Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Buds Go Down in the Desert + Return of the Leafs Line!

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Toronto Maple Leafs' back-and-forth shootout loss to the Golden Knights in Vegas. They discuss the blown three-goal lead, whether the Leafs should try Easton Cowan at centre, Jeremy Lauzon's hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and some questionable officiating. Then, they discuss Gavin McKenna not seeing a shift in OT again, a solid performance from Sergei Bobrovsky, and much more. Later, Kyper shares a theory for why Vegas failed to sell out home ice for the first time in franchise history before the guys head to the phones and take your calls and questions on the Leafs Line!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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Friday already, Sammy. Is it Friday? Didn't expect to be called upon so soon in the show. Off the rails Friday. God, I love Fridays. Fridays are great. You know why I love them? Tell me.

Because it's followed by Saturday. That's a cool day. Big fan. Welcome to the real Kippoor and Boren show. I'm Nick Kippreos. He's Justin Boren. Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, and Jake the Snake Shultz. Sammy Gacera.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I nailed it on a Friday. Got it. And he's not even listening. He's on his way at Orangeville for a big hockey game. Is he?

Yeah. All right. Good luck, Sammy Squared. Yeah. This is the Leaf Hour edition of our program. We got a great one. We're going to find Doug McLean, top of the hour. We've got Leaf Line, Sammy.

Yeah. First one all year. How are the calls? Great. Great. People are fired up. Look at a talk. Gord, Marty, Louise, Adam, John, Jake, Sam, Brandon, A.

Cade, Mira, maybe even a little Chuck Nelson. Nelson here. Wow. So is Chuck going to be like Mac soon asking for money? I thought she's so. A few of the callers have any opinions on last night's

contest between the Maple Leafs and the Vegas Golden Knights? Definitely. Definitely some opinions. I'd be interested to get yours first and yours, J.B. Before we get to callers. But I think all. all the boys are dragging a little bit today. Too late.

Too late for hockey. What time was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? What was it? Yeah, it was after one by the time the TV was off last night. They're doing the shootout and everybody's missing.

I'm like, can somebody just shoot this baby in? Come on. By the time the sixth puck had rolled off somebody's stick trying to do a dangle. Like, just shoot it in. J.B. Fair to say we saw two games out of the Leafs last night? Yeah, like a warm up. then a second game.

I don't know if you want to call the first nine minutes a game. But yeah, it was a great start. And it really shaped how the rest of the game was played out. Vegas rally and come back from down three goals. The Leafs know how it feels like to be on the other side. They did it just the night before or the game before against Nashville. But key takeaways, I guess, overall, before we get into specifics for you. Key takeaways, you know, I think once they got up 3-0,

it kind of felt like, all right, now we're up and we just got to hang on. It's like, there's 51 minutes left. You know, there was up too much too soon, Kipper. And I think a major takeaway is just Vegas is a better hockey team. Lovroski was my major takeaway, I think, on the positive side of things. Yeah. I just, you know, how many times you've seen that game out of him when he plays for Florida where a couple maybe go in early that you don't love?

and then it kind of gets to the winning point of the game and he just shuts it down. They get to three. They're not getting anymore. I just thought he was... Stolen a point. I think he was unbelievable for the second half of that game, quite frankly.

So that was my big takeaway from the game. The early goal, which was as much of a gift as you'll ever see in the National Hockey League, and that's just completely on Aden Hill. I cannot believe that guy's a Stanley Cup champion. who could leave so much exposed on what looks like a routine seal off a post. Like, I was shocked. You almost wondered would you pull him.

Yeah, like, would you pull him? You know, you do it to other players. You're obviously not ready to play. You're not ready to play. Someone else will do the job. He's a wild time in that. Rookie. Rookie coach.

And you're wondering, like, if you have. had a guy that had a little bit more experience. Maybe. I would think a Keenan for sure in my day would have just gotten him out as fast as can be. Even after the second goes in. Even one goal is not typical for a coach to pull a goalie. But they did go up three nothing. And at that point, I was really shocked that he'll remained in the hockey game.

And from their perspective, they gave him a chance and he did well with it. And I'm sure today they're pretty happy with how that all played. out. So great start. I think we're going to have multiple opinions on where the game turned last night for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but do you want to start with Jim Hiller and get his opinion first? Let's do that.

Well, it turned on Stone's goal late in the first, right? We're in offensive zone faceoff. We're up 3-0. It's a tight game playing pretty well to that point. And then we make a couple mistakes and they score and then we take a penalty and all of a sudden the momentum shift a little bit.

Yeah, he nailed it. Don't hit that hard. Good shot. Yeah. But you can't back into the hash marks and let someone shoot from there through a screen, right? Yeah. A little bit of the topic of conversation this week has been a John Tavares line. And to Jim's point, you're up three nothing.

You've got an offensive zone face off deep. And I don't know, within five or seven seconds, Stone scores. Like it was if you watch the play, it was a disaster out of Tavaris, Willie, and Cowan. It was a really slow forecheck. Cowan is the third man high, but he doesn't seal the wall. And now you've got three guys deep and Jack Eichael coming down a thousand miles an hour. That's inexcusable. Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like that game last night is going to be a major point of teaching. And we'll see if they learn from it or not. But there's a lot of moments in the game like that. Yeah. Where it's get above, takeaway speed. You know, just be on the right side of things. And then you can figure it out from there once you're up in particular. And the second goal, again, it's the Tavares line, one pass, catching three guys.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people are having trouble keeping up to Jack Eichel right now. I mean, he's as fast as it gets. And, like, it's a tough matchup for John DeVarrest at this point of his career, boys. As you were saying, by the way, Eichl, no one in the league skates like him. Weirdest skater, maybe I can ever remember watching. Like a wide track speed, but it's very fluid. Yeah.

It is fantastic. He was dynamite last night. I think, like, yeah, John DeVaris is struggling. But, I mean, he's a victim of circumstance in there. Like, there's no way at that. this point of his career, he should be matched up with Jack Eichael. Like, that's just a rest of, what do you expect? What do you do? Where do you go?

Well, that's what I mean. It's just like, it's not good enough. And I get that. But at the same time, it's like, that's kind of what you should expect with the guy that's playing maybe the best in the NHL, one of the fastest skaters in the league. It's just really hard for John to keep up. Yeah, that's probably true. That might be part of it. But that line you mentioned, you know, Willie and JT are veteran guys in the league. you know, should be responsible players. But if you sort the lines by expected goals percentage, right now the Leafs have two very good lines

and two lines that are really bad. They are bottom 10 in expected goals in the NHL month. Yeah. Forward lines. I'm real tempted to put Easton Cowan at Saturday night. Yeah. Well, they've got Paul there today. Tavarez went back home today.

He flew back. Is that right? Yeah, he was. Yeah, he flew back. Flew back. So Paul centered, Cowan and Nyland. Any idea with what we're dealing with? I think, I'm not.

Personal, obviously, family. Personal reasons is it. I saw some people talking potentially kid. Do you have another kid on the way? Not confirmed. No idea, but I saw people. They're expecting? Oh, no, no, no.

We're not saying they are. I don't know. I saw people say that on Twitter. I don't know. But personal, that's all I know. Okay. Yeah. All right.

So maybe he doesn't play Saturday night? Yeah. Very possible. He flew back. I would say he's certainly not. not playing. Very unlikely, right, that he's going to hop on a plane back after a day and play, is it in Colorado?

Yes. Oh, yeah. You know, at altitude plus multiple travel. But I don't know. I mean, Easton Cowan would be an experiment for sure. He's never done it at the pro level. He's played center and junior. Pretty early, though. It's game six.

You know, you miss one center and you make that switch. I don't know. I'd rather just Paul move up, Sisons move over. The top six at practice today is Marchenko, Matthews Rossovic, is the top line still Cowan, Paul Neelander is the second line. Today, third line is McKenna's Sizons grew and then McEwen blue grew

So that's the forward group without the race. Yeah, and what did Nick Paul end up with last night? 15, 17 minutes? He's leaning towards that second line position. Yeah, he's skating well, actually. He played more minutes

than John last night. Is that right? Yeah, I mean, he's, in a game like that, he makes a lot of sense, right? He's handled big teams, fast teams, playoffs. I don't think John had a shot on goal last night.

Yeah. Well. We did in the shootout. You know, I take away. That doesn't count. Oh, okay. I take away from that game just like, I think the Leafs are good up front,

not just good. I think they're really good. I really like their forward group. Their D are just not able to stop rushes and not able to create things up ice with breakouts and stuff. They're really struggling. And I think that, you know, Riley got caught deep on the one.

He got caught by Eichel cut into the inside on him and the other one. Like I just thought the D looked. We've seen it for the last few years out of Morgan. Yeah. It's pretty consistent now that these are his challenges. Yeah. And that to me is the team ceiling. Again, love the forward groups and I believe in the goaltending.

I just think the D limits what their ceiling is and keeps them a, are they a playoff team sort of team? With the better DECOR, I would think the ceiling would be much higher. Any news on OEL who got slammed? On the ice. He was on the ice today. He was. People were mad that that was not a penalty. I hated it.

I hated the force that Jeremy was on. Lausanne. No. Lausanne. Was it was on? Yeah. God, that's the type of hit that I thought with all these changes that we might see the Leafs on the other side of that hit, that hit.

That there'd be more guys now being able to throw that type of hit than receiving it again. And I know it was late in the game and there's not much chance to respond to that. But if someone just would have just sent. a message or gotten an argument with somebody or got a little pissed off at a guy throwing my veteran defenseman like there like a bag of feathers could the refs get pissed off about it and call a penalty or no is that allowed all the other side of the net i hated it as a you know it's not it's not watching lilligrin gets slew-footed by brad marshannon watching the team do nothing but it bothered me, guys.

I'm sorry, but yeah. You got these guys, you know, on the forecheck, chasing the puck down. I don't know. I just. I know it's late in the game and it's hard. It's hard, but I don't want to see those type of hits when my team's supposed to be bigger, tougher,

and closer. I don't know that's, did the acquisitions this make you made this year? I mean, they're that? Who's capable in the lineup of being, like, that right now. I guess Sissons, Duhame, McCabe, Paul. Those are the same names you would have given me

before the season started and we wouldn't know for sure who it would be but now we're a handful of games in and we're still wondering who it's going to be but yeah this is going to be an element like it's the

they got back. I wish they had one guy that could play DIR You'll get your wish. Zach McEwen's in Saturday night, baby. Yeah. Back. And Miles Wood.

They called up Miles Wood today, so maybe he might not be in. They might be playing Miles Wood's up too. Miles Wood is so fast and big. Two things. Different. The Tavares has had a child. So they go. Yes.

Yeah. Congratulations to Don Navarce and his wife. Fourth. Unwoking a baby boy, Tucker Tavares. Oh, boy. That is a tough name. That is a sick handle. Passion name.

He will be unavailable for tomorrow's game against the avalanche. Nick Paul skated with William Neander in Easton County Practice today. That's from Anna Dewa on Twitter. So there you go. So that's the reason he's all playing. Sorry, did you say he's not playing Saturday? Not playing. Okay, yeah.

But I got to say, like, you know, I know you don't love talking about officiating or whatever, but it was horrible officiating last night. The hooking call? On McKenna? Really bad. Yeah, battling for a... But, like, what are we trying? Are we trying to, that's an infraction, but a guy where there's nowhere near the puck getting his head slammed against the guys.

That's a bridge too far. Game state call. No, but, yeah, but the penalties at that point were called five to one, including the penalty shot that they called on Jack Eichel that was not even close to a penalty shot. So you had those. So it's four to one of the penalties. Five to one are the penalties called. They always even this stuff up. No.

Yes, they do, Kipper. They always do. They do. They do. They do. do when it's fairly. The least officiated penalty, at least penalized team.

They all end up when it's a fairly even game. But when one team has puck possession for 70% of the game and the other team has it for 30% of the game, then you're going to get a 4-1 penalty tilt. Also a team trailing by three teams to lead to some calls. They never had the puck all night. Yeah. Outside of the gifts, maybe a few gifts in the first.

period but I don't disagree with the calls. They were crappy calls. But Vegas dominated. I also don't agree with gifts early in the period. They played a great start of that game. The first one was a gift. And then, you know, I loved the, you know, the Nick Paul goal off the big shot. And they came out, you know, they were controlling shots and play.

You don't typically see a breakaway out of Easton Cowan after a big shot. shot on goal on your goalie you know they kind of slept on that one but when they got it going like oh yeah the leaps were dominated i do yeah they were i do think that the leaps tried to do the old park the bus thing and they're just not enough hockey game or there's too much hockey game left to play like that it's the third was a lot more even than the second like i thought they kind of got it back a little bit yeah you're right there were better period was i was like i'm watching the 25 26 leas yeah the second period was and there There's, you know, multiple cheap penalty calls that they had to make to even up the score to get it back to in Vegas's favor.

The least penalized team in the league for five straight years, by the way, Vegas. That's not. And they have no mean guys in their team. They never do anything dirty. I think the, uh, interesting. The night on the whole was like, to me, again, learning experiences in a lot of ways. I like the McKenna had a shot in the shootout, you know, make him feel that pressure. Marchenko got to shoot and score and feel good about things.

You know, we talked about guys learning to play with the lead and up above. you get Bob hopefully feeling good like there's a lot to take away from that game but again one of the things is that they can't hang with a Stanley Cup contending team right now so uh you want to get Hiller on the second period no I want to talk about McKenna not seeing the ice in overtime again and Jim Hiller's response to that so let's play the clip uh it's clip number four on no Gavin and OT yeah well yeah he was up he was up a couple different times and situations kind of change themselves. He'll get out there sooner or later. Trust me. He's at the, he's been called. He asked him. I'd probably called him three different times, but he's, for whatever reasons, he hasn't been able to get out there yet. Okay,

for whatever reasons and... Dezone draws is what it is. The situation. Yeah, it'd be DZone draws. Like, hey, you're up next on a draw on their own end and the guy, put out Tavares instead, or whatever. Like, is... But you can't adjust that after, with a line change, or...

It can be hard if you don't have the puck. Yeah, they didn't. have the puck a lot, did they? No, well, I mean, I also hate how Iico played in overtime. I didn't even try to get to the net, just like... Did I text you? Did I send a note saying, like, I hate this? I hate this.

I hate this. I don't want to watch three and a half minutes of a team just circling around. It sucks. No one's playing hockey. Everyone's, they're just carrying the puck, they get a shot, they hope for a mistake. It takes one blown shoe and then it turns into a fun. Yeah. But like, until something weird happens, it's the,

the first three minutes of every single overtime, nothing ever happens. And then it kind of gets... Totally. You need like one breakdown all of a sudden. It's bang, bang, bang, bang. But I'm sorry. You got to find a way to get McKinna out there for one. Yeah.

Oh, I don't disagree. Yeah. It's kind of like all these Gen Z guys came up playing three on three all the time. He's slick. He's fast. He passes. He's like... He's like built for that.

He's the exact guy. And they find a way to get cowing out there. They're worried about him defensively, I think. It's three on three. I know. You're losing anyway. You're trying to re-gris. It's like you're playing defense out there?

How much better is somebody else defensively in three-on-three than McKenna's going to be? No one's good defensively. There's three guys out there. They are feeling a little bit protective on them, too. So I'm okay with it. You know where I stand on that? Do you, if they're playing them on the third line,

I like the third line usage, but it would just be perfect to me if they were playing them there and putting them on the top power play unit. It needs them. Well, Tavares is, is not going to be there Saturday. I'm curious if they make that adjustment.

Say, hey, Matthews or Marchanko, or someone's going to the bumper. You know, McKenna's going to handle it a bit more. I think it's the way thing. Howen? Does he get more responsibility? Maybe he does in the game,

but I hope not on the power play. McKenna is, that's like his sweet spot right there. So get your own kutcher on, get him going. You got to feel good about Brevovsky last night. Like, that's a really good sign. Yeah.

He absolutely, that point belongs to him. He has played so many big games in this league that like those moments don't seem to, like the pressure doesn't get to him. He still seems active and dynamic. How about how confident he was dropping pucks and trying to break the Leafs out instead of taking D-Zone draws? You know, he's thinking the game through. So nice to have.

The only thing I thought he got caught was on the penalty shot. Yeah. That he just. But, you know, it's. also Jack Eichel, who's one of the best. He's waiting for him to make one more move. But it just seemed like he, yeah, it just seemed like he caught him flat-footed on that far side. Okay, men in black stick that one.

Pretend that one didn't happen. You can really enjoy his night, but it was a fair penalty shot for you guys? No. I actually don't think it was a penalty shot, no. Like, you know, we see so many times guys are in the clear guy behind him chasing, trying to do something, whatever. They're relatively equal. I agree that Eichol's going to get a good chance.

off, but I don't know if that's enough for a penalty shot. Then again, I like, if we're going to call it like that all the time, let's do it, but they don't. You? He went in on his back hand. He had a leg in. He was going to get a play on net. And I'm leaning towards.

I'm okay with it. To me, it's like a guy is, a penalty shot is when a guy's got like three steps and somebody comes in and trips them. That's changed now. I know, but it's changed. It's a trip. Two for tripping. Do we have a Bobrovsky clip?

Okay, so I cut this clip because, you know, they're all talking after the game about how they want to get a win for him or whatever. And this Bobrovsky clip, I just want to you guys to count the clichés in this clip. This is the most unbelievable cliche clip. Let's play. Barboski, Clip One, please. You know, it's what it is. Obviously, you know, you play, you put the gear on you want to win every game. But it's, you know, they got, we got to play good players against us.

and everybody works hard. So we just keep grinding, keep chipping away one moment at the time, and we keep building. But that's how you never end up in trouble. I was literally a cliche turret. You just spin the cliche wheel, and then you'll never end up. That'll be the last clip we hear from him.

It's great. And he right after the game, he jumps on the bike, eh? Yeah, this guy's pretty notorious for this work ethic. And all that does, is it guilts everybody else. See, I like that too, right? Oh, yeah. Like, if I saw a messier or a leech on a bike after a game,

I'm like, how are you not on the bike? Yeah, get your ass on the bike. I remember that too, being like, ah, crap. You know, like the guy I'm competing against is doing something. It's like, you know, Bob makes 43 saves and, you know, held you in it and then you're 12 minutes and you're getting on the bus. It's like, I should probably take a spin here too.

Hiller had a comment on Gavin without any overtime. No, we play there. Are we played that already? Berbrowski. Let's play Hilleron Burbrowski. Okay. Well, he got us a point for the most part. He gave us a chance to win.

And ultimately in the end, he probably got us a point, right? So that's what great goalies do. The night's when you're off a little bit, like we were in the second, particularly. He was able to hold it for us. So, yeah, I mean, you need those saves. And when you don't get them, they listen, they could have got three or four, and the game's over. So important for him.

One of the things that people, are talking about, I saw Sammy said it maybe online or in our group chat and I think Rose Hill was like, okay, Marchenko. Yeah. There's people last night being like, all right, we're waiting for more, waiting for a play. How do you feel about where he's at? Still dangerous to me, but it's kind of like a wild, wild west kind of danger. He could.

It's dangerous both ways. You could turn the puck over. He's a little bit too one on two for me. Yeah. He was better last night. I thought he pulled up a couple times and made a couple of plays above. But yeah, he definitely wants to skate it. He likes the individual effort, that's for sure.

That does get them on offense a lot. He's actually the best on the team right now in terms of stuff like ozone time and yada, yada. They play in that end a lot when he's out there, which is great. But, yeah, there's people being like, all right, let's. Playing on his off wing, right, still? Do you think they ever, you know, flip that back over and see if it's a little bit different on his actual correct side? And then who, and then McKenna? That's whatever.

That's like where it's headed. Right. What do you do on the left side now? What about can Rossevick play the other side? Like maybe put the guy you traded like half the franchise for on his, in his spot as opposed to this other guy? Yeah. Rossavik's interest. They really like him.

I mean, he's been pretty good. Yeah. But he got two or three overtime shifts last night. There's a lot of pressure to make sure that you didn't waste $4 million this season. But he's good. Earned that spot. He's a good OT guy. Like, he's fast, good hands.

Like, I like him out there in OT, but I don't know. He can maybe play his off-wing, so Marchenko could try the proper side. Yeah. Any concern that the fourth line is nothing? Like, I know Teddy Blugher's a great penalty killer. Their penalty kill has been very good so far this year. But, like, he's the ultimate. Is that, you know, Calli Yarn Kroc with less offense to me?

Like, I just, he's the only guy they had of this offseason. I'm like, I'm not sure your thing. I guess you just kill pen. all these. Pretty ho-hum for me. What do you want more of a presence? What do you want from a fourth line? Yeah, I want someone to slam somebody on the ice like they did OEL. That's what I want.

I know. And so, like, I like guys that are purpose built for a fourth line. And, you know, that was part of the appeal this year is that Blugher knows what he is. And nothing happens when their line is out there. Like, some of the numbers are ugly. But their, like, shot suppression stuff is way down. They don't give up much. but they just create nothing, like nothing.

So if the Miles Wood call up has something to do with that, I'm glad. Yeah. What would you say? There is no time for you guys to just be that guy that just doesn't get noticed but doesn't get blamed for anything either. Right. That's the Yarn Crocker-roll.

I think Wood and Do Ham are both great skaters. you know, like you'd have a fast-forth line that maybe you could get it on a forecheck. I'm curious if they use them or if they give them a cue in the game on Saturday night. Anyone tough on in Colorado? I don't think so. Manson, but they're not going to have them in there.

Manson's not going to fight them. Two quick things before we go. Shootout moves. Guys just getting a little bit too. Like I think about it like rock music where everyone has done every song and now guys are just, you know, don't be too fancy.

I think there's no new things to do so guys are trying to reinvent the wheel and do all these weird things. It's like, is skating down and fire at low blocker, full speed unallowed? Willie tried to do the old, like, he flew in and just didn't get it up. But I like that he had a good thing. I thought he was money with the speed coming in, too.

Yeah, that's a good idea. I thought something different. I mean, Gavin comes in, so he's trying to do the... Austin, Austin doesn't have a great shootout record. None of them do. It feels like they always all get stoned. If he's feeling as great as he's moving, right? where's that shot buddy

that five hole kind of move he had the hole that by the way when he tried to go five hole you're you're known for this unbelievable release and shot I used to I was going to put together a video package years ago Matthews used to have this route he would come in

on the right side at the blue line and he had the same pattern it would take him almost between the hash marks and from there he would either shoot or he'd take him or he'd take it and he'd go back. He had some success early in his career. Since then, he's kind of gone away from that, and it hasn't been as good.

So I'd like to see him just keep it simple. Either rip it or, you know, backhand shelf is kind of a... They lose a lot of shootouts. I don't know what the record is over this era, but it feels like they really struggle in the shootouts. It was funny because they're like, all right, Tavares is up. He's 12 or 16 for 66 in his career. And then, Matthews, oh, he's 16 for 46 in his career.

Marchenko, he's 10 for 16. Yeah, no, he's... Oh, that's a different number. they came out there and just embarrassed the goalie. Yeah. At least they got a guy who can do that. So once again, Austin, I think there was a battle low that led to the first goal, right? And we're all in agreement.

He is, he's moving better. He's lighter. He just looks better. Got the twitch back to him. But I still don't know where his confidence is to shoot it in the net. And I think when I see that three on O against Nashville, he doesn't want to shoot and then I watch his overtime move, I'm just not sure where his headspace is for being the man.

Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's coming for him. If he plays like this, the thing that has impressed me most is at the end of like a minute and a half, two minutes, somebody's OTs, or last year he looked like a dog. This year, he's still got gas to burn. He's in, his conditioning looks great.

Way better. Leads the league in distance skated to start the year. There you go. Way better. And it might just be, he's in better conditioned. You want to blame an injury, his wrist, his back, do whatever you want with it. Here's the bottom line is he is moving a lot better.

And his conditioning looks better. I wonder if this is the next step then, you know, like him firing a couple of homes, being a goalie and all of a sudden he starts to. I still don't think his headspace is where it needs to be as a 50 and 60 goal score. If he stays healthy for a bit and plays like this, he'll go nuclear at some point. Like he'll have a stretch of games where he shoots it in seven times over five games. or something. Vegas, first ever non-sellout last night.

Yeah, it's been 300 straight sellouts or 311 or something like that prior to last year. Banking on some Canadians is going to be there with high ticket prices and having them not be there? No, there's a theory out there. I'll get into it after the break. Okay, we'll take a break and I'll tell you what. Why? I want that. I'll tell you why it was the first non-sellout for Vegas.

Okay. But before we go to break, I don't know if we can get the picture. of the whalers thing on here. Oh yeah, you can kind of sit there. Somebody sent you this. George from Pittsburgh. Okay, George from Pittsburgh. I witnessed upstairs.

I was sitting up there. I was about to come down here. I was having a coffee. And Kipp was just going through his phone. Calling George is. And he talked to a guy. And then he breaks into full Greek. I have not talked to this guy probably in years.

This George in years. And I wanted to thank the George that sent me the Hartford Whaler. crass and I'm like and then I started having a conversation with him

but I'm like I gotta get off this call right now so I went back to my phone and I've got 47 Georges 47 George's buddy I'm Greek

47 47 though 47 George's in my contact list and I'm throwing Darts at George's now. You gotta have the number of contacts alone in your phone must be disgusting.

47 George. I got six George's. Not four, that's what, yeah, not bad. You just got six numbers from Russi. Yeah, that's true. I got Rousick. I got Sagannis. We've got Leafline.

Also after the break, we got a conversation on the non-sellout in Vegas. Plenty more, including Doug McLean at the Top of the hour on Off the Rails Friday. Dive deep into Toronto Sports and the NFL, the J.D. Bunkus podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in studio. Nick Kiprios, Justin Boren, Sammy McKee, the Leaf Hour edition of our program. Dying to hear this vagus thing.

Okay, so I believe maybe it was the New York Rangers, a team maybe about 10 years ago. had this idea of servicing your season ticket holders, right? But then the remaining tickets, they started selling them to brokers. So it was an easy sell. Instead of having your department knock on doors or selling game by game or making calls. You saw a thousand tickets to this place. A thousand tickets. They bought the rest of the tickets.

And, of course, you know, there's some nights that they lose money on, but they're going to make up the money on the premier games, right? So it was working out well until it started to kind of screw up the marketplace as a whole because now season ticket holders were going. You know, why am I paying $150 when the guy beside me got in for like $22? So recently a few teams, and I don't know, specifically what's going on in Vegas or not. But what probably happened was they're starting to shut down the brokers

and they're taking their tickets back. So Vegas is now, it's game two or game three in the season. They took back their tickets and they just couldn't sell them fast enough in game two or game three, even the Toronto Maple Leafs. And yes, Sam, maybe it has something to do with it because typically for a game like that, you could pull in 10, 15% of your crowd would be from Canada. And you could charge more for tickets. And last night, maybe they hit 3 or 4% of Canadians in that building.

It was just weird. A lot of Canadians going down. They sat. They, last night, they had to eat those empty seats. The team, they couldn't sell them fast enough in a nutshell. What do you mean by fast enough, you mean? Well, like, they've had the tickets all year long to sell. No, not all year long.

So they just took them back? They just took them back from the brokers. They took them back in like July. Okay. They didn't take them back. Like they weren't sitting on them all year. They just took them back recently. And now you're in a race now.

So you're sitting on all this inventory. And it's not like there's walk-up crowds anymore. You're not going to the game going, oh, I hope I can go to the box office and get tickets. and they probably sat on 1,500 of their own tickets that they just couldn't sell. I also heard Metallica was playing there. Oh, is that right? Medlica.

But it's an incredible dynamic, this ticket marketing and the brokers and how much marketplace there is for premier games. Is this a long-term good? I think at the end of the day it's better that the team controls their tickets and it keeps them out of the broker's hands, but I don't know, it may still end up there in some capacity. Yeah, because it seems like demand. I think it's fair for the season ticket holder.

That's what it is. Fair enough. Should we start? We should start. Let's just start. Let's just come out of the gate hot and just go straight to Chuck Nelson. Gentlemen, Chuck Nelson here from Toronto. Welcome back.

I just wanted to tell you all summer long, I've been hot. hoping that your show would come back on the air. Sometimes I'd get in my car at three o'clock. I'd turn on the radio. I'd hear Sammy's voice. I'd get so excited. Then he'd start talking about Vladimir Guerrero hitting into a double play. Oh, horrible radio. But you guys are back and everything is great. So welcome back. I want to make one comment, Sammy last week, you were really upset about the Leafs bringing on Daniel Alfredson. Don't be upset. Let me explain to you. As a Leaf loving, Senator, a hating fan, this is the trifecta. Our Ottawa Senators, or sorry, the Ottawa Senators last year got knocked out in the first round in epic fashion.

A couple weeks later, their Captain Brady cried his way out of town. And then later on that summer, we signed Daniel Alfredson. And now the Senator fans have to see his face on our bench for the next several years. It's a trifecta, and this is absolutely wonderful. Anyways, guys, welcome back. I love the show, and please, whatever you do, don't talk about Vladimir Guerrero. Go see my movies. I love our caption on the screen, Chuck Nelson.

Not. Chuck Norris. There you go. Came out of the gate hot with Chuck. Hey, welcome back, Chuck. Sammy, you're never going to get used to Alfie there, right? Every time they flash over, it's just like. Tough to judge the power play last night.

Yeah, you don't get them. I guess it's hard to get hot when you don't get them. I guess gets a lot of them, though. Let's go to Mira from Kitchener. Do we have Mira from Kitchener? Come on down. Did I, is this? Okay, it's on me.

No, no, no, that's on me. Here, let me put Mira in there. I don't want to, this is on me. Go. Live producing. Yeah, we're just live producing. I want to congratulate you guys on season six of what my toddler likes to call Mama's hockey show.

And happy birthday, Sammy. What? The vibes are so much better this year. And I'm just wondering what you guys think. The biggest vibe change has been, hasn't been the new coach? Is it Austin Matthews looking so much better? Is it the first pick?

Is it the first pick being Gavin McKenna? I love to hear what you think. Thanks, guys. Is it Sam's birthday? Yes, my birthday, yeah. Today. Happy birthday, man. What's my birthday, guys?

Hold it. Oh, 38. What a thrill. The vibe. A microphone. You're officially in the window of irrelevant, you know, like it's not a five or a zero. You're, you know. I do not care.

But I like the question. What is the biggest vibe? I took you golfing last Tuesday. So, happy birthday on that. That's your gift. Yeah, I don't think. Don't expect anything else. No one's getting.

I may have taken you golfing. My sister dropped off six beers to me in a car today. She said, happy birthday. That's where I'm out. This morning or what? Yeah, I did. But what do you think the biggest vibeship has been? Gavin McKenna?

No, I'll just. just go big picture, just a new general manager and a new philosophy. And Brett Tree Living, very well-respected man in our industry, but slows molasses to pull the trigger. And now you got the vibe of this guy who's made multiple signings and trades. And change was inevitable for this team. It had to happen in some capacity, whether it was through the thought of a rebuild or a retool.

And that to me is the biggest vibe, the biggest change. Yeah. Yeah, I think you're probably right. I will take McKenna just based on it felt like they had no prospects, no future. And all of a sudden, after McKenna, it felt like, you know, like we've got another one here, something we can build around. And it led to a positive offseason into this year. 12 ball was the biggest five-shad possible.

Let's go to John from Sukb, B.C. I just wanted to know you guys have talked about how many first overall draft picks have went to a team that have demanded playoff performance. The Leafs got the first overall pick. Typically that goes to a team who is near the bottom, maybe in a rebuild. but the Toronto Maple Leaf's first overall pick this year is fast-tracked right into a situation where they're expected to make the playoffs. He's expected to be a performer on a playoff team.

I just want to know if you guys have talked about that yet. Appreciate it, keep up the good work. Yeah, we have. And these two guys here, John, want him to play 20 minutes a night and play on the number one line and score 50 goals. And I'm like, no. You've created that.

I've never once said that. I wanted to play the third line in the top line. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. It's a shift in overtime, Porpovor. Yes. Yeah, I was trying to think of first overall picks. I was just going through it. Okay.

So, Gavin, obviously. Matthew Schaefer kind of went onto a decent team. Like, they weren't as bad. Yeah. But they're not great, but they weren't as bad. But then it's Macklin Celebrity, Sharks, Stunk. Black Hawk Stunk for Bedard. Habs stunk for Slavkovsky.

Owen Power, terrible. Lafranier. That's one I was thinking of. 20, Rangers weren't horrible at that time. Like, it's usually they go into a bad situation. I was thinking of the year

Segan went number two, right? And he went to Boston. Yeah, that's the closest one. Oilers had three first one. Yeah, it is,

it is, it's very, to John's point, it's very unique that first pick overall can walk in and see Austin Matthews in the prime of his career.

Willie in the prime of his career. Obviously they traded for Rochenko. Tavaar is still an ultimate pro scoring 75 points. Bro. He's got help. He's got guys that he can lean on. But Dard, to me, was the biggest guy going, what am I supposed to do here?

Like, what is around me? Yeah. It must still kind of feel like that. I know he's not playing yet. But, yeah, I think it'll give him the best chance to find himself, right? Because he doesn't, he's not looked too every night to be the primary guy and he can watch from the bench a little bit and ease his way in. Should be better for him in theory.

Even last night, the guy gets a little bit of room. He's going to make a play. Yeah. And he's even at 18, even at 160 pounds, some of these players he's playing against, it's better to watch it, man. This kid can embarrass you. Yeah, I mean, that play even he made on the radish goal, made it look easy, stop up.

Not a no look, but borderline no look, light on the tail. It was a high-end play. It's been five games, but I think he's starting to realize how much quicker he has to make decisions. Like, the decisions just seem a little bit more crisp even through five games. The hard part, and I'll go even Easton Cowan on that first goal,

is these guys come out of junior, and I was one of them too, at 60 goals coming out of junior, you cheat for your offense, okay? And the trick as a pro is to judge when and when not to cheat for your offense. And Cowan got caught last night.

I'm sorry, but on that first goal, you got to seal that wall. That is your number one priority. He is starting to sniff a little bit. They sniff for their offense. And I don't know how long it's going to take for McKenna to understand when to do it and when not to do it. But the great ones, they all cheat, including tricycle and McDavid today. But you have to kind of sense when it is.

You better learn quickly when it doesn't hurt the ball club. The note I will make is a lot of people on social media had pointed out last night he had a burst of speed that was in the 99th percentile, like the fastest burst in the NHL this season. And I didn't know he could skate like that. And at 160, you got to have some tools, but I didn't know that he could get up to a clip like that. So that'll help getting back. I did on the call on the call-un goal.

I loved the vintage Chris Pan of Assess. Take a clapper in the barrel. Flip it out for a breakaway. God, he takes a beating every game. Who hit him, Barbershav? Oh, God. See, again. And MJ said it best could hit by a refrigerator.

Please tell me that someone can go have a talk with that guy. That is TANF. Barbachev. Barbashev. Somebody on the Leafs can go talk to Barbashev and say, not on my watch tonight. I feel like Tanev is kind of eating it this year. Like you put him on a D-only pair, D-Zone, block shots.

Like, their numbers haven't been good starting the D-Zone against the best line. What is it going to be left to him if he keeps every night eating those crap sandwiches? I think it, yeah. At five-on-five, he's been on the ice for one goal against. Wow. You know, so he's wearing it and it's not looking pretty, but they're keeping it out. Let's go to, I forget these calls. I cut them today.

Let's go to Jake from Toronto. I am just wondering why you guys got rid of Ethan Shajajabababor. I forgot about that guy. We didn't want to. That's not our call. Let's get something straight. We don't get rid of anybody here. They get rid of us.

We are not the ones who knock. Ethan Jaja Gabor was an intern on our show. And now he produces. evening shows and weekend shows. He's a full-time employee. So, like, he edits. He graduated from our show to a full-time. That's how the program is supposed to work.

We're the farm club and he graduated to the big league. Which kind of, the other way around. Anyways. Let's go to Brandon from the harbor. Is this nice trig and age like milk? Like, he's down there scoring points. This Marchenko had real high hope for him. but it's just been kind of, do we call it a slow start?

Are we still like just getting here? I don't know, what's going on? All right. Enjoy the show, fellas. Peace. I don't. So early. Everybody's got to chill.

And I don't think there's much of a chance of it coming off that terrible. Like, Marchenko has skills to burn. He's not going to suddenly be a bad way. He is a threat out there. But sometimes it could be against you too. Yeah, we'll see on that. But like, Nyes. Don't give, hey, Sammy, don't give up home.

I'm not. The reason I put that in there is because I would say I got a few of those texts trickling it. Yeah. Well, people just want results. But here's what I'll say. No one was ever like time for Nye's time,

you know, or whatever when he was here. Nyes was complimentary. Pretty beloved, though. People really liked Matthew Nyes. For sure. Well, they bought in with Nyes, the moment he got called up or came out of college,

it was the buildup that this guy is the future and he's untouchable and he is this power forward and he's going to be our guy for the next 10 years. Well, he was sold as Tom Wilson, you know, power forward, tough, big score, all that stuff. I'm just saying that a lot of stuff, everything in life is expectations and what you're measured against. And a lot of people had high expectations from eyes were really surprised on that trade happened. Well, they shouldn't have been because we were telling him it's going to be traded since last March, and nobody believed it. I know, Kim.

But it was still a shock when we came in here on that Monday and it's like, it's happening. Marchenko's always going to have to battle against that. And people are always going to measure him against Nyes. And Nyes was popular. I'm just saying that like. But like that happens. That happens with big trades. I understand that.

I'm just saying it's going to be tougher for him. People love Nyes. That's going to bubble up. Brandon in the Harbor is going to be sitting in his. boat, he's not going to be the only guy. I'm not too worried about it. Okay. That one.

Okay. But he's, to Sam's point, and I know he's not kicked in the contract yet, but 12.5 million next year, man, that's superstar money. Well, it's, you know, first off, yeah, as you mentioned, he makes 3.8 for this year, which is nice. So there's that factor. So if you actually make that contract over eight years, it's 11.1 is the total of his earnings per year here. but also the numbers are moving, right? Like, you know, what constitutes a 12.5 million guy? He'll be, if he gets you 70 points, 80 points he'll be happy.

Quickly. Let's do Adam from Minnesota. I love you guys so much, so funny, so much great content. And as someone who just lives and breathes the game, I so wish there was a consistent crew like you guys for the wild in Minnesota hockey. I digress. Can we please squeeze? We've in just a few minutes a week, maybe one minute of Minnesota Wild Hockey Talk.

As a Minnesotan, I love all the hockey culture, of course, in Canada so much. Love you guys, tons. Keep it up. Bye. The Wild Minute. The Wild Minute. I can't believe Matt Boldie has 0-0 through four games after an 85-point season. Isn't that unbelievable? I think the Minnesota Wilde should trade for. Dylan Larkin and Connor. Ooh, I like that.

Oh, yeah. Billy Garon, I'm trying to get him on the show. Caprizo's contract immediately looks good. He's on every other show. Listen, I've been email on them. We'll get them. All right. So listen.

Is that a good minute? You're the producer. I didn't mean to say a negative thing. They're good news. We got to fit in the wild for one minute. Okay, the wild minute for Adam. No one wants that. I'm sorry.

I respect to call it all the kind of words. We are not doing that. Overruled. Sorry, Adam. All right. Our thanks to all the callers on Leaf Line. We're back with Doug McLean.