you all right after reuniting for the first time in 14 years jane's addiction along with love and rockets are going on tour to celebrate we're giving away tickets to their September 18th show at Budweiser stage to enter all you have to do is tune into the fan morning show listen for the code word then text the code word to 59590 today's code word is love and rockets text love and rockets to 59590 right now for your chance to win we are giving away another pair of tickets tomorrow but if you don't win with us make sure to secure your tickets tomorrow 10 a.m. eastern time on ticketmaster.ca when we come back oilers go down to nothing early to the stars their season on the brink boy what a what a collection of uh of players what what incredible guts and guile what incredible bounce back from steward skinner honestly that and more next is the fan morning show continues Ben and sprank gunning sports at 59590 the fan hey it's ailish for afar and i'm just in cussford 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 pre-game six p.m. weekdays on sports stats sports at 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts fan morning show sports at 590 the fan man and his friend gunning five and a half minutes into the hockey game trailing 2-1 in the series oilers down to nothing in the hockey game at home to the dallas stars second goal going over steward skinner's shoulder if you're an oilers fan like i don't know how you're not like oh my god we're gonna fritter this whole arrow away because we can't find a goal tender this guy you know he's had his moments steward skinner has but he's already been replaced once in this postseason run and not only do the oilers get off the mat with five consecutive goals yep one an empty netter but they look like full value for the defense of clinic they were trying to put on in the final 20 minutes including killing off a late penalty well like the the stars like basically couldn't get it into the oiler zone at all that was as impressive a performance by any team this postseason yeah i don't want to paper over the stuff you said about the team but i have to start with the goal tending there i mean we had the conversation about pickard i wasn't certain that i'd be able to pull the trigger and go to him either but they have done this in the playoffs nooblock made three ross to changes yesterday if you're gonna mate you mean in that moment after the two nothing yeah yeah you're sitting there going oh how was it not pickard between the pipes tonight and man i've i've made my fun in oblock for him looking terrified back there clearly not ice water running maybe that's why he's shivering so much back there because he literally has ice water running through his veins pulls all the right cards with the three ross to move sticking with skinner and then getting that team to play that way i mean the way they're able to lock it down the fact that they do it with a decor that has been admonished rightfully so all throughout these playoffs that was a nails lock it down performance and it wasn't just you know when the oilers when when the oilers salt away a game you don't expect it to look that way you expect it to look like dry side ole and mc david reeking havoc in the offensive zone and even if they're not running up the score they're running up chances it didn't look like that last night it was a lot more buttoned down and doesn't surprise me but god that was clinical i mean we have seen games like that from least teams in the past where you say wow that's so different from what you do do it again and that'll be now the challenge for for this for this oilers team yeah that was impressive impressive impressive impressive that building was going absolutely nuts i uh what go ahead well i just don't like it's going to get lost because we're gonna talk oilers here it's just why johnson like him and la franier at 21 and 22 and johnson it's obviously a little different he wasn't the first overall pick but scoring a minute into that game it is remarkable the track record of success in big moments that why johnson has for how young he is and like i shouldn't but it really does let me dream on nyst and cowin like it really doesn't i know i know i know i want to get to him in this segment as well i wasn't trying to i wasn't trying to shoot board it there it's just the mind wanders okay let's let's let's get back to the oilers here yes and chris knoblock who at times has looked like he's gonna drink out of the wrong end of the water bottle yep but boy putting on his big boy pants before yesterday's game well one sticking with stuart skinner and two sticking with them in the game in which he gives up two early goals and the second one pretty smelly also uh inserting defenseman philip broberg winger kori parry center brian mccloud into the lineup dave day harnay warren fogle and sam carrick all healthy scratches like i got full shift change seemingly between games three and four each individual move paying various levels of dividends that is that is a a large swing for a first-year head coach with the pressures of being the head coach of a team with the best player in the sport and maybe one of the greatest of all time when it's all said and done and having Stanley cup aspirations well i know sam carrick wasn't the the crux of that trade like it was henryk but having the stones to pull a guy that your gm went out and traded for it i know like they acquired kori parry this year so i guess you're inserting one of those guys back into the lineup as well but then also the idea that the penalty kill has struck or they've struggled to defend and you take our day rnay who say what you will have my questions about him but defend is kind of the one thing he does i'm sorry your team has struggled to defend so you bring in a young slick skating swedish defenseman who has not had a ton of track record of nhl playoff success and it works out in spades kori parry obviously just the right amount of rat and then the cloud you do the classic thing where you sit a guy down you healthy scratching you put him back in he plays like he wants to be there i i you cannot have a coach play a better hand that when it about as perfectly as you could have asked for now it's like i do have to say it's like some of it is a little luck of the draw like you yeah you you pull three names they all come out that way but that's also a guy knowing its team knowing who's going to respond and just going to players who he can kind of trust in those spots of broberg aside i guess yeah well and not afraid yeah i think right like that's the key not afraid i mean he's not afraid of losing his job i would say because he just got there he just arrived and whether they win like it'll be a disappointment and the season in an overall will be various levels of disappointing if they don't make a stand like a finals but like it's yeah being in the final four at at least is the the lowest acceptable bar for this generation of oilers team i mean were you not bringing it back to the Leafs watching like that swing of the swing of the bat for chris knoblock because i was yeah i was thinking about chelden keef honestly and a guy that despite having a power play that looked totally anemic the last couple of months of the season and looked totally anemic right almost the entirety well yeah the entirety of the bruin series scoring one time yep not once broke up even a power like i'm not talking about taking guys out of lineup and he did factually make some moves and he did you know he went to joe wall when like i i guess in retrospect it seemed obvious i mean the best goalie in the playoffs the guy who will finish this post-season with the best save percentage of any goalie in the playoffs so like he did some things but yeah this is a guy that i mean the number one thing i think when you you look back at this Leafs playoff run and the impact the chelden keef could have had on the Leafs winning or losing a seven game series that went to game seven over time might have been scoring more than one power play goal and not once during the regular season of the post-season did he pull that lever so and and not like there's there's diminishing returns too like ship part of chelden keef's rap has been a the tinkerer too much tinkering you're doing too much just sit there and let the good players play so i understand there's like an extreme level that you can go to but yeah i couldn't help but think of chelden keef when chris knoblocks like yeah i i have to win a Stanley Cup here because the clock is ticking first on leon dry saddle but then a year after him on corner mc david yep and this is also my first kick of the can when it comes to being an NHL head coach i don't care three guys out three guys in this is two versus four in terms of who matters at the top of a team i think that is the biggest reason why you see it i'm not i'm not saying those criticisms are shelving keef are all valid but it's a lot easier to mess around with the other ten forwards and only two of them matter and that that's that's not fair like zach heim and matters ryan new jin hopkins matters okay they're like adam henryk i love that ad for them i know he hasn't even always played for them in these playoffs but that guy matters but in banged up but it is a get but you look at you you look at the the way the team is built and when it is built around two guys as opposed to four up front it's just easier to do it now again i don't say that is a complete you know absolution of of what Sheldon keef did it's like yes we should criticize him for the lack of switching up the power play the lack of there being a you know a competition among the units there but i look at that and i think that yeah i don't think the least problem was that they didn't put in you know somebody else on the fourth line like you know bring it back it's like sam lafferty being there would have changed no no and i know you're not saying that but look at the moves that he made and yeah it's like those those moves all paid off in spades but you still needed leon dry cycle to have a big goal in a big moment you still need a corner mc david to be corner mc david and i just think that it kind of comes down to that just as much yes make your tinkering moves but when it's two guys that the forward group is built around as opposed to four it's a lot easier to kind of play around with those pieces i think anything else on this game we should we move on gush about easton calon yeah that's what i want to do now okay so easton calon mmm scores the game winner adds an empty netter as the london nights are off to the memorial cup final it was a tie game against the saginaw spirit late in the third period the top two teams in the memorial cup yeah heading into it both perfect showdown o_h_l_ on o_h_l_ the best hockey league in the country sorry and you know it's just it was incredible to see calon come through it was it was incredible to see him celebrate which is now like his uh i don't know trademark celebration i guess yeah in road buildings getting up against the glass and staring down the opposition fans cycle like he's been on record and saying like yeah god is fun like you just do that good uh i like it i have here i have it here i just like that silly i think it's kind of cool you kind of stare down the fans and it gets the boys going sure it does and now i'm watching it here oh my god he he like picks a dude i know like you it's like he's a comedian doing crowd work and like picking a guy out of the crowd do you think do you think much like i imagine comedians do in their set do you think when he's like taken warmies he's like all right if it's at this end there's the target yeah right yeah it's like easton uh can you get into the horseshoe drill no i can't i got to find the biggest chut do my scouting it's like a stare right in their face when i bury one in this building so i mean hey it's different obviously scoring even in the memorial cup then it is to score in the national hockey league i get it but god each and every time you you see these eastern cowin highlights whether it be in the o hl post-season where he was out freaking standing racking up a quadrillion points just won the Wayne Gretzky award doesn't even matter where it is for he won that award yeah and yesterday's game winner was his first goal of the memorial come to this point but whatever i need to assist in two games live alone yeah it is fine it just feels like one he's made for the moment and two he's got this other thing that man like no offense to the austin matthews william kneelanders of the world this like f u yeah mentality that does not exist with the the offensive superstars on this may believe steam yeah and i you know it's funny how players in an org obviously have an influence on one another i do wonder if and like i don't think easton cowin is a lock for the nhl next year by any means but you saw matthew ny's understand that the culture has shifted here a little bit of what's gonna what's gonna get me paid and what's gonna get me iced time and it is running around and being big and going to david passion axe saying no no no go me and taking big runs at people now easton cowin different player than matthew ny's little smaller than matthew ny's but he's gonna play that style of game and i just think that if this is an org that is going to clearly lean into this i mean it's craig burrube we've seen the mike yo stuff it's like they're clearly building blues toronto it's like the blue leaves okay yeah it's pretty well that this is a guy whose identity is going to be what the coaching staff and what the org is going to try to prop up and build around i'm not saying they're no longer building around matthew's building around if marner's here or kneelander or any of that but that's the mentality they want the team to kind of take on and you have to find a way to foster it in a young player if he's going to be here because it is so different than what the pillars of this org have been it's not different than max domi it's not different than what you've seen out of matthew ny's it's not different than what you've seen out of jake mccabe and samon benwa but those guys aren't the guys who we talk about when we talk about this team yeah it's no good to have it in a vacuum right like yeah oh he's in cow and he is a fiery fella but he can't score like he can't do anything in the eyes he's just like you know he's doing the other thing the most important thing like producing on the ice and it is one thing to do that in junior where you're the best player yep on the best team in junior and we'll see how that translates to the national hockey league and i don't know how much i assumed this was part of the the whole reason why the maple leaves drafted him and at the time it being a reach at the the back end of the first round but yeah this is there's the idea that we're getting back to like it not just being hey what can you provide for us on your hockey db page like what outs uh what outside of that can you also provide especially for this generation of leaf steam it's yeah it's exciting to dream on what east and cowan could be but you got to find the middle right like east and cowan obviously is the perfect middle ground he had a three thousand game point streak or whatever it ended up at he won the o_h_l_ regular season and playoff mvp he clearly can do it but the org in the past and this isn't a knock on brat your living he just got here he wasn't the one doing it but how many times have we thought about they had joe colburn or or freddy goo dro it's like hey this guy's gonna be a great third line center oh uh could we try to find a top six guy in the in the first round and you have to make sure that you still have the and i'm not saying that your living won't he made a point of saying you need to have skill but it's about kind of melding the two and east and cowan if he is kind of anything close to tell what the hype is has built him up to be at this point is that exact kind of guy that can give you like max domi i think is a perfect example of this is a guy who's very skilled what was he uh it was him and mc david for five on five assists in the nhl this year when you look at his body of work but he has that nastiness he has that bite he has that jam and it doesn't need to become an i mean don't be wrong i'd gladly take it in a guy who's like six five two thirty but it doesn't have to come in that package you can look like max domi or east and cowan yeah i'm waiting for the moment where it's like the the hype ends with east and cowan and he has a setback but it's it's just we're gonna go into an off-season we're gonna go into a training camp next season where he is the number one storyline i mean barring some massive signing and there will be some new faces so those guys will take up a lot of oxygen but i think the number one story that leaf's fans will be interested in is is this guy gonna make the team the funniest thing will be uh anybody doing phrase your minten reports and yeah i feel awful like i i am the i feel like i'm the only person in this fan base who still thinks he's ever gonna play in the nhl the way we talk about him and it's just because of our sweet boy easton that's also like the performance at times and like being the captain of that very underwhelming team canada at the world juniors yep he also like scored huge overtime goals in the western conference final and the in the dub like this is a guy who i think we all because of the way the experience went in the 10 games and because quite frankly he's he's asked to play a role he just wasn't ready to do yet that's going to be the interesting thing to me is that phrase your minten is going to be a year older a year stronger a year of a better hockey player than he was last time and they wanted to give him a sniff of his of his nine games or whatever he ended up getting i think that's going to be the interesting thing is everybody doing the like hey easton cow and easton cow and rightfully so i'll hand up i'll be as guilty as anybody i can easily see a world and not to say the crag buru Bay isn't gonna love him some easton cow and but where he goes oh this big big tough farm boy from from saskatoon who's just like six two and doesn't want to do anything other than just skate up and down and play responsible hockey like i could see a world where we're all trying to have the eastern cow and conversation and the team is saying uh what about this guy here who's actually going to have the ability to go up and down between the marley's and be a fixture of the team like minten well how about both but minten i bring this up to say he's in a perfect spot this is a yeah going in under the radar completely under the radar for a guy who like you said world junior captain god is cup of coffee with the leaves arrive sooner than you would have expected i can't remember if he was a first or like uh basically first round pick it's like the pedigree is there for him and he gets to come in under the radar and that's right okay that's right they move back and they uh a classic dubious move if i will uh before i take a break shout out to pwhl minnesota or winning the first ever walter cup with the three nothing victory over boston um so toronto pwhl toronto uh and neo-injuries were part of this not only spooner uh got hurt there were up to nothing in a series against minnesota in the pwhl semi-finals they were playing minnesota because toronto had the best regular season in the pwhl and they've done some incredible things as far as rules are concerned in that in that league and doing some things that we've all like thought about but haven't seen in practice and the number one most intriguing thing is you get to pick your post-season opponent if you're the top seed now there's only four teams of mc blouse they had a choice of two teams yep they chose minnesota they had a two nothing lead in a best of five series which they blew when their best player got hurt and the team that they picked like the so like the pwhl toronto decided of all the postings they only had a choice of two and was the two teams in the final but they chose the one team that i think everybody agreed i guess was the worst team of the bunch yep they want it all again leading to nothing in a best of five series and your best player got hurt uh i'm sure it's nothing like i'm sure it's just you know breaks of the game sure and we have factually seen you know professional hockey teams win in this city outside of the mapleese like the marleys want to call their car yeah that's right go look at that picture and keefin doobas yeah sure that happened but like it's hard not for me hard not to again bring everything back to toronto of course hard not to watch and congratulations to the state of minnesota it's obviously one of the the united states that's into hockey yeah state of hockey right so yeah kudos to them and some some great great uh performances by that minnesota team it's hard not to think about like perhaps the toronto hockey curse yeah crossing gender boundaries perhaps but no definitively yes we just saw proof of it it's the first time we're going to start the professional women's hockey league with the toronto team being cursed and being a laughing stock no this is just this is exactly the way it's supposed to go this reminds me of you know like sometimes people from big families and it's like uh sibling will bring home a significant other for the first time you're like i don't know what to make of this person pwh shelter on are they fit right in there they're open they're not they're not asking for they're just like they're opening the fridge they're getting themselves something do you want something while i'm in here fully a part of the furniture fully baked into existence of the city if you're going to be doing that and it's like this is also what our hockey teams do is lose to the eventual champ so you get to go ah yeah lost the eventual chance look at that too nothing like who's to say that we wouldn't have finished that if she was healthy you do you know also do when we were having our leaf conversation about switching it up do you know how hard i had to bite my tongue to not be like but Matthew said neither were hurt yeah i'm getting better i'm getting better good for you thanks man yeah but Natalie spooter was hurt what would have happened yeah sure sure sure hey Adam Henrik has been hurt no it's the same exact thing no no you heard it here for you heard it here folks uh Ben and us cannot decide who's who's the best player between Adam Henrik okay how about Ruby hints was hurt yeah okay that's real that's a real one that's a real one yeah okay yeah do you do you like miss how many games all of them he missed a few he did he's been banged up that's a real one all right they were able to beat you know a chance from a couple of years ago without him yeah so shout out to the stars yeah as i've i feel like i've said a lot yeah uh star stands pretty good defensively but gave up five consecutive to the end of their island and shout out to me because i said they're gonna have to score a bunch to win and they did oh well done i know like hey i oh you're like get more than three on jay gorton turn i'm like yes that's what you're gonna have to do yeah and they did so again genius frank gutting followed me well done all right when we come back uh the sports world kind of had their eyes in one direction yesterday and it was on queens new york and hooray lope has in particular my new favorite best employer who's maybe got a future as a baseball analyst because he can decide who the worst human baseball is and it's it's the one that he's spent uh this entire season with but won't today because he's been DFA'd by the meds we'll tell we'll talk about that story and give you the details and also how it may correlate to the atrona blue jay's plus canadian open under way and we don't have to have the questions about the next canadian to win the damn thing sorry pat fletcher not getting name check this year it's rough i did though so all right that and more next is the fan morning show continues ben anis brent gunning sportsnet five ninety the fan
