Real Kyper & Bourne - Eddie O In-Studio & The Importance of the Bottom Six

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee begin today’s show by covering a comprehensive Maple Leafs win over the New York Islanders at Scotiabank Arena. Bourne recaps attending the game with his son for the first time and the guys get into a dominant night for the second line, led by John Tavares and William Nylander, after Sheldon Keefe made some crucial in-game adjustments. Next, 18-year NHL veteran Brad May (26:44) joins the show to give his thoughts on the current construction of the Maple Leafs, and what makes a bottom six truly worthy of a deep Stanley Cup run. Later, TNT analyst Eddie Olczyk (53:50) joins the guys in studio to preview Toronto’s encounter with the New York Rangers on Wednesday, while also getting into his thoughts on multiple NHL topics, including the Seattle Kraken’s impressive season so far and a seemingly doomed campaign for the Florida Panthers.  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 Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. Not just Real Kipper and Born. Derek Brandeo, Jen Rolnick, Sammy McKee all along for the ride in which we saw Willie Nylander lead the charge with four points last night to down the New York Islanders 5-2 at Scotiabank Arena in a game we both attended but did not sit together. We were both there. That's all that matters. We soaked it in.

You played dad last night. I saw some of your Instagram pics hung around the dressing room. I saw your son tapping each Islander as they came off the ice and uttered, what is wrong with you guys? You guys stink. You're embarrassing me right now. I will say when we left, we're walking out and he's not a huge hockey guy,

but he was almost in tears. And he was walking out and he goes, I think i want to cheer for the leafs now hey you know you make your own choices go for it bud i'm sure he was okay after the first 20 minutes oh yeah kind of a sleepy on the toronto maple leafs part uh but then it it changed quickly in the second period yeah as far as first hockey game experiences go yeah i'm not sure it could have been a worse start to watching a hockey game for a first game i'm telling you there was six whistles maybe seven in the first 90 seconds it was build up and warm-ups and okay

here we go icing and offside and puck out of play it was really slow and then nothing happened for the leaf so the crowd got into their bay street mode and everyone started making business deals and forgot there's a game going on so yeah a little slow to get going but it came around i think for me um at times i can be critical for sheldon keith being too slow to react to some things, including changing it up, pulling the goalie. But last night, the switch for Nylander to Marner opened up the floodgates for Tavares and Willie. Yeah. John Tavares, superstar John Tavares.

When you pay a guy a lot of money, you're hoping some nights he's the best player in the rink. And I think tough to make an argument for anyone but John tavarez talking about a performance in that second period eight shots on net in the second period last night i want to give tavarez i want to give keith credit for for doing this obviously but at the same time it's not like he's going to something that's never worked before you know it's like oh we's going to something that's never worked before. You know, it's like, oh, we're stunted offensively again. Let's go with the best line in the NHL last year with Marner, Matthews, and...

But at times he has not done it. But he's doing it more now. At times the offense has remained stale. You're not getting secondary scoring, and he sat on it. And yeah, you're right. It's stating the obvious. Like how many different true changes can he do to crank up this lineup outside of a benching, a drastic benching?

And we've only really had one all season, and I think it was Marner for a shift or two. It was like a shift, Mitch Marner? Yeah. I think, yeah, that's really it. You're right. It never happens. Because I guess, a shift, Mitch Warner? Yeah. I think, yeah, that's really it. You're right. It never happens. Because I guess, you know, what are the options?

You can vangvolve someone's minutes or kerfoot their minutes or yarn crock their minutes. Like, there's just not really somewhere else to go. So if A doesn't work, he tries B. And if B doesn't work, they go home in April. All right, let's go to Sheldon Keefe on Kipper's Clipper on why the change in the second period? I just thought the way that both lines responded

to the change yesterday just tells me it's a good time to go back to that mix. We've been looking at it a little bit. Previously, I would say it was the Boston game, I think, last week or however long ago that was now.

It didn't feel like we needed to stick with it at that point. But just, you know, I saw myself going back to it. And like I said, the way the guys responded yesterday, it tells me it's a good time to stay with it. So that clip was from today. I labeled all these clips poorly. So I steward my good friend Derek Brandeo here. But that clip was from today. But it's relevant with all the stuff he said there. What did you think of that? That part was on the shuffling of the lines, the second clip?

Yeah. Well, the second. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I just don't think there's that many options. So to me, you know, Keefe's work with changing up the lines like that, you know, it was a bad first period against a not very great islanders team i hate to say that sometimes but uh you know he went to option b and it worked so good on him yeah i think i think between now and the end of the season though i'd like to see

a few more of those type of adjustments that just don't begin and end with Marner and Nylander. Right. And I do believe that at times we're going to have to see maybe a top six guy go to the third line or someone out of the bottom six moving up just to give it a change of pace. And there is once again some movement on that fourth line. Yeah. And the one that we thought we'd see at the beginning of the season and the one that was shaping up towards, I don't know,

Christmas has changed yet again. The fourth line looking at Kerfoot Holmberg Anderson for tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow. Where did Anderson come from? All of a sudden now it's Hunt out, right? Mm-hmm. So Hunt clears waivers and he's going to play with the Marlins, which is nice to have a guy down there like that.

McMahon in. Yep. And Austin Reese out. This guy is your leading body checker on your team. Right. And now they're not too happy with him, it appears. Well, and listen, I think on this show, I've been the Austin Reese guy. I've been the guy being like, you know, he's a good defensive player

and a good two-way guy and smart. But there's just not a lot of vibrancy there, not a lot of pop, not a lot of excitement. Now he's out of the lineup. He's finding him inconsistent, and yeah. I mean, with McMahon coming up and Holmberg kind of being permanent fixture now, Anderson getting in, I think he's saying to Aston Reese,

now or never, man. There's a third spot open here. Yeah. And now Anderson's in third spot open here. Yeah. And now Anderson's in a race with Aston Reese. Hunt, we think, his next hockey game is going to be with the Toronto Marlies. Yeah, he's in their lineup. Or there's still time to think about trading for one more fourth line type of player to bring in. Who wins this thing?

Yeah, I mean, I really think McMahon has looked good and he's been impactful. Do you want to listen to the clip on Aston Reese and Keefe not loving him right now? Sammy, we got that one? Yeah, let's listen to that. Joey Anderson coming in. We just think Joey did a good job when he was here.

And, you know, roster and lineup and all those kind of things are fluid and they change, but we thought he did a good job here. And I can't remember specifically what the circumstances were, why we sent him back or what that situation was, but we just like him as a player. He gives us a right shot down there in the bottom six. So I like that part of it. And, you know, I just think that, you know, for Reister,

his game has been a little inconsistent for me. And it keeps those guys on their toes as well, whether it's McMahon coming in, and that's, you know, sort of pushed a guy like Dryden Hunt and Aston Reese. Now Holmberg, like all these guys are in competition for their spots. And, you know, whether it's camp, fangball, kerfew, just the same. You got some guys coming in here that are pushing and showing that they can help us.

So I think it keeps that group honest as well. In about 12 minutes, or no, maybe 15 15 we're going to welcome in brad may uh former national hockey league player he could certainly speak into uh that type of role that type of guy that can come in and and and really like lock in a role and And whether it's Aston Reese or Hunt, like, it's such a specialized thing. And, you know, I did take pride in my career to be that guy that could just come in and lock in a spot on the fourth line

and just know what my role is. But two things had to be abundantly clear from the beginning of the game and to the end of the game is that I have to be abundantly clear from the beginning of the game and to the end of the game is that I have to be noticed. Yeah. And if I'm not grabbing any attention off of my opponents. Totally.

If I'm either, I got to be a prick or I got to be annoying as hell. But if I'm 0 for 2 in that department playing against them i'm done yeah score hit fight and there's just too many games irrelevant too many games yeah even with aston reese and i don't care what the stat sheet says that you led the team in hits if they're unnoticeable hits if they're not pissing off the other side right or creating some smaller energy outside of what's the big picture what's the point of you being out there well and there's a whole case to be made about so there's value on guys that stay on the right side of the puck defensively right you're above your guy you're good sticks and all that sort of stuff but it can't be your whole thing you know like that's a bonus that comes with whatever it is you bring to helping the team win it shouldn't be the thing you do to help the

team win otherwise you say i'm gonna just always err on the safe side and you guys go do the hard stuff you guys go score and four check and all that stuff and he's just not contributing enough at the other areas right now don't don't you feel that we're kind of watching a transition in the bottom six here in the last couple weeks like borna you sent that sort of interesting graph with how far down kerfoot's minutes have gone what zach ass and reese's minutes have done it's like they've sort of spent half the year evaluating what those guys are going to bring them and now they've brought up these guys from the marlies like the holmbergs and the andersons and now the mcmahons to be like hey let's see what these guys can do when their minutes have been going up and they've been performing pretty well it's just been an interesting transition to sort of watch halfway through the

year yeah and it is you know i think it was uh nick richard again the guy we had mentioned uh tweet of his talking about is this the the leafs seeing what they can get from some cheaper marley's guys and say if they're just as good as these other guys can you can you trade can you make room you know at the deadline can you trade kerfoot if he's if his ice time's gonna drop below engvall's and yarn crocs as it has can you trade engvall himself if bobby mcmahon is the, but cheaper? So I think the Leafs want to know what options they have. To me, it doesn't matter. Oh, I know.

He's not, right? But isn't it worth finding out? What you just said there scares me the most, that we are almost out of the month of January, and you're in the finding out stage of your season, like shouldn't this all been decided on a year that you're supposed to contend for a Stanley Cup and you're still holding tryouts?

Well, you've done your finding out. You tried out Simmons and you decided you couldn't do it. You held your tryout for Aston Reese and you got some answers. And when you don't like the answers, it's still tryout season until you like the answers yeah you're running out of time here are but it's terrifying just eye test wise i know you said that kerfoot's minutes have been going down but he just feels so much less involved in the games that he has in years past in terms of playing in big spots and in terms of like you know how much

he played he played 13 30 last night played in the top six so much last year he seemed to be that remember how long we banged our heads against the wall with willie him and and tavaris it just feels to me that he's just so much less part of the team at this moment that maybe they are figuring out if they can go on without him and use his money in a trade. Who knows? But just I'm kind of interested in this transition in the bottom six. It's kind of fascinating for me. Seven goals for Kerfoot through 45 games or whatever it's been. Yeah. You know, three and a half schmil.

For the most part, he has seemed important, likable, respected in the room. But it is trending in the wrong direction here for him on level of importance as the season closes down here his time on ice the last six games is 13 and a half nine something 13 change 11 12 13 you know that's pretty low for him it is but you know there's a couple games prior to that where he's up in the 16s but it's pretty consistently below where you would have him at his first month the season was 16 minutes so also in the second hour eddie olchuk former nhler good friend of the show color analyst for seattle kraken will be in studio as he will be the lead analyst tomorrow night for their national TNT broadcast in the U.S. He's in town.

And he said he'll drop in in the second hour. So all of you on YouTube or tweeting Sammy, we can take some questions in. And we can have some fun with just give me a chance. Give me a chance. Eddie O. That's great. It'll be a lot of fun. I was enjoying reading his Wikipedia bio today, and he is a big horse guy.

Oh, yeah. Huge horse guy. A handicapper for NBC once upon a time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, let's get Sheldon Keefe. Did we do his thoughts on Willie and JT's performance last night? We didn't have that yet.

Would you like to? Let's have a listen. Yeah. I mean, terrific. Two great goals. And Willie's been excellent, and he was excellent today. In that second period, he was really good. I thought second period was the best period John Tavares played all season. I thought that got Willie going.

So Willie finished the chances, and Willie was good. But I thought JT was excellent. He led us in the second period. It was really good. Yeah, and that pass to Willie to kind of start the whole thing going was like world-class. Outside and then the backhand drop, one-timer.

It was a fantastic goal. I really thought I'd see in his leaf career more setups like that and i i don't think we see them because he's he's got a vision of the way he likes to score goals and it doesn't really line up with that type of playmaking it's funny you know in my experience watching him over his career, it felt like coming to Toronto and playing with Mitch Marner, his rookie year, his first season here,

not his rookie year, it felt like he became a goal scorer. He scored 47 times with one of the best set up men in the NHL. And like the mindset seemed to be more of a goal scoring mindset. And, you know, with the Islanders, he made superstars out of,

whether it was Josh Bailey or Pozo or Matt Molson or pa paranto or whoever he played but he was never like a 60 70 point assist guy he was always like a 40 yeah right which is still a for for a true number one playmaker 40 assists a year is kind of on the low side yeah Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what the numbers were, but he felt like a guy that that was a part of his game. That was an element of it, and it has felt like it less here at times. But do you agree with me that he has, for the most part, been a centerman that has a shoot-first mentality?

Definitely. Definitely as a Leaf. I just didn't think of him that way as an Islander, but definitely since he's been here, that seems to be where the focus is. So yeah, good to see him do well for his teammates. I got to tell you, I don't know if it's because the Islanders are not a fast team, but like that's his sweet spot, right?

No, they're really slow. So that's JT's best game of the year. Against a really, really slow thinking team. Right. Which, you know, kind plays into the what you've said about his skating in the past that when the game and he's been working on his stride i guess with the the last few weeks and trying to get back to what he had earlier in the year but when he is fast in a game he's special the one thing i i took the game in live as well, and the one thing that stood out for me watching it last night was just everything that I didn't like about their game early

was very successful for them last night. And that was that stretch pass, that long stretch pass. Either the long, like it's a 200 foot play most all of the goals last night started from their own zone samson i've got an apple you got even samson i've got into the game yeah right so everything that worked last night with the stretch and the conversion on goals is everything that i i feel like will not work against tampa bay and boston hate that as a coach you don't want the wrong stuff rewarded and it was last night yeah including you know bunting's penalty shot that led to a penalty shot everything was this 200 foot stretch yeah yeah i agree it was a lot of that it was it was a back and forth game until everything was this 200-foot stretch. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

It was a lot of that. It was a back-and-forth game until the Islanders, or the Leafs just, like, took away the Islanders' ability to break the puck out. At some point, it just became the Leafs' game there in the second period. But should we listen to Keith on what changed in the second period?

Did we get that one off the top? I like that one. Let's do that one. You're hoping that your team is going to say the right things and be focused and be in the right mindset. I don't feel I need to go in there and say too much other than pointing out the obvious and putting the game onto them. They need to respond.

They've got to go out and they've got to – it takes a significant effort to be able to take over a game like that against a team that's playing hard. They're trying to get some traction here and get some wins. They're leading after a first period, after taking it to us pretty good. For us to flip the game like that, it's going to take a significant effort. The players have to be in the right frame of mind to be able to do that. I was really, really impressed with our team's ability to bounce back and flip the game like that.

It was really good to see. I think that's really smart of him to think of a mid-season game when you consider if these are the dog days of the season, to just let them sort it out for him now halfway through to go out in the dressing room now and rant and bark at them containers all they're gonna do is just get tired of your voice yeah 100 agree and that's you know i think the more years you coach the more you recognize that you have to have faith in the room because you can't go in every intermission. It was actually a criticism that we had levied against Keefe watching all or nothing going into game six when, you know, there's the speech in playoffs and he's going now or never.

And who's going to be the hero and, you know, talking it up like there's no tomorrow. And then when there was a tomorrow, it's tough to go in the next day and give that same speech, right? So you don't want to shoot your bullets before you're in the proper battle. You don't. You don't. That doc gave us so much early on. There was nothing in it. Oh, my God.

We talked about that so much. They gave us a good version. Oh, my God. But there is kind of this buffer zone that he's in where I think reality is set in for him that in all probability you're not going to catch Boston and your playoff spot is safe. You think that it should lead you to at least home ice advantage.

So what's left to really get mad at them? Oh, I don't believe what you're saying for a second. Coach is going to keep his mouth shut. That you just go, ah, nothing to do now. We'll just let the season play out. No, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that when you don't have the feeling like, you know, high-end pressure, you know, the poop's about to hit the fan feel. It's getting redundant.

Then you can kind of calm yourself down. Yeah. So true. That is so true. But when he starts feeling the pressure, like, that's the true sign of someone. Don't show me when everything's fine. I want to see how you act when everything's going haywire. I agree.

And that's the tendency in the playoffs is that you don't have the comfort zone that he has to go in there and think about it and go, okay, I'm just just gonna leave them alone i just i trust them like all of a sudden if you trust them the question is if you're down to one in the series can you trust them and not go in there and yell at them no i really think it's maybe the most accurate or most fair assessment of of keith as he gets really worked up in in moments really worked you know and it's like could and we see it on the bench sometimes he can lose it on

officials yeah and it you know i i've seen him do it at intermission we had one weekend in uh manitoba in winnipeg where you know we're up four nothing in game 57 and we're in first place by a mile and yeah you know screaming about a penalty at the end of a period or whatever you know it's i think he has learned a little bit to try to save himself for when it matters but yeah when it matters can you keep that composure the same way that's one thing that stands out to me about the great coaches and you know they you have to coach for a long time to feel like that but even they get worked up and they have their moments but you see you know, you have to coach for a long time to feel like that. But even they get worked up and they have their moments. But you see, they think Cooper in the biggest moments

or even Quenville in some of the biggest moments. Not a whole lot, you know, of animation. Do you remember John Cooper in the playoffs when he saw Nick Paul doing the interview? He's like, get in here now. And Paul's like, huh? He's like, yep, I'm going. Interview over, got to go.

I got a seven-year contract on the line. I got to go. Goodbye. You hear like the old-timey running sound from a cartoon? That was awesome. It was. And who knows what happened the moment those doors closed. Yeah.

But. It's not to say that all coaches don't get worked up at times. But you need to pick your spots with it. Yeah. It's so important. You really do need to pick your spots with it. It's so important. You really do need to pick your spots with it. He has an elite mad face, Keefe. When he gets really worked up and he gets going.

He changes colors. He does. Which doesn't help. He becomes a different color. The Red Hulk. Shade. Furnace face. It happens.

He gets a little worked up. All right. We're going to talk to Brad May. But in the meantime, you want to start with Samsonov? Yeah. Let's listen to the Samsonov clip, shall we? Excellent. Oh.

And, you know, there's just going through some of it with Curtis Sanford in there. And there's some things that, you know, something that maybe don't show up is, like, some of the high-end saves that he's made. But, you know, Curtis looks at this stuff a lot closer than really any of us. And he felt this was the strongest game that he's played in terms of what he's asking him to do and the process he's looking to play with.

He's looking very comfortable in the net right now. With every solid game by a Leaf goaltender, Curtis Sanford becomes more and more of a genius. Oh, there's a

profile of him today in the Athletica. Oh my god. They're just pumping them up like unbelievable quick question do you know the name of the islanders goaltender coach all he's got is do you know and then like three quarters of the coaches right by the way it's piero greco who used to be freddie anderson's goalie coach here who's the islanders guy so yeah doing pretty well for himself curtis stanford also has a he's also shrined at the Harry Lemley Bay, short and on sound. He played for the

Playdors at the time, and he's now the goalie. Big deal. Samsonov gets him out of the first round, there'll be a statue for Curtis. Okay? It might already be one. Only in Toronto you could pump up a goalie coach. If you could go be a bit part player in for an

organization like the leafs like be uh i don't know be at a video coach say a star yeah or go make real money somewhere else your best chance is to come here and have success and you will be famous oh not didn't work for me but for curt Curtis Sanford and for many others, it's gone on to great success. So I dug up, so was there a picture today of Matt Murray wearing the glasses? Yeah. So I did some homework there for you. Oh, wow. There you go.

There you go. Swivel vision goggles tech to help goaltenders. Murray, prepare for season. Yeah, so there are no lenses. Just rubberized blinders intended to block your peripheral vision. So it's a tracking aid that forces you to use the middle of your eyes and the strongest part of your eyes, moving your head and tracking the puck. That's for people on YouTube who got to do that. This is hockey's version of the movie Tin Cup when he had the shanks.

Did you ever see it? Yes, put the tees in your left pocket. And then the ball coming from your forehead. You've seen those broken clubs on the range that you have to swing slowly for them to stay together. We're onto gadgets now to sort things out. Let's bring in Brad May, former NHL or Stanley Cup champion. And someone that's probably used a gadget or two to change his golf game or hockey game or anything at all to help you. Mayday.

I need all the help in the world, Kipper. But you know what? Yeah, I'm a mental midget when it comes to that stuff. This is where the game's gone to, Mayday, is that we're now watching goalies wear sunglasses during practice. Yeah, listen, everybody's to each his own, I guess. But I don't get it. You know what?

At the end of the day, if a player somehow generates energy and focus, focus most importantly, whatever they're going to do, I guess stay out of their way we had played with a lot of guys with superstitions and that would do different things or or the same thing every day and it had to happen at the exact same moment and i always kind of would seek out the guys that did that and then if they needed to be in that corner at 5 p.m 15 minutes before the meeting or whatever i'd just go stand in that corner and try to disrupt their um yes their superstition and have fun with it but um some players are are tightly wound

well the uh the leaf players may may do some weird things but they're having a little bit of success at home what are your thoughts on teams that have way more success at home than on the road is it a good thing that you take care of business or would you like to see a little bit of uh being able to take care of business everywhere is obviously best but does it matter if you're lopsided one way or the other well i think it matters in the sense that you you just want to find consistency right and and be a team that's really predictable and that predictable play would be beating or outplaying the other team. But, yeah, I don't know if home ice advantage means as much, you know,

but it does if your team finishes higher in the standings and come playoff time. If you're good at home and you have one extra game, you know, conceivably in your own building, that's a good thing. But, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with you know the season where your road trips are you know where those games are played and and how your players are playing i think right now you know for the least they've been so good for the last few months really i mean they've they've had a few games that they'd love to have back but um you know

they're playing hard they're playing well and and i think at times you might have a letdown because of that but um it seems like they're best players and again last night um stepped up and it's a committee of four up front and um two of them tavaris and kneelander they were they were great that pass by kneelander i don't even i don't even like to call it the past but that little flip play out of his zone, that was unbelievable. How many players think like that? That actually have that

three-dimensional view of the ice the way he was able to do that. I thought that was great. His ability now to stay focused almost from game to game and the strength that he shows on the puck. And was it Mayfield that he,

he kind of picked his pocket a little bit that led to the goal here. And what is it just maturity Mayday? Why are we seeing this guy go to a complete other level? Well, we've, you know what we, the crazy thing with him. And if I,

if I had a knock on him is, is there are games where you just expect so much more where he didn't bring it in the past. You know, really, he's a big guy. He's strong. I mean, he can skate. He's one of the most, you know, I say perfect, but beautiful skaters. And he's using his edges.

You don't even hear it. He glides on top of the ice, however. I mean, he's so agile. I love the guy, you know, and he's playing well. And sometimes he leaves you wanting more. And I think that's a good thing because, you know, he's obviously proven that he can do other things. But I think it's maturity.

I also think it's, hey, I'm going to get paid. You know, that's definitely a motivation for sure. I know his father was the same way, highly skilled in contract years. This guy, years that he was able to make bank, Michael Nylander was a stud at times, the best player on the ice. So this is a good thing for Toronto. It really is. Yeah, I got to keep giving him them one year deals, Mayday.

That's the way to go. We're looking at the Leafs lineup and one thing that's been interesting is they've got a couple guys up from the American League, McMahon and Holmstrom and Anderson, and not household names by any means, but they're these guys who seem committed to being fourth liners. They just want to be in the league and they'll dump it in

and they'll go for a check and it's you know, they know what they're there to do. And in the past, the Leafs have had Thornton and Spezza and Simmons and all these guys who weren't really typical fourth line players. What are your thoughts on the role of a fourth liner and acceptance of that role? Is it important or is it just you need good players there? Well, I have to tell you, I'd say bingo when you just said that about the other players that they had. It's a role.

I was listening to Nick early in the show here. It's a role that actually, I know as crazy as it sounds, it's a specialized role. And you have to have the ability to bring the energy, turn up a game, bring your teammates into the fight, regain composure or focus. And then maybe on the flip side of that, which is something that obviously the NHL doesn't have as much of, but you need a character or characters there that can really turn it around and be noticed. If you're not noticed as a fourth-line player, you know,

when I say that, if you're not a penalty killer that, you know, the penalty killing, you know, did a great job that night. If you're a fourth line player that isn't noticed for throwing the body around or bringing the energy or having some, like, extended shifts in the offensive zone, you're not going to be there that long. And I like the idea. That's a good thing to have a committee at the bottom. And the bottom's a great place.

But the other part is these players aren't just satisfied with being on the fourth line they're they need to get their feet wet they need to make the national hockey league and they want to have success and a player like kerfoot we were taught you i heard you guys talking about um he still plays a lot of minutes i mean i know 13 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but 13 minutes is actually above average, you know, outside of your top six. Right, right. And it's, you know, for traditional fourth line players, it's six, eight, ten minutes a night. Ten probably being the high watermark there.

Kerfoot has that ability, and you know what? If he's still around, you know, I don't know what happens at the trade deadline, but if he's still around, you know, I don't know what happens with the trade deadline, but if he's still around, you've got a veteran player there who's actually a very likable guy in the locker room, which that is an element of the ingredients that players in the depth of your team have to bring every day, you know, to become and be a gelled hockey team. I think Kerfoot's going to be a good one down the stretch for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But I'd love to see seven or eight guys fighting for positions

and listening to their coach talk about competition in practice amongst themselves. Listen, that's what it's all about, as long as they have good attitudes. If you have any guy that wants to pout because he's on the fourth line, honestly, show him the door right away and I don't know whether or not a Kerfoot would accept that role or find a way to almost turn himself and I don't think he'll ever be

as tough or as sturdy as a Chris Draper but certainly he can skate like Chris Draper he can create energy like Chris Draper I just don't know if he's got that intestinal fortitude to get his nose as dirty as maybe Chris did at times on a fourth line situation.

But over the last, what, year and a half, we've seen so many names on that fourth line go in and out. Aston Reese in, Aston Reese out, Hunt in, Hunt out. Last year, Spezza in, Spezza out. Manny, why can't they get it right? Why can't they lock something in and just leave those guys alone? Tampa Bay's done it with Maroon and Perry. It looks like Boston's okay with Foligno and Greer,

and these guys are still trying to figure it out. Well, the ability, or I even the ability, the awareness that I'm on a great team here. This is my chance. I can tell you one thing. Kerfoot playing on your top six, you're not winning the Stanley Cup. Right. It's all right. Well, it's evidenced by, you know, not that put it on him,

but it's evidence that the Toronto Maple Leafs had zero success in the playoffs. Right. If we're talking about rounds one, you Maple Leafs had zero success in the playoffs, right? If we're talking about rounds one. You have to have players slotted in the right positions. And when you talk about all those four players from Boston to Tampa that you just alluded to, other than Corey Perry, and I guess Nick Foligno as well, but Corey Perry being the highest, highest skill level with the greatest pedigree

and probably a Hall of Fame-type player in numbers. You got gritty, big, solid character players that, you know what? To be on a team, to be on the fourth line, third line, be the seventh defenseman, if you're not jacked to be part of that team, to go the distance, that's another weakness on teams if you don't have guys that to really embrace their roles you're never going to win it's plain and simple yeah understandable the um you know the Leafs everything they do right now is tailored towards how do they have more success in that first round and so we have our eye towards

getting better at the deadline and what they're going to move out and what they're going to do it feels like the only places they're really lacking are you know morgan riley maybe isn't the best number one d maybe you don't like their middle six wingers but you know to me one place that they've been really good is on their third pair they've had sandin and lilligran a couple of smaller defensemen do you think you can win in playoffs with that though you know i i hate you know i'm not asking to you to just say you know you know you need toughness all the time or anything like that but like they are small defensemen as good as they've been and some people in leaf nation still go though they've had success

but i worry about them come a more intense type of hockey well it's it's it's gonna be the question even after the trade deadline you know whatever ends up it's, it's going to be the question, even after the trade deadline, you know, whatever ends up happening, what the roster is going to be that these questions are going to be asked until success is, is had. Right. So, but at the end of the day, they have a really good team. They've proven it this year, obviously games in November in, in theory aren't as important as the playoff rush and, and down the stretch and certainly playoff games.

But you put these players in, again, it's about embracing a role and understanding how you have to play. Their lack of success or failures, if you want to call it that, could end up being a great, strong point of this new team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, where we haven't seen it in the past, but maybe they've learned from their mistakes or their environment, their situation, that they found themselves in the last couple of years.

And now you've got a player that's 365 days older and another season of learning and the environment that they're playing in. I wouldn't be this guy. I was on your show three months ago, and I was pretty alarmed and worried about the Toronto Maple Leafs and their makeup. One thing, they've been on a nice little run. In that run, they've lost four of their top defensemen,

and they're still getting their job done. So the depth is there it's just about when you're in the playoffs are you willing to do whatever it takes and if you're a small speedy forward on the fourth line that doesn't mean you can't be tough that doesn't mean you can't finish it that doesn't mean that you can't be in the right spot above the play you know on whatever zone you're playing and i mean those are attentions to detail that sheldon keith has to you know drive through his players but the moment you get guys that embrace their role oh my god what a difference because you're now not fighting the river you're

going with it so um i think it's a good thing that they've lost and they're more mature they certainly seem that way and um but a couple defensemen on the back end, bigger, stronger, tougher to play against, I'd like to see. Okay. All right. And you are right. We haven't had you on the show for a while. And I can assure you that when we did have you on the show, no one envisioned the Boston Bruins being 14, 15 points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs

at some point during the season here. So as much as you like the Leafs here, is there any part of you that says, as is right now, say the Boston Bruins didn't do a thing, say the Leafs didn't do a thing here. Can this current Leaf team team if they match up against a Boston Bruin can can you envision them still finding a way to maybe keep a series

closer or winning the thing and I need to remind you that the Boston Bruins have only lost five games in 46 this year yeah Nick it's amazing if they keep on this same pace if I'm not mistaken, they're the best record in the National Hockey League of all time.

Regular season points. Who saw that coming? Winning percentage. That's unbelievable. And, you know, I don't think there's a team in the NHL that can actually match the Boston Broads today in a seven-game series. I mean, I guess in theory, teams can show up, and it's a tale of two different seasons they always talk about,

but the Bruins look amazing. Now, Toronto's not that far off either. You know, does it come down to penalty killing and power play, which it always does? See, Boston's goalies have been amazing. Toronto's goalies have been good, and still in that idea of we don't know who number one is or who's it going to be,

I think it's kind of emerging as we speak now in the last few games. But I think the Toronto Maple Leafs have the team to be able to beat Boston if everything goes right. But the Bruins right now, boy, they're playing great. Their goaltending has been amazing. Their top players are literally elite. It's been fun to watch them. Mady, just while we're going around the league,

I feel like we should ask every single hockey person we talk to, what did you think of what went down in Vancouver and Rick Tockett getting hired and Boudreaux out? Well, to start it off, because I don't want to pick, Rick Tockett's awesome. He's one of the guys, I'm sure, Nick, you played against him around the same age as you. You guys are a tad older than I am.

I looked up to Rick Tockett. I fought Rick Tockett. I admire Rick Tockett. I wanted to be like Rick Tockett. So I'm excited for him, and I'm excited for his coaching staff, bringing in Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar. You know what? Two defensemen, two different types of defensemen, but they also had

outside of Adam, they had success in Pittsburgh and with Mike Sullivan. I love talk. I think the situation in Vancouver sucked from the start. I think Bruce Boudreau, although he's been around the National Hockey League, he's coached many different teams, he's

one of the most winning coaches ever in the National Hockey League, and I think they screwed him over, you know, not even bad. It was awful. And I didn't like the PR to it. I think it was terrible. I'm a former Vancouver Canuck player twice,

and so I don't like ripping the team I used to play for but they're whatever they did or the decision making to lead to that I think was you know piss poor and but at the end of the day Bruce is a weathered coach he's been around the thing but I I love the idea that or the environment that the Canucks fans recognized it to. They're almost turning on management in Vancouver, and guess what? Lack of success does that, and I admire the fans for that. They stood up for Bruce, although that doesn't really mean much. I just didn't like it from the start.

You know that market by playing in it. Can he win a few games to make people forget? Or is that type of a fan base that isn't easily, that they would easily forget about how this thing went down? Well, the crazy part for me is they lost two summers ago. They had a really bad offseason, the Vancouver Canucks did. And they were actually an emerging team, certainly a competitive team under Travis Green.

They lost Tanev. They lost Markstrom. They lost Edler. And I'm trying to think who the other – there was another one, a prominent piece as well. They didn't retool their team. Two coaches have now been fired with the players that have been playing on the ice there for Vancouver in the last year and a half,

Travis Green being the first, and, of course, what we just witnessed and watched with Bruce Boudreau. Are we that – I'm not that separated from the game to think that there's going to be another coach that comes in and actually lights this team on fire. They don't have the pieces. They don't have the players consistently playing as well as either they're supposed to or maybe they've been overvalued. Two top defensemen in Vancouver are arguably the worst defensemen

in the National Hockey League. If you can imagine that, the two highest paid defensemen are actually in value, not that valuable, and they're eating up a significant amount of your salary cap space. If you have those ingredients or that environment, you can't win. I think it's going to be tough for talk, but they have to identify who they want to grow with, go forward with, because they have the ability. Now, I don't know what they're going to get back in return,

but they have the ability to probably trade five, at least five of their top eight players on their roster right now that are supposed to be their top players. And I would not like to think, I would think that they're moving at least three of them. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting between now and what, March 3rd, NHL trade deadline. Hey, Mayday, fantastic stuff today.

Really appreciate your time, man. You know what? Always love it, man. Always love it. Can't wait. This is the best time. Well, not after the All-Star break is when we start counting the games down and

scoreboard watching, but no alarm in Toronto at this point. I'm excited. Their goaltending's been good. Bet their top players are elite, playing great. I think it's a good time to be a Maple East fan, but I'll tell you what, we'll still be asking the same questions come the end of the season.

Same ones we asked before the season started. Hey, we've got to stay employed. Yeah, we don't want answers. We throw it out there and we keep asking the same questions a thousand different ways. You guys are great. You do a good job. Thank you for having me. Brad May, Stanley Cup champion.

And a top analyst on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. Sure is. He's really good. Rick Tockett going to dig himself out of this thing in the next couple of weeks? Do you want him to? Absolute no-win situation for Rick Tockett. Because if he comes in there and he says,

Hey, we're winning now. It's like, no, stop winning. Stop winning. And then they keep losing. And then it could be like, no, stop winning. Stop winning. And then they keep losing, and then it could be like, well, we could have done that with Bruce, and he wouldn't have had to. He's screwed. No, you can be Marty St. Louis.

It's funny. Lose valiantly. With passion. Someone I talked to today reminded me that when there's a coaching change, like, look at the schedule, right? Oh, yeah. Bruce brought this up in one of his last postgames. What did he say?

Well, just he's like, I got, you know, he's like, it's not lost on me what the next schedule is. And aren't they playing Columbus? Yeah, well, they got Columbus, Seattle, and I think Chicago. That's great. So he just finished. Don't let Rick talk and play against the edmonton oilers right you're right keep keep keep bruce for that game they got chicago tonight and then there's seattle columbus

new jersey new york new york detroit detroit yeah there's some softer um jays did that with uh charlie montoyo should be able to get chicago tonight to get you off the ground running that's kind of the idea. I would hope. Just start. You prime the engine a little bit for a couple of wins. You know, if the Canucks are where they, where are the Canucks in the standings? Maybe they're 26th or whatever their exact number is.

You know, if they finish 24th or 28th. They are 27th. 27th. So if they finish, yeah, around there, like the amount of lottery balls they get are not that much different. You would like to see everyone in a happier working environment. You'd like to see progress from your young guys,

a happy Quinn Hughes and Pedersen. The crazy thing is, is they're not that far from the bottom. They're eight points up on the worst team in the league. Once they trade a couple more players, they may be full Tom Petty here. For how long? Free fall. For how long but for how long what do you mean how long will they free fall he how long does rick talk it need to to get

vancouver canucks excited again i can tell you his contract's not very long three years were you not surprised this contract what did you hear i heard that it's through 24-25, which is you finish out this year and then you get two years. Yeah, I heard prorated this year and three more, but that's not confirmed out of anything that I would report on, that's for sure. But I'd be surprised if he just got two full years out of this deal when he held all the cards. Agreed.

So if he did, then I don't know. I'd be surprised. Yeah, I'd be surprised too. That would make a lot more sense to me. Can we talk more about the Leafs' supposed, you know, starting goalie coming into the season wearing sunglasses at practice today do we not do this no no no we did but i don't think it's a huge deal like i think it's just you mentioned it but the one thing i think is interesting is was it kipper yesterday who said

or you who said no it was kipper and it's you know maybe it's like buying time to work on something like a swing thought at the range my first thought yeah when i saw the glasses is that okay you said it before you saw the glasses you called it yesterday i did call it yesterday and one of the things that uh matt murray and this was an article that was written uh at the beginning of october this isn't anything new um but it's what those goggles end up doing it's a tracking aid that forces you to use the middle. You read this already, right? It gets you in a rhythm of moving your head and tracking the puck. So you're making sure it's full, not instead of just. Clearly, they think he's had issues the last two weeks tracking the puck.

That's good. Is that important for the goalie? The puck. Are you goalie? The puck. Are you seeing it? Let him wear the glasses. I get the idea of the training aid, though. Right? Make you do the full turn.

Take your pocket full of tees and move it to the other side of your pants. I don't know. Do whatever you need to do. I just don't go to the range. No. I love the range. In green bad habits. And I know I just don't go to the range. No. I love the range. In green bad habits. And I know I'm leaving my best shots out there.

The thing with the range is like, oh, another one right down the middle. It's like I'm not doing anything right or different. They don't count at the range. That's the difference. That's awful. That's awesome. It's like, hey. What am I working on out here?

Score when you need to score for the team. I know. Can you do that? You can make $10 million a year if you actually scored when the team needed it the most. I know. Some people excel at that. It's a little tough trick to do, though.

It is. So now that Samsonov's getting tomorrow night, and then I guess it's an obvious situation that you go right back to murray on friday against against ottawa i would think oh yes that regardless that's a full week for matt murray to practice and he will be sick of people in that organization telling them that you know including curtis that put the specs Right now, he's got a Rube Goldberg machine in the crease. You need more sunglass work, buddy. So, I...

You're heading to Aruba for the all-star break with those glasses. Despite how great Samsonov could potentially play against a better New York team than, I'm sorry, your Islanders, really? No, that's not fair. They don't want

samson off to sit around too long and stew i mean murray to sit around murray sorry no i think it's been too long i i thought he should have played last night personally you do anyway yeah everyone's got this whole thing he's gonna play against his former team and so no i am play he doesn't play for them anymore it isn't they aren't relevant there's a part of me that is kind of concerned about that friday night for matt murray because i think this what if he goes and gets pumped by the sense the sense and score this pendulum has swung right where everyone there was a lot of matt murray you know momentum with everybody being excited about how buddies looked and you know momentum really nice thank you i missed it, though. But now it's obviously swung the fan vote. The court of public opinion here is ruling in favor of Samsonov.

And if he goes out there and has another good game against a really good Rangers team tomorrow night, they win, or if he's even good and they lose, and then Murray goes out there on Friday night on home ice and he's no good against the crappy Sens who, like you said, can score. They've got a top- 10 power play in the league. They should be way better than where they are in the standings right now. Given the talent. Who, the Sens?

Yes. Absolutely. Like underachievers. They just can't keep the puck out of their net. They can't keep the puck out of their net. They're D. It's the same as the Oilers early in the season. It was like, how do you expect to do that with their D?

And you just, you think of the way the Leafs can play sometimes against a bad team on home ice, you know, with, in front of Murray, not being confident. I just see a recipe for an interesting conversation on Monday.

That's what I'm getting at here. Oh boy. Anyways, we got Eddie O who's sitting behind you guys there. Oh my goodness. Hey! Give me a chance!

Give me a chance! All right. You all are going to want to stick around for Eddie O when we come back after the break. You are watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born. Tough stories in the NHL every day. The Jazz Mary Show. 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. All right, it's promised and delivered. You know, sometimes we tell people certain people are coming on the show.

Well, I just want to know who canceled. Then they don't show up. I want to know who canceled. Justin. Great to see you, Mark. Great to have you in studio. Thank you very much. What an honor.

Here, you want to know the lay of the land here? I want all the details. So phone rings. Yeah. Hey, yeah, coming in for Wednesday, huh? Yeah, yeah. Kipper, how you doing? Yeah, I'm doing well, thanks. You didn't even ask me how I'm doing or nothing. Just, yeah, I knew where he was going. Yeah. Hey, yeah. Coming in for Wednesday, huh? Yeah, yeah. Kipper, how you doing? Yeah, I'm doing well, thanks.

He didn't even ask me how I'm doing or nothing. Just, yeah, I knew where he was going. Right. Yeah, where are you staying? Yeah, yeah, I'm staying. Oh, yeah, five minutes. Yeah, five minutes. Yeah.

Yeah, sure. I get on that World Wide Web thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 21 minutes. So where's the five minutes? Now, was that five Canadian? Yeah. Or was that five US? Now, was that five Canadian? Yeah.

Or was that five U.S.? No, it was five Canadian for sure. Hey. Hey, buddy. Thanks. Welcome in. Thank you. Nice to see you guys.

We had Rick Talkett scheduled. I don't know if you're aware. Yeah, I figured you didn't have somebody really a little bit more important. A little bit more important. And he's a little busy today. Well, he's probably right now. He's probably napping or looking at some video and you lost a teammate over at tnt let's look at in all seriousness i'm sure we'll get to whatever you guys want to get

to in a second but like i think talk really uh i think he really was the glue there in the studio with with our crew there and just you, obviously wearing a lot of different hats in the National Hockey League as an assistant to a head coach and obviously being a tough nose player to play against. But he just, I think he flourished and he really enjoyed it. Like I think he loved it, you know. We loved having him on our show every chance we got. We knew the schedule got a little tougher.

And then I don't know how long those rumors have been with him in Vancouver, months. And, you know, I'm sure. Well, obviously they were just because of the relationship, right? I mean, with Patrick and with Mr. Rutherford there. And, you know, it's just, I mean, it's been around for a long, long time. And then when you heard the comments coming from Vancouver and, you know, the just all the speculation and the next thing, you know, it's, you know,

and here we are. So when we saw him on Wednesday night, cause he did, he did studio the other night and, you know, you can kind of feel and in here and kind of sense that, you know, like the whole world, it was coming down the pipe, you know, so were you, uh, we were navigating, uh, very quickly and then he brought out the dry erase board. I want to know if he brought the dry erase board from the studio to Vancouver.

Cause if he did it, I'm sure we can, uh, I'm sure we can get it expressed or something. And it won't take five minutes talk either. Cause you know, Kippers, everything's five minutes talk either because you know kippers everything's five minutes for him just were you surprised in the year 2023 with so many different platforms to get information out that it it ended up the way it did what do you mean just how the story evolved and how the situation yes and how everybody knew that talk it was coming in bruce was getting fired bruce is still there bruce is waiting the whole world's waiting for bruce to get fired like just i mean i don't like it i don't i mean however i mean obviously we know how it played out but at the end of the day like with all the experience of you know of of mr rutherford out

there in vancouver i mean obviously very surprising and he talked about it at the presser so you know i'll leave it at that but you know it's that's in the situation it's it's it's not easy i lived it when i was coaching at pittsburgh and kind of felt it was coming it was coming and all of a sudden you know sure enough 10 days later when we you know lost a couple of games back to back that uh you know you get that phone call and then you know but i mean i felt bad for gabby i mean that's you know, lost a couple of games back to back that, you know, you get that phone call and then, you know, but I mean, I felt bad for Gabby. I mean, that's, you know, you just, you kind of know your fate there. And obviously looking back at it and always looking at it and try to anyways, is whether I'm watching a game on television and see how analysts handle

certain situations. I always try to put myself in that situation. So at the end of the day, I try to put myself in the chair of Mr the end of the day try to put myself in the in the chair of of uh mr rutherford and in the vancouver canucks and go uh if that was our ultimate decision then you know what probably should have just told gabby you're out let's put mike yo in there he's got coaching experience and let's let's figure it out from there again i for whatever reason it didn't happen that way and and it played out and, you know, hopefully it's a learning experience, not only for the Vancouver Canucks,

but for, you know, for, for other teams or other businesses that are in that situation and just say, you know what, look, let's just,

let's just cut bait here. And it's not easy, but it was interesting too, because reading and just in watching it and it was able, like when you read comments from guys, you know, you take it for what it is. And then when you actually see the video and the body language and stuff,

if anybody gets a chance and go back and watch Luke Shen talk, I think talk for about six and a half minutes about it. And I thought he was, I mean, so eloquent and very honest and very to the core. And I think you could tell that. He's gonna miss him. I mean, so eloquent and very honest and very to the core. And I think you could tell that. He's going to miss him.

Yeah. And that was weighing on everybody. Yeah. And, you know, look, it is tough to win in a National Hockey League when you're healthy and you're mentally in there and everything's going on. But when you have that, you know, on your shoulders, it makes it really difficult. So if anybody gets a chance, I give Luke Shen a lot of credit. I mean, he, again, one of the veteran guys, and that's what you need. You need your veteran guys to be able to be out there, and he was on that.

So a tip of the hockey helmet to him. You know, that's one thing that, you know, you hear a lot of people say, you know, why not just wait or why not just promote Mike Yeo? Is that not a part of it? Like you can't. It was an untenable working environment for the players who kind of felt like this is going to happen later. Can you wait on that and survive and live and thrive? Yeah.

Well, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. Kind of this, the road that they ended up traveling. I mean, this all started at camp, right? Oh, yeah. Gabby said today or the day before that it was October 8th. He knew it was coming down on him. Yeah, right. So, I mean, look, he was, the new management team came in after, right? After he was there.

So that is their decision-making. And look, Jimmy Rutherford's been around a long, long time and has had great success and trying to get a feel for everything and what's going on. So I just, like I said, you just kind of saw, it seemed like it was going down this path. And now I think they're still paying Travis Green, are they not?

Or the last year or whatever he's got going, right? So look, we understand the market and the business side of this, of actively paying out three coaches. But I mean, this isn't anything like we haven't seen. I mean, your buddy over there, Iron Mike, was getting paid by six teams at one point. I think he still is. Throwing three Russian teams.

That's the Bobby Bo. That's the Bobby Bonilla getting paid until like 20. How do we get on that program? Yeah, right. I remember I was saying my one NHL camp, I got to play golf with Bill Guerin, and he was telling me about his kids, ones in horseback riding, ones in gymnastics, ones in whatever. I was like, no, that has to be pretty expensive.

And he was like, well, not to be a dick, but I'm rich. He's getting paid by the Sharks, the Blues, the Islandersers he's getting like four nhl paychecks at the times that's pretty good yeah that's kind of like you can't believe that's kind of that's kind of like you the last couple years no no no not even close geez no you're still getting paid by chicago blackhawks are you no come on no no seattle money's looking pretty good right now. Yeah, Seattle's nice and TNT is very nice. Hey, you're solely responsible for this turnaround of the Kraken. Nothing to do with it.

Can't be just John Forslund. Oh, it is all Johnny. It's always Johnny. Oh, he's awesome. Seriously, when is it going to strike midnight and we're going to see them? Well, why does it have to strike midnight? I don't know. I'm just asking you because they're not supposed to be as good as this.

Well, I guess I'll ask you this is that why with, and I think the narrative, I was on with you guys, I want to say maybe 10 days, two weeks ago, whatever. But like there was a narrative where like, how are they doing this? Because this is the same team. Right. Stop right there. Not the same team right stop right there not the same no it's four different guys well no right but at least four well let's go back yeah tan of got hurt and schwartz got hurt and there you got you know schwartz is the top nine

guy 100 yeah 100 oh i turbos i mean he's he can play with your top guys you can put him on a fourth line he's the best fourth line guy in the league right now i won't argue with it because he's had himself an unbelievable season. Again, two guys that weren't there last year for the majority of the year are healthy. Matty Beneers came in and played the last 10 games of the regular season. They went out and got Bjorkstrand. They got Burakovsky. They picked up Justin Schultz. And then Martin Jones, who played a lot better in philadelphia than i think his

numbers and you know the eye test will tell you no disrespect to the numbers because they are what they are but he played better than maybe what his record was so i just i mean how many guys did i name a half dozen yeah right that's seven guys so they've. So those guys all of a sudden are in your top nine. And you're playing with the puck way more. They can outscore their problems. And early in the year, the power play won them a boatload of games. Kind of gone a little dry here, but it does. Their penalty killing dug themselves a hole,

and they just haven't been able to really move up from being in the bottom two or three in the league. But when they went on that seven-game road trip, and they won them all, and that's never happened before in the history two or three in the league, but when they went on that seven-game road trip and they won them all, and that's never happened before in the history of the game, is their penalty kill went up against, let me try to get this right, they went Edmonton, Toronto, Buffalo. Boston in the mix?

Boston. Those are all top five. Exactly. Top six, I think, at that particular time. And they only gave up, like, obviously the Boston game they won. They shut them out. But the other games, they only gave up one where they had been giving up two at times. So long-winded on that.

Look at, like, they've been relatively healthy, but lately they've kind of gotten, they've kind of got bit here recently. Lost Schultz. Schwartz was out. Burkowski didn't play the other night against Colorado. Yeah. So I mean, look at as long as they get the consistent goaltending from Jones and Grubauer has been very, very good.

His numbers are what they are, but he has given him a chance to win in the last four so i think he's found his game so and i think dave haxell i know i haven't heard dave haxell's name at all for being in the running for coach of the year and look at we know what monty's doing in boston you know just let's start you know get the chisel out and start putting in the you know montgomery on it because i mean this is incredible what they're doing but he deserves a heck of a lot of credit for the job that he's done so that's a fine i'll put it in the tip jar that's my bad so um you know what i mean like that that's that's how it is and that's and can they keep going i mean look at the division like who's really and i know edmonton's playing well calgary kind

of looks to me like they found something here the last couple of games they just kind of look like they're even with the slimmest of margin overtime win against columbus okay but they're winning that game yes maybe two weeks ago they don't win that game you know so i i've liked the way that they played a couple of games so vegas has kind of been in and out here recently la is you know i mean la's played really really well but they had a stretch of games there where you know they had the 9-8 game against seattle you know so the division i think the division is wide open and it's a team that can you know i believe at the end of the day the team that can stay healthy and then a team can uh you know get their especially teams in order we've got eddie

old chuck in studio live and in color i still haven't answered the question. Who canceled on you? That's what I want to know. Sammy's got the list of canceled guests. Don't blame Sammy. Sammy came down. He greeted me. I got out of the Uber, and I was in the right place. I went in the right door.

Just so lucky. Sammy's doing his job. In town for TNT. Big game. I've been a T.O. for, I think I've been here like four of the last five weeks. Oh, really? Yeah, Seattle was here and then they had,

I think we had like three, we had three TNT games, obviously with, you know, with Matthews and Marner and the way the Leafs are playing. So it's great for us and ratings have been great. So we're happy to be up here.

And a big one tomorrow night, New York Rangers, Toronto Leafs. Yeah, yeah. That'd be a heck of a game. It would be a heck of a game. I did play for, I did play.

Oh, you did too? Yeah, sometimes. You remember? Yeah, I do remember. You guys won a Stanley Leafs. Yeah, yeah. That would be a heck of a game. It would be a heck of a game. I did play for, I did play. Oh, you did too? Yeah, sometimes. You remember? Yeah, I do remember. You guys won a Stanley Cup together. That sounds fun. No, I wasn't. No, don't start.

I forgot that he was with the Leafs at one point. Oh, yeah. I know I was. So, just. Right, right. So, where do you have the New York Rangers in terms of still one of the youngest teams? Yeah. You look at that blue line and it's getting better.

Kendra Miller's going to be a star. How good is it? A star. I line and it's getting better kendra miller's gonna be a star a star i mean it's i mean like how do you not look at that just automatically without even just going up and down the league like i look at carolina's defense when healthy and i go you know what they're pretty underrated and they're probably not in a lot of people's top five because i don't think people still i mean respect them as much as they should but i look at the rangers defense and go wow if that defense can just stay together and stay healthy and, you know, look at, can you, could you, can you upgrade maybe, you know, is Schneider the guy at six or whatever,

however you may look at it, you can never have enough of depth on the back end. But I mean, that, that D is like, sometimes you look at it and just go, wow, this is, this is a challenge and a half. Is Trouba having the same type of year? Kipper loves Trouba too, as he was thumping everyone last year this season not as much as he's been on track for you i think he's been as consistent like since he's gotten in new york like he's really he's gone to his to another level you know speaking of defense

you mentioned truba you remember what was it i'm going to just throw a number out and you guys can tell me you go back five years ago the defense that winnipeg had oh god was it? I'm going to just throw a number out and you guys can tell me. You go back five years ago, the defense that Winnipeg had. Oh God, was it Bufflin, Truba? With Buff and Truba, right? Yeah. Yeah, right? You had Sherratt there, right?

I mean, like their D. Kulikov? Their D was like, I mean, you said, how did they not, you know, how did they not get to a cup final with the D and the guy in goal, obviously. And I think connor hellebuck is i mean i i love that guy like i think he's he's right there like i think he's a top two or three goalie in the league and

so but yeah the rangers defense to me um it's you know could be the difference this year for them to you know to get them you know to push them ahead a little bit here and take that next step. We watched the Islanders last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's disappointing, I think. Not the first 15 minutes. Yeah, not the first 15. Holy cow. I mean, I know last time I checked, the game is 60 minutes.

45 lost you the game. I understand. But the 15 was really good. Oh, it wasn't even close i mean at least on tv anyways if we are looking at the east i mean is it is it locked already in terms of what we're gonna see here you mean the leeson lightning no not so much i'm just going beyond so much buffalo florida islanders can they knock out washington or rangers for a wild card spot here are you putting pittsburgh on that as well yeah in that yeah in that grouping right i am well i mean i think everybody expects i mean i'm expecting florida at some point here to take a to to take a run. But every time I look or whatever,

it's like, oh, they're one game over 500. Right. Or two games over that. They're one game under 500. They're, they're,

they're 500. Like that's been like, to me, if there's, I mean, there are a lot of stories and you guys talk about it on a daily basis. You guys do an unbelievable job, but like how often is anybody sitting here going,

where are they not? Like at the top of the the at the heap last year and you know the you know sweeping and then the coaching change like i thought brunette like the situation andrew brunette got put into last year like i think he handled it unbelievably well his team just i did that series i did tampa florida last year and florida didn't get to their game until game game four yeah i guess you know i guess it's always easy to blame the coach i live you know i lived it but they had some guys that just they didn't play very well in that tampa series and and was it an overreaction then the offseason yeah i mean

obviously you know major changes when you do you know you you make the coaching change and then and then you make obviously obviously, the huge trade. That we're too soft team move. Well, I like... People wanted the Leafs to make that move. I would have liked to seen them tweak because they did have that element in their game. When you look at some of the guys that they have in the lineup. I mean, is Bennett not a guy like that?

Yes, absolutely. Right? I mean, you got good— They went toe-to-toe with Tampa in some of those games that we watched. No, yeah, right. But, I mean, you go back to the playoff before. That was as great as a series that I've seen. And vicious.

Yeah, oh, yeah, right, right. So I think to answer that, I mean, you know, to get a little tougher, Kip, I think it was there. But, you know, look at— tougher kip i think it was there but you know look at you you don't win and expectations are and you could obviously bill zito the general manager there thought that well it was a lot of this had to do with bruno and he didn't give him the opportunity to you know to to come back so and here they are now i mean they're like they're a bubble team right now are they catching are they catching either toronto or tampa no i mean they're they're a minus four gold differential team i don't know people don't care about plus minus all the time

but you know we're over halfway we're 50 games in yeah no you you you are i mean you are what what your numbers say you are right at the end of the day but like i think that's really an interesting uh you know like that's one team you sit there and go holy cow like let's go yeah like let's see who you you know let's see who you really are at this particular time and you know, like that's one team you sit there and go, Holy cow. Like, let's go. Like, let's see who you, you know, let's see who you really are at this particular time. And, you know, Matthew Kachuk has been, I mean, he's been, he's been unbelievable. I mean, he's been, when I see those two, when I see those two kids, I call them kids.

Cause I, you know, I play with Walt. I'm just like, geez, you know, that, that, that, I don't want to say that apple, that watermelon didn't fall far from the tree there. You know what I mean? Like I look at him, I go, there's Walt. There's Chantel. You know, there's three players in the league leading their team in points and PIMS and two of them are Kachuks.

Yeah. Not shocking. Yeah. Shocking. But Florida's, I mean, to me, Florida is the, I want to say the wild card. I'm not, cause I'm not talking about the, I'm talking about for the wild card, the wild card out of those teams you were talking about, I would say the Florida Panthers,

because I think everybody expects them to, to make a run here. And you know, they're not, they're up against it. Are they not cap wise? Like they're really, really, like it's snug. So I don't know what they can do. 17 teams up against the cap right now, and that's why we continue to see zero movement. Teams would like to make trades.

They just can't, and we'll wait maybe another three or four weeks before we see anything of significance. When I was coaching in Pittsburgh a long time ago, it was like two things that I learned, and one I learned later because obviously the cap came came evolved is is figure out doesn't matter what level that your your players are playing for you draft picks juniors college american league whatever nhl is figure out who and what your guys are before the rest of the league does right and most all hockey

people and you're gonna make you're gonna you're gonna make mistakes at some point you're gonna get rid of a guy early and he's gonna flourish and you know we name a couple of guys but then as well is that in talking to people and learning and having gone through some interview processes, it's just the understanding of is if you can have cap space, you can dance with anybody at any time. And I know it's hard to do. And sometimes you got to be able to, you know, do the, you know, the gymnastics with the numbers. But if you can have that ability and when you're in a position to either go

for it or to maybe get some assets for down the road and you have that ability is that what yourself and you put yourself in a hell of a spot is that why boston's only lost five games so far this season because they figured out what they have a lot um quicker than than say toronto who's still trying to figure out if Joey Anderson's a fourth line guy for them? Well, I would answer it this way. That is the captain and the guys that he has around him that follow. Like Patrice Bergeron to me just is the, I mean, he is. He's the modern day Mark Messi.

He's the ultimate. Isn't he? He's going to win, what, a seven-sell game? I'm not talking about style. I'm just talking about how he can control vision and... A culture of a team. A culture. Yeah, and his actions, certainly.

I'm talking about Bergeron. Yes. The way that he plays. And being around the Bruins head, I think maybe three games in about 12 days and talking to a lot of people there, there just seems to be a feel, Kipper and Justin, that, again, these are my words from my perception,

is that with Bergeron being on a one-year deal, Krejci's the same, right? There just seems to be almost like, come on, guys. Like, this might be it. You know, win one more. Yeah, win one more. The old last dance, you know? And it just feels like that.

Yeah. But to me, Bergeron is the guy. And you have Marchand, who's developed into a, what, top 15 player in the league? Oh, yeah. Right? And then Jake DeBrusque. And let's give Bruce Cassidy some credit here. Going back last year with Jake is obviously came out publicly that he wanted out.

And he had a tough time. Obviously, he wasn't playing all that great. And then Bruce Cassidy gave him an opportunity to start killing penalties. And if you look at the number since he started killing penalties last year, and then Monty, now Jim Montgomery. He's keeping him in the game a little bit more. And he's out, you know, he's active. He's moving his feet.

And he's, I mean, he has turned, like in the last year, and I know he's hurt right now, he had the two goals in the Winter Classic. On a broken leg. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's,'s you know it comes from louis for sure yeah yeah it's all louis for sure so like if you look at that emergence of a guy that okay we're expecting this guy expecting this guy all of a sudden he does and he you know he signs an extension and you know and and it's turned his honestly he's turned his career around he's

turned his career around in boston with with killing some penalties and being a little bit more active. But I just think the way that they've done things in Boston. And look, whoever thought that, I mean, I didn't. Who thought Allmark was going to be, you know, actually beat Frank Fezza, you know? No, apparently not the Sabres. So with that culture we're talking about in the way that you know bergeron has been playing on a pretty cheap contract and one year deal and you know marsh and has been

underpaid for a long time pasternak's deal is coming up is there enough of a culture there that pasternak would be the next one to say i'm probably worth 12 and a half but i'll play for 10 sure you think so yeah yeah i it just feels impossible to me but then again i don't have money so i mean he's got a few in the bank yeah i'm leaning towards that are you really yeah he would take less money to stay a little less yeah yeah yeah and i mean you want to say 88 for eight man that's a good deal eight years right yeah that's a great deal. And could he go out July 1st and say, I want to be a $12 million player and maybe get somebody there going? I don't know.

But he will be drawn into that Patrice Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci. We all took less. We're lifers. We're going to love it here. Don't underestimate the pickup of Hampus Lindholm either. Yeah. That was a hell of a move. That's six and a half.

Hell of a move. We can help the Leafs or no, probably. Right? But they're going to have to bump it up off of what they paid Charlie McAvoy. It's not the same. It's just going to be a little bit more. And I think that's... When is his deal up, Linhomi?

Is that what you're talking about, Linhomi? No, no, no. I'm talking about McAvoy. McAvoy makes 9.5. Oh, yeah, yeah. 9.5. Yeah, right. You're going to have to pay him more than McAvoy.

Pasternak. Yeah. Yeah, Pasternak. Yeah. Okay. So what's... 10. Okay, well, all right.

10-2. If he asks for 88 for 8, what are you going to say? Yeah. Sure. Okay, we all right well 10-2 if he asks for 88 for eight what are you gonna say yeah sure okay we'll give we'll give you we'll give you 87-2 okay where do we sign yeah i don't see him going anywhere wow i don't either but that's you know again can can the leafs do the leafs have to make a significant move to close the gap on Boston. Significant? Yes. A top 4D, a top 6 forward. Would they have to give up their prospect in Matthew Nyes? Would it be worth taking the chance?

Well, I mean, how much sand is left in the hourglass? Like, is this something that's like, you know, do you have to get to the conference finals? Are we talking about Kyle Dubas' sand? Yeah, the GM sand. No, I'm saying the organization. Yeah. Honestly, I can't answer that.

But look, they got a good enough team to go on a run and give themselves a chance. But like, again, we know we got a lot of hockey to go. I mean, I said this on our TNT broadcast a couple weeks ago when you're here is like well start booking your flights between here and tampa yeah for round one because i like is anybody catching boston i mean it doesn't look like it could the two teams flip-flop here at some point maybe is anybody catching the third team in the division no probably not so i would say kipper more to answer your question is what do they need to take out tampa i wonder would they do that like given the choice between a couple of guys actually say all right this guy maybe makes us a better team but this guy helps

us more against tampa would you do that would you focus on one team specifically i focus to try to win a stanley cup and the only way you can win is if you win one round. Oh, I like that. Win the first round. I get it. You would assume, right? Yeah. We talked about that in 94. It took us a while to get there. And we just, okay, whatever you guys say.

Well, I'll lead you guys in a stretch, and this guy will be the clown in the locker room. Do you remember that first round against the Islanders? They didn't touch the puck. Steve Thomas says to me after the Seers? They didn't touch the puck. Steve Thomas says to me after the Sears, we didn't touch the puck. Just getting around Zamboni one end of the ring. But that's not the case against the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Justin, the thing that was really, really tough for us that year was the travel. No, for us.

Because we weren't playing. Oh, I see. Like, come on, let's get on a plane here. We could use another $55 per diem, you know? It was like, let's see, what was it, Kevin? It was Islanders, right? Islanders. Wash.

Islanders, Wash, Jersey. Devils, yeah. Yeah, and then, oh, jeez, we got to go all the way to Vancouver. Jeez. You're fresh for your first travel. And the Canucks, the poor Canucks, i think they were like in st louis uh i think they were calgary toronto and on new york you know oh yeah yeah absolutely don't kid yourself don't kid yourself because we

went in there after being up 3-1 in a series in game six we went to vancouver and we probably played our worst game and probably 50 games yeah thank god there were two days in between game six oh yeah I was a boy growing up in BC okay watching the games rooting for the Canucks you know okay sorry listen I'm just telling you there's a lot of all I remember is a lot of posts on or what there's a lot of posts Islander pajamas I was yeah it was a pajama boy pre-Tavarez, yeah. So I mean, look, I think it's a fair question, but I haven't looked at some of the captains in a while,

but what can they do? But look, if you're asking me, you're doing whatever you need to. I'm saying, whatever Kyle and Shani think that they need to do, I think you pull out all the stops and go, you know what? We need X. Okay, how do we go and who's the best X out there? And then you worry about it. If we started to really put together an NHL trade list right now,

we're seeing some big names, some of the bigger names that we've seen in a long time. I mean, based on the press of the cap, the market has a chance to be really disappointed to see names not moved here. Yeah. Or just low cost, right? Like if there's a lot of guys available

and Kane wants to go play somewhere. Well, yeah. I mean, a lot of those guys do have the no movement. So they dictate the terms and go, okay, you know, I'm Nick Kiprios and I have no movement clause. I only want to go to one place and one place only. And that's Toronto. Claude Giroux in Florida. Right, right.

Yeah. And Flyer fans were disappointed for that. And there's no question that if Pat Cain decides to get moved, they're not going gonna get pat kane market value for him that well what would chicago say no pat we're not moving you no i would assume that again they don't have just because a guy comes to you and says i want to i want out of here well you know we're not we we don't have to but obviously it's a different situation oh my god no no you know what i'm saying like davidson's a young gm he can't go out and get smoked in his first trade i don't think he needs to be embarrassed by it and if them a team that's trying to get if it does happen i don't think he won't he won't right he won't he won't but again

if a team like that that's the issue for teams that give out the no movement clauses like their candy yeah is that you get in that situation i mean you'd like to have one from A and one from B and then be able to get the best deal if the guy's willing to go there. He can come to you and say, I want to go to Team A, but hey, you know what? What'd you think about Team B, right? Because my understanding with the Giroux situation last year is that the Rangers had an unbelievable deal on the table.

Really? And he chose, after telling him that might be somewhere chose not to go he wanted to only go to ottawa you know so again you look at it from a team's point of view and go oh geez like but you gave him the no movement so he he's driving the bus yeah all right i'm told by our producer sammy we're going to take a quick break but i'm going to show you the power of our youtube channel because right now we have 116 it's youtube it's like this whole network that web it's about you it's wide and worldly oh look we're look look look right there okay but i'm going to tell you how powerful i'm going to tell you how powerful you are in in the youtube world

116 thumbs up. 116? Yeah. Does that mean there's 114 that are watching? No, we've got almost 1,200 people watching. Really? Yeah, which is actually a pretty good number. 10%? Yes.

Wow. And another 90 are giving me the double bird. That's a different button. Can you put the double bird up with thumbs up? I want to know, how do you decipher between the double bird and a thumbs up? We're going to find out because I'm asking everybody to give Eddie O a thumbs up. No, it's already done. It's out there.

I'm challenging everybody. We're at 116. I want to see how many thumbs up we get for Eddie O after the break. Stop doing that. Yes. It's only five minutes. Yeah, the hotel is only five minutes away. Plenty more to come up with Eddie Olchak.

Get those questions ready, Sammy, because we are going to pepper Edzo after the break. You're watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born. Great daily gambling advice from Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert in the fan morning shows, Wake and Rake. 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. Back in studio here nick kiprios justin bourne eddie olchuk people think i'm just crazy you are i gotta i gotta tell you justin no no everybody in 116 people that are watching us on MeTube. No, YouTube.

You said YouTube. Okay. MeTube. MeTube. Sorry. A few more thumbs up. Okay. Okay.

One 16 to almost 260. Okay. Now. Just for you. And what about the birds and the thumbs? You don't want to know. Okay. That's okay.

Don't ask. That's okay. It's all right. It's the real world. I got to tell you. No. I don't know what you're going to say. I would never go in any other direction.

Like, we had the best part about this, about the game, are the people. Yeah. And the journey that you're able to go through. And I was able to go through it with him and talk about Glenn Healy, Mike Hartman. You know, guys, just, you know. Howdy. Just role players, you know, guys, just, you know, just role players, you know, accept and execute your role and wait for your name to be called. And, but then when you're able to interact with gravy, you know, Adam Graves and Brian Leach and Mark Messi and

Kevin Lowe and Craig McTavish and Mike Richter and go on and on and on. Like when we see each other for the first time in a long time at least for me it it feels like 1994 you know like it really does you know slower and fatter you guys it feels like 1994 that's right you were in your uh you were in your pajamas you said watching uh watching yeah but that's what winning does. Yeah. That is a lifelong bond. It's interesting. And you went through that watching your families.

Yeah. You know, I think about my own experience as a player and some of the, like, you know, the lower leagues and whatever. And the coolest part about it is the times, you know, like you guys, I won at the lower levels. But finding a way through the tough times and the stuff that sucks. And, you know, the resilience, you talk about Mark Messier all the time, because it really does take a certain type of person and it changes the way you think seeing someone else deal with adversity and hard times.

And I think you take that after your career to whatever your career is next in your family life. And when stuff sucks, you know, you know that some people can handle it well. And, you know, I,

you just learn so much. It really is a journey. And I'm sure that's what keeps you guys bonded yeah i mean i think the obviously the winning helps without a doubt but i think the the adversity and the challenges uh individually collectively um how coaches see things how players see things and to be able to have somebody there regardless if he's making five schmill and he's the captain or he's making 550 and he's an extra guy you know everybody has the ability to be able to galvanize and pick each other up when they know that they're going through a tough time or somebody has the courage to be able to stand up to the coach whether it's a top line guy or you know an extra guy like you know kipper and i but it's uh it's a top-line guy or an extra guy like Kipper and I, but it's always special to be able to get back.

What are you thinking about over there? No, I'm just thinking about what you're talking about. Or do you have gas over there? You're leaning. Okay. What are you, John Garrett and Shorty now? What happened? No, I didn't.

It was a big fart sound during a game, and Shorty just paused and said, was that you, John? Right in the middle of the telecast. Seemed appropriate with everything that Vancouver went through in the last week and a half. Stinker on the organization. But just the galvanizing of players,

and it's not usually just players. Just a quick story that I don't know if it really gets talked about is we had a guy in our PR department Matty Loughran who you know for whatever reason was going through a tough time the year we won the Stanley Cup and mess kind of brought us all together and said

we got to do something for him so we kind of all got together and got him a Mercedes Benz no you didn't that's unbelievable So we kind of all got together and got him a Mercedes-Benz. No, you didn't. That's unbelievable. Yeah. And then they ask him to meet us by the Zamboni.

The whole team's around this car. Yeah. And Mark just says, gives him the keys. Oh. And honest to God, the amount of emotion that you watch a human being go through in that second. Yeah. Wow. It was a great moment for our team.

Yeah. That's super cool, though. That is coming together for people. And I've always said this, is that I'm not putting the traveling secretary people into the same, you know, I guess I'm putting them in with the verbiage with the trainers and stuff. But those people for hockey players are the lifeline. They are the lifeline.

If you are good to them, they will take care of you the rest of your life. Because when I see guys now in the league that are still, you know, active. And Mark got it. He understood that uh yeah there's no weak links in that room and it didn't this just didn't stop at the players right yeah okay let's go to some questions sammy what do you got for us eddie doesn't have headphones on so we can't hear all right get your headphones on and we'll uh we'll write off some questions beautiful you can hear me yeah i got you okay so this is for a question for eddie o from john mitchell on youtube hi john

if there's one thing you'd like to see the nhl tweak would it be playoff seating three on three overtime to shoot out something else uh is something else see yes okay just making sure i don't want another double bird um i i would say, is one thing that I've talked about for a while is I would love to see, and I'm sure the experiment would have to be in the American League. I would love to see

the long change in the first and third period and not the second. So go to the long change in the first and third period and have the second in your normal normal zone i gotta tell you i love that i i would look it doesn't mean they're going to be more goals but i guarantee you there's going to be more chances and if you have more chances there's a chance to have more goals so that would be the one thing that i would like to see at least experimented with

we know how teams change in the second period and it gets a little uh you know it gets a little crazy every once in a while i really believe is that it i think it would lend itself to more chances if you had the long change in the first and third period imagine that you're an exhausted d-man in the third period and you got to make that change trying to find your way off. All of a sudden you're out there for three and a half or four minutes. You quickly changing a few things. First off, I like that idea a lot.

How about if on a penalty shot you don't score, you still get a power play? Maybe a one-minute power play. Let's get weird. But some sort of power play time. Michael B power play let's get weird but some sort of power play time michael bunting a guy takes a penalty on him right the average success rate on a penalty shot is like i don't know 20 or something it's pretty low yeah it is low you know and so the the maple leafs kind of get denied a chance to put out their super talented power play

unit maybe two minutes is a bit excessive but okay, can I take it a step further? Please do. What happens if Sheldon Keefe pulls out the red challenge flag there and goes, we don't want the penalty shot. We want the PP. Looks at his own guy in the eyes and says, you ain't got it, kid. There's more value in knocking off two minutes of their inability to press. Well, if you're leading the game game that's a good point too like i want i want i want i want seconds off the clock i may not need that goal yeah i didn't even consider that more of a strategy it's like in football right you know run the ball i haven't watched

a cfl game in a long time probably since i wasn't with one more before hold on a second let me finish my thought you know i'm a professional host don't you? You are a host, all right. Now you made me lose my train of thought. It's denying. It's saying, no, I don't want the penalty. We're just going to take the down and move on. So that's kind of this similar aspect for saying, you know what? I don't want this guy to take the penalty shot.

I want to be able to. I came in today and not to throw Sam under the bus, but he was like, I'd have bet everything I own on bunting not scoring. He doesn't get that look. I'm sure he probably could have found that somewhere out there. Do we still need three-on-three during the regular season?

I love three-on-three. Don't take it from me. What do you want to do? Get rid of it. For what? It's not real hockey. Is it a shootout? No, get rid of that too. Okay, so what are we doing?

I'm not suggesting we fix it, but we added those because we worried about not quite living up. We're getting a winner. It's getting a winner. End of story. Flip a coin. What do you mean flip a coin? We're three on three.

Just flip a coin and get it over with. Everybody can go beat traffic. Now everybody's saying, geez, these guys keep regrouping and they come back. I think it was more because we wanted to add value to the entertainment dollar than it was more so declaring a winner. I think it comes with a lot better chance to get a winner if you're with only three guys out there. Okay.

Are you right on either side? All right. Is that fair? Fair. What do you got, Sammy? This one's from Dirk in Oakville on our text line. Dirk, what is your favorite memory of playing with the Leafs? Well, favorite memory.

I better say it was on November 10, 1990, when my wife was on a scale of one to 10, a seven of giving birth to our second child. And then I got called out of the delivery room at Scarborough Centenary Hospital. And Bob Stelic, our PR man was on the phone asking, cause we played that night against Chicago on Hockey Night in Canada,

and asking if Diana had the baby yet. And I said, no, no, no, not yet, but I'm coming to the game. You know, don't worry about it. And he goes, well, call us before you come. And this is like four o'clock in the afternoon for an eight o'clock game. And he goes, I go, Bob, there's not enough time.

No cell phone. I'm at the nurse's station. Yeah. And he goes, well, just, you know, just call us before you come. I go back in, my wife's like, well, there's not enough time. No cell phone. I'm at the nurse's station. Yeah. And he goes, well, just call us before you come. I go back in. My wife's like, well, where you been? I go, my aunt's sick. They call again.

They really want to talk to you. I leave the room. The doctor is at the foot of the bed. He's got his gloves on. He goes, okay. Let me put my catcher's mitt on here, Diana. Hold on one second. She's on a one to 10.

She's a seven. Yeah. They go out to the nurse's station. They go, yeah, Eddie Floyd Smith second. She's on a one to 10. She's a seven. Yeah. They call me. I go out to the nurse's station. They go, yeah, Eddie Floyd Smith here. Hey, Floyd, I'm coming to the game. Diana's getting ready. I'll be there within an hour.

I just want to let you know we just traded you to the Winnipeg Jets. Oh, come on. I said, what? He goes, yeah, it's out there. And we had to do it. We had to notify you. And I'm like, you got to be bleeping me. My wife's on her back, legs up on a scale of one to 10.

And you guys just, you know, so I hang up the phone. I'm like, I can't believe it. I just got traded. He told me I had to trade to Winnipeg. So I'm like, no cell phone. I go to the pay phone. I got like a card to, you know, punch it in numbers. And I called my agent, Ricky Curran.

I called my dad. I called Mark Osborne because we got traded with one another. And I called my agent, Ricky Curran. I called my dad. I called Mark Osborne because we got traded with one another. And I called Gary Lehman. I'm gone maybe five minutes. I go back in the delivery room. My wife is like this. I walk in.

She's like this. She looks at me. She goes, where have you been? I'm like, my aunt's sick. She looks at me, looks at the ceiling. And the doctor's at the foot of the bed he's got his hands like this and he's like listening this conversation i go she goes where are we going i went oh my god uh i go guess she looks at me looks at the ceiling she. She goes, Winnipeg. And I'm like pregnant and psychic.

I go, that is lethal. Next thing you know, I look at the, I look at the foot of the bed. Doctor's like this. He goes, starts pulling off the rubber gloves.

My wife just shut right down. Tommy Holchek was born three hours later at scarborough centennial um yeah any thought to uh so uh i mean that's as fun as the moment that i had considering my you know my life had been turned upside down because i mean look at winnipeg ended up being one of the best places i ever played but you didn't want to um name him winnie never thought of it no no no no never named after my father-in-law thomas that's great yeah were you um there when ballard was still alive oh yeah oh yeah because there's a big documentary came out this week i heard about it i did not yeah yeah what are your lasting memories of playing for harold ballard i mean he was very nice to me and like was always around and

i remember i remember like first couple of games in toronto with the old building you just be like you know tying your skates you come walking around the corner and all of a sudden here comes puck his dog a big dog goes flying right through the thing over here. The size of a horse. All of a sudden you hear, oh, ****. Dog took a dump right over in the corner. It was like, all of a sudden here comes Gunnar Kinnear, our trainer there. He ends up, he ends up. He's got a dog bag. No, doggy bags then.

Shovel. He's got somebody's stick there. I mean, he was, I mean. I mean, he was great. Like, you know, I mean, obviously. One time we were playing, we had practice, and John Brophy was coaching. And all of a sudden, like, we're doing drills at the old garden, and you could see Mr. Ballard come in with puck,

and they'd sit right up in the reds there. And all of a sudden you hear john john like during like practice all of a sudden it's like hi mr ballard tell those boys to work hard for you down there okay mr ballard there we go then then bro if it Brof would snap and we'd start doing sideboards for about 15 minutes. I mean, I knew nothing about it. Like the guy lived in the building? Like he was just around?

Yeah. Did you ever get up to that apartment? No, I did not. I wonder what it would be worth today. You could rent it for like. Oh, yeah. What a place. Loblaws owns it now. Lobby a what a place now it's aisle seven

what a place loved it there that was kind of when i got traded here from chicago obviously playing my hometown which was unbelievable but when i got traded here i kind of felt like there was less pressure here in toronto in 87 than i'd had when i was at home you know playing at home and obviously that was very unique of being a Chicago guy and playing for the Blackhawks but kind of for me in my career like if you just look at my numbers when I got to Toronto and I went to center which I had played pretty much my whole life until I got the Olympic team and my first three years in Chicago and I got to center. And just kind of took, I took advantage of the opportunity. Then you watched Mitch Marner break a record that you held with Daryl Sittler. Yeah.

33 or 34 years shared that record. Yeah. Thanks. 18 consecutive or? Yeah, 18. 18. 18 with a point. Yeah.

I had a chance. Once Mitch was getting close, I was able to make contact with him, and he was very gracious. And, you know, I mean, he wasn't born when I was playing, but, you know, I'm sure, you know, I understand his dad's a big Leaf fan and told him kind of what type of player I was and whatever. But, you know, just wished him luck all the way. And I had a chance the last time I was in town to finally see him face-to-face since he smashed a record.

And we had a great talk he's a he's a wonderful young kid and uh young man i guess i should say but um yeah i was proud i mean that was to share anything with daryl sittler like you can walk pretty proudly for a long time really cool um but i'm glad i'm glad mitch smashed it because if you would have been at 19 i I'd be a little pissed off. At least carry it on. Exactly. But yeah, it was fun. It was fun to kind of reminisce for all that time. And it was really fun that you came in.

That's it? That's it. We're getting kicked off. Are we? Yeah. Got to pay your salary, huh? Big plans for you tonight. What do you mean big plans?

I don't know. You're in Toronto. We've got lots of meetings. Right? You're in Toronto. Lots of meetings. Can you just're in Toronto. Lots of meetings. Can you just be honest with the people on YouTube? Is that what it is, YouTube?

Can you tell them who was supposed to be here, and then you called me out of the bullpen? What do you think? I'm the Terminator? Okay, we want Tom Hankey to come. You know who Tom Hankey is? The Terminator. Remember when he did the Aqua Velva commercials? Yes.

Looking good, Terminator. He had it going. Yeah. You are our Terminator. Listen, enjoy your dinner, your buffet at the Brass Rail tonight. Just relax, hang out. Why would you go there? Now why would you go there?

Why would you go there? Eddie Olchak, everybody. Thanks. Enjoy. We'll're back tomorrow.