Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Incomplete Roster, Complete Effort

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee reflect on the Leafs' 3-0 win over the Golden Knights on Wednesday. They get into the debutants Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin making an impact and the team's composure in the late stages. Then, they debate whether Zach Whitecloud's hit on Matthew Knies was dirty or clean and discuss how the Leafs responded to Vegas' physicality. Later, they chat about Joseph Woll's shutout effort and identify how the team should deploy the goalie tandem in the next few games. Finally, they check in on Auston Matthews and his potential return.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 let's get her going here on the real kipper and born show nick kiprios justin born sammy mckee derrick brandale jen rolnick today and for two jam-packed hours what a week it's been great week week. Not enough games, but what a hockey game last night was. Well, especially when we've got the Leaf hour of our show all week, just one game, but like things around

the game, like it's never been more storylines for one game the whole week. Is Marno just going to sign a contract by surprise this week? There is. Do you think they made an offer to him? Oh, my gosh.

You're doing it again. You did this to me Monday. Do you think they did? We don't talk about what we discuss, right? We let it just rip the moment the red light goes on. I had no intention of asking that. You did this to me Monday. I had this thought. I talked to someone today asking that. You did this to me Monday.

I had this thought. I talked to someone today and I was like, there's all this noise around. Maybe they're talking. Maybe it'll just happen. I think there's always a possibility of that happening. But you're not doing this. No, I'm not. Although, to be fair, I did write my article this week

at the Toronto Star. It was based on our original unscripted heated discussion on Monday on Mitch Marner. So if you want to grab it, take a look at it. It's great, by the way. Not just saying that, it's a very good article. Well, Sammy liked it because I mentioned his name. I like that you mentioned it along with like four randos from the internet. So that's who he has you on par with yeah that was kind of fun to do yeah you know my mom sees my name in the crowd of stars pretty cool i guess yes but then it's with what did you say the other

guy's name where's that for dog 69 war dog and pluto boy or just hammer me all week on the internet and i'm like all, you guys want the action? I'm putting you in my article today. There you go. Before I muted the tweet that we had on Monday. Oh, I muted it too. Because I was pouring in there for a while. And finally, after three days of people yelling at each other about it,

I muted it. But I do think that it's a pretty divided topic in terms of that's why it's a really great sports radio topic is because people want agree with Kip people agree with born people agree with me like it's just like it's it's a it's a meeting of talks toxicity

yeah right and if you know if Mitch wants to go in one way or another like all these conversations could be irrelevant yeah right and you know whenever the signing does happen and we're hoping as people who cover the or another, like all these conversations could be irrelevant. Yeah. Right. And, you know, whenever the signing does happen and we're hoping as people who cover the Leafs that it is a signing here, it's going to be somewhere in the ballpark of the numbers we're talking about. And I think people will be happy to have it.

Well, wherever you are watching, listening, Sportsnet 590, The Fan, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Plus, we're glad you're along for our Leaf hour. And then we go national, of course. And in the national hour, we'll welcome in Dana Sinclair, JB. And this is relevant because there is maybe some news out of Elliot Friedman and his 32 thoughts, I believe, about JT Miller possibly suffering from burnout. Yeah. Burnout was the word that he used.

Frank Cervalli vaguely referenced that as well. We had Thatcher Demko. We heard him talking about the mental grind of trying to stay prepared to play. Dana's done work with a laundry list of NHL, NBA, MLB,

NFL teams, and on and on. She'll give us some insight into the mental side of being a professional athlete. And then at 5.30, we're going to welcome in a good friend of the show, always been terrific insights, Hockey Night in Canada, Sports Night, Gary Galley. That'll be great. Full show.

Jen said to me, our wonderful TV production woman, she said to me today, she's like, did you have him on because Kipper talked about how he hit him? And I was like, I completely forgot about this. Let's not bring that up. Let's see. Hopefully he never watched the show. I made the apology. I felt bad. I was like, I didn't even think of that.

I just have him on because he's great. We have him on once a month or so. He's changed. I know, but he said yes and he was happy to come on. Gally's aware of what happened. No, he's not he doesn't watch our show well i don't know about the apology but he's aware that you hit him and he came on for years i don't know but i still feel horrible about it i'm just gonna be in a puddle it's like yeah that bothered me for 28 years finally i get to tell you you're an ass i'm

gonna i'm gonna homer simpson into the bushes for that one okay the fans are waiting yes uh three nothing win last night over uh one of those contending teams for the stanley cup best game of the year vegas golden knights their third straight win wall makes 31 saves minton scores scores. Bob's your uncle. Leafs are on a roll. Yeah. I mean, like I said, the action was high. You know, the physical element was sort of like that underlying storyline.

The rookies being up and being involved was a big part of it. Joseph Wall gets a shutout. That was a big theme. You know, probably the bigger pitcher takeaway is nice but i mean i guess they get a shutout with six of their top 12 forwards out you know pretty impressive performance all around yeah favorite game of the year yeah yeah like you know you you take the the tampa game that we talked about for three weeks down off the pedestal yeah and you put this one in here i think the shiny new toy factor is definitely part of it,

where it's just a really fun game where Minton scores his first goal of his career. It ends up being the winter winner. You know, you have Grubank and running around, you have fights, you have big hits, you have debate.

Everything about it to me was just the best game of the year. Also, Joseph wall made me look like the biggest idiot of all time. Doing sports talk radio is so hard because you don't have a take. And it's like six hours later, you're immediately the biggest idiot of all time. Doing sports talk radio is so hard because you have a take and it's like six hours later, you're immediately the biggest idiot on earth. I've told you plenty of times, you don't need Joseph Wall's help for that.

You do that all by full credit. No, but hold on. You didn't come on here and say you think Wall's a bad goalie or he's going to play bad. No, I didn't say that. You just said it's a top team. Put your top goalie i did say that yeah that's what you said and they may have no he looked pretty good man this guy rides the roller coaster doesn't he okay so we could take this many different ways we've got some kippers clippers a ton of them out of coach barubi uh

you want to start with the kids. You want to start with Joseph Wall. You want to get into the hit. I think we start positive. You know, it's a good night, I think. Before we get into the hit, let's talk about the kids. Fraser Minton scoring a goal. I thought two really impressive back checks on rushes against.

On the penalty, on the power play. One on the, yeah, that one. And then there's another one where the puck doesn't come to his guy because he gets back and covers him. So I thought he was wonderful. Kribankin plays with a joy, too. That's fun to watch. Yeah, I thought we had a pretty good conversation yesterday on the kids

and on the chance that they could come in and provide something that could perhaps change the way you might feel towards February and March in a trade deadline. And we didn't say it's impossible to think that they could turn themselves into. We just said it might not be probable. But did anything last night change your mind in terms of what Minton can do for the center ice position for the Maple Leafs? Yes, absolutely. You know, like I maintained the stance I took yesterday

that when you're talking about playing the best teams in the postseason, I don't love the idea of looking at a rookie and saying, you're the guy who's going to be our guy at the deadline. They're already talking. Elliot also mentioned 32 thoughts that the Leafs would be looking at centers yes so that's in play here too but i do think the way minton looked both ways was really eye-opening and very mature was a pretty common word and then my other thought is if you need a winger on the fourth line just to run into people gerbanken will do it yeah i would imagine watching Grbanken play last night wasn't Ryan

Reeves' favorite thing from the press box. Not another one. You know, it's a young guy that comes in there. He's a big guy skating hard, running into people. I mean, he's not the prettiest skater, let's all say it. He looks like if Mark Stone pulled his hamstring. It's not the prettiest

stride, I would say, but he's big, strong, runs into people, seemingly not afraid. Having a blast. i would say but he's big strong runs into people seemingly not afraid so having a blast it's just anyways go ahead okay let's go to craig bruby with our first kippers clipper of the day on minton and grabenkin yeah i thought they were good i mean minton scored i get that but um you know i thought both players were pretty solid out there um mittens uh like i said mittens a very smart player he's a real good two-way guy and um very reliable defensively in the right spots and i thought grbenkin battled hard he was physical did what he had to do you know like strong on pucks down low finishing checks um all the things that i thought he was gonna do

oh what do you got there that to me when i'm hearing that like putting guys in there and having them do what you expect them to do at that age if you're the coach you're like yeah okay like i can see where these guys are going to be a contributor for me throughout this season. Grubankin led the team in hits last night with four. Do we have him? Did you clip him? I did clip him. I did clip him.

This was Grubankin after the game. Clip from him there, Derek. Team speak me back check, forward check, and pay check. I love his laugh because it's

almost as obnoxious as mine. I hear you, man. If he was my teammate, I would hang with him all day just to try to make him laugh. Yeah. I said on Lee's Talk last night that that was a rather big win,

and I could picture them going to an establishment with Grebaken and having some fun last night. Getting him laughing a little bit, having some fun. Because he seems like a great guy to be around. Doesn't he? He does. He'd be the worst leader on any team. Me?

Grabbing a young kid, take him to a bar, let's go have fun. Oh, my God. Let's get him drunk. You're no leader. Come on, Sammy. It's a shame. You tell him to go straight home to bed. This is embarrassing, guys.

This is embarrassing. Minton played almost 16 minutes last night. Well, with Nyes out of the game, he stepped right up. My first thought was, has Robertson ever? No. No, listen, Nick, you got to get it out of your head that Nick's there for a chance to still be a part. Like Nick's done a wonderful job, but it will never work here.

There's, he just has to look at last night. How many guys are ahead of him? Minton now is, would be ahead of him. Grebanken, Steve's right. Holmberg. So he's not going to be envisioned in the top six. And the kids that Sammy just mentioned, we going to be envisioned in the top six. And the kids that Sammy just mentioned will beat him out on the bottom six. There's just no room other than hopefully there's a package somewhere

and you can move him on. But I think the writing's on the wall. I do too. If they weren't missing six forwards, I think he probably wouldn't be playing. You know, I think that's fair to say. They're missing six guys. This guy can't get in the top six. Give him a look-see.

It's great. No look-sees for him. No look-sees. They've looked and seen enough. Where do you want to go? All right. Yeah, let's get to the hit. No, no.

Wait, one more. One more because if we're going to stay positive like you want to, the most impressive thing for me last night was going into the third period with a lead and absolutely giving Vegas squat so let's listen to Craig Berube on the composure that they had with the lead clip eight how happy are you with the composure your team should be showing in the third period of close games. Yeah, very happy. I think, you know, there's games where we got the lead in the third. We kind of sit back a little bit. But tonight was, I thought, our best third. With the lead, we didn't sit back.

And that's what we want to keep pushing and keep doing because, you know, we don't want to just get pucks out and try to get a chance. You know what I mean? We want to advance it, play the game, keep being aggressive. And we did that. Drew a penalty. And power play did a great job of, you know, scoring a goal there.

That was a huge goal. So I thought tonight was maybe our best third period with the lead. They didn't take their foot off the pedal and it in the past we'd see them hold on or cough up the lead yeah and that was not in uh in their vocabulary vocabulary last night yeah i got a couple thoughts one of which is that sometimes in these sort of mid-season games having young guys and people like playing above where they normally slot in you get these great efforts where you know if you have your full roster guys kind of take their foot off the gas a little bit i thought it helped them last night

having those guys because everyone stayed fully engaged and fully pushing the other thing is i think you forget sometimes when you watch the maple Leafs, watching the ages of the core guys that, like, they're, you know, they're now in their prime, prime, prime. And watching Willie Nylander at age 27 or 8 or whatever he is, and Marner too last night, but Nylander in particular last night, he's like he's ready for the next league if there were one above it. Like, I mean, he made Alexelo angelo looked like me on defense yeah there's just those guys can really control games at a level that not many can yeah i think it's fun to talk

about how great the young guys were and how like you get the great contributions from the young from the defense core and wall makes some great saves but i mean neilander scores one sets one up tavaris is to assist marner is to assist it's still the same guy 22 minutes and the same guys driving the bus here yeah and they were brilliant all three of those guys last night I thought were brilliant Marner Tavares and Nylander Tavares had two posts and the other thing is just their defense is so much better Benoit was better yeah way better best game of the year for Benoit all right let's get to the meat all right yeah okay yeah wait long enough Matthew Nyes left the game with an upper body injury at 759.

It was a huge open ice hit from Zach Whitecloud. Let's get an update from Craig Berube. Clip nine. Derek. Not bad. I mean, still being evaluated and looked at, but actually feeling okay today, which is good news good that's great okay so i'm like everybody else you're like everybody else we're watching this thing and we see it

and i gotta tell you i feel for the guys in the booth for sure right whether it's cutbert whether it's our our good pal simmer whether it's joe bowen like you don't you may see it once or twice but you don't have the luxury of revisiting a lot of things like even say like our panel last night with uh david amber and Sam and Colby and Gaz. Okay, so they get a chance to absorb it. And whatever feelings that you could have in the first minute, minute and a half, five minutes, 10, 20, now all of a sudden, you know, I know Sam made a call to the league. He gets a pretty probably in-depth perspective or rules or whatever they and he passes it on and

then he just says whatever they said on air and it kind of calms all the waters down and i've done it i've done it but it's easy for sam to get on the phone here's what's hard is coming up with an opinion of your own without any type of influence, right? Yeah. And that's hard. We've been around the game a long time. My first instinct was, he's done, right? Because you see a guy down on the ice.

You see one replay where he's definitely hitting the head. Yeah. Right? So what's our first thought? Hit to the head, maybe an illegal check he's done but that's not the case it's much deeper and it's much more complex and i think people sat there today and said first and foremost do i know the rules do i know what the the rules according to what the league is trying to dictate or Or do I just say, yeah, it's a head hit. Let's get them out of the game.

What are your thoughts? You know, I think that there is a broad spectrum of hits when you're looking at hits to the head and hits to the body. It's not like there's some clean division. There's borderline ones, whatever. And we have to draw a line somewhere and say, this is illegal, but there's going to be hits that are right close to that line.

And this one falls close to that line for me. I think I would rule the same way the league did on this particular hit. So last night, you and JD, our good friend, JD Bunkus, go on for Leaf Talk. And, you know, you had some time to absorb it but you felt like it was a bad hit correct this is what kills me about it because I've been walking watching hockey my whole life and for most of my life that's an awesome hit and it's one that gets

you out of your seat and that's a huge part of the game right and it's like oh it's a huge hit open ice bang bang there it is i just think by today's standards when you look at the way it's refereed and you look how careful they are with some of these headshots i think for them to go to the ipad spend 25 minutes like i always love looking at all these different angles and determine that the head contact wasn't severe in that play and for the Leafs to end up on a four-minute power penalty kill is a joke like I truly can't believe that they spent all that time and listen do I think it's a horrible do you think it's a bad bad hit no but I think by today's standards and the way that the game's officiated and the way that they're trying to get the that should have been a five minute major match penalty he's out of the game and then that's good that's done no suspension whatever so you would you would rather them do

that and then the next day say we were wrong we we were too severe or would you rather and it wasn't 25 minutes by the way they were over there a while it wasn't 25 but they're just but they're freeze-framing and they're the whole idea is whether it's one minute or 25 to your exaggeration didn't we say the most important thing is to get the call right yeah and i think they didn't but i still haven't heard from you did they yeah they they they did they didn't make the right call and listen i don't i'm like everybody else i don't want to see guys get hurt but if you according to what they want they don't want to get those big hits out of the game they don't they love them guys i got news for you they love them okay but they have to be really tight and follow a pretty strict

set of guidelines and according to the general managers and the rules committee and the league office and everybody else like rule 48 is is fairly tight in terms of what needs to be seen and i think it followed many of the criteria that they've asked over the last few years and you're allowed to hit the head like people just think about that for a second it's not against the rules to body check it's not the iihf the head right as long as it's not picked yes as long as it's not reeves on nurse like reeves on nurse and i know jd i saw i didn't listen to you last night but i saw a clip where he said, what's the difference? It's a centimeter away from the exact same thing. You can argue that for sure, but it isn't.

No, it's not a centimeter. It was not. It was not even close. JD, I love you, buddy. He accelerated up into the... It's not close to Reeves. To me, it is. I don't know how you can watch both the hits and not

have it be a similar thing one guy's left spinning and the other guy falls on his yeah so it's sort of nice gets cut and he's lying on the ice and they bring out the stretcher then what happens nothing i don't think that played into here nothing changes to me skates are on the ice until he's done with the impact elbows tucked the tucked. The contact is trying to go through the body and the head's involved for sure. But it's unfortunately for... It's completely north-south. Yeah.

Right? Skating this way. One guy's north, the other guy's south. Reeves is north. Nurse Saturday night is west. Nurse does not come through the body nurse misses the body and hits the head first there's a shot there's a shot where Reeves by the time Reeves gets to the left side of Reeves body his head is turned right around. He looked like the owl from

Winnie the Pooh. His head was so far around. I cannot believe that Reeves didn't break his neck. It was ugly. I'd like to clarify I'm laughing at the reference. I'm sorry. I just thought of an owl the way he can turn his neck.

But it was scary. That was not Nyes. Nyes was right through the middle of the body, and there was no whiplash. There was nothing. The other part of this to me is we're talking, you know, I started this by saying there's this spectrum of hits or whatever, and this is on that line.

I'm going to read you the NHL's Department of Player Safety mission statement. To make the game as safe as possible for players while preserving the physical competitive and passionate nature of hockey they to your point they want this and and let's be clear on this show we want this i listen i don't want to sit here and argue with you guys because you're making great points but i just don't know how you sit here and watch the angles of this and not have it be the principal point the first thing he hits is his head no it's not yes it is i'm watching it right here he's going it can be the first it can't be picked it can it thank you yeah he is it is a full center of the shoulders body check. It can't be more body.

Does he get his head first? It doesn't say head first. So if you go to Rule 48, it says that there are a set of circumstances, whether the players attempt to hit squarely through the opponent's body and if the head was not picked as a result of poor timing. Did White Cloud have poor timing? No. Okay.

Did he have a poor angle of approach? No. I mean, jumping up and throwing your elbow into his chin is not a great approach. I wouldn't say. No, no. We're talking about the angle. Okay. Is angle going straight up like that? Is that a good angle? Angle. He did. I'm watching it right here. Okay, but his angle going straight up like that, is that a good angle? Just angle. You're just lying. He did.

I'm watching it right here. Sam, you cannot say his elbow comes up prior to his head. Or unnecessary extension. Did you see an unnecessary extension? Where? Where? His arm ends up like this? That's after contact.

That's after contact. After contact. Not before. He's not extending into contact. It was not a chicken wing. There was no space between his arm and the side of his body before contact. Okay. I don't know what else I can say here.

Like, I just. It's okay. You guys are, you know, reading the rule book and looking at me, and it's two against one. There's nothing I can say. But he launched his shoulder into the guy's chin while jumping out the edge with an upward motion. I think a lot of people agree with you. I know.

I think a lot of people agree with you. And it just, it's, you know, there's just a different standard. That hit has been, you know, it's... If that's McCabe on White Cloud, I think it's a different conversation. I think, you know... Sure, yeah. I just...

I also think that there's a lot of people that if this was somebody on the leafs that threw the hit they'd be like oh that's dirty get him out of the game for sure get him like there's a big time leaf spies here where everybody wants to go on twitter and dunk all over the leaf fans for being soft for one of their best young guys getting targeted getting hammered in the head and everybody gets so bent out of shape about anything the Leafs does and as soon as one guy gets hit hard oh they're soft for thinking it's a bad hit all this all that like it's just such a double standard when it comes to covering the Leafs it is like it just is that's the way people feel and it's it's not wrong you gotta get George to get george peros on the show no no he would never come on with me what kind of producer are you what kind of producer are you i don't listen i don't want to

i don't want to talk to him what do i have to say to him oh i think you have plenty to say well i just yeah i don't think this is a suspension hey start with what's with the the maple leaf bias i don't think this is a suspension we We have a couple of quotes on this. Why don't we start with clip two. Berube, get the coach's thoughts on what he saw. How is Matthew and what was your view of the head? Yeah, he's upper body right now. We'll see tomorrow.

I think tomorrow I'll tell him more. My view of the head, I mean, it's a tough call. I'm not going to sit here and comment on the league. And, you know, they thought it was a clean head, so it's a clean head. I mean not going to sit here and comment on the league. And, you know, they thought it was a clean head, so it's a clean head. I mean, there's nothing we can comment on. Really, there's nothing to say. Well, and then we're going to have him say more. I don't know if you've got to revisit the rule, tighten it up,

but it does appear like there's upward motion. That's coming up into it. Totally. We were taught to bend our knees. And launch your shoulder into a guy's chin. And knock him out of the game. Good play. Good play.

I mean... I didn't see that, Sammy. I did not see launch. You're not watching the same play, then. We are watching the same play. You're doing the same thing that everybody else is that, Sammy. I did not see launch. I didn't see launch. You're not watching the same play then. We are watching the same play. You're doing the same thing that everybody else is doing then, where it's like, oh, it's a leaf. Like, oh, I don't want to be seen as pro leafs.

I don't want to be seen as this. I don't want to be seen as that. And everybody just takes the opportunity to run around and be like, oh, you know, that's a good hit. That's a good hit. Meanwhile, if Nyes did that, they'd be like, kick him out of the league. He'd be suspended for six games. Everybody would be pissed off at him for being a dirtbag it's the truth

there's a leaf double standard is the is the case i don't know if that's true or not i think it's all through coverage i think anywhere you cover the league there's a double standard with the leafs well people don't want to be seen last night you got cuthbert uh simpson they both thought it was a bad hit yeah gaz after the ozone Ozone Sports Central, saying bad hit. Joe Bowen and Ralphie thought it was a bad hit. Yeah. We do not agree. I just have to go through and see every ex-player being like,

why is this even a topic? Why is this even a topic? Oh, it's an idiot. You're soft. This and that. It's like, we do have another Perubi on this. Is there anything there? It's just more of

the same or the same but honestly i just i i don't know how we can ask the guys to to body check and not think at some point that the head's gonna come into contact do we have the hit and this is what breaks we could show the head but this is what breaks my heart about it because i've gone through like jumps he jumps up into the chin. We're all seeing what we want to see, right? Like, to me, that's right pursuit between your shoulders lands on his back. That is as square north-south as you can get. All right.

Okay. And listen, I don't want to pile on here, but I've watched Matthew Nye since he's come in on a number of occasions. And we've had these conversations, and you have too, Sammy, where it's like, he's lucky he didn't get hurt there. And you know, a lot of what saved him is that he's a giant. And that happened to be the white clouds of giant too. Guess what? You can get away in college being a giant, but you can't get away in the NHL like that. Eventually, it catches up to you.

I don't know. It's not that his head was down. He's just looking. He knows he's there. He just doesn't think that hit's going to get thrown. He's looking at the space where either he thinks he's going to get the puck through or he's going to skate through. But he had blinders on. Yep. Just like Reeves and Nurse on Saturday night.

Exact same situation where he had blinders on too. Coming around the net with his head down. It's the same thing. I don't see the comparison. I think for me, Nize is worse. Putting themselves in this situation. But the angles are different. So that was more out of a blind side.

Like there's a blind spot I think Nurse had on Reeves. There's no blind side for Nize. He's right in front. You're just not focused in the right areas, and you got hit hard because of it. So I hope he's okay, but I hope it's also a learning lesson for Matthew Nyes. So go ahead.

Can I finish your thought? Well, I just, the last thing I'll say on this is that ultimately, I don't think this is a war crime. Like, I don't think it's the worst hit that I've ever seen. But by today's standard, midway through a game, I think a guy could have got thrown out of a game for that. And Simone, actually, that's almost exactly what Gazdik said. Just, like, throw him out of the game in that case.

See, I hate that. Why? That bugs me. Because it's like, you want to play safe. No, get the call right. That's what we changed things for. To get it right. Not for you just to bypass it because it

makes you feel better well get it right well yeah the right call was made yeah we i don't i don't agree it's okay yeah you know right you know all the people on text line saying you're arguing with two former nhlers about how they get what to know what a hit is no people are killing me for it but guess what this is the way it was this is the way the general managers and the players want it, Sammy. Okay? Not you or everybody else who says what you're saying. It's their sport. It's their rules.

We're just interpreting it. That's all. Okay. And you don't agree with them. I don't. So lobby to change the rules. I'm not going to do that. Ever.

You want the hits. You want the hits. I want the hits. But I just, you know, by today's. You know what that's called? Having your cake and eat it too, my friend. But by today's standards, flying elbow to the chops probably should be the rest of the game. All right. Whose standards?

All right. All right. You're making standards up. But no, but I mean, I watch guys get thrown out of games for headshots in this league. Like they talk about not wanting concussions and all that stuff. Anyways. Okay. Sufficient yelling?

Sufficient yelling for today. Good. We have Simone Benoit who jumps in after that hit. Grabs White Cloud and kind of, you know, gave him the business a little bit. I thought Benoit was back to being the Benoit of last year for them last night. That sort of play makes me wonder if Hockenpah is even going to be the answer. I don't know what you guys thought of having him jump in after that, but the standing up for a guy after a borderline hit. I didn't have an issue with anybody last night.

And, you know, when I'm starting to see John Tavares grab guys and throw them on the ice, I'm like, hey, JT. Luckily, I wear this magical amulet. Would have been nice to see that a few times when you had the sea on. Maybe he's freed up. Freed up his left a little bit. I gotta say, yeah, the captain's

over even Bratwurst. This guy's the captain. He had a night last night. He was awesome. He jumps in he's grabbing guys i i was like okay what a strange one too oel launches the guy into the boards who was that guy that just went swan diving the second he felt any contact who was that 21 yeah maybe howden but no i is super impressed with how i remember after that boston game last year where when was it lilligren that got taken into the boards by Marshawn yeah

and we did the game and Kip went on the air and talked about not liking and how no one responded and then Keefe went out in the media and talking about how we're gonna have a meeting to talk about how to respond about these things remember that and now it's just like it's just this happens and what is that is that the I don't know

is the coach I don't know if it's that and when it's all said and done outside of? Is that the I don't know is the coach I don't know if it's that and when it's all said and done outside of like anything that happened that in itself is probably the thing that stood out most

is that the game got a lot more physical a lot more emotional after the nighs and the Leafs were very comfortable playing in that environment

it's a big boy game right a lot of physicality. Before we go to Ray, let's listen to clip seven. Barubi talking about team toughness without Ryan Reeves.

I know. Reeves was not in and Max isn't in, but, you know, guys, they didn't shy away from it. You know, I thought that we initiated early with the physicality

and, you know, I mean, they're a physical team too. They're a big team so but we didn't shy away from it no they did not okay catch your breath time sammy yeah god i'm getting still love us still love us oh my god we still friends i'm just taking a beating will we golf by april will we golf again i love this why do you think i do this like there's nothing you can say to me that hasn't already been said boys all right if that's the case plenty more to get into with semi after the break you're watching

and listening to real kipper and born hey it's ben ennis and i'm brent cunning we got you covered on all things leafs rafters and blue jays every weekday morning six to nine 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 Fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in to our Leaf edition hour of the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. Nick, Justin, Sammy. Got in. What a contentious week on the show.

Out with bad air. In with good air. Out with bad air, Sammy. I'm good, bud. I love it. I love it. What are your buds telling you? Oh, I'm just trying not to look at the text.

Somebody sent me a tweet. I don't know who it is. Put your diaper on, on bud with a big clown oh my gosh somebody sent me like rule point seven six on head contact and i'm like hockey canada is that minor hockey is that the nh. Listen, I saw that. Whatever the letters are, I don't think it's relevant. I saw it, and I was going to bring it. I was going to be like, I need this bad today. And it's not the right rule.

It's not the NHL. It's not the right rule. It's not the NHL, pal. I'm sorry. It's not the right rule. Not, yeah. It's rule 48. Yeah.

We all know that. Because we've seen it a thousand times. Well, I shouldn't say that. I shouldn't say that. Not anymore. Not anymore. Outside of Trouba, like, how many guys? See, the one thing I can tell you, and you've been at a very high level too,

like, those hits are really hard. They're hard to make. And they've got to be timed incredibly well. those hits are really hard. They're hard to make. And they've got to be timed incredibly well. There's only a certain amount of time and space that you have to pull them off. And if you're wrong, you can get hurt just as bad. Or even worse, you can be embarrassed beyond belief. Yeah, once you commit to one of those and someone suddenly shifts spots,

you're like, yeah. You're cooked. Yeah. So they aren't happening very often. Yeah. No comment. How about a very big story from the game last night, Joseph Wall? Yes.

Where Sammy was wrong again yesterday. Tough week. I love love it that's great well i mean what do you make 30 saves last night give or take yeah i can probably find that stat immediately second career shut 31 saves and second career shut out so let's get uh what clip is it off of uh joseph wall yeah he I mean, the second period, they made a pretty good push there, and they had control of the play quite a bit in our zone. I thought we were a little, you know, pushed back at that time, but he came up big for us, and that's big. You know, it keeps you in the game, and then our third period was excellent.

Yeah, so Wall now goes to a 922 save percentage um you know stolar is at a 927 boys going into this year did you think you'd have uh you know two top 10 colleagues in the nhl by save percentage uh like zero chance zero these two tendies i thought maybe one yeah right i thought joe Wall would probably be in that range. They made the $11 million contract commitment to him. You think that they think he's a pretty good goalie despite his injury history. But Stolarz is the real surprise. But yeah, this now, you look at it, is a real, real advantage

for the first time probably in the Matthews era. I think it was you who said said to me that stood out was not only do you feel like you can hang with the other team but like it's actually a leg up yeah you go into the game being like all right we you know we've we've got that position over them so listen it's a nice feeling to think that you can be outplayed and still have a great chance to win. And there's only one guy that can really pull that off, and that's your goalie. Well, and last night's shots are, what, 26-12 at one point when the Leafs are up 1-0?

Like, I don't remember exactly what they were when it was really lopsided, but, you know, he kept them in there when it wasn't going their way. What are your thoughts on how much the goaltending's success has to do with the changes on D, with actual different personnel in front of them? Well, the block shots are off the charts,

and Tano's going to set a record. What, they have 26 last night? Is that right? It's huge. Jeez. He commented on that somewhere along the way, too, but he noticed. He mentioned Steven Lorenz.

We actually have Lorenz talking about that on his shot blocks, clip one. Yeah, three times. Yeah, two in the same shift. But, yeah, I was channeling my inner Timmy Brent there with a few blocks. But, yeah, no, it definitely didn't feel too good. But it's always worth it when the guys come through and a big 3-0 win, a shutout for Waller.

So it was just a good team effort all around. Tim Brent? I have to say, him referencing Tim Brent is the most passionate thing anyone's ever done for like mid-2000s tim brent number 37 uh what what way did he shoot oh good question maybe left actually right right you got it here i'm doing a quick search here kipper's correct right shot he's my age i remember nothing about him but i remember he shot right but there was one particular play that he was referencing and this is stuff i remember but i think it was against carolina and it was a five on three and tim brent was the only guy out there the only forward and he was like flying around like a goalie and he was i mean he must have blocked five shots on one shift so tim brent was the only guy out there the only forward and he was like flying around

like a goalie and he was i mean he must have blocked five shots on one shift so tim brent played i can't believe he's not gregory campbell it was like that was like that without a broken leg basically he played one year he played for the one game for the leafs in 09 10 and 79 for the the leafs in 10 11 scoring 8 and 12 for For the Leafs in 10, 11. Scoring 8 and 12 for 20 points. You know what's going to be interesting for me in the next week is, again, lighter schedule, Utah Sunday, at Florida Wednesday. So tell me, Wall Sunday stole ours wednesday or stole ours sunday and stole ours wednesday because i'm not sure i want joseph wall not playing again in a week god stole ours last

game was november 16th today's the 21st so now you're talking about the 24th and presuming what is the 26th or 7th or something like that give me a call here i want stoller's back in the net he needs to to get back in so he's playing on sunday i and then yeah you're going to wall in florida weather vane mckee here but guy gets a shutout you probably have to start in the next game no i don't know it depends if you got the zoomed out view of just trying to keep everyone going but i stole ours wednesday no question regardless of what happens against his former team that has to happen that's a start that's a start factor that start he's got that

start so i need to give him i tend i tend to agree with sam that it would be nice if you have to start separating yourself for the Leafs. In the division? In the division. Oh, you can't start pressing for wins now. No. I'm not saying that you need to press for wins. But what I'm saying is that if you want to win the division, start with beating the team that you think you need to beat.

Ah, prioritize the Wednesday. Okay, I'm in. Are you following me? I'm actually sold. Between him having played there, this being your draft competition, under different circumstances, I would say if you need to go Stolarz on Sunday and then back to wall wednesday no problem except you want to want to beat them but this all you want to win the division this all

lines up perfectly because to sam's point guy gets a shutout really it's not hockey and candidates sunday against utah you give them the next game say keep going still ours then is 11 days between games which might sound scary but he was a backup goalie forever he's gone long times between games and was wonderful as a battle you can go wall and then stole ours wednesday yeah i well i thought that the start for on sunday night was a wall start anyway that's kind of your 1b kind of start, backup kind of start. So you give him that one and then go into Wednesday. But it's a real luxury here, fellas.

Like, wall last night gave me game five, six vibes. He was so good in those games. And it just, when he's on, it's so, so boring. Like, him and Stoller's have such different styles. Like, I'm no goalie expert. I'm not Valaket. But wall is just hit some stops, sliding around not flying around just very solid very good positionally and when he's on it looks really easy and last night it looked easy did we play the bruby clip or am i on wall yeah we did i don't see it see the kippers rubbing off anybody

buddy i took some head hits too i was on the other end of a lot of matthew nye's hits yeah yeah anybody get kicked out of the game for him they got ejected from life actually Buddy, I took some head hits, too. I was on the other end of a lot of Matthew Nye's hits. I can tell you that. Anybody get kicked out of the game for them? They got ejected from life. Actually, back when I played, I was highly encouraged. Why do we have a clip on the convenience store 7-Eleven? Oh, I meant to put 11 and 7, potential. This is like asking your mom what the score is,

and she says it's 0-2. It was dumb by me, okay? I'm just taking a peek. And I still got to do this read. And I'm just like, you guys are going to do the read today? No, I'll do it. No, no, no, no. I've challenged him to be better. That's good.

Sometimes you need that. Grab him by the collar. To feed the kids. So we got not much time, several clips. What do you want to hear? Do you want to hear 11 and 7? Do you want to talk Matthews? Let's just hear the quick, two quick Matthews updates.

All right. 12, please. Like I said, I think, you know, everything went well. Like he's actually improving and in a real good spot right now going forward so we're very happy with that and the 13th the second one give us when you might skate again uh we could make well i still don't know that you know maybe this weekend we had our Sheldon Keefe waffling. Can that be our new Ruby? So, I guess. Why didn't they ask, is he back?

Is he back? That would be the question. Is he here? Yeah, he's back. He's back. They went to Reeves to get a comment on him, and they shut him down and said he's unavailable until the suspension ends. Reeves? Reeves said to them, I'll see you in two and a half weeks. Where'd he go?

Well, he can't talk to the media. Yeah, but where did he go? Did he leave? Like, he said he'll see you in two and a half weeks? Or talk to the media? Talk, talk. Yeah. But we don't have to be there every day like a lot of these guys. I can get

their frustration on not to Sammy's point on being so coy with matthews and not making reeves available to even discuss you know where he's at and what he thought of the hit and like it's it's hard yeah it's hard for uh for some of the media to think that they've got a story they can't get to one thought on matthews and his potential return if i'm him looking down the schedule and going could be back on the wednesday and i get to florida now i'm like you know what i might be better just a few days later than tampa tampa next saturday night that's a perfect look in a place Tampa next Saturday night. I'm just not really looking to play Sam Bennett my first game back. You guys good for me to read?

Yes. Good luck. Here we go now. Who wants to win a bunch of cash while doing the best this holiday season? It's the Sportsnet 590 to Fans 50-50 fortune supporting food for kids. Here's what you need to know. We've created a 50-50 lottery where the more money we raise, the more kids we can feed in the GTA and the more you can win.

The current take-home prize is $171,000. Someone is going to win that jackpot on Thursday, December 19th. And if you get your tickets early, there are a bunch of amazing early bird prizes, including a pair of tickets to Taylor Swift, the heiress tour this Saturday night, courtesy of Rogers. Get your tickets by Friday at 9 a.m. for your chance to win. For more details and to buy your tickets,

go to foodforkids5050.ca or text the word cash to 59590 and we'll send the link right to your phone. It's the 50-50 fortune supporting Food for Kids, standard message and data rate supply, Ontario only. Was that flawless? Way to go, Sam. No, no, no.

It was unbelievable. No, there's a couple flaws. No, no, much, much better, my friend. Smooth, smooth. We really, it's really important. Smooth. That we end this on a positive note. You guys got to build me up.

No, you're good. You guys got to build me up. You're good. We'll get Dr. Dana Sinclair to build you up on the National Hour. We've got a performance coach coming. Performance coach. And you guys will be thrilled to know that our

Sportsnet59thefan X account just tweeted out the debate of us talking about Nye's hit from White Cloud. So I'll get rid of you. Good job we'll see on the other side. Get rid of that one, too. Good job to our social team.

Thanks, guys. That'll be fun. Okay. Do you think Matthews comes back? When? What games do you want to come back? It doesn't matter. They don't need him.

Figure time. I actually think that winning does help him. I wonder if they were losing, if he'd be back. 41-20-2 with a 50 plus 58 goal differential without Austin Hines. The update. Our thanks to Sammy McKee this hour for taking it on the chin.

When are we returning? Dr. Dana Sinclair will join us. She's going to get into our heads. We all need help. We really need help. Bad. And Gary Gowley, it's the National Hour coming up next on Real Kipper and Born.

Do not go away. We'll see you next time.