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Roscoe / Suthy
- Oh Canada Speedrun
- Get Over It, JT's Ours
- 19 Goals & Counting
- Suspensions Galore
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Roscoe / Suthy
- Oh Canada Speedrun
- Get Over It, JT's Ours
- 19 Goals & Counting
- Suspensions Galore
- They USED Us!
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Oh, Canada, our home native land, true
patriotism and WXYZ.
All right.
Moving on.
I have never heard OK, I've heard a lot of
rushed Canadian anthems through the years
every time they play in the States, but
that one takes the cake for botched lyrics
and rushed and just like instead of going
up on notes, going down just to not hurt
her voice to save it for the American
anthem.
That's something I've never seen.
of point shaving online games and stuff,
but there was some dirty shit going on for
that anthem.
Like someone bent so heavy on the under.
That's the only explanation for it, right?
Like someone made a fortune off that
tonight.
I didn't even think of that angle.
Damn, that could be too.
Ilya Sorokin fan club, shout out on.
anthems.
So, Ilya Sorokin fan club on Twitter,
who's obviously an Islanders fan,
commented that they even screwed up the
American national anthem last week, the
same singer.
So it's not even like, it's not even like
a strictly Canadian bias.
You just can't get the anthems right,
apparently.
But man, that was Twitter was like, you
really you're still on that.
You think there was money behind this?
Hey, you never know.
a happy bookie out there somewhere.
Oh man, so the story of the night
otherwise was JT sitting at $9.98 looking
for that thousand in the island which
would just be fantastic and of course he
managed to pull that off.
The amount of signs and booing and I saw
one person with a jersey I retweeted it
that says trader.
It's like a Tavares but they put trader
over it.
Get over it guys.
I don't get the vitriol, like this was how
many years ago?
He was a quarter store leader franchise,
he didn't demand a trade or anything, he
just left on free agency to the place
where he actually grew up.
I get it for a year or two, maybe three,
but for this long and when the guy hits a
thousand points in your building, maybe
just clap a little bit.
Yeah, shout out to the actual islanders on
the bench who are giving him stick taps.
But oh my god, it's he's on year six now
of his seven year contract.
That's insane guys, get over it.
Like players leave all the time and the
captains leave and like, like you said, it
wasn't a trade.
It wasn't like he ran out of town.
You know, like we've seen Alfredson and
Sundine finish their careers on other
teams and like that's a little different.
you know, when you play 18 seasons with a
team, but like, it's not like JT was there
for three quarters of his career.
Like, I don't know.
It's it's frustrating.
Like, it's the islanders just have nothing
else to cheer for.
And if they don't have something to cheer
for, then they might as well find a
villain, because that's where they're
pushing all of their energy into.
And it's gross.
he hit the 1k in the best building in the
entire league to do it I was surprised to
see he's the sixth player at least on the
list they showed people that have scored
their thousandth point in Their old teams
arena or against the world team.
Yeah, Marion Gaboric apparently did it
sounds high or low.
For the amount of people who have actually
hit 1000.
To hit it in the building you were drafted
in?
How many players have hit a thousand?
How many players have 1000 points in NHL?
97 before tonight.
So that's kind of crazy.
Like 6% of them were scored against their
former team.
And that's like that one point.
That's crazy actually.
And I think one was...
2014, I can't remember the names off the
top of my head.
I know Gabrick was one, but 2014, 2008,
2004 were the last few, so it's like all
recently too.
Anyway, stats, stats are fun.
happy about it.
It was cool that it was a dad's trip and
he got to see that.
That too, totally forgot.
Yeah, having his dad in the crowd, that's
gotta be awesome.
And I'm trying to think for Tavares, does
it feel better to do it in Toronto or to
do it on the island?
Like, I don't think he's the kind of guy
that relishes in it.
if they won tonight.
I think it would have been better than if
he did it in Toronto.
That would have been like the king daddy.
But other than that, I think probably in
Toronto would have been more ideal.
Yeah, he doesn't seem like the guy who
would like to rub it in, you know, like
how Castle brings the cup to Toronto.
Like, he's somebody that would, you know,
want to do it in front of friends and
family, more so than in front of a bunch
of people booing him.
Yeah, God.
the bench afterwards where he had just
like a huge smile.
Which he never really does, right?
That was what thank you for reminding me.
That was one of my favorite things,
because it was like they caught him
smiling.
And then as soon as he realized that the
camera was on him again, did you see him
just go?
Just mean face.
It was like somebody whispered to him
like, John, you're on camera anyway, what
you're on camera.
Oh, oh, hmm.
Can't show emotion.
It's like it almost.
humanized him a bit that he's like not
playing a character but there is an on and
off ice john taveras and we don't usually
see that office him unless you really
follow like the videos and stuff behind
the scenes, but you know Once the game
starts he's usually in game mode
a professional's professional.
He does not let anything get to him.
But you're right, he's like deadpan.
So the fact that he actually did that and
then caught himself doing it is so funny.
Yeah, that was great.
All right, let's start it.
Alrighty, so we missed the Nashville game.
A lot of us had stuff going on.
It's Christmas party season.
So the Leafs came out with a four nothing
win over Luke Shen and Ryan O'Reilly,
which is awesome.
And Yarncrook, I believe, scored against
his old team, which is cool.
I think he got one in that one.
Marner with a camp scored Marner with a
nice breakaway goal.
And Samsonov posting a shutout, which is
kind of the biggest story of that one.
And really, coming over to tonight, it's
like we saw all of Ilya Samsonov in two
back to back games, the highs and the
lows.
Because, I mean, really, not that he let
in six or seven goals tonight, but a
couple of those you definitely want back
if you're trying to stay in it, especially
when you're so crippled on D.
I mean, they've got three guys that really
shouldn't be in the lineup in there right
now.
And you're down to a.
underconfident backup goalie, we'll call
it.
So for him, I was hoping that the shutout
against Nashville would boost him up a
bit, especially after dealing with an
illness and missing so much time.
But yeah, like I said, there were a couple
of those you want back tonight.
It was like just the confidence level that
I found with him.
He, especially early in the game, he was
sliding post to post so much.
He had a really hard time tracking pucks.
He was late to reacting on pucks.
So it wasn't even more like a story of one
game to the other, even in this game.
Like he had great spurts, but he also had
really, really shaky moments too.
And you can tell like the team was just
not confident playing in front of him.
Yeah, and again, even with the team, it's
strange coming off the Nashville game
where they kept them to 18 shots.
I know Nashville's kind of a different
team, but in terms of their play style,
it's fairly similar to how the Islanders
play.
They throw a ton of hits.
There's a few guys that can score and
otherwise it's a shutdown team with a
really good goalie.
So, I mean, to put it pretty simply, but
it's strange that they were playing such a
shot limiting shutdown game against.
Nashville and then they couldn't carry
that over like they didn't try to run that
same strategy back tonight against the
Islanders or the Islanders read through it
the game notes and were able to break it
but like they've let so many shots get
through to Sammy and Yeah, again, it's
weird.
The confidence wasn't there after a
shutout and it's weird that the team kind
of broke from that pattern that they
started
It's a weird thing because they started
the game pretty good.
The first eight minutes I found they were
strong.
They kept all the islanders at chances
from outside along the boards, going
around the half circle.
But after that, like especially I found
the wingers from the center ice line to
the top of the circle inside, they just
let everybody get by.
They lost every puck battle there.
They had the cycle game going and just
like they just hem them in and they kept
getting shots and shots and I couldn't
understand what the wingers were doing
because.
And especially Bertuzzi, god this guy is
driving me fucking crazy right now.
It seems like he's got Samantha in his
skates, he's always losing his guy.
And whether it's like resulting in a goal
or not, it's just another chance.
Yeah, and really the consensus online
tonight was that the Leafs were getting
bullied pretty early.
Like once they were able to like you said,
there was a few spurts where everyone
seemed like they were on.
But otherwise, like they couldn't get
anything going.
They were getting pushed around.
And it's strange, like with Bertuzzi, this
is somebody who's supposed to be a bully
and try to protect guys from this
happening.
And, you know, again, we're seeing him
kind of fall into, I guess, the Leafs
system instead of the Leafs adjusting to
him.
And that was what.
some of the worry was is how many people
does it take to change the culture?
It is, but like he's a speedy guy and he's
just always losing his wingers.
As soon as they start circling around the
ice, he's, he's feet aren't moving and
they lose them.
So the center ties to pick him up and then
he goes for the center spot and they're
all in a position.
It's a huge, huge problem.
I find that I've been noticing that like
more than any other player is him because
you expect more from this guy, right?
In the offensive zone, he hasn't been
quite doing it.
And the defensive zone, like you said,
he's supposed to be a past, he's not a
very big guy, but like he's.
He's got some strength to him and he's
just not playing with that whatsoever.
Yeah, and those are the two elements we
brought him in for is being a pain in the
ass who can score and he's doing neither
of them.
So it's kind of still the waiting game.
Like we hope by now he'd figure it out.
But we're like 23, 24 games in and we're
still like Bertuzzi, what you doing, bud?
And we've switched the lines now.
Like, who's he playing with now?
He's got it's him and Robertson and
Tavares, I think, was the second line.
Like that.
Which is a weird line.
Yeah.
You just expect so much more from them.
Like, even in one end or the other.
You're just not getting it in either right
now though.
Yeah.
Otherwise tonight, Matthew's hitting a
couple posts.
They did a count up to up to 21 posts and
crossbars.
I think he's hit.
And I think that.
whatsoever.
Apparently he was eight.
They were just way, way overestimating how
many posts he actually hit.
So I think what's not it might be like 10
or so, but he actually came to play like
he was driving play.
He was stopping pucks in the D zone.
He was in proper position.
He was by far the best player.
Yeah, and one thing I've been giving them
shit for a lot this season is not
connecting passes, not communicating well.
And it seemed like between him and Tavares
and Marner and Willy, they were all making
most of their passes.
Yeah.
on goal.
He was- I barely noticed him at all.
I did a few, I mean, to be fair, I was
cooking and cleaning at some points of
this game, but I did see that there was a
couple little plays in front of the net
that he was involved in.
I don't know.
Sure, we'll leave him out of it.
But it seemed like there was a little more
communication going on with passes and
Matthew's taking more shots, which was
nice.
I could, you know what?
Now that I think of it, there was one time
where Mitch had that breakaway and he held
up and passed it back to Bertuzzi instead
of taking a shot.
And I was so fucking mad.
right comedian to give to you.
Bertuzzi actually drew a penalty on that,
which is a great play by Bertuzzo, I think
it was.
He probably saved a goal there, but he,
you gotta shoot on that, right?
Yeah, and I mean, look, the Leafs ended up
scoring on that power play.
But really, when their power plays, what,
two for 21?
You don't really want to bank on drawing a
penalty there instead of taking their
shot.
So it's just, yeah.
I find like it's indicative of, which I've
noticed lately, is the Leafs will take,
they'll go along the half-ice, like along
the boards.
There's two of them coming, there's two
defensemen here, and they'll just throw it
in the middle of the net.
And it never really works out.
That's a play you make in Pee-wee, bantam,
novice type shit.
You're doing a smart play because defense
don't really know where to play.
But in the NHL, this is never working, and
it usually comes back on their end in a
fast rush.
And I just noticed them doing this so
often.
games.
It's a play I would do in old cell.
middle of the net way, way more than they
should.
Yeah, and when you've got guys that are
good at tipping it in, like great, but
they haven't been that graded at this
season.
I mean, JT's been fantastic as always.
But besides that, like who's getting in
front of the net and muscling there right
there?
But if you guys have in front of you and
then you put the puck there, that's a
different story.
When you go kind of almost like to the
icing line and then dish it back in front,
you're not gonna get that tip.
Like it's just not gonna happen.
That's a higher percentage.
That's where it bounces back in the
Ottoman rush to start.
Yeah, and they've been giving up a lot of
those, you're right, when they try to
center that and then cough it up and
everyone's at a position and all of a
sudden it's a two on one or something.
There's been a lot of those lately.
And I mean, really, that's how they ended
up losing an OT, but different story.
So, like I said, JT's been good at tipping
goals in, picked one up tonight, which was
nice.
He did.
He was huge in the faceoff to hot too.
As was Matthews.
amongst the reign of booze.
Actually, I think JT's among the top in
the league right now for face-offs,
because I know he started off a little
shaky, but he's gotten back up there.
late in the end of this game he was
winning almost every draw.
Which eventually led to the 6 second left
goal.
Let me check.
I want to see here skaters.
I'm pretty sure he's like in the top few
percentage face-off wins of people that
have not taken multiple but.
is.
Let me check here.
Taveras is 39th in the entire league with
a 62%.
So, I mean, really, that's gotta be as far
as guys that take face-offs.
taken though, right?
Yeah, that's the thing is the NHL site is
so awesome.
It doesn't tell you how many faceoffs
they've taken.
I'd have to go to a different site, even
though I always get shit on for choosing
shitty sites.
And I see it on this one.
if you're going to the top percentage of,
you know, one to three centermen on each
team, he's way, way up there probably.
Yeah, okay here, if we're going...
I know this.
Oh, here he's number three.
Yeah, that makes way more sense.
Vincent Troschek and Michael McCloud are
the only ones ahead of him.
McCloud's only ahead by like a half a
percentage and Troschek by like one.
So yeah, 63.6, 62.9 and 62.1.
That's a huge number.
And he's 213 faceoffs, 131 lost.
Anyway, tangent.
But JT is absolutely a fucking demon in
the face off dot this year.
And that's helpful when, you know, the
game's on the line and you have to take an
offensive zone face off and the goal is
pulled.
And your team basically depends on playing
clutch.
It's kind of important.
But let's throw David Camp out and over
time.
I thought he played a pretty good game
tonight, too
Yeah, and like I said, it's not like
somebody he's somebody who's affected by
fans booing him, but just the mental
aspect of that aside, it's just
distracting audio wise to have people
booing every time you touch the puck.
Like, like even if it had no emotional
effect on you, it's like, this is just
irritating.
Like, I have to actively tune this out
every time to pay attention to the game.
Like, that's going to get frustrating.
So kudos to him for.
still playing the stellar game in his old
barn.
Well, not his old barn.
He never played there, but you know.
Yeah, we get what you're saying.
I'm trying to think of the last guy who
got that type of treatment for so long.
I feel like Charra got it pretty bad in
Ottawa for a while.
I would say Alfredson in Toronto got it
pretty bad for a long time, like after it
was necessary, but different scenario, I
guess, like not playing for your old team.
that's true.
because after that Sundeen stick breaking
thing and he mocked it they were ripping
on Alfredson for years.
Yeah, he was hated for a long time.
Yeah, I remember the raps were putting his
picture up on the jumbotron to get people
to boo when other teams were up for free
throws.
Yeah, classic.
Now you couldn't put a hockey rep or
something a basketball game and expect NBA
fans to know what you're talking about.
No, those days are gone.
Yeah, long gone.
Well, so the Leafs managed to tie it up
Morgan Reilly with a beautiful little tip
in there at the end.
All for not unfortunately, with a very
quick OT loss.
Yeah, but anyway, Matthews
you kind of want to see Morgan take away
the pass and just let Sammy take that
shot, right?
Because he's not going to stop that
cross-eye sauce, as it was.
But at least give him a chance, like, just
save the shot.
And I don't feel like Morgan played it
super well.
But whatever, we got a point.
We got 11 straight games with points, I
think, now.
11 of 12, they said, but yeah, I mean,
behind first round playoff exits, not
starting on time.
I don't know what else we're known for,
but I would say, oh, too many men on the
ice penalties.
I would say one that doesn't get enough
doesn't get enough credit is, is that wow,
I actually just lost my train of thought
completely as I was making up my intro to
it.
But when they
Holy shit, what were you saying about the
OT?
I comp-
Morgan should have played the pass instead
of he didn't play the pass it should have
let the shot happen
The Leafs are fucking horrible at
screening their own goalies.
Like it's something that they don't get
enough credit for.
Like Jake Muzzin was one of the best at
standing in between the shot and the
goalie and letting it go in like
underrated for like a great defenseman.
But oh, my God, if he's not actually on
the person, he's in between them and the
goalie every time.
Yeah, the Leafs are always bad at that.
So I'm not surprised that happened because
they either.
have a goalie that they don't have
confidence in, in that, or...
Yeah, they're always trying to block it.
there, I think he takes that pass away a
hundred times out of a hundred.
He doesn't even care about the shot.
He lets Wall handle it.
Well, look, in the Nashville game, you
think they took 18 shots on goal to have
18 shots like no, they were blocking a
shit done from getting to Sammy to get
help and shut out.
And that's, you know, that's the game they
were trying to play again, but it doesn't
always work.
So here we are.
But yeah, Matthews, Matthews has been back
on, you know, 19 goals and counting.
Love to see it.
Yeah, with coach.
Mm-hmm.
It's good to see, you know, once Willy
starts to fall off a little bit.
I think that break with the weekend on
either end of the Sweden game kind of
cooled him off.
But it's nice.
It's nice that during that time, Matthews
gets to rest and come back hot.
And he's been good ever since they've been
back.
So you know, it's just pass it off to
whoever whoever's feeling it at the time.
Exactly.
He's been dangerous and he hasn't been
scored in huge bunches either, which is an
encouraging sign for Leafs fans because
once he actually starts putting games
together, it's going to be ridiculous and
like heaven forbid all the like Leafs core
four actually play good at the same time.
That'll be another big thing.
Like the point that we're collecting
points right now is huge.
Yeah, the only thing with the points in 11
of 12 games is like, if you lose games and
over time, you can get points in 12 of 12
games, but it can be six points, which is
like winning six of, or whatever, you
know, like, you know what I mean?
Like, or you can get 12 points.
games, right?
Yeah, I'm just it's just a misleading
thing sometimes to say they have points in
11 of 12 games.
It's like, yeah, OK.
But, you know, if they're losing a bunch
of overtime, they have half the points
they could have had in that amount of
games.
So I.
percent.
If you're losing every overtime game, it's
a big difference compared to if you're
winning every overtime game.
Yeah, so what are they actually in their
last 10?
Be curious to find out.
Standings.
Oh my gosh.
Why is it getting harder and harder to
like get NHL stats?
I feel like we should just blame Batman.
Yeah, it's funny, the Google thing that
pops up is the best one at this point.
There's six, one and three.
In their last 10, so they I mean, three
overtime losses isn't bad, but there is no
other team.
Oh, only the penguins who are on a fucking
shit streak have lost three and overtime.
Oh, the Golden Knights have lost three and
OT in their last time.
But you get my point.
Yeah.
Yeah, the point's a little red.
Panthers and Bruins still ahead of the
Leafs in the Atlantic division.
They managed to pass the Detroit Red Wings
here by a single point with their OT loss
tonight, which is nice.
Yeah, looks like the Red Wings are about
to lose too, so...
Oh, that'll be a three game losing streak
for them.
So that's good for the Leafs.
Lightning Canadians, Sabres and Senators
being under the Canadians and Red Wings
and the Standings is mind boggling to me.
I thought those two were gonna put it
together this year and challenge for a
wild card spot finally.
And Detroit and Montreal went, nah, we're
gonna get that.
We're gonna go for it instead.
Yeah, pretty wild.
Okay, so some quick things came out.
during the game here, we had David Perron
getting a six game suspension for his
two-handed cross check to the face of I
forget who it was.
After we saw Dylan Larkin go down in a
very scary way, if you haven't seen it,
but you can go and check that out.
Larkin gets hit and he's unconscious on
the ice.
It's one of those terrifying moments.
And the way that I see it is in that
moment, it doesn't matter what team you're
on, like everybody around him is like, Oh,
fuck.
Like for, I mean, for the, at the start,
people are jumping on each other.
Oh no, I'm remembering this wrong.
So it starts off that everybody's looking
and then this two-handed cross check
happens, then the fights break out.
So if you're standing over and being like,
oh fuck, is this guy okay?
And somebody comes out of nowhere and
smashes your face with a stick.
Yeah, that's kind of a dirty play.
I get it's his client, but Alan Walsh,
who's been like a, we need to protect
players from CTE and yada yada.
coming out on Twitter and being like, like
vehemently being like, we're gonna appeal
this basically, like this is bullshit.
It's not a good, I don't know.
I usually like while she's takes on
things, but that was a bad luck for him.
I think this was a pretty dirty one.
Like six games might be a lot, but what
we've seen this year is there's handing
out a couple more games than they have in
the last few seasons to try to make a
point.
And like they've said, you know, they
really want to.
take these headshots out of the game.
And look, Perron might be the poster boy
for it now.
Like if this is what they're gonna do.
you know, like if that's what it takes and
that's what it takes because I feel the
roughing has been, to put it mildly, like
inconsistent, especially like the whole
Gebranson and Cousin thing that happened
last game too.
If they're policing this Marge during the
game, maybe we don't have this as much,
but, six games, it seems about right.
But like the whole Alan Walsh thing, like
he said, he came out pretty hard for his
client there, a little bit too hard to the
point where you're like,
Put on the jets.
He's that weird balance between he's an
agent, so he's always going to protect his
own guys.
Like remember the flurry with the sword in
his back thing?
That was Alan Walsh.
Then on the other side, he's a great
advocate for the players as a whole and
for having progressive ideas for rule
changes in the league.
So it's like this strange position he's in
where he would be a great
commissioner, but he's also a fantastic
agent.
So he's like, so sometimes he's
a lot more than they're not, but when
they're not, you're just like, come on
buddy, you're better than this.
Like your track record shows.
Yeah.
Remember what you've argued before, before
you stick up for your clients.
Like, you know, the minute the suspension
gets handed out, like it was within 10
minutes that was posted.
It's like, guy, take a breath.
still coming through, don't worry about
it, like you're good.
Yeah.
Speaking of, I did the math.
If it's their salary divided by 82 games
and then multiplied by six for six game
suspension, that's like 350 grand for
David Braun.
That's a ton in NHL money.
That's not a small amount for anybody.
Like whether you're a professional athlete
or not, like 350 Gs, you're like, ooh,
that hurts the pocket.
Like if you're making.
pre-segue, like you're no fucking Shohei
Atani at this point, but those 350 sheets,
you feel that.
Yeah, but you did mention the good Branson
one that I was surprised about.
So this one, yeah, if you didn't see it,
good Branson basically grabs cousins from
behind.
Well, beside kind of in like a choke slam
from the side, wraps his arm around his
neck, throws him to the ice and just
starts like, it's funny, I just watched
the Batman the other night.
But you know, in that opening scene with
all the thugs coming at him, when he
punches that guy down to the ground and he
just keeps punching him, good Branson
basically does that.
He was the caped crusader there for sure.
He gets one game, literally minutes after
they announced the David Perron
suspension.
They're like, and good Branson gets one
game and everyone went, wait, what?
Didn't you just set this precedent that
you're going to suspend people for these
headshots and dirty plays?
And it's like this was equally.
to beat the shit out of him because he got
nailed from behind.
And if the refs, like I was talking about
earlier, like this had been so
inconsistent, if they called that hitting
from behind or boarding whatever, this
doesn't happen.
So he took it in his own hands and he
grabbed them and cousin-turtled.
He turtle twice that game on him.
This guy's the biggest piece of shit maybe
in the whole league.
He's fucking top five for sure.
And he turtles all the time.
It's disgusting to see him and Kuchuk.
I hate them both.
God, I hate them.
I guess it's the difference between
assault on assault with a deadly weapon as
far as the league goes like you hit
someone in the face with your stick six
games you punch them.
Yeah, one.
But no you're right like.
he was going a bit first before he went
down and then cousins did the whole this
and you're right the Branson should not be
punching his back of his head his neck,
whatever but If you're playing the way
that cousins is playing the way that
Florida is playing the way that Paul
Maurice is playing You have to answer the
belt sometimes and they just don't the
biggest chicken shit team I've ever
fucking seen Pardon my language
that we, it's fine.
It's funny that they actually seem to kind
of judge these scenarios sometimes based
on like, whether the person had it coming
or not.
Because like really they could have like I
didn't have time to see the lead up to it.
I was actually going to ask, but you ended
up explaining anyway, like what caused
this in the first place?
But it I don't know.
It seems like they took into account that,
you know, this there was a build up to
this.
It was not with the stick.
It was somebody getting punched.
And yeah, the guy basically, like you
said, he turtled.
So, yeah, one game just seems like.
his feet doing it.
What one is one game seems right for
everything that transpired in that game.
He wasn't very hurt.
He came up.
He was chirping like crazy after turdling
like a coward.
But yeah, one game seems good.
Okay, fair.
So you mentioned also, we'll segue to the
Otani thing.
Everybody was mad about this when the info
came out.
It seems like what happened, as far as we
can tell, is that the Otani camp leaked
that he was on his way to Toronto and that
it was imminent to finally get that last
offer from the Dodgers, the 700 mil for 10
years they were holding out on it.
and the Jays had an offer on the table
that was north of $600 million apparently,
but they wanted the seven and they
basically bluffed all the way to the end
that he was on his way so we all got used.
Not only the Toronto fans but the entire
Canadian baseball fandom was used as a
bargaining chip for somebody who's now
going to circumvent the cap for the next
decade.
I just, this is so annoying.
Like.
Okay, I'm not usually one to put on the
tinfoil hat.
I like try to stay away from these
conspiracies, but as you said, this was a
devious plot and it worked.
The person they had on that plane was
another CAA client.
This had to have been all planned out.
Like, the way this went down was so
frustrating and not a great look for
Toronto sports.
Wait, are you saying Robert Hercewak is
under the same agency as Joe Hewitt?
Oh my god.
Hey, how about this, Robert?
We're gonna give you a couple bills here.
Go fly down to Toronto on this plane.
Don't say shit.
We're gonna jack up Ohtani's money like
crazy.
That's actually pretty wild.
that.
Like I said, I don't usually like to delve
in these type of hearsay or conspiracy
shit, but it seems a little legit.
The timing of everything was a little too
perfect.
Yeah.
Like, oh my God, oh, it's definitely gonna
happen tonight.
The way his contract is structured is...
insane to any sports league.
Yeah, like, imagine Matthews just said,
yeah, I'll sign 13 point whatever it is,
but you only will just pay me all of it
when my contract's up.
I'll just take two million a year.
That is literally what Otani did.
So if anyone didn't see this, he's taking
70 million a year, 46 against the cap and
68 million a year deferred.
So he's making 2 million a year.
And then once his contract's up, they're
going to pay him $680 million without
interest, I might add.
So it's not even like he's benefiting in
some way from doing this.
All he's benefiting from is saying, I
don't want to fucking lose again.
So I'm making it so you guys have enough
money per year to spend on other players
to build a proper team, which is not fair.
It's the most blatant circumvention of any
luxury tax, salary cap, whatever money
thing you have going on in your league,
like parameters that are set, they're
breaking every goddamn rule of it.
Well, apparently this isn't against the
MLB's rules, which is insane.
That's the stupid part is like if you have
a luxury tax that's supposed to be that's
supposed to be for parody and, you know,
leveling the playing diamond.
But like, look, if you can do this, then
what's the point?
Like, and I also saw the list of teams
paying into this, this luxury tax, like
there's teams paying upwards of a hundred
to three hundred million dollars since.
the last couple of years, just in luxury
tax, because they don't give a fuck.
So what's the point?
Like, you're not there's teams that win,
like, 8% of their games every year.
Like, what do you I don't know, this is so
fucking annoying.
I wonder if the Blue Jays contract was
actually structured like that too, because
behind the Mets they are the richest team
in the MLB.
They've got more money to throw around
than the Yankees, everybody else.
I think it's upwards of $17 or $18
billion.
So you have to wonder if maybe there is a
structure like that too, but even still I
would have been like, what are we doing
here?
This is not good for whatever league
you're in, right?
There's no way that the bottom eight...
no, not eight, rather like...
2018 is to fucking compete with this
Yeah, exactly.
Like the Leafs are in a position where
they could do this.
There's a lot of hockey teams and
basketball teams that if this was
available, they would be like, yeah, I'll
just pay it all at the end of the
contract.
Fine.
Like, sure, we'll pay Matthews like 75 mil
at the end of the contract.
I don't give a shit.
Like.
Like that's not a thing.
You set up a luxury taxi, set up a salary
cap, whatever, for these certain rules.
So if you start doing this, what's the
point of having it?
And the fact that they get 46 mil against
the luxury tax is such a, seems like such
an arbitrary number.
Who decided that?
Yeah, like what?
Yeah, so it's like they don't get the full
68 million off their imaginary cap, which
I don't even understand the point of it's
just, it just saves them money basically
at the end of the day.
So that's the stupid thing is like it
doesn't change the team you can put on
onto the field like it does in hockey
where like you can't go over the cap.
All that means is the owners are paying
more money and as they're putting a better
team on the field.
and more people are coming to watch, who
gives a fuck if it costs you a couple
extra mil?
Like, ugh.
Like, you'll find that in the NBA, they
have luxury tax, the exact same thing, but
to circumvent it like that, where the
whole money is not counted against it,
year by year, is...
It's crazy to me.
Yeah, I think there's a middle ground
here.
I'm not saying by any means that a hard
cap system is the right way to go, but I
think that this is just allowing rich
teams to put together whatever they want
using their money.
It's literally taking off the barriers
of...
If you're allowing billionaires and these
big conglomerate corporation owners to buy
teams, then you have to take into account
that they're gonna throw around as much
money as they want.
and I agree with you.
Like, I'm not advocating for one system or
the other, but I will say this.
If your aim is parody, a hard cap is by
far the fairest.
And what is happening elsewhere is, yeah.
Yeah, it is definitely the fairest way to
go.
I mean, fuck.
Look at the NHL.
I mean, even the shitty San Jose Sharks
that are still a minus 54 are five, three
and two in their last 10.
Look at that.
Like, you know, it's never the end of the
world in the NHL for any team.
better or worse for your game, but at
least it's fair.
Yeah, I'd say there is a frustrating
element to it.
Like as Leaf fans, you know, your team is
playing really well and then you go up
against Arizona and they'll beat you six
to two or something.
It's like, what just happened?
How did the worst team in the league just
beat us?
Well, the worst team in the league isn't
that much worse than your team.
They're only a few players away from being
there.
Like it seems like every team is a few
players away from being as good as the
other.
So anything can happen.
amount of you.
Yeah.
Anyway, I feel like I'm stating the
obvious at this point.
Let's get out of here.
We're back tomorrow night.
Who do they play?
Is it the Rangers then?
Are we just staying in New York?
Oh, fun.
Two of the best goalies in the fucking
league back to back.
It's OK.
They're both my fantasy teams.
or do you think it's Jones?
Martin Jones against the Rangers?
Eww.
I...
probably, to be honest.
I think it's Sammy.
I think they're gonna try and build his
confidence up a little bit and give him
another shot.
Man, it was so sad seeing him lying on the
ice at the end of the OT there.
He just had no chance.
it's like shades of Jack just, oh no,
please don't be sad.
Don't be sad.
Get up.
It's okay.
It's okay.
I'm not mad about the loss anymore.
playing in a beer league somewhere right
now and-
Oh, poor guy.
I honestly hope that he makes his way back
up to the NH.
I hope so too, but that's a tough road.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for listening in.
It's been Leafs late night, where it's
never too late for the Leafs.
We will catch you next time.
A demai.
Oh my god.
That was a good little show.