Real Kyper & Bourne - From Upset to Upstart

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee open with the Leafs' Game 1 loss last night, Toronto's lack of finish, problems with the overaggressive defensive unit, the presence of Tkachuk, Keefe's lineup decisions, potential combinations for Game 2 and a throwback performance from Sergei Bobrovsky. Next, Bruce Boudreau joins the show (44:50) to share his expertise on moving on after an emotional series, coaching inconsistent players and balancing fire-power and depth in a postseason lineup. Later, Panthers analyst Bill Lindsay breaks down Bobrovsky's performance and if it's sustainable, Sam Bennett's growth this season and what Florida's turnaround moment was this season (1:06:41). To close, Kyper, Justin and Sam look at the postseason action around the league, Pavelski's 4-goal game, a closer look at the Vegas/Edmonton series and a post-mortem on the Rangers' first-round collapse.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

This is real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. You heard the man, livening color. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Derek Brandeo, David Siss-Boomba. And the man who I dare say it predicted the score 4-2 for the Florida Panthers, Sammy McKee. And I may or may not have meowed afterwards. A remarkably composed Sammy McKee through last night and today. He's unfazed.

He's been here before. He's a veteran. No, I think it's just uh a bad poker face he's that he's that duck that thinks he's calm cool and collected but paddling like hell underwater i actually agree with you now you won let me uh explain how i'm feeling by playing for you the other sammy in this city that's been uh that's been talked about a lot. Let's just listen to this, and this is exactly how I'm feeling. Like, go back home, you know, like, get some food and go to the sleep.

Tomorrow, sun is up again. Okay, tell the other Sammy to look out the window. I see no sun right now. He's just pouring and saying, oh, no. I see no sun right now. It's just pouring. It's like, oh no. I see wet and rainy. As an aside, boy, the weather's depressing for the last six days. Can we get the sun? I feel like I'm living in

Vancouver. Does it match game one for you? Yeah. I'd say so. A little more. I was going to say lightning, but that would be the previous round. But there's a lot more going on last night. There's a little energy in the building energy on the ice it felt good going in didn't it yeah it felt good going in i think part of it was the relief of not having the stakes as high in terms of they could get eliminated or they're gonna lose track of the series like

i'm gonna throw something at you before we get into the nuts and bolts of what we saw last night but i i think there's still a little bit of shock value for the players broadcasting us fans it's not boston that's a really good point watching and i'm kind of blown away that it's florida panthers versus i know the leafs and for whatever reason it's it's kind of a curveball on the energy it's a it's a change up you're expecting the high heat and now you're yeah tough to adjust your swing here and be like okay totally different team i could not agree i think it's a change up right now this series is a change up we were expecting the fastball and we were expecting coming out of tampa with all that high they were coming in as the underdogs in the second round right yeah nothing

to lose now that that energy is is not a bad energy yeah because it's working for florida the last four games you're so right he's heads in his hands already right now it's it's kind of screwy yeah no i agree screwy right now and it was screwy last night trying to recalibrate as the, you know. And it got screwier after they lost the first game. Now you're like, okay, like there should be overwhelming odds are in their favor. Vegas has them not to win this series, but to win the Stanley Cup. No longer the favorite, I might add. Oh, it changed?

Oh, yeah. One game. See ya. Oh, those sucks in Vegas. Stick with it. No, they went down to, I think Oilers are the prohibitive favorite now. And Panthers aren't far behind them. If you're looking to bet to win the Stanley Cup.

Yeah. I think the Leafs are plus 525 this morning and the Panthers are plus 575. Vegas is buying what thethers are plus 575. Vegas is buying what the cats are selling, fellas. Let them buy. Is there anything that you saw last night that suggested that the Leafs didn't adjust their energy for Florida? Yeah, they lost. That's a part of it.

But, you know, I hadn't thought of that theory until now. It certainly does change the way that you would attack a game a little bit. You know, they went through that first round, Kipper, as hang in there, right? Like, if you keep the game close against a good team, you got a chance late, you've got some game breakers. That was kind of the mojo. This Florida team, you know,

you then have to toggle it to take it to them. You're the team that, you know, I wrote my article today. I basically said they need to be the villain. They need to be Tampa Bay now, the bad guy who takes it to a team. That's not what they were expecting about to face the President's Trophy champions. So it is different. Yeah. It's a good call oh outside of uh the start which i think

looked good with two power play opportunities which could have really set the building up it they look good power plays are good outside of putting crossing the puck over the red line yeah it did everything pretty much it wanted to but no finish yeah and now it's been i don't think they scored a power play goal in three games something like that like it's you know you start to just it's not a problem yet the numbers are still good they scored a lot in the power play in the first round but certainly they need to score on those opportunities because Florida takes a lot of penalties. You want them to fear the idea of taking penalties.

What was your... I guess what's your takeaway from their performance last night? Aside from the energy thing, how did you think they played? How do you think Florida played? Yeah, Florida deserved the win. Florida, at the end of the day were uh the intensity was unmatched by toronto's toronto could have been in a situation where much like we saw in game three four and five versus tampa that they could have waited it out

and maybe with their game breakers that you just mentioned moments ago could have tied a game and maybe send it in overtime and even find a way to win. That didn't work out because of, I think, some glaring mistakes that this time of year you're not supposed to overcome. And for me, I know there's been a lot of talk about giordano and the tough playoff uh start to his postseason but tj brody and a dash three for jake mccabe was a major factor to shut down pair right and two glaring mistakes by

McCabe so the McCabe one on the rush the 3-2 goal I don't know where he's going why he's trying to be a part of that rush and diving in once again 2-2 okay you just had Matthew Nyes send like a shockwave into the building

to jack him up. Yeah. And then it's followed by Bunting. Then he rocks to Claire. And I sent you guys a note saying, I think the energy's down on Florida and the Leafs are moving now. They're trending upward. So for me, that was a good place to be for Toronto last night.

Yeah, for sure. And then McCabe goes and tries to what be the fourth man on an already ended three on two i don't know late yeah in the second dive in he tell you keith will tell you and then the next thing you know for hey he's on a on a breakaway yeah and three two you're in that you're in that dressing room going, okay, how did that happen? And I don't think they recovered. No, no, they weren't able to find a way. You know, the McCabe thing is interesting.

Their decor is probably something we should get into at some point. I don't know if we want to start with that. But, you know, Giordano, man, I don't know how many, because he's Giordano, how long you can kind of let it go on for, but really struggling for me. And this McCabe-Brody pair, that's supposed to be your best shutdown pair? I don't know, man.

You know, like McCabe makes a number of decisions that you don't love. He has all the tools, but sometimes... He gets beat too, which I don't like. Yeah. He's not conservative. On the first goal, he got beat. I think Cousins, him and Cousins went... Yes, he's not conservative on the first goal he got beat i think cousins him and cousins went yes he's got him tied up and then he spins around to get him and cousins got loose

yeah yeah i thought he was pretty good in the tampa series i thought he just kind of yeah i did too i thought nothing glaring though nothing glaring like we saw last night. I mean, this is a theory for me is that game just felt so much, like we've been talking about. I can't believe how much different that game felt. And I'm sure the players kind of felt the same way that it's, oh, this is wide open hockey now. I got to dive in here. I got to make a read and jump down to the hash marks for absolutely no reason.

I didn't score a goal here like it felt like the players didn't adjust to the difference in the series as quickly as they should have like i felt like mccabe was taking way more risks than he did even against tampa third period the the hard pinch on kachuk again i didn't hate the pinch down a goal you're but it's actually like the pinch. I didn't like the play. You're talking about the penalty he took before the six on five goal. Yeah.

That's what I call being horny for the hit. Yeah. Okay. And those type of things, there's such a fine line between them coming to you and you going to them and chuck's too low he's forcing it yeah he's down to the he's looking for something that isn't there and that's what led to the trip it was never set up that way and kachuk such a smart player and then the the domino effect that led to the montour goal and now you're out of the game yeah yeah you know again like i thought at the time i was like all right i don't mind him being down there and he just steps on a stick unlucky but you're right it is you know they're they're

gonna get chances against florida and there's probably no reason to force it like they did there you know i found in this playoffs so in this playoffs the uh the florida panthers lead the nhl so far in goals within five seconds of a turnover so basically you turn the puck over they had seven goals against boston that came within five seconds of a turnover that happened against verhege on the verhege goal for uh for night. You know, kind of turnover. They go the other way quick. This is going to be a series where you can't get to your point. Horny for the hit. Horny for offense.

You can't be. You kind of just have to stay patient and be the bad guy. Tampa Bay, you be the slog, slow it down team a little bit because you're going to get chances on them. If you get aggressive like that, you're going to trade them. You don't want to trade chances. See, to my point, it's easier to trade them. You don't want to trade chances. See, to my point,

it's easier to think that way of going against Tampa, right? But it wasn't when you're the favorite and, and these guys are the underdogs. You're the favorite. And I'm saying, be patient and slog it up. Why should I be patient for a team that's a wild card and we're,

we're so much better than them all year. Yeah. We're going after them. We're going gonna go be the aggressors but it didn't feel that way at all and that's tampa bay beating toronto last year to me by being having some humility and saying you know unfortunately the best way to beat florida is not to go go for go it's to be the stop team and because you know florida's gonna make some mistakes and give you chances all right in about 40 about 40 minutes, we're going to welcome in Bruce Gabby Boudreaux, former

NHL coach, of course, doing a good job with the NHL network as an analyst. We'll get his thoughts on coaching in this series. Sheldon Keep versus Paul Maurice. Some colorful quotes from Paul sliding right in to John Cooper's seat there, Sammy. New Coop just dropped. i just don't hate him i not yet i told you like even listen i've heard this guy talk a million times i understand who this guy is he's even whining about the refs last night i still don't hate him not yet i can't drum it up we're gonna work on that he bugs me i can't i would like him as a person in here as an analyst. That'd be great.

But he kind of bugs me with the post-game interview stuff. Anyway, he did 13 minutes post-game last night. All right. We'll jump into a little of that 13 minutes. In the second hour, Bill Lindsey, former NHLer, close to 800 games and Panthers color analyst. We'll get his thoughts on the momentum of Florida going into into game two can they take a two nothing seriously back to florida certainly can absolutely yeah they just have to win one more than that they have it all right all right i don't even want to go there right now what where do you uh where do you guys want to start we'll go to sheldon

keith because uh do the second one do florida and tampa yeah let's let's go to sheldon Keefe because... Do the second one. Do Florida and Tampa. Let's go to Sheldon Keefe on what he saw out of Florida and how it compares to the Tampa Bay Lightning. There's certainly a lot of similarities in terms of four-check pressure, track pressure. They play the same neutral zone four-check with a 1-1-3. But their pace is high. I would say it's a quicker

pace out there. They've got a lot of skill that executes at a high rate of speed. I would say that's the difference. And also, you can tell they've got a lot of confidence and they're feeling real good right now and playing real well.

And that's it, right? They're a quicker version of what tampa was i would say a more defensively flawed team that makes more mistakes but they're quicker is that where the the defense had trouble giordano especially for you yeah you know i didn't think that their d was bad last night outside of that like mckay made some mistakes geo still i'm really having a hard time you know watching him watching him struggle. But generally, I thought they handled it okay. They broke the puck out pretty well.

I don't know. You? Think speed was an issue? Listen, when I think about the alternatives of taking Gio out, I think I'm okay with him staying. I don't think it's, I don't know what his analytic numbers.

Not good. They're not good? Not good. Could you do a thing? They're not as bad as McCabe and Brody last night. No, but McCabe and Brody are playing Kachuk, and they're playing the good lines. Yeah, I get that.

Could you split up McCabe and Brody, have them both play the left side, and have Lilligren and Hall as right side guys with Gio out for a night. It would be a lot more realistic of an option for sure today. I just, you know, I don't love either of the potential pairs you could make there, but anyway. Okay, we mentioned for me McCabe's horrible decision to jump in on the rush late in the second period.

Let's get to Sheldon Keefe on mistakes that he saw throughout the night. I thought we made mistakes. No credit to Florida because of how they play. They force you to make mistakes. But I thought we made some mistakes here tonight that we didn't necessarily make in the last series. You know, we, you know, looking at the first goal, you know, we allow them on the inside and we don't get some pucks out early. Then we allow them on the inside.

The second goal, you know, we have some lack of communication on a loose puck and then we don't get a box out. And then we're fine. We come back in the game. We're in a good spot, you know. And then we give a breakaway to really the one guy we definitely do not want to give a breakaway to. We don't want to give it to anybody,

but certainly don't want to give it to that guy. That's a big part of the plan going in is how he can jump into those holes, and that's how he scores a lot of his goals, is getting in behind the fence. We cannot make that mistake. I mean, it's 2-2, end of the period. That's a tough one. Okay.

We're 16 minutes in. Let's get to the elephant in the room. Okay. Matthew Kachok. That's a large elephant. Not in terms of sheer size but effectiveness uh that's a hockey player okay okay he's an issue we got a problem team i said it yesterday on the show The overall draft picks in this series talk me into one. No. You know, they pasted him, too.

Shin pasted him. McCabe drilled him once. They put him on his back and still three assists all over the score sheet, all over the offensive zone. Yeah, that had some payback because he absolutely drilled Giordano. Oh, my. He hit him so hard. So hard.

His feet went up in the air. It was just such a. An Archie Comet fall. Sorry, Charlie Brown. After that hit, I just wish there was somebody to have a conversation with him just to kind of throw a little bit of that energy back. Yeah. And I know they weren't over the years built like that.

I think it's harder to do. There was massive hits all over the ice last night and no one had a conversation with anyone. Which, you know, I wonder if that is great for the Leafs, though. Like, you know, to be able to not have to get engaged in that stuff. Like, it felt like the galvanize them in round one, though, To be able to not have to get engaged in that stuff. I think it's great for Matthew Kachuk. It is. It galvanized them in round one, though, that they were not taking anything and a lot of that pushback.

I'm not saying they needed to fight anyone last night. I agree with you. But we saw them emotionally invested a lot more in Tampa in those situations than we saw last night yeah for sure for sure and that you know because of that and this is something people are probably tired of hearing me say but when the Leafs when can have it a little bit easier they're okay with it being easier and I thought this is my article today says that you know there's a Harvey Dent line that you either die a hero you live long enough to become the villain. They might have to be the team that takes it to them a bit, you know, physically too.

Like, you have to switch gears here, Kip, and I know it's not their default, but offensively taking it to the net rather than staying outside? That's like going to Broadway without a rehearsal. Well, it's not that... I don't mean they need to do that physically, like in fighting, after the whistles, whatever. They need to take the puck to the net. They need to defend the physically, like in fighting, after the whistles, whatever. They need to take the puck to the net.

They need to defend the front of their net. They need to take some initiative on, you know, they're not going to be content being along the outside where it's easier. And it looked like that to me last night. Let's go to Sheldon Keefe on the challenges of the Matthew Kachuk line. I thought we did a lot better once I made the changes to our lines. You know, in the first period, certainly in the back half of the period. I guess with that line, I would say throughout the whole period,

they were taking it to us pretty good, so we had to make some changes. Okay, that's twice I heard him say changes. Once I made the changes. The change that he's talking about is sending out Tavares, Yonkrok, and Marner at the start of the game. That's not the change. No. What change? The change is in the second period when he went to Matthews, Marner, and Nyes. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. But why are you sending out Tavares, Yarncroft, and Marner against Kachuk's line?

Who is going to physically challenge Kachuk and Bennett? Yarncroft? John Tavares? Yeah. If you go to... Yeah. Marner's... When Marner's out there with Tavares, he. If you go to... Marner... Yeah. Marner's... When Marner's out there with Tavares,

he's chasing the puck. He doesn't have it. Marner was not very good last night, but Marner hardly touched the puck in my estimation. He was... He didn't have a good game. He wasn't a factor. He didn't have the puck.

Yeah. And you know what, Kip? I think if... You're so right if you went through the leafs four lines that might have been the worst you could have done to start the game like you're better with matthews you're better with camp as far as better with o'reilly any of those options as far as i'm concerned sheldon spotted them one nothing yeah with that line well and they spent that chuckachuk line spent almost three

minutes against the fourth line in the first period on which is you know really a poor job like i'm watching you're at home like yeah tavars can't challenge me physically yarn craw can't and marner can't i'm licking my chops like i'm wiley coyote yeah chasing the roadrunner if i'm matthew kachuk for the love of god can we just put the best players on the ice to start some of these hockey games if even if you're not going to play a marner matthews line can you put them both out on the first shift or something like instead of trying to answer the other team i don't know a lot go be the aggressor for a night here they've started all seven playoff games so far how many different line combinations you think we saw out of the leafs last night i don't know whatever the infinite

monkeys and infinite typewriters many could create different ones it was yeah pretty randomized a little early for me in the series to be doing that yeah like i didn't see a lot of lines throughout the first round jumping all over the place teams are teams should be set right now for the most part at home to me you just got to put Matthews and Marner together and play them against Kachuk. That's not the problem, Sammy. The problem is he doesn't know what to do with John Tavares and who to have with John.

That's the problem. Yeah, you know, they're trying to protect him defensively with Marner and Yarncroft because they're good defensive wingers. That's great. But you know what that does to Marner? Yeah. It shuts him down. Makes him a non-offensive factor.

Yeah. So what do you do for game two? What do you want to see? Well, you have to play with John Tavares as someone who can finish if he gets an opportunity. He has to play on a top line. I don't think you can cut your line down to a two-line team. You know, like I think Ryan O'Reilly in the third line is key for them.

That makes John key in the two-hole, but he's having troubles outside of a power play situation or on offensive zone face-off when get into the within six feet of the blue paint and as much as you know i know you hate hearing it like marner is the guy who's probably best to give him a chance to play in the ozone maybe they just need someone else other than yarn crock who's also good can you do mitch john and willie i'll put willie in the press box as far as i'm concerned we can get to that... No, let's get to it now. Because if we're going to talk about John and Willie,

two-thirds of what should be your second line, there's some issues going on there. Are there not? Yeah. You showed me something before I went to air, which I didn't really truly focus on or isolate on. And that was Willie nylander on the delayed penalty that mccabe took uh that led to the the montour goal yeah he's standing upright

like he's getting measured for the program you know like full no knee bend not you know into his guy not trying to clear him out of the shooting lane just standing upright like he's not even in a game let alone a playoff game it goes on for 30 seconds and wouldn't you know it the guy who's standing on top of the goaltender who samsonov is rushing out to do god knows what with is only there because willie's permitted him to be there they score it's four two see you later but that's one moment so i So I tweeted that, and I already have people being like, the Nylander bashing me in this city. They don't appreciate him, whatever.

Score 40. Love him. Defend him all the time. But you can't watch this Leafs team play and tell me he's not a liability defensively sometimes. And so when you're not getting it on the offensive side of the puck, what are you getting? It's the tentativeness offensively, which is terrifying to me.

We talk about that play where he goes down, and I don't know who blew a shoe. Five minutes into the second, he walks out of the corner on a defender falling. And he doesn't even peek at the net. He doesn't even look. And they end up scoring right after that. I thought on that play I was watching planes, trains, and automobile

with John Candy going down the highway the wrong way and people screaming, Willie, you're going the wrong way. Yeah. He had a clear lane yeah to the net and he i can't believe a 40 goal score did not the way he cuts on his skate i know he would have been there in a split second and it's not even you know we all have brain farts as players so fine but it's indicative of a mindset that he's not challenging to the net to me you're going to the net until someone stops

you at all times and there was other net drives where instead of sticking out a leg and cutting in he just takes it behind the net circles a bit so he had the puck a lot and he skated a lot and i know some people thought he played well last night i i have a dozen clips of him disengaged not challenging in it's a that was a terrible William Nylander performance last night. The puck bouncing off of him, like when he's going, like can't receive a pass. There's multiple times where it hit him in the skate, hits him in the stick.

He's got one hand on the stick. It bounces off. He's an elite player, 40-goal score. Expectations are high. Felt like he slept through that game. In the first game of the second round. Right. What's getting clear is how important Matthew Nyes all of a sudden is to this lineup.

It's unbelievable. He got hit pretty hard. Now it's just like, oh, God, if he's hurt, you know, like he's essential. So dynamic. The one thing that I've talked throughout the year is how weak the left side has been for the Leafs. Two good left wingers right now. Matthew Nyes is your best left winger. He's better than Bunting right now?

No question. Really? You have one spot and you need a goal under a minute? Yeah. You're giving it to Matthew Nyes. You are not sending Michael Bunting out there. And I didn't mind Michael Bunting. No, Bunting's been very good to me. I actually think he deserves more.

He didn't even play 15 minutes last night. Great. But he physically cannot do what Matthew Nyes is doing right now. And you're talking about a lineup that's supposed to be challenged for Stanley Cup. How does a college kid come out of four regular season games at the end of the year and become your number one left winger to try to go win a Stanley Cup? How does that happen? Is your point he's good or the team's bad?

I mean, he's a elite player. I'm telling you both. Both. It's not the way it should be built. And I can appreciate what he's been able to do right now, but the ask will get bigger and bigger. And at the end of the day, I don't think it's fair on Matthew Nyes

or it's fair to a lot of Leaf fans right now that you're asking this kid to run shotgun with $22 dollars in your lineup i don't know i don't care for this argument at all i think eventually it's not gonna work that's my point he's gonna wear out oh not wear out just get get to the point where it's you've pushed your luck okay this is not the there's a process for college kids. Marner was a fourth pick overall. They sent him back to junior.

They put him on the fourth line his first year. He couldn't get off the fourth line. Nize is 22 and 6'3". It's not apples to apples. They're top prospects. It is apples to apples. You're not supposed to do this to the kid ask them to be a star and help you win a stanley cup now hey listen you have no choice

i get that right but i i think it's gonna catch up to them that's my point i mean i just think every top team going for the cup right now if you look at their lineup there's gonna be a spot you go they're weak here they're weak here you could pick a spot you'd be like i don't know left wing you know you don't want it to be center you don't want it to be d you don't want to be goaltending you just can't be awesome everywhere in the cap era i don't hate nye's bunting in there but yeah it's not a strength of the team i think i think game two i want to see bunting back with matthews and marner you do yeah yeah and that's he's had a lot of pop and that's nice being that good that i need to i need to start fixing a little bit more behind those two guys you know it was a great line was nice o'reilly achari no i was just going to

say that exact same thing that that they had success early in the Tampa series with Nize, O'Reilly, and O'Chary together. And I don't think that up front, the Panthers are nearly as deep as Tampa is. And you might get some really favorable matchups with that lineup and have kind of spread out the offense with your team. The problem here, though, is that that leaves you, like if you do Marner and Tavares,

you know, like you don't want Yarncroft to be there. You know, you want Nyes there. Maybe it's time to bring the band back together. Get Nylander, Tavares, and Kerfoot back together. Get the band back together. Yeah, maybe. Maybe it is. Flex Seal. Flex Seal.

We need a moment out of Flex seal and stop leaks fast oh flexi playing on the fourth line running into people that guy'll do whatever you ask him to he played 10 minutes last night old flex seal yeah and uh aston reese played six yeah so we're gonna get sam lafferty next game one,000%. Who comes out? Aston Reese, probably. Yeah, Aston Reese at six minutes is probably your guy. All right. Bobrovsky.

Yeah. Yeah, like, I found myself longing for Andre Vasileski, fellas. Ouch. He was good last night. Those two blocker saves he made on matthews are 100 goals on vasilevsky like no question they were beating him like a red mule right there the whole the whole series from that spot yeah yeah you know the leaky goals did not exist last night bob is scary in one way He is capable of doing big things. He's athletic as heck, and he's had stretches.

He was on the Columbus team that upset Tampa Bay the year Tampa won the President's Trophy. Oh, was he? Yeah. I still wouldn't put any money on him. No, I don't either. I don't think he's good. He's scary. The save he makes on the bunting to Nylander, kind of 2-on-0.

Yeah. Wait longer, though. Great save. I know, Bunty. Give it to him right away let willie just catch it and shoot it in he waited until there was no possible chance he was shooting yeah like that's a like i mean it's not an easy save no but it was passing for sure i i just thought that he was a if i'm gonna power rank the reasons they won that game last night the panthers i'll say matthew kachuk one uh maybe jake mccabe two and three sergey bobrowski yeah maybe even put him number two and sammy wasn't horrible but he was great up until the fourth goal for me but hated the fourth goal yeah i hated it too but yeah no it's a bot yeah but he made big saves at the end of the first period to

keep it close you know i thought he he did his part gave a lot of up arrows in my old book when i was watching the game so okay let's go to sheldon keith on goalie bob i mean getting more in front of him perhaps you know probably one of the big differences in our scoring chances that we had here tonight whether you look at the power play chances or or the uh five on five chances six on five chances that we had a lot more tonight and closer to the net than we've had maybe in the previous series and uh you know we just got to make good on those i mean there's a lot of stuff in tight you know we we just got to get it up or or finish it and we had a couple tap-ins at six on five you know that that's a good example of what i'm talking about where we got to finish those you know that's yeah that's those are lateral plays which is a real strength of boborowski but

you know there's some tap-ins there we're kind of shooting it back through them versus you know putting it to the empty side so those are the kind of things where we were a little off offensively. Austin had some really good looks in the second period, you know, and he threw in the power play and didn't fall. Those are the kind of things I think if we stay with it, they'll go in for us. All right. I waited about 35 minutes.

I can't wait any longer. Paul Maurice on goalie Bob. Almost. Well, the back half of that game, he was brilliant. And we required him to be. There you go. And then he went into like. It's a good push from the Leafs.

And then he went into legitimately a minute and a half long diatribe about him pulling Lyon in the moment that he did it. And Bobrovsky, like. It's bad talks. Yeah. That's good. What did you. a minute and a half long diatribe about him pulling Lion in the moment that he did it and Bobrowski. It's made of talks. That's good. We got a few Paul Maurice's. Which one did you like best? The Kachuk, the officiating. Which one do you like? I think the overview of the game

is the one that you really like. I thought we were good tonight. I didn't think we were great. I thought we went from such an extreme series in terms of physicality. I would say it was under physical from what we were used to. But then they had a good push back halfway through the game. We kind of got a little bit away from what we're good at,

and they got closer to what they're really, really good at. And that'll be the battle of this series, right? Both teams have something they're really good at. You can expect a certain amount of forecheck and physicality from us. You will expect a certain amount of speed and skill from them for sure. And then one team will feed the other. I sure. And then one team will feed the other. I like the line that one team that brings the least amount of food to the game wins.

Don't don't pack a lunch. That's just not right though. Like he's really trying to drum up this narrative that the Leafs are still like the soft Leafs. Yeah. Right. That's apparent with the speed and the skill part.

That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to keep that narrative out there, which is just not the case. The Leafs are a top defensive team by any measure. They're top five in goals against, expected goals against. They can defend. I just think that

the Leafs playing that physical game, it's still kind of new to them with the new additions. And we're talking about six, seven guys, you know, on that roster now. Florida is probably a lot more comfortable playing a physical game than the leafs still are yeah i didn't think it was a shortage of physical play from the least last night in terms of hits but maybe in terms of challenging the timing of hits when to do it when not to do it that's all and that to me speaks of mccabe too as well yep i can see that

the matthew kachuk factor do you want to hear maurice weigh in on his uh yeah is he is he gonna drool are we gonna hear the drool coming down his face or it's really insightful and thoughtful it's a good clip okay we should listen to it. There's been a maturation in his game. And we would say, we took a bunch of penalties tonight. We took a lot of penalties the first half of the year. And then he disappeared from that. He had two games where we were 17 minutes. But that's what happened in the game.

It was, things blew up. But then he had two games where I think he has two minors in there. But in the back half of our season, he stayed out of the penalty box and understood that he could drive play and drive physicality. Sam Bennett is almost a more physical player than he is. Sam

collides at a high rate of speed. Matthew's physical because he's around the puck and he kind of bumps and hits and he's heavy. But I think he realized how important he was just on the ice for our team in play. So he stayed out of... His reputation doesn't match his last January 1st on, his last 40 games.

His games have just been pure production and compete. And that coincides with probably the last time he got suspended right around Christmas. Yeah, he got to stick into John Quick's mask, right? Two games and then after that

it was like a light switch went off and he became the MVP of the league in the back half of the season. I had him on my Hart Trophy ballot. That's how good his season was. Top three? No? He saved their season.

I genuinely don't know. I don't remember, but I know he's on it. I'd have to check that. I'm just looking through his game logs. A lot of zeros in the penalty minute category. Like you said, 17 versus Ottawa when things got a little crazy. Yeah, you're going to have a couple games where things blow up. Yeah, but a lot of zeros after January.

He's got some sweet hands too. And they are so underrated. Let me ask you this. There's Pat Kane. There's Marner. There's Connor. But you don't put Matthew Kachuk into that. He scored a one-timer through his legs from the hash marks in overtime.

You should. If you really look at the way he handles the puck in tight situations it's remarkable yeah and on that first goal the nick cousins just watch him walk mitch marner like the cutting under move and then get to get the puck to the net. And have the patience and the hands to do that. He's still underrated. There's a play off the half boards late in the third period where the puck kind of like came off the wall. And he had his back to it.

And he kind of pulled the puck like with one hand. Matthews has done that a couple times too. He missed by a foot. I was like, oh, my God. How did he do that? Like he's really sneaky. Do you think the best way to get to calm him down, to minimize him, is more physical engagement or less?

No, no, it won't work with him. Let sleeping dogs lie. He ain't sleeping. He's relentless. Well, then you got to pick a path, coach. Yeah, I'm putting Matthews against him. And I'm betting on Matthews having the puck more than him. That's my defense against him.

You just hope you're in the other end. 100%. I couldn't agree more. There's your best bet. Yeah, you don't want to go at him, get him fired up and engaged. Good luck. He drew two penalties last night, on top of taking you up yeah he was good he was concerning okay sammy yep so uh it's time for playoff picks presented by bet365

visit the app for the latest odds so there's a few series getting underway tonight uh edmonton and uh they're playing vegas and you know, they're going into Vegas for this game tonight. And there's this thing they posted on Bet365 called Game and Series Double. So what that means is you can bet on certain games in the series and the result of the series. So, for example, tonight you can bet on Edmonton to lose game one and win the series at 6-1. So, to me, this is a classic spot going in there you know maybe skinner's stick breaks again or something weird happens

and they lose this game but they still win the series so i thought that was a good sort of value play if you're looking to bet i like that um oh yeah just looking at that series like i think really a fun series ahead just in terms of the way they played. Vegas has awesome decor. Edmonton's got all that offense. That's a good series. And the next one I got for you is Dallas and Carolina getting underway tonight. No.

No, not Devils and Carolina. Devils. Sorry, I wrote down Devils. Yeah, okay. Devils and Carolina getting underway tonight. Sebastian Ajo to be plus 350 350 so three and a half to one to be the leading scorer in that series he's been dynamite he's their best player he's gonna play a lot yeah and you know they're obviously some great guys on the devil's side of it

he uses the favorite to lead the series but Carolina is gonna win that series they're gonna need Sebastian Ajo to score a lot so I I thought that was an interesting one. And Carolina also a slight underdog to win that series despite having home ice advantage. Plus 115, so plus money on Carolina who they defend well still. You know, they're still dangerous. They're well coached. So I thought that was an interesting one. I like the Devils.

I just think that Carolina is running out of bodies. Good bodies too. Yeah running out of bodies. Good bodies, too. Yeah, really key bodies. And the ability now for New Jersey to go Lou Lamborello and win games 2-1, that's a nice look this time of year when you're supposed to be a rush team. You just need that Schmid to hold up, Akira Schmid, and good to go. For the devil! The devil!

To get Carolina as a dog is just somewhat interesting. That is tempting. Gun to my head, I do think the speed of the Devils, and not to look too far ahead since the Leafs are down, that's a terrifying matchup for the Leafs. If they ever got there against them, they fly around. Two good but very different teams in that series Caroline a lot more like Tampa so that was playoff picks presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds fellas okay we're going to take a break here but uh Bruce Boudreaux's on the other side former NHL coach

NHL network analyst we'll get his thoughts on various coaches, including Paul Maurice and Sheldon Keefe, and shutting down Matthew Kachuk. We're glad you're aboard. If you like what you hear, like what you see, give us a thumbs up and maybe even visit the rating and reviews. We'd love to hear from you. Real Kipperenborn, back after these words. Smart takes on the biggest stories in sports.

The Fan Drive Time with Ben Ennis. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. Nick Kiprio, Justin Bourne. Let's welcome in Bruce Gabby Boudreaux to the show. Gabby, how are you, man? You catch your breath after the first round?

Oh, yeah. It was good, though. Haven't seen a first round like that, I think, in a while. So it was pretty cool. When you come off an emotional series like that, as a coach, if we're talking about Florida or even Toronto, to a certain degree, they didn't need to go to the seventh and deciding game. But do coaches worry about energy,

emotion, a letdown? I think it's natural to worry about it. But, I mean, and we probably overthink it. I can tell you this. We played the Rangers one year, and we beat them in five games. And Pittsburgh was playing Tampa. And Tampa ended up coming back from 3-1 in seven games. They beat Pittsburgh.

And we had the choice to play the day after or two days after. And I know we chose to play the day after or two days after. And I know we chose to play the day after because we thought they'd be tired and the emotion of the game before, they wouldn't have get going quickly. And they came in and they beat us because they were still in the mode of a game seven. They were still in that way. And so, I mean, I've changed my mind that I want them to wait to start to relax a little bit. And Florida, you could tell, they just come off a great series beating Boston, and they were playing the exact same way.

But I was thinking like everybody else probably, oh, they're going to come into toronto they have had no break and and they're not going to get up to that same uh momentum or that same mental approach but they did they were playing the same way as they did against boston bruce you've coached some great players and i'd love to get your take on something so i've been a little hard on kneelander uh in column and in audio form today just for some of the defensive efforts at times that he's given over this series cost him a few goals. What do you do with a guy who is so exceptional offensively, but you can't always get their best in the defensive side of the puck?

I have a hunch you've coached one or two before. What are your thoughts on players like that? Well, it's a tough thing. But, I mean, I've been listening ever since Neal Anderson with the Leafs. Like, I mean, he goes through these things where everybody says, oh, he's overrated, get rid of him. And then the next thing you know, he plays great and he wins games and series for you. So, I mean, the thing is you always hope the good outweighs the bad.

We never say to the defensive-minded players, well, how come they can't score? We only say for the very talented offensive guys, well, they've got to play better defense. Yeah, we'd all love everybody to be a 200-foot player, but if his good is outweighing his bad, you've got to sort of live with it, I think. I mean, because he is what he is. I mean, and he's going to have defensive lapses,

and he's going to look for the offensive cheating mode all the time. But when you need a goal for the most times, and he's got the puck, he's always a threat. So, I mean, you can admonish himish him but i mean he is who he is to me as far as a seven game series and we know how quickly a seven game series becomes a two out of three series and it becomes a winner take all series does it escalate a coach on the sense of urgency to go to players like willie Nylander or Ovechkin and say, we need more and, you know, demand it almost because you know that you're,

you may be running out of time. How do you handle that? Well, I mean, I think the one thing the coaches know is they know the players better than anybody. And again again they all know um i mean our job quite frankly is to find the achilles heel and on the player and use it against them i mean uh i don't think if for example uh on willie uh you might sit there and

you and he found it a lot earlier you might might admonish him in front of players. You might bench him. You might give him more ice time. You might pat him on the back. With me, with him, I think he's a sensitive guy. I've known him for a long time since his dad played with me in Washington. But, I mean, you'd have to put your arm around him and say, hey, Willie, we need more from you.

We just need – I'm counting on you. We need you to play. And, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if that's the approach to them, but that's the approach I took out with certain individuals. I'll give you a Mike Green thing. Like, the first time I had Mike Green and he was screwing up defensively, I came in and I just started reaming at him on the bench,

and it got nowhere. He went into a shell and he was terrible. And I found out I'd have to come on the bench if he wasn't doing good and whisper in his ear saying, Mike, I need you right now. Come on, you've got to be better. And that would pick him up. He wouldn't feel embarrassed, and he'd go out and he'd play a lot better. So I think the coach finds what buttons to push, I guess,

and he uses that against him to make him better. And I'm sure Sheldon knows him as well as anybody, and he's going to be doing the same thing. Ovi at all? Kick his ass at all? Well, Ovi, I would always make him the, he would be the star of the video. But you know what I would do is I'd tell Alex, I says, Alex, you're the captain.

You're going to be the star of the video. And I tell him beforehand, so just put up with it because if I can give you crap and I can show that you're screwing up, then nobody else can complain about it. And he was always okay with it. He knew. He didn't like no stars like being embarrassed. So you've got to find the right way to approach these guys

to make them do what you want them to do. So all that time I thought Keenan was giving it to Brian Leach and Mark Messier was a setup for guys like me. Keenan was a different animal. You well know. I don't think there's anybody like him. So one of the things that we talked about before you were on was how you would approach a guy like Matthew Kachuk on the other side who is so good, likes the physical stuff.

You know, in order to shut a guy down like that, would you want your team to ramp it up in terms of physicality and intensity? Do you sag off him and just kind of let him be? What's the best way to approach shutting down a guy in a line as good as Kachuk's line right now? Well, I'll bet you if you ask Nick, you know, I mean, when he played, he loved it when guys were coming after him, got him into the game. I think that's what Matthew is. If you leave him alone, we used to say that to all the big stars. I mean, when I was growing up, just leave Frank Mahavlou alone. Just leave these guys alone.

Let them sleep. But, I mean, the more you antagonize him, the better he plays, I think. I mean, and again, some of the guys, you know, may not be as physical as him. He loves that physical encounter. I can tell you that right now. And, I mean, that's why I think Shen would be a great guy, was always a great guy with me to play against him, because he loves it too.

And they'd have some great encounters. But, I mean, you don't want to, you know, if you've got a checking center or a checking winger like Marner, you don't want Marner going after hitting Kachuk all the time. That's in Kachuk's wheelhouse. It's not in Mitch's. So, I mean, you take different approaches. But, I mean, I guarantee you Matthew just loves the attention

when everybody's running him because that's when he plays better. You know, if we go back to the last regular season game that the Florida Panthers had here in Toronto at Scotiabank Arena, there's a very now famous reaming of his hockey team on the bench by Paul Maurice. And I got to be honest with you, Gabby. Excuse me. I'm not sure I would have believed that that stuff still works in the year 2023 with some of these kids.

It would have scared the heebie-jeebies out of me, but did it? Was that the defying moment other than Keith Kachuk, Matthew's dad, calling them soft? Well, I mean,

that game, I mean, it was pretty well do or die. They had to lost that game. You know, I think that was the start of their six-game run. I mean, they probably wouldn't have made the playoffs. But I think it works. It's like a parent. Like, I mean, it'll work if you don't do it all the time.

If it's a once-in-a in a blue moon thing, I think it catches everybody's attention. But it's like if you're a parent and you, you know, punish your son for not cleaning up his room every single day and all of a sudden he's going to go, well, what the hell? I'm going to get yelled at anyway. So just leave it alone., I mean, if it's something that's new and startling, I mean, it catches your attention. I mean, I think with Kachuk's dad, when he said it, I mean, that caught their attention because he's, you know, such a well-known player.

When Paul did it, I don't know what he's like behind closed doors and in the the thing but it looked like he was he was you know having a meltdown but it caught their attention and and it worked but i mean if he did it every night they would just close their ears and say oh here he goes again but he doesn't do that every night so for this leafs team to you know get at this florida panthers team where do you stand on loading up top line like having a matthews and marner play together versus trying to provide some depth throughout their lineup well to me um they now know what florida is all about i mean they'll go they'll be better tomorrow and but if they lost tomorrow, then I'd be thinking of making some changes

in the lineup, in the line combinations and that. But, I mean, to me, you go at it tomorrow and say, okay, we've seen them game one. This is what they did against Tampa. Then they come out. Now they know what they're up against, and they play accordingly. And I think they'll be much better tomorrow at the beginning anyway so gabby was your equivalent to matthews and marner backstrom and ovechkin how many uh struggles did you have where you're like i got

to split them apart i got to keep them together uh listen i've been around the game long enough to understand that uh if Ovi wants Backstrom, Ovi gets Backstrom. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but sometimes Backstrom didn't want Ovi. Noted. You know, I'm serious. I mean, we were really lucky back in the days when I had them.

I also had Federov, which was another Russian. So, I mean, if Nicky and Alex were going stale, I would just put Federov there for a couple days and then put Nick with Semon. And it was very interchangeable, very easy. But there would be days where I could tell when I'm talking in the room that Nicky needed a break from Alex, you know, because he wasn't the greatest back checker of all time. And Nicky would get a couple days off and then he'd come back and they'd want to be together because there's such a lethal combination when they are together.

Yeah, no, that's fun, you know, figuring out the personalities and there are some other dynamics at play behind the scenes. I'll leave you with one more for me here, Bruce, just as you get your thoughts on this series and where it's headed. You know, do you like what the Florida Panthers have going here in terms of mojo or do you still think the Leafs are going to find their way through well i still believe in the leafs i mean it's i think it's going to be i think they you know i mean we all read um everything that's going on they won the first round all that but i mean then they're then they're uh chosen to be the stanley cup

favorites to win excuse me win the Cup and all of that. I think they've just been brought down to earth a little bit. And I think they'll be much better than in the rest of the series. Let's not forget, everybody says it was a Boston collapse. Florida had to play pretty damn good to beat Boston three times in a row. So they're no slouch. They're going to be a really tough out, but I think Toronto now knows what it's up against,

and I think they will play accordingly starting tomorrow night. I think you'll see a better Leaf team all around, not just waiting for the last five minutes to turn it on and everything like that and have their spurts. I think for 60 minutes, they'll be a better team tomorrow. Just one more for me, and that's just this in vogue big defenseman out there. And I'm watching Mark Stahl, 20 minutes last night, and a lot of people, including me, thought it's over. And just in terms of big and strong on the blue lines,

coming back in, Bruce. And you saw probably Mark Stahl an awful lot in your career. Well, you know what? I mean, I'm finding it incredible, not just Mark Stahl, but I mean, how many players in the league are having a renaissance in these playoffs? Like, I mean, almost every player on Seattle, except for Matty Beneers, was a guy that,

eh, he was okay in St. Louis for Schwartz and that, but they're going unbelievable. I had Ryan Donato, and he was a good average player, but now he's looking like a star. Mark Stahl, Eric Stahl was done two years ago, and he's playing, he's skating so much better than he did. He didn't even play in the NHL last year. I mean, so, I mean, a lot of these guys,

I don't know if it's they're thinking, okay, it's my last kick at the can, or I don't know if it's they're saying, if they're just gotten in better shape as the years gone by. But I think Mark Stahl has been a great shutdown guy. And, I mean, if you notice around the league, I mean, Mark Stahl playing with Montour, Luke Shen playing with O'Reilly, you're getting the stay-at-home guy and allowing the guy that can offensive-minded d that can really

move and there's and that's just two cases right there you've got ryan suiter with heskin and heiskin and you you've got them all over the the league now is where that really good offensive player is playing with a really good sort of stay at home uh you know don't worry about what you're doing i'll be here to protect you type of player these stanley cup playoffs have turned into maybe the best men's league in the world right now oh yeah and you know what every five or ten years this is what happened in a weird year hey gabby really appreciate your time man thanks for doing this all righty we'll talk to you later. Come back soon.

Thanks, Gabby. He's hilarious. He is hilarious. Can you imagine if the conference finals are Florida, Carolina, Seattle, Edmonton? Something like what the networks will feel about that okay i mean i'm at that i'm at that point after since what 1993 just give me any canadian team first of all i don't care i don't care about sure any canadian team would help us for sure i'm with you right yeah that would be nice so he the way he was talking about that with uh chuck in terms terms of, you know, don't start him.

The number one guy that reminds him of is a Ginla. Yeah, don't engage him. Remember when a Ginla would get pissed off and he would just be like the biggest force. Like you fight him and he's just like all of a sudden takes over the game. Kachuk has a little of that in him. Even with the trades at the deadline, there really isn't a guy that is gonna go and challenge

him or go toe-to-toe fight wise just presence yeah not fighting just presence luke shen would be the closest you think but outside of that it's not like're going to go challenge him one-on-one. Yeah, you don't think McCabe or Achari would? I don't know if they're... First of all, Achari's a fourth-line guy. Yeah. Okay, so that's not... We're talking about a top three guy.

Right. At the minimum, I would expect a top six guy to go head-to-head against him. There's no one out there. And even Shen, I mean, he's not going to be on the ice every time he's on the ice. The one thing I will... You really are, by default,

into a just leave him alone and hope you play in the other end of the ice. Well, and part of that, Kip, is it shouldn't be that impossible to play with that line. Nick Cousins is Nick Cousins. Let's not pretend that he's not. You know, you don't talk about a spot on a top line where you're like,

eh. And like Sam Bennett's a good player. He hits like a truck. He hits like a truck. He's effective. But he's not a 100-point guy. He's not. He's truck. He's effective. But he's not a 100-point guy. He's not. He's not a 90-point guy. He's not an 80-point guy. He is fearless.

Yes, he's a good player. Very good player. I think he strikes fear. He wants to hurt you when he hits. Sure. And we saw that on his first penalty. He left his feet, right? I thought that was a very worthwhile two minutes to take if you're him. First couple shifts right across from the Leafs bench.

Have a look at this. But if you're down 1-0, it's not a good penalty 200 feet away. Right. That's just one of those gambled. I just don't think that line is that loaded. But early, like, I don't know if you remember this, but a couple of shifts later when Kampf was on again, he bailed on a puck. Yes.

And it's like it was down below. I know the exact play. Right below his own net, and he bailed on yes and it's like it was down below i know the exact play right below his own net and he bailed on a puck he was hearing footsteps again steps yeah because uh bennett rocked him yeah like that was a i don't want to feel that he was done after that yeah hemp was done come out of the game yeah right like that bennett worthwhile two minutes for sure but it's a different element than a guy who's going to put it through your triangle and you know like yeah do something nasty so to your point it's not impossible to play in their end you know like a chuck is a winger and you know there he only has limited say over what happens with the play so you should be able

to play hockey against that line shouldn't i think they had 75 of the shot attempts when those guys were on the ice i don't think they have any choice. You're not going to go and confront him because we know he feeds off of that. As Paul Maurice said, you're feeding the beast. Okay, let's take a quick break. We got Bill Lindsey coming up,

former NHLer, does terrific work on Panthers television. We'll get his thoughts on the potential of maybe Florida feeling like, hey, do nothing. When's the game again? Tomorrow. June.

Next week. June. Next Sunday. But they play Thursday. They play Thursday. And then they have a week off. Sammy's going to feel good after a 1-1 split. Yeah, I'd be fine.

Honestly, like, you know, this is crazy. I would not be panicking down to nothing. Leafs can beat this team. He's right. Listen, I'm the one that said all along that there's no reason why the Leafs should not close this thing out in five or six games. I could see a gentleman sweep, too, where the Leafs win four in a row. I could see them win a couple.

Can you see them coming back from 3-0? Leafs? Maybe. Oh, you're feeling good then. Well, yeah. We talked about it yesterday but there's just such a... It's not a huge feeling of dread now. Good. So there you go. Alright. We'll get Bill Lindsey on

to get his thoughts on where this series goes after the break. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Real Kipper and Bourne. Everything you need to know about the Blue Jays, Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Bourne on sportsnet 590 the van it's an update today between the florida panthers and toronto maple leafs as they get set

for game two thursday night in their second round let's welcome in Bill Lindsey now, former NHL-er, current analyst for the Florida Panthers. Bill, thanks for joining us, man. How are you? Yeah, everything's going okay. How are you guys doing? Yeah, we're good. You know, trying to make it, sort it all out after game one.

Just your initial thoughts. Did you anticipate a seamless transition from Boston to Toronto? Or, like me, were you expecting maybe a little bit of a letdown? I was expecting, after a hard series like that, and after Game 7, that there could be a drop-off. It was such an emotional win. You were such an underdog. You polish off Boston. You get one day of rest, and then you have to gear it right back up against Toronto.

But it should be no surprise. It's Kachuk that's leading this thing. He just seems to never quit. He's got an engine. In that first period, Kachuk was everywhere and just kind of set the tempo of the game. And everyone says he drags everyone into the fight. Well, there was no better example than that first period of that game against Toronto. He was hit or being hit, one or the other, sort of involved in everything.

And he just sets the tempo for this whole team. And they got off, got those quick couple of penalty kills, and the emotion was there, which was a bit surprising. But the way this team had to claw and fight down the stretch for everything just to get into the playoffs, that first round against Boston, they're just kind of used to being in these types of situations. And, yeah, they've been at it for a while here in terms of playing super meaningful hockey. I guess part of the reason things have turned so positively is they've got a for a while here in terms of playing super meaningful hockey i guess

part of the reason things have turned so positively is they've got a lot of saves right like it was alex lying down the stretch and then eventually bobrovsky uh very good for them last night uh what are your thoughts on on bobrovsky's play and just you know what can he do this is he the type of guy that can get hot for a long enough stretch for them to go deep yeah i believe we can if you watch the panthers play in the big adjustment that i saw especially when alice lion came in and was able to do what he did but you have to give credit to what's happening front if you pay attention to where the panthers play now with the heavy four checking and what's really changed the last 15 games of the regular season and into this postseason is odd man rushes against

and just glaring opportunities, the three-on-twos, the two-on-ones, breakaways. They're hard to come by. You put a goaltender in that position, you ask him to make the first save, get the rebound out, just clear it out, then your goaltender, whoever it is, is going to have a really good

chance at success. Bobrovsky will be tested. They will give up shots at certain points, and Bobrovsky is more than capable of doing that. And his confidence with the three weeks off, he's got rest. He's fresh. That's what Alex Lyon and the goaltending was able to do. You have a fresh Bobrovsky if you want to go with him the rest of the way,

and he does get hot. He's shown it in the past. He's been inconsistent in Florida, but there's no reason why he can't stay hot. Just with the way that this Panther team has changed in front of him. We're talking to Bill Lindsey, former NHLer and now current analyst for the florida panthers uh bill when i when i watch uh when i watch florida now it's no there's no question it's matthew

kachuk's team uh but we were speaking earlier of sam bennett and the first word i thought of was fearless and i just want to get your thoughts on his growth since being traded from Calgary yeah it's been a really good fit it's whatever happened in Calgary why I didn't find the top six role it's kind of mind-boggling when you when you see and Paul Maurice talks about it when you watch Sam Bennett carefully with the intensity the intang. He is so underrated defensively. He gets on the line. Verhege was on that line. Now you have Cousins.

But it's always going to be Kachuk, and Kachuk will take extra chances in the offensive zone. Also, the other winger tries to speed up and kind of look for opportunities off the rush. When they ever get caught, Bennett always seems to be the first guy back on the back check. So he hustles at both ends off the rush. When they ever get caught, Bennett always seems to be the first guy back on the back check. So he hustles at both ends of the ring.

Maybe he doesn't get enough credit for his 200-foot game, which it is. If you asked Paul Maurice straight up, he would tell you. He's one of the best 200-foot guys that we have in the team. That allows Kachuk to do a lot of the things that he does. And that's why this team and why they got Kachuk and why they got Bennett are for these types of scenarios. They're good during the regular season, but they are made for intense battles, one-on-one battles against a team where you get a grudge match

and it gets into that playoff intensity. But Sam Bennett has always been a good playoff performer and he gets on that line with kachuk and when you you watch them on the forecheck they they are really really just a boatload to handle for the opposition it's tough to get a sense for if this is the case or not on the road, but is Paul Maurice a big matchup guy? Was he against Boston? And what would you expect him to be looking for on the Toronto side in terms of shutting down

Toronto's strengths? He's not huge on matchups. He will try and get Barkov out there. On the road, he'll get Barkov's line out there against Matthews and Marner as much as possible. The D that's played really well, Eklat got his first point of the playoffs last night, but Eklat and Forsling have been really good together in this playoffs.

They've been able to shut down the other team's top lines. When they've been on the ice, that's when they've been the most productive. That's the one D pairing that Paul Maurice is probably trying to get the matchups that he would like. He likes the skating ability of Forsling and Ekblad, his hockey sense. Ekblad is actually playing his best

hockey of the year after a tough regular season. But he's not overly huge on matchups, just kind of certain pairings on D and maybe that Barkov line, if he can get him out there on the road at home, he'll do it more. But he has confidence in that group pretty much top to bottom. If they're on the ice, if he gets a mismatch,

he feels this team is in a situation with the systems that they've learned that just go out and play hockey. All right, Bill, I'm going to give you three choices on what turned around the Florida Panther season. Okay? Okay. You got it. It's A, Paul Maurice's meltdown at the end of the season

on the bench here in Toronto. Yeah. B, Daddy Kachuk calling them soft or c brooks kepka telling eric he's a pile on well that might have spurred kept going if i had to out of those out of those three that that kind of stick out. So the Paul Maurice and when he got onto that team, there was two games you have to look to in the regular season that were major turning points to me.

Before the all-star break, the Panthers are struggling. They score a goal with one second on the clock to force overtime against Boston. They win it in overtime, have the all-star break. They come out after that all-star break. They come out after that all-star break. Everything's going fine right up to that Toronto game and has the meltdown on the bench. They tie it up late, and they win it in overtime.

If I had to go back and you get in the playoffs by a couple of points, those are the two games. Those are the reasons why you're in the playoffs. You can really, from a fan or anyone watching i can go back to two pivotal games during the course of the regular season of why you made the playoffs so i would go paul maurice the meltdown on the bench without those two points you're not getting in the playoffs so it had something to do with it and they turned the corner after that so that's going to be my pick well whatever it was it sure is working for him um you know just just watching this team and trying to get a sense for we'll make some tickets obviously kachuk but where throughout the lineup is other places where

you think your strengths of this team you know we're sitting here spending the whole show going how do you deal with matthew kachuk but you don't get as far as they are in the postseason, just, you know, riding one line. Yeah. Everyone with their departure, Mackenzie, people don't realize how good this D is. Gustav Forsling, you watch him throughout the course of this series and tell me you're not impressed by the end of the day.

He's not the biggest guy. He's an elite skater. And he'll block shots. He'll do all the dirty work. Gudis is going to hit everything in sight. Mahura is responsible. And Brandon Montour is not able to do the things that he does without Mark Stahl, the veteran.

Because he's in the right spot, right places, it allows Brandon Montour to go pretty much wherever he wants because Stahl has been in the league so long that he is able to read and cover up for a lot of stuff that that Montour is able to do so the the back end the D is this D core is maybe not talked about. It's one of the best in the NHL. If you dissect it and really get after it, they are really, really good. And that's maybe the biggest point to me.

And then after that, the consistency. Lulo Serena has been really developed into a player, and Lundell is starting to get going in the playoffs. Just kind of those secondary players, if they continue to produce the second, third, fourth lines, just get some contribution, then that's why this team's so difficult. Can we talk about Montour a little bit here?

He's got a cannon. Yeah. bit here and like he's got a cannon like yeah and when did when did the the switch really hit for this guy that he said yeah i can be an elite defenseman in this league from the start of the year when paul marie started to put him on power play number one and said you're gonna you went up from 17 and a half minutes to over 24 minutes this year and then when paul maurice put him with mark stall and just unlocked the chains and said you're allowed to go wherever you you want to go he had a career high 37 points last year just playing 17 minutes but when paul maurice gave him the keys to the car on the power play and just said, do whatever you want out there,

that's just kind of when he took off and exploded. He's fun to watch. And everyone talked about, everyone heard Josh Morrissey and the kind of Norse consideration he would get. If Montreux played in a market like Toronto or Calgary or Vancouver, some Rangers, whoever it was, a real hockey hotbed, he would have been getting the same treatment as Morrissey. He's been that good.

And just Paul Maurice, I guess the belief in him that there was extra in the tank. And once he found that belief and said okay i can do this he's never looked back hey listen i know during your career you played with some some clutch guys during the stanley cup playoffs but jog my memory who was the guy on your team that that scored a big goal in game five versus the boston bruins and beat Ray Bork like a rented mule. Yeah, that's way back, isn't it? That's so long ago. Oh, geez.

Yeah, 1996 had my heyday, had my one goal. But it's about time we're starting to rewrite some of this history book. And this is four straight years in the playoffs for the Panthers. The fan base is coming back. It's been a lot of years to earn this trust because of the failures that they have. The ownership is committed to make this a gap team. To spend money. And this, from the early 90s till now, guys guys this is as good as it's been and forever down here

for panthers hockey and these guys and this team from last year the president's trophy with the trades and the way they scrapped the end of this year they uh they've earned a lot of respect around here and it's been well-deserved. Well, I tell you what, there was a sense maybe they got lucky against Boston, but after game one, there might be a sense that something special is happening with this team. Yeah, they're cooking. They're good.

Just don't, you can't sleep. Just go back to January 1st and look at the records when this team got healthy. Their records compared almost identical with Toronto's. Everyone else except Boston. And that's what I would have to look at. The first half, there was so much that went wrong. You can't have excuses.

But just look from January 1st where this team did. That's why maybe it should come as no surprise. When they got healthy and got in the group and Paul Maurice, the systems, they took off and to many on the systems, they took off. And to many on the outside, it might look like a surprise, but if you watch them closely, second half of the year,

they played good hockey. All right, Bill. Looking forward to game two tomorrow night. Thanks for doing this, man. All right. Thank you, guys. Thanks so much. That is Bill Lindsey.

No problem. At Lindsey B. Hockey is his Twitter account. Does a terrific job in Florida and did a terrific job on our show. You know, before, I just want to push back on this Florida Panthers team being awesome stuff. Yeah, you like them. I don't know. The record's the record since January.

There's a lot of space out there. What a goal by Bill Lindsey. Forgot about that one. What a goal by bill lindsey forgot about it what a goal anyway i just thought the least just got to make a couple of plays right you got to make some offensive plays out there they they still are the heavy favorites yeah coming off the rush i mean they're three on two three on two three on two um one thing i did want to note i agree agree, Barney. The Leafs are a combined six inches away from winning that game 5-3 last night. Yeah, make a play or two and it can be a different story. We should give some love to Mitch Marner, nominated for the Selke Trophy.

Yeah. Which is a pretty big deal for a winger. I haven't seen a winger. He was asked about that yesterday. And really, I mean, it's a shame almost that it came off of a loss because it's like oh i'm gonna talk about myself yeah right bad spot to be celebrated now and yeah it's kind of it's kind of strange the way they do it now like the focus is so team team team but as a league we're gonna we're gonna name individual trophy awards now and it's like

how does the timing wise yeah horrible timing for a guy to acknowledge it or or talk about it when you're so team oriented yeah i saw the quote is very team team but the good news is they'll go to vegas and they'll have their time to be celebrated and talk it out and all that but listen he's i don't know the last two three years his 200 foot game elite i mean plays 24 minutes a night you know pk is like crazy that's a very very deserved honor yeah for sure he's unbelievable defensively on my belly that guy does not know how to cheat for his offense. No. He's a big piece of what they're doing. So I just got a note.

The awards are in Nashville, not Vegas this year, apparently. That's fun. Not that they always take it somewhere cool. Oh, yeah. It's a good spot, too. I've never been. Vegas. Vegas is better.

Players love Vegas. I've never been to Nashville or Vegas. I have spent a lot of time in Vegas, and it is awesome. Not outside the Strip. It's just another city. Can I tell you something right now? Haven't heard a lot of negative reviews of Vegas.

No. Good time. Seems like it's a pretty great spot to be. All right. Did you watch closely the Seattle game, or were you like me, just kind of flipping it backwards or back and forth

or i had it on almost falling asleep but like joe favalsky from being down and out off of a huge hit that we weren't even sure if he was ever going to recover the to come back in this postseason i know to be flirting with history well it's still i mean it's surprising like you know i don't think i should i shouldn't say it's surprising that he's the oldest player in NHL history with a four-goal game. I probably could have, without Sportsnet stats, digging that one up, I probably could have told you that. Who's in there?

I thought I heard Johnny Busick. No idea. Just saw Sportsnet stats. He's the oldest. That's all I got for you. Newsy Lalone. I think I've told the story on the show before, but in college against him,

best of three against Wisconsin, our Alaska team had them down. Had a goal in the third period, and Pavelski just flipped the switch. Absolutely dominated the score. A redirect? No, he actually... Shot the puck?

Behind the net, pulled it out to his backhand, went ting from just above the goal line under the bar. Yeah, they ended up handling us in regulation regulation pavelski's good in pressure moments uh that's the redirect up in the air unbelievable was that the fourth one he's itro suzuki he can't he gets his bat on everything that was the fourth one wasn't it he bumped the one in the fourth was the bunt yeah that's right on the slap bunt. And that was coming off a pass that got redirected, I think, by Adam Larson. Yeah. And it just must be super slow motion for him.

Yeah. When he sees the puck coming in. That's such a good point. It's just easy, right? That the rest of us look at it as a fast forward. Yeah. And a whiff. Yeah.

This guy can see the seams on the fastball coming in before he hits it out of the park. For sure. That's exactly it. It just slows down for him for whatever reason. Four goals in a game you're down like that. DeBoer had some comments about, you know, what a waste. To waste that performance.

Like, what a shame that is. But full marks to the Kraken, man. Yanni Gord. Great shot in overtime turn around no look bar down he's a he's a competitor man you guys know how much i love him wow what a pickup yeah by seattle to be able to get him out of tampa bay tampa bay just how about the players losing assets, Killorn now is up for the UFA. Yeah, they got some challenges here. How do you sign him? He just scored 25.

But he's 33. Yeah. And Palat. Like, he's Palat light for me. Yeah, you don't want to. That's right. You lose Palat, that hurts. Killorn's going to hurt.

With the draft picks they traded for Janot, the end is near. But the end at Gord gourd was like um uh anthony sorelli light yeah same competitive level and gourd's been their number one line since january yeah everly still has it too yeah and they they got some guys playing pretty good hockey right now no superstars no just a bunch of guys. You know, these teams, the Seattle team and the Vegas team that went to the final are a lesson in

you can't have black holes on your team. You just, you know, if you're solid all the way through, at least solid. You don't have to be great, but if you're solid everywhere with guys that compete, man. He's played seven full seasons parts of seven seasons gourd in the nhl and he's played 77 playoff games and that's after playing a lot

of years in the ahl and the echl he played a long time four years junior ton of time in the ahl echl he's made his way up and yeah like 77 playoff games 17 is in the first year four whoopsies and then 25 23 8 this year yeah i was talking to uh an nhl executive and he tried to explain to me what he thought what this means to seattle and we all know that people were shaking their heads at a guy like Grubauer. Yeah. And the signing of 6.1 million, if I'm

not mistaken, coming off of his year in Colorado. And how in that first year it was like the biggest waste of money ever. Yeah, we're going to do D and goaltending. And here he comes a year later, and I'm not going to say single-handedly got them a second round,

but he was absolutely lights out against his old hockey club. And the ripple effect, what it does for a team like Seattle in their second year to come back, there was some pressure on them because their prices are quite high. Yeah. If it's one thing that NHL, I think, is excited about, is that that's a high-revenue hockey club for them right now. Yeah.

So you look at the Floridas and the Carolinas, Seattle's a big market with big revenue. Did you see the ratings for round one in the U.S.? They were the Seattle Kraken Colorado series was third behind the Boston series and the Rangers Devils. Wow. I mean.

So. That's a big deal. It is over a million per game. They're probably in the ballpark of earning four to five million a gate maybe more yeah but beers are 36 canadian what that second round does for them and then also what you can now tack on to additional season tickets or maybe even bump up prices, boxes. Like this could carry them now. And help the NHL.

For five or seven years. Yeah. And all of a sudden the Grubauer signing at 6.5 looks like. Yeah, a bargain. A bargain. Yeah. And I think. Tens of millions of dollars for the next four, five years,

you're going to be able to take this run. Yeah. Well, that's us earning this money for Sportsnet like this. It's going to come to us. It's going to be worthwhile to pay us the millions because we're going to bring in that. Oh, that's the Dave Amber theory. That's great.

Pass it on. So it's important to, even your fan base, to have early success. Like, look at Vegas. They have a ravenous fan base in a place where they've never had hockey before and you wouldn't expect they sell out morning skates yeah and seattle is i know is a little bit more of like a natural sports town pacific northwest like they really support their teams while they're a passionate fan base but you need to be good early to like you know if you keep sucking guys like i'm not gonna go like you said, 40 bucks for a beer and 200 bucks for a ticket if these guys just rot.

Right? It matters to be good early. It's predominantly a Seahawk town. And there's a lot of football people now catching the wave in Seattle. So that's a great thing. And they're chalked for draft picks, too. Seattleists. They've got all their firsts.

They've got three seconds next year. People have been killing them like me for them being too passive and hoarding assets and all that. But now that they're having some success, it sure looks brilliant. We wanted them to treat themselves a little bit. Yeah, get something nice, will you? God, I think back to Vegas. When I played in the ECHL, they had games at midnight.

Midnight games was trying to get people in the building for gimmicky things. You played in Vegas at midnight? Yeah. Oh, my God, Barney. Yeah, the coast does some things, guys. Nobody sleeps anyways. That's the idea, right? So what was your game day routine like when the game starts at midnight?

I had to sober up by noon. I was going to say get to the casino by 9 or what? Game nap at like 8 o'clock at midnight? Had to sober up by noon. I was going to say, get to the casino by nine or what? A game nap at like eight o'clock at night. Right. A little different vibes. Oh my God. So what was the team called? The Wranglers.

Okay. Oilers and Golden Knights. I think the Oilers were three out of four and some high scoring games. I think they averaged like eight goals a game in the four. That would be really fun. I would love to watch that. You expect a ton of goals in this series? You know, it's tough to say just because Vegas' D is really good, right?

Like, you know, you look, think about them getting Petrangelo. Then you got Alec Martinez, Braden McNabb, Shea Theodore, Hag and Whitecloud. Like, that is six, man. That's a six. So, it's tough to imagine the Oilers pouring too many pucks in, but they score on everyone. Don't really like either goalie.

Yeah, Brassois is just okay. Don't love Stu Skinner. I think Kipper's on to something. I think this could be a bit of a shoot and match. Just, I was looking at save percentage in the playoffs so far from goaltenders the one that blows my mind the most is that the new york rangers got a 931 save percentage from shisterkin over seven games and lost how is that possible 931 yeah grubauer's 921 to your point kipper really really good yeah really good yeah lots of talk in new

york today about uh the media all over gerard gallant in terms of his future uh he snapped back at them in terms of okay i mean i had a bad week we had a bad week two years ago i had 110 points this year i had 107 points like what are you what are you questioning yeah i respect the move but it's one it's one thing though if you're handed go yeah i was just saying go like uh where's the question to panarin go look at panarin's numbers during the regular season and go look at them in the playoffs if a guy shuts down yeah what can any coach do this is why everyone fights to lower expectations for their teams like battles for the underdog status because if you're handed the anaheim ducks or whatever no one expects you to

do anything you do something you're a great coach. You're handed the New York Rangers team who adds Tarasenko and Kane and people got expectations. So they disappointed. So you were just talking about goaltenders. I just saw this tweet from Hockey Reference, which I thought was so interesting that the 2022-2023 save percentage leaders

in the NHL for the regular season. Linus Ulmark, bye-bye. Yeah. Philip Gustafson, bye-bye. Ilya Sorokin, bye-bye. Swayman? See ya. Conor Hallibuck.

Bye. So the top five save percentage leaders in the NHL this year are not playing in the second round of the NHL, or the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don't know what that means. There will never be another 10 million okay that's you nailed it that's exactly what it means that's exactly what it means again wow i mean maybe there will be one of the ones that makes 10 millions in the second round connor 20 years the cap yeah the cap has to go to 500 million for anybody to spend 10 million dollars on a goal which is the dumbest

thing because it's the most important position we just don't know who's any good analytics need to get better on this how do we not know who's a good goal yet i mean the thing that scares me about brofsky is like he was once good enough to get paid 10 million dollars wouldn't it like wouldn't it just be the year where you just mentioned all those names and there's Bobrovsky. The $10 million guy. Schmid. Standing at the end. Or Schmid.

Or Skinner. Yeah. But Ottinger was... Samsonov. Throwing Samsonov's name in there. He's in the mix with all of them right now. Where you... They're all in a blender. Let's see what pops out.

What pours out. He's at an 894 right now, Ilya. Really? Yeah. Well, he started really poor. Yeah. He gave up seven in the first game, in the first round. Bobrovsky's just at 358 in a 901.

901. 901, yeah. His playoff numbers are bad. Yeah, he's not a good goalie. Well, hey, it was last night. And where's Gerrard on? Tarasenko and Kane. Well, he's not going to bury his guys.

No, I know that, but like right from the get-go, you kind of questioned where that fit was. Yeah. We did. We said Kane never made much sense for them. Kane wasn't healthy to begin with. Which makes it even stupider. That's a word. That's how stupid I am.

Stupidest? Makes it more stupid. So what's going to come there? Are they going to hang on to Tarasenko or Kane? Are they going to hang on to Gallant? What's coming for the Rangers? If you were to listen to people in St. Louis, Tarasenko thinks he's just underneath Ovechkin.

What kind of contract is he going to end up?'s a free agent how old's he and he's coming off of i think seven and a half and i don't think he's interested in a pay cut so who who's going to pay him 31 he's 31 it's ryan o'reilly's older is he not so? Yeah, I think so. Ryan O'Reilly we know is going to get paid. Is he? Yeah, I think Ryan O'Reilly will get paid. O'Reilly's 32. He's actually two months older. I don't know whether or not where these guys are going to sit on term,

but I don't think Ryan O'Reilly or Tara Sanko expect to get a pay cut. O'Reilly was one encouraging thing about him last night. Good on face-offs. And remember, he got cleaned out in game six and we went, is he hurt? Is he whatever? Were they all on face-offs? They were good.

They handled it. Tavares was 10 for 16. Matthews is 10 for 15. O'Reilly was 9 for 15. If they are, is there anything where you can dig up, where you can get offensive zone face-offs? I can check. It just seems to me I'm not seeing that success that you're talking about

on offensive zone face-offs. They pulled the goalie. I think they lost two draws too, even when they pulled the goalie. I think they lost two draws, too, even when they pulled the goalie and they had the man advantage. For whatever reason, I see them losing a lot of draws in the offensive zone,

and I don't know whether or not you can find out exactly if I'm full of crap or... Face-off wins by a dot. If this page loads, I got a chance here at the SmartLogic thing. My eye is not telling me the truth.

Yes, correct. The Florida Panthers, in their end, won far more draws. On the left side, anyway. How much more? Like 60%? Let's see if they give me a number here. It did seem like they handled it. Yeah, they won slightly more draws in their end.

You know, I think one or two more. That can't happen. If you're going to dominate, if you're going to tell me they're sitting up around 60%, that's where you need it the most, not the least. Yeah, they were at least really good in their D zone. Actually, which was funny because they got smoked in their D zone the last game too. So anyway, faceoffs. So Kipper, we haven't really talked about this.

How are you feeling going forward here? For the Leafs? Yeah. I think there's – I'm waiting for them to kick it in. I was waiting for them to kind of kick it in against Tampa, but it didn't happen and sometimes you don't know how the playoffs will roll and sometimes you could see your toughest series in round one and then it can kind of get easier if you get into a rhythm and a flow

i'm still waiting for that from from the leafs but is your confidence in a you know not an easy series but a confidence in a leafs win this series shaken by last night yeah somewhat i did and i think i mentioned before game one that we'd probably know in the first five or ten minutes if this thing is gonna have going to have a chance for Florida or not. And I think I, I got my answer. I, I was anticipating a low and a bit of a downer that the Leafs were going to be able to jump all over that. Yeah, it didn't happen.

So I think we're digging ourselves in for a, yeah, a series here. We pushed back on that a little Sammy. I think we both expected a decent game yesterday. I, I rolled the dice on it yeah it was just a theory i rolled the dice on it and judging by the energy and that intensity and the tenacity of bennett and reinhardt too there's a name we didn't even mention

and i didn't mind his game last night. Had a couple good scoring chances. Cutting in the middle. And Kachuk and the energy of Montour. And, you know, he played Morgan Riley last night. If you want to go head-to-head, if you want to look at Barkov versus Matthews or, you know, Tavares versus Bennett, you got to go Montour versus Morgan Riley.

You got to go Samsonov versus Bobrovsky. Their guys outplayed the blue and white guys. Yeah. I think for this Leafs team, I still feel like when they play their best is when they finally get that slap on the wrist and they feel a little bit embarrassed or it doesn't go great. I expect a much better game from the Leafs tomorrow. I think you'll get a better version of them.

Like William Nylander, I imagine, is going to have a talking to from his coaches, and he's always better after the wrist slap. Sometimes he just, he legs, he legs, he legs. He falls below the line. They kick him in the ass. All of a sudden he's decent again for a stretch of hockey. So I think he'll be better. I think the Leafs will be better.

I'm just wondering. I said cats. I said Leafs and seven. So I wonder if Sheldon will need to do it publicly or not. Or do you try behind the scenes first? And then you basically tell them listen i'm saying the same thing uh to anybody that asks me so just be prepared because like i said to to gabby that these guys once they they feel like the window's starting to close in a

little bit and and backs are against the wall you got to pull out some some cards to play yeah that's why we were so critical four games into the season or whatever when you know he was so critical of the stars and all that like you know that the moments are coming where you're going to need these sort of things so i don't know i thought it's interesting that boudreaux said you know some guys need an arm around them and i don't know we need a kick in the ass yeah i'm not sure which kneelander is but are you surprised we saw really good growth this year out of him where it was like he there was a stretch of what sammy a month he was unbelievable six weeks he said he was january or something he had it all. He had the skating.

He had the puck. He had the shot. He was physical. He rubbed guys off the puck. I mean, his best game might have been when he was trying to get his 40th goal. So maybe you can try to figure that out for the next game. It is tough to deny that. Would he have 11 shots or something in that game?

Dynamic. He was the best player in the league that night. So try to figure that out there you go be that guy again if he if he kicks it in it's it changes the dynamic way for the leafs changes the dynamic of this series no question about it all right just like that two hours our thanks to bill lindsey and of course bruce there it is bruce boudreaux yes sir enjoy your night off enjoy the oilers tonight yeah you too be a fun game vegas and we're back tomorrow to tee up game two toronto and the florida panthers thanks for watching thanks for listening give us a rating and review and one more thumbs up and we'll see you tomorrow