Chapter 1: What direction is the Maple Leafs' roster taking for the future?
Our two-over drive continues, powered by FanDuel, bringing you more ways to play your game your way. Brian Hayes, Jamie Noodles, McLennan, Jason Strudwick. We've got Richard Griffin later in the hour. Jason Baltimore taking on the Orioles tonight. Chris Bassett on the mound for the Orioles. Numbers haven't been great. Patrick Corbett for the Jays. His numbers have been really good.
And some health, right? They've got Springer, they've got Lucas. I think Springer, Lucas, and Vlad here, they're 1-2-3 in the order tonight. That's only the third time all year they've had that lineup. So that's big. You've got Varshow hitting cleanup. He's been playing really well recently. Jay's two games under .500, so things are starting to spin in a better direction.
They've still got to get the offense going, but Rich will join us on that more, and Bruce Boudreaux coming up here in a few moments with... The Habs on the verge of being punted from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Yeah. Like we're talking record numbers of shot discrepancies here.
Wow.
Like three straight games where no one in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs have had that few of shots on net as the Habs in game two, three, and four. It's crazy.
That is the definition of shot suppression. You know how the analytics people talk about it? That's literally the definition. Now, we had a pack on SportsCenter last night where I thought, and Strutty, you made a great point. Montreal had the puck, but they were hesitating. It was almost like they were like, okay, they're going to be in the lane. We've got to get around them.
We've got to do something. I would have rather seen them use their speed and shoot off the rush, even if you're just shooting at the goaltender or dumping it in, trying to get behind them. But the one thing that I ā and, again, easier said than done for me sitting in a lawn chair watching from the studio ā But there's been no adjustments by Montreal.
I think of the comments sometimes where it's like, Carolina's played a perfect game. You look at it from a systematic standpoint. But Montreal have been trying something different. It seems to me they're trying to flick it out, trying to skate to the neutral zone. And Carolina's had the answer. So that's the one thing.
I'd still like to see Montreal with something up their sleeve to go, we're going to try something different here to rattle them because ā The only way they were able to rattle Carolina in game one is Carolina was too slow on pucks because they looked rusty. Now they're not rusty. So they're fast on everything. So I don't know if there's any adjustments for Montreal to make last night.
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Chapter 2: How are the Canadian teams performing in the NHL playoffs?
Oh, 100%.
It honestly feels like it's just... it's dovish or bust, which is crazy to ask. Yeah, it's too much. Yeah, it's asking way too much. I've seen these before. There were Leaf examples where it happened in 2013 when they miraculously came back against Boston. They were down 3-1 in that series. and James Reimer stood on his head for two games.
Chapter 3: What impact does shot suppression have on playoff performance?
They had no right to win either, and they did. They pushed it to seven. I believe Freddie Anderson was responsible for one of those. Back in maybe 19, I think it was, 18 or 19, they were down 3-1 in those series, and they pushed it. So it can happen, but it's got to be more than that if you're Montreal and you have any shot at actually pushing this to seven and winning.
It can't just be your goaltender strut. There's just no chance.
Well, it's a prayer, right? It's a prayer. I've got a hole-in-one here to win. It's a great thought and it's nice to think, but it's not reality. There was a play earlier in the game yesterday where Suzuki, the puck kind of rebounded or ricocheted him just inside the blue line. And I know you're not scoring from there, but he kind of half-claps it, then tries to make a play and he fumbles it.
That's a perfect example where I'm talking about where you're not sure. And that's a really skilled, smart player. I'm not suggesting he's not. It's just that you're second-guessing yourself. You're double-clutching. Same thing, the overtime game, guys, when Lane Hudson was coming out. He's been under pressure the whole time, being hit fairly constantly.
And he just kind of double-clutched and lost the handle. A couple seconds later, Shveshenkov scores in overtime. I think that was game three. So that's what the pace of play can do for plays like that against you. It alters the way you play, and you start to second-guess yourself, and that's a really dangerous space to be in. Trust me. I've been in there. I know Noodles.
You've been in there a few times. You go to move your glove, and it hits your blocker. That's a scary thing to see. Yeah, you're right.
I will say that that's one thing that Carolina's done a great job on, is Lane Hudson has not been able to shake and bake. If anything, Marty Baron had some of the analytics up, and he was analytically one of the worst players on the ice last night. And that's hard to do when you're that special of a player. And, you know, it's because they're limiting his time and space.
There's no open ice for him to jump into. And, you know, he's a guy that dances at the blue line. He'll stop back. And Carolina's just like, we're not having that. We're closing on you, and that's it. Like, they check so well. And it's not just one guy. That whole team is built the way it's almost like, again, we've said it before, Strutty, That's how Rod Brendamore played.
18 Rod Brendamores.
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Chapter 4: What adjustments can Montreal make to improve their playoff chances?
So, yeah, no, it's been very common over the years. And with my experience in top level as a manager in Ontario baseball, that's my calling card right there, just getting on players.
Yes. I know that's your rep. I've heard through the grapevine. I've heard that a lot. With Richard Griffin ahead of Jay's Orioles tonight. You know, Tampa's been great. The Yankees have been great. Baltimore, not so great. You know, and they did a lot in the offseason, including going out there and getting Chris Bassett and giving him some money.
And obviously Pete Alonzo was maybe the signing of the offseason or close to it outside of Tucker going to the Dodgers. What's going on with the American League East, in your opinion? How much of this has been determined already? Tampa and the Yankees are going to get there, the Jays will be real close, and the other two are just out of it.
Well, in the first three weeks of the season, the American League East, which traditionally has been the strongest division in all of baseball, was nine games under .500. Now they've fought their way back very quietly to 13 games over .500 as a division. But that's still far behind the NL Central. The NL is 33 games better than the American League, which is...
outrageous because it hadn't been that way for at least five or six years. But yeah, it looks like 85 wins is going to get you in contention for a wildcard spot. And I think that the Blue Jays are capable of that. Although Vlad very quietly is sliding under the radar. He topped out at 358 on April 30th. And since then, he's hitting 207, a lot of walks, one home or seven RBIs since April 30th.
So, you know, he's considered the face of the franchise in the same way that Mona Lisa is the face of the Louvre. They're the most expensive items going, but nobody knows why they're smiling all the time.
Well, it has been a little bit ugly for Vladdy, for sure. But Griff, I wanted to ask you about the CBA talk. And what do you make of it? And where do you think it'll land, especially either with owners or with the players? Because it seems like they're miles apart.
Yeah, they are miles apart, and the preliminary offer from the Players Association, and you'll notice that between now and December 1st, they'll never be called the Players Association by MLB. It'll be the union. They figure, I was with the Expos before the 94 strike, and we were flown to Chicago to an airport hotel.
and instructed never to call it the association it's a union because they figure americans hate unions and so that'll separate them from from the players but that's not going to work that way it's not that simple the owners definitely want a salary cap and they'll never get it it's the only union sports unions best sports union in north america maybe in the world so they're not going to give that up um
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