On Episode 23 of Second Looks Sports, Brandon Brown and Justin Arenburg start by taking a deep dive into everything that went wrong for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the last decade with special guest Anthony Petrielli. The boys stick with hockey afterwards to discuss whether or not the NHL is entering a regrettable phase with four teams, nearly repeating in the conference finals, before switching to the NBA to discuss the choke job by the New York Knicks. Quickly, the guys switch gears to SGA and debate now with the MVP, does he become the best Canadian basketball player ever? Finally the boys wrap up with Scottie Scheffler’s PGA Championship victory and why he might be entering GOAT status in the golf world.
Check out more Second Look Sports on our YouTube channel!
#sports #podcast #hockey #nhl #torontomapleleafs #stanleycup #leafsforever #edmontonoilers #dallasstars #floridapanthers #carolinahurricanes #nba #basketball #playoffs #SGA #foryou #explore #shorts #fyp
[Music] Welcome to episode 23 of the Second Look Sports Podcast. I’m your host today, Justin Arberg. Joined along with me is Brandon Brown. Alex Mandino is off in the sun enjoying the hot Jamaican sun, I should add. Uh he’s down in Jamaica for the week enjoying everything that there is to do down there. I’m pretty sure he’s down there for a bachelor party to be completely honest, which is kind of crazy. Last year, I’m pretty sure he went to Colombia for a bachelor party. This year, he’s gone to Jamaica. It’s insanity. I wish I was Alex Mandarino’s friends, a part of Alex Mandarino’s friend group because that’s that’s just insane. Uh but Brandon, how is your week so far? I mean, I know it’s been kind of busy. uh you haven’t had a lot of time to react to all the news about your Charlotte Toronto Maple Leafs, but like how’s your week been so far? Well, my week’s been pretty good. I mean, not as good as Alex is. I think Mando is having a great time, I’m sure, down south. Uh definitely envious of uh the sun and the weather, especially here in Toronto. We haven’t had the best week, even though it was looking up, but uh but yeah, it’s it’s been tough. I’ve obviously got my black uh attire on. I’m, you know, kind of mourning still as the as the week goes on. and we’re into the conference final action in the NHL and it’s not featuring the Toronto Maple Leafs. So, it’s definitely uh been a tough week in that regard, but you know, we only can can look on and and go forward. So, we’ll uh we’ll see how it goes and we’ll we’ll go through it all today. Yeah. So, let’s just dive right into your demise. I guess I I guess that’s the correct word. Uh it’s officially the end of an era. I know everything’s kind of been covered. Uh, our podcast comes out every Friday. So, we’re kind of behind the news cycle in terms of this story, but I just I still want to talk to you about it because you haven’t had the chance to really get it off your chest and say what your thoughts are on the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s officially the end of an era uh era, sorry. Um, with the core four, uh, Austin Matthews, Mitch Mner, William Knander, and John Tiveres. It ends with only two second round appearances and yet nine straight playoff appearances as well. And Brendan Shanahan, John Dvarus, and Mitch Mner are the UFAs. I’m going to throw Brandon Shanahan in that conversation as well because his contract’s up at the end of the year. Uh but yes, there’s a lot of decisions to be made in Toronto this off seasonason. It’s a massive offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But Brand, Sunday night, did you like expect to get that performance out of the team or was it a truly a disappointment? I mean, I I we talked about this and you you did a great job of covering the mult, you know, game six, game seven, uh, for the channel, and you’ve been right all along. I feel like you you were really up after game six and I I was too. I thought after game six that performance they would at least find something in themselves to come out in game seven and and give at least some sort of inspired performance, some sort of motivated performance to do what they’ve never done as a group, which is obviously make to the to the Eastern Conference Finals. So, yeah, I was certainly hopeful and I was excited and I was anticipating a a closer game than we actually got. Obviously, um 6-1 loss is not what you expect in a in a game seven in any regard from any team. It doesn’t matter if you’re a one seed or an eight seed, you know, you just hope that you’re going to put up a better fight. And and the Leafs just didn’t. And it was very disappointing. And I think as much as it’s been hard to believe and hard to envision all season long, I I think you’re right. In some capacity, this era is coming to an end. And we know that now Brennan Shanahan is is looking elsewhere or is at least being wooed elsewhere. And that only speaks to one conclusion, which is he’s likely gone from the organization. And and Mitch Mner could be the next to follow. We’re just going to have to see how the story continues on now that we’re into the Leafs off season at least. And as we continue to move forward, we’re just going to hear more and more about potential, you know, landing spots for him. And I’m glad to hear that John Tvaris is looking to come back, which is nice. But, you know, him alone and and with kind of a free agency class that seems to be lacking, I’m not really sure where the Leafs as kind of currently constructed are headed. So, um, yeah, definitely been a disappointing. Obviously, Sunday night was disappointing, this week’s been disappointing, and now to kind of see it all start to kind of fracture and come apart, I I really don’t know what to expect as we as we move forward. Yeah. So, Sunday night happens. Everyone kind of has their initial reaction. It’s going to be a little bit heavier than what you after you depress on Sunday night. It’s Monday. Um then you hear their um exit interviews for the season on Tuesday. Um listen, I think we need to talk about that before we get into our interview here in a couple minutes. But were you shocked with how little accountability was taken by any of them other than John Tiveres in their exit interviews and especially the captain Austin Matthews. Well, that’s that’s what kind of continues the disappointment is that no, I honestly wasn’t that shocked to hear them speak in that tone and that give that those types of answers. Well, I think they understood the gravity I think of the of the failure I guess that they that they’ve been a part of. But yeah, the lack of accountability was I would say just frustrating. You know, you’d hope um that you’d hear a little bit of a different tone. And I’ll use that word again, like you just want to hear them come out and as the the team’s best players, um, you want them to speak as if they that means something, as if that, you know, the weight on their back is, you know, actually weighing on them and that it’s important and that they they feel the pressure that they keep speaking about, you know, and if you if you really did I mean, I’m not going to say they don’t care. I’m sure they want to win and they want to do everything they can. Yeah, they’re professional athletes, right? Like they care. They have that drive. It’s just that they don’t seem to know how to respond when their backs are against the wall and they kind of have to either play at their best or yeah take this in the same regard take accountability and responsibility for when they don’t. So it it certainly was um a bit disappointing. I I don’t really know what to make of it because you’re you’re talking about two I think in my opinion William Knander can be kind of taken away from this conversation. And I think he’s he’s had great performances in the playoffs and he typically is kind of that’s more of his style of of just living life in general. It seems he doesn’t really care about what people have to say or what like and that’s and that’s genuine from him. Whereas from the others, you know, specifically Austin Matthews and Mitch Mner, when they skirt these things, it it feels like they know that these things are there and that they should they should probably, you know, act or react differently, but they it it feels like they’re choosing not to at some point. So, it’s just disappointing in that case. But hopefully you live and you learn. They’re both still pretty young. They still both are going to have multiple chances at at uh playoff runs or Stanley Cup championships. So yeah, we’ll just have to see where it goes. Yeah. So Willie, like you said, does not like he just has the persona of I don’t care about anything. Um and I I did react to him. I thought he deserves some blame. Um I do think he deserves a lot of blame um for his game five to game seven performances. It wasn’t just Austin Matthews and Will and Mitch Mner who didn’t show up. It was also William Knander who didn’t show up in my my eyes. I want to save the rest of this though for our special interview with Maple Leafs reporter from Maple Leaf’s hot stove Anthony Petrelli who really dives into a great conversation about what is to blame for this unsuccessful era in the Toronto Maple Leafs and why it failed. But I don’t think there’s anything else to say on this right now because yeah, it’s a failure and we just have to talk about that with Anthony. What do you think, Brandon? Yeah, you’re right. I think uh he’s going to be locked in. He’s going to be um he’s been there. He knows exactly what the tone is, what these guys have been saying and exactly how they’re reacting. You know, we only get really small sections of of what they’re, you know, when they speak to the media. We only see what the camera captures or what the mics capture. But these guys, they see them walking in, they see them walking out, they see them talking to each other a little bit. So, I think um he’ll have a little bit more to to share and and I’m excited to hear what he’s got to say. Yeah. So without further ado, Anthony Petrelli of Maple Leaf’s Hot Stove joins us on Second Look Sports. We’ll see you on the other side. Joining us now is none other than Maple Leaf’s Hot Stove, writer and uh editor Anthony Petrelli. Thank you for joining us today. Uh you know, I know it’s a lot of busy time or it’s a busy time with the Maple Leafs right now. A lot of news is happening. We just had the Brennan Shanahan firing or letting go, I I guess I should say, moments ago. I mean, what has this like last week looked for you? Like, it’s got to be one of the craziest weeks in like the last, I guess, couple of years, I would say, in terms of news cycle. Well, I mean, I think it’s just beginning, right? Uh so anytime play, you know, management, coaches, whatnot are losing their job, it’s always it’s always quite hectic. So just kind of playing through it all and looking at it, it it feels like a lot is still to come. And you know, it’s like I I guess buckle up. Yeah. So, if we’re if we’re going to dive right into the latest news, Brandon Shanahan, 11 years with the club as team president from 2014 till now. How would you grade his overall tenure with the club? It I mean, if you if you asked me to put a grade on it, I’ i’d give him at least a B+. I think, look, everyone’s going to say they didn’t they didn’t win, and that’s that’s correct. But part of the equation here is what they what he was inheriting. This team, this organization was really really bad for a really long time. From the lockout lifting in 2006 through to when he took over in 2014, they made the playoffs once. That was the it’s it was 4-1 game and that was it. That was the high mark. And so, you know, they’ve made the playoffs nine times in a row. No team in the league has done that in the time. So, they’re currently the, you know, leader in playoff appearances. I understand they haven’t gone anywhere in those playoffs, but he brought them back to a base level line of respectability, which when he got here was not even remotely on the table. I think that’s commendable. And then I think the second part which probably honestly isn’t going to get talked about enough which is he did a lot of really good things off the ice like they finally retired numbers. He you know repaired relationships particularly with Dave Keon and the team like his work with the alumni groups and um you know like the legends row statue. I think that was a great idea. Like I do think he brought a lot of things that that we’ll sit here and celebrate over time. It’s just at the end of the day, this is the winning business and they didn’t win. So, you know, it’s it’s not an A for me given that not even like one memorable run of note, but as a baseline of respectability, he was there for me. He, you know, did a good job on that side. Yeah. I don’t think it can be overstated how much change as an organization or as a franchise really there has been under Brendan Shanahan. I think you’re right. like they were in a state of of disrepair of just con consistent not even losing. Everyone wants to say they’re losing now. They did lose and they’re out of the playoffs, but they they were losing in the the real term of the word, you know, prior to Shanahan’s arrival and and yeah, some of that did lead to, you know, the acquisition of some of this talent that we’re seeing now through the draft. But um a lot of that, like you said, is is part of, you know, the the strategy that Shanahan and of course other executives put in place, um you know, back over 10 years ago. So I think it’s definitely, you know, it’s a it’s a tough day for I’m sure a lot of long-standing Leafs fans, but where do you see them headed in terms of whether it’s a replacement or whether they, you know, kind of shuffle the deck in terms of where responsibilities go? What what do you think we’re we’re looking at now, Anthony, as we kind of go into the next phase of of the Toronto Maple Leafs? Um, on the executive level, my guess is that they ultimately just eliminate that position. Back back when Shanahan got hired, that that was kind of like the the on Vogue thing to do is to have this president and like build out this massive front office. And I think we’re starting to see it get streamlined a lot more. One, financial reasons. too too many cooks in the kitchen. So I I imagine that we’ll just see Tree Living, if I had to guess, I I don’t know this as a fact, but my educated guess we’ll call it is Tree Living just reports to Keith P and just has a little bit more say and then Craig Bubby in turn also has a bit more say on the lineup. Mhm. Yeah. So when you when you take into account what has happened over the last I guess 11 years, we’ll just put underneath the Shanahan era of everything that has happened. Like what do you look at as what led to the failure of this era? Like what what kind of thing do you pinpoint to say this is what kind of led them to not having the success of what other championship contending teams got in the very end which was lifting the Stanley Cup. So my my initial the reason I laugh is my initial reaction was to say well he ultimately hitched himself to a core that never came through. But I would take it a step further beyond that which is to say he hitched himself to a rookie general manager who put everything in place for them to be stapled to this core. you know, it was kind of clear at the time, but I think it’s played out more so over over the years. Like to me, he lost every negotiation. And by every I mean with William Knander, with Mitch Mner, and with with Austin Matthews. And obviously like trading a young costcontrolled Nasm Cadri backfired not having or thinking that he had enough money to sign Zack Kyman and trying to, you know, it’s like you go down the line and ultimately end of the day, they had a really good thing going and then they gave it to a rookie general manager and said, “Hey, push this over the top.” and like he didn’t come close. Yeah. So when you take when you take their their failures, do you like and you talked about the negotiations being like the driving point behind like they they didn’t win any single one of them. Do you look to I guess I I’ve heard this in like the last couple weeks now a lot is like did it start with the B bonuses like in the rookie contracts like when you when you talk about the B bonuses we mean like Mitch Mner you get you get extra money basically when you’re a rookie to hit these bonuses like goals, assists, points, everything like that. Mitch Mner did not get any B bonuses when he first came into the Maple Leafs. And that was kind of the the standard. No one is going to get B bonuses, which was if you’re doing that, great. Like that makes sense. If you want to give out Bonuses, great that way, too. But like, set a standard and stick to it. That all changed when Austin Matthews gets drafted first overall and they decide to give him the B bonuses instead. And then it kind of goes it kind of leads to everyone then it felt like okay now I got to get my money if you’re going to give that guy his money I got to go get my money in a certain way and we saw like you said like Knander held out until the very last second. They could have told Nlander just to stay at home for the whole year but no they they caved in at the very last second gave Knander what he wanted. Then you go and you give Marner what he wants. And then the biggest of them all in my opinion, you go and give Matthews what he wants. Not only once, but twice in the second time giving him $13 million. What can you do other than at this point than just say whatever you want, we’re going to give you. So my my question for you is like when these contract negotiations like happened, did this set the president for or or the standard going forward with the Toronto Maple Leafs is we’re just going to give you what we want in the very end. So just hold on and just basically sit back, relax the pro, enjoy the process, and just wait till we give you what you guys want because that’s what at the end of the day that’s what happened in this era. Like is that kind of is that the facts? Yeah. I mean agents are sharks. I mean that’s why they’re agents. That’s that’s the job. So when you see the first one essentially try to call the Leafs bluff and the Leafs fold. The second one is not going to sit there and say, “Hey, let’s not play games with these guys.” If you know if your intention is to make as much money as you humanly can which is in every player’s right to try to do that and we’ve already seen them cave once we know it’s going to happen again and then it did happen again and then you know within the whole spectrum of it all they signed John Tvaris which completely changes their ecosystem in terms of the high water mark and on salary that players started comparing themselves to and you know It’s it shouldn’t have played out like that because it should be fairly clear to explain to someone why an unrestricted free agent has a certain value compared to a restricted reagent, especially one that is coming off an ELC and is not even arbitration eligible. Like you just you can’t lose basic RFA negotiations. Like that is general manager 101. That is the bare basics. That’s like something an experienced general manager might even largely pass on to their AGM to conduct and complete. These were a little bit more high-profile players in a bigger market. It’s understandable that they would be more tied into it from like Brandon Shanahan, Kyle Dubis level. And you know, obviously they just weren’t able to hard ball them and leverage them the way that they should have. And it probably would have been uncomfortable had they done it. It it always felt like they were more concerned with like let’s just sign them and like we’ll figure it out from there. Mhm. And that’s what happened. But they never got rewarded for that. Like you know I partly watched Brandon Shanahan walk out the door saying like he was very loyal to this group that never rewarded him. Yes. Do you Which contract do you think hurt them the most when looking back at this? uh like in terms of dollar value. Yeah. Like when you when they signed either Knander, Tavvaris, Matthews, or MNER, which one do you think hurt them the most when they look back and say, “Yeah, this kind of led to our us kind of setting this president with these four players and just paying them and then we’ll figure the rest out from there.” It’s tough because I would say the John Tvaris contract was probably the most problematic in terms of saying like here’s the new benchmark at on this team in which then Matthews and then following Marner compared themselves to. So that kind of blew the doors off of the roof. So that one is probably the biggest issue. Although I would also partly argue that, you know, making Mitch Mner the highest paid winger in the league for like the next three years of his career was just like untenable. Like that should not have happened. He’s a really good player. It he is like he’s going to get criticized up and down and some of it’s valid and some of it’s over the top, but he’s genuinely he’s a legitimate like top 10 point producer in the league. He’s a he’s a good hockey player and he’s not like best winger in the league good though and that’s how he was paid and so just on a principal level I find that problematic. Mhm. So, do you think they’re going to try to kind of massage that level of um understanding back into the group where it becomes more and I think we’ve seen this a little bit with with True Living and especially with Burubet is like um things start to swing back to you know one for all and all for one. The team comes together and you do what you try to instill that in whether young guys like Matthew N is a great example. he seems like he’s all for trying to be here and he wants to work towards um you know his future with the team. Do you think that they and whether or not Mitch Martner fits into this? Probably not. Um do you think that that’s kind of where they’re headed back into that understanding of being more than just four guys as a as a group, as a franchise or or just as a team? Yeah, I think you know the word like culture and like organization building was is thrown out a lot and I think sometimes people kind of conflate what it means or just group it into things. But if if you actually remember early on in the Brendan Shanahan tenure when they talked about these contracts like you can go find the quote on it. So, I’m going to paraphrase it because I don’t know it exactly, but he basically talked about each player kind of sacrificing a little bit for the greater good, which is it’s hard to say out loud without laughing cuz that’s obviously not what happened. But they they need to kind of build back up to that a little bit. And like the Matthew N contract is going to be fascinating to me because honestly, if I was them, I probably would play a little bit of hard ball with Matthew N. Um, I know people are chomping at the bits just like sign this guy to a bunch of money and for max term. I’m not necessarily sure that that would be my approach with him. So, you know, it’s great to hear Matthew Ny say like he wants to be here and he’s not trying to leverage offer sheets and that’s the kind of thing that’s going to endear him to the fan base in comparison to the previous three guys that did no such thing in that sense and you know had no issue holding out or pushing for money or whatever the case was. So, all of that’s good, but um N hasn’t been through the negotiation yet, right? like the it’s very so we’ll we’ll see how it plays out. I do have a I do have a followup question to that then if so if the Leafs play hard ball with Matthew Ny and say in the negotiations they offer I’m going to say low end he’s going to get minimum $7 million. I think that’s a rough estimate. Um, and high-end would be like in the nines, uh, with turn. If they play hard ball and they offer him $7 million and they said they’re not moving at that point, if he goes and gets an offer sheet and puts him in a situation where it’s 95 um for seven years like do do you cave and sign that then and like or sign him to to the offer sheet because like you’re you’re either going to lose him to another team or you are going to cave in once again and give him the money that he wants. Like, so yeah, when you say hardball, does that it it kind of has to be like I feel like it kind of has to be a a mediocre of like we’re going to play hard ball, but we also realize that you have the option here to go get an offer sheet from someone or someone has an or potential chance to offer sheet you and, you know, kind of screw us over as well in the in the same in the same breath. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if they would get necessarily get screwed over, per se, quote unquote. Like, they’re not I mean, if they if they were to resign Mitch Mner and John Tavvarus, then yeah, that’s definitely on the table for them to get poached. But as things stand today, it’s unclear, you know, which if either of them are going to return, and that means the Leafs are flushed with cap space. So someone offering, you know, him signing something like that is kind of a nothing burger for the team cuz they’re flushed with money to match anything to that note. And you know, some team doing it, first of all, a team has to want to do it. I don’t know how many teams are lining up to give him that much money. I don’t know how many teams should be lining up to give him that much money. And so the the hard ball is is is more to say, look, I like Matthew N. like it’s not an indictment on him, but I’m also aware that like he shot over 19% this year and he played, you know, at times he was the best player on his line, but by and large he is the worst player on that line. Like he played with a established ones and an established topline right winger at least in the regular season, right? So, you know, de facto, you know, if if Mitch Martin or Austin Matthews had a 59 point season or whatever it is that he has, 58 59, that’s a terrible season for those guys. Mhm. Right. So, you know, there’s that. And then he also got hurt multiple times this year throwing hits. And to me, like that is the concern. like you have a a an emerging power forward and if you look like he tried to line up Marenko on Columbus and he gets stonewalled he gets blown up and now he misses time and in the playoffs he tries to hit Nikico Mikola who is you know that guy’s like a fridge on skates like he’s a big dude but N was the one throwing the hit and that basically ended his playoff like he was completely ineffective after that so you have a power forward that shot a high percentage playing with two elite linemates and a power forward that’s got hurt twice throwing hits who also kind of came into the season with a bit of a history of you know injury like needing to prove himself staying healthy like consistently like I’m not sitting there dying to say like hey let’s give this guy like 9 million over eight years like he he needs to prove it a little bit more to me so like part of that hard ball be like I’ll bridge you that and like I’ll pay you if you if you’re this good like 2 3 years from now, I’ll I’ll back up the I’ll back up the truck. Yeah. Right. But so that’s what I mean. Like I I think I think we’re hearing a lot of people where it’s like, “Yeah, just give him like 9 mil times eight.” And I’m like are how did he earn that yet? Yeah, that’s a like that’s a big leap. That’s a very good like thought because like I I honestly didn’t think of it that way in terms of like his injury risk is already kind of high like um obviously not his fault on this one but obviously left earlier this year with a concussion um after hitting a taking a hit against Zack White Cloud against the Vegas Golden Knights. Um, and like you said, like for a power forward, like to be kind of injuryprone in the in the season, like that’s not that’s not really good luck. Um, and when you’re shooting at that high of uh that high of a percentage, you’re you’re bound to rebound in terms of like going back to the mean, which is on average, I I can’t remember the exact average, but it’s more so in the range of like 10 to 12%, I’m pretty sure, for like the average NHL player for a shooting percentage. So, if you’re shooting that well, you’re bound to have regression, I would assume, at some point. So, that’s like that’s a really good thought in terms of like maybe he hasn’t got the $9 million paycheck yet. Like that’s not what you should do with him. Um, and it’s fair to think that, you know, he plays a lot in front. His shooting percentage will be naturally a little bit higher. that’s not unfair, but then like show that show that to me for like two or three seasons and I’ll sit there and say all right like he’s a consistent high shooter. Like there are guys like that in the league, but him doing it once it it’s not you know you’re playing you’re playing a very very dangerous game potentially. You could look like a genius in four years or it could you know it’s just a lot to weigh. Yeah. What like Obviously to me he would be their he’s their number one uh priority this summer in terms of getting signed. Um, if you like you you think so, eh? Yeah, I I think so. Like I don’t think Mitch Mariner is coming back and I don’t think John Tiver is coming. Like if if John Diverus is going to come back, it’s going to be on a hometown discount and it’s not going to be it’s it’s not going to be a pretty look in terms of like he could have went somewhere for $3 million more dollars per season and decided to stay home with the Maple Leafs. I I think you do you think that Matthew N is not the priority like or am I I guess he I I mean he could be he could be for them. They could already have been have you know in their mind they could sit there and say we’re we’re not bringing back Mitch. We know JT is taking a hometown discount and so N it is like that’s the bigger one to figure out like that. There’s a path to that. I I don’t know if they’ve figured that out yet though. So to me the priority is always the UFAS because they can just walk for free like you you’re still under control with NI like they could figure that out in August. Yes. Yeah. So I I I guess if I I had one last question on NY you mentioned a bridge deal. If you’re bridging NY what kind of what kind of I guess AAV would you be looking at if you’re or contract comparable would you be looking at if you’re trying to bridge N over these last or over these next like couple years? Um, so Yuri Slowski signed the big a big extension, right? That, right? He’s making 7.6. And when you pay long term like that, you’re obviously you’re paying more upfront to hopefully pay less down the road. And when you’re paying a bridge, that’s not what’s happening. You’re obviously paying kind of what you think you are until it comes time again to renew the contract. So I look at I look at that with Sofovski and then in the summer Marenko and Columbus who I thought was tracking to be the nice comparable for a while cuz I think Marenko had like 24 goals or something and he signed like 3.85 million for a couple years and so for a while there I was going okay I think this is probably the bridge comparable but then you know N outproduced him. N has some history of playoff production. Um, you know, a little bit more of like a, you know, I mean, he is a big game player, I would say. And so, Marenko’s never played in the playoffs and and N has had moments in multiple years. So, he like that that means something. Um, like he’s helped like an actual team make the playoffs and win their division. So it to me like the number is somewhere in that range but probably closer to like six six and a half for like two two three years. Like it’s not an insulting bridge. Mhm. Like he’s it’s still a lot of money. It just you know to your point of figuring out the contracts. If if they know that they’re moving on from one or both of those guys, then sorting out that kind of bridge ahead of free agency is helpful because then you know where everything kind of sits. I I if Brandon, if you have a question, I was going to jump in with the marer, but if you wanted to go with No, I I actually think it would be better to do that first because I was just going to ask more externally. So, go ahead. Yeah, like I just I wanted to follow up with your thoughts on Miner. You said like he might be the number one thing right now for the Maple Leafs and they might not have decided on what the future looks like for him and whether or not they want to bring him back. Um, I think you’re the first person that I’ve heard say that that covers the Maple Leafs. And I I’m just curious as to why you think that might be like I I’m I personally think Martner other than game five to game seven in the second round, I thought he had a pretty good playoff. So, I thought he showed up and I thought like at the time like it it obviously depends on how your last game finishes as as we all know like if you lose the last game of the season, everyone’s going to look at you very differently. But for the first five or six games and first four games of the second round, I really thought he had kind of proved that the playoff narrative wasn’t there with him this year. So, are you are you suggesting like they might be entertaining or might entertain bringing him back at this point? Well, I mean, it’s a two-way street, right? He also has to want to come back. So, I if like he could just say, I’m I’m going to the market, which is what it ultimately sounds like to be honest with you. But I don’t think Craig Buby was lying when he talked him up at the end of season press conference. And I don’t think he was lying when he said he wanted him back. I like he’s not going to be confrontational. Like what else is he going to say? Like he’s not going to say no. So, you know, I think that that part of the answer was a little bit more automatic. But when he when he’s talked about loving his energy, he complimented him all year. He played him more than anybody else. I think Craig Ruby would sit there and say, “He makes my life a lot easier, especially in the regular season.” and making the playoffs is still like that’s still step one and you know I can already hear that well he doesn’t do anything in the playoffs so it doesn’t matter but you know like if Austin Matthews has the same exact regular season that he has la he had last year moving forward and they don’t have Mitch Mner picking up the slack as he’s missing missing a bunch of games and John Tvaris is another year older and you know depending on if you know it’s not like it’s a great UFA crop like missing the playoffs becomes a real possibility like Mner carried them for like two months last year. So, you know, I I tend to there’s a part of me that says I don’t think that they like they don’t want to play the games. Like they got to, you know, change things and there’s that side of it, but I also think there’s a part where they they’re you know, they would probably be seriously weighing like this guy like you can count on him for production. and like you can count on him to help you win you hockey games and get into the playoffs. And um the question is like could they find a number that works? Mhm. Otherwise, I think they would have pushed trading him a lot harder than they did. They never really did. Yeah. And and I’m glad you mentioned the the upcoming UFA class because it seems like a foregone conclusion that it’s, you know, a little bit weaker than we’ve seen in the past and there may not be or there may be some, you know, in the future some bad contracts potentially handed out to some players that it’s going to be bad. Yeah. That may not have earned it. like similar to like kind of what you said around the situation with Nai is obviously a lot different but but that’s where I think or I wanted to ask you what you think about where that fits into it all because obviously if Mitch Mner leaves this team looks a lot different next year in more ways than one but if he were to come back I think it’s hard to envision a team that’s you know much different than the group that we saw go out you know I think the decor for the most part is pretty well situated and then you know there are a couple spots where yeah you may be able to fill in with other guys But where where do you think the the priorities are externally in this group and and what do you think their vision is going to be heading into next season? I mean, I ultimately think they got to look at it and say, “How do we build out our depth properly?” Yeah. Cuz it’s it’s not close, right? And to be honest, it’s not paid to be close. Like, if you’re playing a Florida team with an 11 million third line and that’s with that’s not even counting Marawn’s full salary because it was it was retained in that trade. and the Leafs are playing a line against them that doesn’t even equate to $5 million after retention. And it’s like, why should they be as good? They’re they’re paid less than half and like the math doesn’t math when you do that. So unless you have the only way that that works is like you have a rookie on an ELC and he’s unbelievable and then the money is kind of moot cuz you’re like well this guy’s worth way more than his ELC. Instead they have guys in their like late 20s and early 30s who are paid exactly, you know, roughly what they’re worth and the money is not even close and they’re getting outplayed cuz of course they’re getting outplayed. there like the market is well aware of of the gap here. So, you know, like we talked about retaining Martner, like I don’t necessarily I think that there’s potentially things that they would need to sort through off ice and like culturally, but like on ice, Matthews and Martin relatively matched Barkoff and and Reinhardt in that series. Like I wouldn’t say that Reinhardt or Barkoff were definitively better than those guys. and that line, you know, scored like one less. You know, the Matthews line had like one more goal than they were on for in that series. So, like they outscored their opponents. But the difference is like Reinhardt and Barkoff combined to make like5 million less, which is like the price of Anton Lundell on the third line who absolutely dominated the Leafs. So, it’s like, yeah, sure. Could you resign him? Yeah. But then, like, you need to figure out how to clear money otherwise. And I think regardless of Marner or not, there’s probably a lot of dead money that they need to start clearing out. Like, are we going to watch a fourth straight playoff where Cali Yarn does nothing? Like obviously David Camp didn’t play like that kind of, you know, they he was getting healthy scratch during the season early on. You might recall like October, November, like Pontis Holberg was playing PK over him. Was going well, what’s the point of this guy like paying him 2.4? Yep. and you have this 26-y old who’s barely played in the league and he’s on the PK over him. So, like that’s another contract. It’s like, are they doing this again with Morgan Riley? Like, he’s getting paid seven. Like, you’re talking about the defense being well situated. I I agree it is, but you have a guy making $7.5 million. He’s not quarterbacking or power play. he’s not like a shut down defenseman or playing you like the hardest minutes. It’s a lot of money to not do either of those two things. So like they got to figure out some of their contracts kind of beyond whatever is happening with Marner or Tvaris. Like honestly regardless of it, it just like can they do both in like a way that ultimately nets out a you know a better team? If this is this is hard, but like if you if you were Riley in this situation, do you think he would want to fresh start as well after like everything that’s kind of happened? Like do you think like it’s time for him to like maybe just realize as well like I got to move on eventually at some point as well like it’s just the fit like the fit’s just not there at the end of the day. Like it’s just it’s not there. Yeah. I mean I mean put it this way. If if the organization came to you and you had played that long with them and they said like look it’s time. Are you really going to fight them if you’re him? I don’t think you really be like it’s not time. Yeah. Right. Like so the question is how far does that net expand at that point where it’s kind is he going to sit there and say like I’m only going to like these three teams or would he sit there and be like all right like me and my agent will look around and like we’ll try to you know are there 10 teams interested in me. I don’t even know if that would I don’t think there would be that many but what do I know? And then like you work at it from that point, right? But that would come into the equation too. Like we’re on the external like stuff. What they have to do this off season. The number one thing that I think they they really have to start looking at and and realizing is these championship winning teams are bringing guys that win. Like they’re they’re born winners. like is that something that when we look at this off season and we look back I guess in like the middle of July, August or or early August, we’re going to look and we’re going to say this team tried to rebuild or tried to get pieces that maybe aren’t winners but tried to rebuild a team that replacing Mitch Martner or they actually went out and tried to like get guys that build like a culture like Sam Bennett of the world like or like what is it in your eyes that you think that they’re going to that they’re going to target this summer? It’s I know that’s a loaded question cuz it’s like it it the tough the tough thing about it and I think Brandon kind of alluded to it as well is it’s a really bad UFA group. Like there’s not it’s not like Jake Jake Gensel would be great, right? Like he was a UFA last year. Tampa picked him I know they went nowhere in the playoffs this year again, but like he’s a he’s a proven winner and and big game goal scorer. You know, he was at a prime age. Lots of things to like about Jake Gensel as a hockey player. After Martner, it’s like there’s Nikolai Eers, you know, like Tavvarus led the UFA class in goals. It’s like, you know, Mikuel Granlin is like legitimate mid30s. Like he’s not young and going to command dollar. And then you have Sam Bennett, who I like. I think everyone likes Sam Bennett. You know, he just had a career-high 51 point season. Like we’re talking about NY and N just outproduced him. Mhm. And that’s not all Bennett’s game. Like he’s an unbelievable for checker. He plays a more high in demand position. You know, he adds a physicality that even NY doesn’t provide. Like obviously there’s more to his game than just like scoring, but you know if you’re making eight n whatever million dollars and you’re a 50point player, that’s not going to go well in Toronto. No. Like you can hide in Florida. The Florida players were happy to tell everyone that the past couple days. You will not get treated like that if you are in Toronto. Like we saw that with David Clarkson. Like it’s like you’re limited offensively and you’re getting paid money to that dictates that you need to put points on the board. So you talk about it’s like well what are they going to do? Like to me it’s more are they going to be able to leverage their cap space in a way that they can you know work the trade market a little bit. Like I think that there’s all sorts of players on the market on solid deals that you know teams need cap space or teams have soured on that aren’t going to cost a ton for a team that has no assets. Like teams are just going to be happy to kind of give up the cap space. Like I’m not saying the Leafs should be in on Jacob Trouba who’s obviously not even available. But it’s like if we look at that trade Anaheim traded, you know, a depth Dman and a fourth round a conditional fourth round pick for him. Mhm. Right. Like are there any trades like that where you say, “Hey, like we’ll take that guy.” Like he’s pretty good player. We think we could do better with him here kind of thing. And it’s probably not going to cost us a ton. Like that’s I mean that’s how I would approach it. I would I imagine like a lot of people that were Sam Bennett to hit the market, they’ll be they’ll be players in that. I just I would be weary of it. Yeah. So, we’re going like I feel like it’s going to be like 2017, I believe, is when this happened or 2016, I can’t remember the exact year when uh we have Milan Luchi sign a six million AAV deal and we’re looking back in five years and we’re like, how did he get that money? Was that the year where it was like Andrew Lad, Kyle Looo, Louis Ericson, like just like an unbelievably bad year? Who’s I can’t remember who went to It’s blanking my mind right now. Who was traded for Luchich and went to Calgary at first, but he signed a massive deal as well. James Neil. James Neil. Yes. like he he also signed real AA AAV deal and like just that whole free agency class was not great to begin with but everyone had money and everyone wanted to float it around and everyone paid money kind of thinks that or this offseason is begging for it with the cap going up teams are begging to just make absolutely terrible decisions like I would be very worried I just I have one last thing on the Mner um thing we saw with Gensel last year um and you just talked about like a trade possibility um and the way that they acquired Tanov last year to get the rights like do you think that there is a world where after the draft um Mitch Martner obviously they they’re going to talk to him here in the next couple weeks. Do you think there’s a world where they come to a decision, both parties, and say, “There’s no chance where we’re going to sign you, and there’s no chance that you’re going to stay. Let’s look for a possible team that you want to go to together and get an asset or two for you back.” Like Jake Gensel got a third round pick for Carolina last year to Tampa Bay to acquire the rights to sign him and then sign him before free agency actually started. Do you see that like happening in a world with MNER? I mean, I guess it’s possible, but I just I don’t if he’s going to UFA, I don’t imagine a world where he does the Leafs any favors. A, and B, I think he just goes right to the market and loves everybody trying to get him. And like it, but in fairness to him, like it wouldn’t make sense for him to forego the market. Like he’s clearly wants to get paid top dollar. So, unless someone’s coming in with like a cartoonish offer, um, which is possible. We were talking about the Chicago Blackhawks before we recorded, like, you know, they spent their entire summer last year throwing out cartoonish offers. Like, TJ Brody got a multi-year deal there for millions and millions of dollars. So, I I guess it’s possible, but I’d imagine he would go right to market. I Yeah, I see him. If he if Chicago is gonna have to get him, they’re gonna have to get really desperate with their money and he’s going to become I do. I think he’s worth this. Let me just say that. No. But I could see him becoming a 14.5 million player, $15 million player if Chicago got that desperate that they needed to sign someone like the top free agent to pair with Bedard. I could see that being a realistic thing. Um before we end this, I just wanted to like touch on the whole series. I know it’s kind of been back of mind, but like let’s be honest, they took the defending Stanley Cup champions to game seven. It wasn’t a rollover series like we saw two years ago. Is there something is there positives to take away from this? Like is there real real positives? Yeah, I mean I like I think Florida has the potential to just coast to the Stanley Cup final. I agree. And right like that that game one Carolina was Yeah. Not good. Yeah. That was a must win in my opinion. Yeah. It was wa watching that going would have been nice if you guys gave a g a game in game seven cuz that’s who you would have played the next round. So, you know, like Florida is a borderline dynasty and and pushing them to seven is not nothing. It’s genuinely not. Like I thought that there were some real positives that they could pull from, you know, especially that they did it without their starting goalie. Like I actually didn’t think Stallars was like particularly great in the first round. I didn’t think he was bad, but I didn’t think he was great. But I I thought Bull like gen generally struggled when he got inserted. Like he got put in a tough spot. His one shut out the Leafs were unbelievable defensively. Like they they gave up nothing. They they gave up the least amount of high danger attempts of any team in the playoffs. I imagine that that will be the game for the playoffs. Like no game moving forward will beat what the Leafs did to Florida that game. So like they were unbelievable defensively. It just, you know, he struggled. And in terms of positives though, like I do think that there were some in in terms of well one I thought their penalty kill was was excellent. like them going four for four in game six was I thought was a big reason they won that game. They clicked at like a top three rate like for the regular season. And Florida has a legitimately solid power play. Like they were a little bit out of the top 10 this year like they were 13th I think in part because they just sat a bunch of guys down the stretch and Eklad got suspended for a quarter of the season. But like that’s a fringe top 10 unit and the Leafs more than held their own. It’s like the first time we could ever say that about the PK like the defense depth is like it’s obviously there. They had a ton of games where like they were playing these guys all six between 18 and 20 minutes. Yeah. Like they were, you know, Simon Benois like showed some real games of growth who like this guy’s a player. Like he finds a way to impact the game physically. Like Mabe and Tanv were like Tanv in particular was like really really good. So like again a positive and at forward it’s a little bit tougher to say it’s like yeah like Max doi had a pretty good contribute like he had five points like I don’t think you can ask for much more than that from Max doi but it’s like I think we always know that the abilities there it would just be nice if you didn’t take like two months off in the regular season the way that you did this year kind of thing like right like it’s not an issue of talent like it’s an issue of consistency um which is like different than my golf game, which is an issue of both. Like it it’s just like a genuinely like that’s just an issue of of pure like consistency on his end. It’s crazy to think he was a point per game player in uh when he was with I think it was Dallas and then he had 73 points with Montreal in one season. Yeah, I mean he was he was excellent when Dallas went to the conference finals and like he’s obviously had some big moments but like it is reaffirming to see that from him, right? Like Matthew Nye same way. like he had some really good playoff moments like you know you would the glass half full take as you would hope that like Matthews takes forward the game six effort somehow someway moving forward like the forward group is a little bit tougher to compliment but you know hey again Florida’s how many teams scare you more than Florida in a sevengame playoff series one Edmonton no Dallas Dallas Dallas. Yeah. Like that’s fair right. So like I actually would have felt okay if the Leafs played Dallas. I don’t think that they would have done well against Edmonton, but I think they would have I I don’t know. Dallas doesn’t play a style that seems to bother the Leafs. Like they’re not like a dominant puck playing team, right? If there’s one team in the East that matches up if the Leafs match up the worst against it’s definitely Florida. Like it’s 100% Florida. Oh yeah. Florida’s literally the only team in the East that bothered me. Like I think everyone would have predicted them to be Carolina. Carolina seems to be getting um like off the hook for their like the Leafs would have coasted through Montreal and Washington the same way Carolina did like Yes. or sorry um New Jersey and Washington. Yeah. But yeah. Um no. Yeah. Like so you know they’re just I agree. It’s tough cuz the metro is a lot weaker than the Atlantic. The Atlantic is a it’s a juggernaut. Everyone knows that. Um, everyone knows when you look at the Metro side of the the bracket, it’s kind of it’s easier to predict who’s going to at least make the second round and if not make the Eastern Conference Finals because it’s not as much of a of a test or grueling test when you go into the playoffs. Yeah. Without Hughes and New Jersey, that was Exactly. Yeah. That was a cakewalk. Yeah. Like in Carolina like would have been like if if Toronto’s playing Carolina right now, you’re probably looking at a five five game series, I would say. Like yeah, I mean Carolina controls the play well. So they’re a bit of a tricky team. Like they forch check hard. It just it’s hard to look at it’s hard to look at Frederick Anderson and say that guy’s, you know, shutting the door on the Leafs. And it’s hard to look at their top end talent and say those guys are giving like Chris Tana trouble. And so yeah, I mean like you look at it like I would have said Leafs and six. And you mentioned too um that you think Florida will relatively coast. I would agree. Do you have do you have any thoughts on the Western Conference? Where do you think uh who’s going to come out on top there? We know Dallas has the the lead early, but you think Edmonton has it in them or Man, I’ve predicted wrong on Edmonton every round this year. Like I was like, LA’s finally going to do it. Vegas is going to do it. I was like, I’m reverse jinxing them. I’m picking the Oilers in the third round just like on principal alone here. So, I don’t know. And then Dallas is the other one. Like they threw me off going in. I was like, no Heiskin, no Robertson. They’re going to lose to Colorado. Like they Dallas was terrible down the stretch. And I was watching early going, “Yeah, Colorado’s going to crush these guys.” And then it fell apart on them. So, I don’t know. Dallas might just might have Team of Destiny vibes this year. They see keep seeming to pull it out like they have the Miko Ranton just heater going on right now. Like they’re good. They’re deep. Like Oh, they’re they’re LTI deep is what they are. They are they are LTI deep. I looked at their cuz I was like like I was working the game last night, but then I was like thinking like cuz all four lines when they roll off all four lines and they kind of match people together like you just don’t really know what their lines are. And then I looked at their lines and I’m like, Jamie Ben on your fourth line. Really? Like that’s how deep you guys are. Like it’s ridiculous like how deep this team is right now. And we’re talking about Pontis Holberg and Bobby McMahon here. Like no offense to those guys, but like these are different planets. Exactly. Exactly. I have one last question before we let you go. It’s been a wonderful interview. Um and I I really appreciate your time. If Mitch Mner leaves this summer, which we fully predict is going to happen, uh, does Matthews become front and center for blame now? Does he does he now like cuz I would say Mner’s been the scapegoat here for like the last couple years and Mner’s been the one taking all like the blame. But when he if he decides and or both teams or both parties decide to move on this summer and Matthews is the one who’s left standing at $13 million and he has another regular season like he did this year where we know he’s battling injury but he just didn’t take the time off at the beginning of the season. Do you think he becomes now the focal point of okay you you’re it’s now your turn to show up or else you’re getting you’re getting ripped. I mean, it’s a fair it’s a fair question. Um, I mean, it would obviously be between him and Knander. Like, Knander is very casual defensively, especially over the course of a season, and he doesn’t go head-to-head with uh opponent’s top players on a nightly basis. So, I guess part of the question for me would be if Knander then were to move up in Matthew’s spot and get that responsibility and continue to take nights off and, you know, um, struggle in those matchups, then I think he would be the one that would get more of the brunt because Matthews legitimately is good defensively and does put an effort in on that side. At the same time, if Knander’s still just, you know, if he’s driving an offensive line, scoring 40 plus as as he has, and Matthews is kind of, you know, going through the same sort of season he did last year moving forward, then yeah, he’s probably going to be the guy like he’s the captain. He’s one of the highest paid players in the league. Like he was the highest paid player in the league this year and next year he won’t be. So, but he’s right there. Ultimately, it it the buck has to stop with Matthews. Like, that’s I I’m not gonna sit here and say he did a good job as captain this year. I don’t necessarily believe that to be true, but I do think it’s an important step for him. Like, he needs to learn and like go through this process and be the leader of the team. I think right now he’s kind of finding his way in that situation. Well, that just about does it for me. Thank you very much for your time, Anthony. Uh if you guys want to check out his work, we’ll link uh the description to the Maple Leaf hot stove uh in the description here for you guys to go check out his work. Um but yeah, thank you Anthony for coming on and uh giving us some insight to the Maple Leafs and this massive off season is what it’s going to turn out to be. Thanks guys. All right, that was Anthony Betrelli of Maple Leafs Hot Stove. Thank you for coming on. That was a great conversation with him about the Maple Leafs and the whole whole organization and why it everything failed and everything went into a dumpster fire here over the last week and why the Maple Leafs are faced once again with questions on where to go next and how to reclaim their championship status like in 1967. But moving on to people who actually have a chance at the championship this year. We have four teams, four great teams in this uh conference finals. We have the Florida Panthers versus the Carolina Hurricanes, a rematch of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. And we have Dallas, the Dallas Stars versus the Edmonton Oilers, a rematch of the 2024 Western Conference Finals. Listen, I’m just going to start with this question right off the bat. Do you do you mind like this happening um with like the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes matching up for the second time in three years and the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers matching up for the second time in back-to back years? Like do you mind the fact that we’re seeing the same teams in the final four over and over again or do you think it’s just like a couple years of dominance and then it moves on and it runs its course? This is the NHL. Are you is it something that you’re okay with right now? I think in the West Western Conference, I think I’m certainly more okay with it because of the the level of competition that we’ve seen from that group this this season and in this playoffs. Um, you know, you’ve got five or six teams that I think really could have represented the West. um you know when you bring in obviously Dallas and Edmonton fairly deserve to be in the the conference finals and then when you add in teams that were eliminated like Winnipeg, Colorado, Vegas um you know there’s another three right there that I think would have been um accepted as a worthy Western Conference finalist or champion. So um yeah, I think that to me that just shows the level of competition at the top in that conference. But in the east, like I think the one thing that we’re seeing is just the I mean people have talked about it all year for multiple years now it feels like but just that those that dominance in Florida is just Tampa and and the Panthers specifically have been able to whether it’s flip-flopping or obviously now we’re seeing the Panthers kind of go on a little bit of a run here. um they’ve been able to kind of figure out a way to kind of manifest these kind of juggernaut teams for the last five or six years. So um I think on in the Eastern Conference it’s more of that. Obviously we’ve seen teams like Carolina and the Rangers break through on the Metro side. Um a couple different couple different years. I think they’ve flip-flopped a little bit as well. So um yeah, I think that’s more of it more of it is the Eastern Conference is just a little bit weaker. So teams like Florida and Tampa Bay have been able to kind of dominate that conference for the last handful of years. So um yeah, I would say it’s it’s like you said, it’s not so much um anything else. It’s not like the NBA where you’re seeing all this player movement and that’s what’s dictating big markets or anything like that being involved in in uh in high leverage games. It’s just the way that these teams have been built. I feel like that’s allowed them to kind of continue on to to be some of the heavyweights in the NHL. We’re going to get to the NBA later because yeah, they’re they’re the king of parody right now. Seven different champions is what it will be in seven different years. But for the NHL, you said like the Eastern Conference is a little bit weaker. I would debate that and say the Metro is what’s weak in the Eastern Conference. If you took a if you took the Atlantic division, that is just a heavyweight tilt for every single team trying to go through that side of the bracket. And then you look at the metro side and I would argue that, you know, if you put an Atlantic team in that metro side, they would advance to the Eastern Conference final. Um, but moving into these final two series that we have, what is the key in your eyes for Florida or Carolina to advance to the Stanley Cup final? Well, the Kever Florida is clearly just keep doing what you’ve been doing ever since they won game three in overtime against the Leafs. It feels like they’ve almost rediscovered that their kind of playoff style um and have been able to kind of dictate this the pace of play, the you know, their physical, you know, effectiveness has been incredible as well. And they continue to be able to score at a high rate as well. So, I think they’re they’re they look to me like um they’ve kind of figured it out again and have just kind of started to continue to gain momentum and they haven’t really stopped um aside from maybe game six against the Leafs where, you know, they would have been feeling their best because they were up 3-2 at that point. So, a little bit of just a different mindset when you’re starting a new series or um going up against a different opponent. But I know Paul Maurice hasn’t wasn’t exactly happy with their game one, but I don’t I don’t know what else you can expect um coming off just a short period of rest and and I think yeah, he’ll just continue to do what they’re what they got to do. For Carolina, they’re just going to have to ratchet it up because you’re playing against the best team in the East and it’s going to be a tough battle to try to regain home home ice advantage and and try to put yourself in a position to win the series. So, Carolina is screwed though. I mean, I I I don’t know. I don’t think they’re I wouldn’t be like I would be surprised I guess to say if they were to win the series, but I don’t think they’re nec like I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s game over yet. Like I think if they So you don’t you don’t think game one like was a must-win for Carolina coming off just on the on the heels of bas or the retrospect or the thinking I guess is the correct saying the thinking of Florida plays an intense sevengame series. They don’t get any rest. They get off Sunday night, they play Tuesday night, one day off. Basically, Carolina has a bunch of days to sit there and rest and they have home ice advantage and you come out and you get absolutely boots stomped by the Florida Panthers. Like, do you think that was like like to me Carolina kind of screwed themselves and that was the game that was a must-win game? If you’re going to have any chance of winning a series against the Florida Panthers, it had to start in game one. like it had to start with the game one victory cuz now you’re 0 and13 in uh your last 13 conference finals games and then you also got swept by the uh Florida Panthers in 2023. So it kind of builds back into the character of like we don’t even know if we can win a game against this team let alone the series like you should have took that demon away in game one. Do you feel the same way or no? I mean there’s certainly an element of that. But I think they should have been in a better position to certainly win that game and they could you can look at that as maybe their most favorable game to win because of the rest situation. But like I said, Florida’s just gained this kind of level of momentum and have kind of re found, you know, their identity as they’ve kind of figured their way through these first couple of rounds and because I don’t think they had to play that tough against Tampa and Toronto really challenged them and they that’s what I think brought them back up to their their level. So, I think um if you’re Florida, they’re just going to keep rolling and maybe having just a couple days rest was the best thing for them because they were able to keep that going. But, but Carolina, yeah, like we obviously will have to see what happens in game two and we’ll maybe it will look silly for that. But, um I think game two and is probably the game where you can’t go down 200 to this team going home to Florida. Otherwise, yeah, maybe you could be looking at a four or five game series right off the hop. So, if they can’t get one of these two in Carolina and they can’t keep some semblance of home ice advantage with a chance to like we talked about with the Leafs and the Panther series, like if they could have come back 2-2 going home, that’s the the good thing about having home ice advantage. So, we’ll have to see how they respond, but yeah, like it it could be uh it could be game over good night if uh Carolina can’t get game two. So, we’ll just have to see how it progresses. Let’s switch to the Western Conference final. Game one happened on Wednesday evening. Game two is going tonight and Dallas again, Dallas currently has a one- nothing series lead thanks to the heroics in the third period. Once again, another third period over or comeback. Five goals in the third period is what they racked up against the Edmonton Oilers and it all started on the power play. Okay, the Edmonton Oilers looked terrific through 40 minutes. They looked like they were dominating the game. They looked like they weren’t Dallas wasn’t going to generate anything off of them. And even their first couple penalt or their first penalty kill in the first period, I believe, it looked sound. It did not look like they were giving up anything to Dallas. It looked like and they also got a couple short-handed chances off of it. Um, and then the third period happens and it’s the start of the third period that just ruined it for the for the Edmonton Oilers. They let in the first power play goal. the momentum gets behind the crowd for Dallas. It kind of carries along the whole game or for the rest of the third period and they just keep on gaining momentum and they score three goals in the first like five minutes of the first or the third period and just in the blink of an eye like you’re you’re trailing the game. So for you is it just a matter of Edmonton has to stay out of the box if they’re going to win this series because their penalty kills operating at 62% right now. Like it’s literally operating. Teams are scoring at them at 38% right now. Like that is ridiculous to think that they’re even here in this situation considering what the penalt is giving up right now. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s certainly one of the biggest ingredients for them to to potentially win this series is Yeah, because it seems like five on five at least they they may have an edge over the Stars. It seems like at least in game one they look phenomenal. I thought Leonetta was having a fantastic game. McDavid looked like he had a lot of buzz. Obviously, they were part of that first goal that I thought really kind of kickstarted the Oilers again and just kind of gave them more confidence that they believed that they could win um yet another series, especially, you know, against the Stars two years in a row. So, um yeah, I was I was surprised. I was shocked that uh I guess more so that Dallas was able to score that frequently. I guess even on like you expect the Oilers at least to get one of those kills or or to be able to have a bit of time where they can gain some momentum and maybe you know pick one up and and keep that keep a one or two goal lead at some point. But it felt like once that Heiskin end goal goes in. Yeah. And you know that seeing I puck from the point then I was like okay this game a obviously it wasn’t ever over from even 3-1. Um, but it was like, okay, now this game’s right back on and and you had that feeling that Dallas had gained some momentum whether or not they picked up another power play or like it just felt like they were going to come back and we might see overtime or something. That was what I was thinking kind of at the start of the third period. I was like, “Okay, we might still see overtime here, but I did couldn’t imagine that the that the Oilers were going to give up, you know, as many chances as they can even with the amount of p power plays that they uh that they gave up. So going into game two, obviously I don’t think either of us think this is going to be a sweeper fivegame series. This is going to be a long one. Um what is the key for the Edmonton Oilers in game two to even this thing up and uh take home ice advantage away from the Dallas Stars heading back to Edmonton for game three? Well, I think the key for them is going to be to try to keep as much offensive uh possession as they can. I thought they did a really good job of taking advantage of some of the rush chances that they have. And of course, the Oilers with the top end talent they have, they’re always going to have those chances, but I thought that there were periods of the game where Dallas was able to take possession and kind of cycle and work the the edges of the offensive zone the way that they really like to do. So, I think Edmonson’s best chances to try to match that and keep possession in Dallas’s end, keep them away from the other side. you know, give Steuart Skinner the best chance he can to have better than an 840 say percentage or whatever the the stat is floating around here. So, I think um that’s what they’re going to have to do. Try to keep shots low. Defense is going to have to really uh work hard to to to block as many shots as possible and keep Dallas to the outside when they’re able to do so because Dallas has as much talent as anybody else. And if you allow them to get into the some of the sweet spots, you know, in the slot there, we saw one we saw at least one of those goals uh get by Skinner in that fashion. So, I think uh that’s going to be the key for Edmonton. Yeah, I think we soon are going to have the have to have the conversation about LTIR being a cheat code. Um really a cheat code because the Dallas Stars like their fourth line literally has Jamie Ben on it. Like it’s ridiculous. Like it’s it’s how you defend that many lines of that much coming at you. I don’t know how you do it. Like they can roll all four lines. They can mix match with anyone because they have elite talent all over the ice. It feels like and yeah, so going it’s going to take like I’ll put this this way. McDavid and Dryidle haven’t had to score or put the team on their back to really win a series yet and it’s been terrific. like you’re getting secondary scoring, but we’re going to need a McDavidesesque performance or McDavidesesque series where he just takes over the whole time and really dominates the game in order for Edmonton to win because if not, do you feel like he’s just going to get it’s just going to become too much by the Dallas Stars and they’re just going to roll over in a way? Like do you feel like that’s kind of what’s going to happen to Edmonton if the big guys Edmonton or 29 and 97 don’t have their most dominant series of the 2025 playoffs? Well, I certainly don’t think that even as a group that they’re going to not to say that you’re saying they’re going to roll over, but I think that we’ve seen obviously in the past that these guys even when they get down, they’re not they’re never out and they don’t accept that. So, I think they’re certainly not even if they were to to lose the next game in Dallas or or god forbid they were down 3 0 they you know I think these guys are going to try their best and they’re going to try to push through as much as possible. But I am worried about like you said you know I don’t think McDavid and Dryidle combined can score five or six goals a game even themselves. So, and I think Dallas as a team, they the way things are looking, they might be able to do that as a group. And if they can score, you know, even if they can get an average of four goals a game um over a series, which it it looks like that might be possible, it’s going to be really hard for McDavid and Dry Settle alone to try to keep to be able to keep up. Um, so I think that’s the one thing that could could be worrisome for the Oilers if they can’t get some more of that secondary scoring, but also if they can’t find a way to stop the Stars from, you know, just being so efficient. Yeah, I I would agree. I I think when I meant by roll over, I kind of meant like the team is going to it’s it’s not going to be a complete fight if you don’t have 97 and 29 producing. Like for sure that’s kind of what I meant by roll. Like they’ll they’ll win a couple games. Don’t get me wrong. I mean like it’s not going to be a rollover in terms of the series, but they’re just not going to be the same team if 97 and 29 don’t show up on a nightly basis in this series and produce at the level that we know that they can as one of probably the two of the top five players, top three players in the world. Um so it’s going to be very interesting. Um, but we got to move on to the NBA uh playoffs as the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. I’m just going to start with this. Uh, the the choke job that uh happened last night at MSG. What do you think of Tyrese Hallebertton prematurely celebrating and hitting the choke? Uh, do you think he was just I’m going to say what he said in his postgame, aura farming, uh, trying to gain aura. Uh, do you think that was kind of what he was going for or do you think it was uh warranted? Do you think like it was appropriate appropriate time to recreate it if you actually knew that that was a three-pointer? Yeah. I mean, I take him at his word that he didn’t know in the moment whether or not he had won the game or not. I don’t know what the score what the system like in the in MSG was saying if maybe it had they had put up that the that there was a three. I’m not sure. I think I I’m trying to remember if the ref had signaled it was a three, but they definitely I think it they would have looked at it anyway how close it was. So, I’ll give him credit. I thought it was very creat I mean it wasn’t original, but it was creative of him to in that moment recognize you the history and obviously Reggie Miller was courtside like on the call, I believe, or part of the broadcast. So, so of course it made sense that he was going to do that. It it I’m not going to say I hated it. There was something about it that felt like I don’t know like mal like malicious like he knew what he was doing so much like whereas Reggie Millers it was more organic reacting to the moment. It felt more that maybe Tyrese was you know t like kind of just taking shots or or being that going that extra level to kind of say you know f you to the fans. So but I didn’t hate it. He pointed at Reggie Miller like he like I don’t know maybe it was a tribute like like I think it was I think it was and I think in that sense like there was no other way to do it. I think you had to do it. There was no there might not be another moment in a series like this where you can you know do something like that and have your moment. And I think for that reason it’s great and we’re going to remember that forever. I wish it was a I wish the the shot was a gamewinner because that would have made it even much obviously that much better. Yeah, I’m glad the Pacers came back and won for that reason because otherwise he’d look back and it would not be uh it would not be a favorable moment for especially him 100%. But I uh I think it all worked out for the most part and I I’m excited to see it just going to add more and more um attention and and intensity to the series teams before last night. I had to pull this up. Uh 1,434 or 0 and 1,1434 when teams trailing by nine plus points in the final minute of the fourth quarter of an NBA playoff game in the playbyplay era since 1997. Last night turned one and 1,1 or 434. Definitely when you look at that, it’s definitely worth the choke job single or signal. Um, but my question is honestly about the broadcast about this series. Should Reggie Miller be allowed to broadcast this series for ESPN? Like is is that is that right? Like is he is he supposed to be on here? Cuz like it kind of feels like I think that’s why they did it. It feels wrong. Like it feels wrong. Like it feels like this guy is literally he could get out of the seat and start doing the choke signal himself and say to the Knicks, “You guys suck.” Like there’s still that like, you know, that bad blood between Indiana and New York that we all love to see in sports and it’s still there and that’s why Tyrese kind of did it last night. In my opinion, it was because of the bad blood there, the two teams. Um, but is Reggie Miller on the call like inappropriate in a way? Like just like not justified for being there? No. I mean, I think it makes it it makes it more difficult for him to not maybe not show his bias or to not be as excited when things like this happen. But, um, I think that’s part of why ESPN does these things. You know, we see, um, guys kind of go into, you know, the enemy territory. you know, especially a lot of these guys who have been on whether it’s analysts or just on the broadcast in general, they yeah, they’re former players. They have played in a lot of these arenas and they’ve sometimes have been enemies. And I think that that’s what makes it so great. But I can totally understand um the idea that yeah, a there may be some bias there and b it must be a difficult job to try to tow that line of of being a professional broadcaster, but at the same time giving um you know, that genuine emotional feeling that makes broadcasting so fun. So, I think it’s uh it’s going to be a tough a tough role for for Reggie, but I’m sure he loves it, too. So, I I I can’t imagine um that anybody’s really just not happy about this. I think even if you’re a Knicks fan, you know, you’re probably it probably hurts you, but at the same time, you probably should have won that game last night and and I think you’re still probably favored to eventually win the series. So, yeah. Um obviously, you don’t want to see the Knicks blow blow more games like that, but uh but it’s exciting. That’s the great thing about the NBA. The Pacers are just a fun team to watch. They’re fast. They’re electric. They don’t stop moving the ball. They’re they’re fast paced as well. Like they just hit threes. They they get on hot runs. They’re a hot team right now, right? Like they’re just the hottest team in the NBA. No, definitely. I think the way that they can shoot the ball too, like when you add in obviously Hallebertton is a great shooter. He’s great ball handler. He makes great passes. He does a lot of things on the court that you need offensively. Um but when you add in guys like Naymith, Miles Turner can shoot the ball really well. TJ McConnell’s been was a little bit of a spark plug for these guys. Like they can score with pretty much anybody in the league. I like maybe outside of OKC because of just how deep that team is. But um but they’ve been incredibly like I think when they started the game last night like nine for nine from the floor like they they’ve just done everything that they can to just continue to improve and be even more efficient. Um whereas you know you look at guys like Seakum and Hallebertton haven’t really been as efficient shooters in the past. Now they’re starting to really figure it out. So, I think um that group of guys is just they’re peing at the right moment and you know with the they’re all pretty well young like super young. So, I I don’t really know um what their future looks like, but they might be able to to have something here and and with the Eastern Conference and the way that it’s set up, they might be, you know, a top team going into next year, even if obviously if they win the title or if they make it to the finals, they’ll they’ll be that anyway, but they could come out and have a really really good regular season if they make the right additions and just continue to try to get better. So, I’ve been incredibly impressed. So, game game two goes tonight. Uh the New York Knicks trail one 10 in that series. They’ll look to even the series. If not, go 02 back to Indiana. That’s kind of a death territory, especially if you lose game three. That’s a can’t lose that game. Um but I think we have to go on to the Western Conference Finals and more specifically we have to talk about Sheay Gilg Alexander. He becomes the second Canadian ever to take home the MVP hardware in the NBA. What a season for Shay. What an absolute dominating season from him and his teammates. They went 68 and 14 in the regular season and to reward all of them because it’s not just one player that wins the MVP. It’s a real team. It’s a team thing that it feels like a team actually wins the MVP. Um, and he he bought all of his teammates Rolexes for for winning the MVP, which is a very very nice gesture. Uh, if you’re a teammate of Shay, like you’re you’re loving life right now. It’s just like a quarterback buying his offensive lineman all these new toys. Um, oh yeah. So, I I want to start with this question with Shay. Um, does this solidify him as the greatest Canadian basketball player ever or is it still Steve Nash? I think today it’s still Steve Nash. If in three weeks Shay Giligious Alexander adds a NBA championship to his resume, I think that brings him a lot closer and and they may be at par. you know, they’ll have two pieces of hardware and if uh Shay were to win a Finals MVP, you know, we he might be adding more. So, um that that’s I think where he not that he’s looking at being the best Canadian ever, but I think that’s where you naturally would look and say that that would, you know, put them very close. You know, Steve Nash had a fantastic career and obviously up until this point, I don’t know that many Canadians would ever have said that Steve Nash wasn’t one of their favorite basketball players. So, um, it’s incredible to watch, you know, this young kid kind of came out of nowhere, was involved in what a lot of people think is now maybe the worst trade in NBA history. When you look at the Paul George move, um, and all the picks and obviously now the the incredible talent that OKC was able to acquire, it’s just incredible. And I’m so happy to to just see obviously like you said they the the Thunder have built this vibe where they don’t seemingly do anything themselves. Everything is together. They do all their interviews together. Shay was on with the inside the NBA guys last night or yeah last night talking about um the team and they’re right there with them. they’re in the some sort of theater or something and hanging out and they they’re just they’re it’s part everything is together and and that’s I think something that really helps any team and any sport you’re playing and and it’s just been incredible to watch him grow up as a leader and now to see that the way that the team is built and and I was worried a little bit about um about them not being playoff hardened yet and not kind of having that experience of going deep in the playoffs and no now no matter what they will have that and I think um I’m definitely picking them to get to the finals and I think I would pick them today to to win the championship. So yeah, it’s incredible and I’m just so I’m excited for the future of him and the future of Canadian basketball in general. So it’s great. So yeah, you when you when you take into account like what he has done to win the MVP, beating out the Joker, who’s arguably the best player on the planet right now, I think there is a difference between being the best player and being the MVP. Um, I I honestly I do think that uh but when you look at what Sheay has done this year and taking into account a very young team, he’s kind of like the old head on the team. Like he’s the one who’s leading the team and he is still young himself. Like is that make it more impressive? And the fact that they got over the hump of beating the Nuggets in the second round, it kind of feels like that was the one missing piece where like when you look at the playoff schedule, you thought if they don’t make it past the second round, you can understand why because of the Nuggets, but also at the same time, this is the year that you kind of expect the Thunder to break through and understand the playoffs and understand or have a more experience going into these playoffs. So, is everything that he’s done made his MVP more impressive or more special and one of the best MVP seasons we’ve seen in a while, or is it kind of an average MVP season to you? No, I mean, I think if he especially if he ends it with a championship, it will be um one of the more impressive MVP seasons that we’ve seen because he’s one of he’s maybe the best scorer in the NBA right now. and the way that he yeah can get his teammates involved and the way that he leads them and the way that they’ve been able to have um overall success over the last couple of seasons and probably will continue to do so as um things continue to evolve in the Western Conference. I think um it was really important for them to beat the Nuggets and to to show that their system of more than one player is kind of the the way to go right now. Because the Nuggets, that was the thing all year was they didn’t have enough around Joic to to climb in the standings to to dominate teams in the in the playoffs. They were they were relying pretty much solely on Joic. I know they had some injuries and things maybe weren’t at their best, but that was the the case all year. it seemed like was they went as he went and as great as he played. Like you said, I would agree that he’s the best player in the NBA. But I don’t think that he had the MVP season that when you look at the the Thunder and their record and where they ended up as a group, I think it makes the most sense that Shay was the MVP of the of the league. And do you think I I don’t know if I believe this, but do you think that if the Nuggets had won that series in game seven The votes are already in. The votes are already in. So like they’re but it wasn’t even like that close. It was 7129. But both of them uh Giannis received no first place votes. It was just the two of them that that received I don’t I don’t think anybody else in the NBA this year deserved to be the MVP other than either of those two. I think Shay purely deserved it. But there was definitely a case to be made for Jokic. He had a phenomenal if not historic season. So and same last year for Shay against Jokic. like it was like it kind of felt like more so Jokic’s and then it kind of felt like Shay deserved to be in the conversation. Those were the two again that deserve to be in the conversation and last year Jokic wins this year’s SGAAS. Um now the last thing I wanted to touch on before we move on from the NBA is obviously the Thunder dominate game one. They absolutely kill the th or Timberwolves in game one. Do you think like their defense is just too much to handle for this w Minnesota Timberwolves team or do you think like Minnesota’s going to find a way to bounce back in this series? No, I mean Minnesota may win a game or two here and there. Maybe when they go home they’ll have a better chance, but um but I would say that the Oklahoma City defense is something that the that the Timberwolves have not seen yet. And that’s the way that they’re going to be able to kind of I don’t even know the term, but they’re gonna just they’re gonna have Anthony Edwards in like a glove because that’s the type they’re they’re hungry. They’re wolves out there. They come after you and they’re not they’re so big and they’re so long that they don’t have to worry too much about um giving up opportunities to other players because they’re able to get in the passing lanes. They’re able to block shots. They’re able to do things that a lot of other teams aren’t able to do. You know, if you look look at the Timberwolves, you know, the Rudy Goar is a fantastic defensive player, but him alone, he doesn’t offer you the same type of um defensive pressure that that five guys as a group who are all super long and athletic and able to defend multiple positions like they this group, you know, not only offensively, I think OKC’s offense gets a lot of credit, but their defense as well is starting to see some of that. And that’s great because they, like I said, do things that I think a lot of other teams just don’t have the personnel to to do. And when you look at guys like Lou Do and Alex Caruso and Chad Hullgrren’s going to come into his own as a defender, too. So, they have a ton of great pieces that can stop um, you know, a team like the Timberwolves, which kind of are, you know, not necessarily a onetrick pony, but a most of their offense, it feels like comes through Anthony Edwards. So, if they can kind of silence him like they were able to do in game one, it’s going to be really tough for the Timberwolves to to come back and win this series. I lied. I have one more question. I I have to ask. Is is Shay like does does Sheay foul baiting frustrate you or is is it just a part of the NBA as we know it today? No, I mean I haven’t been as frustrated by it as many as as it seems like many more people have. I think there are certainly some um some fouls that Shay takes where maybe it’s it’s a little bit less contact. And I know there was the one famous one I think on Julius Randall where it didn’t even look like he had gotten much of uh Shay’s body. You know, in the moment when you’re you’re going downhill or you’re making a run to the basket, you don’t have the the mental capacity, I think, to know whether or not you’re feeling contact. you may feel something and you think something more is coming or or you don’t know necessarily what um where a defender’s positioning is. So, you’re reacting in that moment. I don’t think he’s doing anything malicious because that’s the way that the game is played today, whether that’s the regular season or or it’s the playoffs. So, I’m sure it’s hard to turn that off, but it’s it’s on the refs more to to make sure that they’re, you know, got their eyes on these on these plays and that they’re not allowing players to dictate the game because I thought I think the the NBA has done a great job in with the officiating for the most part so far this playoffs. It’s been really intense physical basketball and I think that’s what a lot of people want to see, especially in the Western Conference. So, um maybe that’s why, you know, you see Shay who who is deservedly getting a lot of these calls. It’s just the manner in which it’s happening. maybe some people are just a little bit um surprised by just because of where we are in the playoffs, but yeah, I’m sure we’ll see the a tighter whistle in game two for sure. Yeah, I I 100% agree with everything that you just said about the whole thing. I I I 100% agree with that. So, we’ll see what happens uh in the rest of the NBA uh conference finals. We’ll recap those next week as well along with the NHL again with Alex when he comes back. Uh, but moving on to a couple little topics before we wrap up this podcast. It’s been an eventful podcast. Uh, the PGA, the Scotty Sheffller earns his third major championship. His first two were majors. Everyone kind of like thought, “Oh, he’s just a major uh master’s merchant. Doesn’t know how to win any other major.” Well, he kind of proved everyone wrong when he went out to the PGA Championship and dominated on Saturday to put himself in position where it wasn’t even close on Sunday. Um, what did you think of the whole whole shebang there, Brandon? It’s funny. I I’m so glad that Scotty won because I think he’s had a bit of a tougher year. It feels like the Masters was a great example where he was it was it felt like it was him or Mroy him or Mroy the whole time and then he didn’t have a great performance and and I think he kind of I don’t know if that weighed on him but he certainly seemed to regroup and and coming into to the PGA I I mean I thought he certainly had a chance to win and I would have put him in my top five or top 10 any time but I think um the way that he came out on Saturday and really just kind of I don’t know what it was but he kind of just he looked like he was so much more calm. He was so much more composed. He was hitting shots that I think he would normally have hit, but he maybe hadn’t in the whether it was the first couple rounds um at Quill Hollow or at the Masters. So, I think it was fantastic to see him play that way. It was a little scary there in, you know, as he gets kind of gets back into a tie in the back nine with John Ram or John Rom, but uh he he was able to put it together and and never kind of never seemed to lose his confidence. So, while other guys were falling backwards in that back nine, Scotty continued to push and he was able to grab that huge five shot lead. So, um I’m super excited to see where it goes. And I I don’t think it’s out of the question to see Scotty, you know, maybe get his first US Open this year. I mean, the British is going to be tough because it’s such different golf and it usually takes guys a little bit longer to maybe capture that one. But um once we get to the US Open later this year, I’m just excited to see um where he goes with this because I think he could absolutely um go on a run here. If he’s able to capture um you know, the two um two other American majors this year would be incredible. So Nike, excellent, excellent marketing. uh they put out an ad right after uh the PGA Championship and they they put it out I’m pretty sure it read this I can’t remember exactly word for word but I’m pretty sure it was like best player in the world and then guilty. Um and then in the caption they put the verdict is in. It was terrific marketing by uh Nike. And yeah I I I mean we have to remember Scotty Sheffller’s also coming off an injury to start the year. Um, I think it was something happened in the kitchen, honestly, around Christmas time that he hurt himself. Um, sliced his hand or something. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was kind of interesting. Um, and then yeah, like the guy’s been the number one golfer in the world for 141 weeks, I believe, now. Um, which is a really long time in and of itself. And then you go look at his streak compared to uh Tiger Woods. I have a two-part question, but first one, do you ever think like are Scotty Sheoffller in a realm like of dominance where he can be starting to or start to be compared to like the dominance that Tiger had over a certain stretch of time? I mean, he’s still, I think, a ways away from that. But I think we I’d like to see him get over, you know, obviously now he’s got three majors. If he can get to say a number like six where he is really starting to now kind of join a more elite company and I think then you can look at the era that he’s played. I mean everyone would I think point to Rory Mroy and and maybe the not necessarily the disappointment. He’s had a fantastic career, but early on as a younger player, I think people thought he’d have a lot more, not necessarily a lot more, but people thought he would have more majors and he does now. And I think that’s been um been something that’s that’s obviously a bonus to Scott. He’s a little bit younger. He has more time and he’s able to, you know, he’s already got the two masters, which people have always thought is the hardest one to win. So, you know, if he’s able to, like I said, continue to to perform well at the majors, pick up, you know, the career grand slam at some point and then maybe win a couple more, I think he’s in a great spot to be at least in that group of guys that you usually consider Tiger with. You know, the Jacks and the um you know, the Gary Gary players, all these guys that have been around forever. You can even put Rory in that conversation now just because of the career grand slam. I think you can. And yeah, the the era that he’s been able to do it in, like I said, has been obviously the best golf that we’ve ever seen. And there are so many guys that when you look back um you know, you go to these majors and it feels like 20 to 30 guys could win at any point. And they it’s such a different feel of golf than um you know, 20 years ago when Tiger was dominating. there was definitely a handful of other guys that week to week would compete with him and and could, you know, win a given tournament, but it’s never been um as wide open as it is today. So, yeah, if Scotty can continue to have success and, you know, play, you know, relatively healthy through his, you know, he’s probably got a lot of time left, so I think he can still win a ton of of of majors. Yeah. So, undoubtedly Scotty Sheffller is the number one golfer in the world. Um, that that’s just not a question. uh he’s proved week after week. Yeah. The thing that people forget and the thing that I even had was found shocking, he looks like he’s 45 years old when in reality the man’s only 28. Like he’s he’s just entering his prime of his career right now. And it’s scary to think like what he can end up with. So, my last question on Scotty is, is he the slam dunk favorite? Like, is he guaranteed to be the next one to complete the career grand slam? Oh, for sure. Like, I I don’t look at the the rest of the tour. I mean, I’d have to pull up all the numbers unless there’s somebody that I’m forgetting who’s who’s just as close with with two majors. I mean, I guess Sha Xander Schoffley would be a guy. He won two multiple majors last year, so he’s just as close. So maybe he would be the guy, but when you look at the the resume in total, there’s I don’t think there’s anybody else on the tour other than maybe Rory Mroy and and I mean Brooks Keeper Keep Brooks Kepka is not even on the tour right now. He would be another guy that I would have expected to win more majors if he didn’t, you know, step off to live. Um so I think yeah, you look at you look at Scotty right now as the next one. He’s going to be the guy for the next 10 to 15 years. hopefully has a strong prime of his career like you said and can rattle off you know the next you know five or six years maybe he can win another five or six majors and that would put him in company that um that you that we haven’t seen in since Tiger and I think it’s it would be an incredible um story if the kid from Texas was able to do that because uh yeah it just it’s one of those things that felt like it kind of came out of nowhere he was never the next prodigy wasn’t like Rory as a kid where he’s you know on TV or doing anything like that at least not to my knowledge, he he went through the the NCAA system and he played the way that a lot of these American kids do. So, I think um it would be great for the game of golf if they had that number one guy who can they can trot out and and show to the networks and show to the magazines and and really um bring people back to the game, which I think him and a few other guys are really starting to do anyway. But the the better he gets and the more notoriety he gets, it only helps um the PGA and the game of golf in general. So, yeah. So, I I just have to think like in terms of how many majors he could end up with, I I could see it being 15 by the end of his career. Like, I know he’s only at three right now, but like he’s only 28 years old and he’s just entering the prime of his career. Like, he could go on an absolute heater for the next five years and rattle off what there’s four per per year. So if you had 20 of them, he could win eight of those 20 majors and I would not be shocked. Like it just he is the most dominant golfer there is right now in the PGA. And to go off to Brooks uh um yeah just to go off the Brooks Kepka he didn’t even make the cut at the PGA Championship. like he is on the decline and for once the the number one golfer in the world. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a downward spiral to being not to not making cuts at major tournaments. Like it’s crazy to think where he’s gone in like the last like what two years ever since joining Liv, maybe three years since I can’t remember when Liv actually started. It was two or three years ago. And yeah, it’s just crazy to think where this has gone for him in those couple of years. But moving on to the last thing, it’s very quickly here. Uh the tush push was voted not to be banned by all NFL owners. Uh or not by all NFL owners, but as a majority, the NFL owners voted against banning the tush push. So Brandon, were you shocked by this? Did you think they were going to ban it? You know, I kind of was. I I thought they were I don’t know if it’s, you know, the vote it seems like was pretty close. I think they needed two more, three more um teams to to join on the the ban list or whatever you want to call it, but I kind of was just because they’d gone through all this. It felt like you’d heard a lot of noise around that it was going to happen, that teams wanted this to happen. So, I was a little bit surprised, but I’m glad they didn’t do it. I think in in the end it’s you shouldn’t change rules because um you know for for me at least it feels like they were just doing it because a team like Philadelphia was able to to be so successful at it. I I haven’t myself haven’t seen much evidence to suggest it’s super serious in terms of the injuries that have occurred from it. I keep hearing people saying the opposite. You’re hearing Jason Kelsey coming out saying that he spoke to the to the owners. I guess that he he wasn’t it didn’t injure him at all. So, I don’t I don’t know where this is all going, but it’s I I think it’ll settle down for the next little bit because uh I don’t at this point I can’t see it going anywhere. We have some breaking news. Breaking news really. Brennan Shanahan has been let go officially. Wow. So, ahead of the June 30th Yes. The ML the Maple Leaf have put out a post saying the MLSC announced the contract for the team president and alternate governor um Brennan Shanahan would not be renewed this off season. Wow. He is gone officially. I mean I I get I can’t say that I’m surprised. I’m surprised that it’s coming so quickly. I guess I there were rumblings I guess that and I’m sure this is still happening that MLS are meeting on Friday morning to to kind of go over some of the changes that they may do. And it sounds like they got ahead of this one because um yeah, that’s that’s big news to hear it happen so fast I feel like and especially without I don’t know if that’s going to come with an Islanders offer if they if he’s going to be come you know I guess he’s I would assume that means he’s going to the Islanders if they want to talk to him. So yeah. So I’m kind of surprised that this isn’t coming in tandem maybe like a I guess but I guess you you would let it kind of sit for a minute. So maybe he’s going to go through negotiations and and see if he gets that job. So there’s that first domino, Justin. We said it earlier in the show that uh there could be a lot of changes and not exactly sure where it was headed, but now we have a little bit more idea for sure. So that’s that’s incredible. Yeah. So that officially drops. Uh we’ll jump more into that conversation with Anthony Petrelli of Maple Leaf Hot Stove and make sure that you check out that interview, especially because everything that you want to know about the Leafs, we’re going to talk about it. Uh, so that just about wraps it up for this episode of Second Look Sports. We appreciate you listening to episode 23. Make sure you like, subscribe, um, leave a comment, you know, check us out on either Instagram, Tik Tok, X, we’re everywhere. We’re on YouTube, we’re on Apple, we’re on Spotify. Anywhere that you want to find us, we probably are. So, we’ll check you next time. Enjoy the rest of the week with the conference finals, and we’ll see you later. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
