OverDrive - OverDrive - April 27, 2026 - Hour 2 - Troy Stecher/Steve Phillips

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 2 on OverDrive! NHL Defenseman Troy Stecher joins to discuss his season with the Maple Leafs, the team's season and the culture of the organization. Hayes lists the players on the Stanley Cup Playoffs bar play, TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips on the Blue Jays and Red Sox's series and Bryan hands out his FanDuel Best Bets.

There's an absolute monster up in Collingwood at the gym that needs to be put in his place, but I can't do it because he's too jacked. Oh, yeah? What's he doing? And where's a tight, long, spandex pant with a tank top, tight tuck into it. I like that's like the Hart Foundation. He's like, what's his name? Not Brad Hart.

Who's the guy with the goatee? Dude, he's just got a real bad attitude. He just thinks he's the king. and you know who you are. I hope you're watching. I can't say anything to you because he makes Tony Twist look like a smurf. Yeah, you're in trouble. Why are you picking a fight with him?

I'm not, dude. I'm not, dude. I went up to him and I was like, excuse me, are you using this machine? He goes, what does it look like I'm using? I'm on, like, I was some kind of, and I just said, you don't have to be a D about it. And then he just, and then every day he just walks around. He's just a loser. Okay.

I don't have the jam to say, why don't you mind your P's and Q's because he might just squash me like a little blueberry. I love it. Jim the Anvil, Nineheart, that's what I was talking about. Oh, Jimmy the Anvil, yeah. Jimmy the Anvil. That's him with a tight tuck. Like, is he a juice guy, too, like a roid monkey?

Dude, he's just, he's gigantic. He's gigantic. He's probably a super fan of the show now. Yeah, leave it. Maybe he's on mute. Maybe he's at a restaurant. Boston Pizza. Apparently, there's people sending us pictures of watching us.

Yeah, it's great. No sound. Oh, it's the best way to watch. It's all. Always a great watch. Do you imagine if there was closed caption, though? Yeah. Like, if there's closed captioning for us.

I can. Maybe give us a gold dust sniff. And there does, like, you know, that sound effect. What about somebody that was traveling through an airport that was like, maybe I'll tune into this. And then it would take five minutes for them to say, absolutely not. I just read gold dust sniff and the guy took a giant sniff. I'm out. I'm out.

That's enough. That's enough. Exactly. You know, this guy, if he's watching, might give you the old Ridley-Greg sucker punch tomorrow. Guys, can I just clear the air on this Ridley-Greg soccer punch? He suckered the guy, okay? Give him a game and be done with it.

I think this is blah. Everybody, and I know Biz went nuts on this, and Biz used to be a tough guy. I like rough and tough hockey. I didn't like this, but give him a game. Like, he punched him in the head. Like, sorry. Maybe it's because Ridley Greg's one of my favorite players.

I really like the guy. But I think he soccered him. He punched him in the head. It's not like he repeatedly continued to punch him in the head. It was one sucker punch. I think he gets suspended for a game, and we move on from this. Yeah. Like, it's dishonorable.

It's that. And you've got to pay a game for that. He's probably going to have to deal with Deloree, which Ridley, Greg, is a smart guy. He's a smart. dealing with Deloria. You think he's going to take that, like a Matt Cook, I got to fight him type scenario? Somebody is going to, well, exactly.

Somebody is going to go after Ridley Greg next to you. But Ridley Greg knows that. He's smart. He knows somebody's coming after him. But I think it's kind of a little bit blown out of proportion where it was like, dishonorable, give him a game suspension and move on from it. I think it's gotten a little bit crazy. Sorry.

Well, there's been a lot of, you know. Do you guys disagree with that? No, I'm not, I don't think it's a five game or anything. No, it's one game. You get one game for the dishonor. Yeah, people were talking about the code and all that. What it is, and I said, Ridley-G going into the playoffs was my X-Factor because he is a guy that plays in that gray area. Ask Morgan Riley, takes a slap shot in the empty net.

He's an agitator. He's a guy who gets underneath your skin. He's a hell of a player. It's the type of guy you want on your team. Did he punch a guy and a third man in? Absolutely. You're right. Game or two and move.

on. But there was, it was, there was a ripple effect of this code and you don't do that and all the, we've seen lots of, lots of things. Connectney was kicking at a guy the other day, you know,

on the ice. It's like, it happens. Jamie, you played with Chris Simon, didn't you? When he stepped on the guy in New York? No,

I got traded for Sy. That's, I know, for a long time. So I got, yeah, and that was, that is not in the same.

Joe, try to find that one. That is not in the same, like, you know, ballpark is this. one. That's more on that.

I just think, guys, one game's enough, and it's just to be done with that. I agree with you, but I don't, I also don't think you need, you know, you don't need to soften the fact that it was a greasy play. That's all it was. There's all kinds of greasy stuff that goes out there that nobody has any idea what goes on. I asked Troy. Troy, I'll tell you. I want the duck bill to come back where a guy holds the blade, the blade of their own stick in their hand and stuffs it underneath the guy's throat. That happened to me once in a scrum.

A guy had a stick in my throat as he was pretending to hold his blade. He was choking me. Was that in the NHL or in junior? No, it was in the British National League during the lockout. In England, the guy tried to kill me. Yeah, that's like a prison league. I know. No kidding.

I want to see that type of stuff happen. You know, Jamie, I can't believe you said that. That exact same thing happened to me. Glenn Featherstone grabbed Eric Desjardin stick and put it behind his head, and it went right in my mouth and cut my teeth. tongue in half and I couldn't eat for two weeks. It's so stupid. Glenn Featherstone.

Well, let's see if Troy Stetcher's had to deal with any of this scenarios in the past. Here's a Maple Leaf defenseman, Troy Stetcher. You ever have to deal with something like that, Troy? Someone using their blade or their stick to choke you out or try to cut your tongue off? No, I think the times have changed a little bit there. Yeah, you never played the British professional hockey league? Not quite. Okay.

What did you make? I'm sure you saw the Ridley-Greg sucker punch as a player in the league. What did you think of that? Yeah, I mean, I obviously won't say too much. I think Biz actually said it pretty well on the panel. It was kind of like a difference between like those rabbit punches and a scrum or whatnot and a fallen uppercut. So I'm sure something will happen whether there's a suspension or a fine

or if he's going to after answer the bell for next year, that's kind of a code that kind of runs across the league that you don't do, something like that. So, Trey, what do you do now? Do you take a little bit of time for yourself? You know, today's athlete, it seems like, you know, you shut it down for a week, 10 days, and then you're right back in the gym.

Is that fair to say, or the guys take a little bit longer, depending if they're banged up or not? It kind of depends on the guy, and also your age, you know, like this is my 10th year. I've kind of changed my training regimen throughout the years just on what my body needs and for me I was back in the gym today for the first time not that I was lifting weights but just stretching

and getting mobile again and just kind of working on your flexibility and just kind of seems like that next generation of players coming up or going out at 24-7 so it's kind of motivating it as a guy at my age right now still I can actually have a lot of years left there continue to work hard, you know. We always hear, you know, players that don't make the playoffs say,

okay, I can use this to my benefit because I get a longer offseason to kind of prepare. Do you see any? Obviously, you guys wanted to make the playoffs, clearly. That goes without saying. But can you take any positives out of the fact that now you've got a longer offseason to prepare for next year? Yeah, for sure. I mean, you said, obviously, first and foremost, you want to be playing. So you're disappointed in that regard.

But, you know, early in my career in Vancouver, we didn't make the playoffs the first three years. And just for myself individually as a smaller G-man, it was kind of a benefit. I got five months, three years in a row, to really work on my strength and work on my game away kind of from a system team setting. Same thing for this year, you know. I've been the past two years on Emmington.

We've had long playoff rounds going to the finals and losing twice, and your summer's only about nine weeks, so a third of that. kind of just recovering, resting, and then the next thing you know, you're kind of a panic mode, being like, oh, I got to train. So this year will be a good opportunity for me to get a good summer in, for sure. Troy, you mentioned your smaller D-Man, but mobile and skating being able to move the puck. Is that to, you know, feel like that's where the league is at when it comes to defensemen and their value from the back end as being able to, you know, advance the puck and jump into the play now?

Yeah, for sure. I think you kind of see the theme of that across the league. lot of these D-Men that are coming up. I do still think there's a big importance on how you defend, though. And I think that becomes pretty evident when it comes playoff time. But I don't know, I guess the whole mindset of just like playing defense has changed. The best defense is playing no defense. So if you have the puck all the time, it's a lot easier in that regard.

And it seems like a new generation of D-Man coming up like to play at the puck and have possession. So you don't really have to defend that off. Troy, I'm not sure I would imagine. I think you're a hockey guy and you're watching these playoffs. Is anything stuck out? Any teams got your attention, individual performances? What's kind of caught your eye? Just all the matchups in general, I think it's been really entertaining to watch.

I was really shocked out all that got swept. I didn't see that one coming. The Tampa Montreal Series has been super entertaining. It's really cool to see. see Utah, you know, do as well as they have so far, especially, you know, being in Arizona not a lot long ago and a lot of those core guys still there. So really happy for them. And, you know, obviously, Emmett can kind of let me go, which I was disappointed about, but still have a lot of relationships with those guys and hope the best for them. And it's kind of shocking to see where

they are right now, too. So, uh, what's your read on that? It's kind of been opening. Troy, like the fact that the others are up against it, do you, do you think the fact they played so much hockey the last two years factors in or is it more about what Anheim's doing? I think a bit of both. I think you'd argue both sides of it. As far as the series, I just think it's pretty

free-flowing and kind of open. Just kind of trading chances back and forth. But yeah, you did hit it. Like, they played a lot of hockey, especially some of their big guys, you know, going Olympics for Devo and the Four Nations and their dad's up. with Troy Stetcher. So in terms of your time in Toronto, like when you were acquired here and claimed he stepped in,

you played a ton, you played really well, you endeared yourself to a fan base immediately. We were talking about you almost daily on this show. What sparked that, in your opinion, when you arrived? Why did it kind of work? And what did you take out of your season in Toronto? I don't really know. I think just opportunity. I came in, like, there was a lot of injuries when I got here, and especially to the back end.

So I stepped in right away and just played. I felt like I played well the first three, four games. And from that, you just kind of get confidence. And I kind of ran with it for, I guess, six, eight weeks there, like, at the start. My game definitely dropped off. I had a certain point, too. Like, I went through a lull. Not to make excuse to myself, but just like everybody on our team, you know,

It seems like everybody kind of hit a rough patch at a certain point through the season. So my overall assessment in my year is, you know, I was proud to prove to the people in the hockey world that I continue to play. You kind of doubt yourself sometimes when you're put on waivers. At the same time, you know, there's no place for any complacency. Like, I understand that you've got to strive to be better every single day because somebody's always knocking on the door trying to take your job. So I was content, I guess, is what you could say.

So, Troy, you take a look at, you know, you're in Edmonton, you go to the cup the last couple years. You see that culture. They see that set up. And then you come to Toronto. And, you know, from the outside, I'm sure you had your preconceived notions of what it was like. Now you're behind the curtain. Do you see the framework of something good there? Do you feel like there's, you know, a base to work with?

And obviously, a lot of uncertainty moving forward with the organization, you know, what do you make of it? And would you like to be a part of, you know, that moving forward? Yeah, there's obviously a lot of good pieces in Toronto and just first and foremost how the organization treats you as a player is we're very fortunate. You're not treated that way across the league in many spots, if any other. So it's a real privilege to be able to, you know,

be a Maple Leaf in that regard. I felt very fortunate. There is obviously a lot of uncertainty around the organization right now. What I would like to be back? Yeah, I really enjoyed people. playing there. There's a great group of guys, a lot of good players. We had injuries, obviously, to our captain and our best defensemen, not to make excuses.

You know, those are two important people that were in our lineup. And just Toronto in general is just a hockey beast. Like, how can you not get up for those games to go there and represent that city and understanding how important the magnitude of the Charmaic Police is in Toronto? It's very cool to be able to play for them. With Troy Stetcher, when you say you're treated better in Toronto than anywhere else, or maybe anywhere else, can you give us examples on that? What do you mean by that experience that makes the leaf stick out?

It's just like little things, but you had player-only bus on the road, which can be great before game or after game, regardless of the results, but it's just the guys there together, you know, talking. On the road, you stay overnight in a lot of cities just because they feel like there's a benefit and you getting a better night's rest instead of hopping on a flight and getting into a hotel late. If you really want to get into it,

a lot of the things want to do that just on their budget alone. You know, you're paying for an extra night of hotel then you've got to play for the playing. So they do everything they can to try to maximize and get the best of every single player. It's pretty evident, especially for myself when I've been around the league and played for multiple teams, you can kind of compare one to the other.

It was cool there in Toronto to be treated where we were. Yeah, that is cool. You mentioned uncertainty just with obviously the situation in Toronto, with nobody at the helm running the organization. What does that do for a player at all different levels, whether it's Austin Matthews yourself, like as opposed to a regular season where you're like, all right, you know, see you next fall, whatever.

uncertainty up top, what would that be like for a player or how much anxiety would that bring for any player of any level? It's a good question. I don't know. It's pretty loaded. I think it would be you get a different answer on based on who you asked and where they are within the organization. Obviously, Austin being the captain, it's going to have a lot of different feelings

of myself who potentially might not be back. For me, you'd obviously just like somebody that's going to take charge and, and and stick to his guns and do what he thinks best for the organization. But for me right now, like, I'm just very focused on my offseason and try to become the best version of Troy Stetcher that I can right now. Well, we'll be tracking, you know, how this plays out for you, Troy. We enjoyed watching as a leaf. Hopefully it continues into the future.

And, you know, good luck come July 1st and throughout the offseason. And we appreciate you doing this today. Yeah, thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. You got to Troy Stetcher of the Maple Leafs. And again, free agent this year, we'll see what happens. And they've got to hire a GM before they figure that out. Yeah, that's the hardest part is the uncertainty.

Can you imagine the exit meetings here? You know, you've got Craig Barubi is uncertain about it. He's got a term on his deals, but he's still, you know, he's going to talk to an individual player and say, this is what I saw of you this season. This is what I think you need to work on, you know, all of that. But it's, you know, you're not sure if he's even going to be back. And then your agent probably calls and goes,

Okay, who might talk it to? I guess it's Brandon Pridham. You're going to talk to Bradham Pridham and say, where are you guys at? Well, we're not going to sign anybody until we know who's running the show. So a lot of uncertainty there. That's why I know people are anxious for it, but they've got to get it right, but they've got to get somebody in place here to answer a lot of these questions to get going. You've got to hit the ground running.

Scouting, right? There's pro-scouting going on. It's a big opportunity to scout during the playoffs. How do people look in the playoffs? Who can you find? That's a diamond in the rough. having a good playoff run. You know, that happens, and that's a big part of what the Leafs and other teams are going to do into the future.

But we'll see. We'll see what happens with Troy and, you know, the other pending UFAs on this team and the 31 other teams in the league. I've got my bar play updated list. You guys want to hear this? I can't wait. I want to hear this. So we had the first list was on Friday. And you realized you damn screwed up today and you redid it today.

Well, I've redone it. I will say this. There's only one carryover. This is how much things can change from Thursday to Monday. Because it's a different world today than it was. Dude, it is. Series are over. Let me guess the carryover, though.

Brandon Hago? Brandon Hago? Of course it is. Yeah. He's got seven goals, me? Of course. Is he at five? No.

No, dude. He said, I'll tell you where he is. I'll get to that later on. But here is the updated. This is round two of the bar play. B listing. The B-listing bar play of the B-listing bar play of the. Stanley Cup playoffs.

That number five, you twisted my arm, but it's accurate and it's right. Lane Hudson. I got Lane Hudson. You score an OT winner at the Bell Center. On a Friday night. On a Friday night, it's right downtown. Take your face off and just walk to Crescent Street with your gear on. All day.

That's a six-person escort security team from the Cheaperie right from the dressing room, right to the champagne lounge. Yeah. Like a single-person. Like a single lines. Yeah, secret service. Secret service, just like surrounding him right from the locker room, there's a path created right to the champagne lounge in the Cheaperie.

Well, I mean, as many have pointed out, that clapper went through about eight different people. I thought it hit something, too. I thought it hit a body. I don't know what it did. Top shelf. It was. Unreal, unreal snipe for Lane Hudson. So I got Lane Hudson at five.

Alex Lyon at four. I got the lion. The lion. The lion king. The lion king. He's awesome. I don't know if you know, like, you've seen him. And I will.

Churps, but he, I had a conversation with him before one of the games. Like, he knows overdrive. Like, I swear to God. Lion King, we salute you, brother. He said, he says a fraud. I'm not lying. You're kidding me. Now, I wish you told me that before I put him in the list.

I'm, yeah, but he said it as a. a joke and he goes watch the show all the time love you know like i swear to god the guy super cool guy and he's the thing about him is he's gotten better with age let's not forget florida's first run this is the guy who got them into the playoffs and started the playoffs before bob took over that's right in that building noodles against boston a tough building exactly and he went in there a legend gave up a goal in game three a goal in game four and listen the game was over the first period yesterday. Yeah, yeah.

It was over. But Alex Lyon, UPL clearly not getting back into the net anytime soon. So we got Alex Lyon, number four on the list, number three, and I can't believe this, Freddie Anderson. Oh, I love it. Frederick Anderson. He played great. He played great.

He was phenomenal. Four game sweep, right? We were all talking bussy this, bussy that. What are you thinking? How do you play Freddy? This guy put it together. and was outstanding. He gave up the one back, the cousin's goal.

Maybe you could find another one. I don't think so. He barely gave up anything throughout the whole series. Yeah, he was awesome. He was great. And I think Freddy's down in Raleigh, North Carolina, just saying, step aside. It's go time.

I don't know any places down there, but. They're probably golfing, oh. They're probably at your favorite course or whatever. These guys would have, it'd be nice weather right there. Beautiful down there right now. Gorgeous, man. I golfed every off day in the playoffs. So what they're doing right now is they go,

And that team is a hardworking team, man, gritty. So I guarantee you they're putting the work in and then to the course, maybe walk and do nine. What do you think? Like what is Rod Brindamore's workout plan the day after a sweep? It's probably just an outrageous. He might have given them a day off today, but I feel bad for them tomorrow because he'll, they'll probably give them a couple days off because they got lots of time. But it'll be like.

It'll be like. He'll start a little mini training. camp down there. Roddy Brindamore used to run the mini training camp before training camp. Like it was an unwritten rule in Carolina. Like you're down there August 1st. And Roddy and Peter Friesen, who's just an unbelievable guy who had like but did all the fitness. Yeah. I know Pete.

And yeah. And it was like track and running. Like it was it was on ice at this gym, go to the ranks, skate. Like it was, it was a training. It was an unwritten rule that we had this training camp before training camp. Awesome. Yeah. They'll be doing that in between the first and the second round because Carolina's in a very good place.

Dude, I'll never forget old school. One of the greatest guys ever, one of my close friends, Steve Chason, we were doing a six-mile run or six-minute run or whatever at the track. And it was for your fitness test. And Stephen Chasen could run like a gazelle. I'm not kidding you. This guy wheeled up in his pickup truck. took one last bite of an apple fritter and tossed it on the little wrapper, fired a heater out the window and beat everybody by a lap and a half,

and then got in his truck and went home. I've never seen a guy run like that in my life. Apple fritter to the wrapper, dart out, and then he just ran, blew by everyone. Some guys just are different, man. Dude, this guy could run. I've never seen anything. He'd run by you.

You could smell smoke, too. That's a crazy part. 100%. 100%. A little Marlboro light. Legend. Legend. I love that stuff.

We're drinkers, man. You get some guys who it's like, I saw you five hours ago. Non-functioning. Yes. Dead at the bar. And now you're just up and moving around. Be like, where are we going for breakfast? What are we doing to go for a run?

Dude, the scary guy, the scary one is the guy that could just have a heater of a night in 6 a.m., like, I've seen people of all different levels in the National Hockey, like, be in the lobby, and you're like, that can't even be in the same guy. And look like a million bucks. Dude, a million, not a wrinkle, not, like, sleepy, not crusty eyes. Like, nothing ever happened. It's crazy stuff. I just am not wired that way.

I wish I was. Be an all-time great way to be wired. You get three hours of sleep and you're 100%. All right. Freddie at three. At number two, I have the points leader in the Stanley Cup. playoffs. Jackson Lecombe. Dude. He's got sneaky points, dude.

Yeah. He's got like, if he gets a couple more in a series, he's up there with like all-time leaders, defensemen in a series, doesn't he? Totally. Like I was thinking of Pelling, you know, and he scored the O.T. winner last night. I was thinking of that. And I was thinking, you know, obviously they've had their, their two different power plays are both equally kind of distributed and they both were a big factor in last night. Those stalls made some big stops when he's had to, right? When it was two nothing i thought he made some really good stops to keep it there yeah but lecombe is like that kid is really good he's good well he was yeah i mean he i think he's a special player like i think he

you know is he's he could skate well he's got a great stick like to me this is a guy that is going to be an absolute stud for years well he like mac david i think it was the game on friday tried to go around him and he just said no dice no he pushed him into the corner and went hard into the boards yes yeah and i was like whoa who is that And that's Lacombe. And he's got eight points and he's telling McDavid bring it. Like, McDavid has turnstiled everybody in the league and he couldn't pull it off. McDavid, like, if you've seen the numbers on him, the amount of games he's been either even or minus,

it's like 11 playoff games in a row since he's been a plus player. He hasn't looked very. You know, he's had a struggle. I mean, I know he's injured, but I didn't think he played well before his injury. Like he, you know, and him on the penalty kill last night, if you look, like if he's struggling with an ankle to stop and start, You look at that Granlin goal, that's on McDavid. That's a given going Grandlin gets the scene between them. You've got to stop and start on those plays. You can't skate and turn.

That's why penalty killing is hard. I come back to it. That Carolina penalty kills is the best penalty kill I've ever seen. Roddy Brindamore played for Peter Lavulette, and Roddy Brindamore, if you look at any of Lavy's teams, he adopted the penalty kill because Roddy was Peter Lavillette's main guy. killing penalties and he adopted it it's the same in the neutral zone stack at a top pressure at the blue line immense amount of pressure in zone peter lavillette when peter lavillette took over the carolina hurricanes guess what his first meeting was about the penalty kill it was all mapped out on the board this is what we're the first thing he said before he even told me that he hated me penalty kill and this is how it's going to go down that's how important lavi like put on the penalty kill you've heard craig button say

You know, your power play, this and that, but if you don't have a solid penalty kill, like the penalty kill was Labby's baby, and it's Roddy's two, and it's the exact same one. They mirror each other. Yeah. Unbelievable. Well, you're right, though, about that Edmonton power play. It's not good right now. Well, the penalty kill's been awful.

That's the difference. And special teams have been the difference in that series because five on five, it's been pretty close. Special teams have killed them. And now, we got one? I'm at number one. Yeah, it's Brandon Hegel. I got Hegel. Oh, yeah.

Slam dunk. Yeah, it's Hegel. And the guy, he's in the middle of everything. You know, both his goals were Kuturov. But he's still got to get there and fight for checks and fight for positioning. Yeah. You know, Kutrov, the second one was fluky, but at the same time, great players, that's kind of what happens. He's like, I know there's bodies over there.

I'm just going to rifle it at the net and hope something works out. It did. But Hague's in the middle of Scron. You talk about penalty killing. He's maybe the best penalty killer in the league, real close to it. Yeah. Fighting, doing everything. Yeah, he's an animal.

Like Hegel's at the top of the list. So there's your bar play. You're updated bar play. There'll be a new list on Thursday. I love it, boys. I just want to show you this ref pointing at the net one more time quickly before we go to commercial. Joe from the bridge. Watch the ref.

He doesn't have anything on the go. And Brady puts his arms up and then he just points at the other side of the net. Yep, there it is. You're right, Brady. That's a great point. Like he's pointing at the far side of the net. And it's like there's not even a puck in there. Plus in Freddy's glove.

It was crazy watching that stuff. I love it. All right. Steve Phillips coming up. You Savage returns tomorrow. We've got Scherzer on the IL. What does it mean for the rotation? We'll get to that more next.

Experience Megan Maroni live on her only Canadian tour date. June 20th in Toronto. Her radio wants to send you and a friend with travel from TripCentral.com. The smart way to book travel. Tonight's hotel, $1,000 cash. Plus the new album on Vibald. Final cloud nine available now. I guess I should have known.

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We're sprinting. Brian Hayes, Jamie McClennon, Jeff O'Neill. We just had Troy Stetcher on. And he got me thinking a little bit. He said the luxurious life of being a Toronto Maple Leaf. It's like we stay in hotels when other teams don't, you know, this and that. Well, maybe what Keith Pelley or Matt Sundeen or somebody should do is find out if Colorado does that. I'm not talking about giving them the Cleveland Indians playing and saying there's a new way of doing business around here.

but maybe they're just a little bit too coddled where it's like fly back home and sleep like everyone else does in the NHL maybe you'll just be a little bit more grateful, a little bit more hungry. Maybe that's just one thing that needs to be looked at because they keep saying how coddled they are and how great it is,

but you know what they reward the organization with? Jack squat. Yeah. So why keep doing it? It's an interesting point because there's a, they're on one side people like well i don't love what pali's doing and i don't love ownership and i'm lousc and you know blah blah blah and then on the other side it's like well i don't love these players and they don't ever win so there's just bitterness kind of everywhere if you're

the fans but i understand what you're saying because you know the team players only bus where not necessary is get on the bus that is that is what are they talking about hey we just lost seven in a row boys like uh anyway back to the hotel we're playing cards tonight you know But I like the other way around it, and Steve can talk about it being a GM. I like it the other way. Because you know what? You lose? Sit on the bus and chew on it and don't act like everything's fine.

That's how it was for all 82. It's like, man, it's not that fun. You've got to be quiet. Players only, God knows what the hell they do on that bus. And that means no coach staring out. You'd remember how tough that was to walk on the bus? You would scratch the top of your eyebrow on the way by, just so you didn't have to look at them.

You walk on the bus after a tough loss and you've got a coach giving you the hairy eyeball or the GM. And they're always on the bus first, right? Yeah, boys. So waiting for you. Fuming. Here's Steve Phillips, our TSM Baseball Insider. What's that like? Baseball is a different game and a different world.

We're just talking about getting on a team bus after a bad loss. How does that work for a GM or a manager in baseball in terms of just staring at players as they get on the bus? Yeah, I think that, you know, 162 games and 187 days that they try to keep an even keel with it, right? Not too high, not too low. But there is an etiquette, right, when you lose. And it's no music on in the clubhouse. It's quiet voices, no real chatter. Guys quietly get on the bus.

And, you know, I know what they do once they get back to the hotel, you know. I mean, generally my sense was that, you know, the season's such a grind that, you know, guys, if they went out, they went out as a team. And, but they, it was more team building than I think, you know, not caring. And so, you know, I never, I never really experienced both from a player's perspective and being in the front office, teams that didn't care that, that, you know, that would goof around and have fun after losses and, and, and act. inappropriately. And so I have to say that I've been pretty well respect in what baseball players have done after losses. Steve, wasn't it tough, though, like this?

There's a fine line, and the competitor and you and the competitor and all of us, where say you've had a tough loss, and I get it. You've got 162 games, so, you know, I knew a lot of baseball players where the minute the game was over, regardless win or lose, it was, they were fine. Their attitude was fine. but just didn't you feel like in a tough loss you didn't want to see a guy who had a tough game laughing it up or yucking it up like you know i get when there's family oh yeah you know there's that that line of like professionalism was like just don't let anybody see you do jamy i have the worst one ever for you in vancouver we got pumped and i know i've told you guys this story before we got pumped eight nothing and the bus was like a little bit like we were just waiting around for everybody we're

waiting for somebody in the locker room, and I usually gave the locker room, intended $100 to put a case of beer in the back of the bus, and it wasn't back there. Just as the bus turns away, we're pulling out, he hammers on the front of the door, he comes on the bus after an 8-0-grubbing, and he goes, oh, jog, I got the beers. And I'm like, oh, my God, dude, like in front of Jimmy Rutherford and Paul Maurice, and I wanted to kill myself, and then him. Dude, you've got to. Just you let us go.

You don't have to put the beer on the bus. That's it. That's it. Have the beers and the 100 and go away. I was so mortified. So I will say it reminds me the one time that it was a big issue was we were in the playoffs, playing the Atlanta Braves in the league championship series. And we ended up losing Kenny Rogers walked in the game.

game winning run that night. And we lost the series. And in the clubhouse, Bobby Boudia and Ricky Henderson were playing cards. They had both been in the game and out of the game. They were in the clubhouse playing cards when the game ended,

you know, and the season ended. And they weren't any part of the team or anything else, and guys were ticked. They were ticked. And so somebody actually leaked it to the media. It became a story. So that winter, whenever I was going to the banquets, everything else, and I got up to speak. I always

got up and said, listen, I said, I've got a lot to say, but I'll keep it brief tonight, because it's card night. Bobby Bow and Ricky are waiting for me, and so I've got to get there in time to play cards with them that night. But it was a big deal, and Ricky didn't even know the next year he shows up to spring training, and so our media relations guy and I pull a minute, and say, listen, the writers all winter have been wanting to get you to talk about you guys playing cards in the clubhouse. But no, no, don't worry about it. I'll handle it.

So the writers come up to him and start to talk to him for the first time that spring. And they go, well, you know, Ricky, where are you coming from? He goes, oh, I'm coming from Vegas. I was playing cards. I'm like, what? I mean, like, seriously, read the room. And so it was just, it didn't matter. Ricky could get away with whatever.

And people would just write it off as just Ricky being Ricky. Steve, we toss around a lot of stupid ideas on this show. And earlier in the first hour, I asked Brian if he was running the blue, Jay's and the Mets picked up the phone and called him and said, if there's any way we could make the money work, would you be interested in taking Bo Bichette back? If you were on the J's receiving end of that phone, and I'm talking about cutting the money, I'm not talking about taking the full money on, Steve.

Would you pick up the phone? Yeah, I'd always listen. I never say no to anything. And I think you can't, right? You've got to keep an open mind about every possibility. You can always say no at the end, but yeah, I'd listen. to see what they might be willing to talk about and how it could piece together. I mean, you know, I don't want to pay them $42 million a year for this year in the next two years after it,

but I would listen if they wanted to whittle that down in a way and it made sense. And, you know, the shorter-term deal makes all the sense in the world from a GM's perspective, that if you can whittle it down to a two-year, you know, two-and-a-half years left in the deal, and it's at the price point where it would have made sense for me, then I think I go to ownership and say, hey, listen, we've got to, got a chance to try to do this, what do you think? I would keep an open mind about that. I mean, the Mets have so many issues right now going on, and it may be that they're soon

looking for a manager as well as the pressure on Carlos Mendoza there. They're 9 and 19. They got swept in a double header by the Rockies. The Rocky swept the series. When Dord got hurt on the day that Soto came back, it can't get worse. It doesn't feel like right now. and, you know, actually the Red Sox are in a better place than the Mets are at this stage. Right, and they're in town tonight, and Cora's out, and Chad Tracy's in on the interim

in terms of management or managing the socks tonight. And, you know, if you're the GM of the Jays, you've been put to work here, and Ross Atkins is making moves. Trey is Savage coming up tomorrow. He's going to make his season debut tomorrow against the socks, and Scherzer placed on the 15-day IL with right forearm tendonitis and left ankle inflammation. be a conspiracy theorist, but if he had a three ERA, I would suggest that tendonitis and inflammation would be fine, and he'd still be pitching. He really has struggled here. What do you see the

future of Scherzer being with this team, Steve? And on top of that, how do you expect you, Savage, to work his way in starting to run out? Yeah, so I think that was Scherzer. I kind of thought the same thing, like, how hurt is he? And then I thought, well, I'm sure things hurt on him right now. And so I'm not surprised by it. And I really wasn't surprised by the IL spit. You can't option it to the miners. You aren't going to release them because you might as well just, you know, if there's something that is nagging, then you do put them on the injured list. And then what you do is you rehab them, send them out of rehab start or two or three or four, and then read what your need is because it's what you may need that picture again.

Now, you know, they're going to start getting healthier. And, you know, hopefully Burrios will be back in at some point soon that Beaver's progressing, then they'll have too much pitching to where they, you know, they've got issues there. But for the time being, if Scher is aching, it makes all the sense of the world to put him on the injured list, protect your depth right now. And for you, Savage, mostly I want him to throw strikes. I think that if he throws strikes and works ahead in the count, he'll get by, you know, even if he's not perfect with his command, if you work ahead an account, you keep the hitters on the defensive, then you can induce soft contact, let alone swing and miss.

So, you know, he can't be tentative. He's got to come in being aggressive. That would be the message that I would make sure, come in there, do your thing. And, I mean, they'll probably let them only go about 75, 80 pitches first time back. And maybe they'll piggyback, you know, a lot around the back end or they'll, you know, protect them some with some weight there. But it's good to get them back in the mix. And again, a guy's first start coming back from injury.

never put a whole lot of stock and what is a fair expectation on it. But it'd be nice to get them back out there and having some success because it would make the Jay start to feel like, oh, yeah, this is who we thought we were going to be and starting to come around now. Steve, they blew out Hoffman as the closer. Like, why did Schneides waste so many of his breath saying, I have so much faith in this guy? And I, if there was ever a chance to close a game, I'm going on.

Like, what is the psychology of him doing that and saying that when a game later, they're just like, we can't have this guy as the closer. Why do they, and it bothers me in management and pro sports where people keep falling and, like they're so in love with their own ideas that they're oblivious to the outcomes in making change that they can never do it. Like, why did it take so long for this? Yeah, I think that, you know, they do it because they want to try to convince the player while they're probably trying to convince themselves.

And, you know, I think that they just want to keep pumping confidence and, you know, trying to get him to believe in himself. And look, there's no way once he started blowing saves that they had that much confidence in him, but you say it because you want him to believe it to try to get back on track. It's the best way to support a player to get him on track. The problem is that how many times do you do it

before you lose credibility with doing it, both to him and to others. And so, you know, and look, Ross Atkins, right from the beginning of the off season, Steph said, no, Huffman's going to be our closure next year. Hoffman's going to be our closure next year. And he said, we got all the confidence in the world, and I kept thinking, but why?

You know, like, it just is, as a baseball fan, when your closure has 16 decisions, he was 9 and 7, that's not a great thing for a closure. Crazy stuff. nice, but it means you get, right. You can't have 16 decisions as a closer. And then we had some, you know,

some blown saves this year. I think, you know, there's a way to say we want to rebuild him. He's important to our team. He's still going to get some big out for us. We're going to use him in leverage situations again. But right now for the ninth inning, we're going to go somebody else. And I think that that's what, you know,

the, they finally got to that point. And not a surprise for Barlin. Then it took him a couple times. You know, it wasn't easy the first two times for him to work through it. At base runners and it got a little dicey, but he got through it, and he'll find a rhythm that he can get into to be able to be successful. Great catching up with you, Steve. Enjoy the games tonight.

We'll do it again later in the week. Okay, guys, my pleasure. Anytime. Steve Phillips, our TSM Baseball Insider, joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Jay's Sox Tonight, Dylan sees on the Mountain Savage tomorrow. Barlins, you know, had two saves over the weekend. and he's had three saves in their last five wins.

So, you know, he had to grind on Saturday, but he looks good. He's had a great season so far. And he's kind of taken over that role as of now. Jay Sox tonight, game five Rapplers, Cleveland coming up after a big, big weekend at home for the wraps. Best Bet's coming up. We'll recap a busy afternoon. Overdrive continues up on YouTube Live. Experience Megan Maroni live on her only Canadian tour date.

June 20th in Toronto. The name is. wants to send you and a friend with travel from trip central.ca. The smart way to book travel. Tonight's hotel, $1,000 cash. Plus, the new album on vinyl. Cloud 9, available now. Download the free Iheart radio app.

Listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes. Win your way to Megan Maroni. World is hard on beautiful things. Every day you listen is another chance to win. All right, Best Pets powered by Fanduel. Make your picks and assemble the same game parlay on seconds on the Fandual Sportsbook app. I'm on pit tonight. I'm on pit.

I'm on pit to extend the series tonight. Side hunch. Side hunch. Done. Done. Done. Done, done, done, done. I think they're coming home.

You just got, I'm going to text you all night long. I'm telling you. I think she loves you, yeah, yeah. Oh, too. She loves is turning into a pumpkin tonight. I think he plays well again tonight. Well, Sid can be a difference. And Sid, I think, shows up, man.

That's exactly it. Back in Pitt. Philly's still raw, man. Like, they're raw. Everything was breaking their way the first three games. They earned it, but I think Pitt pushes back tonight. Best Bet's powered by Fandole.

Same game. Parlay is available for every Stanley Cup playoff game on the Fandle Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly 19 plus, physically located in Ontario. So you got those games tonight. Utah, Vegas, I don't have a great read on that game. Like it's must win for Vegas, but I don't know.

Well, the thing is, Vegas was out shooting them 11-2 to start last game, and then Utah scores right away, and then they took over the game. And it just seemed like, you know, Carter Hart didn't have his best game, but it seemed like everything that was getting thrown at the net went in. So, I mean, Vegas will have a response tonight, but Utah's no joke, man. They can skate. They got skills. especially in that building.

Now, the rash was there the other night. Tyson Nash, I saw on his Instagram. He was talking about how the building was popping and that. It did look like it had a pretty cool atmosphere. I will say that. Listen, we could be Utah-Anaheim in the second round. That would be wild if you see those two who saw that coming. You know, if Edmonton, Edmonton's in big trouble.

Like, Jari going in, do you go back to Ingram for three five? I'm not blaming anything here. I'm not blaming, but I said it a month ago with Struddy, and I said, guys, four a night's too many. Four and five of nights too many. However they're going in the net, it's too many. And they're still going in like that, so you can't have no chance. Well, they don't defend.

Right. However they're going in, Jamie, it doesn't matter. I'm not lame blame anywhere. But at the end of the night, it seems like there's four or five or six. And all the Oilers fans were chirping me saying, and you just hate, I don't hate anybody. I love the oil. I love Jesus.

He's one of the best players that's ever played. But you can't have five going in your net every night. They have been all year. Yes. They haven't been very good all year. I said it on the playoff preview show. They might be out of magic tricks. I thought they'd beat Anna.

I mean, I can't sit here. No kidding. But I said, just be careful. You might be out of magic tricks going down 3-1-0-2, and sure as you know what, they've done it again. And now they need another magic trick. They do. And I don't know if they have it.

They're not healthy and they don't look real good. I mean, last night was a coin flip game. Yes. They need to have a response tomorrow. But they had a 2-0-0-0 and 3-2. Well, that's 2-0 and 3-2. You've got to find a way. And those are self-inflicted.

Drysidal doesn't get that puck out on the 3-2. That's right. He wasn't very good last night. He struggled too. They need more. All right, boys. Good stuff. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out.

We appreciate it. Everyone for tuning in today. TV radio, podcast, web, and of course, up on YouTube live. We're out of here. enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at 4 p.m. We'll chat then. Experience Megan Maroney live on her only Canadian tour day.

June 20th in Toronto. The media wants to send you and a friend with travel from tripcentral.ca. The smart way to book travel. Tonight's hotel, $1,000 cash. Plus the new album on vinyl. Cloud 9, available now. Download the free Iheart radio app. Listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes.

Win your way to Megan Maroney. World is hard on beautiful things. Every day you listen is another chance to win.