Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Game 1 Lineup Battles

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Daniele Franceschi kick off with some thoughts on Alex Ovechkin's record-breaking moment over the weekend before looking back on the Leafs' 5-0 win over the Blue Jackets. They get into Nick Robertson's 2-goal outing and whether it gives him an edge for a spot in the playoff lineup, Brandon Carlo's steadying presence, the Panthers losing ground to the Senators in the Atlantic and much more. Later, former Leaf Curtis Joseph joins the show (29:45) to discuss Ovechkin's goal record and his experience playing against the Great 8. Then, CuJo weighs in on the Leafs' goaltending heading into the playoffs, what a playoff mindset means in net and the increase of goalie interference calls.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.

All right. We kick it up again on the real Kipper and born show batteries recharged. Yes. You're fresh. Feel fresh, baby. What's happened since I've last done a show globally. I will bully that. So globally, I will believe that Kiprius Justin Bourne in for Sammy McKee. Disco Daniela. Daniela. Daniela. Hello, pal.

How are you? Yeah, I'm good. Great to be back in this chair. I hear Sammy's on some like tropical getaway. Love, love having you here. But who gave Sammy permission to leave? He's never had permission. He just left.

He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. He's never had permission to leave. I hear Sammy's on some like tropical getaway love love having you here, but who gave Sammy Permission to leave he's never had permission. He just left he's gone I think his lovely wife has taken him on a on a getaway of sorts. I get away. Yeah So I'm sweating out missing a couple of shows last week This guy's taking the whole week off. It's just the week before playoffs and Florida Tampa Bay games coming up though it's fine it's all good Sammy enjoy I certainly did fresh off a little golf trip got in

Cabot st. Lucia last time we spoke on the show I told you I'm heading south I did a detour at the end, and I spent another two and a half hours south to St. Lucia. The truly baffling part of that is we asked you where you were going the day before your vacation, and you said, I don't know.

Well, I said, the plan was a cabin course. It was. Yeah, and then it kind of just shifted south That's that's nice to have the luxury to just go to cab of course So st. Lucia for people who haven't Google cab at st. Lucia for the golf course. Oh my god Got the t-shirt too that I brought you a hat back and you very much brought a hat back, but Sammy's not here But it yeah, it's not here but it yeah it's spectacular I'll claim it no work all let's just see how the week goes yes sir

go yes sir sounds good all right and then we'll give you a bit of a reward I'm glad you got to have a little break I'm glad you're feeling my friend playoffs coming up we're gonna need you at your best. You're rested. For sure. In about half an hour, we're gonna welcome Kujo, Curtis Joseph back, former NHL goaltender, of course, with your Toronto-made beliefs. We haven't had him on in a while. It'll be great to hear from him.

And then at the top of the hour, Brooks Orpek, former NHL defenceman, of course, teammate of a player. I forget his name, it'll lose me, but he passed Wayne Gretzky. Had some success recently. $8.95 for the great Ovechkin. Yes, this is our Leaf Hour edition, but your thoughts on what we saw yesterday? I don't know if you saw it live or you picked it up

on the replay. I did tune in and I thought my first thought was, you know, it'd be interesting to see how this thing plays out. The game stopped. I thought it had the right tone for, you know, one of the greatest, one of our greatest NHL records ever. It wasn't too long for me. Of course, Wayne, the commissioner, I know the owner, but what were your initial thoughts? I mean, timing couldn't have been much better, right? It's a second period of a game against the Islanders who are pretty done. Ovi gets it in the, you know, roughly the Ovi spot

You know there he is right at the actually exactly the Ovi spot top of the circles So yeah, you can't ask for much more. What a great celebration. I thought the dive was wonderful. The reactions were great Yeah, you know, I don't have anything but but positive things to say about the way it went down for a guy who once said when asked about breaking Gretzky's record, he's like, I don't think it's possible. I'd have to score 50 goals for 18 straight seasons. I remember the conversation on Hockey Night in Canada with David Amber. He was the one that brought it up to us and it's not that you didn't believe that he could do it well, you didn't believe at least for me was that he would find a way to stay healthy and and Score at the rate. I honestly thought that the body would break down at some point 100%

It was never I you know, I was skeptical that he would get there and And by skeptical, I said four years ago, still no. Because of exactly what you're talking about. He's been a physical player his whole career. But more than that, you know, he's built like a whiskey barrel and he doesn't strike me as someone who's like number one goal is like health and fitness. And I just thought Father Time catches up to all men, why not him? And Father Time has been staved off to the up to this moment so I yeah that was what my bet was against and DA got it right. Bears mentioning too, Borny 16 games he missed, broke his leg. Yeah 16 games this year.

This year! And then he still somehow did it. It's yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, I thought it was cool. Even going back to Friday night where he ties it home ice crowd special atmosphere. But then the acknowledgement of now ain't doing it on an empty net. Yeah, that that cognizant that moment of being very conscious of saying, nope, don't send me over the boards for an empty net opportunity. I'm good. I don't want that. And then you factor in that added element of 16 games,

miss broken leg. He came right back and looked like he didn't miss a beat. And then he does it. Nevermind like pushing it to the last two games of the regular season. He does it with time to spare. It was just, it was really cool. It was really well done. And in true greatness fashion, that everyone followed him around and it wasn't a drawn out, like, oh, this is awkward to watch. They've been following for two weeks.

He can't shoot it in the net. That he just got hot and it's, you know, he's great. He's the greatest ever doing. We will have plenty more on Ovechkin in his heroic weekend on his 895th career goal. Brooks Orpek will join us at the top of the hour. In the meantime, Toronto Maple Leafs, do not miss a beat while I'm away playing many holes. Sounds great. Of course, I think the one that probably convinced a lot of people that they are truly today

in the driver's seat of the Atlantic division was beating Florida last Wednesday and then taking care of business on the weekend against Columbus. They've looked really good lately. You know, they're you kind of hoped it all would come together at the right time for them. And this is not to say that it has come together necessarily, but I think there's really encouraging signs I think the team defense has been great a lack of second-chance opportunities For the opposition has been great their top six looks very good Honestly kipp it's there's reason I think to feel

Like they're in playoff form right now. Like they just kicked the crap out of a team on Saturday night in a way we haven't really seen them do that often. Toughness. That's the other thing too. A little bit of toughness. A little bit more grit in there. You're seeing it. You're hearing the players, Matthew Nye is today talking about, I love the North-South style. Oh, okay. Here we go. But you're seeing, you're starting to see more signs, visible signs of embracing that style of play. And I mean, we're gonna see two games this week, obviously that are really important,

playing Florida and Tampa again, and getting a better feel for it a week away, or just over a week away from playoff hockey. But yeah, I mean, they've looked good. They've looked really good, steady, solid. And I think that element of adding a little bit more like net front toughness has been noticeable for me. Our boy, Lorenz, fought.

Yeah. Lorenz did a fight. We had conversations on Stephen. Yeah, who we love. So he's Lorenz now, he's not Stephen when you drop your gloves. Mr. Lorenz. Mr. Lorenz now. He's not Steven when you drop your gloves Mr. Lorenz and he

It looked to me like it was enough that he had some some juice the the heart was beating Yeah, right, and he wasn't scared to throw punches and it was a real meaningful kind of fight. It wasn't that Everyone's watching me. so I better do this. I should do this. It just felt like it maybe felt naturally to them. I don't know what that means moving forward. At times you have what it takes to not do it every night or do it once a week, but just have it in you.

If you think at the time you need to do it, can you now do it? I'm totally in that camp of just as long as guys have the willingness to do it, there's a scenario where it can happen, then the opposition has to at least respect them a little bit and can't, you know, like the old Marchand on the Sedens back in the day, the Sedens were never going to fight it. There was there was never a threat of that. So you can just do whatever you want.

And at least the more guys you have who say, okay, there is a line I can get to, I think it's a good thing for the Leafs. All right. For those of you that don't know, this is a lineup sheet from Disco Dan. We should cover Steve. And it is in a way, you know, Sam, he's away. And I hope he's not watching or listening. He's not. Okay. So this lineup from Disco Dan is like something

that you think would come from Yale University. And Sammy's is like community college. The problem is it's so thorough. You need to come here earlier to prepare to get through this. So I know all the good stuff. We got 15 clips in here. We do. I can't find any of them. They're in black page two, three there. What's section B 0.2. All right. Let's go to one head coach. Craig Verrubi on the overview of the team's performance so far.

Yeah. I thought that, um, coming into the game, we talked about staying patient against his team. This, they got a lot of talent over there. They could score goals, but I thought we defended well, goalie made saves, stayed in it this eventually took it over in the third, you know, like we wanted to you know, and I Liked our team sticking up for each other in the third period good job there you know it started to get a little chippy, but I like that we stick up for each other and handled that I Didn't mind Columbus's start. No?

No, they actually looked okay, even when they were down one nothing. Yeah. The Leafs at times can look to me like they spent a little bit too much time in their own zone. But the important thing is, if you're gonna play this way, and I don't know,

did they have a dozen shots after 25 or 30 minutes? The Leafs? Oh, I don't think so. But they've done that when they get Leafs. I know. Yeah, they stop playing. It's not that they stop playing, they're just not, they don't create a ton, but you have to be able to defend

and take away the middle of the ice and then have really good goal tending. That's what I saw Saturday night for the first half of the game, maybe even more. And then to Ruby's point, they took over the third. The third was like, yeah, they're done. So then with this not creating no puck possession thing, do you think Nick Robertson did enough, can do enough to be a guy that they choose to put in? Cause he is someone, he's one, I think he almost has as many even strength goals this year

as both Austin Matthews and Mitch Markoff, if I'm not mistaken. For me, Nick's not in game one for me today. But I don't know what's gonna to happen for the next two weeks. How many games we got left? Half a dozen games. Still a lot of games to go. A lot of different scenarios that you have to consider.

How healthy are you going to be by game one? And where are you on balanced attack? Where are you feeling good about your lines and the energy that you've created towards game one? I worry about Nick sometimes playing along the walls and Saturday night he gave- In every other way than shooting it in. Right, who, forget the defenseman

that slammed him into the boards there. Oh God yeah. Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson thank you and then you know he bounces on the next shift and he's in for a hard four check. Yeah which and then he put someone into the boards. He's a bit of a pro-vrv. That's right so it's a good look but you may consider if it's Florida being heavier. That's all. Yeah, of course. Of course.

And I agree with you that game one, it's unlikely. And I agree that he probably will and can get in. There's a point where you're going to need some goal scoring prowess. We've got a number of Robertson clips here. Why don't we just hear a few start with the Barube clip to please. I mean, I think he's well, he's been in a lineup a lot. I mean, like I said, this morning, like he, he got taken out, you know, and then we, we were winning games, I didn't change lineup.

But listen, the guys got great speed, can score goals, you know, he can shoot. He's played pretty good hockey for us this year. It's not like he hasn't. And like I said, sometimes you make decisions in the lineup, but Nick's just going to manage the puck more than anything, I think. Being simple with it, getting pucks out, getting pucks in. And then when you have the opportunity, he can use this. He uses his speed very well and capitalizes on some chances he gets.

So just being defensive, responsible and managing the puck. Yeah. So turnovers is a big deal with him. Clearly. But it's like, it's at the blue line where it's like, you're not going to create anything anyway. Like he doesn't default to the safe play. Like he just like, okay, how can I score a goal? And then last second try to dump it in. It's a half chip or whatever. There's something there with this kid.

He has such a sense for the net and goal scoring, whatever. Which is why we've joked on the show. He's like tailor-made to score 25 goals for the 30th place team. Which is a terrible thing to say, but like, if he can hang in there long enough to stay in the lineup, he'll shoot a couple in for a good team too. Buddy, you're talking about a guy who scored 17 for a team that didn't make the playoffs. So, I get it. I get it. You get some opportunities,'t necessarily necessarily there with a Really deep team. Yeah, and that's yeah

It's a matter of doing the other things to stay in the lineup You know last year Nick played all six games one through six against Boston and by game seven Had didn't have a point didn't have a sniff and they took him out for game seven. So That doesn't engender much confidence. I don't think, but I bet you the reverse will do him good. Don't start the playoffs, then jump in. You're going to play no game, then on game seven, then he's a lock to score. The one constant is every time he sits, he comes out and he scores.

I haven't mapped it out yet, but I think it's the fourth time he's been scratched, then come back and score. The numbers in there somewhere, I think it's the fourth time he's been scratched and come back and I the numbers in there somewhere I was really I actually included it in there where he's been scratched and him coming off the where is it here? Because I noted it is specifically for him. Oh, yeah, here we go Okay, four goals to assist in the seven games. He's played after a healthy scratch four and two four and two six points in seven games Yeah, he's a he's basically John Tavarares statistically in the game after a scratch. There you go And I'll even strength goals by the way 12 so he stole a little bit off but 12 It's the the most behind the likes of Marner Matthews nice Bobby McMahon, you know your usual suspects

Yeah, he's a pinch skater. He is a pinch skater. It's like yeah, bring in the lefty He is a pinch skater. It's like yeah bring in the lefty They're down like three two in a series and Please bring him in. Yeah, he's a unique animal Better stylistic fit against a team like Ottawa than than a Florida clear. That's a great point that feels like an obvious thing And so right now Jake McCabe and David Camp are considered day-to-day both hurt against Florida. They are going to be absent for both games in the state of Florida this week, but they were on the ice Monday. So they are both skating and deemed day-to-day, but not going to play in those games. All right. With that thought, let's go to Craig Bruby on his on the performance of his blue line.

And what do you think of Carlo's play? I thought Brandon Carlo was really good. his perf on the performance of his blue line and what he thinks of Carlos play. I thought Brandon Carlo was really good. Not that the other guys weren't, but he stuck out. He thought he had an excellent game, just eating pucks and killing plays and you know, simple, but he's a vacuum. Uh, Meyers did very well. I thought, uh, he's been out a long time. Thought he was simple with the puck, made hard plays, defended well. So he had a solid game for me. This Carlo thing's interesting. So, you know,

we gave Riley a bit of a hard time for plus minus. Riley's better. He's better. He's just better. That's exactly where this is headed. Not quite yet. No. Plus eight in his last six games. Yeah. He's chipping away. He has settled Morgan Riley down. Yeah.

Just towards something. So it's actually interesting because if he solidifies Riley and you feel really good about that pair, Tanav and Ekman Larsen have been really good. They've been actually sneaky, one of the best pairs when they're together. You know, and then you can have McKinsey and Rolfe, and then you can have Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe, and then you can have Rolfe and Rolfe, and then you can have Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe, and then you can have Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe

and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rolfe and Rol you feel really good about that pair. Tanev and Ekman Larsen have been really good. They've been actually sneaky, one of the best pairs when they're together. You know, and then you can have McKay Benoit. You have options with this decor. And I watched the expected goals against,

like I watched this graph on a quadrant on Sportlogic's back end and where the Leaf move around. They're getting better defensively, better defensively, better, they're steadily improving on that back end. And I think since Carlo comes really changed no there Their success in the playoffs will come down to How well they they can defend and continue to block shots and we know Tano's now the

Ovechkin of scoring goals when it comes to blocking shots and Great goaltending and just hope when it comes to blocking shots. Yes. He's the first to match him. And great goal tending. And just hope Willie's gonna do Willie things and Marner's gonna do Marner things and so on. Yeah. So Stolar is for you now, solidified as game one. Is there any room?

Wall tomorrow night. Is it wall tomorrow night? It wasn't confirmed, but you think it should be? Oh, all day long. Probably should be. This would be Stolar's fourth crack at Florida if you went to it again. Correct. He got one at least.

He got one win. So you go wall and then you plant the seed to win the division and leave Tampa with the lasting memory of Stolar's beating you. That's my game plan. I was actually hoping to talk to you about that because I think I'm going to write about it. How the Leafs should handle this game against Tampa Bay when it feels like that they're the team you need to put away. Could be a division matchup at some point. I'm sure management sits there like we do every day going.

You want to show them our cards? What do we think? And I don't know if there's one guy that doesn't step up and say like Tampa's the team to beat right now in the Atlantic. It's not Florida. And there is some talk, especially around Leafland, that Florida is tanking. To get the Leafs. To get the Leafs. So this is, you know, if you haven't paid super close attention to the standings, Ottawa is now

two points back of the Florida Panthers, which is crazinessiness so were they to pass Florida and the Leafs were to win the division you still get Florida which is truly the leafiest thing of all time. There's your prize. But I think it's there's a worthy case to be made. Is Florida Florida still? Like Barkov's been hurt, Kachuk is hurt, we're not sure where he's at. Did you see what kind of... Like a bunch of guys. The lineup, Reinhardt, I don't think played. Oh yeah, that's right, no Reinhardt. No Reinhardt.

Is he hurt? I think he was hurt. I think he was hurt. Even if they're hurt, they're not hurt. No, I see your point. Their playoff starts tomorrow, they're playing. They're loading up. They're loading up.

He has to pull your YARVY on the top line. So... Is that right? And actually, they've actually played pretty well. They've fallen off. They've they've lost games by a goal and they're not getting a team by 25. Ottawa. Yeah, Ottawa. Lost the goaltending was phenomenal for Ottawa.

Great. And maybe the only difference between beating that team, but they're sitting there there going we just got to get whoever we can get healthy enough to start game one They've mailed in whatever they have Push and they don't care they like to bring us the Leafs bring us the sends bring it. Okay You know, we've had to go through good teams right now. We'll roll out Matt Kirstead jacob megna and uvis bolinski's on our you know on our bottom Pairs, that's fine. Um Yeah, but there's also the element of okay, so they let's say it's game three and every name you associate with the panthers is back It's still a big ask for those guys to be the panthers right away

You're gonna have a short window to try Stick them, uh get a few wins. They put them down. They played a lot of hockey here. A lot of one to two finals and yep being asked to do it again now they're not they're not they're in their mid-30s here they still should be able to push. I mean your dad's teams found a way to do it four times in a row yeah granted it was a maybe a best of three in the first round three out of five that helps all right it may be marginally a little bit some of those were probably like free pass they still they still found a way yeah to push in their in their prime yeah to push in their prime.

Florida is in their prime. So I don't know if I'd completely rate them off, even if Kachuk hasn't had a game since the four nations. If the Panthers have a gasp of breath left in their collective vessel, you would rather play Ottawa than Florida. As long as they're agreed, they have a chance, bring me a team that isn't Florida. Right? I mean, that's not to say you can't lose to Ottawa too, but...

I'm past trying to guess. What's left in those teams? I just, I think all three can be dangerous opponents for each other. Right? All of them. And now Ottawa is involved. So Toronto hasn't beaten Ottawa in what a year and plus? It's four score and seven years ago. So I don't know is that is it a style of play? Is it Ottawa would come in and have a tremendous amount of confidence against the Leafs?

Right, but they wouldn't have the confidence of a team who knows how to win, right? No, once you start to yeah find a way. It's not like it's Florida team. Who's just gonna keep going Anyway, but Bennett's broken down a little bit. He's beat. You know, he's he's got some wear and tear on him Barkov Kulak Kulakov look off like that's an important defenseman You're gonna get a black game three of the playoffs. Like you gotta be up to Kov against them. You better be. Yeah, you better.

Marchand's having a tough time guys too. He's not. Hasn't scored yet, right? He's not the dangerous guy he was in Boston yet. Maybe there's an adjustment period, maybe he's not shooting the puck enough, but he's not It's not quite there It's tough when you're missing your guys your horses right like March and in theory was supposed supposed to play with whether it's

Reinhardt or Bennett or you know go through the list could Chuck and he's playing with Luz de Rhinan Lundell Which is normally a third line now. It's your your second line tough I think he's got one assist and five games or six games is there any parallel here between what Tampa experienced maybe two three years ago and what Florida is experiencing now after you know Tampa won back-to-back but Florida's been to back-to-back Florida's won seven of the last eight playoff series which to your point you'd much rather play an Ottawa team that hasn't yet been there I think yeah then Florida because of that alone, but then on the flip side Tampa went through this exercise where they got to the third one, but boy were they gassed and I

at some point it does catch up to you a little bit and Tampa was similar like a lot of their guys their core guys were in their prime still at that particular juncture similar like a lot of their guys their core guys were in their prime still at that particular juncture but here's Florida trying to do the same thing and and it's just a little the battle scars adding up adding up over time not to say they won't be good again and sustainably good they're a very good hockey team but I don't know they're either rope it open us or or there's something going on they may be resting up these guys so they're gonna be red hot out of the gate so stand by and but by the way for people who think they're tanking to get the Leafs yeah that's

stupid no no no no players ever tried to lie I would believe that well there anything better than beat the Leafs hey the the top priority is just to get them as healthy and as well rested as you can But there's no question there's a part of me that also says, we're not scared of the Leafs. That's a thing. We have a recipe to beat them. Well, and what's the incentive to fight for the three seed? Oh, we get to hang on and play Tampa?

Like nobody thinks, it's not even about the Leafs. It's that you fall the fourth and you finish and you played Toronto versus Maintain your spot and get Tampa Bay. Whoever thinks is at least as good except more accomplished So it's it's just more of an indifference to who you play than a tank for the Leafs. Alright, let's get to Matthew Nye's thoughts on what he thinks about an opponent in round one on what he thinks about an opponent in round one? Not to me. No, I think it's... I feel like we're going to verse some of those teams in the second round and so forth. So I think it doesn't really matter to me, no.

Let's follow that up with his individual success against the Panthers, which has been great. I think it's just very tight scoring, close games, um, you know, playoff hockey, very physical. And I think that's kind of where, where my game takes off, you know, where it's, or it's very simple, very up and, uh, you know, up and down hockey, you know, north south, uh, kind of game. That's, that's kind of when, um, I tend to play my best hockey. So, um, I think that's probably the reason.

I love that's how he thinks. Who gave him that shot in front of the net there? Fabro? Oh, the one where he got cut. Yeah, I forget who it was. I think it was Fabro, the defenseman. And then he's like, no hesitation, right back. Right?

That's what I'm talking about. That's what it's like. It's no question. It's like you want to mess with me I'm coming right back at you. Yeah if he Continuously loses that ability to Think and just react like this guy can go to another level and in that true sense of power forward. He should have had 11 goals on Saturday night.

Back door passes that just went past the toe of his stick, breakaways. The speed on his breakaway was eye opening. He looks like he's... He really owns that area of the ice when he's on it. Yeah. Yeah, he does and that's a big development for them We have Cujo 430 we should probably What are you producing now? Well, I'm just telling you I want to respect our guest. All right. Yeah, we can respect Appreciate you picking up where Sammy was supposed to leave off. Sammy likes to he likes to direct produce do everything Yeah, no question about it.

All right, we'll take a quick break. When we return, the real dog in this city, Kujo, returns. Real Kipper and Bourne. Hey, it's Ben Ennis. And I'm Brent Gunning. We got you covered on all things Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays every weekday morning, 6 to 9. It's the fan morning show.

Sportsnet, 590, The the fan and wherever you get your podcasts Welcome back to the program Nick Kiprios Justin born Just go dad Derek Brandeo and Jake the snake Schultz all back together and with the exception of Sammy So we got rid of Sammy and we're bringing on Curtis Joseph. Thanks to our good friend Glenn Healy at the NHL Alumni Association and also Budweiser. We bring in Curtis Joseph.

But what's going on? What do you got going these days? Where you been? I haven't seen you in a while. That's for sure. I know. Um, but, uh, hopefully soon, right? We'll play some golf. You bet. You bet. Uh, I gotta take you to this new place I found in, uh, in Cabot, uh, St. Lucia. I got a, I got a sweatshirt and everything, buddy. I'm gold. I know our buddy Roxy is down there. So how much fun was it? It was I arrived Thursday or Tuesday and

Me and Rob we got in about six holes, but the most scenic six holes like the finishing holes are spectacular and then I I sn And then I snuck in, I snuck in 54. Oh, okay, snuck in 54. 36. I think I finished with about 132 holes in three and a half days.

So we're good, we're good. Now what's the deal? What do you got going with, with, with Budweiser and OV's historical goal that makes him the king of the hill. So what an accomplishment. First of all, I didn't think he'd have a chance to break Gretzky's record, let alone this year, what a year he's having. But Budweiser Canada came up with this promotion and unbeknownst to me, I didn't know there was 29 goalies before last night. There was 29 goalies that had not been scored on and I was one of them. So I was trying to think back, man, how many times did I play against them? But apparently it was only five minutes and an overtime. Lucky for me. So yeah, no goals again. So we're part of a big promotion where

our number you can see up here, you can see they have cans and our number is going to be at the top. It's really cool. How many, how many goals and how many shots actually I'll show you the can. It's pretty cool. So it's appropriate too, because it's a, it's Budweiser zero zero for no goals against. And yeah, look at this can. It's so cool. Yeah. That's really cool. Shots. You got the two shots on there. If it was only five minutes and he got two shots, that's a pretty good average. Were you in Calgary or, or Arizona? Where were you? No Kipper. That's the game where I came in. Martin Gerber pushed the referee with like five minutes left. And so I came in cold and they had a barrage of shots, went to overtime,

a couple more barrages and then a shootout so Ovi did have the last shot and didn't score but I don't think that counts as a shot either right because it wouldn't count as a goal right that makes sense yeah I mean hey listen Ovi played against you and he didn't shoot it in the net that that is accomplishment enough you know And then that that that is accomplishment enough. You know, watching this guy over his career, were you as shocked as we were about the longevity? Like we always knew he could score a ton of goals, but like just he's been doing it for ever now. Yeah, I yeah, the longevity thing.

Big man didn't get injured very often or I didn't hear about it. When they started with Crosby and Ovechkin and you were either in one camp or the other and it seemed like anyway and I was a Crosby fan. I just love the way he played and you know how he carried himself and then Ovi grew on me with the celebrations that he had of every single goal. I would tell kids guys celebrate. It's, it's great that you can score a goal. It's part of the game. So Ovi started winning me over with the celebrations. And then when he won the cup and the greatest celebration of all, I'm like, this guy is so great for the game. And I cheered for him every time after, well, when he wasn't playing against me.

So great for the game and he represented his team and it's himself extremely well. We're talking to Curtis Joseph, former Toronto Maple Leaf, Budweiser Canada ambassador. Kuj, when you, when you see a guy like Ovi do it 895 times and the passion that he has for putting the puck in the net and you over your career, you played with some guys like that against guys like that, but not everybody has that type of passion. Like we all know scoring a goal in the nhl is like it's the best sounds amazing. It's why aren't we all Like that when it comes to the like that passion and emotion for ov to have it Every goal that he scored almost feel like it's his first one

Is like the thing that blows my mind the most and as a goalie I mean you were lucky you had Brett Hall there you've seen a few but there's not that many oh I agree with you wholeheartedly you had that kind of passion when you scored a goal because you didn't score me so I did no no no which is great but yeah you're 100% right the passion he had us for scoring goals like when you watch Which is great. But yeah, you're 100% right. The passion he had us for scoring goals. Like when you watch him as a kid, that's how you're supposed to celebrate. That's how you're supposed to, cause it's hard. It's a hard thing to do. So it's incredible.

The passion he had and how he represented the NHL so well. Good on him. I'm glad he did it. Curtis, we, you know, do our Maple Leaf Hour here, which we've, we go deep on them. And with the goaltending, we can't always go that deep because we don't know what we're talking about. You've been watching this team for a long time. Stollers and Wall feel like as good a duo, as good a shot as they've had at having great goaltending

in the playoffs in some time here. What are your thoughts on both guys and how their position heading into playoffs? Yeah, this is the best goaltending they've had since you last in this last decade run. So that's a great thing. And the fact that there's the, they're both been lights out and the fact that you don't people can argue who they want in the net that's another great thing they're both equally talented whoever gets hot you're gonna ride right out and you know the other

guy can come in if if something happens but that is a great thing and then the defense is a lot bigger and built for the playoffs we haven't had that in a while so hey as a goalie when you got big guys back there that don't allow guys to come to the net, it's a lot easier for me to do my job. So, uh, I love the personality got a big upgrade and, uh, it's about playoffs. It's about playoffs. So, uh, we'll see what happens. Curtis, there are many gifted goaltenders

at the pro level at the American Hockey League, wherever they are. And I'm just wondering, can you meet a guy that plays that position and in five minutes know whether or not he's got a mentality for it? And I only say that because of times we've watched the goaltending here Samson off or Jack Campbell Jack Campbell and

Samson Samson off and there's times when these these these kids are hard on themselves and We haven't seen any of that out of stole oursz or Wall. They're confident guys. And I just, how do you, how do you tell a guy, don't worry about it and move on to the next one like a golfer, but do they really believe it? So that Kipper, that's a great question. And as a goalie partner, we are teammates, but you want to be in the net. So it's always a competition between the two goalies. So you're always evaluating your partner. You're always evaluating. And the question you ask is, can you tell if the guy's got it?

I can tell you, I can tell if the guy doesn't have it pretty quickly. But to tell if a guy has it, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of ups and downs to see what they're made of so that's a really interesting question and without a doubt I can tell you maybe within five minutes if he doesn't have it so there's definitely a mental edge or the opposite of the mental edge. So we'll see. We'll see what happens.

I'm excited. I'm excited about the playoffs. And do you think that that that mind frame like I'm looking at Connor Hellebuck and people right now are saying and playoffs. He's not the goalie. He's been in the regular season or you know, for the Leafs, Joseph Wall's gone in four games. He's been very good in those games. You know, the whole...

I guess I want to know if you believe in clutch or if it's just random sample size. You're playing a good team, they had a few good or bad games, losing playoffs and people go, ah, this guy's not clutch. You know, I think sometimes some guys get a wrap when it's based on such a small amount of games, but I'd love to leave that to you

Yeah, so it's not cut and dry You know a good coach or good Coley coaches or a good organization can see what makes their player tick like you look at Team Canada and you look at Jordan Bennington and all the questions that he took and Jordan Bennington and all the questions that he took. And it looks like Jordan Bennington plays well when he's questioned or he's the underdog and he'll show you. So what makes Connor Helibut, what makes him tick? I don't know, but you could find that out

and make sure he's ticking on all cylinders. So goalies are an interesting greed and it's a tough position a lot a lot of its mental if you have the if you have the talent that is only getting the right mindset around it it's kind of like a deeper you can. Test this like when you're playing golf and you're playing well you have one swing thought and you ride that swing side out until you can't ride it anymore

It's kind of like goaltending. You should have one thought one or two thoughts, but not a hundred thoughts so when the chamber is clear and functioning properly one thought and Just like your golf game I cannot carry that swing thought past the halfway house. It falls apart. We know that drink bud zero coach. What about where teams are today with load management over all but more particular with the goaltenders and the fact that you don't want your guy to play back to back and I don't know 60 games is a thing of the past So am I gonna my dating you now? Am I gonna turn you into a dinosaur like I have on many occasions on this show?

Well another interesting question it depends on the on the person if they have a a propensity to get injured, maybe you want to load management. But for myself, I wanted to play as much as possible and not have like a week off or two weeks off. I hated when you won a series and that didn't happen very often. We went to a lot of game sevens,

but if you won a series and then you had a week and a half off, that was terrible. It was terrible for me. I needed to be playing every night. So I didn't like to take too much time off because I felt like I was sharper if I played more. And sometimes when you're tired, you don't overplay. So back to backs was my favorite actually.

You know, one thing we talk about regularly, you know, we talk about OV and his longevity, and we talk about players and their decline, how Sid is still doing it. It's incredible. Right now. There's a couple of goalies that are hanging in there in the back half. Basilevski is looking great this year, but Brodsky, you're still not surely, but he can be great. He's one of those guys. What becomes more challenging as you get older as a goalie like you know players have to compensate in sort of different ways and think their way around the game a little

bit what changes for a goaltender. So the older you get the more knowledge you have and the more knowledge you have you understand the consequences of possibly losing a series or not. Well, when you're young when you're young and and fresh in the league man and you got a hot goalie I would ride that guy forever because they're insulated against pressure if they're if they have the talent. So as you get older you have to guard against what ifs or thinking beyond the present and I think for Broski went through a little bit of that.

He had to go for a walk on the beach, regain himself. It's a constant battle. And since he's been through that, I wouldn't bet against him. He's learned how to recalibrate and be the best he can be. Saturday night, Lane Hudson scored an incredible goal end to end but it was the worst angle you've ever seen the foot flyer goaltender was Yeah, and it was anyways it was like a foot off the goal line short side and

Drives me nuts. Coach, are the goalies all kind of playing a certain style because they're playing the percentages or it's most efficient? You would scramble, you would do whatever it took to maybe come up with a new save? Or these guys have got a pattern to their game these days? You said it was an incredible goal and I had seen it so I was like, incredible goal, it was garbage. It was terrible.

Okay, no on Lane's part, it was incredible. Yeah, right. Great skating. Great skating. Great skating. Great skater. So here it is. Yeah. You should never let a goal like that in. And I remember earlier in my career, I cheated on Claude, Claude

Lemieux. Yeah, here it is. Look at this kid skate. It's so fun to watch. What a talent. What a talent. So fun. But I remember early in my career, Claude Lemieux was far out. He was on the boards and I cheated on the pass. Guy wide open coming back door unprotected and he shot it from there and he's got a bullet and he shot over my shoulder. And I was like, play the shooter first, trust your speed speed never let that happen again so it takes one time like that square up play the shooter trust your speed trust that you're going to get over anything can happen it can be tipped your D might get it so

never cheap never let it go. So hopefully that young goal he learned a valuable lesson never to cheat like that. That's your guy. That is your guy 100% and never let that goal in. And you can always be looking around, but you cannot let that goal in and he'll learn from that, hopefully. How do you feel about all the goalie interference going on these days? Like, you know, would you, like I talked to some goalie guys now and they say that goalies

will kind of come out and look for it almost get into it and then you got to get out of jail free card if you can't make the save. What are your thoughts watching it now. You're a badler. Well, I don't know about those goalies but your first thought should be stopping the puck and being able to see the see the shot. If you're thinking like that you're not going to be in the league long, but, um, geez, I wish it was, it was prevalent back when I played, man, I would have had a bunch of goals taken back for sure. Um, but it is incredible. The subtle, uh, plays that can really affect a goalie. I remember Ryan Smith used to come in and he'd hit the top of your stick the button and if your stick is not functioning. There's no way you can first of all stop it, but you can't play rebound and you'll give up a bad rebound Gary Roberts

used to do that come from my right side and just hit the end of my stick. And it's tough to call that but if I I relied on my stick to be able to put the pot wherever I wanted to and man that would really mess you up rebound goals in looks like a bad rebound but man if if you can't move or you can't I remember losing it one time in Ottawa chasing ref down I can't remember I heard about that the Mick The Mick. The Mick. I was under the crossbar and I thought it was Goliath and Farron. Yeah. You were right. Legendary stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey listen, great stuff as always. You know, we took a, we did an alumni event last year, maybe a year and a half ago. We went to Montreal. We sat on the plane and we just talked like this. Yeah.

And all I could think of is like, why are we on the show right now? Why are we doing a show because it was absolutely fascinating getting his perspective on on Everything around the game. Hey buddy. Great seeing you through our zoom chat or whatever. We call it these days and We'll hook up soon enough on the links. Okay Sounds good. Thanks for having me on guys. Thanks for your time. Curtis Joseph, NHL alumni and current ambassador for Budweiser. The campaign is called Bud Zero, King of Zeros, which means he is one of 28 goalies to claim that they never surrendered a goal against the great

eight. Well coincidentally I have never surrendered a goal to Ovi and I am a zero alcohol beer drinker. So I appreciated that segment. There you go. Just talking about like the passion of, of Ovi scoring goals. So one of the highlights of my NHL career was David Poyle. When I was a member of the Washington Cavaliers felt like there was just not enough passion going on in the game and he

pulls out a video in front of the whole team and he says and it was a goal that I scored and like Kujas said I didn't score very many but it was a goal I scored against the Winnipeg Jets and And like, I'm not going bonkers, but you could just see like, and he's like, why are you guys more like this? That's embarrassing. It is. Getting praised in front of your team is always like, oh, I'm going to hear about this. But years later, you can appreciate it though.

Yeah. Right. There's no better feeling in any sport. and I'll maintain that maybe hitting home run baseball I never got to do that but. I also did an alumni event. You know what? Let's pick up this on our national show because it's around the great aid of course and the passion that he's shown so many times on his way to setting a new NHL record as the

king of goal scoring. All right, plenty more on Ovi when we return after the break. We go national next on The Real Kipper and Bourne Show. You