Can the Leafs Replicate Boston's Turnaround? + Tiger Woods Returns to the TGL

Fan Morning Show Sports said 5-9 of the fan been in his

prank gunning 11 more games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their season.

Not going to be a postseason this year. Despite some people predicting with a

hundred percent certainty that that would have. Who is doing that? Yeah, it's been awful.

Horrible. In fact, it's given an opportunity to some some fellas from Marley's

Bow grew. Hey, it's taking the opportunity. He is running with it. What can we

glean from these games? Hard to say. Let's talk to Jason Buchle, former

panther's director of scouting sports and NHL analyst joins us online.

Good morning, Jason. How's it going? Good morning, fellas.

Doing well. Thanks. So this is a tough one for Leaf fans because yeah, it's a

must lose, but the Bruins are playing well. They're in a playoff spot after

their one year out of the playoffs last year. And they've got Fraser

Minton playing on the top line. Did you ever imagine we'd be talking that way

about Fraser Minton, let alone with the Bruins, but like, did you see him as a

top line player and maybe that's not where his ultimate destiny lies, but hey,

can't argue with the results right now. No, anytime you're given an

opportunity to play up in the lineup and you take advantage of it, get on you as

an athlete and that's what he's done. Let's not get carried away here. He's got

16 talks. I think 31 points or something like that. Fraser Minton, when your

team is good and I'm talking about contending good, I've always thought he's

going to be a third-line centerman. And I still, I still believe that's

exactly the role. For now, the Boston Bruins have them. They're rolling with

them at the top of the table because they have a need there and he's filling

the void and he's doing a nice job. So get on him. You don't want to knock him

for those types of results, but also, you know, he's 21 years old. It's going to

be a long career and he's a high end three. It is very, very best, in my

opinion, if the Bruins get back to contention status and they're hanging

around the periphery of the playoffs here, they're making a push and he's a

big part of it. So good for him. Yeah, he is and it's it's funny, right? It's

like, you know, everybody here pointing to that trade and, you know, it'd be

bad enough if you just gave up one of those things, right? It's like it'd be

bad enough if you just gave up a guy who, I mean, if he can play center for

the Bruins this year, there's no reason he couldn't play it for the Toronto

Maple Leafs, let alone, you know, what may be coming down the pipe with a

six, seventh eighth overall selection or an unprotected pick in in in next

year's draft. But yeah, it is also like from outside the conversations we have

about Frazier Mint and well, he's a Bruin. It's like, I don't know. If he had

two, if he was a leaf and he had two points in February first, I feel like

we'd be talking about him in like in a in a slightly different way. So it's

not a knock on the player, just as funny how when you get outside of the like

day in and day out, it's like it can maybe seem like a little bit of a touch,

rosy or here than then maybe it actually is, you know, how much are the

Bruins a bit of a blueprint for the Leafs? Because I don't think the Bruins

are to your point, like I don't think they're a capital C, you know, cup

contender here, but they're obviously a team that had a bounce back after a

year that they didn't want to have last year. How much can the Leafs look at

this year's Bruins team and say, okay, like, you know, some of the furniture

pieces are still there. You had to make some changes and you can kind of

bounce back to again, whether it's contender status, probably not, but

respectability next year.

Yeah, I think that it's possible to bounce back to respectability, but you

also have to take a look at your long lens and take the take the, sometimes

you are what you are and going, you know, long term here for the Toronto

Maple, specifically, they're going to have to catch some lightning in a

bottle with some free agent signings or if you look at the Bruins roster

specifically down, like you go down roster with them and, you know, they've

got the Mark Castellic, so the world they've got, you know, even Alexander

Steve, who is once upon a time at Toronto Maple Leafs, he's going to have 10

tux, 10 tux this year for the Boston Bruins downstream and they're

lined up and, you know, obviously, Fraser made them spiking, they've got the

Sean Carallys, what they have there guys, if they got some guys that are kind

of, they've grinded out their career, the Mikey E. C. Monster, they've grinded

out their career and they can play a certain sort of style that you can rely

upon and you're not always going to get a lot of scoring, but you're going to

get some, some grind and some compete and the one thing that you can count on

that way when you have consistent compete in the middle of your lineup, whether

they're producing offense or not, is exactly that. You have a DNA and the

Boston Bruins, it should be the same as the Toronto Maple Leafs, it should be

the same as the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Black Oaks, the New York

Rangers, etc. When you pull on certain jerseys in the league, you just, it feels

a little bit different and there's the Boston Bruins way of doing things and

a perfect example that right now is the fact that James Higgins, their top

prospect, who played a Boston college right in their backyard, he is yet to

sign as of this morning that I haven't seen anything come across this morning

anyways and they have a certain way of doing things and there's, you know, the

guys who pull on the jersey, they seem to elevate their game.

Yeah, I just got, I wasn't expecting to go there, but you mentioned the name,

how weird is it? Like I've seen, we've seen all these guys come out, like I

remember when Matthew and I, we were sitting there watching the frozen

before, like, come on, come on, Minnesota, lose, we need to get this guy in the

lineup. And, you know, James Higgins was a guy who was in, in the mix to be the

first overall pick at various times in the lead up to last year's draft.

Obviously, I think he ends up going nine there. I, I can't for the life of me,

remember a guy signing, he signs an American league tryout with Boston.

So he can, like, go play a Providence, but he could potentially go back to

where as a BB or BC next year, like is that not a weird one?

Like I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember a situation playing out, like, you

know, I'm old enough to remember Cutter Goetje, taking his ball and running

in the fanheim when the flyers wouldn't let him burn that, burn that year.

I'm sure they would happily let him sign to an American league tryout and

hadn't go playing with the, the phantoms as opposed to burning the year.

Like, is this a weird one the way it's playing out to you?

Yeah, it is a little bit unusual, but they're in a playoff race.

We were in the same situation in Florida years ago.

We had a player by the name of Henrik Barksstrom who was at the University of Denver.

And, you know, he, he ended up coming out.

We, we kind of, I don't want to say we caved, but I don't know how else to say.

We kind of did give and, and he got games in the NHL.

It's a tug of war at this stage.

The, the player wants to play NHL games.

He wants to burn off a year of his entry level contract, which to me,

any more people talk about that as a big deal.

It's not that big a deal because if you're really good and you're young in the

National Hockey League nowadays, teams want to lock you up to a cap friendly deal

earlier in your career.

It's not like burning a year off your contract is really that big a deal to me

as an organization.

But having said that, again, the Bruins have a certain way of doing things.

They have a plan for their team at the NHL roster right now.

They don't want to mess with a good thing and a conversely.

The athlete wants to come out of school and he wants to get a taste of the NHL.

He's seeing guys like Tyson Gross play for the Calgary Flames, for example.

And he's saying himself, well, you know, he's getting NHL games,

but that's not seen the trees for the forest.

The Calgary Flames aren't a playoff team.

It's not going to mess with the continuity of the group.

It's hard to look at a guy in the room.

When guys are blocking shots with their face trying to get in the playoffs

and then you have to introduce a guy from the outside who hasn't been there.

And that guy, by the way, has to be a scratch now because you've got to get an NHL game.

Sometimes that's not good for your room, right?

So it's not there's an element of fairness there.

And I think that they're just it's a tug of war right now.

Yeah, meritocracy might even say, okay.

So a lot of focus will be on Brandon Carlo tonight in his return to Boston.

And yeah, the return too much, I'd say.

But the player has been pretty much what you could have expected, right?

Jason, like, what am I missing missing here from from Carlo?

And is there any salvaging like obviously the return is you can't change it.

It cannot be changed.

But like, is there any salvaging of the asset for the Maple Leafs?

Whether that's, you know, turning around next year and being competitive

or maybe flipping him in the offseason?

Like, what do you make of what Brandon Carlo is right now in 2026?

Brandon Carlo is pretty close to what I expected him to be.

I've watched this player forever going back to junior hockey.

And Brandon Carlo, I like this trade for the player.

Let me explain this to you.

I like the acquisition of the player at the time.

I the rest of it, I hate it, right?

You know what I mean?

The cost of doing business was curious to me.

And if it worked out and they went, let's imagine they beat Florida last year.

Let's imagine they go to stand to cup final.

They didn't, of course, you know, hindsight is what it is.

And the results speak for themselves.

But nobody also expected the team to be this poor this year.

I think the three of us would agree.

We didn't expect them to be this bad.

The Brandon Carlo situation, he's a big body.

He's long, he's in the way.

He's never been a super heavy guy in terms of punishing me.

Sometimes they're just big.

Like, you can be a big hockey player and people automatically expect

if you're a forward, you're going to be a power forward.

If you're a defense player, you're going to be punishing others.

It's not, it doesn't work like that.

You know, you are what you are.

And he's an in the way guy.

And, you know, he's, he's been, he's been fine.

He hasn't been, you know, he hasn't been the biggest problem

with the Toronto Maple Leafs this year.

Nobody can sit here and tell me that.

It's unfortunate for him.

It really is because he was involved in a transaction.

He doesn't make those choices.

The cost of doing business, what is what it is.

But don't expect Brandon Carlo to change his strengths going forward

one way or the other.

He is what he is, guys.

He's the long, he's in the way.

He's average plus with the puck, occasional offense,

not all the time, not very often, to be honest.

And he's a four and a half, he's a, he's a four and a half

or a five on a really good NHL team.

And, you know, it is what it is.

It's unfortunate for him this type of attention, isn't it?

Because he's not asking for this.

And he hasn't really changed his way.

No, he hasn't, and again, like in a, in a world where, you know,

go listen to, you know, 20 interviews with NHL players,

feels like 18 of them are talking about how terrible

they're just playing Toronto.

It's like, he's like, I actually believe it or not.

I know this is shocking all you guys.

I like it here.

And, you know, there was talk about him heading into the deadline.

And I was like, yeah, I actually like given push comes a shove,

I'd rather stay here.

What do you think of this conflict?

Is he kind of defenseman, Nick Waw, a guy who on a good team,

you're like, ah, God, there's so much utility there.

And you can see what he is.

But he's not a difference maker for a group.

But then you go see Nick Waw just get plopped into Colorado.

And I mean, they thought they were adding him as a three C.

Might be the four after, after they go out and they make the cadre

acquisition as well.

It feels like those two guys are kind of of a similar ilk.

And then on a great team, there's so much utility there.

But the worst the team is, the more I can kind of put a,

put a light on the things they don't do.

And again, that's not necessarily their fault.

It's just more of a case of miscast.

Yeah, I think that's what I said.

The Nick Waw comparison, especially when you're good,

like when Nick Waw plays for the Las Vegas Golden Knights

in the role that he played, he's got absolute great utility.

That's a good spot.

And Toronto thought that they were going to be something else.

And there was a potential for him to have great utility.

It's interesting guys like Nick Waw,

it's a great example actually when I think about it.

Because when you think about the Colorado Abilance,

you automatically think about high octane skill, right?

They play like the hairs on fire.

They're skating downhill in both directions.

Super fast, super competitive.

Nick Waw is not fast.

Nick Waw is not fast.

He's never been fast.

He's a big body.

He's, you know, he does what he does.

You saw what he can do on his best shifts.

Now here, like if you look at Brandon Carlo,

people again are throwing rocks at the glass house.

No goals, I get it.

But he's a plus seven on this team.

He average is 20 minutes a night.

Like, you know, he's got, I don't know,

probably probably less than 70 hits on the year.

Cause that's what he does.

And he's, he's going to occasionally block shots.

Like Brandon Carlo on balance is that that's a great comparison.

He, his game doesn't pop off in the most positive light

when you're on a bad team,

but when you're on a good team, he's a glue guy

that you really appreciate having in your lineup.

And, and that's, that's reality.

So I don't know, I'm not, Brandon Carlo's not my punching bag

this year.

I'll tell you that much.

He's, he's on balance done exactly what he needed to do

for this team.

People want more, but that's not his personality

and certain categories.

Not as plenty other punching bags to go around.

And the general manager is acting as one.

But man, Morgan Riley was one after the Matthews thing

and he, he was punching himself after his no reaction

to the Matthews Radco-Gudus incident.

It is like that, that whole thing.

And, and the narrative that exists around this team,

which is not just a narrative, it's a reality.

And it's been like largely that way for the last decade or so.

Is that fixable?

Like is it, and, and what, as a general manager,

like what would the conversations be this off season

surrounding that?

And like how close to the top of the priority list would that be?

Well, we're talking about DNA of a lineup

when we get into that equation.

And the problem with that is that when you,

when you bring people in from outside your organization

who have been groomed in other, other organizations,

i.e. Brandon Carlo, for example, is a good example.

And you plot them in, you know, they haven't been part

of the growth equation of your group from the grassroots up.

And the best way to build an organization is to insulate

the group through a, for me personally, in my experience,

through a model where it's a draft and developed model.

And then, you know, hopefully you've created enough of that

in the room, the character in the room,

that when people come in, there's an understanding

of how we have to play.

And, you know, how close our group is.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been chasing that.

They've been trying to chase it.

A certain type of an identity, build up an identity.

And then certainly it came to a head a couple of weeks

ago for all the wrong reasons with the captain.

Guys, this is going to take time.

This is my, my long answer.

It really is because I don't think they know exactly

what they are.

It's nice that Morgan Riley comes out and drops the flippers,

you know, after the situation that happened with Matthews

at night, but that's not Morgan Riley.

Come on.

Like, we, you know, we all know that that's not him.

And this team is disconnected.

It needs a reset.

The problem is that you're trying to bring it in from the outside

to make that happen because the core group that you've had

there for a long period of time.

The general manager, general managers and team presidents

and then coaches have been trying to mold the DNA

to make them play a certain way or at least get everybody

to throw the rope in the same direction when things get

very, very hard.

And it hasn't really worked.

It hasn't worked for longevity purposes

when the games get hard.

So it's a tough spot to be in is my answer.

You got to build it from within.

And they don't have the assets to do that right now.

They're in a tough place.

No, they're not.

Man, they don't have the assets to do it right now.

We were joking about like if we had like a word cloud for the show,

it's like it just went when talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs

feels like that'd be the prevalent one here.

It's like, yeah, gritness.

Yeah, tough.

Yeah, I need more from Matthews, but just the lack of assets

that allow them to pivot in any way, shape or form.

Tell me if I'm trying to put too much rose colored glasses on this.

And I don't know.

Maybe it sounds like I am Brad Schluving

or whoever's making the calls for Morgan Riley.

This this offseason trying to trying to find a new home for him.

But if I'm looking at the outside looking in and look,

the answer to this question could just be,

I don't know that I need to take anything from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But when I look at Morgan Riley,

if I believe I'm bringing him into an org that does have all those things

and does have the structure and is not asking him to be on your top pair,

has he not been one of the guys it's kind of shown in the playoffs

that he can raise his game and he does have the right kind of attitude again,

like whether it goes perfectly for him or not.

Like I can see a world where I don't think he's changing somebody's DNA.

You certainly wouldn't bring in a member of the Leafs to do that.

But if you're going to take a piece of this group

from the outside looking in and kind of add it to yours and you're a team,

again, like, you know, they wouldn't have the space to do this.

But you're one of these kind of blue blood organizations, a Colorado,

a, you know, a Dallas again, like they need any help on the back end.

But does it not feel like Riley has been one of the few guys that actually proves

he can kind of rise to the occasion and does understand what it means

to kind of play in the biggest moments.

And that to me is one of the few reasons why I can see a world

where maybe there can be a trade found this this offseason.

And at the deadline, it's a tough thing to kind of throw him on to a moving train.

But if you're doing this at the, at the draft or after you kind of swing

and miss for the pieces you want in free agency, could you not see a world

where a team that has kind of a more set established culture and has a,

you know, a top pair that you're not trying to upset.

And he can just kind of go be a second pair or a four or five guy for you.

Could you not see a team kind of kicking tires on Riley in that regard?

Yeah, I don't know if he's a four or five.

That's my, that's my disconnect.

Let me start with by saying this.

I think Morgan Riley has been a fabulous pro for the Toronto A police.

Like, honestly, guys, he's been here forever.

He's 31 years old.

He feels like he's 41.

That's how long he's been here.

And, but he's always got to front the media.

He's, he's never ruffled any feathers.

He's a good, solid pro.

Nobody can tell me differently.

Okay, there's guys in this roster that are John Taveris.

He's a great pro.

He really is.

Here's the thing.

Morgan Riley, kind of like your Nick Waw comparison,

he's not fleet of foot right now and or right now.

He's not fleet of foot.

He used to be, believe it or not,

when I started scouting this guy in Moose show,

which is an eternity ago.

Boy, oh boy, could he skate?

He suffered a knee injury before he came out of the league.

His skating's always been average plus.

I would say he's never been a pure burner.

The thing where he is now is that he's on the back end of the speed

of his game.

He's played a lot of hockey relative to his age.

But you know what, in the fiber, the six hole,

and to play less than 21 minutes tonight,

because that's what he plays in Toronto.

He's a 17-minute night of guy.

That's what he would be best served as.

There could be a trade out there.

And they'd have to eat half of the salary on the remaining deal.

You'd have to be willing to do that.

And I'm willing to do that, by the way,

because what am I going to get in return?

Draft capital.

What do I want?

Well, how soon do I need that draft capital?

Like yesterday.

So I would make this deal at the trade,

or probably before the draft is here,

if I could possibly do it and see where it goes.

And because you're eating half of it,

you're going to get a higher pick, call it a fourth-row pick,

instead of a fifth-row pick on balance,

if you were to trade the whole salary out the door.

He'd be fine somewhere else.

That's my long, long answer here.

Maybe PP2 guy, sheltered minutes,

easier matchups defensively, and he's a great pro.

But teams are playing really fast now,

and they see him in a certain light, a certain category.

And they're going to have to be willing to understand

where he is in his career right now.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have a projected $46 million

of cap space this summer.

If anybody in this world loves them some organ rally,

I think it's Caldubis.

They're already kind of committed to this like,

this Crosby, Malcolm, Latang window.

I don't know that it's a perfect fit,

but I could see worse ones.

All right, last one I wanted to ask you about books.

Friedman had this report in headlines on Saturday night,

basically moving forward.

I don't know that it's actually been consummated yet,

but it does seem like moving forward.

If you are a first round pick,

there was drafted out of the Canadian Hockey League

as a 19 year old,

you'll be able to go play in the American League.

First guy I thought of with this was Eastern Cowan.

Like, you know, obviously there was nothing left

for him to do at London last year,

but wasn't ready for the National League either.

How much would a guy like that have been helped

from playing American League games last year as a 19 year?

Like obviously this year,

if they wanted to play him in the American League,

they could have been played two games

for the Marley's this year.

But how much would somebody like Cowan have been helped

by being able to play in the American League at 19

as opposed to needing to do the second lap of junior there?

It's a massive opportunity to plop your best prospect

if you will into that situation.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

I've gone through it a ton in my career.

We had Owen Tippett that made our team one year in Florida,

but he couldn't stick.

And then we had to send him back to junior.

He wasn't, he didn't prepare properly

in the off season in the build up to a second opportunity

to make our team.

We had to send him back to Mississauga,

he ended up in second off.

He floated through the American or the Ontario Ocul League

and was 60% of what he could have been

and he needed to be pushed harder.

Where would he have gotten that?

The American Ocul League.

The American Ocul League is a very difficult league.

They eat their own down there

because everybody's trying to get to the National Ocul League

and it's a big deal.

Now the flip side of that is that it's not great for business

for the CHL because what is it?

They rely on tickets and ticket sales

and you won't sound attacks of the world.

Those smaller teams in the Ontario Ocul League,

for example, this isn't great news for them.

It isn't, but for an NHL franchise and for the athlete,

it's, I think it's been a long time coming

and it's going to benefit the player.

Books, always appreciate the time.

Thanks for doing this.

You bet, Chef fellas.

Have a great day today and we'll talk soon.

Sounds good.

Jason Boogler, former Panthers Director of Scouting NHL

finalist for a sports net talking about, yeah, the...

Generally speaking, you like to build team chemistry

by having the guys drafted and developed

and spending lots of time together.

Sure.

Like Leafs had done like for the last time.

I know like John Navarra's came in like yesterday.

No, like a while ago.

That was a thousand years ago.

Yeah, and Morgan Riley, he just, no, he's been...

The longest one, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, no, these guys aren't like,

they have brought in the mercenaries, right?

The Ryan Reeves types.

Right, I mean, Riley's.

Yeah.

Sure.

A lot of Ryan's, yeah.

And I guess, yeah, that's part of the reason

Brandon Karlo didn't stand up for awesome athletes

or, you know, it might be just that he's Brandon Karlo

and that's the whole thing.

But yeah.

Yeah, that's not take...

I keep coming back to that.

It is the biggest flashpoint of the season, obviously.

Era.

Not season.

Era.

Yeah, stop.

Era.

You're right.

Era.

Yeah.

It's just crazy because like these guys have spent

so much time with each other.

They've been...

There's been a significant level of continuity over the last decade.

Yep.

Didn't matter.

No, didn't matter.

Didn't matter, lick.

And I think that's why people point to, again, like when we talked about it's like,

who is taking the most criticism for this, everything that happened there?

So, I saw many people go back to Matthews because it's like, he's your captain.

He's your culture center.

And he is not the guy that would be the first one charging into that fire.

Now, I think you can still, again, like, do I think, now nature versus nurture, right?

Do I think David Pastronack was always wired that way?

No, he's spent time around Zadano Char and Brad Martian and Patrice Bergeron and, you know,

Claude Julian and all the guys that kind of came up in that brewing system.

And then you incubate that guy and now he's the one trying to, like, kind of pass that

along.

Now, is it as good as it once was?

No.

It's better than what the Leafs have going on, certainly.

So, no, it's frustrating.

What do you think of my...

What do you think about my Morgan Rally to the penguins?

What do you think about that?

They have four defense.

They have four defensemen under contract already for next year.

You could easily kind of slot them in as your four or five.

They have $46 million of cap space.

All they got to do is pay Geno Malkin and, I mean, fine goalies, but it's like, they don't

have goalies now anyways.

So, it's not only they got to pay those guys.

In a world where you're searching for a taker, there are going to be less and less guys

of note as free agents.

Just like, go look at the free agent class this year.

You're going to need to find your swings that way.

And again, maybe I'm just talking myself into this because it's like, I want to find,

like, I want to do Morgan Rally right.

And I want to find him a nice like next, next place.

But I also think if you're looking for that guy, Morgan Rally has not been the solution here.

Not been the solution.

Anybody's problem and he's been terrible.

But it's well he's been cast as a top pair d-man even still.

He's a top pair d-man on this team.

No team that's acquiring him is asking him to do that.

His, it makes seven and a half.

If you're eating part of that, let's say even eat, you know, two and a half, a $5 million

or defenseman, go play on your second pair, sometimes play on your third pair, run a second

power play.

I, I've heard crazy ideas.

Yeah.

I know Eric Carlson has turned himself back into like, Norris, Calibur, defenseman.

They're finally almost done with that deal, right?

Like next year's the last year of that deal.

Morgan Rally's deal is so long, but you're right, okay.

Makes no money.

Like in a, in a world where the cap's going up and they have all the cap space, it's

sure fine.

Who loves Morgan Rally more than Kyle Dubas?

Like I'm sorry, Brian Burke's not still a GM and it's like he was also proven right

by the way.

The idea of like I take him one overall.

Yeah, you would.

Yeah, no, better than Nilly Ackibov, I would say.

I would.

Yeah.

And agree on that.

Anyways.

Yeah, I mean, that's going to be one of the major points of discussion this off season.

He'll be apparently back for today's game after just missing the matchup against the

podcast fellow who, you know, put him directly on blast on Hockey Night in Canada.

Yeah.

And then he sends like way to whoop it up against the Leafs and then almost lose to the

Rangers.

It's like, don't forget who you are either.

Well, I mean, they won the game and they limited them to nine shots.

Sure.

Sure.

Anyway, so James, look, I don't need the sends puffing their chest out when James Rimer

is starting games in the year 2026.

Well, you know what they do when they have a goal, they're not so confident and it hasn't

happened.

They all season.

Yeah, they limit the shots.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's what you're supposed to do.

No good job.

Like if you got like David Ayers, you know, yeah.

Oh, well, imagine the day after the David Ayers game be like, it's going to get worse.

Imagine that because it has.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

Anyways, there were fun moments between that and like moments of hope.

Of course.

A moment of hope, if you will.

Yeah.

Sure.

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things better.

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to donate.

When we come back Tiger Woods is coming back TGL tonight, but maybe Augusta in a couple

of weeks.

A few days is when the master starts interesting.

Maybe the first step.

We'll talk to Adam Stanley who's in Florida for TGL final, which may wrap up actually will

wrap up tonight.

That's right.

Play like a bonus round.

Look at you knowing the schedule.

Yeah, we don't need brand gunnings reported on TGL because we're going to have a man who's

at TGL right now.

Boots on the boots on the ground loafers on the ground.

Let's be honest running shoes on the ground journalism.

Adam Stanley next is the fan morning show continues.

Ben and his friend getting sports net 590 to fan.

The best blue J show out there, period.

Blair and Barker be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple Spotify or wherever

you get your podcasts.

Go on.

So, Matt Shers or piano story comes out that he changed his life, resurrected his career

at almost 42 years old by playing the piano.

That's a nice piece of piano music.

What does this mean?

Oh, I know.

He's our career.

Oh, yeah, buddy.

You don't think I listened to the master's theme for a good 30 minutes yesterday?

It's not quite that time.

It feels like.

Hold.

Speak for yourself.

It feels like it should be not this weekend, but next weekend, it's not.

It's a weekend after that, which is kind of a little infuriating.

It's okay.

We'll get there.

Yeah.

Like it's just baby.

Yeah.

Listen to that.

There's nothing better.

It's so good.

But I also, I love how they have melded like that.

Like that's as classic as old school as it gets, but it's like every year, they're

cutting promos and it's like they're the like Instagram or Twitter like height videos

they put out.

So the life and energy, oh, God, it's just I'm so happy.

And I've never we joked about how like the blue jays like we need Friday to get here

because it's like leaves everything going on around that.

The master's normally I'm like, okay, come on, let's hurry up and wrap up this round

of the masters.

I got to leave playoff game.

I got to watch here.

And this year, that's not.

Saddle in.

Oh, yeah.

No, they should do more masters.

How do you get to the masters now if you don't win the lottery?

It's like impossible now.

Like they've just eliminated the secondary market, right?

You're you're much more on top of this than than I am.

I just said I have no idea.

Yeah, but again, like you're even like it's like you tell me every time they got rid

of the secondary market and I'm like, okay, sure, yeah, sounds about right.

I don't know.

I enter the lottery every year.

One day the golf gods will be tied to me.

No other sports gods have.

So, you know, man, as we'll try my luck with them, we'll see.

Maybe Tiger Woods will make his triumphant return to competitive golf at Augusta National

in low these two and a half weeks, uh, talk to Adam Stanley, sports sense golf reporter

who's watching the TGA TGL finals work Tiger Woods will return to at least the TGL tonight.

That's exciting.

Adam.

He's in the mix.

I said it last night, but cue the stone cold Steve Austin music.

The glass is breaking.

Yeah.

The big cat is back.

It's, uh, you know what?

It's okay fine.

It might be simulator golf or it might be, you know, whatever you want to call this,

but these guys are high for competitive.

These guys want to win.

And, you know, Tiger Woods is in the arena.

He's out there.

He's hit and shot taken place.

He's, he's really kind of committed himself to being this like pseudo coach of Jupiter

links.

And this season's been really exciting and, you know, he's kind of getting off the sidelines

and coming into the arena and he's going to try to, try to help this team win, which

is, uh, you know, on the surface pretty, pretty darn exciting.

Tiger has been itching to get back at it like you're actually there like boots on the

ground journalist.

I'm just going off all the videos.

I see.

There was a moment really early on in the TGL season where he like threw the hammer

flag and then the wrath came over and was like, you're not involved.

You can't throw it.

And he's like, my name's kind of on the league.

How about we just let Tiger be involved?

Now he is this coach.

There's all these, there's all these videos of him.

He just like can't help but like picking up everybody's clubs and he's doing like little

wiggles and he's looking at it.

It's like obviously he's the biggest golf sicko known a mankind.

I can only imagine how excited he is to actually like have some element of competition

because like that's kind of his other thing.

It's like golf sicko, competition sicko.

Now he gets back like how much do you think this tells us if anything about the possibility

of of 16 days from now?

Yeah.

I mean, it's a great question because everyone's wondering the same thing like Tiger

Woods is back.

What's the capacity in which Tiger Woods is returned?

But you're right.

Like I've been to this is my third tonight will be number four TGL match of the season

and anytime I've seen Tiger whether it be on TV or in person, you're right, he can't

help himself.

But pick up guys clubs, try to hit shot, even oxypathy is long putter which ended left handed.

Oh my gosh.

Watching Tiger Woods.

The bruised it putter.

Did he anchor?

Did he anchor?

Well, you know, it was like rubbing up against his shirt a little bit.

So like that?

Yeah.

So like they all do.

Yeah.

It was it was like Michael Jordan in a wizard's jersey kind of thing.

It was pretty it was pretty weird.

All that to say Gunner, I think you're point about the ultra competitive.

I think that's like, that's the key, right?

Like Tiger Woods knows nothing else except for playing golf.

And you know, anytime that he has had one of these surgeries, which has been frequent

over the last little while, he's always kind of, he's always worked back to something.

And this particular surgery, after turning 50, I think the big question mark was like,

is this something that Tiger Woods is going to be working back towards now?

Like is it just going to be competing on the champions tour?

Are we going to get him teaming up at a major championship again?

Like nobody really knew what the trajectory of the comeback was going to be.

But this tonight TGL, like is something and he he he committed himself to going to make

competitive reps in an arena that that matters.

You know, maybe I put matters in air quotes, but at the end of the day, he's shown that

he's emotionally invested, obviously financially invested, but he's emotionally invested in

having his team succeed.

And if there's one thing that we know about Tiger Woods is like, this guy wants to win.

And if he thinks that he can help, he doesn't enter tournaments.

Just to try to like, you know, hit Giggle, he enters tournaments to try to win.

And I think that's what we're seeing tonight as well.

Craig me if I'm wrong though, we've over this this period of ill health for Tiger Woods.

The question hasn't been necessarily whether he could swing a golf club.

It's like Kenny, Kenny walk a golf course, which as you and I both know, Adam Augustine

National, not a tag of the, we know, like those of us who know, we know, okay?

All right.

And we both know it's not a flat golf course.

Maybe cool, they should put Tiger like on a treadmill or something in between shots

to enter something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what kind of an indicator are we going to get like if the performance is good and Tiger

looks Tiger like with the swing, does that mean anything?

I mean, the guy, the guy's still looking around and I've, you know, I've there witnessed

to it.

I think it's not hard to not see it when it's on TV.

Like his, his gate, his strut, he ambles is more like a penguin kind of thing.

Like it's like it's not great.

It's not good.

So when he, when you're right, when you apply the layer number one is swinging the golf

club.

Layer number two is walking a golf course and getting yourself up and prepared and

activated for, you know, 18 holes of, of professional golf.

That's a completely completely different story.

And Tiger Woods said it himself after the semifinal, he was like, you know, I have good

days and bad days.

And that's kind of the overarching, you know, commentary around just the new Tiger Woods.

So yeah, whether, whether Tiger Woods can hit all the shots that one needs to shoot 71

at Augusta National is probably not the question.

But, you know, seeing him in person and he, he's got energy, but don't get me wrong.

Like in the, in the sofa center, he, he walks like with a, with a pace and it's brisk

and it's intentional, but it's not like solid is, but it hasn't been solid in years.

I think since the car accident, when he, you know, basically busted up his, his ankle

and Achilles and et cetera and et cetera.

So I, I just think if he wants to do it, he's going to try.

But yes, if you see him walking, it's like, it's, it's not great.

Yeah, it's so funny.

You tell us that about, I don't know, any other human on playing at Earth, you go,

oh, okay.

So he's not going to play the masters.

I can't sit here and rule that out with Tiger, right?

Like the idea, and if there was ever a tournament, he was going to force it back for it, be

this one, right?

Like, you know, no offense to even like, you know, I'll name his tournament.

So it's like, obviously, he wouldn't take that one lightly.

It's like, and I'm going to force it back for that.

You're going to do it for Augusta, though, because it is that place that's, that's, that's

so special.

I mean, just with the, with the kind of lead up to it here, I think the other guy who's

become a bit of a great unknown, not in terms of the, you know, physical stuff as much as

Tiger, but just like he was lost in the wilderness over there on that, that tour, if you want

to call it that, that she'll not be named over over in Saudi Arabia, Brooks Kepka is

back here now.

You know, like, what do you make of him as kind of a guy who's kind of re entering the

fray here?

Because I, I'll be honest, I expected with Brooks to come back and it's like, okay, good

for him.

Like, I'm happy, kind of broke the dam a little bit there.

But how much do you think he is going to kind of be a bit of a, a bit of a factor here?

Because if it does feel like he's been way more competitive than I maybe would have

expected him to be.

Yeah.

I mean, if you, like, if you're going to ask me to pick, pick six guys who I think are

going to be, you know, competitive at the Masters, Brooks Kepka is in that six for sure.

I think he's kind of just gotten adjusted to the new flow of it.

Well, the new old flow of his, you know, kind of working life, three top 20 finishes in

a row during the Florida swing, including his first top 10 since he left for live at the

Cogs in Classic at PGA National, which is all three of these course ball strikers courses.

And I think that, you know, Brooks is just kind of settled within himself again to realize,

like, you know, I don't have to, I don't have to go to tournaments that I don't maybe

necessarily want to go to and literally fly around the world to compete in a, on a circuit

that potentially I don't necessarily believe in.

Now it's like, no, I'm, I am Brooks Kepka.

I want to play here.

I'm going to go play here and then I'm going to go back to my family and life will go on.

So, you know, the combination of just getting himself back to a routine that he's comfortable

with while also guys playing some pretty darn good golf.

I didn't know it was going to be this, the soon with respect to like the steadiness,

but now that we've kind of zoomed out and looked at the results and looked at what kind

of like generational talent this guy has been over the last half decade or so.

Like I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising.

So yeah, it Brooks, big question for him is just the putter.

The last couple of weeks in Florida that he's putted, you know, average or slightly above

average.

Of course, he's played extremely well the couple of weeks out on the West Coast when

he didn't play all that great.

It was kind of lives and dies on the putter.

So that'll be a big thing heading into Augusta, but for sure, you know, if I had to do

like a pick six for Augusta, Brooks Kepka would for sure be in that mix.

Yeah.

PGA Tour won the war over live despite the fact that lives still exists.

But there are a couple of places where live has really thrived, right?

Like Australia and what South Africa, like they're singing the national anthem as a price

into shambles wins a second consecutive event they're on tour in a playoff against John

wrong.

What are we to make of these results that the shambles having?

Like he's killing it back to back victories on a tour, which we've, I don't know.

You're a golfer porter.

So I don't know.

Are you in the weeds of like are you breaking down the live rounds?

Like what are we supposed to make of these incredible results that the shambles having?

Are boy Richie Lee took the dive for him so you could win two weeks ago, right Stanley?

Richard Richard Ki Lee are boy.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, jeez, that was a that was tough threw up on himself there in the playoff.

Mr. 18, 18 inch or for the loss there tough, but you know, nice to see him in the mix.

$2.25 billion for a boy, Richard Ki Lee, life changing, life changing week for him.

But to answer the question specifically, the thing that is like it's hard for me to get

over like just a lack of competition, like John Rahm has played 30 live events, right?

And he's finished in the top 10, I think in like 25 of them.

And it's really because he's competing against probably, you know, 15 guys, right?

20 guys that are really like at the same pseudo level of John Rahm.

And I feel like the same, I feel the same with Bryce and the shambles now, you know,

live, they've got to play four rounds now, you know, you still have to hit the shots.

You still have to make the plots and they're obviously is no lot of layers of emotion to,

you know, somebody especially Bryson, you're starting on Thursday taking an event

across the finish line comes Sunday, you know, but the golf courses aren't that hard.

You know, it's still continues to be difficult to take it seriously as like a stage of professional

sports considering, you know, everything else that goes on around the live events.

But you brought up to like, I'm not going to just like say something negative about an event

that has obviously been incredibly well received, like the Australia event goes gangbusters

every single year.

The South Africa event was like insanely popular and insanely like a very, very incredible

to South Korea event, which is coming up, which is new this year is supposed to be also

like absolutely off the chain in the South Koreans.

There are just not so for golf.

So I think like they have something that works on a global stage, but you know, at the end

of the day, it's just not what like we're expecting from professional golf competition.

So yes, Bryson Shamble has won a lot.

He should be considered somebody that you could pick for the masters and I wouldn't blame

you at all for that same with John Rom, but like it's just not, it's not an apples to

apples comparison.

No, no, it's not unfortunately my favorite master's bet to make is dead in the water.

I love it when Bryson scuffling and I can do the miscut bet with him because one, I get

to root for it.

And two, it's like, you know, it's in the mix with him, but now he's too good.

He's actually got the place figured out.

I don't know that it's a par 67 for him or whatever he called it once upon a time, but

I do not think he's going to, he's going to throw up all over himself.

You know me, Stanley, I always got Leafs on the brain.

And when the Leafs finally broke through and want to play off series, color analyst Jim

Ralph, great line he gave us of just like, well, what do we do now?

That's kind of how I feel heading into the masters now that Rory has won this thing.

Like what, what do we do?

Like we're supposed to, we're supposed to sit here every year and you and I are supposed

to, you know, as Sam McKee calls it, testify at the church of Rory and talk about how

he's going to finally break through, but we don't need to do that anymore because he

did it.

Like it's not to say there won't be a great story.

It's not to say there wouldn't be other fun winners, but it just feels like it's so

different for the last decade plus this has been the thing that's hung over it.

Like, you know, I was watching the, there's a preview for this like Amazon doc that's

coming out about Rory and him breaking through last year.

And he talked about, he's like, I have for 17 years, I've tried to do this thing.

I'm like, oh my God, it has been that long.

And obviously for all 17 of those, it wasn't like the prevailing story, but for 10 of them,

it was, what are we supposed to do heading into masters week now that we can't just like

pre-agonize over Rory?

And talk about Rory's wine selects for the Tuesday, Champion's dinner, probably.

The guy's got the guy's got the guy's got taste.

No, I think so I'm working on a big kind of Rory defense story that's going to run the

Monday of masters week.

And, you know, I've kind of been like banking away quotes for the last four or five months

as he's been talking more about it as we as we inched close to it.

And he was on a zoom with a bunch of the media going to the masters before just kind of

like a pre-tournament.

Hey, this is how I'm feeling like right now before he does his press conference during

the actual tournament week.

And one thing that stood out for me that that he mentioned was the question was essentially

wrapped in like his feeling returning to August the National during tournament week.

And the thing that really stood out was he says, I'm going to drive down Magnolia Lane

and for the first time in a more than a decade and a half, I'm going to enjoy myself.

And I thought, well, here's the guy like that guy, you know, the largest monkey off his

back in the world.

And now it's like, well, you're going to go, you're going to go have fun at the gust of

national.

You're probably going to win it again, right?

So I think that's really, you know, again, we're just starting to kind of come up with

the like, hey, here are the things you need to know about this year's masters for, you

know, for the stories and for TV prep and all these things.

And it's like the loose, like loose Rory winning again, question mark, like that, that's probably

storyline number number one A, if not, if not number one.

And just how he's kind of like putting himself out there to say like, I'm going back to the

masters every single year until they don't allow me to.

I'm going to have my champion locker room.

I'm going to have my dinner.

I'm going to enjoy myself.

It's like, man, you might, you might win it again.

I wouldn't be all that surprise if that happened.

Yeah.

I can't wait to watch 16 days, 16 days.

God Stanley, you've been, you've been a busy man.

You've, you're like also like a EP in hockey night in Canada.

Intro's now.

It's like, I will say that took me for a loop.

I'm watching hockey night and seven seconds into the show, Ron is like, I'm showed out

to Brent gunnings friend, Adam Stanley for helping us put to, I didn't throw in the

Brent gunning purple.

That's how I heard it in my head.

You're just, you're everywhere, buddy.

Keep killing it.

Thanks, man.

And that's the, yeah, the SENS are, I don't know what they're doing with the key.

Yeah, set up that better.

That's okay.

We don't need to do that.

Well, we'll see big, big game tonight for the SENS in Detroit.

We'll see what happens.

Sure.

Sure.

Oh, yeah.

Lots of hanging out with Tiger, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's more important business.

The most important business before that you go, like I, I got as we previously alluded to, I've

been to Augustine National, no big deal.

Adam goes every year and he has played it.

He made birdie on 12.

Yeah.

Pretty good.

10-year anniversary of that, guys.

We're going to put our name back in this year.

No way.

It's been 10 years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's been almost, yeah, 10 years since I've been there in 2017.

Anyways, how do you, like, I would, I would pay the money eventually one day to bring

my children there.

But I can't do that anymore.

So like, is that over?

Like, the only way to get there now is to win the lottery.

Yeah.

Like, that's, that's the easiest way.

Just keep, just keep putting your name in, right?

It doesn't cost anything.

You might as well keep trying.

Select every date possible.

If I could suggest to people are like, man, I look, yeah, select Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

for sure, because those are the days that you get to bring your camera.

But, you know, just select them all and see what happens.

And eventually, you know, you'll, you'll, I don't know, if you do it enough, hopefully

there's just like the math is mapping and you manage to win, you know, it's tough because,

you know, there's not really even like a Canadian sponsor corporate kind of angle that

you could try to play.

Yeah.

Very much like, yeah, it's very much like, hey, you know, Mercedes, AT&T, like all these

things, right?

Like, you know, we don't have like, you know, yeah, I mean, I love that Rodgers Sports

and Media is doing so well, but, you know, I don't know if you guys are driving Mercedes

and like, you know, wearing Rolex and stuff like that, right?

I got a call, Kepler.

Yeah.

I mean, the short version of the story is like, just keep entering the lottery and hope

for the best.

And maybe you'll get there at some point, because I mean, you know it, right?

Like it's, it is everything that you think is going to be like at work.

So, yeah.

But I, we're doing too much of imploring people to enter the lottery.

I think less people should enter it, just like, yeah, you got no chance.

Yeah.

I don't even do it.

I don't even think about it.

See you Stanley.

See you guys.

Thanks.

Out of Stanley.

Sports, I go off the board.

You know what I mean?

Like, so I, I can't ever expect to win the lottery again.

I want it twice.

I know.

What's more unlikely, you winning at twice or Adam Stanley getting to play it when

it, honestly, biggest miracle of all time is that he was not chipped by his Canadian

media contingent.

It's like, oh, babyface Stanley, showing up there, he's like, no, you got, you've never

played.

Yeah.

Weird.

Seriously.

Yeah.

But no, I want it twice.

I went first time, second time, couldn't because birthed my second child to happen.

Kids.

Oh, previous.

So first time I won tournament round Friday, next year I won the Wednesday, which is the,

if you're not going to get a tournament round, you want the part three.

That's great.

Sick.

I didn't get to go though.

So I, I can't ever claim to, it's just unlucky.

I got with love to get one twice, but I would love to one day go back and at, at certain,

like, I, I understand what Augustine National does with the elimination of the secondary

ticket market and they want to control the access and they don't want to make it like

a haves and haves not event where people are spending $10,000 to get there.

But there is an element of, man, if you want, if it's like a once in a lifetime thing,

you've never won the lottery and you just, you, you've saved up for years and years

and years.

It's your, it's your life's dream to go there.

There was an avenue to doing that and that avenue has been closed.

I actually think you should go, I, I'm going to zag slightly on this.

It's like Augustine National.

It's like they hold these things so near and dear.

I think the only way you should be able to get in if you don't win the lottery is like,

it should be like an essay competition.

It's like, this is how bad I want it.

Also, here's my pinky toe.

Look at how bad I truly want it.

Like, I think that's the way you should have to go about it because it's like, yeah, guess

what?

A lot of people desperately wanting it.

That's why they have a lottery for it.

I, you know, I shouldn't have said that out loud.

I should have just sent them a letter and been like, God, I'd really, jeez, sucks.

It sure would be nice.

Mr. Chairman, the riddler, yeah, no, I'm sure Fred Ridley's his name.

Sure.

That nobody calls him the riddler.

But yeah, anyways, I can't wait to watch the masters.

That's upcoming.

I actually probably just got myself banned for life by calling them that probably sorry,

Chairman.

Yep.

Is that better?

Sounds really like a lot worse.

Yeah.

None of it's good.

Okay.

All right.

We'll come back.

We'll talk to Frank Survelli, NHL insider for Victory Plus.

Next is the fan morning show continues, Ben and Spring Gunning Sports Center, 5902Fan.

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