Real Kyper & Bourne - It Happened

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

THE LEAFS ARE GOING TO THE SECOND ROUND! Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee get right into the Saturday's Game 6 victory, John Tavares fittingly playing the hero, the 11-7 lineup, Morgan Rielly's invaluable impact, the Lightning's stars' struggles and the stellar closeout game from Ilya Samsonov. They are joined by Leafs Nation's Gord Stellick (46:24), who shares his thoughts on what was different this year, the impacts of the deadline additions and what the lineup could look like in the second round. Next up, Boston Hockey Now's Joe Haggerty breaks down the Bruins' Game 7 collapse, what went wrong for them in the series and what comes next for their aging core (1:08:22). Finally, Kyper, Justin and Sam close with some comments on the Panthers' upset, what to expect from them in the second round and news out of Calgary that Darryl Sutter is being let go.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. Sammy, you dreaming? Toronto Maple Leafs down the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 Saturday night. And just like that, the Real Kipper and Bourne show is relevant in the month of May. Holy mackerel! Here we come, baby. Do we all owe this to pessimistic Sammy on Friday? Yeah.

No more of that optimism BS, eh, Sammy? Hello, gentlemen. You got the first word, Sammy. Go. Really, really happy. will i will say that i didn't really know how much that was gonna mean to me like when that you know like i just really didn't expect to be as euphoric as i was when i saw that puck trickle over the line. What did you do? I did many things, but a lot of loud F's,

a couple let's F and goes, a couple hard claps. We should have taped them or we should have had a camera set up for them. We don't need a Sammy cam in here. We needed one Saturday night at his house. I just, it was a really, really incredible

moment and it's just to have that stupid monkey that was on their back for so long, to have that lifted. And you saw it in the city of Toronto with the response to it. And there was only one arrest. And it was for spanking a horse, which is quite a... Somebody tried to rip off a street sign, too. Yeah, they didn't get arrested for that. But other than that, it was a pretty clean, fun night down in Toronto,

other than some guy going, yeah, and spanking a horse, I would imagine. But I... It's hilarious. It's just, it's really, really, really exciting to see what this city could look like if they went even further than this round. JB, last few years doing this show on every leaf game we've got to the three of us on a on a chat line it's rather quiet saturday wasn't it it's like no didn't want to like jinx it i don't know the takes just

were you just at home or i was at home yeah at just some point you're like i am rather exhausted sending you guys notes and you probably felt the same way to for me and it's just hey sit back and watch the game just watch it evolve i think there was a massive undercurrent of complete fear of coming in here today and doing the game 70 up showup show. God, you're so right. Oh, it would be such a dark day. Did you get that sense when they tied it, Stamkos? Yeah, I mean, it did feel like they had kind of been hanging on a little bit. So, sure, there is the sense. Not that they were going to lose.

I didn't feel like they were going to lose, but it did feel not enjoyable, you know, just in a way that like... It was, I never felt that they were going to win from the drop of the puck till the puck trick went over the line. I really didn't think they were going to win that game at all. But what faith have they given me in this era that they would ever win a game like that? So for them to do that. Was it more just your history, the baggage that you brought into the game,

or was it actual what you witnessed uh out of the out of the the game the series maybe at times their inconsistency what was number one just the baggage i like there was a lot of baggage but i mean them not being able to break the puck out for long stretches of that game really was a thing too and the lack of ozone time and the lack of shots in the third period i think they went where they go 13 minutes without a shot like they really almost 20 by the time the game was over you know there was long stretches of that game where they were just bogged down by tampa and they found a way to win which they never do and i find it pretty

funny like you know every other fan base across the league now is like oh look at the celebration finally they won their cup i find that very very rich because you know they spend all day every day talking talk no no they spend all day every day talking about the toronto maple leafs and talking about how they blow it in the first round and then they win the first round and then all they can do is how excited people are. Yeah, no crap people are excited. With all due respect, Sammy, you set them up all year. What do you mean? You set everybody up all year that's saying that

you win the first round, it'll feel like winning a Stanley Cup. For sure. And you're allowed to act like that. No, no, no, I'm not saying that, but that's why all of that came to fruition. I just think it's really funny that everyone obsesses over chirping the Leafs and talking about the Leafs and being like, oh, the Leafs will never get it done. And then they get it done.

They're like, whoa, you guys are pretty excited about that. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not allowed. You know why people are excited? Because we care more than anybody else. That's why. And people are jealous of that. That's 100% it.

We're willing to pay. Also that. That's 100% it. And we're willing to pay. Also that. The Maple Leafs are the first team in NHL history to win three OT games as a road team in a single playoff series. First in NHL history. John Tavares is the first Leafs captain in history to score a series-clinching goal. La histoire du hockey. Yes. And that was a historic night.

Remember, too, you almost gave up a quarter of a century to not getting out of the first round. You did. A lot of donation of time there. You want to, anything else you guys want to add before we go to our first Kippers Clipper of Saturday night? Just, I'm really happy for Leaf fans, and you've been through a lot of crap,

and, you know, you got a moment that you don't ever get so congratulations to leaf and to the people who are in our chat all year long and you know without the guarantee of this thing ending in a smile not that it's ended but congrats on getting a smile out of it you know you deserve it yeah thank you god it was glad you guys did that because i i could not bring myself to ever doing that. What, being happy? After a first round victory. We'll get to Sheldon, but I'm glad he said it best. You're not in it to win one round. You're in it to win the whole thing.

You've been here all year, right? Right. You've been here all year. And all year I've told you guys your bar is low and time to raise it for sure well i totally agree and i think you have not wavered i think that for the team and we'll get into some of the clips but for all the things they said they said all the right things and the fans the fans can have this like you can't take that away but the people that were playing on the team and coaching the teams have the right things anyways okay let's go to the game series winning coach sheldon keith on the winning moment

jubilation i mean i don't know you black out in those moments you don't know what's going on you're just really excited you know it's uh it's been a long time coming obviously long time coming for a lot of players in our room uh a lot of time coming from myself even longer coming for a lot of players in our room uh once i come from myself even longer coming for leaf station so it's uh it's uh it's a big night the celebration was i cannot believe could keith have dunked if there were a rim above him could he have dunked a basketball. Listen, you can't even imagine the pressure that he felt along with Kyle. And they're a package deal. They are. And to watch Kyle and his emotion and then Sheldon certainly tells you

exactly where they were. Listen, they were. Listen. There might be another coach playing for his job tonight but this series was was all about kyle and sheldon's future yeah and that's not to say there's any guarantees moving forward here no but it the air out of the balloon has been let out somewhat. I think we, you know, we will tackle that tomorrow. I think we plan on talking more about the future than the past, but I do think that's a good point, Kip, that like,

I'd like to discuss how off the hook are they now? And are they at all? You know, that's a worthwhile conversation to have at some point here. Okay. We'll go to Sheldon on what made the difference difference in this series and then we'll follow it up i look at a year ago we were in this very building in game six and over time and we had opportunities to win the game it didn't go our way you know um now i look at even montreal game six and opportunities to win the game it didn't go our way so to be back in the same position again,

we've been talking about it, feeling different about our team, but feeling different doesn't help us. It has to be different. It seemed like all series that it was different. It's three overtime wins, three road wins here in this building against the champs. I know Colorado's the champs, but we're in our division in this conference. This is the class of the league in Tampa.

And to find a way to get on the right side of it here against this group, that's big. Like I said, incredibly proud of our group and thrilled for for least fans that they get to see second round hockey you know there's there's a lot more to come you know the one thing that stands out to me to do some actual game analysis from that is that they get a break when someone goes to the net and stands in the blue paint and i don't think it's a coincidence we saw that was kind of a theme of how they found their offense in this series and you, you know, Morgan doesn't get a piece of it, but he makes Radish get up under him and gets Radish into the lane that goes off his skate. I don't think it's a coincidence that you find your way through when you start doing the types of things that lead to these greasy OT successes.

And their game, for the most part, is built on those type of moments. You know, sometimes I, and I've said this even during the series or all season long when you watch Boston, Tampa, and they have longer stretches where they move the puck better. They're better passing teams. To this day, I wake up and I'm like, Tampa moved the puck way better than the Leafs. But what the Leafs were able to do, and it goes to maybe even John Tavares' strength,

is that, you know, he can struggle five on five, we know, in all areas of the ice. But where he's still one of the better players in the league is within that 6, 8, 10-foot radius. Yeah. And it was a hell of a play to get a puck to the net out of the opposite corner. And credit Matthew Nye's big body.

Won a battle at a key time. Won a battle against Sergeyev. Subtle little area pass. Tavares skates it in with some speed and goes one-on-one, I think, with Sorelli. Yeah. Kind of did a little fake lean-in to get Sorelli out of the puck lane. And just get pucks to the net.

Yeah. And they were better than Tampaa in that aspect they were yeah i mean in terms of goals from distance you think about all their ot winners you get a tip from kerfoot on a long shot you get riley shooting one in from distance you know this tavars one is not in tight and tight even though it's deflected in tight so yeah that was a significant difference maker certainly some luck involved in it but uh you know nice to be for them to be on the right side of it and they didn't make the big mistake this year did you um see the clip of keef right before the goal goes in when he yells go f and four yeah go forehand he says that tavaris is about to cut in on his back hand go f and forehand and then he jumps and does a 360 dunk.

Nadvert. All right. Let's follow it up with the additions to the team that helped get the Leafs over the hump Saturday night. You know, you look at the additions that we made to our group. You know, starting back to the trade deadline a year ago with Giordano, I look at the offseason, a guy like Yarncroft that's played deep in the playoffs, played a lot of hockey in the playoffs. Then the additions of O'Reilly and Shen and McCabe and Minachari,

these guys that have played in the league a long time and or have played deep in the playoffs. O', Riley and Shen, of course, have won. Shen, in particular, has won with this team in this building with our opponent. I mean, all these kind of things, I think, really helped us. Kyle did an unbelievable job throughout the offseason and the trade deadline to put us in a position to succeed and he probably more than anybody deserved to have this to have this result because he's believed in the group yet he's made adjustments and changes along the way it didn't hurt that there's a handful of guys that just have not gone through the disappointment

yeah you maybe you're right. You know, haven't been hurt before and not wearing the scars quite like everyone else. It's probably an element of it. I thought they got really good performances. You know, the guys they mentioned, like, you know, Achari was such an important piece for them. He actually made a play to get Matthews a look

pretty late in the game. That was unbelievable. So a lot of those guys, guys yeah didn't seem to wilt um when the pressure was on at least we're able to keep up their performance so man they go 11 and 7 they get it done a lot of people going halls out and they win shock i know but i was surprised they went 11 and 7 and hall wasn't one of the seven yeah like that to me is a huge statement to play Gustafson over Hall. Don't you think?

Gustafson, was he directly at fault for the only goal against? He was part to blame. He wears a bit of it for sure. For getting stuck out on the wall. That was a big statement to me. I thought the mileage they got out of Luke Shen in the first round was off the charts. Who could have seen that coming? We had debates about should he be in or not.

Question is foot speed, but he had the ability to slow the game down to his preference. He had poise with the puck. I couldn't believe. An exit pass. One of the few guys.

I thought those were legit 18 minutes yeah and you know to your point he didn't move the puck until he saw something he liked so sometimes he just held it was he's big enough to take the contact and he didn't force it somewhere where all of a sudden it ends up you know going back on tampa stick how many how many five on five goals do you think he was on for this series oh three kipper more one that's pretty good that's really good yeah not bad no no his numbers are off the charts in this series i thought it might be four but uh the the least what the these numbers are from kevin pipetti on Twitter. The Leafs won Morgan Rielly's minutes 9-3 in this series.

Marner 8-1 and Shen 7-1. Unbelievable. There you go. I'm looking around. I'm watching Luke Shen. I'm watching Mark Stahl in Florida. These guys were written off years ago. Hockey's come back.

It's come back to recognizing in playoffs how different it is. Yeah, how this, you know, it's still hockey. Right. And you still need butchers. I mean, the amount of times that Shen had to tell one of the butchers on Tampa Bay to shut up was really surprising. That, to me, is, you know, outside of his unbelievable advanced stats in this series which is something i didn't see coming yeah i thought kipper and i'll get your take on this

a big swing moment in this series was when he went toe-to-toe with jano in that game two was it and you know he's getting challenged he's not going him finally jano goes up to him and like i felt that tampa's's bull crap after that was way less. Like I really felt that that was a big time. Physical moment. Five picks. I didn't even use them after that. The last two games.

Tampa. Didn't have another drop to piss in this series. They gave them everything they had, including that physical edge that Maroon tried from that fight to the hit on Giordano and everything in between. Those guys petered out. Great start to the series.

That line didn't keep it up, I didn't think. I think they did. I think they did. I think they had a presence throughout it. It just wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. And I think this is a series where you can say the better team may have not won, but the more resilient team did.

And I look at the ability not only for Shen to have that optic look of standing up to them on that bench, but to also lead the physicality and the hits. I think if you look at the league leaders in the first round, you see Shen there, you see Achari there, and you see McCabe there. McCabe's another one. Solid. Spectacular. No.

But did we once mention that they could use a guy like Jake Muzzin? He essentially came in and did what Jake Muzzin usually did at the height. No, McCabe. McCabe. McCabe came in and filled Jake Muzzzzin's shoes good jake muzzin healthy jake muzzin a couple of big hits as well that to me all factored in and the leafs getting over the hump they definitely had the bigger share of like oh hits in the series you know the ones where it's like oh that's a momentum shifting hit or a noteworthy hit. So that's uncommon. I also, you know, worth noting, last four games,

Austin Matthews scores five times. You know, he's got 11 shots last game or some 11-shot attempts anyway. You know, like a – they showed up when it counted. Marner and Matthews, a ton of points in the series. Can I just – we mentioned Janot there. Can I just take this time now that he hasn't scored a big goal against the Leafs to say, boy, that's a bad trade. That didn't work out this year. No question.

Yeah. You know, in a perfect world, you would have taken those assets and added it to the blue line. 100%. But you couldn't because. They were screaming out for that. You don't give up those assets to get a guy of equal salary cap value. They didn't exist. And that's where I think that.

Yeah, let's make a million bucks or something like that. One five? I don't know. He can't be much more than two. So where are you going to go give up a first, a second, a third, and a fourth for a $2 million defenseman? I think they look at. 800 he made this year. 800?

You know, yeah. So people are saying that they should have got a defenseman. You're not getting a defenseman. You're not fitting a defenseman in for those assets. And for Janot, they thought it was a good risk on late round picks anyways. They thought they were getting Goodrow, you know, someone who could come in and be a third line difference maker. I don't know how they would have thought that.

That guy scored 24 goals and he fights everyone. Yeah. You know? Yeah, maybe you're right. I think they'd envision getting a cheap depth guy. I think he's good, but I think of what Coleman did and Goodrow when they won the championship. You know, another guy that they missed? Yeah. Danny gourd any gourd for sure who's happens to be in the second round and and

seattle's number one line yeah i'm not shocked i love the guy so awesome player uh the the blue line as advertised, was overwhelmed. Did we actually hear about Hedman at all? Did anything come out on Hedman playing at, what, 50%, 60%? No. I haven't heard anything. But, you know, and where's Bunting taking out Chernak and all of this? Like, huge, guys.

It's a big moment. Huge. Massive. Massive moment. Ugly moment. But guess what? Sometimes it gets ugly to win championships. No, it's a big huge massive massive moment ugly moment but guess what sometimes it gets ugly to win championships no it's you need a break here and there i don't know if you want to call that a break oh he made a break yeah no that's making a break yeah so i i think that like you're right that is such a massive moment in that game too where everyone was tight tight coming into that game and to not have headman and chernak

playing that game too and let them have that run it up game and they're feeling better about themselves like that was a massive swing in the in the the series yeah definitely a huge part of it in about 30 minutes we're going to catch up to our good friend gordon stelic it's going to be great to hear his thoughts after 19 years a guy that's uh followed the leafs as much as anyone over this uh horrible stretch prior to saturday night so gourd stellick leaf nation pre and post will be joining us and in the second hour joe hagerty boston bruin writer for boston hockey now we we need some answers here on the boston bruins i gotta know what it was like in that room after that game yeesh boy like i mean if they're without bergeron creche and all of a sudden

marshans the captain and a year older and it might be a different looking team last year or next year all right uh i don't know maybe five six weeks ago i wrote an article for the toronto star you can find it on uh my real kipper twitter uh leafs can't win without morgan riley yeah that's right too sure he needed to get going yeah and he really did that's the best i've ever seen him play hockey it's not even close the way he skated in that series and the the confidence he showed with the puck like just no fear with him out there on the ice and i mean you called it and it sure made a huge difference for this team i don't know if shen helped him that much well or if just being in these games has

helped him that much maybe sammy can help me out here. Did he not play well with a guy like Labushkin before he left for Buffalo? And he played best with Hainsey. Really well with Hainsey. He always needs a guy like that. Yes. It just seems like once a guy knows what his responsibilities,

and I watched it in our best days in New York with Jeff Bukabum, who last time I checked, never made it on on all-star team but he was absolutely perfect for brian leach the year we won yeah and it just seems like there's a comfort zone now for morgan riley where he's not he's not forcing the play and he's jumping in holes that he should which was such a struggle for him during the regular season. Yeah.

Yeah, having a sense of when to get up and get in the play. It's crazy, though, is like I don't think the offense he created this playoff series was from jumping up in the play. I know he's in front of the net in the OT winner, but like a lot of it came from the back and staying on the blue line and moving it up and getting shots through. And, and you know I thought he made better decisions in a conservative way all right Derek let's go to Morgan Riley on his thoughts on how he felt after Saturday night it's a mix of being relieved being extremely happy being you know grateful and all

that stuff but also you know you more. You want to keep going. You want to keep building. You want to keep pushing for more. And I think that's a great thing about our group. I think we're looking forward to the challenges that are ahead. We're proud of the effort, but ultimately we want to keep playing and we want to keep pushing for more. Oh, that's some captain speak right there.

I feel like a dick for everything i said about this guy i just i i'm done talking about more regular season morgan riley from now on every time we talk about how bad he's been in the regular season but i got no comment because he always plays good well in the playoffs you had to like that kip i i like austin matthews uh we heard from uh mitch marner they all had that in the back of their minds which is great i i think a lot had to do with a guy like ryan o'reilly coming in as well and at times during the the tampa series and let's not forget here i mean they got smoked in that first game that started a ton. Do people remember that?

I watched the first period today. I watched the first period of that game to be like, how can you look so different? It was awful. The period was awful tense and no one could make a play. There was a ton jumping off. No one skated. There was a ton of people already jumping off the bandwagon after that one.

Oh, God. They score at the end of the period to make it 3-0. It's just like, oh, you forget how long a series really is. Like one period in a seven-game series, you can move on, but it felt in that moment like no chance. And that's to your point where having someone like Ryan O'Reilly and Shen who understand it's a longer journey than winning that first game sometimes. Yeah, just move on just there

you go all right let's follow it up with austin matthews comments as well you know i've been here seven years mitchie willie uh always been here 10 um you know johnny five six and um you know just just to get over that hump it's obviously it's it's huge mentally for us and um you know just to get that monkey off the back and you know we don't want to look back now we just want to keep putting our foot on the gas and then keep pressing forward five goals in the series we know how big they were to yeah avoid tampa being up three two in the series for sure for sure and that yeah go ahead but still stretches for me where he's he's quiet yep definitely i just thought like the shift he scores that goal on

was indicative of like you know you want someone to go out there and take it a little bit and there were there were moments like that right vasilevsky makes a big save on him a second before that you know you just felt like you got what you needed out of him you got the big goal yeah he just scored. It's a step for him. Like, I would agree that, like, but Tampa is also pretty good. So you're going to have stretches where they have the puck more. Like, he's playing against Anthony Sorelli, who is arguably, you know,

he's one of the best defensive centers in the league, and you're playing against him. They didn't have the puck a lot this series. And I think that's credit to Tampa, right? Like, they're they're really good hockey team who played a bunch of good games against the leafs but in the big moments matthews rose above it and scored massive goals scored two goals in the comeback in game four scored the first goal of game five scored in i mean the game the one in game five didn't really matter but in game

six he scores the one to go ahead like he just really had big moments but i agree tampa did a good job on them but he still found a way to score five goals that's what makes great players great it's just the ability to rise above that it's that montreal series he goes games five six seven nothing nothing yeah you know that's a certainly a page turn for them i thought him and marner were both brilliant like we can talk about tavaris we can talk about willie and all that can talk about Willie and all that, but, like, their two best players were by far their two best players, and it hadn't been the case in previous playoffs.

I know we've talked about this a lot, but the Marner thing to me is he takes that second line and he makes it relevant. You know, like, without him, you know, bringing along Tavares and bringing along whoever he plays with, I just don't know that they have the depth to find their way through

the way that they end up doing in this series. 11 points and big PK minutes, 23 minutes last night. To me, it's the plus nine that stands out. And if you look at... And on a line, Kip, that's historically a minus. Like with Tavares. So how good was he at 200 feet? Yeah, unbelievable.

He's so important defensively. Connor McDavid, is he like even? Oh, I don't know. His number, like it gets so tight checking. Yeah. You know, what is, find me Connor McDavid. Is he plus three, plus two? Yeah.

Like, it's not what you'd expect. For sure. Right? And that's, you know, at five on five, to have those guys power lines, it gives you something where all of a sudden you don't have to protect Tavares with O'Reilly. And then you have a third line that gets to be O'Reilly

and Achari and Nizer bunting. Conor McDavid was minus one. Minus one in their series. Yeah. And there's just some idea. Minus one in their series. Yeah. And there's just some idea. Their power plays 57% or something. He had 10 points in the series, six of them on the power play. Yeah. You know, and it's tough

when good players key on you and try to shut you down. And so for the Leafs to spread it out the way they did, it's a massive advantage. And for years we've said it should become one. This should show up as an advantage and nice years we've said it should become one this should show up as an advantage and nice for it to actually come out in reality did uh willie nylander's seven points two goals in the series uh seem quiet for you underwhelming i gotta tell you i was working on something today uh for an article i haven't written yet but there's four

goals in this series where Willie Nylander is against directly responsible for where you go. That's the guy Willie's supposed to be checking. And so he did tons on the offense. Like you mentioned seven points. I thought he skated well created, but defensively, that is one of the worst stretches of Nylander hockey I've seen. So I imagine that's one of the things they'll want to tighten up with old bill.

Get back to more of a 200 foot game. I don't know. Did you see that at all? Kit? 100%. Yeah. You're bang on. Little, little risky for me.

You know, he's the weak side winger in the D zone. He's got to protect the front of the net and that's Stamko's goal. He should be there and I don't need to go through it all, but he's got better still to give. And he created a lot of his expected goals were really really good so expect more from him you guys anywhere else you want to go we got to go

listen I can't believe you don't have Cooper clips in here we do oh we do did I not put them in the lineup I don't see Cooper oh I got two Coopers oh yes sorry my bad no I was just shocked that we didn't I'm not teeing them up. Just play with whatever the hell you want for the last time. I'm not going to get in debate of, like, who is the better team.

They beat us four games to two. So statistics say they were the better team than us. But do I sit here and think we could have really done anything different to change the tide? No. Like, we played well enough to win this series. do I sit here and think we could have really done anything different to change the tide? No. We played well enough to win the series. I think anybody that watches the series would agree with that. But you can't lose three overtime games at home.

If you're not going to win a home game, it's really tough to win a series. We had the lead in game three and gave it up with a minute left we had a 4-1 lead in in game four and gave that one up and you know this one we had to come from behind but still your three games in overtime regardless of how you think you know the territory of the game's going if you can't pull those out, then it's tough to win. And that's where I give Toronto credit. Even when they were being leaned on by us, they were opportunistic. They capitalized on plays they had to. And when it came for our turn for that to happen, we couldn't capitalize.

Oh, my God. No? Oh, my God. No? Oh, that is... No? Chef's kiss. You don't... What part do you not agree with? He's right, but they lost.

Oh, I agree with everything he said. I mean, he's not wrong. But Scram beat it. Take a hike. Take a hike. Take a... Yeah, enjoy the... Enjoy the beach, Coop.

Yeah. Enjoy the beach. But Point and Kucherov could have won this series alone with their chances. Well, Point and Kucherov combined for two five-on-five goals in six games. You thought Kucherov was good, Kipper? No. Oh, he's awful. I'm saying that he could have if he would have been more Kucherov-like. Yeah. Oh, sure. That totally could swing the series. If they show up and they have strong,

like they don't have to be off the chart numbers. I mean, it's a difference maker. Yeah. You know, I thought the best line that Tampa had by a good distance was Sorelli, Hagel, Kalorn. That line had the puck and buzzed and buzzed. He is, he's a nice go away and you know he's just in everyone's face skates well that line is excellent and author annoying

and great playoff line it made me so sick that in that third period cooper mr smarty pants goes with a hunch and puts stamkos on that line and for having him to score on that shift was a dagger into my heart kipper that was a brilliant coaching move a dagger into my heart like i can't handle that being the difference in this game it was an excellent call by him and it made me so sick i wrote on my little note sheet watching the game bad matchup for leafs before they scored like they had geo and gustafson against that line willie nize like that's four guys i don't need in that spot. We do have one more Cooper clip.

You want to throw it in? Oh, my God, yes. Okay. Listen. This team hasn't lost a playoff series in the Eastern Conference since 2019. It's 2023. We're not used to this feeling so it's you sit here and do this press conference 10 minutes

after the game ended it's I don't know I can't even think of the word but you're it just doesn't feel good but like I said I think there's 31 other teams in the league

that would love to have our history here in the last 10 years, five years, three years. That's why this is difficult, because usually we're on the other side of this press conference and I'm going second as the winning coach. So at some point, you're not going to get the break. It's just the way it is. Or teams would win like 15 cups in a row.

And for a team and an organization that has really struggled in the playoffs, at some point they were going to get a break. It's just sucks it was against, serious against us. Now he's starting to play the percentages. Yeah. Right? Now it's the old percentage game. Let me get the world's smallest violin out for you, Coop.

Hey, I got news for you. I'm going to call you an ambulance. For the real Kipper and Bourne show, sliding from John Cooper to Paul Maurice isn't going to be... It's going to be a seamless... Oh, I love it. I love it.

Maurice has to be the second best guy. We're going to get into Florida. It's a show out there. We're going to get into Florida. That's a show out there. We're going to get into Florida a little later. But just a friendly reminder that, you know, you ain't done with sometimes feeling a little queasy with post-coaches comments. That clip was, you know.

You know what he used to call those, like, lines that there'd be a beautiful young woman on the other end of it? That's like the equivalent of that for me, listening to him cry there. Okay. 1-800-LISTEN-TO-KOOP-CRY is my number one hotline that I want to call. Oh, he's just whining.

Oh, we're the better team. Oh, we love, you know, oh, we've been here for four straight years and we're $17 million over the cap and we won a fake cup in a bubble. Oh, yeah. Listen. That's three years in the making right there for him.

Just take an absolute lap. Go. You good? You got it out of your system? Oh, yeah. They haven't had a lot of success in the playoffs. Scram beat it. Take a lap. Just give them some credit to the leafs man no you might have been better in some games but you didn't your team in the most pivotal game the team that you coach

came out in the third period and laid an absolute egg because they thought they had beat the leafs and that's coaching they were not fired up for that third period they laid an egg you are the one who motivates them walking off like you're joe namath after you win one game in toronto that's the only thing i take personally give me a break pleasure in is because that implies oh no no no no that one we're coming here you got one got one yeah just like one you got greedy that was a bit you know like cooper plays the lawyer really well that was a bit too much you know you salvage the series series being down just or you're still down three two yeah right yeah it's don't let it that's that's the last that's that's that was a lasting thought yeah a little bit of

bulletin board material from the guy doesn't get much play i don't think you got uh as much play as it should have right after the game that's a a good point. That's one. Just like one goal you scored in game six, bud. Okay, we're going to go to break soon, but you cannot open up this block without having this conversation, which is going to be, oh, come on, guys. I went on Sports Central on Saturday night post-game, and they said, well, what was the difference? Just at the end of the day it's just one guy 35

samsonov ended up being the biggest star in that game that's the best game i've seen him play he's so composed he wasn't overexcited like he really he looked in a way that would make you confident outside of just making all the saves what a great performance and frankly a surprising one i thought it was kind of under an underrated story how like concerned i was about samsonov in that game and he was awesome it's kind of expected because there's some nights you're going is that the same goalie did Did you ever see this Jerry Seinfeld episode when he's dating the good-looking girl? In different lighting? In different lighting.

She's like butt ugly. Yes, I have seen that one. That's sometimes... I love that. Yeah, that is. It's like, are we getting the good-looking Samsonov? Are we getting the kind of, you know... Not.

Good-looking? He's gorgeous in you know. Not. Not. Good looking. He's gorgeous in game six. He's stunning. Supermodel. Really. He stared down the apparent best goalie in the world and beat him on his home ice. Fellow Russian. Right?

Like everyone says, oh, that's the steely guy that doesn't get beat in an elimination game. And Samsonov goes in there and beats him in an elimination game that's not five four or six five with wild goals going in yeah it's a tight game where they need every single one of the saves you need you wonder if that changes him going and going into the next series having like haven't done it this is his first playoff series win and he beat vasilevsky does he feel better and less nervous it's crazy to go into the next, you know, God, they've got a lot of Russian goalies going against Bobrovsky now. Samsonov versus Bobrovsky, no one saw that.

But having, not even for one second. If someone tells you they did, they're lying. I just, I can't, I can't help but feel that beating Vasilevsky for Samsonov is a massive moment. It has to be. That's going home and you... It's got to be. Knocked out all week.

It has to be nerves for him. Game one was disastrous. To turn yourself around, to be overaggressive, to fall awkwardly over on your stomach and not be square to the shooter it just has to be nerves for him and so yeah if you can have less of that and see him you know be the better version of himself that changes how you feel about the leafs a bit particularly because bobrovsky gourd stelic after the break but sammy you got a few things you gotta say so it's time for playoff picks presented by bet365 visit the app for the latest odds now this is a pretty remarkable uh edition of playoff picks because i went to check out some odds today

and your toronto maple leaves oh boy the ones who wear blue and white are the stanley cup favorites the favorites to win Lord Stanley's mug. I saw that. At plus 350. And another Canadian team right behind them. The second favorite is the Edmonton Oilers at 375. Sportsnet. The irons of sportsnet right now.

Speaking of dialing 1-800-JOHN-COOPER, they're dialing 1-800-THAT-SERIES. No kidding. Let me ask you something. Okay, Sportsnet's had the national package for how long? 300 years. 300 years. Yeah.

Would you have taken 299 of those sucking for a Toronto-Edmonton final? Yeah, that's a great question. That's a great question. Would you make that trade to get it once, to get an all-Canadian final with the Leafs in it? You might. You might.

I don't know how the math works. If you can make up as much money in one round like that, then you can for seven of them that suck. There's 35 million Canadians. That final would be viewed by 36 million somehow in Canada. Yeah, but people would fly home. People would be flying home from all over the world to watch that truly i you know a lot of times tnt or espn would just like not even show up for that well they might they might not be showing up now everyone's move on yeah i gotta

say a lot of tv execs probably not loving the bruins and colorado being eliminated yeah yeah probably not great to sammy's point over John Cooper, who cares? Yeah. Who cares? Sorry. Bye-bye. See you. Go watch baseball starting soon.

Enjoy the basketball series. There's some really good ones in the second round. Sorry, not sorry. I'm just looking at, you know, a lot of times books will pump up odds for very public teams, like, for example, the Packers or the Cowboys or the Lakers and other sports. The Leafs are obviously an incredibly public team. But if I look on merit, it's pretty close to being on merit, correct. The way that this has opened up for them is legitimately terrifying as a Leaf fan.

So can I tell you how I've bet this? Legitimately terrifying. On Bet365, you can get the Rangers to win the Cup today at plus 1,300. So you have to win tonight, and then there's a couple of rounds after that. You can bet it's for them just to make the final two. So I've bet that, and then I've also bet the Devils to win tonight just to win my money back if the Rangers don't win. There you go. And last quick

thing here uh if you want to have some action on rangers devils game seven i think i'm leaning towards the rangers a rangers win with a crider goal and igor shisterkin to have over 29 and a half saves pays plus 575 so some fun for game seven tonight and that was playoff picks presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds and quickly kipper before we go to break matthew nye's on the ice for all three playoff overtime winners on the road pretty remarkable yeah and the play he makes to john tavaris is otherworldly cycle right yeah and no due respect to you know other players but yarn crock hasn't shown the ability to make that play.

Kerfoot hasn't. Right, good point. This kid comes in and ice in his veins. Even crazier, he lost in overtime in the national championship game in that building. Oh, yeah. He was in that building and watched his team lose in OT, then gets on the ice for the Leafs.

OT winner, OT winner, OT winner. Must be some... Feel a little better. Certain bit of satisfaction in that anyway. I'm sure he's still... The thought of Quinnipiac still crosses his mind at least twice a day. I'm sure.

That's a nice consolation prize for him, though. Do you see there's like in OT or late in the third, they cut to him on the bench and he was singing along to the arena music. Like dude is just unfazed. He does not care. Okay.

We're going to take a quick break. Gord Stelic, Leaf Nation pre and post will join us after to get his thoughts on the big win Saturday night. Joe Haggerty follows the Bruins

for Boston hockey now. We need answers. And what maybe we could expect out of the Florida Panthers. And we got almost 4,000 people on YouTube. How's that? We would love a thumbs up before we go to break. You're watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born. Diving deep into Leafs, Raptors,ays and nfl the jd bunk is podcast

subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts this is real kipper and born on sportsnet 590, The Van. Back towards the blue line. Headed to himself off the boards. Back into the corner for Nyes. Nyes back in the net for Tavares. Tavares coming out. Sends it in. They score!

They score! Holy mackerel! They score! The Leafs have won it! They're going to the second round! Do you believe this holy mackinac what do we do now that's a great line ralphie what a home run a like to get that's so ralphie that was of course joe bowen with the call saturday night for the Toronto Maple Leafs. We also had Joe on Friday, which was a great interview.

More so about just the emotion of everything that went into the weekend and the possibilities. Our next guest kind of falls into that for me anyways. Yeah. Because I'm a little older than you guys. No. So certainly can feel for a guy like Gord Stelic who really started out in the organization, got a chance to be the general manager, and of course, years later, doing a terrific job

in the media. Let's welcome in to the show Gord Stelic-tricity. And you know, outside of what Joe felt, let's start with you there, Gordo. What were your thoughts Saturday night? Kippy. How are you, buddy? I'm good. I'm good.

Okay. 1-800-GOT-JUNK. Okay. You back up here. Back up here. 19 years. Big enchilada right in the back there. Okay.

A team that couldn't close the seventh deciding game. Put the bag in there. The big players. The big players. Yeah. Back it up over here. We got more bags here. That's it, Derek. The big players. The big players. Yeah, back it up over here. We got more bags here. That's it, Derek.

The big players. The big players. They can't come through. They came through. Goaltending can't come through. Trade deadline. You can't get in pickups. All these things.

Instead of today talking about a game seven that we would feel like the Boston Bruins did yesterday against Florida. That kind of nervousness. Free at last. Free at last. And I don't want to diminish about the civil rights cause. That's way more important. But I'm telling you, that's the feeling right now. So just, you know, memories of Nikki Borshefsky, of Lanny McDonald,

of Gary Volk, of that kind of thing. It's just 19 years. We deserve it. Leaf Nation, you know what? Players deserve it. The organization, we deserve it. We deserve it as whether it's media that work with the players deserve it the organization we deserve it we deserve it as whether it's a media that work with the team or cover the team or the fans that support them through thick

and thin hallelujah yeah gordo that's awesome i mean right i mean truly truly wonderful thing there um you know talk about the team all the time obviously fun for these people who follow it so closely to have that moment you know what does that mean for them going forward? And we're going to mostly look backwards, but does this change, like, the pressure and how things feel for the Leafs? Do you think it'll free them up? Huge, huge, huge. Because, like, I mean, these guys,

their parents can't even wear 1967. That's not on them. They can't wear 19 years. That's not on them as well. But just, you know, like, just in this this last i mean what what would we say like i mean talk about 1-800-GET-JUNK like imagine if they had the end of end of season clean out presser on wednesday or whenever and we're talking about it we we we what we could say nothing we there's nothing we could say all summer nothing they could say so you know he just yeah so

just the whole thing about just the shackles off. Now, okay, big picture, it's only one round. They should have won a round a year or two, three, four, five ago. But still, right now, and you know what? Like 1993, as Kippy mentioned, we're a little bit older. And Kippy was active in the NHL, won a Stanley Cup the next year. That year, the big guns got knocked off. The top five teams in the regular season got knocked off.

So it was the Leafs, Kings, Islanders, and Montreal Canadiens that were down to the final four. So you've got Colorado, Tampa Bay, Boston are out. And one thing I tweeted, the teams that have won the Stanley Cup the last 16 years, they're all out. So for somebody, and why not the Toronto Maple Leafs? It's not an easy path. It's still a difficult path.

But the heavyweights have sort of been taken care of in the first round, which I never expected. Gord, no question the pressure over the last few years on Marner, Matthews, Riley, Tavares, and playing with that responsibility of carrying half a team's salary cap. The numbers were there for all of them. Tavares with the clincher. First time a captain's been able to do that in history.

Yet, we watched a goaltender for the first time in 11 clinching tries to actually be the first star of the game. Is that the bottom line here? Yeah, Kippy, I saw you the first star of the game. Is that the bottom line here? Yeah, Kippy, I saw you come on right after the game. We were watching the post-game coverage, and you said that. And that's absolutely it. You know, I love Freddie Anderson, but the Toronto Maple Leafs got out goaltended every single series, and goaltending, goaltending, goaltending.

All the other things were huge positives, but a big question mark was the goaltending. And once or twice during the playoff, you kind of wondered, was that not going to be a problem again? But when he needed to come up big, this guy absolutely came up big. And that, yeah, that is number one.

You don't have him giving you decent goaltending, at times exceptional goaltending. We're not talking this manner today. And, you know, to go with the grade A performances, you know, Austin Matthews shows up in the big moments down the stretch for them, scores a bunch of goals that help him through. You know, did you like the progress from his game in general

over playoff series that we've seen in the past? Justin, do you notice when Kippy's on TV, the product placement of all the Kippy products behind him? No. Oh, my goodness. Is all the Kippy products behind him? No. Oh, my goodness. Is that right? Looking for Little Buddha? Yeah, Little Buddha, the Kippy book is there. And then I think he's doing a new turtle wax,

Kippy's turtle wax for cars and stuff like that. I don't know. I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure. But, hey, you know, there was like Austin Matthews, people expect Dominic. And there was that, but also there was just the key, slick,

Austin Matthews style, you know, that three-goal comeback. He was like a gunslinger with that great deflection that seemed to be the one that really, really galvanized them in coming back, tying, and ultimately winning that game. And then that shift on Saturday. Man, that's one of those you replay. Now, give the whole team credit. I mean, give the whole team credit about keeping the puck in,

keeping the pressure on. But to your point, like, again, all the big guns. I mean, Mitch Marner's been their best player this year, and he was that for the bulk of the playoff, or was one of the best players the bulk of the playoffs as well. I mean, that's been the tough thing. These guys who have had exceptional years have had to face the postseason scrum or accountability factor on a down note.

And instead, Tampa Bay's got a lot of big names, and all these guys came up. And Austin Matthews, at times you kind of said, when's he going to get going? And then you realize that there was a certain different kind of role that he played, and he was the guy we're talking to gordon stellick former toronto maple leaf general manager and now a host of leaf nation pre and post on sportsnet 590 the fan uh gordon we all expected a better morgan riley in the playoffs it was a must. But were you surprised at the level that he hit? Yeah, I'll say pleased. I'll say pleased.

I wasn't sure. Put it that way. Because we've talked many times. I'm really big on him, big on Morgan Riley. I understood the big on Morgan Riley part wasn't the one we saw a lot during the regular season. You know, I wonder, you know, K Kippy and you had it with you know Bukabu Bukabu being such an excellent partner an underrated partner with to Brian Leach for all those years and Luke Shen I thought maybe he might just be a

seventh guy for his personality his toughness his grit well whatever it is with Morgan Riley it just seems to have I gotta say part of maybe brought the best out of him. But he was the X-factor, X-player. What were you going to get in Morgan Riley? And again, Kippy, going back our era about what Ian Turnbull did. Again, I'm going way back when, but for the Toronto Maple Leafs a lot of years ago when Borya Somi got injured, he had his best playoff when they upset the New York Islanders. I mean, it's 45 years later, but there's a lot of similarities in this. And Morgan Riley and the black eyes, perfect.

Like, I don't know, the Gary Roberts black eye is just perfect, you know, to add to that persona. They needed a stud D. They had, I mean, McCabe was as well. They had a couple stud Ds in that regard. I thought those two were outstanding. But yeah, I was pleased. I've always, when I say believed in him,

but I acknowledge that that's something that hadn't been there as much during the regular season and he rose to the occasion. Do you have any concern that the team didn't carry the play like they typically do? Like you would say about the Sleeves team for years now, even in losses, like they tended to be on the right side of shot attempt metrics and all that do you have any concern that generally they spend a lot more

time in their own zone than they typically have yeah you know and you you you're good on this like you write very very interesting you break it down in a very interesting manner and you're right justin in that you can't you can't do this uh long term okay you can't there's a lot of things you can do in the short term in the small picture but the big picture uh you can't do this long-term, okay? There's a lot of things you can do in the short-term, in the small picture, but the big picture, you can't come out flat four out of five games, you know, of the first five, come out relatively flat four of the first five or look like the other team wants it more early on in those games. You can't always come back from three goals down.

You can't tie it with a minute left like, you know, like Ryan O'Reilly did in that particular game. You can't tie it with a minute left like Ryan O'Reilly did in that particular game. You can't count on that. So I – and that's why I was saying earlier that it's not an easier path to the Stanley Cup. You'll have to play better than you did even though you beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in that particular part as far as the old Mike Babcock start on time. So I agree with you. It's not just about that.

That would be a concern going forward that it's not always going to, it's like cramming for the exam the last night before, you know, it may work once or twice, but you know, in the big picture, it's going to bite you in the ass. So Gord going in and around to who are the guys that you think need to step up and add more depth and balance that territorial field that at times was tilted in the wrong direction in the first round? Yeah, well, I really look at the whole team in the start of the game,

just because there's a couple you kind of said, like, you know, game one, you go, are you serious? And I think also after that, that Sheldon Keefe, we talked about that line shift 10 seconds into it. I think just hey let the big guns go out there get a shift let the let the other team be obsessed about matching lines I understand there's a part to it but if you think you got the better talent don't have them focusing on that particular part and also when you could could have clinched in game five just you know that so I mean that's really on that's really on everybody I think a neat part

was okay game six getting Michael Bunting back in the lineup getting the two other D in the lineup let's face it Justin Hall and Mark Giordano had a tough playoff if you had to you know grade the first round and so you've got some more variables to you know to to toy with what and you know guys like Lafferty and a cherry didn't, or guys like that didn't really play all that bad as far as, you know, looking at Lafferty being an, you know, and, and you look at Reese and that being, being healthy scratches, Aston Reese being healthy scratches,

but now you put more variables in there and Matthew knives, man, he's, and I, and I think the three of us discussed it, that you can't count on this player to be a big player. But, wow, he's really wowed me. I'm not talking like superstar. I just mean he's a top two-line player. He can play on the top two lines in the playoffs. The single most important play might be the goal he prevented.

At the time, you thought it was a nondescript nothing play because they were down by three. And that ultimately could be the game changer in this series. So I do like, you know, was a nondescript, nothing play because they were down by three, and that ultimately could be the game-changer in the series. So I do like, you know, Kippy, to your point, that there's more things Sheldon Keefe can do if he's not happy about the particular mix. You know, it's not like waiting until game seven to put your goaltender in like Boston did.

You got a few other things in the flow that if you're not happy about, you know, I thought St. Louis did a great job with that. Craig Berube, the year they won the cup, that every now and then he just would tweak it a little bit along the way. And I think that's a positive for Sheldon Keefe, feeling that good vibe with the Leafs. I thought that once Bunting went back in, it was very evident what fresh legs looked like,

like seeing someone with a little bit of pop. And I thought Timothy Lilligren was one of those guys that, you know, it's a tough series. And you see someone come in young and fresh and all of a sudden can skate it. It makes a visible difference. Do you think they continue forward with Justin Hall on the outside and maybe Lilligren gets to start the next series?

Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so. And that's not an indictment on Justin Hall. That's just, you know, and you got, you know, rested and young and motivated and enthused. Like, you want to know, how's the player going to respond, right, to getting that opportunity? And the neat part, to your point, is, you know, it was a tough one-goal game. It was a close 2-1 game. And he really, you know, fit in well.

So he didn't look out of place and look like they wanted to play. So I would think right now, just based on, you've got to be a lot of a bench coach in well. So he didn't look out of place and look like they wanted to play. So I would think right now, just based on you've got to be a lot of a bench coach in this. You've got to go by feel. Look at this Boston Bruin team. I mean, I don't think they lost three in a row all season. I mean, this team that played in Game 7 that looked nervous, 82 games, they just went out and kicked butt all the time. You know, playoffs does funny things, and you've got to find ways if the trend is going the wrong way because you're playing that same team again the next night or two away

right you don't get a anaheim or chicago or an easy trip somewhere like that and and you you got to try to be on top have that feel about who to put in and for me personally a shout out to michael bunting because i'm right from the moment I saw this guy, I, I saw his ability to go out there and create, but then all of a sudden it turned into a negative with the drawing of the penalties, the head snapping back, the, the long looks to the officials, the, the needing 30 seconds to get up off of one knee to another,

none of it in game six. Clean. And skated, played, like was effective. Didn't turn himself into any sideshow. It was all about the team and that energy that you just spoke of through his skating, his forechecking. I thought he did a terrific job. Yeah, and that wasn't easy, Kippy and Justin.

You're right. And I like as well, again, when I talk about all the baggage that's being shed right now, like all these particular – and to me, the biggest one on this team was the whatever 0-10 or whatever it was in deciding games. I mean, all those things. But Michael Bunting could have been a mini Nazem Kadri situation again had it ended like that, had he not got back in the lineup,

it would have been kind of a, you know, and what kind of like Mark Shifley did that one series when, when he, when he ran the Montreal Canadian player, right. You know, just so in this case,

he gets to get back and he gets to play exactly that kind of game. You're talking about the very best of Michael Bunting and there's more games down the road. So he, he was, yeah, he was one of the fresh legs you alluded to, Justin, but that was not an easy role because he likes to play on the edge,

and he was able to get the right edge for game number six. Last thought for me, just John Tavares scores the OT winner. He's the captain of the team. Took a lot of heat at times because he gets paid a lot, whatever. Pretty cool to see him get it, eh? Yeah, it really is. And again, you know, the last part, unfortunately, with the cap world is it's always that number.

Like nobody really, it's the 11 million. And, you know, that's, if you want to call it unfairness to it, whatever the word you want to have. I mean, this is a guy that by coming to Toronto, he legitimized about, you know, being a destination that Stephen Stamkos and others maybe had considered, but at the end chose not to come to in the prime of their career. So I'm with you.

I was really thrilled to see that because I just think, character guy, lower-key guy, you start saying, okay, if they don't start having playoff success, what he says, he starts to take on the monotone persona of Dion Phaneuf, another guy that I liked, but you got tired hearing his stuff afterwards because he was speaking for a team back then that just didn't have regular season success. And again, you know, John Tavares to talk again

if they lack playoff success as the captain would be hard to take. So I like that he didn't have to talk about that. He could exude all the positives off the ice just like his very positive play on the ice one last one here gourd real quick here uh very fast turnaround for the leafs and i and play tomorrow they stayed they stayed overnight in tampa? Yeah, that's what I heard. And, of course, Florida coming off in an emotional win. I mean, who's got the mojo at Punk Drop Tuesday night? Yeah, I was talking to our good friend Ed Jovanovsky about that earlier,

trying to figure out from the Florida Panthers' point of view. So, I mean, like, are you totally spent if you're the Florida Panthers point of view. So, I mean, like, are you totally spent if you're the Florida Panthers? You didn't get a chance to go home, so you'll go right on to Toronto. Or is the momentum going to work in your favor that you won three in a row and, you know, whereas the Leafs, you know, when I say just won one, won a big one. So I'm interested about that. I still think, hey, Florida's not going to be an easy touch,

but I think the Leafs, being on home ice, even though it's been a road, sweet road playoff so far, and just getting the extra day of rest, I believe, should be a positive. But we'll see tomorrow because both teams, you know, fueled probably they probably didn't have to put any fuel in the plane. They could have just flown back themselves, I think. Both teams are so jacked. I don't know about the Leafs so much as a surprise but just a pleasant way to win a game

so I'm hoping it's a real good game game one you know I'm hoping it's not one that 15 minutes you got Florida up three nothing or or even Toronto up four nothing you know I I I like that's what I liked about game six it was a bit more of a traditional playoff battle. But you got, I'm intrigued to see, like is Florida emotionally spent? The Leafs, are they kind of slow off the mark? I hope they both come out fighting. All right, Gord, we're just warming up. Toronto hockey in May.

You okay with that? We'll get the weather, yeah. Let's get the May weather. But you're right, it's just fun and you hear the horns honking and you see everyone wearing stuff to schools. And, you know, I think I just had a quick, I remember about 19, 20 years ago, and they used to be in the second round. And Lisa was out once and she just said there was like a couple of 10-year-old kids waving leaf flags right before the game. And everyone's honking. Everything's great.

And then she came back an hour later and the game was well on, but they were still the corner doing that because it was so much fun, right? You know, just that kind of fun in the city. And we got it with the Raptors a few years ago. I got a good feeling this year. All right, Gord. Enjoy tomorrow night. It all gets started. Thanks for doing this.

You guys have any more junk to open in? The truck's leaving now. We okay? We're all set, I think. Okay. Let's go take Sammy with you. Back up. Hold on.

Here he goes. This is Gord Stelic. Okay. Back up here. This is Gord Stelic backing up right now. This drop needs to be like three beeps less. It's a long time. Hey, do you got a big triangle on your ass right now?

Hey, watch my Dufferin mazda cx9 there okay be careful okay okay just all right gordon stellick leaf nation pre and post we got two weeks of that at least maybe longer i love that man oh he's a lot of fun love that he's a lot of fun so it's interesting like it's such a quick turnaround here yeah crazy you know way better if i'm not mistaken the leafs probably went down for game six and they had to pack for two games in boston yeah i think i don't think i don't think there would have been enough time to come home so just like that not only did you over pack but now right home you're you're going home to open up at home which again it's a it's a quick turnaround for everything the building

the people that work there everybody was expecting yeah a boston game one yeah you know maybe it's because i'm an alcoholic but my first thought was like, God, I hope the Leafs didn't party after that game. Oh, they did. Like, it's tight, right? Like, I mean, you're a couple days before game one. Let me just tell you, it's really hard to avoid. Well, I know.

I think. Really, really hard. Two, I think it would be nice for them, like if they were playing Boston, which is not necessarily nice but just to have that first one on the road where you can go in and you can lose that first one you're like ah we'll get them the next one we'll get that split getting all hammered and coming home and having to win the first one right rip out of a team that's just eight hours

later like they'll skate today obviously they don't they didn't skate yesterday i had to get one skate one sleeping in your own bed i guess we'll get into this more after we talk to hagerty but quickly the swing in road games for the leafs versus boston and tampa in terms of fear is you can't even imagine right like the difference in going into the td garden versus whatever the hell the panthers arena is called. FloridaRink.com. I don't know. We'll get into this more, but I'm sorry. All bets are off. Oh, yeah. No, 100%.

All bets are off. They're just the ghosts in that other building. We talk about demons. I know. There's some demons floating around that place. So we'll see. Also, there's the ticket thing to talk about. We got Florida stuff to discuss.

And we'll get into it with our next guest joe hagerty uh on why the leafs aren't going to boston to open up game one in the second round more of that with nick kiprios justin born after the break the best blue jay show out there period blaren barker be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. It is impossible to go through two hours and not talk Boston Bruins. Yeah.

What did they lose all season? Seven games? Felt like it. It sounds about right. Maybe, yeah. And three in this opening series. After winning, yeah. Man, I don't know.

At home. It's baffling, honestly. At home, if I'm not mistaken. Joe Haggerty, do we have him sammy all right joe thanks for joining us really appreciate it uh no problem no problem i don't i don't know where to start i just mentioned uh the amazing season that they uh that the bruins had and what's it feel like waking up to a team that's uh knocked out of the stanley cup playoffs well i'm sure for them it's the worst feeling in the world i know my son and my wife What's it feel like waking up to a team that's knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Well, I'm sure for them it's the worst feeling in the world. I know my son and my wife had tickets last night. And my son's a nine-year-old hockey player for the Junior Bruins, a great little player. He loves hockey. He was absolutely heartbroken and stunned. My wife said he was stone silent from the time they lost and the entire ride home. I think he was shocked. So I think there was probably a lot of that going on with the fan base, with the players, certainly.

I know Jim Montgomery called it stupefying last night. He was bringing out the thesaurus to try to describe what they were feeling. But, you know, obviously all negative feelings. One of the biggest disappointments in choke jobs in Boston sports history, I think, just given the expectations and the way they lost in game seven, having a three to two lead in the final minute of the game. And I heard you say earlier, you know, what a jokingly saying, what did they lose seven times this year? I'm sure it was something like that, but don't forget two of those losses during the regular season were to the Florida Panthers.

This was a team that nobody expected them to lose to them in the playoffs in the first round. But this was a team that gave them trouble during the regular season. This and the Ottawa Senators were probably the two teams they had the hardest times with during the regular season. And poetic as it is in sports, they ended up playing them in the first round of the playoffs. So, Hags, how do you do a power ranking of kind of what went wrong for this team?

Obviously, when you're considerably more talented, it's not just one thing I know. But, you know, how do you kind of prioritize? What are the main issue or two that kind of didn't come through for them? I mean, there's so much meat on the bone when you're looking at, you know, what went wrong. There's, you know, the simple, their best players were not nearly as good as Florida's best players, Matthew Kachuk, Carter Berhege, you know, Brandon Montour. Bobrovsky was obviously really good in net.

You go down the list, there was like four, five, six Florida Panthers guys that absolutely shown in this first round series with Kachuk being the driving dominant force and Sam Bennett I would throw him in there too and there were you know not enough Bruins players especially their best players that stepped up and played their best hockey and that's one there's the injury to Patrice Berger on the herniated disc and you know him obviously wanting to come back and contribute and come back for game five after playing in a meaningless game 82 in montreal where he suffered the injury uh and then he comes back

into a series they're leading three to one is a minus six in the three games that he played and the whole series turns they end up losing you know is it was it the right call or the wrong call uh for him to come back in and play injured with all due credit for him playing through i'm sure which was what was a super painful injury but there's that there's lenis allmark and uh the coaching decision waiting way too long which we're finding out now and it was obvious watching him that there was a health issue going on and he was injured, waiting too long to pull the trigger and pull him. Once again in game five, I think it was a fairly easy call, and I remember asking Jim Montgomery about it. I thought that was a great place to put Jeremy Swayman in the series

when Allmark was looking uncharacteristic in some of the things that he was doing, and they had gone with a goalie rotation every other game all year long. That's the time to go with Jeremy Swayman when you're up 3-1 in the series. If he's not great, you lose that game. Whatever, you still have two cracks at it to beat the Florida Panthers, and you get some rest for Linus Allmark, who looked like he desperately needed it,

either because of injury or fatigue. They jumbled up all the line combinations. Forward were playing with other guys they hadn't played with all year in Game 5. There's a lot of weird things that happen in Game 5, coaching decision-wise, that I think is also an issue. You know, go down the list. The Bruins, I think, looked old in this series. Brad Martian, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, all well over 30 years old.

All the Florida Panthers players that I reeled off that had great series, you know, in their mid to late 20s. And I think in the playoffs that matters as far as having young legs and, you know, fresh young players that can handle a two-month grind like the playoffs. So, you know, there's a lot to pick out. Obviously defense, they couldn't handle Florida's breakout and kept turning the puck over.

And everybody, I think, outside of Charlie McAvoy did not look good, especially Hampus Lindholm. I don't think he had a point in the series. He struggled very badly in these playoffs and has not played well in the playoffs the last two years since he came to Boston. So there's a lot to look at and pick at. I'm just getting warmed up right now,

but that's a few to get you guys to get the ball rolling. He writes for the Boston Hockey Now. We're speaking to Joe Haggerty, Bruins writer. So I'm watching, and the few times I do text my guys here, JB and Sammy, on a number of occasions, I'm like, the Bruins are going to give this away. And just the blatant giveaways and the turnovers, I mean, how much credit goes to the Florida Panthers, or is this basically going to be looked upon as Boston completely giving this away?

We didn't see signs of this, Joe, all season long. And that in itself is the question of not enough adversity to be ready. Yeah, and I think it was obvious in the first couple of games that they weren't ready to start the playoffs like the Panthers were, who had been basically playing under playoff pressure, you know, from the all-star break on, you know, all-star weekend on. You could see it took a couple of games for the Bruins to really get acclimated and get up to the speed and intensity that the Florida Four check was thrown at their defensemen

as they continuously, time after time, were giving up pucks and throwing pucks towards the middle of the ice as they're breaking it out of the zone and kept handing it over to the Panthers in the worst part of the ice that you could possibly hand it to somebody when they were under pressure. And, you know, part of it was obviously defensemen. Part of it was the forwards not helping them out and at times slowing down the four checkers. You know, they were not working as a five-man unit with any of that stuff, and that was a big-time problem. You know, not going with Matt Gryzlik to start the series

as one of your best puck movers and go with Connor Clifton, who struggled mightily. And then, you know, Gryzlik was okay. He wasn't horrible in the games that he played. He was fine. Certainly you didn't kill him with mistakes. And then you take him out and you put in Connor Clifton, and I think it was game six, and he was a disaster and continued to show the lack of poise and composure

that he showed earlier in the series. Yet another coaching lineup decision mistake. But your point overall is that I give a lot of credit to Florida and their plan and the way they were going to attack them with the forecheck and how relentless they were. And it impacted the Bruins defensemen. It turned them into a mistake-prone unit that kept throwing pucks up the ice and giving pucks back up to the Florida Panthers in really bad spots.

And on top of that, the Bruins were losing a ton of board battles. They looked soft on their sticks, like trying to get the puck out of the defensive zone, just make simple plays to get it out. You know, Florida, the Florida Panthers were winning a ton more battles, just one-on-one puck battles than the Bruins were throughout the series. And, you know, there are reasons why the Bruins end up pushing it to seven games, right? Their power play was outstanding.

Taylor Hall was very good in this series. I thought Charlie McAvoy was inconsistent but had, you know, some really good moments. They had some individual players. Pasternak, towards the end of the series, really started to get going. Marchand was producing and coming up with big plays at the beginning of the series, and then looked, I thought, worse as the series went on. There were some players that had decent performances in the series, but I give full credit to Florida for turning them into a team that looked

far from the greatest regular season team in the NHL history. And part of that is, you know, that playoffs are different than the regular season. We all know this. It's a different tenor. It's more physical. It's faster. All that's more intense.

But I think it's also that the Florida Panthers are now your typical eight seed. This is the President's Trophy winner from last year that were going through injuries all year. And it looks like they're getting healthy at the exact right time. And I think this is going to be a tough matchup for anybody in the playoffs given the way that they're playing and the talent that's on that roster well we'll continue to watch the fallout of the boston bruins uh knocked out of this first round hey joe thanks for doing this man really appreciate it you got it guys anytime

thanks so much joe hagerty boston hockey now and sure looked like a a retirement exit for patrice bergeron last night yeah yeah it certainly did i mean i know he did something similar the year before but he got a herniated disc in his back he's his body's been through the ringer he's someone who's made it clear that he wasn't even sure about this year he was so unlike patrice. He couldn't make plays. No, and that's, you know, you don't want to watch that. He doesn't want to play like that. When he's humming with Marchand, it's a beautiful thing to watch. It is.

I believe you would say. Perfection. You know, those guys have been a perfect line. They were a perfect team all year, fellas. Yeah, you guys didn't want a perfect team. No flaws. Perfect. Although we did say Allmark. We did you guys didn't want a perfect team. No flaws. Perfect. Although we did say Allmark.

We did call the goaltending as a risk. Can I just talk to you guys about the Bruins, the Chokers? Tampa, Boston. This is just a dream. It's a dream day. We should have brought popcorn. I'm thrilled. They got the cup in 2010, which every Canadian hockey fan outside of Vancouver will always thank them for. Yeah, 2011?

2010, 2011, it was a massive moment to not let Vancouver win that cup, which I'll always be in debt to them for. But you look at 2010, they are up 3-0 in a series against the Philadelphia Flyers. They go to Game 7. They go up 3 in game seven and blow that game and lose that series they blow a game seven on home ice against the st louis blues they blow a game six on home ice in the finals both of these against the chicago blackhawks in the last minute david boland scores two goals they lose to the islanders on home ice in a game seven this i can't remember what i had for breakfast this course got it this course has had some really really bad chokes and if they didn't have that 2011 cup which it's a cup you can't take it

away from them i'd kill for one cup from this leaves core ever so i can't but they really really are saved by getting that cup early in their tenure or else they'd be looked upon as the biggest failure franchise you're not wrong they've had a lot of bad ones fellas yeah that game seven against st louis you know at home you lose five nothing yeah it was not it was four or something yeah it. Like, there have been a lot of bad ones, and this is legitimately the worst choke in NHL history. I mean, statistically, yes. I got to say, Tampa Bay losing to Columbus round one that year felt much worse. From Sportsnet stats, that the 43-point differential

between the Panthers and Bruins represents the largest upset in Stanley Cup history before a best-of-seven series. A best-of-five was the Monarch, the Miracle, and what is it, Manchester, the Kings and Oilers. But to be up 3-1. I can't imagine. And we've seen it and witnessed it the last few years on the hate of Matthews, Marnerardner yeah tavaris neil andrew they went like they got beat up bad the last few years this time of year huge i can't imagine what it would be like in

boston right now for those guys you know fascinating you know they go into that game game seven against florida nick felino doesn't even dress healthy scratch in game seven against Florida. Nick Foligno doesn't even dress. Healthy scratch in game seven. Clifton's out. They pull the guys about to win the Vezina trophy, sits on the bench, and they put Swayman in who sat six straight games. I mean, I don't blame him for making the decision. Make it earlier. Hags nailed it.

Like, you had a perfect opportunity. If your goalie's that hurt, like, I know he's the frontrunner for the Vezina and all that, but if he, like, know he's the front runner for the vesna and all that but if he like the the reports coming out there hasn't been a confirmed but it's a debilitating injury if you have this backup that you you guys like oh it's a 1a 1b you've been switching them back and forth all year it's an obvious spot and i don't think like outside of the goal that goes in to tie the game i didn't think swayman was bad last night i thought the game 10 goal was brutal it was not for sure but other outside of that monturi got some good wood on it yeah but it went through him did it not slow kind of like he's just leaving this weird pocket he's

kind of caught you know why you gotta come out more you gotta seal it and come out more and if he beats you he beats you on the far side there's nothing you can do back on the goal line did you see what happened right before it goes in oh yeah he's out and he pushes he's he beats you on the far side. There's nothing you can do. Can't be sitting back on the goal line. Did you see what happened right before it goes in? Oh, yeah. He's out and he pushes Kachuk. He's out on top of the blue trying to push Kachuk away. Scrambles back. Doesn't get to his post in time.

Not your job to clear that guy. Don't even worry about him. So, you know, go back to Ryan O'Reilly's overtime goal in Tampa. Yep. Morgan O'Reilly? No. Oh, the time. Game time.

Game time goal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. No, no. You're time sorry go watch vasilevsky worry about austin matthews on the far side really cheating tons of respect that that left him deep yeah and not sealed up yeah i guess you don't really know what's going through a goalie's head like we talked about the uh the samsonov bad goal on Ace Amon where he's like thinking about other things, but the shot he's facing. I think that was a good trade for the Bolts, by the way, to get Ace Amon. One interesting thing that I found,

I don't know if you listened to Jim Montgomery, head coach of Boston, talk about in his presser. We have three clips all melted together of Marchand, Bergeron, and Jim Montgomery. All right, Play those. Yeah. Okay. We'll come out.

30 seconds. Great. We obviously expected much different results this year and series. And unfortunately that didn't happen. This one's going to hurt for a long time. It hurts. You know, it's,

it's what it is. You know, you, you compete hard and you battle all year for that. So it's hard. I guess the words that come to mind right now is disappointment, confusion, and then I would say the other part is if you start looking at the season, it was an honor to coach that group.

Confusion. Yeah, I would avoid that word if I were the coach. You're the head coach. You know what I found? That's stunning. You know what I found really weird? He was asked about starting Swayman. And then he went into, I think, normal answer saying that uh we just thought he was

going to give us the best chance tonight and then for some reason he says you're gonna have to ask goalie bob ascenza who's the goalie coach a little more in detail about it what and i'm like don't throw him under the bus you're the coach yeah like first of all no goalie coach is ever available to the media ever that i know i've never heard and if if if bob assenza was available all season long then that's legit but i don't think that's the case and i especially don't think that's the case in the playoffs. So for him to volunteer that invitation to go ask Bob Asenza about a goaltending start, to me, is nuts. What do you think, then, the implication kind of passing the buck on maybe the decision

came from not him to how they used their goalies? That's the only thing I can think of. Yeah. Is that he's going going i wanted to play the other guy i i wanted to go with my other guy uh you know go ask bob yeah what about bob funny because the bruins have had unbelievable goaltending and essence has been there for as long as i can remember he's had a ton of success there i didn't put well maybe i do put it in but i put it into that rick bonus whole thing of i get rick bonus he's upset and he wants to take a piece of skin off of somebody

he wanted to take it off his star players but even Montgomery there just go down with the ship okay yeah I agree come on it's over it's sunk don't be looking for a life raft when the when the everybody else is going down okay you are the head coach yeah don't tell me Bob Asenza. Tell me you. I've sat in there and seen like, you know, Sheldon Keith, the power play is being run this way, whatever. And you get into a

game or whatever. And he goes, we're not doing that. I'm sorry to the guy running the power play. Here's what we're doing. The head coach can

override anything. Of course. You know, so if you got to agree with the decision and if you don't, then you got to say so and make the change.

So I agree with you, Kip. That's even Rick bonus. If, decision and if you don't then you got to say so and make the change so i agree with you kip that's and even rick bonus if if and i don't know if you caught um blake wheeler's comments i did yeah oh yeah where he's like i disagree yeah didn't need to be such yeah and i'm not was not a blake wheeler fan listening to that either. No. You know, the gutsy thing would have said is. We deserved it. Rick's right. Yeah.

That's all he had to say. We got to be better. Was Rick is right. I just wish he would have come to us first. Yeah. And then said, listen, I'm going to the press. I'm selling the same thing I just told you. Yeah.

That would have been okay. So. Yeah. Little blame to go around for everybody there. Well, I think a lot of the reason with Blake Wheeler, well, he's had some disagreements with coaches, is probably the reason he went out and said what he did. I think that's fair.

That's fair. It's reflective of part of the issue, perhaps. Are you looking to get into a pissing match, me, you, and I? Who said that? So, that's Blake Wheeler. That's Blake Wheeler. Is he in that presser? No, this was a while ago.

Oh, okay. This was after actually Jim Matheson's pissy comment oh okay yeah yeah um so i just want to close on the bruins if we're okay oh okay last thing i'm getting a few comments in the youtube chat you're like well the leaks blew a 3-1 seriously they sure as hell did but they haven't blown a 3-0 and a 3-1 so yeah and the leafs back in the day back when my dad was five, came back from 3-0 against the Red Wings. So there you go. First team ever to do it. Bye-bye, Bees.

Bye-bye, Bergeron. You know he's going to think of something else in the next five minutes. Yeah, it's coming up. About Tampa or Boston. Trust tree time here, fellas? Just us talking? Yeah, yeah. Part of me wishes it was the Bruins.

In the next round? Yeah. I missed that. Part of him wishes it was the Bruins. In the next round? Yeah. I missed that. Part of him wishes it was the Bruins. And can you explain why? It's just... Payback. It's a whole exercise the demons thing.

It's, you know, it's the narratives. It's the... Yeah. It's just fun. It's... Maybe they'll lose. It's not as fun. You don't exercise the demons.

But having a chance to do that would have been fun. I'm fine with the cats. Can I tell you my thought on that? Don't care. Nope not sure that florida's worse than boss yes florida is quite good and i liked a lot of their it was weird feeling watching that game because you know naturally you're cheering for the cats a little bit but you're watching them playing they're like god they're kind of better it's like are you sure i want this like i don't know i know it's probably overthinking it but we can get into this yeah we're all tomorrow trust me we got two solid hours to tee up game one but there's no question florida deserve to win game seven presents some challenges for the leafs

and all i can't wait to talk about them is it they're uh trying to block out the leafs what's that they're trying to block the leaf Leafs? What's that? They're trying to block out the Leafs? Block out the Leafs from buying tickets? Yeah. What do you think of that, Kip? It's really funny that they schedule the game against the Leafs on March break so that they can get all the Leaf fans there and make some money. And then the second they play them in the playoff series, they're like, oh, we don't

want your money. That keeps us afloat. It does nothing. It just, all it does is take Toronto fans and squeeze a little bit more money out of them. Yeah, just send it to the secondary market. Because that's, yeah, they just got to go to the secondary market and buy up all the tickets, which they will. If you live in Florida, buy as many as you can. You're going to get paid.

It's not that popular down there. No. Okay. Full stop. There's a ton of tickets. Yeah. What's their seating capacity? 18,000? Imagine I knew that. What's their rink called? That's terrible. of tickets. Yeah. What's their seating capacity? 18,000?

Imagine I knew that. What's their rink called? That's terrible. I don't know. I don't know. Florida Hockey Place. How many season tickets holders would have access to playoff tickets? It's called FLA Live Arena.

Okay. For sure. So the commitment to season ticket holders would be, what, 4,000? That low? I don't know. It's 19,250. I can't imagine they have more than 5,000 or 6,000 season tickets. That means that the rest have to be sold publicly. And they're getting sold.

And guess who's buying them? I would imagine the Florida, many fans in Florida, and then outside with the U.S. address, and then they're flipping them over to the Leaf fans. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you, me, Sammy, we all probably know someone in the U.S. who could grab them.

But it's not an address. It's an American credit card. Yeah, you just need to know. Oh, is it? I thought it was a U.S. resident. No, no, it's American credit card. Yeah, you just need to know. Oh, is it? I thought it was a U.S. resident. No, no, it's American credit card. You just need to know someone in the U.S. essentially. Where?

Do you know an American? I do know. Multiple. How many season? So game one and game two here in Toronto, season ticket holders got to be up around here. 14,000? Yeah, they can't sell more's leaves more than that i mean like season tickets like there's got to be i don't know yeah i don't know whether or not they just

save enough to go to the public but if whatever's out there now for game one and game two um you know it'd be minimal for for mlsc to release tickets yeah which is kind of interesting too because everybody factored that they were gonna save up for game three and four against boston and now the turnarounds to go buy tickets in the secondary market on tuesday and thursday and now people are like well i don't know if i'm gonna go shell out a thousand dollars it Well, yeah, it is for sure. Like Boston's not the same draw, but if you win this series, oh boy. You mean Florida's not the same draw. Right.

Yeah, but it's like it's a Tuesday night in November against the Florida Panthers is legitimately the cheapest ticket you can get for the Leafs. So it's a little different. I already got a couple buddies. Going to Florida? Talking about. It's got to be at least 40% Leaf fans. Oh, listen, Do they not have

this weekend, so it's Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday? Saturday night in Florida. Isn't there a F1 going on in Miami? There is. The Grand Prix is there this weekend. Think about a Toronto weekend. Take the sticks, golf

and beach, hockey, F1. Who's not not gonna be in uh kipper how much you want to get my my fight for me buddy yeah i'll join live from the show i promise you know what our broadcast team radio is going to be there live and in person maybe they'll send us uh mlsc just put out a release didn't they joe bowenonesy, Ralphie, they will be in the building for game three in Florida. Those guys are going to be capital C celebs down there. Walking around, Joe Bowen, Jim Ralph, they're going to be getting stopped.

Oh my God. If they win a couple games down there, I don't think Bonesy and Ralphie are buying any beers at the bar afterwards. Let's just say that. No word if they'll actually get plain seats or they'll just be stuffed in the overhead compartment but we are really happy they're going on the road oh yeah it's the best great good stuff yep the right call all right um there's some nhl news going on here guys oh my god

like huge news uh the snoop dogg colorado uhouble-G? Colorado. I'm going Calgary. Oh, you want to go Snoop D-O-double-G? No. No. Not as... Snoop buying the Ottawa Senators is not as big... That's Mad Libs. That's Mad Libs.

That's two random items pulled together. Snoop Dogg and the Senators. A little birdie told me that uh stoop dog once said that the best weed in the world is ontario so maybe that's why he's buying the sense a surprise daryl sutter relieved of his duties in calgary yes and no his extension doesn't kick in yet or hasn't kicked in yet which is two years eight million dollars And they're just going to say, here's the money. They had no choice. Yeah, no choice.

No choice. As in the players were not going to hockey for the hockey man behind the bench. Yeah. So, yeah. Don Maloney goes in as a president of hockey operations. Gets his research and interviews everybody and apparently came up to the conclusion that... Untenable.

Yes. That it's going to be tough to move forward with Daryl Sutter. I don't care how much money you have. Well, I guess it does make a difference. That's a tough bell, though, to be like, yeah, I'll just eat that $8 million, now pay someone else an additional $3 million. Yeah, that sucks. That sucks.

No, I mean, no sympathy for the oil baron that owns them. That he's got that under his couch cushion. What do you do, though? People are now wondering whether or not Craig Conroy, former player for sure, is in a position to take the general manager's job, or is it too veteran that team for him to go in there and try to win now? My gut is that it's tough, right, to never have done the job before, and you've got to kind of make it happen immediately,

given the ages of your guys and all that that's a tough spot to put conroy in i'm sure if you're conroy you're like uh let me try but yeah i don't know it's uh and you think they'll just take the simple answer let conroy hire someone with maloney and well there's a lot of factors here and one of them you just mentioned is that you got to stroke a big check to Daryl Sutter. You ready to stroke a big check for a veteran coach right now? Is Joel Quindle going to come coach the Calgary Flames? By the way, I just pulled a name out of a hat there.

That's not news, a story, or anything, but do you know what I mean? I wrote about it. Did you? Thursday. You mentioned Quindle? It was in Kipper's little corner. Oh, but just not for the Flames. It's just he wants to coach again.

No, no, no. Teams are asking about his availability. So I'm sure he's asking for Bettman. It would have to go through Gary Bettman in the league office, but they'd like to know if there's a chance that he could come back. And I would bet you Calgary would be all over them, depending on what happens in New York tonight. Holy kipper, you're popular, buddy. Depending on what happens in New York tonight. Holy kipper, you're popular, buddy.

Depending on what happens in New York tonight, I think Gerard Gallant might be playing for his job tonight. I don't think. It'd be hard not to be, wouldn't it? With all the stuff they did at that deadline. With all due respect to Gerard Gallant, that was like three good teams in a row. He's not going to get over the hump,

and he's going to immediately get rehired? And you think about the ownership in New York, who literally blew up the entire franchise because of Tom Wilson. I don't think they're afraid to make moves with the coaching staff. Speaking of a record that may be broken tonight, Chris Kreider has got five playoff goals in a series. A friend of mine, Chris Contos, holds the record for six playoff goals in a series

versus Edmonton. And we'll see if... What, six is the record for goals? Six power play goals in a series. Did I not say that? Sorry. Maybe you did, and I just don't listen. Six power play goals in a series.

Wow. That's a big number. I mean, he is the only guy. I saw some advanced analytics today that say that, you know, they can't get to the front of the net, and Chris Kreider is the only damn guy who can, and he's having success. How about your buddy Chris Conto's stat line at the playoffs?

I think he had nine that playoff. He said he played 20 career playoff games, 11 goals, zero assists. Just shooting in the net, Chris. Yeah, he's good around the net. I love that. That's a great stat is impressive yeah so he's got all like is are the devils not playing with house money right now yeah and they got shakira in that again tonight so they're here yeah shakira yeah who wasn't very good last game no he's bad the rangers can't create a damn thing though like i'm surprised that offense has been so i know

they got the win the other night but they they haven't created a ton i expect better from them they're the underdogs tonight by betting odds i like the rangers yeah the rangers to me are like a really legitimate cup threat and this is a big night for them because they'd get carolina next who's missing tara vinen svechnikov patch already i love their odds in that series the best goalie you know it's god you just wonder with uh espn is wanting the rangers oh they're like come on freaky friday where like you know vasilevsky gets outplayed and just durkin tonight like you'd think it's a foregone conclusion that this guy's just going to come in tonight and shut the door,

but paid attention to the playoffs lately. And what's the record now of road teams? Above 500. Way above 500. Oh, it's ridiculous. They're killing it. Might be like eight or 10 games over 500. Come on, Sammy.

Are you able to comment on ownership situation in ottawa or what like what what do you want to know i don't know you buying a team or what you and snoop dog see my are you in the snoop package i got like a rabbit ears for pockets yeah okay um but yeah like that they're talking about this Snoop Dogg ownership group. What I read about it today is that the line was, they're not going to balk at the billion dollar price tag. And I was like, why not? Why are they not balking?

It's the Senators. A billion dollars? It's a lot of money. It's U.S. And you need a new ring still? A billion. What are the Leafs worth? Way out of my league.

Yeah, well, you can hang on some way. There's only so many of these teams around. Once you get a few guys with some deep pockets, now it gets a little emotional, I think, right? Yeah, I think that's part of it too, right? It's like you want to own all these things. You're a rich, cool guy. You want to own a sports team.

Hey. JJ Watt just bought in on Burnley FC. You know what doesn't hurt? Just watching the excitement of this first round, watching it, what it does to a community, and thinking, yeah, could I be a part of that? Yeah. Sure.

And, you know, I even think of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and Wrexham, you know, goes up. And, you know, Reynolds is calling it like the most meaningful thing he's been a part of, right? It's such a collective thing. Not Deadpool? No, Deadpool's the money part, not the emotional part. Oh. You know, like it's a cool thing. But a billion.

A billion. so sports is real and what he does is fake correct yeah yeah it's all adding up that's why we follow this and we're not ebert ebert and siskel over here all right squids one uh Uh, Dallas, Seattle, everyone. Not, not, I mean, when you look at start to finish what Colorado went through, they had no horses. I'm sorry too. Like, how do you go this long without zero explanation out of the organization on

Nakushkin? Like I get, I get it's personal, but do you not owe your season ticket holders something what is going on like there is something like police reports and reporting done can the team say something so all the people that have invested in your organization following them along standing by them need to get updated from a reporter who has to go chase down a fire station report or a police report and you can't come out and and say something junk no one's saying no one's saying that you got to come out and give secrets away or respect the man's privacy but you owe your fans something to sit there and say nothing is, I think, is just wrong.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. 100%. Joke. It's not acceptable. And this team, you know, terrible luck with the injuries. I sent you guys the text there. Like, one of their lines is like, Mulgan Hunt and another name I didn't know. And it's like, they just ran out of bodies.

And that's a huge body for them, as is Landis Gog. They almost did it in the third. They almost found a way offside by a centimeter. Landis Gog was, to me, ripped the heart out of that team. I mean, he is their conscience. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, he's the Bergeron. He's the guy, the O'Reilly.

Think about how good he was, how good Nikushkin was, and how good Kadri was from last year. Those were three of their best guys. They just were all gone. Cagliano was gone. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

Hope he's okay. Yeah. I mean, terrible, terrible luck for Colorado. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for them this season. But also give Seattle a lot of credit. For sure. No superstars. Just hardworking guys.

Hard for a check. I do like that Bjork Strand. He can rip it. He can. That second goalie score was beautiful. Tara Vine. Who's on the line there? Tolvanen.

Tolvanen. Tolvanen. And Yanni Gord. Good playoff player. Best line since January for Seattle. Dallas is going to smoke him. I like the goalie jake onger rupe hensley in playoffs and points no big deal all right we're a little over 24 hours from puck drop a florida panthers toronto maple leafs you're going to want to follow the real kipper and born show for the next couple

of weeks man it gets a lot more fun thanks for joining us almost 4 000 people on youtube itunes spotify youtube channel sportsnet now can't get enough of us thanks for joining we're back tomorrow