Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Matthews Makes History + What To Do With Rielly?

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Toronto Maple Leafs' loss to the New York Islanders. They discuss Auston Matthews surpassing Mats Sundin for the franchise record in goals, his legacy in Toronto, and what's behind his recent return to form. Then, they dive deeper into the game, another third-period blown lead, Matthew Schaefer's rising star, and the Leafs' options for a struggling Morgan Rielly. Later, they get into Joseph Woll's outing on Saturday, hear the latest from Craig Berube on the Leafs' long list of injuries, and outline the importance of the team's pre-Olympic break stretch.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 pumped up for another big week on the real Kipper and Bourne show, season five. It's the Leaf Hour edition of our program. We are live on Sports at 360. Sportsnet 590, the fan in Toronto, and streaming, always. on sports net plus always available when you can't catch us lives on spotify apple podcast and youtube nick kiprios justin born sammy mackie jen ronick derrick brando and debut out of our new assistant producer ethan jaja gabor what is that what is you're not familiar There's Zaja Gabor.

That is a old singer, actress. Yeah. She's the only Gabor I'm aware on. No, there's sisters, I think. I think there were sisters, and I'm not sure which one had a sitcom named Green Acres. How would you spell that?

Z-S-A-Z-A. I think it's separate. I'm Googling this. Yeah, Google it. Please. I'm the dinosaur. American, yeah, Hungarian, American socialite and actress.

Yes. The original Instagram influencer. To steal a line from Rodney Dangerfield, she was really something before electricity. We really derailed the intro to Ethan here. Welcome, Ethan, who's helping the program for at least a month here. Hopefully long. No, we're going to...

We're going to just hang on to him. Longer. In the meantime, in our Toronto Maple Leaf edition, what we thought was closing in on another two points. left Toronto Maple Leaf fans disappointed in terms of the lost point, I guess, but outside of that, celebrating Austin Matthews, becoming the all-time goal-scoring champion of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm not sure how everybody felt after the game in terms of where the Leafs are.

You know, we talk about the points that have been accumulated over the last week and a half, two weeks, which has been good. Yeah, points are... Six straight. The points have been good, but... Last time I looked, they were still tied for the basement in the Eastern Conference, which is, I think, a little frustrating

for Lee fans. Yeah, they need wins. It certainly was frustrating. What are they, up? Three, two, with four minutes to go in that one. Yeah, on Saturday? I think it was less than that. Maybe that's what it was. I can't remember the exact score, but I remember being pissed off. Yeah, no, because Matthew scored two, and

Roberts had won so they were they blew a lead again in the third period yeah uh something that they never did last year and something that they're addicted to doing this year i don't know what it is very shell like third periods where they just feel like they're flipping the puck out and they stopped playing hockey but it was really bad i thought of on saturday night scored the first goal 19 times this year and won just 10 of those games they're in 10 6 and 3 and they've uh had the lead going into the third period uh i want to say 16 times and They're like 10, 3 and 3, which is tied for the worst points percentage for a team leading going into the third.

Yeah, it's, again, that was. Hung on very well. Missing Carlo Tanev and Riley playing like this doesn't help. Yeah, I think a lot of it's personnel. And, I mean, talk about, say what you will, about Mitch Marner and his contributions, great defensive player and not having him, that hurts him that in the third period, too. Before we get into the specifics of what we saw against the New York Islanders, you guys want to talk about Austin Matthews and the continuous look of a guy.

that we were all familiar with when he's scoring 60 and 69 goals? Yeah. You know, first off, just a shout out to the accomplishment, you know, leading the Leafs all time and goals. He did it in six fewer games, got to this number than Alex Ovechkin. Like he is, you know, it's an incredible clip to give credit for what he's done over this time. And we know that it's had these dips and we know that the postseason success hasn't been there. But all told,

insane goal score, it's just been crazy to watch. Yeah, 421 goals in 664 career games is ridiculous. Yeah, it is. It's a ridiculous pace. It really is. So, yeah, I wish they had a one. It kind of gave me a throat, was it? Tavares got his 1,000th point.

Remember when they tied it late in Long Island? No, it was on, when he got his 1,000 point, it was on Long Island, and he got a tie, like a point on the tying goal, and the benches came off, they all cleared. And then they went out and they lost in overtime. It just gave me a very similar vibe, especially with Matthews hitting the post in OT. But, I mean, I sat there watching that, and it just blew me away how fast has happened.

That it's, like, oh, he could one day be the all-time leading score of this franchise. And then you're here. Snap your fingers is like, oh, he is the all-time leading goal score. We've 500 goals. We talked last week about how there was no build-up towards this, right? It was just a feeling of bigger fish to fry in terms of where the team's at or the focus was on really the team

and less of an individual accomplishment. But to Sam's point, is the attention around it been tarnished because of the lack of success on the team and does it speak towards where Leaf fans are or even the media per se on if this team is in first place, if they're comfortably headed towards another belief that they're going to take a run at winning a Stanley Cup, this Austin Matthews story would be so much bigger.

Maybe I feel like the other part of that KIP is two factors. One is the inevitability of this. we've known for years ever since he's had a contract you know long enough to get here that he was going to get here everyone kind of thought that he was going to be the guy

to hold this record so I don't think it's this like holy crap like no one ever thought Gretzky's record was going to be broken until like two years ago it was like oh

he said it eight years ago and I was one of the people like get lost me too that felt inevitable that felt inevitable which I think hurts

but also he was never this season anyway stamped repeating toward the record like oh we just keep scoring it's going to happen sooner than we think he struggled for a while so for him to catch longer than a while yeah this was a year and a half we got to the point where like we were like questioning whether we'll ever see anything remotely like we just did a few seasons ago and i'm listening to the broadcast saturday night and our guys do a terrific job as always and uh both uh cc and and

Simmer were like, yeah, Austin has a lot more energy now. I think one of them used energy. And I think if it was Chris Cuthbert who said, yeah, he's got more oomph. I think he used the word, the term oomph. Well, his coach used that word prior a couple days ago. We can look at a lot of guys and say a lot of things about they're not scoring or why they're not scoring or they're snake bitten. And very seldom have we looked over Connor McDavid, you know,

when he has struggled as rarely as it happened or Ovechkin over the years and say, yeah, I'm not seeing any oomph. There's a lot of things, but not to the degree of where we question, where the hell has his game gone for such a long time. Yeah. And I think that really put a damper on, on his now title of being the greatest goal scorer is like do we all believe like he's back

do we believe that this is I don't I mean I hate the idea of for some reason there's a damper on this incredible record of his because you haven't liked his oomph or whatever for the last little bit yeah well how does that affect what he's done as a trauma it hasn't it hasn't but I think we're at the point where especially for for leaf fans that the biggest disappointment is that they had this window of eight or ten years with all these high draft picks and it didn't it didn't lead to where we thought it was going to go and it's trending downward and it's just it's affecting how we look at this particular accomplishment and some people can separate it and just say it's it is what it is

And it's a wonderful individual accomplishment. But it just didn't lead the Leafs to where you were hoping it would. Yeah, I guess I do see these as separate things. You know, there is this sense of the greater trajectory of the team and people feeling like, God, it just didn't happen. You know, like we thought, you know, after year 10 of Matthews by now that it would have happened. But I think to say that because, you know, Marner and Matthews

and Nealander didn't produce against Florida three years ago that somehow Matthews is the greatest leaf goal score of all time is somehow in any way affected. This is, you know, I don't know, maybe you need to be separated by some years to appreciate what he's done here

if that's how you feel about it. But this is, to me, something that Mapleese fans should be proud of and have enjoyed and it's given them a lot of joy and great memories. I don't disagree on that. It's just,

it's not as celebrated as I think it should be and well you're not celebrating it so so then is that the opposite of what you're saying like you think it should be celebrated but no I well I do think if the if the team and the team success was in a better place we'd be looking at this in a much bigger way yeah that's all and I'm not saying like I I look back on Rick Vive okay Rick Vive was in a short window like the greatest goal scorer in Leaf history and to this day they can't even hang his number up and he had the first guy to score 50 goals

and then score 50 goals again and did he do it three times? I don't know. He can't know. I know he scored 50. Okay. I'm not saying that this is Rick Vive. I'm not saying that.

But what I'm saying is what really hurt Rick was the lack of success around the team in that era. Right. But you're talking about greater career legacy here and how people will remember these players rather than what was just accomplished. Yeah, I do feel like if it doesn't work out for Austin and Marner's gone now. So Mariner is forever going to be, in my opinion, maybe looked upon as a great talent or, you know, individual accomplishments, but a failure for not being able to win when it mattered most as a Toronto Maple Leafs. And I think Tavares is hooked into that, Nealander's hooked into that. For sure.

And for sure, Austin's looked into that. Yeah, I have no. Now, if you can separate the two. No argument. If you can separate the two and say, affected by not winning wonderful talent yes and then it's like is he the greatest leaf ever to play and it's like okay what's your interpretation of great right i mean right they haven't had a ton to since there was you know they were pushing the stanley cup out on like a table in black

and white they haven't had a lot of players be really that great quite frankly been awesome players throughout their franchise clearly but no one's really brought them to anything so it's hard to be like, well, Matthews, I mean, it kind of just falls in line with the lineage of players since 1967 that have been good, but not, I don't think this good. So maybe the greatest non-pre-60s play. I understand what you're saying, Kipper.

Yeah. That, like, I'd be lying if I said to you that I fully am fired up that he's the ultimate, like, yes, I love him. He's got, giving me so much success and so much joy. I'd be lying to you if I said I fully, fully believe that. But at the same time, I'm trying not to take for granted what has been one of the more remarkable 10-year regular season runs where the least have been one of the better teams in the league,

given a whole fan-based hope, gone into playoffs with hope, obviously hasn't got there, clearly. But now I'm looking at it where I'm like, oh, you know what? Like, those years were pretty good. Now when I'm looking at a team that's got 45 points and is behind the Sabres and may miss the playoffs, like I'm having this feeling where I'm like, I kind of took those years for granted a little bit.

Well, you're having these two totally separate conversations about what's Austin Matthews' legacy is a Toronto Maple Leaf. Yeah. And then the idea of if you can't appreciate, which I will say you haven't appreciated, Austin Matthews' greatness is a goal score while he's here, then what are you watching sports for? Like, to me, this guy has scored at a better pace.

Championships. Sure, watching teams come together and winning championships. So the greatest goal score in the history of the game, Alex Ovech, this guy in Toronto, as we cover it every day, has scored at a pace as good, marginally better, but as good as the greatest goal scorer of all time.

And to not come in here one or two days over those years and go, holy S word. You see his last two games? I mean, who on the planet, aside from one other guy I'm aware of, can do some of these things? So I guess for me, that's a separate thing. I only see team.

I only see coming together winning. I don't see. I don't see it as much. I don't see as much as you do on appreciation of individual stuff. Totally. Okay? And that's, I'm just built that way. I can't appreciate one.

I can appreciate 20. Yeah. And I have no interest. If you give me the choice of pursuing the two things or watching the two things, give me 20 Stephen Lorenz's who win a Stanley Cup over watching Matthews any day. But I do think that, you know, there are fans listening to our program. This is the Toronto Maple Leaf show of record on Sportsnet, the national rights holder, who have loved watching him score 421 times over,

was it not even 10 seasons. It's incredible. And it's been really fun to watch this weekend or Hattrick on Thursday, two big goals on the weekend. And really cool. If you don't have that guy, it's not as fun to be where they are in the basement. So it's giving people a brightness.

I mean, that's, yeah. It was really bad before he looked like this. And now that he looks like this, I'm like, well, at least there's something to watch. That's kind of. All right, let's get Craig Ruby's thoughts on his captain. Clip four on Austin Matthews. Yeah, I know it's incredible.

And, you know, congrats to him. Leading leaps and goals all time. actually first in hat tricks for a U.S. born player too. So he's accomplished a lot of things and he had a strong game again tonight and just about had it in OT. Would it be like most

about his game? I don't know if it's just the skating and the aggressiveness of his game and just using his size and strength to kind of bully his way around the ice and win the battles and win the puck battles and you know I don't know what his shot totals are the last five games but

they're up there. So he explain everything that we have not seen for a long time? Yes. So what do we I want to know what you attribute it to? I'll tell you in a nutshell. He's just working harder. He's just trying

harder. I thought at times I don't know. I don't know. Maybe he got lazy. Maybe he was out of shape. Maybe he just didn't feel a sense of urgency or responsibility. That would be great news for the least. That would be incredible. He's not hurt. Clearly he's not

hurt that would be amazing and we've hung ourselves on that hat for a very long time but you want to ask me what the difference is he just looks like he's trying harder and that's coming from a coach that has said that to him every day that is guys amazing and depressing I think it's I think savvy got fired and it was a wake-up call for everybody and they've played some crappier teams and I just think that they were like oh crap we some wasn't a head coach but a coach on bench that we're around every single day lost his job and they're like oh my god some accountability happened and it's been i hope that's the case too ever since that point he's been awesome at he's what do you attribute i i tend to think what sam mentioned leads to what you mentioned which is

i i can't speak to the relationship with the assistant coach and and me is savard and i'm not saying that's why but like maybe it is to wake up call factor of it you know maybe some of these injuries have kind of like you know eased up a little bit on him at the same time and he's just feeling better i honestly don't know kip and that's been one of the frustrating parts of watching him is watching him when he was bad a lot of other people but like when he was bad or oh yeah bad bad i couldn't figure it out you know we sat here and went i don't know is he not sleeping bad is he staying up too late is he eaten poorly is he nagging injuries is he mad at the spitballing So, it's just back.

He looks back. Which would be crazy for the Leafs because it would be just good enough to drag them to, what, ninth in the conference or something? Yeah. You know, like it doesn't. They're in tough to make playoffs and we're going to get there, but they're in tough here.

I keep looking at the standings hoping it's going to be better every day and it's just really not better every day. Like, I think the HABs in the third place in the Atlantic are now up to 53 points. Leaves are at 45. It's like they got smoking hot. Every one is part of their schedule. If there's 12 teams,

playing in the Eastern Conference, like eight are getting points. Yeah. Every night. Right? Three point games. Yeah. Must drive teams nuts watching three point games. You know, the thing is, like, standings-wise, they are right there, right? They're three points out of a playoff spot as a today. Behind Washington, right?

Behind Washington. You know, Ottawa's also got 45, Devils of 46, Bruins a 46, Sabers of 46, Florida 47. So, like, you're right in the mix. But you have to, your point, you have to, because of three-point games, you have to get hot. And we talked about this schedule, which is Colorado, Vegas, Colorado, Vegas, Minnesota. Every good team in the league for seven games in a row, basically.

Detroit's mixed in there. You have three coming up. You all. You got Florida, and then you got Philly and the Vincinnoc. Okay, tons to get into from Saturday night. Congrats to Matthews. Congrats to Austin Matthews. Awesome accomplishment.

Craig Bruby on his overall view of what he witnessed Saturday night in a disappointing loss. Yeah, good period. I thought, you know, the game going into a third period, I didn't think we pushed enough in a third. I thought we didn't have the puck enough and sat back a little too much. And, you know, we ended up getting a point out of the game. But, you know, for me, I think, you know, we could have had two. There you go.

They blew it. And they blew it against Detroit, too. Same way, third period. Just like went into a shell. I'm trying to score. How do you come out of the dressing room after the second period? They were awesome. And I can only imagine, I can only imagine, like, the things that were reiterated,

either from the coaches or the players themselves to each other. Yeah. And then start the first seven minutes saying, our breakout's going to be a flip, pass into the neutral zone and then we're going to line up across the blue line and dare them to come in. We're just going to

flip it and say Red Rover, Red Rover, take another run at our defense. And then eventually they'll break through. And we're going to let that kid, Matthew Schaefer, kind of lead the charge. Run Buck Wild out there. Unbelievable player. He is, you know,

he's going to the Olympics. Yeah, he is. Okay. I'm telling you right now, they have to find a way to get him on the roster. Well, Kipper, they literally had a way last week by saying Matthew Schaefer, you're on the Olympic team.

I know, but I don't know if they paid attention to Saturday night or they just refused to really focus in. There is, outside of Kail McCar, there is no one on that Canadian Olympic roster that can do the things that he can do right now. You know who he reminds me of is Duncan Keith. When Duncan Keith was younger,

he could skate, get up the rink and if he got, whatever, he could get back fine. He would just get back in the play and play defense. But he didn't have, he didn't have the legs or the reach or the offensive. He didn't have the length. Like his goal kind of just like Austin.

Austin's 28 years old and season for and season for 10 years. He scored the exact same goal. I know. Right? To me he looks like Connor McDavid coming through the neutral zone. Do you think anyone has a career highlight real of getting dunked on more than Morgan Riley?

Like you could put together, you know, McDavid's big juke on him. I told you guys last week, I don't know when it comes to like shoveling pucks out of your own net, but he's doing it all the time. Before we talk about Morgan Riley, I just wanted to read this stat about Schaefer. He became the first NHTel defenseman in history,

in history to record two multi-goal games as an 18-year-old. Only four others had one. But Goshen had one, Phil Housley, Bobby Orr and King Clancy. So the first defenseman in the history of the league to have two multi-goal games as an 18-year-old. It's just the skating. He's unbelievable. For me. He just jumps on the end.

So what would Doug Armstrong have not seen? Young? No, yeah. Just, I think just, I think he was just nervous about bringing a kid in that young. Yeah, you know, like early in the season, they protect. him pretty heavy he didn't play the top guys and he you know had some defensive whoopsies and stuff like that but like he's playing with adam pellick now and he looks rock solid he's playing top competition every night he's just fearless too eh well to a weird

degree like interviews you know the first star interviews to all of you know the whole arena like he is just unfaced was it was dowdy a rookie at the olympics and or was his second year i don't think so i think it was his second year in 2010 that he made that team and was on the ice when Sidney Cross scored the golden goal. But anyways, Morgan Riley. Morgan Riley.

So Schaefer has a career game on hockey night in Canada, and Morgan ends up minus four. Minus four and a four three game. And I think he's at five on five on five has been on for the most goals in the NHL now. A stop from Kevin Puppetti on Twitter. Where did I put it in here? Or maybe I didn't put it in here. Oh, yeah.

Heading into Saturday's action, there were 422 players with 400 plus minutes at 5 on 5 this season. Morgan Raleigh had been on. had been on for more goals against per minute than anyone else. Glad to have that confirmation. It's not good. Yeah. So it's a trouble spot where

when you don't have Tannaf Carlo, he's got to do more and he's not able to do more. It's been going on too long here with those guys in or out of the lineup. I mean, we've talked about Brubé at ton on this show and some of the coaching decisions he's made.

But I guess if McCabe goes out is why he goes up to 27 minutes. Yeah. 27. But what, McCabe got hurt. Nobody meant it was just nobody knew. Nobody meant he missed, I think,

the last 10 minutes of the third period. Yeah. And I don't know, did you watch him limp off? He was, he's hurt. I watched it back again, and it's like, he couldn't, barely could come off the ice. Is that right? And.

Out a week, apparently. Which might mean. We'll see. I don't know, two. I will say, hey, full credit to them. Injury disclosure, way better in the past two weeks. Buddy, they couldn't take our show any longer. That's what happened.

We guilted them. But really, like, you know, Anna Dewa had a tweet today, and she shared all the news on all the injuries, and it's, like, pretty thorough about... We can play the clip after we finish talking about Morgan Riley, but he, before his scrum started today, he went through, like, a detailed breakdown of all the injuries and, like, set it out before anyone even asked any questions.

So, maybe they're listening. But what are they going to do about Morgan Riley? Yeah. Because this has reached a fever pitch. So here's my kind of thinking about it is right now he can't defend well. He's now often some bad reads. The read in overtime to me is egregious. Like your player has their player.

There's not many guys. It doesn't really have them. It was a bad change. And then Nyes is chasing. I just fully disagree. Like Nyes has got him. Yeah. Listen, he's, he's,

He doesn't have him on body position, but he's right beside him. He's getting there. At the very least, like, that's his assignment at that point. I'm not justifying Morgan bailing out the front of the net. But, yeah, it's just not pretty to watch. So the D thing is like it's not, you don't want to put him in those spots. He doesn't have a big shot. We've said that for a long time.

That's been a problem. He doesn't shoot it heavy. For me, the passing hangs on to it a bit too long, you know, and doesn't always see the right thing. And it's like, God, getting tough to find the spots where you use them, I'm now thinking, like, if the Leafs were to be buyers, let's say they won five games in a row here, and they decided they wanted to be buyers,

is the thing they need most an offensive demon? Like someone, so they don't have to put Morgan on the power play and ozone, whatever, and you can shelter him a little bit. Like, I feel like you have to look out for this guy now. I don't know when you put them out. what's the situation where like he to me he's playing like he should be playing like 12 or 13 minutes a night like a bottom pair guy which is hard to do when he's one and four in overtime now one goal four four against when you're the when you're the highest paid defense on the team that's hard to justify

but like playing 27 minutes the other night is just what is he is he brodie now like what what is he like tj brodie before brodie left the leaps is he is he turned himself into that I got to say it's really hard to look back at the best shape of his career conversations from September. Yeah. Can you imagine if he was overweight now? I don't know. I just, it's just reached a fever pitch with the fan base

and he is squarely in the crosshairs of the fan base number one whipping boy by far right now. No one else. Like, I mean, there's just, it's the number one thing. I mean, we play into it, but, you know, after the game, we're supposed to talk about the game and you're like, how can you avoid this conversation? It just goes on you.

I think his value is, if you can get him to agree. You'd have to find someone who's really unhappy with their $8 million player. And it's, I'll trade you my headache for your headache. Yeah. You don't think anyone just say, hey, here's. It's really hard. It's really hard to have watched him, I think, this year and go. He's going to get 50 points as a demon.

31 teams out there. Can someone look at him and go, yeah, they were talking the same way about Seth Jones in Chicago this right. Yeah, Kim, that's a good point. And it's okay, he just needs to get out of here. And he just needs a fresh change.

And if I was Morgan, I'd be looking at that. I'd be approaching either my agent or the Leafs and saying, if you can find me a spot here that I'm happy with, I'd be willing to lift my no move. It's tough, right? like just married in the last few years,

kid in the last few years, no move clause in the contract. Like he's roots down here. Oh, I know. I know. Those type of things that you just described can also alter your play. Where it's,

either you lose an edge, you lose some hunger, you lose some, it does happen, right? It's good to live a full, complete life. The best example, the best example, the best example,

I can give you from covering this league for very long time is Wade Redden. Yeah. Okay. Ottawa. Best defenseman. No, we're choosing Wade over Charra. Insane. Okay. And then

goes to free agency. The Rangers pick them up. Number one, UFA signing, big contract. Like, and then it just, oh, he's like, got a, He sent him to the minors. They sent Wade Redden to the miners. And then he never got it back.

He played 70 games for the Hartford Wolf back in 2010. I'm not saying that that's the case. I'm just using it as an example. You hope he's Seth Jones in this example. How sometimes guys can just peter out a little early? Yeah, how old was Wade? Like Morgan's 32, 31? What is he?

Sammy, do the math. He's 31. Do the math on Wade Redden. Oh, my God. I'm just trying to think of me doing the math. Let me think about it. Do you want to listen to Bruby on Morgan's game? We'll get clip three here on Morgan's game, please.

Yeah, I think, you know, tonight was a tough one, you know, like I know that. But, I mean, he's played some really good hockey for us this year. I don't have a, I'm not worried about it. I think he'll get back to where he, the level he was at. I do believe that. So, you know, that's kind of where I'm at with it. By the way, it's very easy math. Wade Redden was born in 1977,

and he signed with the New York Rangers in 08. So he's the exact same age as Morgan Riley is. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it could be a little off with the birthdays or whatever, but yeah. I mean, it's possible. It's possible.

But, like... I also think that Morgan has been thrust into the, worst case scenario which is everyone treats you like the number one even though you're not number one at this point right he's not he's only makes 7.5 lots of demake lots more than that there's lots he's not a true number one

and you're in the biggest market he's getting finuffed right now you know he's getting finuffed I would if I were another GM 7.5 for riley for a few years like yeah yeah I'll do that I just don't want it to well not if he's your number one dude like if he can you put him behind a couple guys but what

D man is going to Or what general manager is going to be like, I'm going to spend $7.5 million on my fifth defenseman and that may not work out. I just think the way the cap is going up, if he's your, you'll leave a solid second pair. They got to eat. How is it not at the point where they either have to eat half

or a quarter of it or attach an asset? Like, how is this a tradable contract? I would take it. I don't think Morgan's this bad. I think he's asked to do way too much. I think the spot, he's like 27 minutes last night. Yeah, it's too much. He's not, you know, primary Carlson.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the hope. We didn't get into the goal lead or anything else yet. No, no, we got a break. Okay, okay, okay. We got a break. Catch our breath.

Ethan got my ear and said, you guys got a break. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you? Did he? No, I'm joking. Oh, I hope he did. That would be awesome. That would be awesome.

Maybe he's like Matthew Schaefer just coming out of nowhere and turning himself into a star right away. He's right by Scott Mayfield. He's ready for one. Okay. Let's take a quick break. We return more on the Toronto Bay Police in our Leaf Hour edition of our program. After these words.

Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the Hockey PEOCast with Dmitri Filipovich. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We just looked it out. and Eric Carlson had a season where he had 101 points and was dash 26. Yeah, the reason I brought that up is because, is my mic on? Am I working?

Yeah, you can hear me? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're fine. Okay. Do words. I think it was working when you're cussed, too, when you came out of commercial break. I heard that. It did?

No, my mic wasn't on. Yeah, somebody texted in and said trade Carlson for Morgan Riley, and then so it got me looking at Eric Carlson's hockey DB. A lot of points. It was Kyle Dubus who signed Morgan to that contract, was it? Well, you know, maybe he wants him. Maybe he wants them. You know, and at the time, I think we all said, wow, he took a haircut.

Yeah, that was right around. Oh, yeah, the thought was he could have turned it into $8 million as a free agent. It wasn't it right around the time that nurse signed and like those guys signed. Five and all that. Everybody thought seven and a half is way better than nine. And when we're, oh my God, Wrenski signed around that time too, I think. So people were anyways. How dare you?

But no, at the time. At the time. I know. I know. At the time, Justin. At the time. Everything's great. Oh, boy.

Joseph Wall on Saturday? So when we spoke on Friday, I really thought Hildeby was the starter Saturday night. You thought he should be or would be? Yes, should be. No. Wood, you just don't know with this team, but should absolutely coming off of that.

And I get Wall's numbers have been pretty good, right? The wins and I guess the safe percentage. It's all been solid. But man, he was just so good Hildeby. And I wouldn't have mind even acknowledging that Hildaby's right there right now. He's right there. He's there with Joseph Wall in terms of who could start. How good do I feel about each one of these guys?

playing now and yeah i haven't liked a few goals on on joseph wall going through him especially the tying goal heinemann won heine won east to west needed that there are there are like 10 goalies that like schisturkin would have looked like he was in a rocking chair on that yeah it cannot go through you not a chance unscreened from distance i don't care if you're moving laterally or not If you're world-class, Ovechkin, even Austin on a one-timer, they beat you. High corner. High corner.

You give them three inches, four inches to hit a spot, and they do it far side up above your shoulder. I get it. Tip the cat. Through you? Yeah. Unacceptable. Yeah.

That wasn't great, guys. And, you know, the pellic one where he looks on the wrong side of the pile, looking forward to talking to Valley about some of these and his story. thoughts on it but you know he had a shut out the game before no yeah he got laid up like a christmas tree and then the game before that the game before that was a shut out yeah so jets he got lit up yeah jets were no good i think there's the chance so you go shut out you have a tough outing and then they say you're still the guy yeah you know saturday night you know with the guy i get the idea of it but yeah you know you probably get two points if hildeby's the net there

which is interesting to say and the thing that i think i hated the most about it was was the overtime where he's got Domi and McMahon, and I think Riley out at that town, or maybe it wasn't Riley, the other, and the defenseman, their dog tired. They've been chasing in the defensive zone for, I don't know how long. Yeah, weird choice.

It'd been a long time. Catches it and perfect opportunity free. I think he's thinking we don't want to get a draw on our zone if we just have possession of it. The tendency for the goalies is to keep the play going. But you've got to have a, at that point. You can turn a save into a two-on-one the other way in a split second.

and then three on three. And possession is so now it's a real three and three thing where it's like, okay, we got it, we can get our change and have the puck. Yeah. And there was it within six feet of somebody. Dog tired blows a shoe.

Just. Could have curled back. Right? But if it's a little cleaner, it's the right play for Joseph Wall, not to freeze it. If he picks it up clean. All I know is in the moment,

I yelled, freeze, totally. Everyone did. I was with you. And then you get one of the best centermen in the league winning draws, John Tavares out there, coming off, you know, on for a fresh ship with Matthews

to end that overtime. Just for me, that was a mistake. It cost them. Fast game. I think the coach talked about it, so. All right, let's go to Craig Brubia on Joseph Wall in overtime. Well, I would have liked him to freeze it there. The guys were tired, and I think it would have been better off freezing it. but you know it's it's a fast game and things happen fast and you know yeah there you go okay fast game uh i i don't even know where schaefer went did he go glove side did it go underneath his glove yeah low glove the new hotness that's where everybody all the kids and i didn't like

i don't know if you saw his body position to try to stop it it reminded me of me playing road hockey on mosedale trying to do the big glove windmill no the yeah just that one knee down in the kick save kind of thing he just looked awkward he just looked twisted up he just didn't look comfortable yeah yeah it wasn't uh wasn't pretty how that one ended so but there's no way they're going to start he'll to be against well it certainly makes it a tough choice now i think it's a tough choice i think it would be a he just started them gotsy gutsy call to put hilda be in and i think it would send a insulting one sorry an insulting one to your starting goal No, no, there is no starting goalie here on end.

I'm sorry, but we're in the basement, and you're in a dog fight for the net. And that 6'7 guy, he's chomping right now. And I would send a message to Joseph Wall. Play well and play. This is not your net. This is up for grabs. Has he had more success when that's been the case

or when he's been the guy here? I feel like he's, I don't remember. Stolar is typically better when pushed. I don't remember. I'm past that. There's no time to figure it out anymore, J.B. Went and you're in. Right?

So, I don't know. I don't think it's an easy decision. I like your idea, but I would be hard-pressed to say that he's going to do that. I think it's going to be able to be now. Yeah. Want to bet? Yeah, sure. Barnard's bet.

Nothing. All right. Barubi, Clip 6. Do you want to get into all the other stuff? Injury updates? We got 10 minutes in our leaf shower. Let's talk about the injuries here. Craig Barubi, please.

McCabe is probably a week. It could be sooner, but I would guess a week. TANF, possible surgery. Is the surgery related? No, different. No, no, no, totally different. This last injury is totally different. This last injury is totally different. So that's the surgery part. So he is going to get looked at this week on that. Stolars is skating. He's getting better and he's doing good. better. Willie day-to-day. Skated a bit today on his own. He's getting better, but he's still not able to play. Carlo, practice with us today. We'll see if he's available tomorrow.

Who else went missing? Mirmus came back. Mirmus, he's skating, but he's still ways away. There you go. Okay, now we can move on because we know what's up with the guys. This is delightful. So what did they say about Carlo, that he had an, An infection?

He didn't, the coach didn't say it, but Carlo explained it in depth. Let's talk about it. Let's play it. The clip two from Carlo plays. Yeah, it was just a weird situation, you know, with the infection, the ankle, and then just didn't progress the way that we wanted it to ultimately. But I think we did a great job. I commend the medical staff, everybody.

We were trying to take the right steps to go forward, and it just didn't work out just based off of luck, I guess you could say. Overall, it's in the past now, and we're looking forward. Wow, he's missed a lot. He has, yeah. Let's play the first clip, too, on how he's feeling. I think more so just comfortability within my boot. You know, I think that's kind of the steps that I've been checking off right now,

just getting back to, you know, not focusing on each stride, whether it be painful or not. So right now it's feeling good. I haven't been thinking about as much when I'm skating, so, yeah, a lot to be happy about there. I don't know about you, Kip, but like when my foot hurt, your ankle, you're whatever, it's hard to play hockey. Like, it's distracting. Feet are the worst.

It's brutal. It's a back. Back is bad for anybody, even everyday living for sure because it's just, it controls everything. But it ain't pretty when your feet aren't happy. No. So listening to that, I would say is encouraging to me that having an infected ankle because of metal shards in there, maybe that's why he stunk. Well, that's a good point. Like, I mean, that is a real reason for somebody not being at your best.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, yeah, come on. Is he, like, they traded, I don't know if you watch the late game on Saturday night or not, boys, but Frazier Minton's looking pretty good. They traded a first round pick. Using them in the bumper on the power point. In Frasier Minton, and that first round pick, maybe the seventh overall pick in the draft. Let's not end the Leaf Hour edition on such a sad note.

I mean, what's the positive you'd like to talk about? How about the top lines? Good. Matthew is Joe McMan. Nick Robertson's really good. Jake McCabe is the best player in the league. He needs to come back and be the guy that they traded for. Tana is done, right?

We know that. He's not coming back. He's not. It's going to be really hard for this blue line to muster a playoff kind of feel. It is. Let's say it. Carlo has to come in and shore up a little bit of what TAN have provided. I think we're at the point here, Kip.

And we're working the game tomorrow night against Florida Panthers. Well, it's just work every game now. I know. And honestly, throw, this is the best match we've ever had the chance to do. Yeah, so much for that. It's a big one. It is a big one. It is like the next five, six games is their season.

It's their season. I don't know. Kip, if they're two and four over the next six games or something, they're done. They have a packed schedule. They play elite teams. It leads into the break, which leads into the trade deadline. Okay, we're 41 games, essentially. We're halfway through.

We are. And my worry is, no, my worry is that it's still going to kind of look like this and feel like this in game 50 or game 55. and and then everybody will be like go for it or sell and you're going to be like well we're only like four points out that's the danger that's happening that's going to happen to your point it's like there's a lot of fools gold out there but if they're five and one i don't know i just pick six games arbitrarily but if they have a good run here coming up you know they can be inside the playoff line they can be waiting on the return of carlo they can

you know get mccabe bag matthews looks like the real deal is florida beating colorado a good thing or a bad thing because sometimes you're wondering if if they got smoked by colorado yesterday you'd be like i'd feel better that they're not that good no you'd feel like oh they're gonna be hungry. See what I mean? You can't I don't know. Sam Bennett, best player in the ice snack game by the way. But not. Sam, send it. We don't need to scream about that again.

But unless you want to. I don't. There's Florida, there's Buffalo, there's Ottawa, like here. Oh, I mean, that list you just gave me. It wasn't exactly Murderer's Row of Fear. Florida, yes. But here's the saving grace for all of them. Is that, like, Detroit's a top team. Minus seven goal differential.

But Florida's taking a spot. It's just going to come down to whose spot they take. Detroit lost Saturday at home. 4-1-2 penguins? Yes. 12 shots on goal. It's insane. 12.

Yeah, I snoozed through that game. Add it on. Like, how can that be? How can you be challenging for a division title and be at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins and only muster 12 shots on goal? That's what excites. That's what excites.

It's what excites everybody. Sid, by the way, is like the best player. Sid's O.T. winner last night was unbelievable. What's your point? That the least are still in this or that they're going to have? That's a great question. That they all, they're all dumb.

They're all dumb. I said this on Twitter. They all think that they're going to win. I said this on Twitter. That the first GM to say, we suck. Even if we're not, even if we get in and, you know, get beaten the first round like what's the point the first GM to sell to be the one willing to move

you got 20 buyers right now 20 teams who think they got a their playoff bound maybe this is our year massive list of teams you say this guy's available first come with this asking price you can have them is going to read it sounds good but it's not practical it's not reasonable that there's 20 teams jb because there are there's 20 teams there's there's 20 teams to my point where they're just they don't know what to do they don't know what to think no and they won't they won't pull the trigger they're too scared that's what i'm saying the first one to not be scared they're doing nothing they're going to do nothing for another 10 games you want to hear something because there's three utterly dominant teams in the central division 10 teams in the nchel have a positive

goal differential 10 that means 22 teams are zero or worse, and the Pacific Division has zero teams with a positive goal differential. So tell me right now, okay, so I say there's zeros, and to your point, you're saying just the first guy, the first team. Be the team.

Give me a team right now. As a seller? Not a chance. Toronto. Toronto's good one. Snowballs chance. Toronto is bailing on Austin Matthews. Boston Matthews.

Not a chance. They're not bailing. They're resetting. Yeah. Say, hey, listen, we have a chance. You load up. Look what the Bruins did to pass to last year.

And now they're ahead of the Leafs again. That's not happening here. They have their first round pick. Not happening. Cowards. Do it. Not happening. What are the Oilers going to give you for Bobby McMahon?

Hmm. Not happening. What's Colorado going to give you for OEL? What's Scott Lott and fetch? Too bad. We've run out of Leaf Hour edition time because this is, this would probably be a really good conversation, maybe as early as tomorrow.

All right. Our thanks to nobody. Ethan, Ja-ja-Gaborra. Yeah, yeah, thanks, Jaja. Right? Ethan, we won't call you that. That's not a good thing.

Oh, I love it. Oh, yeah. Arying Gaboric? Jaja is a legend. I'm turning Ethan into a legend on this show. Okay? That's not how it's getting done. No one knows who Jaja is.

We've got to go. Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, big disco is happy.