Real Kyper & Bourne - Golden Gopher to Golden Opportunity

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the Leafs' destroying the Habs over the weekend, the late goalie-swap controversy, Ilya Samsonov getting a little shaken up and Chris Wideman's response after the game. They move on to the newest Leafs' signing; Matthew Knies, and discuss if he'll make the playoff lineup and who he might replace. Next, Gord Stellick from Leafs Nation shares his expectations for Matthew Knies, the recent changes to the powerplay lineup and why Morgan Rielly is the Leafs' X-Factor for the playoffs (41:12). Then, Florida Hockey Now's George Richards tees up tonight's Leafs vs. Panthers game, Matthew Tkachuk's impact, the Panthers' goalie problem and the end of the Ekblad vs. Koepka saga (1:06:18). They close with a look at Erik Karlsson's potential 100-point season in perspective and Knies ahead of his debut tonight.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. And so the final week begins. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Derek Brandeo, David Sispunbont, Sammy McKee. Next two hours, we're going to break it all down for you. Gord Stelic will join us in about 45 minutes George Richards longtime Panthers writer who now does his work with the Florida Hockey Now

will come by and help tee us up the game tonight Paul Maurice's team still very much alive something I didn't see what two months ago we buried them once upon a time but they are the zombie Panthers are uh the zombie panthers much like the zombie lightning which we'll get to later we'll talk more about that later

they've got uh a tough task at hand not sure exactly what lineup we'll see out of the toronto maple leafs versus florida but we will see a desperate panther team tonight is today a holiday boys uh easter monday perhaps is it is that a thing yes it's a thing i think so yes i remember getting four days off at easter when i was like in high school i remember liking easter the most because it was the most school government and banks you're a grown-up now sammy none of that what are you saying we shouldn't be at work no no friday was maybe we should have been at work. Today, I just didn't know if today was or not. It was a little quieter on the subway today on the way in, so I thought maybe it was a

holiday again. A little something, something. A little something. But I'll tell you what. I'm going to tell you guys a little secret about today. I'm excited. You are. I'm like officially playoff excited today.

Well, it's playoff time now, and the weather outside is playoff weather. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. You know, flowers are flowering. Matthew Nyes is a maple leaf. The Masters are coming on. The green jacket was presented. Yes, yes.

Did you enjoy yesterday? A little anticlimactic? Did you expect a better race out of Aaron Eckblad's buddy? How can you expect anyone who plays 54 whole tournaments to succeed the rest of the way he was good for three rounds well listen that argument's pretty good until you look at a hundred year old phil mickelson shooting 65 for the low round of the day on sunday it's almost like playing uh important golf inspired the guy instead of ceremonial golf the most electrifying part of yesterday was by far Phil Mickelson.

Like the number one storyline out of that, other than Rom getting his green jacket, which he deserved. He'd been working towards that. Phil Mickelson playing the way he did yesterday was incredibly entertaining. Yep. Loved it. And he looks like a villain in a buddy cop movie. So what do you say? It didn't get played up enough? Pardon?

It didn't get played up enough because he's a live guy? No. Listen, the broadcast pretty much had the pom-poms on for Jon Rahm the whole day. They were dreading a live guy winning. The Rahm-Rahms? Yeah, the Rahm-Rahms. But I think it's hard to deny the history of Phil that's won the green jacket three times. So I really, really enjoyed watching him play yesterday.

Him and Spieth were like 1,400 combined yesterday. It was an amazing pair to watch. They didn't show him much earlier in the week when he flipped over a club, swung from the other side of the ball, and hit one like, I don't know, 200 yards out of the woods. Listen, it's been a couple years here for Phil. I've been a little wild. He's an electric player.

I'm glad Koepka didn't win. I am too. Right? Yeah. Bye-bye, Brooksie. Eckblad's cheering against him yesterday. Yeah, well, I'm sure. But, I mean, you know, Koepka hasn't been in moments like that in years. It's muscle memory.

To win a major, you've got to be able to look back on things, and it's been a long time. You can see some of the comments out of that Netflix. What was it called? Full Swing. Yeah, Full Swing. You can see that Koepka in sunday in his head oh yeah so he's in his own kitchen a bit questioning himself on the first tee of the fourth round he

hit it 3 000 yards offline it's like oh okay so quick plug here me and myself me my myself myself and brent myself and brent gunning recorded the golf show this morning with shane ryan from uh golf digest excellent guest. And we were talking about, you know, how you can forget how to be clutch in golf or whatever. But we were also talking about that Netflix episode. And we said that he would pay the same amount of money that he

got paid from Liv to have that scrub from the internet. It's so true. All the people in my life that talk to me that are casual golf fans about that episode, everybody just thinks he's this mental midget that stinks. He can't win anything. He's no good.

Even people who didn't have an opinion on him are now like, oh, this guy's a joker. This guy won four majors in like a year and a half. In ruthless fashion. Yeah. So anyways, check out the golf show wherever you get your pots. And the big thing, too, between Phil and Kepka, they're ranked like 400 and 100 now. Oh, they're way down the list.

And they're not the 400 best golfer in the world. It's just stupid. Yeah, I picked Phil. The world rankings system could use a little bit of that. Yeah, whoever's voting is like an old NHL goal judge. Right? You're just like, you might have gone in red old NHL goal judge. Right? You're just like. Yeah, it looks like it might have gone in.

Red light. What do you do here? It's hilarious that we relied on those guys. The ranking guys. What exactly. What would you say you do here? Yes. Thank you.

It's a system. What was it? Figala? Figala, who was ranked like 29th. And he was like, there's no way there's only 28 better players than me. Well, Figala hit the tiger shot yesterday. So that was pretty cool. Yeah, he's his player.

On 16. Anyways. Okay. Enough golf. Leafs smoked the Habs 7-1 on hockey night in Canada. And just should have been just a normal game, a quiet game. One that just you chalk up to one of four at the time left of the season yeah but a few more storylines and probably even the leafs would have liked coming out of that game yeah

where do you guys want to start i want to start with the goaltending situation i to me that's the biggest story for me coming out of the weekend was a watching samson off play and then move over zamboni drivers of the world jet alexander is now the 15 minutes of fame yeah i guess the most interesting part of all that to me was the machinations the Leafs had to make happen for Matthew Nyes. You know, they had to sort of pretend that Matt Murray might back up so they could recall or, you know, sign a guy for a one-day emergency contract. So their salary cap wasn't in, you know, they had to do a bunch of stuff to make it possible to sign Jets and Woll down so they had enough money to sign Matthew Nyes, which probably made Samsonov the starter on a night he wasn't going to start.

It was probably a Joseph Woll night, but because Murray got hurt, they had to do a bunch of stuff so they could sign Nyes, so Samsonov had to play. So thank God he didn't get hurt, and thank God he played really well. Although, it sure looked like he might have hurt himself.

What, about early in the second period? Yeah, looked like he was mean. Very slow. And I know the guys, Chris Cutbert and Craig Simpson and the whole Hockey Night in Canada staff there gave us ample opportunity to look at pictures that supported that he's A, hurt something, or B, he's a hurt something or B he's not feeling well,

or he's trying to manage something, but something weird was going on there. Like, if you, I tore my MCL a couple of times and like, sometimes it would pop in a disconcerting way. And I don't know what's going on with Samson off. I'm not saying that's the case for him,

but like something happened. The coach spoke about this this if this is what you want to lead off talking about well here we asked about what happened with him if you want to hear it let's do it okay but i just saw the way that he was responding or reacting it looked like he was uncomfortable there so yeah there was a little bit uh of uncertainty there for a bit you know and then there was a whistle shortly after the guys went out and talked to him and the ref talked to him and you know he didn't motion towards the bench the bench or anything so he's done that a couple times or something you know he gets a little comfortable and takes a little bit to shake it off so but yeah of course we were we were concerned and cautious at that point but players talked to

him he didn't had no interest in coming uh coming out or needing to talk to the trainer or anything, and then they followed up with him at the remaining TV timeouts, and he was good. Checked with him again in the intermission, and he was good, and it turns out he went back out and was fine. Okay, we've seen this before. Not even with Sammy. I think there was an episode, if I'm not mistaken, last year

that in Calgary that may have involved with Jack Campbell. I can't even remember. But I'm just saying that we've seen signs of a goalie maybe looking a little bit uncomfortable, like Sheldon just said. But if he doesn't make it a note, doesn't come in... I'm not looking until you tell me to look out of the Leafs.

You know what's interesting is... Whose call is it, JV? I have two minds. You should have, in normal circumstances, you look at Samsonov, look half hurt, and you go, you're out. I don't care if it's good, bad, whatever. We're going to protect you go you're out i don't care if it's good bad whatever we're gonna protect you we're gonna get you out but when jet alexander's on the bench and no disrespect to jet but you know not an nhl goalie this is my nightmare so leaving him in because you have jet on the bench kind of allowed him to find his way again and show to himself it

feels good i can play through this and maybe get a little confidence out of that i hope but you're right it is a situation watching it where i was like i don't know should he probably just get yanked whether he's fine or not the thought that i had watching the game and the fact that samson was even starting that game was boy matthew nyes better be good player because you're putting your whole season at risk to sign nize having to start samson off at a completely meaningless game against a crappy team on home ice i know he's gonna start before the end of the year right he's not gonna go complete but that's not one he would usually start right like that's definitely a joseph wall one and you had to put him in there because you're you know, doing cannery. Like, it was just a, it's a risk.

It's a risk every night he starts, I understand. But that one particular just kind of rubbed me the wrong way with how they had done it. Listen, before we get into, like, this whole Matthew Nye's thing and being manipulated and assigning him, just from the sheer notion that this is your goalie, this is your number one guy, and he's not 100% healthy, is the biggest red flag for me of them all. There's something going on. They don't consider it serious enough to either pull him themselves

or Samsonov doesn't feel like it's a big enough issue that he needs to get himself out of the lineup but yet there's something there yes right yeah so your goaltending tandem that you're leaning on is murray and samsonov one guy's hurt and the other's half hurt so do you they think they think it's manageable in a regular season they think it's manageable explain to me what happens when you're two weeks into the playoffs and you're playing every other night tell me what what it's gonna look like it's gonna look like hyperbaric chambers and needles you know whatever it is to get him functional kip are you saying that he is dealing with something well he clearly not be i mean i think there's part of him he likes to ham it up

a little bit yeah you think he's an attention seeker i think not i'm don't know we have enough of those on the internet please i just think there's a world like this isn't the first time this season where he's favored something or like he like, oh, I'm kind of not feeling right. You guys have played hockey your whole lives. There's guys that kind of – I think there's something there. There's something there that he's told. I think it can be both.

This is what happens. I think there's a little from column A and a little from column B here. You know, this is what happens too is that you get told maybe that you got something there. It ain't getting any worse. It's just a matter of you tolerating the pain. And, you know, if it subsides, you should be fine. That's what I think is going on.

Sure. I think you're right. I think there's probably something to him being like, I'm playing through something here. I'm a warrior. And he likes that. He's the one guy. He's the opposite of maybe Matt Murray where all the stars have to align

for me to feel really good. That's a nice warm-up for me. He's the one guy. He's the opposite of maybe Matt Murray where all the stars have to align for me to feel really good. That's a nice warm-up for me. He's the opposite. He's like, yeah, you're going to have to like. Drag me out of the net. Exactly. You're going to have to pull me out of here. Tie me up on a rope and pull me out of here.

I'm not leaving. Yeah. Give him the points he hung in there. Could make him an all-time superstar in this league if he can see this thing through with that attitude. They'll be making a statue for him if he can get them to June. Yeah. I would have just started Jet.

Why not? Why not? You're not going up, you're not going down. Habs suck. You're going to risk another injury to start Jet. Okay, so let's get to this. You can see him laboring out there, but you

don't pull him. And then when you least expect to pull him, you pull him with a minute, what, 10 seconds to go? A minute and four to go? Yeah, what a sideshow. So, the first thought, and we heard it from the hockey guys, is like, what a sideshow. So the first thought, and we heard it from the hockey guys,

is like, what a great gesture. This is great. He gets to go home and feel great. He's going to remember this the rest of his life, hang the jersey over the fireplace. What a great moment we gave him. Oh, I'm going to cringe this thing up. And then there's others that I've spoke to, and we've not talked about this,

but I'm getting the thought that you, who should be most of the time opposite of me because I'm the dinosaur and you're the young generation guy, you don't like it. No. What are we doing here? Three days, three games till playoffs. Like we're trying to tighten this ship up it's not

for fun anymore no one should be having fun playoffs this is what's the number one reason why you didn't like uh him going in with a minute to go i guess why it's not like he's like a make a wish kid or something that we're doing something kind for he kind of is no he is a college goaltender who pitched a 920 in toronto for the university of toronto yeah which is not professional hockey okay well what why are we trying to make his dreams come true i'd like to go in well you heard you heard the goal song you make a mad dreams come true we're doing yeah yeah get off my lawn yeah listen uh i'm i i didn't like i I didn't like it either. What was your reason? Same as me?

Yes. Mine's a little bit bigger in terms of that it's an earned right to play in the National Hockey League. You don't get plucked out of the crowd. You don't win a contest to play in the NHL. Well, yeah. Apparently you do. I could tell you who wouldn't have liked it. And I know he didn't because we have the NHL. Well, yeah, apparently you do. I could tell you who wouldn't have liked it, and I know he didn't because we have the comments,

is Sheldon Keefe. Well, that brings us to another topic of conversation, is... I loved it. You know why? Sheldon coming out after the game. Do you have the clip? Oh, we got it. Hold on, Tim, you loved it?

Yeah, it's a nice slap in the face of the Habs. Eat that. Let's have a listen. it was not my decision and uh word came down to me about 30 seconds before the whistle came and uh and uh made it happen whose decision was it it's not important well i can tell you whose it wasn't it wasn't brendan shanahan it was definitely kyle dubas it was 100 no room everything's great to hear he didn't want the oilers did it right earlier in the season they did it for a college kid same thing yeah you know what the difference is it was 30 games ago jay woodcroft didn't come out and say it wasn't my decision. He came out and said we talked about it.

Yeah, he asked Connor. And Connor and all got in. And then Jack Campbell said he loved the idea and it was a collective group. Sheldon, none of that. Zero. I don't want to spend too much time on it because, like, who cares? No, I care. Okay.

I do care. Oh. It just seems like a meaningless thing. No, it's not meaningless. I was like, why? What did you say you liked about it, Sammy? Yeah, it's a slap in the face to a rival. Yeah, how about your slap in your face to your general manager?

That, the only part I didn't like is him throwing Dubas under the bus. There, thank you. He said it. Yeah, but if I'm Keefe, I'm like, I think throwing Dubas under the bus. Thank you. He said it. Yeah, but if I'm Keefe, I'm like, I think it's stupid. I'm not wearing that. If we're doing that, you wear it. Let me tell you something. I'm the general manager.

I'm Kyle Dubas. And I want my general manager to say, I think your idea is stupid to the media after the game. I got a serious problem with Sheldon. You know what Sheldon should have done? Not done it. Coach is going to keep his mouth shut. Shared the order and not done it.

Yes, or just take the bullet. Take it. Fine. We decided. We decided to do it. End of story. But you created a storyline right now. You know what the storyline is?

You don't get to coach. You got to take orders from up top. I think you're in way too much into a thing that's like. Are you kidding me? Yeah. It's like they try to do nice things for a kid when they shouldn't. I've been told to put somebody in in the middle of a game. Who is Keith Charlie Montoyo over here?

Like, you're just getting told by the big guy? You know, you guys are not oblivious to the fact that GMs have some input onto who plays and doesn't? Listen, I don't care. I'm glad they did it. Okay. And do you let the public know about that, or do you just kind of keep it internally?

Well, apparently it's internal because this seems like a big deal that we're hearing about it. No, it became external when you admitted it's not my decision. Not my decision. Yeah. What coaches come out and talk about their lineup at any time,

in any era, and they say, not my decision. It's a big deal really i you know i think they're trying to do something nice or kyle want to do something nice for the kid they signed sheldon didn't want it they did it i don't know we do not agree if you see something where there is a sign of like it's not good to to not all be on the same page. For sure. That's all.

Yeah, for sure. You're either together or you're not together. And you don't get to pick and choose when you want to illustrate to the world that we disagree on this. Another reason to hate this is that you're making people have these conversations. Like why? You win 7-1. Everyone everyone's great all the top guys get points the power play is unbelievable you know go home yeah i was really surprised guys that that kyle or i'm sorry as sheldon was as quick to go to the fact that he wanted to wash his hands off of the decision for Jett to go in in the last minute. I don't see it anywhere.

I don't see any examples of that. Even in my playing days before that, coaches and general managers, they got to be together publicly or else people will start wondering what else they disagree about. And I guess that's where we are. And you mentioned the oil, like people were saying that, together publicly or else people will start wondering what else they disagree about and i guess that's where we are and you mentioned the oil like people were saying that oh no the oil no one mentioned it when the oilers did it it's like no that's we did we talked about it for five

minutes uh one show being like how much we didn't like it and we buried it we buried it yeah we buried it so anyways i uh i it doesn't matter do Do we have, did we, we played Samson off, right? Yeah, we did. Do you want to do on jet? We played it. It was him talking about. Oh, okay. We did that one.

Yeah. All good. So, all right. So rewind to the, an overview. Do we want to get to his picture of the whole thing? The more, the more insulting move than putting jet Alexander to me is having the top PP unit up there. there six one with five minutes left that i'll hear okay to be fair though i don't know how much time was left on the

second unit still i don't disagree i you know i don't disagree but and to be clear i do not care about both but if i'm on the habs and boy like did you see what chris weidman said about it said they'll get what they deserve in a few weeks after they put jet out that's a hell of a line but i will say you're trying to fine tune for the playoffs i don't really care if they're upset they just stop the puck then if you don't want us to score we're trying to work on our things over here but yeah you heard the weidman line i did hear the line yeah listen i would have felt the same way yeah i would have been i you know imagine sassing off when you're 2-9,000 on the season or whatever the Habs are.

These guys are competitive guys, and you're putting in, like, it's legitimately a contest winner. And it's not Arizona. It's your most historic, the organization with the most pride. On Hockey Day in Canada. On the planet. There's not a prouder organization than the Montreal Canadiens.

Oh, God, let them do a ceremony. They'll show you. So you are now going to drop in a contest winner in net at 7-1. Yeah. I'd be so pissed. I can't imagine being pissed enough to say something in the media after losing 7-1. Do I have to call you an ambulance? I would.

Like, if it's me getting interviewed after, I'm 100% saying something. Like, have a little class. So. Oh, you poor babies. I know your point. And to be clear, I loved it. Oh, you poor babies. I know your point. And to be clear, I loved it. Yeah. Loved it.

Yeah, you just... I'm a fan. I want to see the Montreal Canadiens embarrassed, and I enjoyed it. Oh, it happened. I'm thrilled. There you go. It happened. They got embarrassed in every facet.

You know, even their tough guy tried to fight Wayne Simmons. He got the wheels beat beat off him so anyways and then you know to sammy's point the power play i'm just at that point now where you almost have to just wave the white flag on you know if the world is a big participation ribbon out there and everybody just wants to hand one out. You gave one to this Jet Alexander, and you're going to give it to your second or your power play units. It's their right to go score another goal.

Marner's chasing 100. I don't know whether or not the whole idea was to make it 8-1 for Marner to get that much closer. I don't know whether or not the whole idea was to make it 8-1 for Marner to get that much closer. I don't know where they're at. But it would have bothered me a lot worse a few years ago. Now it's like this is what they do now. But to me, it's the participation medal as being the losing team and being like, they shouldn't be allowed to try so hard.

That's not good. You know, that's the team that's getting the participation medal if you back it off well i i yeah what would i view the putting the goalie in as you know your you go tell everybody now that you you you made the nhl that you played in the nhl that's a great story yeah you didn't get a shot on goal. You could have put anybody in. You could have dressed anybody. You had 19,000 people to put equipment on and stand there for a minute. And they could have had the same result. They could have told the same story.

Is that that important? Like, is mission accomplished for Jet Alexander now to go tell that story? Jet that story jets probably i didn't ask to go in why am i getting buried boy i was gonna i thought about having him on the show today i'm glad we did it you know how many goalies out there that came so close and can't tell that story that jet can tell now i know can we talk about all the hockey things all right okay all right uh matthew nice yeah should play tonight he's there what he's i think he's ready to go do you have any insight wow whether or not he will play well i hear yarn crock will not play tonight yeah he's still day to day i heard some things so he had a mri on his lower half came back good oh okay good you may

you may have to because you i'm sure that there were some promises made when he signed his contract you didn't get the b bonuses or the bonuses that you wanted and but you're going to get an opportunity to play i actually love that you mentioned promises because i was wondering what you thought would have been promised to him because that's a part of this too you mentioned didn't get his you know whatever bonuses and you know he seems to really like this college thing he didn't quite accomplish the mission this past year do you think they had to say come along and you'll get x opportunity i think i think with the thought of him playing in the championship game and then the three remaining games he knows exactly what games he's playing in or and more so maybe who

he's playing with maybe the promises the promise extended to we're going to put you with Matthews or Tavares in those games. I don't know. I don't have any proof of that. I'm not suggesting that it's inside information. We're talking. Generally, that sort of stuff would follow up assigning a top college prospect. I also think, you know, as you head into playoffs,

he looks like he's your 13th forward. Currently, you want to have some sense of what he can do. You want to put them in a position to succeed without putting them in a position where it's like, all right, you're Matthews, Marner and knives or something,

right? You have to earn that. I think, but I do think that you want to have some sense of what he can do in a good spot with good players. It's going to be interesting to see how they choose to roll him out initially because it doesn't make sense that he replaces aston reese and plays with camp and lafferty or something and plays 10 minutes either so probably third line with o'reilly you could take bunting out put him right up to the very

tippy i'm just it wouldn't shock me. Well, they've done that before with new guys that have come in. Yeah. And they've put it right into the action, like we've talked about, so. But it just, we've also talked about how that puts you in a position to look like you failed perceptually when you find yourself in the fourth line later. I don't know.

I would love for them to have kind of played a little bit of hardball with him and been like, you know, look at our lineup. Aston Reese is humming. Lafferty's playing great. Like, our fourth line's good. You know, we'll get you in for these games, but not game one. You know what the hardball was? There are no extended bonuses.

Yeah. And if there are, you're not playing this year. That's the hardball. we can't fit you in and we can't carry those bonuses into next year with a flat salary cap yeah that's the hard ball yeah will you yeah be committed to this you know the guy's a 57th pick you know which is you know the end of the second round i don't know how common it is for those guys to get bonuses but generally you have way more leverage coming out of college but they it sounded like they got him signed as a second round pick yeah which even though he's probably played his way perceptually better than

that yeah um play pp2 and third line that's my vote for tonight just uh just on another note uh he has to be crushed losing brutal didn't mention that saturday night ot of the national championship uh bob moscow or moscow the coach yes he's uh in the sheldon keefe camp of overtime starting okay he put he puts his checking line out he's got the top line in college hockey. And he loses. They watch their team lose. Sitting on the bench. That's tough. You're checking live. He just won coach of the year.

And we don't know. Maybe he did everything perfectly. I have no idea. But it is strange not watching them or knowing. Dad, not have your good players on the ice. Ten seconds in. Yeah. Ten seconds in, it's over.

And the Quinnipiac guy that scored did the most epic celebration. Down their bench, he solanated it, threw his gloves up and shot him. Down to one knee, shooting the air. And you know what? And all those people complain, you can't complain about that. Not in that moment. Oh, people complain about that? No, no, I just did hockey.

We do. Should he have celebrated? No, you're allowed to dunk on your gloves. I'd be shooting the hell out of anything if I scored a goal like that. Pretty darn good. It's a little weird, though, because, you know, I've been cutting tape from Keefe all year, and he usually, on a game day, they usually talk around 10, 30, 11,

and they're not talking until 4.30 today. So it's a little unusual for them. Which I see them coming out with an update on Nyes that he'd be a game-time decision. That's what I would expect. Yeah. I'm sure they have to sit with him and show him tons of video of like, here's our systems.

You know what I mean? Here's our structure. Here's what it looks like when you're out there. You know, I don't know if that means Keefe couldn't talk because of that or not, but. I think they give them two or three things to think about. Yeah. That's about it.

I was thinking the same thing. It's not like you're going to put them on the power play and be like, here's your route and here's your, you know, it's like, just stick to five on five. I would think now based on Saturday night, what do they go? Four for seven. Yeah. Is that good? That's pretty good. Four for six? Four for seven? Yeah, is that good? Yeah, it's pretty good.

Four for six. Four for six? Thank you. Are we going to note that Morgan Riley watched a game where the PP scored four times and Gustafson ran the point? And Willie's not on the first unit? What'd you make of that? And he's shot the puck 10 times at Montreal's net?

Yeah, I'd probably foresee playoff success without Willie playing a bigger role on the power play you don't see I like Ryan O'Reilly a lot I think uh I liked him I liked him with Tavares on the left wing and and Willie it's I'm the responsible one here I know you guys are gonna go get your cookies but I I can play a 200-foot game and maybe keep an eye on things back here. Yeah, I like it. Go ahead, Sam. I just think that, you know, you can talk about

giving Willie the willy-whack, if you will, but moving him down to the third line, doing all that, that's one thing. Taking him off PP1 is a real statement. You know, though, that PP2 with him there now. No, I know, but listen, you're talking like Keefe would be talking. Like, oh, it's a real unit. To take away perceptually from Nylander,

who's supposed to be one of the team's best goal scorers, a guy that how many other teams in the league would have on their power play unit, their top unit, for him to get demoted from that is a pretty big shot across the bow with three games before the playoffs. That's a pretty big tinker. No argument here.

No bigger than two years ago when they took Morgan Riley off against Montreal and said, Sandin, you're our number one power play guy no question that was dumb too well i don't know that this is dumb at all though like i think it's to me yeah no you're right i shouldn't say this is dumb i think this might be the right call right but from neilander's perspective it is extremely dumb since they've had ryan o'reilly like you know maybe they could have done this sooner but to me matthews marner and neil ender are all power play flank guys there are two flanks that you know like if you have another guy

they've had success when bunting and tavars have been on pp1 too because someone gets it you got more get it guys so maybe you have a more functional second unit you have another look to give there is no second unit in the power play okay yeah there isn't they take the whole thing they score or they take the whole thing you're gonna give willie the last 15 seconds on the power play one more time now the second unit comes out then just 10 seconds left of the power play thank you go get a goal willie well you got 10 i don't think that's the common distribution of ice time. The bigger conversation is how damn good Gustafson looked. Yeah.

I know it's all offense, but he is a better offensive player than Riley. I will bet you almost anything. Gustafson is nowhere to be found in game one. I agree. I would agree. I agree wholeheartedly. I don't think he's in a suit a suit where are we uh but i mean well i think they're giving it the reps just in case yeah like we have a class like last in case of emergency yeah when you're down three one

or three two well do you not want to try to come back or what like you know you want to have some looks at it listen to this clip he got asked if he was experimenting or what's he like if he's actually thinking about going to it and this was his answer about the power play well i don't i wouldn't experiment with anything i'm not considering so that's i guess they go hand in hand it is real it is real should we do keith on willie as well after our willie chat is that relevant here it It sure is. All right, absolutely. Let's do that. Well, I think, like I said, I think last night was a good indication of the fact that he's motivated to work his way through it. And I thought, like I said, I thought he was tremendous.

He's taking guys on one-on-one. He's skating through traffic, skating through battles, and getting out on the other side to get a stick for you to get off a shot. You know, on the power play, he did what I wanted him to do when he was out there with that group, is to take charge and shoot the puck. One rips off the bar, you want to see that one go in for him, but that's the mindset that when Willie's at his best,

that's what he's bringing. We saw that last night. I've seen signs of it in some other games. I thought last night it was most consistent. It was a good night for a guy like him to really find himself and get that swagger back a little bit. Leafs have to have the all-time best power play that gets talked about as a concern.

You know, second best in the NHL right now. Yeah. We know better, Kev. We've seen this play out. Willie, it's funny listening to Sheldon. The first thing he acknowledges is that Willie, I think, what did he say? He's willing to work through it?

Is that what he kind of paraphrased? Something like that. So, apparently, working hard might be an issue for him right now do you think he's pushing hard right now i haven't thought that he has looked as driven but it's you know it's one of those armchair armchair psychologist things but no he hasn't been that's the one thing that i've noticed the same way is that uh the effort to me has not been there like it was in the heart of the season where he had the most success when he's going he's going right yeah well they need him going and he was going on saturday night oh sammy

mentioned that is sort of his cookie night though he can lackluster habs team you're up three one here he comes kipper i gotta i'm dying I'm dying to ask you about this, Kipper, because would you make a Marner on the bench watching the iPad and begging for the assist on the Matthews goal? Because I hated that. Scores do that. They want their cookies, right? And he's going after 100.

Didn't love it. Maybe he's just looking at how the play developed. Maybe he's going after a hundred and didn't love it maybe he's just looking at the play developed maybe he's not looking at that but you loved matthews chasing 60 last year but you don't love matt marner chasing a hundred like why one thing's not the other it's not even the same conversation if matthews was looking at the ipad begging for a goal that you know maybe not as his i would have said the same thing it's's not a Matthews versus Marner thing. I just think it's not a good... I hate iPads on the bench, period. Get your head in the game. What are you watching

succession on your iPad for? Get your head in the game. What did you think of the assist, first of all, that he got ripped? It was obviously an assist. Did he get credited with it? Did he get credited with it? Last I heard, they were going to revisit it. It was clearly an assist.

He's got 98 points. I think he had 95 going into that game, so I think he got it. It was clearly an assist. What's he got today, 98? Yeah. And a lovely goal by Matthews. So he got three. That should have been the fourth.

Oh, really? Yeah, maybe he didn't get it. The optics of that, didn't love it. I hate the iPad. Listen. I'd hate any team doing it. At the end of the day here, I mean, the focus for Mitch and the teammates at a certain point on Saturday's game

would be to try to help him get as close to 100. That's what guys do. And to me, it's no different than matthew's gunning for 60 everybody talked about it they were so over the top last year trying to get him the puck yeah i mean the difference is no one had got 60 in 30 years and eight guys have 100 points this year it's a different type of milestone but for sure but it's it's mitch's milestone so that doesn't equate. It should. For the team, it should be, hey, this guy is our MVP. He's carried us. He does everything for us.

We want to do this for you because it's that important to you, and we want you happy and getting ready to beat Tampa Bay in the first round. That's all I saw Saturday night. Should we hear Keith talking talking about old mitch marner felt like he could have got to 105 tonight you know the amount of plays that he was making and stuff that he was doing out there yeah i thought he was actually i thought we had a lot of great nights from guys tonight and that's what obviously what we were hoping for uh we wanted to play a really sound game very structured and smart game game, but you wanted guys to be really

feeling good in terms of their offensive production, and we made lots of plays, had lots of chances to score even more than we did. So, you know, that end was good. Poor Montembeau. Yeah, it was a tough night for him, eh?

Everything found a way through and up and around and over. Quick thought on Wayne Simmons. Loved it. I just, if, you know, I was talking to Borny about this before the show, but, like, it just, every time he goes into a fight, you know, he's getting older, like, he's not the tough, you don't think he's the biggest guy, and every time he goes into a fight,

I'm like, ooh, this one. And then he just has the guy on the ground in two seconds like he just beat the crap and he's a legit like 185 or something he just i i can't give this guy enough credit for what he's done for the leaves this year hasn't said a word he plays once every three weeks goes into these games plays with intensity willing to drop the gloves guy's a warrior hope he plays he plays tomorrow. I think if you ask Knightley, the team, who they'd rather have in the lineup, he'd be the first one that they'd want. Yeah, they love him.

And I appreciate Aston Reese and what he's done to build up, but in certain scenarios, you want Wayne Simmons. You don't want Aston Reese. Yeah. Or Hunt. Or, I don't know. Well, Hunt plays for Calgary. He's going to have to worry about him.

I'm telling you over the year. Okay, you know what I'm saying. Over Zahorna. Yes, Zahorna. Zahorna, well, he scores now, so. Yeah. I don't know. Hope a nice play tonight, boys.

That would be fun. That would be very fun. It'll be fun. Okay, you know, we'll ask Gord Stelik. We got him after the break and then uh second hour it's george richards a longtime panther writer will help us tee up the game plenty more unreal kipper and born we're glad you're along for the ride discussing the biggest stories that matter to toronto fans. The Fan Morning Show with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert. Subscribe and download the show on

Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. Derek Brandeo has spoken Stelic-tricity is there how do we know that?

he's been on hold for 27 minutes let's welcome in Gord Stelic Gord, you're an eager beaver, I can tell hello, am I on the air? am I caller 4? caller 4, let's go to North Toronto.

State your name and where you're calling from. It's Gordon, Toronto. I'm a little nervous. First time caller. Remember that? Long time listener. Long time listener. Long time listener.

Living in my parents' basement. Yes. And here's my idea. Yes. Yes. All right. Is it me, Riley Leftwinger? That's everyone's idea.

Oh, yeah. Power left winger. And you know what? Always don't forget when you get that prime guy, throw in a six-round pick on the trade. Right? That's always, yeah. Gord, did Saturday night play out exactly the way it should?

The Leafs teeing it up. Let the offensive players get their cookies and get ready for the playoffs here as you end three on the road did it did it do what it was supposed to do Saturday night yeah yeah you know you know that that's the highest price ticket right of the year you know they got that tiered pricing even though you know it really wasn't the most important game but it just shows there is some special cachet with Montreal what us what a suck Weidman is. Geez, you know, I mean, they sing that Na Na Na song in Montreal, you know, when they're winning and that,

and I hate it when I see it in kids hockey, people start cheering it. So, yeah, I thought it was just what the doctor ordered. Real nice touch with Mark Curtin, you know, being honored as what, you know, being presented in the Leafs and the whole backing the ALS situation with Borey and now Mark Curtin who just carries on in that. And Mitch's got to get yeah. I don't know why Mitch sat out against

Detroit. 100 points is important. It's important. It's something significant. The guy's worked hard for it. It means a lot to him. So good that he got, you said he got ripped off once so he's two away from 100 and you know, normally I hate people that chase cheap points that used to be the way kippy you know that and justin that you had bonuses which you

can't get anymore the same and you see guys trying to chase down a cheap second assist late and you go i know that guy's close to 30 assists probably kipper and he's got another 5k or something like that if he gets that assist right kipper uh 500? $500. Okay, back then. So, yeah. That's my junior hockey experience. People running around chiseling, we used to call it. Talking about 12 on that. Was there an open second assist? Throw a 12 on that.

Yeah. But not so much an option in this day and age. One of the guys who didn't get as many assists as I expected him to in the national tournament, Matthew Nyes, is now a Toronto Maple Leaf. Leafs Nation is excited. They haven't really had a top prospect since, I don't know, whether it be Nick Robertson and then who before it. But what are your thoughts on what should happen over the next three games

with old Mr. Matthew Nyes? Yeah, you know something, Justin, you're right about. I mean, Christian Hansen and those guys weren't drafted, right? They were sort of those late bloomers that you're taking a run at them. And, you know, I guess Bozak was the one that panned out the best. But, boy, yeah, it's really been a long time since a real NCAA blue chipper comes out. And I think you want the player to get his feet wet, you know, get in a game or two. Probably best to get against the Tampa Bay Lightning since you're going to play them in the first round. And, you know, you talked earlier, talk about Wayne

Simmons and all these other guys. I mean, there's all these different spices Sheldon Keefe has. And, you know, this guy seems like he's going to be a real good player, should be a top six guy, a good size, a bit of a power forward, the 2023 version of a power forward element. It's too much to expect the player to do it right in the playoffs, but sometime we keep using the Chris Kreider model when he joined the Rangers. If someone just, you know, catches lightning in a bottle, gets off to a great start and whatever, then it gives you another possible option to ride.

So I'm not those expecting big things in the playoffs, nor should you. It should be the other guns that come through, but it's nice to kind of get this add-on. But I caution some people that are thinking there's big things for knives right now in 2023. What do you do, Gord? Do you just start them in the 3-4, or do you put them up with Marner and Matthews and Tavares

and you see what he can do early? The amount of minutes, if it doesn't strike early, eight, 10, 12 minutes, can you plan for something like this? Well, I think, you know, because where the Leafs are right now, you can give them a little bit more than that. And you can do a little both about like, I like the fact that Sheldon Keefe, you know, throws guys up on a big line every now and then.

I guess it depends how annoyed he is at Michael Bunting on that particular day. I don't know, whatever. So I wouldn't mind him going, like, put him on one of the big lines, you know, just to get your feet wet. Welcome to the NHL, whether, you know, it's playing with Matthews, whether it's playing with Tavares or what have you. And then probably a spot would be to be considered on,

if they get that third line with Ryan O'Reilly, that maybe that could be the kind of fit he could possibly play so I'd give him a little bit of both you know you like like because you're not you're not you're not Nashville you're not Winnipeg uh or Florida or whatever you're not you're not playing for something about having to make the playoffs so uh I'd let him get his feet wet a couple of different ways because you're not counting on this guy okay if if he uh if he fits in that's great but you're not counting on this guy to be a leader in the playoffs so what do you think now with you know three games in four days no more rest for the superstars like just kind of get everyone in roll our way through here and

be prepared come playoffs or do you think guys still sit out it's funny talking to dave known us about it the other day he just said said that, you know, it always happened, except load management wasn't the catchy term. It was just called rest. And you really didn't miss as many games. You just didn't do stay-at-game skates. You didn't do practices. And, you know, guys love our games. Guys love our games.

And I know Connor McDavid getting hurt in game number 82 in a season that Edmonton wasn't going to make the playoffs has always thrown that in there. Oh, man, like, you know, should you not have sat a player out? But you can't, you know, you can't operate like that about the fear of injury all the time. So if the guys want to play all three games, play all three games because you get a whack of days off before.

But I can see this as a chance, you know, to whoever it is, you know, have them miss a game. I think more of the veteran guys are the ones that you wouldn't mind doing to it. But I just want to see the lineup for game number 83 and, you know, let the real games begin. We're talking to Gord Stelic, Leaf Nation pre and post, former Leaf general manager as well. The power play, really this time of year, it's fallen off the last, what, three years.

And it wasn't looking good. And then Saturday night, they go four for six, but it doesn't include Morgan Riley and Willie Nylander. So what kind of power play unit do you expect to see in game one? Well, I mean, you go back to what's done it all year through thick and thin. I mean, that's where you got to go. And then you start making adjustments accordingly if that's not happening. And I think that's one thing that, you know, we've talked about it, Kippy and Justin, about the whole coaching thing.

And, you know, Mike Babcock was a coach by Bruce Cassidy. It's more, in my opinion, about how he had to show Austin Matthews you got to do it the Babcock way. And certainly, you know, in Sheldon Keefe's case, whether it's against Montreal, Columbus, or Tampa Bay, you know, you can make some arguments in each particular cases about, you know, reacting and adjusting and how you do that. Pat Burns did that really well every stop he did, including with the Toronto Maple Leafs. So, you know, I go back to the big guns that did it early on. You've got to have faith in that. It's been a funny animal for

the Leafs when they've been, I want to say spinning their wheels is a bit of an unfair term, but you've been like, it's been the one known playoff, and I said getting home ice was important. Well, they got home ice, so at least they sustained a winning record in that regard. I still think the biggest test all season was when those

3D, and I mean, Jake Muzzin's been gone all season, but when Jake Muzzin, TJ Brody, and Morgan Riley were all out, and I know I'm kind of drifting away from what you're talking about, the power play, but that was my biggest concern, that that could have been a real tough thing, that all of a sudden, you know, Kyle may have had to make a trade or two just to get a defenseman to plug in.

And I was impressed with how the D and the whole team rallied this time. There was a lot of, to me, internal leadership shown that actually they played some of their best hockey at that particular time of the season. I think that this was the biggest, that was the biggest litmus test in the regular season. How much would you anticipate that the Toronto Maple Leafs are talking about their upcoming opponents

versus talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning? I realize they're one and the same in one case, but do you think they're into playoff prep already so i i would hope they're somewhat in playoff prep already i know what you mean they always say you can't look beyond the next game but really you can look beyond the next game we've looked beyond the next game since the opening ceremonial the 48th highlanders started the bagpipes and we're looking at game 83 okay so uh and and that's where Justin you know I I again like I look at it that man you know they always made those kind of moves that were the right moves and even though Janot was hurt he really wasn't making that kind of impact you know kind of move that Tampa Bay

traditionally gets it seems like the Leafs have got those kind of guys and you know Tampa Bay getting getting a year older and playing so much hockey, you know. And the Leafs getting a year more of their core players right into their prime, right into their prime of their NHL careers. I mean, there's all these little incremental things that I think are in the Leafs' favor. Again, that trump card is having a Vasilevsky. But, yeah, I think they are. They're only human. We've been doing it as fans, so I'm sure they've been doing it as players.

And I'm sure in a lot of ways, everything's thinking about, okay, you know, okay, here's like beating Montreal Saturday. Okay, how does that apply? How's that applicable to our first series games against the Tampa Bay Lightning? Gord, from some of the people that I've talked to this week, there are some suggesting that Matt Murray could be cleared by the end of the week.

And does that now make it debatable on who backs up Samsonov come game one? No, no, Samsonov. You know, and again, I'm not dissing Matt Murray. I mean, it's been a funny and a little bit inconsistent animal all year long with the goaltenders, particularly Matt Murray. You do have that depth. You have Joe Wall now who kind of gives you almost like a Phoenix Copley, Kachetkov, you know, the number three goalie depth that a few other teams have had.

But no, it's, you know, just like in your show, you know, in Sammy we trust, right? Right, Kipper? Well, sometimes you bring in this Gunner guy, and it's kind of comical. Brent is not comical. He'll be on tonight. Leaf Nation pregame. Yes, yes, yes.

Yes, your guy. Sometimes they bring in your guy to replace me. And it's like, please. Big shoes to fill, Kev. Big shoes. The, you know, the question marks as they head into the postseason have dwindled. You know, we have a pretty good sense of what game one is going to look like. I, you know, pretty sure it's going to be Luke Shen at this point.

Your thoughts on Morgan Riley, his importance. You know, they're trying Gustafson on PP1. They're playing him with Luke Shen. Your thoughts on this guy who has in the past been an important part of the Leafs in playoffs. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they really have checked all the boxes this year. So it's, you know, it's, and again, it's like you've studied perfect

for that exam. You've failed every other year in calculus, and all of a sudden you get a 46 once again or something, you know, at the end of it. But it's funny, our son Justin, who wasn't named after you, sorry, Justin, but anyway. Shame. Yeah, I know.

He was just saying that. He goes, man, I really like Luke after you. Sorry, Justin. But anyway. Shame. Yeah, I know. He was just saying that. He goes, man, I really like Luke Shen. I love the addition. I like what he is, but he has trouble skating. You know what I'm saying? I know. Just sort of like, you know, and everybody knows that. I mean, there's brought in for different elements that way.

You know, you mentioned it. Obviously, let's throw goaltending aside, whether it's Samsonov, whoever. We know that. We know that. That's understood. If we're doing all our predictions and you're picking 16 teams, who is the factor X player? That's Morgan Riley for Toronto. It's not a best player.

It's, you know, can you get, which are all 16 teams, can you get the best version of this player in the playoffs? Because you've seen a little bit of everything. And to me, Justin, that's what Morgan Riley is. Now there's more, you know, Brody's been around for a few years. McCabe gives you another dimension as well, you know, some more depth. But yeah, I am a big Morgan Riley fan, but I also do agree that it's kind of been a little all over the place at times this season.

I just mentioned some of their best hockey was played when those guys were injured. So who are you locking in with Morgan then? Is it Lilligren for game one? Jeez. I don't know, but again, locking in. I'm willing to... He's got to start with somebody. Why don't you do four forwards at the

start? Why don't you put Mitchie back there? Just start off. Yeah, I'd be okay with Lilligren. Again, I don't know what the coaches think. To answer your question, yeah, I'd be fine with Lilligrant. Again, I don't know what the coaches think. To answer your question, Kippy, yeah, I'd be fine with Lilligrant. I think there was kind of a thinking, can Luke Shen and Morgan be like a regular pairing, right? A little bit of that. A little bit of dabbling that way. And I think that's just, you know, Shen will be used in certain opportunities.

So, yeah, I would, to answer your question, I would be okay with Lilligrant. But, you know, I mean, but, you know, Morgan Raleigh's got to be the straw that stirs the drink with whatever defensive pair he's on. And the final question on the playoff. Turn your mic on. Sorry, my mic was not on. I was just. Was I supposed to ask him a question or is it your turn?

It doesn't matter. You're having a short daydream, but it's okay. The final question for me, Gord, about the Leafs heading into the... How do you feel about Sheldon Keefe heading into playoffs this year? Like, massive pressure, probably job on the line. Some people think he over-tinkers or under-tinkers. Where are you at on the coach's performance and expectations? So, Kippy remembers.

Maybe you do, too. Remember when Saturday Night Live started and Garrett Morris would give the news thing for the hard of hearing? Today's last question. That's what I thought about when I couldn't hear you there. Oh, he was awesome, that guy. Yes, yeah, Garrett. That original Saturday Night Live cast definitely was awesome.

Hey, I think Sheldon certainly, if he ends up going somewhere at some point, has open eyes around the hockey world, you know, not just being Kyle Dubas' guy and getting an opportunity that wasn't expected. I mean, Mike Babcock should still be here now, a lot of people think. So, you know, I've been a big fan of his coaching. I've been a real big fan of his coaching. And I don't really know him before. So, you know, I had to kind of, you know, assess it for myself and that.

But I've become a big fan of his coaching. I just think it's understood that there's an element of unfairness about it because it's really been a solid regular season. They've really had a great regular season. If they lose in the first round, is it acceptable again that, okay, it was a great seven-game battle and it was overtime, and this time the handshakes were firm and they also gave us hugs you know i don't know does that you know prevent a uh i just i just think you know justin it's like to go back at it next year and sell it to the fans i you know and again i mean we'll have

time to assess this and hopefully it's a moot point, because it's got to be weird, and same for Kyle Dubas as well, that honest to God, I mentioned, they win one series, as long as you don't get swept in four. When you get swept in four in your second, third, whatever, you've got to be competitive in the subsequent series as well. But they get their butts kissed. They get their butts kissed. They really do, like in no other place.

And that's why I talk about the different kind of pressures in Toronto. There's the fact that, yes, you get recognized all the time. It's tough to get some privacy, although it's a lot easier than it used to be. But, yeah, but you also, the bar is so low that these fans will, they'll hold a rally for you. We discussed that last week when I was on. So it's funny.

They know. I mean, to me, yeah, it doesn't matter if he's a Jack Adams candidate or you think he's the worst coach in the NHL. You know, this particular group flat out has to get by the first round, minimum. Gord, I know we had a pretty in-depth conversation on Jet Alexander going in, but the reaction from Sheldon was that it wasn't my idea. It was a decision that came down to me. Did that surprise you?

Yeah. That he said that? Well, is he trying to blow smoke? Give someone else credit? Like, I don't know. Otherwise, was he annoyed by it? Yeah, it did, Kippy. I thought it was a very nice move. Edmonton did it. The guy wasn't the e-bug. He didn't support it. He just stated it.

Yeah, well, no. Again, like I said, I didn't know if he was trying to give credit to Shanahan or Dubas kind of say, yeah, it was a great move, but it was, you know, somebody else that said it. I'd like clarity, just like Bo Horvat now was kind of making clarity today to Vancouver Canuck fans. But just a bit, you know, I doubt Sheldon will say, he won't come out and say, no, I'm pissed they did it. You know, I don't know. I can't see him having a problem with it. I think more he's trying to share that actually other people in the organization thought it was a good idea. That's what I read into it because, you know, who's going to quibble with it? I thought it was really neat. There's all kinds of people out there listening right now. Oh, we quibble.

You quibbled? Yeah, we didn't like it. Oh, come on. Come on. Why? Why? Because we're grumps. Oh, yeah.

Come on. Not a contest to? Why? Those were grumps. Oh, yeah. Come on. Just not a contest to play in the NHL, buddy. You got to earn your right to play in the National Hockey League. The guy did earn his right to play. You know, he did it by playing it. He's the best goaltender they had available as a backup on that particular night. You're winning about 7-1. But they didn't send scouts to Cheswood Arena on men's night on Thursday either.

They could have found somebody there. My goalie, Chris, is just as good as that guy, guaranteed. Yeah. Okay. Well, put him in next time for a minute. I don't care. I got a Greek guy named Panos, pretty good too. Well, hey, if they're signing, this was not the e-bug, okay? This was not

Zamboni guy, okay? This was a legitimate, you know, Canadian University goaltender. There's been a bit of a rejuvenation of some Canadian University player. Wayne Simmons, you just talked about him, right? He played there years ago. So what are you guys party poopers about? Like, you know, see, this is the problem.

You've had a slice of dice the regular season too long, and you guys are tired. You guys load management, take tomorrow off, okay? And put Gunner and Sammy in, okay? Because I'm telling you, we need your A game by the playoffs. We'd go more willingly than Giordano, I can tell you that. We're not getting it today with that last question. Why don't you invite us to the dog park every once in a while

so we can just mellow out? It's a fresh air. Oh, man. Blue's going after one big poodle there. I don't know, man. I'm not getting welcomed. I don't like poodles anyway, but jeez. I don't know. Gotta check at the door when that dog walker comes with about eight of them. I could use you, Kippy, getting me a coffee or something. Sounds good, pal. Hey, thanks for doing this as always there's electricity hey let's go

hey best time of year next monday right uh the playoffs can't wait and everything else that's going on so looking for it hey thanks guys thank you yeah i'll say hi to brent i'll say hi to gunner for you okay yeah and thank him for me see you later that is gordon stelic leaf nation pre and post right here on sportsnet 590 the fan just gunners catching strays jed alexander's getting hit just a shrapnel everywhere he is a man we don't make fun of him because we love him that's fine yeah he's he's a poor man sammy i don't think he'd like that no we're probably not. We're both big, tall, white guys with beards. We think we're all alike.

Last week, I heard they were talking about Tuesday, opening up game one. Tuesday. Oh, really? Tuesday. They probably want the Leafs on a Saturday night. I'm not sure if the Raptors are going to kind of play into this as well because they've got two play-ins, don't they?

They're trying to help the Leafs play as deep as they can into so they play on Wednesday Friday yeah Wednesday this week right is it what's Wednesday Wednesday at home and then Friday on the road I think so that would I mean but it wouldn't matter no well because it wouldn't matter I don't know if those are locked in or not if Even if they get through those two games, it doesn't matter because they're going to be starting on the road for the next series. So the next week would be wide open for the ACC. Or sorry, Scotiabank Arena. Unless they got a concert in there or something.

But I think they probably would have left this part of the schedule open, I would hope. This is not our problem. I would imagine that they would want at least tuesday thursday saturday right they want that saturday night hockey night in canada leafs playoff game that's pretty juicy right yeah right yeah so it does then we'll we'll guess take an educated guess that it'll be next tuesday okay is that an educated guess or do you know hey listen this guy's last name is kiprios the guy who makes the plans is hatsos patros or something like that i think he might

have a tie um one thought on their opponent tampa bay as we continue to see them allow a lot of goals into their net yeah well they've been up too lately yeah but also guess what they're like every time they're like and tanner genoa's leg has fallen off on the ice and then it's like free jump saturday night regenerated free just saturday night it's not as bad as we thought it's like how is it not as bad as we thought well they give up a td to ottawa yeah i saw it halfway through i don't know it finished like that. We are well past this is a team just lying in the weeds. There are some issues going on there. No, no, no, no.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Kipper not hearing it. No, you and I can have an adult conversation if you'd like. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Yeah. Okay, but I will give him this much credit that only one guy can really beat you in this series. And that's the guy that worries him the most. It's the guy who's given up 21 in the last three games?

Yes, it is. Oh, I know. And I say that. I believe it. He's given up 21 in the last three games. Vasilevsky, as long as Vasilevsky. I don't know if he's been net. I think Elliott started on.

Okay. As long as Vasilevsky comes into the series as the better goalie of the two, it makes them dangerous. Yes. But outside of that, there really is no reason why the Leafs shouldn't beat Tampa Bay. Now, with all Leafs money, they can't find someone to, like, hold Vasilevsky in a closet somewhere until the series is over? This guy, seriously, he's the one guy that feels like looms over at all.

I got this guy, Mikey, who DMs me all the time, diehard Lightning fan. He's always like, oh, we suck. Leafs and fives. Oh, yeah. We're giving up 12 every night. We suck. He's not wrong. And I'm like, no, this guy is RJ in the hell out of me.

Mikey is just trying to get inside my head it's working i will not hear one conversation they've got some issues on the back end and it falls right after you have a discussion about victor headman they have they cannot keep the puck out of their own net i mean it's a good don't look at me like that someone pulling for the leafs there's also and it's a truth right now but yes i'm with sam that i see that do you want to hear a real doomer take yes that the fact that they are wounded animal is worse than the fact that they're fully healthy because this is a little bit of a chance at least to let their foot off the gas. A little bit of a chance for them to take them

lightly. And the wounded animal lightning that have always done well in the playoffs rides the occasion. Vasileski This is truly the most cynical, depressing thing I've ever heard. 9.48 save percentage in the first round. Unbeatable. I moved to Toronto, I don't know, like 11

years ago. I don't have these scars that run that deep. Oh, I got scars, baby. I moved to Toronto, I don't know, like 11 years ago. I don't have these scars that run that deep. Oh, I got scars, baby. That's barely a coherent point. I got scars. He's a road map. He's got so many scars. That's the line from Billy Madison, and we're all dumber

for having heard it. They could give up 15 a night until the playoffs, and I'm not going to feel any differently. Okay, before we uh they are before they get to tampa tomorrow night they got to go through the florida panthers tonight we do expect matthew nyes to be in the lineup we do sure i don't i don't expect anything we're calling it yeah i texted luke fox to see if he had any if he knew the haps and he he said, my guess is yes. All right, we're going to take a quick break. George Richards will join us to give us his thoughts on the Panthers getting in.

Their schedule, guys, still rather tough. Toronto tonight and Carolina to finish out. So we'll get George Richards after the break. You're watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born Everything Raptors before and after the games The Raptor Show with Will Liu Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify

or wherever you get your podcasts This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590, The Van. Okay, let's bring in George Richards, longtime Panther writer. Florida hockey now is where he is. George, thanks for joining us.

How are you? I'm good. What's going on? We're good. Up here, the feeling is big picture stuff now, but Leafs are in for a tough fight against a team that's fighting for their lives and one that's, what, on a five-game winning streak. Yeah, Florida Panthers, six games actually and uh yeah no after they lost that game in ottawa and went to toronto we were like well they're gonna have to probably win seven of

eight or eight in a row and uh lo and behold the team that couldn't win three in a row all year here they are so um yeah they're uh you know handle it. If they can handle their own business, which isn't going to be easy with Toronto in tonight and Carolina on Thursday, but if they can handle their own business, they're in. Just before, JB, if you had to pick one storyline, is this just Matthew Kachuk people? Are they riding his coattails right now down there? Is he the one main reason why they're even in this position?

I think he's one of them, absolutely. Matthew Kachuk, you know, is just like Paul Murray said, a gamer. I mean, the guy shows up every night and does something else to help his team. But I think the storyline in this winning streak was the guy that the Panthers rolled out in Toronto six games ago, and that was Alex Lyon. Sergei Bobrovsky was sick, and it seemed like Florida was waving a white flag. They were about to lose five in a row, and Alex Lyon plays a fantastic game in Toronto, wills the Panthers through the first two and a half periods of that game

because, you know, the rest of the Panthers weren't really doing anything in that game. But Alex Lyon wasn't giving up any goals. Florida ties it, goes to overtime, wins it. Alex Lyon hasn't lost. I think he's the biggest story right now in the Panthers because he has absolutely saved this season for Florida. And this is a 30-year-old guy here. This is not some, like, young upstart.

It's a guy who's been around for some time. Bobrovsky was out with a cold or whatever sickness he had, as you mentioned before. You know, as they get into games that matter, like Florida, they hold tiebreakers. They look quite likely to have a shot to get into playoffs here would they play line in the playoffs over bobrovsky i don't see why not if you if he ends up winning these next two how can you take out the guy that's won eight straight games let's you know we're just moving ahead here how do you take him out how do you take out that kind of a hot hand i mean he's given up one or two goals a game. It's not like Sergei Bobrovsky was on the course for a Vezina this season.

He was giving up three, four, five a night. So Alex Lyons actually been the better goalie these last six games. So unless he has a complete meltdown and the Panthers back in, yeah. I mean, if things keep going the way they are right now, Alex Lyons is the starting goalie of the Florida Panthers. Has anyone noticed that the payroll has around

$14 million in goaltenders down there and you're not using either one of them? Has anyone noticed? Well, it's $ 14 million next year. That's when, uh, that's when Spencer Knight's new deal kicks in. Um, yeah, so no, I, I think people are noticing that a lot.

And I think a lot of people, when the Panthers went out and spent $70 million on Sergey Bobrovsky were like, okay, well, okay. You were, you are missing a goalie. That is the missing piece. But then you look around the league and you see other teams succeeding with goalies and other teams failing because they can't find a starting goalie. So the Panthers thought they were set forever with Sergei Bobrovsky. You know, that contract didn't look good then.

It doesn't look great now. Yeah, I think people are noticing that the guy that you called up from AHL Charlotte is, uh, saving their season. I think, uh, you know, we've seen that storyline play out in the NHL over the last couple of years. Sometimes, you know, goalies are a funny thing. We all know that. Um, and, uh, right now they've been, you know, they're the ones laughing, but it's the guy

making seven 50, not even that, because he's been playing in the AH ahl all year i don't know what he's going to end up making it's a lot more uh since he's been in the nhl but he's making a a fraction of what uh the other ones are making can i just follow up one more with the uh with florida goaltending uh spencer knight you just mentioned his new contract doesn't kick it does not kick into next season but we do know that he's entered the nhl and nhlpa player assistant program yeah but my question to you is this an example of just too much too soon for a guy um and you know where you're hearing on where he is right now would he be in a position to come back? Is the season written off for him?

What can you tell us what you know about this? Yeah, we haven't gotten much word because the Panthers can't say anything on this deal. We haven't seen Spencer Knight. He was sent down to Charlotte to get some playing time, and then he entered the NHLPA assistant program. So we haven't heard anything. We haven't seen him around.

As far as this season goes, I don't know. I mean, until he walks through the door, we just don't know. I mean, it's just one of those things. You don't know what's going on. He's just not here. And there are no plans for him to be here. But if he walked through the door this afternoon, he's here. So, George, this Panthers team is really curious, obviously,

coming off a President's Trophy season. You know, this last five games is a reminder of what they can be. They show up as one of the best offensive teams, any sort of metric I look at. Is this last five games more like them, or were the previous 75 games more like them like I'm trying to figure out if this is just a blip here them kind of finding themselves again they're they're trying to think yeah they're thinking in the same way you are we don't know I mean you know I walked into the arena all season long security guard how are they going to do I don't know flip a coin don't have no idea how this team's going to do tonight. Nobody did. They could not win three straight games until February.

I mean, this was a team, like you said, won the president's trophy last year, and they couldn't put together the most modest of winning streaks. And now they've been able to put some stuff together. Listen, they lost four in a row going into Toronto, but before that, they were 6-0 and 1. So this team has been playing better of late. Maybe that four-game losing streak was the blip and not this. But, you know, if let's just say the Panthers do end up making the playoffs,

maybe they're the first wild card in the East, that's not too far off from what we thought the Panthers would be this season. When you look at the preseason, you're like, okay, the Panthers aren't going to, they're not going to win the president's trophy this year. They just had too many changes, but they should be in the top three in the Atlantic or fourth. And that's what they may end up being.

So after all of this, they may actually be what we thought they were going to be in the first place. Outside of Matthew Kachuk and maybe Alex Lyon, who is heating up right now? Who are Leaf fans going to watch in tonight's game that they should be a little weary of on the other side? Well, anytime, you know, anytime you talk about the Florida Panthers, you talk about their captain, Sasha Barkov, I believe since he came back from that hand injury. He's got points in 17 out of 18 games. He's got 30 points.

Very quietly just piling up the points is Sasha Barkov, and he's just a driver of this team. For all the flash and dash that the Jonathan Huberdos and the Matthew Kachuks always seem to draw that spotlight off of Barkov, he quietly is the guy that drives this team. And, you know, anytime you watch them, I think you notice what he does on the ice. Carter Verhage just got his 41st goal.

He's a guy to pay attention to. And Anthony DeClaire, you know, he's only got the one goal. We're still waiting for him to break out. So that could come at any day. So, you know, there you go. Crucial question here. Have you had the chance to ask Ekblad how he feels about Brooks Koepka's showing on Sunday at the Masters?

We actually did. I was there today, and we talked to him about it. And shockingly, you're not going to believe this, he was rooting for Brooks Koepka. He says that Brooks Koepka, yes, listen, I couldn't believe it myself. I'm like, come on, Aaron, nonsense. And he goes, no, he actually put money on Brooks Koepka to win the thing. Apparently Brooks Koepka, who, you know, infamously, you know,

was in a Panther luxury suite, and he had the traffic cone and was shouting expletives at Aaron Eckblad. Apparently he texted him and apologized, and Aaron Eckblad says, all is cool. He was rooting for Brooks in the Masters and thought he was going to win it and actually lost a couple bucks betting on him. Okay, so Brooks went up a couple notches for me just now. You like that? He's sharing that story with me.

Yeah, there you go. FloridaHockeyNow.com. Story's up there. Check it out. That's perfect. All right, pal, we're going to let you go. Enjoy the game tonight as we will, and thanks for joining us. All right, fellas, be good.

Thanks so much. George Richards down in Florida helping us tee up the Panthers. See, I did call that. I did. I'm glad we did the right thing. No. No. That's all that needed to happen is Brooks could have easily said,

hey, buddy, listen. First of all, you know what's abundantly clear with Brooks? And we said this. You see what you get. He's not a phony. He's not pretending to be anything. He's not. But the one thing he is is he's passionate about the Panthers. you get. He's not a phony. He's not pretending to be anything. He's not. But the one thing he is is he's passionate about the Panthers.

He is. He's a big fan. The peas, as he calls them. The peas. So all it took was just a simple text to say, hey, buddy, I was a little sauced up, man. Yeah, but I was greased. What do you want?

I was greased. I want you guys to make the playoffs so much I just got a little frustrated and that's it listen at the end of the day I'd forgive him if I got to play 18 holes with him here's the thing, pro athletes love other pro athletes

because it gives you a tie to another level of access to sports you're a sports fan if you're an athlete right he did the right thing he did he just reached out and said i hope you didn't take it personally quickly because i think he was asked within a week of yeah so needed to listen to our show because we suggested he do that and it could clean everything up we were the number one ekblad versus kepka show we broke it down from every angle and it just died we talked about a lot but i will say that i did a little bit of this i always do a bit of this in the playoffs with the leafs when it gets to the bigger games you know six seven or five six seven the

least of a chance to move on to the final round the final or not the final round i'm talking golf here the next round yeah i'll always sprinkle a the final round. I'm just talking golf here. The next round. Yeah. I'll always sprinkle a little on the opposite side. 100%. I like to call it the happiness hedge. Yes. Andrew Walker, TM, I think came up with that name. Yeah, you talked about this last week. No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's stolen from me. Walk's gone from me. Okay, so, but, okay, I don't know. Whatever. Whatever. Whoever came up with it. Yeah. I think this is a bit of a happiness hedge from Ekblad.

Yes, I know. If this guy wins in my eye, I better get paid for it. You know what, Hole, who's been making fun of me hammered at a game, wins. I would like to be compensated. It's so brilliant to me. Go cash that check. And he, listen, he blew it. So he's probably pretty happy.

Or you could just bet on the right horse and then just win. That sounds better. Like I did. Yeah, Sammy got Rom after a double bogey on the first hole, 13 to 1. Made 400 bucks this weekend, boys. Ooh, buddy. Exciting. Nice.

If you look at the schedule, what odds do you give the Florida Panthers here? Very good odds, and I will tell you why. The RW column is regulation wins of which they have the most of the Islanders, Penguins, and Panthers. So they have the most there. The team closest to them is the New York Islanders. The next tiebreaker is head-to-head. They also have that tiebreaker.

So they have two crucial tiebreakers as both teams have two games left they do have the most challenging schedule mind you so that is but you know what are you going to get from toronto and carolina effort wise i i expect the leafs to go in there and play pretty hard i think so too Yeah. I think they're gunning. I would hope so. Mitch is still chasing 100. Well, you can't quit playing hard hockey here. You're about to play the hardest five or six or seven games of your life here.

Which is tough to put the pedal down when you know that's coming though. So they have Toronto, Carolina. The Islanders have Washington and montreal not as good and pittsburgh has chicago columbus 31 and 32nd ranked teams in the nhl last night austin's going to get his 40th goal tonight you know he's scoring his 40th goal tonight how many is he at 39 now yeah yeah he's getting 40 mitch gets 100 austin gets 40 and they both shut her down i haven't seen a a shift out of austin matthews without at least two shot attempts if not two shots on goal blast he's just he's got a little tunnel vision going on right now yeah he is shooting the puck every chance he get and that's what goal scorers do that goal he scored on saturday was

lovely but that was vintage matthews yeah off a great pass from arner so i love like we didn't really talk about it but thank god those two are back together it's nice to see you knew it was coming it's about time just keep them together don't worry about the rest. Reunite and it feels so good. It did feel good. Seeing those guys light it up. It's just, you know, as much as you've kind of fantasized a little bit of Matthews, Tavares, and Ryan O'Reilly, one, two, three, it's Ryan's going to have to babysit Nylander and Tavares. I think they'll do loaded up at home.

That's my prediction, that you'll see a Ryan O'Reilly-centered second line in Toronto. And I think on the road, where you're more likely to just roll your lines, you'll see them spread them out onto a third line. I think that's really well said. And as we saw saturday night we we know where john tavaris's strengths are front of the net yeah power play like come on

outside of that like five on five and 200 foot game he's really third line centerman right now yeah he can make plays with the puck in or on the net still but yeah i mean he actually has more power play points 38 than uh regular even strength 37 so i think it's pretty i was talking about this on least talk with jd after the game on saturday but i'll bring it up with you guys the ryan o'reilly finger injury bit of a maybe blessing in disguise for the leafs in terms of how he's looked through two games with his pace and his freshness like i thought in both games he looked way quicker than he looked in any games when he first got here he made some comments too about how it allowed him

to sit up and really watch the toronto maple leafs players and their tendencies so you come in you have eight nine games where you're in the mix you're playing with guys getting to see that whole vibe playing the systems you step back you rest up you watch the team a little you come back in for the last four games he's certainly in a good position to succeed he looked i mean everyone looked awesome montreal is dreadful but he to me was really moving well hard on the puck hard on, he's going to be a huge player for the Leafs in the playoffs. He's just really a smart, intelligent player. Yeah. And, you know, the one thing, even before there was real talk

about Ryan O'Reilly coming in, I told you I didn't foresee a fit right away. It's like, first of all, you're going to make a major trade for that. You don't even have a spot for him on the power play and today at least coming out of the weekend we know the only way you you put him in on a power play is you got to take one of your big four out yeah and this one to do i don't i don't know how this thing plays out but in terms of gonna try to win the Stanley Cup without Willie Nylander as a top

power play guy. One thing about Willie, I'll give him credit for this, he's not a powder. No. He'll show up and play Willie hockey. The problem with Nylander, I think you can argue, is that you can't really move him in either direction. He's just kind of Willie. He just shows up and Willie's

you know, I don't think he's a guy who'sie he just shows up and willie's you know i don't think he's a guy who's gonna go down the big second line is you know i think he'll go to his thing i like orion that top unit just for we always talk about a guy going to get it yeah he's a guy that you know how kipper you hated how far out tavaris was coming from the net and it feel like he was always up on the half boards a lot and you don't like him out there yeah i feel like that's a spot where r O'Reilly can be, winning puck battles along there, getting it back towards the net. Like the one he gave to Willie where he knocks a puck down,

fires it towards the net. Yes. He is better at that. He's a very headsy player. Little passes in tight. Think about like a power play breakout. Like Tavares and O'Reilly. Not the quickest.

But they're not going to bring them all the way back. Your two swingers are going to be marner and matthews and go with riley or gustafson we'll say riley well listen riley's coming back into the lineup tonight we know that yeah yeah and don't think he doesn't feel a sense of urgency to go back and get a couple power plays under his belt where he feels like he's a part of something that can continue moving forward here. He's feeling it. You go four for six Saturday night without you.

You're just going, oh, here's Joe from Arrested Development. Oh, come on! You know? He is coming in tonight going, I want to be first man up on the next power play. And I want it to be successful. And I got to get going here.

I got three games to show everybody. There's not even going to be a debate on who's back here on the number one power play unit. Not sure you want them pressing, though. Yeah. No, there is a sense of urgency for a player players know when when they're being watched and they know when they have to deliver he's gonna have to deliver if not tonight then in tampa or new york but new york's too late he's gotta he's gotta make a presence felt on the power play tonight the one thing i'd like to see him

take from gustafson's book is that gustafson can create a lane where there isn't one you know like with a lean a fake a step like create some sort of passing lane riley can hit it when it's there but doesn't seem to make it as well as gustafson's able to that let's play that he's got with the fake clapper sidestep it's like an elite power play move for For sure. It really, really is. Let's listen to Sheldon Keefe. Tell us about old Gustafson. If, Derek, it's not too late to go to the clipboard. He's a very confident guy.

He's got a high skill level, very smart, good sense. But, yeah, he's missed significant times, so you don't know how that's going to affect a guy, especially a guy that's new to our team. But it definitely was important for us to get him in here tonight, and as it turned out, he got lots of touches, and I thought he did a good job both 5-on-5 and on the power play. I wouldn't say I love them 5-on-5. I don't love them 5-on-5.

That's a lot of compliments for a guy that won't play. I was going to say, you're not seeing Gustafson unless someone is hurt. No, unless two players are hurt or the power play is 0 for 20. Right? I have never refreshed Twitter harder than I am right now because Keith's supposed to be talking at 435. I'm just dying for the nice update. Can't find it.

He's supposed to be talking about seven minutes? Supposed to be talking about right now. No, at 4 35 he's supposed to be out is what luke fox said to me so all right i'm texting my boy on the ground for some updates all right the other thing is is do you think do you foresee any chance that if matthew nize is in tonight he sees any power play time in front of the net or anything at all i think you could could put him on PP2, which will get his 15 seconds, and you could say you're the stretch guy, so you don't need to know any routes. You stand in front of the net.

Here's all the simplest parts of being on the power play. There is a part of me, though, that feels like he can have a little bit of success here early. I really believe he'll be noticeable tonight yeah i do too i think he's gonna have jump right like he's fast by all accounts he's a larger body my concern i'll tell you right now my concern with this guy is that he has been accustomed to making plays and you know putting it through someone's feet or trying to you know beat a guy one-on-one trying to pull a david camp into a michigan or something yeah that's right do too much

for what is needed from you not expected of you needed from and there is a sense that he is cocky enough yeah to to think it's not that big of a deal right and i don't know if that's a good thing or not oh i think it is in my era it was probably not a good thing yeah well your area you get punched in the face for doing it now you just turn the puck over you just and you get to go about again because you don't get benched anymore the the quote that i read i guess on the weekend and i think it came from the athletic was that uh you know i i work harder than the guy next to me which i you know what i thought of right away i thought of his teammates self i'm like i'm not sure that's what you want to say because there is an assumption

out there that you are going up against some of the best players in the world. No, the best players in the world. Okay. And you still want to say that you're going to work harder than the guy next to me? When really you should say that I'm working as hard. As I can. That's the humble one. Yeah.

But how about this one? No one will outwork me. Sure that one nice phrasing it's not quite as i'm gonna work hard like you're up against great players here they i got news for you it goes pretty good they work hard yeah he's pretty hard he's in the gym just say you won't be outworked yeah but don't say that you're gonna work harder than you've already insulted the guy beside you he could be a hall of famer he could be stamp coast tomorrow night you could be against stamp coast and what you're saying is i'm gonna work harder than you yeah because i know this because i i went to college right this is such toronto market stuff um it is true though i i I saw the comment, and I thought the same thing, because I actually thought about your teammates,

you know, the guy in the stall beside you or whatever, to be like, yeah, I work harder than the guy beside me. Well, you know, I've seen some of these guys working pretty hard. But I don't know. If he believes it and he can put proof to the pudding, then it makes him just a special player. Ignorance is bliss for a while.

I already know. Okay. You know. we'll see. I hate that clip so much. Milestones over the weekend. 60. 150 for. 150 and 60 for pasta.

Yeah. Listen, it's got a sock for Matthews. No. I cannot believe you're even going there. What would suck? Because Pasternak got 60 and McDavid's well over 60, that sucks for Matthews? Explain.

Because he's like, I am the preeminent goal scorer in the NHL. I am the first guy in however many years, since over a year since Stamkos, it's been a long time, I time i am the man i score the most goals i'm the best goal scorer and they're like two guys are like 60s no problem bing bing yeah i don't get that at all you don't think that no okay no how about like i'm in good company the last couple of years. Okay. Good goal scores. Pasternak is probably the most underrated goal scorer. Underrated? Underrated? No, no, no. Now, what's he got? A rocket?

Two rockets? He's awesome. Everyone talks about him like he's a second common. So he's rated well. Good talk. Sorry for shutting you down. Sometimes you're just wrong. He's so good. And he's strong and he's he's everything you want willie nylander to be i got something for you on pasta he is one

of the league's leader in a bad way in terms of the difference between takeaways and giveaways he gives the puck away a ton yeah i mean you almost have to to try to do the stuff that's kind of what i was thinking i mean kipper if if willie neilander had the giveaway that he had in the boston game against toronto where he just throws an absolute grenade right up the middle that sam lafferty picks off we would have spent 25 minutes breaking that down the show the next day but yeah but he's he just he's just played so much harder than Willie over the course of his career. Over the careers, for sure.

Okay, and that's, you get. He's never been this good. You get passes. You get. He was in his contract year. He was having an unbelievable year in his contract year. Oh, he had the big discount. $11.5 million, big discount.

When he should be the highest paid winger. Pretty much Peter Pan. Sorry to bring that up again. He should be the highest paid winger. He should be the highest paid winger. Panarin couldn't carry his jockstrap right now. Send him to the Vatican. He's the holy man. Why is he making less than Panarin? Explain that to me. And use it without

using the word discount. Does he? Does he make less? I think he makes more than Panarin. Why don't you look it up there? My computer's not working right now. Yeah, he took a couple nickels less. Tell me why he's making less. I guess the only argument would be Panarin is wildly overpaid.

Say it. Panarin's way overpaid. Discount. No chance. I will never agree, ever. But McDavid 150 is way more impressive than 60 yeah we're watching peak prime gretzky here does it not give you uh a sense of how unbreakable yeah gretzky's 200 points a season are where you can watch mcdavid put together a season that historically is one of the best in history

and he ain't close it's crazy i watch oilers all the time he scores five points a game and he's still got what 60 points to get to gretzky yeah roughly it's hard to wrap your mind around yeah that's just dumb it's you can't wrap your mind around so bob stoffer put out a tweet our regular guest out from edmonton the stoff man um on matthias ekholm since he's been with the oilers he's been there for uh 19 hockey matches so far 16 yep two and one 16 two and one since they got ekholm decent trade there kenny three goals nine assists 12 points 25. The best on the Oilers, who are a pretty good team, and he's playing 21 minutes a night for them. Isn't Bukestead listening to our show and going,

excuse me? Are we 16 wins with me too? Yeah. That's hilarious. Yeah, not quite the same level. So the Oilers traded for their best defenseman at the deadline, and they have their best defenseman it's a guy they got at the deadline travis yost does good work um he has an article about how about goal differential like how much you beat your opponents by and what a predictor it is of playoff success um you know the bruins

have been very good but the oilers look like maybe the next most dangerous team in in the nhl at least the west they're the next most dangerous team i think NHL. At least the West. They're the next most dangerous team, I think. Boys, can you imagine a Leafs-Oilers final? Sportsnet executives just crying listening to that. It's really going to affect my golf game. I got to be honest. Yeah, that would be a major hindrance on our own early season rounds. Like Scottie Pippen said one time, I ain't going to F my summer up.

That's an all-time line. So what's the goal differential on Edmonton, did you say? Well, just the amount they beat opponents by. They generally win games by two goals, not one goal. I don't know what the actual numbers are. I read it earlier today, so I don't have it in front of me. Their goal differential, though, you could look at there. What is it?

Oilers are second with a plus 61 to Boston. They've gone up. Do you know what Boston is? Plus 120 or something? 124. Oh, my God. That's like a record of some variety. Leafs plus 57 or something.

They're really close, I think. What record is Boston chasing right now? They beat it. 63 wins all time. Regular season wins record. They have it. Perfect team. Unflappable.

Unbeatable. Yep. That's a post salary cap record right yes there's definitely ot and shootout yeah wins in there 131 points we can't really use the word history on that well just post salary cap record that's such a history of the post does that sound horrible right little asterisk. Let's welcome the post-salary cap record holders. The insane thing is there's 82 games in the season. So far, 63 times they have won.

From David Alter on Twitter, Sheldon Keefe confirms Matthew Nyes will make his NHL debut tonight. Round of clicks for the boys. We had it. All right, get them in. Wow, tonight just got juicier number 23 love that number is that what you're wearing your program shows up oh my god i was thinking more bonica rock jump man i was thinking eddie shack says a lot about the track here comes nice it's good for him it's gonna be fun i wanted to get this in here

about eric carlson goal for 100 points and what an incredible accomplishment that is yes 100 points for a defenseman on a team that what's their goal differential kip can you give me the san jose sharks goal differential probably not plus 124 minus 78 minus 78 he has got a hundred points on that club so here's the name of the here's the name of the guys that have done it dennis potvin bobby or brian leach al mckinnis paul coffee 100 points from a demon he'd be be the sixth ever. Wow. Yep. Pretty incredible. And probably the only one to do it missing the playoffs that year.

Well, and not like missing the playoffs by a hair. No, they're not 30 points out of playoffs. They were mathematically eliminated at training camp. Yeah, when they went, was that this year they went overseas and lost four in a row and they recovered? Was it this year remember all my years the one year the sharks came back oh and two and never recovered um so i just thought the plus minuses are interesting for guys who have had 100

points um paul coffee was dash 25 one year when he had 103 And the other time he was dash 10 when he had 113 points on the one. But everybody else has huge gaudy numbers. Bobby Orr has the most ever in the history of the league in terms of points in a season for defense with 139 points in 78 games. Fellas, he was plus 124. What? 124. Oh, my God. They have to trade him. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. They have to trade him.

Oh my God. Oh my God. They have to. This summer. They have to strike. You cannot. No. 100%.

You cannot wait. No. And take a chance that his level drops off by November next Christmas. The funny thing is, and I say this, I don't know. I just feel like everyone, this is going to sound awful. Everyone's on to Eric Carlson. Like, I think everyone knows exactly what he is. He is a point-producing machine that doesn't play within a structure or system.

Like, when he's just left to his own devices, he is a point-producing machine. I understand he was very good for Ottawa the one year they went on the run, but I just don't think he defends. I don't know if you want him in playoffs. The biggest tale for me is when you went to San Jose and you had a guy like Brent Burns still at the height of his game and you couldn't form any chemistry at all. Yeah. That, to me, is something to be said,

that it doesn't work for you unless you're the guy and you're in complete control and you get to do whatever you want to do. Yeah. You know, what does he do to the Leafs, PP1? You know, let Eric Carlson run that thing. Looks pretty good, I probably... So, before we go here

where are you expecting nize to play what do you expect him from him tonight i think he's going to get some some looks uh on the top six but i probably have him anywhere between nine and 13 minutes the one thing i expect him tonight is to play with ryan o'reilly that is my prediction they'll put him with someone who's like a third liner who's defensively responsible a veteran guy who can talk him through anything did did he mention who's out no didn't mention who's out just that tweet and the other one, other update here is that Matt Murray unavailable again and the Leafs will dress another amateur tryout goalie tonight. So they still can't get Wolling?

No, I don't know. No. Because I guess the Nyes thing, like they had to sign him. Yeah, it's salary cap implications here. This is a huge risk with Samsonov. Huge. You better hope hope nice is good because you're putting your starting goal your meal ticket in a big time you know i guess they want they probably got to go back to back here anyways i'm gonna play both games so maybe you wouldn't want them to face tampa tomorrow night anyway but this is a hungry team gonna be crashing

the net looking for goals like big risk so samson gets hurt no sir i don't like it if samson gets hurt today you're you're stuck with this now he's better play goal you're stuck with uh this pto guy and the e-bug of florida's choice fine fine that's a good look for a national hockey league team burning room around me dog it's fine he's fine it's fine no problem no problem it's fine well hopefully nice gets a hattie tonight good boy i am excited it's nice listen from a content perspective this game this week could have been a little lean you You know, these games are meaningless. They're playing against teams. I want to see if Matthew Kachuk wants to line up anybody like he did Debrinkit. Oh, my. That's the most dead I think I've seen a player get.

I mean, poor Debrinkit was stopped like he got hit by a train. He just started traveling the opposite direction from which he was traveling. Wasn't a smart move to blindside Matthew Kachuk on your way by him? Talk about taking a number. Wow. Would you not have Simmons in tonight? I don't think they can. I think he's gone now.

Did they have to put him on waivers to create all of this room? I think he's gone. There's no waivers today. Yeah. So I don't think he's around. So maybe he didn't have to clear maybe maybe salary cap disappears in four days yeah yeah there's some uh this juggling just sucks hey for the fans let's be honest yeah we're just trying to feel the sports team here uh sam lafferty is day-to-day and not expected

to play in florida uh or tampa leafs going 11 and 7 n Knives will skate with Achari and Kerfoot. The college. Oh, Riley, I missed. Listen. Flex seal. That's just them trying to protect him. That's all. Early.

Yeah. But I can't see this game without him having a few looks with the big boys. I love that they didn't start him with, like, Marner and Matthews. That would have been really annoying. Right? That would have really changed the story here. But that's just to say... We didn't start him with Marder and Matthews.

And then the second period, they're down 1-0. Exactly. Okay, our thanks to Gord Stelic and George Richards helping us tee up tonight's game. Enjoy Matthew Nise's debut. Is the game on Sportsnet? I don't know.

I don't know. It's on TV, folks. So just look for it. We're back tomorrow. Real Kipper and Bourne. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.