Leafs Win But Fail to Respond + Raptors Take on the Suns

No, baby, leaves are back, taking responsibility for something that should have happened, but

they didn't do anything about it.

But boy, oh boy, do they wish they did.

Fan morning show, Cunning, Franceski, I promise I'll let Daniela talk about this one

day.

But, oh boy, I got some things to get off my chest.

Look, we're all disgusted, okay?

Nobody, nobody more than the guys who themselves had a chance to do something about it.

This is the true spirit that binds us all in leaves nation from outside the building,

being mad at the guys inside the building, and then going, them running to the mic.

It's like, God, these are our cow dupes, his boys.

Running to the mic after a thing has happened to be like, I'm so sorry, it's actually, it's

all my fault.

Even William Newander took responsibility for it of like, yeah, I mean, I guess like that's

the most you're going to hear from Willie, my God, I didn't think you'd get worse this

season.

And then they won the hockey game.

They actually had the audacity to go out and win that hockey game.

You couldn't, you couldn't give me that.

You couldn't go punch somebody in the face and Montreal, heaven forbid, we dressed Pazetta

for that game.

No, no, no, no, had to get them in last night.

And like, God, he's the last guy that should be taking any shrapnel in this.

But man, oh man, just when the Leafs, it's like the Godfather three of like, just when

I'm out, they pull me back in just when I've gone to apathetic, they give me something else

to get exercised about what's up, Daniela?

How are you doing this morning, bud?

What's up, Gunner?

Doing okay.

Yeah, this is, this was the most interesting Leaf game we've had in months picked up in

appropriate time, I think, to jump in here, to fill in for a day.

Ben just didn't want to get a headache, that's why he started vacation early.

Yeah.

You know, it's also a friendly reminder of the entire situation that just because you

were the same laundry as somebody else, it doesn't mean you're actually on the same team.

And I think that's, that's what my prevailing takeaway and sentiment is.

And I think it speaks to really a lot that is like, plague this team for years now.

It's a repetitive issue that we've talked about at various points, the lack of leadership

at times, the pushback, and it makes you wonder the way that they played the third period

too.

You're like, boy, there's just a little bit more of that, a little bit more of that toughness

and grit and response and fight.

But ultimately, it's how much of it is performative, how much of it is for show, how much of it

is whatever reason, maybe the coach got on them in the second intermission and they actually

registered for once, like, ooh, it is a bad look guys, it's the captain of the team.

It's, it is, it's interesting.

It's poorly timed.

It's poorly timed.

Look where we are.

It's game eight, 66 of the season.

And this happens now, happens now, it's poorly timed.

Oh, yeah, poorly timed is, say the least, man, oh, man.

So if you're living under a rock class night, if you're just like sitting there in your

bunker, being like, Canada's got a big game at the WBC today, and hey, we're going to

talk about it.

Like I'm excited.

I got my lid on.

I'm very excited for this game.

Okay.

But if you somehow are living under a bunker, the war criminal himself, the man who ruined

the Olympics for Canada, Radco-Gudas was added again.

First things first in that shift, takes a big run at Cowan in the court.

That's fine.

You're allowed to hit people, but you're also allowed to get upset about a war criminal

in Radco-Gudas taking a run at your sweet baby child, East and Cowan.

You're allowed, you're allowed to do that.

And then minutes, not well, it's an NHL shift, couldn't have been minutes seconds later.

There he is sticking out of knee, popping it out at Austin Matthews.

That looks greasy.

I thought they made the point on the broadcast well last night that say what you will about

like his ability to fight through at the biggest moments or actually have some fight.

This is not a guy that's like, if anything, it's the opposite.

No, no, I'm fine.

No questions about my health, please.

This is not a guy that wants to draw attention to things and seeing him down like that.

This again, there are guys in this league where you see him down.

You're like, okay, let's get a camera on this guy in three minutes, okay?

Matthews is really not that dude.

So you knew it was pretty serious.

I have it on in front of me because I think that this should be replayed on like every

video board in the city, like they should forego advertising revenue for the day, just

to put it on, put these guys on blast.

Matthews goes down, Cowan is right there.

He does nothing, which, okay, like it should not be Eastern Cowan's battle to fight.

Morgan Riley is on the ice.

He rushes to again, like you would have thought a playoff series is over with how quick he

was rushing the bike to take responsibility for everything that had just happened.

And maybe it's like he knows he won't get the chance to do that this year.

So he's like, ooh, this is like, this is my time, baby, I got, I got to get out there.

Believe OEL was on the ice.

Neelander talked about beat on the ice.

I was Carlo, actually.

It was Carlo.

Oh, okay.

Once again, Brendan Carlo, not jumping to the defense of a teammate.

I am old enough to remember this year when someone was sitting on Anthony Stollars and

he's going, hey, could you, do you need help?

Do you need a hand up that should have been grabbing a guy by the scruff of the neck?

So just infuriating to see it play out that way.

Now, okay, they responded.

This is in Boston of a few years ago where Brad Martian is pointing at the Leafs bench

going, I'll kill you, I'll kill you.

And then they go, yeah, you know, two games or now or a month and a half from now, we'll

get around to it.

They did respond.

I think there's an element where it's not a, you got a hand up to them situation, but it's

also different than it's been in the past.

I am as infuriated as anybody that it didn't happen right then and there.

But thank God it happened at all because could you imagine the discussion we'd be having

today?

They're not even talking about the like Max Dome making Beckett, Seneca his personal

punching board.

Like I'm not even talking about that, but it's Cowan getting in there after a big hit.

It is Michael Pizzetta running around and like, hey, they had scoring chances after his

running around.

Like it all, again, the being effective in the hockey game is the least important thing

in the world.

They're not going around to tank watch in them losing, but it's just, it is infuriating.

You know, pick your team.

We all go to like, hey, the lightning, the panthers, how would they respond to this?

Oh, it's Conor McDavid loses mind and fight somebody last night and that's Conor McDavid.

Now our William Neelander and Conor McDavid, the same guy.

No, I think we all understand how he's wired.

But if the best skill player, I don't know, maybe we've ever had and we'll ever have in

this league can get in there and get mad and get an ordinary.

There's no reason that somebody who, and again, like I don't want to make this about one

guy.

It's not Cowan's fault.

It's not Riley's fault.

It's not Carlos fault.

It's not Neelander's fault.

It's all of your faults.

It is just infuriating to see it play out this way.

And if there's a lasting image of this leaf Sarah, it's scary how high on it.

The list.

You know, there'll be, go pick your favorite of, you know, Alex Gail Cheniac, spitting

backhand pass in the bubble to a Montreal Canadian player or Mitch Mariner, controller disconnecting

on the Pastron Act goal or the, you know, Ben Ennis isn't here.

So I'll do it for him just staring at Austin Matthews game log in a game seven where there's

no goal scored.

There are a lot of defining moments, but this is it.

The idea that you could never build the team and also like, I'm not going to completely

absolve Matthews of this is not his fault that he got hit.

But for once, it's like, man, he was the one guy who could not do anything.

He wasn't getting up to defend himself for anybody in that, in that instance, it is

just maddening to see it play out.

And I think sometimes we think, you know, this leaves team.

They're not as tough as the toughest teams in this league.

Go pick a team like that doesn't have to be the toughest.

Look at that Sabers group.

But you don't think anybody looks at them is just like a band of mutants except for now

they do because they had that game against the lightning and they got angry and they defended

themselves.

They defended each other.

It's just it is so frustrating to see it play out exactly, exactly, exactly the way

you would have expected.

Yeah.

I think, you know, something else that resonated for me yesterday as this was unfolding.

Second intermission after this incident happens, people are now, you know, especially online

on social media, everybody complaining, everybody voicing their displeasure with what transpired

and not just, you know, aimed at racco-goodis, but the lack of response obviously by the

mapliefs.

And then we get the intermission interview from Matthew Nice, where his answer is, right,

his answer is, yeah, happy with the response.

And you're like, what response, the fact that you scored a goal or whatever it was, I

think it was a goal because it was on the five minute power play, then they came out

and they just what they needed to start the third.

They scored again.

So it's three, three and, and you're sitting there, you're watching this, you're listening

to this and saying, boy, oh, boy, are we, are we that disconnected from reality here?

Like, are we that out of touch?

And then within the next, I don't know, 15 minutes between when the period ends, you hear

from Nies, they go into the room, they come back out, something clearly was said.

Yeah.

And probably with some expletives involved in a little bit of passion because it gives

you, I think at that moment, the way it all unfolded, a glimpse into what was probably

discussed in that, in that locker room.

Yeah.

And how the sequencing of events, the order of operations went down after the game, your

head coach comes out, who's been a malign figure this year.

But in general, feels like boy, he's probably checked himself out 85 times because he's frustrated,

more frustrated than anybody else.

And his line was, it just goes to show you, you need passion and emotion to be successful

in this league.

So, so I think what he, he's driving at and what he's telling you without explicitly telling

you is.

Yeah.

And ain't in there.

It hasn't been in there.

It isn't in there.

And he himself is ready to go check out and play a team, the first opportunity.

I think that's something else that really stood out from this entire ordeal.

Be it Matthews or somebody else that would have got hit and been in that position, right?

This has been too on brand for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the years.

The fact that this is very common, it's become all too familiar, all too common place

to see the Leafs operate this way.

When other teams, especially the good ones, don't do this.

And if you could just going back to what I mentioned earlier, literally you felt like there

was a 15, 16 minute period in that third period, that stretch where you said, boy, if you

could just bottle up, never mind the quality of talent, the quality of play, but the way

they played, right?

That little bit of edginess, you say, where the heck has that been?

Where the heck has that been all year, all year long?

No matter what's happened, they've looked disinterested, they've looked like they are

completely demoralized and dejected at every turn in namely their best players.

And it takes that to happen for somebody to maybe stand up, be it the coach or whoever

else or whatever else was said, to finally ignite a little bit of fire when you're getting

paid millions of dollars to play in the national bleep and hockey league.

That was the honestly the most frustrating part for me, seeing them literally flip the

switch, flip a switch and imaginary switch to where they look more, they resembled more

of a real NHL hockey team in the final 15, 16 minutes of that game, more than they have

all season long.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it is, it's not looking also, look at the way that game started.

If there was ever a game where that was going to exist a little bit, you get Toronto boy,

Michael Pizzetta in there, whose parents like, I believe it was McKee who made this comment

last night.

It's like, no, they didn't need to go to a merch store to get their, their stuff to watch

their kid play a leaf game.

It's like, and Jersey's older than me that mum had on and good honor.

But the idea that that game starts with not, you know, a little bit, not five minutes

into the game.

They start Pizzetta and I don't like, I guess the puck had to drop for the game to start.

But if you told me a glove or a puck hit the ice first, I'd have a hard time definitively

saying which one it was.

And for the game to start that way with Pizzetta throwing down and showing the guys like, hey,

I'm here.

I'm here to provide some emotion and look like this was never going to be Ryan Reeves fault.

But it's like, that's not Ryan Reeves coming in his first game and flexing and tri-living

is chuckling up in the box.

It's just Michael Pizzetta doing the thing and did he win the fight?

Doesn't matter?

No.

And no, as he entered both of those questions.

But the idea that it happens in the game where that's there, there was before the Matthews

thing, there was already some chippiness to this.

Like Chris Crider broke his stick over some own Benoit's arm, Domey's running around

and trying to get it sent, because the emotion was already in the game.

So sometimes I can understand where and this would be excuse making, but let me make it

and then demolish it in a second here.

I can understand the like, oh, it's a sleepy game, nothing's happened.

It wasn't.

It was already a little bit of a chippy nasty game.

Your captain finally gets off the Schneid and then which we'll talk about that at some

point today, a hilarious way to get off the Schneid.

But he, he finally scores and you're wondering, hey, maybe like, you know, in a completely

boss season where we all want the tank, but is it even going to work and Boston's probably

just going to get a really sweet asset out of all of this?

Sure.

But finally, maybe a glimmer of hope, the Matthews is finding it back.

And then in that same game, Goudus does, Goudus things.

And I don't want to let him off the hook either, but it's like we're too busy meeting

mad at the Leafs.

Like we'll get to you.

You see the principal's office situations, like you sit over there.

I'm not, I'm not done with him yet.

But when I am finger pointing at the eyes right at you, I'm coming right back to you.

The idea that in a game that already had the emotion, you couldn't, you couldn't access

it.

So look, I don't want to take any of the players off the hook in this.

And again, like this is blaming the victim stuff 101, I guess, but it's like, oh, Matthews,

a captain of this team, like this is a culture that he helped build and you know, incubate

and everything here.

That, how, how, how did Bradshaw living take a team that we all sat here and complained

about being soft and they're worse and maybe softer than ever before.

And again, like they eventually showed it.

So I guess the improvement is that it didn't take until the rematch, like it did against

Boston here.

But how do you take a team that was good, contender, fake contender, even sure, but at least

kind of contendery, winning the Atlantic division and somehow the team with the GM that

comes in is like, I want a DNA shift.

I want a DNA change, the head coach that's like that.

And I think people are going to take one of two lessons out of this.

You can take both if you want.

It's the idea of, it doesn't matter who's yelling at screaming at him.

It's never going to change.

But it's also, hey, that was the thing you came in here to do in true living, Amber

Rubay.

And if you couldn't instill that, could you just keep the good hockey team?

Like could we at least just have the good hockey team?

If you're going to also be the same level of frustrating when it comes to all the, the

burkysms, the pugnacity, the truck humans, all of that, it's just maddening to see it play

out this way.

And yeah, like this is the culture that's been here forever.

You know, there's a guy in the building who I'd love to know what he thought about all

this last night.

It's a long sentence.

Mm hmm.

Well, like did he go down to the dressing room and be like, boy, what are we doing here?

Probably not almost certainly not, but it's just that level of it.

And for it to be the guys that either don't matter at all or don't matter yet on this

team, like, okay, Max Domey, he matters.

He's a part of this and you can have your argument about how much he should matter.

That's fine.

Okay.

He's involved.

And whether you think the way to go about it was to just like pick the biggest rookie

he could find and go, you, I'm coming for you.

Sure.

Like, maybe that's not the way to go about it.

But at least he's doing it.

It's Michael Placetta who shows up.

He's playing his first game as a leaf in his pregame in his pregame interview.

He said the word excited seven times, okay?

The idea that that guy's doing it.

It's East and Cowan jumping in to defend a teammate in the in the third period.

Those are not the guys that are supposed to be doing this.

It is supposed to be, Mr. I liked our response art.

It's like, who would have ever had math unites on the Kyle Dubas bingo card of our power

play as our toughness, but he basically should have said that last night that all our power

play as our toughness because that's what he was getting at.

And I guess the argument is like you don't want to throw your team under the bus, but you

can.

I've watched Nathan McKinnon do it.

I've watched Devon Taze do it, notably to pretty good Canadian Olympia.

It's opening David openly done it.

We need more Leon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, but that's for them.

He's done it for us too.

He just come out and been like, guys, we got to do more and we're not good enough dry side

all has done it.

Go down the list and sure, like after the fact to apologize, fine, good.

I guess better than being proud of that performance, but man, oh man, how many times are we going

to see this movie in leafland?

And the answer is guess what?

It's a lot more.

That's the answer to this question.

Yeah, I'm with you.

Back to your original question of, you know, I mean, the, the, the, the Brad tree living

of it all, the Craig Barubi of it all and, and what's the lesson here?

I ultimately, I, I'm in agreement with you when you, you know, bring up the, the suggestion

that, well, it's just probably never going to change.

And this is who they are.

I think now that you've seen it through multiple cycles of, of leadership at the top, as

far as the front office is concerned, head coaches that have been in and out.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

And I think it reinforces something that many people have long contended that there has

been, given that they've kept this court together for as long as they have, the suggestion

that no, no, you just got to keep knocking on that door.

You can't teach the old dog, Nutrix.

You can develop it over time.

I think it's the idea now, maybe that some of it is inherent.

Some of it needs to be there.

And it's, it's reinforced that just whatever the mix is when it comes to the nucleus of

this team, characterized, it starts and ends there.

It doesn't matter who you try to insulate them with, right?

It's, it's ultimately going to come back to the dudes that are supposed to be driving

the bus.

And when there's specific individuals on your team that are wearing letters on their

chest, that also comes with a certain level of responsibility and ownership for how you

respond and handle situations like that.

And it just so happened that Austin Matthews was the individual who was the victim yesterday,

right, by a guy that is notoriously dirty.

But we, whether it was him or somebody else, do you have any, any thought gunner that if

it was the rolls were reversed and somebody else was in, Matthews is shoes in his skates.

And Austin Matthews would be the one in there mucking it up afterwards in the third period

even.

No chance.

I think it ultimately circles back to that idea of, well, what have we learned?

It's more of what's been reinforced here and, and it's just this continuation of the,

the lack of the lack of those intangibles that you want and you need from the best players

on your team consistently.

And people can fight and push back all they want and say, you can win with those type

of players.

You can't, but they better not be your best guys because when they're, your best guys,

or if they're multiple of them that are your best guys, maybe that's the more important

point.

You're in trouble because you need everything in life, you need balance.

Sure.

And, and the Leafs are proving that they don't have the balance, they've never had

that balance.

And therefore, they're suffering for it when it comes to trying to insulate those guys.

And it's why the roster looks the way it is.

And it's why they are actually worse now than they were a couple of years ago, even.

It's a, because the moves that were made with, with, were with the intention of saying,

we're getting older, bigger, more physical and adding the snot and DNH aspect of it to

insulate the guys that have that problem.

Well, the guys that have that problem are still driving the bus.

Yeah.

And when they're driving the bus and they're not the ones sitting the tone the right way,

you are going to end up in this particular predicament.

Yeah, he's, you certainly will.

And man, man, oh man, it's the thing we're going to continue to talk about forever when

it, when it, when it comes to this, we're going to talk to Bucala later on on the show.

And I feel like he's perfect guy today because the, the example that I think comes up over

and over again, is the Florida Panthers and it's in a lot of different ways.

The Panthers obviously are the gold standard of criminals in the, in the NHL, not this year,

but just like, you know, if they're back to back cup champions and part of it is the

crime.

They committed on there on the way there.

But hey, like, you can get a, if you're not going to make them do the time, why would

they stop doing the crime?

But I think the guy that comes to mind with this is barcuff, right?

Like for his mean as that team is, I can't for the light.

And I'm not saying it didn't happen.

It's just like, you know, the Kachucks, the Martians, the Ekblads, the Fort, like they

all take up so much more of the Oxygen, of course, right?

Bennett, right?

The, all of the different guys that suck up the Oxygen when it comes to that, barc

off gets to do barc off things.

And it doesn't mean that the problem is with, in my opinion, this way again, like I think

it's great.

The problem isn't that Austin Matthews is the captain of the team.

The problem is that the DNA change that needed to happen, you know, the last big DNA change

that happened in the NHL, it was when Brad should have been traded math to check to the

Florida Panthers.

And that was their DNA change.

And maybe it was all kind of burbling under the surface.

And that was the right guy to push them over the top.

And it never should be about one guy.

But I think that's why the math unies answers specifically makes you so upset because there

was a moment there where he went, ah, do they finally have the guy that is wired a little

different, you know, Zach Whiteclout, you took a run at me, I'm going to take a run at

your face in that, in that Vegas game and looks so big and strong, scored and gordy

how hat tricks against the penguins before they high-tailed it off to Sweden a couple

of years ago.

You see it there.

I mean, he's huge.

If anybody on this team can do it, it's going to be him.

And it feels like, you know, maybe it's playing with a little less emotion in what's

a lost season.

Maybe it's dealing with whatever he's been dealing with.

Sure.

Does feel like there's been a plateauing of where you thought that was going to go from

an attitude and anger perspective, you know, if he was a little angrier and more attitude

dish, would he have been on that American Olympic team?

You could make the case like from a, from a, you know, wanting to involve the next

generation.

Now they left off a ton of great forwards and it didn't matter a lick because they

won gold and they're three on three.

It was very good for them.

But the idea that, you know, that guy was supposed to be the light of all this, you know,

Max Domey.

He's got it in spades.

No one questions it, but it can't come from just that guy.

Michael Pizzetta, I guarantee you, if you put him in the lineup for the last 16 games of

the season, he's trying to have 10 fights might not get there, but he's trying to do that.

Can't just come from that guy.

There has to be a lot more of it around.

And can you even, like, can you have two?

Can it be Neelander and Matthews and everyone else around them is a bunch of mutants and

animals?

Tavaris isn't also wired that way.

And I think the thing is, is in the past, I have been a proponent of not the toughness

is our power play.

But like, you can show care other ways.

You know, I said the most damning thing when it comes to how the least viewed Tavaris

was that they lost all the games of that Montreal series after it happened.

Because if you remember, in games, heading into the last couple of games that series,

like hit Tavaris, we all thought he died.

He's skating.

He's going to be available to play in the next round.

I'm not.

I agree.

He is.

And it was then still is now.

He could not get back in the games because now, okay, that series played out 10 times.

Yeah.

That's the story of Leafs played out 10 times.

You probably win eight of them and the two that we had to watch your one of the, one

of the ones we had to watch is one of the two that happened and that couldn't get back

to that for him.

For us to Matthews, it's like, oh, go win that get who cares.

A lot of people do care.

They are mad at you for winning that game.

You know, the way it played out last night for, hey, we, we showed response.

No.

False did not happen.

Good.

You got a goal.

You tied the game up heading into the third.

They should have pulled their goalie in the third period of that game with the results.

They actually need to secure it.

Did not help them.

I'm not going to begrudge them for winning a hockey game.

It's bound to happen here and there.

And I suppose you show some pushback and some fight in the third.

It's good.

It feels way too little way too late.

I can talk about this for 600 years.

You want to talk about what a criminal racco good is?

Oh, please, I'd love to do that.

Yeah.

What are we doing here?

I think the NHL should suspend him, but not longer than it would mean that he's not

playing in the sleeve game.

Did that not feel like almost them doing him a favor tossing him out of that game?

Okay.

No, the five in the game, like, good, but the idea, look at how the leaves played that

there.

And it's the Leafs.

Okay.

I think that the Charlestown cheese for playing in slap shot and it's like here's

ogie ogle Thorpe and all the other criminals that are that are involved here.

But what would have happened that had been Michael Pizzetta just making Radco goodness turn

him down for a fight five times in the third period.

That's what that would have would have looked like.

And they're playing again relatively soon.

So the NHL, you know, I am done pretending to know what the NHL will ever do when it comes

to supplemental discipline.

But that is as greasy of a knee if, if all of the time like intent matters in these things,

what are you trying to do?

You're trying to knee, osd and Matthews in the knee.

You stuck your knee out.

It's a greasy play.

So there has to be some punishment that comes from this, but I am done playing the guessing

game when it comes to the NHL's wheel of punishment that they spent.

That's about as, as a grigia says, it gets, I mean, it's pretty blatant, pretty obvious.

Well, went down there.

He's a, you know, guy that's dirty.

We saw less than a month ago at the Olympics, what he did to Sydney, Crosby, similar sort

of as something about the knees and the legs, criminal, criminal takes out the captain

of team Canada for the most two, most important games of the tournament, semifinal and of course

the goal metal game, cost him an opportunity who knows if we'll see Sydney, Crosby again

at the Olympics.

And then this happens with osd and Matthews.

There's a history.

There's a track record with this player.

There's a reputation that's out there.

I think he was honestly probably surprised that nobody even stepped up.

I would imagine in his mind, he's, he's skating around as they're ushering him off the

ice to insane.

Boy, I'm going to walk off the ice here and into the tunnel and nobody's going to, nobody's

going to say anything.

Nobody's going to hit me in the chest.

Nobody's going to hit me with a stick at all like nothing.

So even from his perspective, he's probably like, wow, kind of like you said, Gunner, maybe

got off a little bit easy here having to leave this game and there's zero resistance

or confrontation that was offered.

This game, by the way, this next matchup between Toronto and Anaheim, March 30th.

So the Leafs have eight games between now and then.

He is not going to get suspended for eight games.

He is absolutely going to play in that matchup when the Leafs visit the ducks for a random

West Coast 10 p.m. start on March 30th, and you'll be watching, how dare you?

You will be watching locked and loaded because you want to see if the Leafs decide to target

one Radco-Gudas, Michael Pizzetta, by the way, something funny about yesterday.

I mean, you know how many, do you know what his ice time was?

No, no idea.

He played like three minutes.

Yeah, he had more pims than ice time, which was fantastic.

I loved it.

It was awesome.

But you know what?

You'd love to see the way Pizzetta comes out yesterday and decides to drop the gloves

off the opening face up, just that idea of, and you mentioned the excitement, quote, you

know, he kept saying excited, excited, how, how energized that was and how genuine it

is.

You're like, boy, can't you get just a little bit more of that consistently from other

dudes?

Sometimes it'd be, it'd be nice.

Yeah.

Like, why is it bow gruel and Michael Pizzetta standing out?

Why?

Why are we watching two guys like that be the stories or part of the bigger picture, part

of the big story from that hockey game last night?

But Gudas, I definitely suspect there's going to be a suspension here.

It's going to be very warranted.

And I think we all now will turn our attention to focusing on, hey, March the 30th when these

teams meet again.

If you're the Maple Leafs, how do you, how do you handle it?

How do you, how do you respond to ensure that the man that was responsible for what happened

to your captain is now going to be held accountable in some fashion?

Because that's, that's the real test.

Sure.

Yesterday you come out after in the third period, some a little bit of resistance.

That's great.

You decide to fight.

Get up.

Okay, fun stuff.

But now when you can go back and actually target the person that was responsible and there's

a history behind it, to me, that's the real test and all of this and seeing how do you,

how do you handle it?

And maybe it's not even a test because it's obvious what should happen, right?

That's the piece of it.

It's obvious.

Maybe the better question is, who's going to do it?

Who's going to do it?

Is it going to be a Michael Pizzetta again?

Or could it actually be a math unize that is supposed to be a part of this thing is

supposed to be one of the quote unquote leaders, young leaders on your team that you continue

to build around, play with that power forward kind of nastiness to them.

That's something I'll be curious about when we see these teams lock up again on the 30th.

Blake Smith is the Marley's leader in penalty minutes.

Late Smith.

Great handle.

Wow.

He is, he is six foot five, £219 according to hockey DB and they would, let me tell you

it sounds like a barouba guy.

A lot of things, a lot of things steer me wrong in my life, but hockey DB would never do

that to me.

Okay.

And perhaps most importantly, he's from Oshawa, Ontario and he has four fights in the calendar

year.

That's not even on the season.

He has two more story three more, just two more to start this season.

But six fights already, I also think, you know, there's the old like Mark Wahlberg movie

miracle where they have like open triodes for different, I don't think it's called

miracle.

I'm talking about the football movie.

It is called miracle.

Okay.

Yeah.

The guy's buying the again, hockey DB would never lie to me.

They wouldn't lie to me, but they may steer me wrong and the guy's buying the glass.

But anyways, they hold open triodes and Mark Wahlberg has to be on the Eagles.

I would not be opposed invincible, so not not even really close like other than it's

just one word.

That's a hockey movie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's where I was going with this.

Anyways, I guess, but not open triodes for just the toughest guy in Ontario that can

stand on skate.

It's like, it's not the head coach.

I mean, maybe it is.

Maybe it is.

Why there's nothing that would have been a bridge too far during that moment, right?

It's like, I mean, again, like Gina Maulkin, I'm not, I'm not asking for this.

But it's like, Gina Maulkin doesn't like a bump from Rasmus Dallien bang off with

your head five game suspension for slashing him in the face.

Now I'd rather not like use your stick and rather you use your fists or your shoulder

or your elbow or hey, it's radical goodness and he seems to think it's fair game.

Use your knee for all I care, but it is just maddening that that's the way that played

out.

It is going to be a line of guys.

It'll be like when Corey Perry was like, okay, you can beat me up for Neen John Tavares

in the head.

You know, like, I don't know, he won the game of rock paper scissors.

He must have had with Wayne Simmons to be able to be allowed to have that fight there.

That's what it's going to be.

But here's the thing about Goudus.

He doesn't want it.

He's going to sit there and he's going to say, no, no, he just wants to run around and

he's, look, he's not scared to play physical hockey, but the idea of a fight, that's really

kind of never been his MO.

So I'm fascinating to see this way.

This game plays out.

It'll be the sexy, I mean, like the West Coast trip was always going to have a little

sex appeal because we get to see our sweet baby child, Macklin Celebrini out there.

That's a good point.

But now it's like, hmm, Leafs ducks, 10 o'clock.

Who knew we'd all be so excited for it?

Yeah, there'll be actually some juice for a random Leafs Ducks game.

How about that for her team that's not going anywhere, right?

Anaheim's playing for something, but obviously the Leafs, I mean, to get people to stay

up on the East Coast, you got to make it, you got to make it exciting.

You got to entice them some way.

One thing, I know we got to move on.

The one thing that we have neglected to mention, actually, is part of this whole thing regarding

toughness and pushback the overall theme of last night.

After the Matthews incident, there was something else that also irritated me, right?

Like shortly thereafter, it was when Chris Crider cross-checked, Callie Yarncroak in the

neck face, throw there.

No, no, he got him in the shoulder pads, the rest made a point to tell him that.

It's like very close to the neck.

It went from, it was the five minute initially, then two, regardless.

Who cares?

Absolutely a cross-check in the throat, though, just for what it's worth.

Okay, so regardless, this happens and Yarncroak's down on the ice.

And Chris Crider, Gunner, I'm sure you caught this.

He's trying to go to him into a fight while he, after he perpetrated the act.

And then it takes another solid 20 to 30 seconds of game time before somebody even bothers

to skate over.

To be like, hey, buddy, what's going on over here?

And Callie Yarncroak's like, oh, I can't breathe.

Give me up.

Oh, my God.

Give me off the ice.

You know, should have probably gone in there.

I probably, probably, probably, sorry, 88, probably, you probably should have did that.

That happens.

I think we kind of, because of it, because it was Matthews, right, that just preceded

it.

I think we overlook it.

But it happened in such quick succession.

I couldn't help but take note of that.

And I would have been certainly even more irritated and angry if they didn't come out in

the third and do what they did.

Of course.

But man, man, to have two incidents like that happen back to back in quick order and

to have zero, zero response and make it look like you just couldn't care less.

That was something else that I think bears mentioning because poor Callie Yarncroak's

like, wait, I don't matter.

Nobody says anything.

I know I didn't handle it.

I don't matter.

I guess I got my 10 team no trade list though.

So that does matter.

But other than that, the fact that, you know, Crider gets away with it and nobody says

anything.

I thought that was something we should have at least mentioned.

Totally.

One last thing on the Crider point.

Okay.

The ducks are in the spot.

The Leafs were a million years ago.

Like they got all the young talent.

The sky is the limit.

Right.

You know, they, they also have their old cup-winning head coach in Kwenville, Leafs were in their

Babcock era.

And who were the guys that Leafs went out and said, you know what, we got an imprint on

this culture.

It's Patrick Marlow and Joe Thornton, two of the nicest men that have ever played the

game.

And look, like Joe Thornton's an animal like I, one of my favorite moments in like

NHL regular season history is him and Jamie Ben just going to center ice and throw in

their buckets off to say, we're going to have a good scrap here.

So it's not that Joe Thornton's afraid to do those kind of things.

But look at the guy the ducks say, we're going to imprint on this.

It's Chris Crider.

And one, Chris Crider, not the legend that those guys are not going to walk into the hockey

hall of fame.

And because of that, maybe it allows the room to kind of grow a little as opposed to just

being like, what do we do now, Joe?

What do we do now, Patrick?

But also you see that.

It's breaking a stick over some of them was armed.

He tried to break his stick over Caliarn Crocs throat.

It just I don't know.

I guess like the throat, not strong enough.

I guess the shoulder shoulder stronger than throat is what we, what we have learned there.

But yeah, absolutely infuriating.

I'm sure there will be a lot of yelling in the city of Toronto about it.

If my tax last night and the first 40ish minutes of this show or any indication, all right.

Scotia Bank Arena is home to two unforgettable fan experiences for the ultimate March

break family adventure.

Raptors fan day hits March 16th with the Raptors team showcase up close moments with

their favorite Raptors players, exclusive giveaways, merch deals, and more than Thursday,

March 19th is lease fan day with a lease and September's three on three showcase interactive

events, prizes, alumni, appearances, and more.

It's the perfect March break memory for fans of all ages, Raptors fan day, March 16th

and lease fan day, March 19th.

Get your tickets now at ticketmaster.ca speaking of the Raptors, God, what a perfect appetizer

they were to for today's conversation.

I've been dying to get your opinion on this whole Jamal shed thing, also Eric Spolster.

No, no, no, he's not backing down.

He doesn't say sorry to any man about what happened with bam at a bio there.

We'll get into all that and more on the other side fan morning show with Gunning and Francesco

you have sports down 590 to fan, you know, should have probably gone in there, otherwise

it's yeah, 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.

When the local team and I'm using local as quite a wide breath here that I'm most confident

is going to go take care of their business.

If it gets physical is the Canadian baseball team, let them get in a fight with the Americans

tonight.

Let me tell you some boys are ready to throw down.

Yep.

I hope that doesn't happen.

One I just like.

Why not?

Well, no, you're right.

Yeah.

Good point.

One of the greatest moments in our nation's history is throwing down with Mexico at this

this very event.

And our guy, Chris LaRue, was front center for that guy.

That's right.

He was.

He turned to the crowd and was hyping up the fans back wave.

I don't even remember what year was way back.

Wasn't years ago.

Amazing.

Awesome moment.

No, of course.

Awesome moment.

But I mean, the biggest reason I don't want that to happen is honestly, I'm just like,

I'm sick and tired of referendums on team's toughness.

Although I think that one would go a lot better than it's gone the last two nights, leaves

of course.

Again, if you're living under a rock criminal walking among us and still walking the

streets somehow, Rad Cogutus, he hurts Austin Matthews last night, but, but the night

before the raptors also got in on this.

This is not normally an NBA conversation.

Of course, this is, this was Giante Murray hitting just a greasy step back and forcing

Jamal shed to the floor, not with his, not with force, but just with a said greasy step

back.

And then not a little like sometimes we've seen the point to like, ah, look at that.

Just getting right over him and wolfing in his face.

Lord knows what he was saying to which the raptors, other than a manual quickly, I will

remove him from this said, okay, like check ball up top.

Let's go next point here, Danielle, I, it was really hard for me not to put my hockey

sensibilities on this, but then I watch the hockey team do the exact same things.

I didn't even know what hockey sensibilities are anymore.

How did you make of the whole Jamal shed, you know, teammates not backing him up, other

than IQ, do we make too much of it?

Do we not make enough of it?

Like what was your kind of take on on everything to happen?

I'm glad that actually in the moment and in the immediate aftermath, the other night,

because I did the game.

I was working the game.

I was here and I was, I was hot.

I was upset in the trenches.

I did not like the way that unfolded.

I did not like the lack of response or reaction.

And I obviously didn't like the fact that Dejonté Murray just wanted to go out and disrespect

somebody because that's that in and of itself is obviously just, you know, that's, you

don't even see that in hockey, right?

And when things happen like that, obviously, they're supposed to be repercussions for it.

Supposed to be.

Yeah, key words supposed to be so, so there's that piece of it.

And and usually with the raptors, these things kind of get swept under the rug, but I don't

think this one is and I think it's twofold.

One is because the incident itself was bad, the lack of reaction was bad.

The way it was discussed after the fact was bad.

And then the second piece of it is because they're struggling, now it's becoming more of

a focal point.

If they were winning Gunner, they won this game too.

I wonder how that would have changed the tone or the messaging.

We would have talked about it.

We would have mentioned it, but I think it would have gone, it would have gone away.

Now there is a curiosity about tonight, you're playing the Phoenix Suns at home and you're

struggling.

And now people are talking about, is there a fractured group in that locker room?

Is there a lack of chemistry that exists?

You know, that the context to it is important here and Michael Grange, who we're going to

have later on could probably speak to it very well and better in fact, because he's around

them more intimately than we are.

Jamal Shed is by all accounts one of the most well-liked, well-respected dudes in that

room.

He's legitimately on a team that is supposed to have certain guys that are vets and leaders.

He's actually one of the leaders in that room for a dude that's only in his second year.

So to see that particular individual get punked by an opponent and then nobody backs him

up except for IQ jumping in half hard to leave me like, hey, that looks like the toughest

man in Toronto though on that core compared to the absolute nothing that happened from,

I mean, again,

30 minutes to digest it and then the Leafs did it finally, but, but in that moment, where

are the guys that are supposed to be sort of at the forefront of this thing?

And Scotty Barnes, I'm not, I can't let him specifically, I absolutely cannot let him

off the hook for this.

No, you know, Brandon Ingraham has never been that kind of a professional dude.

No, it's like, we all make the jokes about it's like, yeah, he's like, he's that sleepwalking

through life all the time is how it feels.

On a apologetic score, my eyes look droopy, I sleepwalk, I score basketballs.

That's all I do for a living.

That's my life.

Little Rill is here.

Cool.

I got tats.

I'm the man.

It's great.

I mean, honestly, hard to disagree with the last few sentences of that Scotty Barnes.

It bothered me because I watched it back a couple times because I wanted to get a sense

of where everybody was positioned on the court as this went down.

Scotty Barnes, the bucket goes in by Murray.

Barnes goes to retrieve the ball.

He's now going to inbound the ball.

Now this scrum ensues, right?

I like how Shedhandle the person and also people are like, why don't you just get up and

get in his face?

No, I'm cool with him keeping his composure because he's thinking in his mind, somebody's

going to go and stand up for me.

And that didn't happen.

No.

Barnes is behind him, standing on the baseline and as this is all unfolding and guys are starting

to migrate towards this scrum, he's out there dribbling the basketball and I couldn't

believe my eyes.

And what made it worse for me to is at least Craig Ruby, at least Craig Ruby for all the criticism

he has gotten, especially this year, when a lot of situations like this come up though.

And there's like the old school kind of logic that needs to be applied pragmatism.

He brings it.

He gives you the right message, Darko sat there and didn't want to talk about it.

And that bothered me.

Do you think that that, and I'm making no excuses in this regard, but I'm just trying to

think about it.

Craig Ruby has got the resume, you know, my beloved hockey DB, you go pull it up and

just like, I'll pick the least tough season he had.

And it's the toughest thing anybody on that leaf steam has ever done.

Darko, like great coach, I think well respected across the league, but doesn't even have the

resume of like look at my basketball career to kind of back this up.

Like do you think there's an element of that because the coach I was thinking about

with this.

And again, like they're just different guys.

It's like what Joe Missoula have said, it's like he would have been out there, you know,

and again, like different players, different people.

He's accomplished more as a coach.

There's the, you know, it's like, it's, it's March, so we're starting to remember some

of these guys.

It's like he was one of those guys in March.

But do you think that that plays into it?

Is that Darko?

It's like he has the coaching background, but he can't do the Craig Ruby and be like, hey,

kids, let me pull up hockey fights.com for you and show you how to handle this.

Maybe, but I also feel like there's just, there's just an element of him always trying

to diffuse things.

Maybe at times when they don't need to be diffused.

Totally.

It's routine, even even when it comes to talking about as an example, Gunner, something

has mundane, as simple as, hey, your team has not beaten good teams.

And you don't, your fourth quarter execution is a problem.

And every time it comes up, it's like, no, we just kick the can down the road.

And eventually you got to stop kicking the can down the road and you got to address things

head on at times.

We've seen him do it.

I mean, he went famous for the Scotty Barnes stuff.

It seems like he's willing to come to Scotty's aid anytime.

There's an issue.

But what about the other guys?

What about somebody that is a real heart and soul player for you?

You want to talk about identity?

There's, you know, who's an identity player with how he performs and the type of skill

set he brings?

Is it your whole head?

Is that for your team, right?

He actually is.

And so to not go out of your way to, to make sure you may, you sat there and you knew

that question was coming.

And to openly criticize the John Tamerian and to stand up for one of your players, one

of your guys, that's, that's a bit of an indictment on what's

going on right now in that room.

It's a bit of an indictment on just what feels like a lack of togetherness and connectedness

for the time being.

Totally.

And it would have gone a long way, in my opinion, if you had other guys, and I know they

don't trot everybody out there like the Leafs would do, for example, or had a multiple

guy speak.

So it was only him and Brandon Ingram after the fact, but somebody needs to say something.

Somebody needs to say something and here's another thing.

They will play the Pell's again at home on March the 27th.

By the way, random 8 30 PM game at home, Bazaar, what are we doing?

Same day as the Jays home opener.

I don't know if that's part of the reason, but honestly, that's probably 30 PM tip is

just crazy.

The other way, like six PM tip, there you go, I agree.

What does that look like?

I'm curious about that.

Even tonight, how do you come out because you need a response.

You need to show that there is some pushback and that you have some pride in that room.

Yeah, I agree.

I would have liked him to give me.

It's a complete crap.

I would have liked to have heard that come out of his mouth, but yeah, the idea of, and

I think the worst thing about this for them and this has nothing to do with them.

It's just for the Leafs to do it the very next night.

It's like, guess what?

That doesn't happen.

We're talking about Eric Spolster here for this 10 minute block.

We're not even having this conversation, but because the Leafs thing and the way it plays

out, you do want to talk about everything that happens there in Toronto sports.

I don't know if you know this about me, Danielle, a bit of a golf guy myself here, a big

fan of it.

And I should let everyone know that this golf report is brought to you by your local

Ontario Subaru dealers, Subaru, welcome to uncommon.

Of course, players championship, not a, not a major who was saying that, but it feels

like one.

It's a big event.

This is one of the events on the calendar that the casual is kind of glom onto.

I got five players tied for the lead after round one, Maverick McNeely, Lee Hodges,

Debs Draka, Sejith Tagala, and someone called Austin Smotherman are tied for the lead.

Now Smotherman's got to finish up his first round.

He got delayed due to darkness because golf is hilarious.

The second round will start at 740.

And then the first round will start finishing up at 850, go, go figure.

Justin Thomas trying to make a comeback after an injury play season last year.

He is, he is one shot back, Tony Fina, two off the lead, Cameron Young also won back,

Ludwig Oberg, nearly had an ace at the, the fame 17 there.

He's just two shots backs.

Him goes for Tommy Fleetwood, Victor Hoblin, Zander Shoffley, and Canadian Corey Connors.

Those guys are all two shots off the lead.

A lot of guys who you would have had in your pool.

Also guys who you would have had in your pool, Rory McElroy.

He is too over after his 74 in the opening round.

No one has ever won the players after starting with a 74 or worse.

So if you got a live ticket, I don't know what the cashouts look at it like right now.

Why not very good, but you might want to consider it there.

That golf report brought to you by your local Ontario Subaru dealers Subaru.

Welcome to uncommon.

All right.

The biggest event of the day, sorry, Raptors and Suns, Canada baseball ready to take

on America in the quarters.

What's this game going to feel like?

What is the anticipation around it?

Do you think that this is healthy event breakthrough in any way?

And just a good ol' fashion preview.

We'll do all that more on the other side of things.

Bam morning show with Guttingham, Francesco, SportsNet 590, fans.