Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Buds Push Sens to the Brink

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Leafs' 3-2 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators in Game 3 to take a 3-0 series lead. They get into Simon Benoit's unlikely overtime heroics, the team's defensive buy-in, Nick Cousins' fine from warm-ups, the top line delivering, the urgency needed in Game 4 and much more. Later, they answer 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.

Right back at you on this Friday off the rails Friday Have we got Doug McLean I choose yes, we do me or you didn't talk to But yeah, I don't know where he is.. He's joining us. He's joining us. He texts me not his usual okay, it was a yup. So, he may be getting a whole, fired up, Doug. That and the Leaf line on this Friday as well and we'll get everyone's thoughts on the Toronto Maple Leafs up three nothing

in their first round match. We're glad you're aboard on the Real Kipper and Boran show. We are live on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, Sportsnet 360, and Sportsnet Plus. Heroes are just coming out of the woodwork for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and you don't have to spend $10 million a year on them. No.

Simone Benoit, who had him on the bingo card. Buddy, after his play in game two, you should have had him somewhere near the card if he didn't have him on it. What a, what a talent. Undeniable. Undeniable. I mean, I actually really liked this on the heels of having BX to tell us yesterday how he's earned it and worked his way up through the levels.

And you know, let's face that heaven was wrong really What? He's a top four defenseman now He's a four I See how many yeah, he played over 19 minutes last night. He ain't playing like a six No, he played more than Carlo and they're not using them like a six. No There that's a fair point. They you know, it's very interesting though. They're not using anyone like a six

Toronto Maple Leafs through three games all of their D are averaging between 1830 and 2130 Roughly 20 or whatever. So within a three-minute range for all six guys Last year Morgan Riley played 2450 per game in the first round while they only played one round Yeah, and they had four guys under 18 minutes per game Lillagran but their their strength is obviously blocking shots protecting the net and Protecting leads because that Ottawa's had the lead in the series. Seven minutes. Seven.

Yeah. That's it. I mean, it plays. That's what I wanna find. It plays right into their strength of just minding their net. Yeah. Helping out Stollers and it's not like they're counting on Benoit to make an end to end rush to get them back into a game or anyone else for that matter no

in the more people I talked to about this Leafs team the more people are just like comfortable with them in close games when it's tied there's just doesn't seem to be a panic that comes from the goaltending from the defending yeah it's just it's quite frankly, it's night and day from what we've watched in years past the way they can protect the lead and I know that they've given up to tying goals in back-to-back games against Ottawa where it was a tip from cadet and Brady Kachuk shoots when in the night that last

night, but both of those shots were the first shot of the period and they were doing a brilliant job defending and they did a brilliant job defending after that goal went in so it's a different animal for me. All right let's go to our first Kippers Clipper on this Off the Rails Friday on head coach Berube's thoughts on his new star defenseman. Seymour opened your eyes to his offensive abilities here the last couple games. Well it's happy guys it's always great when a guy like that scores a goal, you know, a big goal like that. Overtime goal, game winner. You know, Benny's played extremely well for us defensively and being hard to play against

and, you know, does all those things. So it's nice when guys like that are rewarded with a big goal. Very happy for him. I think you know all types of players go through ups and downs throughout the season and I know that Benny is the same and you know we used other D at times and he missed a game here and there but he was always positive about it and keep working on his game. I think Benny has made some huge strides this year in terms of He always plays physical and hard and block shots and penalty kill and does us sort of things, but he's to me he's

Jumping up in the play more, you know skating the puck puck out of our zone more, more confident with the puck is what I see from him, which is a good thing. 26 years old, 1.3 million next year and the year after. Yeah. Pretty good deal for the Leafs. What he pointed out there to me is the beautiful thing about hockey and playoff hockey, which I think is very unique. Like you're never gonna, you know, it's never gonna be your third string quarterback that throws a touchdown pass in the, you know, in a big game in the playoffs. It's never gonna be, you know,

LeBron James is gonna have the ball in his hand. Like, baseball is like this, where a guy at the bottom of the order can come up and have a huge home run or whatever. But hockey, in these playoff games, these overtime games, the unlikely heroes, it's just, it's such games these overtime games the unlikely heroes It's just it's such a great legacy of these unlikely heroes like I mean I The Cory cross thing is unbelievable the Battle of Ontario. I don't know. I should've got

Jake to pull it up It's from all the exact same spot on the ice to give them a three two one in a three nothing series lead and it's just I Love this stuff and I can tell you that I Get I mean I can't tell you but I can imagine How much the guys on the team adore this moment like how much they're all chirping? I'm really calling sniper just like it's the greatest thing ever like just having that guy score that goal kisses off some pants Hey for sure

2001 Cory cross what a silly three two victory. Yep Three nothing in the series lead over the same team. It's great. He's it is it's really cool History doesn't bad for our times, right? They're not loving it, but too bad overall Compare game three to game one and two for you in terms of I don't know the Leafs play or The big noticeable difference is that you're going in a more hostile environment and the Leafs did What's the favorite term weather the storm? Yeah, whether the storm early What's the favorite term? Weather the storm?

Yeah, weather the storm early. You know, I thought the first couple games, they got up and kind of packed it in and just tried to defend a little bit. This game, the score was closer and forced them to play a bit more. Was it the second period where we were all texting or the end of the first where it was like,

Ottawa needs to get to this intermission? Because the Leafs- End of the second. End of the second. Like there was a switch in the second period where the Leafs found one got back in it Like it felt like it was starting to go the Leafs way the longer the game went on I I feel similarly like, you know, you could be a sense fan and go god that one could have gone our way We played pretty well, but it did feel like the Leafs were marginally better the big difference again

He talked about that defending. I got a stat for you. The Leafs are first in playoffs with 123 deflections from staff and first in the NHL in D-zone deflections. Getting sticks in lanes. Wow. That matches the eye test. Yeah. We can pick apart a lot of things

that you're not quite happy with. I just don't recall ever seeing a hockey club, especially here in Toronto, play so solid between the dots in the middle of the ice and very seldom getting caught, very seldom out of position. There's so many times that they've been on the wrong side of the puck over the last few years and for the first three of these hockey games, man, you can't play the right way. You can't find a handful of them in the first three games. It does feel like it's just, they have a lineup they can trust and I wrote about this today,

but like even all their forwards play over 10 minutes in the final five minutes score tied all four lines got to shit You know like they're throwing all these guys out of the boards and just depending where the face-off is You know, it's D zone starts for Lawton and it's ozone starts for Domi and so on But yeah, they there's a lot of trust you it is something about clearly there's depth and there's different types of players You it is something about clearly there's depth and there's different types of players But the cool coaching philosophy to me feels like instead of years past where they're coaching to win one round It feels like they're coaching to go on a run here where they're not overusing anybody and they're just they're keeping

It within like you said there was at 18 and 21 between those two numbers. That is just such a difference like think about in years, Pat, what would have, if under Sheldon Keefe, what is Marner and Matthews playing that game last night? 25 minutes? And it's just they're not. I know, I know, but it is kind of hard to compare this first round to others past because the level of Tampa

and Florida over the last few years, much different than what we're experiencing with the Ottawa Senators. Boston wasn't very good last year. That was by far the worst version of the Boston Bruins that the Leafs have ever played against and it still looked the exact same way. So, I don't know.

I just think it's a pretty stark difference in look with this coach. A lot better and more experienced still sure last year No question then then what we're seeing out of Ottawa. What are you seeing at Ottawa? a team that is learning and a team that isn't quite ready for prime time and

Two out of three and overtime Yeah, you could sit there and say probably a couple of bounces might have gone the other way. They actually in game two and game three, they actually had good looks and Stolarz is there. And that's also the biggest difference is one guy stole ours and the other ones 850 860 save percentage in the first three games i don't know what all mark is but it's not it's not that pretty i i would i would disagree that they had a lot of good looks last night i i didn't know i'm not saying they had looks though they had looks i mean the one look they had in the second in the third period went in like they didn't have a sniff up I know that up and like 815

815 815 in three games I mean you don't have to go much further than that to to know what has not gone well for But I know part of that too is the type of chances the D allows. The Leafs were able to generate some high quality chances when they needed to. So it is, I said this last night, but like this is the reward for winning the Atlantic. Yes, for sure.

We said that all year long, that like they needed to, a month ago they were in second place in the Atlantic. Yes, for sure. We said that all year long, that like they needed, a month ago they were in second place in the Atlantic. And this could be a very different first round. And they need to put them away Saturday night. They don't need to go five. No. So you hope that they understand that. And there's, they gotta believe there's no breathing room at three nothing right now

Yeah, I got a met great for them the rest of the week win Saturday night bad for our show next week. I Got a man someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong It's either one in ten or one in eleven in games where a win would move them to the next round Going back to the start of the Matthews Marner era. So they had opportunities to move on against Montreal three times. They're bad. The numbers are very, very bad.

They're bad. So my point being, you don't need to play games five, six, and seven, and injuries, and risk, and who knows, you just need to lay it on the line one night, like it's a game seven. All right, let's get Craig Beruvi's thoughts on the overview of what he saw in game 3. Yeah we played

well I mean they came hard in the first 10 minutes I thought that you know we were under under pressure but we we did little things right and defended pretty well and you know did what we had to do to manage it and then I thought we got going in the first second period was full of penalties a little bit. We got a little bit caught on that side of things and we had to kill and then kind of disrupt the flow. Third period was really good. We gave up two shots in the third period.

I know one of them went in but it was a very good period with our forecheck and our hound and our, you know, puck battles and our smothering forecheck. You know, I thought we did a good job with our forecheck and our hound and our you know puck battles and our smothering forecheck you know I thought we did a good job with that I really liked our third period a lot yeah that that all checks out oh I was curious if we want to go to the opposite coach and get his view on the overview what he saw we have several from him as well do you want to do to the opposite coach and get his view on the overview, what he saw. We have several from him as well.

Do you want to do that at the same time? Travis Green. All right, clip one, Green. Well, there's not much I'm going to say to them right now that's going to help or make them feel better. You know, it's disheartening to say the least. I thought both teams played a hell of a game. You know, sometimes playoff hockey comes down to little inches or bounces and you know, we were on the wrong end of it tonight.

Geez. Yeah. Yeah, that's he's feeling as bad as his players. Yeah. That wasn't great. I mean, I didn't mind it. It's it's fine. It's just that you could I think it is context for how they're feeling. Yeah. Just heart. For sure. So I don't know. Do you guys want to give credence to this the story that came out from warm-up? Yeah I think it's important. I think because I don't know you guys said I didn't even know what was out there. I think a Good buddy Darren Drager reported on a warm-up incident last night that the league was Investigating and my first thought was okay did

Did Ottawa poison the water bottles? Did did they deflate the warm-up pucks? What could this be? This is huge, huge! I was pretty concerned. I thought the Leafs were gonna have to avoid their win the way he reported that. I was like, oh my God, what is happening? I thought something substantial had happened.

It was like, this is gonna be, what now with this Toronto Maple Leafs team? The guy flicked a puck at their goalie. Oh my God. Buddy, this is like, this I expect would to be huge news on the gthl parent

Right, that's a big story That's a big story being bullied. That's the exact tone. Okay, that is the exact tone you nailed it, but this is the NHL and Tone, okay, that is the exact tone you nailed it, but this is the NHL and You know, this is where though it gets to be a little slippery For for the league is that you you cannot you got to draw a hard line Sure, you do you have to draw a hard line. You just there just, there's no room to completely shrug it off either. You can't lightly shoot pucks at other players in warm-up. That's not allowed.

No, no. And I can tell you that every year, okay, the National Hockey League. Who even saw that. Every year the National Hockey League has talks with all 16 teams and there's just things that you got to understand how to go about certain things. If you got if you got complaints or anything like all of its laid out and one of the things that's laid out is warmups. Okay. We're not playing these games any longer.

This is not the 70s or the 80s where you dress Reeves. Stretch on the red and look the other way. No, no, or you dress Reeves just for warmup. Okay, those days are over. Did you guys watch the video I sent you today, the old school, the straight up brawl and warmups when there was no refs out there between the habs and flyers? Oh yeah, I think it used to be a gong show. old school the straight up brawl and warmups when there was no refs out there between the Habs and Flyers.

It used to be a gong show. Warm up you were as nervous for warm up as you were the whole 60 minutes. It would have been like a referendum on the sport. They just like, let's go play the game after that. It's unreal. You bump a guy. A guy just always on your half, the red. A little bit of a butt end while the guy's passing you. All of it.

It used to happen all the time, but this is why Ottawa was fined 25,000 bucks. This is not a hockey play. Right? It's, you wanna mess around, you wanna shoot a puck in someone else's zone, you wanna try to start something Here's your 25 grand. Yeah, but you both of you will agree that the optics of a full day

Conversation media narrative about the video that we just watched in the video that everyone's seen that's listening to this is One of the softest things I've ever It's over the film One of the softest things I've ever Draggers a reporter He reported factually correct Information put it on him. I'm just saying no I know that but this also shows you the power of the media Because if Drager doesn't report it and nobody does They don't have to find anybody. They don't they don't surface that information on their own They've they they made it a big deal with a $25,000 fine and a fine in Nick Cousins

Because it was drawn out and they don't want to get caught now if something and they don't want to get caught now. If something progresses next game and warmup, then they get egg on their face because they didn't do anything about the last incident. Okay. Still. Yeah. Right?

And that's, I'm just telling you the way it works. Sure. You don't think they'd have find them if it wasn't. Buddy, it's embarrassing. It's a flick to a goalie. It's an embarrassing story, in my estimation for NHL professional hockey. It's an embarrassing story, in my estimation, for NHL professional hockey. Let's listen to Travis Green.

It's Travis Green's clip is fantastic on it. Clip five on Stollers and Cousins. Yeah, clip five. Travis, the NHL apparently looking into some pucks getting directed at Stollers during warmup last night. Like, what do you make of that? Well, Mark, you know, it's an active investigation. I don't know if I should be commenting on that.

So. Have you reviewed the video? I have people that have advised me maybe not to comment on it. I'm kidding. Yeah, I saw the video. Nick Cousins and Stollers have played together. I don't know. Yeah, he's probably trying to either laugh at him or make a joke or get him off his game and

is what it is. Alright, we gotta move on. Oh no, no, no. One more thing. One more thing. That's such a good clip. I would... I would, I would put in next season that there's the red line. Okay, you wanna cross it, you wanna shoot anything, anything that's deemed on purpose to just get on, you're starting the game with a two minute unsportsmanlike conduct. Totally. Love that. Totally in on that. Easy, that's easy. Be it done for the game with a two minute unsportsmanly conduct. Totally. Love that.

Totally in on that. That's it. Easy. That's easy. Before the game, it's... I've got the cameras, they're locked in warm-up. I see any BS at all. This is not a hockey court. You are starting shorthanded. I mean, if something happens...

And that's it. It's over. It's over. ...after the first period in between their missions, you get penalized. There is not a guy that would ever mess in warm-up knowing that he could put his team two minutes down It would suck for the intros you can only get to announce four names that a five I remember guys used to pull pucks out of the net and pass them up to center when you're doing line rushes and someone would Just like tip them just like get a little piece and redirect them up behind you about that. That was a good one so top-line

Top line. Top line. Yeah, they get two goals at even strength, which is good. Production is there. It's of zone face off. Yeah. And hey, credit to Berube. They started OT, had a pretty decent shift, whatever. Domi shoots it and you get a face off back out there.

Was it 1830 on the clock? Yeah. You gave him a second shift and a chance in the ozone. So it's less like, you know, what was it, 1830 on the clock? Yeah. You gave him a second chance in the Ozone. So it's less like, you know, instead of protecting, you're gonna play the whole hockey game, it's like we got a chance to end it, go throw those guys out in the Ozone. Good coaching, gotta tell ya.

And give Matthews full credit, just cleaning Pinto out in the dot the whole night. Like just heavy stick winning and having every draw 65 67 percent yeah in the face-off circle is huge huge that's massive and obviously the tip pass from Marner to Matthews is Absurd I mean that's one of the most disgusting plays I've seen a hockey player make to like heal that backwards at that angle with force was Yeah, it was mint And the visual of all mark looking the wrong direction

When the best shooter on planet Earth is about to fire it into an open net is unbelievable Yeah, like I almost thought that when I watched this live I almost thought that they like blew it dead because there was a guy like a high stick I didn't know he was just so frozen. I saw sense fans. You've got to be tighter on Matthews. It's like he was open for half of a second. There's no way you could anticipate that that puck is going to come off the end boards that quickly in that perfect of a spot. That's just an unguardable play. And Morgan had enough meat on it, right? Yeah, he peaked, stepped it around the boards.

Morgan does not put the weight on it like that. It's difficult for Marner to push it off like that. But you know what, that was part of a great shift there. No, no, no, I know that. I know, I'm just spreading the love around a little bit, but I don't know how many guys in the world can make that pass. Not many. A handful at best. That was pretty nasty. So yeah they took care of

business. I don't know what like their underlying numbers were anything like that but... Max Patchready. Oh yeah. Patchready good one. Would you think about the lineup change and... I thought the third line worked well. So much better. I thought physical heavy ozone time. I thought McMahon looked more engaged. I just thought it was a line you could use. Five on five. It was pretty obvious. And you? Yeah, no, heavy. Yeah. Finished checks. Yeah, everybody. Everybody pushed hard last night for the Leafs. Do you want to play the Barube clip on Pat Reddy?

It's a short but sweet one. Yeah, let's go. Clip 8 please, Derek. I thought he was excellent. I love his physicality, skated well, made some nice plays that line. They had a couple opportunities. I thought he was really good for us. I love that player.

I love the guy. I thought it was just such a feel in the game the first shift he has he just Immediately put someone on the ice like the first shift the first hollow to yeah It was like see three seconds into his first shift in 75 days, and he put someone down immediately And you're like oh, yeah, Nick Robertson Just not doing that and it's a big heavy game And he said he wanted a big veteran old guy and he got what he wanted so credit to him don't change the lineup no don't change

lineup no way I can't even find a spot to put camp in maybe one suggestion Saturday night don't say a wall Joseph all no way no way you're you're you're No, no, no, no, no, listen, oh It's okay. It's all right. It's just a thought. It's just a thought at that three nothing You want to keep Joseph wall in in the mix here? your Stolars You wanna keep Joseph Wall in the mix here. You stole ours. You wanna protect him a little bit too. I don't know. Is he 100% healthy?

Did he, has he tweaked anything? Are you suggesting he did, Kipper? I am suggesting that if you wanna ride this guy for the next month, month and a half, two months, it's worth a thought. It's worth a thought and I'm not shooting down the thought, but you know, win game four and he's going to have a week off. I'll put the bullets in my gun to shoot down the thought.

All right. Listen, listen, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I would say they were tandem all year and Wolves and nine, 10 guys. I'm not saying, I'm not saying, but like, can was they were tandem all year and walls and nine and not saying I'm not I'm not saying But like can I just say that if you put wall in and he is? Fantastic as well and they close out in four games It's a good feeling It's a good feeling for everybody knowing that you got to go good goalies

And if anything happens to stalls in the next round or the third round Walls right there my friend. Full disclosure I had I went because we're doing least line in the next I had a call from Matt in Toronto about this very take yeah and I was like that is the most absurd thing I would not put it in there. After the Leaf history and their inability to close out a series I would not put it in there After the leaf history and their inability to close out a series I'm not saying for me it's a gimme decision Yeah, but at three nothing and you want to keep that guy in the mix a little bit. Mm-hmm It's worth a thought. Yeah Okay, all right I feel the same way about camp if he's not gonna cost you a game if you want to get him in before the next

round You know, but how much are you counting your chickens if you're starting to make decisions like that? Yeah, that's that's a decision where you're like we've got this in the bag. Yeah, and Yeah, I don't I disagree. It's not a no it's not it doesn't make you a worse team I had Mike Richter and Glenn Healy Oh and They were fantastic and at no time did we ever feel throughout that season? That if Glenn Healy played we weren't we weren't gonna win, right? That's all and I think they got a little bit of Stolar's and Joseph Wall going right now that

you don't want to just Disregard Joseph wall. No, but I Think if you're the coach you wouldn't do it. Okay, I wouldn't He it sounds bad. I wouldn't dream of it So before you know, we got only time for another like minute or two We got tons of clip on being down three nothing on what you want to see from Saturday night. Do you want to hear? I should think because I think a huge storyline going into Saturday night and it's already

kind of started with the sentence and I'll talk to you two about this is the old three thing Brady. I mean, we can play Brady's clip about it, but they're already kind of alluding to a Jerusalem talking about it when they did it with the flyers when they came back like They're already starting to kind of plant those seeds. So I think killer instinct will be a big Talking point over the day tomorrow kind of leading into the game instinct and Broom it had a really good clip on it. So clip 7 on killer instinct, please. Well, you can learn and apply it I think that

You know most Athletes and apply it. I think that you know most athletes and veteran athletes have it. You know they understand but again you know we all we could do is you know understand what you need to do every shift as a player. And the battling and the competitiveness that you need and the puck play, the smart puck play, and all those types of things, that's the process that you need to focus on. The killer instinct will take care of itself.

You do things right. But it's gonna boil down to competitiveness and battles it really is You know that team battles over there. They're competitive They got a lot of good players. So we got to really make sure that we're focused on competing battling structure and Just you know understand our process throughout the game puck battle win percentage in game three, 60.4% for Toronto to 39.

Yeah, and I think the guys on Hockey Night did a 50-50 kind of scenario. And, you know, with all due respect to Greg, he says the right things about any team that he has ever played over this season. They're all hard competitors and they're really, really good. But Ottawa just does not compete as hard for a lot of those loose pucks right now. And that is a difference. I mean, isn't that a credit to Borubei though, in terms of-

Sure, and them, and then the players. For sure. I mean, we've seen this personnel, some of this personnel not do that in years past So I think you do have to give him a hockey exactly I think you have to give him a lot of credit for just how hard they are playing I think as you're seeing them have success it breeds buy-in right like a guys are more Inclined to believe like oh this works. This works when we keep it simple this works when we just battle

Mm-hmm, and you get better and tougher to play as you go inclined to believe like, oh, this works. Oh, this works when we keep it simple. This works when we just battle and you get better and tougher to play as you go. We should go for Leafs Line. Well, let's, I don't know, we got a couple more clips here. But the Leafs Line is so good. And it's brought to us by Free. Can we please-

And it's Friday and JB doesn't wanna work that hard. Can we please play Simone Benoit's clip on his goal? Simone, is that the biggest goal you've ever scored in your life? I don't score much goals, I would say yeah. What would be second? Second biggest goal? Probably like peewee or something. I think a shocking celebration from him.

You know, like he's such a big personality and he just so they get and then They switch did this nice and then they switch it back. Oh really hit the auto ID I mean if I'm nice, I'm running to the Scorekeeper being like I didn't get a touch on that, you know, like you already got a freebie in the game Yeah, like I'm not trying to take that away from him. It's unbelievable. 25 years from now we'll remember him like we remember Corey Cross. Absolutely.

Absolutely, and just what a personality, right? Like this guy is easy to root for. How do we remember Corey Cross, by the way? By that goal. Obviously, like I remember that goal. You just need a moment. Yeah, you just need one. I guess the last clip we could play,

because we kind of talked about the the 3-0 stuff Did you want to hear Brady talking about the down being down 3-0? Do you think our fans would okay? Let's play it. Let's undone being down 3-0 backs back games. It's a one-shot game Yeah, I mean this obviously isn't the situation we drew up but May get the hardest challenge of them all. So, um, I mean, I've been saying this a lot, uh, it's not too long ago. I watched the Red Sox versus Yankees documentary when they came back from 0-3. So it's been done before and, uh, I have the belief that it can happen again.

It's almost like you had that one tucked away. Right? Yeah. Brady's not healthy, huh? I tell you what, I was very impressed with him coming back and playing as hard as he did and scoring that goal. Like, when we saw him kind of limp off a little bit. Hip flexor groin.

It was, and then he left the bench. I was almost convinced he's not coming back. Me too, because you can't shoot that up. There's nothing to like. He's hopping. Yeah. And he's down, he's grimacing. He's got all the looks of, I'm done. He's got all the all the looks of I'm done.

He's hunched over on the bench. That's not great. And so we've seen from the Kachaks, they don't go away. They want to be a part of it. Their leaders, all that stuff. But I can't imagine he's going to be 100% on Saturday night. No, no way. All right, we can go to break now.

Did you get to the least line? Woo. All right. These are up three zip boys. Never thought I'd see the day. Never thought I'd see it. Truly. Okay. Truly. Have some more confidence.

Why? They won the division. What confidence have they ever given me to be sitting here? It's not the same team. So I'm getting it. I mean, they're still wearing blue and white, right? But if they go to a conference final, you ain't going to make it. Conference final, you have Florida next.

Oh, are you giving Florida the championship or the series win over them? Tampa Bay? I am. No, here's the. That's still got meat on the bone. It's a nine year suspension for murdering Barkov. Can I just say the hushedtones thing quickly before we go to break?

That's kind of the stick in the mud of this whole situation is who's probably gonna be waiting for them in the next round. All right. All right. Okay. Stop it. Okay. I'm done. I'm done. I'm staying the present. I'm done. I'm done Live in the moment Live in the moment. Hope some of your calls can live in the moment. Oh, they're great All right, leaf line when we return to the real kipper and boring show, the best blue J show out there. Period. Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the program, Leaf Hour Edition. Toronto Lake Police looking to close out the Ottawa Senators Saturday night. In the meantime, let's get your thoughts, followers, watchers, listeners.

Love that. Your mic is not working. But I'm going to take this opportunity to tell a kipper that a guy named Blades Brown shot 61 on the corn fairy tour today. He's 17. 17 years old and his name is Blades Brown. 61. Let me put the, let me put the calls in.

That's just not right. Not right. Blades Brown is the greatest sports name maybe ever. That is an all time handle. Blades Brown. Blades Brown. 17. You know, I'm doing a lot. That's so cool. I forgot to put the mic the calls in here Give me two seconds. I don't do the read. No, no talking about yourselves. It's all good Hi, Kip. I had a friend of mine Tell me that well, you know, he didn't tell me

through our wives that he also got to spend a night in the cabin and play Augusta the other day. I can't take it anymore. Who? Well, it doesn't matter who. I mean, it kinda does. Well, it's my friend, not yours. Well, then, he's always looking at the leverage.

No, but like, how have you not done this? I'm working on it. All right, the Leafs Line is brought to you by Muskoka Bay Resort a top-ten ranked Canadian course part of the freed Golf network fellas and before we get into the calls This is in relation to a call that we had Early maybe like the first or second leaf line We ever did Ben from st. John's who called in and talked about his getting engaged when he went down south. Remember that Kipper?

Yeah, I do, for sure. He dropped off today at the Rogers campus. He DM'd me. He dropped off a jersey. A St. John's, I'm gonna hold this up right here. St. John's. The Sea Dog. St. John's Sea Dog jersey, dropped it off personally. St. John's Sea Dog jersey. Dropped it off personally.

The note he wrote is, Sammy, since you're a junior hockey fan and a big jersey guy, here's a little something from home. This made a car ride, a flight, a TTC, and an Uber without having a song made about its journey. Thanks again for having me on the show from your long lost brother, Ben and Megan from St. John, New Brunswick, Goldie Skull. Thank you very much. Very cool. Very cool. The former Sea Wolf. I love that name. From your long-lost brother Ben and Megan from st. John, New Brunswick goalie skull See wolf I love that don't look now, but we're starting to get a collection You know we are we're building up a jersey not the horrible part of thing about the st

John see dogs they put out my beloved attack of the Memorial Cup. Oh, did they yeah double overtime Jonathan Hubert Oh split the puck. I cover that Memorial Cup with Darren Millard and and cool and our next guest in a few minutes McLean all right let's start off this Leafs line a little international action here and from Italy first time I love you guys Kipper, Borny and Sammy. The best of hockey, analytics and fan base all in one. My cousin in the UK is a huge Montreal Canadiens fan and I sent him a link to your channel. Now he loves you guys too. Doesn't miss a segment for all things hockey.

By the way, I heard during the Leafs Game 3 broadcast, Max and Tye Domi became the first father-son duo in NHL history to score a game-winning goal in overtime with the same franchise against the same franchise. How cool is that? By the way, I heard also there were some shenanigans going on during the pregame warm-up with cousins shooting a puck at Stowlarts.'s, have you heard anything about that? I didn't. Regarding game four tomorrow,

if any of the buds are listening, boys, don't play with your food. Finish your dinner and do the dishes. Go Leafs, go! That is awesome. That's a great call. Great call. Finish your food and do the dishes.

That should be the least. You know how they put that up? Instead of heart over hype, they should say finish your food and do the dishes. Do the dishes. Ah, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum. Let's go to, let me just double check, because this is a late ad, and this is a really good one.

Let's go to Mike and Jasper. Of all the things that came to mind after the Leafs game last night, I'm actually just thinking about Clara Hughes, you know, one of Canada's greatest athletes ever because she competed in summer and winter Olympics and won medals in both in cycling and speed skating. And I was just wondering if you think Tim Stutla has that opportunity for Germany where he competes in the Winter Olympics in hockey and the Summer Olympics in diving. I think that'd be pretty big for him and for Germany. Anyway, love the show guys. Wait, Kipper, you can't hear anything?

No. You gotta give him your headphones or something. Some solution here for this guy. Okay, let's see what I got for you. Sometimes they come apart at the back there, Kippie, these things right here. Oh, yeah, now I got it. Alright. Are we back? We're back. I think we're back you back. All right, let's play that call again. No, hold on. Okay That little jangle at the back usually gets me there. Yeah, I can get you a set of headphones. Um, hold on can

Can people stop sending us jerseys and get me a mic Well, I will go Tell me about it. I will ask you about it. It's a joke about old Timmy Stutzla and the dive factor last night. More or less the Stephen Lorenz. Was that a penalty? An old Lorenz there? Sammy, you got thoughts on that?

I'll go ahead and say, oh, good swim drop. I'll go ahead and say total dive. Okay, go ahead. I'm good. Okay Let's play that call again because it's very good Mike and Jasper of all the things that came to mind after Leave game last night. I'm actually thinking about Clara Hughes, you know one of Canada's greatest athletes ever because she competed in summer and Winter Olympics and won medals in both in cycling and speed skating and

I was just wondering if you think Tim Stutla has that opportunity for Germany where he competes in the winter Olympics and hockey and the summer Olympics and diving. I think that would be pretty big for him and for Germany. Anyway, love the show guys. Yeah, quite the reputation. He's embarrassing. I mean the Kichuk dive was embarrassing to him on T on Tavares early in the game. It was Gallagher in Montreal. Don't you remember his post-game comments on Stisla? Yeah. Like he buried him. Yeah. But you know, you don't have to change your ways.

Like he has success drawing penalties. They reward it. So why would you stop doing it? You know, Codgers didn't roll with that. Yeah, I know. But yeah, not everybody's going to get fooled though. No. Why would you stop doing it? You know, cotton is not well with that. Yeah, I know, but, yeah. Not everybody's gonna get fooled though. No.

Well. But I mean, last night, Holmberg, little bit of a. The head snap. Same thing too, you know. Totally agree. It happens. This one's from yesterday,

and it's pretty amazing. Let's go to Corey from Newmarket. So I went out shopping today and I picked up some, those tinfoil wrapped Easter eggs, the different color ones. So I ripped the bag and a couple of them came out. Never guess what colors came out. Three of them, they were all blue. Game three, all blue game three all blue

So I think it's gonna be like a three nothing or three to win. It's it's karma. It's karma. I believe in karma Anyways go leave us go love the show and Yeah, we'll see you next Tomorrow. All right Corey from Newmarket predicted it with the Easter eggs Gotta he's got to do it tomorrow night. I for the game I will say there's I don't know if you guys know are familiar with hockey luminati, but he's big Instagram guy he's been talking with the portal a lot like the all the different omens and stuff that have like Being our year kind of thing. It's another one for the portal psychology

They would call this the priming effect when you're looking for stuff Oh, come on here. Come on tuned in to come on Whatever you want to call it. It's all the same thing There's just gonna be more surfacing. Yes, you just it won't stop like a Cory cross Right Tide Omi's son scoring an overtime. What else do you need a cup? Yeah? Let's go to Curtis in Guelph just on the landscape job home some barrels today little extra jump in my step after that win last night But when that goal was scored I was really

Noticing like I wasn't excited. I wasn't cheering I was just waiting to see what challenge might be made. And I think the camera crew was doing the same thing. It kept showing fans looking up at the jumbotron trying to see a replay. Does that even count? And it's like, I don't know, has this really gone too far to take the excitement out of the game. I know we want to get things right, but I feel like it's kind of sucked a bit of life out of the game. Regardless, it was awesome. And as a Leif fan, I hesitate to say this, but in the spirit of the milk man himself, Simone Benoit, like milk comes in Canada. I think we got this in the bag.

Love that. So what's the reference to milk? Oh, Simone Benoit loves milk, so they called him the milkman. Oh, that's right. Well, you know who was the original milkman? Doug Goodwin. No. Karl Malone?

No. No, he's the mailman. No, this is where I age. Oh, okay. Claire Alexander was the milkman for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is that right? The first one I can remember. It's all full circle.

Did they win the cup that year? The portal. I think he got out of the first round, I hope. But you remember the Gilmore ads. Oh yeah, yeah, the painted delays. Yeah, that's what I thought you meant. Yes. Yeah.

The reason I played that call is because I have the same feeling. Well, the NFL is like this for me, where every play that happens, downfield, there's a shot, completion and it's like, okay, do we get to celebrate or not? Does that count? Is it good? Did we get? He's right though.

There's an element that they've sucked out of an instant euphoria. For sure. But there was no way to take that one back. Like immediately. I mean, Brady Kachuck, you saw him look at the thing. They're just watching it go in. Yeah. Yeah, but no I agree with that So anyways, let's go to Jeremy and me ford Hey Sam thought I call and tell you guys I love the show keep up the great work Thank you. Love watching the Leafs this year play under Barube. It's so refreshing

Good goaltending good defense. I think watching the Leafs this year play under Barubey. It's so refreshing. Good goaltending, good defense. I think it's actually different this year. I know, famous last words. Anywho, love the show. Sam, I'm trying to get the City of Bonesound to recognize your massive fame with a plaque at the Heritage Place Mall in the former location of the Wizard's Castle Arcade. I know you spent a lot of time there. I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, Borny, I'm sending your house is falling apart this spring. Anything to turn around for you. Anyway, thanks guys. Yeah, you know, you got to stick about moving. Buddy, your face is dilapidated. Yeah, it's horrible. The roof, the this, the that.

Well, yeah, I can't afford your house, Kip. Not all of us, you know, made millions in the NHL. Go back to your shandies. Let's go to one of our favorites. Let's go to Chuck Nelson. Gentlemen, Chuck Nelson here. I can't believe this Leaf team is up three and oh. I am so happy. I feel really bad though for our friend Ian there in Jelly Belly, Ontario, the converted senator's fan. I mean, that guy's going to have bad dreams about Max Domi and Sabon Benoit over and over again. I don't even know why I'm calling them bad dreams.

They're nightmares with that smile of Domi's. Anyways, I'm so happy. I don't think I've been this happy since probably before my children were born. Anyways, I'm really, really happy. 3 and 0, I got two more things to say. A, I hope that this call doesn't come back to bite me in the rear, and B, I really hope my children aren't listening. Anyways, I'm Chuck Nelson. You've seen my movies.

I have a proposal. I think Chuck should do our ad reads. We should have him record them. He's got a great voice and energy for reads. I don't know if we can afford him. Chuck Nelson here. You know what I'm saying? We got this guy's built for it. Oh my God.

This one's short. Let's go to Nick in Sterling, Ontario. I just want to say the Leafs feel different this year, don't they? You know, when you like when you turn 30 and the highs are less high and the lows are less low you're just more mature Very eager to hear your guys thoughts. Have a great day. Cheers. It's been the theme all season long that it's feels different in terms of style of play like if they can just Slide this into a playoff scenario take time have to take time to break. You get a better chance at keeping good games close

and waiting for your opportunities as opposed to forcing them. I guess my only question is, in your 30s, is your 30s where things started? I had some highs and lows, boy. So who's the comedian that says in your 20s, you're like, let's go, let's go, I don't go anywhere. Nate Vargh boy. Yeah, so who's the comedian that says in your 20s? You're like, let's go. Let's go I'll go anywhere Nate Varghese. Yeah, Nate. Yeah, and then in your 30s. It's like

Where are we going? Yeah, what time we coming back? I'm driving myself. Yes I'm take we're taking separate cars All right, that's it Leaf line was brought to you by Meskoca Resort, a top 10 ranked Canadian course, part of the Freed Golf Network. And a reminder to golf fans out there, Sportsnet and Muskoka Bay Resort have come together with an amazing contest. Text the word Muskoka to 59590 for your chance to golf at one of Canada's top 10 ranked courses

with a night in an incredible three bedroom villa for you and three friends. Just text the word Muskoka to 59590 for your chance to win and visit sportset.ca slash 590 contests for more details. Standard message and data rates may apply. 59590 Muskoka. Great job on the Leaf Line. A lot of people enjoying the moment. Yeah far three nothing that they're up. Yeah Although listen, I think emotionally We fans get to enjoy a first round success rate more than other teams because they've been far and few But I also think this has been different in that they haven't chased games So they it hasn't felt like the crushing weight of it all falling apart.

It's been a rather enjoyable series of your Leafs fan. You've either been up or tied and OT winners. A more comfortable feel. Yeah. Instead of being stressed out. What do we do now? Just just win Saturday. Please.

Plenty of stress. Please win. Please win. Still coming on the show because we've got Doug McClain, former NHL president, GM head coach. And now I don't know what he is. Beach goer, the national side.