OverDrive - OverDrive - May 8, 2025 - Hour 2

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes and Jamie McLennan for Hour 2 on OverDrive! Hockey Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup Champion Chris Pronger joins to discuss the Maple Leafs' gaining confidence, the lead against the Panthers in the second and Oilers' run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. GriffsThePitch.com Columnist Richard Griffin joins to discuss the Blue Jays' foundational issues, the bullpen faltering and the limited positives on the team during the losing skid.

Introducing Brian Adams Radio on I Heart Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride through 40 years of global rock and roll. Brian Adams Radio. Now available on the free I Heart Radio app. Or ask your smart speaker to play Brian Adams radio on iHeart radio. I was ready to rock. Power 2 Overdrive continues powered by FanDuel bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Brian Hayes, Jamie Noodles, McClennan. We've got Richard Griffin later in the hour on the Blue Jays. Not good man. Not not good for the blue jays all their long leads now to one of the worst

teams in the league there for games under five hundred concerning here in some of the quotes to after the game were but i'm not sure what's not her really can say you know but it's becoming very repetitive and you know we just gotta get out of here and just not going well we just got a reset and the beauty of sports is you get to come back and play the next day. It's just very tiresome. You know, and it's service already. This is cliches and it's like, guys, you're just not that good. And

maybe it changes. Hopefully it changes. But the fact is, you look at this lineup right now from top to bottom and there's not that good and they're playing while they're they're losing a bad team so many lose to a road of the angels this is supposed to be a serious that allows you to come alive yes not so uh... grip on that more later this hour chris pronger coming up here in a moment get prongs take on game two leaves panthers last night

and uh... the mindset for the maple leaves you know as you turn the page and head down down to florida for game three very different scenario or get two years ago florida came up here in and talk to games from the leaves and they were they were like tightly contested close games and i don't know if people remember that necessarily doesn't mean anything

because you lost the series in the end but what it blow out the Leafs two years ago. But they just did enough to get past them. They did enough to make life difficult for the Maple Leafs. Through two games, it's been a whirlwind, man. We're talking a lot of goals, lead changes last night. The hockey game was just an awesome game. It was just a fun hockey game last night.

It was. You know hockey game last night. Yeah, it was. And you know what, you're right, lead changes, that's the one thing. If you point to it, there was some adversity for the Leafs where, you know, they give up a goal, they get the lead, they give up a goal, and they go and get it right back type of thing. And then, you know, you pointed to Marner's game winner, you know, Florida ties it up. It looks like maybe we're heading to overtime type of thing. Whatever, six, seven minutes left. But how tightly contested that game was, it's like 17 seconds later, now you're back up again and you defend the lead pretty formally down the stretch.

They gave up some chances, but that's expected. Florida's got an extra man out there. There's some looks. Guys are blocking shots. It is playoff hockey. And it's been, even game one ended up close. It didn't start close, but it ended up close. But these are one goal games that you end up

on the right side of. And that's, and again, the pathway of how it arrived. It wasn't a game of perfect, but you got it done. And you take the wins wins and you move on That's the beauty of the playoffs man is that? You know during the regular season There's there's a process and there's different things you can look at and you consider once you get to the playoffs You know obviously you have game plans you want health you need goaltending

There's certain things that are going to apply, whether it's an exhibition game, a regular season game, or Stanley Cup playoffs. But really, there's no explaining a win. You don't ever have to explain a win in the playoffs. I thought they showed up and played well, and I think for the Leafs, you were bracing for Florida to throw everything they possibly could at you. Now, I think Florida would say they have more, and I think Florida now needs more. Like Florida's going to need to find a new

Level here in game three because it's a must win for them Really from the goaltender out, but I think you know if you're if you're a leaf fan And you're just enjoying the ride last night I don't think it matches game six against Ottawa because that's a serious clincher Those are rare moments for any fan base if your team team wins a series, you're not going to forget that game. You're going to embrace that. And maybe over the course of a long run, you look back at game two against Florida, and maybe it's a footnote.

But I don't think it will be because of, again, what I said an hour ago, that like last night set up, you know, we always talk about the leafiest thing ever. Or what do you expect out of the Leafs based on their history. Last night set up for complacent with a split at home, overly emotional because of Stolarz, uncertain because of Walls and Net. I didn't see any of that last night. No. I did not see that.

I think you've got to credit the head coach, Craig Borube. He was pretty hot after the game on Monday and I'm sure concerned for stole ours because by then he had way more information than we did Right and you know he did what he could to try to Push the league in a direction with Sam Bennett probably knowing it wasn't gonna work It didn't in the end Sam Bennett did not get suspended But then he woke up on Tuesday and immediately started cutting people off saying, we're not getting into that anymore. It's over. It's done.

Not happening. Like business-like, play your game, stay composed. And you could see it on the bench last night. He was saying it a lot to guys like, just settle in, settle down, play your game. And that, you know, the right soundbite from a coach at the right time, man. It's very meaningful and it can be very, very valuable. And I think Perubé has shown that really throughout this playoff series and really throughout the playoff run.

The one thing he has is a presence, right? Like that's the, you know, the difference for me, you know, when it comes to Chief is you see he kind of, you know, commands respect at the way he handles himself, but he's not a hothead back there. He's not yelling and screaming, and he's not grabbing guys or overly aggressive. If anything, he's the exact opposite. He's pretty subdued. I know the big joke is the Savvy's dancing around on the bench and the Savvy meter and

all of these other things going on. Great. You know what like I played the weird thing is I played with all three of those guys and they are very unique individuals on their own as far as personalities but Chief's personality what you see is what you get he's you know he could get fiery but he keeps it within the boundaries and he's very very composed and I think you could see that the way that he coaches the team has kind of rubbed very very composed and I think you could see the way that he coaches the team has kind of rubbed off that way. I think it's

again been very very valuable. Another guy you played with joins us here now. He is hockey Hall of Famer Stanley Cup champ. Look at this guy in ESPN last night. There's Chris Pronger. What's happening in Prongs? Yes, yes. Hi guys. How are you? We're doing doing well man we're doing very well up here at toronto i guess i'll ask you uh... yes you are well we should be right uh... we do not know if you saw this one coming would you make it a lease up to nothing

uh... i'd like to do you guys are talking about right before i came on just the composure with uh... with chief and i think you know i think it's been building since the day he got there uh... you know i think it's been building since the day he got there uh... you know i know here in saint louis how he handled that group in two thousand nineteen when they won the cup there are a number of situations that happened during the course of that playoffs that he could have easily losses marbles on the ref losses marbles on a call

uh... you know uh... you know i hit a goal whatever the case may be and it was very workman like very much like we take things in stride get over it you know we need to stay focused and and i think you're you're seeing his mentality in his demeanor as noodles was talking about uh... really rub off on the identity of their team so

you know watching the game obviously i i was watching your broadcast last night to see how you were in your couple of debuts and it looked good. What did you see from a Leafs standpoint and then we'll go over to Florida standpoint because you had to lay it out on both sides on the network you were on. But what did you see first and foremost from the Leafs standpoint and then we'll go to the Panthers standpoint? Well, I like the fact that they're not getting drawn into the mocking and grinding and the face washing and all the extracurricular activities that Florida wants to bait you into to slow the game down to their level so they can plod and grind and play that below

the circle game that they want to do on you. As it relates to Toronto, playing with speed, getting to the front of the net, looking at them trying to get in the eyes of Bobrovsky and that net front presence and the flash screens that they scored on twice. Those are the situations that I love to see. Years past, they haven't really done that. They haven't gotten into the middle of the ice. They haven't gotten to the net very much.

You're seeing it consistently with each line. I think the fact that they're getting secondary scoring from Domi and Nye and all these other guys as opposed to always having to rely on the big four, that really takes the load off. They're not gonna score every game. Sometimes the other team is really good too and they're gonna shut those guys down and they're gonna limit their offensive production and then it's a matter of can you get those other guys

to provide a little bit of offense and then play solid defense and play with it an edge and some physicality. In terms of the Sam Bennett discussion, you know, everyone had been talking about it up here. I've seen you. You're on TSN, ESPN, everywhere kind of discussing it. I thought from my standpoint I thought he had an incredibly quiet game. Like he really just I don't I don't recall him really bringing much to the table last night. What is what would your read be on that? Prongs Do you think that's a coincidence? Do you think it was the the noise of the last two days? He's an Ontario guy. He's got a lot of you know, family and friends who are Lee fans and it was crazy in this market man we would you think led to his was it was a it was crazy and it was a little hot yes

uh... you know i'm i sense that it it bothered him a little bit uh... just in the fact that he wasn't out there running a mock and blasted in the guys and you know he looked very measured in when he was gonna finishes jack and and how he was doing it and trying to make sure he always had his arms down and just he didn't play with the same reckless abandon that he normally does he wasn't really going to the net as hard as

maybe he would you know prior to the incident you know that that's unfortunate because I think it affects the game for them and the storylines. I don't want that to play a role in this. If you're Toronto, you want to beat them with all their guys at full health and we're going to hear all the stories about how does Matthew Kachuk feel, is the groin still an issue and all the different things that are part of the storyline for the Florida Panthers, but you know, I just got the sense that that's not a typical Sam Bennett game.

That's not how he plays night in and night out and in years past when there have been situations where, you know, he's had the ire of whether it be the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Vegas Golden Knights or whomever, Edmonton Oilers last year, it hasn't really bothered him. I think this one was just the vitriol and all of Toronto, all of Leafdom went hard poor believe them yet while i went uh... uh... hard-core adam doxing them into all the stuff that that happened uh... the next day and and uh... you know if if you're not prepared for it it can it can certainly affect you and you know i think now that the page is turned

i expect to see uh... the same sam bennett that we saw it in previous years in round one and and certainly game one uh... to show up in game three in south florida to uh... to see if they can try to get back into this thing being down to nothing in terms of uh... the leagues

kinda eyes being on you as a player i don't know if they even said anything to sam bennett because he wasn't penalized on the plane there was no supplemental discipline so i'm not even short there would be you know any any need for that necessarily from george perot's or anybody else but do you want to live in assume that you have had the eyes of the league on you at some point your career

like we're watching uh... if there were no other number of occasions hazy yes i could imagine uh... how does that how does that factor into the way you play in the way things could play out especially the playoffs uh... well frankly i didn't care so uh...

you know i was gonna play how i played sometimes across the line and you pay for it and Whether you're getting suspended or fined or what have you and that's life of playing on the edge That to me is the only way I know how to play to be as effective as I can be you know keeping the other team on edge and At bay at times and and then allowing me and buying me or my teammates that extra second to make a play, get the transition game going, get on the attack, get out of our end, whatever the case may be.

I learned early on what worked for me and my team and gave us the best chance to win. You have those conversations, whether it was Colin Campbell, Brian it, you know, you have those conversations, you know, whether it was Colin Campbell, Brian Burke, you know, they're not easy. And certainly it's in the back of your mind a little bit of like, okay, are they, like, how much scrutiny am I really getting here as I go to finish this check? And what are they really looking at? you gotta keep your stick down a get to go was that you know you gotta do all these different things uh... at the end of the day i was like well screw it i'm just gonna play as

hard as i can and you know what if it happens again it happens again i'm not going to change the way i play so what did you see what if you're you know in the last two games but particularly last night what have you seen seen from Florida that is missing from, you know, kind of what we were used to? I mean, even series one against Tampa, that was a different series for them, obviously physically and emotionally, but what are you seeing from Florida that they're lacking against

the Leafs in two games? Well, I think pace of play, number one one of the leaves are clearly the much faster team they play with more pace they have transitioned the puck much faster uh... they're getting that stretch guy out now to to really getting behind their d uh... they're not playing with the same sense of urgency that that i think r Toronto is right now.

And you look at every time Florida scored, Toronto has matched it right away. Within 15 seconds to a minute, they've scored either tie it or take the lead again. And they're just not giving Florida enough time to play with a lead or get comfortable. They're just getting right back at it. And they're not allowing them a lot of sustained pressure outside of the last five minutes in game one and the last three minutes of yesterday's game. They really haven't had a lot of sustained pressure. The Leafs defense core has been remade.

They're much bigger, they're mobile, but they're defensive oriented and they're battling harder in front of the net, they're clearing in front of the net, they're not allowing second, third, fourth opportunities that in years past we've seen. I think that allows the goaltender, whether it's Wall or Stollers, to really feel comfortable that, okay, if this rebound's here, it's going to get cleared, I just need to to make the stop I need to make that first save and then we're gonna clean up the rebounds Our guys are gonna be Johnny on the spot and I think counter to that The Leafs as I mentioned in this at the opening they've done a much better job of hanging around the front of the net

Getting all those loose pox getting the tips And I think that it's paid dividends not only on a lesser is but so far in these first two games with uh... chris prongers so they came to tonight in vegas uh... admittance dot to not them early in that game and then they storm back they took over the game they they really dominated outshot vegas twelve one of the second period never look back

what would you expects vegas to uh... bring to the table tonight game two i don't know i have and that's in his just gotten better and better and better and better with each game they were dominated in the first four games against l a for the most part outside of the comeback in game one

and then games three and four and add thaton they they came back to ultimately get the victory but they didn't play great completely dominated LA in game five and then again in game six and and you know the other night in Vegas they were much much better and much more diligent in the defensive zone they They gave up some chances. There were a few mistakes. Hockey is a game of mistakes and you're going to make them. It's trying to limit them to the best you can. And then after that, as you said, 12-1 in the second period with the shots. We tracked

it. Kaden Korczak had a 56-foot shot on net. That was their shot. Wow. So I'm not really going to call that a scoring opportunity. So they had zero in the second and not much in the third when you got a Hyman scoring that nice game winner and then Connor Brown's move to seal it for the fourth goal. They were very dominant in the second and third period and building off of how they took LA out, they're bringing with confidence, they're not giving up a ton yet and Vegas is a little banged up and I didn't think Vegas played that well against the Minnesota Wild

either. They easily could have been down, they were tied 2-2, they easily should have been down 3-1, I i thought in that series uh... so you know they're not firing on all cylinders in my opinion so let me ask you this about calvin picker it's clear like he

the team is playing for him he's played well he's made some good saves when he's needed to did you ever plan on trying to remember yet jakey where you guys you know what to the finals and and one like a was it michael leighton like who where was a silly and silly we had michael leighton and and brian boucher were to go listen they late in got her uh... in the boston series which was the second round

and then i wish went in and then bush got hurt in the montreal right at the end of the boston series which was the second round and then i wish went in and then bush got hurt in the montreal right at the end of the boston series and when late was ready to come back so that he came back so they you know we were and we had flopped back-and-forth all season i i i just think i guess my point is is you didn't have you had role of the goalie who you in edmonton where you guys acquired at the

deadline and he didn't we wasn't great you you snuck into the playoffs and then went to the finals like I guess that the Calvin Pickard story is very fascinating and and I'm gonna bring it back to Toronto here as well because now you've got both goaltenders that have had to go because of injury this is because of play you know in the playoffs now are you seeing teams seeing teams that adapt to what they have back there? And certainly the goaltender has to be good, but, you know, could Ableton make a run with Calvin Pickard, just him playing good Calvin Pickard hockey, or is it, do you think at some point they're going to have to go back to Skinner if they're going to get deeper?

Well, I think they have that opportunity, but I think right now you're running with the guy who got you there. Throughout the course of the playoffs, Skinner struggled. They went to Pickard. He's picked up the ball and he's running with it. He's looked pretty sharp the last few games. And as you mentioned, the luxury Toronto had was that Wall played last year and was their goaltender in the playoffs.

So he has that experience. He's not coming in cold. Pickert hasn't hardly played in the last five years. He hasn't played much in the NHL. So that's the interesting side note with him. But I've been fairly impressed. He didn't wilt under the pressure in the LA series and and certainly didn't the other night so And they're growing gaining confidence with him and they're also I think

Understanding how they need to play in front of them, you know as the goalies change the sightlines change You know how they like you defend where they leave rebounds how they play the puck There's so so many different things that play into it as you know noodles that uh... you know kinda like when you kick rebounds out to the defenseman is coming down one time and it's just not ideal but there's always a good set you reset right into it i reset after i put your foot foot broken and you give me the finger in

between periods and i'm almost crying yes yes still traumatized i'm gonna be fifty four in a month and a half two months and i still remember that moment like it was yesterday put it that way uh... well my little so remembers it to thank you as a child exactly this pronger so pronger there's this kid playing for osho of the names luca morelli's got

uh... thirty one points and the generals are the oracle father play the nights game one in london tonight the reason i mentioned that as i saw the oracle is chasing my record he's got your your he's got you in sight so you have forty points in the playoffs back in ninety two ninety three yet fifteen goals and forty points at twenty one games how many penalty minutes for you to say that there's no one comes not bad you can't you can you were composed actually fifty one penalty minutes how many

elements fifty one of the playoffs that year yeah i i'd yeah that's the same here i took a slap shot at teddy nolan's okay okay so that have been suspendable that's what i thought i was uh... based on now the suspensions and i've seen coming out of the a polly got twenty yeah uh... but but uh... i didn't even get

now i did i didn't get that in get a penalty i was saying we were killed a penalty and i needed ice the park their bench was in the way i was trying to go off the glass it just missed the glass kind of uh... what do you have to show that it's there that i was i was standing behind the bench on his hand area and i got a little bit of attention whatever i don't know i don't know man morelli will say i guess they'll hear from the original at some point say

uh... i try to see if you've got one games are he's got it he's got a really good chance yeah i mean it goes seven he's gonna need my personal tire still is off to you know is these he's playing was played sixteen games to always get thirty one points generals by sure they're not playing to one games. No they're not. Not Nehoi Chil. And this London team, they never lose. It may not even go five, who knows. Yeah, Frongs, we were joking about it the other day.

Who was it? Was it Mary-Lynn Mew had like two hundred and eighty points in sixty-three games. Yeah. Who was it when you were playing that had the ridiculous, I guess Lindros was kicking around when you were there. had the ridiculous was it i guess lindros was uh... kicking around when you were there lindros lindros my rookie year with there was some guys that didn't play pro but were really really good junior players that like a hundred and fifty hundred eighty points yeah you know you get those guys are nineteen years old or twenty years old yeah just a lot older guys they know what they're doing all day they've

already game the system and no uh... no they get the phantom second assist all the time uh... rest of the twenty-year-old and joe yeah has a little over three years that i can't wait to play those are the best guys yeah exactly like you get it already for the games like no i was at school all day what have you been here but they can't really all twenty-year-old plan it's like no i was at school all day what have you been doing at the picket error of all at twenty year old plan

uh... anyway chris it's always great catching up with you buddy will do it again soon thank you for this what about what i think that's going to do that's a great question noodles i don't know how to stop ranted and that's the question right now this idea the the boos is on the loose there this guy and i was i was joking before you came on I said this last night on our broadcast

He goes to shoot it it hits Sandberg skate and goes in I'm like if that was in Carolina That would have hit his skate and hit the mascot stormy the pig I mean, but now everything now everything he's shooting is going in the net I mean, it's just he's's on the heater of all heaters. But I thought Winnipeg played pretty well last night. So, you know, I thought it was a pretty good game. The goaltender looked like the goaltender. Actually, both goalies played very, very well.

So, you know, I think that it'll be a hard fought series. I wasn't a fan of Scott Arneal's comments that it felt like a game 45 of the regular season. Yeah, I know He's been they were not they were not that bad. They by the way they you know, they come back epic game 7 comeback and then to have the moxie and and the will to Again, try to mount a comeback and put apply the pressure the last two minutes to try to tie the game. They've got a lot of heart in that locker room. To say that, I thought it was a little disrespectful.

I thought they played pretty hard. The previous series with St. Louis, they were 100, I think it was 125 plus more hits in the St. Louis Winni a picture is that any other series and i was a lot of our right morris you didn't play as well yet they're missing that's really that they are they got there only just recently got a lers and already back so they're not really at top top speed in

there's a real i think i don't know what they're going to i'm glad you brought that up because i. I thought the same thing. They'll have a much better game, too. I'm glad you brought that up because I was thinking the same thing. That just seems unnecessary for game one. Yeah. I'll be honest. There are coaches that win press conferences. I think Chief does a good job. He's pretty light and makes a joke.

Paul Maurice is very well-spoken. Pete DeBoer. Our Neil is he never wins a press conference. He just... He's strong. Washington generals of press conferences. you know uh... peter borr arniel is he'd never wins a press conference like you just he's true washington generals of president he had just these out there and he's like agitated it like you just it even if when they win he's kind of beside himself like it i don't know if it's a super emotional guy or whatever but

there are certain guys when you look at it you can't wait to hear the press conference this guy you're like i don't need to hear it because i don't know why he's convinced i don't know what the team uh... yeah we're gonna bring up the assistant you know that there's a year zinatia i think that they are they have a good to see

uh... i brought my ways i'm gonna tell you guys this i'm gonna put my uh... dale howard chuck winnipeg jets jersey from when i was a kid yes right up here next time so that uh... we give them a little luck i love it there's a good jets cooking here in the second round yeah i promise good senior there is a status pronger uh... hockey hall of famer again holding a very established or chile record

forty points in uh... ninety two ninety three you would only eighteen years old probably a very established OHL record, 40 points in 92, 93. He would have been 18 years old probably. And all he remembers is taking a slap shot at Teddy Nolan. Yeah, trying to kill Ted Nolan by the bench. Yeah, what a run that would have been, man. And if Peter, the Pete's won the OHL championship that year, I don't know if they won the Memorial Cup or not,

but it was a pretty good team. Pretty good team. Corey Stilman on that team. Jason Dahl was on that team. Jason Dahl, he was a pretty good player. Really good. I think he played for Canada, I believe. Yeah, left shot. What a scene that would have been though.

Lindros Pronger, because Peterborough Osh was the biggest rivalry, like in terms of those two teams historically. Like every pocket's got Sudbury, North North Bay you got London and Windsor you got Kingston and Ottawa but Peterborough Oshawa has always been a big big rivalry that would have been something to be in the ring to watch Lindros a pronger go at it back in the day all right Richard Griffin coming up what's up with the blue jays i feel like we've been asking that question for years now maybe grip final as an answer for a city

uh... here the brunner will join us in the six p m our jill quinville looks like he's gonna get the job down in anaheim right forget uh... pierce take on that his take on everything going on throughout the n h l playoffs as well and uh... will continue to look ahead to game three for the Leafs, game two for the Scepters. The Scepters off to a big start last night. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. All right Richard Griffin

coming up here in a moment. Chris Bassett on the mound for the Jays tonight up against Jose Soriano, the Angels. Jays have lost two in a row. Max Scherz is on the 60-day IL, you know, we'll see we'll see what comes of it here for the blue jays four games under 500 Blowing leaves Jeff Hoffman who has been the lone not the lone bright spot But one of the primary bright spots of the season is now Not look great the last couple of games Do you think Scherzer like are we just gonna is this guy gonna play like I mean

That's what I think it's 5050 you see him again And then all bets are off after that noodles like maybe he returns and starts a couple and all of a sudden It's oh the forearm or so, you know, it just yeah It doesn't seem reliable for a guy his age who has not pitched a lot in the last few years because he's been so injury prone. Now different sport, but there's a Max Patcheretti angle to that, right? Patcheretti I'm sure at times this year we thought, okay, that's it.

We're not going to see this guy again because his age, because he's had really tough injuries for the last few years, hasn't played a ton of hockey. The problem is they threw Patch patch ready into the playoffs the Scherzer equivalent would be like Can you give us a couple innings in the playoffs? Well you got to get there first yes Exactly in order for that to pay off so I am not I'm not holding my breath I mean, I think it would be cool to see but Where do you go two innings three innings? Yeah got lit up I think give up a couple of see, but where do you go? Two innings, three innings, got lit up, and then gave up a couple of home runs,

pulled himself from the game, and now they've had to move on without him. They're 36 games into the season, he's given them two or three innings. There's still lots of season left. Lots of baseball left, come on. The problem is, yeah, the problem is, is what we're seeing, we're not loving.

That's what we, you know, sometimes we're like are like all they're on the cusp of this like you can sometimes see a team build You can see a team, you know on the verge of breaking out or this guy's had a good game They ended up the pitching let him down, but they're hitting well, like it's it's not nothing Look, no component is looking good right now. Yeah, the young kids are not looking good nothing i'd like to know if you're not looking good right now yeah young kids are not looking good now the springer set a decent year he's had a good year relatively speaking george springer's played well

yeah but uh... you know the top of the order has to simply not been good enough nowhere close to it richette in the body in the sun tonder has been nowhere close to good enough and if you're not gonna get it from them what are you expecting from alan roden and you know Addison Barger and guys like that. I mean you just have to be realistic in terms of what your expectations are for a lot of these young guys you know are hitting seventh, eighth, ninth every single night and they're not pulling their weight but neither is anyone else for the most part.

Here's Richard Griffin from griffsthepitch.com. Griff, we're four games under 500. Now all of a sudden John Schneider just can't stand LA, he wants to get out of LA, he's using all these different analogies to explain what the hell is going on. Yet, they're in LA to play the Angels, not the Dodgers, and they've lost two games in a row. Is this rock bottom or are we still moving towards rock bottom? Where do we stand on things right now? Well before we get into that I got my own good news bad news situation. The good news bad news

for the Dodgers or for the Blue Jays is they're in LA but they're not playing the Dodgers. The bad news is they're playing angels and they get swept so s that is troubling my good news is the uh... i'm gonna and a child playoff scoring pool and i got me lander in the rat man uh... all my heart you should be winning and i think i'm i have to go comfortable

i just found out today that i've taken over first place and i'm not expecting to give it up out of the battle the bad news is that i've found out today that I've taken over first place and I'm not expecting to give it up. The bad news is that I found out today also it's the first time in my life I'm older than the Pope. Yeah, that is concerning man. Pope Leo, right? Yeah, from Chicago. Deep dish guy. I got him there. Right? Chicago popcorn guy. Has to be, I would think. Yeah, it's not good, man. It's not good. And what is concerning the last two games is that Jeff Hoffman has been so good for them. He's been so dialed in. He's been automatic for the most part all year. And I don't even know why he was in two nights ago. I guess I get it. They didn't play on Monday, but it was in a safe situation they were losing the game he comes in against

blown up even more i have no idea why was in on monday on tuesday and then lastly he comes in its for one i guess it was for two and he steps in and it happens again yeah three of the last four games have been uh... the bullpen uh... coughing up leaves late so So I mean the other loss was a legit two run loss but you know if you turn that around as John Schneider could say well we're that close. Remember last year he told me that he

thought that the bullpen cost his team 10 wins and I was using that as a reason why they could turn it around with this bullpen and be a mid-80s wing team. Well, they're a quarter way into the season and the bullpens already cost them four wins. So just simple math tells you that it's not helping them this year having Hoffman and having Jimmy Garcia back. And the problem with the bullpen is that you've got your top two guys both slumping at the exact same time. And I'm thinking that maybe one way and when they use the excuse and I heard it on TV on the broadcast is that these guys have been used a lot and you know they're probably tired. It's May the 8th. It's May the 8th. If you've hit the wall

on May the 8th, then this is going to be a very very long season. So I'm thinking that maybe what they could do, because there's an old injury that when you don't really want to identify what it is in baseball, you call it dead arm. You might want wanna give alternately Hoffman and Jimmy Garcia 15 days stint on the IL with dead arm and just let them refuel and catch their breath because they're gonna be needed as this season goes on.

Otherwise, it will be a long, long, disastrous season. So, Griff, before you were coming on, I was trying to paint a rosier picture and say we're still early in the season. Is there something where you're like, okay, this team is close on this or if you could just have this, it's starting to turn the corner? Is it just so many facets that Are not firing for the group that has put them here or is there any type of silver lining where you could point to and go Well, this guy's on the cusp of playing well

Are you starting to hit the the ball well or something like that is there anything positive to gravitate to? Jamie if you remember my attempt at Nostradamus early in the season I said that that Mad Max would make 25 starts this year so far so far has been three innings and 15.5 million dollars yeah but I would say that looking for his silver lining you've got a guy like Santander. I can see him starting to swing the bat a lot better. It hasn't showed up in the home run results or the batting average, but he's swinging the bat better.

Alejandro Kirk is swinging the bat better. Vlad is Vlad. He just needs to add power. I mean, he's hitting a 119 mile an hour ground ball and 120 mile an hour single. So he just needs to elevate those. And we say that every year early in the season with him, but that's not enough. I mean, they've already sent Roden back. They've sent Davis Schneider that we all knew shouldn't even have been on the team coming out of spring training. They sent him back. The bench is not strong.

I mean, they've spent so much money on their starting players, and that's the difference between the LA Dodgers and everyone else. The Dodgers don't care how much they're spending on their bench, so when there's an injury, they've got basically someone else's starting player filling in. And such is not the case for the Blue Jays and other teams that are trying to be playing among the big boys. And so Spencer Turnbull is a guy that they're looking 32 year old, he threw a no hitter with the Tigers.

He had a promising career, but he's only made 34 starts in his last five years. Granted 2020 was the COVID season. 2022 he missed completely with Tommy John surgery, but that might be their best shot at completing a five man rotation. And Bowden Francis has become a roller coaster because teams have made adjustments and I'm going on and on and I really haven't come up with an answer. Concerning to me like the last guy you mentioned there Francis you know

was was just it's a classic example of a guy red-hot in August and September when the season's over to his credit he did it and he was phenomenal he was phenomenal but it was always going to be cautiously optimistic uh... that you believe that would just extrapolate into thirty thirty two starts the next year and he's getting blown up like he's getting hit really really hard every time he's out there and you know sure so we have no idea when he's gonna pitch so they're trying

to patch that together and then the three other guys are making a lot of money and they're all good pitchers but none of them are horses none of them are Cy Young caliber guys. Yeah they're not Cy Young caliber guys but they have had good years that just doesn't show up when you're not scoring any runs for them. Well and that's been the case in the past and I was gonna that's what I guess I was getting to was I don't think it was this time last year was probably closer to June where we heard Gossman and we heard Bassett say man there's pressure on us to be perfect

you know more or less some paraphrasing that's got to feel like deja vu for them again right back into the guy who if you really want the pulse of the clubhouse that's the guy you go to because he's unfiltered. We all know what's going on in there, but to get someone to say it is a difficult situation, is difficult to do. And as you point out, Hayes, the August-September performance by Bowden Francis was because he made a slight adjustment to his repertoire and his pitch usage. And so it carried him through two months with nobody really catching on. But over the winter, they get a chance to look at video of him, what he's done, what

his tendencies are, and now it's catching up with him. And he might be a fifth starter where you get a good start and a bad start and if you score enough runs you can win some of his bad starts but this team isn't scoring enough runs to win guys with their good starts. No, that's the truth. Yet, you know, there's a lot of money on this payroll. The expectations continue to be high internally. I don't know how honest that necessarily is in terms of the assessment, but that's what

they're saying outwardly and publicly. Yet, here we are, 36 games into the season. It's May 8th, like you said, and they're on the verge of possibly being swept by the wrong team in LA. It's not good, and then it's not going to get any easier as they head up to Seattle for the weekend. When you're whining about the workload on May the 8th for your pitchers, it's not a good sign at all. They're going into a Seattle team that really looks exactly like a mirror image of the Blue

Jays if the Blue Jays are playing well. They've got a good rotation. They've got questionable hitting, but guys that can step up and carry for a week. And the Mariners are doing that and the Jays don't have anyone doing that. No, they do not right now. We'll see. Maybe tonight's the night, Griff.

Thank you for doing this. Appreciate it as always. Yeah, if we can stay up that late, tonight might be the night. Tonight's the night to check out. Thank you Rich. Alright man. There's Richard Griffin, griffsthepitch.com. Yeah it's you know, it's unsettling man. I know I'm like give me something. Nah there's nothing. There's something that would be if they won 90 games last year and you're like give them some time. Last year it was a miserable season. The year before the way they came down the stretch was really not good. And again they got a top five, top seven payroll in the game and you have no depth and you've got no back end of the rotation, your bullpens on fumes. It's a confusing spreadsheet.

It's one of those, you need a bean counter in there to say, how are we spending this much money with results like the ones you're getting right now? All right, Pierre Lebrun in about 20 minutes. Our best bet still to come as well later this afternoon. Overdrive continues, TSN 1050 and on TSN 4. All right, Pierre Lebrun will join us in about 15 minutes. Captain of the SEPTters Blair turnbull at 630 We're giving away a couple of pairs of tickets as well, right?

PWHL playoffs kicking off and the scepters were the big win last night turnbull was on Fire, so it's a good night in Toronto last night, man you can't beat that from a hockey perspective the Leafs winning the scepters winning and We had some craziness going on in the NBA as well man the Celtics blew a 20-point lead I don't know what's going on with sports right now I don't know it's crazy like I tweeted out last night I'm like the Leafs and the Knicks are up to nothing in the second round yeah like what is happening right now that's what you see oh I'm sure you see them online like the last time this

happened was this the last time you know A pope was picked this quickly was 1967 like is this real like are people vetting this or are we just falling for all of it? but I think leaf fans Nick fans everyone's trying to connect the dots right now and Maybe start to I don't know start to believe that it could be a magical spring Hope beautiful Leo Pope, there you go. Whatever. There's a bunch of numbers beside it too.

I don't even know. The guy's from Chicago. It is kind of interesting that someone from Chicago is kind of running the show in Vatican City now. But yeah, it was a crazy night last night, man. Crazy night last night. And I want to play the Brad Marshand commentsank comments will do that at six o'clock. Yeah, and you interpret them for me.

I have a spin on it. My initial thought last night was one thing and I've kind of twisted and turned a little bit on this. Okay, I want yeah, let's play it. Okay, we'll come back. I will play it and we'll get your take on it. My take on it. Pierre Lebrun will join us as well.

We'll get into this, you know story about Joel Quinville Looks like he's going to be back in the league down in Anaheim Yeah, Pierre will join us on that as well final hour coming up overdrive continues TSN 1050 and on the TSN app the biggest songs in the world You've heard them countless times now learn the details of how they came to be Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. Happy birthday to you.

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