Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Compete Levels Waning

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Toronto Maple Leafs' loss to the New York Islanders. They discuss the Leafs' compete level, Morgan Rielly's fight, and Craig Berube's role down the final stretch of the regular season. Later, they check in on Kyper's Tank Watch. Finally, they dip into McKee's Midweek Mailbag and address whether the Leafs should test the trade markets for both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll in the offseason, if Mats Sundin should be brought into the organisation in some capacity, and what Auston Matthews' next contract might look like. 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.

Me off. Excuse me. My question on. Oh. Nothing else? It's going to be one of those days. Take two. Here we go.

Real Kippenborn show. Leaf Hour edition. Live on Sportsnet 360, 590 the fan, Toronto. Streaming always on Sportsnet Plus. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, if you don't catch us live, which we're happy some do. Uh-huh. Thank you very much.

Thumbs up on YouTube. Nick Kiprios, Justin Boren, Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake Shultz, and Christian Dollars and Senti. Oh, my. We're workshopping it. Did I get his name right? You did. You just, at, oh, it was Cheneity.

I thought it was Cheneity. Cheneity. I've called him Christian Senti forever. The highlight of the start of every show. I don't know people's names. I know his first name's Christian. He's one of the first name. the co-producer of Leafstock does a fabulous job.

I had no idea. Every time I see this line up on my desk, I'm like, that's in and it itself like a small miracle. I'd say I'm pretty prompt with it. It's always there around three. A lot better now, yes. Yeah, then when? Let's just do it.

We got time. Let's air out our grievance. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying that you or I was at the buzzard type of guy, 357, 358. I do not think that's close to the truth. 3.30? Listen, I want to be left out of this mom and dad are fighting and I want nothing to do with it. I think 330's fair.

Okay. All right. But now it's like 3. 3? Yeah. We're dialed in. Yeah. Take your mind off of...

I forgot to change there. I was trying to... I was waiting for this cherry on the Sunday that the jersey's not right behind me. Is the leaf season so bad, Sammy, that you're almost on purpose leaving other jerseys on than the leaf? What is happening here with your jerseys? Oh, that's God. You guys start.

All right. Hi. Let's just focus on Sammy right now. Walk a shame. Okay. All right. Your New York Islanders, we know this organization for obvious reasons. Grew up with the Islanders, your father-in-law, your dad, a sense of, like what you see out of

then New York Islanders, excuse me. Yeah, you know, I thought it was good talking to Cal Clutterbuck yesterday. If you didn't listen to that interview, a lot of good answers where I said, I don't think this is their cup window today. And he was like, no, it's not. He was talking about Palmerie and some of the other guys and, you know, basically saying when it's their time to win a cup, these guys may not be there. So this year is kind of gravy.

Like that they're good this year, at least competitive is awesome. And you saw last night, like they're not. World beaters. They're a good team, though, and they got some great defensemen and the Leafs struggle. In a game that they struggle. They just couldn't lose, right?

Because it is tight. Yeah. In the metro. And Columbus is coming on, like, they win every night. Rick Bonas. Win every night. Rick Bonas will be joining us

at the top of the hour. Of course, Columbus right there with the likes of the islanders in Pittsburgh. And it will be a very tight race. here and looking forward to talking to Rick again in about an hour. But in the meantime, the Leaf's coming off of

a feel-good short stint on the road. And, I mean, overall, were we expecting more or less? Is it acceptable as a Leaf fan here? Is this what we can kind of expect to finish out and close the season? Yeah, I mean, you can see there's still this

after-effect thing from, you know, the Matthew's injury. Who was it that touch that Morgan Riley ended up fighting? McLean. McLean, you know, touch the goalie and Morgan gets in a fight. You know, there's five straight games of the fighting major for the Leafs. They're clearly still aware of where they're at with all that kind of stuff. But, you know, last night was very indicative of their season to date where they just kind of went down early and just kind of game was over.

Yeah, like you mentioned how big of a game that was for the Islanders in the, in the Metro. show division. I think that's the dream game for them to play in. Like, did the Leaf have one moment of pushing in the third period where they like looked like they were threatening to tie the game or really trying to work hard to get back into that game? I tweeted something. It felt like they gave them that win.

And like the first, maybe they're a tank. I don't know, but they just were not competing. After it was 2-0. It was like both teams were just trying to get to the same conclusion, which was the end of the game. I said the third period, you were there last night? Yes. But I tweeted last night that like, were I watching?

a scrimmage in practice, a coach would probably blow it down and be like, if we're not going to do it at game pace, let's just not do it. You know, that didn't feel game pace to me. You go ahead. What was the feel in there? You know what? I think acceptance and reality that whatever they're going to get from here on end will kind of feel like, even as a fan, forget about the players that you've got to just go through this process,

whether you like it or not and the fans probably feel like I got the tickets, they're bought, I'm going to go anyways, and I'm going to try to find whatever I can to enjoy myself. Even the guy with the Habs jersey? That was really poetic, wasn't it?

Yeah. Guy shows up to Leafs, Islanders, and takes a puck in the face in a Habs jersey. You were there, so maybe you can see you. I mean, no, it's less cheerful, and I think reality is set in for everybody in this city on missing the playoffs now for the first time. Is it nine or 10 years?

Well, they made it nine straight. It would be 10 years since they missed. So it is what it is. Now, you mentioned it. There was a lot of talk and I think continues to be talked about is, you know, Morgan Riley getting into a fight and whether or not these guys are feeling the pressure to do that

and what is it all mean? Do you want to go to Morgan Riley? Riley first on this? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. Morgan Riley, a clip on. Yeah, I mean, it's not something I do a lot of them. I'm not very good at it.

But I think it's, you know, important here down the stretch for a group. Do you feel pressure now because of what happened with all? No. Pressure is not the right word. But we've talked about it. And, you know, it's at the front of our minds and just in terms of playing hard. You know, there's no pressure on anyone to go out and, you know, do something that they're not comfortable doing.

It's just, you know, more a matter of playing hard and, you know, keeping that going for the last month. All the Morgan Riley talk, you know, I'll just say he's always got it. Like he always gets the temperature of the team when they've gone to interviews postgame. He's always had a sense for where they're actually at in public perception. And I think last night he's right that that was the thing to do and saying the right things. He's always got it.

And Sammy, I think there's. There's a lot of people out there, and I don't know where you stand or the vibe that you're getting, is that it just, you're so over on the other side now, does it really matter? Does it, is there true pressure now? Do you think it really exists on some of these guys? I think at this point now, it's the ultimate, damned if you do, damned if you don't situation where if I get, I mean, it wasn't even, it was barely a bump by the majority. Clayne guy when he brushes by I mean there's trying to score there's nothing like that happens a hundred

times in the game so maybe people have been like oh the lease don't do anything again but then he jumps in there and people are like yeah it's performative this is too late like regardless of what he does it's going to be perceived as maybe the wrong thing to do here it's just the way where they're at with the lease

but like that's the right thing to do can I tell you boys I've found this a little sad but I just why I'm right there with you. And I'm above it watching it, and I can watch it develop. And I could see him thinking about it, right? And he wants to do the right thing.

I get all of that. But I'm just watching the drunk guy on the karaoke machine right now, you know, where it's like, you know, you know, you don't want to really go up there right now. You're in an emotional state of mind. And, you know, you kind of lost control a little bit. Your head swinging. Your arms are going everywhere.

And you don't even know the lyrics. You're knocking a nail. Don't stop believing. And you're not good at it. Okay? You're not good at it. Don't do it. And that's, you can't talk them out of it.

That's the other. And that's what he said. He says his comments, I'm not even that good at it. And it's like, what are we doing here? Are we now putting a guy in the position where he knows he's not good at it? We know he's not good at it. And yet he's going to go and do it. I don't want to see that for 14 more games.

He's trying to be a leader. And he's saying that we don't have this. Everyone's all over us. We've dropped the ball. We need to take this step. and he's trying to be that guy. And so I know, I actually respect it even more. But he's not that guy.

I know. And that's why I respect that he's trying to do this. He's trying to be what they're asking these guys to be. But it won't work on any level. But when your coach is asking you to be something and do something, I respect guys who go, okay, if this is what we're doing, we're doing it. So if we believe that they've been guilted for Austin being downed out, they should be guilted for that again.

Perfect. I'm looking at Lawrence. I'm looking at I can pick five other guys going. Okay. Like not Morgan. Not Morgan. Morgan's 13, 14 year pro here. He's supposed to be our best defenseman.

In my eyes, he still is, you know, as a player. I got to, that's not the guy. If he's doing that, what am I doing? Well, yeah. That's kind of the point, isn't it? It's if he's doing it, why aren't you? Philip Myers at 6.5. Carlo at 6.5.

McCabe is a tough guy. Lawrence, Joshua. Go through the lineup. If Morgan Riley's doing it, that's the, where he's trying to put it. So I'm sure there's people that are listening that will be, will say, well, he had the chance to do this with the Goudis thing and then he didn't do it or like, you know, we're talking on both sides of our mouth here. But I don't know. I just feel like. But this one's.

pre kind of it's kind of like a staged fight you're just looking you're just looking for something and let's be honest if there was no incident with Goudis and Matthews that's not something that Morgan does but a lot of these guys Kip play that

way looking for an excuse to do the thing they do a lot of fourth liners like I'm looking for a chance Arbor Jack guy's not going out there mad at everyone he's looking for a chance to make himself relevant I know you do that because you need to remind everybody that I can do that if if things get out of control and it's I've lived it I've

changed my behavior because someone I knew was capable of doing something and every once in a while it was reminded to me so it there is a domino effect to all that but it's certainly not with Morgan Riley but to your point that you made about how we've all, I think this show and a lot of media and a lot of fans in general have given Morgan a pass for what has happened on the ice. I mean, listen, don't give me wrong. He's a whipping boy too. But people will always say that he gets it.

He gets it. Like, he's one of the guys that gets it. To your point about getting it, he is clearly the most embarrassed about what happened. If he sleptwalk through the last 15 games, he really like this guy. There's no way to, there's no way you can tell me that if you're power ranking the guys that were on the ice when that happened about who is buying. far the most embarrassed about what happened on that Thursday night. Morgan Riley is so high at the top of the list, it's not even close.

He gets it. He understands. And so it leads to him and maybe his, what, the last two months, two weeks of him being a leaf going out there and fighting a guy because he slightly bumped the goalie in a lost season. It's just the whole thing feels so bad. It just feels bad. And if Morgan had played better or was. let's just face it, more important to the team, we wouldn't be even having this conversation.

Even if Morgan would have just acted the exact same way that he did the same night, less people would be all over him if he was still an all-star or had 70 points in the bank. Yeah, because they'd say the risk is getting hurt and scudus. For sure. It's not his role. He's more important. That's not that guy. needs to get in there.

There needs to be other guys to step up, even if it's not on that shift, the next one. And we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Yeah, maybe that's true. I think that's probably. And I think that's got a lot to do on Morgan right now. It's just not that he didn't get in there as one of the four guys.

It's what's piled up over the last year and a half, two years on him. Yeah. We have lots of comments from teammates and coach. Well, play the Joe Wall clip because I think this is actually pretty telling. about where they're at. Joe Walcliffe, please. Yeah, yeah, that's huge. You know, it's, I think the last few games,

just watching the amount of urgency to protect people out there. It's been awesome by our team. And, you know, Mo's not, obviously not a guy that's always looking to fight. And for him to jump in and do that means a lot. So, yeah, pretty awesome at him. Wouldn't expect anything less for him to say. Yeah.

I mean, that's a sign of a respectful teammate and a guy that will go down with a ship with saying the right things. Yeah, imagine he came out and was like, what was the point of that? Is that performative or what, guys? You know, he's got to say that. Yeah, good on, Joe.

I mean, that's, everybody knows it, but don't fuel the fire, you know, just be a good team guy and told the line. I want you to listen to this clip from the coach. Clip two, please, Christian. Yeah, I mean, it's great job by him getting in there I'm sticking up for Joseph and, you know,

obviously that message has gotten across. So he's saying that, basically being like, this is what I've been saying all you. I'm sure it is what he's been saying earlier. He's still the coach until he's told he's not the coach, and you still have to teach,

and you still have to respond the way you're supposed to respond. And again, Craig's no different. different than Joe. That's how you're supposed to respond when you're a teacher, a coach. I extended a little sympathy to Barubi in my column up on Sportsnet.com. I wrote about competitiveness. And I wrote about the core for those years previous to this one and this one with the three of them. And how all those guys were elite superstars. And they just moved up through the ranks. And it just kind of, I don't say it came easy to them, but they were never dragged through adversity.

and forged in fire. They're just awesome skilled guys. And so they maybe weren't the most versed in failure. And so when it happened here, they didn't have that competitiveness to push through. And then I also added that on with the size of the Leafs, biggest team in the NHL, but they don't have these guys that have that dogged,

FU, whatever. And just the whole team's lack of general competitiveness is sort of my theme of my article and how that's got to be the next direction. I guess that's part of why, like, If you're Brooby, you're like, I haven't, I've been saying do this guys. Like it hasn't worked. I have some sympathy because you have to have some guys who want to do it.

And you can't every day, you know, give them the fire hot brand. They're just not, you need some guys who do it on their own. And he hasn't had that with this group. Yeah, listen. I mean, if we're just talking about pure skill, like we know they're amongst the best year will ever find, right? But I even go back to, you know, some of the comments that bothered me at the time that I didn't like from Craig Barubi when he talked about Willie Neelander or, you know,

describing their situation or the relationship. And it was all around, I leave him alone. Willie's just Willie. And I told you guys on the moment I heard that, I don't like it. I don't. I think there's a sense of maybe too much freedom there and maybe that turns into too much entitlement, but as great as he is,

you got to still stay on top of that guy. And I don't know, it's just to your point, whatever the buildup was for, you know, three of them now, or four of them, let's include Mitch Marner up until this year. you know, it just didn't work. It just didn't work to talk about what you talked about and that's helping them get to another level. And so for Barubi, it's like,

I want to hold him accountable. And we have been on the show plenty of times that it's your job to motivate your group and it's your job to get those guys to this level. We've seen it for four games now. Morgan Riley's fighting and they're sticking up for each other and all that. It's his job to get him there. But they just have never had a bunch of guys

want to do that. They don't like confrontation. I think probably the best version of the Leafs over this era was the 2022 version, right? Ryan O'Reilly. Ryan O'Reilly, competitive,

bottom to mid-sixth guy that they used them in different spots. Achari. They brought in Luke Shen. Lewishkin. Edmondson. No, that was in the year and the next year. But they mixed out

like the Sandeen, they mixed out Pierre Engval. They made this sort of concerted effort to bring and these guys that were the more competitive around that core. And that, to me, to this day, is the one where they got completely goalie. I remember Valley put out that tweet about that series, about how Bobrowski absolutely stole that series from them. They were relying on Elias Samsonoff, whatever, it went south.

But it shows you that you have some competitiveness. Was it Lafferty that was on the bottom half that? Just like quicker, more competitive guys. I don't know. It's just there's something to it. What you're saying is you're, you're, You're bang on. They brought in big guys.

They're just slower and not feisty. It just never feel like the right mix. I wrote the names. Talked about the size of Lorenz and Carlo and Myers, but also they've had Freddie Gochay and Martin Mrington and Justin Hall and Nick Ritchie. All these guys who they just, they're big, but they just didn't want to do it. Didn't have the old Brad May line. Fight your mom to win a Stanley Cup?

Yeah, and the comparisons for me were like Brandon Hagel or Connor Garland. or even Brad Marchand, these guys that are not huge, but they just will Brad May it. So can I ask you a question? Because we're going to have Rick Bonas coming on at 5 o'clock. And I think they, since he took over on January 12th, they have gone 16, 2 and 4. 32 of a possible 44 points for the Columbus Blue Jacket since he's taken over.

I mean, even their fancy stuff, like, you know, that J. Fresh puts out all these graphs. I don't understand, but they're all on the good side of it. like they've just flipped over their team. Like, maybe they're an unfair question, but I'm going to ask it anyway because that's what we do here. You know when they fired Savvy at the right before Christmas? Yeah, they got a Joel.

They got a Joel. If they had had done that and brought in somebody else, like, you know, let's say, just for argument's sake, Peter DeBoer, Peter DeBoer, new head coach. You're talking about if they fired Craig Brewy? Yeah, at that point. Yeah. Do you think there's any world where we're talking about them in a playoff race here?

Do you think they waited? Like, is there a world where that happens? I don't think it's an unfair question. Okay. Certainly not. So. Because I just see this bonus thing. I'm blown away, but I don't think Columbus is that great.

I know they have Werensky. I know they have guys, but it's just, it's not that great of a roster. This is what I can tell you from just my total experience of living through coaches being fired and new ones coming in, you know, on a couple occasions, is that something like that, You know, you can sit there and go, does it really change the X's and O's? Does it change what this or that or technical, all of it?

There is an undeniable that it changes energy. And I'm a big energy person. Okay? And that's real. And that is a direct correlation to Kevin Adams in Buffalo. Rick, of course, in Columbus, and we'll talk to him about this at the top of the hour. You want to talk about even the last few years off the top of my head.

Maybe you got some examples like Jay Woodcroft out in Edmonton. How about-Block comes in? The energy changes because 20 guys on the roster's energy changes as well. And it changes the way they think, the way they feel, or how they attack a practice. or a game the next time they put their skates on. And that is real. And it could have happened in Toronto, Sammy.

Very much so. But we'll never know. We'll never know. How about the, if I'm not mistaken, Lou Lamarillo once took over a team midway through the year and won a cup. Dan Balsma once took over a flailing team and won a cup. Naryl Sutter once took over a team midyear and won the cup. And I'm not saying that the Leafs won a cup.

I'm saying that these had lasting tangible benefits on those teams. part of it for me too, Kip, is that it's a fresh set of tryouts all over again. Everyone is once again vying for ice time and linemates and special teams opportunities and they're trying to impress the coach and all of a sudden things get reshuffled and guys get that new energy you're talking about. I did catch a couple of maybe tweets you put out. Did somebody put out like, why is Willie getting 22 and a half minutes? I know Sam was on it last there.

Listen, I went on, you know, go on Lee's talk. I get, I was a little hot on there last night. But like, I just, I watched that game last night. We all watched it. And I just, I don't know what world William Neelander in the way he played last night deserves to play 22 and a half minutes. So again, when, when, I just, I was pissed off of it. So when Willie comes to the rink, there's an expectation.

I think there's a comfort zone that he's going to get his 22 minutes. And if, if you, if you change the coach tomorrow, now there's a bit of a question mark. and it changes how he thinks now moving forward. And whether or not he still feels entitled to his 22 minutes, will it be 18 minutes, would it be 15 minutes, or heaven forbid, could it even be a healthy scratch? Like that changes completely the energy of your hockey club. And that's why at the end of the day,

owners or presidents or general managers go to that move because they're looking for it. Well, that's the easiest way to me. There's been too many examples recently where I think a few owners right now in this league would go, yeah, I should have done something. Yeah.

Yeah, we missed it. Well, I mean, Oilers just rehired Paul Coffey after like, you know, whatever happened with him and then he comes back, right? And they're tighter. They're tighter. They're tighter. They are.

So that's, if we're looking ahead to next season, and we're talking about rebuild, re-tool, blah, blah, blah, whatever re you want to say. Lots of people talking about this. I look at just this Columbus situation. And, I mean, if you make the right moves in the off season, you bring some people in, the leaves could have a very comparable roster

to what the Columbus Blue Jack is. They won't have Orenski, which is a huge thing. But they do have all. Boston Matthews, they will have William, you bring in Pete DeBoer or whatever new coach. I'm not even going to say it's Pete. You have a hard time convincing me that it can't be better. Yeah. That it can't at least be competitive and at least be sort of like in a playoff spot.

It will give them a reset. That's what it does, Sammy. And then where you take your energy from there on in is is up to you. You know, players. I think one of the most disheartening things that we're sitting here having this conversation about is that we watched Sheldon Keefe for years in close games, no matter how the stars played, they were out there at the end of the game. And you and I, you know, we played high enough level hockey. Obviously, you've much farther than me.

But like at the end of the game, a lot of my coaches just grab, hey, guy in the fourth line at a great night, we're putting it in front of the net. He's just feeling it tonight. We never ever saw that. So Bruby came in. We're like, the accountability guy arrived and it didn't change at all. I think in the first month I got a tweet. someone called them what was it like

Sheldon, Sheldon Chief? Sheldon Chief. Which I really like. It was like the same usage for those guys matter what. But I think to go back to the problems that have stemmed in this organization forever,

going back to the contract negotiations, going back to all this different stuff, there's been a lot of conversations and a lot of feel that the inmates run the asylum when it comes to who has more power and who gets to, dictate what it's just last night i mean could really have been worse in that game i just he's missing he's can't clear the puck he's letting puck like it's just and he plays 22 minutes in the game like

broube you might have 14 games but like can you probably feel pretty good to be like stand you probably feel pretty good to say hey willie maybe just take the rest of the night off like i just i can't believe it's tough man he's had no one to use the bottom nine forwards mcelli domi cowan you're gonna lose Roberts and Joshua quill and yarn crow Listen No, I know, I know I'm with you all the way But out someone who's going to try Yeah

I don't know Nope, no you do know In Toronto media Bash and Willie But it's just Looked awesome last night You should have got to me Yeah

Oh You know Schaefer clip What do you want? Bo? No, let's not do Boa again That's not We're bowed out

Maybe we'll go Maybe we'll go to the break into the mailbag Shafar chant last night at the game. I was happy for Cal Richie. Yeah. Because... He's mom, like, in tears, watching get points.

That was awesome. I felt bad yesterday because all we were talking about was Schaefer or whatever. But, like, he's a Toronto area kid, like a top prospect. Played for the generals. Comes back here, scores. Two points in the first. Oh, he's going to be a good player. He is.

He's got to get a number, though. Is that? He's got to get it. What's you wearing? Number 64 is not a power play one number. That's... You've got to change that number, brother. I don't disagree.

No, that's... It's too even. It needs to be at least an odd number. Odd is a much more skilled. Before we go, did you watch any of the baseball game last night? I did not. I was at the Leaf Game. You know when I started following it is when I heard that old Genie Oswears was involved.

And I had to see his silky locks rip went into the gap. I got to think anybody but a USA win you feel good about. Yeah. They can't take everything. I do like, I'm more on the side of the, the ledger when it comes to WBC as an exhibition as opposed to like taking it like it obviously meant 10 times more to Venezuela

than it did to the States for them to win that year. Yeah. Like the states guys are just a bunch of superstar guys that whatever. I don't think they really cared as much as Venezuela and guys. But did you see judge wearing Matthews jersey? I did. I didn't, but you guys told me about it.

USA, like what a world that. I think everybody wears hockey jerseys now. Like I've lost track of everybody. wearing it. Well, Vladdy, or before they won game seven of the ALCF. Yeah. Remember we argued with that that day? You were very uncomfortable.

I was apoplectic. Now it's not special anymore because everybody does it. Like, I can't keep track of who's wearing who's jersey and what number. And now it's beyond the point where you could say, oh, that's bad luck. Before it was like, it was so rare that it was like you took notice of who's winning and losing with it. Right. And now you're like, ah, I don't know.

We're in the Toronto hour, so we'll talk. I will say watching that did Lee's talk watched the last two innings of the game and you know Venezuela gets this huge knock top of the nine like you said Suarez rips went into the gap they score the winning run

and then they go to the bottom of the night they get the outs and like they're celebrating and it just made me sad I just said that should have been us man but the Js it put me right back into the torture zone like I don't know how I'm gonna wait no this Jays won it ruined

people my son When you go back into the torture zone, you keep taking us with you. Can you just visit on your own time? I don't, there isn't a night I go to bed where it isn't like the second or third last thing I think about before bed. It still keeps me up at night, like at least a minute. I think about it. I'm watching these guys celebrate.

I'm like, that should have been nice. Addison Barger hit one to the moon in preseason today, which you sent us. And all I thought about was the ball lodging in the wall. Oh, my God. I'm ruined. All right. I'll never emotionally recover. We got some great mailbag questions today, boys.

Good to hear, Sammy. And we'll hit those after the break. At the top of the hour, Rick Bonas, head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Jason York will also join us as well. We'll catch up with him on all the latest. Back when we return, Real Kipperman Born. Everything you need to know about the Blue Jays,

Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the program, Nick Kiprios, Justin Barn, Sammy McKee. This is what we've come down to now. The last 14 games of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, my God. Getting that, boys.

Our very own Luke Fox. Yep. Oh, no. According to sources, his sources is saying that the, uh, the, uh, Ekman Larson's are still deciding on a name for their new arrival. I know you're making fun of this, but I got to tell you, that's the craziest thing in the world.

And I know lots of people do this. Luke. Luke Eckman Larson's got a great ring to it. Lucas is Swedish. Hopefully Luke can update us that, you know, later on. You know what? I had heard the Larson's got through D's and are now on ease. Is it not crazy to not know?

It's not a surprise you're having a baby. How do you not know? I never understood that. I'll give Luke a call tonight and we'll get him on the show tomorrow with the latest. How's that sound? Do you like that idea? See what we can get. Phone calls to players and baby names.

It's going to be a long 14 games. I'm reading about Gary Bettman talking about how the playoff format's perfect. He said that? Yeah. You know what? The first time I've ever heard him take this tack, this angle at it. which is interesting. We get more games and longer series as a result of the format.

So his point is... That's a good angle. More money. Well, there's less disparity between the teams, so it's a closer series. That's... You admit you're not rewarding the teams who have good regular seasons, which to me is... Yeah, he's...

We're trying to have an athletic competition here. Oh, before we get to the mailbag, I thought we should probably check in on Kipper's tank-women. Take watch. Big one. Jets last night, did it work out well for you? You said that you needed a three-point game. You got one.

Got it in a three-point game. The ideal scenario was the Jets beating the Preds. Yes. The other way around. And it was 68 points. But now the Preds are up to 69 points, one behind the Leafs. So tonight, Devils and Rangers play. So we need a Devils, Rangers.

We need to go to overtime. and Rangers winning would be ideal. And then the blues and the flames are going to going to overtime too. God, a couple. Putron match. Oh, my God. The toilet bowl out of the saddle dome.

Oh, my goodness. They, we need the blues to win in overtime. Okay. So if both happened, at least we're getting close to the bottom four here. I saw Myrtle. Who's going to, what team's going to screw them over, J.B.

When it's all said and done, and they finish sixth. Oh, some team's going to just have the bottom fall out. Florida. Florida Panthers. Florida snuck behind them. They're figuring it out real quick, Florida. Because they're smart.

Because they get it. God, I'm having a tough second half of this hour. That drives me enough. They lost to Vancouver last night, boys. Yes. Pedersen first goal in 21 games. They're so good at this. Florida knows what they're doing.

They're going to get like a second overall pick this year and get fairhouse. That's what's actually going to happen is they're going to bump up and take the leaf spot and the lease are going to give six to the Bruins. That's just going to happen. I was going to say. I don't even remember anymore. Mailbag.

You just. I lost all your thoughts when you went. The leaves need to go 3-9-1. 3-9-1. That's a Myrtle 3-9-1 should get them into the bottom five. Even if they're close, they got a decent chance in the lottery. 3-9-1 is doable.

I think they play the blues still. They play the rangers still. God, that killed. Yeah, the Matthew shame, getting them five out of six points is going to look back and be the difference. For sure. Give the Bruins. Three, nine and one. They play some tough teams.

I mean, that's doable. Like, does he factor in that everybody else isn't crappy? Is that how it works? He's trying to get him to, like, what he thinks the cutoff would be for the bottom five, which I think is about 77 points. Six would be good. Could be a parade in here if they managed to do it. I love to see them get a top pick.

I mean, it's going to make the draft lottery highly viewed. Yeah. If the Leaves have a chance. The Leaves are their 15% odds. Yeah. This one was from Adam Stanley from Sportsnet Golf Coverage. Come on. How fast are you going to rip the Rosedale come springtime?

Not on a day like today. I can tell you that or yesterday. Like, seriously. It's a joke in the city right now. Horrible. It's a joke. For the first time all winter, I actively fell to. today on ice.

You fell? It fell. Like an old man. Down to the bar? Right down and under the ground. Wow. Driveway? Yeah.

Yeah, driveway. Are you all right? Yeah, fine. It was just so mad that there's ice in March. I wasn't at hurt. I was just messed. Are you a salt guy? Like, do you have a bag of salt?

I do. I was lectured to worry about these things. Because he just turns on his heated driveway. Carler David from you. Thank you very much. Stop it. He told me. during that massive snowstorm we had

that his neighbor's driveways like it's his bone dry but you stop it it's not like I'm pulling out a lawn chair Kemp has the people who carry him like a pharaoh across to his car change the topic please okay yeah okay how about this one

from Island Time on Twitter if the least are going to take three years to get back to the highest level okay maybe if they're rebuilding that seems like a fair number should we trade both Stolars and Wall this offseason to rebuild the D at a second line center. Well, if you don't like Stolars' chance of staying healthy at age 30,

like you're going to love it at 33? No. Presumably you're not. Do you think he has any value? Like, do you think you get a real defense in that plays minutes for your hockey team with trading Stollars? Buddy, they... No, the answer is no.

There's value in the jacuzzi. if you ever watch Slapshot. Okay? Come on. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm not calling them a jacuzzi,

but you can find somebody. That's going to give you something real for Stolars. Yes. Can I tell you how I really feel? Yes. I'm reading a tweet that says, I asked the produce guy if I could try a grape and he said he wouldn't care if I lit the store on fire with him in it.

I don't care. I feel like trade them. I don't care. Trade both goalies. They're nowhere near good enough. That's where I'm at. Yeah, it's, you've given it a couple of chances here. They have not had reputations for playing over 40 games.

Like, why are you going to think in three years he's still the guy? Right. It's going to be held to be act him off or the next guy. Unless you think next year's in. This one's from 13, Leif's 34 on Twitter. Do you think, oh, sorry, thoughts on Matt Sundeen joining in whatever capacity to fix this? I've seen a lot of former famous players get involved and have success.

Joe Sackick, still with the abs. They're doing pretty good, smart guy. Yeah, get him involved. Listen, I'm biased. He's a friend of mine. I mean, I would say I'm biased. My favorite athlete of all time. He does have a great mind.

Smart, boss. Yes. But I'll just add this. There are some guys that get jobs and they don't technically still live here. Yeah, they could stay here. They come and go and all of that. But like, just whoever it is, just give me a guy that lives and breathes it 24-7 and preferably lives here. Do you remember the thing about Tortorella had the Canucks job,

but he still wanted to live in the U.S. for whatever reason? So we actually drove across the border every day, sometimes napped at the rink. He didn't actually live there. That's insane. That's insane. That's insane. But to me, I get what you mean.

You want someone who's like, yeah, I bought a home. I'm here. This is my life. We're trying to win. Not like, I've made it. And when the team sucks, go out there and talk to fans and paying customers and tell them it's going to get better. Also, like for Matt, you're hanging that, putting that reputation right back on the line,

right? It's always a trick. It's always a tricky spot with like the team legends. I mean, look at what Steve Eisenman with Detroit, right? It's like it's not going perfectly there. So let me. It's an awkward conversation. Okay, I'm going to kind of derail this a little bit.

But this is a New York Islander angle here. Okay. So there are instances, I'm not going to name any names where X players and some of them, Hall of Famers and really good players, you know, some not, want to be a part of something and volunteer, you know, either getting in their foot in the door or holding a higher job description. But there are some out there that in the executive role that isn't comfortable at. Now, I have always heard out of the New York Islanders,

especially with your dad's era, that there were many that wanted to go back there and have big roles. Bill Tori, great Bill Tori, the mastermind of the architect. Didn't really embrace that. Yeah. Didn't want necessarily,

like you think that maybe they didn't want to risk those legacies? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it would have, there would have been too much of a spotlight on those guys and maybe it would have taken a little bit of Bill's spotlight out. I don't know. You know what I do? But do you have a, have you heard of that?

Is there a theory behind it in your mind? I had, I know for sure that when Mike Milbury was in control of things there, that he wanted to distance the team from that past. They wanted, we don't want to talk about the 80s. We want a new direction. And so he didn't want to hire. What's wrong with talking about the 80s? All they did was win.

I know. They had a culture. I'm sure they had. And maybe some of your guys were losers. I sat there the night my dad got inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame and Mike Milbury had the microphone. He was like, you know, I've been here. I've been to the Islanders now for, I think he said, 10 years.

So I guess I'm more of an Islander than Bob was or something like that. And I know people are just looking around like. Yikes. Like mad, mad. And I was pretty mad too. Yikes. There was a lot of years. And then so when that changed and the alumni were welcome back and it's all been

much better. but yeah, there is definitely an area where they didn't want that. And I don't know how other organizations handle that. But to me, always welcome back the alumni. Shanahan did well, it sounds like, for Maple leaves the law. Yeah, he did. And we were thankful for that. Again, last night, you know, I get to participate in that.

And I'm certainly grateful as an ex-player to be a part of that. But I can also tell you that some of those guys have a ton to offer. That's even more. Yeah. And I don't know if it's, you know, in a paid position or it's even, you know, can you come and have lunch with some of these guys? Yeah. But there's value in X players.

Totally. You know, a guy that over my broadcasting career, because I went to a lot of the open practices when I was, you know, on a Saturday night getting ready for hockey night in Canada. And I would sit with Big Daddy, Bob McGill. I was touching them the other day. What a man. And to your point about, you know, the players, are they competitive enough?

Are they combat enough enough? Are they, you know, where's the sandpaper? I'm like, Bob, like, you do leave TV. Please tell me that, you know, you go down there and, you know, talk to some of the D and, you know, just kind of take somebody under your wings, something, you know. It's just, you know, you don't, I'm not telling you to play like I did or do the some of the tough decisions I had to make on the ice. But please tell me you can go down there and help them find that competitiveness.

And it's like they've never asked me. Yeah. Sorry, were you looking at me? You know, I have always, you know, one of the things that, like, Lou did with the Leafs is he had Jacques Caron and Jacques Lamere and a bunch of those guys come by once a month as kind of like an advisor, guys who just, just a way into the coaching staff and what they thought and direction, I think you need players and staff who are willing to accept new ideas. And I'll be like, no, no, no, I got it. It's my thing.

It's my thing. And protective of their space. Because I do think there's tons of value to be had to just listening to people who've been through it and believing that you don't know everything yet. No. No questions. No question. Egos have gotten away of a lot of success.

Totally. This is an interesting one that I don't know if we've ever really talked about it, but discuss Matthew's next contract. Is it going to be eight years? That means he will be here for 10 years after this contract ends. He's going to want big money. Is it worth since he's declining? And the contract will be bad in one or two years of the deal. That's just cart way ahead of the horse here.

But I think, I don't even know if he's asking about it here. I think just maybe what it's going to look like in general if he takes it. Can you tell me what he looks like for two more years? Literally, you can't do this. Can you tell me what he looks like? Am I getting a 30-gold score who plays 60 games because there's too much wear and tear on him right now? Is he going to be a 53-point-and-60-games guy? Or is he still Austin 69-goals season guy?

Captain of Team USA Hall of Famer. There's just no way anybody can answer that, Sammy, until we see him at least for one season. It's the biggest. I think somebody would give me eight years He's the No Just the dollar will depend Yeah someone will give me eight years

For sure Not if he's limping Not if he continues to Yeah This will be Potentially three or four years Where he can't get 60 games in What

What idiot is going to give him eight years? One of the ones that works in the league Probably I there's just Yeah For this guy, God, what was I'm going to say now? Sorry. It's okay.

It's all right. This is from, is it Matthews? Yeah, I'll get there. Okay. This is from Colton Archer's. This will make you feel better. Is McMahon the next Hyman? Different tool set, no doubt, but dot, dot, dot, dot.

No. Not a chance. Jack Hyman has scored 35 goals on average since he's been a good. I think if you look at Hyman's last two or three years, whether it was, you know, before after Babcock, he had a competitiveness there that that you just he didn't nobody no coach wavered off of

that compete McMahon's no one's ever questioning his talent or his shot but you can question does he bring it every night Zach Heiman if he scored no goals for you you'd put him on your second line all day okay you just forward check and do all that kind of stuff I do remember it I was going to say yeah the biggest

knock against Craig Barubi and the reason he's probably not going to coach team next year is because Matthews has had two bad years that coincided perfectly with his tenure and they need Matthews back. They need to find out if it's him. There's no way you can roll him out for a third time and just be like, you need Matthews back.

I don't put as much stock as you do as Craig Barubi held him back. I don't think he did either necessarily, but I think you have to find out. Willie Nealander score 45 goals last year and I saw Mitch Marner score over 100 points last year. It's not Craig's doing. You have to find out.

The people that would argue, I mean, the deployment people would argue. He's played the toughest minutes of any of the superstars in the league. No one plays. That would be the only argument for me that would change. And by the way, he's taking all these defensive assignments while you've had Lawton and Nick Waugh as centers. And you're still rolling up Matthews for every D-Zone draw. Yep. We don't probably don't have time for that one.

Did I answer the question? You told me you were really excited about one question to me. Yeah, I asked you in the first block. We talked about it for 20 minutes. Oh, okay. Okay. It was about Brouba. And if they had it, if they had it got rid of Brubi, if they'd be better.

Okay. I didn't know that was the question. Well, you do now, brother. All right. You're watching your preseason J's, Barger's home run? Oh, man. He's looking jacked. He's looking.

Hitting him far. Hitting him far. Hit him hard. All right. Great job, Sammy. Thanks, bud. I don't know what you did, but I just felt compelled to say that. We got Rick Baudis coming up next.

You do. And the York report, Jason York as well. Don't go away. More real Kippermborn after the break.