Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Bedard Show Hits T.O

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the Leafs' 7-4 win over the weekend vs. the Wild, Auston Matthews' prolific scoring start, William Nylander looking more motivated and an early evaluation of the team's forward depth. Then, a look at how some of the new fixtures have factored in, Max Domi's fit, Matthew Knies showing hopeful signs and whether Ryan Reaves' extracurriculars make up for his play on the ice. They are joined by TNT analyst Darren Pang (29:57), who tees up tonight's game between Toronto and Chicago, the hype surrounding Connor Bedard, whether it's too much on his plate, how far the team is from being competitive and how the new pieces around Bedard have slotted in.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.

let's welcome everybody into our first full week on the real kipper and born show i'm nick kiprios alongside justin bourne sammy mckee pushing the right buttons derrick brandeo jen rolnick side. Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee pushing the right buttons. Derek Brandeo, Jen Rolnick, and we are good to go. Live on Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, and Sportsnet Plus from 4 to 6

Eastern. We'll get you on tap for a big night in the National Hockey League. Led by Austin Matthews and his back-to-back hat tricks on Saturday night. Can he follow up

with a third one? Boys, yeah, we had envisioned a better Austin Matthews this year coming off a subpar 40-goal season by his standards. But I don't think anybody really saw this start. No, and you know what?

Obviously, the goals are good. That's my hockey analysis for the show. Goals are good. But the rest of the play just looks so much better to me, so much more confident handling it, taking contact, and him and Mitch Martin marner turning pucks over you know going in there and picking pockets and staying in the on the offense to me they just look i shouldn't say they because mitch look good last year too but austin looks like he did at his

best which is a great sign for the leafs this year we got a great hour uh obviously around the toronto maple leafs in the first hour we'll also welcome in darren pang who's in town to cover tonight's game that you can find on sportsnet chicago blackhawks connor bedard in town and we're going to get right into uh you know the hype and and where it is and although the numbers aren't overwhelming there are signs that suggest that uh there's a lot of things that have been overwhelming in terms of where this guy is already. We'll get into that with Darren Pang. And Sammy, we'll throw it over to you. And by the way, last week, I said if you guys were on your best behavior, you played your cards right. I'd take you to the hockey game tonight.

And I can confirm you two are going. Oh. So. I wore a fancy shirt just in case. I'm feeling like a bit of an idiot here. Like I just wore like a normal shirt that I would normally wear. Like I don't think I look okay. I mean, you be you.

I know, but. Yeah, you guys. Look at you guys. Look at you. You look like a million bucks. I look like a schlub. You show up in a canali suit tonight and people are going to like, you're done. I am who I am.

I am who I am. But I mean, both you guys look spectacular as usual. I went to the alumni box with him last year or the year before. You stomped on someone's foot, right? I did, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Intentionally. And I'm coming for him again tonight, too.

She better not be there. Yeah. So. Yeah, try not to step on anybody's feet tonight. Sorry about that. I, yeah, last time we went to the Leafs game, was that last year we went? When we went to the Islanders game? Yes. And I went with Kipper

and it was like going with Brad Pitt. I've never I've never seen someone get stopped. And courteous, you stopped for a picture with everyone. You took a picture with everyone. I've never seen anyone get asked more to take a picture kipper that's kipper but and by osmosis it's happening to me like i it's unbelievable you are now a national celebrity it's out of control it's out of body it's this complete fantasy camp like i played hockey last

night and the whole other team's like oh sammy sam like it's people are gonna fight you now they're gonna be like they were pretty good to us they were asking if uh kipper lent us mike richter for a game last night chris played pretty well but yeah it's it's crazy all right before we dive in a more conor bedard hype uh just the biggest difference right now i know it's early and yeah he's had some bounces albeit some kind of goals that didn't necessarily go in for him last year like three feet off the goal line short side the other night but what's the biggest difference that you've seen already out of austin well i just say a confidence thing you know because he shot that second but i know

the one you're talking about they thought tavarez got it or whatever and that one finds a way in off the goal he's right skate it's like he just wasn't shooting those pucks you know a second before everyone thinks you should shoot it like he has been so far this season and that speaks to how good he's feeling and you know how it is when you're on a hot streak you just feel like anything can go in and and he looks like he believes this year and boy six goals in two games tough to not imagine him being 50 60 goals this year if he looks like this and stays healthy it's just the confidence and way he's playing and the cellies that he has after every goal like he just feels like he's feeling it he's refreshed he's healthy i don't know bounce off him maybe he's hurt last year at the start of the year like

i really don't know there was the wrist surgery? That was talked about a lot. But, I mean, maybe there's something more. He just looks way better. Wouldn't you feel it too, though, if you jumped a million dollars in salary over Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon after he won a Stanley Cup, and you just, the best you've done in your career is win one round?

Yeah. I don't know, man. A lot of people think it's the opposite. A lot of people think it's the contract year where you haven't got paid yet that you get the best out of people. Look at Willie right now. Is he being motivated because he's not paid?

Is Matthew, my guess is they're just good. They're just really good hockey players. And right now, I mean, Nylander's another guy that just feels like, you know, a tier above where he's been in the past. No one in the league's touched six goals yet. There's a couple of guys. Brock Besser, you know, had a big night as well

to get out of the gate here early. Is there any part of you that is at least, I wouldn't say the word bothered, but six goals and no assists. Cy Young favored early. Exactly. Like, once upon a time, not to take you guys back before you were born, but I scored some big goals in junior.

Yeah. And I think the most I had was about 35 assists. Yeah. And I'll be darned if I didn't,'t you know look you guys in the eye and say i hated it when people said cy young it bothered me yeah i don't think he's got one of the best he's got maybe the best passer in the world on his line it doesn't matter if he scores 60 and has 20 assists is are you okay with that of course of course i mean i could not care less but the thing is you know the implication i guess being that he's not passing the puck, and that's just not the case.

I mean, there's multiple instances of him setting guys up. I don't think he's a one-dimensional guy or anything. You do? I think he's a shooter. I don't see him as a playmaker at all, right? And I think when it comes to Tavares and Matthews, they're not traditionally real, true setup guys. Yeah.

Well, and what's funny is here we are in the early season small sample stuff. No one in the NHL has more assists than John Tavares. Zero and five. He's got the young sigh. Whatever the opposite of the sigh is. So I think the stuff levels out. Outside of, okay, you want to talk about willie a little bit because uh i think there was a sign i saw saturday night when they were up i think four

three had a golden opportunity in front of that he smashed his stick did you guys notice that no i didn't see that yeah he not typically competitive willie well can we say competitive in a contract year not typically what emotion that we've seen in the past out of willie you know smashing the stick against uh uh the glass and then coming back to the bench and doing the same thing he does seem to want it right now i mean that goal he scores you know uh ekman what's his name erickson ek was the guy on willie when willie dangled it backhand toey cuts it across the net like that's a good hockey player he's up for selkie awards every year and willie just put

him on his back whatever it is if it is contractor if it's just 27 and and taking over the league there he looks different when he's gone he's gone right austin matthews austin you want to go to a clip of uh sheldon on austin on Austin and his towards start from Saturday? Let's do it. I do think he's come in refreshed and healthy. I think he's had a really good offseason. But I've said it since day one of camp. I think Austin's just, he's focused on the big picture here.

He's looking to really drive our team. He knows his job's to score. But I really don't think he cares how many goals he gets. What the number is in the end is about how many wins we have and how good our team is and what we're building towards, how he can lead us there.

That's where his focus is. He had me until he said Austin doesn't care about how many goals he gets. He keeps playing hockey, playing in the NHL. He has to know everyone cares how many goals they have the goal scores they want their cookies that's like a self-worth thing it's how you judge yourself when you're a goal guy so yeah i'm not on board with that but i'm on board with the coach trying to put him over as a all that matters is the wins and you know you know, you made a point earlier about Mitch Marner. Especially for me, the one I think you're talking about

is the wraparound hat-trick goal where Marner's in the corner with, I think, Zuccarello and Goligoski. And I don't know if there's anyone that size that can keep pucks alive better than mitch marner it's like he's got a fishing net he can like reach in from behind and just like pull it off guys sticks and all of a sudden i really think that's one of the most frustrating parts of playing matthews and marner is not that they pass it around you or whatever is that on the four check you're not getting mowed over they're. There's sticks in there all the time. Good sticks, good sticks, and all of a sudden it's turned over.

If Bertuzzi can have an element to that, they're going to spend the whole season in the offensive zone. I think when you talk about your money players, your core four guys, you've gotten everything you've wanted out of all the big boys. Now, where are we after two games with the guys underneath them? Because you watch in a game on a Saturday night where you think things should be under control at 4-1, Minnesota finds a way to get back in the game,

and then it's just your big boys taking over again. So where are you in the game and then it's just your big boys taking over again so where where are you in the big big big picture i you know maybe not as positive they've won two games they've scored a ton everything's rosy and all that but if you're the coach you're you're sitting there and going you're not sure about minton after a couple games right he's not going to be here for game 10 i don't think he's i thought he's much better in game two than game one um but yeah max has been bumped down by his coach max domi he's moved him off the second line to the third line i think speaks to some of the things he said one of the things keith said about him was he wants him to manage the puck in the offensive zone better trying to force plays and turning

pucks over now you're chasing it the other way so you know i don't think he loves that and even the fourth line as much as they've talked about them they've actually given up a ton of they've spent a lot of time in their own zone too so maybe not super pumped about the depth so far what about yourself listen i they cannot just rely on matthew scoring 60 goals and 100 points out of mitch martyr we've That's been the playoff problem, right? We've seen it in the past. I think, and this isn't even a blue line per se, because Tavares has been on the ice for a few goals. That line's been on for a few goals.

Tavares' line's been outscored 3-0 in 16 minutes together so far. You can love his five assists, but the metrics have to line up better than being even or minus. Yep. And they still have trouble in their own zone. And this is not picking on six guys of a blue line and then go trade two defensemen and everything gets fixed they've got to do a better job of being 200 foot men defending yeah and we haven't seen that in the first two

games well i think that's part of what dubas was doing no like in terms of knowing the the shortcomings of the top six guys and then kind of building a defensive minded bottom six that's going to be able to kind of help them with that yeah right you know what right now they don't feel comfortable playing that fourth line i don't think the way you're talking about like as a fourth line that was starting to d zone uh the matthews line started in the d zone far more than the fourth line i know they play more in general but typically they've been given those minutes to the fourth line keith doesn't feel as comfortable to me with this fourth line and how it's he's trying though he's trying to get comfortable he's putting them in some some key

situations here but tell you what there's some coaches that just they think that they can get certain amount out of fourth line and then they just shut them down that's enough you've done your job but to keep going back to the well every once in a while and i think he's shown that early late in periods putting them out there yeah like he he wants them to grow into something that may or may not happen yeah well and it's it's interesting because i talked about maybe minton is not going to be here for too long you know if, if things don't work out, there's a bunch of guys that they can go, okay, well, you know, I sent you guys the Marley stuff. Nick Robertson has five points in two games in the American League.

You know, Bobby McMahon's got a couple of goals. But just to my point earlier, you're not calling up Nick Robertson because you need more goals. No. You need a guy that can defend. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Holmberg would be a guy that can defend yeah exactly yeah Holmberg would be a guy that you'd sit there and say bigger heavier than Minton now is the time for the switch

yeah but again putting the puck in the net is not their issue right now no it's not and they've given up was it four goals and five goals so giving up nine goals in two games and we haven't even mentioned the defensive side of things there where you're looking at Lilligren and Giordano not even being the biggest problem. It's that 22 McCabe and Klingberg. All right, before we touch on that a little bit more, let's go to Sheldon Keefe on our clip number two

on the switch between Jarnkrok and Domi. Looking at those lines, I just thought that the Tavares-Nylander line could use more defensive help, and I thought that the Minton-Nyes line could use a little more offensive push and punch and playmaking. And so I just decided to make that switch. And I thought it worked well. I thought both guys, Yarny and Max, both kind of had the best periods of the six-plus that we've played here. So that was good.

Yarny scored us a huge goal. So that was encouraging. Nyes, Minton, Domi. Yeah, see, listening to Keith there, you know, instead of relying on Domi, instead of relying on somebody to come in to help Willie and Tavares defensively, why don't you go up to both of them and just say,

hey, you guys need to be better defensively. Well, like, why is it on somebody else why don't you just get them to play a little harder or a little smarter in their own zone and even if it means cutting the offense a tad wouldn't that help you yeah in in april and may in theory you're bang on. But, like, you can't, you know, what is it? Teach your dog? Right. Paint stripes on a pussycat, whatever the expression is. Like, these guys have been Toronto Maple Leafs for a long time.

They presumably have asked them at some point to try to defend a little bit. I'm sure Keefe has talked to William like, hey. It ain't happening. So you can either be like, all right, we need to fix this issue. You and I, I think, have talked with them. They just shouldn't play together. No, they have never had chemistry. No.

They've never, ever once really shown any bit of chemistry together. They get outscored consistently. What choice does Sheldon have? Where? Where does it change? We could do the switch up thing again. We've talked about this for the last three, four years. And they need to let Matthews just be a horse and drive a line.

You think Austin's losing Mitch Marner? You crazy? You know what? Can we be done caring with that? He's got a four-year deal after this year. He wants his cookies though, right? Great. Earn them then.

He doesn't need Mitch. It's because he wants him. It doesn't mean he gets him tavarez needs mitch so bad tavarez loves having mitchell on his line why wouldn't you oh the best yeah so wait so we're 47 with mitch on his wing give him mitch let willie be on the third line and just play with nize and let that third line power it through you're nuts you can't break up that top line that's gonna be the best line in the league we do not agree well then you got one line yeah i guess you're getting outscored with the you know

kneelander and tavara is making but you can't do something else with the other nine well i mean you can shuffle them up all you like is is yarn croc gonna help that second line no i've been having some already in my head i'm like i wonder if someone would take Yardrock and you just call up. I'm starting to hear like already some people maybe getting on Max Domi a little bit. They want more. They expect more. And give him a sec.

Well, come on. Two games in and it is Toronto. And there is a scenario here where he may need a little while to feel good about his game but and yeah there might be some issues for sure but if you ask me in april i'd rather have max there than yarn crock young crock to me is a good regular season player that can help you get your points right but i'm not sure i want to go in the trenches with Yarncroft in a best of seven. Well, we've already seen it.

We saw this past year with Yarncroft and we kind of know. I don't remember him having the puck in playoffs last year. I couldn't give you one memory. Was he intimidated? I am not at liberty to guess that. That's my first thought. Anytime I've ever played with somebody who all of a sudden is not involved in the play, is not physically engaged, is like,

yeah, he's probably a little intimidated. So maybe Max wouldn't be that, right? Max has played on a lot of teams, though, Kip, that haven't been in the playoffs. I know he's joined teams lately. For people to think that Max is going to be a fixture on the top six and score 50 or 60 points or be an answer, no, that's not him. He's going to fluctuate no that's not him he's gonna fluctuate there's

times when he's gonna be up he's gonna be down it's gonna be sometimes he's gonna play point nights 17 minutes sometimes it's 12 but for me you're gearing max into a playoff scenario they're asking him to be patient though with the puck and wait for opportunities and whatever i think there's a probably a great desire to come to toronto and light it up right and i'm sure that there's pressure there a unique pressure there that other players don't feel given his family history so i i agree that i think it's fair to give him some time and i'm not sure what that means though because it doesn't work i don't like either of the lines he's on right now i'd like to see him a little better insulated you know like

yarn crock is a guy that could play on the other side from him can play defense a little bit yeah nice mint in him that scares me a little i agree you know what i've really liked in the first little while is that uh not nice nice to me, is the biggest sleeper here. Yeah, yeah, agree. Okay. I think that when the time's right, you bump him up and you put him in scenarios with, you know, you can even move Bertuzzi down just to get that little bump

if you need it down the road. But the mere fact that they haven't thrown the kitchen sink at him already, I think is a really good sign. It is good. And it's unlike how they've handled guys like him in the past so that's a that's not how they handle them in the playoffs just like oh we need you really bad can come and play top six minutes and you know i hope you don't hurt your head don't get assaulted by sam bennett hope that doesn't happen to you. So that to me is a good sign. And I think he's been sleepy good the first couple of games. He doesn't play a lot, though.

What did he play on Saturday? I didn't play much. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. Less is more. And get him hungrier. And a couple times behind the net, man, he protects the puck. And he brings it out.

Comfortable taking contact, which I've said a couple times tonight. But man he protects the puck and he brings it out comfortable taking contact which i've said a couple times tonight but it is he's better yes better in that one-on-one scenario where he's protecting the puck he's a giant person you know like once he gets confident that guys can run into him like the way the dry side all turns his back it's very much like jogger he can do that and hold guys off the other conversation I want to touch a little bit off Saturday night is this Ryan Reeves and just kind of following it from afar in social media about how valuable he is. And even the listening you mentioned right off the show,

well, you have a lot of chances. And it's like, is he really making them that much better? And does he deserve all the accolades or credit in the first couple of games? And I'm just, for me, he's been terrific. He's been terrific. Their line was outshot 18-2 the other night. So that's where your analytics come in and say. So you can either think that I made that up or that happened on the ice.

When he was on the ice, their net got peppered. I think Ryan Reeves is great. I don't blame Ryan Reeves for that. I can't disagree. I'm watching the same thing. I'm watching him in the last minute cough up a hairball, you know, and almost turned into a great scoring opportunity against him. He himself has been good, I thought.

But as advertised and Saturday night, a prime example where they're kind of down and not much going on and then he smokes frederick goudreau smoked him smoked him that's as hard as i hit and then some people still go is it about it's like if that's not a good hit it was perfect i'm shutting down i'm walking out the door right now but's also, and they haven't had anyone who will throw the, was that good? Was that clean? Was it not hit? Which in itself has value.

Who cares? Great. The Leafs could use someone who makes people go, I should probably check over my shoulder. That's the way it should work. Okay. Whether it was a clean hit or a dirty hit is sometimes almost irrelevant for Marcus Foligno to turn around

and say, hey, not on my watch. You're not taking runs at all, our players, and I'm just going to stand around. Good for him. And that was a great fight for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and in many respects, obviously, a good fight for Marcus Foligno to stand up for his teammates. The last thing you want to see is Ryanyan reeves pull a george larocque where the building's quiet he's miked up and he's like baby you want to go and then they tap each

other and it's like yeah good luck yeah you know for no apparent reason both times he's fought this year it's been because he's been crushing shoulders big hits yeah and the flow of the game you know where it like made sense Not just like a stage fight off a draw or something like you mentioned. Yeah. The only, you know, and listen, I mean, I've lived it. You can't do it every night. You gotta, at times, be smart. But if it happens 10 times

this year, you'd be happy, right? Yeah. Maybe 15. Can't go on the pace he's on right now. Everybody's talking about Austin Matthews pace. I don't like Ryan Reeves' pace right now at his age. Great Austin Matthews' pace. I don't like Ryan Reeves' pace right now at his age. Great first impression, right?

For Leafs fans and the coach. Gets the belt in the locker room after for Austin Matthews. obviously matters. By the way, all the guys were like,

keep the belt. He stood up to give it out and they were like, just hang on to that thing. Yeah, I love it, but I do see the fourth line

having some struggles. Right. A lot of that and there's something I probably should have got to sooner, is it's the D to me, that they can't get the puck up and out the zone. Every time there's a puck in the corner, you know, it gets blindly rimmed up a wall, and then it gets pinned, and all of a sudden they're in their own zone. So the D so far, a lot to be desired.

Okay, and we can sit here and say it's early, but this is now four or five weeks from training camp. I don't see any improvement. I still see bad decisions. I hated the fourth goal by Minnesota. The game's done. It's locked. Why are you giving up a fourth goal at home?

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De Gea. De Gea. It was a great goal. You know. Oh, that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was. But we only came to do that. I don't want them to score. That's all. I want Ilya Samsonov to stop it. I want the puck out. And I just don't want any quality chances anymore. Yeah.

Okay. That's all. I get it. I get it for sure. I don't want to give up a fourth goal at home. It's 4-1 or whatever. You know. And all of a sudden, it's 4-3.

Same thing. Where it's like, can we not have to, you know a sudden it's 4-3 same thing where it's like can we not have to you know have this be stressful do we not and you know Samsonov again the short side brutal goal brutal boldy

brutal and next thing you know you come off a subpar training camp and your first two games you've got a goal against average of 4.42 and a save percentage of 839. And now it was a scheduled start. Introducing Joseph Rick Wall.

It was a scheduled start for Joseph Wall, but that's four or five days he's got to stew on. He hasn't been very good yeah yeah no doubt um you know it will be interesting because the door is open for a guy like well if he goes out tonight and blank chicago or something you know if you're the coach you're going into game four of the season are you already wondering which guy you want to start probably yeah i don't see wall making any they'd be nuts to just to push a narrative of uh this guy uh taking over or they need to even if it's not true you need to absolutely sell the narrative that that all we're looking out of this guy is 20, 25 starts. And just Samsonov, you can't lose Samsonov off of a bad training camp in two starts.

We have so much more to get to, but I know we have such a small window of panger. We should probably hit a break already. We should hit a break because, you know, the Wild on a Saturday night, good win or whatever, but tonight's the night. Tonight's the night. And Sammy and JB will be there to soak it all in. So we're going to take a quick break, and when we come back, Darren Pang,

former NHL goalie, hockey analyst with TNT, in town tonight to talk Conor Bedard. That and more when Real Kipper and Born returns. your podcasts. All right, we're back. Back to more leaf before we go into our national hour at the top of the clock, where we'll also welcome in Eric Francis out of Calgary, and we'll help tee up the Calgary Flames

and the Washington Capitals tonight. But it's all about Conor Bedard. And whether or not, in my opinion, that this hype machine might be getting slowly to a point where it's just, it's too much on the kid and we're asking too much of him. Well, I don't think you can ask more. We are at max capacity. He's doing in-game interviews. He's sitting on the couch with Colby and Sidney Crosby.

He's playing 20-some minutes a night. He's in Boston, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Toronto. All you can ask from a kid. Playing pretty well. Playing pretty well. I get. Playing really well. I get that you want to hype him and the sport up, and it's a wonderful Chicago major market.

I get all of that, but is someone there to protect the kid is someone there to say let's just you know back off a little bit when to when to have them breathe a little bit when to start pushing 19 other guys all right let's welcome in darren pang former nhl goalie hockey analyst on tnt and maybe the perfect guy to ask this question. Panger, how are you? Kipper, I'm doing fantastic, buddy. I'm actually signing a Blackhawk puck right now, putting the old number 40 on it. How about that? Nice.

You and Sammy McKee, two of the biggest celebrities we know around here. Hey, Panger, we're just... You're a beauty. We are talking Conor Bedard and his first visit to Toronto. We got a glimpse of it Saturday night in Montreal, hockey night in Canada. He puts the headsets to talk to Ron and the panel. And I'm just wondering, would there be a concern at all in terms of the pace that he's had the moment he showed up for a rookie camp?

And when is the ask too much? Yeah, it's a great question, Kipper. And I think all of us that have been around the game, you know, we think it every day. And, you know, here I'm new to the Blackhawks broadcast. And, you know, every day our producer, you know, says, look, we've got to run with him again. We've got Ian Austin Matthews.

We're in Montreal. We've got, you know, he's in Montreal for the very first time. You know, we'll have our home opener on Saturday the 21st against Vegas. He's going to be in the open. We'll interview him on the ice. And then I think following that game, Kipper, because this has been a whirlwind, but I think following that game, I think we're all going to get back to, okay, now let's settle everything down a little bit here,

and the kid needs a break. I'm not saying that's the number one reason why they didn't have a morning skate here today, but I believe that, you know, with the demands on Connor, the demands on the locker room, and you know what it's like being a trainer. You're there all day now. The kid doesn't leave the ice. i think they needed a break this morning and that was one of the main reasons for uh for not being there at the morning skate to really truly get some rest

after this after this run that the kid has been on but in answering your question i think he's got more energy than i do kipper i i mean he's got an engine that doesn't stop he's uh so i think if you're worried about him running out of gas, that won't be the case, but I just think running out of demand and expecting them to do it. Every single interview is too much to ask in a team sport. And I, and I think it, it, you know, we all know that there are certain athletes that get that every single time, but eventually the players start, you know,

stepping in a little bit, the veterans and, and, and getting it away from Connor and protecting in a little bit the veterans and and uh getting it away from connor and protecting them a little bit more than than than what's happening right now paying around i've got open a sport logic page right now looking at shots in the nhl so far uh number one nathan mckinnon number two connor bedard uh ahead of eichel kachuk and stutzla how have you what have you made of his start on the ice? How has he played? How has his game look like it's stacking up

against NHL players? I think it's, I think it's, it's stacked up really well. I mean, I think everybody knows that he's a,

you know, they know that he's a shooter, but I'll give you some, some insight too. Like this morning, I pulled Sheldon Keefe aside just for, just for a minute and asked if there's anything other than that. And this morning, I pulled Sheldon Keefe aside just for a minute

and asked if there's anything other than that. And he said the thing that's impressing the most is his entries into the zone. When he winds it up, he gets it through his own blue line, then he gets it through the neutral zone, through the red line, then he gets it across the blue line. So that's one area that I think Toronto

is going to do a good job against in getting forwards to attack him and have a little bit more pressure on him. But as far as the shot, as we well know, he's not a one-trick pony. I think that's the best way to say it. It's not just the shot. It's the hockey sense that he has and the presence that he commands when he's got the puck. But there's no doubt that he could actually even shoot the puck

a little bit more than what he has, believe it or not. There's been many situations where he's had good openings, but he's been trying to move the puck around and share the wealth a little bit. And the other thing is, I think he's conscientious right now. He's got to hit the net more. I mean, he's missed the net a number of times, too, just trying to really fine-tune that shot where something on net, even from distance, will be good enough to at least create a rebound

or maybe sneak through the goalie. Panger, not to date us, but me and you, we've been around to see these phenoms that come around every 10 years or so, like a Mario, an Eric, a Sidney. Where does this one for Connor stack up to compare those and record ratings, I guess, for the first game that he was involved with and, you know, the pressure to live up to the hype.

I think of Mario and Eric in particular, and I remember more of a veteran team around him. I look at this Chicago team and outside of Taylor Hall, I'm not sure how much he can lean on others. Well, I mean, it is a different scenario. I mean, clearly, they weren't even close to a playoff team last year.

That's why they got the number one overall pick. It's not like it's right around the corner that this team is going to be a playoff team, but in doing so, adding Nick Foligno and adding Corey Perry was essential, you know, for me. And I can already see the benefits of adding those guys. And, you know, Taylor Hall up front, you know, whether he sticks with them on the wing all season long, I'm not sure. If he's got, you know, you never know. Is the chemistry going to be there?

Can he read off of Conor Bedard? You know, I don't know about that just yet. We haven't seen a large enough sample just yet of that. So I would have to say this. It's going to be evolving, Kipper, in terms of getting, as the years go on, getting higher tech. There's a kid named Kurashev. We always have Lucas Reichel.

You've got Kevin Korchinski at 7th Oval. So there are some young players that are up and coming that we're probably not going to hear a lot about because everything's going to be on Conor Bedard, but that's going to be the key for Kyle Davidson and then the staff is to surround him with more great young players and hopefully real good draft picks along the way that are going to develop in the next couple of years.

So they're in Toronto tonight. What can we anticipate from this Blackhawks team? You know, haven't seen them a whole ton, one and two so far. You know, outside of Conor Bedard, what's going on Blackhawk land, Banger? Well, I think a couple of guys like that, Kevin Korchinski, I mean, right now he's on the team as a 19-year-old, and he's, you know, playing some big minutes, especially when they're behind.

You can see that he's got great instincts with the puck and getting up the ice. I'm telling you what, you've got some – like Wyatt Kaiser came out of Duluth, and he looks like he's a player. He'll play tonight again on the blue line. Lucas Reichel's a guy that I think is still trying to find his way as a centerman. He wears number 27.

He's played the wing last year. He's got really good hands and good instincts, but the responsibility at center ice has been tough on these young kids. And I would say, too, you'll notice it tonight, like not winning a lot of face-offs. You know, the big matchup going up against Austin Matthews and then Tavares is going to be a real challenge for this group. But,

but I'd say the young defenseman and we're going to see Arvid Soderblom tonight in net. He's a big six foot six goalie. He's the brother of Elmer of the Detroit Red Wings organization. Panger. I know we got to let you go, but really appreciate your time. Thanks for making time for us today.

Thanks Panger. You got it. Big boy. Hey, sorry. I didn't pick up the phone today. Kipper. I was havinganger. You got it, big boy. Hey, sorry I didn't pick up the phone today, Kipper. I was having a nice afternoon nap right there, buddy. I figured. I figured. I'll see you, pal.

Take care. We don't get Peter Mrazek tonight? Man. Okay. I really wanted that. Did you hear some of the names he was rifling off outside of connor bedard hey pal i'm looking through this i i'm thinking this could be the cookie monster night of all cookie monster nights i i think i think austin has a chance to go back

to back to back we got wyatt kaiser a, Alex Vlasic, McKenzie Entwistle. Booms? Yeah, that's kind of where I'm going with that. Is there any odds right now on Austin Matthews getting his third hat trick? We may be getting to those very odds later on in the show. That's okay. They're not nearly as high as you think they would be. I'll just say that.

I look at uh the chicago team and and this has nothing to do with what i think of connor bedard but i don't think he has a hope in hell getting 80 points this year oh i do you do i do i mean he's with who taylor hall how long has he heard for ryan donato's his other line mate listen it's thin usually when a guy gets 80 or 90 points there's someone really close beside him getting like 75 right 80 right like can ryan donato get 60 can he i don't know i i just you know he's got a point in every game so far here's my theory about this whole bedard show we've seen the start of the season for him right it's boston and vegas and colorado and

toronto and all these huge venues eventually it's going to calm down he's going to start playing in columbus and dallas and you know around the league you know what happens to eventually maybe he'll exhale the the the buzz kind of wears off and it becomes a job and you know you you get some days you're you're more tired and you're three and four nights and it's new and you know the demand on you off the ice the commercials the waiting for another take i mean that stuff piles on an 18 year old kid 70 god bless him if he can. I think 65-70 would be an unbelievable year for him. And it's the lineup. Like he talked about this Lucas Reichel tonight.

We'll watch him. On line two with Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddick. Did you just hear Panger talk about, well, you know, he's Minton. It's like can he physically handle it? Is he strong enough? I don't know. Let's throw him in there and find out. At least Minton can follow behind Tavares and Matthews.

This guy's got Bedard in front of him who's barely getting his feet wet. Can I say a positive thing about the Blackhawks? Yeah, sure. I've watched a few of their games, because I'm really interested in Bedard. I'm a big fan of his. I gotta say he liked that felino dickinson perry line well wouldn't mind that as wouldn't mind that as the leafs fourth yeah you want to send 10 mil on their fourth line yeah it's a lot well they're not they're suck anyway they don't care they're

gonna trade both those guys for picks at the deadline for sure but like but they're great pickups i love them giving those guys four million we need nhlers their second line right now yeah i know there'd be a fourth line on good teams but like they're leaning on guys i actually like that line they have a bit of an identity it's in perry yeah it's a good line on a bad team for sure and they're probably not gonna be as effective in game 45 as they are in game three and two or whatever but yeah so let's talk a little bit about this responsibility on bedard because we have some clips um we got a marner clip we got taylor hall on connor hall one's really strong do you want to go to that and see what his teammate thinks of all the

responsibilities he's wearing love to hear it all right i think he's handling it really well i mean he does way too many in-game interviews and stuff i think that they need to find a way to just let him play. But I think he understands his role as a major ambassador for the game of hockey, and he's handling it so well. He doesn't seem to be fazed by it, but I think that it can be a little much for him at times. He doesn't say that, but it feels like it is. Good for him. For Taylor Hall.

Yes. Yeah, he should be speaking up on behalf of the guy, basically. much for him at times he doesn't say that but it feels like it is good for him for taylor hall yes yeah he should be speaking on behalf of the guy basically he's big picture stuff yeah and what do you think what do you think lamorello would have done with the wolves that's all what do you think lamorello would have done with bedard i just know the rookies when i was with the marlies under lamorello they couldn't even interviews. They didn't play three and threes in the AHL. Well, first of all, that's a great question because we know Lou as Lou rules, and we watched it recently with Matthews and Marner and Willie, but I just don't know whether or not the pressure from the league

and their PR and ESPN and TNT. Colby with his couch would have said. Colby on the show. He would have said, no, no, we need this guy. And Lou, you know. The league needs this guy. Get rid of your rules here because we need to sell this guy. And I think it would have put a tremendous amount of pressure on Lou.

He would have fought hard, I'm sure. I'm just not sure he would have won this particular one. Well, Panger said when we were talking to him there that they didn't have a morning skate today, which is very interesting. Yeah, I don't know. They played on Saturday night. I know, but you can also say that you could have saw that canceled morning skate in August.

Coming off Montreal, being pulled in your first hockey night in Canada visit. You could have said, okay, we're not doing that again in Toronto. So that could have been okay we're not doing that again in toronto so that that could have been canceled like months ago you don't throw you you definitely didn't want to throw him to the vultures this morning day of coming out of montreal so i think it was just planned from the start they were never gonna happen this morning skate was never to happen for Conor Bedard. And with all due respect to Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno and Dickinson, nobody wants to hear from those guys. Jeez.

All right, let's hear from a couple other Maple Leafs on Conor Bedard. Foligno's good at the media. Maybe he would have given a quote. Leggy. Come on. How funny. We like Nick. I love Nick.

I love Nick. By the way, Conor Bedardard is 25 at the face-off dot this year matthews has been a top five nhl guy for the last couple years so good luck tonight yeah most guys struggle in the dot as rookies yeah there's actually a significant change as you get older you're throwing it to mitch marner's comments on him you want to hear them or did you want to go to connor i think we well i mean I mean, it's, there are two different tones of clips. I mean. Okay, let's go to Mitch Barner first. Yeah, let's hear from him.

You know, I think as a young guy, you're coming in here just to play the hockey game of it. There is definitely expectations of when you're the first overall pick and how good the expectations are of you. That, you know, everyone wants to grab you and, you know, talk to you. So, you can see from both sides of it, but obviously at some points you just want to be out there playing the game of hockey that you grew up loving. So I can definitely see both sides. So I think he's a pretty good guy to ask about this, Marner.

The ice is a safe haven, right? No one can bug me here. You just get to play. That's nice. Who was it that said about the glass in Montreal wasn't to keep stuff in? It was to keep everything out? That's a great line. I forget who said it.

Recent? No, it was like an old-timey quote. But the glass in Montreal, it's kind of like here. It's your homework. Find out who said that. Yeah, okay. I'll do the googling here. Outside of him shooting the puck, which we all want to see again tonight, maybe the most impressive thing so far is the way he's handled this.

For an 18-year-old kid to say not necessarily the right things, but to not say the wrong things. Right. Which is really tricky. really tricky and i think sammy i i got a quote uh a clip off of connor which i hope is the one that i asked you for but this one this one is really impressive now that you're a celebrity about talking about matthews that's what you said right i assume that you mess up a lot i am incredibly concerned so want to play the clip i want to play the clip connor bedard okay yeah it's great um i

mean obviously he's someone that kind of i feel like kind of pioneered this certain shot or whatever and he's obviously he's got six and two so he's he's doing something right but uh yeah for me just getting to ever since he came in the league he's been someone i've loved to watch and uh you know looked up to just just how he plays the game and i think his shots obviously something that everyone knows about but just this complete game and how he is in his own and how he is all around the ice is it's pretty special and because he gets so many goals and is so good in the offensive zone i think that gets maybe overlooked so he's unreal player obviously one of the best in the league so. I think that gets maybe overlooked. So he's an unreal player. Obviously one of the best in the league,

so I'm excited to go up against him. Okay, like a lot of things over the last two years, you missed my clip that I wanted. But that's okay because I'm going to tell everybody. What was the clip? It was an extension of that, but I think it was off the back comments that he said that it's just basically, it's not just Austin Matthews.

There's a lot of guys on Toronto that, you know, I'm looking forward to or I'm playing against. And again, this just goes to show a little bit of his savvy where he's already saying, don't make this about me and Austin. I'm playing the Toronto Maple Leafs, which I thought was really, really savvy and smart and maybe shows just why he's been able to handle it so well up until this point. You're right, actually.

He's really media savvy. Even like he gets his first point and they win and the pitchers like, and then they lose and he gets his first goal and they win and the pitchers like and then you know they lose and he gets his first goal and it's just stone-faced right like you know i i remember the interview after he got his first point or sorry the night they lost he said well you know how do you feel about your first nhl goal and he said well we didn't get the two points so it doesn't matter you know and it's just like yes it does matthews did that too actually scored uh four goals in his debut they They asked him about it.

He's like, I had a turnover in overtime. Oh. Yeah. I don't know what I want him to say there. I guess that's different if you turn it over in OT. But like, you're the Blackhawks. You lost to whoever it was opening night. Pretty good team.

You can tell parents, upbringing, the right agent, the right advice. Whatever it is, he's been groomed really well for this stage right now. You just imagine this has been his life, this constant immersion. Because like you said, obviously working on his game the whole time, but also taking all this off-ice training, coaching, these experiences. He'll be a pro at this by the time he's 20 years old. You just hope the black hawks don't blow it well yeah what do you mean well just i mean like number one don't ask too

much from this kid don't put the weight of the world on your shoulders and get them better players yeah that's the biggest thing to me is just yeah you need some support there'll be some really good ones uh come free agency sammy. Oh, yeah. Willie? Is that what you're getting at? Willie, to me, is an automatic in Chicago. Oh, man. How do you throw that in with 30 seconds before the break? Well, we'll pick it up after the break. Fine.

But, yeah, to me, if Willie is available. Oh, okay. If now. If now. Okay. Awesome. A dart for Willie and Yarncroft. Who's in?

Throw it a second if you want. All right. We got Eric Francis after the break. Plenty, including more Conor Bedard and why Sammy hates his number. Real Kip and Born after the break. Come on back.