Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Game 1 Assessment with Craig Berube

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by Maple Leafs' head coach Craig Berube (6:19) to chat about his assessment of the team's performance in a season-opening win against the Canadiens, if he'll consider line tinkering early in the year, Matias Maccelli's debut on the top line with Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly's skating, and Easton Cowan potential. Then, Nick, Justin and producer Sam McKee look across the ice on the Montreal Canadiens' first game of the year and how aggressive the Leafs will be in the top-six forward market.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.

It's the Leaf Hour edition of the Real Kipper and Bourne show. Nick Kipperyl's Justin Boren. Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, Jake the Snake Shultz. We're live on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360. Sportsnet 590, the fan and streaming, always on SportsNet Plus. And if you miss our show, catch us on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. Anywhere. We're over the place.

This hour, Real Kipper brought to you by Bet365. All right, J.B. Go. The Leafs win. The Canadians lose. Craig Brubi will join us in a few minutes. Yeah, that's exciting. We'll get his thoughts on what he liked and maybe what he needs to work. work on.

But outside of that, Leifes have this strangle hold over the Montreal Canadian and season openers. And it keeps going. 10 straight wins for the Leifes over the Canadians in season openers. Nine straight wins. No, 11 straight home games versus the Canadians.

11 straight home games they've won against Canadians. That's their second long. Second long against such streak in franchise history. Won 12 straight at home versus the Canucks from 2014 to 22. Yeah, you know, not going to say they won going away. you know they pretty pretty evenly fought match more or less the i had the leifes ahead and high danger chances and their power play wasn't great but listen they they found a way to get a couple a couple of timely goals and so what was just good what was the setup last night boys for jays and

leaps oh so i was i actually was leif's big screen jays little screen and everyone in my house was like we're not doing that we're all so jays went to the big screen leaps little and then i recorded Leafs, watched on the laptop, then went back post-game. Yeah, I had the Sportsnet Plus thing going on my phone, so I just switched it back and forth. Really? Okay. I couldn't not watch the

Jays last night. No, I had Leafs on the laptop with sound, and then Jays on big screen with no sound. I had to watch the Leafs last night. Yeah. More so than the Jays. I had a window here. They're up to one. There was still

some wiggle room. Yeah. They would have won two more night, Sammy. They would have won't one tomorrow night. What are you talking about? Yeah. Even if they won a bullpen game in Yankee Stadium. I didn't have to lock into the Jays last night. So I was hyperlocked.

Were you? Yeah. It just felt like the, as soon as they got those early runs, it just felt like it was. Early runs. It was one, one until the fifth inning. Well, they got out of the gate. They got out of the gate first. I think, uh, it was nice to have the Leafs on because I,

I put the sound on the lease on my computer and I was watching that closely and it was nice to pretend that the Jays didn't exist like I'd have them on on the big TV no sound and I was like oh it's like a regular season game I barely even paying attention blah blah blah but that's anything is I could watch the Leafs game

and then when something happens then it stops for a while I will say just quickly on the Jays you said you didn't even care about it last night you weren't locked in or whatever but the feeling that I have today is almost not even like exuberance It's just pure relief.

I'm like, thank God I don't have to do that again until Sunday. I thought that's a fun one. No, it's horrible. It's just horrible. Every moment is horrible. It should feel for you. It should feel like it's just getting started. It does.

I mean, they got pat. There's no relief. There's just a build for. I will say, I don't want you to be satisfied. I don't want you to be satisfied. This is a Brubé-A-like coach here. I don't want you to be satisfied.

If they lose the next round, you need to be crushed and disappointed. Duh. You know what? You know what? I felt additional pressure for the Jays because of Buck. Because Buck went out there and said, the Yankees are not a good team. And he was right.

They're not. They're not. And then he went back on in New York, I think, and doubled down. He's like, I was right. They are any good. They suck. So I felt some pressure for, to back up Jamie Campbell. But baseball, unlike any other sport,

has this feeling of winning like multiple championships before you win the championship. It is. Everyone knows it's too much. Disagree. I just... What do you? What do you? It's just like three-s champions.

It's like you've won three world series already. I love it. I love it all. I would say hockey could do a little more celebrating when they went around. They do. No, they don't. Just at the bar. No, they don't.

What celebrating do you want? No. Let the fans do that on the streets. We haven't done anything yet. And it's true. No, it's not true. It's something. It's between everything and nothing.

So when's the 10th year anniversary that the Leafs beat Tampa Bay coming up? No, it's not the same. In the first round. It's obviously. This is such a Kipper's egg. They didn't do anything. I wasn't even watching. This is classic Kip.

We've been working together five years. I'm really good. Oh, it didn't even matter. I wasn't even watching. It's only one championship. The group chat is Kipper. Oh, my God. God, a hundred exclamation marks he comes on here.

He's like, I don't even care. I don't even care. My mom was texting me about it. She goes, I can't believe I'm watching a baseball game. I got my artsy friends watching it. Don't be satisfied. You're in it to win it. They're saying the right things.

We don't have to. I agree with the fact that I'm not satisfied. But beating the Yankees is different than beating any other team. Beating the ecosystem that is the New York Yankees is one of the sweeter things that you could have. And seeing Vladdy dancing to Kings of New York. Yeah. And Schneider do the start spreading the news.

B-words. We're going, seeing all of this is great. The Yankees lose. If your Leafies, if your Leafies beat Florida last year and lost to Carolina, it still would suck. It'd have been less suck. And here's the thing. It's just sucky or no sucky.

They guess what? No more baseball we have. They wouldn't have lost to Carolina. All right. Okay. Enough of that baseball talk unless our next guest wants to get into it. So welcome in Craig Brew. be head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So it was a tough coaching last day with one eye on the ice and the other one apparently on a Blue Jay game, like everybody in the stands, apparently? Well, just in the third period, there was a little bit of a cheer going on there. Blue J's score came up or whatever, but no, it was good. Great to get back at it.

And great to get that win. no doubt the most important thing Craig the two points and getting the win but outside of that I got a sense from your post game comments that there's a few things that you want to talk about or work on before Saturday night against Detroit what are what's at the top of the list for the next a few days as you geared towards game two yeah I think execution with the puck but also just a little more directness with the puck. You know, I thought we were a little bit slower decision-making at times, and an execution wasn't great at times with the puck, you know.

And, you know, I've seen this before, but we could be better with the puck, and I think that caused some problems, obviously, when you, you know, put our players in tough positions with turnovers and, you know, not executing plays. Craig, when you look at your lineup, obviously some new line combinations, how do you go into the first chunk of a season and try to have patience while trying new things?

How quickly do you react to things as they're happening? I guess it's small samples, but we are learning things as we're going here. How do you approach trying to create lines with this early information? Yeah, I think you know, know, I keep, you know, experimenting, and like I did last thing, you know, I move guys around throughout the game a little bit here and there, you know, and I'm going to keep doing that.

I don't think that changes too much over, you know, maybe the first month. I think I'm going to move people around a little bit and try different things. But, you know, I mean, I'm not just going to quit on the lines after one game either. You know, I'm not doing that either. So you've got to have some patience, but also in game, you know, I'm going to mix guys around a little bit like I did last night. Can you give us, Craig, a little bit of insight in the changes just prior to last night's game because we saw Scott Lotton leave out.

And usually it's okay, Lotton's out. I'll replace them with maybe a fourth line center of my depth. And I would have thought Camp would go in. but you chose to change up the other lines as well. So that just couldn't have been all about Scott Lotton not being there anymore. I mean, there was other reasons why you wanted all of a sudden Marcelli to go back up with Austin. Well, I've, you know, I guess because I had, you know, I had the confidence in Max because I used them in that role last year and a third line at center quite a bit throughout the season.

And that was a big part of it when Lawton went down, to be honest with you. And then just the roster moves and things like that that we made, you know. So I'm working with what we got. And, you know, I've used Max there before and he's done a good job there. So that was the reason to put Max back there and get Machil up where I put him to try him out there with Austin and Nyes. And so I just had, I just juggled some guys around. and what I thought would be a good fit. And like I said, it's still, you know, we're working on it.

We're still, you know, trying to figure out if this will be a good fit or not. Like I said, I need more than one game. So we imagine that we'll see Marcelli with Austin maybe throughout the weekend here. What did you see last night? I thought it was a quiet game for Austin. What was your overall assessment of the big line? Yeah, I think they had some good shifts where they're possessing the puck and doing some good things, but obviously it wasn't enough.

We all know that. And it'll get better. I do believe that. I think some of their puck touches were not great. I go back to the puck again. I didn't think that we're making good plays with it. executing, you know, with our plays. So, like

I said, we've got to keep working on that. You know, that's something we're going to focus on tomorrow at practice, just making better puck plays, better decisions with it, a little more directness. You know, I thought that there was times where we tried to make plays

that they're just too difficult. We don't need to make those and it ends up, we turn the puck over. But, you know, I think there's something there at that top line with Machelli. Like I said, he can pass the puck he can make plays he made some plays last night but i think there's just they they need to find some chemistry between the three of a little more chemistry than they're showing right now yeah and obviously that takes a little bit of time for some guys uh it looked like some of the players

who have been here uh morgan riley was fantastic for you last night skating as well as i can recall seeing him skate um and then so with the other guys who haven't been here so much I don't want to say do you have lower expectations for them but you know how what is the process of getting Nick Waugh comfortable or Dakota Joshua obviously Machelli is getting nice opportunity here but do you put in extra times behind the scenes with them or how do you get them to where the other guys are at?

Yeah that's a good that's good question I mean I just think it's time it takes a little time to you know to feel it but you know I thought Nick Waugh's game got better as the game went along. I thought I had a real good third period. That's the Niqua that we, you know, we know from Vegas. I thought he was strong down the middle of the ice, his face-offs,

got better as the game went along, penalty killing, close him in game out, being out there in those situations and doing what he does. He's a big, strong guy. I thought he really showed that a third period. I thought Dakota, you know, it'll come with Dakota. He's a straight line player. it's simple getting in putting puck saving going to work

and being that heavy forecheck guy I didn't think that line got there enough for him to be as effective as he would be they just didn't get there enough and manage the game enough property to get there enough so that's

you know we're going to work on that and I think he you know I thought his camp was pretty good to be honest of what he brings to our team so I don't think it's going to be an issue with him I just think that the whole team struggled last thing with the puck to be honest of you. You're listening to Craig Bruby

head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Justin, you touched on it, Morgan Riley. I thought that was maybe his best skating game I've seen in a couple of years to be quite honest with you. How much of a relief or at least

how happy you were to see Morgan moving so well? Yeah, I'm very happy. I thought all camping moved like that. So I wasn't surprised. I mean, he's skating and doing the things that we want him to do and that he needs to do. You know, I was pretty impressed with him last night. Great to see him come out and play a real good game right off the hop,

contribute offensively. You know, just do the things he could do. He's capable of doing, you know, with him without the puck. And so he had a very solid game, very encouraging. But he put the work in all summer. He was prepared. Like I said, he had a real good camp. so I wasn't surprised that

he went out and played the way he did the one area you know guys got a great win last night obviously not everything was perfect as you mentioned the power play seemed to struggle a little bit and it's going to be a little different I guess the small personnel tweaks is that like the rest of the game where you feel

it's just a directness thing is something that you want to emphasize or is there something else you'll be looking for as you guys try to improve there yeah I thought we struggled on our entries on the power play last night that's where the problems, of my opinion, came from. You know, we only had two of them. We turned the puck over on one of them.

They scored. The other one, we had the puck in the zone, and I thought it was just too slow moving in the puck. You know, I think, you know, they just got to move the puck quicker. And then, you know, obviously, when you move it around, you don't want to overpass either, but you've got to move it quick, and then it's got to go to the end at some point.

And I didn't think that we did that, you know. So, again, it's like a five-on-five game. We've got to work on it. And we do work on it constantly, but we'll keep working on it. And, you know, it'll come around. But for me, it was the breakouts weren't very good on the P-P last night. Ended up causing us a goal. Another good sign that for me anyways was Bobby McMahon.

He looked like the guy that everybody was hoping would look like in the playoffs. And I know he struggled a lot. at the end of last season, but he looked big, he looked strong, he looked heavy, he went to the net. To me, it's another good sign. Yeah, and, you know, this has been conversations with Bobby

from the end of last year throughout the summer and before camp of how he needs to play, and I thought he executed that well last thing. I agree with you. He was skating, challenging D-wide with the puck, physical, got to the net, got a goal.

I mean, those are the types, that's what he does for us, and that's what we need from them every night. I mean, so again, good on him that, you know, he took the information and he went out and executed it. Craig, I know that coaches would say this is a good problem to have. You have a guy like Callie Yarncrock who shows up at camp and looks great,

great camp, seems healthy, scores a goal last night, he's really good for you. There's a lot of people going, okay, well, where is Easton Cowan fit in? But Yarn Croke's an experienced veteran guy for you. Does it complicate things? Obviously, it's good to have good players. Where are you at with Yarn Croke?

And when can we expect to see Cowan in the mix? Yeah, I'm glad we have Yarnie because I think he's a guy that, you know, you can use in different situations, plays with, he can play with good players, he could play in your fourth line, kills penalties, checks well. You know, he covers a lot of areas. and, you know, he's a great person, great teammate. So we're lucky to have him, in my opinion, and I like him a lot.

And Cowan, yeah, I mean, we didn't play him last night, but that doesn't mean he's not going to be in next game. Maybe he won't be, maybe he will be. But, you know, we've got to have little patience there, but at the same time, you know, I've got to make sure that he's not out too long because he needs to play. So I've got to find a way to get him in there.

These are the discussions that we constantly have, myself, Brad, the coaching staff. So, you know, Cal and I thought he came in and proved himself in camp and did a good job of doing things right and understanding what he has to do to make the team. And I thought he did that. So it's just about managing the lineup. Listen, we got, you have two or three extra players, right? and we don't want them obviously sitting out too long. We want them all to play and contribute a lot like we did last year.

I mean, I thought that we used everybody pretty much the whole season. There is stints where guys more on defense don't get in there that much if they're the 7D. But we try to use everybody and I don't see it changing. Craig, how does the workload schedule change for your goaltending? particularly Stolars with Joseph Wall not there and Caden, Primo, waiting in the wings here. Yeah, well, it changes obviously

and I thought, you know, last year we rotated pretty regularly throughout the year. You know, that changed a little bit, obviously, right now. Stolley's in a good spot, feels great. You know, so we, you know, the schedule will determine starts. For sure. You know, there's back-to-back games coming up and things like that.

So, you know, but there's going to be a little bit more load on Stoli. We all know that. Yeah. So is it kind of like when it is the back-to-backs or whatever with Primo, we know he's going to get some games. Will Hildaby be in the mix at all for you guys? Are you going to give these two a chance to run for a little while here? Well, yeah, he can be too.

Hilda B can be. But again, he's a little bit like Cal and, You know, we don't want him sitting up here and sitting out rather than playing. He's a young goalie that has great future. So it's best that he gets playing, right? Again, but he's available, so we'll see what happens, you know, where we're going to go from there. I got to ask you about a familiar face that is off your championship team in St. Louis,

Sammy Blaze. Was that your claim off waivers or was that Brad Tree Living's. I'm Brad I mean Sammy The name was brought up here before So he knows that I coached Sammy And you know

I like Sammy a lot I mean he did well for us And he was part of that championship team And he You know He's a guy that He's gonna be physical out there He's he likes to take the body

and he's got surprisingly good hands. He's, you know, he has the capability of making some plays and scoring some goals. So, you know, we'll see. Like I said, we got extra players. We're going to try to find a way to get them in. And I guess the last name I have in my list to ask you about what we had you was Nick Robertson, who continued to have a great training camp, you know, played 57 games for you guys last year. You know, it's been tough for him, right, to get opportunity.

I think at times, but at the same time, played a lot last year. Where are you at with his game and his ability to, I guess, grow within the Leafs? Yeah, and that's a good point. He has to continue to grow as a player. And he has the capability of shooting a puck in the net. You know, he works hard. He skates. He's quick.

I mean, I thought he came in a camp and, you know, came out and showed everybody that he belongs of the team like I thought he had a good camp again he doesn't obviously the things outside and all the noise is not affected him because he came in a camp and he earned a spot played well and started last thing he was in the lineup so that's on him he did a good job there and like I said you know we like him and you know he defied speed and he and he he has the ability to shoot a puckering on that. So like I said, he's part of the team. We've got extra guys and we've got to try to figure out.

It's, you know, game by game, see where we're at. There might be guys in and out so we can get everybody playing. You know, it seems to me, Craig, that you got a handful of guys that are kind of in this mushy middle where they can play anywhere between nine and 13, 14 minutes. Is there ability for one of them to step up and start going into that 15 to 18 minute mark? I mean, you had a guy like Mitch Marner, and we know he's gone,

but you knew he could play 23, 24 minutes. And is there a guy that you can develop now or ultimately will Brad feel the need to go get somebody that could play 17, 18 minutes? Well, I think we have guys. capable of getting there and you know you know not everybody can play that many minutes there's guys that have the motor to do it right and you know I think watching Cowan from junior to now he's got a motor on them so that's a ways

away but I do believe in time that he could get there and do that I do believe that in my mind whether we need to go and find somebody that'll you know we'll have to see about that right that trades are hard to come by it seems like but uh you know we'll we'll have to figure that out down the road all right Craig last one for me I promise this time just uh you guys added Derek Lalonde your coaching staff uh NHL head coach previously uh does have you guys changed any year division of duties with his addition He took over the PK and a lot of what Lane did last year for us. You know, very, very happy to have him.

We're lucky to have him. He's very good coach, very intelligent, great with players, you know, really has a good stents about it with players, how to approach him and talk to him, very good personality that way. So I think he'll do a good job with our guys from an individual standpoint and helping players develop and get back. better. But overall, he fits in really well with the chemistry on our coaching staff, so it was it was great hire. I didn't know him personally, but, you know, in the hiring process, I talked

to a lot of players that played for him and different coaches and things like that that have worked with him and became highly regarded. Craig, good luck this weekend, back to back, I think, with Detroit. So I wish you all the best and really appreciate your time on our show. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you. And we'll talk to you soon. You bet.

Sounds good. Good luck. Thanks a lot. That is the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, last year the Leafs power player, penalty kill was 20th, somewhere around there. So. Every time at the time, Craig Brewy scared the crap out of my mom. What?

No. Yeah. I'm rooming with him in Hershey. You're roommates with Craig Brube. Yeah. Huh. And my mom and dad are coming to the game, but they come early.

They want to come to see me. So call me up. I say I'm in room, whatever. And Chief answers the door. And he's wearing like a ripped off t-shirt with his guns, just ablazing. And my mom looks at him. Lones and roses, leaveless shirt. She's like, she looks at me.

She looks at him. And he's like a Coke machine. Yeah, he's a, he's a, he's a weapon yeah he's a weapon yeah and she's like you're not playing in this league yeah yeah you're not those guys is chester as deep as they are why oh yeah yeah yeah i'm not yeah uh okay so what'd you what'd you grab from that uh robertson's out cowen on saturday um interesting yeah i i just maybe those last few comments about grooming easton cowan and i think i think i think

he knows what he has with this lineup it didn't sound to me like there was an abundance of confidence that like there's someone in that group that could step up and play a more definitive role as as a frontline guy so he's just going to have to kind of mix and match here and like at the end of the day Nick Waugh is capped I don't know what it is 14 minutes 15 minutes, 15 minutes. I think he's 15. I like it. Okay, 15. It doesn't.

I don't think Dakota, Joshua is going to be a guy that can play 16 or 17 minutes. I don't think, you know, Nick Robertson's in the plans to push him up in the top six and play 17 or 18 minutes. No, I would say. Who is out there for you? He mentioned that, like, in game he's going to make changes based on who's playing well and who isn't that's going to be a consistent thing and i think that's the right wing spot with matthews and nyes is going to be like the here's the guy who's skating tonight reward spot so michelli but they want him they'd love for him to find it he's the only one be a guy

that that runs shotgun on a top two line and play 18 minutes a night i mean he hasn't proven in the league that he can be that yet i would love i think that's they look at their lineup like you and i are doing now and they're going he's the only one of with the pedigree to do it. Like, if he could find it, it's tough to play with great players. There's the pressure, there's whatever. He did make a couple nice plays last night.

First shift. I think he won a battle on the boards and put it right out in front. McCabe who ripped it. Yeah. But it wasn't with Austin. Yeah, it was. That play was.

Yeah, he was on the ice with Austin. Austin didn't have one scoring chance last night. Not one. Your point is the play he made wasn't too Austin. I'm just saying that's the most important thing here is that he finds chemistry with Austin Matthews. There's no world that he can do what you think he can do without Austin. It has to be with Austin.

For Machile to have 80 points, like I said yesterday, you're going to have to find a little chemistry. I know. But last night, Austin had as quiet of a game as I've ever seen his whole career. Yeah, come on. I mean, I've seen some quiet ones. Zero scoring chances.

Not one or two. Right. Zero. Yeah. Okay. That's as quiet as it gets. It can't happen. Over 60 minutes, it can't happen.

Machelli, Domi, somebody's got to create with this guy. Yeah, but like, It's not there, Kip. They don't have the player. It's not on the roster. You know, like Domi's not going, Domi's 31 or something. 30 is not becoming something he's never been in the league.

That's a concern. Sure is. But it was a concern two weeks ago too. It's like this is a thing. So I'm curious, is this, let's see how good we are and wait till the deadline, see what we can get then? Or if they're like, we know we need this now.

Yeah. How long? How long? How long can you wait? I think the more they win, the longer they can wait. Last night's an example, like probably even last year, where they get outshot again. Stolars outside of Morgan Riley is the best leaf.

And, you know, the star players for Montreal, like Suzuki and Cole Caulfields, I mean, they didn't have a good night either. And by the way, credit to Waugh on that. He did a great job against that line. Yeah, but are you going to have to get a lot of points again like they did last night where it's like it could go either way and then Stolar is just out goalies his opposition? Because he mentioned that their puck touches were bad.

Like I think he's talking about, remember like five minutes into the game, Willie tried to like put it through someone at the blue line, turn it over, everyone kept skating. It's like, what is that? You know, like I think you make better plays at the blue. I thought that line was good. They were good. They were good. Yeah.

but yeah I do worry about that whole possession stuff and having the puck more than the other team they need someone but I do think you have to get into the year to the teams figure out what they have okay we're bad okay we're sellers you know no one's giving up I don't know how you don't know already what the Leafs don't have right I know the Leafs know lots teams know what they don't have but I think other teams believe they're good right now

who won't believe they're good after they lose a bunch two months from now so by American Thanksgiving that's kind of your first checkpoint of What are we? Yeah, yeah. But again, last night's another example. Like, I didn't think Willie had a great game either. And that guy's so talented, he ends up with three points.

I thought he was pretty good. I thought he was pretty good. Yeah, I mean, sets up the first goal of the game. And twice, he finds Riley on the early. Two assists. And somehow these guys still are a threat, man. They are. But that's elite players, right?

It's like, oh, he was out there tonight. Oh, he had two points. You know, that's those guys sometimes. Yeah. May have to look like that a little bit for a while. I think they're going to be in pretty even talent fights often. And when their star players are great, they'll get wins. And when their star players aren't great,

it's going to be, see how the goalie plays and hold on to your butts. It's not exactly the most. It's not the worst forecast. Let's take a break. And then we'll do game time after the break. All right. He's the producer, Sammy McKee, says, let's take a break. when we return more real Kipper and Bourne after these words.

Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the Hockey PDO cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the studio, Nick Kippreos, Justin Bourne, and Sammy McKee. who's in a pickle. Oh, you are the worst. Listen, there's off the record and on the record, and this is an off-the-record conversation.

I never said anything. I just said you're in a pickle. Oh, yeah, great. A dilly of a pickle. Okay. No, there's no, I'm not backing anybody up. Derek, stop that. Stop that.

I didn't say anything. Here we go. I didn't say anything. Do you want me to tell our fans? No, no, I'm just going to generalize. Okay. This weekend puts a lot of people in a pickle.

It's Canadian Thanksgiving. Yes, it's Canadian Thanksgiving and the Jays could be playing in the first game, right? Not, it could be, are. Are playing game one of the ALCS. Thanksgiving Sunday. They won't last time.

I know you weren't locked down. You don't care. I'm hoping for a 10 a.m. start so you can do both. Yeah, the game. The unprecedented 8 a.m. first pitch. Okay, so, yeah. You got a pick. I got.

Okay, I got offered two tickets from a close friend of mine for face value for the game on Sunday. So jealous. Yeah. But I am a very family-oriented guy and I love my mother and I love my father and I love my sister. Yeah. I love my nephews and I love my wife. But if you miss Thanksgiving. I cherish family time and I have a guilty conscience.

Yeah. But. But. But I. Listen, there's Thanksgiving comes around every year, baby. ALCS doesn't. And we got Christmas coming out. That's the best arguing you can make.

Your family only wants one turkey that day. They don't need to. Don't give them two. And they'd have to live with me sitting on the couch at my sister's cottage when the Jays are running it up. And I'm like, I should have been there. Mopey Moperson. I don't know. We'll see.

I haven't decided yet. Sleep on it. I think I've already made. Anyways. Just overall thoughts on Montreal last night because there's high expectations there as well. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, like they skate really well from the back end. Hudson, Dobson, Leiko Struble skates. Obviously, Matheson skates well. Like great mobile back end. Heavy and tough enough. Like Dobson's a nice skilled player, but I don't see any sandpaper remotely around them. So this is the tough part.

about pulling yourself out of the basement. So you get good players like the players I just mentioned, and then you get to not be bad anymore. Okay, now you're in the game's wildcard team, or you're not a wild car, you're in that pocket of teams. And then it's like, then you start comparing yourself against the good teams. And it's like, okay, you're mobile.

Are you heavy? Are you this? The list of what you need, it gets harder to meet them all. I think they're kind of where they were last year around the league. You know, like I don't think they've improved a whole ton of. I know people like that Bull Duke. Scored a nice goal last night. Yeah, Dobson.

Dobson, I'll tell you what, Islanders fans turned on him at the end of last year. Did they turn him into 15, 16 overall? They got Atchison and whoever else. People are very happy. So there's a reason. Dobson's good. Patrick, well, I didn't, was in a fan.

Yeah. The Islanders fans were sharing with me the, the Matthews empty netter where Dobson just powered down. Probably too hard to ask Jake to pull up the empty netter for the lease last night. I don't know how the hell he would do that right away. But I understand. We're like, seen it, seeing that.

If you're not going to, like, mix in two hard strides an opening night with your new team for the Montreal Canadians against the Toronto Maple Leafs, like, I know it's just one little thing, but that is a little bit of a concern, but, like, eye-opening moment for me. Talented, imperfect player, for sure. Don't, it's okay.

Don't worry about it. And it was, it was the Matthews goal. I put the most part. What happened to Patrick Line? Did he get, did he play 12 minutes last night? 13 minutes. They took that bad penalty. Was it on Tanna?

Yeah, the reaching. Yeah. This guy was... He was Matthews. He was Matthews. He was one of the fastest scoring young guns in recent history. Shows you how much is up here, man. You know, and like, just that it's hard to do it.

What? No, I just got a hilarious text for my nephew. So, it's my birthday. So I'm getting a lot of text. Oh, happy birthday. Yeah. I get a lot of text. Thanksgiving.

Yeah. and my turkeys. My nephew who's away at university for the first time you just sent me home in this text.

Hopefully my sister's not... No, can't share and hopefully my sister's not listening because I'm going for dinner with her tonight she's like, what do you say?

Love you, Jack. She's not listed. Sometimes she does. So yeah, I think Montreal is going to be in the mix for playoffs again. Not a lock.

Not a lock. Not a lock. No. They could they could take a step, a small step back. Progress is never linear, boys.

This is what my argument was for them missing the playoffs. Like they, it was a real shock that they got in last year, and they got a lot of standing block. They were like last place early, weren't they? Yeah, they had a hard climb, and they lost 10 in a row and won 10 in a row. Like, they had a really, well, maybe that's not correct, but it feels like they had a really long losing streak and a really long winning streak.

It just, to me, it doesn't feel like it's necessarily linear. We'll see, like if Demadov can take a real step. By the way, that's the one that I will say, I may be a little different than some people, because people love Demadov and I think his ceiling is incredibly high as one of the league's most talented players. You could see like the multi-gears

that he has to... Dude, his shimmy last night that he cooked Nylander on. Yes. He is, but I am a little hesitant about giving him the Calder trophy. You know, he got into playoffs last year and was very quiet. And I don't know.

Like, I think he's probably a 50-point guy this year and some highlight reels. Missed one coming straight down the shoot last night, landed on a stick in the sweet spot, and he banged it off the end of us. He'll have some days we come in here and go, oh, wow, he's electric. For those of you that didn't catch our first hour, we had a bit of a conversation on expectations on teams,

and we just mentioned the Montreal Canadiens, and their expectations to go back to the playoffs, no question. Vancouver in our earlier hour, same thing. I mean, we talked to Sat Shaw. And he was mentioning that they should be able to compete for a spot as well. So many expectations around the league. I mentioned earlier that it's the only one. Like even when I look at San Jose Sharks,

like they don't want to, they're not looking to dump. They're looking to now build and win. Chicago has expectations. And I'm looking to build and win. like there's there's high expectations for like 30 teams to be better yeah and better means we're not dumping right so it's game one ish for everyone right now who wants to lose this year Pittsburgh we think wants to lose Boston I think would prefer to lose than win I don't think so

okay I think they spend a lot of money on good players but he's door off Lindholm they've got swayman who wants to come back and prove himself. And I don't think they're this bad. They're not dumping. Okay. So it's only Pittsburgh in the league that we think wants to lose? No, Chicago wants to this.

No, Chicago, they want to get points. They want to build. I'm telling you. You can't lose for years on purpose. Then be like, here we go. It's hard. It's hard to turn it around. So, yeah.

To your point, Kip, it's... You made a comment yesterday about still thinking that the Leafs will, you know, go out and get somebody big. like in a trade i i do think that i mean what we just talked about in our our block beforehand and what the coach kind of just told us yeah i i think that you can anticipate heading towards the trade deadline and this is a lot of what raps living does in terms of tire kicking and whatever i think the least are going to be in the rumors for all the top guys i think they're going to be like somebody that's looking to add i don't think i don't think this is a

complete. I don't know. Game one's not looking like this in the playoffs. I'm not sure how many by March names will be out there outside of pit. There's always names. It's October. I know. It's October 9th.

I don't think that there's going to be enough supply for the demand. Agreed. And you have to ask you. In quality, Sammy. In quality. Okay. I think teams that. My point is that these teams want to get better.

They're not, a lot of them are tired of. stripping. Right now they do. It's like I said, it's the biggest night of the season here where it's all the teams opening up. Of course everybody right now thinks they're good. But by the trade deadline last year, there are so many on the fence, Sammy. That's Gary's fault. No,

it's just... It was flat cap for 15 years. Everybody thinks we're good. It's because teams didn't know if they were buyers or sellers fast enough. Yeah. And they just they kind of let it pass. I just don't know, going back to the Leafs, how realistic is there an 18 to 20 minute winger

still going to be available. Yeah, like if it's available at any point, you have to act, because there may... Like the only one I can tell you right now that I could definitely tell you is Rust. You want Rust out of Pittsburgh, you just put a nice package together for Pittsburgh and you can have them now.

Would that be enough? Rust, is that a good enough player? I like him. Yeah. he's all right he's had some moments for sure but I don't I don't think that's if you're the Toronto Maple Police and you're a Toronto Maple Leaf fan and they've been talking about adding this top six forward I think if that big splash is Brian Rust you're probably going to be a little bit disappointed no I mean he had 31 goals and 61 they put a heavy offer for Brock Besser I mean that's the type of player we're talking about the lease did yes after 33 years old yeah he won the cup there in 17 with them it's a 16 and 17. Now, hold on. Let me ask you something.

If you could trade for him now and you're Pittsburgh, what do you think they're asking for them from the Toronto Police? Well, if you're Pittsburgh at this time of year, yeah, you want Easton Cowan. Yeah. Yeah. You'd probably do it for just Easton. And your answer is? And your duvists.

And your answer is? No. Of course it's no. Yeah. No. So. Danford, we can have a conversation. God, Danford in a second is going to be years ago.

Hunter Brown. in a second. Danfer's not... Bracko in a second. Yeah, Carter Brown and Bracko in a second. Danford's not in a prospect. That's the problem. He's getting there.

Boy, they're talking them up. They were talking about. He's moved into a B plus. But he's not Cowan for value. And then outside of that, that's all people are going to ask for, out of the Leafs. Yeah. And the coach just came on and said, that Cowan could be the 18 to 20 minute guy down.

And he's got an engine. Well, and you think about, you know, when we were talking about Matthew Nyes coming out of college a couple years ago and you go, would you trade him? Would you trade him? Because you don't know what he's going to be. Now you see what he is.

Yeah. You go, thank God you didn't do that. Well, unless you would have made a trade for him that helped you win in the Stanley Cup. My fake trade. If he had a cup in the bank. I think I said I would trade him for Timel Meyer at one point. That's an NEPC.

Yeah, I probably would have agreed with him. Probably. Having seen Nyes by two college games or Yeah. Maybe that player could help you beat Florida. Maybe. They were game short, but they weren't close. There was two games in there where it was not close. You know what I thought about was like even like last year when Max Domi scored.

Yeah. It was 3-1. What's that? When Max Domi scored game seven. Game seven. It was 3-1 in the first. 3-1. Yeah.

With a little bit of energy. Yeah. It was 4-1-9 seconds later. Yeah, I think it was 35 seconds later. On the... But... No, it was over. I'm not saying that the least were ever close,

but that's a close moment late in a game. And I remember the feeling of being like, okay, let's, you know. And Joseph Wall gave up a stinker. Yeah. To 4-1, and then the roof caved in. Oh, did it ever? What else you got?

Quickly, this is a funny clip from Riley. I mean, we're at the end of the show. It's almost Friday. Tomorrow's Friday. It is. So it's a funny clip. It's about the GoJ's go chance at the Leaves game last night. It's a good clip.

Riley, clip one, please. There. I like that. It's not the first time I've heard him, but I heard him early in my career in a negative way. 2015, 16, whatever that was when they are. So it's cool. I mean, we got the game on now, so we got the boys all around the TV watching it. That's pretty funny.

Do you guys remember that? Oh, yeah. And I remember the other way around in September when the Jays were stinking the join out. People chant let's go Leafs. Go, Leaves, go all the time. Like every, like the back and forth between the two, there was always a thing. So I thought that was cool. That was pretty good by the Leafs to put it up.

They were putting up during the commercial breaks. They were put it on the screen and they were putting up in the intermissions. It was on after the game. I think people stayed there after the game to watch on the Jumbotron. That's a cool cross-port moment. Dual 5-2 scores too last night. Pretty neat. Yeah.

I think it's cool. What else you got for us? Well, I mean, it's another cross-sport reference here. Hey, we got a huge trial in Detroit. Oh, let's not do this. Let's not do this. You showed it to me. Yeah, Kipper.

Everything, not everything I thought. Oh, I didn't do game time. I got to do game time quickly. It's game time. Presented by Bat 365. Visit the app for latest odds and find out what it's ever ordinary at bet 365 must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

Hold on. Barks. We got over here. Barks, get over here. Come on, come, go on. I got to do this quickly. Toronto Blue Jays to win the American League are now the favorite,

regardless of who comes out of the other series. They're minus $150. Come here. So Jays are big faves to win the American League now that they're into the second. We're not even knowing who it's going to be. We're going to get the breakdown. We're doing a game time.

They need a baseball guy. And if I'm looking at the World Series odds, the World Series odds on debt three. The Toronto Blue Jays are plus 290, which is the second favorite to the L.A. Dodgers at plus 200. Oh, my God. Facing Shoah and the world. But the Milwaukee's not through yet, right?

So they could technically not get true. Well, listen, I need this to wrap up so we can get to you talking about some trial. No, no, no, we're good. No, no, no, we're good. We're going to talk about the trial tomorrow. But here's the thing, what I'll say. The only team left, there's two teams left in the, in the National League that would have home field advantage.

over the Toronto Blue Jays and that is the Philadelphia Phillies who are now down to 1 to the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewer. So if it's the Dodgers in the World Series versus the Toronto Blue Jays,

Toronto Blue Jays will have home field advantage. Pretty cool. Anyways, that was game time presented by Bet365. Visit the athlete of odds and see why it's never ordinary at Bet 365 must be 19 plus

Ontario only. Please play it. I saw John Gibson, Gibby compared the... John Gibbons. John Gibbons, that's it. John Gibbons. Gibson's the goalie.

Yeah, correct. John Gibbons compared the this Jay's team to the 2015 Kansas City Royals that beat their team. Love that comparison. That's actually a really good comparison because that team never struck out and you felt like you were going to beat them all the time and you just never could.

Once again, our thanks and a reminder that Real Kippermborn brought you by Bet365 who are always good sports putting up with us. We love you. All right, it's Thursday which means one more show for the big weekend.

What's that? 100 games. So much hockey. So much. Pick your game. Enjoy it. And we're back tomorrow. Talk all about it. If you got a chance, give us a rating and review. We'd love to hear from you as well. Have a great night, everybody.