Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: The Path to the Bottom

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee kick off the Friday show with a look back on the Toronto Maple Leafs' loss to the Seattle Kraken. They discuss players' workloads down the stretch, Matias Maccelli getting benched, and Anthony Stolarz still shaking off rust. Then, they get into the recent story about the Leafs' sports science position, and whether the team can get to the bottom five to protect their first-round draft pick. Finally, Nick, Justin and Sam open up the Leafs Line to take your calls and questions!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.

You all right, Sammy? Shout out of the cannon early. Is that what you're telling me, Sammy? Just three, two, one. I got nothing. I just heard music. I just heard music. I started talking.

Now they're telling me to start again. Yeah. Real Kippenborn, baby. Season five, we are live and in color. Sports set 360. Sports at 9. Oh, no, Sports set 590. The fan in Toronto.

I jumped the gun a little bit early. Streaming always on SportsSat Plus available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube where that chat is hot right now. Oh, boy, I imagine. Nick Kemprios, Justin Borns, Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake Shultz, Derek Brandeil, and our very own Ethan Jaja Gabor.

Coming off, another loss for the Toronto Maple Leafs. We got a lot of losses. Seattle. A lot of losses. We got a lot of losses. A lot of losses. A game that we worked last night. One that, I don't know, I mean, at least were okay.

They had some chances. It wasn't as tilted as we've seen in other areas. But nobody cares when they woke up this morning, correct? No. You know, if you went to bed, woke up and saw that they lost 5'2 to Seattle, you'd be like, yeah, yeah, that tracks. I don't know. They deserve to win that game.

I mean, they were marginally better. 50-50. Which would have been okay if we had this conversation in October. Sure. Or November. Right now. I think we'll spend maybe five minutes on that game.

What do we got? Three games left before the Olympic break? Yes. Three too many. I'm going to watch. Here's what I'll say. I would imagine that, and this has nothing to do with your guys' wonderful broadcast,

which I was glued to for the whole evening. I bet you that was maybe the least watched Leafs broadcast of the year. Just coming off of how pissed everybody is of the team, the 10 p.m. puck drop, just the sort of malaise that's starting to work over this team. I bet you you guys didn't crash it last night. Who's the most interesting player in the Seattle Crack? Maddie Baneers, maybe.

Probably. Wow. My boy. My defenseman. He was buzz in last night. Montour? Yeah. He got Machelli bench.

Nobody, but me knows how good this guy is. You guys are clueless. Oh, yeah, you pour over those cracking tapes every night. Clueless. You're just up to one. Let me just go back to your comment about whether or not there's interest anymore or, you know. Listen, we've done this for a while and we've been together at least through the last, this is our fifth year, right? Obviously.

We've been together through thick and thick. Yeah, thick and thick. We've had no thin, right? So this is kind of new. And let's be honest, you know, me and you were a little older, we're a little bit more savvy. We got to worry about Sammy here.

I know, we do, I know. We got to worry about Sammy. We'll be leaders. We'll be fine. We'll lead you, Sammy, to thin. Okay? I want to be very clear about something. I experience thin.

I know, but not with us. But I've never had to. but not with us. Right. Right. Like, I mean, I watched. Live daily. I watched 82 games a year.

We've merely adopted the thin. You were born. Through the Ron Wilson times and the Carlyle and the horror check and before that. And the Paul Maurice when he was like, I've been through the thin, but I've never had to come on here and give opinions on it before. And it feels like we're heading towards the mega thing here. But you are right where you should be because. there are some out there that have the perception that,

you know, the Leafs aren't going to make the playoffs and nobody's going to pay attention and our ratings are going to go, you know, no one's going to listen to us anymore. And it's just not true. It's just not true.

That's if you've really watched the fan 590 over its inception from like the 90s, right? Yeah. There's just as much interest in like what happens next. and who's going and who's staying and who's trading. You can sell hope and winning. Right.

And there's many ways that we probably get higher ratings when there's chaos than when they're atop the Atlantic division. But I don't want to get too inside baseball in this conversation here, but like there is a short-term burn aspect of them being bad when they're supposed to be good and people being looking for blood and coming and hearing us talk about our true opinions about how we feel in the direction. But like when they flat out suck, it's different. Like when there's not an opinion to come in here and be like, oh, they're tanking.

Boy, I thought, you know, thought Jay Parentho had a tough night last night. No one cares about that. Like when they're supposed to be good and they suck, that's in sports radio is at its best. But when they're just, they suck and they're supposed to suck, that's a different animal altogether. And I'm not ready to head into that. That's why I'm afraid of it. You're not ready. No.

Well, that's why we're here to guide them through a quick reload. Oh, a soft sell. Hold on. Oh, sorry. Okay, okay. Okay, okay. Let's just catch our breath here. All right, yeah.

Okay. Last night. Yes. Anything out of the game that we can, we could just at least look at as good, bad, or otherwise ugly? Sure, I'll give you some of each. Robertson, good, bad, machelli, ugly. Turnovers. Yeah, general turnovers.

Stoll our rebounds. Stollers, reboot would probably be in the ugly. category. Yeah. But yeah, like watching that, we highlighted watching that second line at Tavares and Iza and Micelli. They were rancid by and large, but. They got caved in.

Yeah. I talked about this a little bit with Aylish last night. This is a positive. I don't think you're going to probably expect to hear a positive here. Kind of wrapped up in a negative. So Nick Robertson last night was great. And we've always made the joke about, oh, my God, when he goes somewhere else, gets traded to another team and he gets all this opportunity, he's going to be really good.

well now you are the San Jose sharks. You suck. Yeah. So now you have this opportunity. Like he played 1612 last night, which for him is, that's got to be close to his season high. If they're going to start selling off pieces and everything,

and he's not one of the pieces they sell off. Just play him 18 minutes a night. It's like play him on the top couple lines because he does have his moments where he's really good. And if you're going to be a crappy team anyways, maybe you can build his value up a little bit. Just played every game in January, averaging 12 minutes per night.

Yeah, play him more than that. Yeah, that's not very much, is it? No. 11.53 the month before. Yeah. I don't have to convince Kipper of that, but. Give him a little more. Yeah, I think he's been fine.

You stink anyway, though. He's going to play him more. Maybe you can trade him for more if he shoots them in the net. But you're not, I don't know what, like, what's more? Like, he, from a third to a second to a fourth to a third, right? It is what it is. But you're at this, like, I think. Nothing's going to change.

from here on end. Whatever teams perceive him to be. Okay. And part of the problem was over the last year, year and a half, when we've heard his name out there about a thousand times, his teams weren't willing to think that he was worth it to get. Now, I don't know what happens between now and the deadline. But I wouldn't trade him at the deadline.

I would probably just keep him and then play him at the time. Okay. That'll lead into the why, which will go into the, right, part of the, what's the strategy and the game plan and all of this. But the more, the bigger point is, is that you can't treat these ice times and like the way you're playing players like you're still a good team. Like, you can't, like now you have to start thinking about, and then morning you wrote about this today on sports at dot CA,

like you have to start shifting. Okay. Let's just listen to Craig Bruby last night over the overview of the game. and then maybe we can get a little bit of a sense of what we think he might be thinking. Let's have a listen. I thought it was a good effort. You know, I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. You know, made a couple mistakes and it was in our net.

But overall, I mean, we had our opportunities to score more goals. They didn't go in. Their goalie played well. But I liked the effort. I thought we controlled most of the game. Okay. Did Stetcher get hurt last night? Just looking at ice times?

13 minutes last night. He's been playing 26 for them by him. Is there anything from his next overview that we can grab? Yeah, play it. It's tough. I mean, I get, you know, it's tough. And, you know, nobody's happy. But in the end, you know, that's the way we got to play.

And like I said, there's a lot of good things in the game. We can clean up a couple things, you know, mistakes that are unnecessary. but in the end that, you know, if we play like that, we'll win a lot of games. So outside of the giveaways, the blink giveaways that you talked about, the difference between them winning and losing was Stolars for you? Well, and some finishing, you know, like they just didn't put opportunities away and had some chances. Yeah, probably that's the difference, Kipp. I don't think that they, I don't know what the, all the numbers looked like,

but they had more possession time, more scoring chances, high danger stuff. Going into Seattle, Bruby, critical of the defensive lapses that we've seen over the last little while,

but he was more, like, finger pointing, the goaltending that we've seen all season long. He called them out, just like he called out to the rest of his team.

Yeah. Let's go to Craig Bruby on Stollars last night. Glowing endorsement. Okay. Let's play. the club there. Yeah.

No, he, you know, probably he wants a couple back, you know, for sure, but overall his game is better. So there,

how many goals been by him for? Yeah. So he wants half of them back. Okay. All right. Like, probably wants that one.

Okay. Yeah, he wanted the first one, definitely. And then the rebound, uh, the big rebound. And then Montour's shooting.

And then Montour's shooting. On it, but the, you know, it's an off speed, weird one. Just a clean. And then that's it.

bar down snap. But yeah, it's not impossible. Eligible to me to save. Barobi or Stollars met the media last night. Do you have a sound of him? We do have the sound keeper. Okay. Derek, if you could play that,

Stollars clip, please. In your experience, when you've had, it really was over two months off, like how long until you feel like yourself again? You feel like you're back to your, your A game? Yeah, probably, you know, a game or two.

I mean, at the end of the day, you know, you're pushing hard in practice. And, you know, my cardio is great. you know up to speed with the shots and like I said I thought tonight I did a really better job of staying composed in the net and just kind of you know control my my movements and whatnot so you know unfortunate the result but you know just got to build from here him calling of the team seems like a life ago yeah does it ever but he's clearly in his mind he needs work to get up to yeah a speed right he mentioned a game or two yeah

I just, I don't understand like putting him in this environment where they were in clearly like a must win now. Not like in a game or two now. It's funny because you wanted him to get healthy and be available for so long. But by the time he was, you weren't ready for him to work out the kinks. You know, like you had to kind of stay with the guys that had been in the fight for you. And you had won a bunch of hockey games. I don't remember how many they lost pre-Vegas, maybe a couple. Two.

But they had won a pile before that. Like it wasn't. I think we will look back. And listen, I defended the decision so I can't sit here and try to act smart. But I do think that when we look back on whatever April, whatever the show is when the season's over and reflecting on the season, I think we'll reflect on them deciding to start Anthony Stollars in that Friday night game is a turning.

I'm 100% with you, right? And that's where it went off. I didn't say it was perfect by any means. But Wool and Hildeby were working. They were playing games. It was working for you. Yeah. And then you took a square peg and jammed it in a round hole with Stolars.

Yeah. I remember seeing a tweet or two. I think it was Anna Dewa tweeted that he was in the starters net or altar. Just like, wait, what? Hold on. I didn't even think that he was close to an option. You know, the bigger thing to me, not the bigger thing. this is the standings at that time there were so many teams in the pocket you remember like at one point

there everyone was within a few points it wasn't how many points out you were it's that someone some group of teams was going to play well so i think when they went not or seven oh and two they lost a point to Tampa and gain one on montreal like you just have to be so good wins were so crucial at that point of the season and so the timing of it all just to drive this point on further columbus six and one since they've added bonus, and there are more points out of a playoff spot than they were when he got hired. Oh, it's going to take 100 points to make the playoffs.

It could. It could take 98, 99 points. Wow. And then that kind of, like, coincides with Barubi saying publicly, it wasn't his call. And my first thought is that they put it in the hands of Stolars.

Well, it sounds like they did. He said, I didn't want to go. Well, when you, we heard I in there. When you kind of connect the dots, it's leaning towards that. I don't know if that's actually factual. But then that is on them, not Stolars. Because he's an NHL goal tender. He's going to say, I want to play NHL goal.

It's on them to not give him that decision. Ultimately, for sure. If I say to my son, do you want Oreos or broccoli as a side for dinner tonight? night, it's on me when he chooses Oreos. You probably couldn't have a better analogy. We're watching Allmark, Ottawa, desperate for wins. And Allmark, all we hear is, yeah, when he's ready, when he's ready. Last night we're watching Charlie Lingren play.

Something happened to him, obviously. He's in discomfort. And he doesn't take himself out. they leave him the option to make his own call, which he said, I'm in. And I don't know. And then he gets carried off the ice. If only they had a sports science director

to figure something out like this. But in these cases, the athlete is choosing to play and play in the NHL. And it's tough to fault those guys, right? But you like to see Ligran want to battle through. Who wouldn't want their call? Who would want to make their own call? Right.

The problem for me is when I listen to that, clip that we had you from Stolars, there's an admission of fault for the whole thing within that clip where it takes me a game or two to be ready. It's like, why weren't those with the Marley's? Right. We didn't have a game or two to play here. We don't have points to spare here. By Edmonton, I'm going to be great. Yeah. Right? Just give me, just give me time to work out my cakes. Just throw me Stone Eichael and Marner to work through this here. Figure it out in Utica, brother. Like, what are we doing? Yes.

All right. That's a great point. Totally agree. All right. Now, hold on for a second. Like, maybe we should follow this up with this whole. This is a big story here now with with Brad Tree Living going on TSN radio and talking about this whole sport science, right? And he was really upset.

Yeah. Right? and whether or not it's where where they are factually and either who wrote the article Jonah? Jonah Siegel from the athletic or Brad. I'm just kind of watching this from afar and I just I don't understand like why it would be at this particular moment that important for Brad to just. focus on this particular story. Like to me, I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have gone on air.

I wouldn't, I, where's, where's the attention? At this point, it's got to be all on the team. No, is, am I wrong? I get, I get, to be honest, the timing of the whole thing is strange. Really strange. I don't understand why we're talking about this right now. Well, I think it's the perception that a lot of people have had after that article. is that you're the most valuable franchise in the league

and one of the most popular teams in the sport and you are perceived to be cutting corners financially. And they don't want to have that. They're not. They're not. But they seem very afraid of that perception because that's what it seemed like amongst league fans and that's the thing I saw the most.

I've never got, I don't get it. I don't get that they did this because they're cheap. No. I never crossed my mind, even watching it from afar. Like I read that article and I was like oh Okay all right well what's going on on the ice like it was one that like for me It's there I read it sure like even when I read that article I'm like oh boy that other doctor seems to have a bit of an axe to grind here like there was two sides of that story But to me what I care about is the team that's supposed to be in the competitive window now if in the sewer

That's the only point I'm trying to make is that like I didn't think it was that big of a deal for them to address it but to me it's like if you're time this. If you're telling me that's why you think Willie Nealander, did he come back too soon? Would they, is that why Neelander's out? And if he kneelander's out because of that, and that's massive. Right?

Like that's, he returned to play too soon. Those points, you know, him and those games would have been huge. So if we're making that connection, then it's a story. Yeah. But we, I didn't naturally go there until I had to, you know, eventually question all of it.

Right? I'm just saying that at this point where you're down to the wire on wins and loss is to me that was it's not where the energy should have been. Yeah. You know, the other day. I agree. That's all. That's all.

And I don't even know why I brought it up. Well, no, but I think it's important context to like, when I talk to my leaf buds, I'll tell you what's not coming up, the sport science director. Yeah. They're not like, oh, God, how could they get rid of it? Like, they're being like what I said. How was this team in the toilet in the middle of their supposed competitive window? To me, it was a non-story that they actually turned into a story.

Yeah. That's interesting. That's interesting. Because I don't know. Anyways, we talk about Borny's article? Yeah, all right. Let's do this. Let's do this.

Last night, hold on before we get there, and this will all kind of come in. We, you know, thought about different ideas for our intermissions last night. and to stay on kind of the hot button topic around Leaf Nation and Leaf fans all over the world is the simple question of what happens next, where do they go? And we touched a bit on that last night. We came up with two or three ideas of moves that we would probably look at making if we were in a position of Brad Tree Living and we came up with a few.

I got a bone to pick with Fridge. I love her boy, Fridge. But God, he's got Leaf fans horned up about it. Robert Thomas. How the hell are the least going to be able to train for Robert Thomas? Well, I'll tell you how. Tell me. So when we had the, we've had a lot of debates about what assets do they have.

What do they have in the cupboard for them to. And to be fair, we didn't, we didn't have enough time. Obviously, television is like a couple of minutes. We didn't have, we didn't have enough time. And Elliott did touch on it. Like, that's what somebody's job is basically supposed to do is come up with that. but we didn't come up with any solutions. So, J.B., you give us a few solutions here.

Well, I'll just say that, you know, we have been looking, what assets do they have to get better? Because for a lot of this season, we thought that they were going to be adding. And one of the things that you had cooked up, Kipper, was the goaltenders thing. You got three of them that were all pretty decent. Could they be available?

You know, the one that now, after losing six games in a row, when you look at the standings, my article today is just about looking about the possibility of trying to get into the bottom five in the NHL. Tanking. Tanking. You are, I think, what are they, 24th? Fourth in the league right now.

You got to get to 28th to keep your pick. They can have a first round pick in the top five this year. We had Bukes on yesterday who said there's a tear drop off after about six. So you could get an impact player. You want to talk about Robert Thomas? Let's say you pick fifth overall, fourth overall, and you take that to St. Louis and say, hey, we got this guy for you. And Easton Cowan.

know what it is. I'm just saying now you've got an asset to trade for someone meaningful if you get down. You are a little closer to that. So the article is just about, is it even possible? Better love Robert Thomas. But.

Yeah. You better love. You got to love Robert Thomas. Or you have the fourth overall pick and you get a good player. That's also a great offer. Fourth or fifth overall pick plus Easton Cowan. I don't know how many Leaf fans would want to do that. Well, then keep the fourth overall guy.

And I will tell you, you know, just going through my trade boards and what I'm hearing on all that, that won't be enough to do it. The fifth overall pick and Easton would not be enough to get Robert Thomas. Yeah, he's at a good number, a good age, good whatever. How does he make again?

Eight and a half. Something like that. But like he's a healthy Robert Thomas is a maybe team Canada type guy. Yeah. So that's fine though, Kip. Like to any way, let's say you decide, hey, we picked fourth overall, we got Keaton Verhoff, we dropped to four, whatever. And you keep them.

You're in the right direction. So the article is, can you get there? Yeah. And the- What's the route? And the answer is no. The answer's not no. Yeah, it's no.

It's no. You don't think- You know why? Because in any other city right now, there's a Justin Bourne saying the same thing for Vancouver. for Calgary for sure for Winnipeg the New York Rangers they're not dropping

they're not dropping and letting the Leafs go in and take their spot it's not happening so but what do you mean give me what who are they bumping out well who are they bumping up Justin tell me the the team that they are bumping out

sure I mean I think the Jets the Rangers the Rangers the Rangers wrote an article they're not They're not giving up their lottery spot. I don't think if the Leafs do the things that we're talking about here,

that they're any different than the Rangers and the Rangers and them are kind of... How many points? The Leafs are seven points up on these teams. They are. They have seven points on the Rangers to get there. It's a big drop. They're not letting the Leafs seven points up

take their lottery pick. The Leafs just lost. So the Leafs have the second hard, or sorry, the sixth hardest remaining schedule in the NHL. They're the worst road team in the NHL. They have 18 road games in their final 28 games.

What team is making up? Winnipeg's going to beat them? How many points are the Leafs up on Winnipeg right now? Eight. Winnipeg was first in the NHL last year. They can't win some hockey games? Shevolde off should be fired on the spot if he allows the Leafs to come in and steal their lottery pick.

I think to Borny's point here, I got texted by somebody today that said like, according to MoneyPock, the Leafs have a big. better chance at getting in the top five than they do of making the playoffs. So what your goal should be, if you're looking at it's analytically, your goal should be attempting to get into that top five as opposed to trying to do anything else. You have to do one or two things. And five other teams are thinking the same way.

Okay. And you got to do it better. Same as winning. Oh, my God, I wasn't the worst thing ever. It's a bad off. Yeah. You have to do, there's 28 games left. You either got to finish 20 and 8 or 8 and 20.

And which direction do you want to go? because it sounds to me like you're thinking 14 and 14, in which case you hand Boston the 10th overall pick and you say, good luck with that. And then you take a first rounder in 2028, and I'm not sure what the plan is there. I will be shocked to see much of a difference in the last 20, what, two games, 23 games?

28 games. But when you say much of a difference, yeah, leave fans are hoping that there's four or five last guys in this roster kipper and the way that you're talking makes me feel like there's not going to do. If you still have Willie and you still have Matthews. Yeah, but I don't have Willie. If I'm the Leafs, he's playing at the Olympics and his groin's flaring up again. Matthew Nyes is getting in 10 weeks.

Matthew Nize's hip, better take a few weeks off. That's exactly it. How's your back feel, Austin? Yeah. I'm not sure how the league feels about this conversation right now. No, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. But the Leafs are the only one that can't.

I'm just, I'm saying. Could not be a less relevant point. I don't know how somebody that paid 300 bucks to go see best players in the world. Yeah, but they're going to feel about. I know you're an intensely moral person and that's what you care about most is the fans value for their dollar. However, they've been having a great time this year watching their product. They couldn't take that. There are ways to do it.

I just don't think it should be as blatant as you guys are talking about right now. Without raising some real flags here. Yeah, but if Toronto does it, that's when they get mad. Every other team's allowed to shut guys down and get paid. But Toronto does it. You're not allowed to do that? Well, Toronto is supposed to be like, you know, a flag leader in the league. And that's why they lead the league in suspensions too.

It gets more attention because they're watched a lot more. The other aspect of this, though, Kip, is let's say you can't get down to fifth, the fifth worst. Yeah. You can finish in six, seventh, eighth, and you have a higher percentage chance of getting the first or second pick, 8.5%, 7.5%, rather than finishing 12th and having 2%, 3%. You're getting closer to having a chance you're getting in. You have to get as close to the bottom as hard as possible. I think the gap's too wide.

So here's the truth. I agree with you. I don't think that they'll be able to drop enough to get there. But I do think that you're better incentivized to get closer there and a higher percentage chance of picks rather than I don't get... What is the alternative even look at? I'm with you. They will sell.

They just, I don't think making it a focus now to get in the top five should be it. They should still sell. They should still build up their stock. Go get your second rounders. Go get first if you can for OEL. I'm not against that. But to get there the way you're talking about and then shutting people down, whether they're healthy or not, I think is going to be really tricky to pull off.

It's not like these guys been healthy all year, Kip. we had Matthew Nyes go on and be like, yeah, everything hurts. It's getting worse every time I play. Every time I play. And then the coach goes, unfortunately, we just don't have time for him to take off.

William Nylander literally heard his groin celebrating on a, like, it's just like it's not like it's nothing. I don't know. He just wasn't there. We did? Yeah. Oh, okay.

Anyways, I mean, he didn't play after that and it was a weird, awkward fall. I think that was probably what it was. Why would he fib, I guess? He said it happened on the first shift. I tried a couple more after, blah, blah, blah. I just think in this, This day and age, and with the parameters that have been laid out by the horrible trade you made last year, you owe it to your fans to be as bad as possible.

And I know that's a crazy statement, but you got to suck. I know. Suck out loud. The only point I want to make is there's six other markets saying the same thing. Okay. That's fine. Your point is totally bang on. You're right.

So there's other bad teams. It's just going to be hard. That's all. It's just not. They don't leave a boardroom at MLSC going. Hey, all right. Let's do it, right? We're all in.

But here's my question. Why not? Why are we so impervious to the idea that these suits in a boardroom can't think critically about what's going to be best for the team? Yeah. Are they also sugar-starved that they can't see the value of the long-term plan? Well, I think it's crystal clear that, you know, they're going to do it for the next guy to come in, right? Yeah.

Try to set up. There's just no way that you're going to. Is that full lame duck mode if there's selling going on? Lame duck all day long for me, all day long, right? You won the Atlantic Division, and now your strategy is to come back to us and tell us, we're going to lose on purpose here, and it's going to be a really tough 28 games or whatever you said or left. I mean, what? 10 home games, you got to eat?

And then you're going to come back with plan B with them all. Yeah. It's just not my world. Yeah. I guess. We should break your calls. Yeah, I just think it's, I get that the other team suck, Keper. That is a valid argument.

But you suck too, and, like, you just have to try to suck really bad. They suck. Oh, they suck. Maybe, like, get them to play blindfolded. Perfect. Do whatever it takes. Play dirty. Every other team.

What is the limit to how much you could openly tank before they would do something? Every other team has done this for multiple. four years. When there's bad, guys get shut down. It just, it happens all the time. Like, past it, to play like a bunch of the, after the deadline last year. Like, you just have to do it.

Do we have brewby on the outlook of the season? Does that matter or no? Does it know, there's nothing. Is he still positive? Is he still? Yeah, he's trying to be positive. Oh, I want to hear it. Okay. Clip five.

Yeah, great. Let's do it. They can get him play. That's great. Let's hear a cleft of them. There's not enough way to get this turnaround. What do you mean runway? Your 10 points back. Yeah.

With games remaining? We can't worry about that or look at that. We just got to focus on the next game. You can't start looking at how many games are left and what we got left. Like you're just putting yourself in a bad spot. Like just we got to go into Vancouver and get two points. That's what we should be focused on. It's not what you should be focused.

I get it. The standings and where we're at and the games left. that's not going to accomplish. It's not what this organization. You need to be small and you've got to focus on game to game here. Enough. Enough. Just try to take care of our business.

It's not what this organization should be focused on. They need to have a meeting. You have to lose. Like stop playing. Like, play guys less. Like, you have to lose. Let me ask you this. Do you think there is?

I know what the numbers told Sam. They are more likely to go 20 and 8 or 8 and 20. could they go 20 and 8? No. Willie's healthy. Willie's healthy. He's back. Stolars just said he's going to a couple of games under his belt.

I think the chances are that are the same one as the Leafs trading for Robert Thomas. 20 and 8. I mean, if they hadn't had that, like that stretch killed their chances of getting. It did. Like that head cat bounce they got ruined the chances. What were the eight? Was it 13 and 14 points that got games that got points? cruel to make a joke to rehire

Savard for her play down the stretch. They shouldn't have gotten rid of I was thinking. Just going to rain. Just going to raise. All right. Let's take a break. Get Sammy and J.B. and myself to take a deep breath here

while we let you. Listen to the people. We got to get two points on Saturday now. We need two points. Got to get 12 points out of the last playoffs. We get to catch our breath because we are going to leaf line collars on this Friday. Sammy, you got to

A couple of good ones here. I got. Because we're out of ideas. I got to tell you, we got the best call of all time. Oh, my goodness. Pressure on. You're not going to want to miss this. Stick around, leaf line next.

On our Leaf Edition hour of the Real Kipper and Bourne show. Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the hockey p.o cast with Dmitri Filipovich. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the program. Nick Kippreel is Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee.

really riled up Sammy McKee. We, here we go. Just a little sampling of the YouTube chat. Sammy is a child. Sammy going crazy. Sammy is right. Thank you. It's not the Sammy show.

No, that's it. Sammy, calm the face. Bam, thank you, Sam. Sammy, you are a absolute psycho path. Is that our first caller? What was that from? I didn't remember that calling. Is that from the leaf line?

Yeah, maybe. All right. I want everybody just to get ready for this call. Who we got? Who we got? Who we got? Okay, hold on. You've built this thing up like crazy.

I couldn't build it up enough. Let's go to our boy, Daniel, from Robada Island. Daniel, from Robada Island. Are you there? Okay, hello? Uh-oh. It's fine, Dan. Oh, okay, maybe we don't have it.

Oh, my gosh. What's going on? All right. You know, Robeda Island is like the Bermuda Triangle. You know what? Okay, play Johnny from Ottawa while I'm getting to Daniel here. All right. I love the least, but man, I hate this team.

Like, we're bored, it's embarrassing. It's absolutely embarrassing to be cheering for these guys and this management team. You know, my father-in-law is a big Boston Bruins fan. And every day, you ask me, do you cheer in for the leaves? Why don't you come, you know, cheer for a real team? And that's where we're at, guys. I mean, I could have seen this coming from, you know, for a long time now. But, you know, you have this management apparatus, you know,

who just choose to live in a different reality or try to convince you of what you're watching is, no, it's good. And we're on the right track. We're building. Like, no. like we suck we've only sucked we have not accomplished

anything in the last 10 years it was the biggest waste of talent biggest waste of opportunity and at the end of the day it's just like there's just no pride like it's embarrassing like I'm tuning out for the rest of the season

I cannot watch these guys any longer there you go okay least fans no well I hate this team I was born into this. I, for one, think that that's way over the top, Johnny. I do, I do.

Yes. I'm not saying that they came close to winning a Stanley Cup, but that's for sure. They did accomplish a little bit the last 10 years. They were in the hunt. You sure about that? They were nibbling around the edges. Yes, I am sure about that.

You sure about that? It hasn't been a waste of 10 years, okay? It's been entertaining. It's been good. There was hope, a lot of hope over like eight and a half, nine years. Sure. It hasn't completely sucked, Johnny. And they, how many times did they lose to a team that either went to or won the cup?

You know, it felt like a lot of those years. Right. So, come on. Not that bad. It's just run its course. Can we just leave it at that? that over 10 years, when you started with a nucleus in a core group, you let them go, you double down, triple down,

you thought you could hang in there. Maybe it was one or two guys away. I don't know, but it didn't completely all suck the last 10 years. This is it. No. Wow. We're talking about it in past tense. I've just never thought I'd hear you defend this area.

Well, listen, I mean, I'm okay. I want to be as fair as possible here. Okay. That's all. Let's get to, okay, we got Daniel now. Okay, so Daniel, let's play Daniel. Daniel from Robeda Island. Hey, it's Daniel calling from Roba Da Isle.

I just have a song for you guys. Uh-oh. Turn it up. Jonah, sit right back and you hear a tale, a tale of a Stanley Cup that started with this hockey team and ended real abrupt. The mate was stripped of his captain's sea. The skipper seemed unsure.

Said passengers let fail that gave for a three-hour bore, a three-hour bore. The press box started filling up. Willie's finger was tossed. Despite the meeting with the leadership group, the Maple Leaf still look lost. Some maypeleaf still look lost. Some players will find themselves on the shore of this desert aisle with Robidao. Maybe 10 of Sue. A billionaire and his shares.

Jeffrey Loopoul. Nathan Horton and David Clarkson here on Robo doll. Wow. I think more than anything, I admire the commitment to the bit. The creativity. You can't, he didn't back out. No. You hung in there right to the end.

No. That's like, that's perfect for a Friday off the rails. I did have a moment listening to that. It was like, I get paid. for this. That's crazy. It's fully entertaining. I would...

Sammy, did you do the background on that? That was really good. Thank you very much. Let's go. Sorry to person. This is like the person that goes on karaoke after someone goes up there and crushes Whitney Houston, but good luck.

Have you ever heard Jay Z's bit about going on after DMX? No. I'll send it to you. It's fantastic anyway. Let's go to I don't know, Jason from Colbert. Let's go to Jason from Colbert. I just have to say, listen,

it just blows my mind how we always talked over the last 10 years of trading our first round picks to give them a push at the trade deadline. And we traded away all our assets for this team year after, year after year to help them do what? If we would have just kept those picks and we would have still kept building, you know the assets that we'd have now pushing all of the older veterans, like a Nielander, like a Matthews, if you still have. had Fraser Minton, the two firsts that we just blew on Carlo, the first round picks from years past. Like, you don't just blow picks every single year at the deadline because you're rewarding your team.

No, you don't reward your team for nothing. They should get there on their own, on their own talent and their own skill. Anyway, that just blows my mind. If we rebuild again, I hope that we do it the right way and hold on to our assets. So what team doesn't trade their picks? in their competitive window. Teams do, and I know this is, how do you say without being insensitive,

it hurt that the pick they made in 2020 unfortunately passed away. They, you know, they picked high in 2020 and they had a kid. Yeah, that they wore Amorov, which was terrible. You know, that was an unfortunate, you know, along the way, obviously, more so far. Yeah.

But we had Jason Buckelon on the show the other day, and he had mentioned the draft picks. Four of the last 39. Four of the last 39. And can I add to that? Sure. So I talked more to Bookes last night about it. He said that he regretted not mentioning on our show.

That excludes the past two drafts. So it has nothing to do with the guys they just drafted who you wouldn't expect to make it. So this is all those drafts, like mostly to me, to me that window that we just spoke of is where the real problem. lied because now you've put that much more emphasis on futures, getting rid of futures, right? And the 10 years are tough because the ones that they did have in the first round, including Lilligrin and Sandine, especially those two. Like we're talking about guys that still should be in their prime right now. and when you're, I don't know, middle pick, 16th, 18th, whatever they were,

they got to pan out. They got to. And you got to get, like as Book said, between round three and round seven. You've got to pluck something out of there. And they just never did. And the pressure. Hilda beat was a fourth rounder or a third or a fourth rounder. But he's still in development.

Yeah, yeah. He's not. He didn't help you win a Stanley. I kept the last 10 years. It was not there. So those are the real issues here, is that they just, they didn't, they were one of the weakest in the league in that department,

that department. Yeah. And it put tremendous pressure on Morgan Riley. Morgan Riley has been their number one defenseman for 13 years now, 14 years. Somebody needed to come up and alleviate some of that. Totally. Nobody did. They focused on $40 or $50 million on three or four forwards up there,

and they left the blue line high and dry. The back end is a struggle. A lot of past tense talk from Kipper today. Concerned me a little bit. Yeah, well, be tense because it's past. Let's go to JP from Shelburne. There's been a lot of talk around the trade deadline and whether the leaf should sell or buy,

but more importantly, whether you're living is the guy that you want at the wheel if we are selling. And out of curiosity, I took a little deep dive in at his trade history, and looked at if he was ever, if he ever sold at a trade deadline. And I found that in 2021, that deadline with the least got Dave Riddick for a pick. That was the exact same deadline that they gave away Sam Bennett. And at the draft in 2023 was when Living traded away to Foley to the Devil's, for I believe it was Sharon Govich and a few picks.

And overall, what I found was he is capable of selling, but it's usually the big trade. You know, we look at the names that he trade to Foley, Bennett, you had Kachuk, which wasn't really a sell. But do you think, and do you trust him at this point, given the assets that we have and given its history, that he can find a deal that works for the least long term? or do you think that the selling should be up to a different guy?

Because in my opinion, I think that Brandon Pridham's been around for long enough that he should be more than qualified to sell off thesis. Do you know? Fair questions? I don't know what firing Brad Tree Living today would do moving forward here in terms of the last 28 games. Yeah. If you think he can add.

adequately move assets. Let's just think about what has been going on up until today. Okay, there's three, four, five of them in a room, which includes Prendem and Tree. They've had countless conversations on what they think the market value is, what somebody's worth, what they're not worth, what we can get, what we can't get. So get rid of Brad tomorrow, and there's a chance if you do,

put Printham in, it'll kind of look like the same thing that they've been talking about for the last two, three weeks. Do you think now that you get rid of Brad because he couldn't get a second round pick, but Brendan Primdom will get a second round

pick now? It's like, no, it's they're tied together. Whatever you think Brad can get or can't get, it'll be the same thing with anybody else in that organization that comes in and takes over. Shane Doe and Derek Clancy, Brandon Pridham, Darryl Metcalf. They're all, they're all.

It's more about perception. Haley Wickenhizer. I think it's more about perception. For who, Sammy, for you? Yeah, the fan, I mean, oh, me? You mean, the people that pay all the salaries and go to the games and spend thousands of dollars? Why would they want to please me? They can, they can do that at the end of the year when they reassess.

The perception would be that the fan base wouldn't trust Tree to set up the person that's going to come in after him. Here's what I want to know. Do they have the same pro scouting group as they have? Like I have liked over the years of the deadline when they have brought in the bottom line guys and it's been Achari and Lafferty and Noah Greger and like I've liked some of the guys they've brought in. I'm curious. Is it if the same guy's giving them advice? Because I think part of what tree is going to have to do is not just picks.

Like I don't know about you, but I don't really think the it's just going to be give me a second, give me a third, give me a third, give me a second. There might be. There may be bodies. Diamond in the rough somewhere. Yeah. find him. And if you think it's not a fourth round pick you want,

but that kid that's in the minors on the third line that you aren't paying any attention to, I liked them. Yeah, I would love to see them pluck a few names. There's also some interesting guys. I know, Harmon Dahl had an article I read today about, you know, sort of guys who have lost some value. Their teams, Warren Fogel in L.A., his ice times way down.

Like, you know, he's fast, he can shoot it. Is there some guys out there that still have value they're just in a spot where they're not getting used. Well, you got, you got McMahon, right? He's Fogel. Yeah. So you trade, you trade. Just term, right?

You trade McMahon and you bring Fogel in? I think it depends if you have term. You know, if it's someone, I would keep McMahon if I had McMahon for three more years of McMahon, but I don't want to pay him what he's going to get paid for the next X amount of years. So. Well, another hour. We don't have more time. We don't have any time for any more callers, unfortunately.

Let's do another leaf hour after this. We're doing everyday leaf line. I mean, only if Daniel calls in from Robeda Isle again. Okay, can you do one with the Brady Bunch? Can we get a jingle from the 20th century? 21st century? No, no, no. He's my age.

All right. Once again, solved nothing. Our thanks to the Leaf Line. Very much so. Very entertaining. As always. We're just getting warmed up. Speaking of very entertaining.

Yeah, we got Doug McLean. I think he's got... Hand the ball off to Doug and let him run. We've got a couple of calls we'll play in the national hour. He'll have a ton to say. Tond to say. You're not going to want to miss this. All right.

Just like that. One hour gone. Thanks for listening. as we focus in on the National Hour coming up next.