All right, let's try this again. Leon dry saddle looking at the man in the mirror. My guys behind the glass, I don't know if this is like a brain gunning special because they could just feel it in my bones, but you guys could not have started my Friday any better than cooking up a little intro over the dulcid tones of bombs over Baghdad. I am like a elder millennial as they like to say. So that one hits me right in the perfect, perfect timeline. Good job by them. Good job by you, Daniele, Francesca. How are we doing, bud? Doing okay, man. Doing okay. Better than the oilers are this morning. That's for sure. Gunner better than the oilers. Hopefully better than me. I got very grieve driving in here today. We won't use any numbers. We'll just say there was a gentleman. I and I did check I was spending the whole time going, who is this in front of me? In the far left, the passing lane, if you will, just rotting at a speed that was below the speed limit. Okay. Like, look, we all know, you know, 100 is what it is. And obviously I would never speed. Let me just start there. But this guy, just rotting at 97 miles an hour on cruise. And then when I finally and unboxed him by transport trucks, I can't get around. I'm not having it. And this is the thing I hate. I don't know how you are on the roads about this. When I have been aggrieved, I'm given a look like I'm making my move. And I'm like, Ricky Bobby, like, what are you doing? I'm looking. And when I know I've been wrong, I usually try to like give a little like, but when I know here's the thing, when I know I'm truly wrong, I won't even look. And when I don't get the look of like, yeah, my bad, sorry. And I'll be honest, like I was a little ornery this morning, I was honking to this guy going too slow in the passing lane. So I just, I feel like all my driving brethren can appreciate that. We've all been there for sure. It's like we've all been that person too. Because this is the classic thing. This class thing about driving cars is anyone going one mile an hour slower than you, it's like, Hey, come on, step on the gas. Yep. But anyone going one mile an hour faster than you say, Hey, settle down. We're all going to try to get there alive. You don't need to go crazy. Yeah, yeah. I just, I felt aggrieved to start my morning. Well, I think that's fair. I can, I can, when I'm frustrated, I get petty or driving. Oh, and a good example. It's actually happened yesterday. Perfect. It's actually happened yesterday. I don't get all angry up in arms or anything like that. I would feel like my temperament. I can, I can manage it pretty well. I'm more mild mannered in that respect. But I will be petty. And so yesterday, you know, there's a lot of traffic. This is in the afternoon trying to leave this place. Which as we know, it's, it's that in and of itself. It's a disaster. So just anyway, and there's people that want to be creative and try and take shortcuts and jump lines. And there's an individual driving a pickup truck that decided I'm not going to wait with all the other peasants. I'm going to try and jump this. And I said, buddy, sorry, that ain't happening. Literally, boom, right? And right in the middle of the roadway, said, if I'm not turning first, nobody's turning. Yes. So that's on. And then, yeah, you know what, he sat there and then there's some other folks that jumped in and joined the party as well and said, stay where you are, stay put. So I can be petty too, especially when you're sitting in a car for an hour and a half. When I am trying to get on the gardener. But that's it. That's where it happened. Guy goes all the way up the lap. The amount of rage I feel in my soul when a car, three cars ahead of me is like, I just don't care. And look, I've been that like, I normally am pretty vigilant to hold in the line. But we've all had it. We're like, all right, you know, I just don't care enough today. Have at it. Not today. But, but when I'm not the person when I when I haven't made the decision, no one consulted me on you letting this person in like four cars ahead of me, I get so aggrieved. I there's a lot of there's a lot of screaming in my car about people being weak and needing to have a spine and have some convictions. It's a complete crap. Exactly like that. I basically do feel like that. Darko be an electric driver. He must be fantastic. He's got it. It's a complete crap. I would love to have like, we just had the wonderful, this wonderful and talented Josh Santos hit us with that wonderful drop. I would love to have drops. I could play from my car. I would love to instead of honking be able to honk. But it just gives me it's complete crap or or if somebody gives me a like, what are you doing? I'd like to hit him with the Leon dry side. Yup. Great observation. Like, Oh, what an invention that would great observation. See, it was a great observation by me. So yeah, I I'd love to. That's the new great invention. This is me. I think slowly creating my like Homer Simpson monstrosity car of no more horns, just different audio drops I can play. So we're starting there. All right. There's no real way to go from that to the Edmonton Oilers. Although you mentioned a pickup truck, I feel like I know where that guy's allegiance is like in this file and he he ain't happy about it. So Oilers down to the brink three nothing here. We can be staring down the barrel of a couple of sweeps and finals. I know, I know it was too it's too soon. I know like we all like baseball. Okay, but it's too soon for just baseball. And we got your old coming up here, but we we can't do this yet. Okay, give me combine three more games. I'd handshake that right now. But the Oilers, I don't think I don't think anybody thought the Oilers were favored in this series. I there were certainly people who picked them just based on the skill of a couple of players and I don't begrudge that. But this is playing out in a similar fashion. I don't think anybody thought it'd be three nothing. But I think people thought it would look pretty pretty similar to this. And I think that's got to be just from the start. The most frustrating part is that it feels like a slow death march after the Oilers lost that first game. >> Yes, I do get the vibe and the feeling that the this Oilers team is very similar to what the Panthers were last year. It's a group that feels like they need to have some scar tissue develop in this particular environment in a series like this. Not that they haven't gone through adversity of their own. They absolutely have and even to reach the final this year, going in and overcoming three two series deficit, two one series deficit, being in those positions. But, but there is a part of me that feels like the Panthers have figured out how to win. They know how to win. And they've learned from what they experienced last year to now Edmonton being in a position where they're really trying to figure this out. And I think you saw a little bit of that yesterday when they fell down two to one. And it sort of felt like they lost their structure and their poise a little bit to where they got away from what was working for them. Because to be quite honest, they on balance outplayed Florida for large stretches, if not the majority of that game. But the Panthers were the more composed team and took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. They also had better goaltending. And that's a real factor here. Like at some point, Sergey Prabowski being this caliber of goalie playing at this level is a big difference in the series. And that's a guy talk about redemption. We all remember how last last year played out, how it ended for him in particular in that final against Vegas. And now to do this, yeah, the redemption arc is there and he's taken full advantage of the opportunity. Yeah, he stopped 82 of 86 and finally got a 953 say it kind of doesn't matter what's going on in front of you. If you're if your goalie's going to do that, if you have any amount of offensive skill and the Panthers like, we don't think of them that way. But you know, we saw what Sam Reinhardt did this season offensively. We know what contracts capable of bark off no longer gets to be underrated. Very good in that in that in that part of the game. And you know, the Babrowski of it all, it's been, I'm trying to think of a guy who has had a late career surge to completely change their legacy. I have, I we've noticed a lot. We've seen the stories of the Joe Pavelsky feels like the perfect guy of this of a guy who is already very well respected and then has a late career second prime to burnish a legacy that was already great. It went from good to great. I can hear that argument. This isn't that. This is a guy that was going to go down as one of the bad contracts in league history. And now you're staring down the barrel of a Hall of Famer. I mean, you know, you, we can sit here and quibble, super small hall guy, not whatever. Two vesnas, a cup and probably a cons might pretty hard to sit here and argue otherwise. And it's just so I don't like to take that as a lesson. Because I don't think anybody should sit here and say, you know, when you have a $10 million boy, that's no good, you just got to wait until the last two years of the deal. And then it's going to pay off. I don't think there's some, I think that's the other part of this though, is that there is no, I'm not saying there's no lessons to be learned from the Panthers and the way they've done things are certainly are lessons to be learned there. But I think we've done this in the past of, you know, we did it when I think Lundquist was in the final last or last year with Pabrowski, if can you win with the $10 million goalie? Probably not. Quite honestly, it's still my prevailing sentiment because he has to be this. Now I suppose, you know, this is where I kind of do bump up against it of, can you make that argument for anybody else? Like Conor McDavid's not being Conor McDavid and the Oilers are down in the series, you know, Leon Dreyseidel, I, you know, he only makes eight fives, maybe it doesn't, it's not as applicable to him, but he hasn't been Leon Dreyseidel, look where the Oilers are here. So I don't know, I'm always so conflicted of that, but I don't think this is some breaking of the dam to where I still think teams will obviously very much care about the goal-tending position. But I still think that with the precarious nature of its season to season, I don't think this is some proof of concept that the $10 million goalie is the way to do things either. Yeah, totally agree. I think there's a scarcity of illegal tenders in the league anyway. So, you know, and regardless, it's funny because I think you'd go for large stretches of Babrovsky's career and you would say, he's not elite. He's not in that realm. But then you look back and we're talking about a guy even right now, you mentioned Hall of Fame, but 14th all time in wins. He's 31st in games, played. He's had 700 career games in the national hockey league, two of us in the trophies on the brink of winning a Stanley Cup, all these things add up. He probably is in that category and in that conversation of being truly an illegal tender. And certainly with the way he's been standing on his head in this series, it's hard to dispute that. So I'm with you though, I think it's more so not an indictment, but it points to the fact that there are fewer illegal leads. And that is why it's not probably not the most prudent way to approach building a team at this particular juncture. If you find a unicorn that you really believe is capable of it, different story. Vasilevsky's proven that, right? But there are more aid in hills out there than there are Andre Vasilevsky's. And you can find ways to build teams that win and by sort of finding the great inefficiencies within between the pipes. So yeah, Florida spent big and look like it was gonna be horrendous. And for whatever reason, over these last couple years, they've tapped into that, that vintage elite version of Sergey Brabovsky and it stuck around in the postseason. Yeah, I think, and you can't plan for this. I mean, you can try to, but it's you kind of have to to a certain extent, luck into it. It does feel like the sweet spot for the goalie is that second contract, like where kind of like the Jake Auttingers of the world are where they're making that five ish. It's a bridge. It's maybe a little longer than that. It's like you see, sir, who's coming out of his deal. Exactly. That's the guy where cuz now you're gonna be having a 30 year old UC Sorrows and hey, man, you can get some good years out of that. I'm not gonna sit here until you can't be some bad ones at the tail end of it. So we mentioned the lack of pop from the Oilers. That pretty much goes down to two guys, but we can expand it beyond that. Big David, three assists in the series, McDavid, dry side on Hyman. All goalless news has been pointless so far. It has been remarkable how quiet they've been. Now, I think it helps that this isn't one guy removing himself from it. And again, it's a very different series of Conor McDavid is just Conor McDavid the way we've seen. But how do you think they are kind of being feted in in Edmonton right now? Cuz you can't do the Leafs version of this because you have to remember there's the, I can only think of it as scar tissue. It's like, what's the opposite of scar tissue? But you know, they're so proud of these guys for getting to a cup final that they have the built in equity there. But at the same point in time, you know, Ryan Nugent Hopkins pointless through three games of a cup final. That can't happen, but it's understandable to a certain extent McDavid being as lifeless as he's been. And I don't say lifeless, say there haven't been chances, but just in terms of production and Hyman and dry side all I do wonder what the mood is surrounding. I guess it's kind of those three in particular. Definitely those three. If you expanded just a touch further, I know their top five point scores in the regular season have not scored a goal in the in the cup final, haven't produced a goal. And, and if you sort of see the box score and how the game unfolded last night, and you would say, Oh, Ryan McCloud scored a goal, Phillip Broberg scored a goal. Okay, well, they got some secondary Warren Fogel scored a goal. Oh my goodness. Now imagine if you just got one from your core players, you're thinking about here's a positive result for the Edmonton Oilers hasn't been the case. The thing is, you watched the game yesterday. And I mean, I'd be hard pressed to say Conor McDavid was imposing the whole of course, of course, he was he's everywhere. Now I feel less. I can't say the same about dry side or Nugent Hopkins, because I do feel like they were at times very invisible. And it was hard to recognize and notice what they were doing out there. But McDavid was certainly all over the ice. The key thing here to Gunners, we talked about throughout the entire postseason, how important special teams has been for the Oilers. Their power plays over 10 in this series. Now, yesterday, electric, buzzing chances galore all over couldn't finish, but still over three. So over 10 on the power play, which is supposed to be such a weapon for them, such a weapon. And we just lived through this and have for the several years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a power play that had been routinely top five in the National Hockey League during the regular season. When it doesn't work into playoffs and it doesn't convert, you're going to have problems. You're not going to be successful. It's as simple as that. And so the Oilers are experiencing that firsthand right now. Clearly, they are desperate to get more production from their top guys. Would it be nice if Zach Hyman can score that nice little freebie that he gets every once in a while, because we haven't seen any of those come around in this series? Absolutely. I do hesitate on McDavid. I know there'll be a plenty of people pointing the finger there and just saying, well, the end of the day, the production wasn't there. He's still been so, so threatening and dangerous. And he's impacting the game in other ways. The other guys, I think for sure you can have a major gripe with, because as I said, I feel like we've gone stretches where they feel completely invisible. And as though they're not making a sizable impact on the game, beyond trying to just produce points. And McDavid's finding ways to still put his imprint on the game. Yeah, I think it's funny. There's so many parallels between, I mean, you can do least parallels with anything, but I keep going to the NBA finals on this and that. For sure. It's the conversation and, you know, like Jason Tatum and Conor McDavid are obviously, they occupy very different spaces and their sport. But it feels like so long as they do what the Celtics have done a couple of years later and come back and get to this spot. And he, I mean, he can't have the final that Tatum's had because he's not Jason Tatum. He's Conor McDavid. But as long as you get back to that spot and you win, we don't sit back and look at this as a a pox on Conor McDavid. But if they don't, it is going to be something that lingers and, you know, it's funny, I've been making the case with the, with the Celtics of the farther we get away from this, the less people will point to, ah, but the, the hand injury and the, and who cares? They want to title, they lost two games or three games or whatever. It's the farther we get away from it. But McDavid, it's going to be the opposite. The farther we get away from this final, if we don't have the thing to point to, it's going to, we're going to say, yeah, I, I remember being good, but he's still, I don't know, three points in a four game sweep or three points in a five game loss or whatever, you know, or five points in a five game loss. It's very possibly racks up a couple of more. But it's the complete inverse that if he does not eventually, and eventually can't be five years from now, eventually has to be like next year or the year after that. And that's just as much contract stuff as it is anything else that, that he will need to kind of stamp at home with eventually winning it. That's, that's the thing I've kind of been thinking about with all this. Yes. I do firmly believe he's too good to not win one. Oh, of course, right? That's too good to not be in this position again. Now, I mean, you're right. In, in hockey's, I mean, there's the cat match nations, uh, complicate things significantly compared to other sports. And also just to share the sheer nature of what hockey is as a sport compared to, let's say basketball, random, you could have two guys that really carry you and impact a series or a game more than anybody else. Could you imagine if the Oilers were a basketball team? Oh my goodness. Readable. Think about it. Never mind. They'd have a rotation of nine guys. You feel really good about playing on any given night. Then we, then we'd be like treating Zach Hyman, like he's Chris Bosch in the heat days and I don't like that from a sweet attack. That's my problem. Okay. Well, yeah, but still, I know rings. I know rings. Yeah. And you can still, you know, average 20 points a game and have it be an all-star caliber player. Why not? You know, Zach's got his 50 goals. Who cares? No, but I mean, I understand your point. The sentiment is there for sure. Like, let's say it takes them. It doesn't happen this year. They go another three years without winning a cup. That narrative is always going to be there for sure. Like, you got swept or you lost in five and you didn't score a goal. It's going to carry you. But I do think, you know, and we're seeing it right now. I thought of obviously given that they were childhood friends. I thought of Tatum and Kachuk. Yeah. And how both guys two years ago were, well, two years ago in Tatum's case, losing to the Golden State Warriors and last year, Florida, being in their first cup final, they lose to Vegas. And now they're both here on the doorstep, having learned from that experience on the doorstep of finally winning a championship and breaking through. Yeah. So if you're Edmonton, and it doesn't go your way, because I mean, odds are it's not happening. I don't think so. I don't think so. The news flash, not, I don't think so. You spoke my last question in the segment, sorry. Oh, you did. Well, you know, I was going to say, you know, you know, I was going to say, do you know, the only team in NHL history to ever come back from a three Oh deficit in the final? I should, but I don't. Oh, this is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh my God. Yeah, I can't. I just can't put myself. I just can't put myself in the. Oh, it's great. It wasn't the 40. So I know, I know, I know, I know. Wait, wait, wait before our time. I know. But nevertheless, pretty, pretty interesting that happened one day. Think about it. Unbelievable one day. Unbelievable. The fact that they hoisted a trophy. Oh my God. Oh my God. Jesus. Unbelievable. Could you imagine? Oh, I was literally watching the, just because the energy in that building was so great last year. And as they're sort of, you know, they're introducing the teams and whatnot. And I'm thinking, my God, could you ever imagine what it would look like? What it would feel like? Boy, man, be crazy. I mean, we just had the fifth year or the five year anniversary of raps, right? Okay. I couldn't remember yesterday or two days ago. I was looking through my phone. This is something that is just like burnt in my brain of. So I wasn't right in the heart of downtown. I had like a lucky bar in the West end of Toronto that I went to that is for the record still on ice have not been back. Can only save it for the biggest of games. I'm thinking four nations face off might be when we have to have to go back there for it. Because they also have to, it's lucky. So I can't go for anything least related because they'll obviously ruin the lucky bar. But I remember piling out of there and the bit, there were two massive miracles. I remember from that day one that anybody paid their tab at the bar. I don't know how they organized the chaos there. Because it was just like, because you remember it was, it's over. And no, okay, it's over now. There were all these like stops and starts the end of an NBA game. Like these things happen. But so people were flooding out and then coming back in and then once the once it was truly over, it's just mayhem and everyone flooding out. And again, I don't know how they manage you. I paid my time for the record. But I remember I'm just standing on the street corner. Everyone's going nuts hugging strangers. And this guy comes like whipping around in a car and just like out the out of his window, he was playing a saxophone. Like I have no idea what he was playing. And it's like, that was the most naked, just like, I don't know what to do. I'm so happy. And obviously like, you know, co-actist guy and everything we had and everything. But that will always like for everything that happened that night, just some random and he had like just like exactly what a dude in his 20s who played the saxophone would look like really curly hair. Like it just looked like a weird al kind of the modern hippie. That's great. It was great. I'll never forget that. But you mentioned what would it be? And I don't, I don't want to compare the two, but it's just like, we got the little centilla of it with the Raptors and man, because you imagine if it was at home or something like that, God, but that leads me to where I want to go with this next is we're not, we're not going to have like a Vancouver situation going on in Edmonton if they lose like, what is the mood in that? I'm not saying there's going to be a riot and they're going to burn the city down. But what is the mood going to, it's one thing to, I mean, it's a completely different, completely heartbreaking thing to lose a game seven at all of that. But what's it like to get your teeth kicked in and shut out in the final? And you've got the greatest player of his generation standing there like, I don't want to feel it. I would never, I would never want to feel what that's like, but I'd be dying to know what the atmosphere in that building will be like on Saturday, because it's either elation, they extended it, they have a chance, or it's just completely over. Yeah, I don't know. That's a, that's a tough one. I don't think, I don't think there'll be a ton of anger. I mean, look, there'll be vitriol and, and criticism directed to like Darnell Nurse. I mean, Jesus. But overall, the sentiment towards the team, I think will be, all right, this was a really cool run. That was a lot of fun. And heck, now hopefully they can just continue, they'll be able to pick a right back up again next year and hopefully learn from it and grow from it. I don't, I don't think it's, it's like certainly far from a Vancouver situation. Completely opposite end of the spectrum in that regard. And I think there will still be optimism and hope that now they've seen it, they've gotten a taste. They've seen that they can actually get there because they've been to a conference final previously, but to get to the final is different. So I feel like maybe more than ever, they'll be buoyed by that. The fact that they made a ton of progress, they got to the cup final, they got a taste of it. Now go win the whole thing. And so I think like if they lose, yeah, I would bet money that they're that fan base, they're going to stand there and give their team a standing ovation at the end of it and say, all right, thank you. Great run. Now, like hopefully they, if they're, you know, as long as they're not getting blown out, it's five, nothing, let's say, but it's also hard to not watch the series objectively and say, you know, Florida's kind of better for sure, right? Like, even though, even though Edmonton's dictated play for large stretches, Florida, again, I come back to capitalizing on opportunities, being very sound, fundamentally, not committing stupid, silly turnovers at critical moments. Like Florida's got that. And they're very, very heady in that regard. That's why I think objectively, it's not like what you feel with, if you were a Canucks fan, right? And you're thinking, man, we missed it. We missed the big golden opportunity. Like, that was it. That was their moment. And they blew it. It wasn't, it wasn't meant to be for them. And they blew that chance. Yeah. Edmonton, it feels like, okay, well, we think there's probably still some opportunities that lie ahead. I think it's even like, I think all that makes a lot of sense. The more I think about it, I think it's even simpler than that. It's like, nine, nine is 97 still on the team. But next year, for sure. So long as he's not leaving, we're very much in the race. The other thing that's interesting about it is with the, like, if it does end on Saturday night, is the actual, like, Stanley Cup of it all. Nobody in a road, and hey, like baseball hardos, Ben's not here. So you have to wait till Monday, but like baseball hardos, feel free to correct me. I don't think when the road team wins the final game of the World Series that the fans are saying, Oh my God, I can't wait to see the commissioner's trophy. No, I don't like it doesn't have the gravitas. The cup is it's a hunk of metal after all gunner. Oh, that's right. Just that Rob Manfred, him and Costanza, exact same guy. But you, you look at it and I, there is such a thing of, you know, myself. And it's like, obviously, I'm like the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Like, yeah, I am a hockey hardo. But there, even when I've, there have been cup finals that I've been lukewarm on towards the tail end of, but I need to sit there and watch the guys skate around with that. And the weirdest thing is, is that obviously, like people in Edmonton just have a greater appreciation for that than anybody, you know, in the States or anybody from Florida or anything. I'm curious about that aspect of it, of the crushing disappointment. But the cups in Canada, like, I got it. I got to see it. I get to boom out the good chuck again. So I don't know, that's the other part that I think kind of, not complicates it, but just makes it more interesting, though, because I think in any other sport, it's okay. My team, last time to file immediately out of this building. Like, if there's a historic championship, you certainly feel differently about it. But I don't think those Warriors fans were saying, I have to watch, I don't allow, they're the Larry Oak. No, I have to beat traffic. Yes. Well, if anything, they were more sad that Oracle was being close. That's right. They were sitting there. I did forget about that. This is the end of Oracle. I did forget about that. That was the Raptors closed Oracle. That's right. With an NBA championship on that floor. Like, that's pretty cool. Given all this. No, that is incredible in that building. I forgot about that aspect of it. But yeah, sorry. No, I was going to say, can I be honest about this whole cup thing? So I mean, give it to me. Everything's pretty. I'm telling you, but give it to me. Well, no, not. And it's not, it's not, it's almost, it's an extension of this question pertaining to, you know, what the atmosphere would be if there's a cup hoisted. The whole, the whole narrative surrounding the cup and the quest to bring it back to Canada, I think it's, it's stupid. I think it's so silly, man. It's dumb. I don't want it. It's so dumb. And it's like, whether that cup, even even in this instance, you know, whether the cup is being hoisted in Edmonton or in, I don't know, Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina. So wherever that goes, North Carolina. So it is North Carolina. They go to Anchorage, Alaska, like, who cares? Like, who cares? You know, where the irrelevant, man, you know, relevant to me, you know, where the cup gets hoisted, like roughly 20 ish times a summer is in Canada. Literally, there's like, yeah, any ish guys on the roster. And then you throw in all the front offices and the coach and whoever else gets it and pretty sure all the keepers of the copper Canadian do. So don't worry. Like, we're on it. Guys, I love it. I have been very adamant that I can, I can get myself to a place where I would have been happy to see the Oilers win. Would have had nothing to do with Edmonton, Alberta. Sorry. It's about McDavid. It's about Hyman. It's kind of the extent of my reasons, but hey, there's two of them. Okay. Yeah. So obviously a lot more to get into from this conf final. We're gonna have our buddy, Gord Stellick talk about talk to us a little later, Sam McKee. Maybe we'll bug him about all that. But before we step away, Santana coming to Budweiser stage this summer on June 26 with counting crows is part of their oneness tour. And we have tickets to give away to enter. Listen daily to the fan morning show for the code word then text code word 59590 to enter today. Text a code word moonflower to 59590. Again, that's moonflower to 59590. If you don't win with us tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.ca. Now, Danielle, I told you were going to talk about the NBA finals and the J's in this next book. But quickly before we do that, okay, on the other side, there has been not quite a sleeping giant, but a napping giant. They haven't been sleeping for long, but there's been a napping giant in the city of Toronto that is about to be awoken this weekend. Wow. We're going to talk about it next fan morning show with Gunnar and Danielle in sports net five nine of the fan. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The J.D. Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Man, your battle stations in St. Clair, breggutting, Danielle Franceski here. And it's fitting I have you with me. Yeah, I told you all. Now, sleeping feels too strong. Like when we think about sleeping giants in sports, I don't know about you, I immediately go to once great college programs, be it football, be it basketball where it's like the Nebraska corn huskers. It's like that's a sleeping giant basketball. There you go. Nailed it. Not never going to think in the basketball and not picture Bobby Knight wedding, the tip of a whip on stage in a press conference. We're like, no, that's normal. Jesus. Okay. Anyways, let's try not to get too distracted. But yeah, that's normally where my head goes. So the reason I referred to a napping giant that's going to go woke up is because just a quick little snooze. And I were talking about decades or even half of one, but it's the and I'm not even talking about the team in and of itself, but I'm talking about you, the fan base, the Azuri faithful, the Italian national team, finally back in a major competition as defending champs. They missed the World Cup. I like twice. I know. Oh, geez. I know. But like, there was Euro between. Yeah, I know. I was trying to make it less painful for you. But if you want to bring it up, they did much of a place. No, thank you. You know, let's be honest, the World Cup is the big one that certainly is. Let's be honest. Yeah, the whole world. At least, at least, you know, we got one. Not that it's, you know, it's 18 years ago, but we got one. You did. We did it. More than more than I can say. Unless I, unless I lead into my German heritage, I can be like, we got something I could do that. If I want to, if I want to, it's in the back pocket. But the thing I say about this is, I'm not a soccer guy. Like I'm not going to sit here in and vain like I am. I have my dalliances with Arsenal occasionally, just because I am gunner, the gunners, I feel like I kind of have to. But then everybody, every time I look on the internet, I'm like, oh God, being an Arsenal fan seems awful. So I arms like the best. You know, I root for Canada. I root for the flag and just about everything I can. We know how that's gone on the men's side of things, but I love the way the city lights up during Euro. And we didn't have Italy for the World Cup and the way the city lit up for that. I am thrilled for your people that you guys have have a dog in the fight for this. Honestly, like when I think of international soccer competitions in the city of Toronto, they're just, they're two countries, I think, of it's Italy and Portugal. Yeah, not having one of them. It removes part of the fabric of the city, quite honestly. So just, like, I don't even have a question. I don't even have a thought. I think it's just like, congratulations to you and congratulations to all of you. Yes, you should be saying congratulations to Warbridge and Market Lane, because that is that that is the hub of where all the excitement happens when it only plays in any major international competition. All the folks who are not even soccer fans come out of the woodwork to wear the jersey and drape the flag. But you know what, it's worth it. It's a lot of fun and it's worth it. And yeah, it's good. I mean, I can't even begin to fathom where we would wear what the narrative would be like surrounding the team, the program, if they hadn't won the Euro because that was preceded by a World Cup absence and followed by another World Cup absence. So they're back. It was even hairy to get into this one, but they're there. And I think like tomorrow they're playing Albania must one day against Albania because they're in a tough group. They need to win that game. They need to win that game, but you're right. There's any time I think of international soccer here in Toronto, in Canada, you're 100% bang on. I think of the two nations that come to mind. It's Italy. It's Portugal. And I will say, I am sort of relieved that where this tournament is taking place without Canada's participation. Yes, because it felt very weird and very awkward. Yes, it does. To have Canada and the World Cup last time around, not Italy. And I was thinking to myself, boy, oh boy, what if both teams were in? Where do the allegiance is lie? Where do they lie at that point? Well, I can just tell you, and I know that you're like actually wrestling with it. But I've seen a lot of guys who, and again, I lovingly refer to my buds this way because I can be one at times. We have a lot of dumb hockey buds. Okay. And the prevailing sentiment, again, the guys who never care who cared for what soccer team ever ago, you should cheer for Canada, bro. I'm like, well, I don't know. They've been cheering for Italy their whole life report. It's kind of hard to be like, Huff man. And I don't know. Me personally, I could not sit there cheering like, go draw. I couldn't do I could not will myself to do that. I don't think I've ever told you this story. I was so 06, the World Cup title. So I wouldn't classify the neighborhood I grew up in as like overly Italian, but I would certainly say there were a lot of Italians. And it's actually funny when you say Italy, Albania, that would have lit my middle school a flame. I don't know how we ever would have recovered from that. But luckily, I don't need to live in that world. That is that is some kid at CR Marshot now is a problem, not mine way, way back then. But what so 06, I am working at a sporting good store during the World Cup finals. So as you can imagine, like pretty dead, except right next door was an Italian restaurant. And it was it was insane. I thought the I thought the building was going to fall down there screaming. It was just it was incredible. Dan all of it was normal. Yeah. No, no, I understand the screaming. It's like it could have been too clear this morning. There's yelling, yelling, it's happening Tuesday morning. Yeah. But then the thing I will never forget about this is I am I am driving or I wasn't driving. I was riding my bike home because I live pretty close to where I worked. And I just remember all these families of Italians just like standing on their lawn waving flags. I'm like good for you, but I didn't know what to do. I felt like they wanted me to congratulate them. I just didn't know what to do with it. They just as I was saying, they just wanted a high five. This was free COVID. So I definitely could have high five anyone I wanted to. But that is my lasting memory of it is I just remember Italian restaurant shadow to jollies. I don't even know if it's open anymore. Still just losing their mind and then me riding my bike home to just people standing on their lawns being like, look at us. Look what we look at what we have done. Yeah, again, buddy, you don't want to know what I look like when candle one gold no two insult lakes. I get it. I've been there. But it just that will always be my lasting memory of it. I thought you would appreciate it. I 100% thank you. Have you started to see some of these flags and stuff pop up around the city? I have to be honest, I haven't seen any of your people's flags, but the Portuguese, they're coming. Oh, yeah, I've seen there's a guy who's parking in the garage. I didn't see him this morning, but he's got like the hood wrap hood and the dual flags. There's a guy in my neighborhood at Burlington, which when when is too early? Because he had the flag. He had the truck wrap on Monday. I think that's fair. That's fair. I started seeing him probably last weekend. Yeah, early this week, the second the last world kind of they're like, we got to get the I got to tell you everything. Now it's really popping off. Oh, of course. Oh, of course. Oh, got our every air. There's all these cars are draped. I love it in the Italian prop again. It's looks fantastic. It's great. Yeah. And I like it because we got you got the people that have the blue flag with the logo, the team crest. And then we've got the traditional Italian flag and you're seeing them everywhere. And it's like it's unacceptable to have any type of other nation in wherever you can. You can't, there's no like Portuguese, your annex like like everybody's there. There's opinion belongs to Daniel. I only do not close on it. I think Portuguese people could drive anywhere they want. Yeah. No, but literally, yeah, it's like it's like it'll Italy central out there. It's pretty cool. And especially at this time of year in general, it's always awesome. Anytime the international tournaments occur, you see it all the time. So I just wanted to ask because I was very curious if the Italian brethren had made its way up to your neck of the world. I don't and there had and there were flags now being draped all over cars and people walking around with them, a lot of fortune ahead of this tournament, a lot of Portuguese, but no Italians. I don't know if there's just like a demographic thing of Burlington, I'll have to get. I'll ask the city to give this and meet the census information and I'll be able to get to that. Could the city handle Italy Portugal in a game of what? Well, you know what? Honestly, it would be fantastic. And we the closest thing that we've had in recent memory, could you picture this? Okay, give it to me. So Italy failed to make the World Cup? Yes. They were in a position where they played, ooh, who was it? It was a it was a team that it was a country they should have beat. Okay. That ended up, if you recall, they had to go to the playoff portion, right? Yeah, yeah. So Portugal was so participated in the in the qualifying single elimination playoff format. If both of those teams would have made the final, they would have played each other with a trip to the World Cup on the line. Oh, that's like, and we were deprived of that. That's almost better than a final. Portugal took care of their business, right? Yeah, got to the they made it. They ended up winning and making it Italy lost in the semi final in the second in the the second to last game, the penultimate game on their home pitch on home turf. They lost. How dare you? What have been treated to a Portugal, Italy, where winner go home, match up to go to the World Cup? Would the city have survived? Yeah, it would have been amazing. Electric, unbelievable. God, yeah, I was so eager. Really, I was like, you know what, the best thing that's going to come of the fact that they fail to qualify right out of the group, I'm like, it's just going to they're going to it's going to be Portugal, Italy, Portugal, Italy, all all friendships. Yes, done. Allyship is done. It's all pushed to the side. We're enemies, enemies for 90 minutes of soft. I won't say football, soccer. Okay, good job. Oh, I would love it. I would love it. I don't think this is how it works. I'm almost positive. It doesn't, but God, can we not? Can we not just get like an Italy Portugal friendly at BMO? Like, is that so hard, man? I know the answer is yes. That's so hard. I want Canada to actually schedule friendlies against Italy and Portugal. I would love it. Let's go. You know how many tickets they would sell, Gunner? Two minutes. Holy smokes. Whatever the amount is, more than that. Those are the two countries. They just money marketing people go schedule friendlies against those two teams, play them here. Yeah, you're set. You're making tons of money. People will be selling tickets to condo balconies. But like, hey, you can see it from here. Go ahead. It's good spot to shoot a player. I didn't say that. All right, NBA finals. It's still a thing. It is happening. It's happening. How much longer? I have a lot of questions. It ends today. Okay, perfect, good, quick, concise answer. I'm just going to open the floor like wide ranging topic. You go. Thank you. What has been your biggest kind of takeaway prevailing thought? However, you want to set it up. Your big finals blank is. I'm worried about basketball. Oh, my God, this is such a big topic. I love it. You know, basketball, Gunner, this has been a really frustrating watch. I admire and I appreciate the Boston Celtics, because I think they're really good. And they are clearly far and away better than the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks, I am astonished how they've made this final. Watch the point basketball. And you're, and you're, it's like I'm watching a glorified AAU team. Like, I really, they have no structure. They have no sense of identity itself. They literally, and they're so fundamentally flawed, man. Oh, Gunner. Games wanted to my big takeaway coming out of the first two games. My biggest takeaway was, does anybody want to fight through a screener? Are we just going to passive switch all day? It's the NBA bleeping finals. If you're not doing it now, when is it going to happen? When are you going to apply some actual genuine, reasonable effort on the defensive end? And then big adjustment for game three Gunner. You know what? We're not going to, we're not going to stop switching. They're killing them. They're murdering, but we're not going to stop switching. You know what we're going to do? We're just going to load up to the ball side with early help. So that was their big adjustment. Did it work? No. Why? Because Boston likes to share the ball and they know how to swing it side to side and driving kick and penetrate did not work. The other thing, gosh, do they not know how to play help defense? This is, it just, it really bothers me. It really bothers me to know when it's one of two things, Gunner. It's either Jason Kidd has no idea how to coach, yeah, basketball, or they just don't listen. But either way, there aren't consequences for the actions that these players are the way that they're performing. I'm sorry, you play two ends of the court. Yeah, basketball is in a very bad, sad state when it comes to the way defenses played at that level. And secondarily, we're watching a Mavericks team that made the final with 70% of their offense. It's the way they play the game coming from Luca and Kyrie standing in isolation. Yeah, with zero movement off the ball. It's literally, okay, Luca, you take it. Okay, it's your turn. Okay, Kyrie, it's your turn. Go, go. You create the other four guys stand on the perimeter. That is our offense. Thank God for their two bigs. Thank God for Gafford and Lively. Why? They run nothing for them, but they can catch lobs, they'll dunk the basketball, and they'll rebound. And for those reasons, they've managed to get to the NBA finals, which is nuts. I cannot tell you how many times in game three, I'm standing there and I'm watching Boston attack a gap. They're attacking off the dribble. Dallas and other thing. Can they're getting blown by? Like it's going on a style, man. They can't stop anybody. Our nosebleed, nothing. And these guys, the first thing you talk about with kids from the age of 10. Yes. When you're talking about where to play your help, if you're playing deny, you're playing in gap, whatever is C-man, C-ball. Guys, you got to see your man and you got to see the ball at all times. I cannot tell you how many times I watch guys that had their heads completely turn the opposite direction. Thank you. Wide open threes, backdoor all the time. Quite frankly, game three ends up being a close game. I mean, Boston was by far the better team, but that goes without saying closer game, okay? Even game two ended up being a fairly close game. That three or four possessions is the difference. Three or four possessions at any point in the ballgame is the difference. So that might be a miss box out. That might be a lazy defensive rotation. That may be ignorant defensive play in terms of not being in the right spot. That's all discipline and habitual behavior that is developed. I can't help but I like it. I'm like, boy, Jason, can you do something? Like, I'm sorry. I know they're your best players. I know this. But if Luca is killing you, killing you defensively, can you not at least show him that there are consequences for that? And I actually just even drive this point home a little bit further. I saw this stat yesterday that I wanted to reference, which I think really encapsulates everything. It's a stat tracking account, basketball account that I saw on X. It's called courtside buzz. They had this really interesting nugget about Luca's defensive performance. Here are the highest blow by percentages in a single playoff series over the last 10 years. Newsflash, all three are Luca 2024 NBA finals, 67.7% of defensive possessions. He's been blown by the first round this year against the Clippers, 65.2%. The second round against the Thunder, 59%. If you can't guard the ball, get off the floor, man. I'm sorry. Get off the floor. And I've been saying this since the beginning of this series in particular, because I watched game one and I was just, my head was spinning. And I would tell anybody who listened, he is a black hole on defense. He's killing them. If he gives you 60 points of offensive contributions scoring, facilitating, rebounding, he's given up just as much on defense. And I'm so glad Brian Winhorse decided to finally go and air it on a big platform like that, because he's absolutely right. You're not winning that way. There's no chance. Yeah, that's why I'm sitting there. I'm thinking, how did they get to the finals? They can't coach. And they have guys that don't, that only play one end of the court. That doesn't work. Boston's going to win the title because they deserve it. And because they have guys that play both ends of the court. That's all it is. That's the difference. Yeah. I mean, you look at like Jalen Brown and like, God, how much stuff have we said about the clips? But I mean, like before the season, all the clips of the dribbling with the left hand coming into the year, but say what you will, it's like, I would probably rather a guy who maybe is left isn't as strong, but gives me something on both ends of the floor. But I think part of the problem with the roster construction of it and million problems with it. But when it's one thing, when you have, you know, a big that you can try to hide or something like that, but in 2024 in the NBA, having, and you know, I know Lucas and like a true kind of point guard, he's more of a forward, but having a guy that has to be on the ball, guarding guys like that, it is just such a hard place to live in. And I think that's why this team, it's funny, unlike what we've said about the Oilers, what we said about the Panthers last year, or what we said about the Celtics two years ago, you can't see the this group is getting better because it feels like either one of two things, and hey, why not both? But one of two things has to happen for this to be remotely repeatable going forward is Luca has to improve defensively immensely. Yep. Just know if saves or buts, or they have to build the, like, the, the Timberwolves around him effectively of go bare in the kill out and all of these just lengthy versatile defenders that can switch, switch, switch and and rotate and help and all of that. That is a complete roster overhaul. Look at how long Minnesota has been trying to do it. And it still hasn't panned out for them. So that's the thing I keep kind of going to because we can sit here and say that, you know, kid needs to hold Luca accountable, but it's like we got to be realistic one at the end of the day. He's not going to. Well, that's that's the big thing here is, and I had this conversation yesterday with somebody here in our in the office, and we arrived at the same point. If Jason Kidd, who's a future Hall of Famer at the point guard position, who was one of the true elite playmakers of his generation, if he can't hold a player accountable, if he and he certainly commands a higher level of respect, then probably certainly if I stepped in that gym, even though I would probably break him over the coals, but it wouldn't resonate more respect than Joe Missoula would have garnered when he first took the Celtics, 100%. So, so if he can't make that happen, then who is who can't? Yeah, that's the point. Like he's, he's, I think the hope would be that it's the, you know, it's the story we've told ourselves about every loser in sports that is going to hurt him so bad, and he's not just going to go and I don't know what his versus horses are. Yeah, he's like, yo, he's just getting all horses. But no, but I guess that is your savior, your hope. If you're a maths fan, a big hope is that this, this thing so much that he goes away and says, you know what? I got to stop whining to the officials. I got to start pointing at myself and look in the mirror because that was the other big takeaway from the game three. I was very curious about this. What was he going to say after he fouled out? What was his, his reaction going to be when asked about it, and it was zero accountability. There was no accountability being taken, no ownership. It was, man, I don't, I want to, I can tell you got it. I've been in a lot of games. I've coached a lot of games. I've been around basketball. That play where he was fouled out. Yeah, that is a foul for sure. That is a foul. It objectively a foul. There's no excuse for that. Like play some defense, buddy, and you're not going to be in that position. Yeah, stop putting yourself in compromising positions because you don't know how to play on that side of the ball, whether that's a lack of effort or a lack of attention to detail. Those are things that come back to bite you. And that's why you're going to lose in the NBA finals. Yeah, the thing I, the thing I will say, and I'm with everybody on the taking ownership and he needs to be more responsible on, on his own foul count there. But I do understand the frustration for a guy who plays the way he does in the NBA of this way to be in that game at home and get four free throw attempts. I like understand the frustration kind of coursing for him. But that doesn't excuse all the other stuff we talked about a lot more on the NBA final. I'm sure we'll get back into it at some point. Let's be honest. I, I, because I look, Ben and I, we love talking about this, but I could just like, I see the way he's laid up. I need to get more from you on it. But we got to get into, I should let you know, catch game for the NBA finals, Celtics, Mavs tonight on Sportsnet tip off set for eight, 30. Also Blue Jays back at it tonight, starting off a three game set against the guardians first pitch set for seven, seven, Kevin Gosman will throw it. You can watch the game on Sportsnet one, listen on Sportsnet 590. The fan, we will get you set for that series coming up next. It's more of the fan morning show with cutting in Francesca at Sportsnet 590, the fan.
