Winnipeg Jets training camp continues, Blue Bombers prepare for TiCats

Winnipeg Jets training camp continues, Blue Bombers prepare for TiCats

I around This is Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily with Andrew Hustler Patterson and Michael Reis. What’s going on everyone? Welcome to another edition of Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily. Andrew Patterson, Michael Reis with you. Connor Rabchack’s going to join us down from the rink as the Jets continue their practices in the preseason and we got a game to talk about last night, the debut of Jonathan Taves in a Winnipeg Jet jersey down at Canada Life Center. Um, going to be a fun one. We will have Marata Chesh join us. I’m very much looking forward to getting Morat’s thoughts on the game last night, Jonathan Taves, as well as the star of last night’s game from the home side’s perspective. And that would be Colby Barlo who has uh had a heck of a camp and continues to impress. And uh we already see people talking about Barlo in the chat courtesy of his two goal performance last night. Um, we’re also going to talk more CFL bombers heading into Hamilton. Rule changes announced this week with a guy that knows a thing or two about the Canadian Football League and offense, and that of course is the turtleman, Winnipeg legend, Miltsteagle, who also happens to be uh, one of our friends that’s uh, one of the faces of the HSC Millionaire Lottery. Get those tickets in before tomorrow night at midnight for that first early bird draw. Um, little bit later on, Thomas Tipple’s going to join us, talk a little NFL and fantasy heading into the weekend. We will get to the cool bet lines. We will get to our picks. Uh, after today’s show, uh, right following it, um, we’ve got another edition of WST Winners, Pat Gregor, and I diving into the RDER Cup this weekend. Favorite golf event on planet Earth for myself and Pat. We’ll take a look at the US and Brit and Europe teams and make a few picks before we actually have pairings for the festivities to get going in on Friday. Speaking of cool bet, uh, tonight is the return of WST Poker Series. We’re doing Wednesday nights throughout the rest of 2025. Jets almost never play on Wednesday, so it’s a nice night off. 8:00 p.m. tonight, we’ll be doing it. If you check our social channels, there’s information on it, but essentially just go to cool bet um click on poker, download the poker app, and then go in, click on tournaments, search WST. Our WST tournament will be there. $30 entry. There’s a $100 bounty on my head, $100 bounty on Remis’ head. Former champion Jeff Hamilton, aka Shortsteide Snipe, is going to be in there. So, uh, would love to have new people join us that haven’t done us in the tourneys before and of course everyone that’s played with us before. Uh, let’s get it going tonight 8:00 PM. And again, you can check our socials for more information. And one other bit of business before we bring Michael Reis in. The wait is over, folks. We are locked and loaded and WST Winnipeg Jets ticket nights are live right now. Starting with a limited amount of tickets for the home opener. Um, we’re starting it big right out of the gate. Really appreciative to the Jets on what is sure to be a soldout game hooking us up with an aotment of tickets for WST listeners. So, um, the link is right now live in the chat. If you’re on the mailing list, you will have already gotten an email with the link for it. And, um, definitely for the home opener, if you want to join us at the game, get them now because those are going to go very quickly. Uh we then have the Carolina game on November 21st. Nikolai Eers return to the Jets. We’ve got a that’s a Friday night game. Friday, January 9th against the Los Angeles Kings, which is that apprais goggles. Should be a real fun one. Um Wednesday, February 4th against the Montreal Canadians. The uh last game before the Olympic break. Uh Thursday, March 5th against the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Olympic break. And we finish it off with Saturday, April 11th, 6:00 p.m. against the Philadelphia Flyers. So, those are the six games. If you go to the link right now, you can grab your tickets and count yourselves in. Um, for the other five games outside of the home opener, we will have early access. Um, the doors are already opening half an hour early for the uh for the home opening game. So, we’ll come when it opens. will gather and uh we’ll be up in and around section 316 for the home opener and five other games and hopefully we can run the table again like we did last year. Um just before we bring in Remo, huge thanks to all of our partners including the Winnipeg Jets, Cool Bet, Princess Auto, uh the HSC Millionaire Lottery, Rolley’s Transfer, St. Patel Dental Center and Canadian Club F apparel Manitoba Battery Little Brown Jug Royal Sports Boston Pizza Cineoa Downs Breezy Band Country Club and of course we’ll get to a why not question of the day for not Autocorp but Waverly and McGillry and hear from you in fan feedback for fansfirst.ca. Michael Reis, what is up? Uh the wait is over. I know people have been very excited to get together with the WST crew again as we did last year and uh tickets are available now and I’m so pumped we got these seats for the home opener. What a night that’s going to be. Yeah, home opener unveiling of the banner but the president’s trophy what the heart trophy trophy in the building. Very exciting kicking off the season against the team that ended the Jets season, the Dallas Stars. Will there be some re I don’t know if it’s necessarily revenge because it’s regular season but still you’d like to start the season with a win and also you know perfect 6 and0 last year and we keep it going this year a lot of pressure on and some nice uh nights of games uh what two Friday games a Saturday game uh two Thursday games and the Wednesday game which is the last game before the break it’s also against Montreal so you know there’s going to be a ton of uh fans in the building either way. Jets, we need Jet fans at that game. Jets fans, Montreal fans, they’re crazy. So, uh, I can’t wait to get back at it again. Got the pregame party ironed out this year, Hus. So, the drink, you get a drink with the ticket as well. Goes into your Jets app. Very exciting. Uh, looking forward to seeing you and everyone there at the games this year. People been asking, sent out it on the mailing list. It’s on our social media, winnipegjets.com/wst. Yeah, the I I think the home opener tickets that first game are going to go quick. So, if you don’t have seats already, jump on it and uh join us October 9th to begin a new era of Winnipeg Jets hockey. And of course, welcome Jonathan Taves officially back to the National Hockey League. And we saw Taves for the first time last night. I’m going to start it off right away before we hear from Scott Arneal with the why not question of the day for not autocorp Waverly and McGillry to all of you. What was your first impression of Jonathan Tapes in his first preseason game last night? We’ll certainly give you our thoughts, but we’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the chat if you’re with us live right now on YouTube here on Winnipeg Sports Talk. Um Remo, the uh the game, you know, was really to most people, I think, about Jonathan Taves. We did see a lot of the younger players though, the Winnipeg Jets, uh Kobby Barlo, Brah Braden Joerger, uh I thought Elias Salmonson continues to look really good uh playing with, you know, playing with Dylan Samberg last night in that role. Um but let’s face it, I mean, it was uh it was a little different. I mean, even at the warm-up, there were people out cheering for Jonathan Taves. uh far more attention to the starting lineups last night for a preseason game than normal with Taves getting out there and uh you know from where I sat last night I thought uh it was a really nice start. He um certainly did not look out of place. Um I thought you know especially early on in the game you know had a number of scoring chances and opportunities or setting things up. I mean, the stick was there. Uh, the defensive acumen was there. Looked good in the faceoff circle. Um, you know, there’s still a a ways to go for the team overall. And I mean, this was sort of a half roster versus half roster preseason game, but u there was nothing I saw last night that doesn’t give me optimism that Jonathan Taves can be an impact player for the Jets this year. Yeah. First game in a uniform after a two-year hiatus, 1836 ice time. uh faceoffs 11 of 20 and a lot of people saying got to improve on the faceoff you know what the defensive highlight was a nice hustle on a back check the chemistry with linemates Gustav Nichlas and Cole Perfett I think uh it’s coming and look as the first game the preseason game it’s not NHL speed not NHL rosters but a nice ovation and warmup pretty cool see him out there in the 19 jersey for the Jets wearing a letter an A on his jersey. So, look, it was the first one. Nice to get it out of the way and move on to the next one. And you know, the player that everyone was talking about yesterday coming into the game, uh, Colby Barlo, uh, you know, flashing what the stick skills in front of the net. Um, that guy is turning some heads. I don’t think there’s going to be a spot for him on the NHL roster, but you know, later on in the season, maybe there could be an a, you know, a call up if there’s injuries and a guy who’s looking quicker. Aral mentioning his body shape changing as well. Only 20 years old. That stood out to me big time last night. I mean, you know, we’ve seen a lot of Kobe Barlo over the last couple of camps and in junior he looked like he’s I mean, you know, everyone’s in the best shape of their life, we joke about, but a lot of guys are trying to get bigger. He got leaner and he was quicker last night. Now, we’ll see whether that affects any of the power that was been a part of his game, but I thought that allowed him to, you know, be on the puck more, have the puck more, and then, you know, he’s got a knack for scoring goals. Unbelievable one-time. Yesterday, it was deflections and uh get to the spot where goals are scored and good things will happen. and he managed to uh to pull off a couple of those um last night. So um Connor is going to join us in a couple minutes. We’ll certainly uh hit on uh hit on that. Couple questions from the chat just before we hear from Scott Arneal. Jeff Montgomery, does anyone know if the banners are going to be raised and awards going to be at opening day? The answer to that is yes and yes. Um before the team is out. And we were talking to Kyle Ballhary last week on the program on Friday. That’s a day where you definitely want to get there early because they’ll, you know, introduce a whole bunch of um, you know, staff and whatnot. The president’s trophy and our first ever division banner will be unveiled and then, of course, we’ll meet the team, Jonathan Taves, and uh, get going with the with the new season. So, yeah, that’s all going to be there. And the trophies, the Presidents, the Jennings, the Hart, the Vzna will be at both games on the opening weekend and at the Moose game on Friday night. and you’ll be able to get pictures uh with that. And to Chad G. Chad, why so salty? So, what happened to Stuart Johnson today? Did he check it out and send one of his TSN minions to fight his battle? The answer to that is no. Um, if you heard yesterday, uh, we had to change it to tomorrow because today’s the funeral for Thaiat’s GM and former Bomber assistant GM Ted Gavaya. So, uh, Stuart Johnson going to be on the program tomorrow. Um, but we will talk to Miltsteagle about his thoughts on what was announced this week as well as the Bombers at 7 and seven getting ready for the Hamilton Tiger Cats and certainly as a guy that did so much through the air, what he thought about the Bombers win last Saturday. So, that’s all coming up uh in the uh as we continue uh the program. Um, you know, we’ll get to, you know, I’ll get to some fan feedback in a minute with your thoughts on Jonathan Taves, but let’s hear what the coach had to say about it all. Here’s Scott Arneal. First things first, Arie, what do you think of Jonathan Taves in his first preseason with the Jets? There was some good stuff, uh, you know, there’s some good stuff where they had some opportunities and made some plays as lines. Um, thought he picked up, you know, sort of u, you know, how we kind of, you know, our systems. There’s some areas there. There’s other times where um yeah, like he said, you know, we felt he could be a little better and I think that’s just rust. I think that’s just timing. That’s getting to know his linemates. Um yeah, just uh I think there was a little bit of both there. I think that uh it’s a good first game and um I know for a fact they’ll end up being better the next one. So coach and player are on the same page of not getting too crazy ahead of ourselves. And my expectations weren’t uh you know, I was just I want him to uh build. That’s really what I’m I want him to get better every day and through the practices and the games and so that when u you know October 9th he’s he’s at his best. You know it was a 2year hiatus plus for Jonathan Taves skating in his first NHL game last night. Um early results pretty good and I think a lot of reason to be optimistic that uh we’ll see a very good version of Jonathan Taves as a Winnipeg Jet this season. Well, while all eyes were on Jonathan Taves to start the game and throughout, the guy that sort of stole the show from the Winnipeg standpoint was Kobe Barlo, who scored twice last night as he looks to continue to uh climb the depth chart, if you will. Here’s what Arie had to say about the former firstrounder who had two goals, both goals for the Jets last night. Yeah. Uh, as we talked about the other day, I think that, you know, going back to his very first camp where he was, uh, sick the whole time, never ever made it to the rink uh, last year. Um, you know, really kind of as was his first camp and, um, I think that, you know, Tuk really took to heart the part about being an athlete and can get in condition and he shed a lot of pounds. He’s, uh, you know, he can see the transition, you know, the transformation in his body. Um, and it’s paying off. He’s um you know he’s I think he’s got a a better understanding about how we play and how we defend. Um you know then the thing about him um he’s one of those guys that has a great stick and there’s there’s guys in this league that um you know that’s what they do well when the puck’s on their stick it goes in the net and um you know we’ve got a couple on our team and that’s what Colby does. He has a final he finds a way to whether they’re getting his shot off or he had two great looks in the first period and those tips those are things that goal scorers do. All right, so there’s Arie with um you know some nice compliments from from Kobe Barlo who certainly earned them last night. We’ll talk about more about him with Connor and with Morat when they join us on the program. Uh Jonathan Taves, uh no surprise, met the media afterwards. And uh here’s what the uh sure to be NHL Hall of Famer had to say about getting back on the ice in his first preseason action in a couple years. Uh some good, some not so good. You know, it is what it is. um felt like I made some plays and as the game went along just relaxed a little bit and uh you know I think the conditioning is going to come and the jump’s going to come and I think just the timing is going to be there too. So you just got to keep working at it, keep settling in your game and trusting that uh at least I’m out there with with really good players. So, you know, you can feel like you can make some mistakes and survive a shift and uh when you get that feeling, then get a little more confidence to go out there and make plays. How much of the self analysis is is the individual moments and the plays that get made or don’t? And how much is just like, hey, I got it through one and I feel pretty good. Yeah. Um, I think you it’s like, you know, any other season where, you know, it’s good to to watch your games, watch your shifts, take a little something in the next game, but you can’t you can’t do it all at once. You can’t uh over analyze and overthink it. So, um, same thing now. I think settling in the structure, um, getting more comfortable, my linemates out there, just a lot of little things that will get easier as Cam goes along. you know, Taves, uh, you know, was certainly impactful in the offensive zone. Uh, one nice pass and a beautiful move by Gus Nikus to, uh, just about score. I think they put that one off the, uh, the crossbar and then a big time hustle back check on the power play, um, to, uh, deny Max Jones um, freely getting in on Eric Hry by Jonathan Taves. So, so far so good for Taves. He mentioned his linemates. Here’s what he had to say about building chemistry with Nike and Perfetti in their first game. No, just just talking and uh it’s easy to get frustrated sometimes when you don’t want to go out there and and find the back of the net right away and uh if you don’t then you know you can beat yourself up about little mistakes here and there but you know I’m out there with two good players. So for me the reminder is just uh keep focusing on what we’re doing well and and uh try and improve every game. So um it was fun to be out there at the end of the day. Obviously, we didn’t get the win, but uh um you know, it’s early, so we got a lot of work to do. What are some of those things on your checklist that you’re trying to work through during the preseason here? Well, just everything I just said, just a lot of little things that that help you get uh a little more comfortable. Um just just feeling the game, not thinking too much, and uh letting things happen. maybe not jump into the pile and sometimes pucks follow you or or jump out of the pile and and uh you know that that’s just a feel thing so it’ll come. One more from Taves and of course this is a guy that’s done everything in the game and has played in a ton of preseason games but this one was a little different for obvious reasons. Taves was asked if there was any added nerves taking the ice tonight or last night. Oh, for sure. Uh like I said, it’s been a while, but even just uh being here in Winnipeg, being in a new new locker room. So, um a lot of things to get used to. So, uh but at the same time, those those nerves feel good and you know, it’s just exciting to play hockey again. Right. So, there’s Jonathan Tabes of the Winnipeg Jets. Just uh we do have one clip from Kobe Barlo who was the star of last night. Here’s what Garby Colobby Barlo had to say about uh his game getting on the score sheet and uh showing what he can do in preseason action. Um you know, just go to the net and good things happen. Um you know, whether you get a piece of it or not, you uh cause chaos from the net, screen the goalie, and you know, good things happen. What stood out for you from your game today, Cole? You seem like you were pretty involved right from the get- go. Uh I think it’s just moving my feet. Um you know, getting in on the for check, back checking. I think that, you know, gets you into the game pretty quick and, you know, get you involved in, you know, all over the ice. You talked about changing the body in the training in the summer. You noticing a difference in the skating as well? For sure. Yeah, definitely felt, you know, faster out there. Um, you know, light on my feet, more agile, was able to, you know, carry the puck, back check, um, you know, get in, disrupt plays. So, you know, I think that’s a big thing for me that helped me that game. Always had a nose for the net. Does it feel like that a game like this can help build some momentum for you, too? For sure. And creating opportunities? Yeah, for sure. I mean, uh, you know, most of the games played without without the puck, so it’s all about, you know, finding those those areas in the ozone, getting to the net, and, um, you know, sometimes getting rewarded for it. All right, so there is Colby Barlo. Now, uh, we took in the game with I took in the game last night. Connor and Liss joined me. We had a little fun pregame event where we checked out what’s going on in the arena. But first, let’s bring in Connor, who is uh at the Hockey for All Center as the Jets were back to work today. Connor, what’s up? I’m doing well, Hus. Doing well. How are you? I’m I’m still super full from trying all those Jet Dogs last night. I’m stuffed, man. It was It was awesome. Super. I haven’t eaten anything since that. Uh and I probably won’t till later on. It wasn’t just the Jet Dogs, either. We had grilled cheese with tomato. Uh we with tomato soup that is. We had so much stuff. like I I’m stuffed still. It was fun. Uh stay tuned to the WST social channels for some fun content that we cooked up from uh from yesterday’s event. Um but let’s get right to it before we even talk about what’s happened today at the rink. Um you know, you were at the game last night, all eyes on Jonathan Taves. What do you think of 19? And uh then we’ll kind of get to Kobe Barlo’s performance. Yeah, I think it was about as expected for Jonathan Taves. That’s not really a compliment or I’m not really dissing him one way or the other. I think there were moments where he made nice plays. The back check in the first period really stood out to me as like, okay, this guy can skate. He can keep up. He can make those strong defensive plays without taking a penalty. All of those things uh really carried through in Jonathan Tav’s debut. And I wasn’t expecting him to come out and have three goals and light it up and have that line be instant chemistry with Nyquist and Perfetti. But I saw things throughout the game that I really liked from that trio. and Jonathan Taves was at the middle of it. Um he won some faceoffs. It was 55% on the draw basically even. He went 11 for 20. Nothing really to write home about there, but I don’t know. I it was about as expected for me uh for Jonathan Taves in terms of how he played, how he looked. Uh I’m glad that they got him up over 18 minutes. I think we’re going to ask about that in a minute here because obviously the biggest question with Taves is isn’t as much, you know, does he have it anymore? It’s okay, what’s the conditioning level at? does how much does he need to get back to the level that he wants to be at. Uh and playing over 18 minutes in a preseason game and coming out of it feeling good and we just heard from him there. Uh I think is a really good sign for his availability coming into the season and him ramping up for opening night and being ready to go. Yeah, I mean, uh, listen, there was nothing that I saw last night that didn’t make me think that, um, this will be, I mean, a journey moving forward, but I mean, the hands are still there, the hockey sense is still there, and I mean, for their first game together, I thought even in the first period, it didn’t take long for them to be dangerous. Now, listen, it’s a preseason game. The opposition is what it was. Um, but overall, I thought a good night for Jonathan Taves starting things off. The kid that had a really good night was Kobe Barlo. And I can tell you from looking at the chat right now, the Barlo hype train has been fired up and ready to go. I’ll be honest, we got in and you know, I told you like we’d been out doing shows at the uh at at Iceplex or at the Hockey Forall Center last week. Um, but usually with some of the other things that I have to do, I I wasn’t really there in the early morning sessions and then, you know, you’re on the air talking in the afternoon. It’s tough to really take in a lot of it. Um, obviously we got to see some of it at FanFest, but I saw Kobe Barlo, my the first look at him on the ice last night and I was taken aback by just how lean he looked. And I got to tell you, I mean, Scott O’Neal spoke to it earlier. You know, his quickness and his speed seems to be at a whole another level than it was before. And that was something I think that people were concerned about. Now, whether this takes away some of the power that he has, I mean, I’m not sure. But I’ll tell you what, you want to talk about putting a good foot forward in your first opportunity in the preseason um or you know in front of the home ice. I guess he was there in the last game. He really did a great job of that and um was impactful in so many ways and obviously uh was the guy that did the damage for the Jets. Yeah, I I’m loving what I’m seeing out of Kobe Barlo at camp so far. And that extends all the way back to Thursday, the start of training camp. And obviously he made his debut in this game, but we spoke to him and he said it was a tough summer for him because he was getting leaner. He was going through that big change in his body. And he said he’s never felt better. And I know training camp it’s everyone’s in the best shape of their life. But Kobe Barlo, it’s noticeable. He’s faster. He’s quicker. He’s got a quicker first step. He’s got more burst, more acceleration, more top end speed. And you can see that in almost every single drill. And I’m glad you brought it up Hustler because last year, going into last year, we knew Kobe Br has an incredible shot. That’s why he was drafted in the first round. That’s why there’s NHL potential for him because he has that all-world shot at such a young age. But it was the rest of his game that we were worried about. Well, if he’s leaner and he feels quicker and looks quicker and feels just as strong, I mean, you really have a player there that going into their first proseason has a lot to prove. And if he’s feeling the best he’s ever felt, he’s in a great spot to do that. So last night, I know he only got the one goal because the the first goal of the game, Colin Miller, apparently they took that goal away from him. I still thought Barlo got a stick on that one, but only with the one goal. But I still thought he had an incredible game. I mean, he had a great back check in the first period, lifting the stick of a high danger chance uh in the first period as well. He picked off a pass right in the slot and was stopped by the goalie, but he’s in the right spot at the right time making defensive plays. He has that awareness. The thing with Kobe Barlo, we know he has a great shot. What about the rest of his game? the rest of his game outside of the two or so we thought ended up being one goals was really strong last night and it’s just a continuation of what has been a really strong camp for him. I’m still giving him the two goals. Colin Miller is a veteran. He doesn’t need a preseason goal. We’re we’re going with two for Kobe last night. Uh overall, you know who else I thought quietly was effective and I really enjoyed watching it was Braden Joerger. And you know, Joerger, I think, is one of those guys that’s going to be under the radar often. I mean, you’ll have games where, you know, there’ll be a couple plays that you notice him, but, you know, and and doing it at a time where we’re watching Jonathan Taves and all the things that he does. I mean, Joerger really does. Like, I’m not sure what the offensive high end of Braden Joerger is, but I can tell you what I mean, he already seems to have the hockey sense and the responsibility down of NHLers. And, you know, when he gets to the National Hockey League, presumably with Barlo and Brad Lambert and some of the other players we saw last night, yeah, firing up the offensive side of the game will be really key for him. And I’m sure he’ll get that opportunity to do so because he’s already even just in the preseason game last night and and on Sunday, a guy that kind of knows where he’s supposed to be and and does the right thing. Yeah. And us, what an opportunity for Braden Joerger where at the start of his career, he’s always been this 200 foot center. He started with the Pittsburgh Penguins and learned from Sydney Crosby. Now he’s on the Winnipeg Jets and learning from Jonathan Taves. That is such a a prime opportunity for him to learn from some of the greats uh over the past couple of decades here of the 200 foot center type. I’ve talked on this show and on WST Sunday live about how polished I think Braden Jagger is and he’s making that pro leap. I think he’s got such a high floor as a prospect that making that pro leap. He’s in such a good position to tweak as the season goes on. I think he’s going to be a strong addition to the Moose. I think he’s going to have a strong season. And what can he do offensively? how much offense can he chip in? That’s something I’m going to be watching for for him. But as it pertains to last night’s preseason game, I couldn’t agree with you more. I thought he was he showed off that polishness where he’s in the right spots defensively. He’s making plays in the neutral zone. He’s making the right decisions at the blue line. He’s not making decisions that are costing the Winnipeg Jets. And as someone’s making their pro leap, I can’t remember a prospect in the Winnipeg Jets system that’s been so polished uh as a center, so responsible going into their first proseason. So, I’m excited to see how that transfers. I’m sure he’ll get another preseason game eventually here. Um, and I’m excited to see how he plays in that. And then, of course, to start the season with the Moose. And I think he’s a guy that Jets fans should have high hopes for. I think Liz and I were talking at the game last night. He’s a guy that we almost view as a surefire NHLer. It’s just a matter of how high his ceiling is, and that’s something that we might find find out over the next number of years. Yeah, you bet. Um, moving on from last night’s game, you’ve been out there, they got on the ice early this morning. Second group today. uh fill us in on what’s been happening with the fellas down at the hockey for all center today. Yeah, so the first group was really I mean they haven’t made official cuts yet, but more or less the first round of moose cuts. Uh you had guys like Kale Kle and Samuel Fajimo in that group. So lot of moose cuts and Connor Hellbuck actually funny enough was in the first group. So maybe we joked about him being a guy for the moose this year but uh he was skating with the moose group if you will this morning. But the second group, much larger group, and it was a special teams day here at Hockey Forall Center. They started at around noon. They had the power play group on one rink, the penalty group on another, and they merged at around 12:30. Did a number of power play drills going up against one another, and then flooded the rink and then came back out and they’re still on the ice here. And now it’s more of a PK focus as they’re on the ice right now on the rink right across from me here. So, big special teams day here at the Hockey Forall Center. I know people are wondering and maybe if you play fantasy hockey you’re especially wondering Perfetti gets the first crack at the Nikolai Eer’s replacement spot in power play one it’s him Shifley Connor Valardi and Morrisy no surprises there and then power play two features Jonathan Taves Gustav Nyquist Nino needer Vladimikov and Neil Pian so the first big special teams day here at the hockey for center those are the power play groups as it stands today and we’ll see if that’s what it ends up being on opening night as that seems like it’s plan a for the Winnipeg Jets. Yeah, you can see it there. The power play units, Cole Perfetti getting the first crack at power play one uh duties for Nikolai Eers. You know what? You’re you’re very proactive and efficient. You knew that I was about to ask you and you get right to it. I mean, we all wanted to know and I think that was the logical choice and well, a very different player than Nikolai Eers. uh a guy that was made for the power play and uh I’m excited to see if Cole Perfetti can keep that unit humming um in and around the uh the top of the league. Well, Connor, great stuff. We’ll let you get back to the skate today. Fun times last night. Again, folks, keep your eyes peeled on the WST social channels for u more of it. You you were one of the people that had the first ever slurpees. Oh, yeah. At Canada Life Center. Uh quick uh quick grade of the slurpee quality at the rink. I thought it was pretty damn good. Quick. Yeah, quick slippery review. It was amazing and it was efficient. I think that’s like the coolest part of it. Hus, like you walk up, you get a slurpee. I I Okay, we went early so there was no line. I I did look at the end of the first mission. There was quite the lineup, but still the line was moving quickly because you go up, you get your slurpee, and you pay kind of across the market. So I I like how efficient it was. I think an opinion that matters more is my 11-year-old sister, Angelina. She got a slurpee last night and she loved it. So, if you’re looking for an opinion that maybe matters more than mine when it comes to slurpies. My little sister loved it. And uh yeah, there you go. There’s me paying for the Slurpee. Uh super efficient. Uh and yeah, you just we we got some nice cards, swipe your card, and right back to the action. It was it was awesome. Incredible. Amazing camera work by whoever was operating that uh that How about that jersey? Yeah, the jersey looked great. Uh it was a lot of fun last night and of course we’ll be doing it again. We’ve got the WST ticket pack on sale for the home opener starting it off and uh it’s going to be fun. And that market, by the way, gang, is literally right behind our section. You know, you’ve got the whiskey hanger kind of right behind section 316 and just to the left is the uh is the market where the slurpees are. You can grab the tachos, some KFC, grab some chips, whatever. Boom, boom, you’re out of there. And uh it’ll be very convenient for us in our section this year. Um Connor, great stuff. Thanks for doing this. We’ll talk to you soon, pal. Thanks, guys. Talk to you soon. All right, there’s Connor Rabchack down at the Hockey Forall Center as a training camp continues. And we got our answer to the uh to PP1 Cole Perfetti in the Nikolai Eer spot. So uh we’ll definitely stay on top of that throughout training camp and of course the continued preseason. Jets Jets next home action and the final preseason game is Saturday night. Kind of a a fun double dip day if uh if you can make it. Bombers 2 pm and then Jets at 7:00 in the final home preseason game. All right, we’ve got Miltsteagle coming up. Perfect day to have Milt on. 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What you’re going to want to do is get to hscmillionaire.com and buy your tickets before midnight on Thursday to be eligible for the first fall bonus deadline and everything else they’re giving away in the biggest lottery of the year. again, hsmillionaire.com. You can find out all the incredible prizes. Buy your tickets right there before the first early bird deadline of midnight on Friday. Um, we’re going to be making some moves very soon in the fall. And if you and your family are on a move, you’re going to want to uh holler at our friends at Roly’s Transfer, the most trusted name in moving in Manitoba for over 60 years. Check their website out at rollies.com and in the top right corner you can click on request an estimate WSTRES takes good care of all of us. Put in the promo code WST for a special discount on moving services and supplies for Winnipeg Sports Talk listeners. And then let them know when you’re moving, where you’re moving to, and what needs to go. and the friendly staff at Rolies will turn it around quickly with a great quote and get you locked in for the white glove treatment that they are famous for. For all your moving needs, make it Roly’s transfer, the most trusted name in moving for over 60 years. Find out more, request an estimate today online at rolies.com. Um, thanks again to uh Dr. Terry in St. Patel Dental Center. Uh, Shane Payne was at the game last night. Terry threw us a couple seats to give away at the end of yesterday’s show. Uh great supporters of the Bombers and Jets and of course Winnipeg Sports Talk. Folks, if you’re looking for a new spot for you and your family for dental services, uh pop by St. Patel Dental Center like generations of Winnipeggers and Manitobans have our pal Dr. Terry and his amazing staff handling patients from 6 months to 99 plus with all the dental services you and your family will need. From simple things like cleanings and checkups all the way to, you know, dental implants and more, they’ve got it all at St. Patel Dental Center in a beautiful new facility, 167 St. An’s Road with state-of-the-art equipment and convenient free parking right behind the building. For all your dental needs, lean on Dr. Terry and his crew. Go to stattel dental.ca to make an appointment today. And uh just before we welcome in MiltSteagall, of course, we’re back at Princess Auto Stadium. Another soldout crowd Saturday afternoon. Bombers and Thai Cats. I hope they’ve stocked up the Canadian Club because you know Bomber fans are thirsty, especially for a Saturday game. Canadian Club is the official spirit of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers available throughout Princess Auto Stadium. And right now, while supplies last, when you pop by your local Manitoba Liquor March, the Winnipeg Blue Bomber limited edition Canadian Club Bomber label bottle is available. So, pick that up before the weekend comes and hopefully you can have a couple victory cocktails with Canada’s famous Canadian whiskey, the original since 1858. Canadian club in that special bomber bottle after a win over the Thaiats on Saturday. We’re going to talk more jets coming up with Marada Tesh at the top of the hour, but uh let’s right now welcome in Miltsteagle. Got to talk to Milt about uh the Bombers and Thaiats coming up and of course get his thoughts on uh all the big changes announced this week in the Canadian Football League. Well, there is a lot to talk about in Bomberland and around the Canadian Football League. And who better to do that with than our good friend, Winnipeg Blue Bomber and Canadian Football League legend, Miltsteagle. And as it were, one of the spokespeople for our friends of the HSC Millionaire Lottery. You got to get those tickets right now, Milt. Yes. Go to HSC HSCillionaire.com and get your tickets. Great prizes, but as I always say, the ultimate prize is knowing that you’re helping out the Health Sciences Center because they help out so many throughout Manitoba. So go to hsc.commillionaire.com and get your tickets now. Great stuff. I figured I’d throw that in. We’re really excited to be working with them and obviously excited to have you back here. Hey, first time. How are you and the family doing? I know it’s been a tough year, but it’s been great to see you get back to it and uh all of your fans and friends here in Winnipeg, seeing you on TSN on a on a regular basis again. Yeah, we’re we’re doing better every day. I mean, we’re still dealing with challenges and that’s going to be the rest of our lives. But, uh, our goal is just to keep moving in the right direction, and we seem to be doing that. Wife is doing great. Colin is doing great. As I mentioned, we still have our moments. For the most part, we’re doing pretty good, and we appreciate all the loves and support from everyone, especially uh my people in Manitoba. You provide in Winnipeg. You provide so much for me. So, thank you very much. That is great to hear. Uh, Milton, well, let’s talk about the the big story of the week. I mean, I I thought we’d be talking about one of the more bizarre games in recent Canadian Football League history, and we’ll get to the Bombers in a minute, but um Milt, I mean, everyone around Canada, even people that, you know, haven’t really been big CFL fans are talking about the changes announced earlier this week, um if people somehow missed it, um the Rouge is being modified. The goalposts are going to the back of the end zone. The end zones are going to 15 yards. It’s going to be a 100 yard field as opposed to 110. Um and uh the clock’s changing a little bit. I mean um I’ll just I won’t editorialize it at all. I mean, what did you what was your reaction to what you heard from Stuart Johnson and as a longtime star in the Canadian Football League? I mean, do you think this is positive moving forward for the league? And before I I I start commenting on it, I just want to mention something or comment on something you just said. There’s people who never watched the CFL who are talking about it now. So that is the ultimate goal to get eyes who eyes on it who’s never thought about watching it. And I I spent a lot of time in Toronto. So the majority of the people there have no clue not even don’t no not even a clue about what the CFL is. And now people are talking about it and and that’s what we have to get to. We have to get to that point. You know, we just can’t be satisfied with the with the people who are talking about it now. So, I’m excited about it. Yes, it’s going to take time. It’s not going to happen right away. And I understand there are some people who aren’t too excited about it. I understand that. But we have to make changes. We can’t stand Pat because what we’re doing right now is not satisfying a lot of people. I mean, we have seven and nine teams who aren’t making money. If you’re in a business and you’re not making money and they’re going to continue doing the same thing over and over again, that’s not smart. So, uh there’s some changes that had to be made. So, let’s sit back and see how these changes how they work, you know. Um listen, you’re an offensive player. Um and uh you know, spent a lot of time in the end zone. I I I will be honest. I mean, uh, with an open mind, I went into the press conference and I was listening to Stuart Johnson kind of lay everything out and maybe it’s just growing up playing Canadian football. Like the whole thing with the goalpost, I never ever really thought about as a player when you were running routes for all the Bomber quarterbacks in the past. I mean, tell us about how much of an issue that goalpost was because they kind of laid out where the touchdown passes are being thrown and it’s not in the middle of the field. It’s all to the corners. Was Was that something that was always somewhat implicit in the way you guys put together plays and realized where the success areas would be? Well, early on, especially early on when I first got up here, my first thought was like, “What the heck? Why is this goalpost here?” But after a while, I mean, I played 14 years. I I got used to it, but it it’s it’s not easy uh when you’re back there running routes and you see the goal post and it’s right there and and the quarterback sometimes you lose the quarterback and the goal post is right there. So, it’s it’s not an easy situation. I heard some offensive coordinators say, “Well, they never thought about it.” Where I also heard some offensive coordinators say, “Well, we don’t want to throw across the middle. We don’t want to take a chance of that goal post being there.” So now after next year, you don’t have to worry about that. you have to concern yourself with that because that goal post is not going to be there anymore and it somewhat opens up the playbook. Also, as a defender, you don’t have to worry about you having a a 13th guy out there who could pick you almost. So, there are some things that go into it. As I mentioned, I know there are some who who who don’t want to see that goalpost move. They they don’t want to see any changes happen, but changes have to happen and they need to happen soon if we want to make sure this league is around for years to come. I joked that our rider fans would like to make this change retroactive to about 2019. So Cody because I mean that is sort of a famous play here and I mean it it can affect games and obviously there is it doesn’t happen often but every now and then you see a defender sort of kind of lose track of where he is chasing a guy around and get trucked by the goalpost. So there is an element of sort of player safety as well. But I I don’t imagine that this from a player standpoint will have a big push back. Um, what about the Rouge? I mean, as a as an offensive player that’s in charge of touchdowns, I mean, I always like the quirkiness of it, but I will admit I as the biggest Canadian Football League lover and defender, it would be pretty tough to justify the Gray Cup being handed out after a guy just whiffed on a 30 yarder. Horrible. There’s no way to explain that that you won by failing and that that was the most because well don’t don’t get me wrong the CFL has done so much for me but the Rouge I think is the worst thing ever. Now I know they didn’t totally get rid of it. I’m okay with that. But the fact now that you can’t necessarily win a game by just kicking the ball out of bounds, out of bounds, out of the back of it or the side of it, man, after he said that, I I don’t care what he said after that because I think that’s the most important thing ever. Imagine losing a a playoff game or a gay cup by just kicking the ball out of bounds. There’s no way to explain that. Everyone would look at this league like, “What are you guys doing?” So, I think that was important. Uh they should call that the milksteagle rule. I’ve been trying to get that implemented for years. Uh but unfortunately uh they they weren’t doing it, but now starting in 2026, uh it’s going to be there and I’m definitely excited about that. Well, you know what? And I give them credit for the creativity of what of what they did because like the Rouge is not gone from Canadian football. And the fact that there’s still we it was there still will be a point if you punt it in and or kick it in and the guy doesn’t bring it out. I mean, you’re still encouraging returns um and a lot of the things that we love. I mean, the only one for for me, the one downside of this, and we’ve seen this a number of times in blue bomber games this year, but that’s it is the missed field goals and moving moving those uh those back to the end of the end zone with it being 15 yards. Unfortunately, the ones that are long will just be out and it’ll be no single point and you’ll move on. But I think the benefits of this, there certainly is the argument that this will make the game uh better and listen more exciting, more touchdowns, and just continue to improve the product, which as much as I know a lot of people when there are changes want to make a bunch of crazy conclusions, I really do believe this isn’t about Americanizing the game as much as it is making the game better. And I think everyone should be for continuing to improve the product. We’ve seen major changes in Major League Baseball over the last few years. They’ve been home runs. The National Hockey League has done it. Um the Canadian Football League has resisted and I kind of get why. To me, I mean, the more I’ve thought about this over the week, I think this is sort of a happy medium. And I think that once it gets going, I don’t think it’s going to take away the unique nature of the Canadian football game, the three downs, the ratio, the wide field. I mean, to me, I think they sort of put it this way. I’ve got a very open mind and I’m looking forward to seeing it in action as opposed to making some uh you know big statements that this is the end of CFL football as we know it which some people have and that’s very unfortunate. I mean that that that’s all everyone involved should do. Just keep open mind just see where this is going. Be patient. It’s it it may not happen right away but just give it an opportunity. Be optimistic. I mean we all want this league to be around uh for years to come. This league has done so much for me so many including myself uh people on and off the football field and we want to keep going in that direction and for it to keep going in that direction changes have to be made. Uh we we have to evolve. You have to evolve as as as people as whatever. But you you you can’t think you can stand still and keep doing the same thing over again and you’re going to get different results. As I mentioned to seven of these nine teams are losing money. Amomar Dolman has done so much for this league. He’s he’s he he he’s thrown so much of his own money into this league. And people say, “Well, the owners aren’t doing enough.” And I just want to use an example. He’s doing a lot and he’s not seeing the results he expected to get. So now something has to change and these are the changes hopefully to we can get some more eyes on the game. So let’s just keep an open mind. Let’s be patient. Let’s allow this thing to unfold and see what happens. Well, and the fact that, you know, Stuart Johnson said that this was enthusiastically, unanimously approved, I think says that everyone is on the same page moving forward and obviously they’re the ones that are putting the Bucks out to have these teams in the building. Miltsteagle is with us here on Winnipeg Sports Talk discussing the latest changes announced this week to the Canadian Football League. Milt, when that when that uh press release came out on Sunday announcing a press conference with major changes to the Canadian Football League on Monday, I joked that the bomber win over Ottawa on Saturday was just so ugly that the commissioner was forced to act. Um what uh what did you think of the Bombers win? A huge very important win to get to seven and seven uh as a guy that lived made money in the passing game. That was uh that was something else. Yes. I’m I’m sure the receivers were happy, I guess, but it’s tough to be satisfied. They’re happy because they won the game, but as a receiver, it it’s difficult. But the bottom line is they won the game. I always say there’s no such thing as a ugly win or a pretty loss. And uh I think Chris Traveler started I think three or four games this year and he’s he’s won like four games and one he’s three and one. It it doesn’t matter how they look, what his stats are. He he he’s won those games. So uh you got to take solace in that knowing that they were able to win the game with only throwing for 54 yards. I mean he had more rushing attempts than he had passing attempts. I mean, when was the last time a quarterback in the CFL won a game in that manner? That just let you know that they have other facets of their game, uh, the return game with viable, the defense stepping up, special teams, uh, causing fumbles or creating turnovers. That goes a long way in in allowing your team to win some games down the road that you may need. So, uh, can you win another game like that? No, that will never happen again. Never happen again. But the fact that they were able to do it, hey, uh, that’s good for them. I mean, I wouldn’t want to watch the film after that. As an offensive player, only person who probably wanted to watch that film was Brady Oliviver on offensive line and quarterback and receivers and you guys need to go out and work on your game. I wouldn’t want to watch that film after that game. You know, it it it’s so funny that you say that in that I mean, you know, football is the ultimate team game. And, you know, we see, you know, sometimes you’re playing in the elements late in the season. You know, sometimes you’re on the fast track in BC. I mean, conditions, a lot of things dictate the way you go through, but it is the ultimate team game. And the fact that, you know, you can be up against it or at a disadvantage in one area and other areas of your team can can bring you up. And an incredible defensive performance, um, big-time special teams play and a running game that was absolutely relentless allowed them to avoid the mistakes of turning the football over through the air and get the win. And I mean to me like I I said afterwards I mean the Bombers as much as it you know let people be making jokes about this game. They don’t have to apologize to anyone. They are in a desperate situation. They had to win that football game and they found a way to do it. And and Mil from a team perspective I think that despite the weird way that it happened, I think that has to give this group confidence moving forward that regardless of what’s thrown at them, this is a team that knows how to win. They’ve done it in the past and this is the time of the year where champions show what they’re made of. And and anytime you win, especially when you’ve been struggling, uh I think what was it? Three losses in a row and you go out there and and win regardless of the fashion. That gives you confidence. That puts you back knowing that hey, we can still compete. We still can win because I don’t care what you’ve done in the past. If you continue losing, your confidence is shaken. you you start thinking like, “Hold on, I don’t I don’t I can’t trust myself anymore.” And when you don’t trust your own self, that’s a problem. So, the fact that they were able to go out there and especially win in that fashion, that boosts their confidence. Now, they got to come out and do it again against the Hamilton Tiger Cats who have one of the maybe the highowered offense, one of the most highowered offenses in the league. Uh they got to go out there and do it again. So, it was good for them to get that win, but you got to put it behind you and move on because they still have a tasting hand. are still tied with BC in in in fourth place. I’m in third place. They have a tiebreaker because they beat them both times, but the way the BC Lions are playing right now, these Winnipeg Blue Bombers got to get out there and get it done. And they and they can’t think they can go out there and throw for 54 yards and beat the BC Lions. That’s not I mean the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Yeah. Well, luckily, uh it sounds like Zacheros is going to be back and not a minute too soon because um they basically need this guy. I mean, as you laid out, I mean, this is not a blueprint to consistently win in the Canadian Football League, uh, but it’s a game that everyone will remember. Um, what do you make of the West right now, Mil, in that you just talked about the BC Lions? I mean, as and their defense has been atrocious all season long. I mean, they had nowhere to go but up, but I mean, this offense is as scary as any unit right now with Nathan Ror cooking. And at the top, the two teams that had sort of separated themselves, Saskatchewan and Calgary. I mean, Saskatchewan gets rolled over at home by MBT and the Alowettes. Yeah. And I mean, Calgary season could have been completely turned around on the weekend. They lose at home. They get pumped by BC and they lose Vernon Adams and PJ Walker. And I mean, to me, the Riders are still the team to beat right now. But to me, the West is a lot more interesting today than it maybe was two weeks ago after the Banjo Bowl in the Labor Day Classic. Yeah. I mean, you could have BC or Winnipeg who’s seven and seven. They still have an opportunity to get first in in the West and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens. Uh you talk about Calgary in their situation with TJ Walker, we don’t know how long he’s going to be out. And Vernon Adams, I would be surprised if he plays this week. So they may be going to their third team guy who I don’t even know who that is right now. So they they’re in a bad position right now. Their defense is struggling right now. Uh their top defensive player, he’s done for the season and he did so much for that defense. So that team is in the pickles. So I think Saskatchewan is still good to go as long as Trevor Harris is playing. I think what they did against Montreal, we know the big reason for that. You don’t want to put it on one person, but that one person, that cornerback, cost them that game big time in my opinion. So, I think they’re back on track. But, as you mentioned, the West is still wide open. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens these last uh four or five weeks. And it’s good. It’s good that we have parody uh because you don’t want to have any team and I think Edmonton, they’re not mathematically out of it, but it’s going to be tough. But for the most part, those four teams are are still fighting for that top spot in the West. and that’s going to be uh interesting to see what happens the end of this season. The funny thing is you mentioned the Edmonton Elks and I mean obviously they had another tough heartbreaking loss by two points last week to Hamilton. Um you know they’re at home to the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. I I’ve been so impressed with what we’ve seen from this team since Cody Fardo took over. And you know, even though their odds are very long to be a playoff team and make noise, this is going to be a team under their new head coach that seems to really have some positive momentum going forward after some really ugly years recently that um I mean they could definitely play spoiler down the road and I mean they’re going to be a real tough out. I mean, I think that they’ll be right there with the with the Riders at home, apparently expecting almost 30,000 people, which is also great news for the league and the Edmonton franchise. Without a doubt. Without a doubt, this team has made so many strides and you see the difference. And not saying anything bad about Trey Ford, but you see the difference. uh a legit quarterback who can who’s who’s who’s made plays, who’s won great cups, who’s had success in this year, the difference he’s made, not only for the offense, but the defense. Everyone is playing better. Uh when they implemented Cody Fardo, and this team is uh will they make the playoffs? There’s there’s not a good chance they will. But when they come back next season, they won’t be starting from ground zero where they have been the last four or five years. So, uh, when you go in there and play this team, Saskatchewan Rough Riders, they they better come with their game because this team is not going to sit down and just say, “Okay, we’re happy, uh, with the success we had.” No, they’re going to try to keep fighting. Ed Hervey, uh, their head coach, Killing, they’re they’re not going to allow them not to fight. They’re going to keep fighting. Cody Fardo is not going to allow that to happen. So, it’s interesting to see how this team finishes out this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if they squeeze out another three or four victories, maybe. Like I said, Kansas make the playoffs are slim, but I think they’re going to finish up their season strong. Mil Boh Bo Levi Mitchell is having another real solid season. The difference this year is that they didn’t start 0 and seven and uh they’re now in a very good spot. Um they are the team to beat in the East. They come into Winnipeg on the weekend with the twoame lead over Montreal at 9 and5. Um, what have you made of the Thaiats so far? And and what will the be the keys for the Bombers if they uh if they want to get a win against a team that can uh sling it the way they’ve been doing this year? They can not only sling it, but now they have a running attack. Greg Bale, what he’s done over the last three or four games, I think he’s uh put up close to I think 400 yards. So, uh, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers not only have to worry about, uh, Kenny Lawler and and and Bridges and and and those guys and Bo Levi Mitchell, but now they have a running attack. So, uh, it’s going to be a difficult task. Uh, the one thing you don’t want to do, you don’t want to get in a shooting match with Bo Levi Mitchell, that offense. You do not want to do that. You don’t want Zack to have to do that. You want to be able to slow them down and still allow Brady Olivivera to be your guy. And if you can do that, you have a chance to win. Zack should not have to be their guy. It should be Brady Olivera. If they can do that, they can keep this game close and get Brady Olivivera 20 25 touches, they have an opportunity. But if they allow Hamilton to come out and sling the ball all over the place, get Greg Bale going, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers don’t have a chance in my opinion. Miltsteagle with us on Winnipeg Sports Talk. Saturday afternoon, 2 PM Bombers and Thaiats. Bold prediction, Winnipeg will complete more than three passes on Saturday afternoon. Um, hey, just quickly on the way out, I mean it it doesn’t seem like the team has a lot of confidence in Wilson as he’s really hasn’t gotten in during these struggles. Although Streller, as you mentioned, of those starts, they’ve been weird games, but they’ve won 304. Um, with Zack coming back, but some questions just of his health and whether he can stay healthy. Do you think Kyle Walters might be uh kicking some tires around the league for an acquisition similar to 2019 when they got Zack Calleros at the trade deadline and he ended up coming in and being a hero when Matt Nichols and Streller were hurt? Or do you think the Bombers move forward, Zack is their guy and if they have to go back to Streler and potentially Terry Wilson, they’ll uh they’ll dance with who brought them there? Yeah, I I I think that’s the case. I I think they they they’ll they’ll hold tight with what they have right now. They’re they’ll hope that uh Zack doesn’t get hurt anymore. And if he does, they’ll go with Streller. And I think that has a lot to do with with not only uh what the GM is saying, but maybe what the head coach is saying, too. I think he trusts those guys. I think he believes in them. Uh I think he thinks they’re enough to get them over the hump and get them to the Grey Cup. So, I think that’s the route they’ll take. I’m thinking about guys who maybe they can go out and get who maybe maybe I I don’t know anybody else who they would go out there and get who could do what Zach did when he came in. I mean, I don’t think they thought Zach was going to do what he did, but even trying to think somebody could come close to doing what Zach was able to do, I think Jake Mayer is maybe the only backup out there who could do that. So, I think they’ll just stick with what they have and and hope they get the best out of those guys. Milt, thanks so much for doing this. Uh looking forward to the game on the weekend and of course looking forward to seeing you, the entire TSN team right here in your second home of Winnipeg for the Gay Cup in November and we’ll see if the Bombers can stay in the mix and hopefully be a part of those festivities as well on the field. Thanks for doing this, buddy. All right, let’s let’s hope the Bombers are in it and thanks for having me. Take care. Great stuff from Milt. We’ll hear from Zach Calleros on what he had to think about the CFL rule changes a little bit later on, but we will be welcoming in Marada Tesh in just a couple moments to uh get his thoughts on last night and many more Jets topics as we continue through the preeason. Um, Saturday afternoon though folks, 2 PM, another packed house at Princess Auto Stadium for the Bombers and Hamilton Tiger Cats as we just spoke about with Milton. Of course, Princess Auto is a proud sponsor of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and their home Princess Auto Stadium, the Winnipeg Jets, Gold Eyes, Seab Bears, and of course, Winnipeg Sports Talk as well. Headquartered and founded right here in the Peg. Princess Auto is now coast to coast, but with three locations to serve you. Panet Road, Portage Avenue West, and out in Brandon as well. Princess Auto is where you’ll find the best deals on the most unique assortment of tools and equipment around. Everything you need to complete the projects on your list or start something new is at Princess Auto. So, pop by and see them in store today or shop online 24/7 365 over at princessauto.com. Donnie and the gang at Manitoba Battery are ready to go for the change of seasons. Of course, Manitoba battery powered our all of our summers. All right, we’re going to get Mara Tesha coming on in just a minute. Um, I will tell you that uh Manageable Battery is the place to go for your batteries for uh everything. It’s your local option where you’ll save big money. The uh of course Donnie always says, “Wake up Winnipeg. Stop overpaying for batteries. Come on down and see us at Manitoba Battery. We can save up to 60 bucks a battery.” So, while you are getting ready to prepare yourself for the Winnipeg winter, there’s only one place to go for your car, truck, battery needs, as well as those sleds. Logan Avenue, Dover Court Drive. There are two locations in the city. And you can also give them a call or order online. And Manitoba Battery will bring them to you for free anywhere inside the perimeter of Winnipeg with any purchase over 60 bucks. It is just that easy. Order online today and get bring them to you for the best deals in town on all your battery needs at manitoba battery.com. And uh F apparel. Listen guys, if you’re uh looking into your men’s wear uh listen the closet, I should say realizing you need to up your men’s wear game as we head into fall and winter. There’s only one place to go for that. That’s F apparel over at 190 Smith Street downtown. Uh custom suits starting at 400 bucks. chinos, golf pants, custom shirts, both tucked and untucked styles, the biggest and best selection of men’s wear accessories around. Of course, it is the number one go-to spot for wedding clothing. And guys, if you are in a wedding party or getting married, make sure to talk to the fellas about a special deal and discount for you and your gang when you get your suits for the big day at F App Apparel. 190 Smith Streets, where you going to want to go? Check it out online and make an appointment to come in for a fitting at F. That’s epapparel.com. All right, let’s uh see how this goes. We’ve got Marada Tesh out at the Hockey Forall Center joining us now. Morad, how are you doing? Can you hear us? Okay, I can hear you clearly. Can you hear me? I can’t. I can. This is all good. You got some special new cans on or something like that with like a headset mic? Yeah, I got the overear headphones going on. I thought that the rink noises might be too loud and I just got caught. I was talking to a player really long so I was just bolting out by the rink is behind me. Wanted to be here on time. Uh hopefully we can make this work. Uh absolutely. We uh we certainly can and it’s always great to have you on the program. Welcome back. Um listen, there’s a bunch of bigger topics around the Jets I want to get to, but we can’t really start this conversation without first asking you what you thought about Jonathan Taves and his first game action in over two years last night. Yeah, I mean my first impression is that he belongs. He won 11 out of 20 faceoffs. Okay, cool. He’s usually good at those. Uh he made some uh chances or he created some chances for himself and his linemates. That happened. He had that track back on the power play where Max Jones had a short-handed chance for the Edmonton Oilers and uh he made the play and we’re all wondering, well, how fast is he now? How slow is he now? Can he keep up? and well to be able to take that play away that shows that he can keep up with the NHL pace. So my first impressions were okay, this guy is an NHL player and that’s what I’ve been seeing at camp. And then to speak to him after it was really striking because he was really quite self-critical. I thought he was picking apart his game. He was saying, “Well, hey, I didn’t feel really comfortable out in the faceoffs like I usually do.” Um, he was kind to himself, too, saying conditioning and timing would come, that he’s not going to be able to accomplish everything in a day. But he didn’t want to be treated with kid gloves was my takeaway. It’s like he’s not just happy to be here. He knows he’s at step one of several steps to try to become a very good NHL player once again. Yeah, I mean, I I kind of had that same feeling. It was funny listening to him afterwards. and he’s always a pretty guarded, relatively quiet guy, but I think has been around long enough and knows the significance of his comeback and the interest in it here in Winnipeg that he was going to be the center of attention and, you know, spoke to the fact that, you know, had a few more nerves for the game um yesterday than, you know, an experienced long-term NHL veteran would have in normal situations. um you know the uh like the the nerves I mean you were there in the scrum afterwards and I think we just lost Morat we’ll get him back in. One of the things that kind of struck me you know was was Jonathan Taves speaking about the nerves that he had coming in and I mean that of course is all part and parcel of a comeback under the glare of the spotlight of a guy’s hometown. And um Marad I hope you can still hear me here. Um Jonathan after the game not not only spoke about what we were hoping to do uh okay I think we’ve lost Morat’s audio so we may have to get him to uh to click back in. Um you know I asked everybody in chat a little earlier about Jonathan Taves and um you know what they thought. Maybe we’ll get into some fan feedback right now for fansfirst.ca CA your number one spot for buying and selling Winnipeg tickets on the resale market. And overall, I think the um the feedback on Jonathan Taves was uh was really really good. Um you know, I’m just looking at some of these uh comments earlier on. Uh Chris Van JT is so cool. Um there’s many other people saying, I think this is going to be great for the Winnipeg Jets. Uh he certainly didn’t look out of place was another one. And uh this is a guy that will be great for the Winnipeg Jets in many many different ways. Now I mean the one thing that I think we can agree is that this was not uh you know he didn’t look like he was head and shoulders above everybody out there but the bottom line is I mean like you’re playing with guys like Perfetti and Nyquist for the first time. Sometimes that takes a real while to click in. They had some chances right off the bat. But maybe most importantly was just how involved he was in so many areas of the game. I mean was on the puck relentlessly in the uh in the offensive zone. Um you know and that was a big part of creating the offensive chances that they had and then any questions about the defensive acumen of Jonathan Taves whether he still has that club in the bag he definitely had when uh he tracked down Max Jones for that big time defensive play. So, listen, overall for the first preseason game, it was uh I think a really nice result and something that Winnipeg Jet fans and certainly people in that room should be optimistic about. Uh I think we’ve got Morat back. Morat, can you hear me okay now? Yeah, I got you clearly. Sorry, guys. Okay, no problem. No problem. Remis might need to tweak that audio just a little bit. But uh the one thing I wanted to ask you about in addition to kind of what he had to say about his game was him being pretty honest that this wasn’t just a regular preseason game for him and even for a guy that’s done everything in the game. There were some nerves getting out there for that first game. Yeah, it was nice to hear him acknowledge that. Like he could have been just happy to be here. He could have just put all of his focus on that. But he got self-critical when somebody I think it was Carter Brooks at the very end asked hey you know playing this first game here were there extra nerves and he said as a matter of fact yes that there were and he was grateful for that it was special it was an important thing and it is an important milestone to do here in Winnipeg in front of the kind of crowd that’s going to cheer like they cheered when he made that play on Max Jones. So this is a special season for Jonathan Taves. whatever comes next. You know, I will um I I’ll say that this last night was about tapes to most fans, but to the guys in the lineup today, yesterday, Morat, um there was many young players um high draft picks from the Winnipeg Jets that were looking forward to an opportunity to play some significant minutes and show that they’ve taken that next step. And I don’t think anyone could have done more to help their cause than Kobby Barlo. Um, now you’ve been watching him throughout training camp. I haven’t seen as much of the groups that he’s been in, but in the building last night, I was struck at just how lean he looked compared to every other time that we’d seen him. And man, did that translate onto the ice. Um, and in addition, he still has a knack for scoring goals. We think about the big shot. You hope that all that power is still there with the change in his body. But I’ll tell you what, he was on the puck. He was impactful. He was around scoring places. And listen, I know he only got one. And I kind of thought he had two, but goal scorers go to where goals are scored. And um he did it again last night. I thought he had a great game last night. And a lot of the talk postame outside of Taves was around Kobe Barlo. Yeah, the puck was following him around too. There were chances that he had in the first period where he’s getting good shots off from the slot and not quite scoring. And then yeah, whether that was one or two deflections. I mean, video review took one of them away. He’s obviously going into the net and doing well there, which is something that he’s known for. You look at his stats, it’s a ton of goals, not as many assists a lot of years. He is that is what he is. And the question has been what else is he? Can he skate at NHL pace? Can he does he have dimension to his game? Can he impact a forch check? Can he take lanes away? Can he win physical battles not just in junior but in the professional ranks? And if you were only to watch the first half of his season last year, you might have had some doubts about that. I talked to scouts, I talked to people around the league, and there were people who were fading Kobe Barlo as a top prospect based on how he started. But then some conversations that he had with himself, with Jake Wolf, who does strength and conditioning for the Winnipeg Jets, with the folks out in the OHL as well, he was able to start taking a few pounds off of his body and leaning out and maintaining strength during the regular season. He told me in a one-on-one interview a couple weeks ago that it was kind of a matter of looking for the playing weight that he felt best at. He hit it towards the end of last season. He was on absolute fire in the playoffs, scoring almost a goal per game. It was incredible. And then the question was, well, what would he look like at camp day one? Just to look at him on the ice, the leanness was evident. Um to to see him walking around, to hang out with him during the interview situation as well. This is a transformation in Kobby Barlo, pardon me. And then to see what he’s doing on the ice, this has been evident at camp. If you go to the athletic.com, you look at not my most recent piece, but two pieces ago, there’s a whole K colobby Barlo transformation section because he really has taken a series of steps in his game. It was important to see that it could translate to NHL game pace in the preseason last night and he was all full value for it. He’s an exciting prospect once again and there’s a lot of tools there. Morat, has there been any player in camp that’s helped their spot on the pecking order or depth chart, if you will, more than Barlo up until this point? I can’t find it. I really can’t. You go through the list and Brad Lambert is the Brad Lambert that we know and remember, right? Like incredible at threeon three so fast. I still think he’s looking for ways to create space and be dangerous at five on five. His second game was better than his first and we’ll see what he can get to. Braden Jagger, I don’t think there’s been a ton of separation for him in terms of getting into time and space, uh, creating those opportunities that he would be able to excel at at the junior ranks and probably in the AHL as well. Nikita Chipperov, tons of battle, but he’s still figuring out the timing as he works his way back from injury. There’s all that stuff. Um, Aaliyah Salammonson looks great, but I think we expected that. And I think he’s going to be an AHL star. Villa Han is coming from a long way back. If you go all the way through, you might praise Kevin Heath for his hustle and that nice pass he made to Danny Schilin. You might praise Jillin for looking like he’s got some offensive pop, but if we’re being real, Kobe Barlo reestablishing that he can impact the game in a whole lot of ways and still shoot like he can and score like he can, that’s big news. Well, and and I mean, let’s assume that he’s with the Moose um at the beginning of the season along with the rest of those young players and the other players that have been signed. like the Moose are going to be a much much more compet or at least they should be a much more competitive team. I guess we’ll see what happens. I mean, that’s why they play the games. But if the Jets and I think we’d have to expect right now that just with their numbers on the blue line will probably carry eight forwards, sorry, 13 forwards and eight defenseman to start off. If that is the case, you know, you’re t let’s just say that David Gustoson is the 13th forward and you’ve got the four lines as they’re sort of running right now. The opportunity for a player like Barlo coming out of a good camp if he can get off to a good start with the Moose. I mean, I think we could see a significant shakeup in who the call-ups will be. And you know, listen, with what he’s done so far and the way that he’s looked and the way that he played last night, if that continues, I think that we’re going to be talking about, you know, a couple new players maybe near the top of that picking order when it comes to getting a shot in the NHL at some point this season, depending on what happens healthwise and performance-wise with the 13 guys that we expect to be on the roster at forward to begin the season. Well, he has the opportunity to take this change in trajectory and really pass some of the other forwards that that we’ve talked about. And because these are young guys, because they’re going through a lot as people making their pro transitions, um, getting used to different levels of the competition and whoever their linemates will be in the city and all that sort of stuff, you know, these things can change. But if you’re just looking at momentum here and now, he’s got the most of it. And if, as we’re expecting, some really good forwards clear waiverss for the Winnipeg Jets. I mean, could you imagine Begimo? Can you imagine Walker Der? Can you imagine Jared Anderson, Dolan all being really impactful AHL veteran type players? That’s not even the half of what’s available to them. And so I start to think, well, the way that Winnipeg runs its lines here at the NHL level where you’ve got Shipley’s line as a number one scoring line, you got a shutdown line, and then there’s a secondary scoring line that could be Taservetti and Nyquist where there’s sometimes softer minutes available for them. And you look at them for offense. Well, somebody like Kobby Barlo could thrive in that role in the AHL potentially this season. And if he’s scoring and if he’s getting into his space, if he’s finding his spots, and you see a player like Brad Lambert continue to struggle to create space for himself or choose the right moments for that, then all of a sudden we’ve got a new top forward prospect that we’re talking about. Uh in addition to Braden Jagger existing as well, Nikita Chibberov being kind of a different style. Um it’s going to make the Moose so exciting as long as they’re not robbed by waiverss. You know, just let’s talk about Joerger and Labbert for a minute. You know, I was talking about Joerger yesterday. I watched him quite a bit last night and I really do agree with you. I mean, at this point, he hasn’t found the way to separate him and get the space to really create a ton of offense. The one thing that stands out though, if you really watch him for a few shifts, is just how responsible he is. And you know, I was talking with Connor earlier today. Very rare you have a player at the center position that comes in really with that blueprint for the 200 foot game. often, you know, these guys are all scoring stars at, you know, at a young age and they can do what they want at the junior level. And when they come to the National Hockey League, the biggest challenge for them is figuring out what to do when they don’t have the puck, be able to have the coaches have the confidence in them to throw them out against good competition. For Braden Joerger, it seems like it might be the kind of the opposite right now. Morat. I mean, he’s a player that comes in that will do what you need him to do defensively and, you know, he’ll be in the right spot and he’ll be the high guy. Like, that part is there. It’s the transition to the pros, probably with what’ll happen throughout the American Hockey League is learning that with the increased competition, what you have to do to be more effective in the offensive zone, you know, to take a potential top six role at some point in the future. Exactly right. I see it the same way. He’s a really remarkably responsible 200 foot player at his age and that’s something he should be proud of and continue to build because you see a lot of scoring stars like you said a lot of players drafted as centers that end up on the wing for various different reasons. Know Cole Perfetti was centerwing and now he’s mostly a leftwing though maybe who knows what the future holds. Val Ardi had been a center at different times um but mostly on the right wing Brad Lambert but you could also imagine Braden Jerger sticking at center because he does have those elements of his game and that’s going to be his bread and butter. He’s been a really impressive junior age scorer as well because as one of the older players in the WHL uh he was a star quality player. He has a great shot. He has instincts in the offensive zone that can get the puck into the net. That’s all there, but for him to maintain that at the next level, let’s say the AHL this year, well, how is he going to get that half step of separation? How’s he going to get into space where he’s not covered? How’s he going to deal with the physical battles? How’s he going to do all of those things that scorers do to get into a spot where that chance exists in the first place? And that’s, I think, a learning curve against professional players that are going to be a lot bigger, older, stronger than he is. And that’s a that’s something that everybody has to overcome. But with Joerger, it’s a difference between whether you’re looking at, you know, a third or fourth line center someday or somebody who can play in the top six. Um, moving over to Brad Lambert. Um, I didn’t see the entire game on Sunday. I was there yesterday and I thought Lambert was maybe a little bit more noticeable yesterday, but I mean for Brad Lambert to really kind of barge in, it’s going to be in the offensive zone. I mean, he’ll be able to do the things that he’s done at junior and at times not as much last year in the American Hockey League at the NHL level. And it did look at times last night like he was a little frustrated. What have you seen so far from Brand Labbert? And and and what what’s the number one thing that he needs to do to, you know, kind of follow the path of Kobe Barlo and get some momentum going as we get into this season? That’s funny how these things can change in such a short time. So, I used to like about a year ago, we would talk and I would reflect on the the point production he had in his first AHL season. Uh, and just how good it was for his age, if he can improve upon that. There’s a lot of evidence to say there’s a top six forward in the NHL reasonably soon, probably by right this moment at camp. Um, but as that moves team was kind of gutted and offensively it didn’t have a lot going and he wasn’t really able to generate space and time for himself against AHL veterans which seems tough because he’s such a fast and creative and intelligent offensive player. Uh, I’m seeing so far at camp the idea that NHL players for sure and a lot of the AHL veterans can keep him to the outside at five on five and that’s that’s a trouble spot for me. That’s something he’s got to be able to generate at if he’s going to be a top six offensive player in the NHL. I think he has it in him. I think he has it in him to to reclaim that over the course of a really strong move season. But it wasn’t really until threeon three where he had time and space in OT where oh my goodness, the guy can fly. Look at that outside in move that he put. He look at the penalty he drew off David Uric. That’s so much good stuff. And what I want to see from him is being able to pick his spots at five on five to to turn on those burners, but also to use his linemates, not to curl back onto the boards in the offensive zone when he gets possession, taking him away from where where things are going to be dangerous and sort of just being a more efficient offensive player. I want to say there are moments where he wins physical battles and we should credit him for that at this stage. Uh but I think he’s still a work in progress and this is the ser this is the season where I think he’s got to reclaim himself as a top six prospect. Uh no surprise that Elias Salmonson didn’t look out of place playing with Dylan Samberg last night. Um you know if you focus him on shift by shift I mean he looks frankly I I think that if you didn’t know who was who you would think that this was one of the veteran defenseman that has probably played for a while in the National Hockey League. um just thoughts on his camp so far and um you know h how you thought he looked playing in the role that he was last night with Samberg who is uh very much now an established NHL regular in the top four. I was I was trying to think of something clever around Sammy Salow who’s just you know the former NHL player but Sammy and Salmonson and like I I haven’t found it yet. If you’re out there and you’re more clever than I am please uh I like that pairing because it’s it’s the blueprint. It is exactly the blueprint. It is Alias Salmonson. You’re doing so many great things at the professional level at a young age. You probably had an even more impressive AHL debut at an even younger age than Samberg did. And look at look how good he is in the NHL right now. We can talk about how okay someday Salman Monson is the ideal compliment for Josh Moresy. But could you imagine somebody with his intelligent meanness, his physicality, his ability to impact the game in a two-way play uh capacity as well because he has offensive instincts as a partner for Dylan Samber. There’s a lot there. I I like the thought on the Jets part to pair those two guys together. I’ve thought exactly as you do that he looks like a professional player. He looks like an NHL caliber player. At this stage, I’m a little bit less inclined to say I think he’s going to be consistent enough and still separate himself, you know, in preseason’s game games five and six to the point where it looks like he should absolutely make this team, but maybe there’s still room for him to do that and to surprise me and to to take an even bigger step. I think this guy’s headed for his second AHL season. I think he’s going to be an AHL all-star and I think that probably we’re looking at next season he’s going to be a really promising NHL career to start. One thing I’ll say right now and I agree with you Morat that is the plan for Elias Salmanson. Uh if somebody went down, if there are injuries, if a trade happens, I don’t think this management group would hesitate for a moment to get him up and get him some NHL playing time at this point. Somebody asked me the other day, what’s your overunder on Solommonson games? And because I don’t know the world of overunders, I said a whole number. I said, I don’t know, four. Shouldn’t I be picking a half if I’m doing this right? You’re the cool bet. Four. Four. Four will work. It could be a push if it ends up at four. But I mean, you’re thinking about a small number. I mean, like single digits. Yeah, that’s kind of that’s my thought. And it’s not because I don’t think that they hold him in high esteem. I think they really do. Uh I just think that they’re historically patient with prospect defenseman. even they were happy to let Samberg sort of overripen a little bit in the AHL. This is the this is the route and with his waiverss exemption I just think that they’re going to ride it. They’re going to let him dominate and if he dominates great um there’s so many veteran D in the way maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s going to be a moment and maybe it’s going to be impossible for him to be denied. Um but I guess yeah I I’m still guessing that that isn’t until either really late this year or next season. I don’t know. Uh I mean I don’t know how things are going to shake out for Villy Han. Um, he is not waivers exempt. Uh, if you look at the depth chart of most people, he’s kind of on the outside looking in when they have to make tough decisions. Tell you what though, I had a lot of time for his game last night. I mean, I thought that he played with some confidence. I thought he was skating well. Um, he was a big part of that second goal. Um, and I know you guys have talked to him. It seems like he’s come in with a really, really good attitude despite a really tough last couple seasons. And regardless of where he plays right now, I I just I’m impressed with the way that he’s handled himself through a ton of adversity. And uh I don’t think he did himself any disservice last night with the way he played. What did you think? Almost the forgotten prospect, right? I mean 24, he’s not quite a prospect anymore, but because of the way things have bounced for him, he is still newish even though he played at 18. like this is kind of an awkward spot for him to be in looking to like if Solomon is from coming from a long way back to beat out the eight nine veterans in front of him. Hala is in a similar situation and he’s coming off of a season that was uh cut short in part by his ankle situation, in part by not getting into NHL games when he was back. That’s a challenging spot to be in. And so when Ken and I talked to Villia yesterday, a lot of what we were asking about was the journey that he’s been on. And I’ve talked to players before who like whether out loud to me in front of a microphone or privately or indirectly complain about a lack of opportunity a lot more than Hanaha has done. And I put that question to him like, well, okay, where is the positive attitude coming from? And he’s like, well, actually, you know what? To be honest with you, I can’t lie. There were times last season that I was in a dark place. You know, when when the team was around, it was good to be around the boys, but when they went out on the road and I had nobody and I was just it was just me, it was hard, especially knowing that he’d already been through uh that ankle rehab and needed to go through it again. He knew what was in front of him. That was a hard spot for him. Scott Arneil commented on that a little bit as well, that they were trying to help him out during that. Uh, so I guess my takeaway from it was whether he was complaining or whether he was in a hard spot or whether this that or the other thing, he sounds like a mature young man at this stage. He’s not that 18-year-old kid anymore. He’s 24 and I think he’s learned a lot from it. And whatever he’s capable of now, he’s going to put himself in a solid mental spot to try to do the best that he can. Uh, big reading for you Jet fans over at the athletic.com right now. Jonathan Tav’s potential and six more burning questions that will define Winnipeg season. I will give you a bit of a tease. There is one of those questions about Cole Perfetti and him taking that next step. Uh we won’t get into that. People can read that Mor, but I will ask you um Connor joined us a little earlier with an update from the skate today and doing a lot of power play stuff. how Cole Perfetti look uh taking over the trying to fill the big shoes of Nikolai Eers on Jet PP1 and uh just thoughts on his fit with those other four players that were part of the league’s number one power play unit last year. Yeah, he’s coming from a good spot and that last season he was good there when Eers got hurt when he had opportunity for Fetti produced. So that’s good. Um I think it was the power play not uh I think it was the power play against Dallas where he had the goal called back where it was caught in the glove. Did it go in? did not go in as well. He’s been productive in the NHL on the power play so far is what I’m saying. Uh if you look at his points per minute, it was in line with the top unit guys last year. He’s a guy that knows his reads. He’s a guy that has vision. He’s a guy that has really good quick hands and the ability to execute. And I would say that’s what I’m seeing on a day like today. Coetti’s hands. Uh you know, he was finishing plays, he was creating plays, he has that offensive acumen. I think that in terms of if it’s just about his ability to make the read and execute the play consistently that part I think he’s going to be able to to fill Nikolai Eer’s shoes there is and I’m talking about the power play specifically when I say that there is something that Eers did and that was just being really fast and getting to the boards first when a puck hit a goalie and there’s a rebound and goes into the corner where a shot was blocked and now there’s a race to be won. get that puck back into the Jets hands and then keep that possession so you don’t have to go back into your own zone and do another breakout maybe 15 20 25 seconds get killed. Um I don’t know that he has that club in his bag like Nikolai Elers did. Certainly Elers is one of the faster players. So that okay I think most people will forgive him for that. If you’re just thinking about his offensive ability I think he’s going to be a really good fit there. Moroc great stuff. enjoyed your latest piece and uh I know we are just getting going on uh what should be a very exciting season. Great to have you on the program. Great to see you this week. We’ll see you down at the rink and we’ll do it again next week on Winnipeg Sports Talk. Thanks for popping in. Good stuff. There’s Morat of course theathletic.com. Morat’s latest up right now. Starting off with the story coming out of last night’s game, Jonathan Tav’s potential, but some of the other big questions that uh we’re all talking about here on Winnipeg Sports Talk and Winnipeg Jet fans are reading in theathletic.com from our pal Marat Aesh. Um, tomorrow night, Thursday night, football is back. Big NFC West matchup between the Seahawks and the Cardinals. Pop by your local Boston Pizza Lounge. get together with your gang for the game with your chance to win great prizes with the game on all the big screens. Well, you’ll probably have the Blue Jays on, too, because they’re right in the middle of a dog fight. And BP is a great spot to watch Blue Jays as well. And of course, the main stays, those ice cold schooners, the world famous BP wings, the gourmet pizzas, and more. With Jet season just around the corner, Boston Pizza is the place to be when you’re getting together with your gang to watch the big game with the best in bar and lounge food, pizza, wings, and more. And your chance to win great prizes for all Winnipeg Jet games through their pick a player contest, local BPs, and of course for NFL football. If you can’t get out tonight, you can always fire it up and get it hot and fresh to your door by ordering online at boston pizza.com. Well, the season is here. Saw a bunch of Taves jerseys at the game last night. If you want to pick one up, head on down to Royal Sports and get yours right now. The biggest selection of Winnipeg Jets and NHL merchandise in the city is at Royal Sports with all the Jets jerseys available personalized with your favorite player, you name it. Not to mention hats, toques, hoodies, t-shirts. They’ve got it all at Royal Sports along with the NFL merchandise coming in for the new season. Tons of Bomber gear as the Bombers get ready for their push to the playoffs. And of course, Royal is the hockey supertore in town for over 50 years. Everything you need in one spot before you drop the puck on another season waiting for you at Royal Sports 750 Pemina Highway. And of course, you can also follow them on Instagram at Royal Sports Winnipeg for the latest merch drops and sale information. Uh, we will have Zach Calleros’s comments on the CFL rule changes as well as a few other bombers a little bit later on. Uh, we got our picks. We got to hit the cool bet lines. We got to talk a little Jays. But coming up in just a minute, Thomas Tipple is going to join us for the latest on the NFL midweek as we head into week four. Just before we bring in Thomas from fantasypoints.com, a big cheers to our friends at Winnipeg’s favorite local brewery, Little Brown Jug. You train day in and day out, learning new techniques, approaching new concepts, and living out the thrill of achieving your goals. Building a craft beer is no different. While you spend your hours on the ice, we spend ours here, brewing our trademark beer again, again, and again. Here’s to pushing the status quo and challenging ourselves to build something memorable. 1919 by Little Brown Jug. All right, we’re going to dive into a little NFL right now. Of course, Hackel will pop by on Fridays as usual with the NFL notebook. But, uh, midweek, especially for you fantasy players, we love to hook up with our pal Thomas Tipple from fantasypoints.com. When we need fantasy or betting advice, we lean on our friends at Fantasy Points with a fantasy points data suite. They’ve got the best research tool in the world. And if you want to check it out, you can use the promo code WST10 to sign up and dominate your league. Um, Thomas joins us now. What’s going on, dude? How are you? Happy to be here as always. I look forward to my weekly stopbyss here on Wednesdays. Well, I mean, I love talking to you as well. And listen, we’ve got a big game between our two respective teams to talk about in a minute, but let’s talk about the big story coming out of the Sunday nighter. Chiefs finally get a win, which was nice. Russell Wilson after going for almost 450 against the Cowboys the week before turned into a pumpkin on Sunday. Uh maybe the worst quarterback final drive I can remember in recent NHL NFL history. And you know, you heard from the fans loud and clear and it didn’t sound like Brian Dable had much more of a choice. I think they would have loved to wait one more week, but it’s Jackson dart time going up against the Chargers. I mean, thoughts on this move and the fantasy relevance of this as well with the Giants is the injury to Tyrone Tracy and the emergence of Scataboom as a real dominant player in the backfield. Yeah, I had Jackson Dart as my QB1 in the class. A lot of us at fantasypoints.com um did as well. This was a move they needed to make. I think you’re right in that um he how can I put this? It it’s more about how bad Russell Wilson is than how ready Jackson Dart is. And I think that’s the reality. And there was no chance they were going to Jameus Winston. Big fantasy implications on this in a lot of ways. We saw with Russell Wilson, he tended to check it down a little bit more. Jackson Dart is a high-end rushing quarterback. A lot of people don’t realize that he is uh just an unbelievable rusher. Here’s some points from Jackson Dart’s rushing over the last two years. He had 1,271 uh yards. He had the same yards per carry as Jaylen Milro. Remember Jaylen Milro was the running quarterback of the draft class? Well, maybe not so much. 70 first downs and touchdowns combined. He had over 50 charted explosive runs. He is a legitimate rushing threat. He is very much unreal. If you think Drake May is a good runner, Jackson Dart outrushed him in college. The only quarterback to outrush um Jackson Dart over the last I believe it’s two years in college were Jaden Daniels and Jaylen Milro. So we are legitimately talking about high-end upside in terms of rushing and we know that opens up running games. So Scataboo could have some easier lanes. What I worry about is the checkdown rates. Jackson Dard is the kind of gunslinger, kind of a one read guy right now. Probably going to lock on and hyperfocus our guy Neighbors, which we love. But the upside is the passing role. I don’t know how much that is going to be available for Scataboo. Obviously, the the injury is brutal for Tyrone Tracy Jr. He is droppable. Uh but I would pick up Devin Singleary even though I think he is absolutely cooked. He is a coach’s guy. He is a pros pro. Can pass, protect, do a lot of the small things really well. So, I am in on this. This move is important. Unfortunately, they get a Chargers matchup, which is just brutal for any quarterback to face, let alone a rookie quarterback. I mean, hey, what just on the on the the passing side of things, how do how should you feel about this if you’re a Malik Neighbors owner? Never panic about Malik Neighbors at any time ever unless it’s Russell Wilson on Sunday night. No, just remember he had one game where he did not hyperarget Malik Neighbors and that was a very strange the whole game plan was odd. And yes, Russ Wilson was um sporadic or I said erratic maybe, but I’m not worried about Malik, man. Any smart quarterback is going to step in there and go that’s the guy find him continuously and that’s what I’m looking to have. Um, again for Malik Neighbors, keep in mind Dart completed 65.7% of his passes and averaged 9.5 yards per attempt in 39 games at Old Miss. He owned a 6.4 uh touchdown rate, just a 2% interception rate, 38.4 rushing yards per game with 12 rushing touchdowns. Los Angeles has allowed the eighth fewest yards per game to quarter 197 and the second most rushing yards per game. Two quarterbacks. Our guy Brett Whitefield compared him to Bo Nicks in the pre-draft process. Um just uh and and Bo Nicks completed a 153 yards uh passing and one touchdown and eight for 33 on the ground against the Chargers last week. I’m going to say I’m I’m not playing Dark this week, but I mean, Neighbors is unreal. Now, Neighbors also a little banged up. Little banged up right now uh in terms of his practicing, but check this out. You want to talk about why I’m not totally concerned. The Chargers deploy a cover three.1% of the time and a cover four at 26.8% of the time. Uh I think that is going to bode well for somebody like Malik. Leading receivers like Courtland Sutton who had six for 118 and one. Jacobe Myers had six for 68. And Hollywood Brown, remember, had 10 for 99. They’ve all reached 12.8 fantasy points plus against the Chargers this season. Wide receiver ones against the Chargers are not getting shut down because, well, let’s face it, the Chargers defense just don’t need to. They’re going to outscore you even if you put up 20. Thomas Tipples with us from fantasypoints.com. Um, this is, I guess, kind of fantasy related, but more big boy football. We got a big game. Uh, my Chiefs, your Ravens, they’re both 1 and two. This is going to be the late Sunday afternoon game, game of the week, national television. One of these teams is going to be 1 and three. A quick thought on on the Ravens lost to the Lions and your takeaways from that and uh just how important this game like I for the record, I think both these teams still make the playoffs. I don’t think this is the proverbial loser leaves town match. But I’ll tell you what, neither of these teams, especially the Chiefs with the 3 and 0 Chargers playing the Giants, want to flirt with getting to one and three and three full games back and a loss to a division rival. Yeah, I I think the Ravens have a better chance of making the playoffs than say Kansas City will, but I think Kansas City wins this game. I mean, the AFC North is brutal. I’ll say about the game against the Lions, we talked about it last week and I called it. I absolutely nailed how this game was going to go. I had a bet slip uh uh you know, I bet Lions, put 20 on the Lions before that game kicked off and what do you know? I mean, we’re a little bit richer today for it. It’s it’s just in their mode right now and maybe they’re motivated, but they have a defense that can’t stop a bloody nose. I mean, they’re signing Kevin Bryan, who who the first round bust of the Jaguars to to try to place a mop-up duty as they’re missing so many defenders and Zack O is the worst defensive coordinator in football. So, I think the Chiefs game is going to be pretty electric. Uh, but I mean, it usually is with them. They might, the Chiefs on offense right now might be one of the only teams that can’t score 30 points on Baltimore right now with how they’re playing. We’ll see. I the Chiefs are going to definitely try to shut down the Baltimore run game. Obviously, Dererick Henry struggling. We saw what the Browns were able to do against them. And then the Ravens went away from the run game as that game kind of got out of hand against Detroit. So, we’ll see if they’re able to stick to it. I’m weary about You have to play Derrick Henry. Definitely lowering my expectations. And also keep an eye on Lamar Jackson’s practice reports this week. He looks slower than I remember seeing him in recent days. he was getting caught from behind. He tried to shake a Detroit linebacker and uh he couldn’t. He just kind of stood still and stuck in the mud a little bit. So, keep an eye on Lamar Jackson’s um injury reports at practice. And I’m taking the under on his rushing yards this week. That is for sure. I also have the Chiefs uh to at least cover. Again, Baltimore being the favorite. So, if you want some bets, those are some from me. Hey, uh just before we go, uh there was a ton of injuries um on the weekend. I mean, CD Lamb injured on a rushing play. Uh that got a lot of people talking in and around Dallas. James Connor is done. Mike Evans is out. Naji Harris as well. Um just quickly, I mean, a player or two that because of the injuries all of a sudden is a lot more fantasy relevant than when if we had spoken about them last week. Yeah. Yeah, I mean obviously Omar and Hampton comes to comes to mind, right? There was some concern with Omar and Hampton. A little bit of a stiff hip problem. Was Naji going to come in and really uh you know limit the workload for Omar and Hampton? Well, we can put that to rest. He is just a complete league winner. Uh 19 for 70 with one rushing touchdowns. That wasn’t really impressive, but six receptions for 59 yards. That’s 24.9 fantasy points. uh against a pretty good uh Broncos defense. So, I’m I’m pretty excited about that. There’s always injuries in fantasy football and you always have to be ready to take advantage of that. Not all of them are going to be next manup scenarios. So, definitely something to keep an eye out. Um it it it’s tough with backup running backs. Like, let’s take a look at Trey Benson, right? The first off, let’s pour one out. I call him the fantasy cockroach because I always assumed without an injury like this, James Connor was going to survive the nuclear winner, right? It was death taxes and James Connor still RP1 in fantasy football. He was going to join the cockroaches and Twinkies in Nuclear Winter. But unfortunately, he had just a catastrophic likely career-ending injury. And I’m not sold that Trey Benson is just getting all of that work. What tends to happen when a starting running back goes down, they’re not fully prepared for it. So the backfield splits tend to just be next man up for that game. Let’s manage it. And then they game plan how they want to attack it. Amari De Marcado is somebody that I am picking up just in case he continues to vulture some of that pass down work that leads to upside. I love Trey Benson in Dynasty in reddraft. I am pumping the brakes just a little bit. And then the last one I am probably going to mention and I think should be mentioned is again Justin Fields being hurt. Uh don’t know if he’s going to play postconussion one more time. So Trod, it is Trod, not Tyrod, but Terod Taylor going to play again, but have no fear for Garrett Wilson. He’s just that good. Like we mentioned in the preseason. And I I got to say, I feel bad. I gave everybody nothing but Dallas Cowboys prop bets on the first week that I was here. And unfortunately, it looks like those bets are as good as dead. Don’t worry, we’re going to make up for it. You can make up for it at fantasypoints.com. You can get yourself a subscription. Obviously, you guys have your promo code. Keep hammering that. Come and find me on social media. Loster Thomas, E L N O S T R A Thomas, everywhere you can find me. And I just want to address one comment in the chat. No, that is not Excalibur on my wall. I do have both of these swords from the Lord of the Rings. However, as I am uh as you can see, a massive massive nerd. It goes beyond sports, baby. I am a nerd for all things. H I love it, dude. I love these conversations. Uh I’m sure uh we’ll get a DM or two uh in and around Sunday afternoon. May the best team win and uh may both of these teams make the playoffs because uh Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes deserve prime time in January and maybe even February. Have a great one and keep up the great work over at Fantasy Points. Pal, take care guys. Look forward to seeing you next week. Again, the fantasypoints.com is the site and if you do want to jump on that, use the promo code WST10 to sign up. Dominate your league. great insight on uh bets, props as well, which has been uh quite helpful to me at the start of the year. It’s been some tough and a couple of the worst beats of all time. I’m still not over the Rams plus three and a half from last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. That one will haunt me for a long time, but the prop shop there has been uh has helped made up for a couple of tough tough endings um to the games. Great. Thanks, big thanks to uh to Thomas for for joining us. Um all right. Hey, at the end of the program today, we’re going to be doing a bit of a self raid. I hope you’ll stick around for myself and Pat Gregoire teeing up the RDER Cup on WST Winners. Uh, of course, Thursday and into Friday, our Breezy Ben Golf Reports will be all around, for my money, the best golf event. Um, we’ve got some beautiful weather out and there’s still a bit of golf left. But if you’re thinking about the 2026 season and making it a place like Breezy Ben, home of the 2025 Manitoba Open your long-term golfing home, hit up our pal Corey Johnson at the clubhouse or go to breezyben.ca for more information on membership for the 2026 season. All right, we will get to our Cineboy announce picks before the end of the program, but I want to pull it back to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and uh Zack Calleros back at practice yesterday and Zack Calleros also speaking to the media. Now, I want to get to Zach’s, you know, comments on the rule changes, but uh this is game week and first things first. Let’s find out how Zach is feeling as he uh hopes to return to the lineup. Yeah, it’s been tough not being on the field. You know, we talk about it often. Uh you don’t get a ton of opportunities in this game um to play, so anytime you miss time and and miss being out there with the guys, it’s tough. You were down a long time after this hit. Can you share at all with how we were feeling and thinking at the time? Yeah, just um you know frustrated that you know had to come out of the game really. That’s pretty much it. Yeah, there’s been a ton of concern expressed for you long term too. You know most prominently what Milt said most said uh how much do you think and talk about that with people around you? Oh uh health is an ongoing conversation obviously. So, yeah, without, you know, being too inflammatory uh to address some of that stuff, you know, I don’t really uh not really I don’t pay attention to stuff outside the building. I I heard about that comment a couple days after from my wife. Um, you know, while I appreciate the concern, um, not just from Melt, but but other people, um, you know, it’s not like we uh make rash decisions, you know, uh, in this building or with my family. There’s nobody who cares more about me than than my wife, obviously. Um, my children and my mom would probably beg to differ, you know, but um yeah, there’s there’s nothing nothing about uh you know, playing the game and health obviously that that that is uh again made made, you know, just in a vacuum. Now, of course, you’re referring to those comments of Miltsteagle who joined us earlier today on Winnipeg Sports Talk. Um, Zach was also asked by Freezer in the assembled media if he was kind of caught off guard about the comments of him uh getting back on the field. Yeah. Again, I didn’t read any of the stuff. I I don’t watch the TSN stuff. I really don’t. Uh, again, like, you know, from talking to some friends about that kind of stuff. Again, I appreciate people’s concerns. You know, I I have children. Um, so, you know, as a father, as a mother, you’re watching something like that. Um, if you’re somebody who’s followed the game for a long time obviously and you know who I am specifically and um you’ve seen me have to come out of games at times throughout my career um from a knee-jerk reaction standpoint I can I can totally understand uh again people’s concern with that. So um not upset at that at all and I and I get it. um you know while at the same time um talking about my my livelihood and and how I I I do uh you know my life for my family is uh you know it’s not really other people’s concern. All right, so there’s Zach Calleros on how he’s feeling back at practice and leading the Bombers into Saturday afternoon 2 p.m. against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Uh, Zach was asked about his thoughts on what we heard from Stuart Johnson and the changes coming to the Canadian Football League. Here’s what the veteran quarterback had to say on that topic. I was hoping we could talk about this. Yeah. Okay. No, I’m just kidding. Uh, I’ I’ve never really thought that deeply about it. You know, I’m not nostalgic um about the CFL, you know, pre202. Okay. Cuz it just wasn’t on television, right? You know, for us in the US. um you know I I understand um fans and players and coaches alike that um you know that don’t want things to change. Um you know on the other hand um you know if the task is to increase revenue and to get more eyeballs on the game and um I would imagine the people making those decisions have thought those things through. Um, so yeah, I I don’t think it’s changing the CFL game that much or really at all. Understand I I mean obviously the uh I think the biggest change would probably be um you’re not going to get as many returns on field goals, right? You know, so that that’s something that you you know I’ll miss and fans will miss. Um but there’s still 12 players. uh the waggle, um yard off the ball, uh the ratio didn’t change. Those things to me are are the CFL, you know. So I I the way that it was really uh amped up for 48 hours, like Darren wouldn’t even tell you what was going on, you know, sign like an NDA or something. I don’t know, but I’m sure you all did, too. Uh I thought there was going to be some radical change and to me it wasn’t that. It wasn’t. All right. So, there’s Zach Calleros with his thoughts on the changes and of course, most importantly, how he’s feeling getting back to practice with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and not a minute too soon after what we saw last Saturday in Ottawa. Um, Mike O’Shea also spoke on the uh his reaction to the changes and here’s this first one for OS on everyone heard what Nathan Ror had to say. And you know, OSH was not entirely, I think, ever really on board with changing Canadian football as it were. Um, here’s Osh on just the reaction to the comments by Nathan Ror. I thought Nathan delivered a very passionate case for from the players point of view. I I’d say from the Canadian purist point of view, right? We we love the Canadian brand of football, you know. We love the CFL, which is a Canadian brand of football, but Canadian football across Canada. You know, it’s it’s a great game. Um, where do I stand? Um, I think everybody understands where I would stand. I’ll say it. I if we’re going to be altering the game and removing unique uniquely Canadian items from the game, I would never be in favor of that. So, pretty clear from coach O’Shea on where he’s at on all of this. Here’s a little bit more from O’Shea on the rule changes. When you hear the rationale, uh, does it go any any way to convincing you that this is worth trying? I’m pretty stubborn. Yeah. Yeah. How come? Why is it so important? Because it’s ours. Yeah. Uniquely ours. I love it. So, it’s an exciting game. Um there there are a couple of the items that I I certainly am okay with, but would still require a little more research on my part to sit down and actually put a game on and go through the items, go through the plays and see how it’s going to work, right? I mean, that’s our job in the offseason. Which one turns you off the most? Is it field length? Is it the goalposts? Both. Oh, there’s a few of them. Yeah. Well, I just I mean the obvious one for us, the most recent one for us is Trey doesn’t set a CFL record or it would be highly unlikely that anyone’s ever going to uh do that again when they once they move the posts. Right. Right. I mean, I don’t know what the numbers are down south, but how many returns would there have actually been in the last decade? It’s probably next to none. Right. So, we get two in one game and there’s I mean we’ve scored on one. We’ve had one scored against us. Uh let alone all the yardage has been accumulated and yeah, I just I think it’s an exciting part of the game. All right, there’s coach on uh on that. Now, there’s one more from uh from Ocean and he’s asked about the argument that was made in the press conference from the commissioner um that this will lead to increasing offense in the Canadian Football League. The number quoted in the press conference was an estimated 60 additional touchdowns uh once these rules are enacted in the Canadian Football League. Here’s what OSHA had to say on that argument. Once again, I I I don’t think you can actually determine that until you look at all the stats the following year, that first off season. I I don’t I don’t think you can say that. Do you fear this is a potential step towards Americanizing the Canadian Football League? Uh I’m generally not afraid of much, so fear is a probably a strong word. I I mean, we’re not privy to the the extended plan, right? The idea that, you know, after 2 years, this is where the changes stop. I don’t I don’t know. It would be all speculation on my part, but um we’re also we’re also not privy to to an entire plan really. All right. So, there’s Blue Bombers head coach, Mike O’Shea, uh with his thoughts. Great stuff from Paul Fzen, everybody else in the scrum there, uh post Bomber practice. Now, there’s one more reaction that I think a lot of people were interested to get, and that is Blue Bomber special teams coordinator Mike Miller, who is also a legend in special teams. And arguably, special teams is the biggest aspect of the game that changes with these new rules that’ll be coming in 25 and 26. Here’s Mike Miller uh with his reaction to uh the announcement from Stuart Johnson who will join us on Winnipeg Sports Talk tomorrow. Here’s his reaction to that. I mean uh the bench one makes sense to me. I feel like that should have happened years ago with the East. I just I never asked the reason why behind it, but I just just always thought that should be the case that everybody should be on opposite sides. So that one for sure. Um and then I mean the 35second one doesn’t doesn’t bug me much. I mean, I feel like that that wasn’t one that said that really like put any impact on the Canadian game. I mean, then obviously, yeah, with the goal post, man, that that one I just don’t Yeah. And the rouge just doesn’t make sense to me. Just Canadian football. I mean, uh it’s that’s what it is. Like even just the shortening of the field, um you know, a lot of a lot of the stadiums they put the C at center. I mean, to me, that was that was for Canadian. that was part of our thing as well. Um, the Rouge is talked about, I mean, you know, make fun of it or whatever, but it’s, you know, it’s just part of the Canadian game. So, to see that one kind of, you know, with those those two major changes, I guess. So, you’re taking 20 yards away from the field that we usually have. Um, yeah. So yeah, obviously when I heard the news, uh, watched the press conference, just kind of had a really weird feeling in my gut when they announced it. Just kind of a little sickening. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s strong emotion to come from a wheelchair. You didn’t expect it. Just you kind of just felt it in my stomach. Didn’t didn’t sit well with me at the time. Like I ate something ate something bad. What? What a quote from Mike Miller. Listen, I appreciate the honesty of everyone. I mean, Zach Callero saying that, you know, he was, you know, this was not a big deal to him, but, you know, two guys that spent so much time, blood, sweat, and tears on 110 yard CFL fields making massive and sometimes legendary record-breaking contributions on special teams in Miller’s case. Um, not all the way there with what they heard from Stuart Johnson earlier this week. Yeah, good questions there by Paul Fzen. Getting some good answers. Mike Miller saying it felt, you know, he felt like he ate something bad. I thought the followup was going to be like, “What would you have eaten that would have been bad? Shellfish or I don’t know, something some old meat, anything sour milk.” Anyways, uh good to hear from, you know, you hear from the Canadian players around the league, Nathan Ror, uh you know, mentioned Mike Miller, Mike O’Shea, they don’t want to see changes, but you’ve seen some American players like Davis Alexander, Nick Arbuckle, O Levi Mitchell, Zack, who, you know, are happy with or maybe they don’t have the attachment uh to the Rouge, to the 55 yard line that some other people. So, I’m, you know, the backlash has been significant. I’m not sure. I mean, we’ll see if there are people, you know, dropping season tickets over this. I kind of shared Zach’s thoughts like, you know, when they said, “Oh, changes are coming.” He thought it was going to be really big. I don’t think it really changes, you know, football, uh, but it does change the canvas that it’s played on, to use the Steuart Johnson terminology. And I thought, you know, moving the goalpost made sense and I think a lot of the changes are connected to that. So, uh, we’ll see, you know, if they get the desired result moving forward, but it seems like they’ve, you know, annoyed a lot of the hardcore fans and are there fans out there saying, “Oh, they moved the goalpost. They got rid of the Rouge. Now, now I’m going to tune in to Friday Night Football on T.” Are there people out there doing that? I’m not sure. Yeah, this isn’t fixing everything that is is the issue with the Canadian football league in one in one spot. But I will say if this makes the game better, that’s a positive thing. And you can agree or disagree with that. But I mean, let’s all agree that that is the intention of why they are doing this. Um like I don’t buy that this is just one step so they can kill the Canadian football league and make it four down football. Like I don’t believe that. uh and I don’t think many people do but listen it is a game that we love uh and it means so much to so many people and the fact that it has created such a conversation around the country I think just shows that the CFL still has a major major place in the landscape of Canadian sports. Yeah. And I think there’s some unsaid stuff like I don’t think it’s all about going about uh increasing scoring. Jeff mentioned this on CFL 110 where you guys went for like, you know, an hour talking about the rules saying, you know, I think it’s restrictive having this massive field that there’s not that many places that they can put it in and, you know, maybe would make it more accessible if they were having games at other stadiums. Maybe that’s an unsaid factor uh that’s happening. We’ll have to wait and see. I mean, they asked me what I wanted it to be and I put out on X. Like, let’s fix the stats because they send them out in a PDF that’s not sortable. Like, what are we doing here? Like, let’s make a real fantasy product, you know, have we’ve been saying years like have a video game to engage young fans. Hey, on that, I am hoping I am hoping and of course, what is it? Nelson Hackawich, I think, who made those incredible CFL unis that you could input into the college football game. I would love with a more US style field that there’s a way that the CFL can be included in MAD. I think that would be absolutely massive. And again, there might be a tweak to the field where you make it wider and you’re adding the five yards in the back of the end zones or even if just for the video game they leave it as the NFL endzones, make it a bit wider. But if you could add that 12th player and get CFL teams in there, I mean, that would expose it to so many new people just out of curiosity that I think then if they’re flicking around one time and the Bombers are playing the Argonauts in June when football’s not happening in the United States, you might get a few more people, more eyeballs on that. And obviously, a new TV deal is a big part of the future for the Canadian Football League. the commissioner will join us tomorrow on the program. We’ll hit him with uh many of our questions, a few of yours as well. And uh very much looking forward to that. So don’t miss that on tomorrow’s edition of WST. All right, we’ve got WSD winners coming up in a few minutes. So let’s get over to the cool bet lines and uh CFL lines have actually moved quite a bit. Uh, the Montreal Alowettes are now fourpoint favorites at home against the Calgary Stampeders. This opened up as Calgary minus one and a half. It’s all about the quarterbacks. Sounds like Vernon Adams might not play. And uh, Davis Alexander’s back at practice for the Montreal Alowettes. So, that line has moved significantly. Montreal a four-point favorite right now. Minus 217 on the money line. Argos are big dogs in BC. 10 and a half is the spread in favor of the home lions. And uh with the news that Zach Calleros is back at practice, the Bombers have gone from underdogs to favorites, albeit still very tight. Bombers onepoint favorites in the game and minus 125 on the money line. The finale Saskatchewan at Edmonton has stayed at four points in favor of the visiting Riders all week long. Uh we got a big big Blue Jays game tonight. uh heartbreaker last night for the Jays. U definitely got hosed on the Springer uh foul ball call that would have knocked in at least two runs and then the way he got rung rung up on that other play was just really unfortunate. Um tonight they are underdogs at home to the Boston Red Sox. It is Max Scherzer on the bump for the Blue Jays coming off that ugly performance against the Royals where he gave up seven runs in the first inning and didn’t even last through the first. Um makeup game for Max tonight. Garrick Crochet on the line uh on the bump for the Red Sox. Red Sox minus 125, Blue Jays plus 106. And I will point out one other happening in the national in the majors and that’s what’s happened to the Detroit Tigers. And this collapse that the Tigers are in the midst of is the most shocking in the history I think of Major League Baseball. Less than a month ago, the Tigers were 12 and a half games up on the Cleveland Guardians with the win last night over their ace TK Scubble. The Guardians have caught the Tigers. They’re now in first place. Uh it was a absolute disaster in the sixth inning last night with one of the best in baseball on the mound. Giving up a bunch of runs without the ball ever leaving the infield. the hit by pitch, a couple bunt singles, a terrible play by Scooble throwing the ball through his legs over the first baseman. This collapse is legendary right now and they may not even make the playoffs. They’re one game up on Houston in the wildard spot right now. So pay attention to that one. Guardians tonight minus 147 favorites against the Detroit Tigers. Of course, all the RDER Cup odds are up right now. Europe a plus 165 underdog. That’s gone up over the last few weeks. Um we won’t dive into it much right now because as soon as the program’s over, we’ll dive into this talk rider cup. Myself and Pat Gregoire on another episode of WST Winners. Um tomorrow’s NFL game, Seahawks at Cardinals, Seattle. Sammy Darts, Mr. Darnold in his new home, a one and a half point favorite against Arizona as Thomas mentioned. James Connor out for the season. Seattle minus 123 on the money line. And of course, we got poker tonight, folks. For all you cool bers, and even if you haven’t played a cool bet before, join us tonight for our poker tournament. What you’re going to want to do is go to coolb.com and then click on poker, download the poker app. When you go into tournaments, search WST, and that’s where we are. €20, which is $30 Canadian, is the buy in. $100 bounty on my head. $100 bounty on Reis’ head. I think Schnitziey’s in tonight. I know Jeff Hamilton is in. Short side snipe, some other friends. So, uh, join us. It should be a lot of fun. 8:00 it gets going tonight. Cool Bet. DM us if you have any problems or any issues finding it or joining us in. And again, you can hit all of our social media channels for that as well. All right, we’re gonna have WST winners coming up in five minutes. So, Remis, let’s get to our picks at the Downs tonight. It’s girls night out. Couple more Wednesdays left for the ladies to go and take advantage of great prizes. They got 150 bucks for the best hat, some other great promos. Check their Instagram for that. Uh, but Remo, I had a a half decent win last night. basically kept my head above water uh with a triac at $18 and uh but it’s still very very tight as we come down the home stretch to use a Darren Dunism. Yeah, you said ladies night gots me think of that horse. Hey ladies. Hey ladies. Hey, that was a good horse, but I didn’t win anything yesterday. I think I went a bit too hard trying to hit a long shot because I need to catch up to you. A bit more conservative for me tonight picking winners. So, we’ll see if I can if I can hit one and and maybe you’re going to go strike out here. I am uh I got race one, three, six, and seven. Okay. I’m on uh I have six, seven, and four and five. All right. Well, we’ll start off first couple races. I am going with a a little bit bigger of a win bet than normal on the favorite Gopher. Gopher has been awesome. It won the last time out on a mile. They’re back at a mile tonight putting a $6 win bet on Gop Fur to start it off. Um I guess my other uh race before you get going is race number three. And in this one uh it’s 431. I’m actually fading the favorite in this one. Uh I’m Magic Tiger is the favorite. It’s the number one AI smart picks. It’s raced. It’s thought to have more than a 40% win rate. uh win rate. I’m out on Magic Tiger and I am rolling with number one burn Jakey Burn, number three, Luca Grazi, and number six, Pinky Ring Bling. So, a 136 triactor box for my second wager. Um over to you, Remis. I have race four. I got two separate bets here. I got Bandaraa as Tekk to win. And then I’ve got a trifecta box 258 Bandaraa as Tekk Galan Oak and a lot of Verve. So hoping for a a double win here with Bandaraa as Tekk winning and might try hitting. Um I got uh race five. Just small bet on the longer shot here. Horse two, Prince of the Prairie. Bit of a longer shot. Not going off the board here. That’s fine. in. We’re both on six or seven. And race six, I have horse seven to win. Ada boy Cookie, part of the AI smart pick. I’m going in race six with a longer shot. Uh little Eddie. Throwing a Tony on Little Eddie to win. Okay. He is not one of the uh one of the smart picks or the program selections. That’s in honor of Ed Tate, who I think will be joining us tomorrow. Exactly. Little little Eddie. Um shout out to Ed. And then uh race seven, the final race. What do you got? Yeah, I’m going with uh the program. I’m taking the chalk here. Program selection AI smart picks Pacos Pico and Mo Macki. I’d say sorry exacto box. Uh and that in those two exacto box. All right, cool. I have a triactor box in this one. And I am not taking uh Miko Mackey, which is ranked second. I’m going three Pacos Pico, four Mr. Dazzle, and number seven, Cumberland Falls. 347 for this one in it. It could be if if we get it. But uh hopefully I can get that win in race number two or one with that favorite and then you know, see if we can make some happen again. 7:30 post time tonight. Uh it is ladies night or girls night out. Go to asinoidowns.com for more information on that or their social channels. And that will uh and that will do it. We’re going to wrap up and get right into WST Winners Ryder Cup Bets and preview with myself and Pat Gregoire. Hope to see you all tonight 8:00 p.m. on the felt. Cool.com. Check our socials or hit us up with a message if you’re wondering how you can get in if you haven’t played before. everyone that’s played with us before. Hope we’ll see you again tonight. Uh thanks to Miltsteagle, Thomas Tip, and of course, Marada Tesh for joining us today, and all of our sponsors. That will do it for us. We’ll be back tomorrow with more Winnipeg Sports Talk after tonight’s Poker Tourney. And keep your eyes on the social channels for more of our fun night at the game. Uh at the Jets, trying all that new food at the building. And uh the slurpees now available at Canada Life Center. for Michael Rebas. I’m Andrew Patterson. WSD Winners is next. We’ll see you tomorrow, 1 PM right here on Winnipeg Sports Talk. Oh my god. Shut it down. Let’s go. Thanks for tuning in to Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast feed at winnipegportsalk.com. Hey,

Andrew “Hustler” Paterson hosts Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily with Michael Remis. They look back on last night’s Winnipeg Jets preseason loss to the Edmonton Oilers, discuss today’s training camp and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers preparations for Saturday’s game vs. Hamilton. Guests: CFL on TSN analyst Milt Stegall, Murat Ates of The Athletic and Thomas Tipple of Fantasy Points.

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