Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Evaluations at the All-Star Break

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the Leafs' closing their pre-All-Star break stretch strong with another win over the Jets. They give their take on the game, Ryan Reaves scoring in his return to the ice, the controversial no-goal call, and whether Samsonov is fully back. Later, the guys give out their All-Star-break evaluations to different parts of the team thus far this season (34:09).The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

let's welcome everybody in the real kipper and born show nhl all-star week officially begun we're squeaking in a few national hockey league games not many until everybody shuts it down for the toronto maple leafs hosting nhl all-star weekend nick kiprios justin born mr mom this weekend i was man first off let me just say I love that little sweater, long-sleeve polo thing you got going on. Really? Really nice, yeah. This old thing?

I complimented him on him, too. I thought it looked good. I like that. And I was under the impression that it's too old. It can't make a comeback. Buddy, you may have had it long enough that it circled around

and it's cool again. I really like it. All right, we got clumsy Sammy McKee back. Not clumsy. I'm all good today. You're good today? Yeah, yeah. I am coming off the weekend, you know, the really nice win for the Leafs,

but I can't help but think about our poor friends in Detroit and that loss they had to the San Francisco 49ers. Okay. We're going to jump into a ton of hockey here, but we got all week, so we can jump into a ton of hockey here, but we got all weak, so we... Let's pace ourselves here by just discussing a little bit

the magic of the Detroit Lions and the feel of destiny's on their side to go back to a Super Bowl, which they've been once. Have they? I don't think so they've never they've won they won the championship it was pre-super bowl 50s yeah 50s it was before the super bowl existed

all right so halftime everything's looking great yeah campbell who they hyped up beyond belief right he was a major story coming into this game yes just a wall and then he ends up being a major story coming out of this game for all the wrong reasons yeah listen i'm not going to get too deep into the narratives here but you know you stick with your gut you are who you are you got to that point by being aggressive but all that goes out the window when you kick the field goal at the end of the first half. Because usually they would go for that. So they try to change their thought process there. But then they don't do it in the second half.

And it seems like it's all over the place. Some bad calls, some bad drops, some bad fumbles. And they just blew it. And they were right there. Did anyone think Detroit and Buffalo were going to find a way through in the end? I mean, listen, it'll happen eventually. I don't know. It just feels like the NFL, the way it's going.

Kansas City and the 49ers, boy. On the other side of it, I just want to put out a, just don't bet against Patrick Mahomes. Right. That's smart. And I feel bad for Lamar. Did you bet on Mahomes this weekend? Yeah.

We can talk about that in Game Notes. Or what's it called? What's it called? Game Time. No, I said game time. I don't know. We'll find out about your game time. Is that Colby's podcast?

Anyways, I feel bad for Lamar because he's taken a beating today. The narrative train is out of control, but many a good man have gone down to old Patrick. Yes, and many men will. The only people who have beat him, it's Tom Brady twice, and Joe Burrow beat him once, and the rest of his games he's ever played.ar's the mvp this year right yeah so he's best player during the regular season yeah oh just can't make a hockey comparison here no no if you will it's just but doesn't know

how to get his team to win when he needs it the most. And Patrick does. Again, I was Mr. Mom. I watched 19 seconds of it. I didn't see the highlights, but yeah. Me and Kipper were beat up watching every second. This guy's at gymnastics. You know, I was at my wife. Yeah, I was at Epic Planet Fun when you guys were texting about it.

My wife was on Long Island watching. They had a bit of a Clark Gillies Foundation night. Oh, nice. Watched the Islanders play. Thanks for their hospitality my mom was actually there um your invite get lost not saying just saying but someone has to look after things on the home front well we're glad you made it in on monday all in one piece i'm alive they didn't they didn't ruin you no hand foot and mouth or pink eye it's a miracle well. Well, we're glad you're here. We're glad everybody's aboard on Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, and Sportsnet Plus from 4 to 6

and wherever you get your podcasts. When we had been at the midweek point before Wednesday's game, we gave a lot of, I guess, a lot into the next two games in terms of maybe a bit of a fork in the road for the leafs they managed to get four out of four points i think i may have even made fun of the idea that they might do that and here we are and mission accomplished just in terms of maximizing their return and for that know, we applaud them for sure because no easy task. One of the top teams all season long,

we want to play Jets. And kind of calms things at least going into All-Star Week. You know, we also mentioned if it got ugly towards the finish prior to it, maybe a lot of questions go into All-Star Week. But give them credit, man. They calmed the waters down. Yeah, and really flipped every negative sort of storyline upside down.

It was Ilya Samsonov is, you know, this guy going to the AHL or the ECHL. You know, it's Ryan Reeves. Where are they sending this guy going to the ahl or the echl you know it's ryan reeves where are they sending this guy to suddenly helpful tyler bertuzzi i thought played a really good game a lot of the question marks we had now not all of them but a lot of the question marks we had you know they they played well at a time they're going into a break here yeah like we joked about it on by the way i was just i wasn't even through that sentence and i get to see kip going we joked about it on lease talk that this was supposed to be like narrative week well and every narrative just got slapped in the face it's like the power play all of a sudden comes through ryan reeves comes off the bench and scores a goal it's like all the stuff that was bad

all is good now it's all good for a whole week of shows we have positive i'm the uh godfather meme just when i thought it was out they pull me back in that's me so i'll throw this to both of you did they answer some questions or did they delay some questions yeah that's the one wow you're good at this well it certainly things like ryan like Ryan Reeves is a great example of someone who in the perfect world of Ryan Reeves, that's what he does. He plays seven minutes. He's in front of the net, causes a turnover.

He's in someone's face. You love it. Now, do I think Ryan Reeves can do that 40 straight times now or whatever the rest of the season is? No. No, but will he get an opportunity to do it for the next 40 games he might get an opportunity to do it three more times two or three more times like it was was ryan reeves enough for you to say yes you got your job back on the fourth line no not but that's

it if anything kind of created a problem because i see your point where it's like i don't think that this is going to be like it's fixed and now he's just back but you also can't have a guy come in and do exactly what you gave him a three-year contract to do and then send him to the minors yeah so you got to give him another run now and yarn croc we learned is out for some time yeah like it's a broken hand i don't i'm not knuckle yeah oh yeah knuckle i'm not doctor but i feel like that's what four week injury five week injury like that's three or four yeah oh that okay it's a substantial amount of time where you know i guess old maybe bobby mcmahon's irs then he feels a little better now

that yarn crocs out of the lineup and he doesn't have to go down to the minors. But it does kind of feel like you're back to where it's going to be Yarncroft, no, sorry, it's going to be McMahon and Reeves going in and out for each other. Yeah. I don't know. Like, just, you know, we get caught up in the day-to-day of this team. As a singular moment for Reeves, Saturday was awesome. Yeah.

Like, it really was. Oh, how can it not be right because here's a guy that uh came in with a ton of hype and first week 10 days it was great hype and he managed to get into a couple of fights and it was looking real real good for him for a full season and then as we know he he fell off you know i i think and i've said this before on this show that i don't believe that people a lot of enforcers who are later in their careers reeves is 36 or 37 i don't think he wants to fight all the time and i kind of feel like he thought if he went out and fought a couple times early and set the tone let people know i

will i won't have to. And then he didn't fight for 20 games. Yeah. And that's not what they paid him to be. And that's the danger of anybody 35, 40, especially in that role. And I kind of went through it too, but at a younger age where you're like, okay, how much do I need to do? How often do I need to do it? How much can I fake it?

Right? Yeah, of course. Without putting myself in a dangerous situation. Yeah. When he's been out for a month and you've had four or five weeks to prepare the next game in your head. You're fighting.

I'm just saying that you can be at your very best. And he's also, he worked. He worked hard. I mean, he did everything that they wanted him to do. His hands were better last night, right? Because he's been handling the puck for a month every day. The goal is the turnover he creates on the goal, right? He's hard on the forecheck.

Yeah. Yeah, he chased down Josh Morrissey and wins a battle, gets to the front of the net and tips one home. Pretty wonderful. But when you've got two, three weeks to think about your next game and prepare for your next game,

that's a big difference than what you had mentioned earlier, just being complacent about knowing you're going to go in the lineup. And if you don't get noticed in this game, that's all right, there's the next game i wonder if you know the the reminder he would have given the team and everyone about what he can be at his best is enough to keep him not in all the time but as someone who's the 13th guy who goes in once every third game you know i think there's a place for that yeah you know it's funny

you know one game just one game and just seven or eight minutes of ice time, but you can kind of squint and go, that's what it could look like. Yeah, and I think it has to be said that he was off for a month and was seemingly healthy for, what, two weeks of that? Like, he's been, guarantee he's been on the ice with all the skills, guys. He's been working with his, like. Yes. And he's been off. Yeah. but you start getting into the regular rhythm of hockey games where you're playing two or three times a week he's gonna be playing once a week twice a week heavy legs it starts to

it's gonna flip pretty quickly so as a singular moment it's awesome but i don't want to make it have like a bigger like there's still a chance he ends up a waiver. So anyways. Okay, let's go to Sheldon Keefe on Ryan Reeves. Well, I love the goal, obviously. First, he kind of, he creates that possession for us by just really pushing the pace up the ice and putting some pressure on them, creates a turnover and gets us on offense. And then he's at the net,

which was a clear plan of ours tonight was to be around that space. And Gregor puts the puck there and gets a stick on it and get rewarded. So, yeah, a huge moment in the game, obviously, to not allow them to build much of a lead and to get us all square there in the first period. But, yeah, Revo, I thought, gave us lots here tonight.

He had lots of energy. His physical, defensively, was really good. So, yeah, I liked that line here tonight. Well, he liked it enough that he would put him on the ice at a critical time. There was a minute left in the period. And I know a lot of coaches that wouldn't have put Ryan Reeves on with a minute left to go. And I don't know if you remember the play inside their own zone

before his goal, but Gregor had the puck along the wall and Morrissey came in and absolutely smoked him. Lit him up pretty good. And then they lost the battle along the wall and it goes back to Pionk who absolutely hits a rocket right down the middle, and he missed the net. Now.

If it goes in. 92, 95-mile-an-hour slap shot goes in, and they go up 2-0, and Ryan Reeves is on the ice in the last minute. We're talking different today. We're talking different today. It's so funny because that's like career changing for him right if he's an early dash in that moment they can't use them and you already couldn't use them you go you know what what are we doing maybe that's the end but that's what your career is the fine line here it's a game

inches boys yeah what 10 seconds later he's down redirecting a beautiful beautiful redirect yeah shock on why he pulls across the body. And now it's a different story. Now we're like, you can use this guy. Get him in. But good on him anyways. I thought a noteworthy piece of Sheldon's clip there was he says that, you know, we're on top of the net,

which is a clear part of our game plan last night, which shows up in the Tyler Bertuzzi no goal call. You guys want to do that part yet? Not yet. You don't want to talk about that yet? We'll get there. I just want to get, before we kick in all of that, let's just get Sheldon's overall feeling of beating the Winnipeg Jets.

Both games require a lot. They require a lot of work, a lot of perseverance and commitment, all those kind of things. But, you know, in this game here tonight in particular, I just thought we were really good in lots of areas. Five-on-five, power play, penalty kill, goaltending, you know, depth scoring, Leho gets us going there. So, yeah, lots of really good things here tonight.

So it's a great way to finish this off and go into the break. There we go. Positive stuff. All right. Go Leafs go. Wide open for you, Sammy. Where do you want to go first? Because there were a couple of major storylines here,

including Tavares scoring a goal, disallowed goals, Samsonov. Where do you want to go? I don't like to do officiating, but something has happened in a hockey game that I've never seen before and I wanted to talk about it with you guys. When Tavares got his stick slashed in front of the net when they're already in the power play, and then he broke the stick and showed it to the ref,

and then he put the arm up, I was dumbfounded. I could not believe that happened. truly an embarrassing moment for the official completely yeah kipper what do you think about that uh i think it's probably the right call but just the wrong way to get there yeah like he should make the call when he sees the slash if he thinks it's slash you have to make the call but can't call you if he thinks it's the slash. You have to make the call. Can't call the result. There's also that leeway where there is a buffer zone between seeing an infraction, letting the referee absorb it, and then deciding. Sometimes it's a split second.

Sometimes it's half a second. And in a hockey game, it can feel like a very long time but there is there is a a window you're right in that it was probably 1.32 seconds after but it was like a visible really really looked bad because it looks like that i cannot form a judgment or opinion on my own on just the incident. And there's no rule that says a stick has to be broken to call a penalty. So all you've done is made it look like that is part and a big part of your decision and not your original thought on the incident on itself.

I'm a big intent, not results guy. Like I always hate the idea that sometimes, you know, part of battling for a puck is lifting a stick, it's slashing a stick. That's part of the puck battle. And, you know, I hate that when a guy's stick breaks, it's like, that's penalty. It's like, it wasn't if he used a better stick.

But in this case, I mean. Especially to put him up on a five on three. I don't know where the stick is at. Like, I don't know if it's... Already compromised? Could have been chipped out of it already. Could be just a crap load of sticks that you got off the last batch. And that happens.

Right? So, to me, that in part and parcel, I thought the refereeing in that game, I don't really ever notice the officiating. I don't really ever talk about it, but I thought it was a little bit sketchy. And I thought that non-goal call specifically was super sketchy. Imagine now that call in a playoff game.

The ridicule that the referee will get because you need John Tavares to come and state his case with a broken stick to you and then you decide if it's a penalty or not? It's almost like they're giving one back after the no-goal call that they felt, I don't know.

So let's try not to spend too much time on it, but the no-goal play, you know, Willie Nylander is on top of the goalie after, is it DeMello who pushes them in? I'm okay with the call. I hate that. I knew you were going to do that. I was just hoping we wouldn't have to do it, but let's go. I'm okay with the call. I hate that. I knew you were going to do that. I was just hoping we wouldn't have to do it, but let's go.

I'm okay with the call. How can you be okay with it? You know what? I'm going to play goalie. I'm going to play a goalie union card here. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Nylander comes out of the corner, and he uses some of the blue paint. He does. To get... When you're in that area, man, you're flying very close to the sun there. Mm-hmm. And the whole idea for the goalie, especially in his blue paint, is that he needs a chance to play any angle, any shot. Yeah.

And Nylander took that away from him. Yeah, but he didn't. Yeah, he did. No, he didn't, Kim. He comes from the corner, so he comes through the blue paint, which is, I've seen Mike McKenna online be like, he entered a free well, Mike, I love you, but ridiculous. But aren't you allowed? You're allowed to be in there.

It's not 1996. You're allowed to be there. Of course you're allowed to be in there. Mike goes, he doesn't leave the blue paint. He can't because DeMello's there're allowed to be in there he doesn't leave the blue paint he can't because de mellow's there and by the way he doesn't leave the blue paint is like brett hall in the crease like millimeter of a toe there was contact between nylander and hellebuck before the cross check there's contact okay well that's fine but no it's not it's not fine because the goal yes the goalie is allowed to reset after contact, and he has plenty of time to reset after that.

No, he got, there was contact, and once you establish, once you establish there, I can't come out now and challenge any shooter I want. You're impeding my, the decision of the referee was made before the cross-check. The Leafs challenged on the cross-check, and the decision from the official to call incidental goaltender interference was made before.

That's why they lost the challenge. That's the softest baby garbage call I've ever seen then because he's on his way through, and he's trying to get out, and DeMello's there. He's got nowhere to go. He's entitled to that area as much as DeMello. But you skated into that tight area yourself. I didn't put you in there. You skated

into that area. And he's trying to get out of it which he's allowed to do. No, he did not try to get out. He's absolutely, he's on top of the goalie. Doesn't even get touched. No, no effort to get out. He just stood there and tried to hold his ground. And he's allowed to stand there and hold his ground. But you can, but if you stop me from coming out, then you're impeding me.

The goalie's not entitled to the white ice. He's entitled to the blue ice. No, he's entitled to come out and challenge. He is. Sure he is, but he's not allowed to be on the white ice claiming that's his too. But if I never get a chance to go out to the white ice because you're in my blue paint, it's interference. No, it paint it's interference no it isn't no it is that's absolutely not then explain to me how i watched the oilers play against columbus

where zach hyman is barreling through the blue paint he gets pushed in he almost decapitates elvis smart elvis merlicans they shoot the puck in the net and the ref standing right there is like he got pushed and that was he was flying he was going top speed the difference is he was just barely there yeah and this is the first i've heard the idea that he wasn't called for the impeding during like after the gemello thing because i don't even know that if there's contact there it is a whisper we're trying to have a hockey league here full of adults. It's a whisper in the blue paint against a Vezina-type goalie. This is a zag for zag's sake.

That's ridiculous. It was awful. Listen. I was going to say, would you be saying this if it was a Leafs in the playoffs? I'm like, yes, you'd be saying it even more if it was a Leafs in the playoffs. No. I tell you, listen, I'm be saying it even more if it was the Leafs in the playoffs. No, I tell you, and listen, I'm with you.

It's a tough call. It's a really tough call. And just to remind people that it goes back to a war room, right? It goes back to Toronto. Yeah. There's what? Three, four guys in there?

They're arguing too. For sure. They're sitting there going that's that's a good goal that's a bad goal absolutely there are people in who made that decision who disagree with the final call i'm sure so you know what happens when that happens they're calling gary no they go back to the official yes well that's what happened here is the official made a bad call they didn't't want to overrule them, so they go, I guess... The mandate from the general managers is if there's splits, you say yes, you say no, you say yes,

you say no, then you go back to the official with the original call. S-A-W-F-T Saul. And I will say this, one last thing. The officials, they don't like overturning themselves. No, of course. I mean, they don't like overturning themselves. No, of course. I mean, they don't want to prove that they're right.

That's for sure a huge part of it. It looks bad. That is for sure. I get to decide my call. That's like Gary being the final arbitrator on a... I will set the punishment, and then if you appeal, it'll go to me. You think I'm going to make my... If you're all split, why am I not going to go with my original call? Let me think about it. No. Yeah, it turns out I'm right

still. And that's all that happened Saturday night. But hey, good for Willie for going there. I'm sure if you're Sheldon Keefe, you say, we'll take that penalty you took there all day long. How about old Bert? Just can't get off the schnoz. Well, so I feel bad. Puck lands on a stick right in the slot,

shoots it in a wide open net. They're like, not for you. Not today, buddy. I feel bad for Bertuzzi, who I feel bad. Puck lands on a stick right in the slot, shoots it in a wide open net. They're like, ah-ah. Not for you. Not today, buddy. I feel bad for Bertuzzi, who I thought was wonderful on Saturday night. Yeah. I can't describe a hockey player. He played very well.

Three games, three wins, three goals allowed, 960 save percentage. How'd you see him Saturday night? He's back. Oh, God. Oh, my God. He's back back don't be one of those he's back like back to what yeah seriously being okay yeah yeah okay okay back to being okay listen i'll give him he made some big saves too he did he made some big saves saturday night he makes a save on Kyle Connor when it's 1-1 late in the second period from the slot.

And you know what I liked? It's like he's deep in the crease. He comes out like he's not already overcommitted to it. I don't know. He looks really good. He looks like he did last year. There was a moment, and Simmer pointed it out on the broadcast, where after the first one goes in, he's like,

it looked like Columbus Sammy for like two or three minutes i saw two or three incidences where i saw him i was like oh god swimming oh god going away left yeah on a couple occasions and give him full credit again he he makes the saves that he needed to but this one's going to be far before I ever utter the words back. I don't even believe what I'm saying when I say it, but it's like you're asking what I saw. It's tough. He looked like he could, Sammy. I think there's two things.

Like back, he looked in these last three games better than he's ever looked, for the least. This season. This season. No, I think there's an argument to be said that he was better in these three or four games. How many? Three good games here. That he had looked at any point even last year.

I don't believe that for one second. Yeah. Close. Was it 9-0-9 last year or 9-11? Yeah. I mean, he's got a 960 save percentage through three games. No, he's had some fantastic saves. You want to tell me he's made some of the best saves

since he's been a leaf on a couple of... Yes. Yes. But, I mean, it feels like it's on a knife's edge. Like, we talked about him being high maintenance and, like, them having to baby him. This could easily go the other way immediately. Right. So, I don't know.

I'll give him credit, but I think he's back to being a capable NHL how about that like the first goal he let in hated it on the first shot hated it i didn't like yeah i didn't like it either that was old sammy yeah where it's like he can't find the puck and you didn't have your short side covered yeah When you're cheating on that side, at the very least, cover off that post. That post, yeah. Right? And if it beats you on the far side, it beats you on the far side,

but you can't give up anything short side when you are already there looking. Not long after that, Lowry gets the chance coming in on two-on-one, and then Lowry picks Matthews' pocket as a breakaway. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on. You're getting way ahead here. Is that way ahead? It's way ahead because I think the next shift, shift and a half

Geo goes behind the net and falls and I think it was Lilligren who's waiting in the corner and now it's it's Cole Profetti with a two-on-oh in front of the net with Blardy. Okay, Blardy delays and goes back to Cole Profetti. If he just wires it, it's two-nothing on two shots on goal.

Oh, my God. And you might even pull him. You want to talk about the narrative? You want to talk about a narrative there? It's like a different story there. This is the Nice Edge episode. Two guys are on the inches of a career. What a great weekend.

Two careers saved by fortunate grace. Thank God it didn't turn out that way. That's all. Oh, my God. Anyways, that's what I saw. Well, let didn't turn out that way. That's all. Anyways, that's what I saw. We'll go to Sheldon. So I listened to Samson talking about it. Him, his mom, his dad, his wife

and his kid are going to Mexico for the break. He talked about that. Okay, do we like that? Go rest, Sammy. Yes, go rest. Get out of town, kid. I i mean you've been doing all you've been all inclusive before you uh you know or have a good life out yeah resting it's different with your family he's got a newborn his mom and dad there it's my family last christmas and i'm acting kind of the same as i usually do your family might not although his russian family may also

like the vodka i don't know but did you hear lu hear Luke Fox talk on JD's podcast about his dad coming? No. Yeah, he had this, like, really good answer about apparently during the week off, his father came over and, like, really, like, sat him down and had a conversation, like a man-to-man conversation about how you're, like, a father and you're a grown man. Real man stop pox, he said. I mean, listen, I'm not ready to give credit to the 100 goalie coaches. I'm just giving

credit to Sammy's dad. Got it figured out. Shout out to, yeah, the senior. I don't know his name. Whatever it takes. Yes. Right. Let's hear what Sheldon Keefe had to say there. Clip three on Ole Samsonov. Yeah, no question. He was tested a lot tonight. You know, as much

as I liked our game, I thought we gave up. You know, we gave up more than what we've been giving up here in recent games. He was really good again here tonight, just battling but looking confident. Again, the work that he's done here of late, now going into the break, he had a chance now to take a breath and regroup and come back refreshed but confident. We're thrilled for him. Okay, we're going to go to break,

but I just want to get your thoughts on just where this is heading for Samsonov and what we think is a Joseph Wall who may be still maybe a couple of weeks, but if Samsonov's starting game one in the playoffs, is it because of what he started now? Or is it going to be because Joseph Wall came in and showed that he wasn't quite ready here? So where is this heading now for Samsonov, in your opinion? Well, it's a great question,

and it's one the Leafs will be trying to answer. I know the dream scenario is he goes full Stu Skinner, where he just irons out what happened at the start of the year and suddenly looks really good. If you flash back three months ago, we thought, and everyone thought, the plan was samsonov is your starter right like we'll challenge him will it be 50 50 will it be at 60 40 he was kind of the incumbent 1a so yeah i i think it's headed to finding out if he can put some sort of consistent run together i don't know that you

have a ton of time to find another goalie. It's almost like you're just trying to put them in a position to succeed and cross your fingers. Don't you think that their ideal scenario is to be able to kind of lighten the load here on Wall when he comes back, have another guy be there to play, be good, and then get Wall back to full steam and have him start game one yeah that feels like the ideal plan i agree i know that one thing that they have had questions

about sam's job with is yeah expectations and pressure where they don't believe that he's thrived over his nhl career um you know those will build again and to make him the starting goalie game one is really tough to see right now. So the hope is that Wolves are great. It doesn't sound, from what we gathered in the last few days, that Joseph Wall is ready to come back the moment the All-Star weekend's over. So you've got to assume between February 5th

and maybe mid-February, that's five games right there, that Samsonov could have. Three starts? Four, maybe. I bet he's going to start against the Islanders. There's no back-to-backs, but it's every other night. Five, February 5th, Islanders, 7th, Dallas, 10th, Ottawa, 13th.

So there's three days in between two of those starts i would think samsonov has a chance to get four out of five there to to build off of whatever we've seen so far but eventually wall's gonna get his chance to come back and see where he can pick up where he left off has samsonov earned the right to have a bad game yet like how many times does he have to play well before you can say well all goalies even great goalies have bad nights yeah he comes back from old mexico monday night and he lets in five it's like well i probably would mind see martin jones on wednesday yeah you know like i think it's it's like i said for sure just a slightly thicker knife

i think he needs three weeks a month of playing well can't't have a bad game. Well, I don't know what your interpretation of a bad game is. Columbus. Right? Getting shelved. Yeah, you can't give up three goals on 12 shots. Can you save that clip of what Kip just said? You can't go. Because we're going to need that.

You can't go down three or four nothing. That's all. That's a bad game. Not losing. Have you noticed that Andre Vasilevsky's playing really well again in this division and tampa's hot well thank you i hadn't noticed that vasilevsky florida boston and tampa can they lose no no one lives in this division leafs won both their games against the top team made up no ground if the season ended today i would be perfectly fine with that with the standings well they'd be a wild card the two

florida teams are eliminated beating the crap out of each other for six or seven games and the least yeah they play in the rangers not exactly a cup of tea oh you would take that in a heartbeat oh my god bring me the rangers any non-Atlantic division team. They have to match up better against Boston than they do Florida. I think so, yes. I don't think Boston's. You guys know how I feel about them. There's no reason now to win consistently.

Oh, yeah. That's always worked. Is that what you're saying, Sammy? Yeah, try to middle it. That always works. It's helpful that the Islanders can't win a hockey match because they're the wildcard team chasing. Wow. We'll get into that a little later.

It's actually a big game Monday now that I look at this. It looks like there's a few teams that aren't interested in making the playoffs right now in the East. No kidding. Okay, we'll get into that and more. We're going to take a quick break here. Still plenty to talk about in our Leaf edition of the Real Kipper and born show including

tavaris is he back boys we'll get into that more when we return to real kipper and born your daily dose of everything nfl it's the fan check down with matt marchese and donovan bennett subscribe and download the show on, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Who's in for Derek Brandeo? Andrew Adams. Andrew Adams. Double A.

Pushing all the right buttons for us. Did we give Derek the day off? No, but you guys also didn't give me the day off. It was Friday. It turns out we don't have that kind of authority. Fair enough. Where do you want to pick up? We want to probably just go over a few of, I don't have that kind of authority. Fair enough. Where do you want to pick up? We want to probably just go over a few of, I don't know,

what do you call it, midterms? I mean, we're at a break here. It seems like a good time to reflect a little bit on the first half, generous way to phrase it, first half of the Toronto Maple Leafs season. Run through the big dogs and see what we think. Yeah, we can. Kind of left before we went to break talking about John Tavares breaking his goose egg on a power play goal Saturday night.

You want to get Sheldon's thought of JT, and then we'll pick it up from there? Sure. John's been working real hard in games. He's been working diligently off the ice, but also just keeping things in perspective and not getting frustrated. Power play obviously needed a big response here today and we got that and John to come through for us in the way that we would expect

that he might in being in front and getting a stick on a puck. It's a huge goal for us, a huge moment in the game. So his response kind of told everything you needed to know in terms of how much it was bothering him because much like we felt good about Ryan Reeves or Samsonov's win since being called up from the Marlies, you felt for John and the relief just by the body language in and of itself. Yeah.

I don't know if you've ever had any really long streaks of non-scoring. Once upon a time, I was a goal scorer. And when you don't score, it's like taking oxygen away from you. It's brutal. My old teammate, Olivier Lebel, still makes fun of me for my celebration after breaking about a 19-game goalless drought. Like, it's brutal. And so I get the relief.

What did you do? I believe it was just a direct arm slide. It looked skyward. No, it wasn't a dramatic one. It was more of a thank you, merciful God, sort of hockey gods sort of thing. But yeah, so I get it. I get how he's...

The only thing moving forward here, and he's going to get a nice break, he's going to spend time with his family, his kids, is what do we see out of John Tavares going into the last half of this season here? And will he come back to his point-of-game pace? Will he look like a threat once again? And the power play goal was great.

A goal's a goal. But if I'm not mistaken, he spent now a quarter of the season without an even-strength goal. I think it's half the season i think he's 20 games without a five on five goal really yeah it's a it's a really long time it's a really long time now is that just is that just where john's now at the stage of his career or is this just better hope not well better hope not. Well. Better hope not.

I mean, you know, he's two... This team is built on, you know, four guys driving the offense. He's still creating a lot of shots. I would bet money on Tavares. In fact, I might bet money on him scoring, you know, multiple goals over the next five games. Like, after the break, little time off. He's off the schneid. I could see him shooting a few in the net and kind of finding his stride a little bit again i don't know that he's ever going to be

back to driving the play it was like a thing when i used to follow the islanders that he would make wingers you know made a star out of pozo and molson and josh bailey pageau and bailey you know he's not doing that anymore but he can be on the other end of it for some pretty good players that they do have so i think he'll still score some goals again his point per game pace by the way he's not doing that anymore, but he can be on the other end of it for some pretty good players that they do have. So I think he'll still score some goals again. His point per game pace, by the way, he's at 35 points in 47 games now. So he's well. Well.

I know this. He's on pace for 60 points this year. Yeah. Which has to be really disappointing, right? Sure. At this stage when he has to be be the one to punch with with austin if you had said at the start of his contract though to leafs fans what do you expect for output at the tail end of this deal they'd have said if he's still chipping in 60 70 points you

could live with it because you're getting the up front where he's going to be so great i know people don't feel like maybe they got the value at the start of the deal that they hope some hurts now, but that's the problem is that you're paying the quote unquote tax when you're still trying to win. Yeah. That's exactly right. When you haven't gotten to where you thought you were going to get, you're still like,

oh, well we're paying the way more than we should be. Yeah. Like it's probably, you're probably paying three to 4 million over value for him saturday night he's he's working his ass off yeah and he's finishing checks he's moving his feet but it's just at that five on five it's just hasn't been enough to get him back to being a legitimate threat right now yes um i was was just trying to find that exact stat on how long it's been for you. It's a long time.

22 games since he scored a 5-on-5 goal. A long time. Yeah. He's shooting zero for 50 over that stretch. We heard from Sheldon saying depth scoring. I'm not sure if you want to put Benoit and Reeves as, hey, good sign. Yeah. I think the depth needs to come from Nyes and Bertuzzi and Kampf.

But Bertuzzi's not depth. Yeah, he's supposed to be core. He's making the most of any forward outside the four guys. I don't think he's depth. He can only have, like, Robinson's supposed to be core. He's making the most of any forward outside the four guys. I don't think he's depth. He can only have, like, Robertson's depth. Anyone past the core four we're calling depth. Okay, Robertson's depth. Yeah.

You know, like, those other, Camp, Greger, Reeves, that's depth. Yeah. I'm having a hard time saying depth. Depth. Stupid consonants in our mouth. Broadcast. Okay, so you want to start, You want to go first with Where you think some of these guys are

I want to start at the top here Brad Treliving How would you judge his performance thus far Well listen I think All we're going to judge is on four signings And For the most part You're doing Reeves, Klingberg, Domi

Martuzzi Martin Jones Benoit For the most part. So you're doing Reeves, Klingberg, Domi, Bertuzzi, Jones, Benoit, Gregor. Seven. Lagason. The major ones have been disappointing, right? And for sure you can grade him well on those smaller pickups in that depth role, but he's got to take a hit on klingberg for me which i never liked from absolutely day one yeah it's it's funny you

can go five for five on your depth signings but when you miss on the ones you spent all the money on yeah you know the bertuzzi klingberg domi money his turn you know domi's been fine he's been worth three million but i i will say this too is that we can sit there and and judge and say that was horrible but when you're in his shoes with the limited resources and the choices that were out there yeah sometimes you think doing something is better than doing nothing at all did you want vlad tarasenko for the bertuzzi money would that have been better probably not i would definitely not definitely not tarasenko in in that dressing room. Right. So, you know, I'm just thinking of guys who were 5 million and free agents this summer that you could have had.

It's like, you know, and Bertuzzi, even though he's not producing offensively, like a game like Saturday night is a good example where I found him really useful. I thought his line was very good, and he makes, you know, little plays in the forecheck. Vlad Tarasenko, by the way, 32 points in 43 games plus 13 on the

Ottawa Senators. Someone's going to take him. Tarasenko? Yes. At the deadline here? Yes. Someone's going to take him. I need scoring that badly. I mean, he's having a pretty good year. I'm surprised by these numbers. I'm surprised anyone is plus on Ottawa. Plus 13 is a pretty high number like yeah you're somebody's gonna trade for

him only one guy is higher than that on the leaf matthews is plus 14 he's the highest guy yeah all right uh matthews scores his 40th goal fewest games the last 25 years i will say this. Okay. For me, I'll be hard-pressed to find two worst games he's played as a Leaf than the last two where he scored game-winning goals in both. Oh, yeah, because they scored at the end, so that

turned out to be the winner. Yeah, that's true. He was not very good Saturday night. They turned the puck over a lot. Hey, that five on three goal, yeah, and I'm fine. That's 100%. It's okay. He's got an all-star weekend. He's got to sell T-shirts with Biebs.

Sure, all that. Yes. But when you're going up against the Leafs on a five-on-three, and you're like, what are we taking away? You might want to start with the league's best goal scorer from the hash marks show you know ceiling scraping one timer yeah that's my vesna goalie who's making eight and a half just try to stop it best you can i'm out of this you could add two hella bucks in there that's going yeah he hit that so hard yeah

and what an awesome play by marner who gets a wobbling puck and one touch flattens it for him. I know you make fun of me for this kind of stuff. And you'll be like, oh, yeah, regular season. I know what you're going to say. But, you know, as Leaf fans, and people listening to this are obviously Leaf fans, we used to get excited when Phil Kessler would be like, oh, he's getting near, he's got 37 for the full season.

It's not February, he's 40. I know. It's ridiculous. It's great. I know. And here we go, here it comes. I think it's great. I. It's 40. I know. It's ridiculous. And like, it's great. I know. And here we go. Here it comes. I think it's great.

I think it's great. But where you are with a bar and where I am with a bar. Yeah. Is a little different. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You're beating that bar way down for me,

pal. Matthews is Kip's gifted child in class. It's like, I'm hard on you because I believe in you. I'm hard on you because I believe you can do so much more. There's more to give besides pushing the puck over the red line. I don't hold the other kids to the same standard as you because you're so special. He's the Baltimore quarterback.

He's Lamar. Lamar Jackson yes oof that's scarily but you're gonna go up against the patrick mahomes in the playoffs the panthers and how are you gonna be it's a tough parallel right actually there is a decent parallel to have where tampa made it multiple years where they beat the leafs and they made it to the final. That was kind of like their last stand. There's a parallel there that the Chiefs are the lightning. I'll hear it. Anyways, I think it's fantastic. He is the greatest goal scorer in the league in the world right now.

All of it. But is it is it driving the team to a place? Is it? Are they? Is he bringing enough around him? is it driving the team to a place? Is he bringing enough around him? Is he making a lot of people around him better? Or is he just making himself better? There is an amount of goal scoring where all these other criticisms are like, it's like Bradtree Living's fringe signings.

He's scored 40 times in 46 games. He's doing stuff people haven't done in terms of producing goals. In the history, he's there with Ovechkin and Gretzky with the greatest ever. He's not doing it since the guy did last year. But before that,

it was Peral Barre. He did it faster than the guy did it last year. Yeah, yeah. He did the fastest since, what'd you say? Since McDavid last year. In 25 years. Faster than McDavid last year. Yeah. So, than mcdavid last yeah so you know it's like yeah you do some other fringe things great this team without matthews is nashville

celebrini you know like it's what he is doing with these goals so if he had 30 goals and you're like yeah clean up the defense fine marner every Marner scored, he scored again that game. He'd be at Matthews goal total. Every time. Double the goals. It's an insane amount of goals. It is a legendary amount of goals. Like, he will be one of the best all time, regardless if he wins anything.

He'll be one of the best goal scorers of all time. And he plays the least. Yeah. And no lead him to be one of the best players of all time. And I get that. That's Yeah. And no Leafs fan have ever had that. to be one of the best players of all time. And I get that. That's all. And you're right. Again,

it's going to get to playoffs and you're not going to want to see him score twice in seven games. Well, what's McDavid on pace for? 120 points probably.

Goals. We're talking about a 60 plus goal score last year. Yeah, we did this last show. Yeah, what's his pace? I have no idea. 30, 40. 30, 40 did this last show. What's his pace? I have no idea. 30-40.

30-40? Yeah. This is the best his team has ever played around him since he joined the NHL. He's never felt better about his team, and he's on pace for 35 goals. Yeah, maybe his team's better. He's on pace for 37 goals.

Maybe he's made them better. Could be, yeah. Maybe not. better he's on pace for 37 maybe he's made them better could be yeah yeah maybe not maybe maybe they're they're saying they were sammy's before and now the sammy's bars have gotten a lot higher it would be fascinating to swap these two guys look at and have matthews there with dry sidled and kane and hyman and nuge and you know we'll give him an a oh yeah better what else did you give him an a plus i'm not giving him an a plus he scored 40 goals before i know uh he's on pace for 30 assists how about mckinnon he scores every goal for his team yeah he's he's doing all right he has 84 points it's in 49 games i know he he is like 15 points on McDavid at this point, doesn't he?

He's out of this world. He's out of this world. There's a guy that has like his bar is off. McDavid, Crosby, McKinnon, their bars are like, you're scared. As an athlete, as a teammate, you're scared every day you're around

them that your bar is not close enough to theirs. I've watched a lot of Avalanche and McDavid this year and Penguins because I like watching those three guys. McKinnon's far and away the best this year. That's not even close. No one has ever played hockey faster than Nate McKinnon is playing it this year. Really? He is like, he's 150 speed bursts faster than the next guy, like over 20 miles per hour.

It is unbelievable the pace he's playing at. All right. Just like that, our first hour is over. Plenty more to come in our national hour, including some talk on Columbus. What is going on here, guys? Lots of bad. Oh, boy. They're making headlines constantly for all the wrong reasons.

Aaron Portsline covers the Blue Jackets for the Athletic. We'll join us next. Plenty more on Real Kimper and Bourne. Don't go away.