Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Staying Alive

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee are up early to react to the Leafs' 2-1 overtime win in Game 5 to keep their series against the Bruins alive. They discuss Joseph Woll's standout performance inspiring confidence, the Bruins' tepid effort, strong play from the Matthews-less top line and Knies' heroics. Then, they get into Auston Matthews' unclear status and the Leafs' play without him in the lineup. Finally, they close with a look around the league as the Jets and Islanders get eliminated and the Canucks show cracks in Game 5.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.

i was out they pull me back in nick kiprios justin born sammy mckee general nick lance kennedy with us for this abbreviated version of the real Kipper and Bourne show, Leaf Edition. Just one hour. You know, we've said in the past, we don't talk much before our show. We just talk during our show. But this

one, this one, there wasn't much. I don't even think I looked at you yet. World record. Good to see you. Hi. Hello. Good to see you. Hi. Hello. Good to see you, too. Good morning. We talked about your shirts. It's unbelievable.

You didn't get that memo, Sammy? We communicate like twins, the wavelength we're on. We've got a jam-packed hour on our Leaf Edition. This hour, of course, Jay's getaway, which has caused this early start. So we'll pack it right in wherever you're watching, listening. Sportsnet 590, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Plus. Glad you're aboard to at least have an attempt to figure out where we are

when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs. But am I the only one that feels like you're getting kind of drawn back in? Would Leaf Nation feel the same way? Let's start with you, JB, on the state of the Toronto Maple Leafs after a big win in Boston to prolong this Thursday night.

You know, we spent some time towards the end of yesterday's Leafs Hour talking about would it matter if they pushed the series deeper and still lost you know and and talked a little bit about the character and what it might say about the team and quitting on the coach and all that i think we learned something last night that team could have gone out last night and rolled over i thought it was one of the best efforts leafs have put forth out of the gates of the year no no to be fair you at the last second of yesterday's show said you've got confidence that the leafs can find a way to win so you stayed a little bit on course here i'll throw it to our trusted leaf nation president here in Sammy McKee who said,

no, I don't want a game five win because it'll just prolong the misery. Right. How do you feel this morning? I'm twisted up. I love it. I got no idea how to feel. I love it.

I know. I got no idea how to feel. You're not alone. I sent out a tweet before the show, a poll. I'm like, tell me how to feel. I love it. I know. I got no idea how to feel. You're not alone. I sent out a tweet before the show. A poll. I'm like, tell me how to feel. How do you feel? I said, you know, do you believe? This is the beauty of being a Toronto Maple Leaf fan.

Yes. It's the ongoing twist. All I know is 56% of 290 votes in 10 minutes say that they believe. So they kind of got it. You're not a Leaf fan if you don't get sucked in. The way this was always going to go.

And in retrospect, I regret not having this take. That I was so downtrodden, that I was so upset about how things went on Saturday night in game four. And in retrospect, the obvious take was, they're clearly going to pull us back in here. They are obviously going to bring us back in. And we did have that conversation too. Tunnel vision

too mad, didn't have that, didn't see the forest or the trees. Is that the same? Yeah, you got it. Didn't have it. And now after last night, I'm like, oh, here we go. The rug comes out on Saturday. Here we go. There's still a couple games before the real heartbreak kicks in, boys. But emotion aside, that's a well-played game,

a road game where they came out ready to play. You often talk this season about not coming out of the gates with any purpose or any, you know, piss and vinegar. And I thought last night. It was a role reversal last night. What we saw out of the Boston Bruins in two games at Scotiabank Arena was what we saw last night

out of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the TD Garden. Absolutely. Nailed it. And you're seeing their fans react the way Leafs fans reacted with complaints about the coach for changing the Boston lineup, complaints about the officials for not getting this or that right. You know, they are frustrated with their team's performance last night. I got a brother-in-law who lives in Boston who said

he'd never been more disgusted at the Boston Bruins than he was last night. Well, I sent you guys that screen grab right from the the post game show of the boston bruins and i'm just pulling it up quickly here like they have like a fan vote on whatever and i know it's easy for fans to be negative but you know they're the team that's up in the series and it said that the bruins win in six eighteen percent of people think that bruins win in seven eight percent of people think the Bruins win in six, 18% of people think that. Bruins win in seven, 8% of people think that. Bruins lose in seven.

73% of their fans think that? Like, is this a ghost off here, boys? It's a ghost off. Is it a ghost off? Plenty to get into, including Joseph Walls. Huge. That might be an understatement. Yeah, no kidding.

Performance last night. But let's go to Sheldon Keefe for our first Kippers Clipper on what he liked last night. Aggression. The assertiveness that we played with from the start. You know, we didn't feel sorry for ourselves. We didn't mail it in. You know, we went out to take charge of the hockey game in the first period,

and I thought we did a terrific job of that. Tremendous effort from everybody in that first period. Difficult to come out of that with only, you know, at 1-1, you know. But that was, as I said to the guys, you know, between periods is play a tremendous period, yet we're still 1-1. That's how hard this is. That's how tight this is. That's how tight this is. And you've got to just stay with it, stay with it.

It's going to require 60 minutes, and tonight even more than that. But, yeah, the way we went out and took charge of the game and asserted ourselves early, I thought, was impressive and really good message from the players to deliver like that. Okay, so yesterday we had Steve Vallecat on our show. Yeah. And, you know, I've been in this business a long time, right? Yeah.

I've never heard a guy break down goaltending like he did yesterday on our show. If you haven't listened to it, you should go see it. Absolutely. a guy break down goaltending like he did yesterday on our show. And even... If you haven't listened to it, you should go see it. Absolutely. Go get yesterday's podcast. Have a listen to the segment with Steve Alliquette talking about goaltending. And in particular, the Leafs situation with Samsonov.

And like I said, I've been around this business a very long time and we've had some great analysis who are goaltenders, but I've never heard it broken down like he did yesterday, and it's worth a lesson or a listen, sorry. It was a lesson. Yeah, a lesson and a great listen. And you know what? He's very flattering on our show.

I know he sent you a text. Just do me a favor. No, no, no. Just read the part where he describes our show. Oh, it's great. He said it's awesome. He loves it. It's the best in the business.

He's the man. And I only say that because it's a compliment to you guys. Yes. Okay? That's what. Yeah. All right? That's the only reason I brought it up.

High fives all around. Now, bring this right back to the Toronto Maple Leafs, okay? If you listen to Valaket talk about Ilya Samsonov, and he's been very consistent over the whole season, it just brought me to the conclusion last night that, like, where was Joseph Wall in this picture for the Toronto Maple Leafs in what, the last 10 or 15, 20 games of the season? When he came back,

why was he not considered a legitimate guy to start this series? I believe now after watching last night, if Wall started this series i believe now after watching last night if wall started this series they would not be down three one going into game five i tough to argue with that you know when he did have some struggles after his injury and they weren't terrible struggles it probably should have been more of a priority instead of saying here's equal starts one of you whoever gets better results plays in playoffs saying what can we do to get him looking like he looked before the injury we know

how good this guy can be what can we do because we think the best of joseph wool is better than what samsonov can offer um i've i'm team wall for sure and we were consistent all year long like i'm i was blown away to be honest with you that that like we we thought this was all funneled for joseph wall to start particularly those boston starts they gave him were in march i want to say yeah yeah march is. So, you know, like a month before playoffs, they thought he was going to be the guy too. High ankle sprain. I know he was out for two months,

but to completely write him off as a legitimate starter in this series, to me, was a mistake. Well, he's here now. Is there enough time for him to make it up? You know, that might be the theme of the article I write today. It's just, is there enough time for him to make it up you know that might be the theme of the article i write today is just is there enough time did i just write it for you you did thank you is there enough time to see through what the vision of this team was supposed to be where neil andrews in and his timing is good and he's neil andrews and matthews is in and

marner is in and he's going and Wolves playing well all these things that you thought made up this team including the depth and play from Nyes and Domi and Bertuzzi and guys who look good last night is there going to be enough runway for them to be the team they thought they were going to be because that's a good team it's just a little janky right now and last night made you believe they could get there it's possible to get there watching wall last night was just like confirmation bias from like it's just like i i knew this guy was the best goalie they had the whole time and i tricked myself into thinking that it was the right move to go to samsonov to start it he had a couple bad starts against boston like you said but there's no

question who the better goalie is like it's just, I know, and if you look back on this series and the Leafs lose Thursday night and he's bad or they lose a 2-1 game and he's really good again, we're talking about stuff that goes on the ledger of mistakes that have been made. You can look back on this and be like, this was a mistake that was made to not start with him. And this is not to rip on Samsonoff

because I do think that it showed a lot from him to... Oh, yeah, work back from the depths. Work back from being waived to have 31 other teams tell you that we don't want you. That's a big hit. For him to have battled back like that but you're in next year's nhl contract someone will give him one he will jb but he will and if they're smart they will look at him as a very good backup goalie this guy is not an nhl starter okay he is james reimer he's anti-ranta he's he's a good or even a very good backup goalie but this guy cannot

be the guy when the chips are down that you're you're going to have in net no no i would agree on that do you want to hear keith on wool or do you want to let's do it i'm along all right number clip one please you know he fought through a tough injury you know this season and that sort of derailed what was you know a tremendous season to that point but uh he stayed with it. You know, I think he's, you know, since the playoffs began or, you know, once we were sort of preparing that last week, you know, once Joe really knew he wasn't going to be starting in game one of the playoffs, it was really obvious to me that he was, you know,

going to just continue to work and do everything that he could and prepare as though he were playing and staying ready. So he's certainly done that. And because of that and how the game and the series have gone, we've had daily discussions about when's the right time to get Joe in. And because of Sammy and how he's played and how he's competed and how he's bounced back so many times, including from game one of this series to game two,

you know, you stay with Sammy, but, you know, he showed, Joe showed tonight, you know, why you have confidence in him. Yeah, I mean, a couple of big saves in OT. In OT, they did not have their best moments, the Leafs. Well, it was a very short OT, but that first defensive zone pressure for the Bruins was a nightmare factor. Grade A chance for Coyle in the slot.

He pulls out the left leg, if I'm not mistaken. And what does that do for a bench? Oh, yeah. Like, how many times have we been in that scenario where we're like, it okay make the mistake it's not gonna cost us yeah oh it's huge you need that note in in playoffs in general and you can't win without it i heard matt nyes talk about wall last night i think and i think they're good buds yeah this is i just cut this clip because this is exactly how i feel about wall so uh matth Matthew Nye's clip one on Wall.

Yeah, I mean, getting to know him, he's a pretty calm and collected individual. And, you know, I feel pretty safe when he's in that area. You know, I think he's just very calm, sees the ice well. And, yeah, I trust him a lot. You're just a different team when you have a guy like that yep playing like that so here we go from an unbeatable swayman to a guy who was better than swayman last night yeah one save better it does it does change how you feel about things and boy it's it's easy to talk yourself into this be in this scenario the Leafs had been looking for here now and and it feels like the Bruins

are tripping all over themselves trying to no one's happy with anything that happened on the other side okay would you get do you guys mind if I ask you a question about the Bruins playing tight yeah go ahead well I talked about this a little bit last night on Leafs Talk, but we made fun of the 3-1 thing yesterday quite a bit, and we made fun of Reeves for talking about it, and we kind of threw it away. It's not something that we were really talking about as a narrative. But the way that game started last night

and the way the Bruins looked for long stretches of that game last night, that was the first time where I was like, oh, crap. Is this a thing for them? Like, is this actually something that they're really thinking about? Because to me, I know what that looks like. I know what a tight team in a home game with a crowd that's not as loud as usual, that's not exactly like they're feeling it. And I was surprised by how bad they were last night. They were awful.

Yeah, it was Freaky Friday. They switched. Big time. They switched. They did. Like, they couldn't get the puck out of their own zone. How many times they had clean possession and it never came out of their zone? Yeah.

Like, that didn't happen earlier in this series and what did they finish with two shots on goal in the first yeah yeah it's that's crazy at home that's that should be unheard of it's so funny because you know we talked about coaches and how they spend so much time trying to paint the other team as the team that should win right you're trying that underdog status i think being up 3-1 and the leafs being without matthews is like you should win like there's no excuses for that boston bruins team it's just like you should absolutely go out there and just win this hockey game and that's a there's pressure in that in itself at home so and you mentioned this earlier in our show mont Montgomery changed the lineup.

They pulled up Beecher, who made a really nice play easier earlier in the series. And Gryzlik, who factored in on the game-winning goal. Yeah. Tavares got the edge on him by this much. Tavares doesn't beat many guys on the outside. For the A, for pushing him. Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. Making Gryzlik answer the question, for pushing him. Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. Making Grizz answer the question.

It was a strong play, but you watch the hesitation to close Tavares off at the blue line. He's a good skater, I thought. And Tavares was smart enough to lower him in. Use the strength and set. And then push him off. But that's why Grizzlik's in and out of the lineup. And I think it bounced. It went off the side of the net, then off Grizzlik's skate into the slot.

Yeah, I thought it was kind of side of the net goalie stick, whatever it was. He was in the vicinity. And I mean, it just, what a dream. Knies came off the bench there. Dream for Knies. The other factor was that Max went 10 for 10 in the faceoff. You win the faceoff. You win the faceoff.

Max was unbelievable last night. You win the faceoff, you have puck possession. That's something that the Leafs didn't have again earlier in the series is the ability to hold on to the puck. I thought Max and Mitch Marner and Bertuzzi set the tone on all of that. 100%. Yeah, go ahead. That line, I think, is the next.

We're ready to turn that page. That top line for the Leafs last night was really effective, created a ton of opportunities for them. You know, Mitch looked like Mitch. That's the guy we're accustomed to seeing. He had the puck. He had the puck. He did a good job

in that regard i thought domi i don't know if it's going back to center or if it's matthew's not being out so he's playing differently but he really skated when he's moving his feet he's so much more effective and that's people are going ah he's two on ones he should have looked at the goal he should have shot he should have looked at the goal he's a fair criticism it is no he should have done something else but he's getting those opportunities because his feet are moving yeah so i'd rather him be putting himself in those spots than not all right let's go to a kipper's clipper on the top line from shelton yeah the line was really good max did a tremendous job did a really good job of ensuring that that line didn't have to spend a lot of time in our end because of how they were skating, how they were working, how they were on the puck.

As much as we've got guys with lots of skill, and Max is certainly one of them that can make plays to the neutral zone and all that, our game and our period and our start to the game has to begin with a forecheck, has to begin with work and competing. That's the playoffs. That's what this series certainly demands. And that line did that extremely well. They really, really worked. So because of that, they got some favorable pucks, and they got pucks back.

They were able to attack the net and spend lots of time on offense. So, yeah, they were tremendous tonight. And credit to Max stepping up. He's outstanding in the face-off circle as well. So, yeah, it was really good and clearly needed uh here tonight okay well first of all sheldon they didn't spend a lot of time in their own zone is because you gave them offensive zone face-offs okay which you never did earlier for for marner marner had defensive zone face-offs predominantly early in this series.

Well, he's their best defensive forward, so they need to do that. I get it, but it's going to affect your offense. Now, all of a sudden, you put them in offensive zone face-offs, which predominantly went to Matthews' line, and it's a different feel for Marner. Yeah, listen, coaches use the term work all the time. That's like a crutch for a lot of them. But to me, that's what that line did last night.

They were working so hard, and Mitch was winning battles, which he hadn't been doing to this point in the series. For two, he took so many crosschecks in front of the net. Oh, yeah, like he hasn't contributed offensively a ton in this series obviously if at all if i'm recalling correctly but i thought he was working domey like he said it's a good mix so gives you questions heading into the the game if matthew's available do you stick with domey at center you put him right back on the wing it's a gives you questions for sure better knee land lander for you? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Still not there for me. To me, especially around the net, the plays that he usually can make around the plays. I know he had the post, the crossbar, but the plays around the net, he's off still. Yeah. Even that one, the crossbar, he usually takes that across the net.

He makes strong plays across the net. He kind of stayed out wide there. Yeah know that's not quite him but he did have some shifts later in the game where he is he's building towards something where he broke marsh ankles and the one play and hit edmondson with a pass and um you know he he set up a couple guys that i thought didn't quite put pucks away so yeah it's coming for him and that's why i talked about kind of off the top of the show is like it's there are they gonna have enough time for these things to get realized you know neil anderson scored a goal in i don't know how long it's been three weeks was it 11 games heading into the playoffs yeah so now it's 13 games without a goal guy scored 40 times

this year he's like he's can do it yeah you would imagine one to cross the line here eventually you would think so and then i guess the the other story with that line is you know we talked about tavarez but matthew nye's really to me that was his best game of the series you know the ot winner i had our stats people pull because i believe he was on the ice for every ot winner against tampa bay last he was yeah so he's on the ice for all of those. He scores the one last night. Going back to college, he scored three OT winners in college. Really? Yeah. Only 13 overtime games he was in in college.

He had three of the winners. He is the best player on the team when it's just driving to the net. Yeah. Right? Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, but he is creating holes or the ability to find a loose puck lead the team in goals in the playoffs right but the same the one marner hit him with early in the series same thing he's going to the post right yeah he's learning that he's a giant guy all right

let's go to sheldon on matthew nyes he's been really building you know know, this series game by game. He's been getting better and better. I thought tonight he was terrific. It's very fitting that he gets the winner first on an incredible effort by John Tavares to drive wide and get the puck to the net front. But fitting because now he's worked really hard. You know, it's terrific. You know, happy as I was waiting outside for those guys to finish up up here.

You know, it's not lost on you. You got two young guys up here that make a real impact in the game here tonight. So that's terrific to see. And I thought you would have liked that when Pastor Knack was going at Morgan Riley, he stepped in and said, go me, go me. And with a laugh. Yeah, that's what I thought. With a chuckle.le like i'm not intimidated

i don't care if it's my rookie year and you're an all-star i just thought it was it gave again a feel and a look that was appropriate to hey we're not going away we're not going away. We're not going away. I thought that was a big step, and I also love the Holmberg tackle with Marchand. And again, for the first time, we're seeing a little rattled Marchand there. I got to say, I've seen so many pictures, and I saw an incredible tweet of sports but make it art. Yeah, art but make it art. Yeah.

Art, but make it sports is a great account. And it's just like a, him looking up at the ref and the realization that he just took a massive dive when a lion's been grabbed onto him from the blind side. He thought the contact was a flare for sure. And it's, I,

it's one of the most satisfying moments. Like I've said a million times in the show, dog. Yeah. All guts, heart and soul tries harder than just he is the heartbeat of that team can't question that but my man's addicted to diving he spends more time on the ice than he does upright yeah flops all over the place the entire game yeah and he took it to his coup de grace's flopping when a linesman grabs onto him. It's incredible. And then he was really mad at the linesman because he was embarrassed. So embarrassed.

See, for me, like once you get past a little bit of Marchand and Pasternak, then it's not that impressive for me. No, it's not. No, it's not. If you can just not cancel them out, but if you can minimize what they can do out there, and make no mistake, it's not just Nylander feeling it. It's Pasternak too as well.

He's looking a little gimpy. He limped off last night. I don't think he's had the same sort of sting in his game that he usually does. So once you get past those two guys as game changers, wow. Now, you should be able to, if you're the Leafs, counterattack the rest of that lineup. Yeah, it's tough because anything can happen in playoffs, but it doesn't change my feeling that that Boston team is not great.

And their goaltending has been very good. But, God, I'm looking around the league, and you're seeing mediocre teams score goals. You like pucks go in for teams the islanders you know are scoring on carolina and winnipeg pours them in against the you know avalanche or they were in certain games avalanche pour them in against the against yeah the vesna trophy winner you know like at some point the second best offensive team in the nhl has to have a night don't they two was enough last night let's go to sheldon keith on putting pressure on the boston bruins yeah i think so i mean that's what you want to do right uh you want to build positive momentum

your own way and yeah you want to make them be uncomfortable you know you want to make them have to pack up and head out to toronto yet at the same time probably unlike unlike or just like I should say um us when we're coming here I mean I'm talking about hey we went there in game two we played great we won the last game we were here I'm sure they're talking about it just the same they're comfortable confident playing in Toronto so as difficult as this one who was here, the next one is going to be even harder, no matter where the game is played. Because now you've got their attention again. I think I'm sure part of the first period is them a little unsure

as to how we were going to handle ourselves here tonight. And I don't think we'll have that advantage mentally going into the next game, psychologically, but we'll have to make sure, obviously, that we get that right. We haven't been good on home ice, so we've earned ourselves another opportunity to fix that. It wasn't just Pasternak feeling it, I think, on a blocked shot, but Brandon Carlo disappeared in overtime. He took a shot to the face, I think, which makes me think he'll play next game,

depending on the severity of it. But let's just say he didn't. That would be massive. To me, he's their number one inside defender, maybe like Lindholm more. But either way, he keeps the Leafs to the outside. If suddenly it gets easier to get to the inside, that would be really good news.

Even if he's somewhat hampered in some way that helps too so things you know things swing quickly in a series the other thing that's going to put pressure on the boston bruins is to your earlier point the scrutiny that montgomery's taking right now for for for changing his lineup changing a winning lineup right can't get matthews back in there thursday you can't change a winning lineup yeah anyways i i hate the can't change a winning lineup thing so i'm fine you know i think so but this probably speaks to his again i mean a lot of reference to his college days where he had the the two goaltenders, Mike Dunham and Garth Snow. Pretty good duo. So did he change his lineup up front with the same thought

that I don't care about this winning or not winning here? Because to me, he overthought this for me personally. Like is Brezzo that much different than beecher who had been effective for them yeah maybe it certainly it didn't work okay so he didn't get the he didn't get the win with swayman now everybody's talking about all mark but like would he go to all mark you can't that'd be yeah that would be please criminal please do it. Yeah. I think that's nuts. I'm with you. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd love it. I think sometimes in coaching, you would go to the opposing fan base and be like, what would you like them to do? You'd be like, we'd love you to start All-Mark. Let's do the opposite of that. Swayman's been so good that you've got to look at the Leafs and say, you want to win this series, you're going to have to beat this guy three times. Yeah.

Not one. He wasn't that tested last night he was very good but like I can't think of too many where I'm like oh my god he's stolen from the Leafs there the Leafs carried the play but they didn't have a ton of excess chances so he was good you know you know what one thing I want to mention is how about the terrible bounces now off Maroon's skate for the first goal to Frederick and what was, oh, and the one to JVR was a random off a skate to the front of the net. But that's, that's, that's, yeah, I know. No, no, but it's not, it's not luck. It's a hard four check that puts pressure on guys that, that they, I, I know the Leafs

love going with that six footfoot pass in the middle. Yeah, they like to get it off the wall into the inside. I just, I don't like the fact that they're willing to do it at 70%, 80%. Like, to me, that has to be a 100% pass. It has to be there. And this time of year with room shrinking like that, I don't make it a first option. And if you want to talk about luck.

It's not a lucky bounce. I mean, the puck literally appeared on Matthew Nye's stick in a wide open net in the slot. Yeah, similarly, I think you can give Tavares Credifer a great play to get that puck there. And he's conscious. He's not trying to score that one-hander. He wants to put it into a normal spot.

It's in a dangerous area causes havoc the one thing we haven't hit on for the leafs and i know we're going to go to the rest of the nhl quickly after this um or maybe not we don't have to okay um is maybe the best player on the ice past the you know marner and domi for me uh mccabe jake mccabe was really good not the goal, but I thought he broke the pucks out well. He skated. He defended. He looked good. To me, it's his demeanor too, and he's a go-to guy for the media.

He doesn't say much, but what he says, he says it. He gives me a little at home too in Edmonton where I like listening to him. They're straight to the point.'s no sugar coating there's no uh you knows or obviously it's just straight goods and i think i think that type of uh leadership is is so welcome yeah at this time of year for any hockey club and mccabe is providing it for the leafs i was watching him last night thinking about how he's the type of like rough stone that you're glad he was somewhere else for like years and buffalo turning pucks over and making mistakes as he's getting polished into like a decent gem here but he does seem like a really nice find for the leafs at this point and i think he probably has some years left being this kind of player.

So valuable guy. He did step up and hammer somebody in a tie game late in the third period. I don't know who it was that he got. Did you love Jim Montgomery's clip of his thoughts of the game or is that a waste of 15 seconds? I mean, I just love how salary sounded. Okay, that's worth it for me, fans. Okay, good, okay.

Jim McCormick, clip one, please. We weren't good enough. Just simple as that. You know, Toronto came out ready to play. They took it to us. We weren't ready to match their desperation. You're the coach. it's not your job certainly part of it yeah any coach for sure so just he said it's good look at the smile on your face today it's

fantastic it's worth playing that good i really just don't you know i really find a way to hate every coach to least play against i like i like jim mccormick but i also like cooper and maurice so yeah i i don't i prefer cooper maurice at least to be like they're do their condescending media thing where they like love being in toronto and love playing it up this guy seems like a sourpuss. Wow. That's a guy that had no plans on coming back to Toronto. Yeah. One year ago yesterday. So the day of last night game was the day they blew game seven to Florida. What was the script?

Didn't they win? Didn't they win? Florida won game five in OT, right? Win, loss. And make no mistake about it. Between Cam Neely the president of Boston and the general manager Don Sweeney

Montgomery's getting an earful today so there's there's a feeling like we blew 3-1 last year you do not let it happen again you will not have a third try

to blow a 3-1 lead, I promise. Oh, yeah. It's... You can't. You can't blow two 3-1 leads. You can't. Won't get an argument out of me. All right.

We're going to take a quick break. Yeah, let's take a quick break. We'll take a quick break. Sammy's got game time after the break. More Leafs. And then we'll take a quick look around and try to figure out what the heck happened to Hellebuck in this first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. All right, that and more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne.

Teeing up the biggest games of the night, it's the Fan Pre-Game with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert. Weekdays at 6 p.m. on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 590 The Fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. Ma, ma, I gotta go. I gotta go. I'm back on air. Okay, I love you.

Bye. It's my mom. Yeah. You gotta go to church, isn't she? You gotta go to church with your mom. It's the holy something. Put in a good word for the Leafs, Mom. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee.

This is our Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365. And just a reminder reminder tomorrow we're back on our regularly scheduled time four to six eastern let's take it away sammy on game time it's game time presented by bet 365 visit the app's latest odds to find out why it's never ordinary at bet 365 must be 19 plus ontario only please play responsibly so there's only two games tonight and uh looks like maybe uh vegas going back to aiden hill uh some rumblings out of practice that that's potentially going to happen uh it's going to be a shame to not see logan thompson's unbelievable gear set up

i don't know if you've seen their his home gear set up i never think about these things oh my god it's just all shimmery gold with the gold bucket looks amazing and a few pucks but of the net so i guess it wasn't great but uh just checking in on the lines for tonight vegas is a now shifted to a big underdog they're plus 135 uh in dallas dallas is minus 160 and the edmonton oilers returning home with a chance to eliminate the LA Kings. They are minus 200 on home ice. The Kings are plus 165. Got to tell you, I love the Edmonton Oilers tonight, and I would be willing to put them minus a goal and a half at plus 130. Feels like it could be a bit of a coronation night for them.

She's over. Where they, you know, they run it up a little bit. Can Dallas win this thing without winning at home? Can they? Did they start at home? Yeah, they started 2-0. 0-2 at home. Yeah.

You're going to have to win a game at home then, I imagine. It'd be good. What is going on there? How does this become a road series? Have we not discussed the coolest moment of playoff so far when uh mcnab absolutely trucked stank oven and mcnab was feeling his oats and he got the puck four seconds later and jamie ben those are into the ground that those are bone crushing oh the ben on mcnab hit is monster i just like nine seconds no no three seconds after I love hockey I love that that's just

still allowed just a couple guys ice cream just hammering each other but it also wasn't like two games later retribution it was like immediate payback which I really enjoyed and just a quick check-in on the uh con smith as I like to do connor mcdavid still a huge favorite nathan mckinnon moving up at 12 to 1 matthew kachuk 14 to 1 jake genzel the fourth favorite at plus 1600 wow freddie anderson plus 1800 holding strong at that number for a borny and sergey bobrovsky rounds up the top six at plus 1800 number i love boys is kale mccarr at plus 2200 oh wow if you i mean i watched him again last night. He took a weird hit.

I don't know if you saw that. Got that wind knocked out of him. He was looking a little concerning, but finishes the game. Love Kael McCarr, plus 2200 for the consmith. So that was Game Time, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365.

Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Can we just talk about how cool it is that the three, like the NBA always has their best teams go through and the NHL doesn't always. Rangers, Carolina, Florida through in the East right now is that's our three best teams.

So just to touch base on your consmith, is there any room at all for Austin Matthews to get back into that mix at all? Is there any chance that could happen? Sammy? I would like him to maybe get back into the game before we start talking about the Conn Smythe. What do you think?

Where's the vibe on an Austin Matthews return for game six? I am lost, man. I get so many messages about this. I haven't got this many messages since the cory perry fiasco and people going what are you hearing you know do you actually know i haven't got any as many messages messages about this since the start of the week with willie yeah but you know the injury thing is thrown a wrinkle into it elliot last night mentioned the injury thing as well we talked about it at some length yesterday about this being introduced into the whole procedure.

And the way he skated last game with coming out, testing something, being like no and leaving, seems to point more to injury than illness. What did you see last night without Austin Matthews? I saw better play from their support guys. Like, you know, to me, it's a passenger's thing where you're like,

okay, we can't just sit back and watch Austin do it. We need to be better. And that's the first thing. I did a postgame hit with Ivanka and Ken last night. And what I saw was for the first time in weeks, a team not trying to funnel pucks to 34. It's true. No, I agree. And agree and i think you know there's one thing for sure he's not the problem on the power play i had that big takeaway power play still sticks

without him but no you're right i just felt like they they are so much different without him i know that to me it alleviated a lot of the pressure and yeah uh i wonder if it's great you know chasing 70 and i got caught up in it too but you know i i did tell you guys months ago i don't want to see what i saw and it happened anyways but it was this tsunami and you couldn't stop it yeah so run away train i i understand that part could have stopped but but here's the but yeah it it had a negative effect and i think last night proved it 100 i don't know you know there's no doubt it had a negative effect they just absolutely tractor beams for where's 34 and it felt like a team trying to get him the puck and then that led into playoffs a bit so they stopped playing hockey maybe this breaks them of that addiction

a little bit and then you can reintroduce them when everyone else remembers how to play hockey uh that would be a good thing are you hearing anything about his potential availability about what he has is it illness is it injury i'm just with you guys i get mixed messages mixed signals that uh there's more to just an illness they they chose the word illness. Everybody focused on illness. They've unchosen it, though. They've unchosen illness. No, no, they've added. They've added.

They've also selected another word. They sprinkled illness with a topping of injury. Injury sprinkles. That's awesome. So I think at this point, if he does come back and he is relatively healthy like you're adding now to what they re-established i think in game five so that's yeah we all know they're a better team with 34 in it yeah yeah but it has to have the right look for 34 i don't think he. It's hard to believe he'll play.

After 48 hours of not playing, can he come back? Well, if it's injury and he's too injured to play, it's harder to believe. Illness, I couldn't. It was just illness and he didn't play last game. I was on the team being like, what are we doing? You know, but if there's some injury, that really does complicate it, so.

The more we get away from this and the more we talk about it, there is just absolutely no way that it's just illness. Like, clearly. Like, there's no way he doesn't play if he's sick last night. So. I go to the fact that he made the trip. I go to the fact that he went to the rink in the morning, put on his equipment, he got out there.

How sick can you be? Yeah. Right. Couldn't go. So not illness. Not illness. And if it is illness, then I didn't see anything for injury outside of the bonky tuck in game 82.

You got to make up a disease if it's illness. Oh yeah, you need to create a brand new one that no one has ever. The bubonic plague. The bubonic plague. It's a new one. You got to paste medical book pages together and come up with something new yeah to be like we couldn't solve this one call house all right um you know

any word on the power play at all like you just mentioned no you know how i i've always pushed for like two units and you know create a competition with your B unit. Like there is no B unit. Like you cannot, there's no secondary power play. There's a P unit. There's a non-existent, whatever that look, whatever look you saw in game five, that looked like a trail of a second unit is horrible it's even worse than

the first unit i was watching the when riley took the crop across the blue and he broke it in clean and was like it wasn't under pressure and then he just banked it back out of the zone and i didn't even flinch i was just like huh that was fun what are we doing it's just lost and all right the heartbreaking the heartbreaking thing is leafs have gotten an awesome whistle. I mean, was it 17 power plays? 17 power plays through five hockey games is awesome. That's plenty of opportunity. Score five.

Score four. Like, you don't need to be running at a 40% here. Three to two Boston. That's two more. That's it. That's it. That's it. One for 17. All right.

We beat it up pretty good on the Leafs. We only got a few minutes left, but thoughts on Winnipeg. Canada losing one team last night. I'm ashamed. Not at Winnipeg. I'm ashamed of myself for picking Winnipeg after watching Colorado. Agree. I have nothing else to add on that because colorado you know they've been through the wars they've had their

playoff successes and they just looked like a better hockey team they were getting faster as the game got like went on yeah like they were getting faster like Winnipeg had no answer for that speed. It's such a reminder that in the biggest times of the year, when you have these elite guys, it's they're the guys that pull you through. Rant and just rip their guts out at the end of that game. They tie it up, and he's just like, no. To me, though, the engine on Nate McKinnon

is unlike anything I've really seen. I watched Mark Messier. Yeah. That's an engine. Who's the guy? Nate's an engine. Who's the rusher for Kansas City? Is it that they were comparing him to?

Remember the Kansas City Chiefs running back? There's one of these guys. Is it Pacheco? Oh, yeah. Yeah, the way he runs. It's like power, angry angry trying to go through people rather than around him like but it's his lateral movement too like you can't guess if he's going left or right when he's coming at you a thousand miles like a freight train yeah and yet he's not

on these rails that turn like a train he's like split second he's you can go left or right yeah no he's brutal brutal to manage i i just can't imagine. I would almost rather play a game plan for McDavid because you know he's going around. That Winnipeg defense just not even close.

It doesn't help when they shoot in their own net. It doesn't come close to being good enough. Pionk just shovels that one home. Yeah.

Tough break. Vancouver? Yeah, Vancouver. They got a Pedersen problem, boys. Yeah. No good. No good. No good. I like, did Nashville look like a team that said in those dying few minutes,

we're not letting them back in here like we did last game? Yeah. Yeah. They shut it down. They did. They got their hands full because Nashville's a complete team. You're going to need to talk about your horses. You're going to need your horses to come through.

And when Pedersen's struggling like he is, it's a major issue. By the way, for Matthews defense, Luke Shen missed the game with illness. So it does happen in the postseason, apparently. I will say, watching Zdorov play, I wish he was on the Leafs defense core. Yeah. Good Zdorov is very good. Last night, that's a 0-0 game. He comes flying through the neutral zone,

shoots one under the bar on Soros, gets that building rock, and he's hammering guys. Yeah. He's an impact player for sure. They could use that. And what did they get him for? Was it a third-round pick?

They got him for nothing. They got him for not having tree living. was the acquisition cost a great point by you sir you pay six and a half for that wouldn't you next year yeah six six and a half there's gonna be games where we would come in here after that and you'd be going we're paying six and a half for that absolutely yeah i know i know i get it yeah there's enough upside that you'd be he has like four to five highlight reel hits in this series already like he's just he's a mutant fun guy so you think you think pd's gonna be feeling it now i mean how can you not he's god he's just the type isn't he like the the playoff type of guy where it's like he's got that it's just there's nothing there i

had someone write me and be like can a hockey player be depressed like during a game like he just looked sad got a bad look in his face yeah i know the look yeah i've watched a lot of leaf games where some of their stars have had that look that's why i loved on the bench when they were mf and each other on the bench i'm like oh that's new i came in here same thing i said that's fine that's progress that's good just seeing the ghost face from Patterson would terrify me. It's a good thing they got a guy like JT Miller who just will take you through a wall too.

Killer. Camper saver player in the league. Saros too. He's very good. He's kind of good. That's an advantage. What do you like? Do you like Dallas or Vegas tonight? I just want to say goodbye to my New York Islanders. Oh, yeah. Gabe Carolina, Valiant Push. Hey, listen.

Think about where they were before they hired Patrick Waugh and how they finished. Right decision. They pushed the Canes pretty good, even though it was a five-game series. Okay, that's a quick hour for us on the Real Kipper and Boren Show. We're glad you came along

a little early. Sammy's off to the course. You can tell by his attire. This would have been really bad if the Leafs had a loss and wore my golf stuff today. Can we get rid of these Jay afternoon games? No. Next year. Let me call Mark. Mark, yeah.

Shaps? Shapiro? What do you have to do? Shaps. Did they win last night? I don't even know. No, they lost. They scored one run.

They did. Yeah. They can't score. Well, better luck to our J, they lost. They scored one run. They did. Well, better luck to our Jays this afternoon. They better win because they bumped us off our spot. We're back tomorrow on the Real Kipper and Bourne show.