I do want to bring something up, and I know the least one in the game yesterday, but at what point in the season are we concerned about Mitch Marner as a player? I love Mitch Marner playing. I think when he's at his best, he's worth the cap hit. He has had-Great pass on the willy goal. He has had a lot of points. People are going to look at me. He's like, he's a point of game player. At $11 million, he needs to be more than a point of game player, frankly. But I think it's less about the You can go look up somebody's stats online and be like, well, they've got... Well, look at that. What I want to see is him being a factor in play a little bit more. And that's something that we're used to in Toronto. And I'm not seeing him be the factor in play in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone that we're used to. He's not getting the takeaways he used to get. He's not interrupting plays the way he used to. He uses his skating to really charge at guys when he doesn't have possession.

It's a spectacular weapon. Not seeing as much of that this year, guys.

One thing I want to ask you guys to get into this is I notice what you're saying. It's a very good point because I noticed it when I was at the game live, the sends game that they blew, is when you can see When you can ISO on a player just with your eyes instead of a camera trying to ISO on him, and you notice that Mitch isn't doing the same things that he did previously in terms of dominating the play with his skating ability is really how he does it. I want to know if you guys saw that, when you guys were at the game last Saturday, if that's where you spotted Mitch Marner not being quite as Mitch Marner. Here's my problem.

I didn't see him at all.

There you go.

That's the thing. Mitch Marner is a noticeable hockey player.

Matthews was noticeable. I don't know how effective he was, but he's noticeable. Oh, for sure. Nice was a guy who... He actually created some chances out of... I think he drew a penalty by going one on three on the Red Wings. That might have even been the penalty that led to the power play goal. I can't remember. But there was a play I noticed yesterday. I can't remember who the defenseman was, but they dumped the fuck in, which is fine. They dumped the fuck in. The leaf who is going after it is Mitch, and the Red Wings are first on it. And he's good at stick lifting and taking it away and everything. But he's not getting that fuck. So the idea of dumping it in doesn't work, not because dumping Dumping the fuck in doesn't work. It's because you're dumping it in for one of the skinniest guys in your team and going up against a pretty big D core. It's just not going to work. I'd rather have that fuck go into the corner for nice He digs it out, gets it to a guy like Mitch along the half wall who can dish it to anybody on the ice.

He has an elite skillset, right? But sending him in after it to go get it, it just doesn't work. I guess it's a good sign that they're scoring so much. They're starting to get scored on less, which is nice. They're not allowing four goals a bloody game. They're racking up points. I wanted the Leaps to get at least five points out of their next eight at the beginning of the week, and they've already got six. So everything is gravy. If they beat Minnesota, they go eight for eight. That's awesome. But at some point, you know how we talked about you can't just go down to nothing and win every game? You're not going to have success in the playoffs if this player isn't elite. Yeah. He makes elite money. He makes every night difference maker money. So he has to be a difference maker every single night. I don't think Matthews is totally blameless in this either, but like, Mitch is a little bit more concerning.

Well, and I think the I think the difference with Matthews is the results are there. When Matthews is on, he was at 13 goals in 12 games. He's now at 13 and 16. I'm less worried about that. He's been streaky, but yeah. Okay, fine. Be streaky. Goal scores often are. Again, I do see Matthews as a bit more of a factor in the boring five-on-five back and forth. The only reason I'm noticing it with Mitch is because it's been such a part of Toronto Mapleleaf Hockey for eight years now in how spectacular he's been. It's noticeable when he's not. I'll be honest, it just doesn't feel like he's got the legs the same way he did last year. The thing with Mitch Marner is he never really starts slow. He's got the legs from the get-go, and I wonder if there's a nagging injury or if there's something going on there because it just... I'm sorry, anybody that's watched him knows that this is not Mitch Marner's best. It's good. It's very good. But he is very good. I want him to be great, and I've seen him be great. There's There's 60 games left for him to be great.

I wonder if... I'm not trying to make excuses for the leaves. I just wonder if jet lag is a bit of a factor for some of these guys.

Has jet lag been a part of this for 16 games, though? Yeah.

Well, yes. So you're correct there. But one thing I've noticed is go look at how close together all of Ottawa's goals were in the first game. Then look at how close together all of Detroit's Detroit's goals were. Then go to the next game, how close together Detroit's two goals were and how close together the least three goals were. It's almost like, Hold it, hold it, hold it. Oh, okay. Sudden moment of inspiration, and they get all their work done. It's got to be difficult to come up with a 60-minute performance in this specific situation, but the 60-minute performances haven't been there long before.

Yeah. Stockholm. We're talking about something that's been happening before Sweden, for sure.

Right. And another factor in the fact that the Leifs came back, not to switch off a Marner, but the Red Wings lost Jake Wallman, who's an underrated player in this league. He's been a thorn in the side of the Leifs and a few other teams. Seeing that injury, I don't know what it's been listed as. I don't know if they've said, But the way his back bends, that is not going to be a comfortable ride home. I worry about these guys on their way back home. They mentioned the ride, the flight here didn't do John Klingberg any favors, which is really concerning on account of he has to fly back as well. Oh, I wouldn't want to be Jake Wallman flying across the Atlantic with whatever he's got.

The Wallman injury, it was everything because his shoulder goes into the post, then his head is crushed. It It was horrible. And then his lower back, obviously, like you mentioned, because his whole body's doing that. And then also his right knee/leg also went sideways into the goal. It was a really, really bad collision with the net there. I felt so bad for him.

It was the first time I saw the replay because we were following the buck, right? So the Leaps think they scored, and we're all paying attention to that. And it was actually, I don't know if you noticed this on the broadcast, but he's down on the ice. The trainer is out there with him. He hasn't moved. The music is blasting throughout the arena. We're going to hear that. No, don't stop the party. Then it was 10, 15 seconds of that, and then they turned it off because they're like, Oh. I don't even think the people there realized, Oh, he's messed up. It was dark It was funny. I think it affected the Red Wings. There was a tweet Drew sent that a lot of people didn't really understand. So there's this host named Juice, who you He wears like, sunglasses, and he's just like a happy-go-lucky guy who I've seen at a few events like this for the NHL. He just asked everyone funny questions and stuff like that. Second intermission, he asked Dylan Larkin like, Hey, have you learned any Swedish phrases or words or anything like that? And he asked this the night before, and everyone was fine and accommodating.

And Dylan Larkin is just like, I don't know. I'm just here to play hockey. And he said it like that. It came across as really rude. And we were like, Jeez, way to sell the game. Sell it, Dylan.

Sell it. Come on, guys.

But now thinking about it, now thinking about it. He's the captain of the team. One of his teammates, and I'm sure friends, goes down with what looks like a fairly serious injury. He probably just wants to... I don't want to be talking about how to say, Can I go to the bathroom in Swedish? I want to get back to the dressing room and make sure my guy's okay. I get that. But you still got to sell it, Steve. I think that might have affected them.

I know, but you still got to sell it. I'm sorry. I do believe... Listen, I don't think his answer would have been a whole lot different if Wallman's not in that dressing room uninjured. If you want to debate me that it will, you're not coming from a factual spot.

This is something you're always on, Adam. It's all the game. You got a 30-second comment for the guy who's just trying to have some fun. You can suck it up and do it. You're getting paid tens of millions of dollars.

I understand concern. I totally get it. A thousand %, I get the concern. Just say, You know what? I've learned that the Swedish people are great and we're having a really great time. I am a little concerned about my teammate, though.

Yeah, You can walk and shoot gum, guys. I'm sure these guys have the right to be like, I'm not doing that.

Yeah.

You have the right to... As you're getting off the ice, the media coordinator or whatever can guide you over to them. But players refuse all the time. No, I'm not doing it against someone else.

I don't know. Yeah. Now, listen, I know I'm going to get lit up for that, so I'll just own it. I do think that if you're the captain of a major franchise, you got to help sell it a little bit. Injuries do happen in hockey, and I understand. I completely, completely get it. I watched our captain get a knee to the head from Corey Perry, and players have to try to answer questions after that game. But we got to sneak it in there for something.

It's hard to talk about the moment because I don't know if it was recorded anywhere. I had a quote from Nielander from a press conference where they asked him about the Stutzla goal, and he's like, Oh, I don't know. I didn't watch it. People were like, Why is that okay from Willy? But that from Larkin is not okay. I was like, Oh, no one actually saw either interaction. I was there for the Willy press conference. I haven't seen it posted anywhere. I was there for the Larkin thing. I haven't seen it posted anywhere. It's just like, Willy was like, I didn't see it. It was funny, and Larkin seemed pissed. Yeah.