Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Familiar Feelings After Game 1

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Leafs' 5-1 loss to the Bruins in Game 1 on Saturday. First, they discuss the absence of Nylander, how cautious the Leafs should be with his workload and possible causes for his mysterious injury. Then, a more in-depth breakdown of the game - the Leafs' lack of discipline, an inability to create offensively, a characteristic slow start and Matthews and Marner not showing up. Later, evaluating the blueline's performance and if the Leafs should consider bringing Brodie back into the fold. Finally, a chat about Samsonov and who should get the net in Game 2.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.

go ahead jb start us uh welcome everyone to the real kipper and born show uh you can join us uh you're joining us today on sports at 590 sports at 360 360, and Sportsnet Plus. You can get our podcast wherever you get your pods. Remember to text us at 590-590. And I'm welcoming you in as Kippy finds his stuff, gets it together. He's ready to rock and roll now. Nice. Kippy, how was your weekend? Nice.

Well, listen, you're at the driving range today, which can only mean one thing. We are deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Well, we're into spring anyway. Let's put it that way. We are glad everybody's aboard. Wherever you're watching, wherever you're listening on Sportsnet, on all our platforms,

Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Plus. And download us when you can't catch us live. Because we've got a lot to say starting right now. Me too. MacCyprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, David Sissboomba. Like the Leafs, Sissboomba.

Hi, fellas. How's everything? Sammy, how are you? Good. How was your weekend, Sammy? Great. Yeah. Yeah.

All good. All good? All good? All good. Hey, have you ever seen Sammy so quiet in a group chat as this weekend? You literally said, are you alive? I know. I did. Is that just the nerves, Sammy, going into game one?

Focus? Yeah, mostly. The playoff games, I like to lock in a little bit more you know during the regular season much more phone time yeah you know in the last week of the season a few more tiktoks consumed while you're watching the least game it's not as much as you're locked in right but when that puck dropped on saturday night you know my heart is racing i'm back into it i'm sammy you know johnny lee fan all over again sammy lee fan and yeah a little more quiet in the group chats that's what what I'll say. It's,

we're going to, of course, dissect Saturday night, but you know, the, the big elephant in the room right now is Willie Nylander. It is the talk of town on what happened. He's there one minute.

He's gone the next. Yeah. So is this the conversation we're going to have right off the bat here, guys? Sure. I mean, we might as well. Seems to be the lead story. Yep. Okay, because when I started getting a message from Sammy going,

I'm in all these chats, and it's starting to get a little goofy out there on where is 88? Like, I know you came to me to throw you a lifeline or a... Well, I just... Is it saying you extend the olive branch?

Is that what it is? How does that go? It doesn't really work there. That's a peace reach. You know, trying to make up with someone. When our boy Sammy's in a little bit of a panic mode here it's not good out there because he is for the most part on our show what i love about sammy the most is the vibe that he represents is the barometer is the barometer for leaf nation and i got the sense that they're a little panicky right now on willie yeah i think you know from what i can gather from my mentions on x what i gather from multiple group chats that i'm in people are asking a lot of questions about what's happened to william nylander and i think you'd be

stupid to not talk about anything else but i what happened to william nyer, Kip? Can we just put it out of your mind and your group chat mind that this was a discipline thing? Yes. They're sitting him out on purpose. Can I just end that right now for you? Yes, I would love that. Okay, that's not the case here. It got a little Corey Perry and Conor Bedard's family

with this whole thing. You know what i heard and it's like okay okay okay yes the only reason you're not hearing anything yeah they're not saying you can get crazy like that no he's hurting he's hurting he is physically not at a place where he was comfortable to play saturday night and he skated today. And Sunday. Which means whatever bothered him physically is improving. Yes. Is it enough to play tonight? I don't get that sense.

No. He's going to come to the rink, probably let a lot of people know whether or not he thinks he's okay or not. There's also going to get the medical medical advice from the leaf uh staff yeah but like i i think i think they should just plan on him not playing till game three at home he skated like with the extras after the skate which is not great in terms of a forecast but i you know he did take a couple of rushes in for Robertson. I don't think he'll play, but I wouldn't be shocked if he did.

That's where I'm at at it. You know, I do feel like there's some gamesmanship going on with some of the lineup stuff. Because it affects how they build their decor on the other side. So I get why they're being so tight-lipped. And I know there's some out there like the full-fledged judgment now. How could you? Where are you? What are you doing?

We need you most. Who would do such a thing? Who would do such a thing? We are also talking about a guy that doesn't miss games. Doesn't miss games. I know. He doesn't miss games. And if it's one guy that I would think in the lineup that I would go,

he's not overwhelmed by the moment. He's not, you know, this is the most stress-free guy. This guy just wants to go out there and have fun. Yeah. No, I will say I have heard people be like, you know, challenge the chutzpah of the gentleman or whatever phrase you want to use for having the. I'm not going there.

I'm not either. You don't play for eight straight years and not come up to scary situations and play through it. Okay. Okay. It's... Okay.

I agree with both of you guys. Okay. But I think for people, when you hear the stories of Stanley Cup playoffs past where guys play on broken legs with collapsed lungs, with whatever the...

When you see a guy skating and joking around and playing being fine at morning skate and practices I think for a lot of Leaf fans that would probably you know they'd be like well can you get in there oh listen do they want him to get hurt and not play any games or do they want him to come back

and play judging by how game one went maybe there aren't gonna be that many games for him to play in Sammy you're not wrong okay you're not wrong that whether or not that you you play and you don't score or you don't play or you're not available when the team needs you most those things always come back to bite you in the ass and it's whether you think it's fair or not is irrelevant we know how people are out there with their comments and their snide remarks just gonna have to live with it until you rise to the occasion that's the only way those things disappear okay because they're already starting it's already started pointless in game one matths, Marner, Tavares. Pointless.

You want to start having a reputation for being great regular season players and don't show up in the playoffs? Go pointless in game two. Whether you're in the lineup or out of the lineup, you are subject to criticism, unfair or not, when you don't produce when it's needed the most. So you're subject to criticism, and that's fine, that a bunch of people in their group chat can be like,

you know, whatever, for not playing. But it's just ignorant to me, because it's, you know, so many injuries, and you know this, Kip. So many of them, you're at risk of making them worse and not getting the guy. And so if you want to win a Stanley Cup, you would much rather the guy be ready to go at least closer to ready to go even if it's another two two days ready to go so to me it's like yeah i bet you willie could play i bet you if it's game seven

tonight he's in you know but it's i think they have bigger aspirations than one one game and then potentially hurt it and play no games yeah so how many games do you want him to play if you're calling willie i i will disagree with you and saying that if he could play in game seven i want him to play in game two and i think that's stupid and i bet you the leafs are on that side i i don't want to go down to nothing and think i can still win the series well and, and you know what, though? This may impact their decision-making tonight. You may get him tonight for this very reason, and he may get hurt.

Could you get him for 12 minutes, and he's still one of the best power play guys that you have, right? For sure. Could you just put him out on the power play? I don't know. You could roll whatever dice you want. I get what you're saying for sure. Is it a real risk that he gets hurt and you lose him for the series?

I don't know where it's at. But for this guy to finish two games in the regular season and then come back. So something happened. Something happened either in Florida or Tampa Bay where he left. went i can't to me it's got to be back that's just total speculation but you know something that seizes up or something that you're like i got hurt it felt a little funny you wake up and go oh god it's i do i can't move i do recall one game when one game in uh when we were in washington when I played for the Capitals, I'm in Buffalo.

I go to bed. I feel great. I wake up. I can't move my neck, not even a little bit. And I can't play that night. And I got to go back. I got to go to Paul Holmgren and Kevin McCarthy saying, I can't play.

And they go, what happened? And they're like, Rob Ray, you know, started naming me like three tough guys on the Boston lineup or the Buffalo lineup. And they're like, what do you mean you can't play? We were facing tonight. And I'm like, I can't turn my neck just a little bit. It seized completely up.

Yeah, like these things happen. I'm talking to the doctor. I'm like, what's the deal? He says, do you know what you guys go through every game? Every time you get jarred, every time you go shoulder to shoulder. It's your body talking. It's something with your body is saying,

you know, no, you hurt yourself. You don't even realize it or know it at the time, but it can come back. Those things can come back. Is that what happened to Willie? And if it is, how insanely bad is this timing for the Leafs? Like, was it eight years since he missed a game to injury and it happens after game 82? Like, come on.

I mean, this is the number one argument for why your good players don't play in meaningless games at the end of the season. That's well said. I mean, listen, I guess you had to play him because you already were without Domi, without McMahon. But Tampa played with 11. They played with 11 forwards. It's like, well, you know, Willie, I guess maybe he wanted to get

to 100 points, which is fair. They needed a forward. He played. And then you don't have one of your best forwards for the first two games of the playoffs, potentially, because he's playing this stupid, meaningless game. The other thing, too, is I'm not 100% sure of this, but if they flew right after the game,

if they left Tampa Bay, you get on a flight, three hours on a plane, go to another different bed, different mattress, and like I'm still cursing the Buffalo Hilton, by the way, right? I am. I'll never, ever stay at the hotel ever again. They ruin my neck. But those things add up. Yeah.

And does it take two days to get, you know? Yeah, you can be in the comfiest seat in the world on a charter jet if you're still asleep on a plane. I don't sense we're talking about a concussion here. He wouldn't be on the ice yesterday and today if he was concussed from Wednesday, right? How did no... Tuesday, right? How did no... Tuesday, Wednesday.

How did no internet sleuth, and I'm not talking about myself, go back and pick out something where it could have happened? I watched some shifts. Oh, he got jarred. I'm telling you, he got jarred. I remember him getting jarred in Florida. Yes. In Florida.

Like before Tampa? I remember him getting really hit hard in Florida, and then did he get, did he aggravate it in Tampa? He finishes the game. Did it seize up on him? But we have two, he's feeling better.

And Willie updates one from yesterday and one from today. I'll let you do the first one from, from clip six from yesterday in Boston. Derek, we get that. Has William been able to skate since you guys have been here? No updates on Willie. How is he holding up?

Like, obviously, I'm not sure how much you've talked to him, but it's got to be pretty tough. You play the whole year and you're out. What's your sense of how he's dealing with this? No updates on Willie. Coach is going to keep his mouth shut. I hate that. I do.

Clearly, it's an upper body. We're on to Cincinnati. What are we left with? That was yesterday. Do you want to hear what he had to say today? Oh, God. Be the exact same. This is from clip 11 from today in Boston. Yeah, it's great. Good to see him with the group.

He looks good out there. He's noble. For sure, the group's happy to have him. We'll see how he feels the rest of the day here and make a decision. So for me, I'm with you. We're down to a neck or a back. Yeah.

To me, he's not playing. Like when you're, so you have a limited time between hockey games to prepare for the next game. So if you can make the other coaching staff take 15 extra minutes on something else, great. And so if you can make the other coaching staff take 15 extra minutes on something else great and so if you say you might have to build a plan for if knee landers in you just put that on their plate yeah he's ready to go he looks great he's on the ice whatever just put it on their plate and make them

think about it to me that was like i didn't sound great to me that's just put yeah he might be in make well deal with that a possibility too while you're dealing with everything else he's skating he's whatever it is it's close he's like 98 sure to play game three hope so because they need if it matters all right so what if you're down to nothing game three is gonna matter where do you guys want to start? You want to start on a clip or you want to start on your initial thoughts of a 5-1 loss to go down 1-0? I want to hear from you guys more than I want to hear from Sheldon. I know what he thinks.

Can't be. All right. Your name's on the show, pal. Let her in. Yeah, yeah. I'm not as discouraged as what the score says. Okay. Okay.

I actually like their start. Yeah. They had a good 4-0 in shots in their end. I liked it a lot. Yeah. I'll start. Let me start with what I told you guys last week before we went Saturday night. Domi versus Marchand.

Yeah. This was the most prescient thing anyone. It started before the puck even dropped. He should have been in the box before the game started. Yeah, that was too much. He could have been. And Kip called that this would happen. Buddy, this was like the easiest look see for me yeah you saw this from a thousand miles away

so what happens even before puck dropped max gives him a couple of shots gordy uh dw, the official, goes to Max, puts his arm around him. Did he address Marchand? No. Did he address Max? Yes. What do you think he said to him? Hey, stop it. Don't be a dummy.

Just chill out, man. No, I'll tell you what he said. He said, don't try to make me look bad here. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. To your point, maybe I could have thrown you in the box. Maybe I chose not to. But if this continues, you're going to force my hand here. That's what he said.

For sure he did. Definitely that last part. Don't make me do this. So what's Max do in about 30 seconds after the pucks drops? He breaks his stick on marshall he cross checks him and breaks his stick on marshall yeah still no penalty crazy but now what are you thinking if you're the officials from there and on in i can't let you get away with that again i i mean i have an eye on this it cannot happen again or i'm the idiot and fool me once fool me twice that whole thing and you know, for Max, if I was coaching him,

I'd sit there and say, listen, that guy, you're not rattling that guy. No, and you said this before this year. He invented a lot of that, you know? So go after Zaka. And then if you want to pull Marchand in, then you lay the breadcrumbs and watch him come like a pigeon.

That's what you do. But you don't go after him right away because it just sets you up later. But you know what? This has been a thing when the Leafs add toughness at the deadline. These guys feel the pressure to be the toughness, whether it's Clifford getting in game one, or whether it's Bunting taking runs at Chernak.

Or Ryan Reeves diving deep to set up a two-on-one for them to score. Ryan Reeves throwing a hit when he's supposed to be falling behind a pinching D. There is a real trend of being like, oh, I'm the guy who they got for this purpose, and that is my purpose, rather than play the hockey game, finish checks when there's opportunities, which will take advantage so yes i agree that was a emotional

failing and domi ended up in the box twice and the one with mcavoy it's a miracle that they took both it was one it was a one like he crushed he came down and then like mcavoy kind of grabbed him a little bit and they took them both couldn't't believe that. And then it boils over, and Gordie Dwyer sends it back. Clip two on Sheldon Keefe talking about Domi's penalty, please. Careless penalties. Domi's penalty, obviously, is the one that's, I would call an undisciplined penalty. I understand what he's trying to do, but crossed the line there, and can't do that.

But then just the high sticks and that kind of stuff, like that's just careless stuff that I don't know if that has anything to do with the emotion or anything like that. In terms of the emotion in the game, the competitiveness, the physicality, we had no issue with that game on that end of it. Sheldon, obviously the power play didn't get a goal, but I'm just wondering. Yeah. So a lack of discipline.

Yeah. so a lack of discipline yeah and for me like i'm now so far beyond the leafs getting run out of the building or the leafs needing to go shoulder we're way past that in fact i'm now thinking tonight dial it in it in. We need to not be that team. We're still a skilled team here. Can we not forget that what got us here is the offense and the high octane at times and the ability to make great plays off a rush. And can we get back to that here?

Yeah. Stop thinking like you got to run around all over the place and they they did kind of set themselves up to go down early one nothing because they're they're hard on the forecheck and then you've got Joel Edmondson who's your stay-at-home defenseman acting like he's not a stay-at-home defenseman, pinching with the fourth line out there. Now, people want to – I get it, all right? Reeves, yeah, you should have been the third man. But, Joel, Ryan Reeves is out there.

No pinching when Ryan Reeves is out there. I think we're on different pages with that because that's the system they play, and it's really tough to be like, but don't play it when he's on the ice, but play it when he's on the ice. Yeah, you do that, JB. You do that. Yeah.

Hey, absolutely. Okay. Listen, if they put the puck in the net, it's a bonus. The fact that they're in there, they're pushing, they're just don't take a chance on these guys getting so horny as people want to say that everybody's running around and, and Joel,

like don't pinch, don't pinch with the fourth line out there. I'm sorry. Yeah. But Hey, how about that for a hard rule? Yeah, I got,

I got, that's fine. That's fine. If that's like an adjustment you want to make, I, I, you know, to me,

Reeves, it's like, it's not that complicated. You know, you see a D coming down here. Even if he's third high, he ain't catching anybody. They're gone. Just be above them so you don't have to chase them.

They're gone. And the other thing, too, is I thought Dewar had a tough – he had some tough shifts, really tough shifts. Even on that play, if you take a look at his – he doesn't seal the wall. He's there. And he wants to go run a guy because, again, everybody's on this. Finish your checks and let's run them over.

And his stick is six feet up in the air. You're not intercepting any pucks. The Leafs had bad sticks Saturday night. It's not anything to do with not being physical. They just had bad sticks. They don't take lanes away with their sticks like Boston does. Yeah, I thought the part I agree with most out of that is the, you know, had bad sticks they don't take lanes away with their sticks like boston does yeah i i thought the you know the part i agree with most out of that is the you know remember that you're an

offensive team you know i think we've heard a lot about the story now where they've scored two goals or fewer in eight straight playoff games if i'm not mistaken maybe it's seven straight i think it's eight straight um going back to game six uh they scored two against tampa to win an overtime they scored two and five so to win an overtime they scored two and five so that would be so that would be the seventh straight game so seven straight games two and fewer um just really start struggling to create goals and i know swayman played really well that's a big story from that game it is on saturday night is that their goaltender was excellent yeah um makes a nice save early and obviously Samsonov can't give them the one extra save.

I really felt like the game... Hold on. Yeah, yeah. One more beef on the first goal? Yeah. Can I finish? Of course. Of course.

All right. Okay. Yeah. That's not a two-on-one. It's two-on-two. You have a backtracker. No. You got Samsonov and Lilligren against beecher and

boquist boquist like lilligren what are you doing yeah just let the goalie stop if i had to do a video on not how to play a two-on-one you're leading the example with that play how do you end up on your belly with no no fakes, nothing shown. And Borquist, he's on his offside. Yeah, he sticks inside. Okay? Just let Sammy take the shot. That's it.

You still got a chance here. But to go on the pass across while you're looking like a fish out of water for an open net for 1-0, is it me or is it every once in a while I watch the Leaf D go, like, do you guys know how to play a 2-on-1? They feel like they struggle with 2-on-1s. The conversion rate of other teams on 2-on-1s on the Leafs, I mean, it once yeah like i just the conversion rate of other teams on two-on-ones on the leafs i mean it's probably pretty high across the league regardless tell them to leave their feet i don't know it's just not a it's not pretty on the two

but yeah i don't think so okay i'm done yeah yeah okay nope it uh that's tough start so the here's the eight games that i was thinking of i think they they haven't scored the first goal against boston in very very many games and that to me is a big story here i think they haven't led for a minute of a bruins game this year if i'm not mistaken actually i'm not mistaken it's crazy it's crazy five games they have not been leading for one second so that to me is a big part of this is that the bruins are a responsible team with great goaltending. If you put them in a position where they don't have to open up and they don't have to chase, you're in big trouble. You can't get into that hole.

And that's how this game gets away. So you have the one breakdown, fourth line, Edmondson, Samsonov, not your best people on the rink. They get up 1-0, and then the game starts to incrementally get away from you. You take a couple of penalties. You don't get a save. They played as well or better than Boston over the course of the 5-on-5 in the game starts to incrementally get away from you, right? You take a couple of penalties. You don't get a save. Like, you played. They played as well or better than Boston over the course of the five-on-five in the game.

Their numbers were good. Yeah. Were they not? It was. But it still, it just bleeds away because you don't get the first one. So that's going to be such an important part of tonight's game is finding a way to get that first goal. Yeah. And the other thing, too, is if we're on penalties to six minors,

like you're killing your bench. The rhythm. And the PK's already sus at best. Well, do you want to hear the coach talk about the undisciplined part of it? Let's do it. Okay, so I think that's clip number three. You said to me you got one penalty. The Domi penalty is the one that's, you know, that's an undisciplined nature.

The other is I just, you know, I think we had two high sticks. That's just carelessness that this time of the year, you just got to be dialed in. You can't allow your stick to get up like that. Sometimes it's going to happen. It's happened too much tonight. Even the other one, the Benoit penalty, like sticks a little careless there for me early in the game there.

The McCabe one, I don't know. You'll probably find 40 of those penalties in the game tonight. That one happened to get called. But like I said, I don't look at it as us being undisciplined or anything, but just a little careless with the sticks. They're the only one I set aside. So, you know, there's two different things there for us

to sort out. I mean, we're not undisciplined. We're just careless. It's kind of the same thing. It just throws. You can't get in a rhythm here. You just can't get in a rhythm killing penalties. I get that the Domi penalty

was bad, but is it needed to be called out three separate times in the postgame thing? Like, you know, this team has forever cried out for guys

to, like, show some passion in playoff games, and this guy comes out and he's doing it. I actually thought he played well, too. I did, too. I liked his first part

of the game anyway. There's three separate times in the postgame that you call out a guy for taking a penalty in a game where there are six penalties taken. Like, it's just, we get it. It was a bad penalty. The guy showed some passion in the game.

He's trying to, he's in the fight. It's like, well, now he's going to go out there and he's not going to play like that? I don't know. Just that part of it rubbed me the wrong way, boys. Yep. Get the power play going. Just one.

An early one would be nice. Yeah. Let's go to clip 12, Sheldon Keefe on Bertuzzi on the power play unit. Bert's good around the net. You know, it gives you a second guy similar to John in the sense that, you know, he can hound the puck and be good around the net and all of that sort of stuff.

You know, so that's really it, yeah. I'm instantly panicking that it's 4.27, our Leafs hours. We have so much to talk about. Why wasn't he out there? Why was Jarnkrok out there instead of him? I just think Jarnkrok's a shooter, and Burton, JT are redundant, typically. I see that.

When I see Jarnkrok out three times more than Bertuzzi on a power play. It's crazy. It's crazy to me. I agree with you guys. I just think the role you put them in is redundant. So now he's like, we're just going to put them both out there. I get Yarncroft's come a long way here, and you really like him a lot, but he didn't turn into a $5 million player since he's been gone.

No. Going to be interesting to see how that works with both those guys in the net, but I like the idea of having a couple people all over Swayman and being involved in all that, but I wanted to get to... He's talking about Tavares. He can do a lot of things similar to John Tavares. Maybe the most disappointing performance for me in game one was Tavares not, in terms of play driving or physical play or whatever,

doing the things he's supposed to do. He is your, an offensive contributor, is he not? You know, he is the guy who's supposed to produce offense. Absolutely. You know, start of the third period, 30 seconds in, in he has a breakaway and i mean a clean breakaway and he's afraid of getting caught and takes a slap shot from above the circles a to me it was just like the guy looks like he has no offensive confidence and if he can't do the offensive things like say putting in the matthews fake slapper back door with that bottom

hand not hard enough on the stick there's there's no value so i thought that was a tough night for tavarez who they needed to put some some offense on the board in willie's absence and that second line too it just like him and marner just didn't seem to have any chemistry and it feels like he's maybe bringing marner down a little bit like i don't know what they're doing with that second line it didn't look good the whole night. They have no choice now, right? What's the choice? Yeah, just you got to go with Tavares. You got to just hope somehow, some way you look at the game sheet,

and he's got two or three tonight. You're talking about goals? Points, yeah. But are you saying leave the lines how they are you talking about the line yeah i am basically i am yeah there's not much i can work with here right there's no to everyone i've read about how matt uh marner should go back with matthews that seems to be like the consensus opinion it just leaves you no lines or sorry one line it doesn't leave like tavarez isn't driving a line with Matthew Nyes that's

you don't have a second line then like in Willie's absence it gets real thin if Tavares is bad so I'm not ready to make that change yet for the Leafs I also feel like you know from a tactical perspective if you're the coach preparing for tonight there's not much you need to do differently the players need to play better like maybe you make a substitution on D, which we'll get to, but you make a substitution on the power play. I just don't think there's a ton to do differently. I don't think that they were far off a better result. Yeah.

I think at the end of the day, Nyes, I thought, had a rough shift there. He coughed a big pizza hairball up the middle of the day, Nyes, I thought, had a rough shift there. He coughed a big pizza hairball up the middle of the ice that led to, I think, the second goal that Carlo... Goal? Yeah. He also turned one over that he back-checked really well, and then he turned a third one over that he back-checked well,

and it's like, I'm turning it over. And then he didn't get many more shifts. Yeah. But I thought, like, at the start of the game, he showed a lot of physicality. I thought he was running around a little bit, looked like he was going to be involved, then he kind of more shifts. Yeah. But I thought, like, at the start of the game, he showed a lot of physicality. I thought he was running around a little bit, looked like he was going to be involved, then he kind of went away.

Yeah. And, you know, we haven't mentioned the big names, Matthews and Marner yet. We haven't mentioned the decor. Should we do a break and then we'll... Well, I think we got a little bit of time here. Yep. Okay.

I mean, that's the conversation. No points for Matthews and Marner. Yeah. It gets tough this time of it does right it's uh you're not playing non-playoff teams where you can pad stats no playing shut down hockey here so they're they're just gonna have to find a way sure yeah of course outside of that what do you what do you say what do you six straight playoff games without a goal for Austin Matthews. Yeah.

You know, I think you just, at least we need to acknowledge that it was a game that looked very similar where Matthews, 10 shot attempts, five shots, you know, he has chances, he rips one off the inside of the post, doesn't go in for him again. And then Marner, I thought,

just was non-existent as a factor in terms of like dictating the play. The other thing too is like, again, he's your number one penalty killer. Yeah. So, you know, I don't know how much rhythm that they actually had. I agree with that. You know? Tough game.

He's the only one that, to me, he's the only one that tries to hold on to the puck and make plays and i i didn't see i didn't see too many times and there was one opportunity i think in the first where he cut up the middle uh in the offensive zone waited for some traffic and then you get some pucks to the net you get some double layers in front of swayman to me that i saw once or twice but i just did not see enough yeah and you mentioned swayman earlier in the show but no traffic he saw a ton yeah and that has to change tonight yeah matthews had a great shot that marner almost got the rebound keith got them out there together and someone took a penalty on marner almost at the end of a period he almost scored there would you start those guys right off the bat no i would marner no but i would look for opportunities to load it up to get you know

mitch only played 20 minutes and he you know he's a guy who can play 23 so i'd be eager to see him get a few extra shifts with matthews throughout the course of the game um but to me kip he doesn't go north like he just you know he is the only guy that hangs on to it but in the playoffs for me i see him almost hesitant to get up and get it get into the play a little bit a couple times like on breakouts i'm bringing it back he's never a north south guy he's not he's not but i agree that he's not but it feels to me like more passive and less just like you know sometimes you got to use your speed a little bit too. You can skate.

And it just seems very hesitant to me. I'm not sure what the difference is entirely, but, you know, McKinnon scores last night. You know, Vancouver's top guys are on the board. There's good players who score. Good players can score when the times get tough. And it's definitely a theme at this point. Okay.

Let's take a quick break and catch our breath here. Oh, my God. Okay, Sammy, look. In with the good air. Good job, guys. Out with the bad. Try it with me. Don't worry.

Try it with me. In with the good air. Out with the bad. I'm fine. Listen, one game doesn't make a playoff series. No, it does not. And I am sensing so much panic in Leafs Nation. And it's just because of the way it went, boys.

Bad special teams, stars not showing up, getting goalied, your goalie not making big saves. So I get why they're upset, but one game doesn't make a series. I also think that going down but going down one nothing sets the lens for how that whole game went and people were unable to see the positives when there were plenty in that game just once you're chasing the game everyone's like this sucks all right still more to chew on as we get ready for game two tonight hockey night in canada toronto and boston what do they do on the blue line changes yes or

no want to get your thoughts when we return to real kipper and born breaking down the top stories in the nhl every day the jeff maris show subscribe and download the show on apple spot, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back into the Real Kipper and Moren show. At the top of the hour, we'll welcome in Adam Oates, former National Hockey League Hall of Famer, president of Oates Sports Group, and does an amazing job of breaking down hockey. Yeah. Stanley Cup playoff hockey is what we'll get into with adam oats uh

defense before the break we touched on it uh i think if if we all gave boston the edge on the blue lines it would have been because of guys like lholm and Charlie McAvoy. I think that's the case here. But what did you get out of Saturday night from the collective blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs? Well, you know, not the biggest problem. I thought not scoring and not getting saves were bigger problems, but not great. You know, we talked so much about we're going to get playoff Morgan. Like, you know, playoff Morgan makes such a gonna get playoff morgan like you know playoff morgan makes such a difference i didn't think he was very good didn't think he was very involved

and then you know the pk gets lit up you're with otj brody and that was a big decision right to scratch a guy who's been such a huge part of this team and the penalty kill really struggled you uh yeah i thought uh collectively subpar which is just not even close to being good enough for the first time in quite a while i thought simone benoit struggled yeah and i know where you guys know where i stood with tj brody being on the outside looking in i would seriously contemplate bringing him back in yeah my number one feeling after watching game one is that the physicality part of simone benoit's game if it's gone i won't miss it as much as i probably would have thought a month ago. Because you have other physical deeds. Because we have other... On every pair. But I need our guys to be smarter here.

I need more intelligence out of the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. I need better sticks. I need better gap control. I need a better first pass out. Felt like they could not break the puck out a lot. That's where i thought morgan was bad was bad gaps way sagged this at least gives tj brody a chance to come in and maybe reset himself yeah because he is an intelligent player when tj brody's at his best he's smart guy

you know the we've got a stats guy at sports net jason murdoch does a lot of stuff they use tj brody a lot here in toronto this season and on the way to the success his time on ice for a game played for them this year he was second he played the most on the shorthanded on the penalty kill of anyone else you know he's he's up there in shifts and blocks and plus minus like he's he's been an important part of their decor and you know when he's played a lot for them they've typically won they've had a very good record when he's been over 22 minutes like there's a lot of data that says they're pretty good with them in would you do it would you would you take benoit out tonight for tj brody see i don't know if it's benoit i liked benoit skating like i think he's one of the guys that has the legs to to move and it's labushkin

then yeah for you labushkin struggled he had a bad night lilligran is no consideration for you he kind of had tough minutes and got put in their bench and was on the two-on-one there where he gets sauced over he wasn't great i'm just in i can't remember any good moments yet now i'm down to one right-handed shot d-man who plays limited minutes. And that's fine if that's the decision you want to make and say, all right, I don't think you owe any loyalty to these guys that you brought in at the deadline to say, you're putting in the best guys, right?

We're long past that. We're just into who can help me win tonight. And so I would have TJ Brody in tonight. I think if it's me, it's probably Lilligren out, but I'm tough on Lilligren. And according to Lion Rush's, Brody is out for tonight. But we don't know what they're going to do. Listen, it could come back to we made a decision.

We're not bailing on it. Let's stick this out for the first two games against the Boston Bruins. That could be the other philosophy is that we got ourselves behind the eight ball. We couldn't kill a penalty, but if we stay out of the box, we play five on five, we let the guys get into a bit of a rhythm here, our lineup is fine. That's the only way they don't make a change, right?

Yeah, you put a lot of effort into game one lineup, and there's logic behind the decisions you made. The logic doesn't necessarily change immediately. I think, you know, if you're Keefe, though, I think there'll be a lot of question marks if you go down in this series and Brody doesn't play a lot of games. I'm sure people will put that on the bulletin board

of reasons that you might not have employment after the series. Well, I mean, they've lost to the Bruins five times this year. If you go down 2-0, you're probably not beating them four or five in a row. You'd have to get through a lot of other reasons before you got to that one. Well, yeah, but I'm just saying, that would be on the ledger.

It would be there. It would be there. It would be there. It would be there. But we'd be exhausted from the other conversations that we'd have. We wouldn't even spend 10 seconds on that one. And the Brody thing. I do think that there's a real sense of distrust with the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs amongst Leaf fans.

I don't think. But, buddy, when the team loses and underachieves, that's just people are like, I can't see why they're losing, so it's him. I'm watching, like everybody else, head to toe, all the games. Go find me a team that you think is really good that would give up 140 foot, two on one,

three minutes into the game. I can appreciate some guys making bad mistakes but i i go back to the coach on that one i'm sorry you just as a coach that is your responsibility that that cannot happen play the right way to start the game yeah yeah i'm on the other side there. It's the way they play. It's their system. I want them to be physical.

I want Edmondson to have free reign to come down and throw that body. You just got to trust that your guys can play the damn system. If you can't, don't play. Yeah, and find yourself out again early in the playoffs. Buddy, when it doesn't work and you lose, you can say whatever you want to say, of course.

And that's what happens to 31 teams they're gonna then they're if they're gonna try their they're gonna either sink or swim with it right i would rather go down with the ship i would rather play the way you play than say suddenly we're a passive back off trap team because we have bad players no trust that he can play f3 you didn't spend 82 games to develop that. You didn't play 82 games. And listen, I don't want to get into this, okay? Because if, in fact, they get out early, we're going to have plenty of time to revisit on...

How it happened. ...where you wanted to pick apart reasons why they're out. When your team loses, the coach is always to blame. And that's fair. I'm just saying what i'm sent i said i just i watch the teams that were successful including the vancouver canucks and we'll have adam oates at the top of the hour we'll get more into the vancouver canuck game but i saw a canuck team that was like so disciplined so, know exactly what their responsibilities are on a four check.

I thought they looked terrified. Third guy, Vancouver? Yeah. No, I didn't. I can't wait to talk about it next hour. I thought they were set up to come back and win that game. Speaking of the head coach, the Toronto Maple Leafs, if you were that man, both of you,

who would start a net tonight for the Leafs? I think this is a very important question, and I'm glad we're getting to it. Yeah. Joseph Wall. Yeah, no. If you're not putting Brody in, you ain't putting Joseph Wall in. You're right.

By the very same logic of we made these decisions and put a lot of time and thought into it, and one loss doesn't change things, fine. You're going to go to Joseph Wall like you went to joseph wall last year when you are here your back is against the wall and you've got no other choice sammy pulled himself last year right he was sure but yes i so here's my logic my logic is this i do think if you're down to nothing to the boston bruins you're not cooked yeah you're pretty close to cooked and i just i just don't like it because you didn't get joseph wall ready you didn't get him ready

that is a very good point you did not give him a fair shake down the stretch no you did not no it wasn't back and forth and we're still in this it's you made it clear a long time ago with sammy's net and where where does that one fall on the key fletcher that's a definite negative yeah i i you just can't i mean those boston ruins lit up wall in two games against them he was awful down there when they went down there and played you can't start him game two down there i i lose both guys you if you start wall tonight and they lose then you lose both guys go wall tonight and they lose then you can't go back to samson off oh you can't go back down three nothing no you're cooked you lose both guys to me you do lose both guys but you've lost already yeah so who cares samson off's not playing for

the maple leafs next year if he's bad in a second game here oh they, then just throw Matt Murray in. I just think you have the chance. You give Wohl the opportunity to be the young hero. The Jordan Bennington. I know Bennington took over games later. And to, you know, before it's too late. I think you run the risk of you letting the series get away from you. And you say, oh, now we'll try different things. Swayman and Allmark have had this 1A, 1B.

There's no way they're going to not go to Swayman. Would you like to hear Jim Montgomery? Yes, we would. He's a real funny guy. You guys want to hear the clip? There's this one clip there, Derek, from Montgomery. It's funny you ask. You know, like, I don't like keeping you guys in the dark.

Danny, you play Wordle? Yes. You do? Yes. Okay, the starting goalie tonight has two vowels in his first and last name. Shut up. Give me a break. Is he trying to pull a Paul Maurice or John Cooper on us?

Oh. Now you really want him to lose. I, so, yeah. Both of their goalies. Yeah. Two fouls in their first last game. If that's the joke. If you don't go to Jeremy Swayman after that game, I mean, that's insanity.

Please start Linus. I don't care what you did in the regular season. Yeah. I don't care. He owns in the regular season yeah i don't care he owns you get a guy like that in the playoffs yes you're going back to back and all mark has had playoff struggles in the past last year with boston his numbers weren't great like swayman was awesome all right let's leave it to ryan ree. Okay? Yesterday, he summed it up beautifully for me. Derek, do we have that clip of Ryan Reeves?

The Hakuna Matata kind of motto. He can't be worried about what happened in the past. He's got to look forward, and I think that's what the script's going to do. That's what the Leafs need. They need a problem free philosophy. Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful

phrase. My daughter would be very pleased with the show today. There you go. There you go. Can we not do, I love you Reeves, but can we not do Hakuna Matata? Yeah, it's our motto. Let her rip there.

What are you doing? I'm the producer of this show. No more of that, please. It means no worries for the rest of your days. Dad just died. Had to leave his family and they're telling him to chill out. Don't worry.

That's it. No biggie. No biggie. Hakuna Matata. I'm going to be coming here looking like Scar tomorrow if they lose. Oh, God. I killed Mufasa. 1-1, and we get Sammy back. Yeah.

All right? I'll be putting on that jacket if they win tonight. I will reiterate something I said in the first hour, that I do believe that if they, they don't have to change a whole lot and it's going to be, you know, they, they can still win a hockey game.

I don't think they were that far off. I know you do. I'm not asking for your opinion. Give me mine. They got to be smarter. Me. It's intelligence right now. It's not,

we need to push harder. We need to fight back we need to punch them in the head yeah just got to be smart close gaps better sticks safe plays don't try to be the bruins play the percentages yeah one guy should be jumping up morgan riley that's it the rest of them i'm fine with try to win a game two one1. It's okay. No. Carolina can do it. That's the opposite of the advice. They need to score goals. They cannot win a game 2-1.

They cannot win a game 2-1. They have a bad goalie and no defense. But they're fine tonight. They're fine. 2-1. I hope they win 2-1. I could shove it right down your throats tomorrow. Absolutely.

I'd be happy to have that result, to be honest. The National Hockey League. All right, we're just warming up here on the Real Kipper and Bourne show. As we said, Stanley Cup playoffs, three more games besides Toronto and Boston, the Islanders, Carolina, Vegas, with Mark Stone back versus the Dallas Stars and then the LA Kings in our doubleheader tonight on Hockey Night in Canada Sportsnet.

They'll be in Edmonton. Adam Oates, Hall of Famer, will break all of it down for us when we return to Real Kipper and Born. Hakuna Matata.