Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs' Chemistry is on the Clock

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne open the show recapping the Islanders' 7-2 rout over the Leafs, taking a levelheaded approach following a disappointing performance and if there is enough time left in the season for the Buds to gel along with their newest additions. Stanley Cup Champ, Brad May (40:45), joins the show to discuss how it's tough for the higher echelon teams in the standings, like the Leafs, to get up for these late-season meetings and how they need to get their focus back. Afterwards, Sportsnet Central Co-Anchor & Best-Selling Author, Ken Reid (1:05:10) joins the guys to give his takes on a variety of topics. He talks about his books on hockey cards, why he likes Toronto's recent moves but is still a bit skeptical of them vs. Tampa Bay, and shares his thoughts on fighting potentially being outlawed in hockey. To finish the show, the guys take a look at the 2023 NHLPA Player Survey and which players got votes in a variety of categories. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. I'm really concerned about Ben Ennis. He's doing this commercial, but in the commercial he's talking about his house falling apart. I know. It's a roof. It's a faucet. They got issues. What do you want? Good thing he does a great job on our drive home show. He does a wonderful job. Alright. And show he does a wonderful job all right and uses jiffy support jiffy yes nick kiprio's just been born and our show is not brought to you by jiffy no it's not but it could be soon you never know let's talk to dave jiffy who owns it we are a real kipper and born derrick brandeo david sis boom ba tristan

mark a johnny in for our Sammy McKee. It's going to be a good two hours. We're going to dissect what we saw last night out of the Toronto Maple Leafs, allowing four third-period goals, including an empty netter, and they get trounced by the New York Islanders, 7-2. Where do you want to start? Because the only thing i want to say and and i hope you have more than one thing to say i got i got two hours but just calm down everybody yeah like

it's i'm seeing such an emotional uh roller coaster right now for leaf fans and they love the roster they love the grit they don't like it the analytic numbers they are better than that we know that they were they're much better than the score i will be the voice of reason to say take a deep breath here calm down we're going to break out uh break uh what we liked and didn't like last night but take a look around the league too justin it's just not the Leafs. No, yeah. I mean, teams lose games

and sometimes by a number of goals. You know, we've preached a number of times that the good teams have tough stretches too. We've looked at Tampa Bay and said, well, don't fully doubt them. We'll give Toronto the same benefit of the doubt. In fact, their coach wasn't even that hard on them. Sheldon didn't seem to think it was as disastrous

as the final score. But, you know, one thing in particular stands out to me as a takeaway. I can't, it's funny I say takeaway, I can't remember the Leafs giving the puck away that cleanly that often. Well, we got Brad May coming up in about 42 minutes, former NHL-er. He's going to always do a great job breaking down what he thinks and what he thought of the Leafs last night. In the second hour, Ken Reid, co-anchor of Sportsnet Central.

That's fun. Yeah, really fun. We have not had Ken on before, have we? One of those names that we were like, wait, why have we not had Ken on before? So this is exciting for us. He's obviously a big personality. Yes, he is. And I'm guaranteed not to be accused being the dinosaur of this show,

at least today. But you know what? At least he owns it, right? Like he just, he wears his stegosaurus spines on the way into the studio. It's great. Also in the second hour, we got the NHL Players Association player poll revealed. And they have some kind of cool stuff that they talked about other than the conventional

best player or best passer best score we got best shoe game and we won't reveal that till the second hour by that question just that it even exists like what are we doing stop it stop it right save it like our pre-show

like our pregame meetings. Don't say anything interesting. Save it. Save it for the show. All right. Okay. You want to talk about Sheldon Keefe's comments last night? You just mentioned moments ago that he wasn't that hard on them.

And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's not a good thing. Let's decide that in the next little while. Sure. Maybe we'll do the not overthinking this loss too much. Maybe we'll start with that one because it just seems to set the tone for the six other clips. We've got lots of clips today.

Let's start with that one. Through two periods, there's a lot to like about our game. We didn't necessarily deserve to be down 3-1 after two periods. So there's still a lot of good things that happened in this game today. Obviously, the third period, we don't like how we handled that, but our team's been through a lot. We've won some big hockey games against very good teams here of late, so we won't overthink this one.

Bit of a zag from the coach, isn't it? Yeah, I don't blame him, to be honest with you, that you're on an extended road trip here. isn't it? Yeah. I don't blame them, to be honest with you. Yeah. That you're on an extended road trip here, and it's way too early and way too heavy to come down hard on them. And they were in a hockey game. Yeah. They did have chances.

They got off to a good start. They got their first goal. And let's face it here. Just switch out Sorokin last night and for Samsonov and put Samsonov in the other end and you

got yourself a win. I mean, Sorokin was off the charts. That Gustafson save was unbelievable. And I understand that's a good desperation, all he could do, but like Gustafson handled the pass well, ripped it like up a part of the net, like he did all he could. He could have slid the puck. Well, that was

the other option. Just push it. Just slide her in the net. Or take a, yeah, I don't, hey, listen, I'm not taking anything away from that. He went to catch it and put it up under the bar. He hit it hard. Yeah. He just hit it in the middle of the net where Sorokin had one chance to, he looked like a cricket player.

He got so much meat off of that. That's a great comparison. He did. He got a big chunk of it. Did you think Samsonov was bad? No. No, I did not. Yeah, I thought he was kind of unlucky.

I just, I think it kind of speaks volumes to what's happened to him on the road that's all he just can't win on the road like i want the one uh the clutterbuck shot to make it four two i think you know you're on the hook to make a high blocker save with no you gave him some net there he did and probably the fashion one off the lilligran turnover so there's a couple i didn't love but i thought it you know all in all i thought he was decent had some bad luck on tips and redirects and scrambles and stuff like that um shelvin was more concerned about the lack of offense from his team you have any thoughts about that should we listen to him on that and then dive in

yeah for sure because i do have some thoughts on that through two periods i thought we thought we're playing fine you know obviously the issue through two periods and really the whole game is you don't get enough offense. So that's, to me, as much as you give up six tonight, to me it's the offensive piece that I'm a little more concerned with. We didn't generate enough. We had some really good looks. Obviously, they made great saves on,

but consistently we didn't challenge enough to the inside. And that's the point against this team. If you don't do that, you're going to have a night like this. Yeah, and I think this is kind of run side by side with new players, new style of play. Like, when you just really truly think about the number of players that have come in and they all want to play, and I think all of them have, basically.

Oh, yeah. There's an adjustment right now. And that runs just far deeper than, you know, 20 guys. It's like the whole philosophy of the Leafs has changed here. And it may take time. And we could be looking at something that could be great still, or it could be major surgery at the trade deadline and you guys didn't, you ran out of time to figure it out.

Those are the two things that I'm looking at. Either it's going to end up being great or we're going to look back at that trade deadline and say, okay, major changes and you guys didn't give yourself enough time to adjust or adapt. Yeah. You know, I think you've hit on something that we should talk about and I take some

umbrage with, you know, the idea that this is a whole different way to play for this Leafs team or that they're going to be, you know, they've made these changes and that they're going to somehow start playing different hockey. I think those changes were made not with the mind of being a different hockey team

or playing differently, but just to tack on to the outsides, a little bit of grit and tenacity and whatever. I still think they're supposed to carry the puck and hang on to the puck and do the things that have made them the Leafs. That's if you have guys that can do both. Yeah.

Do they? I don't know. Yeah. Right. And I like Lafferty. Yeah. And I like Ach don't know. Yeah. Right. And I like Lafferty. Yeah. And I like Achari. Mm-hmm.

And, you know, Brock Nelson took that hit from Achari. Yeah. He came back, did he not? Fine hit, by the way, to me. Nelson turns back in a little bit. Borderline. Give him two for border. Maybe boarding.

Yeah. Maybe not. I don't really care. That's not my point. Okay. uh give him two for board maybe boarding yeah maybe not i don't really care that's not my point my point is is if i'm a leaf fan isn't it nice to see a guy that's wearing blue and white on that side of the hit that side of the hit and not the one like taking it taking the pieces up you love that yeah but is there going to be enough creativity out of Achari or Lafferty to, to come in and say like, we got a little bit of everything or did you sacrifice now a little bit of,

of finesse or finish and just think about for a second. And we, we, I'm not getting into, you know, Pierre Engvall, but think about his style of play. Yeah, yeah. And then think of Achari or Lafferty's style of play. And don't tell me that. Same with Sandin versus McCabe or Arshen. And Sandin.

Sandin was a puck mover. He was a skater. Like you're taking away a little bit of style and and rhythm and you've changed it with these guys well i think what we're hitting on here is the identity crisis of okay you have said that we're trying to change the identity of this team are we still the speed and skill and hang on to the puck team or are we going to try to do it different now what would you say you know you need to identify you need to know what it is the coach and the team wants you to be and to me it would be foolish to try to be something different than you've been but they changed so many people in the roster i could see why guys on the team are like yeah and and is this where you know your or others analytics

kind of match what do you mean i mean what are the numbers telling us since that trade yeah it hasn't been good how much how much has dropped uh puck possession uh you know quality chances yeah down down uh down everything's down why because you added a few straight line players who dump and chase and don't like to hold on to the puck don't like to cycle don't you know how many times do we see ingvalls skate a thousand miles an hour hit the offensive zone hash marks turn up circle turn in again circle i'm not saying it's right or wrong but i'm just saying that that's not lafferty that's not atari and on top of that on top of maybe a lack of identity like the lines have been different every day we don't come in here day to day and have a clue what the framework

of the lines are going to be like it's a kneelander on the third line buntings on the top line he's on the fourth line yarn crocs on the third line he's on the second line you know like they haven't had any sort of continuity and so i'm starting to wonder how much time is too much time before you establish your playoff look i wrote an article today on sportsnet.ca about their d pairs and just who's going to be in the lineup for them come game game one of playoffs game three of playoffs and so on. I don't know. What did, what did you write?

Who do you like? Who do you, who's in, who's out? I'm going to give you the, yeah, I'll summarize. Gustafson's out.

Um, Justin Hall's in, I got Shen and Lilligren depending on location, like at home when I can get Shen on the ice against the guys i want in the situations i want i like having shen physical games whatever on the road i kind of trust lilligren to be okay no matter who he's up against where he's at so you know that's augustus into me is too there's too much going back your own net his expected goals against when he's out there lots happens the other way yes he creates a ton but i don't think the leafs traded for another

guy who takes chances defensively i don't see him being in the lineup for them unless they there's a real need so hall to me is the only guy he plays you know we've done this on this show but plays 20 and a half minutes per night he's their first or he's in the stands well one of the two yeah i know but they do they lean on this guy his defensive numbers are great he defends the blue line well he breaks the puck out it just i can't pretend for all the people who don't like that he's not tough enough i can't pretend he's leafs go from a focus in september to november december january we're watching we've on many shows talked about the growth of sandin lilligren and and they're going to be in washington who's better who's worse who's passed and yes and you're telling me in game one uh one's in washington and one may be a healthy scratch

can you imagine trading for a guy like luke shannon not thinking game one is the right time to have a guy like that where maroon and perry are trying to set the tone and run around like that's shen's time right lilligren here's my mike and i wrote this about lilligren today here's my thing with him is that he just lacks special specialization like you don't want to put him on the ice when you need a goal because he's behind a number of guys in terms of being able to create whether it's riley or gustafson or whatever he's not a defensive guy. He's fifth in PK time on ice. There's just when he doesn't have a clear use. You know what they call those guys?

The third pair. Yeah. Well, do you want your third pair to be a guy who's not physical now? You know, this is the thing is that he kind of fits everywhere and nowhere. I like Lilligren. He drives the play the right way. Unfortunately, I have him as their 6'7 right now. Okay, I want to pick up a little bit on that with Gustafson

after we listened to Sheldon Keefe on the team overpassing at times. I thought at times we were just overpassing and trying to create the perfect shot, which is not how you score on this guy. We needed to get more action, and I thought that could wear them down a little bit more, and we were unable to do that. So offensively, I thought we left a lot on the table here today. Credit to the Islanders.

They competed hard. It's very evident that this game is very important to them, and they're fighting for their playoff lives and trying to stay in their spot and all that, and that was evident tonight. But we didn't do enough to take advantage of some of the puck time we had. We didn't give up very much through two periods. The mistakes that we made, they made count, and the mistakes that they made, we didn't make them pay for,

for the most part. I got a ton out of that, but the thing that stood out to me was the fact that he emphasized that the game was very important to them, which suggests that he didn't think it was that important to his players. I think that's the message he's sending to his players, is that it didn't look like it was that important to them.

Because, yeah, obviously you know where the Islanders are at. They are fighting with Pittsburgh and Florida for the final two wildcard spots. And, you know, I don't even necessarily agree with that, though. Like, think of the goals. Like, Lilligren whiffs on that one, and they shoot it in the net. You know, Marner puts it in Riley's boots. He tries to kick it up, and they go the other way and score.

You know, Kampf throws a grenade to Aston Reese, and they turn it over and score. Like, I just thought it was some bad turnovers, not an effort thing. All right, let's follow up with Sheldon Keefe on those turnovers. I mean, those are plays we usually make. Obviously, Lillard ran that one.

He just whiffs on it. I don't know if you're going to practice that. It's a play that, you know, you need to make and he will make. Mitch right after scoring gives it back. Again, it's the type of play Mitch is going to make more often than not. I don't think it's necessarily practice related. It's just an execution piece. Under pressure, you've got to be able to make plays in those moments.

I'll start on the the mitch marner pass and yeah it was a horrible pass okay yeah but sheldon it it didn't begin and end with just a bad pass from mitch marner no i'm you watch that play and first of all, they just scored to make it 3-2. You're in the third period. You're in the game. For sure. You're in the game and in many ways, you still got great momentum coming off that goal.

You're in good shape. I watch, there's a couple of things that stood out for me on that. Number one is like, Morgan Morgan where are you going? Yeah. Right and like the risk reward of heel pick up there is not ideal. You're forcing the play and you're really putting Mitch in a bad

position now to give you a pass that's even if it's on the tape they've got four guys lined up on the blue line. And you're running into a brick wall with it. You are. So you know mitch in his post-game comment said yeah i probably should have just dumped it in even if morgan had it he would have dumped it in as well the thing if you really go back and look at it the thing that stood out for me is when mitch made the pass he's the last guy back where are your defense

go watch gustafson on that play. This is the part where you go, to your point, go watch that goal and it'll tell you everything there is to know about why you don't want him in in game one. Oh, yeah? He's gone. He's up at the blue line and he's actually standing still. I have no idea what he was doing.

And then Morgan doesn't identify now that they're going to get two. And watch the back check. Yeah. The only one that has a chance to catch Clutterbuck is Mitch. And where are your defense in a one-goal game? Yeah, there's a play in the second period. I actually took a video of it my phone i meant to send it to you and sammy uh last night where there's good ozone stuff going

on the leafs have a possession and gustafson runs a scissor play and goes down he's like below the goal line and riley's up at the top and he sees an opportunity to jump down back door to get a pass his other his partner's on the goal line, and he jumps down in. Nothing comes of it. But, you know, like, there's a time and a place to activate. Those two guys can't play together. They're both too offensive-minded. You know, there's too much that happens both ways

when they're out there. It's just not a good pair. And that's the backbreaker, right? Sure. Yeah, well, then that's, you know what? We have a clip on that. Sheldon Keefe talked about that, about know what we have a clip on that uh sheldon keith talked about that uh about the team being dejected after that i think so we got a good start it was a great shift

by yeah camps line you know they hand it off uh to matthews and martin coming out there and those guys make a play so all of a sudden you're right there and then we make another mistake and then i thought you know from then on it was tough sledding for us in terms of the engagement in the game. I thought that was, we were pretty dejected after that one, which that was disappointing and unfortunate. Yeah. And Mitch looked a little animated. Did you see him frustrated after one four check? No. Yeah. So they're feeling it.

Yeah. I mean, it's different last night finally getting back to 12-6, and I know they've done it a few times, but it just, they still, they get behind a goal, and the lines are different right away, right? Like they went back to Matthews and Marner, and they went back to some stuff that had worked in the past, and I don't know. I just, I feel like they've been lacking any sort of consistent look out of this

team. And it's starting to, you know, become evident that they're disjointed and not as usual. That chemistry stuff is real, right? Like got to play with the same guy. Sometimes have a sense for what to expect.

Okay. Part of the issues with the offense was the fact that John Tavares and Willie Nylander did not contribute last night. Let's get a thought from Wee Willie on his play. Yeah, for sure. Like, I haven't been happy about my game. I've been pissed off about it. So, yeah, it happens. You just got to dig yourself out of it.

You give yourself a pep talk, watch film. How do you do it? Yeah, I i mean just go back to watching games where i play good and i mean uh get back to that kind of game which i think was uh was like tonight well i thought yeah i thought he was good last night you know i think shelton mentioned he didn't get to the inside but i mean he hung on to the puck he skated he did knee lander like things but you know tavres didn't do much last night necessarily. Is there a concern on Tavares?

Yeah, there is a little bit. You know, how long has it been since you felt like he's been really dynamic or dangerous? Like, some of the older guys in the team, you worry as he gets towards playoff, are you going to get the best version of Tavares, the best version of Gio, the best version of some of the older guys in the team you worry as he gets towards playoff are you going to get the best version of tavara's the best version of geo the best version of some of the older guys you almost think like maybe jt needs a day off or something again i'm off bobby mcmahon hurt his knee he's out for some time so i don't know that they have as much flexibility to do that sort of thing but like when they get o'reilly back and they get nize you feel like they've got 13 14 guys that are pretty good but until then i don't know if you can sit you

know it's funny like they lose a game like that and all i've heard is matthew nize matthew nize matthew nize the the pressure that's going to be on this guy to come in and kind of shore up that left side, I can't. Do you think he'll be in? Like in playoffs, do you think it's him or Zach Aston Reese? I would imagine that he will sign. He will get a game or two in the regular season to get his feet wet. And if he shows any signs of being able to physically handle it, I think he's in. But it would, to your point, probably be, yeah, stardom.

Don't throw him into the deep end here. He should be in Aston Reese's spot, like fourth line play, because it's a good fourth line. It's not like you're playing with a bunch of pluggers, like it's Achari and, you know, camp or, you know, something like that. So I just can't recall. Not that I followed every team closely with their college kids,

but this one's going to feel like, man, oh man, they're putting some weight on this kid's shoulders to come in and, and, and help. Well, you know,

training camp, no nothing, just in the heat of the playoffs. i know but it's not nhl no you know who led i think i want to say a college conference in scoring um zach astin reese so just for context on like this kid's points you know you're not guaranteed to lead a college conference in scoring and come out and be an NHL star, right? Like Zach Aston Reese has been in the NHL for six years and he's a fourth line player.

So I'm watching last night he's got Aston Reese out on like one of the last shifts of the game and he's like blowing the zone as if he's going to go and make the score 7-4. And the guy scored pre-NHL. So did you. But I knew at the end of the day yeah like i'm not going out there to score a goal late it's over just stay in your stay in your zone

until the puck's out funny the difference between him and achari looking at like okay we're down six two seven two here's what i need to do to help us get back in it. And Achari is like, I'm going to go fight Matt Martin. And Asen Reiss is like, I'm going to stretch for a pass. By the way, thank you, courtesy of Matt Martin, for not beating the life out of Achari last night. He had him in a pretty vulnerable spot. It was a weird fight for me.

It was a weird fight. Yes. Like, was it like a super courtesy like i'll give you one here yes it did not come off right for me it's like you hit our player a very important player in brock nelson do you think that's what it was i i felt like he was like a chari being late in the game needing to show some like no. I think Matt Martin felt obligated to go send a message to a guy that

he thought got hit from behind. And then like are they pals or something? I don't know. And which that was my feel. I could be totally out to left field here and maybe we're going to hear aari's challenge to him, but there's no upside for Noel Achari to just challenge him,

like Matt Martin, who's twice his size. No, but you've been on the bench when your team's down four and your coach is going, does anyone have a pulse in here? And that's like one of the things you do to show that you still care, coach. Maybe you're right right I don't know I didn't feel it I think it had more to do with the hit yeah okay it was tied towards the hit yeah

and if Matt was so upset with the charry hitting him from behind then you know finish him off don't go halfway and pat him on the back for showing up that was as polite a fight as I've seen. Really polite.

Yeah. Matt's a nice guy. He is. But yeah, I still generally want to punch someone in that situation. A couple of notes from that game. That was the first time this season Toronto has surrendered seven or more goals. And the Leafs had 19 giveaways in the game to New York in that game. So that was a theme.

Now the Samsonov thing. Is this a situation he is not going on the rest of the road trip with the Maple Leafs? Joe Wohl is going to join them. So you've got Matt Murray going to Florida. Welcome to the people who are joining us on 590, by the way. They're Blue Jay watching or listening. I don't know. Welcome anyway, whatever you're doing before.

But yeah, about Samsonov, who we were just discussing. He has gone home to be there for the birth of his child. Did you hear his post-game clips? No. What did he have to say? Yeah, he just kind of said, I'm going home and I got bigger

things to worry about than hockey. Things to do than run with two fools? Yes. Islanders were really good and I'm going home. Yeah. Tough one to sit on for him, but I understand he's got bigger things to do. So they go to Florida tomorrow night and then Saturday night they're in Carolina and then the next

day they're in Nashville. So they play in four cities in three or sorry, three cities in four nights starting tomorrow. Make that four cities in six nights. So they play in four cities in three, sorry, three cities in four nights starting tomorrow, make that four cities in six nights. So that's a tough stretch for the Leafs. Well, and you know, they're coming off a loss as well as the Florida Panthers to Philadelphia

last night. So teams that want it like Florida's the ultimate team here trying to get in who's on the outside. They're actually in the second wildcard spot right now, one point ahead of Pittsburgh with a game, an extra game played than Pittsburgh. So these are huge points for them. They're going to get a great effort from that Panthers team. So I think we're all in agreement that Samsonov was not horrible last night,

but he gave up six goals. It's that crack in the door that Matt Murray in these conversations. But Matt's given up four goals a game too. Every game. I know. So how much can you say that they're great or they're doing well when you're still giving up a lot of goals? Yeah.

I guess you just hope Tampa Bay keeps losing teams like Montreal. See that? They lose 3-2. I had suggested maybe about a week and a half ago that they should sneak in Joseph Wall. You see anything between as early as Florida? I think he'll play. Do you think he'll play over Matt Murray?

If Samsonov hasn't had his kid yet and he's at home and they got three games in the next four days on the road, they're not going to make Matt Murray play three times. You know, we're definitely going to see wool. So, you know, could we'll come in,

pitch a shutout and make everyone go, should we maybe see him one more time? Just in case Florida is still one of the highest scoring teams in the league. Are they not? According to my fancy metrics, they're the second best offensive team in the league. Are they not? According to my fancy metrics, they're the second best offensive team in the league. Yeah. Behind Edmonton and New Jersey.

I'm not sure if I want to put Joseph in there Thursday. Well, listen, I don't want to put Matt Murray in either. No, I think you need to go back to Matt Murray on Thursday. Yeah, well, you definitely do. I mean, you're trying to get him ready, and he's supposed to be your guy. And what is Samsonov his record on the road? Is it one game under 500?

Now it is six, seven and one. Yeah. The 18 and two, don't you have to win a few times on the road just to kind of feel better about yourself? No, no,

no. You don't know what to feel better about yourself. Yeah. But like, can they just do a goalie rotation? Memory is pretty good on the road i don't know it's enough to make you a little bit uncomfortable what do they got after florida uh after florida they go to carolina on saturday night and then they'll be the very next day in nashville at 6

p.m that is one hell of a turnaround carolina to nashville probably no morning skate just first time they'll be at the rink is four o'clock on on sunday so little pet peeve of mine last night is at five two i'm thinking the game's over pulling the goalie i don't want to give up any more goals. I don't. No, I totally disagree there. Why? Are you just going to punt on the game?

Not punt on the game. You're going to try. No. No, it's don't give up. No, it's just, well, first of all, here's the other thing that bothered me, is that every time I see John Tavares, he's losing a draw.

Okay. Yeah. But his numbers in the year aren't bad. I know. But last night it just wasn't working. So it's five, two and you're going to go get, have him take the draw,

go get camp. First of all, John couldn't have lost that draw any faster. And the puck couldn't end, ended up in our empty net any faster. Yeah. I'd rather lose five, two than six, two or seven, two. I'm sorry. I mean, I would, in our empty net any faster. Yeah. I'd rather lose 5-2 than 6-2 or 7-2. I'm sorry.

I would. I mean, I get it. Uncle, on giving up goals, they bother me. Giving up goals bothers me. I love it. It's, you know, you're six minutes left in the game. If you're going to come back on, you know, score three in the Islanders, you got to do it then.

Make your push. If you don't score, then, you know, give them the sixth one and see you later. And that's essentially what happened. What did you make of the draw? So Tavares, the, the four on four goal at the start of the second where Parisi taps it in on the back door.

Yeah. I mean, coverage mishaps. Are you more on the camp of that's McCabe or that's Tavares? It's Tavares for me for me you know initially off the draw i'd rather see him just stick with his guy right four and four you just stick with pageau who wins the draw and you know and then mccabe would clearly know his guy's coming down the wall he could hand him off i don't know i just thought tavaris was not his best night in

his return to long island no and you know he's a sensitive guy. Yeah. And that's just going to be one of those he could be in the league. They had a straight-up JT Sucks chant last night. He could be in the league for another five years, and every time he's going to go back in there, it's going to feel horrible. Yeah.

Yeah, that one resonated. So we do have one more clip, but's not on uh this game it's on connor mcdavid talking about last night shohei otani versus mike trout are we going there are we ready to have that discussion uh should we bang through the rest of the leaf stuff okay and then i i definitely want to get into that because you know where it's going with the world cup of hockey and yeah the olympics and and all of that so i definitely want to get into that because you know where it's going with the world cup of hockey and the Olympics and all of that. So I definitely want to get into that in the second hour as we slowly get towards closing off the show.

One more thought here on no TJ Brody last night. And you give up seven. Well, maybe that guy quietly doesn't get enough credit since signing with Toronto. Just being a, nothing stands out with him, but nothing is glaring on mistakes after mistakes after mistakes. And I thought it was a showing last night

of what he's probably meant to that blue line. Yeah. You know, I think by some of the numbers when you dig around he is in the top five last time i checked at defending the blue line like just in terms of rushes coming down at him and him denying entry he's got that long stick like he never pounds anyone but he just doesn't let people in the zone easily and yeah you don't really appreciate that sort of thing till it's gone which i actually i wanted to bring this up with you it's something i think you and i have disagreed upon in the past when i wrote this article in the leafs d there's four guys that i have in the lineup in the

playoffs and it's riley it's brody it's giordano uh and it's mabe. And we're trying to figure out the pairs and who should play the most ice time. Can Giordano play second pair minutes? Because I think he's there, at least one of their four best defensemen. We're talking about him as he's one of the four locks. Like, he's playing 19 and a half minutes. Yeah. I don't want to run that night after night after night he just does not have

the legs he doesn't have the quickness he doesn't have the agility he's got the heart he's got the brain you know he can he get you through one round like that and then you say okay we now we'll readjust and figure out what else we can do. If everyone else is going, I think you could probably find a way to get away with that, but there's no longevity in that. Like Gio McCabe as sort of a shutdown. I don't necessarily like that you're in the last dozen games and he's sat all but one game out.

I don't understand that. You know, it'd be interesting to see if how that goes the rest of the way. Like I've said, I want to see what their playoff lineup looks soon. They got 12 games left at least. How about after this road trip? That's I'm going to dig in on that,

but I'm ready to see their lineup as of March 29th. As Brad May will tell us in about seven minutes, it's not good that you're asking me if Gio

can play top four minutes every other night in the Stanley Cup playoffs when that spot should have been to either Gio can play top four minutes every other night in the Stanley cup playoffs. When that spot should have been to either a little green or Sandin. That's, that's what the development was for four and a half years. Yeah. And that's a tough one to,

to ask that. Neither of those guys took a step in a way that made you, and now you got to go back to a 40 year old and say, you play us play you play for us uh 20 minutes a night and be really good and solid that yeah that kind of that's a tough one because you know i mentioned those four names are my four locks and i mentioned um hall you know being in there for me personally um you know, and a little more fluctuation after that. But every time I come to this conversation where I'm like, he's one of your four best,

you know, how does he not end up playing one of your top four minutes? But I understand his age and you don't trust his ability to continue that. Man, it'd be tough over an intense seven game series seeing if he could handle Kucherov and crew in game seven if he's a part of your shutdown pair well you got a few challenges with a few people and that that conversation is can be thrown at gustafson and it can be thrown at luke shen too like i i think

they're undecided on on what luke shen's gonna. Yeah. Are you locked in to say that this guy is strong at 10 to 12 minutes? Or are you going to push the envelope and go 15, 17? On some nights, you may not have any other choice. Yeah. But what's your thought here on where ultimately Luke Shen fits in and how many minutes you're going to ask him to play? That's the tough part here is that like the guys they brought in as d depth as their depth guys you know they're they're kind of one

dimensional guys right and you have to decide which dimension you need that day is it you know shen who is never going to put offense first he's going to you know think about defense and toughness and physicality and all that or is it breaking the puck out and doing all those sorts of little things so it is situational i i you know it's possible injuries make some of these decisions for them but did uh one final note on the offense did kind of yarn crock come back down to earth a little bit or should we still pencil him in for first team all-star you're right like when when it doesn't when he doesn't shoot it in the net i couldn't have i didn't notice him i didn't notice if he was in the game last night he's not driving lanes open do you know how long it's been since kerfoot scored it's been we had this conversation a month and a half ago and it was like at 20 something it's 25 now 25 games so he went he went a long period of time and then i think he

got an empty net goal and then now it's a really long time again yeah and he's played with very good players like it's in his head more than i've never seen anyone have as much ability as him. This snake bit, like one hit off Matthew's knee. One went off Lafferty's God knows what yesterday. Like sometimes pucks just go in. Nothing can go in off him. Can we petition to have his game winning shootout goal in Ottawa count as a real goal? Yes, probably.

He looked genuinely surprised by every score. He's like, Ooh, I see you. It crossed the line. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a quick break here, and we're going to bring back a Mayday.

Brad May, former National Hockey League player with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Stanley Cup champion. He'll break it all down for us after the break. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Real Kipper and Bourne. This is Real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. A reminder in the second hour, Ken Reed, co-host of Sportsnet Central, will join us. Best-selling author, too, like you.

Hey, and like you. All of us have that in common. Oh, yeah. Looking forward to that. In the meantime, let's bring in Brad May, someone very familiar to our show. Always a pleasure to bring you on, Mayday. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you guys doing?

Yeah, we're hanging in there. You know the roller coaster here in Toronto when it comes to the Leafs, right? Plan the parade or, you know, let's bail on them. It's one of the two, isn't it? It's crazy. You know what? Obviously, history has been tough on the Toronto Maple Leafs,

but this is the time of year I know it's down the stretch, but they've put themselves in a good position to, you know, be where they are currently in second place. And, you know, the last 10 10 games, they've been 500. They've kind of been muddling. But you need full commitment, a buy-in from all players. And they've had some passengers. But at the end of the day, I don't think they're in trouble here at all.

Obviously, yesterday was a tough one. But they have some games that they can win coming up. But they also have some real desperate teams, and tomorrow would be one of them, the Florida Panthers. They play them three times in the next 12. Yeah, you know, before we get into that, I mean, you used the word muddling, and it's not just the Leafs, but I'm looking around the league too, and some teams who should be desperate, as desperate as the Islanders looked last night,

it's just not there. Is there anything that you remember in your day as a player? I mean, I'm kind of baffled at this, but there's something to be said about a dozen games to go and maybe some guys physically, mentally, emotionally tired? Well, you know what? I would say, yeah, it's probably more mental. Listen, these guys are conditioned.'re physical good great athletes i'm sick and tired of hearing anybody that says

they're physically tired tired's a state of mind and they got to be you know at the end of the day you got to somehow muster up the energy to play you know 60 minutes or whatever the breakdown of that would be but down the stretch a lot of bad teams win games and because they're almost like a night off before you know three weeks from now nobody wants to get hurt blocking a shot and breaking a foot 10 games before the playoffs the actual passion and the commitment to do whatever it takes kind of wanes when you play these sub 500 teams. And, you know, I, I, I just, I just see across the league that Vancouver Canucks are dominating. They're playing great. Coyotes are winning games.

Buffalo Sabres look good every once in a while. These are all teams that are out of a playoff spot. And I don't think you have to look into that however you can't turn it on like a switch and um the toronto maple Leafs they have to find a way to win these tight games that they're in and can't let them blow out do you think there's anything to the idea of like a team identity crisis where they're just not exactly sure how they want to play. Like they added these gritty guys,

a lot of intangibles. They can dump chase hit, do all those sorts of things before they were this puck possession team, whatever. Right now they look a little bit disjointed, kind of stuck between these two identities and trying to figure out what they really are. Well,

listen, the last 10 games have certainly spoke of that 500 hockey. If you don't know who you are today, you know, after a lengthy season, you're in trouble. Yeah. And they better figure that out. If that's the case in that locker room,

I wouldn't be confident. That's not a good thing. Yeah. You add some players, but those players just bring the energy that they have to bring. The other players don't have to change their game if they're not willing to, right?

If that's all they have. But you got to know your players after six months of hockey. And if there's question marks, that's not a good thing. But I think this team is poised and ready. They're thinking ahead, down the line, and guess what? They're not in the present. They're not in the moment. And if you're not playing like that, you can't win consistently.

So they have to get their focus back immediately. And they're on the next few games on the road. It's not going to be easy. They've got some tough games, but maybe that's what they need. We're talking to Brad May, Stanley Cup champion with the anaheim ducks former nhler mayday you mentioned adding players after a lengthy season but we are talking about almost a third of your roster and is it just added energy or is it a a different style that there may be some that have been here a lot longer are trying to adapt to? And is it taking longer here than than what Leaf fans would have hoped?

Well, I guess time will tell. They're in a good position. They're not going to catch the Boston Bruins. We haven't thought that for many months, obviously, right from the outset of the season, quite honestly. They're in a good position. They've got a dozen games to get themselves prepared. They have to all get on the same page.

I think it's just a buy-in. It's a mental, you know, it's a focus element with this group. And at the end of the day, the top players are playing with the same guys, right? Your top lines are playing, you know, offensively, sound, hockey, all of that. Who cares what happens on the bottom six? Those guys are all new. Well, they have to figure it out how to play the way they're capable of playing.

But at the end of the day, they lost last night, and they had a good start. I mean, they were in the game, a few mistakes hurt them, cost them. But the one thing I did hear out of Sheldon Keefe was he was concerned about their offense. Don't be concerned about your offense when the whole mandate is to be able to win these tight games and play better defense and not make those bonehead errors you know that you know at the blue line back in your net um you know a giveaway that was just a lack of focus plenty of time to

get rid of the puck on Lilligren um these are these are mental errors and you got to get you got to get yourself focused. What did you think? I don't know if you saw the Achari hit on Nelson or the fight on Martin. Did you see how that played out last night, perchance? I missed exactly how it happened. I saw the fight, but I did miss that. Strange fight, eh? You know what?

I enjoy the spontaneous combustion, that passion that you see like that it's energy building or certainly should be um obviously for new york they they got they got a little bit of the momentum from that just one thought on on matt martin too there had to have been an element either he knew that achari may have been out with a concussion. That's interesting. Or Achari maybe told him, maybe. Don't punch me in the head. Yeah, just not the face.

Body shots only. Yeah, body shots only, not the face. Guys, it is amazing. Listen, if a player has a concussion or isn't quite capable of playing or fit to play, then he should not be in the lineup. The moment he puts his skates on, he's as fair game as everyone else, or certainly in my opinion he is. At the end of the day, that's nobody else's problem but the player

that's actually laced his own skates up if he's not prepared or he shouldn't be playing. So that to me is a moot point. I don't, I don't, I don't buy that excuse whatsoever. How about, are you buying for the Toronto Maple Leafs that yes,

they're 500 in their last 10 games, but the Tampa Bay lightning are struggling. I know you're not a, you're not feeling the tired excuse or whatever it may be for Tampa, but they're reeling a little bit here. And, and Leafs fans are kind of digging that. Absolutely. And, tired excuse or whatever it may be for Tampa, but they're reeling a little bit here and, and Leafs fans are kind of digging that. Absolutely.

And if they had played harder or if Toronto, listen, the gap is tight, right? But at the end of the day, there's a lot of teams that are in the same situation that aren't playing great hockey right now. And it's all matter of focus down the stretch.

I would imagine. And I, and I would almost bet my house on, that Toronto's going to get on a roll. They have some winnable games after this road trip, but this road trip's a big one. Florida's fighting for their lives, and they play Florida three times. You know, that's, what is that?

That's 25% of the games left against the Florida Panthers. So, listen, they're fighting for their lives. Toronto better be ready. And, you know, again, I really do believe it's about focus. It's about, of course, playing to the team system. But each player knows how they have to play and what they need to do to be successful. And no more excuses. Just get the job done.

I'm watching goals go through Vasilevsky and Tampa Bay in a longer stretch than I've ever seen before. Yet, I don't care if he gives up four a game and they lose every single game from here on in. That team will feel very good about Vasilevsky in game one just based on the stock that he's built. I'm not sure Leafs feel the same way about their goaltending. about Vasilevsky in game one, just based on the stock that he's built. I'm not sure Leafs feel the same way about their goaltending. And Samsonov has been terrific, but all of it's come at home here, Brad.

So tell me, like, how do the Leafs now, is there enough time for the Leaf players to feel great about their goaltending going into game one? I mean, I think about you and your career, whether it was Dominic Hasek or Jaeger in Anaheim, you didn't have to think twice about getting great goaltending.

No, it's such an important factor. Truly, if you know your goaltender or belief that your goaltender is going to make the save, certainly at the opportune time, I'm a faster player. Or, you know, I can cheat. I can anticipate where that puck is headed, not where it is at in the moment. The bottom line is teams are faster when they trust their goaltender.

It's easier to break out of your zone because those hard rim plays are automatic the tape to tape passes Toronto wasn't sharp they haven't been that sharp over the last 10 games they certainly they still they show flashes of brilliance for sure but goaltending makes a difference that way and you're right the Tampa Bay Lightning they have utmost confidence in Vasilevsky and I think Toronto we're still asking ourselves who's going to be the number one I think it is Samsonov but really we're having that conversation 70 games into the season that's that that that could be problematic well I mean a number of things that

the Leafs are leaning on is that one of the two goalies is going to be fine but you know you don't want to spend two games being wrong about which one you go with and then the other one is that matthew nize is going to be able to step in and be of some value to them what are your thoughts on a guy stepping into the nhl for the first time a couple days before playoffs and ability to to contribute well i like that i mean but but we're talking about stopping the puck. I mean, that's quite a transition from the goaltending to, you know, the emergence of a new player. And by the way, teams that go on and have unbelievable playoff runs,

a lot of times a college player or a young junior player, somebody new from the minors steps into the lineup and brings that energy. I think it's a good opportunity, but again, 70 games in a season and if this is really what you're actually looking for to get a spark, you've got problems if that's the case. Did you make

the NHL out of training camp? Did you get called up from Rochester? I'm just wondering about your experience to kind of come in in an environment and like all of a sudden the lights are brighter. There's media, there's TV cameras. I just imagine what it would feel like for Matthew Nyes to come in in a playoff environment on a team that has the biggest media market in the world? Well, I'll give you an example of a player.

So my career, I say fortunate, but my career started in Buffalo out of training camp. And I didn't play in the minors, Nick. Oh, you didn't? I didn't. So I came right from junior. Oh, you're one of those guys spoon-fed I always like telling people that too but but you know what I'll tell you a story about a young player that did come out of junior

I was playing for the Colorado Avalanche the year after the walkout in 2004 first season back we faced the Dallas Stars we finished fifth in our conference they season back. We faced the Dallas Stars. We finished fifth in our conference. They were fourth, so we faced Dallas. We went in and we beat Dallas in five games. A young player named Wojtek Wolski came in from junior, I believe it was the North Bay, Brampton or North Bay Battalion, whatever team he played for there, and he lit it up. He got on a line with Joe Sackick.

On the power play, he scored, I want to say he scored three or four goals in that first round against the Dallas Stars, and we actually rolled over Dallas, and they were the favorite going into that playoff series, certainly from their record. A young player can bring that energy and excitement. And you know what? The other players, they're not jealous at that time of the year. They just want to win.

And you can focus on doing what you do. But if a Matthew Nyes can come in and actually have success immediately, that is a shot in the arm. And that's a big bonus. I don't know if you want to bet the farm on that, but there's no doubt he's a blue-chip prospect.

I skate with Voltec on Thursday mornings. Oh, do you? Me, him, and the Big E. Come on. My college roommate changed his number because he liked watching Wolski so much. He was a big Wolski fan. He's so good, too, right now. I'm like, I can't keep up with you, bud.

Hey, Nick. Nick, this guy, just the same thing. Young players, they have the ability to not understand what's fearful or fearsome to them. You know, I think of Wojtek. He just played. He played because he loved it it but he also is coming off a a year where he's very confident yes the same would be for matthew knight so many nhl

players we play to survive we play to not make the mistake we play to to eliminate time and space from the other guy and if we're even at the end of the match that's how you become a long term long time journeyman pro but if you really want to make a difference you got to take you got to take chances and sometimes young players you know thrust in these situations like a Cole Caulfield in in Montreal a few years back you know what just go play shoot the puck from everywhere where you and I Nick if we shot the puck from outside the dots and it didn't hit the net we're being sat in the bench right you know if you miss it on the far

side yeah you know and the puck rims around the boards all of a sudden you're on your ass on the bench and young players they're not fearful of that because they've had confidence they've been playing unencumbered for so long that they don't have that scar tissue mentally and i think that's an issue so i like the i like the you know i say emergence but of a young player if if he's good enough to play i'd welcome that every every day every year but i'm not betting the farm that that's going to happen for success. Brad, last one for me. In trying to sort everything out for the Leafs, it's obviously the new guy, it's goaltending, it's all these different things.

One of the things that may happen is they may go 11 forwards and 7 D. Do you have any thoughts on how that can work, should work, and if they should do it? Listen, I look at these teams, play your best players, look at the – certainly when you come down to the playoffs and you get – right now they're playing the 10th Bay Lightning, right? Depending on who 10th Bay is playing and how you can match up best, if it's eight defensive, play them with 10 forwards. At the end of the day, I want to say the top 20 to 24 minutes

are going to be eaten up by your top seven players, forwards, maybe eight players. Your bottom six are going to be playing spot duty for at least 10 minutes. I'm actually not worried if if i if i have mitch marner and i have a healthy o'reilly and i have players that i can actually move throughout the lineup listen double shift the guys that are playing and playing well and then it's all about matchups eight defensemen seven defensemen you know what if Tampa's on a roll, guess what? You can actually shut them down a little bit.

I'm a guy, I take chances on playing more defense if they're more capable. Regardless of 12 or 6 or 11 or 5, you know, I don't remember too many players that I played with, at least forwards,

that either they didn't know who they wanted to play with or who they thought would best fit them as line mates. Everybody knew in their mind who they wanted to play with or who they thought could bring out the best of their game. Leaf players show up every day and they have no idea who's playing with who. It's just, I refer to them as the bingo bango balls of the head coach, right? Just pull out a number and put them together.

But, you know, generally am I right to say that we are creatures of habit? We don't like surprises. We don't want to come into a practice and guess what jersey we're wearing here. How important is it for Sheldon to lock in some lines here? Again, 70 games in, we're having this discussion.

We've got problems if that's an issue. If that's an issue. Bottom line is, as a player, and I'm speaking solely from that perspective, there's nothing worse than driving the practice between games, not knowing who you're actually practicing with, whether you're wearing a yellow jersey or a brown jersey or whatever the colors are, right, the color scheme. The worst.

The top two lines, for the most part, know who they're playing with or certainly know that they're going to get the looks and get those touches on practice situations, whether it's power play, penalty kill. For the third and fourth line players, if you don't know who your third line is, the top best three defensive players with energy that are going to change momentum and change the complexion of a game, if we're worried about that 70 games in a year, that's problematic to me.

But for the fourth line guys, and the fourth line, of course, looks different today in today's hockey than it once did. But you know what? If these players are worried about reading between the lines and not just worried about getting there, playing, practicing, doing the best job they can with excitement, the best time of their life. That's an issue for me. So they better figure that out if that's there in that locker room.

And you know what? The leadership group should actually talk, right? The players, if this is an issue, the players have to go and talk to the coaches. Somebody has to recognize that because that is a problem. Oh, my gosh. There's some practices you'd walk in, and when there was a legit top six guy, all of a sudden find himself with a green color that's for the fourth line,

and you could see him sink right into the dressing room. And you knew he was done the rest of the day, right? You ever seen anyone actually change color in practice? Like the coach says, you too, switch jerseys. Because I've seen that. You know, the worst part is when that guy actually looks like that because he's been put on your line. Then you're like, hey, listen, that's when you want to, you know, thump your teammates.

So it's like, you know, wake up. That's where body language. Body language is everything in the team atmosphere in a locker room. And that energy is infectious. And I'll tell you what, infectious positively, and it can erode the confidence of a team. If you get a couple bad apples in a locker room being selfish, not a

good look guys but worse if if the other guys are upset that they have to play with you body body language never lies it not it doesn't it's that's that's the ultimate lens to character i believe but you never had that problem because you were always locked in with Patty LaFontaine in Buffalo. Until Patty showed up and he looked green and didn't want to practice with me. Hey, Mayday, great stuff, pal. Really appreciate it.

You guys are the best. Thank you for having me. Thanks so much. Brad May. So Willie Nylander started on the third line. Yeah. He loved that as a third line. He was like, I get built today. Throw it to him. Let him do the work.

How long did that last? Not very long. Right? Yeah. He's got to get him going. Yeah. And I appreciate that he said all the right things. He didn't bury him last night. But this guy either produces or he's no good.

Last night, the Leafs had 31 shot attempts for when he was on the ice and eight against when Willie was on the ice. He was by far the most dominant in that regard. So, I mean, they played in the Islanders end when he's out there. He didn't get any points, but I thought he was a more effective version of himself. They've got pressure. Him and JD have pressure to alleviate Marner and Matthews. They're not going anywhere without those two guys.

Somewhere between Ryan O'Reilly and Tavares and William Nylander, they're going to need, I don't know, eight goals. They're going to need real significant contribution from that group. I don't know the answer to this question. Is Ryan O'Reilly with them right now? Is he traveling with them? Is he skating with them? Don't know.

I would hope that he is. Just being a part of it all? 100%. Yeah, I imagine. Also, though, I wonder what his situation, like in terms of getting settled here in Toronto, is he still in hotels? That's fair.

Jake McCabe, his family's moving up. He's looking for a house. He's still moving in. They're missing. Yeah, yeah no you gotta be a part of it 100 they're missing key times for ryan o'reilly to be a leader right now and then yeah like last night they were missing one yeah they were there was no presence of of leadership last night and we know who their leaders are and will be down the road here but last night it's one of those games where i think ryan o'reilly could have settled them down a little bit yeah you're right and i don't know if they would have left long island last night and headed

to florida uh post game but you know today they're sitting in a room somewhere and keith is talking about what they want to do differently like you want a guy who hasn't been a part of the team taking in all those sort of lessons. All right. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to get Ken Reed, co-host of Sportsnet Central. He's going to join us. Best selling author. This guy does it all. And he's got his opinions and you're not going to want to miss them.

That was more JB and yours truly after the break. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. I'm real excited for our next guest. I was a little disappointed when Ivanka said she wouldn't come on our show, but I was thrilled to hear that this guy would fill in for Ivanka. Let's welcome in Ken Reed, co-author of some amazing books out there. I want to get into that, Ken. And, of course, Sportsnet Central, man.

How are you? I'm good, boys. Always honored to fill in for Ivanka. And I have my own Wojtek Volsky story, if you want to hear it. Right off the bat, baby. Let's go. Right off. Well, it's funny.

During the pandemic, right, the early parts of it, when you can still get ice, my little guy and the guy that you play hockey with on Thursday called me up. We got our little guys out there, and Wojtek Volsky showed up with his little guy. So there you go. And I saw Wojtek at a Leafs game last week, and I said, buddy, you're everywhere all the time.

He's always traveling. He's like, yeah, I'm going to Colorado to ski tomorrow. So that's my Wojtek Wolski connection. Nice. Nice. And how many Wolski's hockey cards do you have? You know what? There might be one or two hanging around,

but, Kipper, I got way more of yours because I was into this. I don't have much stuff post-1992, so I got a lot to make. Very few Wojtek Volskys. And if I was an East Coast Hockey League collector, I might have a Borny in there, but I never got down to that level yet. So how did it start, the hockey cards and then eventually writing a book on them?

Yeah, I guess same as any other Canadian kid, right? Collected hockey cards. Borny, as you know, I got a ton of your dad. I think I even gave you some for your little guy. You're the best.

Yeah, thanks. You can keep saying that. Put that on a loop. Yeah, just like any other Canadian kid, you know, I spent my allowance on hockey cards. I grew up in a small town, so the only

really real way to see the guys play was on Saturday night. If you want to know what they look like, if it was a Vancouver Canuck, you had to get a hockey card of Harold Snips. So I just got into them. I devoured the stats, and I devoured the fact on the back that it said Derek Smith of the Buffalo Sabres

is one of the most eligible bachelors on the Sabres. I remember that. Pat Hickey's cartoon on his 77, 78 OPG said it was, Pat drives a big Jeep in the off season. So Tom Fergus had two German Shepherds. So I just devoured them. That's where I got my hockey information. And then when value took off, I kind of had a lot of cards i get

on low because i had tons of doubles and you know like a lot of other guys i discovered these things called girls as i got older so the hockey cards went away and then i got married so then a girl becomes your boss and then you don't have much fun so i got back into hockey cards the circle of life yeah i know i'm familiar with that. You go live, gang. I did just take my daughter to Disney Immersive, so that may be on my mind. Oh, did you? Yeah, it was okay. So what's the deal?

I see you on Instagram, so you're opening up fresh packs of cards from 1990, whatever. How does that happen? You know what? There's packs everywhere. So if you go to Cheswood Arena in Westwood, they have a machine that sells old packs. So whenever my little guy plays there, I'll buy a pack. And I got tons of old wax packs around the house and stuff like that. And I opened one the other day, Kipper, and honestly, you were in there. It was your rookie card, the 90 OPG.

I love that story you told me, Kipper, about the first time you saw it was when you got off a bus or something. Yeah, Chicago. And we had pulled into the Drake. And for the life of me, I'll never understand, like a nine-year-old kid at 3 a.m. waiting for the team bus to get his hockey card signed. And I'm coming off the bus, and the kid goes,

can you sign a hockey card for me? And I'm like, I don't have one. He goes, yes, you do. And I said, hey, kid, it's 3 a.m. in the morning. I'm going to bed. He says, no, you do. And I said, hey, kid, it's 3 a.m. in the morning. I'm going to bed. He says, no, you have one. And he shows it to me. It's the old peachy card. And you would have thought I just won the lottery, man.

You just take it and run? No, I gave him 20 bucks and then I ran. Did you really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I said, here, kid, here's 20 bucks. You ain't getting this card back. Thanks a lot. You could probably sell it for 19 today. And honest to God, it was like Christmas. I couldn't stop looking at it.

It was like an out-of-body experience seeing yourself on an Opeche hockey card that still smelled like bubble gum. Beautiful. I mean, all the guys I talked to for my books on them, everyone always asks ex-players, you guys know this, what was your welcome to the NHL moment? Well, for a lot of guys, getting the card is validation. Like, I'm legit now, right? You know what's for me, and it's not...

When you had to earn them, you know? For sure, and it's not quite on that level, but for my era, you know, just being in the farm system was in the video games when your player could get called up, and you could play NHL 2008, and I could get called up to the Islanders. I was in the video games when your player could get called up and you could play NHL 2008 and I could get called up to the Islanders. I was in the system. That was mind blowing to me. My brother sending me screenshots of that. That was a good time for me. See, that's awesome, Borny, because that's like the validation for like the digital generation.

Like I exist. That's awesome. If I had a video game with me on it, I'd play it all the time. So listen, we want to get your thoughts on a few things because we love watching you and Ivanka every night, but I get a sense that you could say so much more on your highlights, but you just don't have time. It's a whole show here. So now you've got some breathing room here.

So we want to get your thoughts on you know the the leafs the changes that they've made and maybe we're not seeing them uh you know come to fruition just yet here but your your thoughts on on the the changes that they made and then you know unfortunately not seeing the uh the results last night yeah well i loved the trade for o'reilly because you know he needed a little great, he needed some veterans, a veteran guy who's been there, done that. I loved that trade.

Unfortunately, he got injured, but he'll be back. I loved the trade for Shen because you need a defense man, M-A-N, not just a defenseman. You know, you need somebody that plays a little rough around the edges. So I loved that for him. You know, I like that stuff.

You know, I like that stuff. Like, I texted Futa last night after one of the Islanders goals, I go, how many leafs does it take to fish for the puck before an Islander scores in the blue paint? Apparently the answer is four. Yeah. Yeah.

The answer is four. So I'm like, hit somebody for God's sake. Like they still just don't have that, that playoff type of, of game. I don't think maybe that'll change in the playoffs but um i i love those two trades uh i heard mayday on it's kind of weird we're still talking about goalie 70 games in so yeah i mean if i'm looking at them going up against tampa bay the first place i judge is in the crease the second place i judge is on the blue line advantage advantage tampa in both spots so i think the leafs are in top again but I'll give Dubas credit I think

he went a little bit outside of his playbook on a couple of those trades so I think that takes courage I like the trades I just don't know if they they got the horses to take out Tampa still skeptical there that's fair you know the the question I've had with people is like you know if the grit isn't in the core you know the core guys who are going to play most of the game can you tape it on enough around it? Does Tampa struggling a little bit at least give you a little bit more hope for the Leafs? I think it gives you hope, but I also think it's kind of like, okay,

didn't they done that, boys? Let's gear up. I don't think they know that their season isn't exactly on the line here in the last 10, 12 games of the regular season aren't really when it matters. So I think they're probably gearing up. But, yeah, what you say about the core there, I mean, look, I'm not going to diminish the skill. The skill on the guys is phenomenal,

but I don't know what the grid is on those top four guys up front. Ken, do you have a theory on why we can watch the Islanders last night look real desperate, but we don't necessarily get that out of a Calgary or a Winnipeg or the Leafs last night? The Calgary stuff's wild, eh, with the stuff that maybe some guys don't want to play for Sutter. I mean, geez, it was funny.

I got home from work the other night, and the Edmonton game was on, the Calgary game was on. I'm like, okay, I think I'll watch the Flames. It was 6-1 Kings after 2 when I got home, and I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I just don't understand that lack of desperation. And I don't know if they've quit on the coach, but I think that's an assumption you could make when you look at something like that.

I mean, they looked good last night, but they were playing Anaheim, which aren't exactly the 77 Montreal Canadiens. But for the Leafs last night, I just take that game and I flush it. I mean, could you imagine if Otani served up softballs to Trout like that? Holy smokes. It was pizza night on Long Island. It was funny. They showed a montage during the game of the Leafs turnovers.

And I said to Ivanka, I go, I don't know, maybe it's just bad ice. And I'm like, oh, no, that wasn't bad ice. No, that wasn't bad ice. No, that wasn't bad ice. Yeah, it was just an off night. I don't know, guys, what do you think? It's one of those games you just kind of flush, I think. Yeah, and even Sheldon didn't seem to hate their game that much.

He kind of just felt like a couple of, as you mentioned, pizzas go the wrong way. They shoot it in your net and it looks a lot worse than it is. Exactly. Flushed that one a little bit. I wanted to ask you about some other stuff around the hockey world because we don't get you on very much. One of the things that I thought you might have some insight on is the QMJHL banning fighting, you know?

I thought you might go there, Borny. Yeah. And, you know, I'm assuming you're in favor of it and you're glad to see that there won't be any more fighting. Oh, yeah, for sure. It's funny, Tim and I the the commissioner of the queue on tonight and you know i'm gonna i i mean i'm not going to attack the guy he's a guest on our show but i'm going to ask him fair questions i think but i think it's a joke to be honest um fighting is pretty much eliminated from

the queue as it is i mean you get five and a ten there's a fight every eight games i think spec we wrote the other day mark specter i looked, you get five and a 10. There's a fight every eight games, I think. We wrote the other day, Mark Spector. I looked up the stats on hockeyfights.com. The team with the most fighting majors in the league is Charlottetown with 19. The Ramparts have one. I mean, Kipper, North Bay used to get 19 on a weekend, I'm guessing. The Sioux involved for sure.

Yeah. I mean, so to me, fighting's pretty much been eliminated as it is. So I don't know what the rush to do this is, because I think every once in a while, when a guy crosses the line on the ice, he's got to pay the price. And, you know, I said that on Twitter, and of course, everyone's like, you're advocating bare-knuckle fighting, a 21-year-old beating up a 15-year-old. I'm like, well, first off, if you watch junior hockey, there's maybe two 21-year-olds who just turned 21 after Christmas.

And secondly, 20-year-olds don't fight the 16-year-olds. We all know that unless something totally goes off the rails. So I just think it's – I don't know what the rush to do it is. I don't know what the, I don't know, politically correct term is for trying to get rid of all the dirty work and make hockey so fun. And, you know, sometimes you've got to punch a guy in the face. Love it. I'm the dinosaur. Yep.

Kipper, when people send me a GIF and it shows old man shakes hand at cloud and they call me a dinosaur, I could not be happier. To me, that is the biggest compliment. Sometimes you've got to get punched in the face. That's just the way the world works, and it applies to the ice as well. Right to the bitter end. Love it. Right.

Yeah. Any sense that the Ontario or the Western League will feel differently here? They're under one umbrella. We know that at the CHL. But, like, it doesn't sound like the O or the W are in a hurry to follow these footsteps here. This could get really ugly or interesting, one of the two. I think so. I mean, kids have always chose major junior because they're thinking,

okay, it's the fastest route. It mimics the NHL more than college hockey. Look, if I'm Paul Crea and it's 1992 and I can go to the Dub or I can go to NCAA, I'm going NCAA. But I think it should be open to how it suits your game. And if you're a young kid and you're rough around the edges now and you're growing up in the Maritimes or Quebec and you'd like to play major junior, you're not going to go into major junior thinking,

I'm going to fight 30 times this year because that just doesn't happen anymore. But you might be thinking, you know, if I've got to drop the gloves four or five times, that's cool. I mean, in the O right now, if you drop them three times, you get suspended. So to me, fighting is kind of going away, but it'll always be there,

so I don't see what the big rush is to just hammer the door shut right now. But isn't it great that it's going away, but it'll always be there, so I don't see what the big rush is to just hammer the door shut right now. Isn't it great that it's going away naturally, and ultimately it's the player's decision, and it's their discretion to use it when they want to use it, and they haven't really felt the need to use it, but at least it's their decision? Right, exactly.

And I think, I mean, we live in a world where everybody's telling you what to do at all times. And sometimes it has to be the Wild West. And sometimes in the Wild West, you know, old Wyatt Earp wouldn't pull the pistol out. He'd walk away. I like that. I mean, I love seeing a scrap. I love when a scrap happens at a key to the moment. I mean, I used to cover the queue when I'd had Peter Orwell and Jody Shelley

and Francois Paget, Joey Animal Terrio, and they'd just go to go, right? You want to get your pins up, you're going to have a go. But when it happens organically, it happens. And the fact that it's just kind of going away, that's fine. But the option to have a go should still be there if you ask me. Yeah, it does seem like, as you guys mentioned, that it's sort of naturally working its way out, and it is weird to kind of rush things along.

It probably changes the look of that league in terms of who wants to play there and what it does for it developmentally. Yeah. I just think also, Kenny, don't you think, like, I watch UFC. I love watching fighting. I like watching boxing. Is there some acceptance when you play a professional sport like hockey that you are getting involved in something physical,

that intimidation is a part of it, and that's just another element? There should be. That's not around anymore. I remember Zegers last year, the other guys on the other team were trying to hit me. Yeah, hello. This is the U.S. National Development Team program. Man up. So I think that that part of the game, which I loved,

which was if you cross the line, you're in trouble. And if we can't beat them on the rink, we'll beat them in the alley. I'm sorry, Freddie Sherrill, but I like that. And that's the game I grew up watching and fell in love with. I grew up watching Wayne Gretzky have so much room, because if you touched him, Dave Semenko would do what he had to do. And Kipper, you know, that era, Dave Semenko would ask guys off the draw, are you going to play hockey tonight or do you want to get stupid? And three quarters of the time they'd say, oh, I'll play hockey, Mr. Semenko, and he wouldn't have to do anything.

And I mean, I don't want leagues handing out suspensions left and right, but if there's no fighting, they're going to have to because bad things are still going to happen and for me fighting could at least punish those bad things immediately if not curtail them because i think i'll be interesting to see what the play is like in the queue when they totally eliminate fighting because now you can still go you don't go a lot but you can still do it uh if you guys watch i mean bernie you played ncaa but i used to watch a lot of atlantic university sport hockey. Awesome hockey. Tons of major junior guys. The stick work is epic.

They look like lumberjacks out there. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that. Who's your favorite right now out there to do it all? To do it all? The working man's PhD kind of player? Josh Anderson. I got a hockey crush on Josh Anderson. I hope he's Ph.D. kind of player? Josh Anderson. I got a hockey crush on Josh Anderson. I hope he's okay.

I saw him go down last night, but I think Josh Anderson's a pretty complete player. I think if you need him to mess around a little, he can do that. Yeah, what did T.H. Thompson fall last night, too? Did you see that? I saw that. Not very well, but you've got to do it once in a while. Just say you did it, right? Tom Wilson?

Yeah, you've got to love Tom Wilson. North Toronto Arena, pitcher on the wall. You've got to do it once in a while just to say you did it right tom wilson yeah i gotta love tom wilson you know north toronto arena picture on the wall you know so you got you gotta love that but but i i think if uh if i had a hockey man crush for for the guy that do it all i'll go back to josh anderson i mean when montreal got him i was so pumped up but there's tough times in montreal but yeah tom wilson i like uh i couldn't stand the other night when Bunting wouldn't go with Kane. I thought that was awful. If you're going to play that way every once in a while, you've got to stand up and do the right thing.

So I didn't like that at all. But, hey, that's what you can do now, right? All right, one more before we let you go. Where's Conor Bedard going? Oh, man. Well, I wish Montreal would lose a bunch of games. I was thinking about that the other night, how awesome it would be for him to go to Montreal.

But I don't want him to make his NHL debut in an arena that's smaller than the rink he currently plays his home games in with four shadows around him from poor lighting at a college rink when he skates out at Arizona State for the Arizona Coyotes. That's what I don't want to see. No offense, Arizona, but I don't want to see that. Still may come. I know, isn't that awful?

I mean, I love the WHA guys, the stories from it, but they should remain there. The NHL doesn't need its own WHA moment playing at the mullet arena. I mean, how bad is it you've got to name your frigging rink after a haircut to try to attract hockey? You know? We know. That would be like going to North Bay and renaming it like the Feathered Hair Arena after the style of 1985.

Buddy, nobody beat my feathered back hair game. What did you guys do? Did you blow dry it? I don't know. It just seemed naturally it would go back there. Borny, when you score 60 goals in the O, you can do your hair any way you want. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Hey, Breeder, awesome stuff, man. Awesome, boys. Thanks for having me. Talk to you in deep. None of that fancy analytics, buddy. Just get them in deep. Thanks for coming on, pal. Ken Reed, part of that great team we see every night on Sportsnet with Ivanka.

You know what I love about him? And there's many, many things. But authenticity is, you know, it's such a desired trait to me in today's, you know, Instagram influencer sort of culture. Like, Kenny's Kenny. Take it or leave it. He doesn't care. Yeah.

And a lot of people say, well, take it. Love him, too. Love it. Absolutely love it. All right. He doesn't care. Yeah. And a lot of people say, we'll take it. Love it. Absolutely love it. All right. Where do you want to go? We've got a little bit of time and we got the NHL PA poll. We do.

But I also want to talk about Shohei Otani striking out his teammate, Mike Trout. Yeah. A hundred mile an hour fastball, 97 mile an hour sliding. That was the matchup that everybody talked about. Yeah. And then it happened.

And they are literally the two best baseball players on the planet. They're teammates and they would never play were it not for some sort of event like this. And they had a showdown to end the game. Struck out Mike Trout. down to end the game struck out mike trout this guy threw 102 miles an hour in the tournament and had a hit a ball 118 miles per hour he had the highest exit velocity and the hardest pitch of the whole tournament otani so they're saying he might get 600 million on his next deal sorry that was 600 million dollars the senators aren't worth that that's right would you rather buy the senators forever or just one guy that's a fair question you got sound up for us david clip conor mcdavid weighed in on

the lack of best on best that's where we're going with this is hockey hasn't had best on best no mcdavid versus dry sidaitl. Marner versus Matthews. What did Connor McDavid have to say? I thought it was really cool. It's what we've been asking for in hockey for a long time, right? You know, it was best on best. You know, look, everyone's talking about baseball. And, you know, did you see, you know, Otani versus Trout? And, you know, that's what hockey's been missing for, you know,

almost a decade now. So, yeah, that's what we've been asking for. That's direct, isn't it? So, yeah, who wouldn't want to see McDavid versus Matthews, right? How about McDavid on the line with Sid? Their careers are going to overlap for 10 years, and they're never going to play in a single international competition together so what's the sense out there that uh last night's uh world baseball championship is putting a ton

of heat now on gary bettman and the nhl or all the hockey fans going hey that was fantastic last night where's ours yeah and they're saying that know, they were going to do a world cup, but now it can't be till like 2025 or 2026. Cause no one wants to tell Russia. They can't come. Well, that's the IHF. I think made it official or put something out the other day on no Russia. So, and the league is totally backing that up because they won't do anything without

Russia. Well, can we just see it without Russia then? Can I get Germany with dry sidle and the NHL players don't want it without Russia and neither does Gary Bettman. Well, it sounds to me like the players want to have this tournament. I'm sure they would be fine. They do, but it'll suck without Russia. It would be preferred to have them for sure.

Absolutely. But I mean, if you can't, you still got to go ahead with it in some capacity. Like it's just been too long. It's been a shame. And part of it is, you know,

the pandemic put a damper on it and, you know, obviously they were, they were disorganized long before the pandemic. Yeah. But it's just been a shame. It's just really brought to light you think about you know lemieux and gretzky and howard chuck you know putting together

that great moment for canada like never getting to see sid with mcdavid is such a loss the only thing and i covered the last world cup here in toronto and it's a lot harder to manufacture the intensity of international play outside of the Olympics for a very long time now. And the World Cup, it was a nice event. It was dumb. But it didn't have, it didn't carry much intensity.

And our game needs intensity. Canada couldn't have Connor McDavid. The rules were stupid, and you're right. I agree that it has to matter. Baseball, it's easier because at the end of the day, it's just a guy throwing a ball and a guy trying to hit a ball. You just knuckle down for your at-bat or whatever. That will never change in terms of the intensity,

but to have that physical element of go back to 72, go back to 87 in Hamilton, it felt like for Canadians, it was our do or die. We're either the best in the world or we're going to get crushed that we can't claim hockey supremacy. But I don't know if a world cup does that anymore. I think the Olympics does because it carries the energy of, this is the best tournament for athletics in the world.

You can, you make a very valid point about how maybe the emotional stakes wouldn't be there, but it doesn't matter. Like you have to have the opportunity to see these guys together. They can decide what the stakes are, what they're playing, their effort. If it matters to them,

then it'll matter to the rest of us. We just need to see it. You know what I remember most? Summer shinny. You know what I remember most about the World Cup in 2016 here was, well, a couple things, is that the energy that the young guns brought. Yeah.

And again, really like a stupid concept. How did that happen? But it doesn't matter because it was that next generation of great young players. Yeah. And how, you know, watching Austin Matthews before he was a Toronto Maple Leaf was really cool. Oh, I mean, you know, a very memorable play.

I won't call it iconic, but I mean. Yeah. And the other thing was watching Brad Marchand play with Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby. Love that. And how that was like. So this kid who we just thought would be like this third line rat turned into a front line future Hall of famer yeah he did you know if you look at his career

when he signed that deal that paid him six per year very good player what he has become since then is a different caliber of player no like one of the like one of the best in in this generation yeah like who can do it all and you know depending on how this season finishes and it's looking pretty good right now for him and patrice and the rest of that group i mean he's gonna go down as one of the best sports figures in in boston's history you know he's going to be up there. A championship for the Boston Bruins would put all those guys in that same light as, you know, Phil, Bobby, and all the greats.

So, on that note, there are five players in the latest poll that were voted in this question. Which player do you least enjoy playing against but would like to have on your team? Don't look. Don't look. Hey, we're doing this?

Don't look. Yeah, we are. All right. Five players that players voted that they would like to have on their team but hate playing against. Okay. So we were just talking about...

Brad Marchand. Number one. Brad Marchand. Yeah. Yeah, number one. I mentioned him with Ken Reed, Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson is one of the five. Absolutely.

You'll get. You know who I would put up there, and I don't know if he got any looks or any serious consideration, Evander Kane. Great pick. He's not on there, but that's a really great pick. Yeah, because he's the guy who fits the mold there yes i'll give there's one more i think you might get and then two may

you may yeah be harder that now with ovechkin like ovechkin's hammering you on goals but he's also hammering you in in the boards yeah that's a good one he's not on there. The other ones are. Connor? Yes. Connor McDavid is second. He'd just be a nightmare. You just don't want to defend that. No, no, no. I'd rather get hammered than embarrassed, tripping over my feet. Yeah, I'll take how that hurts over watching the highlight for the rest of my career,

the rest of my life, watching him dangle me. Like Morgan Riley has to watch Conor turn him inside out till he's dead. The other two are Matthew Kachuk. Yeah, for sure. He's a pain in the ass. Surprising for this one, Victor Hedman. It's only 3.9% of the votes.

So probably a couple of guys. I don't think you're scared of going against Victor Hedman. I just think it's, you know, when of going against Victor Hedman. I just think it's, it's, you know, when you got that, that height in that reach from one, from one side of the boards to the other,

that could be very frustrating to play against. Makes sense. Makes sense to me. All right. Should we go through these? Or did you see the list? I haven't looked at. Okay.

Then don't then, then I'm going to pick a category and I'm going to let them reverse it on you. All right, let's do it and see how any of them. Okay, then don't. Then I'm going to pick a category, and I'm going to reverse it on you. All right, let's do it. And see how many you get. All right, let's go with best passer. And this is all under the NHL players poll, which dates back to, I think, back in my day, I think we used to do this too.

So you get five names. Is our boy Mitch on there? And by the way, for the most part, I think what happens is the players pass this over to the trainers and the trainers fill it out. So really it should be the NHL players association poll by. By trainers. Team trainers.

Okay. Equipment manager. What did we say? Best passer. Is Mitch on there? the NHL Players Association poll by team trainers. By equipment managers. What do we say? Best passer. Is Mitch on there? No. No, Mitch Marner. That's shocking. Genuinely shocking. I'm watching last night. If the Leafs had like eight or nine quality chances,

Mitch must have set up like five or six. The pass to Gustafson was nasty. Really nasty. Leon Dreisaitl's got to be number one or two. 25% of the players voted for Leon. So, so good. Patrick Kane? You're two for two right now.

13% when Patrick Kane at number two. I don't know if you're going to get this one. And he is awesome. Ah. You got a D-man back there like fox no they're all forwards all forwards hey uh panarin yes number four okay but you're missing between pat kane and panarin they put mcdavid on there yes and he is fifth okay oh man this sort of thing that's gonna kill me isn't it once you're off yeah there you go for sure for sure that's a good list what's he at 100 points already again like 100

again some points no big deal all right all right so let's go through a couple of these um we don't have to do the test on everyone no um okay if you need one game which goalie would you want everyone picks vasilevsky half the league picked them which goalie would you want? Everyone picks Vasilevsky. Half the league picked him. The other four names, you want to suggest any? Well, number two, it's always Vasilevsky and New York. Yeah, Shosturkin. Shosturkin. I got Sorokin in my head.

That's why. Well, he's on the list, too. Okay, that's why. With the drop-off, Vasilevsky got 52.3% of the vote. Second place is Shosturkin with 4.8%. So went around the league. So this was, this was done before watching Tampa Bay's last 20 games. Apparently it was top defenseman in the NHL right now.

A massive dominating total for one defenseman. Victor. No, Victor second with 11.4%. Oh, Cale. Cale. Cale's number one. Victor two. Yeah.

Cale. Cale's like Bobby Orr. Yeah. Yossi, Carlson, and Fox. Rasmus Darlene snuck in there tied with Fox, which kind of surprises me a little bit. Any other kind of categories stick out to you? Best stick handler's interesting. pat kane pat kane number one yeah over over mcdavid that's a little surprising to me the only real shocker on there

is trevor zegers snuck in i don't i only say shocker because i don't know just don't think of him as one of the elite guys in the game even though he can do such unbelievably skilled things most underrated player what a tiresome answer this is what do you think eight years in a row alexander barkov is he is he underrated at this point uh can you can you when you're making 10 and a half 11 million dollars getting voted for this award every single year. Interesting, though, on that list, we got Tage Thompson, Zibanejad, Sebastian Aho, Braden Point. But Jesper Bratt is an interesting name on there. He's so good. He is good.

Did you see that goal he cut into the middle of the ice and then put one over Vasilevski, I think, the other night? No, I didn't see the highlights. Oh, God. What NHL arena has the best ice? He's going to resign, too. They may have trouble signing him. He's going to have cap issues.

Couple of the annoying ones, if we can. Best shoe game in the NHL. Yes, this is where, like, I don't want to win this. No? No. No. I've seen the gumboots you wear in here some winter days. I don't think you're winning.

No concerns there, pal. I don't need that association. And he won it in convincing fashion. Austin Matthews. Best shoes in the NHL. Best shoes in the NHL. You're going to kill him for that if they don't win something bigger. Oh, no, no.

If they're out in the first round, he's going to go down in history as the best shoe guy. Giordano's going to have his golden shin pads. That's all the Leafs are going to be remembered for. Hey, did you win the cup? No, but we won best shin pad blocker and best shoes. Oh, that's rough. How about they had a vote for the best nhl player or best guy in the locker room best locker i would have been up for that i was a great guy in the room

i don't see your name on here but best guy in the room yeah i just give me a chance just give me a chance no idea who would uh i'll say the first name and you'll get it yeah you'll be like all right uh this goalie give me a goalie oh mark andre flurry number one there you go the flower you know who's on the list phil kessel really people love phil goofball hayes voracek ryan new hansen nick felino got some votes that one was evenly distributed we're talking two three percent per guy uh best nhl road city to have an off day oh god how is it not florida man well because there's another newer city that has uh oh so they can go gamble yeah i guess vegas number one 30 and florida finished third two i'd take beach over casino but there's golf i take casino over beach there's

golf there too but number two is new york new york you know that's my number one if i could have an off day in any city put me in manh. God, we got excited when Quebec went to Colorado so we could on an off day. Smoke weed? Oh, sorry. No. Ski or snowmobile. Did you actually do that in Colorado? Oh, my God.

Was that not in your contract that you couldn't? Mess took us snowmobiling. Come on. While under contract. Oh, no. For the New York Rangers. We had like, we each had our own like snowmobiles. on well under contract oh no the new york rangers we had like we each had our own uh like snowmobiles those things are death traps we're like hammering each other yeah like

side by side not trying to knock each other off these things are flipping all i remember flipping. All I remember is at the end of it, when we had to turn them in, all I saw was Mark Messier, like writing a check for damages. Oh, I'm sure. And it was expensive machines. It was not. It was,

I think it was a nice, they were like looking at the snowmobiles going, they were like writing down and they're like, need new this this need new that and it's like uh did you take visa one of my uh my favorite clark gilly stories is so he was a big snowmobiler they they used to go up to vermont and snowmobile all the time and he loved these things and he wanted to get a new one every year but his wife you're not buying a new snowmobile every year and clark wonderful to his wife pam but he used to tell her he got it painted every year.

She was like, oh, yeah. He's like, yeah, you know, it gets chips on it, whatever. Got to get a fresh paint job every year. He'd sell a new snowmobile every year. He's such a smart guy. That's a good hustle. Also, get your golf stuff sent to the office, not home. That's a veteran move I've seen, too.

What rink, you said was it uh best rink atmosphere best ice uh has to be edmonton that has been the long running one it's second second to uh bell center montreal bell center but i mean like uh four out of five canadians well three so winnipeg's third st paul minnesota is fourth yeah the shocker number five las vegas in the desert wow they must like a newfangled refrigeration system yeah something like that yeah i don't live in alaska and playing up at sullivan arena that's it's like skating on diamond it's hard it's beautiful gotta be in a cold climate anything else like uh most complete player with nice shoes or anything like that

complete player was crosby he was number one in that category um surprising a cane best stick handler in a must-win game what forward do you think would be most impactful connor only got 60 percent of the vote imagine voting for kucherov over mcdavid oh this one's over mcdavid this one's interesting who affects the game most around the net did you look no i didn't okay give me a name someone tips it in pavelski yeah number one come on 21.4 good call well he's always like he's tipping deflecting everything lots of rebounds another one power play guy in front of the net. The best. Oh, Kreider? Yes. Number two.

And then that pesky guy in Florida again. Good shock, yeah. Battling it out. Yeah, that makes sense. And one we saw last night in the island. Brock Nelson? Nope. Andrews Lee?

Yes. Yeah. Big bodies who kind of live in that paint. Tavares kind of does a lighter version of that for the Leafs power play. All right. We covered everything. Ovechkin passing Gretzky for most 40-goal season in NHL history.

How many? 13. My God. 13 40-goal season. Oh, my God. He's a machine. You know what is a shame we don't have sam for fanatics to become the initial official nhl jersey sponsor explain to me like i'm reading this and i'm like okay no

big deal this happens all the time but people are upset they are i'm thrilled what is it with fanatics what's the beef on fanatics? I'm not the guy to ask. Here's what I'm hearing from other people. It sounds like the quality is not up to par compared to a lot of the other Jersey manufacturers. Sounds like they initially, you know, a lot of quick printed jerseys that the quality didn't hold up.

And then they made a bunch of money with these sorts of deals and they're buying up all the rights. And it sounds like, I don't know. My understanding is it's not the depth of color that you would want kipper yeah i know you care about this sort of stuff well a little bit more since i've been on this show low thread count low thread count yes look at some of the jerseys my dad used to wear it's like cheese grater material the glue cotton the glue's not holding up is it on the letters

now you breathe hot on the letters? No, you breathe hot on the name bars and they peel off. It's apparently not the highest quality product. Just like that. What do I know? We've come to the end of our show. And by the way, for everyone, just so they know, we had Off the Rails Wednesday today because Kipper is not going to be here tomorrow.

I'm taking off. I'm pulling a Sammy and taking off for a few days heading south, but I'll be back next week. I know you're going to hold a fort here with our good buddy Gunner. Me and Guns, yeah. Talking Leafs. Don't go anywhere, everybody. Still going strong here

on Real Kipper and Borner. Thanks to Brad May and Ken Reed. And give us a rating and review. We love hearing from you. The feedback is awesome. Have a great night, everybody. We'll be you next time.