Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Sundin Sets the Stage in Sweden

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne & Sam McKee discuss the Leafs continuing to get set under the watchful eye of Sheldon Keefe, how the goaltending situation might be sorted out in Sweden, and whether or not the Patrick Kane rumours have any merit (or value). They're also joined by Leafs legend and Hockey Hall of Famer Mats Sundin (20:56), and the guys chat about the Global Series, what it means to the fans in Sweden and Finland, and the legacy left behind by another legend in Börje Salming. 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.

Welcome to another edition of Real Kipper and Born. As we go into day two of our Swedish edition of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hour. On our show, Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, and Jen Rolnick here for the next two hours. Feeling more like Puerto Rico than Sweden in here. So do you think there's any chance at all the maintenance guy in this Rogers building watches or listens to our show? This is the most direct avenue we have to get to him.

This is it. Okay. If by chance you are listening, you listen to me closely, my friend. Okay. Unless you're going to bust through that door in the next 30 seconds with a tray of ice teas, turn down the heat. I'm going to not wear a wool of iced teas. Turn down the heat. I'm going to not wear a wool sweater tomorrow. We're going to be shucking down here.

It'll be the shirtless hour in the second half of the show today. We'd like to see you doing that, not me. I'm drawing a blank. Who's that actor that it's like, listen to me very carefully. Liam Neeson. I'm getting Liam in here.

Okay. Good move. You listen to me very carefully here. A specificon. I'm getting Liam in here. Okay? Good move. You listen to me very carefully here. A specific set of skills. Right? Yes. We've got a certain set of skills

that we will use if you're not by a thermometer in the next 10 seconds. I didn't tell you I was going to ask you guys this, but I was watching some hoops last night.

I was watching the LA Clippers who are a disaster they're now oh they're now oh and six in the james harden air i think on 506 uh the sixers are i think six and one or seven and one since they traded them what is the best example of a hockey trade that has just been like um everyone knew it was going to be a disaster they made the trade and it's immediately a disaster like it's just i can't wrap my mind around like another crossboard parallel of how bad this is you can't ask me that i was with you for an hour and a half upstairs i'm supposed to just come off the top of my head i can't get your attention up there i want to get your attention

here i think the uh the best you can do is looking for like addition by subtraction where you're like they're just better for not using that guy that much yeah and in the last game so bobby mcmahon played oh so you're asking what nhl trade over the course of history history has has where you knew that it was no good yes for one team, and really good for the other team. You can come back to it. Without Kadri's trade before it happened? Right now I'm thinking about Jonathan Huberto in Calgary, but no one saw him going from 115 points down to 50.

Kadri went is actually the answer. But that's how it's kind of shaped up right now. Yeah. I like Kadri. Because he was Colorado. No, everyone knew it was a bad trade. actually the answer but that's how it's that's how it's kind of shaped up right now yeah i like cadre because he goes to colorado everyone knew it was a bad trade the minute they made it no one really liked barry kerfoot and then yeah anyways i was just watching and the clipper sucks so bad they got the crap beat out of them by my favorite team to watch the uh nuggets you know what i wanted to bring up yesterday that i totally forgot and it's like the association to hockey for me. I was watching Monday night football,

the Buffalo Bills. Oh man. Okay. And where it's the last play of the game. Oh my God. There's a field goal missed and it looks like the Buffalo Bills dodge a huge bullet

and they get called for too many men on the field. Could you imagine if that happened to the Toronto Maple Leafs in some way? I'm just, my first thought is coach. Immediately. And they fired the offensive coordinator. I'm like, where's the defensive guy in all of this? Well, it would be the special teams coordinator. Like this to me was the ultimate too many men on the ice.

Yeah. And that falls on coaches. Yeah. And I know you. Yeah. You're like, nah, where's the player's responsibility in that? Figure it out. Yes.

And the Leafs have done a ton this year with too many men on the ice. I think they've had three or four of them already this year. I think they're second in the NHL. Well, maybe it's not five. I think they're second in the NHL. Well, maybe it's not five. I think they're second in the NHL. So you're telling me now, as you watch Denver march up the field, I can't speak to that sport. You can't have one or two coaches going up to his players and saying,

hey, listen. Oh, yeah. Let's be ready here, everybody. I put it on the fly. That's like they have time between plays. You're on the fly. You tell the guys. It's a hard parallel to draw, though, between football and hockey because in this scenario,

the goal would have been scored. If there's six guys on the ice, is that reviewable? If they score an overtime winner in the playoffs and there's six guys on the ice and the refs don't catch it, is that reviewable? Can you flip that back? With this, it's like, oh, they saw it. The play can still happen, but they throw the flag

and they take it off the board. It's kind of a different thing. But, yeah, man, they, Bills suck. And that happened to the Rough Riders in the Grey Cup a few years ago when they had too many men on the field. It cost them the Grey Cup. Anyways, like, a lot of people probably lost a little bit of money on Monday on the Bills.

That would be frustrating. Okay, the Toronto Maple Leafs, it looks like the lineup's been shaped up. Getting to some hard practices again as they get ready for Friday's tilt, 2 p.m. Eastern time against the Detroit Red Wings. And it looks like right now that Ryan Reeves and John Klingberg will be on the outside at least

to start their two games in Sweden. Also no questions or no comments today on the goaltending situation for this weekend and how they're going to handle that. I could put that to you two guys. Before we do, let's go to Sheldon Key for our first Kippers Clipper on practice. Yeah, it seems to be the group's had a good night of sleep,

and that goes a long way. Certainly got a lot more out of them today than I felt we could yesterday, both in terms of meetings and our time spent on the ice so that's positive and we have uh what i was told coming here would be is a mandatory off day tomorrow and uh we'll get back with a morning skate on friday get ready to play but today was a good step what i was told is a mandatory off day is that like the pa when you travel that far you got to get a mandatory off day. Is that like the PA? When you travel that far, you got to get a day off? No, no, no. I don't know a lot. No, this would be the Leafs

in control of all of that. Yeah. I'm saying it's a mandatory off day. Yeah. That's crazy to me. If you're the coach, imagine like some old school coach would be told like, I don't know, Pat Burns or something like, hey, it's mandatory off day. He'd be like, that's my call. That's not your call.

But you don't think like, you know, you finally get these guys, you skate them once they get off the plane, you have a good night's sleep last night. The world's changed for a lot of these clubs led by the Toronto Maple Leafs because they've got all this extra money to go out there and build departments. And one of them, of course, is sleeping habits. If that's the thought process and you've hired people

and that's their full-time job, then that's what they're told. And that's what you got to follow. When I was with the organization, the first thing drafted players got, one of the first pieces of material was a book called Sleep to Win. It was like Rich Rotenberg, who's now the Leafs guy. He was the Marlies guy at the time. The first thing he got, one of the first pieces of material was a book called Sleep to Win. It was like Rich Rotenberg, who's now the Leafs guy. He was the Marlies guy at the time. The first thing he got, a book. And I remember the guys complaining because they had to read

something. They were junior hockey players. You think I'm joking, but they were like, you gotta read this. It's 58 pages. What happened to the good old days when they gave you a pin? Congrats, you're a Leaf. Don't read the book. I think they could probably

Handle a light skate tomorrow Yeah, probably be okay I mean, what time is it here now? So we're heading to 10, 10pm Over there right now I could imagine that with an off day tomorrow Yeah The evening

Yeah, you're probably not helping your team at all I would say at this very moment In Stockholm could be getting quite fun Which we have a lot of alcohol content. The question for you, Kip. Sorry. No, I was just going to go through the lineup a little bit. But go ahead.

Well, that's kind of where I'm headed to is Klingberg. So we had talked on our show about the idea that this guy is hurt and potentially weirdly like, you know, some people had talked about this being sort of a long term thing. I think you had mentioned well listen we we never saw anything of there's no significant there was no moment for klingberg but now you're hearing uh what a few days ago a while ago about sheldon keith talking about something that's uh that needs to be looked after. But then he played. Yeah, I know. He plays the next day after we talked about that. And then now they fly to Sweden and he can't even practice.

Well, it doesn't necessarily point to anything of significance for me anyways. What doesn't? That he's not practicing? No, that there's not practicing no no that um that there's uh anything like definitive okay right like a separated shoulder or a sprained knee or anything yeah but something is obviously bothering him and when you're dealing with klingberg and, you know, the last 10 years, this guy has had a lot of wear and tear. Yeah. You know, and if I'm not mistaken, he's had double hip surgery

and he's had, I think, a hand issue where surgery needed to rebuild a few things. So is it something that's bothering him? Is it something that is nagging him that he needs off days to have it settle down and play here and there that's what it sounds to me like that he's got something going right now that uh can drop the percentages from being 80 or 90 percent good enough to maybe 65 70 and that's what's maybe going on here but it is a scary thought if you're the least that you have this guy that you're already worried about his ability to perform who is dealing with something that could be could hamper him throughout the season that's

the fact that he can't even practice to me is a real concern so i don't know we do have a quote from keith a clip two on john klingberg let's hear what sheldon has to say yeah i just just wasn't uh wasn't ready to go today they think there's a chance he could could be on the ice on friday um but of course i would say his chances of playing on Friday, I would put that at low right now, just given the fact that he hasn't skated since the game the other night. We were hoping to use this time, you know, with a gap in between to give him some more time to heal, but also have some aggressive treatment with him to really help.

And just wasn't feeling right to get on the ice today. I don't think the long flight did him any favors coming over here either needs aggressive treatment and by the way it's always worse when it's non-contact injury right when we didn't see a moment so he's got a non-contact treatment that needs aggressive what sorry no i was just gonna say and when you're dealing with a six, eight-hour flight, swelling, I mean, a lot of issues could kind of show up the moment the plane lands. Yeah.

I just think that this is a long-term problem for the Leafs this season. This is more commentary than right now. This is a problem for this season. You know, again, if he came in with a history here of of having double hip surgery i mean that you needed to factor that in on on whether or not you still wanted to take a chance on a guy and sign him to over four million dollars i'll be at one year maybe the best thing that they did out of this is not commit two or three years to a guy who's who's battling right now yeah like good good news

it's only a one-year deal yeah bad news it's still 4.1 million on your cap this year god i mean how nice that money would that be to have for you know, while looking to figure out their back end? I am curious to see because if it becomes a long-term problem where they can't use him, maybe he is an LTIR guy. Oh, you know that if this doesn't clear up and it is a contributing factor on why he hasn't been able to kind of get it going here, that's where it has to end up.

Yeah. And for Klingberg, it probably gives him some justification for how it hasn't gone great. You know, if he wants to get major treatment or another surgery or whatever it may be next summer. And the one thing i want to stress here whether it's is that i have no idea what's going on sorry that i have no idea what's going on no no no no that that you know whether it's clingberg and i did calgary radio this

morning and they're saying could georgie yeah i did georgie today oh yeah uh on uh sports at uh on Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. And the suggestion was, could Jonathan Shubito end up, you know, being a guy that can be on long-term IR if they nudge, nudge, wink, wink that. Seven years left, eight years left. Listen, regardless of what it is, you need to be a willing participant to go for that. Right. And even for Klingberg now, to have the Leafs convince him,

listen, you're only at 70%. Can you please go on long-term IR? And by chance, I don't know how and when you'll come back. The guy's got to go for it. And this is a guy that is trying real hard to get his career back on track here and he'll never get the 50 million dollars he turned down in dallas but you just need to men in black stick that out of your brain right does that ever happen but can i get 10 million back can i get 12 million back? You can if you're playing.

You can if you're healthy enough to stay in the lineup. There's only 31. You got to be willing to go on long-term IR. And the one guy that was willing was Matt Murray. And we've never really talked about the Matt Murray situation here in Toronto. No, we haven't. Not once this season. But you think about this for a second. Matt Murray situation here in Toronto. But you think about this for a second.

Matt Murray was cleared in playoffs. He was on the bench. In playoffs. Available. Right? Yep. And then miraculously, he's

not available and he's on long-term IR. What happened there? Well, I'll tell you what happened. Thanks. He weighed his options, right? Yeah. He weighed out his options. Okay.

Is there another team out there? Can I convince another team to start the season yes no maybe so i'd rather not get bought out if i go if i go to the minors can i come back what happens if i get lit up in the minors your point if i get bought out what's it going to cost me i mean a million and a half? More. Almost two mil? Yeah. Because it's, what, two-thirds of your salary over here? Maybe more. And that's not, and please don't get the wrong idea here when I'm telling you that, like, there's nothing wrong with him.

The guy's been around for a while. Yeah, he's got lots wrong with him physically. But physically, there is, much like Klingberg now, there is real wear and tear. Yeah. And if a guy doesn't want to play at 75% or 80%, then he doesn't have to. And if he chooses to fix something

that could be easily fixed in two or three years from now, but I just choose to do it now, then that's his prerogative, and he's not wrong. And then he'll come out of it. He's 29 years old in Matt Murray's case where he can say, my career's not over now. This is not on the Leafs begging Matt Murray to go on long-term IR. This was Matt Murray going, okay, I'll go get the surgery now.

Chances are if Matt Murray, who was cleared to play in the playoffs, found his way back in the lineup did really well and put himself in a position to carry on his career there's a chance that his surgery that he had on his hip this summer could have waited a tad yeah wow i mean yeah these are decisions you see people make these sort of decisions now and be forced into making them at different times in their career. But there is real wear and tear on all these guys. It's just a matter of where you prioritize it, where you put it, and whether or not you think that the break could be the best thing for you. It's like Marian Hossa's skin condition, which i'm sure he had while he played he didn't

just show up when he was going to start earning you know the least amount in his career and whatever i think it's probably it's a real thing it's a problem and you can manage it but if you'd like to not it's very easy to point to this and say yeah here's a real thing i'm dealing with i'd rather not deal with it so one guy who's now been linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs is Pat Kane. Wow. Pat Kane had the surgery, right? The hip surgery. He had issues throughout the last season and a half, two seasons.

Could have shut it down easily beginning of last season. At any point, he chose to play. Why doesn't he? Why wouldn't he? Right? He's still a very good hockey player, wants to try to win the Stanley Cup, maybe get Chicago an asset, goes to New York, doesn't bould well. There's a guy that should have, in my opinion, and I went on record, don't get traded.

Don't go to the New York Rangers. Go get your surgery. Get ready for this year. It's happened now. As we know, he's skating in Toronto and getting close, hopefully picking a team soon. But there's a guy that actually it could have helped him going on long-term IR sooner than how long he waited.

Is there a snowball's chance? I was going to say, is he looking to make $6 to play? Yeah, is there a snowball's chance in an oven that he would want to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Toronto Maple Leafs would want him to play for them? Highly unlikely. Yeah. And I know there was a report about, you know,

the possibility of the Leafs talking to Pat Kane. And if there was, I think it, right now, my guesstimate is that it would have just been a formality. We're reaching out to teams gauge your interest but guys what are you looking for where is where is pat kane on the priority list for the toronto maple leafs because i got it just right above getting carlton the bear manicure yeah it sounds about right i mean you went to him and he said i honestly not sure i can think of anything that leaves me less than patrick kane a one-way offensive forward who needs the puck a lot and plays the flank on the power play like where do you put that unless you basically said

well you take max domi's money and roll i don't know like in which case you can't you can't do that you can't have a plan and then chuck it out the window i'm not saying it's a good plan i actually think it's a bad plan it's yeah exactly but the the there's not a chance there's not a chance, as we promised. Yes. Two Hall of Famers on our show today. And one of them is someone that I know quite well. And I'm going to be real excited to talk to him. All right. Out of Stockholm, Sweden right now. Let's bring in Hall of Famer.

Great Leaf leader. Franchise leader, Matt Sundin. Wade, what's going on? What's going on, guys? Who's the other Hall of Famers? Are you, Kipper? That's a hall of shame, Matt. We got Ken Hitchcock in the second hour who just got inducted.

Oh, very nice. Yeah. Very nice. So what is happening in your country right now? Oh, very nice. for the hockey fans in Stockholm and Sweden. I think to get a chance to see some of the best players in the world, you know, the best hockey league making its way over here in the middle of the season,

you know, it's not easy. If you think for the players and everybody around the teams traveling all the way over here with the jet lag and playing a few games and then back. But for the fans in Sweden and Finland, it's going to be some great crowds.

And I'm sure for the Swedish players, maybe Finnish players on these teams, obviously it's nice to come home for a few days and play some games in front of their families and friends. Mats, we appreciate you joining us today. I'm curious, how close would the general Swedish hockey watching public pay to you know Nylander and the other Swedish stars that are in the NHL as the season is going on I know there's a you know a league a league there that they I'm sure they pay close attention to as

well are they able to keep ties or keep eyes on their stars in the NHL? Yeah, you know, it's been so long since me and Kipper played in the National Hockey League. And today you can follow the National Hockey League pretty much almost the same way that fans do in North America. Obviously, there's a time change, but you can watch all the different NHL games on the TV nowadays or on your computer, the players, the kids growing up in Sweden.

If you look back to when I grew up, obviously it was impossible to follow the National Hockey League and you watched the national team, you watched the Swedish League. But now kids in Sweden and not only in Canada and in the U.S., kids in Europe actually have their biggest stars, stars they look up to are in North America, whether they're Swedish, Canadian, American, or wherever they are from the world. So, you know, with the globalization and Internet

and being able to follow that, so very much so hockey fans in Europe are following the best league in the world, the National Hockey League. Mats, we know the link between Sweden and the National Hockey League, and president of the NHL alumni, Glenn Healy, is over there now. And there's such a great group of you now all together. Lidstrom, you know, great names like Alfredson, Forsberg, but there seems to be a special connection

between Sweden and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that, of course, was because of Boreas Salming and how it's made it extra special for you in your career and maybe what it's doing for Willy Nylander today as well. But it really all started with the great one, as we know, is Boria Salman, correct? Yeah, I agree with you, Nick. And what Boria did for European players

and obviously for Swedish players, is showing the league, the National Hockey League, the general managers over there, the fans, who I think, you know, you look back to the 70s and 80s, very skeptical of bringing European players over to play a different kind of hockey than the ones being played in Europe. But Borja really showed by the way he played that, listen, Swedish players and European players can become impact players.

So my generation, I know I talked to Niklas Lidström yesterday about it. He really paved the way for all of us that came after him, and we're all very grateful for what Borja did. And, you know, I watched the premiere of a movie that's going to be out on Via Play over here, and it's a fantastic piece with Borja's ex-wife and everything. So I hope you guys get a chance to watch that. But he catches the economy police Leafs in the 70s

and what Borey did coming over to Canada. Before I let JB back in, anything in particular you saw that you didn't know or what you appreciated most about the film? Well, you know, I think both me and you know, Kipper, how tough he was and the beating he took. But there's one part when Borya is playing for the Swedish champions, Brynäs, which is a two-hour drive north of Stockholm. Small town, but him and his brother Stig,

and his older brother Stig was really a tough player here. But there's one part in the movie that is fantastic. When Borya, when he's young, he was late to practice a few times, and he gets on the ice, and he's upset at Stig, because Stig, they lived together. When Borya came to Gävle to play, Stig didn't wake him up. He was sick of Borya being late and not waking up in time. So Borya's late to practice.

Step on the ice. Practice is going on. Coach, all of a sudden, all the players are rushing over. There's Borea and his brother Stig fist fighting in the corner. They're in practice and they actually have that in the movie and they break him up. The coach is yelling at him. They have to do a few

laughs and then they start practicing again and a few months later they're back fighting on the ice throwing throwing bombs at each other and i i talked to stig after the after the show of the movie yes i said stig are you serious were you guys that crazy in practice and he goes yeah we we were pretty crazy it's that mess you, but they've done a fantastic job with the casting of the players, you know, the Daryl Sittlers and all the players, the area of that Maple Leafs in the seventies. So, and it was, it's also a little bit of sadness. You watch it because we know that Borey was here not long ago.

And unfortunately he wasn't able to watch the, the finishing of the movie, you know, when they started the production, he wasn't able to watch the finishing of the movie. You know, when they started the production, he was healthy and he didn't have a chance to see it when it was complete. Well, you know, part of what made him beloved in Toronto was that he had that, you know, physicality. He was willing to be involved in that aspect of the game. And that's something Toronto Maple Leaf fans love in their players.

Over the years here you've had the ability to watch you know the recent frustration of this Leafs team of being very good and unable to get over the hump I wanted to get the sense of the if if it's changed at all the the way that the fans interact and treat the Maple Leafs in terms of that expectation or if it always felt that heavy and that desperate to get over the hump and win here? Well, I think, you know, if your fan base has been waiting since, you know, 1967,

and if you look at the era, I mean, Doug Gilmore, before I became a Maple Leaf, that went to the conference finals. They were close getting into the finals. We were in the conference finals twice, made a few more runs into the second round. But, of course, it builds up a fan base that really want to win a Stanley Cup like many of the other clubs are doing sooner you know, sooner or later, right?

But if you look at the team today, I think with the age group that the Toronto Maple Leafs have, you know, you don't want to say it, but you have to say that time is on their side, right? And if they add a few more rounds going into the playoffs, learning the drive and the fire should be building every time they get beat out in the playoffs and they try the drive and the fire should be building every time they get beat out in the playoffs and they to try to reach that goal so um well you know the i think there's great hopes even this season or the next three to five seasons they're gonna have good enough

teams to be able to contend we're joined by maple leaf great matt sundin, Hall of Famer, as the Toronto Maple Leafs get set to drop the puck against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. You know, Matt, on occasion when we were all together, Ty would drag us out to Vic Village to watch Max play for the Don Mills Flyers. I didn't get quite the reception you did, of course, when you walked into that rink. But is it kind of fun knowing that Max will be playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Sweden?

Did you ever see that one coming? No, I didn't see that one coming. But, you know, it's obviously great to see him. You know, like you said Nick we he was in our dressing room when I play for the Toronto Maple Leafs he came out on the ice after our practices with Ty and shooting pucks and hanging around and and it's been nice to follow him since you know age eight or nine playing as a kid in Toronto and I think he will he will add things to the lineup for the Toronto Maple Leafs,

and especially as the season closes in on the playoffs and eventually the playoffs start. He is the type of player that you look back at the last few years, he's been having really strong playoffs, and he's not afraid of going into traffic and being a hard-nosed player. So I think it's going to be a good asset for the Maple Leafs as the season goes on. There are some times we'd be in a restaurant

and Max, Ty would have us line up like we're dropping a putt in the restaurant. What do you mean? Well, we'd go over formations off of a face-off in the restaurant. It's like Ty's like, get that salad tray out of here for a second. Hey, any Ty sightings over there? No, he's not here. He's going somewhere else.

He's got some business meeting, I think, in L.A. or something. He doesn't have time to come over. It looks like there is a good amount of, I guess, famous former NHLers. Does it seem like everyone's in town? Who's around there these days to watch this global series? Well, I think it's great to see. I mean, pretty much all the representatives from the NHL, the league and the industry, the PAs here,

NHL alumni are taking a chance to meet some of the former Swedish players. So we have a little meeting tomorrow with Niklas Lundström, myself. We're going to try to gather a lot of players. And I think Len Hila has done a fantastic job, not only reaching out in Canada and North America but also former players helping out whether it's some need help with

healthcare or family issues and stuff so I think a lot of European players don't know the possibilities that is with the NHL alumni. Obviously all the teams are coming in with their staff and all that. So I think it's great for Stockholm and for hockey in Sweden

to see what hockey at the highest level is. So I think it's going to help Swedish grassroots hockey in the long run as well. So well done for the league making it all the way over because it's a big job to come over here for a week with with everything uh matt's just one one one question on on on sweden and there's a few people that are going okay why do we need to grow the game in sweden when we've got almost 100 players in the league already from sweden and finland um but there there is still room and growth for sure, you know. And I'm just wondering, is there ever a day you envision, I don't know, the NHL in Europe or a team in Stockholm making the trips, you know,

for road trips? Do you ever see that in our lifetime coming? Yeah, obviously it's a question for gary bethman i think but but if you ask me like this is there a market for teams in five or six cities in europe to to play at the highest level is there is there enough support from owners and stuff i would say yes uh is the hockey interest enough in in maybe helsinki stockholm zurich uh london paris and i mean germany probably would be able to support a couple teams i think that's there but nick as you know there when you play in the national hockey league as a hockey player what you do is you play you eat you travel you fly around fly around North America, and it's a lot of long travels already from L.A., Vancouver, Seattle now to the East Coast.

So I think the technique of the airlines and travel, I think, might have to get a little further with the time change and everything. But in terms of the cities in Europe and being able to fill arenas and enough hockey fans, absolutely. But, you know, it's a long, long flight with time change and everything. But, you know, we'll see in the future. So I noticed that Daniel Alfredson is taking a larger role with the Ottawa Senators. Do you ever get leaned on by people or think about getting involved

in the hockey side, maybe possibly with the Toronto Maple Leafs at some point? Don't you have a big meeting with the coaches to tell them what to do? I'll leave that for you guys. You guys are watching. No, well, we'll see what happens. I mean, I'm, we're actually, you know, I have three young children now living just outside Stockholm. We're 10 minutes outside the city, and my kids, I have a daughter who's 11. I have two boys, nine and six.

I'm at the rink now with my young boys. They're playing hockey. Our daughter's playing basketball. So I think life is pretty good right now. And I know the commitment it takes, that management. I mean, we've seen coaches, over the years and management it's a 24-7 job but you know some sort of relationship with and I have a good relationship today with the Maple Leafs in terms of nothing to do really with the hockey side of it but other. So we'll see what happens in the future. I'll be in Toronto for the All-Star game in February.

I'm looking forward to that. It's always nice to come home. My second home is Toronto, and I think we'll leave the kids at home in Sweden for that one. I'll just go with my wife. And you don't want to mess with that golf swing that looks like Ernie Els is smooth as a criminal as you always used to say it used to be it used to be hey listen matt's uh so appreciate

your time on our show uh it's going to be a fantastic weekend soak it all in enjoy it pal we'll see you guys have a good day thanks matt that's matt sundin hall of famer toronto maple leaf legend 11 9 and 6 kind of tough to be like i'm gonna go live in a different continent kids i get it oh you really get it i get it love the question but but i i you know you do hear in his voice that he's like not done yeah interesting to hear his take on, like, at the end of the day, Sweden's a smaller country, six, eight million people. I mean, that's, if it's going to grow anywhere, if there's a shot anywhere, I mean, he, I think he said it, the money, the engine out of Europe has to be, like, Germany.

I think, eh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's where the real cash is. And they're an up-and-coming hockey sort of. Right now you've got Sider, Stutzla, Dreisaitl. They're a little sleeping giant now with hockey. They're starting to have some guys cross over.

But that's what you need to get people more interested. We didn't have Germany in our last World Cup, did we? No, we had to have Team North America. Yeah, that's where it was like. That's where it gets. If you're going to have a World Cup, you've got No, we had to have Team North America. Yeah, that's where it was like, that's where it gets, like, if you're going to have a World Cup, you're going to have Germany. I don't care.

If you think that there's not enough to have NHLers out of it, but you just have to have them. Yes. Yeah, let them lose, but they get to play in the event. Ah, that was awesome, boys. Yeah, that was really good.

That's my hero. Were you Matt's guy growing up? By far my favorite athlete it's funny because he took a bit of a hard time right well at times well at the end yeah when the Leafs were kind of stinking and he was asked to wave as no trade kipper if you remember correctly and he was like he was like he didn't want to go i want to stay in toronto i love being a Leaf yeah but then what it. He's so loyal. But then what everyone got pissed off about was that after that,

he signed with Vancouver the next year. Yeah. And everyone was like, well, if you want to go somewhere else. Anyways. But then it was just like a whole uprising. It was like borderline anti-mats, and it just always drove me nuts. Yeah. But the reason they're – I think the trade was like –

if I want to remember correctly, it was something to do with Jeff Carter or like a first round – remember that? Do you remember what the trade was like, if I want to remember correctly, it was something to do with Jeff Carter or like a first round, like something. Remember that, Kip? Do you remember what the trade was? There was like a rumor trade. Yeah, they had something on the table with, was it LA at that point or Philly? I think it was Philly.

Carter was still a flyer, if I remember correctly. Or was that the Caberle one? Anyways, there was like a big trade that was rumored at that time, and it got out, and he wouldn't wave, and people got better to shape. But that guy just was heart and soul. He never was the raw, raw leader, but he just scored so many big goals.

He led by example. He's the first guy to go out there and play hard. God, I love them. So much respect for him. That's the reason I go backhand every single time I play hockey. It's the best. Did we play a John Klingberg clip? We did. Let's hit a break and then come back and talk

more. You heard my producer. Yeah, thank you. He's the boss. No, I'm not, but I just keep her between the lines here, boys. And Derek Brandeo says we should go to break, too. Okay, more real Kipper and Bourne Leaf edition after these words

we're back front of maple leaf edition real kipper and born show what are you all giggles about because derrick and the brandeo we're back you're just like i just repeated what he said but i've never really done this before, ever. Well, you've done it for three years now. Yeah, but I still always feel like it's my first time. I'll never feel comfortable in this chair. Dude, if anyone ever heard the actual first times we did this, they would take us right off the air. I think there's still a chance they will.

I hope not, man. I don't want to have the risk of having someone dig it up i don't want to talk with um just clingberg just to put a bow on clingberg yeah because we kind of got cut off there talking with matt when he came on do you like what do you think the chances of him like the ltir situation like what's the leastR situation? Like can they still keep hammering guys on there? Yeah, they're up against it, guys. They're just up against it. If you want to talk to Doroff, if you want to talk Tanev, if you want to talk Hannafin, you got money out to bring money in.

And you have to have, you have to make room. And I don't know, there's probably a lot of Leaf fans out there that would gladly like to take the 4.1 off the books on Klingberg. To answer your question, it's just way too early. Too early to tell. He's going to want to come back and play again. Now, if he's... Do you know what the total is you can put on LTIR?

I don't, but I believe the Leafs are close to the limit, but they do have Timmons and Lilligren on it who will come off. If he comes back and doesn't feel like he can perform at the level that he should based on whatever's bothering him, then he's got to weigh in with the Leafs, what the best alternative is, and it could be long-term injury reserve. All right timmons back at least can he fill in for him is close you want to go to sheldon on something on that great connor timmons clip three

see now he's not listening maybe maybe at this point unlikely for friday but we'll see uh we'll see what the next couple days bring. And I haven't talked to the trainers or anything since today's practice. Today's practice was an important one for him. But going into today, we basically were setting it up. It was over for praying for Friday's game, which was to have Timmons out. But he is getting closer for sure timmons uh pre-season was bobby or s he was amazing oh which got everybody excited i think he had six points in two games or something people were pretty horned up about timmons yeah yeah so

14 points i think there's a there's watch those games just i did yeah my friend i remember there is a curiosity to see like what returns yeah is it uh this guy with some upside can he fill the void of klingberg's game that was expected yeah the problem is klingberg never fit as a logically unless he was going to run power play one and you're not going to ask timmons to do that over morgan riley so oh no he's he's gonna get power play time timmons yes not over morgan i don't know no i i think i think there's a chance if if he comes back and he feels good and looks good, he will get a chance to maybe start a couple of power plays.

No way. Oh, I'm telling you. This guy's – this is his game. This is his game. His upside in the offense is his game. I'm not saying that it could – you throw him to the wolves right away, but he could see significant time here. And I think if you made the commitment to try Klingberg,

then you'd be crazy not to try Timmons coming off of his training camp where he looked good. And I get it. It's training camp. Nobody really cares. This is the real stuff. But beggars can't be choosers right now. We called Eric Gustafson poor man's Klingberg,

but Eric Gustafson's unbelievable for the Rangers this year. The Ranger fans are all calling up this show going, you guys crapped all over him. He's making 800. He's unbelievable there. But maybe Timmons can be poor man's Gustafson. I just think from that. Is that right?

I don't know. Whatever. It's a weird saying. I think the Timmons aspect is just to have another guy that you can mix in. Yeah. Right? Like maybe if you need to give somebody a night off. A guy who's not Max Lejoie.

Yes. No disrespect to Max, but not an established NHLer. You also want to put him in a position to succeed, and his strengths are that he had upside offensively. For sure. So you can't tell me that he won't see any power play time. No, I can see him running the second unit or something. Or if it's off of a change where Morgan's just coming off, he can start one.

All right. That would be a, hey, listen, Klingberg hasn't worked. Let's try something else. I'm in favor of that sort of thing. We also have Sheldon weighing in today on, you know, where they're at. They just went a couple games.

They're actually tied with Detroit going into this game on Friday. If he's had time to take a look now that they've separated themselves a little bit from the day-to-day rigors of the season. He was asked, it's like, Hey,

there's three games in 12 days. You have a chance to like, look at the standings or whatever. And this is how he answered that. If we get clip five, no more than the general curiosity you have to, to follow along what's going on in the league. It was quite interesting i

woke up this morning and checked the scores and there was games still going on i'm not used to uh not used to that but yeah i mean it is strange it breaks up the rhythm that you you've really gotten into uh the way the league works basically every second day we're trying to use that to our advantage coming over here has its challenges of course because of the the time changes and managing all of that but it does give us a chance to to uh have more practice time spend more time together as a group uh you know we want to turn it into being a benefit to us of, okay, not to get off topic a little bit with Pittsburgh. We're going to talk about Pittsburgh. We'll talk about Washington in our second hour here on Real Kipper and Bourne.

But, like, the East is tight, boys. Really tight. And the Leafs are right in the middle of it all. They're not. They ain't the Bruins right now. They can go either way. It was supposed to be the Leafs where the Bruins are and the Bruins down where the Leafs are. That's not what we're looking at today.

I know we'll save the other division for the NHL hour, but I'm sorry. The Capitals are 7-2-1 in their last 10? Yeah, they all of a sudden are a good team. Did not see that coming. Pittsburgh, I saw them rallying. But anyway, yes, this Boston Bruins team continues to win. Florida Panthers have won five straight games. They're 8-1-1 in their last 10.

So yeah, these games against Detroit for Toronto are meaningful. Last Friday, we were talking about the importance of Calgary and Vancouver. And Ottawa Friday. Or Detroit, sorry, Friday. Minnesota on Sunday. These are three points. The one advantage they have over there is both teams they play are on a back-to-back. So when they get Detroit, Detroit's played the night before,

and they'll be rested. And when they get, is it Minnesota the next game? Yeah. Minnesota plays at like 5 p.m. the night before, then has to play them at 2 p.m., so. You think that was brought up in their negotiation, if we're going to go over there? Got to set us up to win. We're not doing the back-to-back thing.

Yeah. Give that to Detroit. Yeah. I don't know, but they definitely have the advantageous schedule over there. I will say from a fan perspective for the team, everybody made fun of the regular season not battering. Regular season is back.

Yeah. Well, hey, this division's tight. Tampa Bay's 6-6-4. They're going to get better. It really does feel like it could go either way very quickly. Yeah. Right? Hot run of games, bad run of games.

All of a sudden, you're big movement. So maybe that's why some teams want the three-on-three fixed. Yeah. Big point. Those are massive points. All right. All right. To the NHL hour we go.

Ken Hitchcock. Yeah. Hall of Famer. We can introduce him for the first time on our show like that. That's right. What an honor. All right. Anything else you want to discuss in the second hour?

There's a lot of stuff I could put on the lineup here. Oh, my goodness. Would you like me to? Okay. Sabres. Brendan Gallagher crying about the officials. Sidney Crosby. Canucks lose Connor Soucy for six to eight weeks.

Kyle Connor three points as the Jets down the Devils. Tied with Austin Matthew for the league leading goals. All right. We better get to break. Thank you. Or else Sammy's going to call me out to the officials here. Does it feel cooler in here now? No, it's hotter.

No, it's going out. I don't know. Maintenance guy is on his way. All right. we're back. National Hour next.