Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Power Play Clicks + Teaching Toughness

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the Leafs' 4-0 drubbing over the Bruins and discuss the team rising in Auston Matthews' absence, the bounce-back on the power play, Matthew Knies' star potential, Anthony Stolarz's shutout effort, Chris Tanev's boarding penalty and Conor Timmins turning into a positive presence. Later, former NHL forward Brad May (31:20) shares his thoughts on Craig Berube's physical philosophy, Bobby McMann figuring out his role, whether a physical edge can be taught and how concerned he is for the Leafs as they adjust to a new coach's style.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

all right let's kick it up on the real kipper and born show toronto maple leaf our edition of our program in about 35 minutes we'll welcome in Brad May, former NHLer, Stanley Cup champion, friend of the show. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, Jake the Snake Schultz. And in today, Sammy's nephew, Ben. Everybody wave to Ben. Hi, Ben. Hi, Ben. Thanks for joining us, pal.

Thanks for joining us, pal. Thanks for joining us, pal. Can't even see me behind the big TV. Glad you're here. Ben brought the Leafs some luck last night, ending a two-year drought against the Boston Bruins during the regular season. The Leafs with three goals on the power play and going six for six on the penalty kill.

A perfect night for theonto maple leafs a special team's masterpiece long in the works and all it took was the best goal score on planet earth to miss the game is that where we're starting with why the leafs are so good without austin matthews is that where you really want to start i think it is fascinating how much different they are without austin matthews and how much different the game is i don't think i don't want to say they're better i would never say that okay then don't say that they're better or worse tell me how they're different it's just i think a natural thing when a team loses a star that other stars elevate their game you've

seen it forever look at what malkin did with crosby out look what dry sidles does when when mcdavid misses it's just mitch marner unbelievable last night willie neilander unbelievable guys just rise up they play differently they know their roles it's just it's a different look it's just a weird are you buying that uh yeah you know i think if you're looking for like direct examples of what's different i don't think morgan riley shoots that puck if if matthews is on the flank like i think it's like morgan knows that he's like option c and he'll just give it back to matthews and let matthews figure it out from there we're actually shooting it from the point if you believe this or not a pretty effective power play strategy so

i think guys feel a little bit more like well he's not here to do it so maybe i can so what you're telling me in essence is that all these years he's been scoring like 69 goals and 60 plus goals it's been a terrible mistake by the rest of the team looking for him every game that's what you're telling me no i think you reworked what we said greatly to put it in a very different language you tell me what what what you're saying way worse without him and he's a great goal scorer but a couple games at a time here they're able to be great without him for sure it's and the reason is because they're not looking for him i don't know what do you think kip yeah yeah i'll go with that yeah i i think it may be that simple that often they feel compelled to get him the puck

and last night they didn't yeah i think as simple as that i don't i don't think there's any i gotta tell you if i was playing on a line with austin matthews i'd probably try to get him the puck a lot pretty good idea probably goes in more that way than it would over a year than not passing it to him it's just it's funny to me and i you know i don't no i'm not even gonna say that but i don't dread the few games he misses a year with austin matthews like i know that they have enough star power in the way they play like that was a borderline system win last night in the way they played there's a there's a thing where like a player goes out and it's not even an elite player but someone gets bumped up a line say max domey goes up or whatever pontus holmberg goes up and they're awesome for like

two three games and then it's four or five three weeks all of a sudden it's like oh there's a reason they're not there all the time it's not sustainable but in bursts exactly it can work and you get awesome goaltending too that helps i mean there's a lot too last night matthew nye's awesome night from him on the power play that makes a big difference where do you want to go no i'm good i'm good uh whatever austin's dealing with and i hear it's not his wrist. That's good. Do you give him another night off? They got back-to-backs Friday, Saturday. Do you want to see Austin back? We're seeing Connor McDavid back way sooner than

what we thought. If Austin's ready to go, do you want to give him Friday night? Would you like to see the Leafs play one more game without him? Selfishly, with a man with lower bowl tickets to Friday night's game against the Red Wings. I would love him to play on Friday night selfishly, but for the good of the team, he could sit again. Can I remind you, you can't afford lower bowl tickets to the Leafs.

Kimmy's the king of free. Kimmy, that's why I ain't paying, brother. Shout out my boy Jeff. Let's go, my boy Jeff. So, would you want to see one more game without him you know i don't have the x-rays in front of me so i don't know i feel like it's either both or neither like if he's okay to go and try it's not going to make it worse than going i'd like to see him take friday night off and then come back saturday if You think that one extra day is going to make a difference? I think it could be on the side of caution right now. But I also want the team to play one more good game without him

and then really understand that when he comes back, that however they feel with him out of the lineup, they can feel just as good with him in the lineup. And if it means that he has a few less looks or a few less shot attempts, which he constantly leads the team in, then it's okay. Maybe they got to find a happy medium

when he's in the lineup of passing him the puck and when they don't pass him the puck. For sure. I think, sorry, who was it it was mccabe mccabe said something to the effect of um you know we need to maintain that sort of mindset when he is in the lineup because yeah they've had a pretty good record with him out uh no doubt about it do we want to go to bruby sure let's go to brubyube on winning without their captain, Austin Matthews. You know, we moved Max up. That line went against the Pasternak line and Marchand.

And they did a good job. I thought that they checked them well and kept them on the outside for the most part and did a good job. So it was a real good team effort by everybody. Like, you know, our penalty kill was really good. And we used, you know, I used Kampf and Marner a lot and Holmberg. They got a lot of minutes on the PK tonight. They did a good job for us.

I totally agree with him with David Kampf. He had a hell of a night. Important on that PK. All of a sudden, he's back in the good books after last night. That would be a big development for them. If they could find a way to get him involved as a part of this, win over Berube. It just seems like...

He played 16-23 last night. I know. And it just seems like you can't get it all. Right? You can't have it all. If it's Kemp that's all of a sudden in, Holmberg's out. If Holmberg's in, it's McMahon that they're pushing. And it just seems like it always comes at someone else's expense.

Yeah. Right now, Kemp's the man. Yeah, and that's great. You know, at someone else's expense yeah right now camp's the man yeah and that's great you know i think that's really important for them my article today on sportsnet is about nize and about how for the last however many years the leafs have not we talk about team a and team b i started the article by talking about on real kepper and board we talk about team a and team b and how the guys first came in the league the core guys and it was uh cadre jvr and bozak right but the core wasn't really ready to be the core yet like it wasn't quite there then they had zach hyman but that was before hyman was kind of this zach hyman yeah the most points he had with

the leafs was 37 37 and 33 the next year before edmonton um and then after that the next best player they've had was michael bunting and michael bunting had 63 points and 49 points and then running shotgun with with the best line on the team and that's you know so they've just never even had a guy they had ryan o'reilly in playoffs for the one year but regular season they haven't nize has a chance to be a 30 goal guy is he not i mean oh 100 and so that's's a big development for them, having one more guy. It is. It's funny.

Like, when we first started talking about this, and I was scoffing at the Kipper comparisons when he was like, you know, Slavkovsky, Byfield, all these guys, and you watch him play, you're like, yeah. Might be his guy. Yeah, yeah. He's there.

Pay attention to me, okay? Just don't stand there looking pretty in an owen sound cap or you know listen tune in listen to me i do listen to you but sometimes you've been known to get a little bit excited about some guys contracts and i thought you were getting a little bit too excited about that but you saw it early and i am starting to realize how crucially important matthew nye's is to this team's success and crucial to the power play let's go to craig craig barubi head coach on his now hot power play yeah it was very good i thought um you know shot a puck from the point, screens, you know,

another shot, screen, goal. Pretty simple, I mean, but I thought they moved it around well. You know, even the first one, I thought Mitch made a great play to Nye's back door, just missed it, you know, would have been a goal. But, no, they did a great job. Special teams were huge tonight. PK was great.

Goalie was great. Yeah. Cue the Caldubus drop. Well, everything's great. Yeah. Everything's great. Thank you. What did you see from the power play?

You know, I'm of two minds of this, that sometimes when it's not going well you have to do what they're what bruby's talking about you have to have bodies at net you have to get pucks there whatever but that to me it worked last night right neil under banks went in off a skate we look at the results and go it went great you know that to me is what you do when you're the 15th most talented team in the league or below, and you say, we just got to do the right things, and hopefully we get bounces, and hopefully, look at Tampa Bay and their power play.

They're not throwing hope plays. And Edmonton Oilers didn't end up with their stats as hope guys, and the Leafs in the past have not either. They've had very high-ranking power plays using their talent. So I would hate to have all this talent and then reduce it to like, let's be the bang it and hope we get rebounds team.

But it worked last. And you just got to see if you go in though. Right. For sure. 100% agree. Morgan, great shot, but we seldom see a shot like that get to the net cleanly like that.

What is the percent? And Nylanders bounced off of a Boston Bruin in front of the net. So they finally got some puck luck. But nothing was really like, it's not like last night completely turned a corner to say now they're going. And they still have the dilemma of what's it look like? Is it one defenseman like Morgan last night and four forwards, or is it going to be on occasion five forwards?

Is it going to be a mixture of both? But when it's not five forwards, it's crystal clear for me that John Tavares is not on it anymore. The new presence in front of the net, the first guy I'm penciling in in front of the net is matthew nice absolutely of course absolutely agree when you get when they get to game one of the playoffs and we're all assuming they'll be there and it's a tighter atlantic but we'll assume that they'll get there you know either the top unit is whoever you want if all recman larson or morgan riley on

the top unit with the three stars and Matthew Nice in front of the net. Right? Yeah. You know, if you watch those three goals last night, the Riley one goes in. Nice is, you know, pushing his ass into the stick of, oh, God, that's not going to play well. Brandon Carlo. And Carlo can't manage him. And then he's trying to defend.

Carlo's got him again on the Nylander goal. And then Carlo in the third one, the one scores he's like i can't move this guy i'm gonna try to front the shot and leaves nice alone like nice is creating all of that just by standing in one part of the ice and by the way bunting used to stand there too and he just wasn't big enough to like influence the game that way and guys just aren't as willing to physically engage with him like you see the guys starting to realize. They can't, but there's like, they get that sound in the cartoons when you hit steal. What's the sound? Do the sound. Dong.

That's what they're getting right now. I love the kid, man. His improvement, even through this match of the season, has been stunning to me. He's gotten better every single game. I love the kid. I've got a couple extra stats for you.

He is tied for the team lead in hits. He is tied for... Oh, here, I've got all my actual stats here. Let me just read them to you. This is great radio, I know. In expected goals in the NHL, he's tied for 17th. Inner slot shots, he's tied for 8th inner slot shots he's tied for 8th rebound chance chances tied for 25 25th that's among all players in the nhl really he's like

you know in that upper echelon of creating chances at the net so wow 43rd and puck battle wins 40th and rebounds are covered okay not for me and sammy to beat up on you again what What's happened? But there is a chance if Joseph Wall plays last night, the Leafs lose. You think so? Yeah. I do, too. Yeah. Well, in my defense, I said in every one of those conversations,

Stolarz is better. You did. You did. I said he gives you a better chance to win. There's no denying that the better goal he was in, and he was unbelievable last night. Elite goal tending. He made that cross- cross crease save on the three on one and then uh gets across on kepke he was unbelievable and how tough are nhl goalies he takes a heater in the sweet spot from

patranak in his throat area broken collarbone oh my away, I thought. Here comes the Hilda Beast. I was, you know, my love for Anthony Stoller's flash before my eyes there. The calmness and the presence for a big man doesn't ever seem to lose his net.

And there's a big part of a goaltender's game today is just to play the percentages, and you hope that the puck hits you. He's got that, but he's not relying on it completely. There's no battles. There's a level of battle.

There's a level of athleticism, and he's just got the perfect temperament right now to be as good as any goalie in the world. And while we're heaping praise on him, was it Samsonov last year who was always sort of hurt? Like he'd get clipped and he'd be shaking something out, skating to the corner and showing you the thumb was off. This is a staple of Leafs talk, me whining about him being a faker.

Right. Like where he always had like one faker moment that you're like, oh, he's hurt. Every single game. No sign of him getting stung by Pasternak's shot either. A bomb in the collarbone. I guess. Over. Yeah.

Didn't see it in all games. No signs of it after that. Well, let's listen to the coach. Okay, Craig Veruby in clip two there on Stolar's exceeding expectations. Stolar, it succeeded your expectations. No, I don't think so. I think that going back to last year, his season he had, if you look at his numbers, 29 games, I think he played extremely well.

He's been around a while. He's really learned how to be a real good goalie understand what he needs to do in that uh to be successful and you know he's showing it now like i think though but he showed it all last year too did he say no i'm not excited not didn't exceed his expectations liar liar pants on fire i'm sorry you expected him to be the best goalie in the league yeah or at least in the conversation of he's top five and save percentage now yep yeah so you come back with him on friday and then you go to joseph wall on saturday i can't imagine digging in on this again so let's do it and and next week there's another back-to-back

as well it's i think it's tuesday wednesday he's gonna get a couple starts so then yeah it's tuesday wednesday lots of time for joseph to get going but you can't you just can't pull him away as early as friday when there's a lot of synergies going for him personally but but there's a build of trust going on right now, and you hope that it can carry the whole season. And if they, we've played on enough teams to know that, like, I believe in that guy. You know, I'm not so sure.

You don't know, you don't say it, you don't mention it. In a large group on your team, maybe you mention it to somebody one of your closer buddies on the bus yeah over beers yeah but that's the only position i've said this before that's the only position where you're like if i don't trust that guy it's over for us and he's building it right now yeah yeah no doubt about it this is like a big atlantic division stretch too they beat the bruins last night you get uh detroit on friday then you get montreal saturday then ottawa tuesday yeah you know you're trying to stuff these teams down to the

lower half of the atlantic if you can boston looked exactly like what we talked about going into that game like their records were very close before puck drop last night. Not even close on forechecking. Pasternak and Marchand, not much room. I thought Marchand was noticeable last night. I thought he was in the mix. He had some jump. Better than what we've probably seen out of him early.

For sure. Still not great. Pasternak, to me. No confidence. No confidence. I don't even think he had the puck an awful lot. No. And, you know, Mitch was out there against them a lot.

Yeah. And Mitch has got it going right now. Big time. He's got, he handles the puck. And when he's not handling the puck he's in in great position to defend like he's got a really good 200 foot game going right now the um yeah there's no doubt about that it was a quiet night from boston in general what really kind of showed to me what changed things for the bruins so patch Pacioretty throws that hit on peak.

And all of a sudden, you know, they end up on the power play after that. Because they went to the five-minute review. But Zdorov tried to get revenge on it after that. And he took the penalty on Pacioretty next time out. And even that, to me, felt passive. Three cross-checks. Like, Zdorov was hammering them, too. Yeah, no, it probably was a couple of penalties there.

Yes, there was a couple of penalties there. But all of that didn't feel like the old Bruins. Like, yeah, they took a minor on Pacioretty after that and then put the Leafs on the power play and the Leafs scored. It just felt like the Bruins are usually on the other end of these exchanges, throwing the hit first, bad retaliation. There's so many signs that Jim Montgomery's feeling the pressure. Oh, yeah.

Like, really feeling the pressure. Oh, yeah. Like, really feeling the pressure. Yeah. And I can't see the Bruins winning one, losing one much longer. I didn't know his contract up after this year. Like, he doesn't even have next year. Yeah. You know how I feel. Like, you want to send pasternak a message

you want to bench him a couple of shifts you better get a response but you want to take him out the whole period like that to send a message and then have him be imagine if the coach set marner imagine if they set marner for one period what you'd come on calculated risk yeah that doesn't usually end well for those coaches against players like that. You needed him to be dynamic last night to show the management that your benching worked. And he was the opposite of that. Yeah. Yeah.

A little of DiPattoretti, too, continues to hit like a truck. Yeah. Like, I know he's a big guy, but the willingness now to go hurt people. Yeah. Like, I really like. You like the hurting? I do, man. Yeah, I do.

In a clean way. Yeah. That hit on peak was straight up. It was fine. Yeah. But for today, tomorrow, I don't know a guy who's 35 years old what it's going to look like in January, February, March, or April, May, but take it, take it for everything it's worth right now.

Yeah. So yeah, while we're on the physical stuff, I wanted to get your guys' opinion on the, the Tanev play and where I think, were they on the penalty kill that time? I'm not, or they weren't,

but the hit from behind where it, what, how do you stop that play in hockey? Because to me, Tanev has not done one dirty thing all year. I've watched him his whole career. He's not a dirty player. He's physical. He'll give you what you need.

But he's going in to lay a very clean body check, a shoulder-to-shoulder thing, and he turns at the exact millisecond before and he hammers him. You see that happen a lot. Is there any way to do anything about that? I hate it. I think you always run the risk of a charge.

For sure. And if I'm not mistaken, that was the call. It was a board. Boarding or charging. And then he got a rough for being headlocked. I would guess that come March or April or in the playoffs, no call. No call.

So I'm not overly concerned about that getting called all the time. I think there's been more of a forgiveness for the aggressor on that play. Because it's impossible. Well, it is, Sam, but you can't be reckless and you kind of have to contain a little bit in case there's a cutback. Now that said, I have no problem with it. Pasternak definitely puts

himself in a bad spot there. I think they're both like, alright, Pasternak kind of put him in a bad spot and Tanev maybe could have been a little bit more passive. Like the grab, the bear hug a little bit more. Yeah, a little bit like that. But I –

I'm sure he wanted to let him know he was there too. But the penalty also is a reminder to – Don't do that. Somebody can really get hurt here, guys. Big time, yes. So let's just be careful. I want to give you a two-minute penalty. And it's less about the penalty but more so about, you know,

let's be conscientious that, like, broken necks can happen in a heartbeat. Well, what kills me more than that one is like guys will often show their back as a defense mechanism, a move that basically says, now you can't hit me. So they'll have the puck on the boards and they'll turn their back to a guy. It's like, now you can't hit me because you see my back. And it's like, well, that's putting yourself at a major risk. You're putting a lot of trust in the guy that's trying to bury you absolutely and i didn't think that was the case from pasternak last night another thing i wanted to ask you guys about the reeves

and montgomery thing did you see that them yelling at each other from the bench like they're at the start of the second period reeves and montgomery were yelling at each other i don't know if you saw that was that over uh the hit by then i know it was like at the start of the second period the patch ready hit maybe probably guys yelling at patch ready from boston's bench yeah and then i'm guessing reeves saying to those guys just so you know if anything happens to him whatever and then they had an exchange with montgomery i don't remember seeing a lot of player coaches it's also not good from a coach you don't want to be in there with you does that happen a lot the late brian It's also not good from a coach. You don't want to be in there with him. Does that happen a lot? The late Brian Murray in Washington, he used to go after guys on the other team.

And I'm like, you're getting him upset. I've got to go out there. I've got to cash that check you're writing right now. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, I just wanted to get your thought on that. Did I ever tell you at the time,ny linsman like washington used to uh the opponents used to have to come from the zamboni entrance and then no no it was us who had to go through this the coaches had to go through the zamboni on the ice to the bench there's no there's no uh entrance behind the bench. And then

I guess he was giving it to Kenny Linsman in the first period. Kenny Linsman when Brian Murray was walking on the ice slashed him right in the back of the knee. No! And all I heard was a yelp. That's incredible. I love it. Two minutes for slashing the

coach. And we're like, well, what do we do? Yeah, that's a weird one. We're like, pretend we didn't see it. That's what we're going to do. That's the right answer. Maybe Reeves will fight Montgomery. That'll be his first one of the year. One of my, has he not fought?

Nope. Wow. One of my favorite quotes to come out of last night, Nylander after the game where, you know, they haven't beat Boston, was it two years? Eight games. Eight games. Boston's a big opponent.

They're losing game seven to Boston last year. Like, this is a big rivalry. Let's listen to what Willie Nylander had to say in clip one on beating Boston. How big are wins over Boston? Like, it's regular season. It's just one win. It's a win. Not a big deal.

Right? It's regular season. It's one win. We didn't win anything here that damn fan yeah right under the damn fan again i gotta talk to at least move it it's right under the fan it's a better quote than the one he had against st louis on what do you know about st louis he's like nothing i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't really know them okay it is at least it's almost disrespectful to boston the quote, and I like that.

Yeah. Right? Me too. It's like we're not going to get too worked up. We're beating them right now. One more positive for me watching the Leafs last night, Timmons. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah.

I know. I know. It's come a long way. I'm blown away. And the one thing with guys like him or Lilligren when he was here is limit your mistakes. That's all. And he's done that. It's not about what you do that stands out. It's about the mistakes that you don't make.

And right now he's in that window where you're, he's not the first guy you're thinking of, but if you focus on it long enough, you'll notice that he's often making the right play, the safe play and the right pass out of his own zone. Yep. And that's a far cry from where he's come from. And now it's like I'm not taking him out of the lineup.

No, but over 17 minutes last night. You know, we know that he has upside. I think he skates really well. And he's a big guy. Like, he's just never played any consistent hockey in the NHL because of injuries and mono and all sorts of weird things. It would be really great development for them if this guy ended up being a decent third pair guy.

I do think he has a ways to go before you say in playoffs, can he physically be our third pair PK? That's what 72 games still left to go is going to do for you. Love to see him play most of those. He's a great example of taking advantage of a fresh set of eyes, right? Where he fell out of favor with Keefe. He was hurt. He barely played with Keefe.

And then, you know, new coach comes in, limits the limits. He's been a little bit physical, and he's limited the mistakes, and he's just taking advantage of it. He's more physical than Lilligren. He can make a breakout pass just the same as Lilligren. I'd argue he skates better, and he definitely has better offensive instincts and he's 1.1 this year and it is a rfa it's uh when he expires at the end of this year he's still an rfa so guy in the organization i am i am curious how they're gonna work out uh getting hock and paw

into the lineup are we talking about saturday for him or fr maybe? Well, the Marlies still have two games this weekend, so he's still eligible to play. Okay. And they can keep him down, I think, through the weekend because it was three AHL games. But if we only get 25 games out of those knees, do we want to spend them in the minors? It's like the pitcher where it's like,

are we sure we want to use these 100-mile-an-hour bullets in the minors? That'll be interesting how they kind of juggle that scenario. Now, there's a bunch of praise for Nylander from Berube last night. I don't know. Why not? Yeah, sure. Let's listen to that Berube clip five, please.

Well, he's being Willie. Scores goals. I mean, he's a dynamic player. I mean, he's one of those offensive guys that, you know, the puck goes to him. He knows where the puck's going. He's got of those offensive guys that the puck goes to him. He knows where the puck's going. He's got a great shot. We all know that. His skill level is off the charts.

But he's playing a good game all around. He's not just thinking about offense. He's been very good defensively and being in the right spots and doing the right things defensively which is good oh are we gonna beat the crap out of that he's being willy he actually he tried to have fun with the media there he was excited i think i think you're right he was he was kind of being light-hearted there for a second do you think that he's really starting to like william neilander potentially i don't maybe that'd be course goals i don't know if any coach will ever completely they're gonna be frustrated it'll be a hopefully more hot than cold

take on willie like willie leads the nhl in goals it's like he's tied with a bunch of guys yeah he's tied with uh four other guys kucherov kaufeld reinhardt and hey he's here he's sure cole caulfield but you know you're talking about how hot kyle connor's been dry settle he's yeah ahead of those guys yeah banked one in last night made a hilarious face he's that picture of his face after he scored yeah hilarious when he's gone he's gone right that's it certainly is gone okay we'll take a break and when we return former Toronto Maple Leaf Brad May will join us a man that would

fight his mom to win the Stanley Cup Mayday after the break you're watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born Everything you need to know about the Raptors and the biggest stories around the NBA. Smith & Jones. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Real Kipper and Bourne Show.

Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Now let's welcome in our first guest, Brad May, former National Hockey Leaguer, over 1,000 games played. And what stands out maybe a little bit more is the 2,248 penalty minutes. Mayday, how are you, pal? I'm doing great, guys. Nick, always good to see you.

Justin, thanks for having me on. Hey, I would imagine over your illustrious career, you wouldn't have had any problem playing for a coach like Craig Berube. I would have loved to. I just, of course, Craig Berube, his record as a player and, of course, as a coach. He's done everything that it takes to get to this level, to become the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Stanley Cup in his pedigree as a coach of St. Louis. But you know it, Nick, that he's one of the toughest hombres out there when he played, and we all know the game's changed. But that character that he has, stepping up and taking the blows for his teammates as a player, you'll start seeing him do that as a coach as well i think he'll protect his players when when it's warranted but he's also a character guy in the sense that um hard work is expected it's not special every player should work hard and anybody that you know has an excuse um excuses are for losers. And I'd expect Craig Bruby would come down hard on that.

Brad, the Leafs have a guy in Bobby McMahon who's a big guy who skates fast and can hit people. But he probably doesn't want to do that. That's probably not the first thing he wants to do. And Bruby's been leaning on him to be that player. Have you seen players in your time around the league where the coach is asking them to be something that they don't want to be and how do those things usually play out do you know what happens all the time and the thing is that's where players have to understand if you're bobby mcmahon figure it out first of all i was at a game when he scored two goals earlier in the season what a fun guy he's got a great aura about him. Seems his teammates love him. The fans really enjoy Bobby

McMahon and his personality, but put on a different hat, Bobby, you know, when you get a chance. If you do that, you heard Matthew Nyes speak about, you know, playing with the skilled players. Well, we'd all think that Matthew Nyes is a skilled player, but he doesn't see himself that way. Trying to, you know, wear a a different hat maybe force himself into a different role a big body in the middle of the ice stick on the ice the best players are going to find them um i think bobby's a young guy he's exciting um i don't think he's going to have a problem but it's the national hockey league do whatever it takes to stay and once you're there then you can actually you know manipulate your ice time a little bit by being a better player and showing the coach that you're trustworthy but um i like to i like

bobby mcmahon i think he's going to be in the lineup you know he's a nightly guy for me and um it's it's the depth of the toronto maples we keep talking about it um that might be the achilles heel but um i like their makeup. I think Toronto, although they haven't had the greatest start, this team is my favorite team in the last seven or eight years that I've watched. That old saying, you got the tools, but do you have

the toolbox? For some, the things that you just mentioned can come a lot more naturally. You know, we had a chance to golf a couple weekends ago with Sammy, you and your dad. And I cherish the 19th hole. Well, we got rained out a little bit. So it was the 13th hole. Where we got to reminisce on stories and just to listen to you revisit your path to the NHL and the battles that you had.

And whether or not you developed that side of you that would come out and fight when you had to or battle or look another guy in the eye or, or just hang in there in a scrum. Can you teach that? Is it just ultimately part of your makeup or it isn't? It's a great question, Nick. I'd like to think that every player, you know, it's an easy decision or choice to just put on a different hat like I

just spoke of. Obviously, it's in your DNA. That's where scouting comes into it. The character of the player, where has he played? Where has he come from? What kind of system has he played? How has he changed his game? Does he block shots? Does he kill penalties? Is he an offensive player that's soft? Is he an offensive player that he gets his offense by driving the net and creating havoc? I mean, all these factors. For me, and Nick, you and I were talking about our path to the National Hockey League. It was a different game. The one element that you and I both had was the ability to fight and to stick up for your teammates

and obviously be a robust, rambunctious player. But for me, it was being a roommate to Pat LaFontaine, the captain of our team, Hall of Famer, being marinating in his life, listening to him, Dale Howarchuk, Dave Anderchuk, Randy Hillier, Colin Patterson. These guys were all 30 years old and I was 19. Having the ability, and I think maybe the greatest gift was the gift of listening and just absorbing the greatness or certainly the experience of those older players.

My question to you, Nick, Justin, across the NHL, because of the salary cap and the disparity of ages and really going to a younger lineup, these players may not have that leadership Buffalo Sabre team, not because I wanted to. It's just there's too many guys to name. I was so fortunate to come into the league with great veteran players. Now, we didn't end up being a great hockey team. We had games that we played well. We didn't win any championships. But my tutelage with those, those guys, I got to play 19 years and I,

and I honestly wouldn't have done it if I didn't have that, that leadership that I could have, you know, extracted. Mine was Tim Kerr, the great goal scorer for the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored 62 goals in the NHL, never drafted. And he just, he told me, find ways to hang in there. Okay, and if you're ever going to be a goal scorer in the National Hockey League, like you were in junior, it would surface. But if it doesn't, then find other ways

to make yourself valuable to the hockey club. And I took it right away and I ran with it. But, you know, you're right. Who's in that room right now that could talk to a Bobby McMahon right now and tell him, you know you're right who's in that room right now that could talk to a Bobby McMahon right now and tell him you know here's an opportunity there's another opportunity find it until you you go back to putting the puck in the net in so many ways you know because of the salary cap the best players on your team are in so many ways are the older players the oldest

players those are the guys that actually have the long-term contracts where the real character, different character, of course, but those players, they're not in the league anymore. They don't hang around. You didn't get your contract until you're 28 or 30 years old. This is 25, 30 years ago I'm speaking, but that's when those players were rewarded. They stuck around and they were able to impart their experience and knowledge

on players like Matthew Knives and Bobby McMahon and others. It's a different league. Now, here's the deal. You've got to figure out the landscape. And if you're Bobby, listen to guys like Nick and I. Not that we know what we're talking about, but I can tell you this. Just listen to our experience. Listen to other guys. Wendell Clark, Darcy Tucker,

they're ambassadors to the game. Invite these older players around. Ask questions. If I was a young player, that's what I was told to do, and I did that. I went into New York. I'll give you a great story. Bobby Nystrom was in the building, was in Nassau Coliseum. I was going into a game.

I was afraid for whatever reason, Dave Mailey had a big handlebar mustache and we played him the night before and he was intimidating looking. He was a lefty. And I went into that game, honestly, with trepidations, thinking that Dave Mailey is going to knock me out. And I somehow found Eddie Westfall and Bob Nystrom, two great Islanders. And I asked them as a young man, I said, you know, can I, can I, can I have a moment of your time? And these great players, honestly, you know what they want to do? They want to impart their experience on others, the younger guys in the game. And they both took five minutes with me and it made a huge difference.

So much so that I remember the moment, how I felt, and it's what it would be 33 years later from that time. And I still remember it. And I value those men that gave me a few minutes to kind of tell a story. And it made me feel more comfortable. It's funny. I've heard several variations of Bobby Nystrom helping people out. I know Clark Gilley's one of his all-time stories is about Bobby Nystrom talking him into fighting Ben Wilson for a second time.

You know, and feeling unwell before the game, but working through that. So then, you know, I hear you guys talk about playing a different role than you played in junior to stay in the league, to earn the money, be in the NHL, whatever. Do you ever have moments now where you look back at your career, having won Stanley Cups, both of you, and played for years in the league, where you go, I wish I had tried to play a little bit more offensively. I wish I had tried to handle the puck.

You scored, what, 40 goals in junior one year, Brad? You scored 60. Do you ever have moments where you're like, God, I could have made some more money if I just scored a bit more? Brad, I'll go first, and I'll be real quick. I did, and it didn't work. All right, so at least you tested the theory. You know what, Nick and Justin, there's no question.

Of course we all think like that. What if? What if I did it this way? What if I did it a different way? Do you know what? You can shove what ifs you know where um i i there is a saying and i can't remember right now um but you can't second guess yourself there's no dress rehearsal in this life wake up i'll tell you what you want to have a bad day act like a jackass go ahead but you just wasted valuable moments the only the only commodity that's most important to all of us is time up i'll tell you what you want to have a bad day act like a jackass go ahead but you just wasted

valuable moments the only the only commodity that's most important to all of us is time and make the most of the time you have and honestly why not spend that time learning and being positive and optimistic and if you have issues address them challenge yourself learn more and get in the gym and work harder. For all you young athletes out there that are possibly watching, you know what? You have an opportunity. Tell you what, your buddies are not going to put in the work ethic and the work that you're going to do today. You outwork them today, outwork them tomorrow.

In a few weeks, you're going to be ahead. And when they're sleeping, you're getting ahead. So that's my advice. And I was so lucky again i got all this stuff i didn't just fall into it um i was in an environment in buffalo with some of the greatest characters and people um to this day in my life can i take a crack at that saying that didn't come to you yes i it's crushers that think they're rushers end up ushers. That's a good one, Nick.

That wasn't it. It was like something about what ifs in a bowl full of nuts. If ifs and buts were candies and nuts every day, it would be Christmas. My junior coach. There you go. Ifs and buts. You know what? If we kind of bring this back to the Toronto Maple Leafs,

it looks like Berube has some sort of secret sauce right now when the Leafs are on, can work, and can look awfully like something that would be successful in the playoffs. And then there's other instances that we've seen this year where it looks completely off. But is this part of just learning to be consistent with a system? And ultimately, do you believe that these Leafs can play much like they played last night against Boston or how they played a few weeks back against Tampa Bay?

Or will this continue to be live and learn throughout the regular season? You know what, you look across the league, the Boston Bruins, the struggles that they had, David Pasternak sat out in the third period. You would think that Boston would come in ugly. They tried to rough it up in Toronto, but Toronto outplayed them.

The two games I've been at in the building, I was there last night. I was also there against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which I think was the best game the Leafs have played this season. Fantastic team. You look across the league with all the distractions in the world, cell phones, technology, and just access to information socially, everything else.

I think this is an issue across the league and in professional sports. You even look at the NFL, good teams. They show up with a mediocre performance at times. I'm not sure if this is an all-season thing. I think this is a real character check. I think the teams that figure it out will definitely advance and move ahead throughout the season. I'm not at all in a panic mode for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There is a new coach, a new system. The players are trying to figure it out. Obviously, your top player, Austin Matthews, has an undisclosed injury that we don't know what it is, but it's obviously hampered him a little bit. I'm not worried at all. Toronto's right there. They're going to be...

I'll go down right now. They're going to finish first place, certainly in their division, maybe even in the Eastern Conference, and we'll see what happens come playoffs, but there's so much that's going to happen. But the world is distracting, the distractions around all of us,

but heaven forbid these young players that you know are expected to be on at all times um maybe put your device down and think about the game and just and mimic being a player and stop doing all these other things that your friends that aren't players are doing that would be my advice wow Wow. Great stuff, Mayday. I love our conversations, man. Say hi to your dad for us. I enjoy it, guys. I enjoy it. Say hi to Ken for us, okay?

Hey, listen, we played golf. My father, Ken, he absolutely loved it. Sammy, you're welcome back anytime. Justin, you have to come with us. I would love to. I met your dad at the member guest there. He's a great man. He's a fantastic man.

And, of course, he loves Nick. And he really, really enjoyed that day. And he'd love to host us again. Sam's just going free golf, free golf, free golf, free golf. No, it's time to say it was May Day. Sammy, it's 2.50 I had. All right. Awesome stuff, May Day. Thanks for joining us, pal. Thanks so much. Thanks, guys. Sammy it's 250 I had alright awesome stuff Mayday thanks for joining us pal

thanks so much thanks guys have a great night what a great conversation just over on just you know that next level of still needing to be tough still and I do buy into that certain guys and maybe it's

still McMahon that fake it, and maybe it's still McMahon, that you fake it until you make it, right? Just, like, the fighting isn't what it used to be, so you don't have to worry about that so much. But you do have to finish your checks and stay in the scrums and get into, you know, FU contests sometimes in a pile. You know, Zach Hyman didn't make the NHL because he was going to be a 50-goal scorer.

He made it because he was a four-checker. He went in on pucks, got his stick in first, separated the D-man from it and ran into him. And they went, God, every time we put him out there, he's a good four-checker. What if we put him with good players so they can have the have the puck more all of a sudden you get points and opportunities and grow it from there uh quickly before we go i got a tweet here and i'm going solely off of this this is from least loyalist about the altercation between um between mcgambry and uh reeves uh hey

sammy i was at the game i've got the info on the Reeves-Monte scrap. Reeves and Zdorov were on the red line screaming at each other's faces. Zdorov had his gloves off pointing in Reeves' face, then pointing to somewhere on the ice. Monte got involved, and it was a warning from the ref. So maybe Zdorov was trying to fight him, and Reeves wasn't going to fight him. In the back's hallway, just pointing at center, bringing it to the middle of the ring.

So there you go. Thanks, Leaf Loyalist. Appreciate that. We knew it was something. Yeah, but that's a pretty good breakdown. People are mad go. Thanks, Lee Foylist. Appreciate that. We knew it was something. Yeah, but that's a pretty good breakdown. People are mad about things. Yeah, I would like. Very helpful.

It would have been good if. That would be a good trade-off. That would be fun to see, too. Mayday mentioned this guy, Dave Maley. Yeah. I fought him in New Jersey. He hit me square on my left eye. I played half the game.

I only played with one eye. I thought I was blind. Really? Yeah. You scared? Very scared. And then it just came back after the game. Oh, my God.

I'm sure no lasting repercussions. I'm like this guy, and he was a lefty. Yeah. And then 30 years later, you're not sure where your car keys are. But I can see. Sure can. Out of two eyes. You look great.

Thank God. Our thanks to Brad May. That was one quick hour on our Leaf edition. Next hour, we go national. We'll welcome in Dan Murphy, host of Hockey Night in Canada, Canucks hockey. We'll get the goods on the Vancouver Canucks. Great on the road. as they continue their journey through California.

Plenty to get to still on our national hour. Don't go away, anybody. music music music