Final Four is set and Refs should have post game comments | The Game Sports Podcast

[00:00:00] Speaker A: In solo, discussing basketball in particular, the hot topic of Ronnie James. In the third and final segment, I will be joined by Connor Henderson talking all things in the world of baseball. Let's go. Booyah. And it's time for the game sports podcast. As your host, David McCaig junior. Right off the hop, I am joined by the one, the only, beautiful, Alex Parr. Alex, my friend, how goes it? How goes the battle? How's everything? [00:00:33] Speaker B: Golf game's okay for this time of the year, you know, not mid season form, but we're working our way towards it. I wore a lot of leaf stuff and that didn't really work well for me. The team kind of sucked, so I'm starting to wear stuff of a team that does suck already in hopes that maybe we can change fortune for them. So that's about the only battles I got going on right now. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Good battle. Speaking of that, that's a good segue because we will have Connor on and later on the show and we'll be talking about a lot of things, baseball. But the Blue Jays are definitely on the agenda now. Speaking of golf, I like to always give a promo to this because it happens yearly. So Michael Doane's annual golf tournament said its 7th year. I have the glass right here and I'm enjoying a beverage in it. I will be open and honest with everybody out there. Enjoy a nice beverage in there. But I am speaking about the Michael Dome golf tournament that's taking place June 1 here in Sault Ste. Marie. It's a tournament that I took part in for six years. Unfortunately, I was unable to be able to commit to going this year. Really sad that I will not be able to attend it this year, but we'll be back in it next year. But nonetheless, if you do not have a team and you're from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, I know this is kind of directed towards you and Sault Ste. Marie, but if you want to go to be part of a good cause and to also be a part of a golf charity tournament. Michael Doane Golf tournament he was a teammate of mine for a number of years and was also the same age as myself, grew up playing hockey together. He was fantastic. He played obviously some d one hockey over in the States as well. Very good goaltender, very good all around athletes. I like to always give a plug to the Mike Doane charity golf tournament and it's 7th year this year. My goodness, seven years. And for the first year I'll not be part of it. Par but again, I won't get into that story, but we're here on the Game Sports podcast in this first segment, talking about the game of hockey. Dane Hancho, hope you join us here tonight. A little bit sad about that because of obviously some scheduled conflicts, but he is an Edmonton Oiler fan, and that's to say how it is if you live on a rock, you didn't watch game seven, which was taking place last night, may the 20th at the time of this recording. Anyway, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks and have moved on to the Western Conference final and will be taken on the Dallas Stars. And yes, if you must know, I did text Dane and say it must be nice if you know, you know, Alex, the western conference final is set. The Eastern Conference final is set. You got the Rangers. You got the Panthers. A little bit surprised. I didn't predict the Rangers going that far, to be honest. I actually thought the Rangers be at round two, team and out. I've learned that you got to stop doubting the Rangers this year. I think that start stop doubting the Rangers. But then the Western Conference final, as I just said, you got the Dallas Stars in the Emmett's north. They got some playoff history there. It's been a long time since, a good number of years since there, since thousands since they played against each other. But they're going to re, they're going to rebirth that, that history. So I'm going to give you the floor, but what matchup you want to talk about first and maybe what is kind of piquing your interest out of the two matchups, whatever ones your first on your mind? Because that will mean that's the one you're most interested in, maybe. [00:03:29] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:03:30] Speaker B: I think my interest would lie in the Edmonton Dallas series as the first hockey team I was ever a fan of was the Dallas Stars throwback to the NHL face off 99 demo for the PlayStation one, where you can only choose between the two teams in the Stanley cup final that year, the Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabres. I picked the stars. Mike Madonna, my guy. And Dallas got a lot of love coming into this playoffs from a lot of insiders. And at first I was kind of surprised. You know, there is an east coast bias that I'm not going to shy away from saying that. And when I heard that, I was like, you know what? Yeah, I would love to see Dallas do some damage, especially a goalie like Jake Ottinger, a little bit on the younger side. Let's see him in the pressure cooker and see what he's able to do, especially against, arguably one and two best hockey players in the world, I think that'll be a little bit more exciting on the eastern side of things. I don't think the Rangers making it to the third round is surprising. Like, you can say, like you didn't think they would, but using the word surprised, it's kind of crazy. You've got Igor Shasturkin, great goalie, maybe winner. Yeah. Oh, that, too. And Shasturkin looks like he's playing the best hockey of his career right now, too. And when you get a guy like Vinny Trochak, a guy that you're not expecting to break through as much as he has, and he's. He's just going to be one of those guys on the long list of names of players that just show up at the right time, play super well. And you think back to other Stanley cup winners, the 2009 Penguins, Maxine Talbot. Now, everybody knows that name if they know that series. And now you've got guys like Vinny Trochak showing up exactly when it matters most. [00:05:18] Speaker A: I think it's Smith Pelley, too. [00:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Like, if there's always a name that pops out, he's on there, and you gotta argue. We say Chris crider's got to be on that name, but he's not. He's expected to be, you know, more impactful than what troll check would do. [00:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Trojan's had an absolutely phenomenal year, and it's just kind of like when you get the goalie, you get the guys that are not that sure checks down in the lineup, but you know what I mean? Like, guys that you're, aren't in your starting lineup, maybe necessarily firing on all cylinders. Those are the things that kind of storybook a Stanley cup champion. So if I had to pick Stanley cup final, I got Rangers, Dallas. Sorry, Dan. [00:05:59] Speaker A: See, honestly, it's funny that you mentioned insiders and experts, and, you know, we fortunate here on the game to have a lot of people that are inside the business. And that list goes from Gazdek, goes to James Tabulski. Keep in touch with these guys. And obviously, Gazdick's predictions in the beginning of the playoffs weren't correct, nor was mine or a lot of people. But nonetheless, there was one person that we had on our podcast that predicted the Stanley cup champion this year, and it was James Bolski. He picked the Dallas Stars to be Stanley cup champions. And if you want to look back to that episode, there's a little plug for that great episode, obviously. But he predicted that, and I, I agreed with them at that point, I felt they would be a good pick, but at the same time, I thought there were teams still better that I would have picked over that. And when you look at Dallas's lineup, well built for playoffs and teams, or, sorry, players are stepping up, right. Names that you wouldn't normally think of. Hong and Pa. Right. Like, I probably butchered it. Sorry, but you're, you got these names on. Thomas Harley, young guys playing well, Jake Ottinger, you know, Jamie Ben. There's a captain right there that's big power forward, guy built for playoff hockey. Guys like Chris Crider and Vincent Chochek. Big guys that can put puck in the net. You got the Florida Panthers, Matt Kachuk. You know, there's a guy that really steps up in the playoffs. Then you can look over at the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah, McDavid and dry side will do their thing. Bouchard has been doing his thing. But there's been a lot of the guys that have been under, you know, have been kind of pests on the side of the pocket. That's been the Evander Kane. Right. The guys that can really help, really tilt the momentum in a game or be that depth piece that can jump in. And Evander Cain's not a depth piece by any, which means he plays top six minutes. But that's what I'm saying is that contributions from up and down the lineup, and you can joke about how Zach Hyman has 35 of his 50 goals to stand at the post. Hey, right place, right time. You got to have brains when you play hockey. You gotta. That's still talent to get in the right places and know what you're doing. And that's chemistry. I'm not saying this is a Gretzky curry chemistry because curry in my mind, was better than Hymen is. Arguably, people may disagree with me on that now, but, you know, this is a different era. And the chemistry is there between him and Connor McGretzy. I'm just kidding, McDavid. So jokes aside, this is a matchups between four teams that have those pieces in depth and people that question Carolina. I'm surprised that they're not there. That's the team that I thought would be in the east against Florida. I thought there'd be a matchup because of their, their roster, the mates way it's made out. But if you look at Toronto, you look at Boston, you look at, I don't even want to count Washington, but I'll say it. They now look at those teams in comparison to seeing these teams, the regular season, the playoffs are two different things. Okay? And you see in the playoffs now the teams that stand out, and I really have a hard time thinking that the Toronto Maple Leafs could beat Florida or the Rangers of Carolina. Boston didn't beat Florida, so I don't think they could have beat the Rangers or Carolina either. If you're starting really to look at these teams, how they're made out, the right four are in the final four. Yeah, the right four in the final four. Arguably, I was surprised because I thought Carolina was that team over the New York Rangers. To be totally honest with you, that's where my mind was. And truthfully, I did predict the Oilers to be in the cup finals, but it was against Toronto. So I'm not surprised to see Edmonton here. But I am not surprised. I am not that I'm surprised. I thought they'd be a second round team and out the Dallas Stars because I thought maybe the Vegas cheaters might find a way or the Colorado avalanche. But then obviously it's issues happen in Colorado, right? With Nachushkin and a lot of storylines this playoffs. But like you said, the storylines are some of the guys have been stepping up and Choc is one of them. [00:09:39] Speaker B: The Dallas Stars in the regular season had how many 20 goal scorers? [00:09:45] Speaker A: Good point. [00:09:46] Speaker B: How many do you know? [00:09:49] Speaker A: They had two, didn't they? [00:09:50] Speaker B: They have two no 20 goal scores in the regular season. [00:09:54] Speaker A: I see. Now you're. Now I'm going to probably embarrass myself, but I'll say it. I'll say. I'll say they had 1120 goal score. [00:10:01] Speaker B: They had 820 goals. [00:10:03] Speaker A: For the way you asked. I figured maybe they don't have it. I was going, was that a trick question? [00:10:07] Speaker B: Wyatt Johnson Rupee hints. Jason Robertson. Joe Pavelski. Tyler Sagan. Matthew Shane Mason Marchman. Jamie Ben. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, see, I should have said more than that. Three lines. [00:10:22] Speaker B: That's nuts. [00:10:23] Speaker A: That's NHL franchise mode numbers. That's what that is. And listeners. Yeah, I embarrassed myself. Trip me below if you want. I just. The way it sounded. Sound like a trick question. I was going by depth. I was going by the trick question. Rather be safe than sound stupid, but I guess they still sounded stupid on that. [00:10:38] Speaker B: Nonetheless, pause here for a second on the Dallas Stars Colorado avalanche series. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:44] Speaker B: You know that no goal call that happened in the final game where Dallas ended up going on to win. But the goaltender interference thing. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:54] Speaker B: I'm tired of watching this sport and feeling like an idiot every time that I see something that I know what it is. And then the NHL says, haha, no, it's not. I I don't get it. I. We both watched this game. You played for a long time. How often do you find yourself looking at something on the screen and going, I know what that is. And then it's not what they say it is. [00:11:16] Speaker A: It's. It's so. It's always been inconsistent, but the game has changed. It's faster, but it's. It was rougher before, and they caught things more so than they do, than they do now. [00:11:28] Speaker B: Then it's insulting. I feel like they're like, oh, the fans. What do they know? And they'll just call whatever garbage they feel fits for the game. I got to watch the third period of the Canada game at the world championships. The refereeing there. I know what to expect from it every time at an international competition. It's great. It's fantastic. Every time I watch the NHL playoffs, you could. You could literally watch a guy murder somebody, and maybe they'll get a fine maybe. Like I told Dane, like, when his Edmonton Oilers were playing, I'm like, why don't you just tell Corey Perry to bring a gun and shoot somebody? He's only gonna get three games. [00:12:14] Speaker A: What's. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Why? Why not? I. It's been really frustrating. It's almost why I've completely turned off watching the playoffs. It's. I just don't know. And I've said this so many times in the show, it's exhausting. [00:12:24] Speaker A: What's. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Goal interference? I have no idea. What's. [00:12:27] Speaker A: What is the call? What is it? [00:12:29] Speaker B: What is it? Like, can we. And at the end of the day, too, like, if a good fix for this, make the refs talk at the end of the game, and you know what would make me feel a little bit better? If the ref goes, yeah, you know, I got it wrong. [00:12:43] Speaker A: You know? [00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah. A little bit of accountability or no better solution. Let's leave every rule in the rulebook open ended so that Gary Bettman can just say, yeah, well, that's what I decided it was this time. And our reps are the best in the world, so we. They. We don't need them to talk. [00:12:59] Speaker A: Um, see, it's frustrating. And this isn't coming from. I want listeners to know this isn't coming from Toronto fans that are upset at that. I know. [00:13:07] Speaker B: Oh, I thought the leaf series was reft, okay. [00:13:11] Speaker A: It was better than most. It was one of the best, and I have no complaints about that. Okay. Just the better team won there. That's what I'll tell you in that series if you're gonna chirp us about the Leafs, but no, it's the inconsistent sea of the playoffs is real, but it's the one thing that has been consistent. It's not a good thing. It's been shit all year. It's been bad all year. They've actually been consistently garbage. That's the one thing at least I can say, wow, they were great in the season. Shitting the playoffs or great in the playoffs. Shitty in the season. No, no. They've been shit there and they're shit now. And they've been shit for a while. A lot of swears in one sentence. And I really think that the NHL has to act on it. And I know they've had their means. Mm hmm. They've had their discussions. What's their discussions over a nice glass of beer or scotch and a cigar saying, okay, we're going to talk about the ltir. Oh, wait, we can't for two years. Okay, meetings adjourned. The thing is, it's, there's nothing being done about it. And I know players complain or coaches complain, but actions I see don't see an improvement. And the people, like you said, I want to see refs get interviewed at the end of the game and facing those hard questions. You've said that on the show. I want them to be like, what the were you thinking when you called that? What did you say? Well, I want to know. And like, some refs are mic'd up, right? We've heck, someone's been caught calling something and been fired for it, so the rest are mic'd up. I want to see the after footage of when they're in that huddle discussing. Okay, Toronto, what do we got here? Okay, I want to know what they're saying in that conversation and that they're recorded. And I hope they're being truthful with that conversation. With every conversation. I want to know what happens and what can be changed because the consistency of calls is bullshit. The goaltender interference, they've got a little bit better at it, but I think. [00:14:58] Speaker B: It would go a long way in the fan being able to say, like, or just being able to relate a little bit more. I mean, we all make mistakes. We. But when we make a mistake at work, we have to, you know, we have to be accountable for it. And, like, at least it's not just in our eyes, a nameless guy who's a robot who wears black and white stripes and makes some calls and goes home, and that's it. And like, if they say at the end of the game, like, yeah, that was on me. [00:15:26] Speaker A: This is. [00:15:26] Speaker B: This is what I thought. You know, I've had a chance to look back at it now and I can see that I got it wrong. I think to the average fan at least, like, that would go a long way in humanizing them a little bit and then maybe actually working in favor of the reps and taking a little bit of that heat off. But, yeah, just in conclusion, like, I just need to know what it is. I'm watching it and what to expect from it. It's just like, I. It's really frustrating watching this game for so long and still feeling like all these years later, I don't know what is a rule. [00:16:01] Speaker A: So, yeah, that's well said. Let us know what you think below. I think it'd be nice to know what's going through, and hopefully they don't give textbook answers. And speaking of textbook answers, I'm gonna get to something in a minute, but to give my reaction about the east coast. East coast. Nope. Eastern Conference finals and the Western Conference finals, to give my point, Florida, New York, I think that's going to be an intense series. [00:16:21] Speaker B: Very awesome. [00:16:22] Speaker A: It's going to be very fight to the end. It's. You got Kaco one side and obviously got trouble. Who can hit people through the boards on the other side. It's going to be a battle. [00:16:32] Speaker B: Hit himself through the boards. [00:16:34] Speaker A: Did that, too. That's good goaltending, you know, Whipple broths gear. We going to see or what Shosturk and are we going to see? I think we're going to see the Shasturkin we have been seeing. Right. It's. It's going to be interesting defensively, I think there's an evenly match here. I think there's a lot of. There's different six guys that are on the ice, but they're. They're evenly matched overall up front. Same thing. I would have to give the edge almost in terms of talent, to the Florida, to the New York Rangers a little bit, just with that goal scoring edge and that get into the dirty areas and scoring. But I. As I say that, I think of Kaczak, I think of Carter Verhagi, Sam Bennett. This is. This is gonna be the one of those series is where it's gotta go seven, right. This has gotta be a seven game series and it's gonna go right to the end. And whoever wins this series is likely the favorite that might be winning the Stanley cup. And, you know, it's going to be a hell of a series. If you want my prediction, I'm going to give it to you. I am going to say the Florida Panthers in seven. I'm going to say the Panthers are going back to the cup finals. [00:17:28] Speaker B: I'll say the Rangers in six would like it. [00:17:31] Speaker A: And here I am doubting the Rangers. [00:17:33] Speaker B: I get what are you saying for the Western Conference? Do you want me to go first? [00:17:36] Speaker A: Conference? Yeah. Do you want to go first? You can go first. [00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Dallas in five. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Yikes. [00:17:44] Speaker B: I just listed off 820 goal scores in the regular season. One of those guys did it in 68 games. And the goaltending debate in Edmonton is between Stuart Skinner, who can't stop a beach ball, and a guy who just played his first playoff game. [00:17:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna, I'll just give my feedback with that series. I think Conor McDavid, they got a really task and shutting down McDavid. And what's scary is that the Vancouver Canucks didn't see the best Connor McDavid. And that's what I'm waiting to see if that McDavid comes in this series. Because if that McDavid shows up, then Dallas is going to be in trouble because that's just a hard guy to handle when he is on his game. And if him and dry side are clicking on all cylinders in either line, Dallas is going to be in trouble because the Edmonton's third line can really put the puck in the net and threaten you. And I got to give credit to Edmonton's defense and offense here. Like they shut down Vancouver. You know, I know they didn't have Besser, didn't have Demko, would have been a different game in series every way you want to look at it. But the Oilers all shot them 14 to two at one point. Like the, the Edmonton PK has been impressive. The power play has been impressive. They've been a team to watch. But Dallas beat Vegas, the cheaters. Right? You beat that up. One of the defending, well, not the defending Stanley cup champion, but a recent Stanley cup champion in the Colorado avalanche. This is a team that's on a wagon right now and riding some hard momentum. And I don't know if I've really had a hard time picking this winner. And I I, I guess I can change my picks around because the two, the team that I thought was going to play Edmonton, the finals has been gone for a while. So I'm going to have to say that this series will also go seven. We're going to see two game seven series is here we're going to get the full fledge of round three and it's going to be the Dallas Stars going to the conference finals. I'll have to predict. [00:19:21] Speaker B: He's trying to be nice to everybody. Oh, yeah, everybody's doing great. Here's your participation ribbons. Everyone's going to make game seven. No, I'm not going to say that the Dallas Stars are going to spank Conor McDavid and his gang of misfits because they don't have the depth. They're a kiddie pool. [00:19:40] Speaker A: It's going to be the 20 goals thing has got me this entire show. Alex, that was good. That was a good statistic right there. I can't believe. That was terrific. [00:19:48] Speaker B: I know what we're going to talk about next. So can I tell you an interesting stat about that before we dive into it? [00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:56] Speaker B: It has been since the 1930s that a coach has won a Stanley cup with two different teams. So if you sign a coach who has won a Stanley cup, your statistical, your statistical odds of winning one with him are almost zero. [00:20:14] Speaker A: As we get to that point and par. I told you to have a hard, a hard stop at our 25 days. So we got five minutes. So we're going to get to this point as much as we can. It's a little bit of older news and we're going to do our redraft before we wrap up the show, but the Maple Leafs have hired Greg Berubie. Okay, so the, the new coaching day has been a new coach in Toronto, Greg Breube. Okay, I want to restart that. And I really like pars point because my point was going to be how many people have won a cup and went to another team and won a cup? And I was looking at Joel Quinnville today. I was looking at, you know, you can think of Scotty Bowman was successful, but it's rare. Those are little called unicorns is we like to call them in our business. And Greg Berube, when he was in his press conference today, I was watching the footage and again, the answers par, what was the word that you used when we discussed off air? [00:21:06] Speaker B: Oh, buzzwords. Bunch of. [00:21:07] Speaker A: Bunch of bullshit buzzwords. And I understand he's a hard nose coach. I understand he's different than Keef was. Keef had success in the regular season, not the playoffs. Didn't get the most out of the guys. You know, this is a team, though, that, that if you want to bring that hard nose energy, are they going to flourish? Well, we're going to see, because if Perube is like how he talked, how he's going to make TPU players be held accountable, how he's going to make try to get the best out of them, how they're going to grind in three zones and they're going to finish their checks. Okay. I don't know if Mitch Marner turned off the tv after hearing that and said, okay, here's my ten team list. Right? Because what I heard in that press conference was everything I wanted to hear. But it's lights and flashback of what I heard from Mike Babcock. Sheldon Keef didn't get to have that press conference that Babcock had. It was a little bit different because he was brought in mid season and then he just had the end of the year each time saying, we got to be better. We got to be better. We got to be better. And nothing ever happened. I've heard this song and dance. I've danced a song and dance. I believe this before and I'm not going to believe it until I can see it. I love the higher. Great hire. Want my opinion on that? Great. I wanted Quenville, but I understand the media storm with that. So let's erase that. Was a good choice. Given who's available and given his history. [00:22:20] Speaker B: I think given who's available is right. I mean, yeah. [00:22:25] Speaker A: You know, and honestly, will he lead them to the cup? I'm not saying he is and I'm not gonna say he isn't. I'm not here to talk about what he can and cannot do, but what to get to get the best of these guys. He has a project. My point of saying what I am right now is that I've heard this. Heard this song before on repeat and had enough of this bullshit of being fed bullshit. In typical Toronto land, the self proclaimed hockey mecca of the world, being fed bullshit. And we don't get results. So yay, he got hired. I love the hire. Now let's see you do something about it. Par before we get to the redraft. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Hockey mecca. The only m word associated with Toronto and hockey is mediocre. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Or Marley's, I guess, but mediocre, they've won recently. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Well, who cares? [00:23:11] Speaker A: Who cares? [00:23:12] Speaker B: Who cares? [00:23:13] Speaker A: Your thoughts about Barube, a good hire. Are you interested in it at all? Is it going to make change? [00:23:20] Speaker B: I. I don't know. Maybe. [00:23:24] Speaker A: Spoken like a leaf fan. Right now. [00:23:26] Speaker B: I just like. I don't know. [00:23:28] Speaker A: It's over. It. Miss. [00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I don't know. [00:23:31] Speaker A: You know. [00:23:32] Speaker B: You know when I'll have an answer for you may next year. [00:23:37] Speaker A: Okay, we'll table that for me next year. Verbay is a new Leafs head coach. Let us know what you think his assistant coaches might get rounded. I'm hearing a lot about Mark Savard going one way. That's all I know out of people that I've connected with. The rest, who knows? Will round out, but I'm sure he'll get to make his own staff. And Berube is a very hard nosed coach. We will see if he gets out of his players how the rest of this offseason goes for the Leafs, but also canadian teams and all the teams in HM. Actually pretty excited about this offseason, but I want to get my hopes up because, you know, I'm just saying that because I. Not only just because of Toronto, but in the NHL. I want to see some heart. I want to see some news, some big names move this year. I want to see some free agents go to different places. Wouldn't thought give us some new storylines. Gives us a lot to talk about here on the game. Alex, NHL redraft time to remind listeners what this is. Alex and I top draft the top five of the year that we're talking about. We redraft it for you based on what we know today about those players. Recently we did 1989 and I called it the games version. If you know, you know, 1989, Taylor Swift. I just told you. Yeah, there it is. Now we're catering to the audience. Hey. Oh, some people just got mad, but we're doing 1990. That is the start of. [00:24:51] Speaker B: Did you say some people are mad? Would you say they're seeing red? [00:24:56] Speaker A: Oh, damn. Love it. Oh, even. Even more. Hit that. [00:25:01] Speaker C: Follow. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Hit that, like, hit that. Subscribe. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Especially if you love Taylor Swift for T. Swift. Yeah. The demographics of your show and Taylor Swift really crossovers. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Same thing. The same thing. We talked Taylor Swift to talk about my podcast. Same thing. No, actually talk about Travis Kelsey's pockets. Redraft par. You choose who goes first and who goes second. [00:25:21] Speaker B: I'll go first and I'll draft from five to one because this is a top heavy draft, to say the least. [00:25:28] Speaker A: Go ahead. [00:25:29] Speaker B: Number five, Darrell Sidor. Lots of games played as a defenseman. Number 4500, goal scorer, Peter Bondra. Number three. Also a 500 goal scorer, Keith Kachuk. But now this is where the heavyweights match up. And I almost switched them. But Marty Broder, you're sitting in slot number two, pal, because you won't be able to top the longevity and the point scoring totals of Yarmir Jager. [00:25:59] Speaker A: Oh, we do have different picks. [00:26:01] Speaker B: You went Broder one. [00:26:04] Speaker A: I'm excited about this. I think this is good because even the bottom's different. I was thinking some people had left out that aren't going to agree, and I'm glad you went with them. It's going from five and up to one as well. The Pittsburgh Penguins are proud to select fifth overall Owen Nolan with the fourth overall pick. The Philadelphia Flyers are proud to select lSSU alumni Doug waite. The Detroit Red Wings with the third overall pick, are proud to select Keith Kaczuk with the second overall pick. The Vancouver Canucks are proud to select Yarmir Jager. [00:26:35] Speaker B: That's crazy. [00:26:35] Speaker A: And with the first overall pick, the Quebec Nordique select Martin bro dir, baby. The guy wins. The guy wins. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Joggers got cups. [00:26:47] Speaker A: He does. And longevity. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Broder played in the dead puck era. [00:26:52] Speaker A: Imagine Martin Broder plane in Quebec. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah. You're doing it for the story. I didn't even know. [00:26:59] Speaker A: Not the story, but I just thought of that. I just thought of that. That's just. That's a thought of. Imagine yogurt in Vancouver with Pavel Burry back in the day. Oh, my goodness. [00:27:08] Speaker B: Well, I mean, he would have been able to play with the Sadeen twins as well. [00:27:11] Speaker A: All that. [00:27:12] Speaker B: I can't believe you take over has. I can't believe you took Doug Wade over fucking Peter Bondra. [00:27:18] Speaker A: You're enter. I was. I had those guys, like, if I had to go six and seven, I would have Bondra six, adore seven. If people want to know that. [00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Wade Nolan would be my six seven two. But like, Doug. Wait. Yeah. A thousand points, but 755 assists. [00:27:33] Speaker A: You know who's one of my favorite players on that list? And he wouldn't be in the top picks, but it's Darian Hatcher. [00:27:38] Speaker B: I was gonna say Chris Simon. [00:27:42] Speaker A: Rip. Love that. Love that. Good draft. Good, good fun draft there, Terry. And Hatcher with the absolute mullet from the top ropes. My goodness, look at that picture on hockey. DB. Oh, my Lanta. You don't want to see that guy running down after you. That's a. That's a big mullet coming for you nonetheless. Alex, we're a little bit over. I told you a hard stop. We're getting to that hard stop right now. And the second part of the show, you're going to have me for just about five minutes before we have Connor Henderson. Come on. As I mentioned, what we have at the. In the opener before Connor joins us for. For some strike zone content. But here on the top shelf content. We like to call it here on the game sports podcast. Alex Barr and I giving you all things hockey. [00:28:21] Speaker B: 1 second. You know who else went in that draft? [00:28:24] Speaker A: Who? [00:28:25] Speaker B: Wes McCauley. [00:28:28] Speaker A: Worst rap. [00:28:29] Speaker B: I should have taken him number one. [00:28:31] Speaker A: Oh, worst refs. He'd be number one overall. My goodness. [00:28:36] Speaker B: Okay, I'll let you wrap it up. [00:28:37] Speaker A: I'm sorry. [00:28:37] Speaker B: I just. I just needed to throw that in there. [00:28:39] Speaker A: Alex, thank you for taking the time, my friend. [00:28:41] Speaker B: Of course. It was a blast, as always. I'm glad our drafts were a little bit different this time, too. [00:28:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'd love to know people's reaction to it. Next up, 1991. You know what's a good time about 1991? Mm hmm. When I was born, just everyone. [00:28:54] Speaker B: I was waiting for another Taylor Swift reference, but I just didn't know it. [00:28:57] Speaker A: No, I don't know if there is anything for that. We'll have to figure that out. I'll see if I find some. But nonetheless, I'm gonna have Alex sign off, and then I'm going to do five minutes with myself here talking a little bit of basketball. [00:29:08] Speaker B: What does that mean? [00:29:09] Speaker A: Five minutes of basketball talk? Let's see where this goes. We'll be right back here on the game. Welcome back to the game sports podcast. Dave McKay continuing to host you this evening. Thanks again to Alex Parr for joining yours truly, talking in our top shelf segment of the Game sports podcast, all things hockey. Let us know what you think about our Redraft segment, as well as who you think is going to win the Eastern Conference and Western Conference final here in this second segment. It's gonna be very brief. Yes, me saying brief, but it is gonna be very descriptive and give you some great content in the world of basketball. Yes, it's gonna be just yours truly talking about basketball, because there's one point in particular that I want to talk about the most. But I am gonna give you a quick update about the NBA playoffs. And if you listen to a recent clip, if you go on TikTok, if you go on Instagram, any of the socials, or check out our recent podcast here on the game. I did discuss how I thought Oklahoma City Thunder was gonna be the next step dynasty and was going to be the champions this year. So I will say that I was incorrect on that. Okay. You know, I'm a big fan of Shea Gilders Alexander. It would be amazing to see him in the Raptors colors, you know, obviously. But he's on the thunder. He is one of the best in the NBA, and that roster in Oklahoma City is shaping up to be quite exciting and I'm very surprised that they lost, not just in terms of who they lost, too. Obviously the Mavs are very good team, but what I want to discuss is obviously the series that are going on now and despite that, I thought Oklahoma City was going to be there this year and I thought they were going to win multiple titles, but I guess they're going to have to wait until next year, probably to win their first one. But the Mavs obviously defeated Oklahoma City and then the Timberwolves defeated the Nuggets. And Ant man just looking fantastic with the Timberwolves. Man, that team has come a long way. I can remember when you had guys at Carl Anthony Towns and these guys that were looking at Minnesota for not being a destination to go play basketball because this team couldn't right the ship. And boy, did they right the ship over there in Minnesota. The Timberwolves are like this great story in the NBA playoffs this year, but I think they're in a very tough matchup against the Mavericks. And let me give you a reason why the Mavericks defeated the Thunder. That's one of my reasons also, obviously, with, with having, you know, Kyrie and Luca, it's. This is a team that is well put together there in Dallas. And I feel that the team in with Dallas and Minnesota, that you have two teams that are equally matched, but with Luca just sets apart from everybody else. Luca, Kyrie, that chemistry is very, very real. The roster of Dallas, I like that makeup, but still a little bit more than Minnesota. But Minnesota, you got to be proud of what you've done this year in general, in the regular season, in the playoffs, you've shown that you are the real deal, that you can get it done and you're going to be a team that could make a run for years and years against these guys like the Oklahoma City Thunder as they continue to grow and mature. And the Minnesota Timberwolves, I'd be very surprised if they weren't back into the same position next year as they were this year. But I think this is where the story stops. The Mavericks, I really thought the Timberwolves is a team I was going to pick here, but I'm going to have to go with the Mavericks defeating the Timberwolves. And yeah, it's not just because they beat Oklahoma City Thunder, the Mavericks. But when you look at Luca and you look at Kyrie and like I said, this team makeup, it's just, it's hard to turn away from it despite the success. But look, look at what Anthony Edwards and look what the Minnesota Timberwolves have done in their process to the, to where they at now in the, in the conference finals. It is amazing and you can't discredit it. So would I be surprised if they beat the Mavericks? No, but I find it very hard for the Mavericks and not seeing them in the finals. But again, big tangle, big matchup here and it's going to be something that is going to be looked at as one of those series that I think is going to be the more exciting series between the two that are going on. Which leads me to the Eastern Conference final between the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics. I did predict Boston making the finals this year. I will say that on my clip. Obviously, I was, it wasn't correct on it, but this is a Boston team that's been hot all year. They're well put together. Indiana battled back against the Knicks to come back and win that series. I feel so bad for Knicks fans. I was really pulling for the Knicks to win that series. But it all ends. If it was the Knicks here or now that it's the Pacers, this is the Boston Celtics. And the Boston Celtics, I think are going to make pretty quick work on the Indiana Pacers by Halliburton and what that team can do. I'm going to predict the Celtics in five and going to the Wolves and to the Mavericks. I think that series is going to go six. I think the Wolves will push them to six. But you're going to see a Celtics Mavericks final and I'm the storylines for this playoffs. Yes, Oklahoma City Thunder not making it, but the Indiana Pages coming back to defeat the next great storyline there, the Timberwolves ant man. And the storyline there, you cannot look away from that and you look at this team that the Boston Celtics have been flying. What a great story that is. This is a roster that is fit to be a championship team and I will not give you the prediction of the finals just yet, but you gotta be silly to not think that the Celtics are the favorite out of the four to walk away as NBA champions. What is your thoughts about who is going to win these two final series in the final four before we see the NBA Finals? And what two teams will that make you see in the finals? And try not to be biased, okay? I'm not trying to be biased. If you want who I wish would be there. I would love to see a Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers final. That would be unexpected, the two underdogs from each series. But let's be real. The closest series is the Mavs Timberwolf series. I just can't see the pacers getting past the Celtics. I just don't see it. The Mavs and the Timberwolves. You got two teams there that can make it interesting. And you can't discredit what the Timberwolves have done, but you can't pull against the Mavericks right now. In my honest opinion. Great up and down the court. They hit those clutch shots again. A team that has been able to rise to the occasion. Dallas Boston. Look at their roster. Okay, that's all. That's all I need to say. Boston, Indiana, Dallas, Minnesota. Who do you got? Let me know. It begins. Actually, tonight's the day of recording here, May 21. Now I'm going to get to one point. I want to bring it up and say, I'm already a minute 26 over. My goodness. I better hurry up and get to my point. I wanted to discuss about Bronnie James for a moment. As I sit here, I want to take a quick sip of my pint. And the reason why I want to talk about Bronnie James is because the hype around this kid is because he is LeBron's kid and he is a very good basketball player. And if you look at recent reports, NBA executives have discussed the possibility of taking brawny in the first round to try to lure LeBron James to that team. And there's been a lot of teams. That list is long. It's ten plus teams. Obviously, being on the canadian side, the border. We have seen discussions that the Raptors have done their due diligence. Teams have done their due diligence. Look, as a Raptors fan, outside of being the host of this podcast, I would love to see Bronnie and LeBron and the Raptors jersey and that storyline in Toronto and them be a good team next year and have such a good story. Okay. But I have a very hard time seeing LeBron leave the Lakers. There's still a lot of involvement he has with the team. He's not involved in the coach search. He sees obviously everything to do with Kobe Bryant. There's a lot of emotional tie in there. He's won with the Lakers. I really feel like him leaving the Lakers is not what he wants to do. But the reason why he hasn't resigned in LA is honestly, I think because of Bronnie James. And wouldn't it be a story that the Cleveland Cavaliers found a way to draft brawny James and the Cleveland Cavaliers brought back LeBron James, who knows about Donovan Mitchell, obviously you got the rockets knocking on that door now and the story is coming out. But, you know, if Bronnie James and LeBron go there, I don't think anyone's going to be leaving. Does LeBron take a pay cut to go to Cleveland so they can afford them and play with his son, play in LeBron's home and get him started and start at the new James era in Cleveland? Wouldn't that be such a good story? Or does Brawny find a way to land himself on the Lakers because Daddy O does a little bit of a trick to find a way to get him, which I'm sure would lead to an investigation of some sort. But the storylines are endless here. And my big thing is, do you truly want to waste a pick on brawny James? Because there's two perspectives. One, yes, you can try to lure LeBron James to come play for you and you hope that works. But what if it doesn't? You might have wasted a first round pick. Who, brawny is a second rounder. So in the second round, I think you can toss those around a bit more lightly. In the NBA, the first round, I think, is do your due diligence and choose the right player. So you take that risk. Or are you going to be smart and just let brawny go by and just make the pick that is best for your team? Let's say I'm a team that's looking to draft brawny. If I'm looking to draft brawny, I'm asking the Lakers permission to talk to LeBron James. And I'm going to say, look, I'm looking at picking Brawny tonight in the first round. If he falls to me at 20, blah. If I see him there, he is going to be a block. Let's say that, that it's that. Let's say it's Indiana pace. Let's say that they traded up in the first round and they make some, they make a move as such. And, you know, looking at the NBA draft order as I pull it up to, to confirm right now from picks one to 50, aspernba.com dot, you got, let's, I'll use an exact example. You got the Lakers that are picking who are down right now at 17, but you have Toronto, who's drafting 19 from Indiana. You got Cleveland drafting 20. You got New Orleans 21 to Phoenix, 22. Let's look at all this, okay? Let's say you're the Cleveland Cavaliers, for the sake of my example, 20th overall pick. You call and you say, look, we're in a draft. If Brawny's there at 20, we're drafted them. No matter what, we are drafting them. LeBron, are you open to come home? LeBron would be like, yeah, I'm sure I'm game to come home. And maybe he signs there in Cleveland. Okay, then you draft brawny. But if he says no, I'm not. Okay, well, that's fine. That's totally fine. Then you can make the decision if you truly want to draft him or not. But I think if you really do want to draft him, if he was the first rounder, draft them. If you feel like it's make a difference for your team, draft them. Who cares about what LeBron does? If LeBron comes to you or not, cool. If he, if he does come to you, that adds to make your team better, great. If not, who cares? You develop brawny, you have a, you have the bloodline of LeBron James. There somebody you can make a project and make a vital piece on your floor. Maybe it could be a future top six man in the league. Maybe he is a starter in the league. I don't know where I see brawny landing. The talent is definitely there. But if I'm truly looking to draft brawny because I want LeBron James, I'm doing my due diligence to say, hey, I'm drafting your son. Are you going to come here? And you got to take the chance of him lying to you to say, yes, I will come there or not. And if you draft him, he doesn't come, so be it. Maybe you can take the hit, but do your due diligence if possible. But I think if you're going to tell LeBron you're drafting them, you should just draft him and call his bluff. If he doesn't come, he doesn't come. Cool. LeBron could play against his son opposed to with them, but he has said he wants to play with them and that would be a cool connection to have him play with his son. So I will take the odds that if his son does go somewhere, he will join them. But it does depend on the team. I will tell you right now, if the Washington Wizards draft him, I don't think LeBron's going to the Washington Wizards. I'm sorry to Washington fans, but I do not see him going there. If Toronto drafts them, I don't even know if I see him going there. But if Cleveland drafts them, if the Lakers draft them, Miami drafts them, the Philadelphia 76 ers or New York drafts them, okay, I can see that done a team. That is good, good roster, good fan base, especially in New York. Maybe that's where he will go. But I'm going to tell you right now, I think we're going to notice something that is going to be not, I don't mean fixed, but if Brawny's there at the 55th pick for the Los Angeles Lakers, you know that he's taken them and LeBron will re sign in LA. That is my prediction. Brawny goes 55 to LA and. And Lebron stays in La. If you want my hopeful pick, I'm hopeful that he goes number 20 in the first round to Cleveland and LeBron is drafted, or, sorry, Ronnie is drafted by Cleveland and LeBron goes back home to finish his final season. That's what I hope. What would be a cool storyline? There's two. The Toronto Raptors getting them. I think that'd be a great storyline, but I think another storyline would be him on the Knicks. I would love to see that storyline, too. So there's the four hopefuls. My highlighted one is Cleveland, but the one that I think is, is that you'll see LeBron resign in LA, and that's where brawny will go. Let me know where you think Brawny is going to go. Is he truly good enough to be playing in the NBA? Will he true enough to go in the top round or in the NBA draft? Would you have a pick on brawny if you did? What is your reasoning for drafting brawny? I would be interested to know. Going to be interesting when that draft comes to light. The first overall pick, the Atlanta Hawks, is it going to be traded? Some good players you can pick out of there? And I know some people that would definitely want to move up in that draft. Look at San Diego, Sandy, San Antonio, four and eight. There's some movement there that Atlanta can definitely take advantage of, and I think San Antonio's got to be on the forefront of those trades to try to move up to get some support for Wemby. I'm going to take a quick break. Connors waiting in the wins. I'm going to change my shirt for that, too, as well. And we're gonna be talking a little bit of baseball here on the game sports podcast. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game Sports podcast. That is David McKay continuing to host you this evening. I am joined by the one, the only, every time I say this, the rookie of the year. And he's not related to Gunnar Henderson. Connor Henderson, the rookie of the year. Like I said, if you know, you know Connor, my friend. How's it going? [00:43:39] Speaker C: Doing good, Dave, how are you doing today? [00:43:41] Speaker A: Doing good. I'm doing good, man. You know, honestly, if you're a fan of Toronto sports, maybe things are not going as good as you'd like. But overall, the summer is near officially. In the weather here in Sault Ste. Marie, everything is transitioning towards the summer sports, if you will. And we know baseball is on the front of that, which means that strike zone is going to have more of its usual, while more kind of repetitive content that you see, or its weekly content, hopefully, or bi weekly, depending on our schedule. But Connor, I'm doing well, my friends. Things are keeping busy. Is everything good on your end? I know schooling is finishing up. You're looking towards the summer, right? I'm hoping you're getting some time to relax. [00:44:19] Speaker C: Yeah, no, we're cruising into the summer. Windsor is scorching hot this time of the year. I think it's like 25 outside right now. So we're definitely soaking that in. And I'm snuck over the border to see a couple Tigers games, which hopefully we can get into later in the show. [00:44:33] Speaker A: Hop and a skip. Is that now? Speaking of that, Connor, it was recently your birthday, my friend. It was your birthday, the day that we're recording this. Like I talked earlier in the show, Connor and I are pre recording this on Victoria Day, which if you know, you know, again, because the. The strike zone segment likes to do its shows on holidays for the most part. Jokes aside, it was your birthday, Connor, recently, so happy birthday, my friend. Like, happy 20th as a joke. But we were not in our. Well, you. Not me. I'm not in my twenties anymore. And you didn't just turn 20, but I hope you had a good birthday, too. Hopefully, you know, you have maybe had some couple beverages or maybe you did some. You know, I know your plans go into today. Even so, hopefully birthday's been good. [00:45:15] Speaker C: No, it's been a full weekend. We've culminated with watching the kingdom of the planet of the Apes that just came out. And my girlfriend and I went on a huge apes bender, watching all nine movies of the franchise in the last two weeks. I'm excited to talk about sports because I've been exclusively talking about apes and I have a newfound respect for orangutans. But I wish, if anything, I could have a newfound respect for the Jays because they've been. They've been struggling. And I think you wanted to touch on that. [00:45:44] Speaker A: Oh, I did. And we're going to save the Jays for the end. I think that would be great. I might have a few words. I know everyone likes when I got a few words. Both the teams that I cheer for outside of being a host, we got some things get into Conor and the first thing that we're just going to go right off the bat and get into quickly because we didn't get a chance to in our previous segment because of just time and Shohei. Oh, Tony. Okay, look, why are we bringing up Shohei again? I'm going to keep it very brief like I said in Connor, mate will add his point. I want to just keep it very brief like I said. Obviously his translator, a little bit of an issue there with gambling, apparently. And you know, there's been investigations, there's been charges down there. There's, it's, it's, it's a situation that's been going on for months as we. I'm not going to get into the full details of it. You know what it is already as listeners and viewers, I don't need to read it to you, okay. I don't need you to skip through this segment. I want you to listen to everything we have. So the only thing I want to say that there is no chance, zero chance that Shohei did not know about this money being taken from his bank account. Look, I'm the average Joe, okay? I work my Monday to Friday job from eight to 830 to 439 to five, whatever time you want to say, because I'm all over the map with it. And then I come in and do this podcast, okay? And my income that puts food on the table is my full time job, okay? And when I'm paying my bills, I know I gotta look and see where things are going, okay? I gotta pay stuff. Shohei Otani is a human being. He's got to pay bills. I'm sure he's got a car, you know, he has a wife, he has a family, if I remember. I make not gonna quote everything, but he has, he has that living, he has a house, okay? He's got, he's got not puc down there. I think it's, we have Puc is what it's called here in Susie Marie. I don't think it's called busy down there. But they, they have bills that they have to pay. Okay? Now he might have accountants who pay things for him a little bit, but you telling me that shohei. Oh, Tani does not go into his phone, okay, and search his bank once in a while. Like, is he that rich to know that? Like, oh, I'm missing 4414 whatever. Million dollars? Are you kidding me right now, Conor? This guy knew things were happening and his translators taking the fall. Probably a little hush hush on the side. You don't need to comment on that, Connor, if you don't want to, but maybe a little hush hush on the bottom, sweeping under the little rug there. A little extra money. Just take. Plead guilty, going to the sun. Go into the sunset, and go. Go live your life somewhere else. Okay? Shohei knew money was coming out, Connor. [00:48:01] Speaker C: Man, Dave, he is another level of locked in right now. If you look, Shohei Ohtani is doing everything in his power to swing the narrative as far away. This guy's batting 350. He's got 13 bombs. He's at a three war, like a quarter of the way through the season. He is. He is on another level, trying to swing the narrative as far away as possible from this scandal. And good for him. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Put this guy, like I. When I first heard this, like, oh, my God, Joy's gonna get suspended. Oh, here we go. Let's go. No, that's not that. I am a fool for thinking that that was gonna happen, right? I am such a fool, Connor. But I would like to know other people's take on it. I just didn't want to spend too much time on it. But I only wanted to comment that there's no way he didn't know money was coming out. Dude, there's no chance. There's no chance. No chance. But, man, like, I live the average life. Like a sec. Connor, I know where my money goes, okay? I don't. I don't have. What's he have? His bank account? I think he's worth a lot. I think he's got almost a hundred plus million. [00:49:04] Speaker C: I think he's doing okay with himself. [00:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. There's no way he doesn't know that. There's. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not. I'm not that level of income. So maybe if I ever got that level income, you can ask me that question again. Connor, you have another thing you want to bring up with Paul? Schemes. This guy, I want to say, is a stud. First overall pick. We knew when he got drafted. First overall. There's a good draft last year in the top echelons of the pick. I actually like the last recent first overall picks and top picks overall, too, but Jackson Holiday. I'm a fan of Jackson Holliday. The Orioles. Eh? The Orioles. I can't. The rich get richer. Hey, they got some studs on that team. We've talked with the Orioles on this podcast, a good chunk. But Paul Skieens, the kid is throwing. He had six consecutive strikeouts in a game. The kid is dealing. He throws 103, 102 mph on a fastball. You can't even blink without. You can't. You can't see that ball, Connor. And obviously he's been all over tick tock as well because of his girlfriend. That people know, man. [00:50:04] Speaker C: Paul Skienes is winning right now. Dave, he's feeling real good. So goes first overall. He used to, I pitch at Air Force, I believe, before he moved to LSU. Him and his friend Dylan Cruz went one and two overall together, back to back. And Paul Skenes, for context, everybody knows he's throwing triple digits, right, which is hard stuff. He's got this funky sort of three quarter almost looks sidearm sort of delivery. And then it also allows for some nasty break on his slider as well, sort of as that, with that one two punch. To put into context how insanely good his strikeout numbers are, if you strike out one batter per inning, you're probably a top 30 strikeout pitcher in the major leagues. That means your strikeouts per nine is about 9.0, which means for every nine innings you get one strikeout for each of the nine pulse schemes is almost double that. He, like, right now, the league leaders in strikeouts per nine are hovering at around twelve. It's like Jack Flaherty of the Tigers. And there's one other guy. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Flaherty was a good pickup, by the way. Sorry. [00:51:19] Speaker C: It's looking good. Skins right now, through ten innings of Major League Baseball, has 18 strikeouts, which is, which is like, those are the sorts of numbers that you'd see, like in little league when you have like a pro prospect just come through and just start mowing people down. And he was doing it in Aaa. But there is a huge gap between AAA and the pros. And we see this all of the time, especially with other draftees of that exact same draft class. Like, if you look at the fourth overall pick in the skiing's draft, Wyatt Langford, that guy was batting like 370 in the, in the minor leagues with, with power. And, and, you know, he goes up to the majors this year. He makes opening day roster out of camp, and he's batting like 200 with like one home run. The gap between AAA and the majors is pretty big, even for the top prospects. For schemes to go from aaa, where he's mowing people down, mustache and all, and then to go straight into the majors, and he's killing it there, too. And his girlfriend's got 5 million. I knew she existed, I think, before him and I'm not even, I barely. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Used to dating until she did the upload and it came up on the for you page, for the podcast page because it's sports related. Right. So the algorithm. And there she is getting ready for my boyfriend's game. Go pirates. And there's, there's a background, some stud with a mustache, tall. And I'm like, I know who that guy is. And like you said, you, guy got pulled against the Cubs a couple days ago from this recording. Six no hit innings, second start. Listen, I know there's storylines. People come in and they have good first starts and they do what they need, but this kid, I know he's a couple starts in, you don't want to hype them up too much, but you got to give credit where it's due. Especially now he looks like the real deal and he's looking good doing it in the process. Yeah. [00:53:16] Speaker C: You literally cannot ask for better results at this stage. It's, it's not like the hype is earned. It is complete, is completely earned because he's doing exactly what he did in the minors and he's doing exactly what he did in college and he's doing it with pizzazz and with firepower. And there's no reason to believe that he's going to slow down anytime soon. [00:53:36] Speaker A: There's no way he's going to slow down. You hope not. I kind of like seeing a good young guy come up and keep it going. Right. You had some of that hope with Mackenzie Gore. Right? Maybe it's not the same. Obviously it's not the same hype, but you had some of these young guys come up who are still trying to find that consistency in their game and to come in early in his career at each level, dominate, dominate, dominate, dominate, and he's been consistent. You brought up a good point about Wyatt Langford. I like to, because I like to use Addison Barger as an example, too, with the Jays. The guy's been mashing balls and triple A ball mashing and the guy comes up and he struggled to get his first hit after his first ten hit, ten at bats. Right. It's, I think, is it harder for a pitcher than it is for, I mean, it's a good question for you. Is it an easier transition from AAA to MLB for a pitcher than it is a hitter, or should it be easier for a hitter than it is for a pitcher? [00:54:28] Speaker C: Oh, I think it's easier for pitchers. And I'm strongly in that camp. I think that with pitching, you just control so much more. You're the one attacking and the batter is essentially defending. And with the advanced stats now, I mean, people know the hitters weaknesses so much. And then just by design, hitting is a medium that fails more than it succeeds, which is harder to deal with from a psychological perspective than a pitcher who. Okay, maybe you got like a, like a four or five era, not great, but you're getting out batters, there's tangible results. But as a hitter, you come up to the majors and you're, for the first time in your life, you're batting 200 when all you've ever done is bat way above that. It eats. [00:55:18] Speaker A: It does see now, and I like seeing it. And before we transition to the next point. Transitioning to our next point. Sorry, the, the Pirates. Right? This is a team that's been dog shit, Conor. I'm just gonna say how it is. They have been, right. This organization has not been successful for a while. They haven't won a World Series, I believe, since it was 1979. Last time they won their World Series. And they won. They won five times in there. I know. I remember hearing that on tv. Five times that they've won in their franchise history. And 79 is not too, too long ago, don't get me wrong, especially if you're a Toronto sports fan that cheers hockey. That's not that long. Think you take 79 over 67. But again, you know, it's, that's a, that's a, that's a passionate fan base there in Pittsburgh. And they got a very beautiful ball field. I would love to see it one day. And I always had this thing for the teams that don't do well. Right. The Padres, I've had it for the Cubs when they didn't win for 100 years, because I can relate, you know, so speaking that I like seeing the names that are coming up, you know, the skiings. And I like O'Neal Cruz. I think the guy's an absolute beast. I love big ball players. Big. That have power, that I love that. But skiing's is something special. And the Pirates fans are, should be enjoying, enjoying this because this is going to be a ride that we're going to see. And I hope it doesn't turn out to be one of those little flukes where he has one year, then he has a sophomore struggle, or struggles after that, like another blue Jay pitcher who's had that recently. There's. It's a good storyline here and it's great. And his girlfriend, Olivia Dunn, having whatever. How many millions of followers and following along, it's. It's been good content all around for Mister Skeens and the kids. A stud. [00:56:52] Speaker C: Yeah, he's doing well now. [00:56:55] Speaker A: The lot. I know you have a story about the Tigers, and I, we have a story about another ball player that I kind of want you to share quickly, given time. Mason Miller. [00:57:02] Speaker C: Yes. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so this guy, if there's anybody who's, like, right underneath skeins in terms of, like, the narrative of just being a really cool fireballer. Young guy. Coming up, it's Mason Miller of the Oakland Athletics. A lot of people have compared him to Charlie Sheen's character, wild thing in the movie major league. It's a comedy movie where you've got this team where the owner just wants them to suck so that they can move the franchise, but in comes this flame throwing fireballer out of nowhere who's carving up the league. So, Mason Miller, for those of you who don't know, was a d three baseball player coming out of high school. He threw in the eighties, upper eighties back then, and he was like, a skinny, tall, thin frame, couldn't keep the velo up late into games. And he goes like, div three. And Div three is not high baseball. And his era was, like, seven for his freshman and sophomore years in Div three. Not great. He goes for blood work and essentially finds out that he's got diabetes. And once they get him on proper regimen, health wise, he's able to put on weight, put on mass, maintain his frame, and suddenly he's throwing in the nineties. He transfers over to div one. Sure enough, he ends up getting drafted and carves his way into the A's closer position because he's throwing 101, 102, 101, 102, just like pure gasoline. But it's the trajectory that's so insane. Div three baseball is like, I've got pals who could easily have played div three baseball. You know what I mean? [00:58:54] Speaker A: It's not, if not higher. Don't be modest. You know, you could have, too. [00:58:59] Speaker C: There's definitely some. There's definitely some schools in Michigan where. Yeah, that would have been for sure a thing. If you wanted to pay an arm and a leg for out of state costs, sure. [00:59:09] Speaker A: But random semester? Frick. [00:59:12] Speaker C: No, thank you. You can get it. Yeah. No, it's not the best situation, but, yeah. So the gap and the trajectory for this guy is so cool. And to see these flamethrowers. He initially was a starter, but now they've moved him into the bullpen after he had a strain in his arm. Arm. And maybe that's the best spot for him. Unlike Paul Skienes, who is a starter who flamethrows the entire game, Miller does have that history of running low on velo later into starts. Due in part to his health. The closer role seems to be the best form. And it's really, really cool to see triple digits being much more common in the MLB now. Hopefully he stays healthy and keeps this, this going because it's the one bright spot in a pretty dark Oakland situation. [01:00:02] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it. I hope I don't see any of this Tommy John word getting thrown around to either of those guys. You know, that's the one thing you don't want to see. You do see a Casey Myers. Right? The Detroit has seen it, right? There's Gibbon, some of these young studs that have come up. And if I'm Oakland, before we transition to the bobblehead stuff, okay, if I'm Oakland, look, you're not going to be in Oakland long. You're going to Vegas despite approval. Not approval, whatever. You're gonna be moving. You got no fans. [01:00:27] Speaker C: Okay? [01:00:27] Speaker A: You got no support. You're moving people that are a part of this team. You can still get a job in Vegas if you're the manager. If you're whatnot, they'll take you. If you're doing okay, build the prospect pool, draft goods, spend the last money on resources, on drafting rights and getting these guys like the Mason Millers, getting the, you know, the munsees that they've drafted, soderstroms, the guys that they have get those young, talented, really build because then Oakland, maybe they will benefit before they move to Vegas. Maybe the last couple years before they move, they'll have a little bit of, you know, that excitement. Maybe they'll have a little young team that's going to grind and maybe hit a wild card spot in the next couple years. Doesn't seem like it, but just spend the resources on drafting and trying to build a competitive team to make it enjoyable in Oakland before you move on, I got to say that I'd love to see a young team get built and transition for them. And they should focus on that now bobblehead story because we've got two more points. I know we're hitting our time. I'm showing something on the video right now. If you're on audio, I'll explain it. It's my boba shet bobblehead. Okay. My wife and father in law and outside the family went to OJ's game, and they got the Boba Shep bobblehead. I said I wanted one and I want to one for the office. Now, the only thing that's hanging in my thing is the Death Star, which has nothing to do with a bobblehead. And jerseys. I would. I wanted to have this bobblehead somewhere. I don't know where I wanted to put it, but the reason why I bring up a bobblehead story is Connor and I were talking about this off air and how we have Bo Bichette now with his real hair. Just kidding. No, it's not real. Sitting beside me at every episode right now, I have him staring at me, critiquing me as I talk, which I'll be critiquing him shortly. And I have. Connor brought up a good story about one of the announcers he had to. That he was. That he had the chance to listen to throughout his life. But also, you went to a ballgame with your dad, so share that story. I think it's a great story. [01:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah, this is cute. I'll keep it short. So, growing up, we had to drive through Michigan a lot for baseball, me and my dad. He was my coach, and we would listen to the Tigers on the radio all the time. And their announcers were Dan Dickerson and Jim Price. Dan Dickerson's been the longtime announcer for now 25 years. And to celebrate his 25th season with the Tigers, they did a Dan Dickerson bobblehead night. So for those of you who can see on camera, got a little Dan Dickerson. It's really cute. I really wanted to see this. So my dad and I planned a trip where we went to see the Tigers play so that we could be one of the first 15,000 fans to get a bobblehead. And we showed up to the stadium so early because I was, like, hell bent on getting these bobbleheads. And I was, like, scouting, like, outside the gate, like, at Comerica park. Like, I could see the boxes right by security, like, oh, these are mine. And they start letting in these, like, vip tigers holders, which I didn't know were a thing. And I was, like, sweating buckets, like, baking in the sun. Like, oh, my God, if they run out, I'm gonna lose my mind. There was tons by the time I got in there, and we got ours, and it was cute, but now I've got my little Dan Dickerson here, and it even has, like, audio work. [01:03:23] Speaker A: Oh, there we go. Got the audio. I don't got that. Oh. [01:03:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Very cute stuff. But there's my, there's my bobblehead story. [01:03:36] Speaker A: And I love command. I speak of the Tigers. I always think I love America. It's a cool stadium. Now to wrap up the show, we can we. I was kind of just going to do my thumbs up and down and kind of transition that. Now, obviously teams are hot. You can still early in the season, divisions are all over. Obviously, if you have to give a little bit of love to a team, I give it to everybody except the Dodgers. Anybody except the Dodgers. Obviously, the AL, the AL east is living up to its expectation of being a very steep division with teams and competitiveness to a degree. Obviously, the top two teams have pulled themselves away a little bit. And if you're sitting at the bottom of the standings, which there is a team sitting at the bottom of the standings, you're sitting eleven and a half games back already. It's a little bit challenging in the world of baseball, Connor, to battle back in tight divisions like that. The Tigers, you know 500 baseball right now. The Rangers, you know 500 baseball. The Astros under 500. I love that so much. The Mets under 500. There's another team not meeting expectation. The Marlins are trash. The brewers like it. Pirates under 500, but exceeding expectations in my mind. The Reds, oh, not meeting expectations. Absolutely not. And I really would say the diamondbacks again, the team that made the World Series last year not meeting expectations. Have to make some good moves this offseason. The Padres, I always got a little funny feeling for those Padres, right? They, but there's, they're, they're where they always are, behind the Dodgers. So the season this year has been kind of expected at some storylines not expected, plus some good narratives like we've already talked about in the show. But I sincere in the sake of time right now and I can't go through any of those thumbs up or down the Toronto Blue Jays. Look, I know everyone likes when Connor talks about the Tigers and I talk about the Blue Jays. Now, given time, it is just going to be the Blue Jays. Very briefly, I'm going to try to keep this short. You know, there's one thing Connor and I would like your quick point on this. After I've realized and seen over in the sports of Toronto. Okay, I told you this off air and speaking the app referencing another sport here, Toronto Maple Leafs. I've stopped having that expectation or that care. You know, I have that passionate fan feeling, but ever since they lost to the Habs in 2021 that it's been a change in how I feel about playoffs and when they lose, I'm not throwing my jersey, not that I've did, but, I mean, I'm not angry. It's like, oh, it happened. You know, we're settling for being disappointed. Right. And that, that's the unfortunate thing when it comes to the Jays, they had all this excitement coming 2018, 2017, right? You got Bo, you got Vlad, you signed Springer, which seemed like a good move at that point. And Connor reminded me a couple years ago, I challenge Springer to run down the first baseline because he had some fatigue in his leg, whatever. He had fatigue. And look, Connor has seen me run. I can tell you one thing I know I can outrun Kirk. Connor will agree to that. I can definitely outrun Kirk, can outrun springer. I'd love to challenge him. Look, this guy on the field seems like a great guy in person in that clubhouse. Don't get me wrong. Seems like a good clubhouse guy, nice guy, but the guy is playing like absolute trash when you're getting paid $25 million and you can't live up to that contract. He hasn't been the same George Springer, but he has been healthy, at least. He's been. He's been playing baseball, okay, which is one thing that was worrisome when he signed, but he's not meeting expectations when it comes to the management. I think a lot of this 20 and 25 start that we're seeing at the time of this recording, a lot of it does go on the hitting. Vlad and Bo and Springer, those are guys. Kirk, they should have traded him in that instead of Moreno. I've said that from the start. Kirk is. No, I play Janssen 247. Kirk can sit on the bench, but those three guys that I mentioned need to be consistent. Vlad and Bo are starting to, though. They've had some. They've been getting hot. They've been getting hot. But he still lose gains by one run. They still, whatever it may be, the bullpen, Nate Pearson, garbage. No, the guy. That project's not working right. The pitching has been great, except some of the bullpen's been struggling. Swanson, what happened, bro? I know he's had a lot happen outside of baseball. Credit, credit there, okay? But again, there's been struggles in this team, and the accountability has to be on some of those players that are getting paid the big checks. I think it's been since they lost the Twins last year, the immaturity with Vlad going, calm down, Bo, calm down. He's getting off second base. And I remember sitting in my hotel room or my car in my Airbnb in Italy with my head saying, Vlad, go back. And he's. Because the pitcher went like this, right? He did the little, he wasn't fixing his hair, I'll tell you right now. And he picked him off and Vlad was like, no, no, I'm safe. No, you weren't, dude. You, you were not safe. The accountability for those actions, I'm sure, were addressed. I am pointing my finger at Schneider. I have not now. And it's always the coach who takes the brunt of it, which is unfortunate, but I think you got to look at another, a different voice of accountability to be held in there. But ultimately, Shapiro and Atkins, they're calling out the fans for saying they should be relaxing, not be mad. Listen, pal, no, we're not going to relax. You're Rogers media. You have millions of dollars. You did nothing to improve this team. You were going to spend 700 million on Shohei. Didn't happen. Okay? You spent it nowhere else to try to improve this team or address what was needed. They did not have success in Cleveland, and it's nothing that went here. Okay? The Blue Jays need to make moves, and those moves, I think, need to be on the voice, but in the clubhouse, moving out a big name, which is spring or somehow, if anyone's going to take that contract, but who would at this rate, and addressing those areas and really trying to be that consistent hitting team, whatever it takes to be that, okay? Because their pitching is actually really good. I like their starting pitching. The bullpen, it needs to wake up. But I think the upper management seems to be a little bit of a problem because they don't know what ball that they're watching right now. But this is not the Blue Jays that were from a couple years ago, even though they choked against Seattle a couple years ago, at least it was exciting to watch them and there was a lot of optimism for the future. Right now, we're seeing a team that's like this. They're not going to go over that hump, and this year they might not make the playoffs. And that would be a catastrophic failure for this roster and this team and this city, because despite how good the AL east is, they should be competing with the topper thresholds of the AL east and the American League. Connor, final thoughts of that, if you have any, before we wrap up? [01:09:38] Speaker C: No, for sure. I mean, we're getting close to year ten of the Mark Shapiro regime. [01:09:44] Speaker A: What sounds like Brendan Shanahan. What does that sound like? [01:09:48] Speaker C: What needs to give? Right? That's, that's the question. What needs to give, you know, I mean, we're at the point where, I mean, I think the leash has been long enough. You've had the time to implement your vision, and if your vision is last place with your core of the order not being able to get you over that hump that you had mentioned, then maybe it's time to move on. [01:10:12] Speaker A: I'll get them to the all star break. If they're not in the air, if they're in the same type of position they are now by the all star break, there better be a clean house of management and upper management not saying players yet. You can let the new manager and the new manager figure that out, that shit show for Springer and all that. But if they're not, I'll give them till then. And I think that's way too late, because in baseball, you know, I'll give them till that, though, because we're already here. We're already in last place. Okay? We're already here. [01:10:39] Speaker C: So we'll think that Craig Berube could. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Coach the Jays, probably hold more, hold them more accountable, that's for sure. Connor, last question. I had somebody say we should ask Connor one worded question before we let him go. What definitions mean in baseball instead of me explaining it. [01:10:56] Speaker C: Oh, Jesus. [01:10:57] Speaker A: Okay, I'm putting you on the spot. Can you explain what war is in baseball? [01:11:02] Speaker C: Okay, like, in layman's terms, war is the value that you add to a team over the course of a season. It's. It stands for wins above replacement, which means that if you were to take any triple A player, that would be the floor of what an MLB player should be. The war is how much above or below that line is. So if you're a negative war player, that means that we could likely find somebody in AAA that would outperform you. And if you're a positive war player, then at least you're doing better than whoever they could pull from AAA to outperform you. [01:11:38] Speaker A: Love that. I'm gonna put you on the spot with some of those little statistics, and I'm not gonna be the one to answer them because you're the true baseball expert. And as we get to our closing, Connor, local baseball men's league is just about to get started this week. The Pandas. The 91. N Pandas, 91. And that's who powers us here on the game sports podcast that is going for their three peat. The three peat. The last three peat in this league, Connor. Can you name it? [01:12:01] Speaker C: Oh, God, no. [01:12:02] Speaker A: I'm looking at the trophy right now. Guess what? None. The slugs, the last double double Pete. They've went back to back and they didn't. There could be the first three peat team in this league. Could be the Pandas this year. [01:12:14] Speaker C: I heard you have a couple. A couple ex Black Sox have put together a team. I heard that they're. They're coming for you. So. [01:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:20] Speaker C: Flamingos, best of luck. Best of luck with that. [01:12:24] Speaker A: I know. I heard there's a good team in the league. I like that, though. That's good. You got to dethrone the king sometimes, right? [01:12:30] Speaker C: Absolutely. [01:12:30] Speaker A: Nonetheless, we'll see if the Pandas can go for back to back. This week, the men's league baseball season restarts. Let us know if you're playing men's league baseball and how you're doing, and we can. We'll give you a little shout out if you want to interact. We'll definitely add that in a little bit of time because we go over time always on this podcast. In this segment, it's been strike zone. Connor. Yep. We're ten minutes over. That's famous for us, but it was great content that we had. Overall, we hope that you enjoyed it, viewers, listeners. Connor, I want to say thank you to you. Thanks to everyone who's a part of the show here tonight as we get to our conclusion. But, Connor, thank you and happy birthday again, my friend. [01:13:01] Speaker C: Thank you very much, Dave. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Awesome. That's Connor Henderson. This has been the strike zone segment. And I'm David McCag. On behalf of the game sports podcast, just remind everybody our next upload will be about Rod Black. Finally getting that up. My apologies. It's my fault. I've been renovating the basement downstairs. Lots going on. So Rod Black interview will be up in substitution, likely of a new show next week. Okay, so this will be our last. This. This will be the first, the new show this week, but we'll not have one until the following week, just so everybody knows. But Rod Black will be uploaded in between that, so keep an eye on that. But make sure you hit like follow, subscribe, and all the platforms of the game sports podcast, in particular, 91 n. And until next time, I'm here to remind you, keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, drain your threes, and shoot your shots.