Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Not So 'Special' Teams

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Nick Kypreos is back with Justin Bourne and Sam McKee and they start the week with a look back over the Leafs' loss against the Hurricanes this weekend. They get into the Leafs' crushing blown lead, the team missing Marner, early returns on the deadline acquisitions, special teams concerns and Samsonov gaining ground for the starting goalie job. Later, more on the Leafs' recent powerplay failures, how it all falls apart without Marner, whether moving Liljegren to the top unit over Rielly can help and Matthews showing his frustration while waiting wide-open in the slot.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.

live and in color after a great weekend hope everybody had a great weekend as good as mine that started last wednesday nick kiprios justin bourne sammy mckee for the next two hours, including Leaf Edition in this hour. Wherever you're watching and listening, Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Plus. We're glad you're aboard. And always text us at 590-590. We'll get as many thoughts and ideas if they warrant from our good man, Sammy.

All right, boys. I will say now, it's weird having you here. After just three days? Yeah, because I got used to... I sat there for a little bit, Kipper, which was horrible. I did not like it. And then Gord Stelic sat there on Friday. So it's very, very weird.

I wish I could tell you that I tuned in and listened. I didn't. I'd be disappointed if you that I tuned in and listened. I didn't. I'd be disappointed if you did. We survived. I did manage to get a few people texting me, including either Wednesday or Thursday. You guys did a two-hour special on the signing of Bobby McMahon, if I'm not mistaken.

We did dive into that a bit. Yes, I heard that. Outside of that, Doug McClain, how dare him come on without me. I know. I know.

He had the confidence to do it because I feel the pressure of every Off the Rails Friday to carry him. It's like when you go out to dinner with your buddy who has a girlfriend. The three of you go out, you're kind of the third wheel, and then your buddy goes to the bathroom

and you're left with his girlfriend. Like, hey, so you like stuff? Your thoughts on weather. Gord Stella came in and did a great job. Oh, yeah. He did. Hey, you know what? I don't think the show sucked as bad as I thought it would.

That's an accurate line. It's not like it was all hunky-dory for me the last three or four days in Florida golfing. No, it wasn't hard, yeah. You know what the hardest part was? Oh, boy. Standing beside Henrik Lundqvist. Yeah.

For like three days. Sure, that's tough. You Yeah. For like three days. Sure. That's tough. You hung with him for three days? Do you know the pressure to be beside a man that good looking? Yeah. I mean, I don't experience that a lot with you, but I imagine in other places I would feel that way.

Other people experience that with me a lot, so I don't really know that feeling. I know you're on that side of it. I'm like, when I found out he was going to be down there, and the Rangers were kind enough to bring half a dozen of us down there for Rangers in Tampa Bay. Yeah. And there we are.

Look at the crew. On the crew. So myself, Stefan Matteau, Aaron Vorhoes, Adam Graves, Dom Moore, Adam Hall. And look at me, right beside Lundquist. Like, I'm facing him dead on, right? God, he looks so good. I brought down the baby blue leisure suit. Nice, love that one.

Yeah, blue industry. My good friend Hershey sent me up with that suit. And I'm like, I'm going up against Lundquist, man. Bring it. Just rocking a straight leather jacket. And you played golf? Played a couple days in Tampa and then moved over to Cabot Citrus Farms. The new Cabot.

Yeah, the new Cabot. Yeah. It's like off the charts. You hit a good? I shot a 81. Oh, wow. Oh, really? With a triple bogey.

Oh. Yes. God, that's infuriating. How early or. With a triple bogey. Oh, yes. How early or late was the triple? The triple came around 14. So you're thinking about the score. Yes. I made the worst mistake. I started thinking,

and I come in with never do that. Never do that. Well, you didn't miss a ton on the hockey front par, par, and I come in with... Never do that. Never do that. Never do that. Never do that. Well, you didn't miss a ton on the hockey front outside of the McMahon signing. Nothing major broke or anything. Yeah, yeah. And the other thing, too, was everybody telling me

that I was wrong and Sammy was right on the Bobby McMahon. First time for everything. Yes. That's nice. Yeah. Which he's not right, and I'm not wrong. J.D. made your case, though, that he would have, maybe he left a lot of money on the table.

He signed a brutal contract for himself. Hey, awesome for the Leafs. Awesome for Brad Tree Living that you got a guy that you really are going to knee down the stretch here and count on as a top six forward for the price of a fourth line player yeah like it's a steal they had them they had to replace mick holmberg on the first line in the third period last game they put mcmahon on the top line you got a guy you can use in the first

line for 1.35 the guy they should have given him four million bucks the guy could have gone minus 30 the rest of the season they could have got swept in the first round four games and i could have got him the contract still that he signed this is high praise for mcmahon though this is he means you like the player i think he's legit i do absolutely and uh god he might have been their best player on Saturday. Sunday best player? Saturday he might have been the best player, yeah. He blew by Marty Natchez, who might be the fastest guy in the league

on one of those shorthanded rushes. It was impressive. All right. Jake Gensel scores in a shootout to lift Hurricanes past the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game that should have cruised into a 4-2 final, maybe a 5-2 final with an empty netter. That wasn't the case in the last, what, minute and 32? Ajo scores, and then 5.8 seconds.

Your thoughts are, JB? Well, my thoughts are that I thought they were kind of unlucky for the final goal that goes in is a seeing eye shot that goes through a ton of traffic and finds Ajo's stick who's just dusting himself off a little bit unlucky I did think that they really missed Marner and Yarncroft in those big moments you know to defend a lead at the end of a game you'd always have Mitch out there um but also just the the one at the end of the third period or second period hurts too. You're up 3-0. You're going into the break.

You know, that one, you had Holmberg, couldn't quite tie up a guy. That made it 3-2. They were up 3-1, and then that made it 3-2 going into the third. In the final minute, that's right. That would have made it 3-2. You know, so, yeah, they had that game in their hand.

I thought they were the better team. I thought they deserved to win. A little unlucky, but at the same time, had some trouble locking it down. I felt like they were playing themselves. a team that the carolina i mean they played maybe their worst game they've played in a long time they still found a way to one they were turning the puck over just felt like they're playing the least carolina turns the puck over a bunch has the puck a bunch ties it up late and wins in overtime it's like what do they play

themselves the least it just really felt like a leafy type game from the Canes. But I don't know. It's just concerning trends. Even to touch on your end of the second that you said that brought them back into the game, I don't know if you remember like the first shift of the third period. They were pulling the puck off their goal line 15 seconds in. That should have been a tie score at that point. That one actually rolled off Samsonov's pad and turned.

It changed direction. You're not ready. You took a 3-0 lead, disappeared. You're in the dressing room. What is being said? Where's the focus that you would come out in the first 20 seconds and give that scoring opportunity up that's the that's the one thing like i'm not so much okay you blew a lead okay we can make as big

of a mountain out of that as you want that was much but that to me suggests that something's wrong or something just isn't nailed down between the second and third. You thought that was a bad scoring chance that first shift? I thought it was kind of a random scramble that just kind of bounced around and Sam Stoff should have been better on. Yeah. No, I just think collectively that it's just too loose, too loose for me. Coming off what should have been a real hey boys we need a solid 20

here to bring this thing home yeah yeah fair enough the um you know the start of that then and the ends of the periods like they just it didn't feel like a complete focus necessarily but they did you know carry the play expected goal shots chances all those sort of things um for even strength goals it was pretty good their pk stunk too and i think the pk was another They did, you know, carry the play, expected goal shots, chances, all those sort of things. Four even strength goals. It was pretty good. Their PK stunk, too. And I think the PK was another important piece of this where they've been really bad.

Well, that's the biggest. It's the special teams. Yeah. Because they were 0 for 4 on the power play again. And they got a 4 on 3 in overtime where they really don't get much of a scoring chance. It doesn't look great. They're trying 2Dman on the power play.

What a mess that was. It's just, it feels like they're really searching. And, like, this is the thing. That when spring comes, it really starts to struggle. They were 50% in February. They're 5%. Or below that because they went 0 for 4. They were 5% in February. They're 5%. Yeah. Or below that because they went 0 for 4. They were 5% going into the game.

Yeah. When spring starts, it's when the power play really starts to go to sleep. And it's happening again. And that's terrifying. Because if you're going to beat Boston or Florida, you know what you're going to need? Yeah. Is a good power play. Yes.

That's all. All right. Where do you want to start on your Clippers? Let's do the overview keep that just shuffle the lines up on saturday night you need the overview of that yeah clip one i thought i thought we did a good job with it you know i thought there was there's spots kind of on each each line you know you kind of you're trying to find some chemistry you're kind of have trying to rely on some of our more experienced guys to bring others along.

It's a game that requires four lines or certainly three for sure. And the pace of the play is high, and you can't get too concerned with chasing matchups and such, especially with how they utilize the stall line. So you've got to rely on guys. I thought we got good efforts from guys here tonight. Like I said, the result sucks, you know, but I thought we stood in there. I thought we at times carried play.

I thought we scored four goals. Very easily could have had three or four more against a team, again, that gives up almost nothing. So there's a lot of encouraging things here today. If we look at it from a process point of view that we really like, obviously there's these key moments in the game that we've got to do a better job of. Okay.

Before we get into any specifics here, there's a real sense here that he is staying away from the end result of just a blown lead that sends everybody home going, what the hell just happened? Yeah. Are you okay with that at this point of the season? If we were five games into the season, should there be more emphasis on i don't

care uh no points for trying hard no point it's just result driven here is is he too positive right now and not result focused for you well i think you're asking a very important question because it's going to be a question for this Leafs team the next month. Today is March 18th. The regular season ends April 18th, one month from now. The Leafs are the only team in the Eastern Conference with a point total in the 80s. They have 85 points.

So the next closest they can catch is at 90, and below them is 78 or something. They're not catching anyone or getting caught. So the results of these games don't matter. Now. Great. Great. I know.

Terrible. It's a terrible way to play a game. We're right back into where we've been for three years here. Right. Which is awful. Well, I guess last year they were fighting for home ice, so it's a bit different last year, but we're pretty similar spot. So I can see why Sheldon is saying we liked our game i'm not going to get

caught up in the result i actually thought we played a really good game but it's a good question if they have this attitude from here to playoffs they're going to get rolled over in game one by teams that have been competing for results so maybe i don't know is it too soon to start saying hey we're actually less concerned with process now. Process has got us this far. Now we want to see results. Yeah, I would have liked to seen them light it up a little bit more through the media on the emphasis of the blown loss.

Just a tad more. Just to give them a sense of urgency here to say that a game isn't complete until it's 60 minutes of regulation. And it doesn't matter, you know, all the positives that you see if you cannot close, if you cannot shut down. And I get it. I get the feeling of what are we playing for here, right? There's no home ice, and I don't want to make everybody hate me or get tired of me. I still got, what do we got, 16 games to go, 17 games to go?

Yeah. So I don't need to lean on them that much, but where's that fine line, right? Well, I mean, he's perhaps made that judgment, you know know that it's not a month before and 16 games to go that it's time to to do that maybe we'll see him turn that on a little bit as we get going a little bit but it is a worry right now that the leafs you know when gordon's on on friday we were talking a lot about how teams that are in a dog fight tend to come out in the games that matter on the other side more prepared so you know, like a team like the Tampa Bay Lightning,

who are right now, every game means a ton, and they're starting to get hot. One three in a row. One three in a row. I mean, what do you see the shots on goal in that? It was like 50 to 14, the shots on goal for Florida in that game. But Vasilevski plays great. They get to win three in a row.

They beat the Rangers when Kipper was there. And it's like they're getting hot at the right time they're having to play all these games in the least or once again playing meaningless ones it's not a good trend tampa bay thursday night we're down two nothing to the rangers and you sent some texts pretty much looking like that inconsistent tampa bay lightning and then it was like the braden point show and the kucherov show and these guys are like oh that's right they're stanley cup champions too right i mean they're very likely i guess right now it could be the rangers or boston or florida that they're get. But any of those teams has to be like, come on. Come on, man.

Really? Give me Detroit. Yeah. Give me Washington. Give me the Islanders. You got to get the Lightning. Yeah. So is this, let's just wait for Mitch Marder to come back on the penalty kill?

Well, Yarncroft too, but no. So they had Dewar take Mitch's spot on the top pair with camp and they were good as a pair but i think there's still some learning going on with edmondson and labushkin now taking big minutes and they hadn't been a part of the rotation previously the one thing i will say with um edmund edmondson labushkin and the leafs defended their blue line better than they have all year like carolina could not get in the zone. They entered the zone with 40% success rate, which is super low.

Leafs were 70 the other way, which was what led to all the quick hit breakaways the other way. 70 to 40. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah, the Leafs were really tight to the blue line, and that's something that maybe it is something Labushkin does well, and it's something that Edmondson does well. So it could be a bright spot for the Leafs, his blue line defense.

Okay, let's go to Sheldon Keefe on Connor Dewar. I think he's doing a good job. I think, again, tonight, I think there's some great moments. I mean, that breakaway he had, shorthanded, the speed he pulls away. And that's another key moment in the game, right? If I'm remembering correctly, like that's one we don't score on and they score shortly after. But, yeah, he's a smart player.

He's a useful guy, especially right now with the penalty killers that we have out and the guys that have great defensive acumen, and that's kind of what they hang their hat on uh i think he's he's right there for us so he's the timing is right with mitch and urany out so for us to bring him aboard minnesota didn't want that guy yeah i like him me too i think he seems like a useful player to me yeah but you got a first impression yeah Yeah, listen, energy guy, not scared. Listen, the last few years, they've been okay with picking up some depth guys,

bottom six guys that can come in. I was a big Lafferty fan with that trade. I really liked them. And those guys, you need them. You absolutely need them. Of course, they have to go hand in hand with your best players being your best players. But that's depth to go 2-3 into a series. Yeah, he's a 24-year-old RFA, too. You know, last week in my article, I wrote on Nick Robertson.

You need 23, 24 guys, 25 if you go back to the belief that it takes eight, nine defensemen to win deep into the playoffs. Talking about a 25-man roster. These guys all have to show up together. So he adds to that depth, Connor. He does for sure. And he's going to help with the penalty kill, you would think in theory. Yeah. Haven't seen it. To me, if there's one thing that if you're sheldon keith that you're sort of using as a you know something you're playing for it's like let's get this power

power play to this percentage let's get the penalty kill to this percentage over the next stretch heading into playoffs like let's really work to improve that because you know we can listen to keith talk about that but to me that's the biggest issue with special teams yeah i really think that they're a fine five on five team like i think they have good players goal scores whatever but just going against those teams like i said that they're potentially going to play in the first round they're going to get killed on special teams if they keep playing like this like florida and boston are 23rd in the league they're going to get killed on special teams if they keep playing like this. Like Florida and Boston are... 23rd in the league. They're worse than that now, aren't they?

They're bottom third for sure. PK for the Leafs is... Oh, they're way down there. 24th. 24th. Is that the worst out of any playoff team? Yes. Islanders are last in the league if they get in but yes currently

they're the worst of the team in the playoffs like you guys know it's it's gonna kill them well i mean you just know the way pasta you know and marshand can do it and the way you talk with kucherov and pointing those guys and some of the elite teams yeah you need to be on the ball let's listen to sheldon talk about his penalty kill there. Clip two, please. I actually liked a lot of things about our penalty kill tonight. I mean, we killed seven minutes. The first seven minutes of penalties we killed tonight. And we did a lot of really good things.

We made a mistake with just a few seconds left at the end of the second period. And aside from that, our penalty killing was actually the best it's been in quite a while tonight against a very good power play. So the results look bad tonight. You know, they scored another one six on four. Our best penalty killer sitting in the penalty box. The other two are in a suit. So that's a tough one to get through, but you've got to find a way.

So the results look bad tonight, but I think when we watch it back in the process, there's going to be a lot of good things in there that we'll like. Like I said, we get through seven minutes. You know, penalty late at the end of the second period, penalty late at the end of the third period. Those are the types of things. You just can't take those penalties. That penalty

call at the end of the third was garbage, but anyway. What? I disagree. Yeah. that penalty call at the end of the third was garbage but anyway what another yeah i i disagree yeah he i mean at least fans were so bent out of shape about it yeah but i'm sitting on the couch real time first look i'm like that's penalty yeah i immediately if i'm on a ref you on the ice i'm arms up he got a stick into his hands he pulled orlov sold it clearly he went like this he did the thing or whatever getting that call a thousand out a thousand times when you're down two goals and more importantly get your stick out of his hands he is yeah he put it the ref's hands at

that point he is not he's out of position not moving his feet he's on the outside giving orlov the inside track to the middle of the ice. Right. And you put a stick on a guy, you're going to get called. Yeah. You do invite the ref the opportunity to make a call, whether it's right or wrong. I see it a bit differently, but I agree.

You lost body position. You're on the outside when you should be on the inside of a player like that. Boy, the slow-mo, though, isn't pretty on that one. No, it's not a penalty. But yes, I know what you're saying. It looks like, but he doesn't do that. Well, he's reaching out. He's reaching out.

It's a perception thing I get why you can see that. Yeah. I would have called it. Anyways. And then just hearing Sheldon talk about the PK, like just, it would be really sufficient if you just said, hey, if it doesn't improve, we're done. We won't go anywhere.

And just leave it at that. Put the onus on the players to understand the sense of urgency that this better get cleaned up or we're toast. Yeah. How early is too early to, it seems to me that your takeaways are about Keefe's commentary rather than the game. Well, I don't know whether or not he just wants to kind of ease this into the last 15 games of the season or not,

or he truly believes that it's just we're getting some bad bounces, our best penalty killer's still not playing, and Mitch Marner, and it's going's gonna get cleaned up and i'm not sure it it it is unless there's maybe even some some tactical changes maybe they need to be more aggressive maybe they're just too flat-footed for me maybe they're just not forcing the issue enough but whatever it is just don't sit there and say hey it'll get better what if naturally in your guy's mind what makes a good penalty kill philosophically to me it's just i think it's all personality player personnel driven i don't think that there's some super creative way to play it i think it stops starts, like energy guys in lanes,

like guys who... Effort. Yeah, effort, guys who aren't thinking about other things than just the kill. A really good stick, right? And it's an extension of taking lanes away. And you're just not... You're not getting beat in front of the net.

That's all. I do think it is eye-opening that this relates to your question about the pk that at the end of the game when they're trying to protect that lead if there's a takeaway the guys on the ice are tavara's kneelander and mcmahon yeah you know and they kind of got hung out there for a long shift like that's our best option i think it was the the second best option because camp was just on the bench waiting to go out or whatever. But that was concerning that, like, who's going to protect leads for this team? We got an update on Mish Warner?

We do have an update. Would you like to hear the setup? I would love to hear it. Clip five, please. He's not going to be coming on the trip with us. Just, you know, trying to get him to the point that he's comfortable throughout the week. So he's day-to-day away from being day-to-day.

Did he skate today? He did not. What the hell does that mean? That's for the day-to-day. He's day-to-day on skating, and then we'll figure him out from there. Was that a sign that something was wrong? No, it's just that it hasn't been responding the way that they had hoped. So just stepping back a little bit with it.

It's not nuclear coats. Can we maybe just hear what's wrong with them a little bit? Day to day for me. Day to day. What are we doing here? What is it you need to hear then? Yeah, he's sore and he's probably not going to play this week. He skated on it the other day.

He had a setback. He can't play this week. What's a setback mean? What's the euphemism? What happened? Did he roll it? Does it hurt? Did he swell up the next day?

Yes, yes, yes. Whatever it is, it's not good enough to practice with the team. So what are you playing for? Why are you going to rush him back no he's he's got a outside shot of playing against edmonton saturday see how it feels in the next three days so your level of concern on this is not that high kippy oh no i'd poop my pants if I was a Leaf fan right now. Oh, like you mean in terms of knowing what you know? No, no, no, no. I don't know anything more than you guys know.

Okay. Like, come on. I don't know. He heard it. Yeah. It's not responding. This is Sheldon talking. This is not me.

But like. It's not good enough for him to go on the trip. And. They need him. They need him. What are you looking for right now? Oh, well, I just. For the need him. They need him for right now. Oh, well, I just for the greater being. No, you're 100% right. Yeah, they've been real good

three games. Sit him as long as he needs. For sure. But here's the butt part. Those things don't heal that easy. They don't. They don't. What are those things?

Ankle? High ankle. Okay. They don't... What are those things? Ankle? High ankle. Okay. They don't heal that well, that fast. No, and it does leave you predisposed to further ankle injuries. Look at Wall. How many games has he played in almost three months? Two.

I can tell you it's two. I can't believe he didn't play. Right choice. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to see's two. I can't believe he didn't play. Right choice. Yeah. Oh, okay. I'd like to see him get in some hockey games here. They gave him the Bruins last Saturday now. It's been 10 days.

Did he hurt it or something? There's a reason. I don't know. If we were saying wins and losses don't matter, weren't we supposed to be trading starts for these guys? You can't tell Keith that wins and losses don't matter, right? You know the way he coaches. To me, Samsonoff was so good against the Flyers. He earned that start again.

Everyone is way too excited about Ilya Samsonoff. Everybody I talk to with the Leafs needs to settle down. He almost got back to an 890. Almost got back, but he didn't. He gives up four the other night. One hits him in the chest, and he drops't. He gives up four the other night. One hits him in the chest and he drops it. The record's good. Yeah, the record's good because the team is good.

If Wool were in that, it'd be good too. Everyone's like, oh, Wool hasn't won since he got back. They gave him Boston, Boston. I do two shows. I do Leafs Talk With You and I do with Bunkus and it's like he loved. I know he loved them. And I do with you and it's like you guys are like,

hey, thanks, it's great. I love having both sides. It's an insane thing to be like well Sammy's back. Isn't everyone happy Sammy's back aren't they? What's he been over the past? As far as I'm concerned I told you guys a long time ago Sammy can run it and

you still. You're not sure who's starting. No that's not that you're not sure who's starting. You're not that confident still. You're not sure who's starting. No, that's not that you're not sure who's starting. You're not that confident still. Like he can start game one, but he's like 20 minutes away from getting pulled. He's 60 minutes away from not starting game two. For sure. I saw someone today, maybe it was Jonas Siegel or something in the article today. It was like, seems like Samsonov is passing wool for the number one job.

I'm Joseph wool. I'm like, I was the best goalie. People were talking about me as like the next one till I hurt my ankle. I came back on hand at the Bruins twice in Boston on a Saturday, lost 4-1. Now I'm out? If we're putting labels on it, which is stupid, but if we're doing those sports, Samsonov is 100% the starting goalie right now. No question.

What a stupid arbitrary thing to decide. Well, I mean, there's been starters and backups for pretty much the whole existence of the league. Let's reframe that. If we just move the date, he's right. He's Samsonov starting. Sure. They play tomorrow.

He's definitely starting because Wolves have an ankle injury and there's only two games. Like the playoffs started tomorrow? Yes. Oh, obviously. Yes, I agree with that. If the pattern or the trend of the last two weeks follows, then they have no other choice but to put Sampson off to start game one.

Of course. Of course. Which, boy. But maybe. But, boy, I wouldn't be thrilled about it. No. The only thing is, though, at this point, for Joseph Wall to have a chance to play game one.

He needs to play. Not only does he need to play, he needs three out of four. Yes. Right? He needs a week to ten days of seven out of ten starts to gain that momentum and the confidence. If they switch on and off every other game here going in it's going to be hard for joseph wall to convince people he's ready to

carry i actually wonder if they didn't look at the way the starts were falling and tried to help wall out a little bit in that if it had been boston boston then you get carolina while the other guy's getting all the dogs and all the wins you know to kind of break the cycle and let wall get Philly a team that you should be able to well beat what will be interesting as we know that for the most part do we all believe that Joseph Wall will play tomorrow night in Philly yeah yeah I mean he's playing one of the next two yeah I know but I do believe Sammy to the Cavs he gets two starts this week. And then are you basing the next two starts from each of them, the decider and who gets Edmonton Oilers at home Saturday night? I think that's a great way to look at it.

Because you know what? They play Sunday as well. And the Canes are no joke. So to me, whoever's going better gets the Saturday night game. But does going better mean we're we're both equal as of now for for the next two starts or does anything gets one game whoever plays better gets saturday i hate anything sammy's done in the last two weeks is meaningless what's he done he beat a few of the worst teams in the nhl. I don't know. What's his record?

He beat Montreal and Buffalo. He was good in those games. I'm just making conversation. I'm not disagreeing with you here. We're doing pitcher wins here. This is the reason that you're terrified about this conversation. Because they don't have a very good starting goal. Because you can convince yourself, if we're sitting here,

if you're Brandon Shanahan, you're Brad for Living, I'm Sheldon Keefe, we could sit in this conversation and convince yourself of whoever starts game one. For sure. Which, to me, I like the days of the starting goalie, where you knew who your goalie was, and it's like, oh, you know who started tonight? The goalie.

The goalie who we have. What do you do when you don't have one? Do you pretend to have one? Is that a better decision? To me, you pick one and you kind of ride with it. Until, I guess, game two of the playoffs and you're like, who are we going to start? And so, Wohl against Boston the last two days has been enough for you to disqualify him as the guy. No.

But I think Sammy's been better, which is the problem. It's like now I'm, you know, they don't give a chance to Wohl to play out of it. They have another guy. They're like, well, we got to win. So, we're playing the other guy and he plays better it's like oh now the other guy doesn't get to play like there's too much game one of the playoffs regardless of who starts if they have a bad game every fan's like gotta play the other guy gotta play the other guy if you were starting goalie guess who's starting the game too yeah the starting goalie it's a horrible conversation

that's really concerning for me boston and florida are second and third in the nhl in team save percentage this year second and third and i guess but boston's kind of similar though they have omark and and swayman swayman starts way more they're they have the last vesna winners their backup goalie they try to trade them and then they and stoller's been good for for uh the Cats with their backup. The best thing for Leafs fans is that goaltending is voodoo and anyone can get hot and anyone can stink. I hate goalies.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break. Sorry to all my goalie friends out there, but I just can't stand it. I hate goalies. The best guests on our show are all goalies. Like, I hate them. All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back, still plenty more to chew on for the Toronto Maple Leafs regarding the power play.

No Morgan Riley. Second unit, pal. Second unit. Right. We'll also talk Austin Matthews' life without Mitch Marner or Willie, for that matter, on his line. That and more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Everything Raptors, before and after the games the raptor show with

will lou subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts we're back. Just back. We're back. That's all. The Leafs have the worst power play in the league the last two, three weeks. March? Yeah, March 35%.

Ugh. Ugh. Yeah, ugh. It's never looked worse than it did on Saturday night to me well it's not good there was no plan in one moment two or three how can like a fleeting one how can you have maybe the number one goal scorer in the world and it's that bad well I think we know not having Marner out there, he's the only passer. Nylander doesn't pass.

Tavares doesn't pass. Riley's slow to move it. You know? At Sam's point, if you're going to replace Marner on the first unit, you don't do it with Bertuzzi and Tavares out there together. Domi's a guy who at least is looking to move the puck around. He does an impression.

Right? Like, he's not Marner, but he can... He does a cover. He can do it. Leafs power play units... You go all along the watchtower. Karaoke Marner. Leafs power play units at practice,

Lilligren, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, Bertuzzi. With the second one belonging to Morgan Riley, Domi, McMahon, Robertson, and Nyes will pick up the last seven seconds. Do you want to hear about Lilligren being on the top power play unit and not Morgan Riley? Yes, I do. Clip number eight, please.

Wow, it's just a little more presence of those two guys that are hungry, going to be consistent on the inside, around the net. Way Philadelphia kills penalties significantly different than what you see in Carolina. So that in itself makes you want to have this type of look.

And then, you know, the right shot at the top. And with some of our movement and such, especially losing the righty of Mitch, we think it's important with Austin and Willie's ability to shoot and finish. Having another right shot is helpful to that. And, yeah, that's really it. And we get Morgan working with the other group, and that'll give that group a boost too. I like the second unit, to be honest.

It's just, we're doing this, and we're making a potion, we're adding an eye of newt like just put the guy who passes out there with him yeah and morgan riley on on saturday god love him but like they're playing him as a winger he's like playing along the half wall it's like what are we doing how about the one where matthews is cocked and loaded straight from the ceiling and everyone and their grandma was like in the past are you gonna pass that you you know. No. He didn't pass it. Like Matthews is there just going like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I tell you something? I hate that.

What? The stick up in the air cocked. He's loaded for a one-timer, Kevin. And everybody knows it. Including your opposition. But you learned, what do you mean? I just think it's, honest to God, I think it's a peewee look. I think it's minor hockey.

Alex Ovechkin scored 840 goals doing it. Hey, the only thing missing is the beaver tap. I literally don't know what point you're making. He's standing there waiting for one timer and the puck doesn't come. I don't want to see you. I want to see you. I don't see anybody else. What?

As a centerman or as a guy. Don't tip your hat that it's coming to you to shoot the puck it may work in november december this time of year they will close it off slavin was all over him all over him taking that shot away did you see his last attempt on it though like the overtime one, the overtime one. Okay. Kuchetkov was there before he even shot the puck. That's, I mean, listen, if they're reading it, that's one thing. But when it's open to make the pass, they are reading it all day long. He was wide open, Kippy.

That one was, you know, Riley, to me, has these moments. Is there a chance that you could you could have everybody pull and then you could find someone else open yes did we see it can you make that pass if your sticks already up in the air yes kucherov does that exceedingly well right that's that pump i i don't know yeah the just is no one moving it. There's no one on that unit. I think everybody knows that there's one shooter on the power

play now and they're all over it. Why is it every year when you get closer to the bigger games the power play and Austin disappear? Because it becomes more predictable as the season goes on i think there is a game plan when you're going against a team that has four guys who make 10 million plus dollars and you know who to shut down certainly but i don't think that's different than ov does it in the power on the power play or

whoever and teams know and ideally you're better than those defenders. I don't know. Just to me, it's like it doesn't snap around fast enough anymore, and when it does get to Austin, they're ready. Certainly, that is the case, but again, I think lots of teams have that same thing where they're ready. I also think they have Tavares who shoots and Nylander who shoots, and having one shooter is not the problem.

You've got Tavares and Bertuzzi who are going to fight for, what, the front of the net, the top of the blue paint. Yeah, they're a redundant role to me. Both of them get to stand there. And now Lilligren can sift some through to them or something. But, yeah, it's actually a great tweet. Luke Fox tweeted out today that the Toronto Maple Leafs power play in the Matthews, Barnard, Neylander era

is 24% in the regular season, third overall, and in the playoffs, 18.6%, which is 15th out of presumably 16 teams. That is an unbelievable drop. Yeah, it is monster. That's almost, that's when you start talking about ghosts but we got to go back to the fact that like morgan just doesn't have a threat back there yeah there's just no other threat comes in right there's no other threat to my point where like the predictability is

there's only one guy that's got a legit shot at beating you from 40 feet out. Yeah, from distance, it's tough to see anyone else. Willie will too, but Willie is... So, you're looking for redirects? Tavares can redirect the puck, we know that. The thing is, Kip, we've seen them be wildly successful for long stretches. Were they the best power play in the NHL last year? Or second best? Like, we've seen how it can work with these guys.

And then it historically drops off a cliff. Yeah, they're fifth in the league this year. Anyways, we can beat this up all day, but they're going to have to figure it out, not us here. Yeah. You know, want the truth serum? Don't think they do. It always happens.

This is the sneaky Achilles heel for this whole era of hockey where it happened against tampa last year until it didn't against florida i mean they ran they ran at 25 last year in the in the in the uh playoffs so they were you know that's six in the playoffs so they were they were decent last year i guess better better getting there uh maybe this is the year you got matthews playing on the top line without mitch or willie what did you like about this clip oh just it talks about what he has to do it's actually kind of interesting if you want to hear it let's do it i think there's more pucks available for austin to be the driver and to be the facilitator uh for others um and at the same time it's about finding the chemistry with

those guys to, to, to have them kind of know when he's available, probably talking, communicating more. And there's less of a sort of, you know, that sense that someone like Mitch has of where Austin is and where to find them and,

and the vision and such, um, a little bit different with those guys. So we're working through that a little bit, but, um, it wasn't as good in Carolina. Um,

but like we talked about really liked how those guys played you know whether it was Yarny there or whether it went to Holmberg when Yarny went out we really liked that and Holmberg in particular had a really strong game in Philadelphia

so you want to stay with it I like the sounds of matthews as a facilitator thought you might catch that yes i'm all for that well he set up don't he set up sorry bertuzzi for a for a peach against was that against philly where he put it in front of the net and he had two points that game but yeah yeah the um you know the holmberg thing is an inconsistent sort of factor because he can be really, really good like Philly and then, you know, against Carolina just isn't there and I can't tell what the difference is when Holmberg's...

Quality of competition, probably. That's fair. You know? It's like Lilligren. Lilligren, I find, is really good when it's a slightly lesser level of competition. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Listen, there's a ton of pressure on guys that are just learning how to be pros too including holmberg and bobby mcmahon and they're they're asked now to to be big when they're just scratching the surface on how to be a pro and then now how to how to do it in the playoffs how to be a guy that you can count on in the playoffs it's it's a lot of pressure on these guys too i think on friday we had a clip where keith was talking about mcmahon and he said you know we have some things that are different with their team like the emergence of mcmahon like he's basically talking about mcmahon like this is a guy that we're trying to figure out how high up the lineup he can play. But you're right. Come playoffs, playing Boston, playing Florida.

No training. No prior playoff training. Think about the difference in some of the guys they're going to be using from last year to this year. Last year it was Achari, Lafferty, Ryan O'Reilly. Older guys. Take your pick of guys, and now you go right into, it's the kids, basically. Like, you got young.

Remember, Bertrilli was talking about this. Like, Connor Dewar's young. Holmberg's young. Bobby McMahon isn't that young, but he's young in the league. You're depending on Lilligren. Like, young guys. Matthew Nyes to carry a top line into the playoffs. And he had that sniff last year coming out of college and

that helps we know what sam bennett did to him how much better prepared is he now from that experience but sometimes these kids need two or three years of that to to be ready for it to to help compete for four rounds he's got to really work on getting punched in the head and assaulted on the ice yeah you do sam you do you do you need to figure out how to avoid those spots and i would hope i would hope next time sam bennett comes around he's better prepared including maybe bringing a stick up whatever it takes don't get hurt sam yeah don't get hurt yeah it's not it's not a coincidence sam no it's definitely sam bennett there's no coincidence there no not the way he plays all of that is there's something to be said about

having playoff experience so that's why edmondson's in and simone benoit's out well i think i was just gonna say that you know this is one of the changes they've made and i like i see what they were doing with edmondson i see the idea he's like a bigger version of Benoit, maybe a slightly meaner version with the cup experience and there's lots to like there. But it is pretty crummy that a guy like Benoit is basically McMahon on defense, played himself up and through the expectations,

earned himself an important job here and has now not got in a game since the trade deadline. It's a little disappointing and i know he'll play tomorrow night he is in he's in because he's six he's not traveling but so let's listen to we do have one do you want to hear sure yeah absolutely yeah clip six on that i'd expect it to be a little bit better quite honestly just because he's now stepped back from the lineup and watched, and that's motivating in and of itself, but also the league is hard when you're playing all the time, and when you get a chance to sort of step back and recharge and re-energize,

I think when you come back into the lineup, you expect to have a little bit more. I think, you know, Betty specifically, I think has done a really good job for us, liked a lot of things that he's brought to us, but I don't think the last little stretch has been as good as it was at different points in the season. And, you know, hopefully taking a step back a little bit will be beneficial to him and us in the long term.

So I hate the way you're just selling that. Yes, it's the chance to take some time off. I'm sure that's what he wanted. Thanks for the opportunity to not play in the NHL. Yeah, like when you roll up the rim, I won the chance to play again. Great. Listen, I can't stress this enough. 23, 24 guys, just be ready.

You think you're on the outside looking in. You think they've forgotten about you. Boom, somebody gets hurt. Yeah. And you're playing 15 minutes a night, and you're right in the thick of things. The only thing I can recall is when we won the Stanley Cup was Doug Glitzer was a pretty good sound nhl

defenseman five six hundred games under his belt not playing until jeff bukabum goes down and the guys and i'm not sure we win without him i was you know if the leafs play 10 playoff games this year i'd be shocked if benoit doesn't play five you know i'd be shocked like whether it's due to injury or need or whatever like he's gonna get in hockey games for them in the postseason best of 11 in the first round this year what would they play last year 12 11 just given me some depth for sure uh did we play matthews yeah we played it did matthews only thing we've got nick robertson if we want to hear about him coming back and scoring i know sam Sammy loves talking about Robertson. Speaking of guys that could come in, I actually,

I do like the idea of him coming out of the press box in game four or something. Shoot one in the net for him, an OT winner or something. Yeah, let's give him some love. Okay. If you look at the games, I don't know how many games it is now where he's been a scratch and come in and scored right away. Like I said, he gives us that sort of boost. He worked hard tonight.

It was a great goal. Terrific effort by John to lead to it. John's second period in particular was just absolutely outstanding tonight. And I thought really pushed our team and got our team going. That was a really great period by our captain. And then, yeah, great spot by Robbie to finish him. You said you're not thrilled with the Tavares-Robertson. Nice.

No, it's a bad line. Bad line? But it's a good line when John Tavares is, what, 2007 or 2014 John Tavares. He was so good. Can't do it every night. No. He doesn't have it in him every night, but he still can throw it back for a game or two. But if he's off and then it's nice and Robertson,

I don't want that line on the ice, but he was good enough. It's just fresh legs for JT. Yeah. And he had tons of pop for whatever reason. I don't know. Off. Yeah.

They're off. A little bit of rest and come in. A little bit of rest. Which is important to remember when you get to game 82 like they need him to not play game 82 they need it to not matter they need him to have i rest him a lot more than just 82 yeah would you hear on in but like every other game i know i don't know you gotta gotta be considerate of him too and how he prepares they'll have a long break right because they Because they'll play, I think they play Wednesday is their last game before the playoffs.

So they'll probably have Wednesday to Monday or Wednesday to Tuesday. They'll probably have six or seven days off. Get a fresh JT for game one. There's a break. There you go. Heading down to Boston. In the meantime, we'll see how fresh they are. Back-to-back games coming up in Philadelphia

tomorrow night in Philadelphia tomorrow night in Washington Wednesday night. Big games. And the Capitals are right in the thick of things in the East. So we'll talk about that in the next hour. Also, Sean Reynolds will join us. He is in Florida for the general manager meetings. We're going to talk West conference after the break.

Stick around everybody.