Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Is Samsonov Ready to Return?

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the Leafs' 7-1 win over the Sharks last night, another in a line of embarrassing outings from San Jose, Marner's 4-point night and Robertson's play filling in for Gregor. Then, they react to the news that Ilya Samsonov has been called up, the timing of the move and if he could return to the NHL action as soon as this weekend. They are joined by Islanders forward & former Leaf Matt Martin (28:07) ahead of his matchup in Toronto tonight, and he chats about returning to Toronto, the competitive Metro. Division and the Islanders' identity. Finally, they touch on the news of Matthew Knies’ dust-up in practice today.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

it's another edition of the real Kipper and Bourne Show. Leaf edition this hour. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, and General Nick. Next two hours, this one. Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Plus from 4 to 6 p.m. And you can always download our podcast on any platform you choose. And you have your top sheet to your lineup. I have a functioning laptop.

Sammy has his lineup. We are professionals. Let me get this straight. Sammy's needed a new computer for like two years now, three years? No, I got a new one. No, I know you got a new one, but you needed one for the last, I want to say, since the inception of our show, which is like almost three years ago.

Yes. JB needs a new computer yesterday, and he gets one today. Well, the difference between, and this will surprise a lot of people knowing me, I didn't really ask. If I want something, I usually ask for it it and i'm pretty shameless about it in general i didn't ask and i asked and legitimately one day later i had a brand new computer so look at that thing it's beautiful yeah we have information for you today yes i do have to cover

this part up at some point what's that well You have to get the Sportsnet logo on there. Okay. Well, for now, we'll give a plug to Apple. Hey! If they pay us. Hey, I sat with Tom Cook for a Leaf game. The least you can do. Who now? Tim Cook? Or Tim Cook. What did I say? Tom. I said his brother.

His brother, what does he do? Did you really sit with him? I did. Did he lend you any money and i had uh dennis uh chapeau the uh great canadian tennis player beside me come on last night no i don't know last four years ago just let us know if you're sitting by bill burr or anything i gotta i gotta call from apple saying that uh we have a VIP coming to the game, and can you sit with him and explain hockey to him? I sat with Tim Cook for, like, I had dinner with him. Do you have his cell number?

I had dinner. I've got contacts. The following year, he invited me out to California to see their new headquarters. Come on. What? Yes. Did you go? By the way, Kip has the most.

Did I go? Yeah. Of course I went. Okay, you did go? Of course. Did you go? By the way, Kip has the most. Did I go? Yeah. Of course I went. Okay, you did go? Of course. How was it? Kipper had lost a guy when he had no job. He was just like, I'll go to Cali.

Willy Wonka and a chocolate factory. I gotta tell you, Kip has the most random. One time we played golf together and you're like, yeah, I brought Rafael Nadal here. What? Oh, you mean one of the top ten most famous guys on earth? Yeah. All right. And now that I'm 57 years old,

I'm calling them Tom now. What a big influence he had on me. Listen, Doug McLean's been on our show three years. He doesn't know my name. He almost said you're Jason last week. Well, you know, at least I'll excuse that one. All right, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jason or Justin, whatever your name is.

Whatever your name is. Dominated the San Jose Sharks, and I got to come back to my boy Sammy from yesterday's show who wanted to plant a seed that there was always the opportunity that the Leafs could play down to their opponent, and you gave out some numbers to maybe suggest that you might want to put some money on it that was just ridiculous on your part okay ridiculous because before we honestly haven't listened to my picks the rest of the year because that's not the only

ridiculous before we get in anything on the Leafs including Samsonov being called up, which probably will lead our charge. Let me just tell you, that team last night out of San Jose is just a sheer embarrassment to the NHL. Yeah, that bad, eh? Oh, for sure. They just suck. They're just not playing. They don't get to play the game.

Like, they don't have the puck. They don't have scoring chances. They don't get to play the game. They don't have the puck. They don't have scoring chances. They don't get to play. I don't understand how bad that gets. Like I get you're in this rebuild or you want to stock the cupboards and all of that, but I don't get how you can actually look that bad it's right back to as if they were a 1990 expansion team it's bad i know i know that that's as bad as we've seen a team look in the nhl last night at five on five they had the puck uh in leaf zone for two minutes and 40 seconds keep in mind a hockey game is 60 minutes long 240 yeah 350 for

the game total with some power play time oh my god i uh i played in an era in the nhl when they told you uh boys we got a game tonight uh against the usa program so we would play against team USA. One year we played against Dynamo Moscow. Yeah. Really? That's cool. Like an exhibition game. We would do that as an NCAA D1 team.

We play the Canadian team. That's what last night looked like to me. Just not in the same literal league. No. Yeah. No. And I can appreciate the work that Mike Greer has to put in, but who's helping him try to build this?

I agree with that. I'm looking. Who's the GM trying to solve this problem? I look at their roster here of what their team is, and I see assistant general manager. What is it? I can't even see. Wall? Joe Will who's probably a cap guy

and Tom Hawley. Tom Hawley was a PR guy. He was in public relations. Okay, really? Yeah. And now he's a general manager. You know, you're looking at that part so how does he find his way out of it? Mario Ferraro is their number one D-man, right?

I would argue, I guess. I mean, I guess, yeah. You know, if you look at some really good D-cores around the league, he might be a four on some of those. Then it's Ty Amberson, Henry Thrun, Jan Ruda, Kalen Addison, Kyle Burrows. Like... Yeah, that's what jumps out to me about them. It's like, they are so far away

from thinking about being competitive. If they started trying to win today, it would take four years. They have no... There wasn't one guy on that team that will be there when they're good. Like, whenever the year it is that the Sharks go back to being a competitive team, none of these guys will be on the roster.

There's not one guy you look at and you're like, oh, they can, you know, you can picture him being there long term. They stink. Their last win, though, guys, was against the Jets. They beat them 2-1. How did that? We need to study that. How did that happen?

Give me the film. I go back and I'm like, Gregor came from there didn't he yes they let gregor go use gregor qualify they had simone they had simone benoit down the street in anaheim yeah they couldn't see anything that they would bring him over you know know, I'm a huge believer, and I hope that people have picked this up with some consistency. You just can't be this bad. You have to try. You have to give, you know, the guys who are there some culture and hope of trying to win,

the fans something to buy into, something to lean on, something to say, you know, we don't want to finish first, but we're trying. Yeah. You can't outwardly tank this bad. They're terrible. Anyway, the Leafs handled their business. They handled their business.

7-1. You want to get into the game before we go Samsonov, or you want to do Samsonov before the game? Let's do the game quick. Okay. All right. Mitch Marner, four points. The whole slap cutter tip was a thing of beauty.

What's the word now on him on the all-time list? Seventh. Seventh. Just went past Frank Mahavlich. The big M. The big M. So I think we're going to have to just, this is something we're going to get used to here

with these two guys and Marner, Matthews, and Willie as well. Like I think they'll probably be one, two, three in franchise scoring, by the way, if it's all said and done. I wonder how it's affected Mitch emotionally, the Nylander contract, because there's

no doubt that knowing that Willie's here the next seven or eight years, it does, for me anyways, and I don't know how it's affect Mitch Marner or how it's perceived. So I'll throw the, you this out there that it seems like forever.

It was Matthews and Marner, Matthews and Marner, Matthews and Marner. And now it just feels like a little bit to me, like it's Matthews and Nylander and Marner now. Yeah. Yeah. Willie's played himself into that group.

Do you think Mitch is kind of feeling like, okay, now I got to really ramp it up because I want to remind people that I'm still the guy and I don't want to go anywhere. Hope so. I'm building this thing up, baby. You would know him better than Sam and I would. I just can't imagine this has had a huge effect on him.

I mean, he's got a year and a half of contract left. They're in a cup run here. He's a good player. You know this market, and it's not hard to go on the Internet right now and have people now speculate oh they're not going to sign him oh they're going to sign him oh he wants x amount yeah oh they're going to trade after years here he's just like that's just part of being the market that never stops here like has he not said that he doesn't follow social media in season anymore like oh

yeah he's had he's had a couple of moments when it's like, screw you guys. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I don't think. With good reason. I've heard a number of people be like, four points. Do you think that Mitch Marner saw Willie's contract? I said that.

No. I said that. Yeah. That was me. That was you. I said that too. He had 600 points as a Leaf. They played the worst team on earth last night.

He played. He had four points. He has four points all the worst team on earth last night. He played, he had four points. He has four points all the time. He's super good. Yeah. He's so good. Yeah. You know, like. And as I've said.

I don't think it's a motivation thing. There's just no way to predict where this thing goes without understanding how this team plays this season out yeah and that's times on the leaf side when it comes to mitch marner times on mitch marner's side to decide what his value is moving forward you got to weigh all of those pros and cons out which you know for me i'll kind of you know draw my line in the sand on this because I agree with you 100%. We don't know until that happens that it's kind of,

this is not going to be a conversation for me. You know, Kip, you tend to, you know, if it's relevant, you tell me. But I don't, I'm not thinking about Mitch's contract really. I don't think it's relevant either. Until you get to the playoffs and you figure out and you get to watch it one more time. And the way the Willie one played out,

like, Ice went into this offseason, this past offseason, and be like, well, if Willie's not under contract by the start of training camp, he's probably gone. I'm like, there's no way that he's going to, you know, do this during the season. And I kind of feel like now that this happened in the season with Bradshaw Living, I kind of feel the same way about Marner. Like, I'm not like, if it doesn't happen right at the season. And I kind of feel like now that this happened in the season with Bradshaw Living,

I kind of feel the same way about Marner. Like, I'm not like, if it doesn't happen right at the start of the year, I'm confident they can get it done during the year. Like, this kind of changed my perception on that. Like, to have him with Pachinac last year. He's a guy you want so much. I know. You know?

That's the thing. Like, I've really come to the realization that these are just going to be the guys. These are really good players. They're tough to get. So, anyways, want to talk about Samsonov? Do you want to go over to Sheldon Keefe on the game last night, what you learned? I mean, these are your clips.

I know, but like. You guys don't want to do Nick Robertson? The conversation to me, oh, he got into the sweet spot for the first time all year and shot it in the net? Yeah. That's the most Nick Robertson goal of all time. He had time and space and ripped it. You're riling up the locals on Nick Robertson. Everybody's like,

yeah, see, he can. Everybody is obsessed with Nick Robertson. Yeah, he can do it against Moscow Dynamo. How much time and space did he have to just turn square up? That never happens. And he could rip it and score. Yeah, but everyone's like, he needs more opportunity.

He needs more opportunity. Why hasn't he got more opportunity? There's a reason for this. It's like, oh, you put him up top. They tried him on other lines in other years. It's like, people are so obsessed with Nick Roberts and being good. And it's just like, I get DMs all the time. We get DMs all the time.

We did it last night on Leafs Talk. And they're like, what are you guys talking about with Roberts? And he needs more chances. It's like, get your head out of, like, am I taking Chris? I still, every once in a while, see him, like, get bumped around. Yes. I saw it last night. I mean, what is Florida going to do to him?

Well, that's, I said to use the same team to Sam. I was like, that shot he got last night, it's just not there against good teams. You don't have that time and space. But he, yeah, he can light up a team like that, which is why he put him in last night.

You got people being mean to me in my DMs. That's why I was mad at you today. Really? Well, no, but everyone's like, oh, Boren said he could play. I'm like, God.

He can light up the shots. Yeah, he can shoot it. I promise you that. And he'd love it all for a Pontus Holmberg goal. Yeah. He knew you were there. He knew you were there last night no it was on tsn

but uh masters asked marner in the intermission about pontus holmberg and he said that he's his favorite player in the nhl so i love this that's a goal he called him homer hom. Homer. That's a goal. That's a big, powerful. Cut in. Cut in. One hand. Not sure I want to play on a guy that leans like that in the playoffs type of guy. It's great. What a goal.

Yep. You did it. That's. Yeah. Imagine how good he would have been now if you just left him alone from training camp. Oh. He didn't have to juice up Minton's value. We're just starting.

We're not even helping anymore. There it is. The biggest story of the day for our boy Sammy. From one Sammy to another. He must have had some really good practices because he's back. He's ready. Do we have a sound bite from Sheldon on Sammy? Yes, we do.

We do. Clip five. We have two. Okay, let's start there, and then we'll work our way around it. Just, you know, I'm going to take it a day at a time. He's actually on the ice at Marley's practice right now with those guys, which is sort of a step for him. Wrong clip. He's been just skating on his own and spending some time to himself.

This is from yesterday. Yeah, that's why. Was that clip five or six? Maybe it's my fault here, guys. Hold tight. Oh, we'll have to wait on those. Yeah, hold on a second here. All right.

The Ilya Samson, the fact of the matter is he did practice with the marlies no games but a couple of pucks hit him they called him back up i kind of feel like if this whole rehab process was to be go down work on your game whatever you can't not play for too long so he's back k. Do you think? We have the correct clip here now. Samsonov number five there, Derek. Well, he'll come on the trip with us here. He'll back up tomorrow night.

Today was really just a chance for us to get him in here, get him back into practice with us, get him back on the ice with Curtis Sanford and really see where he's at since we've left. So it's partly about that, but it's equally, if not more, about Dennis Hildeby, quite honestly, who we gave the day off to today. We assigned to the Marlies, but a day off today,

a chance to practice with the Marlies tomorrow while we're away and then get a game in with the Marlies on Friday. So that's really what it's about. But at the same time, it gives us a chance to to assess and give him an opportunity to get back with the group okay i got nothing out of that i did what did you get we don't care about samson off yet we're just he can't not have hill to be play we're trying to develop this guy that's yeah That's what I mean when I got nothing out of that. Nothing in terms of their Samsonov decision making.

They need Hildeby to play hockey. He may have got called up, but I'm not sure how close he is to playing a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, that like, it's funny I hadn't heard the clip. That like fully changed my mind on their plan for him. Sheldon Keefe just told us in a nutshell. We don't know. We don't know we don't know but that wasn't like hey it's been a really good week and we like to get them uh in on the weekend we're not gonna play jones back to back like if i was a betting man i'd say there's a better chance the hilda beast play sunday

versus detroit right now now than Samsonov. Agreed. Agreed. Do we have the number six as well? Sure, we can play that, and then we can react off of that. Yeah, you want to see him play with confidence in the net. You want to see him, right now we have to go off of his practices. You want to see him practice well and have good habits,

and you want to see him you know have life about him and confidence so that's it just a chance to assess him and you know today is a good day for him to like i said work with curtis again um and be around our team for for a bit here and and we'll reassess uh after friday best thing samsonov could do is like overcook some glove saves like Patrick Waugh in practice and show confidence and do a bunch of confident moves and then to break it breezes one passes the air and then he just lets in six is it not strange that Curtis Sanford has not been working with him like Curtis Sanford has been with the leafs this goalie that they're trying to get back to leaf ready is what they tell us has been working with the ahl goalie coach which fine

but you would think you'd want him working with the guy you have deemed the better goalie coach yes i i think the whole thing's kind of weird i think it's i think it's strange that he has not played a game yet since they put him on waivers. I think I would have liked to have seen him this weekend play for the Marlies Friday night. Not Hildeby. Yeah. It is.

It's super strange. But wherever he plays, he needs to play yes you can't make any decision till he does hockey so let's resume with the hockey doing and then make some decisions here like the less the less we see him in action here, the less you're going to trust him no matter how good he is. Right. And it's not like he played 32 of their first 38 games and some rest will do him some good. Like, he's only been in a dozen games dating back to last May. You know, he needs to play hockey.

Like, this is getting into that, like, where are we going with this? Because right now it's... It's going towards Samsonov not being a Leaf. And it's going towards Martin Jones taking the bulk of this thing up until Joseph Wall is ready. Is Joseph Wall and Martin Jones any worse a tandem than Joseph Wall and Ilya Samsonov? I mean, I told you guys yesterday, Jones truther over here.

I now am in. If the Leafs didn't have Jones and he was playing for some other team with a 930 and in 11 or 12 starts, you'd be saying, what could we do to get a guy like Jones? What would that cost? He's here. That's a good point.

You know, he's as good a bet as anyone as Jake Allen is. His career peak is higher than Allen's, and they're no different in age. But if we asked 32 general managers who would they rather have, Jake Allen or Martin Jones, I'd say probably all of them would go to Allen. Do you think so? Yeah, I do.

I do. Yeah, I mean, that could be the case. I'm not so sure that 32 guys would be right in that case. I think they're kind of the same quality of guy you're getting. Either one could get hot at the right time. That's only because perhaps Allen's stock has dropped. Right. Compared to your sample size this season.

Yeah. That's what Jake Allen is up to. There's a tremendous shortage going on right now with the goaltenders in the National Hockey League. Jake Allen's played 14 games, 3-5-2 save. Sorry, he's a 900 save percentage. 900. Yeah.

Jones is 932 right now. Yeah. I just can't see him getting in a game this week. Sam's enough. Unless, like, they go to Long Island and Jones gets let up or whatever in the first half of the game. Maybe they get him in that way. But, like, they're not going to start him.

Especially on home. Like, they're going to make, make they're gonna give him the first start since his little sabbatical here the second half of a back-to-back on home ice that's a tough one i can score too gets into a bigger picture too of of where the leaf schedule goes from here on in and i think you guys had a couple exchanges on our chat line about the schedule being one of the tougher ones for the Leafs coming up. And it's not a box of chocolates between now and the All-Star break. No, the Leafs do have statistically, you know,

there's a number of places to check strength of schedule. But one of the sites, I think it's either Tankathon or Power Gurus, whatever it is. They have the hardest schedule left in the league. Are those real things? Those are real websites. Okay. They have the hardest schedule left in the league.

But all that is is most schedules tilt towards division play at the end of the season, and the Leafs play in a division with Boston and Florida and Tampa Bay and Detroit, and it's a tough division. But, you know, I think as guys who watch Lease every night, I'd rather see them start to play against some good teams than the three tomato cans in a row that we watch them play. Right?

It's a tough schedule. Nine games between now and the All-Star break. Saturday night it starts with the nate dog in colorado uh detroit which we think would be a non martin jones game and then it goes edmonton calgary vancouver seattle winnipeg winnipeg so winnipeg winnipeg vancouver edmonton those are the three hottest teams isn't that where you look at martin j go, now, let's. Yeah, let's see what you are. Let's see what you are.

The best records in the NHL since November 24th. The Oilers are the best, 16-3-0 and 8-42 winning percentage. The Jets are second, 16-4-2, 7-73. Canucks are third, 14-5-2, 7-14. So the Leafs will see a bunch of the best Canadian teams. God, it's fun having a whole bunch of Canadian teams playing well right now. Let's go. Give me some good matchups here.

And then you can make some decisions on who's what for this team come playoffs. But that stretch, you know what that says to me? You need another goalie you trust. Where's Wall? Is he not ready for those? No. That's too bad. This is, guys, this is a trade deadline decision here.

They're going to keep rocking and rolling here with Jones and the ghost goalie. Either Hildeby gets in or Samsonov gets another crack. We're going to see one of those guys at some point here. Yeah. The most important thing is, is Martin Jones has bought you time. He certainly has. He's actually on fire lots of teams some of them have already uh had their their pro scouting meetings a lot of them are going through them

this week this is when decisions get made this is what we think we need so start buckling down on wants and needs and for the leafs how do you not and they just finished theirs i believe so how do you not have your your goaltending conversations throughout the league should we listen to keith on what he learned from the winning streak they've just been on see if there's anything there yeah sure step one yeah sure we've just found a groove, found some comfort in playing in close games. I think, you know, we come out of that Columbus game, which I thought we played a good game in that one, but it's a mess, right? You give up six, you lose the game.

It gets the team's attention. You know, you get a chance as a coach to get the team's attention. Nobody likes that. You don't feel good coming out of that game. And things just kind of snap into place. I mean, over 82 games, you snap into one of these stretches where things go well and you're feeling good and you're in a groove. And then you get some stretches where you just can't quite get it. You're out of sorts.

So right now we're in a good groove and feeling good about how we've performed here of late. Schedule's going to get both this year and more difficult the rest of this month. So we've got to keep building on this. Which means going to need a whole lineup from top to bottom. Max Domi, 17 minutes. I don't know, someone said on our show yesterday maybe might be a good idea for max domi to play 17 minutes uh i think he listens to our show

uh definitely not uh we gotta go to get to matt martin but uh you said um you said during yesterday that you'd like to see all the stars play no ice time. 15? Your wishes were granted. Yeah, Tavares played the least on the team. Willie's second least. Yeah, they played barely. Marner played 16-22.

Matthews played 15-53. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. So that's up for... Them playing more coming up. They're going to play more. Rest the dogs.

All right. We're going to take a break here. Matt Martin, New York Islander forward, will welcome his former club, the Toronto Maple Leafs, into Long Island on Thursday night. We'll talk about that and more when we return on Real kipper and born diving deep into leaps rafters jays and nfl the jd bunk is podcast subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your

podcasts waiting on matt martin who is closing in on 1,000 games. All right, he's ready. Let's welcome in New York Islander, Matt Martin, former Toronto Maple Leaf. I was just saying to the boys here, 1,000 games closing in here. That's a big number, Matt. Does it feel like it?

Yeah, it doesn't really feel like it. I mean, it's still a full full season to go so we'll see uh how things shape up but uh you know a lot of hockey i've played in my career and uh pretty proud of it and how much of that uh you know i wonder how many of those games have been with sezikas and clutterbuck like they have been synonymous with your career there how close you guys you guys must be like family at this point yeah we're like family all right a lot of bickering back and forth about one another mainly casey and cal i'm kind of the uh mediator and all of it but um you know we spent a lot of time together obviously take a lot of pride in uh what we do and what we've done and um you know

the uh the bickering is usually in uh hearts in the right place, I guess, because we just want the best out of one another. So we spent a lot of time together. In the offseason, we all live in New York now, and it's been a good ride, been a lot of fun. I know you guys are coming off a tough loss against the Vancouver Canucks. You're welcoming the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night. Does it,

does it feel like moons ago that you were a Toronto Maple Leaf and what's it like playing against the Leafs for you personally? Yeah, I mean, it feels a long time ago. I guess now it's what, six years since I've played in Toronto and I enjoyed my time there. You know, for the most part,

not necessarily my playing situation, but Mitch Marner is one of my good friends. He's going to stop by shortly for dinner. But, you know, you make friends along the way, a lot of good relationships. Love the city of Toronto. My wife Sydney and I loved our time there. But, you know, we're happy to be back in New York.

This is where I was drafted, and pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to come back here. I don't think too many guys, you know, end up leaving a place and working their way back. Not only that, ending up getting back with their same two line mates that they were with before. So it was very familiar and easy transition to come back here for me.

And now this is where I'll, I'll spend most likely the rest of my life. And we love it here. Matt, tell us a little bit about the state of the Islanders right now. You guys are in a dog fight and a really tough division. There's gotta be, you know, seven very good teams in the Metro right now. You guys are in a dogfight in a really tough division. There's got to be, you know, seven very good teams in the Metro this year.

You know, looking at the guys that have helped you have some of your success, maybe tell us a bit about Noah Dobson, a guy who previously hadn't been a household name who probably deserves to be at this point. Yeah, well, first, you know, just for us as a team to your point the metro just always seems to be a dogfight all the way till the end um even when we're on a hot street there

we couldn't really pull away from the pack and then you'll lose a couple and and you're flirting with you know seventh eighth place in the division so uh you know i think it's just a couple points to separate third from eighth um and you know know, Carolina and the Rangers haven't exactly pulled away from the pack yet either. A lot of good hockey teams. And we just got to, you know, continue to fight and continue. Every game is going to be important from here on out. And got to find ways to pick up points. And then Noah Dobson is, you know, this year especially,

has kind of blossomed into, you know into a star defenseman in this league. He works hard at his game, always has. I think last year he probably got some unfair criticism. I think people forget how young he is and the responsibility that he took on, being a top pair defenseman on this team. And this year is, you know, with the addition of Harvey and Barzy even kind of finding a new level in his game. Those three guys, along with Brock Nelson, just seem to be really the catalyst for our team offensively.

And we rely on them every night. We're talking to Matt Martin, New York Islander forward. Matt, you guys have not been able to string back-to-back wins i think since the second week in december what has been the the main issue here on the inconsistencies um well you know we've had a couple long well we've had a long road trip against some pretty good teams out west come Come back home, I'll play Vancouver, play Toronto tomorrow, and then we'll go back on the road again. I think at the end of the day, our biggest issue this year has been

no way a team does get a goal. We've got to come out right after and take the game back or change the course. We've blown a lot of third-period leads. A game like yesterday, Vancouver's score was just after a power play to make it 1-0 late in first in a game we were playing well in.

And then shortly after, they get another one to make it 2-0. We just need to get better at when we do give up a goal, regardless of the score, when we do give up a goal. Not letting them pile up and not letting the mistakes pile up and taking the game back when we do give up a goal, not letting them pile up and not letting the mistakes pile up and taking the game back when we have an opportunity to.

Matt, for years, the Islanders kind of M.O. was to, you know, you gave up a lot of shots. Maybe your goaltending was exceptional. Everything seemed to come from the outside. You know, is that sort of priority? I guess what is the identity of this version of the Islanders? I know a lot of it is still built on the backs of getting great goaltending, but you've been there a lot of years and seen sort of the identity of this change

while you've been there, I'm sure. Yeah, well, I can assure you that the identity should still be keeping the pocket of our own net. Gotcha. It's something we're constantly trying to fix, and we need to do a better job. But I think our goalies have been, you know, tremendous as always. I think Billy Sorokin is one of the best in the league.

And, you know, Barlow-Moz is a starter on every other team and just about every other team in hockey. So we have one of the best tandems, if not the best tandem. And, you know, we've got to give them a little bit more support. I think we've gotten a lot better offensively and maybe there's a little bit of give and take there, but we definitely shore some

things up defensively. We give up too many opportunities and mainly they're off poor execution on breakouts and turnovers and wrong situations. Those are just areas where we, as a team team can be smarter because our defensive structure, you know, is more or less the same. And we've proven that it works. We just got to execute better.

Not that I'm going to put you out to pasture just yet, but you are getting up there a little bit. And when I look back at you breaking into the league, what in 2010, can you talk a little bit about the I look back at you breaking into the league what in 2010 can you talk a little bit about the evolution of the tough guy the fourth line guy the Leafs recently signed Ryan Reeves

and it's hard for him to get into the lineup I think of your days with the Leafs and it was kind of hot and cold on whether or not they wanted a tough guy in the lineup every night where do you see this thing moving forward or are there where's the next matt martin gonna come from yeah you know it's kind of constantly evolving i think the rules have changed you know i spent my

first probably four or five years every offseason they're trying to get me bigger and heavier wow you know and then you turn around and next thing you know the rules change and for the last whatever seven eight years they've been trying to get me lighter so you know the i think there's so many mobile players especially on the back end these days the amount amount of offense that these defensive guys play, like Quinn Hughes last night, for instance, just such a dynamic player offensively. The speed of the game's changed. The rules have changed. I think when I first came into the league, all the defensemen were six foot plus,

and you're seeing smaller and smaller guys in this league now with the rule changes. So, and then I think it's, you know, team, the way teams want to be built. Some teams want to be built. You know, you look at some of the West Coast teams, look at L.A. They're a big team. And then you look at some of the teams on the East, you know, smaller with speed. You know, back even in the early 2000s, you looked at a team like Chicago and a team like LA winning the cup back to back years,

it felt like each year teams were trying to replicate those teams. And I think those are the trends you see. But, you know, with the rules constantly changing to make the game faster, I don't think it'll ever get to the point where it's that big again. Although with the way training is and sports science is, I imagine big guys are going to become pretty mobile and fast as well. So for myself, it's always been constantly evolving. I've always had to kind of change my game to stay in this league.

You know, obviously the way things ended for me in Toronto, a lot of people counted me out and thought my career was going to be over right after that. And I've been able to, you know, continue on for whatever, six plus years here. So I go into every off season trying to, you know, get faster, get better, improve on the areas I need to improve on and um but at the end of the day it's there's there's trends to this game that you got to kind of follow and stay in tune with or else you'll find yourself on the outside looking in well and you know one thing i think that like leafs fans here have kind

of come to grips with is that we we've yet to see a team just kind of pure skill their way to win. And the Leafs, every trade deadline, are like, how can we add some grit and muscle? And I guess I kind of feel like the pendulum might be swinging back a little bit in the sense that come playoffs, it's still a game where intimidation and physical hockey matters. Oh, absolutely. And for the most part, I think whistles go away.

And refs are going to, when it comes down to it, let, you know, the boys decide it by themselves. Tryor mcdavid he had 10 hits in a playoff game i don't think he's somebody who's necessarily going to be physical every night um i think we as players understand the investment in a seven game series of taking the body and you know wearing teams down and that doesn't mean hurting everyone knows says that just means hurting people that's not what it is it's just you know the hit you throw on somebody in game one and you're chasing them down in game five, you know, he might turn a puck over the end slot that can beat the difference in a hockey game.

So not to mention the, you know, the tiredness you're going to feel of getting hit over and over and over again throughout the course of, you know, a week and a half long series. So the, the States always rise come playoff time and everybody's, you know, a little bit more committed and a little bit more committed to playing the game physically and rough and blocking shots and doing those little things that maybe you don't see every night. One more for me.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't follow up your answer with this one, and that is the Ryan Hartman situation between Minnesota and Winnipeg where he went after Cole Paffetti that really had nothing to do with a cross-check on Kirill Vithril. Like, Marty, that stuff used to happen nightly when I played. That stuff just doesn't happen anymore, does it? Yeah, not far or few between, I would say. I know in your day, it definitely happened a lot.

It even happened earlier in my career. You know, coaches in the past would tell you, like, listen, if they take a run at your star player you take around their star players uh that's that was just part of the game that then um you know i think all of that stuff is is farther and few between now um you know i i don't think you necessarily deserve to take a high stick in that situation but I guess Hartman in his mind is standing up for his player and I think when we talked

last year even about the fighting and jumping a guy after a clean hit I'm never necessarily going to fault the guy for sticking up for his team but Winnipeg Minnesota game should be pretty fun for the rest of the year. We're looking forward to it.

That's the kind of hockey I love. I'm sure that's the kind of hockey you guys love. There's another level that these games get to, and that's what makes the game special. I grew up watching Colorado-Detroit battle it out in the playoffs. To this day, those are my favorite series of all time. So there's true hatred, true rivalry there. And I think that's what

gets, that's the beauty of sport. It gets everyone's blood boiling. You feel invested and you fall in love with it. Well, we really appreciate your time. And speaking of blood boiling a little bit, can you get the fans to just back off GAT a little bit, can you get the fans to just back off JT a little bit tomorrow night?

Like it's a favor. JT is my buddy. You know, he's great captain, but these fans aren't backing off. They're passionate. They care. They don't like the way it ended.

There's no telling them otherwise. He made the best decision for him. But, you know, we love our fans for the way they are. But, you know, myself personally, I don't hold anything against JT for going home to play. That's his decision. But, yeah, you know, our fans aren't going to let up. And that's the beauty of it.

They're not. And you know what? I just want to say before you let him go that, you know, Matt, we, Matt does a lot for the Clark Ulysse Foundation. He's an ambassador. He's an emcee. He does everything for him. We're very grateful for you.

Grateful for your time today, man. Appreciate it. There you go. Thanks, Matty. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate it. Bye. Matt Martin.

What a class guy. He is that, for sure. And honest and, yeah, got a lot of time for that guy. Yeah. He has, you know, there's in the Instagram and TikTok era, there's like all these like best chirps and everything that goes, like best hockey chirps of all time. And like you watch these videos,

him getting Drewer was one of the all-time drew miller because it was during like the 24-7 and drew miller was like oh why don't you go back to the minors and he looked at him he was like you spent more time in the minors than me you dumb f go dye your hair because he had like pitch silver like silver hair but it is unbelievable to have spent more time somewhere in the minors tell him to go back to the minors and he was just like go you spend more time than some of the minors telling him to go back to the minors. And he was just like, go. You spend more time than me there, you dumb idiot. Go dye your hair is just a ruthless.

Imagine a team telling him to get bigger and heavier and stronger. You know, I was at Isles Camp with him in 08, I think it was. And he was just a young guy. And he was a monster. I was terrified of him yeah they beefed them up for four or five years and then all of a sudden yeah the game changes and they're like now get on the treadmill that's a tough hit the peloton baby uh one thing that we did not touch at all so far in the show regarding the toronto maple leafs is matthew nyes needed

help matthew no i'm just saying his knees are hurt. Is that what it is? Someone said that he may have hit a rut or something that was on his own. Would you like to hear the coach talk about it? I would love it, Sammy. Okay, that is clip number... Did I not put it in? Clip number...

Maybe I didn't put it in. Oh, yeah, I did. Number four. It looks good. It looks good. We're not going to I did. Number four. It looks good. It looks good. I mean, we're not going to know more until tomorrow, but it looks good. He's not ruled out for tomorrow's game. He's not ruled out?

He's not. Okay. Do you know or did you see exactly what happened? I kind of saw it, but it looked pretty innocent. But, like, he gave us, you know, just kind of tweet something. Yeah, he was obviously fearful of that it was something bad, but sometimes these things settle down, and I think that seems to be the case. But we won't really know until it really settles, probably really until he wakes up tomorrow and you see where he's at.

So did you watch the video? No. I watched him getting helped off the air. Oh my god, it looked like his season was over. Like, he couldn't put any weight on it. He had like six guys carrying him around. It sounds like he's hopeful that

he's accurate on the downplaying it, but tweaking something. It's never great to feel anything go on your knee and then go, I'll be fine. Hopefully that it settles down. You guys are going to roll your eyes at me for this, but because it was San Jose, God, he looked good last night. He looked like what he could be.

I know. Who didn't? I know. But he looked so good. Spinning off guys, hanging onto the puck. Yeah. Like you can see this version of him. You've been seeing it.

Yeah, he would dominate the AHL, which he played against last year. You have been seeing it from day one. You have. There's always those spurts. He has this growing confidence to cut back on guys and hang on to the puck. He's going to be a very tough guy to manage down low throughout his career. 22 years old, he's a monster. Yeah, and not to rehash what we talked about

between the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim and Cutter-Gocce, but, like, for a lot of people, Cutter-Gocce was the Leafs' Matthew Nyes. Yeah. And every once in a while, before Matthew Nyes stepped in for one NHL game, we've had conversations on do you trade them and leafs need a d and they got to give up something that someone wants and you're like no not the one

guy who's big and that's that's what uh you've traded him a couple times a couple times for sure i did and now you're like, he has to be the most untouchable guy outside of the core guys, of course. But, like, as far as that one chip that you know Brad Tree living is constantly getting asked is, you know, where's your wiggle room to move Matthew New nice and it's like non-existent no i wonder if he just becomes so good that they you know they stop hearing those calls like no one calls and says what would you you know what's matthew's you know available for like is it a

point where you just don't call on guys great players anymore can he get into that group that's no few years away yeah to me like you're saying all these great things about knives and i agree he looks very good but if the leafs had of traded him for like a really good defenseman last couple years yeah and he was contributing at a high level and the he was playing okay in anaheim i'm not gonna be like crying my eyes out about it right this is why it's frustrating talking to people about trades in the nhl it's like you're allowed to trade really good players because you're hoping to get one back yeah you know and that's this drysdale uh yeah you know goche thing could be that we do see trades where it happens sometimes

and like nye's really good and he's playing with the good players and he has moments where he looks really great but he's still like a couple years away from being really really good to me he's playing with the good players and he has moments where he looks really great but he's still a couple years away from being really really good to me. He's on pace for 18 goals. Yeah it's not like he's dominating. The one thing that we're getting more and more out of Brad Tree Living is snippets of there isn't

don't expect this magic trade to now get us to the next level. Yeah. What's more apparent. That's how you know he's new here. Is the cupboards are fairly empty thanks to Kyle Dubas. Sure.

And that's why it's, there might be short conversations for him. I don't know how in play the Leafs will be when you're locked into the thought that Matthews nice is untouchable right now. We're not trading him. And really it comes down to how you feel about Minton and the kid in London, Cowan. Yeah. Hey man.

I feel like I haven't brought this out in a while, but I'll drive, drive you there to the airport. Love it, man. I feel like I haven't brought this out in a while, but I'll drive you there to the airport. Love it, Sam. For a good player. I don't care about three years from now, boys. This team is in its competitive window at this moment. It's time. You don't have to make good points, Sammy,

but there's a good one to end our first hour on our Leaf edition. Okay, our thanks to Matt Martin, New York Islander forward, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in Long Island for another JT. Boo! Boo! Boo! Maybe they'll back off. Maybe they'll back off.

But don't you back off our show as we take a break. We come back. More Real Kippenborn. The National Hour. We'll talk Winnipeg Jets. Maybe better than the Vancouver Canucks? Maybe. Maybe.