Real Kyper & Bourne - Bring on the B's

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee kick it off with last night's nasty game between the Lightning and Rangers, Tampa finding their playoff intensity and if the Leafs can match that tonight against the Bruins with Ryan O'Reilly returning to the lineup. NESN Bruins analyst Andy Brickley joins the conversation (20:56) and discusses the team's health, what to expect from Linus Ullmark in the playoffs and how seriously Boston will take tonight's game. Then, NHL Network's Bruce Boudreau gives his take on Michael Bunting's issues with officials, coaching the stretch run, managing stars' egos and takes a look at the Western Conference playoff race (42:30). Finally, former scout and Sportsnet.ca columnist Jason Bukala shares his perspective on Matthew Knies, draft-day wild-card Matvei Michkov and some of his favourite prospects he's keying in on (1:05:59).The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

This is Real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. Show's on for like 10 seconds now. And Sammy's already screwed up the lineup. This is a new record. He can't handle it after yesterday. So I'm reading off the top. Real Kipper and Bourne show season two, episode 124. That's good.

Okay. Derek Brandeo, David Sissboomba, Sammy McKee. Present, present, present. So far, so good. Then he goes 3 p.m. Real Kipper and Bourne live on Sportsnet 590. We are not on Sportsnet 590 today because our beloved Blue Jays are on. That's right.

Who are up 4-0 against the Kansas City Royals. I haven't changed that top part since show one, day one. From the exact same. I don't even look at that. Sort of like this huge template that you just kind of just. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So you don't actually fill out like every day.

It's too much work to make a new one every day. You have to blank, blanking cursor every day. The renewed vigor to hold Sammy's feet to the fire over the lineup. I love it. We are on Sportsnet's YouTube channel. Hey, everybody. If you're like, you know, there's other things going on. I got nothing for you guys.

Are you saying this is not Priority 1A today? No, it is. It is. Big game tonight. We are on Sportsnet now. Yes. We are on iTunes and Spotify. Ooh.

That's good. Lovely places. And Sammy is a million miles away from this show right now. Jays are on and the Masters. We're on an alternate stream. That means absolutely nothing to us, Derek. I have no idea what that means. Alternate stream.

What does that mean? And why do we care? So when you go to the Flash player for 590.ca, there's a choice. You can listen to stream one or stream two. Or stream two. Which is what we are on currently as well. All right. For those four people out there, we're glad you're aboard.

For friends and family on stream two. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Really, really glad. Really glad. So kind of hard. I got to admit, tearing me anyways away from the monitor to watch the Masters.

It's so amazing, though, that this may be the only sporting event in the world where they don't care about money. The Masters. No. They're just like, yeah, we'll be on at 3 o'clock. We'll be on at 3 o'clock. We don't really care for commercials. Our hot dogs are still like $1.50.

Yeah. It's like... You know, though, you know, though, Kip, I think they probably still make some money. I have no doubt. I actually saw a thing today.

They expect to sell at Augusta $70 million worth of merchandise. So every master's tournament as Sammy is wearing one of those $40 dad hats that cost seven cents to make. I feel really bad because Adam Stanley, who does a spectacular job covering the Masters and covering golf for Sportsnet, good friend of mine. He's at the Masters. He's coming on the golf show on Saturday morning with me and Gunnar live from Augusta. It's great.

Wow. And we have a group chat going. I'm like, hey, Stanley, I wouldn't mind a rope hat from the gift shop, if you wouldn't mind. And I've been sent this article with a picture of the gift shop like five times now where it's just like, it's literally a fight. You sent him to Woodstock to get something. I just said, I think I may be getting empty-handed here. Maybe not getting the roll pat that I desire from Augusta.

And if I do, I'll be giving him a couple extra bucks for getting a service fee. Yeah, for sure. Just because we're not on Sportsnet 590, the fan, doesn't mean we have a bad show. We, in fact, have a good show. Masters may mean that we're, you know, not focused. But that's a different story. But we've got great guests. We're going to have Andy Brickley from the Boston Bruins help us tee up.

Oh, by the way, there's a Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Boston Bruins. Oh, buddy, I'm fired up. He'll be by in about 15 minutes. Bruce Gabby. Bruce, there it is. Boudreaux will join us as well in about 40 minutes. And then Jason

Bukala, of course, friend of the show all season long, scouting former NHL scout currently writing for Sportsnet.ca. He's going to come by and talk about the final four, the NCAA, where for Leaf fans, it's all about Matthew Nyes. Yeah. For the Gophers, it's no more Mr. Nyes guy. Sorry.

He's coming. Very good. Yeah, thank you. Did you want to talk about the comparables now, or did you want to save that until we get there? On the Nyes stuff? Let's save it a little bit. Yeah, thank you. Did you want to talk about the comparables now, or did you want to save that until we get there? On the night stuff? Let's save it a little bit. Yeah.

All right. Okay. So we tee up Toronto and Boston. It's coming off, guys. And before we get into that, I do want to talk a little bit about last night, Tampa and New York. Now, I focused on Calgary and Winnipeg,

but there was enough about that game to know that it was just not a typical end of the season, mail it in, regular season game. It was nasty. I think it sets the stage for Leafs Boston tonight about teams who may have to play in the playoffs, so not just letting that game go by. Yeah, and which kind of brings me up the topic of how,

like, would you like to see it that nasty? And listen, you know me. I do know you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling you, I'm not sure it serves a purpose to go that hard, that intense. Like, were there fines today off of that game? Yeah. Kalorn.

Kalorn for the slash. And who else? Perry got one. Hagel got one maybe? No. But there was a bunch of moments in that game that were pure mayhem. My whole point in all of this is, is there upside if the Leafs in Boston played that hard, that nasty?

The only way I see it as an upside is not if the Bruins bring it to the Leafs. You already know what the Bruins are about and how they've played and all that. But it would certainly say something to me if the Leafs went into Boston and said, you know, we don't like you guys and went right at them a little bit. I think that would be pretty noteworthy and surprising, which is why I don't expect it to happen. Well, do they need to remind themselves that by watching Tampa and the Rangers last night that there could be an element of their game that could surface in the

playoffs. So maybe we should test it out a little bit. It's like. Tampa's been testing it though. Like they're in those scrums every other week. I don't even think that there's a close second for, for, I'm not for goon show.

I'm not, I'm not going to say that they're the toughest team in the league because we know they're most willing to fight, though. Nastiest, ugliest, drag you into the alley team. Yes. Yeah. So is this where Tampa's heading right now? Is last night something that the Leafs can expect in game one?

You know, it's not like Tampa played that way in game one last year after still having a pretty similar reputation. It's all those little things where, like last night, the play that sparks it is there's a great scoring chance. The Lightning almost scores. Shusterkin's down and out. And then from a zone behind comes Brandon Hagel, who still

spears at the puck and gets shisterkin and makes some people angry they're not afraid and then it was clorin that came in and was it clorin so they're not afraid to deliver the direct fu even in a way that's not like we're tougher than you just we do not care if this makes you mad and i think that's admirable that's what you can expect to see. I mean, not to sound like a broken record, boys, but we've been talking about this basically since the inception of the show. The difference between the Leafs stars and the Lightning Stars is the FU factor. And that's like, like we were texting about it last night. Korn knew exactly what was going to happen.

He knew that was going to make some people mad. Like you can't come in on the, maybe the best goalie or second best goalie in the league or any goalie for that matter 35 seconds after he's got the puck frozen and just jackknife him in the you know what with your stick like how do you think that's gonna go so you got cory perry slew footing truba like they're just fell in his brain they're just a greasy bunch yeah perry's such a greaseball man that was such the i don't know, you guys still see this? Did you think it was dirty?

You know, it was typical Corey Perry where he can make stuff look accidental or he can put it on the border. And that was, he's wedging himself between Truba and the boards. Yeah. And. Just getting a piece of a leg. I had nowhere else to go. Oh, that's such a good point.

I had nowhere else to go. Where am I going to go? You showed me where I was supposed to go. So if, you know, if bodies and legs happen to collide or make contact, I don't know what happens to him. Yeah. Meanwhile, he could have just stopped, you know, or stepped around him or whatever.

But so he gets a piece of a guy. Truba's awkward spot and gets hurt uh and rangers fans are unhappy so they should be so anyway i think it is noteworthy that that game was high intensity yeah great hockey playoff tone i am curious tonight of this you know the bruins are not playing hall they're not playing creche i'm curious to see if these teams treat it as like a hey we'll see you later in playoffs type of thing or not which they've had a lot of games in the last two weeks where they have sat out key guys and they have not presented themselves as uh giving up two points easy right i am curious to know we the lineup tonight, though, has everyone going for the Leafs. Like, O'Reilly's in.

They're to the nines, if I'm not mistaken. Okay, let's go to Sheldon Keefe on our first Kippers Clipper playing Boston. Just know anytime you're playing Boston that it's going to be a very difficult game. It's going to be a game in which you're going to have to find a way to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves.

Their last six games have either gone to overtime or been one-goal games. That's an indication of the fact that they're in every game and hanging around, yet they find ways to win. It's going to be a challenging game mentally. It's a challenging game physically just because of how they play and what they bring. The most important thing for us is just to continue to focus on our game. I think we've done a lot of really good things here of late. It's a great opportunity for us to put it up against

a great challenge like Boston. Sammy made a good point yesterday about how Boston has, I'm not going to say they haven't been scuffling, but, you know, they snuck by the Blues in a shootout. They lost to the Blackhawks a couple weeks ago. Like Keith mentioned, a lot of one-goal games. It's not like, you know, they've been the best version of themselves, but they haven't been healthy.

And, you know, we'll see what they have tonight. Yeah, and, you know, we did, and I'll bring back Tamp a little bit in the equation, but there's another team that presented itself since January is, is an unpredictable team. Not so much the Boston Bruins, as you just mentioned, but it's,

it's hard to kind of cross it over the finish line a little bit here too. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like how do you get up every single night when it's hard to kind of cross it over the finish line a little bit here too, right? Yeah. Yeah, like how do you get up every single night when it's, you know, where you're finishing for so long? And, you know, we joke about, oh, the poor Leafs and, you know, knowing their opponent, the Bruins can't, have been unable to affect their outcome in the playoffs for a long time here.

So, yeah, you can forgive them for being a little sleepy at times. I think. All right. Also in the lineup, Ryan O'Reilly for the first time, Vlad just hit one a million miles, by the way, run J six,

nothing absolute nuke. Oh my God. Yeah. That was like vapor. Yeah. I just saw 107 mile per hour, 436 foot one strikeout so far for body this year. All right.

Uh, can, uh, Ryan O'Reilly have an ad bat that Vladdy just had tonight against Boston? Uh, I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think he's got the heat. I don't think he's got the bat speed anymore. Ryan O'Reilly, but what's. We're going to see him on the third line? Yeah.

And is this going to be one of those games where, like, however the game goes, however it's presented, you want to see him stay there for 60 minutes? Would you like to see him switched halfway through? You want to see more juggling, or do you want to see a lineup that's locked, loaded for 60 minutes? I mean, I have no idea what their thought process is with all this. I think what I want to see is that he's able to play with any pace. I know he's not a pretty skater, but you just like to see him win some pucks back, make some plays.

I just want to feel like he's playing well i don't really care what the line combination is or where he's playing right now this is perfect to me coming back with four games to go that's enough hockey to get yourself ready to go for game one i'm really looking forward to seeing back in there yeah like it you know you got the big deal you got the taste of him in there, and then he breaks his finger, and it's been so long. They've been interchanging all these guys, and 11 and 7, and you look at this lineup tonight, and you're like, okay, here we go. Looking like a playoff lineup, going into a big building.

This is a – I like to – me and JD on Leafs Talk like to talk about Go Leafs Go games, where, like, you get one from the group text where the guys are a little bit more fired up and people start sending the goalie's goal game you know around it's a goalie goal game tonight that's great people are excited about this it's been a long time without one i would imagine yeah it's just like they've been playing meaningless hockey against kind of crappy teams for a long stretch here and you're going in against a team that's already won the president's trophy in a hostile building with a ton of dark memories in this place it's a

big game tonight and i know the bruins probably don't think of it like that but the leaf should we uh we do have a clip on o'reilly if you want to listen to uh sheldon keith talking about him coming back from injury obviously our first experience of him coming back from an injury but i think it can only help uh just how he's looked in practice and the reps that he's gotten with us. It doesn't look like he's missed a beat. Just before the trade, he had come back from an injury in St. Louis and came flying out of the gates and was a terrific player there for him right away. So I think that does speak to the fact that he knows what he needs to be prepared,

and you certainly know that he's not going to let anything slip through the cracks in terms of preparation. Not that he needs added pressure, but he has to be a differential for the Leafs. When you really think about how they went out and they handpicked this guy, and I know hindsight's 2020 we can all look back and say okay the big names of the trade deadline and who should have gone where and maybe you should have done this instead of that but they got this before Chicken was traded. They got him. Who's the other defenseman?

Was it? Oh, sorry. Ekman Larson was traded. They handpicked. Ekholm, yeah. Ekholm. They handpicked Ryan O'Reilly before Ekholm was traded, knowing that Ekholm was on the market.

Yeah. I'm not sure. Did Orlov go before Ryan O'Reilly? Possibly. I think Orlov went after Ryan O'Reilly. Maybe after. It was like the day or two after. Okay.

So my point in all of this is that you had assets, the first, the second, the third, and the fourth, and we know that Achari was in that involved. But you went and got this guy first before you thought that, more so than you thought you needed. You spent your money on a fur coat before you had shoes. Right? So he has to be feeling that he's now coming back off this injury

and he's got coming back off this injury, and he's got five games to go, a handful of games to go to get ready, but he has to be the X factor. You know, Keith mentioned O'Reilly coming back off injury and looking good after that injury. When he came to the Leafs, a couple games to get settled, he looked really good by game four or five. You know, you've got that same sort of four or five game run here before playoffs I also think like isn't his dad like a mental health or mental strength coach type of guy like O'Reilly is someone who puts a lot of time and effort into preparation being ready you know like being that

guy so you know those are reasons I'm hopeful that he will live up to the things you're talking about but there's no doubt that the decision to get him puts more pressure on him than you know, those are reasons I'm hopeful that he will live up to the things you're talking about. But there's no doubt that the decision to get him puts more pressure on him than, you know, were he a last second. What would you know about pressure? So, we are a little over four weeks since that trade deadline. And if you talk about when the Leafs traded for O'Reilly, it's probably five weeks, five and a half weeks. Now we're at April 3rd. Let me ask you this question that I'll do the hindsight's 2020. But was getting Ryan O'Reilly more important for the Leafs to get that type of guy up front

or a defenseman that's probably known and has the reputation of an Ekholm or an Orlov on defense? And that's not to disrespect McKay, but he's not quite in that class, correct? Right. Okay. Yeah. So are you still okay that the assets went to Ryan O'Reilly instead of a more prominent defenseman? And I only say this because I cannot believe the effect

that Eckholm's had on Edmonton. I will say when we talked about Eckholm prior to him going to Edmonton, I don't know if none of us had seen him enough, but you know, we had, it was a panger in here. So I don't know, you know, I call him getting older. He might be slowing down a bit. You know, I, I, he's looked so good in Edmonton that it's remarkable. He's changed that whole thing. He's reslotted Darnell nurse. And it's just, so I... Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know that I knew how effective he could be, so maybe I wasn't as passionate about it being him. I also don't know that the assets that got O'Reilly would have got him, but no. I mean, if you asked me today which I would have preferred, you know, Ekholm or O'Reilly, it'd be Ekholm, but then you got to switch it to, you know, how much do you value Nola Chari?

Who's been pretty darn good. Yeah. And listen, it was still a $6 million that you had to fit in. I don't think. Did they got double retention on O'Reilly? So O'Reilly they're paying 1.7 for something. And there is that fitting in the cap yeah uh equation of it yeah but do you think the the the leaf pairings would have been a lot more solidified with a guy

that had the presence of an at home yeah yeah i mean not to like trivialize what's a worthwhile conversation but like yeah i think the d would look better with a better player on it you know at home and o'reilly or i'm sorry morgan riley right sure yeah now you're talking that sounds good that would have been a little different yeah at home play the right side anyway um but i'm just wondering now the i'm a big fan of ryan oReilly. Big family, big fan when he won the Cup in St. Louis. And Andy Brickley knows all about that. Boston Bruin analyst. They went to the final against Ryan O'Reilly's team in St. Louis. Let's welcome him in.

Brick, how are you, pal? I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to tonight. Love when Boston and Toronto get together, especially over the last decade or so. It's always been entertaining hockey, and I expect nothing different tonight. Love when Boston and Toronto get together, especially over the last decade or so. It's always been entertaining hockey, and I expect nothing different tonight. Hey, forget about the entertaining hockey.

It's always a lot more fun when you win, when you watch the right team win, and that's been the case for sure. And you've seen an awful lot, Rick, of the Boston Bruins this season winning, and I'm just wondering now,

beginning of the season, could you ever have seen anything like what we've seen out of them so far during the regular season? No, that was the topic of conversation back in September. What is this Bruins team going to be, and actually what is it even going to look like? I mean, it took a while before they started to put that team together and construct the team. Needed an answer from Bergeron.

Was Krejci coming back? You had three guys on the shelf. You know, all three very important, but even more so when you start talking about Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, along with Matt Gryzlik, who's had a terrific year, too. And you had a new coach. So were you going to be able to improve on a 51-win, 107-point season that they had the year before?

And I think everybody thought probably not. I think people thought that they certainly had enough talent and enough structure and enough experience to be a playoff team. But to see them run the table the way they've done this year, no one, no one expected that or predicted that. So, Brick, where are they in terms of being at full strength health-wise going into the playoffs? Obviously, we know fully loaded, they're a weapon tonight. It sounds like

no Krejci Hall still hurt a little bit. Where's the whole team in terms of injury status? Yeah, I don't know Derek Fulbert's status right now. What I understand is that he will be ready come playoff time. I've been to practice, obviously, the last week and a half

to see the progression of Taylor Hall, of Nick Foligno. Got to get an idea of where they're at. I know that Hall was long-term IR, and maybe there's some salary cap issues there that they've got to work out if he's going to come back and play in the lineup. But I know they had to recall Oscar Steen because Grachy is not going to play tonight, as you pointed out. Hall not ready to go just yet, but on my observation of practice, both players, Foligno still in the non-contact jersey, but Hall took full. He was full in

practice yesterday. Looked like he was getting ready to maybe be in the lineup tonight, if not Saturday or Sunday. They have another back-to-back on the weekends. They finish the season with four of those. That being said, yeah, my expectation is between now and then, barring any further injury to any current player that's healthy and contributing right now, that they will be completely 100% healthy, ready to go come game 83. And just the chemistry between Swayman and the year Allmark is having and

just seemed every time we had a goaltender conversation there was only really two goalies that anyone ever talked about Vasilevsky and Shosturkin and you know we've seen Sorokin come up quickly this season and Allmark

is he getting all of the love that he deserves or does he deserve to be the guy that says, hey, just show us what you can do in the playoffs now? Yeah, I mean, the concern for Bruins Nation, those that think the sky's falling, you know, they've only won the one

cup in 50 years, so when it comes to postseason, they expect bad news. So they point comes to postseason, they expect bad news. So they point to the lack of playoff experience and the lack of playoff success when they look at this great goaltending tandem. Instead of just looking at the body of work this year and where they are in their careers and where they are, you know, in terms of the level of play. You know, you talked about the team being a real surprise.

I think Linus Olmach was a bit of a surprise how well he's played right from game one. You know, it's been a different guy in net. He's let the game come to him more. He's not chasing the play. He's not out of position. His rebound control has been excellent. He's been square when there's been second and third opportunities.

His ability to handle the puck has been very good. His confidence, obviously, sky high. I mean, what a night when he scored the goal in Vancouver. That was a big celebration. Love the fact that he went when he scored the goal in Vancouver. That was a big celebration. Loved the fact that he went by the bench for the high five. That was pretty funny. But, yeah, just his ability. You know, they both want the net, and that's the thing you like about them.

They're both hungry. They're both competitive, but they understand that this is a tandem. What's best for the team? Who's going to play? Who gives us the best opportunity? And they're willing to go along with that. They both want to play. They both want to play. They both want to be the number one.

They both want to play in the playoffs, but it doesn't get in the way of the ultimate goal, and I think that's what everybody appreciates about these two guys. One of the stories here in Toronto this year has just been the line machinations and who's going to be with who and trying to figure out what to do there. You guys obviously have the once-famed perfection line. I know they don't play together uh as much now well what the what is the sort of line juggling looked like this

year for boston how do you think that's going to settle heading into playoffs yeah because of the the huge lead that they've had you know as far as nobody going to catch them it's allowed them since the trade deadline pretty much maybe a little little after that, to experiment, you know, moving people around, looking at different combinations on the back, and once they acquired Orlov, I think they pretty much had an eye that Hathaway would be part of that fourth line, try to establish an identity, a little bit more sandpaper, toughness. And he and Noshik have been a nice tandem.

It's kind of been a rotating left side, depending on who's healthy and who they want to play there. But, yeah, I mean, the top six is pretty much cemented, provided everybody's healthy. The only one missing right now is Krejci, and that's more maintenance than anything else. But, yeah, it would be Bergeron between Marchand and DeBrusque. That's been pretty standard all season long when everybody's been ready to play.

And then they have the check line together. The arc, the growth arc or the maturation process of the game of Owen Powell's arc has been tremendous this year. And he's right at home on that left side with Krejci and Postanak on the right side. Obviously Postanak's had a phenomenal year with the 50 plus and the 100 plus. He's just been a game breaker.

Awesome on the power play, even though the power play struggled for about a 20 game segment. And then it's Taylor Hall. He's the wild card right now. I've been on long-term IR, but the expectation is that he would play with Coyle on a third line, probably on the left side, and with the addition of Tyler Bertuzzi, he would be the right-side guy on that line,

though he's played very limited in terms of right side with both Foligno and Hall on the sidelines. So that's the way it went yesterday at practice before Crecce left early. Then they had to move some pieces around, and that would move Trent Frederick down to the fourth line or Foligno on the fourth line, It went yesterday at practice before Crecce left early. Then they had to move some pieces around. And that would move Trent Frederick down to the fourth line or Foligno on the fourth line, depending on who you want on that left side. So that's kind of the way it's lining up when you start talking about game one, round one. But you know how that goes.

That could change in a whisper, you know. We're talking to Andy Brickley, Boston Bruin analyst, former National Hockey League player. Does a terrific job for Nesson and calling the game tonight for his crew against the toronto maple leafs when i look at uh the success of the boston bruin something doesn't match up quite like i i think it usually would for for a top team and i look at ryan nugent hop Hopkins became the third player on the Oilers to score 100 points and he's in pretty good company now with the two big boys but then I look at the Boston Bruins with Pasternak over 100 points and then the drop off is is quite extensive for me at at 63 and 57 respectively with Marchand and Bergeron.

And, I mean, let's start with Marchand and just the fact that he scored 20 goals this year, just a little over 60 points. How do you sum up his year with those type of numbers on a top team? Yeah, to explain the numbers, I would defer to his commentary, which is he still doesn't feel right from off-season surgery when he had the double-hit procedure. Came back early.

That surprised everybody. Played with a lot of adrenaline initially and had some big games point-wise. But as the season has dragged on and when it's become really difficult when they're playing 15 games in 25 days, like everybody across the league, it becomes more of a grind. And, you know, even he, with his tremendous confidence and belief in himself and his will to be one of the best players and impact the score on a nightly base, it hasn't been there on regularity for him. And he'll tell you that, you know, battles that he normally wins,

especially late in the shift, haven't been there. You know, when he's able to create an offensive chance or a two-on-one or, you know, make a steal on the offensive zone and attack the net, that hasn't been there on a consistent basis for him all year long. He had stretches where it was there, but it's kind of been come and go. And he's still working on that. He doesn't want days off. He doesn't believe that's the issue.

He needs to work through what's hurting him right now, and I think that's hurt his production. I think Bergeron is just the natural progression of a career. You know, I mean, he puts out so many fires. He does so much for this team. You know, when you think you're in trouble and all of a sudden five-on-five play, you're breaking even because of a defensive play that he makes. He manages his ice time himself. He takes the shorter shift. I think the power play has hurt his numbers. He's had opportunities.

He's been very good in that bumper position, but the shot's been off net. It's either been wide or it's been right at the goalie when he's had his opportunities over the last month and a half. And I think those have slowed his numbers down. But I'm not concerned because the numbers are made up by a different style of offense under Jim Montgomery. The defense are a lot more involved. They're a five-man rotation in the offensive zone. They have a big three on the blue line now that really get involved in the offense when you talk about Hampus Lindholm,

who's been unbelievable this year. Everybody knew he was good. I don't think anybody knew he was this good. That's how great he's been. Charlie McAvoy, as advertised. And now with Dimitri Olav, it just gives them so many different looks and different options. Do you want to go two defensemen on a power play?

Do you want to go left, right, left, right? Do you want to put two lefties together? Do you want to play three of those guys all night long? You just have so many different ways to go. And then the growth of the other defensemen under Montgomery can't be overlooked either. I think there's marked improvement in growth in guys like, you know, Brandon Carlo and Matt Grisly. Even Connor Clifton has been involved offensively in a good shot blocker and a physical guy at his size. So I think a lot of the offense and that, you know, Jake DeBrusque is having a terrific year.

You've seen growth in Trent Frederick. So I think the guys that they drafted, invested time, resourced money in, the kind of flatlines under Cassidy have made strides under Montgomery. And that has eased the burden for the guys like Marchand and Bergeron to be highly productive in terms of points. Do you think that this game tonight will matter to the Bruins? And I don't mean that in like a, to be dismissive of like, ah, you know, tonight's no big deal, but like, you know, for the Leafs, it's like you may play the Bruins. They're a competitor, you know,

a rival team. We think there's reason for the Leafs should care about this game. Is this for the Bruins, just another one on the way to the ones that matter? Or do you think there is extra juice? Cause it's the Leafs. No, they played games against, you know, Detroit and Chicago on a road trip, lost both of them, and it caught their attention. They hated themselves for that. They hated the way they played. You know, they believe if we come into the rink and we're lacing them up and we're throwing the jersey on and we're keeping score, we're going out to win. And we love playing Toronto. They had a measurement game, a measuring stick game against Toronto early in the year when they weren't

playing their best, best hockey. And they had a losing streak going, they could have gone in Toronto and lost again. So that game mattered a lot. And I'm not saying it's on the same par as tonight's game. And, you know, I know they have five games left and they could be a piece of history. I don't think it's a driving force for these guys. But again, that room, the accountability, the leadership group, they'll have a healthy lineup.

They'll have a good lineup tonight. And it's the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team they love to play. They know how good Toronto is. They expect probably to play them in the postseason. So why not put our best skate forward tonight? It's on home ice. These are our fans. They deserve a strong effort. They deserve a strong effort.

They deserve a strong game. Let's give it to them, and I think that's their approach. Hey, Brick, I know you mentioned the defensive core, but I just want to kind of revisit the Orlov thing. And you mentioned Lynn Holm and McAvoy. You know, there's some teams that would be real lucky to just have those two guys. And then they go and get Orlov and he I know he had a great

start but you know did they truly need him is this a little overkill or um you know what did you see how surprised were you that they went after Orlov when they were already sitting at first with two all-star defensemen as is well I they were definitely in the market for defensemen. You know, I think if they, you know, if history has taught us anything you need but 8, 9, 10 probably if you can have a deep playoff run. You know, and I think somewhere around 7 or 8 was Jake Zaborl

and they think he's going to be a pretty good NHL player at some point in the future. He's not right now. You know, he's a guy that they didn't think was the answer for them if they got that deep into the postseason, so they wanted to add. There's a lot of conversation about other players of less

skill and probably less contract value that were obviously being bandied about. You don't know what's real and what isn't. Orlov kind of came out of nowhere. There's a lot of talk about Gavrikov, from what I understand. They were definitely in the market for a defenseman, and then when everybody saw that it was Orlov, and came out of nowhere. There was a lot of talk about Gavrikov, from what I understand. But, no, they were definitely in the market for a defenseman. And then when everybody saw that it was Orlov.

And if you talk to people that were around that Washington team that won the Stanley Cup back in 18, he was an absolute beast in the playoffs. And that's what they're expecting that they got when they acquired him. And hopefully they can sign him and keep him in Boston long-term. Rick, right now the Bruins are teed up to play the New York Islanders in round one, but it could be the Florida Panthers. It could be the Pittsburgh Penguins. Any preference there as a, you know,

someone who was covering the Bruins. Well, I mean, my immediate reaction is what's in it for me, right? What am I doing on my off day? Fair enough, yeah. Do you think any of those teams are legit threats? Oh, yeah, of course, of course. You know, I mean, I know it was a long time ago,

but, you know, I was part of a Devils team that went 10-2-1 down the stretch, so we had to get in the last game of the regular season just to make the playoffs, and we went to the conference final game seven, first time ever in the playoffs. So I know what that can be like being a team that just gets in and can do some damage in the postseason, regardless of who you're playing and where they finished in the standings. So with that in mind, I'm always concerned about round one. Round ones are built for upsets.

I know there'll be some really good teams that really could win the Stanley Cup that are going to go home in round one. When you look at these two, three matchups, it's unbelievable. But yeah, I'd be concerned about any one of those three teams based on the fact that they're playing playoff games right now. And I don't care if they're playing 500 hockey. Yeah, I have concern no matter who you play in round one, whether it's any one of those three teams. And I think you get in trouble when you start trying to hope for or trying to pick who you're going to play. You know,

you play who you play, where you play them and, you know, let's go. And I think that's, that's the best approach to have. And, and always,

always not fear, but be ready and be prepared for who you're going to play. One more, uh, brick. And I don't know if you caught any of that, uh, Tampa Bay Ranger game last night,

but I'm kind of in and out of it. And I'm like, man, Tampa Bay is going 80 style, man, when you played and me and you know, there, there,

there, there's a certain element in their game. They don't mind right now. And, and Boston, I know that AJ Greer and Trent Frederick don't mind to, you know, get their noses dirty and just,

you know, style of play, you know. Can the Bruins, if push comes to shove, be a team that can drag you in the alley? Yeah, I think so. I mean, not like the 11 team, obviously. I mean, that was, you know, Sean Fulton's team, basically. You know, there were nights where he would say in the playoffs, you know, to his line mates, you mates, the puck is optional. We've got a job to do.

I love that. Yeah. No, and you've got to throw Hathaway in there too, right? I mean, the boys have a weekend back-to-back. The second game, I think, was against – no, the first game was against Tampa Saturday afternoon at home. And, you know, Maroon Stodds, you know Stodds, Paul Stodds, and, you know, the puck drops. And the next, you know, Locos getting after it with Colton, I think it was, and Hathaway lines up with Maroon.

You know, and it was, it reminded me of that Dallas-Boston game where there were five fights before the game was 30 seconds old. So, yeah, the Bruins can play that way if you want to. They're not loaded. It's not the late 70s team under Don Cherry, but they have guys that will protect other players and they'll drop the gloves. They'll answer. A guy like Frederick that you mentioned, he's learned how to do it. When he first got to the league, he wasn't sure how to go about doing this job, but he'll do it when necessary and he's much better at it. But the acquisition of Hathaway helps a lot and they're willing. We don't see a ton of it

come postseason, but if it's there, yeah, they're ready. Hey, Brick, great job, man. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for doing this. Have a fun night tonight, Toronto and Boston. Thanks for having me. Great to talk with you guys. Thanks, Brick. Andy Brickley, color

commentator for Nessun. And we know the Leafs don't have that style they don't want to they don't want to go there they're going to outskill you or you know they're they're not going to win yeah i think they've kind of changed courses a little bit that they're not as run and gun type of skill but they'll stay in the game and whatever they want to. Now, you know, they did pick up, of course, Achari and Lafferty, but not drop your gloves guys. They're guys who will go to the front of the net.

They'll finish their checks. They'll dig out pucks. Like I think they view hockey tough as a little different than the drop the gloves and go guys. I wrote an article for the Toronto Star today. It's centered around Bunting and just the challenges he has now. You know, a guy that's been really good over the last two years of drawing penalties and now not getting the benefit of the doubt. I'm interested to see how he comes out against a team like Boston now and how

quickly can he get involved and find that fine line on, on, on just not being as attention seeking if, if he doesn't get a call or things go his way. Yeah. You know, to me, there's an element where it's like,

we're all talking about bunting bunting's answering questions about bunting style the refs have clearly talked about bunting he's kind of one right that's part of being a pest and a rat is getting people off their games thinking about you i know you don't want to be the refs yeah but like there's an element we're going into a game the coach has to waste 20 seconds going, hey, 58, we don't want to deal with him. We'll ignore him. Like, you know, whatever. Like, I think he's having some success at being annoying,

which is part of his job. But can you accept that whatever the call or non-call is, you can just move on and just stay focused? Because that has been the biggest issue. And not just him, it's Sheldon too behind the bench can they just accept and move on if they don't get the call yeah I it's a good question because Bunting is kind of his son you know like the way their relationship is uh they've known each other since the Sioux days he kind of gives him the odd whipping boy treatment but keeps him on the top line it is something for them to

keep in mind. That this is part of what bunting is trying to do and not to get too emotional when it doesn't go your way. Okay, we can pick up this conversation on pests and the reaction of not getting calls. How quickly do coaches start leaning on refs when they need to get a message out? All that on Bruce Boudreau after the break.

How about that? Beautiful. All right. You're watching Real Kipper and Born on YouTube. And where else are we? Sportsnet Now. Alternate stream of some kind. On alternate reality. And a couple of podcasts.

Just go to a different dimension. Back after these words. Diving deep into Leafs, Raptors, Jays,s jays and nfl the jd bunk is podcast subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts this is real kipper and born on sportsnet 590 The Van. Always fun having our next guest on. Bruce Boudreaux, we welcome you in. How are you, pal?

He dropped. Oh, he doinked pre-interview. That's the PID, the pre-interview doink. It has been a while since Sammy's dropped a guest. I was going to say, were weeks. No, not weeks. I don't think he's ever gone weeks. I want to say four days. I like the idea that he's physically holding the guests,

and he just fumbles them awake. Ah, he's lost. You know, he's just super excited that Rom went to minus seven. He is. Sammy picked up Rahm 13 to one odds when he double bogeyed the first hole. And he's now just out to cash his chips and retire. I gave you such a good opening. And my producer, Sammy, just totally dropped the ball on you, Bruce.

No, that was me. Okay. How are you, man? I'm good. How are you man i'm good how are you we're good stella keeping you busy or you know he's trying to i'm still waiting for him to take me to lunch or something no no that's not gonna happen maybe the dog park yeah he's there a lot. He is. We know. He's done many of the hits on our show from the dog park. But he never brings the dog. I think that's illegal, isn't it? Yeah, I just think he walks around.

Hey, Gabby, we were just talking a little bit about Michael Bunting, who's been a very good hockey player for the Leafs the last two years, but has run into some issues with the officials and not being able to draw penalties as much as before and not much sympathy out of the officials from him. You've had players that have played that type of role. When that doesn't happen, what do you look for? And how quickly do you want to come in and help your player?

As a coach? Yeah, as a coach. Or what can you do? I know Sheldon has talked about maybe Kyle Dubas talking to the NHL head office and dealing with it, but ultimately, what do you look for? Yeah, that's not going to do any good. I think what has initially happened is Michael got away with all of this stuff

because he was young and unknown and even playing in Phoenix for a while. And now what's happened if they catch him, what's the other, There's another word, embellishing or anything like that. And then he starts to argue. So you know yourself, Nick. The refs just say, forget it. I'm not calling anything on you no matter what you do now.

You've tried to fool me too many times. And so he's still learning. He's a young guy. He's still learning how to cope with that and i think that's what you know sheldon has tried to tell him to relax play the game don't get caught up in all of that stuff and uh don't let it bother you or affect the way you're playing you just got to keep doing what you're doing but you know that eventually if you keep doing it i've been in that position as a player and seen it many times

as a coach that refs will just come up to you and say you know you might have a legitimate call one out of three might be legitimate but you're not getting the call because of what you've done in the past 100 it is fairly common so that's something that a coach deals with i also wanted to get you to weigh in on, you know, the coaching aspect as you head towards playoffs, as the Toronto Maple Leafs are now. And if you do anything differently, you know, I had spoken to a junior coach who said you spend the early part of the season

kind of not tearing down, but, you know, rebuilding guys a little bit and trying to build them back up down the stretch before the postseason. Did you just remain the same the whole way through, or did you try to be doing anything differently coaching wise towards the end of the season i think everything depends on where your positioning is in the standings i mean uh um my first year in washington we needed to win um 12 out of the last 13 just to make the playoffs and and the seven, and we did. So you're always just, you know, pushing and pushing

and making the belief and everything else. Like, you don't, you know, we hear the term all the time, don't take your foot off the gas. Now, I mean, you have to know when to use rest as a weapon and make it beneficial to you. But for the most part, anytime I've found that you really relax and say, hey, boys, just go out and have fun. We'll get ready for the season to start or for the playoffs to start.

It's usually a bad omen. George Armstrong used to tell us in junior all the time, he'd say, this is not like a faucet. You can't turn it on and you can say, this is not like a faucet. You can't turn it on and you can't turn it off, just like a faucet. So you've got to keep going. And I think the Leafs, for the most part, have done that the most of the year. I mean, I think the last nine games or so, they win one, lose one, win one, lose one.

But I think, you know, as a team, they're probably really getting ready and psyched up to this will be a good test for them. Tampa will be a good test for them and then get ready for the playoffs that way. Bruce, we've seen Sheldon here a lot and it's still undecided on where a guy like Marner is best fit to start game one and I'm just wondering we know the Leafs have world-class players and they're game breakers and they're going to play a huge role starting next you you know, 10 days. But would there be concern for you as a head coach with a handful of games left and still not knowing who plays best with who and the mere fact that maybe Tavares and Nylander have gone cold a little bit here? Well, I think, you know, well, listen listen ever since uh tavaris got there he's been playing

marner's been playing with either tavaris or marner and they switched them back and forth and and uh but i think shelton knows exactly who he's going to play everybody with right now um he you know i mean ryan o'reilly if he plays tonight, I think he's scheduled to play third line center. Now, you know, he's just still just experimenting or making him, like because he played left wing before he was hurt, is trying to get him back just to remember what center is like. But I am 100% sure that, I mean, when they're not on the ice and they're not practicing, he's doing his line combinations, and he's convinced he knows,

and he does know, that he knows who's going to play with who, what six defensemen are going to start, barring all injuries. I mean, and he's just not telling us, but, I mean, let's face it, they've got an awful lot of people to choose from right now, and he's trying to keep everybody happy before the, and they're pretty well locked in the second place. I think they need a point tonight or in the next few games to get there. So he's just trying to keep everybody playing and everybody happy playing.

You know, how much ego management is involved in coaching? You know, when you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs, you laugh. The only example I'll give before I let you answer that is sometimes I'll say to Kip, it's the one thing I think him and I are sometimes on different pages about, where I'll be like, yeah, play Matthews with no one. And he's like, do you think Matthews is going to like that? And I say, I don't care. I'm the coach.

You know, but I understand you have to manage that a little bit. So I'll let you have your say now. Yeah, I think you're always managing ego, especially with the stars. I mean, and sometimes the stars, you know, like I'll use Sidney Crosby as an example. When Rust and Gensel came up, and whoever comes up, he wants them to play with him. He wants to take them and and make them better players but

there are guys and i've had them that uh got out there and they've said i'm not a third line player what have you got me on the third line for and you have to massage them and say hey you're not a third line player we're trying to get balance or you're trying to do this and uh you it's it's sometimes difficult i've had players come up to me and say hey you're only playing me 15 minutes a night what's going on i mean i was playing 18 minutes a night last year and you know i mean there's there's there's guys that'll do that i'll give you an example again using washington i did a a thing where um Ovi and Backstrom when they were staying on the ice early in their tenures way too long and I showed them the difference between them playing less minutes and their productivity as to more minutes and their productivity did the same thing

with Perry and Getzlaff and and they found they realized that staying up for a minute and 10 minute and 15 they weren't getting as many points they were on the ice for more goals against and if they shortened their shifts they would play in the end just as much and their productivity was a lot more so I mean managing these guys is is all important I think And they're the guys that are going to take you to the promised land. So you've got to keep them not necessarily happy, but you've got to keep them involved and into the game and ready to do whatever they can. And you don't want them sitting there going,

feeling like that they're not useful or not doing what they can on the bench because that will in turn make them not play as well on the ice. How is Ovi with you? Did he give you a few hairy eyeballs when he didn't like who he was playing with? Well, let me just tell you a quick story. Please do. Yes. And it's crazy.

I never sat Ovi too much. Well, never any length of time. There was one game we played Anaheim, and we were down 5-1 after the second period. Ovi was minus 4. And so we get made it 5-2, 5-3, 5-4. He's still minus 4. We pull the goalie and he says, coach, where do you want me? I said, on the bench, just,

you sit on the bench and you're not playing well. So we went in, we tied it up. He ended up getting an assist in the overtime winner, but the whole talk from the media, and that wasn't our great comeback, wasn't anything, you sat Obie and he was talking to you. What did you say? Well, obviously I didn't say what I was going to say. But the caveat was that is, well, I was fired within a week, okay?

Sorry, Bruce, I didn't mean to laugh. No, it's a true story. But here's the better part of it. We were playing Anaheim, and Bob Murray thought, wow, this guy, what a tough guy. He can bench any of the guys. You know, he doesn't take nothing from anybody. I'm going to hire him.

And I got hired by Anaheim the next day. What a roller coaster. It's all about the accountability, right? Yeah, and, you know, that's the only time I ever had a confrontation with Alex ever in the four and a half years, and we talked about it the next day. We were all on the same page, and we showed him the video, and, you know, privately and everything,

and we had a good conversation, and we were all good. But that's the way things happen. You came up, you played in the 70s and 80s. Where was it back then when you watched Sittler in Toronto with the head coach? Were coaches always a lot more sensitive to stars, you think, in any era? No, I think in the 70s, it depends on who the coach was. Like the Joe Croziers of the world, who I really like Joe, but they were old school from 50s and 60s,

and it was players just do exactly what the coach says. It didn't matter who you were. There was only one boss. Roger Nielsen sort of changed that when he came up um him and daryl had great relationships and roger would ask daryl and ask lanny and and everything that was going on and and uh and it was more like it should have been uh you know when your best players have good ideas i think hockey players on the ice are pretty smart and they have good ideas. And if you dismiss them just because you're the coach,

I think you're in trouble. I mean, you've got to weigh the good, the bad, what, you know, they have ideas that are also pretty cockeyed and you got to sit there and, and go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you just go in and, and don't, and disregard it. But I mean, if you've got players of any players doesn't have to be the stars but i mean uh they got good ideas you listen to them like anything else and but daryl and and lenny and roger's relationship was probably the

first i'd seen where there was actually interaction between the players and the coach where the coach didn't have the hammer. Like, I mean, maybe George Armstrong was a little bit like that. He was just a great person. And I don't know how many ideas I ever gave him or in junior, but I mean, he was just somebody that was a player's coach and there wasn't too many of them at that time. Well, well you know it's such an interesting conversation because the leafs have superstars with major cachet right i mean they got guys with big money contracts and big names and sheldon keith is a relatively new coach in the nhl i have seen him in the american hockey league you know going into playoffs call a team meeting you're a

power play meeting with the best players and let the guys have a lot of say about what they think the power play should look like. I mean, is that a tough line to walk, a fine line to balance, trying to sort of keep your place in the pecking order with these guys? You know, you are the coach, but at the same time, you know, letting them be, feel like they're a part of it. I think that's what good coaches do. I mean, and I think Sheldon's a good coach, and that's what he does. And, I mean, he's gotten from afar, for me,

gotten along tremendously well with these stars and handled them. And I think it's a lot is he knows how to keep them accountable. He knows how to talk to them without demeaning them. And he knows when he's the boss. And he knows when he takes some advice. I mean, I think earlier on when Hancock was there, for example, you know, you saw Austin Matthews getting 16 and 17 minutes of ice time a game. And then now all of a sudden, Stelton comes in and it's 20, 21 minutes. And I'm sure over that course that they've had the conversations.

And he said, hey, listen, try me at penalty killing. Try me here. Try me this. And we'll see how it works out. And he did. And he listens. Because, I mean, sometimes it's a good thing to do. I always think as a coach, I mean, if a player comes up to me and says,

listen, I need to play more, that next game I'll play him a lot. And if he does great, fabulous, the team is successful. If he doesn't play very well, then I've got the hammer and say, listen, I've given it you your way, now you do it my way. We're talking to Bruce Boudreaux, former NHL head coach and now star of the, what, Stelic and Boudreaux show every morning?

Still in development. I'm not a star right now, but I like talking hockey, so what can I say? Well, talk to us a little bit about Tampa and the Rangers last night. That was anything but a throwaway game it was intense it was nasty is there anything that uh the leafs need to bring boston outside of you know that that skill level that shows that you know between

tampa and boston that have a better reputation for being more physical um can get them into the equation of finding different ways to win? Because we know that Achari and Lafferty and those type of players are supposed to beef up the Leafs a little bit. Well, yeah, I don't know if it's the physical thing that the Leafs have to show Boston. I think what the Leafs have to show is they can go into Boston and win. And the one thing about the Leafs is they play the same way every night.

This is one of the reasons they only got, what, 11 losses or something. If you're going to beat Boston, you're beating them at the best almost every night. And I think what Toronto wants to do is say, well, listen, when we get into the second round, we're going to beat you, and we're going to show you how good we can play, because you know you're going to get a great Boston game tonight. They might sit out a guy, it doesn't matter, but the rest of the guys are going to play as hard and the same way as they always do.

I mean, I think Tampa's mantra is they've got to get back to being big, strong, and physical, and that's what they've done the last four games, not just the game last night. And it just erupted a little bit more. But I think Toronto, they want to play physical. They want to take it to them, the guys that can. But I think the best way for them to show Boston they're ready

is by going into Boston and beating them. Bruce, you would have a unique insight, I think, to the Pacific Division. The race is tight right now. Vegas 104, Edmonton 103, LA 100. Do you really like or really dislike any of those teams in particular? Is one of them, you think, a clear-cut favorite? Oh, I really dislike one of them, but it's none of the them that you think a clear-cut favorite oh i really dislike one of them but it's none of the three that you mentioned touche my friend i tried to avoid that part

uh no i think right now it looks like it's to me it's settling into um edmonton versus vegas at the top one or two i i really like la a team, but I think they're three and four points back of those guys right now. And I think it would be really hard for us, A, to get first. But, you know, Edmonton's on such a roll, and they're making believers out of me. I never thought that they could continue to play solid defense. And even when they went into L.A. last game and they played them last week, they proved to me that they can play that way and get everybody involved. So I'm beginning to believe in Edmonton.

I was always an L.A. King fan, and I thought it was going to be them. But the other one is Vegas. They just don't lose. They're flying under the radar. Every other year, they've been big-name guys. Now, you don't hear much about them, but they just keep winning and winning. I think they got the best record in the league since the All-Star game. And I think, in the end, it's – i don't know yeah i don't know who you know we

could sit here and we can talk but those three teams are pretty evenly matched i think edmonton will win because they'll have home ice against la i think vegas will win their first round match i think vegas and edmonton will play. I think Vegas is going to win. It's going to get real interesting here as we finish up in the next 10 days. Hey, Gabby, always a pleasure having you on our show,

pal. Thanks for making time. It was a lot of fun. Thanks so much, Bruce. We appreciate it. No problem. Okay, bye-bye. Bruce, there he is. I mean, what a hilarious response to the Pacific Division question.

He does. I do hate one of them. You put it on a TA and you hit it. I didn't know if we'd go directly at the Canucks or not, but here we are. Just to his point, all the Leafs have to do tonight is just show that you can win this will be the last one you remember who's to say what happens in the first uh two weeks of the

first round but if in fact the Leafs find a way and Boston finds a way to meet up, this one would be nice to remember off of a win. Yeah. You know, it's so interesting. Like, you know, if they're not playing Crecce and Hall, like, does that diminish it? You know, like, do you remember? I don't think so. Last year, Daryl Sutter would never play their starting goalie

against Colorado before playoffs. It didn't work out, I guess. I know one or two guys are important, but it's the team. It's the attitude that if we lose a guy, we're so bonded, we're so close that we're still going to look like a great team that can stick together, stick to a system you know the one thing that uh you know uh i think it was bruce mentioned or it was andy i can't even remember but they don't boston doesn't beat themselves if we if we if we looked over the course of this regular season, and we've, come on, we followed every Leaf game like it's religion.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. Oh, it's a lot. How many, off the top of your heads, both of you, I'm going to ask you, how many games this year have the Leafs beaten themselves? I'll say 12, a dozen. Yeah, I was going to set the over-under at like 13 and a half.

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot. And then most of them are against bad teams where they beat themselves. Well, that's it. You're like, oh, they're going into this game. They should win. So 12 that they've beaten themselves and the Bruins have lost 12 in total.

Yeah. By the way, yeah, to your point right now, in terms of regulation wins, this is a proxy to me of like what the really good teams don't go to overtime or shootout regulation wins. The Bruins have 50, five, zero, only one other team in the NHL has 40.

Every other team is 30 in the thirties. They're at 50 right now. Where they've only needed 60 minutes, right? Not 62 or 65 or shootout. Finish you before it gets to overtime. 50 times this year. The other team, do you guys want to guess who the other team is?

Who's in the 40s? Yeah, I will tell you right now. Don't cheat. I'm not going to cheat. I'm just looking at teams. I want to say Carolina. It's Edmonton. Edmonton.

The Oilers have 43. Third place is the Leafs. But, yeah, the Oilers have 43 of them. Leafs have 39. So, yeah, I mean, it's impressive. So, when you win in overtime or you win in a shootout, you go into the win column. Yeah.

See, I don't like that. I think a win is 60 minutes in a hockey game and i love that it's a tie break to me for because right now you know all this talk about the divisions you look at uh florida new york pittsburgh that battle pittsburgh's way behind in regulation wins so if they tie they don't get in so they have to they need more points than florida and the islanders which is a huge factor here as we come down the stretch. So we'll start paying more attention to that in the next week or two, a week,

I guess. Okay. We're going to take a quick break. Jason Bukala. By the way, did you guys mention that it is Jeremy Swayman tonight? I was watching the masters. No,

it's Jeremy Swayman tonight. Not all Mark. Yeah. He's a good goalie too, guys. Yeah. I mean, I put the stat in here that the lowest goals against this season, uh, fourth and linus lomark of course is first so all right goalies we'll take

a quick break after we welcome in jason bucala former nhl scout writer for sportsnet.ca matthew guys getting ready for the frozen four underway. He's going to be watching closely. We'll get his thoughts and more after the break. Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the Hockey PDO cast with Dmitry Filipovich. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van.

No drop call? Did we really have him, Sammy? Great job. All right, let's welcome him in. Jason Bukala how are you pal have you guys been dropping calls today on Masters Thursday is that what's going on here or what

it's Sammy right it's just Sammy not sure what that means but alright everybody's teeing up Toronto and Boston, and we're going to get your thoughts on that. But tell us about the weekend and how you're viewing pleasure shaping up.

I am, so I was tempted to be in Tampa for the pros and four. I'm not. I'm making the rounds in the CHL. I'm heading to Europe for the U18s and that's like a 12-day extravaganza in Switzerland at the end of the month. So I want to make sure I get all the CHL guys under my belt before. So I've been making

the rounds in the OHL, off to the Quebec League, one more trip out west and then overseas. That is a busy schedule to say the very least. I'm just going to hit you with the one you expect us to ask off the top here. We'll talk Nyes. We are talking Toronto Maple Leafs. They are, I don't know, a week away or less than that, I guess,

conceivably of having that guy in the lineup. What would you expect that to look like, a guy coming straight out of college into this time of year in the NHL? So I've listened to a lot of other people in the industry talk about, you know, historically it's been difficult for college players to make the jump to the NHL, which it is. I totally get it, especially at this time of the year. The one thing that I'm really

most excited about with this player specifically, and I'm just going to give it to you guys from a scouting perspective, there's guys that are just pure offense. If Logan Cooley were to come out of Minnesota right now and go into Arizona, you know exactly what that prospect is.

He's pure offense. I'm going to throw some stats at you guys because I've been working on scouting reports today. This isn't a 20-game segment for Niles. He's drawn 26 penalties in his last 20 games. Jeez. He's drawn from the opponent. So he's giving his team an opportunity on the power play.

He's averaging 20, or pardon me, he's got 25 blocked shots in that same amount of time. 49 hits, guys. 49 hits. Now, in college hockey, they do it a little different because if you absorb contact and you extend a play, they call it a hit. I don't care.

I'm talking about a guy who's engaged, let's call it, 49 in 20 games. And then you go to hardest time of year, right? We would all say the tournament. You average 3.5 shots on goal per game on eight attempts in regular season. He's gone to five shots connecting on goal, same amount of attempts. I mean, these are all the tangibles. So what I'm trying to do is paint a picture.

Big body, tracks up and down the ice, engaged, extends plays, takes two bodies sometimes to knock him off a puck. If he doesn't score a single goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs when he comes out, and he does all those other little things, that's what I'm trying to project about this player, and I think that's great value. Are you a little higher on him than maybe you were a month ago or six weeks ago? I keep feeling like I get, every time i get to a level with them i feel like i sold them a little bit short so i guess i would say yes um you know there was a time that

depending on what the return would have been i would have said move them um for the right return because the leafs are all in this uh this spring but given where we are right now today, um, yeah, I'd say I'm, I'm marginally higher on them than, than I was before. Well, it's, uh, that would certainly be a welcome type of player for the Toronto Maple Leafs to have. Um, you know, one thing we were having a conversation about yesterday that is maybe a little bit of a, I don't know, a weird topic right now, is Matt Van Michkoff. You know, this player has had a challenging off-ice incident.

Obviously, he recently lost his father. But he's a guy who's been up and down in terms of public perception as a player. Where is this guy in terms of the draft just a few months away? So, two different ways to skin this cat, guys. We're getting to that time of year where I have to consider his contract status and the outside noise that's going on overseas. So that affects where he slots in my draft list. If that noise didn't exist, he'd be number three on my list right now.

So we'll go Bedard, Fantilli, Mitchkoff. He's an exceptional talent. I mean, he's on loan. We all, I think we're referring to the unfortunate, untimely passing of his father here this week in Sochi. The kid's on loan to Sochi from Ska, St. Petersburg, and his dad was in town. And anyways, he has scored 20 points in his last 29 games, or at the end of the year here, he had 20 points in 29 games for Sochi. Historically, draft-eligible kids don't score like that in the KHL. Those are ridiculous statistics.

He's an elite, elite talent. There's no question about it. Hey, Jason, we know, you know, there's a horrific story there that's going on with his untimely passing of his dad. But in general, you know, when you're dealing with the complexities of getting a kid out of Russia, how many teams sometimes they go, you know, I'll pass.

Or, you know, if it's one or the other, I'd rather not deal with it. I mean, how much is that going on? I think it's going on a lot, Kipper. I think it really is. I mean, that's why this kid's going to be the wild card in the draft. You know, if he falls, like I have Zach Benson six on my list. If this kid is staring at somebody at six and, you know, you could have a Kaprizov on your hands down the line

like that's awfully tempting right like it feels like I got to draft the player but let's be honest he's under contract till through 25-26 my sources in Russia that I've worked with over the years are indicating that there's no guarantee he'll even come over after that so how many general managers in the league have thick enough skin to say that four or five years from now, this kid could arrive on our doorstep? Let's be realistic. There's not a lot of GMs that are sticking around, you know, five, six, seven, eight years with the team.

So there's a lot of risk there. And that's even eliminating, like when I was in Florida, I know for a fact that our owner would not allow us, if we were drafting that high, our owner would not be fond of that selection. He would tell us no, go in another direction, just because he doesn't want that. Okay, so if a lot of teams get the same intel you're getting, how low can he drop? Like fourth round, fifth round? Whoa.

I'm just asking you. Somebody's going to have to take a chance. Arizona. Yeah, well, I mean, I don't have the draft grid in front of me. Hey, Nashville. Nashville, who don't historically have a great runway with Russian players either, but they're loaded for draft picks this year. Their draft grid is flush.

So anybody with an extra pick in the first round, roll the dice. Montreal. If they don't trade away that Florida pick and he's sitting there, I'd absolutely take a run at him if I were the Montreal Canadiens. So let's call that, for argument's sake, right now 16, whatever it's going to end up being in there.

But he would never get past Washington. That's my gut. My gut tells me. They just have too much of a history with Russian players. They have great relationships with those prospects, so he won't get past Washington. And, yeah, that's fascinating. And, you know, I was also just thinking, like, Arizona's not trying to get good for four years or whatever it is.

You know, I guess it depends on the team and when they're trying to be what. You know, looking at this time of year, you mentioned that now you start considering contract status and things like that. What would teams be doing now as they start to prepare for the draft in, in June, I believe. So stretch drive.

It's a little bit of the dog days in the CHL circles, this frozen for the, I think there's going to be a lot of people. There's been a lot of movement in college hockey free agency this spring and some real good, talented players coming out. There's 39, somebody told me 40, I counted 39, drafted prospects playing in the Frozen Four this weekend. So I was speaking to our good friend there, Brian McCabe, this afternoon,

and he's on his way to Tampa. I would imagine that a lot of player development staffs are at the Frozen Four, and there's going to be some more free agents come out of that. So beyond that, though, guys, it's learning a little bit more at playoff time in the CHL. USHL runs longer, but the U18s in Switzerland in a couple weeks is going to be flush with prospects. That's a huge tournament.

Hey, Jason, when we talk about certain kids like Matthew Knives waiting and ready to come over through your NHL background and dealings, how many contracts are done and sitting in a drawer right now? All of them? And I speak of like a Luke Hughes, a Matthew Nyes. Those would be done, right? Oh, they're in the drawer. They've packed

the second bag. I just wanted to confirm that because you hear some stories like, yeah, there might be some bonus issues and stuff like that. And I'm like, come on. Not by now. Not a chance.

Not a chance. You've got a week left in the season. Like, the advisors got all that stuff done. And, I mean, I'll go way back when we were in Florida and we had Hyman and we had drafted Hyman and we were taking it right down the NCAA tournament with him. We thought we were going to sign. We even knew by this time that he wasn't going to sign with us. And then we played along with that until we traded his rights in June.

But all that work's done, guys. They're ready to go. Yeah, okay. So there were some comments Nyes did in an interview recently where he talked about the type of player he is. And he compared himself to Alex Tuck and Alex Killorn, which is really fascinating to me that a guy can score as often as he have, be a Hobie Baker finalist and see himself as two guys who are, you know,

I guess Tuck may be a second line guy, Killorn a third line guy. Is it rare for top players like that to see themselves in a mold that isn't, you know, Wayne Gretzky? I think it absolutely is. I'm going to tell you something else. Like in today's day and age, kids that have come through the system, in my 20 years, this will be my 20th draft, in my 20 years, I can tell you that the psyche of the kids coming through has changed a lot.

And anybody who's listening to us talk right now, not every one of your kids are Wayne Gretzky's and Bobby Orr's and everything else. They're not. So I love the fact that the kid can identify what he can be at the pro level outside of being, you know, just an elite scorer. And that right there is a really good self-assessment. I mean, Killorn's a two and a half on most teams.

He's a three in Tampa. But you know what I mean? Like he can play, you know, different role on different teams. He's a three in Tampa. But you know what I mean? Like, he can play, you know, a different role on different teams. And I love the top comparable, too. So that's great self-assessment. And that tells you something about what he'll bring, that bump and grind on top of the rest. Yeah, they're not short of confidence these days, these kids.

Not enough bad days, Kipper. I mean, it's, you know, I always tell that to the prospects, and I don't even talk to the parents because you know that that's a useless engagement. But, you know, the kids, they don't have enough. It's the best league in the world. There's only six top – there's only two lines of – well, I guess some teams have three kind of top six type

forwards i guess you could call it that but there's not enough there's one puck and there's not enough skill positions for everybody you got to figure out how to play the game of right away well it's one of the reasons i'm so impressed with a guy like zach aston reese who scored a ton in college and came out and kind of has reinvented himself you know i i think it does create a challenge you know kip and I have talked about this. Like, Aston Reese got to 10 goals. You know, does he want to be that? Does he identify as the goal guy?

Or is he, you know, a proper fourth-line type player? It's rare to find the guy who's willing and interested in being the mocker. Well, I mean, listen, these guys are handsomely paid for the role they play. And if you want to push the envelope and pretend that you're going to be a 20-plus goal guy, even if you strike lightning in a bottle and you get, let's say, Zach Asterix or Noel Chari, Chari scored 20 goals for us or 21 goals for us in Florida one year.

I mean, we all knew he wasn't a 21 goal scorer and so did a cherry but that didn't mean all of a sudden for his for his next contract you know give me two five you don't like you have to be realistic right hey grind out grind out in the salary cap world the one million dollar contract you have a role you play to an identity coaches trust you and you have a long, successful career. It's good on guys like Aston Reese if they figure that out. Hey, does Luke Hughes have a chance to be an impactful player right away for New Jersey? Absolutely.

Yeah, 100%. He's different, Dave, than the others. He's bigger. Like, he's 6'2", and I don't know, about 90 or something like that. But, like, he's bigger like he's 6'2 and I don't know about 90 or something like that but like he he's a lot like he escapes from small areas and he rushes the puck and and launches the attack but he bodies up he's got a little bit more pushback than his brothers do well I shouldn't say that he's got a lot more pushback than his brothers do but it's going to be i would say this guys at this time

of year for a defenseman jumping in compared to a forward it's much more difficult at this time of year for a defenseman for sure i would totally agree with that what sorry what about la's got a kid coming too don't they la la la i don't know off the top of my head. You got me there. Now I'm going to have to look it up because it's going to drive me crazy. I'll text you up there. It eludes me now. So the Frozen Four that is going on right now, like that's mayhem hockey, is it not? Like just so fast-paced.

It doesn't strike me as like, I don't know, playoff NHL hockey, a little more grinding, no room. It's pretty electric hockey, isn't it? They play like their hair's on fire. The whole game's chaos. Yeah, it's a track meet from the drop of the puck. The one thing, though,

is that Quinnipiac, they're... So they only have two drafted prospects on their team. One of them is Brindamore's kid, and who's Skyler's an Edmonton pick. He's a big body defensive kind of a tweener offensively. They play like a New Jersey diet or devil style game in the early two

thousands. Like they're a real team oriented group where the other three are track meet type team. So it's going to be interesting to see how it all all shakes out. And the winner is after the weekend? Quinnipiac. I'm going out on the line. Yeah, I'm going out on the – Bring the more style team.

I love it. Okay. Yeah, the most organized team is going to win it. That's what I think. Jason, great stuff. Safe travels when you hit the road, man. All right. I appreciate it, guys.

I'll look forward to talking to you soon. Happy Easter. Have a good weekend. All right. Thanks, Books. Appreciate I'll look forward to talking to you soon. Happy Easter. Have a good weekend. Thanks. Appreciate it. Jason Buchla, former NHL scout, current writer with us

at sportsnet.ca. Yeah. A lot of good insights. So when I first had a taste of any NHL outside of training camp, my season just ended with the Hershey Bears.

We got knocked out in Adirondack. They had, like, two stretch limos for about five prospects. We're going to go meet the Montreal Canadiens, who I believe were in a conference final against Montreal. Sorry, Montreal-Philly, okay. Montreal-Philly. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I'm going up.

You know, we're going to go hang out with the team in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is, like, the most incredible thing. Elka Silosano had an injury. Sorry? Yeah. Elka. Ukapekalukkanen? No, Elka Sinisalo.

Okay. Left winger. Yeah. Was battling an injury. And it was between me and Brian Dobbin, another solid player. Yeah. Had a great junior career and solid player for us in Hershey. And it was touching going whether or not we could take warmup or actually play that night.

And I'm telling you, I was pooping my pants really did you want in or no oh no i wanted in yeah but i it would have been one of those moments when it's like every other second the thought in my mind was okay what am i doing here am i can i do it am i not going to embarrass myself can i hold my own just don't cough one up the middle of the ice. Chip it off the walls. Get it in deep. It's like, but I just compare me back then to a Matthew Knives mentality. And just listening to you talk about him comparing himself to Kalorn and all of that, there's a level of confidence that is so strong right now for Matthew Nives.

I think he expects to play. And not only do I think that he expects to play, he expects to come in and contribute. Like that's what I'm getting. Well, you want him to feel that way. Listen, I know for sure but sometimes what you have in your mind whether i yeah i'm undervaluing myself back then to come up and play for the flyers or he's maybe overvaluing himself it you just don't know until you know

yeah right yeah but i'm just saying that the the mentality of a guy like that now to come in is much different even from my era where, you know, most of my peers at the time, and some of them were first-rounders and some of them were top prospects, they would all come in. But you would never, ever have heard the words come out where guys start saying, yeah, I think I look like him and I think I'm good enough like him. The guy was asked, who do you think you play like? I know.

Should he say no one, sir? I just think the feeling that I get is that his confidence is at another level. Well, I can't imagine it's not. I mean, right, all he's had is success. He's up for the Hobie Baker. Did you read his quotes? I did, yeah. They were very very

confident. Here's Nyes when he's asked to describe who he models his game after. He says Tuck and Alex Killorn. Here's what he says about himself. A little bigger player, smart with the puck, not too flashy. I'm an old-style hockey player. I try to use my size to my advantage, use my speed.

That's my greatest strength. I can drive the net and make plays. I think I am most dangerous around the net, so I like to make that my office, and I can set my teammates up from there. See, that's a professional scouting. It is really an unbelievably thorough review. I'm telling you, we just didn't talk like that

about ourselves back then that's all i'm saying this is my job is to get uh in the dirty areas getting the blue paint battle on the boards you have to have confidence in yourself to do that and i'm confident that i can go to those areas and come away with the puck that's what i like there you go there you go yeah and i just said okay don poop yourself. I do wonder if that is a draft position thing or more like, so I was an undrafted prospect, not even a prospect. I was undrafted. And so when I would show up at like the Islanders camp, or I know exactly what you mean.

In particular, I went from, you know, junior hockey in front of a couple thousand people. My first game was in Minnesota against the Golden Gophers, or sorry, Duluth, either way, you know, 10,000 people 000 people there and i was like i couldn't stop thinking about where i was let alone following the puck and whatever but i was not a guy who expected that i wonder how different it is yeah you know for someone like nize who like listen he could come in yeah he's it's not like he's 5'9 and 160. He is a big guy. He's 6'2. I think he tips the Toledo at around 205, 210.

Yeah, that thing says he's 6'2, 210. That's a pretty strong guy. That's me after some crispy cream. May be able to come in and push the needle somewhat. He said in the last 20 games, he has 26 drawn penalties. What the hell is that? If he, that's playing against bad players. 25 block shots and nearly 50 hits.

I, if his upside is Alex Killorn, that is an absolute dream scenario for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's what they need, right? Like, yeah. But I, to Kipper's point, I don't believe him that he's going to come in here and be a muck. No, no, but at the top of his game,

by the time he reaches his prime, if he's Alex Killorn on the Leafs, that's a dream. That's as much as you can expect to me. The thing is, what did Alex Killorn look like as a rookie? What was his, you know? He was in the minors, wasn't he? I think he was a minor league

guy was any yeah he was like one of the guys he was one of the guys with uh came up with palat and um uh tyler johnson yeah was he part of the calder cup uh the norfolk admirals he played 17 playoff games with them so i would imagine he was part of that in 2011. Yeah, it was Norfolk before it was Syracuse, I guess. Yeah, that's the team that was, like, unbelievable, wasn't it? Yeah, they were 55-18, that team. Listen, we were watching Kalorn last night. He's in people's faces. He's getting his nose dirty, spearing guys.

And I hope Nyes can do that. can do that spear anyone we use a spear this show will be a flag where for whoever just spears people yes um yeah just looking at let him know you're there bleed all over him he calorn has 25 this year he had 25 the year before he had 26 the year before that like he just gets his 25 gets his you know 40 pims but i'm like they can score 2a tampa bay yeah yeah oh and listen there's still uh did hegel hit 30 he's got 32 that's good those are good. That's a good year. He does not have 32. You like that at 1.5 million. What's he got? 28,

28, 28. Okay. He's closing in on 30 at 1.5 mil. He'll take that. Yeah. He traded a hundred first round picks for him. You hope he scores 30.

All right. Calgary, Winnipeg. You saw Winnipeg score the first goal. You saw Calgary get a disallowed goal. You're going, okay, this is Winnipeg's night

yeah um man i don't know what you thought or whatever that game two teams gotta want it huge game i thought it was a pretty bad hockey game like i didn't think everyone tried the effort was there the pace was there just the structure like it was messy there's chances each way like you a good team would have picked apart either of those teams last night but you don't expect that from a daryl setter team and rick bonus has been around forever so like no structure no like the the goal that mangi apani scores to make it one one or sorry, the Jets had a breakaway and a 2-1-1 in like the nine seconds before it. 2-0, it's a different story. Yeah, but the fact that, you know,

then they're all up ice and it's a track meet the other way and Brendan Dillon defends that 2-1-1 like he stopped trying or something. They made it 3-1 and then Ehlers, one second later, has a wide open breakaway from center ice somehow. Right. It was not pretty. To me, it's like, okay, that was not, all right,

the Jets rose up and got a big win. Sorry, the Flames rose up and got a big win. That was like. Both these teams stink in one half. Yeah, well, someone had to win. Yeah, I agree. I thought, I will say, though, that thought Huberto looked pretty good last night.

Thought, you know, he was involved. He made that great pass to Z the door up for the 3-1 goal who pings it bar down and then gave the jets benched a little thank you oh my god what a sally like he just hit a three steph curry yeah right in their eye so and give markstrom a lot of credit because he showed up yep on the second half of a back-to-back playing both games that was a bold move that was daryl sutter you know gabby just talked about giving a guy rope to hang himself, saying if a guy comes in and wants more ice, I'll give it to him, and then I have the hammer if it doesn't work out.

That's what they did with Markstrom. Okay, you be the guy. I know it's too late in the season to do anything, but they basically said this season's on you now, pal. We spent a lot of money on you being the starter. Prove it. Winnipeg could have buried Calgary last night. They didn't.

Calgary saves their season, but still no guarantees, right? No. I mean, Calgary has one less game remaining. The Jets have four. They have three. And Winnipeg has the regulation wins hammer. So not only do they need to finish ahead of, or sorry, need to have less games to do it, they need to finish ahead of Winnipeg.

That loss to the Blackhawks, it's just, will loom. It's going to loom over you. Should loom. You should be punished for that. I mean, they've lost a lot of loomers this year. There's a lot of loom in there. Yeah, like how many games have they lost in OT? They have 15 overtime losses this year.

You win two of those. That's b this year. You win two of those. That's baffling. You win two of those. It's crazy. It is crazy. Calgary has Vancouver Saturday. They're in Vancouver. Hottest team in the league.

Then they finish Nashville, San Jose. They've lost two in a row. Oh, are they? Okay. Winnipeg, Nashville, San Jose, Mini, Colorado. But still. The Mini and Colorado at the end of that are quite interesting if you're a Flames fan.

The Jets do not look like the type of team that would beat those teams if those teams are incentivized to win. Depends how much they're leaning on it at that point. Seattle, they can clinch a playoff spot with a win tonight first playoffs in franchise history year two pretty good yeah i didn't see it coming i didn't either take out a second mortgage to get tickets there is it still yeah in playoffs i'm sure it's going to be through the roof. That's okay, though. They're kind of flying solo.

No NBA team there yet. That'll change things, I think, for demand. But in the meantime, they're holding their spot. You're going to be part of that one, too? Oh, stop it. Yeah, it's not like they went out there and and said we got to win it all like vegas gave us uh that impression the moment they they started but yeah that's a good accomplishment for ron francis and yeah you know they they went about it a lot differently than

vegas i think they tried to prioritize goaltending and defense they've done that pretty well you know they're pretty sound team i not a cracking guy here personally but i'm just looking at their lineup it's just so unsexy i know like from the top to bottom you know not even years i guess it's pretty sexy but outside of that it's just we said all year that the west is not very good and so when you're the seventh team in playoffs and a not very good conference they're probably fine like that they're fine they're probably the 17th best team in the league this year the leafs went in there and just beat them soundly i was like this team's a playoff team i remember thinking they were going through a funk there too yeah but now they beat the they won eight two their last game so we'll see i mean listen i like i love playoff hockey but boy are you gonna be i

think that might be on the bottom of my bingo card like a oh it's gonna be like dallas seattle or vegas seattle playoff series or colorado seattle it's like uh that was low on the bingo card. I had no idea Jared McCann had 37 goals. Yeah. Whoopsie. That's a nice number. Yeah, if Kerfoot gets 25 tonight, he'll be a couple behind. That was a whoopsie. That was a whoopsie.

An underrated one. Wow. And Hall, too, they protected, right? Yeah. Yeah. Is McCann on a new contract, too? Is he a $5 million player now? Yeah.

They signed him to a $5 million player. That would have been tricky, too, for them, though. Yeah, well, you get rid of the 3.5, and then you... That was definitely part of it, was the finances of it, right? Yeah, probably a little bit. Hall being dirt cheap. But they love Kerfoot. Love him.

So here's the thing I will say, a little caveat too, with Jared McCann. His career shooting percentage is 12.1. He's shooting 19.5% this year. Had one of those years, eh? You wouldn't want to bet on him, I don't think. The pucks are entering the net when he is shooting them at a very high quick. Yeah, but sometimes it takes guys a little longer to find it. Oh, yeah.

I.E. Ryan Nugent Hopkins took him. What's he, 30 something? 12 years. Took him 12 years to turn into a 100-point guy. Yeah, listen. What a baffling honor grooming. He's having an excellent year, but

him and that whole power play, he's just half of those points are on the power play. I have no idea. Oh, they are. Let's look. They are. I think he had like 35 power play points or more than that, maybe 50. No, he's up around 50. Nuge has 52 power play points. He's had an awesome year

but at even that uh that power play is like how do you it doesn't look like they're playing against nhl players when they're trying to hit them knowing that if you get a penalty it's gonna bite you in the ass well that's a great point you know that would affect your five on five play you can't put them on the power play i'm sure they're whoever plays their coaches against them's gonna be like hey i'm gonna have to give them a little extra leeway here boys like we can't kill off five power plays a night against them we will fail you can put them on the power play two three times a game tops otherwise you're giving up an extra couple yeah mcdavid has three games to score two points and hit 150 points this year that's pretty baffling and dry saddle's gonna have the quietest

125 point season in nhl history you think uh oh just to sorry go ahead i was just gonna say like mcdavid's at what 62 right now yeah You think there's a, I mean, everybody thought 70 was a lock almost about three weeks ago. Yeah, scoring goals is hard. Tough to keep that up. Very disappointed if he just finishes with, like, 64. Yeah. Well, that's looking likely now. What a brutal year.

Kale McCarr. Oh, you know what? Out indefinitely. Out indefinitely? Lower body injury, yeah's looking likely now. What a brutal year. Kale McCarr. Oh, you know what? Out indefinitely. Out indefinitely? Lower body injury, yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. Boys, the Avs.

They're close on Josh Manson coming back. That's not quite a fair trade. No, it's not, but you thought they were going to get healthy a little bit. Landis Cog guys, I know he's on the road practicing with them. I hear it's touch and go whether or not he plays at all this season. Really? If you don't have McCarr and you don't have Landis Cog, that team is very gettable.

Like it's very gettable. He's not out of the woods with his situation. I'm going to read you the points of the teams in the Central Division right now. Colorado Avalanche of 98, 98. The Dallas stars have 98. The Minnesota wild have 98. Three way tie for first in the central.

Pretty big battle there considering how soft it is at the, in the wild card positions. Whoever wins gets Seattle. Basically. Edmonton's just been on fire. And Skinner, guys. Skinner. 11-1 and 1 since March 1st.

What's the save percentage over that time, do you know? Really good. Really? Really good? How can it not be really good? They score 8 goals a game. How can it not be really good? He's't really good well i'm gonna not be really good well they scored they scored eight goals a game yeah i thought he was i'm gonna not be really good he's 11 one and one doesn't matter if you get if you scored a dozen a game yeah um let me look it up here yeah that would make a world of difference if him or campbell were suddenly really hot

holy smokes would that be a dangerous team yeah his last two games he's a 952 and a one or in a 1.0 had four dogs below 900 before that but yeah he's been good he joins matt murray is the only rookie goalie to win more than 25 games in the last dozen years matt murray hey that's pretty much the only thing he joins them with any updates on Matt Murray for us? yeah, symptomatic symptomatic? yes started the week feeling worse

than I think he did Sunday alright Joe Wohl and Samson the Leafs would have the option I guess still putting him on long-term IR. But then if you do, then you know for sure he cannot get a couple of games in if he feels better, I guess. Yeah, I don't see any point to that.

And I don't think that there would be any issues. Would there be any issues to add Nize's contract without needing to shuffle the roster at all i don't know i don't know that's on emergency on emergency recall so it doesn't count towards the cap i think so yeah i'm sure there's some shuffling around they would make happen to do that it'll be interesting like the puck drops in nine minutes on the Golden Gophers semifinal Frozen Four game. Very exciting for Matthew

Nyes. They lose. Is that on TV? Can we watch that? It's on ESPN. I don't know if TSN's picking it up. Is that streaming thing? So are we going to see a pinwheel the whole game? I don't know. Are you using a Dell from 1998? And you can remind us that we can be seen on Sportsnet now.

Yes, we are on Sportsnet. So maybe pinwheel on Kipper's face. But yeah, so it'll be interesting to see. Presumably, if they lose, he goes out with his teammates that night, right? And then the next day gets on a plane? Or is it like, hey, I can't go party. You got to have one night with the boys, don't you? You just got knocked out.

You're going to go and party? Or you're just going to sit around and drink a lot and feel sorry for yourself? I can tell you what I would have done. You sit at home and unloose, you lost. The season's over. There's a very, very good saying that I like to live by. Win or lose? Hit the booze.

We booze, yeah. Can i remind you about his book that's win or lose seawolves booze did not serve me well over my life uh yeah listen i'm not talking about morning i'm just talking about myself i play beer league we don't win a lot all right anything else uh interests you tonight in the National Hockey League? Nothing. Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston. Nashville, Carolina. Nashville has to win. Nothing else. Just Toronto, Boston tonight. Tampa Bay Islanders, big game for the Isles.

Okay, boys, here it is in a nutshell. Give me what you got tonight. Sammy, you go first. I think that on a big goalies go night tonight, I think the Leafs are going to win. I think it's going to give us a lot of things to talk about. There's going to be a lot of hope in the fan base. And the Bruins are not – everybody from the Bruins side will be like,

ah, they're not taking it too seriously. And I think we're coming in here tomorrow talking about a Leafs win. Please win. I like Ryan O o'reilly coming back giving him some juice so i'll go with sammy and and call for uh uh four two will we have any fireworks tonight do you think there will be any fisticuffs yeah i do i think uh i don't know about fisticuffs, but I think we're going to see a few scrums tonight. I really do.

I think Trent Frederick's going to grab Michael Bunting and go. I'd really like to see Michael Bunting just wallop somebody. What, to make you just get beat up by Trent Frederick to prove a point? Luke Shannon will grab onto somebody tonight. Luke will help. All right. We hope everybody enjoys the game tonight of course we're going to be back tomorrow

the three of us to break it all down for you our thanks to Bruce Boudreaux our thanks to Jason Bukala and Andy Brickley give us a rating and review if you get a chance we'd love to hear from you in the meantime have a great night and we're back tomorrow

more real Kipper and Bourne. We'll see you next time.